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. 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 Some things just cant be done through takeout. The listening room experience Julie Leone offered at 443 Social Club & Lounge was one of those things. Live music doesnt really translate to curbside pick-up, sadly," said Leone, the owner and creator of the music venue at 443 Burnet Ave. in Syracuse. While Leone operates a bar and offers food service in the venue, those things have also been difficult to shift to the new way of doing business with the coronavirus. It just isnt about the food or the transaction," Leone said. "You can sit at home and make a drink for yourself a lot cheaper than you can at a bar, but thats not why people go to a bar. Youre going there for the community and conversation, the people who are glad to see you, all of those things. And that just doesnt translate to a takeout model. Earlier this year, Leone had seen business take off at the 443. Ticketed events were selling out. Leone was re-evaluating how to set up the space to accommodate more people. This was after lots of tweaks to her business model: Leone had tried different ways to incorporate food and drink, and even tried a stint as a coffee house during the daytime. But just as she was finding her stride, the coronavirus pandemic reached Central New York. Businesses like hers have been ordered to close, and dont yet know when theyll be able to reopen. Leone is among thousands of self-employed Central New Yorkers working in industries that dont yet have a date for reopening. For them, theres not much light at the end of the tunnel and few places to turn for help. Their jobs require human contact or large gatherings, things that have quickly become taboo in the coronavirus era. And as people who operate their businesses independently, they often dont have a human resources representative or general counsel to consult as they navigate tricky state unemployment, federal funding systems and financial turmoil. Yet Leone is used to adapting and rolling with the punches. Its how she made the 443 work in the first place. Now, shes come up with dozens of creative ideas to connect local residents with live music, even if it means a totally new way of doing things. Leones hopeful the 443 could open sometime in July if Central New Yorks phased process for reopening goes smoothly. The 443 Social Club & Lounge is moving its classic upholstered furniture out in favor of easier-to-clean tables and chairs. (Provided Photo) Out with the upholstery Leone left a full-time job to start her own business, with the dream of giving Syracuse its own listening room, an intimate venue for artists and music lovers to connect. The 443 is different than other venues,. Its not a concert hall or a club. Its not a bar with music. Its sort of like a cabaret. And a big part of that identity at the 443 was its antique-style upholstered furniture. Leone said the furniture was always a big part of her attempt to create a living room feel. At the same time, depending on the show or event, she was constantly moving things around and had begun to consider whether the large clunky sofas were the right fit after all. The coronavirus was the last straw it took for Leone to finally make the call to ditch the furniture altogether. It was charming, it was something people liked about us -- but its not super practical," she said. Its also very difficult to sanitize. Now, the 443 is set up with tables spaced six feet apart, all chairs facing the stage. Double features Once Leone got the tables spaced out and rearranged, she found that the 443 is at less than half capacity for seating. That might work out well since she and others expect New York state to issue guidance for such venues that will limit capacity anyways. Yet, Leone still has to find a way to make money off of shows. Compounding the problem: A lot is up the air based on artist schedules. Leone recalled how in March, one of the most painful things about the closure was having to refund some show tickets because artists canceled. One cancellation forced her to refund $700 in tickets. Though Leone was able to postpone many of her scheduled events, shes still waiting for the go-ahead to reopen, and artists to start touring again. Once that happens, she hopes as early as July, Leone plans to offer two seatings per night. Leones new business model counts on being able to sell enough tickets to make that work. She is also looking to add happy hour shows or other live events in the 443s courtyard. Events will be reservation-only. Thats to control the numbers, and for any contact tracing that becomes necessary if someone at a show is exposed to the coronavirus. Required bar tab Once the artists and sound technicians are paid, theres very little if anything left for the venue under normal circumstances, Leone said. The 443s profits are all based on food and drink sold during the shows, she said. Thats why Leone is strongly considering requiring guests to spend a set amount at the bar for each show. Its something she worries will be awkward, and knows venues typically face resistance on this. But Leone is hopeful that under the current circumstances, customers will be understanding and supportive. There really are a ton of expenses, associated with reopening, Leone said. Her business qualified for funding through the Paycheck Protection Program and got an Economic Injury Disaster Loan. Between those federal relief programs, shes been able to make payments on invoices, kept up on rent and paid for utilities. She expects increased expenses just to operate, though. Things like masks and cleaning supplies are added costs. Under the new model, when Leone does the math, shell break even if everyone is good for two drinks per show. Still, she worries that fears about the virus, which she is sympathetic to, will keep people home. It could work, she said. If everything works out the way we hope it does, we can get through this. But this all assumes people come. Small business owners: Have a question or a story to share about how youre coping through the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shutdown? Are you, like Leone, among the last with a date for reopening? We want to hear from you. Contact Back in Business reporter Julie McMahon: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992 CNY BACK IN BUSINESS Outraged, shocked, insulted: Upstate NY leaders rip Cuomos move to halt phase 2 Phased and confused: CNY small business owners stuck in holding pattern, may make own decisions 8 ways offices will look different as CNY approaches phase two of reopening Unsure which phase your small business can reopen in? Make a pitch, expert says A lot of home-cut repair: CNY barbers are eager to fix your quarantine hair disasters These restaurants in Central New York have closed. How many more will there be? More from CNY Back in Business Sign up for the Back In Business newsletter to get small business advice delivered to your email inbox Sydney, Australia, June 9, 2020 - (ABN Newswire) - Given the easing of restrictions associated with Covid-19, Lithium Power International Limited (ASX:LPI.AX - News) (HAM:24L.F - News) (OTCMKTS:LTHHF - News) is pleased to provide a general update of activities adding to the Quarterly Report released on 22 April 2020. HIGHLIGHTS - The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) bidding process for the Maricunga project continues. - Two major global engineering groups, Worley Parsons and Bechtel, have been chosen to provide a comprehensive construction proposal for the project. - Due diligence continues under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Chilean State-owned mining company, CODELCO, and the Maricunga project's joint venture company, Minera Salar Blanco S.A. (MSB). - Discussions continue with parties on project funding and off-take agreements for the Maricunga project. - A Program of Works for the exploration of the Greenbushes tenements in Western Australia is in the process of being approved. Market & Activities Update The socio-economic and market impacts arising from the COVID-19 pandemic have created considerable corporate uncertainty. LPI and its Chilean JV company, MSB, have addressed this situation by reviewing all operations so they comply within the confines of the current norm. Staff have been working from home, as directed by governmental and/or sensible corporate guidelines. All field work has been suspended, but desktop work continues primarily out of our home offices. Teleconferencing is being used to help advance operational and strategic matters. LPI has commenced virtual investor meetings to keep shareholders informed, and to stimulate interest among new investors in the potential of the Maricunga Lithium Brine Project. LPI is also from time to time in high level discussions with parties looking to gain exposure to the project via control or minority investment transactions affecting LPI, MSB or its assets - there is no certainty any of these discussions will lead to a firm proposal or transaction. Amongst other financing discussions underway, consideration is being given to using all effective avenues to advance these initiatives, within the limitations of current social distancing parameters. The Company and its Board remain fully committed to generating value for all shareholders and will keep investors informed of any tangible progress. Story continues Maricunga Project - Chile Chile Joint Venture Company - Minera Salar Blanco S.A. The Maricunga Lithium Brine Project is operated by MSB, which is 51% owned by LPI. It is Chile's highest grade and most advanced lithium project outside the Salar de Atacama. It is one of the most advanced and robust projects in South America and is the only one on the Maricunga salt lake to have completed a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS). The DFS was finalised in 2019, and an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was approved in February 2020. The project is now moving through the final stage of development before construction, with the EPC bidding process to the point that the Company has selected two international engineering firms, Worley Parsons and Bechtel, to provide a comprehensive construction proposal. Total annual production of 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) is planned over a period of 20 years. Production costs will place the project within the first quartile of the industry in terms of LCE cost-per-tonne and overall LCE extraction efficiency. The project has significant potential for future expansion because the resource is open beyond the 200m depth limit of the DFS resource/reserve assessment. Current Chilean Situation The Chilean Government has focused on containing COVID-19 by ordering a partial or total lock down in different cities and regions. MSB's staff have been working from their homes since the lock down was enforced in Santiago during the third week of March. While restrictions were eased in early May, the country returned to a stricter lock down on 18 May, and that level remains. Almost all activities on the project continue as expected. External parties working with MSB are operating remotely, the use of video allowing interaction between internal management and with strategic partners. Field work has been suspended and is now re-scheduled for the second half of the year. CODELCO Due Diligence Progress CODELCO has continued to advance its due diligence of MSB's records and technical data associated with the project in accordance with their timetable. EIA Approval MSB received environmental approval (RCA) for the Maricunga Project on 4 February 2020. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was submitted to the Chilean Authority, Servicio de Evaluacion Ambiental (SEA) in September 2018. A 15-month evaluation process was undertaken by SEA before the approval was granted. The Company worked proactively with SEA responding to queries, requests for clarification and for further information. Under Chilean regulations, any public submissions on the conditions or nature of the approved EIA need to be received by mid-May 2020. They would then require responses from SEA and/or MSB. To date, all submissions have been addressed. The EIA approval represents the final major regulatory milestone in advancing the Project. Project Funding Discussions and communications with a number of well-established companies regarding product off-take agreements and project finance continue despite the emergence of COVID-19. These discussions are very early stage and high level and entirely normal in light of the quality of the Maricunga project. We will update shareholders if and when there are any material developments. Argentina Centenario - Salta Province, Argentina The Centenario Project is a 70:30 joint venture between LPI and Marquee Resources Ltd (MQR). It is located in the Centenario salar in Salta Province, Argentina, a region that strongly supports mining development. The Company is currently in discussions with a third-party to take a strategic position in this project Western Australia The Company's Western Australian (WA) properties are 100%-owned and are located a short distance from the ports of either Port Hedland or Bunbury which have well-developed infrastructure to support potential developments. The Company's WA exploration team concentrated activities on the Greenbushes project in the south-west region of WA. The Company has recently submitted a Program of Works (POW) for approval with the WA Mines Department, having been granted approval for the Environmental Management plan and completing soil sampling and mapping activities in the past two quarters. Upon this approval being granted, the POW would be valid for four years. Exploration work would proceed once COVID-19 restrictions were eased and general lithium market conditions improved. About Lithium Power International Ltd: Lithium Power International Limited (ASX:LPI.AX - News) is a pure-play lithium explorer and developer, focusing on developing and fast-tracking to production the high-grade Maricunga lithium brine project in Chile. LPI has a well-known performing technical team with the experience to take the Maricunga project all the way through the development stages to production. The regions that LPI is currently focused on are: 1. Maricunga JV (Chile) - Located within the "Lithium Triangle", Maricunga is Chile's highest grade and most advanced lithium project outside the Salar de Atacama. The project lies 170 km northeast of Copiapo and 250 km from the port of Caldera. 2. Pilbara (Western Australia) - LPI has three granted exploration tenements covering 203 km2 in the Pilbara region of northern Western Australia. The largest granted exploration tenement is the Pilgangoora tenement which is 2-3 km west of the Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS.AX - News) and Altura Mining (ASX:AJM.AX - News) lithium deposits. 3. Greenbushes (Western Australia) - LPI has two granted exploration tenements covering 400 km2 in the Greenbushes area of southern Western Australia. The tenements are adjacent to the world's largest hard rock lithium mine owned and operated by Tianqi/Talison. 4. Centenario (Argentina) - Through its Argentinian subsidiary, Lithium Power holds a total of seven granted tenements in the Centenario lithium brine salar within the Salta province of the Puna Plateau. In total, the seven granted tenements cover an area of 68.46 km2. With the exception of the Maricunga JV, all tenements are 100% owned by LPI or LPSA (including rights to the Centenario tenements). Contact: Cristobal Garcia-Huidobro - CEO; or Andrew Phillips - CFO Lithium Power International E: info@lithiumpowerinternational.com Ph: +61 2 9089 8723 www.lithiumpowerinternational.com @LithiumPowerLPI Source: Lithium Power International Ltd Copyright (C) 2020 ABN Newswire. All rights reserved. The Bono Regional Drug Enforcement Unit of the Ghana Police Service has made its biggest bust of a substance suspected to be Cannabis over the weekend. The substance, valued at over GHS1 million was being transported in a truck en-route to Burkina Faso. This, the service said is its biggest interception since the formation of the unit in the region. The two suspects, the driver and his mate are aged 20 and 27 years respectively. The Bono Regional Police PRO, Chief Inspector Augustine Kinsley Oppong, speaking to Citi News, indicated that the two will be put before court soon. In fact, from the records of crime, this has been the largest suspected cannabis that police have busted in the region. So far I can tell you that the persons who were busted are being prepared for court. Ayuba Ali is 27 years and he is the driver's mate. Ametus Sori is 20 years old and they are both natives of Kunnyukuon near Babile in the Upper West Region. They were hired by someone whom they have given us his name but we don't believe that he hired them. But they mentioned his name and said he gave them GHS7,000 to transport the items. The substance was packed in 180 sacks each of which contained 47 compressed slabs of the suspected cannabis. The driver and the mate onboard a Rhino Cargo Truck with registration number GR 2474-16 were transporting the substance from Nsawkaw, the Tain District capital. They were busted at a section of the road between Menji in the Tain District and Banda in the Banda District while they were on their way to Burkina Faso at about 1:00 am. Driver and Mate of Cannabis busted in Bono Region The suspects allegedly mixed the substance with other items such as boxes of weedicide, lumber, plywood and sawdust to outwit the police. The suspects were said to have told the police that they hailed from Kunnyukuon near Babile in the Upper West Region and were contracted at a sum of GHS7,000 to transport the substance to Hamile and subsequently to Burkina Faso. However, luck eluded them when they were arrested by the officials of the Drug Law Enforcement Unit of the Ghana Police Service (GPS). ---citinewsroom Postal Service Revenue Topped Projections During Pandemic, Lawmakers Say U.S. Postal Service revenue rose by hundreds of millions of dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic, undercutting warnings the agency would collapse if not given federal funding, a group of lawmakers said. The post office should revise its projections, given that revenue during the first 11 weeks of the pandemic was $330 million higher than the same period in 2019, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jody Hice (R-Ga.) said in a letter (pdf) to Postmaster General Megan Brennan. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the chairman of the chambers Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairsthe chief oversight committee of the Senate also signed the letter. Brennan warned lawmakers in April that Postal Service (USPS) revenue might decline by $13 billion because of economic lockdowns implemented across the country to try to slow the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19. Brennan said the USPS would run out of money by September. Jordan, Hice, and Johnson conceded in the letter that forecasting the economic impact of the crisis is complex but expressed concern that the fiscal reality has rendered the projection Brennan put forth unrealistic. USPS revenues were down initially, but they have since recovered dramatically due to an increase in package volume that is apparently rivaling volumes leading up to Christmas. USPS operational costs have increased in some areas due to COVID-19, but they have decreased in other areas due to lower mail volume, they wrote. As of June 4, USPS has $13.2 billion in cash, compared to $9.2 billion before the pandemic. The service availed itself of $3.4 billion through short-term notes in early April but even without the notes, the services cash position improved by at least $600 million, according to the lawmakers. A USPS spokesman told The Epoch Times that the service would respond directly to the letter. Results from the second quarter of fiscal year 2020, or Jan. 1 through March 31, showed revenue of $17.8 billion, an increase of $348 million from the year-earlier period. The pandemic began to negatively affect the Postal Service during late March with declining mail volume, and the impact has continued to worsen since then, the agency said in a May statement while releasing the results. The USPS wasnt affected by the pandemic until mid-March, and therefore didnt have a material impact on the second-quarter results, but significant impacts are expected for the remainder of the year. Even with a slight improvement in its financial position, the USPS needs to be redesigned, according to a recent report (pdf) from the Government Accountability Office. A U.S. Postal Service worker pushes a cart across the street in Midtown Manhattan during the COVID-19 pandemic, in New York City on May 22, 2020. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images) While the USPS is supposed to be a self-sustaining, business-like entity, it has struggled to maintain viability, suffering net losses of approximately $78 billion from fiscal years 2007 through 2019. USPSs unfunded liabilities and debt totaled $161 billion at the end of the most recent fiscal year. The services current business model is not financially sustainable due to declining mail volumes, increased compensation and benefits costs, and increased unfunded liabilities and debt, according to the report. House Democrats latest CCP virus aid proposal, approved in May, included $25 billion for the Postal Service; that package wasnt expected to pass the Republican-controlled Senate. Brennan, meanwhile, will be replaced as postmaster general by Louis DeJoy, a businessman who has donated to President Donald Trump. DeJoy understands the critical public service role of the United States Postal Service, and the urgent need to strengthen it for future generations, Robert Duncan, chair of the board, said in a statement announcing the selection. DeJoy was previously chairman and CEO of New Breed Logistics, a shipping company with more than 9,000 employees. Trump said in April that he wouldnt authorize more funding for the USPS unless it raises shipping rates for Amazon and other companies for which it handles packages. The Postal Service is a joke because theyre handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies. And every time they bring a package, they lose money on it, Trump told reporters at the White House. Amazon and other online-based companies are dropping a big portion of packages off at post offices, leaving the Postal Service to deliver them but lose money in the process, the president said. The USPS should raise prices by about four times, he added. For some reasonthese people have been in there a long timebut for some reason, theyre very cozy with some of these companies, and they dont raise the price of a package, he added. After protesters marched through the borough of Carteret in support of the Black Lives Matter movement last week, a group of more than 100 ended up outside Mayor Daniel Reimans home, demanding answers about why his brother is still on the police force. Joseph Reiman was charged by authorities in 2017 with brutalizing a black teenager after a brief car chase. He was acquitted by a jury in May 2019 and has remained with the borough police department. As the mayor tried to enter his home, he was flanked by police who cleared the crowd as protesters chanted, Vote him out. One woman called the longtime mayor f---ing nasty, according to a video taken by a protester. Reiman responded on the video: Are you on drugs again? He then went into his home without addressing the large crowd, according to several people, as protesters stayed out front for hours. The mayor said in a statement that the woman was screaming racially offensive and homophobic comments at the Police and myself all day and was clearly not there to support the Black Lives Matter movement." It appeared to me that she was on some sort of substance and she should have expected to be called out, he said. Earlier in the day at the middle school, where the protest was set to kick off, Reiman had made the same comment about drug use as he was questioned by two men regarding his brother, according to another video. He shouldnt be on the street with a badge and a gun brutalizing black teens, said one of the men. Another man held a sign with pictures of Monte Stewart, the teenager Reimans brother repeatedly punched after a brief car chase in 2017. So we know for a fact you are a heroin addict, Reiman responded on the video. Jon Salonis, a spokesman for the borough, said the man, is an alt-right agitator who regularly appears at public meetings making derogatory and downright slanderous remarks about the Mayor. The Mayor was not about to abide his attempted highjacking of what was to be a peaceful walk. And so the mayor called him out for exactly what he is, Salonis said. Shortly thereafter the exchange, Salonis said outside agitators began shouting down the mayor and the designated speakers, preventing them from addressing the crowd as they had planned too. The mayor said in a statement that he did not partake in the protest because it took a different route than what was planned and because (protesters) did not want me there. In one video taken before the protest, Mayor Reiman said police should be held to a higher standard and said he was at the event to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Those who attended the protest described the mayors actions as unprofessional, saying they showed a lack of empathy and leadership during a critical time in American history. This is the first thing you say while there are protesters outside your home? asked Dominique Cortesiano, a 20-year Carteret resident who took the video of Reiman asking the woman outside of his home if she were back on drugs. He doesnt want to create a dialogue. The protest was organized after the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police in May, but some who attended the protest said it was just as much about police misconduct in the borough. You are perpetuating the issue here with your brother, Josef Sanders said of the mayor. People are angry with (the mayor) and have every right to be, said Lauren Jones, a college student and lifelong resident who organized the protest. ... You cant leave when things get uncomfortable. Part of the uncomfortability is caused by you. After serving multiple tours as a Marine in Afghanistan and Iraq, Joseph Reiman joined the Carteret police force in July 2015 and quickly became known as an aggressive and forceful police officer in the borough, according to previous reporting by NJ Advance Media. During a 23-month stretch after he became a Carteret cop, Reiman accounted for more than 20% of all arrests involving force by an officer recorded by the department, according to NJ Advance Media investigation. Reimans record became public when NJ Advance Media reported a teens account of his arrest after leading police on a brief chase in 2017. The arrest was captured on dashcam video and showed Reiman climbing on top of the teen and punching him more than a dozen times. Reimans defense attorney argued at the trial that the officer used the appropriate amount of force consistent with police training when apprehending the teenager. The mayor said in a statement after his brothers acquittal that the investigation by the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office was corrupt. Joseph Reiman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This story has been updated with additional comment from Mayor Daniel Reiman. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Families could soon be allowed to meet up with other households in Northern Ireland under new proposed "social bubbles". Justice Minister Naomi Long said that the Executive was due to meet on Thursday to discuss the possibility of allowing families to merge. Speaking on Good Morning Ulster, Ms Long said that extending social contact was critical to ensuring the well-being of people's mental health - and to unlocking the economy by allowing people to return to work. Read More "At the moment, we live in a bubble with our own household and that's the extent of the indoor contact that we have. The idea would be to join a small number of households together initially and form a slightly larger bubble. By rolling that out over time on a very measured basis, we would be able to start to restore some of the social contact that we have." Ms Long added that there would be some rules in place to ensure the virus doesn't spread. "If it's going to work, there has to be some kind of order to it. You need to have a discrete number of families and households involved so you know the extent of people you've been in contact with. It makes tracing, if anyone does get sick or gets symptomatic, very quick and simple because you'll know who you've been in contact with." She added that it's also "crucial" that people don't move between bubbles. "It's important that you treat your bubble the way you treated your household, so that people don't enter or leave it during the period and then over time you're able to expand on the numbers." "No system is going to be perfect. Every system is going to have anomalies that will cause risks but I think it's really important that as we talk about restoring the economy, we talk about getting people back to work and all those other things, that we look at the impact that it has had on individual people's lives and their ability to form family relations and be able to be with friends and have that emotional support." Read More Ms Long added that extending social bubbles is crucial for childcare. "We need to allow people to have this childcare bubble so that they're able to make contact with family or friends who can come to their house for childcare, or they can take their children to their home for childcare. If we're going to allow people to start going back to work, we're going to have to look at those informal childcare arrangements as well as the formal ones. "There's a real opportunity here to allow people to start rebuilding their personal life, because without that emotional support, it's going to be very difficult to encourage people to go back in the shops and work. We need to be sensitive that people are crying out for that opportunity, but we do have to do it as safely as we can." Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:51:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Alex, Liang Hui JAKARTA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said proximity has made China and ASEAN close trading partners, even during the COVID-19 pandemic period. In an exclusive interview with Xinhua here on Monday afternoon, Kung Phoak, deputy secretary-general of ASEAN, noted the importance of ASEAN-China cooperation in economy and trade. "Before the (COVID-19) outbreak, we were on a positive trend. The two have already become trading partners," Kung Phoak said. "And now amid the pandemic, it intensifies our efforts to bring our trade closer to one another," he added. The two sides, he said, could see the benefits of economic cooperation amid uncertainty, such as an epidemic outbreak and unpredictable trade situation at the global level. "We are close to one another. It's easy for us to bring our products to the Chinese market and also for China to bring its products to the ASEAN market. It's mutual benefit," he said. During the January-May period, ASEAN remained as China's largest trading partner with trade up by 4.2 percent year on year to 1.7 trillion yuan (240 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 14.7 percent of China's total foreign trade. Kung Phoak expected that the future cooperation between the two sides would be stronger not only in the economic sector, but also in other sectors. "For example, poverty eradication, culture, people to people exchange. These are also going very well in terms of our cooperation," he said. "There's a lot of things that ASEAN member states can learn from China as well," said Kung Phoak, praising China's commitment and efforts in reducing poverty. "I am so happy to know that the country is on track to completely reduce poverty by the end of this year," he said. "There will be a lot of lessons and best practices that we can learn from China as well," he added. Kung Phoak also commented on China's white paper that chronicles its fight against the COVID-19 outbreak in the past months. "The white paper is very comprehensive and very detailed," said Kung Phoak. He believed that the white paper is going to be "extremely useful" for countries that are still battling the outbreak. Founded in 1967, ASEAN comprises 10 countries of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. (1 yuan equals 0.14 USD) Enditem WASHINGTON, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), the authority on boardroom practices representing more than 21,000 directors, today released the NACD May 2020 COVID-19 Pulse Survey , which revealed the trends and governance challenges that corporate directors expect to tackle over the next three months. Designed to better understand the challenges that boards are facing as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, the survey gathered thoughts and opinions from more than 300 directors and built on the insights garnered from the organizations March COVID-19 poll . As directors and their organizations expand their focus on employee health and corporate survival to now also preparing for recovery and success in a new normal, several findings emerged: Boards see the changing nature of work as the top post-recovery issue. Looking three months ahead, directors reported that changes to the employee experience are most likely to impact recovery in their organizations. More than half (54%) cited changes in the way work gets done as one of their top three concerns. Another third (32%) ranked accelerating digital transformation as a top priority. There was some variation by sector, with directors from consumer-focused firms ranking major shifts in customer preferences higher, while smaller organizations ranked access to capital and overseeing financial health higher than other factors. Looking three months ahead, directors reported that changes to the employee experience are most likely to impact recovery in their organizations. More than half (54%) cited changes in the way work gets done as one of their top three concerns. Another third (32%) ranked accelerating digital transformation as a top priority. There was some variation by sector, with directors from consumer-focused firms ranking major shifts in customer preferences higher, while smaller organizations ranked access to capital and overseeing financial health higher than other factors. Directors see strategy as the top challenge over the next three months. Shaping a post-crisis strategy was the top governance challenge listed by nearly 6 in 10 (60%) of respondents. Many directors are concerned about their ability to understand new risks and their implications. As top challenges, 46% ranked the need to get up to speed on emerging risk dimensions of the crisis, while 49% ranked ensuring the health and safety of staff (49%). Meanwhile, important in-boardroom activities, such as director engagement (8%), board succession planning (5%), and director recruitment and onboarding (4%), have unfortunately been pushed aside. Shaping a post-crisis strategy was the top governance challenge listed by nearly 6 in 10 (60%) of respondents. Many directors are concerned about their ability to understand new risks and their implications. As top challenges, 46% ranked the need to get up to speed on emerging risk dimensions of the crisis, while 49% ranked ensuring the health and safety of staff (49%). Meanwhile, important in-boardroom activities, such as director engagement (8%), board succession planning (5%), and director recruitment and onboarding (4%), have unfortunately been pushed aside. Directors expect to continue more engagement with management. As the need for more frequent communication between boards and management has increased, so has the time commitment for many directors. A plurality of directors and almost a majority (48%) reported that boards are likely to spend more time with management after the crisis than before. In doing so, nearly every board has made use of tools to enable virtual board meetings. This suggests that new, responsive best practices are potentially on the horizon with directors engaging more frequently with management and in new ways. As the need for more frequent communication between boards and management has increased, so has the time commitment for many directors. A plurality of directors and almost a majority (48%) reported that boards are likely to spend more time with management after the crisis than before. In doing so, nearly every board has made use of tools to enable virtual board meetings. This suggests that new, responsive best practices are potentially on the horizon with directors engaging more frequently with management and in new ways. Boards remain confident in their organizations and management teams. Consistent with findings from our March survey, boards continue to give high marks to their management teams. When asked to grade their CEOs performance during the crisis, the average grade was an A, with a GPA of 3.8 on a 4-point scale. More than 9 out of 10 (92%) directors reported confidence that their organizations will survive the crisis, and 87% of directors reported that their management teams had an effective playbook for this type of crisis. Directors report that their boards should be prepared to answer the following questions in the next three months: What are the key information requirements of our stakeholders to sustain their confidence in the company? How should we redesign our workforce after the crisis? What are the lessons learned from managements response to the pandemic? What business development opportunities have developed during the pandemic? What are the associated risks? How should we take advantage of a rare opportunity to reposition ourselves in our sector? How can we promote the new leadership capabilities in the c-suite? The NACD Resource Center, Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis offers board-relevant guidance to help companies confront COVID-19 and mitigate its business impact. NACD updates these practical resources frequently to reflect new developments. Committed to providing the entire governance community with the best available information to understand the COVID-19 pandemic, NACD has opened these resources to the public. About NACD The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) empowers more than 21,000 directors to lead with confidence in the boardroom. As the recognized authority on leading boardroom practices, NACD helps boards strengthen investor trust and public confidence by ensuring that todays directors are well prepared for tomorrows challenges. World-class boards join NACD to elevate performance, gain foresight, and instill confidence. Fostering collaboration among directors, investors, and corporate governance stakeholders, NACD has been setting the standard for responsible board leadership for 40 years. To learn more about NACD, visit www.NACDonline.org . Survey Methodology: NACD used a convenience sample of its membership to solicit 306 member responses between May 14 and May 21, 2020. This contains a wide selection of industries that mirrors the NACD membership and the American economy. What do they sell (used to sell?) in Tuesday Morning? I always saw that store but didn't know what it was. Reply Thread Link Imagine if you combined the worst tj maxx youd ever been in with the dollar tree, then shot all of that out of a cannon. Thats tuesday morning. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link That sounds like hell! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOO THE ACCURACY!!!! I'm screaming!!!!! Reply Parent Thread Link And more expensive, but lesser quality. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link My mom goes to the two different ones here on Long Island for scrapbooking/ paper crafting supplies and she always finds A LOT of new product thats only been on the online stores for a week and she gets it for cheap! But its like weird shit that you probably wouldnt really find in a Marshalls or TJ Max IMHO. And the food is like... gourmet food I guess you can say? It always reminded me of a grannys basement filled with years of collected junk tbh. Reply Parent Thread Link this is so unbelievably accurate Reply Parent Thread Link Its a little home goods store - a lot of the stuff is very discounted. The couple of locations Ive been too, never got anything. Its a less nice HomeGoods Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I just googled cause I didn't know either, and I guess it's like a cheaper Home Goods. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Yes, it's like a cheaper Home Goods but there is more variety. It's my go to for random craft supplies and cookware. Reply Parent Thread Link I know people who got a lot of super cheap discontinued mattel dolls there, but I've never been in one. Reply Parent Thread Link Vases shaped like bananas. Reply Parent Thread Link whenever I pass by one, I think of how some people have that annoying "tee-ooozz-day" pronunciation Reply Parent Thread Link Omg i once told my husband while we drove by a tuesday morning that they were only open on tuesday mornings and he (in the cutest and most sincere way) was like "Really??!!" Then we finally went in one day and it was as bad as people said. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link If Ross's non-clothes section was Banana Republic, Tuesday Morning would be Old Navy Outlet. Reply Parent Thread Link The ones here sometimes have like action figures and collectibles :/ Reply Parent Thread Link They sell really cheap gourmet coffee. I have always liked that. Reply Parent Thread Link CLOSE DOWN FACTORY FAAAAAAARMS! Reply Thread Link B-B-But what about the almighty cheeseburger?!!! Reply Parent Thread Link I GIVE NOT ONE FUUUUUUUCK! Reply Parent Thread Link AND PET STORES....ANIMALS SHOULS NOT BE SOLD! IDGAF! Fight me! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I recently found out about rehoming chickens from factories and it's just so pure. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I find it so much more stressful shopping online, lost packages, deliveries to wrong addresses, etc. I have a package right now that I sent back and have no clue where it is and it's hard to get ahold of anyone. I wish I could at least return in store.Why does everyone want to rush toward rotting on their couches a la Surrogates so badly? Reply Thread Link I feel this. I find shopping online stressful. Reply Parent Thread Link Bless this comment for being on the first page. Reply Parent Thread Link yeah unless it's a t-shirt or accessory (like masks or gloves) I'm sure about, I have to see clothes in person, even if I'm not able to try it. other stuff too. unless it's a rare thing or a small local business I already know and want to support, I need to inspect something before buying it. takes a bit of hunting and waiting, but it saves money and hassle in the long run. Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah the only reason I'll order online is if I really can't find the item in person. I've noticed a lot of stores carry more stock online which is annoying. And some stores only exist as e-stores (sometimes that's regional), it's odd. Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah mail theft in my area has spiked dramatically since the lockdowns started. I had over $100 worth of stuff stolen from me last week. Now I'm shipping stuff to my parents' house out in the burbs that way I'll only have to worry about it being yeeted across the yard because the delivery guy doesn't feel like walking 30 feet to the front door. Reply Parent Thread Link I see it as a catch-22. Customer service has been going downhill for a long time. I work in customer service and see how bad it is because store business models are catered to make the CEO and investors wealthy. People don't want to put up with messy stores, rude service workers, lack of variety, racial profiling, and long lines because there isn't enough staff and that's just some of the problems plaguing the retail industry. Those in-store problems cause people to shop on line hurting brick and mortar stores. Sometimes it's just easier and quicker to shop from the computer than driving all the way out to a store and dealing with bs. Reply Parent Thread Link I'd rather deal with rude customer service people in person than someone who just reads me their manual which always happens when I call/email about online purchase problems. I find there to be non existent service with online shopping unless maybe you have a large following you can talk to it about. But I've never had issues with lines or rude employees tbh, or none that left an impact enough to remember. In the long run though I don't think shopping online is easier overall and it's definitely not quicker, esp. if you need to return/exchange. Reply Parent Thread Link I briefly worked in a Banana Republic last year and it would raise my blood pressure how they have it set up. All items on the floor moved every few days. No guidance was given to the staff and I lost out on some sales because I couldn't find the damn item I knew the person would love. And then it would randomly appear two days later. One time, a woman asked me if we had a turtleneck in another color. I looked it up and saw we had 5 different colors. She wanted to see the gray and purple. Instead of making her hunt all over the store, I said to wait one minute and I'll be back. I only ever found the white and the navy and they were on opposite sides of the store. She didn't buy anything and was ticked off. That night, when we restocked the floor, I found all 5 and all of them were in different parts of the store. They also had a habit of putting things that were alike but not the same together, so you'd see a short black dress and say "eh not my style" and never know there were three gorgeous dresses that were also short and black hidden behind it. And we would be told daily that people are shopping online and stealing the brick and mortar sales. Of course they are! No one wants to go on a fucking scavenger hunt while they're shopping. If I want to look at a turtleneck, I'm going to find it online, see all 5 colors and see all the sizes you have in one shot instead of ping ponging through a disorganized store where even the staff can't help me. Do I sound bitter? Would you like to hear my rant about sizing? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Seriously, though, is anyone really surprised? How do you sustain a retail industry with 42 million unemployed? Reply Parent Thread Link Also store location is a factor. I'm like 50-60 miles or more from the nearest Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's Etc. If I can get stuff from them on-line it would be better than driving out there, dealing with traffic, buying gas, finding a parking place & they might not even have what I want. Reply Parent Thread Link I hate shopping online for most things. I hate the guesswork of ordering things like clothes or makeup online. I hate that if I want to return something, it's now my responsibility to package it up and go to the post office, and then wait for a refund or exchange to process, and if I wanted an exchange, half of the time that shit's now sold out in my size by the time the request processes. It's a pain in the ASS. And even if I order something online, I want the option to be able to return something in a physical store if I need to. At least then, instead of standing in an annoying post office to ship a fucking return back, I can go to a mall, immediately get my refund, AND probably pick up a Wetzel's Pretzel and a Starbucks while I'm there, making it an enjoyable experience. The only time I enjoy buying clothes online is when I've already bought something similar or exactly the same (but in a different color) in stores, so I am 99% sure it'll fit me and I'll like it. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I hate that you can't try anything on. Whenever I buy clothes online there's always a few items that never fit right and I'm too lazy to return them. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Today they showed a guy on the news who bought an xbox on one of those sites where you buy used and received a brick instead. Edited at 2020-06-09 10:37 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link same, this is mainly why i haven't been buying anything throughout the pandemic except the face mask at the start and birthday presents. i've only been treating myself at the grocery store Reply Parent Thread Link I also hate shopping online, especially for shit like clothes and shoes. Not just size but fabric, too. Some fabrics are just awful to the touch even if it says 100% cotton. Package thievery is so bad here that we sit by our front door the day we're supposed to get a delivery and constantly refresh the tracker. You'd think we were super psyched by a package of masks, but no, we just don't want to have to order them AGAIN because our complex is constantly canvassed. And we live in a wonky area so even without thieves, our stuff is constantly delivered to the building down the street and we always get their stuff. It's a mess. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link yeah shopping online is convenient in some aspects but overall it's still a mess Reply Parent Thread Link Same. I cant trust myself to buy denim shorts online. Just yesterday a package of mine went to a guy on the next street, so he called me saying to come get it. Not to mention Canada Post is in shambles rn. Reply Parent Thread Link Same. I know my size and measurements, and shopping for clothes online is still a pain. Plus, I suck at returning packages. I like to window shop online but buy in store. Reply Parent Thread Link I had a terrible experience recently where I had purchased a pair of Nikes online which turned out to be a size too small. I wanted to exchange them for a bigger size so I got in touch with the customer service who strangely advised me to purchase a new pair first and send the other pair back which they would reimburse upon receiving them. I had no reason to suspect anything at this point so I did as told, only to get the returned pair sent back to me two weeks later because they provided the wrong return address. I had to pay for the return shipping which wasnt cheap and I told them that I would not pay for it again as this was their fault to which came the reply suit yourself. They refuse to reimburse me otherwise. Now Im stuck with an extra pair, trying to sell them off because returning them for the second time would amount to what the shoes cost in the first place with no guarantee that the return will be successful this time. I have no doubt that this was a deliberate scheme on their part. Im currently filing a claim with consumer protection. No online shopping for me from here on out unless its absolutely essential. Edited at 2020-06-10 12:37 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link Agreed, I've got a goddamn bottle of shampoo that I ordered early April and is currently god knows where. I also get so stressed out buying clothes online because I'm short but with a very big chest and a lot of clothes just don't fit me properly or look right/good. Reply Parent Thread Link yeah, i would much rather try on clothes first before buying. and i just like browsing. going to JCPenney w my mom was a fun little saturday ngl lol Reply Parent Thread Link Yes! I hate this. All the good clothes I like are only online. It's frustrating when you're in between sizes, because you're shorter. I wish it was like the old days, where you'd go to the mall and you could try things on. Also, I hate doing returns through the mail. You have to pay for shipping. That's annoying. I bought this peacock wreath a couple of weeks ago, and I don't like it. So, I'm glad Michaels is opened now. I can return it. All and all, I love shopping and doing errands. That's something that's lost now. Reply Parent Thread Link I have a very strangely proportioned body and I loathe buying clothes online (like during Cyber Monday). Nothing ever fits right. I just like going to a store and trying things on so I can ensure it will fit and look properly. This is, of course, until I hit the lottery and hire a live in seamstress. Reply Parent Thread Link yup, i have a package rn that i think got lost in the mail Reply Parent Thread Link if it's an item i already have purchased, i'm not too worried, but anything else, oh yeah, totally feel you Reply Parent Thread Link Completely agree, especially since I live in Hawaii where get screwed up the ass on shipping (free US shipping! And none for you Hawaii and Alaska), the mail is unreliable and takes so long I forget I ordered something, plus all the stuff you mentioned. I really only ever order online when I cant find what I need in a store. Reply Parent Thread Link Agreed. Plus sometimes I need something at the last minute. I dont have time to be frantically ordering and paying for overnight shipping, fuck that. Reply Parent Thread Link I mean if the opened states and their numbers being high was any indication, Id say yous right Reply Parent Thread Link My boyfriends sister is a nurse and her hospital is officially COVID free as of this past Thursday. But she said theyre already preparing for wave 2 to start in September if schools and the rest of Long Island/NYC reopens by then. Theyre actively prepping now for summer just in case with getting the PPE, cleaning supplies and training any new staff and accumulating all the data theyve obtained with treating their covid patients with the drugs weve all seen in the news. Meanwhile my dad is in a different hospital on Long Island battling covid/pneumonia for the last 7 weeks and they still have a lot of COVID patients in various wards from what Ive heard and apparently arent anywhere near ready to Discharging them. Its crazy! Reply Parent Thread Link yeah i work retail rn and we don't even get a dime in extra compensation lol the measures being taken are absurd and exist only to give ppl a false illusion of security - not that many ppl want or need even that much since they think covid vanished Reply Parent Thread Link My friends are losing their $3/hour hazard pay. They cut to $2 apparently and they're taking it away completely at the end of june. Nickel and diming minimum wage service workers when the company makes soooo much. I'm disgusted Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I went to Target today (first time inside in 3 months) and less than half of people were wearing masks. People were hugging, shaking hands. A second wave is inevitable. Reply Parent Thread Link we're definitely getting a second wave, but the real question is whether any effective change will happen as a result. it's going to be really hard to corral everyone back inside once they've gotten that whiff of freedom, and also our attention spans are comically short - we've moved on to more pressing news items and as vitally important as a lot of that news is, as a population we are sadly very bad at caring about more than one thing at a time, especially about things we'd rather just not think or care about in the first place Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I live in Texas and we never stopped surging, but our idiot Governor declared us reopened, so everyone decided that the pandemic was over and we could move on with no thought to personal safety. I've been going back to the office one week and have yet to see any of my colleagues wearing masks, despite the fact that they were provided to us by HR. Reply Parent Thread Link Someone somewhere said that the USA was aiming for a couple of million covid-deaths by the end of the year and honestly.. I see it. Reply Parent Thread Link I love how now that the government is telling them what they want to hear they have no problem saying "well the governor said..." These people just wanted to do what they wanted, when they wanted like bratty children but hid behind "my rights and freedoms". I wish we could take all of the anti government individualistic people and give them an island and see how it pans out with everyone only caring about themselves, they will never get or agree that when you live in a society it is your moral responsibility to look out and consider others. Reply Parent Thread Link Damn True Religion? Oh to be able to get their jeans during that store closing sale Reply Thread Link That used to be the official jean of choice for sales people at my company when they made big sales lol Now people have moved onto shoes Reply Parent Thread Link Where am I supposed to buy clothes & shoes? Reply Thread Link Costco ig Reply Parent Thread Link That Kirkland denim that can stand up on its own! Reply Parent Thread Link Eventually, the world will just be one giant Amazon store Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I honestly don't know where I can go to buy clothes! I can buy t-shirts online but not PANTS. I need to try those on! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link yeah, as a petite woman it's hard for me to make a purchase online unless i'm familiar with the brand already and know my size for sure. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Damn RIP the mall I used to work at. When I worked retail for 3 years I was at my most depressive yet dissociative state and I remember just watching year after year things closing or shutting down. My boomer aunt thinks malls will never die out but aside from Target I think most retail shops are gonna be a thing of the past. It makes me sad, so many people rely on those jobs. I know I did. Reply Thread Link In my ideal world there aren't any major brands - people own independent clothing stores where they make clothes in the style they want to make and tailor clothes for people's body types (even casual clothes). Just a ton of different designers making all different kinds of clothes for different kinds of people at different kinds of price points. Reply Parent Thread Link I looked at the jcp list and they wont be closing the one at my mall. I only shopped there when they would send me $10 off coupons but they stopped like 2 yrs ago Tuesday morning is too overpriced for the crap they sell. Home Goods killed them I'm still so sad I lost kmart/sears cause for years I got so much free shit from them because they constantly gave away points. I would have like $200 to spend each month. Reply Thread Link I miss those jcp stores and I miss Kmart only because I was able to get cute emo / gothy outfits when theyd close but I misplaced one of my cute shirts and it bothers me lol Writing this I realized I mightve also lost a black dress from my move and now Im bothered lol Edited at 2020-06-09 08:42 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link Which KMart did you go to? The one on McDowell and 87th ave? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Im quite surprised about Nordstrom but maybe Nordstrom Rack is keeping it afloat. Maybe the website is bringing in the business Reply Thread Link Nordstrom won by not being unattainably exclusive and unaffordable; they sell a lot of high end brands but also mid and even low-to-mid tier brands as well. Its whats made it survive what happened to Barneys and now Nieman Marcus. Reply Parent Thread Link It also probably helps that they're still controlled by the Nordstrom family instead of private equity. It has the usual retail problems, but they have some liquidity and not $5 billion in debt from leveraged buyouts like Neiman Marcus does. (I read an article that said NM has actually had decent profit margins and growth despite the issue with their customers getting old! They were just in a bad position because of all the debt, and this followed being in bad position from all the debt from a previous LBO when the last recession hit :/) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Are you sure? Luxury retail seems to be doing fine. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I own a small boutique and these stories are terrifying. I wish these large stores closing meant that people were more likely to shop local but no. They just go online, shop on amazon. Everyone look into your local Shop Local movements. Dont just replace these with more amazon shopping. We need your help. Online sales are great but we lose a lot in shipping and seller fees, in person sales are preferable. Reply Thread Link Yeah I work at a small toy store and its concerning. Luckily, our location has been doing ok but weve been told by our boss that the fate of the entire biz is in our hands... no pressure. Reply Parent Thread Link I don't have a lot of disposable income at the moment, but whatever I do need to buy I'm doing my best to buy from local shops. Reply Parent Thread Link I honestly don't even know where a local clothing store even would be to be - I don't remember seeing any. I only see stuff like Macy's & JC Penny in the mall. Then stores like Ross, TJ Maxx and Old Navy are around. If there was a local place that sold good clothes for the office & shoes I would check it out as long as it wasn't crazy expensive. Reply Parent Thread Link We just got a new craft shop in our small town that has like knitting stuff and paints and things like that and I so hope it manages to stick around through Covid and everything. I've been wanting a store like that nearby. Reply Parent Thread Link Not directing this at you, but I wish the local boutiques would attempt more to stock plus size clothes/indie brands design them. I'm an 18 which can still be serviced in most bigger brands, but most places stop at a 12. Reply Parent Thread Link i agree with you and unfortunately my shop is one of those kinds of shops and we deserve shit for it. some shops can afford it it though and some dont. i know for some wholesalers charge a lot more for their plus sized clothing or put really high minimum order quantities on the plus size clothing which deters really small businesses bc its not good for us to have too much of just one item. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link yep. and i'm not thin, but i'm petite. retailers assume if you're bigger, you're also 6' tall. no, no, no. I have to order my clothing online, and if I want it to actually fit it's coming from one of 3 stores where I already know my size. it's that or spend a lot of money having things tailored (in a small town where nobody does that). Reply Parent Thread Link Never been in a Tuesday Morning nor have I ever heard of anyone ever going to one. Every time Id pass one I always assumed that it was a restaurant. Learned something new today Reply Thread Link RIP salad bars Reply Parent Thread Link im definitely not going back to my retail job. im not comfortable being around people in a small space and if cases continue going up, itll probably just shut down again anyway. not even worth the hassle. Reply Thread Link yeah idk about my customer service job, there is no way we can social distance and i'm at a higher risk for getting covid. it's definitely not worth the risk for what they pay me. Edited at 2020-06-09 08:50 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link What are you going to do instead? I'm so frustrated about my company forcing us back to work when there's no way to protect us. I need a better job. I'm this close to streaming on twitch Reply Parent Thread Link I quit retail back in July and went into full time petsitting, and now that that's dried up I've been evaluating my options and idk. I think I could go back into it if I was mostly doing restocking, curbside pickup etc but there is no way I could wear a mask for a whole shift. it would need to be a situation where I was alone enough of the time that I could take it off regularly. also I would need to be paid a LOT more lol Reply Parent Thread Link what really impressed me here during the corona crisis is, how patient us Germans can be when it comes to standing in line for entry to Zara or H&M (I would never) Reply Thread Link omg! i see these little teen girls lined up in front of zara every day during my lunch break Reply Parent Thread Link oh god you know it wont be, people dont give a shit there i feel so bad for everyone who works at one actually no some people literally give a shit there, i went to see one of my friends during his shift and he told me about some ADULT customer who got so mad at the queues they threw a bag of shit in the menswear part Edited at 2020-06-10 09:09 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link So many people here queuing for Primark, it's embarrassing. Reply Parent Thread Link My boyfriend said the same thing about Primark. He needed plain black t-shirts and it was the only time he's not seen the stores in Berlin an absolute clusterfuck. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I honestly don't understand the appeal. I keep seeing the line for the Apple store on ku'damm and it is loooong Reply Parent Thread Link We're patient waiting to get into Trader Joe's Reply Parent Thread Link Real talk I don't understand Germans (and Austrians) and how they just buy EVERYTHING at H&M for clothes. I thought it was just my best friend being cheap, but all her friends and even her rich bougie friends shop there too. Their clothes aren't worth the euro they fall apart so quickly. Primark isn't much better, but I've had a backpack from Primark that has been through hell and back and it's still together. Same can't be said about H&M. Reply Parent Thread Link Roots is closing? Oh no. Reply Thread Link I just checked after neraly having a coronary, it's US only. Not that going to Canada is going to be a possibility this summer... Reply Parent Thread Link it's so fuckin expensive tho. i rarely buy roots bc shit is so pricey (i'm in canada) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Pranab Mondal By Express News Service KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress leadership has decided to go full throttle to combat West Bengal BJPs attempt to dent the ruling partys political dominance before 2021 Assembly elections using cyclone Amphans aftermath and the Covid-19 pandemic. All MLAs and workers of the TMC have been directed to launch a massive campaign in all 294 Assembly constituencies showcasing the state governments promptness to fight with the two issues. Partha Chatterjee, secretary-general of the TMC, said the party would launch campaign across the state to counter the canard spread by the BJP to malign the ruling party. Undermining the role of the state government to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and cyclone Amphans aftermath is the BJPs sole intention. The statements issued by BJP leaders reflect it. Every day, they are attacking Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and trying to mislead the people of the states by floating false information on social media. We will go all-out against it, said Chatterjee. On May 27, when the TMC completed nine years in power in the state, the BJP rolled out a nine-point charge sheet against Banerjee pitching mishandling of the outbreak in Bengal and Amphans aftermath as two top priorities. Sources said, Banerjee has given a clear message and framed a plan of action to go all out to challenge the BJPs false campaign. The Bengals saffron camp, too, is all set to highlight the state governments failure to address migrants problems during the pandemic. We will highlight how promptly the Centre sanctioned Rs 1,000 crore for Bengals cyclone ravaged areas and the ruling partys corruption by siphoning off the Centrals money depriving the poor. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address a virtual rally on Tuesday as part of our campaign, said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh. Diversified property giant GPT Group has become one of the first real estate investment trusts to reveal the impact of the coronavirus with a near $500 million write-down in the value of its shopping centre portfolio. Retail landlords have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as shoppers were forced to stay home under the lockdown laws, causing foot traffic and revenue to plummet. GPT, which owns 12 malls across the country, has written down the value of seven centres in which it has part or full ownership by $476.7 million after undertaking an independent assessment of its retail assets covering the months between December 31, 2019, to May 31. It is an 8.8 per cent decline since December. Highpoint Shopping Centre in Melbourne. The group has also withdrawn its full-year 2020 guidance and is amending its dividend payout ratio policy. Countrys largest organisation of lawyers, activists vow to question constitutionality of some provisions of the bill. The Philippine Congress has sent controversial anti-terrorism legislation to President Rodrigo Duterte, paving the way for him to sign it into law, while also setting the stage for opponents to mount an immediate legal challenge on the constitutionality of some of its provisions before the Supreme Court. Senate President Tito Sotto announced that he and House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano signed the bill on Monday night, and that the document had been received by the office of the president on Tuesday. Last week, Duterte certified the passage of the legislation as urgent, and he is expected to sign it into law amid growing opposition and decision by several House members to withdraw their support. The House of Representatives passed the bill on June 4 after it was approved by the Senate in February. Sotto, an ally of Duterte, defended the bill saying only terrorists should worry about the legislation. Dutertes spokesman said the approved bill would still be subject to review before the president signs it. On Tuesday morning, opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros, one of the two senators who voted against the bill, hinted at the possibility of joining the effort to take the legislation directly to the countrys highest court, according to a transcript of a media statement that was also provided to Al Jazeera. At a time of the pandemic and quarantine, the priority of the government should be food security, transportation, jobs, and safety from infection, Hontiveros said, adding that a group of lawyers and other civic groups are already preparing for the legal battle. Serious constitutional questions Former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio had said earlier that as soon as Duterte signs the legislation into law, it can be questioned directly before the high court. Al Jazeeras sources also said lawyers are waiting for Dutertes signature before filing their legal challenge. During an online forum on Monday night covered by Al Jazeera, Senator Francis Pangilinan, the other opponent of the bill, said there are serious constitutional questions that it raises, particularly on the respect for fundamental rights of Filipino citizens. The most contentious provisions include those for warrantless arrest and the 14-day detention of suspected terrorists, extendible for another 10 days. According to the legislation, a warrantless arrest can be ordered by the so-called anti-terror council, under the president, meaning the council could be tasked to determine what constitutes terrorism a role exclusively reserved for the courts as defined in the Constitution. Those accused of proposing, inciting, conspiring, and participating in the planning, training, and facilitation of a terrorist attack could also face life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, as per the bill. The new legislation includes a provision allowing up to 12 years of imprisonment for any person who joins designated terrorist organisations or group(s). Those provisions of the would-be law violate the bill of rights of citizens enshrined under the Constitution, Senator Pangilinan said, warning that the broad definition of terrorism could be misused. Under the current authoritarian bent, this will be open to abuse. In the context of what is happening in the country todayclearly, the direction is more towards repression, he said. Among the most contentious provisions are warrantless arrests and detention without charge, which can last up to 24 days [File: Rolex dela Pena/EPA] In a statement obtained by Al Jazeera on Tuesday, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), the countrys most influential organisation of lawyers, urged Duterte to review the bill as it called attention to some constitutionally questionable provisions. The group said it will exhaust all avenues to keep the anti-terrorism bill within the bounds of our Constitution. IBP President Domingo Cayosa said earlier that if the bill is signed in its current form by Duterte, the IBP will challenge it in the top court. Lawyer Shidik T Abantas of Mindanao State University College of Law in Marawi also questioned the power of the anti-terror council to order the arrest of suspected terrorists, saying that can only be done by a competent court. He cited as an example the arrest orders issued during the siege of Marawi by the defence chief. Hundreds of innocent personalities were included. They were arrested and was later on released (after a month or more) for lack of evidence, he told Al Jazeera, adding that the practice of planting of evidence is rampant in the police force making the council even more dangerous. On social media, several groups and individuals expressed their opposition, with many posting the hashtag #JunkTerrorBillNow, while accusing leaders of Congress of rushing the bill. We are calling everybody to publicly state their dissent over this outright disrespect to our so-called democracy, activist group Anakbayan said in a statement. The University of the Philippines Programme on Alternative Development added that the legislation is nothing but a weapon to silence criticism and dissent toward the government. Mayor Sylvester Turner on Tuesday announced he would sign an executive order to enact some immediate reforms aimed at curtailing police violence, including requiring Houston officers to give verbal warning and exhaust all other options before firing their weapons. Turner outlined his order, which embraces proposals from the #8cantwait campaign, at the funeral for George Floyd, the former Houston resident whose May 25 death at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked international protests and widespread calls for reform. Turner said he would sign the order Tuesday evening, but that was canceled at the last moment; a spokeswoman said the mayor planned to sign the order Wednesday, but did not explain the delay. The mayors announcement came shortly before dozens of Houstonians urged City Council to reject Turners proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, unless millions of dollars are diverted from the police department to other areas. City Council members are scheduled to take up Turners $5.1 billion spending plan Wednesday, along with 50 proposed amendments. The mayor has put forward a $965 million Houston Police Department budget next fiscal year, nearly twice the size of the fire department and more than the remaining 20 general fund departments combined. It is an increase of $19.7 million, or 2 percent, from the current fiscal year. Some 80 people signed up for Tuesdays session of City Council to weigh in on the police departments budget, potential reforms and the departments arrests of protesters last week. Many called on council to delay the budget vote so more Houstonians could have time to share their feedback, while others said the department should be defunded. Calls to defund police have generated a degree of confusion around the country, with some advocating for cutting police funding and redirecting those resources to other areas, and others backing the idea of disbanding police departments altogether. Claire Johnson, a District C resident, said Houston should follow Minneapolis example, where a veto-proof majority of council members have pledged to begin the process of ending the police department. At an absolute minimum, we need to defund the police, diminish their contract and expand all of the desperately needed resources communities of color require, Johnson said. Not every speaker at City Council called for police to be abolished, with some asking council members to reduce HPDs budget and spend the newly available funds on education, affordable housing, mental health programs, flood prevention and a slew of other suggestions. Limited impact Though the actual text of Turners executive order was not available Tuesday, it will include a ban on chokeholds, require de-escalation, comprehensive use-of-force reporting, mandate that officers intervene when they witness misconduct, and more, Turner said on Twitter. It was not clear whether the order would embrace the remaining recommendations from the #8cantwait project, which claims that departments who adopt the eight measures have fewer uses of force. HPD already enforces some of those measures. The departments use-of-force policy from 2015 includes a duty-to-intervene clause and a ban on shooting at moving vehicles, unless the driver is immediately threatening someones safety. The Houston Police Officers Union said the department has had a ban on chokeholds for four decades and possibly never used them. It was not immediately clear, however, whether that prohibition is codified in writing. Joe Gamaldi, president of the union, said he was waiting to comment on Turners executive order until the text is released. Many other police departments already have adopted the #8cantwait measures with little impact to show for it, said Kevin Buckler, a criminal justice professor at the University of Houston-Downtown. "They're already used across the country. Perhaps not by every department, but they're already utilized, and we still arrived at the current state of affairs that we're at right now, Buckler said, adding that the campaign is a very good marketing strategy, but it's not evidenced-based at all. Alan de Leon, Houston organizer for civic engagement nonprofit MOVE Texas, encouraged the council to adopt Councilwoman Letitia Plummers proposed budget amendments, which would eliminate 199 vacant HPD positions and direct the savings toward a slew of reform measures, including investing more money in a subpoena-empowered Independent Police Oversight Board, de-escalation training and mental health units. Still, de Leon said Houston needs to go further. This is especially underwhelming, especially considering the actions other cities are taking to address police brutality, he said. As an example, he pointed to Austin, where some city council members have indicated support for a proposal to trim $100 million from the Austin Police Departments budget, according to the Austin American-Statesman. A number of speakers praised Plummers amendments, opposed by the mayor but supported by Black Lives Matter Houston, as a good first step. Many others said it did not go far enough. "I feel like this is an opportunity for us to take a stand. This door is not going to stay open forever," Plummer told The Appeal, a nonprofit criminal justice news site, on Tuesday. "Things do take time, but there are moments of urgency. And this is a moment of urgency." HPD budget About 92 percent of the $965 million budget proposed for HPD next year is devoted to personnel, which includes officers salaries, health benefits and pension contributions. It does not include funding for five new police cadet classes scheduled for fiscal 2021. Police officers are set to receive a 3 percent pay raise from July 1 through the end of the year, with an additional 2 percent raise taking effect in 2021 if Turner and the police union cannot agree on a new contract. That leaves little room to slash the departments budget without reducing the number of officers, an idea Turner repeatedly has rejected. The mayor instead has pushed for HPD to increase its head count by several hundred officers, arguing the department remains understaffed compared to other large cities. Meanwhile, five of the six black Houston council members excluding Plummer released a letter Monday that outlines a package of police reforms, including automatic disciplinary action for officers who make racially or culturally derogatory social media posts, creating an online dashboard showing complaints against officers, and requiring the police chief to address the public safety council committee upon request. Buckler, the criminal justice professor, said the proposals from the letter generally are too limited to create much meaningful change. Instead, he said city council should consider reforms that fundamentally alter and rethink policing. The worry I have is that these simple things, these little quick fixes, they can kind of appease a population thats wanting change, Buckler said. There could be a point where people become satisfied with that until the next big thing happens. And then we're back at square one and we haven't really changed much. Chronicle reporter St. John Barned-Smith contributed to this report. dylan.mcguinness@chron.com jasper.scherer@chron.com Stanley Kurtz has written a great piece about Joe Biden. I think most of us understand that a President Biden would be a wholly owned subsidiary of the woke left. But Stanley explains better than anyone Ive read why that almost certainly would be the case and how we got to this sad point. He writes: The resignation of the editorial page editor of the New York Times for publishing an op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton calling for the military to quell the riots marks the completion of the long, slow transformation of the Democratic Party. Whatever face the Democrats present to the world, their woke left fringe is now in charge. That fringe has not only abandoned core American principles like freedom of speech and due process, it has reimagined American history as a story of systemic oppression and demanded radical transformation along identitariansocialist lines. If the New York Times cant stand up to Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of its odious and just-plain-false 1619 Project, how will Joe Biden stand up to a woke New York Times? (Emphasis added) Biden hasnt so far, and wont in the future: Past his prime, without a policy compass to speak of, Biden would be long gone if he hadnt been the Democratic establishments last best hope of blocking Bernie Sanders. Biden is supposed to give the party a moderate face that will appeal to centrist voters. Increasingly, however, the bases of the two parties are becoming the real contestants in this election, while the candidates are just along for the ride. . . . Biden has been shoved out front for tactical purposes by a party that has long since moved on. (Emphasis added) As for Bidens supposed centrism, forget about it: It would have been interesting to see how Biden balanced the centrist side of his party with an increasingly aggressive and empowered Left. But what now remains of a Democratic center to balance with its left? The image of Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey being booed and shamed out of a rally for refusing to abolish his citys police force is what the Democrats internal balancing act has morphed into. Frey is no centrist. He helped set the riots loose by abandoning a police station to protesters who quickly burned it down. Yet Freys refusal to actually abolish the police now puts him on the fast-melting right flank of a party gone wild. (Emphasis added) So maybe Bidens centrism will split the difference between Jacob Frey and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Speaking of AOC, Stanley writes: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been more of a team player since the 2019 confrontation in which she implied that Speaker Pelosi was racist. (AOC called Pelosi outright disrespectful for criticizing newly elected women of color.) What will happen after the election, however, if Biden takes the White House and the Democrats hold the House, or even take the Senate? At that point, the bigotry accusation game will resume, but now with a massively emboldened Left. Hannah-Joness victory at the Times foreshadows a series of successful pressure campaigns from the woke Left against a Democratic administration and Congress. The police may not be abolished, but theres plenty that Biden and his attorney general will be able to do to hamstring law enforcement. And thats just the beginning of what a now-dominant Democratic Left will demand and receive from a Biden administration. (Emphasis added) Back to Biden: Like many other Democratic candidates for president this year, Joe Biden has now adopted the rhetoric of systemic racism. Evidently, he will no more be able to stand up to the demands of the partys woke Left than the Times was able to stand up to the creator of its 1619 Project. How did things get to this point? [A] critically important cause of the Democratic Partys rejection of classical liberalism. . .is what happened 50 years ago when our universities adopted preferential treatment by race, sex, and ethnicity, and then established studies programs built around identity politics rather than the ethos of liberal education. In the early days, preferential treatment and politicized academic departments were seen as regrettable but necessary and temporary suspensions of classical liberal principle. Yet the inability to stand up to accusations of systemic racism from the Left finally drove classical liberalism out of the university. The studies departments grew in size and influence. Their commitment to a neo-Marxist critique of liberalism that its promises of freedom, rights, and neutral treatment were simply covers for systemic oppression by rich straight white men became the common wisdom of the academy. Academic free speech is on its deathbed as a result. Now, with a generation of graduates schooled under the studies regime, the collapse of classical liberalism has moved into the mainstream. Joe Biden and the editors of the New York Times are essentially caught in the same web as a university administrator. Their impulses are still classically liberal, but they cant stand up to accusations of racism, no matter how excessive or unfounded, and no matter how much those accusations are used as battering rams against liberal principle itself. Once the studies programs were instituted with a purpose, ideology, and recruiting mechanism that was illiberal from the start it was too late to back out, too late to say no, to whatever demand came next. Similarly, once the Times endorsed the 1619 Project, with its attack on the liberal principles at the core of Americas story, the die was cast. The marketplace of ideas was over for the Times. (Emphasis added) Stanley saves his best for last: A President Biden will be a perfect stand-in for a meek liberal college president who cant afford to get on the wrong side of a Left that knows it wont be disciplined and is only too happy to silence others. Biden is the face of the Democratic Party, but far from the fact of it. Once the Times goes, the media go. And without media backup, a Democratic president has nothing. The Democrats center has collapsed, leaving Biden little choice but to play to his illiberal left. If Biden wins, the Left is in charge. And they arent just straining to abolish the police. Their real target is 1776. In other words, the real target is American liberty, and Joe Biden cannot be expected to defend it. Indian Ambassador to US Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Monday said that US President Donald Trump has invited PM Modi to attend G7 summit and expressed his expressed to expand G7. Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Monday (local time), while referring to a recent telephonic conversation between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, said that the two leaders have been in regular touch and senior officials of two countries have been talking to each other. They have been in regular touch, and both senior officials of the Government of India and the US administration have been talking to each other regularly. This particular phone call happened on the 2nd. And in that, apart from other aspects, two points regard to G7 were raised, Sandhu told ANI while responding to a question on the recent conversation between two leaders. The Ambassador said India will be happy to work with the US as far as President Trumps desire to expand G-7 is concerned.One, President Trump invited Prime Minister Modi to come and attend the summit. And second, was that he also shared his desire to expand the G7. So, on both of these counts, India will be very happy to work with the United States. And I think the exact dates still have to be finalised. Once they are done and it will be communicated to us, he said. #WATCH On this aspect,there has been a very close collaboration: Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Indian Envoy to US on,"In telephonic conversation, the two leaders (PM Modi&US President Trump) also exchanged views on #COVID19. Can you spell out finer details in terms of collaborations?" pic.twitter.com/6G8J5hQtDm ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2020 Also Read: G20 pledge over $21 billion to fight Covid-19 Also Read: Australia extends support to Indias candidacy for permanent UNSC seat On June 2, PM Modi had held a telephonic conversation with US President Donald Trump. Prime Minister Modi has accepted President Trumps invite and could visit the United States in September. However critics and especially the Chinese have strongly reacted to President Trumps 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. Responding to a question regarding Chinas objection to the expansion of G-7, Sandhu said this is not the first time India has been invited to G7. This is not the first time India has been invited to G7. Indias presence, and especially in light of the COVID, our stature has grown..and this is a respect for India rather than any geopolitical terms. So, Indias presence, 1.3 billion peoples presence in not only this forum but also other institutional and international organizational forums, is something which is not only adequate, but a necessity. So this is a recognition of Indias heightened role and importance in the world. Sandhu, while speaking about cooperation between two countries regarding coronavirus pandemic, said: There has been a very close collaboration. Of course, there are a lot of other fields, especially in medicine and in research, there are three particular aspects of this which are important. One, in terms of medicines. As I mentioned to you that we have supplied whatever medicines the United States was depending upon India, but also, in addition, we are collaborating together. As you know, India is a bulk producer for medicines especially for public health, and a number of US companies are in collaboration with Indian companies for the production of these and one such case very recently is the famous Remdesivir on which four Indian companies have been signed up to make the bulk production, he added. The Indian envoy, further explaining the cooperation regarding COVID-19 vaccines, said: Second part (cooperation) is regarding the vaccines, on that ICMR and its institutions and NIH and CDC are collaborating on three vaccines, and there is development on that. Lastly, the third part is private to private companies, that also in the medicine area, there is close collaboration. The Ambassador further pointed out that President Trump has often publicly mentioned about his special relationship with PM Modi and his special affection for India. It was a very warm conversation. As you have seen in the public statements and in fact, President Trump has often publicly mentioned about his special relationship with our Prime Minister and his special affection for India, and he often mentions about the last visit in February which he had gone to India and the warm welcome he received. Not only as I mentioned to you that G7 was discussed, but also other international aspects and both are synergy on tackling the crisis that is the COVID-19, the collaboration, as well as our experiences, he said. During the telephonic conversation on June 2, Modi and Trump had 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 specifics, people who are connected with WHO and these institutions can give a better sense, but as I have mentioned that the international organizations, India has been in the forefront, seeking reorganization, plus, making it more attuned to the existing realities, said Sandhu. So, 1.3 billion people, and many such countries, the viewpoints which India represents need to be accommodated, and I think this review now there, is much more sentiment for it. It is recognition of the position, which we have taken for many years, he added. Also Read: Two Pakistan High Commission employees caught for espionage, declared persona-non grata For all the latest World News, download NewsX App Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) A member of the House of Representatives said his proposed electronic commerce (e-commerce) bill would aid in the protection of consumer and sellers who conduct business online. Rep. Wes Gatchalian of the 1st District of Valenzuela City said despite the steady rise of e-commerce in the country, there was still no law to regulate it. "Ang ating e-commerce revenue nung 2015 ay mayroon pong $2 billion...nung 2019 ito'y tumaas ng higit $7 billion...makikita po natin na palaki nang palaki ang industriya nito," Gatchalian told the Laging Handa briefing on Tuesday. "At sa ating paglaki, nakikita natin na marami pa pong pagkakataong lalo pang lumaki ang transaksyon sa internet." [Translation: Local e-commerce revenue in 2015 reached $2 billion...in 2019 it rose to $7 billion...we can see this industry keeps growing. As it grows, we can see that there are still many opportunities to increase transactions on the internet.] With restrictions brought about by the pandemic, Gatchalian said numerous online transactions take place, whether it be buying or selling. Under House Bill No. 6122, Gatchalian said an e-commerce bureau would be established and the Department of Trade and Industry would be the agency tasked to regulate online transactions. "Ang e-commerce bureau po...ang magiging...isa lang pong ahesiya na magha-handle po ng mga complaints ng mga iba't-ibang issue," he said. "Ito po ang mag-aayos ng mga lahat ng possible ng mga issues na dumarating mula sa mga consumers natin." [Translation: The e-commerce bureau would be the agency to handle complaints and other issues. This would fix all possible issues coming from consumers.] Gatchalian noted that there have been hundreds of reports of fake transactions made during the course of the quarantine period. The proposed bill could put a stop to this, he said. In a previous speech, President Rodrigo Duterte cautioned the public from buying from online sellers, saying it could lead to fraudulent sales. But Gatchalian said it could be difficult to make people avoid buying or selling online, so it's important for the government to step in and offer protection. "Ang importante po ay pumasok ang gobyerno para protektahan ang mga mamimili at protektahan din ang merchants," he said. "Kaya po sa ating House Bill 6122...ito po ay ire-regulate natin by asking all online platforms na mag-register sa Department of Trade and Industry. Kapalit naman po niyan ay bibigyan natin ng ating tinatawag na DTI trust mark, kung saan itong trust mark, kung mayroon sila nito, ang ating mga consumer ay magkakaroon ng confidence or peace of mind na mag-transact sa ating website." [Translation: What's important is the government steps in to protect the buyers and the merchants. House Bill 6122 would regulate them by asking them to register with the Department of Trade and Industry. In exchange, they would be given a DTI trust mark, and this trust mark would give consumers confidence and peace of mind when transacting.] Gatchalian added that online selling websites are often based overseas and HB 6122 would require them to set up local offices to better facilitate customer concerns. Such a measure would help not only micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), but also those companies who act as third-party or online service providers, he said. "Ito pong mga service providers natin ay galing sa ibang bansa, kumikita sa Pilipinas, ngunit walang nagre-regulate sa kanila," he pointed out. However, he clarified not everyone would be required to register. "Ang atin lang pong tututukan dito ay ang mga nagta-transact ng negosyo, unang-una," he said. "Pangalawa po ang mga nagbebenta in commercial quantities. Hindi naman dito maapektuhan ang consumer-to-consumer natin." [Translation: We will focus on businesses, and those who sell in commercial quantities. Consumer-to-consumer transactions will not be affected.] Gatchalian said in cases of complaints, it would make both the seller and the online service provider liable for the products and services on their site. It is easy to get things done when everything is going your way politically speaking. That happened with Gov. Andrew Cuomo early on in the coronavirus pandemic and it is happening this week for Democratic state lawmakers as they pass a package of police reform bills in response to recent unrest. This change in the political environment has allowed state lawmakers to move bills that were once stuck in legislative limbo. The Legislature is expected to repeal Section 50-a (a contentious state law that blocks the public release of police disciplinary records) on Tuesday as well as pass new body camera requirements for state and local police, and codify the role of a special prosecutor in the attorney generals office. Additional reforms are expected to pass Wednesday. Sometimes things happen that in the normal course of politics and government, where it just opens peoples eyes, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters Monday. What some people believed was a tough issue (can) finally see the light of day. The legislative package comes in response to recent protests against systemic racism, but it also serves the purpose of demonstrating how state lawmakers are increasingly taking a bigger role in shaping the states response to what has become a three-pronged crisis caused by a deadly pandemic, systemic racism and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. State lawmakers went more than six weeks without reconvening after passing the state budget in early April. During that time, the governor largely called the shots in state politics while state lawmakers remained in their districts. That legislative lull began to break in mid-May, with hearings on how the pandemic affected small businesses and minority communities. While lawmakers passed a package of coronavirus-related bills at the end of May, there were limits on how it affected the states short-term response to the pandemic. Some codified executive orders in state law. Others arguably had more of a symbolic, rather than practical, purpose. The governor meanwhile remained in control of the top issue in the state reopening the economy. That would change on May 25. A confrontation between a white woman and a black birdwatcher in Central Park went viral, and the death of George Floyd, who was killed by police in Minneapolis, sparked the largest civil unrest in decades. With coronavirus cases still decreasing in New York, public attention began shifting to an issue more favorable to a state Legislature led by two black lawmakers. New polling shows high public support for the protesters, and the criminal justice reform movement has shifted attention away from the public health crisis. The governor is no longer the undisputed center of attention in state politics, and his response to the recent protests has been uneven. He sat on the sidelines and for some reason now tries to act like it is his agenda, state Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy recently tweeted. It is not hard to see why the Legislature would be reluctant to share the limelight with a governor who suggested their work was done for the year after the state budget passed. However much state lawmakers have flexed their power in recent weeks, the governor still has enormous control over what may be the most political contentious issue of the year: figuring out how to address the multibillion-dollar state budget deficit caused by the pandemic. Cuomo has warned that 20% cuts to public schools, health care and local governments could happen without more federal aid. Heastie and other liberal lawmakers have long advocated for higher taxes on the wealthy, and there has been a recent surge in efforts to divert funding away from law enforcement. I would say at this point, Im not throwing anything off the table, Heastie told reporters Monday. This puts state lawmakers in the tricky position of advocating for tax increases during an election year, but that may be the next test for a state Legislature looking to prove that it is reasserting its power as a coequal branch of government. A year ago, Heastie and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins outmaneuvered the governor on rent reform and drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants. Whether it happens again will depend on how things shape up in the coming weeks. But legislative leaders say theyre going to continue passing bills in the coming weeks and that means they are going to be more involved than ever in dealing with the ongoing challenges facing the state. DETROIT, MI -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is waiving COVID-19 treatment costs for its members through Dec. 31. The initiative first started in March, with members not having to pay Blue Cross Blue Shield copays, deductibles and coinsurances for treatments related to the infectious respiratory illness. Thanks to the valiant efforts of our front-line health workers, our health systems and our governmental leaders, Michigan has flattened the coronavirus curve. Still, the virus remains in our communities and many people continue to suffer, Daniel J. Loepp, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, said in a statement. Blue Cross wants our members in Michigan and across the nation to rest assured that, should they contract the COVID-19 disease, they wont have to worry about the financial cost of fighting it. Nearly all of Michigans health insurance companies have agreed not to charge customers for any COVID-19 treatments. Related: Most Michigan health insurance companies wont charge for coronavirus treatment Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan officials estimate they will spend between $23 million to $43 million on extending coverage of these costs. Altogether, officials estimate the company will spend nearly $150 million on additional benefits throughout the pandemic. New COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to fall statewide, though experts are warning of a second wave of infections later this year as people begin to reenter social and professional circles. A week ago, the states seven-day average of new cases per day was 379, and new deaths per day at 39. On Monday, that seven-day average was 210 new cases a day and 22 new deaths a day. As of Monday, June 8, the state has 58,999 known cases and 5,673 deaths linked to COVID-19. In March, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered businesses deemed nonessential, such as casinos, gyms, theaters, bars and dine-in restaurants, to close to prevent the spread of coronavirus. She also ordered nonessential workers to work from home to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Last week, Whitmer announced she was loosening restrictions across the Lower Peninsula, allowing some nonessential businesses to open their doors again to customers. The cost share waivers apply to members in fully insured commercial preferred provider organization, or PPO, and health maintenance organization, or HMO, plans, as well as people in fully insured Medicare Advantage plans. The company plans to work with self-insured employer group customers to make decisions regarding their own benefits. 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. 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: Tuesday, June 9: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Takeout Tuesday: Great eats at restaurants across Michigan Michigan clerks prepare for the worst as coronavirus looms over 2020 elections Is a second wave of coronavirus inevitable? Michigan nears critical point to suppress another outbreak Israeli fighter jets, refueling planes hold massive drills aimed at Tehran France announces gradual lifting of coronavirus restrictions Fountains in Athens' central square illuminated with Armenian tricolor Austria approves Europe's first mandatory COVID-19 vaccination mandate World War II aircraft crashed in India found after 77 years Armenian Parliament Deputy Speaker meets EU delegation Deputy Speaker of Armenian parliament meets Russian Ambassador to Armenia Germany won't pay compensation if Nord Stream 2 doesn't comply with German, EU laws NEWS.am digest: EU special rep. is in Armenia, Roma's Mkhitaryan turns 33 today Child injured in Artsakh car accident taken to Yerevan by Russian peacekeepers' helicopter Taiwanese woman faces death penalty for setting island's deadliest fire Turkey passes law to exempt converted lira deposits from corporate tax Blinken says he discussed Iran nuclear deal with Lavrov Erdogan says Turkey has peaceful relations with Russia like never before New German government wants to attract 400,000 skilled workers from abroad every year Israeli Attorney General orders to investigate police allegations of spyware Blinken: Any Russian invasion of Ukraine will be met with swift response Candidate: Ombudsmans institution is one of few established institutions in Armenia Lavrov summarizes the results of talks with Blinken UN agrees on definition of Holocaust denial Lavrov and Blinken talks kick off in Geneva Australian FM says issue of sending direct military aid to Ukraine is not considered Armenia PM receives EU delegation, need for full operation of Karabakh peace process is stressed Armenia National Assembly debating on new ombudspersons candidacy Katherine Tai: The world can't go back to the 2019 trading system Dollar gains value in Armenia Armenia legislature told hold secret ballot to elect TV and radio commission new members NATO intends to hold largest military exercises beyond Arctic Circle in early March 7 new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh 'Zangezur corridor' will unite Turkic world, says Azerbaijan presidential office official Armenia FM highlights need for full resumption of Karabakh peace talks Armenia ex-defense minister: In our time it was shame to immediately turn to CSTO in case of Azerbaijan provocations UN General Assembly head calls for peace during Beijing Olympics Armenia Tourism Committee has new chairperson Russian MFA: Priority today is to start Azerbaijan-Armenia border delimitation, demarcation process Parliament passes, in first reading, bill restricting gambling advertising in Armenia UK considering sending hundreds of additional troops to Ukraine's neighbors Warships of Russia, Iran and China work out counteraction to maritime piracy Armenia first deputy minister of justice dismissed Israeli defense minister tests positive for COVID-19 Karabakh conflict resumption likelihood is moderate, its impact on US interests is low, report says Antonio Guterres thinks Russia will not invade Ukraine Azerbaijan ambassador to Russia hastens to sweeten the sediment of statement by US embassy in Baku IS fighters attack army barracks in mountainous area north of Baghdad, killing 11 soldiers Thomas de Waal: Will Armenia and Turkey be able to normalize relations after 3rd attempt? Armenia Security Council secretary, visiting EU delegation discuss situation on border with Azerbaijan Foreign ministers of Israel and Turkey have talk for 1st time in 13 years Fly Arna shareholders appoint companys Board of Directors 628 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia CSTO chief: Necessary to work on Armenia-Azerbaijan border delimitation, demarcation FBI search congressman's home in connection with Azerbaijan probe 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 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 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 WHO advises countries to lift or ease international travel restrictions 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 Instagram introduces paid subscription feature NEWS.am daily digest: 20.01.22 Europe considers new strategy to combat COVID-19 Norwegian prosecutors refuse release Anders Breivik, 2011 mass murderer 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 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 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 Cavusoglu: Steps to increase mutual trust will be discussed at next meeting with Armenia 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 Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury have been pictured for the first time since the death of their pet puppy Mr Chai - just six days after the Pomeranian came into their care. The Love Island co-stars, both 21, looked sombre as they unloaded a 2,000 Louis Vuitton dog carrier from their car outside their Manchester home on Tuesday. The appearance comes after Molly-Mae quit social media last week amid a furious backlash after Tommy imported the pooch from Russia as a 21st birthday gift for his girlfriend of a year. First sighting: Molly-Mae Hague and her boyfriend Tommy Fury were pictured for the first time since the death of their dog, Mr Chai, in Manchester on Tuesday The TV star went make-up free and opted for a dressed-down appearance as she stepped out with her partner. Boxer Tommy wrapped up in a padded jacket and held onto his phone while the Hertfordshire native removed items from the trunk of the vehicle. It's been a tough time for the pair, who enjoyed a lavish lockdown party just weeks earlier. YouTube star Molly has taken a temporary break from her social media channels after facing a barrage of criticism surrounding her late dog's death. Memories: The Love Island stars, both 21, appeared sombre as they unloaded the 2,000 Louis Vuitton dog carrier they used for the pooch from their car Sad: The influencer quit social media last week after suffering backlash for the passing of the Pomeranian puppy, who was gifted just days before he died (pictured last month) A source recently told The Sun: 'Molly-Mae is taking a break to have time to herself for a few days.' MailOnline have contacted a representative of Molly-Mae for comment at the time of publication. In the wake of the puppy's passing, both fans and celebrities spoke out about the importance of researching when buying a dog. Low-key: The TV star went make-up free and opted for a dressed-down appearance as she stepped out with her partner Taking a break: The YouTube star faced a barrage of criticism over her dog being imported from Russia Heading off: Boxer Tommy wrapped up in a padded jacket and held onto his phone while the Hertfordshire native removed items from the trunk of the vehicle Former Made In Chelsea star Ashley James, 33, wrote: 'Please please do your research before getting a pet. 'Do not import dogs from other countries unless they are rescues from charities. Please look into #lucyslaw and if you do go to a breeder then always make sure you see a fit and healthy mum!' Love Island's Olivia Buckland, meanwhile, shared a lengthy statement to her account, urging her followers not to support 'third-party breeders' or buy dogs from other countries. Low-key: The couple, who have been dating since the summer of 2019, have been spending time away from their work commitments amid the coronavirus lockdown Challenging: It's been a tough time for the pair, who enjoyed a lavish lockdown party just weeks earlier Stipulating that her discussion was 'in no way towards my lovely Molly' as she was 'devastated' for the reality star, Olivia explained that she was speaking out 'to make sure this doesn't happen again and to raise awareness.' On Wednesday, Molly-Mae discussed the tragic death of her dog and addressed the backlash from importing Mr Chai from another country. She stated: 'Whilst we completely understand everyone's opinions about being shipped over from Russia, what you need to understand is that is not what made him die. 'He didn't have a single white blood cell in his body': Last Wednesday, Molly-Mae addressed the backlash from importing Mr Chai from another country 'He was going to die regardless. The autopsy results showed his skull wasn't fully developed and part of his brain was exposed. He didn't have a single white blood cell in his body'. 'If we had the time again we would have got a dog from the UK or got a rescue dog from the UK.' Tommy bought the dog through Cheshire-based business Tiffany Chihuahuas & Pomeranians, which is licensed by Cheshire Council but not a Kennel Club assured breeder. Heartbroken: The reality star announced Mr Chai had died last Tuesday in a heartbreaking statement, six days after welcoming the pup into her home Shock: Molly-Mae's new puppy was not from a registered breeder, The Kennel Club confirmed Breeder Elena Katerova has denied breaking the rules, insisting that clients see the mother with their puppy via videos. She said: 'I'm truly devastated to learn about the death of Mr Chai. He was a beautiful young dog with a loving, playful temperament. I'd watched him grow up, having regular video calls with his birth family. 'My heart goes out to Molly-Mae and Tommy. Mr Chai was a healthy dog, I only work with trusted people and have a small network of reputable breeders who care for their dogs to the very highest standards and and see animals as part of their family.' Molly-Mae told her viewers: 'Neither of us wanted to film a video or talking about this but after everything we've seen today and reading everyone's opinions, I think it's really important that we actually do sit down and talk about it and explain how we are feeling and what we now know after receiving the autopsy results.' Surprised: Meanwhile, the dog breeder they brought the pup shared her devastation over the pup's death and insisted that he had been 'healthy' (pictured) After describing how Mr Chai was energetic in his first few days with them 'as a puppy should be', they soon noticed he started showing symptoms, with the sportsman explaining: 'His poo was runny, he was vomiting, he wasn't running.' They took him to the vet and Molly recalled that while waiting outside, she could 'tell something was wrong', adding Mr Chai was 'wriggling' and said dogs 'almost know when they are about to die'. Molly-Mae said 30 minutes later, the vet rang and informed them Mr Chai had had a seizure and died. 'We were both utterly shocked', she explained. 'Tommy literally just threw up everywhere'. Tough times: Mr Chai's death prompted several stars to speak up about the importance of researching when buying a dog (they set up an Instagram account for him last month) A representative of Molly-Mae and Tommy confirmed Mr Chai had died of 'a seizure and neurological issues.' A statement read: 'Chai died of a seizure and neurological issues. This probably relating to the puppies skull not being fully formed (see note on anterior fontanelle below). 'Chai passed away with a number of health issues outlined below and the puppy clearly was not at full health and potentially had been carrying an infection and fighting it for some time before reaching Molly and Tommy.' It then listed a number of ailments the dog suffered from, including: 'no white blood cells present in blood, anterior fontanelle not completely ossified, body condition 3/5, liver congested, spleen enlarged congested, adrenal glands enlarged, kidneys congested, colon congested, lungs congested and Heart right ventricle dilated.' 'You do not need a puppy from that far away!' Love Island's Olivia Buckland urged her followers not to support 'third-party breeders' or buy dogs from other countries Why this Seven Springs clip grabbed the attention of 1 million people The tweet has been seen by more than 1 million people so far. Many commenters asked if the clip was planned or fake. An 18-year old final year student of Eguafo Senior High school (SHS) in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo- Abrem (KEEA) Municipality of the Central Region is in the grips of the Police for kidnapping. The Police is also on a man hunt for two other accomplices who are currently on the run. The student, whose name was given as Daniel Wallace together with his accomplices, kidnapped two children aged five and six years respectively at Komenda on Thursday June 04 and demanded an amount of GHS 8,000 from their parents. Narrating the incident to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Paul Arkorful, Assembly Member for Kisi Electoral Area indicated that one of the kidnapped children was a nephew of Daniel. He said on Thursday June 04, he received a distress call from the Police about the kidnapping of two children at Komenda. According to him, the Police implored the community leaders to make announcements at their information centres and also help apprehend the perpetrators. Mr Arkorful said with the help of the Queen Mother of Kissi, Nana Efua Badu II, the Police CID and the community leaders, Daniel was arrested but he refused to mention the names or his two accomplices. On how Daniel was apprehended, he said a Police Woman posed as mother of one of the kidnapped children and bargained for the amount to be reduced on phone. According to him, she bargained with the kidnappers until the amount was reduced to GHC 500 and the kidnappers provided a mobile money number for the money to be paid into. He said the Police contacted MTN for that number to be blocked after the money had been paid and subsequently traced the owner of number to Kissi where Daniel was arrested on Sunday June 06. The Assembly member expressed worry about the increasing level of crimes in the community and called for police patrols in the Area. The Central Region Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Irene Oppong confirmed the arrest of the suspect, saying further investigations were on- going. 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 As the state slowly re-opens after the COVID-19-pandemic-related shutdown and people get back to work in closer proximity to others, psychological effects of the past several weeks may make themselves known. Isolation, fear of testing positive for the coronavirus, loss of work, essential workers risk of being exposed all could cause trauma, short- or long-term, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It usually relates to some sort of traumatic experience, Diane Knaebe, president of Memorial Behavioral Health, said of PTSD. It could be from a house fire, when theres a death, or when you yourself have been in a horrific accident. For example, first responders in New York or healthcare workers here, on the front lines. PTSD is known for affecting military personnel and veterans, but the disorder isnt limited to those who have seen combat, Knaebe said. Signs of PTSD include anxiety, depression and having a hard time adjusting to a work environment or another public space, such as a doctors office. It can be normal for one to two months for people to be traumatized trauma doesnt necessarily mean were all going to have PTSD, Knaebe said. But, six to 12 months down the road even when things are back to normal could be a concern. PTSD is not considered a mental illness, though anxiety and depression are. However, PTSD can cause those illnesses to rise they can be similar, Knaebe said. Trauma and PTSD can hit each person differently. Its the triggering of the reaction, she said. Sexual abuse, violent crimes and experiencing natural disasters are other examples of PTSD-triggering experiences. For example, when someone hears a siren, she said. Post-COVID-19, people could develop a fear of being trapped or isolated again, but the timeline for each person could be different, Knaebe said. Derek Bennett, 49, of Jacksonville has been diagnosed with PTSD; he had been living with it for years without realizing what it was. It took his diagnosis to make him feel like he wasnt just going crazy. PTSD casts a wide net, Bennett said. Its so different for each individual. Bennett was living in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1996 when someone shot at him 16 times. The bullets missed, the memories not so much. I see his face at night, every night, Bennett said of the would-be shooter. I truly believe that, if I had been hit, PTSD wouldnt have been this bad for me. Until he was diagnosed, Bennett didnt know what he could do to help himself work through the panic attacks, claustrophobia, depression and self-isolation. I still get them now, he said. Since I was diagnosed, I feel like theres a light at the end of the hallway when I do experience them, I have to get to an open space. Bennett worries that, as people begin to come out of isolation and try to get back to their pre-pandemic normal way of life, they wont recognize that it could be a struggle. You dont have to be shot at have this, he said. PTSD has a low bar to get into this club. Bennett is able to tailor his therapy and finds martial arts, particularly Brazilian jiu-jitsu, works for him, he said. Education also helps him, he said, noting he also has access to medications. I use medications as needed, but its not my go-to, he said. When dealing with trauma or PTSD, listening to lively, happy music; being outside and walking in nature are great ways to deal with symptoms such as anxiety or depression, Knaebe said. Literally, shake it up a little, she said. Nature, especially if you can walk in the woods or sit somewhere next to a brook and listen to the water movement of any kind is helpful. . Help is available for those dealing with mental health issues. The Warm Line can be reached at 866-359-7953; a Crisis Text Line is available by texting home to 741741; Memorial Health System offers its Emotional Support Line at 217-588-5509; and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline operates 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255. A Lockheed C-130 Hercules preparing for take off in Kabul Afghanistan, August 2012. (Alexander Klein/AFP/GettyImages) US Air Force C-130 Crash Lands in Iraq: Officials A U.S. Air Force C-130 crashed off the runway at Iraqs Camp Taji Airbase on Monday, causing injuries to four service members. Operation Inherent Resolve Spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins told Fox New that the aircraft overshot the runway and crashed. On June 8, approximately 10:10 p.m. (Iraq time), a U.S. Air Force C-130 landing at Camp Taji Airbase, Iraq overshot the runway and crashed into a wall resulting in structural damage to the plane and a small fire, Caggins said. The airfield fire and rescue team were on the scene within 4 minutes, extinguished the fire, and assisted an evacuation of the plane, he added. Four Service Members on the plane sustained non-life-threatening injuries and are being treated at Camp Tajis medical facility. He said enemy activity is not suspected in the crash, according to Task & Purpose. The quick actions of the airfield crash, fire and rescue team helped patients, and limited damage to equipment and infrastructure, Caggins said. The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft was designed as a troop and cargo transport aircraft. Taji base, located near Baghdad, hosts American troops to advise and train Iraqi soldiers in the fight against the ISIS terrorist group. Iraqi security forces near Camp Taji, Baghdad, in a file photo. (Reuters/Ahmed Saad) The base has previously been targeted in missile attacks. Two Americans and a British national were killed in March during one such incident. Taji was also one of several facilities that were targeted by the Iranian regime following the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad. Meanwhile, Iraq is continuing to reel from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak. On Sunday, the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment announced 1,268 new virus cases and 28 deaths, according to Kurdish news outlet K24. The Syrian Prime Minister has said that the country may look to take a loan from an ally, to sure up the Syrian pound and stop its free fall reports Alsouria Net. On Monday, the Syrian Prime Minister suggested that the country may soon borrow from what he described as friendly countries, to face the unprecedented deterioration of the Syrian pound. Imad Khamis told the Peoples Council that stabilizing the falling exchange rate, from 2017 to now, required 20 billion dollars. The Syrian government is communicating with friendly countries, Khamis added. We are working with them on a number of topics, including obtaining loans, and this is based on relations with those countries. Khamis did not specify the amount of the loans and the countries that would be borrowed from. However, the speech was a reference to Iran, which has supported the regime militarily and economically in recent years, providing Assad with three lines of credit amounting to 5.6 billion dollars. The regime pays back its debts by signing investment contracts with Iranian companies in a number of sectorsmost recently, the Oil Ministry signed a contract to explore, develop and produce petroleum in Block 12, in the al-Bukamel area of rural Deir ez-Zor. Talk of potential loans comes as the Syrian pound suffers unprecedented deterioration. The exchange rate has reached 2,700 pounds to the US dollar, according to the website The Syria Pound Today, while prices continue to rise. What hurts us most as a government is the reflection of the depreciating currency on prices, Khamis said. This is the most dangerous impact of depreciation. According to sources inside Damascus, most businesses shut their doors yesterday as many goods were absent from markets amid a cautiousness from residents. The pounds freefall also comes amid anticipated impacts of the Caesar Act this month, which is expected to increase the economic chokehold on the regime while bringing living conditions for everyday people to a new low. 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. North Penn School District parents take board to task over mask-taping incident 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 The Japanese governments official development assistance (ODA) has funded the construction of 23 new bridges in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam that will help to spur transportation and trade in the region. Their construction has been finished since October last year. The Vietnamese Ministry of Transport, the bridges main developer, in collaboration with the Peoples Committee of Long An Province in the Mekong Delta held the opening ceremonies for six of the 23 bridges on Sunday. One of them is Tan An Bridge, located on National Highway 1, and the other five bridges are part of National Highway N1 going through Long An including Mo Heo, Kenh T62, Kenh T4, Kenh T2, and Kenh 61. All six of these bridges fall under the umbrella of the Ministry of Transports master plan to upgrade the countrys network of national highways. Tan An Bridge was put into operation on Sunday after eight months of construction at a cost of VND110 billion (US$4.72 million). The bridge runs parallel to the old Tan An Bridge across the Vam Co Tay River connecting Ho Chi Minh City with provinces in the Mekong Delta region. The new bridge is hoped to alleviate congestion on the route during peak travel seasons when millions return from Ho Chi Minh City back to their hometowns in the Mekong Delta for big holidays such as Tet, or Lunar New Year. The first vehicles travel on the new Tan An Bridge in Long An Province, Vietnam at the bridges opening ceremony on June 7, 2020. Photo: Son Lam / Tuoi Tre The other five new bridges total investment is VND55 billion ($2.34 million), built with the aim of supporting National Highway N1, which plays an important part in the development of Long Ans border regions. The bridges officially opened to traffic on Sunday were among 23 new bridges whose construction was funded by surplus capital from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)s ODA Loan Agreement signed with the Vietnamese transport ministry at the end of 2018. Their construction was launched in October 2019 and has been completed at roughly the same time after eight months. Speaking at the opening ceremony of Tan An Bridge, Deputy Minister of Transport Le Dinh Tho envisioned the new bridges contribution to the Mekong Delta regions transportation. The new Tan An Bridge would ease traffic jams, continue to improve the road infrastructure connecting Ho Chi Minh City with the Mekong provinces, and reach the remote communities bordering Cambodia, Tho said. The bridges are also expected to play a significant part in the economic and social development of Long An Province as well as the broader Mekong Delta region, he added. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! 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. Sparkle, a digital ecosystem providing financial, lifestyle and business support services to Nigerians across the globe, has officially launched. Uzoma Dozie, founder of Sparkle Can you tell us a bit about Sparkle? 79% of Nigerias population have mobile connectivity, with 39% having access to mobile broadband connections. When, how and why did you get started? I wanted to use technology to build the retail market in Nigeria, therefore opening up the market for more people who are currently excluded from the financial system. What is the purpose of Sparkle? Our mission and purpose is to help Nigerians fulfil their potential by democratizing access to valuable solutions for their business and personal needs. What are some of the obstacles you've had to overcome since starting out? What advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs? Its not just about the profits, but the impact you can make from the business you are building, that will make it stand the test of time. What has been your proudest achievement thus far? What does the future of entrepreneurship look like to you? For me, the innovators who are using technology to address country-wise challenges, and thereby scaling solutions, are the real future of entrepreneurship. What do you think is the importance of startup accelerator/incubator programmes? What would you like to see changed in the African startup landscape? Over the years, weve seen hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investment pour into our ecosystem, and whilst Im happy that were now at a stage where we can attract such high sums, I am also concerned at where the value lays; does the rest of the world own African tech, or does Africa own Africa tech? What do you believe are the traits an entrepreneur needs in order to succeed? Also when problems arise, you should be able to create solutions and move on from the problems as quickly as possible. Tell us about your biggest struggles as an entrepreneur, as well as some major highlights. Why would you encourage someone to become an entrepreneur? Where would you like to see Sparkle in the next 5 years? Sparkles mission is to help Nigerians fulfil their potential by democratising to valuable solutions for their business and personal needs. Starting with current accounts and savings accounts, Sparkle will co-create with its customers and collaborate with its partners to improve value-add services and increase its user base.Tech investor and financial inclusion advocate, Uzoma Dozie shines some light on Sparkle...Sparkle is a mobile-first, lifestyle and financial ecosystem providing seamless solutions to Nigerias retailers, SMEs and individuals. We leverage technology and data to lead a new generation of digital-only businesses and were licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.Our current partnerships with VISA, Microsoft and PwC Nigeria will provide industry-leading expertise in APIs, cloud computing, data science, machine learning, tax and financial advisory services for the benefit of Sparkles customers.We want to drive financial inclusion for Nigerians, by offering a seamless and transparent service that helps them move to manage their money, their business and other aspects of their lives - all via mobile.The idea for Sparkle started a number of years back when I saw the limitations that large scale banks had when it came to retail and SME banking and financial services. The ethos behind Sparkle began to gain momentum in 2019 after I left Diamond Bank, and we officially launched the app a few weeks ago.Im most passionate about two things - Technology and Financial inclusion.Throughout my career in banking and financial services, Ive been focused on utilising technology to affect change at scale, so being able to create an ecosystem that merges these two aspects is something that was always on the horizon.The Sparkle app, which is available on Android and iOS, offers up a comprehensive support platform for individuals, including flexible payments, savings and analytics to provide greater freedom, flexibility and control over finances and lifestyle once and for all.Sparkle is founded upon the values of trust, transparency, freedom, inclusivity, simplicity and personalisation.We are committed to solving the unique and complex, changing needs of the Nigerian market.The biggest obstacle for me was changing perceptions. A lot of Nigerians still dont trust technology or performing transactions that have to do with their money via a mobile application. So what we are trying to do at Sparkle, both online and offline, is to educate more people on the benefits of technology in general as well as the benefits of using our platform and build that trust.I believe that whatever you build as a business owner needs to be sustainable, therefore when you are considering starting a business, think of the long term goals and whether or not your business will exist in the next 10 years, as well as why it needs to exist not only now, but also for the coming decade.Most recently, it would say my proudest achievement is taking Sparkle from vision to product, building the platform, and finally seeing the mobile application come to life after all the hard work put in by the whole team.After successfully building the retail banking arm of Diamond bank and completing the Diamond Bank and Access Bank merger, I wanted to build on my 30+ years of banking and industry experience, combined with my passion for technology and financial inclusion, to build a digital-first business from the bottom up.The future is indeed very bright for Nigerias entrepreneurs. Nigerian entrepreneurs are some of the most innovative in the world; creating solutions in the toughest of business environments.The government is beginning to understand the importance of entrepreneurship in the country, especially in the acceleration of national development and youth employment. Businesses such as uLesson, Paystack and Kobo360, to name just a few, have created innovative solutions using technology, to support infrastructural developments in areas such as education, payments and logistics.Incubators are certainly one way for entrepreneurs in the idea stage or the very early stages of their business, who are in search of creative/collaborative spaces where they can receive long-term support, as well as network with and learn from other startups. It also presents an opportunity to secure benefits such as free office space, seed funding, mentorships and training programmes, amongst others.Accelerators provide early - later-stage startups with opportunities to build out their business or scale, alongside highly experienced mentors, within a few weeks to months. At the end of each programme, entrepreneurs will get access to investors during a pitch or demo day. I dont think its the only way to launch a business, but I do think that it is a useful route to starting for some.Id like to see more High-net-worth individuals investing in African technology startups.The main issue lies with education and patience; most High-net-worth individuals will address an ROI on investments in a couple of years or so, depending on what sector theyre focussed on. Africas startup scene requires patient capital because so far the sector hasnt recorded any significant exits or acquisitions, and therefore High-net-worth individuals doesnt really have anything to benchmark their ROI on. I think thats part of the problem.I think every entrepreneur needs to be solutions-driven; your business should be solving an existing problem.Every entrepreneur must also be adaptable. This is especially important during this crisis. Only businesses that have been able to adapt quickly are able to survive during this pandemic. They must have a vision and always think of the bigger picture in relation to the companys long-term goals.Ive been in the corporate world for my entire working life; so as I focussed more on the world of entrepreneurship, as full-time employment rather than side interest, there were certain approaches and business practices I had to learn and also unlearn. That was a struggle, to begin with, but I also enjoyed the change in direction and re-educating myself in certain areasBuilding a company that has or will have an impact is hugely fulfilling. But its tough and can be lonely - I dont think theres an entrepreneur out there who wouldnt admit that,Sparkle is connected seamlessly to other platforms to help people achieve what they want to do. Within five years, we want to scale this to bring millions more people into our community, building out the Sparkle tribe through just one app. I want to start with people on their business journeys and help people achieve their goals over the coming years and help them by making their lives simple, safe and secure. QR codes were invented in 1994 by a Japanese auto parts company called Denso Wave. The idea was to enable the tracking of car parts in the factory where cars are assembled. The creators could never have imagined that their visual data system would one day become a necessary ingredient in the future of augmented reality and pandemic control. That's right: Suddenly, we need QR codes. How COVID-19 is driving QR codes The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly created a strong need for any solution that could help us stop touching things. QR codes are being used to track people who have been or may have been infected with the coronavirus. In a collaboration with Alibaba's Ant Financial (formerly Alipay), the Chinese government is using color-coded QR codes to track and authenticate the public based on their COVID-19 status. Using the ubiquitous WeChat app on their smartphones, people assigned red QR codes are required by law to remain in quarantine, which lasts 14 days. Yellow code people must stay indoors for a week. And anyone with a green code can move around normally. The QR codes are machine-scanned before entry to public venues, public transportation and other places. The color coding is a quick way for humans to see if people have a green code and are therefore allowed to enter. Many of the contract-tracing apps coming online around the world are using QR codes. For example, the open source TrackCOVID app developed at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, enables users to create "checkpoints" -- points at which the virus may spread -- which other users join by scanning a QR code. The South Korean government is now requiring nightclubs and bars to log customer visits using QR codes. This is part of a wider contact-tracing program to keep the coronavirus at bay. QR codes are proving to be a ready and mature solution to the problem of physical contact created by the coronavirus. But even without the pandemic, QR codes were about to become indispensable anyway. [ Coronavirus Crisis: COVID-19 coverage on Insider Pro ] Apple's re-invention of the QR code iOS 14, expected in preview later this month and officially released in September, may contain some QR code surprises, according to a Medium post by former TechCrunch reporter Josh Constine. Apple is reportedly working on a new augmented reality app called Gobi. An apparent leak of iOS 14 files to Constine may have revealed a new system of Apple-created QR codes that will be used in an AR version of the Find My app and a future Gobi Starbucks app and other apps. The Find My app, which currently lets you find people and your other Apple products, will be extended to any object you tag with an expected tag product called AirTag. It's reasonable to assume that QR codes will be involved with AirTag -- for example, the physical tags themselves will probably have QR codes on them. And to find a tagged object -- say, your car keys -- you'll scan the room with your iPhone camera and sound and haptics will indicate when you're getting "warmer," and a virtual balloon may float in space over your keys behind the couch cushion. Unlike regular QR codes, which tend to have black boxes in three corners and pixelated squares in patterns that convey data, some (but not all) the Apple codes are radically different, involving a circle pattern made up of different colored, different length tear-drop shapes all facing outward, plus a pattern in the middle. Others are closer to regular QR codes, with rounded boxes and dots instead of squares, but otherwise more or less QR code-like. Apple is just one (albeit major) AR company that will use QR codes and other machine-readable labels to function as the missing link between the virtual world and the physical world in the coming age of augmented reality Smart glasses and QR codes: A marriage made in Silicon Valley Apple's introduction of QR-codes at this point is almost certainly timed to function as a dress rehearsal for the coming augmented reality glasses from Apple. QR codes will give AR glasses an enormous boost. They'll function as both the anchoring point and convey the data required to fetch 3D image data. With a simple, inexpensive QR code sticker, any object will be able to inform smart glasses where online to retrieve the AR data, so that 3D animated characters, instructions, supplemental data or anything else can hover in space in front of, above or next to the sticker as viewed through the glasses. While today QR codes are explicitly, intentionally and deliberately "scanned." But in the age of all-day smart glasses, the scanning will be automatic. Just looking at things that display a QR code will conjure up contextual information about that object. Glasses won't need "knowledge" about the physical world -- only the ability to read QR codes and fetch the information about the world from the internet/ QR codes are spreading for other reasons PayPal last month introduced a new QR code payment system for small businesses and consumers, who can engage in transactions using neither card machines nor cash. The system uses PayPal's app and is touted by the company as a way to use the app without making physical contact. Banks are getting into the act as well, scrambling to offer touchless QR-code based transaction solution. Also: Clover recently introduced a service called Scan to Pay, which enables restaurant customers to pay with either Apple Pay or QR codes without downloading an app or handing over a credit card. The Clover system generates a QR code, which is printed on the receipt. Many restaurants are replacing menus with QR codes, which bring up the menus on customers' phones. Now that cannabis sales in California are legal, the state government has to crack down on illegal sales of cannabis -- which is to say, un-taxed sales. Because such illicit sales are rampant, the California Bureau of Cannabis Control recently proposed emergency rules that requires licensed cannabis businesses to display a unique Quick Response Code in store windows, and also use that QR code for products being delivered. The codes are supposed to help both consumers and law enforcement identify legal sales. Smart displays are finding good uses for barcodes. In January, Amazons Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8 gained the ability to scan barcodes. By scanning the code of a food product, that product is added to your shopping list. Charities and nonprofits are also suffering from the realities of social distancing. No more face-to-face interaction with donors, no more in-person fundraising. Now, the Australian company Quest Payment Systems has come out with a product called Donation Point Go that enables contributions via QR code, which can be plus in public places or sent out on mailers or websites. Once donors scan it, they're sent to the website where they can process the donation transaction using Apple Pay, Google Pay, or by entering credit card information. GoPro action cams are experimenting with QR codes for quicker programming. WhatsApp is testing the ability to add contacts using QR codes. And these are just some of the brand-new uses for this not-so-new idea. Forget about the demise of QR codes. They're becoming handy, helpful and indispensable. You may also like Appoints Diego Angelo as Chief Business Officer and Head of Biotalys, Inc. to prepare for biofungicide launch GHENT, Belgium and RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., June 09, 2020, a transformative food and crop protection company, today announced the expansion of its executive team and establishment of its new U.S. headquarters for Biotalys, Inc., which will be located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Appointing Diego Angelo to the newly created role of Chief Business Officer (CBO) and Head of the U.S. subsidiary, Biotalys Inc., Biotalys is preparing for the commercial launch of its lead biofungicide BioFun-1 - the first from its breakthrough platform of biocontrol solutions for safe and sustainable crop protection and food waste reduction. Reporting to the CEO, Patrice Selles, and working with the executive team, Angelo will focus on putting a strong team in place while leading global business development, go-to-market activities, competitive intelligence and alliance management for the company's protein-based biocontrol solutions. In the United States, Angelo will manage operations for Biotalys Inc., as well as the corporate development strategy and execution. As part of its global expansion, Biotalys will continue recruiting efforts to strengthen its presence beyond North Carolina in multiple states with strong fruit and vegetable businesses. Earlier this year, Carlos Reyes joined Biotalys to lead the field development program of BioFun-1. Reyes is based in Sacramento, CA. While the company actively builds its U.S. team and Research Triangle Park office, it will continue to apply COVID-19-related physical distancing standards and remote work guidelines to ensure the safety of its growing U.S. team. "Our new U.S. headquarters puts us at the center of the ag and foodtech ecosystem. Research Triangle Park offers an incredible talent pool of experts in the ag and biotech communities, while serving as an ideal bridge between our European and North American teams as we bring our breakthrough biocontrol solutions to farmers around the globe," said Selles. "Angelo brings tremendous expertise, a significant international network and strong business track record. He will be charged with fully exploring potential growth opportunities for our technology platform around the globe." Following the recent closing of the Series C round , Biotalys is finalizing its next field trial program and preparing to submit the regulatory dossier for its lead biofungicide. Biotalys aims to deliver a broad lineup of products that safely and reliably address key crop pests and diseases across the ag and food value chain. Diego Angelo, CBO of Biotalys, added, "I am passionate about innovation and utilizing breakthrough technologies to address global food and environmental challenges, while helping growers improve crop yields and farming practices. Biotalys's disruptive technology and lead biofungicide, BioFun-1, are uniquely positioned to address unmet needs of the food value chain, from efficacy to residue control and shelf-life management. I look forward to working with the team on the launch of our multiple mode-of-action pipeline, starting with the 2022 launch of BioFun-1 in the United States." Prior to joining Biotalys, Angelo served as Chief Commercial Officer at Sound Agriculture, where he successfully engineered the launch of its first commercial product and secured multiple deals in the Crop Enhancement and Epigenetics spaces. Before that, he held multiple commercial leadership roles at BASF, Bayer and Monsanto, where he built a broad network in all major agricultural markets, including the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Europe, and developed expertise in the crop protection, and seeds and traits businesses. He led the growth of the Bayer Soybean Seeds and Traits business, making it a global franchise, and played a key role in its seamless integration into BASF. Notably, in the United States, he was instrumental in the launch of the LibertyLink technology, which is now a foundational technology for weed control. Angelo earned a BSc in Ag Management from U.A.D.E. and an MBA from CEMA University, both in Argentina. About Biotalys Biotalys is a rapidly growing and transformative food and crop protection company developing a new generation of protein-based biocontrol solutions, shaping the future of sustainable and safe food supply. Based on its groundbreaking technology platform, Biotalys has developed a broad pipeline of effective and safe products that address key crop pests and diseases across the whole value chain, from soil to plate. Combining the high-performance characteristics and consistency of chemicals with the clean safety profile of biologicals, Biotalys provides ideal crop protection agents for both pre- and post-harvest applications. Biotalys' lead biofungicide, BioFun-1, has demonstrated consistent, high efficacy against major pests, such as Botrytis cinerea and powdery mildew, in a global fruit and vegetables field trial. The Company is on track to submit the registration dossiers later in 2020 and expects to launch BioFun-1 in the U.S. in 2022, followed by global market introductions. Biotalys was founded in 2013 as a spin-off from the VIB. Deputy Minister for Information, Pius Enam Hadzide has said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has managed the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) better than the Mahama administration. Mr. Hadzide on Eyewitness News listed debts BOST had accrued under the previous government to justify his claim that the company performed poorly under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government. The NDC made the claim that BOST was efficiently managed by Mahama. You may want to take a moment to look at the record of BOST as of January 2017. A trade debt of 624 million dollars, the legacy debt of 273 million cedis, two-year operations without audited financial accounts, 10 million dollars of BOST finances were locked in the TOR debt through Sahara oil. The litany of failure is this what the NDC refers to as the efficient management of BOST? The Deputy Minister said the NPP government has settled the legacy debt and reduced the trade debt of BOST since it assumed office. From 2017 up till now, the 624 million dollars that I spoke to you has been paid down to 57 million dollars as at the end of January 2020. The legacy debt of 273 million cedis that I spoke to you about has been settled. If you compare the record of performance at BOST under the two administrations, I am scandalised that the NDC will claim that when they were in power, they managed BOST better. We came, we have investigated these matters, we have audited and reviewed the processes at BOST and BOST is performing better today than it was under the NDC, he argued. Responding to the NDCs promise of investigating and prosecuting persons involved in the woes of BOST, Mr. Hadzide said the opposition party had no moral right to do that, given that the illegal sale of contaminated fuel to some companies happened under its administration too. On citinewsroom.com you did some fantastic work and you exposed that it [sale of contaminated fuel] was the practice that preceded the coming into office of the then MD at BOST. You exposed that some 38 companies also benefitted from this contaminated product. It means the MD at the time was using these processes and procedure. We are the ones that came to review this. NDCs claims While launching its Corruption Tracker Series in Accra on Monday, June 8, 2020, the NDC accused President Akufo-Addo of creating an enabling environment for corruption to thrive in his government. National Communication Officer of the NDC, Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, at the launch, zoomed in on the BOST scandal which occurred in 2017. On the 18th of January 2017, five (5) million litres of fuel was contaminated at the premises of the state-owned Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) by the mixture of diesel and petrol, and sold to unlicensed companies namely, Movenpina and Zup Oil under dubious circumstances. At all times material to this transaction, Movenpina Energy and Zup oil had not been licensed by the NPA to trade in petroleum products in the downstream petroleum sector of Ghana. The sale of the contaminated fuel to these unlicensed companies therefore breached sections 11 and 32 of the NPA Act (ACT 691) of 2005, hence unlawful. Again, the transaction did not go through any tender process in breach of Sections 16(2) (c), 40(1), 35, 83 and 84 of the Public Procurement Act (Act 663) of 2003. Sammy Gyamfi insisted that, in spite of these, President Akufo-Addo mounted a robust defence for BOST and its previous Managing Director. This was after the BNI and NPA had attempted to cover up the scandal by railroading the work of the committee that had been set up by the then Minister for Energy, Boakye Agyarko to investigate the matter, Sammy Gyamfi said. President Akufo-Addo's handling of the BOSTGATE corruption scandal smacks of grand collusion and cover-up of epic proportions. The fact that till date, no one is standing prosecution for this pungent corruption scandal which has caused the nation huge financial losses, bears Akufo-Addo out as the biggest enabler and promoter of corruption, he added. ---citinewsroom Sure as the sun rises, businesses are making plans to get the hell out of post-riot Minneapolis. Here's the first known domino, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: A Minneapolis manufacturing company has decided to leave the city, with the company's owner saying he can't trust public officials who allowed his plant to burn during the recent riots. The move will cost the city about 50 jobs. "They don't care about my business," said Kris Wyrobek, president and owner of 7-Sigma Inc., which has operated since 1987 at 2843 26th Av. in south Minneapolis. "They didn't protect our people. We were all on our own." Wyrobek said the plant, which usually operates until 11 p.m., shut down about four hours early on the first night of the riots because he wanted to keep his workers out of harm's way. He said a production supervisor and a maintenance worker who live in the neighborhood became alarmed when fire broke out at the $30 million Midtown Corner affordable housing apartment complex that was under construction next door. "The fire engine was just sitting there," Wyrobek said, "but they wouldn't do anything." Two days after the riots began, Gov. Tim Walz described the city's response as an "abject failure." It's completely true. The city did nothing as his business burned, and he was supposed to eat the cost. Who'd want to stay in a place with that little regard for what he does and the people he employs? The far leftists on the city council consider business evil. And the man has fabulous prospects everywhere he looks because...Minneapolis ranks near the very rock bottom on its climate for doing business. The charts here are stunning. Even if he goes to far-left blue Illinois, he'll get an improved business climate. Minnesota ranks 46 on the Tax Foundation's business tax climate ranking. Illinois ranks #23. Texas is a popular choice, ranking #14. But his best prospect is a lot closer, in neighboring South Dakota, which ranks #2. Relocation costs and employee retention might just be pretty manageable. Why the heck should he bother with Minneapolis or Minnesota itself, whose sky-high taxes are there to pay for a bigger government? He can't even get a fire engine when his factory, which employs 50 people, is literally burning down. Here's the disgusting response from out-of-touch chicken-dancing Mayor Jacob Frey, emphasis mine: Frey said Monday that he was unaware of 7-Sigma's decision to move, and he declined to say whether the company's decision reflects the challenges facing city leaders as they try to convince business owners to rebuild in Minneapolis. Many business owners have criticized the city, saying their pleas for help went unanswered. Frey said the city was overwhelmed by the riots. He said every fire truck was operating during the protests. "This was a Guard-sized crisis and demanded a Guard-sized response," Frey said. "And once we had the full presence of the National Guard which by the way hasn't been deployed since World War II there was a significantly different result." Note: He called the guard in late after significant persuading. It's bad stuff, given that the losses throughout Minneapolis have been horrendous. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 500 businesses that it knows about have been damaged or destroyed by fire, property damage, or looting. Of this group, 67 were burned to the ground, and the figure keeps getting progressively higher with each successive news report. The charming Lake Street area, which is known for its international blend of businesses, its "Landmark of Diversity," was hit extremely hard. And those businesses are mostly tiny, making recovery very hard for most of them. They're about to start looking like Van Nuys, California, or South Central Los Angeles, still trying to recover from riots of more than two decades ago. Here are some of the 67 that were totally annihilated by fire, over the supposed spontaneous rage in the streets over a white cop killing a black suspect, provoking a supposed race riot: Addis Ababa (probably a restaurant), 7 Mile Fashion, Bismillah Grocery and Coffee, Bling Bling Beauty Supply, El Nuevo Rodeo (probably a restaurant), El Sabor Chuchi (same), Fatima African Hair Braiding, Gandhi Mahal Restaurant, Mirasol Express, Paraiso Lounge, Popeyes, Rongo's Auto Service, U2 Nails. Bole Ethiopian Restaurant. Do those places sound white-run? The riots were clearly about something else. I also noticed a lot of private staffing and employment agencies, hardly a looter's paradise, on the list of completely burned out places. Peoples Organics, on the other hand, merely sustained damage. The state has been bleeding businesses for years, according to the Minnesota Business Partnership. Twenty years ago, it had 21 Fortune 500 headquarters in Minneapolis. Today, it has 16. Here's the MBP's statement about just how bad it is: The Competitiveness Challenge Minnesota businesses and entrepreneurs are faced with some of the nations highest tax burdens. The states tax structure deters business expansion and relocation in Minnesota and discourages companies from locating high-skill, high paying jobs here. Our anti-competitive tax code contributed to Minnesota ranking 43rd out of the 50 states in the Tax Foundations State Business Tax Climate Index. As Minnesota competes with other states and countries for future investment and job growth, lawmakers should be mindful of how Minnesota's tax and business climate compares to our competitors. Now that 7-Sigma is pulling up stakes, I'm just waiting for a Minneapolis City Council member to say 'F*** you!' the same way California's far-left state legislator Lorena Gonzalez screamed at Elon Musk after he vowed to take his manufacturing operation for Tesla automobiles, out of state and over to Nevada or Texas. Frey is clueless and the Minneapolis city council is business hostile. The fact that they are trying to get rid of the police signals just how little they care about the well being of businesses, which require stable property rights and personal security. Businesses costs will inevitably rise if they get rid of the police, and it will come at th expense of jobs. Why shouldn't they all leave? What's on offer is soaring taxes, a hostile business climate and the expectation that things will never get better for them so long as the people in power remain in power. The clowns of the city council will get religion when enough businesses leave or fail to reopen. Teaching them a lesson is the best thing these businesses can do. Thomas Lifson adds: Having been born and grown up in Minneapolis, I retain fondness for the city, but considerable anger against those who have ruined it over the past few decades. Minnesota has long been a hotbed of entrepreneurship, but the state and its largest city have embraced high taxes, high regulation, and progressive craziness, driving many companies to expand elsewhere and even move their headquarters out of state (and even out of the country, as Medtronic, a leading high tech medical electronics firm, moved to Ireland).That was before rioting made business survival questionable. Brutal winters are a fact of life there. But residents have long believed that other factors -- primarily social factors like the friendliness of Minnesota nice and the culture of rigorous work and play made up for the incredibly long, cold winters. But if you layer psychotic leftism and state-of-nature lawlessness and racial resentment on top of the former Scandinavian-influenced culture, there is really no reason to hang on. Unless Minnesota goes through a restoration movement, it is in for a long and painful decline. Image credit: Theresa Thompson, via Flickr. In court Monday, prosecutors recounted details of the chase first revealed during the weekend hearing: that the pursuit was linked to a stolen 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee that was tied to a shooting in the Roseland neighborhood last Monday. The police pursuit was triggered two days later when officers spotted the Jeep in a McDonalds parking lot. Soon the Jeep was leading officers onto the northbound Dan Ryan Expressway at 87th Street and continuing on the Kennedy Expressway toward OHare International Airport, then going south on the Kennedy, prosecutors said. Nigerian authorities have started prosecuting stores and companies allegedly taking advantage of the coronavirus situation to stash critical hygienic products and charge exorbitant prices for them. In Abuja, the Nigerian capital where the number of COVID-19 infections has risen to nearly a thousand, four popular outlets purportedly complicit in price gauging of cleaning products such as hand sanitisers and face masks were charged on Tuesday. The superstores are Prince Ebeano Supermarket, H-medix Pharmacy and Stores, FAXX Stores, and Bakan Gizo Pharmacy. They were brought before Justice N. E Maha of the Federal High Court in the capital city by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), the agency mandated primarily to protect the rights of Nigerian consumers. The commission filed a six-count charge against the aforementioned outlets, accusing them of committing offenses breaching a myriad of the FCCPC laws. In one of the charges, the commission said the mega stores were engaged in making false, misleading, deceptive representation in relation to the price of sanitizers, hand-wash liquids, and disinfectants of various existing brands at your retail outlet and thereby committed an offense contrary to section 125 (1) (a) of the FCCPC Act, 2018. The FCCPC particularly accused H-medix, which has chains of outlets across Abuja of exploiting the national public health emergency of COVID-19 pandemic to engage in price gouging. The defendants were to be arraigned Tuesday morning but their lawyer, Abubakar Muhammed, pleaded for the process to be shifted to an adjourned date because a representative of the second defendant did not appear in court. After a short deliberation between Mr Mohammed, the defense counsel and Babatunde Irukera, the prosecuting counsel and the Chief Executive Officer of the FCCPC, it was resolved that the case be shifted to allow all defendants be present in court. The case was adjourned till June 25 for arraignment of the defendants by the Mrs Maha. Product scarcity, price spikes Cleaning products have been scarce and overpriced due to surging interests since the outbreak of the virus in late February in Nigeria. Many Nigerians have decried the situation, calling out some popular stores with exorbitant prices. The federal government had warned that suppliers and retailers using the excuse of coronavirus case in Nigeria to inflate protective apparel will be prosecuted. The FCCPC had issued a memo in March warning that the inordinate practice during national public health concern violates both moral codes and extant laws. But, despite the warning, prices kept increasing as many Nigerians resorted to locally made cleaning products. Checks by PREMIUM TIMES in megastores like Shoprite, Panda, Game, Next Cash and Carry, among others, showed bare shelves for protective apparels in March due to panic buying that erupted in the early days of the outbreak. The megastores would later be stocked with products, recent checks showed, but at higher prices. Price Gouging Briefing journalists shortly after the court was adjourned, Mr Irukera, the FCCPC boss said the main offence of the outlets being prosecuted is price gouging, meaning taking advantage of a situation to increase prices in a manner that is not consistent with ordinary business practices or acceptable parameters of profit and loss margins. Price gouging occurs when a seller increases the prices of goods, services or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. Usually, this event occurs after a demand or supply shock. Common examples include price increases of basic necessities after natural disasters. Also speaking, counsel to the defendants, Mr Mohammed, said he has been fully briefed on the details of the alleged offences of the outlets with respect to trading. The commission, of course, has the power to prosecute and we on our own part have made relevant applications and the court has agreed with us by way of giving us adjournment to prepare for the case, he said. Torontos not ready. Neither is the rest of the GTA, or the whole Golden Horseshoe, from Niagara to Oshawa and beyond. Big parts of Ontario are reopening. The biggest parts of the province, population-wise, arent. And really, thank goodness. I know were all eager to get things back to normal, said Premier Doug Ford. We need to learn how to coexist safely with this virus, said Toronto medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa. Thats what this is about. The good news is that after insisting on a one-size-fits-all approach for so long, the provincial government is using region-specific conditions, less than two weeks after the provinces regional medical officers of health basically staged a public health intervention. And on Monday Ford, specifically said MOHs and mayors needed to agree to reopen their regions, which would be a huge shift in philosophy, a welcome climbdown, and progress in a province where the pre-eminent public health voice might belong to a premier who bumbles public health advice on the regular. It was the only way to reopen safely when over 80 per cent of active cases were in the Greater Toronto Area. Now comes the next part, which is, who really knows what the rules are now? The underlying message is that behaviourally, we need to continue as we are, in terms of continuing to keep a distance from people who arent in your household, and there isnt strong messaging here in terms of wearing masks, although its in there, says epidemiologist Dr. Ashleigh Tuite, of the University of Toronto. I think the challenge is, how do you go from (the provinces reopening) document into something we can summarize in five key points so that people can understand and act in a way that protects themselves and protects others. You would hope, in the coming days, that comes out in terms of how to behave. Indeed. Stage two Ontario gets to enter the exciting, tentative, possibly confusing and perhaps exhilarating world of the past, and the future. Restaurant and bar patios, drive-in theatres, beauty salons, hairdressers and barber shops, shopping malls (but not sit-down food courts), concerts. Summer day camps, camping, community centres, libraries, museums, galleries, beaches, bus tours, walking tours, swimming pools, splash pads, wading pools. Outdoor team sport practices, and upcoming plans for child care. Remember what it was like to live in the world? The new world will be confusing, sure. You can have 10 people at a wedding, but churches can open at 30 per cent capacity, so why cant you get married in a church at 30 per cent capacity? Theres guidance coming on family bubbles, apparently, so how does it work that 10 people can gather, but families arent supposed to mix yet? Oh, and this all starts Friday for the lucky low-COVID regions, so thats when the 10-person parties start. Behaviours will change: weve seen it, says epidemiologist Dr. Nitin Mohan, who teaches public and global health at Western University, and who co-founded a public health consulting firm called ETIO. Make it a group of five and people will do 10, make it 10 and people will do 15. Its like driving a car: youre going to go a little above the limit. So how quick can we respond to any issues, regionally? Our testing capacity, our contact tracing. Its basic trust: if the public doesnt trust in the decision they wont follow the advice, says Toronto city councillor Joe Cressy, the chair of the Toronto Board of Health. Reopening means learning to live with COVID. There are going to be outbreaks, there are going to be cases, there are going to be deaths. Reopening means managing risk, and the question is, do we have the criteria and the means to respond when the outbreaks happen? That part isnt as clear. We have hospital space, thank goodness. De Villa said Monday that just 23 per cent of tests in Toronto are being turned around in 24 hours, with 60 per cent as the goal, so contact tracing is not being executed quickly. But at least she presented specific public health goals for Toronto, and is a voice we should listen to. Because right now, the rest is a mess. Ford says, (People) can travel. But when it comes to haircuts, Im hanging in here right until the last minute. And Dr. Tuite, says, My epidemiological take is, if youre in a region that hasnt reopened, you should stay in your region. But you want really clear messaging to make sure that happens, because otherwise, for the regional reopening to work, it has to be that way. So yeah, were going to get people travelling for haircuts, and more of them rolling to cottages, or hitting the Airbnbs that have been opened up by the government, for some blinkered reason. Anecdotally, people have just started doing whatever they think is right: going to the cottage, mixing with other families, whatever. Hamilton has seen more cases among young people, which is less worrisome than vulnerable populations, but more COVID isnt good for anybody. In B.C., Dr. Bonnie Henry has been an unblinking guiding light. In Ontario, we have uh well, good clear public health advice at a provincial level has been like trying to find a small item in your households most chaotic, crowded drawer. Again, the regional approach will help a lot of communities, says Mohan. What we have to do is we have to make sure the GTA understands, you have not yet gone to stage two. And if youre in the GTA, and youre symptomatic, please dont go to the regions that are reopening. Were placing a bet on ourselves now, and the whole province is watching the GTA now. So lets make sure we do our job, and by doing that, eventually were going to reopen, and reopen the right way. Ontario lurches forward again. And as we do, we have to rely on us. Read more about: LONDON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global respiratory monitoring devices market is expected to grow from $4.5 billion in 2019 to about $9 billion in 2020, as hospitals across the globe are increasing their installed base of these equipment due to their demand in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. The market is expected to stabilize and reach $6.2 billion at an annual rate of 8.6% through 2023. The market for respiratory monitoring devices is experiencing exponential growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fact that COVID-19 is essentially a respiratory ailment has boosted the use of respiratory monitoring devices, to monitor the physiological functions of lungs during COVID-19 treatment. https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/respiratory-monitoring-devices-market-global-report-2020-2030-covid-19-implications-and-growth Respiratory Monitoring Devices Market Driven By Chronic Respiratory Diseases Rising rate of chronic respiratory diseases is expected to further drive the respiratory monitoring devices market in the near future. The chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia and others, resulting from different bacterial and viral infections, will boost the demand for respiratory monitoring devices. For instance, in the USA, 25 million people are currently suffering from asthma while 14 million people suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Respiratory monitoring devices such as spirometers and pulse oximeters act as essential devices to monitor vital respiratory parameters. Stringent Regulations In The Respiratory Monitoring Devices Market Longer duration of time taken in the approval process of respiratory devices is restricting the growth of the respiratory monitoring devices market. Before a new respiratory device is introduced to the market, it takes 7.2 months for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process, which adds to the development costs to be borne by device manufacturers, thus acting as a restraint to the market growth. To reduce incidences associated with respiratory devices and ensure that the devices are safe and have least adverse reactions, regulatory authorities such as Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MRHA) in the UK regulates and monitors the devices by restricting devices for use and sending field safety notices to correct the devices. These stringent approval processes and regulatory policies may impact the respiratory monitoring devices market. Request A Free Sample Of The Respiratory Monitoring Devices Market Report: https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/sample.aspx?id=2845&type=smp Introduction Of Smart Respiratory Monitoring Devices In The Market Companies in the market are increasingly launching smart respiratory monitoring devices to diagnose and monitor number of respiratory diseases. These smart respiratory monitoring devices are Bluetooth-enabled which can be connected to smartphones to continuously monitor vital respiratory parameters. For instance, in 2018, Nuva Air, a Swedish digital health startup launched a smart device, Air Next, that monitors all the vital respiratory parameters in patients with asthma and other respiratory diseases. Here Is A List Of Similar Reports By The Business Research Company: Respiratory Devices And Equipment (Therapeutic And Diagnostic) Global Market Report 2020 Temperature Monitoring Devices Global Market Report 2020-30: Covid 19 Implications And Growth Interested to know more about The Business Research Company? The Business Research Company is a market intelligence firm that excels in company, market, and consumer research. Located globally it has specialist consultants in a wide range of industries including manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, chemicals, and technology. The World's Most Comprehensive Database The Business Research Company's flagship product, Global Market Model, is a market intelligence platform covering various macroeconomic indicators and metrics across 60 geographies and 27 industries. The Global Market Model covers multi-layered datasets which help its users assess supply-demand gaps. Contact Information: Nitin.G The Business Research Company Europe: +44-207-1930-708 Asia: +91-8897263534 Americas: +1-315-623-0293 Email: [email protected] Follow us on LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/company/the-business-research-company Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tbrc_Info SOURCE The Business Research Company MTV star Dee Nguyen has been fired reality show The Challenge after 'her offensive comments on the Black Lives Matter movement', the network has confirmed. The 27-year-old had said in a now deleted tweet: 'IDK why some of you think I'm anti-BLM. I've been saying that since the day I lost my virginity.' She had been criticized for posting pictures of herself despite pledging to participate in Blackout Tuesday. That reaction sparked an argument with her black castmates Bayleigh Dayton and her husband Swaggy C, who accused Nguyen of posting about the movement 'for clout'. Dayton said she was 'disgusted and disappointed'. In a Twitter statement Monday MTV said: 'As a result of Dee Nguyen's offensive comments on the Black Lives Matter movement, we have severed ties with her.' Nguyen had apologized Sunday, writing: 'I am sorry for the insensitive tweet I posted earlier. I was being defensive and not speaking from my heart. But there's no excuse. 'I also want to extend an apology to Bayleigh and Swaggy- who are my cast mates and deserve my respect and compassion.' But she had earlier suggested she was a victim of 'cancel culture'. MTV star Dee Nguyen has been fired reality show The Challenge after 'her offensive comments on the Black Lives Matter movement', the network has confirmed Her tweets sparked an argument with her black castmates Bayleigh Dayton and her husband Swaggy C, pictured, who accused Nguyen of posting about the movement 'for clout' In a Twitter statement Monday MTV said: 'As a result of Dee Nguyen's offensive comments on the Black Lives Matter movement, we have severed ties with her' Nguyen, who found fame on British show Geordie Shore and had been on the current season of The Challenge, said 'people die every f***ing day'. He comment came in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of a white police officer and after an Instagram user wrote to her: 'All you posted was a black square and went about your day and posting your lame a** thirst traps. 'People are dying.' Nguyen replied: 'People die every f***ing day. U don't know me or what I do. I suggest you wake the f*** up and get off social media.' She had been criticized for posting pictures of herself despite pledging to participate in Blackout Tuesday The 27-year-old had said in a now deleted tweet: 'IDK why some of you think I'm anti-BLM. I've been saying that since the day I lost my virginity' But castmates Bayleigh Dayton hit out, writing: 'THIS IS NOT HOW YOU SUPPORT BLM. I'm disgusted and disappointed. THIS IS NOT A TREND. THIS IS LIFE OR DEATH FOR US. 'Posting for clout about the death of black people? Shame on you @deenguyenMTV.' Dayton's husband Chris 'Swaggy C' WIlliams then accused Nguyen of trying to engineer a row over it to boost ratings. He said she had texted him saying: 'hey make sure you tell Bayleigh to keep me blocked & you still talk bad about me. Im thinking of storylines for season 36.' Nguyen had apologized Sunday, writing: 'I am sorry for the insensitive tweet I posted earlier. I was being defensive and not speaking from my heart. But there's no excuse' Nguyen, who found fame on British show Geordie Shore and had been on the current season of The Challenge, said 'people die every f***ing day' Dayton's husband Chris 'Swaggy C' WIlliams then accused Nguyen of trying to engineer a row over it to boost ratings. He said she had texted him saying: 'hey make sure you tell Bayleigh to keep me blocked & you still talk bad about me. Im thinking of storylines for season 36' And fellow contestant Tula 'Big T' Fazakerley added: 'She said she was 'blacker' than me because I didn't know the name of a musician and because she hadn't seen me fight and be aggressive. 'I felt like she was trying to make me fit her idea of a 'stereotype.'..after seeing her tweets it just infuriated me even more and felt like I should be honest about my experience.' The statement from MTV announcing her ax from the show continued: 'Out of respect for our Challengers, we'll air our season as planned. We strongly condemn systemic racism and stand with those raising their voices against injustice.' On Tuesday Nguyen tweeted: 'I would like to offer my sincerest apology to my colleagues to whom I have hurt directly and indirectly due to my insensitive remarks. Let me be clear I am a POC that cares about BLM. 'I believe in this movement and I'm stepping away from social media to focus on my wellbeing and mental health. This is not a goodbye, it's a I will see you again.' Click here to read the full article. MILAN In the wake of World Oceans Day on June 8, Dodo, the Italian jewelry brand bearing the name of an extinct mythical bird from the Mauritius islands, stepped up its support to yet another environmental cause. The brand controlled by Kering-owned Pomellato is adding Tenaka to its roster of partners, by helping the social business founded by 25-year-old Anne-Sophie Roux restore the coral reefs in Malaysia. Previous Dodos partnerships included the ones with Italys World Wildlife Fund, or WWF, and Treedom. During a press conference held on Zoom Tuesday, Pomellato chief executive officer Sabina Belli explained Dodo is financially supporting the activities of Tenaka, which draws its name from a Maori word describing the act of working together. The amount of the donation was not disclosed. In particular, the NGO is spearheading a project of restoration of marine habitats by creating synergies among businesses and brands, scientists and local communities in the areas where it operates. Dodo is also helping the organization raise awareness by offering its communication assets to the organization. Dodo has been so fascinated by the project because nature has been totally part of our DNA for 25 years, Belli contended. Dodo is very much concerned by nature and by the planet and by all the issues related to sustainability, because we owe life to nature, and we owe the most precious treasures to it. So, for years Dodo has been always up on the frontlines with these ideas of protecting or at least talking about the main issues related to sustainability and nature. Belli compared Dodos commitment to the protection of the environment to the fable of the hummingbird, which incited fellow animals in the forest to make their parts in fighting against wildfire. If each and every one of us comes with one tiny drop, were so many that we will finally make it, Belli said of the hummingbirds call to action. Story continues Roux, is [like] a hummingbird: It looks like what shes doing is extremely small but in fact its huge, with Tenaka shes helping us breathe better in the planet that were living in. A young climate change researcher and scientific diver, Roux graduated from Paris Sciences Po university with a degree in political sciences, before relocating to Malaysia determined to understand how coastal communities can adapt to the climate crises and really hoping I could confront myself on the fields, to really understand what local communities living on the frontlines of the planet crises experience on a day-to-day basis, she said, joining remotely from Tioman, an island located in the Asian country. I realized that the main solutions to the climate crises were to be found in the oceans, Roux explained, adding that around 70 percent of oxygen comes from the oceans and especially from coral reefs and their ecosystems. Belli recalled how surprised she was learning the role played by oceans in keeping the air fresh. I always thought the actual lungs of the planet were the forests and I always thought particularly the Amazon forest was participating to the maximum oxygenation of the planet, Belli said. Dodos commitment to the cause is helping create a 10,763-square-foot area of coral nurseries, allowing the restoration of two hectares worth of coral reefs and consequently helping protect endangered species such as hawksbill turtles, black tip shark, map pufferfish and giant clams. Tenakas operators harvest fragments of dead corals on the beaches and reinstall them in the sea, tying them to eco-friendly metallic frames in the shape of a dome. After a year, the reefs become independent, and in two to three years, they reconnect with neighboring reefs. By partnering with a network of local organizations, including scientists, dive centers, marine biologists and schools, Tenaka aims to raise awareness about coral reefs but also to work together in this very systemic way, and to learn also from the solutions that come from the [Tioman] island because the people here are renovating and rebuilding coral reefs since 10 to 15 years already, Roux explained. I definitely belong to a generation that is very much aware of the problems that the planet is facing but also very much aware of the fact that it is one of the last to be able to make a change, she said, highlighting also the importance to keep the intergenerational conversation going. In addition to financially backing Tenakas work, Dodo has launched a capsule collection consisting of a Granelli bracelet featuring the signature nuggets crafted from upcycled plastic waste collected from the Mediterranean Sea and colored in blue and deep turquoise. Celebrating the partnership with the NGO, Dodo added a silver medal punctuated by a red coral-shaped enamel. Brands to me have a huge role to play because they also have a big community and I think when you reach the consumers, it can really be game-changing, Roux stressed. Belli said the bracelets, which retail for 130 euros, sold out within three hours, showing the Dodo community is super involved and has really decided to react very positively by wearing the bracelet as a sign of support to the project. The executive said the jewelry piece will be replicated in other color versions paying homage to the corals. Asked by WWD about the potential of upcycled and non-noble materials in jewelry, Belli said for Dodo its absolutely very consistent to go out there and combine what is our main alloy such as gold with other materials, pointing to glass for example and other recycled materials. Again [this partnership] is a point of departure, she contended. The Pomellato ceo praised both the companys and Kerings sustainable macro strategies, as exemplified by the use of 100 percent fair-mined gold. Weve already taken a stance very clearly in the matter of gold, as well as with diamonds that are completely traceable and come from fair-mined mines, she said, adding Pomellato is now securing a partnership to source ethical lapis lazuli, too. The pandemic has very certainly accelerated the consciousness about a number of things that were up in the airbut sometimes were put on a secondary level because some other urgencies were more urgent somehow, Belli mused. Now for sure topics related to CSR, to ethical living and producing, to sustainability are by far the number-one priority. As the ceo of this company Im working to making sure that we perpetuate this positive legacy in the future, she concluded. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Fox News personality Tucker Carlson has come under fire for once again spreading racist, misleading information to his audience. In his latest act of doomsaying on Monday night, Mr Carlson claimed that the Black Lives Matter movement along with their Democratic party enablers were planning to eliminate the police and replace departments with a "woke militia." He then theorised the Democrats would use these militias to secure power across the country. Later in the segment, Mr Carlson said that the current protests and demand for substantive societal reform are not about "black lives" and that the left would "come for you" rather than use power to fix society. "This may be a lot of things, this moment we're living through, but it is definitely not about Black lives. And remember that when they come for you and at this rate, they will," Mr Carlson said. If Mr Carlson's frightening descriptions of an ideologically homogeneous force of armed individuals stalking around cities enforcing their will on the public sounds familiar, it's because what he described is essentially the modern police. In 2016, the Fraternal Order of Police the nation's largest police union endorsed President Donald Trump, and also in 2016, trade publication Police Magazine conducted an informal poll of nearly 60,000 readers, and found that 84 per cent of the 3,000 respondents planned to vote for Mr Trump that year. This exercise in projection was all but confirmed by Mr Carlson himself over the course of his segment. "Democrats hate the police because they don't control the police," he said. "Imagine if the Black Lives Matter rioters had weapons and immunity from prosecution. That's what they're talking about: partisan law enforcement." Of course, Mr Carlson failed to provide any substantive evidence for his assertions that a coalition of Democrats and the largely decentralised Black Lives Matter movement were working in tandem to establish an intersectional gestapo. In reality, opinions on police reform amongst non-conservatives range between calls for the total abolition of law enforcement to those who simply think more training and education mixed with expansive background checks is all that's necessary to fix the nation's policing issues. Between those poles, many activists and a growing number of politicians at all levels of power have rallied behind calls to "defund the police". Supporters of that option want police budgets slashed and the funds redistributed to public services that address the underlying issues that lead to criminal activity, like poverty, housing and educational opportunity. Rather than calling for the dissolution of the police, defunding the police leaves law enforcement intact, but forces governments to address issues of poverty, mental health and drug use without the catch-all option of arresting and locking people up. Of course, nuance and good faith discussion are in short supply among Fox News' rogues gallery of pundits and talking heads. Response to Mr Carlson's fear mongering came swift online, where celebrities, journalists and commentators fired broadsides at the longtime pundit. The fury of "the mob" has been a recent bugaboo for Mr Carlson on his shows. Earlier on in the protest, Mr Carlson told his viewers that the country's leaders had sided with "agents of chaos" and that the "game was rigged" to prevent Americans from voicing their dissent against the mob in this instance, people at the George Floyd protests. In another segment from 3 June, Mr Carlson weaved together a narrative suggesting the media and Democrats were using racial strife to retake power in the country and that the demands of groups like Black Lives Matter will never be satiated. Since the segment was made, a small but growing call for companies to pull their advertising from Mr Carlson's show has been spreading through social media. Birdie G's in Santa Monica wasn't set up for takeout in mid-March when its owner, Jeremy Fox, began serving his comfort food in to-go cartons. "We were just drowning," the chef says. "I didn't train for this in culinary school." One customer acted as if it were business as usual when he ordered matzo ball soup and publicly shamed Birdie G's for not giving him enough broth - on Yelp, with a one-star review and a photograph to prove his point. "I completely agreed it was not enough" broth, Fox says. What was the right amount for his restaurant bowls looked skimpy in takeout containers. In normal times, he says, "a plate coming back to the kitchen was like being stabbed." Staff would be "ashamed, and disappointed that we disappointed you." And now? "We're just trying to do our best while our lives are on the line, and we're losing money." Restaurateurs from around the country say they're largely heartened by the response from customers in the midst of a global pandemic. "The support from the city has blown us away," says Suzanne Humphries Evans, who co-owns Automatic Seafood & Oysters in Birmingham with her husband, chef Adam Evans. They spent their establishment's first anniversary, on April Fools' Day, in their empty dining room, serving takeout. But not everyone has been kind. Their thrill over being nominated by the James Beard Foundation for its national best new restaurant award has been tempered by grumbles from a few people who have thrown the news back in their faces, Humphries Evans says. Possibly unaware of uncertain food supplies, some customers want to know why the menu isn't larger. One groused that his takeout was "messy" and "overpriced" and demanded not just a refund but a gift certificate. The restaurant offered to provide dinner another night, but the patron, who threatened to air his grievances in public, refused. Automatic gave him his money back and offered an appetizer and dessert in the future. "We're doing everything we can," Humphries Evans says. "Sometimes, it's not pretty." And sometimes, such as when they are fighting for their futures as never before, it's simply not fair to restaurants. For as long as I've been writing about the industry, I've thought of myself as an advocate for diners. Consumers' time, money and attention have long been foremost when I tap out a rave, a rant or something in between. Since the coronavirus pandemic, I've had a change of heart. Rest assured, I'm not going soft, or abandoning my constituency. I'm just not writing about places that aren't good (or better), and I'm offering a highlight reel of dishes that travel best from Point A to Point B. Star ratings have no place in these surreal times, and I have no idea when I'll use them again. The middle of an earthquake is no time to issue a report card. Controversial as it has been in the restaurant world, Yelp declared in March it had zero-tolerance for anyone claiming to contract covid-19 from a business or complaining about a restaurant being closed during what would be its regular hours in ordinary circumstances. In a May blog post, the company reminded users to be understanding of the struggles of one of the hardest-hit industries. The company's message came after Prince Street Pizza in New York lambasted a customer for a 1-star review two months earlier. "Just know if your Yelping during a time like this there is special place in hell for you," the restaurant posted on Instagram. Some diners still want it to be all about them. Giant in Chicago has been dark since mid-March. Even so, the delivery service Caviar continued to promote the restaurant, which resulted in a customer encountering a locked door when she came for pickup one night. She let Giant know she was outside, and despite circumstances, chef Jason Vincent says she emailed to say, "hospitality still has to be a first." One of his partners apologized and said Giant was indeed closed, to which the customer responded that other people were also outside the restaurant: "I'm not the only one affected." Peeved at the time by her lack of understanding, Vincent says the story is "quaint" in light of the subsequent worldwide protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. "We're in a more important time now." "People are snapping. I understand. We are empathetic with that," the Chicago chef says. But, he says, "everyone is on edge." Restaurants that are still with us, operating on onion-skin-thin margins, can't afford to lose even a single sale now. The staff at JuneBaby in Seattle were taken aback when a customer returned his order because he thought it would have to be reheated at home. The meal was fully cooked. "He claimed not to have pots or pans or even a microwave oven," says chef-owner Edouardo Jordan. With more people than ever ordering carryout, chefs scrambling to figure out what works and without the assistance of servers, there is an added dash of uncertainty. "What people read and what they understand" from a restaurant's website don't always mesh, says chef Eric Ziebold of the upscale Kinship in Washington. Before the pandemic, one of his waiters might have pointed out to a diner ordering three portions of his popular roast chicken that each was a whole bird, enough for two or more people. But when a woman ordered it to go recently, she wasn't put off by the cost - each chicken costs $45 - but by the abundance. "What am I supposed to do with the leftovers?" she asked Kinship. The restaurant describes its current selections as the kind of food the owners might serve at home. The theme brought out the vinegar in one patron, who let the restaurant know he didn't think corned beef and cabbage was something a Michelin-rated establishment should ply. "Maybe he thinks I'm eating Dover sole with lobster beurre blanc at home," Ziebold says. As always, diner feedback has brought about restaurant changes large and small. Birdie G's now makes triple the amount of broth for its matzo ball soup, says Fox, whose exchange with the original complainant resulted in the Yelp review being deleted and the poster apologizing online: "We should be supporting each other right now, and I should have given you the benefit of the doubt, especially in these trying times." Kinship now offers more thorough reheating instructions and uses color coded dots to specify which containers of food are supposed to go together, a detail I wish more restaurants used. (Not complaining, just saying!) Automatic Seafood & Oysters couldn't have predicted the feedback it got from a customer who ordered peel-and-eat shrimp - and then was surprised when her shrimp came in their shells. No biggie. "She's been back several times," Humphries Evans says. And for that, the owner is grateful. Nearly all foreigners have recovered from novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Vietnam, with treatment costs ranging from VND20 million (US$860) to nearly VND700 million ($30,000), according to the Ministry of Health. As of Monday, 49 out of 50 foreigners catching COVID-19 in the country have recovered and been discharged from hospitals. Among them, a British woman, Vietnams patient No. 30, had the most expensive treatment, approximately VND698 million ($29,900), at Hue Central Hospital, located in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue. At the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, the cost of treatment for a foreign COVID-19 patient was about VND20-45 million ($860-1,930). In some specific cases, the medical bill was much higher. Patient No. 26, a British citizen, had to pay VND538 million ($23,120) for his treatment, which lasted from March 8 to April 14. Another foreigner, who stayed at the institution from March 11 to April 3, paid more than VND598 million ($25,700). The medical bill of most foreign patients was covered by their travel insurance, according to the health ministry. The remaining active foreign patient is a 43-year-old British pilot, who is being treated at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. His treatment cost from mid-March to May 22 at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in the southern metropolis was approximately VND3 billion ($128,860). The infirmary is now negotiating with the company which provides the Britons health insurance on his medical bill. The result of their negotiations is expected to be announced in two weeks. In accordance with local regulations, Vietnamese COVID-19 are treated free of charge as their medical bill would be paid by health insurance firms, or by the state budget if the patient does not have health insurance. Foreigners do not have to pay for their stay at local quarantine centers, but are required to pay for their COVID-19 treatment in the Southeast Asian country. Vietnams COVID-19 tally is at 332, with 316 having beaten the disease, according to Ministry of Health statistics. No virus-related death has been recorded. No locally-transmitted infections have been documented in the community for 54 days. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Colorado residents are dining out in the patio area at Los Chingones restaurant in Denver Source: TAG Restaurant Group Chef Troy Guard is hoping to bring back all of the 623 employees he had to furlough across his restaurant chain when Colorado Gov. Jared Polis ordered all bars, restaurants, theaters, gymnasiums and casinos to close on March 17. Colorado restaurants began reopening their doors two weeks ago under stringent new public health guidelines that limit the number of diners and require employees to wear protective gear to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The city of Denver is also working to help its local restaurants by temporarily allowing them to extend their outdoor spaces onto adjacent parking lots, streets and sidewalks. That doesn't make it easy to rehire employees for restaurateurs like Guard, who has reopened six of his restaurants. His company, the Denver-based TAG Restaurant Group, lost $7.5 million in revenue over the 10-week shutdown. TAG's 12 locations were making about $3 million in revenue a month before the pandemic. "We're excited to reopen but we're also very scared, cautious and nervous because things are just different. There is no new normal yet. There is no normal right now. It's an adjustment and it's going to take time to really see how everything shakes out," Guard said in an interview. As restaurants reopen and people spend less time at home, "we have a very important month ahead. We have to make sure that we don't overshoot," said Dr. Jonathan Samet, dean and professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health. There is roughly a 13-day lag from the point of infection with Covid-19 to being hospitalized, which is the main indicator that the state health officials are tracking, he said. "If restaurants open tomorrow, we will be not seeing what's happened for about two weeks," Samet said. "If we overshoot, then we have to restore some measures and it's going to take again awhile for those measures to have their impact." Restaurant owners like Guard are equally concerned. "The biggest thing is that we want to make sure that when we reopen, we don't have to close again because if we close again, it's kind of a death sentence," he said. Two weeks after letting everyone go, Guard brought back two employees on a part-time basis, his controller and human resources manager. The company has now rehired about 80 people to staff four locations open for takeout and two that just reopened for dine-in service. "We'd like to rehire all of our employees if given the capacity," he said. "But given the 50% capacity mandate, we are not able to bring everyone back until we are allowed to operate at 100% capacity again." Phased reopening As all 50 states begin to partially reopen after a two-month shutdown, restaurants and retailers are preparing to operate their businesses beyond pick-up and delivery services under stringent new guidelines designed to limit the spread of Covid-19. Those restrictions will also severely hamper how much money they can make and whether they can ultimately stay in business. Restaurants in Colorado can now serve customers indoors at 50% capacity of the posted occupancy code limit or at a maximum of 50 people, whichever is less, under the new guidelines. Party sizes are limited to a maximum of eight people and tables must be spaced at least six feet apart. They are encouraged to provide as much outdoor space as possible to ensure maximum ventilation and minimize air conditioning. Customers and employees are both required to wear face coverings inside the restaurant to meet new guidelines from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. At Guard's restaurants, he's additionally requiring all staff to take their temperature and assess symptoms every day. There will also be one or two designated employees to regularly clean restrooms and sanitize kitchen surfaces. He's also expanding the patio space at two of his locations to accommodate more customers while adhering to social distancing rules. Financial Repercussions Many restaurateurs across the state have struggled to stay afloat while awaiting the new guidance. Although most businesses were allowed to stay open for takeout and delivery, many had to permanently close their doors. TAG Restaurant Group was no different. It owns seven culinary brands in 12 different locations, one in Houston and 11 in Denver, but it likely won't be able to keep all of them open for business. "We closed one already permanently and we're looking to possibly close a few more permanently and not reopen just because we think that this pandemic is going to last longer than we want it to," Guard said. "Doing takeout is not really our business model. Our business model is people come in and enjoy themselves and dine in." Guard said he's reopening his most profitable restaurants first, but even that is being measured differently these days, he said. Guard and Grace in Denver, a high-end steakhouse with the highest average check per person, used to be the company's most profitable restaurant. However, it wasn't among the first to reopen because of its location in downtown. "We started carry-out and dine-in at our restaurants that are heavily patronized by the neighborhoods, because people aren't returning to their downtown offices quite yet," Guard said. Location has been an essential factor when deciding which restaurants to reopen for takeout and delivery services. Los Chingones, a casual Mexican restaurant with an open patio, reopened two of its locations and they've been doing well in attracting customers, Guard said. The Los Chingones located by Denver Tech Center is the company's first to operate limited dine-in service. It also reopened FNG and TAG Buger Bar, which are neighborhood restaurants that serve comfort food and craft beer. "It's important that we are following the demand and the patterns of our guests, so that has been a key factor in what we chose to open," Guard said. Store closures and furloughs Since March 17, which is when Polis ordered all businesses to shut down, most of Guard's restaurants have stayed closed. He recently reopened one store in Houston for dine-in service and four in Denver two weeks ago for takeout and delivery. Even though offering pickup service has attracted customers, Guard said it has been a challenge to adjust. ChoLon Restaurant Concepts, another restaurant group in Denver, said it lost $1.2 to $1.5 million in revenue since mid-March. On a regular basis, it made $600,000 in revenue per month across four locations, according to Christopher Davis-Massey, the group's co-founder and chief operating officer. Like TAG, ChoLon furloughed approximately 170 employees and 20 to 25 store managers. It closed all 4 locations on March 17 and reopened two of its restaurants for takeout service early this month. Small restaurant owners are experiencing even worse losses. According to a recent survey from the Colorado Restaurant Association, more than 250 restaurant operators saw an average sales decline of 76% year-over-year during the lockdown. "Some are down upwards of 90% and they were the ones that stayed open for the first part of April," said Sonia Riggs, CEO of Colorado Restaurant Association. "There's only so long until you're going to see more and more restaurants closing permanently and going out of business," she said in an interview. Decline in weekly rate of cases As Colorado surpasses its one-month mark since the start of the safer at home order, both essential and non-essential businesses are operating with restrictions, and the weekly growth in cases has been slowing. Coronavirus cases jumped 25% from April 26 to May 2 when the state started easing restrictions, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Coronavirus cases rose by 19% over the next seven days, then 12% over the next week and 11% for the week ended May 23, according to the data. From May 24 to May 30, the state saw a 9% increase in the number of infections. The growth in cases dropped to 7% from May 31 to June 6, the lowest percentage increase since the state reported its first Covid-19 infection on March 6. As businesses begin to reopen and the weekly rate of new Covid-19 cases falls, more Colorado residents are leaving their homes and heading outdoors. However, restaurant owners remain concerned that they won't see a rush of customers coming through their doors anytime soon. "From the time that things start to reopen, I think it will take two full weeks to see what the repercussions of that is. I think we're going to see people wait and see what's going to happen and if we're going to get a resurgence," ChoLon's co-founder and executive chef, Lon Symensma said. Building consumer confidence Even though the state has allowed restaurants to serve people under tight restrictions, not all employees and customers are convinced that it's safe to do so. Guard said he's had several conversations with some staff members who are hesitant to return. "But overall, we are proud of the professionalism and enthusiasm our staff has shown around returning to work," he said. There's a need for businesses to send a consistent, clear message to help build consumer confidence, according to Dirk Draper, CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC. "We know that consumer confidence is an essential piece of businesses being able to reopen soon," he said. Along with TAG restaurant group, ChoLon is also looking to implement additional health guidelines to its restaurants to ensure the utmost safety of its patrons and staff workers. Co-founders, Symensma and Davis-Massey, said they're in the process of figuring out how to minimize the amount of physical contact between guests and servers. "Normally at our restaurants, your plate would be cleared frequently. We would make sure that we refill your water constantly and we clear empty glasses right away," Davis-Massey said. Wait staff will now bring all the drinks out at once. They'll also set the tray down and allow guests to grab their own drinks "so the server's not leaning over and breathing on the table." Colorado residents are dining out in the patio area at Los Chingones restaurant in Denver Source: TAG Restaurant Group 'Important month ahead' 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. By West Kentucky Star Staff, AP Jun. 08, 2020 | 02:59 PM | FRANKFORT Beshear has announced proposals in health care, education and law enforcement training that are aimed at addressing systemic racism. Protests over police treatment of African Americans have gone on for days across Kentucky and around the country. He says we are living through historic times. Beshear said he would work to find health care coverage for all African American's across the Commonwealth. He said that would likely be accomplished through a combination of Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance sign-ups. The governor also announced added training for law enforcement and educators on implicit bias. J. Michael Brown, secretary for the Governor's Executive Cabinet, announced that a council with the Department of Criminal Justice Training's is reviewing a curriculum in response to the calls for change across the country. Brown says the review is looking into how current and future police officers will be trained, with a plan to develop an eight hour online course. The new course will cover numerous issues, including implicit bias, use of force, deadly force, and firearm deployment. As mandated by state statutes, all of the training materials are governed by the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council to meet the Kentucky Peace Officer Professional Standards. They will review any updated curriculum that is proposed. The Department of Criminal Justice Training's is committed to providing law enforcement with the best practices, latest technology training, as well as information to protect the communities they serve. As of Sunday there were 70 new cases and one new death associated with the virus. As of Monday there were 120 new cases of the virus, bringing the total number of cases to 11,476. There are currently 486 Kentuckians hospitalized with the virus, with 76 of those in the ICU. There is one new death associated with the virus, while 3,359 Kentuckians have recovered. During Governor Andy Beshear's Monday update, Beshear announced a new effort to provide health care coverage to African-American's across the Commonwealth. Resources Available for Students Starting Summer Courses Last Updated on June 08, 2020 at 12:00 AM Originally published June 08, 2020 By Elizabeth Ashby UTEP Communications The University of Texas at El Paso welcomes students starting summer courses as they continue to adapt and grow as online learners. As students begin their summer classes, which are being presented via remote instruction a move necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic the University offers an array of resources to assist them. Student Support and Services Enroll in Second Summer Session Its not too late to start planning for UTEPs second summer session. Check out course offerings, register and see financial aid information at utep.edu/summer. UTEP Cares Federal CARES Act funding is still available to support student success. Apply for emergency grants and learn about financial resources available at utep.edu/utepcares/. Student Life Resources Check out the different ways you can get involved in the upcoming school year and connect with your fellow Miners at our Student Life page. UTEP Library Hours The University Library will be open during the summer sessions from June 8 to Aug. 4, 2020. Only the second floor (Collaborative Learning Center computer lab, Wi-Fi/study areas) is open, and only to UTEP faculty, students, staff. Summer schedule: Monday-Saturday: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sundays: Closed Saturday, July 4: Closed See more information here: https://www.utep.edu/newsfeed/campus/university-library-hours-rules-for-summer-sessions-2020.html Virtual Career Center The University Career Center launched the Virtual Career Center, which includes links to resume and cover letter virtual reviews, virtual interview tips, links to job postings, and video tutorials. Career Center advisers are also available to provide one-on-one feedback to students remotely. More info: https://www.utep.edu/student-affairs/careers/ University Bookstore Rental Returns and Deadline Extensions If students are having issues with their rental accounts and are not able to print out their return labels, they will not be charged late fees. The rental grace period has been extended so that rentals can be returned in-store when the Bookstore reopens. To begin, visit utepbookstore.com, click on the Textbooks icon at the top of the page. Click on "Learn More" under "Textbook Rental" and sign in to your account under "How Do I Return/Check-In My Rental." Print a free return shipping label to ship back to the store. On the Rentals page, click Return All Rentals by Mail to begin. For more information, please visit the University Bookstore: utepbookstore.com Additional links: Dean of Students Office Office of Student Financial Aid Academic Advising Military Student Success Center Center for Accommodations and Support Services Health, Wellness and Self-Care Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) Counseling and Psychological Services is offering virtual support groups for students, faculty and staff and the workshop series CAPS To Go, which are offered remotely and focus on topics relating to mental health and self-care. More information: https://www.utep.edu/student-affairs/counsel/ The Miners Talk Crisis Line can be reached at 915-747-5302. Student Health and Wellness Center All students needing services from a Student Health and Wellness Center health care provider must first call 915-747-5624 or 915-747-6358. A health care provider will discuss your needs and then schedule an appointment if necessary. Walk-in appointments are not available at this time. https://www.utep.edu/chs/shc/ Student Recreation Center Students can follow the Student Recreation Center Instagram account for regular video courses, including high intensity interval training (HIIT) and total body conditioning. Follow them here: https://www.instagram.com/utep_recsports/ Technical Support UTEPs Technology Support page offers links to three web pages that are available to help the UTEP community learn, teach and work from off-campus: learning remotely, teaching remotely, and working remotely. For students, theyve included links to Blackboard tutorials and access to various software and OneDrive downloads. Also, check out tips to optimize your internet home usage. Virtual Campus Life UTEP hosts an array of virtual activities to keep Miners connected to campus life, even if they are taking classes remotely. Check out virtual activities at UTEP's Events Calendar. Miners on Monitors Quaran-tivities UTEPs Student Engagement and Leadership Center is helping students finding ways to keep connected while social distancing, with new events, programs, and opportunities added on a weekly basis. Learn more: www.utep.edu/mom Roxy Jacenko wrapped up her 40th birthday weekend on Monday night with a lavish family dinner. The PR powerhouse and her family dined at the Fei Jai restaurant in Potts Point, Sydney, to celebrate the milestone. After a hearty meal, she was presented with an impressively detailed birthday cake shaped like a Barbie doll. The celebrations continue: Roxy Jacenko wrapped up her 40th birthday weekend on Monday night with a lavish family dinner in Potts Point, Sydney. Pictured with her husband, Oliver Curtis, and their children, Pixie and Hunter Roxy was joined by her husband, former investment banker Oliver Curtis, and their two children, daughter Pixie, eight, and son Hunter, six. They were also accompanied by two other women. The publicist looked effortlessly chic for the special occasion in a black T-shirt and matching loose pants by Heron Preston. Make a wish, mummy! The PR powerhouse and her family dined at the Fei Jai restaurant A piece of art! After a hearty meal, she was presented with an impressively detailed birthday cake shaped like a Barbie doll Low-key style: The publicist looked effortlessly chic for the special occasion in a black T-shirt and matching loose pants by Heron Preston She completed her outfit with strappy heels and a Louis Vuitton purse. Oliver, who works in the finance department of his wife's PR empire, also looked cool in a Givenchy sweater, white pants and beige shoes. He carried a bag of gifts for his wife-of-eight-years and what appeared to be a cake box with Roxy's name embossed in glitter. Along for the ride: Roxy and her family were accompanied by two other women (right) Birthday girl: The Sweaty Betty PR founder couldn't wipe the smile off her face Roxy had thrown an elegant soiree at her $6.5million mansion in Vaucluse the night before, which was attended by friends and colleagues. On Friday, Oliver and Roxy's staff had surprised her with an early birthday party at Sweaty Betty PR's Paddington headquarters. The bestselling author was treated to a spread of treats, including a watermelon birthday cake, antipasto and Champagne. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:52:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close By Farid Behbud, Chen Xin KABUL, June 9 (Xinhua) -- It would be helpful for Afghanistan to learn from China's experience of fighting COVID-19, especially when it is preparing to reopen its economy, a known Afghan expert said Tuesday. "Afghanistan could learn a lot from China during the pandemic and in the post-pandemic situation, particularly in taking anti-epidemic measures before reopening the economy and education," Abdul Ghafar Gardizi, a former professor at Marshal Fahim National Defense University, told Xinhua. "China was very successful in containing the coronavirus after the country took every effective measure, including tracing and curing the patients and tracing the contacts, as well as conducting massive COVID-19 tests," he noted. Gardizi added that he was impressed by the Chinese government's effective governance and the tough anti-epidemic measures that enabled China to contain the coronavirus in a timely and effective manner. On Sunday, the Chinese government issued a white paper to keep a record of the country's efforts in fighting the virus, to share its experience with the rest of the world and to clarify its ideas on the global battle. Gardizi is grateful that "China has taken its responsibility as a good neighbor of Afghanistan by providing assistance." As of Tuesday, Afghanistan has reported 21,459 confirmed COVID-19 cases, based on more than 48,000 tests for coronavirus conducted since the outbreak in February, with 384 deaths and 2,951 recoveries, according to official data. "I heard that China will make its COVID-19 vaccine a global public good after the vaccine is ready following research and clinical trials. It is good news for all," Gardizi said. Commenting on some Western nations' criticisms on China's handling of the pandemic, the scholar said China has been transparent through every stage of its battle. "The United States had blamed China, but the U.S. should know that the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic needs international cooperation rather than blaming other countries," he said. Enditem PHILIPSBURG:--- On June 10th and 11th, 2020 a delegation from the Parliament of Sint Maarten will participate virtually in the Interparliamentary Kingdom Consultations (IPKO) hosted by the Netherlands. Delegations from the Parliaments of Aruba, Curacao and the Netherlands will also be participating. The IPKO will kick off with a presentation from each country within the Kingdom concerning the state of affairs in said country. This will be followed by discussions between the four parliamentary delegations about a number of topics in a series of sections. Section 1: Decision making on liquidity support at the time of the Covid pandemic: How have the various Kingdom partners experienced the decision-making process?, Exchange of views on the role and responsibility of each Kingdom partner taking into account the Kingdom Charter, including the supervisory role of the various parliaments in relation to the supervisory role of the Cft/CAft. Section 2: Outlook short term: Restarting social and socio-economic life: possibilities, limitations and best practices. Section 3: Outlook medium/long term: A discussion about restructuring (diversification) of economies and labor markets. This may include the importance of jointly agreed policy recommendations and real cooperation: what common perspective do parliaments want to make and what contribution they wish to make to this, while respecting each other's free mandate as a member of parliament. The Interparliamentary consultations will conclude on Thursday, June 11, 2020. The Sint Maarten delegation partaking in the IPKO sessions will consist of the following members: Mr. Rolando Brison President of Parliament, Delegation leader; Mr. William V. Marlin, Chairman Committee of Kingdom Affairs and Interparliamentary Relations; Mrs. Grisha S. Heyliger-Marten, Vice Chairlady Committee of Kingdom Affairs and Interparliamentary Relations; Mr. Claudius A. Buncamper; Mrs. Sarah A. Wescot-Williams Ms. Melissa D. Gumbs The Interparliamentary Kingdom Consultations (IPKO) sessions can be viewed on the following link: https://www.tweedekamer.nl/vergaderingen/livedebat/tilanuskamer Charlevoix man denies wrongdoing despite signing illegitimate election document Charlevoix resident John Haggard is among a group of Republicans who signed an Electoral College certificate attempting to award the states 16 votes to Donald Trump following the 2020 election a document now under federal investigation. M embers of South Africas tourism sector have asked the government to allow international tourists to come back as early as September. The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) is advocating for an earlier phased reopening after the government said that the country may not reopen to international tourists until February 2021. Last week it was that South Africas Department of Tourism predicted domestic tourism wouldnt resume until December this year, while international tourism wouldnt get going until February 2021. Since this announcement, the TBCSA has been engaging with the government on the Tourism Recovery Strategy and will be presenting its new approach at the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee meeting today (June 9). South Africa is following a Risk-Adjusted Strategy based on levels of lockdown, not dates. These levels are defined according to relevant epidemiologic facts, Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO TBCSA, said in a statement. We are confident that we are in a position to reopen the inbound market in a safe and health-focussed manner at least in September. The TBCSA is putting an acute emphasis on beginning the phased reopening earlier in South Africa as the countrys high summer season runs from September to March (accounting for 60 per cent of its total annual tourism numbers). If international tourists arent allowed back until February next year, this could have a damaging effect on the sector. In South Africa, inbound tourism employs over 375,000 people and it's estimated that 40,000 jobs have already been lost due to the current pandemic. David Frost, CEO of Southern Africa Tourism Services Association, said in a briefing: We're not Government. We can't open this up on our own. Government is looking to us for direction and guidance. And, in all the touchpoints that we've had around protocols, we've had a receptive audience. We need to take this up to the next gear, which is what we are going to do. Tourism sectors across the world are rallying for governments to reopen borders as soon as possible. Several airlines in the UK are encouraging the government to drop its new quarantine measures for incoming passengers, which were introduced this week. And there have also been talks of the UK forming air bridges with European countries to travel freely without quarantine. Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said his father spent a years worth of salary on his son's first flight ticket to the US. Pichai narrated the story while addressing YouTube's Dear Class of 2020 virtual graduation ceremony. Pichai said it was also the first time he sat on an aeroplane when he left for Stanford for his studies. While revealing his humble background, Pichai also said he is where he is due to his passion for technology and open-mindedness. The virtual ceremony of Dear Class of 2020 was held on YouTube. Notable personalities like former US President Barack Obama, his wife and ex-first lady of the US Michelle Obama, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Malala Yousafzai, South Korean K-Pop group BTS attended the event. Acknowledging the fact that students may be grieving over the plans they had made, or the job offers they might have lost, Pichai urged students to not lose hope and impatience, as they could have a chance to change everything. Giving examples of students who graduated during the 1920 Spanish Flu, the Vietnam War and the batch of 2001, Pichai said the current batch will prevail. "There are probably things about technology that frustrate you and make you impatient. Dont lose that impatience. It will create the next technology revolution and enable you to build things my generation could never dream of. You may be just as frustrated by my generation's approach to climate change, or education. Be impatient. It will create the progress the world needs," he said. He credits passion for tech and an open mind, apart from luck, for where he is today. Believe me when I say I saw none of this coming when I first touched down in the state of California, Pichai said. Pichai joined Google in 2004 and is credited majorly for his contribution to Google Toolbar and Chrome. He also worked later on Android, and in 2015, was announced as the CEO of Google. An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Tuesday indicted four top leaders of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and close aides of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed in a terror financing case. The court indicted Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Yayha Aziz and Abdul Salam in one of the cases registered against them on terror financing charges. All the four accused, however, pleaded "not guilty" and chose to contest the trial. The court adjourned the proceedings till Wednesday, with direction to the prosecution to present witnesses against the suspects. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab police had registered 23 FIRs against 70-year-old Saeed and his accomplices on the charges of terror financing in different cities of the province. Saeed, a UN designated terrorist whom the US has placed a USD 10 million bounty on, was arrested on July 17, 2019 and is lodged at the high-security Kot Lakhpat jail here. Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans. The US named Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice. He was listed as a terrorist under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008. In February, Lahore's anti-terrorism court sentenced Saeed and his close aide Zafar Iqbal to five and a half years each and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 in each case. A total of 11 years sentence will run concurrently. The US welcomed the conviction of Saeed and described it as an "important step forward" for Pakistan in meeting its international commitments to combat terror financing and not to allow non-state actors to operate from its soil. The crackdown on Saeed's outfit last year followed a warning by the international terror financing watchdog to Pakistan to deliver on its commitments to curb terror financing and money laundering. Express News Service CHENNAI: Cremations in the gasifier crematorium at Kasimedu are running into delays with residents having to wait hours to cremate their kith and kin. As deaths related to Covid-19 are on the rise in the area and its surroundings, corporation officials are now scheduling burials and cremations, asking residents to come at the prescribed times. Tondiarpet has been one of the most-affected zones in the Chennai city corporations limits with 23 deaths while Royapuram has recorded the highest number of deaths at 45. However, officials at Royapuram said cremations in the zone were currently done only at Moolakothalam, resulting in many cremations of Royapuram residents being performed at Tondiarpet zones Kasimedu Hindu crematorium. N Lakshmikanth, a resident of Royapuram whose 75-year-old uncle passed away at Stanley hospital due to Covid-19, said he had to wait almost a day to cremate him. I was handed the body at 12.30pm on Sunday, an hour after he died but it was difficult to get his body cremated by evening at the Kasimedu crematorium. Already, seven bodies of Covid-19 victims were waiting for funeral proceedings, said Lakshmikanth. He further added that he was directed to Mullai Nagar cremation ground by corporation authorities. However, after reaching there, he found that five bodies were waiting to be cremated, leading to anxiety among the grieving family. Lakshmikanth said he was told by officials to take the body back to the mortuary and come back at 11:30am on Monday. His uncle was finally cremated by noon at the Kasimedu crematorium. Time slots given Corporation officials in Tondiarpet told Express that timings were being given to residents to keep residents from waiting. We can only perform up to eight cremations a day. So the rest will have to be done the next day, the official said. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- The coronavirus crisis has taught us that New York is about the worst place to be during a pandemic. Nobody wants to be cooped up in a tiny apartment in a city known for its bars, restaurants, shows, sporting events and museums. Its the primary reason why people are willing to pay astronomical prices for real estate. So its understandable that almost every day brings another story of someone fleeing the city for good. I moved to South Carolina in 2010, but I have many friends who only recently left New York for suburban areas after having lived in the city for decades. They found their standard of living immediately went up. Theyre living in a bigger space, their children have a yard to play in and there are bigger parks and trees all for much less than what they were paying in the city. The Council for Community and Economic Research lists New York as having the highest cost of living of any U.S. city by a lot. I havent really endured a lot of hardship under the pandemic lockdown. Politicians have always been fond of saying New York is special and that it will always draw those who want to be a part of its culture and the arts. The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, had many people predicting that there would be an exodus from the city. Some may have left, but the trend didnt last long. Fears subsided after a couple of years and people returned. But everyone has their breaking point. There were people who were willing to put up with the high taxes for all that the city had to offer, but could not endure the lockdown and the uncertainty of living in a dense urban environment going forward, especially when we have no vaccine to fight this pathogen. Of course, New York isnt the only big city with these issues. Its just that no city has more at stake. Bloomberg News reported that the city is seeking authority to borrow as much as $7 billion if necessary to make up for the revenue lost because of the pandemic. Mayor Bill de Blasio had already increased the citys budget by $20 billion since taking office, hiring more than 30,000 municipal employees. Its not hard to imagine a scenario where already high taxes will go up even further while what you get in return for those taxes diminishes. Story continues This comes as many companies say employees working remotely are just as productive, if not more. No industry is as important to New York as banking and finance. And yet Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman said in April that what is clear is that the firm will have much less real estate going forward. Weve proven we can operate with no footprint, he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. We could be seeing no less than the end of the decades-long trend of gentrification of cities and the start of a decades-long trend toward gentrification of the suburbs. People with higher incomes and education or those who tend to be able to afford to live in cities - are generally more mobile and have the means to move. Even sad sack Connecticut, which had suffered a big exodus of people due to high tax rates and fiscal mismanagement, is starting to see its real estate market get hot again. The Stamford Advocate reported last month that buyers were materializing in the past few weeks looking to escape New York City, paying asking prices on the spot for single-family homes. What also makes this time different is that many people living in New York and other high-cost cities were already penalized by the Tax Reform of 2017, which limited the deductions of state and local taxes. According to the Census Bureau, 4.7 million people moved to a different state from 2018 to 2019, with 2.4 million moving to a different region. About half of those had some level of higher education. Internal Revenue Service data shows that the state of New York has lost 1.4 million residents to the rest of the country since 2010, with an average income of about $90,000. The majority of them ended up in Florida. This migration will also have a profound effect on the electoral map and politics, with red states in the south likely becoming less red. South Carolina has a reputation as a reliable red state, but in 2018 Republican candidate Henry McMaster (and Nikki Haleys former lieutenant governor) won the election over his Democratic opponent by an uncomfortably slim 54%/46% margin. According to an Election Data Services analysis of Census data, projections of population migration point to a 10 congressional seat change by the end of 2020. Among those states seen gaining seats are Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Montana. Among those expected to lose seats are California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania. The Covid-19 lockdowns were necessary to flatten the curve and slow the rate of infections so that the hospitals didnt become overwhelmed. But the lockdowns havent been fun, and in cases where people have children at home, have been almost impossible. People will be willing to consider living in places down south that they had never before considered. If youre not the sort of person to get tweaked by the occasional Trump bumper sticker or religious-themed billboard, its actually pretty great. And it doesnt snow in the month of May. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Jared Dillian is the editor and publisher of The Daily Dirtnap, investment strategist at Mauldin Economics, and the author of "Street Freak" and "All the Evil of This World." He may have a stake in the areas he writes about. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Miguel Medina (Agence France-Presse) Bruzzano, Italy Tue, June 9, 2020 13:30 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd43c56 2 World SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus,Italy,pandemic,Muslim,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-death-toll,burial,graveyard,Funeral Free Italy's Muslim community, like others, suffered many deaths as the coronavirus pandemic hit the Mediterranean country hard. Compounding the pain for the religious minority has been the grim reality of a lack of space to bury their dead. Imams and Muslim community leaders are now calling for more Islamic cemeteries, or additional space in the country's existing graveyards, as the faithful increasingly want to be buried in Italy, their home. "We have experienced the pain [of the pandemic], but it has sometimes been deepened when some families could not find a place to bury their dead because there were no Muslim sections in the town cemeteries," Abdullah Tchina, imam of the Milan Sesto mosque, told AFP. More than 34,000 people have died from the virus in Italy, mostly in the industrial north, and for months global air travel has been at a near-standstill. As a result, Muslims who died of COVID-19 or other causes could not be repatriated to their countries of origin, as was the practice previously. That led to a spike in requests for burials -- and the realization that Italy lacks the space. Italy's Muslims number around 2.6 million, or 4.3 percent of the population. Living mainly in the country's north, 56 percent hold foreign citizenship, many from countries in North Africa or South Asia. No official statistics are available on the number of Muslims, whether Italians or foreign nationals, who lost their lives during the outbreak. A rectangle of pebbles In the cemetery of Bruzzano, on the outskirts of Milan, 50-something Mustapha Moulay gazes at a greyish earthen tomb in the Muslim section of an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic cemetery. "It was God's will," he said of the death on April 7 of his 55-year-old wife from COVID-19. She contracted the virus in a Milan hospital where she had been admitted a month earlier for a minor leg operation, said Moulay, who was born in Morocco and has lived in Italy for 32 years. The grave has no tombstone, and is simply marked out with a rectangle of pebbles. The freshest graves are strikingly destitute. The graves of those who died pre-coronavirus look more permanent -- with cement borders and sometimes a marble slab engraved with the crescent moon. Many other Italian Muslims however were forced to travel long distances to bury their dead, or leave bodies for days in morgues, or even keep them at home while seeking a space. 'A dignified burial' Under Islamic tradition, the dead must be buried as quickly as possible, preferably within 24 hours. One of the most extreme cases was that of Hira Ibrahim, a Macedonian woman in Pisogne, near the northern city of Brescia, whose mother died from coronavirus. Ibrahim had to keep her mother's body at home for more than 10 days for lack of a Muslim cemetery in her community, according to the newspaper La Repubblica. Countless Muslim families faced similar tragic predicaments during the crisis, the paper said. Tchina, the imam, said the problem persists even after the biggest waves of deaths have subsided. The body of a Muslim who died in Milan last week was transported some 50 kilometers away for burial, he said. Tchina thanked mayors "who opened their [Catholic] cemeteries during this crisis to ensure a dignified burial" for the Muslim dead. The president of Milan's Islamic Centre, Gueddouda Boubakeur, said that some families in Brescia and Bergamo -- two of the areas hardest hit by the coronavirus -- had to wait "a very long time". Thanks to the combined efforts of municipalities and central government authorities, solutions were ultimately found most of the time, he said. "We didn't consider the distance. We went to the first town that accepted the bodies. Our concern was above all to find space," Boubakeur said. Handful of cemeteries The Union of Islamic Communities of Italy lists just 76 Islamic cemeteries in the country, which counts nearly 8,000 municipalities. The oldest was built in 1856, in the northeastern city of Trieste, while Rome's date back only to 1974. Under Italian law, cemeteries "may provide for special and separate sections" for non-Catholics, but they are not required. Boubakeur acknowledged the government's cooperation, but urged more "political will" to create additional Muslim burial spaces. "After this pandemic, 150 municipalities responded positively to our requests" to provide a Muslim section in their cemeteries, Boubakeur said -- just a fraction of the nearly 8,000 municipalities. Going forward, the need for Muslim burial plots will only increase as immigrants and their offspring prefer to be interred in Italy. "We used to have a kitty to pay for sending back bodies to their country of origin, but no longer," Boubakeur said. "Some old people still want to be buried in their country of origin. But many have children, grandchildren in Italy and now prefer to be buried here." Younger Muslims "want to be buried in Italy because they're Italian", Boubakeur said. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (26) Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Jorge Nava from 90 Day Fiance just got out from behind bars on May 12th, but it wasnt all that bad for him. He stayed positive while he did his time, and he revealed he lost more than 125 pounds while he was there. He also shared that Anfisa, his Russian wife that he met on Facebook, decided to break up with him. Jorge went on to say he thought Anfisa couldnt handle all of the weight he lost and his new look, so that was her reasoning for ending things. She was also accused of cheating on Jorge and leaving him for another man, and following that she did delete all photos of her and Jorge from social media. Well, Jorge has a new girlfriend now and he says he will be sharing more info on her once he hits this major milestone. Instagram; Jorge is pictured above after getting out Sign up for Chip Chicks newsletter and get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Astronomers have found a planet like Earth orbiting a star like the sun MIT Technology Review Archaeologists find a way to look for ancient beer Ars Technica Dune Road Is Falling Into the SeaUnless the Billionaires Can Save It Bloomberg (David L) Prince Andrew: Lawyers lash out at US justice department in new Jeffrey Epstein statement Independent Now Prince Andrew is fighting fire with fire but at what price to the monarchy? Amid an unprecedented war of words between the Duke of York and prosecutors in the US, RICHARD KAY gives his discomfiting verdict Daily Mail Woman Sets Up A Feeder Cam In Her Yard And The Photos Are Extraordinary (30 New Pics) Bored Panda Some fantastic photos. Black Injustice Tipping Point Seriously listen to this conversation among Chicago aldermen and the mayor. Ive never heard anything like it. https://t.co/y7WCicucIs Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) June 9, 2020 Sports Desk #COVID-19 If this is what happens after the pandemics first wave, then just wait till the second Big Wave hits this fall/winter. The American oligarchy is as fragile as it is brutal & corrupt. Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) June 7, 2020 Science/Medicine The Democratic Party Exists To Co-Opt And Kill Authentic Change Movements Caitlin Johnstone Class Warfare How One Innovative Restauranteur Gets Around Aggressive Food Delivery Apps American Conservative New Cold War China? India Millions at risk as melting Pakistan glaciers raise flood fears Al Jazeera Syraqistan US wins second place in Afghan War DuffelBlog A decent guy from Aden Agence France-Presse Antidote du Jour. Arizona Slim: Well, it had to happen. The determined White-winged Dove that was using my mesquite tree as a calling perch found his special someone. I was fortunate enough to observe the newlyweds division of labor. While Mrs. Dove constructed their nest, Mr. Dove acted like a guy shopping the lumber department at Home Depot. He was picking up twigs, dropping them, choosing different twigs, and, man, this is exhausting. Time for a rest in my front yard. I couldnt help thinking that this guy married the birdie equivalent of Martha Steward. Because he couldnt fly up to the nest with just any twig. It had to be the perfect twig. Heres the result : See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. Montgomery County commissioners approved almost $400,000 in expenditures related to the current COVID-19 pandemic as the county continues to prepare for a potential second wave of the virus later this year. Those expenditures will be funded with the $105 million the county received in April from the federal government as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 or CARES Act. The act is designed to cover costs incurred between March 1 and Dec. 30 which were necessary expenditures due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The purchases include a truck, several forklifts, trailers and more personal protective equipment, such as masks and hand sanitizer. According to Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Executive Director Jason Millsaps, the cost breakdown would be five forklifts at $8,600 each totaling $43,000, four forklift trailers at $6,000 each for a total of $24,000, one enclosed trailer at $12,000 and a 1 1/4 ton truck at $50,933. An additional $250,000 was approved for Millsaps for the continued procurement of PPEs for the county in anticipation of the possible second wave of COVID-19 cases. Millsaps said the new equipment will be used to set up testing sites. We have warehouse (space) for equipment but we will set up testing pod where we can drive this pod out to each of the commissioners precincts or other locations in the county, he said. Millsaps noted if the county were to rent forklifts, it would cost more in the end over purchasing them. He reminded the court, following the pandemic, the equipment can be reallocated to other county departments. Im sure there are a number of departments that could use a forklift that currently do not one, Millsaps said. Precinct 4 Commissioner James Metts said he was in full support of purchasing the equipment. Whether it was the governors orders or social distancing, we dodged a bullet here, Metts said regarding the number of COVID-19 cases in the county. No matter what youre facing, a flood, a pandemic, a riot or whatever else, it is always better when you are prepared. Along with the equipment, the commissioners approved a six months lease for climate-controlled warehouse space for the PPEs and computer equipment. cdominguez@hcnonline.com Amroha, June 9 : In a shocking incident, a 17-year old Dalit youth was shot dead allegedly by four persons after an argument over monetary dispute at Donkhera village in Uttar Pradesh, police said on Tuesday. Vikas Jatav, 17, was sleeping at his house when the four men-- Lala Chauhan, Horam Chauhan, Jasveer and Bhushan-- came and opened fire at him late on Saturday night. "Hearing the gun shots, we rushed to save Vikas. The four men had fled by then and Vikas was bleeding. He died by the time we reached hospital," the victim's father Om Prakash Jatav said. All the four accused have been booked for murder and two of them have been arrested, the police said. They have been booked under section 302 of IPC (murder), and under SC/ST Act. Om Prakash alleged that his son was murdered by the four men from upper caste after an argument over entry into a temple in Domkhera village. "The fight had erupted after Vikas went to the temple to offer prayers on May 31. The upper caste men objected to it and Vikas argued with them," said Om Prakash. He said that a complaint was filed on the same day, but the police did not take action in the matter. Superintendent of police (SP) of Amroha, Vipin Tada, said, "During the initial probe, it has come to the fore that there was a dispute between Vikas and the accused over money. The brother of Vikas had taken a mango orchard on rent. Lala and Horam were also partners with him. Later, they fell out after a money dispute. There was a brief fight over it a few days ago." Lala Chauhan and Horam Chauhan have been arrested and the remaining two will also be nabbed soon, he said on Tuesday. We created the SMART AMS to help agencies get to the future today. By selecting partners like ePayPolicy, we showcase how our open API architecture can easily integrate with best of breed new technologies" - Eric Ayala, GM Novidea ePayPolicy now integrates with Novideas SMART AMS. ePayPolicy will extend e-payment capabilities to users of the cloud-based, Salesforce-powered agency management system that leverages automation and AI to help agencies scale faster and more efficiently than ever before. ePayPolicy enables independent insurance agencies to collect payments instantly via credit card and ACH. The companys digital payment portal is designed for independent insurance agents and brokers to handle their industry-specific accounting, compliance and reporting requirements. Equally important, its convenient for customers. Policyholders can pay from any device, anywhere. They no longer need to track down a checkbook and wait for their check to clear, and for those trying to earn credit card points, they can do so on every transaction. Agents can bind policies faster and replace aging receivables with instant payment. Milan Malkani, ePayPolicy Co-Founder, stated, We have always advocated InsurTech solutions beyond our own, especially technology-driven agency management systems that utilize data to excel the workflow of todays on-the-go agent. Its exciting to be part of the Novidea SMART AMS, along with other integrated providers of AI-based SMS technology, digital marketing and e-signatures, to name a few. Integration with popular agency management systems is essential to ePayPolicys growth strategy. Said Malkani, We go where the action is. Whatever AMS your agency is using, ePayPolicy wants to be part of it. Novidea GM, Eric Ayala commented, We created the SMART AMS to help agencies get to the future today. By selecting partners like ePayPolicy, we showcase how our open API architecture can easily integrate with best of breed new technologies, and further demonstrates our vision to help agencies scale by automating all processes. These capabilities go well beyond the typical AMS. Malkani concluded, Digital payment is the norm in consumer and most business transactions today. ePayPolicys goal is to make it the norm in agency/customer transactions. We thank the Novidea team for not only choosing us, but promoting ePayPolicy along with the other Novidea-developed and integrated insurance agency capabilities available with the SMART AMS. About Novidea To compete in the digital economy, insurance agencies have to futurize - and fast. They must be able to offer the kind of customer experiences todays consumers expect. But transforming an entire business at once seems radical, not to mention impossible with existing AMSs. Novidea makes it possible and painless for any agency. Our radical idea? The Smart AMS. Its a cloud-based system like no other, designed to modernize every aspect of your business. From digital marketing to AI-based SMS to real-time analytics and self-service portals - nothing gets left behind. And you can offer the any-time, any-device experience your customers demand. A Salesforce Ventures portfolio company, Novidea operates in 16 countries globally and is now launching in the US. For more information visit novideasoft.com About ePayPolicy ePayPolicy is the simplest way to collect digital insurance payments. Austin, Texas-based ePayPolicy is the nations foremost provider of payment processing developed exclusively for independent agencies, brokers/MGAs and premium finance agencies. The companys innovative electronic payment processing portal enables its clients to accept payment via credit card or ACH, without messy merchant accounts or hidden fees. ePayPolicy sets up quickly, integrates seamlessly with leading management systems, and is endorsed by independent insurance associations nationwide. To find out more visit epaypolicy.com Sam dons the hair shirt in this novel, but his coiled, bitter angst is tempered somewhat by his sense of humor, as satirical as it is self-aware. Observing the pampered architects stocked, pre-portioned refrigerator stash, Sam asks, Is it normal to have your transdimensional journey catered? In Portland, surprised to find no trace of crystals, flowing robes or tinctures at their destination, Sam likens the shaman dressed in khakis, a collared shirt and a V-neck sweater to a substitute teacher, or a suburban dad on a rare night out. There was one nagging question I had while reading this book, though: Why is it in drag? Broken People feels like a memoir dressed up as a novel. Unlike with other autofictional stories (say, Sheila Hetis How Should a Person Be? or Edmund Whites A Boys Own Story), I struggled to accept the conflation between the protagonist and the author of Broken People. Readers presume Hetis and Whites narrators have at least something in common with their authors, but those novels read at once like an abstraction from and a distillation of lived experience. If autofiction demands a refraction of reality, Broken People reads more like an artful recitation of it. Early in the novel, Sam has lunch with his book agent, Elijah, who advises him against writing a second memoir, not seeing a commercial path forward that way after the success of his first. Now, maybe if you wanted to write a novel that might make more sense for you, Elijah says. It looks as if Sam took Elijahs advice. That said, Lansky is a piercing observer of gay men and the often fraught relationships we have with our own bodies. Maybe all gay men are made to feel, at some point, that they are wrong in the eyes of God, aberrations whose desires are dirty and shameful, Sam muses about a man he has risky sex with. To anyone who thought Obergefell v. Hodges (the 2015 Supreme Court decision that affirmed same-sex marriage as a constitutional right) put an end to gay shame in America, Broken People provides a contradictory vision. We need more books like Lanskys, ones that investigate why political progress doesnt always translate to self-acceptance for queer people. But I cant help thinking this particular argument would have been stronger if the protagonist had declined to take his agents advice. FILE PHOTO: Barclays' building in Canary Wharf is seen behind a City of London sign outside Billingsgate Market in London By Kirstin Ridley LONDON (Reuters) - British buinesswoman Amanda Staveley's private equity firm told London's High Court on Monday it had received a "substantially worse" deal than Qatar when its syndicate invested billions of pounds in Barclays during the financial crisis in 2008. Claiming damages of up to 1.5 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) for alleged deceit, a lawyer for Staveley's PCP Capital Partners alleged Barclays had reneged on written and oral representations that PCP's syndicate would get the same terms as Qatar. The civil case hinges on the terms Barclays offered Qatar and PCP's syndicate, which included Abu Dhabi investors, for taking part in a 7.3 billion pound cash call in October 2008 that allowed the British bank to avoid a state bailout. Barclays has dismissed the case as misconceived. It argues that an eight-year Serious Fraud Office inquiry into whether side deals, called advisory service agreements (ASAs), struck with Qatar in 2008 had been undisclosed fees had culminated in blanket acquittals. PCP alleges Barclays paid Qatar 346 million pounds in extra fees as well as agreeing to a $3 billion loan for the Gulf nation in November 2008 that at the date of drawdown almost exactly matched the amount Qatar was investing. "In fact, the deal that the Qataris got was very substantially better and PCP's deal very substantially worse," lawyer Joe Smouha told the court as he opened the case for PCP. PCP, whose syndicate invested about 3.25 billion pounds in Barclays in 2008, was paid 30 million pounds in April 2009 for its work on the transaction. The high-profile trial, one of the last legal clashes in Britain to revolve around the 2008 crisis, is expected to hear nine weeks of evidence and call former Barclays CEO John Varley and one-time senior rainmaker Roger Jenkins. Staveley is due to give evidence later this week. The case has come to court four months after Jenkins and two other former Barclays executives were acquitted of fraud in the criminal case brought by the SFO over two 2008 fundraisings. Varley was acquitted last year. Story continues The defendants argued that June and October ASAs had been cleared by senior directors and lawyers and were intended to open up lucrative business opportunities in the Middle East. Qatar has said its investment in Barclays created a strategic partnership and was part of a plan to build a global financial portfolio and that the ASAs were genuine. (Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by David Clarke) North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has ordered Ace Speedway in Alamance County to be closed immediately, declaring the venue an imminent hazard. The order was issued on Monday night and says Ace Speedway must notify the public by 5 p.m. on Tuesday that its schedule has been canceled until June 22. The order says Ace Speedway could reopen if it presents a plan to adhere to state guidelines and if that plan is approved by the Department of Health and Human Services. The venues next event is scheduled for June 19, but no such cancellation notice has been published by Ace Speedway channels. The order allows the governor to send in state police officers to enforce the order if track operators Robert and Jason Turner do not adhere to it. The track first reopened from the coronavirus pandemic on May 23, but only after Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson refused to enforce the mass gathering order under a conviction that it was unconstitutional. The track has now hosted three events and has averaged nearly 2,000 fans packed from shoulder-to-shoulder around the .400-mile track. The track declared its CARS Tour race this past weekend as a peaceful protest against injustice and inequality everywhere. The decision made by track operators Robert and Jason Turner was essentially a response to the nationwide protests stemming from the killing of George Floyd a 46-year-old black man in Minneapolis, Mn. ast month. Protests and riots followed in the name of racial injustice and inequality, with Governor Cooper himself marching in one of the protests in Raleigh. The right to assemble and protest is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The Turners, looking for a loophole around Governor Coopers order, then declared racing events as peaceful protests. Governor Cooper foreshadowed the closure order during a press conference on Monday. People shouldnt run a money-making operation that puts in danger, not only their customers, but anyone who would come into contact with their customers, Governor Cooper said. This is a reckless decision being made by the owners, pulling people together in that way, that can cause spread of the virus. Alamance is one of the counties that is having higher numbers than it should and were looking forward to taking action against it in the coming week. Its concerning that Alamance County officials have not been able to stop this. We had hoped that they would. If they cant, the state will have to take action, which we will this week if the local officials do not. Sheriff Johnson believes the governor is unfairly singling out Ace Speedway. 311 Speedway, a dirt track in nearby Stokes County, has continued to operate without sanction by the government. Sheriff Johnson also believes race tracks should be exempt from the mass gathering orders if churches and protests are as well. Sheriff Johnson issued a statement on Monday night detailing his reasons to not enforce Governor Coopers orders. This concerns me greatly to know that my citizens have basically been singled out for the same alleged violations that are occurring all over the State of North Carolina, Sheriff Johnson wrote. While I am having to make a tough decision on what to do, I want to make it clear to all citizens that this is in no way politically motivated on my part. I assure you that I respect the Office of the Governor of North Carolina but I have serious reservations on the legality of his order. It is within the governors right to request the court to issue an injunction against Ace Speedway or any other similar event that is currently being operated in the State of North Carolina. It is also within the governors authority to dispatch state law enforcement agencies under his control to issue a citation to ACE Speedway or any other similar event operating in the state. I have always been taught during my 49 year law enforcement career that if a citation is issued, it is for a clear cut and substantial violation. My understanding of the law and the conflicting orders issued by the Governor, leads me to question my authority on writing a citation to Mr. Robert Turner, owner of ACE Speedway. Do the initials EOFY mean anything to you? Its a relatively new abbreviation, but its become so widely used by marketers anxious to squeeze in one last bargain sale before their books close that you probably dont need me to tell you it stands for end of the financial year. Its also become a standby for our tax-deductible charities which, at this time of year, are busy mailing their supporters to subtly remind them that a generous donation or two in the next few weeks would do much to fatten the refund cheque thats the reward awaiting us when weve submitted our tax return. Illustration: Simon Letch Credit: As an accountant whos highly conscious of whats tax deductible and whats not and who, in earlier times, did his share of knocking on doors, selling buttons on button day and rattling a collection box at the entrance to the show, but drew the line at helping his father sell the War Cry newspaper in pubs EOFY looms large on my to-do list in the next few weeks. Its years since Ive helped with the Salvos Red Shield appeal but, in any case, no house-to-house collection day was possible this year, for obvious reasons. Which is a pity since it means the Salvos will have a lot less ability to help those it always finds needing assistance, let alone the surge in families caught short by a recession likely to be still blighting many peoples lives long after Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have triumphantly declared recovery and withdrawn their extra financial support. File photo shows a view of the Lujiazui area in Shanghai, east China. Photo:Xinhua Shanghai is no longer a first entry point for international flights to Beijing, the civil regulator said on Monday. The note posted on the website of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said that Chengdu, Changsha, Hefei and Lanzhou were added as new first entry points for the capital, with Wuhan added as a standby first entry point. There are 16 entry points for Beijing, including Wuhan, CAAC said. "Adding Wuhan as a standby entry point for Beijing shows Wuhan is safe now," Wang Guangfa, a respiratory expert at Peking University First Hospital, told the Global Times on Monday. Only 300 silent virus carriers have been discovered during a recent city-wide COVID-19 screening in Wuhan, which proves that COVID-19 infection risks in Wuhan have largely decreased, according to Wang. Flights between Wuhan and Beijing will resume on June 9, one round-trip flight per day from Wuhan Tianhe airport to Beijing Daxing International Airport, according to the Wuhan traffic authority. Entry points are intended to disperse passengers for Beijing to prevent and control virus spread during the epidemic. The addition of more cities as entry points for Beijing is aimed at enhancing Beijing's quarantine capacity to ensure the capital's safety during the epidemic prevention and control period, experts said. "The move means that in the coming days, flights which are supposed to land in Beijing will not need to stop at Shanghai first, and it is highly probable Shanghai will begin to welcome more newly resumed international flights," Qin Ling, a market watcher, told the Global Times on Monday. Data from the Shanghai Airport Authority showed that the daily landing and take-off flights in 2019 at Shanghai Pudong International Airport was around 1,400, and 750 for Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. But the numbers dramatically declined due to the COVID-19, and information provider VariFlight showed on Sunday that two airports in Shanghai had less than 1,500 flights landing and taking off, and most were domestic flights. But the numbers dramatically declined due to the COVID-19, and information provider VariFlight showed on Sunday that two airports in Shanghai had less than 1,500 flights landing and taking off, and most were domestic flights. Wang also noted the increasing epidemic prevention and control pressure Shanghai is facing during its production resumption period. International passenger flow to Shanghai will also surge. Under this circumstance, Shanghai is not suitable to be an entry point for Beijing as it has to deal with its own anti-epidemic pressure. The move came three days after Beijing announced the easing of restrictions on people from Hubei, including Wuhan, to enter the capital. People from Hubei to Beijing do not need to take 14-day quarantine and only need to provide one negative nucleic acid test result after arriving, according to the new policy. The CAAC said international passengers to Beijing can receive epidemic prevention and control checks and go through entry formalities at first entry points. They can continue to fly to Beijing after passing the check. The CAAC noted that policies on first entry points for Beijing will be adjusted according to the epidemic situation. All international flights to Beijing must first travel to one of designated Chinese cities so that passengers can undergo quarantine before they are allowed to enter the capital, to ensure no new cases broke out in Beijing. Beijing has not reported new COVID-19 cases for 53 consecutive days as of Sunday. For the second consecutive week, protesters in Fremont gathered in solidarity to protest the death of George Floyd and pushed for solutions to systematic inequality and police brutality. Sundays protest and march to the Dodge County Courthouse was considerably larger than last weeks gathering. Approximately 250-300 people gathered in Fremont during the weekend to take part in the protest, compared to only around 20 people on May 31. Melissa Niles, an education major at Midland University, said it was incredible to see the level of support coming from the community. Niles moved to Fremont one year ago and she said she hadnt previously seen much outward support from the community on issues such as this. It was nice to see a huge community that was all on the same page, she said. It was very empowering. Niles said she decided to organize a protest in Fremont after attending the first night of protests in Omaha. She said she never experienced racism until moving to Fremont. I thought it would be a great way to bring my community of people together, she said. Keenan Smith, the vice president of the Black Students Union at Midland University, reached out to Niles after he saw that she was organizing a protest. (Niles) let me know who she was and what she was doing, Smith said. She took it and we all ran with it and she wanted to get this done and make it happen. Smith, along with Niles and Branden Mills, the organizer of Fremonts first protest and the president of the BSU, met with the Fremont Police Department prior to the protest to discuss their plans. It was there that Smith brought up the idea of doing a march to the courthouse to police. Initially, Smith thought the idea would be rejected, but he said officers ran with the idea. The march also included a moment of silence for Floyd, where some protesters laid face-down in front of the courthouse for nearly nine minutes; the same amount of time Floyd was pinned to the ground before he died. Mills said both the protest and march were inspiring and it showed how affectionate the Fremont community is. It showed that we can bond and come together for something greater, he said. It was very passionate, well thought out and put together. Niles and Smith, 24, and Mills, 20, are all young adults who have taken the charge to lead protests in Fremont. Niles said it is insanely important for the younger generation to become involved with issues like this. If we want things to change, the way it happens is through voting, she said. We are on the up-and-up, but it hasnt been the best in recent years. I hope this inspires my fellow classmates and young adults to put care and passion in these topics. Niles said there arent any concrete plans for a follow-up to Sundays march yet. One potential date for another event could be June 19, otherwise known as Juneteenth. Were just kind of soaking it in right now, she said. It was so peaceful and exactly what we wanted to accomplish. Mills said he realized that working alongside Smith and Niles produces a powerful voice in the community. We have so many ideas in store, he said. Smith said seeing so many people come together to march brought him to tears. There were a couple of times when I was in tears and I had to hold it back, he said. It was very touching and admirable because I know it takes a lot to stand up in a small, conservative community. Niles said it was rewarding seeing the work come to fruition. Even Monday morning, she said she was already looking for more local rallies she could attend. I have plenty of signs that I can give away now, she said. Niles added that its important this movement doesnt just become a trend. I spoke during the moment of silence and wanted to make sure everyone knew this wasnt a trend, she said. Its incredibly important. Love 8 Funny 4 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 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. Two Houston companies accused of making 1 billion spoofed robocalls to cellular and landline phone numbers over a five-month period are the targets of a record proposed Federal Communications Commission fine and a federal lawsuit from six state attorneys general, including Texas Ken Paxton. In the Tuesday filing, the FCC proposed a fine of $225 million against JSquared Telecom and Rising Eagle, companies based in Houston and run by John C. Spiller and Jakob A. Mears. It would be the highest fine the FCC has levied for robocall violations if approved. The FCC alleges the robocalls enticed recipients by saying in recordings that lower insurance prices were available from well-known providers such as Cigna, UnitedHealth Care, Aetna and others. But when recipients responded by hitting a number on their phone keypads, the calls were connected to clients who were selling no-name, short-term health insurance plans. HANG UP: How to stop robocall spam Similar tactics were also used to sell extended automobile warranties, according to court documents. The calls appeared on caller ID as though they were coming from numbers the recipients knew, and according to releases from the FCC and the Texas Attorney Generals office, millions of the numbers were pulled from the federal and state Do Not Call list. The calls were made during the first half of 2019, according to the FCC. Spiller reportedly told the USTelecom Industry Traceback Group, which provides information to investigators in robocall cases, that he knowingly used the Do Not Call numbers because it was more profitable to target these consumer, according to the FCC. The commission also said that many of those receiving the calls then called back the spoofed numbers, some of which were for individuals and legitimate businesses. Release Notes: Get Dwight Silvermans weekly tech newsletter in your inbox At least one company was hit with several lawsuits because its number was spoofed, and another was so overwhelmed with calls that its telephone network became unusable, the FCC said in a release. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas by the attorneys general of Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. It alleges violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act as well as anti-robocall and number-spoofing statutes in the participating states. JSquared Telecom is registered with the FCC as a provider of internet-based phone service, known as voice-over-IP or VoIP. A call placed to a Houston number for JSquared Telecom seeking comment was not immediately returned. Robocalls and scam calls are the largest category of complaints received by the FCC, with more than 200,000 filed each year, according to the commissions website. Analysts estimate as many as 4 billion robocalls per month were made in 2018. A new federal law targeting robocalls was signed by President Donald Trump in January, increasing fines for violations from $1,500 to $10,000 for each illegal call. dwight.silverman@chron.com twitter.com/dsilverman houstonchronicle.com/techburger USS Nebraska Gold Earns The Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy Navy News Service Story Number: NNS200608-05 Release Date: 6/8/2020 3:52:00 PM By Petty Officer 1st Class Andrea Perez, Commander, Submarine Group 9 Public Affairs SILVERDALE, Wash. (NNS) -- Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet recently named the gold crew of the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Nebraska (SSBN 739) winner of The Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy for 2019. The trophy is awarded annually to one ship or aircraft squadron from both the Pacific and Atlantic Fleet for having achieved the greatest improvement in battle efficiency during the calendar year, based upon the battle efficiency competition. Nebraska Gold's Commanding Officer, Cmdr. Alex Baerg, from Everett, Washington, is proud of all his crew has accomplished in the short time since returning Nebraska to strategic service in 2018. "They have gone from a crew well-versed in shipyard work controls with no sea time, to a crew well-trained for the entire breadth of SSBN missions," said Baerg. "The crew is very diligent about finding creative solutions to problems and aren't willing to simply accept defeat. The ship's schedule over the last year has been challenging and ever-changing, but the crew greets each challenge with mission accomplishment and tenacity." Prior to her return to service, Nebraska underwent a 41-month engineered refueling overhaul to extend the life of the submarine by 20 years. "The crew is excited for the recognition of their work and glad to see the payoff of their efforts," said Senior Chief Electronics Technician (Navigation) Chase M. Krause, from Fort Worth, Texas, chief of the Boat, USS Nebraska (Gold). "The crew has spent many late hours honing their skills in all facets of battle readiness. Their efforts, combined with the strong team dynamic they have developed, has pushed them to new levels of success." The award is named in honor of Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, who had a distinguished Naval career for more than 38 years, in which he made vital contributions to the Navy in many key warfare areas, including battle efficiency, new tactical concepts, weapon systems and Naval leadership. In a letter of congratulations to Baerg and his crew, Rear Adm. Doug Perry, commander, Submarine Group 9, said he was happy to see USS Nebraska Gold's name on the trophy. "The competition is always keen for this prestigious award, so you and your crew should be justifiably proud of your accomplishments," said Perry. "Congratulations and keep charging!" Nebraska was commissioned in Groton, Connecticut, July 10, 1993. She was the first Ohio-class submarine to visit Europe and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Nebraska has also been awarded the Omaha Trophy for excellence in strategic deterrence and two Battle Efficiency Awards. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The "Fair-Market Value Compensation Rates for Denmark Health Care Providers: FMV/Fee Schedules for Thought Leaders/KOLs Gastroenterology" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This report outlines market-based (FMV) payment rates from life science organizations to Gastroenterology Thought Leaders in Denmark. It presents hourly and half-day flat compensation rates for four Thought Leader levels based on degree of influence. The analysis includes rates for six specific activities and one general fee schedule (14 charts). The compensation rates presented in this report result from data collected from the input of executives at nineteen life science organizations. Analysts collected the quantitative data through surveys conducted with compliance, legal and medical affairs executives who have the necessary knowledge to provide rates of payments made to thought leaders for the various activities listed in this document. This study presents fair-market value (FMV) compensation rates in country currency, by percentiles, with averages, for six activities as well as for non-specific activities, for four levels of Thought Leader influences (rare, international, national and local) in 14 charts. The research findings deliver markets rates used in the conduct of exchanges with Thought Leaders. These payment benchmarks help legal, compliance and medical affair executives refine and support the development of fee schedules that are aligned with market conditions. Key Topics Covered: 1. Research Methodology 2. Definitions Hourly Rates Flat Rates 3. Flat Rates Advisory Board Lead Advisory Board Non-lead Consulting Scientific Clinical Content Consulting Commercial Content Speaking Scientific Clinical Content Speaking Commercial Content Other Activities 4. Hourly Rates Advisory Board Lead Advisory Board Non-lead Consulting Scientific Clinical Content Consulting Commercial Content Speaking Scientific Clinical Content Speaking Commercial Content Other Activities For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/3z3uya 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. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005314/en/ Contacts: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com 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 Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 16:46 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd57714 1 News Google,Google-Consumer-Surveys,travel,COVID-19,#COVID19,tourism-industry Free As the COVID-19 pandemic forces people to cancel their holiday plans, a recent survey has revealed that a large number of Indonesians are planning to wait at least another year before traveling abroad again. According to Google Consumer Surveys, which conducted the research across 17 countries including Indonesia between April and May, some 44 percent of Indonesian respondents plan to wait for more than a year before vacationing overseas, while 17 percent will consider doing so in the next three months. In regard to which countries these travelers would like to visit in the next three months, 34 percent said they wanted to visit Asia Pacific countries, meanwhile 23 percent preferred to travel to nearby cities. Amid the outbreak, 28 percent of the Indonesian respondents said they would book a hotel room in the next three months if there was a discount offer of at least 25 percent. Other important factors mentioned were an improvement in hygiene standards (24 percent), free face masks or sanitizer wipes (21 percent) and no changes or cancellation fees (16 percent). Read also: Government announces travel requirements during transition to 'new normal' Discount offers for air travel were also deemed important for these holidaymakers as 28 percent of respondents stated that they would book flight tickets in the next three months if the price was discounted by at least 25 percent. Aside from cheaper tickets, improvements in hygiene standards (24 percent), free face masks or sanitizer wipes (21 percent) and no amendment or cancellation fees (16 percent) were also mentioned as the most important considerations. The survey also recorded that more than 25 percent of respondents in Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Vietnam said they were planning to travel domestically in the next three months; a much higher number compared with respondents in other countries such as Australia and Japan (14 percent). (wir/kes) Photo credit: Ana Davila - Hearst Owned From Esquire On a humid, cloudy day last May, on the leafy outskirts of Ghana's capital city, Accra, Roland Obeng opened one of his two Grindr accounts. Surrounded by wood-carved penises in his otherwise ordinary office, the healthcare manager set to work replying to messages in the LGBTQ+ dating app. Obeng who identifies as gay and requested I change his name for safety reasons works at the West Africa Aids Foundation-International Health Care Center (WAAF-IHCC). I have two profiles, he explained. One of them is for my personal profile, and then one is for work to help my community members to get tested. Obengs work profile, called Menz Corner, reads: A good life starts with good health. Contact me for free HIV testing and STI screening with utmost confidentiality n lots of freebies, and lists a phone number. Sometimes people write and ask how to use a condom; some send photos of their genital infections or want free flavoured condoms and lubricant. Others ask, is the place discreet? Can I come? Obeng said. Photo credit: Hearst Owned At first, many people have concerns about visiting the clinic, where Obeng works as a case manager, which nestles off the main road of a bustling residential area and is sheltered by palm trees. Public facilities in Ghana, Obeng explained, sometimes stigmatise or can be hostile to the LGBT community, and people dont always feel safe exposing themselves in front of the general population. If the doctor can identify an infection and offer a prescription through social media, they will, but Obeng encourages his clients to come into the clinic to test for sexually transmitted infections and HIV. To assuage peoples fears, Obeng and other clinic workers and volunteers will personally accompany them. Obeng, who is in his mid-30s, softly-spoken with warm eyes and a wide smile, said roughly five people per day reach out to him through Grindr. According to the clinics data, between October 2018 and May 2019, 48 clients visited through social media referrals. Of those, 23 (48 per cent) tested positive for HIV, which, in comparison to other outreach activities, is a very high yield. Story continues Photo credit: Hearst Owned LGBT people in Ghana face widespread discrimination and abuse including mob or family violence, sexual abuse, extortion, and blackmail. Due to lack of economic and educational opportunities, some resort to sex work. Stigmatisation and discrimination make it impossible for [LGBT] individuals to become productive members of the community when disclosure of their sexual orientation is likely to lead to them being thrown out of their jobs, schools, homes, and even their communities, Phillip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said in a 2018 Human Rights Council report on Ghana. Nearly half of the discrimination cases filed since 2013 with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice were filed by LGBT people. Last year, the local press reported that a man who supported homosexuality and same-sex marriage had gone into hiding after his community in southern Ghana tried to kill him. Before social media, gay men would meet up through word-of-mouth in whats known as hotspots clubs, food joints, or shops, where they can gather safely, and whose location changes frequently. Such meet-ups, though, are not without risk. Guro Sorensen, the head nurse at WAAF-IHCC, met someone recently who is gender fluid, whom I'll call Tomas. Tomas told Sorensen hed spent time at a gay friends noodle shop, which had become a hotspot. One afternoon, in the light of day, Tomas went to the beach, where a group of men recognised him from the hotspot. We know you are gay, they told him. Then they attacked him. Obeng and others at the clinic began to implement this social media-driven strategy in 2017 when they realised that large sectors of the population living on the margins of Ghanaian society particularly LGBT people are often the most vulnerable to HIV but remain hidden. I am someone who uses Grindr a lot, and I was actually introducing a lot of people from Grindr and social media to this place, so we came up with such an approach, Obeng said. A lot of men who have sex with men come to social media because they want to be discreet, and people wouldnt always want to show their face, he said. According to Dr Henry Nagai, who leads Ghanas USAID Strengthening the Care Continuum Project, whose primary goal is to connect vulnerable populations with HIV services, social media has played a pivotal role in his teams work, as well. It helps you to be able to get into the network, he said. For example, the transgender community in Ghana is very small, hidden, discreet, and they have the highest transmission rate. In the past seven months, Care Continuums digital health platform has had 98,972 interactions, through which theyve received messages and offered referrals for services including HIV testing and STI treatment; nine per cent of all those who received HIV testing services in the program during this period were referred through social media platforms. This is important because this percentage are those who are hidden and discreet and hard to reach through traditional outreach services, Dr Nagai said. Dr Naa Ashiley Vanderpuye-Donton, the director at the WAAF-IHCC clinic, shared a similar perspective. Its a very sensitive group because its criminalised in Ghana, and you cant go about doing things openly," she said. For them to come to us or for us to reach them, its complicated, and theyre not out in the open." An archaic, colonial-era law the Criminal Offences Act of 1960 prohibiting and punishing unnatural carnal knowledge interpreted as penile penetration of anything other than the vagina criminalises same-sex activity in Ghana. While the law is seldom invoked to prosecute people, it can be used to arrest and extort people based on their real or imputed sexual orientation or gender identity. Having a law on the books that criminalises adult consensual same-sex conduct contributes to a climate in which LGBT people are frequently victims of violence and discrimination, Wendy Isaack, the author of a 2018 Human Rights Watch report, said at the time of its release. Homophobic statements by local and national government officials, traditional elders, and senior religious leaders foment discrimination and in some cases, incite violence. The effect of the law, as well as the states failure to address violence and discrimination, the Human Rights Watch report found, effectively relegates LGBT Ghanaians to second-class citizens. The result is that those who exhibit health problems or HIV symptoms are afraid of the double stigma that will attach to them once they know their HIV status and disclose they are an LGBT person. All of these factors are a complete disincentive to accessing health care and are detrimental for providing adequate care both to affected populations and to the population at large because it becomes a public health issue, Graeme Reid, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, told me. Many, therefore, choose not to seek health care. And for a long time, Obeng was one of them. Recent historical works suggest that pre-colonisation, dating back to at least the 16th century, many African societies were recorded as freely expressing a range of sexualities and gender relations from male-to-male sex in Congo; transvestism in Ethiopia; and the men of the Nzima of Ghana traditionally marrying each other. But, beginning in the 19th century, the British Empire began its quest to conquer swaths of African territory, and in so doing, it imported Victorian laws, spread fundamentalist Christian values, and homophobia, intending to abolish sodomy and savagery in the region. These colonial-era penal codes and homophobic sentiments persist in Ghana and most former colonies. A lot of these laws were imposed on a kind of racist assumption of rampant sexuality. Like unbridled sexuality was taking place, including same-sex sexuality that needed to be regulated and controlled by the colonial authorities, so in a way, same-sex relations was seen as a sign of the primitive that needed to be regulated and controlled, Reid of Human Rights Watch, whose organisation published a 2008 report about the proliferation and harm of such laws in former British colonies, told me. Now, fast-forward 100 years, where embracing same-sex relations is seen as a kind of marker of modernity, and governments are pressured by former colonial powers who imposed those laws in the first place to repeal them, and theyre saying, I dont think so, Reid said. In 1957, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain independence. Early in its independence, Ghana was crippled by famine, economic instability, and a series of military coups between the Sixties and early Eighties. But Ghana has held peaceful elections since 1992, and, in recent years, has been among the worlds fastest-growing economies. Ghana is the worlds second-largest producer of cocoa and Africas second-largest producer of gold; its expanding oil sector, since offshore deposits were discovered more than a decade ago, has also led to an economic uptick. But, according to Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Ghanas inequality is at an all-time high; one person in five lives in poverty and one in eight lives in extreme poverty. While new infections of HIV have decreased significantly over the last two decades, sectors of the population like men who have sex with men and female sex workers remain disproportionately affected. In June, Botswanas High Court overturned sections of its colonial-era penal law, which criminalised homosexuality with up to seven years in prison. Judge Michael Leburu, one of the three ruling judges on the panel, said, the anti-sodomy laws are a British import, created without the consultation of local peoples. Leburus proclamation contrasts that of leaders in other former colonies in the region, where sodomy laws are said to reflect the countrys cultural values. In April 2018, Theresa May said she deeply regrets Britains historical legacy of anti-gay laws across the Commonwealth and urged nations to repeal these outdated laws that criminalise more than 100 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people throughout member countries. Nobody should face persecution or discrimination because of who they are or who they love, the former Prime Minister said in a speech at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Today, homosexuality is illegal in 34 of Africas 54 countries, four of which employ the death penalty. Political and religious leaders and government officials across the continent, including in Ghana, regularly proclaim nocuous anti-LGBT sentiments. In June 2018, Kofi Tawiah, the head pastor of Osu Church of Christ, said, homosexuality is considered as a capital offence which is abominable and is accompanied by capital punishment. Professor Mike Oquaye, Ghanas speaker of parliament, has called for harsher laws against same-sex conduct and conflated homosexuality with bestiality, while Moses Foh-Amoaning, a lawyer and lecturer at The Ghana School of Law, has announced plans to cure people of homosexuality with gay conversion therapy. Ghana is a deeply religious society predominantly Christian and pastors sometimes preach that theyve found a cure for HIV. Others, who adhere to Indigenous religions, which believe in the supernatural, may believe HIV infection is caused by curses and spirits and can be cured by herbal concoctions. Spiritual therapy from traditional priests, pastors, and healers is sometimes used as a substitution for antiretroviral therapy. Such beliefs present, a major challenge to our work; its obvious that a pastors voice and a promised cure by herbalists sounds better in the ears of our clients than our lifelong treatment, unfortunately, Sorenson told me. Photo credit: Hearst Owned Over the last 20 years, much of the LGBT-rights organising has been enabled and expanded through HIV and AIDS prevention activities, Reid explained. Programmes aimed at men who have sex with men have found a niche in which LGBT groups can push for their rights, while also recognising that effective public health care cant take place in an environment in which there are restrictive laws and negative social attitudes, Reid said. The two go hand-in-hand. Ghanas climate of homophobia has not only led to mob attacks, physical and sexual assault, and domestic violence but also health inequality. Compared with the prevalence of 1.3 per cent of HIV among the general population of Ghana, 18 per cent of men who have sex with men have HIV, but only 3.7 per cent are covered by antiretroviral therapy, according to UNAIDS figures. A 2019 study by the Local Burden of Disease Project at the Institute for Health Metrics found that, since 2000, HIV/AIDS is still the most common cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa and was responsible for 13,878 deaths in Ghana in 2017. Photo credit: Hearst Owned Recently, I spoke with Wisdom, the Executive Director of an LGBT rights organisation in Accra called Solace Initiative and the Executive Secretary of the Alliance for Equality and Diversity, who asked me to use his first name only. The situation on the ground in Ghana, according to Wisdom, is neither good nor bad: I can say we are making progress in terms of attacks and abuses against gay men we can go to the police station to seek redress, he said. But, he said, We still face stigma and discrimination when gay men access health services or health care. Much of the HIV prevention and treatment programming has targeted men who have sex with men, so theres nothing targeted to bi women and lesbians, he said, who addresses trans needs? He asked. They are not part of the programming, he said. Sarah, the Executive Director of Courageous Sisters, an LBQT rights organisation, who asked only to use her first name, echoed the same sentiment. As LBQ women, weve been left out of every health intervention, she said. One of the challenges currently facing the community with whom Sarah works is corrective rape, forced marriages, and physical attacks. Still, often, those people do not seek help due to the stigma. No health intervention or nothing is going on; we dont know the HIV prevalence, Sarah said. There must be an implementation of HIV activities in Ghana targeting this population if you dont know your status, you dont know what youre doing, she said. Courageous Sisters also uses social media to target marginalised women, using what Sarah called the snowball technique. Using Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, we reach out to someone we know, and they help us get in touch with target populations, and it keeps going, she said. We let them know where you can go for health care and seek help. In the late Eighties, when AIDS was first discovered in Ghana, Obeng was a child. Even then, he knew who he was. He preferred to play with males and began to explore his sexuality as a teenager. It was very natural, and I never learned it from anyone that this is how I should feel or anything, Obeng said. But back then, he said, people in Ghana didnt have the vocabulary to express what these sexual preferences and gender identities meant. It didnt matter, though: Obeng knew that what he felt wasnt accepted in Ghanaian society. People called him feminine names, and he understood that to survive, he had to be very discreet; Obeng didnt invite his friends to his home, so as not to arouse suspicions in his community and family. Growing up, Obeng described receiving a general education around HIV/AIDS but said, we were not educated that HIV was really linked with men who have sex with other men or gay men, he said. Because I was aware of HIV as soon as it came to Ghana, if they had told us HIV was high among men who have sex with men, I would have been very careful. I didnt know, so I was doing my thing as a man who has sex with men. I was having sex with my friends and hook-ups and all that, he said. Obengs life continued as usual until, eight years ago, he got a severe case of shingles that mercilessly spread across his body. He went to a public facility where a nurse suggested he get an HIV test. Why should I go for HIV testing? Obeng asked. When she suggested it, I was a little scared because of my activities." The test came back positive, and Obeng now credits that moment with saving his life. The problem, though, is that Obeng didnt know where to turn at first: the public facilities in Ghana, he said, regularly stigmatise against gay men. Upon learning a person is LGBT, healthcare workers have been known to take out the bible and begin preaching, the implication being that such a lifestyle is a sin; doctors sometimes advise their gay patients who are HIV positive to discontinue having sex. They are asked to stop basically being who they are, Sorensen told me. Knowing this reality, Obeng didnt feel safe disclosing his identity and status. Ghanaian society, in general, he said, think its taboo, that weve been cursed and all that. A friend soon introduced him to WAAF-IHCC, whose staff is trained to offer services to men who have sex with men. There, he received counselling and met a doctor who told him he needed to start antiretroviral medication. The first time that I came here, I said, OK, this is the place where I want to start. I had been to public places, but then this was different." The team of doctors and nurses there soon became a family to him, and he began working as a caseworker to reach other gay men. Photo credit: Hearst Owned Today, Obeng supports gay men to get HIV testing and regularly brings medication to several clients at their home or workplace; his role involves educating people on safe condom use and providing psychological support. Someone might not even take his antiretroviral medication because he thinks that Im taking the drugs to kill him he believed this myth that theyre trying to take all the people living with HIV/AIDS away from the society by giving them drugs, Obeng said. Sometimes, you just have to use yourself as an example. Ive been living with HIV, Ive been taking my drugs for years, and Im doing well, so why wont you take yours? Still, Obeng has disclosed to no one in his family that he is gay or HIV positive. His mother, he said, constantly pressures him to marry. I would love to let them know that this is who I am, but being in Ghana, and then the society does not accept that I come out, I just need to be discreet, he said. Ive been living with this my whole life." First-time visitors of the clinic, which is surrounded by homes in a developing suburb of Accra, sometimes mistake the clinic for a house and drive by it. Unlike the sterile environment typical of medical facilities, whether by design or accident, to many, the laughter and friendly chatter emitting from the facility makes this place feels like home. There, as the clinic buzzes with new patients, Obeng and his colleagues regularly gather to strategise about how to use social media most effectively to reach high-risk people. Its very difficult, especially in an environment where being LGBT is illegal, Phinehas, a field officer, told me. The team has created a Facebook group, Health Desk 4 Men, through which people can ask questions and connect with the facility. We use other platforms like Grindr, Blued, Romeo, Adam4Adam, and all other social media platforms that are mainly for gay men to link to the clinic, Phinehas explained. One of Phinehass profiles, called Mens Corner, says, contact me for all your health needs, and lists a number. Phinehas uses the apps to locate where people are publicly gathered, for instance, at a bar or the mall, and will try to engage them in person. Photo credit: Hearst Owned A peer educator at the facility, whom Ill call Michael, randomly reaches out to people on dating apps when they are online. His Grindr profile contains a picture of a handsome man and lures people with the following description: flavoured [condom] water base lube and lotion lube very effective for a sexual life, and from there, the conversation starts. Michael also uses the location services on Grindr to locate high concentrations of people and tries to reach people in public spaces. The approach, though, is not without risk. Recently, someone reached out to Michael on Grindr expressing interest in the lube, expecting Michael to use it with him. There are some guys like that who will come and beat you up, Michael said. The person can send you fake pictures, and you can try to meet the person, and its not the real person youre meeting, and there are some people there if you go to meet the person they can beat you, take your telephone, and take your money, and they can rape you. You have to be so careful, smart, professional, and intelligent." he said, are anti-LGBT and spew insults or aim to cause physical harm. The work, honestly, is not easy, Michael told me. There are people there who let me smile and let me be happy, and I try to focus on those people." One day, in July 2017, a young man whom Ill call James opened his Grindr app. A mutual friend had written him a message. How are you doing, where do you live, lets get to know each other, the person said. The conversation was friendly and continued for a few days. The men exchanged numbers, and one evening James got a call from the man. We were talking about what we do for fun, and he just asked me out of the blue, have I been tested before and do I know my status? At first, James described being taken aback. Its not like we agreed to be in a relationship. I felt as if he was imposing. But he was my friend." The man on the other line continued: Its important to know your status, he said. Im afraid, James told him. The man reassured him. He knew a friendly clinic in Accra. There wont be any stigma, he said to James. At the time, James described having little education around HIV transmission. People just meet, and then they just do it without protection, he said. Sometimes you ask, have you been tested, and they liesome dont know if they have it or not. People are not really educated in that aspect. Only a few." They agreed to meet the next morning at Jamess home and go to the clinic together, where the man was a peer educator. I was so nervous, James said. That was the first time I ever did any test, especially for HIV." A few years earlier, James had visited a public clinic where he tested positive for gonorrhoea. The doctors there told him to bring the lady so they can test her, he recalled. I cant even tell them it was a guy. If you have a partner, you cant really go to the clinic together and get good advice; you have to shield yourself. Its frustrating. When James arrived at the WAAF-IHCC clinic with the peer educator, who turned out to be one of Obengs colleagues, he recalled feeling shaky. Sorensen, the head nurse, tried to calm and reassure him. He began to open up about his identity. I was so free and relaxed, and for a moment I didnt feel like I was in Ghana, he told me. I didnt know what the outcome would be." When the results came back positive, James said he wasnt prepared. He told Sorensen, I have to get my mind, my body, and my soul prepared for this. James, who is now 25 years old, began treatment in early 2018. The first few days I started the treatment, it was hell, he said. I had symptoms and side-effects, and I couldnt concentrate." Sorensen helped him through it and continues to check in on him. Photo credit: Hearst Owned James then decided that he no longer wanted to live a lie. He told his family he is gay. They hated me at first and told me I should turn to God, he said. Now Im alone and going to school, he told me. As for his HIV status, he uses his experience to educate others. Stigma, he said, continues to be rampant: some people, he said, believe that HIV is a virus through sharing of toilets. It would be great one day if people in Ghana and Africa would stop the stigma and understand this is not so bad, he said. In the meantime, he is waiting for the day when two guys can go to a clinic and get tested together and just be free. This story was reported through a 2019 International Aids Society fellowship Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more delivered straight to your inbox SIGN UP Need some positivity right now? 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Photo: Mark Condren Being together all day, every day for three months is enough to put a strain on even the strongest relationships. Four older couples speak frankly to Kathy Donaghy about the ups and downs of lockdown Read More 19.37 09/06/2020 'No evidence Cheltenham and rugby fans brought Covid-19 into country' - leading health expert There is no evidence that people travelling back from the Cheltenham Festival or rugby matches brought cases of coronavirus into the country, a health expert has said. In March, there was criticism in Ireland at the festival organisers decision to allow Cheltenham go ahead. It came as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced strict measures to contain the spread of the virus with the closure of schools, colleges and the cancellation of large scale gatherings. Read More WATCH: Georges Street Arcade reopens without charging businesses rent HSE chief executive living in Leitrim and making essential trips to capital in lockdown Expand Close Essential work: HSE chief executive Paul Reid delivers a weekly operational update on the response to Covid-19 in Dublin at the end of May. Photo: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Essential work: HSE chief executive Paul Reid delivers a weekly operational update on the response to Covid-19 in Dublin at the end of May. Photo: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland The HSE has confirmed that its chief executive Paul Reid had been working from his home in Co Leitrim and been making essential trips to Dublin city since March where he has another house, reports Eilish O'Regan Read More 17.55 09/06/2020 Nine further virus deaths in Ireland with nine new cases Reports Gabija Gataveckaite The coronavirus death toll in Ireland has risen to 1,691 after a further nine people have died. Nine new cases have also been confirmed by NPHET today. In total, there have been 25,215 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. There is currently a total of 110 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in hospital, with of these 35 cases in ICU. As of midnight Monday 8 June, 367,780 tests were carried out. Over the past week, 19,364 tests were carried out. 185 tests were positive, giving a positivity rate of 1pc. Todays data from the HPSC, as of midnight, Sunday 7 June (25,206 cases), reveals: 57pc are female and 43% are male the median age of confirmed cases is 48 years 3,331 cases (13pc) have been hospitalised Of those hospitalised, 413 cases have been admitted to ICU 8,087 cases are associated with healthcare workers Dublin has the highest number of cases at 12,159 (48pc of all cases) followed by Cork with 1,529 cases (6pc) and then Kildare with 1,424 cases (6pc) Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 38pc, close contact accounts for 59pc, travel abroad accounts for 2pc. 16.45 09/06/2020 Priests and ministers will wear face coverings to distribute Communion Priests and ministers of the eucharist will wear face coverings while distributing Communion. The catholic bishops today issued their formal guidance to priests on the return to public sacraments and the health protocols parishes must put in place to ensure people can worship safely. Read More Pod systems and no pools or showers: inside the Covid-proof gyms of the future Expand Close Sean Harding, owner of Back2Basics gym in Dublin. Photo: Mark Condren / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sean Harding, owner of Back2Basics gym in Dublin. Photo: Mark Condren Amid warnings they could be grounds for super spreading, gyms around the country prepare to reopen, writes Eva Hall Read More 16.12 09/06/2020 Coronavirus surge warning as restrictions eased in world's poorest regions Expand Close People wearing facemasks queuing outside Ikea in Dublin as the next phase of Irelands Covid-19 lockdown exit begins (Niall Carson/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People wearing facemasks queuing outside Ikea in Dublin as the next phase of Irelands Covid-19 lockdown exit begins (Niall Carson/PA) Maria Cheng and Mauricio Savarese, Associated Press Experts have warned that a further surge of coronavirus in under-developed regions with shaky health systems could undermine efforts to halt the pandemic. Scientists have called for more realistic options as many countries begin lifting lockdown measures. Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, India and Pakistan are among the countries easing tight restrictions before their outbreaks have peaked or any detailed surveillance and testing system have been put in place to keep the virus under control Dr Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Exeter, said: "Politicians may be desperate to get their economies going again, but that could be at the expense of having huge numbers of people die." He said reimposing recently lifted lockdown measures was equally dangerous. "Doing that is extremely worrying because then you will build up a highly resentful and angry population, and it's unknown how they will react," he added. And as nearly every developed country struggles with its own outbreak, there may be fewer resources to help those with long overstretched capacities. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation, said the pandemic is "worsening" globally, noting that on Sunday countries reported the biggest ever one-day total: more than 136,000 cases. Among those, nearly 75pc of the cases were from 10 countries in the Americas and South Asia. Wealthy countries in Europe and North America hit first by the pandemic are training armies of contact tracers to hunt down cases, designing tracking apps and planning virus-free air travel corridors. But in many poor regions where crowded slums and streets mean even basic measures like hand-washing and social distancing are difficult, coronavirus is exploding now that restrictions are being removed. Last week, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, India and Pakistan all saw one-day records of new infections or deaths as they reopened public spaces and businesses. 'The miracle man': 'Lazarus' O'Brien (85) defies odds to return home after surviving coronavirus Expand Close Happy family: Kyran OBrien returns home to Finglas where he was met by wife Pat and their family from back left, granddaughter Megan, daughters Lisa and Debbie and (in front from left) son Kyran Jnr, grandaughter Rhea (5) and grandson Sean. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Happy family: Kyran OBrien returns home to Finglas where he was met by wife Pat and their family from back left, granddaughter Megan, daughters Lisa and Debbie and (in front from left) son Kyran Jnr, grandaughter Rhea (5) and grandson Sean. Photo: Steve Humphreys An 85-year-old man who defied the odds and survived Covid-19 despite battling other life-threatening issues for almost a year was given a hero's welcome when he returned to his home in Finglas yesterday, writes Allison Bray Read More 'Safe breaks' - What do Failte Ireland's new guidelines mean for hotels, restaurants and my next holiday? Failte Ireland's long-awaited guidelines for the "safe reopening" of tourism have landed. Travel editor Pol O Conghaile explains what they mean for holidaymakers. Read More 15.10 09/06/2020 Tayto Park reverses decision to open next week Reports Gabija Gataveckaite Tayto Park has reversed its decision reopen next Thursday. Earlier today, the amusement park in Co Meath issued a statement saying that it will be reopening on June 18 and was taking online bookings. However, after its website was "overwhelmed" with bookings, it reversed its decision to reopen after reviewing "statutory regulations". "However, on reviewing statutory regulations that were published late yesterday evening (June 8), is with regret that Tayto Park will have to remain closed until regulations permit us to reopen," reads a statement. Those who booked tickets will be reimbursed. "Such was the demand for tickets this morning, that our website was overwhelmed. We apologise to those who did manage to book tickets, you will be reimbursed in full. We apologise to all of guests and members for this inconvenience." "We look forward to welcoming you back to Tayto Park in the near future. We also appreciate the immediate support we received from the media. We promise that Tayto Park will be worth the wait," the statement added. Ray Coyle, founder of Largo Foods which manufactures Tayto crisps also apologised: Were terribly sorry, particularly given the huge amount of excitement and support we received this morning from everyone. Myself and the entire team at Tayto Park look forward to welcoming everyone when regulations allow. 14:25 9/06/2020 Dublin Well Woman Centre calls for resumption of CervicalCheck screening Eilish ORegan A date for the resumption of CervicalCheck screening, which has been paused since late March due to COVID-19, is urgently needed, the Dublin Well Woman Centre said today. The centre resumed smear testing on May 18 in support of a CervicalCheck pilot with an understanding that the pilot would move, without interruption, into an immediate re-start of the national cervical screening programme. At this juncture, no re-start date has been announced, said chief executive Alison Begas. Health Minister Simon Harris has indicated a plan is underway for the phased resumption of screening programmes. The Dublin Well Woman Centre said that as the largest smear-taker in CervicalCheck, it has always promoted the importance of screening as a means of detecting early cellular change, thus allowing for swifter diagnosis and the appropriate medical intervention. Ms Begas said : In April, DWWC wrote to the Minister for Health, and to CervicalCheck, to express our concern over the adverse health outcomes that could arise for women from putting on hold the national cervical screening programme. We are advocates for womens health, we know that screening saves lives, and the screening programme needs to resume as a matter of priority. CervicalCheck engaged with the DWWC in early May and asked them to resume taking smears as a pilot, to enable CervicalCheck to test the HPV test pathway, prior to resuming screening on a national basis. The centre welcomed this and began issuing over 950 invitation letters to its patients -across all age and recall categories- on May 15 , and has been taking smear tests in its three Dublin clinics since then. The pilot is due to finish in June 19, but there is still no date for the resumption of the CervicalCheck screening programme on a national basis. We are deeply concerned over the adverse health impact on women of the ongoing suspension of cervical screening nationally, said Dr Shirley McQuade, Well Womans Medical Director. Based on our clinical experience, we know that women are proactive and take seriously the importance of scheduling regular smear tests. It is also the case that many women held off attending for their routine test in Quarter 1 of 2020, as they knew a more accurate testing methodology would be rolled out at the end of March. Our three Dublin clinics have experienced growing numbers of women contacting us in recent weeks, anxious to arrange their smear appointment. We are pleased to be working with CervicalCheck in helping get the cervical screening programme up and running again, but a date for a national roll-out is urgently required. 1:00 9/06/2020 Failte Ireland issues guidelines for the 'safe reopening' of Irish tourism and hospitality Pol O Conghaile Hundreds of new guidelines for the "safe re-opening" of Irish tourism and hospitality have been published by Failte Ireland today. With hotels, restaurants and tourism attractions now cleared to open from June 29, research has shown that health and reassurance measures - "safe breaks" - are critical to home holidaymakers, it says. The guidelines also give a sobering view of the learning curve ahead for staycationers, and the massive task facing Irish tourism. Big changes include advice on rigorous new sanitisation regimes, restructuring and staff training, and guests can expect distancing markers and hand sanitiser at every turn. Read More 11:23 9/06/2020 Healthcare worker as young as 30 among deaths from coronavirus Ann Marie Walsh and Eilish ORegan A worker as young a thirty years old is among the seven healthcare staff who have died from the coronavirus, new figures reveal. There have been seven fatalities- six confirmed and one probable- among healthcare workers from the virus who ranged in age from 30 to 68 years of age. The detailed breakdown of the infection toll on healthcare staff has been provided to unions by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. It shows that overall to the end of May 8,018 healthcare workers were diagnosed- 31.6pc of all people who contracted the virus here so far. Some 302 were hospitalised and 44 were admitted to intensive care. Nearly one in five of health staff- 1,577 - who got the virus were working in nursing homes and 705 were employed in hospitals. Another 335 were working in residential institutions and 198 in community or long stay units. Six in ten are likely to have picked it up at work and others contracted the virus through close contact with an infected person, through travel and in the community. Around 58 picked it up from a patient and 2,551 are under investigation to find the source. One third of healthcare workers who became infected had underlying health conditions and over half had none. Nurses account for one third of healthcare staff who got the virus and a quarter were healthcare assistants.Allied healthcare workers who include therapists account for 23.4pc infected. Some 483 doctors got the virus and 90 porters were infected.Most infection happened in the east of the country . The highest number of infections were reported in April and they have since declined. 10:40 9/06/2020 Leading researcher calls for Government to implement plans to stamp out Covid-19 Cate McCurry, PA A leading researcher in Ireland said the Government should adopt Covid-19 measures that will stamp out all active cases. It comes after more than 1,000 scientists and researchers called for the Government to suppress coronavirus rather than learning to live with the virus under a long-term mitigation strategy. On Monday, New Zealands health officials said there were no longer any known active cases of Covid-19 in the country. Anthony Staines, professor of health systems at Dublin City University (DCU), said Ireland should aim to do the same. How we do that is we start from where we are in releasing the lockdown and we encourage people to wear masks, he told RTEs Morning Ireland. We put a lot of emphasis on getting testing and tracing of contacts running really fast. We have made a lot of progress but were not there yet. 09:30 9/06/2020 Creches still in dark on funding support just weeks before re-opening Anne-Marie Walsh Childcare providers are waiting for information on funding support a Government department report said would be outlined by June 5. The 'Planning for Reopening Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare Services' report said that the "funding envelope" would be made known by June 5 and would detail any subsidies and grants for centre-based services and registered childminders. Providers said that they are still in the dark about funding, including whether a wage subsidy scheme would be extended. Read More 08:30 9/06/2020 France unveils 15bn support plan for aerospace industry Independent.ie Business Desk France on Tuesday unveiled what it described as a 15bn support package for its aerospace industry, saying huge numbers of jobs were at stake amid a slump in air travel demand due to the coronavirus crisis. The plan includes an investment fund starting at 500m with a target of 1bn to boost the development of medium-sized suppliers, and 300m of other aid to help aerospace sub-contractors modernise plants. France will also invest 1.5bn over three years to support research into new environmentally friendly aviation technology, of which 300m will be available this year. Read More 07:10 9/06/2020 Sweden's strategy for herd immunity 'has failed' Richard Orange Expand Close FILE PHOTO: View of a warning message, that customers cannot stand at the bar and must sit at tables to be served during the coronavirus outbreak, at a pub in Stockholm, Sweden, March 26, 2020. REUTERS/Colm Fulton/File Photo / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp FILE PHOTO: View of a warning message, that customers cannot stand at the bar and must sit at tables to be served during the coronavirus outbreak, at a pub in Stockholm, Sweden, March 26, 2020. REUTERS/Colm Fulton/File Photo Sweden's opposition MPs have said the country's Covid-19 herd immunity strategy has "failed miserably" and demanded the resignation of the chief epidemiologist. In a blistering opinion article that analysts said marked the end of a political truce during the national crisis, the leader of the populist Sweden Democrats said the state had failed to protect vulnerable citizens. "Anders Tegnell should therefore resign," wrote Jimmie Akesson in the 'Dagens Nyheter' newspaper, referring to the architect of the strategy. "Only then will he show the Swedish people that he takes responsibility for the mistakes [the Public Health Agency of Sweden] has made." Read More 07:10 9/06/2020 Two-metre rule may be relaxed as part of hospitality review Cormac McQuinn A senior Government minister has offered hope to the hospitality industry that the two-metre social distancing rule can be relaxed to allow the sector to recover from the massive hit it has taken from the coronavirus crisis. Business Minister Heather Humphreys said it may not be necessary for the two metres to strictly apply if the transmission rate of the disease remains low. It comes after it was revealed by the Irish Independent less than a quarter of people working in hotels, restaurants and pubs will return to their jobs at the end of the month if the strict rule is maintained for the industry. Read More 07:00 9/06/2020 Watchdog warned that 124 nursing homes 'need extra help' Catherine Fegan and Cormac McQuinn The State's health watchdog warned the Department of Health that 124 nursing homes would need extra support to manage a Covid-19 outbreak, documents reveal. A Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) risk assessment of the country's 580 public and private nursing homes also said historical non-compliance with care and welfare regulations posed an additional risk in some settings. A screen grab showing Buffalo riot police pushing 75-year-old Martin Gugino to the ground. (Twitter) Has President Trump finally found a way to dissolve his own coalition? On Tuesday morning, the president launched an unprovoked attack on Twitter against a 75-year-old man who'd suffered a head injury after riot police in Buffalo had shoved him to the ground. The Buffalo News described the man, Martin Gugino, as "a longtime peace activist" from nearby Amherst, N.Y. ; a video of the incident has been viewed countless times across the country. Trump's take? Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020 Ordinarily, Trump's conspiracy theories can take root because they're targeted against people who are, at least to his followers, unsympathetic. But Gugino is antifa like I am Jeff Bezos. I mean, he's not even wearing the uniform. And if he is what antifa is bringing to the fight, the fascists have already won. In other words, the target here isn't a cipher whom Trump can define however he likes. The guy probably looks like many Trump supporters' grandfather. He's a lanky man who sought to talk to riot police when they were determined to enforce a daytime curfew. And Trump can say he "fell harder," but everyone can see the blood pooling around his head. And everyone can see the cop being pulled away by other cops as he tries to check on the old guy lying stunned on the sidewalk, bleeding from the head. Much has been made of the president's loyal base of supporters, the ones who see Trump as heroically fighting to bring the governing elite into line with the average American, despite the powerful political and media forces arrayed against him. But he has also enjoyed the backing of a good-sized chunk of people with far better things to do than get lost in politics, who supported (or maybe just tolerated) Trump for a variety of reasons Washington was out of touch and needed rattling, the media couldn't be trusted, the fruits of the growing economy were being harvested by others, you name it. Trump and the doings in Washington weren't part of their reality; they were just a sideshow. Story continues Occasionally, though, even people who aren't absorbed by politics and the federal government have their attention riveted by something so important, it intrudes on their daily lives. And when that happens, Trump's coalition frays and his approval rating tanks. We saw it in late 2017, when the president and congressional Republicans muscled a tax cut through Congress. Trump's approval rating hit a record low then, as many Americans were persuaded that the bill was a giveaway to corporations and wealthy Americans. We saw it in early 2019, when Trump shut down the government for months in a futile effort to strong-arm Congress into funding his border wall. And we are seeing it now. It's easy to fall into camps on divisive issues when you have no data to inform you. If you weren't there, you might believe it when someone calls a protester a rioter. You might look at the handful of pictures our newspaper shows of burning buildings and burglars emptying storefronts and think they justify whatever the police do to clear the streets. But the video of Gugino being toppled, injured and left behind by the men sworn to serve and protect him is hard to spin. So, too, are the hundreds of reports of police uses of force against protesters that are circulating online. (For a primer, follow North Carolina lawyer T. Greg Doucette.) Trump has sought to turn Democrats and their likely nominee for president, Joe Biden, into dangerous radicals who want to disband police forces across the country. His Twitter feed and his public comments in the past two weeks have trumpeted the Nixonian theme of "law and order," as if crime rates across the country hadn't plummeted over the past few decades. What people are seeing and hearing for themselves, in their own communities, tells them something else is going on. And maybe, just maybe, the folks who've been loosely attached to Trump for one reason or another will finally notice the man who wants to wield state power like a Third World autocrat and who recklessly feeds conspiracy theories to stoke hate and distrust. Gugino may have been violating curfew by a few minutes, but he was exercising a couple of 1st Amendent rights we all should cherish: the rights to assemble peacefully and to protest government actions. He was the proverbial little guy trying to stand up to a bully. And which side did Trump take? Coronavirus: Spain opens Balearic islands to German tourists Pilot project to check protocols at airports, hotels (ANSAmed) - ROME, JUNE 9 - The Spanish government has decided to open in advance on June 15 the Balearic islands to foreign tourists, for the moment German nationals. It will not be a general reopening but a pilot project that concerns a limited number of tourists to verify that protocols at airports, hotels ad other venues are working properly, El Pais reports. The country chosen for the project is Germany because it has a similar epidemiological situation, El Pais said, quoting government sources. The government is also negotiating a similar plan with the government of the Canary islands. As far as tourists from other EU countries are concerned, the Spanish government is reportedly considering to open its borders on July 1 as scheduled. (ANSAmed) Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address a virtual rally for West Bengal at 11 am on Tuesday (June 9) and it is expected that during his address Shah would attack the ruling TMC government over its failure to handle the coronavirus pandemic and the migrant labour crisis in the state. The virtual rally of Shah is part of BJP's "Atmanirbhar Bharat" campaign. It is to be noted that few days ago the BJP had released a "nine-point chargesheet" against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's rule over the past nine years. Upping the ante against TMC government, the saffron party has recently floated a social media drive christened 'Aar Noi Mamata' (no longer Mamata's rule). "The rally will kick off a political change in this state," Bengal's BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said on Monday while announcing the mega online event. "It is a first for us and our party will set a world record in the number of people attending." According to the BJP leaders, around 1 crore people across West Bengal would attend the virtual rally online which will be relayed live at 78,000 booths across the state. The rally will start at BJP office in Kolkata and Ghosh will launch the rally from the party's office. After Ghosh's speech, Shah will start his address from New Delhi. The former BJP chief will also interact with around 1,000 BJP workers and will answer their questions. The virtual rally of Shah comes days after he had claimed that the BJP will win the 2021 Assembly election in West Bengal. The BJP had performed superbly in 2019 Lok Sabha poll in West Bengal, winning 18 out of 42 seats. The TMC had managed to win 22 seats. 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 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 23:54:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KATHMANDU, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Nepal will study the movement of red pandas in the Panchthar-Ilam-Taplejung (PIT) Corridor through GPS trackers for a period of one year, an expert said on Tuesday. Ten red pandas, six females and four males, were successfully collared with GPS-satellite collars in Sandakpur Rural Municipality of Ilam district. The collars provide exceptional data on the movement and habitat use of the red pandas. "The tracker will help us study about the panda's movement, lifestyle, its interaction with different subjects throughout the period," said Sonam Tashi Lama, program coordinator of Red Panda Network (RPN), an international organization. "As the human settlement is increasing and development works are being carried out rapidly, the way red pandas adapt to the situation and the habitat area they cover will determine the need of corridor maintenance for their preservation." "The GPS records the location of the panda every two hours and sends the data through the satellite in the interval of 24 hours," Lama told Xinhua on Tuesday, adding that the study period will be a year as the batteries for the collars last for about the same period. The pandas were released back into the wild after being collared and the RPN has been receiving important data for science and monitoring them. Enditem Expect resolution with China in a months time: Sources India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 09: Indian officials say that the resolution with China, amidst a tense standoff could take up to a month. With both sides aware that they would have to go back to their top military and political leadership, the assessment is that it could take up to a month or slightly more for the issue to be resolved. On Saturday, a meeting had taken place between Lt. General Harinder Singh, commander of the Leh based 14 Corps and a Chinese delegation that was led by Major General Liu Lin, commander of the South Xinjiang military region. Both sides had kept it cordial and agreed to keep talking at the Brigadier level. Tense standoff with China, not affecting Indias strategic road projects A source said that the resolution would end only after the top leadership speaks with each other. That was how it was during the Doklam standoff and we do not expect it to be any different now. The positive that we can draw out of the current situation is that both sides have agreed to continue speaking. Moreover there has been no activity in the four stand off points along the Line of Actual Control. Meanwhile, in a bid to provide connectivity to an important forward area, India is working on two key roads near the China border in eastern Ladakh. WHO says coronavirus situation is worsening globally, disease raging in Americas| Oneindia News The first is the Darbuk-Syhok-DBO-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi road, which provides connectivity to the country's northern most outpost, Daulat Beg Oldi. The second one is the being built from Sasoma to Saser La. This clearly indicates that India is not allowing the tense stand off with China affect its strategic road projects, which are being undertaken by the Border Roads Organisation. Meanwhile, New Delhi is readying for a long haul before the problem with China is completely resolved. Following the talks with China on Saturday, sources had told OneIndia that both sides would go back to the top military and political leadership. The Ministry of External Affairs in its first remarks following the talks on Saturday said that the talks took place in a positive and cordial atmosphere. The statement underlined the agreement between Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping that peace and tranquility is essential for the overall development of bilateral relations. Both sides also noted that this year marked the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and agreed that an early resolution would contribute to the further development of the relationship, the MEA also said. Stand united, advises Rajnath Singh amidst row with China South Block has taken note of the sensitivities of the other side. The discussions were cordial and frank, the source cited above said. However, India is aware that this would be a long haul and would require several more rounds of talks, before the issue is resolved completely. Zurich Insurance Group has introduced a new legal panel to provide advice on the management of large and complex claims across the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region. The new panel consists of BLM, Clyde & Co, DAC Beachcroft LLP, DWF Law LLP, and Kennedys Law, which are all law firms that Zurichs claims teams have worked with in the past. The panel took effect on June 1, 2020, and will ensure greater transparency and consistency of claims legal services across the EMEA region, said Zurich. The panel complements existing country panel arrangements, providing the greatest benefit to claims that arise from Zurich International Programs, where more than one legal jurisdiction may be involved, explained the insurer. Engaging the most appropriate law firm and securing the right legal partner is essential on larger and more complex claims, where theres a need to balance the technical outcome with the economics while delivering on our claims commitment to our customers, said Group Chief Claims Officer Ian Thompson. The new panel arrangements will provide Zurich and our customers with a consolidated level of legal insight that we have not had in the past, allowing us to observe trends more closely and to make more informed decisions. It will also provide our international customers with a more joined-up experience on those claims involving multiple countries, added Thompson. Source: Zurich Insurance Topics Claims Building Hainan into a free trade port won't strike HKSAR: Chinese officials Global Times Source:Global Times Published: 2020/6/8 12:13:40 China's master plan to build South China's Hainan Province into a free trade port will not have a negative influence on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) as the two regions have different positions and main industries, and their relations complement rather than rival one another, Chinese officials said. The comments were made at a press briefing of the State Council Information Office on Monday. The briefing provided a detailed interpretation of a mega plan, which China released on June 1, to build its southernmost island into a world-class free trade port, with a major focus on financial opening-up. Lin Nianxiu, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's economic planner, said at the press briefing that Hainan will learn from predecessors such as the HKSAR, Singapore and Dubai, which are representatives of high-level global free trade ports and uphold international rules. Lin stressed that Hainan's position is different to Hong Kong's. "Hong Kong is an important global financial, trade and shipping center In Hainan, we will fully utilize its edge in abundant natural resources, its unique geographic position and its proximity to a massive market to facilitate trade and investment while promoting the development of the tourism, services and high-tech industries," Lin said. In the next step, Lin said that Hainan will strengthen coordination with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for joint development. "We will work together to ensure Hong Kong's security and long-term stability and prosperity. We will ensure the 'one country, two systems' principle." Liu Cigui, Party chief of Hainan, stressed that the Hainan free trade port is a port under "the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics." "We will not allow any moves that jeopardize national security and hamper [China's] socialist construction in any ideological perspective," Liu noted. Under the free trade port plan unveiled last week, Hainan will encourage free flows of six elements including trade, investment and cross-border capital. Goods will be subject to zero tariffs, and services will be allowed to access and operate in the market. Hainan Governor Shen Xiaoming said at the press briefing that Hainan will reduce barriers on market entry substantially to facilitate the opening-up of services sector. For example, Hainan will open up the basic telecommunications sector in a gradual manner and allow overseas securities, futures and fund institutions to set up wholly owned and joint ventures in the island. The mega plan for Hainan is divided into two stages, according to Lin. The major tasks from now until 2025 are to lay foundations and establish a unique customs clearing system. Relevant polices will be implemented in a comprehensive manner until 2035, Lin noted. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address MTN Nigeria Communications (MTNN) Plc on Tuesday announced the successful issuance of N100 billion Series I & II Commercial Paper (CP) notes. MTNN stated this in a notice to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the investing public signed by Uto Ukpanah, its Company Secretary. The company said the Series I 180 day CP was priced at an effective yield of 4.90 per cent for a N20 billion size. According to the statement, Series II 270 day CP sizes at N80 billion, clears at an effective yield of 5.95 per cent. We initially set out to issue up to N50 billion under the N100 billion programme but, at the conclusion of the bank book build, the CP issuance was 400 per cent subscribed. Given the significantly over-subscribed book, MTNN opted to issue up to the N100 billion limit of the registered CP programme, it said. It noted that the CP witnessed active participation from diverse eligible individual and institutional investors such as pension fund administrators, asset managers and corporates, among others. The level of interest in MTNNs debut in the Nigerian debt markets is a strong reflection of investor confidence in its ability to continue to deliver on its strategic objectives, the statement added. The companys Chief Executive Officer, Ferdinand Moolman, was quoted by the statement as saying that the N100 billion issued was the largest debut CP issuance by a Nigerian corporate entity. Mr Moolman said the CP would enable the company to broaden its sources of funding. It allows us to broaden our sources of funding and combines established lines of credit with access to capital market funding, which will lower our overall cost of borrowing. The proceeds from the issuance will be applied towards MTNNs working capital and general corporate purposes. The Series I & II notes will be listed on the FMDQ Securities Exchange, Mr Moolman stated. (NAN) Istanbul: Turkish authorities have ordered the detention of 191 military personnel over suspected links to the network Ankara says orchestrated a failed coup in 2016, state-owned Anadolu news agency has reported. Authorities have carried out a sustained crackdown on alleged followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen since the failed coup in July 2016, when 250 people were killed. Exiled Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen at his compound in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, in 2016. Credit:AP Gulen denies any involvement. The former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, US, since 1999. The police operation was co-ordinated from the western city of Izmir and targeted people in 22 provinces, Anadolu said. Police had already detained 145 of the suspects. Disney Resort hotels will reopen June 22, just in time for the July 11 reopening of Walt Disney World. According to Yahoo!, Disney will begin by reopening select Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts and Disneys Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. Once the parks reopen, some of the remaining resort hotels are expected to open for existing reservations but are subject to closures, limited capacity, and other terms. The Disney Resort hotels posted its guidance over the weekend, adding more specifics to an early proposal recommended for hotels by the Economic Recovery Task Force in Orange County, Florida. As expected, the hotels will have new guest requirements and cleaning protocols as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. First and foremost, people who experience coronavirus symptoms, have been in contact with someone with a confirmed or suspected case within the past 14 days, or are under quarantine orders will not be allowed to enter a Disney Resort hotel. BREAKING: Walt Disney World Resort Hotels to Reopen on July 11thhttps://t.co/N7Ba5J0x8K BlogMickey.com (@Blog_Mickey) May 27, 2020 Disney Resort hotels require a confirmed reservation for overnight stays and a confirmed dining reservation for day guests. Cashless or contactless forms of payment are recommended, and online check-in is suggested and guests will be automatically checked out of their rooms to eliminate the need for a front-desk interaction, reports USA Today. When out and about, face coverings must be worn by all guests ages 2 and older, except while swimming or dining. Disney Resort hotels has increased cleaning in public and high-traffic areas such as elevators and escalators, handrails, benches, tables, door handles and restrooms. In hotel rooms, light cleaning will be done every other day and will include trash removal, replacement of towels, replenishment of any amenities, and the wiping of vanity and other counter surfaces. Bus service will be available between Disney Resort hotels and Disney Springs retail and dining complex (reopened May 20), and the theme park upon reopening. But be prepared, its expected that guests will have longer waits for bus service due to reduced capacity because of social distancing. Available services include self-service laundry, fitness centers with reduced hours and capacity, guest luggage delivery, and complimentary airport transportation to and from Orlando International Airport. Not offered at this time are dry-cleaning and valet laundry service, fitness classes, arcades, dog parks, playgrounds, beauty salons, spas services, in-room child care, special classes and programs, and valet parking (except for guests with disabilities). Certain popular Disney activities will also look a bit different, such as pin-trading with cast members via pin boards rather than in person. 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. Read more: A banking giant has dropped the name of a slave-owning tobacco lord from its under-construction Northern hub in the midst of country-wide anti-racism protests. Barclays have removed the name 'Buchanan' from its riverside Buchanan Wharf development in Glasgow. It comes following a petition against the name of the site, which will be home to Barclay's offices, as well as 300 apartments, once built. The name of the site is thought to have connotations to the tobacco merchant and former Lord Provost of Glasgow, Andrew Buchanan, one of the Scotland's most famous 'tobacco lords' who had plantations in Virginia. It is thought the lords may have owned up to 300 slaves and some fought the abolition of slavery. Drum Property Group, who are working on the site, insist the development was actually named after Captain William Buchanan, 'one of Glasgow's most well-known steamboat owners'. However Barclays have today confirmed the development will be now known as the 'Barclays Glasgow Campus'. Barclays have removed the name 'Buchanan' from its riverside Buchanan Wharf development in Glasgow. Pictured: An artist's impression of the site The Scottish merchant who made his fortunes from tobacco plantations in Virginia Andrew Buchanan of Drumpellier was a Scottish tobacco merchant who was on of Glasgow's 'Tobacco Lords'. The lords, who comprised of merchants and slave traders, made enormous fortunes in the 18th century, which they spent on many grand buildings which still stand in Glasgow today. It is thought collectively they had around 300 slaves. Buchanan was one of the first Scots to have tobacco plantations in America, with major holdings in Virginia. In 1725 he set up a charity which gave financial help to apprentices and widows, but only those with the surname of Buchanan. He died in Glasgow in 1759 and is buried in the centre of the city. He has a street named after him, which was built after his death. Advertisement Glasgow City council has been notified of the plan, Glasgow Live reports. A spokesperson for Barclays told the local news website: 'Barclays has a consistent naming convention for our key global sites. 'In line with that practice we took the decision last year that our new state-of-the-art facilities in Glasgow will be called the Barclays Glasgow Campus. 'We will be using the city's historic Tradeston district in our address and we have already notified Glasgow City Council of our intention.' A spokesperson for Drum Property Group told Glasgow Live: 'As the Buchanan Wharf site progresses, so will the names associated with the development change as occupiers take ownership of their own buildings and rename them accordingly. This is a natural evolution of any development process. 'In the meantime, we are fully supportive of the City of Glasgows commitment to widen both debate and education on the matter of the citys merchant and slavery past and look forward to participating in the forthcoming programme of consultation. The change of name comes after a petition, signed by hundreds of people, was launched calling for the name to be changed due to Buchanan's links to the slave trade. The petition states: 'Glasgow should not be glorifying the horrific barbarity of the slave trade and its slave masters by naming its new city centre riverside development Buchanan Wharf.' Meanwhile anti-racism campaigners have renamed a handful of streets in Glasgow city centre that have links to the slave trade. Streets named after tobacco merchants and slave trade owners were replaced in favour of black campaigners and slaves by a group of activists. Anti-racism campaigners have renamed a handful of streets in Glasgow city centre that have links to the slave trade, including Buchanan Street Streets named after tobacco merchants and slave trade owners were replaced in favour of black campaigners and slaves by a group of activists. Pictured: Wilson Street is replaced by Rosa Parks Street - in honour of the American civil rights campaigner Buchanan Street, named after Andrew Buchanan, was given the name George Floyd Street after the man George Floyd, who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis last month. His death, for which officer Derek Chauvin was charged with murder, sparked days of protest around the world, including in England. Over the weekend in Bristol, protesters pulled down a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston and dumped it into a nearby harbour. Thousands of Black Lives Matter supporters also took to the streets in London over the weekend, where a small number of protesters clashed with police and 27 police officers were injured. Rainmaker Real Estate, Silicon Valleys newest boutique brokerage led by Bay Area real estate veteran Alex Wang, announces its debut today in partnership with Side, the only real estate brokerage platform that exclusively partners with high-performing agents, teams, and independent brokerages to transform them into boutique brands and businesses. Headquartered in Los Altos, Rainmaker Real Estate will leverage Sides cutting-edge brokerage platform and technology solutions to scale its brand and further support its already high-performing team of real estate agents as they build their businesses. Partnering with Side will ensure that Rainmaker Real Estate remains ahead of the ever-evolving real estate market while allowing its agents to continue delivering top-of-the-line services and results to their clients. Todays traditional brokerages remain resistant to change and dependent on legacy systems; they lack the innovation to provide true value to the real estate agent, said Founding Partner Alex Wang. In this post-pandemic world, Side's future-forward model is custom-built for my business. Its ahead of the curve in terms of providing an elegant solution that will adapt, grow and evolve with the ever-changing real estate industry. By taking care of all our support needs, my agents are able to free up their time to focus on whats most importanttheir clients, and to become the best business owners they can be. Recognized as a 2019 RIS Media Futurist, and by The Wall Street Journal as a Top 250 Real Estate Agent in the Nation since 2014, Alex Wang has been practicing real estate in the Silicon Valley Bay Area for over two decades, facilitating over $700M in sales volume since 1999. Prior to launching Rainmaker Real Estate, Alex was with Sereno Group Real Estate for over six years serving as a real estate evangelist working in communities throughout Silicon Valleys Peninsula and South Bay. Before joining Sereno Group, Alex found and managed Rainmaker Properties in 2007, a premier boutique real estate brokerage based in Palo Alto. Alex is a one-of-a-kind real estate professional who brings a wealth of real estate expertise in support of his vision for building a company of real estate rainmakers, said Guy Gal, Side CEO. Were thrilled that Rainmaker Real Estate agents will be leveraging Sides cutting-edge platform to accelerate the growth of their business. Side is led by experienced industry professionals and world-class engineers who develop technology designed to improve agent productivity and enhance the client experience. Based on its belief that homeownership is a fundamental human right, Side is on a mission to improve the public good by providing top-performing agents with the best real estate service, experience, and results. Launched in 2017, Side now powers over 700 real estate agents from the top 2% of the industrys top producing teams. About Rainmaker Real Estate At Rainmaker Real Estate, we understand that buying or selling property is a major life decision. Led by Bay Area top producer Alex Wang, we leverage expert negotiation tactics, innovative technology and established real estate practices to match buyers with their ideal homes and ensure that our sellers achieve the highest possible prices. Through our partnership with a venture-backed collective of technologists, lawyers, operators and marketers, we strive to protect you from the stresses of finances, negotiations, and closing, while ensuring that your results align with your goals. For more information, visit http://www.rainmakerrealestate.com. About Side Side transforms high-performing agents, teams and independent brokerages into successful businesses and boutique brands that are 100% agent-owned. Side exclusively partners with the best agents, empowering them with proprietary technology and a premier support team so they can be more productive, grow their business and focus on serving their clients. Side is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit http://www.sideinc.com. PHOENIX A Tucson-based national organization of doctors has sued the federal Department of Health and Human Services for putting roadblocks in the path of physicians who want to prescribe hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19. The lawsuit, filed in Michigan, asks a federal judge to overturn an order by the Food and Drug Administration, part of HHS, which says the drug can be obtained from the Strategic National Stockpile only when a patient has the virus and is hospitalized. Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of Physicians and Surgeons, told Capitol Media Services the agency is illegally restricting the rights of doctors to choose what is best for the patients. The action comes after Gov. Doug Ducey in April imposed his own restrictions on the use of hydroxychloroquine, forbidding Arizona doctors from prescribing the drug for prophylactic purposes absent a peer-reviewed medical study showing it is effective. To date, there has not been one. She and Dr. Michael Robb, the president of the Arizona chapter of the association, wrote to Ducey later that month asking him to rescind the order. We got no response at all, she said. But Orient said Monday the decision was made to sue not Ducey but the FDA. She said the presumption is that if its orders are voided, the governor will have no basis to deny the drug to Arizona residents. The lawsuit comes as another 789 new cases of COVID-19 were reported Monday, bringing the Arizona tally to 27,678, including 1,047 deaths. [June 09, 2020] ACMA Announces New Investment and Expansion in the Asian Life Sciences Market NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs (ACMA) today announced its new head of business for Asia, Yue Hu. The appointment of this new position is part of a larger effort by the ACMA, which will invest several million dollars into growing its footprint in the Asia market. The ACMA has also established a leadership council to represent the interests of medical affairs professionals in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam along with other Asian countries. "The pharmaceutical market has grown significantly in Asia and we are now seeing a rapid increase in the numbers of companies hiring medical science liaisons (MSLs) and medical affairs professionals," said ACMA Founder and CEO, Dr. William Soliman. "These new teams need to set their bar for excellence high to deliver value to their companies, their ky opinion leader stakeholders and patients." The ACMA developed the first board certification ever for MSLs and medical affairs professionals in 2015 and its Board Certified Medical Affairs Specialist (BCMAS) program is now considered the industry standard in the pharma world. "The importance of establishing global professional standards in the pharmaceutical industry for medical affairs professionals cannot be overstated," said Eric Bouilloux, Associate Vice President Scientific Affairs Operations, Accord Healthcare. "Other professional bodies across the healthcare world all have minimum standards of excellence. Medical affairs and MSL professionals are no different. Critically, with BCMAS we are also distinguishing ourselves from pharma sales professionals." About the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs The ACMA's mission is to help medical affairs professionals achieve the highest standards for excellence. The company provides a comprehensive solution suite to medical affairs teams around the globe. The company's flagship Board Certified Medical Affairs Specialist (BCMAS) professional certification program for MSLs and Medical Affairs professionals is the industry standard now in over 40 countries. The ACMA also provides medical CRM, AI-powered predictive analytics, medical information outsourcing, prior authorization certification, and medication safety and regulatory affairs services. For more information about the need for global standards of excellence in medical affairs, visit https://www.MedicalAffairsSpecialist.org/ Media Contact: Adam Bianchi Tel: 1-855-255-7137 Email: [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/acma-announces-new-investment-and-expansion-in-the-asian-life-sciences-market-301069884.html SOURCE Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Dont see eye to eye: Angela Merkel and Donald Trump have sparred repeatedly over various issues. Photo: John Macdougall/Pool via Reuters Chancellor Angela Merkel's government said it's received no official word from Washington on plans to withdraw US troops from Germany, the latest sign of the deteriorating relations between the two countries. "As of this hour, there is no official confirmation by the appropriate authorities in the United States whether these plans will really be carried out or not," Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said during a press conference in Berlin yesterday, days after the news was reported by numerous media outlets. "We're only aware of the information that is in the press." Ms Merkel's chief spokesman Steffen Seibert earlier had a similar response when asked at a news conference. US President Donald Trump's directive to pull 9,500 troops from Germany caught authorities off guard and underscored just how much relations between Washington and Berlin have cooled. "The fact is that the presence of US soldiers in Germany serves the overall security of Nato, so American security as well," Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer said. "That's the basis of our co-operation." Ms Merkel and Mr Trump have sparred repeatedly over issues from international trade to defence strategy. The two have also taken divergent paths to combating the coronavirus. Last month, she snubbed the US president's plan to hold an in-person Group of Seven summit. While Mr Trump has long insisted that Germany must step up defence spending, Ms Merkel has stood her ground on a broad range of issues, insisting on a multi-lateral, rules-based approach to global economic affairs and on a pipeline that is to carry Russian gas to Germany despite US opposition. Lawmakers and government officials in Berlin criticised Mr Trump's troop decision, which would cut US forces in Germany by slightly more than a quarter, as an affront. The Chinese government has said it has agreed to delay debt repayments for low-income countries, as part of the Group of 20 nations debt relief programme. The country has suspended debt repayments from 77 developing countries and regions, Ma Zhaoxu, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, said at a State Council briefing Sunday in Beijing. In April, the G-20 agreed to provide temporary debt relief to the worlds poorest nations, with the moratorium starting May 1. In addition to the debt holiday, China has pledged to provide $2 billion to help other countries respond to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, including $50 million donated to the World Health Organization, Ma said. Ma did not provide any details on the terms of the debt relief. Source: Bloomberg 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 Privacy-focused web browser startup Brave is partnering with the popular Korean pop group BTS and e-sports team Rush Gaming to release a limited edition version of its browser for Japan residents. Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported on the Brave and BTS partnership, saying the collaboration will focus on changing the nature of interactions between celebrities and their fans. Word of the partnership emerged on June 5. BTS is the best-selling Korean music act of all time, having sold more than 20 million album copies as of this past April. According to the article, the browser will allow fans in one of the world's crypto hotspots to earn points by watching ads to support Rush Gaming. A blog post on a Japan-based fan website for BTS indicates (per a Google translation) that the browser will include "a special home screen of BTS" connected to a film release scheduled for July. Des Martin, Brave's head of marketing and growth, tweeted out a link regarding "a custom version of Brave with BTS background." The news came a day before Brave was mired in controversy over the discovery that the browser was found to autocomplete websites and keywords in its address bar with an affiliate code. CEO Brendan Eich later said it was "a mistake we're correcting." Image Credit: Silvia Elizabeth Pangaro / Shutterstock.com 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. DUBLIN, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Drop, the leading smart kitchen platform, today announced $13.3 million in Series A funding co-led by Alpha Edison and Morpheus Ventures with participation from Act Venture Capital. The company is ushering in a new era for home cooking, in partnership with the world's biggest appliance makers like Instant Brands, Kenwood, and Panasonic. Drop believes it can unify the fragmented cooking experience by integrating appliances of all kinds with a recipe app that makes perfect cooking simple. Steve Horowitz, partner at Alpha Edison, and Ray Musci, managing director at Morpheus Ventures, will also join Drop's board of directors. Horowitz led the engineering team that created Android and views Drop's technology as the foundation of the connected kitchen, providing an agnostic platform that allows every appliance in the kitchen to work seamlessly together. "In the same way Android armed an industry to compete in the smartphone game, Drop is primed to be the platform that all brands operate on, fundamentally changing the way we use technology in the kitchen. The consumer experience will be enhanced dramatically to the benefit of everyone people cooking at home and the appliance manufacturers." The global home appliances market is valued at $200 billion. Big brands looking to secure loyalty and customer engagement find it hard to compete with hardware alone in a space that's being threatened by data-rich online marketplaces like Amazon. Expected to innovate quickly and cheaply, these companies work with Drop because they need a neutral partner with expertise in backend infrastructure and compelling software that can be accessed without the time and expense of in-house teams. "Kitchens need Drop - they are a mix of motors, sensors and heating elements, with wildly different interfaces, and recipes written in a hundred year old format," said Ben Harris, CEO and co-founder at Drop. "Our platform marries your appliances and favorite recipes into a magical, connected, experience. Drop makes cooking so rewarding and easy that people choose to make food at home instead of just getting takeout, sparking joy in all of those homes." Connected home is on the rise, and the kitchen shows the biggest potential for brands to work together through a platform that is appliance and brand agnostic. Drop's Kitchen OS connects all stages of the cooking journey, operating as a place where appliance manufacturers, recipe publishers and grocers can come together to inspire and guide everyday cooks at home. The experience gives home cooks consistent success and the most value from their appliances, while R&D teams receive never before seen information on how those appliances are being used. "Consumers are looking for ease of use, less friction, and security," said Ray Musci, Managing Director at Morpheus Ventures. "The brands working with Drop drive engagement through a rich UX with data that informs better product development. Demonstrating value like that for both the consumer and manufacturer is how the connected kitchen will thrive." For more information about Drop, please visit kitchenos.com . About Drop Drop is the leading smart kitchen platform specializing in recipe and kitchen appliance technology to connect the whole cooking journey. Over 100 different appliance models from brands like Bosch, Electrolux, GE Appliances, Instant Brands, Panasonic, Kenwood, LG Electronics and Thermomix can now be controlled from the Drop Kitchen OS platform and the Drop Recipes app at the center of it all. With offices in San Francisco, Dublin, Ireland, and Zaragoza, Spain, a love for great food is at its core. Each recipe and appliance partner added to the platform makes for an even stronger Kitchen OS, inspiring home cooks to make food more. To learn more visit https://kitchenos.com About Alpha Edison Alpha Edison is a knowledge-driven venture capital firm that invests in companies unlocking new markets. Using data and behavioral science, Alpha Edison uncovers the full potential of business model innovations and helps entrepreneurs make better decisions and expose latent demand as they scale their enterprise. For more information, visit www.alphaedison.com . About Morpheus: Morpheus invests in the disruption of large markets across the technology landscape from consumer to enterprise technologies including data analytics, machine learning, robotics, transportation, and SaaS. The firm is headquartered in Los Angeles and backs great entrepreneurs worldwide. For more information, see www.morpheus.com . SOURCE Drop Related Links http://www.kitchenos.com The distraught friends of a missing fisherman who vanished just a few months after his dream wedding say they will likely never know what happened to him. Paul Brazier's loved ones have turned their focus toward helping his devastated wife and two children as police try to piece together what happened. The 37-year-old of Hervey Bay, Queensland, set out alone on an overnight fishing trip on May 25 and vanished. The community has been in shock at the disappearance of one of its best loved fishermen (pictured with his wife Terri Brazier) Distraught friends of missing fisherman Paul Brazier, 37, (pictured) said their souls have been 'torn from our chests' after he disappeared while on a fishing trip near Fraser Island on May 25 Matt Spargo, a friend of Mr Brazier, said the fisherman's boat (pictured) was in great condition and equipped with all the right safety gear, including an emergency beacon Two days later his boat was found floating upside down near Rooney's Point on the northern tip of the inside of Fraser Island. Matt Spargo, a close friend to Mr Brazier, said the souls of his many friends had been 'torn from our chests'. He set up a GoFundMe page to help Mr Brazier's shattered wife Terri, who is left to raise their two children alone. According to Mr Spargo, Mr Brazier's boat was equipped with all the proper safety gear and was in 'great condition' when he disappeared. 'The police are still completing their investigation to try and work out what happened but it's clear that we will never really know what happened,' he wrote. 'Paulie's wife has no shortage of support around her and we will make sure his family comes through this and gets to the other side of whatever this is. 'The situation unravelled slowly and it was day after day of brutal ups and downs, and after all of this we still have no real answers apart from the gut wrenching fact that he is gone.' Terri Brazier shared the last picture taken with her husband, living the dream in the afternoon sun on his boat. 'Please Paulie we need you. Love you forever and ever and ever,' she wrote. Mr Spargo said friends and family were coming to terms with the realisation they may never know what happened to Mr Brazier (pictured for the final time with his wife Terri Brazier) The couple married in August last year (pictured) at a beautiful country wedding in the Lockyer Valley Hundreds of family and friends have emerged to offer support on social media and Mr Spargo has set up a GoFundMe page to help support to his heartbroken wife and two children 'Our last photo together. I would do anything to have you here with me now. Love you Paul Brazier forever.' He left Urangan Boat Harbour in his white half-cabin powerboat, a 5.4m-long 2002 Yalta, at about 1.30pm, but never returned. It was not unusual for him to go fishing alone in the area and he did not set off an emergency beacon. His worried family called police when he didn't return, with officers and marine rescue volunteers searching for days by air, sea and land. It's a popular spot with Hervey Bay's recreational fishermen with abundant mackerel, marlin, tuna, coral trout, snapper, trevally and sharks in deep holes of up to 40m and reef gutters. But there was no sign of Paul. His boat was towed back to Hervey Bay on May 31 and police called off the official search the following day. Mr Brazier(pictured on his wedding day) left Urangan Boat Harbour in his white half-cabin powerboat, a 5.4m-long 2002 Yalta, at about 1.30pm, but never returned The shock disappearance of the happy, loved family man has moved the community to rally around Mrs Brazier (pictured with Paul on their wedding day) The couple married in a beautiful country wedding in August last year at Branell Homestead in the scenic Lockyer Valley, an hour from Brisbane. Their family photos show a happy family, enjoying life with their children, having barbecues in the backyard, cooking up fresh mudcrabs, toasting marshmallows, walking the dog. In November the couple took a trip to Brisbane for Paul's 37th birthday, living it up with a bottle of Moet in a Meriton suite. The shock disappearance of the happy, loved family man has moved the community to rally around Mrs Brazier, with hundreds of messages of support flowing on social media. 'My heart breaks for your gorgeous little family. Sending love and strength to you all,' wrote Ali Kidd. 'Please know we are still just around the corner if you need anything at all Terri. Our thoughts and love are with you and your beautiful kids,' wrote Nadine Cullen. Others spoke of how welcoming and friendly the couple are, and how they helped them settle in to the community. Searchers in a fixed wing aircraft spotted his boat (pictured) floating upside down near Rooney's Point on the northern tip of the inside of Fraser Island 'You guys were some of the first people I met in Hervey bay, the nights at the pub after netball games were so fun and meant so much to me especially when I had a hard time making friends,' wrote Sara Elizabeth. 'My heart is breaking for you and the kids and all your friends. If you need anything please reach out.' While the official search has been called off, many still hold out hope that he will be found alive. Police have urged anyone who may have seen either Mr Brazier or his boat to contact them. 'If there's any members of the public that were out there fishing between Monday 25 May and Thursday 28 May - if they saw or heard anything up around Rooneys Point, through Platypus Bay there, please call Policelink,' said Sergeant Paul Bacon on Monday. Paul Brazier is caucasian, red-haired with a crew cut, a neat beard and moustache, about 177 centimetres tall and has freckles. If you have any information please call Policelink on 131 444. The two governments will form a JV which will see China invest around $500 million in setting up 450 MW of solar generation capacity and a 50 MW wind farm on land supplied by the host nation's North-West Power Generation Company.Bangladeshi power minister Nasrul Hamid has said the government has invited China to accelerate the renewable energy ambitions of the South Asian nation because private sector investors were not driving forward solar deployment fast enough. Welcoming the decision to form a joint venture (JV) between state-owned entities from each nation which will drive 450 MW of new ... 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. NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Napoli Shkolnik PLLC and Levy Konigsberg LLP have filed a products liability lawsuit against the manufacturers of a prescription drug Elmiron (pentosan polysulfate sodium) for, among other things, failing to warn plaintiff Valerie Hull of the potential risk of developing serious eye and vision-related injuries. The complaint was filed on behalf of Valerie Hull, a South Carolina resident, whose case was documented as "patient zero" in a published 2018 study conducted by Emory Eye Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Mrs. Hull is represented by two nationally known attorneys (Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC and Corey Stern of Levy Konigsberg LLP) who have teamed up in other litigations, including jointly leading the representation of thousands of injured children in the ongoing Flint Water Crisis litigation. The complaint filed by Shkolnik and Stern on June 9, 2020 in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Middlesex County, names Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and several other Johnson & Johnson entities as well as Teva Branded Pharmaceutical Products R&D, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., as the defendants who manufactured, marketed, and distributed Elmiron. The case is Hull vs. Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., et al., Case No. MIDL003646-20. Elmiron is commonly prescribed for the treatment of the bladder pain associated with interstitial cystitis (IC) and is also prescribed, less frequently, for osteoarthritis. Plaintiff Valerie Hull began taking Elmiron continuously from approximately 2001 until 2018. Unfortunately, as a result of long-term Elmiron use, Mrs. Hull suffers from serious visual injuries, including, but not limited to, changes in eye color pigment, severe vision degradation, loss of night vision, and pigmentary maculopathy. After noticing changes in her vision, Mrs. Hull sought medical treatment and became a patient of Dr. Nieraj Jain, an ophthalmologist at Emory Eye Center in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2018, Dr. Jain and other researchers published their findings, based on Mrs. Hull and five othersall of whom displayed the same unique eye injuries, but only shared one common medication: Elmiron. Since the Emory study, other researchers and physicians have concluded there is an association between Elmiron use and an increased risk of serious visual complications. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of patients, mostly women, have used Elmiron. The drug continues to be sold without any warning label about potential eye or vision complications. In some studies, up to 24% percent of Elmiron users have been found to have the unique eye damage caused by Elmiron. Attorney Hunter Shkolnik commented on the filing, stating, "Our clients have been using this drug for years yet to this day Johnson & Johnson refuses to warn of the risk of macular degeneration and blindness we hope these lawsuits will change that." If you or a loved one has been prescribed Elmiron and are experiencing any type of vision impairment, we encourage you to contact us. About Napoli Shkolnik PLLC Napoli Shkolnik PLLC is a national litigation firm providing representation to persons in mass tort, class action lawsuits and complex commercial cases, as well as victims of environmental contamination disasters, aviation accidents, defective prescriptions drugs and medical devices, asbestos-related illnesses, and other serious personal injury matters. With their principal offices in New York City and additional offices in California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, and Washington DC as well as affiliates throughout the United States, Napoli Shkolnik PLLC is readily available to clients. About Levy Konigsberg LLP Levy Konigsberg LLP (LK) has established itself as one of the nation's premier law firms, featuring highly acclaimed trial lawyers, who have won some of the nation's largest jury verdicts. With over 30 years of experience, the firm prides itself on the accomplishments attained by its lawyers in high-stakes cases involving mesothelioma, lead poisoning, sex abuse, defective pharmaceutical/medical device products, and whistleblower law. LK has litigated and won precedent-setting cases and obtained highly publicized rulings and judgments, including some of the highest awards for our clients in numerous areas of litigation. As advocates for victims and their families, plaintiff's advocates, we pledge the best of our experience, skill, and resources to every client. SOURCE Napoli Shkolnik PLLC Related Links www.napolilaw.com DEAR MAYO CLINIC: Years ago, I had some patches of melasma on my face removed with IPL treatment. When I went to make an appointment with my dermatologist recently for the same condition, I was told IPL should not be used for melasma. Why is this? What treatment should be used? ANSWER: The skin condition melasma can be challenging to get rid of completely, and as a chronic condition, it can come back after treatment. With the treatment you mention, intense-pulsed light or IPL, melasma often reappears quickly. Intense-pulsed light also carries a risk of heating the surrounding skin, which is thought to worsen melasma. To treat melasma, sun protection, topical medications and cosmetic procedures often are combined to achieve the best results. Melasma is a common condition that appears as irregular patches of tan, brown or brown-gray pigmentation, usually on the face. Melasma affects women much more frequently than men. Patients with darker skin also are more likely to develop melasma. The most common trigger for melasma is ultraviolet light from sun exposure. Melasma may develop as a result of hormone changes due to pregnancy or certain medications, such as oral contraceptives. Recently, research has found that blue light emitted from light bulbs, computer screens and other electronic devices can worsen melasma. Melasma tends to run in families, which points to a genetic component of this disorder too. When facial pigmentation first appears, its important to see a dermatologist for a definitive diagnosis because melasma may be subtle and can look like other skin conditions. Once diagnosed, the goal of melasma treatment is to decrease the production of pigment and remove areas of excess pigmentation that already have appeared. Intense-pulsed light treatment for melasma uses a broad spectrum of light to generate heat to target and remove pigment. But the heat diffuses to all the surrounding tissues. That can lead to complications, including a condition known as post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, which causes more dark patches to appear. Research shows that intense-pulsed light can improve melasma in the short term, but relapse often is seen within three months. More recently, fractional nonablative lasers have been studied for the treatment of melasma. These lasers resurface the skin and remove pigment through heated columns, but they leave the skin around the columns untouched. Different devices with different levels of power are available, so the treatment can be individualized for each patient. Unlike the set 100% coverage of intense-pulsed light, these lasers can treat as low as 5% of the skin to slowly remove pigment with a much lower risk of relapse or worsening of melasma. When considering melasma treatment overall, however, topical treatment is the key to success. It should be used before any light or laser procedure and, to decrease the risk of relapse, it should be continued even when those procedures are recommended. Topical hydroquinone is the most common lightening agent used. It works by decreasing the production of pigment. Your doctor may recommend combining it with tretinoin, corticosteroids, antioxidants or other topical products for added efficacy. In some cases, superficial chemical peels also may be considered to remove pigment. Avoiding sun exposure and protecting your skin from the sun is absolutely essential to prevent further development of melasma and to maintain treatment results. That includes wearing a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses when youre outdoors and using sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 50 or higher on a daily basis. A sunscreen with a physical blocker, such as zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, is best. Reapply it every one to two hours. Research into melasma treatment is moving forward. Recent data has identified that melasma is associated with inflammation, skin barrier breakdown and an increase in blood vessels. Those findings may inform new treatment options. Talk to your dermatologist to learn more about topical and oral treatments on the horizon. Elika Hoss, M.D., Dermatology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona (Mayo Clinic Q & A is an educational resource and doesnt replace regular medical care. E-mail a question to MayoClinicQ&A@mayo.edu. For more information, visit www.mayoclinic.org.) Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A Multnomah County couple has sued the City of Portland after they said they were exposed to tear gas during protests downtown. Plaintiffs Andy and Samira Green are seeking up to $200,000 in damages through the lawsuit. The couple and their two teenage children were attending a protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on June 2 in downtown Portland. The lawsuit says the family was leaving the demonstration when they were caught in the midst of tear gas released by Portland police. The lawsuit does not specify where in Multnomah County the Greens reside. This is at least the second lawsuit filed against the city in response to police use of tear gas against protesters. The nonprofit Dont Shoot Portland, along with two individuals, filed a class action lawsuit and sought a temporary restraining order against the city Friday for using tear gas indiscriminately amongst crowds of demonstrators. A judge will hear the argument on Tuesday. Juan Chavez, the project director of the Civil Rights Project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center, is an attorney for both lawsuits. We did this out of our moral obligation to advance our clients civil rights, Chavez said. The other case was strictly about stopping the practice of unlawful use of force at protests this ones about compensation. This ones about addressing a wrong. The plaintiffs in the latest case are suing the city for negligence and battery and assault. Tear gas can have a variety of harmful short- and long-term health impacts, including miscarriages of pregnancies, according to the lawsuit. Samira Green is pregnant, the court filing says. The lawsuit says the Greens continue to suffer from respiratory pain days after being exposed to the tear gas. CS tear gas agents can trigger lung inflammation, and has been linked to causing respiratory damage and chemical injury, the lawsuit states. Ongoing studies focus on the toxicological effects of tear gas agents, especially in the skin where CS agent can cause burns and blistering. This lawsuit was filed the same day Portland Police Chief Jami Resch stepped down from her position and asked Chuck Lovell, an African American lieutenant, to replace her. City Commissioners Chloe Eudaly and JoAnn Hardesty have called for a ban on police tear gas use, and Seattles mayor issued a 30-day moratorium on the police use of tear gas on Friday. On Saturday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said he told police to restrain from using tear gas unless theres a threat to life safety and no other alternatives are available. -- Celina Tebor ctebor@oregonian.com @CelinaTebor 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. 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 coronavirus newsletter. To support our nonprofit public service journalism: Donate now. Masks for everyone, temperature checks, hybrid schedules, seating charts on school buses, physical barriers between lunch tables, and way more handwashing. That is just some of the guidance in the California Department of Education's guidelines for reopening school campuses, released Monday. If those guidelines sound familiar, it's because they mirror the framework released by the Los Angeles County Office of Education last month. Like that guidance, the 62-page document released by the state today emphasizes physical distancing and face masks, and notes that individual districts will have to follow public health guidelines on combatting COVID-19 and will make their own decisions on when and how to reopen. "We know that many of our students really need in-class instruction," State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said in a video news conference. "Their parents may need to work. They may be the children of essential workers. And in many cases, these are children who just need to have contact again with peers and educators and with the support center." icon DON'T MISS ANY L.A. CORONAVIRUS NEWS Get our daily newsletters for the latest on COVID-19 and other top local headlines. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Thurmond also acknowledged that district surveys have shown many parents are interested in continuing distance learning "We're encouraging our districts to accommodate that need as they are able, because we believe that doing so actually is a strategy for addressing some of the challenges around spacing," Thurmond said. He said most schools will likely reopen with some version of a hybrid model, meaning students would switch between in-person instruction and distance learning. Alex Chermiss, superintendent of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, worries that the sheer number of guidelines from both state and county education departments will make it difficult to reopen campuses and be in full compliance. "Maybe they should have come out and said just, Don't reopen until we have a vaccine, because they're putting so many requirements in place," Cherniss said. He worries that it'll be impossible to actually keep kids six feet apart at all times, and to enforce mask-wearing. "It's not realistic," he said. "It's very easy to put on paper, very hard to actually implement." ...face coverings, physical distancing, and symptom screening should schools plan to provide some form of in-person instruction and distance learning. It will also provide in-depth considerations for designing high-quality and equitable instructional practices for all students. CA Department of Education (@CADeptEd) June 8, 2020 Plus, there's the issue of paying for it all. Governor Gavin Newsom did promise to provide personal protective equipment to schools, including 47,000 "no-touch" thermometers, 2.4 million face shields for educators, 14 million fabric masks, 16 million disposable ones, and 143,000 gallons of hand sanitizer, according to the California Department of Public Health. But Thurmond said it's going to take more for schools to be able to implement these guidelines. "We're working on scenarios to expand that, to make sure that our districts have what they need," Thurmond said. "And there's no scenario -- I would say -- more important than getting the support that is being discussed in Congress." Thurmond said California schools will need federal intervention to cover a number of costs, including the grab-and-go meals distributed to kids in need during the coronavirus crisis. Thurmond also pressured the state to fund schools fully, even though it's a tough budget year. And since school funding is based on average daily attendance, he asked the legislature to consider how attendance and instructional minutes could be impacted by the hybrid or other models that districts choose to reopen with. You can read the full guidance below: READ MORE: PHILIPSBURG:--- The Department of Interior and Kingdom Relations (BAK) launched its Single-Used Plastic Campaign earlier this year to raise awareness about the dangers of using single-use plastic for our environment, health, and economy. As part of the information campaign, the department reached out to the community, businesses, and schools to share information. A logo campaign was later announced, encouraging students to be more actively involved by creating a logo design to be the face of the campaign. Despite the COVID-19 virus and school closures, some schools still managed to assist students in creating amazing logos for the competition. The submitted logos will be posted on Facebook (Department of The Interior and Kingdom Relations) from Monday 8th June, 13:00pm - Friday, June 12th, at 13:00pm. The public would have the opportunity to vote for their winning logo for an entire week. The winning logo will be revealed on the following Monday 15th June, at 13:00pm. The office of BAK would like to thank all schools and students for participating, and we encourage all to vote and share, so others can vote too, #ourenvironmentmatter2 #St.MaartenPlasticFreeby2023!! In an internal email accessed by CNBC, Musk urged SpaceX employees to accelerate progress on its next-generation Starship rocket. San Francisco: Elon Musk has told his SpaceX staff to make Starship spacecraft top priority and speed up progress on the super-heavy rocket which has seen some turbulent testing in recent months. Starship is the heaviest rocket for space tourism and long-distance trips and represents a truly reusable rocket with fast turnaround times that make spaceflight more accessible. But the Starship prototype has faced four failed tests since the project began late last year. "Please consider the top SpaceX priority (apart from anything that could reduce Dragon return risk) to be Starship," Musk wrote in the email over the weekend. Marking the beginning of a new era in the US space programme, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on May 31. SpaceX is developing Starship with the goal of launching as many as 100 people at a time on missions to the moon and Mars. "We need to accelerate Starship progress," Musk said. "For those considering moving, we will always offer a dedicated SpaceX aircraft to shuttle people," he added. In April, a prototype of Starship 'SN3' broke apart during a pressure test at the company's test site in Boca Chica, Texas. The explosion happened as liquid nitrogen was being poured into the rocket's propellant tanks. On November 20 last year, the Mk1 prototype blew its top during a cryogenic pressure test and on February 28, the SN2 prototype exploded at the base during a cryogenic pressurization test. Musk has hinted that many of these prototypes will be needed to perfect the Starship vehicle. A man jailed over the murder of his pregnant secret lover in Western Australia more than a decade ago will walk out of prison after being granted bail prior to his retrial. Scott Austic was previously convicted of the murder of Stacey Thorne, right. Scott Austic was previously convicted of the murder of Stacey Thorne, 34, who died after being stabbed 21 times at her Boddington home in 2007. The pair had been in a relationship, with Ms Thorne 22 weeks pregnant with Mr Austic's baby when she died. Convicted of Ms Thorne's murder in 2009, Mr Austic was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison. CINCINNATI, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Prosource, the region's leading business technology solutions provider, has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2020 honor by The Enquirer. The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage, LLC. The anonymous survey uniquely measures 15 drivers of engaged cultures that are critical to the success of any organization: including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few. "In times of great change, it is more important than ever to maintain a connection among employees," said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. "When you give your employees a voice, you come together to navigate challenges and shape your path forward based on real-time insights into what works best for your organization. The Top Workplaces program can be that positive outcome your company can rally around in the coming months to celebrate leadership and the importance of maintaining an employee-focused culture, even during challenging times." "When I'm asked what makes Prosource special, I always give the same answer: our team. I firmly believe that we are the best at what we do because of our people and the unique, customer-centered culture we have built," said Brad Cates, President & CEO of Prosource. "The Top Workplaces Award is a true honorit means that we are successfully bringing to life our values and our commitment to our customers, our community, and our team. Even in challenging times, our engaged team and strong culture have proven to be an unstoppable force, and I'm so proud of the attitude, effort, and energy they bring to Prosource every day." About Prosource As a trusted technology partner, Prosource has helped businesses of all sizes optimize processes, reduce costs, and enhance their bottom lines for more than 35 yearsall with an unmatched customer experience. From managed IT, cybersecurity, and digital transformation solutions to top-tier office and production equipment and managed print services, Prosource delivers powerful solutions to help organizations leverage technology for strategic advantage and become more efficient, effective, and competitive. With an established headquarters in Cincinnati, depth and breadth of expertise, products, and services through the Midwest, and worldwide backing from our manufacturers, Prosource provides personal service and support while leading the way in the region in business technology. For more information, visit www.totalprosource.com. About Energage Energage offers a fully unified SaaS platform, plus support and professional services, to help organizations recruit and retain the right talent. Based on 14 years of culture research, the engine behind 51 Top Workplaces programs across the country, and data gathered from over 20 million employees at 60,000 organizations, Energage has isolated the 15 drivers of engaged cultures that are critical to the success of any business, and developed the tools and expertise to help organizations measure, shape and showcase their unique culture to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. For more information, visit energage.com. Prosource Amy Mersch [email protected] 513.769.0606 ext.1213 www.totalprosource.com SOURCE Prosource The Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, is so dyspeptic and incoherent, and so mired in the TrumpRussia, Ukraine, and Tara Reade scandals, that the Democratic presidential campaign is essentially being conducted by that partys supporters in the national political media. All of the major networks except Fox and many of the large newspapers, led by the New York Times and the Washington Post, are individually enunciating opportunistic positions on behalf of the Democratic Party and its absent leader and are rivaling one another in producing malicious falsehoods about the president as they all move left together. These included, last week, that he had been hiding in the White House bunker when the largest demonstrations began in Washington on May 29, and that he had ordered that demonstrators in Lafayette Park be tear-gassed and shelled with rubber bullets to clear the path for the president before he went to St. Johns Church, the presidents church, on the afternoon of Monday, June 1, the day after mobs had set fire to part of it. Both these assertions were completely false, as was the claim this last weekend that the president had asked for the deployment of 10,000 soldiers. This is one of the elements of Saul Alinsky playbook, by which the Democrats have operated since it was written (for them): Accuse the opposition of what you yourself are doing. In this case the Democratic media never cease to labor the president with the allegation that he is chronically dishonest and an incorrigible liar. He admits to what he somewhat self-servingly calls constructive hyperbole, and he exaggerates in the manner of New York developers. Everything is huge, great, beautiful, and the best, but by the highest criterion of honesty in office doing what you promised to do before the election his record is exemplary. He exaggerates, but he is rarely entirely untruthful; his enemies lie about him and other relevant matters constantly. So mud-slinging liars whose job is honest reporting accuse the great exaggerator of habitually lying; all this does not make for elevated political discourse. Story continues After the false Russian-collusion allegation and the spurious impeachment case, there came the hysteria about the coronavirus and the insistence on a complete lockdown of the country, in order to produce an economic depression that might enable the Democrats to get Biden to the finish line. The Democrats had gone to considerable trouble to carry Biden, a political corpse after Iowa and New Hampshire, to the nomination ahead of the Marxist Bernie Sanders. As the data confirmed that 80 percent of the coronavirus fatalities afflicted the oldest 20 percent of the population, the healthiest 80 percent of the population were bearing a completely unnecessary burden of economic and social self-sacrifice. While the president was exerting steady pressure to reopen the country as appropriate while retaining heightened protection for the vulnerable, the Democrats resolutely clung to their insistence on a prolonged lockdown and a ludicrous system of test and trace, whereby all who tested positive would be interrogated about the identity of those they had been in contact with in the previous two weeks, and these would be chased down and badgered to self-quarantine. It is possibly the silliest idea for general-public application that has been conceived by the U.S. government since Prohibition. But after the George Floyd rioting got going, the Democratic establishment, and particularly its almost completely corrupt and incompetent municipal machines, did not hesitate a minute before urging all those they had threatened and prosecuted for not self-distancing or abstaining from working, shopping, and exercising their constitutional right to attend houses of worship to join the peaceful protesters. They almost all completely mismanaged the riots but urged their townspeople to join the vast crowds protesting against policies that are opposed by 100 percent of Americans, even as the protests were taken over by urban terrorist guerrillas and turned into orgies of arson, looting, and assault rarely seen since the barbarian sack of the Western Roman Empire. The tumult enabled the giddy Democratic media campaign to portray Trump as President Chaos, the bogeyman who replaced President Lockdown-Depression, President Impeachable Ukraine Connivance, and President Russian Treason. He wobbled slightly in the polls but revived with the dramatic reduction in unemployment on Friday and the confirmation that the country wont tolerate the Democratic humbug about a prolonged lockdown. This election campaign is already a hand-to-hand, no-holds-barred struggle unlike any in American history in its unscrupulous ferocity. This isnt entirely surprising, given that Trump attacked all factions of both parties and pledged to destroy and expel the entire political establishment. All know that if he is reelected, that is what he will do. He has taken over the entire Republican Party except for Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski. This is why we are now getting, as the latest wrinkle in the Democratic assault, the orchestrated release of apparent Republican defections and expressions of ethical and policy concerns from retired Bush-McCain-Romney faction heads and senior military officers Trump has fired, all delivered in a uniform affectation of solemn reflection rather than the vindictive backbiting that it is. We got the Bushes because Ronald Reagan had to choose someone for vice president and George Bush Sr. had come in a distant second to him and graciously urged his supporters to rally to Reagan. Bush was the closest the voters could get to a third Reagan term. General Colin Powell became prominent because Reagan went through five national-security advisers in seven years, and he was next. Bush and Powell executed the Gulf War brilliantly but didnt extract enough in their victory. Bush allowed the half-mad charlatan billionaire Ross Perot to take 20 million mainly Republican votes in 1992, and we got the Clintons. We also got the worst 24 years of presidential government in the countrys history from Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. (George W. now says Clinton is my bro why not? And why shouldnt Trump run against all of them?) Colin Powells defection from Trump is neither a loss nor a surprise. He was a senior OBushinton supporter who left the Republicans for Obama and is best remembered for his eloquent declaration to the United Nations of Saddam Husseins certain possession of weapons of mass destruction. The grim Clintonian admiral Mike Mullen emerged on cue and darkly warned against using the U.S. military against the civilian population as enemies of the state, as if Trump had suggested any such thing. If he were not a chronic bleeding-heart left-wing Democrat, the spiritual heir to Admiral Gene Larocque, who was considered as Hillary Clintons vice-presidential candidate, Mullen might carry more weight. At least Mullen is consistent. Generals James Mattis and John Kelly have no such excuse; this president did them the great honor of giving them high cabinet office, and there were both policy and personality differences. That does not justify aspersing the presidents ethics and character in choreographed synchronization with Democrats trying to sweep out the administration they were formerly happy to serve in, amid war whoops for open borders (which both Mattis and Kelly tried to manage) and the defunding of the police and the military, where Mattis and Kelly spent their careers distinguished careers, until last week. It doesnt matter; they will have no more influence than the pompous open letters of the scores of obscure retired officials and cretinous academics who opposed Trump in 2016. There is a Swamp Party and a Drain the Swamp Party. The virus terror is fading, the country is opening up, the economy is soaring, and the rioting has stopped. President Trump will run on his record, which will be much harder to discredit than the foibles of his public personality, particularly by those who have favored open borders and defunded police. More from National Review Congressional Democrats have unveiled a sweeping police reform bill with the aim of overhauling law enforcement in the US. They announced the Justice in Policing Act of 2020 following the alleged police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis two weeks ago. His death sparked widespread protests against police brutality and racism. Among the measures the authors propose are mandatory body cameras for all uniformed federal officers and dashboard cameras for marked federal police vehicles. However, the bill wont require state and local police officers to wear them. Officers will have to switch on their cameras whenever they're responding to a service call or interacting with a member of the public in "any other law enforcement or investigative encounter." If it's not safe or possible for them to activate the camera because they're facing an immediate danger, they'll do so as soon as possible. The bill spells out when police can ask for permission to turn off cameras. They aren't allowed to use the devices in certain circumstances either -- for instance, when filming would put informants or undercover officers at risk. Agencies will have to store footage for six months and then permanently delete it. That timeframe is extended to three years if it captures the use of force, a subject of the footage makes a complaint or in some other cases. People who are filmed with the cameras will have the right to access the footage, as will their parents if they're a minor. If someone who has been filmed has died, their family members will be able to review the recordings. Notably, departments won't be allowed to equip these body cameras with real-time facial recognition technology or carry out "any other form of automated analysis or analytics" without a judge's approval. Last year, California banned the use of facial recognition in body cams through 2023. Some body cam makers don't install the tech in their devices anyway. picture alliance via Getty Images As for the dashboard cameras, they'll need to be able to capture at least 10 hours of video and audio. Officers will need to start recording whenever they pull someone over or activate the emergency lights. Footage will need to be stored for 90 days, and dash cams can't use facial recognition technology either. The federal government is more limited in how it can establish video recording standards at state and local level. Still, the bill would require those agencies to use existing federal funds to ensure the use of body cameras. Several small departments have ditched them in recent years after claiming that they cost too much. Not every state mandates body cameras or has laws in place governing their use. The act doesn't fully embrace the idea of automatically activating cameras. TASER's Axon has a number of sensors that switch on nearby body cameras when they're activated, including one that prompts all cameras within a 30-foot radius to start filming when an officer draws their gun. The bill doesn't mention traffic cameras either. They can reduce the number of police interactions by automatically sending out tickets instead of cops writing them. Some studies have shown that body cams can be effective in compelling police to change their behavior, but others have suggested they dont make a great deal of difference. The mere act of being recorded isn't necessarily a deterrent to police brutality, as evidenced over the past couple of weeks, and some officers just dont use body cams even when theyre supposed to. However, they could improve police accountability. In concert with the many other reforms proposed in the bill, increased use of them might help to lower the use of force and lead to more peaceful resolutions. The bill also seeks to ban law enforcement at all levels from racial, religious and discriminatory profiling with mandatory training to prevent it. If passed into law, it'd require local and state law enforcement to record instances when force is used and make it harder for agencies at that level to obtain military-grade equipment. Additionally, the bill aims to forbid "chokeholds, carotid holds and no-knock warrants at the federal level." MattGush via Getty Images So far, 35 senators and 166 House representatives (all Democrats) have co-sponsored the bill. It has also won backing from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Demand Progress and other organizations. While there's a good chance of the Justice in Policing Act of 2020 passing the Democrat-controlled House, it might face more resistance in the Senate, where Republicans hold sway. Meanwhile, Canadas prime minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that hell try to persuade provincial premiers to equip officers with body cameras amid growing calls for them in the country. He noted that while they aren't a magic solution to the problems of discrimination, "it is something that is, in my opinion, what we need to move forward with. This president has no compassion, no sense of urgency for those who are not in the top 1% of the economic profile. Mr. Trump calls for violent actions against people who do not agree with his ideas, who wear masks and practice social distancing. Mr. Trump belittles Rep. John Lewis, who stood with Martin Luther King and was beaten and arrested many times. He belittles Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has long sought justice for all. He votes by mail but doesnt want you to do that. Mr. Trump is going to turn the military and the National Guard loose on protesters, most of whom have peacefully protested about the murder of a black man in Minneapolis, and a black woman EMT in Kentucky who was killed in her home when police mistakenly thought her house held a drug trafficker. I am white and from a low-income family. My grandmothers family moved to Lincoln from Ohio in 1900 and went to Canada in 1903. They almost starved, but Canadian Indians gave them food. Her husband employed a black man during the Depression, then Carl Maxey earned a law degree and became a civil rights lawyer. People in Spain will be forced to wear face masks where social distancing is impossible until a cure or vaccine for coronavirus is found. It means Brits and other tourists hoping to visit Spain on holiday will also have to wear face masks as part of the drastic measure. Health Minister Salvador Illa revealed on Tuesday that public face mask wearing will remain in place even after the country's state of emergency ends on 21 June. Illa said wearing the masks will be compulsory until the virus is 'permanently' defeated, which will be 'when we have an effective treatment or vaccine against it'. Those who flout the rules will be fined up to 100, he said. People wearing protective face masks attend a protest against the Spanish government's handling of the coronavirus disease outside the headquarters of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers Party in Madrid last month. Wearing masks will now be mandatory in public where social distancing is not possible Mask-wearing was initially imposed as a requirement for only those using public transport in early May but the measure was later rolled out. Compulsory mask-wearing for everyone aged six and over, where it is not possible to maintain two metres apart in public, has been in place since 21 May. The new regulation will, however, slightly reduce the distance to 1.5 metres. While vaccines normally take years to develop, most experts think one will become available by around mid-2021. Spain has had more than 242,000 known cases of coronavirus, and the killer bug has caused more than 27,000 deaths. A mask-wearing family enjoys a traditional breakfast of Churros in Spain, served by a waiter who also wearing a mask. The mask-wearing measure in Spain will be a permanent fixture until a cure or vaccine for coronavirus is found Mask wearing is not compulsory for very young children although it is 'recommended' for those between three and five. With the epidemic now well under control Spain has been slowing easing out of its mid-March lockdown, and the country is set to reopen international borders from 1 July. But British holidaymakers' plans for a summer holiday in Spain were today thrown into confusion as the country said it was not discussing the creation of an 'air bridge' for tourists with Britain. Mask wearing in Spain will be compulsory for all tourists planning to visit the country when it reopens international borders later this month Britain introduced a 14-day quarantine for international arrivals and returning tourists from Monday this week. While Portugal has said it is discussing a travel corridor that would exempt British visitors returning from Portugal from that quarantine, Spain has no plans to do the same. A foreign ministry source said: 'Spain has called for a common (European Union-wide) approach to opening the borders. If this is not done, it will establish its own criteria. 'The UK is in a period of transition. This means that they will receive the same treatment as EU and Schengen countries for the opening (of borders to tourists), unless they stay out of it because of the epidemiological situation.' Meanwhile, Spain will allow about 6,000 tourists from Germany, where the pandemic is largely under control, to fly to the Balearic Islands from June 15, two weeks before the country reopens its borders, to test how to restart tourism. In England, face coverings on public transport will become compulsory from 15 June as more people return to work, when non-essential shops are likely to open. The rules don't apply, however, to people entering those shops. On Aug. 3, 1949, representatives of the National Basketball League and Basketball Association of America shake hands after agreeing to merge the two circuits. (AP) The NBAs origin story cant be told without recognizing the significant impact of the NBL. Bristol: For the protesters who tore down the statue of Edward Colston, there's a certain satisfaction in knowing a monument to a 17th-century slave trader has been consigned to the watery depths of Bristol Harbour. Colston built his fortune through misery on the high seas as an influential member of the Royal African Company. The firm used its legal monopoly over the west African slave trade to brand the initials RAC on the chests of 100,000 men, women and children and ship them to the Americas and the Caribbean. Some 19,000 never made it - tossed into the ocean after drawing their last breath in the filth below decks. "We had a statue up to someone who made his money buying and selling people," says Marvin Rees, the Bristol mayor and descendent of enslaved Africans. "That statue is now underwater, which is a piece of historical irony because undoubtedly people would have been thrown off the sides of ships during that journey and there would be many African bodies on the bottom of the water. Protesters pull down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Bristol. Credit:PA "But at the same time we are in a city in which some people find the tearing down of the statue problematic for them. They feel that they are losing their ownership of Bristol, their place in the city and for them it's a sense of loss." The purpose of the podcast is to ensure that listeners have their fingers on the pulse of whats going on regarding timely workplace safety and health topics, said Taylor. Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP has launched its Workplace Safety Review podcast, which is available on the firms website, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify. Michael T. Taylor, shareholder and chair of the firms Labor & Employment Practices Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) group, is the host and will interview various workplace safety experts from across the industry to discuss different aspects of workplace safety and best practices for employers. In the first episode, Taylor interviews John Howard, director at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Their discussion addresses the realities of workplace safety in the face of COVID-19, including the difficulty of determining whether the virus is in the workplace, OSHA/NIOSH/CDC guidance regarding how to protect employees returning to work, personal protective equipment, the feasibility and enforcement of social distancing, as well as other aspects of returning to work that employers may be considering. GTs Workplace Safety Review podcast will serve as a resource to inform listeners about OSHA law across a broad range of industries. The purpose of the podcast is to ensure that listeners have their fingers on the pulse of whats going on regarding timely workplace safety and health topics, said Taylor. That is particularly relevant now more than ever as we are all navigating our new normal of living and working during a global pandemic. Taylor focuses his practice exclusively on representing employers regarding OSHA and Chemical Safety Board matters across the country. Over the last 18 years, he has defended scores of employers during enforcement litigation before federal OSHA, Cal-OSHA, SC-OSHA, WA-DOSH, as well as other state plan states. Many of these representations have involved a significant injury, fatality, or catastrophic event in the workplace. About Greenberg Traurigs Labor & Employment Practice: Greenberg Traurigs Global Labor & Employment Practice serves clients from offices throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Members of the practice have had numerous trial wins and are frequently called upon to handle complex, bet-the-company, and large high-stake cases, including nationwide class and collective actions. On the labor side, a leading group of lawyers regularly represents management with labor-relations matters. Labor & Employment team members assist clients with complex employment issues, and design practical, proactive strategies that can be readily implemented by todays human resources professionals. In addition, the practice is recognized by The Legal 500 United States in the areas of Labor and Employment Litigation, Labor-Management Relations, ERISA Litigation, Workplace & Employment Counseling, and Trade Secrets Litigation. Visit Greenberg Traurigs Labor & Employment Blog for insights and analysis of the latest labor and employment developments, including legislation, regulations, cases, policies, and trends. About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has approximately 2200 attorneys in 41 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com, Twitter: @GT_Law. As massive social-justice demonstrations continue after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, students in cities around the country are organizing to demand that their school and district leaders provide them with anti-racist curricula and instruction. A petition posted recently on Facebook, aimed at the schools in Frederick County, Md ., is a prime example. It was inspired by demand letters drafted by the alumni of Xavier College Preparatory School in Arizona and the Morris County School of Technology in New Jersey. Similar letters and petitions have been making their way around the internet, and are cropping up in a number of cities. The Maryland letter calls on the district to reexamine how we honor Black lives in our education system in elementary, middle, and high school curriculanot simply as a reactionary means, but in direct ways that critically challenge how we frame our nations history. It demands that the district conduct a third-party, holistic review of its curriculum, hiring, and student body administration, among other things, and that it hold implicit-bias trainings for district faculty and staff. Students want the district to invite speakers to address the student body on racial justice and white privilege. And they want the district to require classes to take field trips to places that can teach students about the Black experience, such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. In the area of curriculum and instruction, the students dive into specifics, demanding that the district expand its curricula with articles, books, documentaries, and podcasts centered on anti-racism and racial justice, and facilitate in-class conversations about race, privilege, allyship, and justice. And they provide a list of suggested reading that spans K-12, broken down by subject area. Here are a few highlights: Science: Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology, Diedre Cooper Owens Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination, Alondra Nelson Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans, Harriet Washington Literature: Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler The Street, Ann Petry Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin History The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X and Alex Haley Aint I A Woman?: Black women and feminism, bell hooks A Taste of Power: A Black Womans Story, Elaine Brown This petition, by students from Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, New York , includes its own reading list. Students in the Monmouth County Vocational school district in New Jersey are circulating this five-page letter , which respectfully insists that the board adopt a comprehensive four-year curriculum that addresses systemic racism and police brutality. It lists seven action steps, including revising the English and history curricula to cover the perspectives and stories of people of color and training faculty to be leaders in anti-racism. In Newtown, Conn., two 2017 graduates are circulating a petition that takes the district to task for failing to provide an adequate multicultural education. We have taken the time to reflect on our experience and education in Newtown schools, it says. Although we learned about slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and we read To Kill a Mockingbird, the formal teachings of modern-day systemic and institutionalized racism, police brutality, or white privilege were next to none. The Newtown students asked their school board to make sure curriculum includes discussion of current events related to race when they happen, and to fostering safe open dialogue about them. They want the district to include books on current, institutionalized racism and white privilege, add a course specifically designed to teach students about systemic racism, and end the notion of teaching students to be colorblind. In California, students in Yorba Linda, Calif., are circulating their own letter , inspired by another, written by students 45 miles to the north, in Glendale, Calif. The Glendale petition, launched online June 2, has collected more than 4,300 signatures. The Yorba Linda letter, launched online June 4, has more than 2,000 signatures. Demonstrators pray during a march on Sunday, May 31, in Atlanta. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart) Sorry! This content is not available in your region Early in this crisis, we recognized that customers would face unexpected challenges as the pandemic and subsequent lockdown impacted businesses across Canada, said Obaid Rahman (pictured), VP, commercial insurance at Economical Insurance one such P&C insurer to provide pandemic relief measures. Many Canadian businesses have had to rethink how to safely conduct their business. Across the board, were seeing businesses adapt their operations to survive. Our team set out to predict the challenges our customers would face and proactively provide support. For example, businesses have had to shift workforces to remote environments. To support these businesses, Economical added coverage for off-premises equipment at no extra charge. This automatically extends existing coverage for customers whose employees take necessary equipment to work off-site to another location, up to a limit of $5,000 per occurrence. Read next: Only 1 in 4 Canadians say they received pandemic-related auto insurance relief measures As well as shifting workforces to remote environments, many SMEs have chosen to pivot their operations in order to survive the new conditions. For example, some manufacturing businesses have re-tooled their facilities and refocused their teams for the production of personal protective equipment (PPE). In doing so, these businesses have changed their risk profile and have required extra support from their insurance partners. The commercial team at Economical understands the need for flexible options to help these Canadian businesses, and we adapted our practices to provide modified insurance solutions that allow our customers to maintain the insurance coverage necessary for business continuity, Rahman told Insurance Business. For example, we have a distillery [client] that shifted their manufacturing to produce hand sanitizer and support the need in their community. After informing their Economical broker, we adapted their coverage to properly insure their changed operations. More commonly than changing what they offer, our business customers have shifted to a delivery model that respects physical distancing. For businesses that now offer delivery as a result of COVID-19, Economical is working with brokers to extend coverage and protect their business against claims arising from the use of non-owned delivery vehicles. The biggest challenge, according to Rahman, has been supporting businesses with substantially reduced income those who have not had the option to adapt their operations and have also experienced a substantial drop in revenue as a result of government lockdown measures. For businesses that have seen a drop of 30% or more in revenue, Economical has offered to adjust business policies mid-term, allowing for a reduction in premium while businesses battle tough financial circumstances. Read next: How insurance carriers have supported brokers through COVID-19 The P&C insurer also committed to its commercial property customers that no policy will be cancelled during the state of emergency, unless a customer has violated policy conditions. Further, the firm has amended its rating strategy in order to cap and restrict any rate changes in order to provide affordable insurance solutions to Canadian businesses. Economical Insurance has not been able to offer these pandemic relief measures without the help of its broker partners, whom Rahman describes as part of the Economical family. He commented: Like us, their primary concern has been providing relief measures to their clients. First and foremost, we proactively provided them with clear guidance on the relief measures weve made available to commercial customers since the onset of COVID-19. As the pandemic evolves, we remain committed to offering tailored solutions through our valued broker partners. We also care about the well-being of our broker partners and, during this challenging time, our teams have remained in close contact with our broker partners to understand how we can help them shift to new ways of working. One of the things that cant be easily shifted to remote work is physical mail. Weve proactively digitized document delivery to help ease the volume of mail to our broker partners. In addition, we enhanced our automation and introduced new fast track processes to significantly improve the service standards to our broker partners. In a time of high customer calls and demands, providing faster service has been critical for our brokers. Republicans on Capitol Hill have stopped waiting for President Donald Trump to speak on police reform and are preparing their own proposals to counter Democrats, who unveiled legislation Monday. Pressure is on lawmakers after protests broke out across the nation in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. Additionally, a new Washington Post-Schar School poll out Monday found 74 per cent of Americans say they support those protests while 69 per cent say the killing of Floyd represents a broader problem within law enforcement. The same poll found 61 per cent disapprove of how Trump handled the protests while only 35 per cent approved, while November election polls show him far behind Joe Biden, raising alarm in the GOP Senate that their majority is at risk too. Republicans on both sides of Capitol Hill are working on their own police reform measures with a number of them expected to drop legislation this week, with Tom Scott and Mitt Romney the first to go public on the effort. Their move came despite Trump tweeting a conspiracy theory that a 75-year-old victim of police violence was an 'antifa provocateur' and calling '99 per cent' of police 'great.' Tire of waiting on President Trump to speak about police reform, Republicans on Capitol Hill are preparing their own proposals Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah won praise from Democrats and Republicans alike when he marched with protesters in Washington D.C. on Sunday Romney said he is working with Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina on police reform legislation that has 'broader bipartisan appeal' Pressure is on lawmakers to act after protests sprung up around the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd Democrats presented their plan on Monday and there are a number of areas where both sides agree, including a ban on chokeholds, making lynching a federal crime, a national database to track police officers who get in trouble and increased training for law enforcement officials. Republicans have their own group of lawmakers working together on a plan. Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah told reporters late Monday that he is working with fellow GOP Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina on legislation that can garner support from both sides of the aisle. 'I'm working with a number of Republican senators to see if we can fashion a piece of legislation which can receive bipartisan support to make some changes to the way we do our policing so that in the event that there's a police officer who is abhorrent, unlike the great majority of our police who do a terrific job and who provide a critical measure of safety for all of us,' he said. 'There are a few that make mistakes and that come with serious concern, and we'll look to find ways to correct those circumstances where we can.' Romney was praised by Democrats and Republicans alike when he joined protesters in Washington D.C. on Sunday, marching with them from the Capitol to the White House to show his support for the Black Lives Matter movement. 'My guess is we'll try and fashion something that that has broader bipartisan appeal,' Romney noted. He also said Democrats have not contacted him or any other Republicans he's spoken to and urged both sides to work together. The Democratic measure has 200 sponsors but none of them are Republicans. 'We have some members that are part of a working group that are taking a look at different proposals that are out there,' Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning. 'I think there are some things, I think there's some common ground there we could find. It depends on what the Democrats are willing to work with us and hopefully they will be,' he added. Scott said talks were ongoing. 'I think we should all be optimistic right now until we have reason not to be,' he told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Scott is also pushing the George Floyd and Walter Scott Notification Act, an expansion of legislation he had introduced in 2015, which would require states that receive federal police funding to report incidents when police shoot someone, including names, race and a description of what happened. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas said he spoke to Floyd's family and told them he was 'committed to making sure that George Floyd receives justice.' 'I know many of us are engaged in active discussions about what's the best way to create real change, and I know it's a priority for members on both sides of the aisle,' he said in a speech on the Senate floor Monday. Floyd's funeral takes place in Houston on Tuesday. House Republicans, meanwhile, are having their own conversation about police reform and aim to release a proposal by the end of the week, The Hill reported. Lawmakers have seen protests in their home states - amass cry from constituents that could prove the impetus needed to move a package through Congress to President Trump's desk. The president has yet to unveil his own proposal. 'The president is looking at what's a state issue, what's a federal issue right now. He's currently reviewing proposals, actually, on this very topic about police reform. So I'll leave it to him and not get ahead of him on that,' White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at her press briefing on Monday. One area where Republicans and Democratic leadership agree is there should be no push to defund police, a rallying cry taken up by liberals in recent days. Moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, always a key vote, said it's not possible to defund police and 'anybody who talks about that, they're nuts.' White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at her press briefing on Monday that President Trump is looking at a number of police reform proposals Speaker Nancy Pelosi led Democrats in a moment of silence before releasing their police reform bill, which made no mention of defunding police departments Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (left) has called for New York to look at its police funding while Rep. Ilhan Omar (right) called for Minneapolis' police department to be dissolved And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear any legislation that includes defunding police is a non-starter. 'The vast majority of the men and women in law enforcement across our country are not evil, are not racist, do not wake up every morning looking for violence. We are reminded of their bravery every time a citizen needs to dial 9-1-1 and they rush towards danger,' he said in remarks on the Senate floor Monday. And President Trump has spoken out against it. 'There won't be defunding. They won't be dismantling of our police. And they are not going to be any disbanding of our police,' the president said at the White House on Monday. The 'defund the police' movement calls for funds to be removed from police departments and allocated to social services instead. Some in the movement are even calling for police departments to be dissolved altogether. WHAT'S IN DEMOCRATS' POLICE REFORM BILL? - A ban on choke holds or carotid holds George Floyd died after cop Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck, and Eric Garner died in 2014 in New York after he was put in a choke hold - A National Misconduct Registry, which would track and create a database of police officers who have been accused of misconduct The registry, Democrats claim, would prevent officers found guilty of misconduct from transferring from one department to another - The abolition of no-knock warrants in drug cases so police officers will have to identify themselves before entering a home Breonna Taylor was killed in her home after she was shot eight times while police carried out a no-knock warrant in conjunction with a drug investigation involving her boyfriend - Implementation of the nationwide use of body cameras by all police Body camera footage can be used to confirm the facts of a case, especially when there is no bystander footage - Civilian review boards for law enforcement officers This would make police more personally accountable to the community they serve - The abolition of qualified immunity, a doctrine that protects law enforcement from civil litigation and could lead to an increase in cops being sued Police could face more lawsuits over brutality - Would classify lynching as a federal crime Democrats bashed Republicans for blocking legislation just last week that would make lynching a crime - Change the federal standard of criminal police behavior from acting 'willfully' to acting 'knowingly or with reckless disregard' This language would levy cops with more responsibility, noting that they acting knowing they were ignoring standards or acting 'recklessly' - Condition state and local funding on police receiving training on racial and implicit bias at the federal level Funds will be held from state and local police departments who do not require officers receive racial bias training - Stop the transfer of military-grade weapons to police - Gives the Justice Department subpoena power to carry out 'pattern and practice' investigations into police department conduct and provides state attorneys general with grants to carry out these probes Advertisement The Democrats' legislation does not include a measure to defund police and said it was not the place for it. 'I can't imagine that happening in a federal way,' Democratic Rep. Karen Bass, the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, said when asked about it. Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it a 'local issue.' Liberal stars in the Democratic Party - like Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar - have endorsed the idea, adding their weight to it. Ocasio-Cortez told NY1 she's 'actively engaged in advocacy' for a 'reduction of our NYPD budget and defunding a $6 billion NYPD budget that costs us books in the hands of our children.' And Omar called for her home state of Minnesota to dissolve its police department. 'We need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department,' she said a rally over the weekend. 'The Minneapolis Police Department is rotten to the root, and so when we dismantle it, we get rid of that cancer, and we allow for something beautiful to rise, and that reimagining allows us to figure out what public safety looks like for us,' she noted. Minneapolis' city council did just that on Sunday, pledging to abolish the city's police force. Mayor Jacob Frey objected but he does not have the power to veto the move after a three-quarters majority of the council backed it. The city cannot officially disband the police but they control its funding so they can render it virtually powerless. Their plan involves moving funds away from the police department - which had a budget of $1.6 billion in 2019 - to community initiatives aimed at preventing crime and reducing its impact. The money would be directed to affordable housing, addiction support services, youth groups, mental health providers, social services, and arts programs. Routine jobs such as traffic stops, mental health call-outs, responding to the scene of overdoses and policing schools would be taken out of the hands of officers and given over to EMTs, the fire service, counselors and others who are better placed to provide support. Campaigners say a 'small, specialized force of public servants' could be used to prevent violent crime - since it does not make up the bulk of modern-day police work. The aim, they say, is to empower community members to 'look out for one another' as opposed to relying on a police service which often does not draw its members from the neighborhoods they police. The move will likely face legal challenges, including from the city's police union which has so far resisted attempts at reform, and could get tied up for months in red tape. And when Democrats on Monday unveiled their sweeping police reform bill aimed at combating police brutality, especially with the black community, it was missing any mention of police defunding. The legislation, written by the Congressional Black Caucus, includes a ban on police using chokeholds or carotid holds. It also requires nationwide use of body cameras by all police, makes law enforcement officers subject to civilian review boards and abolishes the legal doctrine known as qualified immunity, which protects police from civil lawsuits. Parishes will be asked to restrict numbers who attend mass and priests and others must wear masks when distributing communion. They are some of the elements proposed by the Irish Catholic Bishops` Conference in a new the Framework Document for a return to the public celebration of Mass and the Sacraments. Covid-19 restrictions will be eased at places of worship, with precautions, from June 29. The bishops say the purpose of this document is to assist priests and people in their own preparations and to help ensure that the re-opening of churches for public worship happens in a "safe and measured way". The bishops say that given the variety of our church buildings and communities, the Framework will need to be adapted to suit different situations on the ground. However, the document states that in all circumstances" the safety and health of people, ministers, and priests must be paramount. "No church should be opened for public prayer or worship until satisfactory arrangements, as indicated in this Framework, have been put in place, say the Bishops. In the section entitled physical (social) distancing the Framework says that public health authorities advise that people should maintain physical distance from each other (currently at least 2 metres). "In our churches, this will mean that the maximum number of people who can be accommodated for any communal prayer or liturgy will be much reduced. The demands of physical distancing will also need to be considered in relation to people entering the church and leaving it," it said. Hygiene is central to the document also. In the liturgical section, the Framework recommends masks in some circumstances. "Priests and ministers should wear a face-covering while distributing Communion," it says. Framework Document for a return to the public celebration of Mass and the Sacraments Introduction This document is intended to support dioceses and parishes in their own preparations for a return to the public celebration of Mass and the sacraments and may be supplemented at diocesan level. These guidelines should be read in conjunction with return to work protocols and insurance advice. Diocesan bishops are encouraged to put in place appropriate mechanisms for the implementation and verification of the guidelines. The guidelines provided in this document may need to be adapted in some cases, depending on factors such as the capacity and layout of churches, the size of the parish/church community, etc. However, in all circumstances the safety and health of people, ministers, and priests must be paramount. No church should be opened for public prayer or worship until satisfactory arrangements, as indicated in this Framework, have been put in place. It is most important that people who are vulnerable or unwell, and especially those with any symptoms that might suggest Covid-19 infection, should stay at home and, if possible, participate, as now, via webcam, social media, television, or radio. The same applies to those who have been in recent contact with someone who has the virus, in accordance with public health advice. Initial Steps The following steps should be undertaken in each parish to ensure that the preparations in each church are efficiently and effectively planned. - Establish a Covid-19 Support Team of parishioners to organise preparations and to oversee their implementation and verification. (the verification process may be assisted at Pastoral Area and/or Diocesan level) - Identify volunteers to assist with the implementation and verification. - Provide appropriate induction and training where necessary to priests, ministers, readers, employees and volunteers. -Secure an appropriate supply of signage, cleaning/sanitising materials and accessories and items necessary for protection. Checklists Dioceses and parishes should at all times follow the most up-to-date public health advice and associated regulations and obligations. To reduce the risk of transmission of Covid-19, public health advice emphasises the importance of strict adherence to physical distancing, good hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, and regular cleaning and sanitising of shared spaces. A. Physical (Social) Distancing Public health authorities advise that people should maintain physical distance from each other (currently at least 2 metres). In our churches this will mean that the maximum number of people who can be accommodated for any communal prayer or liturgy will be much reduced. The demands of physical distancing will also need to be considered in relation to people entering the church and leaving it. The following checklist is offered to assist dioceses and parishes in ensuring that physical distancing can be observed in our churches: - Having considered the most up-to-date advice on physical distancing, what is the number of people that can be accommodated safely in each church? - How will this be managed? - How will this be communicated to the people? - Have we clearly indicated the areas in the church where people can sit (e.g. by closing off rows of seats, allowing one person to sit at the end of each free row while permitting those from the same household to sit together, etc.)? - Have we stewards available, as necessary and appropriate, to assist people entering or leaving the church and to direct them to available seats? - Have we provided appropriate marking to help people to maintain physical distance, particularly when approaching for Holy Communion? - Have we taken account of the needs of people with disabilities? - Have we issued clear advice regarding people observing physical distancing while outside the church? - Is there appropriate signage to communicate these messages? B. Maintenance of Hygiene While each person has individual responsibility for following advice on hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, the church environment should itself be as safe as any enclosed public space. The following checklist is offered to assist dioceses and parishes in maintaining the standard of hygiene required in our churches at the present time. - If it is decided to continue providing toilet facilities, are these clean and appropriately stocked? - Can doors be kept open when people are arriving and departing from Mass or other celebrations to minimise contact with door handles, etc. and to improve ventilation? - Have sufficient hand sanitisers been provided at all entrances and exits? - Has the issue of the sharing of missalettes been considered? (reusable prayer books, hymnals, hymn sheets, etc. should not be distributed at this time) - What safe mechanism has been put in place for taking up church collections (e.g. secure and supervised boxes near the doors of the church)? - Have we identified those areas and objects in the church which will require frequent cleaning (i.e. seats, ambo, microphones, shrines, door handles, etc.)? - Has a process been put in place to ensure the regular cleaning of these, including after every gathering? - Is there a schedule for, and appropriate monitoring of general cleaning and sanitising of the church, including the sacristy? Liturgical Matters A return to public worship, even gradually, will be a source of great joy and hope to our parish communities. Public health considerations will, however, require some practical adjustments to the way we celebrate our liturgies. These should not in any way compromise the integrity of the liturgy and every effort should be made to support active participation and prayerful and joyful celebration. The following should be noted: The dispensation from the Sunday and Holy Day obligation is extended for the time being. Careful consideration should be given to the number of priests and other liturgical ministers that can be safely accommodated in the sanctuary, allowing for physical distancing and ease of movement. The sanctuary area should be arranged in such a way that those exercising a liturgical role can do so while respecting the required physical distance. Concelebration should be limited, and concelebrants should receive Communion under both kinds using separate chalices or by intinction. Deacons should continue to proclaim the Gospel and give the Homily, but caution should be exercised regarding ministering at the altar for the time being. Parishes are recommended to have designated places for Readers and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. In the interests of physical distancing, parishes may wish, for the time being, to limit music ministry to a single cantor and a single instrumentalist. Altar servers should assist only when all physical distancing/hygiene considerations have been taken into account, and with careful supervision. Regarding processions, the simple Entrance and Recessional format is recommended at this time. Rather than an Offertory Procession, the gifts of bread and wine should be brought by the celebrant from a credence table, placed near the altar, which will also hold the water bowl and finger towel. Care should be taken to avoid the contamination of the hosts which are to be consecrated. It is recommended liturgical practice to consecrate at each Mass a sufficient number of hosts for that celebration only. At this time, the optional exchange of the Sign of Peace can be omitted, or offered in a manner which avoids any physical contact. The procession for people approaching for Holy Communion should be carefully planned. Stewards may assist if required. For the time being, it is recommended that Communion should not be given under both kinds, and should be received in the hand. Priests and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion should visibly sanitise their hands both before and after the distribution of Communion. Priests and ministers should wear a face-covering while distributing Communion. It is advisable to provide a small table at each point of distribution with a bottle of sanitiser. This would enable the priest/minister to re-sanitise their hands if necessary during the distribution of Communion. Care should be taken to thoroughly clean all vessels and to change purificators and finger towels after each Mass. At the celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism, the celebrant will sign the child with the Cross without touching. A jug of fresh water will be blessed for the Baptism. For the time being, priests may prefer to have only one child (or children from one family) baptised in each ceremony. However, if there are a number of Baptisms in sequence, the same jug of Blessed Water could be used, but water may not be re-used from the font or basin. The anointing with the Holy Oils will be administered by the use of cotton buds. For the Sacrament of Reconciliation, provision should be made in the body of the Church for a confessional area. Consideration should be given to the privacy of the sacrament as well as the requirements of physical distancing and hygiene. Communications Each Diocese should plan for the clear and effective communication of all necessary protocols and procedures to all parishes in the Diocese. ................... In a statement, the bishops said this Framework has been developed in the light of extensive consultation across the dioceses of Ireland. They say it takes cognisance of the most up-to-date public health advice and associated regulations and obligations. "At our meetings this week we have been keeping in our prayers all who have been affected by COVID-19 in our country and throughout the world. We are especially conscious of the pain and loss felt by so many grieving families. We acknowledge with immense gratitude the skill and courage of our medical professionals and carers. We appreciate deeply the prayers, sacrifice and perseverance of all our faithful. We greatly admire the efforts of the many parishioners who have generously volunteered in charitable outreach to the elderly, vulnerable and marginalised. "At the end of the month we hope to slowly and cautiously resume public worship in our churches, knowing that it can only happen in a limited way. We will still need patience, perseverance and self-sacrifice. The prescriptions contained in this Framework Document will only be effective if we have the generous support of volunteers who will help to plan, implement and manage the transition back to full parish life and the celebration of the sacraments. In this regard, we appeal particularly to the younger members of our parishes. Their energy, creativity and enthusiasm are gifts that our communities need now more than ever, since some of our older generation may be unable to offer their normal help in the current circumstances. "We are also very conscious of the demands that this transition will place upon our priests, many of whom may still need to remain shielded from the virus. Together with Pastoral Councils and the support of the laity, priests have risen to the challenges presented by the recent restrictions, often in innovative and creative ways, and with great generosity of spirit together with enduring commitment to the faith communities they serve. We hope that the return of communal worship will give new heart to our priests and parishes and that, in spite of the inevitable limitations to our celebrations, we may all be confirmed in faith and in our ministry. "For our families, our domestic churches, this has been a difficult time, especially in homes where the joyful celebrations of First Communion, Confirmation and other sacraments had been happily anticipated. It is our hope that in each diocese arrangements can be put in place to celebrate these sacraments as soon as practicable, albeit in ways that will be influenced by whatever restrictions may still be necessary for the protection of all. "The resumption of public worship should not mean simply going back to where we were before. We have been through testing times, but these months have opened up new possibilities for the future mission of the Church. This crisis has much to say to us about ourselves as a community of faith, about our identity and our way forward. We earnestly hope that what we have learned - as individuals, in the domestic churches of our family homes, and as ministers of Charity, Word and Sacrament - will enrich the life of our Church and increase the joy of our celebrations as the doors of our churches open slowly once more," concluded at the statement. Actress Emilia Clarke, when asked what she would tell her younger self, had a wealth of wise and telling advice. Emilia Clarke | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images RELATED: Game of Thrones Star Emilia Clarke Refuses to Take Selfies With Fans After This Frightening Incident Shes been through a great deal both good and not so good but its clear the 33-year-old star wants to learn from it all. Emilia Clarkes message to nurses everywhere For Clarke, who has been through her share of medical struggles in her life, thanking nurses during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was her pleasure. The actress, in a voice-over for a video provided for International Nurses Day on May 12, 2020, read These Are the Hands, by Michael Rosen, former childrens laureate in England. This year, of course, the observation of the day was made even more significant for the sacrificial and heroic work done by nurses everywhere. This Nurses' Day we want to say thank you to our amazing members and their colleagues for playing a vital role in the #COVID19 pandemic. Please share this film and say thank you to nursing staff everywhere using #NursesDay pic.twitter.com/0zv62Rvv6M The RCN (@theRCN) May 12, 2020 Clarke, an ambassador for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), a trade union for those in the nursing profession in the United Kingdom, read in part, And these are the hands/That stop the leaks/Empty the pan/Wipe the pipes/Carry the can/Clamp the veins/Make the cast/Log the dose/And touch us last. At the end of her reading, the Last Christmas star stated, As a proud RCN ambassador, thank you to all nursing staff. Happy International Nurses Day. Just when all my childhood dreams seemed to have come true Clarke, in writing for The New Yorker in 2019, described her devastating experience that began in 2011, dealing with not one, but two brain aneurysms in her early days of filming the HBO hit. She began by saying, Just when all my childhood dreams seemed to have come true, I nearly lost my mind and then my life. RELATED: Emilia Clarke Was Annoyed by Daenerys Targaryens Death in the Game of Thrones Finale She described in her column the moment she knew something was wrong, while she was working out with her trainer at the gym. . . . my trainer had me get into the plank position, and I immediately felt as though an elastic band were squeezing my brain. I tried to ignore the pain and push through it, but I just couldnt. I told my trainer I had to take a break. Somehow, almost crawling, I made it to the locker room. I reached the toilet, sank to my knees, and proceeded to be violently, voluminously ill. Meanwhile, the painshooting, stabbing, constricting painwas getting worse. At some level, I knew what was happening: my brain was damaged. The English actress health ordeal was no easy feat but, as she wrote, I have healed beyond my most unreasonable hopes. I am now at a hundred per cent. Looking back, heres what Emilia Clarke would tell her younger self Clarke, in 2016, was asked by Teen Vogue to enlighten their readers with her own lifes journey and her lessons learned thus far. She was asked to speak to the eighteen-year-old version of herself about what to expect and what not to sweat. This particular journey that youre on is unlike any one of your friends that youre with right now, she said. What theyre doing is going to bring them joy and happiness and what youre doing is also going to bring you, maybe a little more struggle, but joy and happiness as well. Quoting the Baz Luhrmann song, Everybodys Free (To Wear Sunscreen), the actress continued, You are not as fat as you think you are. There are some women who look some way, and there are other women who look another way . . . and the way that the other women look, people love. Cause they look like women. RELATED: Emilia Clarke Revealed She Started Crying When She Met This One Celebrity But none of Bowsers predecessors have pushed back as forcefully as she did by renaming 16th Street Black Lives Matter Plaza after Trump referred to demonstrators as thugs, threatened to have them shot and unleash dogs on them, and called for a military-style crackdown on city streets. In interviews and on social media, the mayor has called the presidents rhetoric gross and tweeted that he hides behind his fence afraid/alone. Rhea Seehorn and Bob Odenkirk play married lawyers in "Better Call Saul." But one is shiftier than the other. (AMC) "Better Call Saul" might focus on Jimmy McGill, who now goes by Saul Goodman (and who is played by Bob Odenkirk), and his endless legal schemes, but it would be a very different show without his main squeeze, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn). The pair met in the mail room of a law office years ago, became lawyers, fell in love and this season finally wed. Still, like many things "Saul," their relationship is both central to the story and a slow-burning mystery. After all, Kim is nowhere to be seen in the "Breaking Bad" future. Dialed in on a video call, Odenkirk and Seehorn discussed where Kim is heading, the couple's sex life and whom they'd "better call" if they need legal assistance. Since Kim isn't part of "Breaking Bad," do you ever speculate on where they're both headed? Odenkirk: As an executive producer, I could go into the writers room and find out what the whole season is going to be about. I do go visit the writers but I never look at the [story] board. I don't want to know. I want to do the scene I'm in and that's it. Though you do know about Jimmy/Saul's future, because of "Breaking Bad." Odenkirk: I do and I don't. I mean, what do I know? We never saw Saul go home [on "Bad"]. We don't know if he takes off the suit and tie and is living with Kim and they have a kid. I don't think that's the case I think she's out of his life. Dead or married and living across town and it's driving him crazy. Seehorn: I was a bit more obsessive about wanting to know [early on]. I'd get each new script and make sure I wasn't dead. But that's an actor's response to not wanting the party to be over yet. And I let it go. It was good for me to be reminded that you need to play what's in the moment. After five years, how has your working relationship evolved? Odenkirk: It's all about trust. We mentally approach this thing with a similar degree of seriousness, appreciation and focus. There's a lot to look for in these scripts. It's worth your effort to take the script apart and explore the subtext of it. Story continues Seehorn: I trust Bob's endgame. He's trying to tell the best story he can while he creates his character, and I'm doing the same. Does it tickle you that fans have such granular discussions about the show? Seehorn: It's thrilling that people are worried about my character. It's a kind of pinch-yourself moment to have both critics and fans be kind. They're excessive, but they're smart. Odenkirk: Maybe not all things [fans] notice have a value, but the majority of little details that stick out end up being purposefully chosen, and then have resonance later. This is the reason we could never have done our show the way we've done it if it wasn't for "Breaking Bad." The show taught the audience to watch closely. They have the patience for our show. Jimmy and Kim are married now, but they have what is described as a nontraditional TV romance. As in, not a lot of physical contact. Odenkirk: If I was to sit in your house and watch you and your husband, would I see a lot of making out going on? Well, the show of me and my husband has not been greenlighted yet. And TV tends to be a heightened reality. Odenkirk: The show is not about how much sex they have. It's about other aspects of their personality. But I'll grant you that they do seem like colleagues more than anything. Seehorn: I have people talk to me about how real the relationship looks. That that has to do with being able to sit silently while they eat takeout food or watch TV. There is a realness to them. Odenkirk: Kim once asked Jimmy to go to a therapist, and he said he would. Then later, he just looks at her and says, "I don't think this is what will work for me." She says, "I understand." I said to [co-showrunner] Peter [Gould], "Holy ...! That's a relationship that can last." Seehorn: I'm incredibly thankful, especially as a woman in this business, that this relationship is about so many more interesting things than [physicality]. There's an episode where you see partial nudity, and [Jimmy] says, "I have to tell you something." The intimacy of that scene has nothing to do with how many clothes they finally took off. That resonates with people. If either of you were in need of legal help in real life, would you hire Jimmy or Kim? Seehorn: I would hire Kim Wexler for sure. But I'd want to get a drink with both of them. Odenkirk: I wouldn't go near Jimmy or Saul. I'd smell him from across the room. I would know he's a shifty dude, and I don't believe people like that. I don't vote for them for high office, and I don't go near them. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- One Cleveland event aims to create a music festival space that can exist during the coronavirus pandemic with safety measures in place. Kukui Music Festival announced that it will take place July 3-5, in a drive-in format. It will take place in the parking lots outside of the Greater Cleveland Aquarium and Jacobs Pavilion in Clevelands West Bank of the Flats neighborhood, 2000 Sycamore Street. Kukuis adapted model arrives in the wake of the coronavirus pandemics devastating blow on the music festival industry worldwide. Many music festivals in Ohio and around the world have responded to the dangers of social gathering during the era of COVID-19 by postponing events to the fall of 2020, or even canceling their events altogether. Locally, WonderStruck In Cleveland has been bumped back to a new date in September, and other Ohio fests like Sonic Temple, Bunbury and Nelsonville Music Festival wont take place in 2020 at all. Kukui is opting to proceed with its summer event, with extensive precautions in place to follow social distancing guidelines put in place by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in his Responsible Restart Ohio program. In all my years in the music/entertainment industry there has never been a more important time for us all to connect, network and support each other," said Event Director Ishmael Khadair. "We pride ourselves in forward thinking and innovation at Kukui HQ. We are a Cleveland-based entertainment group that wants to support Cleveland-based businesses and individuals. Together we can give Cleveland the positive distraction that it needs. The festival will take outside, in a broad expanse of parking lots on the West Bank of the Flats. The festival said it will assign two spaces for each group of ticket holders: one parking space for cars, and one for raving, according to the festivals Frequently Asked Questions page. Sounds like a mashup between a rave and a tailgate -- except, dont expect to be moving around too much. When you purchase a ticket it will include two parking spots, one to park your vehicle and the other to be used as a RPS (Rave Parking Spot) allowing you to get out of your vehicle provided that you remain within your RPS area for the duration of the show, the website states. This will allow all RPS to be within 12-14ft from the other ravers dancing in their own RPS areas with the vehicles in between each RPS. Four to eight people may occupy a Rave Parking Spot, and they must all arrive in the same vehicle, according to the website. In total, occupancy will be limited to 80 VIP vehicles and 200 GA vehicles, according to Khadair -- that means a maximum of 2,240 attendees will be allowed in to Kukui. What if you need to use the restroom, or get hungry? The festival says assigned parking attendants will give the designated driver a detailed map that will include instructions in case of emergency, your row & section for ordering food/drink from onsite vendors, and signals to follow in case you need to use the restroom and/or leave the festival. What if youre parked far away, and cant see the stage that well? Rows in the parking lot will be handed out first-come, first-served, Kukuis website states. The festivals lineup has not yet been announced, but the events website stated it would bring in some of Clevelands hottest local DJs along with the top DJs in the world." In the past couple of years, Kukui has hosted rave events in Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cleveland, according to past Facebook event records. Tickets to the event go on sale on Wednesday, June 10. Passes will cost $79 for a general admission day pass, or $99-$119 for a VIP day pass and three-day passes will cost $137 for general admission, and $199 for VIP passes, according to a festival representative. VIP sections will have exclusive parking entrances and exits, and will be located closest to the stage. You can find more information at Kukuis website, kukuimusicfestival.com. Update: The festival updated its ticketing system to a maximum of eight people per group. The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic has brought about new opportunities for regional cooperation in South Asia. On March 15, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi organised a regional conference with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) leaders and set up an emergency fund of $10 million to fight the pandemic. A senior official-level meeting was held on March 26 to frame mechanisms to further health cooperation. The region is also witnessing cooperation at a bilateral level, with Bangladesh supplying food and medical equipment to Maldives, and India stepping up its medical assistance to the region. Many commentators envisage that there will be a decline in globalisation and relative strengthening of regional supply chains. Geography will assume an important role in supply chains, with the proximity of production centres weighing equally against conventional elements such as facility, labour, and transportation time and cost. India, in particular (and largely the South Asian region), is foreseen to benefit from this for two reasons one, it is expected that several firms moving out of China will look at India as a potential destination, and two, Indias importance as a market for its neighbouring countries will also increase. While the shifting focus on localisation of global supply chains provides an opportunity for the region to become better integrated economically, there are existing challenges that must be addressed. In the recent Brookings India report, Indias Limited Trade Connectivity with South Asia, we have mapped the trends in Indias low trade connectivity with the region, the gaps that need to be addressed, and recommendations for increasing trade in the region. Despite huge potential, intra-regional trade in South Asia is among the lowest in the world at 5% (World Bank). To date, Indias trade with the region has ranged between 1.7% to 3.8% of its global trade. China has steadily increased its exports to the region from $8 billion in 2005 to $52 billion in 2018. As a result, only Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan now have a higher trade share with India as compared to that with China. However, India continues to be an important market for all its neighbouring countries, except Myanmar and Pakistan. The pandemic created both supply and demand-side shocks to global trade. A recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows that companies with localised industries and supply chains were able to mitigate the shocks better. Recently, PM Modi also stressed on self-reliance while emphasising on bolstering Indias supply chains. South Asian economies, particularly the small and medium enterprises in the region, can benefit from strengthening regional supply chains. The relatively younger population of the region and a rising middle-class, is well placed to supply workforce for labour-intensive production and generate demand for goods and services, respectively. To achieve better regional integration, there are several steps that South Asian countries can take. First, supply chains can only be strengthened if protectionism in the region is reduced to facilitate the flow of goods and services across borders. This includes the reduction of both tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. This can be done either through the revision of the free trade agreements or unilaterally by India. Indias health exports in particular such as medical devices, surgical equipment, and pharmaceuticals are beneficial to the neighbourhood. Second, cross-border logistics and infrastructure must be improved for supply chains to be economical. The region also lacks seamless end-to-end connectivity, has high logistics cost and inadequate infrastructure for warehousing. Over the last few years, there has been a focus on improving infrastructure at trade ports in the region approximately six Land Customs Stations (LCS) have been upgraded to Integrated Check Posts with 13 more in the pipeline, connectivity infrastructure with Nepal and Bangladesh (rail, road, pipelines and inland waterways) has increased in number, and air connectivity with Sri Lanka has grown with the operationalisation of Jaffna airport. Despite this, there is a need for South Asian countries to focus on reducing logistics barriers. Third, the pandemic has shown the importance of digitisation. As sanitation measures increase in cross-border movements, there is a need to increase investment in digital infrastructure to reduce human interactions. The digitisation of documentation and installation of radio frequency identification at land ports are some of the measures that can be explored. Indias dominant presence in South Asia necessitates that it must take steps to strengthen cooperation, build resilient supply chains and support economic recovery in its neighbouring countries. The pandemic has provided an opportunity for India to reverse its sluggish trade with the region. Since regional markets are easier to connect than global markets, India is seen as an attractive market by its neighbours; Bangladesh, for example, has shown interest in connecting with the Northeast. By optimising its strategic location in South Asia and its availability of labour and a growing middle class to generate supply and demand of goods and services, India has immense potential to attract investments and make itself an export-led economy. Riya Sinha is a research associate, and Niara Sareen is a research intern, Brookings Institution India Centre. This is a part of the Sambandh Initiative at Brookings India The views expressed are personal After a meeting with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, held to review the Delhi governments Covid-19 management strategies, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said that going by the coronavirus diseases current doubling rate of 12.6 days in the Capital, the city would need around 80,000 hospital beds by July 31. Sisodia also said Delhi could expect to see 5.5 lakh Covid-19 cases by July 31. With the number of Covid-19 cases in the city set to cross the 30,000-mark, Baijal directed the Delhi government to start readying health infrastructure on a war footing. Documents seen by HT showed that as on Tuesday, the government had identified 2,950 additional beds, taking the number of Covid-19 beds in the city to at least 11,842 by June 20. But, the documents also revealed that the government had a stock of 12,000 viral transport mediums (VTMs) as on Tuesday which will last only for 10 days. VTMs are equipment needed to collect and transport test samples. They are the kits that contain the transport media in a tube as well as the swab. There is a shortage of VTMs across the country, Delhi cannot be blamed alone. One of the reasons why testing was being carried out in a restricted manner is also the shortage of VTMs. When there is a shortage of product, we have to rationalise its use, said a senior government official, who asked to stay anonymous. Gauging the alarming shortage of VTMs, the Delhi government has now placed orders to get as many as 60,000 VTMs, which documents showed are expected to arrive by June 16. On June 2, the Delhi government had issued an order asking hospitals and testing labs to test only symptomatic people for Covid-19. This was overturned by the L-G on Monday, as he reasoned that keeping an asymptomatic person out of testing would adversely impact contact tracing and containment of infections in the city. Over the past one week, several hospitals have also stated that they are putting a cap on the number of Covid-19 tests being carried out on a daily basis due to a shortage of resources, though there was no official order from the government in this regard. As per documents presented before the L-G, and seen by HT, the state health department has projected the number of active cases in Delhi to touch 60,004 by June 30, 134,722 by July 15 and 319,237 by July 31. The bed requirement accordingly has been estimated at 15,001 (June 30), 33,680 (July 15) and 79,809 (July 31). The L-G was also informed that the government is in the process of ordering 20,000 new oxygen concentrators, a senior government official said. This will be in addition to the order of 2,000 oxygen concentrators that chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced last week. When asked if the city administration was prepared with the plan to arrange for 80,000 beds, a Delhi government spokesperson said, That is what we highlighted to the L-G. If we allow patients from outside Delhi to get treated in our hospitals, no matter how many beds we arrange, it wont be enough. From the governments side, we are doing our best to make all arrangements. The L-Gs office, in a statement after the meeting, said the government has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of divisional commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar to explore the possibility of accommodating for additional beds in the city, in spaces like stadiums. The panel has, so far, suggested Pragati Maidan, Talkatora Indoor Stadium, Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium, Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium, Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, Dhyanchand National Stadium and so on to be used as make-shift hospitals, the L-G office said. The fleet of CATS ambulance has been augmented from 160 to 450, which has reduced the response time to less than 30 minutes, a senior government official said. As on Tuesday, Delhi had 8,892 hospital beds, 582 ICU beds, 507 Ventilators beds and 3590 oxygenated-supported beds in Covid-designated hospitals. Around 2,950 additional beds will be ready by June 20. This includes 450 beds in the new Delhi government hospital in Burari, which is expected to be operational by June 20. Another 500 beds have been earmarked in other government hospitals. In addition, district magistrates are linking 19 hospitals with hotels, which would tentatively increase the capacity by approximately 2,000 beds by June 15, said a senior government official. So far, the health department has already linked eight four- and five-star hotels with some of the citys major hospitals. The cost of beds in these hotels have been capped at Rs. 10,000 a day, including housekeeping, food and so on, apart from medical services, which are the responsibility of the linked hospital. The government has also posted IAS officers as administrative officers in Covid hospitals to monitor their operations. On Sunday, the government had also ordered setting up of help desks, to be worked by government officers, in all government hospitals to facilitate the admission process. However, as on Tuesday, most Delhi government hospitals did not have these help desks. Hospitals such as Dr Hegdewar and Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalay said the respective officers deployed by the government had not reported there so far. As of Monday, Delhi had 29,943 Covid cases out of which 17,712 were active cases. As many as 874 people have died and 11,357 have recovered. The case fatality rate in Delhi is 2.92% as compared to the national average of 2.81% and the recovery rate is 38%. Delhi is conducting 13,543 tests per million as compared to the national average of 3531 tests per million, government reports showed. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON According to a new national surveillance study released this week, over half of the pregnant women admitted to a hospital in the United Kingdom with COVID-19 are either black or belong to other ethnic minority groups. The study titled, Characteristics and outcomes of pregnant women admitted to hospital with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK: national population-based cohort study, on behalf of the UK Obstetric Surveillance System SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Pregnancy Collaborative Group, was published in the latest issue of the journal British Medical Journal. What was the study about? The team of researchers wrote that there is little evidence regarding the transmission of COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus among mothers and newborn babies. There are small case series and case reports of such transmission, but extensive studies and reports are lacking, the team writes. They wrote, To the best of our knowledge, as of 12 May 2020, more than 90 scientific reports of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy had been published in English, none of which was population-based. In addition, most of the cases reported were among women in their third trimester of pregnancy. They also explain that, like other viral infections and transmissions, pregnant women are also more susceptible to getting infected with COVID-19 due to their altered immune status. This could significantly raise the risk of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, they wrote. This study aimed to describe a cohort of pregnant women across the nation admitted to the hospital with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. The study also recorded the outcome of such infections, their transmission from mother to newborn babies. What was done? This study was designed in 2012 and was planned on being conducted in the event of a pandemic. The study was thus activated by the UK Department of Health and Social Care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers used the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS) to assess the prevalence of the infection among 427 pregnant women and the outcome. They wrote that the UKOSS is a research platform that collects national population-based information about specific severe complications of pregnancy from all 194 hospitals in the UK with a consultant-led maternity unit. The research team was led by Professor Marian Knight from the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford. Infection in pregnant women was confirmed by the detection of viral RNA on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using blood tests of samples from nasopharyngeal swabs. Only women with symptoms were tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Detection of the virus via PCR in the nasopharyngeal swab and aspirate in the newborn also confirmed the diagnosis. The data was collated in the UKs National Institute of Health Research Clinical Research Network by the research midwives and nurses. All women admitted to the hospital between 1 March and 14 April 2020 were included. Those women who had complete information up until 29 April 2020 were included in the final analysis. The outcomes measured and taken into account were the rate of admission of the pregnant mothers to hospitals, infection in the infants, rate of deaths among the mother or need for level 3 critical care admission, loss of the baby, need for cesarean section, giving birth to a premature baby or stillborn baby and admission of the newborn to the neonatal ICU. What was found? The results showed that the estimated incidence of hospital admission among pregnant women with confirmed COVID-19 infection was 4.9 per 1,000 maternities. They found that 56 percent of the mothers analyzed (233 women) were from black or other ethnic minority groups. They also noted that 281 women or 69 percent were either obese or overweight, and 175 women or 41 percent were aged over 35 years. Pre-existing diseases were seen among 34 percent of women (145 women). Regarding the outcome, they noted that 62 percent of women or 266 gave birth or lost their pregnancy. A total of 196 women or 73 percent gave birth to term babies, while others were preterm. A further 10 percent of pregnant women needed respiratory support on admission to the hospital, and 1 percent of women (5 of them) died during the course of the illness. Among the babies, 5 percent or 12 tested positive for the infection from their mother, and six of these were positive within 12 hours after their birth. Conclusions and implications This study pointed out that over half of the pregnant women admitted to UK hospitals with COVID-19 were from black or other ethnic minority groups. They also noted that the outcomes of these women were generally good, and the risk of transmission to new-borns was low. The authors said that the high proportion of admitted women who were black or belonged to ethnic minorities was a cause of concern and needed further investigation. They wrote, The high proportion of women from black or minority ethnic groups admitted with SARS-CoV-2 infection needs urgent investigation and explanation. COVID-19 Infographics We are a team of doctors and medical students aiming to translate COVID-19 information into as many languages as possible! Find infographics translated into over 20 different languages and see how you can help us over at https://t.co/nyFduaUTuT (1/3) COVID-19 Infographics (@C19Infographics) April 25, 2020 https://covid19graphics.info/ As it readies to conduct nationwide exams for classes 10 and 12 in three weeks, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is faced with a dilemma: What to do if candidates in containment areas who cannot appear in the test. The human resource development ministry has declared that the crucial exams will be held in July in 13,000 schools. There can be options like treating these students at par with those in CBSE schools abroad for whom there are no exams. However, these are not simple issues and have to be thoroughly deliberated, said an official who wished not to be identified. In case the CBSE decides to call students from containment zones to test centres, it may also require permission from the Union home ministry. Some officers also point out that a large number of schools in areas like Delhi and many schools like the Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are being used as quarantine centres. For exams to be conducted, these institutions would need to be handed back to the organisations managing them. The board and the ministry are aware of these matters. However, decisions on such aspects cannot be taken in a hurry. All aspects are being considered, said the official cited above. The Prominent Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to deal honestly and openly with the reality of the deliberate genocide and targeted attacks of Christians and farmers by a combination of armed Fulani herdsmen and Islamists of Boko haram terrorists genre which have skyrocketed since five years ago that he assumed Presidential powers. The Rights organisation faulted the DIVERSIONARY tactics of the Presidency in which for five years it has chased imaginary enemies such as the unarmed Indigenous peoples of Biafra(IPOB) which it wrongly branded as a terrorists group but has failed to rein in or declare as terrorists the backers of the armed Fulani herdsmen such as the MIYETTI ALLAH CATTLE OWNERS ASSOCIATION which had actively through media statements backed the incessant attacks of communities in the mainly Christian dominated areas including the series of attacks in Benue, Plateau and Southern Kaduna State. HURIWA stated that in 2018 around June when a mass killing of at least 86 people who were attending a funeral event in Plateau state took place, MIYETTI ALLAH OFFICIAL said it was an act of revenge following an earlier attack, the cattle rearers' group, Miyetti Allah. HURIWA recalled that the Police that has serialy failed to protect Christians and farmers from the violenve even said 86 people were killed in several villages while six persons were injured in the attack that lasted between 1p.m. and 8p.m. But residents said over 120 people were massacred in separate attacks at different locations. HURIWA recalled that the state government imposed a dusk to dawn curfew in parts of the state, amid growing tensions between locals and migrant herdsmen community. Residents blame the attacks on Fulani herdsmen, a group represented by the Miyetti Allah. But the chairman the north central chapter of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Danladi Ciroma, condemned the attacks. Mr. Ciroma however said in a statement quoted by the media that the attacks were "retaliatory". "These attacks are retaliatory. As much as I don't support the killing of human being, the truth must be told that those who carried out the attacks must be on revenge mission," he said. "Fulani herdsmen have lost about 300 cows in the last few weeks - 94 cows were rustled by armed Berom youths in Fan village, another 36 cows were killed by Berom youths. In addition to that, 174 cattle were rustled." HURIWA has therefore lamented that each time MIYETTI ALLAH CATTLE OWNERS ASSOCIATION makes inflammatory and incendiary statements threatening national security, the Presidency will always go back to its old bag of tricks to excavate her persistent but unintelligent accusations against imaginary enemies including IPOB even at the risk of denying the widespread anti Christian and anti -farmers violence by Boko haram terrorists and armed Fulani herdsmen. HURIWA recalled that the presidency had recently accused the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) of using false claims to deceive the United States and the United Kingdom just as the government official said using the cover of Christianity, the presidency said IPOB is calling for a US special envoy to be appointed to stop the genocide of Christians in Nigeria. But in a statement on Sunday, Garba Shehu, spokesman of President Muhammadu Buhari, said the real purpose of IPOB is to cause disagreement between the Nigerian government and its US and UK/European allies. HURIWA however dismissed this soft tissue of propaganda against the banned IPOB as a diversionary tactic by the current administration to take the attention of the global community away from the genocide and killings of Christians and farmers by the Boko haram terrorists and armed Fulani herdsmen going on all over the Country. HURIWA asked the Presidency if it was located in the outer planet when the Islamic terror group of Boko Haram rejected N50m ransom and killed Christian Association of Nigerian chairman which was published extensively on 22 January 2020 by Guardian as well as all the other newspapers including the pro-regime Daily Trust newspaper. It was reported that outrage trailed the murder of the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Rev. Lawan Andimi after Boko Haram insurgents who kidnapped him rejected a N50 million ransom. The state CAN chairman, Bishop Dami Mamza, who broke the sad news to some journalists in Yola, said that the insurgents had demanded two million euros (about N50 million) and still went ahead to kill the innocent cleric. HURIWA also recalled that a report has it that armed Fulani herdsmen killed six in Kaduna village which was Published on August 16, 2016 by Punch Newspaper and other newspapers which reported that Suspected Fulani herdsmen that week killed six farmers at Godogodo in the Jemaa Local Government Area of Kaduna State. It was gathered that the herdsmen told the villagers that their villages had become cattle grazing reserves and demanded that they vacate immediately. But the chairman of the Kaduna State chapter of Miyetti Ahallah, Dr. Haruna Usman, said the Fulani herdsmen were on a revenge mission, noting that his men were not crazy like that to just kill anybody. Another 40 Chrustians were killed as suspected Fulani herdsmen raid Christian community in Nigeria Published October 20, 2016 By World Watch Monitor which stated that gunmen believed to be Fulani herdsmen have killed more than 40 people in Godogodo village, a Christian settlement in the Jamaa Local Government Area in Nigerias northern state of Kaduna. The area, in the south of Kaduna State, has been attacked several times before. The gunmen were said to have attacked a military checkpoint in the area before invading the village. One survivor, Peter Atangi, told World Watch Monitor. HURIWA recalled that the Fulani Herdsmen reportedly Killed 13 Christians, Wounded Three in Central Nigeria as Published on January 10, 2020 by international Christian response just as the publication stated that armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 13 Christians in Plateau state, Nigeria on Wednesday (Jan. 8), the same day four students were kidnapped from a Catholic seminary in Kaduna state. About 20 herdsmen attacked the predominantly Christian village of Kulben, in Plateau states Mangu County, at about 8 p.m., area residents told Morning Star News. The 13 dead were all members of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), as were three people wounded in the assault, they said. HURIWA listed other attacks amongs dozens others as follows: Suspected herdsmen kill 10 in Benue Published March 21, 2019 By Punch Suspected herdsmen and reported in details that on herdsmen killed 10 people in Tser Uoreleegeb in Ubabai council ward of Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.According to some people in the community, the gunmen shot indiscriminately after invading the village. Suspected herdsmen killed two Catholic priests, 17 others as Published on 25 April 2018 by Guardian and many others which reported that suspected herdsmen yesterday attacked Ayar Mbalom community in Gwer-East Local Government Area of Benue State, killing 19 persons, including two priests of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi. HURIWA said thar again, herdsmen killed 39, sack and raze three communities in Benue as Published APRIL 25, 2018 by Vanguard which disclosed that less than 48 hours after two Catholic Priests and 17 worshipers were killed by suspected herdsmen at Mbalon in Gwer East Local government area of Benue state, the marauders late Tuesday night and early Wednesday launched a coordinated attack on three communities in Guma local government area, killing no fewer than 39 persons, injuring scores and razing over 160 houses, huts and farmlands in the communities. Among the communities and villages affected in the attack were Tse-Umenge, Mbadwen council ward, Mbakpase, Saghev council ward and Tse-Ali, Mbawa council ward. HURIWA recalled that the herdsmen again Killed 11 in Southern Kaduna Published ON APRIL 1, 2020 BY VANGUARD and reported that despite the curfew imposed on Kaduna state, the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, SOKAPU, said gunmen had killed 11 people in 3 villages across the southern part of the state. This was contained in a statement by the Public Relations Officer, Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), Mr. Luka Binniyat. He said the attacks took place in Guruku ward, Kuduru village both in Chikun Local Government Area and Jagindi, in Jemaa Local LGA. There was Fresh attack in Jemaa, Kaduna reportedly claims 14 lives PUBLISHED BY DAILY POST 17TH DEC 2018 and said 14 persons have been reported killed while 17 others were injured during an attack by gunmen Sunday night at Ungwan Paa-Gwandara village in Godogodo Chiefdom of Jemaa local government area of Kaduna State. Mr Joshua Paul, a resident of the community told DAILYPOST that the gunmen unleashed the mayhem around 8pm when unidentified gunmen opened fire on innocent persons who were attending a wedding ceremony. HURIWA quoted Arewa pastors as saying 30 Christians were killed in Jos attacks Published May 28, 2019 By Punch and affirmed that a group, Arewa Christians and Indigenous Pastors Association, said about 30 Christians were killed and over 20 houses were burnt or destroyed by Muslim militia, some in military uniforms from around Tina junction, Cele bridge, Dutse Uku and Nasarawa areas, all bordering Muslim communities in Jos North. HURIWA summed up few other cases as follows: "Suspected Fulani Herdsmen Invade Southern Kaduna Community, Hack Women, Children To Death as Published JUN 03, 2020 BY SAHARA REPORTERS and said suspected Fulani herdsmen have invaded Tudun Doka community under Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, killing dozens of persons in the process, SaharaReporters can confirm. Nine persons, mostly women and children, were hacked to death with machetes by the attackers. Over 30 Dead Bodies Decomposing In Bush After Kajuru Attacks, Southern Kaduna Residents Say Published MAY 31, 2020 BY SAHARA REPORTERS and quoted that the President of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, Jonathan Asake, has said that over 30 dead bodies of victims of the attacks by armed bandits in Kajuru under Southern Kaduna were decomposing in the bush. He said security agents had not gone to the affected communities to retrieve the bodies, adding that over 60 people were still missing after the attacks.Two beheaded in fresh attack on Agatu by armed herdsmen PUBLISHED ON APRIL 13, 2020 BY VANGUARD and stated that Suspected armed herdsmen on Monday morning reportedly besieged Ologba community and beheaded two young men in a fresh attack on Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State. The attackers were also reported to have taken away the heads of their victims to an unknown destination. Scores killed as suspected herdsmen attack Agatu, Benue State Published by daily post on 1st July 2019 and said no fewer than 20 people were in the early hours of Sunday killed by suspected herdsmen in Okokolo village, Agatu LGA of Benue State. The attackers, DAILY POST gathered, also burnt down several houses and valuables. It was also gathered that corpses of some persons were yet to be found. Herdsmen strike again in Benue, killed 20 in Agatu attack on Feb 21, 2019 | The Nigerian Voice and goes thus:"Barely three days to the rescheduled general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), armed herdsmen suspected to be from Fulani extraction in the early hours of on Wednesday made an incursion into the Ebete Usha ward in Agatu local government area of Benue state leaving 17 local farmers and three Jukun hunters.Published by The Guardian 29 April 2016 /6:57 am it was reported that Fulani herdsmen attacked Ninji and Ropp villages in Plateau State and killed 27 persons. Also, the same group reportedly murdered about 70 Christians. July 16, 2015: Fulani Herdsmen attack and killed farmers in Plateau. September 2015: an attack by some Fulani herdsmen on the community of Onitsha Ukwuani in Ndokwa West local government area of Delta State left about three persons dead. A middle-aged woman was raped and subsequently killed by three Fulani herdsmen in Edo state. October 2, 2015: Fulani Herdsmen raped, killed Ogun Residents and Farmers. November 2015: Herdsmen invaded Ulaja and Ojeh communities in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State and killed about 22 men and women. December 1, 2015: Fulani Herdsmen kill a man in Ofagbe community, Isoko North council area of Delta. February 2016: Fulani herdsmen reportedly killed About 10 persons in Tom-Anyiin, Tom-Ataan, Mbaya and Tombu in the Buruku Local Government Area of the state. February 8, 2016: 10 killed, Over 300 displaced in clash between herdsmen and farmers at Tom-Anyiin, Tom-Ataan in Buruku LGA. February 11, 2016: Herdsmen attacked Abbi community in Uzo-Uwani LGA, Enugu killing two siblings and burnt houses, motorcycles. February 29, 2016: Over 500 locals killed and 7000 displaced in an attack in Agatu LGA by fulani herdsmen. March 9, 2016: 8 residents killed during herdsmen attacks in Ngorukgan, Tse Chia, Deghkia and Nhumbe, Logo LGA. April 12, 2016: Fulani herdsmen attack Dori and Mesuma villages in Taraba, killing at least 15. April 19, 2016: A member of about 18 suspected Herdsmen that invaded farms in Lagun village, Lagelu local council Oyo state, shot Mr. Jimmy Aido. April 25, 2016: 48 killed, 60 injured by Fulani herdsmen in Ukpabi Nimbo community, Enugu state. Twenty-one killed as fresh crisis erupts in Southern Kaduna Published by Guardian 21 February 2017 Afresh crisis has erupted in Southern Kaduna, despite the presence of security agents as armed Fulani herdsmen launched attacks on four communities killing no less than 21 people. Many houses have also been reportedly set ablaze in the incident ,which began on Sunday and lasted till yesterday afternoon. Pastor, 50 others die in fresh Adamawa attack Published By PUNCH September 15, 2018 Over fifty persons including a pastor belonging to the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria were on Thursday night killed in attacks carried out by suspected Fulani herdsmen . The attackers , who targeted the villages of Gon , Nzumosu , Bolki, Nyanga , Bukuto in the Numan Local Government Areas of the state , reportedly numbered over 200 . 12 feared killed in attacks on Benue, Kaduna communities Published by The Guardian 06 April 2018 No fewer than 10 persons have been feared killed and scores injured when suspected herdsmen on Wednesday night attacked some communities in Gwer-West Local Council of Benue State. According to sources, the assailants invaded Mbapa, Mbapupuu, Mbachohon and Enger settlements in Agagbe District of the council area in a gorilla warfare fashion at about 11p.m., killing farmers and residents in their sleep. Gunmen attack Kaduna village, kill 14, injure 21 Published By PUNCH December 18, 2018 and reported that gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen on Sunday night attacked Ungwan Pah ll Gwandara in the Jema a Local Government Area of Kaduna State , killing 14 persons . During the attack , 21 persons reportedly sustained varying degrees of injury from gunshots and machete cuts . HURIWA recalled that the other armed gangs of Christian hating Herdsmen attacked 11 Plateau villages, killed 86, torch 50 houses Published By PUNCH June 25, 2018 and detailed that Plateau State was thrown into mourning with the killing of 86 persons in the attacks on about 11 communities in the Gashish District by suspected Fulani herdsmen . The Police Command in Plateau State had earlier confirmed the attacks, saying it had only recovered 11 corpses from some of the villages . But residents had insisted that about 200 people were killed by the marauding herdsmen .Then a Pastor, 10-year-old, two others killed in Plateau raid Published April 9, 2020 by Punch and reported that a thirty-four-year-old pastor, Mathew Tagwai, has been killed by gunmen in the Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State. 7 Killed in Nigeria Jihadist Attack on Christmas Eve reported by Voice of America December 25, 2019 which reported that boko Haram jihadists have killed seven people on Christmas Eve in a raid on a Christian village near the town of Chibok in northeast Nigeria's Borno state, local militia and residents told AFP Wednesday. Islamic State militants beheaded 11 Christians in Nigeria on Christmas Day Published 27 DEC 2019 by Vatican News which detailed that Jihadists of the so-called Islamic State release a video purportedly showing the murder of 11 Christians in Nigerias Borno State on Christmas Day.Boko Haram attacked another Borno village; burns school, church December 30, 2019 By Premium Times Mandaragirau, a village in Biu Local Government Area of Borno State, was attacked Sunday night by suspected Boko Haram insurgents. The attackers also burnt down the communitys church and a school. They also abducted a man on their way out. killed in latest Plateau massacre September 7, 2018 By World Watch Monitor Nigeria On 28 August, communities including a mining site at Wereh village (Ropp District), Abonong, Ziyat and Bek villages (Foron District), Nafan, Sagas, Rawuru, and Rambuh villages (Fan District), all in Barkin Ladi, came under heavy attack by Fulani militants. Victims included a pastor and four members of his family. Rev. Adamu Wurim Gyang, 50, and his three children were set ablaze and burnt beyond recognition. His wife, Jummai, 45, was shot and left to die in a pool of blood. More than 14 were killed in that attack; 95 houses were burned down and 225 farm crops awaiting harvest were destroyed. A youth at the mining site also died. Boko Haram kept one Dapchi girl who refused to deny her Christianity Published Sat 24 March 2018 by The Guardian and indicated that the Schoolgirl Leah Sharibu would not renounce her faith despite friends begging her to pretend to accept Islam The only Christian girl among the Dapchi schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram last month could have been freed along with her schoolmates but refused to renounce her faith, according to her mother. On October 2, Morning Star News reported, Armed Fulani herdsmen accompanied by militants in Nigerian army uniforms killed 17 Christians in their homes in the heart of Jos, north-central Nigeria, on Thursday (September 27), including four children, area sources said. 20+ Nigerian Christians drown in river attempting to escape Fulani attackers September 21, 2018 By World Watch Monitor A pastor was one of at least 27 people who lost their lives following fresh attacks carried out by Fulani militants on five predominantly Christian communities in northeast Nigeria in recent days. Many of them drowned as they attempted to escape via the local river. Various sources contacted by World Watch Monitor confirmed that the attacks took place between 13 to 16 September, and affected the villages of Gon, Bolki, Ndumusu, Yotti and Yanga, in Numan local government area (LGA), Adamaw HURIWA is therefore challenging the current administration to tell the World how many of the killers have been arrested and prosecuted and punished for these heinous crimes against humanity. Hours after a ceasefire initiative was announced in Cairo on 6 June, divisions emerged in the Government of National Accord (GNA), headed by Fayez Al-Sarraj, over how to respond. One camp supports a halt to military operations in favour of a push towards hammering out a political resolution while a second camp seems intent on following Ankaras rejection of the Cairo Declaration and continuing military operations in the hope of gaining control of Libyas major oil producing areas in the so-called Oil Crescent. Which group will gain the upper hand is unclear, and likely to remain so at least until Al-Sarrajs visit to Moscow is over. Meanwhile, the US has hinted that it may become a military player in Libya. Washington is clearly rattled by the Russian presence in Libya, and is embarking on new security arrangements which involve the redeployment of US troops already stationed in Germany. The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), headquartered in Stuttgart, will be closely monitoring developments in Libya. AFRICOM is responsible for all US Department of Defense operations, exercises, and security cooperation on the African continent, its island nations, and surrounding waters, and has already announced its intention to deploy US troops in Tunisia for training not combat purposes. The Russian Foreign Ministry has released a statement in support of the Cairo Declaration, and called on Libyan rivals to resume talks, saying on Monday that the Egyptian peace initiative should form the baseline for negotiations between Libyas warring parties to decide the future of the country. According to Egyptian and Libyan observers in Cairo, Moscow is keener than ever to contain the conflict in Libya. Russia not only wants to secure its existing economic interests in Libya, not least the $7 billion worth of contracts it signed with the Gaddafi regime, but is seeking a slice of the reconstruction pie. Currently, Moscow seems to be banking on securing a foothold in east Libya via its relationship with the Libyan National Army which controls most of Libyas oil wells. The Egyptian initiative is supported by France and Germany, both of which backed the recommendations on seeking a consensus among concerned states on resolving the Libyan crisis, that emerged at the Berlin International Conference on Libya. The European Union and the UK also released statements supportive of the Egyptian initiative and calling for a political solution to the crisis. According to the Foreign Ministry, Cairo is canvassing international powers and Libyas neighbours on ways to military escalation in Libya involving foreign and domestic militias, while Turkey is pushing the militias to reject the ceasefire. Libyan and Egyptian activists have posted videos on social media of military reinforcements being moved to Egypts border with Libya. The military has not made any statements on the moves though there is general agreement among analysts that in light of developments in Libya Egypt would be keen to reinforce security along the border. Observers do not think there is a possibility of Cairo intervening militarily in its western neighbour. Cairo has repeatedly warned against military escalation, with President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi stating explicitly Egypt rejects all forms of escalation that may complicate the crisis. The posted videos, though, have confused the calculations of the GNA and Ankara, according to a Libyan source in Tripoli. A Libyan politician who supports the Cairo Declaration said that pressure to resume negotiations on a political solution to the crisis is important at the present time because though Turkey appears to have changed the balance of power in favour of GNA and Turkish militias, it does not automatically translate into a change in the political equation. The source added there are signs the UN is pressing the rival parties to resume talks, and proposals made by Libyas Parliamentary Speaker Aguila Saleh, included as part of the Cairo initiative, have gained the approval of several international powers. The political path is clear at this point, and in light of the Berlin Conference it doesnt require going back to square one, as the Cairo Declaration stressed. *A version of this article appears in print in the 11 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: The Mount Sinai Health System has received an award from Microsoft AI for Health to support the work of a new data science center dedicated to COVID-19 research. The Mount Sinai COVID Informatics Center (MSCIC) brings together leaders from entities across Mount Sinai, including the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health, the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, and the BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute. This partnership with Microsoft provides us with cloud resources that will accelerate our discovery, translation and implementation of digital tools in the fight against COVID-19. Through this collaboration with AI for Health, we are leveraging the expertise of the Mount Sinai Health System in delivering world-class patient care and the Azure cloud to bring our AI-enabled products from bench to bedside." Robbie Freeman, MSN, RN, Vice President of Clinical Innovation at The Mount Sinai Hospital The philanthropic Microsoft AI for Health Grant will support the care of patients with the coronavirus, enabling the Center to develop tools using artificial intelligence (AI) that enhance care and evidence-based medicine for treating COVID-19 patients. MSCIC will use Microsoft Azure cloud computing to provide researchers with access and storage for complex patient data from multiple sources including electronic health records and novel research studies. MSCIC researchers said the grant will enhance their ability to rapidly translate data science research and methods back to patient care in hospitals. "The unprecedented threat of COVID-19 allowed MSCIC to quickly integrate data from across the Health System and address an unmet need among Mount Sinai clinicians and researchers to perform rapid clinical informatics analyses and provide answers to critical questions that could impact how patients are treated," said Patricia Savi Glowe, Senior Director of Strategy and Operations for the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health, and Research Operations Lead for the MSCIC Executive Management Team. MSCIC represents expertise in health care delivery, health sciences, biomedical and digital engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. The Center seeks to provide Mount Sinai with data analytic solutions to combat current and future threats of COVID-19, as well as rapidly develop digital health products with real-time predictive and preventive capabilities that empower patients and health care providers and improve health and health outcomes. The Center most recently launched a study called Warrior Watch, following hundreds of health care workers to monitor biometrics such as heart rate variability, sleep disruption and physical activity, through an Apple Watch in conjunction with regular surveys to better understand the level of stress and anxiety they face on the front lines of this crisis. Girish Nadkarni, MD, Clinical Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health and Co-Chair of MSCIC, said the Center's ability to capture up-to-date clinical and research data can be used to mitigate and recover from public health emergencies such as COVID-19. "Our work will help fuel research discoveries that help our patients in real time, as well as over time, as we assess the impact of COVID-19 on our health workers at Mount Sinai," he said. The Microsoft grant, which is awarded by the AI for Health program within the AI for Good initiative, empowers researchers and organizations with AI tools and capabilities to advance the health of people and communities around the world. "At Microsoft, we know that technology and AI have tremendous power to benefit people affected by COVID-19," said John Kahan, Chief Data Analytics Officer and global lead for the AI for Health program. "That's why it's so important to empower organizations such as the Mount Sinai Health System, to bring together COVID-19 data and researchers using AI to support patients and healthcare professionals during these uncertain times." The future vision of the center extends beyond the current pandemic, said Alexander Charney, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Neuroscience, and Neurosurgery, and Co-Chair of MSCIC. "With support from industry leaders like Microsoft, we've not only enhanced our ability to combat COVID-19 in the immediate future, but with this infrastructure, we have opened up a whole new opportunity into how we can improve patient outcomes across the spectrum of human disease," he said. This is not the time of Charles Dickens. It is not the best of times; it is only the worst of times. Daniel Human The real problems Survival tactics When the Covid-19 pandemic surprised the world with the magnitude of exponential proportions, most countries and most citizens were completely unprepared for what happened next.The introduction of preventative measures and the washing of hands was thought to be an inconvenience, but the scenario of a total lockdown of almost a global scale was not even considered. Yet, this is what happened.This is the time we were asked to enter the fray. We responded to a very simple need: The need to coordinate the data of care of thousands of people caught in the jaws of lockdown. And coordination really makes sense. Where many Care Based Organisations (CBOs) had to work hand-in-hand with each other, coordinating with security forces, donors, local government structures, and logistics companies, the conditions for "stepping on each other's toes" were perfect.To add to the whirlwind and confusion, suddenly all NGOs and NPOs were now delivering food parcels to needy families. And that is where the real problems came into focus. As one NGO would have been involved in local entrepreneurship development, and another caring for child-led homes, whilst yet another would be focused on social justice or abused women, there was an obvious overlap of people on lists.The magnitude of the overlap between these lists of people was just over 38% when they were captured. This meant, in practice, that one family, being on multiple lists for different reasons, now found themselves on multiple lists for a singular reason: Getting a food parcel.However, the fact that the list existed for a specific purpose, meant that most CBOs were very protective of their lists. And now, as their lists proved to be a driver of income, it meant that competitiveness of names on lists developed, or rather, was amplified.Suddenly, the identity of a person was lost and became a number. Unfortunately, the donors and organisations that responded with humanitarian hearts added to the problem whilst believing that they were part of the solution. The very simple decision to monetise the process and not the outcome created a systemic issue. Let me explain: The old adage of "You get what you pay for" or "You get what you incentivise" applies. If you choose to pay for the process, the natural response of people would be to maximise the payment in the process.When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the Qumran Caves in 1946 this lesson was learned the hard way. In order to maximise the finding and collecting of archaeological items, the process was incentivised. For every scrap that was brought to the archaeologists, the volunteer was paid for. The Bedouins quickly maximised their position: When they found an intact item, they tore it up in many bits and were paid for each. Not only were invaluable ancient artefacts destroyed, but the subsequent effort of putting Humpty Dumpty together again cost millions.What resulted in townships were the following: Some families received lots and others received nothing at all. Meanwhile, the NGOs were "pocketing it". Being paid anything from R100 to R250 to deliver a parcel to a family, it was easy to stack up the numbers. As an example, one NPO claimed to have distributed 7000 parcels. Each weighed 70kg. Simple calculation: They delivered 490 tons of food. Yet, when talking to the distribution centre, they only received 64 tons. In actual fact, they only delivered 914 parcels. Yet they got paid for 7000! Nice.Let's be open about this: People are people. Irrespective of where they come from and what their background is, when something is freely given, people will take what they can. Having been an observer of food aid to a middle-class family, it was sad to see that their temporary food aid continued long after they once again found employment and could adequately sustain themselves.So, there is no blame to be gamed by criticising the families who received multiple parcels. They were merely and naturally optimising their own positions. Some even started selling their excess and multiple parcels were found in food kitchens - using free goods as a wonderful boon of supply to sell cooked meals to hungry clients.A logical extension would be this: NGOs are also people, run by people, staffed by people, and prone to all of the limitations of our impoverished human condition. However, NGOs should strive to be better.Unfortunately, even though there was little overlap in their roles initially, the new overlaps created explicit partisan behaviour. Suddenly, the implicit focus on a group became an explicit scream of "turf". Willingness to share information went from difficult to improbable to "definitely not" in days. Now we see that volunteers who risk life and health to collect names of beneficiaries are enticed to "sell" their lists to the big (well-funded) NGOs. For the bigger want to be fatter, to be quite blunt.On the other hand, the donors are steadily (and blissfully ignorant of what is happening) supplying goods into the communities. Some goods are "sequestered" by local politicos, dedicating care to "their lists" - that is, card-carry party members. Other NGOs are publicly resisted and even ridiculed for playing to "another political parties' agenda".And, yes, the racial divide widened as white care workers who have been involved in the community for decades were suddenly politicised. Even though little of it makes sense at the incidental level, it makes sense at the systemic level. Working together and seeing the people as the beneficiaries of care, maximising efficiencies to these desperate people, and ensuring that effort is minimised and outcome optimised is most difficult to manage against this accepted norm of "separateness".A very good example is the care of foreigners. Not eligible for any of the grants given by the Government, they are the most vulnerable of all. Against a backdrop of the xenophobic mindset of South Africans, it was clearly communicated by some that only citizens should receive aid. Irrespective of the fact that humanitarian aid contains the word "human", that is, all people, equally, at a practical level this is sadly overpowered by inequality. We are now seeing food riots in places. We are seeing an increase in social risk. But are we hearing the tearing of the fabric of our society?Which is why the comment is valid that NGOs, the very people that should be better at this, has devolved to a new 2020 version of Apartheid. You can go through the tick-list yourself. "Human" rights abuses. Tick. Separateness. Tick. Institutional coldness. Tick. Administrative mechanisms to enforce and sustain separateness. Tick. Lack of tolerance. Tick. Inequality in accessing resources. Tick. Perhaps it is not "institutionalised" as a governmental model through policies, but it is decidedly "Apartheid of the mind".Yes, we are in the fray. This is a military term. We are waging a war against corruption, against inequality and for social justice and optimising care to all. Equally. Perhaps we sound like "Care Freedom Fighters" or "Social Justice Warriors". Perhaps we are. But perhaps we were called for a day like this. - Pierre Nkurunziza attended a volleyball game on Saturday, June 6, after which he started feeling unwell - The Burundian leader was rushed to the hospital where his health improved slightly for the better part of Sunday, June 7 - On the morning of Monday, June 8, he went into a cardiac arrest and doctors tried to resuscitate him in vain - Burundi declared a mourning period of seven days from Tuesday, June 9, with flags set to fly half-mast Outgoing Burundi president Pierre Nkurunziza is dead, the government of Burundi has announced. In a statement, officials said Nkurunziza died on Monday, June 8, from cardiac arrest at Karusi Fiftieth Anniversary Hospital. READ ALSO: Section ofJSC members accuse Maraga of misleading Kenyans during attack on Uhuru Outgoing President of Burundi Pierre Nkurunziza (l) and his wife (r). Photo: The Rwandan. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Opinion: Maraga, Havi, KHRC attacks on Uhuru Kenyatta smacks of Wakora Network scheme He was 55 at the time of his demise. "The government of the Republic of Burundi announces with great sadness the unexpected death of His Excellency Pierre Nkurunziza, President of the Republic of Burundi, at the Karusi Fiftieth Anniversary Hospital following a cardiac arrest on Monday, June 8, 2020," the statement read. READ ALSO: Raila afanya mazungumzo na mwandani wa DP Ruto nyumbani kwake READ ALSO: Still funny: Dagoretti North MP John Kiarie perfectly imitates Mutahi Kagwe's accent The Burundi head of state's death came three weeks after the country held its general election on Wednesday, May 20. The poll marked the end of 15-year tenure for Nkurunzira, with Burundi Major General (Rtd) Evariste Ndayishimiye being declared president-elect after trouncing the poll. READ ALSO: Coronavirus update: 3 weeks old baby among 127 new COVID-19 cases, national tally now at 2,989 President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Tanzania counterpart John Pombe Magufuli were among East Africa head of states who sent congratulatory messages to Ndayishimiye. According to the statement shared by the government of Burundi, Nkurunziza attended a volleyball game on Saturday, June 6, after which he started feeling unwell He was rushed to the hospital where his health improved slightly for the better part of Sunday, June 7, but went into a cardiac arrest on Monday, June 8. "While he had spent the afternoon of Saturday, June 6, attending a volleyball match at Ngozi, it was during the night of June 6 and Sunday, June 7, that he felt uneasy and quickly went to the Karuzi Hospital for treatment. On Sunday his health improved and he spoke with the people who are next to him. To the great surprise in the morning of Monday, June 8, his health suddenly changed with a cardiac arrest," the statement read in part. READ ALSO: Coronavirus update: 3 weeks old baby among 127 new COVID-19 cases, national tally now at 2,989 READ ALSO: ODM dares Lugari MP Ayub Savula to mention Raila's man behind Musalia Mudavadi's ouster plot Doctors used all techniques to try and revive him for hours in vain. "Immediate resuscitation was undertaken by the multidisciplinary team of doctors for several hours with cardio-respiratory assistance. Despite intense continuous and adapted treatment, the medical team was unable to recover the patient," said the statement. President Uhuru Kenyatta (pictured) mourned Nkurunziza and described him as an outstanding regional counterpart who served his country with distinction. Photo: State House Kenya. Source: Facebook Following his death, Burundi declared seven days of mourning "a worthy son of the country, a worthy patriot to national patriotism" and flags were set to fly half-mast. Nkurunziza's death came at a time when his wife Denise Nkurunzinza was battling COVID-19 at a Nairobi hospital where she was airlifted to from Burundi after falling ill. 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. I married a man every woman wanted - Pastor Joan Chege | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke Advocates are voicing disappointment in the wake of an independent administrative tribunal ruling the province did not discriminate when it didn't fully fund a deaf student's university tuition. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advocates are voicing disappointment in the wake of an independent administrative tribunal ruling the province did not discriminate when it didn't fully fund a deaf student's university tuition. Cody Zimmer of Winnipeg alleged he was discriminated against on the basis of being deaf by not getting enough funding from the province's marketAbilities program for his tuition to Gallaudet University, a fully bilingual American Sign Language (ASL) university in Washington, D.C. MarketAbilities is meant to provide vocational support to people with disabilities including funding post-secondary education. The Manitoba Human Rights Commission joined Zimmer in saying he wasn't getting the funding he needed to experience university in his first language, like hearing students can. "(Hearing students) can interact freely with their professors and colleagues, their peers and classes," said Karen Sharma, commission executive director. Deaf students must arrange mediating services if they want to participate in extracurriculars and other programs outside of class, Sharma said. Zimmer received $11,800 from marketAbilities; that number covers the cost of an education degree at the University of Manitoba. Zimmer had submitted a budget of US$51,911 to attend Gallaudet. MarketAbilities had determined Zimmer could attend the U of M, with an interpreter. Zimmer ultimately attended Gallaudet, where he majored in political science. He began in 2014 and finished in May 2019, participating in extracurriculars such as debate club. The programming was in ASL, so he didn't need an interpreter. "We think that all individuals, including people with disabilities, ought to have the right to choose what's best for them when it comes to their education," Sharma said. Zimmer took marketAbilities to court in January. The commission took the case to Manitoba's Human Rights Adjudication Panel, who decided May 19 marketAbilities wasn't discriminating against him. "It didn't affirm the right of equality for the deaf community," said Sharma. The panel concluded Zimmer wasn't discriminated against because he received funding for university, just like others who access marketAbilities. "At the same time, this decision should not be taken as a licence for the program not to fulfil its obligations in a fulsome manner in the future," the panel wrote in its decision. The panel shouldn't have made its decision based on the outcome of graduation it's about the experience during university, said Rick Zimmer, Cody's dad and program co-ordinator of Red River College's ASL English interpretation program. 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. "(Cody) had the opportunity to talk with any student and any professor," Rick Zimmer said of his son's time at Gallaudet. Peers who attended university with an interpreter said they felt alone and isolated because they couldn't interact in school the way others could, according to Rick Zimmer. Many of them dropped out, he said. "It's being in the dorm, it's being in the faculties," he added. Furthermore, it's more expensive to get interpreters and tutors for deaf students who go to schools that aren't fully ASL and deaf students have more to catch up on in school because 40 to 50 per cent of information is lost in translation, Rick Zimmer said. "(The panel) missed the point," he said. gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca Keanu Reeves in The Matrix (Credit: Warner Bros) We'll soon see Keanu Reeves back in his flowing trench coat as Neo in the anticipated Matrix sequel, The Matrix 4. And now, Reeves has explained how he was tempted back to the high-concept sci-fi franchise by writer and director Lana Wachowski. He told Empire magazine: Lana Wachowski wrote a beautiful script and a wonderful story that resonated with me. Read more: Explosions rock the set of The Matrix 4 Thats the only reason to do it. To work with her again is just amazing. Its been really special, and the story has, I think, some meaningful things to say, and that we can take some nourishment from. Wachowski, who made the original trilogy with sibling Lilly, has penned this fourth movie in the series with screenwriters Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell, writer of the novel Cloud Atlas (which the Wachowskis made into a movie in 2012), on board too. It comes a full 18 years after 2003's The Matrix Revolutions, released the same year as the second movie, The Matrix Reloaded. Also speaking about the fourth movie to Empire, Carrie-Anne Moss (aka Trinity), added: I never thought that it would happen. It was never on my radar at all. Carrie Anne-Moss and Reeves in The Matrix (Credit: Warner Bros) When it was brought to me in the way that it was brought to me, with incredible depth and all of the integrity and artistry that you could imagine, I was like, This is a gift. It was just very exciting. Moss will be back alongside Reeves and original star Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe, though it's not yet known whether Laurence Fishburne will be returning as Morpheus. Read more: Brand new Bill & Ted Face The Music poster New cast-members, meanwhile, include Priyanka Chopra, Jessica Henwick, Neil Patrick Harris and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Rumours currently abound that Watchmen star Abdul-Mateen will be playing a young version of Morpheus, but as yet, plot details are being kept firmly under wraps. Shooting began on the movie in February this year in San Francisco, but was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdown on March 16. It's scheduled to recommence in July, with the release date still set for May, 2021. Venezuela hails Iran, Russia, China, Cuba as true friends Iran Press TV Monday, 08 June 2020 8:32 AM Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has hailed Iran, Russia, China, and Cuba as real friends of Caracas and expressed gratitude for their humanitarian aid. "Humanitarian aid is coming from China, Russia, Iran and Cuba. They are true friends," Maduro said in a televised speech on Sunday. He also rebuked the US, saying Washington had promised $20 million in aid, "but not a single dollar came through". The United States has over the past few years imposed harsh economic sanctions on the oil-rich South American country to pressure the country's President Maduro to step down, forcing millions of Venezuelans to abandon their homeland due to a lack of basic food and necessities. The sanctions, which include the illegal confiscation of Venezuelan assets abroad and an economic blockade, have caused enormous suffering for millions of people in the country. Last month, Iranian tankers delivered much-needed gasoline to the Latin American country facing a fuel crisis. Upon the arrival of the first Iranian tanker, Venezuelans stormed Twitter to express gratitude towards Tehran for the shipments. The shipments have stirred the wrath of the US administration in Washington as both Iran and Venezuela are under illegal sanctions imposed by the White House. The administration of President Donald Trump, which has returned US sanctions against Iran after leaving a historic nuclear accord between the Islamic Republic and world powers, said last month that it was considering "measures" in response to the shipments. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Minnesota, June 9 : The Minneapolis ex-policeman accused of killing unarmed black man George Floyd has made his first court appearance, where his bail was set at $1.25m (A1m). Prosecutors cited the "severity of the charges" and public outrage as the reason for upping his bail from $1m, the BBC reported. Derek Chauvin faces charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter. Three other arresting officers are charged with aiding and abetting murder. Floyd's death in May led to global protests and calls for police reform. Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes while he was being arrested in Minneapolis on 25 May. He and the three other police officers have since been fired. Meanwhile, mourners in Houston, Texas, where Floyd lived before moving to Minneapolis, have been viewing his body, publicly on display for six hours at The Fountain of Praise church. On Tuesday, a private funeral service will be held in Houston. Memorial services have already been held in Minneapolis and North Carolina, where Floyd was born. It is believed a family member escorted Floyd's body on a flight to Texas late on Saturday. Democratic US presidential candidate Joe Biden met privately with Mr Floyd's relatives in Houston to offer his sympathies on Monday. "He listened, heard their pain, and shared in their woe," said Floyd family spokesman Benjamin Crump, who tweeted a photo of the meeting. "That compassion meant the world to this grieving family." Aides to the former vice-president said he would also record a video message for Tuesday's service. Chauvin, a 19-year police veteran, did not enter a plea as he appeared via teleconference on Monday. He did not speak during the 15-minute hearing, and was handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit as he sat a small table. Judge Jeannice M Reding set a bail of $1.25m with no preconditions, or $1m with conditions that include Chauvin not contacting Mr Floyd's family, surrendering his firearms and not working in law enforcement or security as he awaits trial. His lawyer did not object to the bail price. Chauvin, 44, is currently being held at the Minnesota state prison in Oak Park Heights, after being transferred several times. His next court appearance is set for 29 June. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Social isolation during the Coronavirus lockdown has impacted on the mental health of already traumatised homeless people in the city, the Derry News has learned. Homeless support services in Derry ensured that nobody fell through the cracks and were left sleeping on the streets during the pandemic. The past eleven weeks have been demanding for service users, some of whom suffer with addiction issues and other health problems. Coronavirus cases have been kept to a minimum in homeless accommodation and, in extremely challenging circumstances, staff have educated residents about the need to adhere to social distancing guidelines. First Housing Aid & Support Services (FHASS) offer a range of services inclusive of accommodation and support in the North West and throughout the province - this includes addiction services such as Damien House. The service aims to help individuals and families who are homeless in their transition from temporary accommodation to permanent accommodation. It was established in 1989 in response to rising levels of homelessness and housing disadvantage in Derry. Since then it has developed innovative projects and services to assist people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Its Floating Support and Resettlement Services continue to support people already living in their own accommodation who are finding it difficult to sustain or maintain their homes. Throughout the weeks of the pandemic this service maintained daily contact offering support, help and guidance to people in difficulty, be that benefits, loneliness and isolation or help with medical issues. COMPLEX NEEDS Director of Operations at FHASS, Eileen Best, told the Derry News: Before the pandemic hit it was difficult to support people who may be vulnerable, have a range of complex needs addiction and poor mental health. Many of our service users have experienced excessive trauma in their lives in their journey into homelessness. COVID-19 has added more trauma to people who were already under stress. This extreme situation and lockdown is undeniably having an impact on mental health for some people. First Housing have been lucky, the logistics of our buildings mean that our services users have their own space and most of our projects are to a great extent self-contained. It has to be recognised that other agencies have not had that luxury for clients to self-isolate. She continued: Undeniably the homeless are a group who face particular risks due to lack of facilities, shared accommodation, exposing them to close contact with others. Even for families the lockdown experience has been hard with no visitors allowed into projects; in the main this was for health and safety to minimise infections. This has meant to a great extent families can feel socially isolated from extended families who previously had been a huge source of support. It is not easy having to entertain young children indoors day after day when schools, shops, parks are closed. Some of our families found themselves being parent, teacher, whilst working from home with the associated stress this incurred. SOCIAL DISTANCING Photo: Mother and son Stacey and Cathair McCafferty during lockdown. This period was challenging for staff who went above and beyond their normal duties to support residents. Within the accommodation projects staff worked every day on the frontline managing a very difficult situation, Eileen explained. Where face to face support was impossible staff embraced the use of technology in the form of Zoom, WhatsApp and Facebook to offer help. Initially, social distancing proved difficult, particularly for young people, but they quickly gathered how important it was to follow government advice. We wanted our service users to behave responsibility and stick to social distancing guidelines, Ms Best said. Understandably, this was difficult for young people, they felt they were immune to the virus and it was hard also for people suffering from addictions. Families were better at social distancing but with staff guidance service users quickly took on board that it was not just for the benefit of themselves, but for all those within the projects, inclusive of staff who were leaving their homes and coming to work everyday to return at night to their families. She added: It would be remiss of me not to say that it has been challenging for staff, their world is very different to pre COVID-19. Offices have been re-arranged to allow social distancing, cleaning regimes are regular and ongoing and staff have stepped up to the role they found themselves in. Our staff tell us that in the early days it was frightening for them to come to work day and daily, public transport was running, but there was a real fear to use it. They recount how eerie it was coming to work in town that was in lockdown, but to their credit they came every day. As an organisation we have met these challenges by assuring our staff that we value and support them in their role and will do all that it takes to keep them safe. PARTNERSHIP Photo: Chloe Whoriskey and daughter Brooke staying active during lockdown. FHASS has worked in partnership with a wide range of agencies, inclusive of The Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Supporting People who fund our homeless services and the Western Trust. Integral to the cause, were colleagues from the Voluntary Sector who were keen to lend support where it was needed. During this pandemic partnership working was the thing that stood out the most, and of course the generosity of the Derry people. I believe this will continue post COVID-19. The Housing Executive worked hard to ensure that no one was rough sleeping in the North West. Our Street Outreach regularly patrolled the streets to offer belt and braces and pick up those who may have fallen through the net. Supporting People made additional resources available to cover some of the additional costs associated with the Pandemic. There was regular communication from all these agencies regarding support with handling difficult situations, regular guidance documents, testing for staff and service users. The Western Trust had regular meetings to ensure that things were progressing well and that agencies had the PPE they required in order to work safely in supported accommodation for the homeless. Due to this remarkable teamwork I am pleased to say that our services were managed admirably and we have kept the numbers of infections down within our projects. NORMALITY Service users are finding that as restrictions ease they can socialise more. In the event of a second wave the services will be better prepared, but for the sake of service users they hope that prediction does not materialise. It has been good for them to have some semblance of normality, Ms Best observed. That is not to say that our young people were not up to challenges in lockdown. Through the use of technology they completed the 5 steps to Health and Well-Being, comprising physical exercise, nutrition and healthy eating links to learning and showing gratitude. Our #Workitout Project funded by the National Lottery Fund kept the challenges rolling and the young people loved it. The National lottery also allowed us to support young people who were facing digital barriers and who were isolated in the community and we thank them for that support. We at First Housing know that we are not out of the woods yet and our role now is to take the learning from the first wave of the pandemic and apply it if a second wave comes. There have been concerns about a spike in homelessness post-COVID-19 but Ms Best believes it was possible to look after people during the pandemic the surely it can be done after to end rough sleeping for good. The NIHE are looking as options to help do this such as Housing First where the model is the person is housed first and the support is linked in to them in the community. NIHE take the view as we all do that one person on the streets of N Ireland is one too many, Ms Best concluded. The coronavirus outbreak has led to delay in starting classes for the new sessions and postponement of exams. Union Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has said that the Centre is contemplating the option of reducing the syllabus and instructional hours for the coming academic year. He has asked all teachers, academicians and educationists to share their views on this matter using #SyllabusForStudents2020 on MHRD's or his personal Twitter handle and on Facebook. In view of the current circumstances and after receiving a lot of requests from parents and teachers, we are contemplating the option of reduction in the syllabus and instructional hours for the coming academic year.@SanjayDhotreMP @HRDMinistry @PIB_India @MIB_India Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) June 9, 2020 The government has started discussing the idea after it received requests from several parents to reduce the syllabus for the upcoming batch. The coronavirus outbreak has led to delay in starting classes for the new sessions and postponement of exams. Although the central and various state governments have been providing online classes, many students are not able to attend them due to lack of internet connection or smartphones. The Centre has eased the COVID-19 lockdown, but it is not clear when schools will reopen. The central government on Monday announced that it has started consultation with the state governments about the reopening of schools. Pokhriyal on 8 June said, As directed by me, Smt. Anita Karwal, Secretary of School Education and Literacy department, MHRD is taking a meeting of all state education secretaries to discuss health & safety of students, hygiene measures in schools & issues regarding online/digital learning in their states. The process for reopening of schools has begun, but it will take more than two months to resume classes in schools depending on the coronavirus situation across the country, reported LiveMint, quoting HRD Ministry officials. Recently, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia mooted a suggestion that syllabus for all grades be reduced by 30 per cent in view of the prevailing situation. In a letter to Pokhriyal, Sisodia said online teaching can only complement learning in school, not replace it. People wait in line to vote in the Georgia's primary election at Park Tavern, in Atlanta, Ga., on June 9, 2020. (Brynn Anderson/ AP Photo) Voting Delays, Long Lines Hamper Georgia Primaries ATLANTAVoters waited as long as five hours to cast ballots in some Georgia precincts on June 9 amid reports of voting machine malfunctions and high turnout in a state that President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden are expected to hotly contest in the fall. Widespread problems included trouble with Georgias new voting system that combines touchscreens with scanned paper ballots in races for president, U.S. Senate, and dozens of other contests. Americans were also voting Tuesday in primaries in West Virginia, Nevada, and South Carolina following months of social restrictions to guard against the spread of COVID-19 and a week of massive protests following the death of George Floyd in police custody. Even before Georgia voters ran into problems Tuesday, the states chief elections officer, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, warned that results may be slow to come in as poll closures and virus restrictions complicate in-person voting and counties process a huge increase in ballots received by mail. Outside a recreation center being used as a polling site in Atlanta, some voters said they had been waiting for nearly four hours in a line that wrapped around the block. At another site off Atlantas Piedmont Park, several people walked up, looked at the line wrapped around the parking lot and then left, shaking their heads in frustration. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said voters in line at one of Atlantas largest precincts reported all the machines were down. She encouraged voters not to give up. If you are in line, PLEASE do not allow your vote to be suppressed, the mayor wrote on Twitter. The problems werent just limited to the Atlanta area. In Savannah, Mayor Van Johnson said he was inundated with phone calls Tuesday morning from voters reporting extensive delays. Election officials in surrounding Chatham County were requesting an extension of voting hours. People wait in line to vote in the Georgias primary election at Park Tavern, in Atlanta, Ga., on June 9, 2020. (Brynn Anderson/ AP Photo) Gabriel Sterling, who managed the rollout of Georgias new $120 million voting system, said he had heard of no actual equipment issues but rather of delayed deliveries of voting equipment and problems with polls workers not understanding setup or how to operate voting equipment. Sterling blamed counties engaging in poor planning, limited training, and failures of leadership. Raffensperger announced plans to investigate voting problems that plagued Fulton and Dekalb counties. By Steve Peoples, Ben Nadler, And Sudhin Thanawala Epoch Times staff contributed to this report Augustoberfest to return in 2022, but in a new location This year marks the 25th anniversary of Augustoberfest, usually held in downtown Hagerstown. But this year's festival is moving out of Hagerstown. London, June 9 : The UK and Japan are set to begin talks on Tuesday aimed at reaching agreement on a post-Brexit trade deal, the media reported. Discussions with Japan will initially be held via video link and be between the UK's International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi, the BBC reported. Truss said that she hopes to build on the existing pact between Tokyo and Brussels. "We aim to strike a comprehensive free trade agreement that goes further than the deal previously agreed with the EU, setting ambitious standards in areas such as digital trade and services. "This deal will provide more opportunities for businesses and individuals across every region and nation of the UK and help boost our economies following the unprecedented economic challenges posed by coronavirus,"Truss added. According to British government figures, trade between the two countries totalled 31.4 billion pounds last year, with 9,500 UK-based businesses exporting goods to Japan. The UK hopes that a free trade agreement with Japan will help it to eventually join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). But without a new deal by January 1, 2021 the two countries will default to World Trade Organization trading terms, said the BBC reporte. That would mean tariffs and obstacles to commerce between the UK and its fourth-largest non-EU trading partner. After decades of sharing its trade policy with the EU, the UK is now embarking on free trade negotiations with countries around the world. Last month the UK launched formal talks with the US and is also hoping to reach a trade agreement with the EU by the end of this year. Discussions with Brussels have proved to be particularly difficult, with no agreement so far on even the basic structure of what will be negotiated. When Spike Lee phoned in for an interview late last week, New York was still in the throes of demonstrations against police brutality, a lockdown brought on by covid-19 and the civic unrest and economic crisis that have ensued. But Lee, who was calling from his home on the Upper East Side, was in a surprisingly exuberant mood. "Wednesday was the first day nobody died from corona," he said, citing data regarding confirmed deaths published by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. What's more, he had taken a bike ride to mayoral residence Gracie Mansion a few days earlier that considerably raised his spirits. "I had a mask on, trying to be in-cog-negro," he recalls with a wry laugh. "And it was a great sight for my sore eyes to see my fellow New Yorkers - white, brown, red and black - unified and speaking up against the powers that be." He was even more heartened by what he saw on CNN all week. "It happened all across the United States of America, not just New York," he says excitedly. "It's all over. Baltimore, D.C. - I mean, even places where there are no black people! Salt Lake City, Utah. Des Moines, Iowa. ... Many more places that don't have a large minority population. But they're out there, too. I haven't seen this since I was a kid growing up in the '60s." Having a conversation with Lee, who turned 63 in March, is akin to a dance: He is as sharply observant and coruscatingly critical as the films he's been making since his groundbreaking debut in 1986 with "She's Gotta Have It." But, like most of his movies, he possesses an underlying current of humor that can instantly disarm even his harshest detractors. His new movie, "Da 5 Bloods," which begins streaming on Netflix on Friday, exemplifies what makes him so distinctive as a director: He's one of a handful of filmmakers who have refined their own, instantly recognizable cinematic language (those rack-focus dolly shots, those double-edit hugs). Lee has also been fearless about making polemical work, and speaking out about politics off-screen, regardless of the blowback he might receive in Hollywood or from his audience. Given the huge and diverse turnouts at the nationwide demonstrations over the past two weeks, is he optimistic that systemic change is at hand? The answer, he says, is all about follow-through. "Let's not get (ahead of) ourselves," he warns. "Let's see what's happened when we wake up on Nov. 4. Because regardless of what's happening now, if Agent Orange gets re-elected, then it's been in vain." "Agent Orange," as Lee's fans know, is the filmmaker's preferred name for President Donald Trump. It's also a deadly chemical that was used as an herbicide and defoliant in Vietnam, where "Da 5 Bloods" takes place. The movie stars Delroy Lindo, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Clarke Peters and Norm Lewis as veterans who return to the country to recover the remains of their fallen squad leader (played in flashbacks by Chadwick Boseman). Along the way, they embark on a scheme reminiscent of John Huston's "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," one of Lee's all-time favorites. Although it obeys the conventions of war films and caper flicks, "Da 5 Bloods" also recognizes the disproportionate sacrifice of black soldiers in Vietnam, who were drafted, sent to the front lines, killed and court-martialed far more often than their white peers. Lee, who with Kevin Willmott retooled Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo's script that had originally been about white characters, first heard about the project as he was preparing to direct "BlacKkKlansman," in 2017. Although he couldn't have known then that the themes of "Da 5 Bloods" would be so germane in 2020, he says, "It doesn't take a great leap to make a correlation between what happened to black and brown boys in Vietnam and what's happened to black and brown communities with corona. You can tie that together without having to work." Inimitable Spike Lee touches abound throughout "Da 5 Bloods," which features one of his most familiar stylistic flourishes: a stirring prologue and epilogue, in this case featuring Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr. - both of whom criticized the Vietnam War, both of whom were reviled for doing so at the time, and both of whom have been sanitized into sentimental heroes over the ensuing decades. The decision to include King in "Da 5 Bloods," was particularly personal for Lee. The civil rights leader was a senior at Atlanta's Morehouse College when Lee's father was a freshman; Lee graduated from Morehouse in 1979 with Martin Luther King III. "Dr. King wasn't just talking about how immoral the Vietnam War was," Lee insists. "He was talking about Dow Chemical and all the other people who were profiting off the war, who were making napalm and Agent Orange. And I think that's why he got assassinated. Not because he was trying to desegregate counters or all that other stuff. When he started speaking against the war, they were like, 'This guy gotta go.' " Film fans will recognize more than a few shout-outs to "Apocalypse Now" in "Da 5 Bloods," which features at least two straight-up homages to Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film. Lee had just graduated from Morehouse and was preparing to attend film school at New York University when that film came out. He was working as an intern at Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles. "I was at the first screening," he recalls fondly, trying to find the ticket stub while he talks. "Twelve noon, the Cinerama Dome, Sunset Boulevard. Every time I see Francis he says, 'Spike, you've told me this story a million times already!' But it's true! That was one of the most exhilarating experiences I've ever seen in film." Lee says that he cast Laurence Fishburne and Albert Hall in "School Daze" and "Malcolm X" on the strength of their supporting performances in "Apocalypse Now." He gives credit to Coppola and Oliver Stone for casting actors of color in their Vietnam movies, which were breakthroughs compared with John Wayne's "Green Berets" and other whitewashed histories of the war. He says he has "nothing but love" for both directors, especially Stone, who served in Vietnam. Speculating that Stone may not have felt qualified to tell the black soldiers' story, Lee compares him to Norman Jewison, who had intended to direct "Malcolm X" before Lee took on the project. " 'Malcolm X' was Norman Jewison's film. And he gracefully bowed out. He didn't have to do that," Lee says, adding that, to this day, their conversation has remained private. "Without saying exactly what he said, you know, he kind of acknowledged that maybe he was not the person to direct that film." Far from being despondent about coronavirus and political unrest, Lee says, he feels he was "built for this." Since New York went into shutdown, he has been isolating at home with his wife, Tonya, their grown children, Satchel and Jackson, and their Yorkshire terrier, Ginger. "The family motto: Be safe and one day at a time." When the video emerged of George Floyd dying under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis, he responded almost days later with a breathtaking 94-second short film called "3 Brothers - Radio Raheem, Eric Garner and George Floyd," in which he intercut the deaths of Garner and Floyd with footage from the 1989 film "Do the Right Thing," in which Radio Raheem, played by Bill Nunn, dies while in a police chokehold. Reflecting on the devastating parallels of fact and fiction in "3 Brothers," Lee takes a moment to clear up what he says has been a 30-year misunderstanding about "Do the Right Thing," which ends with two quotes about violence, one from Martin Luther King and one from Malcolm X. "There were some people who were saying that Spike put these quotes in the movie for the audience member to make a choice," Lee says. "That was not the intent at all. Before Malcolm X got assassinated, (he and) Dr. King were trying to find a common ground, where they could unite their different points of view. But they were united in the freedom of black folks. So the end of 'Do the Right Thing' was not saying to the audience, 'Pick one or the other.' I felt that you could put both of them together." Does Lee feel compelled to make a particular movie in light of these extraordinary times? "No," he says flatly, although he suggests he might be inspired to make another short film. The position of individual artists and their proper creative response, he says, is a private decision. "As I've gotten older and more mature, I can understand that every artist has their own path," he says. "And there are some artists - and I'm not making any judgments - they think that their gift to God is their talent and to entertain people, and they make a conscious decision to leave politics out of it. And that's their choice. "But I do think that history has showed us that when times have been rough, they've produced some of the greatest music, movies, plays and whatnot from artists who feel that it's their duty to comment or hold up a window to the evil that's going on." Whatever he does next, there's little chance that Lee will leave the audience wondering which side of that equation he's on. TAMPA, Fla., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- JOLT Advantage Group, a leading pure-play Robotic Process Automation (RPA) services provider in North America, had the recent honor of being named a UiPath Certified Professional Services Partner. JOLT became one of the first global partners to be part of the new UiPath Services Network (USN); An elite network of service delivery partners accredited with advanced delivery skills on par with the UiPath Professional Services team. USN certified partner logo UiPath is the fastest-growing enterprise software company in history, their Robotic Process Automation platform is recognized as the #1 RPA solution globally by top industry analysts such as Gartner, Forrester, and Everest. JOLT is proud to be working closely with UiPath to continue to democratize RPA and help organizations build and scale their automation initiatives. The USN program validates partners with a proven track record of delivering successful RPA programs with a professional services team comprised of highly skilled, certified UiPath resources specialized in RPA Development, Infrastructure, Architecture, and Business Process Analysis. RPA has proven to boost operational efficiency and accelerate digital transformation for organizations around the world. "As the enterprise adoption of RPA continues to grow at hyper speed, challenges remain for organizations to deliver value and scale their automation footprint," says Xuan Liao, CMO of JOLT. "As UiPath's Global Innovation Partner of the Year 2019 and a USN certified partner. JOLT is uniquely recognized for its ability to bring UiPath clients rapid, commercial success with RPA, ensuring enterprises realize value deployment while setting up the program for long term success with our training and managed services." To learn more about JOLT, visit www.joltag.com/automation or contact [email protected] for more information. About JOLT Advantage Group: At JOLT, we free humans of the robotic work they hate, allowing them to be more strategic, analytical, creative, and truly happy. Our 360 RPA & Intelligent Automation solutions drive operational efficiency, optimize customer experience, and maximize employee satisfaction while helping our clients achieve real digital transformation success. JOLT's comprehensive Intelligent Automation portfolio is equipped with the world's leading RPA software platform, purpose-built automation frameworks, intelligent transformation accelerators, custom change management strategy, and highly experienced automation veterans. About UiPath UiPath's hyperautomation platform combines the #1 Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution with a full suite of capabilities that enable every organization to scale digital business operations at unprecedented speed. The company has already automated millions of repetitive, mind-numbing tasks for businesses and government organizations all over the world, including approximately 50% of the Fortune 500. Media Contact Xuan Liao 415-271-9823 [email protected] SOURCE JOLT Advantage Group Watch Girlhood with Lockdown Theatre Club on Tuesday 9 June. Girlhood is available to rent on Prime, Sky and other platforms. At 8pm everyone presses play and watches together. You can tweet along (#LockdownTheatreClub) or just enjoy the film knowing were all part of an audience together. What is Girlhood? Before Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Celine Sciamma directed Girlhood (Bande de filles), set in the Paris. Marieme joins a girl gang in the Paris banlieues, discovering a liberating outlet for her bravado, but also experiencing the pressures that attempt to quash her spirit. Who else is involved? Sciamma cast non-professionals as Marieme and her fellow gang members: Karidja Toure (Marieme), Assa Sylla (Lady), Lindsay Karamoh (Adiatou) and Marietou Toure (Fily). Its still rare for French films to focus on black characters: [Drama] schools were empty, the theatre and acting classes were nearly all white, Sciamma said. Watch out for? The scene where the women dance to Rihannas Diamonds in a hotel, bathed in blue light. Trailer Sharing the loneliness Celine Sciamma on Girlhood I wanted to make a movie about friendship and also about anger. I wanted it to have a social background that was more anchored. I wanted to talk about the empowerment of the group and the joy of the group. I wanted it to be kind of epic with long scenes. For years, I was struck by the lack of black characters on screen in France, but even in Europe. I came up with this idea for a coming-of-age story with this very contemporary character: the classic, romantic heroine but from today. This film is committed to being colourful, to cinemascope, to having frames that are composed, to the music. The fact that it believes so much in cinema, that it uses all the tools of cinema, actually makes it joyful. As the character refuses the destiny that is set for her, the film also refuses the form that is set, that its supposed to have. And I think thats a promise. I think thats something that lifts you up. The hotel scene, the Rihanna scene, is the key scene for me. It was written for the song. It was the scene I most wanted to shoot. Its about the birth of a friendship how a friendship actually rises. Its all about that girl watching the others being beautiful together and synchronized finally stepping in and being at the centre of something, feeling iconic and beautiful. [She] suddenly gets a voice and [is] stepping from fake diva to kids jumping on beds. They have a voice when theyre together. I tried to think of the plot, the narrative, and the links between the characters as a choreography. Sometimes, its literally a choreography, because theyre dancing. Sometimes, the choreography is about the camera. Cinema is the only place, the only art ever, where you share somebodys loneliness. If you read a novel, you can be in the mind of somebody. But youre in the mind: thats not the same. You share the loneliness [in cinema]. Sharing the loneliness with somebody: you cant get closer to that. Edited from an interview with Sciamma by Alex Heeney (Seventh Row) Sensory overload Emma Wilson on dancing to Diamonds Sciamma as writer and director is peculiarly attentive to sensory detail, to what things feel like. This attention can be felt through her collaborative work with director of photography Crystel Fournier. Together, they create controlled visual environments, bathed in cool colors, blue, turquoise, green and a nauseous yellow. There is here a commitment to a filmic synaesthesia, a sort of sensory overload that surpasses aestheticism to carry intense feeling, to channel rapture, sensory, hurt. The scene of most intense intoxication (for Marieme as well as the audience) is the gang-girl dance to Rihannas Diamonds. The girls are in a rented hotel room, a safe space of comfort and luxury where, like children playing an imaginary game, they take bubble baths, eat pizza, and dress up in stolen frocks. Their hotel-room dance sequence is bathed in lush blue light. Girlhoods images are on the side of beauty, the ethereal. They are silvered, the blue of vivid dreams and cigarette smoke. This is the film at its most aestheticised. The film cuts to Vic in awe, smiling, moving almost imperceptibly to the music. The camera comes in closer and closer to her face as she watches and listens, her skin shining with reflected blue light, her eyes full of pleasure and grief. Then she too dances in the blue circle of light, stepping into this field of bodily sensation, of beauty, of pleasure. This is a film unafraid of launching a sequence that fully realises the energy, glamour and sheen of the bodies being viewed. Edited from Scenes of Hurt and Rapture: Celine Sciammas Girlhood (Film Quarterly) Syracuse, N.Y. -- The Syracuse police union has dealt a blow to Mayor Ben Walshs effort to take control of police discipline and add transparency to misconduct proceedings for officers. State Supreme Court Judge Deborah Karalunas sided with the union after a 10-month legal battle over whether City Hall, not an arbitrator, should get the final say on discipline for four cops who were suspended last year. The court decision was filed June 4. Thats two days before thousands of protesters took to the streets of Syracuse to decry police brutality and demand reforms, echoing a growing chorus of unrest nationwide. Walsh described the judges decision, which was made last month, as a setback." He said the city plans to appeal. The appeal process, however, will take months, maybe years. One of the challenges is that change from within the system is long and its hard, Walsh said. But were committed to it. Last July, city lawyers asked a state Supreme Court judge to waive the right to arbitration for four officers. The union had challenged suspensions for those officers by Walshs newly hired chief, Kenton Buckner. The city cited a century-old state law and a 2017 ruling from New Yorks highest court as reasons that the union shouldnt be allowed to negotiate officer discipline as part of its contract with the city. If that was the case, officers would no longer be entitled to third-party arbitration over discipline, which is outlined in the police contract. The union pushed back, arguing that the city and the union had agreed on the discipline process in a signed contract. That piece of the contract, union lawyers said, was protected by the Civil Service law and the city charter, written in 1960. If Walsh gets his way, the arbitration process, which is shrouded in secrecy, would be replaced by a public hearing, overseen by a mayoral appointee. We know people want us to be more transparent with discipline records. We agree, but are limited based on what we can share," he said. In terms of what we can control locally, I cant think of anything that would be more consequential than taking this action." The four officers at the center of the fight had been suspended sometime in Buckners early days on the job. After he was hired, Buckner immediately pledged to root out any bad apples in the department, which earned him intense criticism from union leaders. Buckner began cracking down on excessive police overtime and disciplined officers with a heavier hand than his predecessors. We havent had this many suspensions in a year as far back as I can remember, union President Jeff Piedmonte said last July. Buckner is much more of a disciplinarian than the previous chief. And hes much harder to deal with. Piedmonte did not return a phone call Monday afternoon. The union filed six grievances on April 16, 2019, several months after Buckner was hired. Those grievances challenged suspensions for Officers Joseph Moran, Mark Shea, Patrick Moore and David Craw. Neither the union nor the city has said what the officers are accused of. Rather than go to arbitration, the citys corporation counsel, Kristen Smith, argued that officer discipline should no longer be dictated by the citys contract with the police union. That argument stemmed from a 2017 ruling from New Yorks highest court -- the Court of Appeals -- which determined that police discipline in Schenectady was not subject to collective bargaining. Smith said that ruling should apply to Syracuse as well. Judge Karalunas described the citys argument as unpersuasive. In her ruling, Karalunas said the circumstances and laws governing Syracuse are different from Schenectadys. The citys 1960 charter overrules the earlier state laws on which the Schenectady argument is based. In the charter, Syracuse agreed to abide by Civil Service laws regarding police discipline. Karalunas issued a similar ruling on a lawsuit from the Syracuse firefighters union over the same issue. The two cases together cost the city around $25,000 in outside legal fees, according to Smith. Walsh added that the state needs to take action to allow police discipline records to be made public something New York lawmakers are voting on this week. Walsh said his administration has been committed to improving police accountability since he took office, noting that Buckner spearheaded an effort to overhaul the departments use of force policy. Walsh said the vast majority of police officers do things the right way. Adding transparency, then, benefits both the police and the community. We believe this is in the best interest of officers and the police department, Walsh said. Transparency is our friend ... When youre not transparent it suggests to people that you have something to hide. ONAWA, Iowa -- The coronavirus pandemic has forced a second postponement of a Monona County murder trial. District Judge Zachary Hindman on Tuesday scheduled Eliot Stowe's trial for Aug. 11. Stowe, who is accused of killing his grandmother, had been scheduled to stand trial June 26 in Monona County District Court. Hindman had been considering a proposal by attorneys to conduct Stowe's trial as scheduled by video, but Stowe informed the court he wanted his trial conducted in person. On May 22, Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen ordered that face-to-face court proceedings could not resume until July 13. Jury trials are not to take place until Sept. 14. Stowe has waived his right to a jury trial and will have Hindman decide his case in a bench trial. He was to stand trial on April 14, but prior to that date, Christensen ordered the continuation of all criminal nonjury trials scheduled to begin before June 1. Christensen's orders to keep courtrooms closed are an effort to limit Iowans' exposure to and slow the spread of COVID-19. Stowe, 22, of Castana, Iowa, has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder for the slaying of Cheryl Stowe at her rural Castana home sometime from June 23-26, 2018. Stowe was arrested Nov. 20, 2018, and charged with murder, months after Cheryl Stowe's body was found wrapped in a rug in a well-hidden area near her home on June 27, 2018. An autopsy report said that Stowe's death was the result of "complex homicidal violence," and evidence found in her home indicated blunt force trauma. According to court documents, Cheryl Stowe, 66, had told friends that her grandson's behavior was becoming more aggressive and their relationship was strained. Public defender Jennifer Solberg has filed notice that Eliot Stowe would rely on an insanity defense at trial. If found guilty of first-degree murder, Stowe would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. 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. The conservative cable network One America News has a minuscule audience, attracts few readers on the web and has struggled to break into the television mainstream. But thanks to one powerful viewer in the White House, the networks influence and its conspiracy theories are echoing in the highest reaches of American politics. President Trump, responding to a One America News segment, floated a baseless theory on Tuesday that a 75-year-old man in Buffalo who was knocked to the ground by the police and hospitalized after bleeding from his head was an ANTIFA provocateur who had tried to interfere with law enforcement. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed, the president wrote on Twitter. Could be a setup? Churchgoers may have to make online bookings to attend Mass and could be encouraged to wear face coverings when churches reopen at the end of the month. Under new guidelines published in a framework document, priests and parishes across Ireland are being asked to make a number of changes to prepare for public worship. Among the measures, priests are being asked to set up a Covid-19 support team of parishioners to organise preparations and to oversee changes made in the church. Statement of the Irish Catholic Bishops` Conference on the publication of the Framework Document for a return to the public celebration of Mass and the Sacraments https://t.co/4cyVY9jv4M #COVID19ireland pic.twitter.com/2G408EFYLU CatholicBishops (@CatholicBishops) June 9, 2020 Parishes have also been told to secure an appropriate supply of signage, cleaning/sanitising materials and accessories and items necessary for protection. Priests are also being asked for the number of people that can attend their church, and how that will be communicated to parishioners. In a statement from the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference, it said: At the end of the month we hope to slowly and cautiously resume public worship in our churches, knowing that it can only happen in a limited way. We will still need patience, perseverance and self-sacrifice. The prescriptions contained in this Framework Document will only be effective if we have the generous support of volunteers who will help to plan, implement and manage the transition back to full parish life and the celebration of the sacraments. In this regard we appeal particularly to the younger members of our parishes. Their energy, creativity and enthusiasm are gifts that our communities need now more than ever, since some of our older generation may be unable to offer their normal help in the current circumstances. The resumption of public worship should not mean simply going back to where we were before. Priests have been warned that no church should be opened for public prayer or worship until satisfactory arrangements have been put in place. Under the guidelines, reusable prayer books, hymnals and hymn sheets are not being distributed, while secure and supervised collection boxes will be placed near the doors of the church. Priests have also been asked to accommodate people with special needs. Church officials have also said that the optional exchange of the Sign of Peace can be omitted, or offered in a manner which avoids any physical contact. The advice also stated: The procession for people approaching for Holy Communion should be carefully planned. Stewards may assist if required. For the time being, it is recommended that Communion should not be given under both kinds, and should be received in the hand. Priests and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion should visibly sanitise their hands both before and after the distribution of Communion. Priests and ministers have also been told they should wear a face covering while distributing Communion. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, however, told RTE that there is no full agreement on how priests should serve Communion. He said that some priests have suggested wearing coverings, while others said there should be a plastic shield. Archbishop Martin also said it was prudent for people to wear masks during mass and they are also considering whether to introduce an online booking system to ensure all parishioners can attend Mass while adhering to social distancing. Other advice includes; Care should be taken to thoroughly clean all vessels and to change purificators and finger towels after each Mass. At the celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism, the celebrant will sign the child with the Cross without touching. The anointing with the Holy Oils will be administered by the use of cotton buds. Each Diocese should plan for the clear and effective communication of all necessary protocols and procedures to all parishes in the Diocese. China's Ministry of Education on Tuesday issued an alert asking Chinese students to be prudent in choosing to go or return to Australia for study, citing risks of the COVID-19 pandemic and discrimination against Asian people there. The alert noted risks involved with international travel and on open campuses, as major Australian universities plan to open around July although the spread of COVID-19 around the world is still not under effective control. Also, multiple cases of discrimination against Asian people took place in the country during the pandemic period, the alert said. The ministry warned relevant students to be fully aware of such risks and make prudent choices. A university student engaged in satanic activities was held responsible for unspeakable abuse done on children. Worse are the acts of cannibalism that he allegedly performed by feeding them human flesh unwillingly. This was the description given by witnesses who saw the horrendous activities led by the university student, who is also a self-professed Satanist. His victims were young people who were doing these activities against their will, even eating human flesh that was forced on them, as reported by the Mirror. He even called himself the 'The Devil' and is now in the hands of authorities after he was arrested in Italy when his followers turned on him and exposed his activities. 'Il Diavolo' arrested The Satanic sect was led by a man identified as Valdambrini, or Il Diavolo aka The Devil, who orchestrated these depraved activities on children, according to The Sun. According to sources, 'Il Diavolo' was given several counts of sexual violence and even slavery by forcing the children to eat suspected human flesh. To top it all, he was also found in possession of images of gut-wrenching child abuse. Italian authorities arrested him, in the province of Prato, at the north of Tuscany. According to the authorities, Valdambrini initiated the sect, even getting to make sect members do depraved sexual acts with him on the promise of getting supernatural powers in the exchange of sexual favors. Ill Diavolo a prolific Satanist Investigators remarked more disturbing aspects of the case. According to them 'The Devil' was able to deceive about 13 minors, with some aged 17 years old, who took part in the sect's nefarious activities. The investigators discovered that the minors were subjected to sexual abuse, and violence that was perpetrated by Ill Diavolo from 2018 to 2019. Also read: Suspect Who Dumped Bodies of Two Sisters With Bags on Their Head Arrested Media mentioned that Ill Diavolo studies at the Firenze University and fooled his gullible victims by telling they were messiahs and chosen to be saviours of the world. What 'The Devil' did to find his prospective victims was to search for them online like a predator. He also searched for victims by word of mouth. Rising from the dead Sources alleged that he devised a ritual to 'resurrect' from the dead in order to convince new members that he truly possessed superpowers. To prove he was the Devil, new members would be chosen to strangle him, but he played possum as killed then got up as if brought back to life, confirmed by Select News 91. These demonstrations of alleged supernatural powers to all member of 'Ill Diavolo's' sector just proves the lengths he's willing to go to manipulate his followers. Some reports revealed that 'Ill Diavolo' gave threats to his victims, threatening them not to report alleged abuse committed in the cult. He also forced a girl to have sexual relations or else her sister and parents will be killed. Depravity was committed by making the minors believe that having sex will be a way to release the demons inside them. One local paper, the Corriere, confirmed on the New Year's Eve of 2018 that his victims and followers had a taste of human flesh, as he forces them to eat human flesh that was allegedly from a seller in Florence, mentioned in Nestia. If it was human meat, there was no way to verify his claim. Valdambrini was accused of child porn, because of naked pictures sent to him, by these minors. Related article: Skeletal Remains of Girl Discovered in Feces-Filled Basement Along With Her Brother in Dismal Condition @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:03:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HELSINKI, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Matti Vanhanen, the newly appointed Finnish finance minister, underlined the importance of the EU-level recovery from the COVID-19 crisis to Finland. Addressing a news conference immediately following his appointment, Vanhanen said the six largest EU countries are recipients of 40 percent of Finnish exports and "The recovery of our major trading partners is vital to Finnish economy." Vanhanen, 64, stressed the efficiency of joint action and the same speed of recovery measures of each country. "If all countries pursue their own course, money is lost," he said. Vanhanen rejected media speculation that the Center Party would be more critical towards the European Commission's proposed package for recovery from the COVID-19 crisis than the rest of the five-party coalition cabinet. The Center Party is one of the five parties in the current coalition government under Prime Minister Sanna Marin. Finland has suggested that the share of direct assistance in the proposed EU recovery package be reduced. Vanhanen underlined the importance of reaching an EU level agreement. Enditem DUBLIN, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Dental Imaging Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. In-depth analysis and data-driven insights on the impact of COVID-19 included in this global dental imaging market report. The analysis of the dental imaging market provides sizing and growth opportunities for the period 2020-2025. Provides comprehensive insights on the latest industry trends, forecast, and growth drivers in the market. Includes a detailed analysis of growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities. Delivers a complete overview of segments and the regional outlook of the market. Offers an exhaustive summary of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key strategies to gain competitive advantage. The global dental imaging market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 7% during the period 2019-2025 The global dental imaging market is growing at a promising rate. The adoption of digital technology in dentistry allied with efficient processes and accurate high-strength materials is replacing outdated techniques to improve overall patients' experiences and outcomes. A variety of digital devices such as laser scanners, intraoral and face scanners, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), software for computer-assisted design/computer-assisted manufacturing (CAD/CAM), and 3D printing and the development of modern state-of-the-art dental chairs provide new potential alternatives to replace the manual task and improve the quality of care and patient experiences. Digital dentistry enables earlier detection of oral diseases, such as earlier cavity identification and oral cancer screening diagnosis, using newly developed tools. Technological advancements and the usage of digital dentistry by several dentists and general practitioners are increasing the success rate of dental x-ray imaging. Technological advances related to dental diagnosis and treatment with the rapid emergence of digital technology are driving the growth of the market. Dental radiography and imaging offer significant advantages over traditional techniques. These include ease of image acquisition, viewing, and storage improved interprofessional communication, reduced radiation exposure/radiograph, and the ability to show patients enlarged images on a screen. The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the dental imaging market during the forecast period: Paradigm Shift toward Digital Imaging in Dentistry Increase in Popularity of Dental Tourism Increase in Penetration of Advanced Dental Imaging Modalities Growing Adoption of CBCT in Dentistry This research report includes a detailed segmentation by products, methods, end-users, and geography. The standard x-ray devices segment is growing at a slower rate than other segments, and the trend is likely to continue during the forecast period. The digital panoramic X-ray technique is widely preferred as the imaging equipment, which helps in the easy detection of several oral diseases. As the demand for highly advanced and innovative digital dental imaging modalities is increasing, vendors are offering multiple panoramic scanners with compact design, with multiple practice management software systems and digital connectivity to maximum efficiency. The intraoral dental imaging market is growing at a faster rate. CAD/CAM technique provides a new way with economized manpower and improved efficiency to manufacturing dental restorations. The digital impression serves as the first step of the CAD/CAM technique, which includes direct intraoral scanning and indirect extraoral scanning data acquisition. Extraoral imaging is less detailed than intraoral imaging modality. Therefore, they are usually not used for detecting cavities or flaws in the individual's teeth. The intraoral segment is growing at a faster phase than extraoral due to high accuracy and increased availability of intraoral scanners. The increasing number of public and private clinics and the growing governmental support in developed countries such as Canada, Japan, the US, and the UK have increased the number of oral procedures. Moreover, the share of the dental clinics segment is growing due to the popularity of solo practices, especially in developing and emerging countries. Several patients opt for clinics for personalized oral care procedures, which is contributing to the growth of the segment. Increased investments in these clinics have led to the installation of high-quality equipment. These clinics will increase the adoption of oral procedures through specialized services. The hospital segment is declining as most patients prefer clinics and dental network chains for seeking oral care than hospitals. Vendors are trying to collaborate hospitals due to the steady influx of patients for undergoing oral care procedures, including dental implants procedures, cosmetic dentistry, and prosthetic treatments, which are likely to contribute to the growth of the segment. Market Segmentation by Product Standard x-ray Systems Intra Oral Scanners Intra Oral Camera Others Market Segmentation by Method Intraoral Extraoral Market Segmentation by End-users Dental Clinics Hospitals DSOs Dental Academic Institutes Others Insights by Geography North America is a major revenue contributor to the dental imaging market. The US and Canada are the major revenue contributors in North America. The market is witnessing high growth due to the increase in the penetration of several oral procedures. The presence of a large pool of the elderly population that is edentulous, coupled with the increase in the incidence of several oral care disorders, requires a variety of oral healthcare procedures. Besides, the availability of a high number of highly skilled dentists performing various oral care procedures is collectively supporting the growth of the market in North America. The dental imaging market in Europe is growing at a slower rate than APAC, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa regions. The growing awareness of several procedures for oral care, coupled with improved healthcare infrastructure, favorable medical guidelines, and the availability of technologically advanced equipment in Western European countries, are driving the growth in the region. Germany, France, Spain, the UK, and Italy are the major revenue generators in the region. Moreover, the prevalence of multiple oral disorders will drive the market. Market Segmentation by Geography North America US Canada APAC China Japan South Korea India Australia Europe Germany France Italy Spain UK Latin America Brazil Argentina Mexico Middle East & Africa Turkey Saudi Arabia South Africa Insights by Vendors The global market is highly diverse, with the presence of several global, regional, and local players offering a broad range of dental imaging devices. The market is expected to witness consolidation with vendors, particularly those with limited financial, operating, financial, and marketing resources, seeking to partner with leading players that can provide growth opportunities. The competition among the vendors is primarily based on pricing, innovation, technology, quality, and customer service/support. Factors such as local distribution systems, complex regulatory environments, and differing medical philosophies and product preferences are influencing the competition among vendors. Prominent Vendors Danaher Dentsply Sirona VATECH Planmeca Oy Carestream Health LED Medical Diagnostics Midmark Flow Dental Other Vendors 3DISC 3Shape 8853 S.p.A. Align Technology Bellus3D CADstar Dental Wings Denterprise International DOF GC Europe Medit Motion View Ningbo Runyes Medical Instrument Shining 3D Tech SUZ-DENT ( INDIA ) ) Zfx For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/r2jnk7 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 Authors and book publishing employees are speaking out against the homogeneity of their industry and how much writers of color are paid, issues that are gaining urgency as protests against systemic racism continue around the U.S. Hand-wringing over diversity is nothing new in publishing its work force is more than three-quarters white, according to a survey released earlier this year by the childrens book publisher Lee & Low Books but over the weekend, conversations that have been occurring for years took a turn into public protest. Using a hashtag, #PublishingPaidMe, that quickly began trending on Twitter, authors shared their advances, which is the amount of money they receive for their books before any royalties, typically based on copies sold, start coming in. The young adult author L.L. McKinney, who is black, started the hashtag on Saturday, hoping to highlight the pay inequality between black and nonblack writers. These are conversations black authors have been having with each other and trying to get the industry engaged on for a long time, she said. While she wasnt surprised by the disparities that were revealed, she was hurt, she said, by how deep it went. A New York Police Department officer who allegedly shoved a protester to the ground, turned himself in Tuesday morning to face criminal charges. Officer Vincent D'Andraia, 28, was charged in a criminal complaint with assault, criminal mischief, harassment and menacing, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. PHOTO: In this May 29, 2020, screen grab taken from video, New York police officer Vincent D'Andraia, right, pushes protester Dounya Zayer during a protest in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (Whitney Hu via AP) The portions of the alleged incident, caught on video, took place on May 29 while D'Andraia was assigned to monitor a large crowd of protesters by Brooklyn's Barclays Center, prosecutors said. MORE: Outrage swirls over video of violent police clashes D'Andraia allegedly told Dounya Zayer, 20, to move, and when she asked why, he "smacked her cellphone out of her hand, and violently shoved her to the ground," prosecutors said. The officer allegedly called the victim, a "stupid f------ b----," according to the criminal complaint. Zayer suffered head and back pain, a seizure and a concussion, and was hospitalized, according to the criminal complaint. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said he's "deeply troubled by this unnecessary assault," and vowed to "seek to hold this defendant accountable." D'Andraia, a five-year veteran who is currently suspended without pay, was released on his own recognizance after he was arraigned. The judge approved an order of protection for the victim, barring D'Andraia from contacting her. He is due back in court Oct. 15. MORE: Buffalo police officers suspended after shoving 75-year-old protester D'Andraia faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted. Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch blasted Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD brass for "sacrificing cops to save their own skin." "They created the failed strategy for managing these demonstrations. They sent police officers out to do the job with no support and no clear plan," he said in a statement. Zayer's attorney, Tahanie A. Aboushi said she is disappointed the officer was charged with a misdemeanor and not a felony, given the severity of the injuries. Story continues "Dounya was assaulted for the very reason she was protesting -- police brutality. The NYPD has been allowed to engaged in this type of conduct with impunity for too long," Aboushi, who is running for the Manhattan district attorney's office, said in a statement. Later in the morning, NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea announced that an unnamed officer was placed on modified duty following an investigation into their actions during a May 29 protest in Brooklyn. The incident which was also caught on video, allegedly showed the officer open the door of their unmarked vehicle as they passed by a protester, striking the protester on their side. PHOTO: New York Police Department officers gather as activists hold a rally in response to the police killing George Floyd in front of Barclays Center on May 29, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (Justin Heiman/Getty Images) Shea said the officer's case has been referred to the NYPD's Department Advocate office for disciplinary action. "While the investigation is still ongoing, there is no doubt in my mind that based on the seriousness of what we've seen in recent days, transparency is critical," Shea said in a statement. On Friday, Shea suspended D'Andraia and another officer, who was filmed removing a face covering of a black protester and spraying him in the face with pepper spray during a May 30 protest. NYPD officers hit with criminal charges, disciplined over actions during George Floyd protests originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Oregon's cider community soldiers on with reimagined events for the 2020 Oregon Cider Week this June 18-28th. Though things have been shaken up due to COVID-19, local cidermakers and the Northwest Cider Association have not let the virus stop them from celebrating craft cider. From virtual festivals to take-home cider flights, Oregon Cider Week is back for its ninth with a slate of events that are still being announced. Whether you are in Oregon or just love us from afar, these events are open to everyone! What's on the schedule? Here just a few of the events you can find at OregonCiderWeek.com: Dig in, and pre-order your ciders for pickup or shipping all across the USA, at https://www.oregonciderweek.com/! Oregon Cider Week 2020 events will be coming online as they are imagined. Bookmark https://www.facebook.com/ORCiderWeek/ today to keep up on all the opportunities to celebrate Oregons beautiful cider bounty. [June 08, 2020] InMobi Expands Market Presence and Product Offerings in Southeast Asia SINGAPORE, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- InMobi, the world's leading Marketing Cloud, announced the expansion of its product offerings, leadership team and local footprint in Southeast Asia to better deliver value for its customers. Southeast Asia, with 90% internet users connecting via mobile, is a core part of the growth story in the APAC region for InMobi. InMobi's platform covers a large scale of 200+ million smartphone users in SEA, growing steadily year on year with expansion into Thailand and Vietnam markets late last year. Recently, InMobi established a holding company structure with its three core businesses IMC, Glance and TruFactor. The InMobi Marketing Cloud (IMC) delivers a unified solution for CMOs and their organization to understand, identify, acquire and engage consumers through its mobile market research Pulse, and media platforms Audiences, DSP and Exchange. "We continue to work closely with leading brands such as Shopee, Traveloka, and Dana, across industry verticals in the region, while strengthening our relationship with major agencies such as GroupM, Dentsu Aegis, OMD, and Havas. The IMC offerings will help brands and marketers better understand their consumers through near real-time insights and act on them to deliver a personalized experience throughout the customer journey," said Vasuta Agarwal, Managing Director, Asia Pacific at InMobi. The InMobi offerings include a Demand-side platform (DSP) nd an Exchange platform/ SSP for unlocking significant value for in-app media buyers and sellers through access to high-quality in-app inventory/ audiences, transparency and control of media management, and high performance. The IMC platform also enables marketers with actionable insights through InMobi Pulse, which provides the ability to capture real-time voice of the customer using short mobile surveys. InMobi has seen strong growth in Southeast Asia through a localized approach with on ground business teams, support for creative services in the local language and providing localized audiences and insights for its brand and agency partners. To support its future growth plans in SEA and to ensure focus on a great customer experience and engagement across the region, InMobi has bolstered the leadership team with: Purwa Jain, who joins as Director for Brand, Agency & Programmatic business. Before joining InMobi, she has worked with leading brands such as Hooq and Pokkt for their advertising and programmatic businesses. Sudhanshu Saxena , as Director Strategic Partnerships, SEA, will oversee partnerships with programmatic DSPs in Southeast Asia in addition to his earlier role of direct brand partnerships in the region "Each of these leaders bring diverse and unique experiences from their previous roles, enabling brands in South East Asia to succeed with unique insights and support on their marketing and advertising strategies," said Rishi Bedi, Vice President of Business and Operations in South East Asia, Korea and Japan for InMobi. With the imminent death of the cookie, in-app programmatic advertising is the biggest channel for brands to reach, engage or acquire customers in a mobile-first market like Southeast Asia, where 90% of consumers access the internet via mobile. "The IMC offerings are built on the pillars of quality, transparency and performance. Our partnership with marquee publishers across OTT, gaming and news apps such as Viu, iFlix, True, ABS-CBN group, Detik, Nestia provides brands the premium audience and scale they seek for their in-app advertising objectives," shared Vasuta. About InMobi InMobi drives real connections between brands and consumers by leveraging its technology platforms and exclusive access to mobile intelligence. Its Marketing Cloud creates new paths for brands to understand, identify, engage and acquire connected consumers. As a leading technology company, InMobi has been recognized on both the 2018 and 2019 CNBC Disruptor 50 lists and as one of Fast Company's 2018 World's Most Innovative Companies. For more information, visit inmobi.com. About InMobi Group InMobi Group's mission is to power intelligent, mobile-first experiences for enterprises and consumers. Its businesses across advertising, marketing, data and content platforms are shaping consumer experience in a world of connected devices. The group's portfolio companies include InMobi Marketing Cloud for CMOs, TruFactor which offers Intelligence-as-a-Service for data scientists, and Glance, the world's first Screen Zero platform. Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200608/2823577-1logo SOURCE InMobi [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] As courts across the country begin to cautiously resume in-person hearings through the COVID-19 pandemic, judges are confronting a vexing challenge: how to safely convene jury trials at a time when health officials continue to caution against public gatherings. With no real federal guidance or uniform system governing the nations vast judiciary, current and former judges from the local to federal level described to ABC News a puzzling process that will go into mapping out different methods to implement social distancing practices -- with each community and facility presenting its own unique set of challenges. While all agreed there is no catch-all solution to protect every citizen who enters a courtroom, the judges say they are seeking to avoid what has been described as a "nightmare scenario" in which a single confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis of a participant or juror would likely throw a case into a state of paralysis. Obviously if we just found out that a juror had tested positive, then because of the fact that the other jurors had been in proximity we would probably declare a mistrial and not be able to go forward with the trial, said judge Stephen McIntosh, who serves on the Franklin County Court in Columbus, Ohio. One current federal judge who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid described the dilemma as a terrible burden, in judges not being able to guarantee the safety of those they're asking to carry out their civic duty. Weve got to do everything we can to stay safe for the protection of each and every person in the courtroom, the judge said. A California court uses the whole space; in Ohio there's plexiglass The spread of COVID-19 across the country resulted in a near-universal halt to in-person jury trials with only limited exceptions through at least the start of June. For the hardest hit state of New York, courts have since resumed limited in-person operations with judges, chambers staff and other support personnel returning to courthouses and members of the public being allowed to drop off papers with the clerk, but there's still no clear timeline on the local or federal level for the resumption of jury trials. Story continues In some areas around the country that were not as severely impacted by coronavirus, several courts have already begun resuming jury trials with social distancing and sanitary measures. Judges from separate jurisdictions who have not yet resumed trials are closely monitoring the measures taken elsewhere in an attempt to learn potential best practices. In California, the local court in Monterey County, which has seen less than 700 COVID-19 infections and 10 deaths as of Monday, began resuming jury trials last week with safeguards that included spacing out jurors throughout court rooms rather than seating people in the typical jury box. The court required all citizens who enter the building to wear facemasks but also stated that all who have health concerns related to COVID-19 will be allowed to defer their service to a future date. Judges are typically afforded broad discretion over how to manage jury summons and who they determine should be granted exemptions, but there is currently no clear set of guidelines related to those seeking deferment because of COVID-19 related reasons. But some judges have expressed concern that such a standard for deferring service will likely make it impossible to impanel juries that are representative of the broader public. The problem with jury trials is that juries are always involuntary participants, former Northern District of Texas district judge Joe Kendall said. So we already know that statistically, reports that this virus has adversely affected the African-American community, those folks might be a lot more afraid. People over 65 are more at risk. Kendall added, They may not want to be put in an environment that puts them at risk. And then, too, you add a layer on to that of -- [defendants are] entitled to a jury of a cross-section of the community. The current federal judge who spoke with ABC News on the condition of anonymity also acknowledged that some may seek to skirt jury duty by just using COVID-19 as an excuse, but said that judges would typically like to avoid seating such people on a jury in the first place. "My view is if somebody is going to lie to me, do I really want them to be the person who decides someone else's fate?" the judge said. In McIntoshs Ohio courtroom he has overseen a complete structural transformation -- with plexiglass partitions erected between each individual juror seat in the jury box, in addition to plexiglass in front of the witness stand, the bailiffs station and even his own judges bench. We decided on plexiglass around the witness stand because that would allow the witness to testify without a mask so that the jurors could hear the witness better, McIntosh said. PHOTO: Glass partitions are seen in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in Columbus, Ohio, in this undated handout photo. (Judge Stephen McIntosh) However, McIntosh added that one potential problem is that for some of the juror positions the plexiglass appears to partially obstruct either his own line of sight to the jury box or the jurors line of sight to the witness. Generally speaking, there's not real issues with that except for the last couple of jurors, who would probably need to either move up or move back depending on where the witness decides to sit, McIntosh said. We don't know if it will work, but it's going to require all of us to conduct trials a little bit differently. Virtual voir dire? Where technology could help Judges pointed to the jury selection process, or voir dire, as potentially the most onerous in terms of facilitating proper social distancing -- as tens of millions of Americans are summoned for jury duty every year. Typically after receiving a summons in the mail from their local court, a select number of people from a particular jurisdiction convene in a court room to answer questions that may be related to a case as they are considered to be chosen for the jury. You're going to be around during the jury selection process, 30 or 40 total strangers, Kendall said. You have no clue where they've been or who they've been around or what safety precautions they have or have not taken, because we know that safety precautions, as we've seen recently, is kind of polarizing. Various counties in states like Washington and Texas have proposed moving jury selections to larger venues like convention centers or even former shopping centers, while officials in San Diego County have raised the idea of renting out vacant movie theaters. But other judges told ABC News that virtual video services like Zoom that courts have relied on the past three months of the crisis could actually be compatible with the voir dire process. McIntosh noted that he recently heard from an attorney affiliated with the National Center for State Courts who had participated in such a virtual voir dire and liked it. When the person was talking, you actually get to see their face closer than you would have in the courtroom, McIntosh said. And they felt that the people were a little bit more open because they were in the comfort of their own home as opposed to being in a courtroom. At the same time, McIntosh and others acknowledged potential logistical difficulties in the event that some sent jury summons dont have access to the proper technology, in which case it would likely fall on the court to provide it. Because you don't want to say, well, you can't serve because you don't have a laptop or you don't have WiFi at your home, McIntosh said. I think that would be improper to excuse someone for that reason. No substitute for in-person criminal trials One process all the judges who spoke to ABC News agreed would not ultimately be compatible with fully virtual operations is criminal trials. Preserving the dynamic nature of such trials, with public presentations and numerous private conferences conducted between the judges, witnesses, jurors, attorneys and their defendants is seen as essential in order to protect the rights of the criminally accused. PHOTO: Glass partitions are seen in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in Columbus, Ohio, in this undated handout photo. (Judge Stephen McIntosh) Some of the defendants and defense lawyers are demanding their right to a trial, which is a constitutional guarantee, one federal judge said. And you do also have the attention of the Confrontation Clause, which, of course, says defendants are permitted to confront their accusers and the witnesses. So the criminal jury trial is the most difficult component. Any alteration from the status quo and defense lawyers could technically argue grounds for dismissal of the case based on alleged unfair treatment of their clients. Cases will last a lot longer, former Rhode Island State magistrate judge Ken Schreiber said. There'll be modifications within the framework of how people are sitting, where they're sitting, their ability to communicate. They may have your client not sitting next to you, but you may be able to say something in a microphone that only you and your client can hear. Despite such protections though, a juror or other participant in the trial testing positive for COVID-19, McIntosh said, would not only likely lead to a mistrial -- but would likely require the immediate involvement of the local public health department. "Utilizing the protocols that they have outlined to us we would have to, or they would then have to engage in the process of getting in contact with all the persons that may have had some contact with [the confirmed positive participant]," McIntosh said. "All persons that have come in contact with the juror would have to be tested and you would have to declare a mistrial." Seeking to tackle the broad array of complexities at stake, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts System recently convened a task force of judges and other stakeholders to specifically debate the issues surrounding resuming jury trials and any broader recommendations they could put out as guidance for judges and court clerks to consider. A person familiar with the task forces progress says its not clear when the group will put out its guidance, and once it does, courts wont technically be required to adopt any of the recommendations. People are perplexed as to how to make it useful on a very broad scale, the person said. This is probably going to have to be formulated on a local level with some just general guidance from a national group, recognizing that you can't prescribe one formula for everyone. MORE: How coronavirus is crippling courts and raising concerns among civil liberties advocates MORE: Texas Supreme Court justice tests positive for coronavirus MORE: How the coronavirus outbreak is affecting the US criminal justice system ABC News' Aaron Katersky contributed reporting to this article. Social distanced justice? Courts restart trials, struggle to adapt to COVID-19 precautions originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-10 04:32:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Tuesday announced further easing of the measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic; Meanwhile, visiting Chinese medical experts discussed with Sudanese health officials the necessary measures to stem the COVID-19 spread. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkish citizens aged 65 and over were given permits to go outdoors every day, and a curfew for those under the age of 18 had been lifted. Marriage halls will open on June 15, while cinemas, theaters and wedding halls will open as of July 1. The closing time of the businesses, at 10 p.m. local time (1900 GMT), was also extended to midnight. This came as the total coronavirus cases in Turkey increased by 993 to 172,114, while 18 more people died, taking the death toll to 4,729. The total number of recoveries soared to 144,598, after 3,218 more people recovered over the past day. The visiting Chinese medical team on Tuesday held consultations with Sudan's health officials on the necessary measures needed to be taken to prevent the COVID-19 spread. Nada Bakri, director of the General Administration of Therapeutic Medicine at Sudan's Federal Health Ministry, praised the visit of the Chinese medical team and China's support to Sudan's fight against the coronavirus pandemic. "There were deep discussions and consultations that were so beneficial and important to us," she said. The Chinese team of medical experts has so far visited some hospitals and isolation centers to study Sudan's experience in prevention and treatment of COVID-19, Bakri said. Chinese Ambassador to Sudan Ma Xinmin reiterated the commitment of the Chinese government to provide medical support to Sudan. Saudi Arabia's tally of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 108,571, after 3,288 new cases were recorded, the highest in the Mideast. The Saudi Health Ministry tweeted that the number of recoveries climbed to 76,339 after 1,815 more cases were added, while the death toll increased to 783 after 37 deaths were added. The ministry also announced the opening of 214 24-hour clinics across the kingdom to provide medical help for those with coronavirus symptoms. Iran reported 2,095 new cases over the past 24 hours, raising the total confirmed novel coronavirus cases to 175,927. Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said that 72 people died overnight, taking the death toll to 8,425. Qatar reported 1,721 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 71,879, which include 47,569 recoveries and 62 deaths. In Egypt, the Health Ministry confirmed 1,385 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total infections in the country to 36,829. It is the 13th day in a row for Egypt's daily COVID-19 infections to exceed 1,000, the highest of which was on May 31 with 1,536 infections. On Tuesday, 35 patients died from the novel coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 1,306, while the total recoveries surged to 9,786 after 411 more coronavirus patients recovered from the disease. In Oman, the government decided to lock down four more regions to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, including Dhofar, Masirah, Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar and Jabal Shams. The lockdown will last from June 13 until July 3. Oman recorded 712 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 18,198, said the Omani Health Ministry. Kuwait's Health Ministry reported 630 new COVID-19 cases and four more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 33,140 and the death toll to 273. The ministry also announced the recovery of 920 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 22,162. Iraq confirmed 787 new coronavirus cases, raising the total number to 14,268, while the death toll climbed to 392 after 22 more fatalities were reported. Deputy Health Minister Hazim al-Jumaili said that the ministry is planning to resort to home quarantine if the hospital beds are not enough for the increasing infections. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Ministry of Health and Prevention announced 528 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases to 39,904. The tally of recoveries in the UAE increased to 22,740 after 465 more patients fully recovered from the virus, while the total fatalities from the virus rose to 283, after two new deaths were reported. The Israeli Ministry of Health reported 148 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the total to 18,180. The death toll increased from 298 to 299, while the tally of recoveries rose to 15,159 with 32 new recoveries. Morocco's Health Ministry reported 135 new infections with COVID-19, bringing the total confirmed cases to 8,437, including 7,493 recoveries and 210 deaths. In Lebanon, the number of COVID-19 infections increased on Tuesday by 18 cases to 1,368, while the death toll remained at 30. Jordan reported 14 new COVID-19 cases, increasing the total number of confirmed cases in the kingdom to 845. Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Keileh announced two new COVID-19 cases in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 654. Enditem Slate is making its essential coronavirus coverage free for all readers. Subscribe to support our journalism. On Monday, the World Health Organization held a press conference suggesting that asymptomatic transmission is very rare, according to infectious disease expert Maria Van Kerkhove. It seemed like great news. Then, whiplash: On Tuesday, WHO walked that back. On the question of how often asymptomatic transmission occurs, we dont actually have that answer yet, said Van Kerkhove. If you are understandably confused, heres the bottom line: People without clear symptoms spread the virus, and they do it often. This is why were all wearing masks, and why we should keep doing that, in addition to taking other precautionary measures. But you also might be wondering: Why did WHO seemingly reverse course without seeing new data? What exactly went wrong? The answer is: a few things! It (mostly) boils down to an issue of how terms are used. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first is how you define asymptomatic. In the initial press conference, Van Kerkhove drew a distinction between people who are truly asymptomatic and people who have really mild disease theyre not quote unquote COVID symptoms, like severe cough and shortness of breath. She didnt clarify what symptoms those people would have instead, but it seems like her definition excludes people who are, on close inspection, a little sick. Then theres the confusion of the categories asymptomatic and presymptomatic. The first, technically speaking, describes people who never show symptoms of the virus, while the second describes people who just havent shown symptoms yet. The trouble is that in common use asymptomatic also can refer to people who simply dont currently have symptoms (and obviously, its difficult to know which will be which). The lede of a Monday CNBC story summed up WHOs initial declaration as coronavirus patients without symptoms arent driving the spread of the virus. The rest of the article also fails to clearly delineate between asymptomatic spread and presymptomatic spread, even at one point explicitly lumping the two terms together. This confusing article went viral, with an Ohio representative tweeting the link along with reopen America! Advertisement Advertisement But how the two groups spread or dont spread the virus might be differentwe simply dont know for sure. There is ample evidence that presymptomatic people commonly infect others, wrote Eric Topol in a thread on Twitter parsing the difference between the two terms. He pointed to a study of 94 patients with moderate cases of COVID-19. In cases where they passed the coronavirus onto others, about half the time it happened before they had symptoms, the researchers estimated. We know less about how asymptomatic people spread the disease. When Van Kerkhove said such transmission is very rare, she was apparently referring to a small subset of studies that look at data from contact tracing, as CNBC clarified in a follow-up story. She was not referring to models that estimates how much asymptomatic spread could be occurring. This distinction matters because contact tracing and data on asymptomatic patients is indeed lacking even though some models estimate that asymptomatic carriers may be responsible for 40 percent of transmission. (As of this writing, that story clarifying that asymptomatic patients spread the virus sits below the initial CNBC story about asymptomatic patients rarely spreading the virus in the sites trending now list.) She could have spelled this out much more clearly, yes. But another problem here is that her original remarks were quickly taken out of context. She was not telling people to rush out to the bars because they dont have to worry about asymptomatic spread. She was making a point about where she thought large-scale efforts to find and isolate people should be focused. In any case, what she was describing seems more of scientific than practical interest, biostatistician Natalie Dean noted on Twitter. On an individual level, we shouldnt change our behavior. China's new army commander Lt Gen Xu Qiling, who will head the Western Theatre Command ground forces responsible for the Sino-India border, is a rising star in the PLA specially handpicked by President Xi Jinping to handle troops along the challenging border, a media report said. Gen Xu's appointment was announced on June 5 in the midst of the current standoff between Indian and Chinese troops long the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Xi, who heads the ruling Communist Party of China besides Presidency, is also the Chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission which is People's Liberation Army's high command. Gen Xu, the rising star of the PLA, has been sent to oversee the ground forces of the Western Theatre Command, where tensions are rising between China and India over border dispute, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. "As tensions with India are escalating over border disputes, the Western Theatre Command needs a younger commander to lead frontier soldiers and officers in this current sensitive period," the Post quoted a military insider as saying. "Xu is 57 years old, five years younger than his predecessor, He (Weidong). The working environment in the Western high altitude is very tough and even young people age prematurely there," the official said. Xu was one of the young generals promoted by Xi after he took the helm of the PLA in late 2012. Xu has experience at four of the PLA's five theatre commands. He was promoted to the lieutenant general last year, one year after being sent to the head the ground forces in the Eastern Theatre Command, which oversees the security of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, as well as the East China Sea. "Xu's new position in the Western Theatre Command is also a new test for him," the official said. "If he can handle the China-India border disputes properly, he is very likely to be further promoted to grab a seat in the PLA's ground force headquarters, or even more senior, in the future." Hong Kong-based military commentator Song Zhongping said the latest border tensions meant the Western Theatre Command required someone familiar with joint operations between ground and air forces. "All the fighting forces Beijing sends to the frontiers were trained for air-to-ground battles, which need a capable commander like Xu to lead them." Xu was the chief of staff at the former 54th Army Corps, an elite PLA fighting force known for its involvement in the crackdown on a Tibetan uprising in 1959 and the suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. The Army Corps was merged into the 83rd Army Corps in a military overhaul by Xi in 2015, the Post said. [June 09, 2020] Air Liquide Venture Capital (ALIAD) partners with Cathay Smart Energy Fund to accelerate the energy transition with technology start-ups in China PARIS, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ALIAD, the Venture Capital arm of the Air Liquide Group, expands its footprint in Asia by investing for the first time in China, while strengthening its position in the energy transition through an equity investment in the Cathay Smart Energy Fund. Since its creation in 2013, ALIAD has made more than 35 investments globally for a total commitment of around 100 million euros. Alongside Total Carbon Neutrality Ventures, Hubei Provincial High Technology Industry Investment Group Co., Ltd., CMA CGM Group and Wuhan Jingkai Industry Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd, ALIAD has invested in the Cathay Smart Energy Fund, a venture capital fund dedicated to the energy transition in China, with a specific focus on energy platforms, energy storage, smart grids, hydrogen energy, clean transportation, renewable energy and low-carbon solutions. China is implementing environment-friendly policies which aim to foster the emergence of innovative enterprises and promote a renewal of its energy industry, addressing the global challenge of the energy transition. In this context, the Cathay Smart Energy Fund has identified numerous innovative companies that are reshaping the energy sector in order to design an efficient and low-carbon industrial landscape. The Fund has already carried out its first investment in ALLSENSE Technology, an innovative IoT solutions provider currently specialized in the digitization and optimization of China's thermal power industry. These promising technologies, combined with the know-how and experience of the Air Liquide group, will allow innovative carbon neutral solutions to emerge, in line with Air Liquide Climate Objectives. Throug this first fund investment in China, ALIAD supports Air Liquide's innovation strategy in one of the most active and fast-transforming innovation ecosystems in the energy sector. ALIAD Created in 2013, ALIAD (Air Liquide Venture Capital) aims to take minority stakes in innovative technology start-ups in three sectors: energy transition, health and digital. ALIAD positions itself on the technologies of the future by supporting the development of start-ups, through its industrial and technological experience and its knowledge of customers around the world. These investments are accompanied by the implementation of technological and/or business agreements between these new companies and the entities of the Air Liquide Group. Cathay Capital Group Cathay Capital Group is a global investment platform specialized in cross-border development with a focus on Northern America, Asia, Europe and Africa. The group identifies investment opportunities with the potential to impact the world and accompanies portfolio companies in their international expansion through its ecosystem of partners and the local expertise of its close to 100 employees based in Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, New York, San Francisco, Munich, Tel Aviv and Singapore. Founded in 2007, the Group has completed over 140 buyouts, growth and venture capital investments and manages 3.5 billion in assets, distributed in a range of investment strategies and vehicles. Launched in 2018 by Cathay Capital, the Cathay Smart Energy Fund is an investment fund dedicated to the smart energy sector in China. www.cathay.fr www.airliquide.com Follow us on Twitter @airliquidegroup Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200608/2823682-1-a Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200608/2823682-1-b Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200608/2823682-1-c SOURCE Air Liquide China [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] State Rep. Welch will discuss economic, social and political issues facing Illinois by Pete Rosenbery CARBONDALE, Ill. Illinois State Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch will discuss the political and social unrest in Illinois and the country as part of a virtual discussion Thursday hosted by Southern Illinois University Carbondales Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. In addition to examining Illinois economic and political issues, the online talk will consider reforms that are necessary for a fairer and more just state and country, said John T. Shaw, Institute director. The discussion begins at 1 p.m., Thursday, June 11. The free event is open to the public but registration is required and closes when the event starts. In state legislature since 2013 Welch, D-Westchester, has represented Illinoiss 7th District since 2013 and chairs the powerful House Executive Committee. He is the former chair of the House Higher Education Committee, where he helped draft education reforms such as the four-year MAP Grant Award and the AIM High Scholarship. Welch was also co-chair of Gov. JB Pritzkers Educational Success Transition Committee. Representative Welch is one of the most respected and influential lawmakers in Springfield. He will offer important insights into Illinois economic and fiscal challenges, and the status of higher education funding, Shaw said. Representative Welch will also describe the profound challenges facing the African American community regarding economic opportunity, health care, and education and the urgent need to address racial discrimination by law enforcement. Continuing series of conversations The discussion with Welch is part of the Institutes series called Understanding Our New World with historians, political analysts, and state and national leaders. This is the seventh in the series, which began in late April, and has featured speakers including author and historian David M. Kennedy, former United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, and Rahm Emanuel, former Chicago mayor, U.S. Congressman and White House adviser. Registration open for Welchs conversation Registration for the free ZOOM meeting is available in advance. After completing registration, participants will receive an email confirmation with information about joining the meeting, along with the meeting ID and password. Participants have an opportunity when they register to submit a question to Welch by email at paulsimoninstitute@siu.edu or by including it in the Questions and Comments section on the registration form. Upcoming discussions The Institute will also host former U.S. deputy secretary of state and U.S. Ambassador to Russia William J. Burns at 1 p.m., June 18. Burns is now the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. More information on the Institutes events is available at paulsimoninstitute.siu.edu/event-information/. The parasites responsible for malaria seem to march to their own beat. The mystery behind the molecular basis of how these parasites synch their rhythm in replication to the host's clock-driven rhythms has been solved. A new genetic analysis led by KAUST scientists revealed Plasmodium parasites have internal timekeeping systems that help the organism maintain essential oscillations in gene expression levels and cell cycle activities. Just as humans reset their own biological clocks in response to light-dark cues, malaria parasites time their own rhythms to host signals to maximize their growth success. The finding of a genetic metronome within the malaria parasite, as well as one component of this timekeeping mechanism, could open new pathways for combatting one of the world's deadliest contagious diseases. Saudi Arabia is on the verge of malaria eradication, but the disease continues to affect its southwestern border, where infections have proven difficult to treat and parasites are increasingly resistant to existing drugs. "The knowledge from our study has the potential to inform new therapies for malaria elimination," says Amit Subudhi, a postdoctoral research fellow in Arnab Pain's group and the first author of the new report. "This information might allow doctors to formulate drug regimens in which patients take anti-malarial therapies with known target genes at particular times of the day so as to eliminate the malaria parasite more effectively." Subudhi and Pain teamed up with colleagues from the University of Edinburgh, U.K., and from Nagasaki University, Japan, to profile gene activity patterns in mouse-infecting malaria parasites. They found that more than half of all the parasite's genes exhibited 24-hour cycles of activity, ramping up and down at regular daily intervals. This pattern is consistent with the characteristic rhythms of fevers and chills seen in people infected with malaria. Around half of the rhythmic genes lost their periodicity when the clocks of the parasite and mouse fell out of synchrony. Likewise ; in a lab dish, human malaria parasites cultured without timing cues also displayed some degree of daily rhythmicity in gene expression. One of these genes coded for a receptor protein called SR10, which the researchers showed acts as a cog in the parasite's intrinsic clock machinery. Without this protein, the usual 24-hour cycle of the rodent Plasmodium parasite became shorter, leading to defects in DNA replication and other cellular processes as well as protein breakdown. According to Subudhi, SR10 likely serves as a link between host circadian rhythms and the endogenous time-keeping ability of the parasite. The KAUST researchers plan to dissect the molecular components of the SR10-mediated signaling pathway in search of novel drug targets. "Our work does not stop here," notes Pain. "Our next aim is to understand the chemical nature of the host-derived cues that the parasite receives to adjust its life cycle and its biological clock," he says. ### CONROE, Texas, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Scott Law Firm has made a donation to support the Montgomery County Food Bank during COVID-19. This donation will help feed 100,000 community members over the next few months. Before the pandemic, there were already many families struggling without food in the community. No one should have to make the choice to go without a meal or sacrifice their nutrition and health. Last year, Scott Law Firm teamed up with the Montgomery County Food Bank to volunteer in person with their entire staff to help pack boxes for distribution. With the rise in unemployment rates, attorney Patrick Scott recognized the need to continue to provide emergency food supplies during this difficult time. "As a personal injury law firm, it can be difficult to witness people suffering. Watching our community suffer is no different. With the recent unemployment and knowing that people are hurting, we wanted to extend our support to the community in a different way. Due to COVID-19, we learned that demand was up at our local food bank by 43% and that our donation would go a long way to help them distribute food. Most of our clients are from the local Conroe community and they have supported us over the years. It only made sense to give back in this way," says Patrick. The Montgomery County Food bank works to feed over 35,000 people each month by collecting and distributing food and resources to those in need. Through donations like those of Scott Law Firm, these efforts can continue as the need to provide food and supplies increases during COVID-19. The mission of Scott Law Firm, a personal injury law firm in Conroe, Texas, is to ease the suffering and advocate for individuals of Montgomery County. "We look forward to continuing to help as we work through this pandemic together," says Patrick. To help fight hunger, the Montgomery Food Bank is a great way to give back to your community. Consider making a donation at mcfoodbank.org. SOURCE Scott Law Firm Related Links https://scottlawfirmtx.com A Florida police lieutenant has apologised after he encouraged cops dismissed over misconduct during nationwide protests to apply for positions in the state. In an apparent hiring advert posted to Facebook on Friday night, the Lieutenant Robert Gamin, who heads the Brevard county branch of a nationwide policing organisation, suggested that Florida would welcome cops who have been fired during protests against systemic racism and police violence. The post, which appeared on the Brevard County chapter of the Fraternal Order of Polices (FOP) Facebook page, has since been deleted. On Monday afternoon, Mr Garmin walked-back on his actions after admitting that he had posted the mock advertisement. I let my emotions and frustration get the better of me as a result of all the continually negative media portrayals of law enforcement, he told WFTV news. My intent was to respond to some of the negative messaging and offer a supportive message to all the men and women in law enforcement. Clearly, I failed doing so. It comes as campaigners call on police departments to be disbanded, defunded and reformed after George Floyds police-involved killing last month. Some would have found the mock advert insensitive, which addressed two police units who were charged and condemned in the past week for using excessive force during protests. Hey Buffalo 57... and Atlanta 6... we are hiring in Florida. Lower taxes, no spineless leadership, or dumb mayors rambling on at press conferences... Plus... we got your back! #lawandorderFlorida, read Mr Gamin's post. The Buffalo 57 were those officers who resigned over the suspension of two colleagues who were charged with assaulting a 75-year-old man during protests last week. While in Atlanta, six cops were charged with using excessive force on two black students and others who were leaving a protest. Brevard Countys Sheriff said on Monday that the Brevard County FOP page and organisation has no official connection to the department. In a statement, it condemned Mr Gamin's actions as being extremely distasteful and insensitive amid nationwide tensions. The post had seen more than 2,000 comments and 1,000 shares on Monday morning, when it was believed to be deleted, said USA Today. Mr Gamin earlier defend his conduct online, and argued that both the Buffalo 57 and Atlanta 6 had the legal authority in both cases. Our citizens have a right to protest peacefully and legally, Mr Gamin told Florida Today. They do not have a right to block roadways, trespass on private property or disobey lawful commands from law enforcement officers. The organisation made another post on Saturday that called on Minneapolis cops to relocate to Florida, while condemning the decision to disband the citys police department. Minneapolis officers ... we will not disband our agencies or give in ... we are hiring in Florida, read the second post. WFTV added that Mr Gamin, who is employed by the sheriff's office, is now under investigation. The COVID-19 crisis has created an awful state of affairs--peoples livelihoods and hard work taken by an invisible foe. As companies cut their workforce to cope with the impact of the coronavirus, the specter of cyberattacks stands on the horizon looking for trouble. Cyber threats both malicious and accidental are at the heart of this, and access control to business data may be the key to recovery. Can our identity and access management (IAM) systems contain these threats? Why COVID-19 caused a perfect security storm The main reason behind the spike in security issues during the pandemic is that cybercriminals are, first and foremost, scammers who understand human behavior better than any behavioral scientist. Cybercriminals looked at the pandemic, saw an opportunity, and jumped on it. Ever since, a perfect storm has been brewing: Lost jobs: Job losses due to the pandemic are massive and will continue to happen. The World Economic Forum (WEF) reported in May this year that G7 job losses ranged from 30 million in the US to 1.7 million in Japan. WEF expects in Q2 of 2020 to see around 305 million full-time jobs lost worldwide to the COVID-19 pandemic. When employees leave, they are more likely to cause data breaches, according to a study by The Hague Delta. The researchers found that 89% of employees who leave an organization have continued access to company data, increasing the risk of a data breach. Home working: Before jobs were ever lost, people were sent home. Tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter have now added a forever extension to allow people to permanently work from home. Homeworking adds in a new dimension to controlling cyber-attacks, as the home office acts like a satellite office. This requires enforcement of new security policy adaptation. Increased cyber threats and cybercriminal activity: Checking out Tor Metrics over the pandemic period, I noticed a massive spike in .onion sites. It almost looks like it follows the course of coronavirus infections across the world. In April 2020, there were around 100,000 .onion websites. By mid-May there were over 220,000. Not all will be malicious, but Id wager most are. As a report by Proofpoint found, 99% of cyberattacks require human intervention. A key way that data is breached, is via privileged access. The 2020 Insider Threat Report confirms this, showing that 63% of organizations see privileged IT users as being the biggest threat. These three inter-related areas of the perfect storm have created an identity crisis. Access control measures need to use ways to harden the wider resource access landscape. COVID-19 has created a situation that requires a systematic recheck of the use of any access control measures an enterprise has in place. Access control key during and post COVID-19 Even before COVID-19 hit home, enterprises had begun to see the wind of change in how they needed to use digital identity and access control. The industry was already offering better and more decoupled methods of managing access rights to a wide variety of employees and non-employees. Systems such as directory as a service and wider consumer identity access management (CIAM) models were already available. Other centralized identity services specifically designed to onboard and offboard non-employees were also readily available. Using these tools, an enterprise can catastrophe-harden its access management in these ways: Offboarding lost employees A survey by OneLogin found that 20% of companies could associate a data breach with a failure to deprovision departing employees. Offboarding employees, once they have left the organization, is a priority. The employee may have no malicious intent whatsoever, but by still having access to company data they present a gap in security. An ex-employee is still an insider threat if they have access to insider data. Onboarding non-employees Non-employees may well become a more normal way to work post-COVID-19. We may need, in fact, to think of all workers as non-employees. Traditionally, non-employees are consultants, vendors or even devices. We have to treat them differently with regards to access management because their work lifecycle is so fluid. Taking a zero-trust approach We are now entering a new era where technology can facilitate an extended workforce. The zero-trust security model is a strong contender for setting the right tone in terms of continued, persistent, fluid access control. Im not saying it is easy, but it is necessary. Zero trust is not, by itself, the entire answer. Rather, it is a framework to deliver robust access control. It is about an always verify, never trust attitude to controlling resource access. Catastrophe-hardened IAM for an unpredictable world The fluidity of our workforce needs to be reflected in the fluidity of our methods of controlling access to corporate data. Dynamic adaptability to change as circumstances need is a key design remit of a catastrophe-hardened IAM (CHIAM) system. How do you achieve this adaptability? Using smart technology already developed. Machine learning is an example, but this is not limited to AI capability. Rules of operation that modify system behavior is an overlay of CHIAM that provides the level of control needed in a complex corporate environment where workforces are fluid and the world is unpredictable. Having a design remit that works by the dictates of zero trust with adaptable rules that overlay a CHIAM provides a way that fits all: employees, non-employees, devices. The issues we are seeing during this pandemic are not new. COVID-19 has simply thrown them into sharp relief. It is likely that work will continue to adapt to a new world order: Climate change drives reduced travel and home working; freelancer and consultancy worker uptake for non-employee facilitation increases; and unstable economic conditions are likely to lead to an unstable employee base. Our access control measures need to adapt, too, and now is the time to look at what your organization is doing to move forward in an unpredictable world. NEW ORLEANS, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until August 3, 2020 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), if they purchased the Companys shares between April 5, 2020, and May 5, 2020, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. What You May Do If you purchased shares of Wells Fargo and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-wfc/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by August 3, 2020 . About the Lawsuit Wells Fargo and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. On April 5, 2020, the Company proclaimed that it had received significant interest in a program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and intended to distribute a total of $10 billion to small business customers through it. Then, on May 5, 2020, the Company disclosed that it had been sued in multiple lawsuits relating to its involvement with the PPP and had also received formal and informal inquiries from federal and state governmental agencies regarding its offering of PPP loans. On this news, the price of Wells Fargos shares plummeted. The case is Ma v. Wells Fargo & Company, et al, No. 20-cv-03697. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nations premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors in seeking to recover investment losses due to corporate fraud and malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com . Contact: The Trump administration has said there are no regrets about the decision to tear gas demonstrators outside the White House last week so Donald Trump could be pictured outside a church amid nationwide protests against racism. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Monday night that neither the US president or anybody inside his administration had regrets about police actions against demonstrators last week. No theres no regrets on the part of this White House because look Id note that many of those decisions were not made here within the White House, said Ms McEnany. She argued that the attorney general, William Barr, had made the decision to have police clear protesters from Lafayette Square, and said: It was AG Barr who made the decision to move the perimeter. The US president had already threatened to dominate the streets by deploying multiple federal law enforcement agencies that day, some moments before crowds were tear-gassed outside the White House. That enabled Mr Trump to walk a small distance to St Johns Episcopal Church, where he was photographed holding a bible. Ms McEnany argued on Monday that park police had also made the call to respond to violence in the area last week, despite other accounts. Monday night park police also had made that decision independently when they saw the violence in Lafayette Square, said Ms McEnany. She added that police had issued three loud warnings for people to leave Lafayette Square before police intervention began. Video from the scene, however, appeared to show tear gas and rubber bullets being used against those who had gathered to protest after George Floyds death in Minneapolis. Reporters at the scene also said that the protests had been largely peaceful before police intervened ahead of Mr Trumps church visit. Mr Barr told CBS News on Sunday that he was not aware about Mr Trumps staged photo opportunity but that he did authorise police actions in Lafayette Square. HUNDREDS of people joined a protest in support of Black Lives Matter in Henley this afternoon (Tuesday). They gathered in Falaise Square from 2pm with the majority wearing face masks. Many carried placards reading black lives matter, government silence is compliance and white silence = violence. A silent kneel commenced at 4pm to remember those who have lost their lives because of racism. Protestors knelt for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the time prosecutors say George Floyd, a black man, was pinned under a white police officer's knee before his death in Minneapolis on May 25. Organiser Ella Wandless decided to hold the event following waves of protests in cities across America after the death of Mr Floyd. There were speeches throughout the afternoon and the programme aimed to educate people about systemic racism, white privilege, police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. Ms Wandless spoke about why she arranged the event and there were chants of black lives matter as well as wheres John Howell. The Henley MP was not at the rally, but on his website called the killing of Mr Floyd abhorrent. He wrote: His death has rightly sparked outrage across the world and I am pleased to see that the charge against the police officer in question has been upgraded to second-degree murder. I also understand that the three other officers who were present but did nothing to stop the killing of Mr Floyd will now also face charges relating to aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. I support this decision. Mr Howell said he did not accept the UK was a racist country. He added: On the contrary, the UK is consistently ranked as one of the least racist places to live in Europe. The protest was peaceful, but a man was led away from Falaise Square by a police officer shortly before 5pm and spoken to on the corner of Duke Street and Hart Street. For the full story, see this weeks Henley Standard. AMBLER Crowds of roughly 500 people came out Saturday morning to march through the streets of downtown Ambler for the Ambler Community Together for Peace and Justice march. I was in the front, and when I turned around and saw the sea of people behind me it was absolutely amazing, said Shaykh Anwar Muhammad, president of Ambler branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Fred Gant, 27, of Ambler, said he was inspired to organize a demonstration after learning about a similar protest in nearby Lansdale. The idea gained a following after he posed the question to friends on social media. This would be perfect because everyones on the same page, Gant said. Everyones doing this for the right reasons. Gant and other organizers were then tasked with bringing the initial idea to fruition. He emphasized the importance of getting people involved and interested in participating. It was something that encouraged 26-year-old Blue Bell resident Christina Bishof to attend. Its really interesting to me and inspiring to me to see young members of our community really trying to make a difference and demonstrate in such a peaceful and powerful way, she said. For Amblers Mayor Jeanne Sorg, the idea of bringing people together for this common cause localized a nationwide issue. I think people are really feeling called to do something, and feeling called to understand that racism doesnt just happen in the big cities, Sorg said. The event was sponsored by several agencies including the Mayors office, the Ambler Police Department, the Ambler branch of the NAACP, and the Wissahickon Faith Community Association. Earlier that morning, there were volunteer opportunities involving food packaging and distribution at the Ambler Church of the Brethren on 351 E. Butler Ave. Demonstrators began marching around 10 a.m. from the church on Butler Avenue. They moved through Amblers downtown area and ended the trek at Ambler Borough Hall at 131 Rosemary Ave. Gant said participants were seen holding signs with phrases such as I cant breathe, and pictures of the late George Floyd. Floyds death on Memorial Day while in custody of Minneapolis police officers, who are charged with murder and related offenses, has sparked protests in major cities nationwide, including in Philadelphia. Towns throughout the region have held unity marches calling for an end to racism and police mistreatment of persons of color. Sorg and Bishof said that honoring Floyd was an important aspect of Saturdays march. I guess for a lot of people the kneeling for 8:46 to symbolize what happened to George Floyd was a very moving moment while the pastors, and the rabbis and the reverends prayed, Sorg said. I think it exemplified for us just how long eight minutes and 46 seconds are. It was a very peaceful march, and it was an opportunity for the citizens to voice their concerns, and it was an opportunity for me in law enforcement to affirm our commitment to providing fair and unbiased law enforcement throughout our community, said Ambler Police Chief Robert Hoffman. Sorg and Hoffman said officers directed traffic as the demonstrators walked along the towns main thoroughfare: Butler Avenue. They were there to make sure that we were safe, Sorg said. Hoffman said that community-oriented policing is a big part of the departments mission. When you have an event like we had on Saturday, its a great opportunity. We had a lot of officers out on bicycles, and we were able to speak with everybody and listen to their concerns, Hoffman added. Given the tension that we have nationally, it was good to see those officers responding in that manner, said Muhammad. Sorg said a vocalist performed We Shall Overcome. Normally when were doing that were all holding hands, Sorg said. Obviously in coronavirus time we couldnt do that, which made it different but still special. It was people from all walks of life. There were a lot of black people and a lot of white people, Bishof said. Young people. It was really young people. It was really old people. Some people were there in groups and some people just went to protest by themselves. Muhammed acknowledged the importance of participation from the younger generation. Some of the main things that Im seeing and the ones with the loudest voices that are expressing themselves the most is young people and that to me is necessary, he said. They didnt want it to be a protest, they wanted it to be more of a show of unity, and togetherness, and I think that was definitely accomplished, Muhammad said.. For local leaders like Sorg, it appeared that Saturdays march was a day of action and a time to take a stand for the community and against hateful actions like the incident involving George Floyd, and so many others. I think that our chief said it well: The violence you saw in Minneapolis is unacceptable, and for our police department, it was disturbing to see, and thats not OK in Ambler, and that will never be OK in Ambler, and violence and bigotry we will not stand for it in Ambler, Sorg said. The people of Ambler are better than that. Organizations like the NAACPs Ambler branch are holding Zoom meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, visit The New Ambler NAACP on Facebook, call 267-405-6026 or email amblerbranchnaacp@gmail.com. Advertisement Chinese officials have slammed an 'incredibly ridiculous' report that suggests coronavirus may have been spreading in the country as early as August last year. The dismissal came a day after a study revealed a surge in road traffic outside Wuhan hospitals at the end of last summer - coupled with an increase in internet searches for coronavirus-like symptoms - that suggested Covid-19 may have hit China before autumn. That is far earlier than has ever been speculated before. But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying moved to quash the study's findings. 'I think it is ridiculous, incredibly ridiculous, to come up with this conclusion based on superficial observations such as traffic volume,' she said during a press briefing. OCTOBER 2018: The satellite images analysed by Dr John Brownstein's team at Harvard Medical School found that there were 506 cars at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University OCTOBER 2019: The same aerial shot a year later reveals that this figure rose to 640 cars - a jump of more than 26 per cent The same car park reveals far fewer cars during the height of the coronavirus outbreak in February this year The new study, from Harvard Medical School led by Dr John Brownstein, analysed commercial satellite imagery. His team 'observed a dramatic increase in hospital traffic outside five major Wuhan hospitals beginning late summer and early fall 2019'. He said the traffic surge 'coincided' with a rise in internet searches for symptoms that are 'closely associated' with coronavirus, ABC News reported. The study findings said 'hospital traffic and symptom search data in Wuhan preceded the documented start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in December 2019'. A graph of the data shows the number of cars began to increase in August and peaked in December before falling when lockdown was introduced. A graph showing hospital traffic in Wuhan, with the lines representing traffic numbers observed at each of Wuhan's major hospitals. The first dotted line shows when traffic and interent searches for Covid-19 symptoms began to rise, the second shows December, when the region was suffering the peak number of coronavirus cases and the third shows February when the pandemic was largely under control and lockdown also restricted people from using their cars Brownstein said his research looked at the pictures to try and assess patterns of behaviour among communities that could help explain the source of the virus. His team counted the number of cars at major Wuhan hospitals using private satellite images and found a 'steep increase in volume starting in August 2019 and culminating with a peak in December 2019'. He said 'parking lots will get full as a hospital gets busy. So more cars in a hospital, the hospital's busier, likely because something's happening in the community, an infection is growing and people have to see a doctor'. Brownstein said his results were 'pointing to something taking place in Wuhan at the time', and the report found that 'between September and October 2019, five of the six hospitals show their highest relative daily volume of the analyzed series, coinciding with elevated levels of Baidu search queries for the terms diarrhea and cough'. Wuhan Tongji Medical University saw a spike in car traffic as early as mid-September 2019. Brownstein said that on 10 October 2019 there were 285 cars parked at Wuhan's Tianyou Hospital - 67 per cent more than the 171 recorded that same day a year earlier. Internet searches show a clear spike in searches for 'cough', represented by a blue line on the graph and 'diarrhea' represented by the red line. These began to gain traction from around August 2019, the graph shows, before hitting their peak in December Other hospitals revealed a traffic increase of up to 90 per cent between autumn of 2018 and 2019, the study showed. Researchers also compared parking activity at the Huanan Seafood Market in mid-September and after it was shut down and found a significant change, which 'validate' the idea that movement can be tracked through the lens of parked cars. The results showed a 'very clear trend', according to Tom Diamond, president of RS Metrics which worked with the Harvard research team. A man wearing a face mask is seen touching meat with his bare hands at a wet food market in Wuhan, China, in April this year At the same time as hospital traffic was surging, the Wuhan region saw online traffic spikes among users asking China's Baidu search engine for information on 'cough' and 'diarrhoea'. Both were later added to the list of official coronavirus symptoms. The study looked at searches made for those two phrases between April 2017 and May 2020 and found: 'While queries of the respiratory symptom 'cough' show seasonal fluctuations coinciding with yearly influenza seasons, 'diarrhoea' is a more COVID-19-specific symptom and only shows an association with the current epidemic. 'The increase of both signals precede the documented start of the COVID-19 pandemic in December.' Brownstein, whose study has now been submitted to the journal Nature Digital Medicine, added that these searches began increasing 'as early as late summer'. The report said the findings 'corroborate the hypothesis that the virus emerged naturally in southern China and was potentially already circulating at the time of the Wuhan cluster'. It also said: 'While we cannot conclude the reason for this increase, we hypothesize that broad community transmission may have led to more acute cases requiring medical attention, resulting in higher viral loads and worse symptoms'. The study also referred to an 'interesting' retrospective report conducted in Wuhan, which revealed that a 'potentially large' number of patients with 'mainly digestive symptoms such as diarrhea' may play an important role in community transgression. The initial rise in gastrointestinal symptoms may 'hint at the missed early signals of Covid-19 in current survelliance systems for respiratory pathogens', Browstein's report claimed. The study also said that a 'narrow definition' of symptoms for influenza-like illnesses 'would have missed milder cases with a different symptom mix that also could include loss of taste and smell'. This finding suggests 'the need to broaden surveillance efforts to consider novel pathogens that might display a range of unexpected symptoms'. It added that a 'recent uptick in hospital traffic and search engine query data in May coincides with recent reports of new case clusters in Wuhan'. However chief science officer at the Center for Discovery and Innovation in New Jersey, David Perlin, queried the latest findings. A team of researchers work in a laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in central China's Hubei province The scientist said the methods used for the study were 'questionable' and there was a chance the data could be 'over-interpreted.' He told ABC News: 'The problem is we only have a subset of data here. I always worry when people start drawing inferences from data subsets, cherry-picking data [like the internet searches]. It's suggestive.' Following the results of the study, Brownstein acknowledged the evidence was circumstantial but added that the discovery could help trace the origins of the virus. The findings come less than a month after Wang Yanyi, the director of Wuhan Institute of Virology, refuted claims made by the U.S President Donald Trump that the illness was leaked from the facility. The institute's director said while they had three strains of the viruses, their highest similarity to Covid-19 only reached 79.8 per cent. Scientists think Covid-19, which was first reported in Wuhan, originated in bats and could have been transmitted to people via another mammal. In an interview Wang Yanyi told state broadcaster CGTN the centre had 'isolated and obtained some coronaviruses from bats'. She said: 'Now we have three strains of live viruses... But their highest similarity to SARS-CoV-2 only reaches 79.8 percent.' Since the virus outbreak in China, more than seven million people have been infected worldwide alongside a staggering 402,867 deaths. Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, said it was 'incredibly ridiculous' to 'come up with this conclusion based on superficial observations such as traffic volume' Officials in China did not formally notify the World Health Organization until 31 December that a respiratory pathogen was spreading through Wuhan, a move the government has been heavily criticised for. At the time Wuhan officials said a 'cluster' of pneumonia cases had been recorded in the city. But US intelligence reported to the Pentagon back in November that a problem was sweeping across Wuhan, sources told ABC. The South China Morning Post reported that the first coronavirus case could be traced back as early as 17 November 2019, and officials have told local media they believe the virus was spreading before they realised. In response to the new study, the State Department again criticised the Chinese government for allegedly withholding public health information. A spokesman told ABC News: 'The Chinese government's cover up of initial reporting on the virus is just one more example of the challenges presented by the Chinese Communist Party's hostility toward transparency.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 09:48:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close People hold up China's national flag during a flash mob to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on the Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong, south China, Sept. 28, 2019. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan) Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs and no outside interference is allowed, said Chinese FM, pointing out that maintaining national security in Hong Kong concerns China's core interests, thereby a major issue of principle that must be adhered to. BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed hope that Britain will respect China's legitimate right to safeguard national security in Hong Kong during a phone conversation on Monday with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. China and Britain, as two major countries with global influence, share the common responsibility of safeguarding world peace and development, Wang said, adding that strengthening mutually-beneficial cooperation in a wide range of fields between the two sides is in the fundamental and long-term interests of the two peoples. Noting that international peace and strategic stability are disrupted and damaged by unilateralism, Wang said the two countries shoulder the responsibility of upholding multilateralism and jointly safeguarding the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law. Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs and no outside interference is allowed, Wang said, pointing out that maintaining national security in Hong Kong concerns China's core interests, thereby a major issue of principle that must be adhered to. The central government is responsible for upholding national security in China, as is the case in any other country, Wang said. People from all walks of life attend a campaign in support of national security legislation for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in Hong Kong, south China, May 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai) While the central government authorizes the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to enact laws on its own to safeguard national security through Article 23 of the Basic Law, it does not change the fact that safeguarding national security is within the purview of the central authorities, Wang said. Faced with the actual harm and serious threat to the national security in Hong Kong, the National People's Congress (NPC) has decisively introduced new national security legislation for application in Hong Kong, which will help fill the obvious loopholes and long-term deficiencies in such area for Hong Kong as soon as possible, he added, adding that such a move is reasonable, legal and imperative. Wang stressed that the national security legislation for Hong Kong aims to better implement "one country, two systems," adding that Article 1 of the decision passed by the NPC makes clearly that the principles of "one country, two systems," "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy will be fully and faithfully honored. This is another solemn commitment made by China's highest organ of state power to uphold the principle of "one country, two systems" in the highest legal form of NPC legislation, Wang said, adding that China will never accept the groundless accusation that the national security legislation will change "one country, two systems." Wang said the national security legislation for Hong Kong targets a very small number of "Hong Kong independence" separatists and violent elements, adding that the legislation will better ensure various rights and freedom of Hong Kong citizens, and also make all law-abiding foreigners feel more at ease working and living in Hong Kong. Pedestrians wearing face masks are seen at the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui of Hong Kong, south China, Feb. 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Gang) The current capitalist system in Hong Kong will not change, nor will its rights to a high degree of autonomy enjoyed under the Basic Law, or the way of life of the Hong Kong citizens, Wang said, adding that the national security legislation will only improve Hong Kong's legal system, social order and business environment. Calling the national security legislation a litmus test, Wang said, if one expects lasting peace and stability in Hong Kong, they should support rather than worrying about the legislation; If one wants "one country, two systems" to go a long way, they should support rather than opposing the legislation. Both as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Wang said, China and Britain should set an example in abiding by the basic norms of international relations and not interfering in other countries' internal affairs. Looking back on the history of China-Britain relations, China has never interfered in Britain's internal affairs and has never pointed a finger at Britain's domestic affairs, Wang said. China hopes that Britain will respect the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Basic Law enacted in accordance with the Constitution, respect China's legitimate right to safeguard national security on its territory, and respect the Chinese central government's administration of Hong Kong under the principle of "one country, two systems," Wang said, adding that the British side must adopt a cautious attitude on this affair. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with British First Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in Bangkok, Thailand, on July 31, 2019. (Xinhua/Rachen Sageamsak) For his part, Raab said Britain is committed to developing a strong bilateral relationship with China, expressing belief that after the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides will further strengthen cooperation on major international and regional issues including climate change and Iran's nuclear issue. Within the framework of a mature Britain-China relationship, the two sides can have a candid exchange of views on any topics, Raab said, adding that Britain is willing to deliberate on the contents of today's in-depth exchanges, and continue to communicate with China in the spirit of mutual respect. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) Congress is seeking a probe into the sudden spike in bogus accounts on social media platform Facebook. Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy Biazon said on Wednesday that he has filed House Resolution 968 seeking to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation into the proliferation of the clone accounts from the platform, which opens up its users to "a slew of exploitations" like online bullying, harassment, identity theft, violations of privacy and others. The resolution was filed on Tuesday, June 9. Biazon, senior vice chair of the House committee on national defense, also called on the government to create a joint task force composed of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group, the National Privacy Commission, and other related agencies. "The new normal would increase reliance in social media platforms...and it is therefore incumbent upon the government to ensure the safety of its users through the protection of their private data," Biazon said. On Tuesday, Senator Francis Kiko Pangilinan filed Senate Resolution No. 444, directing an appropriate Senate committee to conduct an inquiry into the proliferation of the fake profiles, noting how these pages have been using the identities of students, government officials, and other users. Pangilinan said the inquiry will also help determine the possible regulation of social media platforms in accordance with the policy that respects the rights and freedoms of all Filipinos guaranteed by the Constitution. There is a need to look into our existing laws to increase the extent of liability and possible regulation of service providers or content hosts such as Facebook and other social media platforms, the resolution read. Meanwhile, Quezon City Representative Anthony Peter Crisologo filed House Resolution no. 964 urging all appropriate committees, especially the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology, to investigate the matter. Crisologo said that the emergence of the fake accounts is compromising public rights, and that these might be used for illegal activities. "One of the strategies of the government to combat the spread of COVID-19 is through information dissemination using various platforms including social media. The circulation of false information could destroy the integrity of the information ecology of the country and could worsen the current public health crisis, he said in a statement Tuesday. He said is it also important to know the intention behind the creation of these accounts to know what action to implement. Crisologo also pushed Facebook Philippines to explain the incident and review their rules to ensure users protection. Bogus, duplicate, and empty accounts first surfaced on Facebook over the weekend, with various sectors voicing out security and safety concerns. Groups say the incident can be linked to the recent backlash against the controversial anti-terrorism measure, as some students particularly vocal critics of the government said they have been receiving threats from the said dummy accounts. Both the Justice Department and Facebook said they will be investigating the issue. Officials have meanwhile cautioned citizens to remain vigilant, and to continuously report suspicious accounts to the social media platforms data protection team. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 9, 2020) - SilverCrest Metals Inc. (TSX: SIL) (NYSE American: SILV) ("SilverCrest" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the filing of a final short form base shelf prospectus ("Prospectus") to provide the Company with the flexibility to take advantage of equity, debt, convertible debt and other financing opportunities that may arise during the 25-month effective period of the Prospectus. The Prospectus has been filed in each of the provinces of Canada, except Quebec, and a corresponding shelf registration statement on Form F-10 ("Registration Statement") was also filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Multijurisdictional Disclosure System established between Canada and the United States. These filings enable offerings of common shares, warrants, subscription receipts, debt and convertible debt securities or units of up to an aggregate initial offering price of Cdn. $200 million at any time during the period the Prospectus is effective. N. Eric Fier, CEO of SilverCrest commented, "We currently have US$164 million dollars in the bank and are fully financed for Las Chispas mine construction. The filing of this shelf prospectus, with a window of 25-months, puts us in a position to rapidly complete a potential future financing to enable us to continually drill through the construction period and maintain strategic flexibility if other opportunities arise." Copies of the Prospectus and the Registration Statement may be obtained by contacting SilverCrest at Suite 501, 570 Granville Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 3P1, Attention: Chief Financial Officer. Copies of the Prospectus and the Registration Statement are also available at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov, respectively. The Registration Statement filed with the SEC has not yet become effective. Until the Registration Statement becomes effective, no securities may be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell any securities or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities, nor will there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. If any securities are offered under the Prospectus or Registration Statement, the terms of such securities and the intended use of any net proceeds will be established at the time of such offering and will be described in a Prospectus supplement filed with the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities and the SEC at the time of such an offering and would be made available by SilverCrest at the above address. ABOUT SILVERCREST METALS INC. SilverCrest is a Canadian precious metals exploration company headquartered in Vancouver, BC, that is focused on new discoveries, value-added acquisitions and targeting production in Mexico's historic precious metal districts. The Company's current focus is on the high-grade, historic Las Chispas mining district in Sonora, Mexico. The Las Chispas Project consists of 28 mineral concessions, of which the Company has 100% ownership and where all the known mineral resources of the Company are located. SilverCrest is the first company to successfully drill-test the historic Las Chispas Property resulting in numerous high-grade precious metal discoveries. The Company is led by a proven management team in all aspects of the precious metal mining sector, including taking projects through discovery, finance, on time and on budget construction, and production. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements describe the anticipated offering of securities under the Company's Prospectus and Registration Statement. Such forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, conditions in general economic and financial markets, timing and amount of capital expenditures, and effects of regulation by governmental agencies. Since forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact and address future events, conditions and expectations, forward-looking statements by their nature inherently involve unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors well beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. Actual events, results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements as a result of risk factors including risks related to timing of, and ability to obtain, required regulatory approvals, general economic and financial conditions, and regulatory changes. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements included in this news release if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as otherwise required by applicable law. N. Eric Fier, CPG, P.Eng Chief Executive Officer SilverCrest Metals Inc. For Further Information: SilverCrest Metals Inc. Contact: Jacy Zerb, Investor Relations Manager Telephone: +1 (604) 694-1730 Fax: +1 (604) 357-1313 Toll Free: 1-866-691-1730 (Canada) Email: info@silvercrestmetals.com Website: www.silvercrestmetals.com 570 Granville Street, Suite 501 Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 3P1 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57513 Beijing provides financial preferential services for military personnel PLA Daily Source: China Military Online Editor: Chen Zhuo 2020-06-08 17:40:31 By Huang Jianfeng and Zhou Jiawang BEIJING, June 7 -- Beijing Municipal Bureau of Veterans Affairs signed a cooperation agreement with ten branches of banks in Beijing, as well as three municipal banks, to provide preferential services for active-duty military personnel and retired veterans. Up to now, 13 banks have launched more than 100 preferential service programs and issued more than 30,000 bank cards exclusively for veterans. An official with Beijing Municipal Bureau of Veterans Affairs introduced that these13 banks have launched a list of various preferential financial services, covering more than 100 special preferential programs, such as offering exclusive services for military members and veterans, providing concessional financial products, free medical care service, insurance services, etc. The beneficiaries can make choices based on their own needs. Besides, those banks have also made exclusive job offers to the family members of military personnel stationed in Beijing. The official said that in the future, Beijing will take advantage of the capital's financial resources to create efficient and comprehensive financial services both online and offline, and further promote the supporting and preferential services in more fields, so as to achieve the goal of "making being a serviceman a respected profession in our country" in the whole society. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address More than 60% of Idahos coronavirus-related deaths are among residents of long-term care facilities like nursing homes, according to numbers released by the state on Friday. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said that so far 25 long-term care facilities have had COVID-19 outbreaks since the pandemic reached Idahos borders earlier this year. A total of 289 residents and staffers at the facilities were confirmed to have the illness, according to the report, and of them 52 people have died. Statewide more than 3,000 people have contracted COVID-19 and 83 people have died, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare had previously refused to reveal facility-specific case numbers during the public health crisis. The Idaho Statesman newspaper in Boise warned last week that it would sue the department if it continued to withhold the records. The government transparency organization Idahoans for Openness in Government also wrote state officials urging them to release the information. We have re-examined the data, which unfortunately includes an increasing number of cases now, and have developed a process to release the numbers for specific facilities without revealing a diagnosis of COVID-19 or the cause of death for any individual resident, Elke Shaw-Tulloch, administrator for the Division of Public Health, wrote in a prepared statement released Friday. Its a delicate balance to protect the privacy of Idahoans while also being as transparent as possible. Idaho has about 400 long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, assisted living facilities and intermediate care facilities. The facilities with the biggest outbreaks so far include the Life Care Center of Lewiston, where 54 people were infected and 18 died; Bridgeview Estates in Twin Falls, where 48 people were infected and 11 died; and Avamere Transitional Care and Rehabilitation in Boise, where 42 peple were infected and two died. The Health and Welfare Department said the outbreak at Avamere has since ended, but cases are still considered active at the Lewiston and Twin Falls facilities. Long-term care facilities across the country have been ravaged by the pandemic. The virus poses a higher risk of more severe illness or death for older adults and people with existing health problems. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics COVID-19 Homeowners Moments before the crash, Robert Riddell shared this photograph from inside the B-17G Flying Fortress plane while it was taxiing A lawsuit has been filed against the owners and operators of a World War II-era airplane that crashed at a Connecticut airport last October, killing seven people. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in state Superior Court by survivors of the crash and the families of passengers who were killed, seeks unspecified monetary damages from the Collings Foundation, which ran charter flights on its historic B-17G bomber. The action also names the foundation's executive director, Robert Collings Jr. Hunter Chaney, a spokesman for the foundation, said it is prohibited from commenting on the crash or the lawsuit because of the ongoing investigation into the accident by the National Transportation Safety Board. The aircraft with 13 people aboard crashed on October 3 after encountering mechanical trouble on takeoff from Bradley International Airport. Five passengers who had each paid $450 to fly aboard the aircraft, as well as the pilot and co-pilot, were killed while the others were left with serious burns. The four-engine, propeller-driven Flying Fortress struggled to get into the air and slammed into a maintenance building at the airport near Hartford as the pilots circled back for a landing, officials and witnesses said at the time of the crash. The B-17G Flying Fortress which crashed in October is pictured above in a different photograph taken in 2002. The aircraft was taking 10 passengers on a one-hour tourist flight when a problem with its engine sent it plummeting This was what remained of the plane a day after the crash, once the fire had been put out and the victims had been recovered from it The carcass of the plane remains at the airport and the NTSB is investigating the crash. Only the tail and wings remained in tact Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that an inspection of the engines that failed would have shown that some parts were worn beyond repair. The 200-page lawsuit, which gives a detailed description of the brief flight and the plight of each person on the aircraft, also alleges that the passengers were not given proper safety instructions and two of them were seated on the floor of the aircraft instead of in seats. 'Neither the Pilot in Command, nor any of the other crew members, informed the passengers of the flight's peril, advised them what to do or instructed them to brace for a crash,' according to the lawsuit. 'The passengers were left to presume what was happening.' The Federal Aviation Administration in March r evoked the foundations permission to carry passengers aboard its World War II-era planes. Those killed in the crash include 75-year-old pilot Ernest McCauley and his 71-year-old co-pilot Michael Foster. The five passengers who were killed were David Broderick, 56, Gary Mazzone, 66, James Roberts, 48, Robert Riddell, 59 and Robert Rubner, 64. Flight engineer Mitchel Melton, 34, was injured. The other injured passengers were 36-year-old Andy Barrett; 62-year-old Linda Schmidt; 62-year-old Tom Scmidt; 48-year-old Joseph Huber and 54-year-old James Traficante, a National Guard command chief who pulled some of the survivors to safety after the plane caught fire. A problem with one of its four engines caused the pilot to turn back five minutes into the flight and upon impact on the runway, the aircraft hit the instrument landing system which beams a signal to the plane from the tarmac to help it land. The aircraft careered off it and the plane veered off to the right and into the de-icing facility, sparking a huge fire which engulfed the aircraft and filled the building. Riddell was a business analyst for a Connecticut insurance company and had two adult children from a previous relationship. He had paid to go on the tourist flight and excitedly shared photos from inside the aircraft and before he boarded on Facebook moments before his death. The plane was one of only 10 in the world that are still flying. Robert Riddell,59, (left) died in the plane crash as did retired cop Gary Mazzone (right). Riddell had shared photos from inside the aircraft beforehand Survivors: Mitch Melton, a soldier and former Air Force mechanic, survived with broken ribs and a bleed in his liver (left). He was pulled from the wreckage by Chief Master Sgt. James M. Traficante (right) who happened to also be on the flight A close-up of the plane after it crashed into the de-icing facility after trying to make an emergency landing in October 13 people were on board the plane when it crashed. Seven died and six were able to escape the fiery wreckage. Many remain in hospital The plane crashed into the de-icing facility at 9.53am, just eight minutes after it took off for an hour-long tour Riddell's widow Debra described him as her 'soul mate' in a Facebook post after the crash. They were due to celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary on the 15th of October. HERO NATIONAL GUARDSMAN OPENED HATCH WITH FLAME RESISTANT GLOVES AND PULLED SURVIVORS TO SAFETY Chief Master Sgt. James M. Traficante. was a paying customer on the tourist flight on Wednesday. Fortunately, he had brought with him his Air Force issued flame retardant gloves and has training in air craft emergencies. He was sitting near the back of the aircraft. After it slammed into the de-icing facility, he was able to open the hatch and get the other passengers out of the burning aircraft. Chief Traficante began his military service on active duty as an Airlift/Bombardment Aircraft Maintenance Specialist (Crew Chief) in 1984. Upon completion of his active duty tour, he joined the Rhode Island Air National Guard where he served as a crew chief, flight engineer, and loadmaster when the unit transitioned to C-130J`s. 'The Connecticut National Guard is thankful that our Airman on board the aircraft is safe and I ask that you respect his and his family's privacy as he recovers. 'When tragedy hit, his training kicked in,' Maj. Gen. Francis Evon, The Adjutant General of the Connecticut National Guard said. Advertisement Traficante bravely saved some of the other passengers after he brought flame retardant flight gloves with him which allowed him to open the hatch. 'He brought his military issued flame retardant flight gloves with him during the flight, and using these, was able to open a hatch on the aircraft allowing other passengers to egress the plane after the crash,' the Connecticut National Guard said in a statement. 'He suffered injuries and was transported to Hartford Hospital for treatment. He was released yesterday evening and continues to recover at home,' the statement said. Melton suffered a broken ribs and had to have surgery to repair a bleed in his liver but he is expected to survive. Riddell was an aviation enthusiast who excitedly shared pictures from inside the plane before it took off and on the tarmac. His wife said in her post: 'It's been a long and tragic day. Words cannot express how devastated I am. 'At this point, all survivors have been identified. 'Rob was not one of therm. Rob was the best person I've ever known. 'He was my soul mate, I will miss him beyond words can ever express. He loved his children more than anyone cold know. 'He was brilliant, loving, funny, reliable, compassionate and the best man I've ever known. 'The world lost an amazing person today,' she said. She added that he had embraced her children from a previous relationship and that he was loving towards her grandchildren. The B-17G was being operated by The Collings Foundation as a tour plane. Tickets on the excursion cost up to around $500 and the cost is considered a 'donation' to the charity which restores the aircraft. At 9.45am, the plane took off. At 9.50am, the pilot radioed to say there was a problem with one of its four engines. 'N93012 would like to return to the field.' The controller then asks: 'What's the reason for coming back?' Riddell also shared photographs from the tarmac before boarding the plane. The B-17G which he flew on appears to be behind this aircraft. He captioned it: 'In the waiting area Riddell, 59, is pictured with his wife Debra on their 2015 wedding day B-17G 'Nine-O-Nine' crashed and burst into flames at Connecticut's Bradley International Airport in October B-17G Flying Fortress, 'Nine-O-Nine', had survived a 1987 crash The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Nine-O-Nine plane involved in Wednesday's tragedy had survived a previous crash in the 1987, a year after being bought by The Collings Foundation . That incident happened at an air show in Pittsburgh and several people were injured. Memphis Belle is the most famous of the B17 bombers and its last mission was portrayed in the 1990s film of the same name It was the result of the plane being hit by a severe crosswind as it touched down which caused it to overshoot the runway and plunge down a hill. It is unclear if the people injured in that accident were on-board the plane or on the ground. It was rebuilt and then used to perform 1200 'tour duties' where people were able to view the bomber. B-17s were most commonly used in daytime raids over Germany in WWII as well as causing havoc on enemy shipping in the Pacific. The B-17 - dubbed 'Nine-O-Nine' - in the Bradley Airport crash was built in Long Beach in 1945 and was too late for combat. It served as part of the Air/Sea 1st Rescue Squadron and later in the Military Air Transport Service. In 1952, it was subjected to three different nuclear explosions in 1952 and after a cool-down period of 13 years, was sold as part of an 800-ton scrap pile, and was restored by the aircraft Specialties Company. It was then used as a fire bomber, dropping water and borate on forest fires. The most popular of the B-17 bombers, the famed B-17F Memphis Belle, was the first heavy bomber to return to the US after flying 25 missions over Europe. The Memphis Belle became one of the most iconic symbols of WWII and was portrayed in the 1990s film of the same name, which is a fictionalized account of its last mission in 1943. Memphis Belle gunners were credited with shooting down eight German fighters - and another five probable kills. Advertisement 'You got number four engine. We'd like to return and blow it out,' another pilot answered. Upon landing, NTSB officials say the instrument landing system 'stanchions' were 'impacted'. The stanchions are a metal frame which surround the tower that transmits a signal to the plane and guides its landing. When the plane crashed into it, it veered off to the right and off the runway, across a grassy area and into the de-icing building where the entire wreckage caught fire. Experts say the cause of the crash is likely to do with the landing. 'Something went wrong on the final approach. That's what they will be investigating,' Arizona pilot Joseph Buckley, a B-17 expert, told The Connecticut Post. The Collings Foundation said in a statement: 'Our thoughts and prayers are with those who were on that flight and we will be forever grateful to the heroic efforts of the first responders at Bradley.' Authorities say the death toll from the tragedy may rise, with some of those injured listed as being in critical condition in the hospital. The B-17 Flying Fortress was developed as a four-engine bomber plane during the 1930s and was used as a strategic bomber plane during World War II. It was designed for high altitude flight, speed, and heavy defensive armament in order to survive enemy defenses. It could fly up to 30,000 feet with combat load, while powered turrets and flexible guns covered all areas around the aircraft. Its most significant service was over Germany, and it helped win the war by crippling Nazi war forces. The most popular of the planes, the famed B-17F Memphis Belle, was the first heavy bomber to return to the US after flying 25 missions over Europe. The Memphis Belle became one of the most iconic symbols of WWII and was portrayed in the 1990s film of the same name, which is a fictionalized account of its last mission in 1943. The B-17G - dubbed 'Nine-O-Nine' was built at Long Beach in 1945, and although it was too late for WWII combat, it served as part of the Air/Sea 1st Rescue Squadron and later in the Military Air Transport Service. It was subjected to the effects of three different nuclear explosions in 1952 and after a cool-down period of 13 years, was sold as part of an 800-ton scrap pile, and was restored by the Aircraft Specialties Company. It was later used as a fire bomber, dropping water and borate on forest fires for 20 years. It was sold in January 1986 to the Collings Foundation, and was named 'Nine-O-Nine' in honor of a 91st Bomb Group, 323rd Squadron plane of the same name which completed 140 missions without an abort or loss of a crewman. This particular plane had survived a crash in 1987 - damaging the nose, and the engines and propellers were torn from their mounts. It was repaired, and flew more than 1200 'tour stops' where people were able to view the plane. People walk around the terminal at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (Reuters) - Most tourist hotspots in Asia remain out of bounds this summer as international travel remains restricted, but some countries including China are making special arrangements for business travellers. AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND: Borders are effectively closed except for returning citizens and residents, who are quarantined for 14 days. The two countries have talked about a possible "travel bubble" between them but New Zealand has said that is unlikely to happen while travel between Australian states remains restricted. A travel bubble may include Pacific Islands. CHINA: Citizens can return, but the entry of most foreigners, including those with valid visas and residence permits, remains suspended. It has, however, signed a fast-track programme with South Korea and Singapore to allow essential business travel and is in talks with more countries to do so. It has also allowed foreign executives and technical personnel from some other nations to enter on pre-approved charter flights, sometimes with reduced quarantine, to accelerate the resumption of business. INDIA: Borders are effectively closed as coronavirus cases have surged to over 267,000. India said this week it will take a call on resuming international flights as soon as countries ease restrictions on foreign nationals. INDONESIA: Citizens and long-term pass holders may enter, but must bring documents showing they are free of the coronavirus or undergo tests at the airport. The country is opening up domestic travel from Wednesday with safety and quarantine measures. JAPAN: The country is considering an easing of travel curbs, although it is likely to require testing and the submission of a travel itinerary, local media https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/06/892041b57919-japan-to-require-virus-testing-itinerary-in-travel-restriction-easing.html reported. It is in talks with some countries to reopen borders, with business travellers and medical staff expected to be fast-tracked. Story continues MALAYSIA: Borders remain effectively closed, but interstate travel will be allowed starting June 10. Returning Malaysians who test negative can self-isolate at home for 14 days starting Wednesday, instead of at a quarantine centre. SINGAPORE: Singapore is allowing travellers to transit through its main airport, but borders remain effectively closed. It is in talks with some countries about reopening travel links, including Malaysia and New Zealand. SOUTH KOREA: A few international flights continue to operate. All citizens and foreigners who enter are quarantined for two weeks. Diplomats or foreigners with official business status are exempted from mandatory quarantine but are tested on arrival. THAILAND: A ban on commercial international flights has been extended until end June. Nationals and foreigners with work permits can return on charter flights. But citizens need to provide certificates issued by Thai embassies, and foreigners are required to present a negative coronavirus test. There is a mandatory 14-day quarantine on arrival. Thailand hopes to reopen to limited international tourism later this year for "low-risk" countries including China and South Korea. TAIWAN: Borders remain closed other than for citizens, foreigners with residence permits and a few other exceptions. Everyone coming in has to undergo a 14-day quarantine. The government said it will be cautious when looking at whether to ease border restrictions given the serious situation still in many countries. A limited number of international flights continue to operate. VIETNAM: Borders remain closed except for citizens as well as foreign experts with valid work permits and negative coronavirus test certificates who are returning on charter flights. A 14-day quarantine upon arrival is mandatory. The government on Tuesday said it was seeking to reinstate international flights to countries that had been free of the virus for 30 days, and would resume these with limited frequency and priority given to foreign experts and investors. (Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Compiled by Sayantani Ghosh in Singapore; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) Vijay Mallya has reportedly applied for asylum in the United Kingdom which is likely to hinder his extradition to India. The fugitive Indian businessman has sought asylum on humanitarian grounds, reported CNBC-TV18. The report comes close on the heels of a statement by the British High Commission that "there is a further legal issue that needs resolving before Mallya's extradition can be arranged". The High Commission had clarified that it is a confidential matter and extradition cannot take place under United Kingdom law until this legal issue is resolved. Now, Mallya has sought asylum on humanitarian grounds, particularly under Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), the report said. Although Article 3 refers to prohibition of torture, its gamut has been expanded to include harsh medical conditions. ALSO READ: Vijay Mallya's extradition unlikely until 'further legal issue' gets resolved: UK govt Mallya and his legal team have been arguing throughout the extradition trial that his health could be in danger if he is extradited to India. This argument was, however, dismissed during the extradition trial over the past few months. The Article 2 of ECHR could also come into play which refers to right to life. Mallya's legal team has been raising questions over the conditions of his lodging once he is brought back to India. A single cell has been prepared at Mumbai's Arthur Road jail to house Mallya once he arrives in India. Whether Mallya will be granted asylum by the UK or not remains to be seen, but it will definitely buy him time. The UK Home Office usually takes six months to process such an application, depending on the complexity of the case. Even if his plea is turned down, he can file for an administrative review of the order, further delaying his extradition. ALSO READ: Vijay Mallya not returning right away, extradition yet to be signed There are other hurdles to his extradition too. The UK Home Office Secretary is yet to sign extradition documents and the deadline for this expires on June 11, 2020, as per the Extradition Act. There can be a delay in extradition of Mallya can be if he has pending litigations against him in the courts of the UK or in case he seeks asylum. If all else fails, Mallya could go to European Human Rights Court. The Indian businessman has already exhausted all his legal options, after the UK Supreme Court turned down his application to appeal against an order to extradite him to India. Mallya, wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering worth Rs 9,000 crore, has been based in the UK since March 2016. He has been out on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017. ALSO READ: India is in touch with UK over Vijay Mallya's extradition, says MEA Ms Clarke, 29, was allegedly armed with a knife when a constable shot her outside a home in Geraldton on September 17 A fundraiser has gone viral for the family of Joyce Clarke - an indigenous woman who was shot and killed by a police officer in Western Australia last year. Ms Clarke, 29, was allegedly armed with a knife when a constable, whose name is suppressed, shot her outside a home in Geraldton on September 17. The young mother, who had mental issues, had recently been released from Bandyup prison for stealing a mobile phone. Her family called police after she started behaving erratically. Eight officers got out of their cars and approached Ms Clarke, who allegedly lunged at a constable who fatally shot her in the stomach. He was charged with murder and pleaded not guilty late last month. Family friend Debbie Kilroy has since set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Ms Joyce's mother and son to travel and attend court hearings concerning the murder charges. 'The police officer has pleaded not guilty and the court process will be prolonged and traumatic for Joyce's mother Aunty Anne, Joyce's son, the family and community,' Ms Kilroy said. 'The police officer has pleaded not guilty and the court process will be prolonged and traumatic for Aunty Anne, Joyce's son, the family and community. 'Joyce was a mother, daughter, sister, aunty and friend. We all knew Joyce as a bright, friendly girl who lit up the room with her smile when she walked in and in the most tragic of circumstances she was taken too early.' In just six days, the crowdfunding effort has already raised more than $92,245 of its $95,000 goal. Eight officers got out of their cars and approached her, before Ms Clarke - who had mental health issues - allegedly lunged at a constable who fatally shot her in the stomach. Pictured: The scene of the fatal shooting In just six days, the crowdfunding effort has already raised more than $92,245 of its $95,000 goal Ms Clarke had mental health issues and once set fire to her cell because she believed there were 'spirits' there. Her death sparked outrage among the community, with large crowds of locals gathering outside Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service and the local police station. Grieving locals hurled abuse at officers and calling them dogs in the wake of her death. Ms Clarke leaves behind a seven-year-old son, who's cared for by Ms Clarke's foster mother Anne Jones. At least 432 Aboriginal people have died in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission, which investigated 99 such deaths from 1980 to 1989. Aboriginals make up 28 per cent of Australia's prison inmates despite only being three per cent of the country's population. The stock of Ireland's largest private landlord, Ires Reit, looks ready to outperform, according to analysts at Davy Stockbrokers. Ires has been impacted by a number of issues this year, including talk of a rent freeze, political uncertainty following the general election, and the coronavirus. Its share price is currently 25pc below its 52-week high, one of the largest declines in its peer group, according to Colin Grant of Davy. But a government is expected to be formed over the summer, the focus of housing policy has shifted towards the delivery of social and affordable units, and the economy is starting to re-open, he said in an analyst note. Housing supply is expected to be well below demand levels for the year - prior to Covid-19 there was a need for around 35,000 housing units to be delivered this year. However, a number of industry experts have predicted that fewer than 18,000 new homes will be completed in 2020. "Ires has one of the lowest 2019 price-to-earnings ratios in its peer group but one of the highest earnings growth profiles in 2020/2021, which is an anomalous combination, and its 85pc dividend payout is attractive," Mr Grant said. "There are opportunities to sustain its growth trajectory in the fragmented and undeveloped Irish private rented sector market following the acquisitions announced last year." Ires - led by CEO Margaret Sweeney - controls more than 3,700 residential units, primarily in Dublin. Its average monthly rent in 2019 was 1,596. The company generated 50.5m in net rental revenue in 2019, and made a profit of 86.3m. The profit figure was down from 119.8m in 2018. Ires Reit's apartment blocks range from the super high-end Marker apartments at Grand Canal Square in the Dublin docks and the Elm Park development close to St Vincent's Hospital and RTE in Dublin 4, to modern developments in Tallaght, Finglas and Inchicore. Shares in the company were down 1.4pc in Dublin yesterday afternoon. A police officer from New Mexico was charged with involuntary manslaughter following the death of a man he put in a neck restraint in February. Las Cruces Police Department Announced the Charges Las Cruces Police Department in New Mexico announced on Friday the charges filed against a police officer. Police Officer Christopher Smelser will be facing involuntary manslaughter charges following the death of Antonio Valenzuela. According to the police department, Smelser detained Valenzuela during a traffic stop on Feb. 29 and that Valenzuela had an open warrant for a probation violation. On the same day, Valenzuela died as the officer put in neck restraints. Valenzuela tried to escape at that time and the police department used stun guns to subdue him. He was caught by Police Officer Smelser who used the vascular neck restraint technique on him. This led to the death of Valenzuela. He was tried to revive by medical staff who were called by they were not successful. Police Chief Department Announced the Dismissal of Smelser's Service Smelser has been in the service for four years and has been on administrative leave while waiting for the outcome of the investigation that occurred in Feb.29 that involved him and Valenzuela. The investigation was conducted by the New Mexico State Police. Following this, Police Chief Department Patrick Gallagher received the result of the autopsy on June 4 and announced on Friday the dismissal of Smelser from service. It was also found out that he issued a letter of intent to terminate Smelser's employment. Las Cruces Police Chief Patrick Gallagher said in a statement: "Words are insufficient to bring comfort to Antonio Valenzuela's family, but I extend my sincere condolences for their loss. It is a tragic day for everyone involved when there is an in-custody death or a death as a result of a police apprehension." House Democrats Plan to Repeal the Police Doctrine It is very difficult to bring charges against police officers in the U.S. because of the so-called immunity doctrine for law enforcement that protects police officers from any lawsuits over their actions while they perform their duty. To address this issue which becomes also the main problem in the country following the death of George Floyd because of neck restraint put in as well by a police officer, the House Democrats plan to repeal this police doctrine. It can be recalled that George Floyd also died on May 25 after a police officer put in a neck restraint. The use of chokeholds and other force tactics from law enforcement was greatly criticized in the past few days that it led to some violent protests across the country. On Friday, the Minneapolis City Council forged an agreement with the state negotiators to ban the use of chokeholds to avoid more brutal arrests. It can be remembered that the arrest to George Floyd by a police officer while kneeling on his neck lasted for eight minutes. Meanwhile, the Congressional Black Caucus is now working with some lawmakers to have some police reforms. Read related articles: The major pilgrimage to the holy places of Islam scheduled from July 28 to August 2. Every year at least 2.5 million faithful participate in the event. Religious tourism brings $ 12 billion to state coffers. Indonesia and Singapore renounce participation. Riyadh (AsiaNews / Agencies) - To stem the spread of Covid-19 and prevent new outbreaks, Saudi authorities could drastically reduce the number of pilgrims who will participate in the Hajj, the major pilgrimage to Mecca, scheduled from July 28 to August 2. Meanwhile, Singapore, after Indonesia, has announced that it will renounce participation in the event - among the most important for the Muslim faith - to avoid infections by returning faithful. Every year at least 2.5 million faithful visit the sacred places of Islam in Mecca and Medina during the seven days of the pilgrimage. For the Saudi authorities, this is not just a religious event, but a huge economic one; in fact, it is estimated that at least 12 billion dollars linked to religious tourism (Hajj and Umra, the minor pilgrimage) enter the coffers of the Wahhabite kingdom every year. Last March, during the early stages of the pandemic, Riyadh asked to suspend the organization of travel to sacred places. According to some institutional sources, the Saudi authorities are thinking of granting the green light "to a symbolic number" of faithful, categorically prohibiting the elderly and introducing even more stringent measures at the health level. Another hypothesis under consideration is to grant 20% of the total quota of each country. Still others are pushing for a complete cancellation of the Hajj, but this would result in a severe blow to the nation's coffers, which must already face the collapse of oil revenues due to the pandemic and clashes with Moscow on production. Last year, 2.6 million pilgrims registered for Hajj and about 19 million for Umra. Hajj is considered one of the five pillars of Islam and every good Muslim should do it at least once in his life. Saudi Arabia has often politically exploited permission to reach Mecca; for years the Syrians have been forbidden to travel to the Muslim holy city. The crisis between Riyadh (Sunni) and Tehran (Shiite), still in progress between the two great regional powers, in 2016 effectively blocked the journeys of Iranian citizens to the kingdom. In the past, Riyadh's leadership was targeted by some imams who claimed the Saudi government used money from religious tourism to finance Islamic terrorism. To date, over 105 thousand cases of new coronavirus have been recorded in Saudi Arabia with 746 confirmed victims. Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Monday (local time), while referring to a recent telephonic conversation between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, said that the two leaders have been in "regular touch" and senior officials of two countries have been talking to each other. "They have been in regular touch, and both senior officials of the Government of India and the US administration have been talking to each other regularly. This particular phone call happened on the 2nd. And in that, apart from other aspects, two points regard to G7 were raised," Sandhu told ANI while responding to a question on the recent conversation between two leaders. The Ambassador said India will be happy to work with the US as far as President Trump's desire to expand G-7 is concerned. "One, President Trump invited Prime Minister Modi to come and attend the summit. And second, was that he also shared his desire to expand the G7. So, on both of these counts, India will be very happy to work with the United States. And I think the exact dates still have to be finalized. Once they are done and it will be communicated to us," he said. On June 2, PM Modi had held a telephonic conversation with US President Donald Trump. Prime Minister Modi has accepted President Trumps invite and could visit the United States in September. However critics and especially the Chinese have strongly reacted to President 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". Responding to a question regarding China's objection to the expansion of G-7, Sandhu said this is not the first time India has been invited to G7. "This is not the first time India has been invited to G7. India's presence, and especially in light of the COVID, our stature has grown..and this is a respect for India rather than any geopolitical terms. So, India's presence, 1.3 billion people's presence in not only this forum but also other institutional and international organizational forums, is something which is not only adequate, but a necessity. So this is a recognition of India's heightened role and importance in the world. Sandhu, while speaking about cooperation between two countries regarding coronavirus pandemic, said: "There has been a very close collaboration. Of course, there are a lot of other fields, especially in medicine and in research, there are three particular aspects of this which are important. One, in terms of medicines." "As I mentioned to you that we have supplied whatever medicines the United States was depending upon India, but also, in addition, we are collaborating together. As you know, India is a bulk producer for medicines especially for public health, and a number of US companies are in collaboration with Indian companies for the production of these and one such case very recently is the famous Remdesivir on which four Indian companies have been signed up to make the bulk production," he added. The Indian envoy, further explaining the cooperation regarding COVID-19 vaccines, said: "Second part (cooperation) is regarding the vaccines, on that ICMR and its institutions and NIH and CDC are collaborating on three vaccines, and there is development on that. Lastly, the third part is private to private companies, that also in the medicine area, there is close collaboration." The Ambassador further pointed out that President Trump has often publicly mentioned about his special relationship with PM Modi and his special affection for India. "It was a very warm conversation. As you have seen in the public statements and in fact, President Trump has often publicly mentioned about his special relationship with our Prime Minister and his special affection for India, and he often mentions about the last visit in February which he had gone to India and the warm welcome he received. Not only as I mentioned to you that G7 was discussed, but also other international aspects and both are synergy on tackling the crisis that is the COVID-19, the collaboration, as well as our experiences," he said. During the telephonic conversation on June 2, Modi and Trump had '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 specifics, people who are connected with WHO and these institutions can give a better sense, but as I have mentioned that the international organizations, India has been in the forefront, seeking reorganization, plus, making it more attuned to the existing realities," said Sandhu. "So, 1.3 billion people, and many such countries, the viewpoints which India represents need to be accommodated, and I think this review... now there, is much more sentiment for it. It is recognition of the position, which we have taken for many years," he added. (ANI) Also Read:J-K: Four terrorists killed in Shopian encounter belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen, says Police By Tamara Horn The Black American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote in 1896, We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes. The masks we wear today to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are not symbolic as in Dunbars description, but they similarly have served to obscure the fear and pain caused by ongoing racial injustice in America. It is apparent, however, that the suffering and uncertainty felt during the COVID-19 pandemic has been compounded in minority communities by the disparities in cases and deaths, and by racist attacks and killings of people of color. Minority communities are battling two insidious infections in our country: the coronavirus, and racism. Some places are beginning to see signs of progress in the fight against COVID-19, but the other fight is far from over. We know that health and well-being are directly and dually threatened by these forces. On top of the significant risks posed by COVID-19, discrimination has real impacts on Black, Hispanic, Asian and other minority communities. For these reasons and more, we must be vigilant in combating racism at the same time we battle coronavirus. In the past several months, leaders have labeled COVID-19 the Chinese virus, perpetuating our countrys shameful legacy of racializing disease. As cases have increased, so have reports of discrimination and hate crimes against Asian Americans. The killings of George Floyd while in police custody in Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, have prompted demonstrations and protests around the world. We have lived in fear of the invisible enemy called COVID-19, and we continue to live in fear of our countrys very visible history of violence against Black Americans. As we look to the future when we can reopen and take off our physical masks, we must recognize the pain that still exists behind them and take action to address systemic racism. Here are some ways we can do this today: Speak out when others express racist attitudes on social media. Reach out and check in with neighbors of color to see if fears of discrimination have kept them in hiding, even in their own communities. Have age-appropriate, healthy conversations with your children about race. Encourage them to denounce discrimination exhibited on social media, or by their friends or loved ones, and to keep you informed. Identify community organizations and mutual aid groups in your area that work against racial injustice or serve minorities, and find out how you can help support their efforts and encourage others to do the same. Asian Americans who experience discrimination or those who witness it can report incidents to authorities or publicly share stories to make their voices heard and raise community awareness. Here are some things we can do when we return from social distancing: Host or participate in town hall discussions about racism, our new normal and what togetherness means; reconnect with minority community members in more engaging ways. Beyond COVID-19, we must address racial disparities and discrimination on a regular basis to help eliminate them. Create or join multiracial coalitions focused on this important work. Support legislation that builds a safety net for vulnerable workers (many of whom are minorities). Support access to mental health care and telehealth for all, but especially those impacted by discrimination and hate crimes. If togetherness really matters to us, then lets use this time and our social platforms to talk about and work toward the goal of returning to more unified neighborhoods after the need for social distancing has passed. We cannot hold our peace in this lethal marriage of COVID-19 and racism. By speaking out and taking other steps, we can make a difference and improve the health and well-being of people of color, now and for the future. Tamara Horn has 12 years of experience in community and family engagement. As the director of community outreach for Rutgers University Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research (IFH), she leads the planning and execution of outreach activities with multi-cultural and faith-based communities to improve population health through scientific research. 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. (CNN) -- The voice behind the camera rings with falsetto glee as the frame fills with the remains of an aircraft, its wings burned and skeletal, its jet engine slumped in the wreckage. "Our rocket did that ... this is their plane," the Libyan fighter yells. He was standing in what remained of the strategically important al Watiya airbase, near the Tunisian border. Militia affiliated with the UN-recognized government had just overrun the base; forces loyal to renegade general Khalifa Haftar had fled. Among Haftar's retreating fighters were dozens of Russian mercenaries hauling their Pantsir air defense systems with them. They are part of a larger force of some 2,000 Russians belonging to the private Russian military contractor Wagner, which has been in Libya since 2018. The loss of al Watiya, on May 18, has been swiftly followed by further reverses for Haftar's forces, which last week retreated from Tripoli airport and the city of Tarhouna, their last toehold in western Libya. This sudden shift of fortunes is more than another episode in Libya's intractable conflict. It has less to do with the Libyans themselves than with outside powers pouring weapons, fighters and money into the country. The government is backed by Turkey and Qatar; Haftar by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia. But Russia -- far from abandoning Haftar -- is doubling down. As the bedraggled convoy withdrew from the desolate airbase, the Kremlin had a surprise in store. Within a couple of days, Russian combat aircraft arrived in eastern Libya, glinting silver at two remote desert airfields. US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said the jets -- a total of 14 MiG-29s and Su-24s -- had flown from Russia via Iran and Syria. While in Syria they'd been stripped of their markings. AFRICOM said the aircraft were "likely to provide close air support and offensive fires" for the Wagner fighters. Most appear to be at the al Jufra base deep in the central Libyan desert; satellite imagery suggests an extensive support operation, including surface-to-air missiles. President Vladimir Putin now has access to two air bases in Libya, strengthening the growing Russian presence around the Mediterranean -- and setting off alarm bells in Washington, which wants all foreign actors out of Libya. The commander of AFRICOM, Gen. Stephen Townsend, said of the Russian move: "Just like I saw them doing in Syria, they are expanding their military footprint in Africa using government-supported mercenary groups." The Kremlin hasn't commented but the head of the defense committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament. Viktor Bondarev, said AFRICOM's claim was "stupidity" and suggested they were old Soviet planes from somewhere else in Africa. Beyond the Libyan context, AFRICOM told CNN: "If Russia is allowed to effectively shape the ultimate result of the Libya conflict, the US, and especially NATO and Europe, will not like the outcome." Tobias Borck, Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said that "for there to be a Russian airbase in the southern Mediterranean -- that is the soft underbelly of NATO -- is a strategic concern." A senior western diplomat said he had been surprised by Moscow's move. "That the Russian intervention went from mercenaries on the ground to jet fighters is really quite brazen and astonishing," the diplomat told CNN. The Libyan sandbox Since the end of Moammar Gadhafi's rule in 2011, Libya has been a maelstrom. Tribes, warlords, radical Islamists and more have jostled for power, and control of its oil wealth. Haftar promoted himself as the man who could unite Libya and rid it of extremists. He had dreams of taking Tripoli and becoming Libya's undisputed strongman. He went to Moscow with his message in November 2018 and met the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, as well as the man widely regarded as the driving force behind Wagner -- Yevgeny Prigozhin. Beginning late in 2018, hundreds of Wagner contractors flew into Libya -- engineers, snipers, forward air controllers. Deep in the desert, near the border with Chad, a training camp was built. CNN analysis of flight data shows regular transport flights from Russia via the military base at Hmeimim in Syria to Haftar's stronghold of Benghazi. At least two of the Russian air force Tu-154 involved have been used to transport Wagner contractors on other missions in Africa. A confidential UN report obtained by CNN described the Wagner fighters as "an effective force multiplier" for General Haftar. It's a familiar play by the Kremlin. Since 2014, when Russian forces disguised as "rebels" entered eastern Ukraine and helped annex Crimea, the Kremlin has used proxies and undercover regular soldiers as pathfinders to strategic gain. From September 2015 Russian "advisers," combat jets, Wagner mercenaries and regular forces were dispatched to bolster President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The Kremlin now has a permanent and much expanded military footprint in Syria -- one capable of projecting power into the Mediterranean. A similar presence in Libya is now on the cards. One Libyan source with contacts in the east told CNN that Moscow is eyeing long-term basing arrangements. But the relationship between Haftar and Wagner was troubled long before the most recent rout. "Operation Flood of Dignity," as Haftar's Tripoli offensive was called when launched in April 2019, has been anything but dignified. The UN report refers to disagreements between the mercenaries and Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) over money, discipline and extravagant demands for ammunition by the LNA. Turkish drone strikes took their toll and the Wagner contingent took casualties. In one reported incident referred to by the UN, 15 of them were killed in an airstrike. There's been no independent confirmation of the incident. But the Wagner contingent -- now backed by combat aircraft -- is still very much in Libya. One source told CNN of reports that Wagner operatives had begun practicing with barrel bombs -- an horrific legacy of the Syrian conflict -- near al Jufra. 'Syrianization' of the war It's not just Russians and Turks that have grafted themselves onto Libya's conflict. Both Wagner and Turkish contractors have turned to a place where there are plenty of fighters: Syria. The UN document obtained by CNN cites reports that pro-regime intermediaries in Syria offered fighters a monthly wage of $800 on behalf of Wagner to go to Libya -- a substantial sum to the average Syrian family. The document details flights this year between Damascus and Benghazi using the Syrian carrier Cham Wings. Describing the development as "alarming," a senior western diplomat told CNN that hundreds if not thousands of Syrians had come to Libya and noted that Haftar had opened an "embassy" in Damascus. On the other side, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in February that members of the Syrian National Army -- a rebel alliance backed by Turkey -- had gone to Libya to support the government. Researchers with the NGO Syrians for Truth & Justice found that volunteers were being offered $1,000 a month. Some had no military experience -- and a few were younger than 18. The group's Executive Director, Bassam Alahmad, told CNN the recruitment and logistics were arranged by a private military contractor close to the Turkish government. Flight data reviewed by CNN shows that the Syrians were transported by a mix of Turkish military and Libyan civilian planes. Ceasefire or catastrophe During a visit to Egypt Saturday, Haftar agreed to a new ceasefire plan. His host, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said it demanded the withdrawal of "all foreign fighters from all over Libyan lands [and] the dismantling of all militias." Likewise, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has called on "those countries who are fueling the conflict to definitively halt all forms of support." The senior western diplomat told CNN he was cautiously optimistic that a ceasefire framework discussed in February can be advanced. That framework includes the departure of mercenaries within three months. But he acknowledged either side might be going through the motions, given the level of distrust. The US appears to believe that Haftar's position is weakening, with its Embassy tweeting Saturday: "The United States is watching with interest as political voices in the East of #Libya find expression." Omar Turbi, a Libyan commentator with close contacts in the east, says the UN must not marginalize political voices in Eastern Libya. "There are many more capable political figures emerging as the political track has become more popular than the military one in the east," he told CNN. But whatever Libyans want, US ambassador Richard Norland acknowledged last week that "the role of outside actors like the Turks and the Russians will be very important" to the progress of any talks. Neither shows any inclination to abandon their adventure in Libya -- a country wracked by a humanitarian crisis, the collapse of infrastructure and now the coronavirus. Russia has extended its influence from Syria to North Africa -- deniably and at very low cost, the senior western diplomat told CNN. "If you can pursue that agenda on the cheap, why wouldn't you?" he asked. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Russia raises stakes with 'brazen' military intervention in Libyan conflict." Pearl Women's Center has made a charitable donation to DHVANI's 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, DHVANIcares.org , to help fund their mission to provide a free mask to every person in the United Sates. The medical center will provide the cloth masks to its patients completely free of charge. "We're committed to doing the right thing for our patients and our staff," said Dr. Richard Rosenfield, Medical Director and Chief of Surgery at Pearl Women's Center. "I challenge all Portland businesses who are fortunate enough to be open during this unprecedented time to step up to the plate, make a donation to DHVANIcares, and help with the safe re-opening of local business by providing masks to those without." DHVANI launched its A Mask for Every American campaign by donating 10,000 masks to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, 1,000 to local essential workers, and has since donated tens-of-thousands of masks to people in need all over the country. Anyone can request a free mask or make a donation at DHVANI.com/FreeMasks. "We're extremely grateful for the generous charitable donation that Pearl Women's Center has made to DHVANIcares," said the company's Chief Executive, Avi Brown. "We've already received over 1 million requests for free masks from people all over the country, so every dollar makes a massive difference." About Pearl Women's Center: Pearl Women's Center's mission is to bring together highly skilled, board-certified specialists in key areas of women's health. Pearl Women's Center has received international attention for pioneering ways to provide a COVID FREE safe environment for patients in need of important Gynecologic Services. For more information: https://www.pearlwomenscenter.com/. About DHVANI: DHVANI's mission is to create beautifully crafted and ethically manufactured Activ(ist)Wear while pioneering the most innovative and sustainable fabrics on earth. Earlier this year, the brand launched their Buy One, Plant One initiative to help the reforestation effort of Australia's 8.8 million acres of brush fire devastation. DHVANI plants a tree for every item purchased from their website. SOURCE DHVANI Related Links https://www.dhvani.com (Newser) If the White House had deliberately planned to inspire a massive public art installation honoring the Black Lives Matter movement, it could hardly have done a better job. New fencing that went up around the White House complex last week has been festooned with signs and posters offering messages of hope, calling for police reform, and commemorating George Floyd and other victims of police violence, NBC reports. Images of the fencewhich has started attracting touristscan be seen in the gallery. The National Park Service said Tuesday that most of the fencing, which is 8 to 10 feet tall, will be coming down on Wednesday, reports the Washington Post. (Read more Black Lives Matter stories.) Venezuela has received an air cargo shipment of aid from Iran in another sign that ties between the Islamic republic and the South American country -- both targets of U.S. sanctions -- are strengthening. The flight carried humanitarian aid for COVID-19 patients, including test kits and medical supplies, Planning Minister Ricardo Menendez said. He also said President Nicolas Maduro will visit Iran as soon as possible to thank it for the humanitarian aid and for crude oil it has recently sent to Venezuela. Maduro had already announced plans to travel to Iran to sign energy, finance, military, agricultural, technology, and health deals. Iran has become a crucial ally to Venezuela since Washington created a broad sanctions program against Maduro in efforts to force him from power. Washington has long accused the Kremlin-backed Maduro of leading a corrupt and brutal regime, a charge the Venezuelan leader has rejected. Menendez said Venezuela and Iran were establishing "a broad development agenda" against "imperialism," which will include cooperation in the industrial, housing, and food sectors as well as scientific cooperation against the COVID-19 pandemic. Iranian Ambassador Hojatollah Soltani said he was proud of the "brotherhood" with Venezuela "while our enemies try to sanction us." Venezuela has confirmed 2,377 coronavirus infections and 22 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, but the real figure is believed to be considerably higher. Health experts say Venezuela is at high risk in the epidemic due to a broad economic collapse that has severely weakened public hospitals and undermined public services. Iran has sent five tankers full of oil to the South American country, which has the world's largest proven oil reserves, but is suffering from supply problems after years of mismanagement, corruption, and lack of maintenance. The South American country's oil industry is now barely producing any gasoline at all and has struggled to import it because sanctions have left most companies unwilling to provide it. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi said last week that Tehran will continue to export fuel to Venezuela if the country requests more supplies. The United States has warned governments, seaports, shippers, and insurers that they could face measures if they aid the tankers. With reporting by dpa and Reuters Chinese and Indian Militaries Agree to Prevent Escalation of Border Disputes Sputnik News 12:52 GMT 08.06.2020(updated 13:06 GMT 08.06.2020) BEIJING (Sputnik) - The Armed Forces of China and India have agreed during their weekend negotiations to refrain from turning their border disputes into a conflict and maintain peace and tranquillity at the border, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday. "The sides have consulted on the settlement of the recent events at the border, [and] on the issue on maintaining peace and stability in the border districts", the spokesperson said. She added that Beijing and New Delhi are maintaining close contacts via military and diplomatic channels. "The sides have reached an agreement on how to implement the important consensus of two countries' leaders and prevent turning disagreement into a conflict, maintain peace and tranquillity in the border regions as well as create a favourable environment for healthy and stable development of the bilateral relations", Hua added. Scuffles between Indian and Chinese border guards took place in May in the vicinity of Pangong Lake, located in the Ladakh region, prompting both sides to increase their military presence. On 6 June, Lt. Gen. Harinder Singh, the commander of the Indian Army's 14th Corps, met with Maj. Gen. Lin Liu of China's People's Liberation Army group in the South Xinjiang Military Region to discuss the situation. According to the Indian Foreign Ministry, the sides agreed to settle the matters at the border by peaceful means and carry on military and diplomatic contacts. Border conflicts are a permanent fixture of the India-China relations, as the countries do not have a marked border, but rather the so-called Line of Actual Control, created after the 1962 war between the nations. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Coronation Street is ready to resume filming after production was halted for nearly three months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Actors Michael LeVell, Harry Visconti and Sally Carmen were seen making their way into the Manchester studios on Monday. The soap stars were now met with security guards wearing face masks and signs enforcing social distancing upon arrival. They're back: Coronation Street is ready to resume filming following production being halted for nearly three months due to the coronavirus pandemic Michael (Kevin Webster) looked keen to get back to work as he pulled up on set. Behind him drove in Sally (Abi Franklin) in her green mini, smiling as she greeted staff. As the actors return to filming, the plan is to make enough shows to continue airing three episodes a week to ensure the soap remains on-screen in July. ITV bosses previously confirmed that older cast members will be kept at home during the first few weeks of filming. Ready to roll: Harry Visconti (Seb) was seen making hus way into the studios on Monday Andy Whyment (Kirk) also revealed that kissing scenes will be banned in accordance with new social distancing measures. The new safety measures are in accordance with the recently issued TV production guidelines which will be observed whilst filming the top ITV soap. Crew have also begun preparations to ensure filming will resume in full on Tuesday at the studios in Manchester, with recording initially producing three episodes a week. Measures in place: The soap stars were now met with security guards wearing face masks and signs enforcing social distancing upon arrival The new episodes will be scheduled following the instalments recorded earlier this year before the coronavirus pandemic halted production in March. Cast and crew over the age of 70, or with an underlying health condition, will be kept at home during the early stages. This may be sad news for soap fans, as cast members who fall into that age bracket include William Roache (who plays Ken Barlow), Barbara Knox (Rita Tanner), Malcolm Hebden (Norris Cole), Sue Nicholls (Audrey Roberts) and Maureen Lipman (Evelyn Plummer). It has been reported that older stars may still appear via. video calls, with a source telling Talk TV according to The Sun: 'Bosses know just how important these characters are to their millions of fans. 'And who wouldn't love to see the likes of Ken, Evelyn and Roy taking part in a Zoom quiz night? 'Or Tracy calling her dad and telling him how much she misses him. There are good ways to do it and that's what they're looking into at the moment.' Ready to go: Sally (Abi Franklin) drove in her green mini and smiled as she greeted staff Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 18:00 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd5eae7 4 National Idul-Fitri,idul-fitri-2020,mudik,mudik-ban,National-Police,Traffic-Corps,road-accident,death-toll Free The National Police have reported that the number of road accidents during this years Idul Fitri mudik (exodus) season was 31 percent lower than last years, a decline from 2,851 accidents to 1,980. The death toll decreased by 63 percent from 1,116 in 2019 to 418 this year. Security personnel intercepted motorists intending to return to their hometowns despite the mudik ban during this years Operation Ketupat, a security operation during Ramadan and Idul Fitri, between April 24 and June 7. Read also: 710 vehicles seized for violating 'mudik' ban National Police traffic corps chief Insp. Gen. Istiono said 156,774 vehicles were prevented from going on mudik. This is the longest operation we have ever done, as the usual traffic operation during the Idul Fitri holiday is normally held for 14 to 15 days. In addition to managing traffic, we urged people not to go on mudik to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, Istiono said on Monday, as quoted by kompas.com. The Jakarta Police reported that 70,719 vehicles had been asked to turn around while trying to enter the capital during the traffic operation, about 29,000 of which were not allowed to enter the city between May 27 and June 7 because of the absence of an entry and exit permit (SIKM). I appreciate all personnel from the police, military and related agencies who have worked together during this years Operation Ketupat, said Istiono. (aly) ST. LOUIS, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) today announced that its virtual investor meeting, scheduled for Friday, June 12, 2020, will now start 30 minutes earlier. The new start time for the event is 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time (ET), and it will conclude at approximately 11:00 a.m. ET. Michael F. Neidorff, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jeffrey A. Schwaneke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, of Centene Corporation will host the virtual meeting, which will also be streamed live on the Company's website at www.centene.com, on the Events and Presentation page in the Investors section. About Centene Corporation Centene Corporation, a Fortune 100 company, is a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise that is committed to helping people live healthier lives. The Company takes a local approach with local brands and local teams - to provide fully integrated, high-quality, and cost-effective services to government-sponsored and commercial healthcare programs, focusing on under-insured and uninsured individuals. Centene offers affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation, including Medicaid and Medicare members (including Medicare Prescription Drug Plans) as well as individuals and families served by the Health Insurance Marketplace, the TRICARE program, and individuals in correctional facilities. The Company also serves several international markets, and contracts with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide a variety of specialty services focused on treating the whole person. Centene focuses on long-term growth and the development of its people, systems and capabilities so that it can better serve its members, providers, local communities, and government partners. Centene uses its investor relations website to publish important information about the company, including information that may be deemed material to investors. Financial and other information about Centene is routinely posted and is accessible on Centene's investor relations website, http://www.centene.com/investors . SOURCE Centene Corporation Related Links http://www.centene.com New Delhi, June 9 : Analysts have taken note of the strong progress on Delhi-Mumbai expressway, which is a silver lining in the roads sector. A research report by foreign brokerage, Credit Suisse notes that expressway activity is impressive with almost the entire stretch in action. This is the first greenfield expressway by the NHAI. This is also the first time that NHAI is working on a greenfield alignment for such a large project. It has turned out to be cheaper and faster based on lower land acquisition cost and lesser burden of shifting utilities and rehabilitation of people living along the corridor. This was necessitated as existing corridor is already six-laned but congested and incremental development is constrained. Project per se is not dramatically large at 1,250 km versus NHAI's annual ordering of 3,000 km but reflects a positive fresh approach and speed of execution, the research noted. The report notes the impressive progress on the Delhi-Mumbai expressway and the entire stretch is in action. Of the total original distance of 1,261 km, action has started on almost the entire stretch. 497 km is under construction, 162 km has been awarded and contractor has to begin work and another 569 km is in the bidding stage. The DPR(detailed project report) report is pending for just one stretch of 33 km. There is an additional 91 km spur to JNPT that has been planned and for which a DPR is also under preparation. NHAI has so far completely focussed on lane addition to existing highways. This is the first time that NHAI is working on a greenfield alignment for such a large project. It has turned out to be cheaper and faster. This also brings connectivity to the underdeveloped areas of the country. Greenfield alignment was necessitated as the existing corridor is already six-laned but is heavily congested and incremental development is constrained, the report said. However, the research notes that the award activity remains subdued; construction activity remains strong though. NHAI construction and award activity trends better as that is significantly higher than the PMGSY as well as MoRTH spends put together. NHAI has awarded 3,211 km of roads in FY20, a continued subdued trend post peaking in FY18. Construction activity, however, has scaled up to 3,929 km from 3,320 km in FY19. "We expect construction and award activity to be flattish in FY21 as well given the COVID-19 impact", the report notes. Joe Sorenson, a spokesman for Gwinnett County, said that 16 out of 156 polling locations opened without all of the polling equipment delivered, but he said voters were able to cast emergency ballots until the machines were in place. He said the equipment should have been set up over the previous weekend, acknowledging that it was not normal for it to be delivered on Election Day. Issues surrounding insurance could make it difficult for Irish businesses to re-open after the Covid-19 lockdown. Business interruption insurance is proving to be a sticking point, with many businesses fearing they will not recoup the losses they suffered during lockdown. Businesses have also expressed concerns that customers may take personal injury claim against the premises if they believe they contracted Covid-19 onsite. Peter Boland of the Alliance for Insurance Reform says they are calling for immediate reform of the entire sector. "It is ultimately the policyholders who are paying the cost of this." "We are not calling on insurers to pay out on every business interruption policy, because in many policies [Covid-19] clearly isn't covered. We are calling on the ones where it is covered to be dealt with in a fair and efficient manner." Businesses also fear reopening due to potential Covid-19 personal injury claims. "There are clear concerns about reopening because Ireland has such a litigative personal injury system. There are genuine fears about reopening at all. The liability could fall directly onto the business rather than being handled collectively through insurance," says Mr Boland. "It's unique to Ireland, no place else pays out like we do, or has the type of structures built around personal injury claims like we do. It damages the Irish hospitality sector's competitiveness, as in other countries they don't have the added cost of liability. A recent survey carried out by the Alliance for Insurance Reform found roughly 55% of respondents were worried about Covid-19 personal injury claims. 34% of respondents said that the most reassuring measure to combat these claims would be indemnification by the state. 14% said insisting insurers vigorously contest opportunistic or exaggerated claims would be the most reassuring measure, and a further 13% said clear guidelines from the state would be their preference. Other measures high up on the list of measures to combat Covid-19 personal injury claims were a reduction in damages awarded for personal injuries, for the judiciary to apply a more balanced duty of care to plaintiffs and defendants, and an increase in sanctions for fraudulent and exaggerated claims. Pub and restaurant representative bodies say progress has been made in some areas, but they are worried about personal injury claims. Adrian Cummins, Chief Executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, said that progress has been made in relation to business interruption insurance. Huge progress has happened on behalf of our membership by our legal team, who have spent the last number of weeks analysing policies. We have found 66% of policies reviewed by the legal team, we believe, have a case for business disruption. In terms of reopening, Mr Cummins says there is concern that Ireland's 'compensation culture' will extend to Covid-19. "There is major concern with regards to liability for Covid, and more so customers that may claim they got Covid in a business. What is needed is clarity by the government around liability and duty of care." Brian Foley of the Vintners Federation of Ireland says there are currently a number of cases in the High Court taken by pubs in relation to business interruption insurance. "While these cases have nothing to do with VFI, we await their outcomes with interest." The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the Union of India to inform it of its proposal to cap pricing of N95 face masks after it was informed that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the government regulatory agency that controls prices of pharmaceutical drugs in the country, had failed to keep the price of the masks under check. The court was told that NPPAs failure had resulted in widespread exploitation by manufacturers and traders who inflated the price of masks due to the heavy demand in light of the Covid-19 outbreak. A division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice SS Shinde, while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by activists Anjali Damania and Sucheta Dalal, was informed that the price of N95 masks had skyrocketed after they were included under the Essential Commoditys Act. The activists further informed the court that while NPPA had capped the price of other products like hand sanitisers, it had failed to do the same for masks. The court was informed that after the public protested against the high cost of N95 masks, the NPPA in a meeting convened on May 15 had said that it had asked manufacturers to voluntarily reduce the price of the mask in light of the pandemic, which they agreed to do. The activists added that though the Drug Price Control Act stipulates that prices could only be increased by 10% annually, the reduced price was still higher than the price it was being sold at before the lockdown and hence, sought directions to put a cap on the same. After the court expressed displeasure at the uncontrolled rise in the prices of N95 masks, additional solicitor general Anil Singh, appearing for the Union of India and NPPA, sought time to take instructions and said that the authorities would consider capping the mask prices, which the court allowed and posted the matter for further hearing on June 12. The Coconino and Kaibab National Forests of northern Arizona will implement stage two fire restrictions across both forests on Saturday due to increasing fire danger and preventing human-caused wildfires. The Kaibab will also temporarily close the Bill Williams Mountain watershed just southwest of the City of Williams due to the area's susceptibility to uncharacteristically severe wildfire nad the post-wildfire flooding that would result. Visitors may use devices that are solely fueled by liquid petroleum or LPG fuels that can be turned immediately on and off with no remaining burning materials. Fireworks and explosives, including exploding targets, are never allowed on national forests. Red Rock Ranger District of the Coconino National Forest previously implemented stage two fire restrictions June 3. Fire restrictions will remain in place until significant precipitations reduces fire danger levels. Violation of the restrictions on national forests is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment up to six months, or both. Stage two fire restrictions prohibits: fires, campfires, charcoal, coal and wood stoves; smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle or building, a developed recreation site, or while stopped in an area at least 3 feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of any flammable material; welding or operating an acetylene or other torch with open flame; operating a chainsaw or other equipment powered by an internal combustion engine between the hours of 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Love 6 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The World Health Organization moved Tuesday to clarify its position on whether people without symptoms are widely spreading the new coronavirus, saying much remains unknown about asymptomatic transmission. A comment by a WHO official on Monday - calling such asymptomatic transmissions "very rare" - touched off a furious scientific debate over the unresolved question and attracted widespread criticism of the organization. Less than 24 hours later, the WHO convened a special news conference to walk back its comments, stressing that much remains unknown. But the comment from Monday had already spread widely and been seized upon by conservatives and others to bolster arguments that people do not need to wear masks or maintain social distancing precautions. The episode sparked criticism of the WHO's public health messaging and highlighted just how fraught and easily politicized such work remains months into the pandemic. Calling the controversy "a misunderstanding," Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO's emerging disease and zoonosis unit, said that during the news conference Monday, she was trying to respond to a journalist's question when she said asymptomatic transmission was "very rare." "I wasn't stating a policy of WHO or anything like that," she said. "We do know that some people who are asymptomatic, or some people who do not have symptoms, can transmit the virus on." It was not the "intent of WHO to say there is a new or different policy," added Mike Ryan, head of emergency programs for the WHO. "There is still too much unknown about this virus and still too much unknown about its transmission dynamics." While asymptomatic transmission does occur, no one knows for sure how frequently it happens. Studies and models have suggested many of those infected never show symptoms. And it remains an open question whether they are a large force driving transmission. Some countries using contact tracing to work backward from confirmed cases have not found many instances of asymptomatic spread, WHO officials noted. At the same time, WHO officials acknowledged on Tuesday that some modeling studies have suggested as much as 41% of transmission may be due to asymptomatic people. Adding to the confusion are differing definitions of what it means to be asymptomatic complicate matters. Some people who are infected never show symptoms - experts would considered those truly asymptomatic cases. But some show symptoms later and could be spreading the virus before those symptoms manifest - they would be considered pre-symptomatic cases. Further complicating matters is the fact that for some people, symptoms are so mild - or manifest themselves in less expected ways such as diarrhea or muscle aches, instead of the more well-known fever and cough - that people aren't aware of them until later on. "It's a mess. I don't know why they would say asymptomatic transmission is very rare when the truth is we simply don't know how frequent it is," said Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research. "And it doesn't change the facts we do know, which is that this virus is very transmissible and is very hard to combat." The episode highlights how much remains uncertain about the novel virus, the difficulty of communicating that uncertainty, and the desire among the public for any new data to bolster a chosen stance on pandemic response. The question of whether asymptomatic people are helping drive the virus's spread is critical - and part of the U.S. government's stated reasons for directives to engage in social distancing and mask wearing and to impose shutdowns. Because asymptomatic spread is one way some researchers believe the virus is circulating, even people at low risk for the disease or who don't show symptoms are warned to behave as though they are infected. With so much still unknown about asymptomatic infection and transmission, many scientists said the WHO was irresponsible to speak so definitively because it can erode people's willingness to take such precautions. "In a way, it's debating semantics because in a practical sense, there is no difference between people who simply haven't developed symptoms yet and are infecting others, and those who are truly asymptomatic. It looks the same in the early stages," said Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the University of California at San Francisco. Others expressed support for the WHO, noting the difficulty of communicating scientific nuance and uncertainties during the pandemic. Some praise the WHO for continuing - unlike the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House - to hold regular briefings to update the public. "Worth keeping in mind that WHO staff . . . have been running at top speed since early Jan.," Devi Sridhar, a global public health expert at the University of Edinburgh, said in a tweet. "Doing daily press briefings & assisting countries while under fire from all corners. They must be exhausted like all of us & need some support." On Tuesday, CDC officials attributed the controversy to "misinterpretation of a quote from WHO" and confusion among the public between asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases. CDC spokesman Scott Pauley said it remains essential that people wear masks. "We know some people without symptoms may be able to spread the virus. That is why measures like cloth face coverings in public are so important." Meanwhile, a study published Tuesday by the CDC on an outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt that infected 1,100 crew members provided scientists with a critical test case into the asymptomatic and close-quarters spread of covid-19 among a relatively healthy and young population. The CDC study of 382 young adult service members aboard in April found that one in five who tested positive reported no symptoms, while those who took preventive measures, such as face coverings and social distancing, reduced their risk of contracting the coronavirus. It remains unclear, experts say, how asymptomatic transmission may be occurring. In people with symptoms, coughing or sneezing shoots droplets widely. Some have theorized that, in people not showing symptoms, the virus could be spreading through loud talking, singing or shouting. "I worry that with so much unknown, if we as public health experts overstate asymptomatic transmission as the main reason for policy, it could come back to bite us," said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Health Security. "We are telling people to wear masks, for example, because there is belief it can stop some of the infections. At the same time, we need to be careful not to state things in absolutes and to tell to people we are waiting for more studies." There could be reasons to wear masks even if asymptomatic transmission proves to be rare, experts note, because many people aren't aware of symptoms when they first appear. Masks can also protect wearers from touching their nose and mouth and becoming infected. In her initial comments, Van Kerkhove didn't entirely dismiss the occurrence of asymptomatic transmission but said initial unpublished data from contact tracing in some countries suggests it's rarer than thought. Within minutes, that comment was amplified by some news outlets. "We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing," Kerkhove said in her initial comments. "They're following asymptomatic cases. They're following contacts. And they're not finding secondary transmission onward. It's very rare." Kerkhove pointed to a document published last week by the WHO that updated guidance on mask wearing based on the latest research. The document cited contact tracing in China that suggests asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic people are "much less likely to transmit the virus than those who develop symptoms." But those findings are based on sample sizes of fewer than 100 people - not considered rigorous evidence by most scientific standards. Experts pointed out other problems with the WHO's initial statement. "All of the best evidence suggests that people without symptoms can and do readily spread SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19," the Harvard Global Health Institute said in a statement Tuesday. "In fact, some evidence suggests that people may be most infectious in the days before they become symptomatic." An influential study published in April in the journal Nature found evidence that people can be very infectious roughly two days before symptoms appear. The study estimated that 44% of infections are coming from people not yet showing symptoms. Another paper published last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal reviewed 16 of the most relevant studies of asymptomatic infection. It found that a likely rate of 40% to 45% of those infected don't have symptoms. But that paper concluded that every study on the subject has been "imperfect in many ways." One problem is relying on patients to report symptoms because they are not always aware that the tickle in their throat, for instance, is the onset of the virus. The ideal study of asymptomatic transmission has yet to be done, said Topol, one of the authors of the Annals paper. Instead of relying on self-reported symptoms, such a study might use genomic sequencing to trace and confirm the exact path of the virus from person to person. "At this point, we simply don't know how much asymptomatic transmission happens," Topol said. "Sometimes, it's important to just say that." - - - The Washington Post's Paige Winfield Cunningham and Lena H. Sun contributed to this report. The Alabama Department of Corrections is not on track to meet a federal court order to more than double the number of correctional officers in the states overcrowded and violent prisons. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued an order Monday telling the ADOC to explain by Friday how it plans to meet the hiring requirement. The Department of Justice said a severe staffing shortage helped create what the DOJ alleged last year were unconstitutional conditions in Alabamas mens prisons. Alabama Democratic Party Chair Chris England, a state representative from Tuscaloosa who served on Gov. Kay Iveys prison study group, is urging the governor to call a special session on criminal justice reform in a series of tweets today. .@GovernorKayIvey, we need to have a special session on criminal justice reform. Since @USAttyTown came to Montgomery and told us that our prison system was worse than the death penalty, conditions have gotten worse. @ALCorrections and @ALBPP are working against reform. Chris England (@RepEngland70) June 9, 2020 In Thompsons order on Monday, the judge wrote that the ADOC has increased the number of correctional officers from 1,301 to 1,413 over the last 12 months. But thats way behind the pace needed to reach the required 3,326 officers by February 2022, Thompson noted. The ADOC is losing supervisors. The number of supervisors has dropped from 359 to 313 in the last year, Thompson wrote. His order requires the ADOC to have 500 supervisors by February 2022. ADOC would need to gain approximately 213 officers and approximately 23 supervisors per quarter for each of the eight remaining quarters in order to meet this courts order, Thompson wrote. Thompson based the required numbers on a staffing analysis by consultants for the ADOC. That came as part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of inmates in 2014 over health care, mental health care, and accommodations for disabled inmates. Thompson ruled three years ago that mental health care in prisons was horrendously inadequate and said the shortage of staff was a root cause. The case is separate from the U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found conditions in Alabama prisons in violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment because of the levels of violence, weapons, drugs, and other problems. But the federal lawsuit and DOJ investigation have many overlapping issues, including the overcrowding and under staffing. Ivey has pledged to tackle problems that have plagued Alabama prisons for decades. She is seeking proposals from companies to build three mens prisons that the state would lease and operate. The ADOC created a new basic correctional officer position to try to address the staffing shortage by getting officers on the job with a shorter training period. Basic correctional officers now make up about one-fifth of the staff and account for the increase in the last 12 months, Thompson wrote. MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, June 9, 2020 Thomson Reuters today announced a series of measures to lend its professional expertise and resources, and to encourage employee volunteerism, to help rebuild local neighborhoods and support those affected by events surrounding the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis-St. Paul. These commitments include: The company has doubled the number of paid hours off under its volunteer policy in 2020, creating a potential for more than 90,000 hours of volunteer work within the Twin Cities. This is in addition to the 20 hours of paid time Thomson Reuters attorneys are given annually for pro bono legal work. Thomson Reuters will contribute funds to sponsor a research fellow at the Minnesota Justice Research Center. This individual will lead research initiatives and analysis in support of education and policy development aimed at creating a more effective, humane and equitable justice system. The company is working with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives in support of their mission to ensure equity in the administration of justice. In total, Thomson Reuters will commit $1 million of financial support on top of the companys volunteer and pro bono legal support within the local community. The funds will be directed toward helping the community meet immediate basic needs, rebuilding efforts and to non-profit and civic organizations promoting justice and transparency. These are difficult days, and we have a long road ahead of us to help heal our community. We are proud to contribute our time, expertise and financial support to combating racism, fighting social injustice and strengthening public trust in our institutions, said Sharon Sayles Belton, vice president of Partnerships & Alliances at Thomson Reuters. As a business our work supports the ideals of justice and transparency and we know its often the people on the ground who can make the biggest difference. We are proud to build on a long legacy of volunteering, investment and partnership in the Twin Cities. Our communities are hurting, and people are looking for answers and lasting change. It will take all of us working together to raise our voices against racism, inequality and injustice, said Belton. In a recent open letter to employees, Thomson Reuters President and CEO Steve Hasker added: Ive lived and worked in the U.S. for 25 years and the words to describe my reaction are disbelief and sadness. The underlying issues are so entrenched that far too little progress has been made. That the latest tragedy took place in Minneapolis where so many of our colleagues live and work brings the issue home. Colleagues and business leaders regardless of their politics or background have expressed their desire that we find a way to be a positive force. We are an organization that understands the power of diversity and inclusion, and we must do more because if purpose-driven organizations like ours do not act in times like these, then we are part of the problem. I am resolved that our company will be part of the solution. Thomson Reuters roots in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area date back to 1872. It is the companys largest employee site, with nearly 6,000 employees based at its office in Eagan, Minnesota. Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters is a leading provider of business information services. Our products include highly specialized information-enabled software and tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals combined with the worlds most global news service Reuters. For more information on Thomson Reuters, visit tr.com and for the latest world news, reuters.com. CONTACT Scott Augustin Senior Director +1.651.848.5793 scott.augustin@tr.com HOLLAND, MI Hours before two young people drowned in Lake Michigan Saturday, Holland State Park staff recognized water conditions were becoming dangerous and tried warning beachgoers. In addition to raising the red warning flag at the parks entrance, they walked up and down the beach telling visitors the lake was dangerous to swim in as waves began approaching 6 feet, said Sean Mulligan, unit supervisor for Holland State Park. Supermarket juggernauts Iceland have adopted Chester Zoo's whole rookery of Humboldt penguins in a bid to support the popular attraction which is facing an uncertain future. Chester Zoo launched a campaign last Wednesday as government coronavirus laws keeping zoos shut mean it could be closed 'indefinitely'. The campaign has generated over 2million already and now supermarket giants Iceland have pledged to adopt the zoo's Humboldt penguins in another major boost for the attraction. Supermarket giants Iceland have adopted Chester Zoo's Humboldt penguins in a bid to support the popular attraction after it was revealed it faces an uncertain future Last week, the zoo announced it faced closure as a result of the coronavirus crisis Zoos like Chester's (pictured) are still closed under the UK Government's lockdown laws The penguins do not hail from Iceland, but they encapsulate all things frozen, convincing the food retailer that adoption is the most appropriate way to support the zoo. Adopting animals is a way of providing funds to a zoo or an animal enclosure, which is what Chester Zoo desperately needs to survive. Iceland's donation will also help the zoo give the penguins the best life possible. Richard Walker, Iceland's managing director, told Cheshire Live: 'We were all saddened to hear of Chester Zoo's recent struggles; it's the heart of the local community in Chester and a much loved family favourite I remember visiting the zoo as a child and my own kids love going there. 'We're proud to be able to lend them our support both through the adoption of the Humboldt penguins on behalf of our colleagues, and by lobbying in support of zoos being allowed to reopen soon. Supermarket giant Iceland have pledged to adopt a group of the attraction's penguins Adopting animals is a way of providing funds to Chester Zoo, which is struggling during these difficult times The food retailer tweeted its support of the struggling north western zoo on Monday 'The conservation work undertaken by the zoo is vital and along with the park itself reopening it is incredibly important that this amazing work is able to continue.' Iceland have also agreed to lobby the government on the zoo's behalf by way of campaigning for the current legislation to be amended to permit zoos to be opened with rigid social distancing guidelines in place. The zoos Humboldt penguins have recently welcomed a creche of chicks, which were named after NHS hospitals to pay respects to the hard work undertaken by the health service during the coronavirus crisis. The zoo's Justgiving page has generated 2,342,472 in donations. Chester Zoo ordinarily needs 1.5m a month to survive. Chester Zoo is the most visited zoo in the UK. Had it not revealed concerns over its future last week, the attraction was hurtling towards a 24 million shortfall by the end of the year. Staff are still working in Chester Zoo, the most visited of its kind in the UK, despite the lack of guests The donation will help the zoo survive as well as provide the penguins with a better life Other zoos around the country are also facing a growing threat as a result of the coronavirus crisis, with London Zoo needing a cash injection of 25 million to stay afloat while Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire, too, has made cries for help. In March, Zoological Society of London, the charity which oversees London Zoo Whipsnade Zoo, entered lockdown with cash reserves of 12 million, which may sound enormous but is suddenly much less so when you consider monthly outgoings across both sites of 2.3 million, reduced from 3.8 million through measures such as furloughing 49 per cent of staff. Last weeks Government decision, which leaves zoos closed indefinitely, has only increased their sense of urgency. The zoo has raised over 2.3m in the past week as it fights to stay afloat amid coronavirus The zoo ordinarily needs 1.5m a month to survive and is not generating cash during lockdown The zoo's director general said he cannot believe zoos have not be allowed to reopen. Dominic Jermey believes zoos can be a provider for secure outdoor activities We find it simply bizarre that we have been told not to reopen ZSL London and Whipsnade Zoo to the public, despite having explained to Government in great detail how we have redesigned the whole experience at our zoos to make them Covid-secure, says director general Dominic Jermey. ZSLs zoos should be part of the solution to Covid, providing Covid-secure outdoor experiences where a population emerging from lockdown can visit with confidence; instead, the longer we stay closed, the less likely we are to survive. Over the Easter and May holiday periods gate takings at ZSL could have been around 4.8 million, with another 3 million spent by visitors on food, drink and souvenirs. Ministers have announced a 14 million fund to support zoos, but ZSL says the focus is on small grants for small zoos. Plans were well-established to get the public back through the door, albeit in a new socially distanced way in booked time slots. Now they are on hold, with no apparent end in sight. NORSAAC a civil society organisation in the Northern Region has raised the alarm over a drop in antenatal visits to health facilities across northern Ghana. The organisation says, a significant number of pregnant women in northern Ghana now deliver at home, choosing to visit health facilities only under emergencies. Executive Director of NORSAAC, Mohammed Awal, who disclosed this to journalists in Tamale said the development poses a threat to gains made in reducing maternal and infant mortality. He said the organization conducted a study in selected health facilities in eighteen districts across the five regions of the North and found the worrying trend. The study also found that most health facilities in the area, are not equipped to deal with a surge in the Covid-19 outbreak. Source: GBC 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 Asiana Airlines / Yonhap HDC Hyundai Development Co., a major construction company here, on Tuesday called for a renegotiation with the creditors of Asiana Airlines Inc. over its planned acquisition of the country's No. 2 airline due to a sharp rise in debts and the growing impact of the new coronavirus on the airline industry. In December, HDC Hyundai Development formed a consortium with major financial group Mirae Asset Daewoo to sign a deal to acquire a 30.77 percent stake in Asiana from Kumho Asiana Group, as well as new shares to be issued and Asiana's six affiliates, for 2.5 trillion won (US$2.2 billion). But airlines, hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, have suspended most of their flights on international routes since March and posted hefty losses in the first quarter. "We are still committed to acquiring Asiana, but we want the (main creditor) Korea Development Bank and related parties to renegotiate the acquisition terms to reflect the current market conditions and the company's current financial status," HDC said in a statement. HDC described the ongoing virus crisis as a "never expected and very negative factor," which will affect its planned acquisition of the country's second-biggest carrier. The company also picked Asiana's snowballed debts as another reason for the renegotiation that is "damaging the acquisition value of the carrier." Asiana's debts have increased by 4.5 trillion won since July last year and its debt-to-equity ratio skyrocketed by 16,126 percent at the end of March from the end-July, it said. HDC's calls for the renegotiation comes after Asiana's creditors sent an ultimatum Friday to the HDC to notify them of its intent to complete the acquisition by June 27. Asiana's net losses for the January-March quarter deepened to 683.26 billion won (US$555 million) from 89.18 billion won a year earlier. HDC had reiterated its plan to acquire Asiana, dismissing speculation that it may have difficulties in taking over the company due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. Regulators in the United States, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey and South Korea approved HDC's planned takeover of Asiana. Russia is the only remaining country that is still reviewing the integration. To help Asiana stay afloat, the country's two state lenders -- the Korea Development Bank (KDB) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) -- plan to inject a combined 1.7 trillion won into Asiana. Last year, the two policy banks extended a total of 1.6 trillion won to the cash-strapped carrier. In its latest self-help plans, Asiana has had all of its 10,500 employees take unpaid leave for 15 days a month since April until business circumstances normalize. Asiana's executives have also agreed to forgo 60 percent of their wages, though no specific time frame was given for how long the pay cuts will remain in effect. (Yonhap) Faithful attend Mass at a Church in Porto Alegre, Brazil (AFP or licensors) The Bishops of Brazil urge Catholics to take part in a virtual March for Life, which aims to mobilize all sectors of society to find adequate responses to the Covid-19 crisis. By Devin Watkins Now is the time to invite all of Brazilian society to unite in defense of life. The Front for Life movement launched the virtual March for Life with that invitation. Held on 9 June, the march seeks to propose effective actions and a concrete response to the coronavirus pandemic. Uniting society The initiative sees several local institutions joining forces, including the Catholic Bishops Conference of Brazil, Order of Lawyers, Press Association, Science Academy, and the Progress Society. The goal is to unite civil society, politicians, economists, scientific researchers, and business men and women to fight the Covid-19 pandemic together. Wide-ranging crisis Brazil has been hard-hit by the novel coronavirus. Confirmed Covid-19 cases are close to reaching 750,000. New cases range from 18,000 to 30,000 each day. Over 37,000 people have died with the virus. Protecting life In a press statement, Brazils Bishops reaffirmed the Churchs long history of protecting life. Our participation in the March for Life stems from the Gospel of John: I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly, say the Bishops. The Front for Life adds that the twin economic and health crises show that only profound dialogue can mitigate the damages inflicted by Covid-19. We must avoid a further increase in the number of dead, the movement says. We are in need of more solidarity, especially for those who are particularly vulnerable. Helping the local Church The Catholic Church continues to assist those suffering from the coronavirus emergency. Aid to the Church in Need recently announced 11 new projects in Brazil. The initiative will provide financial assistance to 169 priests, 141 religious sisters, 31 seminarians, and 56 lay missionaries who are helping their local communities. Parishes across the country are working to collect foodstuffs in order to provide at least one meal a day to families in need. ONEIDA, Tenn. - Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Tennessee and Kentucky has reopened parts of the park, co-ordinating with health officials during the coronavirus pandemic. Bandy Creek Stables and Camp Store reopened access on Wednesday, and Charit Creek Lodge moved into its second phase of reopening on June 1, allowing overnight guests. No date has been set to allow for day use guests at the lodge. The Station Camp Campground also opened. Blue Heron Campground, Bear Creek Horse Camp and Alum Ford Campground are opening Thursday. The park said in a news release that the National Park Service is working with public health officials to monitor the pandemic and phasing in increased access on a park-by-park basis. The public should follow local area health orders and avoid crowds and high-risk outdoor activities, the park service said. North Korea has announced a complete cut of communication links with South Korea from noon Tuesday. This follows growing anger in the northern capital at the failure of the authorities in Seoul to stop activists from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the tense border between the two nations. Responding to the northern threat, South Korea's government repeated its determination to work toward "restoring peace on the peninsula." But the official North Korean news agency, KCNA, said that the authorities in Seoul were dodging responsibility with nasty excuses, while angering all the people living north of the border by their treacherous and cunning behavior. Relations between the Koreas have become increasingly tense after negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington over North Korea's nuclear program stalled. The KCNA said all cross-border communication lines will be cut as the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact with South Korea. According to the official statement, the decision was made by Kim Yo-jong, sister of leader Kim Jong-un, and by Kim Yong-chol, a high-ranking politician, formerly in charge of intelligence. "They aroused our dismay" We have reached the conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay, says the statement. South Korean conservative activists, including North Korean defectors living in the South, have floated huge balloons into North Korea, carrying leaflets criticising Kim Jong-un for his nuclear ambitions and human rights record. Last week, Kim Yo-jong called the defectors human scum and mongrel dogs as the North threatened to permanently shut down a liaison office and a jointly-run factory park, as well as nullify a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement intended to reduce tensions. Detailing Tuesday's decision, the KCNA said that communication links between North and South, which have been maintained through the north-south joint liaison office, as well as an inter-Korean trial communication line and the hotline between the offices of North Korea's Communist Party and the Blue House in Chongwadae, the South's presidential palace, will be cut from 12:00 on June 9, 2020. The official announcement of the communications blackout makes no mention of North Korea's Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un. Kim chaired a meeting of the politburo of the Korean Workers' Party over the weekend, but official reporting on this focused on economic matters. Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Niger's High Council for Communication (CSC), with the support of UNICEF, launched on Tuesday the third edition of its annual contest for the media under the theme, 'Covid-19 crisis is a child rights issue' Carl Bates was running a grain farm in Galva, Illinois, when he was diagnosed with metastatic cancer and given just a few months to live. At this time, not only was his family battling with the heartbreak of this devastating news, but their livelihood hung in the balance. Carl Bates pictured as a young man (Courtesy of Pamela Bates) In the summer of 2015, shortly after Carls diagnosis, his family tentatively reached out to friends and family for help harvesting their corn, hoping to limit their losses and help pay for Carls mounting medical bills. Needless to say, they were blown away by what transpired. In a show of solidarity for the ailing farmer, the local Galva community showed up in full force, and it became a harvest day to remember. In an email interview with The Epoch Times, Carls wife, Pamela Bates, shares her version of the harvest day that shell never forget, fond memories of her late husband, Carl, and the book that was born out of when a town came together to help their own. Pamela with her husband, Carl, pictured in the center. (Courtesy of Pamela Bates) Devastating News We started dating when I was 15 and he was 16, so we were high school sweethearts, Pam began. We married five years after we started dating and were married 34 years. Carl was a childhood cancer survivor and was told he would never have children. Nonetheless, Carl and Pam went on to have two children together, a miracle he was forever grateful for, said Pam. On July 31, 2015, the farmers terminal cancer diagnosis came as a painful blow to the entire family. He was always my strong person, Pam reflected. His peace gave me peace. When asked if he wanted us to pray for a miracle, he said, Ive had my miracles; I cant be greedy. Volunteers arriving for harvest day on Sept. 25, 2015 (Courtesy of Pamela Bates) A Common Purpose However, as it turned out, there was one more powerful miracle yet to unfold for the beloved patriarch. Carl entered hospice care for the aggressive form of cancer, but the harvest time was fast approaching. With Carl unable to harvest the crops due to his condition, the Bates family decided to reach out for help from a few select people. However, after the family decided to spread the word further, the turnout was nothing short of extraordinary. Carls cousin Dan had put the plan in place and everyone was so committed to doing their part, Pam recalled. Farmers work together in solidarity with the Bates family on harvest day. (Courtesy of Pamela Bates) On Sept. 25, 2015, around 40 volunteers, 10 combine harvesters, 12 grain carts, and 16 semi-trucks descended upon the Bateses farm. It took the diligent team around 10 hours to harvest all 450 acres of land. The Bateses later speculated that it would have taken them nearly a week to achieve the same result. Regaling the day and event, which is now dubbed The Most Amazing Harvest, Pam said, There was such a feeling of community; everyone coming together with a common purpose. Local businesses even donated meals, snacks, and drinks for the volunteers in a show of solidarity. Carl went out that evening while everyone had stopped for dinner and thanked them from the truck, Pam recalled. Carl never wanted to ask for help; he was always the one wanting to help others. Pam said that she personally felt humbled and blessed by the outpouring of community support. Not long after, this love story went viral, attracting international media attention, as a community came together without expecting anything in return. Community spirit abounds at the Bateses farm on Sept. 25, 2015. (Courtesy of Pamela Bates) Losing Carl After a valiant battle, Carl lost his life less than two months after the community harvest day. Pam bore the grief by clinging to her faith and finding solace in support groups. I met a great group of women through an organization called Modern Widows Club, she said; this community understands what widows go through and helps focus on growing forward. Harvest day: an aerial perspective (Courtesy of Pamela Bates) The Most Amazing Harvest Before long, Pam was compelled to share Carls journey by writing a book with her twin sister, Paula Patty. Honestly, God was telling me to write his story over and over, Pam recalled. When I realized he wasnt going to give up, I asked Paula to help and we took our first book writing trip. On Nov. 1, 2016, the first anniversary of Carls passing, the sisters took a trip together and their project gained traction. This journey was a confirmation from God that He was going to help us, said Pam, by helping us write it and then providing a publisher. The fruit of the sisters love and labor was a biography, The Most Amazing Harvest, both a moving love story and a tribute to a small town with a humongous community spirit that came forward to help. According to The Most Amazing Harvest website: The goal in writing Carls story was to inspire others to recognize the miracles and joy regardless of the challenges they face. Celebrating the culmination of the Bates family farms most amazing harvest (Courtesy of Pamela Bates) Remembering a Beautiful Life We made a lot of great memories when traveling, Pam shared, recalling a poignant memory from the early years of her marriage to Carl. One trip in particular was a trip to Hawaii when we were exploring a quaint little village, she continued. After coming upon an old couple shuffling along, we both commented how grateful we were to spend the money and take this trip while we were young and able to enjoy, she reflected. We truly had a beautiful life. Today, Pam is reminded of her late husband in the little moments, a song on the radio, a memory, or a mention from one of the couples six grandchildren. Speaking of the personal philosophy that keeps her strong, Pam explained: I created a mission statement years ago that Ive tried to live by. Its an acronym for FOCUSED, she said, demonstrating, Follow Gods plan, Open to opportunities, Create a legacy of love, Use my talents, Smile, Encourage others, Dream. If God calls you to it, He will get your [sic] through it, she said. The Most Amazing Harvest was released as an e-book on June 2, 2020. Hard copies will be available as of Sept. 22. I n the Black Lives Matter protests last weekend, the words was a racist were painted on Winston Churchills statue in Parliament Square. Although Churchill led the country to victory against the Nazis in the Second World War, he has been criticised for his own imperialist and racist views. His governments policies are believed to have contributed to the Bengal famine in 1943, which killed millions of Indians. In Bristol, a statue of slave trader Edward Colston was also toppled by protesters, before being tossed into the harbour. Here, we take a look at all the statues on Parliament Square, and at the figures commemorated by them. Winston Churchill Sir Winston Churchills statue on Parliament Square was unveiled in 1973. Britains former Prime Minister led the country during World War Two, and subsequently from 1951 to 1955. He was initially a Tory, and switched to the Liberal Party, then returned to the Conservative Party, before becoming Prime Minister. Churchill has been praised as a social reformer and writer, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature. David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-Georgeof Dwyfor, was the last British Prime Minister from the Liberal Party, from 1916 to 1922. He served as Chancellor, Secretary of State for War, and then Prime minister during the First World War. During his time as Prime Minister, all men and some women were given the right to vote. Jan Smuts Jan Smuts was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1919 to1924, and again from 1939 to 1948. Although he initially supported racial segregation in South Africa, his views changed, and he argued that complete segregation was impossible but was then beaten in the 1948 election by hard-line nationalists who institutionalised apartheid. He was a member of the British Imperial War Cabinet during World War One, and served as a British Army field marshal in World War Two. Henry John Temple Henry John Temple served as British Prime Minister twice in the mid-19th century. He was initially a Tory, but defected to the Whigs in 1830, and then became the first Prime Minister of the new Liberal party in 1859. He died at 80 years old in 1865, and was the last Prime Minister to die in office. Edward Smith-Stanley Edward Smith-Stanley, the 14th Earl of Derby was the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party. He was three times Prime Minster of the UK in the mid 19th century although each time was for less than two years. Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, was Conservative Prime Minister in the late 19th century, and the writer of several novels. He is also the only British Prime Minister to be of Jewish birth. He is considered one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party, and of one-nation conservatism. 1868 and 18741880 Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel was Conservative Prime Minister twice in the 1830s and 1840s. As the founder of the Metropolitan Police Service, Sir Robert Peel is viewed as the father of modern British policing. He is also considered a founder of the modern Conservative Party. George Canning George Canning was Conservative British Prime Minister for 118 days in 1827. He had a heart attack and died in office, making him the shortest-running UK Prime Minister to date. Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States from 1861 to 1865 for the Republican Party. He led the country through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederate Army. He issued Emancipation Proclamation which freed slaves who escaped the Confederate government, and promoted of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which outlawed slavery. Just days after the civil war ended, he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathiser and spy, and died the next day. Nelson Mandela Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been commemorated with a statue in Parliament Square / Getty Images Nelson Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid activist and President of South Africa in the 1990s. He was the countrys first black head of state. He was initially committed to non-violent protests, but then became a revolutionary, and was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the state. He served 27 years in prison, and was finally released in 1990, before becoming president in 1994. He won the Nobel Peace Prize, and after his presidency became an activist against poverty and HIV/AIDS through his charitable foundation. President of South Africa 19941999 Mahatma Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer and political ethicist who led the successful campaign for Indias independence from British rule in 1947. He lived modestly, undertaking long fasts and wearing a loincloth or shawl, and is credited with bringing anti-colonial nationalism to common Indians. He tried to bring peace and solace between India and Pakistan following the partition, but was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist in 1948. Millicent Fawcett Women's suffrage campaigner Millicent Fawcett's statue was unveiled in May 2018 / Getty Images Millicent Fawcett was a campaigner for womens suffrage and womens rights activist. She also co-founded the Newnham College, a womens-only college in Cambridge University. In 2018, she became the first woman to be commemorated with a statue in Parliament Square following a campaign and petition by feminist activist Caroline Criado Perez. The scene, replayed in different forms throughout the night, captured the warring impulses that gripped the nations capital early last week as demonstrations over the death of George Floyd gathered steam. For 48 hours, Washington teetered on the brink. After a night of riots and looting, followed by the use of tear gas by federal law enforcement officers to disperse demonstrators at Lafayette Square on June 1, the city looked like it was ready to descend into the kind of civil unrest last seen in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. By Trend The meeting between Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Azerbaijan Ignacio Sanchez Taboada and representatives of the Azerbaijan-Spain Working Group on Inter-Parliamentary Relations was held in the Azerbaijani parliament, Trend reports. Head of the Working Group, MP Sevil Mikayilova and member of the group, MP Tural Ganjaliyev attended the meeting. During the meeting, the parties exchanged views on the development of inter-parliamentary relations between the two countries and emphasized the development of relations among the Senate and the Congress of Spain and the Azerbaijani parliament. The sides emphasized that both countries are suffering from separatism. Taboada was informed that Armenia has been holding 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory under occupation for more than 25 years, in response to which the UN Security Council adopted the resolutions #822, 853, 874 and 884. In conclusion, a decision was made to organize introductory meetings between the members of the group and the Spanish parliamentarians to intensify the activity of the working group. MH17 was shot down over an area where Ukrainian troops were fighting Russian-controlled forces. The United States may have crucial satellite photos of the missile used to bring down MH17 six years ago but the images are classified, a court has heard. In the District Court of The Hague on Tuesday, prosecutor Thijs Berger discussed radar and satellite analysis of the July 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, CanberraTimes reported citing the Associated Press. All 298 on board the plane were killed when it was shot down in Ukraine over an area where government troops were fighting Russian-controlled forces. Russians Oleg Pulatov, Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko are being tried in absentia in the Netherlands for murder and the destruction of a civilian airliner. Berger says the U.S. director of national intelligence issued a statement three days after the crash saying a surface-to-air missile had been launched 6 km south of Snizhne that "went into the aircraft". He says the Dutch national prosecutor was briefed by U.S. officials on several classified and unclassified documents. "Part of the underlying metadata and research data has not been made available for inspection," Berger told the court. "The U.S. authorities have indicated that they cannot provide more information about the detection of the missile than stated in the written statement and that the Dutch national prosecutor has given it confidential." The prosecutor said Russia only provided low-resolution satellite photos and China said its satellite flying over the region at the time of the crash was not working. The joint investigation team also analyzed all available radar data from Ukraine and Russia, none of which detected a fighter plane in the area or a missile. Read alsoRussia pursues with compromising MH17 probe through its agents of influence media Two court-appointed radar experts, the Dutch Safety Board, Russian arms maker Almaz Antey and the Russian defence ministry agreed Russian civilian radar data did not show a missile either. Russia did not provide its military radar to the probe. However, the experts concluded a small and fast-flying Buk missile, which is smaller than a drone, is easy to miss on radar. Berger said other possibilities were the missile was detected but the Russian civilian system may not have stored the data, or the missile was not initially detected because it flew below the 800m radar horizon. One of the experts also suggested that imagery showing the missile could have later been deleted. "According to him, this is a very simple operation and that removal cannot be determined afterwards," Berger said. The trial continues. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lifts stay-at-home orders for minors and for people aged over 65. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey is lifting stay-at-home orders for people aged over 65 and for minors as part of a further easing of restrictions. The coronavirus crisis will lead the airline industry into record annual losses of $84bn as 2020 will be marked as the worst year in the history of aviation, the International Air Transport Association has predicted. More than seven million people have now been confirmed to have the coronavirus with more than 408,000 dying from the disease, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The US, the UK and Brazil have recorded the highest death tolls. The US, Brazil and Russia have the most cases. Here are the latest updates: Tuesday, June 9 20:46 GMT Perus cases surpass 200,000 Perus Health Ministry has confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed 200,000, with 5,738 deaths. A spokesman for the ministry confirmed a total of 203,736 coronavirus cases. The country registered its first case on March 6 and has seen a surge amid a rigorous testing regime, but also high levels of poverty and informal labour complicating self-isolation efforts. 20:40 GMT WHO recommends Pakistan reimpose intermittent lockdowns as cases jump The World Health Organization has recommended Pakistani authorities to reimpose intermittent lockdowns of targeted areas, stating the country did not meet the global bodys conditions for lifting restrictions. A surge of new cases has hit Pakistan after the government lifted its lockdown on May 9, pointing to economic pressures. So far, 108,316 cases and 2,172 deaths have been recorded, with a single-day record of 105 fatalities marked on Monday. More than one in five people have tested positive for coronavirus over the last two weeks, compared with one in 10 before the lockdown was lifted, government statistics showed. WHO strongly recommends the government adapt the two weeks off and two weeks on strategy, said the letter signed by WHOs Head of Mission in Pakistan Dr Palitha Mahipala. 20:05 GMT China, scientists dismiss Harvard study suggesting coronavirus was spreading in Wuhan in August Beijing has dismissed as ridiculous a Harvard Medical School study of hospital traffic and search engine data that suggested the coronavirus may already have been spreading in China last August, and scientists said it offered no convincing evidence of when the outbreak began. Dr Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said the research method is not validated and is very indirect and imprecise. Topol, who was not involved with the research, said he doubts the outbreak began in August, based on the evidence he has seen so far. He and others pointed to genetic evidence suggesting the virus made the leap from animal host to humans sometime in the fall. 19:35 GMT Merkel, Macron urge EU to prepare for next pandemic The leaders of France, Germany and four other EU member states have said Europe has fallen short against the coronavirus outbreak and urged Brussels to consider ways to better prepare for the next pandemic. They added that Europes response to the outbreak in which 184,256 people have died has raised questions about the EUs preparedness for pandemics and has shown the need for a Europe-wide approach. In a letter and policy paper addressed to European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, the leaders said: We hope that the paper can serve as an inspiration for fruitful, further discussions at European level on how to ensure the EUs preparedness for future pandemics. 19:04 GMT Deaths in France remain under 100 for seventh day in a row Frances death toll has risen by 87 or 0.3 percent to 29,296, the highest daily toll since June 2, but remains under 100 for the seventh day in a row, health ministry data has showed. On Monday, 54 coronavirus deaths were reported, on Sunday 13. 18:50 GMT Germany to extend travel warnings for non-European countries until August 31 Germany plans to extend its travel warnings for non-European countries until August 31, government sources have told Reuters, adding that Berlin was also strongly advising against any cruises due to the special risk. 18:18 GMT Turkey lifts stay-at-home orders for seniors, minors Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey is lifting stay-at-home orders for people aged over 65 and for minors as part of a further easing of restrictions. He said that a stay-at-home order for those aged under 18, in place for two months, was lifted on condition that young children were accompanied by parents, while those over 65 years of age were allowed to be out between 10am and 8pm. 17:50 GMT WHO expert clarifies remarks on asymptomatic transmissions A top World Health Organization (WHO) expert has tried to clear up misunderstandings about comments she made on Monday that were widely understood to suggest that people without COVID-19 symptoms rarely transmit the coronavirus. What I was referring to yesterday were very few studies, some two or three studies that have been published, that actually try to follow asymptomatic cases, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHOs technical lead on the pandemic said. Thats a very small subset of studies, she continued. I used the phrase very rare, and I think that thats (a) misunderstanding to state that asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare. What I was referring to was a subset of studies. She said a sub-set of people do not develop symptoms, but can still infect others, and as many as 40 percent of transmissions may be by asymptomatic cases. 17:21 GMT UK says retailers can reopen on June 15 UK retailers will be allowed to reopen on June 15 with social distancing guidelines, business minister Alok Sharma has said. This is the latest step in the careful restarting of our economy and will enable high streets up and down the country to spring back to life, Sharma told reporters. 17:19 GMT WHO Americas director says concerned pandemic surging in new areas in Latin America The World Health Organizations regional director for the Americas Carissa Etienne has said that data has raised concerns that coronavirus cases are surging in new places in Latin America, as some areas show exponential rises. Etienne cited a rising number of cases in countries including Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Haiti and Surinam. 16:07 GMT Azerbaijan extends restrictions until July 1 Azerbaijan has extended coronavirus lockdown restrictions, including the closure of borders, until July 1, the government has said. It said internal flights could resume from June 15 but that all people must stay at home in big cities, including the capital Baku, on June 14 and 15 after the number of infections rose. 16:00 GMT Brazil must publish data in full, Supreme Court justice says Brazils Supreme Court has ruled the Health Ministry must revert to releasing the full set of data on coronavirus death infection rates it had previously made available. Over the weekend, the Health Ministry abruptly removed troves of detailed coronavirus data and said it would no longer publish cumulative totals, causing outrage. Last week, it delayed the release of the numbers late into the evening and past Brazils main news programme. In a statement on the Supreme Court website, Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the ministry must fully re-establish the daily dissemination of epidemiological data on the COVID-19 pandemic, including on the agencys website, under the terms presented until last Thursday. 15: 35 GMT UK death toll rises by 286 The UKs death toll from confirmed cases of coronavirus rose by 286 to 40,883, according to government data. 15:25 GMT Austria to open borders to Italy, more than 20 European countries Austria will reopen its borders to Italy and more than 20 other European countries next week, officials have said, a move that should ease tensions with Rome after Vienna singled its southern neighbour out for continued coronavirus-related checks. Details of the decision will be finalised at a ministerial meeting on Wednesday, officials said on condition of anonymity. 15:08 GMT Eiffel Tower to reopen to public on June 25: operator The Eiffel Tower, one of the most visited sites in Paris, will reopen to the public on June 25 more than three months after closing due to the lockdown, its operators have said. The landmark will emerge from its longest closure since World War II with limited visitor numbers at first, and face masks mandatory for all over the age of 11, the Eiffel Tower website said. People take a selfie at Trocadero square near the Eiffel Tower on May 16 as France began a gradual end to a nationwide lockdown [Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters] 14:43 GMT Coronavirus threatens Kenya goal to end female genital mutilation The pandemic has put Kenyas goal of ending female genital mutilation (FGM) by 2022 in jeopardy, campaigners against the practice warned, amid reports of mass cuttings involving hundreds of girls being held while schools are closed. Domtila Chesang, an anti-FGM campaigner in West Pokot county which borders Uganda, said she had received reports of up to 500 girls undergoing FGM since schools closed on March 16. Girls are not going to school, they are just sitting at home. Some are coming of age. Parents are facing an uncertain future due to loss of income caused by the coronavirus, so they are having the girls cut and will marry them off, said Chesang. We cannot respond and campaign the way we used to as our movements are restricted and a lot of it is hidden. Its very unlikely Kenya will meet the target of ending FGM by 2022. The coronavirus is a major setback. 14:33 GMT Patients most infectious when they first show symptoms: WHO Studies show people with the coronavirus are most infectious when they first show symptoms, Maria van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist and the World Health Organizations technical lead on the pandemic has said in a briefing. She said a sub-set of people do not develop symptoms, but can still infect others, and as many as 40 percent of transmissions may be by asymptomatic cases. 14:25 GMT Emirates lays off thousands of pilots, cabin crew, plans more job cuts Emirates has laid off hundreds of pilots and thousands of cabin crew as it manages a cash crunch, five company sources have said. More redundancies were expected at Emirates this week including both Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 pilots, the sources told Reuters on the condition of anonymity. The workforce of 4,300 pilots and nearly 22,000 cabin crew could shrink by almost a third from its pre-coronavirus levels, three of the sources said. 14:10 GMT Mexico cases have not yet peaked: health ministry Mexico has not yet reached its peak number of daily coronavirus cases, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell has said. We still havent reached maximum point, Lopez-Gatell said at a news conference. For several more weeks, we will keep announcing there are more cases today than yesterday. 13:48 GMT Airline industry headed for $84bn loss this year: IATA The coronavirus crisis will lead the airline industry into record annual losses of $84bn as 2020 will be marked as the worst year in the history of aviation, the sectors main global body has predicted. Airline passenger traffic is expected to rise 55 percent in 2021 from a low level this year, while remaining 29 percent below its 2019 level, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in an updated forecast. 13:45 GMT Hello, this is Mersiha Gadzo in Doha taking over the live updates from my colleague Hamza Mohammed. 12:25 GMT Qatar records five deaths from COVID-19 Qatars ministry of public health reported 1,721 new cases of infection on Tuesday, taking the countrys total to 71,897. The death toll jumped by five to 62, the ministry added. At least 1,634 people recovered from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the ministry said. So far,47,569 people have recovered from the virus. 12:00 GMT Romania must extend state of alert by a month: President Romanias current state of alert enforced on May 15 to fight the new coronavirus, must be extended by another 30 days until the middle of July, President Klaus Iohannis said. Iohannis ordered a strict lockdown in early March to rein in the outbreak and but replaced the state of emergency with a softer state of alert mode last month. The move must be approved by parliament to take full effect. Romania has so far recorded 20,749 coronavirus cases of whom 14,910 recovered and 1,345 died. Over the past 24 hours it recorded 145 new cases. 11:30 GMT Philippines coronavirus death toll hits 1,017 The Philippine health ministry recorded six new coronavirus deaths and 518 additional infections. The ministry said total deaths have increased to 1,017 while confirmed cases have reached 22,992. 10:35 GMT Nigeria says more than half of Kanos mysterious deaths due to COVID-19 As many as 60 percent of the mysterious deaths in Nigerias northern Kano state were likely due to the new coronavirus, the governments health minister said. Nigerias tCOVID-19 ask force sent a team to the northern economic hub in late April to investigate and conduct verbal autopsies after local newspaper the Daily Trust reported a spike in deaths to around 150 people in Kano city. Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire said the investigation found a total of 979 deaths recorded in eight municipal local government areas in Kano state at a rate of 43 deaths per day, compared with the typical death rate of roughly 11 deaths per day. With circumstantial evidence as all to go by, investigation suggests that between 50-60 percent of the deaths may have been triggered by or due to COVID-19, in the face of pre-existing ailments, Ehanire said. He said the peak in deaths occurred in the second week of April, and that by the beginning of May, the death rate had gone back down to the normal rate. Nigeria has reported 12,801 infections and 361 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins university tally [Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters] 10:00 GMT Indonesia reports 1,043 new COVID-19 cases, biggest daily rise Indonesias health ministry reported 1,043 new coronavirus infections, its biggest daily rise, taking the total number of infections to 33,076. As of Tuesday, Indonesia has recorded at least 33,076 coronavirus cases [Firdia Lisnawati/AP] There were also 40 new deaths, bringing total fatalities to 1,923, said Achmad Yurianto, a ministry official. The Southeast Asian country has tested more than 281,650 for the virus as of Tuesday, data by its COVID-19 task force showed. 09:40 GMT Some students from mainland China to be allowed to resume classes in Hong Kong Hong Kong will let some students from mainland China return to resume classes from June 15, the government said, in a selective easing of coronavirus border restrictions. School buses will be arranged and students will be subject to health checks, including temperature screening and submission of health declaration forms in Hong Kong and bordering Shenzhen as they commute to school, the statement said. Hong Kong has reported 1,108 coronavirus cases and four deaths. 09:10 GMT UK: Around 64,000 deaths recorded during pandemic ONS About 64,000 more people than usual have died in the United Kingdom during this years coronavirus pandemic, an expert from the Office for National Statistics said. 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 the number to have died from a disease outbreak because it is internationally comparable. 08:45 GMT France announces $16.9bn in aid to aviation industry Frances government announced 15 billion euros ($16.9 bn) in rescue money for the pandemic-battered aerospace industry, including plane maker Airbus and national airline Air France. In exchange for the aid, companies will be required to invest more and faster in electric, hydrogen or other lower-emission aircraft, as France aims to make its aviation industry the cleanest in the world. We will do everything to support this French industry that is so critical for our sovereignty, our jobs and our economy, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. Airbus said it is cutting production by 35 to 40 percent [Pascal Rossignol/[Reuters] 08:00 GMT Russia records more than 8,500 new COVID-19 cases Russia reported 8,595 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the number of infections nationwide to 485,253. The authorities said that 171 people had died from the virus in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death toll to 6,142. Only US and Brazil have reported more cases of coronavirus than Russia [Reuters] 07:45 GMT New Delhi reverses limits on COVID-19 testing, sickbeds after pressure New Delhi has reversed orders that limited the scope of coronavirus testing and reserved hospital beds for city residents as the Indian capitals caseload continues to surge. The number of infected jumped to 29,943 on Tuesday of Indias 266,598 total cases nationwide. Since coming to power in 2013, the government led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has prioritised investing in healthcare, making Delhis the best healthcare in India, drawing patients from across the country. On Sunday, Kejriwal announced that hospital beds for COVID-19 patients would be reserved for Delhi residents and testing limited to those with symptoms of the disease. As of Tuesday, the Indian capital has recorded almost 30,000 coronavirus cases [Danish Siddiqui/Reuters] But the central government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi objected and, late Monday, the Delhi government set them aside, Kejriwal tweeting that making arrangements for treatment for people from across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic is a major challenge. But maybe its Gods will that we have to serve everyone in the country. 07:20 GMT COVID-19 may have been spreading in China in August: Harvard research The novel coronavirus might have been spreading in China as early as August 2019, according to Harvard Medical School research based on satellite images of hospital travel patterns and search engine data. The research used high-resolution satellite imagery of hospital parking lots in Wuhan where the disease emerged in late 2019 and data for symptom-related queries on search engines for things such as cough and diarrhoea. Increased hospital traffic and symptom search data in Wuhan preceded the documented start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in December 2019, according to the research. While we cannot confirm if the increased volume was directly related to the new virus, our evidence supports other recent work showing that emergence happened before identification at the Huanan Seafood market. These findings also corroborate the hypothesis that the virus emerged naturally in southern China and was potentially already circulating at the time of the Wuhan cluster, according to the research. It showed a steep increase in hospital parking lot occupancy in August 2019. In August, we identify a unique increase in searches for diarrhoea which was neither seen in previous flu seasons or mirrored in the cough search data, according to the research. China first reported to the WHO a pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan on December 31, 2019 [Hector Retamal/AFP] 06:45 GMT Tanzania president declares country coronavirus-free Tanzanian President John Magufuli declared the East African country coronavirus-free, local media reported. President John Magufuli attributed the claimed success over the worldwide pandemic to prayers and fasting that the people of Tanzania have offered to God. It gives me joy to be the leader of a country that puts God first, God loves Tanzania, Jamvi TV in Tanzania reported. The works of the devil will always be defeated in Tanzania because Tanzanians love God and that is why even the corona has been defeated by God, Magufuli told a Catholic congregation in the capital Dodoma. 06:30 GMT Mexico reopens its economy after COVID-19 lockdown Mexico is reopening its economy after it implemented measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. But the numbers of bodies piling up in morgues and crematoriums in the capital dont seem to match the numbers that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says are helping to flatten the curve. 06:00 GMT Hello, this is Hamza Mohamed in Doha taking over from my colleague Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur. 05:30 GMT I am now handing the blog to my colleagues in Doha. A quick recap of developments in the past few hours: Deaths have jumped in Brazil where there is anger and confusion over the data being released, Pakistan hs reported its deadliest-ever day with 105 deaths from coronavirus, and Jakartas governor Anies Baswedan has told Al Jazeera hes confident the Indonesian capital is in control of the outbreak there. 05:15 GMT New Zealanders hug, shop and party after restrictions lifted New Zealanders are enjoying their return to normal life after the last of the countrys coronavirus restrictions were removed at midnight. Its really helped generate that absolute buzz and that feeling of more normality really, cafe owner Katy Ellis told Reuters of the removal of social distancing guidelines. Cities came back to life as people returned to their offices and browsed the shops with public transport crowded once again. People are shopping, dining and just hanging about holding hands, Steve Price told the news agency from Wellington. Its so lovely to see. Not just light at the end of the tunnel: double rainbow on Day 1 of Level 1 (Waipu, NZ) pic.twitter.com/U46BKwZmgd Chris Chang (@ChrisChang) June 9, 2020 05:05 GMT Pakistan records deadliest day yet in outbreak Pakistan has recorded its deadliest day of the coronavirus outbreak so far, with at least 105 people dead, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Asad Hashim. The country also registered 4,646 new cases taking the overall number of cases to 108,317. Pakistan has seen a sustained spike in cases since late May. In an address to the nation on Monday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government expected cases to peak in late July. He also defended his decision to keep the economy open, arguing that lockdowns were not a solution to the pandemic. 03:55 GMT Antibodies found in US Navy sailors on aircraft carrier: study A US Navy investigation into the spread of coronavirus on board the Theodore Roosevelt has found 60 percent of the roughly 400 sailors on the aircraft carrier who volunteered to be tested had antibodies for the virus, according to Reuters. All 4,800 sailors on the ship were previously tested for COVID-19 and about a quarter were positive. In April, the navy and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention began tests to look for specific antibodies to get a more accurate understanding of the viruss spread on the ship. Three officials cautioned that the results of the study, which could be released as early as Tuesday, could not be generalised to the entire crew. They noted the number of volunteers was less than half the 1,000 sought. Those who participated were also tested again for COVID-19 and asked to complete a survey. One sailor died and a number of others were hospitalised as a result of the outbreak. The ships captain was also fired after a letter he wrote calling for stronger protections for crew was leaked. 03:45 GMT Jakartas governor confident coronavirus under control as city reopens Jakartas governor Anies Baswedan has told Al Jazeeras Jessica Washington that he is confident coronavirus is under control and that the Indonesian capital can cope with a relaxation of lockdown measures that began on Monday, The governor said that the situation was much better than in March and April and the authorities wanted to be at the stage where the city was safe, healthy and productive. You can read more of the interview here. Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan speaks to Al Jazeera 03:20 GMT Venzuela says COVID-19 aid from Iran has arrived Venezuelas government has said a shipment of humanitarian aid from Iran arrived in the country on Monday. Most of the supplies were test-kits, Plann ing Minister Ricardo Menendez told state television. Irans ambassador said the materials would strengthen Venezuelas fight against the coronavirus. 02:40 GMT California cinemas could be open again on Friday Cinemas in California could be open again by Friday if they follow capacity guidelines and other measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, and get the approval of local officials. CInemas, which have closed all over the world, will have to limit attendance to 25 percent of capacity or 100 people, whichever is lower. Movie studios are hoping enough cinemas will be open for a season of summer blockbusters with Disneys hotly-awaited epic Mulan slated for a July 24 release. 01:15 GMT University of Washington forecasts 145,000 US deaths by early August Researchers at the University of Washington estimate that 145,728 people in the US could die of COVID-19 by August an increase of 5,000 deaths since their last forecast only a few days ago. The US has confirmed almost 111,000 deaths according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 00:00 GMT Antibodies found in more than half the residents of Bergamo More than half the residents tested for coronavirus in Italys northern province of Bergamo have been found to have coronavirus antibodies. Health authorities said of 9,965 people tested between April 23 and June 3, 57 percent had antibodies indicating they had come into contact with the virus. The results were based on a random sample that officials said was sufficiently broad to give an indication of how many people had been infected in the province. Bergamo was at the centre of Italys coronavirus outbreak. 23:45 GMT Brazil reports 679 new deaths amid data controversy Brazil has reported 679 deaths from coronavirus and 15,654 new cases amid growing controversy about its data and allegations of political manipulation. The Health Ministry removed data from its website over the weekend and stopped releasing cumulative totals in relation to the diseases spread. In a statement on Monday, it said the changes were made because of mistakes in the dataset from two states that were later corrected. The move has fuelled calls for an inquiry in a country where right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed the virus as a little flu and raged against lockdowns. By changing the numbers the Ministry of Health covers the sun with a sieve, said Rodrigo Maia, the speaker of the lower house. The credibility of the statistics needs to be urgently recovered. A ministry that manipulates numbers creates a parallel world in order not to face the reality of the facts. 23:30 GMT UN reiterates importance of investing in health Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, the president of the UN General Assembly, has stressed the importance of investing in health which he said was an investment in human capital, social and economic development, and the empowerment of people. The UN adopted a landmark political declaration on universal health coverage last September. - Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Im Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur. Read all the updates from yesterday (June 8) here. By PTI MUMBAI: At a time when the financial sector is passing through a rough patch and looking at ways to conserve capital, country's second-largest lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) has bought three Audi cars to ferry its top management. According to sources, the PNB took the delivery of these high-end luxury cars worth approximately Rs 1.34 crore last month, unmindful of the coronavirus outbreak, subsequent nation-wide lockdown and its crippling effect on the financial sector as well as the economy. The annual depreciation on this purchase will be around about Rs 20 lakh, sources said. These luxury cars, sources said, will be used by the managing director (MD) and two senior executive directors. Besides the MD, there are four executive directors given the size and scale of operation of the bank. These cars were purchased after the approval from the board and within the sanctioned limit for the whole-time directors, sources said, adding, this is a part of routine replacement and the unutilised Budget of the last year was carried forward for the purchase. Interestingly, the secretaries in the union government and even Cabinet ministers use Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, much less expensive than German car Audi purchased by the PNB. In protocol, the managing director of a public sector bank is equivalent to an additional secretary in the central government. Even the chairman of the country's largest lender State Bank of India who is considered a notch above the managing director of any nationalised bank uses Toyota Corolla Altis when in capital. In the wake of COVID crisis, the finance ministry last week asked all ministries and departments not to initiate any new scheme in the current financial year and said that there is a need to use resources prudently in these difficult times. Also, schemes that are already approved for the current financial year will remain suspended till March 31 next year or further orders. This would also include those schemes for which in-principle approval has been given by the respective departments. According to an office memorandum of the department of expenditure in the finance ministry, the changes have been made as there is a need to use resources prudently in accordance with emerging and changing priorities. It is to be noted that Punjab National Bank suffered heavily due to the Rs 14,000 crore Nirav Modi scam, which was unearthed in 2018. Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi duped PNB of Rs 14,000 crore through issuance of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs), in connivance with certain bank officials. For the third quarter ended January 2020, the bank reported a loss of Rs 501.93 crore due to substantial increase in bad loan provisioning. The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 249.75 crore for the same period a year ago. The bank made a provisioning of Rs 4,445.36 crore for bad loans during the quarter under review as against Rs 2,565.77 crore parked aside for the year-ago period. A huge mural by French street art star JR was unveiled in Paris on Tuesday paying tribute to George Floyd and Adama Traore, a young black man who died in police custody in France. Traore's death four years ago has become the focus of renewed protests across France over claims of police racism and brutality following the anger unleashed in the US after Floyd was killed in similar circumstances in Minneapolis last month. Some 20,000 people rallied in front of a courthouse in Paris last Tuesday to demand justice for Traore and Floyd, defying a coronavirus ban on public gatherings. And a further 23,000 attended demonstrations across the country on Saturday calling for an end to police violence. More French protests were called Tuesday as Floyd was laid to rest in Houston, Texas. Oscar-nominated black French film director Ladj Ly -- whose movie "Les Miserables" also tackles the fraught relations between ethnic minorities and the French police -- told reporters that "the mural is there to pay homage both to Adama and George Floyd." Students at Ly's Kourtrajme film school in a deprived Paris suburb worked with JR -- Oscar-nominated himself along with Agnes Varda for the 2017 documentary "Faces Places" -- on the huge photo montage in central Paris. Faced with rising anger over the behaviour of French police, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said Monday that a controversial choke hold used to subdue suspects was being banned. Racist insults and comments made by officers on private police Facebook pages have added to public unease. Traore, 24, died in 2016 after he was pinned to the ground after a routine identity check with the combined body weight of three arresting officers, according to the testimony of one of them. Last Friday, French medical experts said Traore did not die of "positional suffocation", ruling out the officers pinning him to the ground as the cause of his death. But a new probe commissioned by the Traore family said his death was caused by the arrest technique. At a press conference to unveil the mural on Tuesday, Traore's sister Assa renewed the family's call for "the police officers to be brought to justice" for what they did to her little brother. The family had earlier refused to meet Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet until concrete steps were taken. The huge photomontage mural on a Paris wall by French street art star JR of Adama Traore and the black American George Floyd Assa Traore (centre), the sister of Adama Traore, who died in a French police arrest in 2016, at a press conference after a mural to her brother and George Floyd was unveiled in Paris Tuesday SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cepheid today announced the development of a next-generation test to assist global efforts in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 during the upcoming respiratory virus season. The Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2/Flu/RSV four-in-one test is expected to deliver qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2, Flu A, Flu B and RSV from a single patient sample. The test is designed for use on any of Cepheid's more than 25,000 GeneXpert Systems placed worldwide, with results expected in as little as 35 minutes. GeneXperts Modular Design Enables High-Volume Laboratory and Near-Patient Point-of-Care Testing Chief Medical and Technology Officer, Dr. David Persing, discusses why GeneXpert is ideal for SARS-CoV-2 testing. "Patients infected by SARS-CoV-2, Flu A, Flu B, and RSV have overlapping clinical presentations, but fundamentally different treatment and management pathways," said Dr. David Persing, MD, Ph.D., Chief Medical and Technology Officer at Cepheid. "Unlike the common cold viruses, infection with these four viruses is often associated with fever and other systemic manifestations that may be coupled with severe outcomes, especially in the elderly." In the coming weeks, Cepheid intends to pursue the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) pathway for regulatory authorization and make the test available globally on its cartridge-based GeneXpert Systems, which features instruments that can be configured for both near patient point-of-care and high volume laboratory testing needs. "On March 20th, Cepheid was granted the first-ever EUA by the FDA for use in point-of-care settings for our Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test," said Cepheid President Warren Kocmond. "Since then, we have experienced unprecedented demand for this technology. Leveraging the quality design of Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 and our widely utilized Xpert Xpress Flu/RSV tests, we're combining two world-class products in a single, rapid solution ahead of the upcoming flu season. This will enable our customers to have increased testing throughput on their current GeneXpert System and increase our ability to provide supply continuity for the market." Visit www.cepheid.com/coronavirus for latest updates on our SARS-CoV-2 tests. GeneXpert's Modular Design Enables High-Volume Laboratory and Near-Patient Point-of-Care Testing The GeneXpert System was built for simple, reference lab quality PCR testing on location at medical centers and hospitals or closer to patient in health clinics and nursing homes. At the core of every GeneXpert System is the module (or testing bay) where a test cartridge is loaded onto the machine. Our line of GeneXpert Systems can be configured with a varying number of modules, or test bays, to meet the volume requirements of any setting. Smaller GeneXpert Systems are configured with 2 or 4 modules meaning up to four different tests can be run at one time. Our largest GeneXpert System is configured with up to 80 modules meaning as many as 80 tests can operate independently at any given time with a capacity of about 2,000 tests per day*. About Cepheid Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Cepheid is a leading molecular diagnostics company that is an operating company within Danaher Corporation's (NYSE: DHR) Diagnostics platform. Cepheid is dedicated to improving healthcare by developing, manufacturing, and marketing accurate yet easy-to-use molecular systems and tests. By automating highly complex and time-consuming manual procedures, the company's solutions deliver a better way for institutions of any size to perform sophisticated molecular diagnostic testing for organisms and genetic-based diseases. Through its strong molecular biology capabilities, the company is focusing on those applications where accurate, rapid, and actionable test results are needed most, such as managing infectious diseases and cancer. For more information, visit http://www.cepheid.com. *Cepheid internal study based on 30 minute test results. For Cepheid Media Inquiries: Darwa Peterson [email protected] Media Contacts: Jason Spark, CanaleComm, [email protected] Cammy Duong, CanaleComm, [email protected] SOURCE Cepheid Related Links https://www.cepheid.com COLUMBUS, OH Defunding law enforcement agencies is "absurd," Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday after announcing a series of reforms to policing in Ohio. The governor did vow to improve law enforcement transparency and to explore creating a database for officers who are fired for misconduct. Ohio is creating a new Office of Law Enforcement Recruitment to attract more women and minorities into roles as police officers and sheriffs, DeWine announced. He said he is working on other law enforcement reforms with the Ohio General Assembly. "This is just my first round of announcements related to meaningful law enforcement reform. Many necessary changes will require legislative action, and we are working on other ideas with the law enforcement community, elected officials, and community organizations," DeWine said. Don't miss the latest updates from health and government officials in Ohio on the coronavirus. Sign up for Patch newsletters and news alerts. The governor's announcement came after another week of protests against police brutality erupted around the state and the nation. DeWine said he intends to make further announcements about police reform in coming days. Ohio is also developing minimum standards and techniques for police dealing with protests, DeWine announced Tuesday. The guidelines will outline which tactics are "excessive in a given situation." The governor said he wants peaceful protesters to feel protected, but for personal and private property to be protected. "If law enforcement witness violence or property destruction, they must be empowered to act," DeWine said. The governor is also instructing state officials to contact all police departments, sheriffs offices and other law enforcement agencies that have not completed Ohio's use of force certification standards. "Regardless of why some agencies have not become certified, Im encouraging the 400 plus agencies that are not certified to begin working on this process today. Ive directed Ohio Criminal Justice Services to reach out to these agencies to assist them in any way they can," DeWine said. This article originally appeared on the Cleveland Patch The former police officer charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for killing an African-American man two weeks ago was given a conditional bail of $1.25 million on Monday. On June 8, Derek Chauvin attended the initial hearing for the murder of George Floyd at a Hennepin County courthouse via a live video feed from his prison cell. The ex-cop, a 19-year war veteran, has been in jail since his arrest on May 29. The prosecutor, Matthew Frank, claims Chauvin is a "flight risk" due to the severity of the charges as well as the strong public reaction from his crime. He argued for a bail of $1.25 million, citing the former cop's likelihood to flee from the jurisdiction. The Monday hearing did not require the ex-officer to submit a plea. Eric Nelson, the defendant's lawyer, said he did not object to the bail request, leading Minneapolis Judge Heannice M. Reding to grant it. Bail Conditions According to the conditions, Chauvin will be granted a $1 million bail if he surrenders his firearms, remains in the state until the trial, stop working in law enforcement, and avoid all contact with Floyd's family members. The ex-cop's bail is at least $250,000 higher than the bail amount given to the other three officers involved in Floyd's death. According to the New York Times, former officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Keung blamed Chauvin-their training officer-for the crime. The third officer, Tou Thao, reportedly cooperated with authorities. Defunding and Abolishing the Police George Floyd's death has led to widespread protests across the United States as well as in several cities in Europe and Latin America. Some of the demonstrations resulted in violent clashes with the police, multiple cases of arson, and looting. Since the incident, the University of Minnesota, the city school board, and the parks department severed its ties with the police department. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced he would cut the budget of the city's police department. In New York, Corey Johnson, the council speaker, announced they would cut the police department's $6 billion budget. On Sunday, Minneapolis city councilman, Jeremiah Ellison, announced they would dismantle the city's police department. Many advocates view who has called for the defunding of the police department to invest in other resources aimed at keeping minority communities safe. The council has yet to release details of the plan. However, ideas from advocacy groups such as Reclaim the Block and Black Visions Collective would be considered and would likely be included in the proposal. They also promised to develop plans based on past studies. While dismantling a law enforcement department has not been done anywhere else, some cities have already made significant changes to policing. In Austin, Texas, the city budget allocated millions for mental health issues. Emergency calls are answered by operators who offer police, fire, or mental health services to the caller. In Eugene, Oregon, the CAHOOTS team deploys a medic and a crisis worker with mental health training to respond to 911 calls. In Camden, New Jersey, officers hand out more warnings than tickets. They also undergo training that places importance on holding their fire. Read the latest news from the U.S.: When it comes to social distancing, the Church has got it covered. In recent weeks weve seen Men of the Cloth getting seriously creative to ensure their parishioners can worship the Lord in relative safety. Innovations have included car park confessions in Dublin and drive-by blessings in the US delivered via water pistol. Now another priest in the US has apparently unveiled the latest innovation designed to ensure life gets back to something approaching normal, while maintaining a strict two-metre distance from one another. In a picture widely shared on social media, an unnamed clergyman can be seen baptising a young child using a water pistol. While plenty have suggested the picture is a spoof designed to lift spirits, its not the first time a Holy man has tried it. Another priest in Canada has already adopted the same super soaking approach to christenings. While the practise is immersive to say the least and may or may not be designed for a laugh rather than serious use, there are some who have criticised the use of water pistols in the church as comical and, at worst, disrespectful. However, with priests in Ireland warning that an immediate return to normal practices like public Masses at this critical stage would potentially lead to a loss of life its clear an alternative solution is required, Super Soaker based or otherwise. Given the need to maintain distance while ensuring the public has the right to practice their religious beliefs, priests across the Emerald Isle could soon be following the example of their American cousins. Like the old adage says, God moves in mysterious ways. Source: irishpost.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 Armed individuals entered Libyas largest oil field, El Sharara, just a day after reports said the field had restarted production after months of idling amid the ongoing civil war. Another force majeure has been declared. Reuters quotes the National Oil Corporation as saying the armed force had told the workers on the field to stop working just hours after they had begun planned maintenance at the field. NOC itself told its employees not to obey that order. Details about the armed force were not disclosed. "The armed group, which came from Sebha, stormed the Sharara oilfield and pulled their guns on civilian unarmed workers, coercing them to stop production at the field at dawn," the NOC said in a Tuesday statement. The first production phase at Sharara was supposed to begin at a capacity of 30,000 bpd, Libyas state oil firm said in a statement, noting that production was expected to return to full capacity within 90 days due to the damages caused by the long shutdown. The field has a total production capacity of 300,000 bpd. Libya also restarted a second oilfield over the weekend, the 70,000-bpd El Feel which is linked to Sharara, a field engineer told Reuters on Sunday. Libyas oil industry ground to halt after the Libyan National Army, a group affiliated with the eastern government of Libya, blockades the oil export terminals of the country. The blockade was part of the LNAs offensive against Tripoli and the UN-supported government. Fighting has been ongoing since then, with oil production falling from over 1 million bpd to less than 100,000 bpd, with exports shrinking by 92 percent between January and May. The NOC also said last month the total losses incurred from the blockade and the production outages had reached $5 billion. The first quarter of 2020 was a huge decrease in revenues for Libya, as a direct result of the illegal blockade of numerous oil and gas facilities. This is only part of the picture, as the corrosion in pipes caused by still oil and salt water is resulting in physical damage that will cost millions to fix when the crisis is over, NOCs chairman, Mustafa Sanalla said in late May. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: NAIROBI, Kenay - The government of Burundi on Tuesday announced the "unexpected" death of president Pierre Nkurunziza. He was 55. Nkurunziza had recently agreed to step down after a 15-year rule that was characterized by brutal crackdowns and economic stagnation. His chosen successor won an election last month that was marred by irregularities. The official cause of death was cardiac arrest. According to the country's constitution, the president of the legislature should take control of the government until the inauguration of Evariste Ndayishimiye, scheduled for Aug. 20, who won the election. The government's statement on Nkurunziza's death said he had been well enough on Saturday to assist during a volleyball match in his home district of Ngozi but was admitted to a hospital in a neighboring district on Sunday. His condition improved Sunday night but took a sudden turn on Monday when he suffered a heart attack. The statement asked people to remain calm and announced seven days of mourning. Nkurunziza's wife, Denise, was airlifted to Nairobi 10 days ago and is being treated for the coronavirus symptoms, according to Kenyan media reports. Health officials in Kenya and Burundi have not commented on whether the president had been tested for the novel coronavirus. In the lead-up to last month's election, Nkurunziza's government expelled Burundi's World Health Organization representative after he raised concerns about large election rallies. Burundi's number of confirmed covid-19 cases remain low at 83, but testing has been extremely limited. Burundi, a country of 11 million people wedged between Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Lake Tanganyika, Africa's deepest lake, suffered through a 12-year civil war that mirrored some of the dynamics of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, with which it shares a similar language and ethnic makeup. A former rebel leader, Nkurunziza took power after the war, which resulted in around 300,000 deaths, but subsequent crackdowns by his government on dissident groups caused hundreds of thousands of others to flee the country. Nkurunziza extended his mandate on power in 2015 in a move seen as unconstitutional by his opponents, and more than 1,200 were killed by state security forces and a quasi-official militia known as the Imbonerakure during an ensuing uprising, according to the United Nations. Almost all of the 400,000 who were displaced by the violence remain in camps, mostly in Tanzania. Nkurunziza was fond of sports and often pictured playing soccer with his country's national team. He largely, however, stayed within his offices, except during the campaign season when he commanded massive rallies across the small, landlocked nation. A law passed in his most recent term assured him a $530,000 payout for stepping down as well as a luxury villa. More than 70 percent of Burundians live on less than $1 a day, and the vast majority of the country relies on subsistence agriculture. Vanderpump Rules Jax Taylor also accused one-time castmate Faith Stowers, who is black, of being a criminal. Taylor, 40, linked Stowers to grand theft auto and predicted her incarceration in a December 4, 2017 tweet when a follower asked him about her. 'Shes wanted by the police for grand theft auto and "awol" from military, bad idea to be on a reality show dude,' said Taylor, who wed Brittany Cartwright last year. 'Someones going to jail.' The latest: Vanderpump Rules Jax Taylor, 40, also accused one-time castmate Faith Stowers, who is black, of being a criminal, days after his Vanderpump castmates, Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute, publicly apologized for their actions toward Stowers Pointing fingers: Taylor linked Stowers to grand theft auto and predicted her incarceration in a December 4, 2017 tweet when a follower asked him about her. Ironically, Jax, a native of Shelby Township, Michigan, is no stranger to going to jail himself, as the reality star was arrested in 2014 over a warrant, leading to a four-day stint in custody, E! reported. The next year, Jax was arrested in Honolulu after authorities said he stole a pair of sunglasses; he subsequently took a plea deal and probation in the case. The news about Taylor - who admittedly had a fling with Stowers - came after two of his Vanderpump castmates, Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute, took to Instagram on Sunday to apologize for a past incident in which they misled police in an effort to get Stowers into legal trouble. 'Racially insensitive comments from my past have resurfaced,' Schroeder - who has been vocal as of late about her support for the Black Lives Matter movement - said in a statement on the site. Mea culpa: Stassi Schroeder took to Instagram on Sunday to apologize for a past incident in which she lied to police in an effort to get black castmate Faith Stowers into legal trouble Like Stassi, Jax has taken to social media with messages in support of the movement against racism and police brutality Out and about: Taylor and his wife Brittany Cartwright were snapped in LA 'It is important that I continue to take accountability for what I have said and done, while pushing myself to do better,' the New Orleans-born reality star, 31, said. 'I have grown significantly from the person I was then, and I am still filled with remorse and regret for the hurt I caused.' She directly apologized to Stowers for her actions in hopes of landing her in trouble with the authorities, admitting that she didn't consider how severe the consequences could have been. 'I also want to address my former castmate, Faith Stowers,' said Stassi, who cooked up the scheme with castmate Kristen Doute. 'My emotions over something that happened between our friends outweighed my logic, and there is no excuse for that. 'I did not recognize then the serious ramifications that could have transpired because of my actions. What I did to Faith was wrong. I apologize and I do not expect forgiveness.' Schroeder said she was sorry to 'anyone else that feels disappointed in' her, and vowed to focus her efforts on being more conscientious and evolving 'into a more educated person.' Speaking out: Stassi said she's refocused her mentality amid the career crisis, which has seen her lose sponsors and admit to 'racially insensitive comments' She vowed, 'I am going to continue to look closer at myself and my actions, to take the time to listen, to learn, and to take accountability for my own privilege.' Doute followed up with a statement on her Instagram page on Sunday. 'I have been taking some time to really process what I've been seeing, feeling and learning. And I need to address something specifically that happened a few years ago with my former castmate, Faith Stowers,' she wrote. 'Although, my actions were not racially driven, I am now completely aware of how my privilege blinded me from the reality of law enforcement's treatment of the black community, and how dangerous my actions would have been to her,' 'My privilege blinded me': Doute also shared an apology after she also tweeted the accusations with Schroeder Incredibly sorry: Kristen posted this statement to her Instagram on Sunday How low can you go? Vanderpump Rules' Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute have come under fire after an incident where they called the cops on former castmate Faith Stowers resurfaced this week Doute added, 'It never was my intention to add to the injustice and imbalance. I'm ashamed, embarrassed, and incredibly sorry. I will do better. I have to do better.' Former Bravo player Stowers called out her former SUR coworkers during an Instagram live with Floribama Shore star Candace Rice, talking about her time on the show and the incidents that followed. Stassi herself bragged about calling the cops in an interview on the B**** Bible podcast in 2018, while Doute tweeted about it at the time. Timeline: Stowers appeared on season four of VPR and then later made cameos in season six after her involvement with Jax Taylor. Faith is seen in 2017 above Stower recalled how Schroeder and Doute called the authorities after seeing a report about an African American woman who was drugging and robbing men around LA. 'There was this article where there was an African-American lady. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. I guess this woman was robbing people. 'And they called the cops and said it was me. This is like, a true story. I heard this from, actually, Stassi during an interview.' The Next Level Basic writer was happy to brag about wrongfully accusing Stowers in 2018, telling the B**** Bible podcast how she and Kristen 'solved a crime.' After comparing a grainy surveillance image of the suspected criminal to Stowers, they decided they had enough evidence to go to the police. Speaking out: The former Bravo player (bottom) called out her former SUR coworkers during an Instagram live with Floribama Shore star Candace Rice (top) How it happened... Recalling the incident, Faith said 'There was this article where there was an African-American lady. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. I guess this woman was robbing people. And they called the cops and said it was me' 'We are like, we just solved a f**king crime,' she reportedly said on the now-deleted episode, reported by People. 'We start calling the police. The police dont give a f***.' Doute tweeted about the situation, all but naming Stowers as she wrote: 'Hey tweeties, doesnt this ex #pumprules thief look familiar?' Kristen continued to malign her former castmate - who also appeared on MTV's The Challenge and Ex On The Beach - saying: 'Someone put her on mtv & gave her a platform for press. I didnt wanna go there but Im going there.' Since Faith's account came to light, Stassi has been dropped as a spokesperson for shaving brand Billie and vitamin startup Ritual. In addition, a planned partnership with Glamour magazine focusing on her upcoming nuptials 'has no plans to continue at this time,' according to Page Six. DailyMail.com has reached out to Schroeder and Doute's camps for comment. Schroeder and Doute's antagonism towards Stowers was likely because of her affair with Jax Taylor, which was documented during season six of the show. Isn't that funny? The Next Level Basic writer was happy to brag about wrongfully accusing Stowers in 2018, telling the B**** Bible podcast how she and Kristen 'solved a crime' What a detective: Doute tweeted about the situation, all but naming Stowers as she wrote: 'Hey tweeties, doesnt this ex #pumprules thief look familiar?' and later referenced MTV - who has employed Faith Cheater: Schroeder and Doute's antagonism towards Stowers was likely because of her affair with Jax Taylor, which was documented during season six of the show Taylor - whose chronic infidelity has been a VPR plot point throughout the years - cheated on now-wife Brittany Cartwright with Stowers, who was a recurring character in season four. Talking about the dynamic during the Live session, Faith said: 'I felt like after their friend did something that we both were involved in that he's done like, a thousand times, they wanted to attack me instead of him.' 'They wanted to attack, attack, attack, attack, attack. I was wrong, I was this, I was that, calling me names, saying my hair was nappy, which is weird coming out of their mouths. Blaming the woman: 'They wanted to attack, attack, attack, attack, attack. I was wrong, I was this, I was that, calling me names, saying my hair was nappy, which is weird coming out of their mouths,' she explained. Faith is seen in 2016 above 'And I believe it hit the ceiling for me, and made me really want to run for the hills, when Kristen and Stassi decided they were going to call the cops on me,' she went on. 'I [had] left the show [at that point]. I was invited back to tell my truth, but decided it wasn't going to do anything for me. So I ended up not coming back, I decided to go over to MTV. Once I did that, I felt like they got upset with me.' Vanderpump has been criticized for its lack of diversity over the years. Since premiering in 2013 the show has featured only two black castmembers as recurring characters: Stowers and Tina McDowelle, who appeared in seasons one and two. Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square, tweeted on Tuesday that both companies will honor Juneteenth as a company holiday in the U.S., the latest effort among tech leaders to support and honor the culture of blacks. Juneteenth, which is celebrated on June 19, is the day many African-Americans celebrate their emancipation from slavery in the U.S. On that date in 1865, Union General Gordon Granger read the the Emancipation Proclamation to African-Americans. Twitter and Square will honor the holiday every year moving forward, Dorsey said. Twitter is working to identify what days make the most sense to celebrate the end of slavery in other countries where the company has offices, a spokeswoman said. tweet Dorsey's decision to make Juneteenth a company holiday comes as more tech companies voice their support for the Black Lives Matter protests for racial justice in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. Some companies in tech have also announced donations to organizations working on racial justice. WATCH: Twitter appoints Patrick Pichette as the new chairman of the board JERUSALEM - Several dozen people protested against police violence in Jerusalem on Tuesday following the deadly shooting of a Palestinian man last month. Police said they arrested six people for blocking the citys light rail line during the demonstration. Protesters chanted: A violent cop needs to be in jail, and held signs with the picture of Eyad Hallaq, the 32-year-old Palestinian with severe autism who was shot and killed by Israeli police in Jerusalem on May 30. Similar protests were staged in Haifa and Jaffa, the latest in a series of demonstrations against police violence in Israel following Hallaqs death. The shooting has drawn comparisons to the death of George Floyd in the U.S. Speaking earlier Tuesday while hosting a committee to address police treatment of special needs individuals, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said the country must do everything so that a terrible incident like this doesnt repeat itself. Hallaq was chased by Israeli border police forces into a nook in Jerusalems Old City and fatally shot as he cowered next to a garbage bin after apparently being mistaken for an attacker. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deadly police shooting of Hallaq a tragedy. Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups have long accused Israeli security forces of using excessive force in some cases. Last summer, the killing of Ethiopian Israeli teen Solomon Teka by police officer sparked widespread protests by the countrys Ethiopian community over its treatment by law enforcement. A recent sign change to University Avenue has some Mt. Pleasant residents concerned. At the end of May 2020, Alexis Dailey saw that University Avenue had been changed to University Street and that the directional designations (North, South, East, West) had been removed from the sign. When I asked the person who was changing the signs at the corner of University and Maple why it said Street instead of Avenue, I understood him to have said something along the lines of the Isabella County GIS Mapping system calls it a street, so thats what it is,' Dailey said. I might tell you that a quick check into that proved correct although Google Maps still calls us S. University Avenue and N University Avenue. University Avenue has been an avenue since 1959 and Dailey says that no received any notification from the city that their addresses were changing. For those who do not use a GPS, there is quite the potential for confusion I already had someone asking for a North University address on the new University Street a couple of days ago, Dailey said. Dailey received word from Mt. Pleasants SeeClickFix reporting area that the street sign will be replaced with avenue. The street sign, along with other older street name signs, was initially replaced in order to meet retro-reflectivity stipulations from The Michigan Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. The retro-reflectivity of a sign refers to how visible a sign is when the headlights hit it. With that in mind, the reporting area also indicated that theyve decided to eliminate the direction prefix from street names in order to limit the number of back up signs. Mt. Pleasant says the manual allows for omission of the direction prefix on street signs and not having this prefix can reduce backup signs inventory by half for a number of streets within the city. Dailey was still concerned that, by not having the north and south indicators, it may confuse the post office and other delivery workers, university students, locals, and other Mt. Pleasant visitors. Unless you are listening to or reading your GPS system, anyone unfamiliar with the downtown residential neighborhoods will be unaware that there is a North and a South University Avenue and will be most confused with the fact that certain house numbers dont seem to exist, Dailey said. Dailey has heard from other residents, via the comments in her post on the Mount Pleasant Townie Talk #2 Facebook page, that lack of a direction prefix as well as the initial street name change has caused some confusion due to placement and other address related issues. On S. University Avenue, the odd numbers are on the east side of the road, yet on the north end the odd numbers are on the West side of the road and apparently, according to one comment, there are some same numbers North and South, but I had not verified that for myself. So, I did, Dailey said. First, the signs on North University have not changed, they still have N. University on them, whereas S. University Avenue has become University St. Looking quickly along four blocks there is a 403 on both ends, along with 410, 414, 421, 507, 508. 609, 615, 621 occupying both North and South University. Is any of this really important in the big scheme of things? Probably not Its an annoyance, and I certainly think the City should have notified us at least, since they didnt have the courtesy to ask our opinions. Anyway, apart from the inevitable confusion, it will make documentation tricky too; Im really not sure the department designated with street signage responsibility thought this one through. For more information or inquiries, visit seeclickfix.com/mount-pleasant_4 or the Interactive GIS Map for Isabella County. [June 09, 2020] Accusoft Partners with A-LIGN to Obtain HIPAA Compliance & SOC 2 Examination TAMPA, Fla., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Accusoft partnered with A-LIGN, a technology-enabled security and compliance company, to obtain HIPAA compliance and its SOC 2 examination for products OnTask and PrizmDoc Cloud this month. "OnTask is all about collaboration and process automation. We had customers coming to us in the healthcare industry, looking for HIPAA compliant software to abide by their security requirements," said Steve Wilson, President of OnTask. "We saw an opportunity for our product to expand its reach and provide the required security our medical community needs to begin process automation." Both OnTask and PrizmDoc Cloud are now HIPAA compliant and completed a SOC 2 examination. A-LIGN's CEO, Scott Price, part of the Tampa Bay Software CEOs (TBSC), partnered with Accusoft's CEO, Jack Berlin to make the advancement happen. "As part f the technology sector in Tampa Bay, Accusoft looks for any opportunity to support other tech companies in the community," says Jack Berlin. "TBSC brings us together to collaborate, and that alliance helps us all innovate and succeed together." PrizDoc Cloud received its SOC 2 examination, and now also holds HIPAA certification as well. This enhancement enables users needing HIPAA compliance to host their data on Accusoft servers, instead of creating a new instance of PrizmDoc Cloud on their own server. These two security checks enable Accusoft to serve more customers and offer the assurance they require to move processes forward. About A-LIGN: A-LIGN is a technology-enabled security and compliance partner trusted by more than 2,400 global organizations to help mitigate cybersecurity risks. A-LIGN uniquely delivers a single-provider approach as a HITRUST CSF Assessor firm, Qualified Security Assessor Company, accredited ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 22301 and ISO 9001 Certification Body, accredited FedRAMP 3PAO and licensed CPA firm. Working with small businesses to global enterprises, A-LIGN experts and its proprietary compliance management platform are transforming the compliance experience enabling an anytime, anywhere approach to audits. For more information, visit www.A-LIGN.com . About Accusoft: Founded in 1991, Accusoft is a software development company specializing in content processing, conversion, and automation solutions. From out-of-the-box and configurable applications to APIs built for developers, Accusoft software enables users to solve their most complex workflow challenges and gain insights from content in any format, on any device. Backed by 40 patents, the company's flagship products, including OnTask, PrizmDoc Viewer, and ImageGear, are designed to improve productivity, provide actionable data, and deliver results that matter. The Accusoft team is dedicated to continuous innovation through customer-centric product development, new version release, and a passion for understanding industry trends that drive consumer demand. Visit us at www.accusoft.com . CONTACT: Megan Brooks VP of Marketing 4001 N Riverside Drive Tampa, Florida 33603 +1 (813) 875-7575 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/accusoft-partners-with-a-lign-to-obtain-hipaa-compliance--soc-2-examination-301072876.html SOURCE Accusoft [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] PSNI chief constable Simon Byrne has backtracked on a proposal to change the force's badge on uniforms and equipment. Mr Byrne had floated the idea on Friday of modifying the emblem, removing the words Police Service Northern Ireland from the badge used on signs, vehicles and uniforms. Unionist parties and the Police Federation had voiced opposition to the proposals. Mr Byrne, speaking to BBC NI, said there was "no point in taking the proposal forward" due to opposition to the idea. He told the BBC: "Clearly, there's no point trying to push the ball uphill when we've got other priorities. "I don't think it was a mistake because if you're going to move on and be progressive you've got to test new ideas. "So I think we close this issue down and keep the eye on the big prize, which is improving community policing." Mr Byrne said that it will now not form part of a public consultation of modernising the look of the PSNI. In a later statement, Mr Byrne said it had been his ambition to make the PSNI more "accessible and responsive". He said: "The name of the Police Service of Northern Ireland is set in law and will not be changing, nor will there be any changes to the service crest and emblems. I recognise entirely that the crest is enshrined in law. "This has resulted in much debate and commentary and provoked a strong reaction from some. "I have listened to the feedback and as a result can confirm that the simplified white version of the crest planned for use on social media and digital platforms will not now form part of the public consultation and will no longer be used." Mr Byrne said he wanted to "move away from the use of the acronym PSNI" and focus more on the world "police". He added: "I am keen to develop this. Indeed, our social media platforms have recently been updated to reflect this. "We will continue with our plans to launch our public consultation later this year and would welcome the feedback and contribution from all our communities to help shape the look and feel of the Police Service of Northern Ireland." DUP Policing Board member Merveny Storey said: "The PSNI has many more important priorities in tackling crime rather than a rebranding exercise. "Contrary to what has been said, Policing Board members had to press the PSNI for the detail about this rebrand. Eventually details were secured last Thursday, and members were given an opportunity to study the detail but were unaware that the chief constable was going to tweet all detail on Friday. "Lessons must be learned going forward to ensure this does not happen again. All Policing Board members should be trusted with the detail throughout such a process so important feedback can be given on matters that would have a political impact." The Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI) said it was "time to move on" from the matter. PFNI Chair, Mark Lindsay, said: In our pre-consultation phase, we saw merit and value in much of what was proposed. At the heart of what was set out was a desire to simplify and modernise PSNI branding. The pre-consultation was open and transparent. One element, however, subsequently received some push-back. The chief constable has reacted promptly to acknowledge and address the concerns that were expressed. It is now time to move on from here. In our view, this does not take away from the worthwhile goal of modernising the look of the service. For example, work on uniforms and vehicles must proceed as it will benefit officers in a meaningful and practical way. The chief constable has listened and acted promptly and we share his desire to do what is best for the PSNI and the full range of services officers provide this entire community. - The Pound to Euro exchange rate is -0.36% lower at 1.12251. A lack of appetite for the Pound today has made it easier for the Euro to capitalise on global shifts in sentiment, knocking the British Pound to Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate lower. The Pound outlook is becoming increasingly clouded by uncertainty over Britains coronavirus outlook, as well as returning Brexit fears. Meanwhile the Euro is benefitting from both a global move towards safer currencies as well as some strong Eurozone data. After opening last week at the level of 1.1121, GBP/EUR saw fairly positive movement. The pair spent most of the week higher, and though it dipped on Thursday it did close higher on Friday. However, since opening this week at the level of 1.1220, GBP/EUR has seen more mixed movement. The pair has been unable to sustain any further gains despite attempts. Last nights attempt to continue the rally was knocked this morning by stronger Euro appeal. The pair currently trends closely to the weeks opening levels. The Euro was more easily able to prevent further Pound gains, due to the Pounds lack of fresh drive this week. In recent weeks it has been supported by market appetite for taking risks, as well as hopes for an economic rebound in Britain. However, investors have received mixed optimism from Britains exit strategy for the coronavirus quarantine period. For example, the governments plan for a 14-day quarantine on inbound flights has concerned some investors. On top of this though, Brexit fears are returning. As the deadline for extending the Brexit transition period approaches over the next month, investors are becoming more concerned about the lack of progress in talks. If no extension is agreed and no progress is made, Britain will see a cliff-edge scenario with EU links at the end of 2020. Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates Jump on Safe Haven Demand and Strong Data The Euro has been a broadly appealing currency in recent weeks. While its rally came to a slow yesterday, it is climbing once again today, but due to safe haven demand rather than weakness in its rival the US Dollar (USD). The Euro is being seen as fairly safe lately, due to market optimism around Eurozone monetary policy and EU exit strategies from the coronavirus pandemic. As well as being boosted by safe haven demand, this mornings Eurozone data was fairly optimistic for the Eurozone outlook. Eurozone employment and growth stats beat forecasts. However, while these figures were largely from before the coronavirus pandemics worse months and Germanys April trade data was concerning, analysts still had some optimism. According to Carsten Brzeski, Chief Eurozone and Global Economist at ING, much of the Eurozones existing economic weakness may be in the past for now: Looking ahead, while April was the worst month ever in terms of most economic data releases, the month of May could become one of the best months ever. With the worst now behind us, things will start to brighten. GBP/EUR Exchange Rate Forecast: Will Sterling Attempt Another Rally? The Pound continues to attempt gains this week, despite lacking the drive and appeal to sustain gains. Whether or not the Pound to Euro exchange rate sustains further gains in the coming sessions may depend on the Pounds appeal. If investors begin to find riskier currencies more appealing again after todays jump in safe haven demand, this could boost Sterling. At the same time though, the Pound is likely to continue to face pressure domestically. Even if the markets perception of Britains handling of coronavirus improves, Brexit uncertainties are gradually returning to focus. The Euro, on the other hand, is likely to remain fairly appealing overall. It could see further boost if upcoming comments from European Central Bank (ECB) officials impress investors. With its rivals weakened by domestic outlooks, the Euro is currently seen as reliably appealing. For now, the Pound to Euro exchange rates potential for further gains is limited. Advertisement Crowds of Black Lives Matter demonstrators gathered in London for George Floyd's funeral this afternoon as police officers in Henley-on-Thames 'take a knee' at a protest in Oxfordshire. Around 200 protesters had gathered by the statue to Nelson Mandela on Parliament Square as Mr Floyd, an African-American who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes, was laid to rest in Houston, Texas. At 5pm the crowd moved on to the gates of Downing Street passing a handful of Londoners who had formed a protective ring around the statue of Sir Winston Churchill to stop it being vandalised, as it had been during Sunday's protest. Faded graffiti calling Churchill a racist was still just about visible as the men kept watch under the eyes of the Metropolitan Police. Outside Downing Street, the small crowd continued to chant 'Black Lives Matter' and hold aloft placards calling for racial equality. The imposing security gates guarding the official residence of the Prime Minister have become a focal point for protester's anger over the last week. However, unlike previous protests, which have exploded into violence and seen officers attacked with bottles and other missiles, tonight's gathering was peaceful with no outbreaks of disorder. There was only one brief flare-up when some of the group protecting the Churchill statue back on Parliament Square reacted angrily to a man they accused of spitting on the floor close by. Police quickly moved in and calmed tempers. It comes as Black Lives Matters supporters have 60 UK statues they want removed for 'celebrating slavery and racism' as councils and museums rushed to remove their controversial monuments after Edward Colston's was torn down in Bristol. Another protest kicked off in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, where officers were seen joining around 200 protesters in 'take a knee' with placards reading 'black lives matter' and 'government silence is compliance'. And activists have gathered at Oxford University's Oriel College demanding remove the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes, which has been at the centre of a long-running row. Black Lives Matters activists and another group clashed this afternoon close to the Winston Churchill statue, just days after it was vandalised A group of men clash with police defending the statue of Churchill this afternoon as Black Lives Matters protesters paid tribute to George Floyd whose funeral in taking place in Houston, US A man holds a cross with an England flag on top of it as police guard the statue of Winston Churchill this afternoon Met Police created a circle of protection for the statue of Winston Churchill this afternoon as BLM activists and another group clashed Demonstrators and their dogs during a Black Lives Matter protest in Parliament Square, following the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis Demonstrators 'take the knee' during a minute's silence at a Stand up to Racism protest in front of a statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square this afternoon Protesters remained outside Downing St until nearly 6pm when they dispersed. A group of them returned to Parliament Square and confronted the men protecting the Churchill statue and there was a brief face-off as police got in between them. Most of the protesters soon moved away but a handful remained and became involved in heated discussions with those guarding the statue. One middle aged man was moved on by police as tempers threatened to boil over. As he left Parliament Square he said: 'I told some of the protesters that black people had slaves as well. 'They were throwing accusations around but I said I was proud of my race, as they were proud of their race.' Herman Williams, 35, led many of the chants and said he wanted to fight for justice for his father of the same name, who he said was a victim of the Windrush scandal. Amid chants of 'come out Boris', he said: 'There needs to be a public inquiry into my father's death. 'I support Black Lives Matter, because this is black life. I am black life. 'I want the Government to make new legislation. The Government always say one thing, then don't act on what they say - just like when they apologised and said they are going to compensate us (the Windrush generation).' A bystander who identified himself as T Briggs urged the crowd to avoid violence ahead of the event. He told the PA news agency: 'It's devastating, it's disappointing the way police have been treating black people in the case of George Floyd in America. 'But the Americans have been looting and being violent. We cannot be like that in the UK. 'If you want to carry out a protest, do it peacefully. That's the only way your voice can be heard.' Demonstrators outside Downing Street in London, as the funeral of George Floyd takes place in the US following his death on May 25 while in police custody in the US city of Minneapolis A masked protester holds up a placard this afternoon saying 'It's 2020...Why are we still asking 4 equality' as they walk to Downing Street Around 200 demonstrators gathered outside the gates at Downing Street on Whitehall, central London, this afternoon Black Lives Matter demonstrators outside Downing Street in London, as the funeral of George Floyd takes place in the US following his death on May 25 while in police custody in the US city of Minneapolis. PA Photo. Picture date: Tuesday June 9, 2020. See PA story POLICE Floyd. Photo credit should read: Victoria Jones/PA Wire Police in Market Square, Henley on Thames, for Black Lives Matter with a silent kneel to remember those who have lost their lives because of racism Another protester - who gave her name only as Adassa, 64 - said she joined the march despite the coronavirus pandemic because racism is 'worse than the virus'. She said: 'My son got stopped (by police) three weeks ago ... they had him in a handcuff like he was a criminal, telling everybody: 'that boy is going around robbing'. 'Not everybody is the same. We're here for justice and equality. We want to make a change and to make a difference.' In Oxford hundreds of demonstrators have silently sat down to mark the death of George Floyd at an anti-racism protest in Oxford. Several hundred people had gathered outside the Oxford college, chanting 'take it down' below the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes. The protest has now taken up a large amount of Oxford high street outside of Oriel College, with demonstrators holding up their fists and remaining silent for eight minutes, 46 seconds in memory of Mr Floyd. A police helicopter is overhead and several police officers are at the demonstration, including two officers on the steps of the college. It comes Black Lives Matters supporters have 60 UK statues they want removed for 'celebrating slavery and racism' as councils and museums rushed to remove their controversial monuments after Edward Colston's was torn down in Bristol. Demonstrators are seen beside a statue of Nelson Mandela during a Black Lives Matter protest in Parliament Square today BLM activists gather outside Downing Street this afternoon 'Black Lives matter, we want justice and equality' People gather during a rally at the entrance to Downing Street, London, to commemorate George Floyd as his funeral takes place in the US following his death on May 25 while in police custody in the US city of Minneapolis Protesters demand the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes be removed from Oriel College, Oxford this afternoon Protesters demand the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes be removed from Oriel College, Oxford Some of Briton's most famous people are on the hit list including imperialist Cecil Rhodes in Oxford, slave-trading West India Docks founder Robert Milligan at the Museum of London, and the Edinburgh statue of former Home Secretary Henry Dundas who delayed the abolition of slavery as well as a statue of Sir Francis Drake on Plymouth Hoe. The interactive map, called 'topple the racists', was set up by the Stop Trump Coalition in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and lists plaques and monuments in more than 30 towns and cities across the UK. The online list is unregulated and can be added to by the public. And this afternoon, amid growing pressure to act, the Museum of London has moved to take down the giant bronze figure of plantation and slave owner Robert Milligan outside. A spokesman said: 'The Museum of London recognises that the monument is part of the ongoing problematic regime of white-washing history, which disregards the pain of those who are still wrestling with the remnants of the crimes Milligan committed against humanity. We are currently working with a consortium to remove this statue'. It comes as the statue of slave trader Robert Milligan has been removed from its position at West India Quay, east London. Workers prepare to take down a statue of slave owner Robert Milligan at West India Quay, east London as Labour councils across England and Wales will begin reviewing monuments and statues in their towns and cities, after a protest saw anti-racism campaigners tear down a statue of a slave trader in Bristol Tower Hamlets Council removed the figure shortly after 7pm on Tuesday, using a JCB to lift it from its plinth. In a statement on Twitter, the council said: 'Tonight, we have removed the statue of slave trader Robert Milligan that previously stood at West India Quay. 'We have also announced a review into monuments and other sites in our borough to understand how we should represent the more troubling periods in our history.' It came after charity Canal and River Trust, which owns the land where the statue is located, said it would organise its 'safe removal' following a petition launched by Tower Hamlets Labour councillor Ehtasham Haque demanding it be taken down. How Books and Buckets program in Long Beach aims to keep kids away from gang violence When protests erupted around the world in response to the killing of George Floyd, Pickett started cranking out buttons in double time. She added a few more designs to the mix: Justice for Ahmaud. Justice for George. Justice for Breonna. She posted the designs on her Facebook and Instagram pages and offered to mail them to anyone who wanted one. Iran on June 9 said that it will execute a man convicted for spying on the country's Quds Force, whose general was killed by the United States earlier this year. According to reports, the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic has upheld the death sentence of Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, who was convicted of spying for Israel and the United States for large sums of money. A spokesperson for the judiciary in a televised press conference on Tuesday said that the death sentence will be carried out soon. Read: Iran Claims To Be Open To Conducting More Prisoner Exchanges With US According to reports, Mahmoud Mousavi Majd was allegedly paid large sums of money by Israel's Mossad and the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to report on General Qasem Soleimani's whereabouts. Mahmoud Mousavi Majd has also been convicted for spying on Iran's armed forces. Iran in December last year said that it had arrested eight people linked to the CIA and the protests that had taken place a month before in the country over rising oil prices. The Iranian government had clamped down on protesters killing hundreds and injuring thousands. Read: Iran's Rouhani Says A Wedding Party Contributed To New Surge In COVID-19 Cases US-Iran tensions The United States in January this year killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in an airstrike near Baghdad airport. Iran in retaliation attacked US and NATO bases in Iraq with missiles. Tensions between the two nations grew after US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal that was signed during the Obama era in 2015. In April, Iran launched its first military satellite into the Earth's orbit, raising eyebrows in Washington. The United States worries that the launch will help Iran develop ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Read: Afghans Denounce Iranian Police As Refugees' Death In Car Blaze Triggers Anger Read: Russia Defends Iran's Right To Explore Space After US Objection Over Satellite Launch (Image Credit: AP) (With inputs from agency) Postal workers at Bridgewater delivery office took unofficial strike action last week over a manager reneging on an agreement between the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Royal Mail. This is the second time postal workers have taken strike action at this office. One hundred postal workers walked out after reaching breaking point over aggressive and anti-union behaviour by someone described as a rogue manager. The strike was backed by 99.7 percent of the workforce. When workers voted by a narrow margin to return to work, they were forced back out again on strike when the manager again reneged on the agreement. One worker said they had never seen anything like this. It appears that the local management team do not agree with the agreement made with Royal Mail nationally. The strike was taken after grievances that had occurred over the last six weeks came to a head. Workers have faced threats of disciplinary action such as wilful delay of the mail, which can lead to instant dismissal. Managers have followed union reps around the office to intimidate the entire workforce. One worker explained, Members have reached a breaking point over issues that have built up over the last six weeks and do not feel like they have been treated with dignity and respect in the workplace, and that is why its got to the point where people have walked out. A spokesperson said Royal Mail was disappointed by the strike action and was working through the issues raised and continue to engage with the CWU to find a resolution. It has not taken long for the much-heralded working relationship between Royal Mails new CEO Keith Williams and the CWU to be revealed for what it isa mechanism to impose drastic changes to working conditions. Williams promised on his first day to ensure an accelerated pace of change across the business. The CWU in fact green-lighted the attacks at Bridgewater and other offices around the country. Throughout the pandemic, the trade unions have either never called strike action or, in the case of the CWU, sabotaged a vote to take it. To cover their backs, the CWU et al. then said they would support members who exercised their legal right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions. This conveniently meant that the CWU did not need to call its members out or extend any genuine protection against victimisation. It is likely that the rogue management at Bridgewater have been told by Royal Mail headquarters to test the water for a stepped-up attack on postal workers. The union have once more pleaded with Royal Mail, saying, Royal Mail must now re-consider their whole management strategy at Bridgwater and appoint managers who are prepared to work with the union. The result of this collaboration is clear to see. Postal workers are catching COVID-19 at an alarming rate and at least four have already died with coronavirus. Only recently, an outbreak of six new cases was reported at Wellingborough Royal Mail delivery office in Northampton. Two workers are in hospital, with one reported to be very poorly. One worker expressed the concerns of the whole office when he said, Although PPE [personal protective equipment] have now been provided there has been no training on how to use them safely. Local newspaper the Northants Telegraph was also told by workers that no social distancing measures are in place and that the office has not been closed for a deep clean, as operations continue as usual. This comes only two weeks after walkouts over safety fears at Royal Mail offices in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and High Wycombe, near London, after employees tested positive for the virus. The month before, postal workers at Bury St. Edmunds, Chatham, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington, Didcot, Edinburgh, Alloa and Fife took unofficial action over safety. Workers at Wellingborough were deliberately kept in the dark about the infections in their office until a worker announced the COVID-19 cases over the public address system. The worker complained that management had kept silent about the virus. Royal Mail issued its usual perfunctory statement saying, Royal Mail takes the health and safety of its colleagues, its customers and the local communities in which we operate very seriously. Throughout this crisis, every decision we make puts the health of our people and customers first. This is now a life or death situation facing postal workers. The essential conclusion that must now be drawn is that the fight for safe working conditions and against Royal Mails offensive means postal workers taking matters into their own hands, organising rank-and-file action committees, independent from the CWU. National Assembly (NA) deputy Do Van Sinh, Permanent Member of NA Economic Committee, talks about the disbursement process for public investment projects this year. Do Van Sinh. Photo thoibaotaichinhvietnam.vn Why did the disbursement of public investment remain low in the first five months of this year despite many efforts? Slow disbursement of public investment has always been a "dark spot" in economic activities in recent years. Although the Government and the Prime Minister have frequently urged and promoted ministries and localities to accelerate public investment, this situation has not improved much. However, the disbursement is uneven in ministries, sectors and localities. Some have been working well but some have not. This shows that the main reason is in the organisation of the implementation. There are also some problems coming from the legal regulations but this is not the main cause. The revised Law on Public Investment (amended) came into effect on January 1 this year, removing some legal difficulties. Therefore, I think that the main reason of the slow disbursement of public investment is due to subjective factors, especially the limitations in management, administration and implementation such as investment procedures and capital plan details have been slowly worked on, site clearance has not been completely resolved while the contractor selection and construction have been carried out slowly. A number of ministries, sectors, localities and project management boards have not been proactive or drastic in co-ordinating and directing the administration. The role and responsibility of the head have not been upheld. How do you evaluate the ability to complete the disbursement plan this year? Last year, we had many drastic measures to speed up disbursement. We disbursed about VND325 trillion (US$14.4 billion), about 75 per cent of the plan. Meanwhile, the plan to disburse public investment this year is VND700 trillion, twice as much as last year. Over the first five months, the disbursement to date is estimated at about 26 per cent of the plan, although slightly better than last year, the rate is still low. Therefore, disbursing all the planned VND700 trillion this year will be very difficult, even impossible. However, with the revised Law on Public Investment taking effect this year and the Government decree detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the law in April, the disbursements may be somewhat faster. All projects are ready for procedures and have completed requirements and are just waiting for implementation or completion of unfinished components. Therefore, we can accelerate to disburse all the planned capital of VND700 trillion. This is a very important driving force for the economy, especially in the context of weak supply and demand of the private sector due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. What should we do to further speed up the disbursement process? Since the beginning of the year, the Government and the Prime Minister have frequently urged and emphasised the importance of public investment disbursement. In late May, the Prime Minister made a written request to the provincial and municipal Party secretaries, ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, government-attached agencies, and chairmen of people's committees of provinces and cities, asking them to focus on directing and speeding up the disbursement of public investment capital this year and consider this the main political task of the year. In this document, the Prime Minister also requested for sanctions to strictly punish those who intentionally cause difficulties, hinder and slow the progress of implementation and disbursement. The role and responsibility of the leader will be upheld. These are the right and necessary solutions but they are still not drastic enough. It is important to clarify each step, each task to be completed within a specific time, with the specific person taking responsibility. Frankly speaking, in many places, the organisational structure of implementing public investment projects is problematic. Through supervision, we know there are project management directors who are not doing the right jobs, have poor organisational capacity, while managing a lot of money. The regulations on the heads responsibility have not been clear so no one has been disciplined for causing slow disbursement. We must have a clear process of review and punish. There is not much time left from now until the end of the year and I think that some processes related to public investment under the authority of the National Assembly can be handed to the Government. For example, the transfer of capital sources between ministries, sectors, localities should be carried out by the Government, creating maximum conditions for the Government to accelerate disbursement this time. VNS/TBTC Vietnamese National Assembly adopts Law on Public Investment New hallmark revisions to the existing Law on Public Investment have been established in the picture of public investment in Vietnam, enabling the country to invest in projects more effectively. The Archbishop of Canterbury has spoken out on the subject of racism and race relations in the UK, admitting the church of England has made multiple failings and must get its own house in order. Justin Welby took to social media to admit the church needs to do better to address the issue of racism, and must acknowledge its own level of privilege. With the Black Lives Matter movement gaining strong momentum across the globe in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Archbishop of Canterbury has felt compelled to speak out and use his audience to convey a message. The Archbishop of Canterbury took to social media to address racism in the UK on Monday Posting the video on Twitter to over 150,000 followers, Archbishop Welby began with a quick recollection of the tale of the Good Samaritan, before applying the bible passage to the current climate of the world today. 'I'm struck by the events of the last few days, again and again and again. And i've been listening to those who have been talking about it from within their own experience of injustice as people of colour in this country,' he began. 'It's horrifying and yet I'm aware to that the church has its own failings. And I come back to the fact that in the New Testament Jesus says be angry about injustice, repent of injustice - that means go the other way, take action against injustice. Archbishop Welby branded the level of racism which still exists 'horrifying' and admits the bible teaches that action should be taken against injustice 'How that action is taken will vary from time to time and place to place. It must never involve the creation of more injustice, by seeking to damage other people. 'But I feel within me, again today, that great call of Jesus that we are as a church to be those who set our own house in order and who acknowledge our own historic errors and failings. 'As a person I acknowledge that I come from privilege and a place of power as a white person in this country, and then we take action.' Thousands of people took to the streets in demonstrations across the UK as part of ongoing global protests sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of US police officers. Unrest in London on Sunday led to 35 officers being injured and 36 people being arrested for offences including violent disorder, criminal damage and assaulting police, the Metropolitan Police said today. In Bristol, police are continuing to investigate the 'criminal damage' of a bronze statue of prominent 17th century slave trader Edward Colston which was ripped down by protesters, a move Downing Street called a 'criminal act'. SELBYVILLE, Del., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest report "Li-Fi Market by Component (Microcontroller, Photodetector, LED), Application (Indoor Networking, Aerospace, Automotive, Healthcare, Location Based Services, Underwater Communication, Defense & Security, Intrinsically Safe Environments), Regional Outlook, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast 2030", by Global Market Insights, Inc., the market valuation of (light fidelity) Li-Fi will cross $8 billion by 2030. The Asia-Pacific Li-Fi market is anticipated to observe substantial growth during the forecast timespan due to the potential adoption of Li-Fi in commercial, private, and military sectors. The market growth is owing to the increasing implementation of Li-Fi systems in the education sector. Rising adoption of Li-Fi in schools and research institutes to provide seamless and secure internet connectivity to students is driving the market revenue. Request a sample of this research report at https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/462 Microcontrollers are expected to display a growing demand in the implementation of Li-Fi technology. The growth can be attributed to their flexible mounting ability on small areas. Microcontroller-based Li-Fi devices are integrated with small Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), which can be implemented in several devices including smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Owing to the high flexibility of movement in a single device, microcontrollers will reduce the requirements for a large number of components for the installation of Li-Fi systems, thereby driving the market growth. The Asia-Pacific Li-Fi market is anticipated to observe substantial growth during the forecast timespan due to the potential adoption of Li-Fi in commercial, private, and military sectors. The rising penetration of smartphones in the region is posing a high demand for fast data transfer, straining the existing RF-based wireless networks. The defense & security sector is set to witness a high adoption of Li-Fi technology. Existing technologies, such as RF and Wi-Fi, pose significant threats to security, as they are highly vulnerable to data leakage or data loss. The implementation of Li-Fi is increasing in the defense sector to ensure the security of information transferred and stored. Li-Fi technology also ensures the stability of the connection to avoid data loss, contributing to the market growth. Key players operating in the Li-Fi market include Lucibel, Signify, Oledcomm, Renesas Electronic Corporation, Acuity Brands, VLNComm, SLD Laser and NAV Technologies. Market players are adopting several strategies such as new product launches and business expansion to tap the unserved market. Emerging players are also focusing on establishing partnerships with market leaders to develop technologically advanced products. Request for customization of this research report at https://www.gminsights.com/roc/462 Some major findings in the Li-Fi market report include: Increasing consumption of data and growing RF spectrum crunch is creating a demand for alternative wireless communication technologies such as Li-Fi in the market. Potential implementation of Li-Fi in the automotive sector for Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Road (V2R) communication will augment the demand for this technology over the forecast timeframe. Growing investments in the development of smart city projects in MEA is supporting the adoption of Li-Fi. The integration of Li-Fi in streetlights provides high-speed mobile connectivity to users without the use of radiofrequency. Li-Fi technology providers are focusing on strategic collaborations with consumer electronics manufacturers to integrate Li-Fi enabled chipsets and microcontrollers in smartphones, laptops, smart wearables etc. Table of Contents (ToC) of the report: Chapter 3. Li-Fi Market Insights 3.1. Industry segmentation 3.2. Industry landscape, 2016 - 2030 3.3. Impact of COVID-19 on industry landscape 3.3.1. Global outlook 3.3.2. Regional impact 3.3.2.1. North America 3.3.2.2. Europe 3.3.2.3. Asia Pacific 3.3.2.4. Latin America 3.3.2.5. MEA 3.3.3. Industry value chain 3.3.3.1. Research & development 3.3.3.2. Manufacturing 3.3.3.3. Marketing 3.3.3.4. Supply 3.3.4. Competitive landscape 3.3.4.1. Strategy 3.3.4.2. Distribution network 3.3.4.3. Business growth 3.4. Industry ecosystem analysis 3.4.1. Distribution channel analysis 3.5. Li-Fi for indoor networking 3.5.1. Role of Li-Fi for indoor networking vs. Wi-Fi vs. 5G Wireless 3.5.2. Technology gaps delaying the broad deployment of Li-Fi 3.5.3. Role of Li-Fi in the post-COVID-19 world 3.6. Li-Fi users/customers 3.6.1. Past users/customers 3.6.2. Current users/customers 3.6.3. Potential users/customers 3.7. Technology & innovation landscape 3.7.1. Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) 3.7.2. Impact of IoT 3.8. Regulatory landscape 3.8.1. International standards 3.8.1.1. IEEE 802.15.7 3.8.1.2. ISO/IEC 17417:2011(en) 3.8.2. North America 3.8.2.1. ITU-T G.9991 3.8.2.2. The Lighting Controls Association 3.8.3. Europe 3.8.3.1. (EU) No 1194/2012 3.8.4. Asia Pacific 3.8.4.1. GB/T 36628.3-2019-part 3 (China) 3.8.4.2. JEITA CP-1221 (Japan) 3.8.4.3. JEITA CP-1222 (Japan) 3.8.5. Latin America 3.8.5.1. NOM-064-SCFI-2000 (Mexico) 3.8.6. MEA 3.8.6.1. GSO ISO/IEC 15429: 2013 (GCC) 3.9. Industry impact forces 3.9.1. Growth drivers 3.9.2. Industry pitfalls & challenges 3.10. Growth potential analysis 3.11. Porter's 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. Internal rivalry 3.12. PESTEL analysis Browse Complete Table of Contents (ToC) at https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/lifi-market About Global Market Insights, Inc. Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology. Contact Us: Arun Hegde Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights, Inc. Phone: 1-302-846-7766 Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688 Email: [email protected] Related Images global-li-fi-market-revenue-to.png Global Li-Fi Market revenue to cross $8 Billion by 2030: GMI The Asia-Pacific Li-Fi market is anticipated to observe substantial growth during the forecast timespan due to the potential adoption of Li-Fi in commercial, private, and military sectors. Related Links Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) Market Trends Wi-Fi Market Trends SOURCE Global Market Insights, Inc. Related Links https://www.gminsights.com BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday that new national security legislation will enable Hong Kong citizens to better exercise their legal rights and freedoms in a secure environment. Spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks in her rebuttal to the assertions of western politicians who oppose the legislation, including U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Hua told a press briefing that, with the return of Hong Kong to China and the completion of follow-up matters, all UK-related provisions in the Sino-British Joint Declaration have already been implemented. "The legal basis for implementing 'one country, two systems,' including for the Hong Kong-related national security legislation, is China's Constitution and the Basic Law, not the Sino-British Joint Declaration," Hua said. Targeting four categories of acts, namely secession, subversion of state power, organizing and committing acts of terrorism, and foreign and external interference in the affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), and a very small number of people whose behaviors gravely jeopardize national security, the national security legislation will not impact the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents, and will only contribute to the better exercising of their legal rights and freedoms in a secure environment, Hua said. "Therefore, there is no need whatsoever for foreign investors and the law-abiding Hong Kong residents to worry," the spokesperson said. Hua said around 3 million Hong Kong residents expressed their support for national security legislation in signature campaigns, and well-known foreign companies like HSBC, Jardine Matheson, Swire Group and Standard Chartered have voiced their support for the legislation. A survey by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce showed that 61 percent of the respondents believe the law will have either a positive or no impact at all on their businesses over the long term, and the Hang Seng Index gained ground for five days in a row, according to Hua. "These are all votes of confidence in the national security legislation for the Hong Kong SAR and the prospect of the 'one country, two systems' principle," Hua said. The reason why some U.S. politicians have uttered opposition to the legislation is that what they care about is not the freedom enjoyed by Hong Kong residents, but the "freedom" to do everything they want to sabotage China's national security, Hua said. Hua stressed that the Hong Kong-related national security legislation aims to plug the loopholes in national security for the Hong Kong SAR and the whole China. "Those who don't intend to engage in secessionist, subversive and terrorist activities do not need to worry or overreact at all," Hua said, adding that China firmly opposes any foreign interference in Hong Kong affairs. Martin Gugino lays on the ground after he was shoved by two Buffalo, New York, police officers - Jamie Quinn/Handout via REUTERS President Trump suggested a 75-year-old man who was shoved to the ground by police while attending a protest for George Floyd was an Antifa provocateur". Police in Buffalo, upstate New York, had initially claimed Martin Gugino tripped and fell, but later launched an internal investigation after video of the incident went viral. Donald Trump suggested in a tweet on Tuesday morning that the scene could have been a set up orchestrated by far-left activists, though did not provide any support for the claim. I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? the president wrote. The conspiracy theory was first floated on One America News, a conservative channel watched by Mr Trump. Two officers wearing riot gear caught in the footage pushing Mr Gugino, a retired database worker, to the ground, where he lay heavily bleeding on the pavement, have pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault. Their 57 fellow officers on the emergency team have resigned from the unit in solidarity with the two officers. Kelly Zarcone, a lawyer for Mr Gugino, who is still hospitalised in serious but stable condition, responded to Mr Trumps tweet, saying: There is no need to go around name calling, accusing people of being things theyre not... Martin has always been a peaceful protester, I dont know where that comes from. Mr Guginos friends have described him as a longtime peace activist who has worked in anti-racism and anti-nuclear activism. John Washington told the Washington Post that he is known as someone who always shows up at protests in Buffalo. Hes been at every important protest in Buffalo in the past 10 years, said Mr Washington. Byron Brown, the mayor of Buffalo, justified the officers conduct during a Friday news conference where he referred to Mr Gugino as an "agitator." Story continues Mr Brown said the elderly man had been a "key and major instigator" of people who'd been looting and vandalising the city... and because it was after curfew, police were clearing the scene "for the safety of protesters." Mr Trump has looked to blame Antifa, an amorphous Leftist and anti-facist movement, for the unrest in cities across America. He tweeted last week he wanted to designate the group a terrorist organisation. According to an Associated Press analysis of court records, rather than being outside agitators, more than 85 per cent of those arrested by police were local residents. Andrew Cuomo, New York Governor, tweeted: The president is tweeting conspiracy theories about the Buffalo incident based on no evidence, no proof. Was the blood coming out of his head staged? Were our eyes lying to us? No. "The man is still in the hospital & the president is disparaging him. It's cruel & reckless. If current trends in urbanisation, production, and consumption continue, the number of plastics in the worlds oceans may reach 250 million tonnes in less than 10 years, the World Bank has warned. The Bank stated this in a statement on Monday to commemorate World Ocean Day 2020. The warning comes against the backdrop of calls for a commitment to the conservation and sustainability of the oceans through innovation and science to protect a vital resource. There are currently an estimated 150 million tonnes of plastic in the worlds oceans, according to the Bank. It said if unsustainable fishing practices and deterioration of coastal and marine ecosystems continue, by 2050 there will be no usable fish stocks in the Asia Pacific Region. Ocean and Climate Change The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, in a message to mark the Day, urged governments and all stakeholders to commit to the conservation and sustainability of the oceans through innovation and science. As we work to end the pandemic and build back better, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity and responsibility to correct our relationship with the natural world, including the worlds seas and oceans, Mr Gueterres said. We rely on the oceans for food, livelihoods, transport, and trade. He said as the lungs of our planet and its largest carbon sink, the oceans play a vital role in regulating the global climate. Today, sea levels are rising due to climate change, threatening lives and livelihoods in low-lying nations and coastal cities and communities around the world, he noted. He said that the oceans are becoming more acidic, putting marine biodiversity and essential food chains in jeopardy. The Secretary- General noted that a better understanding of the oceans is essential. According to National Geographic, the year 2018 marked the oceans hottest year on record, and warmer waters lead to a range of consequences, from changing colours to rising sea levels to more frequent powerful storms. The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is also turning ocean waters acidic, and an influx of freshwater from melting glaciers threatens to alter the weather-driving currents: the Atlantic Oceans currents have slowed by about 15 percent over the past few decades. Human activities National Geographic said human activities affect nearly all parts of the ocean and lost and discarded fishing nets continue to lethally snare fish, seabirds, and marine mammals as they drift. Ships spill oil and garbage; they also transport critters to alien habitats unprepared for their arrival, turning them into invasive species. Mangrove forests are cleared for homes and industry. Our garbage, particularly plastic, chokes the seas, creating vast garbage patches such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Fertilizer runoff from farms turns vast swathes of the ocean into dead zones, including a New Jersey-size area in the Gulf of Mexico. Many Gains of the Ocean According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the ocean covers three quarters of the earths surface and represents 99 percent of the living space on the planet by volume. It said the ocean contains nearly 200,000 identified species, but actual numbers may lie in the millions. The ocean absorbs about 30 per cent of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming. More than three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. UNDP highlighted that the market value of marine and coastal resources and industries is estimated at US$3 trillion per year, about five per cent of global GDP. However, as much as 40 per cent of the ocean is heavily affected by pollution, depleted fisheries, loss of coastal habitats and other human activities, UNDP said. Sustainable Development Goal 14 The Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) aim to sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems from pollution, as well as address the impacts of ocean acidification. Advertisements The goal is designed to enhancing conservation and the sustainable use of ocean-based resources through international law that will also help mitigate some of the challenges facing the oceans. The oceans hold about 321 million cubic miles (1.34 billion cubic kilometres) of water, which is roughly 97 percent of Earths water supply. Seawaters weight is about 3.5 per cent dissolved salt; oceans are also rich in chlorine, magnesium, and calcium. The oceans absorb the suns heat, transferring it to the atmosphere, and distributing it around the world. This conveyor belt of heat drives global weather patterns and helps regulate temperatures on land, acting as a heater in the winter and an air conditioner in the summer. Despite regular discoveries about the ocean and its denizens, much remains unknown. More than 80 per cent of the ocean is unmapped and unexplored, which leaves open the question of how many species there are yet to be discovered. At the same time, the ocean hosts some of the worlds oldest creatures: Jellyfish have been around more than half a billion years, horseshoe crabs almost as long. The World Oceans Day is an international day that takes place annually on 8 June. DETROIT -- On the 11th day of protests in Detroit, demonstrators once again sought to connect with the citys somber history of racial inequality and struggle for civil rights. Protesters marched to 8301 Woodward Ave., the site of the Algiers Motel, where three unarmed black teenagers were killed by police during the riots of 1967. Elliott Hall began practicing law that year and his partner was an attorney for the motel owner, he said during Mondays protest. I had the enviable task of babysitting the two prostitutes who came to our office to tell us the details about what happened in the motel that resulted in the death of those three youngsters, Hall said. Related: Detroit protesters march to site where 1967 riot began in recognition of historic struggle Police raided the motel after a report of a sniper inside, and got in there and they saw young black men ... and they saw two white prostitutes and they decided to terrorize them, said historian Danielle McGuire of Wayne State University during the demonstration. They lined them up against the east wall, made them face the wall, put their hands up, they beat them, they brutalized them, they threatened their lives. They played a game. They said 'Im going to kill your friend unless you told me who is the sniper. But none of them were snipers. Related: Cops remember Detroit 1967 riot, racial divide that persisted Protesters compared conditions of the time with todays tensions with police in black communities. The 11 days of current Detroit demonstrations started after a black Minnesota man, George Floyd, was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee into his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest on May 25. Activists from 1960s speak at site of Algiers Motel in Detroit Posted by MLive.com on Monday, June 8, 2020 Detroit police in the 1960s had a unit called STRESS, which stood for stop the robberies enjoy safe streets, said Hall, who at the time fought to disband the unit because it was often associated with police brutality. You heard about the officer who knelt on the neck of Mr. Floyd ... well, the police in the STRESS unit were just as bad," Hall said. "They brutalized, terrorized and murdered the black community here in Detroit. When Coleman Young ran for mayor, his first act was to disband STRESS, and that happened. Hall was later appointed law director of Detroit in 1974 and helped integrate the police department to bring in more residents with relationships in the neighborhoods. What a big change that was, Hall said. Longtime activist Marian Kramer, who is part of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, said she worked decades ago to ensure black workers were able to enjoy the same joy that the whites were enjoying at that time. She said she was proud of the young Detroit activists who demonstrated Monday. As long as I can walk and as long as I can talk, Im going to be fighting. But were going to turn the baton over to you, Kramer told the crowd. Were fighting for a society that intakes all of us ... Weve been fighting for this stuff for a long time. All of our lives. Lead organizer Tristan Taylor plans to meet with Mayor Mike Duggan on Tuesday to discuss demands from protesters. I hope that the meeting is fruitful and productive and that we see some actual actions because were going to be highlighting things that we know (Mayor) Duggan and Chief (James) Craig can do and do right now, Taylor said. Everything from defunding, demilitarizing police to dropping off all the charges, to refusing to comply with eviction orders to keep Detroiters safe in their homes, to other things like creating policies that really have severe punishment for police officers who are part of incidents of police brutality. Whether or not the demands are agreed upon, Taylor said he plans to keep marching. We want more, he said. Theres been this false dichotomy of peace. The events that happened Tuesday showed who has a problem with peace and who doesnt. Police made arrests and used pepper spray against protesters Tuesday, June 2. But police have since stopped enforcing an 8 p.m. curfew and demonstrations each night after that have been peaceful. Related: Detroit protesters celebrate 'victory after police chief eases curfew enforcement Once a victim of police brutality, Ann Arbor police chief talks trust, training and tactics Detroit protesters dance to deal with the trauma in downtown streets Cops remember Detroit 1967 riot, racial divide that persisted A quick guide to the 1967 Detroit Riot 150 historic photos from the Detroit 1967 riot Looter in Detroit 1967 riot: You can only be held down for so long Childhood memories from Detroit 1967: It was war Racial tensions that led to 1967 Detroit riot were felt in several Michigan cities Bhopal, June 9 : The bypolls to the 24 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh are not only crucial for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, but also for the Congress, as the stakes are high for both. Efforts are being made to turn the by-elections into a battle between Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath. The BJP government under Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been formed with the help of Jyotiraditya Scindia, who switched from the Congress to the BJP in March. The Kamal Nath government collapsed after Scindia left the Congress and joined the BJP along with 22 MLAs. Now almost three months later, the bypolls are crucial for the survival of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government and during this entire period, Scindia, who split the Congress to bring down the Kamal Nath government, was away from the hustle and bustle of political activities in the state due to the corona pandemic. Now 24 assembly constituencies are going to the polls, and 22 of them fell vacant due to the resignation of Scindia-supported MLAs. The BJP is fielding almost all the MLAs who had earlier won on a Congress ticket. So, the battle has now turned into Scindia vs Kamal Nath. All the Congress leaders are now directly targeting Scindia. Attacking Scindia without taking his name, K.K. Mishra, who was appointed media in-charge in the Gwalior-Chambal area by the Congress, tweeted, "What a joke! The word 'Srimant' is missing from the name of the person who joined the BJP on March 11. His name is at the sixth place in the list of election coordination committee of the BJP. While the word 'Srimant' is very much there against the name of a candidate from Maharashtra -- Srimanta Udayana Raje Bhonsle!! joke?" Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, meanwhile, blamed Kamal Nath for the spread of coronavirus in Indore. He said, "The corona spread in Indore only in February, people were coming from international flights, there was no test. The then chief minister did not take any action. The whole focus was on IIFA. There was a furore over the tickets, it was decided that whoever will give the cut would get the pass for the IIFA function. The preparations that should have been made to deal with the virus were not done at all." Many Congress leaders including former chief minister Digvijaya Singh have been accusing Scindia of betraying the party, and of being over ambitious. The Congress is also taking to the masses the statement by Chouhan where he allegedly called Scindia the 'Vibhishan', a character in the epic Ramayan who betrayed his own brother for the sake of power. Not only this, the Congress has called Scindia power hungry and has accused the BJP of horse trading. Political analyst Shiv Anurag Pateria agrees that attempts are being made to label the bypolls as 'Scindia vs Kamal Nath', saying that 16 assembly constituencies out of 24 fall in the Gwalior-Chambal area, where Scindia exercises immense influence. "The Congress is trying to make the election Scindia vs Kamal Nath because while the rebellion in Gwalior-Chambal area is accepted by the people, cheating gets a rebuke, a unique character of the area. Due to this, the Congress is trying to create an atmosphere in which Scindia and his supporters can be seen as cheaters and hence it is Scindia vs Kamal Nath." he said. Pateria added that Chief Minister Chouhan is also constantly attacking Kamal Nath to counter the theory that it was due to the support of Chouhan that Kamal Nath was able to run the government in Madhya Pradesh. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro on Tuesday called on his potential opponent in the fall election, City Councilman Jason Williams, to recuse himself from criminal justice issues amid a federal investigation but Williams rejected the request and doubled down on his role by announcing a new initiative. In the week since an investigation into Williams by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service was revealed, he has blasted Cannizzaro and his "henchmen," claiming without evidence that they were behind the probe. Williams' tax errors would have been handled as a civil matter except for the DA's involvement, Williams repeatedly alleged. Cannizzaro said in a Tuesday letter to the City Council that he's "not a party" to the federal investigation into Williams, and that throughout his statements, the councilman has displayed "paranoia, undeniable bias and an unquestionable conflict of interest." +3 Councilman Jason Williams blames district attorney for federal investigation into his taxes A day after news broke that he was under federal investigation for problematic tax filings, a somber-looking but defiant New Orleans City Coun The district attorney said Williams should be booted off the council's criminal justice committee, which he chairs, and blocked from any role in setting the DA's budget later this year. "He no longer should be allowed, in his fits of political pique, to damage the budget of the DA's office. As you are aware, Mr. Williams is the only declared candidate for this office. He should be prevented from further tampering with its budget," Cannizzaro said. Williams has not been charged with a crime, much less convicted, and it's not clear there is any legal basis for Cannizzaro's demand. Such a recusal would be unprecedented in recent years and essentially silence Cannizzaro's most vocal critic in City Council debates. Williams rejected Cannizzaros demand at a Tuesday afternoon press conference where he announced a plan to create a new criminal justice budget advisory committee, which comes amid calls from social justice protesters to defund the police. 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 Im certain as he hears the New Orleans community asking to defund the agencies that are bad actors, he absolutely has to see himself, Williams said. Im not going to get bullied out of the DAs race, nor am I going to get bullied from doing my job as criminal justice chair. Williams has released only a general sketch of the advisory committees composition and role in the budgeting process. According to a press release, its membership would be limited to those with experience assisting historically marginalized groups to navigate the justice system and advocating for justice system reforms to eliminate institutional racism. The committee would offer guidance on discretionary justice system funding, according to Williamss office. However, the councilman stopped far short of endorsing some protesters calls for slashing budgets or disbanding police departments. The sight of Cannizzaro and Williams sparring has become something of an annual ritual at City Council budget hearings. Williams, a criminal defense attorney, has accosted the DA for accepting a high percentage of the cases brought to him by police and for tactics like issuing "fake subpoenas" or arresting a sexual assault victim on a material witness warrant. Meanwhile, Cannizzaro has accused Williams of playing politics and lamented what he calls the chronic under-funding of his agency compared to other DAs around the state. By Gwynne Dyer What do you do if you are in charge of dealing with the pandemic and the number of deaths is getting out of control? Simple. Stop publishing the number. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has been having a bad time with the pandemic. His default mode has been callous disinterest: when told in early May that the country's COVID-19 death toll had reached 5,000, he said "So what? I'm sorry. What do you want me to do?" So on Sunday, with Brazil's death toll about to pass 40,000 and become second only to that of the United States, Bolsonaro stopped his government from publishing the total any more. From now on, only each day's number of infections, deaths and recoveries will be announced. No more awkward comparisons with other countries, no five-digit running total to confront him with his failure each day. And of course no attempt to establish the real number of deaths, which is almost certainly at least twice the official number since many victims never got to hospitals. There is a temptation to group the three populist leaders of big Western democracies together, and they do have a lot in common. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson removed a similarly damning piece of data from the daily press conference when the UK's death toll per million overtook that of every other major European country. (It is now second-worst in the entire world.) America's Donald Trump, Bolsonaro's idol, spent just as much time in the early months of this year belittling the gravity of the threat (Bolsonaro: "It's only a little flu"; Trump: "It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear.") None of the three men will wear a mask, and they are all compulsive serial liars. Nevertheless, there are major differences. Johnson manages to sound as if he cares about all the lives lost, and Trump at least goes through the motions occasionally. Johnson eventually declared a lockdown, although much too late, and Trump at least went along for a while with the lockdowns declared by almost all of the states. Bolsonaro, by contrast, openly condemned the lockdowns declared by the various Brazilian states and ostentatiously disobeyed them. He held rallies and took crowd baths. He swiped his nose on the back of his hand and then shook hands with a fragile old lady. He showed up at a barbecue on a Jet Ski. He has fired two successive health ministers since January because they were taking the pandemic too seriously and hindering Brazilians' return to work. He joined a street protest calling for a return to the military dictatorship that finally fell in 1985. He regularly vilifies the poor, the left, indigenous Brazilians, the LGTBQ community and people of color. And he is currently presiding over a pandemic that will probably kill over 100,000 Brazilians without lifting a finger to stop it. Yet in late 2018 he won the presidential election in the first round with 55 percent of the vote, and his character was hardly a secret even before the election. A recent poll showed that his popularity is now down to 32 percent, so Brazilians have noticed that something is wrong with him, but it still verges on the inexplicable. Or does it? The electorate that voted for Bolsonaro in 2018 was little changed from the one that gave Luiz Inacio 'Lula' da Silva, the absolute antithesis of Bolsonaro, two terms in the presidency immediately before him. Just as the American electorate that put Trump in office in 2016 was little changed from the one that elected Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. They didn't suddenly go blind when confronted with a candidate as fraudulent as Trump or Bolsonaro. They deliberately overlooked his flaws because he offered them something they needed. It was probably something economical or psychological, and not specific to any single country because the mood struck the British, Brazilians and Americans at the same time. (And Hungarians and Turks and Filipinos and Indians too.) What this tells us and I'm sorry to be the bearer of this news is that if that same something is still bothering the voters when the next election rolls around next November in the U.S., or in Brazil in 2022, or in the U.K. in 2024, the same person can win again, no matter how badly he misbehaves in the meantime. Gwynne Dyer (gwynne763121476@aol.com) has worked as a freelance journalist, columnist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs for more than 20 years. He is the author of "Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work)." The Black Lives Matter protests demonstrate precisely how the power of the people can force the government to confront the reality of Aboriginal deaths in custody and Indigenous incarceration on Australian soil. The federal government reportedly intends to get tougher on state and territory governments when it comes to rates of Indigenous incarceration at its upcoming Close the Gap "refresh" negotiations next month. A draft agreement to reduce the rate of Indigenous young people in custody by 19 per cent as of 2028 is apparently to be junked. A higher target will be set in response to the well-attended Black Lives Matter protests around Australia over the weekend. The Premier knows about a proposal that could make a difference. Credit:Nick Moir What we know is that Close the Gap targets alone will not reduce the rapid incarceration of Indigenous Australians that has grown nationally from 19 per cent in 2000 to about 30 per cent in 2020. We need systemic change to eliminate institutional racism within the courts. In this webinar, video experts will discuss how to leverage the open source SRT video streaming protocol, as well as Haivisions state of the art products including the debut of the new Makito X4 video decoder. Haivision, a leader in video streaming solutions, announces the next SRT Tuesday Webinar Low Latency 4K over IP: Live Demos featuring SRT and Makito X4 taking place on Tuesday, June 16 at 11am ET. The SRT Tuesday webinar series is sponsored by Haivision, Microsoft, and the SRT Alliance and features the latest innovations using the SRT open source protocol. In this webinar, video experts will discuss how to leverage the open source SRT video streaming protocol, as well as Haivisions state of the art products including the debut of the new Makito X4 video decoder to establish low latency 4K workflows, ideal for remote production, contribution, and monitoring over IP networks. Webinar attendees will learn: The components needed for successful end-to-end 4K contribution and monitoring, including encoders, decoders, gateways, cloud routing services, and high-performance mobile players for stream monitoring. How SRT assures the lowest latency low for 4K streams, even over unreliable networks A live demonstration of a 4K low latency contribution workflow, specifically highlighting end-to-end latency Webinar: Low Latency 4K over IP: Live Demos featuring SRT and Makito X4 Day/Time: Tuesday, June 16 at 11am ET Speakers: Marcus Schioler, Vice President Product Marketing, Haivision Ghislain Collette, Vice President Product Management, Haivision Register here. SRT Tuesday Webinar Series On select Tuesdays throughout the coming months, the SRT Tuesday webinar series brings technologists and end-users together to discuss how organizations can leverage SRT for streaming low latency, high quality video over unpredictable internet connections. For more information and to watch event recordings, visit: https://www.haivision.com/resources/webinars/srt-tuesday/. About Haivision Haivision is the leader in live video streaming technologies, providing more than 25,000 organizations globally with video solutions that help them stream broadcast-quality, low-latency video from anywhere. Founded in 2004, Haivision is a privately held company with headquarters in Montreal and Chicago, and regional offices located throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. To help solve the worlds most difficult video streaming challenges, Haivision open sourced its award winning SRT low latency video streaming protocol in 2017 and founded the SRT Alliance, which now has over 350 industry leading companies supporting this new standard. Awarded an Emmy for Technology and Engineering from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Haivision is also recognized as one of the most influential companies in video by Streaming Media and one of the fastest growing companies by Deloittes Technology Fast 500. Learn more at haivision.com. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on China's Non-Traditional Espionage Against the United States: The Threat and Potential Policy Responses" in Washington on Dec. 12, 2018. (Jennifer Zeng/The Epoch Times) Governments Underestimate the Chinese Communist Partys United Front System of Interference Australia and other countries are underestimating the significance of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) united front system and need to develop expertise on Chinas politics and foreign interference methods, according to a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). Authored by Alex Joske and published on June 9, the report states that the CCPs united front system reaches beyond Chinas borders into foreign countries in a complex web of efforts, often covert, to strengthen its influence among ethnic minority groups, religious movements, and business, science, and political groups. The problem, according to the report, is that experts, politicians, and security agencies dont fully comprehend the extent to which the CCPs united front work operates, both covertly and out in the open, because there is little public analysis of the united front system. Diplomats might see united front work as public diplomacy or propaganda but fail to appreciate the extent of related covert activities. Security officials may be alert to criminal activity or espionage while underestimating the significance of open activities that facilitate it, Joske wrote in the report. The covert and overt facets of the CCPs influence are interrelated, and Joske wrote that analysts risk overlooking this. Read More Chinas United Front Operations in Taiwan Under Scrutiny After Hong Kong Activist Is Attacked Victorian Government Staffer with United Front Ties In Victoria, the states premier recently defended a staffer after her links to the CCPs United Front Work Department (UFWD) were revealed. During a heated exchange during Question Time in Parliament on June 3, Opposition Leader Michael OBrien asked Premier Daniel Andrews whether electorate officer Nancy Yang had been vetted by security agencies before she was hired. The premier replied, Speaker, I reject the assertion from Leader of the Opposition that Australian citizens ought to be vetted by security agencies. According to The Australian, the staffer in question posted material on her Facebook page on March 18 alluding to a conspiracy theory that the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, had originated from the U.S. Army, and not from China. Yang wrote a comment with the post that read: U.S. owe an explanation. Scrutiny of Yang came after revelations a Chinese-backed lobby group promoting Beijings Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) received funding from the Victorian state government. The BRI agreement between Victoria and Beijing had recently come under pressure from other state and federal politicians and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Australia Needs Home Grown China Analysts Australia and other countries need to cultivate homegrown expertise on the CCP and its united front system of foreign interference methods. Writing in The Conversation last year, La Trobe University Asian security and international relations expert Euan Graham said that Australian expertise on the CCP is spread dangerously thin across universities and, to a lesser extent, think tanks. Graham wrote: The CCP calls the shots in China, internally and externally. Unless we understand the Partys objectives, how its leaders think and make decisions, our policies are likely to come up short. Australia must develop the intellectual acumen to see the world through Chinas leaders eyes to manage the relationship on its own terms. While the Chinese language is widely taught in Australia, including through the United Front Departments Confucius Institutes, Graham argues that China studies is not structured in a way to develop expertise on the CCP or the Peoples Liberation Army. He argues that this would be helpful, much like understanding communism was during the Cold War. Australia needs a cohort of homegrown analysts, with the ability to read source material in Mandarin, who are motivated to pursue a career here, whether in academia or in government, he added. The CCPs United Front Targets According to the ASPIs report, the CCP targets 12 broad groups, including ethnic minorities, religious individuals, urban professionals, overseas and returned overseas students, people in Hong Kong and Macau, Taiwanese people and their relatives in mainland China, overseas ethnic Chinese and their relatives in mainland China, and any other individuals who need uniting and liaising, and more. The CCP seeks to integrate individuals or groups from these broad groups into the united front system. Not content with subverting just them, the CCP then uses them to co-opt or influence others. In this way, the efforts of the united front work reduce foreign resistance to the CCPs encroachment on a countrys sovereignty. The report states this involves covert activity and is a form of interference. The report states: Work on the targeted groups is designed to bring them under the partys leadership not merely to neutralise any opposition they may pose, but also to have them serve as platforms for further efforts. The report used former Labor politician Sam Dastyari as an example in a case study on Huang Xiangmo, who donated over $3 million dollars to both major Australian parties and even stepped in once to pay a legal bill for Dastyari, who was by then a senator. The report writes: Dastyari was known as a prolific fundraiser, and his relationship with and patronage from Huang Xiangmo led to the downfall of both. As Dastyari later said: There is an arms race for donations between the parties. And when youve got individuals like Huang who are prepared to fork out millions of dollars they get listened to.' Of Huangs case study, the ASPI report stated: It seems politicians treated Huang Xiangmo as a wealthy Chinese community leader and didnt think too much about the political objectives contained in the very name of the reunification council he ran. The solution to the problem of subverted united front figures, according to the report, is for governments to disrupt their capacity to act as vehicles of covert influence and technology transfer. The report noted that foreign interference often takes place in grey areas that are difficult to enforce by law. Strengthening civil society and media must be a fundamental part of protecting against interference, Joske wrote. Among the recommendations, the report suggests the government study and develop its capacity to understand united front work, develop high-level policy on countering foreign interference, raise awareness about the matter, ensure legislation and political will exist to build transparency, protect those who expose interference, engage with universities to develop responses to related issues, support the Chinese diaspora (including grants for independent Chinese-language media), build expertise on China; the Chinese people; and the CCP, and deny visas or expel foreign agents. Read More How Five Thousand Mainland Communist Spies Have Infiltrated Taiwans Military Please register or log in to keep reading. No credit card required! Stay logged in to skip the surveys. Mobifone, Vietnamobile, Viettel and Vinaphone have each received a VND90 million ($3876) fine for registering new customers using false information. Vietnams Ministry of Information and Communications issued the penalties following an audit carried out between October and November 2019. To register a SIM, users must provide their full name, date of birth and national ID number. Across a sample of 6900 SIMs requisitioned during the audit, the ministry found that all four operators had signed up new subscribers using registration details supplied by existing customers. According to local news outlet Tuoi Tre News, the falsely registered SIMs were typically used to sign up tourists unfamiliar with the registration process. Retailers that enabled this scheme also received penalties. Indeed, while Biden spent time meeting privately Monday with Floyds family before the 46-year-old mans funeral in Texas, he failed to label Americans exercising their right to protest as thugs or terrorists. He didnt attempt to paint people appalled by systemic racism as part of a shadowy group known as antifa, which isnt actually an organized group but sounds scary and is probably coming to destroy your family farm or rage-stomp your begonias. F ormer Labour frontbencher Dawn Butler has gone to the police after reportedly receiving racist abuse for defending the Black Lives Matter protests. The Brent Central MP said she received dozens of aggressive emails last weekend after she dismissed criticism about 137,500 anti-racism activists descending on UK cities during lockdown. She wrote in a newspaper article that criticising the huge crowds for breaching the ban on mass gatherings and failing to socially distance was a cynical ploy to call the protests off. The protesters defied repeated calls from the Health Secretary Matt Hancock and police chiefs to stay away and follow the lockdown rules, amid fears they could spark a second wave of coronavirus infections. Thousands descended on the US Embassy in London on Sunday / AFP via Getty Images Comparing the criticism to scenes of busy beauty spots in recent weeks, the Corbyn ally said: Where was their anger when we saw people flock to the beaches in Devon, Cornwall, Brighton? Or even their indignation when people were forced to cram on to the tube and buses to get to work? The fact that so many people are willing to take to the streets at this time to stand up against racism shows the strength of feeling and the importance of this critical moment. One email that she received in response said there will come a time when you cant breath[e], and we will all be happy, according to the Guardian. Another reportedly told her that come the revolution you will be one of the first and another said she was from Londonistan. Ms Butler, the former shadow women and equalities minister, also took to Twitter to say she wont be silenced. On Monday the Conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi shared an email she had received, which said: Who gave you immigrants not native to Britain the right to dictate to us British, values and history. Sod off back to your own country of mud huts. The message also said the far-right activists Britain First and Tommy Robinson would soon become a political force. Home Secretary Priti Patel said more than 137,500 people turned out at around 200 Black Lives Matter protests over the weekend, including two huge demos in London and others in Bristol, Edinburgh, Manchester, Sheffield and others. Bhopal: As Madhya Pradesh has reported a spurt in Covid-19 cases, 51 districts of the state are gripped by the fatal virus but a tiny district Niwari has managed to keep the virus away. Carved out of Tikamgarh in 2018, Niwari got the status of a district during the tenure of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the chief minister. As the state is grappling with the high number of coronavirus cases, which has been growing steadily since March this year, Niwari is yet to report a single case of infection. According to the health bulletin of Monday, MP had a total of 9,638 cases of infection, spread across 51 districts. Nestled in parched Bundelkhand, Niwari is the smallest district in MP with an area of just 1,318 square km and a population of around four lakh. As its neighbours in Bundelkhand, the district sees large migration of local labourers who started heading home once the lockdown was announced. According to district administration, around 19,000 local migrant labourers have returned to Niwari as of now. Besides over 80,000 have passed through the district in the pursuit of their homes. As locals claim the district administration led by collector Akshay Singh had been extremely pro-active in handling the lockdown situation. Health staffers have been relentlessly surveying and screening locals in town and villages despite the fact no case of infection has been reported till now. Besides, the District Crisis Management Group headed by the collector with members including MP, MLA, health officers, district administration officers, volunteers and others has been leading from the front in tackling the crisis. The group meets every three-four days. Initially the group met online but later the collector started holding regular meetings and anyone could raise complaints or suggestions in the meeting without any fear, Mastram Ghosh, a local volunteer who is the member of the group told News18. The administration has formed separate WhatsApp groups for different heads, including ration distribution, MGNREGS works, health check-ups and so on which makes easier for administration to monitor activities. Recently we were added in a group pertaining to MGNREGS works and village sarpanchs and secretaries have no choice but to keep the group updated about the works carried out, Ghosh added. The administration has been pro-active in its approach. Recently locals were seen roaming around without masks and police was quick to hand them Rs 100 each challan and impact was visible as people started putting on masks, said Ghosh. The locals also affirm the district collector remain active on the field most of the time taking stock of the Covid-19 arrangements, reviewing prohibitions or encouraging the field staff which has put entire administrative machinery on high alert. Senior physician Dr RS Malarya affirmed the pro-active attitude of the district collector. The collector had formed 16 health teams comprising two physicians each and para-medical staff, and motivated and encouraged us, said Dr Malarya, adding they never got complacent as there are no cases of infection. He cited his own example as he was busy screening 26 locals in village Kolua while speaking to News18. The health staff has screened around 20,000 locals till now. We havent left it to the paramedics, when a doctor speaks and makes people aware, they tend to listen, said Dr Malarya, adding they personally spread awareness besides undertaking sampling and surveys. The district collector Akshay Singh speaking to News18 over phone affirmed that locals have been supportive to administration in the hour of crisis. Being an urban dominated area, locals tend to listen more to the administration as compared to urban areas, claimed Singh who exhibited modesty in saying that all districts have been putting in best efforts but they are fortunate enough as of now to not report any case of infection. We are a small district and sampling started around a month of half ago so this can also be the reason for no infection, said the collector adding till now the district has only sent 80-90 samples to Sagar for testing and all but three have tested negative. We cant celebrate as you have one case and all is destroyed, said the collector on a cautious note. To add, Singh is the first collector to assume office in year 2018 when the district was founded. The district, still in developing stage, till now has no health set up of its own and is covered under Chief Medical and Health Office Tikamgarh. The officer affirmed that they home quarantined 90% of the returning migrant labourers and only five per cent were sent to institutional quarantine and remaining five per cent slipped in without being spotted by authorities. The tiny district had used its fleet of 30 buses to ferry migrants to nearby places and also offered them breakfast, food and other essentials, if any. Local Angara college has been turned into quarantine centre and top officers, including the collector himself monitors activities there on daily basis. The district till now has offered work to 8,000 labourers in MGNREGS. As more and more labourers are coming back and including those who stayed back, we need to generate more work quickly, said the collector adding till they have managed to pay wages little over a week. As the work will grow, payments issues will multiply, said the officer. Ava DuVernay has launched a new initiative designed to hold police officers accountable when they commit acts of brutality. The director unveiled the project on Monday, tweeting: Officers who kill unarmed black people often get admin pay, another job, a life of anonymity. Their victims get eulogies. We have a blind spot as a society in agreeing not to speak these officers names. I do not agree to that anymore. The initiative, called the Law Enforcement Accountability Project, defines itself as a direct action disrupting the code of silence around police abuse, aggression and murder of black people. It will fund projects across a variety of artistic disciplines, including film, theatre, photography, music, dance, and literature, to spread the stories of activists looking to share narratives of police brutality. DuVernay told The Washington Post that she was moved to start the initiative after watching footage of the death of George Floyd, the 46-year-old black man who died on 25 May in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after a white police officer knelt on his neck. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with second-degree murder in Floyds death. His former coworkers, J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao, are charged as accomplices. Im used to watching racist, violent images, DuVernay told The Washington Post. So why did George Floyds final moments devastate me like it did? I realised that it was because this time the cop isnt hidden behind a body cam or distorted by grainy surveillance video. This time, I can see the cops face. As a viewer, there are several times when he even looks right at me. Then ... I started to realise how rare that is. And that led me to think, How many of these police officers do we never see? They disappear, end up leaving town, and show up in another department. Their names are said, but its never amplified and its kind of like this group contract. Somehow, we, as American citizens, have agreed to not speak their names. I do not agree to that anymore. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up The initiative, according to the Post, has an initial budget of $3m, with contributions from the Ford Foundation and screenwriter Ryan Murphy. The first project is set to be unveiled in August. Additional reporting by agencies The copyright system for print books and e-books is a bit of a labyrinth. The markets for the two are separate because their natures are distinct in how easily theyre produced, how easily theyre distributed and how susceptible they are to wear and tear. Yet libraries pay per copy of e-book through licensing agreements just as they pay for literal copies of print books, and that limits how many borrowers may have a book on their tablets at any one time. The Internet Archives approach cuts against both of these principles: It treats print books and e-books as interchangeable by uploading any print product for electronic download, and now it allows those downloads to proceed limitlessly. Plus, these products were as free for the archive as they are for those the archive is serving; the organization isnt paying licensing fees to publishers at all. Map showing the path of the Tian Yi Hai Gong, a Chinese ship that appears to be laying undersea cables between Chinese-occupied features in the Paracel Islands. A Chinese ship appears to be laying undersea cables between Chinese outposts in the disputed Paracel Islands, vessel tracking software and satellite imagery shows. Experts say the cables will likely have military uses and could potentially strengthen Chinas ability to detect submarines. The cable ship began operations in the area nearly two weeks ago after departing from a shipyard in Shanghai. If the expert assessment of the intention is correct it could signal another step by China to militarize the South China Sea. RFA and BenarNews spotted the activity when viewing high-resolution commercial satellite imagery of the Paracels, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. Three U.S.-based maritime experts who have viewed the imagery agreed that the ship was doing something related to undersea cables, although exactly what is unclear from the imagery. It could be laying new cable, or repairing or upgrading existing cable, although none of the experts were aware of an existing cable network in the spots the ship is operating in. Vessel tracking software shows the Chinese ship Tian Yi Hai Gong sailed to the Paracels on May 28. The imagery appears to show it laying cables between at least three different Chinese-occupied features: Tree Island, North Island and Chinas main base in the Paracels, Woody Island. The ship sailed southwest on June 5, visiting Drummond Island, Yagong Island and Observation Bank. As of Monday morning, it was operating on the northeast side of Observation Bank. Its not clear if the Tian Yi Hai Gong has been laying cables at those features too, but its pattern of movement is similar to at the other features. All of the features host small, remote outposts for China and its military. The last known instance of China laying underwater cables in the area was reported by Reuters in 2016, connecting the city and military base at Woody Island to the island of Hainan, Chinas southernmost province off the coast of the mainland. While it isnt clear from the imagery what the function of new undersea cables would be in the Paracels, two of the experts told RFA that fiber optic connections between such Chinese-occupied features are likely meant for military purposes. James Kraska, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, said they are probably for encrypted military communications between Chinas various outposts, and will connect to the hardened undersea cable system already built along Chinas east coast. The other thing that they could be doing is that theyve got a SOSUS-type of network, an underwater sound surveillance system, to listen for adversary submarines, he said. So it could be passive listening for surface ships or submarines coming into the area. SOSUS refers to a passive system of sonars the U.S. Navy uses to track undersea activity. China has long planned a listening network inspired by this system for use in the East and South China Seas. The state media reported in 2017 that the government has invested in research and development in undersea observation centers. Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank, also suspects that the cables could be for undersea surveillance. A sonar system would be important north of Woody Island because the PLANs South Sea Fleet submarine base is on Hainan Island at Yulin, he said. Yulin, according to Clark, is one of the most sophisticated bases for the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), replete with underground tunnels and maintenance pens for the PLANs growing number of nuclear submarines. It is located on the southern tip of Hainan Island. A seabed sonar between Woody Island and Hainan Island would help find U.S. submarines that might be coming to spy on the base or its submarines in peacetime, or that may attack PLAN submarines during wartime, Clark said. He also said such an array would be useful for ensuring PLAN submarines arent being followed as they leave their home base. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which is based in Hawaii, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. There is no record of the Tian Yi Hai Gongs operator in the International Maritime Organizations database, save for information that it was built in early 2020 and flagged by China. There is similarly no record of it with the International Cable Protection Committee, a U.K.-based standards-setting and advocacy group for the submarine cable industry. However, vessel tracking data shows it originally left from a shipyard in Shanghai on May 18. That same shipyard houses a different cable-layer, the Bold Maverick, which is owned and operated by S. B. Submarine Systems Co., Ltd. That company calls itself Chinas leading provider of subsea cable installation services and one of the key submarine cable installers in Asia on its website. Satellite photo taken June 4 shows the Chinese cable ship Tian Yi Hai Gong just north of Tree Island, a Chinese-occupied feature in the Paracels that hosts a small military outpost and harbor. Credit: Planet Labs Inc. Multiple companies in China work in the undersea cable industry, and frequently partner with Peoples Liberation Army research centers and national defense universities. China Telecom laid fiber optic cables between Fiery Cross Reef, Subi Reef, and Mischief Reef in the Spratlys in 2017, state media reported. Chen Ying-yu, a senior official at China Telecom and a representative to the National Peoples Congress, called on Chinas government to better expand, protect and strengthen its submarine cable network at the 20th National Peoples Congress held in late May. The Peoples Liberation Army operates its own cable ships as well, launching the first in 2015. Kraska did not think it mattered who was responsible for installing the cables, as it would be ultimately done at the behest of the Chinese government. He said the transformation of remote Chinese outposts into a surveillance network was yet another indication of China entrenching its military presence on disputed rocks and reefs in the South China Sea, and seeking to control everything above and below them. This is further solidifying their ability to control whats going on in what they define as the near seas, Kraska said. China claims virtually all of the South China Sea, including waters, islands and reefs close to the coasts of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. China says it has historic rights for its sweeping claims, a stance unsupported by international law. Mayor of Prague Zdenek Hrib (L) and Taipei city mayor Ko Wen-je shake hands before signing a partnership agreement between the two cities at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic, on Jan. 13, 2020. (Petr David Josek/AP Photo) Czech Senate Speaker Plans to Visit Taiwan, Angering China PRAGUEThe speaker of the Czech Republics Senate announced on June 9 he will visit Taiwan despite warnings from China and a recommendation from his own government that he not take the trip. Milos Vystrcil said he would be accompanied by a business delegation on his visit, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Aug. 30. Vystrcil said he was also planning to meet Taiwans leaders, but didnt immediately give details. Vystrcils predecessor in the post, Jaroslav Kubera, was planning to travel to Taiwan before he died in January. His plans angered pro-China Czech President Milos Zeman. A letter to Kubera from the Chinese Embassy in Prague warned him against going on the trip, saying the visit would have negative consequences for future economic relations between China and the Czech Republic. Czech Republics President Milos Zeman (R) welcomes his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping (L) at the Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic, on March 29, 2016. (Petr David Josek/AP) The Czech Republic has established informal relations with Taiwan but recognizes the one-China principlethe notion that Taiwan belongs to Communist Party-ruled China. Vystrcil said Chinas pressure, including a warning from the Chinese Embassy against congratulating Taiwans pro-independence President Tsai Ing-wen on her re-election, contributed to his decision to travel to the island. The Peoples Republic of China believes it has a right to tell us what to do, Vystrcil said. He said the Czech Republic will benefit from his trip. Taiwan is an important business partner for the Czech Republic and has invested more in the Czech economy than mainland China. In a separate development condemned by China, the Czech capital of Prague in January signed a partnership agreement with Taiwans capital, Taipei, three months after canceling a similar deal with Beijing. Prince Andrew is at the centre of a transatlantic legal row. (Getty Images) Prince Andrew has very little credibility and should take the oath and just tell the truth, according to one of the lawyers representing Jeffrey Epsteins victims. Andrew, 60, issued a rare statement on Monday as he ended months of silence over allegations he had failed to co-operate with lawyers in the USA who are investigating the disgraced financier, Epstein. Epstein killed himself in prison in New York as he awaited trial for sex trafficking offences. Andrew and Epstein had been friends, and one of Epsteins victims, Virginia Giuffre, has accused the Duke of York of having sex with her three times when she was trafficked by the American. Andrew denies the claims. A row between the royal and the US authorities has been reignited this week as Andrew accused prosecutors of seeking publicity instead of his help, claiming they were wrong to say he had not offered to help with their enquiries. But on Tuesday, Gloria Allred, lawyer representing some of the victims in the case, said Andrew had very little credibility. Allred told BBC Breakfast: I think that Prince Andrew at this point has very little credibility. And I have a lot of suspicion about what he is saying, through his representatives. I dont have that same suspicion about the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, (Geoffrey) Berman. I think he is sincere that he wants to be able to interview and ask questions of Prince Andrew and this has been dragging on. Read more: Prince Andrew accuses US prosecutors of seeking publicity instead of answers She added: There shouldnt be conditions, there shouldnt be delay, there should be transparency, and the victims deserve the truth. This is very painful for them. Allred is the lawyer who sent a US school bus to sit outside Buckingham Palace with a poster featuring Andrews face on his birthday earlier this year. She said the victims had been caught in the crossfire and added: They just want to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about who may have conspired with Prince Andrew to sex traffic them and other underage girls. Story continues Thats all theyre asking. She continued: Let him step up to the bar of justice, take the oath and just tell the truth. Its just as simple as that. Trying to delay, trying to deny, trying to evade the questions and attack the questioners is really not helpful at all. You know, we have an expression in the law justice delayed is justice denied. Thats never more true than it has been with Prince Andrew. On Monday it was reported that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) was seeking a mutual legal agreement (MLA). The Home Office is unable to confirm or deny the existence of MLAs. But in response to the report of an MLA, Andrews legal team issued a fiery statement which said: The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ. Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the duke has offered zero co-operation. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered. Read more: US 'demands UK hands Prince Andrew over' for questioning in Jeffrey Epstein case Virginia Giuffre has accused Prince Andrew of having sex with her when she was trafficked. (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton) The row continued as Geoffrey Berman, who is leading the Epstein inquiry, said it was Andrew who was offering a false portrayal of events. Berman said: Today, Prince Andrew yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to co-operate with an ongoing federal criminal investigation into sex trafficking and related offences committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, even though the prince has not given an interview to federal authorities, has repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview and nearly four months ago informed us unequivocally through the very same counsel who issued todays release that he would not come in for such an interview. If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about co-operating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open and we await word of when we should expect him. Epstein was awaiting trial for sex trafficking offences when he died. (Getty Images) US attorney general William Barr said the US would not be looking to extradite the royal. Barr told Fox News: I dont think its a question of handing him over. I think its just a question of having him provide some evidence. Andrew was forced to step back from his senior royal duties in November after a disastrous interview with BBC Newsnight over his friendship with Epstein. He subsequently offered to help the US in the case, sparking this war of words over who has offered help when. Giuffre has accused Andrew of having sex with her three times when she was trafficked, including once when she was 17, a minor in US law. The MLA reportedly sought on Monday is a formal process used to obtain help in an investigation or prosecution of criminal offences, generally when co-operation cannot be obtained by law enforcement agencies. Q: My close girlfriend for years is a very smart, attractive woman. I couldnt help wondering why, when she married at 37, she chose a man whos often dull company and also controlling. Shed dated several interesting men but remained single till meeting this man. On the positive side, hes proven over several years to be loyal, dependable, and they seem to love each other. But whenever Id been in a social group with them, hed try to control the conversation. Hed raise something hed read and researched, so that hed sound like an authority. If anyone tried to interrupt, he carried on over us. But if she added a comment hed glare at her and shed go silent and fade into the background. Due to social distancing, I havent seen her for these past months, but Ive kept in touch online and by phone. She always had good humour in her voice and comments, which put me at ease that being quarantined together hadnt brought out harsher control from him at least, nothing that was discernible. Ive never asked her directly whether everything is all right because I didnt want to alert him to my concern. Also, Ive seen them in past casual circumstances and they seemed very companionable when hes not vying for everyones attention. Am I overreacting to worries for her safety? What should I do? Control Signals A: Proceed delicately. You mention no sign of her having shown reluctance to go out with him socially. Theres no current strain in her voice or terse comments on the phone or online. Theres no direct evidence that theres abuse going on. Yet, youre a close friend, and worried. Thats enough to warrant asking her when you find an opportunity when hes not around (possible as our lockdown is opening up) to go for a walk and chat together. Then, its a risk whether youre close enough to be forgiven if you ask a question, albeit delicately, and stressing that it comes from caring and concern. Example: Ive sometimes been surprised that when youre with your husband socially, you let him dominate the conversation. All I really want to know is if youre OK. Be prepared that her response might still be outrage and to walk away. But hopefully soon enough, youll know if her helping him to stand out, is a loving gesture to boost his ego, or a necessary one to keep peace and be safe. FEEDBACK Regarding the woman whose sister-in-law (SIL) bullied her after her husbands suicide attempt (May 15): Reader: The wife needs to begin to assure her legal rights. Now, together, they must seek legal advice and obtain an authorization for each to be responsible for making decisions concerning their property and any assets when the other is unable to do so. This gives legal rights (a power of attorney) to make decisions when the other party is incapacitated. Access to any of their funds would be stopped, unless she has her own bank account with funds in her name only. If the SIL treats her badly, its because shes allowing it to happen. She should tell her husband and his adult children how the SIL actions make her feel and how theyre interfering with their marriage and family life. She either accepts the SILs behaviour or she speaks up herself and takes action to have this stopped. Otherwise, she just continues to think of herself as the victim. Ellies tip of the day Suspect someones being abused? Call helplines (listed online e.g. under domestic abuse) and ask how and where to get specific help. Members of a medical expert team sent by the Chinese government pose for a photo with delegates at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 8, 2020. A medical expert team sent by the Chinese government arrived here on Monday to support Bangladesh's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. (Xinhua/Liu Chuntao) DHAKA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A medical expert team sent by the Chinese government arrived here on Monday to support Bangladesh's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen welcomed the team at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Monday afternoon. Chinese Ambassador Li Jiming, among others, was also present at the airport. The 10-member team, organized by China's National Health Commission, consists of experts from Hainan, the southernmost island province of China. The Chinese medical experts will provide consultations of pandemic control, patients treatment and laboratory tests, and guide and train Bangladeshi medical professionals. The Chinese team will stay in Bangladesh for two weeks, Foreign Minister Momen said in a media briefing at the airport. He thanked the Chinese team for coming to Bangladesh to bolster the country's efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. "Our medical professionals will also be encouraged by them," he added. He expressed hope that the relations between Bangladesh and China will be further deepened for mutual benefits. In his speech, Ambassador Li said a pandemic such as COVID-19 shows that in today's world no country could stand alone in a global crisis, adding that all must work together to address the challenges. Mutual understanding and support between China and Bangladesh since the onset of the pandemic has shown the pragmatic cooperation of the two countries, he said. As a pair of true and time-honored friends, China and Bangladesh have been standing in strong solidarity in the fight against COVID-19, he said. Starting from February, China has provided Bangladesh with over 3 million surgical and N-95 masks, over 110,000 sets of personal protective equipment, and a large number of test kits, thermometers, ventilators, and sanitizers, to meet the most urgent needs of Bangladesh to contain COVID-19, he said. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased to 68,504 in Bangladesh on Monday, with the daily rise of 2,735 cases reported in the last 24 hours. [ Editor: WPY ] This is Part 2 of a new series providing advice about website development contracts for businesses engaged in e-commerce. Part 1 covers how to avoid major disasters. When entering into website development contracts, the more you know, the more likely you will be able to avoid common pitfalls. It is your website, but ownership of the intellectual property on the site is not always apparent or obvious. When you engage an information technology vendor to build a new website you probably expect that you will own the IP in the end product. Unfortunately, that may not be the case. IP laws are somewhat complicated and can vary by state, as can the type of IP involved. Its critically important to have a firm grasp of what is your IP and what is the IT vendors IP, and whether any third-party IP licenses need to be secured on the front end. You dont want to be surprised about who owns what after your website is delivered. To avoid finding yourself in this situation, it is critical to do your homework before you begin negotiations with an IT vendor and to make sure the rights and ownership to IP are clearly identified and delineated in the website development contract. What Is IP? Intellectual property, or IP, is a general term used to describe a variety of types of valuable, intangible and protectable interests. IP includes patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets. Each of these types of IP has its own unique, distinguishable characteristics, and each is governed by its own state and federal statutes and common law. Because of these distinctions, different types of IP require different treatment and protections in contracts, including website development contracts. The following IP discussion and summaries are high-level descriptions, and not intended to be the specific IP law you will encounter in your website development contract since this column is written as generalized advice. You should seek specific legal advice about IP before signing any website development contract. Patents Patents are registered with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), or a foreign patent treaty or organization, for new original ideas that are not part of nature. The patent registration process is costly and time-consuming. While a patent is pending or until it is secured, its owner cannot claim a patent exists. Copyrights Copyrights give the author the right to restrict making copies or creating derivative works. In the U.S., copyrights are controlled by the U.S. Copyright Office. Copyrights are created at the moment the author creates the work. Unlike patents, there is no requirement that the copyrighted work be registered. However, the copyright registration process is required in order to file a lawsuit for an infringement. Other countries around the world have similar laws, so the application of copyright laws likely will depend on where your website transacts business. Trademarks Trademarks in the U.S. come in three flavors: 1) common law, 2) state registration and 3) federal registration (filed with the USPTO). Each is a little different, but for website use, you need to understand how trademarks affect you. A common law trademark is one that is not registered, either on a state or federal level. Common law trademarks are limited to the geographic region in which they are used. The Blue Note Jazz Hall in New York City enjoyed common law trademark protection. In 1995, it unsuccessfully sued the Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri, for using the bluenote.com domain name. The court ruled there was no likelihood of confusion between the common law trademarks in New York City and Columbia, Missouri. As a trademark owner, you can obtain a trademark registration in your state, but if your website operates across state boundaries you should consider federal registration. A federal or international trademark registration is specific to the channel of commerce, rather than the physical location of the trademark. Given the interstate nature of most e-commerce websites, federal registration is the only logical or feasible protection. For example, when Toyota launched its Lexus brand of vehicles, the online legal reference provider LexisNexis brought a trademark infringement claim against Toyota. Luckily for Toyota, the court determined that because of the distinct business types (automobile versus online technology company) there was no likelihood of confusion between the two. Trade Secrets Trade secrets typically are governed on a state-by-state basis. However, that has changed somewhat since the passing of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016. The DTSA can be invoked if the trade secret is related to a product or service used in, or intended for use in, interstate or foreign commerce. Violations under the DTSA can be brought conjunctively with state claims. The DTSA also can be invoked to pursue claims for misappropriation that occurs outside the U.S. In general, the term trade secrets encompasses a wide range of proprietary business information. Broadly speaking, to be protectable, the information must be valuable in that it is generally unknown by competitors in the industry, and the owner or holder must take reasonable steps to ensure its secrecy. In this sense, it is the opposite of a patent, which the owner secures by registration in the public domain. In the context of website development contracts, to the extent you are willing to share or disclose any trade secret information with your IT vendor, you will need to secure written nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements prior to any disclosures. This would include access to most software source code, for example. IT Vendors Pre-Existing IP In most instances, the IT vendor will require you to agree that any IP used to create your website will continue to be the property of the IT vendor and third parties (where the IT vendor is using third-party licensed IP). It is important that you obtain a license to use that IP from the IT vendor in your new website, and for any third-party licenses for IP the IT vendor does not own. Regardless of how the IT vendor presents the IP, it is essential that you get a license or ownership either to use the vendor IP forever (perpetual license), or for a finite period. Alternatively, you can negotiate to own all rights, titles, and interests in the IP, so that if you were to migrate to a new website in the future, you would own the IP you paid for to manage your website. Review the IP provisions in the proposed contract and statements of work (SOW) The biggest takeaway here is this: Look closely at the IT vendor website development contracts and SOWs to understand the IP involved, who owns it now, and who will own it once the website is completed. Also, as discussed in Part 1, it would be a good idea to talk to the IT vendors customers to learn what their experience was like particularly, whether any undisclosed IP ownership issues popped up. Of course, it would not be bad idea to engage an experienced IP lawyer who has dealt with these IP issues and can lend a critical eye to drafting and negotiating website development contracts and SOWs. Read Part 3: Important Cloud and SLA Considerations Oppo has confirmed it will bring the Reno 4 series in India soon. The company has revealed the Reno 4 and Reno 4 Pro smartphones, which debuted in China last week, will arrive in India with localised features -- the ones we saw on the Reno 3 series. But while Oppo is planning to launch the Reno 4 smartphones, it will also launch a new "premium" smartphone in India, the details of which are not abundant at the moment. On Twitter, Oppo India vice president Tasleem Arif said: "Grapevine is rife and quite rightfully so! Rejoice over the successful launch of @OPPO Reno4 Pro, but stay tuned for another premium 'sensation' that'll export you to the world of infinite possibilities!" Grapevine is rife and quite rightfully so! Rejoice over the successful launch of @OPPO Reno4 Pro , but stay tuned for another premium 'sensation' that'll export you to the world of infinite possibilities! #OPPOIndia#OPPOReno4Pro Tasleem Arif (@tasleemarifk) June 9, 2020 The only premium smartphones from Oppo coming to India are the Find X2 Pro and Reno 4 Pro basis the information out so far. But Arif's tweet hints at another smartphone that has not been teased by the company yet for the Indian market. Oppo recently segregated the Ace series and launched the Ace 2 under it. Chances are the Chinese company is looking to bring the Ace series to India with the launch of Ace 2. As a premium smartphone, the Oppo Ace 2 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of internal storage, 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 Flash Charge fast charging technology, 40W wireless charging, a 64-megapixel quad-camera setup, and an FHD display with a 90Hz refresh rate. It was launched in China for a starting price of CNY 3,999, which translates to approximately Rs 43,200. Meanwhile, the Reno 4 series has been confirmed to launch in India. But the specifics of the launch are not known yet. Both the Reno 4 series smartphones support 5G and are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor. It runs Android 10-based ColorOS 7.1 but the Indian models will have some additional features such as the rider mode, which have been developed by Oppo's R&D centre in Hyderabad. The Reno 4 series smartphones were launched for a starting price of CNY 2,999 (roughly Rs 32,000) for the base variant of Reno 4 5G and CNY 3,799 (roughly Rs 40,300) for the Reno 4 Pro 5G base model. Oppo is also bringing the Find X2 series in India on June 17. Six Years After ISIS, Assyrians Full of Hope for the City's Rebirth Mosul -- Six years after the Islamic State (IS) group took Mosul, "the archbishop's visit to the city is a way to bear witness to the presence of Christians" and show that "they did not abandon the city and intend to contribute to its rebirth," said Fr Thabit Mekko, head of the Christian community in Karemlash, Nineveh Plain. The Chaldean clergyman spoke to AsiaNews about the visit by Archbishop Najib Mikhael Moussa in Iraq's northern metropolis, together with Muslim religious leaders and local tribal dignitaries. "By rebuilding churches [and mosques] and resuming business activities, we are sending a strong message to all the Christians who left that they can return and be present." The prelate's visit to the right side of the city, home to the most important historic buildings and places of worship, took place last Saturday to coincide with the anniversary of its fall to IS Jihadi forces in 2014. The Islamic State, which ruled through violence and terror, was routed in the summer of 2017 after devastating some of the city's most iconic places of worship, like the al-Nouri Mosque and the Al-Saea (Our Lady of the Hour) Church. The two places of worship, one Muslim and one Christian, today symbolise Mosul's rebirth thanks to a reconstruction project financed by UNESCO and the United Arab Emirates, part of a programme called 'Reviving the spirit of Mosul by rebuilding its historical monuments'. "For months we heard stories about rebuilding the mosque, the minaret and the Dominican church with the clock tower. Funds have been allocated and many are pushing to rebuild these important places, symbol of the old city wounded" by jihadists. For many years, the Chaldean priest has been caring for thousands of families who fled in the summer of 2014 following the rise of the Islamic State group. He can report that "we are just at the beginning". The governor, he adds, "is fighting to rebuild the city, an all-out battle against corruption which is a serious problem. Infrastructures must be rebuilt, starting from the hospitals and services that are still inadequate." This is essential for a country that is currently struggling, like much of the world, to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic. "Mosul is under curfew but people can move within the city, and Nineveh province has been spared from the virus," said Fr Paul. "We managed to limit the spread of the virus by closing the borders with other provinces and Kurdistan, and by imposing quarantine measures for those arriving from outside." The presence of the archbishop "is a source of encouragement" for Christians and for the whole city, and represents a message that "invites us to go forward, to rebuild people first as the foundation of the new Mosul and then brick and mortar." From this perspective, it is crucial "to further coexistence between different religions. Christians must return but the situation is still not right for their return." Security, development, guarantees of stability and trust are needed because Christians "feel betrayed by [some] Muslims who collaborated with the Islamic State in expulsions and violence." Even today there is an "open wound at a psychological level" that needs to be "healed". Giving the city a new, modern face has become crucial "to counter extremism." For Fr Paul, "We are still at the beginning but this goal is needed to achieve real change." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kornelius Purba (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 08:44 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd25571 1 Opinion National-Police,protester,police-brutality,black-lives-matter,George-Floyd,New-York-City,Indonesia,los-angeles,#commentary,demonstration Free American friends, human rights activists and government critics will be upset upon reading this commentary and suspect the motive behind my giving credit to President Joko Jokowi Widodo and the constantly scrutinized National Police. But seeing what has been happening in the United States, at least we can say we are not as bad as them this time around. In general, the Indonesian police are somewhat smarter and more patient than the police in New York, Los Angeles and Washington DC, when it comes to handling demonstrations. Protests and riots spread across the US following the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of police in the city of Minnesota. In dealing with mass protests, following the 2019 student protests that left nine people dead, the National Police now devote time and energy to persuasion. The police know who to talk with for negotiation, as they recently did to prevent labor unions from taking to the streets to protest at the job creation bill on April 30, when physical-distancing restrictions were in place to contain coronavirus transmission. However, here in Indonesia T-shirts and hats, both original and fake, of the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) are popular. Popular admiration for the American cops is probably influenced by Hollywood movies or TV series. For many of them, their own police are almost nothing compared with the American superhero officers. On its official website, the NYPD pledges to: Protect the lives and property of our fellow citizens and impartially enforce the law [] maintain a higher standard of integrity [] value human life, respect the dignity of each individual and render our services with courtesy and civility. Meanwhile, according to the official website of the LAPD, People in our communities are our most important customers [] is not just a slogan - it is our way of life. We value the great diversity of people in both our residential and business communities and serve all with equal dedication. How about the Indonesian police? At the front door of the police offices and stations, you will find their motto: To protect, safeguard and serve society, quickly, responsively and without prejudice. Many people, however, intentionally show off police corps stickers or put police hats on the dashboard of their cars, simply to avoid street extortion committed by bad cops. For the Indonesian generation that experienced life under Soeharto, who ruled for 32 years until May 1998, and his successor BJ Habibie, who briefly served until October 1999, US President Donald Trumps response to, and the US polices tough action against, the most recent demonstrations seem like deja vu. Unlike Trump, however, Soeharto could hide his dirty hands. Soehartos military generals and all the presidents men took the responsibility, as if the dictator knew nothing about the violent crackdown on government critics and his detractors. Trump, instead, openly faces the protesters and threatens to use military force to quell what he sees as an uprising. Post-Soeharto Indonesian leaders have rarely confronted government protesters or attacked critical media, which Trump has done. In particular, Jokowi has never personally ordered the police to crush protesters or incited his loyal supporters to fight his critics. Neither has Jokowi denounced the media, at least in public. It is true that the Jokowi administration resorts to legal mechanisms to fight hoax news, slander and misinformation that is publicly disseminated, especially on social media, under the guise of freedom of expression. The police have arrested dozens of people, including government critics, for such criminal acts. Jokowi and all leaders should accept criticism, but of course not slander. Allegations that Jokowi is of Chinese descent, a communist, even a Christian, are groundless and therefore unacceptable. The polices enforcement of the law is a way to deter people from producing and spreading lies. The media and human rights groups, here and from overseas, have found flaws in the way the National Police have dealt with street protests, as happened in May last year, when the General Elections Commission announced Jokowis reelection. I agree with the criticism and Indonesia certainly needs to hear their critical views. By the same token, they should condemn the acts of violence happening in the US, deemed the icon and model of democracy. Despite their imperfections, the National Police have made efforts to improve the institution since the Reform Era began in 1998. The Reform-mandated separation of the police force from the Indonesian Military (TNI) laid out a clear division of labor between them. The police are responsible for public order and domestic security, while the TNI concentrates on external threats. In its Sept. 26, 2019 edition, The Jakarta Posts editorial titled End brutality criticized the police for beating non-resistant protesters. The excessive use of batons sent many demonstrators to hospitals, some of them with severe injuries. Following the latest incidents we need assurances that citizens can live in freedom from fear with the protection of the National Police, the editorial concluded. The states violent responses to demonstrations in the US should give us cause for concern as they endanger democracy, which is marching to consolidation in Indonesia. The brutality must not set a new standard of democracy and provide the National Police with justification to get tough with government protests and criticism. The police onslaught on demonstrations in the US, as well as Trumps leadership style, is alarming given that countrys global influence and might. Hopefully, the American people can solve their test of democracy, which has hindered their fight against COVID-19. For the National Police, the US tragedy offers a valuable lesson to keep improving and to be faithful to the Reform agenda. *** Senior editor at The Jakarta Post ST. LOUIS A firm tied to retired investor Rex Sinquefield has pumped more than $316,000 into a petition drive aimed at privatizing St. Louis Lambert International Airport, according to reports filed with the state. Pelopidas LLC, founded by Sinquefield associate Travis Brown, reported giving in-kind donations of $167,500 and $74,583 on Friday. Thats in addition to an earlier in-kind contribution of $74,583 on May 28. The contributions went to St. Louis Rising, a committee trying to get on the Nov. 3 election ballot a city charter amendment that would require city officials to restart consideration of leasing Lambert to private operators. Mayor Lyda Krewson halted the process last December. Adolphus Pruitt, a leader in the petition effort, said Monday that Pelopidas is funding various parts of the effort, including paying some people gathering signatures. He said also that were asking them to formulate messaging. Brown has not returned phone calls from the Post-Dispatch regarding Pelopidas involvement. The charter amendment would, if passed by voters, require the city to lease all or a majority of Lambert to private operators if they pay at least $1.7 billion, with $1 billion upfront. The city NAACP, headed by Pruitt, and the Carpenters Union announced the petition drive, saying the coronavirus pandemic and weak economy underscore the need for a major revenue infusion in the city. They say black-majority neighborhoods are of particular concern. Sinquefield and Brown had been heavily involved in the citys previous consideration of leasing Lambert. Grow Missouri, a nonprofit funded by Sinquefield and headed by Brown, paid for the citys application to the federal government and covered millions of dollars in fees to the consultants advising a city working group that considered privatization. Grow Missouri was promised reimbursement from revenue from a lease deal, but only if one was reached. Meanwhile, the petition drive on Monday announced the endorsement of state Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis, and the MOKAN Business and Educational Center, which supports minority contractors. The success of the proposed initiative would truly transform the city, May said in a statement. She noted that proceeds from the lease would be earmarked for things such as anti-crime and neighborhood development efforts, removal of vacant buildings, building affordable housing and creating minority apprenticeship programs in the construction industry. Opponents of privatization, which Krewson and other city leaders studied for more than three years, say the city shouldnt give up one of its key assets to private management. 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. Every parent and teacher knows that a child who misses just a couple of weeks from school can fall rapidly behind his or her classmates. Which somehow puts into perspective the crisis facing a generation of children who have now gone without school for three months because of the coronavirus lockdown. I find it astounding that the Government has given up plans to get all primary school children back before the summer holidays. The Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, says it is simply not feasible. But this is indefensible. I can only assume it means Mr Williamson and Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary who said secondary schools may not even open by September regard investing in our children as a second-order priority. Pictured: A pupil at Harris Academy's Shortland's has his temperature checked by a member of staff wearing PPE outside the school gates on June 04 2020 When I became education secretary in 1997, our policy for the country could be summed up in three words: education, education, education. We realised that unless our children had equality of access to learning, we would lose out as a country and as a global player in the world economy. Much has changed in the 23 years since then but one thing has not the paramount importance of education. Mobilise I cannot fathom why the Government is not making it an absolute priority now, by giving schools the level of importance it gave the Health Service when we were first faced with the coronavirus. As a country, we pulled together and responded with imagination, courage and creativity to support the NHS. So why do we not have the same drive where schools are concerned? Not least because all our efforts so far will be wasted if we dont get our children back to school, allowing life to return to normality and working parents to get back to their jobs. It is fundamental to our recovery. Getting schools running again quickly has to be a priority. And it will take a truly national endeavour. We need to mobilise everyone with the time, energy and experience to help. When volunteers were required to help the vulnerable and elderly in isolation, 600,000 people stepped up. We need the Government to galvanise that kind of commitment now, to provide mentoring to pupils who are falling behind, organise summer schools and more. I believe the voluntary army is ready and waiting. There are thousands of supply teachers who have been unemployed with a severely reduced income since the schools first closed. Legions of retired and former teachers are available, too, with a lifetimes experience to offer. I am one of them I have my teaching qualification and spent eight years as a college lecturer. Pictured: Stoneriase School near Carlisle, Cumbria is reopening slowly. The initial restart on June 2 2020 was with four pupils with the plan being to build up numbers as the school works out the best practice with the ever changing guidelines There are lots of people like me who could help youngsters catch up before the autumn term begins. We can step in at after-school clubs and be on hand to enable school hours to be staggered. The former Conservative education secretary Justine Greening has suggested using alternative premises where schools are too small or classrooms too confined to bring children back safely. Of course there are church halls, empty theatres and other buildings that can be pressed into action but I believe we can find even more radical solutions. In New York and other major U.S. cities, I have seen the roads around overcrowded schools being shut for hours at a time to provide play areas. We could do the same and set up marquees or even temporary buildings in the streets. Why not? No one thought it was possible to build a functioning hospital in weeks, until we saw the Chinese example and copied it. Our Nightingale hospitals appeared almost overnight the same must be possible with classrooms. Initiatives need to begin at local level. We must take the best ideas individual schools are already implementing and put them into action across the country challenge local authorities and education trusts to come up with solutions, then sustain them through national funding put in place by central government. This is the only way to succeed. The Government cannot impose a uniform policy on the whole country but it must take the lead. Fervently A national push of this sort, in which the whole country is dedicated to helping children return to school, would be very hard for the recalcitrant teachers unions to resist. Which only makes the PMs capitulation all the more unjustifiable. I honestly believe we can do this, not least because education is so much bigger than party politics. I cited a former Tory minister, Justine Greening, but Ive heard the same sentiments expressed by my former Labour colleague Alan Johnson, another former education secretary. The childrens commissioner, Anne Longfield, spoke fervently about this yesterday, too. Pictured: Children sit at individual desks during a lesson at the Harris Academy's Shortland's school on June 04, 2020 in London, England. As part of Covid-19 lockdown measures, Harris Academy schools have taught smaller pods of students, to help maintain social distancing measures. Signs on the desks read 'welcome back - we've missed you!' Here is Kenneth Baker, education secretary under Margaret Thatcher: Disadvantaged students have been particularly hit. Many have not been able to join in the virtual lessons for lack of a laptop or having to share one within their family. More able children have done better and the better-off are more able to afford recovery programmes. Independent schools have almost universally provided a full curriculum because of substantially better funding and pupil/teacher ratios than in the state sector. But what is right for the few should surely be the entitlement of the many. Lord Baker and I have spent much of our political lives disagreeing vehemently with each other, but I subscribe wholeheartedly to his words here. In fact, those sentences are taken from a statement we wrote together and co-signed. Lifeblood The next few weeks will shape countless young lives. Children have already been out of school for the length of an average term. A life without school will by now seem normal to many of them. Teenagers especially are vulnerable to a lack of routine and discipline. They need social contact to bolster their mental health and growth, and need encouragement to help them stay focused. It is natural for teens to feel less comfortable with too much parental guidance, which inevitably makes home schooling difficult. One practical solution is to reduce the social distancing regulations in line with World Health Organization recommendations. Most of the rest of the world is keeping a healthy distance of one metre apart, and this is the rule we need to adopt. A two-metre exclusion zone is not just impractical for schools and businesses; scientists agree that the health benefits it brings are negligible. Lord Blunkett, pictured in 2015, was Education Secretary from 1997-2001 and is now Professor of Politics in Practice at the University of Sheffield We already know children are the least susceptible to Covid-19, and we have seen from other countries that students are very unlikely to spread the disease at school, either to teachers or each other. So sensible social distancing at one metre and constant good hygiene, with plenty of handwashing, could help us get schools working very quickly indeed. Education is Britains lifeblood. No matter what difficulties we face, we owe it to a generation of pupils. If this Government believes in an equal and just society, it should throw everything it has at getting children back to school. Lord Blunkett was Education Secretary from 1997-2001 and is now Professor of Politics in Practice at the University of Sheffield. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE At least 1,300 absentee ballots in New Mexico arrived too late to be counted in the primary election a figure expected to grow as the Postal Service continues delivering ballots each day. State law prohibits county clerks from tabulating any ballots that arrive after 7 on election night, when polls close. In Bernalillo County, 1,046 ballots came in the mail too late to be counted, according to the clerks office. Another 316 arrived late in Santa Fe County. I imagine well get ballots all week, Bernalillo County Clerk Linda Stover said, and its really too bad. A statewide total isnt available yet, but it could exceed 3,000 if the trend in Bernalillo and Santa Fe counties shows up in other parts of the state. Heather Ferguson, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, an advocacy group for voting rights, said she hopes state legislators will revise state law to reduce the number of uncounted ballots in future elections. Regardless of party, Ferguson said, these are issues that are the foundational principles of our democracy. You have too many folks in the last primary who were disenfranchised. One option, she said, would be to allow the counting of ballots that are postmarked by Election Day, but arrive later. Envelopes containing absentee ballots could have intelligent bar codes, Ferguson said, allowing voters and election officials to track a ballot as it moves through the mail system. The state could also adjust the deadline for voters to request an absentee ballot, with the goal of ensuring people receive their ballots in time to mail them back. Ferguson said she hopes Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and lawmakers will address the voting procedures in a special session expected to start a week from Thursday. Lujan Grisham plans to call legislators to the Capitol to revise the state budget and take other action to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Nora Meyers Sackett, a spokeswoman for the governor, said voting procedures are a possible agenda item. The goal, she said, is to focus on legislation that requires immediate action and cant wait until the next regular session in January. Voting procedures and ensuring New Mexicans can safely and securely and fully participate in the fall election, Sackett said, are one of many items that could be considered part of that, but, again, its still being formulated. At least some absentee ballots arrive late every year. But it could be a particular problem this year because voters turned so heavily to absentee ballots as a way to vote safely from home amid the pandemic. About 42% of eligible voters 422,008 people cast ballots in last weeks primary election the highest turnout percentage in at least 20 years. In the final days before the election, officials throughout the state urged voters to drop off absentee ballots in person rather than risk putting them in the mail. By Express News Service BHUBANESWAR: A group of professors, engineering students and industry professionals from Odisha have developed a cross-platform application to help migrant workers find jobs in different parts of the country online. Led by IIT-Bhubaneswar Professor Debi Prasad Dogra, the group members launched the application 'Mo Sahay' (www.mosahay.org) three days back. The application acts as an interface between employers and migrant workers. It stores information about skill sets of the workers and their current health status. "Most often, the labourers aren't able to browse through job portals to find an employment opportunity. That is why we created the application, which can be used by government and recruiters to learn about the skills of migrants are returning to the State from different parts of the country," claimed Dogra. To simplify the registration process for the workers, who are often less educated, the application asks for only basic details like name, age, gender, mobile phone number, address and skills. In the second step of registration, the worker is asked about his health. "At present, we have used three languages - Hindi, English and Odia - for registration of migrants. Other regional languages can also be added to the application," added Dogra. Once the data of the migrants are stored, the group plans to share the same with recruiters and the State Government. "With the help of artificial intelligence, we will map the skills of the registered migrants and share their data with the industries which are in need of manpower. The data will be kept secured," he added. The application can store information about 308 skills applicable for 24 industries. The application was developed with the support from Bijay Sahoo, a senior industry professional. The developers also comprised IIT Professor Manoranjan Satpathy, entrepreneur Suraj Kumar Gantayat, about 30 students from IIT-BBS and other universities in Odisha and other professionals. At present, the group is in talks with CII and FICCI for collaborations. The application is not available in play store. It can be accessed from smartphones, computers and other gadgets. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM), the semiconductor company building a $12 billion plant in Arizona, has reportedly secured aid from federal and state governments. Citing TSMC Chairman Mark Liu comments, Bloomberg reported state and federal government officials have signed off on covering some of the difference between what it costs to make chips in the U.S. and Taiwan. The size of the subsidies is still under negotiations, however. "We are still talking to the U.S. government. Our request is that the state and federal governments together make up for the cost gap between the U.S. and Taiwan," Liu was quoted as saying, noting Congress will have to sign off on any subsidies. In addition to disclosing the aid, Liu said the tech stock has chosen a location in Arizona to build the plant although he wouldn't provide specific details. The chipmaker has identified land next to its future plant in hopes that suppliers of the company will also set up facilities down the road. TSMC is among the semiconductor companies that have been holding talks with the White House about developing chips on U.S. soil. With tensions between the U.S. and China intensifying and with a push to reduce the U.S. reliance on Asian countries for semiconductors, some of the leading chipmakers are committing to open more plants in the U.S. Last month TSMC announced it will build a $12 billion chip fabrication plant in Arizona, creating more than 1,600 jobs. The company expects construction on the plant to kick off in 2021. TSMC isn't the only chip company looking for subsidies from the government. Earlier in June the Wall Street Journal reported The Semiconductor Industry Association, the trade group that represents Intel and other U.S. chip companies plans to ask the federal government for $37 billion to build chip plants in the U.S. One of the members of the criminal group is notified in suspicion; he faces up to seven years of imprisonment Search of partakers of Brovary shootout Ukraine's Interior Ministry On June 9, the police employees and special operations regiment held searches at the places of possible residence of the organizers and partakers of the shooting in Brovary and offices, as the Interior Ministry of Ukraine reported. The law enforcers confiscated various weapons, cartridges of different caliber, knives, and draft outlines. One of the organizers is notified suspicion in the organization of the crime and hooliganism. He faces imprisonment from three up to seven years. Investigative actions continue. As we reported, about 07:00 a.m., May 29, the mass shooting took place in Brovary, Kyiv region. The reason for the shooting was the conflict between the entrepreneurs who deal with the passenger service and illegal carriers. Men in 18th century Britain considered middle-aged women ardent and experienced lovers, describing them as 'ripe, mellow fruit', according to a new study. University of Cambridge researcher, Ella Sbaraini, looked at Georgian diaries, prints, pamphlets and other records to paint a picture of female sexuality in middle-age. Married women between 30 and 50, considered middle-aged at the time, were portrayed in 18th century material as more lustful and worldly than younger women. This contradicts modern narratives that portray mature women of the period as sexually unattractive, and becoming more 'passive' with age, said Sbaraini. Women of the period were far from being untouchable matriarchs or spinsters, according to Sbaraini, who said they were 'extremely erotic figures'. This image is taken from the LAUGHING AUDIENCE, by William Hogarth, c. 1761. Married women between 30 and 50, considered middle-aged at the time, were portrayed in 18th century material as more lustful and worldly than younger women They were coveted by Georgian men for their sexual experience and ardour, in contrast to the modern view that 18th century middle-aged women were sexless. 'I wonder whether some historians' assumption that women in this period aren't sexy when they're past 30 or 40 is almost because of our culture thinking, of course you're not in that part of life when you're 45, for example,' Sbaraini wrote. An example of the appeal of older women to Georgian men came in the form of dictionary writer Samuel Johnson, who married a woman 20 years his senior. Johnson married 46-year-old widow Elizabeth Porter when he was 25 and said that it is not 'girls but women who inspire the violent and lasting passions'. 'Though some historians of sexuality have begun to pay more attention to 'old' women variously defined as being over fifty, fifty-five, or sixty few have examined the treatment of what could be termed 'middle-aged' women,' Sbaraini wrote. A Master of the Ceremonies Introducing a Partner, depicted in November 24, 1795 by artist Thomas Rowlandson. Older women were coveted by Georgian men for their sexual experience and ardour, in contrast to the modern view that 18th century middle-aged women were sexless Until now, the sexuality of these women and how it developed through marriage and motherhood has been poorly researched by historians. 'This 'middle-age' was a crucially important period, in which women experienced key sexual, physical and social changes,' she wrote. The goal of the research was to 'redress the idea that eighteenth-century people saw middle-aged women as sexually unappealing,' said Sbaraini. She said that erotic material from the period can give us invaluable insights into male fantasies about middle-aged women. The same sort of insight can also be gained by studying other contemporary texts. As part of her research, Sbaraini examined seven volumes of adultery cases from the period and found over 40 per cent featured women over the age of 30. Records of the time suggest that men found the idea of transgressing with the wife of another man, or even someone's mother, exciting. The researcher also studied directories of prostitutes - widely available at the time - and found that many were seen as attractive because of their age, not in spite of it. An example was a women aged 37 who was described as being ideal for 'those who prefer the ripe mellow fruit to any other'. Another was seen as approachable, motherly and will 'give you a comfortable cup of tea in the morning'. One of the most alluring groups of middle-aged women to men of the period were widows, according to Sbaraini, who were seen as holding a 'bewitching power' over men of the time. This drawn is called Masquerading, It was painted in August 30, 1811 by artist Thomas Rowlandson. The researcher also studied directories of prostitutes - widely available at the time - and found that many were seen as attractive because of their age, not in spite of it 'Part of widows' appeal lay in their sincere enjoyment of sex; experience had shown that they liked it,' she wrote in her paper. The one exception to her findings came in the form of spinsters, who were viewed as 'undesirable' and 'closed to sexual enjoyment'. 'Middle-aged widows, wives, mothers and prostitutes could present exciting though not uncomplicated erotic possibilities,' Sbaraini wrote in her paper. She said they were often presented as forward and enthusiastic lovers, with sexual experience enlivening passion, as well as bestowing power. 'Criticisms of middle-aged women reveal concerns about their forwardness and sexual potency, rather than their passivity,' she said. In the case of older middle-aged wives, social status and 'worldliness' were more often presented as reasons for sexual interest, according to Sbaraini. 'Dr Syntax returned from his tour', illustration by Thomas Rowlandson from 'Doctor Syntax's Tour in Search of the Picturesque' by William Combe. Married women between 30 and 50, considered middle-aged at the time, were portrayed in 18th century material as more lustful and worldly than younger women Motherhood also played a large part in this appeal, with having a lot of children seen as 'strong proof of conjugal affection'. 'Trial reports often remark on women's many children, and highlight the status afforded by motherhood,' wrote Sbaraini. 'Jane Fay is said to have had 'Eight children in Seven years' a 'strong proof of conjugal affection' while one of Mrs Martin's many 'accomplishments' was her nine offspring.' 'Mothers, especially in their thirties, could thus be attractive to men as fertile bodies. Women in their late-thirties and forties were more often presented as matrons and matriarchs,' she added. 'There was sometimes a sense that older women could be experienced, almost motherly, guides.' Unlike the modern narrative, that presented middle-aged women in 18th century Britain as 'passionless', the reality was much more nuanced. 'Few sources exist which allow us to access what middle-aged women thought about their own sexual attractiveness or sexuality, and this silence is frustrating,' wrote Sbaraini. 'Though more work is being done in this area [..] there is scope for doing more to tease out how women thought about their own sexual appeal and sexuality.' The research has been published in the journal Cultural and Social History. CHICAGO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report on the "Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysisby Offering (Hardware, Software, Services), Technology (Machine Learning, NLP, Context-Aware Computing, Computer Vision), End-Use Application, End User and Region - Global Forecast To 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global AI in Healthcare Market is expected to grow from USD 4.9 billion in 2020 and reach USD 45.2 billion by 2026; it is projected to grow at a CAGR of 44.9% during the forecast period. The major factors driving the growth of the market are the increasing volume of healthcare data and growing complexities of datasets, the intensifying need to reduce towering healthcare costs, improving computing power and declining hardware costs, growing number of cross-industry partnerships and collaborations, and rising imbalance between health workforce and patients driving the need for improvised healthcare services. Another major fueling the market growth currently is the adoption of this technology by multiple pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies across the world to expedite vaccine or drug development processes for COVID-19. Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=54679303 Software segment in AI healthcare market projected to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period. Many companies are developing software solutions for various healthcare applications; this is the key factor complementing the growth of the software segment. Growing adoption of AI-driven healthcare informatics solutions and healthcare operational support by hospitals and other healthcare service providers is expected to boost the demand for services in the later part of the forecast period. Machine learning in AI healthcare market projected to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period. Growing adoption of deep learning in various healthcare applications, especially in the areas of medical imaging, disease diagnostics, and drug discovery, and the use of different sensors and devices to derive a patient's health status in real time are supplementing the growth of the market. Medical imaging & diagnostics segment in AI healthcare market projected to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period. The high growth of the medical imaging and diagnostics segment can be attributed to factors such as the presence of a large volume of imaging data, advantages offered by AI systems to radiologists in diagnosis and treatment management, and the influx of a large number of startups in this segment. Patients segment in AI healthcare market projected to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period. Increasing demand for personalized care, the need to reduce hospital readmissions, and the convenience offered by AI products and solutions are the key factors driving the growth of the patients segment in the AI in healthcare market. Browse in-depth TOC on "Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Market" 105 - Tables 59- Figures 255 - Pages Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=54679303 AI in healthcare market in APAC projected to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period. China is the highest healthcare spender among APAC countries and has charted out official plans to digitize medical records. In addition, the Chinese government is undertaking initiatives to encourage the adoption of AI technologies in healthcare. These will drive the market for AI in healthcare in China. Japan is likely to hold the second-largest market share during the forecast period. Major players in the AI in healthcare market are NVIDIA Corporation (NVIDIA) (US), Intel Corporation (Intel) (US), International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) (US), Google Inc. (Google) (US), Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) (US), Amazon Web Services (an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary) (AWS) (US), General Vision, Inc. (US), General Electric (GE) Healthcare (US), Siemens Healthineers (Germany), Medtronic plc (US), Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (Johnson & Johnson) (US), and Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands). Related Reports: Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity Market by Offering (Hardware, Software, and Service), Deployment Type, Security Type, Technology (ML, NLP, and Context-Aware), Application (IAM, DLP, and UTM), End User, and Geography- Global Forecast to 2026 Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing Market by Offering (Hardware, Software, and Services), Technology (Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Context-Aware Computing, and NLP), Application, Industry, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2025 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. 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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/artificial-intelligence-healthcare-market.asp Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/artificial-intelligence-healthcare.asp Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg Long-struggling Cathay has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and anti-government protests in Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd has announced a recapitalisation plan worth 39 billion Hong Kong dollars ($5bn) led by the Hong Kong government to help it weather the coronavirus pandemic. The government will be issued 19.5 billion Hong Kong dollars ($2.5bn) worth of Cathay preference shares whose holders are compensated before other shareholders in the event of a company going bankrupt giving it a 6-percent stake. The government will also receive 1.95 billion Hong Kong dollars ($252m) in warrants, giving it the right to buy more shares at a specified price at a future date. In addition, the government will provide a bridging loan worth 7.8 billion Hong Kong dollars ($1bn), Cathay said. The government will also have the right to have two observers at board meetings. Governments around the world have been helping airlines amid a plunge in travel demand, and in some cases such as Germanys Lufthansa, they are taking direct equity stakes. Cathay has grounded most of its planes because of falling demand amid coronavirus-related travel curbs, flying only cargo and a skeleton passenger network to major destinations such as Beijing, Los Angeles, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Vancouver. Cathay said on Tuesday a fall in passenger revenue to only 1 percent of the previous years levels meant the airline had been losing cash at a rate of 2.5-3 billion Hong Kong dollars ($323m-$387m) per month since February. Cathay has furloughed some pilots at overseas bases and cut cabin crew roles in the United States and Canada since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but has not announced large-scale permanent job losses. The airline said on Tuesday it would put in place a further round of executive pay cuts and a second voluntary leave scheme for employees alongside the recapitalisation proposal. In the longer term, all aspects of the Cathay Pacific Groups business model will be re-evaluated, the airline said. Even before the pandemic, Cathay was under enormous financial and political pressures as it found itself caught up in the Hong Kong anti-government protests, which affected traffic numbers and led to the exit of the companys former chief executive officer. Cathay was criticised by China, protesters and its own workers for its response to the demonstrations. LONDON Images of statues of colonial figures toppled or defaced in European protests in the wake of George Floyds death have sparked a debate about the continent's dark colonial past and the enduring nature of its legacy of racism and inequality. On Tuesday, campaigners calling for the removal of a statue of Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes were protesting at the University of Oxford, while London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced a review of the capital's statues and street names. In the English port city of Bristol over the weekend, a statue of the 17th century slave trader Edward Colston who played a leading role in a company that trafficked 80,000 African men, women and children into slavery was pulled off its plinth and dumped into the citys harbor by protesters. Image: A statue of King Leopold II of Belgium (Jonas Roosens / AFP - Getty Images) While in Belgium, a bust of King Leopold II who reigned over the death and exploitation of millions of Congolese people in the late 1800s was defaced, according to images on social media. Protesters clambered over another Leopold statue, chanting reparations and waving the Democratic Republic of Congos flag, according to Euronews. When things are happening in America, we understand here that our society was the parent of that racism and the parent of the slave trade, Arike Oke, the managing director of the Black Cultural Archives, a center dedicated to preserving and celebrating the histories of both African and Caribbean people in Britain, said referring to Europe. Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees told NBC News Global Hangout that while he does not condone the destruction of public property, as a black man and the son of Jamaican immigrants, he saw the bronze statue of Colston, which was erected in 1895, as a personal affront. Id be lying if I tried to claim that I'd miss the statue being on that spot in the middle of the city, Rees, who is the citys first black mayor, said. In the United States, some protesters demonstrating against Floyds death have targeted Confederate monuments, which have been a source of tension for years, as some say that they glorify the Confederacy and skim over the dark and painful history of slavery. Story continues Meanwhile, in Belgium, tens of thousands have signed a petition to remove all statues of Leopold, whose troops decimated the Congo region. His statue was also removed from the Antwerp suburb of Ekeren to be cleaned and restored Tuesday. Ekeren's district mayor, Koen Palinckx, said it remained unclear whether the statue would be restored to its former place, but that it would depend on its condition rather than the calls for Leopold's statues to be removed. "It's part of our history and what we were in the past," he said, adding that he understood the calls and that context was important but that removing the statues was not the answer. Primrose Ntumba, a parliamentary assistant in the Brussels Parliament and an activist focusing on the representation of African minorities in Belgium, said Floyds death had given momentum and attention to a conversation about race and Belgiums colonial history that activists like herself had been having for years. We have a lot of history that a lot of people dont know about and it really impacts people of color and particularly black people in Belgium, she said. A lot of the white majority citizens in Belgium do not understand why black people are so angry because they have never been taught about it. Ntumba said Belgium had also witnessed cases of police violence. Despite the symbolism of toppling statues, some British activists believe the reaction to Floyds death should focus instead on police violence against black citizens, an issue they feel is more readily associated with the United States than with the United Kingdom in the minds of many. We have many George Floyds, said Temi Mwale, the director of The 4Front Project, a youth organization that supports those who have experienced violence and those who have experiences with the criminal justice system. We want to educate and raise the consciousness of the British public who are so angered by this who were saying George Floyd and Breonna Taylor to talk to them about Rashan Charles and Edson da Costa, Mwale added. Charles and da Costa are two men who died after being restrained by police in separate incidents in London in 2017. Taylor, a young black emergency medical technician, was shot dead by Louisville, Kentucky, police officers in March. In Charles' case, an inquest found his death to be accidental but his family said the process had been a farce, the BBC reported at the time. And a jury ruled that da Costa died by misadventure, according to Inquest, a charity that provides expertise on state-related deaths. Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics The footage capturing Floyds death, after then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin dug his knee into Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes, reminded black people in Britain of deaths in or following police custody in the U.K., Oke said, adding in many cases people felt the police had not been brought to justice. It brings back all of these traumas that the black community in Britain have been facing year after year after year, she said. The video footage of Floyds death, combined with the fact that the coronavirus pandemic disproportionately affected the black Caribbean population in England and Wales and has offered people the time to reflect, have intensified the feeling of racial inequality in Britain, she added. Perhaps, she said, what were seeing now is that the immune system of society is finally trying to rid itself of this thing that holds us all back. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A 157-day cycle of radio bursts coming from the same spot in deep space could help astronomers pin down what causes the mysterious signals, a new study reveals. Fast Radio Bursts (FRB) are very short but very intense pulses of radio waves. They were first discovered in 2007, but their origins remain unknown to astronomers. This has led to some speculation they could be signs of an alien civilisation trying to contact Earth. Now researchers from the University of Manchester have studied long-term monitoring data from the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank to try to understand these unusual signals. They claim the most likely explanation is that they are coming from a black hole or a very hot young neutron star in a binary system. This artists impression of the Fast Radio Burst featured in this study shows one possible origin story - coming from a large star (blue) with a companion object - possibly a neutron star (pink) Over the past four years, astronomers have used the 240ft Lovell Telescope to study one of these unusual bursts - known as FRB 121102 - to look for patterns. They found that it had an unusual cycle compared to some of the 100 or so other bursts discovered so far - it flares for 90 days and vanishes for the next 67, before repeating the cycle. They looked at 32 bursts from the same source over the four-year study period, along with previous research into FRB 121102 from other observations. 'We predict that the source is currently "off" and that it should turn "on"' before August 28, the authors wrote in a paper. This is only the second time an FRB has been shown to repeat - the first, known as FRB 180916.J10158+56, has a 16-day cycle. The team say proving these bursts have a regular pattern helped the team rule out some origins for these mysterious astronomical phenomenon. 'The discovery that at least some Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) repeat has ruled out cataclysmic events as the progenitors of these particular bursts,' the authors wrote. Most of these bursts flare just once and are then never seen again - making them impossible to predict, according to astronomers. Some show repeat activity, but until recently that was found to be completely random - at least it was until the 16-day cycle of FRB 180916.J10158+56 was found. The presence of a regular sequence in the burst activity could imply that the powerful bursts are linked to large-scale cosmic phenomenon. These could include the orbital motion of a massive star, a neutron star in a binary system or a black hole. Other potential explanations for the cyclic activity include periodic flare-ups caused by a wobble in the rotational axis of a highly magnetised neutron star. Rajwade of The University of Manchester, who led the new research, said it was an exciting result as it's only the second time a pattern has been identified in a burst - and this is the longest cycle. 'Detecting a periodicity provides an important constraint on the origin of the bursts and the activity cycles could argue against a precessing neutron star,' he said. When Fast Radio Bursts were first discovered in 2007 they were initially thought to be a one-off event linked to the explosion of a massive star. This burst, that has the 157 day cycle, was first discovered in 2012 and was the first to show any kind of pattern when it was seen repeating for the first time in 2016. Over the past four years astronomers have used the 240ft Lovell Telescope (pictured) to study one of these unusual bursts - known as FRB 121102 - to look for patterns Benjamin Stappers, FRB hunter, said the result relied on regular monitoring and non-detections of the signal - in the 67-day gaps - was just as important as the signals. To their surprise, the timescale for this cycle is almost 10 times longer than the 16-day periodicity exhibited by the first repeating source, FRB 180916.J10158+56, which was discovered by the CHIME telescope in Canada. 'This exciting discovery highlights how little we know about the origin of FRBs,' says Duncan Lorimer from West Virginia University. 'Further observations of a larger number of FRBs will be needed in order to obtain a clearer picture about these periodic sources and elucidate their origin,' he added. Ryan Shannon, from Swinburne University, who was not involved in the study, told Newsweek that these findings could prove to be a 'game changer'. 'The big question is how FRB 121102 relates to other FRBs, including many that have not been seen to repeat,' said Shannon. He said few FRBs have been shown to repeat so far and so this discovery could end up being a rare red herring in the quest to understand the phenomenon. The team behind this study say it is possible that all FRBs repeat but with varying strength - and we're just not able to detect the repetition. The findings have been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Cigarette giant British American Tobacco has warned that it could take two years longer than expected to reach a major milestone in the business unit which includes its vape pens. It also warned that revenue from its overall business is likely to miss expectations. Covid-19 has slowed the growth of vaping products, which are touted as the big saviour in western countries for under-pressure tobacco companies. BAT said that it could now take until 2025 before it starts making 5 billion in revenue from its new categories business unit, which includes vape pen Vype. Covid-19 has disrupted consumer activation plans, reducing overall industry growth rates in new categories, BAT told shareholders on Tuesday. It has also led to the scaling back or postponement of some launches, as well as causing supply disruption and out-of-stocks earlier in the year. While the vapour category continues to recover following the global slowdown in the second half last year, the US market remains below historical levels. BAT had originally hoped the segment could reach revenue of 5 billion in the 2023-24 financial year. The new categories products include oral tobacco, and heated tobacco products, including Glo. It follows a turbulent time for the vaping industry. Not only have the tobacco giants who are betting on it had to deal with the pandemic, they are also being increasingly scrutinised by regulators. Vapes had been riding high until reports started linking them to lung damage, and even death, among young people. It led to a ban on many flavours of the devices in several US states. The last three years have been difficult ones for big tobacco. Hit by regulatory crackdowns, and advertising bans on its traditional tobacco products, the industry switched focus onto the e-cigarettes and vaping products, said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets. British American Tobacco has been no different, its share price sliding sharply in the wake of the global crackdown on cigarette advertising as well as the recent lockdowns. Story continues Meanwhile, BAT warned it was set to miss guidance, as South Africa sticks to a ban on selling tobacco during the pandemic, and sales have taken a significant hit in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Vietnam. It now expects revenue to grow between 1% and 3%, down from previous expectations of between 3% and 5%. Chief executive Jack Bowles said: We have made a good start to the year, with strong volume and value share growth in combustibles underpinning the sustainability of the business. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our teams around the world, I am pleased to say that we continue to perform well and expect a good performance in 2020, in the context of very challenging circumstances. Looking further ahead, we are confident about the future opportunities for BAT. Our continued commitment to our dividend policy reflects this confidence. New York City the epicenter of Americas coronavirus outbreak began partially reopening its shattered economy Monday following almost three months of lockdown, as the World Health Organization warned the situation was worsening worldwide. Some 400,000 New Yorkers were allowed to return to work as retailers began offering limited in-store and curbside pickup, with construction and manufacturing also permitted to restart. Its good to be back, said Michael Ostergren, manager of Shakespeare and Co bookshop on Manhattans Upper West Side, where a trickle of customers arrived shortly after the doors reopened. Everybody wants to be out of the house. Were just picking up where we left off in March, he added. Phase one of New Yorks reopening got underway as some of Europes hardest-hit nations lurched back to a new kind of normal, even as WHO reported a record number of new cases globally. Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 136,000 cases had been reported in the past 24 hours, the most in a single day so far, with the majority coming in the Americas and South Asia. Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening, he told reporters. COVID-19 caused more than 21,000 confirmed and probable deaths in New York after Americas most populous city quickly became ground zero of the USs epidemic in late March. Mayor Bill de Blasio hailed the start of the easing of restrictions but warned residents that they must continue to social distance and wash their hands regularly. This is a triumphant moment for New Yorkers who fought back against this disease, he told CNN. Come back to work, but remember to stick to those smart rules that got us this far. But the reopening effort was stymied by large numbers of high-end stores remaining boarded up following widespread looting during anti-racism protests a week ago. The start of the economic reboot came a day after de Blasio lifted a controversial week-long curfew he had imposed over the looting of luxury shops that took place across Manhattan. Governor Andrew Cuomo has urged the thousands of protesters who demonstrated the police killing in Minneapolis of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, to get tested for COVID-19, fearing they may trigger a surge in infections. One shop that did open in Midtown was The Container Store, a home storage outlet. Protests spike? Sixty-one-year-old K.B Barton left with three bags of items that he had bought online and then picked up. Its livelier today in Manhattan. I see a lot more people in the streets. I am happier but not everyone wears a mask, he told AFP. In the borough of Queens, rush hour subway trains into Manhattan were slightly busier than in recent weeks, but still nowhere near pre-coronavirus numbers. Seventy-year-old Brandy Bligen said he was looking forward to dining outside, which is included in phase two of the reopening alongside barbershops, and expected in a fortnight if cases dont surge. Being confined is enough to drive you crazy. I almost went crazy, he told AFP at Roosevelt Av-Jackson Heights station. New Yorks bars will be allowed to open in phase three, but cinemas and museums have to wait until phase four, likely in late July and with reduced capacity. COVID-19 deaths have passed 403,000 worldwide, with over seven million infections, since the disease emerged in China last year before sweeping the globe, subjecting billions to some form of lockdown and paralyzing economies. Governments around the world are cautiously peeling back the measures to resuscitate economies while trying to avoid a resurgence of infections. In Belgium, pubs and eateries flung their doors open, but with social distancing measures in force, while Ireland opened shops and allowed gatherings of six people and limited travel. British quarantine Moscow said Monday it would ease border restrictions and lift lockdown measures in the Russian capital from Tuesday. New Zealand meanwhile buoyed hopes for the rest of the world as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared that her country had beaten the virus and lifted all restrictions, though strict border controls remain. But Britain, embarking on a more cautious reopening, imposed a two-week quarantine for anyone coming into the country by land, sea or air British nationals included sparking legal action by airlines. Across the Atlantic, countries were gearing up for the worst as the outbreak escalated in Latin America, the new virus hotspot, with Brazil, Mexico and Peru particularly hard hit. Brazil has the worlds third-highest death toll at more than 36,000, but President Jair Bolsonaro continues to play down the impact of the virus and has urged regional officials to lift lockdown measures. Fears in Asia that the virus may not be under control persist, with the death toll and infection rate climbing sharply in India, even as the government lifted some curbs Monday after a 10-week lockdown. SOURCE: AFP The move by Daniel Duku, a former Chief Executive of the Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) who is standing trial for causing financial loss to the state, to pay GH15 million as restitution to the state is in limbo. An Accra High Court yesterday rejected an agreement reached between Duku and the Attorney-General on the terms of the restitution. The presiding judge, Justice Anthony Oppong, a Justice of the Court of Appeal, with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, was not happy with the agreement as it currently stood and, therefore, directed the two sides to go back and rewrite it in conformity with what he described as best practices. Amount not enough Duku and two other accused persons Irene Anti-Mensah, who was his Executive Assistant at the VCTF, and Frank Aboagye Mensah, Anti-Mensahs husband had decided to pay restitution to the state. Per their actions, the three accused persons want to plead guilty to a total of about 42 charges levelled against them and make amends by paying the money they allegedly took from the state, in line with Section 35 of the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459). Such a move, although will make them convicts, will help them escape custodial sentences. However, at yesterdays hearing, Justice Oppong said the GH15 million being offered by Duku was not satisfactory, as he (judge) had personally calculated the amount on the charge sheet and realised that Duku caused financial loss of more than GH40 million to the state. We are dealing with state resources. The restitution must reflect the GH40 million, so that the state does not lose the money, he said. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mrs Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, explained to the judge that the GH40 million was the amount all the six accused persons had been accused of stealing from the state. She also said the amount stated on the charge sheet included the principal and the interest. According to the DPP, the principal amount Duku allegedly stole from the state was GH9 million, while the interest was GH13 million, making the total of GH22 million. We have maintained the principal; it is the interest that was negotiated, and that is why the amount is GH15 million, she said. Plea bargain or not? Justice Oppong also pointed out that on the face of the agreement, there was no indication that the accused persons fully understood what they had signed. He said the agreement was basically a plea bargain and, therefore, the accused persons must be made aware of the charges which would be dropped against them, whether the prosecution, as a compromise, would drop other charges, the fact that they would not have a right to appeal, among other issues. Justice Oppong said plea bargain was novel to Ghana and, therefore, the ideal thing was for the prosecution and the lawyers for the accused to follow best practices which pertained in other countries, such as Kenya, which had plea bargaining as part of their laws. The presiding judge was also not happy with a clause in the agreement that allowed certain properties that had been seized from Duku to be released in order for him to sell to offset the GH15 million he had offered to pay to the state. According to the judge, the agreement did not reveal the value of the properties, which was crucial for the court in exercising its discretion in upholding the agreement In response, Mrs Obuobisa explained to the court that what had been provided for under Section 35 of Act 459 was not a plea bargain. Plea bargaining agreement is not known to Ghana because there is no legislation on that. Such legislation is under consideration. This agreement is under Section 35 of Act 459, she said. She said unlike a plea bargaining agreement, an accused person who activated Section 35 of Act 459 had a right of appeal. Again, she argued that Section 35 of Act 459 was not novel, as stated by the court, and that there were many decided cases in Ghana to that effect. She further argued that Duku and the other accused persons were fully aware of the import of Section 35 of Act 459 because it had been explained to them by both the prosecution and their lawyers during the negotiations. It was, therefore, her case that an agreement under Section 35 related to the terms of the restitution, compensation and restoration and not the other things as stated by the court, as that would amount to a plea bargaining agreement which was not part of the laws of Ghana. Best practices Counsel for Duku, Mr Addo Atuah, supported what the DPP said and said his client was fully aware of the consequences of activating Section 35 of Act 459. What we have agreed covers all angles of Section 35 of Act 459, counsel said. Justice Oppong, however, insisted that the agreement must be done in conformity with best practices, as pertained in Kenya. The DPP decided to take a cue from the presiding judge, but further argued that whatever new agreement would be presented to the court must still be in accordance with Section 35 of Act 459. Hearing continues on June 22, 2020 Section 35 of Act 459 Under Section 35 (1) of Act 459, a person accused of an offence which has caused economic loss, harm or damage to the state or state agency may inform the prosecutor whether the accused admits and is willing to offer compensation or make restitution and reparation for the loss, harm or damage caused. Section 35 (2) of Act 459 states that when an accused makes an offer of restitution, the prosecutor shall consider whether the offer is acceptable or not and inform the court. In the event the offer is not acceptable to the prosecution, the trial shall continue, but if the offer is acceptable, the accused person will plead guilty and the court will convict him on his own plea. When passing sentence, the court will then order the accused to pay the restitution based on conditions set by the court. However, per Section 35 (7) of Act 459, if the accused person fails to fulfill the conditions set by the court for the payment of the restitution, the court shall pass a custodial sentence on him. Alleged scandal Duku was the CEO of the VCTF between 2010 and 2015. The other accused persons are Richard Lassey Agbenyefia, a former Member of Parliament for Keta and former member of the Board of Trustees of the VCTF (the board); Kofi Sarpong, an investment officer of the VCTF, and Charity Opoku, also known as Charity Ameyaw, who was an accountant at the VCTF. They have been variously charged with 86 counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the state, abetment of crime, stealing, defrauding by false pretences and issuing of false cheques. 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 SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Doors are opening and people are beginning to return to stores, salons and restaurants. Using the OmniSci accelerated analytics platform, location intelligence leader Skyhook is assisting the effort, helping businesses and public agencies combine mobility data with data from a myriad of other sources to better understand population movement as the reopening process is implemented. Skyhook operates the world's largest independent location network consisting of 5.1 billion geolocated Wi-Fi hotspots, 200 million cell towers and a global portfolio of actionable venues. By aggregating data that is generated by this network together with other data sources and then analyzing it through the OmniSci platform, Skyhook creates mobility indexes that anonymously measure itinerancy (how much devices move around) and endemism (how local a population remains). These measures are critical factors in determining how effective policies are at keeping people distant, and therefore how quickly parts of the country can reopen. From the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, Skyhook's solution has been used to show how well stay-at-home orders wereor were notworking. Its ability to query, filter and render billions of rows of data in milliseconds, thanks to OmniSci's parallel processing capabilities, permit global-to-local data analysis at local resolutions and data densities that are far higher than other platforms. This provides insight into this next critical phase of the public health response. "The models we build require the ability to analyze entire, very large datasets. We can't afford to miss the needle because the haystack was downsampled or aggregated," said Rich Sutton, head of Skyhook's Geo team. "Only OmniSci has the capability to interrogate these massive datasets at the speed and scale our customers require." OmniSci, the world's fastest analytics platform, uniquely harnesses the massive parallel processing capabilities of modern GPU and CPU hardware. Comprised of a lightning-fast SQL engine, rendering engine and interactive visualization system, OmniSci allows data scientists and data analysts to combine, filter and plot data into interactive maps, answering complex questions at the speed of curiosity. Skyhook's location insights are leveraged by a variety of customers, providing the keys to unlocking in-depth understanding of consumers' behaviors and preferences. OmniSci's accelerated analytics allow customers to monitor venue performance, analyze foot traffic patterns, learn about customer offline behavior and visualize data in a myriad of ways. "OmniSci is the platform that eliminates compromise," noted David Bairstow, Skyhook Director of Product. "It combines speed, scale and visualization in one easy-to-use package, and has streamlined development and deployment for our engineering team. As our primary analytics tool, OmniSci is critical for easing our customers into complex datasets, so they can see enormous business value from the insights." "The next phase of the COVID-19 response is going to require business leaders and policy makers to have more data, more readily available, than ever before," said Joe Lee, OmniSci's Vice President of Global Sales. "We're proud to partner with Skyhook in this effort, to help all of their customers make better use of data for quicker insights and better decision making." About OmniSci: OmniSci is the pioneer in accelerated analytics. The OmniSci platform is used in business and government to find insights in data beyond the limits of mainstream analytics tools. Harnessing the massive parallelism of modern CPU and GPU hardware, the platform is available in the cloud and on-premise. OmniSci originated from research at Harvard and MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). OmniSci is funded by GV, In-Q-Tel, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), NVIDIA, Tiger Global Management, Vanedge Capital and Verizon Ventures. The company is headquartered in San Francisco. Learn more about OmniSci at www.omnisci.com . About Skyhook: Skyhook is the worldwide independent leader in location technology, operating the world's largest independent location network, consisting of 5.1 billion geolocated Wi-Fi hotspots and 200 million cell towers, and 20 million actionable venues. Skyhook processes tens of billions of location transactions, serving devices, apps, wearables, media, brands and advertising platforms with precise and accurate location data and intelligence. Skyhook, through its parent company Skyhook Holding, Inc., operates a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Broadband Corporation. To learn more about Skyhook, please visit www.skyhook.com . OMNISCI MEDIA CONTACT: Amy Dardinger SSPR [email protected] SKYHOOK MEDIA CONTACT: Melissa Miller Skyhook, Director of Marketing [email protected] SOURCE OmniSci Related Links http://www.omnisci.com New Delhi, June 9 : Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said that by the July end, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the national capital will mount to over 5.5 lakh and 80,000 beds would be required for those infected. The remarks came a day after Lt. Governor Anil Baijal issued an order striking down key announcements made by the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led government to reserve beds in private and Delhi government hospitals for city residents. "Till June 15, there will be 44,000 COVID-19 cases and we would need 6,600 beds. "We would hit one lakh cases and would require 15,000 beds by June 30. "Till July 15, the cases would mount to 2.5 lakh and we would require 33,000 beds and till July 31, there will be 5.5 cases and we would need 80,000 beds," Sisodia told reporters. The Deputy Chief Minister said that if the cases keep doubling in every 12-13 days in the coming days, there will be shortage of beds and Delhiites will bear the brunt. "This is the reason the Delhi cabinet had decided to reserve the beds only for the city residents but it was overturned by the L-G. Now, who will take the responsibility if the cases keep on increasing and the beds are full?" he asked. Sisodia and State Health Minister Satyendar Jain spoke to the media after meeting Lt Governor Anil Baijal's residence ahead of an all-party meeting at 3 p.m.on the issue. The Lt Governor, who is also the Chairman of Delhi Disaster Management Authority, had in his order on Monday said that "treatment should not be denied to any patient on grounds of being a non-resident". "The Delhi High Court in a writ petition after examining constitutional provisions in details, especially Article 14 and 21, has held that denying patients medical treatment on ground of not being resident of NCT of Delhi is impermissible," the order stated.A -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The fifth court hearing in the MH17 trial has begun at the Schiphol Judicial Complex in the Netherlands, an Ukrinform correspondent in The Hague reports. Judges and Dutch prosecutors sit in the courtroom behind a transparent partition due to the coronavirus epidemic. Lawyers and relatives of the victims are sitting opposite them at a distance of 1.5 meters from each other. The lawyers of suspect Pulatov, who expressed a desire to participate in the trial, are also present in the courtroom. Pulatov's interests are represented by lawyers Sabine Ten Doesschate and Boudewijn van Eijck from the Sjocrona Van Stigt Dutch law firm. As reported, due to the spread of coronavirus, the number of people who can be in courtroom is limited. The court hearing can be followed live. The hearings are scheduled from Monday, June 8, till Friday, July 3, 2020, but it is so far unknown whether the hearings will take place on a daily basis. Hearings may be postponed or canceled due to coronavirus. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over conflict-hit Donbas in July 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. All of them died. The JIT reported that the plane had been shot down from a Buk missile system that belongs to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk. On June 19, 2019, the international Joint Investigation Team named four suspects believed to be involved in the transportation and combat use of the Buk missile system, from which MH17 flight had been downed. Three of them are Russians: Igor Girkin (Strelkov), former colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence service and former so-called defense minister of the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic; Sergey Dubinskiy, general (at the time of downing colonel) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and head of the so-called Main Intelligence Directorate of the Donetsk Peoples Republic; Oleg Pulatov, lieutenant colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. The fourth suspect is Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian civilian, who fought on the side of the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic. Photo courtesy of Iryna Drabok ol NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Bloomberg Media launched Bloomberg Green magazine, a quarterly collection of premier climate journalism. With a focus on solutions, readers will discover stories on science, environmental impacts, zero-emission tech, green finance, culture, and design, drawn from Bloomberg's global newsroom of 2,700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. The new print product is part of the recently launched Bloomberg Green, a cross-platform editorial brand dedicated to reporting on climate change. Bloomberg Green Magazine, Summer 2020 Issue "Through original reporting, visual storytelling, bold design and photography, we want the Bloomberg Green magazine to be a showcase of our best climate journalism. Our ambition is to create something that readers keep for a long time, as a regular barometer of one of the most important topics of our era," said John Micklethwait, Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief. The debut issue of Bloomberg Green features a cover package exploring ways stimulus spending enacted in response to the Covid-19 virus can be used toward climate recovery; an introductory essay by Michael Bloomberg on why the coronavirus crisis will be a turning point for climate change; a feature package on plastic waste; an in-depth look at the nearing collapse of Australia's most important river system; a data project showing executives with direct links to clean energy rarely sit in leadership positions at leading U.S. and European banks; a review of an electric bike; and more. Printed on 100% recycled paper, each edition of the magazine will open with a front section titled "Now," to contextualize and help audiences gain a deeper understanding of the most urgent climate-related news and current events. The closing section, "Next," will look ahead to offer insight into future issues that will have an impact on the climate agenda. The Bloomberg Green Data Dash a digital scorecard that measures climate change and energy transition in real time is reimagined for print, with the debut edition featuring graphics and charts measuring the impact of the coronavirus on the environment. "The Bloomberg Green brand is dedicated to driving global dialogue and thought leadership around these vitally important issues," said Justin B. Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Bloomberg Media. "With Bloomberg Green magazine, we are expanding upon our commitment as the first multi-platform global business brand for the climate change era, and forging deeper connections with our partners and audience in new ways and formats." Advertisers for the first Bloomberg Green magazine include Amazon, HP Inc., Iberdrola, JLL, Morgan Stanley, and Paper and Packaging Board. Founding Partners for Bloomberg Green include Amazon, HP Inc., JLL, PGIM, and Tiffany & Co., as well as Presenting Sponsors, Iberdrola, Standard Chartered, and Yokogawa Electric Corporation. These companies have committed to supporting Bloomberg Green across its launch year in an effort to address critical issues related to climate and sustainability. "We know our readers already see global warming as an existential problem. But it's harder to make the emerging era of climate solutions as vivid and real and these climate risks," said Aaron Rutkoff, Editor of Bloomberg Green. "We've created this new publication to become a chronicle of what's possible, and we printed it on glossy pages because magazines are one of the most powerful ways to shape public understanding of big ideas." Bloomberg Green is distributed to Bloomberg Media's All Access subscribers. The magazine is available on e-reader platforms, as a digital format on the Bloomberg.com website and on the Bloomberg Terminal. On June 19, Bloomberg Media will convene a virtual launch event to mark the inaugural issue of Bloomberg Green magazine, featuring industry experts and Bloomberg journalists discussing urgent climate change issues. Register here to participate. Launched in January 2020, Bloomberg Green is a multi-platform news brand centered on the business, science, and technology of climate change. Offering news, analysis, and solutions, its content appears on the Bloomberg Green website, a daily email newsletter, a podcast, the Bloomberg Green magazine, and the Bloomberg Terminal, with integration across digital video, Bloomberg QuickTake, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg TV+, Bloomberg Radio, and Bloomberg Live events. About Bloomberg Media Bloomberg Media is a leading, global, multi-platform brand that provides decision-makers with timely news, analysis and intelligence on business, finance, technology, climate change, politics and more. Powered by a newsroom of over 2,700 journalists and analysts, it reaches influential audiences worldwide across every platform including digital, social, TV, radio, print and live events. Bloomberg Media is a division of Bloomberg L.P. Visit BloombergMedia.com for more information. SOURCE Bloomberg Media A BANK of Ghana (BoG) assessment of banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions (SDIs) compliance with its consumer protection regime has revealed unfair banking practices by the institutions. These include charging customers savings accounts for over-the-counter withdrawals below stipulated minimum amounts and signing customers onto e-banking products and services and consequently charge without their explicit consent. Changes in terms and conditions of loan agreements were made and implemented without the required period of prior notification of customers. The maximum penalty of 0.25 per cent for early repayment of loans was breached, the findings by the BoG stated. It also emerged that prior to pursuing enforcement actions on loan defaulters, the minimum prescribed notice period of 30 days was not given some borrowers. Why the assessment The BoGs current market conduct regulatory regime is underpinned by the Banks and Specialised Deposits-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930), the Borrowers and Lenders Act, 2008 (Act 773), and the Credit Reporting Act, 2007 (Act 726), among others. In 2019, the BoG established a Market Conduct Examinations Office (MCEO) within its Financial Stability Department (FSD), to ensure adequate focus on the conduct of banks and SDIs towards their customers. This was to complement the prudential supervision of banks and SDIs by the Banking Supervision Department and the Other Financial Institutions Department, the objective of which is to promote the safety and soundness of these institutions. The maiden on-site conduct examinations were conducted by the MCEO from November 2019 to February 2020. The exercise involved officials of the MCOEO visiting eight selected banks to examine the structures, systems and processes in place to promote consumer protection and the early resolution of customer complaints, and to generally assess compliance with relevant market conduct rules. Customer Complaints Again, the MCEO has through its published hotline and other contact details in 2019, received an average of 30 weekly complaints from the public through phone calls, WhatsApp messages, e-mails, and direct walk-ins to the office. These complaints, the assessment said, had been resolved by the office within 20 days. Section 3 of Act 930 mandates the Bank of Ghana to, among other things, regulate and supervise the conduct of banks and SDIs. - In pursuance of section 3(2)(d) and section 92(2)(a)(xi) of Act 930, the Bank of Ghana issued the Consumer Recourse Mechanism Guidelines for Financial Service Providers in 2017 to provide customers of institutions licensed by the Bank of Ghana (banks, Savings and Loans Companies, Finance Houses, Rural and Community Banks, Micro Finance Institutions and Forex Bureaus) with access to adequate redress that is fair, efficient, timely, and without cost to the complainant. COVID 19 extra measures Following the outbreak of Covid-19, the BoG has implemented a number of measures to help provide economic relief to individuals, households, and businesses, and to increase credit to key sectors of the economy to help with economic recovery. Some of the interventions include the banks and other stakeholders in the payments system waiving fees on digital platforms ATMs, GhIPSS instant pay and cheque-clearing transactions; and banks and mobile network operators have waived transfer fees on mobile money transactions up to GH100. 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 Fearsome Prosecutor Of Journalists Accused Of Taking Bribes, Flees Iran Radio Farda June 08, 2020 During a corruption trial in Iran on Sunday a prosecutor known for the mass arrest of journalists in 2013 was named as the recipient of 500,000 euros in bribes from the defendant. Gholamreza Mansouri issued arrest warrants for 20 journalists in a single day on February 8, 2013. On his orders, security forces raided offices of various newspapers to arrest the accused including at least two chief editors. According to the representative of the prosecutor during the trial on Sunday, Mansouri has fled the country. His whereabouts are unknown. Several journalists have named him as the person responsible for their unjust arrests since his name came up during the trial. In a tweet on Sunday Akbar Montabi, a reformist journalist, said he is free now but still on bail for the charges brought against him by Mansouri in 2013. Pouria Alami, satirist and journalist, in a tweet said Mansouri had put him in solitary confinement on charges of "collaboration with MI6". "Collaboration with the enemy" is one of the usual charges brought against journalists and activists by the Iranian security forces. Reyhaneh Tabatabai, a reporter for the reformist Sharq newspaper at the time, has also named him as the prosecutor who ordered her arrest in 2013. Behnam Gholipour, a journalist now living outside Iran, in a tweet has called for appealing to international courts to put Mansouri on trial for gross violations of human rights. Another prosecutor named Bizhan Qassemzadeh who is well-known for ordering the ban on Telegram messaging and suppression of several journalists has also been named as a defendant in the highly sensational and controversial corruption case. The main defendant in the trial, Akbar Tabari, is a former executive deputy of the Judiciary who served as the right hand of former Chief Justice Sadeq Amoli-Larijani. Tabari is on trial for paying and receiving large bribes over a period of twenty years. In a rare move, the state-run television broadcast the first session of Tabari's trial live. Tabari was arrested on July 16, 2019. Chief Justice Amoli-Larijani who was later appointed as the Chairman of the Expediency Council highly protested Tabari's arrest and reportedly even threatened Khamenei to leave the country in protest. Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/fearsome- prosecutor-of-journalists-accused-of-taking- bribes-flees-iran/30658803.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 Photos of a protester with a bloody head and another with stitches across her nose capture not only the danger of rubber bullets but also the need for a rethinking of Lincoln's police force, several residents told the City Council on Monday. They expressed disgust at what they described as brutal and excessive force used by law enforcement last week in response to demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. "Those pictures you saw, do those individuals look like they were served and protected?" Kieron Wilson asked council members. During over an hour of public comment at the council's first open mic session of the month, more than a dozen Lincoln residents called on council members to hold police accountable. City coffers should cover the medical bills of the injured, prosecutors should drop pending charges against demonstrators accused of violating curfew, officers should be held individually liable for their excessive force and the City Council should cut funding from the police department and rethink its staffing and mission, several testifiers said. The council will have its first look at Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird's proposed budget next week. Queen Elizabeth I knew firsthand how exhausting it is to deal with iconoclasts. When she acceded to the throne of England in 1588, the country had been through a series of dizzying religious upheavals, beginning with her father Henry VIIIs break from the Church of Rome and ending with the death of her sister, Mary I, whose attempt to forcibly reconvert England to Roman Catholicism involved hundreds of religious dissenters being burned at the stake. With Elizabeths coronation, the Protestants were back in power. But there was a small problem: She wanted to maintain the crucifixes, altar candles, and priestly vestments from Marys reign. You would think that Protestant clergy would have been grateful to Elizabeth. Overnight, they had gone from fugitive heretics and blasphemers under perpetual threat of being burned at the stake to princes of the church. But it wasnt enough for the iconoclasts. These bishops flatly refused to have candles or crucifixes on their altars. The Queen ended up forcing them to wear the vestments, which they did, though with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Why am I telling you all this? Simply to show you that iconoclasm has always been around and that, seemingly, it will never go away. This week saw a revival in London, where statues of Sir Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln were defaced by antifascist and antiracist protesters. The impulse to destroy public images has always involved hostility toward them as complex physical symbols; the literature of the Reformation makes that clear. The visual is volatile, and its meaning is not as easily contained or controlled as that of the linguistic. For this reason, iconoclasts are scrupulous in their obsession with extirpating anything equivocal or ambivalent that might challenge the certainty required for their totalitarian undertakings. For the new iconoclasts, it is the complexity of history that is the real threat. The public controversy concerning the statues is, essentially, a theological problem. In the Church of Grievance-Driven Collective Identity, there is original sin, but no mechanism for atonement. Nothing separates this new religion from the old more clearly than the words attributed to Christ on the cross in John 19:30: It is finished. According to the canons of the new faith, there is no point at which the sinner is released from the claims of the victim. For after all has been conceded to the aggrieved party, we will be told, as surely as the night follows the day, that we still have a long way to go. That is to say, unless and until the oppressed decide of their own volition that their oppressors have been obedient enough to receive absolution, they should enjoy a monopoly on speech and violence. As to what qualifies a person for absolution in any final sense, this is never made clear. There is no limiting principle on the wrath of the afflicted, no criterion for forgiveness to circumscribe the boundaries of destruction. Story continues This is why statues are problematic to such people. Building a statue is an act of forgiveness. When we build a statue, we cannot help but bring the whole life of the subject into the public square for examination. We ask our compatriots to remember the person long after their death and to think upon their deeds long after most of our own have faded into the mists of time. But clearly not every deed is pleasant to remember. Who, after all, would choose to have all his actions and his likeness carved into stone for posterity to inspect and interrogate? The praise of any person who lived under the microscope of history necessitates a passing over of their sins. A line must be drawn to limit the claims of public outrage, as bright and red as the blood on the doorposts of the Hebrews in Egypt. Some acts and undertakings, we decide, are so great that they mark a definite point at which mocking and scorn must give way to simple gratitude. This idea is anathema to the iconoclasts. There is no cross they could nail their opponents to that would ever cleanse the guilty of their impurity; nothing in the lives of the Last Lion or the Great Emancipator that make up for the fact that, like countless others, they once ate of the tree of the knowledge of black and white. Fall once and damnation is unavoidable. Dante placed a sign above the entrance to Hell bearing the words Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here. The new iconoclasts, not content with family-run businesses and grocery stores, have seemingly looted the underworld as well, stealing his sign and placing it over Earth. If you can rid the world of the Nazis or the Confederacy and still be denounced as a moral failure, abandoning hope might be your best option. Forgiveness, then, is the real target of the new iconoclasts. The building of statues inevitably involves an appeal to preponderance when it comes to the recorded moral actions of the subject. This, our aggrieved neighbors inform us, is not to be borne. There will always be something on the other side of the scales, however small. Even if the queen frees you from persecution and elevates you to power, she will still make you wear the damn vestments. But what is it exactly in the lives of Lincoln and Churchill that requires this forgiveness according to the real antiracist antifascists? Fred Kaplan, author of Lincoln and the Abolitionists: John Quincy Adams, Slavery, and the Civil War, describes the 16th president as an antislavery moralist, a man who spoke against slavery but failed to take action against it, in contrast with Quincy Adams, who, he asserts, was an antislavery activist. Im aware that the market for American-history books is rather saturated these days and that an edgy revisionist pitch is the easiest way to secure an advance, but my goodness, if publishers will listen to such a thesis, Ive got a book about Button Gwinnett as Americas greatest founder that Id love to pitch them. To be blunt, Kaplan has it backward. Quincy Adams, while surely sincere in his anti-slavery sentiments, merely lamented that abolition would probably mean disunion, concluded that this was not a price worth paying, and went on his merry way. A few decades later, in the 1850s, Lincoln rose to prominence as the head of a political coalition made up in large part of poor white agricultural workers, many of whom had recently immigrated from Europe. These voters were hostile to slavery because its expansion into the territories would have resulted in an ever-shrinking job market for them. On the other hand, they opposed outright abolition for similar reasons: An emancipated African-American workforce would have meant competition in the labor market, which would have driven down wages and made work harder to find. If Lincoln had publicly expressed his intention to do anything more than limit slavery to the southern states, his anti-slavery coalition would have collapsed. But in 1862, when finally given the opportunity, Lincoln exploited the only legal and constitutional mechanism likely to be accepted by Congress for ending slavery. This was the rationale of military necessity, which fell under his prerogative as commander-in-chief. To make a moral case for abolition in the Emancipation Proclamation would have been to endanger the legal and political efficacy of the document. Military necessity was the one tiny reactor shaft in the Death Star of American slavery that could bring about its unilateral demise, and Lincoln found it. As Thomas Sowell put it, had Lincolns real concerns extended no further than the military effects of the Emancipation Proclamation, it would be hard to explain his many and strenuous behind-the-scenes efforts to get slave-holding border states and the Congress of the United States to extend the ban on slavery to the whole country. Churchills career was more checkered in ethical terms, but then again, it was much longer and spanned a global empire as well as two existential military threats rather than one. Nevertheless, the iconoclasts are finding it increasingly difficult to limit their analysis of his life to that which he actually thought and did. In 2018, the Indian politician Shashi Tharoor published an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing that it was a mystery why a few bombastic speeches have been enough to wash the bloodstains off Churchills racist hands. Churchill obviously does have blood on his hands; how could he not given the offices that he held and the times in which he lived? The sordid history of the Dardanelles campaign during the First World War is damning enough, as he himself would surely have conceded. But the idea that he ever perpetrated a deliberate massacre of the innocent with the possible, if also impossibly complex, exception of the fire-bombing of Dresden is ridiculous. The Pulitzer Prize finalist Arthur Herman examined in his book Gandhi & Churchill the recorded facts of everything Churchill and his cabinet achieved in aid of the people of Bengal during the famine he is often accused of creating. In 2017, Herman published an article arguing that without Churchill, Bengals famine would have been even worse. When imprisoned in 1899 by Boers in Pretoria, Churchill argued with his jailer about Britains racial policies. Writing later about the encounter, he noted that probing at random touched a very sensitive nerve. The true and original Boer aversion to British rule was the abiding fear and hatred of the movement that seeks to place the native on a level with the white man. These sentiments are not hollowed out by Churchills strong stance against the native Mau Mau terrorist group in Kenya, who murdered 18 black people for every white person and terrorized the peaceful native Kikuyu tribe. And there is also the small matter of a certain mustachioed German lunatic. No point in troubling our antifascist friends with the history of that horrid affair, though. Theyre busy fighting racists like Churchill. Grace should be given to men who move mountains, and damnation reserved for those who truly deserve it. But before those tasks can be attended to, a proper accounting of history in all its complexity must be undertaken. If the new iconoclasts are blind to the virtues of a Lincoln or a Churchill, they should at least make an attempt to correctly identify the vices. More from National Review A pilot wears a facemask as he arrives at Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport in west London as the UK government's planned 14-day quarantine for international arrivals to limit the spread of Covid-19 starts on June 8, 2020. (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images) Aviation, Tourism Groups Protest UKs 14-day Quarantine LONDONBritain began imposing a 14-day quarantine on June 8 on travelers coming into the country, months after other European countries imposed similar measures to control the spread of the coronavirus. The quarantine was roundly criticized by the aviation and tourism industries, with many questioning its timing. Critics say its introduction has come too late to be useful, and some doubt it can be effectively enforced. Ryanair chief executive Michael OLeary called the quarantine a political stunt and argued that it will cause untold devastation for the countrys tourism industry, not just for the airlines. The thousands of hotels, the thousands of visitor attractions, restaurants in the next couple of monthsJuly and August are the two key months for British tourism, he said. Were facing thousands of job losses because of a stupid, ineffective quarantine. All passengersbar a handful of exceptions such as truckers and medical workerswill be asked to fill in a form detailing where they will self-isolate for two weeks and must give a phone number so authorities can check up on them. The requirement applies regardless of whether they are U.K. citizens or not, and those who fail to comply could be fined. The quarantine was imposed after a heated debate on whether it would help British efforts to tamp down the UK outbreak or simply stamp out any hopes that the British tourism industry will recover following months of lockdown. Venki Ramakrishnan, president of the prestigious Royal Society, told the BBC the coronavirus transmission rate in the UK is still too high for the quarantine to work well. I would say that countries that have imposed quarantine did so either very early or after the case rate in the country had gone down quite a bit, he said. British Airways, EasyJet, and Ryanair have written to the British government applying for a judicial review, arguing that the quarantine rules are disproportionate. Willie Walsh, the boss of IAGthe group that owns British Airwayshas said that airlines were not consulted about the move. Many other European countries are beginning to reopen their borders as their infection numbers come down. Prime Minister Boris Johnsons Conservative government has been widely criticized for its slow response to fighting the outbreak. Many in his government, including Johnson himself, came down with the virus. Britain didnt close its borders, screen international arrivals, or impose testing and tracing measures for travelers during the worst of the coronavirus outbreak. The government had insisted until May that putting restrictions at the border wouldnt have a significant impact on the spread of the virus in the UK. Figures on June 8 showed that a further 55 people died after testing positive with the virus, the lowest daily rise in the number of coronavirus deaths in the country since late March. Britains total death toll stood at 40,597, the second-highest in the world after the United States. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that while the pandemic is clearly not over, all the data showed that the country is making good progress. Coronavirus is in retreat across the land. Our plan is working, he said. At Londons Stansted Airport on June 8, shopkeeper Netti Rexhmet, who arrived from the Netherlands, said the rule will prevent him from working for two weeks. We havent got any other options, its government law so I shall do it, he said. For me, I wouldnt want to do it. Ive got things to do. By Danica Kirka & Sylvia Hui Olam International, a leading global agribusiness and supply chain manager, in conjunction with the Singapore-based Temasek Foundation, today donated a consignment of Fortitude Testing Kits to the Government of Ghana in support of its fight against the spread of the Corona Virus. The two organisations presented Fortune Kit 2.0 testing kits and the MGIEasy Magnetic Beads Virus DNA/RNA Extraction Kit, each of which contains sufficient reagents for 200 tests, equivalent to a total of 20,000 test units. Temasek Foundation, a shareholder of Olam International supports a diverse range of programmes aimed at uplifting lives and communities in Singapore and beyond. The Foundations programmes, made possible through philanthropic endowments, strive towards achieving positive outcomes for individuals and communities. The primary purpose of the foundations various programmes is to strengthen social resilience, foster international exchange and regional capabilities, and advance science and nature. The Fortitude Kit 2.0 is designed by Singapores Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus and is an All-in-One kit for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA while the MGIEasy Magnetic Beads Virus DNA/RNA Extraction Kit can efficiently purify the viral DNA and RNA from throat swabs, saliva, serum, plasma, BALF (bronchoalveolar lavage fluid), virus culture medium and is suitable for use in downstream molecular detection. This kit is suitable for manual and automated extraction on MGISP-960 and MGISP-100. The kits come complete with all the materials required for the RT-PCR reaction, which includes the primer probes mix, the enzyme mix, the positive control, negative control and internal control template. The consignment was handed over to the government through the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Accra and Mr. Kenneth Antwi, National Head of HR at Olam Ghana presented the items on behalf of the Board of and Management of Olam. We have previously focused our efforts on helping to improve the safety and welfare of frontline health workers, but with this consignment of testing kits, equivalent to 20,000 test units, it is our fervent hope that the capacity of the laboratories in the area of testing will be greatly strengthed and help the country win the fight against the COVID 19 pandemic, Mr. Antwi said. Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, Presidential Advisor on Health, commended Olam and their partners for the donation and urged other organisations in the corporate community to emulate the example. Dr Nsia Asare said the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) and a number of laboratories in the country have played a major role in the fight against COVID 19 and it was a relief to realise that some corporate institutions like Olam have recognised their efforts and are motivated to lend support. The work of the Labs are very important, especially in the light of the fact that the dynamics of the strain of the virus are different from what we see in some European countries. We require more kits for increased testing, which is why we are grateful for Olams gesture today, Dr Nsiah Asare said. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu said the Noguchi research facility is a centre of excellence, manned by a team which is very determined to prove that given the necessary inputs and support, it can perform beyond the country's expectation. What Olam has done is proof that there is a segment of our society which appreciates what we do here and are willing to help, he said. It may be recalled that in March this year, Olam donated two consignments of medical supplies to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (GARTH) and the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR), in support of the governments efforts to curb the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic in the country. Olam Ghana Limited, is a subsidiary of Olam International, with a 20-year track record in Ghana as a major supply chain manager of agric products and food ingredients. The company is ranked among the countrys leading Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) and is a leading trader in Ghanas cocoa beans into European and Asian markets. With a staff headcount of 1,064 across its multiple business portfolios, Olam Ghana creates employment for a large workforce which services over 15 million distributors, retailers and consumers nationwide and has earned meritorious recognition from the Ghana Export Promotion Council for her contribution towards the expansion of the non-traditional export sector. 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 President Donald Trump has a long history of toying with conspiracy theories, many of which get little traction or even reaction. But his Twitter message on Tuesday suggesting that the 75-year-old man whose head was cracked open by Buffalo law enforcement last week was a tech-savvy ANTIFA provocateur prompted an immediate outcry, as well as support for the still-hospitalized victim. Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN, Trump tweeted , citing the conservative cable channel One America News Network but offering no evidence to support such an assertion. Trump added: I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020 Guginos attorney, Kelly Zarcone, pushed back against the president. Martin has always been a PEACEFUL protestor because he cares about todays society, Zarcone said in a statement reported Tuesday by various media outlets. He is also a typical Western New Yorker who loves his family. No one from law enforcement has even suggested anything otherwise so we are at a loss to understand why the President of the United States would make such dark, dangerous, and untrue accusations against him, Zarcone said, adding that although Martin is out of ICU, he is still hospitalized and truly needs to rest. The presidents conspiratorial social media post comes after a video of the encounter last Thursday between Gugino and officers in Buffalo, N.Y. shot by local NPR affiliate WBFO went viral online amid nationwide protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, by Minneapolis police. Story continues The footage shows Gugino approach two officers outfitted in tactical gear who were part of a larger group of police officers enforcing the citys 8 p.m. curfew in Buffalos Niagara Square, in front of City Hall. After a brief interaction, the officers forcefully push Gugino, and he falls backward onto the pavement. Officers can then be seen walking past Guginos body as he bleeds from his head. Buffalo police initially said in a statement last Thursday night that a person was injured when he tripped & fell during a skirmish involving protestors, but they later apologized and said they were working with incomplete details during what was a very fast-moving and fluid situation. Mayor Byron Brown announced on Friday that Buffalos police commissioner had suspended the two officers involved in the episode without pay, prompting dozens of other officers to step down from the departments crowd-control unit in protest. On Saturday, Erie County, New York, District Attorney John Flynn charged the two officers, Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski, with second-degree assault. McCabe and Torgalski pleaded not guilty and were released without bail. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York said Tuesday there was no proof whatsoever to back up Trumps accusation that Gugino was associated with the leftist ideology antifa, fiercely criticizing the president during his daily news briefing in Albany. How reckless. How irresponsible. How mean. How crude, Cuomo told reporters. I mean, if there was ever a reprehensible, dumb comment and from the president of the United States. At this moment of anguish and anger, what does he do? Pours gasoline on the fire. If he ever feels a moment of decency, he should apologize for that tweet. Because it is wholly unacceptable. The states lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, a native Buffalo resident, also condemned Trumps tweet as sick, writing online: The President continues to use his platform to peddle conspiracy theories, this time about a peaceful protestor and fellow New Yorker. Not sure how this is supposed to bring our country together... Former Vice President Joe Biden, Trumps likely Democratic rival in the November election, similarly denounced the presidents accusation. My Dad used to say theres no greater sin than the abuse of power, Biden said in a tweet. Whether its an officer bloodying a peaceful protester or a President defending him with a conspiracy theory he saw on TV. Im a Catholic just like Martin. Our faith says that we can't accept either. The criticism wasnt limited to Democrats. Oh, lord. Ugh, said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) when shown a printout of the presidents tweet on Tuesday. Why would you fan the flames? Thats all Im going to say. Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said: Its a serious accusation, which should only be made with facts and evidence. And I havent seen any. Trumps tweet echoed a recent OANN segment about a report from a website called the Conservative Treehouse, which alleges Gugino was attempting to capture the radio communications signature of Buffalo police officers. The report states that the capture of communications signals is a method of police tracking used by Antifa to monitor the location of police. Neither OANN nor the Conservative Treehouse offered any evidence to support their claims about Gugino, who is a longtime peace activist from Amherst, according to The Buffalo News. The president and Attorney General William Barr have charged that extremist organizations are largely responsible for acts of looting and violence that have broken out at some protests across the country. Republicans have specifically blamed what they refer to as antifa, a collection of far-left militant groups that often resist neo-Nazis, white supremacists and far right-wing groups at demonstrations and other events. Trump declared last month the U.S. government would be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization even though he does not appear to have the legal authority to do so, and it is not clear that the loosely defined group of radical activists is an organization at all. At a news briefing last Thursday, Barr claimed Justice Department officials have evidence that antifa and other similar extremist groups, as well as actors of a variety of different political persuasions, have been involved in instigating and participating in the violent activity at protests. Max Cohen, Marianne LeVine, Burgess Everett and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Popular Kannada actor Chiranjeevi Sarjas last rites were performed on Monday afternoon at his familys farmhouse in Kanakapura, on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Fans came out on the streets in large numbers to bid adieu to him. In the pictures and videos of Chiranjeevis funeral that are being shared online, Kannada stars Yash, Shiva Rajkumar and Kiccha Sudeep are seen paying their last respects to him. His wife Meghana Raj, also an actor, was inconsolable. Chiranjeevi, brother of actor Dhruva Sarja and nephew of actor Arjun Sarja, died on Sunday at a private hospital in Bengaluru at the age of 39. According to reports, he complained of breathlessness and severe chest pain on Saturday and consulted a doctor. On Sunday afternoon, he was rushed to a hospital in an unresponsive state. Reportedly, he suffered a heart attack and could not be revived by doctors. Shivanna and Yash Pay Homage to Chiranjeevi Sarja. pic.twitter.com/sJ1Anodtzb Blue Chip (@Photos4uIndia) June 8, 2020 Also read | Happy birthday Sonam Kapoor: See her 10 best family pics with Anand Ahuja, Anil Kapoor and others Chiranjeevis untimely demise sent shockwaves across the industry. Several south stars mourned the loss. Prithviraj Sukumaran tweeted, Absolutely devastated to hear about the sudden demise of Chiranjeevi Sarja. I pray Meghna and the whole family finds strength to tide through this shock and sorrow. Also Watch | Actor Chiranjeevi Sarja passes away at age of 39 due to cardiac arrest Rashmika Mandanna wrote, This breaks my heart.. Like really.. This news breaks my heart. This is too early. Rest in peace @chirusarja .. I am out of words. Actor-politician Khushbu Sundar tweeted, Unbelievable! Terrible. Shell-shocked to hear the demise of such a young Kannada actor #ChiranjeeviSarja, nephew of #ArjunSarja due to cardiac arrest at 39. He was so talented n doing so well. Heart goes out to his young wife n his family. May you rest in peace. Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa also condoled Chiranjeevis death. Chiranjeevi made his acting debut with Vayuputra in 2009. He has starred in films such as Varadhanayaka, Whistle, Chandralekha, Samhaara, Aadyaa, Khaki, Sinnga and Amma I Love You, among others. He was last seen in Shivarjuna, which hit the theatres in March this year. Follow @htshowbiz for more ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON PUNE: The standing committee of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has approved to widen six-metre-wide roads up to nine-metre-wide in the city, a move meant to boost redevelopment. The proposal was approved on Tuesday though all political parties except Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposed it. According to PMC standing committee chairman Hemant Rasane, the decision will encourage people to go for redevelopment as wider roads will enable builders to use additional floor space index (FSI) which in turn will create more flats. FSI indicates how many floors a developer can build on a plot. It is the ratio of total built-up area to the size of the plot. Many internal six-metre-wide roads in the city are an obstacle to redevelopment works. By giving permission to widen these roads up to nine-metre will help citizens consume additional floor space index by loading transfer development rights (TDR). It will help citizens to get more area and PMC will get more revenue by boosting the construction industry, said Rasane. Earlier, the proposal was only limited to 323 roads before the PMC standing committee amended it and gave nod to all the new one covering all roads. With the BJP in majority in PMC, the proposal was passed by 10 against 6 votes with all the opposition parties opposing it. The opposition parties held a joint press conference on Tuesday and opposed the proposal. Nationalist Congress Partys city unit president Chetan Tupe said, BJPs policy has been selective. Without a proper survey, they approved the proposal with the only intention to collect money from builders. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis himself took a decision not to give additional FSI for properties located on 6-metre-wide roads, now BJPs own leaders are going against Fadnaviss decision. The BJP should now either accept that Fadnaviss decision was wrong or they took the decision for personal interests. Congress leader Arvind Shinde said, BJP first choose the roads mainly in Baner, Balewadi and other areas and later amended it. They know areas where new projects are coming and whom to give benefit by clearing road projects on case to case basis. The proposal will only benefit selective people. Decision would end bungalow culture in Pune: Bagul Widening of the 6-metre-roads up to nine metres would end bungalow culture in Pune, said Congress leader Aba Bagul. Builders and goons would threat bungalow owners to come forward for redevelopment. Former BJP chief minister Devendra Fadnavis himself made the act and banned allowing additional TDR on six-metre-roads, but the same party took a decision against it, Bagul said. The Congress leader said that the party will oppose it and try to save Punes bungalow culture. The roads would not get widened on the ground, but by using the provision additional FSI would get consumer by builders on Laxmi Road. The proposal is illegal as per MRTP Act as standing committee did not have right to take decision for all the roads, but only for certain roads. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 04:35:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO June 8 (Xinhua) -- Egypt reported 1,365 COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total infections in the North African country to 35,444. Egypt registered 34 more fatalities from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll in the country to 1,271, said Khaled Megahed, the health ministry's spokesman, in a statement. Meanwhile, the total recoveries increased to 9,375 after 414 new ones were added, he added. It is the 12th day in a row for Egypt's daily new COVID-19 infections to go beyond 1,000. Egypt, which announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Feb. 14, is working on increasing the number of hospitals treating coronavirus patients from 340 to 376. As a key precautionary measure, the Egyptian government has been imposing a nighttime curfew since March 25. The current nine-hour curfew will continue until mid-June, when the government will consider easing relevant restrictions amid a coexistence plan to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming economic activities. The government has already started gradual reopening of services and offices, and allowed reopening of about 100 hotels for local tourists with a 50-percent capacity after they were given official hygiene safety certificates. Egypt and China have been cooperating closely in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic through exchanging medical aid and expertise. In early February, Egypt provided aid to China in its fight against the coronavirus outbreak. China returned favor by sending three batches of medical aid to Egypt. Since mid-April, Chinese doctors have held three video conferences with Egyptian counterparts to share their experience in the prevention and treatment of the novel coronavirus. Enditem Scientists have discovered mysterious radio blasts coming from deep in space powerful signals repeating themselves at regular intervals from an unknown part of the universe. Boris Johnson is choosing to focus on the powerful distress signals coming from the British economy right now. The PM is set to tell his cabinet colleagues about further lockdown easing measures to give business a boost. The government has also responded to the signals coming from parents and primary school teachers dropping plans for a return before the end of term. Im Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independents daily Inside Politics briefing during the coronavirus pandemic. Join our Independent Premium virtual event tomorrow at 6.30pm to discuss the future of the NHS. Editor Christian Broughton, award-winning health correspondent Shaun Lintern and a panel of expert guests including shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth will look at how the health service recovers from crisis. Book your ticket here now. Sri Lankan police on Tuesday arrested 20 people who attempted to stage a protest outside the US Embassy here in support of African-American George Floyd, whose custodial killing stoked widespread protests in America and other countries over racial injustice. Floyd died in Minneapolis on May 25 after white police officer Derek Chauvin handcuffed and pinned him to the ground, and knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes while the 46-year-old from Houston gasped for breath. The arrested people were the activists of the Frontline Socialist Party. They had gathered around the vicinity of the US embassy here. The police said they had obtained a court order preventing the gathering of protesters near the US embassy. Police said the FSP activists were arrested for violating the quarantine regulations in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sri Lanka has recorded 1,857 Covid-19 cases. The government announced a lockdown in mid-March following the detection of the first Covid-19 positive case on March 11. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 23:40:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close YINCHUAN, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Tie Zhanming, 68, has assumed a new identity as "shared grandpa" in his apartment building since he retired. Whenever a neighbor is unable to get off work on time to pick up their child from school, Tie will take the child home, help with homework, play games, and buy snacks if the child throws a tantrum. Tie lives in the Jinhuayuan community in the city of Wuzhong in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visited the community on Monday during his inspection tour in the region. The community is home to more than 13,000 permanent residents, nearly half of whom are of ethnic minority groups. It represents the fine tradition of the Chinese nation and the great strength of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics to enable people of all ethnic groups to walk hand in hand into a moderately prosperous society in all respects, Xi said when he talked with residents on the community square. "With the continuous efforts of the Party and the government as well as the tireless endeavors of the people, the days ahead will surely be better and happier," Xi added. "Seven Han and three Hui families live in our apartment building. I treat their children like mine. We are like a big family," said Tie, who is an ethnic Hui. According to Zhang Liping, Party secretary of the community, building a harmonious relationship among residents of different ethnic backgrounds has always been a priority in their daily work. According to her, the community holds a "neighbors' day" event every September, where residents participate in cooking contests and other activities to enjoy the get-together. During traditional festivals, Tie and his wife always prepare traditional food and snacks for their neighbors and join others to make special food for these occasions. Ningxia is the only provincial-level ethnic Hui autonomous region in China, with its Hui population accounting for over 36 percent of the total. Communities like Jinhuayuan are ubiquitous in Ningxia. The Gongxiang community in Yinchuan, capital city of the region, is home to five ethnic groups, namely Hui, Han, Manchu, Tibetan and Mongolian. Next to North Minzu University, community residents have paired up with ethnic minority students from other parts of the country and become their "host families." The idea came from Liu Lijuan, head of the community's neighborhood committee. Her son went to college in the eastern coastal province of Fujian in 2015. "I was worried about my son living in a completely strange city. Then I thought of the ethnic minority students who came from afar to study in our neighborhood," she said. "Why don't we help them fit into the new life here?" Weekend family gatherings have become good opportunities for the local residents and students of different ethnic groups to build closer bonds, according to Liu. Enditem Having toppled Bristol slaver Edward Colston into the River Avon at the weekend, the monument police moved on to Oxford last night with an even juicier target in their sights: arch-imperialist Cecil Rhodes. The statue of the Victorian mining mega-magnate has stood above the High Street entrance to his old college, Oriel, for more than a century. A vocal but unsuccessful five-year movement for his removal calling itself Rhodes Must Fall has now found itself reborn and firing on rocket fuel after the death of George Floyd at the hands (and knee) of a Minneapolis police officer. Last night more than 1,000 protesters gathered in Oxfords High Street without any pretence at social distancing in the hope of seeing the ultimate Empire villain take a tumble. Colston might have lent his name to various Bristol landmarks. Rhodes gave his to two entire countries, Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe). A vocal but unsuccessful five-year movement for his removal calling itself Rhodes Must Fall has now found itself reborn and firing on rocket fuel after the death of George Floyd at the hands (and knee) of a Minneapolis police officer Last night more than 1,000 protesters (pictured) gathered in Oxfords High Street without any pretence at social distancing in the hope of seeing the ultimate Empire villain take a tumble However, a combination of wire mesh, a posse of rooftop police and an insurmountable 50ft gap between the plinth and the street below ensured that the Croesus-rich clergymans son from Bishops Stortford would cling to his perch for now. It will need a firemans ladder or a cherry-picker to give Rhodes the Colston treatment. That was not going to happen last night. This was a passionate but assiduously peaceful protest with plenty of high-brow moments; its not often that you hear a public gathering quoting and booing former Regius Professor of Modern History Hugh Trevor-Roper. The Black Lives Matter movement was well-represented but there were more placards and banners on the theme of Decolonise Oxford. So much easier, of course, to fixate on a statue. Cecil Rhodes never saw this stone effigy (pictured) of himself De- De- De- Decolonise! they chanted as speakers skirted round the obvious paradox. How does a university disassociate itself from one of the most generous yet unloved benefactors in its history while still enjoying his munificence? Rhodes scholarships have given and continue to give umpteen poor students Bill Clinton and three Australian PMs among them a head-start in life. The boss of the universitys African Studies Centre is the Rhodes Professor of Race Relations. Oxford will have an easier time finding that coronavirus vaccine than solving this conundrum. So much easier, of course, to fixate on a statue. Cecil Rhodes never saw this stone effigy of himself. It was put up several years after his death by a college thrilled to receive 100,000 of his fortune upon his death in 1902. Its not a terribly good statue. Rhodes looks like a bank manager on his second-storey alcove, lording it over the two mere King-Emperors standing below Edward VII and George V. They all stand on the North Wall of the Rhodes Building, a mock-Jacobean complex built between 1909 and 1911. The Rhodes Must Fall lot were by no means the first to seek the dismantling of this unashamedly imperialist facade. Back in 1930, one of Oxfords most famous literary sons, Evelyn Waugh, wrote: A very small amount of dynamite should be enough to rid us forever of the High Street front of Oriel. Ninety years on, it looks as permanent as ever. Speaker after speaker bemoaned the injustice of it all through a tinny sound system which, at times, was drowned out by the news helicopter overhead. We demand an admission of the colonial violence on which Oriel was built, yelled one young activist, unaware that Oriel was founded by a medieval rector several centuries before anyone had heard of the British Empire. This was a passionate but assiduously peaceful protest (pictured) with plenty of high-brow moments; its not often that you hear a public gathering quoting and booing former Regius Professor of Modern History Hugh Trevor-Roper A Labour city councillor, Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini, urged the college to apply for planning permission to remove the statue (this is a listed building, after all), before adding that Winston Churchill was a brutal colonial racist, too. Simukai Chigudu, an associate professor from the Centre for African Studies, complained that he was one of a handful of black academics at a university steeped in racism, singling out Prof Trevor-Roper for saying that there is no history in Africa. Prof Chigudu went on to accuse Oxfords Chancellor, Lord Patten, grand vizier of the liberal establishment, of naked racism for his past criticisms of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. Oriel Colleges flabby earlier statement that it will continue to debate the issues was roundly mocked. The speeches gradually drifted off course into rants about Boris Johnson, Palestine and covert Israeli support for the American police before a parting chorus: What goes up must come down. For now, in the case of Cecil Rhodes, it does not. Food store Iceland is back in British hands after founder Sir Malcolm Walker bought out his South African partners. Sir Malcolm teamed up with with chief executive Tarsem Dhaliwal to snap up Braits shares in the company. The duo will pay 115 million for the 63% stake, bringing Iceland totally under their control. Having started the business in partnership with a friend, I am delighted to have come full circle Sir Malcolm Walker It is particularly satisfying to turn this new page in Icelands history just before the 50th anniversary of the opening of our first shop on November 18 1970, Sir Malcolm said. Having started the business in partnership with a friend, I am delighted to have come full circle and own what are now more than 1,000 stores with another good friend in 2020. It takes the frozen food supermarket back into British hands eight years after the South African firm first bought into the company. The move had been on the cards since November last year, when Brait signalled a new strategy that led to the eventual sale. But Sir Malcolm and Mr Dhaliwal have long been keen to buy their partners stake. Mr Dhaliwal said: We are grateful to Brait for giving us this opportunity to take full ownership of Iceland. We have always been a genuine family business and it is not just Sir Malcolm and I but many of our colleagues who have children working for the company. We are totally committed to running and growing this business for the long-term benefit of all our stakeholders and their families. Sir Malcolm paid tribute to Brait as they parted. Over the last half century we have had a series of external investors in our business but I have no hesitation in saying that Brait has been the best, he said. They have been consistently understanding and supportive, and were friends as well as business partners. I am sure that friendship will endure and Tarsem and I wish them every success in the future. Biosecurity officers have boarded a Chinese cargo ship off the coast of Queensland to ensure the crew is complying with the COVID-19 health requirements. The vessel had docked at the coal terminal at Hay Point, south of Mackay, where security officers asked to carry out a standard inspection. The coal loading port Hay Point on the coast of Mackay (file image). Credit:Jason South A spokesman for the premier said the ship's captain initially refused to allow health authorities to inspect every room but is now co-operating with authorities. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Tuesday there was no evidence the crew were displaying symptoms of the virus. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The two regions neighboring New York City are expected to enter phase two of the coronavirus reopening process this week, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The Mid-Hudson region, which includes Rockland and Westchester counties, is expected to enter phase two on Tuesday, and Long Island is expected to do the same on Wednesday. New York City entered phase one of the reopening process on Monday, and Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that he expects the five boroughs to be able to enter phase two by early July. Today we are turning the page on the COVID-19 virus as we reopen New York City - we didnt just flatten the curve, we bent it, and we did it all based on data and facts, Cuomo said. You look at where we are now with our testing results and we now have the lowest levels in the state since March 16th, and thats why I have confidence saying to New Yorkers that we are ready to reopen. Phase one, includes the reopening of several industries, including construction, agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, limited retail service, manufacturing and wholesale trade. Businesses allowed to reopen -- including some small retailers across Staten Island -- will need to follow distancing and hygiene mandates. In phase two, additional businesses like outdoor dining, malls, and gyms will be allowed to reopen while following similar guidelines. The remaining upstate counties have already entered phase two. Once a global hot spot for the virus, New York City began phase one of its reopening process on Monday, and has seen its number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths related to the virus continuously decline. The city has more than 240 testing sites, and the governor has urged New Yorkers to get tested. The state set up a website where residents can enter their address and find testing sites located near them. A jewelry business in downtown Los Angeles was struck by vandals during days of demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd. (Los Angeles Times) To the editor: Nancy Silverton and Michael Krikorian's op-ed article about the looting of their Mozza restaurants was a disgusting display of elite virtue-signaling. Silverton is a wealthy and internationally celebrated restaurateur. Of course a stolen case of Barolo wine means nothing to her. Talk to the many first-generation immigrants whose businesses were destroyed by the riots in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City and other places, and you'll get a different story. Dana Levitt, Pasadena .. To the editor: Silverton and Krikorian's op-ed article was oddly passive-aggressive. They described in great detail their experience of being looted using words such as "hideous" and "nightmarish" but then claimed that they want no sympathy. However, far more concerning was when they wrote that upon the approach of police, "the looters shouted and scatted [sic] like roaches." Unfortunately, it is this kind of dehumanization that underlies police brutality, as well as genocides. It wasn't so long ago that Radio Rwanda labeled all Tutsis as "cockroaches." A first step in learning to be antiracist is to recognize and challenge language that equates people with vermin. Paula Tavrow, Pasadena .. To the editor: The nonchalance expressed by Silverton and Krikorian was upsetting to read. They no doubt have the financial means to rebuild the property damaged by looting. Not all of us can share their c'est la vie. We've lost everything and cannot afford the basic necessities. We are devastated. Diana Hurley, Culver City .. To the editor: I am deeply disappointed that Silverton and Krikorian used xenophobic language to describe the current pandemic. They were flippant with their language by calling it "that Wuhan, China, bat thing." While I understand their goal of describing the news cycle, such xenophobic language has no place when examining systemic racism in America. Michael Szeto, San Marino The Op-Ed section is (or used to be) an interesting place. It presents a far more diverse and well-written set of opinions and viewpoints on news of the day than rival national publications. What The Times has done amounts to self-censorship, a dumbing-down of the contents of the paper and an insult to the critical faculties of The Timess readers. David Fisher Dallas To the Editor: I was glad to see the resignation of James Bennet over the publication of Send In the Troops, by Tom Cotton. Senator Cotton has a right to his authoritarian, fascist, un-American views, although it is a shame that he holds them. But The Times need not lower its reputation and standing by publicizing those views. A powerful man like Senator Cotton has many ways of making his voice heard. He does not need the support of The New York Times to do so. This was not a First Amendment case; it was simply a gross error of judgment on the part of The Times. Mr. Bennets resignation is a good first step toward rectifying the problems in the editorial department that caused such an egregious error. Tim Shaw Cambridge, Mass. To the Editor: As a dutiful Times reader for more than half a century, I was very saddened that James Bennet resigned as opinion editor. In his years as editor, he has been a stalwart voice for social justice and for eloquent dialogue about the deep problems that roil America. He has steered the opinion page in innovative directions, helping it remain a voice of integrity in a chaotic online age. It is particularly sad that the publication of one Op-Ed overshadows the body of excellent work that he has produced. While the decision to publish the Cotton Op-Ed had drawbacks, the dialogue it produced and the vigorous outcry against his positions it spurred, which would have never occurred had it not been printed, are testaments to the journalism that Mr. Bennet championed. The president of the detectives union in New York says police officers in the city feel 'abandoned' by public officials in the light of Black Lives Matter protests that have erupted nationwide. 'There is no one supporting the police, from the governor to the mayor to the DAs to the city council,' Paul DiGiacomo, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association in New York, said to Fox News on Monday. 'They feel abandoned by everyone.' The union represents 19,000 active and retired detectives, but the police department as a whole appears to be feeling a palpable sense of anger on the streets as calls to defund the department grow louder. New York City police personnel are feeling abandoned by public officials and the people they serve as anger builds over the department's response to mass protests and calls to defund the department grow, the head of the detectives' union Paul DiGiacomo said on Monday New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea also said that pulling resources out of the NYPD would not be a good solution 'Listen, when there is unrest and criminality out there, it never looks pretty,' DiGiacomo said 'Resisting arrest never looks pretty. They never show you the whole video. I challenge any elected officials who think they could do a better job with urine being thrown at them, bottles, and being shot at,' he said. 'If you put your hands on an NYC detective, we will pursue the highest criminal charges possible, but the DAs don't seem to want to, so we are going to pursue civil action,' DiGiacomo continued. The protests, which call for criminal justice reform and greater accountability of police misconduct, began in New York two weeks ago. It has resulted in more than 700 complaints lodged against the force. 300 officers have also been injured during the sometimes violent demonstrations. Two NYPD officers were shot and another was stabbed during the protests. In this screen grab from a video posted to Twitter an NYPD officer is seen pulling down the mask of a protester and pepper spraying him in Brooklyn Police make an arrest during a demonstration in New York City. There have been 700 complaints against the NYPD in the last couple of weeks The NYPD is among one of 18,000 police departments across the country that are now under increased scrutiny following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last month, but with 36,000 officers, it is the largest in the nation. Videos have emerged showing NYPD officers in violent confrontations. Some have been seen to use excessive force such as forcefully pushing people around or even using their patrol cars to break up crowds. Two officers have been suspended after one video showed an officer pulling down a man's face mask and pepper spraying him. In another incident, an officer was filmed appearing to deliberately push a woman to the ground. Footage filmed by a witness showed an NYPD officer pushing a woman so hard she was thrown back onto the street. She could be seen cradling her head immediately afterwards A police vehicle burns during protests in response to the death of African American George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis, Minnesota police, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City A common message being heard right now by protesters is for police departments to either be abolished or have their funding pulled but DiGiacomo says such a path would not be beneficial to the NYPD. New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has suggested some police reforms and the possibility of moving funding away from the NYPD and toward social services 'The only people that will suffer will be the people of the city,' he added. 'The NYPD is stopping crime and doing our job protecting people. Shootings are up. Homicides are up.' New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has suggested some police reforms and the possibility of moving funding away from the NYPD and toward social services. New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea has also stressed that pulling resources would not be good solution. 'I think cooler heads need to sit around a table and find a way out of this,' he said to Fox. 'The usual thing I get hit at when I go to a community meeting is, 'we want more cops.' I think that is the general sentiment, but we are in a moment in time right now where we need all to come together.' Chinas Yangtze River Delta region held an auction of its scientific and technological achievements on June 6 in Huzhou, east Chinas Zhejiang province, selling all 60 of the selected sci-tech achievements for a total of 134 million yuan (about $18.91 million), Science and Technology Daily reported Monday. With their upset prices totaling 96.1 million yuan, the 60 achievements covered six fields of technology, including digital economy, health, advanced manufacturing, new materials, energy conservation and environmental protection, and agriculture and forestry. A total of 109 companies took part in the auction, during which 11 bids were made on the research and development as well as application of key smart technical equipment for geological surveys, the highest number of bids for an achievement at the auction. With the upset and hammer prices at 500,000 yuan and 1.6 million yuan respectively, the achievement also represented the highest appreciation at the event. The technology exchange center of east Chinas Jiangsu province recommended 10 sci-tech achievements for the auction, which was jointly held by provinces and cities of the Yangtze River Delta region, which consists of Shanghai Municipality and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. More than 20 enterprises from Jiangsu took part in the auction. The technology exchange center of Jiangsu province has had frequent cooperation with over 100 colleges, universities, and research institutes. The center has introduced an e-commerce model for its online platform, encouraged higher education institutions and new scientific research and development institutes to open more than 800 online shops, cultivated more than 3,000 technology brokers, and held various technology transfer activities on over 700 occasions. Puducherry: Several Tamil outfits have called Puducherry bandh on Friday to condemn the violence against Tamils in Karnataka in the wake of Cauvery row. The Puducherry unit of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has pledged its support to the bandh. The BJP will extend its support to the bandh being observed in the Union Territory tomorrow to condemn the against the violence against Tamils in Karnataka, President of the Puducherry unit of BJP V Saminathan in said. The Congress government in Karnataka is ignoring and dishonouring the Supreme court order to release water to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, he added. A 12-hour bandh in Puducherry has been called by more than 30 Tamil fringe outfits including Tamizhar Desiya Iyyakkam, Makkal Vazhuvurimai Iyakkam and Tamizhaga Makkal Vazhuvurimai Katchi on September 16. Bengaluru witnessed violent protests by Kannada groups on Monday. The widespread protests had left two persons dead. Vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu registration were set on fire and damaged even as commercial establishments owned by Tamils were targeted in Karnataka. In Tamil Nadu, restaurants owned by Kannadigas and vehicles bearing Karnataka registration were attacked by fringe outfits in some places on September 12. (With inputs from PTI) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The Dublin-based smart kitchen software firm Drop has raised 11.8m in a new funding round to back its plan to become the Android of kitchen appliances. It brings Ben Harriss company to around 20m in funding, following a 7m round in 2018 and 1.5m in 2015. The companys financial backers in its latest round are led by Californian venture capital firms Alpha Edison and Morpheus Ventures with participation from Irish venture firm ACT Venture Capital, as well as existing investors Alsop Louie Partners, Richmond Market Ventures and Digital Irish Angels. While the company started out with a smart weighing scales that connected to an iPad, it now wants to become a digital platform that all kitchen appliances connect to. To this end, the head of the engineering team that created Android, Steve Horowitz, has joined Drops board of directors. Mr Horowitz is a partner at Alpha Edison. In the same way Android armed an industry to compete in the smartphone game, Drop is primed to be the platform that all brands operate on, fundamentally changing the way we use technology in the kitchen, said Mr Horowitz. Drop has developed partnerships with Bosch, Electrolux, GE Appliances, Panasonic, Kenwood and LG Electronics. It says that over 100 different appliance models from brands like these can now be controlled from its Drop Kitchen OS platform and the Drop Recipes app. Kitchens are a mix of motors, sensors and heating elements, with wildly different interfaces, said Ben Harris, CEO and co-founder at Drop. Drops platform brings software and hardware together harmoniously, allowing our partners to get to market faster, bypassing the cost of developing the robust infrastructure needed to deliver a UX that delights and makes perfect cooking simple. Mr Harriss mother, Elaine O'Hora, founded the Munchies chain of outlets in Dublin. His father, Peter Harris, also set up restaurants as well the courier company Pony Express. Drop has offices in Dublin, San Francisco and Zaragoza, Spain. A package of police reform measures was moving toward passage by the New York state legislature amid a wave of protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody. The New York state Assembly and the Senate, both controlled by Democrats, on Monday passed a ban on police officers using chokeholds on suspects and a bill requiring law enforcement to disclose racial disparities in policing. Lawmakers are also considering the repeal of section 50-a of the civil rights law, which shields officers' disciplinary records from the public. "The legislation that will be passed over the coming days will help stop bad actors and send a clear message that brutality, racism, and unjustified killings will not be tolerated," New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in a statement. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he supported the reforms and would sign the bills into law. New York City's Police Benevolent Association (PBA) and other police unions have condemned the legislation as an attack on police. "The message has been sent very clearly to police officers by our elected officials: We don't like you," PBA President Pat Lynch told reporters. "We don't respect you. We will not support you. We want you to go away." He said if 50-a is repealed then criminal defense attorneys could cite old complaints against an officer in court to undermine the officer's testimony. The New York City Council was also considering a bill to criminalize the use of chokeholds, which has widespread support among lawmakers but is opposed in its current form by the mayor. George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after a white police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Minneapolis City Council members have since pledged to dismantle the city's police department and shift funding to community-based programs that reduce violence. 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Under a blazing Texas sun, mourners wearing T-shirts with Floyds picture or the words I Cant Breathe one of the other things he cried out repeatedly while pinned down by the police officer waited for hours to pay their respects. Floyds body, dressed in a brown suit, lay in an open gold-colored casket. Shorty after the memorial ended, Floyds casket was placed in a hearse and escorted by police back to a funeral home. Portland, Oregon, police chief resigns amid protests Portland's police chief resigned on Monday, just six months into her job, amid criticism of her department's handling of protests in Oregon's largest city. An African American lieutenant on the force replaced her. The shakeup came as police have been sharply criticized for using what has been called inappropriate force against some protesters as huge demonstrations continue in Portland. To say this was unexpected would be an understatement, new Police Chief Chuck Lovell said at a news conference. Im humbled. Im going to listen. Im going to care about the community, and Im looking forward to this journey. Prosecutors: No criminal charges for thousands of LA protesters arrested for violating curfew, other police orders Prosecutors say criminal charges will not be brought against thousands of Los Angeles protesters arrested for violating curfew and other police orders. City Attorney Mike Feuer said Monday that his office will develop an alternative outside court without punishment for those cited for violating curfew or failing to obey orders to leave demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. District Attorney Jackie Lacey said she wont file charges in protest misdemeanor cases from other parts of Los Angeles County. The city had the largest number of the 10,000 protest arrests in the U.S. tracked by The Associated Press. Police and sheriffs deputies arrested more than 3,000 people over days of mostly peaceful protests. The vast majority of citations happened in Los Angeles for violating curfew or dispersal orders. Protester shoves police officer in Charlotte A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer who has met with and walked with demonstrators a number of times was involved in a scuffle Monday afternoon with protesters a day after hed had another tense interaction. Video shows CMPD Captain Brad Koch surrounded by chanting protesters Monday in front of the local government center before a white male protester approaches and shoves him. After being pushed, Koch took the man to the ground as more protesters were seen piling on. He was the only officer in the immediate vicinity. No injuries were reported but in a tweet, CMPD said Koch was assaulted in broad daylight and is asking for the publics help to identify those involved. Koch has repeatedly walked with protesters through the city. He was pictured kneeling alongside them last week. The police department said in a tweet that he has walked more than 100 miles with protesters in recent days. But his interactions havent been well-received by all protesters. Some say he isnt welcome to march with them. Joe Biden met with George Floyds relatives in Houston The lead attorney for George Floyds family said the grieving relatives met with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for an hour Monday in Houston. Ben Crump said Bidens compassion meant the world to this grieving family, and he described the visit as an example of what will begin to heal America as citizens around the country demand changes to police practices after Floyds death. Listening to one another is what will begin to heal America, Crump said. Thats just what Vice President Biden did with the family of George Floyd for more than an hour. He listened, he heard their pain and shared in their woe. Biden traveled to Houston for the visit ahead of Floyds funeral. Biden has called for substantial changes to police practices in the U.S., but he opposes some activists call to defund police and shift that taxpayers spending to other services. Biden wants to expand spending on social services such as education and mental health care that can support police efforts, but also spend more on training existing police officers. Floyd, a black man who was handcuffed, died after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. The officer has since been fired, arrested and charged with second-degree murder, among other charges. Attorney general says the actions of a few bad officers doesn't mean there's a systemic problem Attorney General William Barr said that he understands why some view George Floyds death as manifestations of institutional racism in police departments, but argued that theres been great reform already over the past half-century, and that the actions of a few bad officers doesnt mean there is a systemic problem. Every organization has individuals who engage in misconduct and we have to be very careful before we say the whole organization is rotten, Barr said. Barr wouldnt comment on the police reform proposal introduced by congressional Democrats on Monday, saying that he hasnt reviewed it yet, but said that the Trump administrations own policing commission would be releasing its own reform proposals very shortly. He said he thought there will need to be strong federal participation in the broader reform effort to help set standards. The attorney general said that choke holds should be banned as a police tactic except in cases when police officers are confronted with lethal force. That stance has been backed previously by national policing groups, and stops short of reform put in place in cities across the country in the wake of Floyds death, including Minneapolis, to ban the maneuver altogether. Biden promises police changes without stripping funding Joe Biden diverged Monday from activists pushing to defund the police in the United States, arguing that an overhaul of policing in America can be accomplished within existing law enforcement agencies. A Biden presidential campaign aide said the Democrat hears and shares the deep grief and frustration of those calling out for change after George Floyds death by police in Minneapolis refocused the nations attention on institutional racism. But spokesman Andrew Bates added that Biden does not believe that police should be defunded, as some Minneapolis authorities are pursuing locally and some activists are demanding nationally. The former vice president was in Houston on Monday to meet privately with Floyds family ahead of his funeral. Biden supports the urgent need for reform -- including funding for public schools, summer programs, and mental health and substance abuse treatment separate from funding for policing -- so that officers can focus on the job of policing, Bates said. The defund the police mantra has gained steam among some protesters and progressive activists since Floyds death, potentially complicating Bidens ability to satisfy a splintered movement demanding differing levels of changes in policing practices. And it highlights a familiar exercise for Biden: trying to appeal to a progressive flank that distrusts him as an establishment politician while not alienating more moderate voters and even some Republicans who dont want President Donald Trump reelected. Jim Henderson, University of Louisiana System president, says hes looking past the fires of evident racism burning on some system campuses and toward a brighter landscape. In recent days, examples of racial discord or incidents of apparent racism have included: Two faculty members at the University of Louisiana at Monroe have been accused of posting racist messages on social media. Reports say incoming students at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches have been accused of racist comments made in social media posts. Contention continues at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, which is named for a Confederate general, over the name of the university itself as well as names for some campus buildings. At Southeastern Louisiana University, a student-athlete was dismissed following a racist social media post. In the most recent incident, ULM confirmed to the Monroe News-Star that administrators are investigating a comment allegedly made by a faculty member on an article titled "Detriot rep says hydroxychloroquine, Trump helped save her life amid COVID-19 fight." The comment said: "Thank God for our President. He takes no salary for his loyal commitment. Not like the m----y before him." That's in addition to a racist social media post from an incoming freshman at LSU a different university system which has led to campus contention there. All of those incidents and possibly more followed the national furor over the death of George Floyd, a black man apparently killed by homicide while in police custody in Minneapolis. Four police officers at the scene have been charged in connection with Floyds death. Day after LSU's bungled response to racist video: An apology and meeting with black student leaders Black student leaders met with interim LSU president Tom Galligan and other school administrators for over an hour Monday to resolve the unive We have seen some repugnant, reprehensible comments on social media, Henderson said Tuesday of situations at various UL System campuses. When it comes from faculty, thats really disheartening. Other campuses he mentioned peaceful protests and actions at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Grambling State University and Louisiana Tech have navigated national turmoil admirably. Henderson also said the UL System, which enrolls 91,000 students at nine universities, has seen tremendous positive responses from a far greater number of people, including campus presidents and faculty members, whove repudiated racist statements and, Henderson said, have taken proactive measures to support diversity and inclusion. Those include a public, communitywide meeting at ULMs Fant-Ewing Coliseum, held Tuesday; proposed changes to two building names at Nicholls, both named for Confederate generals in 1961; and public statements by university presidents condemning racism and racist speech. Henderson said to combat systemic racism, state and its regional university communities might love aspects of their state and country, but should also "examine their faults." "We have to look at aspects of our history, understand them in the context in which they occur but understand the message they send today," he said. In specific, he said Nicholls President Jay Clune made careful distinctions a week ago when he announced he was requesting the system supervisors' permission to change the names of PGT Bureaugard and Leonidas Polk halls, both named in 1961, the centennial of the Civil War, and rename the buildings for now for the specific academic departments they house. 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 Clune said the university itself, named for Francis T. Nicholls, a former Confederate general, governor and state supreme court justice; and E.D. White Hall, named for a former Confederate soldier and U.S. Supreme Court justice, would not be changed. Both men, he said, held distinction for local achievements, which Bureaugard and Polk did not. Bureaugard was from New Orleans; Polk, originally from North Carolina, was an Episcopal bishop for Louisiana. Henderson said the system's presidents are acting in accordance with system policy, including these measures that have been put into place in the last few years: In 2017, the system released its strategic framework to guide its work. It included six aspirations, including the need to increase participation among historically underserved populations. The system appointed a diversity and inclusion task force in March 2018. It assessed system and university policies to identify areas that impeded diversity and inclusion, a system spokeswoman said. Several policies were updated. The group hosted a workshop last fall to deepen the conversation and action around diversity and inclusion. Overall, Im immensely proud of what our institutions have done, Henderson said. Our board has made diversity and inclusion a systemic priority. There is a moral and business imperative for that. Henderson noted that campuses are struggling with reconciling free speech with campus ideals. "Freedom of speech is sacred in the U.S.; it's in our First Amendment. When you start talking about speech that is filled with hate that comes from an evil place, it can be extraordinarily difficult to define that. "You have to establish institutional values. There were values we want." He said students may err now in their expressed beliefs, but change them later. "It's part of the human condition. We grow. We believe in redemption but redemption with consequences. It's who we are. Quoting former boxer Muhammad Ali, he said, The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life. Someday, he said, history may look back at these current events as a "tipping point" in human rights. "We will be talking about this era for decades to come," he said. "It will be in history books." A couple attempting to flee North Korea with their teenage nephew to South Korea has been executed by North Korean authorities. A source in North Korea who requested to stay anonymous shared, "They were arrested for attempting to escape [across] the border, which is now heavily controlled due to the national emergency quarantine against the coronavirus." During the COVID-19 quarantine, the border is said to be even more heavily controlled. "The attempt to escape at a time like this when border security is so tight due to emergency quarantine measures was an extremely dangerous and risky act," the source said. "It was a couple in their 50s and a 14-year-old student. The boy is the son of the wife's younger brother, who had previously escaped to the South. They were caught by border guards as they were trying to escape together," a source who requested to stay anonymous shared. The couple were tortured into confessing their attempt to escape and the husband and wife were given no trial and were immediately shot by a firing squad for treason. The teenage nephew was spared for being a minor. "The supreme leadership has ordered that those who attempt to flee the country during the emergency period must be sternly punished. There's no way they could have avoided the firing squad because they attempted to defect to South Korea," a source shared. North Korean citizens have been confirming that the story of the attempted escape has been spreading and although they feel relief that the minor's life was spared, they expressed anger at the authorities claiming that "--there's nothing wrong with trying to escape from North Korea, especially when it is so hard to make ends meet due to the coronavirus crisis." North Korea officially claims that there are no confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country despite the evident clues that the citizens of North Korea are struggling to survive. New Delhi, June 9 : Kashmiri Pandit organisations have condemned the killing of Ajay Pandita, Sarpanch and a member of the minority community of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir, by terrorists. Sanjay Peshin, from Roots in Kashmir, said: "No conviction in 30 years of any Kashmiri Pandit killing by terrorists makes terrorists believe that they can kill Hindus in Kashmir without any fear of law. Till swift justice and severe punishment is not delivered, the jihadis will continue to kill with impunity." Many community leaders and organisations expressed their grief and anguish and held meetings at various states. Community members felt that government was unable to protect the Hindus working in Kashmir, said a statement. Vijay Kashkari, General Secretary, AIKS, said "Ajay Pandita was a brave son of India, who tried to revive the political process in Kashmir, always working towards benefit of all, irrespective of faith or belief. This killing is intended to challenge the concept of India, its values and resolve of people to live peacefully." "Cowardly act of killing an unarmed and innocent Kashmiri Pandit in Kashmir is a loss for the entire community. I request Prime Minister, Home Minister and Lt. Governor to ensure safety of minorities in Kashmir," said Ajay Bharti former MLC The community observed two-minute silence and resolved that they will not be deterred by these cowardly acts and will continue to fight for justice and their respectful return to their homes in kashmir, a statement said. Developers of a planned luxury apartment scheme for Herbert Park in Dublin 4 are proposing to sell 10 apartments for 5.88 million to Dublin City Council for social housing. The McSharry Kennedy families are proposing to construct a 12 storey block that will contain 105 apartments in a project called 40 Park on a site overlooking Herbert Park in Ballsbridge. The development will also include 10 additional apart-hotel bedroom suites in an expanded six storey apart-hotel. As part of requirements to provide 10% of the development towards social housing under Part V of the Planning and Development Act, the families Derryroe Ltd is planning to sell eight two bedroom apartments with a price tag of 625,021 each and two one bedroom apartments with a price tag of 440,337 each to the City Council. The McSharry-Kennedy families already own the Herbert Park Hotel and the 66 million apartment plan has been lodged as a fast track plan with An Bord Pleanala for a site at 36, 38 and 40 Herbert Park and 10 Pembroke Place. In a letter on behalf of Derryroe Ltd to the City Council, it states that the letters contents containing the price estimates is purely indicative and is intended to provide a reasonable estimate of the costs and values of the units based on construction costs and values prevailing at the time of the application. The 625,021 price put by Derryroe Ltd for the two bed unit is more than 100,000 more put by Cairn Homes for its 521,377 two bedroom units the builder is planning to sell to the City Council in a proposed 30.17m social housing deal at former RTE lands at Donnybrook. The letter on behalf of Derryroe to the Council further states that the values are subject to change depending upon the nature of any final grant of permission. Sinn Fein Housing spokesman, Eoin O Broin TD stated on Tuesday: There is a real problem where 500,000 is being asked by a developer for an apartment where you can build two social homes for 240,000 each. He added: I am not arguing against the Part V - I understand the value of it and I think there should be more social homes in Donnybrook, Blackrock, Stillorgan and Dalkey where traditionally too few have been built. But at the same time, you really have to question the logic of paying double the price at a time of huge housing need. Dublin City Council has a huge housing list and if it gets into the habit of regularly paying twice the price for Part V apartments than it could build social homes, it is not an efficient use of public resources. If this becomes more common paying these kind of prices for apartments, then there clearly needs to be a rethink from Government as to what is the most important housing objective - increasing the overall output of social housing at a time of great or acquiring very expensive apartment units in the most affluent parts of Dublin City. He pointed out: People are waiting 10 to 14 years in Dublin City Council for social homes and if we are spending twice the price, they are going to keep waiting that length of time. A spokesman for Dublin City Council confirmed that it last year purchased 31 Part V units all of which were apartments at a combined cost of 7.66m. This works out at an average unit price of 247,332. The spokesman stated that agreement was reached in 2019 to acquire a further 88 such Part V units, but they were not finalised by year end. He stated: So far in 2020 a total of 170 Part V units have agreement for acquisition by Dublin City Council. The spokesman stated that the number of people currently on Dublin City Councils housing waiting list is just under 17,000. The rent charged by the Council to those council tenants who will be let the 10 Part V apartments at the Herbert Park scheme will be based on the weekly assessable income of a household. The spokesman stated: Rent is calculated in the same way as all other Dublin City Council tenancies. He pointed out: Part V is one of several different options open to Dublin City Council to source social housing for allocation to families on our waiting lists. JLo And Alex Holding BLM Signs At The March On the other hand, Rodriguez was twinning in a black ensemble with white disposable gloves and a cloth face mask. They were seen holding homemade signs, while JLo's sign read, 'Black Lives Matter', Rodriguez's sign read, 'Let's get loud for Black Lives Matter'. Some of the other celebrities who joined the protest on Sunday were, Vanessa Hudges, Jamie Foxx, Ireland Baldwin, Kaia Gerber and rappers YG, Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun. Vanessa Hudges, Jamie Foxx, And Other Celebrities Were Also At BLM LA March The outrage and protests first began when George Floyd died last month 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". The video went viral on social media, causing many to join hands worldwide and show support in the Black Lives Matter movement. Derek Chauvin Charged With Second Degree Murder Since the protests, Derek Chauvin has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. While his three other colleagues- Thomas Lane, J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao -- have also been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Cairo, June 9 : Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the recent developments in war-ravaged Libya. During a phone call on Monday, Sisi and Merkel exchanged views about the latest developments of the Libyan situation in the light of the Egypt-sponsored initiative for peace in the North African country, said Bassam Rady, Egyptian presidential spokesman, in a statement, Xinhua news agency reported. Sisi reaffirmed Egypt's readiness to reach a comprehensive political settlement in Libya through the recently proposed initiative to achieve stability and security in Libya. Egypt is keen to preserve the resources of the Libyan people as well as putting an end to illegal foreign interventions that aggravated violence in the country, he added. On Saturday, Sisi announced an initiative to end the Libyan internal conflict following his meeting in Cairo with Libyan east-based military commander Khalifa Haftar and Tobruk-based parliament speaker Aguila Saleh. Dubbed Cairo Declaration, the Egyptian initiative proposes a cease-fire between Libyan warring parties starting June 8, disbanding militias and handing over their arms, pulling out foreign forces, electing a ruling presidential council representing all Libyans and drafting a constitutional declaration to regulate elections for later stages. According to the spokesman, Merkel welcomed the initiative, which she viewed as "an extension of the Berlin conference path with new effective elements and dimensions to the Libyan political process." The German chancellor also praised the Egyptian efforts to reach a settlement to the conflict in Libya, the spokesman said. Libya has been locked in a civil war since the ouster and killing of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The situation escalated in 2014, splitting power between two rival governments: the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital Tripoli and a government in the northeastern city of Tobruk allied with the Haftar-led Libyan National Army (LNA). Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, France and Russia support Haftar's LNA, while the GNA is backed by Turkey and Qatar as well as Italy. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 16:45:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close -- Portland's police chief Jami Resch resigned amid mounting criticism over her handling of protests sparked by the death of Floyd. -- Outrage over Floyd's death has fuelled worldwide marches, with protesters calling for an end to racism and police abuse. -- Floyd's death serves as a chilling reminder that racial discrimination seems to be showing no signs of improvement among the American population. WASHINGTON, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Portland's police chief Jami Resch resigned on Monday amid mounting criticism over her handling of protests that shook Oregon's largest city as part of a global movement sparked by the death of George Floyd, an African American who died due to police brutality. "I have listened and our community and you have said show us change," she tweeted. "It starts with trust. This change in leadership comes from my heart." Resch was just six months into her job as top cop when making the surprise announcement. She has asked for Chuck Lovell, an African-American lieutenant, to replace her. The shakeup came as police departments across the United States have faced upheaval following Floyd's death, which has forced a reckoning of police brutality towards African-Amerians. "I felt like if I in some small way could be the start for some community healing, it was my duty to do that," Lovell told a press conference. DEVELOPMENT IN U.S. In Floyd's hometown of Houston in Texas, a six-hour public viewing for him was held was in the Fountain of Praise Church. Hours before the viewing began, people from across the country waited in long lines in scorching heat outside the church to pay their respects to Floyd's coffin, the final stop of a series of memorials in his honor. Floyd, 46, died on May 25 after being pinned by the neck for nine minutes by a white officer's knee while pleading "I can't breathe." A woman takes part in a protest against the killing of George Floyd in Istanbul, Turkey, June 5, 2020. (Photo by Yasin Akgul/Xinhua) Doreatha Walker, an African American woman, came on behalf of her family. "If you don't stand for something, you fall for anything. George Floyd didn't deserve to die the way he did," she told Xinhua. "We have to stand up against police brutality. We have to stand up against racism. I'm here today and I don't care about the heat because all of these have to stop." Walker said her daughter and niece attended the protests in Houston in the past few days. Showing up to represent them, she said inequality and injustice must be replaced by equality and justice in the country. "If I want to go to another city or state, I should be able to live in peace and harmony, not worry because of the color of my skin," she said. Though the Democrats are proposing to overhaul legal protections for police and to fight systemic racism in the law enforcement following Floyd's death, huge crowds gathered in major U.S. cities with a largely peaceful mood prevailing over the demonstrations. The vibrant atmosphere was marred on Sunday when a man drove a car into a rally in Seattle and shot and wounded a protestor who confronted him. The suspect, Nikolas Fernandez, was charged with assault on Monday. Protesters take part in a rally to protest over the death of George Floyd on Foley Square in New York, the United States, May 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) Separately, Virginia prosecutors said on Monday a man facing charges for driving his pickup truck into racial equality protesters is a local leader of the Ku Klux Klan, a domestic terrorist organization founded shortly after the United States Civil War ended. Harry H. Rogers, 36, was charged with assault and battery, malicious wounding and felony vandalism, the Henrico County police department said in statement. SWELLING PROTESTS Outrage over Floyd's death has fuelled worldwide marches, with protesters embracing the Black Lives Matter message and calling for an end to racism and police abuse. Dozens of people gathered on Monday outside the U.S. embassy in Turkish capital of Ankara over the death of Floyd. Protesters chanted slogans such as "Stop racism" and "We can't breathe," calling on American authorities to "urgently stop all human rights abuses and deploy efforts to fundamentally reform the system against racism." People take part in a demonstration to pay tribute to George Floyd in Paris, France, on June 6, 2020. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard/Xinhua) French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner pledged to stamp out racism and police violence and unveiled a series of measures to improve police forces' ethics amid growing public anger at police brutality. "Racism has no place in our society and even less in our Republican police. I will not let the hateful actions of some stigmatise all," Castaner told a press conference. Some 23,300 people in France joined Saturday's "Black Lives Matter" protests. In Brussels, more than 10,000 people demonstrated on Sunday at Place Poelart in the city center. Protesters of all ages and ethnic backgrounds chanted "Black Lives Matter," "No Justice, No Peace." "The murder of George Floyd has visibly awakened many people," Brussels Times newspaper quoted Ange Kazi, spokesperson of the Belgian Network for Black Lives Matter, which called for the protest, as saying. "Many people are fed up with police violence, which systematically affects Blacks," she said. Thousands of people went down on their knees on the streets outside the U.S. embassy in Ireland, the third of its kind following the killing of Floyd, demanding a systematic change to the deep-rooted racism in the United States and other countries. On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that all Canadian police should be equipped with body cameras as a simple way to address complaints of racism and brutality. "With the many disturbing reports of violence against black Canadians and indigenous people, we know that we need to do much more," Trudeau said at a press conference in Ottawa. "We need to do it now." Trudeau and his ministers took a knee in solidarity with the demonstrators who were marching against racism and police brutality in Ottawa on Friday. Demonstrators participate in a "Black Lives Matter" protest in Brussels, Belgium, June 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) The World Health Organization (WHO) also expressed its full support to the global movement against racism, but highlighted the importance for protesters to take preventive measures against COVID-19. "WHO fully supports equality and the global movement against racism. We reject discrimination of all kinds. We encourage all those protesting around the world to do so safely," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a virtual press conference. DOUBlE STANDARDS Racism has been a chronic problem in the United States, with a history almost as old as the country itself. Floyd's death serves as a new, chilling reminder that racial discrimination seems to be showing no signs of improvement among the American population. In a report released in April by the Pew Center, 58 percent of Americans surveyed in 2019 said race relations in the United States are bad, and few of those see any improvement in such relations. Some 56 percent think the current administration has made race relations worse. The ravaging coronavirus pandemic, meanwhile, has served to highlight the long tradition of racial inequality in the United States, after recent data compiled by the non-partisan APM Research Lab revealed that African Americans are suffering a disproportionate share of the negative health and economic impacts of COVID-19. A demonstrator holds up a sign as police pass by in Chicago, the United States, June 6, 2020. (Photo by Chris Dilts/Xinhua) With a death toll of more than 20,000 or about one in every 2,000 of the entire U.S. African American population, African Americans are dying at a rate of 50.3 per 100,000 people, compared with 20.7 for whites, 22.9 for Latinos and 22.7 for Asian Americans, the data showed. Moreover, African Americans are facing an ever higher risk of dying at the hands of police due to the color of their skin. According to Mapping Police Violence, a research and advocacy group, black Americans are 2.5 times as likely to be killed by law-enforcement officers as white Americans. "More than 1,000 Black people die at the hands of police in the U.S. every year," the Nelson Mandela Foundation last week. "Mass incarceration, predictive policing, targeted surveillance and a host of other tools render Black lives more vulnerable than all others," said the foundation, which was established in 1999 to promote freedom and equality. Zivadin Jovanovic, former foreign minister of Yugoslavia, told Xinhua the death of Floyd and the U.S. response to ensuing protests demonstrated double standards in the country's policies on certain rights it has been insisting on around the world. "The rights are acceptable for them only in their objective to dominate globally," he said. Jovanovic noted that racial discrimination is deeply rooted in the history of the United States' socio-economic and political practice, and segregation is still visible in the distribution of wealth and availability of health protection. A delivery man wearing a face mask rides past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, the United States, May 27, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) Indonesian political analyst Irwansyah said that the death of Floyd reveals the double standards of Washington, adding that the protests are caused by not only racism, but also other factors such as economic inequality and the failed COVID-19 response. The sentiment was echoed by Turkish expert Deniz Zeyrek, who pointed out that the anger of demonstrators is not only about the situation of African Americans or the death of Floyd, but also about the whole social problems in the United States. (Video reporters: Hu Yousong, Xu Jianmei, Tan Yixiao, Li Baodong, Liang Xizhi, Wang Feng, Yuan Liang, Liu Ruijuan, Zhang Yue, Hao Yalin, Bai Xuefei; Video editor: Peng Ying) Sydney, unlike many world cities, is a sprawling, sparsely-populated behemoth of a city. For comparison, Singapore a city-state with a population of 5.7 million (over 400,000 more than Sydney) is 17 times smaller than Sydney. But despite its diminutive size, Singapores housing market remains stable and fairly valued unlike Sydney, which still has some of the worlds least affordable property prices. Anyone whos tried renting or buying in the Harbour City knows this all too well. The pandemic has had a cooling effect on many domestic housing markets, but nowhere near as bad as some speculated. Indeed, theres evidence to suggest that nationally, housing prices are on the up. Its still as expensive as ever to buy property in the Greater Sydney region the craziness of the Sydney property market even stretching as far as Mount Wilson, 100km west of Sydney. Here, a literal tin shack nestled in bushland has sold for a whopping A$155,000 and thats considered a bargain. Look, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and its got its charms but we cant see how such a rough little shack could fetch such a huge asking price. And in what world is $155k a bargain? This is despite it being zoned RU2 rural landscape, off the grid and in a fire zone, meaning itd be a challenge to do up, Iris Property Kurrajong Heights agent Martin Schoeddert told realestate.com.au. It would take someone with some serious dedication and more than a little chutzpah to take on such a project. Well admit that the prospect of having a cozy little bolthole to retreat to in the always-lovely Blue Mountains is tempting Mount Wilson, a tiny village completely surrounded by the Blue Mountains National Park, is one of the regions best-kept secrets. Particularly stunning in autumn, the area is filled with amazing natural beauty, exemplified by the Cathedral of Ferns Trail, Wollangambe River Track and Du Faurs Rocks Lookout. But might it be too much of a money pit? I watch a lot of Grand Designs and House Hunters International and the like, and 99% of the time, homeowners end up spending way over their budget trying to rescue dilapidated properties in the hope of making something special. Its great to live vicariously through them, but I wouldnt try and take on a similar task. Most of the time the properties on those shows cost a fraction of what they end up spending anyway, and almost always a fraction of what theyd pay for the equivalent in Australia. $155k is just the start. We just hope the buyers happy with what they paid for. Godspeed, you magnificent bastard. Read Next The president of the UN General Assembly said Monday that world leaders will not be coming to New York for their annual gathering in late September for the first time in the 75-year history of the United Nations because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But Tijjani Muhammad-Bande told a news conference that he hopes to announce in the next two weeks how the 193 heads of state and government will give their speeches on pressing local and world issues during the assemblys so-called General Debate. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage World leaders cannot come to New York because they cannot come simply as individuals, he said. A president doesnt travel alone, leaders dont travel alone and it is impossible to bring large delegations to New York during the pandemic. We cannot have them in person as we used to what happened in the last 74 years but it will happen Muhammad-Bande said of the annual event. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recommended last month that the gathering of world leaders, which was supposed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, be dramatically scaled back because of the pandemic. Guterres suggested in a letter to the General Assembly president that heads of state and government deliver prerecorded messages instead, with only one New York-based diplomat from each of the 193 UN member nations present in the assembly hall. Muhammad-Bande said Monday that by late September maybe a hundred or so people might be allowed in the General Assembly chamber. The meeting of world leaders usually brings thousands of government officials, diplomats and civil society representatives to New York for over a week of speeches, dinners, receptions, one-on-one meetings and hundreds of side events. This year was expected to bring an especially large number of leaders to UN headquarters to celebrate the founding of the United Nations in 1945 on the ashes of World War II. Muhammad-Bande said the 75th anniversary celebration is not conceived as one moment but will continue throughout the year starting on June 26, the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Charter of the United Nations in San Francisco. He said a political declaration on the United Nations at 75 is also being negotiated, and world leaders will have the opportunity to mark the occasion only not in person. Australians will be given a say on an Indigenous "voice" within months as the Morrison government steps up the reform to create a new mechanism for community input following the Black Lives Matter protests. The reform plan is likely to go to public consultation from July in the hope of reaching a consensus on measures that would put Indigenous Australians "at the centre" of government decisions that affect them. The Black Lives Matter rally in Canberra on Saturday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen While the coronavirus crisis has stymied some of the meetings and consultations so far, Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt is promising to deliver a mechanism that empowers Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. "Were confident that the Australian people will be able to have their say on an Indigenous voice this year," he said. There is no community transmission in Delhi according to officials from the Centre, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Tuesday amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in the Capital. Addressing reporters after a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), Sisodia estimated that there might be 5.5 lakh Covid-19 cases in the city by July 31 while Delhi may need 80,000 beds by July-end. The meeting was chaired by Lt Governor Anil Baijal, who is also chairperson of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority. "Officials from the Centre said at the meeting that there is no community transmission of Covid-19 virus in Delhi," Sisodia told the media. The lieutenant governor has refused to reconsider his decision to overrule the Delhi governments order reserving state-run and private hospitals for Delhiites, the deputy chief minister said. Earlier, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday said the source of infection is "not known" in nearly half of the fresh cases being reported. Interacting with reporters, he also said that the Kejriwal government is making all the preparations to handle the huge rush of patients estimated by June end. When asked if Delhi has reached community transmission level as far as coronavirus infection is concerned, he said declaration on this is made by the Centre. "Epidemiologically, community transmission is third stage of the infection... In Delhi, of the new cases being reported, nearly half of the cases, the source of infection is not known," he said. The national capital recorded 1,007 fresh coronavirus cases on Monday, taking the COVID-19 tally in the city to over 29,000-mark, and the death toll due to the disease mounted to 874, authorities said. Baijal has called an all-party meeting later in the day to discuss the Covid-19 situation in the city and measures to contain the spread of the dreaded virus. The increasing cases of coronavirus in Delhi have not just become a cause for concern but also triggered a political slugfest, with the L-G on Monday overruling the AAP government's order to reserve Delhi government-run and some private hospitals in the national capital for Delhiites. The lieutenant governor is also the Chairman of Delhi Disaster Management Authority. One of the largest spy-for-hire operations ever exposed An Indian cyber firm that few people have ever heard of, BellTroX InfoTech Services, is reported to have been serving as an international hacking shop for surveillance jobs, helping clients spy on at least 10,000 email accounts belonging to politicians, investors, journalists and activists around the world. The news comes from this report published Monday night by Citizen Lab: Dark Basin Uncovering a Massive Hack-For-Hire Operation By John Scott-Railton, Adam Hulcoop, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Bill Marczak, Siena Anstis, and Ron Deibert June 9, 2020 "Researchers at internet watchdog group Citizen Lab, who spent more than two years mapping out the infrastructure used by the hackers, released a report here on Tuesday saying they had "high confidence" that BellTroX employees were behind the espionage campaign," Reuters reports: New Delhi-based BellTroX InfoTech Services targeted government officials in Europe, gambling tycoons in the Bahamas, and well-known investors in the United States including private equity giant KKR and short seller Muddy Waters, according to three former employees, outside researchers, and a trail of online evidence. Aspects of BellTroX's hacking spree aimed at American targets are currently under investigation by U.S. law enforcement, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment. Reuters does not know the identity of BellTroX's clients. In a telephone interview, the company's owner, Sumit Gupta, declined to disclose who had hired him and denied any wrongdoing. Muddy Waters founder Carson Block said he was "disappointed, but not surprised, to learn that we were likely targeted for hacking by a client of BellTroX." KKR declined to comment. Read more at Reuters: Exclusive: Obscure Indian cyber firm spied on politicians, investors worldwide [reporting by Jack Stubbs, Raphael Satter, Christopher Bing] NEW REPORT: Dark Basin: Uncovering a Massive Hack-For-Hire Operation https://t.co/p1PAJJCos5 Citizen Lab (@citizenlab) June 9, 2020 Great investigation by @Reuters, @citizenlab, and many others into a huge hackers-for-hire operation out of India. Outsourcing these services through PIs & lawyers creates layers of obscurity and deniability, shielding the end client who were the employers contracting BellTroX? https://t.co/rODGY1iamZ Saher Naumaan (@saffronsec) June 9, 2020 New: Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating a sprawling hacker-for-hire operation that targeted the email accounts of journalists, government officials, environmental groups and more. w/@barrymeier @ronenbergman https://t.co/QItv7flpWJ Nicole Hong (@nicole_hong) June 9, 2020 Three water-filled maars in the Eifel, Germany (Gemundener Maar, Weinfelder Maar, Schalkenmehrener Maar). Created by volcanic activity, maars are also found in other parts of Europe and on other continents, but Eifel-Maars are the classic example worldwide. Credit: Martin Schildgen / Wikimedia CommonsLicence typeAttribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA 4.0) Scientists have discovered new evidence for active volcanism next door to some of the most densely populated areas of Europe. The study 'crowd-sourced' GPS monitoring data from antennae across western Europe to track subtle movements in the Earth's surface, thought to be caused by a rising subsurface mantle plume. The work is published in Geophysical Journal International. The Eifel region lies roughly between the cities of Aachen, Trier, and Koblenz, in west-central Germany. It is home to many ancient volcanic features, including the circular lakes known as 'maars'. These are the remnants of violent volcanic eruptions, such as the one which created Laacher See, the largest lake in the area. The explosion that created this is thought to have occurred around 13,000 years ago, with a similar explosive power to the cataclysmic Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991. The mantle plume that likely fed this ancient activity is thought to still be present, extending up to 400km down into the Earth. However, whether or not it is still active is unknown: "Most scientists had assumed that volcanic activity in the Eifel was a thing of the past," said Prof. Corne Kreemer, lead author of the new study. "But connecting the dots, it seems clear that something is brewing underneath the heart of northwest Europe." In the new study, the teambased at the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of California, Los Angeles in the United Statesused data from thousands of commercial and state-owned GPS antennae all over western Europe, to map out how the ground is moving vertically and horizontally as the Earth's crust is pushed, stretched and sheared. The research revealed that the region's land surface is moving upward and outward over a large area centred on the Eifel, and including Luxembourg, eastern Belgium and the southernmost province of the Netherlands, Limburg. "The Eifel area is the only region in the study where the ground motion appeared significantly greater than expected," adds Prof. Kreemer. "The results indicate that a rising plume could explain the observed patterns and rate of ground movement." The new results complement those of a previous study in Geophysical Journal International that found seismic evidence of magma moving underneath the Laacher See. Both studies point towards the Eifel being an active volcanic system. The implication of this study is that there may not only be an increased volcanic risk, but also a long-term seismic risk in this part of Europe. The researchers urge caution however: "This does not mean that an explosion or earthquake is imminent, or even possible again in this area. We and other scientists plan to continue monitoring the area using a variety of geophysical and geochemical techniques, in order to better understand and quantify any potential risks." Explore further Deep low-frequency earthquakes indicate migration of magmatic fluids beneath Laacher See More information: Corne Kreemer et al. Geodetic evidence for a buoyant mantle plume beneath the eifel volcanic area, NW Europe, Geophysical Journal International (2020). Journal information: Geophysical Journal International Corne Kreemer et al. Geodetic evidence for a buoyant mantle plume beneath the eifel volcanic area, NW Europe,(2020). DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggaa227 A north Belfast man who allegedly tried to set his neighbour on fire must remain in custody, a judge ordered on Tuesday. Terry Mairs, 29, is charged with attempting to murder the other man by dousing him with accelerant during a row outside their homes on April 21. Mairs, of Silverstream Avenue, also faces a count of possessing an offensive weapon, namely a bottle of petrol and lighter, with intent. He was detained again on Monday for allegedly breaching bail by being out all night despite a curfew. Defence barrister Michael Boyd told Belfast Magistrates' Court Mairs had been assaulted after leaving his mother's home to go to a local shop. He then spent a period in hospital, it was contended. Opposing Mairs' re-release, police stressed the seriousness of the charges. "He poured flammable liquid over a neighbour and tried to set him alight," a PSNI officer claimed. A previous court heard the dispute centred on Mairs' clothing. According to police the alleged victim's teenage stepson made a remark about a long coat he was wearing. Threats were issued before Mairs ran out of his house and threw the contents of a bottle over the other man, it was claimed. Several attempts were allegedly made to set him alight during a confrontation witnessed by others living on the street. Mairs emphatically denies brandishing a lighter or pouring any flammable liquid over the other man. He has made counter claims of being the victim of a campaign since moving into the street. But refusing to grant bail to Mairs once more, District Judge Fiona Bagnall said she had "grave concerns". She ruled: "I'm going to remand him in custody until July 7 on video-link." In mid-March, before the coronavirus prompted the state to order eateries closed to all but delivery and takeout orders, Tim McLoone owned a dozen restaurants and had a staff of about 700 in New Jersey. Three months later, McLoone said hes had to close two of those restaurants permanently and possibly a third and his workforce has winnowed to 40 or 50. Restaurants have been hard hit by the mandated closures sparked by the pandemic. Dining rooms are still off limits to patrons, and itll be another week before theyre allowed to offer outdoor dining. A full 15% to 18% are not expected to reopen, Marilou Halvorsen, president of the New Jersey Restaurant & Hospitality Association, told a state Senate committee Monday afternoon. Those restaurants are more likely to be small, independent and ethnically diverse, she said. On March 15, I had 12 restaurants, McLoone said. On March 16, its as if all 12 of them burned to the ground on the same night and I had no insurance. For McLoone, owner of McLoones Boathouse in West Orange and Tim McLoones Supper Club in Asbury Park, delivery and carryout represent about 5% to 12% of his restaurants normal sales. And for shore locales, another week of lost revenue is tragic, he said, adding that even permitting restaurants to open a few days earlier to capture weekend business matters. Every day we lose at this time of the year is like losing 40 days in January or February or March, he said. The slowness of this is excruciating. Both McLoone and Adenah Bayoh, who owns IHOP franchises in Paterson, Newark and Irvington, as well as Cornbread in Maplewood, said some indoor seating, even at a quarter of occupancy, would help. I think some kind of indoor seating, even if its 25% would allow us the opportunity to at least start participating back into the economy," Bayoh said. Additionally, restaurants need to be able to provide customers a respite in inclement weather, McLoone said. With slim profit margins and little revenue coming in, restaurant owners said many cant afford to make the investment in outdoor seating, which could cost thousands of dollars or more, and not all have the space, owners told the committee. I think sometimes when were making decisions at the state level, we have to think about everyone. If you look at this outdoor seating, it just doesnt work for the urban communities. It doesnt work for us, Bayoh said. George Kyrtatas, co-owner of Sweetwater Bar and Grill in Cinnaminson, said even with outdoor dining his restaurant will still struggle. With proper social distancing, seating for 60 diners will be cut to 30 or so, he said. That isnt enough revenue coming in to offset any of the loss that Im making right now. Im losing thousands and thousands of dollars every week just doing the takeout, because as everyone else is saying, its anywhere from 5% to 10% and thats it. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage Restaurant owners, caterers and banquet hall operators testified before the state Senates committee on economic recovery Monday. The committee previously has heard testimony from major health care providers, car dealers, retailers, child care centers and summer camps. Jeanne Cretella, whose Landmark Hospitality owns nine restaurants, wedding venues and boutique hotels, said she expects revenue for 2020 will be a quarter of what was projected, due to events that have been canceled or rescheduled to 2021. As of yesterday ... my year-to-date appointments were down 1,397, which translates to almost $22 million, she said. That is revenue that well never make up. Future bookings have fallen off, and most people are loathe to plan events in the first half of 2021, she said, adding that her business losses are felt also by florists, bands, DJs and photographers. Caterers and venues are desperate for a reopening date, they told the committee. Its disheartening that we cant tell a bride if we can be open for her July wedding, yet casinos could be open as early as July 4," she said. Our events are private. We know everyone who is coming, we know where theyre going to be seated, and we know whos going to be taking care of them. Contact tracing is already in place. Casinos attract thousands of strangers. Our couples and us are now questioning and begging why is it O.K. for several thousand of strangers to be together at a casino or Walmart, but a private event is not O.K. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. BALTIMORE, MD, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greater Cannabis Company Inc (GCAN) , an innovator in the development and commercialization of cannabinoid delivery systems and cannabinoids products, is pleased to announce that it has completed the development, manufacturing and shipment of the first order of 125,000 units of the oral CBD patch. The oral patch is a novel cannabinoid product that has been shown in clinical studies to be a safe and effective way to deliver lower doses of pharmaceutical actives, while achieving higher levels of bioavailability. The shipment was sent to Greater Cannabis commercialization partner, Symtomax. The product contains 21mg of full spectrum CBD in each oral patch and is available in 5 and 30 pack boxes in berry mint flavor with additional packet sizes, formulations and flavors planned for later on in the year. Symtomax has sourced numerous retail outlets and pharmacies for the distribution of the product, and is in further discussions with major distributors in a number of European countries such as the UK, Germany, Gibraltar and Portugal, as well as South Africa and Brazil. Aitan Zacharin, CEO of Greater Cannabis, said in a statement to shareholders, I am pleased to announce our achievement of this pivotal milestone. The successful export and receipt of our cannabinoid products by our international partner is an important indicator that there is a stable and significant market opportunity in the European markets for Greater Cannabis products. We look forward to expanding global distribution of our products through our existing partnerships and others we are currently exploring. About Symtomax Symtomax is a fast-growing company dedicated to the production, research, cultivation, processing and distribution of medicinal cannabis oil to pharmaceutical companies worldwide, whilst adhering to international GMP standards. Symtomax is also in the process of developing the largest medical cannabis cultivation site in Europe, having received initial approval from Infarmed, the Portuguese Government agency accountable to the Health Ministry. Based in the Alentejo region of Portugal, the production and cultivation site will provide 95 hectares of rich, fertile soil, which is perfectly suited for harvesting outdoor high quality cannabis flower for their products. Story continues About The Greater Cannabis Company The Greater Cannabis Company (GCAN) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative cannabinoid delivery systems. Greater Cannabis deploys its technology platform for use in the cannabis industry. The Companys conveyance platform can be utilized to deliver cannabinoids without the harmful side effects found with other routes of cannabinoid administration. The technology is versatile in that patients can now receive lower dosing, enhanced bioavailability, and controlled rapid and delayed release using a fully dissolvable, non-irritant oral eluting patch. Greater Cannabis mission is to bring our technology to the global market through partnerships with leading cannabis and pharmaceutical companies, for the benefit of patients and consumers. More information on the Greater Cannabis Company and its technology can be found on the Companys website, www.gcanrx.com . Disclaimer: Greater Cannabis Company Inc relies upon the Safe Harbor Laws of 1933, 1934 and 1995 for all public news releases. Statements, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements. The company, through its management, makes forward-looking public statements concerning its expected future operations, performance and other developments. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates reflecting the companys best judgment based upon current information and involve several risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that other factors will not affect the accuracy of such forward-looking statements. It is impossible to identify all such factors. Factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the company include, but are not limited to, government regulation; managing and maintaining growth; the effect of adverse publicity; litigation; competition; and other factors which may be identified from time to time in the companys public announcements. RIDING MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK A Parks Canada barricade and dead trees block the entrance to the Lake Audy Campground. With a swift and practised manoeuvre, Wesley Bone and his spouse Tracy Polhill remove and replace a section, driving through to their camp. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us Okanase Nation headman Wesley Bone, with the kitchen structure hes been living in since late last year in the bacground, looks out to the land of his people he seeks to reclaim. (Michele LeTourneau/The Brandon Sun) RIDING MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK A Parks Canada barricade and dead trees block the entrance to the Lake Audy Campground. With a swift and practised manoeuvre, Wesley Bone and his spouse Tracy Polhill remove and replace a section, driving through to their camp. Tidy lawns surround the teepee they erected next to a kitchen structure in which the couple has lived since December 2019. The area is part of the vast homeland once inhabited, in the early 1800s, by Chief Okanase and his people the ancestors of the Keeseekoowenin Objibway First Nation. As Wesley speaks about reclaiming the land of his people, its easy to imagine a time when Okanase put down roots at Wowwaswajicus, the Hill of the Buffalo Chase. Here, his people hunted, trapped, traded and conducted their spiritual ceremonies. They were a sovereign nation, and Okanase had no interest in signing Treaty 2, Wesley said. But, that was then. The federal government created Riding Mountain National Park in 1929, 58 years after the Anishinaabe and the Crown entered into Treaty 2. Mekis half-brother to Keeseekoowenin, both sons of Okanase did sign the treaty. In the 1930s, those remaining in the park were driven out, their homes burned. Wesley said the chiefs who signed the treaty were appointed by the Canadian government, therefore not the valid leaders of the Okanase Nation. With tourist season soon opening up, Wesley is not welcome at the national park. Last week, park officials gave him to June 10 to vacate so they can prepare for an influx of Canadians who want to enjoy the great outdoors. In 2018-19, 355,972 people visited the 2,969-square-kilometre protected area. A descendent of Okanase and a traditional headman, Wesley has no intention of leaving. On May 29, he brought in a large sign declaring the Okanase Nation, on which is pictured Okanases pipe. Wesley holds that pipe. He gave up his band membership approximately 10 years ago, he said, adding his Indian Act status card is null and void. Bernard Okanase, James Bone and Wesley Bone brought a sign to Lake Audy Campground in Riding Mountain National Park in late May declaring the area the land of the Okanase Nation. (Michele LeTourneau/The Brandon Sun) When The Brandon Sun first approached Parks Canada to explain its rationale for wanting Wesley out, the Sun was encouraged to speak with Keeseekoowenins Chief Norman Bone, though the park later sent a statement saying park staff members were trying to come to a solution with Wesley. "The agency remains committed to a system of parks and national heritage places that recognizes and respects the rights of Indigenous peoples, as well as honours their contributions, cultures, and relationships with lands and waters. Parks Canada and the Coalition of First Nations with Interest in Riding Mountain National Park are collaborating to find a solution to enable access to sites for cultural and ceremonial purposes." Norman Bone is the elected chief of Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation as per the electoral system laid out in the Indian Act, which came into effect in 1876. He said his cousin Wesley does not have a mandate to "take over a kitchen hut" at the park and does not have the support of the community. See Park Page A2 Park officials expect Wesley Bone out by Wednesday Norman, who has narrated a 10-minute video on the history of the park, "Sharing Our Histories: The Keeseekoowenin Ojibway," said the issue with Wesley is a problem for Parks Canada to solve. He also said the national park belongs to all Anishinaabek, not just Wesley. The First Nation and the park enjoy a good working relationship, according to both Norman and Parks Canada. Wesley objects to the fact that his people need a park pass and permits to collect plant medicine, or use the land as tradition decrees, and he has his instructions from his mother, also the clan mother Zoongi-Ozaawaa Makwa Ikwe, or Powerful Brown Bear Woman. "Instructions are to return to the original government, before there was European contact, and to go back and find all the villages of our people," Wesley said. Wesley Bone, appointed headman by his clan mother, poses near the teepee he erected on manicured park grass as an act of reclaiming the land for his people. (Michele LeTourneau/The Brandon Sun) "Leave the reservation what they call prisoner-of-war camp, or assimilation holding pen and move back onto our lands. Teach the young people the truth of their identity. Take out of their minds the fiction that has been put there by colonization, the European electoral system, and under Canadas constitution, Canadas rule of law, the law that allows Canada to violate First Nations." Wesley said he is exercising his right to tribal custom and usage on his peoples lands, under the law of the matriarch. He also claims international law as the only valid law for Indigenous people, as advised by activist Lester Howse, also known as Oldman. Howse, who was involved with the American Indian Movement in the 1960s and 70s, is now camped out at an area known as Indian Reserve 61A the tract of land at Clear Lake where the homes of Okanases people were burned. That reserve was returned to Keeseekoowenin, along with almost $14 million in compensation, in 2005. The Indian Act may be the only subject on which Wesley and Norman agree, though their approaches differ. "The Indian Act is not us," said Norman, adding he knows Wesleys position is that Keeseekoowenin is selling out to Canada. "But hes not keeping up-to-date and informed." Norman said his people practise their culture again, use their language and conduct ceremony. Norman defended the Treaty 2 process, explaining there is ongoing work with the Canadian government to address the shortfalls. Treaty 2 signatories, which includes eight other First Nations along with Keeseekoowenin, is working on developing its own constitution, a prerequisite for nation-to-nation talks. Wesley worries about the young people, who, he said, dont know who they are. "I tell them, they (Canada) will not tell you who you are, because its a threat to them. Thats why Indigenous people live the way they do," he said. "Theyre under Canadas protection and its their (Canadas) responsibility to be the parent and the protector. They guide entire lives, the homes, the resources, the land, Indian Trust monies, which leaves Indians in poverty, in poor housing, poor health, with lost identities." His said his own parents were both taken and placed in residential schools, where they were assaulted and beaten. "What is happening now is a modern continuation of that past, which is leading the First Nations into municipalities, not title to land. They say rights hunting rights, fishing rights but they are disallowed to prosper on their territory," he said. Wesley said Treaty 2 is about money, not land. "Our roots are in that land. If you sever from that land, its cutting the root. We never surrendered or ceded our land." Wesley said park officials were unclear about what would come to pass Wednesday, the deadline he was given to vacate the kitchen structure and surrounding area at the Lake Audy Campground. All he knows is hes not leaving. 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. ADDISON, Texas, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Flagship commercial property Greenhill Towers and its sister building at 511 E John Carpenter have demonstrated an enduring commitment to leadership while the work environment for millions of businesses continues to change. Ownership group of the towers, Codina Partners Greenhill is striving to jump start an extensive Healthy Building Initiative to relieve the pressure many tenants face in bringing their employees back to work. To kick it off, Codina Partners Greenhill Senior Advisor, Johnny Winton, and Greenhill Towers tenant, Amy Hall, appeared on Good Morning Texas to chat about the ongoing support commercial properties can provide to anxious businesses. Greenhill Towers Greenhill Towers Greenhill Towers has been highly awarded for its dedication to tenant partners. With the help of Crescent Property Services, the commercial establishment is once again stepping up for its tenants in the face of the pandemic. To establish COVID-19 preventative measures, Greenhill Towers sent out a survey to tenants and researched the latest advancements COVID-19 related sanitation processes and technological solutions. Under the Healthy Building Initiative, Greenhill Towers increased building wide maintenance, including sanitizing high touch point areas according to CDC cleaning guidelines. Following the latest technological findings on COVID-19 prevention, Greenhill Towers enhanced air filtration in all buildings by installing MERV 13 filters in air distribution systems and ionic air cleaning technology in elevators. UV lighting filters were installed to work alongside the MERV 13 filters, effectively killing 90-100% of viruses, bacteria, and other harmful particulates. With the heightened concern over contaminated public surfaces, Greenhill Towers invested in resources that not only reduce contaminants in the air but also minimize contact with the virus on surfaces. NanoSeptic, self-cleaning materials that use light to continually oxidize contaminants, were installed on door handles and elevator buttons throughout the buildings. While some businesses are establishing sanitation guidelines for their employees, the hesitation to return to work still remains for many. Hall, President of The Barber Shop Marketing agency, discussed the anxieties her employees felt and how Greenhill Towers alleviated concerns through the Healthy Building Initiative. According to Hall, complete transparency and a strong partnership between management and tenants has made all the difference at the Greenhill Towers. "I have employees of all different age ranges and risk levels . I think employees felt more at ease, knowing the building was being proactive and really taking action under the circumstances," Hall said about bringing her team back to the office. When noting the expectations tenants should have for their current or new office environment, Winton said, "I would ask specifically how your building has adapted to this new normal. For many, they are making temporary fixes. We are looking at this as a long-term commitment to health and safety." Winton and Hall agree significant additional steps must be taken by office landlords to minimize exposure to harmful bacteria and viruses. Measures such as bolstering air filtration and implementing advanced cleaning technology helps employees and staff feel more comfortable, according to Hall. Winton and Hall suggest tenants should stay in touch with their property management team, especially if they haven't already been notified about COVID-19 preparedness steps. CONTACT INFORMATION: CP Greenhill LLC Amy Hall 214-217-7177 SOURCE Greenhill Towers Siddhanta Mishra By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Delhi government on Tuesday said that they believe coronavirus spread has reached the dangerous stage of community transmission in the national capital but the Centre is not of the same view. According to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, as per current trajectory, Delhi could be one of the worst-affected cities in the country with almost 2.25 lakh cases by mid-July requiring 33,000 beds and by the end of the next month, cases could go up to 5.5 lakh where 80,000 beds will be required. Adding to that, the government said by 15 June there will be around 44,000 cases and a requirement of 6600 beds will arise. As per official figures discussed in the meeting, by end of June Delhi 1 lakh corona positive cases will be reported requiring 15,000 beds in hospitals. We are saying coronavirus is spreading at a rapid rate in Delhi, central government officers present in the meeting said 'no'. This was the reason that Delhi cabinet took the decision to reserve beds only for Delhi residents, we have asked the L-G to reconsider his decision but has denied, Delhi government will try and make arrangements as per requirement said Sisodia after the meeting. A day after Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal overturned Delhi governments decision to reserve health facilities only for residents, Sisodia along with other ministers went for a Disaster Management meet presided over by Baijal. In the absence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Sisodia said, they have requested Baijal to reserve 70 percent of beds for Delhi residents only in the hospitals. This comes amid mounting Covid-19 cases in Delhi. With 1007 persons testing positive on Tuesday, the tally of the city-state has hit 29943 cases with 874 deaths. iStock/Juliana Vilas BoasBy: IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News (NEW YORK) -- The city that never sleeps was finally able to unpause. New York City began phase one of its reopening plan on Monday, allowing nonessential businesses, manufacturing, construction and select other industries to continue their work, with special precautions issued to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Throughout the day, subways had more riders commuting to their workplaces, albeit with face coverings and distanced seating, factories and wholesalers allowed their workers into their facilities and stores allowed customers to pick up goods either curbside or by in-person appointments. Mayor Bill de Blasio said between 200,000 and 400,000 New Yorkers would be going back to work this week, and credited the city's strict stay-at-home order, social distancing and other health precautions for the June start date. "We got here by hard work and discipline," he said during a news conference in Brooklyn. Despite the progress, de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned New Yorkers to remain vigilant, especially since the city has been the epicenter for COVID-19 cases and deaths. New York City has 204,253 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 17,169 confirmed deaths as of June 8, according to the city's health department. Although those numbers are among the top listed in the country, the city has shown improvements over the last few weeks. There were 59 new hospitalizations reported on June 6, compared to 850 on March 31, the city's health department said. The number of new deaths reported in one day peaked at 590 on April 7, but they have been under 60 since May 22, according to the data. Cuomo said COVID-19 testing has gone up over the last few weeks and the results have shown progress. Over the last four days alone, over 262,000 New Yorkers were tested and the percent who were positive was under 1.6%, Cuomo's office said. Nine weeks ago, 59% of New Yorkers who were tested had a positive result, according to Cuomo. "These numbers say we can open," the governor said during a news conference in Manhattan on Monday. The reopening came amid major changes to the Big Apple norm. Subways resumed their normal rush-hour service with more trains; however, they would still not run overnight due to cleaning procedures. New signs were put up in stations and on trains showing riders the correct space to socially distance, and all commuters were required to wear a face covering. Commuter Manny Tejeva took the train from Jackson Heights, Queens, in the morning for the first time in three months and told ABC New York station WABC-TV that he was impressed with the sanitary conditions. "I finally feel safe," he said. Both Cuomo and de Blasio took the trains to ensure they were safe and clean. The mayor said that the city would be deploying 800 officers to subways to encourage social distancing and hand out face coverings to those who need it. "They are not there to do enforcement," de Blasio said of the officers. The mayor added that the city would be keeping an eye on businesses and factories that have reopened to ensure they too are adhering to the phase one guidelines. All employees and customers of the reopened businesses must wear face coverings and stay six feet apart; items must be picked up either curbside or in-store pickup. Cuomo reiterated that these rules must be followed, and noted that other states, such as Texas and Florida, saw increases in their COVID-19 cases after they reopened because they didn't have strict measures in place. "These guidelines work. They have been enacted in every other region in the state," the governor said. "There has been no spike, we know it works." When asked about New Yorkers who still may be hesitant to go to work, de Blasio said they should use their own discretion and do what's best for their own health. "I think New Yorkers are very pragmatic and resilient and they are going to watch. If they see things are working, they will come out," he said. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. CHICAGO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ESCORT, the leader in premium radar and laser detection and driver awareness technology, today debuted the ESCORT Redline 360c, the most sophisticated, powerful addition to the brand's intelligent driver alert portfolio to-date. The ESCORT Redline 360c sets a new technical standard for driver alert systems, as the only portable detection system to combine connected technology with the longest detection range in the market and AI-based false-filtering capabilities for drivers seeking peak performance behind the wheel. The ESCORT Redline 360c. The ESCORT Redline 360c offers an unmatched detection range 2X farther than previous models to keep drivers apprised of threats near and far across all bands, including instant-on, plus maximum laser range and off-axis coverage. Equipped with dual antennas that feature front and rear radar receivers combined with easily visible directional arrows, the device offers TRUE 360 directional awareness and protection that allows drivers to instantly locate the direction of a radar source. Faster Processing, Fewer False Alerts Touting the best iteration of ESCORT's trusted technology yet, the ESCORT Redline 360c expertly processes and parses out legitimate threats from background noise and false alarms. This upgraded filtering relies on a newly developed Software Defined Radio architecture, combining a Blackfin DSP chip with 25X more processing power, precision-guided sensors and artificial intelligence to offer more detailed visibility into a greater number of frequencies. The patented AutoLearn feature uses GPS to learn and automatically reject fixed-position false alerts bringing you a smarter driving experience. The unit's updateable IVT Filter also reduces unwanted noise from in-vehicle technology such as collision avoidance systems to deliver only the most pertinent information to drivers, while still allowing them to adjust the sensitivity of their device to best suit their needs. Total Stealth with the Best of ESCORT's Technology The ESCORT Redline 360c also leverages 100% TotalShield technology that helps drivers stay completely invisible to incoming radar detection. Unlike competitive products that attempt to dodge detection, the patented Redline Stealth antenna design renders the device completely invisible. The Redline 360c offers superior range and precision with the built-in, ultra-sensitive Telit GPS receiver that offers location accuracy within 2.5 meters. "The Redline 360c builds on ESCORT's 40 years of expertise designing industry-leading premium solutions to unlock a safer, smarter driving experience that the brand is known for," said Gail Babitt, CEO of Cedar Electronics. "We pushed the envelope to deliver a best-in-class driver alert system that provides driving enthusiasts with cutting-edge technology and a robust community of real-time alerts that keeps them protected and connected no matter where the road leads them." The Only Connected Driver Alert System with Shared Alerts The only connected detection system with live community alerts, the ESCORT Redline 360c uses Wi-Fi to automatically download software and GPS-based threat map updates to the device, providing drivers with access to the largest database of precise, real-time alerts. ESCORT Redline 360c owners can tap into over 100 million vehicle-to-vehicle driver alerts annually through the mobile ESCORT Live App for advanced warning on all traffic and law enforcement cameras, live radar and laser reports, speed limit data, construction, road hazard, traffic and accident alerts to maximize road awareness. Cloud-based technology integration also provides ESCORT Live crowd-sourced alerts without the need for a smartphone app, offering an additional layer of protection. The ESCORT Redline 360c is available now for $749.95. For more information on the ESCORT Redline 360c and other ESCORT products visit www.escortradar.com. About ESCORT, Inc. ESCORT is a leading manufacturer of high-performance radar and laser detectors and the patented ESCORT LiveTM real-time ticket protection network. ESCORT manufactures products under the ESCORT, REDLINE and MAX names. The company is part of Cedar Electronics; a leading global supplier of mobile and consumer products that consist of a portfolio of industry leading brands including Cobra Electronics and ESCORT. Additional information about ESCORT, Inc. is available at EscortRadar.com SOURCE ESCORT, Inc. Related Links https://www.escortradar.com China has warned its students against continuing their education in Australia as diplomatic tensions between the two countries continue to rise. The Chinese Ministry of Education urged students to conduct a 'good risk assessment' and be 'cautious' about heading Down Under. The Group of Eight universities - a coalition of the top eight Australian universities - has since expressed its disappointment in the advice. The latest warning comes days after Beijing urged citizens to avoid visiting Australia, citing a 'significant increase' in racial discrimination and violence against Chinese and Asian people during the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese students have been warned by the Ministry of Education to reconsider plans to study at Australian universities. Pictured are students at Sydney's University of NSW It could be a major blow to Australian universities as they prepare to welcome back students for face-to-face lessons next month. More than one third of foreign students who come to Australia to study are from China, who contribute an estimated $12billion to the economy each year. The Chinese Ministry of Education said: 'The spread of the new global pneumonia outbreak has not been effectively controlled, and there are risks in international travel and open campuses. 'During the epidemic, there were multiple discriminatory incidents against Asians in Australia. The Ministry of Education reminds all overseas students to do a risk assessment and is currently cautious in choosing to study in Australia or return to Australia.' The Group of Eight universities- a coalition of the top eight Australian universities has expressed its disappointment in the warning. Pictured are students at the University of Sydney The Group of Eight universities plans to seek further clarification about the advice with the Chinese Embassy in Canberra. 'Our duty of care extends to all of our students domestic and international and never more so at this time whilst we are in the middle of a global pandemic,' Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday night. 'It is for this reason that it is disappointing to see this statement from the Ministry of Education which speaks directly to Chinese students and urges caution when considering Australia as a study destination. 'The Go8 is absolutely committed to our international students and to maintaining a positive and collaborative relationship with China, but, statements such as this do make things more difficult at an already difficult time.' The advice comes days after Chinese citizens are urged not to visit Australia due to a rise in racism. Pictured are Asian travellers arriving at Sydney International Airport Education Minister Dan Tehan said Australia and its universities remain safe destinations for all students. 'Australia is a popular destination for international students because we are a successful, multicultural society that welcomes international students and provides a world-class education,' he said in a statement to the ABC. 'Our success at flattening the [coronavirus] curve means we are one of the safest countries in the world for international students to be based in right now.' The latest blow to relations between the two counties comes two days after state-run newspaper Global Times warned Australia lose Chinese consumers entirely due to the recent rise in racism. 'It is Australia's unfriendly attitude, not the travel alert, that may really scare away Chinese tourists and students,' the Global Times article read. Another state-owned publication last week warned of the difficulties Chinese students will face if they return to Australia to study. 'In recent years, the Australian government has actively cooperated with the US-Indo-Pacific strategy and willingly acted as the US's anti-China 'pawn',' the People's Daily article read. 'Especially during the pandemic, it goes further on the anti-China road, resulting in frequent violence against Chinese in Australia, which poses a huge threat to the lives and personal property of Chinese students Tensions continue to rise after the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism urged citizens to avoid holidaying in Australia. Pictured are Chinese tourists enjoying a photo opportunity on Sydney Harbour The latest round in the ongoing feud between the two nations comes after Beijing became infuriated by Australia's calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of the virus, claiming it was a 'malicious' attempt to blame and 'stigmatize' China. China slapped an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley and suspended imports from four Australian beef suppliers in apparent revenge - and warned of further punishment. About one third of Australia's total exports - including iron ore, gas, coal and food - go to China, bringing in around $135billion per year and providing thousands of jobs. Beyond his role in global commodities trading, Mr. Taylor is credited with saving and rejuvenating the industry that produces the fabric tweed on the remote Scottish island of Harris. He was well known in Britain as a philanthropist to the arts opera and ballet were a particular passion and had been a major donor to the ruling Conservative Party. As a pro-European, he was firmly on the remain side of the Brexit debate. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday attacked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the alleged culture of political violence in the state. IMAGE: Union Home Minister Amit Shah addresses West Bangal Jan Samwad rally via video conferencing, at BJP Headquarters in New Delhi, on Tuesday. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo He said though the Bharatiya Janata Party wants to expand its influence in the Trinamool Congress-ruled state, its goal is to rid West Bengal of the 'environment of terror'. "Bengal is the only state in the entire country where the culture of political violence is flourishing," he told the BJP's virtual 'Jan Samvad' rally. He said despite the BJP winning a staggering 303 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, he held the 18 it won in the state dear. IMAGE: Shah being presented a memento by Union minister and BJP leader from West Bengal Babul Supriyo, during West Bangal Jan Samvad virtual rally, at party headquarters in New Delhi, on Tuesday. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo The senior BJP leader assailed the West Bengal government for not joining the Ayushman Bharat health scheme for the poor. Castigating Banerjee over her stand on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Shah said the people of Bengal will reduce her to a 'political refugee' because it. The Union Home Minister lauded the Narendra Modi government for its bold steps in the aftermath of the Uri and Pulwama attacks. "Nobody uttered a word when terrorists intruded and beheaded our soldiers with impunity when the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) was in power. Our surgical and air strikes sent out a strong message that we have zero tolerance to terrorism," he said. He accused the Trinamool Congress government of patronising corruption. "There is corruption everywhere. It continued unabated even when the people of Bengal were reeling under the impact of cyclone Amphan," he alleged. Shah said Mamata Banerjee 'insulted' migrants by calling 'Shramik Special' trains carrying them to Bengal during the lockdown 'Corona Express'. "These migrants will now ensure your exit from power," he said. Representative image A lot of people are reading scientific papers for the first time these days, hoping to make sense of the coronavirus pandemic. If youre one of them, be advised the scientific paper is a peculiar literary genre that can take some getting used to. And also bear in mind that these are not typical times for scientific publishing. It is hard to think of another moment in history when so many scientists turned their attention to one subject with such speed. In mid-January, scientific papers began trickling out with the first details about the new coronavirus. By the end of the month, the journal Nature marveled that over 50 papers had been published. That number has swelled over the past few months at an exponential rate, fitting for a pandemic. The National Library of Medicines database at the start of June contains over 17,000 published papers about the new coronavirus. A website called bioRxiv, which hosts studies that have yet to go through peer review, contains over 4,000 papers. In earlier times, few people aside from scientists would have laid eyes on these papers. Months or years after they were written, theyd wind up in printed journals tucked away on a library shelf. But now the world can surf the rising tide of research on the new coronavirus. The vast majority of papers about it can be read for free online. But just because scientific papers are easier to get hold of doesnt mean that they are easy to make sense of. Reading them can be a challenge for the layperson, even one with some science education. Its not just the jargon that scientists use to compress a lot of results into a small space. Just like sonnets, sagas and short stories, scientific papers are a genre with its own unwritten rules, rules that have developed over generations. 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 first scientific papers read more like letters among friends, recounting hobbies and oddities. The first issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, published on May 30, 1667, included brief dispatches with titles such as An account of the improvement of optick glasses, and An account of a very odd monstrous calf. When natural philosophers sent their letters to 17th-century journals, the editors decided whether they were worth publishing or not. But after 200 years of scientific advances, Victorian scientists could no longer be experts on everything. Journal editors sent papers to outside specialists who understood the details of a particular branch of research better than most scientists. By the mid-1900s, this practice evolved into a practice known as peer review. A journal would publish a paper only after a panel of outside experts decided it was acceptable. Sometimes the reviewers rejected the paper outright; other times they required the fixing of weak points either by revising the paper or doing additional research. Along the way, scientific papers also developed a distinctive narrative arc. A paper published in Philosophical Transactions today is no longer a gossipy letter, but a four-part story. Papers typically open with some history, giving a justification for the new research they contain. The authors then lay out the methods they used to carry out that research how they eavesdropped on lions, how they measured chemicals in Martian dust. Then the papers present results, followed by a discussion of what those results mean. Scientists will typically point out the shortcomings in their own research and offer ideas for new studies to see if their interpretations hold water. 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. We wasted time and effort discussing this paper whose main selling point was some numbers that were essentially the product of a statistical error, he wrote on his blog. But just because a paper passes peer review doesnt mean its above scrutiny. In April, when French researchers published a study suggesting that hydroxychloroquine might be effective against COVID-19, other scientists pointed out that it was small and not rigorously designed. In May, a much bigger paper was published in the Lancet suggesting that the drug could increase the risk of death. A hundred leading scientists published an open letter questioning the authenticity of the database on which the study relied. When you read a scientific paper, try to think about it the way other scientists do. Ask some basic questions to judge its merit. Is it based on a few patients or thousands? Is it mixing up correlation and causation? Do the authors actually present the evidence required to come to their conclusions? One shortcut that can sometimes help you learn how to read a paper like a scientist is by making judicious use of social media. Leading epidemiologists and virologists have been posting thoughtful threads on Twitter, for example, laying out why they think new papers are good or bad. But always make sure youre following people with deep expertise, and not bots or agents of disinformation peddling conspiracy nonsense. Science has always traveled down a bumpy road. Now it is in an extraordinary rush, with the world looking for every new preprint and peer-reviewed paper in the hope that some clue will emerge that helps save millions of lives. Yet our current plight does not change the nature of the scientific paper. Its never a revelation of absolute truth. At best, its a status report on our best understanding of natures mysteries. c.2020 The New York Times Company Talladega will allow a few thousand people to watch its June 21 Cup Series race in person. The track said Tuesday that 5,000 people could attend its rescheduled race. Talladega is hosting a race in 12 days to make up for its postponed May race because of the coronavirus pandemic. The tracks decision to allow a limited number of fans comes a week after Homestead-Miami Speedway will allow up to 1,000 military members to attend the race in the grandstands. The two races will be the first major sporting events in the United States with fans in attendance since the coronavirus pandemic began in March. And its worth noting just how limited the attendance at both races will be compared to capacity levels if youre interested in thinking about how full stadiums and outdoor event sites could safely be in the coming weeks and months. NASCAR said 88,000 fans attended the 2012 fall Cup Series race at Talladega. Thats the last time the sanctioning body released attendance figures for a Talladega race. Attendance figures have not been announced since the end of the 2012 season. The 5,000 fans will be able to sit in the grandstands on the frontstretch while 44 camper spots are available on the backstretch of the track. No fans will be allowed to go into the infield because of NASCARs strict social distancing protocols. Our frontstretch grandstands and towers are massive, measuring an incredible eight tenths of a mile long, Talladega president Brian Crichton said in a statement. That provides us ample room to be able to welcome race fans back with plenty of safe distancing between guests. NASCAR and the track staff will continue to work with health and government officials, and be ready to provide a safe experience for the NASCAR fans in attendance. The tickets for the June 21 race are set to be given to people who had already purchased tickets for the race. Fans attending must live within 150 miles of Talladega and will be required to wear a mask and be subject to a screening before they enter the track. Story continues There are no plans for fans to attend the four Cup Series races after Talladega at Pocono (two races), Indianapolis and Kentucky. The decision to allow a limited number of fans at Talladega comes a week after 1,000 military members can attend at Homestead. (AP Photo/Butch Dill) Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. More from Yahoo Sports: Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Amid nationwide protests against police brutality, two Albuquerque city councilors are pushing legislation to keep the citys police force from accepting free military equipment to carry out its local duties. It has been five years since the Albuquerque Police Department has received anything through the federal program that transfers U.S. Department of Defense surplus equipment to law enforcement agencies, according to the bill sponsored by Pat Davis and Lan Sena. However, the city remains eligible to accept it, and we want to be sure if they offer us a free tank, we dont take it, Davis said. The bill would prohibit APD from applying for or seeking the military giveaways. No equipment that has been used on the battlefield should be seen on our streets, Sena said in a written statement. Davis said he has considered such legislation for years, but did not deem it urgent because President Barack Obama had severely restricted the federal program in 2015 and because current Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller does not support taking the military castoffs. However, Davis, a former police officer, said action became more pressing given widespread outcry about police treatment of civilians sparked by the Minneapolis Police Departments May killing of George Floyd and President Donald Trumps response to the protests. Trump, who had in 2017 reversed Obamas changes to the military surplus program, has supported using the military to quell the recent protests. It wasnt an issue when they (the military) werent really giving anything away, but I think the narrative out of D.C. right now is very scary, Davis said. Davis bill includes a list of over $800,000 worth of military goods APD received over the course of 2014 and 2015. It ranges from firearm accessories to an armored personnel carrier, Davis said. Nationally, the program has enrolled 8,000 law enforcement agencies and has transferred $7.2 billion in equipment, including $293 million worth last fiscal year, according to its website. Though the agencies do not buy the equipment, they must use it within a year and pay for its upkeep, Davis noted. Keller on Monday said he supports the Davis/Sena bill, saying in a statement that using military equipment is out of step with our values around community safety. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico says more needs to be done to reform police, but that this bills passage would be a positive step for Albuquerque. Its leadership contends that local police departments use of military-grade equipment exacerbates the culture of aggression within law enforcement agencies. We also know that weapons of war are disproportionately used on people of color, ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director Peter Simonson said in a statement. But City Councilor Don Harris said he does not like the idea of precluding the city from ever accepting such equipment, saying the police chief should have that discretion. I certainly support the idea of demilitarizing the police but there might be some things that are still needed (locally), Harris said Monday. The bill will be introduced Monday and likely be voted on June 29. Shaun Willoughby, president of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association, said the police department needs certain equipment to keep officers safe, and it isnt inherently problematic to get it from the military. However, he said, the union is indifferent to the proposed legislation since APD has not received any military equipment in years. This is a ceremonial piece of legislation, he said. We havent been involved in buying military equipment since 2015, so this will have no impact for APD. He pointed out that the police department is making headway on its yearslong reform effort that was mandated by the court after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation found in 2014 that officers had a pattern and practice of excessive use of force. I think its really important as we deal with the public backlash that we dont lose sight of what weve accomplished as a community, and what we have accomplished as a city police department, and how hard we have all worked to reform APD along with our community partners and the DOJ, Willoughby said. Davis disagrees that the legislation is merely symbolic, saying it could make an impact for years to come, adding that it could stop a future mayor from accepting military-grade goods, especially when they are offered at seemingly no cost. He noted that the Trump administration has already presented the city with millions of dollars to hire police, but only if the city agrees to buck its own sanctuary city policy by working with federal immigration authorities. They made millions available to us to hire officers if we get rid of our immigration policy, and thats a hard thing to turn down, Davis said. Before they set up another one of those hard bargains, lets just be sure that (taking military surplus equipment is) never on the table. Captures Future Forward initiative gives universities the information, tools and industry resources to address their immediate needs while restoring recruitment classes in an environment that seems to change on a daily basis. - Leonard Napolitano, Capture CEO https://capture.buzz/futureforward | In the opening session of Innovate USA, Captures three-day virtual conference for higher education professionals nationwide, CEO Leonard Napolitano announced the companys Future Forward initiative. Demonstrating Capture's commitment to higher education and the enrollment management industry, the ongoing initiative has been launched to help universities struggling from the mass disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The higher education industry is at a crucial juncture, said Napolitano ahead of the opening session of Innovate USA, the kickoff for Capture's Future Forward initiative. The virtual conference, which runs June 9-11, is currently streaming on YouTube Live, Twitch, Facebook Live, LinkedIn Live and Periscope https://capture.buzz/InnovateUSA. Captures Future Forward initiative gives universities the information, tools and industry resources to address their immediate needs while restoring recruitment classes in an environment that seems to change on a daily basis. Captures Future Forward https://capture.buzz/futureforward initiative is organized into four sections: React: Responding to the unprecedented. Reconnect: Engaging in the renewed college search. Reenergize: Competing on multiple playing fields. Restore: Strategizing in the new reality. The 2020 pandemic caused mass disruption in the normal operation of university enrollment management offices worldwide. As COVID-19 spread throughout the United States, those on campuses responded by decentralizing and establishing practices that got them into contact with their prospective student audiences. The sands have shifted constantly, and Capture has provided resources along the way, Napolitano said. As college-bound students face a new reality, their worlds have changed, and accompanying those changes, are shifts in wants and needs for college, Napolitano said. Decisions that were already made rapidly are becoming new decisions to make, and as such, these students need to hear from universities. Now is the time for colleges to reconnect with those students who they thought were no longer interested in them. Its time for institutions to let these students know they hear them and welcome their renewed college search. Amid the pandemic, according to Capture experts, there is a bi-modal effort required in the enrollment profession. While admissions offices re-establish the value of their institution in the minds of admitted and deposited students to prevent melt and build yield conversions they will simultaneously be required to court an audience of potential prospects that are now seeking new options in light of the crisis. Our hope is by the time fall comes around, universities will have resumed their long-term enrollment planning with the benefit of learning from the summer months, Napolitano said. What unique ways has recruitment and enrollment benefitted from the innovation of virtual connection? What will universities keep and integrate as they chart their recruitment and enrollment future? These are some of the questions we at Capture will help institutions answer through our ongoing Future Forward initiative. For more information about Future Forward, visit the website: https://capture.buzz/futureforward Available for Comment Leonard Napolitano, Capture CEO About Capture Headquartered in Louisville, Ky., Capture is a leading innovator of marketing platforms and solutions for higher education recruitment and enrollment management. Captures Behavioral Intelligence Platform offers solutions throughout a prospective students college decision journey. With industry-leading marketing automation, managed solutions and AI-powered predictive modeling built specifically for higher education, Capture gives institutions the control needed to effectively target interested students in relevant ways that increase engagement, drive admissions and improve student retention. Founded in 2011, Capture has served hundreds of higher education institutions and programs across the country while being recognized by Inc. 5000 as a fastest-growing U.S. company. 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Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. 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 RENO In addition to the many adaptations local 4-H programs have made in Nevada communities the last couple of months amid COVID-19 to keep 4-H youth engaged, the Nevada 4-H Youth Development Program has developed a variety of activities to engage 4-H youth throughout the state during the summer months. Of course, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to cancel all summer Nevada 4-H in-person residential overnight camps, for the health and safety of our campers, volunteers and staff, explained Carrie Stark, Nevada 4-H program director with University of Nevada, Reno Extension. We know that 4-H summer camps are a valued tradition. So in the spirit of keeping our 4-H youth connected with each other, engaged and learning, we have developed several programs that our youth can participate in whether they are in Reno, Las Vegas or Elko, for example. Several programs have already begun, such as the Hygge 31-Day Challenge. Hygge is the Danish practice of mindfulness and finding joy in the simple things. Each day in May, 4-H youth participating in the challenge shared a photo of themselves exhibiting this practice, using social media and the appropriate hashtag. The Nevada 4-H Spirit Week was also held in mid-May, with 4-H youth joining in a common task or activity each day. For example, on Monday participants wore their favorite 4-H shirt and posted a photo of themselves in it, and on Tuesday they sent a thank-you note to someone in the community who has made special efforts to help others during the pandemic. The week concluded with a 5-minute virtual dance party on Friday, led by two Nevada 4-H Teen Leaders. There was also a STEM-learning activity for younger 4-H youth, Cloverbuds, called Cloverbot Challenge. Youth learned about a given topic via Zoom learning sessions, then built a model (such as with Legos) to illustrate what they learned, and shared a photo of their model with other participants. Thoughtful Thursdays began in mid-May. These are five- to eight-minute videos by 4-H staff of volunteers on topics that might be especially helpful to teens at home coping with the pandemic, such as how to express and manage feelings, exercise tips or helping with the familys meal planning and preparation. A Virtual Graduation Celebration was held May 31 through June 6, highlighting the graduating Nevada 4-H seniors and their accomplishments. Photos, plans after graduation, favorite 4-H memories and more were shared virtually, online. Beginning in June, Nevada 4-H will launch an eight-week animal science-related project, focused on animal by-products. Youth dont have to be participating in an animal science project already to participate in this project; they just need to have an interest in learning about animals. The program blends online and at-home learning, with lessons and activities focused on learning about beef, dairy, goats, sheep, swine, poultry, rabbits and bees. A week-long project called Engineering and Design at Home will be offered June 15-19 for 11- to 15-year-olds. Students will be challenged to develop a purposeful/useful artifact from reclaimed materials, while exploring their creative abilities and reducing their consumption and waste production. The week will include online learning and sharing sessions, and participants will need to dedicate about three hours a day to creating their project. Participants will share their completed projects with each other, friends and family online via a Zoom session at the end of the week, and awards in various categories will be presented. So much of education today is about rote memorization and standardized testing, said Sarah Monique Somma, Extensions Clark County 4-H STEAM coordinator. But if you cant actually do or apply whats on the test in real life, is it useful? In this design camp, students will be given an opportunity to show not only what they know but what they can do in a creative way. The engineering and design process facilitates authentic learning, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Also June 15-19, the 4-H Pledge Challenge will take place, where 4-H youth will post photos and/or writings each day on the ways they are exhibiting the four Hs during the pandemic: Heart (things they are doing to show love and generosity), Head (creative ways they are overcoming challenges), Hands (things they are doing to help others), Health (ways they are staying healthy). More projects are in the works for July, including a Virtual Camp Out, a State Communications Contest, a Monday Night Dinner activity and more. For more information on Nevada 4-Hs summer programs for youth, contact your local Extension office or nevada4h@unce.unr.edu. Or, in northern Nevada email chviliceks@unr.edu, and in southern Nevada email lunan@unr.edu. Restaurants and bars were given the go-ahead in Michigan to reopen dine-in services last week, and Midland has already begun to tackle the challenge creatively with a downtown offering dubbed Bringing Back Downtown Midland Safely. The campaign, approved by Midland City Council Monday night, will allow downtown businesses to use two blocks of Main Street, between Rodd and Ashman streets, to expand their space and limit crowding. The idea was initiated by Community Affairs Director and Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Selina Tisdale, who recognized the restrictions of current executive orders that limit indoor dining or shopping capacities. Currently, restaurants in Michigan can host just 50% of their normal capacity and are required to distance tables at least 6 feet apart, in favor of physical distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic. So, restaurants and retailers will be able to use the roadway, closing it to vehicular traffic, beginning as soon as possible and until the end of July, when it will be looked at again by council. Every two weeks, the DDA will review whether the campaign should continue or not, as well, based on current executive orders and restrictions. Its important for our community to know that were not just reopening for business, but that were reopening for business utilizing the safe practices that are being recommended, Tisdale said. And its important that our visitors feel comfortable and confident when returning to downtown Midland; that they know that downtown Midland is ready to serve them, safely. The campaign was originally requested to last as long as there were restrictions; however, councilman Steve Arnosky and Mayor Pro Tem Marty Wazbinski were concerned about closing the road indefinitely without council review. This thing might be going on for a long time I just want to have that point where we can touch base and review it just to make sure everythings going OK; maybe even give some suggestions or something like that that we want to try and implement and fine tune it, Wazbinski said. So, the council voted unanimously to bring the status of the campaign back to the council at the end of July. Tisdale said many downtown visitors are already getting their downtown food orders to go with and eating downtown so this campaign will facilitate whats already happening and entice more patrons. In addition, the designated, expanded restaurant space will allow for restaurants to apply for an outdoor liquor license and allow customers to enjoy alcoholic beverages in the fenced-off areas. Additional trash cans and picnic tables will be provided by the city and there is a possibility of having live music as well. To compensate for the four lost handicap parking spots in those two blocks, they would be relocated elsewhere along Main and Ashman streets. Businesses interested in using a portion of the space can apply to use the space via the citys Sidewalk Use Policy. Other actions taken by council Monday night included: Council directed the city manager to pursue all options available for relief and support for flood victims. The council acknowledged the Black Lives Matter and racial injustice protest that took place in Midland on Sunday, May 7, and Councilwoman Diane Brown Wilhelm said there would be more programming to come and tough discussions to be had on the topic. Approved two grant awards to MidMichigan Health as part of funding from the CARES Act in the form of a Community Development Block Grant: $6,000 for drive-thru COVID-19 testing and $13,837 for telehub services. Approved the $17,629 cost of a new sidewalk, to be about 400 feet located on the east side of Waldo Avenue. About $9,300 of the sidewalk, which is along Dow property, would be covered by the city with the rest billed to Dow. Accepted a $700,000 from Sue Ann Scheddel Trust for improvements and repairs at the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library. Set a public hearing for June 22 to amend the citys budget to reflect city expenses that occurred due to flooding. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Made Anthony Iswara and Gemma Holliani Cahya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 07:57 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd21fb2 1 National #education,Education,digital-divide,school,#school,#digital-divide,COVID-19,e-learning,#COVID19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,teachers,#teacher Free Wearing a black-and-gray scarf as a face mask, teacher Fransiskus Xaverius Faimau, 37, in North Central Timor regency, East Nusa Tenggara, was showing his class of five children study materials on his laptop under the glaring sun when one of the girls interrupted him. Sir, when can we gather again with our friends at school? We miss wearing our school uniforms, Fransiskus recalled the comments of his fourth-grade student. We will have to wait for the [governments] announcement. You can wear your uniform but you will have to wait for your teachers to come to your house first," Fransiskus told The Jakarta Post recently, recalling his answers to the student. Every weekday morning, at least two teachers from Kecil Fatutasu elementary school go to two or three houses to teach students living in a particular neighborhood in small groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. For two of his far-flung students, Fransiskus has to ride his motorcycle for 5 kilometers and then walk for another 30 minutes across rivers. He sometimes teaches them in an open field while their parents work on their land. Children have to keep learning because if we just leave, they will go back to square one as they will play around and forget what has been taught to them, Fransiskus said. Many other teachers in Indonesia like Fransiskus have gone the extra mile to teach students, often without the internet or electricity, as schools have been closed since the government urged people in March to work and study from home during the pandemic. Authorities have called on schools to turn to e-learning and educational programs on TV as an answer to the problem of school closures. But the digital divide remains a problem, with a 2018 Indonesian Internet Providers Association (APJII) survey showing that internet usage is centralized on the most populous island of Java and other urban areas. Indonesia is also facing gaps in school participation and the quality of education between better-resourced and less well-resourced areas. And at a time when all parties have been caught flat-footed because there was no preparation to deal with this [remote learning], the creativity of the teachers supported by parents and the community is an important asset in a healthy learning process, Cahaya Guru Foundation chairwoman Henny Supolo said. Read also: Disconnected: Digital divide may jeopardize human rights In Berinang Mayung in remote Landak regency, West Kalimantan, e-learning is also not an option for Heriyanto, 52, a fifth-grade teacher at SD 08 state elementary school. Most of his students have neither television nor even an electricity supply, let alone internet access. Wearing mask, Yuliana (right), a teacher at SD 08 state elementary school in Berinang Mayung in Landak regency, West Kalimantan, teaches a student (center) who is accompanied by her parent. (Courtesy of/SD 8 elementary school headmaster) Heriyanto and his fellow teachers also go door to door each day during the pandemic to teach their pupils despite possible exposure to the virus that has infected at least five people across Landak regency. During the home visits, Heriyanto always reminds his students to wear masks and wash their hands before joining his lessons. I also always make sure there are no more than five students in one group, he said. Heriyanto has 23 students in fifth grade but he has lost contact with eight of them since the pandemic began. The eight students live in remote villages that cannot be reached by Heriyanto on his motorcycle. The school has seven teachers and 146 students in total and the pandemic has changed the way they study and teach, with headmaster Kristina Ponia saying they are trying to keep the students safe, at the same time preventing them from being left further behind [in education]. Meanwhile, facilitators from education consultant Willi Toisuta and Associates have been working with local village heads and teachers in Teluk Bintuni, West Papua, since mid-March to distribute printed modules to help teach about 300 students daily from five schools. They have designed the program to actively engage students through projects related to their daily activities, such as learning physics and mathematics from the boiling point of cooking water. They also provide guidelines for parents on how to assist their students in the learning process. While waiting for the governments next move before deciding the programs future, the consulting firms managing director Eka Simanjuntak urged the government to use scientific evidence as a basis to open schools, such as determining the risk of infection among children and the impact of closing schools on them. Authorities have said that school reopening will only be allowed in regions listed as green zones, where no COVID-19 cases have been recorded. It is also expected that the academic year will begin around July 13th but the learning process will not necessarily be face-to-face at school, depending on the region. As of May 30, 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 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. Read also: School reopening raises concerns as health risks loom But remote regions are not alone in facing similar hurdles. In Malaka Jaya, East Jakarta, SD 11 state elementary school teacher Syarifah Widiyati Agustin has to extend deadlines until late at night for students to report back to teachers, as students have to wait for their parents or siblings before they can use a phone to do home assignments. She also previously had to spend her own money to buy mobile data for her students to continue their remote learning before the city administration allowed schools to re-allocate their Education Operational Funds (BOP) for mobile data. Some parents, she said, could not afford to buy mobile internet data for their kids. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday discussed the Covid-19 pandemic with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and assured that Indias well-established capacity for manufacturing affordable pharmaceutical products would continue to be deployed for the benefit of the entire humanity. The leaders also discussed the steps being taken by the two governments to address the challenges arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic, an official statement said. The Philippines President appreciated the steps taken by India to maintain supply of essential pharmaceutical products to his country, it said. The prime minister assured President Duterte of Indias commitment to support the Philippines in its fight against the pandemic. He stressed that Indias well-established capacity for manufacturing affordable pharmaceutical products, including for an eventual vaccine once it is found, would continue to be deployed for the benefit of entire humanity, the statement said. Both leaders expressed appreciation for the cooperation extended to ensure the welfare of their citizens in each others territory, as also for their repatriation home, during the ongoing health crisis. The leaders shared their satisfaction at the progress seen in recent years in all aspects of the bilateral relationship, including defence cooperation, it said. Taking to Twitter, Modi later said, India and the Philippines will cooperate to reduce the health and economic impact of the pandemic, and to give shape to our common vision for the Indo-Pacific region. Modi emphasised that India sees the Philippines as a vital partner in the Indo-Pacific Region. The prime minister also conveyed his best wishes to President Duterte and the people of the Philippines for the forthcoming National Day. An adorable video of an elephant baby crying for mothers milk resurfaced on the internet and left netizens in awe. The short clip shared by IFS Officer Susanta Nanda shows the baby elephant getting a little upset when it couldnt get milk. The 20-second-clip captures a special moment where the baby elephant can be seen walking beside the mother tusker, while also trying to suckle the milk. As the mother tusker continues to walk, the baby can then be heard crying as it got agitated. If you have not heard an elephant baby crying for milk, just see till the end. A special moment between mom & child pic.twitter.com/QVHqvfIrN2 Susanta Nanda (@susantananda3) June 9, 2020 READ: Video Of Guitarist Performing For Two Parrots Leaves Netizens In Awe According to reports, the video was initially shared back in 2013 by a YouTuber John Saboe. In the caption of the video, Saboe informed that he shot the video in Sri Lanka. While the YoutUbe video received thousands of likes over the years, Nandas post has also been viewed nearly 2,000 times. Netizens surprised to hear baby elephant cry With several likes and comments, internet users were surprised to hear the baby elephant cry. One user also wrote, That actually made me jump, lol, because at first, I was thinking that little tweeting in the background was maybe some surprising kind of high-frequency baby elephant whining, SO precious. Never heard sir... such a great clip.. thanks fr sharing Sravani (@sravani950570) June 9, 2020 READ: Video: Snake Joins Man Jumping On Trampoline, Netizens Say 'when Your Ex Pops Up' Wow, that's great Mr. Debajyoti Roy (@ZoologistDRoy) June 9, 2020 Such a beautiful scene. Thanks for sharing. Babies are babies and they need to be treated better always. kiran (@kirannaga) June 9, 2020 First Time Ever Getting To Hear this kind of Cute Complain... Thank You Sir for Sharing. Abir Chanda (@AbirChanda5) June 9, 2020 READ: Dan Bilzerian Trends On Twitter After He Asks His Fans To Name His Autobiography READ: Dog Babysitting Service For Kids Intrigues Internet, Netizens Request Babysit Me? A sign has been taken down for its 'resemblance to a racist doll' after thousands of campaigners demanded it. But locals have petitioned for it to be put back up and say it will be returned after 'a lick of black paint'. Over 28,000 people signed a petition demanding that the caricature of a black man be taken down from the 18th century Greenman pub sign in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Derbyshire Dales District Council said on Monday it would remove the sign with 'immediate effect' but when the head was taken down on Monday evening, locals said they had done so to protect it. The pub sign, with 'resemblance to a racist doll', has been removed after thousands of campaigners demanded it Derbyshire Dales District Council took down the sign after a petition with more than 28,000 signatures The council said they have taken it down because it is a 'public safety issue' but that whether it stays up 'requires urgent discussion and consultation' Mark Redfern said: 'The head will be restored while on the ground and returned to its position at a later date. 'Saved by the people of Ashbourne.' In a Facebook post, Mr Redfern said the head would be given 'a lick of black paint' and claimed the move was to save it from vandalism. The petition against the head drew inspiration from an anti-racism demonstration in Bristol, which saw protesters topple the statue of slave trader Edward Colston before dragging the monument into the harbour. The Grade II-listed pub sign, which arches over St John's Street, depicted the face of a black man, which one anthropology student from the town said resembled the a golliwog. A golliwog is a 19th century rag doll which is considered racist for its exaggerated and offensive features. But another petition has been launched to 'save' the sign and campaigners hung a sign on it reading 'save me' before it was taken down People think the face is offensive for its alleged resemblance to the racist 19th century golliwog doll The anthropology student said: 'I think people are ashamed of it.' 'Having it in the middle of the street in a small town is so unwelcoming. 'It should have been taken down a long time ago and put in a museum.' Matthew Holt, an international relations student from Ashbourne, also signed the petition, stating: 'It seems such an obvious racist sign. 'I think it's important we address our history; we can't change it but this shouldn't be displayed in the public eye. 'It should be in a museum where we can learn about it with a description to contextualise it.' The sign, which is officially recorded as the longest single inn sign in the country, had a carved wooden head on it before it was removed Their demands prompted Derbyshire Dales District Council's decision to remove the monument from the sign. A council spokesman said earlier: 'We're removing the head from the sign with immediate effect. 'We agree that the sign itself is not only a public safety concern right now, but that this is an issue that requires urgent discussion and consultation. 'The sign was gifted to the district council a number of years ago and is currently protected by a Grade II structure listing. 'Legally, only Heritage England or the Secretary of State can remove this listing, which means we need to take on board the views of our own councillors and local people before taking forward any representations. This will happen soon.' Following the petition, hundreds have now signed a counter-petition to save the imagery However, a petition has also been launched which seeks to keep the monument in place, with supporters stating it is a part of history. On the petition page, which has garnered more than 2,700 signatures, organiser Shaun Redfern, 17, from Ashbourne, described the sign as a tourist attraction which 'should be kept because of the history for the town'. He said: 'I believe that the sign is not even the smallest bit racist.' He added: 'Are we supposed to deny our past now and get rid of old artefacts?' A sign saying 'save Me' was hung from the head on Monday evening before the face was taken down. Global Black Lives Matter protests were sparked when George Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for almost ten minutes and a number of petitions are demanding controversial monuments in the UK are taken down. Pictured: Protesters transporting the statue of slave trader Edward Colston towards the river Avon In Edinburgh, a petition was launched to remove the statue of slave owner Henry Dundas in St Andrew Square and for streets bearing his name to be renamed. Petition organiser and local resident Nancy Barrett, 22, said: 'I feel as though Scotland's involvement in the slave trade has been silently swept under the rug and a lot of people think Scotland is innocent, which isn't the case. 'The height of the statue alone shows how highly Henry Dundas was thought of when it was erected. 'If it were to be removed it would denounce the glorification of him, and force people to learn about who he really was. 'The longer it stays up, the longer Scotland is denying its past by refusing to amend something that should have happened years ago.' In Wales, Cardiff's first black Lord Mayor, Dan De'Ath, is calling on local councillors to remove the statue of Sir Thomas Picton, stating it is 'no longer acceptable' for it to remain in City Hall. In a letter to the leader of Cardiff Council, he said: 'As you may be aware, Picton was celebrated for his role in the Peninsular War and for being the highest-ranking officer killed at Waterloo. 'Picton also served as governor of Trinidad where he oversaw an authoritarian and highly brutal regime.' He continued: 'Picton was also accused of the execution of a dozen slaves and his considerable fortune was due in a large part to the slave trade.' Another petition was launched to take down the statue of Robert Clive, known as Clive of India, in The Square in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, which described the 18th century figure as 'nothing more than an figure of oppression and white supremacy'. Similarly, thousands of people have signed two new petitions calling for the statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes to be taken down from Oriel College at the University of Oxford. Demonstrators at a remembrance in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Sunday, for George Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis police on May 25. (Kathy Plonka/Associated Press) Last week, my dad readied his hunting rifle to defend our family against the possibility of chaos in the streets coming to our door. Downtown streets half a mile from our home in Coeur dAlene, Idaho, were filling with citizens bearing assault rifles to protect local businesses from harm. Neighbors had been trading rumors all day about rioters coming from out of town, and if they showed up, there would clearly be a fight. Here, guns are sacred, government is suspect, freedom is king and the American dream is alive. In my 10th-grade English class, the majority of students chose the 2nd Amendment as the most important right we have. And yet. Something curious is happening here. My Instagram feed nearly all posts from Idaho high school students, typically conservatives is filled with support for Black Lives Matter. A classmate said he 100% supports the BLM protests in retaliation of years of government overreach, unqualified police officers, and countless murders. Students are organizing protests, soliciting donations and expressing solidarity with the cause. As importantly, we are engaging one another in thoughtful discussions on this issue, which remains uncomfortable for many here. It would be difficult to overstate how shocking it is to see my town display this level of support for a cause associated with liberalism and one that feels very far away from our insulated community. Racism is not an issue that usually resonates among my peers. If this kind of support for Black Lives Matter is happening here, its happening everywhere and in places you wouldnt expect. And its not just young people. Even the armed patriots as the Coeur dAlene Press called them squaring off against potential looters are quoted as saying they support the basic reasons for the protests, are distraught by the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minnesota and simply want to prevent unnecessary violence and destruction. After a second night of both groups peacefully coexisting downtown, some statements made to the press stood out. Teresa Balanesi, a dog trainer carrying a .380-caliber handgun, said she showed up to support both sides. I believe in the 1st Amendment, the right to voice your opinion, and I believe in the 2nd Amendment, the right to bear arms. Conrad Nelson, a member of a veterans group there to keep the peace, said, Were glad they are protesting. He added: They have a voice that needs to be heard . Its the people that cause problems that were here to stop. Story continues This moment of disparate Americans finding common ground and common outrage against injustice presents an opportunity, and I worry that well miss it. The protesters of the civil rights movement succeeded in part because they had specific requests equal protection under law, guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, and the right to vote, guaranteed by the 15th Amendment. They demanded the end of Jim Crow segregation and they pushed for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, among others. Sometimes I hear clear demands from the current protesters in my town, set off by the death of Floyd. For example, their insistence that all four officers involved in Floyds death be charged has now been realized. But while so many of my schoolmates are signing petitions and expressing support, conversations around real solutions for the future at least here are largely absent. The COVID-19 pandemic, while devastating, has presented a unique opportunity to further the protesters cause. Because of the quarantine, many of us have nowhere to go and nothing to do. If the racial justice movement can unite around specific, detailed solutions that could be implemented across the country, we could spend our unexpected free time working to bring about concrete changes at the local, state and national level. Students and other citizens from rural and urban areas and from coast to coast need to do more than just show up at protests that bring much-needed attention to systemic racism and police brutality. We need to come together to insist on precise reforms that can change history. Im a white, 17-year-old girl from Idaho, and I certainly dont have the answers. But I do know that I support the universal wearing of body cameras by police, and long-overdue investment in education and economic development in poor and minority neighborhoods. We urgently need leaders to emerge from the movement so it can coalesce around realistic and effective solutions that can be supported by a majority of Americans. In 10th grade, I chose the right to assemble enshrined in the 1st Amendment as the most important right we have as Americans. Its the right that protects and allows for all of the others. No matter what, 2020 will go down in history. May it be remembered for being a year of action and purpose, in which we pursued real and permanent solutions to systemic racism, accomplishing what not even a pandemic could: uniting us. Lilian Smith is a rising high school senior in Coeur dAlene, Idaho. The killing of George Floyd, a black man who died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes, has sparked nationwide protests against police brutality inflicted on African Americans. This week, Oprah Winfrey is among those using her platform to discuss issues raised by Floyds death, and Americas history of systemic racism. In "OWN Spotlight: Where Do We Go From Here?, a two-night town hall that begins Tuesday, June 9, Winfrey will talk with black activists, artists, thought leaders and more about this moment, and what steps are needed to move forward. You can watch OWN Spotlight: Where Do We Go From Here? for free with fuboTV (free trial). In the special, Winfreys guests will include director Ava DuVernay (When They See Us); politician Stacey Abrams; Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms; Color of Change founder Rashad Robinson; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) national board member Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II; professor and author Jennifer Eberhardt; author Ibram X. Kendi; journalist Charles M. Blow; journalist and Pulitzer prize-winning founder of The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones (who, earlier in her career, was a reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive); and actor David Oyelowo (Selma"), who directed his first feature film, The Water Man, last year in Oregon. Winfrey is one of the executive producers of the film. In a statement, Winfrey said, Ive been having private conversations with friends and thought leaders about whats next and where we go from here, adding, I thought it would be both of interest and service to bring their ideas, concerns and comments into a national spotlight. Tina Perry, president of OWN, also said in the announcement, As a network dedicated to supporting and uplifting Black lives, OWN is committed to providing our community with important dialogue and helpful resources in this challenging time as we mourn the murder of George Floyd and ask ourselves how can we come together to create meaningful change." The OWN Spotlight specials on Winfreys OWN network are presentations that feature conversations about issues that are relevant to contemporary black women. What: OWN Spotlight: Where Do We Go From Here? Part 1 When: Tuesday, June 9 at 9 p.m. TV Channels: The special will air on OWN, and also be simulcast across all of Discoverys networks, including Discovery, HGTV, ID, Food Network, TLC, Animal Planet, and more. Watch live stream online: You can watch the show live for FREE with fuboTV (free trial), or you can watch it live at a discount with Sling TV (promotional offer). The special will also stream on as OWNs YouTube, Facebook and Instagram pages. Channel finder, more ways to watch: Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice, DIRECTV and Dish. More of our coverage: -- Kristi Turnquist kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Testimonies reveal harrowing details of life on ships, as Malaysia detains more than 200 Rohingya found off Langkawi. Left to starve for months at sea, Rohingya children who escaped Bangladeshs refugee camps took desperate journeys to reach Malaysia on flimsy smuggling boats, according to a new report released as it emerged Malaysian authorities had detained nearly 300 Rohingya trying to reach the country by sea. Testimonies by refugee children, who were rescued from a boat found adrift in the Bay of Bengal in April, revealed how they were beaten and forced to watch their parents bodies thrown overboard. It is clear that Rohingya families are still so desperate that they are ready to make dangerous journeys, often at the mercy of criminal organisations, Hassan Saadi Noor, Asia Regional Director of Save the Children, which compiled the report, said in a statement. Hassan is urging countries across the region to share the responsibility of both protecting and providing for the Rohingya, while also working with Myanmar to find a long-term solution to this crisis. As long as Rohingya do not see a future for themselves, families will continue to make dangerous journeys and put themselves in harms way in search of a better life, Hassan said. Malaysian authorities on Monday said they detained 269 Rohingya who were found on a damaged boat off the northwestern holiday island of Langkawi. Acting on a tip-off received a day earlier, they intercepted the ship just before dawn. An inspection of their boat found 216 Rohingya migrants and the body of one female illegal immigrant. Further inspections found that the boat was deliberately damaged making it unfit to be turned back, Malaysias National Task Force on border patrol said in a statement. Before the boat was intercepted, more than 50 of the people on board had jumped into the sea in what officials said was an attempt to evade arrest. They were detained by the Malaysian coastguard once they reached shore. Kasit Piromya, a board member of Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights and former Thai foreign minister, urged Malaysia to do more to help those it had detained. The Rohingya who were on that boat are not criminals, but asylum seekers in need of safety and protection, Kasit said in a statement. Malaysias systematic detention of migrants and refugees is shameful and illegal. Authorities must immediately work with UNHCR to provide them with food, water, shelter, appropriate health screening and care. Last but not least, they must be granted access to fair asylum procedures. Like many countries in Southeast Asia, Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN convention on refugees, and regards refugees as illegal migrants. The new government that has also adopted a harder line on migration, stepping up patrols at the border and arresting undocumented migrants as part of its attempts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. I never thought I would survive Among those who were rescued in April and told their story to Save the Children was a 16-year-old boy identified by the pseudonym Aziz. Aziz told Save the Children he was out at sea for almost two months. After the boat he was on was turned away for a third time by Malaysia because of coronavirus restrictions, they ran out of food and water. All the food we had was finished. We were starving for days, he was quoted as saying. We had no water to drink. Some people drank water from the sea. They got sick later. I saw a man dying, and the broker threw the body into the sea. The broker beat us when we asked him to turn around and go back to Bangladesh. I never thought I would survive. Another Rohingya child, 8-year-old Sara (not her real name), recalled trying to get to Malaysia by boat with her mother and 9-year-old brother. Saras mother, however, died on the boat, and she and her brother watched in horror as their mothers body was thrown into the sea. The vessel was returned to Bangladesh and Sara and her brother are now being looked after by their grandparents in a Coxs Bazar camp. Another teenager told the NGO that during the same journey, at least 80 people died of hunger and drinking seawater. APHRs Kasit said countries in the region should work together to try and ease the plight of the Rohingya. All are part of the ten member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. Ultimately what needs to happen is for ASEAN to finally come together and collectively search and rescue boats in danger at sea, and pressure Myanmar to end its persecution of the Rohingya, he said. IGY Life Sciences Partners with MMS Holdings to Develop Novel COVID-19 Antibody Treatment Details Category: Antibodies Published on Tuesday, 09 June 2020 10:56 Hits: 1812 THUNDER BAY, Canada I June 08, 2020 I IGY Life Sciences today announced it will be collaborating with clinical data and regulatory experts, MMS Holdings (MMS), to further the development of IgY-110, an anti-CoV-2 therapeutic antibody with a focus on a nasal spray application. This novel approach of an IgY antibody in a nasal spray will be complementary to any vaccine developed. Currently in the preclinical stage, the new antibody is being tested at the Canadian Government National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, Manitoba where it will move into preclinical trials rapidly. The nasal spray therapeutic is intended to treat those currently infected with COVID-19 by controlling and blocking the spread of coronavirus. In addition, while a vaccine is critical for control of the disease, it may not be effective for both elderly and immune compromised individuals. We believe that IgY-110 could be ready as early as 2021 to help fight this pandemic. Shelf stable and with GRAS status (generally recognized as safe), IgY antibodies are a natural choice for long-term pandemic preparedness, and will be ready for the next wave of coronavirus, whenever it strikes, explained Terry Dyck, President and CEO, IGY Life Sciences. Furthermore, IgY-110 has the potential to minimize adverse reactions seen with other antibody treatments that are currently marketed or in development. Our second aim is to ensure the targeted antibody will be cross-protective towards other forms of coronavirus, ensuring the antibody can be effective as a pandemic preparedness tool, and minimize the economic burden, explained Dyck. There has never been a more critical time and clear need to speed research decisions through the stages of new therapy development than now, said Kelly J. Hill, Executive Director, Global Business Operations & Strategy, MMS. Our regulatory and data-focused team is honored to positively contribute during this time. We are grateful to IGY Life Sciences for thinking critically, and in this case creatively, to find a new approach to treat and prevent the spread of COVID-19. In March, MMS announced that it is offering a USD1M award toward the development of a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19. The award is being offered in the form of data and related services to qualified pharmaceutical and clinical research companies supporting commercial development of a vaccine or treatment for approval in the United States and/or other global health authorities. We could not think of a stronger, more proactive team for this project than MMS. They have proved to be an invaluable partner from the onset, and we are looking forward to making a positive contribution to this critical COVID-19 research together, added Dyck. About IGY Life Sciences IGY Immune Technologies & Life Sciences is a privately held biotechnology company specializing in the development, manufacturing and licensing of immunoglobulin Y (IgY), for use in biologic treatments, nutraceuticals and animal health solutions. For more information on how we are actualizing the promise of IgY technology to enable humans and animals to live healthy lives, please visit www.IGYLifeSciences.com. About MMS Holdings MMS is an innovative, data-focused CRO that supports the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industries with a proven, scientific approach to complex trial data and regulatory submission challenges. Strong industry experience and a data-driven approach to drug development make MMS a valuable CRO partner, creating compelling submissions that meet rigorous regulatory standards. With a global footprint across four continents, MMS maintains a 97 percent customer satisfaction rating, and the company has been recognized as a leading CRO in Global Health & Pharmas international awards programs for the last three consecutive years. For more information, visit www.mmsholdings.com or follow MMS on LinkedIn. SOURCE: IGY Life Sciences By PTI NEW DELHI: Over 55 personnel of the country's elite counter-terrorist force National Security Guard (NSG) have been infected with COVID-19 so far, officials said on Monday. Those infected with the coronavirus are "predominantly auxillary" or administrative staff working at the headquarters near Palam area in Delhi and the commando garrison in Manesar, Gurgaon, they said. Top officials told PTI that all the combat elements that undertake specialist counter-terrorist, counter-hijack and hostage rescue tasks are "intact and fully available" for any contingency anywhere. The 'black cat' commandos are ready for any task as per mandate, they said. The 33-year-old nursing staff was the first to get infected with the virus in the first week of May. Officials said at least 57 personnel of the federal commando force have been found infected with the disease so far. Some among them have recovered while some personnel among the positive cases were asymptomatic and detected only after contact tracing and testing, they said. All the infected NSG personnel have been admitted to various hospitals in the national capital and adjoining cities including at the Central Armed Police Forces Referral hospital in Greater Noida. The force was raised in 1984. The combat arms of the NSG are segregated into five units, two Special Action Groups (SAGs) manned by officers and jawans from the Army and three SRGs comprising personnel from paramilitary forces. The SAGs undertake counter-terrorism and anti-hijack operations. Some component of the special rangers group (SRG) also undertake counter-terrorist operations under the command of the SAG units and they primarily render VIP security duties for high-risk personalities. The personalities include Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and chief ministers of various states like Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh, Sarbananda Sonowal of Assam and some former CMs like Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav. Three more people, including a deputy secretary and a member of the multi-tasking service (MTS), working in the Law Ministry have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said here on Monday. With this, the total number of COVID-positive cases reported in the ministry goes up to five, they said. According to a ministry memorandum, the deputy secretary and the MTS member tested positive for the disease on June 5. An assistant (legal) had tested positive for COVID-19 on June 3. The MTS member and the deputy secretary had last attended office on June 3. The assistant (legal) had last come to work on May 29. Earlier this month, a joint secretary had tested positive for the virus. Last month, another official of the ministry was found infected. The Law Ministry is housed on the fourth floor of the Shastri Bhawan, which also houses offices of several central ministries and departments. OTTAWA - Canadas cutthroat shipbuilding industry saw a surprise alliance Tuesday as two competing yards announced plans to team up to win a multibillion-dollar contract to build a new polar icebreaker for the Canadian Coast Guard. The surprise agreement between Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver and Ontario-based Heddle Shipyards is a type of co-operation rarely seen within Canada, where shipyards often fight tooth and nail against each other for work. The two companies, along with Quebec-based shipbuilder Chantier Davie, had each expressed interest earlier this year in competing for the contract to build the CCGS John G. Diefenbaker, which will become the coast guards flagship once it is finished But the pair now say they believe they can be stronger together, with Seaspan leading the charge for the polar-icebreaker contract and Heddle offering to help it build modules and other components should the Vancouver yard win. With todays announcement, Seaspan is partnering with a Canadian-owned and -operated shipyard to deliver economic and social benefits to Ontario and the polar icebreaker to the Canadian Coast Guard, Seaspan CEO Mark Lamarre told The Canadian Press. If Seaspan is awarded the polar, Heddle will fabricate modules in its three Ontario shipyards, which will create and sustain predictable long-term work for Heddle in Hamilton, St. Catharines and Thunder Bay. The Diefenbaker was originally supposed to have been built by Seaspan along with several other coast guard ships and two naval support ships after Seaspan was selected as one of two shipyards in the federal governments national shipbuilding strategy in 2011. Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax was the other yard and is currently building a fleet of Arctic patrol ships and the Royal Canadian Navys next generation of warships, which will replace Canadas frigates. But the federal Liberal government took the icebreaker away last year when it reshuffled the shipbuilding program and later asked yards across Canada to explain how and why they should get the contract. The Diefenbaker was first announced by Stephen Harpers Conservative government in 2008. When it was awarded to Seaspan in 2011, the cost was pegged at $720 million later increased to $1.3 billion with delivery expected by 2017. But scheduling conflicts, technical problems and other issues scuttled the timeline and budget before Ottawa lifted the ship from Seaspans order book. The government has not said when it will award a contract while the cost of the ship is under review. The heavy icebreaker it is slated to replace, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, is more than 50 years old. Quebecs Davie shipyard is expected to be the main challenger for the contract after it was the only shipyard to qualify during the reshuffle to build six smaller coast guard icebreakers in what Heddle at the time alleged was a fixed selection process. Heddle launched a trade tribunal case against the government to that effect last year, but abandoned it after the government invoked a controversial national-security exception that prevents such investigations by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal. Neither Lamarre nor Heddle president Shaun Padulo would directly comment on Davie as they announced their partnership. What happened in the past happened in the past, Padulo said. We just wanted some support and help to become part of the national shipbuilding strategy. It would seem with the relationship were developing with Seaspan, that is becoming possible. But Seaspan is still smarting over the Diefenbakers having been pulled from its order book and replaced with 16 smaller ships last August, with Lamarre saying the yard invested millions in equipment and infrastructure needed to build the icebreaker. We believe we won this work in 2011, he said. Theres disappointment that comes along with operating under one assumption and having that change. We invested in a facility that was meant to build the entire package, including the polar. Following news of the deal between Seaspan and Heddle, Davie spokesman Frederik Boisvert touted his own shipyards chances of winning the Diefenbaker contract after being the only company shortlisted to build six other icebreakers for the coast guard. Davie is the only Canadian shipbuilder able to build the polar icebreaker on time and at a reasonable cost, Boisvert said. As Canadas national icebreaker centre, we look forward to putting our experience to work and building the polar icebreaker. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2020. Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said Davie had been commissioned to build six medium icebreakers. The World Health Organization announced on Monday that the global pandemic is worsening but transmission from asymptomatic persons is now becoming rare. The Pandemic is Worsening Globally In the past few days, there were many reports that COVID-19 is now becoming less lethal. An Italian doctor even claimed that the new coronavirus has lost its potency. However, WHO officials debunk this claim and announced that the pandemic is worsening. During the daily press briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned about the worsening condition of the global pandemic even as the situation in Europe was improving. He emphasized that 75 percent of cases reported to the WHO on Sunday came from 10 countries in the Americas and South Asia. WHO noted that 100,000 cases were reported in the past 10 days while 136,000 were reported on Sunday, the highest record so far. In fact, when Brazil has reached its death toll to 34,000 they immediately stopped reporting. They are now the third country in the world with the highest death toll. They are just below the United States and Britain. Asymptomatic Spread is Now Becoming Rare Meanwhile, while the WHO debunk that the pandemic is becoming less lethal, they also announced on Monday that the spread of virus coming from asymptomatic is now becoming rare. This just simply means that asymptomatic person but tested positive for the virus have isolated themselves to make sure not to transmit the virus. Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove told the reporters during the news briefing that they have reports from countries who are "doing very detailed contact tracing - they are following asymptomatic cases, they are following contacts and they are not finding secondary transmission onward, it's very rare. Much of that is not published in the literature," she said She added that while they are still trying to get more information from countries to confirm this, "it appears to be rare that an asymptomatic individual actually transmits onward." Updates of COIVD-19 Around the Globe The number of COVID-19 infections across the globe has continued to increase. As of this time, there are more than 7.2 million COVID-19 cases and a death toll of more than 400,000. Meanwhile, more than 3.5 million has recovered from the virus according to worldometers. The United States remained as the country with the highest number of infections with more than 2.2 million COVID-19 cases and a death toll of more than 113,000. The U.S. according to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Health experts believed that the number of infections is expected to spike due to the mass protest where social distancing and wearing of facemasks are not observed. Meanwhile, Brazil leads Latin America as the country with the highest number of infections. As of today, the country has recorded more than 710,000 COVID-19 infections and more than 37,000 death toll. There is no sign yet that COVID-19 has weakened. In fact, pharmaceutical companies and scientists around the globe are on the race of developing the vaccine and put in on clinical trials to put an end to the deadly virus that originated in Wuhan, China. Check these out! Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:31:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BAGHDAD, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Health Ministry on Tuesday confirmed 787 new cases of COVID-19, raising the total number to 14,268 in the country. The ministry said in a statement that 22 more people died from the coronavirus during the day, bringing the death toll to 392, while 5,831 patients have recovered. The new cases were detected after 10,711 testing kits were used across the country during the past 24 hours, out of 322,691 tests carried out since the outbreak of the disease in Iraq. Earlier in the day, Deputy Health Minister Hazim al-Jumaili said in a statement that the ministry is planning to resort to home quarantine if the beds in the hospital would be not enough for the increasing infections. "Currently there are enough beds allocated for people infected with coronavirus in Baghdad and the other provinces, and the home quarantine will be applied if there is a need for such procedure," al-Jumaili noted. On June 6, the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety, headed by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, took several measures including the imposing the full curfew until June 13 until a partial one starts on June 14. The committee also decided to ban the inter-province travel for all except the health, security and public service personnel, and ordered security forces to tighten the control of the implementation of health restrictions. China has been helping Iraq with the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. 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. China also sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. Enditem Chinese and Indian troops have begun "disengagement" in Galwan Valley and two other areas in eastern Ladakh reflecting their willingness to resolve the month-long standoff through talks, military sources said on Tuesday. However, there has been no change in their posturing in areas like Pangong Tso and Daulat Beg Oldie, they said. There is no official statement on disengagement of troops either from the defence ministry or the ministry of external affairs. There was no word from the Chinese side as well on the development. Military sources said both Chinese and Indian ... MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday some of Canada's mining firms were behind on their tax payments and urged the Canadian government to lean on them to avoid the dispute reaching international tribunals. "There are a few Canadian mining companies that are not up-to-date, they want to go to international tribunals," Lopez Obrador told a regular government news conference. The president then urged Canada's ambassador to prevail on the companies that there was no need to seek legal redress because "it's very clear that they have these debts with the tax authority, and that (Canada) help us to convince them." He did not name any specific companies. A spokeswoman for Canada's embassy in Mexico said the embassy does not comment on or confirm private interactions between governments. Last month Canada's First Majestic Silver Corp said it had served notice to Mexico's government under its North American trade treaty obligations to begin talks to resolve taxation disputes. First Majestic did not return a call seeking comment. Nearly 70% of foreign-owned mining companies operating in Mexico are based in Canada, according to Global Affairs Canada. The value of Canadian mining assets in Mexico totaled C$18.4 billion in 2017, according to the Mining Association of Canada. Lopez Obrador has made cracking down on tax breaks a priority. A number of major companies, including the Mexican unit of U.S. retailer Walmart Inc and Mexican conglomerate Femsa have recently agreed to make tax payments to Mexico. Lopez Obrador also said Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp is in the process of doing the same thing. Representatives for Toyota in Mexico had no immediate comment. The president's comments come as Mexico and the private sector have also been having a major dispute on energy policy. Lopez Obrador has allowed officials to call into question contracts worth billions of dollars signed by companies from Canada, the United States and Europe under the previous administration, setting up a potentially messy legal scrap. (Reporting by Mexico City Newsroom; Additional reporting by Sharay Angulo in Mexico City and Jeff Lewis in Toronto; Editing by Dave Graham, Dan Grebler and David Gregorio) In the wake of George Floyd's death that prompted worldwide protests against police brutality and racial discrimination, #ArtForJustice created a platform commemorating the life of Floyd through artistic expression. "In this moment of reckoning in our nation, we realized how important it was for everyone, young and old, to stand with the Black community and honor our Houston native, George Floyd," said Karim Farishta, Founder of #ArtForJustice. The visual, first-of-its-kind, art gallery includes submissions received worldwide from students and artists of all ages showing their support through their unique interpretations. THOUSANDS PAY RESPECT TO GEORGE FLOYD: Watch live: Thousands pay final respects to George Floyd at public viewing in Houston The virtual art gallery created by INVI includes over 150 artistic renderings that debuted Monday, June 8. WASHINGTON - The crowd swarming the fence north of the White House turned its attention from the rows of riot police on the other side of the barrier to one of their own. A young man had scaled a street sign on June 2 and was trying to tear it down. Boos erupted around him, and he was pelted with water bottles. "Don't give them a reason!" someone screamed. A chant - "Peaceful protest" - rumbled to life in the same place where, a day earlier, demonstrators had been tear-gassed and shot with rubber bullets to clear the way for President Donald Trump's visit to St. John's Episcopal Church. The young man climbed down and was carried out of the crowd. The scene, replayed in different forms throughout the night, captured the warring impulses that gripped the nation's capital early last week as demonstrations over the death of George Floyd gathered steam. For 48 hours, Washington teetered on the brink. After a night of riots and looting, followed by the use of tear gas by federal law enforcement officers to disperse demonstrators at Lafayette Square on June 1, the city looked like it was ready to descend into the kind of civil unrest last seen in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. But it did not. In the struggle for the soul of the crowds who took to the streets day after day, peaceful resistance won out. After days of increasingly trouble-free demonstrations, Trump announced Sunday that he was withdrawing out-of-state National Guard troops from the District of Columbia. That trajectory, mirrored by easing tensions in cities across the country, was far from assured a week earlier. More than 200 D.C. businesses were damaged. Buildings, cars and American flags were lit ablaze. Military helicopters swooped low to intimidate protesters, scattering broken glass. "There was a moment that it looked like a repeat of the '67 and '68 riots," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of American history at Princeton University. But ultimately, he said, the protests came to resemble the peaceful marches organized by civil rights activists in the early 1960s. "I don't know why it happened," Zelizer said. D.C. officials, protesters and law enforcement experts cited different reasons for the shift. Some credited the evolving actions of law enforcement, most notably the enormous show of force by military and federal forces on the city's streets on June 1 and June 2. Others said mobilization had little effect and may have been counterproductive, and pointed instead to the changing internal dynamics of the protests themselves. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said federal law enforcement's aggression at Lafayette Square on June 1 energized peaceful demonstrators to turn out in greater numbers, marginalizing troublemakers. "After Monday, when we saw federal forces move on American people, there was a critical mass of people bent on making sure that would never happen again," Bowser said in an interview Monday. "And the people bent on destruction were probably outnumbered and left." One undisputed factor was the one on display at the Lafayette Square fence line on the night of June 2: a growing determination by protesters to police their own ranks and avoid discrediting their message with widespread vandalism and looting. It was accompanied by increasing levels of organization and structure among what had been a loosely controlled crowd at the week's outset. That, too, followed the playbook of the early rather than late 1960s, when the cataclysmic rioting that overtook cities such as Washington, New York and Detroit was largely spontaneous. Seun Babalola, who is 22 and lives in Arlington, Va., was among the organizers who stepped in to bring discipline to the rallies, working behind the scenes with the Democratic National Committee. Among the events he helped to schedule was a Thursday march from Farragut Square to the White House and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial that was attended by Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez. "The first couple days, it was a lot of super-tense situations. There was no purpose. There was no end goal," Babalola said. But the increasingly choreographed and celebratory nature of D.C.'s demonstrations did not wear well with some activists. On Saturday, they denounced what they said had become a street festival, with the raw emotions stoked by Floyd's death submerged beneath the music, the food stands and the waves of out-of-towners snapping selfies along the march routes. "That, to me, was disturbing," said Tracye Redd, a longtime D.C. activist who was out every night of the demonstrations serving informally as a medic. Redd said he did not judge or condemn those who vandalized and looted stores throughout Washington late on May 31, though he did not personally take part in the destruction. "If someone broke a window, I kept walking," Redd said. "I was not going to be the person to tell a black angry person what they can and cannot do in the moment in a city that was built by black people." Redd had a prosaic explanation of the cessation of looting as the week went on: By Monday night, most stores had boarded up their windows. "Have you tried to take down a piece of plywood?" Redd said. "To be very candid, you're going to need a crowbar. And we're not out there with crowbars." There is also disagreement over the effects of the military units and federal agents that Trump ordered into the streets beginning June 1. Daniel Linskey, a former Boston police chief and managing director for security risk management at Kroll, said the tactics in Washington were a textbook display of the deft use of the military to quell riots: an imposing presence on the street to deter violence, followed by the prompt withdrawal of troops when things calm down. By Thursday, National Guard units had largely pulled back from the streets, even though the final order to withdraw from the city did not come until the weekend. "Sometimes you've got to fly that flag with the National Guard, and a large presence, to let people know what is and what isn't going to be allowed," Linskey said. "And just as important as flying the flag is knowing when to take it back." Kim Dine, former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police and a former assistant chief with the D.C. police department, was more skeptical of the effects of the president's show of force. He said a military presence on the streets of an American city - and the memorable, sometimes dystopian images it can generate, such as a widely circulated photograph last week of masked D.C. National Guard troops on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial - risks provoking rather than deterring violence. "We don't want to be an occupying army," Dine said. "It can incite people, and for what purpose?" D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kevin Donahue said some federal agencies - such as the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - often work closely with the city's police force and played a valuable role over the past week. But others that were summoned impromptu by the president, including Federal Bureau of Prisons officers and military police from other states, did little to help the situation, he said. "Those were resources that the mayor did not ask for, and I do not believe that their presence had a meaningful contribution to the positive evolution you saw night after night," Donahue said. More aggressive actions by city officials also may have deterred escalating violence. On May 31, Bowser declared a curfew of 11 p.m. that was poorly enforced and largely ignored. The next day, the curfew was moved up to 7 p.m., and police used it to arrest large numbers of demonstrators, focusing on those they believed were out to repeat Sunday night's looting, Donahue said. The Metropolitan Police Department arrested nearly 300 people last week at the rallies Monday night into early Tuesday morning. That was followed by 29 arrests Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. After that, two people connected to the demonstrations were arrested over the next four days. "Curfews are a blunt instrument. That's why they're used so rarely," Donahue said. "But it provides a legal context for taking individuals off the street who MPD believes might have some intent to do harm to people and property." In the final reckoning, comparisons between last week's demonstrations and the destruction seen in 1968 may not be apt, according to George Derek Musgrove, associate professor of history at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. The two episodes separated by a half-century had different outcomes, but they also had very different circumstances. The 1968 riots were fueled by an African American underclass that had grown increasingly desperate with police brutality, discriminatory housing policies and predatory slumlords, as well as impatient with the promises of the civil rights movement. Although King's killing was the catalyst for the riots, they were at their root a revolt against local conditions, Musgrove said. "This time around, you saw a very multicultural group. It appears to be majority-middle class. It appears to be split between the city and the suburbs," Musgrove said. "It almost looks like a cross between a Black Lives Matter protest and an Occupy protest. And that is absolutely not the demographics of the people who were down there in '68." - - - The Washington Post's Perry Stein, Peter Hermann, Hannah Natanson and Marc Fisher contributed to this report. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Patrick Galey (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France Tue, June 9, 2020 08:25 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd23d85 2 Environment ocean,geoengineering,EnvironmentConservation,environmental-issues,environmentalist,environmental-damage,environment Free Experimental geoengineering schemes to protect areas such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef are "distracting technofixes" that violate an international moratorium on the largely untested tech projects, a coalition of nearly 200 environmental groups said Monday. On the occasion of World Oceans Day, the Hands Off Mother Earth (HOME) Campaign urged communities and governments to "vigorously oppose" marine geoengineering projects that it said could imperil Earth's already vulnerable sea ecosystems. Up to 90 percent of the excess heat produced by mankind's burning of fossil fuels is absorbed by the world's oceans. And as atmospheric greenhouse gas levels continue to rise despite the 2015 Paris climate deal, scientists and industry are coming up with ways to try to mitigate the damage caused by rising temperatures using technology. One such plan, which began preliminary experiments last month, involves spraying trillions of microscopic salt crystals into the air above the Great Barrier Reef. Its proponents hope that the salt will mix with low-altitude clouds, making them brighter and able to reflect more sunlight away from the reef. But HOME said the project contravenes a 2010 United Nations moratorium on ocean geoengineering. "Geoengineers are flying in the face of global moratoria agreed at the UN," said Silvia Ribeiro of the ETC Group that monitors the projects. "The potential for large-scale versions of these project -- driven by the fossil fuel industry's motivation to keep extracting, selling and burning -- poses a clear and present danger to our oceans." Coral reefs -- which cover less than one percent of the ocean's surface but support a quarter of marine species -- are especially vulnerable to warming waters. Recent spikes in tropical and sub-tropical sea surface temperatures, magnified by an especially potent El Nino, have triggered an unprecedented mass bleaching of corals, affecting 75 percent of global reefs. 'Dangerous precedent' The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2018 issued its landmark report on the Paris deal temperature goals -- "well below" two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and a cap of 1.5C if at all possible. It found that at 1.5C hotter, more than 70 percent of Earth's coral reefs will likely die off; at 2C, that increases to 99 percent. HOME said that the Great Barrier Reef testing sets a "dangerous new precedent" and fails to take into account the underlying cause of rising ocean temperatures and coral bleaching: fossil fuel emissions. "To really address climate change, we need serious cuts to CO2 emissions, not distracting technofixes," said Louise Sales from Friends of the Earth Australia's Emerging Tech Project. Other marine geoengineering projects currently undergoing testing include injecting glass micro-bubbles into sea ice in Alaska and Canada in the hope that they will reflect more sunlight. That project has already been opposed by indigenous groups. In waters off the coast of Chile and Peru one firm has begun an ocean fertilization project aimed at promoting the growth of plankton which consume carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean. HOME said that at large scale the technique threatened to create "dead zones" of deoxygenated water devoid of life. "These experiments would violate international moratoria, and scientific evidence indicates that the risks and impacts far outweigh the supposed benefits," said Samuel Leiva from Terram, a Chilean NGO. The United Arab Emirates Etihad Airways sent another flight to Israel to give aid to the Palestinians today, but Palestinian authorities again said they were not informed of the delivery. Etihad Airways flew a cargo flight carrying humanitarian aid for the Palestinian Territories from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv today, a spokesperson for the airline told Al-Monitor. The flight was only the second direct one in history between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, who do not have formal relations. The first such flight took place in May and also carried COVID-19 aid for Palestinians. However, Palestinian Authority (PA) officials rejected the assistance, saying the delivery was not done in coordination with them. The PA's relations with Israel are at a low due to Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank. Palestinian authorities say they also were not consulted on the second aid flight. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said today that he was not informed of the flight from the Emirates, making it possible the PA will again reject the aid, Reuters reported. The Israeli public TV channel Kan 11 also reported the flights arrival, saying it was coordinated with the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Israeli military officials in the West Bank. The first flight came on an unmarked plane, but today's flight came on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner with the airline's logo. The Israeli Foreign Ministry distributed photos of the plane. The Emirates does not have formal relations with Israel, like most Arab states. Relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates along with UAE ally Saudi Arabia have improved in recent years, however, over their shared concerns about Iran. UAE officials have criticized Israels plans to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank, with the Emirates ambassador to Washington telling Al-Monitor that the move would destabilize the region. Etihad Airways has made other humanitarian aid flights during the pandemic. The airline completed its first-ever flight to Cuba for such a mission last week. Etihad Airways has suffered from decreased revenue along with other regional airlines due to the massive downturn in global travel. Getty Images A handful of specialized Illinois Army National Guard Soldiers have deployed to the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility this spring as part of Bilateral Embedded Staff Team A25. The soldiers are from various central Illinois locations. They were selected based on training and skills. A housemistress at one of Britain's top boarding schools is suing it for 1.8m in compensation after breaking her wrist slipping on a wet corridor floor. Lindsey Shaw, 59, fractured her right wrist at 35,000-a-year Mill Hill School, in north London, in June 2016, when she slipped and fell following a meeting with a pupil and a parent. Mrs Shaw was boarding director at Mill Hill and had also taught English and been a housemistress at the school, which counts war correspondent Richard Dimbleby, Dr Who actor Patrick Troughton, the Queen's dressmaker Sir Norman Hartnell and Sir Dennis Thatcher among its alumni. She is now fighting the independent secondary school, which was founded in 1807, for 1.8m compensation at Central London County Court. Mrs Shaw says that, as well as her physical injuries, her accident led to depression and chronic pain syndrome, which effectively put an end to her career. The foundation behind the school accepts liability for the accident, but is disputing the amount of money she is due, claiming Mrs Shaw should have taken more care of where she was putting her feet. Lindsey Shaw, 59, is now fighting the 35,000-a-year Mill Hill School, which was founded in 1807, for 1.8m compensation at Central London County Court Outlining her claim in court documents, her barrister David White said Mrs Shaw had been speaking to a parent and pupil in the school's Old Millhillian Meeting Room before the accident happened after teaching hours. 'Unbeknown to the claimant, the shiny floor of the corridor outside the meeting room was wet,' he says. 'She slipped and fell on her right side, landing on her side and right wrist.' Mr White claims that Mrs Shaw was wearing good quality flat loafers when she fell, but there were no signs in place to warn of the wet floor. Alleging the school foundation was negligent, he claims the corridor should not have been cleaned when still in use and warning signs should have been in place. The school had failed to take proper care for its staff member, he states in Mrs Shaw's particulars of claim. Following her fall, Mrs Shaw was taken to Barnet Hospital by her husband and had surgery on her wrist at St John and St Elizabeth Hospital, in St Johns Wood. But Mr White says that, in the aftermath, her wrist and hand were extremely sensitive and she could not bear them being touched, even by bedding. The foundation behind the school accepts liability for the accident, but is disputing the amount of money she is due Crucially, she went on to develop chronic regional pain syndrome and had to leave her job as a result, he claims. 'The claimant has pain and altered sensation in her right wrist, hand, right arm, right shoulder and back,' says the barrister. 'She has undergone extensive hand therapy and physiotherapy and she takes non-prescription medication to relieve the pain from her ongoing symptoms. School that taught Dr Who and Prime Ministers husband Mill Hill School is a mixed independent, day and boarding school in north west London for children aged 13 to 18. The idyllic countryside campus is situated on The Ridgeway, an ancient trackway used by settlers including the Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. Part of the 150-acre site previously formed the gardens of Ridgeway House, the home of 18th-century botanist Peter Collinson. Mill Hill was established in 1807 as a school for boys by a committee of nonconformist merchants and ministers, including theologian John Pye-Smith. It first admitted girls to its Sixth Form in 1975 and became fully co-educational in 1997. The 35,000-per-year school counts war correspondent Richard Dimbleby, Dr Who actor Patrick Troughton, the Queen's dressmaker Sir Norman Hartnell and Sir Denis Thatcher among its alumni. It was also attended by Harry Potter actor Harry Melling. In 2005, Mill Hill was exposed as one of 50 UK independent schools which were found guilty of price-fixing to push up fees. Advertisement 'The claimant has also suffered psychological injury, specifically a moderate depressive episode. 'She has undergone a course of supportive psychotherapy but symptoms continue. She has lost her confidence and self-belief and is very anxious. 'Her ongoing pain disturbs her sleep and impacts on her ability to concentrate.' In a short hearing before Judge Richard Roberts, he added that Mrs Shaw is currently able to do 'virtually nothing in terms of work.' For the Mill Hill School Foundation, barrister Robert O'Leary said the school admits 'primary liability' for the accident, which resulted 'in part from the negligence of the defendant, its servants or agents.' However, the school claims Mrs Shaw herself was partly to blame for her misfortune because she should have taken more care. Yellow warning signs were in place in the corridor, with one of them directly outside the meeting room, it claims. But Mrs Shaw had failed to heed the warnings and the fact she knew cleaners would be working at that time, he says. She had failed 'to take any or any sufficient care as to where or how she was placing her feet,' he claims in the school's defence to the claim. 'The claimant's said accident was caused, in part, by her own negligence,' the barrister adds. He also disputes the extent to which Mrs Shaw claims to have been affected long-term by her injury. The case is due to return to the court at a later date for a full trial of the question of what blame, if any, Mrs Shaw bears for the accident and what she should get in compensation. According to school marketing materials published online, Mrs Shaw taught English and was a housemistress at the school's Ridgeway House, before being promoted to boarding director. Writing of her, former headmaster Dr Dominic Luckett said: 'Lindsey's prodigious work ethic helped make her not only an outstanding housemistress, but also a superb director of boarding.' The Daily Beast Reuters/Arnd WiegmannTheatrical rock superstar Meat Loaf, whose Bat Out of Hell is one of the bestselling albums of all time, has died at the age of 74. Reports say the singer and actor had recently fallen sick with COVID-19.In an emotional statement posted to Facebook early Friday, the performers family said he was with his wife when he died and had said his final goodbyes to his two daughters in the past 24 hours. The star sold 100 million albums in his five-decade career and starred in movie Mr Kofi Obeng-Mensah, an aspiring parliamentary candidate contesting the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primaries in the Abuakwa North Constituency, has engaged the services of Zoomlion Ghana Limited to fumigate Mosques in the Constituency. The exercise, which was spearheaded by the Constituency Nasara Coordinator, Alhaji Idriss Daroo had fumigated nine Mosques across the Constituency in New Tafo, Old Tafo, Osiem, Kukurantumi and Sarbon Zongo. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Obeng-Mensah explained that the motive behind the fumigation was to support the Muslim communities to get the Mosques free from any virus and bacteria amid the corona virus era to enable them worship without contracting any virus. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Mr Obeng-Mensah has contributed in several ways to prevent the spread of the virus in the Constituency. Notable among his contributions include the distribution of veronica buckets, nose masks and hand sanitizers, and had been conducting public education on the safety protocols to help create awareness to prevent the spread of the virus. He said the welfare of the people was paramount to him, therefore the need to intervene whenever the people desired his support. Mr Obeng-Mensah had insured more than 300 grass root leaders of the Party in the Constituency even before he became a Parliamentary candidate of the Party for Abuakwa North Constituency. 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 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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Though some of the program has been modified in light of the novel virus, locals and visitors are also given ideas for how to celebrate at home with friends and family. Local companies such as Icewear, the outdoor clothing store specializing in Icelandic wool knitted sweaters, are looking forward to welcoming tourists again while also using the opportunity to refresh their approach to publicity in light of recent world events. "Our stores are open and we are looking forward to the festivities," Harpa Gretarsdottir of Icewear said. "And we're planning on sharing pictures on our social media account for those who won't be joining us this year." Icelandic National Day is held each year on June 17. Americans of Icelandic descent celebrate from afar. The Icelandic National Day festivities in Reykjavik are focused in the center of the city and kick off at 10 a.m. on June 17. The long summer days and Midnight Sun of Iceland aren't the reasons that June 17 was selected to commemorate independence from Denmark, however. The date for celebration was actually chosen as the birthday of Jon Sigursson, an Icelander of the era who pioneered the movement for independence. Some Icelandic families who moved away generations ago come back to celebrate the holiday and, even in the absence of the regular influx of tourists this year, Icelandic families around the world can celebrate from afar. To explain this global network of Icelandic ancestry, many Icelanders moved to North America after the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Askja in 1875. Between 1870 and 1900, roughly 15,000 people moved from Iceland to the west, accounting for 20% of the country's population at that time. More than 144,000 residents of Canada and the U.S. claim Icelandic ancestry today, most of them residing in communities with high concentrations of Icelanders, such as Gimli, Manitoba (and several other cities in the province); Markerville, Alberta; Washington state; Minnesota; and North Dakota. From local brands like Icewear to each member of the community near and far, Icelanders are ready to celebrate. About Icewear Icewear is an Icelandic retailer of wool products, souvenirs, and outdoor gear designed to suit the unpredictable Icelandic climate. The company got its start as a wool knitting factory in the 1970s and now has expanded to more than 15 stores. Learn more at https://www.icewear.is/. Media Contact: Harpa Gretarsdottir Phone: +354 555 7417 Email: [email protected] Related Images icelandic-national-day-is.jpg Icelandic National Day is celebrated around the world Icelandic National Day is held each year on June 17. Americans of Icelandic descent celebrate from afar. Related Links Icemart souvenirs SOURCE Icewear Related Links https://www.icewear.is New York Times editorial page director James Bennet resigned Sunday, four days after the newspaper published an op-ed by Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, calling for the use of Army troops to crush the mass protests against police violence that are sweeping the United States. Bennet told a staff meeting Friday that he had not read the column before it was published by the opinion pages he edits. His deputy editorial page editor, James Dao, who is responsible for the op-ed columns and edited Cottons fascist screed, has been removed from the editorial pages and reassigned to the Times newsroom. The Cotton op-ed, headlined, Send in the Troops, was an unambiguous call for massive military violence against the American people. Making an amalgam of the relatively small number of rioters and looters and the huge popular demonstrations against the police murder of George Floyd, Cotton declared: One thing above all else will restore order to our streets: an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers. Earlier in the week, Cotton issued a notorious statement calling on President Trump to send in the military, claiming that the (largely nonexistent) Antifa would be put to flight by the 101st Airborne Division and other heavily armed commando forces. No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters, he declared. Such an appeal to kill without mercy is a war crime under international law. But it was just this bloodthirstiness that attracted notice from the Times editors, who invited Cotton to submit a column and then published it in the newspapers print edition Thursday. The column provoked a rebellion among the newspapers staff, with more than 800 signing a letter of opposition. Bennet and publisher A. G. Sulzberger initially defended the decision on the grounds that, as Sulzberger put it, I believe in the principle of openness to a range of opinions, even those we may disagree with, and this piece was published in that spirit. Within hours, however, the ground had shifted, Sulzberger and Bennet declared that the op-ed column did not meet the standards set by the Times. Two days more, and Bennet was gone. After 15 years as a Times correspondent, including roles as White House correspondent and Jerusalem bureau chief, Bennet became editor-in-chief at The Atlantic, before returning to the Times in May 2016 as editorial page editor. The Bennet family is fully plugged-in to the national security establishment. Bennets father Douglas was a top State Department official, head of the Agency for International Developmenta notorious front for the CIAand later head of National Public Radio. His brother Michael is a US senator from Colorado, serving on the Finance Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence. From the beginning, Bennets role at the Times was to push those causes that were of greatest concern to the military-intelligence apparatus. The Times editorial page was the first to raise the charge that then Republican nominee Donald Trump was a Russian agent, in the op-ed column by Paul Krugman given the headline, The Siberian candidate. This set the tone for the role of the Times as the spearhead of the bogus anti-Russia campaign. It would be tedious, and now unnecessary, to retrace every step of Bennets work as one of the key opinion-setters for Wall Street and the CIA. It is possible to find that exposed in detail, and on almost a daily basis, in the articles posted on the World Socialist Web Site over the past four years. But it must be said that Bennet was a particularly unskilled manipulator of public opinion, a characteristic that was displayed in some of his personnel choices. A few highlights will suffice. The New York Times, the state and the making of an amalgam: Who is James Bennet? On July 26, 2016, the WSWS first took note of the role of the new editorial page editor in promoting the anti-Russia campaign. The New York Times indicts Trump for questioning the CIAs moral superiority On February 9, 2017, we replied to an editorial in which Bennet & Co. defended the moral principles of the CIA, a byword for conspiracy, assassination and torture. Why did the New York Times hire neoconservative columnist Bret Stephens? On May 31, 2017, we discussed the hiring of Bret Stephens, deputy editor of the ultra-right Wall Street Journal, as an op-ed columnist. Stephens had been editor of the right-wing Jerusalem Post from 2002 to 2004, overlapping with Bennets tenure as Times bureau chief in the Israeli capital. The New York Times and the strange case of Quinn Norton On February 22, 2018, we analyzed the hiring and near-instantaneous firing of blogger Quinn Norton as the editorial pages lead opinion writer on the power, culture and consequences of technology. Twitter users quickly circulated blog posts in which Norton described a neo-Nazi contributor to the fascist Daily Stormer as a personal friend, as well as messages containing homophobic slurs. Why did New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger meet with Trump? On August 6, 2018, we took note of a tweet in which Trump revealed a meeting with Sulzberger and Bennet at the White House, which all had agreed was to be off the record. Embarrassed by the disclosure, Sulzberger claimed he attended the meeting to raise concerns about the presidents deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric, but he gave no explanation of why his visit to the White House had to be carried out in secret. New York Times op-ed by anonymous Trump official gives implicit support to palace coup On September 6, 2018, we commented on the decision of the Times editorial page to publish an anonymous opinion piece by a supposed senior official in the Trump administration, claiming to be part of the anti-Trump resistance. This was a further effort to foster a palace coup in which Trump would be removed, or his administrations policies shifted towards a more direct intervention against Syria and Russia. New York Times laments stalled Venezuelan coup On April 5, 2019, we commented on the Times editorial bemoaning the evident failure of the Venezuelan military to overthrow the elected president, Nicolas Maduro, and install in his place Juan Guaido, a US-selected puppet largely unknown to the Venezuelan population, but immediately recognized by Washington as the legitimate head of government. The editorial board, headed by Bennet, offered a lament over the failure of the CIA and its Venezuelan assets to swiftly topple the Venezuelan government, we wrote. New York Times publishes anti-Semitic caricature of Harvey Weinstein No sketch of Bennets four years at the helm would be complete without reference to the publication of an editorial cartoon, which, as we wrote on February 26, 2020, was a caricature of Harvey Weinstein, the film producer convicted Monday of felony sex crimes, with overtly antisemitic overtones. Weinstein is Jewish. The use of an image clearly modeled on those of the Third Reich was all the more despicable given that Bennets mother is a Holocaust survivor. Another deputy editorial page editor, Kathleen Kingsbury, former editorial page editor of the Boston Globe, becomes acting editorial page editor through the November election, according to a statement issued on behalf of Sulzberger. The five-month interim period might appear odd but is easily explained: editing the editorial page of the New York Times is a position of enormous importance to the US ruling elite, much like being CIA director or secretary of state, and requiring the same vetting by the military-intelligence apparatus. It is logical, therefore, that a new, permanent editor will be selected in step with the formation of the new administration in Washington. A 27-year-old Worcester man who smuggled protected turtles and a salamander into the United States pleaded guilty federal charges this week. Nathan Boss pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of smuggling wildlife into the United States, two counts of smuggling wildlife out of the United States and making a false statement to a federal agent. Boss will be sentenced in September. Federal authorities began investigating Boss when he lied to officials about wildlife being illegally imported into the country. Investigators then intercepted a package addressed to a Shelton Boss on Sept. 19 when x-ray machines at JFK International Airport detected possible turtles, according to court documents. The package was sent from Hong Kong and was headed to an address in Worcester. The package was found to contain four black-breasted leaf turtles, a species included in the Convention for Trade in Endangered Species and Wild Fauna, an international agreement joined by the U.S. that governs the importation of designated wildlife, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. Specifically, any black-breasted leaf turtle imported into the United States must be declared and approved by Fish and Wildlife Service before any shipment can be received. Toy trucks were also inside the package. The shipment had been identified as sending toy trucks. Boss was caught on surveillance cameras picking up the package. Authorities said Boss also illegally imported an injurious species of salamander, which can carry a fungal disease and is prohibited from importation into the United States. Investigators said Boss was also illegally exporting undeclared wildlife to Hong Kong and Sweden. Authorities began looking into Boss in November 2017 when customs agents at JFK Airport noticed through an X-ray machine a box may contain a reptile, court documents said. The package was addressed to Robert Boss in Oakham. Another package in 2017 was leaving Worcester and destined for Hong Kong, but agents at JFK Airport checked and inspected it as well. Agents found three white tubs with lids. Inside each tub was a white sock. Inside each sock was a live Eastern box turtle. Through the database, address and Google searches, authorities found Nates Newts on Facebook with the same address listed on the first package found at JFK. The page is no longer active. BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) today announced it will participate in the BMO 2020 Prescriptions for Success Healthcare Conference, which is being held as a virtual event, on June 23, 2020. Encompass Health Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Doug Coltharp will participate in a fireside chat on Tuesday, June 23 at 8:30 a.m. CST/9:30 a.m. EST. The presentation will be webcast live and will be available at http://investor.encompasshealth.com by clicking on an available link. About Encompass Health As a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 135 hospitals, 245 home health locations, and 83 hospice locations in 38 states and Puerto Rico, the Company is committed to delivering high-quality, cost-effective, integrated care across the healthcare continuum. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com, or follow us on our newsroom, Twitter and Facebook. Media Contact: Hillary Carnel | 205-970-5912 [email protected] Investor Relations Contact: Crissy Carlisle | 205-970-5860 [email protected] SOURCE Encompass Health Corp. Related Links http://www.encompasshealth.com Albany Even as the COVID-19 pandemic appears to ease and businesses are once again starting to open up, supporters and opponents of New Yorks recently-passed ban on single-use plastic bags are digging in and preparing for what could be a protracted regulatory court fight. The longer the plastic bag ban is not enforced the harder it will be to get stores to comply with the law, said Judith Enck, a former regional EPA administrator and president of Beyond Plastics, which aims to remove petroleum products like single-use bags from the waste stream. Enck and other environmentalists on June 5 wrote to state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos urging him to start enforcing the new ban as fast as he can. We urge DEC to issue a clear public statement that stores must comply with the law after the judge issues his decision, Enck wrote in her letter, referring to a legal issue that has stalled enforcement of the ban. The plastic bag industry disagrees, though, citing the resurgence of plastic bags during the COVID-19 pandemic. Plastic products and bags, in particular have proved essential in keeping workers and shoppers safe throughout the pandemic. When the court decides the fate of the ban, its likely we will be once again needing to fix a broken law, said Matt Seaholm, executive director of the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance. The ban on single-use plastic bags went on the books in March. While supermarkets stopped using the bags at the start of March, they brought them back in light of the pandemic, amid fears of contagion from reusable cloth bags. But it was a court case, rather than the pandemic, that led to a delay in enforcing the ban. Long Island-based bag maker PolyPak Industries sued the state, saying the ban would put them out of business. Amid pandemic-related court delays, the ban was pushed back to June 15. That date triggers a 30-day notification period before the ban would start being enforced. The DEC has said they would initially stress education, rather than punishment, to enforce the ban once it is back in force. Plastic bag makers and supporters such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute say single use is a safer alternative to reusable cloth bags that could harbor bacteria or viruses. Environmentalists, though, say the cloth bags should simply be washed, like any other piece of laundry. And by the plastic makers logic, they say supermarkets should probably ban customers with dirty clothes since they, too, could harbor pathogens. In the meantime, Beyond Plastics ran a survey of New Yorkers about the use of these bags. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Almost 100 respondents to Beyond Plastics survey said that most major supermarket chains, including Price Chopper, Hannaford and others were continuing to use the bags. One East Greenbush shopper in the survey said the Hannaford store there is using plastic unless customers ask for paper. Another shopper in Halfmoon said the Walmart in that area brought the bags back when the pandemic started. And a Price Chopper patron said the plastic bags were gone around early March but have since returned. Other retailers including Rite Aid and the Instacart delivery service have been using the bags as well, according to the survey. More for you Amid pandemic fears, Capital Region grocery stores revert to plastic bags Officials from both Hannaford and Price Chopper said they would comply with the law when told to. They will comply with all state and local laws, said Hannaford spokeswoman Caitlin Cortelyou. Price Chopper spokeswoman Mona Golub said, Our plans will come into play when the 30 days notice is given. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU As many as 26 members of a family have tested positive for coronavirus in Rajasthan's Jaipur. According to ANI, the state administration has said that a week back, a person had tested positive for COVID-19. The patient was isolated and the samples of his 26 family members were taken. Representational Image/AP "Last night their reports came and all have tested positive. They have been shifted to a hospital," Dr Narottam Sharma, CMHO Jaipur was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. According to local media reports, the family resides in the city's Subhash Chowk area. The pink city has been one of the worst-hit areas in the desert state. Seven days back, a person had tested positive for #COVID19. We isolated the patient & took samples of all 26 members of the patient's family. Last night their report came & all have tested positive. They have been shifted to a hospital: Dr Narottam Sharma, CMHO Jaipur #Rajasthan pic.twitter.com/gBRR2KFd6Y ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2020 Meanwhile, the coronavirus death toll in Rajasthan reached 251 on Tuesday, while the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state crossed the 11,000-mark after 144 more people tested positive for the virus, officials said. Five more deaths due to coronavirus were recorded in the state, they said. Two deaths were reported from Jaipur and one each from Jodhpur and Ajmer, while one patient from another state succumbed to coronavirus, the officials said. With 144 new cases, the COVID-19 tally in the state rose to 11,020, they said. The fresh cases include 61 from Jaipur, 30 from Bharatpur, 11 from Alwar, eight from Jodhpur, seven from Churu, six from Kota, five from Sikar, four from Barmer, three from Dausa, two from Jalore and Jhalawar, and one each from Bikaner, Dungarpur Sriganganagar and Swai Madhopur, and one patient from another state. The Housing Authority of the Birmingham District Board of Commissioners Monday voted to end a partnership with Church of the Highlands. Commissioners cited recent controversy with Pastor Chris Hodges and social media activity. Commissioners agreed that Pastor Hodges views do not reflect those of HABD and its residents; and Hodges values are not in line with those of HABD residents. HABD and Campus of Hope staff will continue to work with other faith-based organizations in the community to identify resources that will replace the services that were provided by COTH, HABD said in a statement Monday afternoon. COTH has not responded to requests for comment. HABD has since 2017 had a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the church, Alabamas largest, for resident outreach programs and social services at its Campus of Hope located in the Marks Village Public Housing community. These outreach programs and social services included mentoring, community support groups and faith and social service activities that promote volunteerism. These services were provided at nine of HABDs public housing communities. HABD did not pay COTH for their services. The vote to cancel the memorandum with COTH will also end services provided by The Dream Center and Christ Health Center, which are ministries within the COTH. Hodges came under fire for following and liking social media posts by Charlie Kirk, president of the conservative non-profit Turning Point USA, a high school and college campus organization often controversial for its political stances. He issued an apology to his church on May 31. HABD greatly appreciates the many resources provided for our residents by COTH staff and volunteers over the years. Severing this partnership does not diminish the great work and support from COTH, which has made a difference in the lives of countless residents, HABD officials said. CLEVELAND, Ohio The Bureau of Motor Vehicles will resume some in-person driving tests June 12 at six locations around the state. That will be followed by the wide rollout of driver examination station skills testing in the rest of the states BMV offices beginning June 16. All testing will be by appointment only, which can be made online. The six sites opening June 12 are: 8210 County Rd. 140, Suite C, Findlay, Ohio 45840 (Hancock County) 22133 Rockside Road, Bedford, Ohio 44146 (Cuyahoga County) 990 Morse Road, Suite B, Columbus, Ohio 43229 (Franklin County) 873 East Main Street, Newark, Ohio 43055 (Licking County) 502 McCarty Lane, Suite 3, Jackson, Ohio 45640 (Jackson County) 10940 Hamilton Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45231 (Hamilton County) The BMV will be reaching out to drivers who had their tests canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, per a statement. Under guidelines from the Ohio Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control, driver examiners will score prospective licensees from outside the car. Gov. Mike DeWine ordered BMV facilities closed March 18 to help blunt the spread of coronavirus. Several offices remained open for the purpose of issuing commercial drivers licenses. Offices reopened May 26 with under health guidelines including social distancing and requiring employees to wear masks. As part of its coronavirus response package, the legislature extended most BMV deadlines including license and ID card renewal, registration and temporary permit expiration to either 90 days after the state of emergency ends or Dec. 1, whichever comes first. Most BMV services have migrated online since the pandemic started. Read more cleveland.com politics coverage: Ohio House GOP spent almost $1.6M on ads in final weeks of 2020 primary, records show Mapping Ohios 38,837; updates on the slowing trends At least 2,404 Ohioans have died with coronavirus, up 27: Monday update Northeast Ohio bars, restaurants file suit seeking to overturn states social-distancing regulations 17 Ohio GOP senators sponsoring bill to prohibit state officials from making coronavirus school reopening plans Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB) will release Gujarat Board class 10th result on Tuesday (June 9) at 8:00 am on its official website gseb.org. Students who have appeared in the GSEB SSC examinations can check their results online or by sending SMS in this format to get their scorecard on their phones SSC SEAT NUMBER to 56263. The Board exams were conducted in Gujarat from March 5-21, 2020 and the results for GSEB HSC Science have been released, whereas GSEB Arts and Commerce stream results are still awaited. It is to be noted that this year results would only be made available through digital mode due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Here's how to check the results online: 1. Visit the official website at gseb.org 2. Click on the link that reads, GSEB SSC result 2020 3. Key in your roll number and other log in the asked details 4. Gujarat SSC result 2020 will be displayed on the screen 5. Download the results and take its print out for future reference The board had declared the GSEB class 12 science results on May 17 and a total of 71.34 percent of students cleared the exam. Over 11 lakh students appeared in the SSC exam this year will get to know their results today. BP is slashing 10,000 jobs as the coronavirus crisis sparks a brutal clear-out of senior management and white-collar staff. In the latest sign of the corporate carnage inflicted by the pandemic, the FTSE 100 super-major's boss Bernard Looney told staff almost 15 per cent of the workforce will be axed. Around a fifth of the job cuts will take place in Britain, where BP employs around 15,000. Brutal: BP boss Bernard Looney told staff almost 15 per cent of the workforce will be axed This amounts to about 2,000 redundancies in the UK, with many of them senior office-based positions. Around a third of the 400 most senior staff at the firm which has about 70,000 employees globally face redundancy. In an email to staff, Looney explained BP is losing 'millions every day' after the coronavirus crisis sparked a slump in global demand for oil, blowing a huge hole in its finances. The majority of people affected will be in office-based jobs. We are protecting the front-line of the company The 50-year-old Irishman, who took over in February, said: 'The oil price has plunged well below the level we need to turn a profit. We are am talking millions of dollars, every day.' He added: 'The majority of people affected will be in office-based jobs. We are protecting the front-line of the company and, as always, prioritising safe and reliable operations.' Senior employees have also been told they will not get pay rises until March 31, with cash bonuses also unlikely to be paid this year. The redundancies will be made by the end of the year. The global Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a dramatic fall in demand for oil and a collapse in oil prices. Lockdowns around the world have forced households to stay at home, and businesses to temporarily shut down, meaning people have not been using their cars as much, while planes have been grounded. Oil prices fell to less than $20 a barrel in the depths of the crisis, less than a third of the $66 it cost at the start of the year. It is now trading at around $41 a barrel, with the oil industry warning 30,000 jobs could be lost in the UK. This dire backdrop which Looney has described as 'the most brutal environment for oil and gas businesses in decades' has forced him to accelerate plans to slash costs and reorganise the 111-year-old oil business. BP's share price nosedived as the coronavirus crash hit but has surged since late March After taking over from Bob Dudley, Looney vowed to set BP on course to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, gradually shifting away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. But he said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has only deepened his commitment to shrinking the oil giant's carbon footprint to zero. The immediate priority has been to stop haemorrhaging money. As the crisis escalated, Looney set out plans in April to reduce spending by a quarter this year a reduction of 2.3billion and to enforce similar cuts next year. But in the memo to staff sent yesterday, the chief executive warned: 'We will likely have to go even further.' He said: 'It was always part of the plan to make BP a leaner, faster moving and lower carbon company. Then the Covid-19 pandemic took hold. There has been widespread economic fallout, along with consequences for our industry and company.' BP plunged to a loss of more than half a billion pounds in the first three months of the year but said it would still pay a 1.7billion dividend to its shareholders. Arch rival Shell, however, followed BP just days later by cutting its dividend for the first time since the Second World War. WASHINGTON - The federal government failed for nearly two decades to properly guard against the cybersecurity risks posed by Chinese government-owned telecoms operating in the United States, a Senate report released Tuesday morning finds. That resulted in four of China's largest such telecom companies being able to operate subsidiaries here with almost no oversight, according to the report from the Senate Homeland Security Committee's investigations panel. It might also have allowed them to help the Chinese government spy on reams of data from U.S. companies by routing their phone and Internet traffic through China, the report finds. The report is the latest in a series of reviews by Congress and elsewhere pointing out shoddy and haphazard U.S., preparation for the cybersecurity threats posed by China's rise to global power. In a 2019 report, the subcommittee, led by Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Tom Carper, D-Del., slammed U.S. companies including Equifax and Marriott for not protecting themselves against a barrage of Chinese data theft. In telecommunications, in particular, U.S. companies largely abandoned building the hardware that will run the next generation of super-fast telecom networks known as 5G. As a result, American officials have been fighting a rear-guard action for the past two years trying to stop China's Huawei from dominating the global market. That process was run by just a handful of people at the departments of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security that advised the Federal Communications Commission. The informal panel dubbed "Team Telecom" typically conducted years-long security reviews that FCC commissioners described as an "inextricable black hole." The panel also rarely followed up once those reviews were complete. For example, the group created security agreements to limit the risk of two Chinese government-owned telecoms' U.S. operations - China Telecom Americas in 2007 and ComNet in 2009 - but did little to ensure the companies were abiding by them. The agreements authorized Team Telecom to conduct inspections of the companies' U.S. operations, but the group only conducted two such inspections for each company over more than a decade. And none of those inspections occurred before 2017. Team Telecom never entered into a security agreement with another Chinese firm, China Unicom Americas, and so "ha[d] no oversight authority to assess the company's operations in the United States," the report notes. The group finally did recommend in 2019 that the FCC block another major Chinese telecom, China Mobile, from operating in the United States. But it was only after a seven-year investigation, and it was the first time Team Telecom had made such a recommendation. The panel similarly recommended banning China Telecom Americas last month, citing concerns that its state-owned parent company poses unacceptable risks of Chinese spying. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April that replaced the informal Team Telecom system with a far more stringent review process led by the attorney general. The new group is tasked with reviewing any foreign telecom requests to operate in the United States and reviewing any existing licenses that pose cybersecurity or national security risks. The FCC also wrote to China Telecom Americas, China Unicom Americas, ComNet and another Chinese firm, Pacific Networks, in April demanding they explain why they shouldn't be banned over the same Chinese spying concerns as China Mobile. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the letter reflects the commission's "deep concern . . . about these companies' vulnerability to the exploitation, influence, and control" of the Chinese government. "We simply cannot take a risk and hope for the best when it comes to the security of our networks," he said. The panel wants Congress to mandate the government review all foreign telecom licenses periodically. It also wants the licenses to automatically expire if they don't pass muster on national security grounds. Now, the licenses effectively exist forever unless the FCC revokes them. Lawmakers also want Congress to set firm deadlines for how long reviews can last, though the report doesn't offer a specific time frame. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. president (Photo : pixabay) KEY POINTS Gardner says former Trump administration officials speaking out against the president's policies now are doing too little, too late Gardner says he's disappointed to see a U.S. president fomenting divisions within the country White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says the president has no regrets about the tactics used to clear Lafayette Square for his photo op in front of St. John's Church Anthony Gardner, the former U.S. ambassador to the European Union, on Monday compared President Trump to former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, an ally of Adolf Hitler, saying he was disappointed to see a U.S. president openly fomenting and inciting racial tensions to fire up his base. Advertisement In an interview with Politico, the former Obama administration diplomat, said he's glad former Trump supporters are finally speaking out against the president's actions, but they should have said something sooner. "For a couple of years, I was troubled by many things that Donald Trump shares with Benito Mussolini, someone my Italian grandparents fled from in 1938," Gardner said. Gardner, who supports former Vice President Joe Biden for president, likened former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who wrote a scathing op-ed about Trump's call to use the military to quell mostly peaceful racial injustice protests that have swept the country, to a "collaborator" for having served in Trump's cabinet for so long. Mattis, who resigned his Pentagon post Dec. 31, 2018, was one of several former officials to speak out after last Monday's incident where federal police cleared peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square with tear gas and rubber bullets so Trump could walk across the street and pose with a Bible in from of a historic church. "I'll be very honest here, and undiplomatic: I don't welcome those statements in the sense that those people served this president -- and to me quite bluntly they are accomplices," Gardner said, adding, "So when you choose to work for this kind of administration, which showed its true colors very early on, at some point you abet the policies even if afterwards you decide that they're terrible, that the man you were serving is a terrible person." Trump, himself, has denied being an admirer of the World War II Italian dictator even though he tweeted a Mussolini quote during the 2016 presidential campaign: "It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep." He defended it as an "interesting" quote, saying it didn't really matter who said it. "Park Police acted as they felt they needed to at that time in response," she said. "We stand by those actions." McEnany said last Monday's demonstration wasn't all that peaceful, citing video that showed a demonstrator carving a piece of cement and a fire set at St. John's Church. >>> Six more COVID-19 patients recover, raising the total to 95% The National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control announced today that nine more COVID-19 patients have made a full recovery and were released from three hospitals across the country on the same day. The recovered patients have lifted the countrys total number of recovered cases to 316 out of total 331 confirmed cases, making up over 95.4% of the total COVID-19 patients in Vietnam. They include eight Vietnamese patients, six of whom are at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, having returned to Vietnam from Russia, two at the Thai Binh Province General Hospital, along with one 37-year-old British man at the Cu Chi COVID-19 Treatment Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. All of the patients have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 more than once. Currently, they have no fever, are not coughing, have well-ventilated lungs and are in a stable condition. They will continue to be isolated and monitored for the next 14 days. Among the remaining 15 patients, six are being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. The majority of them have stable health. To date, 49 out of total 50 foreign patients with COVID-19 have recovered and been released from treatment facilities across the country. Only Patient 91, a British pilot, is still in a critical condition and undergoing treatment at the Cho Ray General Hospital in HCM City, following his successful COVID-19 treatment at the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases earlier. Health officials say his condition has improved and was taken off life support last week. On June 8 morning, Vietnam reported two new imported COVID-19 cases, bringing the countrys total cases to 331. The country has detected no new infections among the community for the last 53 days and no fatalities have been reported so far. MEMPHIS, TN / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / ATWEC Technologies, Inc. (OTC PINK:ATWT), a US-based technology company specializing in child safety has signed a distribution agreement with ICF Industries Inc. ("ICF") to distribute its newly developed KX-4 advanced child safety system and its KV-X UV Sterilization System, which are safety devices that protect children when riding on school buses and vans. ICF's President, Cesar Herrera, said, "I am pleased to market the ATWEC products, especially to our contacts in California. I have already spoken with representatives of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and they are eager to test the products in their school buses and vans. We believe the Kiddie Systems, for tracking children, and the KV-X UV Sterilization Systems for sterilizing the vehicle's environment, are a powerful combination that every school official needs to consider." In addition to the distribution agreement, ICF has earned approximately $100,000 in fees from ATWEC for introductions and marketing services provided by its Executive Industries division and its wholly owned subsidiary, Novus Ordo Industries Inc. ICF, Executive Industries and Novus Ordo are all part of Here To Serve Holding Corp. (OTC PINK:HTSC). ATWEC's Corporate Secretary, Darnell Stitts, said, "ICF's contact list made it easy for us to enter a long-term agreement with the company. We are pleased that ICF Industries recognizes the need for our newly advanced KV-4 child tracking systems to be installed on school buses and vans. We are also pleased that ICF has joined us to combat bacteria and pathogens on school buses and daycare vehicles by co-marketing our newly unveiled KV-X. Our voice prompted KV-X system is designed to sterilize and clean each bus or van vehicle using our UV lighting product. ICF management has now steered us in the right direction to thoroughly commercialize the KV-4 and KV-X systems in the 7 states where there are already mandates on child safety equipment requirements. We also want to enter non-mandated states where this security standard must be met for the safety of our children." The KV-X system utilizes ultraviolet light to kill airborne bacteria and low-level ozone to sanitize the surface. ATWEC's philosophy is to make a healthy environment with safety as its premise. About Here To Serve Holding Corp: Here to Serve Holding Corp. (OTC:HTSC) operates as three entities: Novus Ordo Industries Inc., ICF Industries Inc., and Executive Industries which operates as a division of HTSC. Its website is www.heretoserve.tech. Novus Ordo Industries Inc. is a California based licensed construction company that has been granted an exclusive sales and distribution contract from Beaver Creek Plastics Ltd. ( DBA Logix Inc.) in both Los Angeles and Riverside counties. Working with strategic partners, Novus Ordo Industries Inc. provides its clients architectural, engineering, and construction services for the custom building of residential homes, commercial properties, hotels and cannabis facilities using Logix ICF (insulated concrete forms). ? ICF Industries Inc. is a distribution, consulting and sales corporation that supplies ICF construction material throughout North America and is marketed under the CannaBlock trade name. ICF Industries Inc. also distributes a diverse array of industrial products such as stuccoes, plasters, environmental remediation, CBD isolate powders, hemp flower, hemp biomass, full and broad-spectrum CBD concentrates and distillates. ICF Industries Inc. also distributes technology equipment along with medical supplies from strategically designated vendors. ? Executive Industries, a division of ICF Industries Inc., offers corporate advisory, consulting and marketing services to both public and privately owned companies. Executive Industries helps entities with corporate strategy, negotiation, corporate structure, marketing and executive management decisions. Executive Industries facilitates an identifiable plan to enhance market valuation and strategically raise the capital needed to execute complex public or private business models. About ATWEC Technologies, Inc. (OTC PINK:ATWT): ATWEC Technologies, Inc. is a child safety and security technology company, headquartered in Memphis, TN, in business since 1979. ATWT has developed three unique child safety devices which protect children while they are being transported, both to and from schools, events, and homes, and gives parents and administrators 'peace of mind'. ATWT has been issued patent number 7,646,288, B2 for its KV-3 system by the US patent office, and its business model is associated with legislation designed to mandate these systems for school and other vehicles, on a state-by-state basis. The KV-3 and the Kiddie Alert backup systems are currently being sold to customers across the globe. The company recently announced their new "state of the art" KV-4 platform which uses RFID technology to ideally track children on their vehicle to and from home. The company also recently announced its KV-X product which used ultra-violet rays to sanitize a bus or van from bacteria and pathogens. The Company trades on the OTC Markets under the symbol "ATWT", and the Company's website is www.atwec.com. NOTE: Certain statements made in this press release are forward looking statements within the scope of the Private Securities Act of 1995. Such statements involve known and unknown risks. Uncertainties and other mitigating factors may influence desired outcomes. Such risks, uncertainties and/or other mitigating factors include but are not limited to new economic conditions, risks associated in product development, market acceptance of new products and continuing product demand, level of competition and other factors both known and unknown as described within this Company's reports and other filings. Contact: ATWEC Technologies Inc. 901- 690- 2471 901- 289- 2621 admin@atwec.com SOURCE: ATWEC Technologies, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/593284/ICF-Industries-Inc-Signs-Agreement-with-ATWEC-Technologies-for-Distribution-of-its-Products The defence and Crown attorney didnt agree on the exact facts of the case, but a man received time in jail for his second impaired driving charge on Monday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us The defence and Crown attorney didnt agree on the exact facts of the case, but a man received time in jail for his second impaired driving charge on Monday. Darian Kennedy, 25, pleaded guilty to operating a motor vehicle within two hours of having a blood-alcohol concentration above the legal limit. He admits that his blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit of 0.08 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, at between 0.150 and 0.170 mg of alcohol. Crown attorney Deidre Badcock told the Brandon court that on June 12, 2019, at approximately 12:30 a.m., RCMP received a report of a potentially unsafe driver. The caller said a car north of Brandon on Highway 10 was not driving at highway speeds. An RCMP officer found the vehicle already on the shoulder of the road at 12:37 a.m., Badcock said. Police saw a man walking southbound from the car and then ran into the ditch when police drove by. A second officer arrived and said he saw Kennedy in the drivers seat with a "deer in the headlights" look on his face. He then turned the car off and dropped the keys onto the passenger seat. When the police officer went to the cars window, he saw an empty beer can in the back seat and the car had a strong smell of liquor coming from it. Badcock said Kennedy swore when he saw another RCMP officer arrive on scene. Kennedy told the officer he pulled the car over because two people in the back seat were fighting. He also said he had drank within the last hour. Police caught up with the passengers, who said the car ran out of gas approximately five minutes before police arrived. Kennedy was arrested and taken back to the RCMP detachment for a breath sample, where he then denied that he was driving. "Police note some strange behaviour on him once he gets into the police vehicle," Badcock said. Time to be served intermittently on weekends "He requests to use the washroom, and then police see him licking toilet paper while hes in there. He then tells police hes going to be difficult while doing the breath sample." Kennedy told police he has medical issues, and he appeared to be spitting rather than blowing into the breathalyzer machine, Badcock said. He eventually did provide two samples, but during the process he said he had breathing problems. The Crown said police had some concern for his health, so they called Emergency Medical Services. Kennedy then laid down on the floor saying he couldnt breathe and joked with police. Badcock suggested a sentence on the low end of the 30-day mandatory minimum sentence for a second impaired driving charge. "Drinking and driving is a very dangerous thing," she said. "Its one of the leading causes of death in Canada." Defence lawyer Rhea Majewski said she disagreed with some of the facts, mainly how her client arrived on the side of the road that night. She said he had a fight with his wife that night and went to a few bars, including Tavern United, where he had two beers and a meal, Browns Socialhouse and The Keyrock. He bought a pack of 15 beers and was preparing to drive home. Majewski said he met two people at the bar with whom he was going to drive home as one of the two people offered to give him a place to stay the night. At the time Kennedy left the bar, Majewski said he wasnt drunk. During the ride, the two passengers in the back got into a fight, so he pulled over when he ran out of gas. Kennedy says he had been on the side of the road for approximately 30 minutes when police arrived. "We dont accept that the description of the car that was called in by 911 was of Mr. Kennedys car, because his car had been out of gas, we submit, for a significant period of time," Majewski said. "Other than that, it doesnt make much difference to the circumstances, at the end the day he was drunk." After the car ran out of gas, Majewski said, Kennedy shotgunned a few beers, which is why he was drunk when police arrived. She said Kennedy accepts that what he did was wrong. She asked for the mandatory minimum sentence of 30 days in jail, so he can keep his job and continue to see his children. Judge Donovan Dvorak sentenced him to 30 days in jail served intermittently on weekends, a two-year ban from driving and probation when he serves time in jail. "Most people never come before the court for an impaired driving charge," Dvorak said while sentencing Kennedy. "The vast majority of people get the message that drinking and driving dont mix and it can be a fatal blend for the drivers themselves, but also for innocent people who you may come across its very concerning and its very rare for somebody come to the court a second time." dmay@brandonsun.com Twitter: @DrewMay_ A criminal case was opened to probe into the act of terrorism. Ten Ukrainian servicemen were injured in a blast as a Spartan armored personnel carrier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit an unidentified explosive device in the town of Avdiyivka, Donetsk region, on Tuesday morning. Law enforcement agencies opened a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 258 (an act of terrorism) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine to probe into the incident, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine said. Read alsoOne Ukrainian soldier wounded amid 11 enemy attacks in Donbas on June 8 The pretrial investigation is being supervised by the Krasnoarmiysk prosecutor's office. The investigators established that while passing by Avdiyivka Coke and Chemical Plant's Cultural Center, the Spartan vehicle, which was the trail car in a convoy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, exploded at about 09:30 Kyiv time on June 9, 2020. The servicemen who sustained mine-blast injuries received first aid. The KrAZ Spartan is a locally assembled armored personnel carrier based on Ford F-550 pickup truck chassis. Puducherry: More than 30 Tamil fringe outfits here on Wednesday announced a 12-hour bandh in the union territory on Friday, condemning the violence against Tamils in Karnataka in the wake of Cauvery water row. A joint meeting of the outfits, including Tamizhar Desiya Iyyakkam, Makkal Vazhuvurimai Iyakkam and Tamizhaga Makkal Vazhuvurimai Katchi, decided to observe the bandh, Coordinator of the Joint Action Committee of the outfits, R Azhagiri, said in a release here. He demanded a special session of the union territory Assembly to adopt a resolution condemning Karnataka government for failure to protect Tamils. The outfits urged the transport operators, auto and cinema house owners, industrialists educational institutions and others to extend cooperation for the bandh. A meeting of the Puducherry Traders Federation also condemned the violence in Karnataka and extended its support to the bandh. Federation President Sivasankaran in a release said all merchants, business centres and traders would close their business premises on September 16. He also sought the Centres intervention to ensure the safety of Tamils and demanded compensation for the loss of properties in the violence. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. When U.S. Rep. John Katko saw the video of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on George Floyd's neck, the former federal prosecutor has no doubt about what he watched. "My reaction to that video is that it's murder one," Katko, R-Camillus, said. "I've prosecuted a lot of death penalty cases and a lot of homicide cases. That's absolutely an intentional killing." The killing of Floyd sparked nationwide protests, including in Auburn and Syracuse, and renewed calls to address police brutality. But the message of "Black Lives Matter" demonstrations isn't limited to reforming law enforcement practices. There are clarion calls to combat systemic racism in education, health care, housing and other aspects of government. In interviews with The Citizen, the three candidates in the 24th Congressional District Katko and Democratic candidates Dana Balter and Francis Conole shared their ideas for police reform and addressing systemic racism. While they represent different political parties, there is general agreement that change is needed. KATKO There are two notable facts that separate Katko from his would-be Democratic challengers: He's held a law enforcement position as a prosecutor and, as a member of Congress, he's already in a position to play a role in developing police reform legislation and other proposals to combat racism. Last week, Katko participated in a call with House Republican leaders that focused on policy ideas. He, along with other members who have law enforcement backgrounds, provided feedback. One of the proposals Katko is supporting is a greater emphasis on community policing. The goal of community policing is for law enforcement agencies to build better relationships with the areas they serve. Another concept supported by Katko is having enforceable standards for police officers. He wants to ensure there is a process to identify and punish police departments that aren't abiding by law enforcement standards. He noted that there were 17 prior complaints against the police officer who has been charged with killing Floyd. "If departments aren't adhering to those standards and if officers that are bad apples are not being rooted out, we need to find ways to make sure that they are rooted out," Katko said. When asked about how he would use his platform to address systemic racism, Katko said he's "already using it." He mentioned that he's assisting fellow Republicans by preparing them for upcoming House Judiciary Committee hearings. He provided them with examples of bad police officers. He was aware of the cases, he explained, because "I prosecuted some." As an assistant U.S. attorney, Katko prosecuted four Schenectady police officers who were convicted on corruption charges. 'Be George Floyd's legacy': Demonstration for racial justice held in Auburn AUBURN Speaking in front of a packed crowd, Melody Smith Johnson gave a response to the ph But Katko didn't limit his accounts to the bad actors within police departments. "I also gave them stories and made them understand how many great cops I've worked with and how many great examples there are out there," he said. Katko supports the ongoing protests that are happening in central New York and across the country as long as they are peaceful. He has been critical of rioting and thefts that occurred in some cities last week. However, many of the protests have been peaceful and focused on the need for reforms. While Katko hasn't attended the protests, he says he's been speaking to elected officials, community leaders and groups. "We've had a good dialogue and we will continue to," he said. BALTER When Balter spoke to The Citizen, she had returned home from a Syracuse rally where they either took a knee or laid on the ground for 8 minutes and 46 seconds the same amount of time that the Minneapolis police officer kneeled on George Floyd's neck. It wasn't her first appearance at a local protest. She was there for the first demonstration outside the Onondaga County Justice Center. The protests are important, Balter said, because it's how the people demand change from their government. "We also have to exert pressure on the people we put in office to get them to do what we want them to do," she added. As one of two Democrats vying for the party's nomination in the June 23 primary election, Balter thinks that a member of Congress can play a major role in advocating for measures that combat police brutality and aim to end systemic racism. "I believe very much that it is your responsibility when you are in elected office and you have a platform and a microphone at your disposal to use it, to shine a light on injustice, to speak truth and to institute that change," she said. To achieve racial justice, Balter outlined a multi-pronged approach. It includes ensuring children of color have access to educational opportunities and environmental policies that protect marginalized communities from pollution and other hazards. Affordable housing and ending residential segregation, she argued, will provide people of color with stable homes in integrated communities. When examining policy, Balter believes it's important to review proposals through the "lens of racial justice" because racism is systemic and institutionalized in the U.S. On criminal justice reform, Balter supports banning private prisons and detention centers, ending mass incarceration, legalizing marijuana and expunging criminal records of those with previous marijuana-related convictions. For police departments, she wants more transparency in police union contracts and empowering citizen review boards to provide accountability and oversight. A national use of force policy is needed, Balter said, and she agrees with calls to demilitarize police departments. "Those things don't solve this problem, but they are all necessary and they will make a huge difference," she said. CONOLE Conole has attended at least one of the Syracuse protests after the killing of George Floyd. As a white man, he acknowledged that he will "never fully know" the pains that racism has caused. But he wants to be part of the solution. He thinks it's important that those in leadership positions stand up against racism. "We really need to fight for the policies that address these inequities and invest in the empowerment of our black and brown communities," Conole said. Like Balter, he supports a national use of force policy for police agencies, the use of body cameras and increased training and accountability. Like Katko, he endorsed community policing. Calling criminal justice reform the "civil rights fight of our time," Conole said he supports ending mass incarceration and investing in alternatives to incarceration that focus on mental health services and treatment. To combat systemic racism, he wants to address inequities in health care. He cited that as one reason he supports expanding the Affordable Care Act and creating a public option for uninsured Americans. And he would advocate for continued funding of federally qualified health centers. Conole would expand opportunities in education by pushing for investments in support services and career and technology programs. He thinks there should be more federal funding for schools. Financial services would be a priority, too. Conole said many minority-owned small businesses struggle to secure loans and access credit. He supports the creation of a federal fund that would invest in small businesses in low-income and minority communities. "The challenges of these inequities is ubiquitous," he said. "We got a lot of work to do." Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding. Love 0 Funny 0 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. Munroe Bergdorf has created a new relationship with L'Oreal, pictured in December 2019 in London. (Getty Images) Munroe Bergdorf has announced she has smoothed things over with L'Oreal after previously accusing the cosmetics brand of racial hypocrisy. For those who missed it, last week the model called out L'Oreal Paris for sharing a supportive Black Lives Matter post to Instagram. Having been championed as L'Oreal's first transgender model to appear in a British advertising campaign, Bergdorf was fired by the cosmetics company in 2017 after she spoke about racism online. And following an Instagram post offering support to the BLM movement the 32-year-old shared her fury that some brands seem to be using the tragic death of George Floyd as a PR opportunity. However, having spoken directly to LOreal, Bergdorf has shared an update on the situation to Twitter in which she revealed that the beauty brand had apologised and offered her a new role as a diversity and inclusion ambassador. Read more: Bride and groom join Black Lives Matter protest straight after wedding I have spoken with @loreal, please swipe for full statement. Thank you everyone for having my back with this matter over the past three years, it hasn't been easy. Looking forward to new beginnings and a new positive relationship with the L'Oreal team. Munroe x pic.twitter.com/DxltLF8Z7j Black Lives Matter (@MunroeBergdorf) June 9, 2020 Sharing a detailed statement the model wrote that she was now looking forward to new beginnings and a new positive relationship with the LOreal team. In the statement, Bergdorf revealed that she had an open and construdtive conversation with the new president of LOreal Paris, Delphine Viguier, who had reached out to her directly. She listened to what I had to say and expressed her regret for how the situation was handled three years ago, the statement explains. Story continues It goes on to give details of LOreals plans to make a charitable donation to Mermaids UK of 25,000, which supports gener-varient and transgender youth in the UK and a further 25,000 donation to UK Black Pride, an annual safe space to celebrate diverse sexualities, gender identities cultures, gender expressions and backgrounds. The model went on to explain that she has been offered a consultancy role to sit on the UK Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board for LOreal helping to influence and inform the brand, a position she accepted. As an activist, part of my work is to encourage big businesses to understand their responsibility with regards to diversity and inclusion, Bergdorf said. Its imperative that in all industries, a wide range of people from different backgrounds and experiences are in the room at all levels and in decision making roles, to reduce oversight and to create a product that is built with all people in mind. Read more: Model Munroe Bergdorf speaks out against Blac Chyna's skin-whitening cream ad The model is looking forward to a new relationship with L'Oreal. (Getty Images) Despite having an issue with the brand three years ago, Bergdorf is keen to move forward to create a new relationship. I believe in accountability and progress, not cancellation and grudges, she continued. While what happened three years ago was extremely traumatic for me personally and professionally, sitting on a board to provide a voice and a champion for black, trans and queer voices in the beauty industry is important for me. It feels good to finally have closure on this matter and I look forward to new beginnings with the LOreal team. Bergdorf added that over the past three years, she has realised her responsibility as an activist is to help to unite us as people, regardless of our identity. Following the announcement on Twitter, people rushed to applaud Bergdorf on speaking out against LOreal and for working to create a new relationship that could action further change. game changer, history maker!!!!! Clara Amfhome (@claraamfo) June 9, 2020 More power to you Munroe. This is a big win. Shahmir Sanni (@shahmiruk) June 9, 2020 Im so glad they stepped forward and listened Lucy Moon (@iamnotlucymoon) June 9, 2020 Awesome result. Well done Munroe for your perseverance & grace and to L'Oreal for eventually doing the right thing. I hope others learn that it is never too late to learn & to make amends. Black Lives Matter (@DadTrans) June 9, 2020 Read more: Books you can read to educate yourself about race The model was announced as LOreal Paris first-ever transgender model in August 2017, and was set to appear in their True Match campaign, which supposedly champions diversity. However, the model was dropped after speaking out in the aftermath of white supremacist and neo-Nazi rallies that took place in Charleston, US. At the time LOreal U.K. said in statement that Bergdorfs comments were at odds with the companys values, adding: LOreal supports 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. But their choice to ignore me & not acknowledge the emotional, mental & professional harm that they caused me since sacking me in 2017 after speaking out about white supremacy & racism, speaks volumes. Black Lives Matter (@MunroeBergdorf) June 3, 2020 Following LOreals post in support of Black Lives Matter, Bergdorf wrote on Twitter: Their [LOreal] choice to ignore me & not acknowledge the emotional, mental & professional harm that they caused me since sacking me in 2017 after speaking out about white supremacy & racism, speaks volumes. All the clapping hand emojis to both Bergdorf and LOreal for being able to put the past aside and work towards a better, more diverse future. Jamella Garrett's mother used to tell her stories about the fear black people felt walking through downtown Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro. On May 31, Garrett walked fearlessly down North Wilkesboro's Main Street, with 200 people behind her, to send a message to the world from the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. "I wanted people to know that George Floyd was not the only person who died from injustice because he was black," said Garrett, who was born and raised in Wilkes County. Though the national spotlight has focused on massive demonstrations in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and New York, small towns are adding their voices to the howl of injustice, including those in northwest North Carolina where the percentage of black people in some places is less than 5% and very few hold public positions of power. Protests that center around issues of social justice don't often extend into rural, conservative pockets of North Carolina, but West Caudle, who helped organize a march in Elkin, said he is not surprised that so many small town residents are joining a movement that was sparked by the death of George Floyd, who died on May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer put his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. George Russell and Lando Norris had the greatest fun during the virtual Grand Prix of Azerbaijan on Sunday evening. Russell took the lead and then he made a lot of remarks that belong to a frontrunner. At the end of the race Norris was asked why Russell could be heard with so much nagging about the onboard radio. Russell easily took the lead in the streets of Baku, but could still be heard most of the time in his stream. ''He learned that from Lewis'', Norris joked about that during the broadcast. Hamilton 'stands for crazy' In recent years it has been quite common for Lewis Hamilton to worry about anything and everything during the race. The tyres don't last until the end of the race or he feels a certain vibration. However, nine times out of ten he drives happily to victory and it turned out that there is nothing wrong. Read more F1 Social Stint | Kvyat wears out tires with old Toro Rosso When Russell is asked about his complaints, he deals with Norris's joke in a playful way. ''I thought that's what you should do if you win. I think you have to pretend your tyres are going, so you'll be the hero at the end of the race'', said a smiling Russell hinting at his colleague at Mercedes. Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The minister of the Interior of the government of national accord (GNA), Fathi Bachagha, Monday denounced cases of human rights violations by some security forces, an official statement issued here and copied PANA said Laredos 18th annual Sister Cities Festival, which under normal circumstances would occur the second weekend in July, will not take place this summer. Customs and Visitors Bureau Director Aileen Ramos said the city made this tough decision several weeks ago as they considered especially how Mexico is dealing with the coronavirus, and the travel restrictions in place there. It wasnt an easy decision, but the health and the well-being of both our visitors, our attendees and our artisans was the priority, she said. The Sister Cities Festival brings artisans, musicians, dancers and food vendors from all over Mexico to set up shop in the arena every July. It is an established event, Ramos notes. In 2010 Sister Cities attracted 13,000 shoppers. Last year over 25,000 people came. They do not charge for entry, and this is generally not a profit-making venture for the city, Ramos said. The purpose is to create a cultural event for Laredoans and bring in visitors from out of town. She said she has already received calls from people in Austin and San Antonio who want to know if the festival is happening this year. Ramos said they could have figured out how to work with the occupancy and enforce social distancing, but they did not think it would be feasible to bring all of the vendors to Laredo. One of the goals of the festival is to be a springboard for the vendors to export their products to the U.S., Ramos said. Organizers help connect artisans to customs brokers to accomplish this, and to get their products safely to Laredo for the event. However U.S. travel restrictions at land ports such as Laredos could have made it difficult for the artisans themselves to come in. Plus in Mexico there are restrictions between many of the states. The country is about three to four weeks behind the U.S. regarding the virus timeline, Ramos notes, so they didnt want vendors to risk traveling. The city is still considering holding the festival later in the year, if deemed safe by health authorities, or perhaps putting on a version of the event online. They are still working out exactly what this would look like, Ramos said, but it would include online shopping and a virtual concert. They have already reached out to the municipal governments of Laredos sister cities to see how best this virtual event could highlight their cultures. How its going to work, were still working on it and figuring it out. But were committed to bringing at least that essence of the festival virtually this year, Ramos said. Everybodys going virtual, at least for the time being, until we figure more things out. Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com More U.S. investors are finding appeal in digital assets vs. a year ago Investors in Europe are more likely to own digital assets and have a more progressive view of the asset class vs. U.S. investors Digital assets are gaining in favorability and appeal amongst institutional investors, with almost 80% of investors surveyed finding something appealing about the asset class. In a comprehensive survey of almost 800 institutional investors across the U.S. and Europe, 36% of respondents say they are currently invested in digital assets, and 6 out of 10 believe digital assets have a place in their investment portfolio. These and other findings from a Fidelity Digital Assets? survey cast an in-depth light on a class of investors who have widely been expected to lead broad adoption of digital assets. The research, which was conducted from November 2019 to early March 2020, sought to understand institutional interest and adoption of digital assets, as well as the key barriers to participation in the asset class. Nearly 800 U.S. and European investors were surveyed, including financial advisors, family offices, pensions, crypto and traditional hedge funds, high net worth investors, and endowments and foundations. This marks the second consecutive year that Fidelity has conducted this survey amongst U.S. institutional investors and the first for European investors, highlighting the company's increased focus on industry-leading research to foster adoption and add value to clients. Digital Asset Ownership Thirty-six percent of respondents (27% in the U.S. and 45% in Europe) say they are currently invested in digital assets. The survey revealed higher penetration with crypto hedge and venture funds, as expected, but also the financial advisor, high net worth individual and family office segments. U.S. investors allocated to digital assets increased to 27% from 22% in 2019. Of all U.S. and European investors who have exposure to digital assets, over 60% buy digital assets directly. Fifty-nine percent of U.S. investors who currently invest, are invested directly, up from 55% in the 2019 survey. And amongst the backdrop of recent market growth in the number of crypto native and incumbent service providers offering cash and physically settled futures contracts, 22% of U.S. respondents invested in digital assets have exposure via futures, which is a substantial increase relative to 9% of U.S. investors surveyed in 2019. Bitcoin continues to be the digital asset of choice with over a quarter of respondents holding bitcoin; 11% have exposure to Ethereum. Looking out five years, 91% of respondents who are open to exposure to digital assets in a portfolio expect to have at least 0.5% of their portfolio allocated to digital assets. Amongst U.S. respondents, this number is up by 9 percentage points vs. 2019 from 79% to 88%. Commenting on the survey findings, Tom Jessop, president of Fidelity Digital Assets said: "These results confirm a trend we are seeing in the market towards greater interest in and acceptance of digital assets as a new investable asset class. This is evident in the evolving composition of our client pipeline, which spans from crypto native funds to pensions." Over the past year the market has witnessed improved performance of digital assets, the entrance of incumbent service providers, and increasing coverage of the industry by mainstream financial firms through constructive research all factors that may contribute to the upward trend in digital asset ownership among institutional investors. Appeal of Digital Assets Almost 80% of institutional investors find something appealing about digital assets, with the three almost equally compelling characteristics across U.S. and European investors being: uncorrelated to other asset classes (36%); an innovative technology play (34%); and high potential upside (33%). Amongst U.S. respondents, the portion of investors who find appealing characteristics in digital assets grew by six percentage points to 74% this year. European investors are even more positive on digital assets with 82% finding something appealing. A notable contrast is that 25% of European investors find the fact that certain digital assets are free from government intervention to be appealing, whereas only 10% of investors in the U.S. feel this way. Digital Assets Within a Portfolio The majority of institutional investors (6 in 10) feel digital assets have a place in their portfolio, though opinions vary on precisely where. Nearly 40% of institutional investors believe digital assets belong in the alternative asset class, while 20% of investors believe they belong in an independent asset class. Those investors may see certain advantages in digital assets over traditional alternatives such as hedge funds, private equity, real estate, etc. in that they are relatively more liquid, have low transportation, transaction and storage costs and have unique return drivers. Factors Slowing Institutional Adoption Despite the upward trending number of institutions adopting digital assets, some reticence remains. Among the obstacles to digital asset adoption cited were price volatility (53%), concerns around market manipulation (47%), and lack of fundamentals to gauge appropriate value (45%). Encouragingly, among U.S. respondents, the strength of concerns decreased notably vs. last year across most factors. Price volatility concern fell 13 points, concerns around market manipulation fell 6 points and lack of fundamentals fell 8 points. "Investor concerns are largely focused on issues that will resolve themselves as the market infrastructure evolves," said Jessop. "We're proud to be one of many service providers actively driving that evolution for the benefit of the ecosystem and traditional investors alike." About the Survey The blind survey was executed in association with Greenwich Associates on behalf of Fidelity Digital Assets and the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology between November 18, 2019 and March 6, 2020. The survey including 774 institutional investors in the U.S. (393) and Europe (381) including pensions, family offices, digital and traditional hedge funds, financial advisors and endowment and foundations. About Fidelity Digital Assets Fidelity Digital Assets offers a full-service enterprise-grade platform for securing, trading and supporting digital assets. A business of Fidelity Investments, one of the world's largest and most diversified financial services providers with more than $7.9 trillion in client assets under administration, Fidelity Digital Assets combines the operational and technical capabilities of the broader Fidelity organization with dedicated blockchain expertise to deliver a completely new offering for institutional investors. Learn more at http://fidelitydigitalassets.com. About Fidelity Center for Applied Technology Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT) helps Fidelity's clients and businesses imagine the possibilities of new ideas and emerging technologies to enhance the customer experience. FCAT's ideas begin with outside in research and academic partnerships and evolve through user testing. The ideas come to life through prototypes that lay the foundation for new products and services. Whether it's virtual reality, artificial intelligence, digital currencies or blockchains, FCAT is testing it out and looking for new ways of using it to improve people's financial lives. Fidelity Digital Assets is a service mark of FMR LLC. Services are provided by Fidelity Digital Asset Services, LLC. 932331.1.0 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005138/en/ Contacts: Follow us on Twitter @DigitalAssets Visit our online newsroom Contacts for Media Only: Corporate Communications (617) 563-1996 fidelitycorporateaffairs@fmr.com Arlene Roberts (617) 392-2840 arlene.roberts@fmr.com ORLANDO, Fla., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlantic.Net was named the winner of two Stevie Awards, Gold in the Healthcare Technology Solution category and Silver in the Cloud Platform category, in The 18th Annual American Business Awards. The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.'s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. More than 3,600 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories, including Startup of the Year, Executive of the Year, Best New Product or Service of the Year, Marketing Campaign of the Year, Live Event of the Year, and App of the Year, among others. Atlantic.Net was nominated in the Healthcare Technology Solution category for HIPAA Compliant Server Hosting and Cloud Platform category. "Since starting our business 25 years ago, we have always aimed to provide the best, most innovative solutions for our clients," said Marty Puranik, CEO of Atlantic.Net. "This year is a poignant time for businesses to navigate, particularly in the healthcare tech sector, so we are thrilled to receive this prestigious honor from the American Business Awards." More than 230 professionals worldwide participated in the judging process to select this year's Stevie Award winners. "Despite the toughest business conditions in memory, American organizations continue to demonstrate their commitment to innovation, creativity, and bottom-line results," said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher. "This year's Stevie-winning nominations are full of inspiring stories of persistence, ingenuity, resourcefulness, and compassion. We celebrate all of their stories and look forward to showcasing them during our virtual awards ceremony on August 5." Details about The American Business Awards and the list of 2020 Stevie winners are available at www.StevieAwards.com/ABA . About Atlantic.Net Atlantic.Net is a global cloud services provider with over 25 years of experience, specializing in managed and non-managed Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD VPS hosting solutions. With a focus on security, compliance, and simplifying the user experience, Atlantic.Net provides business-class dedicated and cloud hosting solutions, backed by 24/7/365 support through their global data centers located in New York, London, San Francisco, Toronto, Dallas, Ashburn, and Orlando. For more information, please visit https://www.atlantic.net/ . About the Stevie Awards Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com . Sponsors of The 2020 American Business Awards include John Hancock Financial Services, Melissa Sones Consulting, and SoftPro. SOURCE Atlantic.Net Related Links https://www.atlantic.net In a few weeks we will finally start in Austria where a double race will be held. The circuit where Max Verstappen hasn't been beaten in the last two years. Martin Brundle and Karun Chandhonk look ahead at Sky Sports. Duel Verstappen - Hamilton The Red Bull ring in Austria will be the setting for the first two races. Judging from the last few years that should work in favour of Verstappen. As Mercedes seemed the strongest on the winter tests, a duel between the Dutchman and the Englishman seems obvious. Read more Alesi has to sell his Ferrari to let son race in Formula 2 According to Simon Lazenby everyone only wants one thing: "We want to see Max against Lewis. This will be the big fight of the first races in Austria. Max has won there for the last two years." Brundle responds: "Yeah, I think they're going for it. Max won two years but Mercedes was very strong during the winter tests let's not forget that. The teams have little information and knowledge which makes it very exciting so I'm really looking forward to it." Williams and Honda The men also talk plainly about Williams' painful story. The demise of the illustrious team has many retrospective moments when they could have made a different choice. Possibly a choice that could have prevented them from doing so. "They should have partnered with a top team much sooner," Chandhok believes. "Another thing is the Honda deal. They could have done it differently. On second thought, I think they should have taken the Honda deal anyway. It's been said often enough that Honda would do well. Okay, you're dealing with a different culture but Red Bull shows what you could have achieved with Honda", the analyst is complimentary about the Austrian team. A humpback whale that stole the hearts of Montrealers when it spent time in one of the citys ports far from its natural habitat was found dead in the St. Lawrence River on Tuesday. The whale enchanted city residents and drew crowds to Montreals Old Port; it was first spotted there on May 30, CBC Montreal reports. The whale was last seen swimming near Pointe-aux-Trembles Sunday morning before it was found floating in the St. Lawrence River Tuesday morning about 19 miles downstream from the city. Triste nouvelle, nous venons dapercevoir la baleine echouee dans le secteur de Varennes. Posted by Simon Lebrun on Tuesday, June 9, 2020 It was the first time a humpback whale made its way into Montreal waters, said Robert Michaud, coordinator for the Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Network. Experts had hoped the whale would return to its natural habitat in the Gulf of St. Lawrence when it began traveling downstream. Factors that may have contributed to the death of the healthy-looking whale include dehydration from swimming in fresh water and a possible collision with a shipping vessel, Michaud said. Canadian officials are assessing what to do with the carcass, he said. Humpback whales are among the worlds largest animals, they can be up to 52 feet long and weigh up to 66,000 pounds. 7 CHINESE BROTHERS (2015) Stream on Pluto TV, Sundance Now, Tubi or Vudu; rent on Amazon, iTunes or YouTube. Jason Schwartzman stars in this charming comedy about a booze-slugging slacker who calls his French bulldog his best friend. He cant hold a job to save his life, but that changes when he ends up at a Quick Lube and actually enjoys the work. STICKS AND STONES Stream on BritBox. This three-part workplace drama follows Thomas (Ben Nwosu), a sales associate who faints during an important presentation and winds up losing a crucial client. His juniors are furious, and they wont let him forget it. Their bullying, combined with stress at home, drives Thomas over the edge, and he begins to wonder whether his paranoia is justified or simply in his head. Theres a touch of humor in the show, yet for the most part, it may not convince people who are still working remotely to return to the office anytime soon. Pakistans army chief of staff Qamar Javed Bajwa met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah during a visit to Kabul. During the June 9 meetings, the two sides discussed Pakistans support of the peace process, the presidential palace said. According to the statement, further details of the meeting will be released in the form of a joint statement from the Afghan and Pakistani foreign ministries. The highest Pakistani military official, accompanied by the countrys intelligence chief and the newly appointed special envoy for Afghanistan, is visiting Kabul ahead of peace talks between the government and the main insurgent group in Afghanistan. The relation between Kabul and Islamabad is marred by deep mistrust. Afghan officials accuse Pakistan of backing Taliban militants, who are aggressively fighting to topple the US-backed Kabul government for nearly two decades now. Pakistan denies the allegations. Bajwas visit follows his meeting in Islamabad with US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who is currently in Qatar, where the Taliban has a political office. Khalilzad, who brokered a peace deal with the Taliban in late February, is pushing for the start of intra-Afghan peace talks between the insurgents and the government. On June 9, Kabul said it had released 3,000 inmates, 60 per cent of Taliban prisoners cited in the US-Taliban agreement to pave the way for intra-Afghan talks. Further releases will continue in tandem with a reduction in violence and progress toward direct negotiations with the government, a spokesman for the National Security Council said. The release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners was part of the deal the militants made with the United States in February, as well as a precondition set by the militants for joining intra-Afghan talks. The deal also foresees the gradual withdrawal of all international forces from Afghanistan in return for security guarantees. The Taliban announced a three-day ceasefire for Eid last month. In return, President Ashraf Ghani announced the release of another 2,000 Taliban prisoners in addition to the 1,000 detainees released before. The Taliban claims they have released nearly 500 pro-government forces from their custody. However, both sides are providing conflicting figures about the number of prisoners released by each side. South Africa: SABS warns against uncertified PPEs The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) has urged the public against bogus and potentially harmfully personal protective equipment (PPE). The Bureau said it has uncovered that numerous PPEs were being sold as SABS Approved. Consumers are being duped into using potentially harmful PPE, said SABS Lead Administrator Jodi Scholtz in a statement. Urging the public to be vigilant and to buy quality products through legitimate delivery channels, Scholtz said while the public is desperate to purchase the products, it is important that these are legitimate. The products in demand and under scrutiny include masks, thermometers, sanitisers, disinfectants, gloves, and other equipment in order to protect themselves and their families against COVID-19. Products, even those that are SABS Approved need to be used for the intended purpose in order to be effective in the fight against the infection. SABS understands that there are increasingly new innovations that are emerging that claim to solve the myriad of health issues that the world is facing and while they could be life-saving, all innovative products must be subjected to testing to ensure that it is safe to use, said Scholtz. Spray tunnels/booths and ingestion of sanitisers Scholtz said SABS has not conducted any tests or developed any national standard (SANS) for spray booths/tunnels nor any of the mechanisms used to spray disinfectants. There are currently no chemicals that are considered safe for use for disinfection via spray booths or tunnels, she said. She warned that uncertified products and products that are not used for their intended purpose could be dangerous for a number of reasons. These include adverse reactions to humans and the environment, the harmful effects of unidentified ingredients, bacterial and microbial impurities as well as simply just not being suitable for use on humans. Thermometers SABS currently does not conduct any temperature tests on thermometers that are intended for use on humans. This falls within the ambit of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). The calibration of thermometers can be done in laboratories that have been calibrated by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) and SABS currently does not offer this service. Masks and shields She said there are various categories of masks and shields that can be used in the fight against COVID-19. Currently all manufacturers of surgical masks are registered with SAHPRA. There are six national standards that provide masks for various uses. SABS is able to conduct tests against some of these SANS and where there is limited capacity, utilises laboratories that fall within its partnership agreements. Testing and certification of products, especially PPE is going to become increasingly important as South Africa deals with COVID-19. The SABS said it has the capability to develop South African National Standards (SANS) for products as well as offer testing and certification of products against those standards. In addition and based on the critical needs, tests can be conducted against specific requirements and via a consultative process to develop the requirements, explains Scholtz. The SABS advised companies procuring PPE to consult the Bureau on the standard and requirements that PPE should meet so that it can be included on tender documents and subjected to inspection. This will ensure that the products received are functional and meet the requirements for protecting South Africans. SABS also offers consignment inspection services to guard against defective product being delivered and to ensure that there is an independent voice verifying the PPE being procured, the Bureau said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-06-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. If you've been craving a trip to the nail salon over the past few months, you'll be pleased to hear that many locations across the country are beginning to reopen. But as excited as you may be to get your beloved manis and pedis once again, returning to the nail salon also comes with its own set of questions and concerns. Download the TODAY app for the latest coverage on the coronavirus outbreak. For instance, what protective measures are salons implementing to keep customers safe? And is it really safe to be in such close contact with a nail technician right now? To help you make the most informed decision possible, TODAY Style consulted health and nail experts to learn everything you need to know about the new nail salon experience. Miami-Dade sobrepasa las 600 muertes. Reconocen 'gran probabilidad' de otro paquete de est?mulo (Pedro Portal / Getty Images) What health risks does a trip to the nail salon pose right now? When you head to the nail salon for a manicure or pedicure, getting up close and personal with your nail technician is par for the course. But that sustained, in-person contact can pose some risks now. "The biggest risk of a nail appointment is that youre in an indoor environment and close to another person. You are being exposed to their respiratory droplets, which can carry the coronavirus," Dr. Nate Favini, medical lead at primary care practice Forward, told TODAY Style. Social distancing can be nearly impossible during a nail service, so personal protective equipment is critical to ensure the safety of both employees and clients. "Masks may help prevent transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the person wearing a mask, but they aren't a fail-safe," Dr. Natasha Chida, assistant professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said. There are multiple ways that coronavirus can spread in a nail salon, so it's important to be aware of your surroundings and avoid touching too many shared surfaces. It's also wise to carry hand sanitizer with you. "Since there is touching of hands involved and the use of shared tools, it is important that proper hand hygiene is employed regularly," Joshua Zeichner, director of cosmetic and clinical research in Mount Sinai Hospital's department of dermatology, said. Story continues There are several noteworthy risks for customers, but some health experts worry more about nail salon staff. "The individuals who work in nail salons have a high risk for exposure. They have frequent and prolonged encounters with individuals, yet they do not know a persons status for COVID-19. They are also in an aerosolized environment with nail and polish dust," said Kathryn Tart, dean and professor at the University of Houston College of Nursing. Broward County In Florida Enters Phase One Of Reopening (Johnny Louis / Getty Images) What safety measures should salons have in place? In order to keep both customers and employees healthy, nail salons that have already reopened are implementing increased safety measures. So if you're planning on heading back for a nail service soon, you'll want to make sure your local salon is doing everything in its power to prevent the spread of COVID-19. "Please research what new policies are implemented to provide safety to you and your manicurist. Each state and county may be different. Your nail salon should have a 'consumer safety' phone number and website to quickly navigate through what is now required in all nail salons," celebrity manicurist and nail salon owner Michelle Saunders James said. Need a quick cheat sheet? Keep an eye out for these protective measures at your salon: Personal protective equipment: "In addition to wearing masks, nail technicians should wear gloves while providing services," Dr. Brian Reed, chair of clinical sciences at the University of Houston College of Medicine, said. Some salons are also adding shields between the client and nail technician. Social distancing practices: "Customers should be placed in every other seat and there shouldnt be people gathered in close proximity in a waiting room," Reed said. Frequent sanitizing of tools: "Tools should be washed and disinfected after each use, towels should be clean, files/buffers should be brand new, and table and chairs should be disinfected between services," Los Angeles-based nail artist and manicurist Chelsea King said. Staggered appointments: "Appointments should be scheduled to limit the amount of people in the salon and walk-in clients should wait either in their own cars or outside," Reed said. Other precautions: Some salons are requiring temperature checks for customers upon entry and some are implementing contactless payment. Since coronaviurs is spread through respiratory droplets, proper ventilation in the salon is also pretty important. And even though it's not always practical, some experts argue that it could be safer to get a manicure outside. Woman with protective face mask on manicure treatment in beauty salon (Getty Images) What you can do to keep yourself safe When it comes to creating a sanitary environment, nail salons bear most of the burden, but customers also play an important role in preventing the spread of coronavirus. For starters, you shouldn't leave the house if you're feeling sick. And if you are feeling fine, you should come to the salon prepared to protect yourself and others. "I recommend wearing a mask during the entire time you are at the salon. Wash your hands before and after your nail service. If you want to support your local nail salon, following the new rules will be paramount," Saunders James said. If you're hoping to minimize the amount of surfaces you touch in the salon, consider bringing your own nail polish or, at the very least, sanitize your hands after you browse through the salon's colorful offerings. You might also be tempted to bring your own tools, but Julie Kandalec, celebrity manicurist and author of "Nail Art Design Book, advises against it. "Cuticle nippers, like knives, are not one-size-fits-all. They have shorter handles for someone with smaller hands, and they have different size blades, too. Plus, salons use hospital grade disinfectant (and likely 450-degree heat sterilizers too), which most people probably don't have at home, even now," Kandalec said. "And, lastly, the salon becomes liable should you get an infection with your own tools, so they shouldn't allow you to use them anyways." While you're sitting getting your nails done, King says you should avoid using your phone (to avoid cross-contamination) and have your payment ready to go (keep your card in your pocket instead of deep in your purse). "It is important to not only protect yourself during a service, but the health of your nail tech as well because he/she is in contact with many people per day," she said. Happy business owner hanging an open sign during COVID-19 (Getty Images) So, is it safe to go to the nail salon right now? After weighing the pros and cons of returning to the salon, you may still be wondering if it's safe to do so. But unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all answer to this question right now. "So much depends on whats happening epidemiologically in your local area, your personal risk of a severe infection, your contacts and your risk tolerance," Favini said. Several experts TODAY spoke to said it's worth returning to a salon as long as they have clearly stated what safety precautions they are taking. "Nail salons are using the highest level of disinfection imaginable, so you should feel much more at ease. But of course, I can't speak for everyone's comfort level and health. So if you want to dip a toe in, I would recommend an abbreviated service, like a polish change, to check out their disinfection protocols first," Kandalec said. Lisa Logan, celebrity manicurist and owner of The Nail Suite by Lisa Logan, is in the process of installing plexiglass partitions for each station in her salon and thinks nail salons deserve the opportunity to adapt to our "new normal." "I believe nail salons should get the same chance to try to get back on their feet like all the other businesses. I think we all want to do what's right and also do our part to actively get back to opening the world back up, just in the safest way," she said. Still, others cautioned that the current risks of nail services might outweigh the benefits. "A manicure is a luxury personal care service, and it requires close, sustained physical contact. Most importantly, it is optional, and it can and should be avoided while there is ample community transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19," said Carolyn Cannuscio, a social epidemiologist and associate professor of family medicine and community health at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Whether or not you decide to book a nail service now, the most important thing to do is follow safety precautions and your gut. "If you dont feel comfortable going into a salon yet, I think you should wait a little longer before going in. There are so many resources online for DIY manicures. Additionally, if you arent willing to sit down for an hour and a half appointment just yet, a great option is to go in for just a manicure and try painting your nails at home," King said. Technology has rapidly grown to become one of the essential tools for businesses. It provides ways and techniques for running a business effectively and increasing productivity. Microsoft is one of the renowned corporations which has taken a lead in coming up with software that helps in data management and analysis. Power BI and Excel applications are the most reliable tools when it comes to managing data. Therefore, IT professionals need to possess advanced skills on how to deploy and manage them effectively. That's why Microsoft offers a high-quality certification program where a professional will go through a series of steps to validate his/her knowledge and skills. One of the steps in passing credential exams such as 70-778 is the main focus of this page. 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The company is also said to have halted operations at its two motorcycle factories in India and Brazil. As a precautionary measure, the company gave some employees the day off as they were unable to access their work computers. However, Honda reportedly said no data has been breached and it sees minimal business impact from the cyber-attack. 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. Livestock auctions remained on hold for the majority of the lockdown as there was no clarity on the matter. Indias buffalo meat exports - the country second biggest agri-commodity export basket which netted $ 3.6 billion in 2018-19 - is one of the worst-hit segments following the imposition of a nationwide lockdown. Livestock auctions remained on hold for the majority of the lockdown as there was no clarity on the matter. Exporters dont have the raw material for processing despite demand for buffalo meat. Since processing was on hold, the supply of tallow was also disrupted. India is a major exporter of tallow despite a large domestic demand. Even the supply of gelatine - a by-product of meat and leather industries - to the pharma sector is also not happening. Exporters, however, said the government has assured all support, and by the end the month, their operation would normalise. Since February, exports have been languishing because of less availability of livestock. However, buffalo meat exporters now are expecting to wriggle out of the slump and regain the momentum by June-end. Over two months of the lockdown, exporters have estimated the loss of opportunities to the tune of nearly Rs 5,300 crore. Buffalo meat had been Number 1 item in the agri-commodities basket - administered by the Agriculture Produce Exports Development Authority, or APEDA, until FY17 in terms of value; it has since been overtaken by basmati rice. The lockdown was unprecedented and impacted all industries. Now, meat exporting units are slowly opening up, said All India Meat and Livestock Exporters Association (AIMLEA) Spokesperson Fauzan Alavi. He is also the director of Allana Sons, which is among the countrys leading buffalo meat exporters. While buffalo meat shipments are expected to regain 50 per cent of the normal business by June end, the industry would come back to normal in two-three months, he said. As of now, with livestock or animals not available with most producers, old stock from cold storage is being exported. Last year, India's buffalo meat exports stood at about 1.23 million tonnes (MT) and valued more than $3.61 billion, compared to 1.35 MT and $4.03 billion, respectively, during 2017-18, according to the APEDA. Until January 2020, the corresponding figures for 2019-20 stood at 1.08 MT and $3.011 billion, respectively. The countrys buffalo exports had hit the wall after buyers in the prime destinations in the Gulf and the Southeast Asian countries, accounting for nearly 2/3rd of the total meat export basket, stopped placing fresh orders following the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the biggest challenge facing us now is the lack of clarity regarding the resumption of livestock markets in states. "Unless the livestock markets are operational, our value and supply chains would remain incomplete, Alavi added. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters WASHINGTON President Donald Trump and his allies have seized on calls to defund the police as a dangerous example of Democratic overreach as he fights for momentum amid crises that threaten his reelection. Key Democrats, including presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, are distancing themselves from the defund push, which some supporters say is a symbolic commitment to end systemic racism and shift policing priorities rather than an actual plan to eliminate law enforcement agencies. But confusion over the proposals intent has created an opportunity for the Republican president, who has struggled to navigate the delicate debate over racial justice, risking support from people of color, suburban women and independents less than five months before Election Day. Facing increasing pressure to weigh in, Biden addressed the issue Monday in an interview with CBS Evening News. I dont support defunding the police. I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency, honorableness and, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community, everybody in the community, Biden said. Other opponents of the movement include Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., a former presidential candidate and one of two black Democratic senators, and Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., head of the Congressional Black Caucus. NAACP President Derrick Johnson, in an interview, also declined to endorse calls to defund the police. I support the energy behind it. I dont know what that substantively means. As Im talking to people about the concept, Ive gotten three different explanations, said Johnson, who has criticized Trump. We know there has to be a change in the culture of policing in this country. Democrats are well-positioned to win over the political center this fall, according to Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who said Trumps uneven actions and rhetoric at a time of sweeping social unrest are killing him. Luntz added, however, that Democrats risk their advantage by embracing policies viewed as radical following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The handcuffed black man died after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for more than eight minutes. Municipal officials in Minneapolis have endorsed the defund the police language backed by some civil rights activists and a handful of progressive House Democrats. Protesters over the weekend also painted DEFUND THE POLICE in large yellow letters on a street close to the White House. But there was little evidence that the effort was gaining momentum in Congress. Some Democrats described it as bad politics, even if most Democrats shared the desire to overhaul policing. Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., a white moderate who lost her 2018 reelection bid, said defund the police is a horrible name that misconstrues the goal. By starting with the word defund, youve left the impression that you are doing something much more radical than what needs to be done, said Heitkamp, a leader of the One Country Project, which is trying to help Democrats connect better with rural voters. She said the term left her frustrated that theres going to be somebody whos going to try to find an opportunity in this, especially among the Republican Party, and use it now as an excuse not to address what is a very real problem in America. Thats largely what played out as the Trump campaign and congressional Republicans sought to link Democrats to the defund effort. This year has seen the lowest crime numbers in our Countrys recorded history, and now the Radical Left Democrats want to Defund and Abandon our Police, Trump declared on social media. Sorry, I want LAW & ORDER! The House GOP campaign arm sent out emails condemning defund the police and connecting it to Democratic candidates. No industry is safe from Democrats abolish culture, said Michael McAdams, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. First they wanted to abolish private health insurance, then it was capitalism and now its the police. Whats next, the fire department? Democrats on Capitol Hill unveiled a sweeping proposal Monday to address police brutality that did not include plans to strip funding from the police. The Justice in Policing Act would limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force incidents and ban chokeholds, among other changes. Rep. Greg Meeks, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and a group of moderate House Democrats called the New Democrat Coalition, said Trumps tweets accusing Democrats of seeking to abolish the police are a diversion. It sounds like the guy thats the 45th president is trying to distract from what the real issue is, the brutality and the murder of George Floyd, said Meeks, who represents New York. And were not going to allow them to do that. Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright, who is white and represents a Trump-leaning district in northeastern Pennsylvania, rejected calls to defund the police outright. I dont care how its named, Im not for that, he said, while noting hes joined protest marches in his district. Asked if GOP use of the term defund the police might erode his support, Cartwright said, If they can get voters to believe that lie about me, I suppose. Am I afraid of it? No. Trump, meanwhile, is grasping for a strategy that might generate some momentum. A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll this weekend found that 80% of Americans believe the country is out of control. Some Trump advisers have considered having the president deliver an address on police-community relations and racial injustice, while others believe it would do little good, according to two White House officials and Republicans close to the White House. They also discussed creating a task force featuring Housing Secretary Ben Carson, the only black member of Trumps Cabinet, but that has yet to get off the ground. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Before the pandemic, Trump advisers believed the president had a real chance of making inroads with black voters, given his support for criminal justice reform and the strength of the economy. Theyre less confident now. ___ Peoples reported from Montclair, N.J., and Lemire from New York. Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. Federal authorities unsealed charges Tuesday against the president of Sunnyvale medical technology company Arrayit, alleging that he attempted to mislead investors and inflate the company stock price with fraudulent claims about the companys coronavirus testing and other testing capabilities. The U.S. attorneys office in San Francisco charged Mark Schena, 57, with one count of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. The charges relate to a scheme that allegedly saw Schena and others submit $69 million in false and fraudulent claims for allergy and coronavirus testing, including $5.9 million in fraudulent charges submitted to the federal Medicare program. In a statement, federal authorities called the case the first criminal securities fraud prosecution related to the COVID-19 pandemic that has been brought by the Department of Justice. Arrayit did not immediately return calls and emails requesting comment. Calls to the Schena family were also not returned. Mark Schena is married to Arrayit CEO Rene Schena, according to corporate filings. Federal authorities said the alleged scheme began in 2018 when Mark Schena bribed doctors and others and submitted claims to the federal Medicare program for fraudulent allergy tests, many of which were not medically necessary. Schena misrepresented Arrayits allergy test sales, financial condition, and its future prospects, according to an affidavit attached to the criminal complaint signed by U.S. Postal Service inspector Anna Hallstrom. Schena and others at the company also sent out press releases and were active on social media promoting partnerships with Fortune 500 companies and government agencies and public institutions, without disclosing that such partnerships either did not exist or were of de minimis value, federal authorities said. In March, Schena began to claim the company could also test for the coronavirus in compliance with state and federal regulations, according to federal authorities. Schena and others also misrepresented the companys coronavirus testing capabilities and prospects to potential investors regarding the tests, they said. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Schena also used the cover of the pandemic to obtain the information of people receiving Medicare benefits to further the allergy testing scheme, according to the affidavit. Schena offered an Arrayit COVID-19 test in order to obtain Medicare beneficiary information that then was used to submit false and fraudulent claims for an unrelated and far more expensive allergy test for 120 allergens, Hallstrom, the postal inspector, said. The companys stock price doubled in March from $0.02 to $0.04. More Information Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the rise in Arrayit's stock price. See More Collapse Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice AJ Horch Across the globe, millions are struggling with the personal and economic fallout caused by Covid-19. From businesses owners and employees to frontline essential workers and stay-at-home parents, the immeasurable level of suffering and massive disruption has taken an enormous toll on daily life. Last week we asked CNBC readers to nominate neighbors who have gone above and beyond, and you answered the call. We applaud the efforts of each and every one of the HomeGROWn Heroes below. Here are the compassionate, brave acts of kindness that have made a difference in so many lives. Assisting caregivers in nursing homes Nomination: Barbara K., Pennsylvania "Since the country was placed under stay-at-home orders, my younger sister Barbara has been spending long days at the nursing home helping out with administrative duties beyond her normal job. She is assisting the caregivers so they may attend to persons in their care. Every day she goes in to see the pain and sorrow that has unfolded. I don't know how she does it." Michael H. Leading decontamination efforts Nomination: 2nd Lt. Joshua Jones, Alabama National Guard "2nd Lt. Jones is leading the Alabama National Guard's 1166th MP Company in Task Force 31 Covid-19 decontamination of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities across the state of Alabama. The recognition should go to the entire Alabama National Guard 1166 MP Company. Thank you for recognizing these fine young men and women who serve their country through the National Guard." Christopher J. 2nd Lt. Joshua J. is leading the Alabama National Guard's 1166th MP Company in Task Force 31 Covid-19. Christopher Jones Launching a gift card giveaway program Nomination: Wendy O., Gig Harbor, Washington "Since small businesses have shut down, Wendy started a gift card giveaway program where folks "donated" money and she used that money to buy gift cards at designated small businesses. She has raised over $20,000 for small businesses in our small community. The businesses chosen each receive between $500$2,000. She also administers the "Gig Harbor Positive Town Talk" Facebook page. Bryan M. Delivering food to the elderly Nomination: Elisa G., New Jersey "Elisa, who is a cancer survivor and very compromised delivers food during the pandemic to the elderly. One older gentleman really wanted pie.. Elisa drove to several bakeries to find the exact one he wanted and left it on his doorstep. Through his glass, they both cried. It was a quiet moment. But she goes over and above for everyone. She's truly a hero. Craig R. Providing disaster relief and EMT services Nomination: Joseph Z., New York City "Joseph is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and currently serves as an EMT with the FDNY. He has a company, Black 6 Coffee, that funds his nonprofit Black 6 Project, which provides humanitarian aid during disaster relief operations. During the pandemic, he partnered with other veteran-owned businesses to run Food for Impact, an initiative to provide meals to frontline workers (health care, EMTs, police officers). They received so much support, they were also able to set up R&R centers for visiting health-care workers. He has done all of this while continuing to work countless hours as an EMT during the pandemic in New York City. The work that he does is truly amazing and deserving of recognition." Mercedes E. Traveling 300 miles to NYC to save lives Nomination: Thomas M., Fredericksburg, Virginia "Thomas is not only continuing to conduct his real estate business in [Fredericksburg], he is also helping to save lives 300 miles to the north by volunteering to serve as an EMT in Queens, New York, one of the hardest-hit districts during this global pandemic. As a Lieutenant at Virginia-based LifeCare Medical Transports, Thomas and his team deployed to New York a few weeks back with eight ambulances and 16 fellow EMTs. Currently, he is leading a strike team that, when called upon to relieve overworked EMS employees with 911 calls and medical transports, provides advanced and basic life support, and they do so working 12-hour shifts with their own PPE, bleach and spray bottles, knowing these items are in short supply in New York City." Peter M. Thomas left his hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia, to volunteer as an EMT in Queens, New York. Peter Mosca Volunteering to treat Covid-19 patients in hospice care Nomination: Pat H., New City, New York "We have rightfully heard about the frontline heroes hospital workers, emergency services personnel, postal workers, supermarket workers, etc. No one has spoken about the heroic work of hospice staff during this pandemic. It is only natural that hospice staff would be caring for dying Covid-19 patients. We sought to develop a Covid team to care for those patients/families referred to us. Without a moment's hesitation, Pat volunteered to be the first RN on the team. She understood the risk to her family, but that did not deter her. Pat worked during the AIDS epidemic and witnessed the fear by providers and the isolation of patients at the time. Throughout the pandemic, she served as a role model for the rest of the staff as she skillfully and compassionately cared for Covid patients at home, nursing homes, etc., assuring that they died in comfort and with dignity. Family members are particularly grateful that they were able to be with and help care for their loved ones as a result of Pat's efforts." Amy S. Providing comfort, securing supplies for first responders Nomination: Maria K. Sterling Heights, Michigan "Maria has spent the last 30 years as an educator. Her philosophy is all about love, and she has impacted the lives of many students over the years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Maria worked to secure PPE early on. She put forth a significant portion of her own income before fundraising. This ensured that we were able to get supplies, meals and care packages to health-care workers and first responders in need. So far, about $10,000 has been put toward these efforts. Maria is as selfless as they come, and her work is the personification of her motto. I couldn't imagine a community player more deserving of this recognition than Maria. Michael S. Distributing food to first responders, homeless B anksy has unveiled a new piece of art inspired by the protesters who toppled the statue of Edward Colston in his home city of Bristol over the weekend. The graffiti artist's new artwork shows protesters pulling down the statue of the 17th-century slave trader during Sunday's protest, saying their actions should be commemorated. The caption on the Instagram post read: What should we do with the empty plinth in the middle of Bristol? Heres an idea that caters for both those who miss the Colston statue and those who dont. Protesters throw statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour 1 /13 Protesters throw statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour PA Keir Gravil via Reuters PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA We drag him out the water, put him back on the plinth, tie cable round his neck and commission some life size bronze statues of protestors in the act of pulling him down. Everyone happy. A famous day commemorated. The artist has publicly expressed his support of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has escalated over the past two weeks following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mr Floyd died after a white police officer held him down by pressing his knee into his neck for almost nine minutes on May 25. His death has sparked days of protests around the world. Bansky showed his support for the movement in an Instagram post on Saturday, of a painting of a vigil candle burning an American flag. In the post, he wrote: At first I thought I should just shut up and listen to black people about this issue. But why would I do that? Its not their problem, its mine. Banksy - In pictures 1 /85 Banksy - In pictures PA AFP via Getty Images A new artwork painted by Banksy during lockdown, which has gone on display in a hospital corridor PA Banksys Girl With A Pearl Earring modified during Coronavirus @Anth0ny_Ward Stormzy performs on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival 2019 wearing a vest designed by Banksy EPA Sotheby's employees pose with 'Love is in the Bin' by British artist Banksy during a media preview at Sotheby's auction house Jack Taylor/Getty Images Two men are sitting in front of a famous graffiti of British street artist Banksy, painted on a wall of a gas station in the West Bank city of Bethlehem Getty Images Banksy's homage to Pulp Fiction in East London Rex Features A new Banksy artwork in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter appears to have been vandalised days after it first appeared. The mural depicts two reindeer painted onto a brick wall appearing to pull along a bench PA Sotheby's host the first unauthorized retrospective exhibition of works by Banksy Curated by Steve Lazarides-Banksy's agent in the early years Alex Lentati Graffitti art by the 'guerilla' artist Banksy is seen on May 16, 2006 in Chalk Farm, London. The striking large scale spray-painted image entitled 'Sweeping It Under The Carpet' depicts a maid who cleaned the artist's room in a motel in Los Angeles. The piece commissioned by 'The Independent' newspaper edited on Tuesday by U2's frontman Bono, is intended to represent a metaphor for the west's reluctance to tackle issues such as Aids in Africa Getty Images Mural: the artwork before it was covered (Photo: PA) PA Banky's Les Mis artwork in Knightsbridge Jeremy Selwyn A piece of urban art by Banksy discovered on the wall of the Poundland store in Wood Green Nigel Howard A woman attacked by seagulls piece by Banksy, during the press view for the artistis biggest show to date, entitled 'Dismaland', at Tropicana in Western-super-Mare, Somerset PA Builders remove a sheet of wood covering a Banksy artwork moments after being told to take it down from the building opposite the French embassy Getty Images Banksy's Barcode Leopard Rex Features A migrant looks at the work by Banksy in the Calais migrant 'jungle' Banksy A blanket covers a mural by elusive street artist Banksy of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in a migrant camp on the outskirts of Calais. The piece has gained such popularity that people are being charged for the blanket to be lifted to that they can view it PA An employee holds Banksy's 'Girl and Balloon' which was painted on an Ikea frame at Bonhams auctioneers on March 23, 2012 in London Getty Images Dismal, and not how he meant it: Banksy's Dismaland PA Banksy, Brick Lane Rex Features Banksy - Love is in the Air street art, Soho, London Rex Features A graffiti titled "Art Attack" made by the British, guerrilla, graffiti artist Banksy is seen on Israel's highly controversial West Bank barrier in Ramallah Getty Images Sold: This Banksy on the Gaza Strip was bought for just 118 Banksy Banksy's provocative take on an iconic image from the Vietnam war Alex Lentati A stencil image of a Banksy rat in Haringey, London Jeremy Selwyn Children pose for their photo with an installation of British graffiti artist Banksy's art in New York in 2013 Reuters Art installation by British artist Banksy, a robot and a barcode, is seen on a wall in the Coney Island area of New York City Reuters Mobile Lovers by Banksy on Clement Street, Bristol PA Art Buff created by street artist Banksy in Folkestone, KenT PA Banksy's Walled Off Hotel in the Israeli occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem Getty Images Self-portrait by Banksy PA Grafitti by the illusive artist Banksy adorns a building August 28, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisian Getty Images Vulture Petrol Head Mural by Banksy at Dungeness Susan Pilcher British graffiti artist Banksy's artwork 'No Ball Games' EPA Banksy's Bronx Zoo at Yankee Stadium Reuters Banksy's Eton Posse PA Cardinal Sin by artist Banksy at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool PA A worker holding Banksy's portrait of Kate Moss (2005) at a press preview for the exhibition Banksy: The Unauthorised Retrospective, curated by Steve Lazarides, at S|2 Gallery in London PA A Banksy mural which was painted on the side of one of the classrooms at Bridge Farm Primary in Bristol during half-term PA A stencil image of a rat in Haringey, London Jeremy Selwym A dancer poses with a new installation of art by British graffiti artist Banksy painted on the front door of the Hustler Club in New York Reuters "Flower Girl," a delicate stencil on a massive brick wall by popular street artist Banksy, is displayed in a warehouse in the greater Los Angeles, California AP Brexit mural: The artwork on the side of an abandoned arcade in Dover Reuters Detail from an installation by artist Banksy, entitled Civilian Drone Strike, on display at the Art the Arms Fair art exhibition 2017 PA A man takes a photo of one of two new murals painted by the artist Banksy near the Barbican Centre in London PA Banksy's lost 'Snorting Copper' at it's original home on Curtain Road in Shoreditch Gareth Richman A woman passes one of two new murals painted by the artist Banksy near the Barbican Centre in London PA The painting 'Devolved Parliament' by the graffiti artist Banksy, which is on show at Bristol Museum PA A Banksy artwork on a bridge in Hull Banksy A man walks past an artwork by street artist Banksy in Paris AFP/Getty Images People gather around fences that have been erected to protect the latest piece of artwork by the underground guerrilla artist Banksy Getty Images A street stall with oil paintings creating an image of a yacht in the Venice canal with a sign reading "Venice in oil", set up by a person purporting to be British artist Banksy, in Venice Reuters A motorboat passes in front of an alleged work of British street artist Banksy 'The shipwrecked child', that appeared on the outer wall of a house overlooking the canal Rio de Ca Foscari in Venice, Italy EPA Banksy created Stormzy's Union Jack stab proof vest worn at Glastonbury in July 2019 @banksy Banksy hits Notting Hill Bronwen Weatherby A shopfront displays a mini exhibition by secretive British artist, Banksy with the sign 'Gross Domestic Product', in Croydon AFP/Getty Images Displays in a homeware store, Gross Domestic Product, that is being launched in South London by the graffiti artist Banksy PA Banksy turned a rough sleeper's bench into Santa's sleigh in a social commentary on homelessness at Christmas Banksy A new work of art on the side of a house on Marsh Lane, Barton Hill, Bristol PA A section of the new work he has created during lockdown, in his bathroom. The artist captioned the post "My wife hates it when I work from home Banksy via PA Banksys Girl With A Pearl Earring modified during Coronavirus @Anth0ny_Ward He continued: People of colour are being failed by the system. The white system. Like a broken pipe flooding the apartment of the people living downstairs. The faulty system is making their life a misery, but its not their job to fix it. They cant no-one will let them in the apartment upstairs. This is a white problem. And if white people dont fix it, someone will have to come upstairs and kick the door in. Loading.... The identity of Banksy has long been a closely-guarded secret, but that has not stopped him from becoming one of the most prolific artists of the 21st century, gaining attention for his politically-charged works. The digital ads, which will run in Michigan and Iowa, are five figures, according to the adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a campaign that has yet to begin. But the relatively small ad campaign is meant not only to boost Trumps reelection chances in key battlegrounds and bring attention to the China issue, but also for Cottons political team to test messages against Biden and see what attack lines resonate with voters. Acclaimed UK police series Line of Duty has recently returned to Netflix, after being pulled off the streaming platform in April. Seasons 1- 4 are now available. Stan also has Seasons 1 5. The shuffle comes as a result of the collapse of Kew Media Group and its distribution arm Kew Media Distributors. Deadline reports Netflix has gone direct to World Productions and cut a deal to return the series. ITV Studios will handle global sales for the upcoming sixth season, which would likely see it debut with BBC First (to be confirmed). Production was halted during COVID-19 shutdown. Creator Jed Mercurio recently said, I want to get back as soon as we can, but thats got to be when its safe. To be honest with you theres a lot we can do within the industry, but until wider society has the public health infrastructure of test, trace and isolate in place its going to be very hard for anyone I just dont think, unless wider society has got the process right, well be able to work in isolation. After New Zealand declared it's free of the coronavirus, neighboring Australia also said it's "on track" to having zero domestic infections by July. Cases and hospitalizations are going up again in parts of California, causing the state to place nine counties on a watchlist. As the U.S. reopens, many of the recent cases have been linked to loosened restrictions. Texas, one of the first states to loosen restrictions, saw its second consecutive record day of coronavirus hospitalizations. White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that the pandemic "isn't over yet." 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 7.17 million Global deaths: At least 408,244 U.S. cases: More than 1.96 million U.S. deaths: At least 111,375 The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University. France reportedly set to end coronavirus emergency health powers in July France is to end special government powers implemented to deal with the coronavirus crisis on July 10, according to a Reuters report citing the prime minister's office, although it will maintain restrictions on gatherings, face masks and freedom of movement for four months. France passed "state of health emergency" legislation as the coronavirus crisis hit Europe in March, giving the government the power to curb civil liberties without parliamentary approval. "In view of the positive evolution of the health situation at this stage, the government wishes to put an end to the state of health emergency, which must remain an exceptional case," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe's office said, Reuters reported. Holly Ellyatt Australia says it's 'on track' to have no local transmissions by July 2:20 p.m. (Singapore time) After New Zealand declared it's free of the coronavirus, neighboring Australia also said it's "on track" to having zero domestic infections by July, according to Reuters, citing a public health official. "Our view has been that we had hoped that by June/July that we would see coronavirus largely disappearing from the country, so this is pretty much on track," said Bill Rawlinson, a senior medical virologist with New South Wales Health, according to the report. He also spoke of the possibility of opening up a travel "bubble" with New Zealand, saying that movements between the two countries should not be restrained. Weizhen Tan Cases spike again in parts of California 11:10 a.m. (Singapore time) Cases and hospitalizations are going up again in parts of California, causing the state to place nine counties on a watchlist, according to Reuters. More than 18 million of California's 39 million residents live in those counties, which may now need to scale back reopening efforts, the report said. Los Angeles, Santa Clara and Fresno are among the counties on that watchlist. As the U.S. reopens, many of the recent cases have been linked to loosened restrictions. Arizona, among the first states to reopen in mid-May, has experienced a 115% surge in cases since then, the report said. Weizhen Tan Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft close at all-time highs as Big Tech rallies back from coronavirus 5:15 p.m. ET Four Big Tech firms closed at all-time highs on a day when the Nasdaq Composite Index hit a new record. Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft now have a combined market value of nearly $5 trillion. Facebook, Apple and Amazon all rose more than 3% Tuesday while Microsoft popped about 0.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3%, briefly breaking 10,000 for the first time. The S&P 500 was down about 0.8%. Big Tech stocks have fared better than most during the coronavirus pandemic as workers displaced from offices have come to rely more than ever on online services. With their large market caps, they've also helped buoy the stock market, which has staged a comeback despite huge unemployment numbers sparked by widespread stay-at-home orders. Google parent-company Alphabet remained about 5% behind its all-time high of $1,524.87 from Feb. 19, making it the only one of the five largest tech stocks not to close at an all-time high Tuesday. Lauren Feiner NASCAR to welcome spectators at select races Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, and Alex Bowman, driver of the #88 Axalta Chevrolet, lead during the NASCAR Cup Series FanShield 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 08, 2020 in Avondale, Arizona. Christian Petersen | Getty Images 4:45 p.m. ET NASCAR will allow fans to attend upcoming races in June under social-distancing guidelines. The Dixie Vodka 400, which takes place in Florida on June 14, and the GEICO 500, which is scheduled for June 21 in Alabama, will require guests to wear face coverings and require them to stay 6 feet apart among other health measures. "We have tremendous respect and appreciation for the responsibility that comes with integrating guests back into our events," said Daryl Wolfe, executive vice president and chief operations and sales officer at NASCAR, in a statement. The Dixie Vodka 400 will welcome up to 1,000 service members as its guests while the GEICO 500 will allow up to 5,000 guests. Hannah Miller States move deeper into reopening Diners receive assistance from a server, center, at Mother Anna's restaurant, Monday, June 8, 2020, in Boston's North End neighborhood. Steven Senne | AP 4:15 p.m. ET More states have moved forward in their reopening progress this week. Delaware entered its second phase of reopening and allowed personal care services such as tattoo shops and massage parlors to reopen at 30% capacity. Now in its third phase of reopening, Kansas allows gatherings of up to 45 people. In Massachusetts, which entered its second phase of reopening, restaurants can offer outdoor dining and retail is open to customers with capacity limits. Michigan has fully reopened bars and restaurants, and swimming pools and day camps can operate under specific health guidance. Oregon opened up some campgrounds in state parks and Washington, D.C. lifted its stay-at-home order. For more on states' reopening progress, click here. Hannah Miller Dr. Fauci warns pandemic 'isn't over yet' National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci attends the daily coronavirus briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 09, 2020 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong | Getty Images 3:45 p.m. ET White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the pandemic "isn't over yet" as the virus continues to spread rapidly across the globe. Speaking with the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, he said Covid-19 turned out to be his "worst nightmare" due to its "extraordinary" capability of transmission. "That's millions and millions of infections worldwide. And it isn't over yet. And it's condensed in a very, very small timeframe," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said. "You know, first notice at that the end of December, hit China in January, hit the rest of the world and February, March, April, May, early June." Fauci said the virus is "very different" from other outbreaks such as Ebola and HIV. It is historically one the worst pandemics the world has ever experienced, he said, adding people have compared it to the 1918 flu. Berkeley Lovelace Jr. Movie theaters, bowling alleys to reopen in California on Friday The Vista theatre is closed during the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Los Angeles, April 18, 2020. Mario Anzuoni | Reuters 3:20 p.m. ET Entertainment venues, including movie theaters, can reopen on Friday in California, according to guidance released by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Movie theaters, bowling alleys, miniature golf and batting cages can reopen under specific health guidance. Venues should institute capacity limitations and seating arrangements that allowed customer groups to maintain distances of 6 feet apart. Movie theaters are limited to 25% capacity or 100 customers, whichever is lower. The state also recommended using timed or advanced reservation ticketing systems and installing barriers between games and seating in order to encourage social distancing. It also asked theaters to consider using disposable or washable seat covers. The latest entertainment guidance does not apply to ice rinks, roller rinks, laser tag, water parks and theme parks, which are to remain closed. California is currently in the second stage of its four-phase reopening plan, which focuses on reopening lower-risk workplaces. However, entertainment venues are classified as higher-risk businesses, which weren't set to open until the third stage of the state's reopening. Hannah Miller European countries see rise in coronavirus numbers from the weekend A volunteer measures people to see if they have a high temperature at the entrance of the Maggiore Hospital in Bologna for preventive measures for Covid-19 on June 05, 2020 in Bologna, Italy. Michele Lapini | Getty Images 3:10 p.m. New coronavirus cases and deaths increased in several European countries from lower numbers reported over the weekend. The U.K. Department of Health and Social Care reported 286 new deaths, bringing the total 40,883. The number of deaths was more than five times higher than the number reported Monday, which reflected weekend numbers that health officials said tend to be lower. The U.K. also reported 1,387 new cases, according to the health department. In Italy, there were 79 deaths and 283 new cases, according to Reuters. There were 14 more deaths than on Monday, Tuesday's death count showed. Deaths rose by 54 to 29,209 on Monday in France, Reuters reported, but the number of new confirmed cases reported was at a one-week low. Data from Robert Koch Institute Monday night showed Germany had 252 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 184,193, according to Reuters. The country's death count rose by 16 to 8,674. Alex Harring HHS outlines $25 billion in funding for Medicaid providers and hospitals 3 p.m. ET The Department of Health and Human services announced that it will distribute $15 billion in relief funding to Medicaid providers and another $10 billion to safety net hospitals that care for low-income patients. "Targeting these funds to Medicaid providers is essential because they operate on thin margins, and maybe struggling more than other providers during this crisis, but it's also important because the population they serve, low-income and minority Americans, have suffered disproportionately from Covid-19," said HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan. Over the last two months, providers and hospitals catering low income Medicaid patients were mostly left out of distributions from the $175 billion provider relief funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which was enacted in late March, because earlier payments were based on facilities' Medicare revenues which federal officials had easier access to. Bertha Coombs San Francisco restaurants can offer outdoor dining starting Friday Raul Vasquez carries a lunch through the dining room for a customer to pickup at Gott's Roadside restaurant at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, May 2, 2020. San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images 2:50 p.m. ET Restaurants in San Francisco can resume outdoor dining on Friday, according to Mayor London Breed. "Opening our restaurants is a great step that will help our small businesses that are struggling, our workers who need paychecks and our residents who are ready to safely sit outside and enjoy a meal," Breed said in a statement. Reopened restaurants will be able to apply for access to sidewalks, parking lanes, streets and parks for outdoor dining space through the city's Shared Spaces Program. Restaurants will also have to follow social-distancing guidance, including limiting tables to six people and requiring customers to wear masks. Retail businesses are allowed to offer indoor service to customers on June 15 and can also apply for more outdoor space through the Shared Spaces Program. Hannah Miller New York Gov. Cuomo points to spike in Florida as he urges caution in reopening 2:45 p.m. ET All of New York state has now begun to reopen and Gov. Andrew Cuomo pointed to spikes in Florida and elsewhere as reasons why New Yorkers should continue to practice social distancing and take other precautions. "We're in a new phase. We're feeling good. We've done great, but we have to stay smart, because reopening resets the whole game," Cuomo said. "When you reopen, when people start coming out, in some ways, you go right back to day one." As New York, once the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, begins to reopen, other states, including Florida, Texas and Arizona, appear to have an expanding outbreak. William Feuer Texas hospitalizations hit another record The doctor in charge of the COVID-19 unit at United Memorial Medical Center in north Houston, checks on COVID a patient who was hoping to be released this week. Carolyn Cole | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images 2:26 p.m. ET Texas reported two consecutive days of record-breaking Covid-19 hospitalizations, with more than 2,000 patients in hospitals across the state as of early Tuesday afternoon, according to updated data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Coronavirus hospitalizations, like new cases and deaths, are considered a key measure of the outbreak because it helps scientists gauge how severe it may be. Research shows that it can take anywhere from five to 12 days for people to show symptoms from the virus. Texas was among the first states to relax its statewide stay-at-home order. Last week, CDC Director Robert Redfield warned that "not all states" had met the White House criteria for reopening businesses. Berkeley Lovelace Jr. Amazon ramps up plans to provide millions of Covid-19 tests to warehouse workers 2:10 p.m. ET Amazon is scaling up its efforts to test warehouse workers for coronavirus, with the goal of testing the bulk of its frontline workers every two weeks, according to three people familiar with the company's plans. The company plans to launch testing sites at its fulfillment centers, where workers will swab their own noses. Amazon's own diagnostic research labs will then analyze some of the samples to see if they're positive or negative. Amazon is planning to develop labs in several cities, starting off in Sunnyvale, California and Kentucky, the people said. Amazon is also exploring pulse oximetry screening, which measures oxygen levels in the blood. The company is also considering running more frequent temperature checks at its facilities. Workers who test positive for the coronavirus are referred to a company called Grand Rounds, a venture-backed start-up that provides online medical consultations. Grand Rounds can also answer employee questions about the virus. Amazon has committed to spending its expected Q2 profit of $4 billion on its Covid-19 response. It is projected to spend $1 billion on testing throughout the year. The plans align with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' pronouncement in April that he hoped the company would soon begin "regular testing of all Amazonians, including those showing no symptoms." Annie Palmer New Jersey lifts stay-at-home order People walk on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, New Jersey on May 24, 2020, during the Memorial Day weekend holiday. Kena Betancur | AFP | Getty Images 1:57 p.m. ET New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced that the state would lift its stay-at-home order that has been in place since mid-March. Murphy also said he would allow indoor gatherings at 25% of a building's capacity, or 50 people total. The limit on outdoor gatherings would be raised from 25 to 100 people except for political activities and religious services, which are allowed to exceed that maximum. "With more and more of our businesses reopening, we are no longer requiring you to stay at home, but we are asking you to continue being responsible and safe," Murphy said at a press briefing. Murphy asked residents to continue wearing face coverings and to maintain a 6-foot distance from other people when possible. Noah Higgins-Dunn Deadlines loom for airline workers to take buyouts or risk layoffs An airline employee walks past empty American Airlines check-in terminals at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on May 12, 2020. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | Getty Images 1:34 p.m. ET Airline workers are facing deadlines in June and July to decide whether to apply for buyouts, early retirements and other options, or face potential layoffs this fall. The terms of $25 billion in federal coronavirus aid prohibit airlines from laying off or cutting the pay rates of workers through Sept. 30, but airline executives have warned they expect to have to shrink their airlines and that they would need fewer employees. Travel demand is starting to rise again, but data from the Transportation Security Administration shows the number of people passing through U.S. airports is still more than 80% below last year's levels. Some of the packages include cash and years of free flights and other benefits, an effort by the airlines to entice employees to exit their payrolls as soon as possible. If they gamble on layoffs once the federal aid terms expire, they could walk away nearly empty-handed or with less generous benefits. Most employees who spoke with CNBC found it a tough sell. Because the entire industry is reeling it is difficult for them to jump to another airline. Leslie Josephs Liquor stores continue to face tests as states begin to reopen A person leaves a liquor store in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn during the coronavirus pandemic on May 7, 2020 in New York City. Rob Kim | Getty Images 1:13 p.m. ET As states begin to reopen restaurants and stores following months of closure, liquor store owners are wondering whether the new normal will bolster or tank business. Classified in several states as essential businesses, liquor stores have for the most part remained open across the country while many Americans stayed home. Store owners have continued to run their businesses with fewer resources and in some cases, higher demand. They've also had to more frequently respond to high-stress incidents like customers refusing to follow social distancing or wear masks. Multiple shop owners and employees told CNBC about the challenges of running a liquor store during a pandemic, including fears about tension with customers and concerns about demand returning to pre-virus levels. Yelena Dzhanova UK ends push to get all young children in school by summer hits a snag 1:04 p.m. ET The British government dropped its plans to reopen English primary schools to all children before summer vacation in July, due to schools' concerns about meeting social distancing requirements, according to the Associated Press. Instead, schools will continue a phased reopening that started last week. Last week the youngest and oldest primary students were allowed to return as part of a wider easing of lockdown restrictions, the AP reported, with the other students coming back in stages. As of Monday, over 70% of primary schools have reopened to more students, according to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson. To meet social distancing requirements, the AP said, schools have instituted drastic changes such as staggering starting and ending times, capping class sizes at 10, and having children eat packed lunches at their desks or in playgrounds. Elsewhere in the U.K., Scotland and Northern Ireland have said schools will not reopen until August, while Wales is planning to reopen theirs later in June, according to the AP. Michelle Gao Eiffel Tower to reopen June 25 A woman wearing a protective mask rides her bicycle next to the Eiffel Tower on April 23, 2020 in Paris, France. Chesnot | Getty Images 12:30 p.m. ET The Eiffel Tower will once again welcome visitors beginning on June 25, the tower's management announced. The Eiffel Tower has been closed for three months because of the coronavirus pandemic, the longest closure since World War II, according to a news release announcing the date. Visitors over the age of 11 will be required to wear masks, and the number of visitors on certain floors will be limited, tower management said. Suzanne Blake WHO clarifies comments on asymptomatic coronavirus spread Travelers walk to the exit of the Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province Wednesday, April 08, 2020, after 76 days of lockdown of the city due to Covid-19. Barcroft Media | Getty Images 10:58 a.m. ET The World Health Organization clarified its comments that transmission of the coronavirus by people who never developed symptoms is "very rare." WHO's Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said during a live Q&A that asymptomatic spread is a "really complex question" and much is still unknown. An asymptomatic person is someone with Covid-19 who doesn't have symptoms and never develops symptoms. It's not the same as someone who later develops symptoms, who would be classified as pre-symptomatic. Some studies suggest as much as 40% of transmission may be due to asymptomatic individuals, Kerkhove said, clarifying her comments. However, the majority of transmission is likely from people who have symptoms and are spreading it through infectious droplets, she said. "To truly understand how many people don't have symptoms, we don't actually have that answer yet," she added. "Some estimates of around 40% of transmission may be due to asymptomatic, but those are from models, so I didn't include that in my answer yesterday, but wanted to make sure that I covered that here," she said. Berkeley Lovelace, Jr. Satellite images and online searches indicate China had coronavirus in the fall, Harvard study finds 10:17 a.m. ET An analysis of hospital traffic and search engine data in the Chinese city of Wuhan indicates that Covid-19 may have been circulating there in the fall of 2019. The study from Harvard Medical School used satellite images of parking lots at six Wuhan hospitals to estimate hospital occupancy trends. It also analyzed data from Chinese search engine Baidu to determine changes in searches for Covid-19 symptoms. Researchers found there was a steep increase in hospital occupancies from August 2019 that culminated with a peak in December 2019, with peak daily occupancies coinciding with elevated levels of Baidu search queries for the terms "diarrhea" and "cough." The report's authors argued their findings supported theories that Covid-19 was already circulating before the outbreak was first documented in late December, adding that the virus may have even spread internationally before Chinese authorities detected it. Chloe Taylor Rate of new cases as states reopen Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards Dow falls for the first time in seven days 9:39 a.m. ET Stocks fell sharply at the open as investors took some money off the table amid a recession from the coronavirus pandemic, reports CNBC's Fred Imbert and Thomas Franck. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 370 points lower, or 1.4%. The S&P 500 slid 1.1% while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.5%. Melodie Warner Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards Colorado restaurants reopen after millions in losses 9:30 a.m. ET Restaurants in Colorado began reopening their doors two weeks ago under strict public health measures that limit the number of diners and require employees to wear protective gear. The city of Denver is also working to help its local restaurants by allowing them to extend their outdoor spaces onto adjacent parking lots, streets and sidewalks. Troy Guard, owner of TAG Restaurant Group, is hoping he'll rehire some of the 623 employees he had to furlough when Gov. Jared Polis ordered all bars and restaurants to close on March 17. So far, he brought back 80 employees to staff four locations open for takeout and two that just reopened for dine-in service. His company lost $7.5 million in revenue over the 10-week shutdown. TAG's 12 locations were making about $3 million in revenue a month before the pandemic. While restaurant owners are looking forward to reopening their businesses, they remain concerned about a potential surge in Covid-19 cases. "The biggest thing is that we want to make sure that when we reopen, we don't have to close again because if we close again, it's kind of a death sentence," Guard said. Jasmine Kim Retail store closures could accelerate to as many as 25,000 in 2020 Spencer Platt | Getty Images 9:15 a.m. ET As the coronavirus pandemic takes a toll on many retailers' businesses, there could be as many as 25,000 store closures announced by these companies this year, according to one firm. U.S. retailers could announce between 20,000 and 25,000 closures in 2020, according to tracking by Coresight Research, with 55% to 60% of those situated in America's malls. That would also mark a new record which was previously more than 9,300 locations in 2019. Bankruptcy filings by retailers have started to mount, and Coresight expects more are on the way. "We expect that a return to pre-crisis levels in offline discretionary retail sales overall will be gradual, as we expect consumer confidence, demand and spending to be short of normal for some time," Coresight founder and CEO Deborah Weinswig said in the report. Lauren Thomas The newest U.S. hot spots Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards national Macy's says reopened stores are performing better than expectations, shares soar A view outside Macy's Herald Square during the coronavirus pandemic on May 13, 2020 in New York City. Noam Galai | Getty Images 8:17 a.m. ET Macy's shares are rising after the company released its preliminary financial results, saying customers are returning to reopened stores much faster than it expected. The department store operator is also telling analysts and investors it should enter the holiday season later this year in the lean inventory position. Shares were recently up more than 9% in premarket trading. With the retailer's stores shut for most of its fiscal first quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic, sales are expected to fall 45% to $3.02 billion from $5.5 billion a year ago, Macy's said. It is also forecasting a quarterly net loss of $652 million, or $2.10 per share, for the period ended May 2, compared with net earnings of $136 million, or 44 cents a share, in the same period a year prior. As of June 1, Macy's said it had roughly 450 locations back up and running. The company also on Monday evening announced it has raised $4.5 billion in new financing, giving it "sufficient liquidity" to weather the coronavirus crisis. Lauren Thomas Engagement ring sales dropped off steeply during the pandemic, Tiffany says 8:10 a.m. ET As people across the globe stayed home during the pandemic, Tiffany saw a sharp drop off in sales especially for engagement rings. The luxury jewelry company said same-store sales were down by about 44% during its fiscal first quarter, as most of its 324 stores temporarily closed. Its biggest decline was in engagement jewelry, which plummeted by nearly 50% Tiffany said sales are gaining steam again, especially in China. Sales in the country jumped by 30% during April and about 90% in May, compared with the same period a year prior. And, it said, its new collection of rose gold and gold with diamonds is catching customers' eyes. Melissa Repko U.S. likely won't shut down again even if cases rise after reopening, Gottlieb says Remdesivir study on monkeys shows drug reduced lung damage Lab technicians load filled vials of investigational coronavirus disease (COVID-19) treatment drug remdesivir at a Gilead Sciences facility in La Verne, California, U.S. March 18, 2020. Gilead Sciences Inc | Reuters 7:42 a.m. ET Gilead Sciences antiviral drug remdesivir helped to prevent macaques infected with the coronavirus from developing respiratory disease and reduced lung damage associated with the virus, according to a new study published in the medical journal Nature. The study involved 12 monkeys infected with the coronavirus, with only six of them given remdesivir intravenously early on in the study. Those that received the drug did not develop respiratory disease and suffered less lung damage, the study showed. "Our data support early remdesivir treatment initiation in Covid-19 patients to prevent progression to pneumonia," the authors said in the report. The drug did not appear to reduce the infectiousness of the infected animals, however. "Despite the lack of obvious respiratory signs and reduced virus replication in the lungs of remdesivir-treated animals, there was no reduction in virus shedding," the study said. Clinical trials involving humans are ongoing. Holly Ellyatt AstraZeneca ramps up studies for antibody treatments A pedestrian walks past signage outside an AstraZeneca Plc research and development facility in Shanghai, China, on Monday, June 8, 2020. Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. New York City, United States -- Since the COVID-19 infection flare-up in December 2019, the malady has spread to right around 100 nations around the world with the World Health Organization proclaiming it a general wellbeing crisis. The worldwide effects of the coronavirus sickness 2019 (COVID-19) are now beginning to be felt, and will essentially influence the Healthcare Industry in 2020. The smart inhalers market is majorly driven by innovation, where the emphasis is on digital partnerships to offer smart inhaler products due to the increasing prevalence of respiratory disorders. Partnerships, collaborations, and agreements between pharma and digital companies play a key role in the markets supply chain. Increasing adoption of digitally-improved products across various end users is driving growth and innovation in the digital healthcare industry. Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/26881 Company Profiles OPKO Health, Inc. AstraZeneca plc GlaxoSmithKline Propeller Health Aptar Pharma Novartis AG Boehringer Ingelheim Teva Pharmaceuticals H&T Presspart Manufacturing Ltd. Sensirion AG Cohero Health, Inc. Others. Smart inhaler technology is rapidly becoming one of the most important areas of collaboration between pharma and digital health companies. A smart inhaler is now considered a part of the new-age digital technology, which is designed to improve disease management in respiratory diseases. The leading manufacturers of smart inhalers are focusing on collaborating with digital and software companies in order to serve the targeted population. Moreover, such collaborations also help manufacturers launch their products more conveniently as well as enhance their distribution channels. For instance, Propeller Health, a leading digital health solution provider for respiratory medicine, collaborated with Novartis AG to develop a custom add-on sensor for the Breezhaler inhaler, a smart inhaler used for COPD treatment. AstraZeneca plc formed a digital health partnership with the digital health company Adherium to manufacture smart inhalers. In September 2017, Adherium announced the FDA approval for SmartTouch, a Symbicort inhaler for AstraZenecas Symbicort aerosol inhaler. All these factors are projected to drive the growth of the global smart inhalers market during the forecast period. The growth of the smart inhalers market is attributed to the increasing prevalence of asthma and COPD across the globe. According to the latest research by the company, the global smart inhalers market is expected to account for revenue over US$ 130 Mn in terms of value by the end of 2026. The smart inhalers market is expected to witness rapid growth with a CAGR pegged at 12.2% through 2026. The smart inhalers market is moderately consolidated due to the presence of leading international players. Get To Know Methodology of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/26881 Regional Performance of the Smart Inhalers Market The revenue from North America smart inhalers market is expected to expand at a significant CAGR and is estimated to remain a dominant regional market for smart inhalers. This is majorly due to the rising per capita income in North America which is driving individuals to spend more on health care. This factor is expected to positively impact the growth in treatment options for respiratory disorders. Europe is also anticipated to be one of the leading regional markets for smart inhalers. India and China, along with other developing countries, have been preferable destinations for expenditure and investments. The prime driving factors in the region are rapid industrialization, infrastructural developments, and economic growth. The growth in these regions is paving way for substantial growth opportunities for smart inhaler manufacturers. On Mondays episode of The Gist, Mike Pesca spoke with New York Times columnist (and former Slate chief political correspondent) Jamelle Bouie about policing in America. A transcript of their conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, is below. Mike Pesca: Talking about the current protests and the issue of police brutality, do you think its fundamental right now to look at history or local structures or political parties to solve these problems? What should we look at first? Advertisement Jamelle Bouie: I think that for solving this particular problem it is useful to look at the history of policing and to try to understand what we were trying to do in creating the kind of police forces that we have. I think the thing thats important to understand about any kind of institution is that nothing is static. Nothing is inevitable. Nothings always been here. We have not always had police like the way we have them now. There were conscious choices made to get policing to where it is now. What were those choices? Why did we make them? And if we want to reform police, what should we take away from the choices we made in the past? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In your recent column, you write, The simplest answer to the question, Why dont the American police forces act as if they are accountable to black Americans? is that they were never intended to be. Theres a lot of scholarship to back that up. [But places like] Minneapolis and New York City are led by very liberal mayors. Large populations in the city agree with your prescriptions and even know a lot of the history, yet reform seems so hard. Whats baked into it more than an ignorance about how policing existed and what the history is? Whats baked into it is that the reason, for example, why some neighborhoods are more heavily policed than others only has a tangential relationship to, say, crime rates. It has a huge relationship to inequality, to segregation, to these sort of deeper material things. I think its been difficult for folks to realize that the problems here are tied to long-standing inequities in communities in the country that cannot be resolved by more education, that cannot be resolved by, in the case of policing, [using] bodycams. As long as a city like Minneapolis is rigidly segregated, and that racial segregation is still tied to economic inequality and deprivation, and as long as the police forces are tasked with maintaining order in the midst of that segregation, youre going to have problems. Youre going to have the sort of explosive conditions that weve witnessed. Advertisement Advertisement Nothing is inevitable. Nothings always been here. We have not always had police like the way we have them now. Jamelle Bouie The thing that is striking to meand Im not the first person to make this observationis that if you look at the history of rioting in Americas urban areas92 in Los Angeles, 67 in Detroit, 68 in D.C., 63 in New Yorkevery single riot of those kinds has the exact same set of conditions: segregation, economic deprivation, police violence. We, as a country, have decided not to do anything about those things. This happens to be a moment where theyre all coming to a head. Advertisement Advertisement Ive seen some scholarship on diversifying police forces, which has found that once above 35 percent of police force is African American, you begin to see some changes. In Baltimore, 28 percent of the population is white, and 51 percent of the police [are white]. In Detroit, with 81 percent population thats African American, the police force is 63 percent black. I dont think either of those cities would be pointed to as sterling examples of the police getting it right. It still seems to be a lot harder than that fix. Advertisement Advertisement This gets to the structural issue with policing that you can have more diverse police forces and it does do some work in lessening the rate to police abuses. But as long as policing is about maintaining order, not necessarily solving crimes, which are two different things, youre going to run into problems like, well, who do people think cause disorder? These things are tied to conceptions of groups of communities, and youre going to inevitably get to situations that cause problems. Advertisement Advertisement What are some basic fixes you would try to emphasize if you were an elected official? First of all, demilitarize police. Take away their body armor. Take away the armored cars. Take away all these heavy weapons. Ninety to 95 percent of what happens in any given community is not going to involve any of that, so why do you need it? I would take steps to make sure that police have to always identify themselves. They cant cover up their badges. I would have heavy penalties on police who repeatedly are cited for violence, for misconduct. They would be fired, and there should be a database of all fired police so they just cant move from one department to another. I would push to end qualified immunity, which prevents most legal action against police who use violence. Advertisement Advertisement There are things you can do basically to mitigate harm. But at a certain point, it is the case that the de facto occupation of some urban neighborhoods by police is a thing driven by segregation. So theres a point at which the fixes have to come on a deeper systemic level. They have to come in terms of reducing inequality, providing people with job opportunities, with economic opportunity, with creating infrastructure for mental health. Advertisement You were in Ferguson and covered that in 2014. There was a lot of use of militarized weapons there. But as I look at, for instance, New York City, theyre just basically beating people with sticks. So thats not a solution that always would apply. Advertisement Thats true. But its also the case that these things dont happen in a vacuum, that there are cultures of police militarization, cultures of impunity, and tackling those cultures is, I think, a paramount thing that cities and reformers need to do. How big a difference would it make if when policemen go on trial they were likely to be convicted? Most people who go on trial are likely to be convicted. Its not true with police officers. This is going to seem like its coming out of left field, but it reminds me of a question I was asked on the topic of reparations: Lets say reparations were realistic right now. What difference would that make? Part of the thing about a question like that is the political and social changes it would take for something like that to happen, it would presuppose a bunch of reform thats already gone down. You see what Im saying? So a world in which police who abuse their power, who commit violence, are tried and convicted at rates that ordinary citizens do would represent such a profound shift from the status quo that things would already be better. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sometimes, I believe that youre right, that until we pretty much undo segregation in American society, were not going to get to the point where this isnt seen as a problem. On the other hand, the delta between where we were in the 1970s and 80s and where we were in 2018, I think thats actually pretty bigbigger than people realize, if you look at the number of people who were shot, the number of times a New York police officer discharged a weapon, the number of actual convictions we got. So I dont know if the answer is more like Let us keep along the practical route to change. We have a few action items that are available. Lets see if we get to the point where we consider the situation not solved but truly addressed. Or if its not worth putting the effort into that, because without desegregating American society, nothings really going to change. Advertisement Its difficult because you are right that there has been real, tangible progress, but theres this way in which policing is unambiguously better than it was 30 or 40 years ago. But that, to me, just seems to say that policing 30 or 40 years ago was quite bad. Just based on the images youre seeing from these protests of police officers indiscriminately attacking people, it seems that theres something very wrong that has not been fixed by the reforms weve seen and may represent something like a more fundamental issue within the profession. Im not someone who is like, Either you do the most radical thing, or you do nothing. I think that to the extent that there are reforms we can do to improve policing as it exists, we should pursue those reforms, because thats a measurable reduction in harm for real people. It might even improve the polices ability to do their job. Advertisement Advertisement But to the extent that what were seeing represents a fundamental problem within the profession, then I do think that as we pursue reform, we have to have an eye toward what a world looks like where we dont have police in this exact form. Lets think through the functions of policing as it exists. Does it need to exist as it does right now? Because we keep running into the same set of problems over and over again. I want to end with one question on Trump. By trying to position himself as the law-and-order candidate, do you think hes misplaying the hand he has or just doing the best with the pair of twos that hes sitting with? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think hes probably misplaying the hand he has. I said in a column last week that you cant really play the law-and-order card when disorder is happening on your watch. The premise of law and order is that you will impose order. But if you already have the power to impose order and youre not doing it, then you cant really go that route. I think that the strongest card for Trump remains doing something about the public health crisis and trying to improve the economy. But those things are not glamorous. They are boring. They require all the work he does not want to do, and so I think hes going to continue to go along the law-and-order path, despite it, I think, being a dead end for his campaign. Listen to the full episode using the player below, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. A land lot in Da Nang. Housing projects are proposed to sell land lots. - Photo diendandatdai.com This is the regulation proposed at the end of May by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in the latest version of the draft amending and supplementing Decree 43 on specific regulations for a number of articles in the Land Law, including conditions for transferring land use rights at housing projects. According to the April version of the amended draft, the housing projects nationwide are not allowed to sell land lots. Real estate experts said the ban of selling land lots would have strong impact on the domestic real estate market and it is very difficult to implement this ban. Nguyen Tran Nam, chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Association said the proposal on banning the sale of land lots is not suitable with both legal and practical issues, causing many difficulties for businesses and the people. The ministry has the ban with good target of stopping illegal actions in trading land lots to cheat buyers over past time, Nam said. The fault is real estate market management of local authorities but not due to the regulations. Nam said the market has high demand on trading land lots for investment while the State could collect tax from transferring land use right. The problems on the land lot market at present included not close management for the market of the authorities and intransparent information about planning of housing projects in particular and the property market in general, he said. Le Xuan Nghia said most of Vietnamese real estate enterprises are small and medium sized ones with limited financial capacity so they have often had land lot projects to recover capital quickly, ensuring cash flow to develop new larger projects. Nghia said giving approval for selling land lots should depend on each housing project and each location because the general construction planning at present is not synchronised. Tran Kim Chung, deputy director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, said the market still has demand on trading of land lots so the State should not ban this activity. The permission of selling land lots is a policy decision and the issuance of this decision should be suitable with the practice. Nkurunziza's death comes weeks before President-elect ruling party candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye was expected to be sworn in after winning the May election. It was not immediately clear what the government's steps will be and a spokesman was not available for comment. The statement posted on social media said the President was admitted to a hospital overnight on Saturday after not feeling well. He appeared better on Sunday but "to very great surprise" his health abruptly worsened on Monday morning, and he died. Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has died of a heart attack at the age of 56, the government has announced, ending a 15-year-rule marked by deadly political violence and a historic withdrawal from the International Criminal Court. Despite the government's statement, some in Burundi wondered whether Nkurunziza died of COVID-19 instead. "When Nkurunziza's wife was flown to Kenya suffering from COVID-19, many in Burundi suspected the President himself was sick," said Justin Nyabenda, a resident in Bujumbura. The government has downplayed the virus and held the election and large campaign rallies in spite of the threat. Authorities kicked out the World Health Organisation's top official in the country just days before the election after the WHO raised concerns about crowded rallies. The country has 83 virus cases. Nkurunziza took office in 2005, chosen by lawmakers to lead the East African nation after the 1993-2005 civil war killed about 300,000 people. The peace process known as the Arusha Accords specified that a president's term can be renewed only once. But Nkurunziza, who won a second term in 2010, announced he was eligible for a third term in 2015 because he had not been chosen the first time by universal suffrage. The deadly turmoil that followed badly damaged ties with the international community, and Burundi became the first country to leave the ICC after it started investigating allegations of abuses. The United Nations human rights office reported more than 300 extrajudicial killings and was later kicked out of the country. The Donald Trump administration sanctioned an Iranian shipping line and its Chinese subsidiary today after a six-month humanitarian deferral period ended. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo first announced sanctions on Mahan Air alongside the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and its Shanghai-based subsidiary, E-Sail Shipping Company Ltd (E-Sail), in December. Pompeo noted in a statement today that the Trump administration delayed the IRISL and E-Sail sanctions for six months to allow exporters of humanitarian goods to Iran sufficient time to find alternate shipping methods. Now that this generous delay has come to an end, those in the commercial and maritime industries doing business with Iran must use carriers or shipping methods other than IRISL or E-Sail, said Pompeo. If not, humanitarian exporters could run afoul of US nonproliferation sanctions on Iran. Why it matters: While the Treasury Department maintains a formal sanctions exemption for humanitarian trade with Iran, the sanctions on E-Sail are likely to pose another obstacle to Tehrans ability to import food and medicine. Treasury Department website guidance notes that the E-Sail sanctions cover agricultural commodities, food, medicine or medical devices, warning that anyone who engages in humanitarian transactions risks exposure to sanctions. Pompeo asserted that the Iranian shipping line has repeatedly transported items related to Irans ballistic missile and military programs and is also a longstanding carrier of other proliferation-sensitive items. Whats next: Pompeo has also threatened to pursue snapback sanctions on Iran at the United Nations unless Russia and China agree to extend the arms embargo on Tehran, which expires in October as the first sunset provision under the 2015 nuclear deal. Know more: Congressional Correspondent Bryant Harris takes a deep-dive into how Trumps Iran sanctions regime has impacted humanitarian trade amid the coronavirus pandemic. Atlantic City and Pleasantville each had four of todays confirmations and Northfield had three. Absecon, Galloway and Hammonton each had two new positives while Buena Borough, Buena Vista Township, Egg Harbor City and Hamilton Township each had one. A total of 2,449 county residents have been confirmed for COVID-19 with 1,107 cleared as recovered. There have been 170 deaths. Atlantic County will continue its COVID-19 testing on Tuesday, June 9 by appointment for symptomatic county residents with a doctors prescription. Testing is conducted between 9 AM and 12 noon behind the Public Works yard in Northfield at Rt. 9 (New Road) and Dolphin Avenue. Appointments can be made online at www.aclink.org. The Cumberland County Health Department is collaborating with CompleteCare Health Network and the City of Vineland Health Department to provide walk-up COVID-19 testing on June 12, 19 and 26, 2020 from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. at Bridgetons downtown Riverfront Plaza. Testing will be available for individuals exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms as well as those who have had close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Government has been urged to finance the Domestic Violence Support Fund as stipulated in the Domestic Violence Act to help in the fight against domestic violence. Stakeholders at a forum in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, explained that due to poverty and lack of financial support, victims of domestic violence were often unable to report cases of abuse to the appropriate authorities for justice delivery. The forum was organized by the Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM) in partnership with Oxfam Ghana and funding support from the European Union (EU). It was held under the theme: ENOUGH! Empowering women, girls, boys and men to take positive action in ending sexual gender-based violence in Ghana, Liberia and Mali. The Domestic Violence Support Fund established by the Domestic Violence Act of 2007, Act 732 and being enforced by the Domestic Violence Legislative Instrument of 2016, LI 2237, provides the opportunity for a victim of domestic abuse to apply for financial assistance. Speaking at the forum, the stakeholders bemoaned the failure of government to resource the fund over the years which made it difficult for victims to report and pursue cases of domestic abuse, thereby hindering efforts at ending the phenomenon in societies. Ms Fati Abigail Abdulai, the Executive Director, WOM, explained that most of the people who suffered from domestic violence were vulnerable poor women who lived in extreme poverty and could not afford to risk the little they had to report any case of abuse. She said the offices of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) were not decentralized and victims of abuse could not travel to the regional capitals to report cases. The cost involved is a barrier to the fight against the canker. For instance, let us say you are in Nabdam and you have to come to DOVVSU in Bolgatanga, that is a cost most people cannot afford, she said. The Executive Director explained that funds, if made available will cater for medical bills of victims and enable survivors to get support to learn trade that would empower them economically. Ms Abdulai said it would further enable state institutions such as the assemblies, DOVVSU and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to undertake sensitization programmes to empower institutions and citizens on the laws on domestic violence and the need to avoid it. Madam Yvonne Wonchua, Assistant Director of Administration at the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council, urged government through the Ministry of Finance to localize the fund by adopting the strategy deployed in supporting Persons with Disabilities with three per cent of District Assemblies fund. She urged the various assemblies to provide office space for DOVVSU to enable it decentralize to the district level to enable people have easy access to services. Mr Jaladeen Abdulai, the Regional Director, CHRAJ, explained that domestic violence including rape and defilement were criminal offences, however the inability to report such cases was hindering the efforts of the fight against the problem. While calling for strong collaboration between DOVVSU and the Department of Social Welfare regards to handling domestic violence cases, the Regional Director advocated that there should be permanent DOVVSU officials trained to handle domestic violence related cases. 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 Julia Cheever Bay City News Service SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) After 115 years of having its headquarters in San Francisco, PG&E announced Monday it will move to Oakland beginning in 2022. The move to the new base at 300 Lakeside Drive will be completed in 2023, the utility said. PG&E, now in the final phase of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, said it expects the move to reduce its costs. The new headquarters "is a critical part of fulfilling our commitment to operate in a fiscally responsible way that will enable us to achieve our operational and safety goals," Interim Chief Executive Officer Bill Smith said in a statement. The announcement came on the same day that U.S. District Judge Dennis Montali took PG&E's $58 billion bankruptcy exit plan under advisement after completing an eight-day confirmation hearing. PG&E is seeking Montali's approval for the plan before a June 30 deadline for its participation in a wildfire insurance fund established by the state Legislature to cushion utilities' liability in the event of future catastrophic wildfires. Montali did not say when he will rule but said during the video hearing, "I'm not planning to wait until June 30 to issue a decision." PG&E filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which enabled it to freeze its debts temporarily, in January 2019 in the face of billions of dollars of claims for wildfires in the North Bay in 2017 and Butte County in 2018. The plan includes a $13.5 billion trust, half of which would be in PG&E stock, for people who lost family members, homes and businesses in the fires and have not been compensated by insurance. It would also provide $11 billion to insurance companies that have paid claims, and $1 billion to state and local governments. A key unresolved issue is whether the fire victims' trust will have the same rights to sell stock as investors who are expected to buy $9 billion in shares as part of PG&E's refinancing plan. PG&E attorney Stephen Karotkin told Montali Monday that the dispute is still in mediation before a retired bankruptcy judge. On Friday, Robert Julian, a lawyer for an official committee representing wildfire victims, told Montali that proposed restrictions on the victims' stock sales could mean that it would take five or six years for the trust to complete selling those shares, while no similar restrictions are imposed on investors. "The victims' stock must be treated equally" with that of investors, Julian argued. The committee, known as the Official Committee of Tort Claimants and appointed by a federal trustee, represents about 70 percent of the more than 80,000 people with wildfire claims. Julian said Friday that the committee would support PG&E's plan if the dispute about the stock sale rights is resolved. Some fire victims continue to oppose the plan, however. Fire survivor Will Abrams of Santa Rosa, who argued before Montali on Thursday that the plan was aimed at benefiting hedge funds and large investors, filed a renewed objection in Montali's court Monday morning, contending the plan is "unconfirmable and manifestly unjust" to victims. Karotkin in his final arguments on Monday afternoon told Montali, "Confirmation is the only path here. "Any other path...would delay distributions to fire claimants for months, if not years," Karotkin contended. The wildfire insurance fund established by the state Legislature in AB 1054 last year would provide up to $21 billion to pay for future wildfire liability for the state's three largest investor-owned utilities: PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. Half of the fund would be paid by the utilities' shareholders and half would be paid by their customers. A utility would have to show that it took "reasonable" wildfire safety measures to have access to the fund. The law requires PG&E to exit bankruptcy by June 30 to be eligible for participation. 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. India has the worlds largest and most experienced troops trained for high-altitude battles, a military expert affiliated to Chinas leading maker of equipment for the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has said, adding that mountaineering is an essential skill for each Indian soldier deployed in the mountains. At present, the worlds largest and experienced country with plateau and mountain troops is neither the US, Russia, nor any European powerhouse, but India, wrote Huang Guozhi, senior editor of Modern Weaponry magazine. The magazine, considered a comprehensive military and defence journal, is affiliated to the state-owned China North Industries Group Corporation Limited (NORINCO), which describes itself as the main platform responsible for developing mechanised, digitised and intellectualised equipment for PLA. Its one of the worlds largest defence contractors and is also closely involved in President Xi Jinpings legacy project, the Belt and Road Initiative. ALSO WATCH | Shouldnt let differences escalate into disputes: China on Ladakh standoff The write-up comes in the backdrop of a stand-off between Indian and Chinese border troops along the line of actual control (LAC) in the mountainous Ladakh region. It began last month and was the topic of talks between military commanders last weekend. Huangs article published in thepaper.cn is a rare critique of an Indian army wing in Chinese media, which usually takes the more nationalistic tone of brandishing its own capabilities along the border with India. Huangs take was nuanced. Mountaineering is an essential skill for almost every member of the Indian mountain army. To this end, India even recruited a large number of professional mountaineers and amateur mountaineers from the private sector, Huang wrote. With more than 200000 troops in 12 divisions, the Indian mountain force is the largest mountain fighting force in the world, Huang wrote. Huang said that since the 1970s, the Indian military has established and expanded the size and personnel of the mountain army on a large-scale, and also plans to create a mountain strike force of more than 50,000 troops. Giving the example of the Siachen Glacier, Huang wrote: The Indian army has set up hundreds of outposts in the Siachen Glacier area with an altitude of more than 5,000 metres, with 6,000 to 7,000 fighters stationed. The highest post has reached 6,749 metres. Huang didnt mention the source of the information but went on to give a list of weaponry that the Indian army has deployed in the mountains suitable to high-altitude battles. In terms of equipment, the Indian military, through procurement from abroad and domestic research and development, has equipped a large number of main battle weapons adapted to the combat environment of the plateau and mountains. The Indian military has also spent heavily on advanced heavy equipment from the US including the M777, the worlds lightest 155mm-towed howitzer, and the Chinook heavy transport helicopter that lifts the gun, to boost its fire support and anti-armour capabilities. Huang also mentioned the high-calibre sniper rifles that Indian soldiers deployed at high-altitudes are now equipped with. The author also listed shortcomings of the Indian army mountain troops including lack of self-sufficiency in weaponry and ammunition especially needed for western weaponry. In addition, there are many conflicts and differences between the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force. This has also led the Indian Army to decide to equip its own US-made AH-64E Longbow Apache attack helicopters instead of relying entirely on airfield support from the air force, Huang wrote. Incidentally, India and the US signed an estimated $800 million contract in February this year in New Delhi for the delivery of six Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters to the Indian Armys Aviation Corps (AAC). Paris, Amsterdam, June 9, 2020 Press release Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield scores B and stands out as industry leader for its ESG practices in ISS 2020 rating Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) is once again recognized as a global leader on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG), achieving a score of B from ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services group of companies) for its ESG practices in June 2020. This is an exceptional rating level among the real estate industry companies assessed worldwide, and the best grade ever for the Group. URW ranks in the leaders group (1st decile) and is, like in 2019, awarded the Prime status, which highlights its best-in-class approach. For the Group, this top grade is an achievement highlighting the relevance and strength of both its governance and its CSR Strategy, and a recognition of its commitment to fight climate change. When the Groups CSR strategy Better Places 2030 was launched in 2016, URW became the first listed real estate company to address, in addition to its own direct emissions, the indirect emissions resulting from construction works, tenant energy consumption and transportation of visitors to access its assets. URWs main objective is to cut the Groups carbon emissions by -50% by 20301. Better Places 2030 also tackles other challenges such as responsible consumption and the circular economy. CSR is instrumental in the Groups HR policy, through an increased commitment to diversity and inclusion. The Groups CSR strategy, actions and results are regularly assessed by analysts, researchers, investors and third-party certification bodies that rank URW as one of the most sustainable companies in the industry. ISS ESG covers Corporate and country ESG research and ratings, enabling investors to identify material social and environmental risks and opportunities. A companys management of ESG issues is analyzed on the basis of up to 100 rating criteria, most of them sector-specific. The indicators are constantly reviewed and developed to align with the latest scientific findings, technological developments, regulatory changes and social debates. Story continues 1 in comparison with 2015 figures For further information, please contact: Investor Relations Samuel Warwood Maarten Otte +33 1 76 77 58 02 Maarten.otte@urw.com Media Relations Tiphaine Bannelier-Suderie +33 1 76 77 57 94 Tiphaine.bannelier-sderie@urw.com About Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is the premier global developer and operator of Flagship destinations, with a portfolio valued at 65.3 Bn as at December 31, 2019, of which 86% in retail, 6% in offices, 5% in convention & exhibition venues and 3% in services. Currently, the Group owns and operates 90 shopping centres, including 55 Flagships in the most dynamic cities in Europe and the United States. Its centres welcome 1.2 billion visits per year. Present on 2 continents and in 12 countries, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield provides a unique platform for retailers and brand events and offers an exceptional and constantly renewed experience for customers. With the support of its 3,600 professionals and an unparalleled track-record and know-how, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is ideally positioned to generate superior value and develop world-class projects. As at December 31, 2019, the Group had a development pipeline of 8.3 Bn. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield distinguishes itself by its Better Places 2030 agenda, that sets its ambition to create better places that respect the highest environmental standards and contribute to better cities. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield stapled shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris (Euronext ticker: URW), with a secondary listing in Australia through Chess Depositary Interests. The Group benefits from an A- rating from Standard & Poors and from an A3 rating from Moodys. For more information, please visit www.urw.com Visit our Media Library at https://mediacentre.urw.com Follow the Group updates on Twitter @urw_group , Linkedin @Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Instagram @urw_group Attachment The removal of lockdown restrictions to help kickstart Australia's crippled economy could be delayed by at least a week by the Black Lives Matter protests. Thousands flouted social distancing rules when they flocked to mass protests across the nation on Saturday to take a stand for the rights of indigenous Australians in the wake of George Floyd's death in the U.S. But it may come at a $1billion cost to the economy and delay a return to work for thousands of Australians. The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee believes it will take up to a fortnight to assess whether the protests have caused a fresh outbreak of new cases. Authorities won't know for up to two weeks whether Saturday's Black Lives Matter protests will spark an outbreak in new coronavirus cases. Pictured are protesters at the Sydney rally who packed Belmore Park New South Wales was the only state to record new coronavirus cases on Tuesday with two returned overseas travellers who tested positive. There were zero community transmitted cases across the entire country. The National Cabinet was expected to update its three-stage COVID-19 road map when it meets this Friday and fast-track plans to reopen the economy. But any plans to rapidly scale back of social restrictions will likely be put on hold to monitor the impact of the mass protests have on coronavirus cases in the coming weeks, The Australian has been told. The National Cabinet will receive advice from the AHPPC prior to meeting this week. The Black Lives Matter protests could delay the easing of lockdown restrictions.Pictured are protesters taking a stand in Adelaide on Saturday The cost to the economy of restrictions remaining in place could be up to $6.3bn a month, according to Treasury estimates. Should restrictions remain in place for a week longer than intended, the economy would take an extra hit of well over $1billion. 'What we want to do is to get Australians back to what we call a better normal,' federal health minister Greg Hunt told the publication. 'Recognising that we've had extraordinary success, we still need to be vigilant, but with each day we're making progress on the health front and with each day that means we can make progress on the economic front.' He hinted at the possibility to 'increase actions and decrease the restrictions' if Australia's progress in flattening the curve. 'I am hopeful that over the course of this week we'll continue to see progress and, each week that goes by with reduced numbers and a greater flattening of the curve, there's increased potential across a range of different activities,' Mr Hunt said. The Black Matter Lives protests could come at a price and cost the economy more than $1billion and delay a return to work for thousands of Australians. Pictured is a woman wearing a face mask at Sydney's Town Hall on Saturday Health Services Union and Maritime Union of Australia is campaigning for most social restrictions to be eased, including the return of fans at sporting matches. Their views are in contrast to the Australian Council of Trade Unions, which fears the easing of restrictions too soon could be catastrophic in sparking a second wave of new infections. 'Restrictions should not be eased before the medical professionals recommend that, and until we can be sure that the workplaces that Australians will be returning to are safe for them to work in while we are still battling the virus,' ACTU secretary Sally McManus said. In August, NASA announced that blue chip aerospace giant Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) would be the only company allowed to compete for a sole-source contract to build a "minimal habitation module" to accommodate astronauts serving aboard its planned Lunar Gateway space station orbiting the moon. At the time, NASA had not technically awarded the contract to Northrop, but with no one else allowed to bid, the contract appeared to be Northrop's by default. And now it is. The contract win was announced last week. NASA describes the habitation and logistics outpost (HALO) as "the pressurized living quarters where astronauts will spend their time while visiting the Gateway." Derived from the Cygnus cargo capsule that Northrop already builds for supply runs to the International Space Station, the HALO is described as "about the size of a small studio apartment," and is designed to be used in tandem with the Orion spacecraft that carries astronauts to the Gateway. On Friday, NASA confirmed that it had awarded the HALO contract to Northrop. For an initial $187 million, Northrop will "design the habitation and logistics outpost (HALO) for the Gateway." Subsequently, and presumably for much more money, Northrop Grumman will actually build the HALO. Preliminary design work (the first contract) is expected to wrap up before the end of this year. Construction of the HALO, and its integration with the Gateway's power and propulsion element (PPE) that Maxar Technologies is building, should happen by the end of 2023. Then the unified spacecraft would be launched to the moon that same year. NASA has not yet chosen a contractor to conduct the launch, but that decision should also be reached before the end of this year. Patna: Sympathising with guest workers who endured days of hardship to return home amid the lockdown, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said he has urged the Centre to replace the four-decade-old interstate law with a new one to ensure their social security. The senior BJP leader also said that the troubles of the hapless workers grew manifold, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, as their employers did not implement the provisions of the existing Inter State Migrant Labour Act, 1979. The Act, moreover, covers only labourers hired by registered contractors, leaving out a vast majority recruited through agents, the deputy chief minister said. The legislation was enacted to ensure decent living conditions, payment of railway fare and medical expenses, if and when needed, he said. Besides, a labour inspector might visit work places in other states to see if the lawful facilities were being extended to the guest workers, the BJP leader said. In addition, the Act entails that migrants should be covered under the Employees Provident Fund, Employees' State Insurance Corporation and other welfare schemes, he stated. Modi mooted the idea of giving unique identity number to every guest worker for compilation of a national database of such workers to provide them benefits of all social security schemes on the lines of "one nation, one ration card". "If these provisions were applied, lakhs of migrant workers would have benefited in times of crisis, like the one happening due to the coronavirus outbreak," Modi told PTI. Nearly 30 lakh migrants have returned to Bihar since the imposition of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Taking lessons from the episode, which had left many migrants in distress, there was a need to frame a new law, which would shield the workforce from such agony, he said. The deputy CM said he has requested the Centre to this effect, and the state Labour department has also taken up the issue with the Union government, stressing the need to repeal the 1979 Act and replace it with a new all-encompassing law. Of the 30 lakh guest workers that returned to Bihar, many came by Shramik Special trains, some travelled in buses, while a few unfortunate ones had to ride bicycles for days or walk back home, he said. Rajesh Kumar, the chief public relations officer of Hajipur-based East Central Railway zone, said approximately 19,92,300 passengers have returned home in Bihar in around 1,089 Shramik Special trains from different states. Giving details, he said 229 Shramik trains reached Bihar from Gujarat, 168 from Maharashtra, 143 from Punjab and 100 from Delhi. Shramik special trains have brought workers to Bihar from 21 states, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Puducherry and Goa among others. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has promised to find the returnees work at home so that they are not forced to migrate outside in "majboori" (compulsion). He has instructed various departments to create job opportunities under MGNREGA, Jal Jeevan Hariyali Abhiyan (environment projection schemes) and construction projects. Modi said the government was also contacting the employers of guest workers in other states, requesting them to consider the option of opening a new unit in Bihar, where the existing workforce could be accommodated. According to reports, many guest workers were moving back to their places of work, with their employers luring them with incentives. The ECR CPRO said so far three outbound trains have taken people to other states from Bihar. The first one was from Khagaria to Hyderabad in the first week of May, carrying 222 workers. Another train travelled to Raipur in Chhattisgarh from Darbhanga, and a third one from Patna to Sangli in Maharashtra, Kumar said. Media reports have also highlighted that guest labourers were travelling back to workplaces in Punjab in luxury buses sent for by their employers, promising higher wages. ADOMANI opening EV markets nationwide, while keystone California HVIP incentive program struggles CORONA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / ADOMANI, Inc. (OTCQB:ADOM) a provider of new zero-emission, purpose-built electric vehicles and drivetrain solutions, today announced the sale of an all-electric, zero-emission logistics van to SnowCap Community Charities in Fairview, Oregon. SnowCap was founded in 1967 to serve local community residents in helping them meet their basic needs, and is the largest food pantry in the area. The all-electric van will be placed into operation to deliver food and collect donations to benefit residents in their service area. "As a charity organization, we're always looking at how we can reduce operational costs and put more of that money toward helping others," said Kirsten Wageman, Executive Director for SnowCap. "Purchasing the electric van helps us control our maintenance costs as well as protect the pristine environment that surrounds our community," Wageman stated. SnowCap received funding through the Drive Change Fund from local utility Portland General Electric (PGE) for both the purchase of an electric vehicle and the required infrastructure to charge the vehicle. Initially the organization's plan was to purchase an electric conversion vehicle. However, another company was not able to deliver, and SnowCap contacted ADOMANI for a new all-electric vehicle. "The timing could not be better," said Doug Lollar, Sales Director for ADOMANI. "We have inventory due to the lack of HVIP funding availability in California and it was easy to pivot and redirect the electric van to a state that could fulfill their funding promise," Lollar continued. A nationwide keystone program, the California HVIP program, (Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project), offers incentives for low NOx and zero-emission vehicles. "Unlike our competitors, we have inventory and customers. It is unfortunate that the California HVIP funding is tied-up with companies that can't deliver," said Jim Reynolds, CEO for ADOMANI. "That said, we have been pivoting aggressively, and are honored to be able to sell one of our outstanding, technologically advanced, environmentally clean all-electric vans to SnowCap. They are an outstanding citizen of their community, and we are thrilled to become an enthusiastic, long-term partner to help them take care of so many people in need," Reynolds stated. "We also applaud Portland General Electric for their visionary Drive Change Fund, which will help so many other worthy organizations like SnowCap electrify their fleets for the betterment of the Portland community. We look forward to becoming a long-term, enthusiastic partner to many more commercial, government and nonprofit customers across Portland and all of Oregon looking to electrify their fleets," Reynolds added. The ADOMANI logistics van is a purpose-built, all-electric, zero-emission vehicle with a range of 130 miles or more. The all-electric van is perfect for last-mile food, and local deliveries. The optional barrier between the driver's cab and cargo area make it ideal to keep cargo separate from the driver and from any potential germs such as COVID-19. ADOMANI is one of few commercial electric vehicle companies that has inventory and is able to deliver them. 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/593166/ADOMANIR-Delivers-All-Electric-Logistic-Van-to-SnowCap-Community-Charities-in-Portland-Oregon WASHINGTON - LeBron James retweeted her. Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., posed for pictures with her. "Morning Joe" wanted her on MSNBC. Appearing on rapper Lil Wayne's radio show - a show normally devoted to stars such as Drake and Eminem - D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser could not help but crow about her duel with President Donald Trump. "When you're the president, you're supposed to swing up, you're supposed to be beating up on foreign leaders," said Bowser, a Democrat. "Not swinging down on chick mayors." In a city famous for political bombast, Bowser is known as a cautious leader who expresses herself in the forgettable words of a government bureaucrat. Now, in the span of a week, she has turned into a fresh voice of the resistance, buffeted by Trump's threat of a federal takeover and his use of racist language to criticize street protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. The mayor's most dramatic stroke - deploying city workers to paint "Black Lives Matter" in huge yellow letters along two blocks leading to the White House - drew widespread acclaim, including from James, who wrote, "BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!! TOGETHER we shall prevail!!" to his 46 million Twitter followers. Yet, among adversaries closer to home, the mural was dismissed as a publicity stunt - "a performative distraction," according to the local chapter of Black Lives Matter. A day after it appeared, BLM activists erased an emblem of the District of Columbia flag from the design and wrote in equally large lettering, "Defund the Police." Over the course of her mayoralty, Bowser has antagonized left-wing activists by increasing funding for police and championing development - including affordable housing - that they say is too expensive for poor and working-class African Americans. In the heat of the presidential primaries, she was a visible surrogate for Democrat Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor whose "stop and frisk" policing strategy disproportionately targeted African Americans. "It's clear that black lives don't matter to her," said Jauhar Abraham, a community organizer in Washington who says he is a supporter of Trump and believes Democrats have abandoned African Americans. "If black lives mattered, we would see an increase in education and quality of living. So many of our neighbors have had to leave because they can't afford to live here." Bowser, 47, dismissed the criticism of her mural, saying public displays - or their removal - can crystallize the significance of important moments. "What would you say to the people who argue to take down Confederate statues or change names of buildings?" she said in an interview. "Are those empty gestures?" She said most Washingtonians back her approach to tackling inequality, such as championing low- and moderate-income housing in wealthy, majority-white neighborhoods and launching job-training programs. "People felt, and feel, like we have to fight for ourselves as black people, we have to fight for our city as Washingtonians," Bowser said. "We have to beat back this aggressive, this kind of all-out assault on our traditions as Americans." - - - Undefeated in every election she has faced, including three for the D.C. Council, Bowser has long demonstrated a capacity for political jujitsu. But she has never played in as high-stakes an arena as the one she found herself in last week, against an opponent as powerful and ferocious as Trump. "She has identified the perfect foil," said Chuck Thies, a political consultant and adversary whose candidate, then-Mayor Vincent Gray, lost to Bowser in 2014. "Ninety-six percent of the D.C. electorate did not vote for Donald Trump. If she had not chosen to lead, the political damage would have been permanent." With the mural, Thies said, the mayor "captured the essence of the outrage of the moment in three words that are large enough to be seen by a Goodyear blimp." "It was brilliant," he said. Until the outbreak of the coronavirus in March, the first major crisis of her mayoralty, Bowser's tenure had been largely free of drama. Even when scandals erupted involving her schools chancellor and favorable treatment of campaign donors, the mayor avoided lasting damage. With the economy strong and new development remaking neighborhoods, she faced no significant opponents when she sought reelection in 2018, becoming the first D.C. mayor in 16 years to win a second term. Yet polling last fall showed that even as two-thirds of Washingtonians approved of her performance, about a fifth of those surveyed felt strongly about her - a lack of enthusiasm perhaps rooted in her understated approach to governing. "I'm a balanced Democrat," she told a reporter during her first mayoral run, describing herself as a technocrat who "looks at the body of law that we have, finding the gaps and filling them." Her campaign highlighted her background growing up in North Michigan Park, a middle-class black neighborhood, the youngest of six siblings. Her father, Joe, worked as a schools facilities manager and served as an elected advisory neighborhood commissioner. After graduating from Chatham College, a small women's school in Pittsburgh, she worked as an insurance claim representative before getting a master's in public policy at American University. She entered politics in 2000, winning a neighborhood advisory seat, after which she caught the notice of then-D.C. Council member Adrian Fenty. When Fenty became mayor, he backed Bowser to fill his council seat. She was far from a natural campaigner and resisted reporters' inquiries about her personal life. Even now, six years after taking office, she begins news conferences by introducing herself by name and giving her title. For all her reserve, however, Bowser is willing to take political risks. In 2014, she entered the mayoral race against better-known and more-experienced candidates, one of whom sent out a mass mailing of a blank white page to symbolize what he said were her legislative accomplishments. Bowser won, assembling a coalition of support that crossed racial lines. "People underestimate how savvy she is," said Bill Lightfoot, a former D.C. Council member who chaired her mayoral campaign. - - - Bowser is not the first D.C. mayor to tangle with the federal government. In 2011, Gray was arrested for protesting a Republican-backed restriction on the city spending money for low-income women to obtain abortions. Marion Barry, Sharon Pratt Kelly and Fenty all bristled at federal efforts to control city finances and policies. But none of Bowser's predecessors have pushed back as forcefully as she did by renaming 16th Street "Black Lives Matter Plaza" after Trump referred to demonstrators as thugs, threatened to have them shot and unleash dogs on them, and called for a military-style crackdown on city streets. In interviews and on social media, the mayor has called the president's rhetoric "gross" and tweeted that he "hides behind his fence afraid/alone." "You have a mayor who is vulnerable to the president essentially thumbing her nose at the president in a way you just haven't seen in D.C. politics," said historian George Derek Musgrove, who has written about D.C. "It is symbolically a return to the sort of Chocolate City, Marion Barry years." Bowser's defiance is not without risk, because the White House influences the level of funding the city receives from the federal government. But Musgrove said Trump would have difficulty dismissing Bowser because the city's financial health is stronger than it was during the Barry era. "You just can't say you are going in because the mayor is not doing her job and the city is poorly run," he said. Her invocation of "Black Lives Matter" has given Bowser's antagonists another opportunity to criticize her management of the police department, her opposition to measures such as decriminalizing fare evasion, and her oversight of what they say is an unsafe, unsanitary jail. "I and most residents liked seeing her clapback to the president," said council member Robert White, a Democrat. "This show has to be followed up by substantive and overdue attention to the issues of racial justice and, specifically, to the issues of policing black communities." Ari Theresa, a lawyer who has sued D.C. over zoning policies he says promote gentrification, said he did not interpret the mayor's "Black Lives Matter" mural "as a symbol of her respect for the movement." "It was a symbol of her sticking it to Donald Trump," he said. For all her political skills, he said, Bowser has found ways to alienate black constituents, such as when she wrote on Facebook a few weeks after winning reelection that she was "annoyed by Mumbo sauce" and wished people "would stop suggesting that it is quintessential DC." "It was a big middle finger to the black community," he said. "It was her way of saying, 'I don't need you locals.' " In the interview Monday, Bowser said she has never been in a situation in which she feared a police officer. But she said one encounter from her council days left an impression. As she drove, officers pulled her over because she had beads hanging from her rearview mirror. "I was mad; I mean, I was hot," she recalled, describing how she called then-Police Chief Cathy Lanier to complain. "Here I am a council member, I'm in my own ward, I'm driving my own car down the street and I get pulled over." She said the experience was a reminder of how all black Washingtonians can be treated unfairly and left her committed to eliminating nuisance laws that give police grounds for such stops and to having a police department with more officers who understand the city. "What I recognize is I've never been in a position, and I've never felt in my life that I was scared of the police," she said. "Other people don't have that experience." At a news conference Monday, Bowser said her team has not discussed how long the mural would remain on 16th Street. She touted the rendering as an important piece of the city's history, as well as "American history." Asked about the "defund the police" message that activists added to the display, the mayor said she did not consider it "part of the mural," even as "we recognize it as expression" and that "acknowledging and affirming expression is important." The mayor departed without saying whether the additional words would remain. Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy has taken full responsibility for the $60 billion over-estimation of the Morrison government's JobKeeper wage subsidy program. Giving his first public comments since Treasury and the Tax Office revealed last month that instead of costing $130 billion, the program would cost $70 billion, Dr Kennedy said JobKeeper had been put in place amid expectations of a worse-case scenario for the country. Steven Kennedy said it was now clear the Australian economy would do much better than had been feared, with lower unemployment and better performances by businesses. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen He said when JobKeeper was first announced, it was forecast Australia faced a full economic lockdown, which could have resulted in Australian GDP contracting by 25 per cent in the June quarter. "When the program was announced on 30 March, the virus was spreading rapidly both internationally and domestically and health modelling based on Australian-specific observed transmission rates was not yet available," he told a Senate committee on Tuesday. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 16:45 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd56783 1 National TerrorAttacks,terrorism-in-Indonesia,JAD,Jamaah-Ansharut-Daulah,South-Kalimantan,National-Police,IS Free The Indonesian National Police have apprehended two alleged masterminds, identified as TA and AS, behind a terror attack on a police station in South Daha district, South Kalimantan. The two were captured on Friday by the National Polices Densus 88 counterterrorism squad. According to the police, they were members of the South Kalimantan branch of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an Islamic State-linked extremist group responsible for a string of attacks, including suicide bombings at churches in Surabaya in 2018, which killed a dozen people. TA, 24, was caught in Banjarbaru regency in the province on Friday. TA knew about and co-planned the attack [on the South Daha Police Station], said National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Awi Setiyono as quoted by kompas.com on Monday. Later on Friday, Densus 88 captured AS, 33, in Tanah Bumbu regency. Read also: Indonesia: Perennial issue of terrorist recidivism In addition to knowing about and co-planning the attack, the two masterminds allegedly had other roles. Awi said TA provided funding to make a sharp weapon that looked like a katana, which was used during the attack by AR, who was shot dead by the police while attacking. TA formed a small team in the JAD, providing money worth Rp 500,000 [US$35.49] to make the [sword], Awi said. TA also received the bai'at (pledge of allegiance) from five South Kalimantan JAD members, namely MZ, AR, AS, AN and MR. Meanwhile, AS planned the attack, which was to be delivered by the amaliyah (jihad operation) team. On June 1, a sword-wielding militant killed an Indonesian policeman and critically injured another in what authorities described as a suspected IS-linked attack, AFP reported. The National Police initially said there were two attackers, but local authorities later said that only AR attacked directly. Read also: errorist group attacks Central Sulawesi village, killing police officer "One police officer was killed and the attacker also died," South Hulu Sungai police chief Dedy Eka Jaya told AFP. On the day of the attack, AR set a car on fire outside the police post, Jaya said. "When [the car] exploded, one of the officers came out of the station to check the situation, and that was when the initial attack started," he added. The deceased police officer, identified as Leonardo Latupapua, received an honorary award in the form of a promotion in the National Police after the incident. He died after being injured with the sharp weapon, kompas.com reported. The police shot AR dead on the scene and confiscated the sword, a Quran, a handwritten letter calling for jihad and a flag bearing the tawhid, the Muslim expression of the belief in Allah as the one and only God, AFP reported. According to the polices investigation, AR was exposed to radicalism on the internet. Authorities said that AR had been receiving aid from other terrorists even though he was a lone wolf. (asp) The Government of Ghana CAP Business Support Scheme (CAP BuSS) has received over 170,000 successful registrations on the online portal with about 65 per cent of this number successfully completing applications. In a statement issued by the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Executive Director of NBSSI, Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh said due diligence on the successful applications was on-going and disbursement would begin shortly. In coordination with relevant Participating Financial Institutions, the necessary due diligence is underway to ensure our hardworking Ghanaian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) who are the backbone of the economy receive requisite assistance in these hard times, she noted. Data released from the CAP BuSS online portal on 5th June, 2020, showed that Ashanti Region had recorded the highest number of applications at 28.6% of total applications. This was followed by Central Region with 13%; Greater Accra 12%; Eastern Region 11.5%, followed by other regions. Female applicants constitutes 61 percent and the male 39 percent. Reasons for the differences in applications have been partly attributed to population distribution, and the concentration of major economic centres in Ghana where MSMEs operate. To further ensure all eligible, but disenfranchised, MSMEs easily access the CAP BuSS, selected staff of NBSSI and members of the CAP BUSS Steering Committee are conducting nationwide outreach and monitoring visits to selected trade and business associations and market centres across the country. Recognising that majority of MSMEs in Ghana (80%) fall within the informal sector and will require some support to fill out the online application form, our NBSSI Regional Offices and 180 Business Advisory Centres across Ghana have in the last two weeks been working diligently, and in collaboration with the respective metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) have set up Help Desks to support applicants with data entry, explained Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh. The nationwide outreach and monitoring visits are for purposes of scalability and to ensure all other disadvantaged groups easily access the Programme and have relevant information to work with, as well as give NBSSI insight into realities and challenges of our intervention, she added. The Coronavirus Alleviation Business Support Scheme, which was launched on 19th May, 2020 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, forms part of the Government of Ghanas Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP) intended to provide support to MSMEs negatively impacted by the Coronavirus Pandemic. The management of the CAP BuSS Programme is being facilitated by NBSSI a government-subvented agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) mandated by an Act of Parliament to grow, strengthen and support MSMEs in Ghana. Meanwhile, the NBSSI has cautioned applicants to be wary of any suspicious communication (email, phone calls, text messages) notifying them of successful applications and further requesting their biodata and other information to effect disbursement. The statement asked applicants to contact the CAP Buss Help Centres to report or verify any suspicious communication. 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 To the Editor: Re As Protesters March On, Calls to Redefine Policing (front page, June 9): As someone who as a city manager worked closely with police departments and supports major policing reforms, I think the impetus to defund police departments is a misguided strategy. The citizens of Minneapolis do not envision a city without police officers. Rather, their goal is to see a reformed public safety system, where policing is a part of a comprehensive public safety strategy that includes addressing the causes of societal problems. So instead of just funding a traditional police force to quell and respond to every situation that comes up, there needs to be funding of police departments as part of a public safety system that includes increased funding for mental health professionals, schools, affordable housing and economic opportunities for the disenfranchised and people of color. This wont be easy to achieve, and will require courage and leadership of local elected officials and administrators. Joe Biden is correct not supporting a call to defund police departments. Reform as opposed to Defund needs to be the public outcry. Otherwise, it will result in just the opposite, and drive moderate Democrats to vote for Donald Trump. Subir Mukerjee Olympia, Wash. To the Editor: Police departments are not the problem. Certain police officers and commanding officers are the problem. Police departments must hire people who are not racist, and they must hire people who have the capability to exercise restraint and proper judgment in tense situations and not simply resort to using the baton, the gun or brute physical force. Unfortunately, police officers follow the rule of shoot first, ask questions later and usually they get away with it. Physical Rehabilitation Research Institute's CEO arrested in absentia on fraud charges RAPSI, Natalia Vaneyeva 12:59 09/06/2020 MOSCOW, June 9 (RAPSI) The Basmanny District Court in Moscow arrested in absentia Yevgeny Blum, the CEO of OOO Physical Rehabilitation and New Rehabilitation Technologies Research Institute, after the facility failed its commitment to restore to health freestyler Maria Chaadayeva (Komissarova), who had been paralyzed when participating in the Sochi Olympics, spokeswoman of the court Irina Morozova told RAPSI on Tuesday. The measure is to be in effect for two months since the date Blum is detained in the territory of Russia or since the date he is extradited from a foreign jurisdiction, Morozova added. Earlier, Russias Investigative Committee put Blum on the international wanted list. He is charged with large scale fraud. Investigators established that when in Spain in May 2014, Blum, a holder of post-doctoral degree in medicine, taking advantage of Chaadayevas posttraumatic health condition persuaded her to make a rehabilitation contract amounting to 29 million rubles (about $420,000 at the current exchange rate). Nevertheless, the freestylers ability to walk could not be restored by the methods Blum used since no known rehabilitation techniques can help to restore the functions of the spinal cord after such an injury as Chaadayeva suffered. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE The peoples house will be off limits to the public during New Mexicos legislative special session. Top lawmakers voted Tuesday to close the Roundhouse for the special session due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, though some media members will be allowed inside the building. All legislative staffers present for the special session will be required to undergo COVID-19 testing and wear masks, though lawmakers stopped short Tuesday of requiring testing for themselves. That came after a few legislators raised questions about testing delays and whether lawmakers who test positive could be barred from participating in the special session. Legislators are not employees theyre elected by their constituents, said Raul Burciaga, the director of the Legislative Council Service. You really cant mandate (testing for them). However, testing will be made available for lawmakers who want it, Burciaga said, and several legislators urged their colleagues to get tested. Erring on the more cautious side is probably the best move so we set the tone, said Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque. The special session is scheduled to start June 18, and all House and Senate floor sessions, along with committee meetings, will be webcast by the Legislature. At least some of the proceedings will likely be done virtually, although the two chambers are expected to vote on their own rules for the special session once it gets underway. An online meeting Tuesday of the Legislative Council, a bipartisan group of 16 lawmakers, was broadcast live on the Legislatures website but featured multiple technical problems, including audio feedback and several lawmakers who had trouble asking questions after being muted. The sound of dogs barking could also be heard at several points during the meeting. Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said in an interview after the meeting that lawmakers will attempt to be as transparent as possible during the special session under the unique circumstances. He also said a key legislative budget committee will unveil its budget-adjustment proposal during a meeting Wednesday, more than a week before the special session begins. Its challenging because its different, Wirth told the Journal. Were all getting our heads around how this virtual world works in a legislative environment. Meanwhile, the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government urged the Legislature to make all bills available to the public for review and comment. The government transparency group also pointed out that the state Constitution requires all sessions of both houses of the Legislature to be open to the public but said it also understands the need to implement health precautions to slow the spread of COVID-19. The state Capitol has already been closed to nonemployees since mid-March, shortly after the state announced its first confirmed coronavirus cases. Focus on $7.6B budget Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last month announced plans for the special session, which will focus on solvency changes to a $7.6 billion budget plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The budget adjustments are necessary because plummeting oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic have caused state revenue projections to be reduced by $1.8 billion to $2.4 billion. Lawmakers could also debate an aid package for businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak and the states response to it, along with any other measures added to the agenda by the governor. Some lawmakers have called for election changes to be part of the special session mix, after roughly 422,000 voters cast ballots in last weeks primary election more than 250,000 of them by absentee ballots. The flood of absentee votes swamped election workers in some counties, leading to some races not being decided until several days after Election Day. Meanwhile, there also have been calls for new laws governing law enforcement agencies, and specifically their policies on use of force. Protests have erupted throughout New Mexico and the nation since the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes despite Floyds cries that he couldnt breathe. Other items that could be considered include tax interest relief and giving the Lujan Grisham administration authority to temporarily allow liquor delivery and remote notary services, Wirth said. However, Lujan Grisham has said many nonbudgetary issues will have to wait until the 60-day regular session in January to be debated. The governor has also said she will roll out her own budget plan before the special session begins. Per diem payment OKd Although the special session will not officially start until June 18, several legislative committees are scheduled to hold meetings June 17 to begin their work. That could include crafting new rules regarding remote voting that would have to be approved by the full House and Senate once the special session begins. In addition to voting to keep the state Capitol closed to the public, Legislative Council members also voted 7-3 on Tuesday to allow lawmakers to collect per diem payments for taking part in remote meetings before the special session. The per diem, which is intended to cover food and lodging expenses, is set at $192, and some lawmakers questioned whether it was appropriate when legislators are participating in meetings remotely, often from their homes. It seems like we would be subjecting ourselves to a lot of criticism, and it would be due, said House Minority Leader James Townsend, R-Artesia. But other lawmakers said the per diem payments would be warranted, because they have to take unpaid leave from their jobs to take part in legislative meetings. If youre going to sit in front of your computer for eight hours that is a cost, said Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup. T ony Blair today urged workers to reskill as he warned about the future for many British industries after the coronavirus lockdown. Blair said that if workers failed to retrain for the digital economy then they could be left behind, once furlough and other government support schemes have been unwound. Speaking at the technology conference CogX, he said: A lot of people will need to retrain and reskill. Many people will find that when they go back out into the new economic landscape and support systems stop, there will be many businesses that have been changed forever. I cant see travel tourism and hospitality industries coming back very fast, I think bricks and mortar retail has had its day, certainly in its present form. There is a necessity to re-equip people with what they need." He continued: "The digital divide between those that can use technology well and those that cant is going to be a big source of difficulty. The technology revolution in the 21st century is the equivalent of the 19th century industrial revolution. In other words it changes everything." Blair also wants the government to work closer with the international community to solve problems posed by coronavirus. He added: "Every nations interests are best served by coming together on certain key questions. How you accelerate the development of vaccines and therapeutics, how you develop easy testing, how you co-ordinate global economic policy so that you reflate the economy from what will be a very deep recession and how do you restart the travel and tourism industries. "A certain degree of global co-ordination is in everyones self interest." Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund is facing multiple litigation from investors across courts in India due to its decision to wind down six debt schemes. Writ petitions have been filed in Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad High Courts and also in the Supreme Court of India challenging the action of Franklin Templeton. Allegations abound of mismanagement and fraud. On June 8, the Gujarat High Court thwarted the attempts of Franklin Templeton MF of launching an e-voting to wind up the schemes. The company ergo suspended the e-voting, which was due to start todayJune 9, 2020. In the interlocutory order, the High Court extended the pause on e-voting until the forensic audit by markets regulator SEBI is completed to enable investors to make a considered decision. In addition, the need of prior consent of unitholders has been laid down as a pre-requisite to the winding down of schemes. In the meantime, the various litigations will continue in courts with regard to the other issues stated. No e-voting for now: Gujarat High Court stay order on Franklin Templeton continues Investors hung out to dry Investors in these mutual fund schemes of Franklin Templeton are a harried lot. Their money is stuck in open-ended funds, which promised daily liquidity especially investors in Franklin Ultra Short Bond Fund that was a parking vehicle for the very near-term financial goals of around one month or so. Now with the litigation, investors believe the process of getting their money back may be indefinitely delayed thus increasing the trauma for investors. Franklin Templeton has argued that investors were aware of the credit risks and also other risks that they were taking in these funds. Investors invested in these funds fully knowing the risks and hence should take responsibility and bear this out. This argument was placed by Franklin Templeton lawyers in the high court also and rejected by the Courts. This is a malafide argument being put forward. Investors may have taken a credit risk i.e. they may lose part of their principal due to credit default, however at no point of time had Franklin Templeton highlighted to investors or warned them that they can and will dis-honour the basic promise of an open-ended fund i.e. shut down these schemes and lock-in investor monies. And the irony is that by doing the wind-down of schemes, it still does not reduce or eliminate the credit risk. Investors continue to take the same credit risk as earlier. Franklin Templeton crisis: Is Gujarat HCs stay on voting in investors interest? Four out of these six schemes have seen an erosion in NAV from the wind down date i.e. 23rd April 2020 till now (Table 1). The same portfolios which used to be in top quartiles are now in the bottom quartiles in terms of performance. Table 1: Performance of the Franklin Templeton Schemes Being Wound Up Without doubt, Franklin Templeton has been careful to follow the letter of the law be it the portfolios or the winding down announcement, or the e-voting process and the voting options. On multiple occasions, Franklin Templeton has said that the winding down decision has been in consultation with SEBI and is the only possible method to protect the investor interests in these schemes. The trouble with the voting process But the High court has not accepted this argument that the due process of winding down has been followed. If one were to delve deeper, even the choices given by Franklin Templeton MF in the voting process can be questioned by an investor as falling foul of the spirit of law. In the voting process as set out by the Trustees, an investor is first requested to give his consent for liquidation of the assets by choosing YES or NO. Delhi HC issues notice to Franklin Templeton, SEBI on petition challenging scheme wind-up If a majority of investors choose YES, then either they can choose Option A i.e. authorise the Trustees to oversee the liquidation or Option B authorise someone other than the Trustees. This step of appointing someone else (Deloitte) i.e. Option B is to reflect the vote that the investors dont have the confidence that the Trustees will be able to protect their interest. Ironically in this case, the Option B of choosing Deloitte and that Deloitte has to only use Franklin Templeton AMC assisted by Kotak has been decided by the Trustees. This is contrary to entire hypothesis of Option B that the Trustees dont have the confidence of investors and hence a third party has to not only oversee but also formulate what process has to be followed. In a classical sense, this Voting here is just an illusion of choice the decisions in all this is still being taken by the same entities whichever option one choses. So whats the end-game here for an investor, since it is her money which is blocked and the persistent messages to her that she will be responsible for the delay of getting the money back, if she doesnt vote YES or if she goes to courts. Firstly, SEBI needs to evaluate whether the debt markets are still in a non-functional limbo or are they at near normal levels as AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds of India) has stated, is Franklin Templeton able to operate under the schemes under these conditions and then decide steps that will be in interest of investors. If SEBI is unable to protect the interest of investors by assessing the conditions, putting a hard time-line and holding Franklin Templeton accountable, then letting courts decide the processalbeit with a bit of delaymay be the best option for investors. Manoj Nagpal is a consulting editor with Moneycontrol. The views above are personal. File Photo Panchkula: The coronavirus continues to plague Panchkula. Nine new cases have come to light here on Tuesday. Since then, the total number of patients has risen to 44. Meanwhile, four new cases have come to light from Kalka, one each from Sector 17 and Sector 6, while three cases of a family have come to light from Sector 21, Panchkula. Advertisement Coronavirus The wife of a lawyer, a resident of Army Society in Sector 20, has tested positive after returning from Delhi and a 46-year-old resident of Sector 12-A. It may be mentioned that now all of them have been admitted to Sector 6 Civil Hospital. At the same time, their family members have been separated from their homes and now health department teams have started tracing the contacts of the affected people. This new beaching ramp on Pag-asa island in the South China Sea allows ships to bring in necessary goods, June 9, 2020. The Philippines inaugurated a beaching ramp on Pag-asa Island on Tuesday, with officials describing it as the first of many upgrades on the territory that Manila claims in South China Sea waters near where Beijing has established military outposts. The ramp is a concrete pier that will allow ships to dock on Pag-asa, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said. Known internationally as Thitu Island, Pag-asa is one of about nine islands and atolls that Manila occupies in the contested region of the Spratly Islands. The island also hosts a small community, a runway in need of repairs, a school and military barracks. This is very significant. With the beaching ramp we can bring in more materials, equipment to continuously repair and then later on to maintain our airstrip, Lorenzana said during a visit to the island to inaugurate the ramp, according to transcripts of his remarks released by his office. Before this beaching ramp, when you brought in equipment here or anything food or whatever you had to anchor about 500 meters away and transfer the goods into a small boat, he said, describing the old process as tedious and expensive. With the completion of the beaching ramp, the next phase of development could begin, the defense chief said. We can now proceed with the other projects planned for Pag-asa island. This is a necessary first step, which will facilitate the transportation of essential construction equipment to the island, Lorenzana said. Completed with a budget of 267 million pesos (U.S. $5.3 million), the ramp is one of several projects planned for the municipality there, called Kalayaan, which has been on Philippine maps since the 1970s. Another 1.3 billion pesos ($26 million) has been earmarked for other projects in the pipeline, including the repair and concreting of the runway that has been damaged by erosion, he said. In addition, a sheltered port for fishing boats stranded by stormy weather has been constructed. The projects completion comes amid mounting territorial tensions in the potentially mineral-rich sea region claimed in whole or in part by China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Beijings rival, Taiwan. Since last year, China has been positioning civilian and militia ships in the region, leading the Philippines to issue diplomatic complaints. Chinese ships also allegedly sank Philippine and Vietnamese fishing boats in South China Sea waters, raising regional tensions. Twenty-two Filipino fishermen were left at sea off Reed Bank after their boat allegedly was rammed by a Chinese boat in June 2019. Manila filed a diplomatic protest last year over reports that Chinese ships had been seen swarming near Pag-asa. Lorenzana then accused Beijing of bullying. Defense officials later confirmed that 113 Chinese ships were seen near Pag-asa, about 300 miles (483 km) from the western Philippine island of Palawan. More recently, the Philippine government lodged a diplomatic protest over Chinas creation of two districts in the region and its designation of Kagitingan Reef within an administrative center it calls Nansha district. The Philippines claims that the reef is within its Kalayaan island group. Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (in white and blue jacket) joins defense officials as he inaugurates a beaching ramp on Pag-asa (Thitu) Island in the South China Sea, June 9, 2020. (Handout Philippine Department of Defense) Managing the dispute On Tuesday, Lorenzana said that despite the fresh tensions, President Rodrigo Duterte is managing the issue between China and the Philippines well. The defense minister stressed that renovations were part of the Philippines strategy to reinforce its claims, but noted that it does not have an army here even as some naval troops have been stationed here. With the refurbished facilities, he said he hoped to encourage more visits by government officials and civilians to the outpost. The Chinese said that they will not attack us, so we are safe here, he said. The purpose of this is just to develop this area into a viable community. Lorenzana said there were Chinese nearby disguised as fishermen but we know they are militia. We cannot influence their actions, Lorenzana said. If their militia is there as long as they dont molest our fishermen, they can stay there. Filipino fishermen Meanwhile, Filipino fishermen marked the one-year anniversary of the Chinese sinking of the FB Gemver 1 by accusing Duterte of compromising the countrys marine territory to China in exchange for foreign loans and investments. Exactly a year after a Chinese vessel endangered the lives of our fishermen, not even a single perpetrator has been held to account, said Fernado Hicap, leader of the group called Pamalakaya, which represents the fishermen. The socio-economic lives of the 22 affected fishermen didnt return to normal since then, he said in a statement. Worse, China is still present in our territorial waters, triggering fear and intimidation among the Filipino fishers. Jojo Rinoza in Dagupan, Philippines, contributed to this report. Lucknow/New Delhi: The feud in ruling SPs first family in Uttar Pradesh showed no signs of ending even as party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav stepped in to defuse the crisis and his son and Chief Minister Akhilesh sought to downplay differences. An open war broke out on Tuesday in the Samajwadi Party(SP) with Akhilesh Yadav stripping his uncle Shivpal Yadav of key ministerial portfolios, hours after his removal as the partys state unit chief and appointment of the latter in his place. (Read More: Yadav family feud: Won't resign, will follow Mulayam's directions, says Shivpal) An indication that the crisis in the SP lingered on came when Shivpal told Mulayam that despite following his orders he was being painted as a villain. Shivpal, who is the younger brother of Mulayam, reached Delhi to meet the party chief at his official residence. In his over four-hour-long meeting, Shivpal explained that in the past four-and-a-half years, he has followed the party supremos directions despite having difference of opinion on certain issues. Sources close to Shivpal said he gave examples that as a senior minister in the Akhilesh government, he never publically opposed the decisions taken by Akhilesh or Mulayam though he may have expressed difference of opinion in private to them. Though, later talking to reporters, Shivpal rejected suggestions that there were differences within the party and the Yadav clan. Neither am I angry nor is Netaji (Mulayam). We all are happy...there are no differences, he said. (Read More: Watch Video: Fight in govt, but everyone in family abides by what Mulayam says) The SP top brass swung into a damage control mode earlier in the day to keep the flock together ahead of Assembly polls, with Mulayam calling Shivpal for a meeting in New Delhi. Mulayam is likely to reach Lucknow on Friday morning amid indications that he may have a one-on-one meeting with Akhilesh there. As the SP plunged into crisis, the chief minister stayed put in his 5, Kalidas Marg official residence in Lucknow since morning to take stock of the situation and did not attend two official engagements. (Read More: Akhilesh vs Shivpal: All out war breaks out in SP ahead of UP polls) Amid differences with his uncle, Akhilesh was combative on the decisions taken by him that have led to internal feuds coming out in the open even as he said that there might be problems in the government, but not in the family. Akhilesh said that he too will follow the directions of his father. If I have taken any decision, it was in consultation with netaji, but at times one has to apply his own mind and I too took some decisions on my own, he said. But to a question, he said, As far as family is concerned, everyone abides by what netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) says and will accept his words. (Read More: UP CM Akhilesh Yadav strips uncle Shivpal Yadav of key ministerial portfolios) There may be problems in the government, but not in the family, he said on the sidelines of an event at his official residence. Apparently referring to Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh, who had recently hosted a dinner in Delhi where Deepak Singhal, who was shunted from post of Chief Secretary, was present, Akhilesh asked if outsiders interfere, how would the party function. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Bars, clubs, cinemas, places of worship, casinos and gyms had shut. Soon more than a million Australians would be out of work. Lengthy queues outside Centrelink, scenes not witnessed since the recession of 1991, dominated the front pages. Global cases of COVID-19 had surpassed 410,000 with almost 19,000 deaths, while Australia's 2432 was climbing rapidly, with nine deaths and many more in hospital. In the previous five days the Prime Minister had ordered the nation's borders shut, spent $66 billion on doubling payments for welfare recipients, and ordered the lockdown of Australia to commence. Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin had suspended all international flights, standing down more than 20,000 employees. The Reserve Bank had slashed the cash rate to a record low of 0.25 per cent. Curtin was a journalist. Morrison from marketing. Both knew the importance of sending a clear, calm and concise message to a worried nation. A handful of late-night, waffling press conferences had led to fierce criticism the PM's communication was missing the mark. He had some catching up to do. On the afternoon of Thursday, March 26, Morrison summoned a handful of senior journalists, one from each mainstream outlet, to meet him in the cabinet room where he would speak frankly about the state of play. He would do this on a handful of occasions during the coming weeks. John Curtin, Labor prime minister from 1941 to 1945, did the same thing during World War II. The nation was facing the deadliest health crisis in a century and the worst economic challenge since the Great Depression. He would say to colleagues at the time: "I see the full horror show every single hour of every single day". Scott Morrison sat stony faced in the cabinet room looking like he'd seen a ghost. He'd been at work almost every day since late December, when he had thrown himself into the bushfire crisis after an ill-judged holiday in Hawaii. Morrison was adamant there was no division between him and his national cabinet colleagues, in particular Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. They all agreed where the country needed to get to in terms of restrictions, Morrison said, but there was a difference of opinion on how soon to get there. He was fearful of putting too much too quickly on the Australian people. The select group of journalists invited to the exclusive briefings would keep much of the detail of their initial 90-minute discussion to themselves. But they would later remark on the agony and exhaustion on the Prime Minister's face when discussing balancing the twin crises. Some of those critics would accuse him of implementing a herd immunity strategy - letting a large number of people catch a disease and hence develop immunity to it. Privately he referred to such an approach as "unconscionable". The media and Morrison's political opponents had seized on divisions between the Prime Minister and some state premiers, who five days earlier appeared to push him further than he was planning on social distancing restrictions. Morrison referred to it as a "dual crisis" where the two goals, saving lives and saving livelihoods, seemingly worked against each other. The more you do to help one, he'd say, the more harm you do on the other. He knew as many could die from the economic circumstance as the health crisis. Suicides, domestic violence and eventually even potential civil unrest. Morrison met with Coles and Woolworths executives to assess the situation, while Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was on the phone with them constantly. Friends and family were relaying scenes from their local shops. Unverified reports of organised raids from city shoppers on regional supermarkets had come through and Frydenberg told Coles chief executive officer Steven Cain he was worried there would be violence, even pondering the need to station police outside each store. Seniors shopping hours were introduced. Bans on shoppers buying more than one pack of toilet paper were extended to limits on other essentials such as flour and pasta. ANZ would later report spending on groceries and toiletries in the week ending March 20 was up 80 per cent on the same period last year. Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Kleenex, ramped up its manufacturing lines in South Australia to deal with shortages. On social media, videos showed people swarming grocery stores and fighting over essentials such as toilet paper. Police were called to a Costco supermarket in Sydney to help organise masses of shoppers who were panic buying. As daily cases grew and politicians foreshadowed tougher measures, the concern about what lay ahead manifested in curious ways. The mood would deteriorate daily until it verged on a national crisis. "I know where it is I'm trying to get them to and it's the same place without scaring them to death," he would say. At 5.34pm journalist Tom Steinfort tweeted a photograph of hordes of beachgoers that quickly went around the world. A panicked state government closed most of its beaches the following day. As cases doubled almost every three days, surging from fewer than 200 to greater than 2000 within 12 days, Australia's trajectory of infection on March 21 was comparable to the nightmare scenario in the United States, Britain and parts of Europe. The mercury had hit 37 degrees in Sydney on Friday, March 20, and thousands defied a ban on outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people to flock to Bondi Beach. "We're all in this together. People are doing their jobs. They're doing their best." "I can't be more blunt about it. Stop it. That is not who we are as a people," he said. Perhaps for the first time, a prime minister also had to tell Australians not to abuse retail staff. On Wednesday, March 18, Morrison had clearly had enough. Announcing his government had, for the first time in history, upgraded the travel ban on Australians to level four for the entire world, he snapped. Standing in the Prime Minister's courtyard, staring down the barrel of the TV cameras, he said: "Stop hoarding". But Berejiklian was already ahead of them. She and Andrews were in constant contact throughout Saturday and then again on that critical Sunday as they began ramping up the campaign for lockdown. Gonski, who is one of the best connected people in Australia, spoke to NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, urging the state government to take steps to contain the spread. Perrottet had also sought the views of former Virgin boss John Borghetti and ex-Macquarie Group chief Nicholas Moore, the chairman of the Sydney Opera House Trust and soon-to-be federal government adviser on the sale of Virgin. Like the broader population, business leaders and politicians shared coronavirus studies, international media reports and statistics on social media platforms such as WhatsApp. Many believed the federal government had taken reasonable steps to curb infection rates but needed to move into a form of lockdown. These included ANZ chairman David Gonski, former UBS Australia boss Matthew Grounds and Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder and co-chief executive of the software company Atlassian. The unified front that the nation's leaders had been at pains to present began to fracture. A red-faced NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard would confirm three people on the cruise ship Ruby Princess - which had docked and allowed 2700 passengers to disembark in Sydney on the Thursday - had tested positive to COVID-19. Morrison was midway through a press conference in the Prime Minister's Courtyard when he was asked by a journalist about a new push by NSW and Victoria for a total shutdown. It appeared to be an ambush. Both states had telegraphed their intent through the media in an attempt to force Morrison's hand. In a terse response Morrison said he would be guided by the health advice and if he had a view would raise it in national cabinet, not in answer to a question from journalists. "That's the orderly and calm way to deal with these things, and to make decisions in a responsible manner," he said. Scott Morrison faces the press in a Parliament House courtyard. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Morrison spoke with Berejiklian again in the early afternoon to argue against the total closures the premiers were advocating. He believed the states were adding to confusion rather than issuing clear guidance. Berejiklian's statement on Sunday signalled a "more comprehensive shutdown of non-essential services", while Andrews announced a shutdown of "all non-essential activity" across the state. In a hastily arranged Sunday night national cabinet meeting, which had previously been scheduled for Tuesday, Morrison managed to talk both states back from the full-scale proposals they had floated. But there was no doubt they had pushed the PM further than he wanted. All members of the national cabinet accepted the need for shutdowns but some were dismayed at the way the confusion spread. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk spoke out at the campaign which had undermined the cabinet process. Canberra's biggest fear was businesses would begin sacking workers the next morning unless there was a clear list of essential and non-essential workplaces. Multiple sources on the national cabinet call said Morrison could not hide his frustration at the fact the two big states had attempted to railroad the plan. Scott Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy sanitise their hands before entering a National Cabinet meeting. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "Not everyone was on their side, either. He had a right to be annoyed," one said. But Andrews would later defend his actions, saying if Victoria had waited a fortnight, or even a week, the virus would have spread beyond control. "You've got a moment, and you've got a real sense that if you don't do something now, you won't get this moment back," he said on reflection. It was to be the biggest test of unity the national cabinet would face. The Ruby Princess debacle would also prove an ongoing point of tension between NSW and the federal government. By April 22 at least 20 deaths and 696 confirmed cases one in 10 of Australia's known cases at the time would be traced back to the ship. The outbreak would eventually become subject to criminal investigation. In later weeks there was another skirmish over reopening schools, after Morrison released a video to the tabloid newspapers pleading with teachers to return to classrooms so kids could resume classroom learning. Andrews expressed his frustration, reminding the Prime Minister it was the states and territories that ran schools. Morrison ended up issuing a mea culpa to colleagues. He then told parents to listen to their premier or chief minister. The united front clung on. Prime Minister goes prime time By March 17, three Coalition MPs had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and had potentially exposed more colleagues. In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson would end up in intensive care after the virus ran through 10 Downing Street. Morrison's office of about 50 staff was divided up. Only those essential to the day-to-day tasks of the crisis would be in Canberra, while others would remain in their home cities of either Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. Among those who Morrison would lean heaviest on were his chief of staff, John Kunkel, and principal private secretary, Yaron Finkelstein, who also relocated to Canberra. Health Minister Greg Hunt would work hand-in-glove with Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy and Morrison's director of policy Alex Caroly. Western Australian MP Ben Morton, one of Morrison's closest confidantes in Canberra, would also spend weeks on the east coast. All leadership meetings, and all meetings not involving staff employed within the office, were conducted on screens rather than in person. The PM would also receive regular medical check-ups. Scott Morrison became a regular fixture on TV with his press conferences. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Those at-times manic March days would be dominated by late-night press conferences beamed into family living rooms as every few days more dramatic sanctions were imposed. The semi-regular live events would become a cultural phenomenon, and gave Morrison an audience rarely enjoyed so regularly by an Australian political leader. On Tuesday, March 24, with a fresh round of shutdowns anticipated, the finale of Channel 7's My Kitchen Rules: The Rivals was significantly delayed to screen Morrison's late-night coronavirus press conference. Just as MKR judges Pete Evans, Colin Fassnidge and Manu Feildel were preparing to unveil their final scores, all networks crossed to Morrison, who began reading a laundry list of things Australians could no longer do. No guests at weddings, no more than 10 mourners at funerals. In those early appearances Morrison appeared tired, mispronounced words and was clearly feeling the pressure. "Community and recreation centres, health clubs, fitness centres, yoga, barre - I hope I've pronounced that correctly, I might need some help with that. I'm not quite sure what that is, to be honest, but B-A-R-R-E for those who are looking for the specific definition," he said. Australians were scared and confused. Even cricket legend Shane Warne was wound up. "Listening to the PM like everyone here in Australia and what I understood was, 'It's essential, unless it's not. Then it's essentially not essential. I can't be clearer'. Plus people can buy a new shirt at a shopping centre? WTF? PM just had a shocker. Surely should be in lockdown now," Warne wrote on Twitter. Morrisons shift to Canberra Morrison had based himself full-time at The Lodge, the Prime Minister's residence a stone's throw from Parliament House on Canberra's Adelaide Avenue. As he and his inner circle burned the midnight oil on a suite of financial packages to prop up an economy spiralling out of control, the Sydney independent school where Morrison's daughters Abbey and Lily were enrolled shut its doors. While the PM was urging kids to stay in school, his own girls weren't, which gave ammunition to those wanting all schools shut down. When asked on ABC 7.30 when his girls would return to school he was direct: "When I can send my kids to school and they get taught in a classroom, face to face, that's what I want my kids to do. At present, that's not available to me. And the sooner the better, from my point of view." The girls followed their mum and their grandmother to Canberra along with their dog, a "schnoodle" (a cross between a miniature schnauzer and a poodle) called Buddy. Jenny Morrison, who can still wander the shopping centres of Canberra with relative anonymity, was dispatched by the children to upgrade the TV and buy puzzles for the 40-room 1920s mansion, which has not played home to a young family since the Keatings. While Morrison and his team were pushed to the limit to fight twin battles, he would relax on a rare night off or Saturday at The Lodge by watching the Star Wars films with Lily, helping the girls with their Disney Princess puzzles, or binge watching American crime drama Ozark on Netflix. He watched one episode of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. It wasn't to his liking. At night he would read a biography of Joseph Lyons, Australia's 10th prime minister, who steered the nation through the Great Depression. Business, unions and the hibernation strategy While Morrison would reach out to his political opponents, both state and federal, to help the nation weather the storm, he would also challenge traditional adversaries to put aside their differences. As the government nutted out a "hibernation" strategy, which would allow businesses shut down by social distancing measures to survive lockdown, it became clear it would need to offer a wage subsidy. On Thursday, March 26, the same day he briefed journalists about his views on the crisis, Frydenberg and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann joined Morrison for dinner in his office. Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy and deputy Jenny Wilkinson dialled in on secure videolink. They didn't eat. Morrison, Frydenberg and Cormann agreed they would need to provide more support for employees and businesses by helping with wages. But Morrison had made it clear he would not be following the UK's example, as demanded by Labor and the unions, which provided up to 80 per cent of a worker's wages. Both Kennedy, and separately former Labor minister Greg Combet, who had been appointed to the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission, told Morrison to avoid mistakes from the Rudd-era stimulus measures and use existing payment systems. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, in his office at Parliament House in March, kept in touch with business leaders. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Frydenberg left the meeting and continued to call business leaders. Four conversations would lead to the design of JobKeeper - the Treasurer called JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Murray, Wesfarmers boss Rob Scott, hospitality entrepreneur Justin Hemmes, who runs the Merivale group, and retail veteran Solomon Lew. They all wanted, if possible, to keep their staff on the payroll rather than send them to Centrelink. They said it was possible they could use their payroll systems to offer government support to their employees. But the decision to spend, at that time, a projected $130 billion on 6 million Australian workers was easy compared to striking agreement with the union movement. It would be Combet, again, who would provide inspiration. When Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter said he needed to deal directly with the unions, Combet urged him to call Australian Council of Trade Union secretary Sally McManus. Much would be made of their new "BFF" status (best friends forever), but those in government believe Porter's efforts, after a day of intense negotiations to nail down the $1500-a-fortnight wage subsidy for six months, was an achievement worthy of high praise. Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter worked with ACTU secretary Sally McManus. Credit:Louise Kennerley While business, unions and government had worked more closely than ever before, some of Australia's richest and most influential private citizens such as Fortescue Metals Group founder Andrew Forrest banded together to work on various plans: a contact tracing app, sourcing ventilators, securing PPE, messaging and testing. One group, calling itself Novel-19, included Grounds, Cannon-Brookes, television presenter Andrew Denton, Seek co-founder and AFL commissioner Paul Bassat, Damien Bruce from McKinsey, ad man Russel Howcroft and, occasionally, former Telstra CEO David Thodey and BHP chairman Ken MacKenzie. The group was critical in partnership with federal and state health departments in securing health equipment from China, and worked closely with officials such as Glenys Beauchamp, who returned to her former post as federal Health Department secretary while her nominated successor, Brendan Murphy, remained as Chief Medical Officer. Elsewhere, consultants at McKinsey & Company, effectively on retainer at Commonwealth Bank, were made available by the bank's chief, Matt Comyn, to assist Treasury and other departments work on modelling and policy. For bank bosses such as Comyn the crisis represented an opportunity to play a constructive role on the national stage at a time when the egregious behaviour exposed by the Hayne Royal Commission was still a raw issue for many. Comyn, along with other businessmen like Cannon-Brookes, also advocated for the use of technology to monitor the spread of the virus, writing an op-ed arguing there was nothing to fear from a contact-tracing app. Critical hotel quarantine decision In mid-March, with more than 350 new cases nationwide every day for a fortnight, chief health officers were warning their state governments that just five undiagnosed cases could become 60,000 within weeks. More testing kits were sourced and more resources deployed to contact tracing, including help from the Australian Defence Force. Authorities feared soon thousands would be dead and tens of thousands reliant on hospital systems that lacked safety equipment or lifesaving ventilators. More than 5500 would be sought. Despite early and decisive border closures, workplaces shuttered and recently returned travellers told not to leave home for 14 days, those at the heart of the situation feared it was spiralling out of control. A ministerial adviser observes social distancing as chief health officers warned undiagnosed cases could spiral. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The Australian Hotels Association, an influential lobby group representing pubs and the accommodation sector, warned they faced financial ruin from the international traveller ban and tough lockdown measures. They offered up their members' services to state governments, in the hope they could keep kitchen staff, cleaners and a skeleton staff working. They were willing to help in any way, from offering rooms for the homeless, for people to self-isolate to even becoming makeshift medical wards. Two-thirds of all Australian COVID-19 cases were from returned travellers and there were reports that many of those who had made a mad dash home were not strictly following orders to self isolate for 14 days. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews put a proposal to the national cabinet. Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer Andrews had made the trip from his home in Mulgrave, in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs, and sat in a secure room in his 1 Treasury Place office. Morrison sat in what's known as "the briefing room", a secure room off the cabinet room where national security committee meetings are held. He was flanked in all the meetings by his cabinet secretary, Andrew Shearer, and Phil Gaetjens, the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Premiers too had their most senior public servants alongside them. Chris Eccles, the head of the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, flanked Andrews. His NSW counterpart Tim Reardon was alongside Berejiklian. Andrews told the meeting he believed all returned travellers should be sent to empty hotels for 14 days and their quarantine strictly enforced. There could be no negotiation. It was the only option possible on a health front and it would have the added bonus of throwing some extra support the way of the industry. The decision to force those returning from overseas to quarantine in hotels for 14 days proved critical to Australia's success in suppressing COVID-19. Credit:AAP He said he was alarmed at the number of return travellers flouting instructions. "This is simply a no-brainer," he told fellow leaders, according to those on the video link call. "We can't afford not to." The decisions would prove to be the turning point. Weeks later Murphy, appearing before a Senate committee hearing, was asked what, if anything, he would have done differently during that March madness. "I would like to have formally hotel quarantined people a little earlier," he replied. More than 117,000 travellers have returned since that decision, the overwhelming majority placed in hotels in capital cities for two weeks and monitored by state police forces and even the defence force to ensure they stayed put. Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy told a Senate select committee hearing on COVID-19 they should have formally quarantined travellers earlier. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen About 62 per cent - 4491 - of Australia's confirmed virus cases since January have been acquired overseas. Since mandatory quarantine was enforced 2375 cases have been detected among those returned travellers in enforced isolation. Morrison singled out that moment as a "great example" of the success of the new national cabinet, which was formed on the run one hectic Friday afternoon a fortnight earlier. "The states immediately agreed that wherever they come in, that state would meet the bill," Morrison said. "Knowing that NSW, in particular, was probably going to bear the biggest burden on that. But there wasn't a quibble about it. I suppose the solidarity of that group was we just got to solve the problem." From the peak of that week, where the rate of cases in Australia per 100,000 population was 16.4, Australians responded to the tough measures and the notorious curve began to flatten. Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy discusses COVID-19 modelling in April. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The US, with 50 autonomous states, is still struggling to bring its epidemic under control and the death toll there is now more than 100,000. President Donald Trump's US Health And Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar, told federal government officials in early June "everyone wants to be Australia" when discussing its approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the national cabinet on April 16, it was agreed that the strategy would continue to be one of suppression, with potential to eliminate the virus in some areas of the country. On Friday, May 8, it decided on a three-step framework for easing COVID-19 restrictions, with progress to be reviewed every three weeks, with the intention of achieving zero cases by July. Prime Minister Scott Morrison outlines the three-step approach to reopening the economy. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Australia now essentially has large parts of the country where there have been no cases for prolonged periods of time, with about 70 per cent of cases now returning travellers. "We really have got a pretty good state of control," Murphy told a Senate committee hearing in late May. "We often compare ourselves to the United Kingdom - a very similar health system. If we'd had their death rate and we'd had their outcomes, we would have had about 14,000 deaths in Australia so far, not just over 100, so I think we have done well." Morrison says Australians have weathered the storm "better than many and better than most". "Countries like ours, developed sophisticated economies with strong health systems, have experienced death rates more than 100 times what we have experienced here in Australia," he said. It fell to a sombre Frydenberg last week to lay bare the havoc the health measures of the past three months had wrought on the national accounts, confirming Australia's remarkable run of almost 29 consecutive years of economic growth would come to an end with a recession. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg during an address to the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra on May 5. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen During the March quarter consumer and business confidence hit record lows, the ASX 200 lost a third of its value and on March 16 suffered its biggest daily fall on record of 9.7 per cent. Despite panic buying of food and household items, total consumption fell by 1.1 per cent in the quarter - the largest quarterly decline in consumption in 34 years. Spending on transport services and hotels, cafes and restaurants experienced their largest falls on record. The Australian dollar has now more than fully recovered the 11-cent fall that occurred in less than two weeks from above US66 cents on March 9 to a low of US55 cents on March 19, levels previously seen in October 2002. Loading Consumer and business confidence has increased, however it remains well below its 10-year average. The government has offered about $260 billion in economic support, or the equivalent of 13.3 per cent of GDP and Frydenberg said there would be tough days ahead. The national cabinet, born in the adrenaline-fuelled early days of the crisis, now faces years of difficult decisions as Australia works to get back on its feet. The cabinet's unity will be tested many times over, and if it survives, may be one of the longest-lasting legacies of 2020, a year where all of us were challenged in ways we could never have imagined. This is the second and final part of a special series on how Australia tackled the coronavirus. Read part one here. Mayor Jim Kenney speaks during a news conference at the city's Emergency Operations Center about protests in Philadelphia against the death of George Floyd on May 30. Protests began peacefully May 30, drawing thousands to City Hall and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but later turned tense as building windows were smashed and cars set on fire in Center City. Read more Mayor Jim Kenney on Tuesday announced a broad set of goals for reforming the Philadelphia Police Department, saying he wanted to review or change policies including how and when officers use their guns, how they are disciplined, and how much civilian oversight they are subjected to. He also said he would eliminate a proposed increase to the Police Departments budget for the next fiscal year an abrupt change of course following an outcry from activists and City Council members over his plan to boost police funding by $19 million over the current budget while making steep cuts to other city departments due to the fiscal crisis caused by the coronavirus. The proposals made in the wake of protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis were ambitious, but in some cases were vague or are beyond the mayors control. Kenney said that he had listened to protesters, activists, and elected officials who have taken to the streets to voice long-held frustrations with law enforcement, and that the time was right to harness the energy from the demonstrations into action. This moment is a beginning, the mayor said. READ MORE: Here's live coverage of what's happening on June 9 The proposals came as protesters demanding police reform marched across the city for an 11th consecutive day. The National Guard remained stationed outside City Hall and the Municipal Services Building on Tuesday morning even as demonstrations this week have stayed peaceful and decreased in size. Kenneys announcement came a day before Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw and her top command staff were expected to appear at a City Council budget hearing, which is certain to attract advocates of even more funding cuts. The budget for the 6,500-member Police Department has increased by more than 15% since Kenney took office in 2016. Council members this week had begun voicing support for police budget cuts and reforms. On Monday, 14 City Council members sent Kenney a letter demanding 15 specific changes to the Police Department. Several of those recommendations, including the formation of an independent police advisory commission and the establishment of city residency requirements for officers, were also in Kenneys plans. Its clear from the statement that City Councils letter to the mayor yesterday, which recommended specific reforms in the police force, was influential in the reforms announced today, said Joe Grace, a spokesperson for Council President Darrell L. Clarke. Council is listening and acting, and everything must change. Some activists were hopeful that Kenney responded to the ongoing demonstrations with a plan for action, but also said they would continue pushing him to divert more money from the Police Department and toward issues such as the opioid crisis, poverty, health care, and education. In the poorest big city in America, the [coronavirus] pandemic shows all the needs the residents of this city have that dont rely on the Police Department, said Hiram Rivera, director of the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability. Among the more immediate changes Kenney proposed was announcing that Outlaw would quickly revise the departments use-of-force policies which already prohibit choke holds to also ban officers from sitting on a persons neck, face, or head. He also said Outlaw would provide detailed guidance regarding the circumstances under which firearms may and should be unholstered or pointed, and mandates for the reporting of such actions. He said the department would also take on a broader review of its use-of-force policies generally, including input from the public. The department in 2017 completed a series of changes to its use-of-force policies after the U.S. Department of Justice conducted a years-long review at former Commissioner Charles Ramseys request. Many of the other proposals from Kenney were more ambiguous or aspirational or would require steps beyond his purview. One example is his proposal regarding the police union contract. Kenney said the city intends to seek several changes to the next contract with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, such as reestablishing residency requirements for officers, cutting the union out of decisions on officer transfers, and changing pillars of the arbitration system governing how officers are disciplined all goals that reform advocates have long sought. But Kenneys administration which earlier this year agreed to a one-year contract with the police union cant begin negotiating a new contract until later this year. And stripping a collective bargaining agreement of provisions the union has negotiated is likely to be a steep challenge. Some provisions in the contract, including the grievance arbitration process, also are governed by state law, curtailing what the city can seek when negotiating a new pact. City Solicitor Marcel Pratt said that by making priorities clear in advance, the city might be in a better position to push for certain changes. John McNesby, the unions president, did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. Kenney also said Outlaw and his administration would work to make citizen complaints and Internal Affairs investigations more transparent, including by releasing quarterly reports about each issue. But his administration had previously placed citizen complaints online in a database that obscured meaningful information, including the names of the officers involved. Managing Director Brian Abernathy said Tuesday that the administration would still have to balance the publics right to know with the privacy concerns of officers. Some other goals lacked a timeline for implementation, such as hiring a deputy inspector general focused exclusively on problems within law enforcement agencies, or creating a permanent civilian oversight commission to succeed the current Police Advisory Commission. Others lacked details, such as a promise to roll out a system that would flag problematic officers internally, and a pledge to increase diversity within the ranks without specifying metrics for progress. Regarding the departments budget, Kenney did not specify how much money he would cut from his $760 million proposal, which is $19 million more than was approved by City Council last year and $11 million more than the department is on track to spend in the current fiscal year. Currently, 96% of the proposed police budget would be allocated for payroll. Kenney said he did not yet know whether officers would be laid off, saying only that he would cooperate with City Council. Council must pass a budget this month for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Contributing to this article were staff writers Justine McDaniel, Oona Goodin-Smith, Erin McCarthy, Rob Tornoe, Anna Orso, and Juliana Feliciano Reyes. An innovative effort launched in April and led by a fellow in the UCLA Biodesign program has yielded positive results, solving the health system's shortage of nasopharyngeal swabs - a key element in COVID-19 testing - at a time when Southern California is seeing a rise in new cases and new deaths per day. On April 24, UCLA Health announced the project and institutional review board (IRB) approval of a protocol for a validation study of new swabs. In just over a month, and after conducting rigorous clinical testing of several 3D-printed swab prototypes on patients with COVID-19, UCLA Health was granted permission from the Food and Drug Administration to use the most promising design, which is from Resolution Medical LLC. "With the rapid spread of the new coronavirus, testing supplies - especially nasopharyngeal swabs - were suddenly in high demand and short supply on a local, national, and even global scale. After working with a variety of manufacturers to test various designs, we now have a secure source to supply all of UCLA Health's swabs as the need for COVID-19 testing continues to grow," said Gabriel Oland, MD, a general surgery resident at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and a fellow in the UCLA Biodesign program, who helped lead the effort to test swabs that could be manufactured swiftly and in large quantities. Unlike swabs with woven fiber at the tip - similar in appearance to cotton swabs found in stores for consumer use, but made with longer shafts and sterile, spongy materials - UCLA Health's new swabs, like many others, consist of a single plastic material from tip to tip, with a lattice design to collect a sample at one end. "Given that it's only using one material, 3D printing is perfect for rapid output," Oland said. COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in California, and more than half of new cases in the last two weeks have been in Los Angeles County. Before the pandemic, we used about 200 nasopharyngeal swabs a day, but now we need 500-600 for COVID-19 testing alone, and we anticipate needing over 1000 each day in the coming months." Omai Garner, PhD, director of clinical microbiology testing for UCLA Health Garner and Oland conducted the study with principal investigator Annabelle de St. Maurice, MD, assistant professor of Pediatrics and co-chief infection prevention officer at UCLA Health. "Although we hoped the Los Angeles area would be spared the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to move with urgency to address the testing swab shortage," de St. Maurice said. "Results of our collaboration mean that UCLA Health is now well-positioned to meet the needs of our community as testing becomes increasingly important." Desert Horse-Grant, senior director of UCLA Health Research and Innovation and co-executive director of UCLA Biodesign, worked with UCLA Health leadership to coordinate the 3D-printed swab task force with the study's framework and objectives. She tapped Oland to co-lead the task force because his combination of skills gave him "the expertise to think through COVID-19 obstacles and outsmart them with the right experts." Oland has medical and surgical experience - including treating COVID-19-positive patients - an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and a familiarity with production methods like 3D printing. He had been working to develop a noninvasive intracranial pressure monitoring device before pivoting to the swab task force in lieu of an externship that would normally come at the end of the UCLA Biodesign fellowship year. Although the FDA normally requires lengthy and thorough testing and validation of new medical products, swabs fall into a category for which the onus of validation instead rests with hospitals and clinical labs. "It's not an easy task, but it was imperative that we executed the study right so we could offer the best results for our patients," Oland said, adding that he has been impressed with the way industry, healthcare systems and regulatory agencies have adapted and worked together to solve this problem under unusually tight time constraints. With Covid-19 restrictions having eased for some businesses last week, gyms are asking when it'll be their turn. Commercial gyms are slated for a July 20 reopening in phase 4 of the Government's roadmap, but some smaller gyms, which offer one-on-one personal training, are branding themselves as 'behind closed doors' sporting activities and planning to reopen in the newly established phase 3, on June 29. In Canada and the US some gyms have already reopened, with much smaller class numbers, social distancing and shower facilities closed. In Hong Kong, plexiglass has been erected between machines. Read More Dr Eoghan de Barra, Honorary Secretary of the Infectious Diseases Society of Ireland, says the indoor ventilation of gyms could potentially mean the facilities are grounds for super spreading. "Once you have people close to people, or coughing and spluttering, that's a problem. And once you have people in contact with shared surfaces, that's a problem," he says. "If you can keep two metres apart within gyms and pools, that's a good start. Then it comes down to the shared surfaces and the question mark over the air and how much of this is potentially aerosol rather than droplet. "Infections aren't exactly all droplets or all aerosols, it's really a continuum, but it looks like the amount of transmission that's aerosol [in Covid-19] is very small. But it's theoretical, so if it's there and it's a very humid place such as a sauna, it just seems like a very bad idea. "I think there are some elements with gyms and swimming pools that aren't going to be a runner, one, because you can't be two metres away from somebody else and two, because that warm, moist environment is really the kind of place where a respiratory virus would like to spread." Expand Close Will you be working out with a face mask? Pictured posed / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Will you be working out with a face mask? Pictured posed This is music to gym owner Ben Dunne's ears, whose big idea is to scrap his swimming pools across his 10 gyms. Starting with a trial run at his Westpoint facility in Blanchardstown in Dublin, Ben is currently filling in his swimming pool to create more gym floor space and "the biggest gym in Ireland". "We'll have so much space in between [stations] social distancing won't even be an issue," says Ben. He doesn't plan on fitting Perspex screens, because "would you walk with a Perspex screen around you when you walk down the path?". Face masks will be optional for both staff and clients, unless the Government makes it mandatory to wear one. "We can't find a way where people can shower safely in numbers so we're saying people will have to do that at home." There will be a locker room on the gym floor, a hand sanitation area and "top-class toilets". "We will want people to come prepared for the workout in their gear. Every bit of this is for people's safety." Ben estimates that he'll spend "closer to half a million than to a quarter of a million" on the Westpoint gym alone. He also says he'll be "lucky" if it opens before Christmas. "I would say highly unlikely," he replies when asked if he will reopen all 10 gyms. "But that doesn't mean that I won't open up different types of gyms. "It's a completely new business and it's nearly like starting off again. We're starting with one, that's the way it started last time and if one is successful then another one will follow." Another gym chain that may be quietly pleased at the lack of competition from Ben Dunne is Gym Plus, which operates eight gyms (six with swimming pools) across Ireland. CEO Dirk van der Flier says: "We're planning for an opening in July and I'm hoping [the Government] will allow gyms open at the same time as swimming pools." Dirk is still on the fence about whether clients and trainers should wear face coverings. "You could possibly do exercise with a visor on but could you exercise with a face mask? We'll probably put Perspex screens at reception. Is it practical to put them in between all the machines? No. We've looked at a temperature thermometer, but if someone is asymptomatic, you're not guaranteeing safety by putting those things up. "We will ask people to be sensible and clean their hands as they come in. We'll put in procedures to clean down the clubs in a different way than we've done before. "I don't think social distancing is practical at two metres so I could see certain exercises where you need to be two metres apart, but when you're going into reception you could be one metre away. "Ideally, someone would come in and they wouldn't use the showers. If it's two metres it's going to be very difficult to use changing rooms," says Dirk. One small gym owner, Sean Harding, of Back2Basics in Cookstown in Dublin, is gearing up for a June 29 opening. "My business model will have to be changed dramatically," he says. "My facility is 3,000 square foot and I do personal training one-to-one and in small groups. Pre-Covid I might have had 24 to 40 people in a group session. I'll have to cap my classes now at 12 people." Back2Basics has always been by appointment only. "Clients will have to book into class and answer a series of questions on whether they have symptoms or not. There will be a non-contact temperature check on arrival. "There will be one entry door and one exit door. "I've created a pod system, where each client will have their own racks, barbells, bikes, dumbbells, bench and all equipment within their own pod, which I've invested in. So there will be no sharing of equipment. "And the class schedule will be altered slightly to allow time in between to disinfectant." Sean is unsure whether the extra investment costs will be put back onto his clients but he is looking at continuing online sessions as another revenue stream. Ireland Active, the national association for the health and fitness sector, representing over 350 facilities, has developed a framework of reopening guidelines. Expand Close Dr Eoghan de Barra of the Infectious Diseases Society of Ireland / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dr Eoghan de Barra of the Infectious Diseases Society of Ireland CEO Conn McCluskey acknowledges that social distancing measures will likely mean reduced capacity for classes. "More frequent cleaning of equipment, no physical contact, spacing of exercisers and equipment such as treadmills at least two metres apart will all be required," he says. "Many of the safe reopening protocols have been working successfully in other countries who have emerged safely from lockdown ahead of us and so it offers confidence for operators, staff and the public that fitness facilities can reopen safely." With over 10,000 people working across the gym sector, Ireland Active was calling on the Government to reopen gyms in phase 4 (July 20), rather than the initial date of August 10 in phase 5. On June 5, it was announced that phase 5 was axed and gyms would be moved to phase 4. "The potential for job losses is serious given the fact that many facilities will be closed for four to five months without being able to generate any income," says Conn. Dr de Barra says, "Everything that was done up until this point was to preserve life and now it's important not to go backwards but to allow normal life to return. It's got to be done in a way that's necessary for economics and people's well-being. For some people going to the gym is absolutely critical to their psychological well-being, but I can see that from a public health point of view, it's something that's better left a little bit further along [in the reopening phases]. "We're best setting ourselves up to live with this virus, because without effective therapy or vaccination, we're living with it for some period of time." Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal has responded to chief minister Arvind Kejriwals criticism of Raj Niwas overturning Delhi governments decision to reserve Delhi administration-owned hospitals and other general private hospitals in the capital for treatment of the residents of the city-state and said the decision had to be overturned since it was unconstitutional. A statement issued by the LGs office clarified its decision in view of the disagreement expressed publicly by Delhi CM. The statement said that the official position on the matter was articulated during the Tuesday meeting of the state disaster management authority (SDMA) headed by the LG in Delhi. In the meeting today, it was clarified by Honble Lt. Governor that he had reversed the order of Delhi Government as it violated the constitutional rights of Equality and Right to Life which include Right to Health. A similar directive earlier issued by GNCTD to discriminate in providing healthcare facilities to patients based on their residence was struck down by the Honble High Court of Delhi, the statement said. Kejriwal had on Monday said that barring hospitals that are under centres control, all Delhi government run hospitals and private hospitals will provide service to residents of Delhi as the pressure on citys health infrastructure was huge due to the rising number of coronavirus cases. For Coronavirus Live Updates Baijal, however, scrapped the Delhi governments order reserving a chunk of the hospital beds in the city for residents of the national capital alleging it was not only unconstitutional but also against a Delhi High Court order that had nixed a similar proposal in 2018. Kejriwal responded to LGs move claiming it would disadvantage residents of the capital. The L-Gs order has created a very big problem and challenge for the people of Delhi. Providing treatment for people coming from all over the country during the coronavirus epidemic is a big challenge. Probably it is Gods will that we serve the people of the entire country. We will try to provide treatment for all, Kejriwal had said in a tweet after LGs decision to overturn the decision. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 His Deputy Manish Sisodia had attacked the BJP alleging it had a hand in LGs decision to overturn Delhi Governments order. What if all beds in Delhi get occupied within 2-3 days by patients from other states and that leads to the death of a Delhi resident who fails to get a hospital bed? Who will take the responsibility, he had said at a press conference on Monday. Delhi has around 90,000 beds as per some estimates and half of these are currently empty. The statement released by Baijals office on Tuesday added that it was the responsibility of the State to provide universal healthcare to all patients coming to hospitals in accordance with constitutional provisions. He said this point was explained to Delhi CM Kejriwal in the meeting. This was explained to the Honble Dy. Chief Minister in todays SDMA meeting. It is unfortunate that any responsible government should attempt to discriminate amongst patients on grounds of residence. Rather than discriminating between the patients the goal of the government should be to plan and prepare for adequate infrastructure. We are all Indians and Delhi belongs to all, the statement said. The statement further adds that the Lt. Governor is fully aware of the need to ramp up medical infrastructure to meet the rising requirement and claims that Tuesdays SDMA meeting discussed ideas like using spaces like Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Tyagraj Stadium, JLN Stadium and Pragati Maidan to make large makeshift medical facilities. It was also decided to utilize banquet halls, marriage places, etc. to ramp up the facilities, the statement adds. By Steve Miller, RealClearInvestigations June 9, 2020 CHARLESTON, W. Va. -- As the country considers a vast expansion of mail-in voting this November, the early returns are not encouraging concerning ballot integrity. A postal carrier in rural Pendleton County (population 7,000) allegedly tampered with a ballot application sent out in advance of West Virginias primary June 9, changing affiliations of four voters from Democrat to Republican, which would have prohibited them from voting in the primary of their selected party. A postal carrier in rural Pendleton County, West Virginia (courthouse, above), allegedly tampered with ballot applications for today's vote. Top photo: rejected mail ballots in Miami, 2018 The carrier, Thomas Cooper, was arrested and charged with election fraud in late May, one day before early voting began. During early voting for a municipal election last month in Paterson, N.J., mail-in ballots were allegedly stacked outside of apartment buildings rather than put in individual mailboxes, and a post office in neighboring Haledon found 300 Paterson ballots bundled in a mailbox there. When the county wrapped up checking the mail-in ballots to make sure they complied with the rules, 3,190 ballots, or 19% of the mail-in vote, were disqualified. Invalidate the election. Lets do it again, the Rev. Kenneth Clayton, former head of the local NAACP affiliate, told WNBC-TV in New York. These kinds of acts make people not want to vote anymore. They feel disenfranchised, disconnected that their votes dont count, and that is not fair to people." Theyre still counting ballots in Baltimore, where the citys first mostly mail-in election last week featured hundreds of voters not receiving ballots and printing errors that made the mail-ins difficult to read. Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot tweeted that the episode has resulted in voter disenfranchisement through gross administrative incompetence and citywide irregularities. Keeping distance in line to vote at one of six in-person voting centers in Baltimore on June 2. Maryland's primary was conducted mostly by mail due to the coronavirus -- and glitches were numerous. And in Clark County, Nevada, including Las Vegas where the elections office had sent ballots to everyone on its list, including roughly 200,000 voters considered inactive mail-in ballots were allegedly stacked outside of apartment buildings. All states have a form of mail-in voting, necessary to allow expats, military members, the elderly and others to vote. The COVID-19 crisis is prompting election officials in most states to consider expanding eligibility to allow any registered voter to cast a mail-in, or absentee, ballot in order to avoid going to a polling site and risk infection. The move is vigorously opposed by President Trump. Such voting has long been associated with fraud through ballot harvesting, vote buying, voter intimidation and misrepresentation. In courts, opposing sides are locking horns over purging rolls of ineligible voters -- the rolls that officials rely on to generate mail ballots. Conservatives stress opportunities for fraud and liberals warn of voter disenfranchisement. Although five states Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Hawaii, and Washington have for many years automatically sent ballots to all registered voters, there is concern nationwide that communities may not have the time, resources and expertise to put protections in place during the five months before the general election. Like many Republicans, West Virginia Secretary of State Andrew Mac Warner says, I am not a proponent of mail-in voting but he acknowledges that we needed to do this. ail-in ballots were allegedly stacked outside apartment buildings. A Clark County, Nevada, notice. M Warner, who is seeking reelection this year, said the alleged ballot fraud episode in his state seems to confirm the fears of many other state election officials. The fear is that states that have previously had to mail out and then authenticate a small number of ballots will not have an efficient way to handle the larger volume. West Virginias 1.2 million voters were given the option to apply for an absentee ballot and nearly 300,000 responded, up from an average of 6,500 each election. The flood of mailed ballots will test states that until now have had to verify signatures on thousands of ballots rather than tens of thousands or more. The states that are new to this are having to ramp up quickly, said Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, who is also president of the National Association of Secretaries of State. Pates office received 488,000 requests for mail-in ballots for the June 2 primary, compared wiht a past average of 20,000. Each jurisdiction is obligated to put safeguards in so the voter has confidence in the process, Pate said. And you should let the public know that you have a system in place. Mac Warner, West Virginia Secretary of State: We know there is a lot of room for irregularities. In the states that have used primarily mail-in voting for a few years, minimal violations have been reported. Oregon in 2000 became the first state in the U.S. to go to all-mail voting in a presidential election after voters backed the move. Like most states, it has had ballot malfeasance, including 46 cases of people voting twice and six people casting ballots for deceased voters in the 2016 presidential election. Colorado voters have received their ballots in the mail since 2013. A study found 48 cases of possible illegal voting in the 2016 presidential election there, mostly through casting ballots in two states. Texas has for years vigorously pursued ballot fraud, particularly in the southern part of the state, where communities of political patronage have existed for generations. Enforcement falls on local elections administrators, who lack both the time and resources to actively pursue offenders even if they know who they are. In 2018 the state obtained 33 convictions, by far the most in the U.S. T hose include plea deals and fines, and cases can take a long time to adjudicate, an expensive process many local prosecutors are reluctant to take on. Any instances of ballot misappropriation are concerning, said Joshua Douglas, a law professor at the University of Kentucky and a member of the advisory board for the National Vote at Home Institute, a vote-by-mail advocacy group. But the amount of it is so small and when it happens, we inevitably catch it. In many ways, its a phantom problem that people conjure but does not exist in reality. Still, there are always cases that go undetected. With the focus of elections administrators being an accurate vote tally, they are far more likely to spend their thin budgets on making sure voting machines are sound and up to date before Election Day than in launching investigations into potential fraud afterward. Thats left to either a local law enforcement agency or the state, since elections offices dont use investigators. So alleged shenanigans are investigated typically only after whistles blow. In local elections, where ballot tampering is most common, concerned citizens or disgruntled candidates often draw attention to fraud. It took a series of affidavits from witnesses and some dogged reporting by a local television station to expose the mail-in ballot tampering that sunk the November 2018 election to Congress of Republican Mark Harris in North Carolina. Harris was declared winner over his Democratic opponent by 905 votes, but after an investigation his victory was overturned. There doesnt appear to be widespread ballot fraud, by cases, Sean Roberts, chief technologist at the Lincoln Network, a libertarian-leaning think tank, said during a Facebook roundtable on mail-in balloting last week. But we cant necessarily say in those counties that there is no fraud whatsoever. In all states, the signature on the ballot must be that of the voter, and verifying can be done either by scanning technology, if the county has it, or through manually comparing it to the signature on the voters registration card. Sixteen states, including four of the five states that conduct all-mail elections, allow a voter a second chance if a ballots signature doesnt match. The voter is contacted and can correct it within a prescribed amount of time. Other states disqualify ballots that do not match up. Douglas thinks newcomer states can catch on to effectively carry out a mail-in election with short notice. It will be a real challenge but I have confidence it can be done, he said. It will be difficult. West Virginia is among the states trying to grapple with mail-in ballot oversight. The state formed an election fraud task force led by the U.S. Attorneys offices in the Southern and Northern Districts of West Virginia that includes agents from the secretary of states office. We know there is a lot of room for irregularities, Warner said. The state began training clerks on what to look for, including the nuances of signature matching, shortly after the state decided to send absentee ballot applications. Warner is mostly concerned about his June 9 primary going off without any mischief. But if reelected, hes sure he will face pressure to implement mail balloting for everyone. This time for mail-in voting for everyone, because of the coronavirus emergency, will become a groundswell for [universal mail-in voting] in the future and make this permanent, Warner said. Kolkata, Jun 9 (UNI) In its endeavour to support the nation and bring Indian citizens back to the country, IndiGo operated six special international charter flights since the beginning of June. The IndiGo flight 6E 9092 from Male to Delhi transferred a total of 171 passengers on June 03 and June 04; flight 6E 9174 from Dubai to Delhi brought back 170 Indian citizens on June 04. On June 05, flight 6E 9235 from Muscat to Lucknow and flight 6E 9972 from Muscat to Gaya transferred 167 and 166 passengers respectively and on June 06 an IndiGo flight transferred 177 passengers from Muscat to Kozhikode. The charter flights were operated while observing all precautionary measures and safety guidelines. Ronojoy Dutta, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo said, We feel honoured as we continue to contribute towards the repatriation efforts to bring back stranded Indian citizens in these tough times. We would like to thank our government for allowing IndiGo to operate these international repatriation flights, ensuring a safe return of Indian citizens. We further look forward to contributing to the country in every way possible in these trying times. The repatriation flights assisted in seamless and safe return total 1,022 Indian citizens, including 170 from UAE, 342 from Maldives, and 510 from Muscat. UNI BM Economy Minister Diane Dodds with Leona Barr from CastleCourt and Pamela Lynn from Debenhams yesterday Small shops in Northern Ireland can open on Friday, with the Executive set to announce the future for pubs, cafes and restaurants later this week. Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill said the latest scientific advice gave "head room" for fast-tracking the journey out of lockdown as there were no deaths from coronavirus here for the second day in a row. Read More It's only the third time that no Covid-19 deaths have occurred in a 24-hour period since the first case here in March. Our death toll stands at 537 people. The Executive will meet to consider the way forward for the hospitality and tourism sectors on Thursday when a date for the reopening of bars and restaurants is expected. Mrs Foster said that, while saving lives remained a priority, the Executive was now also focussing on saving livelihoods. "The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on our economy and wider society," she said during the daily press briefing at Stormont on Monday. "The longer people are removed from the labour market, the greater the risk of long-term scarring on our economy and wider society. "We need to take action to help the economy recover and this will be gradual and in stages." She was speaking just hours after DUP Economy Minister Diane Dodds announced that all non-essential retailers, not inside shopping centres, could reopen from Friday. Ms O'Neill said that it was "very positive" that Northern Ireland has had no Covid-19 deaths for two days. It showed that there was a "glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel". The medical and scientific advice given to the Executive was that there was "some latitude to make further relaxations" regarding lockdown, she said. Stormont wanted to ease those restrictions which carried the lowest risk but offered the biggest benefit to the economy and community, she added. The deputy First Minister said it was important to avoid a situation where smaller local businesses were put at a competitive disadvantage. Expand Close Michelle ONeill at the Stormont briefing yesterday Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michelle ONeill at the Stormont briefing yesterday Allowing those retailers to open was considered "relatively low risk at this time", she said. The decision will be confirmed when the Executive meets on Thursday. Ms O'Neill said it would be a "special meeting" to allow ministers to discuss short, medium, and long-term recovery plans. While saving lives remained the priority, Stormont would not keep restrictions in place any longer than necessary and would maintain a flexible approach. There would be "strongly held, contrasting views" around the Executive table on the way forward but ministers would continue to do right by the public, she added. Mrs Foster and Ms O'Neill did not ease restrictions on family members or friends meeting indoors where Covid-19 is more easily spread. But they said they wanted to explore the social bubble concept, which has been successfully adopted in New Zealand, and allows the same small group of people to meet indoors. Expand Close Arlene Foster at the Stormont briefing yesterday Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Arlene Foster at the Stormont briefing yesterday "We are all very mindful in the Executive of the desire of families and friends to meet. We will consider that on Thursday as well," Mrs Foster said. The First Minister said that the reopening of hairdressers and barbers would have to be considered at a later stage of Northern Ireland's recovery plan due to the close contact involved. But she announced that a working group, involving the churches and other faith groups, would be set up to discuss how to achieve the gradual reopening of places of worship here. Ms O'Neill said the Executive was still considering its policy on face masks. She said that previous medical advice was that while face masks were helpful, they could also give people a false sense of security. Mrs Foster said there was evidence that those wearing face masks thought they didn't have to engage in other hygiene practices as extensively. She said she had seen people wearing them who were not social distancing. The First Minister stressed that face masks didn't protect the wearer, "it only protects others from you breathing upon them". Expand Close Robert White, a Lisburn city centre ranger, sanitises traffic lights and shop handles Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Robert White, a Lisburn city centre ranger, sanitises traffic lights and shop handles Announcing the opening of all non-essential retail from June 12 during a visit to Debenhams in Belfast city centre, Mrs Dodds said: "It was agreed that as long as retailers can adhere to the necessary safety measures, and there is no increase in the spread of the virus by Thursday, then these shops can reopen. "The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the local economy. "The recovery has already begun and it is time now for the pace to accelerate. "The reopening of all goods retail outlets will be a huge part of this. "The safety of staff and customers is of course paramount. All retailers must be able to implement measures that minimise the risk to their staff and to the people who visit their stores. "We will be co-existing with this virus for some time to come so it is vital that we continue to adhere to guidance to work and live safely." The UK yesterday recorded 55 new coronavirus-related deaths, the lowest daily total since lockdown began. The UK death toll now stands at 40,597. WOODWAY, Texas, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Salvatore M. Pizzino, DDS, is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Top Distinguished Dentist for his outstanding contributions in the field of Dentistry and acknowledgment of his devotion to patient-centered care as Owner, Operator, and Dentist in Private Practice. In this upcoming September, Dr. Salvatore M. Pizzino is planning to open his new family dental practice, Woodway Family Dental. Located at 5525 Speegleville Rd, Woodway, TX, the practice will be serving the surrounding towns Waco, Hewit, Laurana, Crawford, and China Spring in both General and Cosmetic Dentistry. Dr. Pizzino is revered for his vast knowledge and expertise in mouth implants, orthodontics, treatment of Facial Pain, the diagnoses and treatment of TMJ, sleep apnea, botox, and oral surgery. Dedicated to providing his clients with quality comprehensive dental and patient care, he demonstrates professional excellence. An acclaimed dentist, Dr. Salvatore M. Pizzino began his career serving in the Navy Reserves for 15 years in the Dental Corps. He started as a Lieutenant and then promoted to Commander and he is now serving in the Marine Corps. Dr. Pizzino has owned and operated two dental practices, Southport Family Dental and Westport Family Dental both located in Connecticut. He just recently closed these locations to move to Woodway, Texas. Furthermore, Dr. Pizzino co-directed dental implant seminars at NYU in 2007 and has been an Invisalign Premier Provider since 2009, as well as an Invisalign guest lecturer. To prepare for his career, Dr. Pizzino received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from New York University College of Dentistry. He went on to complete a chief residency at St. Barnabas Hospital, where he later served as the clinical attending physician. Dr. Pizzino has received his Masters through the Academy of General Dentistry, keeping up to date in the latest developments in both orthodontics and implant dentistry. In addition, he completed fellowships in orthodontics and implant dentistry. In light of his professional achievements, Dr. Pizzino has been voted Best of the Gold Coast for Fairfield CT, has been treating patients in Fairfield County since 1995. He is also a recipient of the Army Commendation Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal during his service. In his spare time, Dr. Pizzino enjoys bike riding and swimming and spending time with his wife Kory Am, and their kids Kally, Mina, Lauren, Salvatore, Nadia, and Daniel. Dr. Salvatore M. Pizzino dedicates his success to his brother in law Dr. Anthony Citriniti. Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]whoswho.com SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com An American who spent 10 years on the run from the FBI after allegedly murdering two people in the state of Washington has been arrested in Mexico. Santiago Villalba Mederos was apprehended in the Mexico State municipality of Tenancingo last Friday, the same day he was celebrating his 29th birthday. He was sought for his involvement in two deadly shootings that took place in Tacoma in 2010, according to the FBI, which listed Villalba Mederos on its top 10 most wanted list in 2017. After 10 years on the run from authorities in Tacoma, Washington, United States-born Santiago Villalba Mederos was apprehended in the Mexico State municipality of Tenancingo last Friday. The 29-year-old is linked to two murders in 2010, including the killing of 20-year-old Camile Love Camille Love (left) was shot dead in February 2010 after Santiago Villalba Mederos and several other gang members confused the vehicle she was in for a rival gang member's. Her brother, Joshua (right) was wounded Camille Love was shot dead February 7, 2010 while she sat a car at traffic light in Tacoma, Washington Santiago Villalba Mederos was apprehended in the Mexico State municipality of Tenancingo last Friday, the same day he turned 29 Villalba Mederos, who was also known as 'Pucho,' allegedly fired several shots into a vehicle that was stopped at a traffic light in February 7, 2010, killing Camille Love, 20, and wounding her brother, Joshua, then 18. Authorities believe Villalba Mederos had mistaken the color of the siblings' vehicle when he opened fire. 'He just comes from behind us and gets in the lane next to us, speeds up to us, gets beside us and he just started shooting,' brother Joshua Love told Washingtons Most Wanted in 2010, according to Q13 News in Tacoma. 'She wasnt moving. I grabbed the side of her face and I was like, Cami, Cami. She had a blank look on her face.' In March 2010, he was involved in a fight and fired one shot at a group of people, including an innocent 21-year-old man who died from the gunshot wound. Villalba Mederos was a member of the Eastside Lokotes Surenos gang that is based out of Tacoma's east side, authorities said. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Villalba Mederos on September 30, 2016 after he was accused of 'unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.' The FBI had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Mederos' capture. 'This arrest is result of good old-fashioned detective work and a great collaborative effort with our federal and international partners,' said FBI Special Agent in Charge. Raymond Duda. 'Hopefully the families of Mederos' victims will finally see a resolution for these senseless acts.' Borno Governor, Babagana Zulum has revoked all allocations of houses that have remained unoccupied at Indimi Estate in Bama for more tha... Borno Governor, Babagana Zulum has revoked all allocations of houses that have remained unoccupied at Indimi Estate in Bama for more than a year. He said since those given the houses do not need them, displaced persons would now live there. Zulum gave the order on Monday when he visited the Shehu of Bama, Umar Ibn Kyari Elkanemi, on Monday. We cannot tolerate a situation were people claim ownership of those houses while they are living in Maiduguri. Your highness, kindly compile the list of IDPs from Jaudari village, all the houses should be allocated to them Zulum said. Addressing the displaced persons, he said the State government will continue to support them. I want to sympathize with you, you have been in a very difficult situation. The insurgents have displaced you from your houses and communities, without any means of livelihoods, he noted. I want to sympathize with you, you have been in a very difficult situation. The insurgents have displaced you from your houses and communities, without any means of livelihoods, he noted. Most of the villagers were sacked by Boko Haram insurgents in Banki, Gulumba, and Nguro Soye communities. Zulum also announced plan to reopen three secondary schools in Bama. There are several thousands of IDPs in the town. Since China began this buildup, the Indian side says Chinese troops will have to start the de-escalation. Only then will Indian troops go back. The June 6 meeting agreed to this roadmap. IMAGE: Indian Army officers, right, arrive for a meeting with their Chinese counterparts at the Line of Actual Control in 2017. Long-time Rediff.com Contributor Nitin A Gokhale, editor-in-chief, StratNews Global, in his latest video (external link) discloses the road map of what exactly was decided at the June 6 meeting between India and China to defuse border tensions. The meeting, which lasted six hours and was held in two phases, pre- and post-lunch, began around 11.30 am IST. For the first half an hour, the two delegation leaders -- Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, General Officer Commanding of the Leh-based 14 Corps, and his counterpart, commander of the Tibet Military District -- had a one-to-one meeting. This meeting set the base for the next round of discussions. The next two hours was followed by the delegation-level meeting. India deputed 10 to 15 Indian Army officers. China too had a similar number. This delegation-level meeting thrashed out the many points that needed elaboration. The post-lunch meeting that followed had five main points of discussion: De-escalation on both sides from Finger 4; PP-14; PP-15: PP-17A; and the gradual de-escalation in depth areas (about 20 km from the Line of Actual Control). Gokhale reports that brigadiers and major generals from both sides will discuss the first four points over the next 10 days. The expectation is that the deinduction at three of the four points will likely get resolved at their levels. For the Finger 4 situation, another lieutenant general level talks may be needed, after the meetings between the brigadiers and major generals conclude. Therefore, that is expected to take some time, Gokhale reports. The final point made at the June 6 meeting by the Indian side was to ensure deinduction to peacetime locations on either side. India was insistent that since the Chinese began the buildup on their side of the LAC by bringing in artillery and more troops it will have to be the first to begin deinduction. Both sides will do so simultaneously, but the beginning of the deinduction to peacetime locations and not the operational locations that they are in right now needs to be begun by China, was the point made by the Indian delegation. At Finger 4, India has set a precondition that the Chinese side must withdraw to its pre-May 8 positions. Why May 8? Because when on May 5 and 6 the buildup began and the Chinese started coming in, in numbers of 300 people in the Finger 4 and Finger 8 areas, National Security Adviser Ajit Kumar Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi spoke at length on May 8 and agreed to give directions to their respective militaries to 'cool it' on the border. The Indian side adhered to Doval's directions and did not take any buildup actions until the Chinese brought in another 200 people at Finger 4 and Finger 8. Since China began this buildup, the Indian side says Chinese troops will have to start the de-escalation. Only then will Indian Indian troops go back. The June 6 meeting has agreed to this roadmap, and the first four points on it are expected to be accomplished in a month's time. Like most Americans, I was shocked at the callous and brutal killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police. The video of him pleading for his life and crying out for his momma as an officer chokes the life out of him is both heartbreaking and chilling. Of course, this kind of brutal treatment is not a one-off incident. There have been numerous killings of unarmed African Americans by white police officers recently: Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Ahmaud Aubrey, Breonna Taylor, and others. This strikes most Americans as something being wrong with policing and the criminal justice system to permit these kinds of killings to happen over and over. As to the question of whether this represents some bad apple cops or a more systemic problem of institutional racism in many police forces, I cannot answer, but it needs to be studied by the various communities that employ police forces. Living here in Chester County, I have many things to be grateful for, and one that has become so obvious over the last week is the quality of our police forces in Chester County. Though I am white, and never experience the racism that African Americans do, I hope and believe that the majority of our police are decent and do a very difficult job with honor and integrity. The good ones work to develop positive relationships with the communities they serve. With all of the local Black Lives Matter protests, the police forces in Kennett Square, Pottstown, Coatesville and West Chester should be singled out for praise. When community activists in Kennett Square organized a march on Monday, June 1st, over 1,000 people joined. They got support from the Kennett Square Police as well as participation from all the borough council members. Police chief Holdsworth and three other officers joined the protesters as they knelt in memory of George Floyd, and the public sang their praises. They were all so amazing in their support, stated Naomi Simonson, organizer. Likewise in Pottstown, a protest was joined by police, who marched along with the protesters after organizers invited them to join. Police Chief Michael Markovitz was quoted as saying,we stand with them and support them, and I thank them for allowing us to be a part of their protest. Chief Jack Lauffer in Coatesville has long practiced community policing by doing numerous outreach programs. His Sargent Roger Ollis, and I collaborated a few years back on a Gun Buyback event to help take some unwanted guns off the streets. A protest rally and march ended up in front of City Hall and Police Headquarters in Coatesville on Thursday morning, June 4. The crowd was largely African American, and many called for systemic change in the criminal justice system. Police Chief Jack Lauffer and Sgt. Ollis were present. They thanked the organizers for bringing people together and delivering a message that needs to be heard. The county seat of West Chester held the biggest rally of all, with upwards of 5,000 protesters flooding High Street in front of the Old Court House. The energy was electric, and the noise was deafening at times. Six speakers, from US Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, NAACP President Kyle Boyer, new Sheriff Fredda Maddox, and Michelle Roberson, who lost her daughter to a road rage incident, spoke from their hearts about the need for change. New police chief, Jim Moorehead, also spoke. He could not fathom the film footage of George Floyds death, and vowed that something like it would never happen in West Chester. Leaders of the African American community have often praised the West Chester Police Force. While some protests across the country have led to incidents of rioting and looting, none of that has happened here in Chester County. I suggest that the relationships our police forces have developed with the citizens they serve are a major factor in our robust but peaceful protests. No police force is perfect, and there are policies that could be improved. With all of the negative press about policing, it is a comfort to see the harmony possible when police and the citizens they serve work together. Tom Buglio Malvern NEW LONDON The U.S. Coast Guard Academy failed to properly address complaints of racial harassment, including the use of racial slurs by cadets, according to the Department of Homeland Securitys inspector general. The academy said Monday it accepts the reports recommendations and is committed to pursuing improvements to policies and procedures that govern the response and investigation of all allegations of harassment and misconduct. The complaints investigated by the Inspector Generals Office included episodes in which cadets used racial epithets, posed with a Confederate flag and watched and laughed at a blackface video in a common area. Of 16 allegations of race-based harassment at the academy between 2013 and 2018 identified by the inspector general, the academy failed to properly investigate or handle 11 of them, the report said. Specifically, cadets alleged racial slurs, ignorant comments, and instances of disrespect were common on campus, and, when reported to leadership, were not taken seriously, according to the report, dated June 3. The report also found that harassing behaviors persist at the academy and that cadets are under-reporting instances of harassment in part because of concerns about negative consequences for reporting allegations. The review began in June 2018 after several cadets raised concerns about racist jokes, disparities in discipline and the administrations handling of what some saw as racial hostility. The Coast Guard Academy said it has agreed to implement changes including mandatory training for academy personnel and cadets involved in instances of harassment or hate, mandatory training to cadets on how to recognize harassing behavior, and investigating and documenting any harassment involving race or ethnicity. The Coast Guard, and its academy, are steadfast and enduring in its commitment to build an inclusive environment, free of harassment, and this extends to the highest levels of our service, the academy said in a statement. One of the nations smallest service academies, the Coast Guard Academy is overseen by Homeland Security, unlike others such as the U.S. Military Academy and the Naval Academy, which are run by the Defense Department. It enrolls over 1,000 cadets, who attend the school tuition-free and graduate as officers with a Bachelor of Science degree and a requirement to spend five years in the service. The incidents documented in the report included a third-year cadet repeatedly used the N-word toward a first-year cadet in April 2016 during a conversation, even after the first-year cadet tried to walk away. The third-year cadet was not disciplined or ordered to participate in respect remediation, according to the report, and it was not noted on his official conduct record. In another case, a company officer used the same epithet in a briefing intended to communicate to cadets that they should not use that word. At the time, the academy said, it was trying to discourage use of the same word among cadets who were using it widely inside a campus dormitory in greetings and in slang references to music. The officer, who indicated the use of the word was part of a shock and awe strategy to get the cadets attention, was counseled and given training, according to the report, which said the academy should have more fully informed its civil rights staff of that incident. A December 2018 report by the inspector generals office substantiated allegations that a lieutenant commander at the academy was retaliated against after making discrimination and harassment complaints against her superiors. The Coast Guard said it implemented several changes after that report, including additional training for supervisors and managers on discrimination, harassment and bullying policies. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:46:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LAGOS, June 9 (Xinhua) -- A major Nigerian ethnic group Tuesday condemned the rising violence, especially rampant cases of rape in the northern part of the country. Spokesperson for the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Emmanuel Yawe who made the condemnation in a statement made available to Xinhua, said the spate of violence in the region was getting out of control. The spokesperson, who described the rising cases of rape as alarming, also called on parents, guardians, young girls, school managers, religious leaders to take note of this dangerous trend and protect these innocent girls from this abuse and barbarism. Activists have been calling on Nigeria authorities to deal more effectively with rapists through the strict enforcement of existing laws and promulgation of tougher sanctions. On June 5, a coalition of civil society organizations and human rights activists held peaceful protests in the Federal Capital Territory and Lagos demanding a state of emergency to be declared on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Nigeria. The protest which took place at the police headquarters in both cities followed a perceived rise in the number of rape cases in Nigeria including the recent deaths of two rape victims. Enditem The Bombay high court on Tuesday refused to grant Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami exemption from appearance before the Mumbai police in a case about alleged provocative comments. A division bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Riyaz Chagla, which was hearing his petition seeking quashing of the FIRs, asked him to appear before the police on Wednesday. Two first information reports have been registered against Goswami in Nagpur and Mumbai accusing him of making provocative comments about a community during a news show. The show was about migrant workers gathering in large numbers outside the Bandra railway terminus during lockdown. His lawyer Harish Salve on Tuesday sought exemption for him from appearing before the Mumbai police on Wednesday and also later pending the hearing of the petition. Last month Goswami moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing of all the FIRs lodged against him. The SC on May 19 refused to quash the FIRs lodged in Maharashtra and said he could approach the Bombay high court for relief. During the hearing on Tuesday, Maharashtra government's counsel Kapil Sibal opposed the plea for exemption and said his interrogation was necessary for probe. The bench then directed Goswami to appear before the concerned police station on Wednesday and posted the petition for hearing to June 12. Turkey is one of the best holiday choices thanks to its rigid coronavirus measures, a Ukrainian consul said on Monday. Viacheslav Khomenko, the consul of Ukraine in the touristic Antalya province of Turkey, said commercial flights between both countries would start as of July 1, and Ukrainians would flock to Turkey. Khomenko said Ankara administration handled coronavirus outbreak with the utmost care and this would have positive effects on tourism, thus making Turkey one of the best holiday options. 1.5 million Ukrainian citizens visited Turkey last year, this figure might decline due to the pandemic process, but we do not expect a drastic decline in tourist numbers, he said. Explaining why Ukrainians preferred Antalya, he said all-inclusive holiday packages and clean beaches were some of the leading reasons. He added that the beautiful nature and rich history of the province, along with high-quality service offered at hotels, attract the Ukrainians. The Ukrainian official also thanked the Turkish government for helping his nationals, saying Ankara ensured the transfer of some 3,000 Ukrainians back to homeland amid virus outbreak. (AA) 21 Collyer Quay is a 21-storey prime office building with views of Marina Bay and proximity to Raffles Place MRT station. A new lease with coworking space operator, WeWork Singapore, will commence in 4Q 2021, for a period of 7 years. As part of CapitaLands continued efforts to upgrade our assets and position our portfolio for long-term growth, 21 Collyer Quay will undergo enhancement works during the transitional occupancy downtime. The works include upgrading of essential building systems, common and lettable areas to achieve a Green Mark GoldPLUS rating. A Virginia judge has issued a 10-day injunction that prevents Gov. Ralph Northams administration from removing a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond. The governor, however, won't be deterred, a spokesman told The Progress-Index, a member of the USA TODAY Network. Governor Northam remains committed to removing this divisive symbol from Virginias capital city, and were confident in his authority to do so, press secretary Alena Yarmosky said in an email late Monday night. On Monday, Richmond Circuit Court judge Bradley B. Cavedo granted a request by attorneys for William C. Gregory that would halt any of the preparation work involved in removing the statue from its 130-year-old residence on Monument Avenue. Is this the end for other Confederate memorials? Richmond is taking down Confederate statues In the order, Cavedo said Northams directive is a violation of an 1890 deed filed in Henrico County stating the commonwealth guaranteed to place the 12-ton statue and its 40-foot pedestal in its existing location and to faithfully guard it and affectionately protect it. The property was part of Henrico County until Richmond annexed it in 1892. The Monument Avenue Preservation Group said on its Facebook page Monday that the plaintiff, Gregory, has family ties to one of the original benefactors of the fund that paid for it. That could not be immediately confirmed by The Progress-Index. Part of a large group of protesters gather around the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue near downtown in Richmond, Va. on June 2, 2020. The group said on its Facebook page that it supported the judges decision wholeheartedly. Cavedo wrote that the delay will do little harm to the state in its push to remove the statue. The order names Northam and Joseph F. Damico, director of the state Department of General Services, as defendants. DGS is the agency tasked with overseeing the removal. Yarmosky said the governors office was still reviewing the order. Last week, Northam issued an order calling for the Lee monument to be removed and placed in storage while a decision was made what to do with it. The day before, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said he would push for an ordinance to remove the remaining four Confederate statues from the iconic avenue. Story continues Name game? Army to consider changing names of forts named after Confederate generals Virginia owns the land where the Lee statue is, while the remaining statues are owned by Richmond. The judges order does not apply to the city-owned statues. The statues were frequent targets of vandals and protesters who have marched through Richmond for racial equality, spurred by the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. Bill Atkinson can be reached at batkinson@progress-index.com. On Twitter: @BAtkinson_PI. This article originally appeared on USATNetwork: Robert E. Lee statue: Judge blocks Ralph Northam's order for 10 days Two women are the G.O.P. front-runners in this district, which flipped to a Democrat in 2018. Nancy Mace, the first woman to graduate from the Citadel, is backed by the party establishment; Kathy Landing was endorsed by the conservative insurgents in the House Freedom Caucus. As the Boston City Council readies to vote on an ordinance banning the governmental use of facial recognition technology, activists and politicians Tuesday described the dire need to restrict the software, particularly in light of nationwide protests against racial injustice sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Concerns about the technology are aplenty. Activists, public officials and even some in law enforcement have noted the software is inaccurate, especially in identifying people of color, is already abused by totalitarian governments and may violate the publics civil liberties and basic privacies. At a press conference Tuesday ahead of a 3 p.m. Boston City Council hearing in which young residents were slated to speak about the dangers of facial recognition, speakers talked about the harm the technology poses to minorities, immigrants, students and other groups. As protests over police violence and systemic racism continue to shake the concrete here in Boston and across the country, the conversation were having today about face surveillance is all the more urgent, said Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, adding that citizens stand at a crucial moment in the nations history. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts started a campaign last summer called Press Pause Face Surveillance with the hope of making citizens more aware of the worries posed by face surveillance and the need to pass a statewide moratorium. A major concern about the technology is the fact that it remains largely unregulated at both the state and national levels. The ACLU has turned its attention to passing municipal bans on the software due to the lack of legislation governing law enforcements use of the technology on a wider scale. The statewide moratorium is currently in the Massachusetts State Houses Joint Committee on the Judiciary, where the bill has received an extension until the end of the committees session, according to Crockford. Although multiple public officials and technology experts testified against the use of the software in October and a strong majority of Massachusetts adults said in a 2019 poll they support a statewide moratorium, the bill may not make headway through the state legislature until July 31 or later, according to Crockford. We view these municipal efforts as crucial measures to, frankly, put pressure on the legislature, Crockford told MassLive on Tuesday. If the state legislature is not going to act, we have no choice but to work with municipal governments to protect our people, and thats what were doing. So far, five communities in Massachusetts have passed either outright bans or temporary moratoriums on the municipal use of facial recognition. Those towns and cities include Brookline, Cambridge, Northampton, Somerville and, most recently, Springfield. Easthampton may also be poised to passed its own municipal ban following talks between officials in the communitys government and the ACLU of Massachusetts, according to Easthampton City Councilor Peg Conniff. Now the campaign turns its attention to Boston, the regions largest and most economically and politically important city, said Crockford, noting that the community could be the largest city east of San Francisco to ban what she called a dangerous, racially biased, dystopian technology. The California city was the first community in the country to ban the municipal use of facial recognition software. Michelle Wu and Ricardo Arroyo, both city councilors in Boston, introduced their communitys ban on the governments use of the technology in May, arguing the software is plagued by transparency and racial bias issues. The ACLU of Massachusetts told the public last month that passing an ordinance restricting the technology is especially crucial in Boston, where the citys contract with BriefCam, a company that runs the communitys surveillance camera network, was expected to expire on May 14. The version of the network did not include facial recognition features, but if officials chose to renew the contract, the city would have been due for a super-charge update that could have included instant access to the surveillance tool, the ACLU said. Wu told reporters at Tuesdays press conference that she spoke with officials from the Boston Police Department and that, from her understanding, the update has not yet been incorporated. I dont have 100% confirmation, but my understanding is, especially given this proposal was filed before that happened, that that has not been added, the city councilor said. But Ill make sure to ask that at the hearing today. She added that Boston police have already agreed facial recognition surveillance is not appropriate for use. The agency claimed not to use it, the city councilor said. However, we know that the technology that they are already in contract with, the system that they have in place does have available a software upgrade that could add face surveillance to their current system without any public process, Wu said. We need to make sure that were codifying the protections against discrimination and protections of basic rights. Throughout Tuesdays press conference, officials noted the racism engrained in the software and how the technology easily misidentifies people of color as well as transgender individuals. Particularly during the coronavirus pandemic, a public health crisis that has disproportionately affected communities of color, it is important not to invest in technology that researchers have proven to be ineffective and that furthers racial inequity, Arroyo said in early May. The city councilor told reporters on Tuesday that prior to serving on the Boston City Council, he was a public defender for the Massachusetts courts, where misidentification was commonly seen. Such inaccuracies are not new, he said. The inaccuracy of cross-racial identification, for instance, has been well litigated, Arroyo said. When we talk about facial recognition surveillance, its really important to understand that facial recognition tech. serves to further racial inequity. Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Joy Buolamwini, who is expected to speak before the Boston City Council later Tuesday afternoon, discovered shocking and persistent racial bias problems in facial recognition algorithms, Crockford said. Arroyo noted that Buolamwini, the creator of MITs Algorithmic Justice League, found in her research that black women were 35% more likely than white men to be misclassified by face surveillance. A December 2019 federal government study also confirmed racial bias remains a major issue for the technology, Crockford said, noting that the software does not impact everyone equally. But the technology is equally dangerous when it works exactly as advertised, Crockford said. "In a free society, we should not be subject to constant government tracking and cataloguing of our every movement, habit and association. For at its logical conclusion, that is exactly the threat face surveillance poses to our individual freedoms and collective freedom. As Boston city councilors look to potentially ban facial recognition technology, they are also seeking information about the military equipment the citys police department has previously applied and currently uses. Last week, Wu filed an order requesting a comprehensive inventory of all the Boston Police Departments assets. She called the request part of an effort to demilitarize the law enforcement agency. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh also stated over the weekend he will look at potentially reallocating parts of the police departments budget to training or community involvement. How weve been funding and operating our public safety infrastructure is not safe for so many residents. Our criminal justice system is not just for black and brown residents in our city and around the country," Wu said. In this time of national trauma, we must act with urgency to protect communities and ensure accountability. That begins most concretely and most immediately at the local level. Related Content: The differences concerning the Washington Agreement that seeks to resolve the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) centre around a handful of points. To some, especially those familiar with the details of this crisis, the problems are major, whereas for others it will only take more mutual trust, flexibility and understanding to overcome them and reach compromise solutions. This article will begin by briefly describing the perspectives of each of the three main stakeholders so that we can better understand their differences. Ethiopia is a densely populated country that suffers from high rates of poverty and poor public services. It has no real water deficiency problem apart from occasional droughts that wreak major human, economic and political tolls. Sudan suffers from the political and social instability inherited from the rule of former president Omar Al-Bashir. The secession of South Sudan from the rest of the country taking its water and petroleum resources with it delivered a debilitating blow to the economy of the north. The recent Sudanese revolution and consequent changes in the countrys political leadership have further shaken its economy and public services. Meanwhile, the government is still grappling with civil unrest in several states of Sudan. Egypt, which has a range of domestic concerns of its own, especially economic ones, is home to a large population concentrated primarily in the Nile Valley. It suffers from severe water shortages and the largest food supply gap in Africa. These parties differences over the draft Washington Agreement on the GERD can be summed up in four main points. The first pertains to the exchange of information, coordination and cooperation between the three countries to ensure their commitment to implementing it. The sticking point here is that Ethiopia has constantly pleaded the principle of national sovereignty when asked to fulfil its pledges and commitments and reassure the other parties. Ethiopia must understand Sudanese and Egyptian anxieties over potential flaws in the structure or operations of the dam. Such concerns apply to any dam and have been substantiated by precedents, such as the collapse of several dams in the US or the devastating flooding of northern Uganda and South Sudan due to the poor management of the reservoir of the Owen Dam. Structural or operational problems with the GERD could unleash highly destructive floods or, conversely, disastrous droughts on the downstream nations of Sudan and Egypt. All necessary guarantees and arrangements thus need to be put into place, including mechanisms for tripartite coordination and consultation whether on the implementation of the provisions of the agreement or on introducing changes to the rules if these benefit all the parties without infringing on their sovereignty. The second set of differences revolves around how to resolve problems or disputes that may arise over the interpretation or implementation of the agreement. The dispute-resolution provision is crucial to ensuring its lasting success because it seeks to introduce a mechanism to avert misinterpretations or possible lapses. Egypts and Sudans concerns on this matter stem, in part, from their current experience with Ethiopias misinterpretation of the Agreement on the Declaration of Principles, which led Addis Ababa to declare its intention to begin to fill the GERD reservoir in July this year despite Egypts and Sudans opposition. Differences over the interpretation of the Agreement on the Declaration of Principle have also given rise to other problems, such as Ethiopian demands to bring in the Equatorial Nile Basin nations and South Africa or the African Union (AU) as intermediaries or observers, the effect of which has been to protract the negotiations for years on end. I should stress that the purpose here is not to assign wrong or right, but to clarify the causes of the differences. Attention to averting mistakes made earlier is essential to the success of the agreement and to preserving it from the type of corrosive disputes we are currently witnessing in increasingly strident media campaigns. One suggestion would be to create an African Union resolution dispute committee made up of members who would serve for set terms and be selected with the approval of the three concerned parties. Thirdly, in its memorandum to the UN Security Council, Ethiopia expressed reservations on the filling of the GERD reservoir under various drought conditions because of possible impacts on electricity production. I must acknowledge a certain scepticism regarding the motives behind these reservations since the Americans, Sudanese, Egyptians and even Ethiopians had publicly stated that the parties had reached agreement over the rules of filling the dam under different hydrological circumstances, including drought and extended drought. The last area of difference, according to my reading of the statements made by all sides, concerns the previous agreements concluded during the colonial period. Without reiterating the details discussed in previous articles, neither the 1959 nor the 1902 agreements fit into this category. However, let us broach this from another perspective: how many years has it been since these were concluded? Has their substance been applied on the ground and, if so, under what arrangements? One of the agreements is over a century old, and the other is just over 60 years old. In other words, they span at least three or four generations. In Egypt, they have been applied to the latter. Egypts full quota of Nile water is based on the 1959 Agreement, which was formulated in the light of the 1902 Agreement as well as the 1929 Agreement. I have no doubt that all these agreements reflected and sought to preserve a previously existing reality, which is that which Egypt has lived with for thousands of years, having roughly the same amount of Nile water (until some additional quantity became available with the construction of the Aswan High Dam and the implementation of the 1959 Agreement). Egypt has important reservations regarding the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA), otherwise known as the Entebbe Agreement, on the Nile. As it stands, this agreement is formulated in a manner that increases the water disparity between the Nilotic source countries and Egypt, which is hemmed in by desert and compelled to desalinate its drinking water. Instead of working to bring the Nile Basin countries together, the Entebbe Agreement works to drive them apart. Moreover, it contains provisions that hamper hydraulic projects that aim to conserve Nile water lost to evaporation and transpiration in the vast marshes and swamps that extend across most Nile Basin countries. Recovering these billions of cubic metres of water lost every year could resolve disputes and even meet Nile Basin water needs for years to come. The CFA needs to strike a more equitable balance between the countries at the sources of the Nile and the country at its mouth. It needs to encourage development and investment in projects that bring the Nile Basin countries together rather than discriminate between them. Instead of recalibrating quotas, it should focus on how to support countries in their efforts to meet their water needs. In this spirit, not only should it uphold the principle of the fair and equitable use of water, but it should also engage respect for long-established realities on the ground as a result of the previous agreements that the upper riparian countries want to abolish. The CFA should include provisions that encourage cooperation in the construction of hydraulic projects that conserve and increase the amount of water available to needier countries. The costs would be distributed among the beneficiaries in proportion to their benefits. Egypt strongly supports the move towards regional African blocs to promote the development of all, as opposed to the development of some countries at the expense of others. Indeed, the African Union was established precisely to promote the development of the whole of Africa. But if it seeks to build a strong Africa, this goal cannot be achieved without a strong Ethiopia, a strong Egypt and other strong and prosperous Nile Basin nations. This is why we hope for and encourage the creation of an AU Nile Basin Commission tasked with furthering the development of the Nile Basin nations and strengthening cooperation among them and attracting investment to them. I do not expect everyone to agree with my views. But I do hope they encourage calm, rational and constructive discussion. The writer is a former minister of water resources and irrigation and a professor of water resources at the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University. *A version of this article appears in print in the 11 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Jaipur, June 9 : As many as 144 new coronavirus cases were reported across Rajasthan, taking the state's total tally beyond the 11K-mark to 11,020 till Tuesday morning, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rohit Kumar Singh said. As many as 26 persons living in a house here as tenants tested coronvirus positive on Tuesday, taking the total cases in a day in the state capital to 61. The state had crossed the 10,000-mark on Friday night. There are 2,587 active cases in Rajasthan now. After 26 persons living in the house in Subhash Chowk area in Jaipur were found corona positive, medical teams were rushed there to seal the area and later municipal teams sent to sanitise the lanes and bylanes. Chief Medical and Health Officer Narrotam Sharma said that a person in Subhash Chowk had tested positive on June 5, following which samples of other house residents were collected on June 6. A woman from the house -- who had boarded a train to Bengal after giving her sample for testing -- had also been traced and Bengal officials told about her case, said Sharma. Of the new cases, 30 were reported in Bharatpur, Alwar 11, Jodhpur 8, Churu 7, Kota 6, Sikar 5, Barmer 4, Dausa 3, Jalore 2, Jhalawar 2, and Bikaner, Dungarpur, Sawai Madhopur and Ganganagar one each, besides 61 in Jaipur. Five deaths were also reported in the state till 10 am on Tuesday. Overall, 251 people have so far succumbed to COVID-19. As many as 7,779 patients have been discharged. The total cases include 3,151 migrants who tested positive. Meanwhile, Health Minister Raghu Sharma said that the state had achieved a target of conducting 25,000 tests daily and now aimed at 40,000 tests each day. "While 40 lakh tests have been conducted in the country, Rajasthan has done 5 lakh tests," he said. He said that the recovery rate in Rajasthan was "much better than other states", with 75 out of 100 patients recovering. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Danielle Prokop, The Santa Fe New Mexican (TNS) The search for treasure might be over, but the fight sure isn't. Forrest Fenn, an 89-year-old Santa Fe author and artifacts dealer, said his treasure chest hidden in the Rocky Mountains in 2010 was found last week. Its true, Fenn told The New Mexican in a phone call Sunday, adding that the finder of his chest located the valuable goods reportedly worth $1 million a few days ago. Fenn wouldn't say where the treasure was found or who found it. "The guy who found it does not want his name mentioned. Hes from back East," he said, adding that it was confirmed from a photograph the man sent him. Fenn declined to produce the photograph Sunday. An estimated 350,000 people have hunted for Fenn's treasure. Some quit their jobs to do so. But it's had deadly consequences. At least five people have died while searching for the chest. Barbara Andersen, a Chicago real estate attorney, said she is filing an injunction in federal District Court alleging she solved the puzzle but was hacked by someone she doesn't know. "He stole my solve," she said in an interview. "He followed and cheated me to get the chest." Andersen, who has been licensed to practice law in Illinois since 1998, is representing herself. In the injunction, she seeks to stop an unknown defendant from selling booty from the treasure chest. She is also asking the court to give the chest to her. And that's not the only court case involving Fenn's treasure. In December, David Harold Hanson of Colorado Springs, Colo., sued Fenn for $1.5 million, claiming he has deprived him of the treasure through fraudulent statements and misleading clues. A judge threw out the case in February, citing mishandled procedure for serving Fenn with the lawsuit. But last week Hanson petitioned the court to reopen the case. Hanson could not be reached Sunday for comment. One treasure hunter taking Fenn to court was skeptical of the timing. Brian Erskine of Prescott, Ariz., said in his complaint, filed in U.S. District Court, that he solved the quest. Erskine said the site in question is in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, between the towns of Silverton and Ouray and accessible by U.S. 550, also known as the Million Dollar Highway. "He just got served with my lawsuit, and now we have this press release," he said in an interview Sunday. Among other arguments for his case, Erskine says abandoning a chest of valuables in the wild, as Fenn says he has done, means he couldn't "give title" as Fenn writes in his memoir, The Thrill of the Chase. Erskine said he's confident his lawsuit will proceed. And still others believe the treasure never existed or had already been given away. "I think his announcement is at least a few years, and a few lives, too late. But he has to live with that. I believe this was over much earlier than today," said treasure hunter Seth Wallack. "I think 2019 is the year he said was his last to do any interviews about the treasure, which I interpret as he lost interest because the hunt was no longer," Wallack added. "In 2020, he said the treasure was found, but doesn't reveal any details so his narrative can't be questioned." Saying he wanted others to take part in an old-fashioned adventure, Fenn published clues online and in a 24-line poem published in his memoir. In 2017, he told The New Mexican the chest weighs 20 pounds and its contents weigh another 22 pounds. He said he delivered the chest to its hiding place over two trips, by himself. Asked how he felt Sunday, Fenn said it's been quite the decade. "I dont know, I feel halfway kind of glad, halfway kind of sad because the chase is over, Fenn said. Staff writer Robert Nott contributed to this report. Business secretary Alok Sharma speaks during a coronavirus media briefing in Downing Street. (Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street via AP) All retail outlets in England will be allowed to reopen from 15 June, as the country continues to ease its coronavirus lockdown, business secretary Alok Sharma said on Tuesday. We continue to meet the five tests set out in the prime ministers roadmap, and the R-rate continues to stay below one, Sharma said, speaking at the governments daily coronavirus press briefing. So I can confirm today that retail outlets which have been required to be closed will be able to open their doors again from Monday 15 June, so long as they comply with the COVID Secure guidelines we published on 25 May. However, pubs, bars, restaurants, and hairdressers will not be able to reopen until 4 July at the earliest, Sharma said. READ MORE: UK government gives businesses 100bn helping hand Sharma nonetheless called Tuesdays move the latest step in the careful restarting of the UKs economy, noting that it would enable high streets around the country to spring back to life. Of course, many shops have remained open throughout the pandemic, ensuring that we were able to buy the essentials we need, Sharma said, thanking workers at essential retailers for their service. Many of these businesses rapidly adapted to introduce social distancing early on, he said, pointing to special opening hours for vulnerable people, perspex screens and checkouts, and other measures. In the new normal, we have all got used to shopping with social distancing, Sharma said, stating that now was the time to apply these measures more widely across the retail sector. Shops should reopen once they are able to follow the government guidelines, Sharma said. Of course, there are businesses which still remain closed. As soon as we can we will publish further safer working guidance for restaurants, pubs and bars, as well as hairdressers, barbers, nail bars and related services, he said. READ MORE: Speed at which UK firms took Bounce Back loans is incredible red flag Story continues Noting that there was a lot of speculation about when such businesses could reopen, Sharma said the government was sticking to its roadmap, which suggested that they would not reopen before 4 July. Sharma said that, while the governments two-metre social-distancing guideline was under review, it still remained in place. The UK government on Tuesday reported 1,387 new cases of coronavirus, taking the countrys total confirmed cases to over 289,000. More than 40,800 people have now died after being infected with the virus, the government said. Appointment 9 June 2020 Hilton has appointed Andrew McLachlan to the role of Managing Director, Development, Sub-Saharan Africa. He joins the company with over 30 years' experience of the African hospitality market in Operations and Development roles and will oversee its ambitious growth plans in the region. He will work closely with the teams we have in place in Dubai, Cape Town and Nairobi to drive hotel growth, building on the milestone we reached last year of 100 properties trading and under development on the continent. Having begun his career as an F&B Trainee in 1990, McLachlan's passion for hospitality saw him take on his first General Manager position in Johannesburg seven years later. He subsequently took on a number of senior corporate roles within major hotel chains in South Africa before focusing his career on Development where he has subsequently worked on projects in markets across 32 countries in Africa. McLachlan will be based in Hilton's Development office in Cape Town, South Africa, leading a team of Developers working across the region. Hilton has 46 hotels open in Africa across 6 brands with 57 further properties in the pipeline. Four days after Armenias Court of Appeals revoked an arrest warrant issued for Mikael Minasian, investigators said on Monday that they have broadened corruption charges brought against former President Serzh Sarkisians fugitive son-in-law. The State Revenue Committee (SRC) said Minasian has been charged with more counts of illegal enrichment, false asset disclosure and money laundering. It claimed to have collected an unprecedented amount of information about his dubious financial activities. Minasian, who rejects the accusations as politically motivated, was first indicted in March one month before the SRC moved to arrest him. A district court in Yerevan agreed to issue an arrest warrant for him on May 6. However, the Court of Appeals overturned that decision on Thursday. One of Minasians lawyers, Amram Makinian, scoffed at the investigators decision to bring more and equally baseless charges against Armenias former ambassador to the Vatican. He said that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian could not come to terms with the Court of Appeals ruling. Makinian said earlier that the money laundering charge stems from large sums of cash which Minasian transferred from one of his bank accounts to another in 2017-2018. The lawyer also claimed that the other accusations are based on a technical error committed by the employee of a private firm which drew up and filed his clients income declarations. In a statement released on Monday, the SRC charged that Minasian had also failed to declare his de facto ownership of a 49 percent stake in Armenias largest food-exporting company, Spayka. The stake formally belonged to another person, Roza Stepanian. She too has been indicted as part of the same criminal case, according to the statement. In a related development, Hrachya Hakobian, a pro-government lawmaker and Pashinians brother-in-law, said that investigators have recovered thousands of deleted files from a computer that belonged to Minasian. He claimed that the files contain detailed information about Minasians financial transactions and illegally acquired assets. Hakobian refused to say how he gained access to the supposedly classified SRC data when he was contacted by RFE/RLs Armenian service. Minasian, 42, enjoyed considerable political and economic influence in Armenia when it was ruled by his father-in-law from 2008-2018. He is also thought to have developed extensive business interests in various sectors of the Armenian economy. A bitter critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Minasian left Armenia shortly after he was dismissed as ambassador to the Vatican in late 2018. He has declined to reveal his current whereabouts in a series of video messages posted on Facebook in recent weeks. Minasian has said that he is not returning to Armenia because he believes that the investigators are acting on Pashinians orders. He has also accused the prime minister of corruption and misrule. For his part, Pashinian has repeatedly accused Minasian of illegally making a huge fortune during Sarkisians rule. The Shawnee Mission School District is developing a plan to hire nearly 80 new middle and high school teachers to address the workload concerns that stalled contract negotiations last year. On Monday night, Superintendent Mike Fulton told the school board the best way to free up money for teachers would be to put a bond issue on the ballot within the next year. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 07:43 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd2138b 1 National environment,deforestation,World-Resources-Institute,report,BRG,disaster-mitigation,transboundary-haze Free Indonesia has offered a glimpse of hope for the environment, with its rate of deforestation having decreased for a third year in a row as a result of the governments response to the devastating 2015-2016 fire crisis, even as global deforestation continues apace. However, environmental researchers remain cautious about the actual level of forest cover loss in the country as the full impact of fires in 2019 might have been obscured by haze and bad weather conditions. Despite experiencing the third-highest rate of deforestation in the world, primary forest loss in Indonesia dropped significantly last year, hitting its lowest figures since 2003, according to the recently launched Global Forest Watch report. Indonesia lost 324,000 hectares of primary forest, just behind Brazil (1.36 million ha) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (475,000 ha), based on satellite data collated by the University of Maryland and released by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in its report. Researchers have attributed this decline in forest loss to successful forest protection policies that were put in place after Indonesias unprecedented 2015-2016 haze and fire crisis, which led to the loss of 929,000 ha of forest cover in 2015 an all-time high. This decrease comes despite an intense fire season in 2019, which in previous years [would have] resulted in large areas of primary forest loss, said the Global Forest Watchs Geographic Information System research manager, Elizabeth Goldman. A number of policies in Indonesia have contributed to this positive story. She said contributing factors included increased law enforcement against illegal forest fires and land clearing, a moratorium on new oil palm plantations, Papua and West Papua governors initiative to protect their forest cover and the establishment of the Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG). However, WRI Indonesia senior manager for climate and forests Arief Wijaya cautioned that clouds and haze may have obscured some deforestation incidents that happened between October and November 2019, which could mean the actual level of forest loss is higher. Because of this, there is the possibility that [the effects of] fires in 2019 will pick up in [...] 2020, Arief said recently, noting that the phenomenon also occurred in 2015 and became discernible the following year. Indonesias Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said in late April that the government would continue to prioritize its mitigation of land and forest fires at a time when resources are stretched due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Siti said the special task force on the ground would continue its hard work to prevent any threat of fires this year, especially in regions prone to catching fire. As per the Presidents instructions, even amid these trying times due to COVID-19, we mustnt allow our priority services to be disrupted, she said during a virtual discussion. According to a recent study by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Indonesia is approaching the peak of the dry season in June and July, particularly in the provinces of Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi, Central Kalimantan, North Kalimantan and East Kalimantan. According to the BRGs observations between April and May, Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra are the three provinces that are prone to fires igniting on dried peatland. The positive trend in Indonesias efforts to bring down the rate of deforestation is a culmination of state efforts to respond to seething criticism from neighboring countries affected by choking transboundary haze in 2015 and 2016. The government is also set to receive a US$56 million grant from Norway in June this year, as the first payment for Indonesias successful reduction in deforestation and carbon emissions under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) cooperation scheme. Its fair to say Indonesia had helped [bring] primary cover loss down [for the last] three years at least in some part due to the government's effort to support that, WRI senior research fellow Frances Seymour said. Indonesia accounts for around 2 percent of total global forest cover, roughly equivalent to 92 million ha. Other countries like Brazil and the DRC still showed increased deforestation due to agricultural expansion and other land-use conversions. If governments put in place good policies and enforce the law, forest loss goes down. But, if the government relaxes restrictions on burning and signals interest and intent to clear indigenous territory for exploitation, forest loss goes up, Seymour said. In total, the world lost 11.9 million ha of tree cover in 2019. Nearly a third of that loss or 3.8 million hectares was the primary forest equivalent of losing one football pitch of rainforest every six seconds for the entire year, WRI forest program global director Rod Taylor said at the reports launch. Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Environment Program recently released a three-decade joint review of the global rate of deforestation. According to the 2020 State of the Worlds Forests (SOFO) report, it is estimated that around 420 million ha of forest have been lost through conversion to other land uses since 1990, although the rate has decreased recently. From 2010 to 2015, the world lost 12 million ha of forest per year to deforestation, while between 2015 and 2020 the annual rate of deforestation was at 10 million ha per year. Between 2000 to 2010, this figure stood at 15 million ha, and between 1990 and 2000, some 16 million ha of forest was lost to deforestation every year. Though up to 93 percent of the worlds forests can naturally regenerate, they were not able to keep up with the rate of deforestation, with annual agricultural expansion rising from 8 million ha between 1990 and 2000 to 10 million ha (2000-2010), 7 million ha (2010-2015) and 5 million ha (2015-2020) per year. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Islamabad, Pakistan Tue, June 9, 2020 06:30 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd1dad2 2 World Pakistan,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus,pandemic Free Pakistan has recorded more than 100,000 cases of coronavirus, health authorities said Monday, as hospitals warned they are running out of beds to treat patients. Pakistan -- and neighbors India and Afghanistan -- have lagged behind Western nations in virus tolls, but experts warn a lack of testing or accurate reporting in rural areas could be hiding true figures. In recent weeks, however, the country of more than 210 million has reported a sharp rise in new infections, and on Monday the government said more than 100,000 cases and 2,000 deaths had now been recorded. Last week a leaked government report suggested there were nearly 700,000 infections in Lahore alone. Doctors at several main hospitals in the historic eastern city told AFP they were running out of beds, ventilators and other vital equipment. "As the cases increase, more health care workers are also falling victim to the virus," said Farooq Sahil, a doctor at Services Hospital Lahore. Khizer Hayat, chairman of the Young Doctors Association of Punjab, said facilities across the province needed help. "Hospitals are running out of beds; there aren't enough ventilators given to us," he told AFP. In the southern port city of Karachi, health centers are turning away the sick, with a large sign near the entrance of the Indus hospital stating there was no room for coronavirus patients. Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said he expected the virus to peak "towards the end of July, followed by a gradual downslide". Pakistan's lockdown policy has been patchy at best, with Khan reluctant to call a nationwide shutdown in order to protect the economy. Asad Umar, who heads the national coronavirus task force, announced that a package to relieve pressure on hospitals would include 1,000 new beds in major cities. "The crisis is unfolding now as we have ceased to observe isolation," said Sikander Ali Memon, who is leading Sindh province's anti-virus efforts. In southwestern Balochistan province, government spokesman Liaqat Shahwani told AFP the situation was serious, and authorities were struggling to cope. (Reuters) - Most tourist hotspots in Asia are out of bounds as international travel is restricted, but some countries, including China, are making special arrangements for business travellers. AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND: Borders are effectively closed except for returning citizens and residents, who are quarantined for 14 days. The two countries have talked about a possible "travel bubble" between them but New Zealand has said that is unlikely to happen while travel between Australian states remains restricted. A travel bubble may include Pacific Islands. CHINA: Citizens can return, but the entry of most foreigners, including those with valid visas and residence permits, remains suspended. It has, however, signed a fast-track programme with South Korea and Singapore to allow essential business travel and is in talks with more countries to do so. It has also allowed foreign executives and technical personnel from some other nations to enter on pre-approved charter flights, sometimes with reduced quarantine, to accelerate the resumption of business. INDIA: Borders are effectively closed as coronavirus cases have surged to more than 267,000. India said this week it will take a call on resuming international flights as soon as countries ease restrictions on foreign nationals. INDONESIA: Citizens and long-term pass holders may enter, but must bring documents showing they are free of the coronavirus or undergo tests at the airport. The country is opening up domestic travel this week with safety and quarantine measures. JAPAN: The country is considering an easing of travel curbs, although it is likely to require testing and the submission of a travel itinerary, local media reported. It is in talks with some countries to reopen borders, with business travellers and medical staff expected to be fast-tracked. MALAYSIA: Borders remain effectively closed, but interstate travel will be allowed starting June 10. Returning Malaysians who test negative can self-isolate at home for 14 days starting Wednesday, instead of at a quarantine centre. Story continues PHILIPPINES: International flights remain suspended except repatriation flights to take foreigners home. SINGAPORE: Singapore is allowing travellers to transit through its main airport, but borders remain effectively closed. It is in talks with some countries about reopening travel links, including Malaysia and New Zealand. SOUTH KOREA: A few international flights continue to operate. All citizens and foreigners who enter are quarantined for two weeks. Diplomats or foreigners with official business status are exempted from mandatory quarantine but are tested on arrival. THAILAND: A ban on commercial international flights has been extended until end June. Nationals and foreigners with work permits can return on charter flights. But citizens need to provide certificates issued by Thai embassies, and foreigners are required to present a negative coronavirus test. There is a mandatory 14-day quarantine on arrival. Thailand hopes to reopen to limited international tourism later this year for "low-risk" countries including China and South Korea. TAIWAN: Borders remain closed other than for citizens, foreigners with residence permits and a few other exceptions. Everyone coming in has to undergo a 14-day quarantine. The government said it will be cautious when looking at whether to ease border restrictions given the serious situation still in many countries. A limited number of international flights continue to operate. VIETNAM: Borders remain closed except for citizens as well as foreign experts with valid work permits and negative coronavirus test certificates who are returning on charter flights. A 14-day quarantine upon arrival is mandatory. The government on Tuesday said it was seeking to reinstate international flights to countries that had been free of the virus for 30 days, and would resume these with limited frequency and priority given to foreign experts and investors. (Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Compiled by Sayantani Ghosh in Singapore; editing by Edwina Gibbs and Barbara Lewis) (TNS) Not long after protesters rallied outside the Frederick County, Md., Law Enforcement Center June 8 to demand police accountability and transparency, a petition appeared on Change.org calling for the sheriff's office to begin using body-worn cameras.Launched by 16-year-old Alex Cumber, the petition which had more than 3,800 signatures as of Monday calls on Sheriff Chuck Jenkins and Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner to include body-worn cameras for sheriff's deputies in the budget for fiscal year 2022. Citing data from the Police Executive Research Forum, an independent law enforcement research group, Cumber's petition covers a basic cost analysis for the equipment, and emphasizes the need for body cameras to ensure the safety and equal treatment of county residents and especially people of color, according to the website."I want, eventually, [the petition] to be brought to the sheriff's attention that, even if this is something that [he] may not want implemented, the majority of the Frederick community would like to see it happen," Cumber said in an interview June 28.Jenkins said his agency looked into purchasing body-worn cameras in 2016. The agency ran several training scenarios, including use-of-force situations, to allow the sheriff and his command staff to evaluate the cameras, Jenkins said.We found many deficiencies in what the cameras actually captured. In force situations we were not getting the video we expected to get. Actions taken by deputies were not captured on video that you would expect would be captured, Jenkins said. That reinforces my belief that it is a mistake to rely on [the] technology. The video did not capture entire sequences of events which is critical in investigating and reviewing uses of force.Jenkins also said body cameras can fall or be knocked off of officers and will sometimes fail to record. Jenkins said he determined that the cost of buying the cameras, the equipment to store data and potentially hire new staff to maintain the database outweighed "the very limited benefit" of the devices."The other part of the equation is the fact that we do not experience the types and numbers of situations in Frederick County that necessitate the implementation of body-worn cameras," Jenkins concluded.Cumber acknowledged some camera footage, particularly during a physical struggle, can be unreliable. But with careful policy writing, an agency could ensure the cameras are used to put police interactions with members of the public into context, she said. For example, if an agency dictates that cameras be turned on before an officer makes contact with someone on a call, the information captured could be very useful."Every part of an incident, even leading up to a use of force is important to understand the situation and maybe the escalation of that situation, she said. Even words exchanged between an officer and a civilian can be incredibly important to finding out how that incident occurred and how the use of force started.Frederick city officials, including commanders of Frederick Police Department, also differ with the sheriff when it comes to the benefits of body-worn cameras. City police rolled out the technology in 2016, the same year the sheriff's office completed its assessment.While not all of the department's hopes for the technology came true agency commanders originally predicted the cameras would help reduce use-of-force numbers, which have actually increased each year since 2016 the department stands by it decision to implement the technology. In fact, by the end of the summer, police commanders plan to add close to 60 new cameras to its initial compliment of 18 chest-mounted devices.Moving beyond the data captured by the cameras, acting Chief Patrick Grossman said the cameras provide other important benefits to police agencies, especially at a time when tensions are high and law enforcement is under intense scrutiny."There are so many facets to a body camera program. It provides a multitude of things, from an evidentiary standpoint to providing proof beyond a reasonable doubt in court," Grossman said. "It also provides a level of transparency for a public agency like the police department. [The cameras] can help us build and maintain credibility within the community, and that's incredibly important."Jenkins was not alone in his opposition to body cameras, however. Frederick County States Attorney Charlie Smith has argued against adding more body-worn cameras to area police agencies.Smiths conclusion weighs the cost of implementing the technology, along with the cost of storing the data and the expense to review the footage prior to its use in court against the marginal benefit the cameras provide, he said.Yes, they have benefit, especially to dispel or confirm reports of police use of force. But what looks to be millions of dollars in the long term to primarily aid in a handful of cases does not make sense to me, especially with the proliferation of camera phones, Smith said.As a direct result of the Frederick Police Department adding new cameras, Smith said he was forced to request $353,512 be added to the states attorneys offices budget. A total of $7,205 was needed for new technology to review and store the footage and $346,307 was to hire an additional assistant states attorney and four investigators, according to data provided by the states attorneys office.On the other hand, the Montgomery County States Attorneys Office accepts the expense of county police using body cameras, said Ramon V. Korionoff, that offices public affairs director.The Montgomery County SAO supports the use of [body-worn cameras] by law enforcement. The benefits do outweigh the costs: the public is protected, the police have a record of how well their officers have interacted with the public and we often have video evidence in our prosecutions," Korionoff said in an email.Rather than resisting county elected officials' decision to fund cameras for police officers, Montgomery County prosecutors tried to work as closely as possible with police to prepare their budgets and determine what additional expenses would be reasonable for the implementation and continued use of the technology, Korionoff said.As of 2020, approximately 950 Montgomery County police officers were trained and equipped with body cameras, according to Sgt. Rebecca Innocenti, a department spokeswoman. Each officer is equipped with two cameras, one of which is worn while the other is left charging at a district station. The department also has spare cameras, bringing the total number of cameras to 2,096, Innocenti said.Montgomery County police also employ one full-time quality assurance professional, a sworn officer and four additional civilian staff in its body-worn camera program, according to Innocentis data.The departments set-up was designed to ensure the maximum possible number of camera-equipped officers were assigned to a given shift.Forward-facing officers that are in uniform and interact with the public on a daily basis wear a camera. This includes every patrol officer who is on a shift in a police district. So, every officer on a shift wears a camera, Innocenti wrote in an email.Cumber said she would like to see such complete coverage in Frederick County. But even taking steps toward implementing a program, like Frederick Police Department did in 2016, would be a positive step for the sheriff's office, she said.Body cameras aren't the only solution, Cumber said. But, until more holistic solutions arise to decrease use-of-force incidents and police violence they're a beneficial tool, she said."Body cameras are necessary to hold not only the police accountable with the amount of power they have, but just to make sure that they're staying safe with the community," Cumber said. Sturgis City Manager Daniel Ainslie presented the City Council with three options Monday night regarding the 80th annual Sturgis motorcycle rally during a special meeting. Ultimately, Ainslie recommended postponing the rally until 2021 but to prepare for an influx of visitors. Ainslie said part of the preparation would include making personal protective equipment available for local businesses and city staff, as well as installing sanitization stations throughout the city and closing Main Street. Little preparation or simply canceling the rally would create a health and safety hazard for residents, he said. Derrick Haskins, communications director for the state Department of Health, said in an email to the Journal that the health department has been in discussions with the city about the rally and offered to review any mitigation planning if it were to be approved. Many, including nurses, who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting said they were concerned about the potential spread of COVID-19. One said the hospital where she works would not be able to handle the number of potential cases that theyre accustomed to receiving during rally week while handling COVID-19 patients. We have freedom, but we also have responsibility, she said. She said she understands the council has a difficult decision to make, but it also has a responsibility to keep the public and the residents of Sturgis safe. Ainslie said he spoke with business owners, hotel/motel owners, campground owners, hospitals, and state and federal officials. He said the most common thing they heard was that people were coming even if the city didn't hold the rally. The reality is theres going to be a lot of people in town and businesses that are going to be open, he said. Many watching the councils broadcast from Facebook Live commented on the video stating they were heading for the rally from other states. Ainslie said law enforcement told the city that people who are usually hired from out of state to help with security at the rally likely wouldn't come and as a result they would need support. He also said Lead, Deadwood and Spearfish said they would support the city no matter its decision but also expect to see rally visitors. The first resident to speak during public comment asked the council to continue the rally for veterans. Im begging you for the veterans that have given their lives... do this for them and dont dishonor them by not having it, the resident said. Another resident asked the council to move ahead with the rally to honor the community and the nation. Ainslie said state officials said theres no order about social distancing or limiting crowd size, nor is one anticipated. The other two options Ainslie presented were canceling the rally or proceeding with it. To proceed, he said Sturgis would have a significant spotlight to see how it handled the event. He also said Disneyworld, Las Vegas and other large tourist attractions are reopening, and the rally isnt nearly that large. Ainslie also said it would be illegal to block people from coming into Sturgis with a barricade. A few business owners spoke before the council and said if they didnt approve the rally, they would likely lose a big portion of their income, including a bartender who said hed lose one-third of his income. A 70-year-old Piedmont business owner said hed lose 50% of his annual income without the rally and encouraged the council to proceed with it for 2020. The City Council will have its official vote to decide the fate of the Rally at its next meeting June 15. 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. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Erwin Seba (Reuters) Houston, United States Tue, June 9, 2020 13:45 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd46b04 2 World George-Floyd,anti-racism-protests,anti-racism,black-lives-matter,police-reform,racial-issues,racial-tension,racial-violence,racial-discrimination Free Thousands of mourners braved sweltering Texas heat on Monday to view the casket of George Floyd, whose death after a police officer knelt on his neck ignited worldwide protests against racism and calls for reforms of US law enforcement. American flags fluttered along the route to the Fountain of Praise church in Houston, where Floyd grew up, as throngs of mourners wearing face coverings to prevent spread of the coronavirus formed a procession to pay final respects. Solemnly filing through the church in two parallel lines, some mourners bowed their heads, others made the sign of the cross or raised a fist, as they paused in front of Floyd's open casket. More than 6,300 people took part in the visitation, which ran for more than six hours, church officials said. Fire officials said several people, apparently overcome by heat exhaustion while waiting in line, were taken to hospitals. "I'm glad he got the send-off he deserved," Marcus Williams, a 46-year-old black resident of Houston, said outside the church. "I want the police killings to stop. I want them to reform the process to achieve justice, and stop the killing." The public viewing came two weeks to the day after Floyd's death was captured by an onlooker's video. As a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, an unarmed and handcuffed Floyd, 46, lay face down on a Minneapolis street, gasping for air and groaning for help, before falling silent. The case was reminiscent of the 2014 killing of another African American, Eric Garner, who died after being placed by police in a chokehold while under arrest in New York City. The dying words of both men, "I can't breathe," have become a rallying cry in a global outpouring of rage, drawing crowds by the thousands to the streets despite health hazards from the coronavirus pandemic. The demonstrations stretched into a third week on Monday. "Even though it is a risk to come out here, I think it has been a very positive experience. You hear the stories, you feel the energy," Benedict Chiu, 24, told Reuters at an outdoor memorial service in Los Angeles. "I'm here to protest the mistreatment of our black bodies. It's not going to stop unless we keep protesting," said Erica Corley, 34, one of hundreds attending a gathering in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland. As the public viewing unfolded in Houston, Derek Chauvin, 44, the police officer who knelt on Floyd's neck and is charged with second-degree murder, made his first court appearance in Minneapolis by video link. A judge ordered his bail raised from $1 million to $1.25 million. Chauvin's co-defendants, three fellow officers accused of aiding and abetting Floyd's murder, were previously ordered held on $750,000 to $1 million bond each. All four were dismissed from the police department the day after Floyd's death. Unleashed amid pent-up anxiety and despair inflicted by a pandemic that has hit minority communities especially hard, the demonstrations have reinvigorated the Black Lives Matter movement and thrust demands for racial justice and police reforms to the top of America's political agenda ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. Protests in a number of US cities were initially punctuated by episodes of arson, looting and clashes with police, deepening a political crisis for President Donald Trump as he repeatedly threatened to order the military into the streets to help restore order. Police 'defunding' stirs controversy Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who is challenging the Republican Trump in the election, met with Floyd's relatives for more than an hour in Houston on Monday, according to the family's lawyer, Benjamin Crump. "He listened, heard their pain and shared in their woe," Crump said. "That compassion meant the world to this grieving family." Floyd was due to be buried on Tuesday. In Washington, Democrats in Congress unveiled legislation to make lynching a federal hate crime and to allow victims of police misconduct and their families to sue law enforcement for damages in civil court, ending a legal doctrine known as qualified immunity. The bill also would ban chokeholds and require the use of body cameras by federal law enforcement officers, place new restrictions on the use of lethal force and facilitate independent probes of police departments that show patterns of misconduct. Some departments are already taking action. On Monday, the Los Angeles Police Commission said the city's police department had agreed to an immediate moratorium on training and using chokeholds. The legislation does not call for police departments to be de-funded or abolished, as some activists have demanded. But lawmakers called for spending priorities to change. Trump pledged to maintain funding for police departments, saying 99% of police were "great, great people." "There won't be defunding, there won't be dismantling of our police," Trump told a roundtable of state, federal, and local law enforcement officials at the White House. Biden opposes the movement to defund police departments but supports the "urgent need" for reform, a spokesman for his presidential campaign said. A high-spirited atmosphere that prevailed over a series of mass demonstrations during the weekend was marred late on Sunday when a man drove a car into a rally in Seattle and then shot and wounded a demonstrator who confronted him. The suspect, Nikolas Fernandez, told police he thought he could drive safely through the crowd, when his car was surrounded by protestors, a police report said. He was charged on Monday with assault. Separately, a man described by prosecutors as an admitted member of the Ku Klux Klan and "propagandist for Confederate ideology," was arrested on suspicion of driving his pickup truck into a rally near Richmond, Virginia, late on Sunday. Also in Richmond, a judge issued a 10-day injunction blocking plans by the state governor to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. 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... Kidney problems are more prevalent in hospitalized coronavirus patients in New York City than anywhere else in the US and other countries. More than one-third of patients at a medical facility in the Big Apple developed acute kidney injury, which occurs when the kidneys fail or are damaged and become unable to filter out waste. By comparison only one-fifth of those hospitalized in Washington State developed the same condition as did about one-sixth of patients in China. New York City, at one point the epicenter of the nation's outbreak, was the hardest hit in the US with more than 204,000 cases snd more than 21,000 confirmed and probable deaths. A new study found that almost 34% of hospitalized patients at a medical center in New York City developed acute kidney injury, which occurs when the kidneys become unable to filter out waste. Pictured: A nurse cleans a patient with COVID-19 on a ventilator at a Stamford Hospital ICU in Stamford, Connecticut, April 24 By comparison, just 19% of patients developed the condition in Washington state as did 15% of patients in China. Pictured: A nurse operates a ventilator for a patient with COVID-19 who went into cardiac arrest and was revived by staff at St Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers, NY, April 20 'Our study provides valuable details about the clinical course of hospitalized COVID-19 patients from one of the largest epicenters of the pandemic,' said Dr RuiJun Chen, a postdoctoral research fellow in biomedical informatics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and co-corresponding author, in a statement. 'As the pandemic continues to spread around the globe, our findings may have implications for planning and resource allocation to accommodate the needs of critically ill patients.' For the study, published in The BMJ, the team looked at the first 1,000 coronavirus patients treated at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center from March 1 to April 5. Almost 34 percent of patients admitted to the hospital with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, either had or developed acute kidney injury and 13.8 percent required inpatient dialysis. Of all patients admitted to the ICU, 80 percent later developed the condition and 35.2 percent required dialysis, In Washington state, just 19 percent of patients had acute kidney injury as did 15 percent of patients in a recent report from China. Researchers say they are not sure why kidneys were damaged more in New York patients than others aside form higher rates of chronic disease. The most common underlying conditions were hypertension, diabetes and obesity. Another theory is that the high rate of renal complications might be due to doctors limiting the use of IV fluids when treating patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome as a lung protective fluid management strategy. 'Alternatively, there might be inherent renal toxicity associated with the pathophysiology of COVID-19, given that the rates of acute kidney injury are high even in patients not receiving intensive care or in those without acute respiratory distress syndrome,' the authors wrote. It comes on the heels of several studies continuing to emerge that coronavirus attacks and severely damages the kidneys. One study from the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research found that more than one-third - 36.6 percent - of 5,500 patients developed acute kidney injury. What's more, of 1,000 patients who needed to be placed on a ventilator, about 90 percent developed acute kidney failure. In another report, researchers at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany performed autopsies on 27 patients who died from coronavirus. Although the highest viral load was found in the respiratory tract at least 12 patients had virus cells in the kidneys. The Snapdragon 765G inside the LG Velvet was a questionable choice the phone has a flagship price and a mid-range chipset. A strange new device has surfaced, the LM-G910 (whereas the current Velvet is G900). Lets call it the LG Velvet 4G. It is powered by the Snapdragon 845, a two year old flagship chipset. This was before the time of 5G of course, so that functionality is lost. The rest seems to be the same, including the 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage (UFS 2.1). Connectivity aside, the S845 has a significantly faster GPU while the CPU performance is comparable to the S765. Of course, the older chip may have an impact on software updates in the future. Chipset and memory details from AIDA64 The rest is unchanged This version of the phone will be available in the Middle East region and it is reported to be 20% cheaper than its 5G counterpart. The tip we received came from Iran, but LG Iran is yet to list the device. A bit more digging reveals that Anatel, the Brazilian wireless regulator, has certified the LM-G910, so the 4G version of the Velvet may be headed to other regions as well. Neither Iran nor Brazil have active 5G networks, so the 5G modem would have been wasted anyway. PS. LG recently launched a new phone with the Snapdragon 845 (this time for Japan), so this is not unheard of. Source (in Persian) YPSILANTI TWP., MI An Ypsilanti Township elected official and candidate for Ypsilanti Township clerk may make it onto the August primary election ballot after all. The Michigan Court of Appeals on Friday reversed a lower courts ruling that Heather Jarrell Roe, a current Ypsilanti Township trustee who is vying for the township clerk position, should be removed from the Aug. 4 primary ballot because her filing paperwork was flawed. Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Carol Kuhnke previously ruled that Jarrell Roe and two other candidates for various township offices should be removed from the ballot after Kuhnke found mismatching signature and notarization dates on their affidavits of identity made their filing paperwork invalid. Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo and Treasurer Larry Doe requested court intervention in these races in May. Judge takes 3 candidates off Ypsilanti Twp. primary ballot, denies clerk, trustee colluded But Court of Appeals judges disagreed with the ruling. In the majority opinion, judges said that Michigan election and Secretary of State laws do not mention that notarization date and signature date should match and the affidavits are not defective. Although the Secretary of State may advise a candidate to date the (affidavit of identity) at the time of signing, we cannot conclude that the Secretary of State may create an impediment to the ballot by imposing a date requirement not sanctioned by the legislature or necessary to the establishment of a proper and valid affidavit, judges Mark Boonstra and Jane Beckering wrote in their ruling. Judge Jane Markey, however, disagreed with the reversal. In her dissent, she notes that an affidavit generally must be signed and affirmed by a notary public. Jarrell Roes form became defective simply because her signature date and the notarization date did not match. Michigan clerks prepare for the worst as coronavirus looms over 2020 elections Both Jarrell Roe and Township Clerk Karen Lovejoy Roe submitted additional statements at the Circuit Court hearing that the notarizations had occurred in person on the notarization dates, and the different signature dates were mistakes. Judges in both courts did not include the statements in their decisions, according to the opinions. Its unclear how this ruling would affect two other candidates who were removed in the circuit courts ruling. The appellate court directed the lower court to certify Roes candidacy but did not mention the other two affidavits -- for Monica Ross-Williams, a current trustee and former candidate for treasurer, and William Sinkule, a former candidate for parks commissioner -- likely since neither had appealed. Takeout Tuesday: Restaurants are re-opening, but there still are plenty of carry-out options The Washtenaw County Election Commission authorized a ballot Saturday, in which Jarrell Roe appears. Ross-Williams and Sinkule do not appear on that ballot, Washtenaw County Clerk Lawrence Kestenbaum said Monday. The ballot-printing process can be delayed or updated if a new ruling is ordered. Stumbo and Does legal team filed a request for case consideration to the Michigan Supreme Court on Monday, records show. It has yet to say whether the case will be heard. MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS: No more free parking weekdays in downtown Ann Arbor garages Washtenaw County courts staying closed a little bit longer to adjust for COVID-19 concerns Thousands march in support of Black Lives Matter in downtown Ypsilanti By James M. Dorsey Iranian naval activity in the Gulf, and Turkish maritime expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean, have hogged the limelight, but Russian and Gulf policymakers are also watching with Argus eyes moves by the Islamic Republic in the Caspian Sea. Iran's navy is no match for its Russian counterpart and Iran's naval presence in the Caspian is miniscule. Yet, recent Iranian posturing and statements, coupled with visits by senior commanders to naval facilities and a shipyard on Iran's Caspian coast where a destroyer is being repaired and modernized, and diplomatic efforts to tighten relations with former Soviet littoral states, have raised eyebrows in Moscow as well as Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Senior military officials, including Iranian navy commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, his deputy, Admiral Habibullah Sayari, and Admiral Amir Rastegari, who oversees naval construction, stressed the importance to Iranian national security of the Caspian on tours of facilities on the coast. They also suggested closer cooperation and joint naval exercises with countries like Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. "The Caspian Sea is the sea of peace and friendship and we can share our military tactics with our neighbors in this region. We are fully ready to expand ties with neighboring and friendly countries," Admiral Khanzadi said in April. The Iranian moves are about more than only strengthening its military presence in a basin that it shares with Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. A 2018 agreement among the littoral states, made necessary by the collapse of the Soviet Union, barred entry to the basin by military vessels of non-littoral states but failed to regulate the divvying-up of the sea's abundant resources. Closer naval ties with Caspian Sea states would allow Iran to leverage its position at a time when Central Asians worry about greater Chinese security engagement in their part of the world that undermines a tacit understanding in which Russia shouldered responsibility for regional security while China focused on economic development. Increased Chinese engagement raises the specter of the export of aspects of the People's Republic's 21st century, Orwellian surveillance state amid widespread anti-Chinese sentiment as a result of China's brutal crackdown on Turkic Muslims in the troubled northwestern province of Xinjiang. Hard hit by the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, Central Asians are torn between wanting to benefit from Chinese willingness to revive Belt and Road-related projects and their concerns that enhanced Chinese influence could impact their lives. Popular sentiment forced Kyrgyzstan early on in the pandemic to cancel a $275 million logistics project. The Kazakh foreign ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador to explain an article published on a Chinese website that asserted that the Central Asian country wanted to return to Chinese rule. Kazakh media called for China and the U.S. to leave Kazakhstan alone after the Chinese foreign ministry claimed that the coronavirus had originated in U.S.-funded laboratories in the country. Iranian efforts, boosted by the Indian-funded deep sea port of Chabahar that serves as a conduit for Indian exports to Central Asia, to benefit in the margin from big Asian power rivalry, has opened the region, including the Caspian basin, to greater competition with the Islamic Republic's Gulf opponents, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran hopes that geography and Central Asian distrust of past Saudi promotion of its ultra-conservative strand of Islam will work to its advantage. That hope may not be in vain. Tajik Foreign Minister Sirodjidin Muhriddin, despite past troubled relations with the Islamic Republic, opted a year ago to ignore a Saudi invitation to attend an Organization of Islamic Cooperation conference in the kingdom and visit Iran instead. Iran has since agreed to invest $4 billion in the completion of a five kilometer-long tunnel that will link the Tajik capital of Dushanbe with the country's second-largest city, Khujand. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have fared somewhat better in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Saudi utility developer ACWA Power, in which China's state-owned Silk Road Fund has a 49 percent stake, and the UAE's Masdar or Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company agreed to invest in Azerbaijani renewable energy projects. ACWA Power also recently signed agreements in Uzbekistan worth $2.5 billion for the construction of a power plant and a wind farm. Perhaps Iran's strongest trump card is that by linking the Caspian to the Arabian Sea it can provide what the Gulf states cannot: cheap and short access to the Indo-Pacific. Already, Iran is written all over Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev's transportation infrastructure plans. A decree issued in late 2017 identified various corridors as key to his plans, including the extension of a rail line that connects Uzbekistan's Termez to Afghanistan's Mazar-i-Sharif to the Afghan city of Herat from where it would branch out to Iran's Bandar Abbas port, Chabahar; and Bazargan on the Iranian-Turkish border. "As Tashkent seeks to diversify its economic relations, Iran continues to loom large in these calculations. For Uzbekistan, not only do Iranian ports offer the shortest and cheapest route to the sea, but several future rail projects cannot be accomplished without Tehran's active participation," said Central Asia analyst Umida Hashimova. Dr. James M. Dorsey (jmd@jmdonline.org) is an award-winning journalist and a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He is also an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore's Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg's Institute of Fan Culture in Germany. The views expressed in the above article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times. Genetically-modified or gene-hack bugs have recently been crafted by a certain UK biotech company called Oxitec with a single goal in their whole life which is to kill of or even reduce the local population of mosquitoes in general through "death sex" or basically mating with them. Mosquitoes have become popular carriers of diseases like Zika, dengue, and also malaria which are then passed on to anyone who has been bitten by these insect carriers. While the technology has already shown certain promising results in the lab experiments, experts still warn that the scheme could possibly go horribly wrong all the way out in the wild. Will "death sex" end malaria? According to a certain group of both scientists and ethicists in their statement released in The Conversation, these certain strategies do hold considerable potential benefits that hundreds of millions of people would positively benefit. However, the group argues that they are concerned that the present government oversight along with the scientific evaluation of these genetically-modified mosquitoes does not actually ensure the insect's responsible deployment. Oxitec's own controversial scheme was already approved back in May for certain "experimental use" over in Florida and also Texas by nonother than the US Environmental Protection Agency. The plan to kill wild females Starting this current summer, there will be millions of new genetically-modified (GM) male mosquitoes that will be released every single week over the span of the next two years. When the hoard of lab-bred mosquitoes are then released, they will mate with the wild females and due to the "death sex", their offspring would die. This will then create a new environment where only the female mosquito bites, meaning the male-only insects by Oxitec won't actually spread diseases to the general public. Over a period of time and with repetition, the large-scale releases of these particular modified insects, should then temporarily collapse the whole mosquito population. This should also prevent the spread of any nasty diseases that the mosquitoes would carry and in turn save thousands of lives. The mosquito-borne illnesses just like Malaria are already rising in the southern places of the United States as climate change begins to push bug populations from South America. Read Also: Hackers Blackmail NASA with Ransomeware: DopplePaymer Uses 2,583 Encrypted Servers and Workstations as Hostage The failed experiment Scientists are still quite concerned with the lack of oversight for these huge projects in both Florida and Texas. Over in Brazil, a very similar project actually backfired which resulted to releasing millions of these genetically-modified bugs all around the neighborhoods in Jacobina. A few scientists genuinely believe that the project accidentally created the new super-resistant mosquitoes that have become much harder to kill compared to before. Oxitec's work is currently heavily criticized by the Friends of the Earth which is a charity that acts with the sole purpose of protecting the environment. Previously in 2012, they said that the trials of mosquitoes must come to a halt in the absence of both comprehensive and impartial reviews on the human health, the environment, and also ethical risks. Read Also: 6 COVID-19 Tracing Apps Including CDC Found to be Potential Threats to Your Privacy, Investigation Reveals The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) is now ready to launch its very first Mars Mission in history, starting this week. The first Arab space mission will be seeking different data from the red planet-- investigating how hot planet Mars is. The government of U.A.E. wants this mission to be an inspiration for the younger generation to understand space travel and embark on space engineering. How hot is Mars? Arabs help you to find an answer with the first Mars Mission As said, this would be the first time that the Arab community will travel to space. Five years ago, U.A.E. said that they would need time before launching anyone up to space as the funding was limited at the time. The country's main space agency, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, launches images of the 'Hope' project, which is said to be the 'game-changer' on space exploration. The Hope Mars mission will start on July 14 and expected to reach the planet by February 2021. If it is successful, it will jibe with the U.A.E.'s 50th anniversary of its establishment as a nation. "This mission is not just about the U.A.E. it's about the region, it's about the Arab issue," Omran Sharaf, the mission's project manager at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC), said. "The region is going through tough times, and we do need good news, and we need the youth in the region to really start looking inwards, building their own nations and putting differences aside to co-exist with people with different faiths and backgrounds and work together." This week, the fueling of the spacecraft that will travel to Mars will start its operation. Weeks from now, it is expected for the agency to prepare its liftoff. B.B.C. reported that the Arab probe will be taking seven months before it reaches to the Mars and begin its orbit-- the planet has 493 million km away (308 million miles). The machine needs to remain orbiting on Mars for an entire Martian year, or 687 days. U.A.E. will use a Japanese rocket and will look for heat U.A.E. doesn't have a launchpad to support the mission. This is the reason why the space agency will use a rocket shipped from Japan. Figures of the price of the rocket were not discussed in the report but should be expected once the spacecraft is ready to launch at the latter stage, according to the agency. Unlike other initial Mars missions done by countries, this would be the first time that a Mars mission will focus on the holistic frame of the planet's climate, pointed out by Sir Ian Blatchford, director of the U.K.'s Science Museum Group. So, can we finally know how hot Mars is, after this exploration? 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. She's been adjusting to parenthood ever since welcoming her first child, daughter Sienna Grace, with husband Hugo Taylor, five weeks ago. And Millie Mackintosh joked she's become a 'milkmaid' in a tongue-in-cheek post shared to Instagram on Tuesday. The former Made In Chelsea star, 30, looked every inch the yummy mummy in a frilly dress by Doen as she quipped: 'You know when you subconsciously dress the part? #milkmaid #postpartum #gotmilk.' 'When you subconsciously dress the part!' Millie Mackintosh joked she's become a milkmaid in a cheeky post shared to Instagram on Tuesday Catching the eye, the socialite put on a busty display in the ensemble which featured puffy shoulder pads and a squared neckline. The TV star complemented her naturally radiant beauty with minimal make-up, while styled her tresses in a straight fashion. Earlier this week, Millie introduced her little girl to the world as she gushed that she and former Made In Chelsea co-star Hugo, 34, are 'on cloud nine' since becoming parents for the first time. Millie told how grateful she was to have her husband of almost two years present for the birth amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused most hospitals in the UK to allow only one birthing partner. Busty display: The former Made In Chelsea star, 30, looked every inch the yummy mummy in a frilly dress by Doen Family-of-three: Earlier this week, Millie introduced her little girl to the world as she gushed she's 'on cloud nine' and praised Hugo, 34, for being present during labour In this week's Hello! magazine, the beauty revealed the couple settled on Sienna Grace's name 'months' before she arrived, adding: 'We've been on cloud nine; it's gone so quickly. 'We've been in our little love bubble at home, cherishing those newborn moments, whether that's her sleeping on me or just lapping up all the cuteness.' 'Time has gone so quickly. She is so adorable, even down to the little noises she makes.' Hugo added: 'Sienna has turned our world upside down. It's like first love all over again that wondrous feeling of excitement, joy and endless possibility for the future. I can't wait to watch her grow.' Millie also revealed that Sienna was born via Caesarean section, which was planned after the couple found out at 28 weeks that she was in the breech position. Parents: Last month, the London native announced her daughter's arrival as they wrote in a statement: 'We are delighted to announce the arrival of our darling girl (pictured in April) Millie and Hugo announced Sienna's arrival on May 1 in a statement, reading: 'We are delighted to announce the arrival of our darling girl who arrived on Friday 1 May at 1:21pm, weighing a very healthy seven pounds. 'We are eternally grateful to the doctors, nurses and midwives for taking such good care of us. Mum and baby are both doing incredibly well and we are looking forward to bringing our daughter home and spending time together as a family.' The couple tied the knot in June 2018 at Hugo's uncle's country estate, Whithurst Park in West Sussex, one year after he proposed during a holiday to the Greek island of Mykonos. The pair briefly dated during their Made In Chelsea days back in 2011 and reunited in May 2016 shortly after Millie's split from her first husband, rapper Professor Green, 36. Millie was married to the musician, real name Stephen Manderson, for two-and-a-half years before they announced their split in February 2016. The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Tuesday (this file will be updated throughout the day). Web links to longer stories if available. 7:15 p.m.: Michael Ford is the first Toronto city councillor to test positive for COVID-19. The 26-year-old Ward 1 Etobicoke North representative, a nephew of Premier Doug Ford, confirmed his diagnosis in a statement Tuesday. This morning I was made aware that I have tested positive for COVID-19, he wrote. I have been self-isolating and will continue to do so over the next 14 days as I work from home to participate virtually in city business and committee meetings, and to continue serving the residents of Etobicoke North. I am feeling well and will continue to remain in constant contact with Toronto Public Health. Ford did not say what prompted the test or if he knows how he was infected. He did not immediately return a call from the Star on Tuesday evening. The youngest member of council, he was elected at age 22 in 2016 and the ward that was previously held by his late uncle Rob Ford. Read the full story from the Stars David Rider. 6:20 p.m.: Ontarios regional health units reported fewer than 300 new COVID-19 infections Tuesday as the provinces average for daily reported cases has fallen to the lowest level since before the epidemic first peaked in April, according to the Stars latest count. Since last Tuesday, Ontario has seen an average of 348 cases reported each day, the lowest for any seven-day period since April 2, a time when case counts were still growing rapidly ahead of the pandemics worst weeks in the province. The rate of new cases has fallen even including nearly 300 old but previously unreported infections that were added to the tally this week several days after not being initially reported to Toronto Public Health. As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, the health units had reported a total of 32,894 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,519 deaths, up a total of 282 new cases since Monday evening a relatively low one-day total. And, as has been the case this month, the overwhelming majority of new infections came in the GTA. The regions five health units saw a total of 214 new cases; the rest of Ontario reported 68. The 12 new fatal cases reported Monday were also down from recent trends and considerably below from the height of the pandemic from late April to early May, when the province saw as many as 90 deaths in a day. Earlier Tuesday, the province also reported that 600 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 116 in intensive care, of whom 88 are on a ventilator numbers that have fallen sharply since early May. The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths 2,464 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. 4:45 p.m.: Toronto Public Health reports 121 new cases in the city with 952 total deaths, an increase of eight since Monday. 4:30 p.m.: Health officials in Saskatchewan are reporting two new COVID-19 cases. One is in the Saskatoon region and the other is in the north. There have been 656 cases since the pandemic began and 19 remain active. One person remains in intensive care in Saskatoon. The number of deaths in the Saskatchewan remains at 13. 4:20 p.m.: Nova Scotia is reporting one additional death due to COVID-19, bringing the provinces total number of deaths to 62. The province says in a news release today the death involved a woman in her 70s with underlying medical conditions. The release notes she wasnt a resident of a long-term care home. As of today, Nova Scotia has had 1,060 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with one new case identified Monday. Northwood long-term care home in Halifax where most of the provinces deaths have occurred currently has one resident with an active case of COVID-19. A total of 53 people died at Northwood, and 246 people became ill at the facility. 3:45 p.m.: Quebecs premier apologized as the province surpassed 5,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, vowing to take lessons from the loss of life. Authorities added 45 new deaths after days of declining numbers, pushing the provincial toll to 5,029, with nearly 90 per cent of those deaths in the provinces long-term care homes. The message I have is that Im sorry. Im sorry for the decisions that have been taken or not taken in the last 10 to 20 years, Francois Legault told reporters in Quebec City. Were sad for the families that are close to these people. Five thousand deaths is a lot 4,500 came from those (seniors) residences so clearly there was a problem with those residences. Legault said the province needs to draw lessons from what has unfolded. As a government, this tells us we must do better in the future, he said. 3:15 p.m.: Alberta plans to reopen movie theatres, gyms, pools, libraries, casinos and churches on Friday, a week earlier than planned. Premier Jason Kenney says the province has been doing well in its fight to slow the spread of COVID-19. Health officials say there are 355 active cases and 44 people in hospital, a decrease of almost 70 per cent in the last month. Phase 2 of the provinces relaunch also increases the limit on gatherings to 50 people indoors and 100 people outside. There is to be no capacity limit for restaurants, bars, bingo halls, casinos and churches The government says kindergarten to Grade 12 classes are to start up for diploma exams and summer courses, and all classes are to resume in September. 2:40 p.m.: Premier Doug Ford says he wont release a list of medical experts guiding his pandemic response because of privacy concerns. Ford defended those advisers today after questions were raised about which epidemiologists and scientists are giving him advice on the provinces reopening. The premier says outside of the health experts on his COVID-19 command table, he has received advice from more than 100 doctors. But he declined to name them. Ford has repeatedly said he has based his decisions during the pandemic on the advice of medical and scientific experts. 2:27 p.m.: The U.N. secretary-general is calling for immediate action to avoid a global food emergency, saying more than 820 million people are hungry, about 144 million children under the age of 5 have stunted growth, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there is more than enough food to feed the worlds 7.8 billion people, but our food systems are failing. He launched a policy briefing on the impact of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition on Tuesday, saying around 49 million more people may fall into extreme poverty because of the pandemic. The U.N. chief warned: The number of people who are acutely food or nutrition insecure will rapidly expand. 2:05 p.m.: Canadas top court plunges into the world of virtual video hearings this afternoon to keep the wheels of justice grinding during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Supreme Court of Canada plans to hold four hearings this week via videoconference to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Chief Justice Richard Wagner says while the pandemic has forced the high court to close its building to visitors for health and safety reasons, it hasnt stopped the nine justices from doing their work. 1:54 p.m.: Toronto Public Health says they have yet to find any evidence that crowding at Trinity Bellwoods Park in late May led to an increase in COVID-19 cases. On May 23, a warm Saturday, thousands flocked to the park to soak up the sun after restrictions on parks in the city were lifted. The health unit shared their analysis in a response to a twitter user, and emphasized that despite the lack of evidence linking outbreaks to the crowding, its still important that people continue following their directives. Read the full story from the Stars Miriam Lafontaine here. 1:45 p.m.: The Trudeau government wants the power to fine and imprison people who fraudulently claim the Canada Emergency Response Benefit that was created to help people who lost work during the pandemic crisis, according to a draft bill obtained by the Star. The draft legislation says people who knowingly apply for and/or receive the $2,000-per-month benefit by withholding or using false information could be fined and imprisoned for up to six months. Fines would be set for no more than $5,000, plus an amount that is no more than double the payouts a person received, the draft bill says. The draft bill would also create stricter conditions for the $2,000-per-month benefit by barring people who dont return to work when it is reasonable to do so or decline a reasonable job offer. Read the full story from the Stars Alex Ballingall here. 1:28 p.m.: Another 34 agri-food workers around the Lake Erie town of Leamington have tested positive for COVID-19 amid growing concerns a local outbreak could quickly get out of hand. The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit reported the number Tuesday among 43 new cases, its biggest one-day surge since the virus reached its peak in mid-April. It came a day after the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change reported the thousands of workers from abroad have trouble protecting themselves from the highly contagious virus living and working in close quarters without enough health-care support. Read the full story from the Stars Rob Ferguson here. 1:23 p.m.: A top World Health Organization expert has tried to clear up misunderstandings about comments she made that were widely understood to suggest that people without COVID-19 symptoms rarely transmit the coronavirus. Maria Van Kerkhove, the U.N. health agencys technical lead on the virus pandemic, insisted Tuesday that she was referring only to a few studies, not a complete picture, in the comments she made Monday. . Van Kerkhoves remarks on Monday raised confusion and questions among outside experts and health officials who have recommended and in some places required that people wear masks to try to prevent the virus from spreading. The clarification she provided during a WHO social-media chat showed many questions remain about whether infected people who dont show symptoms of illness such as fever, dry cough or difficulty breathing can transmit the virus to others. Van Kerkhove said: What I was referring to yesterday were very few studies, some two or three studies that have been published, that actually try to follow asymptomatic cases. Thats a very small subset of studies, she continued. I used the phrase very rare, and I think that thats (a) misunderstanding to state that asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare. What I was referring to was a subset of studies. 1:10 p.m. (updated): Ontario daycares can reopen this Friday, says Premier Doug Ford. The centres will have some restrictions in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and ensure childrens safety, he said. As we prepare to reopen more businesses and services, it is critical that we ensure supports are in place so people can return to work knowing their children will be cared for in a safe and healthy environment, Ford said. Our child care plan sets out strict protocols that must be followed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We have made great progress to contain the virus, but we must be mindful that there is still a public health risk. We need to make sure supports are in place so people have peace of mind returning to work, he said from Queens Park Tuesday afternoon. Read the full story from the Stars Laurie Monsebraaten and Kristin Rushowy here. 1:05 p.m.: The federal government is launching a web-based portal to help connect buyers and sellers of protective equipment used to help slow the spread of COVID-19. The online tool is also meant to help Canadians figure out what kind of gear they should think about wearing, or will have to wear, as they begin to return to work. The federal government continues to increase the stores of personal protective equipment in Canada by purchasing from domestic and international suppliers. 12:44 p.m.: Burundis President Pierre Nkurunziza has died of a heart attack at age 56, the government announced Tuesday, ending a 15-year-rule marked by deadly political violence and a historic withdrawal from the International Criminal Court. The statement posted on social media said the president was admitted to a hospital overnight Saturday after not feeling well. He appeared better Sunday but to very great surprise his health abruptly worsened Monday morning, and several hours of effort failed to revive him. Despite the governments statement, some in Burundi wondered whether Nkurunziza died of COVID-19 instead. When Nkurunzizas wife was flown to Kenya suffering from COVID-19, many in Burundi suspected the president himself was sick, said Justin Nyabenda, a resident in Bujumbura. He was referring to reports in Kenyan media that Nkurunzizas wife, Denise, was hospitalized in Nairobi for COVID-19 in late May. Burundis government has downplayed the virus and held the election and large campaign rallies in spite of the threat. Authorities kicked out the World Health Organizations top official in the country just days before the election after the WHO raised concerns about crowded rallies. The country has 83 virus cases. 12:34 p.m.: The British government on Tuesday abandoned plans to have all primary school children return to the classroom in England before the summer vacation after schools voiced worries about their ability to meet coronavirus social distancing requirements. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson admitted that the goal for Englands approximately 5 million primary schoolchildren from age 4 to 11 wasnt possible, given constraints related to classroom sizes, the need for social distancing and inadequate numbers of teachers. We believe this cautious, phased return is the most sensible course of action to take, Williamson told lawmakers when announcing the change. 12:00 p.m.: A coalition of activist groups wants to hear if Toronto is failing to do what it should for homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic. To that end, they have set up a website that allows anonymous reports. The city last month agreed to implement physical-distancing standards and other measures in its shelters. The commitment followed a lawsuit on behalf of the homeless. 11:45 a.m.: COVID-19 has forced many sectors of the economy to close and thrown millions of people out of work. Theatre companies that use Brown Paper Tickets to sell seats have been hit doubly hard. First COVID forced them to shut down, and now many cant even get the proceeds from shows that ran before the pandemic struck. The Star spoke to 11 theatre companies in Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver, who collectively say theyre owed more than $50,000 in ticket sales. Read the full story from the Stars Carly Maga and Marco Chown Oved. 11:28 a.m.: Ontario is once again reporting a sharp fall in COVID-19 testing coming out of the weekend. In its morning update, the province reported Ontarios testing labs completed just 13,917 tests Monday, down nearly 2,000 from the previous day and well short of the provinces daily capacity to process about 25,000 tests. Premier Doug Ford, who has called for widespread testing as a key part of Ontarios response to the pandemic, faced criticism last month after the labs reported daily totals far below target for 10 straight days. In the two weeks since then, testing totals have largely been much closer to full capacity. However, as has been the case since the beginning of the pandemic, lab activity in Ontario continues to follow a weekly cycle that sees far fewer patients samples collected and added to the testing queue on weekends, with the lowest testing totals generally coming the following Monday. Meanwhile, as of 11 a.m. Tuesday, Ontarios regional public health units are reporting a total of 32,618 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,507 deaths. The 291 new infections reported since Monday morning included 57 infections that had not been initially reported to Toronto Public Health following tests conducted by Etobicokes William Osler health network. It is not clear exactly when these cases were tested; excluding them, Torontos case total would be 112 the citys lowest single-day count since mid-May. Likewise, the provincewide total of new infections was very low, with or without the previously missing cases. Excluding them, the 234 cases reported since Monday morning would be the fewest in 24 hours since late March. Earlier Tuesday, the province also reported that 600 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 116 in intensive care, of whom 88 are on a ventilator numbers that have fallen sharply since early May. The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths 2,464 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. 11:11 a.m.: A recent Nanos poll indicated Atlantic Canadians, more than Canadians from any other region, think a competitive airline industry with discount airlines can play an important role in our economic recovery. The May survey of 1001 Canadians found that nearly 91 per cent of Atlantic Canadians think having a competitive airline industry to help the economic recovery is important or somewhat important, almost 10 per cent higher than their fellow Canadians on the west coast. Similarly, just over 88 per cent of Atlantic Canadians think discount airlines play an important role in the Canadian air travel industry, a figure about 10 per cent higher than in British Columbia. 11:00 a.m. (updated): Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected Opposition calls for a fiscal update of the governments books, saying any attempt to assess the impact of a multibillion-dollar COVID-19 aid package on the treasurys long-term health would be wildly unreliable. Trudeau told reporters Canadas economy is frozen or in a coma right now and its impossible to predict how strongly businesses will come back as the reopenings in provinces get underway. Any attempt at doing so would be an exercise in invention and imagination, Trudeau said. Right now, most of so many businesses and economic activity is simply suspended. Its not gone; its not never coming back; its not quietly going on slowly, its just in suspension, and to know what is going to happen when it restarts is extremely uncertain, he said. Read the full story from the Stars Tonda MacCharles here. 10:42 a.m. (updated): Details of a program that will see the federal government buy surplus food from farmers and redistribute it to food banks and other community groups are coming soon, Liberal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau promised Tuesday. The government announced the $50-million plan nearly a month ago as part of a suite of efforts to help the agricultural industry cope with the fallout from COVID-19. Farmers are grappling with a surprise surfeit of products, as restaurants and the hospitality industry have largely shut down due to distancing restrictions. That means theres more food than there are consumers. 10:33 a.m.: Torontos Bike Share program is adding 1,850 new bicycles, 160 stations and 3,615 docking points in 2020. It will bring programs to 20 of citys 25 wards. The expansion will also include a pilot program of e-bikes. Per the city of Torontos release: Three hundred pedal assist e-bikes and 10 e-bike charging stations for the pilot are included in the total expansion numbers. Mayor John Tory says that Bike Share saw record weekend ridership on June 6 and 7, and in May saw a one-day record. 10:30 a.m.: Tanzanias president is again claiming the country is free of the coronavirus because of the power of prayer six weeks after his government stopped publicly updating virus data. Corona in our country has been removed by the powers of God, President John Magufuli declared at a church service on Sunday. He praised the congregation for not wearing face masks, amid cheers from the faithful. He has warned that masks not approved by the government could be infected with the virus. Tanzanias number of COVID-19 cases has been stuck at 509 for six weeks as health officials, opposition figures and some neighbouring countries worry that cases in the East African nation continue to climb. Opposition figures have estimated that cases could be in the tens of thousands. 10:20 a.m.: NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says it is irresponsible and wrong-headed for the Liberal government to draft a bill that would fine or imprison people who made fraudulent claims under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. Singh says a bill the Liberals are proposing would hurt the very people that the CERB was designed to help vulnerable people who have faced financial hardship because of COVID-19. He also says it was hypocritical for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take a knee on Parliament Hill during Fridays nationwide anti-racism demonstrations while such a bill was being drafted. He says the NDP was given a copy of the draft bill on the weekend by the Liberals, ahead of a sitting of the House of Commons tomorrow, and his party cant support it as is. Singh says new criminal penalties will hit poor and racialized people harder, and that the tax system should be used to recover funds that should not have been paid, rather than fining or jailing people during a pandemic. Singh says all parties previously agreed that people should not be unduly penalized if they applied for benefits in good faith. 9:51 a.m.: The coronavirus pandemic has taken the wind out of the sails of a fleet of historic Dutch boats that take paying guests around waterways in the Netherlands. Some 175 boats and their crews gathered Tuesday in Ijmeer lake east of Amsterdam to call for targeted government support for them and their lovingly restored vessels amid the global pandemic. 9:45 a.m.: There are 96,244 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada, including 7,835 deaths, 54,553 resolved, according to numbers compiled by The Canadian Press. Note: The Star tracks its own COVID-19 numbers for Ontario, which can be found above (11:28 a.m.) Quebec: 53,047 confirmed (including 4,984 deaths, 18,714 resolved) Alberta: 7,202 confirmed (including 149 deaths, 6,698 resolved) British Columbia: 2,659 confirmed (including 167 deaths, 2,309 resolved) Nova Scotia: 1,059 confirmed (including 61 deaths, 999 resolved) Saskatchewan: 654 confirmed (including 13 deaths, 624 resolved) Manitoba: 289 confirmed (including 7 deaths, 284 resolved), 11 presumptive Newfoundland and Labrador: 261 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 256 resolved) New Brunswick: 147 confirmed (including 1 death, 121 resolved) Prince Edward Island: 27 confirmed (including 27 resolved) Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed (including 13 resolved) Yukon: 11 confirmed (including 11 resolved) Northwest Territories: 5 confirmed (including 5 resolved) Nunavut: No confirmed cases 9:32 a.m.: New regional surges in coronavirus cases forced the Environmental Protection Agency to put on hold some of the earliest planned returns of federal employees to their offices, while the first volunteers at a few other federal agencies are quietly going back to their desks. The Trump administrations guidance, called Opening up America Again, lays out specific conditions for calling workers back, like 14 straight days of downward-trending cases in an area. But there have been complaints that the administration is moving too quickly. On Monday, small numbers of Energy Department headquarters staff were returning to offices in Washington, D.C., and Germantown, Tennessee, spokeswoman Jessica Szymanski said. Less than 4% of the agencys 7,000 federal and contractor workers were expected to return to work in this first phase of the administrations plans, Szymanski said. This initial phase allows for voluntary returns of staffers. 9:18 a.m.: Moscow emerged from a strict lockdown Tuesday with the city government citing a slowdown in the coronavirus outbreak and critics expressing concerns over the potential for a new wave of infections in the Russian capital. As of Tuesday, Moscow residents are no longer required to stay at home or obtain electronic passes for travelling around the city, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Monday. All restrictions on taking walks, using public transportation or driving have been lifted as well. The sudden ending of restrictions imposed in late March comes weeks before a nationwide vote on the constitutional reform that would allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036 and was condemned by Kremlin critics as premature and politically motivated. 9:05 a.m.: Participation House in Markham announced outbreaks at their facility were declared over by the local public health department on Sunday. COVID-19 spread through two of their residences serving adults with developmental disabilities close to the Markham Stouffville Hospital earlier this April. At its peak, 40 of the 42 residents at the facility had tested positive, and a total of six had died. The facility struggled with significant understaffing after its personal support workers walked off the job fearing for their safety. By May 14, the facility said 53 of their staff had tested positive for the virus. When we spoke with York Region Public Health yesterday and learned that our outbreak was officially over, there were many tears of joy, said Shelley Brillinger, the executive director of the home, in a statement Monday. While our team is thrilled to achieve this significant milestone, we remain vigilant in our efforts to protect the health and well-being of our residents and staff. 8:38 a.m.: As many countries gingerly start lifting their lockdown measures, experts worry that a further surge of the coronavirus in under-developed regions with shaky health systems could undermine efforts to halt the pandemic, and they say more realistic options are needed. Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, India and Pakistan are among countries easing tight restrictions, not only before their outbreaks have peaked but also before any detailed surveillance and testing system is in place to keep the virus under control. That could ultimately have devastating consequences, health experts warn. Politicians may be desperate to get their economies going again, but that could be at the expense of having huge numbers of people die, said Dr. Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Exeter in Britain. 8:25 a.m.: People in many parts of Ontario will be able to dine at restaurants by Friday. Much of the Golden Horseshoe, including Toronto and the rest of the GTA, wont have that luxury, the provincial government announced Monday as it outlined plans for phase two of Ontarios reopening. Why cant the GTA lift COVID-19 restrictions? These 5 charts explain our lockdown limbo, how the virus is multiplying and more. 7:44 a.m. Frances government is pumping $16.9 billion (U.S.) in rescue money into the pandemic-battered aerospace industry, in hopes of saving its hundreds of thousands of jobs and keeping plane maker Airbus and national airline Air France globally competitive. In exchange for aid, companies will be required to invest more and faster in electric, hydrogen or other lower-emission aircraft, as France aims to make its aviation industry the cleanest in the world. The deal was negotiated with unions, who said they would stay vigilant about job guarantees. Some environmental activists expressed skepticism about green ambitions for such a high-emission industry. We will do everything to support this French industry that is so critical for our sovereignty, our jobs and our economy, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said, unveiling the plan alongside the ministers of transport, defence and environment a sign of how important the aeronautic sector is in France. 6:55 a.m. Ethiopia is looking to its national carrier to help it navigate economic shocks from the coronavirus pandemic at a time when airlines across the world are approaching governments for bailouts. The Horn of Africa country has relied on the Ethiopian Airlines network, connecting Africa to the Middle East, Asia, Europe and North America, to increase its exports by 13 per cent in 10 months, according to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Coffee shipments increased 16 per cent to $667 million, while cut-flower cargo climbed 84 per cent to $440 million in the period. Thanks to our airline, we have seen new customers that have faith in our logistics, Abiy told lawmakers in the capital Addis Ababa on Monday. Ethiopian Airlines, Africas biggest and most-consistently profitable carrier, almost doubled cargo capacity by converting 22 passenger planes to transport goods, adding to an existing fleet of 10 Boeing Co. 777 and two 737 freighters. Thats as others including Kenya Airways and South African Airways grounded most planes due to virus-related directives by governments, pre-existing financial problems or inadequate preparedness to lift more cargo. 6:20 a.m. Canadians are increasingly wearing protective face masks as they emerge from months of isolating at home to curb the spread of COVID-19, a new poll suggests. And it suggests that fear of a second wave of infections as bad as or worse than the first wave may behind their increased caution. Fifty-one per cent of respondents to the Leger and Association for Canadian Studies survey said they have worn masks to go grocery shopping up eight percentage points in one week. Forty-five per cent said theyve worn masks to go to a pharmacy (up seven points), 17 per cent at work (up four points), 14 per cent on public transit (up four points) and 12 per cent to go for walks (up two points). And 53 per cent up two points said masks should be mandatory in public and confined spaces, like shopping malls and public transit. The online poll, conducted June 5 to 7, surveyed 1,523 adult Canadians; it cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples. 6:15 a.m.: Ontario Premier Doug Ford is expected to announce the provinces plan to reopen child-care centres Tuesday. Ford says the plan will help support parents who are returning to work as Ontarios economy gradually reopens. Ford said Monday that most Ontario regions outside the Toronto area will be allowed to open more businesses and activities on Friday. Restaurant patios, hair salons and swimming pools will reopen as the province takes a regional approach to restarting the economy. The limit on social gatherings will increase from five to 10, but people must still stay two metres away from anyone outside their own household. Some child-care centres in the province have remained opened throughout the pandemic to provide free service to the families of essential workers. 6:15 a.m.: New Delhi has reversed orders that limited the scope of coronavirus testing and reserved hospital beds for city residents as the Indian capitals caseload continues to surge. Delhis numbers of infected jumped to 29,943 on Tuesday of Indias 266,598 total cases nationwide. Since coming to power in 2013, the government led by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has prioritized investing in health care. Delhi has the best health care in India, drawing patients from across the country. But as lockdown restrictions have eased in recent weeks, the number of people infected with the coronavirus has soared in the capital. On Sunday, Kejriwal announced that hospital beds for COVID-19 patients would be reserved for Delhi residents and testing limited to those with symptoms of the disease. But the central government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly objected to the rules, and late Monday the Delhi government set them aside, with Kejriwal tweeting that making arrangements for treatment for people from across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic is a major challenge. But maybe its Gods will that we have to serve everyone in the country. Monday 7:30 p.m.: Albertas chief medical officer of health is urging protesters who were at recent anti-racism rallies to get tested for COVID-19 even if they dont have symptoms. Dr. Deena Hinshaw says while case numbers and hospitalizations remain low, the province cant risk complacency allowing the infection rate to rise again. I want to commend all those who wore masks and stayed two metres away from others while showing up to rally in support of this cause, Hinshaw told reporters on Monday. The freedom to protest is a critical one and yet we face a challenge in this time of pandemic to do so without risking super-spreader events. About 10,000 people took to the streets in Edmonton on Friday as part of anti-racism rallies around the world decrying police actions in the death of George Floyd in the United States. There have also been numerous rallies and marches in Calgary. Monday 5:15 p.m.: Ontarios regional health units are reporting another 314 new COVID-19 infections including dozens more among a group of older but previously unreported cases that continue to be announced in a piecemeal fashion, according to the Stars latest count. For the second day in a row, Torontos case count included dozens of infections that had not been initially reported to Toronto Public Health following tests conducted by Etobicokes William Osler health network. It is not clear exactly when the 57 cases announced Monday were tested; excluding them, Torontos case total would be 112 the citys lowest single-day count since mid-May. On Sunday, Toronto reported 267 of that days total were from the delay at William Osler. As of 5 p.m. Monday, the health units had reported a total of 32,612 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,507 deaths, up a total of 314 new cases since Sunday evening a relatively low one-day total compared to recent days, whether or not the missing cases are included. And, as has been the case this month, the overwhelming majority of new infections on Sunday came in the GTA even accounting for the hospital delay. Excluding those old cases, the regions five health units saw a total of 196 new cases; the rest of Ontario reported 61. The 22 new fatal cases reported Monday were up slightly from recent trends, but still down considerably from the height of the pandemic from late April to early May, when the province saw as many as 90 deaths in a day. Read more about: ORLANDO, Fla., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The creators of the BioAssured Process and BioAssured Certification have announced a strategic partnership with Orlando headquartered, Massey Services. Serving over 650,000 customers across seven states, Massey Services provides BioAssured with the ability to rapidly scale and deploy their building certification program. As a leading pest management company, Massey's commercial client base includes many of Central Florida's top hospitality and tourism centered brands lined up to become BioAssured Certified. BioAssured was developed by three Orlando entrepreneurs who saw the need for a national "Gold Standard of Clean" providing consumers with consistency and confidence across all industries and markets. Massey Service technicians are trained and certified to apply a two-step electrostatic treatment to all BioAssured buildings. The two-step treatment starts with the application of an EPA Registered cleaner and disinfectant (listed on schedule N) which has demonstrated effectiveness against viruses similar to SARS-CoV2 or human coronavirus. Then a non-leaching durable biostatic finish is applied using nano-technology to bond and protect the surface against microorganisms such as mold, mildew, and bacteria for a minimum of 30 days. "This unique process provides a significant advantage for our customers by reducing the cost and disruption with on-going disinfection of surfaces," says Tony Massey, President Massey Services. "All BioAssured Buildings will be required to maintain reapplication treatments every 30 days with randomized quality checks and assessments. Massey's dedication to excellence made them a clear choice for a partner to offer our proprietary process and our BioAssured Certification," Dr. Wes Naylor, COO BioAssured. "We are delighted to partner with BioAssured on this comprehensive and innovative surface and air decontamination system," said Tony Massey. "Our goal is to help our customers to open their business with the confidence and assurance that their customers and employees are protected. Our Corporate Headquarters, located in Orlando, Florida, is the first building in the United States to earn a BioAssured Certification," said Massey. The BioAssured multi-layered process was developed in collaboration with Orlando-based Healthe, the creators of the patented line of Cleanse Far-UVC products. The process includes scientific assessment of each location with a suite of recommendations that include a 2-step cleaning and disinfection process in combination with the deployment of Far-UVC technology. Far-UVC is the safest way to continuously decrease contamination and sanitize surfaces and air. BioAssured clients receive expert recommendations for the selection of Healthe Far-UVC products like the Cleanse Downlight, which is proven to inactivate harmful pathogens with 222-nanometer ultraviolet light that that is safe for people, and the Cleanse Troffer which combines HEPA-Carbon activated filtration with UV sanitization. About Massey Services Based in Orlando, Florida, Massey Services is the nation's fifth largest pest prevention company and the largest privately held family-owned company in the industry. Celebrating 35 consecutive years of profitable growth, Massey Services and its subsidiary organizations employ more than 2,200 team members and operate 1,900 vehicles that provide residential and commercial pest prevention, termite protection, landscape and irrigation services to over 650,000 customers from Service Centers throughout Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Oklahoma. For more information about Massey Services, please visit www.masseyservices.com. About BioAssured BioAssured was founded in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic to create a standard of sanitization that provides consumers with consistency and confidence across all industries and markets. By designating a facility as BioAssured, the name will reassure its occupants that scientific assessments have taken place and solutions deployed to offer the highest levels of bioprotection available. BioAssured Certifications will soon be available for viewing in a national database. Signage and stickers will be displayed in all BioAssured locations. For more information visit www.BioAssured.us. Contact: Angela Robbins 214-457-3885 [email protected] SOURCE BioAssured Related Links https://bioassured.us/ THE City of Thompson is welcoming provincial funding for its first sobering centre, seeking to take some weight off of our health-care system. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. THE City of Thompson is welcoming provincial funding for its first sobering centre, seeking to "take some weight off of our health-care system." Manitoba has set aside $2.8 million towards the northern citys initiative. "Sobering centres offer an effective alternative to police- and hospital-based responses to public intoxication, while keeping Manitobans safe," Justice Minister Cliff Cullen said Monday. "This centre will provide a safe setting for individuals needing short-term recovery." In 2019, Thompson RCMP dealt with more than 2,000 people under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act. RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Hastie said, once up and running, the sobering centre will allow police to focus on more serious calls. "Were constantly getting public intoxication calls, and it takes our resources away and pulls them in two different directions," said Hastie. "Its long overdue for the City of Thompson and its residents." Thompson has a high crime rate and ranks No. 1 of 239 Canadian cities over the population of 10,000 in the Crime Severity Index for violent crime. The ranking is based on per-capita measurements; Thompson has held the No. 1 spot since 2010. Hastie said local police logged four aggravated assault cases in the past four or five days. Currently, when RCMP bring people into the station for public intoxication, they are put into one of three holding areas. Hastie said each cell can accommodate 10 to 15 people. Mayor Colleen Smook said the new centre is a step in the right direction to reduce crime in Thompson, but also allow people to get the help they need. "Its a really exciting day for Thompson," said Smook. "The capacity will be there to take people off the street and give them a safe space to sober up, get some counselling, clean up." 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. Once active, the sobering centre will make things easier for some professions throughout the city. "There will still be intoxicated people out there causing issues," said Smook. "But those who just need to be brought in and sleep it off will take some weight off of our health-care system." The potential is there for the sobering centre to help reduce crime, the mayor said, but the city will also implement further initiatives in order to make Thompson a safer place to live. The centre is still in Phase 1 of becoming a reality; Smook expects Phase 2 to begin once COVID-19 restrictions in Manitoba allow for larger gatherings. Phase 2 will involve talking with the community about what it expects from the sobering centre. "I think theres going to be a lot of interaction, so I think we have to figure out how to hold a large gathering first," she said. kellen.taniguchi@freepress.mb.ca Politicians across party lines wished speedy recovery to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who went into self-quarantine after developing sore throat and fever. Kejriwal underwent coronavirus test on Tuesday. His reports are expected to come either tonight or on Wednesday morning. The 51-year-old chief minister, who is also a diabetic, was unwell since Sunday afternoon. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has wished speedy recovery to Kejriwal. Banerjee took to Twitter and wrote, " I have read several media reports on Arvind Kejriwal Ji going into self-quarantine because of symptoms of fever and sore throat. I wish for his speedy recovery and hope he joins back public service soon". I have read several media reports on @ArvindKejriwal Ji going into self-quarantine because of symptoms of fever and sore throat. I wish for his speedy recovery & hope he joins back public service soon. - Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) June 8, 2020 Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also wished Kejriwal a speedy recovery. "Arvind Kejriwal ji, I wish for your speedy recovery," he tweeted. Rajya Sabha MP and Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi also took to Twitter and wished Kejriwal for speedy recovery. "Wishing Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal ji a speedy recovery," she said in a tweet. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Atishi from Kalkaji also hoped that CM Kejriwal will recover soon. "With the power of a million wishes, our CM will definitely feel better soon," she said in a tweet. With the power of a million wishes, our CM will definitely feel better soon. ?#TakeCareAK - Atishi (@AtishiAAP) June 8, 2020 Another AAP MLA, Raghav Chadha from Delhi's Rajinder Nagar constituency said his thoughts, wishes and prayers were with the chief minister. "Dear Arvind Kejriwal - you are our inspiration and hero - a frontline warrior against coronavirus. You put yourself at risk for the well-being of people of Delhi. As you face a health challenge, our thoughts, wishes and prayers are with you. #TakeCareAK," he said in a tweet. Dear @ArvindKejriwal - you are our inspiration and hero - a frontline warrior against coronavirus. You put yourself at risk for the well-being of people of Delhi. As you face a health challenge, our thoughts, wishes and prayers are with you. #TakeCareAK - Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) June 8, 2020 AAP leader Ashutosh tweeted, "Despite being a diabetic, Arvind Kejriwal has led the fight against Corona from the front. I pray for his good health. Get well soon, my friend". Despite being a diabetic, @ArvindKejriwal has led fight against Corona from the front. I pray for his good health. Get well soon, my friend. - ashutosh (@ashutosh83B) June 9, 2020 Kumar Vishwas, who was closely associated with the Kejriwal-led AAP, also took to Twitter to wish the chief minister a speedy recovery. "Get well soon Arvind Kejriwal," he wrote. Get well soon @ArvindKejriwal - Dr Kumar Vishvas (@DrKumarVishwas) June 8, 2020 In a telephone conversation with Kejriwal, Delhi BJP president Adesh Kumar Gupta enquired about his well-being. "On hearing about Arvind Kejriwal feeling unwell, I spoke to him and asked about his well being. I pray to God for his speedy recovery," Gupta tweeted. @ArvindKejriwal - Adesh Kumar Gupta (@adeshguptabjp) June 8, 2020 Former AAP MLA Kapil Mishra and BJP member said: "Wish you a speedy recovery. I hope the COVID-19 test results come out negative". AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh wished Kejriwal a speedy recovery."Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal complained of fever and throat pain yesterday on June 7 afternoon. He has gone into self-quarantine at home on the advice of doctors. Tomorrow, on June 9, he will get himself tested for COVID-19. I pray for his speedy recovery," Singh said in a tweet. Also read: Arvind Kejriwal health: Delhi CM develops fever, sore throat; to undergo coronavirus test Also read: LG Anil Baijal overrules CM Kejriwal's decision; orders Delhi hospitals to treat all COVID-19 patients A J-16 fighter jet performing in the sky during the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force Aviation Open Day in Changchun in China's northeastern Jilin province, to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force, China, Oct. 17, 2019. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) Taiwan Warns Off Chinese Fighters That Approached Island TAIPEITaiwans air force warned off several Chinese fighter jets that briefly entered Taiwans air defense identification zone to its southwest on June 9, the defense ministry stated. The Su-30 fighters, some of Chinas most advanced jets, were given verbal warnings to leave and Taiwanese air force jets drove away the intruders, the ministry added. Taiwan has complained that China, which claims the democratic island as its own, has stepped up military activities in recent months, menacing Taiwan even as the world deals with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. China says such exercises are nothing unusual. Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen visits the 6th Army Command, ahead of Lunar New Year, in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on Jan. 25, 2019. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. One of Chinas most senior generals in May said China would attack if there was no other way of stopping Taiwan from becoming independent. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name. China calls Tsai a separatist. Taiwan navys Perry-class frigate launches an ASROC (anti-submarine rocket) during a naval exercise off Hualien County, eastern Taiwan, on May 22, 2019. (Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo) The United States has stepped up its military activities near the island, too, with semi-regular Navy voyages through the narrow Taiwan Strait. A U.S. C-40A, a military version of the Boeing 737, had entered Taiwanese air space with permission, though it didnt land at any Taiwanese airports, Taiwans Defense Ministry said in a separate statement on June 9. The U.S. aircraft departed from Japans Okinawa island, where there is a major U.S. air base, and flew over northern and western Taiwan on its way to Southeast Asia, Taiwanese media reported. While Washington and Taipei have no formal diplomatic ties, the United States is Taiwans strongest international supporter and main arms supplier, becoming another source of U.S.China tension. By Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. MEXICO CITY - Ten more people in Mexico have died from drinking alcohol adulterated with methanol, bringing the death toll in the latest incident to 18, authorities said Monday. Adulterated liquor has cost more than a hundred lives in the country since the coronavirus pandemic began. The government of the southern state of Guerrero said Monday the latest 18 deaths occurred in and around the mountain township of Tlapa de Comonfort, after inhabitants drank a tequila-type drink from little-known brands. called Rancho Escondido. Another 16 people were hospitalized for poisoning symptoms; four remain in serious condition. The area is known for its impoverished farming hamlets. The Guerrero Health Department said the liquor was labeled as distilled agave, the cactus-like plant from which both tequila and mescal are made. Because tequila production is strictly limited to certain regions, drinks made outside those areas are sometimes labelled agave liquor. The department said at least three brands were implicated in the poisonings: Rancho Escondido, Jalon and 100 Anos. The department said the victims were admitted to hospitals in such serious condition that they rapidly died. Authorities seized 505 bottles of the liquor from four stores in the area. Such deaths have mounted in Mexico since coronavirus lockdowns began and many towns banned legitimate liquor sales. Many people also lost their jobs and apparently became unable to buy more professionally made liquors. But officials have not said whether the poisonings have arisen from either of those factors. In May, authorities said as many as 40 people died after drinking methanol in two states in central Mexico. The suspect liquor in that case was a little-known brand called Refino, which translates roughly as very fine. In late April, 25 people died in the state of Jalisco after drinking a cheap brand of cane alcohol known as El Chorrito. Methanol is a poisonous cousin of the ethanol alcohol in normal liquors and cannot be smelled or tasted in drinks. It causes organ and brain damage, and its symptoms include chest pain, nausea, hyperventilation, blindness and even coma. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted a whole new dimension to worker and building health. With 80% of infectious diseases transmitted by touching contaminated surfaces, there is a heightened awareness of the communal services accessed during the course of a workday. Estelle Meiring, director, Paragon Group Office layout Less traditional workspaces Image supplied Healthy, productive workers Image supplied Taking a long-term view The first port of call for any company preparing their workplace should be the regulations laid down by the South African government, specifically the Covid-19 Occupational Health and Safety Measures in Workplaces (C19 OHS, 2020).These regulations cover items such as density reduction, circulation, physical barriers, screening stations and functionality. Existing workspace should be evaluated to assess compliance and risk in relation to each of these elements. How densely staff are distributed in your office space will have a big influence on how costly the implementation measures will be.If, for example, your return-to-work density will be 18.5m per person, you will probably be able to maintain safe distances between people by spacing them out throughout the office. If, however, your density will be 14.5m per person, you might have to install physical barriers or screens between desks. This is, of course, all dependent on your companys specific layout and how it operates, and needs to be reviewed on a case-to-case basis.With telecommuting and flexible working here to stay, business owners might find that, although they have less employees at the office at any one time, they also need more space per employee. To a certain extent, I think we will be seeing a reversal of the last ten years trend of desk sizes reducing and densities increasing.The emphasis of office space in the future will shift away from a place to sit and work to a place to communicate, collaborate and build company culture. While the lockdown has shown us that we can work from anywhere, it has also emphasised, more than ever, that humans are social beings and need interaction with people to remain productive and positive. I see the office space of the future housing a lot less traditional workspaces and a lot more couches and social seating, even if these seats each have their own fold-open writing desks.Issues raised by the office space of the future include: Can physical contact to shared surfaces be reduced, or even avoided altogether, by implementing things like censor taps, automated doors and cell phone-controlled lifts? Where contact is unavoidable, should we rethink the materials that these surfaces are made of, as well as their texture and durability? Certainly we are predicting that businesses will be incorporating a lot more stairs into their buildings to encourage people to use these for vertical circulation instead of cramped lifts.Healthy buildings mean healthy workers, and healthy workers mean productive workers. With the move towards more environmentally conscious design over the last decade, we have already seen a progression towards healthier building environments. Tools used to rate building sustainability, such as South Africas Green Star Office tool, have put the spotlight on occupant health by awarding points to items such as a higher fresh-air exchange rate and building materials that do not emit unhealthy volatile organic compounds.Generally, there is a feeling that people want to own a portion of workspace and be in charge of its hygiene. Although that cannot necessarily translate back to a cellular office for every employee, it might mean, for example, that every employee owns their own personal desk surface, something that can be clipped in and out in a hot-desking environment and remain for exclusive use by one person.Something else to consider is that employees need to feel safe and comfortable in their workplace. Even if you are complying with all government regulations, if your staff dont feel relaxed and looked-after, they will be on edge and production and morale will suffer. Careful consideration therefore needs to be given to how changes are implemented and how they look and feel.We advise clients on what we believe makes the most sense from a long-term point of view for their asset. They will then take a view on the market and viability to make a final call. Although most of the buildings that we design are Green Star-rated, we believe that all buildings, whether rated or not, should follow good design principles when it comes to orientation, energy and water efficiency and occupant health and comfort.Future growth areas for Paragon Group post the Covid-19 crisis are interior space planning and design, as companies need to adjust their workspaces to the new environment; repurposing: finding creative ways to alter existing buildings to perform new functions, such as office buildings into residential; distribution centres; new-generation office buildings that offer flexibility and create healthier, more hygienic spaces; and education.Traditional retail has taken a huge knock, with e-commerce expected to increase its market share considerably over this time. This means the requirement for less shopping centre space and more distribution centre space. We are certainly in discussions with our clients to see how we can assist.I believe that we will see a lot of repurposing of buildings over the next few years, and this is where we as designers can play a pivotal role. Of course, the property development sector is under strain in light of the current economic downturn and uncertainty in the market. We do believe, however, that new circumstances bring new opportunities for those who are willing to adjust and adapt creatively. Among Nigerias national honourees in 2012 was an army officer, Mohammed Suleiman, then a colonel. He had earlier that year helped foil a Boko Haram terrorist attack on Aso Rock Villa in what is now home to President Muhammadu Buhari, having discovered and penetrated the cell tasked to carry out what would have been a major blow to Nigeria. The key planner of that foiled act of terrorism on what is today home to President Buhari was a police sergeant, identified as Babagana, according to army records seen by PREMIUM TIMES. Mr Suleiman was so key to Nigerias counter-terrorism efforts that his deployments for services abroad, for instance in Darfur and Washington, were repeatedly cancelled and, in another case, he was recalled from Command and Staff College, Jaji, as directing staff, to help track a globally wanted terrorist, Adam Kambar. He initiated the creation of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) and controlled their activities in Borno State, before collaborating with 3rd Division of the Army to have Civilian JTF in Adamawa State. He was key to the arrest of and appropriate provision of information on the first successfully prosecuted Boko Haram pioneer spokesman, Umar Sanda Kodunga. Even before Boko Haram gained notoriety and when they were covertly building a base in Bauchi, he was responsible for discovering, penetrating and profiling the group. In 2009, he led the joint army/police team that cleared and arrested 377 terrorists with scores killed with no casualty to own troops. All these about Mr Suleiman were documented in his official service records with the Nigerian Army. However, for four years, he has been up in a legal battle with the military after he and 37 other senior officers were forcibly and illegally removed from service shortly after Mr Buhari assumed office. In separate judgements, Mr Suleiman and five of the affected officers have won the cases they initiated to challenge their forced retirement by the military. In ordering their reinstatement, the National Industrial Court has six times held that the military acted unlawfully. PREMIUM TIMES has repeatedly called the attention of the Buhari government to this matter. But authorities have continued to ignore the court and its decisions. This matter is one of Nigerias worst cases of arbitrariness, disregard for the court and shabby treatment of her heroes since Mr Buhari, a former brigadier general, became president. One of the officers, Ojebo Ochankpa, died in 2017 while awaiting justice. Their statutory appeal for redress to President Buhari within 30 days of their sack, and other letters subsequently, have neither been acknowledged nor replied to. The Illegal Compulsory Retirement On June 9, 2016, each of the 38 officers woke up to sudden letters of retirement in their emails. They had been compulsorily retired from service. It was absolutely unexpected as I had not gone through any disciplinary process, said Abdulfatai Mohammed, then a Lt. Colonel, and one of the 38 affected officers. I was never queried, nor was there any indictment. In the letters, seen by PREMIUM TIMES, to the affected officers, their compulsory retirement was hinged on provisions of Paragraph 09.02c (4) of the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers 2012 (Revised). The referenced section 09.02c (4) of the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers 2012 (Revised), shows the officers were laid off on disciplinary grounds i.e. serious offence(s). Emphasizing service exigencies and that the military must remain apolitical and professional at all times, then army spokesperson, Sani Usman, now a retired brigadier-general, on June 10, 2016, released a statement, disclosing what could have constituted the serious offences that warranted the compulsory retirement of the 38 officers. It should be recalled that not too long ago some officers were investigated for being partisan during the 2015 general elections, the statement read. Similarly, the investigation by the Presidential Committee investigating Defence Contracts revealed a lot. Some officers have already been arraigned in court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). However, contrary to the claim by the army, our investigations showed that only a few of the affected officers were queried, tried and indicted. Others, like Mr Suleiman and Mr Mohammed, had their careers abruptly cut short for reasons that smacked of high-level arbitrariness, pettiness, witch-hunting and partisanship by authorities of the Army. While officers cleared by either arms procurement panel or election panel were retired, others who were not questioned at all were also sent away. READ ALSO: Highly placed sources in the army told PREMIUM TIMES that of the major generals affected, only one E.D. Atewe (N/7674) faced a panel and was indicted. Mr Atewe was indicted by the presidential arms probe panel, and he is currently being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Although S.D. Aliyu (N/7711); M.Y. Aliyu (N/8114) GOC 7 Division; Fatai Alli, (N/7914) a former Director of Operations in the Army, also faced the presidential arms panel, they were cleared. Yet they were laid off for serious offence, the army claimed. Five other Major Generals L. Wiwa (N/7665), who is the late Ken Saro-Wiwas brother; Nwokoro Ijeoma (N/8304) whose reinstatement was ordered by the industrial court last year; T.C Ude (N/7866); L.C. Ilo (N/8320); O. Ejemau (N/8340) were neither queried nor indicted by any panel. Brigadier Generals sacked because of suspected loyalties The cases of the affected brigadier generals were not different. The 11 of them were simply retired because they were suspected to be have failed to help the Buhari regime to power in 2015. For instance, two officers were laid off because of their ties to the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, our sources said. Advertisements The two officers A.S.H. Saad (N/8392), who was at the Directorate of Military Intelligence; and Mormoni Bashir (N/8396), former principal staff officer to Mr Dasuki were retired without indictment. Although, Mr. Saad faced a panel, he was not found to have engaged in any wrongdoing. For his alleged close ties to a former Army Chief, Kenneth Minimah, D. Abdulsalam (N/9169) was sent away. Anthony Onibasa was pursuing a doctorate at the University of Calabar when he was notified of his sudden retirement. He was neither queried nor indicted. Koko Essien (N/8794), a former Brigade Commander, 2 Brigade, Port Harcourt, faced the election panel but was cleared. Mr Essien was laid off nonetheless. Just like Bright Fibioinumana (N/8399); L.N. Bello (N/8799), former Brigade Commander, 34 Brigade Owerri; and M.G. Alli Moundhey, former Director, Campaign Planning in the North East Operations, who were even not queried not to talk of being indicted. Although the Nigerian Army said the affected officers were retired for either involvement in the 2015 general elections or arms procurement fraud, our investigations showed that officers who were not in Nigeria at the time of the elections were also sacked. That was the case of I.B. Lawson (N/8812) and G.O. Agachi (N/9363) who were defence attaches at Nigerias missions in China and Benin Republic respectively. They aided PDP to get votes Many Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels who were laid off on this day four years ago were merely suspected of failing to cooperate with the All Progressives Congress to garner votes for candidate Buhari in the 2015 elections, sources told PREMIUM TIMES. In one instance, T.A Williams (N/11469) a Major; and Abdulfatai Mohammed (N/10659), a Lieutenant Colonel, both attached to the 195 Battalion, Agenebode, Edo State, with the latter as Commanding Officer, were said to have been flushed out because of complaint of not cooperating with Mr Buharis APC, brought against them. But according to documents seen by this newspaper, Mr Mohammed was away in the North East at the time fighting Boko Haram, not at Agenebode. But somehow his name was among those listed for alleged partisanship. Similarly, in Rivers State, army insiders said, APC officials accused four officers attached to the 332 Air Defence Regiment (Ojebo Ochanpa N/10417 who died while awaiting justice in 2017) and; 5 Battalion, Elele (A.S. Mohammed -N10662); 2 Brigade Garrison, Port Harcourt (A.Adimoha N/10421); 29 Battalion Port Harcourt (T.O. Oladuntoye (N/10338) of aiding the PDP in the state. Our findings revealed that these officers, accused of partisanship, were not queried or investigated before they were forced out of the army. The former Commanding Officer, 93 Battalion, Takum, O.C. Egemole (N/10423), who was also compulsorily retired, was also accused of not doing enough to avert APC loss in Taraba State. He was also neither queried nor investigated. Seven colonels, including Mr Suleiman (who had helped foiled Boko Haram attack on President Buharis Aso Rock home) who were compulsorily retired, had no query issued to them nor were they made to face any panel before they were fired. For instance O.U. Nwankwo (N/9678) was studying at the University of Ibadan at the time of his ouster. Also, without probe or indictment for any offence, T. Minimah (N/10185), brother to former Army Chief, Kenneth Minimah, was also removed from his post in Benin and retired. Lawless army PREMIUM TIMES checks indicate the army violated its own rules in the ways the officers were disengaged. The Harmonized Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers whose paragraph 09.02c (4) was relied upon to remove the officers, originates from the Armed Forces Act. The section cited by the Army provides that an officer may be compulsorily retired on disciplinary grounds i.e. serious offence(s) without defining what constitutes serious offences. But the principal law the Armed Forces Act establishes all actions that constitute offences in the Military. The Act prescribes steps to be taken in punishing offences, and a review shows no section empowers the Army Council to arbitrarily punish or compulsorily retire officers for any offence. In fact, the Army Council, in Section 11(a-f) of the Act, has no power to retire any officer on disciplinary ground without compliance with the steps prescribed by law. Petitions to President Buhari In line with Paragraph 09.02(e) of the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers, many of the affected officers, including Mr Mohammed and Mr Suleiman, petitioned Mr Buhari within 30 days of their sack for administrative review. I want to respectfully state that I was not in any way involved in any of the two issues stated as reasons for compulsory retirement of 38 officers of which I was among, Mr Mohammed, wrote in his appeal. I was never investigated at any time and have not committed any serious offence.This was the ground of appeal of his colleagues, who also petitioned Mr Buhari. They also subsequently separately wrote the president and once asked him to prove his integrity. None of the letters was acknowledged or replied to by President Buhari or his appointees. But it is alleged that the Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonisakin, who has the lawful responsibility to transmit the officers petitions to the president is blocking the appeals. He has refused to show evidence of transmitting the petitions to the industrial court and he now risks a jail term for that. Military continues to lose in court; Buhari wont act Apart from petitioning Mr Buhari as required by law, many of the officers also approached the industrial court for justice. Six of them have now gotten favourable judgements with judges faulting the military. The compulsory retirement of the claimant is wrongful, unconstitutional, null and void, Justice Rakiya Haastrup of the industrial court said in her January 14 judgement in the case initiated by Mr Mohammed at the headquarters of the industrial court in Abuja, adding: the defendants failed to act with respect to the law. Apart from Mr Mohammed and Mr Suleiman, four others, namely Mr Ijeoma, a Maj. General; Danladi Hassan, a colonel; Thomas Arigbe, a Colonel; and DB Danzang have also got judgements ordering the army to reinstate them. There has not been compliance, nor have the authorities appealed yet. Both the defence spokesperson, John Enenche, a Maj. General, and army spokesperson, Sagir Musa, Colonel, did not reply messages seeking comments for this report. They also did not answer calls to their telephones. But in the wake of the defeat the army suffered in the case of Mr Mohammed in January, Mr Musa had said, It is a legal matter, and declined further comment when contacted by PREMIUM TIMES. EDITORS NOTE: An earlier version of this report suggested that Brigadier General Anthony Onibasa was indicted for an offence before he was retired. That was incorrect. It was an editing error that has since been corrected. 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 Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) has sought an investigation of all the boarding schools in Dehradun after an incident of sexual assault and harassment of a nine-year old boy by the hostel warden of a city-based boarding school came to light on Saturday last. The hostel warden was arrested for allegedly assaulting and sexually harassing a 9-year-old class 3 student inside the hostel, where the boy was stuck alone due to the lockdown. He narrated his ordeal to his parents who had come to take him home on Saturday after the lockdown was relaxed. Also Read: Unlock 1: HRD ministry begins consultations on reopening schools, safety of student The incident is one among several reported from Dehraduns boarding schools in the last few years, including gang-rape of a class-10 girl by fellow students and the murder of a 7-year-old class-3 student by his seniors. Usha Negi, chairperson of SCPCR said the incident warrants a probe to establish if the boarding schools in the city are following the safety norms. It is a very serious incident. In the backdrop of this and previous incidents in boarding schools, we have asked the district education department to probe all the boarding schools to check whether they are following the norms and regulations regarding childrens safety or not, Negi said. Negi added that she was concerned about such incidents coming up at regular intervals despite the tightening of the rules for the boarding schools. The school managements should understand that they are not just responsible for giving education but have to ensure the safety of the children studying in the schools. They are the future of our country and we wont let these incidents happen again and again, she said. For Coronavirus Live Updates Asha Painuli, chief education officer, Dehradun said the department hadnt received any communication from the child rights body so far. We are yet to receive any kind of communication from SCPCR on the same. But we have already issued notice to the school management in the recent case, said Painuli. Painuli added that the department will take proper action in this case once the police probe is over. Whenever such an incident is reported from any school, the district education department takes proper action the police investigation confirms the incident. In this incident too, we will take proper action after the police probe concludes. We are keeping an eye on the boarding schools to ensure that children are safe, Painuli said. A 20-year-old woman found dead in a Sydney home may have been there for six days. The womans body was found about 9pm Monday at a home in Cambridge Park, in Sydneys west, after police responded to concerns over her welfare. Detective Inspector Jason Pietruszka told reporters on Tuesday it is believed foul play was involved as they work to determine her cause of death. He said she had not been seen since June 3. Police investigate after a 20-year-old woman was found dead. source: 7 News The young lady had not been seen for six days, police who entered described the scene as very confronting, he said. Detective Inspector Pietruszka said she lived at the residence with a relative, who was arrested over her death on Tuesday in Westmead. Nine News has reported the relative is her brother, but police would only confirm the man arrested was a relative. Detective Inspector Jason Pietruszka said the incident was tragic. Source: 7 News The womans family live interstate in Western Australia and police said they were obviously traumatised by the incident. Detective Inspector Pietruszka said the family were not known to police. Domestic violence is a horrendous crime that is a scourge on our community, he said. Police are investigating the 20-year-olds personal circumstances. Police remove a lounge chair from the home where the woman was found dead. Source: Nine News Were looking into her education, what she was doing in Sydney, etc, Detective Inspector Pietruszka said. Something like this is just tragic, a 20-year-old girl whose life was before her just cut short. A real stain on the community when something like this happens. Police are working to track the movements of the man arrested between June 3 and June 9. It is believed he presented himself to hospital in that timeframe. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or submit a report online. 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. By Akbar Mammadov Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry has officially appealed to the State Security Service (SSS) to investigate a smear campaign against the ministry, the Spokeswoman of the MFA Leyla Abdullayeva told local media on June 8. She was commenting on recent media reports about alleged properties belonging to Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. As an official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I do not comment on personal issues, and I have said this before. However, in recent days we have witnessed a deliberate campaign of lies and slander against the ministry. We have officially appealed to the State Security Service of Azerbaijan to investigate this smear campaign and take appropriate measures, she said. The spokeswoman also stressed that the tasks carried out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are of strategic importance, and deliberately circulating false and biased information about this important state body not only seriously threatens the national interests of the state, but also damages the international reputation of independent Azerbaijan. The honour and dignity of a citizen are protected in our country by the Constitution and other legislative acts. In no case does freedom of expression give the right to tarnish a citizens honour and dignity. Those who interfere with private life and disseminate insulting and defamatory information must be held accountable, Abdullayeva added. She also noted that because of these reasons, the ministry considers it necessary to investigate the smear campaign and take appropriate measures in accordance with Azerbaijani law. --- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz A complete lockdown is the best antidote to stem the spread of coronavirus, said Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga, with his government enforcing a total shutdown for two weeks from today. The move follows rise in Covid-19 cases in the state and other parts of northeast following return of migrants. In an exclusive interview with Utpal Parashar, Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga informs what necessitated the move. Here are the edited excerpts from the interview: Q: While the entire country is unlocking, Mizoram has imposed total lockdown. What prompted the government to take that decision? A: Its a government decision to impose total lockdown. Previously, we had become Covid-19 free with the states lone patient recovering. But when returnees started coming from all over, the positive cases started going up daily. In order to contain it, we decided to apply the best medicine, which is total lockdown. The people also want it. For now total lockdown will be for two weeks till June 22. Q: Whats the total number of Covid-19 positive cases in Mizoram and how many people have returned to the state since the ban on inter-state movement was lifted on May 4? A: We have a little over 40 Covid-19 positive cases at present. But we think the figure will go further up when more tests are done. Around 10,000 persons have returned to the state till now and we expect few more thousand. Q: What are the guidelines of the new shutdown? Will the states only airport be shut and international and inter-state borders sealed? A: Mizorams international borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh as well as borders with other states have been shut for the past two months and will continue to remain so. The shutdown will be more stringent in towns but a bit relaxed in villages, allowing people to work in their fields. Attendance in offices will be less than 50%. The economy will be taken care of. Curfew will be in place from 7:30 pm to 4:30 am. The airport will remain open and all stranded people will have to return by air. We have decided to extend the limit of quarantine from 14 days to 21 days. Q: Once two weeks gets over on June 22, will the total shutdown be relaxed in a staggered manner or will the guidelines of Unlock 1 come into effect? A: It will depend upon the circumstances after completion of the two week period. We will make a decision depending on what the Covid-19 situation is at that time. Q: What about the testing facilities in Mizoram? Has the state government been able to get additional testing facilities? A: We got a new RT-PCR machine and consumables last week and very soon we will be able to test more than 1,000 samples daily. Right now we are testing just 200-300 samples every day. North Korean students stage a rally to denounce South Korea following after activists in South Korea flew anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border, at the Pyongyang Youth Park Open-air Theatre in Pyongyang, Saturday, June 6, 2020. Citizens of Pyongyang were mobilized to denounce North Korean defectors and refugees in South Korea in a rally following rare public acknowledgment by the sister of Kim Jong Un of anti-regime leaflets floated over the border by exile groups, sources in the country said Monday. Launching leaflets and small gifts by helium balloon across the Demilitarized Zone from South Korea is a common tactic of Kim regime opponents and human rights groups in the South. They contain information that the Pyongyang government withholds from its citizens, as well as items such as U.S. dollars or USB flash drives containing videos that are banned in North Korea. Kim Jong Uns sister Kim Yo Jong, a close confidant of her brother who some observers believe is next in line in the ruling family, made a statement about the propaganda leaflets to the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper last week a rare case in which state media acknowledged the leaflet campaigns. She referred to those former North Koreans sending the leaflets from the rival South as human scum little short of wild animals who betrayed their own homeland, and mongrel dogs who bark where they should not. She also called on the government of South Korea to prevent further releases of propaganda leaflets into North Korea. After her public statement, the authorities in the capital Pyongyang organized the anti-escapee rally and ordered everyone to participate on Saturday, according to local sources. After the rally, a resident of Pyongyang who asked not to be named for security reasons told RFAs Korean Service that the event backfired in the view of many people in Pyongyang calling attention to freedoms absent in the North. The fact that the North Korean defectors groups in South Korea frequently send propaganda leaflets criticizing the North Korean regime shows how South Korean society guarantees freedom in their activities, the source said. Its totally obvious. The authorities organized the rally so [the protestors] are just shouting. They may outwardly say Death to defectors! but inside everyone is probably saying, If only I could go to South Korea, said the source. The source said that the North Korean government is approaching this problem in ways that worked only in earlier eras when the country was more isolated from outside influences. The people of North Korea are awake. They know what the rest of the world is doing, but the Central Committee [of the Korean Workers Party] doesnt know that, the source said. They are under the illusion that people are [still] extremely loyal to the Kim family, just like in past eras, said the source. The source said the Central Committee was now out of touch with how people think and is relying too much on their assumed loyalty. A North Korean escapee who arrived in South Korea last year, Han Sun-hee, told RFA that the Pyongyang demonstration on Saturday is a typical forced mobilization event. If Pyongyang citizens do not attend such [forced events], they will be immediately subject to self-criticism, so they must participate in the event no matter what, she said. Self-criticism, or saenghwal chonghwa, is a regular act by which the citizens report to the authorities on any shortcoming they personally have regarding loyalty to the state. We always have to participate in these events. [Pyongyang] and all areas under the city are subject to a quota system, so each neighborhood is bound to contribute a certain number of people, said Han. Forced mobilization typically involves impressing the citizenry into providing free labor on farm or construction projects. But this type of forced event is paid and transportation is provided, according to Han. They dont have to participate in construction, but instead they have to attend all these events. [Authorities] pay them 100,000 North Korean won [U.S. $12.50]. People take buses to come. They have no choice but to be dragged around because its not something they can complain about, Han said. Its not that they are at the rally because its good. If they dont participate, there will be self-criticism, she added. Kim Yo Jong condemns leaflets The protest rally against escapees followed Kim Yo Jongs statement two days earlier condemning South Korean leaflets a public acknowledgement of the leaflet campaigns that puzzled many North Koreans, an official in Pyongyang who asked not to be named told RFA. Todays Rodong Sinmun had a report [which included Kim Yo Jongs statement] about North Korean defectors in South Korea sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea, and the residents are surprised to hear the news, the official said. Whether the party intended it or not, the Rodong Sinmun has explained the North Korean defectors activities in detail, he said. The strong statement against South Korea was issued because the anti-Pyongyang leaflets directly criticize Kim Jong Un. However, I dont understand at first glance what it was that they intended by publishing it in the Rodong Sinmun, said the official. According to the official, residents were unsure why the countrys leadership was so concerned about the leaflets this time around. Disillusioned with the hereditary rule of the Kim family, young people are eager to find out how the South Koreans criticize Kim Jong Uns maladministration in the leaflets, he said. Another source, an official from North Hamgyong province who requested anonymity for legal reasons, confirmed to RFA that the citizens there were also scratching their heads over the report on escapees activities in South Korea. The Rodong Sinmun suddenly published a statement by Kim Yo Jong, the First Deputy Director of the Workers Party of Korea, said the second official. Although [she] is criticizing the defectors activities and the South Korean authorities [for allowing such activities], this is the first time that news of defectors [in South Korea] has been reported in Rodong Sinmun, said the second official. The North Hamgyong official said that news of the leaflets came at a time when many citizens are already griping about their government. These days, the coronavirus crisis has caused residents to complain about the authorities, the second source said. In the midst of this, Kim Yo Jongs statement was posted in the Rodong Sinmun, which revealed to the world the contents of the anti-North Korean leaflets, and the efforts of North Korean defectors to bring information into the North, the second source said. Following Kim Yo Jongs statement, South Korean President Moon Jae-ins administration quickly told the North that those who released the leaflets would be restrained and Seoul would try to reduce future leaflet drops. The Blue House in a statement said that releasing leaflets into North Korea is an activity that is truly good for nothing. The Souths Unification ministry also appealed to civic groups to stop releasing leaflets, but in the past, these groups have ignored similar appeals, citing their right to free speech. Reported by Jieun Kim for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Members of the District of Columbia National Guard that responded to protests over the death of George Floyd have tested positive for the coronavirus, a National Guard spokesperson confirmed to McClatchy DC on Tuesday. The big picture: 1,300 D.C. National Guard members were ordered to the district as the nation's capital was rocked by violent protests on May 31 that have since turned largely peaceful. A Guard spokesperson did not disclose how many positive tests the unit has recorded. What they're saying: We can confirm that we have had COVID-19 positive tests with the DCNG, said D.C. National Guard spokesperson Air Force Lt. Col. Brooke Davis, according to McClatchy. "The safety and security of our personnel is always a concern, especially in light of the COVID-19 era." By the numbers: The D.C. National Guard was supported by approximately 3,900 additional National Guardsmen from Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. What to watch: Almost all National Guard units are expected to leave the city by Wednesday, but members who have tested positive for the coronavirus will be held back until they are no longer sick or contagious. Many health officials, including Anthony Fauci, fear that the Floyd protests could result in new coronavirus outbreaks due to the close proximity of demonstrators and law enforcement officials. Go deeper: Protesters fear the spread of coronavirus Top Army sources on Tuesday said, based on a decision taken at the meeting between Indian and Chinese generals in Ladakh on Saturday, lower-ranked officers from both sides will meet over the coming 10 days to discuss conflicts in their respective areas of responsibility. The sources said that in this series of higher military commander level (HMCL) meetings, the first will be held on Wednesday at Patrolling Point 14 (PP14), near the Pangong Tso. 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 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 02:37:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Monday expressed concern about rapidly rising food prices in Syria, where more than 11 million people urgently need humanitarian assistance. Food prices have continued to soar. In May 2020, the cost of a standard food basket increased by 11 percent on average over the previous month, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Prices have more than doubled in the last year, rising by 133 percent across the country, he told a virtual press briefing. Idlib in the northwest was the worst impacted governorate, with the highest food prices recorded across Syria. The food basket in Idlib registered a 30 percent increase in prices in just one month. And at the same time, COVID-19 preventive measures are affecting families' access to incomes, he said. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, agriculture and livestock production has been impacted, threatening food security across Syria, said Dujarric. Humanitarian operations are addressing needs on a massive scale. Each month, life-saving food is distributed to 4.5 million people across Syria's 14 governorates, he said. Enditem By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad Citizens are asked to stock up necessary medication to avoid overloading ambulance services in case of possible weekend lockdown, chairman of the Association for Management of Medical Territorial Subdivisions (TABIB) Ramin Bayramli told local media on June 8. He noted that during strict quarantine regime introduced during the weekend on June 6-7, ambulance services received enormous amount of calls, which caused slight delays in arrival to the addresses. "This weekend, some citizens to the ambulance even on the slightest occasion appealed, and in this regard, the number of calls per day increased to 800. Due to the sharp increase in the number of calls to the "103" service, there were slight delays in the arrival of ambulances to the addresses. Ambulance doctors are sent to different addresses every day, conduct examinations and take samples in connection with COV?D-19," Bayramli said. Additionally, Bayramli emphasized that in general, this weekend, when strict quarantine requirements were introduced, the vast majority of citizens strictly observed the established rules of quarantine, showing exceptional solidarity. Furthermore, regarding weekend lockdown, he stressed that it was introduced in order to minimize activities and most importantly human contact and that this goal was achieved. He noted that as the incubation period of virus is 7-14 days, it is too early and impossible to speak about results of the weekend lockdown at the start of the new week. Azerbaijan first introduced special quarantine regime on March 24 and the fourth stage of quarantine regime easing came into force on May 31. On June 4, a decision was taken to impose a two-day nationwide quarantine regime in Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, Lankaran and Absheron region during the weekend. Under the lockdown, that was effective from 00:00 on June 6 to 06:00 on June 8, leaving place of residence will also be prohibited (except when there is immediate danger of life and health). As of June 9, Azerbaijan has registered 7.876 COVID-19 cases and 93 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of recovered patients is 4.377. Officials said they expect to adhere to the states recommended guidance, including the recommendation that masks be worn when social distancing is not feasible. Board President Linda Poole said some decisions are made at the state level and the district has no control. If they say kids have to come to school with masks on, yeah, they do ... , she said. So some of it we dont have control of, but were trying to do whats best for kids and our community. Its not clear if other districts will take the same approach as Millard. When asked about requiring masks when school starts, most Omaha metro area public school officials told The World-Herald that its too early to say for sure. Officials in the Papillion-La Vista Community Schools have ordered masks for their staff. We have put in an order for masks not the disposable the cloth double-sided, Papillion-La Vista Superintendent Andy Rikli said. Our hope on the student side is that were going to order some masks for students, he said. I dont know if we will get to a point where we will order one mask for every student. 510 Shares Share It was the morning after Thanksgiving, 2012. My parents and I were sharing a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, where we were camped out after the holiday dinner. We were not here because it was a family tradition or even because we wanted to notch it up this year. My family loved our paper plate style event, the air thick with the scent of turkey baking in a paper bag and hot spiced cider simmering with cinnamon sticks all day long. We eagerly consumed my moms yearly piece de resistance: Yams topped with bronzed marshmallows and Maraschino cherries baked into orange peels halved and hollowed out with jagged carvings along the edges, as you would do with a pumpkin on Halloween. The endless brunch that we had the day before at the hotel, opulent and excessive as it was, was no match for the Makoff meal. We were here because we had to be near the hospital and because no one had planned Thanksgiving this year. Just weeks earlier, at 8 a.m. on Saturday, November 10, I had gotten on the treadmill to start the day with an endorphin rush sufficient to handle my three young children and their guests upstairs in the house. At exactly mile two, I had the onset of the most excruciating and bizarre sensation that a hole had been blown into the middle of my forehead. I could no longer stand- let alone run. I had the wherewithal to stop the machine and crawled my way to the bathroom to grasp a small black pail in the event that I would vomit. Sweating and shaking on the cold tiled floor of my garage turned gym, I made three phone calls: To my ex-husband, to my babysitter, and to 911: Please come quickly. My brain is bleeding. I had been released from the intensive care unit only two days before Thanksgiving. Being a patient at a hospital where you work means begging your colleagues to release you when you feel safe despite their desire to keep you as long as they have any lingering doubt that you will be okay without them. After nine days, I had had enough and begged them to let me go home under the watchful eye of my family. Released but on stroke watch, my seventy-five-year-old mother glued herself to my side. If I rose slowly my hips aching after days of immobility she would pop up beside me, arms braced, to ensure that I would not fall. My mother made the decision to book Thanksgiving at the hotel most near the hospital with a room to relax into after the event, and just in case things went south. She and my father would share a suite with me with the door connecting our spaces perpetually open so that they could watch me without boundaries. As a runner, my pulse rests around fifty, but the ICU team had worried when it dipped to thirty-five, and my blood pressure hovered around ninety over fifty. Understandably, bags of saline were hung, and steroids were added. My headache improved, but my ankles disappeared, and I was often short of breath. Upon discharge, I went into full diuresis mode and spent the whole night after Thanksgiving toddling to and from the bathroom. As I passed through my parents room, my mom, brows furrowed, muttered: You are going to pass out if you keep going like this. Early in the morning, I was shaky and frail but wanted to take full advantage of the large oval bathtub with the delicious array of bath oils and loofas. I crept to my mothers side and informed her that I was going to take a bath, ignoring the nausea that was just starting to burn deep in my throat. I sat astride the tub and felt the warm stream of water flowing into the lattice of bubbles. Sometime later, I found myself bathed in a pool of luminescent yellow light. I was Christina from the Andrew Wyeth print that had followed me from college in New York to medical school in Rhode Island and back home to Los Angeles where it hangs now. I was her at that moment arms outstretched and longing but in need of nothing my whole body enchanted and embraced by a warmth that outdid the brightest sun. I remember no fear or pain but total acceptance of whatever was happening. My eyes fluttered open, and I was splayed on the chilly dark tiles of the bathroom floor in my mothers arms. She finally exhaled when two large paramedics arrived and took me back to the hospital. Eve Makoff is an internal medicine physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Steadily, we are becoming the hub for a network of great universities to collaborate at scale and improve their outcomes," said John Katzman, CEO and Founder of Noodle Partners. Noodle Partners works with two dozen leading public (such as University of Tennessee, University of Virginia, and University of Michigan) and private universities (such as Howard University, Tufts University, and Tulane University), to help build excellent online programs and make their on-campus programs more flexible, efficient, and resilient. The company today announced its Series B funding, which will help accelerate its growth and wind its partner schools into an increasingly powerful network. The $16M round was led by San Francisco-based ValueAct Spring Fund, followed by the Lumina Foundation and existing investors. With prior rounds, the company has now raised more than $60 million. Noodle Partners uses technology to raise student:faculty engagement, lower costs and ultimately boost resilience. In just a few years, it has become widely known as a transparent and cost-conscious industry leader. With this latest round of capital, Noodle Partners will help more universities and colleges transform both their online and classroom programs. The current pandemic makes the need for its services that much more urgent. Noodle Partners has brought flexibility, transparency, and lower costs to online program management, ValueAct Spring Fund Associate Patrick Halfmann said. Were excited to support the companys rapidly growing roster of new programs and university relationships. Noodle Partners offers an efficient, high-quality approach to agile programs that focus on todays students, The Lumina Foundations Chief Financial Officer and Vice President for Finance and Investments at Brad Kelsheimer said. Our investment in the company is aimed at producing financial returns, social benefits, and lessons that will inform the field of higher learning. Noodle Partners has pioneered alternatives to long-term revenue sharing arrangements, and saves schools between $15,000 and $25,000 per student compared to traditional OPM models. Further, its technology and services are useful even for colleges and universities that merely wish to streamline and improve their campus-based operations. Noodle has doubled or tripled in size every year since we founded it, John Katzman, Noodles Founder and CEO said. Steadily, we are becoming the hub for a network of great universities to collaborate at scale and improve their outcomes. Our network includes the half a million students each month who visit our website, Noodle.com, to find a school, and dozens of software and service providers. Were excited at the vote of confidence by ValueAct and Lumina, who see us as a force for social good." Noodle Partners was founded by John Katzman, who also founded 2U and The Princeton Review. About Noodle Partners Founded by a team of education and technology veterans, Noodle Partners creates innovative online and hybrid programs while improving traditional classroom models. Noodle Partners has the capability to work with universities on every aspect of building a certificate or degree program that they choosemarketing, student recruitment, enrollment, curriculum design, student engagement, support services, graduate placement, and alumni engagementand provides a high level of fit and finish. For more information, visit noodle-partners.com or follow us on Twitter @Noodle_Partners or LinkedIn. Media Contact: Alyssa Miller alyssa@ammediaworks.com 973-615-1292 Mobile police are investigating a shooting that led to one person being killed and another injured in a Navco neighborhood east of Mobile. Police responded to a report of two victims shot at approximately 1:55 p.m. on Saturday, May 30, 2020, according to a release from Mobile police Sgt. LaDerrick DuBose. Officers were called to the Home2 Suites at 1485 Satchel Paige Drive but later found out that the victims attempted to drive themselves to the hospital but stopped. Both victims, a female and male, were actually shot in the 2600 Block of Farnell Drive. They were both transported to the hospital where 55-year old Darlene Williams-Thompson died from her injuries. The male victims injuries were not life-threatening, according to police. The investigation is on-going and police are searching for a 19-year-old suspect named Jacorrien Zykil Brown. The pending charges are assault and murder second degree. Police are requesting any information on the whereabouts of the suspect be called into (251)208-7211. FREDERICTON - Health officials in New Brunswick on Monday reported a spike in new cases of COVID-19 in the Campbellton area in the north of the province. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/6/2020 (592 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FREDERICTON - Health officials in New Brunswick on Monday reported a spike in new cases of COVID-19 in the Campbellton area in the north of the province. Chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell said there were nine new cases to report eight of them residents of a long-term care home in Atholville. The other new case is a close contact of a previously identified confirmed case. That brings the number of active cases in a cluster that first emerged in late May to 24. Russell said it was the largest number of single-day new cases in the province in the last two months. She said with the disease's incubation period of 14 days, she was not surprised to see new cases emerging now. Russell said the latest cases range in age from their 60s to their 90s. The outbreak in the Campbellton area is believed to have begun after a doctor travelled to Quebec and did not self-isolate upon return to New Brunswick. Premier Blaine Higgs said there is another report of someone who travelled to Quebec and refused to self-isolate on return. That person is reported to have visited a pool hall in Fredericton this past weekend. "The business voluntarily took steps to close its doors to sanitize and disinfect. This person has been tested and is awaiting results. The Department of Public Safety is currently investigating the incident," Higgs said. "This kind of behaviour is not acceptable and puts us all at risk," he added. 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. Higgs said the situation at the long-term care home in Atholville is an example of how COVID-19 cases can take off. On Friday, the province announced that face masks would become mandatory in public buildings as of Tuesday, that was corrected over the weekend. Instead, the existing regulation which dictates that masks are to be worn when physical distancing can't be maintained will remain in place. Higgs said people should carry a mask with them to use when necessary. The number of confirmed cases in New Brunswick is 146 and 121 have recovered, including one related to the current outbreak in Health Zone 5 in the Campbellton region. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2020. Actor Sonu Sood, who has been arranging transport for migrant workers stranded in Mumbai and has faced criticism from the Shiv Sena for 'enacting a political script written by the Bharatiya Janata Party', was stopped outside the Bandra Terminus in Mumbai by police from meeting labourers. A Mumbai Police official said the actor was stopped by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) when he reached the station on Monday night to meet some labourers, and added that they have not received any complaint so far in this connection. The migrant labourers were supposed to take the Shramik Special train from Bandra Terminus to Uttar Pradesh. Nirmal Nagar police station's senior inspector Shashikant Bhandare said, "The actor were stopped by the RPF, not by us. He wanted to meet labourers who were going to their native place. We have not received any complaint regarding this till now." Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday wondered whether the BJP propped up Sood to 'offer help' to migrant workers from north India stranded in Maharashtra amidst the lockdown, with the political motive to show the Uddhav Thackeray government in poor light. In his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in Sena mouthpiece Saamana, Raut questioned the sudden rise of 'Mahatma' Sood on the social scene of Maharashtra during the lockdown. Raut also referred to a 'sting operation' against Sood ahead of the 2019 general elections, saying he had agreed to promote the BJP-led government at various platforms through his official social media accounts. However, later that day Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray lauded Sood's initiative to arrange buses for stranded migrant workers. The actor met Thackeray at the latter's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra on Sunday night. On Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh backed Sood for his work for stranded migrant workers, and questioned the Maharashtra government's criticism of the actor. Former Princess Tessy of Luxembourg has addressed her 'privilege as a white person' in a moving post in which she pays tribute to those who have lost their lives due to their race. Tessy, 34, shared a list sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement, and asked why tear gas was still being used on protesters, despite its use in warfare - as with all other chemical weapons - having been prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. The former princess wed Louis of Luxembourg in 2006, and has two children Prince Gabriel of Nassau, 13, and Prince Noah of Nassau, 11, with the Prince, who is the third son of the country's reigning monarch Grand Duke Henri, and the family are based in London. Tessy, who lost her title after divorcing Louis last April, is said to have maintained a close relationship with ex husband Louis, 33. Former Princess Tessy of Luxembourg (seen with son Noah) has addressed her 'privilege as a white person' in a moving post in which she pays tribute to those who have lost their lives due to their race Tessy shared a list sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement, and asked why tear gas was still being used on protesters - despite its use in warfare, as with all other chemical weapons, having been prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925 Sharing a list of black men and women who lost their lives to racism, including Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland, she wrote: 'I have a privilege as a white person to do all these things without needing to think twice about my health and security. 'Each and every persons name behind an activity listed in my post has died innocently while doing a normal everyday routine and why? Because they are black people.' She implored: 'Google these names, familiarise yourself with their stories, start to understand what the problem really is. Black lives matter - It does not what colour, religion, sexual orientation, or gender you represent, you as everyone else should be respected'. The former princess, 34, wed Louis in 2006, and has two children Prince Gabriel of Nassau, 13, and Prince Noah of Nassau, 11, with the Prince, who is the third son of the country's reigning monarch Grand Duke Henri, and the family are based in London She continued: 'Also, now that protests are happening all over the world, did you know that tear gas has been banned as chemical weapon in war? So, why are we still using it against civilians'. Tessy and Prince Louis's fairytale marriage broke down in 2016, and they were granted a decree nisi in February last year, after a 12 years together. They were only 20 when they wed in 2006, getting married six months after the birth of their eldest son Prince Gabriel of Nassau, now 13. Tessy, who in 2017 was named Woman of the Decade by the Women Economic Forum for her work in women's empowerment, now lives in London with her children. Sharing a list of black men and women who lost their lives to racism, including Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland, she wrote: 'I have a privilege as a white person to do all these things without needing to think twice about my health and security' Prince Louis, who will now pay 8,000 a year child support, renounced his succession rights to the throne in 2006, a month after marrying Tessy - who was not born of royal blood - but to a modest family in the small town of Niederkorn. At a hearing in December, Louis was ordered to pay just 75-a-week to each of his two sons after a judge found his family's vast wealth could not be factored into a divorce battle with his ex-wife. Louis now lives in Paris, while Tessy juggles a busy work life with raising the couple's two children across the Channel. The philanthropist is the co-founder of social enterprise Professors Without Borders which aims to improve access to higher education across the globe. She also works as a consultant, public speaker and is a UN Association patron. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 19:31:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LAGOS, June 9 (Xinhua) -- No date has been fixed for the reopening of schools across Nigeria, said Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba on Monday. The rumors that schools would reopen on June 21 are fake and did not emanate from the ministry, the minister told a regular COVID-19 daily news conference. Any news about the reopening of schools would be communicated through the Presidential Task Force Committee on COVID-19, the minister added. He said the reopening of schools would involve the advice of experts on when it would be safer to reopen schools, stressing that the government would avoid the mistake of shipping the students in and out of school. The ministry, according to the minister, would not lead Nigerians into danger because it was in a hurry to reopen schools, adding that it would only reopen them when it was convinced that it was safe to reopen schools across the country. He said the ministry was studying the time-table to know when it would be convenient as soon as there was ease on inter-state lockdown. The minister also urged students and parents to be wary of fake news peddlers. Enditem The World Health Organisation has warned against drinking booze during the coronavirus pandemic, saying alcohol consumption increases the risk of COVID-19 infection - but industry data suggests Australians are drinking as much at home as they would at the pub. "Alcohol consumption is associated with a range of communicable and noncommunicable diseases and mental health disorders, which can make a person more vulnerable to COVID-19," WHO's regional office for Europe wrote. "In particular, alcohol compromises the body's immune system and increases the risk of adverse health outcomes." The World Health Organisation has urged people not to drink alcohol during the pandemic. The NSW government is considering new regulations to ensure minors and intoxicated people are not able to order alcohol online, after public health advocates raised concerns about an increase in online deliveries sparked by the closure of pubs and restaurants in March. Over 50 Egyptian physicians have passed away as a result of contracting COVID-19, the countrys Doctors Syndicate said on Tuesday, calling on authorities to increase provision of protective gear and to implement other precautions inside hospitals. In a letter to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Health Minister Hala Zayed the syndicate called for the highest protection measures and infection control standards to be implemented at all triage and isolation hospitals. It demanded suspected coronavirus cases be separated from other patients by creating different routes for them around the hospital's floors, in a bid to reduce infection transmission between patients and medical teams. The syndicate also highlighted the importance of doubling patient reception rooms and allowing only one escort to accompany each patient in hospital in order to reduce crowding at reception departments. The syndicate reiterated a previous request that the highest quality of protection gear be provided to medical staff. Madbouly tasked the Egyptian Authority for Unified Procurement in May with providing hospitals with all necessary medical supplies and with providing medical staff with protective gear, in coordination with the health ministry. The syndicate also asked that older doctors, those with chronic diseases, and those who are pregnant, be kept away from coronavirus patients, as those physicians are more vulnerable to infection. Last month, Zayed said during a meeting with syndicate chairman Hussein Khairy that an increase in the pension age for physicians to 62 was being considered. The Tuesday letter also stated a request that hospitals should get police security to help coronavirus patients enter the hospital without overcrowding. The capacities of the laboratories that are conducting COVID-19 tests must be increased, the syndicate also urged, as there has been a significant delay in obtaining results in recent days. A set of financial incentives has been implemented for medical staff as part of the government's efforts to support health care workers amid the pandemic. The country has had a total of 35,444 coronavirus cases so far, including 1,271 fatalities. Search Keywords: Short link: Seoul, June 9 : A South Korean court on Tuesday rejected the approval of an arrest warrant against the de-facto head of Samsung Group in connection with the controversial merger of two affiliates in 2015 with the alleged goal of cementing his leadership. The decision was made by Seoul Central District Court, where Lee Jae-yong had appeared Monday to complete proceedings that lasted for nine hours, reports Efe news. In the early hours of Tuesday the court decided that there was not sufficient probable cause to order the arrest of the Samsung heir. "There was insufficient explanation on the need to arrest the defendants against the principle of trial without detention," Judge Won Jung-sook said in statements. "In light of the importance of the case, whether the defendants are responsible, and if so, how much they are, should be determined through sufficient legal battles and court hearings," the Judge added. Two other group executives, Choi Gee-sung and Kim Jong-joong, who together with Lee are alleged by the prosecution to be the masterminds of the aforementioned merger, also avoided arrest. Several irregularities have been attributed to this operation, including alleged accounting fraud aimed at consolidating Lee's leadership shortly after his father, the group's chairman Lee Kun-hee, had a heart attack from which he has not yet recovered. All three executives are accused of stock price manipulation, violating external audit laws and unfair trading. Investigators believe that the value of Cheil Industries, one of the two companies of the group that was merged and of which Lee was the majority shareholder, was artificially inflated, and the opposite was done with the other company involved, Samsung C&T. The three are also believed to have inflated the value of Samsung Bioepis, a joint venture between US-based Biogen and Samsung Biologics, which is also a subsidiary of Cheil, by some 4.5 billion won ($3 billion). Lee, who has denied the accusations, is also awaiting retrial for his alleged role in the so-called "Korean Rasputin" corruption scandal that rocked the country in 2016 and led to the impeachment of then-president Park Geun-hye. Lee was arrested in 2017 in connection with the case and went on to spend a year in jail. He was released after an appeals court suspended his sentence, but the Supreme Court ordered a retrial last year revising the size of the bribes. Last month the magnate apologized for the scandals involving the Samsung Group and said he would not be continuing with the system of heredity transfers of control in South Korea's largest company. Washington A veterans group plans to give a big boost today to Francis Conoles bid to win a Democratic primary election against Dana Balter in Central New Yorks 24th Congressional District. Vote Vets Action Fund said it will spend $100,000 on an initial one-week TV ad campaign supporting Conole. The ads will air on broadcast and cable television in the Syracuse market today through Sunday. Neither candidate has been able to purchase such a large amount of TV advertising for such a short period. Balter and Conole each had about $200,000 available to spend on their primary campaigns at the beginning of April. Vote Vets, which bills itself as the largest progressive group of veterans in America, said Conole is one of 14 House challengers that its backing across the nation this year. Jon Soltz, chairman of Vote Vets, said the group decided to become involved in the Democratic primary because it views Conole as having a better chance than Balter of unseating Rep. John Katko in November. We believe that Francis Conole, if nominated, will put this district in play for Democrats and were determined to help elect as many progressive veterans to Congress as possible, Soltz said. Its the second time Vote Vets has taken sides in a Democratic congressional primary in the 24th District. In 2018, the group spent more than $249,000 on advertising to support Syracuse lawyer Juanita Perez Williams during the final two weeks of her unsuccessful campaign against Balter. Balter won the election by about 24 percentage points over Perez Williams, a former U.S. Navy officer. Vote Vets says its goal is to elect veterans to public office, especially those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Conole, 42, of Syracuse, is a Navy veteran of the Iraq War. He later served as a senior intelligence officer for the Department of Defense. He spent two years on the staff of former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, serving as a senior policy adviser for the Middle East. Asked if Vote Vets planned to change its strategy to defeat Balter this year, Soltz said its not fair to compare Conole and Perez Williams. Francis and Juanita are very different candidates, so were not trying to compare the two in how we approach this race, Soltz said. We believe the more voters get to know Francis, the more theyll see that hes not only the strongest potential nominee, but the candidate who will make the best representative for the district. The 30-second TV ad that begins airing today emphasizes Conoles military background. A narrator tells viewers: Francis Conole is the Democrat with the courage to stand up to Donald Trump. The ad does not mention Balter or Katko. The New York primary election will be June 23. Early voting begins Saturday, June 13, and will continue daily through June 21. New Yorkers also will have the option of voting by mail this year. The 24th District spans all of Onondaga, Cayuga and Wayne counties, and the western half of Oswego County. MORE POLITICS NY primary election 2020: Where, when to vote early in Central New York The virtual campaign for Congress: Balter, Conole innovate to reach CNY voters Dana Balter, Francis Conole agree to debate in Democratic primary for Congress Dana Balter criticizes Trumps handling of coronavirus pandemic in first TV ad Poll: Dana Balter early favorite over Francis Conole in Democratic primary for Congress Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Mark Weiner anytime by: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 Antsy city dwellers seeking to escape their covid-19 refuges are road-tripping to nearby vacation rentals in surprisingly strong numbers, showing the first signs of life for an industry that essentially ground to a halt in March. "People, after having been stuck in their homes for a few months, do want to get out of their houses; that's really, really clear," Airbnb Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky said in an interview. "But they don't necessarily want to get on an airplane and are not yet comfortable leaving their countries." Airbnb saw more nights booked for U.S. listings between May 17 and June 3 than the same period in 2019, and a similar boost in domestic travel globally. The San Francisco-based home-share company is seeing an increase in demand for domestic bookings in countries from Germany to Portugal, South Korea, New Zealand and more. Other companies, including Expedia Group's Vrbo and Booking Holdings are also seeing a jump in domestic vacation-rental reservations. U.S. searches for Vrbo are now up compared to this time last year, according to a note by Cowen & Co. analyst Kevin Kopelman on Monday, and Airbnb queries are down only around 10%. However, hotels and the wider Expedia brand have yet to get any summer relief with searches still down more than 60%. International sojourns usually planned months in advance are being replaced with impulsive road trips booked a day before and weekend getaways are turning into weeks-long respites, Chesky said. Previously, a New Yorker might have headed to Paris for a week in June. Now they are going to the Catskills for a month. "Work from home is becoming working from any home," he said. Still, any rebound is coming from a very low base. The travel sector was gutted by the covid-19 pandemic. Online travel agencies struggled to withstand unprecedented cancellations and air travel passenger traffic that fell 95%. Airbnb and Tripadvisor cut a quarter of their workforces and Chesky said last month that he expects revenue this year to be half of 2019's level. Booking was forced to apply for government aid. In an annual shareholder report last week, Booking CEO Glenn Fogel said the pandemic would impact global travel more than the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the SARS epidemic and the 2008 financial crisis combined. But months of pent-up demand is leading to a rush of summer reservations. Airbnb has more listings today than it did before the crisis, according to Chesky. The top destinations in the U.S. on Airbnb are almost exclusively traditional vacation rental markets such as Big Bear Lake in southern California, the Smoky Mountains, along the Tennessee-North Carolina border, and Port Aransas in Texas, according to the company. The unexpected speed of the comeback has kept Airbnb's plans for a 2020 public market debut afloat. Chesky had originally planned to file paperwork for an offering March 31, but was waylaid by the pandemic-related market turmoil that led to speculation the listing would be shelved until next year. However, Chesky says it's still an option. "We're not ruling out going public this year and we're not committing to it," he said. Airbnb was valued at $31 billion in its most recent private fund-raising round, though recent debt issuance to shore up its finances have significantly reduced that valuation. Since the pandemic began, the percentage of bookings on Airbnb within 200 miles (322 kilometers) -- a round trip travelers can typically complete on one tank of gas -- has grown from a third in February to more than 50% in May. Travel in a post-covid world is shifting "from airplane to car, big city to small location, hotel to home," Chesky said. Vrbo is seeing similar trends as popular tourist states like Florida and Maine reopen. There's an "immediate pop" as soon as a destination opens, said Jeff Hurst, president of Vrbo, which accounts for about 20% of Expedia's total revenue. "If you draw a 250- mile circle around any major metro -- every place where you see water in there or mountains or national parks, the homes around it are what's starting to get booked up," Hurst said. Hotels aren't as prevalent in more rural locations. And even where they are, travelers are preferring to stay in vacation homes so they can cook in their own kitchens, control who comes and goes and avoid crowded common areas like lobbies, Hurst said. To help salvage the summer season, Airbnb and Vrbo have enforced confidence-boosting policies that include flexible cancellations and new standards for cleaning. "We have seen a faster recovery within alternative accommodations than in hotels," Morgan Stanley analyst Brain Nowak wrote in a note last week. Shares in hotel companies such as Marriott International Inc., Hyatt Hotels Corp. and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. have dropped by more than 20% this year, compared with Expedia and Booking, which have fallen as much as 14%. People are eager for open spaces like beach towns or mountain villages, which is sparking the vacation rental rebound, said Naved Khan, an analyst at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey Inc. "Little by little we are seeing it unfold before us as people are feeling bold enough to venture out and stay at another place for a couple of nights and most of the time these places are homes and villas." Searches for vacation rentals on Google are about at the same level as last year, while hotel searches are down, said Booking Holdings Chief Marketing Officer Arjan Dijk. Consumer appetite has completely changed from a year ago, he said. Significantly more users are signing on to the company's wish list function and indicating interest in domestic homes over international ones. In fact, the company has seen its business shift to more than 70% domestic travel from 45% the same period last year, he said. Demand for air travel is also showing some early signs of life after all but collapsing. Daily passenger numbers in the U.S. climbed to 391,882 on June 4, the highest since March 22, according to the Transportation Security Administration. But the average daily total over the past seven days was still 87% less than during the same period a year ago. American Airlines Group Inc. said it would boost July flights 74% compared with this month, though the number of flights in July will be about 40% of capacity a year earlier, compared with 30% in June, the airline said Thursday. "It's going to be awhile before people start crossing borders, getting into planes or traveling for business," Chesky said. The big question on his mind now, as he weighs taking his startup public, is whether the spike in recent bookings turns into a sustainable trend. "The long-term question is what does it look like in a year or five years and that's really anyone's guess," he said. Chesky won't be celebrating until the market stabilizes. "I had a rule that even in our darkest of hours I wouldn't get too low because that's just a moment in time," he said. "And if I can't get too low, then I can't get too up." A students walks by the statue of Henry Rowan at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J., in September. Read more Following a Change.org petition, a retired New Jersey police officer who killed a black teenager 26 years ago will lose his job at Rowan University. On April 17, 1994, while on duty as a Glassboro officer, Peter Amico fatally shot 14-year-old Eltarmaine L.T. Sanders. Police said Sanders charged at Amico with a knife, but other witnesses including the teens mother and cousin disputed the officers account, sparking nightly vigils and protests. A grand jury declined to indict Amico, who is white, and the U.S. Department of Justice chose not to take action on possible civil rights violations. Amico retired from the Glassboro Police Department in 2009 and joined Rowan as a private contractor before becoming a full-time employee in 2010. He had been director of Rowans emergency management office, an administrative role responsible for preparing and responding to emergencies. On Monday night, Rowan president Ali A. Houshmand said in a statement that amid a national spotlight on social justice and police matters, the school will not reappoint Amico at its Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday. Given the circumstances of Amicos employment prior to serving at the university and the necessarily painstaking evaluation of Rowans institutional commitment to racial justice and equity, Amicos employment will be discontinued, Houshmand said in a statement. As a university, we believe black lives matter. We are looking hard at our own organization, our policies, structure and culture. We found we have work to do, Houshmand added. I am sure some of it will be more difficult and uncomfortable than we can imagine. We will be transparent in our transformation and look for opportunities to engage with the university community to bring about much-needed change." Amico did not respond to a request for comment. PG&E Corp. plans to sell its San Francisco headquarters and move to Oakland in the coming years, a cost-saving effort that will see Californias largest utility leave the city where it has been based for more than a century. The company announced Monday that it will begin relocating from downtown San Francisco to 300 Lakeside Drive by Lake Merritt in 2022. PG&E said it would launch a competitive market process to sell its San Francisco office complex, which includes 77 Beale St. and 245 Market St., after it emerges from bankruptcy protection. PG&E intends to ask state regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission for permission to return its net gain from the San Francisco office sale back to customers, the company said. The move is designed to help the company save money on real estate costs, though PG&E did not immediately provide an estimate on those savings. Still, its a major step for the company and subsidiary Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which has been based in San Francisco since its creation 115 years ago. The companys roots in the city stretch back even further, to the founding of San Francisco Gas Co. in 1852. The transition comes as PG&E seeks to wrap up its costly bankruptcy case this year. The utility and its parent company filed for bankruptcy in January 2019, facing billions of dollars in liabilities from devastating wildfires that the companys power lines caused. Our new Oakland headquarters will be significantly more cost-effective, is better suited to the needs of our business, and is a critical part of fulfilling our commitment to operate in a fiscally responsible way that will enable us to achieve our operational and safety goals, said Bill Smith, the incoming interim CEO of PG&E Corp., in a company statement. BART is currently headquartered at 300 Lakeside, the former Kaiser Center where PG&E plans to move. But the transit agency will depart after its lease expires next year for nearby 2150 Webster St. as it seeks to cut its own real estate costs. The move will free up 14 floors that PG&E could occupy, though the company did not specify whether it was taking over the BART space. Other tenants include engineering giant AECOM and Kaiser Permanente. PG&E will follow numerous other companies that have migrated from San Francisco to Oakland, where office rents are about a third less expensive, at around $55 per square foot a year. The utilitys former neighbor, Blue Shield of California, left 50 Beale St. for a new Oakland tower last year. In 2016, the Sierra Club left San Francisco after 124 years for Oakland. Andy Vesey, the CEO of PG&Es utility subsidiary, said in the statement that the company was proud of its long history in San Francisco but described Oakland as a perfect fit and a thriving hub of industry and innovation in our state. We expect the sale of our San Francisco headquarters will unlock value in a notoriously tight real estate market, no doubt bringing a dynamic new tenant to downtown, Vesey said. Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network consumer group, was pleased to see PG&E say it would pass along the financial benefit of its San Francisco office sale. He hopes that the company does the same for any recurring savings it achieves through lower office costs. We view this as a positive move, but we need to make sure that the operational savings get passed on, year in and year out, Toney said. PG&E will conduct its move in phases and expects to stay in the S.F. offices until 2023. The company also intends to consolidate its current East Bay satellite offices in San Ramon and Concord into the new Oakland headquarters starting in 2025. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes PG&E will lease an unspecified amount of real estate from TMG Partners, which reportedly plans to buy 300 Lakeside from developer Swig Co. and Rockpoint Group. PG&E said that TMG will renovate the 1960 building before PG&E moves, starting in 2022. The building lets PG&E optimize its footprint, phase into the new space in a compact timeline in a location that is easily accessible to a majority of their employees and understanding Oaklands continued regional desirability for its central location, transit access, and great community, said Matt Field, president of TMG Partners, in a statement. PG&E had begun studying the sale of its headquarters in early 2018, but efforts were delayed during the devastating Camp Fire that fall, which led to the utilitys bankruptcy. In the new East Bay headquarters, PG&E said it is envisioning a better and more efficient use of space with more flexibility around layout and density in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also believes the move will allow for better commutes to its employees, many of whom live in the East Bay already. PG&E has been a steadfast partner for decades to the Oakland Chamber as well as many other civic and community organizations. Their commitment to the Town is deep, and we applaud their decision to go all in for Oakland, said Barbara Leslie, CEO of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, in a statement. PG&Es current main office buildings have more than 1 million square feet of office space in the heart of the Financial District. With recent office real estate sales surpassing $1,000 per square foot, the properties could be worth more than $1 billion. However, the coronavirus epidemic has chilled the real estate sales market and made future demand for office space uncertain. J.D. Morris and Roland Li are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris @rolandlisf I cant breathe, gasped George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed African American man, calling for his deceased mother, as he lay handcuffed, face down, with the knee of a white police office on his neck. This gruesome 8-minute public act of murder was caught on video, now seen thousands of times worldwide. Just seven years ago, Eric Garner, a 44-year-old unarmed African American man, uttered the same words before he was murdered in New York City by a white police officer in a deadly chokehold, also caught on bystander video. I cant breathe has become a rallying cry for African Americans, who have been slowly suffocating under the chokehold of Americas systemic racism around their necks. America is one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world. Its cultural contributions many made by African Americans penetrate the lives of people worldwide in the form of Hollywood films, pop music, social media, and sports. For decades, the image of American exceptionalism has led refugees and immigrants to flock in millions to the Shining City on a Hill in hopes of achieving the American Dream. Millions more visit its iconic tourist locations. But America has continued to struggle and falter, its success held back by the sparring realities of whites and Blacks separate and unequal existences. Racism is Americas birth defect. The racial caste system has been modernized, but never really dismantled. American has the largest prison population of any industrialized country, with more than six million citizens confined or under correctional monitoring. The vast majority are African Americans. America has the highest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths, with African Americans dying at the highest rate. America is again number one among industrialized peers in infant mortality, adult obesity, murder, maternal mortality, and food insecurity. African Americans bear the weight of these burdens on their necks, their suffocation recorded in full sight. Such systemic disparities have led scholars and social activists to point to the existence of two Americas. Black families growing up in the shadows of the Stars and Stripes, in communities untouched by Americas prosperity. For more than 200 years, America has waged a David-and-Goliath war against its African American citizens, whose lives matter only as long as they do not threaten white safety and privilege. African American poverty and second-class citizenship have been driven by structural and systemic racism established by chattel slavery, sustained through Jim Crow and modernized as the prison industrial complex, de facto school segregation, the racialized American child welfare system, and ongoing voter suppression. All these factors contribute to the racialization of American poverty. The average African American family today would need 228 years to achieve wealth parity with white households. This systemic racism grinds on African Americans necks day by day, even without the aid of an officers knee. Nevertheless, when the police are called, we see maddening incidents bird watching, sitting at Starbucks, studying at Yale, babysitting, renting an Airbnb, shopping, and driving while Black. All these incidents unduly threaten the safety and lives of African Americans. The rallying cry of the Black Lives Matter movement is a call for recognition of the full humanity and citizenship of African Americans. Between 2005 and April 2017, 80 officers had been arrested on murder or manslaughter charges for on-duty shootings. During that 12-year span, 35 per cent were convicted, while the rest were pending or not convicted. The historical culture of police impunity in relation to the murders of African American people and the sluggish response to the murder of George Floyd despite harrowing videotape evidence has sparked marches and riots in Minneapolis, across the United States, and around the world even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fraying of American exceptionalism takes place against the background of Make America Great Again, the rise of hate crimes, the erosion of civil rights, and the ongoing murder of unarmed African Americans without police accountability, putting Americas moral standing into deep scrutiny. It is time for police reform and sensible dialogue between community activists, law enforcement officials, and state and federal leaders. I cant breathe. - Taal Volcano showed signs of activity in the last 24 hours with Phivolcs registering five earthquakes - Phivolcs stated that the earthquakes were related to the rock-fracturing processes occurring beneath and around the edifice - Alert Level 1 is hoisted over the volcano while the permanent danger zone remains strictly prohibited - Local government units are advised to constantly monitor the barangays around the lake for any damage PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Taal Volcano once more showed activity as it rumbled in the last 24 hours, with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) recording five earthquakes within the said timeframe. According to Phivolcs, the rumbling and earthquakes were related to the "rock-fracturing processes beneath and around the edifice." Inquirer stated that steam was emitted by vents on the main crater, which reached heights of 20 to 30 meters. Those found along the Kastila Trail also showed similar activities. PAY ATTENTION: Shop with KAMI! The best offers and discounts on the market, product reviews and feedbacks. The volcano is still under Alert Level 1, which according to Phivolcs would comprise steam-driven or phreatic explosions, minor ashfall, volcanic earthquakes, or expulsion of volcanic gas. Local government units are advised to keep monitoring the volcanic activities and those surrounding areas must be scrutinized for damage. Barangays must also strengthen their preparedness and communication measures. Residents must also observe precautionary measures and must remain vigilant. Taal Volcano roars anew with 5 earthquakes recorder over the past 24 hours Source: Facebook PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! In a previous KAMI report, Angel Locsin went viral after she started helping out victims of the eruption of Taal Volcano. She asked about what was needed by the victims and after which, she was tagged as the real-life Darna. Taal Volcano is one of the most famous volcanoes in the Philippines. It is also considered as a tourist destination. Please like and share our amazing Facebook posts to support the KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinions about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts and views on different matters! Source: KAMI.com.gh AKRON, Ohio, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GOJO is continuing to take significant steps to expand its capacity to meet exponential increases in demand for PURELL sanitizer, soap, wipes, and surface spray, as more and more businesses and institutions reopen with a sharp focus on cleanliness and hygiene. By running its facilities 24/7, working with its existing suppliers to dramatically increase raw materials and component supplies, and by implementing creative partnerships with other companies that have directed bottles and caps its way, GOJO is producing more than two times what GOJO did before the pandemic started across all of its operations. "We believe the world will forever be changed by this pandemic and we see this translating to a sustained increase in awareness of the importance of safe and effective hygiene practices," said GOJO President and CEO, Carey Jaros. "This will result in ongoing, heightened demand for our essential PURELL skincare and surface solutions. In service of our GOJO Purpose, Saving Lives and Making Life Better, our responsibility to keep the world healthy and well has never been greater. Expanding our manufacturing infrastructure is one of the many ways we are responding as the market leader in these challenging times." GOJO recently signed a lease agreement for a facility in Navarre, Ohio, which will be used for storage and distribution. Today, GOJO announced the purchase of a 325,000-square-foot facility in Maple Heights, Ohio. GOJO Maple Heights will manufacture PURELL Surface Spray. PURELL Surface Spray was launched in 2016 and has won numerous awards for its unparalleled combination of being no-rinse on food contact surfaces with lowest possible toxicity (Category IV), while effectively killing bacteria, mold, mildew, fungi, and dozens of viruses, including Influenza and Norovirus. It is listed on the EPA's List N: Products with Emerging Viral Pathogens AND Human Coronavirus claims for use against SARS-CoV-2. Demand for the product has been infinite since the pandemic began. These two new facilities bring the company's Ohio manufacturing facilities to four, including those in Cuyahoga Falls and Wooster. GOJO headquarters is in Akron, Ohio, and the company also has several manufacturing facilities in France. GOJO employs more than 2,500 team members around the globe and is expecting to add at least 200 jobs with these two additional facilities. "GOJO is an Ohio-grown company whose products, including its PURELL products are helping us combat the pandemic," said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. "These new investments demonstrate the confidence GOJO has in Ohio's talent, which is hard at work producing and distributing critical PURELL products used worldwide." "We are excited to support the expansion of GOJO Industries into Cuyahoga County that will bring this essential business here to our County," said Chief Economic Development and Business Officer Ted Carter. "This investment will bring 100 additional high-quality manufacturing jobs to Maple Heights, providing much-needed jobs and income to that municipality. We are very pleased that GOJO has committed to hiring a diverse and local workforce." "Cuyahoga County has a long history of manufacturing," said County Councilman and Economic Development Chair Jack Schron. "Part of our strategy in strengthening our local economy is to focus on our strengths and GOJO fits right into our sweet spot. I am thrilled that GOJO is locating their plant, which will be producing their newest surface spray product, right here in Cuyahoga County. We look forward to a long and productive relationship with this global leader in skincare and surface solutions." "We are thrilled that one of the most essential companies in our region is expanding their manufacturing capabilities in Maple Heights," said Maple Heights Mayor Annette Blackwell. "GOJO is a growing business that makes products that matter, with deep roots in Northeast Ohio. Its selection of Maple Heights to expand operations is a testament to the resources and local advantages provided by our city and the region." JobsOhio plans to provide assistance for the project, which will be made public after a final agreement is executed. "GOJO is a purpose-driven Ohio company doing everything it can to help communities and businesses during this pandemic," said JobsOhio President and CEO, J.P. Nauseef. "We and our partners at Team NEO welcome the continued success and growth of GOJO in Ohio, which serves as an example how our resilient businesses and workers will get the state's economy growing once again." "It's our stated Enterprise Strategic Intent to co-create a company where we can all find personal meaning, professional fulfillment and opportunities to contribute to a vibrant future," said Jaros. "We are so excited to be realizing that intent during this unprecedented moment, opening new facilities, creating jobs, and ultimately producing more of the essential solutions that people need to stay healthy and well." About GOJO GOJO, the inventor of PURELL Hand Sanitizer, is the leading global producer and marketer of skin health and hygiene solutions for away-from-home settings. The broad GOJO product portfolio includes hand cleaning, handwashing, hand sanitizing, skin care formulas and surface sprays under the GOJO, PURELL and PROVON brand names. GOJO formulations use the latest advances in the science of skin care and sustainability. GOJO is known for state-of-the-art dispensing technology, engineered with attention to design, sustainability, and functionality. GOJO programs promote healthy behaviors for hygiene, skin care and compliance in critical environments. GOJO is a family enterprise headquartered in Akron, Ohio, with operations in the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Japan, Mexico, and Canada. Learn more about GOJO. SOURCE GOJO Related Links https://www.gojo.com A study of sailors aboard an aircraft carrier stricken by a COVID-19 outbreak offers new insights into what could make people immune to the coronavirus and the effectiveness of social distancing measures, U.S. Navy and federal health officials said Tuesday. Almost 60% of a sample of sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt tested positive for coronavirus antibodies suggesting they had the coronavirus at some point. Almost the same percentage of those service members who had antibodies showed a degree of immunity at the time of the blood draw, according to a medical survey conducted in April. Its a promising indicator of some degree of immunity, study author Dan Payne of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters during a conference call Tuesday. The survey by the Navy and CDC came after a highly publicized outbreak aboard the warship that docked in Guam, where 1,273 sailors tested positive. The study found that the infection rate was lower among those who wore face coverings, avoided large occupancy common areas and practiced social distancing. Most symptoms among the crew 382 sailors volunteered to be tested for antibodies were mild, the report found, but the most common indicator was a loss of taste and smell. About 1 in 5, 18.5%, of infected sailors were asymptomatic, officials said. The study, one of the first focused on healthy, young adults, was released Tuesday, more than two months after the Roosevelts former commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier, sent out a memo warning of an outbreak aboard his ship. The controversial letter set off a chain of events that led to Croziers dismissal and the resignation of the Navy secretary. One sailor from the ship died from COVID-19 complications and others were hospitalized. The aircraft carrier has since returned to sea. Young, healthy adults with COVID-19 might have mild or no symptoms; therefore, symptom-based surveillance might not detect all infections, the report says. Use of face coverings and other preventive measures could mitigate transmission. The presence of neutralizing antibodies among the majority is a promising indicator of at least short-term immunity. Lee Riley, a UC Berkeley professor of infectious disease and vaccinology said while the immunity results were encouraging, the Navy study focused on a young, healthy demographic that is better suited to fight the disease and produce antibodies. This population is not the population that needs to be protected, Riley said. But perhaps a vaccine could be beneficial and interrupt the transmission to someone else. ... If young people can get a good antibody response they can possibly disrupt the transmission to others. Payne said investigators drew blood from sailors to test for antibodies that were then used to determine if they could prevent the virus from entering healthy cells in a laboratory. About 60% successfully fought off the virus. Among a dozen sailors with antibodies detected more than 40 days after onset of symptoms, eight remained neutralization positive, meaning they still carried immunity. That included two service members who were tested three months after they first had symptoms. Payne said the results could lead to future studies following individuals to determine if immunity lasts over time. 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. The report found the main symptoms among this healthy young adult population were body aches, fever and chills. By far, the loss of taste and smell were the most likely indicator of infection, though, which could impact how the Navy and other institutions screen for possible infections, Payne said. The Roosevelts ordeal began in late March after it docked in Guam and The Chronicle exclusively reported how Crozier sounded the alarm that sailors could die if the ship was not quickly evacuated. Sailors eventually were removed from the ship. Concern grew when 13 sailors tested positive a second time after serving a minimum 14-day quarantine and testing negative twice. Rear Adm. Bruce Gillingham, U.S. Navy Surgeon General, said Tuesday his office concluded those sailors were not reinfected, but rather had persistent viral shedding. The study provided valuable information for the military and troops confined in close quarters, but has practical purposes for schools and other areas where young adults congregate, the officials said. The study further reinforced the importance of taking preventive measures to avoid transmission. Sailors who reported wearing a face covering lowered infection rates from 81% to 56%, while those observing social distancing saw a lower rate, 70% versus 55%. Sailors who slept in shared berthing units also saw higher rates of infection. Matthias Gafni is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mgafni September is now the 'earliest' point at which secondary schools will reopen - Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images Gavin Williamson is expected to row back on plans for all primary school children to have at least four weeks of class time before the summer during a Commons statement on Tuesday afternoon. It follows an admission by Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, on Monday that the "current working plan" was that September was now the "earliest" that secondary schools will be able to open. Mr Hancock said the Government still needed to "work out" how that was going to be achieved, saying it was "going to require ingenuity". The Children's Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, was scathing about the shift in policy, telling the BBC's Today programme: "It doesn't give you confidence there is a strategic plan here. "I am worried that education hasn't had the priority the economy has, business, jobs, or the NHS... Children are in danger of being forgotten in the lifting of lockdown." She noted that "theme parks are going to be opening in a month's time, shops, restaurants, but still children will not be back in school". Mr Williamson, the Education Secretary, will be asked on Tuesday in Parliament about how many parents have heeded the Government's advice to send their children back to primary school. He is expected to admit that only half of the eligible children in Reception, Year One and Year Six have returned following a union and council backlash about safety. There were signs on Monday that the Government is moving away from an "ambition" in its Covid-19 recovery strategy to get all primary school children back into class before summer. So far only pupils in Reception, Year One and Year Six in primary schools have resumed lessons. Pupils in years 10 and 12 in secondary schools are due to meet with teachers from Monday. Asked at Monday evening's Downing Street press conference whether the Government expected "schools to be able to reopen fully in September", Mr Hancock said: "Our current working plan is secondary schools won't open until September at the earliest. Story continues "I very much hope that they can, because the impact on children's education is so significant. But what we have to do not only in schools, but right across the board is work out how we can get the other things that matter going, like schools, like hospitality, like retail. "To get them going safely and carefully, in a way that doesn't lead to the spread of the virus, is going to require ingenuity." The Government's "ambition" for primary schools to be fully open by the end of June to allow children four weeks of lessons before they break up for the summer appeared to be slipping away, with one source saying it will be "difficult". A source at the Department for Education said that the "intention is to have business as usual in all schools come September" but admitted there were no guarantees given uncertainty about the coronavirus infection rate. The source added that Mr Williamson hoped to get children into primary schools if health authorities allowed schools to increase the 15-strong group size in classes. Robert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the education select committee, said he had "incredible worries" about the lack of teaching for children in disadvantaged families, warning that "10 years of educational attainment could be put at risk". He said: "Eighty-five per cent of disadvantaged children are not learning. A survey of 900 headteachers said that possibly 700,000 children are possibly not doing schoolwork. "This will mean [they have missed] half the school year, and it could set these children back by many many months. This is going to have a massive impact on children. It is incredibly tough for parents who may need to go back to work, and will have real difficulties in terms of child care." The Netmums editor in chief, Anne-Marie O'Leary, said the lack of clarity over a return for secondary schools meant parents could not plan their returns to work and had worrying implications for teenagers' mental health. She said: "The inability to plan is the biggest burden on parents right now. The fact they don't know what schools are going to look like in September means parents can't plan what their work life needs to look like. "If you can't tell your employer how and when they can expect you to be back, it leads to some very difficult conversations. Every parent in the country has this stress right now it's massive. "We've also had parents expressing concerns about secondary school children's mental health. Keeping teens away from their friends is almost removing their lifeline. And if parents go back to work, as they are encouraged to, there is a mental health burden for children stuck at home on their own." Unity Howard, the director of the New Schools Network, which supports free schools, added: "It is children from the poorest families who are the hardest hit by this. "One day lost to learning in school is one day too many they don't have access to a laptop at home, or wifi that is readily available, or even perhaps a quiet space in which to do their work. "The hard-won progress of the last decade to reduce the attainment gap between the haves and have nots is in real and present danger of being wiped out completely. "Yes, there are logistical challenges to be overcome, but we need to get more children back into school and we need to do it soon." Jerome Verdier, President of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia, at the inaugural ceremony on June 22, 2006. STR / AFP As a responsible institution, we had no alternative than to send the archives to Georgia Tech, says Liberias former Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) chairman Jerome Verdier, who spoke to Justice Info from the US. As it ended its mandate, the TRC was receiving threats, but he says this was not the only, or indeed main reason why the archives had to be sent elsewhere. The government had no plan, Verdier told Justice Info, for what should happen to these very, very important documents and there were financial problems. The lease on the TRC building had run out, the government refused to pay the rent, and it was threatened with eviction. Leaving the archives there could expose them to insecurity and possibly destruction. So, one night, the Commission had a bonfire in their backyard where they disposed of the disposable records and the other stuff was sequestered onto a boat at the port and made its way to Savannah, Georgia, then on to us in Atlanta because we were maybe their closest international partner by that time and they just needed a safe archive, says Michael Best, a professor of international affairs and interactive computing at Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) in the US who worked with the TRC at the time. This is a unique case of a truth commissions archives being expatriated to a foreign university, under an agreement that has now expired. TRCs legacy The TRC worked from 2006 to 2009, collecting some 20,000 statements and hearing direct testimony from over 500 Liberians. It also gathered its own evidence and conducted investigations into a wide variety of crimes committed during the war. The records of this now sit in a warehouse in Georgia, United States. The TRC report, published on July 1, 2009 recommended setting up a war crimes court. This has never happened, and the current government of George Weah remains ambiguous on the issue. Indeed, there have been no prosecutions in Liberia related to the many crimes committed during its two civil wars (1989 to 1997 and 1999 to 2003). The Commission named a list of alleged perpetrators that it said should be prosecuted for various kinds of gross human rights violations and war crimes. It notably recommended that the countrys president at the time, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, be barred from public office for 30 years for her alleged connections to Charles Taylor, the former president now serving a 50-year jail sentence in the UK for serious crimes committed in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Recommended reading Does the Liberian president really want a war crimes court? Liberian government can request them back Georgia Tech Librarys custody of the archives is governed by an agreement between the GIT, the TRC and the government of Liberia, dating from June 1, 2010, of which Justice Info has obtained a copy. According to Georgia Tech lawyer Shelley Hildebrand, who helped negotiate the accord along with Best, it was signed before the records were shipped. TRC and government of Liberia warrant that the transfer of the possession of the records to GIT () is authorized and does not violate the laws of Liberia, says the agreement. It provides that at all times ownership and control of the records remains with the TRC and subsequently, after its dissolution, with the government of Liberia. This means the Liberian government can, in theory, ask for them back. But the agreement also says GIT will relinquish physical custody of the records only when and if a process to securely ship the documents to Liberia (or another location) has been established by the parties and funds to pay for this in place. Hildebrand says there have been no requests so far from the Liberian government that they be returned. She told Justice Info that the agreement has officially expired but doesnt believe [they] have a duty to send back the archives. It runs for five years and can be renewed for successive five-year periods upon the mutual agreement of the parties. But Best told Justice Info that at the time of its expiration (and to this date) there has not been an identified interlocutor from the government of Liberia to work with us on a renewal of the agreement. Occasional requests for access According to the agreement, GIT agrees that it will not distribute to the general public or disclose to a third party any records that have been designated as confidential by the TRC and that confidential records shall be designated as confidential by an appropriate stamp or legend. An Annex contains a list of people allowed full access, including to the confidential records. They are TRC Commissioners and key people at Georgia Tech, including Best and Hildebrand. Georgia Tech has received occasional requests for access, says Hildebrand. With a spate of recent US and European cases related to the Liberian civil war, interest has increased. She says Georgia Tech has been working with the US Department of Justice to determine under what terms well allow access for foreign law enforcement agencies. She says there have, for example, been requests from authorities in Switzerland and the UK, among others. According to Hildebrand, the TRC was supposed to label the confidential documents but did not, creating another sticky situation, but Georgia Tech has come up with a process to maintain confidentiality. Statements to the TRC where the witness said they were willing to testify can be accessed on request, but those where the witness was not willing to testify are kept confidential. Third parties requesting access must give details of the documents they are seeking (time period, faction, individuals concerned) and then come personally to the Georgia Tech warehouse where they may be allowed access to only five boxes at a time. Aaron Weah, a Liberian former advisor to the TRC for the International Center for Transitional Justice who is now conducting PhD research at Ulster University, says he has requested access to documents and a few others have tried. I spoke to the American archivist, he told Justice Info. I requested access but it was denied. His research relates to memorialization in Liberia, for which purposes he was requesting the documents. Digitization still to be done The agreement says that GIT will digitize the records and will provide three digital copies of the records to each of the TRC, the government of Liberia and the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law in Monrovia. But Best says that we still are working towards this goal. Asked about the lessons to be learned from this unique case, Best says there are two. I think that in principle, when the papers are at risk or the country emerging out of conflict doesnt have the technical or infrastructural capacities to manage the records, weve provided a safe and secure environment, we hold the records in an archival quality housing and the records to this day are in surprisingly good shape. But, he says, weve struggled to do the real work that we wanted to do, which was to organize the papers, to digitize a lot of it, creating a more lasting legacy. And that is the second lesson to him, that the minute a Commission ends and releases its final report, the donor community just walks away. Archives could play an important role in Liberia Best says the archives should go back to Liberia one day when the country has the capacity to preserve and manage them. But for Weah, the archives serve no purpose in Georgia whereas they could play an important role in Liberia, for journalists, academics and the wider public. He told Justice Info it would be good to see them in a national museum, especially video footage of historical figures giving an account of the war. This could serve an important educational purpose, he says, in a country which is still struggling to find a common version of its history and where we have a very young population with kids born after the Accra agreement [2003 peace accord that ended the civil war]. I think the archives should be migrated to Liberia where they belong, Weah told Justice Info. But would they be safe now? The current administration is not at all clear on the reconciliation agenda or the legacy of the TRC or how to address it, he admits, so its hard to say whether they would be safe. We would need some kind of guarantee that they should be kept and protected at all times. This might take the shape of a law, which would recognize the TRC archive and provide space for it, he says, and the archives should be digitized, so that if they were burned, you would still have copies. TRC chairman Verdier agrees that the archives should be returned one day, and that is why the agreement says Georgia Tech is only a custodian. He said the right timing is not yet there, as the current government has no interest and I dont think it can be trusted. But he does believe that one day there will be a more responsible government, at which time the archives should go home. Best Apps to Find Black-Owned Businesses These Apps Help You Find the Best Black-Owned Businesses In Your Area The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. The fight for racial equality must be heard. Amplify is our series devoted to elevating black voices and brands, spotlighting issues, and taking action. After the police killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day and the subsequent nationwide protests in support of black lives, a ton of helpful information has been circulating on social media and other collaborative platforms to help educate, inform and amplify the voices of the black community. RELATED: Raise a Glass to These Black-Owned Alcohol Brands Serving Quality Sips Because money is a powerful way to make your views heard, many people have become more mindful of their spending and have been actively seeking out black-owned businesses to support, particularly during this pandemic when small businesses are more fragile than ever. In fact, the social media hashtag #blackownedbusiness has soared in popularity on Twitter and Instagram over the past week as consumers look to offer their support at this time (and hopefully on an ongoing basis as well). To help fulfill the call for finding black-owned and -operated businesses while on-the-go, the popularity of multiple apps has also surged recently as reported by our friends at Mashable. The handheld directories make it easy to search for whatever purchasing needs you may have, including restaurants, grocery stores, clothing shops and other small businesses and services. Here are some of the best apps that you can download on your smartphone and get shopping today. EatOkra Co-founded in 2016 by husband-and-wife team Anthony Edwards and Janique Bradley, the EatOkra app saw a 4,450-percent increase in downloads in the first week of June. It helps both Android and Apple users quickly connect with black-owned restaurants in dozens of cities across the US, and then order delivery or shop other food-minded black-owned businesses in the app as well. Download on the App Store or Google Play Black Nation Launched by entrepreneur Rameish Budhoo back in 2018, the Apple-only Black Nation app saw a 50 percent increase in downloads in recent days as consumers find new ways to support black entrepreneurship. The useful app allows owners to add their business to the database for free, creating a "one-stop shop" for every type of commercial need. Users can search across dozens of categories, including food, fitness, doctors, realtors, shopping, beauty and more. Download on the App Store Black Wallet The sleek and easy-to-navigate Black Wallet app saw a 115-percent increase in downloads earlier this month. Both Apple and Android users can search for black-owned online businesses or brick-and-mortar locations in any area, and can also uncover local events hosted by or in benefit of black businesses. The app also makes it easy to save your favorite businesses for easy recall and even get in touch with the owners directly. They also host exclusive sales and content specifically for app users. Download on the App Store or Google Play BlackGuide The BlackGuide app currently plays host to more than 14 major American cities and is continuously growing its directory on black-owned businesses. Available on both Android and iPhone, the app spotlights black entrepreneurs and local and national news, as well as a directory for black businesses and local events. There's also a community forum to tap into the hive mind and get even better shopping suggestions tailored to your needs and interests. Download on the App Store or Google Play Official Black Wall Street One of the largest directories for black-owned businesses, Official Black Wall Street allows its Apple and Android app users to search thousands of local business listings, providing a major platform for owners to gain exposure. From pharmacies to restaurants, consumers can find exactly what they need and there are often special offers and daily deals to help you save while you support. Download on the App Store or Google Play Uber Eats The popular food delivery app Uber Eats is also answering the call to make it easier to find black-owned eateries by adding a search option for black-owned food delivery options throughout the United States and Canada. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also announced that delivery fees will be waived every time users order from these businesses now through the end of 2020. Download on the App Store or Google Play Yelp After Yelp saw a 25-fold increase in searches for black-owned businesses in recent weeks, the go-to source for business and restaurant recommendations revealed that they too will be rolling out a new function this June. Businesses will soon be allowed to mark themselves as black-owned if they so choose, making it easier than ever for consumers to find the best black-owned local businesses in every shopping category across the board. Download on the App Store or Google Play You Might Also Dig: AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. To find out more, please read our complete terms of use. President John Magufuli of Tanzania on Monday June 8, declared the East African country "coronavirus-free". The President who attributed the claimed success over the worldwide pandemic to prayers and fasting that the people of Tanzania offered to God, also commended the priest and worshippers for not wearing gloves and masks to protect themselves from the virus. Magufuli said; It gives me joy to be the leader of a country that puts God first, God loves Tanzania. The works of the devil will always be defeated in Tanzania because Tanzanians love God and that is why even the corona has been defeated by God. This is coming after the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concern over the government's strategy on the pandemic which includes not publishing data on the number of Coronavirus cases in the country. As at April 29 when the last official data was released, 509 cases and 21 deaths had been recorded in Tanzania. BBC reported that Mr Magufuli had said last week that only four patients were receiving treatment in the largest city, Dar es Salaam. He also dismissed a US embassy warning that hospitals in Dar es Salaam were "overwhelmed" and that the chances of contracting the virus was "extremely high". Kenya closed its borders with Tanzania and Somalia due to rising cases of imported COVID-19 cases. 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 France on Tuesday unveiled what it described as a 15bn support package for its aerospace industry, saying huge numbers of jobs were at stake amid a slump in air travel demand due to the coronavirus crisis. The plan includes an investment fund starting at 500m with a target of 1bn to boost the development of medium-sized suppliers, and 300m of other aid to help aerospace sub-contractors modernise plants. France will also invest 1.5bn over three years to support research into new environmentally friendly aviation technology, of which 300m will be available this year. The plan, presented by government members including Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, reinforces some measures already available such as furlough schemes and export credit guarantees. "In total, this plan will represent more than 15bn of aid, investment, loans and guarantees," the government said in a statement. The total includes 7bn of aid already announced for Air France and an acceleration of existing orders for Airbus tankers and other military kit. Amerigroup Tennessee will donate 200 computers to local organizations and schools to increase access for continued education, virtual learning and telehealth services throughout Tennessee, including YMCA of Metropolitan Chattanooga. The computers will support telehealth services, social distancing guidelines, virtual education, and access for online classes and college courses for students and families that live in underserved communities. Many community partners and schools have expressed the need to connect virtually through affordable, innovative and creative solutions to promote health and education. In response, Amerigroup Tennessee has donated computers across the state to serve vulnerable and impacted communities during these unprecedented times. Amerigroup Tennessee, as a District Partner with Shelby County Schools has been invaluable, said Dr. Dwayne Scott, manager, Shelby County Schools Family and Community Engagement Department. Amerigroups unwavering commitment to serving the families of Shelby County Schools through its partnership with the District is greatly appreciated and highly valued. On behalf of the Department of Family and Community Engagement, we thank Amerigroup Tennessee for their unwavering partnership and we look forward to continued work toward our shared vision and mission of serving students and their families of the Memphis community. Officials said the donated computers provide students and people of the community with the necessary tools and resources to stay connected, promote health and wellness, and enable emotional and social support. The laptops help students keep up in school and help maintain the social connections critical to their well-being and development. Amerigroup Tennessee is committed to supporting programs that go beyond traditional healthcare support. As we enter uncharted territory during the current COVID-19 pandemic, we understand how critical it is for our students and families to feel connected to resources that may no longer feel safe to access at this time, said Judy Robinson, program specialist, Metro Nashville Public Schools. We appreciate Amerigroup Tennessees computer donation to our local high schools, which will support remote learning needs and provide access to telehealth services for our Metro Nashville Public Schools students and their families. Our hope is that these devices will travel with students as they journey to the next phase of life post-high school as well. Organizations in Tennessee receiving donated computers include: Chattanooga: YMCA of Metropolitan Chattanooga Covington: Boys & Girls Club of the Hatchie River Region Decaturville: Decatur County Schools Franklin: Franktown Open Hearts Henderson: Chester County Schools Jackson: Boys & Girls Club of Jackson Jackson: Jackson-Madison County School System Knoxville: United Way of Greater Knoxville Lexington: Henderson County Schools Memphis: Shelby County Schools Nashville: Boys and Girls Club of Middle Tennessee Nashville: Metro Nashville Public Schools - Community Achieves Nashville: Robert Churchwell Elementary School Nashville: Wright Middle School Nashville: Love Cathedral Ministries Savannah: Hardin County Schools Selmer: McNairy County Schools We are grateful for the opportunity to provide computers to our local communities as we work through this pandemic together, said Robert Garnett, president, Amerigroup Tennessee. This is part of Amerigroups coordinated response to COVID-19, supporting programs that improve health and enhance overall quality of life for our members, community organizations, healthcare workers and frontline responders. Paragon ID (Euronext Paris - FR0011980077 - PID), the leading provider of identification solutions for Transport, e-ID, Traceability, Brand Protection and Payment, confirms the signature of an agreement with its banking partners for the granting of a direct loan in the amount of 15 million. This loan, 90% of which is guaranteed by the french State under the PGE state-guaranteed loan scheme, forms part of the support measures for businesses in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic (ministerial orders of March 23 and April 17, 2020 awarding the state guarantee to credit institutions and finance companies, implementing Article 6 of Law no. 2020-289 of March 23, 2020). The loan will have a maturity of one year with optional extension for up to five additional years under certain conditions. In that assumption, the company will have to agree before the end of the twelve months with its banking partners the conditions for the extension of this debt, in terms of interest cost and capital amortization. For information, these funds are strictly reserved to cover working capital needs related to the effects of Covid-19 and therefore cannot be used for external growth operations or the payment of dividends. In the United States, the American subsidiary of Paragon ID obtained funding of US$500k as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a plan designed for SMEs to help support their business and workforce during the crisis. This loan is granted for a maximum of 2 years, with a grace period of 6 months. This loan could turn into a grant if the company undertakes to maintain employment. Olivier Doye, Financial Director at Paragon ID, comments: " From the start of the health crisis, the company immediately reacted in order to partially mitigate the impact of the pandemic on its activity, its results and its financial situation. Financially, we have taken all possible measures to preserve our cashflow. I would like to thank our banking partners for their renewed confidence at this difficult time and our main shareholder Grenadier Holdings Plc - Paragon Group's investment holding company - for its assistance in securing this funding. Obtaining this State Guaranteed Loan of 15 million strengthens our financial structure in the short and medium term and provides us with additional liquidity to prepare for the end of the crisis. " Financial agenda 2019/20 Q4 turnover 23 July 2020 2019/20 annual results 27 October 2020 These dates are given for information only, they are subject to change. The publications will take place before the opening of the Euronext markets. About Paragon ID Paragon ID is a leader in identification solutions, in particular in the e-ID, Transport & Smart Cities and Traceability & Brand Protection sectors. It recently entered the area of Payment through its acquisition of AmaTech Group and has built on this through its acquisition of Thames Card Technology in November 2019. Paragon ID employs more than 750 staff, with manufacturing sites in US and Europe, close to its customers. Paragon ID is listed on Euronext Paris with a majority of its shares being held by Paragon Group, a leading provider of Identification and Customer Communications services. Paragon Group has a turnover in excess of 1.25 billion and 8,000 employees. For further information about Paragon Group, visit Paragon-europe.com. Euronext Paris - Share identification: Paragon ID - ISIN Code: FR0013318813 - Mnemonic code: PID. For further information about Paragon ID, visit Paragon-id.com. Contacts Paragon ID Clem Garvey CEO Tel.: +33 (0)2 48 81 61 00 clem.garvey@paragon-id.com ACTUS finance & communication Investors Relations Mathieu Omnes Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 92 momnes@actus.fr ACTUS finance & communication Press Relation Alexandra Prisa Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 90 aprisa@actus.fr ------------------------ This publication embed "Actusnews SECURITY MASTER ". - SECURITY MASTER Key: nZ2faZRpk5iVl5txZMqbmGeZmmlikpbImZbLlGabZcrFmJ9hlpeTmZ2XZm9knWVv - Check this key: https://www.security-master-key.com. ------------------------ Copyright Actusnews Wire Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-63809-paragon-id_cp_pge_09062020_en.pdf Four suspected rebels were killed by government forces in Indian-administered Kashmir on Monday just hours after five militants died in a firefight in the same area, officials said, as deadly clashes increase in the restive valley. The fresh clash was followed by the shooting death of an elected village official from India's main opposition Congress party not far from the site of the firefight, which police blamed on the rebels. Such armed encounters are frequent in the Himalayan region disputed by India and Pakistan, but the fighting has intensified with at least 85 militants and dozens of government forces killed this year. In the latest incident, soldiers cordoned a village in southern Shopian area early Monday after a tip-off from police, army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said. A firefight broke out and four suspected rebels were killed, he added. Soldiers also blew up at least one home, another police officer and locals said. An army officer, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said three soldiers were wounded in the confrontation. Hundreds of villagers rallied in support of the rebels, throwing stones and shouting slogans against Indian rule as the firefight raged, a police officer and locals said. On Sunday, five militants were killed after Indian soldiers and counterinsurgency police cordoned off Shopian's Reban village. On Saturday, unidentified gunman shot dead a young man in the northern Sopore area. Police blamed rebels for the killing. The incidents came a week after New Delhi expelled two Pakistan embassy officials over allegations of spying. Tensions remain high in Kashmir after New Delhi in August revoked its semi-autonomous status and imposed a lengthy curfew. Pakistan criticised the move and there has been a frequent exchange of fire across the heavily militarised border between the nuclear-armed rivals. Since 1989, rebels groups have fought against some 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the territory, demanding independence or Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. India regularly blames Pakistan for arming and training rebels before sending them across the border, charges that Islamabad denies. Armed encounters are frequent in the Himalayan region disputed by India and Pakistan The Akal Degree College for Women here has decided to stop admissions to its BA course for the academic session 2020-21, triggering furore among the Aam Aadmi Party, student unions and dalit outfits in the district. Leader of opposition (LOP) Harpal Singh Cheema wrote to chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday seeking the state governments immediate intervention. Over 40% students here are from the SC community and the rest are from economically weaker sections of the society. But the college management wants to gradually shut operations, and the CM is not paying heed to the issue. The college has been run by grants from the UGC for decades, but now the management wants to start a school in its place, said Cheema. As per information, Akal Degree College for Women was established in 1970 and there were 460 girl students in seven different streams, including BA, BCA, BCOM, BVOC, and MSC IT but, of these, 289 students were enrolled in the three-year BA course in 2019-20. The college management is trying to convert the institute into a profitable business but the entire infrastructure was built with government funds. AAP will oppose this decision and would hold a protest against the move, the LOP added. Punjab Students Union (PSU) activists termed the decision anti-women and announced to intensify agitation against the management. We will hold meetings with parents who want to admit their daughters in the college and will not allow the management to shut down the college, said Sukhdeep Singh, district chief of PSU. Mukesh Malaudh, president of Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Committee (ZPSC), a dalit outfit, said the college is a ray of hope for girls from the poor sections and the committee will mobilise people in villages to build a struggle to save the college. Akal Group of Colleges chairman Karanvir Singh Sibia said the degree college was facing huge losses and could not afford more economic burden. The enrolment in BA-1 has been decreasing. We have written to Punjabi University, Patiala, to stop admissions at the entry point. The final decision will be taken by the director of public instructions, but the college will not be closed, added Sibia. File Image Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has eaten crow! His controversial order to reserve hospitals run by the Delhi government and some private hospitals only for Delhiites amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, has been overruled by Lt Governor Anil Baijal. On June 8, Baijal passed an order saying that everyone will be treated in Delhi, and that treatment should not be denied to any patient on grounds of being a non-resident. Kejriwal tamely accepted the LGs order, but not without remonstrating that this decision would create a huge problem and challenge for the people of Delhi. In any case, the order passed by the Kejriwal government by way of a Delhi governments Cabinet decision on June 7 smacked of parochialism, which went contrary to the spirit of federalism of the Union of India enshrined in the Constitution. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi condemned the order saying that people from across the national came to the national capital for treatment. He also commented that if other metros, such as Mumbai and Kolkata, passed such orders what would be the effect. To be sure, the Delhi governments fiat on reserving hospitals for citizens of Delhi only was bad in law, as Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram said. It implies that the measure wouldnt have passed judicial scrutiny, if challenged in a court. Baijal has quickly put a lid on it and if one goes by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) governments subdued reaction, the matter should not snowball further. The matter would not have passed judicial scrutiny and by intervening Baijal has saved the Delhi government the blushes. Why would a smart politician such as Arvind Kejriwal make such an announcement? The move is baffling all the more because Kejriwal himself has made multiple visits to Bengaluru to get himself treated for respiratory-related conditions. If he were to face a similar health emergency, what face will he be left with if the Karnataka government, presently run by the BJP, were to quote his own rules and deny treatment? 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 answer could be that the Kejriwal-led AAP is conducting itself and behaving as a regional party would do, i.e. playing to the gallery to protect its political following. On the other hand, national parties, such as the BJP, the Congress, or even the Left parties, normally do not indulge in such politicking; their political field of vision is much broader. One can only imagine the consequences if chief ministers of bigger states ruled by either the BJP and the Congress were to indulge in such parochialism. What is the Delhi governments justification for such a move? Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain has said that considering the present doubling rate of positive cases in Delhi, the number of COVID-19 cases is likely to jump to 56,000 in a fortnight. Right now, the availability of hospital beds in Delhi is very limited some 10,000 beds in Delhi government-run hospitals and a similar number in central government-run hospitals. While some states, such as Maharashtra, have taken over stadiums and converted them into isolation facilities for COVID-19 patients, the Delhi government roped in private hospitals, nursing homes and banquet halls as isolation centres. Meanwhile, the Delhi government will have to get its act together, particularly when several reports have emerged wherein distressed patients have run from hospital-to- hospital, failed to get admission because of non-availability of beds, and have eventually died. Though Delhi is third in the list of number of COVID-19 cases in India, after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, it will top the list on per capita basis in terms of population and case load area. Besides, Delhi has the dubious distinction of having the highest positivity rate in the country, if one takes the count of number of people who test positive per one hundred tests. To make matters worse for Delhi, its own expert panel has said that Delhi needs to be prepared for 100,000 cases by the end of June and must have at least 15,000 hospital beds ready by then. This might make it appear to justify the Delhi governments move to reserve hospital beds unfortunately in reality its not possible. Healthcare in India is good in patches but woefully bad in places where it is essentially required. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted this fact. Till this is met, regional experimentations with healthcare, serving narrow political gains, can wait. MEXICO CITY Border state authorities have arrested a crusading labor lawyer who led a wave of 2019 walkouts for higher wages at border assembly plants known as maquiladoras. Detectives arrested Susana Prieto Monday in the border city Matamoros on charges that included inciting riot, threats and coercion. Prieto taped her own detention and posted it on social media, saying she had been expecting the arrest. Prieto claims that officials in the border states of Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, where she was arrested, are persecuting her because she affected the economic interests of maquiladora operators. I knew that sooner or later the governor was going to do this, Prieto said. You could see this coming. State prosecutors said Prieto is accused of threatening members of a local labor board to get them to sign off on wage increases. She is also accused of having prevented staff from entering or leaving maquiladora plants during the walkouts in 2019 and of having used coercion on maquiladora owners to get them to yield to wage increases. It is unclear whether Prietos status as an independent labor adviser she holds no union post may have made her a target of charges. At least some of the tactics described are used routinely in strikes and other protests in Mexico. Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, was the city where Prieto led a wave of successful strikes in early 2019 at 48 export-oriented maquiladoras that won workers 20 percent pay increases and $1,650 bonuses. It is governed by the conservative opposition National Action Party Video posted on her Facebook page showed a large crowd of people gathered outside prosecutors offices in Matamoros on Monday chanting slogans for her release, shouting .We are with Susana! and Free Susana! Prieto also recently campaigned against policies at maquiladora plants in Ciudad Juarez that she claimed put workers at risk of catching the new coronavirus. She filmed and appeared to advise walkouts at some Ciudad Juarez plants that refused to shut down and send workers home with full pay, which Mexican labor law allows. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador unleashed the series of wage demands in late 2018, when he doubled the daily minimum wage to 176.20 pesos (then about $9.30) along Mexicos northern border. To keep wages low, maquiladoras in Matamoros which often pay workers just a couple of dollars per hour had long indexed wage increases to the minimum wage; That policy that backfired when Lopez Obrador doubled it. Lopez Obradors government was uncomfortable with the movement, but didnt actively try to quash it at the time. That was in part because he had pledged to end government manipulation of unions and allow new, more representative labor movements in a nation where unions have long been corrupt, acquiescent and manipulated by the government. Lopez Obrador has pledged to stay out of internal union affairs and has been loath to arrest old-guard union leaders. Asked in May about Lopez Obradors decision, amid U.S. pressure, to reopen many plants despite the coronavirus pandemic, she said it showed the government was yielding to pressure from multinationals. Is it safe? Prieto asked. It is safe to say that the president of Mexico is a puppet of Mexican and foreign (businesses) that do not care about the lives of Mexican workers. After the crowds gathered at prosecutors offices Monday in Matamoros, prosecutors transfered Prieto south to the state capital, Ciudad Victoria, where she was to have an initial court hearing Tuesday. Some scattered protests continued in Matamoros Tuesday. No disciplinary action will be taken against Hamilton police over their response to violent clashes at Hamilton Pride 2019, after an internal investigation concluded complaints against the service were unsubstantiated. The findings, released publicly by the Hamilton Police Services Board on Monday, are in contrast to an independent investigation, also released Monday, that concluded the police preparation and co-ordination was wholly inadequate. The internal investigation by Det. Sgt. Gary Heron, of the professional standards branch, was required after the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) ordered three complaints against the service should be investigated by Hamilton police. The complaints centred on the police services alleged inaction at last years Pride celebration that saw violent clashes between homophobic evangelists and white supremacists against counterprotesters at Gage Park. When the counterprotesters, dressed in black with their faces covered in pink masks, shielded the protesters hateful messages, violence broke out with people being kicked and punched. It took several minutes for police to respond. The incident exacerbated already strained relations between police and the LGBTQ community, particularly after public comments by Police Chief Eric Girt about police not being invited to Pride. The allegations in the complaints included that police failed to properly plan for the June 15, 2019, festival, that it took police too long to respond once the disturbance erupted, and that police failed to arrest the protesters who incited the violence. Hamilton police said they will not comment before the police board meeting Thursday, where lawyer Scott Bergman author of the separate independent report will present his findings. Both reports looked at events before, during and after Pride, with Bergman calling out the police for not reasonably anticipating the possibility of conflict and only coming up with an operational plan two days before the event. However, he was not critical off the first officers on the ground who responded appropriately to a chaotic and volatile situation while safely waiting for backup. Graham Crawford, an LGBTQ community member and a vocal critic of mayor and chiefs response to Pride, said the differences between the independent review and the internal police review highlight the need for cultural change within the police service. You have one report that is damning. And the other report says we did nothing wrong! Were perfect, he said. How does that happen? In 2018, a group of evangelist protesters attended Pride and things became heated, but not violent. With police intervention the protesters left. The reports state it was expected these protesters would return in 2019. In addition, a number of yellow-vest protesters, known to be anti-immigration and anti-carbon tax, had been already demonstrating at city hall in the weeks leading up to Pride. According to the police investigation, officers met with Pride committee members on April 25 to discuss police involvement. A police application for a recruitment booth was denied. On June 13, Sgt. Jennifer Granatier was tasked with creating an operational plan for the festival she sought information from the police intelligence branch and spoke for 12 minutes on the phone with a Pride organizer. In the report, it says she garnered basic information and said the caller expressed that he had absolutely no concerns regarding the festival, or the potential for religious protesters to attend. Cameron Kroetsch has spoken publicly about his recollection of that phone call, saying he spoke in excruciating detail about what police could expect at the park on June 15, including an anticipated time and location where the hateful protesters had showed up the year before. The operation plan made note of the anticipated return of the religious protesters and the yellow-vest group. It said Pride Hamilton advised that a uniform police presence wasnt welcome. Police made plans to have two plain-clothed officers at the festival, along with two patrol officers who would attend if required. Heron noted the discrepancies between Kroetsch and Granatiers telling of that phone conversation. Ultimately, Heron concluded that despite the conflicting information, the operational plan was measured and proportional to the event in front of them. The public order unit was deployed to city hall the day of Pride for the larger anticipated yellow-vest protests there but police advised they would redeploy to Gage Park if needed. Heron concluded the public order unit was appropriately deployed. He also found that the police priority response system protocols were followed that day in how and when officers were deployed, and that no policies were violated in the investigation that followed. According to the report only one officer on scene said she saw an assault a protester hit on the head with a rolled-up poster. The officer arrested the suspect, but released the person unconditionally when the victim did not come forward. Other officers described seeing people bloodied and coming upon the aftermath of the violence and a chaotic scene. Some victims refused to speak with police. Police have arrested five people and laid seven criminal charges to date the investigation is ongoing. However, several of those arrested were Pride defenders accused of parole and probation breaches. Hamilton police have appealed to the public several times for victims and witnesses to come forward. In the days after the incident, a number of videos of the violence surfaced on social media. Police catalogued and analyzed the videos but the investigation was challenging because of identification. Many individuals had their faces covered. The Hamilton Police Service has guidelines in place to ensure the effective police response to the communities we serve, the report concludes. This investigation has discovered that the policies and procedures were followed in this instance and that there were no identified issues. The coinage Corona Express by Mamata Banerjee to trains ferrying migrant workers will turn into an exit express for the Trinamool, home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday, sharpening the attack on the Bengal chief minister at a virtual rally. The name Corona Express that you have given, Mamata didi, will become your exit route. Youve added salt to the wounds of the migrant workers and they will not forget this, said Shah during an online address to workers at West Bengal Jan Samvad rally. The BJP has been holding these virtual rallies to spread the message of the party and the government and also give a push to political activity. The home minister was drawing attention to Bengal CMs criticism of running migrant trains, accusing the railways of packing in most migrants in one train instead of running several of them. Watch: Corona express will ensure your exit from West Bengal: Amit Shah In the name of Shramik Special trains, the railways is running Corona Express trains...The Railways is sending migrants in jam-packed compartments...The number of COVID-19 cases is increasing because of this. The Railways has some social obligation, they cannot just operate on the basis of profit and loss, she said. Banerjee had claimed at the time that the state was able to control the spike in the coronavirus cases, but the influx of people through Shramik Specials pushed the numbers up again. The Shramik Specials were being run by the Centre to help migrants, stuck in various states due to the nationwide lockdown necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic, reach home. UAE failed expansionism in Libya, Yemen costs billions of dollars: Report Iran Press TV Monday, 08 June 2020 7:08 AM A report says the United Arab Emirates' expansionist policy and its involvement in conflicts in Libya and Yemen have cost the country billions of dollars, sparking condemnation from senior officials inside the emirates, amid the failure of the Emirati-backed militants in both countries. The UAE has been supporting Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar against the Tripoli-based internationally recognized government. The country is also part of the Saudi-led coalition against Yemen and has even clashed with the Riyadh-backed militants in the country. The UAE has provided the militants in both countries with extremely expensive weapons -- including unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles, helicopters and air defense systems, according to Turkish state news agency Anadolu. "Thousands of civilians have been killed in Yemen and Libya due to the use of these weapons supplied by the UAE," the report added. The news agency referred to a report on Libya released by the UN Security Council in December last year that also confirmed the UAE's support for Haftar and clearly demonstrated the inventory of weapons and ammunition supplied. Libya has been in chaos since 2011, when a popular uprising and a NATO intervention led to the ouster of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Since 2014, two rival seats of power have emerged in Libya, namely the internationally-recognized government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, and another group based in the eastern city of Tobruk, supported militarily by Haftar's rebels. The strongman, who is primarily supported by the UAE, Egypt, and Jordan, launched a deadly offensive to capture Tripoli, the seat of the government, in April last year. His forces have been bogged down on the city's outskirts. According to the UN, hundreds of people have been killed and more than 200,000 have been displaced as a result of the offensive. Government forces recently liberated several towns that had been occupied by the rebels in the northwest. Haftar's rebels have been intensifying a pushback by escalating attacks on civilians in the capital. The UAE also pays for thousands of mercenaries from countries such as Chad and Sudan to fight alongside Haftar. The report added that the UAE, one of the members of coalition against Yemen, sent several heavy weapons worth billions of dollars to Yemen as well as deploying its own soldiers. Moreover, the country is also the only supporter of the separatist Southern Transition Council (STC), which attacked Saudi-backed militants in Yemen and unilaterally declared "autonomy" in the south of the country. Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement. The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past five years. According to the report, the UAE's aggressive foreign policies drew opposition from some of seven emirates. "Like Saudi Arabia and some other oppressive Arab regimes, the UAE has one of the non-leaking governments. However, it was learned that a secret meeting was held several months ago on the country's foreign policy and its interventionist attitudes towards the countries in the region," the news agency reported. At the meeting, the news agency says, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the vice president and prime minister of the UAE, expressed his opposition to the country's foreign policy. "We spend hundreds of millions of dollars every day and what do we get in return?" Al Maktoum said. He also called for reviewing "its aggressive and intrusive foreign policy as soon as possible because it had cost enough to the country and that it had no benefits", the report added. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Coronation Street is ready to resume filming after production was halted for nearly three months due to the coronavirus pandemic. And Andy Whyment, 39, shared a photo of new scripts to his Instagram on Tuesday and told fans he is 'excited.' The actor, who plays Kirk, revealed on the Lorraine show last week that they will be returning to TV screens in time to stop the soap going off air. Excited: Andy Whyment, 39, shared a photo of new Coronation Street scripts to his Instagram on Tuesday and told fans he is 'excited' The two scripts featured 'Coronation Street' at the top of the page but did not give any details of storyline. To accompany the sneak peak, Andy penned: 'New scripts EXCITED' with smiley faces and a thumbs up emoji. Actors were spotted returning to the set in Manchester on Monday and the show began production again on Tuesday. Coronation Street bosses confirmed last week 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 set. Secret: The two scripts featured 'Coronation Street' at the top of the page but did not give any details of storylines The new safety measures are in accordance with the recently issued TV production guidelines which will be observed whilst filming the top ITV soap. Once they begin filming, they aim to keep airing three episodes a week to ensue the soap does not go off air. The return to filming will ensure the soap, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in December, stays on air in July. The new episodes will be scheduled following the instalments recorded earlier this year before the coronavirus pandemic halted production in March. Cast and crew over the age of 70, or with an underlying health condition, will be kept at home during the early stages. This may be sad news for soap fans, as cast members who fall into that age bracket include William Roache (who plays Ken Barlow), Barbara Knox (Rita Tanner), Malcolm Hebden (Norris Cole), Sue Nicholls (Audrey Roberts) and Maureen Lipman (Evelyn Plummer). They're back: The actor, who plays Kirk, revealed on the Lorraine show last week that they will be returning to TV screens in time to stop the soap going off air Their lawsuits are not the first to challenge Northams orders. A gun shop owner in Lynchburg won an injunction in April allowing the shop to reopen. Two Republican lawmakers challenged the shutdown orders on behalf of Golds Gym, but a judge turned down their request for an injunction allowing the gyms to reopen. A church in Chincoteague fought the ban on gatherings of more than 10 people. Images of Kildare and Ireland will be beamed in to the homes of some 260,000 people across Canada this evening when an episode of a reality TV programme, called Where to I Do?, airs on the CTV Life Channel. The show follows a couple as they search for the perfect venue for the wedding of their dreams. Filming took place here last summer and was supported by Tourism Ireland and Failte Ireland. In the 30-minute episode filmed in Ireland, Canadian viewers will see the couple, Josh and Andee, search for their dream wedding venue, together with the shows host Tommy Smythe visiting beautiful venues, including the Cliff at Lyons. The episode marks the first time ever that the programme showcases a destination outside of North America. And yesterday, Tourism Ireland in Toronto hosted an online watch party for some popular Canadian influencers to help generate lots of exposure and hype about Ireland in advance of the episode airing later today. The online party included a Q&A session with the shows host Tommy Smythe, who chatted about his time filming in Ireland. Dana Welch, Tourism Irelands Manager Canada, said: Tourism Ireland was delighted that Where to I Do? chose to film in Kildare and Ireland last summer. "This evenings episode which will be seen by more than 260,000 Canadians will showcase some of Irelands most beautiful and romantic wedding venues. While we may not be able to travel and most weddings are on hold for now, this episode will shine a spotlight on Ireland as a romantic destination, reminding viewers that Ireland is a fantastic location for future weddings and honeymoons. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 Trend: The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) held a foreign exchange auction with the participation of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), during which Azerbaijani banks acquired $52.7 million, Trend reports on June 9 referring to the CBA. The demand from the banks at the auction increased by 17.9 percent or by $8 million compared to the figure during the previous auction and reached $52.7 million. Taking into account the number of days remaining before the next scheduled auction, as well as with the aim of ensuring uninterrupted currency trading by the banks, the demand of banks at the auction will be fully ensured during weekends. The first foreign exchange auction after a long time was held with the participation of SOFAZ on March 10, 2020, during which Azerbaijani banks acquired $323.2 million. The CBA has begun to hold foreign exchange auctions through unilateral sale of foreign currency in competitive conditions since mid-January 2017. A decision was made in March 2020 to hold extraordinary foreign exchange auctions in connection with the increased demand of the population for foreign currency amid the failed OPEC+ deal, which entailed a sharp decline in oil prices. ----- Follow the author on Twitter: @eldarjanashvili Later this year, Studio Ghibli will release Aya to Majo ("Aya and the Witch"), a new feature film from Hayao Miyazaki. The animation auteur's son Goro Miyazaki directed the film, the first 3D-CG effort from the studio. The movie is based on the children's book Earwig and the Witch by British writer Diana Wynne Jones who also penned the novel Howl's Moving Castle upon which the 2004 Ghibli film was based. From Variety: In a statement Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki said he was worried as to whether "Aya to Majo" could hold up in the new post-corona environment. "I thought that a number of times while watching the rushes," he said. "Then I realized that one stand-out feature of the film is Aya's cleverness. And if you are clever you can survive in any period of history. Thinking that, I felt relieved." Laredo and other Texas border officials are urging the Department of Homeland Security to open up U.S.-Mexico land ports to tourists after months of allowing only essential travel. READ MORE: Laredo passes 600 coronavirus cases after latest update Currently travel for medical reasons, work, school and emergency response, plus commercial trade, are the only crossings permitted at bridges such as Laredos. These restrictions are set to expire June 22, unless extended by DHS Secretary Chad Wolf. However, the Trump administration reportedly intends to extend these restrictions indefinitely, or until the director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decides that the virus no longer poses a threat, as the New York Times reported last month. The Texas Border Coalition, a group made up of border mayors and county judges, wrote a letter to Wolf on Monday encouraging him to let the order expire and allow tourists to travel between the U.S. and Mexico in late June. We must protect minority-owned small businesses, cross border trade, and the influence of daily travelers between our countries who invest in binational commerce through the goods and services they acquire, Cameron County Judge and TBC chairman Eddie Trevino Jr. wrote in the letter. The pandemic has put a halt to this critical exchange of business and has left border cities economically paralyzed. Both Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador have eased restrictions put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19. Texas opening began May 1 and Mexicos was June 1. As Texas and Mexico lift restrictions based on improved health results, the basis for the orders restricting non-essential cross-border travel appear ripe for expiration. If they are further implemented, these will cause border communities and businesses to suffer economically, more than they already have due to the COVID-19 crisis, Trevino said. Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz said this is generally the consensus among leaders up and down the Texas-Mexico border. The Texas Border Summit is also sending a similar letter to Wolf this week. Theres an organized effort here to press on DHS in particular to reconsider and open up the border. Because we really are hurting economically, Saenz said. The economies of essentially all border cities with an international bridge depend in some way on cross-border tourism. In Laredo, that manifests especially in retail, where around 40% of sales can be attributed to visitors from Mexico. The citys small businesses are truly hurting, Saenz said. And although hes worried that Mexico has not adequately recovered from this pandemic, Laredo has no other choice but to try and open to them again, he said. He believes that people need to get used to the rules of the new normal covering their nose and mouth, social distancing and washing hands to properly open up the economy. READ MORE: Woman found dead with gunshot wound to head in Nuevo Laredo Those three basic essentials will have to be adhered to aggressively for this to work, Saenz said. Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com Experts have warned that a further surge of coronavirus in under-developed regions with shaky health systems could undermine efforts to halt the pandemic. Scientists have called for more realistic options as many countries begin lifting lockdown measures. Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, India and Pakistan are among the countries easing tight restrictions before their outbreaks have peaked or any detailed surveillance and testing system have been put in place to keep the virus under control. Dr Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Exeter, said: Politicians may be desperate to get their economies going again, but that could be at the expense of having huge numbers of people die. He said reimposing recently lifted lockdown measures was equally dangerous. Doing that is extremely worrying because then you will build up a highly resentful and angry population, and its unknown how they will react, he added. And as nearly every developed country struggles with its own outbreak, there may be fewer resources to help those with long overstretched capacities. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation, said the pandemic is worsening globally, noting that on Sunday countries reported the biggest ever one-day total: more than 136,000 cases. With almost 7M #COVID19 cases & 400K deaths globally, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal. We urge active: -surveillance to ensure the virus does not rebound -finding, isolating, testing & caring for every case -tracing & quarantining every contact https://t.co/B7po1dAN3F Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) June 8, 2020 Among those, nearly 75% of the cases were from 10 countries in the Americas and South Asia. Wealthy countries in Europe and North America hit first by the pandemic are training armies of contact tracers to hunt down cases, designing tracking apps and planning virus-free air travel corridors. But in many poor regions where crowded slums and streets mean even basic measures like hand-washing and social distancing are difficult, coronavirus is exploding now that restrictions are being removed. Last week, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, India and Pakistan all saw one-day records of new infections or deaths as they reopened public spaces and businesses. Expand Close Churches have reopened after lockdown in India (AP/Mahesh Kumar A.) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Churches have reopened after lockdown in India (AP/Mahesh Kumar A.) Clare Wenham of the London School of Economics described the situation in Brazil as terrifying, noting the governments decision to stop publishing a running total of Covid-19 cases and deaths. Weve seen problems with countries reporting data all over the world, but to not even report data at all is clearly a political decision, she said. That could complicate efforts to understand how the virus is spreading in the region and how its affecting the Brazilian population, Wenham added. Johns Hopkins University numbers showed Brazil recorded more than 36,000 coronavirus deaths on Monday, the third-highest in the world, just ahead of Italy. There were nearly 692,000 cases, putting it second behind the US. Rio de Janeiro allowed surfers and swimmers back in the water and small numbers of beach-goers were defying a still-active ban on gathering on the sand. Expand Close A surfer on Ipanema Beach in Rio (AP/Leo Correa) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A surfer on Ipanema Beach in Rio (AP/Leo Correa) Bolivia has authorised reopening most of the country, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also recently unwound restrictions, Ecuadors airports have resumed flights and shoppers have returned to some of Colombias shopping centres. In Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged the country to stay calm after officials last week reported escalating fatalities that rivalled those in Brazil or the US. Let there not be psychosis, let there not be fear, Mr Lopez Obrador said, while accusing the media of fanning concerns of an escalating crisis. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that a street in each of the city's five boroughs will be renamed after prominent leaders in the black community in honor of the Black Lives Matter movement. de Blasio revealed the plans for the Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn after a Sunday meeting with activists including Gwen Carr the mother of Eric Garner who was killed when NYPD put him in a choke hold in 2014. The names of the leaders have not yet been revealed. The mayor's decision comes after Washington DC Mayor renamed part of Pennsylvania Avenue as Black Lives Matter Plaza last week and volunteers painted the new name in bold yellow letters across the street. NYC Mayor De Blasio said in a Tuesday briefing that a street in each borough will be renamed after a prominent black leader. He explained: 'This city must fully fully, deeply feel, and this nation must as well, that black lives matter' It follows a move from the Washington DC Mayor last week. Muriel Bowser renamed Pennsylvania Ave, leading up to the White House, Black Lives Matter Plaza (pictured) One of the locations will be near City Hall but the other four are yet to be announced 'It's time to do something officially representing this city,' de Blasio said in a Tuesday press briefing. 'To represent the fundamental power of Black Lives Matter.' The Black Lives Matter international human rights movement started in July 2013 but is now a household name after inspiring people all over the world to protest against racial injustice, systematic and institutional racism as well as countless incidents brutality against people in the black community. Much like civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr, and Malcolm X, more big influences on the Black Lives Matter movement will have streets dedicated to them. De Blasio said the proposal came from a leader at Gracie Mansion on Sunday. They decided it was important to 'name streets in each borough and to paint the words on the streets of this city in each borough at a crucial location. He said one of the locations will be near City Hall. The other four are yet to be announced. 'This city must fully fully, deeply feel, and this nation must as well, that black lives matter,' De Blasio said. Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, was at a meeting Sunday with the mayor and other activists when the idea was raised In New York's Staten Island Eric Garner was killed by Daniel Pantaleo who was arresting him for selling cigarettes, but the officer was only fired and didn't face criminal charges. Her son Eric Garner was killed in a choke hold in Staten Island in 2014 after telling cops: 'I can't breathe'. White cop Daniel Pantaleo was fired but didn't face criminal charges His mother attended the memorial for George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed by white cop Derek Chauvin on May 25 when he was being detained for buying cigarettes with a suspected counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for 8 mins and 46 seconds until Floyd died. Like Garner, his last words were: 'I can't breathe.' Countless other African American victims of senseless killing are yet to get justice, including Breonna Taylor an EMT who was killed while sleeping in her Kentucky apartment in March. Ahmaud Arbery was hunted down by three white men and shot dead while out jogging Georgia in February. Iesha Sekou, the founder and CEO of Street Corner Resources, an anti-violence organization, said during the press briefing: 'We don't want to have to name a street, but I'm glad that we are. 'We also want to make sure that police are not allowed to act the way we've been seeing.' 'We're looking very much forward to holding the police accountable for their behavior.' JAMMU: Deceased sarpanch and Congress leader Ajay Pandita, who was killed by terrorists on Monday, was cremated in Jammu on Tuesday. His father said that Pandita worked for common people and was brave. "The terrorists fired on him from the back as they feared him," he said. A relative of Pandita alleged that he had asked for security cover but no security was provided to him. Earlier on Monday, some unidentified terrorists fired upon Congress sarpanch at Lokbawan in Anantnag. Pandita later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital. The Kashmir BJP Panchayat Raj Cell (Kashmir) today paid tribute to the slain sarpanch at party headquarter in Srinagar. Tens of BJP workers and office-bearers jointly paid tribute to the deceased Sarpanch, who was killed yesterday by unknown terrorists outside his home. Meanwhile, an organisation of migrant Kashmiri pandits has called for a judicial probe into Sarpanchs murder. An Organisation of the migrant Kashmiri Pandits on Tuesday demanded a judicial probe into the murder of a minority community Sarpanch in Jammu and Kashmir`s Anantnag district. Satish Mahaldar, Chairman of Reconciliation, Return and Rehabilitation of Migrant Pandits said in a statement, "Ajay Pandita was living in the Valley because of his unbounded love for his motherland and his concerns about the village he was living in". Demanding a judicial probe into the murder, Mahaldar said, "Pandita`s fight as a representative of the minority community had given hope to the minority community and his martyrdom shall not go in vain. "Those who killed him might have thought their goal will be achieved. But, they are forgetting that by killing their own people they are only doing disservice to Kashmir. "By targeting and killing their Kashmiri brethren, and especially those who are working for the poor people, the killers are being dishonest to their own motherland. "I appeal for shunning of the gun and to share grievances, those can be fought together to achieve the objective of peace and brotherhood". The murder of the Sarpanch has been widely condemned in Kashmir, both by political leaders and the common man. A young Naas mother of two toddlers who is sharing what she describes as an 'overcrowded' house is desperately appealing for assistance from Kildare County Council. The mother, whose son is due to start creche, this September, is sleeping on the couch of her parent's council house in Naas, which she has lived in all of her life. She says that the children sleep in the sitting room with her as all the other rooms in the house are full. The unemployed 21- year- old mother, who does not want to be named said: I have to put up their travel cots up and down everyday, they are in the sitting room with me. This is our only problem we need to be housed its out of hand now , I've tried Housing Assistance Payment and I'm on homeless Housing Assistance Payment and still too difficult ! I've been trying the last three and a half years." She said:"I've been on the housing list in Kildare County Council since 2017. Ever since then I've been onto them about getting housed. I've been under pressure to find somewhere on the rent sites for the last four years and have got absolutely nothing as I have no references etc. Then yesterday my Mam gets a letter from the council stating that we have been hereby refused tenancy on my Mam's and Dad's application. So therefore i can't stay there long term. She said:They need to house me and my two kids. I've been onto them for the last four years and I have everything to be a priority. I had no other option now than letting people know. Fianna Fail TD,James Lawless, says since getting elected in Co Kildare, back in 2014, he has seen a major shortage of housing. He says that while it is very easy to get approved for Housing Assistance Payment by Kildare County Council, it is very difficult to get a house to rent on it. He advises people seeking housing, like the Naas mother, with two children, in overcrowded conditions, to search through Daft, get a landlord who accepts Housing Assistance Payment and get Kildare County Council to approve it. According to Deputy Lawless Kildare County Council has one of the greatest needs for housing in the country. He said: The last time I checked, Dublin city, Cork city and Co Kildare were in the greatest need of housing. There are families in dire straits, we need to build houses and increase the amount of rental accommodation. Deputy Lawless says that family style housing needs to be built, and there needs to be a mix of housing built, not just high rise apartments. He says that if all the vacant properties in the county were seized, there still would not be enough housing available for the need. Deputy Lawless said: It is heartbreaking. He says that people on the Kildare County Council housing list could be waiting between seven to 10 years and says that affordability is also part of the problem, both for rental and buying. He attributes the recession in 2008 to 2013 as being a major reason for the shortfall in housing and the major issue with getting planning permission in Co Kildare. He says that when builders had to leave the country to find work, houses stopped being built. Several families who own land in the countryside have been unable to get planning permission in Co Kildare and many are paying very high levies, he says, when they finally get planning approved, in contrast to Laois County Council. Deputy Lawless said: In Kildare County Council people could be paying levies of 15,000 to 20,000 and in Offaly could be paying 5,000. Housing Assistance Payment is easy to get but the problem is getting a property to rent under this is not easy. Connie Crayden was lacking in self-confidence when she 'married' Jonethen Musulin on Married At First Sight earlier this year. But on Monday, the 28-year-old wasn't shy as she debuted her sleek new blonde locks while showing her fans how she cooks a pumpkin risotto on Instagram. The reality tv star looked completely unrecognisable as she showed off her new hair colour and fringe. Who's that girl? Married At First Sight's Connie Crayden looked unrecognisable as she debuted her new blonde hair in a stunning transformation on Monday Connie looked radiant as she flaunted her luscious locks with blonde highlights that perfectly framed her face. She also wore glamorous makeup, with a full coverage foundation, smokey eye with cooper tones and defined brows to complement her new look. The Melbourne-based retail assistant showed off her figure in a pink jumper as well as jeans. A whole different Connie! She came across as the shy girl next door while on MAFS, but she has since transformed into a glamorous influencer after filming wrapped Her makeover comes after Connie signed with an agency to help her secure more opportunities as an Instagram influencer. The marine biology student signed with Society Eight Management last month. The agency also reps Love Island Australia stars Cassie Lansdell and Isabelle Grace, as well as The Block's Elise and Matt. Not so shy anymore! Her makeover comes after Connie signed with an agency to help her secure more opportunities as an Instagram influencer Despite coronavirus putting a dampener on this season's casts' emerging influencer careers, most have signed with talent agencies. Cathy Evans, who recently called Connie a 'mean girl', is signed with THE.mgmt, who also looks after Jules Robinson, Cam Merchant and Elizabeth Sobinoff. Stacey Hampton previously signed with Neon Model Management, who look after stars from international shows, such as Love Island UK and Vanderpump Rules. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba discussed with Executive Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans Ukraine's involvement in the EU hydrogen initiatives. "The interlocutors discussed Ukraine's participation in the implementation of the European Green Deal and further integration of Ukraine into the EU energy market. The parties paid special attention to renewable energy sources, in particular hydrogen," the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reports. According to Kuleba, Ukraine has the potential to become one of the key suppliers of hydrogen to the EU market, using the capacity of the Ukrainian gas transmission system. "Ukraine's integration into EU markets is irreversible and must further deepen. In particular, the hydrogen energy market is one of the most promising. Ukraine and the EU should talk not only about what is relevant here and now, but about the strategic prospects also. This is exactly Ukraine's participation in the future EUs hydrogen market, the minister said. The European Commissions Vice President for the European Green Deal noted that the implementation of the Deal remains a priority despite the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. According to him, Brussels pays increasing attention to the use of hydrogen energy as one of the effective ways to make the European economy climate neutral by 2050. The interlocutors agreed to intensify cooperation in the implementation of the EU hydrogen initiatives. Timmermans welcomed Ukraine's intention to participate in the 2x40 GW Green Hydrogen Initiative and the Clean Hydrogen Alliance, and expressed the EU's readiness to facilitate these efforts. ol NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said that Konkan is in a bad shape as it was badly affected by Cyclone Nisarga. The people here need immediate relief by both, the state and central government. Pawar said that he will also meet the authorities in Delhi to get all the necessary relief for the affected people at the earliest. Pawar is on a two-day tour to assess the situation in the wake of the damages caused in the region owing to Cyclone Nisarga. On Tuesday, he visited areas such as Mangaon, Mhasla, Diveagar of Raigad. He interacted with villagers to understand their issues and resolve them. He also held a meeting with local MLAs (members of legislative Assembly], members of parliament and senior officials from district administration to assess the damages and relief measures. Farming and fishing are the two major source of livelihood for the people staying here. I found farmlands were damaged, mango and cashew orchards etc. have been destroyed, a huge number of trees, especially of coconut, have fallen, fishing boats and other equipment of the fishermen have been damaged. All this at a time when they were already sitting at home for more than two months due to the lockdown, the NCP chief said during a press interaction. At many places, there is no power supply as electricity poles have fallen down. People are also not getting drinking water as pipelines have been damaged. Both need to be restored in the next five to seven days. People should also be provided with food grains, kerosene etc. Those who have already been distributed under Public Distribution System (PDS), should be provided with it again as the stock has been destroyed, Pawar said. To provide immediate relief to the affected people, the process of conducting panchnama (damage assessment by the local authorities) should be completed as early as possible. I heard a team from central government is also coming to assess the damages. We will take the support of both the state and central government. We will also meet the concerned authorities in Delhi to provide relief to the affected people, the veteran leader said. On Wednesday, the NCP chief would be visiting Ratnagiri district. On June 3, after the cyclone made landfall in Alibag; Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Thane and Palghar reported severe damages. On June 5, chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray had visited Raigad. He has also announced an immediate relief package of 200 crore for Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. In a review meeting held on June 7, Thackeray said Thane and Palghar did not suffer as much damage as compared to the other districts and relief packages for them will be declared after assessments. On Tuesday, Shiv Sena has declared to start a helpline for the affected people. Those affected can call on 1800228595 and 02224398366 between 11am and 6pm and share damage details. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A former University of Winnipeg student leader and one-time provincial Liberal candidate is the subject of a human rights investigation, after a photo of him in blackface surfaced on social media Monday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A former University of Winnipeg student leader and one-time provincial Liberal candidate is the subject of a human rights investigation, after a photo of him in blackface surfaced on social media Monday. In the photo, David Teffaine, a business student at U of W, appears to be dressed as disgraced entertainer Bill Cosby at a Halloween party with three other white people in costumes. He is pictured wearing a patchy wool sweater, black hat and black face paint, while holding an orange pill bottle. (After years of denying allegations of predatory behaviour, Cosby was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2018. He lost an appeal in 2019.) A reverse image search of the photo indicates it was first posted to Facebook in early 2016. On Monday morning, a screenshot was posted on Facebook by a former executive on the University of Winnipeg Students Association, who called for Teffaine to be held accountable for his racism and misogyny. Hours later, Teffaine took to Instagram to apologize for the harm the photo has caused. "My costume dehumanizes, ridicules and disrespects the black community and reinforces racist ideals. I will deeply regret, for the rest of my life, wearing this costume and misunderstanding the actions it supports," he wrote. Teffaine, who did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication, added he would continue to educate himself on systemic racism in the future to "become a better person." The UWSA announced Monday it was cutting all ties with Teffaine previously a student-at-large on its boards subcommittee and a representative on the U of Ws board of regents. "We are truly disgusted and disturbed by what has occurred, and sincerely apologize," states the post made on behalf of its executive team. Last autumn, Teffaine ran an unsuccessful provincial campaign for the constituency of Swan River under the Manitoba Liberal banner. Until several months ago, he was also an active member of the Manitoba Young Liberals. On Monday, both the party and youth affiliate said Teffaine had not been a registered member of the respective organizations for several months. "None of us were aware of this until today," said David Engel, president of the Manitoba Liberals. "All I can say is those sorts of things, we do take very seriously." According to his Facebook profile, Teffaine is also the executive director of marketing at the Manitoba Youth Association of Multiculturalism. Association president Ashas Irfan declined to comment on the matter until he had done further research into it. Days before posting the blackface photo, former UWSA executive Mahlet Cuff took to Facebook to allege Teffaine and another student repeatedly targeted and intimidated herself and another woman of colour on campus. Teffaine did not address the allegations in his Instagram post. 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. When contacted by phone, Cuff directed a reporter to her Facebook posts. "Incidents of racism are not isolated. They are not a trend that happen, and only exist when shared over social media," Cuff wrote in the June 5 post about the alleged intimidation. The UWSAs spokeswoman said Monday all of Teffaines actions are under investigation by U of Ws Human Rights and Diversity Office. The union said it cannot disclose further details until the confidential investigation is complete. A spokesperson for the university directed an inquiry to the UWSA, citing the student unions status as an independent organization. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie 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. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 08:19 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd23b86 1 Editorial #Editorial,new-normal,pandemic,COVID-19,reopening Free There was a semblance of normality when passengers thronged to train stations in Bogor and Bekasi in West Java on Monday morning to commute to their workplaces in Jakarta after having not done so for two months during the implementation of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in the capital. What made the sight different from a couple of months ago was the fact the commuters were wearing face masks and maintaining a safe distance one from another. The Jakarta administration, as well as some other regional governments, have resumed a work-from-office arrangement to replace the work-from-home policy, as it implements a transitional PSBB period. The arrangement involves putting into practice the new normal measures the central government has promoted as it seeks to restore economic and social activities amid the COVID-19 outbreak. As of Monday, Indonesia had recorded 32,000 confirmed cases and more than 1,880 fatalities. During the transitional period, public transportation operators are required to limit passenger numbers to 50 percent capacity. The same policy also applies to office buildings, to ensure physical distancing measures can be implemented. With this new normal protocol in place, it is no surprise that the queues of commuters at train stations in Bogor reached the front gates. At Bekasi station, officials only allowed passengers aged above 60 years to take trains after 10 a.m., when traffic was lighter. Indeed, health protocols in this transitional period must be rigid and strictly enforced. It is necessary that there are people responsible for seeing that these protocols are followed, which is why the government plans to deploy military personnel, in addition to police and public order officers. The involvement of the military is controversial, but also reflects the risk the government is taking by relaxing the restrictions. Nobody would expect the government to take a gamble in its decision to begin the new normal era, despite some requirements not having been met. The daily numbers of new confirmed cases continue to fluctuate, instead of showing a consistent decline. On June 6, a new record high of 993 was set, with the government saying it was the result of increased testing. The experience of other countries should teach Indonesia that preparations matter. Singapore and South Korea, for example, revived restrictions after cases spiked just after they gave relaxation a try. Singapore and South Korea are known for their self-discipline and well-equipped health facilities, but enforcing stringent health protocols to offset the relaxation of restrictions is easier said than done. Indonesia, where many still ignore, if not deny, the spread of the deadly virus, will definitely face more challenges in adapting to the new normal. President Joko Jokowi Widodo sent a message about the governments readiness to embrace the new normal when he attended Friday prayers at Baiturrahim Mosque inside the Presidential Palace premises last week. Only 150 people were allowed to attend the prayer, in a mosque that can accommodate 750 people. Hand-washing was mandatory for those entering the mosque. After one day, it is too early to predict whether the new policy will succeed or fail. Nevertheless, the coming few weeks will prove whether this high-risk decision will earn Indonesia high gains. The women who run Australias childcare centres are about to discover how it feels to be the mice in a government experiment. After being promised a federal wage subsidy until the end of September to get them through the pandemic, they are now being told they will lose the JobKeeper payment in July. Prime Minister Scott Morrison guaranteed JobKeeper would be in place until September for all businesses, but it's ending early for childcare centres. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen That makes them a test for the Morrison government, which wants to find ways to scale back the $70 billion JobKeeper program in the industry sectors that might recover fastest from the coronavirus shutdowns. There are 120,000 childcare workers receiving the payment, worth $1,500 per fortnight. Not all are women, but the industry claims 97 per cent of its workers are female and the last census suggested it was over 90 per cent. LONDON (AP) Britain began imposing a 14-day quarantine Monday on travelers coming into the country, months after other European countries imposed similar measures to control the spread of the coronavirus. The quarantine was roundly criticized by the aviation and tourism industries, with many questioning its timing. Critics say its introduction has come too late to be useful, and some doubted it could be effectively enforced. Ryanair chief executive Michael OLeary called the quarantine a political stunt and argued that it will cause untold devastation for the countrys tourism industry, not just for the airlines. The thousands of hotels, the thousands of visitor attractions, restaurants in the next couple of months July and August are the two key months for British tourism, he added. Were facing thousands of jobs losses because of a stupid, ineffective quarantine. All passengers bar a handful of exceptions like truckers or medical workers will be asked to fill in a form detailing where they will self-isolate for two weeks and must give a phone number so authorities can check up on them. The requirement applies regardless whether they are U.K. citizens or not, and those who fail to comply could be fined. The quarantine was imposed after a heated debate on whether it would help British efforts to tamp down the U.K. outbreak or simply stamp out any hopes that the British tourism industry will recover following months of lockdown. Venki Ramakrishnan, president of the prestigious Royal Society, told the BBC the coronavirus transmission rate in the U.K. is still too high for the quarantine to work well. I would say that countries that have imposed quarantine did so either very early or after the case rate in the country had gone down quite a bit, he said. British Airways, EasyJet and Ryanair have written to the British government applying for a judicial review, arguing that the quarantine rules are disproportionate. Willie Walsh, the boss of IAG the group that owns British Airways has said that airlines were not consulted about the move. Story continues Many other European countries are beginning to reopen their borders as their infection numbers come down. Prime Minister Boris Johnsons Conservative government has been widely criticized for its slow response to fighting the outbreak. Many in his government, including Johnson himself, came down with coronavirus. Britain did not close its borders, screen international arrivals or impose testing and tracing measures for travelers during the worst of the coronavirus outbreak. The government had insisted until May that putting restrictions at the border wouldn't have a significant impact on the spread of the virus in the U.K. Figures on Monday showed that a further 55 people died after testing positive with the virus, the lowest daily rise in the number of coronavirus deaths in the country since late March. Britain's total death toll stood at 40,597, the second-highest in the world after the United States. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that while the pandemic is clearly not over, all the data showed that the country is making good progress. Coronavirus is in retreat across the land. Our plan is working, he said. At London's Stansted Airport on Monday, shopkeeper Netti Rexhmet, who arrived from the Netherlands, said the rule will prevent him from working for two weeks. We havent got any other options, its government law so I shall do it, he said, but added: For me, I wouldnt want to do it. ... Ive got things to do." In other developments in Europe: MOLDOVA SEES COVID-19 CASES SURGE: A former health minister says Moldova's coronavirus pandemic is out of control as the number of new cases keeps rising. Statistics released Monday show that Moldova registered 1,149 new COVID-19 cases in the first week of June, the highest weekly figure since March 7, when the first case was registered. Former Health Minister Ala Nemerenco said on Facebook that you dont have to be an epidemiologist, a virologist, or even a doctor to understand that the situation has gotten out of control. Moldova has registered 9,700 coronavirus cases and 346 deaths. POLAND SHUTS 12 MINES AMID OUTBREAK: Polish authorities have ordered the closure of 12 coal mines for three weeks after hundreds of workers were infected with COVID-19. The measure announced Monday comes as coal mines in Polands southern mining region of Silesia have become virus hot spots. Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin says miners will receive full pay during the closure. Some 5,000 of Poland's 27,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases are coal miners. MOSCOW ENDS TWO-MONTH LOCKDOWN: The Russian capital is ending a tight lockdown that has been in place for more than two months, citing a slowdown in the coronavirus outbreak. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said starting Tuesday residents will no longer be required to obtain electronic passes for travel and can walk, use public transport and drive without restrictions. The number of daily infections in Moscow has dropped from a peak of 6,700 to about 2,000 recently. Meanwhile, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Monday that traveling abroad for work, studying, receiving medical treatment or taking care of relatives will be allowed. It wasnt immediately clear when the partial reopening of Russia's borders would take effect. CYPRUS POLICE MOVES AGAINST SCOFFLAW BAR: Cypriot officials are warning against undue complacency in enforcing social distancing rules after video emerged of an jam-packed open-air nightclub at a popular seaside resort. Cyprus police spokesman Christos Andreou told The Associated Press on Monday that the Ayia Napa nightclubs owner faces a charge of flouting maximum capacity limits. Andreou said police are taking the owner to court because he was repeatedly warned over the weekend and will also seek a court order to temporarily shut down the club. ___ Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak By Josh Smith SEOUL, June 9 (Reuters) - North Korea has said it is cutting communication hotlines with South Korea, a tactic the isolated country has used repeatedly during periods of rising tension. At least 49 hotlines have been established between the two Koreas to arrange diplomatic talks, deconflict military operations, coordinate air and sea traffic, hold humanitarian discussions, and cooperate on economic issues. Most of all, the South sees the lines as an important way to prevent misunderstandings in the event of a crisis. Sometimes the lines fall into disuse when relations sour, as they have when multilateral talks stalled over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and strict international sanctions imposed on it. Lines of communication were last cut in 2016 and restored in 2018, when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un launched a diplomatic offensive after two years of intensive ballistic missile and nuclear tests, and a heated war of words with U.S. President Donald Trump. When North Korea has stopped communicating, South Korean officials still typically try to call every day at the same time, even if there is no answer. South Korean officials have sometimes used a bullhorn to shout messages across the border at the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom, the only spot along the heavily fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ) where troops from both sides stand face to face. In January 2018, when North and South Korea arranged the first official talks in more than two years, liaison officials spoke using desktop telephone consoles, each the size of a small refrigerator. That hotline dates to the 1970s, though newer systems were installed in 2009. All of the hotlines operated by the South's Unification Ministry, which handles civilian inter-Korean affairs, use similar equipment, according to the ministry. The system features a computer screen, disk drives, and USB ports, as well as two colour-coded telephone handsets. Story continues A red phone is for incoming calls from North Korea and South Korea uses a green phone to make outgoing calls to the North. No other numbers can be called - the phones only connect to a counterpart on the other side. The two sides also use fax machines to send documents. Photos of the equipment used by the South Korean military show a series of small, olive-drab desktop phones labelled "two-sided inter-Korean hotline." It is not known what the equipment looks like on the North's side. The spurt of inter-Korean talks that followed those January phone calls led to the opening of more hotlines, including - for the first time - a direct connection between the offices of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In 2019, South Korea's prime minister revealed that the presidential hotline had never been used, and local media report it has not been used since. The two Koreas also opened a liaison office in Kaesong, North Korea, where officials from both sides worked daily. In January, that office was "temporarily" closed because of coronavirus worries, though the two sides had continued to hold daily phone calls from Seoul and Pyongyang. (Reporting by Josh Smith. Additional reporting by Sangmi Cha. Editing by Gerry Doyle) The number of people in Rhode Island who have died from the coronavirus climbed above 800 on Tuesday, but the number of people hospitalized with the disease continues to decline, state health officials announced. The state Department of Health reported nine new fatalities for a statewide total of 808. The agency also reported 55 new positive cases, for a total of nearly 15,700. The number of people in the hospital with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, dropped to 144, according to the latest data from the state, although the number of people in intensive care rose slightly. SPENDING TASK FORCE The Rhode Island legislatures Emergency Spending Task Force formed in response to the coronavirus pandemic is scheduled to meet Tuesday. The 12-member committee is scheduled to review several items, including emergency spending on the COVID-19 response and to hear reviews of nursing home COVID-19 support, including personal protective equipment and surge hospital expenses. Most task force members will be attending in person in the House lounge, but some will attend the meeting remotely. Representatives of Gov. Gina Raimondos administration will offer testimony remotely. The meeting is not open to the public, but will be televised live on Capitol Television. FIREWORKS CANCELED Bryant University and the town of Smithfield have canceled this years July 4th holiday fireworks display and concert, the school announced Tuesday. Restrictions on large gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic made holding the event, scheduled for July 2, impossible. We know that Smithfield residents and members of Bryants campus community look forward to the annual fireworks and Navy Band concert, however COVID-19 presents a continuing health threat, and the safety of our community and neighbors is Bryants highest priority, Bryant said in a statement. As some Brussels cafes reopened after almost three months of lockdown, thirsty Belgian drinkers were more than ready. But at L'Union, a beloved neighbourhood bar in the St Gilles district of the capital they had to bide their time a little longer -- and give each other a little space. At 9:30 am the first man who orders a draught is disappointed "No beer yet. Not before 11:00 am." He opts for a green tea and counts down the minutes. But the cafe, which like many in this city owes 60 percent of its turnover to beer, is gearing up to return to business, and make up for lost time. Already, as the record-breaking sunshine of the coronavirus lockdown gives way to the more typical chilly drizzle and slate skies of spring, 50 people have turned up. Cooped up couples, old friends, the lonely elderly, teleworkers with laptops have stormed L'Union for coffee and biscuits even before the eponymous house beer starts to flow. "I was a bit worried beforehand," admits 58-year-old Bart Lemmens, who has run the quirky bar with its mismatched chairs and metal-topped bar for a quarter of a century. "We're not a gastronomic place. We work to create a convivial atmosphere. I was afraid we'd lose that. But what happened? We were invaded," he jokes. Things are not exactly as they were before, however. Staff numbers have been cut, and the tables have been pushed further apart to create a safer distance. - Kissing dangerously - Lemmens had been worried about "playing the cop" to ensure that social distancing guidelines are respected, but so far his loyal customer base has been well behaved. Most of them. "Hi there, chief! Do I get a kiss?" demands one early arrival. They pause, they smile, then a quick peck on the cheek, Belgian-style: "Let's live dangerously". Across town in a shopping district of Etterbeek, there are similar scenes, and in the "Petit Paris" cafe the landlord is too busy with relieved clients to speak. "I'm glad. I missed the social side of life," says 66-year-old Jacques, taking a coffee after dropping a friend off at a nearby hospital. He has come in from the Flemish suburbs of the city and is glad that, with the bars open again, there'll be somewhere where he can answer a call of nature while waiting for news. Away from the ordinary working districts of the city, things are less busy. Signs posted on the bar immediately across from the European Union's Berlaymont headquarters that serves journalists and diplomats say it will not reopen until June 15. And the swanky Le Voltaire in the leafy residential streets of southern Ixelles, a popular expat hangout, has dropped table service in favour of becoming a high-end deli. Things were slow to get started in the tourist heart of the old city, too, where the famous bars in the old guild building around the Grand Place have extended their terraces further into the square. - Tax breaks - Even if the Belgian taste for beer appears undimmed, the epidemic -- which at its height was killing more Belgians per capita than almost anywhere else -- will leave its scars. On Friday, Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes announced that state measures to support furloughed workers and to reduce VAT on the hospitality sector would continue until the end of the year. Every resident of Belgium will get a rail pass allowing them 10 trips inside the country to support tourism during a summer season when few are visiting from outside. And employers will be urged to hand out 300 euro "catering checks" -- tax deductible -- to encourage their remaining employees to head to the bars and buy a few rounds. The 'guns' at the Energy Ministry have hit back at the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) over some claims it made against the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST). While launching its Corruption Tracker Series in Accra on Monday, June 8, 2020, the NDC accused President Akufo-Addo of creating an enabling environment for corruption to thrive in his government. National Communication Officer of the NDC, Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, at the launch, zoomed in on the BOST scandal which occurred in 2017. On the 18th of January 2017, five (5) million litres of fuel was contaminated at the premises of the state-owned Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) by the mixture of diesel and petrol, and sold to unlicensed companies namely, Movenpina and Zup Oil under dubious circumstances. At all times material to this transaction, Movenpinaa Energy and Zup oil had not been licensed by the NPA to trade in petroleum products in the downstream petroleum sector of Ghana. The sale of the contaminated fuel to these unlicensed companies therefore breached sections 11 and 32 of the NPA Act (ACT 691) of 2005, hence unlawful. Again, the transaction did not go through any tender process in breach of Sections 16(2) (c), 40(1), 35, 83 and 84 of the Public Procurement Act (Act 663) of 2003. Sammy Gyamfi noted that, in spite of these, President Akufo-Addo mounted a robust defence for BOST and its previous Managing Director. This was after the BNI and NPA had attempted to cover up the scandal by railroading the work of the committee that had been set up by the then Minister for Energy, Boakye Agyarko to investigate the matter, Sammy Gyamfi said. President Akufo Addo's handling of the BOSTGATE corruption scandal smacks of grand collusion and cover-up of epic proportions. The fact that till date, no one is standing prosecution for this pungent corruption scandal which has caused the nation huge financial losses, bears Akufo-Addo out as the biggest enabler and promoter of corruption, he added. Nana Damoah responds But according to Nana Damoah, Head of Communications at the Energy Ministry, the issues raised by the NDC are not factual. The NDC's intention as declared was to launch a corruption tracker, but the corruption tracker that it sought to launch is corrupt in itself so what they have done is to launch a corrupt corruption tracker. Because all the facts as they sought to put it is entirely corrupted, it is not true. There is not a shred of fact, in all the facts, especially the issues pertaining to the so-called Movenpina-BOSTGATE scandal. He in an interview with citinewsroom.com accused the NDC of telling lies about the amount of fuel that the BOST sold out in 2017. They alleged that we sold five million litres of contaminated fuel onto the Ghanaian market, it is not true. One million litres was what was sold, the four million litres were given to the Tema Oil Refinery to refine and put back onto the Ghanaian market of which the people of Ghana have gotten maximum value for so nit is not true that it is five million litres of contaminated fuel that was sold onto the Ghanaian market. They made allegations that Movenpina was unlicensed, indeed it should bring your mind to that fact that in 2015 and 2016, the NDC government, then in power, using BOST sold contaminated fuel to 38 companies and individuals all of whom were unlicensed, he added. On allegations that BOST breached the NPA Act by selling contaminated fuel without going through the laid down procedures, Mr. Damoah argued that the NDC also did the same thing when it was in power. There is no licensing category for the selling of contaminated products. If you sold products to 38 unlicensed companies and then you come out to say that the use of the same methodology by one company is criminal then the 38 that you did, what does that make you? It is also important to note that the contamination of this particular fuel happened on the 18th of January 2017 which was before any person was appointed by this government to take over operations at BOST so the contamination occurred before we came into office. But when we came into office and were made aware of the contamination, we enquired of the existing procedure and we were told of how they dispose of contaminated fuel and we did same. Ghanaians do not have a short memory. How do you say that the procedure that was established by you is criminal, but you are not a criminal? If you say that the selling of contaminated fuel to one company is a crime of gargantuan proportion, you did same to 38 companies and so what does that make you? Nana Damoah questioned. On the raising of the BOST margin from three pesewas to six pesewas, Mr Damoah said that all consultational processes, were followed before the margin was raised. ---citinewsroom Sweden's opposition MPs have said the country's Covid-19 herd immunity strategy has "failed miserably" and demanded the resignation of the chief epidemiologist. In a blistering opinion article that analysts said marked the end of a political truce during the national crisis, the leader of the populist Sweden Democrats said the state had failed to protect vulnerable citizens. "Anders Tegnell should therefore resign," wrote Jimmie Akesson in the 'Dagens Nyheter' newspaper, referring to the architect of the strategy. "Only then will he show the Swedish people that he takes responsibility for the mistakes [the Public Health Agency of Sweden] has made." Ebba Busch-Thor, leader of the Christian Democrat party, also blamed Sweden's strategy for some of the 4,694 deaths due to the virus. "The greater part of those who are now mourning over those they have lost this spring are doing so because Sweden quite knowingly allowed a large spread of the infection," she said in a heated debate broadcast on Sunday night. Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the Moderate Party, the biggest party on the centre-Right, held back from attacking the strategy, instead criticising the implementation of it. "I had no problem with the strategy. It was a bit slow but, when it was in place, I had nothing against it," he said during the debate. "But the government didn't put any power behind the words." Nicholas Aylott, associate professor at Stockholm's Sodertorn University, said the attacks marked a turning point in the political climate. "No other party leader had previously criticised so squarely the government's policy," he said. When asked about the resignation call, Dr Tegnell said: "That's a political discussion that I will leave to the politicians." In the debate, prime minister Stefan Lofven reiterated his support for the decision not to impose a lockdown, instead laying the blame for the country's death rate on failures within elderly care. Lawyers for the two men accused of enabling the escape of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan argued that US authorities wrongly arrested them for aiding bail jumping since it is not a crime in Japan. Former Green Beret Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor were arrested last month on charges of helping the business executive flee to Lebanon. The lawyers argued on June 8 that neither bail jumping nor aiding someone do it is a crime in Japan. On the basis of this argument, they asked a federal judge in Boston to quash the warrants for their arrest or release them on bail. The defence lawyers said that Japan is now considering amending the law to make such acts a crime. In January, Japanese authorities issued arrest warrants against the former Green Beret and two other men accused of smuggling former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan. The prosecutors then said that arrest warrants were issued for Michael Taylor, Peter Taylor and another man named George Antoine Zayek. Read: Ex-Green Beret Behind Venezuela Raid Suspected Of Plagiarism Aided escape via Turkey According to media reports, Taylor and Zayek accompanied the fugitive business tycoon from Japan to Turkey and landed at the smaller Ataturk airport. After travelling across the city to Istanbul airport, the duo then reportedly helped Ghosn to take a separate flight for Beirut. Taylor had served as a US special forces operative and now reportedly working as a private security contractor. Japanese tax officials had found out that the former Nissan executive diverted corporate money for his private use. The National Tax Agency of Japan had reached the conclusion that Ghosn made donations to a Lebanese University and paid consultants fees to his sister using Nissan money. The tax agency had ordered Nissan to pay taxes on the 150 million yen, which was recorded as office expenses for three years since they determined that money was spent for private purpose. Read: Ex-Green Beret Led Failed Attempt To Oust Venezuela's Maduro (With agency inputs) The AFL Grand Final could be played on a Sunday night just two days before the Melbourne Cup in a radical scheduling move being discussed by league executives. Collingwood president Eddie McGuire said the proposed November 1 time slot is being 'discussed in high places' as a way of getting around COVID-19 border closures in Western Australia and South Australia. He said two-week quarantine rules in WA may mean the league's centrepiece event needs to be pushed back a week from its current scheduled date of October 24. If the proposal is put in place the 2020 Grand Final would be played a day after Derby Day - the first day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival. Pictured: The Richmond Tigers celebrate winning the 2019 AFL Grand Final. The 2020 final could be held on November 1 to get around COVID-19 state border closures - just two days before the Melbourne Cup 'You know how peoples heads have exploded because weve mentioned that we may play this years Grand Final at night how about if I told you we might play it on a Sunday night?' McGuire told Triple M on Tuesday morning. 'If Victorian clubs are required to go to a hub in Western Australia and for that matter New South Wales clubs, if they have to go up there and they have to quarantine for two weeks... it would mean we need to get a bye in there somewhere so that means instead of playing on the Cox Plate weekend we would have to play the Grand Final on Derby weekend.' Victoria's Racing Minister Martin Pakula has also heavily hinted at the AFL Grand Final being held on the same weekend as Derby Day. 'I think Gillon [McLachlan, AFL CEO] said as recently as yesterday that hes in discussions with South Australian and West Australian governments about their border closures and one of the possibilities is that those border closures might mean they have to fit a bye in,' he told RSN radio. 'If they have to fit a bye in its more likely the grand final is on Derby weekend. 'The one thing Im absolutely certain about is it wont go head-to-head with the Derby.' Punters enjoy the 2019 Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse in November. The proposal would mean just a two-day gap between two of Australia's headline sporting events Collingwood president Eddie McGuire (centre) said the proposed November 1 time slot is being 'discussed in high places' The AFL boss last week would not rule out the possibility of having a full MCG on Grand Final Day - but said it is still a 'dream' and conditional on agreements with individual states. 'Youve got to be ready, youve got to dream, but weve got to do it in a way that works in with where our governments are and our communities,' he told AFL.com.au. 'Its an ambition [having 100,000 fans at the Grand Final].' They briefly separated in 2017 and filed for divorce the following year, before reconciling in 2019. And over one year after their reconciliation, Jennie Garth wished her husband Dave Adams a happy birthday. The Beverly Hills 90210 star posted a sweet snap of her and Dave on a boat while cruising on Whitefish Lake, which is located in Montana. All love: , Jennie Garth wished her husband Dave Adams a happy birthday The actress, 48, captioned the image: 'Happy Birthday to my husband @dirvla.' Adding: 'This world is unstable and changing and scary... but you are, as always, my rock. Iyou!!' Jennie donned a green hat with a black jacket, while opting to wear just a touch of makeup. Dave posed behind her as he drove the boat, grinning ear to ear while rocking a sweater. Sweet: The Beverly Hills 90210 star posted a sweet snap of her and David on a boat while cruising on Whitefish Lake, which is located in Montana; pictured November 9, 2019 in Austin The lovebirds began dating in fall 2014 on a blind date; they became engaged in April of 2015. Jennie and Dave, an actor, married on July 11, 2015. However, they separated in 2017 and in April 2018 they filed for divorce. Jennie and David reconciled in February 2019 and Dave had their divorce proceedings dismissed. Close: They briefly separated in 2017 and filed for divorce the following year, before reconciling in 2019 She was previously married to musician Daniel B. Clark for two years before a 12-year marriage to actor Peter Facinelli; Jennie and Peter have three daughters together: Luca, 22, Lola, 17, and Fiona, 13. Last year, Jennie told People magazine that her marriage to third husband Dave is 'not like a fairy tale.' 'Dave and I fell in love really fast and got married within six months,' Garth said. 'We rushed it too much, and that hurt us. [The possibility] of a third divorce really devastated me.' She told the magazine: 'We definitely had to just part ways completely,' she said. 'And just when I felt whole again, we started hanging out. He needed to go away and figure everything out.' 'Before, when everything wasn't shiny and pretty like it had been initially, when things got challenging, he didn't know how to handle it,' she said. 'Marriage is not like a fairy tale. It's a process, and it's about continuously wanting to make it better.' Jennie became a household name as Kelly Taylor on the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise. Big Brother's Kieran Davidson has spent years chasing A-list celebrities around. The 21-year-old has documented his various 'cringe' encounters with stars such as Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban and Kris Jenner on his YouTube channel. In one unearthed clip, the video blogger was so keen to land an interview with Keith at the ARIA Awards in 2018, he wouldn't let go of his hand until he said yes. Super fan! Big Brother's Kieran Davidson has spent years chasing A-list celebrities in videos for his YouTube channel. Pictured: Kieran and Nicole Kidman at the ARIA Awards in 2018 As Keith walked past Kieran on the red carpet, the Big Brother housemate reached out and grabbed his hand during a high-five and did not let go. 'He literally only came back to do the interview because I wouldn't let go of his hand after a high-five,' Kieran explained in the clip. 'He thought, "I may as well do the interview so I can get away from this guy". His security guard in the back was legit about to jump in.' Keen! In one unearthed clip, he was so keen to land an interview with Keith Urban (pictured) in 2018 that he wouldn't let go of his hand until he said yes 'Cringe': As Kieran did not anticipate actually getting time with Keith, he didn't have any questions prepared for the crooner As Kieran did not anticipate actually getting time with Keith, he didn't have any questions prepared for the crooner. Moments later Nicole Kidman walked past Kieran and they took a selfie together. 'She was looking at me like, "This is the cringe dude that was with my husband",' he recalled of their meeting. 'She was looking at me like, "This is the cringe dude that was with my husband",' Kieran recalled of meeting Nicole Kidman moments after his 'interview' with Keith There she is! In 2016, Kieran shared a video of himself trying to meet Kris Jenner outside of a restaurant in West Hollywood. He filmed himself pointing at her as she arrived in her car In 2016, Kieran shared a video of himself and his father hoping to meet Kris Jenner outside of a restaurant in West Hollywood when they were spending time in the US. His father attempted to chat to Kris by pushing his way through paparazzi, but failed to catch her attention. Kieran filmed himself pointing at Kris as she arrived in her car. Other videos on Kieran's YouTube channel show him standing outside influencer Jake Paul's house and trying to crash a Hollywood movie premiere. Unsuccessful: Kieran's father (pictured) attempted to chat to Kris by pushing his way through paparazzi to her during their vacation, but failed to catch her attention COLUMBIA, Mo. - The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday filed by a member of the Satanic Temple against a Missouri abortion law. At issue is a law requiring women, before they can get an abortion, to receive a pamphlet that states: The life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being. An anonymous woman, Judy Doe, sued, arguing the law violates her religious freedom as a Satanic Temple member. The Satanic Temple doesnt believe in a literal Satan but sees the biblical Satan as a metaphor for rebellion against tyranny. A federal district judge last year ruled against Doe, and the appeals court agreed. The court wrote that the case demonstrates why Missouri wasnt wrong to promote viewpoints on life that Doe argued align with the Catholic religion. Any theory of when life begins necessarily aligns with some religious beliefs and not others, the court wrote. So under Does theory, Missouris only option would be to avoid legislating in this area altogether. The Satanic Temple didnt immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment Tuesday. Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitts office didnt immediately comment but has stated support for the law. In what could provide some relief to the real estate sector, which is currently suffering from labour shortage, as many as 75,000 migrant workers, who had returned to Uttar Pradesh following the coronavirus pandemic, have given their consent to sign up for construction projects that are currently underway. "Naredco UP had approached 2.85 lakh labourers through phone calls and SMS messages out of which 75,000 labourers have given their consent to work for real estate projects in the state," said RK Arora, president, Naredco UP. Naredco had also sent emails to 75 district magistrate of UP to inform them that it has shortlisted labourers from the concerned districts as per data received from UP government and started communicating with them to hire them on different construction projects across the state. Track this blog for latest updates on the coronavirus crisis To provide employment to labourers who have returned to the state following the coronavirus pandemic, real estate body Naredcos UP Chapter had signed an MoU with the UP government to employ 2.5 lakh migrant workers on construction sites spread across the state. 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 It was signed by NAREDCO-UP in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on May 29 in Lucknow. Around 1.25 lakh workers will be absorbed at project sites spread across Ghaziabad, Noida and Greater Noida in NCR, while the remaining 1.25 lakh will be taken for projects across other cities in UP such as Meerut, Kanpur, Bareilly, Moradabad, depending on requirements of developers in these areas. "Labour shortage is the biggest challenge that the real estate sector faces today. The government is working to resolve this issue on a priority basis. The solution is within our state," he said, adding that he hopes that through this initiative work on construction sites will resume in full swing within two months. "Hopefully, we will be able to cover up on construction delays. We will gradually augment manpower. Demand for workforce may increase from 2.5 lakh to even 5 lakh going forward as work resumes," Arora added. Follow our coverage of the coronavirus crisis KAMPALA Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) is on Tuesday, June 9, celebrating a scientific National Heroes Day under the theme, Celebrating a Memorable Day as we reflect on the selflessness of the heroes/heroines who put Nation above all else. UPC welcomes this theme as the issues at hand indeed require us to put the country first as opposed to individual interests that sometimes undermine the gains of our Uhuru (freedom). The Heroes Day of the year 2020, comes at a time when the Nation is battling with COVID-19 pandemic that has put the entire world to its knees. It is disheartening to hear that some health workers who are our frontliners or heroes/heroines in this gigantic struggle to contain the Coronavirus that has claimed a number of peoples lives in other parts of the world, have also contracted the virus! reads part of the press statement. Therefore as we celebrate this scientific Heroes Day, UPC calls upon Government to recognize those worth recognition. We also call upon all people, both in Government and private sector to be patriotic and serve in the national interest. This is the only way we can promote Nationalism and develop our mother land, Uganda, stated the UPC. Modern Nationalism was pioneered and ushered into Uganda by gallant men and women, who watered the tree of freedom with their blood as well as those who put in other efforts to have a better free Uganda where all lives matter. The pioneers of our mordern Nationalism led by Ignatius Kangave Musazi who came together and founded Uganda National Congress (UNC) in 1952, with a militant motto, One man one vote, we want self Government now. In March 1960, UNC merged with Uganda Peoples Union (UPU) and gave birth to Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) who subsquently led the journey to the final destiny on 9th October,1962, when Uganda attained her Independence. Okae Lawrence, the UPC National Chairman, said that as a country, we observe this day to celebrate among other things our grand and mini achievements. For Heroes day celebrations to have real practical meaning and relevancy, we must ensure that the gains of our Uhuru are jealously protected and promoted, as primarily they are issues to do with our independence and sovereignty, he added. The UPC National Chairman, also said that the recent degenaration in rule of law, murders of children and women, reckless arrests and torture by those who are meant to enforce the law and/or lead by example, darkens our Heroes Day Celebrations. UPC challenges Government to bench mark Heroes Day celebrations with right to full enjoyment of human rights and freedoms, added Okae. Despite the challenges over the years however, Uganda still continues to celebrate her achievements over the years alongside the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their nation. Related STATEN ISLAND N.Y. -- Providing you with the latest headlines to start out your day. Multimedia journalist, Alex Salmieri talks about coronavirus data, a Wagner College Fellowship for recent graduates, a Tunnel to Towers donation, and a touching moment when a Hungerford student graduates. Watch A.M. with Alex to find out more about todays top headlines. Are you on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak? If so we are looking to hear from you. Email asalmieri@siadvance.com Multimedia journalist, Alex Salmieri talks about the coronavirus data, a Wagner College Fellowship for recent graduates, a Tunnels to Towers donation, and a touching moment when a Hungerford student graduates. The president met with Cabinet members on June 9. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine's government is ready to present its finalized action plan 2.0 to parliament this week. While meeting with Cabinet members, representatives of the parliamentary committees, and chiefs of law enforcement agencies on June 9, the president recalled that lawmakers had not backed the first version of the program, according to the presidential press service. "The parliamentary committees had numerous comments and suggestions. A lot of criticism came from members of the Servant of the People [parliamentary faction]," he said. "The prime minister has informed that the government has carefully worked out all the constructive proposals and is ready to table program 2.0 in parliament this week." Read alsoUkrainian parliament sends government's draft action program for finalization Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, in turn, said that the Cabinet would ask the parliament to consider the program on June 18-19 and support it. According to him, the document was revised taking into account the proposals of all committees, tasks from the political programs of President Zelensky and the Servant of the People Party, as well as presidential decrees and remarks from the committees. "This is a backbone document consisting of two sections. The first one is an anti-crisis section. The other features the government's long-term priorities. Each section coincides with the areas of strategy that exist in the ministries. Each section contains the expected results and indicators, as is the case for such a program," Shmyhal noted. As UNIAN reported earlier, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on June 4 sent the government's program for finalization. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 09:25:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KIGALI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda has started mass COVID-19 testing of every household in its western border town of Rusizi amid an expanding caseload, a local health official said Monday. "So far, there are 43 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Rusizi alone. We have decided to conduct mass testing of every household, particularly in areas in Rusizi that lie along the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo border," Sabin Nsanzimana, director general of Rwanda Biomedical Center, told Xinhua in a telephone interview. The target is to test more than 10,000 in Rusizi in order to ascertain the extent of the virus transmission in the area, he said. Rusizi has been the lastest hotspot of COVID-19 outbreak in the country, following Rusizi-related cases continuously being reported in recent days. The Rwandan health ministry reported 12 new cases on Monday evening, all related to Rusizi, as the number of the total cases in the country has reached 451 with 297 recoveries and two deaths. "Our target is to at least test 5,000 people within the next three days and we are confident the exercise will go on smoothly since people in Rusizi are now under strict lockdown," said Nsanzimana. The official said the situation of COVID-19 in Rwanda and Rusizi in particular is under control and there is no cause for alarm. He also expressed confidence in winning the fight against COVID-19 despite the "ever-rising" cases in Rusizi. On Thursday Rusizi was partly placed under a lockdown that will last for two weeks based on the assessment of COVID-19 outbreak in the region, one day after 13 new cases were reported in Rusizi in a single day. Enditem One name that has been making headlines from Uttar Pradesh over the last few days is that of Anamika Shukla. A government teacher, Shukla has been allegedly drawing salaries from 25 locations to the tune of Rs 1 crore since the past few months. In a new twist to the story, a woman claiming to be the real Anamika Shukla turned up in Gonda on Tuesday and claimed she was never employed at any of the schools, adding that her documents were misused by miscreants. Shukla then met Gonda Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) Indrajit Prajapati and furnished her documents. She said she has given a written police complaint at the Nagar Kotwali and sought strict action against the culprits. Speaking exclusively to News18 in Gonda, Shukla said, I came to know through the media that many people are doing job on my documents fraudulently. I am the real Anamika Shukla and I have put my side of the story to the BSA. I had applied for the science teachers post at KGBV in 2017 but could not turn up for the counselling process at the time. I have never done a job at KGBV and at the moment I am unemployed. Prajapati told News18, The matter has come to my knowledge and soon a detailed report regarding this will be sent to the government. The woman named Anamika Shukla hails from Gonda and has completed her education from there itself. She furnished all her documents and it is clear now that her documents were misused. Earlier in the day, the state government said a probe into the case has found that Shukla's documents were used in nine schools and a payment of Rs 12.24 lakh was made in six districts in the last 13 months. "From the probe it has come to light that documents of Anamika Shukla, a teacher, posted in Badaut (in Baghpat) was used in eight other (total 9) Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) schools. A total payment of Rs 12.24 lakh was made to them in six districts and the detailed probe is on," Basic Education Minister Satish Dwivedi told reporters. Besides Baghapat, documents of Shukla were used in KGBV in Varanasi, Kasganj, Amethi, Aligarh, Raebareli, Allahabad, Saharanpur, Amedkar Nagar, he said. "In many other places also the same document were used but in some schools the candidate did not join or absent at many places," the minister said. The matter came to light when a digital database of teachers was being created. After much furore over the issue, Uttar Pradesh police announced that the arrest of one Anamika Shukla on Saturday in Kasganj district. The SHO Kotwali even claimed that they were questioning the accused. Meanwhile, Shukla tendered her resignation to the Kasganj BSA through a friend who was detained at the office and later on it was claimed that Anamika Shukla was also arrested. It was being claimed in various media reports that Anamika Shukla is a resident of Mainpuri district. The UP Special Task Force has reportedly tracked down at least 26 more teachers who are either working by impersonating genuine serving teachers, or have fudged their educational certificates. In what could be just a tip of an ice-berg, these tainted teachers were tracked down to Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Balrampur, Shravasti, Deoria, Sitapur, Barabanki, Hardoi, Gonda, Unnao, Santkabir Nagar, Farrukhabad and Pratapgarh. According to a senior STF official, out of 26 tainted teachers, 13 have submitted the documents of other serving teachers, while 10 have fudged their educational marksheets. Also, three tainted teachers have been accused of using fake government transfer orders to get teacher job in far flung districts. Basic Shiksha Adhikaris of the above regions said districts have been asked to register FIRs against these teachers. Some of these tainted teachers have been serving for more than 20 years now while one of them is even scheduled to retire next year. The UP STF had launched many operations to nab these tainted teachers. In 2019, the STF had nabbed three such people from Sitapur who were taking salary for almost five years on the documents of someone else serving as a teacher simultaneously in Gorakhpur. As per information, the STF had busted as many as 253 such fraudsters since 2018. Yahoo Life is committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change. Meghan Markle wears Soludos espadrilles on Bondi Beach with Prince Harry. If you only wear one pair of shoes all summer, it should be espadrilles. Theyre versatile enough to be dressed up for a fancy dinner or dressed down for a casual day at the beach. Just ask Meghan Markle, who wore classic heeled espadrilles to Bondi Beach during her royal tour of Australia, or Margot Robbie, who paired her flat espadrilles with a duster coat at the airport for a look that transcends weather and time zones. Soludos, the espadrilles brand that celebrities like Gigi Hadid, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Bosworth and Hillary Duff love, has a 20 percent off sitewide sale so never again will you have to endure those uncomfortable strappy sandals you pretend to love. Heres what were buying. Classic 3.5" Wedge (Photo: Getty/Soludos) Take a cue from Meghan Markle these espadrilles are so comfortable that you can even wear them on the beach like she did. They come in black, blue, pink or cream canvas; opt for a 4 heel or 2.75 design if the 3.5 wedge isnt quite right. Canvas Platform Smoking Slipper (Photo: Getty/Soludos) Gigi Hadids classic flat espadrilles transitioned her from poolside lounging to city walking comfortably and seamlessly. Choose from black, cream, blue, or khaki canvas, or go for a bold patterned or embroidered pair. Wink Embroidery Smoking Slipper (Photo: Getty/Soludos) Margot Robbies adorable embroidered espadrilles are a fun spin on the classic style. Choose between beige canvas with classic espadrille soles or black velvet with rubber soles. Ibiza Classic Leather Sneaker (Photo: Soludos) Your search for the end-all-be-all leather sneaker is over these casual kicks come in six monochrome tones and feature a near-perfect rating from over 300 reviewers. Story continues Lauren Espadrille Sandal (Photo: Soludos) Love the look of a lace-up espadrille but prefer flat shoes? These timeless beauties in cream or blue are the ones for you. Eloise Espadrille Sandal (Photo: Soludos) Featuring broad crossed leather straps and a wide footbed, these sandals are all about comfort. Theyre available in camel or metallic platinum leather and feature a 1 platform for a little extra height. Swimmers Embroidered Espadrille (Photo: Soludos) We love these classic espadrilles embroidered with tiny swimmers for a shoe that screams summer. Venetian Mule (Photo: Soludos) These impossibly chic soft leather mules have a perfect 5-star rating from over 300 reviewers. They come in six elegant shades and patterns, and will make every outfit look like it was thoughtfully put together, even if you just ran out the door. Aperitif Platform Smoking Slipper (Photo: Soludos) We couldnt say no to these adorable espadrilles embroidered with the drink that we also can never say no to. Read More from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day Want daily pop culture news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Entertainment & Lifestyle's newsletter. TWRC After an increase in sightings, experts say there may be three times the usual amount of rattlesnakes in the Bay Area right now, reports KPIX. This year has brought us some unexpected wildlife sightings across the world. Locally, coyotes took advantage of the empty streets of San Francisco through the coronavirus shutdown. Dolphins ventured further up into normally busy shipping lanes in Istanbul. Wild boar were seen snuffling around the city streets in Haifa, Israel. Now... snakes. By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. units of China Telecom Corps <0728.HK> and China Unicom <0762.HK> urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not to revoke the company's nearly two-decade old authorization to provide international telecommunications services to and from the United States. China Telecom (America)'s filing late Monday came after the U.S. Justice Department and other federal agencies in April asked the FCC to act, citing national security concerns in a new flashpoint between Washington and Beijing. China Telecom (Americas), the U.S. subsidiary of a Peoples Republic of China (PRC) state-owned telecommunications company, called the government's claims "unfounded" and argued the FCC should not revoke its right to operate in the United States "based solely on foreign policy concerns in the absence of any evidence whatsoever of specific misconduct." It added the company's "conduct to date does not demonstrate any reasonable basis for the U.S. government's stated lack of trust." The Justice Department, along with Homeland Security, Defense, State and Commerce Departments, in April cited "substantial and unacceptable national security and law enforcement risks associated with China Telecom's operations." In April, the FCC issued show-cause orders warning it might shut down the U.S. operations of three state-controlled Chinese telecommunications companies: China Telecom, China Unicom and Pacific Networks Corp and its subsidiary ComNet (USA). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in April the agency had deep concerns "about these companies' vulnerability to the exploitation, influence, and control of the Chinese Communist Party." China Unicom (Americas) in a June 1 FCC filing said it had "a two-decade track record as a valuable contributor to U.S. telecommunications markets, a good record of compliance with its FCC regulatory obligations, and a demonstrated willingness to cooperate with U.S. law enforcement agencies." Story continues Pacific and ComNet said "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.'" China Telecom (Americas) said that it had 224 employees in the United States, including 72 U.S. citizens, and that it had complied with U.S. law enforcement and national security inquiries. The FCC granted approvals to the firms for U.S. operations about two decades decade ago. In May 2019, the FCC voted unanimously to deny another state-owned Chinese telecommunications company, China Mobile Ltd, the right to provide U.S. services, citing risks that the Chinese government could use the approval to conduct espionage against the U.S. government. (This story has been refiled to fix China Telecom's stock symbol in first paragraph) (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Kim Coghill and Gerry Doyle) Failte Ireland has published sector-specific operational guidelines for the tourism industry to ensure the safe re-opening of tourism businesses on June 29th. The National Tourism Development Authority developed the guidelines in collaboration with industry groups and they are in line with the Governments Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business and the Return to Work Safely Protocol. The guidelines provide detailed advice on the necessary systems to be implemented in order to instil public confidence and reboot business while adhering to public health advice and Government protocols. They are the first in a suite of new supports being rolled out by Failte Ireland to help tourism businesses to recover and re-open safely. The guidelines have been issued for Hotels & Guesthouses; Self-Catering businesses; Caravan & Camping businesses; Visitor Attractions; Activity Providers; B&Bs & Historic Houses; Restaurants & Cafes. Failte Irelands sector-specific operational guidelines will be regularly updated in line with Government public health advice as and when this advice evolves. This includes any further guidance that is given following work by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and National Public Health Emergency Team on the application of the existing social distancing requirements in specific, defined and controlled environments in the hospitality industry during periods of low incidence of the disease. Paul Kelly, CEO of Failte Ireland, said the new guidelines are a critical part in helping tourism businesses reopen safely: Throughout this crisis we have been working with tourism and hospitality businesses to give them the guidance and supports they urgently need. The next phase of our response is recovery, re-opening and rebuilding the tourism industry and renewing its vital contribution to job creation and regional development. "This is the greatest crisis our industry has ever faced and the reality is that many tourism businesses will not be in a position to re-open. The purpose of the operational guidelines we have developed in collaboration with industry groups is to try to help those businesses that can re-open their doors to do so safely. I would like to thank the industry groups, individual businesses, worker representation groups, relevant State agencies, Government departments and all those involved in the development of these guidelines. We will continue to focus all of our resources on providing critical operational and business supports to ensure the re-opening of as many tourism businesses as possible and to safeguard the viability of our tourism industry. Jenny De Saulles, Director of Sector Development at Failte Ireland, added: We have worked closely with a number of industry groups and an infection control expert to develop these operational guidelines that will equip tourism and hospitality businesses with the necessary information and advice to enable them to re-open safely while also helping to instil public confidence. Our consumer tracker research is finding that health and safety protocols in premises and safe breaks are emerging as strong themes as people plan their domestic holiday. Speaking about the guidelines for re-opening, Tim Fenn, Chief Executive of the Irish Hotels Federation, said: The health and safety of employees and guests will always be our main priority. Hotels have already begun to adapt their services and facilities in anticipation of reopening under COVID-19 guidelines and the publication of these standards gives them further clarity on what they must do, while providing important reassurance for guests that they can book and look forward to an enjoyable and safe staycation in an Irish hotel this year. Irelands hotels have a well-earned reputation globally for their high service standards and we will be applying that same commitment to the implementation of these new standards. Following the development of the new guidelines for safe re-opening, Failte Ireland is working with tourism businesses to support them to determine the capacity of their business and the financial implications of this new operating model. A new suite of financial recovery supports, a Calculating Capacity tool and supports around HR for re-opening are now available on the COVID-19 Business Support Hub. You can see the full guideline for each sector HERE. Jacksonville and other parts of west-central Illinois are in the path of severe storms today and Wednesday, some bringing heavy rains and high winds. The storms, a byproduct of Tropical Storm Cristobal, are expected to bring damaging winds and flooding and have the potential to produce hail, according to AccuWeather. CHICAGO, June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the current crisis forces more professional services companies to adapt to remote work, leading enterprise security and consulting firm Torres AES is the latest company to partner with Workstorm to manage its unique, highly sensitive remote work needs. Torres, a firm of 3,500 professionals with remote offices across 13 locations, provides logistics, security and training services to government and business clients, including both the U.S. Departments of State and Defense and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The firm holds a Top Secret (TS) clearance. Other clients include global humanitarian and human rights organizations and Fortune 500 companies, including Merck Pharmaceuticals, Shell, Pepsi, Citibank, NIKE and Cargill. Since the start of the crisis, Workstorm has seen a surge in signups as companies like Torres AES look for remote work solutions that are user-friendly and secure for their clients and internal employees. After a thorough analysis of the current software marketplace, Torres chose Workstorm for its commitment to data privacy, full suite of productivity tools and deep understanding of enterprise needs. Workstorm never shares, sells or otherwise compromises user data, setting the solution apart for companies that demand complete data confidentiality. "Workstorm's singular focus on security across its messaging and video technologies is mission-critical to our work and helps to further distinguish the company," Torres CEO Steve Hartsuff says. "As we continue to adapt in these changing circumstances, we look forward to utilizing Workstorm's enterprise-grade platform to ensure the ongoing safety and security of our communication and collaboration with our employees and clients." "Workstorm is designed to meet the needs of firms like Torres, where data privacy and security is a matter of critical importance," says Workstorm CEO Raj Fernando. "This partnership demonstrates Workstorm's unmatched ability to enable seamless digital collaboration while protecting highly sensitive information, and we're excited to work with Steve Hartsuff and Torres's dedicated team of professionals." With $15 million in funding to date, Workstorm has seen rapid adoption as the remote workforce continues to scale quickly to meet the changing needs of its clients. Workstorm's workplace collaboration technology is optimized for professional services companies, including legal firms, telehealth practices, PR agencies and other consulting practices. Workstorm represents national and international clients, helping them to perform their day-to-day work and operations without having to compromise safety or security. About Workstorm LLC Workstorm LLC provides enterprise-grade workplace collaboration technology. Built by professionals for professionals, the company's fully integrated, customizable collaboration platform combines workflow efficiency with data security. Workstorm was founded in 2015 to address the need for secure enterprise collaboration. Privately held and headquartered in Chicago, Workstorm has a dedicated team of Chicago-based employees, backed by a global network of developers, contractors and advisors. For more information, visit Workstorm.com or follow us on Facebook , Twitter and LinkedIn . About Torres Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions is a global security, turn-key logistics, remote housing, and life-support firm headquartered in Falls Church, VA. Torres has a global presence in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East, serving U.S. and foreign government customers and commercial enterprises. Our highly trained personnel consistently go the extra mile to provide essential national security services to our customers regardless of the challenge. As a result, Torres has been named an Industry Leader in Government and Commercial Services by Inc. and Smart CEO magazines eight times since 2008. SOURCE Workstorm Related Links https://workstorm.com UC postdoctoral researcher Annemarie van der Marel uses binoculars and a spotting scope to observe monk parakeets from a bird blind. Credit: University of Cincinnati Knowing when to fight and when to flee is a big part of many animal societies, including our own. University of Cincinnati biologist Elizabeth Hobson says some animals make the call based on a sophisticated understanding of social standing and their place in it. "We have a phrase: Choose your battles wisely. Animals do that. People do that," said Hobson, an assistant professor in UC's College of Arts and Sciences. In a new article published in the journal Current Opinion in Psychology, Hobson says some animals seem to understand where they fit in a dominance hierarchy and pick their fights accordingly. This high-level social information helps animals improve or maintain their status. Dominance hierarchies are common social organizations in nature. They're found in everything from hermit crabs to human society, Hobson said. "Understanding how information is perceived, processed and used by individuals in hierarchical systems is critical to understanding how animals make aggression decisions because different types of information can underlie different kinds of aggression strategies," she said in the article. Making informed choices The most basic understanding comes from firsthand experience. "The low-information case is when animals only perceive and remember things that happened to them. A good example of this is if you are beaten in a fight. You remember that you lost but not to whom you lost," she said. Chelsea Carminito, who will begin her Ph.D. studies at UC soon, worked with monk parakeets in Florida. Credit: University of Cincinnati Biologists say these battles can have a lasting impact on the combatants called winner effects and loser effects. Winners are more likely to be aggressive in future conflicts while losers are less likely to meet aggression with aggression or pick a new fight. "With a strong loser effect, if you got beaten, you're less likely to fight again in the future," Hobson said. Other animals might remember losing to a particular foe and be less inclined to challenge that foe in the future. "What if you don't just remember the outcome but you remember who beat you? You can build on that," she said. "Going forward, you'll be less aggressive with the individual who beat you. It's a different social dynamic." Transitive inference But some animals can make judgments not just through their own direct interactions but by observing other animals and making inferences about where those would-be opponents stand in the hierarchy. This ability, known as transitive inference, goes like this: If animal A beats animal B and animal B beats animal C, you know animal A can beat animal C. It's a logical conclusion some animals seem to understand, Hobson said. "Maybe they never have to fight C or they'll know they can beat C," she said. Hobson has studied a variety of birds, from macaws in Peru to roseate terns in the Caribbean to Hawaiian songbirds called honeycreepers. She has focused much of her research on monk parakeets, a South American parrot that lives in large colonies. Each day, the parakeets wage a persistent battle to be top bird. Captive Mexican wolves display aggression before reaffirming ties with collective howls. Credit: Michael Miller At a private enclosure in Florida, Hobson and her UC students study the green and gray parakeets in an aviary to learn how they climb the social ladder. Monk parakeets are a little smaller than a crow. They've established themselves as invasive species in some U.S. cities. They build massive stick nests where groups of a dozen or more birds can live. To study parakeet social structure, Hobson's team employs a computational approach. Hobson's team uses a custom biology app to document interactions between and among the birds, noting the instigators and targets. Students use coding and computational modeling techniques to make statistical sense of their observations. The birds' behaviors are purposeful, Hobson said. "One will sidle over to the other and lunge at it with an open beak. The loser of the fight runs or flies away and the winner gets the spot," she said. It didn't take long for researchers to notice some birds were bullies of the group. "From a personal perspective, it seems that way. You get a sense for their individual personalities," student Chelsea Carminito said. She will begin her doctoral studies at UC in January. Hobson said her previous experiments with the parakeets show that higher ranking monk parakeets don't seem to "punch down" by attacking the lowest-ranking birds. Since any fight carries inherent risk, there is little benefit. Instead, they typically target opponents closer in rank to themselves in a close-competitor strategy. "If you want to maintain your rank, differentiating those close and far from you in social standing could help you choose your fights," she said. Claire O'Connell, who will begin her Ph.D. studies at UC soon, works with monk parakeets in Florida. Credit: University of Cincinnati UC student research Some of Hobson's students plan to pursue their own research questions using the parakeets as a model. "They're fun to watch. They can be extremely vocal," UC graduate student Claire O'Connell said. "Monk parakeets live in large groups with a lot of information to process daily," O'Connell said. "Since there is so much social plasticity, they need to be able to adapt quickly to their social situation." But O'Connell said they can be gentle, too. "On the other side of aggression they have affiliative behavior. They'll work out these friendships and groom each other, called allopreening," she said. Because they're so social, there are hundreds of interactions to observe each day to help understand monk parakeet society. But they're not the friendliest animals toward researchers, who wear heavy gloves when handling them. "Monk parakeets are very bitey," Carminito said. "Parrots have strong beaks. They use their beak like a third foot to climb and hold onto things and crack into food. So those beaks are very strong. And they will bite you." And with their notorious dexterity, most ID tags don't last very long under the crushing power of their beaks, Hobson said. UC biologist Elizabeth Hobson, right, and postdoctoral researcher Annemarie van der Marel mark a monk parakeet for identification purposes. Credit: University of Cincinnati "They're extremely interesting but incredibly frustrating to study," Hobson said. While monk parakeet society has little in common with ours, Hobson said you can draw some comparisons. Take social media, where celebrities and politicians usually refrain from picking fights with people with few followers. "Sometimes you get a rule-breaker. A famous person on Twitter gangs up on someone with 20 followers because they said something the famous person disagreed with," she said. But people tend to notice because it happens so infrequently, Hobson said. With new graduate students joining her lab, Hobson said she can't wait to explore more questions about animal social structures. "This paper is setting up a perspective I want to push in my research program. It will be an exciting time," Hobson said. Explore further Mental math helps monk parakeets find their place in pecking order More information: Elizabeth A Hobson. Differences in social information are critical to understanding aggressive behavior in animal dominance hierarchies, Current Opinion in Psychology (2019). Elizabeth A Hobson. Differences in social information are critical to understanding aggressive behavior in animal dominance hierarchies,(2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.09.010 Iran has built a fake aircraft carrier that resembles a US one for naval drills, The Associated Press reports. Satellite photographs obtained by the AP show a structure that looks similar to US Navy carriers that sail through the strategic Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Iranian officials have not commented on the mock-up, which also carries replicas of fighter jets on its deck, the news agency said. The development comes amid continued tensions between the United States and Iran in the Persian Gulf and around the world this year. In April, the US military released video showing Iranian speedboats maneuvering dangerously close to US ships in the Gulf. US President Donald Trump then threatened to destroy any Iranian vessels harassing the US Navy. Iran also continues to send fuel tankers and aid flights to Venezuela despite vocal US efforts to stop them. Iran also said today that it will execute a man, Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, accused of spying for the United States and Israel against Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, whom the United States killed via airstrike in Iraq in January. The fake ship was in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas. Iranian forces destroyed a similar replica in 2015, the AP said. Five months before the election, Mr. Trump and his team are struggling to settle on a re-election message, absent the strong economy that they believed would be the centerpiece of their campaign. Defining Mr. Biden as Sleepy Joe has proved to be far bigger challenge than Mr. Trump faced in 2016, when he ran against Crooked Hillary a political figure fiercely attacked for decades. And amid a pandemic, a recession and nationwide protests over racism and police brutality, his team cant even seem to settle on a slogan. Most fundamentally, Mr. Trump shows no sign of tempering the base-first strategy that has been at the core of his political identity as president. Throughout his time in the White House, Mr. Trump has never demonstrated a sustained interest or ability to connect with voters beyond his own coalition. The focus on rallying his most passionate supporters has helped Mr. Trump. In June 2016, Mr. Trump was backed by about three-quarters of his party after a contentious primary contest. Today, even as his approval ratings drop, polling shows he maintains support from around 95 percent of Republicans. The problem with so much winning is that it doesnt leave the president any room to grow. At the same time, there are early signs that he is losing some ground with the demographic groups that boosted him to victory four years ago, including white men, independents, voters without college degrees and evangelicals. The combination of those trends a tapped-out Republican base and defections from groups of voters Mr. Trump needs to dominate leaves him in a difficult position. If he wants to expand his support, Mr. Trump must flip some Biden backers. To do that, he must do something truly extraordinary in an election already full of unprecedented moments: ignore his political instincts and reach out to the other side. The most compelling business outcome for Audi is how moving from manual inspections to an automated, data-driven process has allowed it to increase the scope and accuracy of its quality-control processes. Combining forces with Nebbiolo for edge computing software, Intel is taking analytics to the edge and helping German automaker Audi automate and enhance critical quality-control processes in its factories. Working closely with Audi engineers and technicians, Intel and Nebbiolo created a scalable, flexible platform solution, embracing the transformative power of advanced digital capabilities such as data analytics, machine learning, and edge compute. Audi can use this platform as the foundation for current improvements and future innovations, enabling the company to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Audi worked with Intel and Nebbiolo on a successful proof of concept experiment focused on improving the quality-control process for the welds on its vehicles. The experiment took place at Audis factory in Neckarsulm, Germany, one of the companys two principal assembly plants. The Neckarsulm plant has 2,500 autonomous robots on its production line. Each robot is equipped with a tool of some kind, from glue guns to screwdrivers, and performs a specific task required to assemble an Audi automobile. Nine hundred of those robots carry welding guns to do spot welds that hold pieces of metal together. Audi assembles up to approximately 1,000 vehicles every day at the Neckarsulm factory, and there are 5,000 welds in each car. Thats more than 5 million welds in a single day of production. To ensure the quality of its welds, Audi currently performs manual quality-control inspections. It is impossible to manually inspect 1,000 cars every day however, so Audi uses the industrys standard sampling method. A single car per day is sampled and inspected. The new infrastructure based on Nebbiolos Edge Software supports a hierarchical data analytics and machine learning architecture, with edge models iteratively refined by Audis and Intels Data Science teams, which enables the inspection of all the 5,000 welds per car, yielding accurate quality results for each weld within 18 milliseconds. The ultimate goal of inline quality control, with its unprecedented savings in cost and labor, is now attainable! Access the Audi use case white paper at https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/customer-spotlight/stories/audi-automated-factory.html This successful experience with the welding process has convinced Audi that this approach can be adopted not only to improve quality control for spot welding, but also as the foundation for other use cases involving robots and controllers such as riveting, gluing and painting. Audi already has plans to use the platform for other use cases at the Neckarsulm factory, and eventually intends to deploy predictive welding inspection and other solutions across all Volkswagen Group production facilities. This announcement is a significant endorsement for a movement towards the modernization of automotive plants based on the progressive adoption of distributed and virtualized computing, featuring advanced data management capabilities and the implementation of cloud inspired software management models at the edge. Nebbiolos hardware agnostic, edge computing platform, based on fogNodes distributed on the Industrial Floor, powered by the highly functional fogOS stack, centrally managed by the fogSM system manager deployed on-premises or in the Cloud, addresses many of the current Industrial Automation challenges. It virtualizes and converges hardware and software components and it provides centralized software lifecycle management for distributed applications. It supports modern software defined networking, distributed security, software SDK/APIs, IT-like data management, and opens the path to the future of Industrial Control. It enables the deployment of centrally orchestrated and distributed data connectivity, data management and advanced AI/ML based analytics capabilities across the Industrial Floor. According to Henning Loser, Senior Manager at the Audi Production Lab, the most compelling business outcome for Audi is how moving from manual inspections to an automated, data-driven process has allowed it to increase the scope and accuracy of its quality-control processes. We are at the very beginning of collecting and analyzing our data, Henning Loser says. As we continue this journey, there will be many more happy surprises and new opportunities for us. Another key benefit of the new system and the precise inspections it enables is that Audi can be proactive and focus on avoiding problems rather than merely reacting to them. Lets say we do an overall inspection of 5,000 or more welds on one car a day, and maybe 95% of those welds are good and 5% are not, Mathias Mayer, who leads automation technology planning at Audi, says. In the future, we can focus on the 5%, because we know where they are in the factory and we can take action much sooner. The value of putting the analytics platform at the edge is that it allows you to draw more data into it and look at correlations, causalities, and other interesting analytics even some you might not think of at first, says Brian McCarson, Vice President of the Internet of Things Group and Director of Industrial Systems Engineering and Architecture at Intel. According to Christine Boles, Vice President Internet of Things Group and General Manager of the Industrial Solutions Division at Intel, the breadth of Intels product offerings was a key element in the solution. Were running this solution on a Xeon processor, but if you look at the Intel product line we can scale from our Intel CoreTM processors all the way to our Intel Xeon processor E and Intel Xeon SP server processors with no changes to the software, she says. We can deliver all the performance and functionality a customer needs, and then easily scale in any direction, depending on what they want to do in their business. Partnering with Intel to transform Audis inline quality inspection of welds, from one car a day to 100% of cars produced is one of many ideal, real time use cases enabled by Nebbiolos distributed edge platform, says Chandra Joshi, CEO at Nebbiolo Technologies. This project demonstrated how quickly a data science project can be converted from concept to production at scale through leveraging a converged platform. Nebbiolo Technology provides the most comprehensive, hyper converged Industrial Edge platform, purpose built to enable data driven insights with security and data ownership. About Audi Corporation The Audi Group, with its brands Audi, Ducati and Lamborghini, is one of the most successful manufacturers of automobiles and motorcycles in the premium segment. It is present in more than 100 markets worldwide and produces at 16 locations in 11 countries. 100 percent subsidiaries of AUDI AG include Audi Sport GmbH (Neckarsulm, Germany), Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. (SantAgata Bolognese, Italy) and Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. (Bologna, Italy). About Intel Corporation Intel is an industry leader, creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. Inspired by Moores Law, we continuously work to advance the design and manufacturing of semiconductors to help address our customers greatest challenges. By embedding intelligence in the cloud, network, edge and every kind of computing device, we unleash the potential of data to transform business and society for the better. To learn more about Intels innovations, go to newsroom.intel.com and intel.com. About Nebbiolo Technologies Nebbiolo Technologies, founded in 2015, is a California based company with global deployments of its Intelligent Edge Software Platform. The companys mission is to develop and apply the new Edge Computing paradigm to digitally transform industrial systems across industry. Nebbiolos software platform brings to industry the first advanced hyper-converged infrastructure for Industrial IoT edge applications, AI enabled advanced analytics, real-time IoT device control, and end-to-end security from devices to the cloud. Nebbiolos technology simplifies and modernizes legacy OT and advances the digitalization of manufacturing and industry by enabling a new class of Industrial IoT applications. The platform enables advanced data services for monitoring and diagnostics, machine performance optimization, predictive maintenance, and advanced real time control use cases all at the edge. http://www.nebbiolo.tech Contact tracing is nothing new. It is used here in Northern Ireland to deal with outbreaks of a variety of conditions, even for the likes of sexually transmitted infections, and it is one of the interventions that have been used to effectively control Ebola virus disease outbreaks in Africa. Hopes are high that it will help keep a lid on the number of Covid-19 infections, allowing children to return to class - and, if numbers of cases drop low enough, even help those who are shielding to return to some kind of normality. According to the latest figures, Northern Ireland has gone two days without any Covid-19 fatalities, while it was announced yesterday that just six people had tested positive in the previous 24 hours. It is an incredible achievement, and attentions are now focusing on how to safely move beyond the coronavirus pandemic. Contact tracing will play a key role in this. Read More Northern Ireland's contact tracing team is based in the Public Health Agency's (PHA) headquarters in Linenhall Street in Belfast city centre. In recent weeks, the team has grown from a handful of people to 82. They come from a number of backgrounds, including PHA nurses, Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority inspectors and environmental health officers. There are a further 20 people taking part in the training, which takes a day-and-a-half to complete. The number of people required to work at any one time will vary depending on requirements and the programme is being designed to respond quickly to needs. Read More With just six positive cases in the past 24 hours, demand is obviously significantly lower than what would have been required during the peak of the surge. However, social distancing measures are being eased and everyone is expecting the number of cases to rise as a result. With that, it is expected that more people will be required in the team, although the PHA estimates at least 20 staff will be required to work in shifts as access to testing is increased and the number of positive cases goes up. Expand Close Dr Sarah Milligan Freddie Parkinson / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dr Sarah Milligan Of course, testing is a key component of the contact tracing programme, which is why it is essential that anyone with a new and continuous cough, fever or new loss of taste and smell makes an appointment for a test. Dr Sarah Milligan, a public health registrar at the PHA, explained: "Anyone experiencing these symptoms can book a test by going onto the PHA website. "Tests are done at one of the drive-through testing centres or they can be done at home, and tests are available the same day or the next day depending on how many people are looking for a test on that day. "When a person tests positive, the contact tracing centre is made aware of that and a contact tracer will make contact with the person. Expand Close Carol McCorry at the tracing programme centre Freddie Parkinson / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Carol McCorry at the tracing programme centre "During that phone call, we will give infection control advice on how to minimise spread of the virus through the household. Just because someone has Covid-19, it doesn't necessarily follow that everyone they live with will get it as well. That's why it's so important that people wash their hands regularly, that they socially distance and they don't touch their faces. "If a person tests positive, they should isolate for seven days from the onset of their symptoms, as long as their fever has gone. So, if they still have a cough or their sense of taste and smell is still affected, they can stop isolating. "Everyone in their household must isolate for 14 days, regardless of whether they are displaying symptoms when we contact them. But if they begin to experience symptoms, they can stop isolating after seven days of the onset of their symptoms - again, as long as they no longer have a fever. "It's really important that anyone in the household isolates for the full 14 days if they don't have symptoms. If anyone else in the house has symptoms, they, too, should arrange to be tested. "The contact tracer will also ask about close contacts the positive case has had in the 48 hours before they developed symptoms up to seven days afterwards and will risk-assess all those contacts. "They will ask if they have been in contact less than two metres for more than 15 minutes, or if they have had face-to-face conversation at a shorter distance. They will want to know if they were coughing near anyone or if they had direct skin-to-skin contact. "They then get the contact details of anyone they feel may be at risk from the positive case and make contact with them to tell them to isolate. That's all done as soon as possible after the person first tests positive." Expand Close Carol McCorry at the tracing programme centre Freddie Parkinson / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Carol McCorry at the tracing programme centre So far, from May 19 up until last Saturday, the contact tracing team has dealt with 480 telephone cases. There have been 721 successful telephone calls with contacts of confirmed cases. Read More Of course, the programme itself has some limitations. As lockdown lifts, our contact with strangers will increase and, as Dr Milligan explains, it will be impossible to trace all contacts from the likes of public transport, and it will also rely heavily on cooperation from the public following isolation advice. The fact is, however, as desperate as we all are to get our lives back on track, that can only happen when Covid-19 is brought under control. New York lawmakers today voted to criminalize chokeholds by police officers that cause death or injury, one of several law enforcement reform bills expected to become law this week. The Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act makes the use of a chokehold by a police officer a felony. It creates a new crime called aggravated strangulation and carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. The offense would occur when a police or peace officer, using a chokehold or similar restraint, applies pressure to the throat or windpipe of a person, according to Assembly Speaker Carl Heasties office. The offense applies if the officer hinders breathing or the intake of air, and the action causes serious physical injury or death. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to sign the legislation. Its named after Garner, whose death in 2014 and cries of I cant breathe while being held by New York city police became a rallying cry against law enforcement brutality. Most lawmakers met remotely amid the coronavirus. The legislation was first introduced in 2015. The Assembly passed the Garner Act before 4 p.m. The Senate passed it two hours later by a 62-0 vote. Both houses are controlled by Democrats. The (New York Police Department) ban on chokeholds was not enough to protect Eric Garner, and it is not enough today," Heastie said in a news release. "This legislation will put an end to the practice across the state. Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274. (Natural News) Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), prescribed by doctors around the world for more than 80 years, has suddenly become a dangerous anti-viral medication because a shady analytics company shared fraudulent healthcare data with a world-renowned science journal, the Lancet, leading incompetent governments around the world to block prescription of a viable medication. HCQ is currently used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and has also been used to treat malaria since the 1930s. As covid-19 became a medical emergency around the globe, governments and healthcare systems suddenly declared that HCQ is a poisonous substance, despite its long standing use as an antiviral therapeutic. France relied on corrupt data to withhold viable medications, as patients were left to die, contributing to a worldwide health crisis Back on January 13, hydroxychloroquine was suddenly made no longer available over-the-counter in France, following a regulation enacted by delegation for Health Minister Agnes Buzyn by the General Director of Health, Jerome Salomon. Only one day after the data was published in the Lancet, French Health Minister Olivier Veran told the French High Council for Public Health (HCSP) to make a decision on HCQ for covid-19 patients. HCSP decided on May 26 that all prescriptions for HCQ should be halted entirely. Because proven anti-viral medications, minerals like zinc, and herbal anti-viral extracts are withheld from patients, many were left to struggle with acute respiratory syndrome, as viral load overcame their organs. In Italy specifically, patients with one or more underlying conditions were left to die from covid-19, as viable medications were withheld, immune support neglected. Many hospital systems around the world deprived viable medications from covid-19 patients, instead putting patients on ventilators a negligent process that turned out to be fatal for a large percentage of patients. The chaos in Italy prompted governments around the world to fear that hospital systems would collapse; meanwhile, viable treatment options were being withheld, causing a crisis. Many patients were forced to wait and see whether their condition would worsen, and many eventually lost their lives because the healthcare system left them in the cold. The data company behind the fiasco, Surgisphere, is now facing worldwide scrutiny. The World Health Organization, having halted clinical trials for HCQ when the study came out, are now resuming those clinical trials. French doctor defies government and WHO, saves lives with HCQ treatment protocol During the crisis in France, one of the worlds top specialists in infectious diseases, Dr Didier Raoult defied the governments order and began promoting hydroxychloroquine with azithromycine as a treatment for covid-19 at the Marseille special university hospital. The treatment, including 500 mg of HCQ for ten days, had spectacular results against the infection. HCQ was also effective against SARS-CoV-1 in 2003. Raoult proclaimed that the new SARS-CoV-2 infection can be beaten, not by a vaccine (that would take at least ten years to develop safely), but by a well-known molecule that has been used safely in patients for decades. Raoult said COVID-19 is probably the easiest respiratory infection of all to treat, that many patients should not have been left to die. Despite his success treating patients, Raoult was ridiculed by governments and the World Health Organization entities that tried to severely restrict HCQ and force the world to rely on an untested, experimental vaccine. Now the Lancet has published an expression of concern about the study that blocked HCQ and has retracted the fraudulent study, vindicating Raoult and other whistle blowers in the healthcare system who warned that patients were being left to die. Now the question is: Was this corrupt data trail and subsequent ban on HCQ and other antivirals a deliberate attempt to cause a healthcare crisis, to perpetuate lock downs, and initiate vaccine development that would eventually be forced on people around the world? Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com BusinessInsider.com Bloomberg.com Meditterranee.com NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov Nature.com Around the world lockdowns restrictions are beginning to being lifted and in many countries, people have started to go back to work. To help people stay safe during transit, Google Maps is rolling out new features and tools that will provide them with more information and alerts during their transit. Public transit specifically is quite risky and Governments around the world have introduced rules when using them to get around. Google will begin showing these transit alerts to users once they receive this information from local transit agencies. Google will be rolling this out in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, France, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom and the U.S. For users in Canada, Mexico and the U.S., Google will begin showing driving alerts like for those users who are travelling across national borders. These alerts will include COVID-19 checkpoints and restrictions along the route, and it will show on the directions screen and after starting the navigation. The next helpful feature that Google Maps is rolling out is alerts for verify eligibility and facility guidelines when travelling to medical facilities or COVID-19 testing centres. Alerts for medical facilities will be available in Indonesia, Israel, the Philippines, South Korea, and the U.S., and testing centre alerts will be available in the U.S. In February, Google had introduced new features and insights for the crowdedness predictions for public transit in Maps. This includes information like temperature, accessibility and security onboard, designated womens sections. They are now rolling it out globally along wheelchair accessibility information. And lastly, Google will begin showing information like how busy is a transit station in real time, or how busy a transit station will be during a particular time period based on historical data. This can help consumers plan their trips accordingly to prevent travelling during times of increased transmission risk. Source Jerusalem, June 9 : Israel has decided to stop all measures to ease restrictions that were planned for the coming days due to an increase in COVID-19 morbidity, the state's Prime Minister's Office said. Train services in Israel will not resume after scheduled to reoperate on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported. Also, the opening of theaters and cinemas, scheduled for June 14 under restrictions, will be postponed for at least another week. One exception is that event halls are allowed to reoperate, according to the Health Ministry's guidelines. Weddings and other events could be held with a maximum of 250 guests. The number of coronavirus cases in Israel has reached 18,032 with 169 new cases, the state's Ministry of Health said Monday. According to the ministry, the number of death cases has remained 298, and the number of patients in serious condition, 29, has not changed as well, out of 110 patients currently hospitalized. The number of recoveries rose to 15,127, with 36 new recoveries, while the number of active cases rose to 2,607, the highest since May 21. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "experts showed us that there has been a very steep increase in morbidity, so we decided to hit the emergency brake." Netanyahu also addressed the Israeli public that "all the experts emphasized that we must keep the three rules of wearing masks, keeping two meters' distance and washing hands. I ask you, for our economy, for our health and for the lives of us all, to follow the rules." Netanyahu added that the cabinet will check the restrictions again next week. China and Israel have cooperated on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 19 and April 1, two video conferences were held between Chinese doctors and Israeli counterparts to share experiences in containing the virus' spread and treatment of coronavirus patients. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Experts said a Covid-19 vaccine will take at least two years (PA) A leading researcher in Ireland said the Government should adopt Covid-19 measures that will stamp out all active cases. It comes after more than 1,000 scientists and researchers called for the Government to suppress coronavirus rather than learning to live with the virus under a long-term mitigation strategy. On Monday, New Zealands health officials said there were no longer any known active cases of Covid-19 in the country. Anthony Staines, professor of health systems at Dublin City University (DCU), said Ireland should aim to do the same. This isn't a wave the magic wand and we go to zero, this is a process, but it's a process we can do and the steps are affordable Anthony Staines, professor at Dublin City University How we do that is we start from where we are in releasing the lockdown and we encourage people to wear masks, he told RTEs Morning Ireland. We put a lot of emphasis on getting testing and tracing of contacts running really fast. We have made a lot of progress but were not there yet. He said that testing should be introduced at airports and only people who test negative should be allowed to proceed. Finally, we take all of the long-term measures and do a proper public risk assessment on each of them that can be done very quickly, the professor added. Then we make decisions about the shape of the next phase. The whole objective of this is to avoid the long-term costs of having coronavirus circulating in our community. He said that Ireland is one of a few European countries that is close to having zero Covid cases. Most of the other (countries) have said explicitly we want to get to zero, he added. It reduces from a major crisis thats cut across our economy to an important but manageable public health issue. This isnt a wave the magic wand and we go to zero, this is a process, but its a process we can do and the steps are affordable. We do things like wearing masks and test people at the airport, and we do things like an aggressive test and trace regime, which we need to do anyway. We go through the lockdown from where we are now and we make decisions about how we move out and how. The Northern Ireland strategy is not very different from our strategy, except there are no definite dates, but otherwise very similar patterns. Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (PA Graphics) The two jurisdictions work reasonably well together in health. It does pose challenges, but if we take advantage of our strengths we can actually gain substantial economic benefits by bringing this down to zero. On Monday, more than 1,000 researchers signed an open letter calling for the Government to take resolute actions to suppress this pandemic. The letter added: If we decide to live with the virus, extensive, and expensive, restrictions will continue for the foreseeable future. A vaccine will take at least two years, and there is no established treatment. The coronavirus death toll in the country rose to 1,683 on Monday after a further four deaths were announced. There were only nine new confirmed cases of the virus, the lowest daily tally since the early days of the outbreak in March. Fast track to MD Honors College student takes accelerated pathway to medical school Ashley Fellers has known shes wanted to be a doctor since she was 12 years old, when she experienced a health scare while living with her family in Costa Rica. Her parents had moved the family there after Fellers attended a Spanish language immersion school in Minnesota, seizing an opportunity to become fluent in another language and experience a new culture. And while her illness in that small fishing village turned out to be nothing serious, it left an impression that set her on the career path she is following today. Thankfully, I didnt have Dengue fever. But my parents didnt speak Spanish, so I was translating for them. I really enjoyed getting to know the doctors, she says. They were super compassionate trying to communicate through a 12-year-old. Fast forward a decade, and Fellers now is finishing her first year at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia . She is among the youngest members of the class, entering a year early through an accelerated pathway to medical school offered by the South Carolina Honors College known as the BARSC-MD. Honors College freshmen have the chance to apply in the summer before their first semester at UofSC and interview for the program after their arrival on campus. A handful are chosen and offered conditional acceptance to the School of Medicine Columbia without having to stress about med school applications or take the Medical College Admissions Test. The BARSC-MD students are required to take more honors and sciences classes than other Honors College students, and they must conduct research, participate in community service, be proficient in a foreign language and complete a nine-hour senior thesis. The program puts them on track to earn an undergraduate and medical degree in seven years. It serves students who already are feeling a solid commitment to a medical career by their senior year of high school. They absolutely know this is what they want to do, and they prefer to get through their undergraduate training more quickly and right into medical school, says Dr. Anita Hood, physician and founding coordinator of the BARSC-MD program. It serves a necessary niche, as there are a number of students who fit that profile. They would rather spend more of their time in health care and eventually in the practice of medicine. The idea of knowing where I was going, being able to know the program before I arrived, and having a support group and friends was really important to me. Ashley Fellers, first-year student at UofSC School of Medicine Fellers graduated from Lexington High School and arrived at UofSC as a Stamps Scholar, one of the universitys most selective and generous scholarship programs. As a Stamps Scholar, she had opportunities to study abroad and conduct research, both of which were important to her. Fellers got involved quickly, doing undergraduate research in environmental health and pediatric cancer. Freshman year, I knew I wanted to get involved in research, and I saw a profile online of Tim Mousseau, a professor of biological sciences who has conducted extensive research on Chernobyl and the effects of radioactive contaminants, she says. I went to his office and told him I wanted to do research. He said, OK, lets get started. For her senior thesis, Fellers drew on her work with Mousseau and Magdalena Stawkowski, an assistant professor who specializes in cultural and medical anthropology. Fellers research looked at pediatric cancers in areas with higher rates of radioactive contamination. While Honors College students must complete a 3-credit senior thesis on a variety of topics, the BARSC-MD student requirements include a 9-credit senior thesis, focusing on a health, medical or scientific topic. We have a strong emphasis on research for these students that will ease their path in medical school and residency, Hood says. Fellers packed a lot into her three years as an undergraduate on campus. Along with research, she spent a summer in Peru on a service learning trip and spent a semester in Spain studying health sciences, including an internship in an oncology ward and a class on stem cell research. Still, as part of the BARSC-MD program, she completed the necessary 69 hours in Honors College courses to graduate early. Now, shes at the UofSC School of Medicine Columbia, in a first-year class with five other BARSC-MD students who started at the Honors College with her. "Her group, the BARSC-MD group in the year ahead, and several other Honors College graduates at the School of Medicine are serving as valuable peer mentors to the current undergraduate participants. And from Day One of the program, especially with the heat of competition for a medical seat turned off, all groups are encouraged to support and develop lasting connections with each other while pursuing their common goal," Hood says. Med school is hard, Im going to be honest. Its a big transition. I think whether you have three years (of undergrad) or 10 years, its going to be a tough transition, she says. But I knew this was a good program for me. This was a medical school I toured when I was in high school. This is where they took the pre-health sciences students. The idea of knowing where I was going, being able to know the program before I arrived, and having a support group and friends was really important to me. Share this Story! Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about The death has occurred of Tom Carroll Ballymore Eustace, Kildare Carroll Tom, Springhills, Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare, 8th June 2020. Peacefully, at home, surrounded by his family and those who cared for him. Husband of the late Angela and father of Ann, Mary and Paul. Will be dearly missed by his family, daughter in law, grandchildren, sister Brigid, brother in law, nieces, nephew, extended family, relatives and friends. May Tom Rest in Peace Funeral Mass on Thursday at 11am in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Ballymore Eustace, immediate family only, followed by burial in St. Marys Cemetery, Ballymore Eustace. The family would like you to share memories in the Book of Condolence below. The death has occurred of Evelyn HARPUR (nee Lynch) Leixlip, Kildare / Walkinstown, Dublin Harpur (nee Lynch) (Leixlip and formerly of Walkinstown) June 7, 2020, (peacefully), surrounded by her loving family, at home, Evelyn, beloved wife of the late Colm and dear mother of Orla, Bobby, Gary and Karl; Sadly missed by her loving sons, daughter, brother Martin, sisters Mary and Martina, son-in-law Howard, daughters-in-law Bernie, Emer and Jennifer, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, grandchildren Evan, Jude, Isabelle, Ryan, Brian, Kealan, Harry, Hugh and Romy, nephews, nieces, relatives and friends. Due to current Government guidelines regarding public gatherings, a Private Funeral will take place. Those who would like to pay their respects may do so on Wednesday at 9.30am as Evelyn makes her way from her home in Oak Lawn West or by joining the private funeral service remotely by webcam by clicking http://oln.ie/site/live-webcam/ from 10am. Those who would have liked to attend the Funeral, but due to current restrictions cannot, please feel free to leave a message in the Condolence Book at the bottom of the page. Family flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to Nursing Services at The Irish Cancer Society https://www.cancer.ie/ways-to-help/donate?qd May She Rest In Peace The death has occurred of Michael Derek Jeffares 'Brantwood', Geraldine, Athy, Kildare Suddenly and peacefully at home, sitting under the sun. Loving husband of Lys, father of Alan and David, brother of Jackie (Weaver) and Nikki (Carslaw). Will also be deeply missed by brothers-in-law David, James and Brian, sister-in-law Mary, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Funeral arrangements to be confirmed later. Funeral Arrangements Later The death has occurred of Bridget Lynch (nee Cregg) Ballymore Eustace, Kildare Lynch (nee Cregg) Bridget, Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare. June 7th 2020. Peacefully. Loving wife of Tony and mother of twins Donal and Stephen. Will be dearly missed by her family, daughter-in-law Audrey, grandchildren Daniel, Timothy and Conlan, nieces, nephews, extended family, relatives and friends. Predeceased by her sister Mary (Hanlon) and brother Tom (Cregg). May Bridget Rest in Peace Funeral Mass on Wednesday at 11.30 a.m. in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Ballymore Eustace, immediate family only followed by burial in St. Marys Cemetery, Ballymore Eustace. Forever in our Hearts, always in our thoughts. The family would like you to sign the Book of Condolence section below. The death has occurred of Hugh O'Connor Baltracey, Donadea, Kildare O'Connor, Hugh, Baltracey, Donadea, Co. Kildare, June 7th 2020, peacefully at Naas General Hospital. Deeply regretted by his loving wife Bernardine, sons David and Gerard, daughters Ann and Niamh, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandchildren, brother John, sisters Mary and Betty, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, relatives and friends. Rest In Peace In accordance with government directives and in the interest of public health, a private family funeral will take place for Hugh. Those who would like to attend the funeral but are unable to do so due to the current restrictions, are invited to leave a personal message for the family below. Hugh's Funeral Cortege will be passing by his family home enroute to the Church of the Sacred Heart, Rathcoffey arriving for 11am Funeral Mass on Wednesday morning. The death has occurred of Sr. Marie Therese Sweeny Presentation Sisters, Kilcock, Kildare / Mallow, Cork Sweeny, Sr. Marie Therese, Presentation Sisters, Kilcock, Co. Kildare and formally of Knock-na Cree, Mallow, Co. Cork. June 8th 2020, peacefully in the tender care of the Sisters and staff of Shalom Nursing Home. Predeceased by her parents Edmund and Kathleen, sisters Lena, Crissie, and Kathleen, brothers John Joe and Jerry. Deeply regretted by her sisters-in-law Joan and Catherine, brother-in-law Jimmy, nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, Presentation Community; extended family and friends. Rest in Peace A Mass to celebrate Sr. Marie Therese life will be held at a later date. In accordance with government guidelines on public gatherings, a private burial will take place. The death has occurred of John DEMPSEY Hillsborough, Newbridge, Kildare DEMPSEY John (Hillsborough, Newbridge, Co. Kildare) - 7th June 2020 (peacefully) in the wonderful care of the staff of Tallaght Hospital. Sadly missed by his loving sister Mary, nieces and nephew, grand nephews, grand nieces, neighbours and friends. May John Rest in Peace A private family funeral will take place due to government guidelines on public funerals. Those who would have liked to attend the funeral, but due to current restrictions cannot, please leave a personal message for the family on the condolence page below. The Funeral Mass for John RIP will be live streamed on Wednesday at 11 o'clock on St. Conleth's Church Newbridge, Parish webcam: https://www.newbridgeparish.ie/webcam/ The family thank you for your co-operation, understanding and support during this sensitive time. John's family would like to thank the nurses and staff of Ashley Lodge Nursing Home, Kildare for the wonderful care they have given John over the last few years. The death has occurred of Patricia (Pat) Doyle (nee Donegan) Athy, Kildare / Carlow Patricia (Pat) Doyle passed away at home surrounded by her loving family. Beloved wife of Paddy, much loved mother of Ciaran, Kathryn (Hurley) and Dermot, adored grandmother of Niall, Niamh, Sarah, Padraic, Michael, Will and Ailbhe, son-in-law Michael, daughters-in-law Eilish, Anna-Marie and her sister Sheila. She will be sadly missed by her loving husband, sons, daughter, grandchildren, son-in-law, daughters-in-law, sister, nephews, nieces, relatives, neighbours and friends. In accordance with government guidelines on public gatherings, a private Funeral will take place at St. Michaels Parish Church, Athy, limited to family members only. The Funeral Mass can be viewed by clicking on the following link https://www.parishofathy.ie/ on Tuesday 9th June at 11am. Private cremation will take place in Mount Jerome. Those who would have liked to attend the funeral but due to current restrictions cannot, may leave their personal message in the condolences section below. Family Flowers only, Donations if desired may be made to a charity of your choice. EDWARDSVILLE Armstrong Teasdale, an Am Law 200 law firm with offices across the United States, has opened an office in Edwardsville. In the past two years, the firm has expanded its geographic footprint significantly, hiring more than 80 attorneys and staff and opening five new offices across the country in addition to Edwardsville. We already serve a wide range of clients throughout the state of Illinois, and this natural extension allows us to better serve our clients in the metropolitan region, said managing partner David Braswell. We look forward to the new opportunities this location will afford us, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to invest in the region during this challenging time. With attorneys licensed across the country, Armstrong Teasdale serves a wide range of clients from coast to coast. In April and May respectively, Armstrong Teasdale announced that it is establishing a presence in both Salt Lake City and Boston. The firms attorneys regularly do business in and have roots in Illinois. Armstrong Teasdales team of attorneys includes former judges and clerks from Southern Illinois with decades of combined experience. Southern Illinois venues are known for attracting significant and often challenging litigation, said partner Don Flack, a former judge in Madison County, Illinois. Our experience there, paired with our new physical presence, will certainly benefit clients across the firm. Flack, Partner Untress Quinn and a number of other attorneys and professional staff will occupy the full-service Edwardsville office, providing counsel with a particular focus on complex commercial litigation, asbestos litigation, medical malpractice and intellectual property. The office is located at 115 North Second Street in downtown Edwardsville. LAKE FOREST, Calif., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Procan Labs, California's leader in purified cannabis concentrates, announced today that it has won a landmark lawsuit with the lead from Horwitz + Armstrong, a Southern California-based law firm. As reported in the LA Times in February 2020 ("Cannabis farm was model for California's licensed legal industry"), law enforcement in Santa Barbara County confiscated over $2.6 million in cannabis oil and over $620,000 in cannabis cash from prominent local businessman and cannabis operator Barry Brand. Even though Brand claimed he was operating largely within local and state regulations, the District Attorney pointed to technical noncompliance issues, giving rise to allegations of criminal conduct. After three months of extensive litigation, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge T. Anderele ruled in State of California v. Arroyo Verde Farms Inc. (Case No: 20-CV-00590) that criminal laws such as the state Controlled Substances Act do not apply to licensed commercial cannabis activities. Also to be noted, it was found that there was no black market oil whatsoever on the premise; all substances had been clearly tagged with METRC RFID tags and were in the system prior to shipment and, more importantly, prior to seizure. John Armstrong of the Horwitz + Armstrong law firm, who was lead counsel for Eagle Bay Enterprises (d.b.a. Procan Labs), remarked, "With millions of dollars at stake, licensed cannabis operators should not be at risk of losing their business because police mistake lawful cannabis operations for illegal black market activities. California established the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) and empowered it to support and regulate legal cannabis activities, to the exclusion of heavy-handed law enforcement regulating such activities. This decision shows that our courts will side with the cannabis industry when provided evidence of good faith efforts to comply with state regulations. We would like to thank CREC Compliance for its assistance in verifying legal compliance by Procan. CREC's help was invaluable in securing the eventual positive result." Numerous cannabis companies came to support Procan's efforts, namely long-time distribution leader HARDCAR. Mark Unterbach, CEO of Procan Labs, remarked, "HARDCAR's assistance was instrumental in assisting us to maneuver through the legal roadblocks that had been placed in the way of our efforts to simply secure the return of our inventory." Interested parties may contact Attorney Armstrong at [email protected] for further questions or to obtain a copy of the court's decision, or contact [email protected] for additional information on the critical compliance issues resulting in this decision. About Procan Labs As California's first large-scale ethanol extraction company, Procan's mission is to keep the California cannabis supply chain stabilized and reliable with clean, compliant oil, distillate and terpenes required by licensed manufacturers. Today, the company is a leader in cannabis extraction and a trusted partner with cultivators and manufacturers throughout the entire state. Media Contact: [email protected] Related Images procan-labs.jpeg Procan Labs As California's first large-scale ethanol extraction company, Procan's mission is to keep the California cannabis supply chain stabilized and reliable with clean, compliant oil, distillate and terpenes required by licensed manufacturers. Today, the company is a leader in cannabis extraction and a trusted partner with cultivators and manufacturers throughout the entire state. SOURCE Procan Labs There are opportunities for UK red meat exporters in the Asian marketplace despite the coronavirus's impact on global trade, experts have said. The UK is still shipping red meat to key target markets despite the serious challenges posed by the virus, delegates at AHDB's new export webinar heard. One of the key messages from the talk was that there are further opportunities to be had for exporters, particularly across Asia. Markets other than China - such as Taiwan, Singapore and especially Vietnam - could 'complement' ongoing trade with the EU. According to Rupert Claxton, meat director of GIRA, there is potential for the UK pork sector in Vietnam where there has been a significant drop in domestic production as a result of the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak. Latest research shows that so far this year, pork production has fallen by almost 17% with expectations of a further drop to around 52% by the end of the year. We predict it could take a decade for the countrys pork sector to recover, said Mr Claxton. "Therefore, there is a real opportunity to potentially increase volumes over the next five to ten years. He also explored how Asian markets were emerging from coronavirus, with almost 90% of Chinese employees back in work. However, in restaurants and canteens, trade remained down between 30 and 40 percent and tourist travel was very limited. He also stated that with the US expected to increase its pork exports to China following a brief hiatus as a result of the coronavirus, competition for the Chinese marketplace looked set to intensify. Mr Claxton said this would mean the UK should further develop a wide range of export opportunities. During his presentation, AHDBs head of Asia Pacific Jonathan Eckley continued to stress the importance of markets such as Taiwan and Singapore. While inward and outward missions have been cancelled due to coronavirus, the work of AHDBs export team continues and we are working collaboratively with agencies and partners in a number of markets to fly the flag for the UKs red meat sector. Mr Eckley also gave an overview of the UKs red meat exports in 2019 which saw over 1.5bn worth of pork, lamb and beef shipped to markets around the world. He then highlighted the challenges at the start of 2020 following lockdown in China, which resulted in some logistical disruptions affecting shipments. However, by the end of March UK pig meat exports had again surpassed year earlier levels, driven by increased demand as logistics started to ease in China. But he stressed that the UK was continuing to weather the storm and cope with the many challenges it faced. Mr Eckley said: We know that it is a very challenging time, not just for the UK, but work is ongoing to promote the high quality of our red meat to new and emerging markets. "Travel restrictions will continue to cause difficulties for us and other nations, but we are finding new and innovative ways of working to ensure that the UK is well positioned to benefit from all future global opportunities. Rice University scientists have developed an easy and affordable tool to count and characterize nanoparticles. The Rice labs of chemists Christy Landes and Stephan Link created an open-source program called SEMseg to acquire data about nanoparticles, objects smaller than 100 nanometers, from scanning electron microscope (SEM) images that are otherwise difficult if not impossible to analyze. The size and shape of the particles influences how well they work in optoelectronic devices, catalysts and sensing applications like surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. SEMseg is described in a study led by Landes and Rice graduate student Rashad Baiyasi in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Physical Chemistry A. The program is available for download from GitHub at https://github.com/LandesLab?tab=repositories. SEMseg -- for SEM segmentation -- springs from the team's study in Science last year that showed how proteins can be used to push nanorods into chiral assemblies. "This work was one result of that," Landes said. "We realized there was no good way to quantitatively analyze SEM images." Counting and characterizing individual or aggregate nanorods is usually done with complex and expensive transmission electron microscopes (TEM), manual measurement that is prone to human bias or programs that fail to distinguish between particles unless they're far apart. SEMseg extracts pixel-level data from low-contrast, low-resolution SEM images and recombines it into sharp images. SEMseg can quickly distinguish individual nanorods in closely packed assemblies and aggregates to determine the size and orientation of each particle and the size of gaps between them. That allows for a more efficient statistical analysis of aggregates. "In a matter of minutes, SEMseg can characterize nanoparticles in large datasets that would take hours to measure manually," Baiyasi said. Segmenting nanoparticles, he said, refers to isolating and characterizing each constituent particle in an aggregate. Isolating the constituent nanoparticles lets researchers analyze and characterize the heterogenous structure of aggregates. Baiyasi said SEMseg can be adapted for such other imaging techniques as atomic force microscopy and could be extended for other nanoparticle shapes, like cubes or triangles. Now that the 'grand reset' is in place, the world which we always took for granted has started slipping away from our grasp. But don't just lose heart. Maybe it's the best thing to have happened to us in a long, long time. The swiftness with which nature has struck back has left us in awe. The two-month old videos of dolphins returning in the canals of Venice, or a family of geese walking with gay abandon on the tarmac of Tel Aviv Airport have become passe. The changes are happening all around and at breathtaking speed, in whichever part of the globe we may be. Sipping my first cup of tea in the morning, I can hear more bird songs than I remember from the balcony of my flat in Delhi. The sky has turned decidedly bluer, the butterflies in the parks have started fluttering around in larger numbers. I am getting similar reports from Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Jaisalmer and many other places. The tipping point, of course, would be reached after the return of frogs and sparrows. These two, arguably the strongest indicators of healthy environment in cities, were among the first to leave India's metros, as our electric gadgets, fuel guzzling automobiles and other creature comforts started creating bigger carbon footprint in the jungles of concrete. My own experience as a nature photographer and wildlife filmmaker helped me observe some of the changes, even before the arrival of coronavirus. Only, most of us did not notice or pay heed to the positive changes. While some of these have been brought about by decisive intervention, others have happened by deliberate non-intervention on our part. The trick is to know which button to push without losing the sacred connection. Tucked away in one corner of Uttarakhand and overshadowed by 'big brother' Corbett National Park is the almost forgotten Rajaji Tiger Reserve. Most people return from the edge of this enchanting place, after performing the ritualistic Ganga aarti at Haridwar's Har-Ki-Paudi. Till about two decades ago, Rajaji Park was on a ventilator, so to speak. With no viable tiger population left, the park was at the tender mercies of thousands of 'van gujjars' whose makeshift abodes and large number of cattle were playing havoc with the national park's eco-system. At one point, it seemed like inevitible curtains for the park's sprawling sal forests, grasslands, valleys and whatever wildlife it was left with. And then, the big change happened. Almost overnight, a few well meaning individuals -- mainly forest officials and bureaucrats in the State Government -- got together and paved the way for the relocation of 'van gujjar' families and their cattle outside the national park. Today, with all squatters gone, Rajaji Tiger Reserve stands true to its name; it has over 20 tigers, a very healthy figure which is a far cry from its dismal past not too long ago. No longer is it gasping for breath in the ICU. Let me give one more example. On the edge of the Thar desert near the Indo-Pak border, a unique battle is being fought, one which has largely escaped media attention. This is a tricky one, involving experts from Abu Dhabi, Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Rajasthan Forest Department and the Union Environment Ministry -- all for the sake of the Greater Indian Bustard. With hardly 150 birds left in the wild, they are at the very edge of the abyss. With a wing span of over seven feet, the Great Indian Bustard (it's also the state bird of Rajasthan) is among the heaviest flying birds on Earth. The irony is that in the early 70s no less than Salim Ali, the renowned ornitholigist, pitched for appointing bustard as the national bird of India. But some 'babus' in New Delhi struck down the appeal -- one reason being that the bird's name rhymed with the word ba****d. Now, of course, better sense has prevailed. Last year, Project Bustard was launched, and the hunt began in the deserts of Jaisalmer to find bustard eggs which could be artifically incubated. For this, a hatchery has already been set up in Jaisalmer. The Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan, Arindam Tomar, had told me that this was "the last chance" for the Great Indian Bustard. Many such endeavours, at both individual and organisational levels, to retrieve the lost ground for nature and wildlife can be found all around us. At times, decisive intervention is needed to obtain desired results. But more often than not, one only has to stand back and let the natural processes make necessary repairs. The maverick Greek philosopher Diogenes told this to Alexander the Great, when the latter approached him in his cave and inquired if he needed anything: "Just stay out of my sunshine." Perhaps this is what is required from us, to stay out of the nature's light. Unwittingly, this is precisely what we have been doing during the past three months. The results of our "not doing" continue to amaze us every day. The crystal clear rainbow which people from Gurgaon to Hyderabad observed a few days ago, and the thousands of accompanying photographs which they posted on social media to express their astonishment, shows the miracles nature can churn out. If only we let it be. I am sure people in most towns, villages and cities have have been experiencing these magical moments. Who would have ever thought of viewing snow-capped Himalayan peaks from Jalandhar and Saharanpur? These mircales are unfolding on an almost daily basis. Many people say the virus, besides reminding us of our fragile hold on life, has brought us closer to nature. Maybe so, but I like to believe our connection with nature was always intact. Only we forgot about it. It's just that we are beginning to wake up now to the wonders which can be re-created. Remember Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz? While still a prisoner serving life imprisonment in the notorius Alcatraz jail, Stroud became the famous bird doctor, his education starting from the first wounded sparrow which flew inside his cell, demanding help. As for me, I am waiting for the frogs and sparrows to return. (Ajay Suri is an award winning filmmaker, conservationist and writer) If cameras are not yet rolling, the film/TV industry is definitely heating up as production has been given the go-ahead from the provincial government. But at this stage, a little more than a week after the Phase 2 marker on June 1, its difficult to nail down what is in pre-production and what will be going to camera in the coming weeks. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. If cameras are not yet rolling, the film/TV industry is definitely heating up as production has been given the go-ahead from the provincial government. But at this stage, a little more than a week after the Phase 2 marker on June 1, its difficult to nail down what is in pre-production and what will be going to camera in the coming weeks. Heres what we do know: A prequel to the thriller Orphan is in the works. Its the one project firmly scheduled to shoot here, in August and September. Titled Esther, it explores the back story of the titular killer, who (spoiler alert!) was an adult passing herself off as a child to wreak havoc on the lives of the couple who adopted her in the hit 2009 horror film. The prequel reportedly shows how Esther made her way from a Russian orphanage to the U.S. The film is to be directed by William Brent Bell, who directed The Boy and Brahms: The Boy II in British Columbia. (Orphan was shot in and around Toronto.) Taylor Jewell/Invision Files Fractured director Brad Anderson will return to the city to shoot a horror movie with an all-local crew. Director Brad Anderson (The Machinist), who shot the Netflix thriller Fractured here a couple of years back, will be returning to helm a new horror film, a theatrical feature titled Blood. The first season of a new sci-fi Netflix series, currently titled Sentient, is in preparation. Buffalo Gal Pictures is preparing work on two feature films, one of which is a Canada/U.K. co-production. Esther was in the works prior to the pandemic shutdown, which means, like a select few of the films going ahead, it was already insured, explains Kyle Irving of Eagle Vision, the local production company for the film. That makes producing the film easier, because it can still use its insurance against the risk that a return of the pandemic could halt production. It was to film this spring, but will now commence shooting in August, Irving says, adding the extra time will be needed to train the crew for working under the COVID-19 restrictions as set out by the industry. "June will be for training, July will be for (pre-production) and well start shooting in August," Irving says. Both the pre-production and the shoot will be six-week periods. No cast has been announced. Warner Bros./Rafy Isabelle Fuhrmann and Vera Farmiga (left) starred in horror film Orphan; a prequel, Esther, will shoot in Winnipeg this year. Also postponed in mid-March was the Netflix TV series tentatively titled Sentient. It had been scheduled to begin shooting April 30 and continue to the end of July. Local producer Ellen Rutter is working on remounting that series, set in the not-so-distant future. "We had started pre-production when COVID made us shut down just like everybody else," Rutter says. "Well be back as soon as possible but we dont have dates yet. "We will be shooting almost exclusively in Winnipeg, maybe parts of Selkirk, but we havent gone far enough along to determine where all of our locations would be," the industry veteran adds. "Its a nine-episode series, so thats a good two or three months of work for the shooting crew. "We will rethink how we schedule. It will remain mostly the same, I think," she says of moving from a spring-summer shoot to a possible summer-fall shoot. "We may have to accommodate for the weather, I suppose." Buffalo Gal Pictures producer Phyllis Laing says the company is at work on two different feature films, but she is not at liberty to go in detail on either. One, a Canada/U.K. co-production, is in "preliminary prep" she says. "We had a project that we were to go into prep on March 16 and we stood it down on March 12," Laing says. "We sent our staff home on the 13th. And thats the one that will be we will be bringing back. "Its a feature film with a company in the U.K. and will have a limited number of people we have about five people in total that we need to bring in and quarantine," Laing says. "Well be shooting in August." Part of the appeal of relaunching the project is that it does not require much interaction with too many people in front of the camera. "Its definitely a contained film and it would be a good one for what we need to be doing to keep everyone safe," Laing says. Laing says the other film came to Buffalo Gal as a direct result of Manitobas minimal COVID numbers. "We started thinking about the types of things that would be nice to do and when it came to us, we thought it would be particularly interesting," she says. "Because 90 per cent of it could be shot outside." Netflix Sam Worthington (left) and Lucy Capri in Fractured. Fractured, the mind-bending 2019 Netflix film directed by Brad Anderson and starring Sam Worthington (Avatar), was shot in Manitoba in the winter of 2018-19. It was notable for the way it relied on a supporting cast of Winnipeg actors to portray the maddeningly ambiguous medical staff of a rural hospital where Worthingtons wife and daughter go missing. Anderson evidently liked the experience well enough to return to the city to shoot a new horror feature film, titled Blood. "Brad Anderson wants to come back and he wants me to hire all-local crew," says Kyle Bornais of Farpoint Films. "He was very happy with the crew and hes really excited about coming back." Again, not much can be said about the project, except it too will require stars to come from out of province and out of the country. "Right now, its a 33-day shoot, so its a nice project to bring to Manitoba," Bornais says. "It will mostly be shot rurally. Hopefully he can start scouting here in early July. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "It looks like we probably wont be able to shoot until the end of August or maybe September, based on the fact that Ill have to deal with quarantining," Bornais says. In the interim, Farpoint will be busy with other, smaller projects, including the true crime series Dying to Be Famous: The Ryan Singleton Mystery, which consists of six one-hour episodes investigating the presumed murder of an aspiring model found dead in the Mojave Desert, with many of his internal organs missing. Bornais says they expect to shoot dramatic recreations for the series in the next few weeks. "I want to test production with the smaller projects and work our way up to bigger things," he says. randall.king@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @FreepKing If you value coverage of Manitobas arts scene, help us do more. Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project. What lies beyond the pandemic? MassForward is MassLives series examining the journey of Massachusetts businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. ___________ At the start of June, Discover Central Massachusetts appointed Monique Messier as its new executive director. A host of emotions overcame Messier as the position is a culmination of her extensive work in the hospitality industry, however, it comes at a time when the entire state is devising strategies to resurrect local economies amid the coronavirus pandemic. Hotels, arenas and travel are in the late phase of Gov. Charlie Bakers plan to reopen businesses in the state. Each sector is key for tourism within Central Massachusetts. Still, Messiers optimism hasnt wavered. I feel like Im walking into an organization that is really well put together, Messier said. We have the tools already in place. Im walking in and being able to build onto what was already built, which the city was doing phenomenal. Central Massachusetts and Worcester enjoyed strong positive growth and momentum in the years prior to the pandemic. The growth of Worcester poured people from around New England into its second largest city. Tourism in Worcester generates about $385 million for the city, according to the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.The agency along with the U.S. Travel Association predicts the coronavirus will slice that number by about 40%. Normally, tourism in Worcester dips in the summer with the busiest times of the year occurring in the spring in fall. This year, though, Messier hopes Discover Central Massachusetts can generate revenue with people remaining home. The organization is building a campaign to help rebuild Worcesters economy and tourism by encouraging people to remain local for staycations" and rediscover the region. We want to focus on people who are right here, Messier said. Maybe within a 2 hour drive. That should get us through the fall. Discover Central Massachusetts usually focuses on visitors from outside a 50-mile radius of Worcester. As Massachusetts approaches a new normal under the coronavirus pandemic, Messier anticipates less travelers both from visitors coming to the city and residents leaving it. In the short term, Messier wants to highlight the people who she knows will be in the city, which are residents. This summer, were going to bring people in who are local, Messier said. We want to remind them of what we have, what our assets are. The EcoTarium in Worcester has a new mountain lion exhibit called Wild Cat Station that features two cats and several birds. Messier listed everything from the Ecotarium and Southwick Zoo to outdoor trails and restaurants as assets in the city. The reminders to local residents of what Central Massachusetts has to offer began on social media. It will extend into other forms of newer technology. Through geocaching and its Visit Widget, Discover Central Massachusetts plans to unveil itineraries residents can use to explore the region. Were going to have different areas where you can go through all of our parks, Messier said. You can go look for all these great finds that are out there. Its all about the outdoors and promoting a safe and clean environment for everyone. As the summer nears its end, Discover Central Massachusetts plans to focus on recruiting the conventions that normally find a home in Worcester in the fall. It will coincide with students potentially returning to colleges in the region. When people arrive for conventions or parents move their children into dorms, they stay in the citys hotels. They dine in city restaurants. They inject valuable dollars into the Worcester economy. The final leg of the plan is to help rebuild the citys performance arenas that could be a year away. Messiers belief is if the city begins to see growth in the summer from residents partaking in the citys assets, it will facilitate growth in the longterm. With an extensive background in hotel and convention center management, Messier realizes its a process. Were truly working hard every day, Messier said. Were really trying to focus on getting the right messaging out. Its going to go in phases for us, kind of like how the state is opening in phases, so are we. MassForward is MassLive's series examining the journey of Massachusetts' small businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. Related Content: A huge fire broke out at an oil field near popular ecotourism spots in northeastern India on Tuesday, after gas that had spewed for two weeks from a blown-out well ignited, officials said. The gas well at an oil field managed by state-owned Oil India started leaking in late May in Tinsukia district of Assam state, and the firm said late last week gas was still flowing "uncontrollably". Tuesday's explosion sent bright orange flames and huge, black plumes of smoke high into the sky, visible 10 kilometres (six miles) from the oil field, locals told AFP. "While the clearing operations were on at the well site, the well caught fire," Oil India said in a statement, adding that a firefighter suffered "minor injuries". Around 200 engineers and workers -- including a team of experts who arrived from Singapore on Monday -- are trying to stem the leak within four weeks, the company added. Villagers fled in fear, and said five of their homes had caught fire. "The situation is very bad. It is spreading. I knew it was going to happen," local environmentalist Niranta Gohain told AFP over the phone from the site. The company called for help from the army after locals allegedly attacked its vehicles after Tuesday's explosion, spokesman Tridiv Hazarika said. Water was being pumped to the well over the past two weeks to prevent the gas catching fire. Assam's Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said firefighters, police and the army were being sent to the site, which is 500 kilometres east of Guwahati, the state's biggest city. Environmentalists were increasingly worried about the impact of the gas leak. The well was producing 100,000 standard cubic metres per day (SCMD) of gas from a depth of 3,870 metres (4,234 yards) before the blowout in May, according to Oil India. Just one kilometre from the field is Maguri-Motapung wetlands, an ecotourism site. State-owned sanctuary Dibru Saikhowa National Park -- renowned for migratory birds -- is about 2.5 kilometres away. Authorities had established an exclusion zone of 1.5 kilometres and about 2,500 people had been evacuated from their homes. Officials Monday ordered a probe into the deaths of five people from the areas surrounding the field, although the district administration said a preliminary investigation suggested they died of natural causes. San Antonio police Monday identified all six victims in a case authorities have described as a murder-suicide but have shared little other information about. Army Staff Sgt. Jared Esquibel Harless, 38, and his wife Sheryll Ann, 36, were found in the back of an SUV in their garage Thursday along with their four children, Esteban Lorenzo Harless, 4; Penelope Arcadia Harless, 3; Avielle Magdalena Harless, 1, and Apollo Harless, 11 months. Neither the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office nor the San Antonio Police Department have said how they died. Police Lt. Jesse Salame reiterated Monday that investigators are confident that no one else was involved in the deaths. Were just trying to figure out the order of events who did what, when it happened and weve not seen a case that had this number of deceased individuals in a long time, he said Monday. On ExpressNews.com: Father in suspected murder-suicide of San Antonio family was Fort Sam GI The Army Criminal Investigation Command was assisting police in the case. Officers had been called to the home Thursday on a welfare check after Jared Harless, a 10-year Army veteran working for the 470th Military Intelligence Brigade at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, failed to contact his office. Seven officers entered the home after seeing a cryptic note written in military jargon, but were driven out by a strong chemical odor after feeling lightheaded, dizzy and nauseous. EMS techs treated them at the scene. It was carbon monoxide, Salame said, saying the feeling was overwhelming even though the officers couldnt smell it. Harless was a 35Q cryptologic cyberspace intelligence collector/analyst and joined the Army in January 2010, the Army said Saturday. He deployed once in his career, to Iraq in 2011 for Operation New Dawn. He came to Fort Sam in January and listed his home as Renton, Wash. Records show he married Sheryll Ann Frias Cargo on Sept. 1, 2008, in King County, Wash. A search of Bexar County records showed they had no pending legal issues. U.S. Army South did not comment on the case or said if Harless would be granted a burial with military honors. The denial of such burial benefits has happened on occasion, once after an Air Force technical sergeant, Steven Bellino, killed his squadron commander in 2016 on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. On ExpressNews.com: Special Forces vet took two guns, a knife and a grudge into fatal meeting The 470th Military Intelligence Brigade grieves with the families for the loss of Staff Sgt. Jared Harless and his family, Army South said in a statement Monday. Currently, the 470th MI Brigade is working with appropriate family and arrangements are still being considered. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said last week the deaths had the appearance of a murder-suicide, but it was too soon to be certain. The note that police saw when they arrived at the rented 2,928-square-foot home in the Heights of Stone Oak said, Bodies or people inside, do not enter, and The animals are in the freezer. Salame said it is believed that Harless wrote the note. After police left the house, a long day turned into a surreal night. Police called in the San Antonio Fire Departments hazardous materials unit and their own bomb squad, shot out the windows with rubber bullets to allow the fumes to escape, and sent a robot inside, but found no explosives. Authorities sent a text warning to cell phones meant to be received by people in a 1,900-foot radius of the Harlesses home, but mistakenly sent it to a 19-square-mile area, Salame said. The warning, which was corrected, initially prompted some to flee an H-E-B store about a mile from the subdivision. Police entered the home around 9 p.m. and found the family. Besides the bodies, two dead cats were found in a basket in the front seat of the SUV. The seats had been removed from the vehicle. Salame couldnt say when they died, but authorities believe they were alive the day before. Theres just many layers to this, so many unanswered questions, Salame said. And we have the same questions that you and everybody else that lives in the neighborhood and is reading this story, and the question is why? 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 Summer is here, and with many states including New York moving ahead with plans to reopen parts of the economy impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, that means more excuses to get outside. Youll still need to wear your face mask though, and whether youre heading to a restaurant for outdoor dining or taking the bike out to ride your nearest rail trail, the scarves, balaclavas and ski masks you were wearing in March and April will have you cooking in the summer heat. The good news is, you can leave them at home and don one of these lightweight face covering options that are in stock and reasonably priced online. Take a look: Amazon 50-pack face masksscreenshot from Amazon Buy in bulk and save with this 50-pack of Reusable Cotton Face Masks for $30.99. These masks are even treated with an anti-microbial finish that lasts up to 10 washes. Amazon also has 100-packs of disposable masks available for $59.99. If you only need a couple masks, check out these Lanier Wellness Adult & Kids Reusable Face Covers, which are reversible with a blue side and a white side and available in adult and kid sizes. Buffalo Bills face masks.screenshot from Fanatics.com Sports fans need to check out Fanatics huge selection of reusable face coverings for their favorite teams, including: CASETiFY mask.screenshot from CASETiFY CASETiFY, known for making protective gear for your smartphone, smartwatch and more, is getting in the face mask game with a charitable bent. For every reusable face mask you buy, CASETiFY makes one to donate to health care workers in need. The masks also include interchangeable filters, and come in white, black, blue and pink. Old Navy masks.screenshot from Old Navy Old Navy is selling reusable face mask variety packs to match any wardrobe, including 5-packs for $12.50 and 10-packs for $25. They come in light, fun prints including solid colors, paisley, floral and many more. They are currently expected to ship by June 16. They are available for adults and children. Space Pattern Face Mask.screenshot from Shein Sheins cotton face masks come in not just a variety of patterns, but a variety of designs too, including neck covering masks, masks with filters, string masks and more. They also have one of the coolest looking patterns around, with this space face mask (pictured above). Star Wars Cloth Face Masks 4-Pack Setscreenshot from shopdisney.com Disney face masks are the perfect coronavirus prevention for kids, featuring Mickey Mouse, Forky, Elsa and Anna, Baby Yoda and dozens more of their favorite Disney characters. The masks sell in packs of four for $19.99, and are available to order on shopdisney.com. They are currently available for pre-order, expected to ship in August, just in time to head back to school. Planet Earth Eyewear 3-Ply Disposable Face Mask 50-Pack.screenshot from Khol's Kohls has a cheap and colorful Bespoke tie-dye mask for $5.94. They also have disposable face coverings that come in packs of 10 ($9.99) and 50 masks ($47.99). Buck Mason mask.screenshot from Buck Mason Buck Masons reusable cotton face masks are treated with an anti-microbial coating that will last up to 30 wash cycles. They come in packs of five, or in bulk packs of 250. Tie Dye Fashion Face Mask.screenshot from Boohoo Boohoo probably has the best variety of patterns of the whole bunch, including tie-dye, camo, polka dot and more. You can buy styles a la carte, and right now theyre on sale for $3. Naturepedic masks.screenshot from Naturepedic These toxin-free, sustainable face masks differ from others on the market. Made with two layers of 100% certified organic fabric, they are free from synthetic fibers and hazardous chemicals commonly found in conventional face masks. Durable and machine washable, the masks can be reused indefinitely. MORE RETAIL COVERAGE Pedal pushers: The best bikes, helmets and must-have accessories Fathers Day 2020 gift ideas for dad you can have delivered right to his door Fathers Day gift ideas to celebrate Dads special day Crystals, candles and lunar calendars: Self-care subscription boxes to soothe mind, body and spirit Alcohol delivery right to your door: Online liquor stores, wine cellars, craft beer clubs and more By Akbar Mammadov Azerbaijan's Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) is monitoring the case of 11 residents detained during the weekend lockdown on June 8, the Ombudsmans official website reported on June 9. The Ombudsman has taken control over the information in the online sources and social media. Detained persons have been heard in person on site; their appelas are currently investigated. Each appeal filed by family members of detainees is also investigated promptly. Every unlawful action will be legally assessed, the information posted on the website reads. The ombudsman stressed that everyone must obey the law and any violation of law should be assessed only within the legal framework. Furthermore, the ombudsman has addressed the Minister of Internal Affairs with regard to the appeals. "Family members of detainees and citizens, in case of having other appeals, can contact the Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) at the phone number 050 370 98 96 which is operating as a 24/7 hotline ," the report concluded. The 11 detainees are suspected of throwing various items at police officers while the latter was detaining a lockdown violator at a residential compelx in Bakus Yasamal district on June 8. Today, Azerbaijans Interior Ministry dismissed a police officer who behaved unethically toward a citizen during the detention of the 11 residents. As a result of the investigation, it has been revealed that one of the officers spoke in a loud voice to a woman and used inappropriate expressions against her husband. Azerbaijan imposed a two-day lockdown on June 6-7 to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country. -- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Washington: One of the most prominent China hawks in US Congress has urged Australia to play a crucial role in helping the United States win a new "cold war" against an increasingly expansionist Chinese Communist Party. Republican Senator Rick Scott, a member of the powerful Homeland Security and Armed Services Senate committees, said democracies must wake up to the fact that China is seeking "world domination" and needs to be confronted head-on rather than appeased. Republican Senator Rick Scott says the US is in a new cold war with China. Credit:AP "Every democracy needs to stand up for what they believe in," Scott told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald in an interview in Washington. "If you believe in fair trade, that's not what China believes in. If you believe in human rights, that's not what China believes in." Scott described China as an adversary to democracies rather than a competitor. "They believe in world domination by the Communist Party of China. The way I look at it is that the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party [Xi Jinping] has made a decision to have a cold war against the United States and democracies around the world," he said. LONDON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Arix Bioscience plc ("Arix") (LSE: ARIX), a global venture capital company focused on investing in and building breakthrough biotech companies, today announces that Jonathan Tobin, PhD, Managing Director, will present at the Proactive One2One Virtual Biotech Forum on Thursday, 11 June 2020. Arix will be one of four companies presenting, each having a presentation slot followed by Q&A. The webinar will take place from 6.00pm and Arix will be the first company to present. Investors can register to attend here: https://event.webinarjam.com/register/192/0vvl4bkl. A replay of the presentation will be available after the event, on the investor relations section of the Arix website at https://arixbioscience.com/investor-relations/events-presentations. About Arix Bioscience plc Arix Bioscience plc is a global venture capital company focused on investing in and building breakthrough biotech companies around cutting edge advances in life sciences. We collaborate with exceptional entrepreneurs and provide the capital, expertise and global networks to help accelerate their ideas into important new treatments for patients. As a listed company, we are able to bring this exciting growth phase of our industry to a broader range of investors. www.arixbioscience.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/997059/Arix_Logo.jpg Enquiries For more information on Arix, please contact: Arix Bioscience plc Charlotte Parry, Head of Investor Relations +44-(0)20-7290-1072 charlotte@arixbioscience.com The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the number of confirmed Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Africa is now over 187,800 while the global cases are now over seven million. The WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, gave the update on Tuesday on its official twitter handle @WHOAFRO. There are over 187,800 confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent with more than 82,400 recoveries and 5,100 deaths, it said. WHO said South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria had the highest reported cases on the continent. According to the organisation, South Africa has 48,285 cases and 998 deaths, followed by Nigeria with 12, 486 confirmed cases and 354 deaths, while Algeria has 10,154 confirmed cases and 707 deaths. WHO said Lesotho, Seychelles and Gambia were countries currently with the lowest confirmed cases in the region. It said Lesotho had only four confirmed cases with zero death, Seychelles had 11 reported cases and zero death, while Gambia recorded 26 confirmed cases also with no death. Meanwhile, the Director-General of WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said almost seven million cases of COVID-19 had been reported to WHO, and almost 400,000 deaths. He said contact tracing remained an essential element of the response for COVID-19, polio and Ebola. In some countries, there is already a strong network of health workers for polio who are now being deployed for COVID-19. Last week we published guidance that describes how existing polio surveillance networks can be used in the COVID-19 response. We outlined the measures that should be put in place to maintain an effective level of surveillance for polio, Mr Ghebreyesus said in statement posted on the agencys website, According to him, WHO has also published new guidelines on the use of digital tools for contact tracing; many digital tools have been developed to assist with contact tracing and case identification. Some are designed for use by public health personnel, like WHOs Go.Data application, which has been used successfully to trace contacts during the ongoing Ebola outbreak in DRC. Others use GPS or Bluetooth technology to identify those who may have been exposed to an infected person. And still others can be used by people to self-report signs and symptoms of COVID-19. As part of a comprehensive approach, digital contact-tracing tools offer the opportunity to trace larger numbers of contacts in a shorter period of time, and to provide a real-time picture of the spread of the virus. But they can also pose challenges to privacy, lead to incorrect medical advice based on self-reported symptoms, and can exclude those who do not have access to modern digital technologies. The director general said more evidence was needed about the effectiveness of these tools for contact tracing. We encourage countries to gather this evidence as they roll out these tools, and to contribute that evidence to the global knowledge base. We also emphasise that digital tools do not replace the human capacity needed to do contact tracing, he said. (NAN) Unionist parties are now heading up over half of Northern Ireland's 11 councils - holding the top positions in seven local authorities. DUP councillors will wear the chain of office in four councils during 2020/21, and the UUP in three, while Sinn Fein and the SDLP have two each. The last fortnight has seen the election of mayors and council chairs across Northern Ireland. The Local Government (Northern Ireland) Act states that councils' annual general meetings must take place in June. However, this year the Covid-19 pandemic means mayors and deputy mayors begin their year in office in unique circumstances as the first to be inaugurated through a virtual meeting streamed live online. Councils are permitted to postpone their AGM up to September 30 but only one - Antrim and Newtownabbey - has chosen to wait until the autumn to elect its new UUP mayor and a deputy from the SDLP. Ulster Unionist Chris Smyth, a psychology researcher at Ulster University, was selected as the new chair in Fermanagh and Omagh and at 27 is the youngest councillor to take on the role this year. Read More Like many incoming mayors, he made his maiden speech to an almost empty chamber while his council colleagues followed proceedings remotely at home due to coronavirus restrictions. His deputy for the coming year is the SDLP's John Coyle. The pandemic also meant the usual traditions were abandoned when DUP councillor Frank McCoubrey was installed as Lord Mayor in Belfast City Hall. His predecessor did not place the chain of office around Mr McCoubrey's shoulders; rather, the city's new first citizen removed it from a plinth and did so himself. There were no handshakes from fellow councillors but a round of applause as SDLP councillor Paul McCusker was also installed as Belfast's Deputy Lord Mayor. Ards and North Down has elected two DUP councillors - Trevor Cummings and Nigel Edmund - as mayor and deputy mayor respectively for the coming year. It's a similar story in Lisburn and Castlereagh, which selected former Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble's son Nicholas as its new mayor alongside his deputy and party colleague, Jenny Palmer. Mid and East Antrim will be represented by a Carrickfergus duo - DUP member Peter Johnston will be mayor with Ulster Unionist Andrew Wilson his deputy. Causeway Coast and Glens held its AGM last night when the DUP's Mark Fielding took over the chairman's role, while Tom McKeown of the UUP will be the deputy. Meanwhile SDLP councillor Brian Tierney took over the reins in Derry City and Strabane and he will be supported in his role by the DUP's Graham Warke. The SDLP's Laura Devlin heads Newry, Mourne and Down, assisted by the UUP's Harold McKee as deputy chair. Councillors from Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists take over the top roles on two councils - Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, and Mid Ulster - with Sinn Fein mayors Kevin Savage and Cathal Mallaghan working alongside UUP members Kyle Savage and Meta Graham. ALBANY The state Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor Vehicles are waiting until later this month to decide whether or not to release a trove of documents related to the tragic 2018 Schoharie limo crash to a lawyer for one of the victims who had sued for them. The Freedom of Information Law case was brought last December against the DOT and DMV by local attorney Paul Davenport, who represents the estate of Erin McGowan, one of the 20 people killed in the deadly limo crash. Although a state supreme court justice ruled back in April that the two agencies must hand over the documents that show how the DOT and DMV tried to crack down on Prestige Limousine, the Wilton-based limo company that owned the 2001 Ford Excursion involved in the crash, the state was able to get more time to appeal the decision or hand over the documents. Albany County state Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch ruled against the state's argument in an April 28 decision and gave the state 20 days to hand over the requested documents. Davenport said the court has granted the DMV and DOT an extension until June 20 to decide what to do. Their cases have been defended by the state Attorney General's office, which had argued the papers could not be turned over due to the pending criminal case in Schoharie County Court and an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. "We continue to review the decision and assess our legal options," Glenn Blaine, a spokesman for the DOT, told the Times Union. Davenport has sought a variety of DOT and DMV documents "relative to the registration, inspections, violations, suspensions, licensing, administrative hearings and decisions" that the two agencies have in their files concerning the Excursion, which had been on the DOT's investigative radar for more than a year before the Oct. 6, 2018 crash in the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store, a popular restaurant and tourist draw in Schoharie. The limo had been carrying 17 passengers from Amsterdam to Cooperstown for a birthday celebration when the driver, who also died, lost control of the limo coming down a steep section of Route 30 across the street from the Apple Barrel. Two pedestrians in the parking lot also died, making it one of the worst highway disasters in the U.S. in more than a decade. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The limo company manager, Nauman Hussain, is facing trial on 20 counts each of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Prosecutors have asserted that Hussain neglected to maintain the limo. including its brakes, which failed during the descent on Route 30. Hussain's legal team has countered that Hussain had fixed the brakes after it initially failed a DOT inspection in March 2018. The limo company is technically owned by Nauman Hussain's father, Shahed Hussain, who is living in Pakistan. Shahed Hussain has not been charged criminally but has been named along with his son in a number of civil lawsuits. Shahed Hussain is a long-time FBI informant who has worked with the government on anti-terrorism stings involving fake terror plots. One of the Albany defendants he helped to convict is being released soon from federal prison due to medical reasons. The Times Union has also filed identical FOIL requests for the same documents with the DOT and DMV. Should the state release the papers to Davenport, the Times Union and others would be entitled to them as well. The two agencies have said the process could be delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, which has put a strain on state agencies and their FOIL offices. NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cherokee Acquisition's Claims Put Market (www.claimsputmarket.com) is the first platform to match vendors seeking credit protection on risky accounts receivables with investors offering protection. The advantage to a vendor of Claims Put Market is that their requested put option is shown to multiple investors that a vendor might not otherwise find. This "broadcasting" of a vendor's requested put option results in a more transparent and fair market. Claims Put Market uses a put option agreement called a Simple Claims Put that transfers the bankruptcy risk of a single customer. Claims Put Market has developed three key innovations: Transparent platform: A vendor's request to purchase a put option is shown to multiple well-capitalized investors. These investors compete to offer each vendor the best price and terms. After agreeing on price and terms, a vendor can review the matched investor's financial information prior to closing. Simplified documents: Claims Put Market's Simple Claims Put is a three-and-one-half-page agreement. In the event of a customer's bankruptcy, the vendor sells (or puts) its valid receivables to the investor at a pre-negotiated purchase rate, subject to the terms of the Simple Claims Put. This sale is effectuated through an agreement called a Simple Assignment of Claim. Transparent reference prices: Most vendor put options are priced with reference to Credit Default Swap (CDS) prices. Claims Put Market displays CDS prices of customers of interest to the vendor community. Viewing displayed CDS prices gives vendors a sense for the potential price of a put option. Claims Put Market leverages off the success of Cherokee Acquisition's Claims Market platform (https://claims-market.com/) and the growing acceptance of the Simple Assignment of Claim document (https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/claims-market-assets/sac.pdf) among sellers and buyers of bankruptcy claims. About Cherokee Cherokee Acquisition and its affiliates are leading innovation in the markets for vendor put options, receivables finance and bankruptcy claims. The Cherokee Acquisition team members are experts in credit investing, private debt trading and receivables-based finance. To learn more about Cherokee, visit https://cherokeeacq.com/ or contact Vlad Jelisavcic at [email protected]. Related Links LinkedIn YouTube SOURCE Cherokee Acquisition Related Links https://cherokeeacq.com Protesters shut down seven logging coupes across Victoria on Tuesday as environmentalists and community members called for an end to native-forest logging. Protesters used tactics including tree-sits, locking onto machinery and walking into logging coupes to halt logging at Mount Cole, Baw Baw, Toolangi, Big Pats Creek, Camberville, Lakes Entrance and Noojee. State government logging agency VicForests said it respected the right to protest but was concerned for the safety of its staff and contractors. Protesters at Big Pats coupe near Warburton. Protesters stopped a total of 41 contractors from working, at a loss of $8000 a day per coupe, a spokesperson said. ~ Gold Recoveries Average 75.18% ~ VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 09, 2020 / VanGold Mining Corp (the "Company" or "VanGold") (TSXV:VGLD) reports results from its 1,039 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: As reported in the Company's June 2, 2020 news release, VanGold has completed its bulk sample and metallurgical test which consisted of delivering a total of 1039 wet 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 Gold and Silver Recoveries: The material used for this test came exclusively from the Company's surface stockpile of waste material which was left behind when mining ceased at El Pinguico in 1913. The material has been exposed to the elements since that time and was therefore somewhat oxidized. Despite this, recoveries of gold and silver were very good, and may point to better recoveries in the future from less oxidized material located within the mine itself. Average Recoveries: Gold: 75.18% Silver: 60.36% At times during the milling process the Company observed even higher gold and silver recoveries - up to 77.68% for gold and 67.19% for silver. The different grinding size and residency time within different circuits at the Bolanitos' mill accounts for much of these differences. The entire process helped us gain a better understanding of how these higher recoveries were reached, and how they can be replicated in the future. The Company may also pursue additional lab tests in order to replicate the higher numbers and potentially apply that knowledge at one of the local Guanajuato mills. Concentrate ratio 232 to 1: The Company delivered 1039 wet tonnes to Endeavour Silver's mill, which when dried became 1006 dry tonnes. With the help of VanGold's consulting metallurgist, Mr. Augustin Parra, Professor of Metallurgy at the University of Guanajuato, the Company chose to use certain silica depressors as reagents in the milling process. This procedure created a very high concentrate ratio of 232:1 which is remarkable for the moderate grade material used in the test and may have the effect of dramatically lowering the cost of transporting potential additional concentrates in the future. After separating and storing a small amount of the concentrate which the Company will have on hand to conduct future analytical tests, the final product consisted of 4.265 dry tonnes averaging 132.0 gpt Au and 6661 gpt Ag. Total recoveries from the final product credited to the Company by Endeavour were 18 ounces of gold and 913 ounces of silver. Head Grade: Vangold's surface 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] The head grade in the 1039 tonnes of material sent to Endeavour Silver's mill had an overall recalculated head grade, after processing, of 1.23 gpt AuEq (using a 96 to 1 gold to silver ratio). This is within the range of historically derived estimates, which gives the Company confidence that its calculations regarding the grade of its underground stockpile will be affirmed when it samples the bottom of the underground stockpile material. This bulk sample was sent to Endeavour Silver'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, the Company anticipates that results from this test may have direct implications for the Company's higher grade underground stockpile material, and for the project as a whole. Next steps, as described in the Company's news release dated June 2, 2020: Clearing the Bottom of the El Pinguico Shaft: With data from this bulk sample now in hand, plans are being finalized for crews to begin clearing the bottom of the El Pinguico shaft. 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 its 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 Colmillo Stope: Once the El Pinguico shaft has been suitably cleared, it is anticipated that crews will be able to access and sample the Colmillo Stope. This stope was a high grade area within the El Pinguico mine 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 effective 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. Determination of Au and Ag within mineral samples was done by fire assay with a gravimetric finish. 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 results from the Company's 1,039 tonne bulk sample including average grades of gold and silver and the potential implications such results hold for the Company's underground stockpile, 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. [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/593235/VanGold-Reports-Successful-Bulk-Sample-Results-at-the-El-Pinguico-Silver-and-Gold-Project En el encuentro participan los titulares del MIMP, Gloria Montenegro; del MTPE, Sylvia Caceres; y del Midis, Ariela Luna; asi como representantes del Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos y del Ministerio de Cultura.#ConsensoyConcertacion pic.twitter.com/0g9R5iror4 DETROIT A Michigan State Police trooper suffered minor injuries when he pulled an unconscious man from a burning vehicle on a Detroit highway. Troopers from the Metro South Post was dispatched to the scene on I-94 and Haggerty Road around 6:15 a.m. on Tuesday. Upon arrival he found a vehicle with a boat attached on fire and a 63-year-old male driver slumped over unconscious inside. Car Fire Final Update: On 6/9 at approximately 6 15 AM troopers were dispatched to I-94 FWY & Haggerty Rd. Van Buren Twp for a car/boat fire. A Metro South trooper arrived on scene and saw the 63 year old male driver slumped over unconscious inside of the vehicle. pic.twitter.com/0svMqokxUi MSP Metro Detroit (@mspmetrodet) June 9, 2020 Troopers attempted to use his baton to break the passenger side window out, however due to the tint on the front windows, he had to use his hands to push the window in before he was able to pull the driver from the truck. Emergent Health EMS arrived on scene and treated the man for low blood sugar. The trooper sustained cuts to both of his arms and hands, but was treated at the scene. Police determined the fire was caused by the driver having his foot on the gas, which caused the tires to catch fire. Worli and Dharavi, which emerged as the two major Covid-19 hotspots of the city in the beginning of the outbreak, are now witnessing a decline in the number of average daily cases and surge in doubling rate, giving hope to authorities. Worli reported an average of 60 cases in May, which has come down to 35-40 in June. In Dharavi, the average new cases have come down from 47 in May to 27 in June. The growth rates of Worli and Dharavi has come down to 1.9% and 1.7%, respectively, which are among the lowest in the city. The doubling rate of Dharavi has gone up to 44 days, while it takes 38 days for cases to double in Worli. The two areas have also reported a recovery rate of 50%. Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner of G North ward, that covers Dharavi, said, We have separated suspected patients from the community on a timely basis, conducted screenings and aggressive testing and organised fever camps. We have identified people who were using common toilets and home quarantined them also. Dharavi has reported 1, 924 cases and 71 deaths. On Monday, 12 positive cases were reported in the area. Dighavkar claimed that of the 1,924 cases, around 70% had been already quarantined by the BMC. I dont think that there will be a rise in the numbers after this as we are continuously screening more and more people and ensuring isolation of most of the people. We will keep doing that until there are zero cases in Dharavi. Meanwhile, with 42 cases reported on Monday, the total cases in G south ward, which consists of Worli, has gone up to 2,390. The final death toll figures are yet to be updated. Initially, Worli was among the worst-hit areas in the city, with cases escalating speedily on a daily basis. Sharad Ughade, assistant municipal commissioner of G South ward, said, Densely-populated slums such as Jijamata Nagar and Worli-Koliwada had the maximum cases being reported every day, but as of today, these slums have nil or minimal cases. We only focused not only on recovery but also on prevention. BMC claims to have screened 87, 000 people in Worli and put 4, 500 residents in institutional quarantine. Ughade also attributed the decline in cases to peoples participation. Dr Om Srivastav, one of the doctors who are a part of the task force appointed by the state to bring down the mortality rate, said, We will have to wait and see what kind of numbers come in the next two or three weeks. If residents continue to follow what they have been doing in the past eight weeks, such as wearing masks, sanitising hands and following social distancing norms, then we should be able to manage to flatten the curve. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Nepal House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously approved a Constitution Amendment Bill to change the countrys political map which includes Kalapani, Lipu Lekh and Limpiyadhura territories it contests with India. Apart from the ruling Communist Party, the main opposition party Nepali Congress and Madhes-based parties also backed the proposal to consider the constitution amendment bill. According to media reports, the Nepal government's bid to bring amendment in the country's political map in the national emblem now has officially moved forward after the endorsement of the lower house. The MPs will now get 72 hours' time to bring amendments, if any, within that the amendment bill endorsed by the House. The unanimous endorsement of the lower house will now pave way for the government to expedite the process to replace the new political map in Nepal's national emblem and in the coat of arms. It requires a two-thirds majority vote in parliament to endorse any constitution amendment bill. READ | Nepal To Table Constitutional Amendment For New Map On Tuesday With Opposition Support Ministers react Following the development, local media reported law minister Shivamaya Tumbahangphe expressing happiness that all political parties had stood united on the issue of the country's territorial integrity. She also announced that Nepal will "get back the territories encroached by India" and govern those territories belonging to Nepal. In his address to the house, Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali stated that the government would like to 'diplomatically' resolve border row with India. In his introductory address to the Lower House of the Nepalese Parliament, Gyawali said, "We are the land of Buddha, and should maintain peace while talking about the border row with India." The Foreign Minister also highlighted that Nepal is seeking to hold discussions with its neighbouring country and that there is 'no other option' than that. Furthermore, he stated, "Nepal border begins at the Limpiyadhura origin of river Kali. Our border is determined by Sugauli treaty. India has acknowledged Kalapani and Susta borders as unresolved in 1997." READ | Nepal Records 323 New Coronavirus Cases, Tally Crosses 4,000-mark Nepal's new map As per reports, Nepal's new map has been drawn on the basis of the Sugauli Treaty of 1816 signed between Nepal and the then British Indian government and other relevant documents. The row originally started when India issued a map in October 2019 incorporating Kalapani and Lipulekh on its side of the border. In May 2020, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated an 80-km strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand as a link road to Kailash Mansarovar - Nepal had raised serious objections to the inauguration of this road. Reacting to Nepal incorporating parts of Indian territory in its official map on May 20, the Ministry of External Affairs slammed this "unilateral act". Maintaining that this move was not based on historical facts and evidence, MEA official spokesperson Anurag Srivastava observed that this was contrary to the understanding between the two countries to resolve boundary disputes through dialogue. He made it clear that India shall not accept such an "artificial enlargement" of territory. READ | Nepal Map Resolution In Parliament, FM Seeks 'diplomatic' Ways To Engage With India READ | India To Rebuild 56 Schools Destroyed In Nepal's 2015 Earthquake The Woodlands-based attorney and district judge candidate Eric Yollick has been charged with criminal mischief for allegedly egging the car of Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough in March. Yollick, who is running for the bench of the new 457th state District Court, the misdemeanor carries a fine of up to $150. The case is set for trial in October. Keough declined to comment on the incident Monday and Yollick referred to a May 14 social media post. My action two months ago was a lighthearted protest between friends (me and County Judge Keough). Unfortunately, Keough's unconstitutional actions have touched and harmed every citizen in Montgomery County, particularly family members who lost their jobs, businesses which have lost their futures, and parents and children facing economic devastation foisted upon us by Keough and his government cronies, Yollick stated on Facebook in response to Keoughs stay-at-home order amid the COVID-19 pandemic in March. According to Keoughs Chief of Staff Jason Millsaps, the incident happened March 27 as Keough was leaving his county office in the late afternoon in downtown Conroe. When Keough approached his vehicle, Millsaps said, he saw Yollick throw the egg at his Lexus SUV. Millsaps said Keough contacted law enforcement officials at the time of the incident and was told there was a two-year statute of limitations on such a crime. Keough, he said, opted to wait since the situation with the new coronavirus was pressing and demanding a great deal of his time. Officials with the Texas State Bar could not confirm they had received any complaints about Yollick, noting the disciplinary process was confidential. Yollick, who lost a bid for the 9th state District Court bench in 2016 to former prosecutor Phil Grant, is not a stranger to controversy. In February, a video emerged on social media showing him removing door hangers of other election candidates from homes in The Woodlands. At the time, Yollick was in a five-man race for the newly created 457th state District Court bench, with Bruce Tough, Vince Santini, Robert Kasprzak and Chris Buck. In several different videos, Yollick, is captured by doorbell cameras removing door hangers of candidates, including U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady, crumpling them up and putting them in his pocket. Yollick then places his political hanger on the door and leaves. Yollick, who said he removed several door hangers while block walking, took to social media and explained the reason he did so was because the hangers were tattered. However, the door hanger flap didnt affect Yollick at the polls in the March Republican primary and Yollick will face Santini in the rescheduled July 14 Republican runoff. Yollick garnered 21,662 (37.53 percent) votes over Santinis 14,468 (25.07 percent) votes. cdominguez@hcnonline.com MIDLAND COUNTY, MI A 22-year-old woman died and a 21-year-old man was injured after a rollover crash in Midland County. Deputies with the Midland County Sheriffs Office responded around 5:45 p.m. Sunday, June 7 to West Prairie Road near South Magruder Road in Greendale Township, west of Midland, for a report of a single-vehicle crash. An initial investigation has revealed Bryton LaLonde, of Greendale Township, was headed west on Prairie Road in her 1995 Jeep Wrangler when the vehicle left the road onto the soft shoulder. LaLonde lost control of the vehicle when she tried to re-enter the roadway which caused it to overturn, police said. She was pronounced deceased at the scene. LaLonde did not wear a seat belt at the time of the crash. A 21-year-old man in the front passenger seat suffered minor injuries. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. The Midland County Sheriffs Office was assisted at the scene by Michigan State Police, Mid-Michigan Medical Center, Lee Township Fire Rescue and Chief Assistant Medical Examiner Dennis Wagner. Thanks to the useful death of St. George Floyd of the Church of Black Lives Matter, the execrable Ben Crump has found the best way ever to leverage his profile and his bank account. Crump attaches himself like a leech to high-profile black deaths and will use any means necessary to push a narrative. His latest push is to use Floyd's family as a means to attack American sovereignty by appealing to the U.N. to police America's police. Crump's made a career out of representing the families of black men who died during interactions with the police or who otherwise had politically useful deaths. Considering how few unarmed blacks die at police hands (especially since Trump became president), Crump probably has to leverage cases to make a profit. (There's profit to be had with the Floyd family, who are now the beneficiaries of a $13.8-million GoFundMe campaign.) That lust for fame and money may explain why Crump held his tongue when the prosecution against George Zimmerman for Trayvon Martin's death used a fake witness to push the narrative that Martin was a good kid, not a wannabe thug. With Floyd's death, Crump is going beyond America and speaking to the world. He has written an open letter to the U.N. to demand that it step in to govern America's police departments: The group sent a letter on June 3 to one of the international body's working groups asking for support for the end of the provision of military equipment and military-type training for police, the teaching of deescalation techniques, independent prosecutions and autopsies for "extrajudicial" police killings, and more. "When a group of people of any nation have been systemically deprived of their universal human right to life by its government for decades, it must appeal to the international community for its support and to the United Nations for its intervention," Floyd's family attorney Ben Crump said in a press release. A few things need to be said: first, this is an attack on American sovereignty, something that bothers Americans but not Democrats. (I'm not even pretending anymore that Democrats consider themselves Americans. They see themselves as world citizens fighting the evil that is America.) Second, this is the same U.N. that has nothing to say about police abuses in China, among the Palestinians, in Venezuela, or anywhere else in the world that's not America. Third, this is the same U.N. that allowed its "peacekeepers" (i.e., its police) to commit sexual abuse against thousands of black children in Africa and Haiti. Fourth, this is the same U.N. that allows Palestinian terrorists to use its ambulances in the terrorists' perpetual wars against Israeli citizens. Fifth, the U.N.'s high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, insisted that Floyd's death was the "latest in a long line of killings of unarmed African Americans by U.S. police officers and members of the public" and urged "serious action." The U.N. is champing at the bit to demean America. Crump knows that the U.N. cannot affect policing in America. This is theater, but it's disgusting theater to see a race-hustler appeal to an anti-American organization that has no trouble with totalitarian organizations around the world abusing people under their control, and that turned a blind eye for decades to its own organization's abuse of blacks. Thinking about Crump's conduct, perhaps it's time to drag out the Logan Act... [June 09, 2020] Makor Group Grows Amid COVID-19 Crisis, Expands Derivatives Desk in Europe LONDON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Makor Group ("Makor"), an international agency brokerage group trading cash equities, fixed income, FX and derivative products, is pleased to announce the expansion of its European derivatives trading desk with the addition of two new senior hires to the team. Mr. Pierre-Olivier Burte and Mr. Gregory Salon will be joining Makor's offices in Paris as Co-Global Heads of Exotic Products focused on developing the execution desk and establishing an advisory and research platform, solidifying the firm's ongoing growth in these times of global crisis. "Despite the present crisis and challenging market outlook, Makor is excited to continue our growth as we tackle new opportunities with the expansion of our Equity Derivatives desk," said Makor Group Founder Michael Halimi. "I am very pleased to welcome Pierre-Olivier [Burte] and Gregory [Salon] to the Makor family and I am certain they will make a positive addition to our team." Mr. Burte joins from Camelia Tech, a fintech company he co-founded specialized in the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of SMEs. Prior to pursuing this venture in 2015, Mr. Burte built an impressive track record in exotics trading at Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank. After graduating from Ecole Polytechnique in Applied Mathematics in 2002 and Ecole National des Ponts et Chaussees's Department of Mathematical Engineering in 2003, Mr. Burte first joined Calyon's Global Equity Derivatives desk focusing on Exotics Trading. From then, he continued to grow his expertise in exotics product trading, rising to a senior management role within CA-CIB's Global Equity Derivatives, where his responsibilities included the development and management of the trading desk, as well as the training of junior traders. Mr. Salonbrings with him substantial expertise in Exotics Trading with a stellar record from Societe Generale. After graduating from Ecole Centrale Paris, one of Paris' leading schools, with a major in Mathematics, Finance and Computer Science, Mr. Salon began his career as Corporate Equity Derivatives Trader in Calyon in 2001 after which he specialized as an Exotic Index Trader in 2005. Mr. Salon subsequently joined Societe Generale as Deputy Head of Exotic Trading in New York in 2006. After returning to Paris as Head of Exotic Trading Indices in Europe for the firm, Mr. Salon continued to grow until becoming the Co-Head of Equity Derivatives Trading for Europe at SocGen in 2015. It is his deep understanding of Exotic Trading that lead him to specialized consulting work in Trading/Quant activities since mid-2017 prior to joining Makor, servicing clients including Naxitis CIB and BNP Paribas. The extensive expertise brought forth by Mr. Burte and Mr. Salon as they now join Makor has cemented the firm's forward-looking enthusiasm for its and its team's growth during this ongoing crisis, as Makor continues to evolve, to invest, and to grow. About Makor (www.makor-capital.com) Makor Group is an FCA-regulated international brokerage firm established in March 2011 by Michael Halimi and Avi Bouhadana. Its core business consists of providing institutional investors bespoke financial securities research and execution across a spectrum of products including Cash Equities, Fixed Income securities, derivatives and FX. Previously partnered at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe, Halimi and Bouhadana continue to lead the firm's international growth across its many offices worldwide in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Geneva, Gibraltar, Tel Aviv and Singapore. Today, the firm boasts over 200 employees offering its clients 24-hour global trading through single points of contact for more than 90 execution venues in Cash Equities only. Building on its expertise and trusted reputation, Makor provides its clients with unique and innovative trading ideas specializing in risk arbitrage, special situations, relative value and event-driven opportunities for clients and has consistently ranked 1st at the Thomson Reuters EXTEL risk-arb research surveys for 4 years in a row since 2016. As a client-focused agent, Makor takes no proprietary positions, acting wholly and exclusively for the benefit of the client, and is therefore not susceptible to various conflicts existing in the industry. Leveraging its deep understanding of local markets and extensive client relationships built over 30 years of industry experience, Makor expertly taps into local institutional portfolios in order to maximize liquidity for clients. In addition to its client relationships, Makor has further built strong ties with global custodians and prime brokers, understanding that both are crucial players for a smooth and effective operation. This ensures that the settlement of all trading activity with Makor is consistently timely and problem free, which in many cases is as equally important as execution efficiency. Contact: Michael Halimi +1-212-419-4000 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Protesters filled Moody Park in Ewing Monday as hundreds of people came to speak out against racism and police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. Photos by Rich Hundley III For The Trentonian. Photo: Rob Kruyt Commercial real estate landlords in B.C., who are dealing with many retail tenants failing to pay rent for the second month in a row, are caught in a classic carrot-and-stick situation. They can accept a government aid package that will cost them 25 per cent of the rental income, or move to evict non-paying tenants, But they cant do both. A Colliers survey found that 16 per cent of retail tenants did not pay rent in May. This was down from 39 per cent in April, according to the monthly Rent Collection and Relief Status report from Colliers Real Estate Management Services. Of the tenants who requested rent relief in May, 23 per cent were able to negotiate direct relief agreements with their landlords outside of the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program. Of that number, 94 per cent were granted deferrals and 6 per cent were granted rent abatements. Under the CECRA the property owners must offer a minimum of a 75 per cent rent reduction for the months of April, May and June 2020. The program is meant to help small to mid-size business that have suffered at least a 70 per cent downturn in revenues due to COVID-19. Tenants are provided with an interest-free loan to cover 50 per cent of their rent, with Ottawa kicking in 25 per cent and landlords swallowing 25 per cent. Commercial property owners must apply for the assistance, but there is a B.C. catch. A June 1 ruling from the province prohibits landlords from taking the following actions on a tenants failure to pay rent: evicting, or exercising any other contractual or other right of re-entry to a tenants leased property; giving a tenant a notice of re-entry or notice of termination of lease; distraining the tenants property for any rent due; and taking any steps to rent out the tenants leased property on the tenants behalf. Also on June 1, the B.C. government raised the minimum wage in the province to $14.60 per hour, up from $13.85 per hour, with liquor servers seeing their minimum wage rise to $13.95 per hour, up from $12.70. The move is expected to hit already struggling retailers hard, according to the Retail Council of Canada. 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With support for AES banking-level encryption and apps for macOS, iPad and iPhone, WinZip makes it safe and easy to share files on your favorite Apple hardware. Pricing and Availability WinZip Mac 8 Pro and WinZip Mac 8 Standard are both available in English. Suggested retail pricing (SRP) for WinZip Mac 8 Pro is $49.95 USD / 51.54 / 59.44 (in Germany). SRP for WinZip Mac 8 is $29.95 USD/ 31.14 / 35.64 (in Germany). Euro and British Pounds prices include VAT. About WinZip WinZip is trusted by millions of businesses and consumers to boost productivity, simplify file sharing, and keep information private. Offering apps for all of todays most popular platforms and devices, WinZip gives users a better way to manage and share files in the cloud, email, and social media. The WinZip product line also includes powerful utilities to improve system performance and help keep Mac and Windows PCs secure. WinZip is a division of Corel Corporation. For more information about WinZip, please visit www.winzip.com . Corel products enable millions of connected knowledge workers around the world to do great work faster. Offering some of the industry's best-known software brands, we give individuals and teams the power to create, collaborate, and deliver impressive results. Our success is driven by an unwavering commitment to deliver a broad portfolio of innovative applications including CorelDRAW, ClearSlide, MindManager, Parallels, and WinZip to inspire users and help them achieve their goals. To learn more about Corel, please visit www.corel.com . Copyright 2020 Corel Corporation. Corel, WinZip, the WinZip logo, CorelDRAW, and MindManager are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its affiliates in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere. ClearSlide is a trademark or registered trademark of ClearSlide Inc., in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere. Parallels is a trademark or registered trademark of Parallels International GmbH in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere. macOS is a trademark of Apple Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. Patents: www.corel.com/patent . Media Contact Saeed Ismail Saeed [email protected] www.winzip.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/97d1e62f-1290-4044-affe-bf83dd470099 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] An Air Force sergeant and leader in an elite military security force was armed with homemade bombs, an AR-15 rifle and other weapons and had a desire to harm police when he launched a deadly attack on unsuspecting officers, a Northern California sheriff has said. It has emerged that Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo was a member of the elite 'Phoenix Raven' Air Force security unit when he opened fire on officers from a hillside on Saturday afternoon. Sgt. Carrillo fired from the high ground onto police who scrambled to find cover and defend themselves, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart said on Monday. 'He was very intent on killing these police officers,' Hart said at a news conference. 'They had no idea that they were about to get into this firefight.' 32-year-old suspect Steven Carrillo, left, an active-duty U.S. Air Force sergeant arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting Santa Cruz Sheriff's Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, 38, and wounding two other officers Saturday, and right, Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller. Gutzwiller was shot and killed Saturday in Ben Lomond Matthew Rose, left, and Michael Carr, of Santa Cruz County hold posters of slain Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, as they join others outside the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner's Office to pay their respects in Santa Cruz, California on Sunday, June 7 Santa Cruz Sheriff Jim Hart stands next to Hart's wife and child, as more than a thousand people gather outside the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner's Office to pay their respects to fallen Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller One of Hart's deputies, Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, 38, was shot and killed. Another deputy was shot in the chest - his bulletproof vest saving him - and suffered shrapnel wounds from an explosive and then was struck by Carrillo's vehicle as the suspect fled the his home. The deputy, whose name has not been released, was in stable condition and good spirits, Hart said. A California Highway Patrol officer was wounded in the hand. Carrillo escaped, carjacked a vehicle and tried to carjack several others before being subdued through the herculean efforts of a heroic resident, Hart said. The man saw Carrillo in his backyard and confronted him. Carrillo, armed with the AR-15, demanded the man's car keys. The man retrieved the keys, gave them to Carrillo and when Carrillo turned away the man tackled him and the rifle fell away from him. Santa Cruz Sheriff Jim Hart stands next to Hart's wife and child, as more than a thousand people gather outside the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner's Office Santa Cruz County Sheriff Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, 38, was shot and killed in Ben Lomond, an unincorporated area near Santa Cruz As they struggled, Carrillo pulled a pipe bomb from his pants and tried unsuccessfully to light it. He then pulled out a pistol and the man was able to knock it out of his hands and then subdue him as neighbors came to help, Hart said. 'This guy could have done a lot more damage in our community,' Hart said. The man who subdued Carrillo does not want to be publicly identified, Hart said, but he plans to award him a medal. Carrillo suffered a gunshot wound at some point and was being treated for a non-life-threatening injury. The FBI also is investigating if Carrillo, 32, has any links to the killing of a federal security officer who was shot outside the U.S. courthouse in Oakland during a protest against police mistreatment of black people on May 29. Authorities said the gunman opened fire from a white van. Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart speaks during a news conference Monday, June 8, in Santa Cruz, about the killing of Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Sgt. Damon Gutzwille FBI Special Agent in Charge John Bennett speaks during a news conference Monday, June 8 On Saturday, deputies responded to a 911 call about a suspicious white van in Ben Lomond, an unincorporated area outside the beachfront city of Santa Cruz south of San Francisco. The caller said guns and bomb-making devices were inside, Hart said. When deputies arrived, the van pulled away and they followed. The van went down a driveway at Carrillo's home, and the driver ambushed the deputies, authorites said. Afterward, authorities found pipe bombs, multiple firearms, a large amount of ammunition and bomb-making equipment at the hillside, said Hart, who called Carrillo by name at the start of the news conference and then said 'I dont even want to say his name again.' Neither Hart nor John Bennett, the FBIs special agent in charge in San Francisco, would provide additional information about the possible nexus between Carrillo and the Oakland shooting. Carrillo was a team leader for the Phoenix Ravens at Travis Air Force Base northeast of San Francisco, as part of the 60th Security Forces Squadron. The Phoenix Ravens are tasked with protecting aircraft and crews from assaults on airfields 'where security is unknown or additional security is needed to counter local threats,' according to the Air Force. California Highway Patrol officers keep a road closed in Ben Lomond near Santa Cruz, Monday, as FBI agents continue processing the scene where Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller was killed Saturday The American Flag flies at half-staff along with the Thin Blue Line Flag in downtown Felton, California, on Monday, June 8 Carrillo had no record of disciplinary issues during his military career. He was deployed to Kuwait for four months in 2019, according to the Air Force. Carrillos wife, Monika Leigh Scott Carrillo, who also was in the Air Force, was found dead in an off-base hotel in May 2018 while she was stationed in South Carolina. She was 30. Her death was ruled a suicide, according to the Air Force. Carrillo arrived at Travis Air Force Base the month after her death, the military said. Bennett said it's believed Carrillo was in California at the time of the suicide and he's not a suspect. Carrillos arraignment is scheduled for Friday afternoon. He is expected to be charged with first-degree murder. 'Its very important for Damons memory that we get this case right,' Hart said. A fundraising site for the Gutzwiller's family set up by the states largest law enforcement organization, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, had raised more than $230,000 by Monday afternoon. Gutzwiller is survived by a pregnant wife and one child. Amid criticism from opposition leaders, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has defended his presence at a Black Lives Matter protest despite warning Canadians to avoid large gatherings and supporting restrictions on mass events across the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Opposition leaders accused Trudeau of hypocrisy. Trudeau took a knee at that event on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in memory of African-American George Floyd, who died late last month after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck while he lay handcuffed on the ground, sparking off both peaceful protests and violent rioting in the United States. Opposition leader Andrew Scheer addressed the matter in Parliament on Monday and said he understood why some people were upset and confused at seeing Trudeau completely ignore those types of health guidelines or recommendations. Canadas chief public health officer Dr Theresa Tam had warned against public protests and recommended virtual protests instead. Scheer also tweeted, Trudeau: you cannot attend funerals, visit dying relatives, or attend church services Also Trudeau: its ok for me to attend mass public gatherings Do you think thats fair? He was backed by the leader of the Bloc Quebecois Yves-Francois Blanchet who described Trudeaus presence at the protest as an avoidable publicity stunt, according to the outlet CBC News. It quoted him as saying, That is not the best place for the prime minister, or for me, to be. We have other occasions, opportunities to speak but it is quite characteristic of this Prime Minister working with symbols, symbolic gestures. CBC also reported that around 4,000 people attended the rally and few of them practised physical distancing while some of the protestors did not wear masks, though Trudeau did. It also noted that Trudeau shook hands with some of the protestors something public health officials have warned against. Trudeau defended his action at his daily media briefing on the coronavirus crisis, saying the right balance was required between the right to protest and public health measures. He said he went to the rally to show support and listen to what community leaders and Black Canadians are calling for. Ottawa is in the province of Ontario, which along with Quebec, accounts for the vast majority of infections and fatalities in the country. Social gatherings in Ontario are capped at five persons, though that limit will be doubled on June 12. Over 7,800 deaths have been reported in total and more than 96000 persons infected so far. A man has been charged in relation to an assault that occurred in Dublin. Gardai said the incident occurred at a house in the Whitestown Grove area of Blanchardstown on June 7. NCP president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday visited Raigad district in Maharashtra to take stock of the damage caused by cyclone Nisarga last week. Pawar interacted with locals at a market in Mangaon where district guardian minister Aditi Tatkare and Raigad Lok Sabha MP Sunil Tatkare were also present. The cyclone had caused huge devastation in parts of the coastal district, about 115 kms away from Mumbai, on June 3 after making landfall near Shrivardhan. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had announced an immediate relief of Rs 100 crore for Raigad. Pawars party is a key constituent in the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by the Shiv Sena. Pawar tweeted that he had begun his tour of coastal Konkan region to review the cyclone damage. A close aide of Pawar said that the NCP chief would visit areas affected by the cyclone in Ratnagiri district on Wednesday. Six persons were killed and 16 others injured in different districts of the state in cyclone-related incidents like falling of electricity poles. The state government had announced Rs 4 lakh aid to the kin of the dead. India on Tuesday registered a strong protest with Pakistan over what it said was the systematic and targeted demolition of homes of the Hindu minority in Punjab province, people familiar with developments said. A strong demarche or formal diplomatic representation was made to the Pakistan high commission in New Delhi on the demolition of houses belonging to Hindu minority at Chak 52/DB in Bahawalpur district of Pakistans Punjab, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. Members of civil society in India had expressed serious concerns and anguish at the targeted and continued persecution of religious and ethnic minorities in Pakistan, one of the people said. They have also strongly condemned the incident wherein state authorities targeted the Hindu minority despite the occupants of the houses producing valid documents of ownership and legal relief granted against demolition, the person added. The Indian side conveyed its concerns and asked the Pakistan high commission to inform the relevant authorities in the Pakistan government to take urgent remedial action, the people said. The Indian side also called on the Pakistan government to discharge its responsibilities by looking after the safety, security and well-being of minority communities and by protecting their rights and freedoms, the people said. The NGO Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) recently concluded after an independent fact-finding mission that local authorities in Bahawalpur district were responsible for demolishing the homes of members of the Hindu minority. The demolition occurred despite the fact that the Hindu community fearing this might come to pass after being threatenedon several occasions had filed a case petitioning a senior civil judge of the Bahawalpur bench to issue an order forbidding any such action, HRCP said in a statement issued last week. Even though the restraining order was issued on 20 May 2020, 25 houses were levelled and another 10 partly demolished, leaving their occupants including young children without any access to shelter, the statement said. HRCP notes with serious concern that the Hindu community, already vulnerable as a religious minority, was targeted on grounds of faith to advance the interests of the local land mafia, it added. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON WASHINGTON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 3, the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") issued guidance designed to give Main Street investors saving for retirement better access to private assets. The DOL issued an information letter confirming that plan fiduciaries can prudently offer participants access to target-date funds that contain an allocation to private equity. The DOL also provided plan fiduciaries with guidance on the factors that a prudent fiduciary would consider when evaluating these types of new products. "Retirement savers should be excited about these developments," said Jonathan Epstein, President and Founder of the Defined Contribution Alternatives Association ("DCALTA"). "The DOL is helping plan fiduciaries broaden access to the opportunity set of investments that had previously been limited to institutional and other larger investors. DCALTA supports the inclusion of a professionally managed and diversified portfolio of alternative assets as a modest component of a multi-asset class fund, such as a target date fund. DCALTA advocated for this DOL guidance in face to face meetings with the DOL staff and through written support." "The DOL letter is a great step forward to provide a path for plan sponsors, advisors and other fiduciaries who would like to include alternatives appropriately in diversified multi-asset class type investment options," said Charlie Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of Retirement and Employee Benefits at Voya Financial and DCALTA board member. DCALTA serves as a collective voice for alternative investments in defined contribution plans. DCALTA has conducted research in collaboration with the Institute for Private Capital on the impact of including private market investments in balanced and time-varying multi-asset class portfolios, such as target-date, target-risk and balanced funds. Research results found significant diversification and risk-adjusted return benefits when including an allocation to private investments on a net of fee basis. DCALTA met with the DOL on Feb. 24th, 2020 to communicate the benefits of including alternative investments in defined contribution plans, and subsequently, provided a list of issues that plan fiduciaries should consider when responsibly evaluating private market investments for their participants. "We are very pleased by the action the DOL has taken with their information letter and look forward to educating plan sponsors, industry professionals and other stakeholders on the responsible inclusion of alternative investments in long-term retirement portfolios," said Mr. Jonathan Epstein. "It is great to see the DOL, working with the SEC, to help 401(k) plan participants break down the barriers that had previously limited their access to diversifying asset classes," said Kevin Walsh of Groom Law Group, Chartered. "By providing enhanced access to an asset class that can align well with a retirement saver's long-term investment horizon, the DOL has taken a big step towards helping savers ensure that they don't outlive their retirement savings," said David Levine of Groom Law Group, Chartered. DCALTA DCALTA is a trade association that exists to advance the utilization of alternative investments within a defined contribution framework. Through focused research, education and advocacy, we seek to better secure and enhance participant outcomes through the inclusion of hedge funds, private equity, and other alternative investments in the defined contribution model. Some DCALTA member firms include: Adams Street Partners, Cambridge Associates, Conversus, Fairway Capital, FTSE Russell, Natixis, Neuberger Berman, Northern Trust, Nuveen, Pantheon, StepStone Group, Voya and many other organizations supporting our mission. SOURCE DCALTA - Defined Contribution Alternatives Association Related Links www.dcalta.org 7 Shot Within 10 Minutes in Brooklyn, Police Say Seven people were shot within 10 minutes in three incidents in Brooklyn, New York, police stated on June 9. Two men, 27 and 34, were each shot in the leg during the first incident at 10:40 p.m. on June 8 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, officials told FOX5 and other news outlets. The shooter fled the scene, and both were taken to Kings County Hospital in stable condition. A 35-year-old was shot about five minutes later in Flatbush, and the suspect fled the scene, according to officials. The victim was taken to Kings County Hospital. Three men between the ages of 17 and 50 were shot on Bristol Street in the Brownsville neighborhood. A woman was also wounded; she was taken to Brookdale Hospital in serious condition, officials told NBC New York. A witness to the shooting, 55-year-old Robert Green, told the New York Post that so many shots were fired that he lost count. I could see she was breathing, but she wasnt moving, he said of the female victim. Last week, crime data showed that there was an increase in shootings and murders over the same period a year earlier, according to the report. Overall, crime for the week is up 12.4 percent, with 13 murders and shootings during the same time period as compared with five murders during the same time in 2019. No arrests have been made in connection to the shootings; police dont have anyone in custody. The violent night came after New York City entered phase one of its reopening after the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus lockdown. It also came days after an outburst of arson, vandalism, and looting in the city was triggered after George Floyd, a black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis. These are trying times for New York City. The metropolitan area around it has seen a massive number of COVID-19 cases over the last few months. Numerous small businesses have been temporarily closed, leaving their futures uncertain. Add to that the ongoing protests over police brutality, which led Mayor Bill de Blasio to impose a controversial curfew, and you have an array of crises all happening simultaneously. In a new article at Daily Intelligencer, Justin Davidson explored the current moment as it pertains to New York Citys streets and sidewalks and, more broadly, its public spaces. A citys sense of freedom resides in its streets, Davidson writes, noting that [m]ost New Yorkers understand that intuitively. Davidson posits the conflict between a city that can be walked through and a city that can only be driven through as an existential one, and closes the piece on an ominous note: New York: The first American woman to walk in space has become the first woman to reach the deepest known spot in the ocean. On Sunday, Kathy Sullivan, 68, an astronaut and oceanographer, emerged from her 10,914-metre dive to the Challenger Deep, according to EYOS Expeditions, a company coordinating the logistics of the mission. This also makes Sullivan the first person to both walk in space and to descend to the deepest point in the ocean. The Challenger Deep is the lowest of the many seabed recesses that crisscross the globe. Astronaut Kathy Sullivan and explorer Victor Vescovo aboard the deep-sea submersible at the bottom of the Challenger Deep ocean trench. Sullivan and Victor Vescovo, an explorer funding the mission, spent about ninety minutes at their destination, 11 kilometres down in a muddy depression in the Mariana Trench, which is about 320 kilometres south-west of Guam. New Delhi, June 9 : A day after Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh responded to former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's jibe at Amit Shah, the Wayanad MP on Tuesday again questioned the government on Chinese intrusion in India. "Once RM (Defence Minister) is done commenting on the hand symbol, can he answer: Have the Chinese occupied Indian territory in Ladakh?" Rahul Gandhi questioned in a tweet. His remarks came a day after Rajnath Singh took a jibe at the Congress after Rahul Gandhi raised questions over the issue of border dispute with China. "Haath me dard ho to dawa kije, haath hi jab dard ho to kya kije (You apply medicine to the hand when it pains, but what to do when the hand itself is the cause of pain)," Rajnath Singh said in tweet in reply to the Congress leader with Ghalib couplet. The Defence Minister made the reference in relation to the Congress' election symbol of hand. The war of words between the Congress and the BJP intensified on Monday after Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at Shah after he claimed that India is the only country after the US and Israel to protect its borders. The Congress leader took a jibe at Shah, saying "everyone knows the reality of the borders". "Everyone knows the reality of the borders, but 'Shah-yad' (maybe) it's a good idea to keep one's heart happy," Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi. Addressing a public rally in Bihar on Sunday via video-conference, Shah said: "India's defence policy has gained global acceptance. And India is next to the US, Israel in protecting its borders." On June 3, Rahul Gandhi had questioned the central government over a military stand-off with China in Ladakh. He had tweeted: "Can the government of India please confirm that no Chinese soldiers have entered India?" -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan introduced today new Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan to the supreme commanding staff. The PM thanked former Chief of the General Staff Artak Davtyan for the works done and stated that huge works have been carried out, great changes have taken place and a big agenda has been formed. Congratulating the new chief of the General Staff, the PM said Onik Gasparyan is not a new person in the Armed Forces as he has served as first deputy chief of the General Staff for a long time. The Armed Forces play the role of the backbone of our statehood, and its existence is the most important guarantee of our sovereignty, our statehood and existence. Like any state, Armenia as well has both external and domestic challenges. The Armed Forces are our main power and guarantee, and the Armenian government is ought to create conditions for this structure to solve its tasks, Pashinyan added. He informed that soon together with Artak Davtyan they will analyze the joint work and will record what has been achieved and what not. Pashinyan expressed hope that they will come to common conclusions on what has been done and what should be done. Mr. Gasparyan, I am confident that during this period you have been completely and fully engaged and participated in the ongoing processes. I am also confident that the legacy of changes will not only be ensured, but also the quality of solving the problems will further improve. I think under your leadership the Armed Forces will become more efficient every day, week, month and year. Our greatest task is the following to raise the image of the Armed Forces and the public attitude, love and appreciation to that structure to the highest level. This is the best recording we can do, PM Nikol Pashinyan said. Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan C runch free trade talks between Japan and UK start today as Britain prepares to go it alone after leaving the European Union. London and Tokyo currently have a trade agreement through the European Union. But without a new deal by January 1 next year, the two countries will default to World Trade Organization trading terms. That would mean tariffs and obstacles to commerce between the UK and its fourth-largest non-EU trading partner. The UK wants the trade deal signed by the end of this year. Last year, UK trade with Japan was worth over 30 billion and 9,500 UK based businesses exported goods to the country. It is understood Japan will call for an early elimination of automobile and auto parts tariffs in negotiations. After decades of sharing its trade policy with the European Union, Britain is now embarking on free trade negotiations with countries around the world. Last month the UK launched formal talks with the United States and is also hoping to reach a trade agreement with the EU by the end of this year. The International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Motegi Toshimitsu will begin negotiations via video conference call. Truss said in a statement: We aim to strike a comprehensive free trade agreement that goes further than the deal previously agreed with the EU, setting ambitious standards in areas such as digital trade and services. This deal will provide more opportunities for businesses and individuals across every region and nation of the UK. The United States has enjoyed the good fortune of having extraordinary leaders such as Washington, Lincoln, and FDR emerge in times of crisis. Unfortunately, as the world confronts the most serious public health crisis in a century, Donald Trump has demonstrated a monumental failure of presidential leadership. He often disregards the advice of his administration's own experts and, like a snake-oil salesman, touts untested treatments. Trump even suggested injecting disinfectants to treat the virus. While Trump squandered valuable time by downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus, others sounded the alarm. Intelligence agencies alerted the White House in late November and December about the situation in China's Wuhan province. A January memo from Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro warned about the potential for "a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans." WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday boosted the election prospects of relatively-unknown challenger Jamaal Bowman to 16-term incumbent Democratic Representative Eliot Engel in November's elections, as congressional campaigns heat up. In a posting on Twitter, Sanders, an independent who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, announced his backing of Bowman, who is trying to unseat the chairman of the powerful House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. Engel, 73, was first elected to Congress in 1988 and won re-election in 2018 with 99% of the vote. Sanders, a leading voice in progressive politics, tweeted that Bowman, a school principal, would "fight to invest in public schools, end mass incarceration, and address the housing crisis." The New York Democratic primary will be held on June 23, with the winner likely to be victorious in November in the heavily Democratic district covering parts of New York City's Bronx borough and of neighboring Westchester county. Bowman also captured the endorsement of another leading progressive, Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. As a leading voice on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Engel sometimes has been a moderating influence on foreign policy, according to the Almanac of American Politics, at a time when the progressive movement within the Democratic Party has been ascendant. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Tom Brown) New Delhi, June 9 : The Congress on Tuesday slammed the AAP government in the national capital and demanded that Rs 10,000 cash be immediately transferred to the families of the coronavirus patients. The Congress made the demand at an all-party meeting called by Lt Governor Anil Baijal. "Cash transfer of Rs 10,000 should be immediately made to the accounts of each Covid-19 affected family in Delhi to help them survive the financial and health crisis," Delhi Congress chief Chaudhary Anil Kumar said during the meeting. The Congress leader also suggested that the same financial assistance be extended to all such families living in containment zones as they are also going through severe financial crisis. In the first all-party meeting convened by the Lt. Governor after the pandemic hit the Capital early March this year, Ch. Anil Kumar pointed out that since the virus cases have started to spike after June 3, Delhi has been testing fewer people every day, which is a very dangerous situation. He said Delhi has completely failed on the testing front. The Congress leader said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been advising the people to go for "home quarantine" as the AAP national convenor was far removed from the prevailing conditions in the Capital. "Kejriwal's unilateral decisions without consulting experts and the Covid warriors have contributed to the increase in the number of patients," he said. "As a result, Delhi has witnessed a sudden spike in the positive cases with the death rate also going up sharply," he said. Kumar demanded the Delhi government shared the data of contact-tracing and isolations done in Delhi with the public. He also requested the Lt. Governor to waive the fixed power charges on commercial meters and demanded that the report of the Dr Mahesh Sharma committee on the Covid-19 pandemic be put in public domain. The Congress leader suggested that to prevent crowding at hospitals, tele-consultation facilities should be provided to all Covid-19 positive patients free of cost. Targeting the Chief Minister over Delhi government hospital beds being reserved for Delhiites, he said this has raked up "outsiders vs Delhiites" controversy. "It has made people believe that they are being deprived of hospital facilities because of outsiders," he said, adding that information should be shared about availability of beds in hospitals and the government app should be strengthened to provide accurate real-time information to prevent people from running from hospital to hospital. He said a centralised call centre should be established to provide information about bed vacancy in hospitals. A New York City police officer was charged with third-degree assault and other crimes Tuesday for viciously shoving to the street a 20-year-old woman who had been participating in a protest against police brutality. Also Tuesday, the head of the New York Police Department said that another cop had been placed on modified duty and referred to disciplinary action for an incident in which he opened the door of a moving police car, hitting a protestor. The cop charged Tuesday, Vincent D'Andraia, 28, of the 73rd Precinct in Brownsville, already had been suspended by the New York Police Department for the May 29 incident, which was captured on a video widely shared on Twitter and other social media platforms. The protest was one of many sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. That video shows D'Andraia hurling the protestor, Dounya Zayer, toward a curb on a street. He then walked off, with a police supervisor directly behind him. According to prosecutors, Zayer had been in the street when D'Andraia told her to move. When Zayer asked why, the officer allegedly smacked her phone out of her hand and then shoved her down. Tweet "I am deeply troubled by this unnecessary assault. We will now seek to hold this defendant accountable," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. Gonzalez charged D'Andraia with fourth-degree criminal mischief, second-degree harassment and third-degree menacing, in addition to the assault count. D'Andraia was released without bail after surrendering in Brooklyn Criminal Court, where a judge ordered him to have no contact with Zayer. The incident was one of a number in New York and other U.S. cities that has led to complaints of police overreaction to demonstrations related to Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes. tIt is rare for an NYPD officer to be criminally charged in connection with their work, particularly in cases where they are accused of violence against a civilian. "I fully support the long-held American tradition of non-violent protest," Gonzalez said. "As District Attorney I cannot tolerate the use of excessive force against anyone exercising this Constitutionally guaranteed right. This is especially true of those who are sworn to protect us and uphold the law," the top prosecutor added. Zayer has said that she was treated for a seizure and a concussion at a hospital after D'Andraia shoved her. "He did this in front of his lieutenant and multiple other officers who watched me hit the ground. One even looked back to make sure I was still on the ground, and they continued walking," Zayer said last week. "Not one officer tried to help me, and not one officer tried to stop the officer who assaulted me." Zayer's lawyer, in a statement issued Tuesday, said, "Officer D'Andraia's arrest is not justice and accountability remains to be seen." "Dounya was assaulted for the very reason she was protesting- police brutality," said the lawyer, Tahanie Aboushi. "The NYPD has been allowed to engaged in this type of conduct with impunity for too long." "As Civil Rights attorney, I have litigated excessive force cases for over a decade and if not for the video this would be business as usual for the NYPD. No badge, privilege or special interest is above the law," Aboushi said. The lawyer added, "It is also concerning that no action has been taken against Commander Craig Edelmen who sanctioned D'Andraia's misconduct by failing to intervene before, during and after his assault of Dounya. He has simply been reassigned which puts another community at risk and sends the message that supervisors who encourage this behavior are exempt from accountability." Police Commissioner Dermot Shea last week apologized for cases in which officers have engaged "in racial bias, in excessive force, unacceptable behavior, unacceptable language, and many other mistakes." "I have said where officers have acted unprofessional, we will deal with that, I will deal with that," Shea said at the time. The commissioner said then that there were a half-dozen or so videos showing possible police misconduct under review by the Internal Affairs Bureau. On Tuesday, Shea issued a statement on the May 29 incident of a cop opening a door from the moving unmarked police car, striking a protester on a Brooklyn street, saying the "NYPD is taking action regarding an episode in recent days that raises serious concerns ... ." "While the investigation is still ongoing, there is no doubt in my mind that based on the seriousness of what we've seen in recent days, transparency is critical," Shea said. The commissioner said that Internal Affairs investigators have concluded an investigation, and the unidentified officer is now on modified duty. "This case has been referred to the Department Advocate for disciplinary action," the NYPD said in a statement. "There are other matters that we are actively investigating and we will continue to be transparent as the process continues." The Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents NYPD officers, on Monday condemned the expected prosecution of D'Andraia, and accused Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD leaders of "once again ... sacrificing cops to save their own skin." "They created the failed strategy for managing these demonstrations. They sent police officers out to do the job with no support and no clear plan," said PBA President Patrick Lynch. "They should be the ones facing this mob-rule justice. We will say it again: New York City police officers have been abandoned by our leadership. We are utterly alone in our efforts to protect our city," Lynch said. The four Minneapolis cops involved in Floyd's arrest have all been fired. The officer who knelt on his neck, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder and manslaughter, while the other three cops have been charged with aiding and abetting those crimes. The four officers had been arresting Floyd on suspicion of using a counterfeit bill in a purchase. Chauvin is being held in lieu of bail of up to $1.25 million. The other three are being held in lieu of bail of up to $1 million. Floyd's funeral is scheduled to take place in Houston on Tuesday. Three graduates of Robert E. Lee High School in Montgomery are organizing a campaign to change the name of the school, as well as Jefferson Davis and Sidney Lanier high schools in Montgomery. They are also calling for permanent removal of the statue of Lee in front of the school named after the Confederate general. It was toppled on June 1 and has been placed in storage. The president of the Montgomery Public Schools Board said at a board meeting today that the statues removal should be permanent. I also hope that this body will join me in reviewing our system school name policies and remove the name of Confederate leaders from our facilities, Board President Clare Weil said. I am personally offended by these names and the intent behind them when they were named. It is long past time for these changes to happen. Another board member called a state law that could block the name changes a horrible law that should be repealed. A large majority of students at the three public schools are African Americans. Lee was the top Confederate general. Davis was president of the Confederacy and took the oath of office in Montgomery. Lanier was a Confederate soldier and prisoner of war, as well as a poet, writer, musician, and teacher. In a news release, Lee alumni Amerika Blair (class of 2009), Marche Johnson (2003), and Khadidah Stone (2014), said they would present their request to the MPS Board. But attendance at todays meeting was restricted to staff because of COVID-19 guidelines. Still, board members discussed the issue for a few minutes at the start of the meeting, which was streamed live on the MPS Facebook page, then returned to it at the end of the meeting. They took no formal action. Blair said as an African American she felt insulted by having to walk past the Lee statue every day when she was a student at the school. She said current students face the same experience. Knowing that those students have to walk past and celebrate a man basically who did not believe in their basic humanity is very insulting, Blair said. The name should be changed. There should be no reason why were celebrating Robert E. Lee. Blair noted that Lee opened as an an all-white school in 1955, a year after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that outlawed racial segregation in public schools. Blair said she and her fellow organizers have been working on the effort for about two weeks. She said she knows previous campaigns to change the school name fell on deaf ears. I want to make it clear were going to press this until its finished, Blair said. Were not going to hold up on it. Were not going to let it go by the wayside. Were going to see it until its finished. Blair said she has talked to alumni from Jeff Davis and another organizer has talked to alumni from Lanier. Blair said she does not have a suggested new name for Lee but supports the idea of forming a committee to come up with a new name. The organizers are also urging people to sign an online petition to change the names of the schools. As of about 10:30 a.m. today, more than 20,000 people had signed. Calls to remove Confederate symbols and names from public buildings have gained strength during the protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. The Alabama Legislature passed a law in 2017 blocking or restricting the removal of historical monuments and renaming memorial schools. Under that law, Montgomery Public Schools would have to request a waiver from the Committee on Alabama Monument Protection to change the school names. The committee met in December, which was only its second meeting. At that time it had received no requests for waivers. MPS Board President Weil said she asked the systems legal staff to review possible consequences under the law, which carries a $25,000 fine for violations. Weil said the law should not be an excuse not to make the changes. She asked the board to create a community committee to help guide the board. We must hear and more importantly we must listen to our students, families, alumni and community partners, Weil said. MPS Board member Jannah Morgan Bailey said she talked to the chair of the monument protection committee and believes it could take up to a year for an MPS waiver request to even be considered. Bailey said the committee has no application process or rules in place for a waiver. She said board members should reach out to legislators to seek a repeal of the horrible law. In light of everything that has gone on in the last two weeks, the George Floyd movement, is that it is absolutely ridiculous for us to have to sit by and wait for a committee that doesnt even know what they are doing in order to change the schools that are in our district, Bailey said. Montgomery police charged four people with felony criminal mischief in connection with pulling down the Lee statue. A judge dismissed the charges at the request of Montgomery District Attorney Daryl Bailey, who said there were mistakes in the affidavits and/or warrants that prevented prosecution. The charges could be filed again. Updated at 3:20 p.m. to add comments from Amerika Blair. Updated at 5:36 p.m. to add comments from MPS Board President Clare Weil. Updated at 6:23 p.m. to add comments from Board Member Jannah Bailey and to change the headline. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Tuesday it would distribute about $25 billion to hospitals that have not previously received relief funds as they grapple with a rise in Covid-19 cases. The agency said it would provide about $15 billion of the total to hospitals serving patients covered by federal Medicaid program for low-income individuals and childrens health insurance program, and $10 billion to safety net hospitals that treat patients regardless of their insurance status. The US government has earmarked $175 billion for hospitals and medical providers to meet the increased expenses from rising Covid-19 cases and cover lost revenues due to suspension of medical procedures and routine visits. The largest for-profit US hospital chains such as HCA Healthcare Inc and Tenet Healthcare Corp appear to be benefiting disproportionately from the relief funds, while smaller hospitals struggle to stay afloat as they await aid, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The latest funding would include hospitals that did not receive aid from the governments initial payout of $50 billion, the agency said. HHS is using funds from Congress, secured by President Trump, to provide new targeted help for Americas safety-net providers and clinicians who treat millions of Medicaid beneficiaries, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. HHS has been under media scrutiny for its prior relief fund allocation and the bar has moved higher on the new distributions, wrote Stephens analyst Scott Fidel. Safety net hospitals will receive between $5 million and $50 million, which will be sent directly to the hospitals via direct deposit. The fund distribution would occur this week, according to the agency. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has predicted that China will become the largest economic power in the world in the foreseeable future and competition with that rising power will intensify. Stoltenberg made the statement while unveiling his NATO 2030 initiative at a virtual Atlantic Council Front Page event Monday. The COVID-19 epidemic exemplifies the challenges the world can experience over the next decade, changing life globally in ways few could predict, he said. Speaking from NATO headquarters in Brussels, the NATO secretary general said the initiative will look at global trends and their implications for the western alliance. Stoltenberg pointed at other possible threats that NATO will face. Russia under President Vladimir Putin will probably continue or even intensify its intransigence and adventurism, and the Islamic State and other terror groups will continue their efforts to undermine the values the West holds dear. 'This is an opportunity to reflect on where we see our alliance 10 years from now, and how it will continue to keep us safe in a more uncertain world,' Stoltenberg said. He called on NATO allies to continue to invest in their armed forces and military capabilities. The NATO chief stressed the need to work more closely with like-minded countries like Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea 'to defend the global rules and institutions that have kept us safe for decades, to set norms and standards, in space and in cyberspace, or new technologies, and global arms control, and ultimately, to stand up for the world built on freedom and democracy, not on bullying and coercion.' Stoltenberg said he will consult actively with 'allies, civil society, the private sector and young leaders' to make the alliance more effective, and make his recommendations to NATO leaders during their summit next year. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Shimla, June 9 : Newly-elevated Himachal Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjay Kundu has been home quarantined after he has been in contact with a person who died of Covid-19 in New Delhi on Tuesday, the state police said. This person had met officers in the police headquarters here on the first day of Kundu assuming charge on June 1, it is learnt. "On June 1, a person had visited the PHQ and travelled to Delhi on the same day. Now it has been reliably learnt that he tested positive for novel coronavirus on June 8 in Delhi and passed away on June 9," a statement by the Police Department said. The areas the person had visited in the police headquarters have been sealed and the building is being sanitised. "We are also having the officers and personnel, who this person may have come in contact with, medically tested. The officers and personnel tested will remain in self-quarantine till such time as their results come out negative," the release added, without disclosing the identity of officers and other police personnel who came into contact with the Covid-19 positive case. A police spokesperson told IANS that the deceased was not from the police and might had visited the police headquarters to greet the DGP on his first day. He said random sampling of at least 30 policemen was carried out. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The talks come as Trump holds increasingly frequent phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin, most recently June 1, leading some to suggest that his administration is pursuing a rapprochement with Moscow and looking at arms control as a key area of mutual interest. Trump has wanted to negotiate with Moscow on nuclear weapons dating back to the 1980s, when he expressed an interest in brokering a deal with the Soviets on behalf of the Reagan administration. Skeptics, however, see the lofty aspiration for a deal with Russia and China as a possible pretense to dismantle another treaty negotiated by Obama. City Council members are proposing a plan that would wipe from New Orleans streets and parks any names "that honor white supremacists," in the latest push to address long-simmering issues of racial inequality following massive demonstrations last week. Members from the five council districts said they would introduce a motion next week to establish the City Council Street Renaming Commission, an advisory group tasked with rooting out names of Confederate-era leaders and other symbols of white supremacy on streets, parks and other places in New Orleans. The nine-member panel would be tasked with creating a list of streets that should be renamed and a potential list of replacement names, as well as the creation of a public process aimed at "both educating residents and receiving public feedback on the proposed changes." The full process could take about six months before recommendations are made about what streets should be renamed and it could take longer for those changes to go into effect. Initial recommendations on streets to be renamed, and their replacements, would be made within three months, which would be followed by a public hearing. There would then be a final proposal taking public feedback into account. The City Council members would oversee the re-namings in the areas they represent. This gives the community a chance to participate, said Councilman Jay H. Banks, who represents District B. New Orleans is for all of us, not just the elected officials." The call for a panel comes as issues of racism and police brutality are at the forefront after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, an incident that has sparked protests nationwide. Those protests touched off an effort to rename Jefferson Davis Parkway after former Xavier University President Norman Francis, who has a long history in both civil rights and education. At-Large Councilmembers Helena Moreno and Jason Williams took up that cause, announcing they would be moving forward with the renaming at a meeting last week. That took some district council members by surprise. Typically, the rest of the council defers to the members who represent each district on items like street names and land use in the geographic areas they represent. The move for a full commission appears to be both a rebuke and an effort to reassert that tradition. Banks, whose district includes portion of Jefferson Davis Parkway, said that he supported moving forward with renaming of that street but that future changes should go through the commission. "We can do Jeff Davis immediately, but we dont want to stop with that. Theres so many others we need to look at," Banks said. 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 Moreno said she supports the commission but also said that honoring Francis should not wait for that process. The renaming has the support of the Xavier board, which began pushing for it under former Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Landrieu and three other former mayors also penned an op-ed supporting the honor. An online petition supporting the renaming now has more than 13,000 signatures. Moreno said she has also heard from U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who had sought the Democratic nomination for president, who supports the move. Its time, Moreno said. Im not sure that theres been another time when the name of a Confederate figure has been removed and replaced by the name of an African-American person. This is not only a monumental occasion for us in the city of New Orleans but for this nation. +4 27 Nyx float lieutenants quit after captain refuses to step down over 'All Lives Matter' post Escalating a controversy roiling New Orleans largest parading krewe, more than two dozen float lieutenants quit the Mystic Krewe of Nyx Monda The process of removing symbolism of the Confederacy in New Orleans began five years ago, when former Landrieu kicked off a the process to take down four monuments after a white supremacist killed nine people in a historically black church in South Carolina. That massacre prompted cities and states around the country to take down confederate symbols. In New Orleans, however, the process was delayed by lawsuits and it would be years before the removal of statues of Davis, the president of the Confederacy, Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and P.G.T Beauregard and a monument to a white supremacist militia which launched a revolt to overthrow Louisianas Reconstruction-era government. Take Em Down NOLA, a group now involved in organizing the anti-police brutality protests, had called at the time for the city to take down other statues and rename streets that honored white supremacists. Former director of Loyola journalism school loses Arizona appointment over racism allegations Sonya Duhe, who recently left Loyola University's communications school after a decade as its director, was abruptly nixed as the next journal Its not clear how many streets could be up for potential renaming. As they pushed for the monuments to come down, Take Em Down released a list of two dozen streets that they argued honored white supremacists. Councilman Joe Giarrusso, who represents District A, said that he supported the move to rename Jefferson Davis, which also runs through areas he represents. But, he said, the process should not stop there. There are obviously other places in the city where theres either desire or requests to do something similar and our thinking is we need a process to kick that off and begin that conversation, Giarrusso said. By moving to a more formalized process, Banks said the commission could also help ensure neighborhoods would be able to weigh in to honor those who had major impacts on their communities, even if they were not people that will likely make the history books. These different neighbors can make sure its not just historically famous people, Banks said. There have been people who have worked historically in their neighborhoods to make them better places. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 11:28:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. - - - - ISLAMABAD -- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases will continue to rise in the country, and a peak will be witnessed by the end of July or beginning of August. In a televised address on Monday, the prime minister said that there might be difficult times ahead for the country if the people keep on taking COVID-19 as common flu, and do not follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) formed by the government to control the spread of the disease. - - - - KIGALI -- Rwanda has started mass COVID-19 testing of every household in its western border town of Rusizi amid an expanding caseload, a local health official said Monday. "So far, there are 43 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Rusizi alone. We have decided to conduct mass testing of every household, particularly in areas in Rusizi that lie along the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo border," Sabin Nsanzimana, director general of Rwanda Biomedical Center, told Xinhua in a telephone interview. - - - - WUHAN -- Large-scale nucleic acid testing in Wuhan has revealed 300 asymptomatic carriers but none of the related throat swabs and sputum samples have cultivated coronavirus, according to the municipal health commission Monday. Experts believe that the concentrations of coronavirus in the samples are extremely low or no pathogenic virus exists. - - - - CAPE TOWN -- South Africa on Monday reported 82 deaths related with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the country's death toll to 1,080. Among the new deaths, 55 were reported in the Western Cape province, 26 in the Eastern Cape and one in KwaZulu-Natal. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in his daily update that the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country stood at 50,879, an increase of 2,594 from Sunday. - - - - SEOUL -- South Korea reported 38 more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of 0:00 a.m. Tuesday local time, raising the total number of infections to 11,852. The daily caseload hovered below 40 for two straight days. Of the new cases, three were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 1,300. - - - - RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's government on Monday issued a revised single-day COVID-19 death toll, lowering it from the initially reported 1,382 to 525. Sunday's number of new cases was also amended, but upward, from 12,581 to 18,912. Enditem San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott signaled a willingness Monday to defund a portion of his departments budget in response to calls for reform following mass civil unrest over police brutality across the country. Were at a time in policing in this country where the whole world is speaking to us, and we need to hear whats being said, Scott said during an online forum hosted by the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club. And whats being said is we have to change the way we do policing in this country. And I think, for me, Im open to that. Scotts comments come after San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton said last week they intend to shift a portion of the Police Departments upcoming budget and redirect it to the citys black community. Key details about what that proposal will look like such as how much money will be taken from the police budget and where the money will go have not yet been decided. In an email to The Chronicle last week, Scott said the department understood it is necessary to embrace bold and courageous change to address disparate policing toward the African American community. The department, Scott said, recognizes that it will take sacrifice on our part to fulfill the promise of the plan Mayor Breed and Supervisor Walton have proposed, and we look forward to working cooperatively with them moving forward. Scotts comments during the online forum Monday were first reported by Mission Local. Breed has called the plan to reduce the police budget a small reparation for city polices that led to decades of disinvestment in the African American community. The recent killing of George Floyd, a black man who died after being pinned and suffocated by Minneapolis police officers on May 25, also influenced the decision. While the events of the last week have been painful and traumatic for so many of us, they have brought forward the devastating impacts of police violence against African Americans in this country, Breed said. Reforms to any single system, such as the criminal justice system or the police department, must go hand-in-hand with closing the gaps and ending the disparities that we know exist. By bringing the community into the process of making these decisions, we can ensure that those who have been voiceless in the past now have a seat at the table as we make decisions that will impact their community. San Franciscos black community has shrunk over the years to 5% of the citys population. Despite the enormous amounts of money passing through the citys economy, around 19% of black children live in poverty in San Francisco, and black people comprise 35% of the citys homeless population. Black households in San Francisco earn just 28% of what white households earn, according to city data. City officials have said decisions on how much to cut from police and where to redirect funds will be done in a collaborative process. However, Breed has expansive authority as mayor over the citys budgeting process. For four years she has supported increases to police staffing and increased foot patrols while encouraging efforts to build relationships between police and the communities where they work. The Police Department had a $606 million budget last fiscal year, which came from the citys general fund, or around 10% of the citys roughly $6 billion general fund. San Francisco International Airport, which has a separate budget, also paid $78 million to the Police Department in that same period. Discussions over redistribution will unfold against the backdrop of an unprecedented budget crisis for San Francisco. By October, the mayor, the Board of Supervisors and city departments must make painful cuts across the board to close a $1.7 billion budget deficit over the next two years a shortfall created by the coronavirus pandemic. The San Francisco Police Officers Association on Monday tweeted opposition to any budget cuts, saying, Emergency response times are already too long, open-air drug markets, national records for property crime and now gun crimes on the rise. Take it from where? In a letter Tuesday to the Police Commission, San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju urged the citizen watchdog group to hold off on voting on a police budget at their scheduled Wednesday meeting, or simply voting no on it. Instead, we ask that you come back to San Franciscans with a plan about how you will join those of us advocating for a much reduced and re-imagined police budget and police department, the letter states. The time for business as usual in policing, police administration, and police oversight lapsed once and for all with the brutal killing of George Floyd on May 25. In the past few weeks, Raju said hed received thousands of emails asking for us begging, really to make these budget shifts right now in San Francisco. Now Playing: On June 2, 2020, residents of San Franciscos Outer Sunset marched in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and against the recent death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. Video: Manjula Varghese / The Chronicle Similar requests have been sent to San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who said in a Sunday tweet that in 24 hours his office had fielded more than 1,000 emails demanding the city defund its Police Department. In an interview Tuesday, Boudin said that figure had exploded to 5,000-plus emails. 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. Boudin said he has no position on the police budget but stressed that every city department, including his own, was staring down a massive budget shortfall that requires a hard look at expenses. Boudin said issues such as homelessness, mental health and drug overdoses are traditionally foisted upon police, even though other services could be better equipped for the job. It is really difficult for police to do the job theyve signed up to do when they spend all day every day responding to requests that are not criminal in nature, he said. Boudin pointed to a mental health program called Cahoots in Eugene, Ore., as a model that could be followed. The crisis-intervention center is a nonprofit and acts as its own arm of the citys 911 response services, with professionals on hand to respond at any hour. So when someone calls 911, theyre not just choosing between sending out a fire truck or a police car, Boudin said. The prosecutor added that such an option would make it more likely that people will call for help when facing a mental-health emergency. Many times people will not call, as they worry that if and when police show up well have another Mario Woods situation, Boudin said, referring to a controversial 2015 police shooting in the Bayview neighborhood. We know that often times when people are mentally ill, and they get police involved, it ends badly. Supervisor Shamann Walton, whose District 10 includes the historically African American Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhoods, introduced a resolution last week urging the citys Civil Service Commission, which sets the rules for city hiring processes, to create a blanket ban on the hiring of any police or sheriffs deputy with a history of serious misconduct. We have continued to see our organizations inequitably disregarded and disproportionately left out of receipt of vital resources, he said. In these times of continued systemic and systematic oppression of black people, we have to be innovative and strong with our solutions. Walton said on Tuesday that he did not yet have a target number in mind for how much money should be cut from the citys police budget. Dominic Fracassa and Megan Cassidy are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com, megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DominicFracassa @meganrcassidy SILVER SPRING, Md. - The former CEO of a Maryland non-profit was charged Tuesday with diverting grant money intended to help domestic violence victims to pay for personal expenses and a failing weight loss clinic that she owned. A criminal complaint also accuses Glenda Hodges, 69, of Clinton, Maryland, of defrauding an ailing 71-year-old woman who volunteered for Still I Rise, the non-profit that Hodges operated. Hodges received more than $2 million in federal and county grants to start a program to serve victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. Between 2010 and 2017, Hodges was awarded nearly $900,000 in grants from the Justice Departments Office of Violence Against Women and nearly $1.2 million in grants from Prince Georges County. But a federal review of the non-profits bank records and invoices showed Hodges spent much of the grant money on personal expenditures and to illegally support her for-profit weight loss clinic, called Womens Wellness Center, the complaint alleges. Hodges also used grant money for her personal benefit, including a mortgage payment for her personal property in North Carolina, according to the complaint. Hodges is charged with bank fraud and wire fraud. A date for her initial court appearance wasnt immediately set. Online court records dont list an attorney for Hodges. A call to a telephone number associated with Hodges wasnt immediately returned. Her non-profit and clinic both have closed, according to the complaint. Federal agents interviewed a retired school teacher who regularly volunteered at Still I Rise and had loaned Hodges money to keep it running. In 2016, when the volunteer was recovering from a life-threatening infection, Hodges visited her in the hospital and asked her to sign a power-of-attorney form so Hodges cold borrow $25,000 using the volunteers identity, according to the complaint. Hodges paid for a medical transportation service to take the volunteer to a bank branch, but the volunteer didnt know the reason for the trip, didnt sign any paperwork and didnt speak with a bank representative, according to the complaint. The volunteer only remembers being in pain and in a wheelchair with an antibiotic (catheter) line running to her heart, and Hodges later saying that the $25,000 loan was approved, the complaint says. The volunteer later discovered that Hodges had maxed out the line of credit and failed to make payments, causing the volunteer to default on the loan, according to the complaint. Federal agents also interviewed former employees of Hodges cash-strapped clinic. The clinics medical director said practitioners had told him that Hodges instructed them to inject saline solution into patients instead of a fat-dissolution compound, the complaint said. The medical director said he told them not to do that, the document added. The medical director also told agents that Hodges often introduced herself as Dr. Hodges and wore a white lab coat. The medical director thought this was unusual because he had never seen a non-medical practitioner wear a white lab coat inside a medical practice, the complaint said. [June 09, 2020] COVID-19 Has Resulted in a Decline in Financial Wellbeing - Rising Bills and Debt are Increasing Concerns STOCKHOLM, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Intrum publishes a whitepaper that outlines the financial impact of COVID-19 on private households across 24 European countries. The whitepaper provides an initial follow-up on the trends in increased economic pressure and decreased financial wellbeing reported in Intrum's European Consumer Payment Report 2019*. The key findings from the whitepaper display additional financial challenges faced by private households in Europe. As expected, a general increase in financial stress is reported. However, one in three respondents say that the pandemic is having a positive effect on their financial spending. "As the world struggles with the immediate health issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the disruption of economies across Europe is having a severe impact on consumer finances, businesses, and society in general. However, an increase in overall financial awareness and opportunities to change financial spending and thus increase savings, is allowing many European consumers to overcome these uncertain times in a somewhat positive way," says Mikael Ericson, President & CEO of Intrum. Decline in financial wellbeing across Europe: 48% say their financial wellbeing has declined compared to six months ago Greece 67%, Spain 59%, Italy 59% 67%, 59%, 59% Millennials: 53% Parents: 55%, non-parents: 44% Only 23% expect it to improve in six months In Italy , this number falls to only 8% , this number falls to only 8% 45% say concern over rising bills have a negative effect on their health (2019: 43%) Parents: 51% parents (2019: 48%) Non-parents 41% (2019: 41%) Decrease in income raise concerns of bills and debt: Nearly four in 10 have had their employment affected by COVID-19, while more than half (54 per cent) have seen a decrease in household income One in five consumers have gone into more debt to cover everyday spending as a direct result of COVID-19 Millennials: 24% Parents: 22%, non-parents: 16% Increase in number of people who borrow money to pay bills, up from 12% in 2019 to 18% Millennials: 22% Parents: 21%, non-parents: 16% Savings hit hard - face uncertain future: 58% are dissatisfied with their ability to save each month (2019: 52%) Parents: 62%, non-parents: 54% 39% save significantly less for the future than they were before Covid-19 Millennials: 44% Parents: 45%, non-parents: 36% However, 36% say that the Covid-19 crisis has had a positive impact on their financial spending, and they are spending less on everyday items "As expected, we see this foremost among vulnerable households with smallest financial margins, like young families but also millennials. The decline in financial wellbeing, rising bills and increasing debts are increasing concerns. To be able to challenge this trend, increased financial literacy among Europeans needs to be addressed even further," says Ericson. Download the report here: The full whitepaper will be available on June 9th here: intrum.com/ecpr2020-whitepaper About the survey: Intrum interviewed 4,800 consumers in 24 European countries in May 2020. Respondents were selected according to age and gender criteria to ensure representative samples based on national census data from each market. *About Intrum European Consumer Payment Report 2019: Intrum has gathered data from 24,004 consumers in 24 European countries to gain insights into European consumers' everyday lives, including their spending and ability to manage their household finances on a monthly basis. Intrum is speaking to 250 000 indebted consumers around Europe every day. For further information, please contact: Niclas Strahner, PR and Media Relations Director Tel: +46-73-425-88-90 Anna Fall Chief Brand & Communication Officer Tel: +46-70-996-98-21 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/intrum/r/covid-19-has-resulted-in-a-decline-in-financial-wellbeing---rising-bills-and-debt-are-increasing-con,c3130275 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/8612/3130275/1261061.pdf Intrum ECPR 2020 Special Edition White Paper [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Tuesday said the central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party had discussed with him before finalising the names of two "low profile" party workers as candidates for the June 19 Rajya Sabha polls from the state. The BJP's central leadership on Monday had sprung a surprise by fielding Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha election, ignoring the recommendations of the partys state unit. "BJP's central leaders have given Rajya Sabha tickets to two ordinary workers of the party and thereby have given a gift to karyakartas. I compliment Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party national president JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah for this," Yediyurappa said. Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, he expressed the confidence that both candidates would work effectively in the Rajya Sabha. "Only the BJP can take such decisions and give opportunity to ordinary karyakartas. From our core committee (state) we had sent some names, but ultimately our national president spoke to me and said it has been decided to give tickets to ordinary party workers, we discussed it, after which the two names have been finalised." The state BJP core committee on Saturday had recommended three names to the high command as probable candidates -- Ramesh Katti, the brother of senior MLA Umesh Katti; incumbent Prabhakar Kore; and hotelier Prakash Shetty. Ignoring the state unit's recommendation, the names of two low-key workers Kadadi and Gasti, who have been associated with the party organisation for long, were announced on Monday afternoon by the central leadership. Responding to a question about the new names other than the ones decided by the state core committee being announced, Yediyurappa said, "We had sent the names after deciding in the core committee. In Delhi under the leadership of the prime minister, senior leaders have met and decided to give tickets to ordinary party workers." "It is not for our state alone, the decision is applicable to other states also, I welcome it," he said. While Kadadi, a Lingayat, is the party's Belagavi division in-charge, Gasti from the Savitha Samaj (barber community) from Raichur district is the party in-charge for the Bellary division. Both have an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad background and have worked for the organisation at the grass root level for decades. The announcement of their names came as a complete surprise to the partys state unit and has certainly given a clear message to its leadership, a senior party functionary said, adding, "It is a clear indication that loyalty to the party and ideology are what matters, and not to any particular leader." It is also part of a strategy to nurture and elevate second-rung leaders, he noted. The move is also being seen as a setback to Yediyurappa, as names considered close to him have not been considered. This has come at a time when there is speculation about dissidence within the state BJP against his leadership, with several MLAs, especially from north Karnataka, recently holding separate meetings. Elections are scheduled on June 19 to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, represented by Rajeev Gowda and B K Hariprasad of the Congress, Prabhakar Kore of the BJP and D Kupendra Reddy of the Janata Dal-Secular, that will fall vacant on June 25 on their retirement. The BJP, with 117 members in the assembly (including Speaker), can ensure easy victory in two seats. 9:15 p.m. | The protest has ended in San Antonio tonight on this second week of marches. 8:23 p.m. | Outside the Arneson River Theater, a young woman lay down, overcome with heatstroke. She was conscious. People poured water over her and fanned her as police formed a protective ring around the group. 8:20 p.m. | Kevin Cox, 32, a white teacher at McCullom High School, told the crowd assembled by the San Antonio River outside the Blue Star Arts Complex that he grew up in Jasper, where 22 years ago last Sunday (yesterday) James Byrd Jr. Was dragged to his death. We cant take that back, Cox said with an East Texas drawl. We cant fix that but we can fight moving forward and we can create change. People who sound like me, who look like me, who are from where Im from, can be part of that change. 8:14 p.m. | Joaquin Castro spoke before his brother Julian Castro. He referenced the Rodney King beating and Tamir Rice and Eric Garner killings, and said people used to argue over how to interpret police brutality videos. Ill tell you what changed with George Floyd. We moved beyond interpretation. There was no interpretation. George Floyd was murdered by that police officer. He was an American just like all of us. All of your energy and all of this activism for the last week, ultimately that has to turn into change in legislatures and city councils. 8:00 p.m. | Former Secretary of Housing & Urban Development and former Mayor of San Antonio, Julian Castro, spoke to protesters about his views on policing. Young black men and women have to wake up and think about what they have to do if they see a police officer come down their way or think twice if they see them following them on the drive home or get that moment of panic when the sirens come on. And we want an America that lives up to its highest standard where no matter who you are you are treated fairly and your life isnt snubbed out because of bigotry or even worse a system that allows it," Castro said. 7:30 p.m.| Thousands have showed up at the River Walk for the first stop on Mondays march to hear more speakers talk about their experiences. Greene once again spoke to the crowd, telling them about his personal experiences in an attempt to show there is a human behind the badge. Though this time, not all of the crowd was as kind to the San Antonio officer. About a dozen individuals started shouting at Greene that he was the problem and that he needed to quit his job. Others said Greene wasnt saying anything of substance. But organizers quickly shut down the hecklers, telling them that they dont have the same message as the rest of the protesters and asking them to listen and remain respectful. 5:30 p.m. | One of the organizer's, Trevor Taylor, an English teacher at Wagner High School, urged marchers to grab complimentary bottles of water and Gatorade on what was said to be the hottest day of the year so far. Volunteer medics were available for anyone who needed them. It is really easy to sit inside the A/C, but you have sacrificed your time because you are fighting for something greater, Taylor said. But before you can fight, we need you to make sure youre healthy. 5:10 p.m. | In the middle of an emotional speech from organizer Antonio Lee, who choked back tears as he talked about the risks involved in demonstrating during a pandemic, 6-year-old Thalia Wilson, who is white, yelled Black Lives Matter! Her mother, Leah Wilson, wiped away tears as the crowd applauded. No matter what color you are, you have to be treated right, Thalia explained. Wilson said shes been bringing her three small children to the protests since they began. A nursing student at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, she said she chose her profession in part to help fix racial disparities in maternal and fetal care. I dont know, in all honesty, that the police system can be fixed, Wilson said. I think it might need to be rebuilt. 4:40 p.m. | Among the crowd was San Antonio police officer Doug Greene, who was met and talked with some of the protesters before the march, having been specially invited by some of the organizers. I met some of the demonstrators at the rally last week and we had a good conversation, so they invited me out here today, Greene said. All I got from them was love, there was no judgment, no anger, nothing bad. Our whole conversation was receptive and everyone is just trying to grow together. 4:30 p.m. | The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for the San Antonio area for Monday reporting the heat index could reach 112 degrees. The current temperature at San Antonio International Airport was 97 degrees as of 4:30 p.m. Forecasters predict high temperatures would reach 100 degrees today. 4:20 p.m. | About 20 minutes into the planned protest and at Blue Star and the crowd has about tripled in size. 3:50 p.m. | Less than 200 people huddled under any shade that could be found at the Blue Star Arts Complex before 4 p.m. awaiting the start of the official daily protest to call for law enforcement reform and to remember George Floyd. Mondays protests were a little different than previous days, with the protest and ensuing march starting at Blue Star and ending at Hemisfair Park, instead of starting and stopping at San Antonio Public Safety Headquarters. The protests and marches at various spots in San Antonio over the last several days have been largely peaceful. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: In a pleasant surprise for Team Yogi, a word of praise for the Uttar Pradesh governments handling of COVID-19 crisis came from an unexpected quarter when an editor of Pakistans popular newspaper Dawn compared the pandemic scenario in his country with that of Uttar Pradesh, which has roughly the same population. Fahd Hussain, Resident Editor of Islamabad edition of the newspaper, tweeted how the state had strictly enforced the lockdown while Pakistan failed to do so, resulting in a grim scenario. Husain tweeted a graph comparing the COVID-19 casualty figures in Pakistan with that of Uttar Pradesh. The graph shows that Pakistan, with a population of 208 million, has reported deaths almost seven times higher than UP which has a population of 225 million. Death rate of Pakistan and Indian state of UP. Both have roughly the same population profile & literacy. Pakistan has lesser density/ km and higher GDP/capita. UP was strict with the lockdown. We were not he tweeted. In another tweet, he said while UP has a lower mortality rate than Pakistan, Maharashtra has a higher rate despite the younger population and higher GDP/capita. We must know what UP did right and Maharashtra did wrong to learn the lessons right. The Australian Medical Association in WA has been hit by the economic crisis gripping the state, laying off as many as 35 staff since February according to sources. But the organisation's chief executive Benny Ng said not all of the redundancies were related to the pandemic's fallout. The AMA(WA)'s staff have been hit by a number of redundancies in 2020. Credit:Peter Braig The AMA(WA), which led the push for tough pandemic measures and was a prominent voice calling on the state government to lock the state down, has a number of income-generating businesses not associated with its job of representing doctors. These include AMA Training, which provides health industry short courses, and AMA College, which offers full fee paying students a course in health administration and is marketed to overseas students. Paris, France (PANA) - A delegation of European diplomats led by French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian Monday began a 48-hour visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) within the framework of the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, official sources told PANA here A Liberal MP has offered to teach young delinquents a history lesson after someone drew a Hitler-style moustache on his office sign. Sam O'Connor, the MP for Bonney, in Queensland, shared a photo of the graffiti on Facebook after the poster was vandalised last week. The Gold Coast member has condemned the behaviour as anti-Semitic. Sam O'Connor, the MP for Bonney, shared a photo of the graffiti on Facebook after the poster was vandalised last week 'Normally I have a laugh about the graffiti that gets drawn on my office sign but there are several million reasons why Hitler and Nazis aren't funny,' he wrote. 'If any local eshays want a history lesson, I'll make myself available anytime.' While some of his followers suggested he was being too sensitive, many were furious over the reference to Hitler and the Nazis. 'Uncouth bunch of no HOPERS. Only the ignorant and no discipline at all do vandalism. Hope the Law enforcers catch them,' one woman wrote. Mr O'Connor offered to teach the young delinquents a history lesson after they defaced his office sign 'I hate anything like this I lost a sister in that camp brought back so many bad memories of what happened,' another said. The MP's posters have been the target for vandals for the past few weeks, however it's the first time he's publicly criticised the graffiti. Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, told Daily Mail Australia he was 'extremely troubled' by the personal attack on the politician. 'Evil has shown its face again. The contagion of virulent neo-Nazi hate continues to strike our nation with alarming regularity and shows no sign of abating,' he said. 'This cowardly and vile targeting of our elected representatives was intended to create a climate of fear and should be seen as a direct assault against our democracy and shared values.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Sam O'Connor for comment. Big number: $1.08 billion, the size of Toronto Police Services 2020 operating budget. Its the biggest single budget line in Torontos budget, costing the average household $738 on their 2020 property tax bill. Amid protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in the United States, the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto, and a legacy of racist police violence everywhere, Black voices in the city have spent time over the last week speaking out about and questioning Torontos police budget. Acknowledge them. Thank them. Listen to them. The citys police budget is the $1.08-billion elephant hanging out in damn near every room at Toronto city hall. Its massive the citys single biggest component of your property tax bill, costing the average household $738 per year and yet typically receives a level of scrutiny that doesnt come near to matching its size. In February, when Mayor John Tory and council got together to approve Torontos 2020 operating budget, Toronto Police Services request for a $40.8-million increase to its budget received little debate. No motions were filed to reduce the amount of the increase. No one requested a separate vote on the police budget. No one moved to reverse or delay the plan to hire 341 police officers this year, 188 of whom will be deployed into new positions increasing the size of the force. This is how it tends to go with the police budget. Elected officials on council will devote time to speechifying about how there simply is not any money available to avoid TTC fare increases, but the police budget, towering over everything else the city spends money on, too often gets only a cursory glance. Defenders of the status quo will point to figures tracked by Statistics Canada showing Torontos per-capita number of police officers is below that of Vancouver and Montreal, but that comparison shouldnt be used as a shield against questions about whether the $1.08 billion spent on policing each year in Toronto is good value for money when compared to the budgets for things like public health ($269 million), parks & rec programs ($457 million) or child care ($635 million). There have been various attempts over the years to reckon with it. In early 2017, the police unveiled a report titled The Way Forward, promoted as a vehicle for transformational change that would both rein in police spending and build trust between cops and the community. One of the key planks was a three-year hiring freeze. But just six months later, the police announced they would resume hiring again. Attempts by councillors to deny city funds havent fared any better. Coun. Michael Thompson, the only Black member of council, couldnt get council to support a move to reallocate $24 million away from the police and toward community programming in 2016. Councillors like Gord Perks, Mike Layton, Josh Matlow, Joe Cressy and Kristyn Wong-Tam have at times moved to reallocate or reconsider police funding. But successful budget-trimming has been elusive. Later this month, Matlow and Wong-Tam will try again, introducing a motion requesting the police cut its budget 10 per cent for 2021. Its well timed to meet the moment. Black voices are speaking out. Police Chief Mark Saunders has announced his retirement effective July 31, creating a rare opening for major reform. The police have made headlines over the last decade for reasons that do little to help the case for the status quo: the reluctance to give up on the racist practice of carding, a precipitous drop in the level of traffic tickets issued during a time when pedestrian deaths were on the rise, that time the police tried to buy privacy-invading unproven technology that could detect the sound of gunshots, the G20 summit, and too many others. Any other municipal department with a budget this big and a record this spotty would find itself under a magnifying glass at city hall, especially during a time when the city is facing an unprecedented fiscal crunch related to the COVID-19 pandemic. But moves to seriously examine and reduce the police budget status quo have never really gone anywhere. When Ive asked about this, the message from most local elected officials has been consistent: they dont believe they can win elections running against the police. They see the majority of their voters as in favour of perpetually adding more officers to the streets. If you disagree, one step toward change is obvious: tell them otherwise. States and Union territories received a time-bound mandate on Tuesday from the Supreme Court to ensure the return of all migrant workers stranded by the post-coronavirus lockdown to their home states within a fortnight and to inform the apex court within the same deadline about welfare programmes, including job opportunities, they plan to offer the returnees. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and comprising justices SK Kaul and MR Shah, is expected to pass directions on the matter on July 8, the next date of hearing. To mitigate the plight faced by the migrants, the Supreme Court asked states and Union territories to identify migrant workers who have returned at the district and block levels and prepare an inventory of the vocational skills they possess and their employment history. In addition, they were asked to set up counselling centres to provide the workers information on welfare schemes and employment avenues that are open to them; they will also have to advise workers who want to go back to where they were employed. Millions of workers and daily-wage earners left the big cities and returned to states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal in the aftermath of the lockdown enforced on March 25 to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). These directions follow the May 28 order whereby the court took suo moto (Latin for on its own) cognizance of the hardships faced by migrants returning to their villages. After going through the responses of all states/UTs on the transport of the migrant workers, the bench of justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah said: Police officers of states, paramilitary forces wherever deployed are doing a commendable job but some instances of excess with regard to migrant labourers are also there. The court asked the states/UTs to consider withdrawing all prosecution proceedings or complaints lodged against the returning workers for violating the lockdown and norms of social distancing enforced under Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act. The court also noted lapses on part of the states and central agencies in implementing welfare schemes as pointed out in intervention applications filed by non-government organisations and individuals. The court said in its 38-page order, We impress on States and Union Territories to streamline the vigilance and supervision of actions of their officers and staff and take appropriate action where required. On the transportation of migrant workers, the court was convinced that much of the task had been completed, barring in Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat where some migrants are still stranded. The bench said: We direct that all the States/Union Territories to transport all stranded workers by train, bus or other mode within 15 days from today. So far, some 9.8 million migrants have been transported by rail and road across the country beginning May 1. Some 171 trains are still lined up for shifting the remaining, still stranded migrants until June 16. The court directed Indian Railways to arrange Shramik Special trains within 24 hours of request by states. Finding gaps in the registration of migrants (in difficulties they face while filling up the registration forms such as language barriers), the court called for a decentralizing of the process of registration by providing this facility to stranded migrant workers at police stations and other places of local administration. In addition, states/UTs were asked to publicise journey dates of special trains and buses in local newspapers and television channels. Once they arrive at their destinations, the court directed states to gather details of migrant workers, the nature of their skill, and place of their earlier employment at the village level, block level and district level. Counselling centres would provide these migrants information about government schemes and avenues of employment so that this workforce can be utilised as a resource, the bench said. A list of all such schemes, including employment has to be tendered by Centre and states to the court in two weeks. Prince Charles has earned himself yet another title even while on lockdown. And it's the title that everyone assumes he's going to get -- the King. Royal Presence Through Social Media The Prince of Wales is now the new Instagram King, and he knows exactly what he is doing. In an interview with The Australian, royal biographer Penny Junor said that so many people still doesn't know Prince Charles very well. "There are so many people who don't really get Charles, who don't know what he does," Junor said before going on to talk about how Charles was able to find the perfect platform for his advocacies -- bringing them closer to the people. "But during the coronavirus, maybe because of the lockdown, more people have seen him and listened to him than perhaps they would during normal times. The pandemic has given him a platform and he has been masterful in the way he's responded and used that platform." The regular updates that Prince Charles and his team provide, including the inspirational messages that they send to different organizations and charities, have amassed a number of likes and shares. Prince Charles is one of the members of the royal family that has indeed earned a steady following on social media, not to mention incomparable popularity. It was on April 1, 2020 when the Prince of Wales made his first video appearance after contracting the coronavirus. At 71, Prince Charles is considered as one of the members of the most vulnerable in the community. Speaking about his relatively mild symptoms at the time, he encouraged everyone to stay at home and practice social distancing as much as they could. While Prince Charles earns a good number of likes and following with the usual Clarence House Instagram posts, his COVID-19 video revelation garnered almost a million likes. Since then, Charles went on to boost his social media profile, making his appearances more regular than he used to. He promoted issues that matter to him and to the public -- including family, nature, and the environment. Does Prince Charles work on his own Instagram posts? Perhaps he is getting a little help from the other members of the royal family, particularly from his son Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton. The 11.8 million followers of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge clearly show how much the couple knows about social media. Helping Out During The Pandemic Prince William and Kate Middleton continue to be the face of the British monarchy while the older, more vulnerable members like Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles remain in isolation. The couple's social media presence has indeed increased during the pandemic. They have kept their followers updated with the latest royal family news. In the most recent photo that Kate shared through Instagram, it highlighted Prince William doing volunteer work at Sandringham with their two older childre, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. The Cambridges spent the afternoon preparing the food packs that they later distributed to the elderly and the other vulnerable members of the community. It may look like a simple photo, but it has attracted more than 750,000 likes. Social media has indeed been a useful platform for everyone these days, including the royal family. The video clips and snaps that they share only prove one thing: royals live much like how ordinary people live. Morphisec Releases Work-from-Home Employee Cybersecurity Threat Index The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the long-term shift towards remote workforces by 5-10 years. As tomorrows workers seamlessly alternate between work and household tasks on their personal devices, new types of deterministic cybersecurity defenses are required by security teams." Fifty-six (56) percent of employees are using their personal computers as their companys go remote in response to COVID-19 according to the Work-from-Home (WFH) Employee Cybersecurity Threat Index released today by Morphisec, the leader in Advanced Threat Prevention. In addition, nearly 25% of employees working from home dont know what security protocols are in place on their device and more than 1-in-4 have frequent or more issues with spotty WiFi limiting antivirus efficacy. Morphisec's WFH Employee Cybersecurity Threat Index was based on a survey of more than 800 traditional office workers from across the U.S. These employees self-reported as recently transitioning to working remotely during their companys response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the trend toward remote work was already in progress when COVID-19 struck, it accelerated the transition far faster than anyone anticipated. Due to this, IT and security teams had to scramble in their response to the crisis, and the inaugural threat index spotlights the resulting cybersecurity gaps and vulnerabilities reported by employees. The American workforce is now reliant on at-home WiFi networks and non-hardened work devices. Without reliable connectivity, employees may not be getting the protection they need. Antivirus and detection tools need a constant network connection to remain effective at blocking attacks. Non-hardened laptops or other endpoint devices can also pose a significant risk to enterprise network security. Research from earlier this year by Morphisec and Ponemon Institute found the average cost of a successful endpoint attack was $8.9 million in 2019. Furthermore, attack surfaces have expanded during the crisis through employee reliance on collaboration apps. These tools are increasingly in the crosshairs of malicious parties and have less than adequate patching protocols. In fact, vulnerabilities have forced organizations such as Google, SpaceX, and NASA to actually ban employee use of such applications to reduce their risk of more sophisticated breaches. Morphisec Labs researchers discovered one such flaw in the Zoom application in April that enabled threat actors to record Zoom sessions without the participants knowledge. Although 62% of WFH employees rate their IT departments response to COVID-19 as above average or better, a third of employees rate the response as average or below. The task now for IT teams is to enhance distributed workforce cybersecurity as work-from-home continues into the future. Many enterprises have seen productivity gains during remote work, and several FORTUNE 500 companies have already announced more permanent WFH adoption. Therefore, just as information technology leaders are reassessing what tools are the best for remote productivity, they must re-examine which aspects of their cybersecurity stacks enhance remote business continuity. Additional highlights from Morphisecs Work-from-Home Employee Cybersecurity Threat Index include: Remote working was an entirely new experience for 49% of employees. 75% of WFH employees say they usually or almost always follow their IT team's advice when it comes to cybersecurity protocols. The most common tip employees received from IT in transitioning to WFH was being wary of suspicious emails, attachments, or pop-ups (56%). This was followed by ensuring antivirus software was active (48%), and updating software frequently (46%). Worryingly, 20% of workers said their IT team had not provided any tips as they shifted to working from home. Business chat apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams were rated by WFH employees as their second most essential tool in working remotely. Yet, workers acknowledged they were the least cautious in using these types of services. The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the long-term shift towards remote workforces by 5-10 years, said Andrew Homer, VP of Security Strategy at Morphisec. As tomorrows workers seamlessly alternate between work and household tasks on their personal devices, new types of deterministic cybersecurity defenses are required by security teams to limit the need for human intervention. Growing reliance on collaboration applications, which cant be patched fast enough, begs for the use of defense mechanisms such as moving target defense to thwart in-memory exploits, zero-day attacks, and evasive malware that will continue targeting distributed employees. Download the full Morphisec Work-from-Home Employee Cybersecurity Threat Index here. About Morphisec Morphisec offers an entirely new level of innovation to customers in its Endpoint Threat Prevention product, delivering protection against the most advanced cyberattacks. The companys patented Moving Target Defense technology prevents threats others cant, including APTs, zero-days, ransomware, evasive fileless attacks and web-borne exploits. Morphisec provides a crucial, small-footprint memory-defense layer that easily deploys into a companys existing security infrastructure to form a simple, highly effective, cost-efficient prevention stack that is truly disruptive to todays existing cybersecurity model. DOVER, Del. The judge presiding over the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy has approved an agreement among attorneys to extend an injunction halting child sex abuse lawsuits against the organizations 261 local councils until Nov. 16. Under the agreement approved Monday, local councils wanting continued protection from litigation must sign agreements by July 6 requiring them to provide information to the Boy Scouts about their finances, including real estate holdings, for sharing with creditor committees. The local councils, which run day-to-day operations for local troops, are not listed as debtors in the bankruptcy and are considered by the Boy Scouts to be legally separate entities, even though they are related parties. Attorneys for abuse victims have made clear that they will try to go after campsites and other properties owned by the local councils to contribute to the fund for victims. Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein will hear any objections to the extension of the injunction at a July 9 hearing. The Nov. 16 extension date corresponds with the deadline for victims of child sex abuse to file claims in the bankruptcy case. The Boy Scouts of America, based in Irving, Texas, sought bankruptcy protection in February in an effort to halt hundreds of individual lawsuits and create a huge compensation fund for men who were molested as youngsters decades ago by scoutmasters or other leaders. More than 12,000 boys have been molested by 7,800 abusers since the 1920s, according to Boy Scout files revealed in court papers. Attorneys have indicated that there could be at least 7,000 claims filed in the bankruptcy case. James Stang, an attorney for the official committee representing abuse survivors, said Monday that his committee and the official committee for unsecured creditors are anticipating a substantial data download from the Boy Scouts related to the local councils. An ad hoc committee representing the local councils already has provided some information on a confidential basis, Stang said. Similarly, the information provided by local councils pursuant to the injunction extension will be subject to a protective order. Stang told the judge that if the creditor committees dont get the information they need from the local councils, they will seek discovery through the normal court process. Also Monday, Silverstein appointed a three-person mediation panel that will try to resolve certain issues in the bankruptcy case through voluntary mediation instead of costly litigation. Silverstein appointed two of the three mediators proposed by the Boy Scouts and the official committees but chose former Delaware bankruptcy judge Kevin Carey for the third spot. The other mediators are Paul Finn and Tim Gallagher. Finn runs a Massachusetts mediation firm and has significant experience in Catholic diocese and other cases involving child sex abuse claims. Gallagher is a California lawyer who specializes in mediation involving complex insurance disputes. Attorneys for the Boy Scouts said issues ripe for initial mediation include disputes over whether certain Boy Scouts properties should not be made available to satisfy creditor claims. The Boy Scouts believe those properties include High Adventure bases such as the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, the Florida Sea Base aquatic facility, and the Northern Tier wilderness area in northern Minnesota and Canada. The debtors should not be forced to monetize those assets to satisfy the claims of creditors, said Boy Scouts attorney Jessica Boelter. A massive street mural with an urgent message has taken over downtown Oakland. With the help of at least 400 artists and volunteers, a public art piece reading Black Lives Matter in bold, yellow letters now spans three blocks along Broadway and took an entire day to paint. Most of the participants arrived early Sunday morning, paintbrushes in hand though several other volunteers were passerby that noticed what was going on and decided to jump in themselves. "At the end of the day, it was about what we created," said Pancho Kachingwe, the owner of The Hatch, the bar where the mural started. "Maybe there was someone walking by who thought, 'I don't understand why people are looting.' Now they see all of these people painting, and it opens up a conversation with someone they normally wouldn't talk to. If you can create those moments with art, that's so powerful it creates a ripple effect that you wouldnt possibly imagine." The project was facilitated by Endeavors Oakland, the new community outreach branch of Good Mother Gallery located on 13th St. Inspired by the public art piece in Washington D.C. that could be seen from space as well as other murals popping up around the city, Endeavors Oakland co-founders Assan Jethmal and Pancho Kachingwe decided to spearhead their own project while uplifting community voices. Kachingwe recounted when Jethmal asked him if they could use the pavement in front of the bar as their canvas. No, were gonna cover the street, all three blocks, he responded. Were gonna do it Oakland style. Not long after, they got in touch with the Bay Area Mural Program, which helped facilitate the project as the Bay Areas only initiative of its kind led by people of color. On Saturday night, they began to stencil the outline of each letter in the street, starting with the word Matters and working their way backward. The artists were picking up their paint supplies and moving onto the next block when BAMP executive director and artist Natty Rebel said he noticed an unmarked white van approaching them. Ten police officers filed out of it and wordlessly began to load the artists tools into their trunk. We were like deer in the headlights, said Rebel. We didnt know what they were doing. They didnt tell us we were vandalizing. There were no spoken words. Once the supplies had been cleared from the street, the police left just as quickly as they had arrived. Rebel said he and Sorell Raino-Tsui, the director of Athen B Gallery, jumped in a car and followed them. Eventually, they met up at the police station where officers told them they were responding to a report of vandalism. Rebel said the artists had received approval from Mayor Libby Schaaf earlier that day, but that red tape had likely prevented the message from being passed along to law enforcement. At that point, he just wanted his paint back. They said they would give it to us, but if we went back and started working again that night, we would be arrested, said Rebel. We decided we would go back. If a painting on the street really upsets you, we need to do more paintings. (SFGATE reached out to the Oakland Police Department for comment, but hadn't received a response as of the time of publication.) The artists also knew that if they didnt complete the first phase of the mural that night, it might not be ready for the community to paint the following day. They finally left around one in the morning, according to Kachingwe, who said all he could do was ask for forgiveness from the city when everyone woke up the next day and saw what they had done. But the reality was quite different. Hundreds of people showed up with their own paintbrushes and rollers, while several volunteers dropped off supplies and handed out masks, water, gloves, and hand sanitizer. Robin Easterbrook, a manager at the Hatch, helped transport meals from a Senior Sisig food truck parked nearby. Meanwhile, DJs played old soul and hip-hop as participants talked and danced in the road. Cars driving by honked in support, and Mayor Libby Schaaf showed up to join them in their efforts as well. It became a street party, said Kachingwe. People were prideful, there was joy, there were people that were mourning. It was cathartic at the same time. It was one of those things you had to be there to experience. You will never be able to encapsulate a feeling, but at least you can document it. Thats what Endeavors Oakland is focusing on next as they develop a catalog of the murals created throughout the city following the death of George Floyd. There are plans for the photos to be published in the first chapter of a book titled Rebel with a Cause. Over $5,000 has been raised in a GoFundMe campaign to support their efforts and pay the artists involved. An identical mural is even expected to appear on Milvia Street in front of Berkeley's city hall sometime this week, reports Berkeleyside. When we look at civilizations throughout history that we admire, what do we remember? The art, said Rebel. Artists provide the voice of a community. If you went down the block and looked at the murals people are making, say, 500 years from now, this is whats left. These are modern-day hieroglyphics, this art depicts what people are thinking and going through. If I have to spend my last bit of money on paint, Ill do it, because this is what Im feeling. 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 a culture reporter for SFGATE. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett The Government School Teacher Association of Delhi has demanded that the state government should declare the academic year 19-20 as zero. This request comes at a time when the number of COVID-19 cases in the national capital is increasing but there are growing reports of government making preparations for the reopening of schools. According to India Today TV, the association has said that when the government itself admits that the number of cases is expected to grow then it is not advisable to even think about reopening schools at this point. Ajayveer Yadav, General Sectary, Government School Teacher's Association Delhi expressed concerns about the students and teachers' safety if the school were to reopen as cases are increasing. "Let's not forget what happened in Israel when they opened the schools. We must ensure that this academic year is declared as zero. Even Arvind Kejriwal himself is showing Covid-19 symptoms. So, it's not difficult to imagine what the condition would be if schools were reopened," he says. Ajayveer further said to the news channel, "More than 100 teachers are now infected with Corona till now and four of the Delhiites lost their lives. We must ensure that schools are not reopened until this pandemic slows down." Parents tensed about children going back to school Parents in Delhi are worried about schools reopening. Many parent associations have already said that they do not support reopening of schools at this moment and that the whole academic year should be declared as zero. Father of a class 12 student, Rohit Handa has been experiencing a lot of anxiety since he heard that the Delhi government is planning to reopen schools even as the cases increase. Rohit is concerned about the safety of his child. Rohit says, "I am worried that when my daughter goes to school for examinations, what would be the arrangements for prevention of Coronavirus there? When I see the record new figures in Delhi every day, I worry about my girl, no matter what the government decides. So, declare one year as zero period, as there is nothing bigger than life." Aparajita, the President of Delhi Parents Association, shares a similar view to Rohit, "When we talk about opening schools in the present situation, it is like sending our child on a suicide mission. We as a parents' association demand that no schools be opened right now. However, for board exams, there can be an exception with precautions." The Delhi Government had recently decided that schools were going to be turned into isolation centres for COVID-19 suspects - another thing which has patents worried. Recently, a large number of local people protested against Delhi Government School at RK Puram where the school had been turned into an isolation centre. Also Read: Coronavirus crisis: India sees biggest spike of 9,887 new cases, 331 deaths; tally rises to 2.66 lakh Also Read: One-third of people in hotspots may have infected, recovered from COVID-19: ICMR report In times of upheaval, readers naturally turn to books to make sense of whats happening. With protesters now marching through Portland regularly under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement, we asked several local Black writers if theyd be willing to recommend books that address racial issues. Here are suggestions from Intisar Abioto, a Portland writer and multidisciplinary artist who created The Black Portlanders project; Walidah Imarisha, a Black history scholar whose book Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison, and Redemption won a 2017 Oregon Book Award; David F. Walker, a Portland-based comic writer (The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of a Slaves Journey From Bondage to Freedom); and poet Emmett Wheatfall, whose latest collection, Our Scarlet Blue Wounds, considers race in America. Biography and memoir Assata, an autobiography by Black Panther member Assata Shakur. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a collaboration with Roots author Alex Haley by the human rights activist who was assassinated in 1965. The Beautiful Struggle and Between the World and Me, memoirs by MacArthur Fellow and National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates. Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me, by Portland writer Jerry McGill. The Life of Langston Hughes, a two-volume, Pulitzer Prize-nominated biography by Arnold Rampersad. Survival Math: Notes on an American Family, a memoir by Portland native Mitchell S. Jackson. We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party, by Mumia Abu-Jamal, an activist and journalist serving a life sentence after being convicted of murdering a Philadelphia police officer. What Doesnt Kill You Makes You Blacker, a memoir in essays by Damon Young. Childrens literature Missing Daddy, a look at incarceration from a childs point of view, by Mariame Kaba, founder of Project Nia, which works to end youth incarceration. The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales and The Planet of Junior Brown by Virginia Hamilton, a National Book Award and Newbery Medal honoree and the first childrens author to be named a MacArthur Fellow. Essays The Source of Self Regard, by Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison. Fiction Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel, a political satire in graphic novel form by Aaron McGruder, Reginald Hudlin and Kyle Baker. Go Tell It On The Mountain, a semi-autobiographical novel by one of the leading lights of American literature, James Baldwin. Invisible Man, which won author Ralph Ellison the 1953 National Book Award for Fiction and has become an American classic. History and politics A Peoples History of the United States, by Howard Zinn. African American Almanac: 400 Years of Triumph, Courage and Excellence, by Leantin Bracks and Jessie Carney Smith. Slavery and the Making of America, by James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton. Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II, which won a Pulitzer Prize for author Douglas E. Blackmon. Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi, also the author of the memoir/manual How to Be an Antiracist. Kendi is scheduled to speak in Portland Feb. 18 as part of the 2020-21 Portland Arts & Lectures series. Poetry The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day, by Nikki Giovanni Jimmys Blues and Other Poems, by James Baldwin Science fiction The Binti trilogy, which TheVerge.com dubbed interstellar Afrofuturism, by Nnedi Okorafor, a Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning author. Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories for Social Justice Movements, co-edited by Walidah Imarisha. Parable of the Sower, a novel by MacArthur Fellow and Nebula Award-winning author Octavia Butler. Social justice Are Prisons Obsolete?, by activist and academic Angela Davis. From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, by Princeton University scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. The New Jim Crow: Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander, which Imarisha called a must-read and -study. Mustard Greens, a cinematic short story by Portland artist Mikai Arion about Black dreams, family and survival in the context of environmental racism. Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America, by Portland writer Kristian Williams. Young adult literature Piecing Me Together, a novel about identity told from the perspective of a Black Portland teenager, by Portland native Renee Watson, a Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award honoree. Audio The Portland nonprofit Literary Arts has a collection of talks by Black writers you can listen to for free at The Archive Project, including Toni Morrison, Mitchell S. Jackson, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Claudia Rankine, Jesmyn Ward, Tracy K. Smith and Colson Whitehead. awang@oregonian.com; Twitter: @ORAmyW Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. New Delhi: NCERT and Rotary India on Tuesday (June 9) digitally signed an MoU for e-learning content telecast for class 1-12 overall NCERT TV channels in the presence of Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank. The Union Minister expressed hope that amidst COVID-19 the collaboration of the Rotary India Humanity Foundation and NCERT with the guidance and support of MHRD will ensure that e-learning reaches children across the country with NCERT approved content. Nishank said that it is great pleasure to know that under Vidya Daan 2.0 Rotary International will provide the e-content in the Hindi language to NCERT for classes I to XII for all subjects, adding that "this material is of high class and very high quality; it will benefit all our children very much." "Along with this Rotary International will provide material for special needs children as well as contribute its entirety to the Adult Literacy Mission," he said, adding "They will also provide the Teacher Training (including professional development) content. The Union Minister said that MHRD has been working on the integration of technology in education through various schemes and initiatives like Operation Digital Board, DIKSHA, EPathshala, SWAYAM, and SWAYAM PRABHA. Nishank said that in order to strengthen innovation and digitization in education, the MHRD is focusing on creating e-learning, accurate and updated study material for all and learning enhancements so that students can access quality education at home. Signing an MOU with @Rotary to provide Audio-Visual content in Hindi for Classes I to XII for TV Telecast and other Online Platforms of MHRD https://t.co/YmrFVZzFzy Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) June 9, 2020 The Minister said that through e-learning we want to fulfill prime ministers' vision of 'one nation one digital platform, adding "we have resolved to reach our students through radio and TV where there is no internet or mobile connectivity available and this MoU is a big step in that direction.He hoped that through this MoU quality education will reach to students more effectively." Rotary International Director 2019-21, Kamal Sanghvi, informed about the details of the tie-ups, which includes: 1. NCERT TV Tie-up: There will be curriculum modules telecast for classes 1-12, through twelve national Television channels of NCERT, to be available from July 2020 (content to be vetted by NCERT as per their curriculum). 2. DIKSHA App tie-up: The e-Learning modules would also be available through GOIsnational mobile app, DIKSHA, at the same time. The content is currently available in Hindi (and Punjabi) and hence shall be implemented immediately across 12 states/ UTs schools of approx 10 crore students. The intellectual rights to the content would be with rotary and provided to NCERT so that the said content can be translated to all regional languages by NCERT & the respective state SCERTs in the next few months. Rotary International President for 2021-22, Shekhar Mehta said, Rotary has curated e-Learning content for classes 1-12 through our partners and we plan to provide it free to the nation, as a home-based teaching solution related to their school curriculum. Rotary has a vast experience in e-Learning, having installed e-Learning software/hardware to over 30,000 Govt. schools across India, in the past 5 years. Mikhail Yefremov, a well-known Russian actor who in recent years has criticized Kremlin politics in his stand-up performances, faces up to 12 years in prison for killing a person in an accident while he was allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol. Moscow police said on June 9 that Yefremov was drunk when he drove his Jeep Grand Cherokee at high speed into an oncoming lane in central Moscow, hitting another car. Yefremov did not suffer any injuries in the accident, while the driver of the other vehicle, identified as 57-year-old Sergei Zakharov, was rushed to hospital with multiple injuries. A video clip from Moscow's traffic regulation center showed Yefremov's car failing to follow a bend in the road, instead crossing several lanes before heading directly into oncoming traffic and plowing into another car head on. Yefremov was initially charged with causing an accident while driving under the influence, which carries a punishment of up to seven years in prison. He was ordered not to leave Moscow while an investigation was carried out. However, Zakharov died in hospital early on June 9 and police said Yefremov's charge was changed to "causing a deadly traffic accident while driving under the influence." Yefremov's stand-ups challenging President Vladimir Putin and his politics have been very popular in recent years. Based on reporting by RIA Novosti, TASS, and Interfax Mexico City, June 9 : Protests in Mexico City to demand justice for police brutality in the country turned violent with the destruction of public property and several commercial premises. The around 100 protesters on Monday toured the iconic Paseo de la Reforma avenue in the capital's centre - from the Angel of Independence to the Zocalo plaza - to demand justice for the death of Giovanni Lopez after his arrest in May and the alleged assault of a young woman by police on June 5, reports Efe news. The 16-year-old, identified as Melanie, was allegedly beaten by police officers in Mexico City during a march over the death of Lopez in police custody after he was reportedly detained over not wearing a mask. The protesters on Monday threatened the media present, asking them not to film, and even threw stones and sprayed fire extinguishers and paint at camera persons and photographers. Due to this and to the lack of banners or flags that would identify organizing groups, as well as the refusal of the participants to speak publicly, the media were not able to understand the demands of the march and had to maintain distance from more violent groups. The demonstrators looted bank branches, food stores and other commercial premises, and demolished the barriers that protected buildings such as the Palace of Fine Arts or the Guardiola building of the Bank of Mexico. However, after reaching Zocalo plaza, the march dispersed after some members asked that no more looting be committed. They did not issue any explanatory manifesto about their intentions or the demands of the march. Members of Marabunta group, the city's National Human Rights Commission and some officials from the capital's government were present during the march and although they did not stop the destruction, managed to avoid confrontations. The march was the result of alleged police brutality towards Melanie, who received blows to her head and body on June 5 during the protest organized against police violence in the case of Lopez. Lopez died a month ago but the case came to light last week after a video was shared on social media showing police officers with assault rifles forcing the 30-year-old bricklayer into a pickup truck in the town of Ixtlahuacan de Los Membrillos, 40 kim from Guadalajara. His family later tracked him down in hospital, dead with a bullet wound to the foot. An autopsy revealed he died of blunt trauma to the head. Social media platforms were flooded with the hashtag #JusticiaParaGiovanni (#JusticeForGiovanni), mirroring the protests over the death of George Floyd in the USs. At the end of the march, a group broke away from the main congregation and went to the premises of the Mexico City Attorney General's Office, where they broke the windows of the building. Eight guns have been seized and arrests made by officers of the Trinidad and Tobago Police S [June 09, 2020] Continuous Intelligence Moves from Hype to Reality in the C-Suite According to New Report from Sumo Logic REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sumo Logic , a leader in continuous intelligence, today announced new data highlighting increasing demand for a new category of software called continuous intelligence among C-level executives. Key industry trends including accelerated cloud migration, the rising importance of rapid data insights and the emergence of DevSecOps are converging to drive huge demand for continuous intelligence. Continuous intelligence allows organizations to more rapidly deliver reliable applications and digital services, protect against modern security threats, and consistently optimize their business processes in real time. This empowers employees across all lines of business, development, IT and security teams with the data and insights needed to address the technology and collaboration challenges required for modern business. Sumo Logic will feature survey highlights as part of its opening session presentation at Data Summit Connect , a virtual event taking place today at 12:45 p.m. PT/3:45 p.m. ET. The report, conducted by King Brown Partners , found that in todays ever-changing business landscape, those that operate using a software-driven model will be the most successful. These businesses recognize the power of transforming enormous volumes of data generated by digital operations into real-time insights that propel further success. The ability to do this in real-time, all the time, across multiple functional disciplines, lies at the heart of continuous intelligence. "The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a business discontinuity in which digital transformation has gone from evolution to explosion overnight--doubling, tripling and quadrupling cloud application and infrastructure workloads, said Bruno Kurtic, founding VP of strategy and solutions. "As these digital businesses and services scale to meet demand, the need to effectively monitor, troubleshoot and secure these services has never been more dependent on the need to collect, index and analyze all data in real-time to speed response, improve services and remain agile under these conditions to drive better outcomes. Our Continuous Intelligence Platform enables organizations to derive actionable insights by more effectively enabling collaboration across DevSecOps teams in order to build, manage and secure modern digital services. For Sumo Logic, this is what we mean by continuous intelligence, and we're not surprised to see its relevance growing among operations, security and business leaders." Key Findings The global report included the insights from 765 professionals with cloud-migration leadership responsibilities. Some of the key findins include: Eighty-eight percent of C-suite executives surveyed said they believe their company will benefit from continuous intelligence of C-suite executives surveyed said they believe their company will benefit from continuous intelligence Seventy-four percent believe continuous intelligence will help drive companies speed and agility believe continuous intelligence will help drive companies speed and agility Seventy-six percent indicated they are likely to employ continuous intelligence within the next 12 months indicated they are likely to employ continuous intelligence within the next 12 months Sixty-two percent believe continuous intelligence is a new approach to data that many companies will need to embrace as they become more software-driven to drive revenue. Gartner, the worlds leading research and advisory company cites that, organizations have long sought real-time intelligence, and systems are available to do this for a limited set of tasks. Now it is finally practical to implement these systems what Gartner calls continuous intelligence on a much broader scale because of the cloud, advances in streaming software and growth data from sensors in the Internet of Things (IoT). By 2022, more than half of major new business systems will incorporate continuous intelligence that uses real-time context data to improve decisions.1 Learn more at Data Summit Connect Bruno Kurtic, founding VP of product and strategy at Sumo Logic, will be presenting at Data Summit Connect today, June 9, at 12:45 p.m. PT/3:45 p.m. ET. His presentation, Business Intelligence Becomes Continuous Intelligence for Digital Business, will cover the challenges associated with maintaining reliable digital services and positive customer experiencesa continuous practice. Attendees will hear about the impact of the current pandemic on industries, and how digital enterprises can leverage continuous intelligence to transform how they build, run and secure their digital services. The free online webinar series will be taking place June 9 through June 11, 2020. More information can be found here: http://www.dbta.com/DataSummit/2020 Report Methodology The global study commenced in Fall 2019 and was completed in early 2020. The insights of 765 professionals with cloud-migration leadership responsibilities were captured via an online survey spanning eight key regions including, among others, the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan. Additional Resources Register for Sumo Logics keynote at Data Summit Connect for Sumo Logics keynote at Data Summit Connect Download the survey report Why CI? Why Now? the survey report Why CI? Why Now? Get a deeper look at the a deeper look at the Learn more Sumo Logics Continuous Intelligence Platform more Sumo Logics Continuous Intelligence Platform Sign up for a Sumo Logic free trial 1Smarter With Gartner Gartner Top 10 Data and Analytics Trends, 5 November 2019. https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-10-data-analytics-trends/ About Sumo Logic Sumo Logic is a leader in continuous intelligence, a new category of software, which enables organizations of all sizes to address the data challenges and opportunities presented by digital transformation, modern applications, and cloud computing. The Sumo Logic Continuous Intelligence Platform automates the collection, ingestion, and analysis of application, infrastructure, security, and IoT data to derive actionable insights within seconds. More than 2,000 customers around the world rely on Sumo Logic to build, run, and secure their modern applications and cloud infrastructures. Only Sumo Logic delivers its platform as a true, multi-tenant SaaS architecture, across multiple use-cases, enabling businesses to thrive in the Intelligence Economy. Founded in 2010, Sumo Logic is a privately held company based in Redwood City, California, and is backed by Accel Partners, Battery Ventures, DFJ Growth, Franklin Templeton, Greylock Partners, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Tiger Global Management. For more information, visit www.sumologic.com. Sumo Logic is a trademark or registered trademark of Sumo Logic in the United States and in foreign countries. All other company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Any information regarding offerings, updates, functionality, or other modifications, including release dates, is subject to change without notice. The development, release, and timing of any offering, update, functionality, or modification described herein remains at the sole discretion of Sumo Logic, and should not be relied upon in making a purchase decision, nor as a representation, warranty, or commitment to deliver specific offerings, updates, functionalities, or modifications in the future. Media Contacts Melissa Liton Sumo Logic [email protected] (650) 814-3882 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 10:26:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close By Abdul Haleem SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, June 9 (Xinhua) -- "It is my dream to see a clean environment and better living conditions for everyone around me and I will do my best to see my dream realized one day," Mohammad Nasir Haidari, 12, said softly. Collecting reusable items from garbage boxes in the northern Jawzjan's provincial capital Shiberghan city, the street child said that his aim from scavenging is, on one hand to earn a living and on the other, to clean the area. "I can earn around 150 afghanis (about 2 U.S. dollars) a day from selling the usable items I collect from garbage buckets to support my family," Haidari whispered. The virtuous child told Xinhua that as well as collecting usable items he also takes the garbage away from residential areas to unsettled fields or farmlands to keep the residential areas clean. "Everyone in the city, irrespective of his or her age or gender, has a responsibility to keep the city clean," the industrious child maintained. Afghanistan, according to Haidari, has been suffering from more than four decades of war and as well as the people, towns and cities, the conflict has also hurt the environment. "A polluted environment is the mother of all diseases," the teen said, adding "a clean environment creates a virtuous society and healthy people." To show their appreciation for the ambitious child and to encourage him to pursue his dream, the local authorities symbolically appointed Haidari as head of the Provincial Environment Department for one day over the weekend to mark Environment Week. During this time, Haidari asked the people to replace their plastic shopping bags with paper-made or cotton-made ones. "Plastic bags are one of the most hazardous things that pollute our society and cause a vast number of environmental problems," Haidari said during a short speech. He also called upon the parents to respect their kids, allow them to enjoy their rights and also to teach them how to behave in society. Backing Haidari's notion, the head of the Environment Directorate for Jawzjan province, Khajasta Talash, described children as a cherished asset of society, called upon parents to respect children's rights and avoid sending them outside home to work. Although there are no official statistics on the number of street children in Afghanistan, a survey conducted in Jawzjan province one year ago has identified more than 500 children involved in child labor in the province, head of Man Power and Social Affairs of the province, Sayed Abdul Rashid Mansoor, said. Enditem There is a global absence of women in leadership roles in the response to coronavirus, new research has shown. The charity CARE International surveyed 30 countries and found that on average women made up only 24 per cent of national response committees. The survey also showed that governments with lower levels of female leadership risked failing to consider the disproportionate impact the pandemic is having on women and girls. Recommended Free period products to be provided in schools in New Zealand The figures follow a UN Women report last month which showed lockdown measures had led to an increase in gender-based violence (GV) worldwide and had seriously affected the economic opportunities of women. CARE's most recent analysis found 14 countries, including the UK and Jacinda Ardern-led New Zealand, have taken action on GV during the pandemic by announcing new funding or policies. However, only Canada has made funding and policy commitments that specifically recognise the economic effect of the pandemic on women, CARE said. The charity also found no evidence in nearly 25 per cent of countries of any gender-specific actions or policy and said government at all levels must increase women's leadership in formal decision-making spaces and the humanitarian community must support localised, women-led responses. It added: These actions are mutually reinforcing: women's rights movements tend to work with women and men in positions of power to advance legal and policy initiatives, and these movements often support more women leaders to emerge and attain power. Last month, analysis by Close the Gap a Scottish advocacy group for women's labour market equality found pre-existing inequalities mean women, particularly those in lower-paid roles, will be harder hit than men by the pandemic. The group's report argued occupational segregation where men and women do different types of jobs and are employed at different levels is a key factor behind the disproportionate impact predicted for women as the economic harm of the virus is expected to vary by sector. A separate study conducted by global childrens charity Plan International UK found that almost a third of girls aged between 14 and 21 have struggled to either afford or access sanitary products while at home in lockdown. More than half of the respondents said they have used toilet paper as an alternative to period products, while one in five said that their periods have been harder to manage due to a lack of available toilet paper in stores. After a six-month odyssey around the world amid the coronavirus pandemic, the last cruise liner still carrying passengers has made its final port of call. According to a report by CNN, the MV Artania cruise ship delivered its eight guests to the German port of Bremerhaven on Monday, June 8. Operator Phoenix Reisen confirmed the news to CNN Travel. During its time at sea, the cruise liner, which was hit by coronavirus, saw the oceans dramatically empty of other vessels. Its final eight guest disembarked to a world vastly changed from the one they set sail in, the CNN report said. Artania made numerous diversions to drop off crew members, on its epic" return voyage from Australia. Its arrival in Germany comes more than two months after the last major leisure ships carrying significant numbers of passengers were taken out of commission amid the global pandemic. The ship, with the capability of carrying up to 1,200 passengers, set sail on Dec. 21, 2019 from Hamburg, Germany on a 140-day world cruise, the report said. In March, coronavirus caught up with the cruise. When the ship arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia, the report said 36 passengers tested positive for the virus following a check from Australian health officials. The CNN report said those affected were quarantined in local hospitals, according to Phoenix Reisen. Three people who were on the ship have since died. The Artanias healthy guests stayed quarantined on the ship until their repatriation flights at the end of March. Hundreds of passengers, the majority of whom were German, flew back to Frankfurt, while a handful stayed in hospital in Australia to recover, according to CNN. From Morten Hansen, the captain of the Artania: A farewell message and an apology Im sorry we scared you....We are just humans. He again thanked Perth for its support. The Artania left Fremantle this afternoon. @9NewsPerth @9NewsAUS pic.twitter.com/bgTVjakX2b Tracy Vo (@Tracy_Vo) April 18, 2020 Eight passengers decided to travel back home via ocean, and were subsequently granted the surreal status of becoming the last cruise ship passengers at sea, the report said. Brought together by these extraordinary circumstances, CNN reports that right before the ship left Perth, Australia, two crew members decided to tie the knot and were married in a ceremony officiated by Dr. Gabriele Maluga, the Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Western Australia. Why did the return journey take so long? After Artania left Australia on April 18, the journey home to Europe shouldve taken a few weeks. However, due to stops in Southeast Asia, Bali and Manila, to repatriate many of its remaining crew members, the trip was extended. To ensure smooth operation of the ship, the report said around 75 crew members stayed on board until Bremerhaven. The report said the ships captain, Norwegian-born Morten Hansen, who has been commanding cruise ships since 2001, kept passengers, coworkers, cruise fans and loved ones in the loop via his Facebook page, during the ships long journey. On Mothers Day, Hansen took a little detour from his planned route in order to map out the shape of a heart. Ein verspateter Gru an alle Mamis von Kapitan Hansen so eine Route braucht eben seine Zeit Posted by Kapitan Morten Hansen Fanseite on Monday, May 11, 2020 What does the future hold for cruising? CNN reports that while most cruise ship travelers are now back home, many cruise ship crews remain stuck on ships across the world, awaiting return amid reports of struggling mental health and difficult conditions. In recognition of World Ocean Day, June 8, activists across the world were hosting a virtual Rally to Clean Up Cruising, which focused on how the industry could change its environmental impact, when cruising restarts. READ MORE: 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. A row at Belfast City Council over virtual meetings has continued after a proposal to suspend July holidays and resume a full agenda was voted down on Monday night. Only 18 of the councils 60 councillors were hosted in the councils first virtual meeting, which was open to the public. The meeting was called for an SDLP motion urging the council to consider immediately holding virtual monthly meetings of the council, committees and working groups. An Alliance amendment added the council also gives up the July holidays. The DUP and Sinn Fein so far have resisted calls for regular meetings to return before August. They were joined by the UUP and PUP during Mondays meeting to continue the current system of delegated authority decision making in which the Chief Executive Suzanne Wylie is responsible. Alliance, the SDLP, the Green Party and People Before Profit all voted for an immediate return to business, with virtual meetings accessible to the public. They lost by 11 votes to seven. Virtual conference meetings of the party group leaders, held away from the public eye, will continue. There will be a practice Strategic Policy and Resources meeting next week, and two more before August. There will also be a full remote council meeting with all 60 members in July. A return to a full agenda by remote conference, and open to the public, will begin in August. Chief Executive Suzanne Wylie said: We do not have many staff here at City Hall at all. With some staff furloughed and many working from home, it makes things incredibly difficult. Primarily the vast amount of time by senior managers is spent on recovery in all its forms looking at all our offices, looking at all our facilities, when we can open them again, looking at when we can get staff back into work and how. She said recovery for both communities, and the wider economy, was taking up all the senior staffs time at this point, and added It would be difficult to service all the committees if that was to begin again tomorrow. All of Northern Irelands other councils have held full council meetings, involving all councillors which Belfast is yet to do. Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon council, Derry and Strabane Council, and Antrim and Newtownabbey Council have already announced they will resume full schedules of council and committee meetings virtually in June and July. DUP party group leader George Dorrian said: We asked last week as group leaders a direct question of the Chief Executive, that if we seek to continue with all these working groups, committees and meetings, are we distracting staff away from work around the recovery plan. The answer was a very clear yes. He described the motion to resume a full agenda of meetings as "grandstanding. SDLP party group leader Donal Lyons said: We have a lot of decisions to take, these decisions are going to be tough and in the interests of basic accountability and political transparency these decisions have to be made in a public forum. Im not suspecting that thousands of people will be glued to their phones or their tablets to gaze upon our every word. But they have a right should they choose to do so, and the media have the right to report what the rationale of the different parties were when the decisions were taken. People Before Profit Councillor Matthew Collins said: Its unbelievable the idea that the reason we are not having open, democratic and public meetings is because people are too busy. He said he was disappointed council officers gave political cover to continued delegated authority, and added the current situation amounted to democracy through party group leaders. Alliance Councillor Kate Nicholl, said later the meeting was a farce and a complete let down She added: The Local Government act was changed almost two months ago to allow all Council and Committee meetings to move online quickly. This should never have been up for discussion instead we find ourselves in a situation where four parties are content to usher in an era of closed-door decision making at City Hall. It is not acceptable. As a ratepayer Im angry that full openness and transparency has been removed, as an elected member Im frustrated Ive been blocked by others from representing those who elected me and finally Im disappointed in all those who have stood in the way of democracy. An online porn star has pleaded guilty to a string of public masturbation charges which took place in Sydney while he was on holiday. Brazilian national Fabricio Da Silva Claudino faced 15 counts of obscene exposure and one count of offensive behaviour at Central Local Court in Sydney on Tuesday, after he performed the lewd acts on film and promoted the videos on porn sites and social media. The 31-year-old has almost 30,000 followers on Instagram and was 'supporting himself' through his online videos. Online porn star Fabricio Da Silva Claudino (pictured) pleaded guilty to a string of public masturbation charges which took place in Sydney while he was on holiday The Brazilian national faced 15 counts of obscene exposure and one count of offensive behaviour at Central Local Court in Sydney The court heard that Claudino exposed his penis and filmed himself various times near his Surry Hills apartment between September 2019 and February 2020. On one occasion his public sex act was in view of Inner Sydney High School, The Daily Telegraph reported. Claudino's latest brush with law came while he was on bail for 13 other revenge porn charges set to go before the court on Thursday. The public exhibitionist is accused of taking pictures of a sexual partner without their consent four times in Marrickville in Sydney's Inner West and Mollymook on the New South Wales South Coast in July last year. Claudino then allegedly uploaded the photos online without consent six times in July 2019. Police allege that Claudino also recorded a compromising video without consent and uploaded it to the porn site OnlyFans. The Brazilian has been held in custody since February but has previously pleaded not guilty to the revenge porn charges. The 31-year-old has almost 30,000 followers on Instagram and was 'supporting himself' through his online videos SPRINGFIELD As more cities look to speed up Gov. J.B. Pritzkers five-phase reopening plan, a university researcher said data he reviewed suggests the stay-at-home orders kept case numbers down but, compared to other states, there have been more deaths per capita. Back in May, about a week after the governor announced his five-phase reopening plan for four regions of the state, the Illinois Municipal League said it was looking to have the governors plan even more regionalized. It seems appropriate to maintain the 11 regions set forth on the EMS map, Illinois Municipal League Executive Director Brad Cole wrote in a May 11 letter to the governor. Cole also said the timeline of 28 days in the governors plan needed to be reduced to 14 days for a region to advance to the next phase. All four regions of the state entered Phase 3 of the governors plan on May 28. The Illinois Department of Public Health didnt immediately respond to questions about what cities can do to speed up the phases. The next phase of the governors plan could start near the end of this month. Pritzker has said the shutdown has worked. University of Illinois Springfield professor Gary Reinbold with the College of Public Affairs and Administration did an independent review of COVID-19 data based on what he said was the clear difference between Cook County and the rest of the state. Its quite night and day in the way that people live here and there and so it seemed possible to me that the fact that were doing so many things on a statewide basis may not be the best approach, Reinbold said. He said the data hes reviewed comparing downstate Illinois to other states with similar demographics suggested there have been fewer positive cases per capita. Which is about what I would have expected, Reinbold said. But then you look at the number of deaths that are being reported per capita we actually have more, significantly more than those other states, 40 to 70 percent more. Pritzker has defended his statewide stay-at-home order and his reopening plan. I couldnt make a convincing argument based on this that it didnt work, Reinbold said. But I think the burden should be on the people putting restrictions in place that it does work and I dont see a good argument for that in this data. State Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland, said its time to open things up. The overreaction to this virus has been catastrophic to many, many, many businesses in downstate Illinois, he said. Miller filed House Bill 5796, legislation he said would protect small businesses from being singled out for prolonged closure by any governor. For months, big-box retailers have been deemed essential and allowed to remain open while small businesses in our communities that sell the same items were forced to close their doors, Miller said. Sadly, some will never reopen. We cant allow this unfair treatment to ever happen again. Governments are on a law-making spree. When legislatures are not in session, as is currently the case, Indias Constitution empowers the government to make laws through executive action. The central government has made ten new laws in the last two months. Four were made recently. Two of these are new legislations which aim is to give a boost to rural India and agriculture. The third protects companies from insolvency proceedings for defaulting on their financial commitments after March 25. The last one gives power to the government to regulate the supply of food items like cereals, oils, pulses in extraordinary circumstances. Indian statute books are overflowing with more than 6,000 laws passed by the Centre and state governments. They are the preferred tool for problem-solving for all governments. But laws are also blunt instruments which have a large impact. So the use of laws for governance intervention raises three key questions. First, how well are these laws made? Effective laws are the outcome of a robust law-making process. Over the years, both the government and Parliament have tried to bring about more rigour to this process. But not all laws go through a standardised process of law-making. Some laws sail through the process, bypassing multiple layers of scrutiny. Ordinances, which are laws made by the government to deal with an emergent situation when Parliament is not in session (such as those mentioned above) are one such example. They are rarely sent to a parliamentary committee for examination. But the rationale for their existence, ie to tackle an emergent situation, makes it critical they be scrutinised carefully and in a timely manner by Parliament. More so when these are brand new laws or significant amendments to existing legislations. The second question is whether these laws accomplish their intended purpose. Take for example the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979. Its purpose is to prevent the exploitation of migrant workers. It starts by admitting that the provisions of the various labour laws are not being observed in their case and they are subjected to various malpractices. Another example is the law to eliminate the inhuman practice of manual scavenging. The 2013 Bill that was enacted into law admitted that a previous law made 20 years ago was ineffective. Clearly, making a law is no guarantee that it will solve a problem. After the initial excitement of passing a new law wanes, it seems to be forgotten on our statute books. There are no regular checks to ensure that it is working well on the ground, and whether there is a need for revising the law. In 2019, in a public lecture, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu stressed on the importance of post-legislative impact assessment of laws. A parliamentary committee headed by Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Bhupender Yadav is currently examining how the evaluation of laws can be done to measure their impact. The report of this committee will be instrumental in reducing the gap between the intent of laws and their implementation. The last question with respect to laws is whether their use is appropriate in a particular situation. In the 1960s, two American academics Kaplam and Maslow popularised the phrase, If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Also termed as the law of the instrument, the axiom is a reference to the overreliance on a familiar tool, irrespective of its suitability to solve a problem. A recent example is the use of laws to address complex issues thrown up by the coronavirus pandemic. The closing down of commercial establishments after the first lockdown left a large number of workers with no source of livelihood. To address the problem, the government directed employers to pay full wages to workers for the lockdown period. With little to no earnings during the lockdown, businesses themselves were facing financial trouble. They petitioned the Supreme Court, which directed the government not to take action against them. With workers unable to make ends meet, they started heading back to their home states. When the lockdown was eased, commercial establishments slowly started opening up. But, by then, there was a shortage of workers. To address this problem, state governments allowed factories to increase their working hours to 12 hours a day. The thought process was that fewer individuals could work for longer hours to make up for the shortage of workers. In hindsight, perhaps these legal measures on their own were not appropriate to address the distress faced by workers and businesses. The pandemic has led to calls for creating new laws to deal with the unprecedented situation. But for laws to be effective, they cannot be a simple exercise on paper. They have to be carefully made, regularly sharpened and judiciously used. Chakshu Roy is the head of legislative and civic engagement, PRS Legislative Research The views expressed are personal Flash Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee on George Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes before the African-American man died, appeared in a court in Minneapolis on Monday for the first time since being arrested and criminally charged. During the court hearing, in which Chauvin appeared virtually, the ex-officer, who has been fired and arrested after Floyd's death, was given an unconditional bail of 1.25 million dollars, or a 1 million-dollar bail with conditions. Chauvin, 44, who was charged with second-degree murder on top of the third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges, largely remained silent during the 11-minute or so hearing, only answering some identifying questions. Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, did not contest the bail, nor did he speak of the substance of Chauvin's charges. Chauvin's next appearance was set for June 29. Three other former police officers involved in Floyd's death have also been fired and jailed, each facing the charge of aiding and abetting murder. Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds on May 25, as he and the other three cops arrested the 46-year-old unarmed black man after receiving a call from a nearby shop owner reporting the use of a counterfeit 20-dollar note. Floyd died later on the same day. Two autopsies conducted separately in the following days both found his death a homicide. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ParcelPal Technology Inc. (ParcelPal or the Company), (PKG:CSE) (FSE:PT0) (OTC:PTNYF) is pleased to announce its FY 2019 financial results again highlighted by revenue record numbers. Overview In FY 2019, the Company expanded into new geographic areas and achieved record growth, which was driven by revenue growth of nearly 42% to approximately $4.8 million (up from $3.4 million in FY 2018). Some highlights of the year included the Company delivering well over 2 million packages, a significant increase in business with Amazon and securing a distribution agreement with Aphria Inc. for delivery of medical cannabis to patients. Additionally, we completed a private placement, invested in our product development, signed an important agreement with Aphria, added to our bench strength with a talented sales executive, and expanded into new markets. "The past actions we took to increase our revenue and rebuild our product have placed our Company in a better position to deliver value to our customers during the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," said ParcelPals CEO Rich Wheeless. "During a time when we have seen massive layoffs globally, our lean, nimble and talented team has continued to work hard to provide customers a way to have what they want delivered, many times within an hour or less, in a way that solves the problem of paying from a safe social distance." The past investment we made in upgrading our technology has streamlined our development process and has helped to accelerate our introduction of new product features. As businesses begin reopening after being in a state of lockdown, they will need innovative and creative solutions to operate their businesses while maintaining social distancing to keep customers and staff safe. In addition to new sanitation guidelines and physical distancing signage, innovative technologies such as mobile ordering and no-touch contactless delivery will play an important role in improving staff and customer safety. "We have more work to do, and we will continue to take actions to strengthen our business," said ParcelPals CEO Rich Wheeless. Since I came aboard on March 1 of this year, the Company has made significant progress in reducing expenditures at the same time as aligning our strategy with execution and marketing plans. We will achieve this by right-sizing the Company to respond to our business needs more efficiently with reduced head office expenses and improved accountability and visibility across teams. This will be a 12 to 18 month transformation and I remain confident that we will unlock value for our stakeholders as our Company's transformation accelerates. We have quickly expanded into new markets and have experienced continued growth, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of my main goals along with the expansion into new markets, an increasingly diversified customer base and continuing to engage higher margin customers is to get the company to break even by the end of FY 2021. FY 2019 Financial Highlights: December 31, 2019 compared to December 31, 2018 - Financial Highlights: Working capital of $218,989 at December 31, 2019 compared to $2,084,902 at December 31, 2018 and long-term debt of $11,581 compared to $617,614 at December 31, 2018. Office and miscellaneous increased to $970,019 (2018 - $522,194) due to increased company activity and expansion into Alberta and Saskatoon. Marketing and promotion increased to $1,586,284 (2018 - $470,394) due to increased promotional activities during the current period as the Company expands into new markets. During the year ended December 31, 2019 the Company had a net loss of $4,498,228 compared to $3,818,453 during the year ended December 31, 2018. Net loss in FY 2019 represented $0.06 per share while the net loss in FY 2018 also represented $0.06 per share. Q4 2019 Financial Highlights: Consulting fees in Q4 decreased to $292,450 (Q4 2018 - $351,791) due to a decreased number of consultants in the current period. Share-based compensation in Q4 decreased to $19,922 (Q4 2018 - $554,765) due to fewer stock options being granted during the current period. During the three months ended December 31, 2019 the Company had a net loss of $387,425 compared to $1,762,185 (a decrease of 78%) during the three months ended December 31, 2018. Net loss in Q4 2019 represented $0.00 per share while the net loss in Q4 2018 represented $0.01 per share. Q4 2019 Highlights: On November 22, 2019, the Company closed a non-brokered private placement financing of $346,065. In December 2019, the Company increased its partnership with LineTen, a point of sale provider in the UK, Canada and the USA. The Company was already successfully operating in Calgary, but expanded with them in the Vancouver market. Subsequent to the period ended December 31, 2019, a few notable events occurred: On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. This contagious disease outbreak and any related adverse public health developments, has adversely affected workforces, economies, and financial markets globally, leading to an economic downturn. The pandemic could continue to have a negative impact on the stock market, including trading prices of the Companys shares and its ability to raise new capital. On April 14, 2020 the Company completed a non-brokered private placement of US$367,500. On May 6, 2020 the Company granted 2,875,000 stock options to directors, officers and consultants of the Company. The options have an exercise price of $0.09 per option and expire on May 6, 2025. Launched a sales and marketing campaign encouraging merchants to sign up for ParcelPal. During the ongoing crisis, the Company is offering special reduced rates to support the restaurant and service industry and small businesses. This campaign has resulted in numerous new merchants signing up with ParcelPal since the launch. Launched a special promotion to healthcare workers in Vancouver, BC. The Company activated all of its social media channels and offered a special promotion by providing an in-app credit to healthcare workers in Vancouver, BC. Outlook The Company's strategic priorities for the remainder of fiscal 2020 include: Continued development of the ParcelPal product through a series of build-measure-learn iterations and moving beyond the restaurant vertical. Building an exceptional and world-class brand with a focus on high quality content. Increasing the number of merchants and users using the ParcelPal platform. Using data, technology, and inbound selling to ramp up sales and revenue generation. Continued expansion into large markets in Canada and also planning the companys entry into the United States market. The Company's complete financial results are available in its Audited Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2019, each of which have been filed with Canadian securities regulators at www.sedar.com . The Company also announces that a private company controlled by Brian Storseth, a director of the Company, and the Company have mutually agreed to terminate the Business Advisor Services Agreement dated June 20, 2019. The Company has agreed to issue 1,200,000 common shares to Mr. Storseths corporation in settlement of all amounts due and owing under the agreement. 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 Forward Looking Information This news release contains forward looking statements relating to the Proposed Transaction, and the future potential of ParcelPal. Forward looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", intends, "anticipates", "expects", plans and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the risk that the Proposed Transaction will not be completed due to, among other things, failure to execute definitive documentation, failure to complete satisfactory due diligence, failure to receive the approval of the CSE and the risk that ParcelPal will not be successful due to, among other things, general risks relating to the mobile application industry, failure of ParcelPal to gain market acceptance and potential challenges to the intellectual property utilized in ParcelPal. There can be no assurance that any forward looking statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company 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 of the date of this news release and the Company will only update or revise publicly any of the included forward looking statements as expressly required by Canadian securities laws. Joe Biden declared he opposed a growing movement on the left to defund police departments. President Donald Trump and Republicans are determined to make him own it anyway. Trump lit into Biden on Twitter, painting him as the leader of the radical left and responsible for a movement that celebrates anarchy, coddles antifa and demonizes law enforcement. But the swiftness and clarity of Biden's dismissal, which came as CBS, ABCs The View and other media outlets were peppering Democratic politicians with questions about defunding the police, suggests Biden's team wanted to head off an issue it saw as politically poisonous. For now, they've succeeded. Biden emerged from the attacks on Monday without suffering any significant backlash from activists who've embraced the "defund" movement. It was the latest attempt by Trump to tie Biden to the most far-left positions in the Democratic Party. The aim is to hurt the presumptive nominee among independents and "never Trump" Republicans, while dividing the left and moderate flanks of the Democratic coalition. Biden has banked his candidacy on a tried-and-true path in which he's moved left on some policies without going too far. His campaign points to that moderation as among the reasons that polling shows hes eating into constituencies that Trump won in 2016, including suburban and older voters. On Monday, moderates applauded Bidens stance, which rejected cutting funds to police departments, but supported reforms and oversight. And while it was the latest example of Biden knocking a left-wing idea embraced by his partys activist base he also opposed "Abolish ICE" and "Medicare for All during the primary by and large, progressives didnt express the outright disdain for Biden that Trump might have been expecting. It comes as raucous protests have swept across the country since George Floyd, an unarmed black man, was killed in police custody in Minneapolis as a white police officer pinned down his neck, exposing increasing tensions between police and the public. The calls to defund the police have a range of meanings to different groups, from demilitarizing police departments to disbanding traditional operations and moving to more community-based public safety. Story continues Biden left no question about where he stands. No, I don't support defunding the police, Biden told CBS Norah ODonnell. I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness and, in fact, are able to demonstrate, they can protect the community and everybody in the community. His campaign noted that Biden already proposed a criminal justice plan calling for $300 million more in funding to police departments in order to cover training, community policing and hiring of more officers, with some minority hiring requirements. While progressives werent in an uproar over Bidens stance, some were unhappy, calling his reaction rash, shortsighted, and saying he needed to spend more time listening. The current notion of policing in America must be dismantled. And that is why you see city councils like Minneapolis and other elected bodies on the local and state level doing just that, said former Bernie Sanders campaign co-chair Nina Turner. So for the vice president to reject the notion out of hand is showing a tone-deafness that the black community certainly cant afford for anybody vying for the presidency to have. Scott Roberts, senior director of criminal justice campaigns for the racial justice organization Color Of Change, called Bidens comments disappointing. "I feel like its not a reaction thats rooted in a lot of reflection, frankly, Roberts said. I dont know that Sen. Biden has taken the time to talk to groups that are leading this charge to defund the police. Pennsylvania state Rep. Summer Lee, a democratic socialist who helped stage a takeover Monday of the speakers rostrum in the state capitol with other lawmakers to demand police reforms, said she is concerned about the inherent disrespect expressed by the Biden campaign. "I understand that this is a scary notion, thinking about restructuring the society that we know, and hes been in this society for a very long time. Taking the time to consider why people of a different generation, a different background, of a different socioeconomic status, why they are thinking in a way that hes not there yet, she said. My fear is ... that hes not taking the time to even understand the perspective before making his rash decision." In quickly rejecting the call, however, Biden will make it more difficult for Trump to position himself as the law-and-order president trying to beat back a challenger who embraces lawlessness. Biden has a long history as a pro-law enforcement Democrat: His authorship of the 1994 crime bill has been an ongoing source of criticism, including from Trump himself. In a press call on Monday, Trump surrogate Carolyn Bunny Welsh, former sheriff of Chester County, Pa., blamed Biden for the new "defund the police" slogan, saying the former vice president owns this movement. He has basically turned his back on law enforcement, Welsh said. Even if unpopular with the left flank of the party, Bidens stance aligns with top Democrats in Congress, said Matt Bennett of the center left group Third Way. He is doing the classic Republican scare-mongering, Bennett said of Trump. He has seized on this because he has nothing else, literally nothing. As an opportunity to make people afraid, because thats what he does. Former Barack Obama senior adviser David Axelrod called Biden's move "the right position." "Fundamental change reimagining public safety, rethinking how money is allocated and doing it in partnership with the community is essential," Axelrod said. "But very few people would embrace the elimination of police with nothing to replace them. Trump would have a field day with that. He's already trying to weaponize the words." The Delhi Police on Tuesday filed three charge sheets in a Delhi court in three separate cases related to the north-east Delhi communal riots that claimed the lives of 53 people and left more than 400 others injured in February this year. In one of the three cases, the police have arrested and charge-sheeted five persons, including Shahrukh Pathan, the man whose video of pointing a pistol at a policeman during the riots had gone viral on the Internet. Being the prime accused, Pathan has already been arrested and charge-sheeted for allegedly brandishing the gun and firing at head constable Deepak Dahiya, senior crime branch officers privy to the case said. Both the incidents had taken place at the Jafarabad-Maujpur Chowk at the same time in February, but separate cases were registered and Pathan was booked and arrested for two of them. In the second case, Pathan and four others have been charged with rioting, attempt to murder, assaulting government officials, and criminal conspiracy. The charge sheet, in this case, was filed before a duty magistrate in a city court on Tuesday. The police have said in the charge sheet that on February 24 around 11 am, two groupsone supporting and the other opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizen (NRC)clashed at Maujpur Chowk. ...incidents of stone-pelting, brick batting, arson, firing and sabotage from both sides led to injuries to several police personnel as well as public persons and created an atmosphere of fear among public..., the police have mentioned in the charge sheet. One man, Vinod (identified by his first name) lost his life in the incident but a separate case was registered in connection with his murder, an investigator, who did not want to be named, said. Reacting to the allegations made in the charge sheet, Pathans lawyer, Asghar Khan, said that his client is being falsely charged. He said that in the first case, the complainant, (head constable Deepak Dahiya)s statement in the first information report (FIR) about opening fire is contrary to an interview he gave to a TV channel after the incident. My client is being falsely charged in the case. The complainant told a TV channel that my client did not fire. However, in the FIR he has said that he had to duck to save himself from the bullet. The charge of attempt to murder (307 of IPC) is also false as Pathan opened fire in self-defence and not to injure or kill anyone, Khan said. The other two cases in which charge sheets were filed on Tuesday were for the deaths of two persons during the communal violence in Kardampuri neighbourhood on February 24 and 25. Eight peoplefour in each casewere arrested and charged with murder, rioting, criminal conspiracy and other offences. The police said that on February 24, one Mohammad Furkan was shot dead during the communal riots at the Kardampuri puliya (culvert). Four persons have been charge-sheeted in the case. On February 25, a 32-year-old e-rickshaw driver, Deepak, was caught and lynched by the mob near a government dispensary in Kardampuri where communal violence broke out. Four persons have been arrested and charged with rioting and killing Deepak, the police said in their third charge sheet. The police on Tuesday maintained that during their investigation in the three cases, it has emerged that there was a deep-rooted conspiracy which triggered the communal riot. ...the conspirators caused disruption by the dual scheme of spreading misinformation on the CAA and causing chakka jam on main arterial roads, which triggered a major communal riot, the police said in a statement. A total of 88 charge sheets have filed by Delhi Police in different cases related to the north-east Delhi riots so far, including three against suspended AAP MLA Tahir Husain (one of which accuses him of planning the murder of IB staffer Ankit Sharma), one against six persons for the death of 85-year-old Akbari Begum, against Pinjra Tod activists Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, one against Khalid Saifi of United Against Hate, one against 17 persons for the death of head constable Rattan Lal, and one against 12 persons for the death of Dilbar Negi. WASHINGTON D.C. - On Monday, U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) met with members of the Idaho National Guard who were deployed to Washington, D.C. on Friday to aid in the protection of local residents and peaceful protestors demonstrating against the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The roughly 400 Idaho National Guardsmen who volunteered for this deployment remain unarmed and in soft cap, meaning they are not outfitted in body armor nor riot gear while on duty. Senator Risch spoke with the Guardsmen on Monday evening and thanked them for their service. I am deeply proud of the Idaho National Guard. These men and women represent the very best of what our state has to offer, and their commitment to protecting lives and preserving peace during this difficult time is humbling, said Risch. I thank them for their service to our nation and pray for their continued safety. Banksy has suggested the toppled statue of Edward Colston should be put back on its plinth in Bristol surrounded by sculptures of protesters pulling it down. The graffiti artist unveiled a new piece of artwork inspired by activists who tore down a bronze statue of the 17th-century slave trader in an Instagram post today. Alongside the image, which shows a statue close to toppling backwards as four people pull it with ropes, Banksy said the moment should be 'commemorated'. In a caption, he wrote: 'What should we do with the empty plinth in the middle of Bristol? Here's an idea that caters for both those who miss the Colston statue and those who don't. Banksy has unveiled a new piece of artwork (pictured) inspired by protesters who toppled the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol on Sunday Protesters tied ropes around the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol city centre, before tearing it to the ground on Sunday 'We drag him out the water, put him back on the plinth, tie cable round his neck and commission some life size bronze statues of protestors in the act of pulling him down. 'Everyone happy. A famous day commemorated.' The statue was toppled during an anti-racism demonstration in Banksy's home city of Bristol this weekend and was eventually rolled into the city's harbour. Footage from the rally shows demonstrators heaving the metal monument down with ropes before cheering and dancing around it. Boris Johnson condemned their actions as a 'criminal act', as Avon and Somerset Police confirmed a decision was made not to intervene. Alongside the image, which shows a statue close to toppling backwards as four people pull it down with ropes, Banksy said their actions should be 'commemorated' In addition to Banksy's suggestion, a number of other famous figures have been put forward by Twitter users to replace the toppled statue. Suggestions have ranged from the serious to the hilarious. One user put forward the idea of putting a statue of Football superstar Cristano Ronaldo who was famously depicted in Bronze at Maderia airport in the from of a much-mocked bust. The statue, which only bore a slight resemblance to Ronaldo, has since been removed, but the Twitter user shared a photo-shopped image of the original bust placed on the plinth from which the Colston statue had been removed. Sticking to the football theme, another user suggested a statue of Bristol City's Senegalese striker Famara Diedhiou should be placed there. Another user shared a picture of the statue of Michael Jackson which was placed outside of Fulham FC's stadium in London by then-owner and Mohamed Al-Fayed. The statue was also removed, with the Twitter user writing: 'I wonder if Al-Fayed still has this knocking about?' Bust: This statue of Cristiano Ronaldo's head placed at Madeira airport did not go down well with fans, with many criticising its lack of resemblance to the footballing superstar. It has since been replaced with something more recognisable, but is the original free to be used? One Twitter user jested that it could replace the felled statue of Edward Colston Another user suggested this statue of Yoda could be placed on the now-empty plinth One person on Facebook suggested that a statue of Darth Vader, who was played by Bristol actor David Prowse, but had his voice cut out and replaced by the voice of American actor James Earl Jones Another theme that stuck a chord with Twitter users was that of the Star Wars movie franchise. One user retweeted a picture of a statue of the character Yoda that was first shared by Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, which had 'Matter Black Live do' written in graffiti underneath. Another suggested a statue of Star Wars villain Darth Vader be placed on the plinth. While the character was famously voiced by American actor James Earl Jones, the man in the suit was Bristol actor David Prowse, who wore the suit but had his voice removed from the final cut of the film. There were also more political suggestions, with one user suggesting a bust of ex-Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn be placed there, while another suggested that a statue of ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher take Colston's place. Others have suggested the controversial torn-down statue should be replaced with a tribute to prominent civil rights campaigner Paul Stephenson (pictured) Others have suggested the controversial torn-down statue should be replaced with a tribute to prominent civil rights campaigner Paul Stephenson, 83. More than 18,000 people have signed a petition calling for a statue of Mr Stephenson to be installed on the now-empty plinth since the controversial Colston sculpture was removed this weekend. Mr Stephenson led the Bristol Bus Boycott in 1963 after a company refused to employ black drivers and conductors. The 60-day protest eventually led to the company revoking its colour bar. More than 18,000 people have signed a petition calling for a statue of Mr Stephenson to be installed on the now-empty plinth since the controversial Colston sculpture was removed this weekend. Mr Stephenson led the Bristol Bus Boycott in 1963 after a company refused to employ black drivers and conductors. The 60-day protest eventually led to the company revoking its colour bar. Another suggested replacement is that of Bristol pioneer Roy Hackett, a civil right's hero, co-founder of the Commonwealth Co-ordinate Committee (CCC) and founder of St Pauls Carnival. A year later, the campaigner refused to leave a pub until he was served - activism which was pivotal in paving the way for the first Race Relations Act. It has also been suggested the city should install a memorial to the thousands of West Africans who died aboard ships during Colston's time as Deputy Governor of the Royal African Company from 1680 to 1692. The Company had complete control of Britain's slave trade, as well as its gold and Ivory business, with Africa and the forts on the coast of west Africa. The statue was toppled during an anti-racism demonstration in Banksy's home city of Bristol this weekend and was eventually rolled into the city's harbour Pictured: The bronze statue falls into the water in Bristol harbour after being dragged through the city's streets by demonstrators During his tenure at the Company, Colston's ships transported around 80,000 slaves from Africa to the Caribbean and America. Around 20,000 of them, including some 3,000 or more children, died during the transatlantic journeys. Historian Dr Roger Ball told the Huffington Post the plinth should pay tribute to a 'collective of slaves and Bristolian abolitionists.' 'I'd love to see, in Britain, recognition of the slaves who abolished slavery,' he said. 'There are a lot of figures who are not known about in British history who did amazing things and had an incredible effect. It wasn't just individuals it was whole networks of political and religious people.' The Edward Colston statue, sculpted by John Cassidy, was erected in 1895 and has been a subject of controversy in recent years. The toppling of the monument on Sunday has led to criticism of more than 60 statues across the UK by Black Lives Matter activists. Banksy showed his support for the Black Lives Matter movement in his previous Instagram post on Saturday, of a painting of a vigil candle burning an American flag In the post, he wrote: 'At first I thought I should just shut up and listen to black people about this issue' The identity of Banksy has long been a closely-guarded secret, but that has not stopped him from becoming one of the most prolific street artists of the 21st century, gaining attention for his politically charged works. He has publicly expressed his support of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has escalated over the past two weeks following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mr Floyd died after a white police officer held him down by pressing his knee into his neck for almost nine minutes in Minneapolis on May 25. His death has sparked days of protests around the world. Banksy showed his support for the Black Lives Matter movement in his previous Instagram post on Saturday, of a painting of a vigil candle burning an American flag. In the post, he wrote: 'At first I thought I should just shut up and listen to black people about this issue. 'But why would I do that? It's not their problem, it's mine.' He continued: 'People of colour are being failed by the system. The white system. Like a broken pipe flooding the apartment of the people living downstairs. The faulty system is making their life a misery, but it's not their job to fix it. They can't - no-one will let them in the apartment upstairs. 'This is a white problem. And if white people don't fix it, someone will have to come upstairs and kick the door in.' Chief Minister of Puducherry V Narayanasamy on Monday said holding of virtual classes for students appearing for the class X public examinations in the Union Territory is not feasible as most of students in rural areas do not have smart phone. He told newsmen that he would write to the Union HRD Ministry in this regard and ensure that the rural students interests are taken care of and convenient steps be adopted to hold classes for such students. The chief minister urged the Vice-Chancellor of Pondicherry University, a centrally sponsored higher education institution, Gurmeet Singh to wait for the directives from the Union HRD Ministry on the modalities of holding the university examinations. He said he has asked the university to reconsider its decision to hold the examinations in July after he received representations from parents. Pointing a finger at vegetable vendors, Narayanasamy said the retail shops, having now brought back to the old locations, would be again forced to move if there was no improvement in adherence to the norms of the virus-induced lockdown such as wearing of masks, maintaining social distancing and other conditions to prevent the spread of the pandemic. I will visit the shops shortly and make an on-the-spot assessment and if there is no improvement in adhering to the curbs all the retail vegetable stalls would be shifted to some other places, he said. He said this while referring to the Koyambedu market in Chennai as an eye-opener as the market turned out to be a hotspot for COVID-19 cases. Faulting the manner in which a virus victims body was buried, he said two of the workers of the municipality and one health workers have been suspended. A full-fledged enquiry would be held to find out whether there was any lapse on the part of the workers in handling the body during the burial. More French museums and galleries are reopening this week, after the lockdown put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus. One of them is the Musee du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, which will welcome visitors on Tuesday. French cultural institutions have been re-opening after a lockdown put in place since 17 March to stop the spread of the coronavirus, but the process is gradual, staggered over the month of June and July. Small museums and cultural sites have been allowed to reopen since the 11 May, with strict hygiene policies in place and social distancing. Now the bigger museums and monuments are following suit, and one of the first large museums to re-open in Paris is the Musee du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, containing works from four continents. Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac is the fourth museum behind the Louvre, the Pompidou and Musee d'Orsay in terms of annual visits it recorded 1.2 million in 2019. The 3,500 works in the museum's permanent collection, coming from Africa, Oceania, the Americas and Asia will be again on display, as well as temporary exhibitions that were suspended during lockdown and guests can stroll once again through the garden. Visitors will be expected to wear a mask and reserve their tickets online, as the number of entries will be limited per day. Contemporary art for first time Ticket prices have been dropped to 9 euros instead of 12. The exhibition Striking Iron, the art of African blacksmiths, has been extended until 28 June, and Helena Rubenstein, Madame's collection has been extended until 27 September. From the 30 June, the museum will feature a new programme with the opening of Who is gazing? until 1 November. This installation features contemporary visual arts and multimedia by 26 artists from 18 countries. The exhibition Les Olmecs and the cultures of the gulf of Mexico, which was originally scheduled for 19 May to 15 November has been postponed until 13 october 2020 3 October 2021. The re-opening on the 9 June is also a key moment for the new president of the museum, Emmanuel Kasaherou, a Kanak from New Caledonia. In charge of the scientific coordination of the collections since 2014, he was nominated as new president on 27 May. A former Minister for Roads and Highways in the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama administration says it does not come as a surprise to him that President Nana Akufo-Addo refused again to acknowledge the contribution of the ex-President in the construction of Phase 1 of the Tema Interchange. Hon. Alhaji Inusah Fuseini claims his prediction came to pass when the President Commissioned the Phase 1 of the Tema Interchange, since he had earlier asserted that President Akufo-Addo will never give credit to his predecessor with regards to issues of development. I said it before President Akufo-Addo commissioned the Tema Motorway interchange on last Thursday that he will never give John Mahama credit for the interchange and he had done that, it would have been the wonder of the year if he had done contrary to my claims, he claimed. Obetsebi Is Mahama's Brainchild Speaking on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Hon. Inusah Fuseini accused President Akufo-Addo of similar action when he cut sod for the construction of the Obetsebi Lamptey Interchange; a project he claimed is also a product of the NDC's good governance. With the Obetsebi interchange, the Mahama administration went for a loan for the beginning of the project and the reason was due to the Kwame Nkrumah interchange and the Kasoa Interchange . . . we did it in order to ease the Kasoa-Circle traffic situation. There were some bottlenecks with the Obetsebi Lamptey interchange after the construction of the Nkrumah Circle Interchange and we went sourcing for funds for the Obetsebi Lamptey interchange . . . but when President Akufo-Addo cut sod for the construction of the Obetsebi Interchange, did you hear him mention John Dramani Mahamas name? he quizzed. Tamale & Pokuase; Mahama Designed, Costed & Sourced For Funds Hon. Inusah Fuseini, who is currently the NDC MP for Tamale Central, also revealed that the money for the Pokuase Interchange-designed, planned and costed by the NDC - was secured by the Mahama administration from the Africa Development Bank when the Pokuase-Amasaman road was under construction. Not only that, the Tamale Interchange. Again, the Pokuase Interchange, it was the Mahama administration that went to Africa Development Bank; the bank gave us money for the Pokuase-Amasaman road construction and when we were done, we decided to reconstruct the road to the Rees Junction because that road will pass through the central corridor at the ACP Junction and we decided to construct an interchange at the ACP and Africa Development Bank gave us money for that project . . . NDC designed, planned and did the costing for the construction of the interchange. The contractors bidding for the contract were coming to my office but we didnt get to the process of selecting a contractor for the project before we lost power to the Akufo-Addo-led NPP government. Have you ever heard President Akufo-Addo give credit to John Mahama as someone who started the Pokuase Interchange? If you go to the Ministry of Roads and Highways, under John Mahamas administration, the Tamale Interchange was called Rivoli Interchange; we designed it and if you go into the archives, I have referred to that interchange severally. I mean that the idea came from the NDC and we took money from the Turkish Exim Bank and the terms and conditions for that Turkish Exim Bank was cheaper than the Syno-Hydro deal but we couldnt go for the money because Ghana was under IMF conditionality under the Mahamas administration and so the IMF didnt agree to the construction of the commercial facility, he recounted. JICA Connection The Tamale Central MP further disclosed that Mr Mahama engaged the Japanese government through JICA for the construction of a bridge over Volevo River and to reconstruct Tema Interchange. The money, design and everything about the first phase of the interchange, it was completed by us (NDC), but we didnt sign the agreement for the money and so the first agreement which the NPP signed was with JICA in 2017 and at that time Nana Akufo-Addo hadn't travel, likewise the Minister of Roads...and Nana Addo was not even done with the appointment of his ministers....that agreement was not even signed by the Road Minister because the part of the agreement is going to Gender Ministry and so it was the Gender Minister who signed the agreement...the agreement was signed in three months in 2017 for the construction of the Tema Interchange, he recounted. Source: Daniel Adu Darko/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 mother whose nine-year-old son was mauled to death by a dog while she took cocaine and partied with the animal's owner in a nearby caravan was jailed for two years today. Frankie Macritchie died after he was attacked by a 45kg American bulldog Staffordshire cross owned by Sadie Totterdell, 29, in April last year. Truro Crown Court heard the boy had been left alone at a caravan in the Tencreek Holiday Park in Looe, Cornwall, with the dog named Winston, while his mother took cocaine at the nearby party. Frankie's mother Tawney Willis, 31, and Totterdell, along with other friends, were drinking and listening to music in a separate caravan at the time of the attack. The court heard Frankie bled to death after sustaining 54 injuries, with the most serious to his head and neck, during the attack in the early hours. When Willis returned to the caravan in the early hours of the morning, a holidaymaker nearby heard her crying out 'my baby, my baby'. Frankie Macritchie (right) had been left alone at a caravan in the Tencreek Holiday Park in Looe, while his mother Tawney Willis (pictured with Frankie) took cocaine at the nearby party Frankie's mother Tawney Willis (pictured right) outside Truro Crown Court), 31, and Sadie Totterdell (pictured left) along with other friends, were drinking and listening to music in a separate caravan at the time of the attack She admitted a charge of child neglect and was jailed for two years. Judge Simon Carr jailed Totterdell for three years, describing leaving Frankie alone with the 'extremely powerful' dog as 'the height of folly'. After the incident Winston, who had previously bitten another child, was seized by police and destroyed. Sentencing Totterdell, Judge Linford said: 'Winston was an extremely powerful and potentially dangerous dog. The decision was taken to leave Winston and Frankie in that caravan alone. 'I accept that Winston had been mostly a happy dog, but his size and strength must have been obvious to everybody. There had been incidents in the past that reinforce any dog can be dangerous. 'Some time before this event, he had bitten another child. The child was injured enough to require medical treatment. 'To leave a dog with a nine-year-old child was the height of folly. We will never know what happened in that caravan, if Frankie did something to upset the dog or if the dog got angry for other reasons.' Totterdell, who was represented by Ali Rafferty, was also banned from keeping dogs for ten years. Frankie died after he was attacked by a 45kg American bulldog Staffordshire cross owned by Sadie Totterdell, 29, in April last year Police tapes cordon off a large area around static caravans at the Tencreek Holiday Park, Looe Campaigners hold a 'Justice for Frankie' banner outside Truro Crown Court today Dog owner Sadie Totterdell, who has been jailed for three years after her American bulldog cross killed Frankie Macritchie The judge said that Frankie had been a 'delightful young boy - loving, happy, joyous, and loved by those around him'. The court heard that on the night of the incident, Willis had been checking on Frankie, who was in a separate caravan, and discovered him dead and Winston covered in blood at about 4.30am. Judge Carr said: 'You placed the dog and the nine-year-old child in the confined environment of a caravan and returned to the party in the caravan nearby. 'The scene you found I know will haunt you for the rest of your life and you have developed PTSD as a result of what you saw and experienced.' The judge described Willis' actions of leaving Frankie with the dog as 'grossly negligent'. In a statement read outside court, Frankie MacRitchie's family described him as a 'special young boy' who had a heart condition and should not have been left alone. Nail technician Totterdell, 28, is pictured with a similar dog to the one that attacked Frankie 'As Frankie's family, nothing will ever be enough, no sentence will ever be long enough,' his aunt Danielle MacRitchie said The judge said that Frankie had been a 'delightful young boy - loving, happy, joyous, and loved by those around him' Emergency services descended on Tencreek Holiday Park in Looe, Cornwall, in April 2019 'As Frankie's family, nothing will ever be enough, no sentence will ever be long enough,' his aunt Danielle MacRitchie said. 'Not today, not tomorrow, not ever will we as a family forgive them for leaving our boy in a caravan with a dog he hardly knew. 'Frankie was left alone to die in the most horrific way, beyond anyone's imagination.' The court had heard that earlier on the day of the incident Frankie was seen blowing in the dog's nose, which 'it did not like'. Both Willis and Totterdell had been at a party in a caravan on the site where guests were taking drugs - including Willis, who took cocaine. Judge Lindford told Willis: 'Obviously no one anticipated what happened, but that risk was there. The fact that his grandparents were in a caravan nearby makes it even sadder.' A postmortem revealed that Frankie had 54 bites, mainly on his face, neck, and chest. A portion of his scalp tissue had been torn off and one of his ears was hanging on by a thread. There was also a huge 15cm by 14cm wound on the boy's head, and evidence that he had tried to defend himself. The police were called and Totterdell made her escape back to Plymouth, Devon, by train. She was later arrested by officers from Devon and Cornwall police, when Totterdell said: 'Is he OK? It's my fault, it was my dog.' A bronze chest filled with gold, jewels and other valuables worth more than $1 million and hidden a decade ago in the Rocky Mountain wilderness has been found, according to a famed art and antiquities collector who created the treasure hunt. The discovery was a shock for attorney Barbara Anderson, 47, a treasure hunter and resident of Chicagos Rogers Park neighborhood, who believed herself to be the lead solver. New Delhi,: A woman doctor on Wednesday alleged that a male attendant misbehaved with her at a hospital, police said. The incident happened at the RML Hospital in the reception area. The attendant got irked after the doctor, didnt see his ailing brother whom he had brought to the hospital for treatment, a senior police officer said. He allegedly shoved her and used abusive language, the officer said. Sources said the hospital doctors have threatened to go on a strike after the incident. The police said they were awaiting a written complaint from the doctor on the matter, adding, the accused attendant has been detained. Our officers are there. We are awaiting written complaint and have apprehended the person involved, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. A US Navy investigation into the spread of the coronavirus aboard the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier has found that about 60 percent of sailors tested had antibodies for the virus, two US officials told Reuters on Monday, suggesting a far higher infection rate than previously known. In April, the Navy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started conducting serology tests to look for the presence of specific antibodies that are created by the immune system's attack response to the presence of the virus and remain in the blood for a period of time. More than 1,100 aboard tested positive for the virus as of April, less than 25 percent of the crew. The spread of the virus on the ship put into motion a series of events that led to the captain of the ship being relieved of his command after the leak of a letter he wrote calling on the Navy for stronger measures to protect the crew. One sailor from the ship died from the coronavirus and several others were hospitalized. But broadly, sailors, who are generally healthier and younger, faired better than the general population and most showed no symptoms whatsoever. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that about 400 volunteers participated in the serology tests, lower than the 1,000 volunteers that were sought, but enough to provide statistically relevant data about how the virus spread aboard one of world's largest warships. The Roosevelt has about 4,800 personnel on the ship. The officials said a formal announcement was expected as early as Tuesday. The Navy declined to comment. The serology test results appear to track closely with data from the Roosevelt in early April, which showed that 60 percent of the sailors who were testing positive for the virus itself - not antibodies - were in fact symptom-free. Medical groups, such as the American Medical Association, have warned that serology tests can lead to false positives. The CDC has said that definitive data is lacking on whether individuals with antibodies are protected against reinfection from the coronavirus. In addition to the serology tests, volunteers were also swabbed again for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, as well as asked to answer a short survey. Captain Brett Crozier was fired by the Navy's top civilian, then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, against the recommendations of uniformed leaders. Modly resigned after a series of events, including his going aboard the carrier and questioning Crozier's character in a speech to the Roosevelt's crew, which was leaked to the media. The Navy has completed a broader review into the events leading to Crozier's firing and is expected to release the results of that investigation in the coming weeks. Iran has vowed to execute a man accused of being a CIA and Mossad spy who fed US forces the location of General Soleimani before he was killed in a drone strike. Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, an Iranian national, accepted money from both US and Israeli intelligence services in return for handing over information on the Quds intelligence force and Soleimani's whereabouts, Iran claims. He was sentenced to death in recent days and the sentence will be carried out 'very soon', Iran's Justice Ministry spokesman said Tuesday. Iran says it will execute Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, an Iranian national who they accuse of giving away the location of General Soleimani (pictured) before he was killed by a US drone Soleimani, Iran's top military leader who headed the Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike on Baghdad airport on January 3. The strike fuelled fears of an all-out conflict between the US and Iran, after Tehran promised to enact revenge. On January 8, Iran's military fired a round of cruise missiles at a US airbase in Iraq, causing damage but failing to kill any American troops. Iran called the move a 'slap in the face' and vowed to drive US forces out of the Middle East, but threats of an all-out war have since fizzled. Little is known about Majd, whose identity had not been previously revealed. It is thought he is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is how he was able to obtain information on Soleimani's whereabouts. Justice ministry officials gave no further information about him - such as when and why he allegedly began collaborating with the US and Israel. Gholam Hossein Esmaili, Iran's justice ministry spokesman, revealed Madj's identity at a press conference on Tuesday before saying he would be executed 'soon' Madj is not the first person to be sentenced to death over Soleimani's killing. In February Amir Rahimpour, another man convicted of spying for the US and conspiring to sell information on Iran's nuclear programme, was sentenced to die. Tehran announced in December it had arrested eight people 'linked to the CIA' and involved in nationwide street protests that erupted the previous month over a surprise petrol price hike. It also said in July 2019 that it had dismantled a CIA spy ring, arresting 17 suspects between March 2018 and March 2019 and sentencing some of them to death. US President Donald Trump at the time dismissed the claim as 'totally false'. CAIRO In the darkness, the bodies of suspected victims of coronavirus are carried in silence, one after the other, to be buried in several cemeteries across northern Yemen. Flashlights flicker as mourners make their way through the shadows. The corpses are washed with disinfectants, wrapped in layers of plastic sheets and white linen before being laid to rest in six-feet deep pits. There is no one around except for a handful of relatives in masks, gloves, and white gowns. Large gatherings are not permitted. Phones are not allowed. Grave diggers and guards at the cemeteries are warned not to speak about the causes of the deaths. If asked, they are told to say that the dead are unidentified bodies from the war, according to several residents and one gravedigger. Families are never really told if their relatives died from the coronavirus, which is believed to be the culprit. Test results are never released. These daily funeral rituals come as social media are flooded with condolences and photographs of the dead. The coronavirus is spreading throughout Yemen, a county that has been devastated by five years of civil war. The fighting is between the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who control the capital, Sanaa, and much of the countrys north, and a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of the internationally recognized government. The fighting has already killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions. Years of aerial bombings and intense ground fighting has destroyed thousands of buildings, leaving half of Yemens health facilities dysfunctional. About 18% of the countrys 333 districts have no doctors. Water and sanitation systems have collapsed. Many families, especially among the millions displaced by fighting, can barely afford one meal a day. The COVID-19 pandemic has added to the deadly toll of the war in Yemen, crippling a health system already in shambles with little capacity to test those suspected of having the virus. The country has no more than 500 ventilators and 700 ICU beds nationwide. There is one oxygen cylinder per month for every 2.5 million people. The situation is exacerbated in the Houthi-controlled north, where the rebels have suppressed information about the virus, severely punished those who speak out, enforced little mitigation measures, and promoted conspiracies and claims by the Houthi minister of health that their scientists are working on developing a cure for COVID-19 to present to the world. Officially, the rebels say that only four cases of coronavirus have been detected in the regions they control, but have resisted making the number of positive cases and deaths public. We dont publish the numbers to the society because such publicity has a heavy and terrifying toll on peoples psychological health, said Youssef al-Hadhari, spokesman for the Houthi health ministry, in response to questions by The Associated Press. His comments come two months after Houthi Minister of Health Taha al-Motawakel painted a bleak picture of the countrys readiness to deal with the virus, saying that at some point Houthi officials will have to deal with 1 million people in need of hospital admissions in a two-month period. He told a parliament session that at one point, doctors will have to choose between whom to rescue and whom to let die. This is battlefield medicine, he said. The World Health Organization believes that there is a significant undercount of total number of people affected by the coronavirus outbreak, which officials say could further hinder efforts to get the medical supplies needed to contain the virus. Richard Brennan, the WHOs regional emergency director, told the AP that he believes the COVID-19 deaths are in the hundreds and cases are in the thousands, based on what he has heard from numerous health providers in Yemen. Local health officials, aid workers, residents, and community activists who all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the pandemic, say the situation in the war-torn country is worsening fast. Local unions, who have kept their own death tallies from the coronavirus, report that 46 medical staffers, 28 judges, and 13 lawyers died in a three-week period between mid-May and early June, well above the Houthis official count. The lack of information about the true number of people infected by the coronavirus in Houthi-controlled areas has led to wild speculation about the nature of the disease and the rebels response to dealing with the infections and deaths has only added to the confusion. One widely circulated rumor suggested Houthi rebels have instructed doctors to kill suspected COVID-19 patients with a mercy injection. The rumor, which was given credibility because of a supposedly confidential document allegedly signed by the health minister, gained so much traction that Houthi leaders took the unusual step of issuing an official denial, calling the rumor lies aimed at spreading fear. The Houthis themselves have also spread rumors that the virus was spread by outsiders. Some hospitals, like the Jibla hospital in the northern province of Ibb, one of the worst hit areas, have been called injection hospitals because of the high number of deaths happening there, residents and local activists said. These rumors have caused widespread panic, and residents say they are less likely to notify health officials about suspected cases of COVID-19 . People dont go to hospitals for fear of the mercy injection, said a local activist, referring to the Jibla hospital. We cant tell the truth from the fallacy but I know many people who died in mysterious ways inside this hospital. A lawmaker in Sanaa told the AP that people are afraid to report coronavirus cases, fearing retaliation from Houthi officials. The suspected cases are treated like war criminals, he said. The lawmaker and a local activist from Ibb province said that the Houthis have gone through great lengths to contain information about the spread of COVID-19 in the rebel-controlled region. At the Jibla hospital, which has has been turned into a COVID-19 isolation facility, the rebels have appointed a security supervisor to control the flow of information in and out of the hospital. He is the one in charge, meaning the head of the hospital himself is powerless in the face of this official. All staffers in the hospital fear him, the activist said. In a phone call with the AP, Abdullah al-Matari, the head of the hospital, declined to comment. He referred questions to the ministrys top officials. Residents said militiamen working as security personnel in the hospital also search visitors for phones and prevent them from carrying the devices inside the quarantine wards. The Houthi information blackout extends beyond the hospitals. When a local activist posted a picture of an ambulance on social media of two medical workers in protective gear washing the vehicle in a pond, one of the men said they said they just finished transferring eight bodies to the cemetery named Jarraf. When the picture went viral on social media, the man who spoke was interrogated and suspended from his job, the activist said. The AP could not independently verify his account. In several cemeteries in Sanaa, Yemens capital, burials occur almost daily, according to local residents and doctors. Deaths from suspected coronavirus cases have surged to the point that, at the end of May, the Houthi religious endowment ministry, which is in charge of cemeteries, hung a sign on one of Sanaas largest cemeteries that read: Khazima cemetery is full. Residents say its hard to find a burial plot for less than a quarter million rials, or 500 dollars five times the salary of a government employee. Burials are spread out all over Sanaa cemeteries so as not to attract any attention to the numbers, residents said. Secretly filming the burials on smartphones in defiance of the Houthi orders has become an act of heroism, local resident said in interviews, adding that the amateur videos give Yemenis the only true glimpse of the true impact of COVID-19 in the region. The outbreak in the Houthi-held territory is taking place amid simmering tension between the rebels and the U.N. agencies, which are running short of funding for aid programs. Last week, the United Nations announced that it was about a billion dollars short of what aid agencies say is needed to address Yemens humanitarian needs and a deteriorating health care system made worse by the coronavirus. The situation is catastrophic, said one aid worker of an international agency working in Yemen. Now the COVID-19 outbreak, the suspension of funding, the tension between donors and the authorities, we have less money, and more needs. Its terrible. HALIFAX The victim of a deadly pit bull attack in Nova Scotia on Tuesday morning was also the dogs owner, according to a local councillor. The dogs owner was somehow attacked, and lost her life as a result of the attack, Coun. Steve Streatch told the Star of the incident in the Middle Musquodoboit area, north of Halifax. The dog then got away and was found and killed close by on another road. The RCMP confirmed Streatchs account in a news release Tuesday. Police received reports of the attack shortly after 8 a.m., according to Cpl. Lisa Croteau. The dog, described as a large pit bull, was on the loose for at least an hour and a half, at which point RCMP discovered the animal dead nearby. Streatch said the death had rocked our community . . . to its core. The resolve of the residents here in the Musquodoboit Valley is very strong, and our character will allow us to continue, mourn her loss, and support her family. In their release, the RCMP confirmed that the victim was a local, and that she was walking her dog when it attacked her. While police were searching for the dog, they were notified that the pit bull had been struck by a passing motorist near Hwy. 224 and it was confirmed deceased. The RCMP couldnt provide any further information on the victim because the family had not been notified. Earlier in the day, the Mounties issued a warning to residents to stay indoors as officers searched for the dog, which was then on the loose and described as dangerous. At the time, police said the tan and brown dog was last spotted near the intersection of Wittenburg Road and Webster Road. With files from The Canadian Press Read more about: A generation of farmers could be lost to forestry as a result of the treatment of plantation owners in the wake of the ash dieback disease disaster. The Government's 'Ash Reconstitution Scheme' has now been suspended for more than 26 months, with hundreds of plantation owners unable to manage and plan for the future of their ash holdings. Forestry sources estimate that losses to ash growers from ash dieback disease could eventually top 1bn. IFA forestry chairperson Vincent Nally says ash growers have been "thrown to the wolves" by the Department of Agriculture, and claims the Government will struggle to entice farmers into forestry as a result. Just 3,500ha of forestry were planted in Ireland last year, well below the 8,000ha per year target in the Government's Climate Action Plan and the 20,000ha per year target requested by the Green Party. A new Reconstitution Scheme was expected early in 2020 but progress is now unlikely until a new government is formed. The Farming Independent understands that the Department will look to Europe to part-fund the scheme, which could cost hundreds of millions of euro to implement. Mr Nally says plantation owners have been left "high and dry" by the Department and this treatment will jeopardise the future of forestry in Ireland. "They [the Department] have procrastinated and held off for so long, it is very unfair for growers to be left in limbo," he said. "News travels, and the way ash plantation owners have been treated is contrary to anything like best practice and not like the way other [farm] sectors were treated over the years. "They are talking about trying to plant more land but we are going in reverse. Those with ash plantations are being thrown to the wolves." Mr Nally described the Reconstitution Scheme as a "red-line issue" for the next Minister for Agriculture and one that could lead to protests if not addressed. The current Reconstitution Scheme has been frozen to new applicants for more than two years as the Department and Teagasc examine its viability. More than 7 million was paid out under this scheme between 2013 and 2018. A spokesperson from the Department told the Farming Independent that "value for money" for the taxpayer and forestry owners was a major part of the scheme's review. Restoring The original scheme was introduced in March 2013 and was aimed at restoring ash dieback-affected forests planted under the afforestation scheme. In April 2018 the Reconstitution Scheme was put on hold as the Department initiated a review of the policy response to ash dieback disease. The review included "detailed field consideration of damage level evaluation, together with a broader range of silvicultural and management options available to forest owners. "The review was undertaken with the assistance of Teagasc and international experts." Nine Militants Killed, Three Indian Security Persons Injured in Intense Encounters in Kashmir Sputnik News 05:02 GMT 08.06.2020 New Delhi (Sputnik): Since April of this year, when five special operations group personnel were killed in Kashmir, over 50 local as well as foreign militants have been neutralised by Indian forces. The Indian Army feared that terrorist activities may increase in summer due to a spike in infiltration attempts across the Line of Control. At least nine militants have been killed in a fierce encounter with Indian security personnel in the Shopian district of Jammu-Kashmir, police said adding that four of them were neutralised on Monday morning. Police sources said that all of them were members of Hizbul-Mujahideen. The sources also said three security persons were injured in the clash that erupted on Monday morning after receiving intelligence about the presence of several militants in the Pinjora area of the Shopian district which is around 12 kilometres from the village Reban where five militants were killed on Sunday. "Five militants were killed with no collateral damage, they belonged to HM. Their identity is being ascertained. However according to credible inputs, one of them was a top commander", Vijay Kumar, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir zone, informed the media. Since the begining of the year, Indian forces have eliminated around 110 suspected terrorists including Hizbul chief Riyaz Naikoo. Last week, India's top military officer Lt Gen BS Raju claimed that all suspected terrorist camps and around 15 launch pads in Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PoK) "are full", meaning India fears more terrorists incidents this summer. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted last month that India was trying to divert the world's attention from alleged atrocities committed against minorities in Indian-administered Kashmir and said that "false flag operations" by New Delhi are "imminent" in the region. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A Houston woman on Sunday evening drowned on Lake Conroe when she fell off a float without a life jacket a day before her 21st birthday, marking the lakes second drowning this season. The remains of Aerial Mone Cann Nechoal Grant were recovered following a near five-hour search. Dispatchers received a call close to 6:35 p.m. about a woman drowning in the Atkins Creek Cove area near the southern end of the lake, according to the Montgomery County Precinct 1 Constables Office. A female had fallen off a float and not resurfaced, the caller said, noted the constables office. Grant was found at approximately 11:34 p.m. by search boats using sonar imaging, with divers pulling her body from under 20 feet of water. Montgomery County Pct. 1 Justice of the Peace Wayne Mack ordered an autopsy, according to the constables office. Constable Philip Cash encourages everyone who uses the lake to Be Sensible, Be Safe and wear a life jacket when on or in the water, read a statement from the constables office. Grants birthday was Monday, the day after her drowning, said Lt. Tim Cade of the Pct. 1 Constables marine division. As part of the search, four first responder units were on scene, including the marine division, the Conroe Fire Department, the Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Montgomery County Emergency Service District 1, according to the constables office. On Memorial Day weekend, a 46-year-old Houston man drowned when he jumped off his boat and tried swimming to the shore. He was not wearing a life jacket or had a flotation device with him. These two drownings have already matched Lake Conroes 2019 total. The lake experienced two fatalities all of last summer. The first did not take place until June 15, 2019. jose.gonzalez@chron.com twitter.com/jrgzztx Latinos who are into business may learn a thing or two about how Richard Branson makes his business grow. There are vital lessons to be gathered from Branson's journey into entrepreneurship and financial freedom. Richard Bronson's Entrepreneurial Journey Richard Branson's success story may be unique for some, but it actually has similarities with most successful large business owners in the world. Based on an article, Branson had decided to drop out of high school when he was 16 years old. Despite this early setback in his life, his net worth is now $4.4 billion, owing mostly to his efforts to establish the Virgin Groups business empire. From Publishing Magazines to Selling Records Branson had struggled to stay in school due to dyslexia, the article reported. After leaving school, he started creating a magazine which he named 'Student.' He employed students to work for the publication. In its first edition, it was able to earn more or less $8,000 from advertising. It was first released to the public for free in 1966. Based on an article, it was reported that the magazine had contents on pop culture and other topics that are related to the interests of its target readers. After some time, he was able to venture out into another sector. He was able to establish another business on mail-record order. It was performing well that he was able to establish a store for selling records. Initially, the record company was made to help fund 'Student' but it transformed into something great over the years. When Virgin Records was established, Brandon's leadership had helped it achieve multiple milestones. Virgin Music transforming into one of the giant record companies in the world. It was reported in the article that the first artist's album who signed with his company had allowed it to report millions in earnings. Expansion and Diversification Not all entrepreneurs know 100 percent of the outcomes of their decisions involving business expansion and diversification. Brandon did not stop with 'Student' and Virgin Records. Instead, he continued to diversify and enter many industries. His entrepreneurial ventures had included penetrations in the travel and tourism industry. However, Virgin Records was sold for $1 billion. As many of you know by now, Brandon is a kind of entrepreneur who loves to diversify. Based on an article, diversification is a type of growth strategy that requires companies to identify or look for other business opportunities to invest in that are beyond the common activities of the current company. For example, Virgin Records had invested in businesses that entered the travel industry with Virgin Atlantic Airline, the food and beverage industry called Virgin Cola, and Virgin Cosmetics. And it was not smooth sailing as he had experienced downfalls with those businesses. With diversification, he was able to make those that worked even stronger and improved or closed those that did not earn any profits. Check these out: Currently, the Virgin Group operates in the travel industry, music industry, entertainment industry, health industry, financial industry, and media, according to the Virgin Group's website. This is a community calendar. To accommodate demand for the print edition, we ask that items be brief and include time, date, place, address, admission cost and a contact number for publication. Inclusion of items is at the discretion of the newspaper. Further information is available at 541-812-6078 or jane.stoltz@lee.net. Assistance TUESDAY Emergency food boxes, by appointment, North Corvallis Ministry Center, 5050 NE Elliott Circle. Appointments: 541-220-1040. Emergency food box distribution, 9 to 11:30 a.m., Sweet Home Emergency Ministries, 1115 Long St. Greater Albany Public Schools offers free grab-and-go sack lunches for all children ages 1 to 18: 11 to 11:30 a.m., Columbus Greens, Memorial Middle School, Oak Elementary School, Tangent Elementary School; 11:15 to 11:45 a.m., Lafayette Elementary School, Lake Creek Ranch; 11:20 to 11:50 a.m., Waverly Elementary School; 11:30 a.m. to noon, Albany Meadows, Sunrise Elementary School; 11:40 a.m. to 12:10 p.m., Periwinkle Elementary School, South Shore Elementary School; 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., Albany Boys & Girls Club; Takena Elementary School; noon to 12:30 p.m., Lexington Park, South Albany High School, Three Lake Estates. Corvallis Men's Shelter, 211 SE Chapman Place. Now serving men and women in need during the COVID emergency. Hot meals served 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Food, showers and laundry available from 1 to 6 p.m.; overnight shelter not available. Information: 541-791-6691. Corvallis School District free grab-and-go breakfast and lunch for all children ages 1 to 18. Open noon to 1 p.m.: Lincoln Elementary School, 110 SE Alexander Ave.; Linus Pauling Middle School, 1111 NW Cleveland Ave.; Wilson Elementary School, 2701 NW Satinwood St.; and Clemens Primary School, 535 S. 19th St., Philomath. Open noon to 12:45 p.m.: city bus stop, top of Witham Hill Drive; and Santiam Christian School, 7220 NE Arnold Ave., Adair Village. Information: 541-757-5859. Emergency food boxes, 1:30 to 4 p.m., St. Vincent de Paul Society Corvallis Conference Food Pantry, campus of St. Marys Catholic Church, 501 NW 25th St. No appointment needed. A thrift store is in the same building as the pantry; proceeds help support the pantry. Information: 541-757-1988, Ext. 317. Emergency food boxes, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. by appointment, FISH of Lebanon, 145 Ash St. FISH also offers help with basic expenses such as rent, utilities, water, propane, prescriptions, clothing, identification cards, driver's licenses and other emergency needs. Appointments: 541-259-3200, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Stone Soup dinner, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., McLean Hall, First Christian Church, 602 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis. Free meal for those in need. Stone Soup dinner for all, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Hygiene Center, 211 SE Chapman Place, Corvallis. Free evening meal. WEDNESDAY Emergency food boxes, by appointment, North Corvallis Ministry Center, 5050 NE Elliott Circle. Appointments: 541-220-1040. Emergency food distribution applications accepted, 9 to 11:30 a.m., Sweet Home Emergency Ministries, 1115 Long St. Greater Albany Public Schools offers free grab-and-go sack lunches for all children ages 1 to 18. See Tuesday listing. Stone Soup free hot lunch for all, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Hygiene Center, 211 SE Chapman Place, Corvallis. Stone Soup lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., gymnasium, St. Marys Catholic School, 501 N.W. 25th St., Corvallis. Free meal for those in need. Corvallis School District free grab-and-go breakfast and lunch for all children ages 1 to 18. See Tuesday listing. Emergency food boxes, 1:30 to 4 p.m., St. Vincent de Paul Society Corvallis Conference Food Pantry, campus of St. Marys Catholic Church, 501 NW 25th St., Corvallis. No appointment needed. A thrift store is in the same building; proceeds help support the pantry. Information: 541-757-1988, Ext. 317. Food distribution, 4 to 6 p.m., Village Christian Church, 7234 NE Arnold Ave., Adair Village. Food pantry serving Adair Village and Corvallis north of Walnut Boulevard. Information: food@avillage.cc. Manna, 5 p.m., United Methodist Church, 845 Sixth Ave., Sweet Home. Free meal; everyone welcome. Classes TUESDAY Canceled: Refit group fitness experience, 5:30 p.m. WEDNESDAY Gentle Yoga, 10 a.m., online. Suitable for all bodies. Join from home at www.livewellstudio.com. Events TUESDAY Canceled: Genealogical library open, 1 to 3 p.m., annex, Benton County Historical Museum, 1101 Main St., Philomath. "Spill It: Virtual Happy Hour," 3 p.m., 1-877-853-5247, meeting ID 851 2659 0637, password 1847; or https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85126590637?pwd=tfr62td6shp2ho2c2cyajyxm1d4dz09. WEDNESDAY Corvallis Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., First Street and Jackson Avenue, Corvallis. Locally grown produce, flowers, nursery plants, honey, eggs, cheese, meats, restaurant food and baked goods. See website for new safe shopping guidelines. Information: 541-740-1542 or locallygrown.org. Government TUESDAY Benton County Board of Commissioners goal-setting work session, 9 a.m., 1-646-749-3122, access code 582-403-925#, or https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/582403925. Linn County Board of Commissioners, 9:30 a.m., Room 200, courthouse, 300 SW Fourth Ave., Albany. Corvallis Historic Resources Commission, 6:30 p.m., online. Registration: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/543164648587554062. WEDNESDAY Benton County Board of Commissioners meeting with fair manager and fair board chair, 11 a.m., 1-872-240-3212, access code, 422-630-901#; or https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/422630901. Canceled: Corvallis Downtown Advisory Board, 5:30 p.m. Tangent Rural Fire District Board of Directors, 7 p.m., fire station, 32053 Birdfoot Drive. Agenda will include public hearing on 2020-21 budget and a joint public hearing with the local contract review board to consider public contracting rules. Health TUESDAY Monroe Family Medicine, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., 610 Dragon Drive, Monroe. Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid accepted. Information: 541-847-5143. WEDNESDAY Benton Health Center, 1 to 7 p.m., 530 NW 27th St., Corvallis. Family medicine for infants, children and adults. Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid accepted. Information: 541-766-6835. Lincoln Health Center, 1 to 7 p.m., 121 SE Viewmont Ave., Corvallis. Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid accepted. Information: 541-766-3546. Monroe Health Center, 1 to 5 p.m., 610 Dragon Drive, Monroe. Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid accepted. Information: 541-847-5143. Free medical clinic, 6 p.m., Community Outreach, 856 NW Reiman Ave., Corvallis. Provides care to low-income people without health insurance. Provides primary medical care and referrals to those needing further medical attention or services offered by other agencies. Plan ahead Open house for small groups, 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Cumberland Community Events Center, 401 Main St. SE, Albany. Groups will be limited to 10 people or fewer per 40-minute session. Physical distancing will be observed, and visitors are asked to wear face masks. Reservations: 541-928-0911 or info@albanyvisitors.com by 3 p.m. Thursday. Schools TUESDAY Linn Benton Lincoln Education Service District Board of Directors, 6 p.m., https://www.youtube.com/user/linnbentonlincolnesd. Support groups TUESDAY Alcoholics Anonymous during the COVID-19 pandemic: Local hotline, 541-967-4252, answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by members of the local AA community. Many local and global AA groups are hosting meetings virtually. You can attend virtual meetings on your computer, smartphone or by dialing in. Attendees will remain anonymous and need only introduce themselves by first name. To access both local and global meetings occurring online 24 hours a day, visit https://aaoregon-district21.org. Al-Anon Care and Share meeting, noon to 1 p.m., community room (enter from parking lot), First Christian Church, 432 Ferry St. SW, Albany. Information: 541-224-6651. Narcotics Anonymous, noon, 7:30 p.m., Room 11, First Christian Church, 602 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis. Information (24 hours) 877-233-4287 or www.lblna.org. Twelve-step program: Overeaters Anonymous, 6:30 p.m., fellowship hall, back parking lot, Corvallis Seventh-day Adventist Church, 3160 SW Western Blvd. Information: www.oa.org. Mens Support Group, 7:30 p.m., 1975 SE Crystal Lake Drive, No. 131, Corvallis. Information: 541-752-6261. WEDNESDAY Alcoholics Anonymous during the COVID-19 pandemic: See Tuesday listing. Narcotics Anonymous: Noon to 1 p.m., 115 NW Sixth St. 7 p.m., Room 11, First Christian Church, 602 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis. 7 p.m., New Life Fellowship, 1412 Applegate St., Philomath. Information (24 hours): 1-877-233-4287 or www.lblna.org. Sex Addicts Anonymous, noon, Room 18, First Christian Church, 602 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis. Information: 541-286-5315. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 THE Police Federation has said officers are concerned at proposals to remove the words "Northern Ireland" from the crest on their uniforms. Mark Lindsay, chairman of the organisation which represents rank and file officers, said any such move would be "problematic". First Minister Arlene Foster said it was a "branding issue" and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the matter would be considered by the Policing Board. They were speaking after Chief Constable Simon Byrne unveiled a proposed new logo for the PSNI. Current imagery features the crest - including the words Northern Ireland. In its place would be two new styles. One, including the crest with the words Northern Ireland, would be used in formal instances such as on stationery, at ceremonial events and on publications. The other would be the one most seen by the public, under the draft proposals. It features the crest, but the outer band with the words 'Northern Ireland' are removed. It would be used in operational settings such as on uniforms, vehicles, for digital use and on signage. Both new looks feature the words 'Police Service NI'. Mr Byrne said he recognised the proposals had sparked a "mixed reaction". "These proposals reflect the style and tone I set out to the Policing Board upon my appointment about being more visible and accessible. There is a journey to travel before ideas are finalised and presented to the Policing Board," he said. "The term PSNI is an acronym that has no basis in law and our proposals are based around retaining the crest and the name Police Service of Northern Ireland at the heart of what we do." The Police Federation said much of the operational proposals outlined by the PSNI "made sound sense". "It is important that the service modernises and has the ability to adapt to changing circumstances," Mr Lindsay said. "As clearly outlined by the Chief Constable, this cannot be a name change or a change in the crest as that is set in law. "There was hard-won political consensus, and considerable internal pain, around the crest when it was introduced. That fact should not be lost. "We accept that this is an attempt to provide more operationally practical uniforms for officers and greater visibility for vehicles. In fact, the vehicle livery is more in line with what is seen in all other parts of the United Kingdom. "Altering the crest by removing the name from it is proving problematic. I believe this is inappropriate and it is a view that we will convey during the formal consultation and implementation phase. "Since the unveiling of the new-look branding, the PFNI is aware of some officers who expressed concern about the removal of the name from the crest that will more frequently be seen in public." The Policing Board said it was briefed on the proposals at a meeting in May. It said there would be no change to the service's crest or name and will receive a report on the consultation exercise and the associated costs. The Police Federation and Justice Minister have also been briefed. Former PSNI assistant chief constable Alan McQuillan said the name and crest of the PSNI was enshrined in law and that could not be changed without the Justice Minister setting in process a change to the law. "The issue of the crest was a very finely negotiated political agreement between the unionist parties then involved and the nationalist parties then involved - essentially the UUP and SDLP," Mr McQuillan told the BBC Nolan show. "I think there is a desire to be representative to all people and the argument, I think - this is my supposition - is that 'Northern Ireland' is seen by the more republican element in our society as a term they will not use, therefore 'NI' can be Northern Ireland or the north or Ireland and therefore it is acceptable to all." SDLP Policing Board member Dolores Kelly said there was "nothing to be frightened of" and the consultation responses would be fully considered. "I think some people are messing about a bit," she said. "There is no politicking, PSNI, the crest is enshrined in law." The UUP said omitting 'Northern Ireland' was a mistake and pointed out the St Patrick's cross should be red and not green. A party spokesman added: "Any rebranding exercise would need to be very carefully explained and be supported by very good reasons indeed." Jr NTR has been in the news since Meera Chopra filed a cyber crime complaint against his fans for abusing and threatening her on social media. Though the actor has not yet reacted over the issue, Tarak fans didn't leave any chance to prove their love for the actor. Now, Jr NTR is again in the news, but this time because of a British girl. Jr NTR has reportedly made a British girl leave her parents for him. Now, isn't it shocking? Well, hold on folks! Before you reach to any conclusion, the British girl is Olivia Morris, who will be seen in SS Rajamouli's directorial venture RRR. As per the report published in a leading daily, Olivia Morris will be seen as the love interest of Jr NTR, who is playing the role of the freedom fighter Komaram Bheem in the film. Olivia is essaying the role of a British girl Jennifer, who falls in love with Komaram Bheem and leaves her parents to help him in the freedom struggle. Olivia's role is going to be a crucial one. Apart from her, RRR also stars Alia Bhatt in the lead role. She will be seen playing Seetha, love interest of freedom fighter Alluri Sitarama Raju, played by Ram Charan. The film also stars Ajay Devgn and Shriya Saran in key roles while Ray Stevenson and Alison Doody in crucial roles. Alison Doody and Ray Stevenson will be seen playing Lady Scott and Military General Scott respectively. Also Read : SS Rajamouli Refuses To Talk About RRR! Read To Know Why Director SS Rajamouli is planning to resume the shoot of RRR with high octane action sequences. A big set has been erected in the outskirts of Hyderabad. RRR is scheduled to be released on January 8, 2021, on the occasion of Sankranti. The film will release in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. Also Read : Meera Chopra Files Complaint Against Jr NTR Fans For Abusing Her On Social Media Vietnam spoke highly of progress made by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), said a Vietnamese official at a periodical meeting of the council to review the mechanism on June 8. Security Council members hold an open video conference in connection with the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. (Source: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe ) Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnamese Mission to the UN and chairman of the UNSCs Informal Working Group on International Tribunals, acknowledged the past trial results, stressing the request for fair judgment following the correct procedure. Praising the mechanisms progress in terms of ensuring gender equality, the diplomat said he supports increased cooperation to help the mechanism complete its remaining caseload as soon as possible. At the meeting, Carmel Agius, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, said due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, cases that were on track to conclude by the end of 2020 are now expected to wind down in the first part of 2021. Data stored in The Hague (the Netherlands) and Arusha (Tanzania) and procedural rules will be completed, he added. He highlighted the arrest on May 16 this year of fugitive Felicien Kabuga as a major breakthrough in punishing severe international crimes. The fugitive was a key suspect in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, who had evaded capture for over 20 years. Participants took note of the IRMCTs progress in trial work, document management, witness protection, and COVID-19 prevention measures. They also urged member nations to support the mechanism in line with the councils resolutions. The UNSC created the IRMCT in December 2010 to perform a number of essential functions previously carried out by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The council reviews the operation of the mechanism every six months./.VNA OPINION: "This should be a no-brainer, so whats the problem? Some members of the RTA board are hesitant to change the scope of the First Avenue project. They appear to want Tucson to build a six-lane roadway because it was the project scope promised in the 2006 plan and the RTA must do what was promised no matter the need or the cost. Decisions by the RTA Board should be made based on facts and data, not out of fear of public perceptions and long ago promises," write Tucsonans Ruth Reiman and Jane Evans. The gradual slide appears to have halted: factory quotes for what hoggets are left in the system have stabilised at last week's price of 4.90/kg plus bonuses, with cull ewes continuing steady at 2.50/kg. On the spring lamb side Kildare Chilling are steady at 5.70+10c/kg quality assurance, but they are joined on that price by the two ICM plants and Dawn Ballyhaunis, who all drop by 5c/kg. So you could argue that overall, prices are largely unchanged. Kepak Athleague chose not to officially quote, while Dawn left their price box for hoggets blank on our table. During the darkest days of the Covid crisis there was a real fear that prices might collapse, and while we are not out the other side yet, a level of normality has been returning to the trade, both nationally and internationally. Various countries on the continent have been loosening their restrictions on shopping and food outlets. As factory prices have slipped over the last three weeks, mart returns have taken a hit and despite mart numbers continuing to ease in many places, prices for lambs fell another 4-8/hd last week. One of the issues I keep hearing is that lambs are not thriving as they should, because of the very dry conditions. ICM's decision last week to lift their weight limit to 21kg for lamb may prompt other processors to consider a similar move. Given the difficulty in getting adequate flesh cover, because of the difficult grass situation, that extra half a kilo does allow producers to push their lambs into bigger overall weights, thus helping to get a more presentable carcase. In Ireland, we have the Bord Bia Quality Assurance label to help in our marketing by assuring the consumer of best practice and traceability, and we also have a selection of Protected Geographical Area (PGI) products. Lambs produced in these geographical areas, such as the Comeragh Mountains in Waterford and Connemara, have been officially designated and protected by the EU as having a uniqueness that cannot be replicated in other areas. It's an idea that was copied by Scottish producers and appears to work very well for them as a marketing tool. However, we don't appear to have built on this marketing initiative to any great degree. The world post-Covid will be a very different place I suspect, a place, where consumers will want even more emphasis on food traceability and sustainability. As a unique grass-based food producing nation, we should feed this need by getting the Government to lobby the EU to broaden the reach of PGI status by taking in far bigger areas of the country and capitalising on our natural uniqueness. Marts New Ross The question as to whether you could combine a live mart ring with the newly developed online bidding system was answered here yesterday. Yes you can, for sheep sales anyway. Jim Bushe reported a good trade with the combined system working not too bad and resulting in a share of sheep being bought online against the ring. Butcher-type lambs were steady, selling from 119-128/hd, with 39-40kg factory types averaging 105-120/hd. The store lamb trade was buoyant, with 35-37kgs selling from 79-96/hd. Heavy cull ewes made 110-129/hd, with lighter types averaging 80-112/hd. Roscrea Numbers here eased last week as did prices. Id reckon lambs were less by between 4-5/hd, Michael Harty told me. A selection of 51-52kg lambs sold from 120-127/hd, various lots in the 47-45kg range averaged from 117-120/hd, while among the lighter types 36kgs made 70/hd. Cull ewes saw a top of 110/hd. Ennis Gerry Finnerty estimates that as factories have eased back their prices, the knock-on effect on the mart trade has seen prices reduce by around 8/hd. On the factory side the top of the market was 127/hd, while among the heavier butcher-type lambs extended to around the 138/hd mark. Cull ewes averaged 100-110/hd. Gerry noted that with the dry weather lambs are slower to come this year. Grass is needed, as is kindness in the weather, he said. Mountbellew Although overall numbers remained steady, there were more spring lambs on offer. Sample prices among those lambs included, ten 48kg lambs at 125/hd, six at 45kgs, 121/hd and fourteen 40kg lambs who averaged 107/hd. Stag ewes sold from 60-118/hd, while on the breeding side ewes with singles at foot sold from 150-220/hd, while those with twins averaged 185-235/hd. Ewe hogget numbers were low. Dowra Numbers here were up slightly on the previous week, with 400 in the spring lamb section. Patsy Smith reported the trade as holding largely similar to last week. Factory-type lambs sold from 110-127.50/hd, with that top price achieved on three separate occasions for lambs averaging 48kg. Store lambs sold from 80-105/hd. Hoggets sold from 80-105/hd, with heavy cull ewes making 85-130/hd. Dingle Neilius McAuliffe reported a good trade for his springs at the tendered price of 2.65/kg. At 104/hd for 46kgs things moved swiftly as farmers with one eye on recent factory price cuts cashed in. Human beings are complex creatures and no one can tell what's going on in the mind of another. However, sometimes these 'complexities' lead to dangerous outcomes if help is not provided in time. According to a Times Now report, a man drank pesticide while recording his suicide on TikTok. The alleged video was recorded by the 24-year-old named Dhananjay. While recording, he reportedly said, "I wanted to have a feel of death and will try to kill myself." Edexlive A report says that the incident took place in Koratagere Taluk of Tumakuru district in Karnataka, on Saturday. Apparently, Dhananjay was reprimanded by his mother for not having an income and that triggered him to buy a bottle of pesticide and try to kill himself. He was immediately rushed to the hospital where he lost his life the next day, while receiving treatment. A case of unnatural death has been filed by the police. The report also adds that before his unfortunate demise, Dhananjay had also rammed his bike into a tree to have a 'feel' of death. However, at the time, he had survived with minor injuries. Daily Mail His family and friends had warned him against trying such stunts, but in vain. Dhananjay continued to ignore their advice and ended up losing his life to his 'death experiment'. He used to drive an autorickshaw on rent and had recently gotten married - just four months ago. The pandemic lockdown became an obstacle in his daily income and he was also reportedly mentally unstable. India TV Police officials also said that he used to frequently threaten his mother with suicide threats. The police added, "He drank the pesticide but later panicked thinking that he would die and rode back home. He later called his friend who took him to a hospital on Saturday night." The video was reported and immediately removed from the video-sharing app, TikTok. All images are for representational purposes only. Xtalks Life Science Webinars As traditional renal and hepatic impairment studies have shifted, efficiently conducting these studies to understand the effect of a treatment and achieve regulatory approval requires a comprehensive, cross-functional strategy. From study design to feasibility assessment to patient enrollment, many important considerations factor into achieving timely completion of renal/hepatic impairment studies. As traditional renal and hepatic impairment studies have shifted, efficiently conducting these studies to understand the effect of a treatment and achieve regulatory approval requires a comprehensive, cross-functional strategy. Join this webinar to hear from four specialists in the field as they share their insights for optimizing a clinical development plan, identifying key protocol parameters, best practices for managing the medical and scientific aspects of impairment studies and how to choose the right sites and perform start-up quickly. They will also cover practical considerations for handling the complexity of Phase I studies, conducting a reduced PK study per the FDA guidance and working with dialysis cohorts. Join Jane Royalty, MD, Senior Medical Director, Clinical Pharmacology Services, Covance, Thomas C. Marbury, MD, President, Orlando Clinical Research Center, Jackie Miller-Giles, MS, Senior Clinical Scientist, Clinical Pharmacology Services, Covance and Jasmine Ropers, Senior Project Manager, Covance Clinical Pharmacology Services in a live webinar on Friday, June 19, 2020 at 11am EDT (4pm BST/UK). For more information or to register for this event, visit Renal and Hepatic Impairment Studies: Optimizing Strategies in Clinical Developmen t. 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/ HAMILTON, Bermuda, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Signet Jewelers Limited ("Signet") (NYSE:SIG), the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry, today announced its results for the 13 weeks ended May 2, 2020 ("first quarter Fiscal 2021"). As discussed below, results are preliminary due to a pending long-lived non-cash assets impairment review necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impacts of that review on our financial statements. First Quarter Fiscal 2021 Highlights February same store sales ("SSS") positive low single digit. Q1 SSS down 38.9% 1 reflecting the temporary closure of all stores beginning in late March due to the novel coronavirus ("COVID-19"). reflecting the temporary closure of all stores beginning in late March due to the novel coronavirus ("COVID-19"). E-Commerce growth of 6.7%. Growth was 18.2% excluding the impact of the shut-down of James Allen's New York distribution center due to COVID-19. While stores were closed, Omnichannel initiatives accelerated eCommerce growth to 55% excluding James Allen in April. distribution center due to COVID-19. While stores were closed, Omnichannel initiatives accelerated eCommerce growth to 55% excluding James Allen in April. Additional structural cost savings of more than $100 million identified, for the fiscal year, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. identified, for the fiscal year, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-tax impairment charges are preliminary and include an impairment charge of approximately $42.3 million against long lived assets with a carrying value of approximately $100 million , which remains under review and has not yet been finalized. All aspects of the impairment review other than long lived assets are complete. against long lived assets with a carrying value of approximately , which remains under review and has not yet been finalized. All aspects of the impairment review other than long lived assets are complete. GAAP earnings per share ("EPS") of $(3.83) , includes the impact of non-cash impairment charges of $2.63 2 and tax benefit related to certain tax matters , includes the impact of non-cash impairment charges of and tax benefit related to certain tax matters Non-GAAP diluted EPS of $(1.59) 3 Cash and cash equivalents of $1.1 billion . Fiscal 21 Q1 Fiscal 20 Q1 Revenue ($ in millions) $ 852.1 $ 1,431.7 Same store sales % change1 (38.9) % (1.3) % GAAP Operating income (loss) $ (291.1) $ (2.6) Operating income (loss) as % of sales (34.2) % (0.2) % GAAP Diluted EPS $ (3.83) $ (0.35) Non-GAAP(3) Non-GAAP operating income (loss) $ (142.5) $ 24.2 Non-GAAP operating income (loss) as % of sales (16.7) % 1.7 % Non-GAAP Diluted EPS $ (1.59) $ 0.08 (1) Same store sales include physical store sales and eCommerce sales. (2) Pre-tax impairment charges are preliminary and include an impairment charge of approximately $42.3 million against long lived assets with a carrying value of approximately $100 million, which remains under review and has not yet been finalized. See Preliminary First Quarter 2021 Results section within this release. (3) See non-GAAP reconciliation page. "Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, we have prioritized the health and safety of our team members and customers with every decision we make," said Virginia C. Drosos, Chief Executive Officer. "Our excellent team, operating in a culture of agility and efficiency, has been integral in allowing us to rapidly adapt and respond to this environment, building on the first 2 years of our Path to Brilliance strategy and accelerating our transformation into a digital-first, omni-channel retailer. We began our fiscal year with strong Valentine's Day sales performance, and then quickly pivoted and further adapted our eCommerce operating model to serve customers during stay-at-home restrictions with new technology, virtual consultation and selling solutions. We are gathering valuable insights on customer behaviors and plan to use these learnings to enhance our competitive advantage and emerge stronger from the crisis with optimized virtual and physical footprints to meet our customers where and how they choose to shop. We have moved forward in our digital journey while also making significant progress controlling costs, prioritizing investments to drive sustainable growth, and preserving liquidity." Response to COVID-19 pandemic In March, the Company began implementing strategic responses to ensure the safety of its employees and customers, while also solidifying its liquidity. Signet temporarily closed all stores beginning in late March. The Company temporarily furloughed the majority of store and support center employees, while also temporarily reducing the cash compensation of senior executives. Finally, the company drew down $900 million under its senior secured asset-based revolving credit facility. In May, Signet began a staggered store reopening plan based on health and safety standards as well as regional customer demand. There are currently over 1,100 stores open and performance of reopened stores has been encouraging with sequential week over week sales performance improvements in open stores. The Company expects business to return gradually, though given current events, stores re-openings will continue with safety prioritized. First Quarter 2021 Financial Highlights Signet's total sales were $852.1 million, down 40.5%, in the 13 weeks ended May 2, 2020 on a reported basis and down 40.2% on a constant currency basis. Total same store sales declined 38.9% year-over-year. Prior to stores closing, first quarter same store sales were running in the positive low single digits. eCommerce sales were $164.7 million, up 6.7%, which includes COVID-19 impacts. Excluding the temporary James Allen distribution center shut-down, eCommerce sales grew 18.2%. Despite the disruption, the Company built upon its Omnichannel foundation to productively pivot temporarily to eCommerce-only operations while physical stores were closed. Signet's virtual selling efforts led to accelerating consumer demand, with eCommerce growth of 55% in April, excluding the James Allen center impact, and momentum continued into May. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Signet has accelerated its transformation to a digital first, Omnichannel retailer. Signet is reimagining the shopping experience using data analytics and customer research to meet our customers where they are: online with advanced virtual and digitally native experiences and in-store with store-in-stores and outlet locations that house multiple banners. As such, the Company believes that segment level reporting is the most consistent and useful way to deliver metrics going forward as the Company continues to innovate across its portfolio. Change from previous year First Quarter Fiscal 2021 Same store sales Non-same store sales, net Total sales at constant exchange rate Exchange translation impact Total sales as reported Total sales (in millions) North America segment (39.0) % (0.9) % (39.9) % % (39.9) % $ 781.1 International segment (37.5) % (2.0) % (39.5) % (2.3) % (41.8) % $ 64.9 Other(1) nm nm nm nm nm $ 6.1 Signet (38.9) % (1.3) % (40.2) % (0.3) % (40.5) % $ 852.1 (1) Includes sales from Signet's diamond sourcing initiative. By operating segment: North America North America same store sales declined 39.0%. Average transaction value ("ATV") declined 6.5% and the number of transactions declined 34.5%. same store sales declined 39.0%. Average transaction value ("ATV") declined 6.5% and the number of transactions declined 34.5%. eCommerce sales grew 4.3%. Excluding the temporary James Allen distribution center shut-down, eCommerce growth was 15.8%. Brick and mortar same store sales declined 44.6%. North America payment plan participation rate, including both credit and leasing sales, for Q1 was 43.4% versus 50.0% in the prior year first quarter. This is reflective of both macroeconomic conditions and a greater proportion of eCommerce sales in the quarter. International International same store sales decreased 37.5%. ATV increased 2.7% and the number of transactions declined 41.2%. eCommerce sales grew 37.2%, with brick and mortar same store sales declining 46.6% GAAP gross margin was $204.2 million, or 24.0% of sales, down 1,090 bps versus the prior year quarter. Gross merchandise margin was consistent with the prior year rate, while gross margin rate decline was primarily driven by lower sales resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic which led to a deleveraging on fixed costs. The rate decline was partially offset through transformation cost savings and lower occupancy costs. SGA was $358.4 million, or 42.1% of sales, compared to $475.2 million, or 33.2% of sales in the prior year. The $116.8 million decrease in SGA was driven by: 1) lower labor costs resulting from employee furloughs, 2) temporary pay reductions; and 3) and lower advertising expenses. GAAP operating loss was $(291.1) million or (34.2)% of sales and includes $136.3 million of pre-tax impairment of goodwill, intangible and long lived assets. Pre-tax impairment charges are preliminary and include an impairment charge of approximately $42.3 million against long lived assets with a carrying value of approximately $100 million, which remains under review and has not yet been finalized. The loss compares to $(2.6) million, or (0.2)% of sales in the prior year first quarter and further reveals the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, its effects were mitigated in part by the actions explained above. Non-GAAP operating loss was $(142.5) million, or (16.7)% of sales, compared to $24.2 million, or 1.7% of sales in prior year first quarter. Non-GAAP operating loss excluded $12.3 million in restructuring charges related to the Path to Brilliance transformation plan. First quarter Fiscal 2021 First quarter Fiscal 2020 GAAP Operating income (loss) in millions(1) $ % of sales $ % of sales North America segment $ (234.2) (30.0) % $ 48.1 3.7 % International segment (38.6) (59.5) % (8.0) (7.2) % Other (18.3) nm (42.7) nm Total GAAP operating income (loss) $ (291.1) (34.2) % $ (2.6) (0.2) % (1) Pre-tax impairment charges are preliminary and include an impairment charge of approximately $42.3 million against long lived assets with a carrying value of approximately $100 million, which remains under review and has not yet been finalized. See Preliminary First Quarter 2021 Results section within this release. First quarter Fiscal 2021 First quarter Fiscal 2020 Non-GAAP Operating income (loss) in millions $ % of sales $ % of sales North America segment $ (107.8) (13.8) % $ 47.6 3.7 % International segment (16.6) (25.6) % (8.0) (7.2) % Other (18.1) nm (15.4) nm Total Non-GAAP operating income (loss) $ (142.5) (16.7) % $ 24.2 1.7 % The current quarter GAAP effective tax rate of 36.1% was primarily driven by anticipated tax benefits from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act ("CARES Act"), partially offset by the unfavorable impact of a valuation allowance recorded against certain deferred tax assets in the US. The non-GAAP effective tax rate was 50.4% which was primarily driven by the same factors. GAAP EPS was $(3.83), including $2.63 charge related to the impairment of goodwill, intangible assets and long lived assets and $(0.63) resulting tax benefit. Excluding these items, EPS was $(1.59) on a non-GAAP basis. GAAP and non-GAAP EPS in the quarter are based on net income (loss) available to common shareholders as the preferred shares are anti-dilutive and excluded from the ending share count due to the first quarter net income (loss). Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows With a focus on cash conservation, the Company used $(7.6) million for operating activities, leading to free cash flow of $(15.3) million with all stores temporarily closed beginning in late March. Signet's enhanced fulfillment options resulted in inventory of $2.4 billion, flat to last year's reduced levels. During COVID-19, the Company reduced planned receipts, repurposed closed store inventory to offset future receipts of core product, and utilized clearance efforts to make room for merchandise newness later this year. Flexible fulfillment remains a priority as the Company continues to accelerate its Omnichannel capabilities. Cash and cash equivalents were $1,066.6 million, compared to $195.1 million at the prior year quarter-end. Signet notes that long term debt of $1,336.0 million, compared to $639.0 million at the prior year quarter end, includes the $900 million draw down on the revolving credit facility. Signet Path to Brilliance: Doubling Down on Core Initiatives in the Pivot to Year 3 The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly altered the retail climate and the Company is navigating that change by accelerating its application of the key Path to Brilliance initiatives. Customer First - Continuing to provide customers with expertise and a cultivated merchandise selection whenever and however they choose to shop. Omnichannel - Continuing to optimize its virtual footprint through website efficiencies, expansion of site capabilities and building a roster of sales associates that are adept in virtual selling. Culture of Agility and Efficiency - Taking into account the strategic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as building on the $185 million in net cost savings achieved in the first two years of Path to Brilliance, the Company is on track to exceed the original transformation goal of $200 to $225 million in cost savings. Additional structural cost savings of more than $100 million have been identified, for the fiscal year, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Footprint Optimization: Accelerating Momentum The Company's culture of agility and efficiency has always encompassed the optimization of its physical footprint. Following an in-depth greenfield study as part of Path to Brilliance, the Company has conducted further analysis during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to emerge as a stronger and more efficient organization. As a first step under this accelerated initiative, the Company will not reopen at least 150 North America stores and 80 UK stores. Further, Signet is committed to closing at least an additional 150 stores by the end of the fiscal year. Landlord discussions, including rent deferrals and abatements, as well as store level analysis remain ongoing as the Company assesses the future shape of Signet. Importantly, while we continue to optimize our store base, physical locations remain a core and valued aspect of the Signet customer experience. Quarterly Dividend: Consistent with the Company's year end messaging, Signet's Board of Directors has elected to temporarily suspend the dividend program on the common shares and has elected to pay the August quarterly dividend on its preference shares in kind. Financial Guidance: As previously disclosed, the Company is not providing Fiscal 2021 financial guidance at this time due to the continuing level of uncertainty in the current environment. Preliminary First Quarter 2021 Results: As detailed above, results are preliminary due to a pending impairment review of our long-lived assets necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact, if any, of the results of that review on items in our financial statements that are affected by impairments. Final financial results and other disclosures will be reported in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and may differ from the results and disclosures in this press release. Please read the Form 10-Q when it becomes available. Conference Call: A conference call is scheduled for June 9, 2020 at 8:30 a.m. ET and a simultaneous audio webcast is available at www.signetjewelers.com. The call details are: Toll Free Dial-in: +1-888-317-6003 International Dial-in: +1-412-317-6061 Access code: 8493993 A replay and transcript of the call will be posted on Signet's website as soon as they are available and will be accessible for one year. About Signet and Safe Harbor Statement: Signet Jewelers Limited is the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry. Signet operates approximately 3,200 stores primarily under the name brands of Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared, H.Samuel, Ernest Jones, Peoples, Piercing Pagoda, and JamesAllen.com. Further information on Signet is available at www.signetjewelers.com. See also www.kay.com, www.zales.com, www.jared.com, www.hsamuel.co.uk, www.ernestjones.co.uk, www.peoplesjewellers.com, www.pagoda.com, and www.jamesallen.com. This release contains statements which are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, based upon management's beliefs and expectations as well as on assumptions made by and data currently available to management, appear in a number of places throughout this document and include statements regarding, among other things, Signet's results of operation, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the industry in which Signet operates. The use of the words "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "estimates," "predicts," "believes," "should," "potential," "may," "forecast," "objective," "plan," or "target," and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause the actual results to not be realized, including, but not limited to: the negative impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had, and will continue to have, on Signet's business, financial condition, profitability and cash flows, the effect of steps we take in response to the pandemic, the severity and duration of the pandemic, including whether there is a "second wave," the pace of recovery when the pandemic subsides and the heightened impact it has on many of the risks described herein, including without limitation risks relating to disruptions in our supply chain, consumer spending and the impact on demand of our products, our level of indebtedness and covenant compliance, availability of adequate capital, our ability to execute our business plans, our lease obligations and relationships with our landlords, and asset impairments; general economic or market conditions; financial market risks, our ability to optimize Signet's transformation initiative; a decline in consumer spending or deterioration in consumer financial position; changes to regulations relating to customer credit, disruption in the availability of credit for customers and customer inability to meet credit payment obligations; our ability to achieve the benefits related to the outsourcing of the credit portfolio sale due to technology disruptions, future financial results and operating results and/or disruptions arising from changes to or termination of the non-prime outsourcing agreement requiring transition to alternative arrangements through other providers or alternative payment options; deterioration in the performance of individual businesses or of the Company's market value relative to its book value, resulting in impairments of long-lived assets or intangible assets or other adverse financial consequences; the volatility of our stock price; the impact of financial covenants, credit ratings or interest volatility on our ability to borrow; our ability to maintain adequate levels of liquidity for our cash needs, including debt obligations, payment of dividends, and capital expenditures as well as the ability of our customers, suppliers and lenders to access sources of liquidity to provide for their own cash needs; changes in our credit rating; potential regulatory changes, global economic conditions or other developments related to the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union; exchange rate fluctuations; the cost, availability of and demand for diamonds, gold and other precious metals; stakeholder reactions to disclosure regarding the source and use of certain minerals; seasonality of Signet's business; the merchandising, pricing and inventory policies followed by Signet and failure to manage inventory levels; Signet's relationships with suppliers and ability to obtain merchandise that customers wish to purchase; the failure to adequately address the impact of existing tariffs and/or the imposition of additional duties, tariffs, taxes and other charges or other barriers to trade or impacts from trade relations; the level of competition and promotional activity in the jewelry sector; the development and maintenance of Signet's OmniChannel retailing and ability to increase digital sales; changes in consumer attitudes regarding jewelry and failure to anticipate and keep pace with changing fashion trends; changes in the supply and consumer acceptance of and demand for gem quality lab created diamonds and adequate identification of the use of substitute products in our jewelry; ability to execute successful marketing programs and manage social media; the ability to optimize Signet's real estate footprint; the ability to satisfy the accounting requirements for "hedge accounting," or the default or insolvency of a counterparty to a hedging contract; the performance of and ability to recruit, train, motivate and retain qualified sales associates; management of social, ethical and environmental risks; the reputation of Signet and its banners; inadequacy in and disruptions to internal controls and systems, including related to the migration to a new financial reporting information technology system; security breaches and other disruptions to Signet's information technology infrastructure and databases; an adverse development in legal or regulatory proceedings or tax matters, including any new claims or litigation brought by employees, suppliers, consumers or shareholders, regulatory initiatives or investigations, and ongoing compliance with regulations and any consent orders or other legal or regulatory decisions; failure to comply with labor regulations; collective bargaining activity; changes in taxation laws, rules or practices in the US and jurisdictions in which Signet's subsidiaries are incorporated, including developments related to the tax treatment of companies engaged in Internet commerce; risks related to international laws and Signet being a Bermuda corporation; difficulty or delay in executing or integrating an acquisition, business combination, major business or strategic initiative; risks relating to the outcome of pending litigation, including risks related to satisfaction of the conditions precedent for our pending securities class action settlement; our ability to protect our intellectual property or physical assets; changes in assumptions used in making accounting estimates relating to items such as extended service plans and pensions; the success of recent changes in Signet's executive management team; or the impact of weather-related incidents, natural disasters, strikes, protests, riots or terrorism, acts of war or another public health crisis or disease outbreak, epidemic or pandemic on Signet's business. For a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward looking statement, see the "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Statements" sections of Signet's Fiscal 2020 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 26, 2020 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and the "Safe Harbor Statements" in current reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC. Signet undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law. Investors: Vincent Sinisi SVP Investor Relations +1-330-665-6530 [email protected] Media: Colleen Rooney Chief Communications Officer +1-330-668-5932 [email protected] David Bouffard VP Corporate Affairs +1-330-668-5369 [email protected] GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations The following information provides reconciliations of the most comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the US ("GAAP") to presented non-GAAP financial measures. The company believes that non-GAAP financial measures, when reviewed in conjunction with GAAP financial measures, can provide more information to assist investors in evaluating historical trends and current period performance. For these reasons, internal management reporting also includes non-GAAP measures. Items may be excluded from GAAP financial measures when the company believes this provides useful supplementary information to management and investors in assessing the operating performance of our business. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, and not superior to or as a substitute for the GAAP financial measures presented in this earnings release and the company's financial statements and other publicly filed reports. In addition, our non-GAAP financial measures may not be the same as or comparable to similar non-GAAP measures presented by other companies. In discussing financial results, the company refers to free cash flow that is not in accordance with GAAP and is defined as the net cash provided by operating activities, less purchases of property, plant, and equipment. Free cash flow does not represent the residual cash flow available for discretionary expenditure. 13 weeks ended (in millions) May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities $ (7.6) $ 105.4 Purchase of property, plant and equipment (7.7) (24.6) Free cash flow $ (15.3) $ 80.8 13 weeks ended (in millions) May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 Gross margin $ 204.2 $ 499.4 Restructuring charges - cost of sales (0.4) Non-GAAP Gross Margin $ 203.8 $ 499.4 13 weeks ended (in millions) May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 Total GAAP operating income (loss)(1) $ (291.1) $ (2.6) Charges related to transformation plan 12.3 26.8 Asset impairments 136.3 Total non-GAAP operating income (loss) $ (142.5) $ 24.2 13 weeks ended (in millions) May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 North America segment GAAP operating income (loss)(1) $ (234.2) $ 48.1 Charges related to transformation plan 8.5 (0.5) Asset impairments 117.9 North America segment non-GAAP operating income (loss) $ (107.8) $ 47.6 13 weeks ended (in millions) May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 International segment GAAP operating income (loss)(1) $ (38.6) $ (8.0) Charges related to transformation plan 3.6 Asset impairments 18.4 International segment non-GAAP operating income (loss) $ (16.6) $ (8.0) 13 weeks ended (in millions) May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 Other segment GAAP operating income (loss) $ (18.3) $ (42.7) Charges related to transformation plan 0.2 27.3 Other segment non-GAAP operating income (loss) $ (18.1) $ (15.4) 13 weeks ended May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 GAAP effective tax rate(1) 36.1% 13.0% Charges related to transformation plan 1.3% 5.3% Asset impairments 13.0% % Non-GAAP effective tax rate 50.4% 18.3% 13 weeks ended May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 GAAP Diluted EPS(1) $ (3.83) $ (0.35) Charges related to transformation plan 0.24 0.52 Asset impairments 2.63 Tax impact of items above (0.63) (0.09) Non-GAAP Diluted EPS $ (1.59) $ 0.08 (1) Pre-tax impairment charges are preliminary and include an impairment charge of approximately $42.3 million against long lived assets with a carrying value of approximately $100 million, which remains under review and has not yet been finalized. See Preliminary First Quarter 2021 Results section within this release. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited)(1) 13 weeks ended (in millions, except per share amounts) May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 Sales $ 852.1 $ 1,431.7 Cost of sales (648.3) (932.3) Restructuring charges - cost of sales 0.4 Gross margin 204.2 499.4 Selling, general and administrative expenses (358.4) (475.2) Restructuring charges (12.7) (26.8) Asset impairments (136.3) Other operating income, net 12.1 Operating income (loss) (291.1) (2.6) Interest expense, net (7.1) (9.2) Other non-operating income, net 0.1 0.3 Income (loss) before income taxes (298.1) (11.5) Income tax benefit 107.7 1.5 Net income (loss) $ (190.4) $ (10.0) Dividends on redeemable convertible preferred shares (8.2) (8.2) Net income (loss) attributable to common shareholders $ (198.6) $ (18.2) Earnings (loss) per common share: Basic $ (3.83) $ (0.35) Diluted $ (3.83) $ (0.35) Weighted average common shares outstanding: Basic 51.8 51.6 Diluted 51.8 51.6 Dividends declared per common share $ $ 0.37 (1) Pre-tax impairment charges are preliminary and include an impairment charge of approximately $42.3 million against long lived assets with a carrying value of approximately $100 million, which remains under review and has not yet been finalized. See Preliminary First Quarter 2021 Results section within this release. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited)(1) (in millions, except par value per share amount) May 2, 2020 February 1, 2020 May 4, 2019 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,066.6 $ 374.5 $ 195.1 Accounts receivable 29.8 38.8 23.1 Other current assets 326.7 403.5 205.5 Income taxes 199.2 6.3 4.8 Inventories 2,392.2 2,331.7 2,394.2 Total current assets 4,014.5 3,154.8 2,822.7 Non-current assets: Property, plant and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation of $1,092.6, $1,064.7 and $1,319.6, respectively 687.1 741.9 776.1 Operating lease right-of-use assets 1,541.4 1,683.3 1,822.8 Goodwill 238.0 248.8 296.4 Intangible assets, net 178.7 263.8 264.1 Other assets 204.9 201.8 189.2 Deferred tax assets 12.1 4.7 22.0 Total assets $ 6,876.7 $ 6,299.1 $ 6,193.3 Liabilities, Redeemable convertible preferred shares, and Shareholders' equity Current liabilities: Loans and overdrafts $ 22.2 $ 95.6 $ 43.7 Accounts payable 329.1 227.9 238.3 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 627.6 697.0 420.2 Deferred revenue 271.2 266.2 277.0 Operating lease liabilities 390.3 338.2 358.9 Income taxes 27.8 27.7 24.1 Total current liabilities 1,668.2 1,652.6 1,362.2 Non-current liabilities: Long-term debt 1,336.0 515.9 639.0 Operating lease liabilities 1,334.8 1,437.7 1,589.4 Other liabilities 112.3 116.6 126.0 Deferred revenue 719.8 731.5 699.6 Deferred tax liabilities 97.7 5.2 Total liabilities 5,268.8 4,459.5 4,416.2 Commitments and contingencies Series A redeemable convertible preferred shares of $.01 par value: authorized 500 shares, 0.625 shares outstanding (February 1, 2020 and May 4, 2019: 0.625 shares outstanding) 617.4 617.0 615.7 Shareholders' equity: Common shares of $0.18 par value: authorized 500 shares, 52.3 shares outstanding (February 1, 2020: 52.3 outstanding; May 4, 2019: 52.2 outstanding) 12.6 12.6 12.6 Additional paid-in capital 246.4 245.4 232.7 Other reserves 0.4 0.4 0.4 Treasury shares at cost: 17.7 shares (February 1, 2020: 17.7 shares; May 4, 2019: 17.8 shares) (985.2) (984.9) (999.8) Retained earnings 2,044.1 2,242.9 2,223.4 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (327.8) (293.8) (307.9) Total shareholders' equity 990.5 1,222.6 1,161.4 Total liabilities, redeemable convertible preferred shares and shareholders' equity $ 6,876.7 $ 6,299.1 $ 6,193.3 (1) Pre-tax impairment charges are preliminary and include an impairment charge of approximately $42.3 million against long lived assets with a carrying value of approximately $100 million, which remains under review and has not yet been finalized. See Preliminary First Quarter 2021 Results section within this release. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited)(1) 13 weeks ended (in millions) May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 Cash flows from operating activities Net income (loss) $ (190.4) $ (10.0) Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 37.3 41.0 Amortization of unfavorable leases and contracts (1.4) (1.4) Share-based compensation 1.4 4.0 Deferred taxation 85.6 Asset Impairments 136.3 Restructuring charges 6.7 5.4 Other non-cash movements 0.6 (4.9) Changes in operating assets and liabilities: Decrease in accounts receivable 8.6 0.9 Decrease in other assets and other receivables 73.4 28.1 Increase in inventories (77.2) (7.8) Increase in accounts payable 99.0 87.7 Decrease in accrued expenses and other liabilities (49.6) (39.9) Change in operating lease assets and liabilities 61.4 (4.1) (Decrease) increase in deferred revenue (5.0) 10.5 Changes in income tax receivable and payable (193.2) (2.7) Pension plan contributions (1.1) (1.4) Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities (7.6) 105.4 Investing activities Purchase of property, plant and equipment (7.7) (24.6) Purchase of available-for-sale securities (6.1) Proceeds from sale of available-for-sale securities 1.3 0.3 Net cash used in investing activities (6.4) (30.4) Financing activities Dividends paid on common shares (19.3) (19.2) Dividends paid on redeemable convertible preferred shares (7.8) (7.8) Repayments of term loans (8.9) Proceeds from revolving credit facilities 900.0 Repayments of revolving credit facilities (80.0) Decrease of bank overdrafts (74.0) (37.3) Other financing activities (4.9) (1.5) Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities 714.0 (74.7) Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 374.5 195.4 Increase in cash and cash equivalents 700.0 0.3 Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (7.9) (0.6) Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 1,066.6 $ 195.1 (1) Pre-tax impairment charges are preliminary and include an impairment charge of approximately $42.3 million against long lived assets with a carrying value of approximately $100 million, which remains under review and has not yet been finalized. See Preliminary First Quarter 2021 Results section within this release. Real Estate Portfolio: Signet has a diversified real estate portfolio. On May 2, 2020, Signet had 3,172 stores totaling 4.6 million square feet of selling space. In the first quarter, store count decreased by 36 and square feet of selling space decreased 1.0%. Store count by banner February 1, 2020 Openings Closures May 2, 2020 North America segment 2,757 (21) 2,736 International segment 451 (15) 436 Signet 3,208 (36) 3,172 SOURCE Signet Jewelers Ltd. Related Links http://www.signetjewelers.com UK unemployment could take the best part of a decade to return to pre-coronavirus levels despite the Government pumping billions of pounds into job retention schemes, MPs were warned today. Leading economists told the Treasury Committee they predict 'really high unemployment for the foreseeable future' as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. This is despite programmes like the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (JRS), which has pumped billions of pounds into trying to prevent widespread laying off of staff. Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, told ministers at the Government's Treasury Committee that households should prepare for a 'big labour market shock'. He said there had been 'way too much' talk of a 'v-shaped recovery' - where GDP returns to previous levels relatively quickly. And he warned that if unemployment was to hit 10 per cent, it could take the UK seven years to recover back to pre-pandemic levels of around 4 per cent. He said: 'I think we will see some spark back in activity as we leave the hard lockdown. But in terms of employment growth, the reasons to be nervous are that the sectors which are generally the quickest to bring people back to work are hospitality and retail. 'They were a big part of bringing people back into work in the financial crisis but that won't be so easy this time. Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, told ministers at the Government's Treasury Committee that households should prepare for a 'big labour market shock' He warned that if unemployment was to hit 10 per cent, it could take the UK seven years to recover back to pre-pandemic levels, with hospitality and retail the worst hit 'We expect really high unemployment for the foreseeable future. 'Next year we will be dealing with unemployment when we thought we would be dealing with record employment and we will debating tax rises over the first half of this decade.' He was one of a panel of economists answering questions from the committee about the predicted impact of the virus, support measures and where further focus might be needed. Paul Johnson, director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, also told the committee that there are 'a lot of gaps' in the state's coronavirus financial support package. He said: 'Some of these gaps are big. There are possibly as many as two million company owner-managers, 650,000 or so self-employed people who set up since April 2019, 200,000 self-employed earning over 50,000 and others working outside the scheme. 'It was a very broad and rough-and-ready scheme in terms of providing income replacement.' On Tuesday, the Treasury revealed that Government-backed schemes have paid out 34.9 billion to around 830,000 businesses up and down the country. By far the most popular were the bounce-back loans, designed to quickly funnel up to 50,000 to small firms, which have seen nearly 24 billion paid to more than 782,000 companies. However, Giles Wilkes, senior fellow at the Institute for Government, warned that he believed the rapid pace that bounce-back loans were handed out is an 'incredible red flag'. He said: '20 billion went straight out and there's talk about absolutely massive bad debts. 'It's very rare for state money to be drawn out without it meaning something has gone slightly wrong and in this case it must be lack of commercial scrutiny that the commercial sector has had to apply to these loans. 'It's hard to see how these would be gathered back in.' Meanwhile, Dr Gemma Tetlow, chief economist at the Institute for Government, said the economy faces 'radical uncertainty', appealing for more clarity from the Government over how the virus is impacting certain sectors. She said: 'The thing the Government could be more transparent about is the spread of the disease and transmission, and what parts of the economy it would therefore be able to open up when. 'While there is uncertainty about disease transmission it could be clearer about how it interprets that to how areas are reopened.' Beijing's authorities have edited the nation's official drug guide, deleting one traditional Chinese medicine products made with bat droppings and removing the use of critically endangered pangolins entirely, state media reported. The move comes after China temporarily banned the eating and trading of wild animals - practices that are thought to have sparked the coronavirus pandemic - in response to the global health crisis. Although the exact origins of the disease are still unknown, scientists suggest that the virus came from bats before being passed onto humans by other exotic species, possibly pangolins, sold as food at a Chinese market. Beijing's officials have removed one traditional drug that contains bat droppings from the latest version of China's Pharmacopoeia, reported state-run Xinhua News Group (file photo) They erased the medicinal use of pangolins, the world's most trafficked animals (file photos) Chinese people believe that consuming bat faeces, known in traditional Chinese medicine as Ye Ming Sha, can help improve eyesight and cure various eye diseases. Meanwhile, ingesting pangolin scales, known as Jia Zhu, are supposed to boost one's blood circulation and treat inflammation. The apparent health benefits are recorded in ancient Chinese medical encyclopaedia Ben Cao Gang Mu, penned by celebrated pharmacologist and physician Li Shizhen in the 16th century, but are widely doubted in the West. Although the exact origins of the disease are still unknown, scientists believe that the virus came from bats before being passed onto humans by other exotic species, possibly pangolins, sold as food at a Chinese market. Pictured, masked commuters are seen in Beijing on April 15 Drugs made with the two ingredients have been deleted from the latest version of China's Pharmacopoeia, reported state-run Xinhua News Group on Tuesday, citing the Health Times. The formal publication, revered as a 'drug bible', standardises the identification, use and production of both western and traditional Chinese medicines in the country. It is compiled and published by the Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission, an affiliation to the National Medical Products Administration. Officials did not explain why they had edited out one popular drug which contained bat droppings. However, a previous report from Chinese outlet Yicai revealed that Shi Zhengli, a leading researcher from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, had detected the novel coronavirus in the mammals' dung. A previous report from Chinese outlet Yicai revealed that Shi Zhengli, a leading researcher from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, had detected the novel coronavirus in the mammals' dung. Shi (left) is pictured in this file photo working in a virus lab in Wuhan in February, 2017 Pangolins were eradicated from the authoritative book after China last week increased the protection level of the widely hunted animals from class two to class one in the hope of saving the creatures. The exotic species have been blamed for transmitting the coronavirus from bats to humans, though scientists are still debating over the theory. Pangolins inhabit tropical forests in India, China, south-east Asia and parts of Africa. Out of the eight existing sub-species, three are critically endangered, and all of them are protected by international treaty. Nearly 900,000 pangolins are believed to have been trafficked worldwide in the past two decades, wildlife watchdog TRAFFIC said in February, highlighting the challenge in tackling the illicit trade. As the world's most heavily trafficked mammal, the creatures are targeted for their body parts which are highly valued in traditional medicine in countries including China and Vietnam, and their meat is seen as a delicacy. Signage is seen outside the entrance of the London Stock Exchange in London By Shreyashi Sanyal and Ambar Warrick (Reuters) - London's bluechip index slid on Tuesday, weighed down by forecast cuts from British American Tobacco, while HSBC dropped after a leading shareholder said it was uneasy over the company's decision to back a new security law in Hong Kong. HSBC fell 3.6% and was the biggest weight on the FTSE 100 index <.FTSE> after Aviva Investors, a top-20 investor in both the bank and peer Standard Chartered , raised concerns over their support for the law. The blue-chip FTSE 100 declined 2.1%, with cigarette maker British American Tobacco Plc falling 3.1% after it flagged a demand hit due to prolonged lockdowns in South Africa and Mexico and weak sales in Bangladesh and Vietnam. The British mid-cap index <.FTMC> declined 2.1%, weighed down by major industrials and real estate stocks. "There isn't the same amount of enthusiasm or risk appetite right now for London stocks as opposed to the sentiment we are seeing for U.S. or Asian stocks," said David Madden, markets analyst at CMC markets UK. "There is a pause in optimism among investors as London stocks have underperformed other markets globally even before the lockdown restrictions were put to place and continue to show weakness in contrast to other markets (U.S. and Asia)." But British stocks have marked a striking rise from lows hit in March on hopes of an economic recovery after coronavirus-driven curbs on social and business activity were eased. Among shares, Bellway Plc dropped 5.7%, dragging its peers down with it, as the housebuilder sold fewer homes between August and May due to restricted business activity induced by the coronavirus lockdown. Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it will restart drilling and begin redeploying some non-essential personnel on some of its offshore assets in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and Tuesday as conditions improve following tropical storm Cristobal. Shares of the company, however, fell 4.4% tracking weaker oil prices. [O/R] (Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal and Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V and Lisa Shumaker) Accord defines exclusive zones for exploration, use of marine resources and fishing rights. Greece and Italy have signed an agreement demarcating their maritime boundaries, amid tension in the Mediterranean region over rights to natural resources. The agreement signed on Tuesday in Athens tackled an issue that had been pending for 40 years, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a statement. Today is a good day for Greece, Italy, Europe and the entire Mediterranean, Mitsotakis said, adding that the deal meets international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Signed some seven months after Turkey inked a similar deal with Libyas internationally-recognised government on the southern side of the Mediterranean, Tuesdays agreement demarcates the exclusive economic zone the maritime area in which a nation has the right of energy exploration and use of marine resources between Greece and Italy in the Ionian Sea. It also sets out fishing rights, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said after the signing ceremony alongside his Italian counterpart, Luigi Di Maio, although full details were not immediately available. Today is a historic day, Dendias said. Earlier, Dendias explained that the accord confirmed a 1977 continental shelf agreement with Rome and the right of islands to have maritime zones. This point is of particular importance for Greece in its tense diplomatic standoff with Turkey, which denies that islands have such rights. Last November, Ankara signed a maritime boundary agreement with Libyas Tripoli-based Government of National Accord which claimed extensive areas of the sea for Turkey. Analysts saw the move as part of a Turkish strategy to avoid exclusion from the gas exploration scramble in the region. The deal carves out a corridor of waters that cuts diagonally across the southeast of the Aegean Sea and claims what Greece says is its own maritime jurisdiction. On Friday, Turkey announced that it planned to start drilling for hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean in three or four months, a move Greece condemned as illegal. Athens argues that the November deal fails to take into account the island of Crete. The European Union and the United States and Russia, plus many regional players such as Egypt and Israel have denounced the Turkey-Libya agreement and have called on Ankara to carve out a more conciliatory delineation of its territorial zone waters with Greece, Al Jazeeras John Psaropoulos, reporting from Athens, said. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told the Armenian police on Tuesday to step up the enforcement of social distancing and other rules meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the country. Pashinian said this must be the primary task of the newly appointed chief of the national police service, Vahe Ghazarian. The quality of the work of the police will continue to be essential in the fight against the epidemic, he said, introducing Ghazarian to senior police officials. As much as we realize that the entire police staff is on the verge of exhaustion, new impetus should be given [to police efforts] no matter how impossible that may seem. Ghazarian was appointed as police chief on Monday immediately after the sacking of his predecessor, Arman Sargsian. The latter ran the police for only 9 months. Pashinian gave no clear reasons for Sargsians sacking at the meeting with the senior police officials. But his remarks suggest that he was dissatisfied with ongoing efforts to make Armenians practice social distancing, wear face masks in all public areas and take other precautions against the virus. Pashinian ordered the law-enforcement and sanitary authorities to toughen the enforcement of those rules on June 2 as the COVID-19 epidemic in Armenia reached alarming proportions. He stated the following day that citizens failure to comply with them has become so widespread that there is little the police can do about it. The police claim to have fined since then many more people who did not wear face masks in cars or buses. Like Pashinian, Ghazarian was born and raised in Ijevan, a small town and the administrative center of Armenias northern Tavush province. The two men reportedly studied in the same local school. Pashinian is 45 years old while Ghazarian will turn 46 next week. Ghazarian has rapidly worked his way up the police hierarchy since the Velvet Revolution of April-May 2018 that brought Pashinian to power. He was appointed as chief of the police department of Tavush in May 2018 and became the commander of Armenian interior troops a year later. Pashinian assured the senior policemen on Tuesday that the police service is now fully merit-based and that political or personal connections will play no role in their promotion. By Associated Press The World Bank said Monday the world is facing an unprecedented health and economic crisis that has spread with astonishing speed and will result in the largest shock the global economy has witnessed in more than seven decades. Millions of people are expected to be pushed into extreme poverty. In an updated Global Economic Prospects, the World Bank projected that global economic activity will shrink by 5.2% this year, the deepest recession since a 13.8% global contraction in 1945-46 at the end of World War II. The 5.2% downturn this year will be the fourth worst global downturn over the past 150 years, exceeded only by the Great Depression of the 1930s and the periods after World War I and World War II when many the economies of many war-torn countries were devastated and the United States and other nations demobilized after massive defense buildups. Because of the steep contraction, the amount of income per person is expected to fall sharply, with more than 90% of emerging market and developing countries seeing per capita incomes declining. For all countries, the drop in per capital incomes is expected to average 6.2%, much larger than the 2.9% fall during the 2009 financial recession. Reflecting this downward pressure on incomes, World Bank economists said they expected the number of people in extreme poverty could grow by between 70 million and 100 million this year. The 5.2% estimate for a decline in global output is 7.7 percentage-points more severe than the World Banks January estimate that the world economy would grow by a modest 2.5% this year. For the United States, the updated World Bank forecast is for GDP to fall 7% this year, before growing 3.9% in 2021. That estimate is similar to top forecasters for the National Association for Business Economics who forecast a 5.9% drop in for the U.S. this year. The International Monetary Fund in April projected a drop in global output of 3% this year but it is expected that figure will be lowered when the IMF releases its forecast update in coming weeks. For China, the worlds second largest economy, the World Bank forecast growth will slow this year to a barely discernible 1% but rebound to 6.9% in 2021. For the 19 European countries who use the euro currency, the World Bank projected a drop of 9.1% this year followed by growth of 4% next year. World Bank economists cautioned that their forecast was based on an assumption that the worst of the coronavirus outbreak was coming to an end and economies would pick up fairly quickly once governments begin to reopen. If there is a second wave of the virus that disrupts economic activity later this year, then growth this year will fall even farther and the rebound next year will be weaker, the World Bank analysts said. Companies like Tesla have made a global impact on the use of electric cars as an efficient choice over combustion cars in general. Tesla has been able to prove that electric cars are not just a choice that is better for the environment, it has also become a car that could potentially save you money as well as giving you a better driving experience. The UK car market has been deeply affected by the ongoing pandemic quite similar to the rest of Europe, but it seems like Prime Minister Boris Johnson might just be counting on the switch to electric vehicles in order to turn the economy around. The Telegraph on Boris Johnson's decision The Telegraph sources (from Reuters) come to an understanding that Johnson's team is currently drafting certain plans that would give drivers up to $7,627 if they are willing to make the switch from combustion engine cars for the newer EVs. The Prime Minister is said to tentatively announce this later on July 6 as part of a much broader plan in order to help the British economy bounce back from certain lockdown measures. Read Also: Tesla Model 3 Now Reigns as the Top-Selling Car in California After Beating the Honda Civic Engadget's take on the matter According to an article by Engadget, this would actually be a really pragmatic move if it was true. It would also theoretically provide the much-needed boost to the overall British economy that would then be particularly beneficial for brands like Jaguar, Mini, and other brands that actually manufacture a few of their EVs domestically. This swap incentive might also become necessary in order to fulfill certain long-term goals. The UK is aiming to ban the sales of brand new combustion cars by the year 2035. This might be quite challenging if there isn't a competent EV market when the time comes. The government's reward for making the switch could accelerate the transition, particularly amongst those cost-conscious buyers who might actually be attracted by the lower running costs that the EV provides. Read Also: Elon Musk's Tesla Profits Beat Coronavirus; First Time in The History it Posted Positive Net Income in Three Consecutive Quarters Possible challenges The plan is still no exception from possible challenges along the way and while the charging infrastructure is still growing, it is still unclear that there are currently enough stations geographically spread out in order to handle a spike in demand. The question as to whether people will be in the mood to buy themselves a new car when the COVID-19 dies down is also a lingering threat. If ever the UK goes ahead and pushes this idea, its strategy could potentially be a template for other countries that are looking to help the environment while the car market starts to bounce back. Although Tesla is an American company, its reach has spread out internationally and the surge in demand for electric vehicles could also mean a surge in demand for Tesla cars as well. Ben & Jerry's CEO Matthew McCarthy said corporate leaders must be more courageous and ambitious as they set goals to advance racial equity. And, he said, customers and employees should make sure they follow through. In an interview on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street," he said "business should be held accountable to setting very specific targets, specifically around dismantling white supremacy in and through our organizations." That could span from increasing diversity of a company's workforce and top leadership to making donations to influence public policy, he said. "In businesses, in a lot of ways, you treasure what you measure. You measure what you treasure," he said "If you don't put goals around these things, they simply don't happen." He said the death of George Floyd, who called out for his late mother as he was pinned beneath the knee of a Minneapolis officer, is "piercing that false veil between our human lives and our business lives." "My employees demand that we take these stands," he said. "Our fans demand that we take action." Unilever-owned Ben & Jerry's is one of many well-known brands and companies that have put out statements mourning Floyd and calling for racial equality as protests continue. Its statement, however, was longer and sharply worded. It laid out four major policy proposals, including the creation of a national task force to draft bipartisan legislation to stop race-based violence and check the power of police. In the statement, the company said Floyd is just the latest name to join a long list of black Americans who have been killed by police or other people because of racism. "What happened to George Floyd was not the result of a bad apple; it was the predictable consequence of a racist and prejudiced system and culture that has treated Black bodies as the enemy from the beginning," it said. "What happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis is the fruit borne of toxic seeds planted on the shores of our country in Jamestown in 1619, when the first enslaved men and women arrived on this continent." The Vermont-based ice cream maker has a long history of activism that dates back to its founding in 1978 by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, best friends who embraced tie dye shirts and progressive causes. It's named ice cream flavors, such as Justice ReMix'd, to allude to its social activism and donates a portion of profits to causes, such as criminal justice reform. NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that while democracy has consolidated in the entire country, Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal remains the only state where political violence is propagated. "While democracy has strengthened its roots and has been consolidated in the entire country, West Bengal remains the only state where political violence is propagated," Amit Shah said at the 'West Bengal Jan-Samvad Rally', held via video conference. Shah also attacked the West Bengal Chief Mamata Banerjee over a host of issues, including her opposition to CAA, the plight of migrant workers, and the political murder of BJP workers in the Trinamool Congress-ruled state. While accusing the Bengal government of not implementing the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the state, Shah said, Mamata ji, do poor people of Bengal have no right to receive free and quality medical aid? Why then, Ayushman Bharat scheme is not allowed here? Mamata Ji, stop doing politics on the rights of the poor. You can do politics on a lot of other issues, but why on poor people's' health. The Home Minister made these remarks while addressing the West Bengal Jan-Samvad Rally via video conference. Attacking the West Bengal government further, Shah said, People across the country are availing benefits of Ayushman Bharat Yojana, even Arvind Kejriwal accepted it in the end but Mamata didi, why are you not letting this scheme be implemented in West Bengal. I and the people of Bengal want to ask you this. Shah accused the Trinamool Congress government of patronising corruption. "There is corruption everywhere. It continued unabated even when the people of Bengal were reeling under the impact of cyclone Amphan," he alleged. The BJP veteran said that Mamata "insulted" migrants by calling 'Shramik Special' trains carrying them to Bengal during the lockdown "Corona Express". "These migrants will now ensure your exit from power," he said. On Mamata Banerjee's opposition to the CAA, Amit Shah said, Mamata Ji needs to come clean on why she is opposing the CAA. What is your problem if Namshudras and other such communities live respectfully in the country? The senior BJP leader that the People of Bengal are asking you (Mamata) this question as well. You will have to answer. Expressing hope that his party will win the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, Shah reminded her by saying, We may have won 303 seats in Lok Sabha polls, but for me most important are 18 we pocketed in Bengal. The Union Home Minister also slammed the Mamata Banerjee regime for the political murder of several BJP workers in the state since 2014. Since 2014, over 100 BJP workers lost their lives in political battle here in West Bengal. I pay my respect to their families as they've contributed to the development of Sonar Bangla, the Union Home Minister said at West Bengal Jan-Samvad Rally via video conference. The senior BJP leader further paid tributes to people who lost their lives due to COVID-19 and cyclone Amphan in the state."I pay my heartfelt tributes to people who have died in the COVID-19 pandemic and due to Amphan cyclone in West Bengal. The BJP is engaging in public dialogue through video conferencing with its West Bengal unit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, Shah had on Sunday addressed Bihar Jan Samvad rally. He also addressed Odisha Jan Samvad rally on Monday. The virtual rally of Shah is part of BJP's "Atmanirbhar Bharat" campaign. It is to be noted that a few days ago the BJP had released a "nine-point chargesheet" against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's rule over the past nine years. Upping the ante against the TMC government, the saffron party has recently floated a social media drive christened 'Aar Noi Mamata' (no longer Mamata's rule). (TNS) Facebook has removed nearly 200 social media accounts linked to white supremacy groups that planned to encourage members to attend protests over police killings of black people in some cases with weapons, company officials said Friday.The accounts on Facebook and Instagram were tied to the Proud Boys and the American Guard, two hate groups already banned on the platforms. Officials were already monitoring the accounts in preparation for removing them when they saw posts attempting to exploit the ongoing protests prompted by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.We saw that these groups were planning to rally supporters and members to physically go to the protests and in some cases were preparing to go with weapons, said Brian Fishman, Facebooks director of counterterrorism and dangerous organizations policy.The company did not divulge details of the account users such as their specific plans for protests or where in the U.S. they live. It said approximately 190 accounts were removed overall.Both the Proud Boys and American Guard had been banned from Facebook for violating rules prohibiting hate speech. Facebook said it will continue to remove new pages, groups or accounts created by users trying to circumvent the ban.Earlier this week, Facebook announced the removal of a handful of other accounts created by white supremacists who had been posing on Twitter as members of the far-left antifa movement.Facebook announced two other actions on Friday to root out networks of fake accounts used in attempts to manipulate public opinion in Africa and Iraq: Hundreds of fake Instagram and Facebook accounts created in Tunisia in an alleged effort to influence elections in that country and other French-speaking nations in sub-Saharan Africa:The accounts and related pages were used to impersonate local citizens, politicians and news organizations. More than 3.8 million accounts followed one or more of the pages, and more than 171,000 people had followed one of the fake Instagram accounts.The network of fake accounts and pages was uncovered by the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab. In their report, researchers at the DFRL said theyve noticed more and more PR firms dabbling in misinformation and online manipulation. Facebook also deactivated another network of 102 fake Instagram and Facebook accounts used to impersonate local politicians and news organizations in the Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Company officials said the fake accounts, which appeared to target domestic audiences in Kurdistan, were linked to Kurdish intelligence services. The Tamil Nadu government has promoted all Class 10 students after cancelling their exams, a day after the Madras High Court suggested putting them off, in view of the rising Covid-19 cases in the state. The Class 10 exams were slated to take place on June 15. For Class 11, certain exams which could not be held due to coronavirus, were also cancelled, and students were declared promoted. However, examination dates for Class 12 students will be announced later. Chief Minister K Palaniswami had suggested that evaluation be conducted by taking into consideration students performance in the half-yearly exams upto a maximum weightage of 80% and the remaining percentage to be decided on the basis of their attendance, according to a press release. Palaniswami's announcement has been hailed by education and virology experts. Many people in the state, including opposition parties had been calling for postponement of exams amid the rising cases in Chennai. The state capital has been reporting almost a thousand Covid-19 each day since the last week. Those returning to the state have also been adding to the tally amid concerns over the availability of healthcare infrastructure, particularly beds in public and private medical institutions. The timing of the announcement also stands significant as it comes after a declaration of protest by the opposition parties led by DMK to postpone exams. The state government had previously appeared keen on conducting the exams, going by its submissions in the court yesterday. With todays announcement, Palaniswami appears to have averted a massive challenge in logistical administration for the school education department, along with dousing a political challenge of cancelling the declared protests by the opposition. Brad Pitt was spotted attending a major protest over the death of George Floyd in Hollywood on Sunday. In an exclusive photo obtained by DailyMail.com, the Oscar winner was seen with an estimated 50,000 people who flooded the streets of Los Angeles. Pitt's instantly recognizable features were barely distinguishable as he ventured out on his rare BMW motorbike. With a crash helmet pulled over his head, the Hollywood star, 56, blended in with oblivious protesters while wearing a gray George Floyd emblazoned hoodie. But one eagle eyed protester spotted the actor outside the Grauman's Chinese Theater in the heart of Hollywood. Brad Pitt was spotted attending a major protest over the death of George Floyd in Hollywood on Sunday. In an exclusive photo obtained by DailyMail.com the Oscar winner was seen with an estimated 50,000 people who flooded the streets of Tinseltown Pitt's instantly recognizable features were barely distinguishable as he ventured out on his rare BMW motorbike. Pictured: Pitt in similar jeans and shoes on his luxury motorbike on June 2 Protester Aree Khodai, 42, said she saw the star riding with the crowds. 'The amount of people there was amazing. We saw Brad was on his bike not long after the protest started around 4pm,' the yoga instructor explained. Pictured: Pitt in Malibu on May 26 Khodai added: 'He was there for the right reasons, he wasn't trying to draw attention to himself. He seemed into it and seemed inspired, it was so beautiful of him to be there' The motorcycle enthusiast, who has a vast collection of bikes, looked relaxed in a hoodie, blue ripped jeans, shades and light canvas shoes. In accordance with ongoing regulations in the fight against COVID-19, the star wore a bandanna as a makeshift face mask and gloves. Protester Aree Khodai, 42, said she saw the star riding with the crowds. 'The amount of people there was amazing. We saw Brad was on his bike not long after the protest started around 4pm,' the yoga instructor explained. Khodai, who runs ARTHA Mind, Body and Soul yoga and wellness center on Sunset Boulevard said Brad was riding solo and seemed in good spirits 'There was moments of walking and then we would stop and we saw him turning his bike around at Hollywood and Highland. 'He was on his bike the entire time and was wearing a George Floyd hoodie. 'He was there for the right reasons, he wasn't trying to draw attention to himself. He seemed into it and seemed inspired, it was so beautiful of him to be there.' Khodai, who runs ARTHA Mind, Body and Soul yoga and wellness center on Sunset Boulevard said Brad was riding solo and seemed in good spirits. 'Every time the march stopped he tried to listen in to what speakers were saying. 'At one point he had his mask off and was smiling, he seemed very happy and you knew instantly it was Brad from his smile. 'It was an amazing day, it was very peaceful, really, really powerful.' Brad wasn't the only A-lister to join the protest, which was sponsored by Black Lives Matter, BLD PWR, and rapper YG. Jamie Foxx was seen in the crowd raising his fist in solidarity with other demonstrators holding signs proclaiming Black Lives Matter. Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez were also on the march with a burly minder in tow, protesting while holding homemade signs. J.Lo carried one that simply read, 'Black Lives Matter' while A-Rod's sign stated, 'Let's get loud for Black Lives Matter' Musicians Machine Gun Kelly (right) and Mod Sun were also at the event handing out free snacks and water to protesters The event was peaceful, as have been most protests over the last several days in Southern California. Los Angeles police said no arrests were made The Ray star, 52, wore a shirt bearing a photo of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old who was shot and killed in 2012 by George Zimmerman, a community watch guard in Florida. Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez were also on the march with a burly minder in tow, protesting while holding homemade signs. J.Lo carried one that simply read, 'Black Lives Matter' while A-Rod's sign stated, 'Let's get loud for Black Lives Matter.' Musicians Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun were also at the event handing out free snacks and water to protesters. The event was one of the largest seen so far in Southern California since video surfaced of a Minneapolis officer placing his knee on George Floyd's neck for eight minutes before he died on Memorial Day. The event was peaceful, as have been most protests over the last several days in Southern California. Los Angeles police said no arrests were made. The event signaled a marked difference compared to protests a week ago which were marred by chaos and looting. National Guard units which were brought in to help secure buildings have been released and the city and county have stopped imposing curfews. LAPD, which has been criticized over mass arrests of protesters, said the city would not pursue criminal or financial penalties against those who were apprehended. A surge in hospital visits and internet searches related to COVID-19 symptoms from the Chinese city of Wuhan suggests the coronavirus may have been circulating since August 2019, according to a preliminary study by researchers at Boston University and Harvard. The pandemic, which has been linked to a virus that crossed over from animals to humans, was initially identified in Wuhan's Huanan Seafood Market in December 2019. Later, experts estimated a genetic ancestor to the virus emerged around mid-November 2019. A report in the South China Morning Post citing government data suggested a "patient zero" could be traced back to November 17. The new paper, which has not yet appeared in a peer reviewed journal, comes under the relatively new field of "digital epidemiology." A team led by Elaine Nsoesie at Boston University analyzed 111 satellite images from Wuhan between January 2018 to April 2020, as well as frequently looked up symptoms on the Chinese search engine Baidu. "A steep increase in volume starting in August 2019" was detected at Wuhan hospital parking lots, "culminating with a peak in December 2019," the authors wrote. Because queries for the word "cough" rise along with yearly influenza seasons, they also looked for "diarrhea" which is a more COVID-19 specific symptom. "In August, we identify a unique increase in searches for diarrhea which was neither seen in previous flu seasons or mirrored in the cough search data," the team said. While respiratory symptoms are the most common hallmarks of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the study suggested that diarrhea "may play an important role in community transmission." The authors concluded that while they could not definitively confirm that the data they documented was linked to the virus, it supported conclusions reached by other research. "These findings also corroborate the hypothesis that the virus emerged naturally in southern China and was potentially already circulating at the time of the Wuhan cluster," they said. Have you considered installing solar panels on your roof to save on electric bills but with so much information, you haven't taken the time to figure what to do if you decide to install them? Popular Science lays out some things to consider when you go solar: How to Get Started? For starters, your energy usage or the average amount of electricity that you consume every month determines how many panels you will need for your home. Local solar power installers may advise you on the number of grids that you need based on the energy usage and appliances that you use or prefer. Another option is to plug this information into the site Energysage.com: your home, bill, preferences on equipment, quality, and type of financing. Based on the said information, EnergySage will provide quotes from pre-screened companies, EnergySage CEO Vikram Aggarwal explained. The Installer Dilemma There are many local installers to choose from. But with the quote in hand, Aggarwal advised not to pick the cheapest quote there is. Have three to five options for a feel on the average cost and pay attention to the price per watt. Arrange for a home visit with the companies you prefer so they can help you provide a more detailed plan for installation. Do not be afraid to get a few home visits before committing. For good measure, check if the "company is licensed, insured and certified by North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners", Aggarwal cautioned. A good installer will walk you through various options for different panels and inverters depending on efficiency, energy usage, area of the roof, financing, among others so you can make an informed decision. The installer's job includes drawing up plans, securing permits, and installation of the equipment. After installation, it may take a few weeks to months for the start-to-finish process. The installer may also recommend an upgrade on an electrical panel if necessary. Purchase or rent the system? There are two options on how to pay for the solar energy system: either you own it or rent it from the solar company. Acquiring the System Buying everything outright is ideal since it comes with the biggest financial benefits. However, a typical solar power system costs $10,000 above thus getting a loan is also an option. As long the loan's monthly payment is lower than the electric bill, getting a loan while saving on your electricity is a wise option. According to Aggarwal, loans many be accessed from the banks, in which it may be included in your mortgage, a new credit line, or a loan from the installer. The bank may be cheaper but it requires more paperwork than the installer option, Agarwal explained. Renting the System Renting a system is also an option that would make you pay less but is generally financially advantageous. Payments involve lesser money but most savings go to the leasing company as you can only get 20 to30 percent from it. Should you sell your home, the homebuyer has to qualify for the solar lease and agree to take over the contract. Otherwise, you will have to purchase the solar panels. The good side of renting the system us you will not have to worry about maintenance or repairs. Getting Solar Incentives: Tax Credit and Rebates There are several solar incentives in the U.S. such as the Sole Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) and net metering that allows you to get bill credits from your solar power system. If you live in a state where these incentives apply, you may expect immediate and long term compensation from the electricity that your solar powers generate. To check what is available in your location, it is advised to the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, or DSIRE, Aggarwal suggests. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A majority of the members of the Minneapolis City Council said Sunday they support disbanding the city's police department, an aggressive stance that comes just as the state has launched a civil rights investigation after George Floyd's death. Nine of the council's 12 members appeared with activists at a rally in a city park Sunday afternoon and vowed to end policing as the city currently knows it. Council member Jeremiah Ellison promised that the council would "dismantle" the department. GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTERS PUSH TO DEFUND THE POLICE: WHAT IT MEANS "It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe," Lisa Bender, the council president, said. "Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period." Bender went on to say she and the eight other council members that joined the rally are committed to ending the city's relationship with the police force and "to end policing as we know it and recreate systems that actually keep us safe." Floyd, a handcuffed black man, died May 25 after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck, ignoring his "I can't breathe" cries and holding it there even after Floyd stopped moving. His death sparked protests some violent, many peaceful that spread nationwide. Community activists have criticized the Minneapolis department for years for what they say is a racist and brutal culture that resists change. The state of Minnesota launched a civil rights investigation of the department last week, and the first concrete changes came Friday in a stipulated agreement in which the city agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints. A more complete remaking of the department is likely to unfold in coming months. Disbanding an entire department has happened before. In 2012, with crime rampant in Camden, New Jersey, the city disbanded its police department and replaced it with a new force that covered Camden County. Compton, California, took the same step in 2000, shifting its policing to Los Angeles County. Story continues It was a step that then-Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department was considering for Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown. The city eventually reached an agreement short of that but one that required massive reforms overseen by a court-appointed mediator. The move to defund or abolish the Minneapolis department is far from assured, with the civil rights investigation likely to unfold over the next several months. On Saturday, activists for defunding the department staged a protest outside Mayor Jacob Frey's home. Frey came out to talk with them. "I have been coming to grips with my own responsibility, my own failure in this," Frey said. When pressed on whether he supported their demands, Frey said: "I do not support the full abolition of the police department." He left to booing. GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE At another march Saturday during which leaders called for defunding the department, Verbena Dempster said she supported the idea. "I think, honestly, we're too far past" the chance for reform, Dempster told Minnesota Public Radio. "We just have to take down the whole system." CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS Related Articles Nebraska church cancels services after priest tests positive for COVID-19 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A church in Nebraska is closing down its office and suspending worship services for the next two weeks after one of its priests was found to have the coronavirus. St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church of Omaha announced this week that it was temporarily closing down after its associate pastor, Father Toby Letak, tested positive for COVID-19. Father Ralph ODonnell of St. Margaret Mary sent a letter out to the congregation, explaining that while positive for the virus, Letak was not symptomatic at this time and has not had a fever. He arranged for testing this week only after experiencing a brief bout of nausea. Father Toby plans to quarantine at the rectory and appreciates your prayers, wrote ODonnell. I am not experiencing any symptoms, nor is anyone in our office. However, out of an abundance of caution, those who have worked closely with Fr. Toby will self-quarantine for the next two weeks and be tested as well. While in-person worship services will be canceled, the church property itself will remain open to the public on a daily basis, from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ODonnell encouraged anyone who was less than six feet from Letak for at least 10 minutes to self-quarantine for two weeks, even if they wore a face mask while around the priest. We will keep you posted on Fr. Tobys progress and let you know as soon as we can celebrate public Mass again, ODonnell added. Last month, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts allowed for in-person worship services to occur as part of reopening the state, provided they adhered to certain social distancing guidelines. These measures included having worship attendees sit apart from each other and not passing around objects like offering plates and prayer books. Deacon Tim McNeil, spokesperson for the Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha, told the Omaha World-Herald that to his knowledge, Letak was the first priest in their region to test positive. McNeil also explained that churches in the archdiocese had enacted measures like single-file communion lines and no communal chalices for the wine of Eucharist. People are being careful, said McNeil to the World-Herald, while acknowledging that the infected priest was really good at wearing a mask. In recent times, as states have eased restrictions on mass gatherings, many churches have restarted in-person worship services, albeit while adhering to social distancing measures. Last month, a church in Georgia canceled its in-person services shortly after reopening when several member families became infected with COVID-19. Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle of Ringgold had restarted services on April 26, only to decide to suspend in-person worship on May 11 after multiple members tested positive for the virus. Our hearts are heavy as some of our families are dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 virus, and we ask for your prayers for each of them as they follow the prescribed protocol and recuperate at home, stated the church at the time. Though we feel very confident of the safe environment we are able to offer in our facilities, the decision was made that we would discontinue all in-person services again until further notice in an effort of extreme caution for the safety and well-being of our families. Hundreds of protesters rallied outside Rio Tinto's Perth headquarters on Tuesday afternoon calling for the immediate resignation of chief executive Chris Salisbury, and state and federal Aboriginal affairs ministers Ben Wyatt and Ken Wyatt. The protest followed the destruction of a significant Aboriginal heritage site in Western Australia's Pilbara region by the mining giant last month to make way for a mine expansion. A young girl puts her fists up in the air in a sign of protest. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola Explosives detonated in an area of the Juukan Gorge destroyed two deep-time rock shelters, which had shown evidence of human occupation stretching back more than 46,000 years. Rio Tinto apologised for the blast but refused to say whether reparations were being considered. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump sparked another uproar Tuesday with a morning tweet endorsing the baseless conspiracy theory that a 75-year-old protester in Buffalo, seen on video being pushed to the ground by police last week, could have been part of a "set up" coordinated by anti-fascist demonstrators. Trump's speculation - which originated on a conspiracy theory website and was not supported by any evidence - came as the president is already struggling to manage both a deadly pandemic and racial unrest across the nation. The missive demoralized some aides and allies, who were frustrated if not particularly surprised by Trump's latest incendiary suggestion. White House officials, worried that the president's handling of the protests is hurting him politically, have been deliberating whether to have Trump deliver a speech as early as the end of this week confronting the current moment of national turmoil, and largely viewed his tweet as an unhelpful distraction. These and other officials and allies requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. One of the officials said that, ideally, Trump will not offer a speech until the White House has settled on clear policy preferences or a broad framework to address the concerns of the protesters and Trump's law-and-order agenda. Any legislative solutions probably would be driven by the Republican-controlled Senate, this official added. On Tuesday, a group of White House officials - Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser; Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff; and Ja'Ron Smith, deputy director of the Office of American Innovation - traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., about legislation to reform policing practices. It was against this backdrop that Trump's musings on Twitter drew a rebuke from the Buffalo man's lawyer, condemnation from Democrats and a now-familiar dance from many Republicans who said they had not seen a tweet by the president that was making headlines. Twitter, which has recently taken a more aggressive stance in policing the truth of Trump's tweets, said this one had not violated its policies because it was "speculative." Two Buffalo police officers have been charged with assault in the episode after footage showed them shoving Martin Gugino to the ground and blood pooling on the sidewalk below his head. Gugino has been transferred out of intensive care but remains hospitalized. "I watched, he fell harder than was pushed," Trump said in his tweet. "Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?" Trump cited a report by One America News Network, a tiny conservative cable outlet that reported on speculation appearing on a blog called The Conservative Treehouse. A post on the blog suggests Gugino appeared to be using a police scanner on his phone, which it said is a common tactic of antifa, the loosely organized anti-fascist movement Trump has blamed for violence at protests of the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis. Trump said Gugino "could be an ANTIFA provocateur," writing that he was "pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment." Kelly Zarcone, a lawyer for Gugino, said Trump's characterization has no basis in fact and questioned the president's motives. "Martin has always been a PEACEFUL protester because he cares about today's society," she said in a statement. "He is also a typical Western New Yorker who loves his family. No one from law enforcement has suggested otherwise so we're at a loss to understand why the president of the United States would make such a dark, dangerous and untrue accusation against him." Gugino is a member of two nonprofits: PUSH Buffalo, which focuses on affordable housing, and Western New York Peace Center, a human rights organization. He is also part of the Catholic Worker Movement. The White House did not respond to requests for an on-the-record comment. But one White House official privately defended Trump, saying his tweet only said that Gugino "could be" an antifa protester and that some of Gugino's social media posts seem sympathetic to that cause. Among many of Trump's allies, however, the reaction was one of overwhelming exasperation, with one outside adviser describing his tweet as "dumb" and "beyond stupid." Aides and advisers believed that before the coronavirus pandemic and before Floyd's death prompted national outrage, Trump had been making inroads with black voters, and they viewed his latest controversy as another act of self-sabotage. The president, they added, should be focused on the economy making a comeback, as well as hammering the message that Democrats are weak on issues of safety and security. A Washington Post-Schar School poll released Tuesday found that 50% of Americans said they favored a president who would address the nation's racial divisions, while 37% said they would rather have a president who can restore security by enforcing the law. But among Republicans, 63% said they preferred a president who would restore security while a much smaller 23% opted for one who would address racial divisions. Trump's provocative tweet came two weeks after he created a controversy by continuing to push the baseless conspiracy theory on Twitter that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was linked to the 2001 death of a former congressional staffer - despite a plea by the widower for Twitter to delete the president's baseless smears. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, called Trump "cruel & reckless" for his latest postings. "The president is tweeting conspiracy theories about the Buffalo incident based on no evidence, no proof," Cuomo tweeted. "Was the blood coming out of his head staged? Were our eyes lying to us? No. The man is still in the hospital & the president is disparaging him." Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden also weighed in, writing: "My Dad used to say there's no greater sin than the abuse of power. Whether it's an officer bloodying a peaceful protester or a President defending him with a conspiracy theory he saw on TV. I'm a Catholic - just like Martin. Our faith says that we can't accept either." Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., seized on the fact that the correspondent from OANN, the network whose segment Trump cited, has written pieces for Sputnik, the Russian government-owned news outlet. "The story Trump is referencing was written by a Russian working for the Kremlin's propaganda agency," Murphy wrote on Twitter. "Get ready - this is the next 5 months. Russia and the Trump campaign openly collaborating to spread lies and manipulate the election." Numerous Republicans sought to sidestep questions from reporters when asked about Trump's tweet. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., ignored questions about Trump's tweet by responding with the unrelated point that Senate Republicans intend to take up legislation to address racial discrimination. "I haven't read the damn thing," Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., told reporters. Asked whether he'd like to see it, he replied, "I'd just as soon not." When presented with a printout, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alasa, replied, "Oh Lord. Ugh. Yeah." Asked whether she cared to comment, Murkowskid declined. "Umm, again, why would you fan the flames?" she added. "That's all I'm going to say. Thanks." Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the majority whip, told reporters that he considered Trump's tweet "a serious accusation," adding that it "should only be made with facts and evidence, and I haven't seen any yet." - - - The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane, Colby Itkowitz, Tony Romm, Meryl Kornfield and Emily Guskin contributed to this report. The Michigan City man who was the driver in an April wreck in Burns Harbor in which his passenger was killed had a phone cord wrapped several times around his arm like a tourniquet when rescuers extricated him from the car and was wearing a home detention ankle monitor, according to court documents. Kmart Australia has almost completely sold out of its hugely popular $69 air fryers. Disgruntled shoppers say they've been unable to get their hands on Kmart's Anko 3-in-1 Air Fryer anywhere in Perth. The product has also sold out in Darwin, and supplies are dwindling across all of Australia's major capital cities. The product which is sold in 3.2 and 5.3 litre sizes has been flying off the shelves since it was launched in 2018. One of Kmart's most popular cooking appliances is almost completely sold out across Australia and it's unlikely to return until next month In Sydney, dozens of outlets don't currently stock the air fryers, however they are still available at Marrickville and Pagewood. Brisbane residents will also struggle to get their hands on an air fryer and will need to travel a to Mt Gravatt in order to purchase one. Canberra, Adelaide and Hobart are all reporting limited stock levels across various stores. The 5.3 litre version is also completely sold out online. Shoppers have been venting their anger about stock levels on social media. 'I went yesterday and EVERYTHING I wanted was not available. The aisles were so empty. What is the point of being open honestly,' one shopper wrote. 'I went to Kmart today and the shelves were literally EMPTY. A few serving boards left. Virtually no crockery, plastic ware.... row after row were just empty,' another said. 'Went to my local Kmart on Saturday and the whole place was almost empty!! It's an absolute joke!' Kmart Australia has been struggling to fill its empty shelves due to supply chain issues associated with COVID-19 Photographs of empty shelves at Kmart stores across the country have been cropping up online over the past week Shoppers have been venting their anger about stock levels on social media Photographs of empty shelves at Kmart stores across the country have been cropping up online over the past week. The retailer has been facing issues with stock levels due to issues associated with COVID-19. Kmart Australia and New Zealand's Retail Director, John Gualtieri issued an update to customers last week acknowledging there would be some delays to restocking the shelves. The company put a hold on importing supplies when demand dropped at the beginning of the pandemic. But Mr Gualtieri has also blamed changes to manufacturing overseas for the slow return of products to the retailers shelves. 'Some of the countries where we manufacture our physical products were also put into lockdown at this time, putting production of some of our goods on hold for a period of time,' Mr Gualtieri said. Kmart Australia says it expects stock levels to 'normalise' by the end of July. 'We are working as fast as we can to correct this. I would like to thank you all for your understanding, patience and ongoing support,' he said. Kmart Australia and New Zealand's Retail Director, John Gualtieri issued an update to customers last week acknowledging there would be some delays to restocking the shelves Kmart Australia says it expects stock levels to 'normalise' by the end of July The UKs biggest power plant Drax was the countrys biggest consumer of coal a decade ago but has been switching to compressed wood pellets. (PA) At midnight on Wednesday Britain will set a new record of coal-free power generation as it marks two months without burning coal to power the nation. The current coal-free period far surpasses the previous record of 18 days, 6 hours and 10 minutes which was set in June last year. The move away from coal in the past two months was triggered by the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic in Britain as demand for electricity plunged significantly prompting the National Grid (NG.L) to take power plants off the network. Britains four remaining coal-fired plants were among the first to be shut down. The figures apply to Britain only, as Northern Ireland does not receive power from the National Grid. A decade ago about 40% of the country's electricity came from coal, while just 3% of the country's electricity came from wind and solar power. Over the past 10 years the UK has created the biggest offshore wind industry in the world, as well as the largest single wind farm, Walney Extension, completed off the coast of Yorkshire in 2019. READ MORE: BP to cut 10,000 jobs following global slump in oil demand The UKs biggest power plant Drax (DRX.L) was the countrys biggest consumer of coal a decade ago but has been switching to compressed wood pellets. We here at Drax decided that coal was no longer the future, Drax chief executive Will Gardiner told the BBC. It has been a massive undertaking and then the result of all that is we've reduced our CO2 emissions from more than 20 million tonnes a year to almost zero. Drax Groups shares were down 3.7% in mid-afternoon trading in London on Tuesday. So far in 2020, renewables have generated more power than all fossil fuels put together, with renewables creating 37% of electricity supplied to the network compared to 35% for fossil fuels. Nuclear accounted for about 18% and imports for the remaining 10% or so, according to figures from the online environmental journal Carbon Brief. So far this year renewables have generated more electricity than fossil fuels and that's never happened before, Simon Evans of Carbon Brief told the BBC. With gas also in decline, there's a real chance that renewables will overtake fossil fuels in 2020 as a whole. No self-quarantine for domestic arrivals to Phuket: confirmed PHUKET: People arriving in Phuket from other places in Thailand do not have to observe a 14-day self-quarantine after arriving on the island, Dr Thanit Sermkaew, chief of the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO), has confirmed. COVID-19tourismtransporthealth By Khunanya Wanchanwet Tuesday 9 June 2020, 01:45PM Passengers are now back at Phuket Bus Terminal 2 since interprovincial buses resumed services into and out of Phuket last Friday (June 5). Photo: PR Phuket Passengers are now back at Phuket Bus Terminal 2 since interprovincial buses resumed services into and out of Phuket last Friday (June 5). Photo: PR Phuket Passengers are now back at Phuket Bus Terminal 2 since interprovincial buses resumed services into and out of Phuket last Friday (June 5). Photo: PR Phuket Passengers are now back at Phuket Bus Terminal 2 since interprovincial buses resumed services into and out of Phuket last Friday (June 5). Photo: PR Phuket No self-quarantine is required for any people regardless of which province they come from, Dr Thanit told The Phuket News today (June 9). Dr Thanit said that the need for people arriving from the eight risk provinces to observe a self-quarantine for 14 days was never accurate, and became understood by the public when it was reported by other media. The Phuket News reported the self-quarantine rule after it was announced by the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department of Thailand on May 29. The self-quarantine requirement for people from the eight risk provinces was only presented at the meeting but not approved, said Dr Thanit. The meeting Dr Thanit referred to is the daily meeting of the Phuket Communicable Disease Committee, which is headed by Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana and on which Dr Thanit sits as the head of the PPHO. The PPHO which currently serves as the Phuket Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Incident Command Centre Napasorn Kakai, chief of the Phuket office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT Phuket), also confirmed the news today. Domestic tourists do not have to self-quarantine for 14 days, Ms Napasorn said in a very brief conversation with The Phuket News. The news comes as the number of buses rolling into and out of Phuket gain momentum after bus services to and from Phuket resumed on Friday. Chop Puttasupa, chief of Phuket Bus Terminal 2, the main interprovincial bus terminal on the island, today confirmed that two buses from Bangkok arrived in Phuket yesterday. Today, 11 buses are scheduled to arrive from the capital. That number is expected to remain the same each day for the foreseeable future, Mr Chop said. However, Mr Chop pointed out that all buses are operating at half their maximum capacity as only every second seat may be occupied by passengers under the new regulations for social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. From now on there will be no less than 11 buses from Bangkok every day and there may be more. This is a lot of buses because only half the number of seats on the buses can be used by passengers under the new health rules, he said. Additional reporting by Tanyaluk Sakoot Chinas province of Shandong home to most of the countrys independent refiners plans to shut down as much as 500,000 bpd refining capacity at the so-called teapots as it pushes forward with a huge US$20-billion refinery and petrochemical complex in the province, industry officials told Reuters. The province of Shandong has had plans since 2018 to shut down a total of 500,000 bpd of refining capacity at independence refiners. Now the plan for the new giant complex is likely speeding the decision to shut that capacity, which is equal to around a fifth of the provinces refining capacity, according to Reuters sources. Last week, China gave the go-ahead to plans for the huge $20-billion refinery and petrochemical complex in the Shandong province, Reuters reported, citing two industry sources familiar with the approval process. The mega petrochemical complex has been years in the planning, but now it looks like the worlds top oil importer is looking to spend money on oil infrastructure in order to reinvigorate the economy hit by the coronavirus. Chinas National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC) approved the Shandong Yulong Petrochemical project, Reuters sources said. The complex in the Shandong province where most of Chinas independent refiners, the so-called teapots, are based is expected to host now the mega project which analysts expect to become operational at some point at the end of 2024. Shandong Yulong Petrochemical will have an oil refinery with a capacity to process 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) and an ethylene plant producing 3 million tons per year. According to Reuters sources, the investment in the project will be some US$19.7 billion (140 billion Chinese yuan). The teapots that could be closed are likely to include Binyang Ranhua, Zhonghai Jingxi Chemical, Yuhuang Chemical, and Jinshi Asphalt, analysts and an oil source in the Shandong province told Reuters. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Pixabay Islamabad/Xinhua: Prisoners in Pakistan's south Sindh province lodged a protest and held four policemen hostage after their seven inmates were tested positive of COVID-19, local media reported on Tuesday. The jail's authorities tested 77 people including staff members and prisoners of the disease and eight of them -- seven prisoners and a staff member -- tested positive. The infected people and their barrack mates were quarantined to stop the spread of the disease in the prison. However, the rest prisoners in the jail, after the test outcomes, resorted to a violent protest and also kept four police hostage, demanding the authorities to let them maintain social distancing by allowing them to move out of their barracks. A heavy contingent of police was called in to manage the protest, and the hostages were released after a discussion between police and the prisoners, the reports added. According to a recent report of the Prison Department of Sindh, 578 prisoners have been tested positive of the disease in the province so far, and all of them have been either quarantined in their jails or have been shifted to hospitals. After the emergence of initial COVID-19 cases in the country in late February and early March, local courts released scores of prisoners involved in light crimes in order to control over-crowdedness and spread of the disease in the jails. LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Positioned for rapid growth, Care Bridge International is proud to announce the establishment of its prestigious Advisory Board, made up of proven industry leaders possessing executive- level expertise in their respective fields. "We are delighted with the opportunity to work with such highly talented individuals," stated Deborah Watkins, Founder & Chief Disruption Officer of Care Bridge International, " to deliver the best in product quality and service, at scale, to a market that is rapidly transforming to meet consumer demands and business needs, in trying times." Among those appointed to the Advisory Board are: David Deitz, MD, PhD David Deitz & Associates, LLC Dr. Deitz is the principal of David Deitz & Associates, a consulting firm focused on helping clients design and implement strategies to obtain high-value health outcomes for patients and employers. Dr. Deitz has 25 years' experience in managed medical care, healthcare outcomes evaluation and reporting, and utilization management systems in both workers compensation and group health. He was engaged for many years as National Medical Director Commercial Insurance Claims for Liberty Mutual Insurance, where he was responsible for medical review operations, medical networks, and medical policy for workers compensation. Prior to joining Liberty Mutual, he worked in the private sector overseeing content development of managed care software and reporting systems that were successfully deployed at insurers nationwide. Dr. Deitz completed post-graduate training at the University of Miami and Harvard Medical School and is board-certified in Internal Medicine. He has worked with employers, labor, state regulators and lawmakers in over 20 states on reform efforts and has served on several task forces and committees nationwide. Dr. Deitz participates in the quality review of clinical data modeling and Life Care Plans generated for claims litigation, providing Medical Director oversight and strategic direction for clinical operations. "I'm really looking forward to working with the Care Bridge team!" states Dr. Deitz. "Customers are going to love the combination of advanced analytics and industry expertise, and will need a data-driven approach more than ever with the challenges of 2020." Peter Offringa Technology Leader/ Analyst Peter is an information technology executive with significant experience leading large-scale software development efforts on advanced Internet-based platforms. Peter has built teams of 100+ engineers at both rapidly growing start-ups and publicly traded companies. Past roles include CTO at Boatsetter, VP of Engineering at Zoosk and VP of Engineering at CBS Interactive. Peter has expertise in applying agile software development practices to expanding organizations, yielding consistent, reliable results. He has been responsible for highly scalable computing infrastructure in multiple cloud environments and launched numerous instances of engaging, consumer-facing products that delight users. Peter has deep domain knowledge in social apps, advertising systems, content management, e-commerce, product catalogs and peer-to-peer marketplaces. Peter is a named inventor on three US patent applications. He has a Bachelor of Science, Computer Science engineering from Princeton University. Peter offers insights and direction for the company's technology development and strategy, improving software performance as well as the customer experience. Peter states, "I am thrilled to join the Advisory Board for Care Bridge International. As a long-time technologist, I see an enormous opportunity to apply modern machine learning and data processing techniques to improve forecasting of medical treatment and costs for claims in the insurance industry. I look forward to working with the leadership team to plan the next phase of growth for the company." Richard "Dick" Palczynski Founder & President, SeaTower Insurance Consulting Services, LLC Dick is a Chief Executive with a leadership focus on integrity, fact-based decision making and conservative fiscal stewardship to ensure organizational growth and longevity. He is the former Senior Vice President of Towers Perrin Reinsurance and a former Chief Actuary of The Hartford Insurance Group. As former Chief Actuary at The Traveler's Insurance company, Dick held prior roles as Operations/ Strategic Head and Executive Vice President of Workers Compensation claims, building one of the first case reserve models in 1999. Dick is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and has served on many industry boards. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Rhode Island, a Master of Arts in Probability and Statistics from the University of Maryland and is a graduate of the Harvard University Program for Management Development. Dick is involved in case reserve strategy and actuarial process of the company's data modeling to ensure the highest quality and validity of the company's machine learning platform. Regarding Dick's appointment to the board, he states, "It is indeed an honor to join such a prestigious and experienced team with an innovative focus on medical treatment, clearly the most important and the most complex aspect of Workers' Compensation claims handling." For More Information: Visit Our Website at https://www.carebridgeinc.com Call Toll-Free: 888-434-9326 Ext. 101 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Care Bridge International Related Links https://www.carebridgeinc.com 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. Turkish president says there could be a new era in the Libyan conflict following a phone call with his US counterpart. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said some agreements have been reached with his US counterpart Donald Trump that could herald a new era in the conflict in Libya. Turkey supports the internationally recognised government of Fayez al-Sarraj, whose forces have in recent weeks driven back an assault on the capital, Tripoli, by the forces of renegade commander Khalifa Haftar. While the US officially supports Libyas UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), Haftar is supported by Washingtons allies Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), France, and Saudi Arabia as well as Russia. After our call this evening, there could be a new era between the US and Turkey regarding the (Libya) process, Erdogan told state broadcaster TRT on Monday. We reached some agreements during our call, he said, and alluded to a possible step the two countries could take together, but offered no details. A White House statement said Trump and Erdogan discussed the war in the North African country, as well as Syria and the wider eastern Mediterranean region, but gave no details. Turkeys support for the GNA has helped shift the balance in the country, leading the Tripoli-based forces to score a string of military victories in the countrys west and around Tripoli, inflicting a heavy blow to Haftars year-long campaign to capture the capital. Last week, GNA forces also recaptured Tripolis airport, gaining the upper hand against Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) based in the countrys east the seat of the rival administration. On Monday, the GNAs forces launched offensive to seize the strategic city of Sirte, as it rejected a unilateral ceasefire proposed over the weekend by Egypt, a Haftar ally. Oilfield targeted Egypt had called for a ceasefire starting Monday, as part of an initiative which also proposed an elected leadership council for Libya. Haftars other supporters, Russia and the UAE, welcomed the proposal. But Erdogan, whose support for the GNAs forces helped change the course of the war, said the GNA would continue fighting to seize the coastal city of Sirte and the Jufra airbase further south in a strategic region of the oil-exporting country. Now the goal is to take over the whole Sirte area and get it done. These are areas with the oil wells, these are of great importance, the Turkish president said. Erdogan said he would also discuss Moscows role in Libya with President Vladimir Putin, including what he said was the supply of Russian planes and Pantsir air defences to Haftars forces. They have Pantsirs there, they sent 19 warplanes to Libya, Erdogan said. After talking with him, we can plan ahead. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Libyas National Oil Corporation (NOC) said an armed force had entered the Sharara oilfield and told employees to shut the oilfield, hours after maintenance operations started. Al Jazeeras Mamoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli, noted the facility is the countrys largest oilfield with a production capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil per day. Its a major loss for the country and for the NOC, said Abdelwahed. An armed group stormed the facility and pulled weapons on the workers there and forced them to shut down production just three days after it resumed. The group is affiliated to Haftar. Brigadier Mohammed Khalifa, commander of the oil facilities guard force in the countrys south, which answers to Haftar, requested the operations at the Sharara oilfield, about 900km (560 miles) south of Tripoli, to be halted. NOC said it instructed employees to reject any military orders regarding the operating and the maintenance of the field. However, two engineers at the field said they already halted operations, and the field was re-closed. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media. The Libyan oil company said it again invoked force majeure, a contract clause that frees a party from liability whenever an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond its control takes place. The Hamada pipeline running from Libyas Sharara oilfield had just been reopened on Sunday, the Petroleum Facilities Guards said after it closed during a blockade on oil exports. Production resumed following negotiations with the tribes to end its closure, in place since January. Production also resumed on Monday in the al-Feel oil field. Sharara was to restart at a capacity of 30,000 barrels a day, with an expected return to full capacity within three months. Oil, the lifeline of Libyas economy, has long been a key factor in the civil war, as rival authorities jostle for control of oil fields and state revenue. Libya has the ninth largest known oil reserves in the world and the biggest oil reserves in Africa. This is the uplifting moment a bar full of revellers jumped for joy as lockdown measures were eased in New Zealand. Patrons at a Wellington nightclub leapt out of their seats at the stroke of midnight as the nation removed its lockdown measures on June 9. CCTV footage from the Danger Danger club showed how party-goers gathered at tables and enthusiastically began to count down. Pictured: Revellers at a nightclub in Wellington eagerly counted down to midnight and jumped for joy when New Zealand lifted its coronavirus restrictions on June 9 At the moment the clock hit midnight a hoard of people flooded the dance floor to dance, take pictures and celebrate. New Zealand moved to level two coronavirus restrictions in May, which saw children return to school and businesses and restaurants reopen. Patrons had to remain seated and socially distanced inside any establishment under these restrictions. The return to alert level one means that all social restrictions have been lifted and businesses no longer need to operate at a reduced capacity. New Zealanders may carry out their daily lives as normal but are encouraged to practice good hygiene at all times. Danger Danger owner Matt McLaughlin told Daily Mail Australia: 'After so many bad stories about COVID-19 and sad stories it's really nice to have something that puts a smile on people's faces.' Pictured: Footage from the Danger Danger nightclub revealed how party-goers gathered around tables for their countdown before leaping out of their seats Mr McLaughlin, the Wellington branch manager of Hospitality New Zealand, said: 'To be able to keep the doors open last night was an absolute godsend and, as you can see on the joy of our punters, it's been well-needed.' CORONAVIRUS ALERT LEVEL 2 AND 1 IN NEW ZEALAND Level 2: In May New Zealand allowed most shops, restaurants, schools, workplaces and public amenities to reopen with social distancing. Bars and clubs were also opened but customers were not allowed to mingle and had to remain seated at their tables. Public transport also ran at a reduced capacity during level 2. Level 1: On June 9 New Zealand lifted all social and business restrictions There are no gathering limits Public transport will operate as normal Anyone entering the country must isolate for two weeks Social distancing is no longer required on flights New Zealand's borders remain closed Advertisement 'It brought a tear to my eye just seeing people so happy. It's called hospitality for a reason, we want to be hospitable and show people a good time. 'Seeing that kind of footage is exactly the reason why I'm in the industry and I'm sure why a lot of other people are in the industry as well,' he explained. Mr McLaughlin said New Zealand's harsh coronavirus restrictions had been a huge blow to the hospitality industry. 'We were closed for five, six weeks and only partially open for another five weeks after that. So life's been really tough for me and really tough for our industry.' 'Our industry is going to be hit hard and we're going to see some businesses go bust and we're going to see some job losses,' he said. Mr McLaughlin noted the lifted measures would slowly allow the hospitality industry to return to normal. 'With the restrictions being eased, now people have been cooped up for a long time and they're ready to go out and celebrate, they're ready to catch up with their mates again,' he said. New Zealand has now reached 18 successive days with no new cases of coronavirus and there are no active cases. The first case appeared on February 28 and sent the nation into a 51-day lockdown. Most restrictions have now eased off and border controls remain in place as the primary measure against the return of the virus. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would not provide a deadline on when Australians would be able to visit. 'Our border is critical,' she said on Monday. 'The reason that New Zealanders, as of tomorrow, will be able to move around with freedom that very few other countries in the world have is because we are maintaining those restrictions at the border.' Nearly 90 per cent of residential projects in the UAE that were under construction before the Covid-19 pandemic are still proceeding. However, construction contracts may see delays in completion due to the developer induced postponements or interruptions in logistics of both labour as well as construction materials, said a recent survey conducted by Knight Frank, the leading property agency and consultancy company. The global property expert continues to deliver substantive guidance and solutions to the challenges faced by its clients as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic and aggregating industry-specific data in order to assess the evolution of real estate markets in response to this global crisis throughout the UAE. It carried out surveys to obtain valuable market feedback from residential/mixed use developers, office landlords, office tenants and retail landlords and operators throughout the UAE. In its latest survey, Knight Frank found that developers were largely taking a wait and watch approach when it came to projects that were under planning, with an overwhelming majority of projects being either put on hold (50%) or proceeding with expected delays (37.5%). A summary of the key findings from the surveys as well as their market outlook on the different sectors revealed that the residential market had just started to show tentative signs of entering into a growth phase prior to the lockdown. ome of the residential/mixed-use developers are now showing weakened confidence in the market reverting to the growth phase in the short term as evidenced by the shift in their debt strategy to longer term holds. From a buyer perspective, the market has seen a drop in off-plan sales with at least a quarter of the respondents seeing a drop of over 50% in transaction volumes as compared to Q1 of this year. PP Varghese, a partner for real estate strategy and consultancy at Knight Frank Middle East, said: "The key question developers need answered prior to moving forward with planned projects is whether the fundamentals of the market will change in the post-Covid era." "The residential populaces embrace of the return to normalcy following the recent easing of lockdown in Dubai, may be a very early indicator of the markets resilience and ability to bounce back," he stated. According to the survey, around 53.5% of office leasing deals in the UAE under negotiation at the start of the pandemic face delays and 30.8% are on hold, signalling the fluid demands of businesses as they try to adapt to market conditions. This immediate stress in the office market is further accentuated by the fact that only 15.4% of signed leases are proceeding as planned, stated Knight Frank in its survey. Majority (69.2%) of respondents indicated that tenants had successfully requested rent deferrals and renegotiations of lease terms on existing leases, with 61.5% of landlords stating they are likely to offer further concessions to maintain existing tenants and attract new ones. Moe than 46% of respondents are wary of the general uncertainty in the market, citing it as the greatest challenge to their real estate portfolios, followed by an apprehension that tenants may not be able to pay their rent (30.8%), it added. Umberto Bevilacqua, the commercial agent at Knight Frank Middle East, said: "The commercial real estate landscape will be permanently transformed by the current crisis. In the immediate effect many commercial Landlords will be facing drastically lower returns as majority of the tenants have obtained consistent short-to-medium term rent reduction or abatement." "Even though the future is difficult to predict, more than ever before, we believe that on the long run Landlords will need to consider digitalization of the workspace and improve the overall occupier experience for its tenants in order to maintain and retain high overall occupancy for their portfolios," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Hong Kong, June 9 : Cathay Pacific will embark on a HK$40 billion ($5.2 billion) capital recapitalisation exercise after the Hong Kong government offered a nearly HK$30 billion bailout in loans and equity, it was reported on Tueday. Confirming an earlier exclusive report by the South China Morning Post newspaper, the flag carrier announced the government would take a 6.08 per cent stake in the company, as part of a bid to ensure it has sufficient liquidity to survive the devastating onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic. As part of the deal, the government will set up a new entity, Aviation 2020, to buy HK$19.5 billion in preferential shares - which is equity with restricted voting rights - and warrants of up to a further HK$1.95 billion purchase of shares at a later date. It will also offer a HK$7.8 billion bridging loan to Cathay Pacific. In exchange for equity, the government will be taking up two "observer" boardroom seats in an unprecedented shake-up that will empower it to have a direct say in how the airline is run, sources have told the South China Morning Post newspaper. The two observers will not have voting rights on the board but would have a say on major decisions that affect the public's interests. Trading was suspended on Tuesday morning while the city's leader, Carrie Lam met the Executive Council, her de facto cabinet, to get final approval of a package that is expected to be announced later in the day. The coronavirus pandemic has forced airlines across the world to boost their cash position or seek government bailouts to survive the crippling collapse in air travel. Cathay Pacific lost HK$4.5 billion in the first four months of 2020 through the pandemic, and on March 11 it had HK$20 billion in unrestricted liquidity going into the health crisis. 'VeggieTales' creator talks white privilege; credits success to access to education, opportunities Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Phil Vischer, creator of the popular Christian animation "VeggieTales," said he decided to use his platform to address issues of racial injustice by penning a blog where he said that being white gave him access to opportunities that others did not have. With over 65 million "VeggieTales" videos to date, Vischer said he's had a successful life despite being raised in a single-parent home and surviving on baloney sandwiches. "I'm watching America burn, and watching fingers point in all directions. Of course, I'm not a racist. I've never kneeled on anyone's neck or denied housing to anyone. So I'm clean. Right?" He recently wrote in a blog posted to his podcast website Holy Post. "This situation has me examining how I tell my story, and I am more convinced than ever that how we tell our stories matters. I have benefited from racial injustice," Vischer said. The animation filmmaker detailed how hard life was for him after his parents divorced. He then revealed the struggles that he, his siblings, and his mother faced. Despite all odds, they all went on to accomplish great things. "After marrying a tradesman, my mother got her doctorate at age 50 and became a college professor. My brother ended up at Harvard Law and is now dean of a law school in Minnesota. My sister has a doctorate and teaches in NYC. And I am a filmmaker of moderate renown," Vischer continued. "Did we work hard? Yes, I guess so. But lots of people work hard and don't have nearly as much to show for it. So what is the missing factor? The factor that may be even more important than the hard work," he said: "We were white." Vischer then reflected on the many privileges he said his family had, going back generations, because they were white. He also spoke of the opportunities his grandparents and parents had because they had access to quality education. "How did a wealthy, white suburb help launch my filmmaking career? A good education was part of it," he said. "A high school with lots of resources was part of it. Making films with my church friends whose neighboring wealthy high school actually had film classes was part of it." "A friend at church had a friend who owned a video production company that just happened to be looking for a summer intern. A couple of phone calls and I had an internship, that led to a job, that led to my work in computer animation, that led to my career as a filmmaker of moderate renown," he added. He said although his story might seem like it has nothing to do with race or economic inequality, it does because of the opportunities allotted to him. "We had friends who knew people who owned companies. If we had relocated to a much poorer community specifically a non-white community the odds of bumping into someone at church who knew someone who owned a film production company would have been next to nothing. Wealthy communities bring proximity to opportunity," he said. Vischer said those facts have "everything" to do with racial injustice. "Way back in the 1930s the federal government decided that white families should be encouraged to own homes, and black families should not. Seventy years of policies encouraging and underwriting white home ownership, and discouraging black home ownership have led to a profoundly inequitable America," Vischer said. "Did I work hard? Yes, but not unusually hard. Not nearly as hard as many of my brown and black neighbors, who hold down multiple jobs just to pay rent." Were we of above-average intelligence? I suppose so. But so are many people who struggle to find opportunity in America. So what made the difference? We were white." Vischer ended his blog by sharing what he thinks about the unrest happening in the U.S. following the death of George Floyd. "So when I see people of color protesting injustice or living in poverty in wrecked communities, people in Ferguson, Missouri, or Minneapolis or Chicago or Flint, Michigan, and I feel the urge to say, 'Well, if you just worked harder you could do what I did' That is a lie. We built a system to favor ourselves. And it worked amazingly well," he added. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is focused on ensuring his political survival and is mobilising far-right supporters to help him do so as the coronavirus claims tens of thousands of lives in the country. With less than one-third of Brazilians approving of Mr Bolsonaros handling of the pandemic, and protests against him increasing, analysts say he is shoring up his base to shield himself from possible impeachment and to improve governability. Hes losing support and needs something to put in its place, said Mauricio Santoro, a professor of political science at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. Bolsonaro needs people on the street defending him. Jair Bolsonaro rides a horse in greeting supporters outside the presidential palace (Andre Borges/AP) Casting doubt on Covid-19 statistics has been a mainstay in far-right circles and Mr Bolsonaro has amplified such claims. So far the disease has killed more than 36,000 Brazilians, although such information is now unavailable on the Brazilian Health Ministrys website. It stopped publishing cumulative totals last Friday, the day after Brazil surpassed Italy to register the worlds third highest death toll. After a backlash, a senior Health Ministry official told reporters on Monday that the body would restore the cumulative death toll to its website, as early as Tuesday, but with changes to the methodology for how daily deaths are tallied. Critics complained that the extraordinary move to not report the death toll resembled tactics used by authoritarian regimes. It came after months of Mr Bolsonaro downplaying Covid-19 and maintaining economic meltdown would inflict worse hardship than allowing the virus to run its course. Pollster Datafolha found roughly 30% of Brazilians surveyed on May 25-26 rated Mr Bolsonaro as good or excellent and approved of his handling of the pandemic. Bolsonaro foes, seeing weakness, have submitted more than 30 requests for impeachment to Congress, where so far they have been stalled by the lower house speaker. Story continues Fans of two distinct soccer clubs hold a banner that reads in Portuguese We are for Democracy, as they joined forces for a recent anti-government protest in Sao Paulo (Andre Penner/AP) The presidents allies hope energised supporters could make it costly to support such moves. The muted support for Mr Bolsonaro was on display over the weekend, with protests against his government held in 20 cities while pro-government demonstrations were significantly smaller than prior weekends. Mr Bolsonaro still enjoys considerable support on the far right. Backers in April were quick to join his call to defy social isolation recommendations even as the outbreak started exploding. They then echoed the presidents call to treat Covid-19 with chloroquine, which many doctors refuse to prescribe owing to a lack of evidence it can help, and the fear it may hurt some. Mr Bolsonaro has tried to vitalise his base by joining weekend rallies in the capital that feature banners denouncing the Supreme Court and Congress, sometimes in lurid terms, for undermining his administration. On May 31, he flew over the crowd in an Army helicopter and, after landing, rode into the plaza on horseback flanked by mounted military police. Demonstrators holding a banner that reads Dictatorship never more protest against racism and Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaroand in Sao Paulo on Sunday (Andre Penner/AP) On Friday, he pledged to make it easier for police officers and servicemen to import guns for personal use, part of the far-rights longstanding demand to make guns more accessible. Whats making Bolsonaro get more radical is the pandemic; some processes that existed before were accelerated. And he is being seen as he is, said Adriana Dias, a researcher on far-right groups at University of Campinas. She noted Mr Bolsonaro never demonstrates empathy about the virus, including his infamous reply of So what? when asked about Brazils death toll surpassing Chinas. That didnt ring well with average Brazilians. That makes him even more dependent on the radicals, Ms Dias said. They met on Love Island in 2019 and have since moved in together. And Michael Griffiths joined Jordan Hayes, 25, for an outdoor workout in the park on Tuesday as gyms around London remain closed. The former firefighter and Dreamboys star, 28, showcased his ripped physique in a blue tank top teamed with black shorts and leggings that matched his housemate's ensemble. Looking good: Michael Griffiths joined Jordan Hayes, 25, for an outdoor workout in the park on Tuesday as gyms around London remain closed The duo put on an animated display as they made their way through the park carrying various gym equipment. Jordan cracked a smile as he sat on top of Michael's back while he attempted press ups. The pair then strengthened their backs by doing pull ups on a bar that was attached to the outdoor gym frame. Michael tensed his arms and showcased his toned muscles in the sleeveless top as he worked on his buff physique ahead of going on tour with the Dreamboys this year. Having fun: The former firefighter, 28, showcased his ripped physique in a blue tank top teamed with black shorts and leggings that matched his housemate's ensemble Larking about: Jordan cracked a smile as he sat on top of Michael's back while he attempted press ups Tense: The pair then strengthened their backs by doing pull ups on a bar that was attached to the outdoor gym frame The pair used hand weights to do bicep curls and checked themselves out while completing the exercise. The pair couldn't resist a giggle as they finished their workout with sprints around the park. Because they live together they do not have to socially distance when in public and were able to help each other out with different exercises. On their way: The duo put on an animated display as they made their way through the park carrying various gym equipment Hunk: Michael tensed his arms and showcased his toned muscles in the sleeveless top All smiles: Because they live together they do not have to socially distance when in public and were able to help each other out with different exercises Before going home, the reality stars did a variety of lunges and sit-ups. Clearly Michael was moving on from the drama surrounding this year's Love Island contestants Rebecca Gormley and Biggs Chris. The pair were beginning their relationship when the Newcastle born beauty had a drunken sleepover on Michael's sofa. However, the pair have since reconciled, with the model admitting: 'If the shoe was on the other foot, I would get how he feels.' Ripped: The Dreamboys star will be keen to stay in shape during lockdown ahead of going on tour with the male strip show later this year Helping out: The pair used hand weights to do bicep curls and checked themselves out while completing the exercise Checking it out: The pair couldn't resist a giggle as they finished their workout with sprints around the park Cheeky grin: Before going home, the reality stars did a variety of lunges and sit-ups as well as a run around the park Speaking on FUBAR Radio, Rebecca happily reported things are better than ever between the couple and that they talk everyday amid the COVID-19 lockdown. She continued: 'You know what, I love it! Theres literally not a day that goes by that we dont chat. 'We just go on FaceTime and literally when were doing our day, Im just there in the background and hes there in the background and we just chat and laugh about every day. 'If Im totally honest, obviously when we came out the villa weve spent quite a bit of time together, but I dont think its enough time for us to say, "right lets make it official". Working up a sweat: Michael gazed into the distance as he used elastic bands to tone his arms Muscles: He showed off his lean physique in gym tights and a blue tank top Pull up: The pair proved not having a gym open won't stop them from getting their daily exercise allowance Training: Together they used the bar to do press ups and looked like they had worked up a sweat 'So the way that I put it across to people is like, were more than friends but we just dont have a label of being in a relationship.' The pair first sparked relationship rumours after they left the Mallorcan villa in February, following Rebecca's short fling with administrator Jordan Waobikeze, 24. However, their fresh romance was rocked by claims the brunette bombshell cheated on the Scotsman with former firefighter Michael - a rumour they both deny. On rekindling their bond, an insider added to The Sun: 'Absence has made the heart grow fonder - when lockdown is over I expect they'll be fully back together.' MailOnline has contacted Rebecca's representatives for further comment. Extra weight: Jordan cracked a smile when he sat on top of Michaels back during his press ups Feeling good: The park seemed fairly deserted which was the ideal place to work out and get some fresh air Laughing: By getting Michael to hold onto his ankles, Jordan was able to do sit ups Hard work: Throughout their workout both boys couldn't contain their laughter Biggs previously admitted his love interest 'f***ed up' after drunkenly spending the night on Michael's sofa, but decided to give her a second chance before they eventually drifted apart. The Casa Amor star, who had gone home from the night out in question early, was left confused after he woke to find the Geordie beauty absent from their hotel room. The reality star said the incident has made him want to take their relationship 'slower', especially after receiving messages saying he needed to be 'careful' about dating Rebecca. Lunge: Michael strengthened his legs through squats and lunges while Jordan looked on On their way: Once finished they wore zip up black jackets and headed home KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday hit out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah shortly after he accused the former of trampling democracy in the state and alleged rampant corruption during her rule. Attacking the Home Minister, Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter and said that Shah was someone who had put the inclusivity of India in danger. @AmitShah, someone who's himself put the inclusivity of India in danger, talks about 'restoring' the culture of #Bengal. Doesn't he remember, it was @MamataOfficial who restored statue of Vidya Sagar, vandalised by his men in front of his own eyes, she tweeted. .@AmitShah, someone who's himself put the inclusivity of India in danger, talks about 'restoring' the culture of #Bengal. Doesn't he remember, it was @MamataOfficial who restored statue of Vidya Sagar, vandalised by his men in front of his own eyes.#BengalRejectsAmitShah pic.twitter.com/MO8LVl5OXv All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) June 9, 2020 The Trinamool Congress chief tagged her tweet with a hashtag #BengalRejectsAmitShah. The counter-attack from the TMC supremo came shortly after Home Minister Amit Shah attacked West Bengal Chief Minister over the alleged culture of political violence in the state. Shah said though the BJP wants to expand its influence in the TMC-ruled state, its goal is to rid West Bengal of the "environment of terror". "Bengal is the only state in the entire country where the culture of political violence is flourishing," he told the BJP's virtual 'Jan Samvad' rally. The Home Minister said despite the BJP winning a staggering 303 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, he held the 18 it won in the state dear. The senior BJP leader assailed the West Bengal government for not implementing the Ayushman Bharat health scheme for the poor. Castigating Banerjee over her stand on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Shah said the people of Bengal will reduce her to a "political refugee" because it. The Union Home Minister lauded the Narendra Modi government for its bold steps in the aftermath of the Uri and Pulwama attacks. "Nobody uttered a word when terrorists intruded and beheaded our soldiers with impunity when the UPA was in power. Our surgical and air strikes sent out a strong message that we have zero tolerance to terrorism," he said. He accused the Trinamool Congress government of patronising corruption. "There is corruption everywhere. It continued unabated even when the people of Bengal were reeling under the impact of cyclone Amphan," he alleged. Shah said Mamata Banerjee had "insulted" migrants by calling 'Shramik Special' trains carrying them to Bengal during the lockdown "Corona Express". The name Corona Express that you have given, Mamata didi, will become your exit route. Youve added salt to the wounds of the migrant workers and they will not forget this, said Shah during an online address to workers at West Bengal Jan Samvad rally. The BJP has been holding these virtual rallies to spread the message of the party and the government and also give a push to political activity. By Associated Press SAO PAOLO: As many countries gingerly start lifting their lockdown measures, experts worry that a further surge of the coronavirus in under-developed regions with shaky health systems could undermine efforts to halt the pandemic, and they say more realistic options are needed. Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and Pakistan are among countries easing tight restrictions, not only before their outbreaks have peaked but also before any detailed surveillance and testing system is in place to keep the virus under control. That could ultimately have devastating consequences, health experts warn. "Politicians may be desperate to get their economies going again, but that could be at the expense of having huge numbers of people die," said Dr. Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Exeter in Britain. He said re-imposing recently lifted lockdown measures was equally dangerous. ALSO READ | Concealing COVID-19's impact on second worst-hit Brazil is Bolsonaro's latest tactic to ensure support "Doing that is extremely worrying because then you will build up a highly resentful and angry population, and it's unknown how they will react," Pankhania said. And as nearly every developed country struggles with its own outbreak, there may be fewer resources to help those with long overstretched capacities. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said Monday the pandemic was "worsening" globally, noting that countries on Sunday reported the biggest-ever one-day total: more than 136,000 cases. Among those, nearly 75% of the cases were from 10 countries in the Americas and South Asia. Wealthy countries in Europe and North America hit first by the pandemic are training armies of contact tracers to hunt down cases, designing tracking apps and planning virus-free air travel corridors. But in many poor regions where crowded slums and streets mean even basic measures like hand-washing and social distancing are difficult, the coronavirus is exploding now that restrictions are being removed. Last week, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and Pakistan all saw one-day records of new infections or deaths as they reopened public spaces and businesses. Clare Wenham of the London School of Economics described the situation in Brazil as terrifying, noting the government's decision to stop publishing a running total of COVID-19 cases and deaths. "We've seen problems with countries reporting data all over the world, but to not even report data at all is clearly a political decision," she said. That could complicate efforts to understand how the virus is spreading in the region and how it's affecting the Brazilian population, Wenham said. Johns Hopkins University numbers showed Brazil recorded more than 36,000 coronavirus deaths Monday, the third-highest in the world, just ahead of Italy. There were nearly 692,000 cases, putting it second behind the U.S. Rio de Janeiro allowed surfers and swimmers back in the water and small numbers of beach-goers were defying a still-active ban on gathering on the sand. "Relaxing restrictions is dangerous because we're still at the peak, right? So it's a little dangerous," said Alessandra Barros, a 46-year-old cashier on the sidewalk next to Ipanema beach. "Today it's calm, but this weekend will be crowded." Bolivia has authorized reopening most of the country, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also recently unwound restrictions, Ecuador's airports have resumed flights and shoppers have returned to some of Colombia's malls. In Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged the country to stay calm after officials last week reported escalating fatalities that rivaled those in Brazil or the U.S. "Let there not be psychosis, let there not be fear," Lopez Obrador said, while accusing the media of fanning concerns of an escalating crisis. Across Latin America, countries that cracked down early and hard, like El Salvador and Panama, have done relatively well, although some of that has come at the expense of human rights and civil liberties, Wenham said. "Countries willing to take the short-term hit are the ones coming out better," she said, adding that poor countries weren't entirely without options, noting early, pre-emptive actions by Sierra Leone and Liberia. "They learned from the Ebola outbreak and moved quickly when they decided their economy couldn't cope with community transmission," she said. So far, numbers have been relatively low in both West African countries. Dr. Nathalie MacDermott, a clinical lecturer at King's College London, warned that some countries might be lulled into a false sense of security, citing South Africa as an example. "Their response looked quite promising initially, but it seems premature to release the lockdown without a better level of testing in place," she said. South Africa's cases are "rising fast," according to President Cyril Ramaphosa. More than half of its approximately 48,000 confirmed cases have been recorded in the last two weeks, prompting concerns that Africa's most developed economy could see a steep rise in infections shortly after restrictions are relaxed. U.S. President Donald Trump listens as Mark Esper, U.S. Secretary of Defense, speaks during his swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, July 23, 2019. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump nearly fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper following a disagreement over methods to quell nationwide protests, but was talked out of it, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing officials. Trump consulted with several advisors about his intention to fire Esper, his fourth defense secretary, according to the report. The president decided not to immediately fire Esper after talking with confidants, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and James Inhofe, R., Okla. A week ago, Esper publicly broke with Trump during a Pentagon press briefing by saying he did not support invoking the Insurrection Act a law that would allow the president to use active-duty forces to respond to civil unrest stemming from protests against police brutality. "I say this not only as secretary of Defense, but also as a former soldier and a former member of the National Guard, the option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire situations. We are not in one of those situations now," Esper said on June 3. "I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act," he added. Exactly two weeks after the death of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Niecy Nash revealed an incident that happened to her son. Nash, 50, spoke candidly with The Hollywood Reporter about Floyd's death and how she's coping with the pandemic, returning to work, and much more. The Reno 911! star revealed her son Dominic was pulled over by Los Angeles police after leaving her house last Sunday, and he got a taser pulled on him for a rolling stop. Niecy and son: Exactly two weeks after the death of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Niecy Nash revealed an incident that happened to her son When asked how she was doing amid all this, Nash admitted, 'I'm a f***ing wreck' before telling the story about her son Dominic 'My son got stopped leaving my house last Sunday. And they pulled a taser on him for a rolling stop,' Nash began. 'And then proceeded to question him and ask him, "You have on a T-Mobile shirt. Do you work there? Because if you do, how did you afford this car? Because this is a 2020."' she added. Wreck: When asked how she was doing amid all this, Nash admitted, 'I'm a f***ing wreck' before telling the story about her son Dominic Taser: 'My son got stopped leaving my house last Sunday. And they pulled a taser on him for a rolling stop,' Nash began 'They don't know if he was a manager. They don't know if he was an owner. They don't know if he had a rich mama,' Nash continued. 'But what they probably felt like was how did this young black boy get a car that I don't even have. And we fitting to make you suffer for it,' Nash said. She added that, after the death of George Floyd, it changed what she used to tell her son about dealing with the police. Don't know: 'They don't know if he was a manager. They don't know if he was an owner. They don't know if he had a rich mama,' Nash continued 'I used to say, if you just comply, get home, and if there was a wrong that happened, we'll right it later. But now we watched a murder on national TV when George Floyd was murdered. I don't know because he complied,' Nash said. 'He was in handcuffs. He was on the ground with his hands behind his back. So I don't even know. People are calling me, asking me to tell them something. And I'm trying to figure out what to tell mine,' she said. She said for non-black people to stop asking black people what to do, adding, 'You call the white people and ask them what they could do because black people, by definition, can't be racist because we're not the ones in power.' Power: She said for non-black people to stop asking black people what to do, adding, 'You call the white people and ask them what they could do because black people, by definition, can't be racist because we're not the ones in power' Nash is best known for playing Deputy Raineesha Williams on the hit Comedy Central series Reno 911!, which just returned on the streaming service Quibi. She added that her and her fellow co-stars, 'got together as a cast and donated $10,000 towards George Floyd's funeral.' She was also working on the fourth season of her hit TNT series Claws, during a two-week filming hiatus, which has stretched to several months thanks to COVID-19. - Ayub Savula claimed he was approached by ODM party to organise a coup in ANC party - He said he was informed that some ANC delegates had been organised to dethrone Musalia Mudavadi and make him party leader - Savula said the aim was to brand Mudavadi as a member of Tanga Tanga team so as to destabilise his support in Western Kenya Lugari MP Ayub Savula has come out claiming Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party is planning to have Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader removed from the post. According to Savula, he was approached by the Raila Odinga-led party and asked to organise a coup similar to the one that happened in Ford Kenya party so that he replaces Musalia Mudavadi as the party leader. READ ALSO: Mwili wa jamaa aliyezama mtoni wiki 3 zilizopita wapatikana Lugari MP Ayub Savula said he was approached by the ODM party to stage a coup in ANC to overthrow Musalia Mudavadi. Photo: The Star Source: UGC READ ALSO: Uhuru Kenyatta expresses anger to William Ruto for trying to forcefully take the baton In a report by KTN News, on Monday, June 8, Savula claimed he was approached by a senior member of ODM who informed him that they had planned with some delegates from ANC so that he can overthrow Mudavadi. As a second time MP who vied for the first time using the UDF party and now the official ANC deputy party leader in parliament, I am sure the aim of these people is to destabilise Musalia Mudavadi in Western Kenya, he said. He said their aim is to spread propaganda in Western Kenya that Mudavadi was working closely with William Rutos Tanga Tanga team ahead of the 2022 presidential election. His sentiments came at a time when Ford Kenya party leader Moses Wetangula was struggling to retain his position after some members organised a coup to dethrone him. Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi at the party headquarters in Nairobi. Photo: Musalia Mudavadi Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Kenyan newspapers review for June 9: 16 leaders who catalysed messy divorce between Uhuru and William Ruto Led by Tongaren MP Eseli Simiyu and Kanduyis Wafula Wamunyinyi, the leaders had managed to change the party leadership, which has since been gazetted as a notification on intentions to change its leadership. Wetangula now has seven days to contest the changes before they can be implemented and recognised by the political parties registrar Ann Nderitu. The current political scenario has seen reorganisation and a sustained purge against leaders who are considered to be disloyal to their party. It all started with an overhaul of Jubilee Party leadership in parliament before it was extended to ODM in a series of reshuffles that saw key rebels been ejected from National Assembly committee leadership positions. 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 A Texas inmate who spent nearly 40 years on death row and was at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that exempts people with intellectual disabilities from being executed was granted parole on Monday. The inmate, Bobby Moore, had been sentenced to death in 1980 in the killing of a supermarket clerk during a robbery in Houston. But last year, the Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Moore was intellectually disabled after rejecting the states methodology for diagnosing intellectual disabilities. The nations top court said that the standards used by the state relied too heavily on I.Q. scores and took account of factors rooted in stereotypes. A Texas appeals court then resentenced Mr. Moore to life in prison in November, making him eligible for parole. At a virtual meeting with Sudan and Ethiopia to discuss the mega-dam, Egypt called for the return to the Washington meetings held in February Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia have agreed to continue talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) with the attendance of observers, Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said on Tuesday. In a briefing aired on Sky News Arabia channel which followed a virtual meeting of the irrigation ministers of the three countries, and attended by observers from the US, the EU and South Africa, Abbas described the talks as "positive and fruitful." The three countries' perspectives were presented at the meeting, which was procedural, according to Abbas. Egypt called for the talks to be continued in accordance with the outcomes of the Washington meetings held on 21 February, while Sudan called for a return to 12-13 tripartite meetings between the three countries, the Sudanese minister noted. Ethiopia clarified that it could resume negotiations according to the terms of reference agreed at Washington but it still has "outstanding pending points," Abbas added. Ahead of today's meeting, Cairo had called for a timeframe for the technical talks, according to a statement by the Egyptian National Security Council. The council said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon that Egypt asserts its initial position that it is ready for negotiations in order to reach for a balanced and fair agreement to achieve the interests of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, [but] it considers this invitation to have come late. Today's talks are the first between the three sides since February, when Ethiopia pulled out of a meeting in Washington. Egypt and Sudan had rejected an Ethiopian deal released on 10 April proposing a partial agreement that would only cover the first stage of the filling of the mega-dam. Sudan has held talks with Egypt and Ethiopia to bring back all the parties to the table following an escalating war of words between Cairo and Addis Ababa. Cairo has welcomed Khartoums initiative but has stressed the importance of "serious and constructive talks to reach a fair, balanced and comprehensive agreement that would preserve Egypts water rights and the interests of both Sudan and Ethiopia. In May, Egypt revealed it had sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council detailing the status of the GERD talks and its concerns. Search Keywords: Short link: "The smaller the particle, the bigger the hammer." This rule from particle physics, which looks inside the interior of atomic nuclei using gigantic accelerators, also applies to this research. In order to "X-ray" a two-atom molecule such as oxygen, an extremely powerful and ultra-short X-ray pulse is required. This was provided by the European XFEL which started operations in 2017 and is one of the the strongest X-ray source in the world In order to expose individual molecules, a new X-ray technique is also needed: with the aid of the extremely powerful laser pulse the molecule is quickly robbed of two firmly bound electrons. This leads to the creation of two positively charged ions that fly apart from each other abruptly due to the electrical repulsion. Simultaneously, the fact that electrons also behave like waves is used to advantage. "You can think of it like a sonar," explains project manager Professor Till Jahnke from the Institute for Nuclear Physics. "The electron wave is scattered by the molecular structure during the explosion, and we recorded the resulting diffraction pattern. We were therefore able to essentially X-ray the molecule from within, and observe it in several steps during its break-up." For this technique, known as "electron diffraction imaging", physicists at the Institute for Nuclear Physics spent several years further developing the COLTRIMS technique, which was conceived there (and is often referred to as a "reaction microscope"). Under the supervision of Dr Markus Schoffler, a corresponding apparatus was modified for the requirements of the European XFEL in advance, and designed and realised in the course of a doctoral thesis by Gregor Kastirke. No simple task, as Till Jahnke observes: "If I had to design a spaceship in order to safely fly to the moon and back, I would definitely want Gregor in my team. I am very impressed by what he accomplished here." The result, which was published in the current issue of the renowned Physical Review X, provides the first evidence that this experimental method works. In the future, photochemical reactions of individual molecules can be studied using these images with their high temporal resolution. For example, it should be possible to observe the reaction of a medium-sized molecule to UV rays in real time. In addition, these are the first measurement results to be published since the start of operations of the Small Quantum Systems (SQS) experiment station at the European XFEL at the end of 2018. ### Publication: Photoelectron diffraction imaging of a molecular breakup using an X-ray free-electron laser. Gregor Kastirke et al. Phys. Rev. X 10, 021052 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.021052 Images may be downloaded at this link: http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/89043339 Caption: During the explosion of an oxygen molecule: the X-ray laser XFEL knocks electrons out of the two atoms of the oxygen molecule and initiates its breakup. During the fragmentation, the X-ray laser releases another electron out of an inner shell from one of the two oxygen atoms that are now charged (ions). The electron has particle and wave characteristics, and the waves are scattered by the other oxygen ion. The diffraction pattern are used to image the breakup of the oxygen molecules and to take snapshots of the fragmentation process (electron diffraction imaging). Credit: Till Jahnke, Goethe University Frankfurt Further information: Professor Till Jahnke Institute for Nuclear Physics Goethe University Frankfurt Tel.: +49 69 798-47025 E-Mail: jahnke@atom.uni-frankfurt.de. Current news about science, teaching, and society can be found on GOETHE-UNI online (http://www.aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de) Goethe University is a research-oriented university in the European financial centre Frankfurt am Main. The university was founded in 1914 through private funding, primarily from Jewish sponsors, and has since produced pioneering achievements in the areas of social sciences, sociology and economics, medicine, quantum physics, brain research, and labour law. It gained a unique level of autonomy on 1 January 2008 by returning to its historic roots as a "foundation university". Today, it is one of the three largest universities in Germany. Together with the Technical University of Darmstadt and the University of Mainz, it is a partner in the inter-state strategic Rhine-Main University Alliance. Internet: http://www.uni-frankfurt.de Publisher: The President of Goethe University Editor: Dr. Markus Bernards, Science Editor, PR & Communication Department, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Tel: -49 (0) 69 798-12498, Fax: +49 (0) 69 798-763 12531, bernards@em.uni-frankfurt.de. The city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, has removed a 176-year-old slave auction block from its downtown area. The 800-pound stone was pulled from the ground on a Fredericksburg street corner where African Americans were once displayed and sold as slaves on Friday morning after its removal was delayed for months by lawsuits and the coronavirus pandemic. The weathered stone was sprayed with graffiti twice as chants of 'move the block' erupted this week during local demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, city officials said in a statement announcing the removal. The stone will now be loaned out to the Fredericksburg Area Museum, and the site will be turned into a landmark recognizing the city's painful past. The city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, removed a 176-year-old slave auction block from its downtown area on Friday. The stone is seen with graffiti from recent George Floyd protests A crew of workers pulled the 800-pound stone from the ground using heavy machinery and plenty of manual labor on Friday morning Councilman Chuck Frye Jr, the only African American on City Council, credited the protesters for finally getting the block removed. 'I think it really hit home when there were hundreds of people at the block saying: "Move it,"' Frye told CNN. Frye proposed removing the auction block in 2017 in the wake of the deadly 'Unite the Right' rally in neighboring Charlottesville, Virginia. The Fredericksburg native recalled childhood memories of people mocking and spitting on the stone as they walked past it, and watching tourists take photos with it. 'I think racist folks loved it, historians understood it, and black people were intimidated,' Frye said. Chants of 'move the block' erupted in the streets during protests over George Floyd's death A local chapter of the NAACP also called for the stone's removal in 2017, saying it was a relic of 'a time of hatred and degradation' that was allowed to be displayed at a main thoroughfare in the city. 'The institution of slavery was central to the community prior to the Civil War,' John Hennessy, chief historian of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, told CNN. 'The trauma involved in that passed through generations. The block became an embodiment of the present and past pain in this community.' But after consulting members of the community, all of City Council - except for Frye - voted to keep the block in place while adding historical context to the site. 'It felt terrible,' Frye said. 'At that moment, I felt like I was on an island.' But he said he didn't let the initial defeat deter him from his mission, adding: 'I'm not going to waste a cushion in my council seat.' A local chapter of the NAACP called for the stone's removal in 2017, calling it a relic of 'a time of hatred and degradation' that was allowed to be displayed at a main thoroughfare in the city After the vote, City Council brought in the International Coalition Sites of Conscience (ICSC), a nonprofit that works to tell the stories of controversial historic sites, to engage the community in productive conversations about the block. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw credited those conversations with helping Fredericksburg be 'more honest about our history'. 'The auction block was the topic, but what you really wound up talking about were historical events of injustice and racial biases,' she said. Frye renewed his proposal last year, and the City Council voted 6-1 in favor of the removal and relocation to the Fredericksburg Area Museum in November. A judge upheld that decision in February after two businesses near the auction block sued to stop the relocation. The process was held up after one of the businesses, a commercial building owner, asked the Virginia Supreme Court to bar the removal while her decision was being appealed, according to the Free Lance-Star. The museum plans to display the knee-high stone in an exhibit chronicling the 'movement from slavery to accomplishments by the local African American community,' the newspaper reported. Museum President and CEO Sara Poore said the staff is deciding whether to remove the graffiti sprayed on the stone during the protests, which will also be featured in the exhibit. 'My recommendation has been very strong in not cleaning it because the graffiti itself tells a story,' Poore told CNN. 'By cleaning it, you erase history.' Poore was in favor of removing the auction block because she said the site has been 'a source of pain and suffering for so long'. 'We need to pave the way to make changes, and we can't make changes if the slave auction block is sitting on the corner,' she said. The Fredericksburg Memorials Advisory Commission is now laying plans to commemorate the street corner with historical context. This photo from circa 1930 shows a former slave standing by the auction block Other American cities have also taken steps to remove similarly divisive sites amid the protests against racism and police brutality, which broke out after George Floyd, a black man, was killed when a white Minneapolis cop knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest on May 25. Many of the sites are Confederate monuments, including a statue of Gen Robert E. Lee in Richmond. Virginia Gov Ralph Northam announced plans to remove the statue last week, but the process hit a lurch on Monday when a judge ordered a 10-day injunction. In Birmingham, Alabama, a statue of Confederate sailor Charles Linn that was toppled by protesters is scheduled to be removed by city officials. The United Daughters of the Confederacy already removed its statue from the heart of Alexandria, Virginia. HEFEI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Standing on the bow of the boat, Xiao Lyuying, an ex-fisherman on the Yangtze River, skillfully scooped up a plastic bottle with a fishing net while another boatman steered the boat. "The coming flood season will see a surge in floating trash and we are going to enter the busiest time of the year," said 75-year-old Xiao. Xiao was the vice-captain of a team of volunteers engaged in cleaning floating trash from the Yangtze River. The team, formed in 2019, comprises of more than 50 local ex-fishermen aged over 60, on the average. "We have lived along the Yangtze River since childhood and want to do our part in protecting it while we are still hale," said Xiao from Qunxin Village in the city of Tongling, east China's Anhui Province. According to Xiao, many fishermen chose to join the voluntary team due to their attachment to the river after coming ashore. Ma Mingsuo, 60, has been fishing for more than 40 years. He bid farewell to his fishing boat and gear as the waterway, where he used to fish, outlawed fishing for the protection of finless porpoises at the beginning of 2019. A year later, the Chinese government pushed for a 10-year fishing ban in 332 key areas of the Yangtze River to protect biodiversity in the country's longest river. Upon ending his fishing career, this old fisherman turned to apply his sailing experience to protecting the mother river. "I have been staying on the boat for nearly my whole life and it's good that my skill can still be used to clean the garbage in the river, which will also benefit my descendants," said Ma. Each month, this voluntary team patrols 15 km of waterway thrice, between early morning and late afternoon, collecting trash and patrolling to prevent people from fishing on the river. "There are no other fishing boats besides the ones that collect trash now. Declining with the number of fishing boats is the volume of garbages," said Xiao. The trash collected by the team is sent to the garbage disposal station on the shore, while the recyclable waste such as plastic bottles is sold. In over a year, the team of volunteers grew from 13 members to over 50. As of now, they have cleaned over 50 tonnes of floating waste. Besides garbages in the river, the team was also in charge of cleaning garbages and patrolling the Tiemao isle of the village. The isle, with an area of over 2,000 hectares, was once clustered with crops that local farmers grow. Last year, farmers had to cease farming in the region to restore the area to a wetland, in an effort to protect the finless porpoises. Despite paying some prices due the fishing ban and restoration plan of the wetlands, local villagers deemed the efforts worthwhile for the long-term benefit of the Yangtze River, according to the team. "We will continue to protect the Yangtze River until we are too old to steer the boat as it's a career deserving our time and energy," said Xiao. While the men were thrashing the 17-year-old boy, one of them recorded a video of the incident which later went viral on the social media. The said incident occurred on June 3 and came to light after the video went viral on micro blogging website Twitter. New Delhi: A Tik Tok star was allegedly thrashed and threatened by two armed assailants in West Delhi's Chhawla area in broad daylight, the police said on Sunday, adding that the dispute occurred over a photo that was uploaded on a social media platform. A senior police official said that the victim was contacted, who then filed a complaint against the unknown assailants. In the video, two men approach the boy, one of them with his face covered and start threatening him saying, "I will make you a TikTok star now". The man who had his face covered and was holding a gun, then strangled the boy and slapped him multiple times. In the said video, the victim's friend's voice can also be heard, he is apologizing to the men. In another video of the incident, the two men can be seen strangling the boy, and pointing a gun at his head. One of them then says, "You want to be a gangster aan?..Say sorry now", following which the boy pleads with them to leave him, but the assailants continue to torture and harass him. In his complaint, the boy has said that one of his friends named Ankit uploaded a picture on WhatsApp with a gangster named Ashu, who is a murder accused and is currently in Bhondsi Jail. Upon seeing the said picture, the complainant tried to warn his friend asking him not to upload a photo with this man. The complaint further mentions that the said picture was later seen by Ashu's associates who assumed that the complainant and his friend were trying to be a part of their 'gang' and they want to be gangsters. Following which they thrashed the boy and threatened them to remove the said photograph. However, there have also been allegations against Ashu that he sent the men to beat up the boys. "A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act in Chhawla police station," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Dwaraka Anto Alphanso. "Though one of the accused has already been identified, we are also ascertaining the reason behind the violence; various other angles including that of a love triangle is also being investigated and looked upon," he said. Prince Andrew broke his silence against the accusation of the U.S. Department of Justice that he is not cooperating in the Jeffrey Epstein investigations. In a lengthy statement released by the Duke of York's legal representatives Blackfords, they mentioned that Prince Andrew offered help on "at least three occasions" this year following the authorities' first request on January 2. Prince Andrew's "Voluntary Cooperation" On The Epstein Case "The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ. Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the Duke has offered zero co-operation. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered," the statement from Blackford read. The legal team also pointed out that the 60-year-old royal has never been a "target" of U.S. authorities' criminal investigation and is "voluntarily cooperating" on the Epstein case. Moreover, the Duke of York is requesting that the "interview arrangements would remain confidential" in line with DOJ's rules. A few days ago, it was reported that the disgraced royal has been requested by New York prosecutors to give his testimony about his connection with the the late billionaire.. As part of the investigation, the US DOJ has sent formal requests to speak to the Duke of York. They have also been in contact with his legal team for "many months," as cited by The Sun. A source told the news outlet that authorities are getting tired of his team's delaying tactic, so they were forced to up the ante. Prince Andrew Shuts His Door With The Ongoing Investigation However, following the release of his official statement addressing the issue, federal prosecutors claimed that the Queen's second son is still refusing to comply and has shut his door with the ongoing investigation. "Contrary to Prince Andrew's very public offer to cooperate with our investigation into Epstein's co-conspirators, an offer that was conveyed via a press release, Prince Andrew has now completely shut the door on voluntary cooperation," US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman mentioned in a press release. To recall, Prince Andrew made headlines in several royal family news after he was forced to "step back from public duties for the foreseeable future." It came after his disastrous BBC interview on BBC with Emily Maitlis. Back in 2019, Prince Andrew discussed his friendship with the late Epstein. However, he strongly denied the allegation of one of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claimed that he was forced to have sexual interactions with the Duke. Giuffre claimed he was used as a sex slave by the American financier and that the Duke of York had sex with her three times. Award acknowledges FACIT's commercialization impact in growing Ontario's life sciences industry TORONTO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - FACIT, a commercialization venture firm, has been nationally recognized with CVCA's 2020 Venture Capital Regional Impact Award for Ontario. The CVCA helps to set the foundation for greater collaboration, innovation, growth and market intelligence for Canadian private capital professionals. The Venture Capital Regional Impact Award celebrates firms whose investments have positioned portfolio companies to make a meaningful mark within both their community as well as the broader niche sector. The award competition considers the most impactful private equity organizations across all sectors including IT, AgTech, Healthcare, and CleanTech. FACIT's award was specifically related to the 2019 historic US$1B partnership between its portfolio companies, Propellon Therapeutics ("Propellon") and Triphase Accelerator ("Triphase"), and US pharma giant Celgene (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company). The partnership represents one of the largest oncology licensing transactions for a preclinical asset in Canadian history, and the largest biotech asset transaction worldwide for academia. Moreover, this deal helped to solidify a "made in Ontario" development pathway for commercialization of oncology innovations, as the asset at the heart of the transaction originated from FACIT's strategic partner, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). FACIT's strategic seed investment of $3M was critical in putting Ontario intellectual property (IP) in a position of strength to negotiate a transaction with maximum regional impact. The collaboration with Triphase anchors R&D jobs, clinical trials and industrial development in Ontario, benefiting both the economy and patients. Through financial support from Ontario's Ministry of Colleges and Universities, FACIT has a mandate to translate Ontario's most promising cancer innovations and maximize the value of the province's investment in research and healthcare. With a portfolio that has attracted over $850 million in investment to Ontario, FACIT is actively building companies with entrepreneurs to accelerate healthcare innovation and retain IP value, jobs and industrial development in Canada. Its success in locally commercializing medical technology, health IT, imaging, and therapeutics is a direct result of the integration of outstanding science, Ontario First seed capital, and industry experience into a novel commercialization venture model. Not only have FACIT-supported ventures attracted remarkable life science financings, but every dollar invested by FACIT has attracted $20 dollars of private equity to the province. "We are proud of the team's work to help demonstrate the value of seed-stage investing in the commercialization of Propellon and Triphase, and we thank CVCA for this honour and recognition by our industry peers," said Dr. David O'Neill, President of FACIT. "The rapid growth of our portfolio demonstrates the power of biotechnology to capitalize on Ontario's world-class cancer science, compete in the innovation economy and make a difference in the fight against cancer." "This is a great achievement and recognition that FACIT is successfully driving significant benefits to the Ontario innovation economy, building on the research strength of OICR," said Dr. Laszlo Radvanyi, President and Scientific Director of OICR. "Congratulations to FACIT on receiving the CVCA award for their leadership in Ontario's commercialization sector," said the Honourable Ross Romano, Minister of Colleges and Universities. "FACIT has made smart and strategic investments in Ontario's rapidly developing biotech sector. The firm is an important partner in ensuring that the province's intellectual property is captured, both for the local economy and patients living with cancer." About FACIT FACIT is a commercialization venture firm that builds companies with entrepreneurs to accelerate oncology innovation, with a portfolio that has attracted over $850 million in investment to Ontario. Blending industry experience, capital and the unsurpassed clinician-scientist network of its strategic partner the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), FACIT capitalizes on the province's investment in research and healthcare to the benefit of the local economy and patients worldwide. FACIT's commercialization portfolio includes Turnstone Biologics, Fusion Pharmaceuticals, Triphase Accelerator and other biotechnology organizations. Cancer Breakthroughs. Realized. facit.ca. SOURCE FACIT Inc. Related Links http://facit.ca/ The issuance of the 510(k) clearance authorizes Vasoptic to market and sell the XyCAM RI in the United States. "Today's announcement represents an important milestone," said Abhishek Rege, President and Founder of Vasoptic. "After tremendous effort from a tremendous team of engineers, scientists, and clinicians, the FDA authorization will enable physicians to better understand the physiological status of their patient's retina. Specifically, the XyCAM RI provides imaging of blood flow dynamics in the retina, the next frontier for ophthalmic imaging, and will allow physicians to make decisions about care that could dramatically impact the vision and quality of life for millions of Americans." Ophthalmologists and optometrists predominantly use optical imaging technology for retinal examination and to monitor and manage a variety of conditions, including age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinal vein occlusions. These diseases affect the daily lives of millions of people and may be indicative of more systemic medical conditions. As an example, diabetic retinopathy is a condition that affects nearly 1 in 3 diabetic patients and, if unmanaged, leads to severe vision impairment and blindness. According to the International Diabetes Federation, more than 31 million individuals in the US suffer from diabetes and globally the population of diabetics is nearly half a billion. "Our goal at Vasoptic is to develop and deploy innovative diagnostic tools to allow clinicians to better manage their patients' disease," said M. Jason Brooke, Co-Founder and General Counsel at Vasoptic. "The XyCAM RI adds to the clinician's toolbox an ability to capture dynamic physiological information that can meaningfully improve their understanding of the condition and disease progression. It is our hope that clinicians in the future will leverage the blood flow information from the small vessels of the retina to generate new ways to manage and treat ophthalmic diseases like glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy but also systemic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, or sleep apnea." The Abell Foundation has been a major supporter and investor in Vasoptic since the early stages of the company's development. Robert C. Embry, Jr., President of the Abell Foundation, commended the company on reaching this important milestone. "As an organization working to enhance the quality of life in Baltimore and Maryland, the Abell Foundation recognizes the disproportionate impact retinal diseases have in our community that too often go undetected. Vasoptic Medical's XyCAM RI has the potential to change the lives of those we seek to serve," Embry said. "We look forward to continuing to support the Vasoptic team as the product is deployed in clinics around Baltimore, Maryland, and the rest of the country." With the grant of the 510(k) clearance, Vasoptic can begin taking purchase orders for the XyCAM RI from hospitals, ophthalmology and optometry clinics, and academic medical centers interested in integrating the retinal blood flow imager into daily practice. In addition, Vasoptic intends to continue to collaborate with academic research institutions to gather clinical evidence to support the expanded use of the XyCAM RI in specific disease conditions. About Vasoptic Medical, Inc. Vasoptic Medical, Inc. is an early-stage, medical device company with a mission to advance healthcare through innovation in medical diagnostics. Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, Vasoptic Medical is committed to creating and delivering value to the patient and healthcare system. About The Abell Foundation The Abell Foundation is dedicated to the enhancement of the quality of life in Maryland, with a focus on Baltimore. The Foundation seeks to address the complex challenges caused by cycles of urban poverty by supporting efforts to identify solutions that are both innovative and results-oriented. SOURCE Vasoptic Medical, Inc. Related Links https://www.vasoptic.com/ Ghana and its president Nana Akufo-Addo were given special acknowledgement during the funeral service of George Floyd, an African- American man who was killed by police during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. A statement read on behalf of the family reads; The family of Geroge Floyd would like to acknowledge the message of solidarity, resolution and visual tribute from His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, the President of Ghana. Yesterday, during the memorial, a video produced by the people of Ghana was broadcast for thousands of mourners as they paid their final respects to Mr Floyd. The family is honoured by President Akufo-Addo the decision to have Mr Floyds name permanently mounted , parts of the statement read. On Saturday, June 6, 2020, The Year of Return Committee of the West African country in partnership with the African Union of Diasporan Forum laid wreaths in Accra in memory of George Floyd at the DuBois Centre in Accra. This followed a petition sent to the U.S. Embassy on June 1 calling for the safety of members of the black community in the United States. The Minister for Tourism, Mrs Barbara Oteng Gyasi, called on all Africans both on the continent and in the diaspora to take a cue from George Floyds death and unite to ensure the growth and development of the continent. 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 DJ Cuppy has joined the Black Lives Matter protest in London, United Kingdom. The DJ said it was only mandatory for her to join the protest in other for us to have a vatter world. While sharing photos of herself from the protest, she also used the opportunity to condemn sexual violence against young women in Nigeria which the country in actual fact is seriously fighting against at the moment. I honestly thought of SO many reasons to NOT protest, but the truth is I wouldnt be able to live with myself if I didnt go and support! ?????? Isaiah 1:17 .Straight after my radio show today, I joined my brothers and sisters who are protesting against racial injustice faced by black people globally. Im also taking this moment to stand against gender-based violence and sexual assault taking place in Nigeria. Together we MUST do better ? Cc: @CuppyFoundation #BlackLivesMatter #SayNoToRape Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 08:37 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd24b03 4 Lifestyle fashion,protective-outer,protective-jacket,protective-gears,Anne-Avantie,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free As Indonesia prepares to enter the new normal period and the countrys capital city begins its transition phase to ease large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), people will begin returning to offices and to enjoy outdoor activities after months of self-isolation. For those looking to shield themselves from COVID-19 while outside, wearing a protective jacket (JPD) is a good option in addition to donning a face mask or face shield. Realizing this new necessity, several Indonesian designers and labels have come up with interesting designs for protective jackets and outerwear to keep the wearers safe and stylish at the same time: Anne Avantie Since the outbreak, renowned kebaya designer Anne Avantie has been busy making protective gear (APD) for hospitals workers. Now that the "new normal" is upon us, she has begun making stylish protective jackets as well. Several people called me, looking to purchase APD [...] that they wanted to wear while buying groceries and doing other activities. [The requests] then inspired me to make fashionable protective jackets, shared Anne on Instagram. The 54-year-old fashion designer told tempo.co that she made the jackets with safe yet comfortable materials. "Our target [customers] are varied; from companies to adults and children." Though appearing the same, the jackets are different from raincoats. After use, they should be hung outside in an open area or, after being sprayed with disinfectant, can be stored in the wardrobe without being folded. Wearers are also still encouraged to use a face mask and gloves for precautions. Gadiza This fashion brand has released a product called Sazia Outer to cater to those seeking additional protection while out and about. Available in 115 and 95 centimeters lengths, the hooded outer is said to be made of lightweight and water-repellent material. Gadiza creative director Rosie Rahmadi said on Instagram that the outer was currently among the brand's all-time favorite products. It doesnt get wrinkled easily and dries fast after being washed," she said. I can also wear it while working out as its length is comfortable when wearing pants and helps me sweat a lot. Read also: Indonesian designers, brands make chic face masks for the fashion-forwards Wenings Line Fashion brand Wenings Line by Yogyakarta-based designer Wening Angga also features protective outers with a touch of Indonesian culture among its products. The outers are said to be made of quick-dry and waterproof materials that are still comfortable, as well as tenun (handwoven fabric) from the Baduy tribe and lurik (striped woven material) from Yogyakarta. Devy Ros Couture Semarang-based fashion designer Devy Rose has produced a similar outfit for daily use. Offered as part of the S-APD series by brand Devy Ros Couture, the outfit consists of a jacket and cargo pants with a hoodie and matching face mask. Made of nylon polyester parachute material to protect the wearers from respiratory and speech droplets, Devy stated that the brand used water-repellent, antidust and lightweight materials and provided products with additional pockets for practicality purposes. (wir/kes) (CNN) US and Russian officials will meet later this month for nuclear arms negotiations, a top US arms control official announced Monday. Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea said that he and his Russian counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, have agreed "on time and place for nuclear arms negotiations in June." The Trump administration has abandoned a number of key arms control pacts, most recently the Open Skies Treaty, in favor of seeking a three-party agreement with Russia and China. The insistence on a trilateral agreement is widely seen as a way to scuttle New START, the nuclear reduction treaty between the US and Russia that is set to expire in February 2021. Beijing has dismissed calls to participate in trilateral talks. In his tweet Monday, Billingslea said that China had been invited to this month's discussions, writing, "Will China show and negotiate in good faith?" The arms control envoy reiterated last month that it is their expectation that a future arms control agreement will be multilateral, telling reporters, "We do absolutely expect that whatever arrangements are reached, the Chinese will be part of a trilateral framework going forward." Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, said it is unclear what incentive China would have to join the talks, given the disproportionate size of its nuclear arsenal in comparison to that of Russia and the US. The latter two countries "possess about 85% of the world's nuclear weapons" -- "more than 10 times the deployed number of strategic nuclear warheads as China, Britain and France combined," he said. Moreover, Kimball noted that the administration's escalated rhetoric toward China amid the coronavirus pandemic will not have helped bring them to the table. In remarks at the Hudson Institute last month, Billingslea dismissed "the notion that China should not be expected to engage in nuclear arms control until it has built up to US and Russian levels" as "an outdated display of Cold War logic." Kimball told CNN that the US and Russia meeting to discuss nuclear arms control matters is "good, but this is no reason to celebrate because the Trump administration's position seems to remain the same." "They're refusing to pick up Russia's offer to extend New START," he said, referencing "They appear to be still demanding new agreements that can't be negotiated before New START expires, not only with Russia, but with China. So, I'm not jumping up and down for joy." Last month, Ryabkov called the administration's approach to the New START "quite strange" and said "it would be in everyone's interest" to extend the deal. "My view on this is that chances for the new START Treaty to be sustained are rapidly moving close to zero, and I think that on February 5, 2021, this treaty will just lapse, and it will end," he told The National Interest. In his remarks at the Hudson Institute, Billingslea said that the administration hoped to avoid "an unnecessarily expensive buildup in a three ways arms racing context" between the US, China and Russia, but warned that the US was prepared to "spend into oblivion" to beat them. Kimball said the comments reflect "a dangerous philosophy about nuclear weapons," adding, "No one wins an arms race." Ryabkov said Billingslea's comments were noted. "We will never, ever allow anyone to draw us into an arms race that would exceed our own capabilities," he said. "But we will find ways how to sustain this pressure, both in terms of rhetoric and also in terms of possible action." Multiple agencies are investigating the death of a Marine machine gunner who collapsed after a recent training event in North Carolina. Pfc. Ethan M. Moores, 18, assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, was pronounced dead at Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune on May 27. The Marine Corps did not disclose his death at the time. It was listed on a recent mishap report from the Naval Safety Center, which tracks Navy and Marine Corps deaths and major accidents. The circumstances surrounding Moores' death remain under investigation with his parent command, 2nd Marine Division and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, 1st Lt. Dan Linfante, a spokesman for the division, told Military.com. Linfante declined to answer several questions about the incident, including what type of physical training the unit was completing when Moores collapsed and the time of day it happened. He did say there was no elevated heat advisory on the day Moores died. Emergency medical services arrived on the scene, Linfante said, and administered lifesaving aid before transporting the Marine to the naval medical center. Read Next: Here Are the States and Countries Where Military Travel Restrictions Have Been Lifted Lt. Col. Christopher Richardella, Moores' battalion commander, said the loss was felt by the entire unit. "Pfc. Moores was a part of the 1/8 family and all of the Marines and Sailors deeply feel the loss of a fellow warrior," Richardella said. "He was a valued member of our team and will never be forgotten. Our thoughts and prayers are with Pfc. Moores' family, friends, and loved ones. We extend our full support to them during this trying time." A member of Moores' family did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moores, who graduated last year from Shead High School in Eastport, Maine, had from a young age dreamed of joining the Marine Corps, according to his obituary. Moores graduated from boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, in November 2019. He later finished training at School of Infantry-East before reporting to 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, his service records state. He enjoyed mudding, four-wheeling, and target shooting, according to his obituary. In place of flowers, Moores' family suggested donations in the Marine's memory be made to a veterans' charity of choice. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, last week ordered all U.S. and North Carolina flags at state facilities to be flown at half-staff in Moores' honor. "As a show of respect, individuals, businesses, schools, municipalities, counties and other government subdivisions are encouraged to fly the flag at half-staff for the duration of time indicated," the notice states. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins. Related: Group Pushes Military to Give EKGs Before Boot Camp to Stop Sudden Cardiac Deaths Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Sunyani, Owusu-Banahene Justina, has affirmed that the disinfection and disinfection exercise of the Sunyani Military Barracks (3 Battalion) will spur military personnel on to continue to support the government's fight against Covid-19. She made the remarks at the launch of the disinfection and disinfection of military facilities in the Brong Ahafo Region. According to her, as one of the front-runners in the war against Covid-19, it was crucial that homes and offices of military officers were safeguarded against the new coronavirus. This, she said, will not only protect them from getting infected but will also encourage them to enforce the Covid-19 preventive protocols spelled out by the President. "Looking at the role championed by the Army in ensuring the safety of the populace, it is expedient that as one of the Frontline workers--the military--have their homes safe from the virus," she said. In the view of Mrs. Owusu-Banahene, Covid-19 has come to stay with us, adding that it will take a concerted effort to mitigate its effects. On her part, the Regional Manager of Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), Esther Abayeta Asadoo, said the exercise was expected to be replicated in all military facilities and installations in the Brong Ahafo to ensure the safety of military personnel. Commanding Officer of the 3 Battalion at the Sunyani Military Barracks, Lt. Col J.Y. Kwarten, intimated that the exercise will be done in all military offices and homes across the region. The human rights situation in China three decades on from the Tiananmen Square massacre remains a "tragedy", the head of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has said. Christians and human rights campaigners around the world are marking the 31st anniversary of the massacre on Thursday. In Hong Kong, officials banned the staging of vigils to commemorate the anniversary due to coronavirus. In a statement, CSW Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said: "CSW, together with organisations and individuals around the world, will be remembering this event and standing in solidarity with family members of victims who are still waiting for justice. "Three decades on, the human rights situation in China continues to be a tragedy. "The Chinese Communist Party continues to violate the rights of citizens across the country, stamping out dissent, stifling freedom of expression, and putting a stranglehold on the right to freedom of religion or belief." As many as 10,000 people may have died when, on 4 June 1989, the People's Liberation Army moved into Tiananmen Square to crush protests that had been calling for democracy and freedom. The perpetrators have never been brought to justice and the massacre has been censored in China's history books. Today in Hong Kong, where citizens have spent the last year protesting an increasing Beijing crackdown, police refused to grant permission for memorials to take place to mark the anniversary. Until now, Hong Kong and Macau have been the only parts of China permitted to hold events to mark the massacre. While officials have said the ban on vigils is because of coronavirus, democracy activists are sceptical after China moved last week to impose a contentious national security law on the territory. The national security law, which will make it illegal to undermine Beijing, has been denounced by the international community, including religious leaders. By Spiro Skouras Just in case 2020 wasnt crazy enough, the Environmental Protection Agency recently announced rolled back regulations for companies due to the coronavirus outbreak, paving the way for companies to skirt environmental laws and regulations during this declared crisis. So it should come as no surprise that Oxitec, a biotech company funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is moving forward with a failed 2018 agenda to release genetically modified mosquitoes into Florida and Texas. In times of crisis and rolled back regulation, we must ask the question, who is ensuring public safety? This report also explores research funded by the Gates Foundation in addition to the DoD and the NIH into mosquito-delivered vaccines. Genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in Florida and Texas beginning this summer https://theconversation.com/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-could-be-released-in-florida-and-texas-beginning-this-summer-silver-bullet-or-jumping-the-gun-139710 Gates Foundation Oxitec Grant https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2018/06/OPP1181812 Gates Foundation and Oxitec Fight Malaria with Genetically-Modified Mosquitoes https://www.labiotech.eu/industrial/gates-foundation-oxitec-malaria-mosquito/ Gates Foundation Awards $4.1 Million for Mosquito Engineering https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/gates-foundation-awards-4.1-million-for-mosquito-engineering Mosquitoes are the new syringe? Seattle lab nibbles at malaria vaccine https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/mosquitoes-are-the-new-syringe-seattle-lab-nibbles-at-malaria-vaccine/ Researchers Turn Mosquitoes Into Flying Vaccinators https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/03/researchers-turn-mosquitoes-flying-vaccinators US Army & Gates Study Immunization Via Mosquito Bite With Radiation-attenuated Sporozoites (IMRAS) https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01994525 Who is the biggest killer on the planet? http://www.hardydiagnostics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/The-Most-Deadly-Animals.pdf EPA suspends enforcement of environmental laws amid coronavirus https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/489753-epa-suspends-enforcement-of-environmental-laws-amid-coronavirus Bill Gates hits out at anti-vaxxers over coronavirus misinformation https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/04/bill-gates-hits-anti-vaxxers-coronavirus-misinformation-12805067/?ito=cbshare Bill Gates says mosquitoes scare him more than sharks https://www.cnet.com/news/bill-gates-says-mosquitoes-scare-him-more-than-sharks/ Follow Spiro on BitChute bitchute.com/channel/spiro/ Follow on Twitter https://twitter.com/o_rips The Tamil Nadu government on Monday informed the Madras High Court that the present schedule for holding Class X Board exams from June 15 was the right time as experts opinions published in news reports forecast COVID-19 cases in the state might rise up to two lakh in coming days. The court, however, said it cannot put lives of more than nine lakh students at stake and asked the government to consider postponement of the exams in view of soaring COVID-19 cases across the state, where the tally as of Monday stood at 33,229. Hearing a petition by a teachers association challenging the governments decision to conduct the exams amid the pandemic, a division bench of justices Vineet Kothari and R Suresh Kumar made it clear it was prima facie convinced that the state has to be restrained from going ahead with the schedule. We cannot allow the state to put lives of more than nine lakh students at stake. This is not like opening TASMAC (liquor) shops during lockdown, the court said. However, the bench restrained itself from passing any interim order and adjourned the hearing to June 11 directing the state to inform its stand. The government has also been directed file a detailed report on the steps taken for conduct of the examinations, which were originally scheduled in March but postponed in view of the national lockdown. When the hearing on the petition commenced on Monday, the bench wondered whether the government can give an undertaking that no student will get COVID-19 infection if it was allowed to conduct the exams from June 15. Responding to this, Advocate General Vijay Narayan submitted that according to expert opinions which are widely published in news reports COVID-19 cases might increase up to two lakh and evern go up further in the coming days. Therefore, this is the right time to conduct the exams, he added. He also pointed to the CBSEs move to hold Class XII exams and said there were over 200 schools affiliated to the central board in the state and none have complained. We do not know why only the state board schools are targeted, Narayan said. Anyhow exams should be conducted at some stage, and if it was not now, it would be difficult to hold them at a later date, he added. The bench then said when the government has decided not to open educational institutions till COVID-19 threat subsides, why it should force Class X students to write the exams. There is absolutely no logic in conducting the exams risking the lives of 9 lakh students, the court said. The petition has been filed by the Tamil Nadu High and Higher Secondary School Graduate Teachers Association challenging the states decision to conduct the exams from June 15. Ottawa, June 9 : Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the country's police should be equipped with body cameras as a simple way to address complaints of racism and brutality. "With the many disturbing reports of violence against black Canadians and indigenous people, we know that we need to do much more," Trudeau said at a press conference in Ottawa on Monday. "We need to do it now." Trudeau said he plans to raise the issue of body cameras for police officers in his conversations with provincial premiers and has already discussed it with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Brenda Lucki, reports Xinhua news agency. He pointed out that systemic discrimination and racism in Canada goes much further than just policing. "It's about poverty and mental health. It's about the fact that people are all too often treated like criminals instead of receiving the support they need." These problems are tied to economic inequality and the racialization of poverty, Trudeau said, noting that various levels of governments need to work together and need to adopt "bold measures". The Prime Minister's push for police body cameras comes as calls for police reform are part of a broader debate in Canada about police use of force, caused both by incidents in Canada and by the continent-wide wave of protests triggered by African-American George Floyd's death in police custody. Last week, Canadian media reported several incidents across the country, including allegations of police brutality from a First Nations chief in Alberta and the fatal police shooting of a 26-year-old indigenous woman in New Brunswick. Thousands of protesters returned to the streets in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and other cities over the weekend to protest against racism, systemic discrimination and police brutality in the country. Bakersfield, CA (93308) Today Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High near 60F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Clear skies. Low around 40F. Winds light and variable. File image: Indian Army soldiers guarding the border Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at multiple points in Eastern Ladakh after over a month of border tensions between the two countries, sources told news agency ANI. "Troops and infantry combat vehicles moved back by 2.5 km by Peoples Liberation Army in Galwan area, Patrolling Point 15 and Hot Springs area. India has also moved some of its troops back," sources told ANI. Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in a month-long confrontation since May 5 following a violent clash in Pangong Tso. This is turning out to be the biggest military standoff after the 2017 Doklam episode. In their first serious efforts to end the row, Lt General Harinder Singh, the general officer commanding of Leh-based 14 Corps, and Commander of the Tibet Military District Maj Gen Liu Lin held an extensive meeting on Saturday. However, it could not produce any tangible results. In a statement, the external affairs ministry on Sunday said the meeting took place in a "cordial and positive atmosphere" and that both sides agreed that an "early resolution" of the issue would contribute to the further development of the relationship between the two countries. In its comments, the Chinese foreign ministry said both the countries have agreed to work to maintain peace along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and resolve the standoff through talks. Saturday's talks also came a day after the two countries held diplomatic talks during which both sides agreed to handle their "differences" through peaceful discussions while respecting each other's sensitivities and concerns. The Confucius Institute at Brock University in a file photo. (Courtesy "In the Name of Confucius" documentary) Brock Universitys Closure of Beijings Confucius Institute Part of a Growing Trend Brock University is the latest Canadian school to end its relationship with Beijings Confucius Institute, part of a growing trend in North America and other parts of the world where educational institutions are cutting ties with the program. Confucius Institutes (CI) are run by an agency of the Chinese regime headquartered in Beijing. They are branded as educational and cultural programs, but have been cited by intelligence agencies as being a part of the Chinese Communist Partys propaganda tools to exert influence abroad and control activities to Beijings liking on campus. In the United States, close to 40 universities have closed their CIs or are in the process of closing them. With Brock University ending its partnership, that leaves 10 CIs still operating in Canada. At one point there were 15 Canadian educational institutions that had partnerships with CIs. Brock University didnt provide a reason for ending its partnership. Most recently, the province of New Brunswick said that it was pulling the Confucius Institute out of its educational system, with Education Minister Dominic Cardy saying the programs aim is to put a friendly, cheerful face for a government that is responsible for more deaths than nearly any other in the history of our species. McMaster University ended its CI program in 2013 after the Chinese partners refused to remove a clause from their hiring requirements that violated human rights in Canada. The clause required that teachers sent from China to teach at CIs in Canada sign a form declaring that they will not practice Falun Gong, whose adherents are persecuted in China. The case came to the university administrations attention after a teacher at the CI came forward to say she was forced to sign the form because she was afraid if she didnt, she would be outed as a Falun Gong adherent and face persecution, a fate her mother had experienced at the hands of the Chinese regime. The Confucius Institute at Brock University in a file photo. (Courtesy In the Name of Confucius documentary) The same year, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) issued a statement asking all Canadian universities and colleges to cut ties with CIs, calling them essentially political arms of the Chinese government. They restrict the free discussion of topics Chinese authorities deem controversial and should have no place on our campuses, CAUT said. The University of Sherbrooke was the next university to close its Confucius Institute in the same year, following CAUTs call. In 2014, the Toronto District School Board voted to close its Confucius Institute after a community backlash against the school boards partnership with the program. The deal was spearheaded by the boards chair, Chris Bolton, while the rest of the trustees had been kept in the dark. He resigned from his post before the end of his term amid questions and concerns raised by parents and other trustees. Other Canadian universities, such as the University of British Columbia and the University of Manitoba, have rejected partnerships with CIs. Educational institutions in Canada that continue to host CIs are British Columbia Institute of Technology, Saint Marys University, Dawson College, Carleton University, University of Regina, University of Waterloo, University of Saskatchewan, the Coquitlam School District, Seneca College, and Edmonton Public Schools. Then-head of the Chinese Communist Partys propaganda department Li Changchun said in 2009 that Confucius Institutes are an important part of Chinas overseas propaganda set-up. He said in another speech in 2011 that CIs have made an important contribution toward improving our soft power. The Confucius brand has a natural attractiveness. Using the excuse of teaching Chinese language, everything looks reasonable and logical, Li said. Closures In the United States, CI closures have been accelerated by a measure in the National Defence Authorization Act introduced by the federal government in 2018 that bars universities that host the program from receiving Pentagon funding. In 2014, a year after CAUTs call, its American counterpart, the American Association of University Professors, echoed CAUTs statement against CIs, saying the institutes function as an arm of the Chinese state and are allowed to ignore academic freedom. The National Association of Scholars (NAS), an education advocacy group in the United States, has followed with similar statements. Confucius Institutes import censorship into American higher education, Rachelle Peterson, policy director with NAS, told The Epoch Times. According to Peterson, as of May, 38 American universities had closed or are in the process of closing their CIs. Last month, dozens of leaders of the College Democrats of America and the College Republican National Committee representing universities in more than 45 U.S. states signed a joint letter with rights groups calling for an end to CIs on American campuses. The Australian state of New South Wales announced last year that it was ending its CI partnership, citing concerns about potential inappropriate foreign influence. Other CIs in Australia have been notified by the federal government about the countrys new anti-foreign influence laws, which requires individuals or organizations working for foreign governments to register as foreign agents. There have also been around a dozen CI closures in Europe since 2013. With reporting by Cathy He BANGKOK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th June, 2020) The last coronavirus patient has recovered in Laos and was discharged from the hospital after two negative tests for the disease, the country's Health Ministry said on Tuesday. "The last patient was discharged after two negative tests for coronavirus," the statement read. Laos had a total of 19 coronavirus cases during the pandemic and no deaths. There were no new infections in the country for almost two months (58 days). The country was one of the first in Southeast Asia to restrict entry from abroad and imposed mandatory self-isolation for all arriving passengers, as well as restrictions on movement between provinces. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 21:05 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd665e4 1 National haj-pilgrim-departure,haj-pilgrimage,Saudi-Arabia,haj-pilgrims,Indonesia,Mecca,pilgrimage,Religious-Affairs-Ministry,Religious-Affairs-Minister Free The Indonesian government will not change its decision to cancel this year's haj even if Saudi Arabia reopens Mecca and Medina for the annual pilgrimage, a minister has said. It is impossible for the government to prepare the pilgrims right now under proper health protocols," Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi said on Tuesday. "If we had to rush to prepare, we might instead contribute to spreading COVID-19 further." Indonesian pilgrims registered for this year's haj pilgrimage were initially scheduled to depart on June 26. Indonesia has the largest haj pilgrim quota in the world. It planned to send 221,000 Muslims on the annual pilgrimage this year. The Ministry recorded that nearly 180,000 people had paid for the journey, which will be deferred to 2021. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, performing the haj would include putting pilgrims under quarantine for 14 days prior to their departure in Indonesia and another 14 days upon arrival in Saudi Arabia, Fachrul said, thus making the pilgrimage impossible to complete on schedule. If we insisted on sending off the pilgrims, it would create more harm than good, he said as quoted by kompas.com, I wish the decision could be accepted as it is also a bitter decision for us. Read also: Indonesia cancels haj trips this year The COVID-19 pandemic has plunged Islams biggest annual tradition into doubt as Saudi authorities have yet to announce any decision about whether they will accept haj pilgrims this year. Saudi Arabia has suspended haj and umrah (minor haj) pilgrimages indefinitely because of the COVID-19 crisis. Indonesia initially expected Saudi authorities to announce their final decision on the pilgrimage on May 13. However, Saudi Arabia announced on May 28 that the suspension would remain in effect, even as certain COVID-19 restrictions were being eased, Gulf News reported. Some 2.5 million Muslims from around the world visit Mecca and Medina annually for the haj, considered a duty to be performed at least once for those who can afford the trip. According to Reuters, official data shows that the haj and umrah earn the Saudi kingdom about US$12 billion a year. Last year, some 19 million pilgrims went on umrah, while the haj pilgrimage drew 2.6 million people from across the globe. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Saudi Arabia has seen 105,283 COVID-19 infections overall with 746 cases deaths as of Tuesday. The total number of COVID-19 cases in the Islamic kingdom remains the highest of the Persian Gulf states. The Middle Eastern country has seen infections spike after it eased certain movement and travel restrictions in late May. On Friday, the kingdom announced a renewed lockdown in the city of Jeddah, the international gateway to the pilgrimage to Mecca. (trn) T he weather is finally heating up again, and with the mercury set to hit a balmy 29C this weekend, there is nothing left for it but to grab the SPF and head to one of the countrys most beautiful sandy stretches of coastline. From southern favourites in Dorset and Cornwall to picturesque spots in Merseyside and Norfolk, this is your guide to the best beaches in the UK. Kynance Cove, Cornwall Shutterstock Theres a reason Kynance Cove is one of Cornwalls most revered beaches: its white sands, turquoise water and serpentine rocks will trick you into thinking youre in the Med. Where to eat: Anns Pasties do the best pasties this side of Penzance. Where to stay: for killer views, its got to be Atlantic House. Barafundle Bay, Pembrokeshire Shutterstock Unspoilt and remote, Barafundle Bay in the south-west corner of Wales is regularly voted one of the best in the UK, thanks to its postcard-worthy golden sands and twinkling sea. Where to eat: for locally sourced fare, check out The Boathouse Tearoom. Where to stay: The Stackpole Inn is an excellent posh pub with rooms. Climping, West Sussex Shutterstock Wedged between Littlehampton and Bognor Regis, Climpings shingle and pebble beach is much quieter than its neighbours, so there will be no wrestling for the perfect place to plonk. Where to eat: enjoy a sundowner at The Oystercatcher Inn. Where to stay: Bailiffscourt Hotel & Spa is a hidden gem just back from the beach. Blackpool Sands, Devon Shutterstock With the appearance of golden sand (actually very small pebbles) and shimmering azure waters, youd be forgiven for thinking you were lying on a beach on the Algarve. Where to eat: wander to The Venus Cafe for vegan fish and chips. Where to stay: swap the sea for the country at the wisteria-lined Watermill Cottages. Botany Bay, Kent Unsplash Wedged between Margate and Broadstairs, Botany Bay is studded with Kents famous chalk towers and you can try your hand at fossil hunting, too. Where to eat: a breakfast sandwich at The Kitchen is perfect beachside fuel. Where to stay: over in Margate, The Reading Rooms is one of our favourite British B&Bs. Achmelvich Bay, Scotland Shutterstock Summer brings porpoises off the coast at the gleaming white sand Achmelvich Bay its also home to Hermits Castle, the smallest in Europe. Where to eat: The Seafood Shack serves the freshest fish in the UK. Where to stay: let the lapping waves lull you to sleep at the North Coast 500 Pods. Durdle Door, Dorset Pixabay While you may not be able to avoid the crowds, Durdle Doors impressive limestone arch marks the finest beach on the Jurassic Coast the waters here are superbly clear, but also superbly cold. Where to eat: for fresh seafood with stellar views, its got to be The Boat Shed Cafe. Where to stay: roll-top tubs and sea views are plentiful at Lulworth Cove Inn. Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk Shutterstock Pastel-hued beach huts dot the shoreline of this northern Norfolk gem the sand dunes and pine woods that fall behind are particularly beautiful. Where to eat: The Crab Hut serves baps filled with seafood straight out of Brancaster Staithe. Where to stay: discover quirky Georgian maritime charm at The Globe Inn. Porthcurno, Cornwall Unsplash Just three miles shy of Lands End, Porthcurno is blessed with soft white sand and turquoise water. Where to eat: sip on a Cornish ale at The Logan Rock Inn. Where to stay: a lovers bolthole, Driftwood cottage has spectacular sea views. Three Cliffs Bay, Gower Peninsula Shutterstock The limestone crags that flank Three Cliffs just add to its beauty. Its only accessible by foot but the golden beach that awaits is worth the walk. Where to eat: treat yourself to the tasting menu at the Michelin-starred Beach House Restaurant. Where to stay: the ultra-modern secret garden pods at nearby Oxwich Bay Hotel. Formby Beach, Liverpool Shutterstock Dramatic dunes make way for stunning views across the Irish Sea. The mountains of Cumbria can be seen on a clear day. Where to eat: youll find the finest fish and chips in town at The Good Catch. Where to stay: after a day sunning, indulge yourself at Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa. Southwold, Suffolk Unsplash Charming Southwold, with its Instagrammable pastel beach huts, might just be the most quintessentially English resort town going. Where to eat: head to Two Magpies Bakery for freshly baked sourdough. Where to stay: The Swan Southwold is a Scandi-cool seaside stay. Berneray Sands Beach, Outer Hebrides Shutterstock The tiny Isle of Berneray is home to just 138 people, so its likely youll find a stretch of the impossibly white sand at Berneray Sands Beach to yourself. Where to eat: pick up a rose and pistachio meringue or walnut sourdough at The Scandinavian Bakery. Where to stay: cosy up to the islands famous seal colony at Seal View B&B. Polzeath, Cornwall A file photo of the Cornish coast / Shutterstock A mix of shingle and sand and dotted with rock pools, Polzeath is a popular surfing spot just watch out for the riptide. Where to eat: the breakfast tacos at Taco Boys are worth walking over the headland for. Where to stay: with brilliant views over the beach, book the cottage at The Oystercatcher. Rhossili Bay, Gower Peninsular Shutterstock Sprawling languorously along the Gower Peninsula in Wales, Rhossili Bay features a winning combination of rugged coves and golden sand. Where to eat: dont miss the artisan pastries and locally made ice cream at The Lookout. Where to stay: look across the Bristol Channel to Devon from your window at Broad Park. Pentle Bay, Tresco Tresco Island Break off from the Cornish pack and head to the Isles of Scilly. Pentle Bay, with its gleaming white sand, lies 30 miles south of Lands End. Where to eat: The New Inn is pub grub at its finest. Where to stay: skip over to Hell Bay Hotel in Bryher for an indulgent spa stay. Luskentyre, Isle of Harris Unsplash Named the 13th best beach in the world by Tripadvisor for 2020, theres never been a better time to discover the pristine Scottish isles. Where to eat: whether youre craving crab or cake, Croft36 will sort you out. Where to stay: the charming Atlantic Cottage is the epitome of Hebridean hospitality. West Wittering, Chichester Shutterstock With views of Chichester Harbour and the South Downs, West Wittering is soul-soothing. This year youll need to book a car park space before you go. Where to eat: try tasty local fare at the newly opened Three Veg Deli. Where to stay: Landseer House is an excellent country pile on four acres of meadows. Saunton Sands, Devon Shutterstock This three-mile stretch of golden sand on the north Devon coast is popular among keen surfers you just need to clamber over the largest sand dunes in the UK to get there. Where to eat: tuck into an aubergine katsu curry at Biffens Kitchen. Where to stay: perched above the beach, the Saunton Sands Hotel is a luxury retreat. Mawgan Porth, Cornwall Shutterstock Flanked by lush headlands, head to Mawgan Porth first thing to watch the surfers before taking a dip in the crystalline water yourself. Where to eat: dont fancy leaving the beach? Beach Box will deliver your smoothie bowl directly to you. Where to stay: home to one of the UKs best eco spas, you cant miss the Scarlet. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NOVAGOLD RESOURCES INC. (NOVAGOLD or the Company) (NYSE American, TSX: NG) today released a statement issued by Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan, Chairman of NOVAGOLD, who also represents the largest shareholder of the Company. Dr. Kaplan addresses a blatantly misleading report issued on the Company by short seller J Capital Research (JCAP) on May 28, 2020. In that report, the Company believes that JCAP, masquerading as a research firm, is perpetrating, what is known as a short-and-distort scheme designed to nefariously inject the market with misleading and false negative information about the Company to drive the price of its security down in order to allow those with short positions to quickly cover them at an artificially low price and, in doing so, derive a quick profit on the backs of unsuspecting shareholders. The Company provided a separate detailed response to this attack. This response highlighted, line-by-line, a myriad of JCAPs falsehoods and outright lies and scrupulously juxtaposed them against corresponding facts in a multipage document, linked to a separate press release which can be viewed here: https://www.novagold.com/investors/news/index.php?content_id=2354 . With lies you may get ahead in the world but you can never go back. On Thursday morning 10 days ago, I was enjoying a particularly sweet moment, savoring a fine cup of Nespressos (now discontinued) Ethiopian Yirgacheffe-origin coffee my favorite. For myself, as for many of you, the coffee drinking ritual is an important one, especially these days, when home and office are now more than ever one and the same. It was another day under lockdown in our New York City apartment, yet I felt blessed to have a family and loved ones mostly safe from our common foe, and in as reasonable spirits as one can be when profoundly aware that tragedy and trauma surround us all. The mood was actually upbeat as my older son had narrowly avoided a ruptured appendix a couple of mornings before and, benefitting from the combination of his precocious self-diagnosis of appendicitis, the laser-like focus of our familys physician, and the surgical staff at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital, he was operated on and back at home in his own bed the very same day. This constituted the first outing either of us had in quite some time and was thus memorable in more ways than one. Witnessing my boy up and about after one day of bed rest only was astonishing, and as gratifying a moment as one could ask for as a parent. Story continues My tranquility was suddenly broken by a flurry of e-mails from friends and colleagues. Had I seen the hit piece on NOVAGOLD? I had not. When I read JCAPs report, my first reaction was to chuckle because the piece was clearly so fallacious that I initially assumed it had been written by a child cooped up kids have far too much time on their hands these days or, more likely, a disgruntled short seller. The long winter that had witnessed the cratering of the gold industry over the past decade had in fact decimated many actors in the space. Some had simply gone by the wayside, much like the proverbial hare in Aesops fable, the victims of fatal flaws that can best be described in broad strokes as follows: self-inflicted wounds, jurisdictional reckoning, or plain bad luck. Other than a hiccup of collateral damage when our partner Barrick went through one of its periodic praetorian blood lettings back in 2013, NOVAGOLD had suffered from none of these afflictions and, tortoise-like, had marched steadily up the value chain and was now trading at multi-year highs. It therefore made no sense to me that one would go out of their way to short our stock. And, as Mark Bristow and I shared a laugh with each other last week, who in their right mind would short a great gold story in a growing bull market in gold? Be that as it may, the hunters in this case were cunning in their larceny and caught us unawares, as those who throw a sucker punch (or, as the Aussies call it, a coward punch) know in advance that it will. Conspicuously manipulative in their conflation of events and personalities, we could immediately see the obvious intent of the document and assumed everyone else would do too. When our largest shareholders expressed not only solidarity, but also genuine outrage at JCAPs obvious falsehoods and underhanded ways, we learned that while the experience may well be new to us, it was not to others. With little experience in dealing with nefarious actors, we chose the path familiar to us: we would ignore the defamatory aspects of the piece, and tackle the challenge as if it were a traditional shareholder enquiry. After all, we pride ourselves on being unusually transparent in our communications and reporting, as evidenced by a previous exercise in which we invited real analysts to submit any questions they wished to ask of management. True, the two situations were apples and oranges yet their contrast proves to be rather insightful. The enquiry that followed came from a veteran, industry-leading analyst (John Bridges, who retired last year), who worked at a legitimate firm (J.P. Morgan) and was honest, fair, and well-meaning in all his research coverage and, I should add, bullish on the NOVAGOLD story. He submitted many questions we answered them all in writing, and he published them. We translated that success into a regular model of writing in-depth Q&A sections in our Annual Reports that communicate to our shareholders, or prospective shareholders, the most frequently asked questions of us, so they can see for themselves not only the answers to what they want to know, but also answers to questions that others have thought of and that may have escaped them. Believing that an educated consumer is the best and most steadfast customer, we have often been cited by true experts like John Hathaway and discerning investors like John Paulson and Will Danoff as being a model of transparency and shareholder alignment in our industry. I am truly proud of the fact that being held to account is something we welcome and in fact always will. We just love it. In this instance with JCAP, we knew better than anyone that the contentions at hand did not reflect sincere, constructive examinations or questions. As to their disgraceful endeavor to paint our management team as the same one that had crippled NOVAGOLD long before we entered the scene and began fixing it in 2009 as a white knight, and turned the Company completely around after taking over management in 2012 it was downright libelous. In other words, knowing full well that the claims were mendacious, it became clear that this exercise constituted a deliberate, if utterly shameless, attempt to manipulate our share price for financial gain. To that extent, as I saw the volumes spike and our stock slump, the hatchet job was working. Was this even legal, I wondered? At first, we werent sure, but it seemed it shouldnt be as the misstatements were so blatant as to suggest defamation or worse. I confess that I am not in the business of trading, and certainly not short-selling, so the whole phenomenon was completely alien to me. One can easily imagine the shock to our management team. It was hard for us to even find an analogy. A sucker punch? It sure qualified, but these can happen even among friends in a moment of weakness. So that did not seem strong enough. A Clockwork Orange-inspired, financial adaptation of the so-called knockout game? Perhaps equal in savagery, but also senseless. A snatch and grab? Getting closer. Might it typify a mugging? Closer still, as a mugging definitely constitutes a theft, yet can also be both physically and psychologically scarring. In actual fact, as I googled the singular incident I felt we were experiencing, I found the precise definition of what had befallen us: a short-and-distort campaign. We are, unfortunately, not the first to fall victim to such a campaign. Indeed, articles have been written about these schemes, describing some common patterns of how they have been carried out: first, a person or firm purporting to be a financial analyst publishes statements alleging that the company has acted fraudulently or is otherwise in financial trouble; then investors with long positions react to the published statements by selling their long positions; then the companys share price drops, resulting in a loss of market capitalization, and perhaps worse, a tarnished reputation; finally, those who have taken short positions on the company cash in on this series of events. One such article can be found here: https://www.dlapiper.com/~/media/files/people/weiner-perrie/weinerweberhsu.pdf We will not stand idly by as a short and distort campaign is waged against NOVAGOLD. The statements made by JCAP about NOVAGOLD are false, misleading, ultimately defamatory, and illegal in many respects. NOVAGOLD intends to pursue the legal action available to it so that these wrongs can be redressed. Understanding the breadth of these short-and-distort schemes also helps explain why it has taken NOVAGOLDs management some time to assemble a comprehensive rebuttal to a succession of perfidies so voluminous and twisted as to require an army of readers and literally a line-by-line response. As the vilest writer hath his readers, so the greatest liar hath his believers: and it often happens, that if a lie be believed only for an hour, it hath done its work. Suffice to say, I unequivocally believe that anyone reading our Companys response to this catalogue of errors of both commission and omission will conclude that JCAPs agenda was to manipulate NOVAGOLDs stock and profit from an unwarranted and unjustified sneak attack on an organization that has been doing it right for at least the past 8 years that Greg Lang and I have been in charge. As reflected in Jonathan Swifts rather apt observation about the utility of falsehood, highlighted above, it is the nature of the beast that the perpetrators make their ill-gotten gains from unsuspecting shareholders who are duped out of their money after such an assault. For their report is not so much populated by contentions, as outright mendacities of different complexions. Even so, our rebuttal will prove devastating to them an outfit about whose reputation and tactics we have now learned a very great deal indeed. And the good news, as one reading the above-mentioned article will gather, is that they can no longer go back redress now exists against their unjustified acts. Our shareholders should be confident in knowing that we plan to do everything that we are allowed to do within the law to get redress for JCAPs falsehoods, in whatever jurisdictions apply the rule of law, and that we plan to do so to the fullest extent of that law. To quote Mario Draghi, albeit in different circumstances, We will do whatever it takes. More prosaically, to those who aided and abetted this pathetic exercise we know some of who you are, and the rest we will learn who you are. Pathetic Doesnt Begin to Describe It As one can observe from the Companys formal response, which itemizes literally hundreds of falsehoods, lies, errors of fact, and other objects of distortion, JCAP has a lot to answer for. Tops of the Waves Let me touch on a few subjects briefly, so as to put them to bed right away. First is the laughable positioning of the author and his anonymous experts as duly qualified to opine on building pipelines in Alaska. On the one side is Tim Murray, who has no known experience in the space and cites unnamed experts. On the other is CH2M HILL (CH2M) real experts that have been serving oil and gas clients in some of the Arctics harshest conditions, including the North Slope, for over 40 years, and a firm that in 2013 represented the 6th largest employer in Alaska and the second-largest employer in the States oil and gas industry. In 2017, CH2M was ranked #22 on Fortunes 2017 list of Top 50 Companies that Change the World for making a positive impact on society. That same year, CH2M was acquired by Jacobs Engineering Group. One of the deal drivers, as cited in the media, was CH2Ms infrastructure business. Management definitely stands by the work completed by the CH2M-led group for Barrick and NOVAGOLD, and the work performed to price the pipeline out inch-by-inch, mile-by-mile. The Donlin Gold project (the project) that was evaluated in the 2011 Second Updated Feasibility Study (FSU2), as defined below, and Federal and State permitting includes the gas pipeline that is obviously based on a sound design, completed by highly experienced pipeline engineers. Throughout NOVAGOLDs detailed response, the Company refutes every one of JCAPs comments about the feasibility of the pipelines plan. And management continues to look at ways to optimize development of the pipeline, including a range of partnership and financing options. NOVAGOLD, along with our Native Corporation partners, also recognize the great benefits of bringing gas to the region. However, the reality is that a pipeline is not the only option available to the project. The original feasibility study was also predicated on a barging alternative that remains viable if it is best for all those concerned. Perhaps it is the libel of the so-called insider selling. The bottom line here is that none of the Companys insiders have sold stock other than to exercise options and in fact have been increasing their shareholdings. It should be apparent to anyone that stock options do not have any value unless the share price appreciates from the date of grant, which means that, by definition, non-insiders must also be benefitting from similar conditions. Take it from me. I have heard from plenty of institutional investors who acknowledge their gratitude to NOVAGOLDs management for work well done. Perhaps it would be JCAPs utter ignorance about the difference between initial and sustaining capital. Or their failure to understand that it is not advisable to conduct exploration drilling outside the footprint of the mine being permitted during the permitting processhence the gap in drilling between 2011 and now. It is worth noting that this explicit hiatus ended after receipt of the Federal permits, which is why, in light of the excellent high-grade results of 2017, the partners renewed drilling with an increasingly robust program in 2020. Why not? The 2017 results were great, and formally presented in the press release, NOVAGOLDs Donlin Gold Project Reports Excellent Results from the 2017 Drill Program, dated February 20, 2018. Kelvin Dushnisky, then President of Barrick, declared on that occasion: We are very encouraged by the latest drill results at Donlin Gold, some of which encompassed areas where relatively little drilling had been previously done. The results are further evidence of the significant potential of this deposit. We look forward to continuing to collaborate closely with our partner, NOVAGOLD, to advance optimization work and permitting at this unique project. We actually love to drill, and see huge opportunity to expand the resource most immediately along strike of the existing deposit, which comprises only 3 km of an 8 km mineralized belt and which, in its entirety, represents less than 5% of the total land package. Now under the watch of Mark Bristow, a brilliant geologist, the drill rigs are active as I write this. Few people know better than Mark what drilling can do to unlock and enhance value, as evidenced by his signal successes in doing so at Randgold. Considering that my own personal wealth was primarily created through the drill bit, being able to drill at Donlin Gold is for me a dream come true and we could not be more thrilled to have a partner that shares our enthusiasm. Were I to continue and enumerate all of the falsehoods contained in the JCAP report here, I would merely duplicate the hundreds of comments provided in the Companys excellent matrix. And to what end, anyway? The JCAP assault was never meant to be an analysis, but a profit-motivated scare tactic. Still, I feel compelled to focus on a few things to help those who are witnesses to the event fully understand what they saw happenand will see unfold in short order. The Art of the Steal The Original Sin of the libel can be found in the first incendiary sentences: The deposit that will never be mined For the last 15 years, NovaGolds management team has systematically misled investors Let us pause right here. The report essentially opens with a conscious attempt to mislead unsuspecting investors by inferring that the present management team has been leading the Company for 15 years a deliberate conflation of two distinct eras of completely different management teams into one. This sentence is written, knowingly and with malice, to make that investor stop what they are doing, reach for their stockbrokers telephone number, or perhaps their trading room if the investor is institutional, and order that person to sell immediately. It is the equivalent of yelling fire in a crowded theatre, hoping that people will trample over one another for the exits without even taking a moment to assess the situation. For some investors, they might feel why even wait: theres a problem, get me out! Those who create the crisis know that the sentences are fraudulent. Thus in the inaugural sentence of the JCAP report lies the first fruit of the poisonous tree of willful distortion, defined herein as to give a misleading or false account or impression of. From this moment forward, as has been conveyed to us by major shareholders, they understood that they were witnessing a willful and calculated manipulation. Due to our well-known reputation for extraordinary transparency in our communications and reporting, these knowledgeable investors are unusually well-educated in Donlin Gold. Hence the outrage that has characterized the response from our institutional shareholder base to this report. But perhaps it was not the intention of JCAP to address their shameful maneuver to educated investors in the first instance. It was solely meant to dupe less informed participants to sell shares without a legitimate basis for doing so. One of the easiest ways to frighten existing shareholders, or encourage others previously uninvolved in the company to sell shares short, is to imply that the company has been engaged in wrongdoing. As such, the lowest hanging fruit is to attack bad management. The inference to the uninitiated audience that the management team that ran the Company 15 years ago is the same management team running the Company now is clearly false. Moreover, the caliber of the managements during those two eras is, in effect, apples and oranges. To put it in another way, and most vividly: when speaking of the Chicago Bulls pre and post the entry of Michael Jordan into the mix, MJ is not held accountable for the state of the Bulls franchise before he arrived and turned their fortunes. To me, as one of the owners of our team, Greg Lang might as well be Michael Jordan. Just look at the language. It is not only logical but standard practice in discussing management teams to draw clear distinctions between the eras or tenures of the different teams. This is particularly true and important when the core of the discussion centers around the dichotomy between the respective performances of those teams. In simple terms, the team that is recruited to turnaround a business that was crippled under the leadership of its predecessors is never conflated by objective, well-intentioned and professional analysts, with the team that was removed after the business had been sunk under their watch in the first place. That seems obvious. Particularly as doing so to impugn the incumbent management constitutes a deliberate distortion. Yet throughout the JCAP report, there is a deliberate use of the word Management to attack the incumbent management that has run the Company most successfully, and to the great benefit of NOVAGOLDs shareholders. The smear inherent in this distortive conflation of Management appears no fewer than 13 times in the report, while CEO appears with a similarly abusive 8 times. The adjective disingenuous does not begin to reflect the severity of this deception. It is in fact a willful disregard for the objectivity that should allow the reader any confidence in the agenda of the analyst who publishes such obfuscations. It is, however, perfectly understandable that a firm engaged in nothing more than a cynical and illegal exercise in market manipulation would employ such a subterfuge. It is axiomatic that the present management cannot be held responsible, directly or tangentially, for actions that took place prior to their assuming leadership of the Company and which they then effectively fixed. The present management team has been leading NOVAGOLD for eight years not 15 during which time it has not misled investors in any fashion. To the contrary, their tenure coincides with an era of complete transparency in their corporate communications, as well as uninterrupted management successes in working with their partner Barrick Gold to take the Donlin Gold project up the value chain and in addition to unlocking for shareholders the considerable value of the copper assets they inherited. This issue bears some elaboration, for within NOVAGOLDs Annual Reports one can find a clear and open discussion of the before and after events that led to the transition from one management team to another. Indeed, in light of the opaque and dissembling nature of JCAPs attempt to obfuscate key facts, let us challenge their assertions with statements of facts drawn from a publicly filed document namely, the Companys 2018 Annual Report. Here was my direct answer to a question from a shareholder: How did you acquire your interest in NOVAGOLD and has your investment thesis changed? One of the best examples of the buona fortuna that I believe emanates from this precept was the fruit that fell into my lap in December 2008 when, with the wise counsel of The Electrum Groups President (and fellow NOVAGOLD Director) Igor Levental, we entered the NOVAGOLD saga as something of a white knight, purchasing the Companys shares for the very first time in order to save it from existential challenges across an extraordinarily broad front. Putting aside the fact that the economic environment at that time was not particularly permissive of any investment at all, our intervention appeared even to our closest friends as akin to catching a falling knife. The news on NOVAGOLD was littered with fires that desperately needed to be put out: debt coming due; class-action lawsuits; environmental disputes with the EPA (regarding a modest gold property that was remediated and divested many years ago); loss of credibility with investors and analysts; and hostility from at least one of its key partners. I could go on. But being that we were not irrational by nature and that its much more fun to speak to what transpired afterward we reached the conclusion that taking control of the Company would prove to be worth it. As a bit of background, I had long coveted exposure to the Donlin story. Watching from a distance from the early 2000s, I felt that I had missed the chance as NOVAGOLDs shares rose from pennies to several dollars on the back of drilling that produced what were clearly among the best exploration results in the gold industry. I wasnt the only one who saw this potential; Barrick not only shared my view, but also tried to buy the Company in 2006. The failure of their takeover attempt was to have enormous implications for both companies. While it was separate Company-specific and financial crisis-related factors that crippled NOVAGOLD and led to our intervention, what was never in dispute was that Donlin Gold constituted a rare combination of both jewel and elephant. I often tell the story about how I gave my team 48 hours to perform the due diligence on NOVAGOLD before pulling the trigger on the deal a time frame that should appear to be reckless any time geology is involved. My reasoning was redolent of the joke about the two hikers who run into a bear in the woods: One hiker starts to run, while the other calmly kneels and starts to put on his running shoes. The man already running shouts to his companion and asks what hes doing. The one tying his laces answers, Sorry, but I reckon I dont have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you. Similarly, I said to my team, We dont have to believe NOVAGOLD about Donlin; we just have to believe Barrick. Barrick being a first-rate company, the due diligence from public sources was remarkably straightforward. Only after we had made our investment in NOVAGOLD did we send our chief geologist, Dr. Larry Buchanan, to walk the property and share his impressions. Is the deposit what we thought at Donlin? I asked upon his return. Oh no, said Larry. Mercifully, he quickly added, With an 8km strike being 5 or so percent of the property package, the next Donlin could be at Donlin. Congratulations. The problems the Company faced nonetheless were real and rather daunting. It took some doing to clean up those burdens that made our exercise appear death-defying. But the Company was turned around, we raised capital with allies especially the Paulson and Soros funds and NOVAGOLDs shares, having been priced for bankruptcy, returned by 2010 to the level at which Barrick had made its 2006 bid. In 2011, not long after Barrick and NOVAGOLD announced the results of the feasibility study on Donlin, I was introduced to Greg Lang, a 25-year veteran of Barrick and its predecessor companies. Gregs career had been marked by both escalating promotions and successive wins. After running Barricks Australian operations, he had been given responsibility for much of the Western Hemisphere where, by the time we had met, he had served 8 years as president of Barrick Gold North America. His experience in overseeing the permitting and building of large mines including the Cortez Hills Mine in Nevada, which impressively came in within budget and on time epitomized what I was looking for. Having concluded that the Donlin deposit displayed all the makings of the Holy Grail for a gold investor, I sought a CEO who could take Donlin through permitting. When Igor Levental and Gil Leathley spoke about Greg, it seemed fated. His Homestake pedigree, one he shared with Igor and Gil, was an added plus. Indeed, I have always found that most everyone who worked well with the legendary Harry Conger possessed that subtle combination of intelligence and character that I seek in my colleagues. As it happened, my appetite coincided with Greg Langs desire to be engaged with a pure play on the asset he thought could be the greatest gold mine in the world. He was an educated consumer, having sat on the Barrick side of the table during the hostile takeover attempt, and then as a Barrick representative on the Donlin Gold LLC board. We had an immediate meeting of the minds, nodding to each other as we ticked off the attributes that rendered Donlin not just a great development-stage asset, but also possibly the best. Never before, said Greg, had a gold mine started with nearly 40 million ounces in measured and indicated resources1. Some, including Goldstrike, would eventually reach that. But started there? And there was probably more gold, we agreed. For an engineer, of course, for whom grade is king, the high grades and consistency of the orebody, as well as the sites gentle topography, moderate climate, and the excellent community relations that Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse had nurtured, all made Greg feel that this would be not just a mine, but possibly one of the finest of the dozens he had visited around the world throughout his career. Once in production, we calculated, it could potentially represent the largest pure gold producer in the world. Reading this anew, and remembering fondly what has followed, I must admit that Aristotle was right: a friendship is a partnership. I am proud to call Greg my friend and, like all NOVAGOLD shareholders, sincerely appreciate what his leadership and team have done for us. The NOVAGOLD Advantage One of the more glaringly positive differentiators of our Company is that management has done nothing about which it isnt quite proud since Greg Lang and I took the helm in late 2011. Simple virtues, like not cutting corners and doing it right our shared mantras from technical work to the environmental and social license we value so highly have served our shareholders well and given us considerable credibility. Part of that ethos is that we both feel deeply that honor yes, honor matters. Thus, the vows that we have made to our shareholders, stakeholders, and partners have been kept and, as a result, our Company has since enjoyed a coterie of exceptionally well-informed, savvy, and satisfied shareholders. There are clearly attributes that John Paulson, who added 3 million more shares in the last quarter after 10 years as a shareholder, sees in our story. And Fidelity. And First Eagle. And John Hathaway. And Jacob Rothschild and the Agnellis. You get the point. I could go on, but a key reason is, basically, because NOVAGOLD is a pure play on an asset that we regard as The Next Nevada. There is no pure play on the Barrick-Newmont joint venture in Nevada. I wish there were. There is, however, a pure play on the Barrick-NOVAGOLD joint venture in Alaska which already ranks, incidentally, as the second-largest gold producing State in the Union, after Nevada. By doing it right, let us start with what we have not donewhat I would call successes of omission. First and foremost, we have never been tempted to use our cash or equity to do something foolish. Sadly for the fortunes of our industry, using common sense has proven to be a differentiator in and of itself. As Voltaire professed, Common sense is not so common. If, by every metric, one believes one owns one of the best assets on the planet, one simply does not deworsify, as the famed Peter Lynch put it so well. Deal junkies we are not. My family has achieved a spectacular rate of return in the natural resources space over the past 27 years because of a few, strict principles. One of them, of course, is trying hard to focus on only large, extraordinary assets. Having achieved 100x multiples in each of silver, platinum, and natural gas without the use of leverage and just being long category killer assets I adore NOVAGOLDs business model as a pure play on the supreme category-killer, Donlin Gold. While focusing on great assets, even in an era of asset scarcity, can be like watching paint dry as evidenced by the last soporific decade in the gold mining space that era is likely over for good. We are more confident than ever that it is NOVAGOLDs time to shine anew, and we feel privileged to have it as our flagship in the gold space. Then, there are the successes of commission those things we promised to do, and meticulously did. Accordingly, before we were approached with the offer to do a capital raising the last time around, in January 2012, the newly minted CEO and Chairman of NOVAGOLD laid out a clear roadmap for our investors: We promised to spin-off our Alaskan copper assets. That company, spun-off as NovaCopper and now trading under the name Trilogy Metals to reflect its polymetallic attributes, has performed very well sporting a market capitalization of hundreds of millions of dollars; In order to make NOVAGOLD the only pure play on Donlin Gold in the marketplace, we promised to sell Galore Creek a beautiful asset, but a project too far for a development-stage Company with a flagship as ambitious as Donlin Gold. We could have let Galore go in a fire sale. We didnt. We sold it for real money in a market where win-win monetization has been the exception, not the rule. The cash position we find ourselves in, with more guaranteed and potential payments to come, is the envy of our space; We declared that, if given an opportunity to show the flexibility of the deposit, we would take it. The drill results Donlin Gold delivered earlier in 2017 blew through even our own expectations. Who gets 130 meters of 6 grams, and 64 meters of 5 grams 2 ? We reckon that these constituted some of the best drill results reported by any project for quite a while; Lastly, we stated that this project would be permitted. When anyone pushed back, assuming permitting in Alaska would be a struggle, we just shrugged our shoulders. The facts pointed to the opposite. All we had ever heard from our local stakeholders and partners, the Calista Corporation and The Kuskokwim Corporation (TKC), were strong indications of support. And, after a thorough search online and in the public records, we could not find any signs of opposition. In fact, the only references to the project in 2012, from a media standpoint, were positive. Six years later, we received the first-ever joint Federal record of decision delivered in a formal ceremony in the presence of the lead agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that included extensive input from those who held the reasonable concerns that any big project would bring. For those who know the industry, this represents an amazing occurrence practically anywhere in the world. We also promised to build a first-rate management team to take the Company to the next level. Lets dispense with the petty lies. JCAP makes a puerile assertion that management has been awarding themselves base salaries that rival those of the CEOs at Newmont and Barrick. This is not true. Gregs compensation is roughly half of theirs. And it is obviously not management but rather NOVAGOLDs highly qualified Board of Directors that awards compensation, following a comprehensive review of the facts. But this kind of nonsense is par for the course in JCAPs analysis. As to the quality of the team, we really lucked out. For in truth they could run a Major mining company. Again, think pre and post Michael Jordan, for that analogy regarding Greg and his team has real merit for stockholders. Since the Board of Directors reorganized the Company in early 2012 to focus on Donlin Gold, NOVAGOLD was determined to recruit top talent with demonstrated track records in large-scale mine permitting, development and operation, with a particular focus on North America experience. Knowing that a world-class asset warrants world-class professionals, the Company set out to attract the very best people in their respective specialties. And it did. NOVAGOLDs current management, which has been in place for the past eight years, is, as one shareholder put it, straight out of central casting. Starting with Greg Lang, NOVAGOLDs President and CEO, who has over 40 years of diverse experience in mine operations, project development and evaluations, including eight years as President of Barrick Gold North America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corporation. Greg held progressively increasing operating and project development responsibilities over his 10-year tenure with Barrick and, prior to that, with Homestake Mining Company and International Corona Corporation both of which are now part of Barrick. Major mines that now represent the foundation of Barrick, such as Cortez Hills, were built under Mr. Langs leadership. Richard Williams, NOVAGOLDs Vice President Engineering and Development responsible for all aspects related to the engineering and technical advancement of Donlin Gold is yet another star. Richard spent over 30 years with Barrick Gold developing and operating major mines. He is one of the most highly regarded and experienced leaders in the autoclave technology that is planned to be used to process ores at Donlin Gold. Importantly, he served as Project Director of the Pueblo Viejo project in the Dominican Republic, now one of the most successful mines in Barricks portfolio of assets. Richards seven-year tenure at Pueblo Viejo capped a career where he progressively held top operating roles that included the design, construction, and operation of mineral processing facilities of major mines, such as Goldstrike in Nevada and Mercur in Utah. David Ottewell is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NOVAGOLD, responsible for all aspects of the Companys financial management. Dave is a highly accomplished financial executive, with over 25 years of mining industry experience. Prior to joining NOVAGOLD, he served as Vice President and Controller for Newmont, the largest gold mining company in the world. Other members of the NOVAGOLD team are equally accomplished in their respective areas of expertise. In order to attract this caliber of professionals, the Company has to compete to recruit and retain top talent in the industry. And we did so beautifully. This remarkable series of kept promises certainly goes a long way in explaining why NOVAGOLD was so successful in executing on its value-building strategy, with achievements shown in Figure 1 from our presentation at our Annual Meeting of Shareholders dated May 14, 2020. Figure 1: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f92b010c-c402-4b23-b804-2fcd96688efb Moreover, we kept to a brilliantly simple script. For those who remember back to 2012, after we raised $330 million though Royal Bank of Canada and J.P. Morgan, we laid out a very precise strategy. It would appear that management more than kept its promises as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/19037e09-28db-440b-9c2c-8f452183253c Yet one would not see anything of the sort acknowledged in JCAPs hit piece. To the contrary, the report engages, almost sentence by sentence, in a devious smear of our present management by indicating that it was they who made the unfulfilled promises and committed the several blunders that caused NOVAGOLDs stock to drop over 90% in 2007/2008 and incidentally gave The Electrum Group our first entry point into the Company, as a white knight on New Years Eve of 2009. I say first entry point, for not only did none of NOVAGOLDs present senior management team have any engagement with the Company prior to 2012, but The Electrum Group had never owned let alone shorted a single share of the Company before we effectively rescued it. Simply put, JCAPs attempt to conflate our team with the previous management is deliberately and hugely misleading. Altogether, it is meant to confuse those uninitiated in the story by lumping two completely different management groups with distinctly different track records of performance into one indistinguishable category of management. Nor does JCAP mention that it was our team that devised and executed the successful series of bold strokes that transpired afterwards, resulting in one of the most celebrated turnaround campaigns in the space. Who does that, other than those engaged in premeditated deception? The results are there for all to see. Simply take a look at how NOVAGOLD has performed relative to the GDXJ and GDX indexes since Greg and I took the helm in late 2011 as shown in Figure 3. This isnt cherry picking. Figure 3: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0106b386-7b49-42ca-a610-343f6847156a Let us also assess how we performed versus Barrick and Newmont as shown in Figure 4, the fine companies against whom JCAP compared completely falsely, I might add Greg Langs compensation. Figure 4: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/03532454-b0b6-495b-856a-43c3a0b37ed2 Doing Well by Doing Good For the multiple reasons cited in NOVAGOLDs rebuttal, and dozens of other triggers actually, JCAP has pulled on the wrong tigers tail forcing me to lead the Company into a fight. One of the reasons I shall do so is that, quite frankly, I and we should do so. If good companies and honest managements can be impugned in such ways as we are experiencing, not by legitimate activists but by stock manipulators, then we have something of a moral, or at least civic, responsibility to do unto them as they would do unto us (and others) a dictum more commonly known, perhaps ironically in this case, as the Golden Rule. The other reason is that we can. And we will. I dont bluff. Those who read our Annual Report from 2018 may recall the title of my Chairmans Letter: Papa Doesn't Play Poker. I have always felt that the NOVAGOLD story is so special that my only regret has been that more people didnt know of it. It has been my firm belief from the start that we are the single best vehicle in the gold development space and, as I have said many times, if I found something better Id sell NOVAGOLD and pivot to that other thing. The point is this: when I speak about Donlin Gold, I often ask this question of my audience: what other gold development-stage asset in the industry compares in its combination of enormous size, high-grade for an open pit (and hence low all-in cash costs), truly superb exploration upside, a production profile of potentially the biggest pure-gold mine in the world, a mine life measured in decades, excellent local and industry partnerships, and the safety of being located in the worlds premier jurisdiction? Ive never heard pushback with that one. If one cannot challenge the assertion, then Donlin Gold must be unique. For more on the Case for NOVAGOLD, I urge you to go to our website, and to review the latest presentation from our AGM, one of the rare gold mining AGMs that actually gets quoted in generalist media: https://www.novagold.com/investors/presentations/ Donlin Gold is also fortunate, admittedly, to be advancing at a time when, by reasonable objective analysis from, inter alia, Ray Dalio, Jeff Gundlach, Paul Tudor Jones, Paul Singer, Mark Mobius, John Hathaway, and other seasoned professionals, golds attractiveness as a financial asset is being broadly reaffirmed. In plotting our long-term vision for value maximization, we have long argued that gold will be resuming its secular bull market and has the potential to reach a price level that is a multiple of the current levels. I laid out such a case for gold on television to David Rubenstein, a year or so ago, for his Peer-to-Peer Conversations series on Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-05-29/david-rubenstein-show-tom-kaplan-the-electrum-group-chairman-video All the factors that I cite in my conversation with David, and many more factors for that matter, point to the reality that we and our shareholders intend to build Donlin Gold. The question is when. In light of the renewal of the bull market in gold, combined with Donlin Golds success in securing necessary permits for the project, NOVAGOLD and Barrick are fully aligned in carefully monitoring developments to advance Donlin Gold towards construction, at a time when both partners conclude that they can achieve maximum benefits for all stakeholders, including our shareholders. Given the industrys suffering from both asset scarcity and the ravages of rising jurisdictional risk, we believe that having equal ownership in a Tier 1 asset located in a Tier 1 jurisdiction suggests that time is clearly on our side. This, in turn, will give our shareholders maximum leverage in the perfect jurisdiction to keep the fruits of that leverage. For more on that angle, one can watch my interview with Dan Tapiero, in which we talk gold and, yes, Donlin Gold. https://www.realvision.com/the-kaplan-doctrine-conservation-preservation-and-value Without doubt, NOVAGOLD is becoming a go-to stock in the space, especially as the sentiment in this sector improves and interest is steadily but surely finding a channel into scarce category killer North American assets. There are myriad good reasons for this. For while I hate to say it, there wont be very many players left in the gold space. Collapsing grades, the paucity of new discoveries, the churning through of reserves at existing mines by the Majors, all but confirm that we have already reached Peak Gold. Let me remind the reader that gold is not like hydrocarbons, with vast reservoirs or resources ready to be switched on quickly if prices rise, or unlocked simply by new technologies like horizontal drilling for fracking. The mining industry doesnt have 3-D Seismic, and deposits can take decades to go from prospect to mine. Peak Gold really is Peak Gold. Barrick recently estimated that gold production will decline by 5% a year for years. I believe thats about right. If anything, it will likely prove to be a conservative forecast as jurisdictions once thought investible no longer are so, and declining grades mean higher costs with less output. As such, assets like Donlin Gold, with metrics that are accretive on practically every dimension, are essentially unicorns. When I survey the landscape, I am reminded of the carnage that was visited on the tech space after the late 1990s bubble burst. If one had the presence of mind to sift through the wreckage and have the wits to pick a winner or two an Amazon or Apple, for example one made a generational trade. Similarly, I believe that those few gold companies that have great assets in great places will constitute generational opportunities. That NOVAGOLD will stand among those precious few is, for me, indisputable. Am I comparing NOVAGOLD to Amazon or Apple? Yes. Not in that it will achieve a trillion-dollar market cap, of course. But at least in that I believe it will be one of the biggest winners in what is likely to become a very hot space now that it has risen from the ashes. Candidly, helping this particular scenario come along is our objective. As the great wit Talleyrand put it, the art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and to expedite its occurrence. Were open about it. Im open about it. We at Electrum consider Donlin Gold to be the Holy Grail and want it to be valued for the category killer we and our shareholders see it to be. Electrum will only make money to the extent that our co-investors will. That the owners live above the store is viewed favorably, and our co-investors are exceptionally well-educated about our narrative. For those new to the story, I am encouraging the reader to go through NOVAGOLDs most recent annual reports. The 2018 and 2019 editions can be found here: https://www.novagold.com/_resources/NG_2018-AR.pdf https://www.novagold.com/_resources/NG_2019-AR.pdf I do urge you to read them precisely because they are considered, by our investors, to be The Gold Standard of transparency and intellectual coherence in the gold development space. The White Swan A few words about the relationship with Barrick, and Barricks engagement with Donlin so distorted by JCAP. As I wrote the following in the Chairmans Letter of NOVAGOLDs 2019 Annual Report: Theres no doubt in my mind that the posture of Barrick toward Donlin has been growing warmer and warmer as the Randgold team has come up to speed on the asset and become more intimately acquainted with what they own. The optimization process is going well, and the geological model is shaping up nicely. As the Barrick/NOVAGOLD teams work on testing the geometry of the deposit to establish a future mines optimal throughput, the camaraderie has only been accentuated. In truth, we are thrilled with the engagement from the new Barrick. It is very much worth noting that, despite Barricks always maintaining its commitment to the permitting process, in fact we hit a delightful milestone of sorts last summer when Mark Bristow became the first Barrick CEO in a decade to actually visit the property! Mark is a professionals professional, and anyone who is familiar with his management style will know that he is hands-on and that such an approach should be no surprise. But still, seeing the white swan or the peregrine, as I have taken to calling Mark more recently on site at Donlin was a truly welcome occasion for all concerned. Mark met our Native corporation partners and senior state officials. Being a geologist, he experienced the deposit firsthand in a way that one really has to in order to fully appreciate what an ideal place it is to build a first-class mine. Suffice to say that he clearly gets what makes Donlin, in his words, one of the best options on the gold price in the world. More than that, he now speaks of Donlin to analysts and investors pretty much as I do, and often goes out of his way to remark on how our teams and he and I personally are working so well together. Mark and I see perfectly eye to eye on Donlinperfectly, and happily so. He and I tend to enjoy a bit of Saint Julien when were together, and we both know that no wine before its time is always the right approach. And that do it right is indeed the right approach. We also know that Donlin Gold is maturing nicely, and represents a unique investment proposition for both our companies when the time is also right. As he has said publicly: Donlin Gold offers a huge optionality to the gold price across multiple gold price cycles in an excellent jurisdiction. Meanwhile, as he puts it, Donlin is becoming a global brand. As this is what I have been trying to accomplish from the outset Mark will attest from his various experiences with me that, when I enunciate a strategy, I keep the faith with the project and the people all the way through this is really quite splendid for our shareholders. To me, all roads lead to Donlin Gold as the perfect asset for the times and, as I titled my Chairmans Letter in this years Annual Report, The Winds of Change are upon us. I have always believed in giving back, and not so much in getting even. While I am not a pacifist and always fight back when my friends and allies are attacked, getting even as a way to spend ones time is usually a waste of valuable emotional energy. Given how lucky I am, it would also be counter-productive. There are too many great things in my life to strive for in the non-profit world (not to mention the for-profit world) that, on balance, seeking retribution for lifes inevitable disappointments is simply pointless. Doing so would not give me more time with my wife and children, or any of the myriad other pursuits that give my life both purpose and joy. And, in any event, the world needs more kindness, not less. Some may feel that my response to this present matter must surely indicate some frustration. Disabuse yourselves of that notion. While I strongly believe in such quaint things as honor, reason for me trumps all. And yetI will confess that this time feels a bit different. With lies you may get ahead in the world but you can never go back. While it is true that we have tried not to take JCAPs defamatory statements to heart because they form such a sad tapestry of lies, as highlighted by the Russian proverb cited above, one particular comment in the JCAP piece needs to be underscored. It was but one of the many gross distortions, but a rather special one. As page 14 reads, in reference to Galore Creek: The $275 mln consideration included $75 mln contingent on production, which is so unlikely that NG is not accounting for it and Newmont quietly shut the project down on April 28, 2020. Its not the first part of the sentence that stunned me, for it was clear that finding anything that was actually true in the JCAP piece was the real challenge. For accounting purposes, contingent assets require a higher level of certainty to be recognized than for contingent liabilities to be recognized. The contingent note hereby mentioned will be recognized when, in managements judgment, it is probable that the payment will occur, and that the amount recorded will not reverse in future periods. We provide the information and let investors assess the recoverability for themselves. Thats called conservative accounting and any real analyst would acknowledge that it is best practice. It was in fact the last 10 words that stunned me. The implication being that the project will not be built and had been killed. In reality, Galore, which is equally owned by Teck Corporation and Newmont Corp., delayed fieldwork and PFS-related activities in 2020 due to COVID-19, much like many other operations around the world during this pandemic. JCAP actually refers to a press release which, when read fully and with integrity, states: () due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic uncertainties faced by the mining industry, expenditures on the Galore Creek project have been reduced in 2020, deferring the start of the planned Prefeasibility Study. A core team and funding are in place to meet current permit, environment and community obligations. Choosing to portray a COVID-related slowdown as an indication of Newmont quietly shutting the project down epitomizes JCAPs indecency and intentionally warped interpretation of facts. That, in this instance, the jab would be designed to injure not only shareholders of NOVAGOLD, but also investors in Newmont and Teck, is especially damning. Candidly, there must be a special place in hell for people so depraved that they would so casually utilize one of the most devastating public health crises in modern times to smear a target for financial gain. Anyone who even consorts with such people should be ashamed of themselves for the sordid way in which they make money. For me, business is clearly personal. And, particularly in this moment, decency truly matters. This, however, would not be a new sentiment that I am expressing to our shareholders for the first time. Let me thus conclude with an excerpt from our 2018 Annual Report: We know that reputation is hard won and easily lost. My children know that I feel this way, as do my colleagues and partners. If I say that Im going to do something, Ill do it. It makes life simpler and allows me to feel, and perhaps actually be, virtuous. Its also good business. Quaint as that may sound in our increasingly transactional world, this code stems from a deep philosophical attachment to a values-based and purpose-driven life. It also comes from being, as the French would say, bien eleve (well brought up) in business by partners who taught me in my youth that your word should be your bond because its the right thing to do. It also gives you the reputation that is, after all, the coin of the realm in life. Through leading by example, these mentors gave me the greatest gift of all: namely, understanding the art of practicing integrity. I use the word practicing here because we all know that, being human, we make mistakes for which we should blush. Moreover, it is well-nigh impossible to avoid trade-offs and negotiations. And what is negotiating, other than socially acceptable indeed institutionalized dissembling? With that being said, within the realm of common sense, we can attest to the notion that, by and large, codes of conduct really do work. There are nonetheless multiple perils embedded in this philosophy. First and foremost, it lends itself to being taken advantage of and occasionally mugged by those who dont share similar ethical precepts. It also makes being competitive harder at times. For reasons that I perceive better now than in my youth, however, a more philosophical posture especially when stress-tested in reality has proven to be a key determinant of success. This approach certainly has not prevented me from being extraordinarily lucky in exploration the riskiest part of a risky business or in the fortuitous timing of our more intrepid acquisitions. Such susceptibility for lucky breaks has given my team at Electrum a comparative advantage that weve pressed on numerous occasions over the past 25 years. Our track record can attest to the fact that the fruits have much, much more outweighed any limitations presumably imposed by my personal ethos, summed up by Electrums corporate motto: Intelligence is a commodity; Character is a currency. While I deeply regret this inconvenience to our shareholders, we will endeavor to seek redress for the damages done by people who exhibit neither intelligence nor character. Meanwhile, I am wishing you all safety, good health, and great peace of mind. ABOUT NOVAGOLD NOVAGOLD is a well-financed precious metals company focused on the development of its 50%-owned Donlin Gold project in Alaska, one of the safest mining jurisdictions in the world. With approximately 39 million ounces of gold in the measured and indicated mineral resource categories, inclusive of proven and probable mineral reserves (541 million tonnes at an average grade of approximately 2.24 grams per tonne in the measured and indicated resource categories on a 100% basis),3 Donlin Gold is regarded to be one of the largest, highest-grade, and most prospective known open pit gold deposits in the world. According to the Second Updated Feasibility Study (as defined below), once in production, Donlin Gold is expected to produce an average of more than one million ounces per year over a 27-year mine life on a 100% basis. The Donlin Gold project has substantial exploration potential beyond the designed footprint which currently covers 1.9 miles (3 km) of an approximately five-mile (8 km) long gold-bearing trend. Current activities at Donlin Gold are focused on State permitting, optimization work, community outreach and workforce development in preparation for the construction and operation of this project. With a strong balance sheet, NOVAGOLD is well-positioned to fund its share of permitting and optimization advancement efforts at the Donlin Gold project. Scientific and Technical Information Some scientific and technical information contained herein with respect to the Donlin Gold project is derived from the Donlin Creek Gold Project Alaska, USA NI 43-101 Technical Report on Second Updated Feasibility Study prepared by AMEC with an effective date of November 18, 2011, as amended January 20, 2012 (the Second Updated Feasibility Study or FSU2). Kirk Hanson, P.E., Technical Director, Open Pit Mining, North America, (AMEC, Reno), and Gordon Seibel, R.M. SME, Principal Geologist, (AMEC, Reno) are the Qualified Persons responsible for the preparation of the independent technical report, each of whom are independent qualified persons as defined by NI 43-101. Clifford Krall, P.E., who is the Mine Engineering Manager for NOVAGOLD and a qualified person under NI 43-101, has approved and verified the scientific and technical information related to the Donlin Gold project contained in this press release. NOVAGOLD Contacts: Melanie Hennessey Vice President, Corporate Communications Jason Mercier Manager, Investor Relations 604-669-6227 or 1-866-669-6227 Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as expects, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, potential, possible, and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results will, may, could, would or should occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on several opinions, estimates and assumptions that management of NOVAGOLD considered appropriate and reasonable as of the date such statements are made, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding the potential development and construction of Donlin Gold; perceived merit of properties; the advancement of optimization studies at Donlin Gold; potential opportunities to enhance or maximize the value of Donlin Gold; the timing and likelihood of permits; mineral reserve and resource estimates; work programs; capital expenditures; timelines; strategic plans; and benefits of the Donlin Gold project and market prices for precious metals, and potential actions against or redress from JCAP. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts but instead represent NOVAGOLDs management expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances on the date the statements are made. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include the need to obtain additional permits and governmental approvals; the timing and likelihood of permits; the need for additional financing to explore and develop properties and availability of financing in the debt and capital markets; the outbreak of the coronavirus global pandemic (COVID-19); uncertainties involved in the interpretation of drilling results and geological tests and the estimation of reserves and resources; the need for continued cooperation between NOVAGOLD and Barrick Gold Corp. for the continued exploration, development and eventual construction of the Donlin Gold property; the need for cooperation of government agencies and native groups in the development and operation of properties; risks of construction and mining projects such as accidents, equipment breakdowns, bad weather, natural disasters, climate change, non-compliance with environmental and permit requirements, unanticipated variation in geological structures, ore grades or recovery rates; unexpected cost increases, which could include significant increases in estimated capital and operating costs; fluctuations in metal prices and currency exchange rates; whether a positive construction decision will be made regarding Donlin Gold; continuing legal review of statements by JCAP; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in reports and documents filed by NOVAGOLD with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. The forward-looking statements contained herein reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections of NOVAGOLD on the date the statements are made. NOVAGOLD assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. Cautionary Note to United States Investors This press release has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of U.S. securities laws. Unless otherwise indicated, all resource and reserve estimates included in this press release have been prepared in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101) and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM)CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, adopted by the CIM Council, as amended (CIM Definition Standards). NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators which establishes standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. Canadian standards, including NI 43-101, differ significantly from the requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Industry Guide 7 (SEC Industry Guide 7), and resource and reserve information contained herein may not be comparable to similar information disclosed by U.S. companies. NOVAGOLDs disclosure concerning Reserve & Resources Estimates remains consistent with NI 43-101. Under SEC Industry Guide 7, mineralization may not be classified as a "reserve unless the determination has been made that the mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. SEC Industry Guide 7 normally does not permit the inclusion of information concerning "measured mineral resources, "indicated mineral resources or "inferred mineral resources or other descriptions of the amount of mineralization in mineral deposits that do not constitute "reserves under SEC Industry Guide 7 in documents filed with the SEC. Investors should also understand that "inferred mineral resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. Under Canadian rules, estimated "inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies except in rare cases. Disclosure of "contained ounces in a resource is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations; however, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute "reserves under SEC Industry Guide 7 as in-place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. The requirements of NI 43-101 for identification of "reserves are also not the same as those of SEC Industry Guide 7, and reserves reported by NOVAGOLD in compliance with NI 43-101 may not qualify as "reserves under SEC Industry Guide 7. Donlin Gold does not have known reserves, as defined under SEC Industry Guide 7. Accordingly, information concerning mineral deposits set forth herein may not be comparable with information made public by companies that report in accordance with SEC Industry Guide 7. On October 31, 2018, the SEC adopted a final rule (New Final Rule) that will replace SEC Industry Guide 7 with new disclosure requirements that are more closely aligned with current industry and global regulatory practices and standards, including NI 43-101. Companies must comply with the New Final Rule for the Companys first fiscal year beginning on or after January 1, 2021, which for NOVAGOLD would be the fiscal year beginning December 1, 2021. The New Final Rule provides that SEC Industry Guide 7 will remain effective until all registrants are required to comply with the New Final Rule, at which time SEC Industry Guide 7 will be rescinded. While early voluntary compliance with the New Final Rule is permitted, NOVAGOLD has not elected to comply with the New Final Rule at this time. _______________________ 1 Donlin Gold data as per the Second Updated Feasibility Study (as defined herein). Donlin Gold measured resources of approximately 8 Mt grading 2.52 g/t and indicated resources of approximately 534 Mt grading 2.24 g/t, each on a 100% basis. Mineral resources have been estimated in accordance with NI 43-101. See Cautionary Note Concerning Reserve & Resource Estimates and Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource table on the Companys website. 2 These represent the two of the top five significant intervals from the 2017 Donlin Gold drill program. Refer to the press release dated February 20, 2018 titled NOVAGOLDs Donlin Gold Project Reports Excellent Results from 2017 Drill Program, for remaining significant intervals and additional information. 3 Donlin Gold data as per the Second Updated Feasibility Study (as defined herein). Donlin Gold measured resources of approximately 8 Mt grading 2.52 g/t and indicated resources of approximately 534 Mt grading 2.24 g/t, each on a 100% basis. Mineral resources have been estimated in accordance with NI 43-101. See Cautionary Note Concerning Reserve & Resource Estimates and Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource table on the Companys website. Graphcore cofounder and CEO Nigel Toon Graphcore British start-up Graphcore claims it has shipped "tens of thousands" of its AI chips, or intelligence processing units (IPUs), to companies around the world. Nigel Toon, co-founder and CEO of the U.K.-headquartered company, told CNBC that Graphcore is now "shipping in volumes" thanks to partnerships with Microsoft and Dell. He said the numbers are in the tens of thousands as opposed to the hundreds of thousands. The race to develop AI-optimized chips is well and truly underway, with Santa Clara heavyweights Intel and Nvidia being two of the obvious front runners given their expertise in chip making. The companies haven't disclosed how many of their AI-optimized chips have been sold. However, over a trillion computer chips are expected to be shipped in 2020, according to market data website Statistica. In 2019, Intel's slice of the overall chip market came in at 15.7% and it has been the market leader every year since 2008, with the exception of 2017 when Samsung took the number one spot. Google, Amazon and Apple are also working on their own AI chips. A new era for chips Built in Taiwan by chip manufacturer TSMC, Graphcore's chips are designed to support the development of AI applications and other power hungry software. Traditionally, graphics processing units (GPUs) have been used for intensive computing tasks, such as training an AI model, but their power is limited by their design. Valued at around $2 billion, Graphcore sells its chips on cards that contain two IPUs each and have a list price of around $10,000. "Obviously, depending on who the customer is there's different discounts that apply and different prices that are negotiated," said Toon. A deal between Microsoft and Graphcore last November means the four-year-old start-up's chips are now being used on computer servers in Microsoft data centers. As a result, Azure users can use Graphcore's chips to power their applications. Graphcore's chips have also been incorporated into a new Dell IPU server, providing Graphcore with another route to market. One of Graphcore's intelligence processing units (IPUs). Graphcore Over 100 organizations are using Graphcore's hardware in some shape or form, Toon said, calling out universities such as Oxford, Imperial College London and the University of California, Berkeley. Naming corporate customers is harder, however. Toon declined to comment when asked if U.S. tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple are using the company's chips. "We're a bit careful about customers because sometimes they don't want to say what they're doing," he said. YORKTON, Sask. - A Saskatchewan man has been awarded more than $6.7 million in damages nearly 14 years after an assault during a camping trip left him with a life-changing brain injury. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. YORKTON, Sask. - A Saskatchewan man has been awarded more than $6.7 million in damages nearly 14 years after an assault during a camping trip left him with a life-changing brain injury. Court documents say Robert Mus was 17 years old when he and some friends visited Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba in July 2006. A 2008 trial heard a camper in another group struck Mus on the right side of his head with a piece of fire wood. Tyler Kozakowski was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for aggravated assault. Mus sued Kozakowski for damages in 2008, but the defendant did not show up for the civil trial last year and presented no defence. A decision last month by Queen's Bench Justice Michael Tochor noted Mus suffered numerous strokes, was in a vegetative state for a time and had to undergo intensive rehabilitation. Mus had to relearn how to control his bodily functions, hold his head up and speak, the judge said. The injured teen remained at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre for six months after the attack. He then returned to live at home with his mother, where he remains. Tochor noted Kozakowski's criminal sentence is "now well behind him." "However, from the moment of the assault, the life of Mr. Mus forever changed in almost unimaginable ways." A 2014 medical report said Mus got easily tired while walking, remained "somewhat childlike" and that "there were concerns in regards to his social vulnerability." During the civil trial, the plaintiff's mother elaborated on the assault's lasting effects. "She pointed out Mr. Mus reached his maximum level of recovery and she relayed her concerns his condition will deteriorate," Tochor said in his May 27 decision on damages. "She testified his mobility has declined over time and his speech is becoming less distinguishable." The amount awarded includes more than $1 million for past loss of income and nearly $4.5 million for future lost income, as well as the cost of care, housekeeping and other items. 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. Mus' lawyer, David Rusnak, said there were several reasons why it took the case so long to get to trial. For instance, he said medical witnesses in cases like these need to observe plaintiffs long enough that they can determine whether they will recover, and to what extent. "Lawsuits that have an injury component as substantial as Mr. Mus' often take a considerable period of time," Rusnak said. He said Monday that his client had not authorized him to provide a statement on his behalf. By Lauren Krugel in Calgary This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2020 New Delhi, June 9 : The Delhi government on Tuesday ordered an increase in dedicated Covid beds at 22 private hospitals from 1,441 to 3,456. A order issued by Principal Secretary, Health, Vikram Dev Dutt said that "these hospitals are directed to admit Covid-19 patients as per revised allocation of beds and update on Delhi corona app immediately". The hospitals include Apollo, Batra, Fortis, BLK, Max, Holy Family, Mata Chanan Devi, and Action Hospitals. The Delhi government told Lt. Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday that at present, there are 8,821 hospital beds, 582 ICU beds, 468 ventilators beds and 3,590 oxygenated supported beds in dedicated Covid hospitals. Dutt also said that the new 450-bed hospital in Burari is expected to be operational by June 20. Meanwhile, 500 additional beds in other government hospitals have been also earmarked for Covid patients. IAS officers have been posted as Administrative Officers in Covid hospitals and help desks, manned by government officials, have been set up in all the government hospitals to facilitate the admission process. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Thousands of people called on Tuesday for a statue of 19th century British imperialist Cecil Rhodes to be removed from an Oxford University college, as debate raged over the removal of other monuments to the nation's colonial past. Protesters chanted "Take it down" and "Decolonise", and held placards urging "Rhodes Must Fall" and "Black Lives Matter" beneath the statue at Oriel College. The "Rhodes Must Fall" movement, which began in South Africa, failed in a previous attempt to have the statue removed but has been revived by a wave of anti-racism protests. Protesters sat with raised fists for nearly nine minutes in tribute to unarmed black man George Floyd, whose death in US police custody triggered outrage and condemnation worldwide. Sylvanus Leigh, 44, said the limestone statue of the Victorian-era tycoon, who founded the De Beers diamond company in what is now Zimbabwe, represented "a colonial mindset". The care worker told AFP he could think of more deserving candidates for a statue. "Better to have Mother Teresa or Desmond Tutu," he said. The leader of Oxford City Council, Susan Brown, said it would be a "good thing" if Oriel, which was founded in 1326, applied for permission to remove the statue. The college had to "find the right balance between the laws that protect our historic buildings and the moral obligation to reflect on the malign symbolism of this statue", she added. Local MP Layla Moran called Rhodes a "white supremacist who does not represent the values of Oxford in 2020". - 'Uncomfortable truth' - The protest comes after activists toppled a statue to Edward Colton, a 17th century merchant who helped build the city of Bristol and played a leading role in slavery. Years of local debate over what to do with the statue came to an end on Sunday when it was thrown in the harbour. Campaigners in Wales are now demanding the removal of memorials to Napoleonic war hero Thomas Picton, who was accused of cruelty while serving as a governor in Trinidad. In Scotland, activists have called for changes to the streets named after the 18th and 19th century tobacco and sugar traders who made their fortunes through slavery. A central London statue of Winston Churchill was defaced, with protesters blaming his policies for the death of millions during famine in the Indian state of Bengal in 1943. Mayor Sadiq Khan launched a review of city landmarks and street names, saying many reflected "a bygone era", and could better reflect the capital's diversity. "It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade," he said. The Canal and River Trust announced it would "remove as soon as possible" a statue of Robert Milligan, whose family owned sugar plantations in Jamaica, from London's Docklands. - 'Cold reality' - Despite widespread support, some warned of an attempt to erase the past. "If you change the street names it's easier to forget but it's better to have signs underneath to talk about what these men did," said student Kieran Weatherill, 24, in Glasgow. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he understood the "depth of emotion" triggered by Floyd's death and the anger from black and ethnic minority groups about discrimination. "We who lead and who govern simply can't ignore those feelings because in too many cases, I am afraid, they will be founded on a cold reality," he said in a video message Monday. But he warned he would not tolerate vandalism or violence, after clashes near his Downing Street office left 35 police officers injured. Johnson's Conservatives have been embroiled in a number of scandals over their treatment of immigrants, and he has been accused of using racist language in his journalism. However, he expressed pride in having what he claimed was the most diverse cabinet in British history, including interior minister Priti Patel, who on Monday told MPs how she had faced racial abuse as a child. People demand the removal of a statue of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes outside Oxford's Oriel College Oxford protesters sat with raised fists for nearly nine minutes in tribute to unarmed black man George Floyd, whose death in US police custody triggered outrage worldwide Protesters chant "Take it down!" and "Decolonise!", and held placards urging "Rhodes Must Fall" and "Black Lives Matter" in front of the imperialist's statue at Oxford's Oriel College London protesters defaced the statue of World War II leader Winston Churchill in Parliament Square The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed Republic TV chief Arnab Goswami to attend NM Joshi Marg police station on June 10 for interrogation with regards to the two FIRs registered against him in NM Joshi Marg police station as well as Pydhonie Police Station. Goswami had filed petitions in the Bombay high court seeking quashing of the FIRs against him in the two police stations. The court has posted the petitions for hearing Friday. The division bench of justice Ujjal Bhuyan and justice Riyaz Chagla while hearing the criminal writ petition of Arnab Goswami filed through advocate Madhavi Doshi seeking various reliefs included quashing of the two FIRs filed against him on April 22 and May 2 with regards to the reporting of the April 14 protest of migrants at Bandra station. Senior counsel Harish Salve for Goswami submitted that multiple FIRs had been filed across the country for the same incidents, and as per a Supreme Court order multiple FIRs in different states for the same incident were not sustainable, hence the FIR filed against Goswami should be quashed. While referring to section 153 under which Goswami has been booked, Salve submitted that no offence was made out under the section. He also said that as Pydhonie police station was in a containment zone, Goswami should be exempted from reporting there on June 10. However, senior counsel Kapil Sibal who appeared for the state of Maharashtra along with public prosecutor Deepak Thakare and additional public prosecutor SR Shinde submitted that the allegations made against Goswami in the FIRs were sensitive in nature hence he should be asked to attend the police station to enable them to complete their investigations. After hearing the submissions, the bench directed Goswami to attend NM Joshi Marg police station on June 10, instead of Pydhonie police station and asked the Pydhonie police to conduct its interrogation there instead. The court also restrained the police from arresting Goswami and posted the matter for hearing on Friday June 12. When advocate Doshi was contacted she refused to speak. Goswami has been accused of instigating hatred against the Muslim community while anchoring a programme on the protests by migrants outside Bandra Station. The FIR at Pydhonie police station has stated that Goswami during the programme had targeted the mosque outside the station though it had nothing to do in the gathering of migrants. ere. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here.Start story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. Story here. ATTORNEY DAVID A. KADZAI Victims of police brutality can suffer serious and permanent damage. As a personal injury law firm, we are committed to providing fair and quality legal services to those who have suffered at the hands of another party. Kadzai commented The Law Offices of David A. Kadzai, LLC recently filed a lawsuit for alleged Excessive Force against the city of Blue Island. Per Case # 2020 L 001642, a lawsuit was filed against the city for alleged excessive force by the police on behalf of their client who was severely injured by law enforcement officers. Recent court documents allege that after a blowout of one of his tires, the client was stranded and attempted to seek help from the police. According to court reports, when the police officers approached the man, they slammed him to the concrete pavement on his neck and held him there while another officer went through his pockets. The man was then placed in the squad car and could not feel his arms and legs. Instead of transporting him to the emergency room, he was taken to the police station and issued a ticket for failure to have car insurance. Per the court record, when the man was transported to the Emergency Room, it was found that he suffered a spinal cord injury that will require surgery. It is also possible that he suffered permanent nerve damage to his arms and hands. As a Chicago native, Attorney David A. Kadzai understands the unique issues and concerns that affect residents throughout the city and suburbs. By carefully considering clients needs and objectives, he delivers skilled and compassionate representation. With more than 10 years of legal experience, David has proven success with securing positive outcomes for his personal injury clients and making sure they are fully compensated for the damages they have suffered. Victims of police brutality can suffer serious and permanent damage. As a personal injury law firm, we are committed to providing fair and quality legal services to those who have suffered at the hands of another party. We will consider all relevant factors to ensure that you receive the proper compensation for your pain and suffering, Kadzai commented. About The Law Offices of David A. Kadzai, LLC The Law Offices of David A. Kadzai, LLC represent clients in Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect; Wrongful Death; Medical Malpractice; Car Accidents; Truck Accidents; Bike and Pedestrian Accidents; and Police Brutality and Civil Rights. Their dedicated and qualified attorneys help clients hold a negligent party responsible for any injuries or harm caused to the victims. To learn more about The Law Offices of David A. Kadzai, LLC, visit https://www.kadzailawgroup.com/ or call 312-229-0050 to schedule a free consultation. Synechron has announced a new partnership with public cloud provider, Google Cloud. Synechron will work with Google Cloud to further build its established global Centre of Excellence (COE) and to expand its existing cloud offering to Synechrons leading financial services clients, in an effort to move towards enterprise-scale architecture modernisation and cloud migration. In their new partnership, Synechron will provide cloud-based solution architecture and operating models to support both the migration of legacy processes, as well as establishing the cloud for new business activities for its clients. Synechrons Google Cloud Centre of Excellence comprises a global group of Google Cloud accredited architects, data engineers and developers who have designed and developed enterprise-grade, cloud-hosted solutions. Mutual clients will be able to create an application landing zone with confidence for their ecosystems with Synechrons cloud migration expertise and managed services framework, increasing operational efficiency and delivering cost leverage. Synechron is already working with Google Cloud on live engagements across the UK, The Netherlands and APAC. As part of its Digital Ecosystems accelerator an internal research and development program dedicated to innovation Synechron utilised Google Clouds platform to create a Treasury-as-a-Service API Orchestration Accelerator (known as Liquify). Liquify creates an API-enabled ecosystem that automates a banks treasury, liquidity and cash management functions across different siloed departments within a business division. The accelerator also brings together multiple APIs into a microservices layer running in the cloud and then pushes them through an API-Gateway, allowing each API plug-in to serve an independent function free from any existing monolithic systems. This solution was presented as one of the use cases for Google Cloud during the 2019 Singapore FinTech Festival. Mihir P Shah, Managing Director and Head of the UK, The Netherlands and APAC at Synechron, said, I am delighted Synechron is now a proud partner of Google Cloud alongside some of the largest global financial services institutions. We have been working on building out our Google Cloud capabilities over the last year and with many new projects in the pipeline, I am excited by our new partnership and developing Synechron into a world leader that helps customers succeed with Google Cloud solutions. An Irish biotechnology company has been awarded 2.5m in European funding for its Covid-19 response technology. RemedyBio was selected from almost 4,000 companies submitted proposals to the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Pilot in March, from which 72 secured funding across Europe. Eight Irish companies have secured over 10% of the funding, ranking second in countries awarded funding. The company's technology is designed to rapidly analyse millions of single immune cells from an individual sample. This presents an opportunity to rapidly identify the best antibodies from the immune systems of Covid-19 infected patients for which to create a rapid passive therapeutic vaccine for those that are critically ill from the virus. The Dublin based company is supported by Enterprise Ireland and its flagship Nanoreactor technology was developed through a multi-year partnership with Dublin City University. Paul Leonard, the company's co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer said the EIC support will allow RemedyBio to industrialise their technology to help in the fight against Covid-19 and future pandemics, getting better medicines to patients, faster. "This award also recognises the support RemedyBio have received from Enterprise Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland and DCU who has been a key partner to us in helping Remedy create one of the worlds most advanced discovery engines to fight COVID-19. Egypt Ventures Board of Directors has approved a new long-term strategy focusing on impact investing principles to track Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across start-ups in Egypt. Established in 2017, Egypt Ventures is an investment firm seeded by the Ministry of International Cooperation with a mandate of supporting and investing in startups from a diverse range of sectors across Egypt. In a statement issued on Monday, the firm said its new strategy is focused on developing and implementing an impact management framework that maps the impact of the portfolio companies on SDGs and ensures that future investments achieve minimal impact criteria. The strategy goals are to be achieved through a multi-stage investment model investing in early-stage start-ups through its accelerators, and investing in growth stage start-ups directly through Egypt Ventures, according to the statement. One of the core objectives, the statement said, is to brand Egypt as MENA's hub for innovation and pool of talent, attracting both foreign and domestic investments in the Egyptian start-up industry. This has been achieved over the last three years through multiplying investments received for each million pounds invested by Egypt Ventures by an additional EGP 8 million from domestic and international private investors. Egypt Ventures, through its affiliates and investments, invested in more than 107 companies, attracting foreign and domestic investments to the Egyptian start-up industry. "Egypt Ventures targets empowering Egyptian youth and women entrepreneurs nationwide through investing in their innovations and start-ups, according to the firm. Search Keywords: Short link: It seems like the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 will feature a flat display. This information comes from Ice Universe, a well-known tipster. He shared the info via his official Twitter account. In his tweet, he said that the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 is flat, clearly talking about its display. Do note that this regards the regular Galaxy Note 20, not the Note 20+ or Note 20 Ultra. The Galaxy Note 20 will feature a flat display, it seems, but not its siblings Those two phones are still likely to offer curved displays, even if they do end up being slightly curved. The Galaxy S20 series has noticeably less curved displays than their predecessors, especially the S20 and S20+. Advertisement The Galaxy Note 20 will go further down that rabbit hole, and avoid a curved panel altogether. Many people will be happy with this decision, as it seems like the vast majority of consumers prefer flat displays. Samsung was the one who started the whole curved display craze, and it seems like its giving up on that after several generations. Many other smartphone manufacturers have gone in the opposite direction. Waterfall displays have arrived a while back, and they cover the vast majority of the phones side as well. The display on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, for example, is extremely curved. That is just one example. Advertisement The Galaxy Note 20 will become official in August, quite probably. Samsung is rumored to host an online-only even for the Galaxy Note 20 series. That event is rumored to take place on August 5, but nothing has been confirmed just yet. Samsung is expected to announce four smartphones at its next Unpacked event The Galaxy Note 20 wont be the only phone to launch, though. The Galaxy Note 20+ and Note 20 Ultra are also expected. Not even that is the whole story. Samsung is also rumored to announce its next-gen foldable during that event. The Galaxy Fold 2 is rumored to become official as well. Samsung may announce some additional hardware, in form of wearables or something of the sort, along with those four phones. Advertisement It will be a huge event for the company, similar to the one that took place in February. That was to be expected, though, Samsung hosts two Unpacked events a year, for the Galaxy S and Note series of devices. This year, however, were getting much more than that. The company released a foldable device back in February, and another one is coming in August. Were sure that more information will surface before the launch event, as were still at least two months away from it. So, stay tuned. Turkish prosecutors issued arrest warrants this week for more than 200 people accused of links to an outlawed group the government blames for the 2016 failed coup. In the western coastal province of Izmir, security forces were searching for 191 people, 181 of whom were active members of the Turkish Air Forces, reported the state-run Anadolu Agency. The authorities have so far arrested 145 people across 22 provinces. On Monday, warrants were issued for the arrest of 33 people, including 24 police officers. Anadolu also reported that prosecutors named 42 suspects who were found on the messaging app ByLock, which authorities believe is widely used by followers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames the followers of the Turkish cleric for the July 2016 coup attempt that left at least 250 people dead and more than 2,000 injured. The Turkish president has since ordered the mass arrests of thousands of alleged supporters of the Gulen movement, which Turkey has branded the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization. The government also dismissed or suspended some 150,000 civil workers from their jobs over alleged ties to the group. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania since 1999, denies involvement in the attempt to unseat Erdogan. The latest arrests across Turkey appear to be part of a renewed push to suppress the group. Last week, Turkey issued arrest warrants for 118 people accused of links to Gulen, including one colonel and three lieutenants in the Turkish military. The crackdown comes as Turkey's parliament resumes debate this week on a controversial bill augmenting the powers of a neighborhood watch force that critics charge is Erdogans latest effort to tighten his grip on the country. The legislation would allow some 28,000 watchmen to frisk citizens, demand identification, search their cars and use weapons if needed. Thousands of police were deployed to enforce strict quarantine rules, but activists accuse them of committing human rights violations in the process. In the Philippines, the entire island of Luzon has been on lockdown for more than two months. Thousands of police have been deployed to enforce strict quarantine rules. But activists accuse them of committing human rights violations in the process. Al Jazeeras Jamela Alindogan reports from Manila. Donald Trump has advanced an unfounded conspiracy theory about a 75-year-old protester in New York state who was pushed over by police, tweeting that the confrontation may have been a set-up. The president, who has called himself your president of law and order, again sided firmly with police over protesters who have taken to the streets across the country. With his tweet, he attempted to cast doubt on video showing police in Buffalo shoving the man, who fell backwards and hit his head on the pavement. He is seen bleeding from his head as officers walk away. Two Buffalo police officers have been charged with second-degree assault for the incident and could face prison sentences of up to seven years if convicted. They have pleaded not guilty. The video is one of several that have emerged in recent weeks showing police using seemingly excessive force against protesters demanding justice and racial equality following the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck. Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur, Trump wrote. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? There is no evidence to back Mr Trumps claim, referencing a report on One America News Network, a far-right news channel that he often praises. Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020 As he has tried to malign violent protesters as radical-left, bad people engaging in domestic terrorism, Mr Trump has repeatedly invoked the label antifa, an umbrella term for leftist militants bound more by belief than organisational structure. Story continues There have been violent acts, including property destruction and theft, and police officers and protesters have been seriously injured and killed, but federal law enforcement officials have offered little evidence that antifa-aligned protesters could be behind a movement that has appeared nearly simultaneously in hundreds of cities and towns in all 50 states since Mr Floyds death. Mr Gugino, who is out of intensive care but remains in hospital, has been described by friends as a retiree and veteran peace activist driven by his faith and a desire for social justice. He is involved with the Western New York Peace Centre and Latin American Solidarity Committee, said Vicki Ross, the centres executive director. She said he has also been undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Aaron Torgalski is one of two Buffalo police officers charged with second-degree assault (Erie County District Attorneys Office/AP) Mr Guginos lawyer, Kelly Zarcone, told the Associated Press that Mr Trumps accusations are utterly baseless and ridiculous. She said her client has always been a peaceful protester because he cares about todays society. No one from law enforcement has even suggested anything otherwise, so we are at a loss to understand why the president of the United States would make such dark, dangerous, and untrue accusations about him. We can confirm that those accusations are utterly baseless and ridiculous, she said. The number two Republican in the Senate, John Thune, also criticised Mr Trumps tweet. Its a serious accusation, which should only be made with facts and evidence. And I havent seen any yet, he told reporters. Asked if the president should not be making such an accusation, Mr Thune said: Well, I think thats a given. Robert McCabe is one of two Buffalo police officers who could face prison sentences of up to seven years (Erie County District Attorneys Office/AP) New York lieutenant governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, called Mr Trumps tweet sick. The President continues to use his platform to peddle conspiracy theories, this time about a peaceful protestor and fellow New Yorker. Not sure how this is supposed to bring our country together, she tweeted. Buffalo mayor Byron Brown, another Democrat, tweeted to Mr Trump that the City of Buffalo is laser focused on healing, taking action against racial injustice and building a good future for our residents. We pray for a full recovery for Mr. Gugino and as I have repeatedly said, the two officers deserve due process. New Yorks Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo called on Mr Trump to apologise for a wholly unacceptable tweet. He said: How reckless, how irresponsible, how mean, how crude. I mean if there was ever a reprehensible, dumb comment, and from the president of the United States. At this moment of anguish and anger, what does he do? Pour gasoline on the fire. Show some decency. Show some humanity. Show some fairness. Youre the president of the United States. As for the substance of the tweet, the presidents claim is so technically incomprehensible, Im not even sure where to start, said Matt Blaze, a professor of computer science and law at Georgetown University. Any radio system is subject to interference, but it doesnt work by pointing some sort of ray gun and interfering, he said. The Sudanese tradition of social mobilisation can also help the government build a new and inclusive governance model. In many countries around the world, the coronavirus pandemic has not only introduced new problems and dilemmas but also shone a light on existing fault lines, such as criminally below-par workers protections and fears of government overreach. Sudan, as a nation in transition facing multiple political, economic and social challenges, has also not been spared from the damaging consequences of this public health crisis, despite the initially relatively slow spread of the disease in the country. COVID-19 struck Sudan at a particularly difficult time. The country is currently in the middle of a yet another fragile democratic transition and is facing acute economic woes. The new chimeric part-civilian, part-military transitional government, which was formed last year following the removal of President Omar al-Bashirs regime, is increasingly exposed to internal divisions and pressures from the military. Meanwhile, Sudans cyclical history always threatens to repeat itself. Public trust in the state is still low, and many believe the government has been slow to stamp out the vestiges of the old regime and overhaul its destructive public policies. Moreover, the designation of Sudan as a State Sponsor of Terror (SST) by the United States, for the former governments hosting of Carlos the Jackal and Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s, means that 30 years later and under a new government, the country still has no way of accessing the global funds it desperately needs to restart its economy. The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated these existing problems and created new ones. Before the pandemic, the countrys allies within the region and across the globe appeared willing to help it build the infrastructure it needs to prosper as an independent democracy led by a civilian government. Successive Friends of Sudan meetings signalled a significant cash injection to the states coffers, with the lions share of the money coming from the oil-rich nations of the Gulf. However, as COVID-19 spread across the globe, devastated economies and brought oil prices to unprecedented lows, it became clear that Sudan would never receive this cash. The IMF and the World Bank released billions in funding for COVID-19 relief, but due to its designation as an SST, Sudan is currently not able to access its share of these funds either. Responding to the pandemic through nafeer Despite these obstacles and challenges, Sudans transitional government initially responded to the COVID-19 threat relatively efficiently. Learning from the experiences of other countries further along in the pandemics trajectory, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdoks government swiftly closed airports and ports and set up quarantine centres for those coming from affected countries. It also started distributing food packages to vulnerable communities and put into motion the planned increase in public sector salaries. These steps helped build the perception that Sudan finally has a functioning government working to help and protect the Sudanese people. These efforts, however, proved insufficient to stop the virus from entering the country. As more and more people became infected, Sudans government eventually found itself unable to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the countrys already crumbling health system. The civilian component of the government, which has, for the most part, been leading the countrys pandemic response alone, struggled to obtain the necessary personal protection equipment (PPE), test kits and medical breathing devices that Sudanese health workers need to fight the virus. To tackle these problems, Sudanese people chose to rely upon nafeer a Sudanese social tradition that comes from an Arabic word meaning a call to mobilise. In response to the lack of PPE, for example, volunteers formed the Be Safe initiative to raise funds to enable factories to produce protective clothing and face-guards for medical staff. Acute shortages of medical breathing devices are also being tackled by local initiatives. Sudan currently has a few hundred ventilators for a population of 43 million. And due to the old regimes centralised nature, most of these ventilators are in the capital, Khartoum. As a result of many countries restricting the exports of ventilators and breathing regulators, and an acute lack of funds, the Sudanese government is unable to source the devices it needs from abroad. To tackle this problem, and save lives, a 12,000-strong volunteer initiative, led by engineers, is working to produce both Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines and ventilators in Sudan. The goal of the initiative is to design breathing machines that can be easily assembled using domestically sourced or 3D-printed parts in hospitals and universities across the country. Sudanese volunteers in the medical, aid and private sectors are also working in unison to tackle the shortage of testing kits. They are hoping to follow Senegals example and produce cheap and easy to use COVID-19 testing kits within Sudan. At the community level, the governments food distribution drive for vulnerable families is being run by voluntary neighbourhood resistance committees, created during last years revolution. The members of these resistance committees use the invaluable organisational and public service experience they gained during the revolution to make the food distribution initiative efficient and socially meaningful. Resistance committees in neglected urban areas had already been collecting contributions to provide street lighting and other municipal services. The Sudanese diaspora has also engaged in nafeer by helping Sudans efforts to tackle the virus. Even before the spread of COVID-19, in April, Hamdok had launched the Stand for Sudan initiative calling on Sudanese people around the world to support the countrys economy. Nafeer as a governance model Nafeer, or crowdsourcing of funds and efforts, has always been a part of Sudanese life a social safety net and traditionally, it seeks to assist and complement, rather than replace, the government. But as nafeer activities usually offer solidarity where there are gaps in key government services, they were often met with government hostility in the past. In 2013, for example, the first mass-organised nafeer campaign that was initiated to respond to the devastating floods in the country was heavily monitored, and eventually clamped down on, by al-Bashirs government. The transitional government now needs to publicly embrace and support nafeer initiatives. The revolution that brought it to power itself was built upon grassroots solidarity initiatives, and it now needs to urgently recapture this momentum. The governments backing of and support for such community mobilisation efforts would help Sudan greatly increase the efficiency of its response to COVID-19 and strengthen its economy. Sudanese factories are already working to produce PPE, engineers are racing against time to design ventilators, and the diaspora is sending the country thousands of dollars on a daily basis. Nevertheless, Sudan has not yet reached the peak of the pandemic, and the collaboration between the Sudanese people and the government needs to continue with increased pace to prevent COVID-19 from causing further devastation in the country. It is important to recognise that the transitional governments power lies not only in the 2018 revolution that brought it to power, but also in the continued support and work of resistance committees, service-providing initiatives, and capacity-mitigating volunteers. As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country increases, the impending global depression encourages even the most prosperous nations to cut their aid budgets, and other crises from conflict, locust infestations to famine, to yet more annual flooding loom on the horizon, the Sudanese government needs to fully embrace the nafeer ethos and prioritise it in its policies. By recognising the importance and efficiency of nafeer mobilisation, identifying and linking up grassroots initiatives and encouraging the Sudanese people to play a direct role in their nations response to major crises, the transitional government can not only save thousands of lives but also lay the foundations of a new inclusive, efficient and long-lasting social governance model. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. The City of Katys beloved tradition of hosting a dazzling fireworks display for the Fourth of July is back on following immediate outrage over its cancelation. The city publicly announced that the fireworks display, which takes place at Katy Mills Mall, was canceled due to concerns over COVID-19 at approximately 9 a.m. yesterday. More than 100 Katy residents and multiple city council members quickly took to Facebook to express outrage over the cancelation. There is no legitimate reason to cancel an outdoor fireworks display celebrating this country's independence, said one dissenter. Many others asked why protests were allowed but fireworks displays were not. Another poster, referencing the recent Black Lives Matter protest at Katy Park asked, Why cant they just require everyone wear masks, social distance and still celebrate the 4th of July? Thats the rules they gave the protests right? Related: I grieve with hope: Thousands descend on Katy park for Black Lives Matter rally City of Katy representatives tried to mollify the objectors, noting that the Black Lives Matter protest at Katy Park was outside the citys jurisdiction. They also cited budgetary concerns over an expensive fireworks display during financially uncertain times, but the backlash over the decision continued. The citys annual fireworks display costs the city more than $20,000 each year, a representative from the city confirmed. Longtime Katy resident Adrienne Davitz even called into the city councils Zoom meeting pleading for the city to bring back the fireworks show during the meetings public comments. The past few months have been trying for all of us, all around our nation, and especially our city. I think (the fireworks show) would be something that we could possibly consider to do safely that would bring us together as a city, Davitz said. Nine hours after the initial announcement, Mayor Bill Hastings revoked the cancelation and issued an official statement regarding the event. The fireworks event will still take place, he said, but there will be some safety modifications. Among these changes- the festival surrounding the display will still remain canceled. After reviewing the governors order and speaking to Katy city council, Ive overturned the plan to cancel the event entirely, his statement said. As for the festival, unfortunately there is no way to conduct a gathering of this type and maintain health and safety protocols or social distancing standards. COVID-19 by the numbers: Texas Coronavirus Map: See the latest numbers on our interactive tracker The mayor also urged those attending the event to do so responsibly. Please continue to represent the city, as you have done this entire time, by respecting those around you, maintaining a social distance and continuing to care for one another. claire.goodman@chron.com North Korea's leader emphasizes need for self-sufficient economy amid sanctions Iran Press TV Monday, 08 June 2020 10:16 AM The North Korean leader has called for further economic development, especially in the chemical industry, emphasizing the need for the country which is under harsh international sanctions to achieve economic self-sufficiency. Kim Jong-un made the comments at a meeting of the politburo of the ruling Workers' Party on domestic economic issues, state news agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Monday. The meeting discussed "crucial issues arising in further developing the self-sufficient economy of the country and improving the standard of people's living," the report added. High on the agenda were the chemical industry and fertilizer production as "a major thrust front of the national economy." The construction of new residential areas was also emphasized at the meeting as another way to improve the living standards of the people. For years, North Korea has been under harsh economic pressure due to international and unilateral American sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The news comes as tensions between the two Koreas have been escalating in the past days. The North has threatened to shutter an inter-Korean liaison office and other projects if the South fails to prevent defectors from sending leaflets and other anti-Pyongyang material into North Korea. In protest, North Korea on Monday refused to answer a routine daily liaison phone call from South Korean officials. South Korea's Unification Ministry said it was the first time in two years that North Korea had not answered the daily call. North Korea and South Korea are technically still at war despite the 1953 Korean War Armistice. The two Koreas are split along the 248-kilometer-long, 4-kilometer-wide border region called the Demilitarized Zone that was originally created as a buffer. In late 2018, the two neighbors began taking a number of steps towards reducing tensions, but the peace efforts came to a halt amid an impasse in nuclear negotiations between Kim and US President Donald Trump. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A gas well at Baghjan in Assams Tinsukia district caught fire on Tuesday and triggered protests from the residents of the area even as chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal assured them of their safety and said he has spoken to Centre for all possible assistance. The well caught fire as experts were trying to control the blowout, or leakage of gas and condensate, from it since May 27. The blowout had prompted the evacuation of nearly 2,000 people living near the well to four relief camps. Plumes of smoke emanating from the well could be seen kilometers away from the site near the Dibru Saikhowa National Park and the eco-sensitive Maguri Mottapung wetland, which are home to endangered hoolock gibbons and Gangetic dolphins. The residents staged a protest close to the site and blamed Oil India Limited (OIL) for failing to control the blowout for two weeks. We have been living in relief camps for two weeks now with the hope that the blowout would be controlled. But the fire has damaged several houses and hopes of any early solution. The night sky is lighted up by the fire and the air is filled with smoke, said Madhab Moran, a resident of Baghjan. OIL has asked the state government to control the situation so that experts and officials can reach the site to control the fire and the blowout. Three experts from Singapore firm Alert Disaster Control arrived in Assam to plug the leak on Monday. The fire broke out at 1:40 pm. The reason for the outbreak is not ascertained yet. Apart from a fireman of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, who sustained a minor injury, no one else has been injured, said OILs senior manager (corporate communications) Jayant Bormudoi. The experts were not present at the site when the fire broke out. They were at meetings at an OIL office in Duliajan. There is no immediate threat to residents of the area, who have already been shifted beyond a radius of 1.5 km from the well. An OIL statement said fire tenders have been pressed into service to control the fire. The current situation would be brought under control by the experts, it said. The statement said several options for plugging the blowout were discussed and it was decided to use the capping stack guide rail system, which will involve a large prefabricated device to seal off the well. Sonowal said instructions have been issued to district officials to ensure the safety of the residents. Police, military, paramilitary forces, and NDRF [National Disaster Response Force] are present at the spot, he said. I have apprised Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan about the incident and asked him to take steps to contain the fire and the blowout. The Indian Air Force can also play a role in controlling the fire and I have asked defence minister Rajnath Singh about it. Sonowal asked residents of the area and Tinsukia town, 9 km away, to not panic and assured all help from the government. The blowout on May 27 was reported while work was underway to produce gas from a new oil and gas bearing reservoir at a depth of 3729 metres. A blowout means an uncontrolled release of crude oil or gas from a well when pressure control systems fail. HT on June 3 reported the blowout was causing extensive damage to biodiversity and wildlife in the region. Release of particulate matter and the fire will affect Dibru Saikhowa National Park. But the damage to Maguri Mottapung wetland will be immense. If this continues for another four weeks, humans will also not remain unaffected by the pollution. Despite a history of over 100 years of oil and gas exploration in the area, it is surprising we do not have the experts and equipment to deal with such an emergency, said environmentalist Raj Phukan, who is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In the first statewide policy change since George Floyd's death shook the nation, the Texas agency that regulates police has agreed to add implicit bias training to a course required for every officer, upon the request of Houston Democratic state Rep. Garnet Coleman. The requirement was one that had been included in an early iteration, but not the final version, of the 2017 Sandra Bland Act, which requires all officers to take de-escalation training. This time, Coleman went a different route and simply asked the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement if it would make the change administratively as opposed to waiting for new legislation. To his delight, the commission responded a day later that it would adopt the policy. Coleman said he will work with the agency on crafting and finalizing curriculum, but the purpose will be to train officers about the possibility that they may be unconsciously carrying preconceived notions or prejudices that can affect their actions on the job. It does what the public is asking for, Coleman said. When a police officer doesnt understand that they have this bias, the only way to change it is for them to recognize that they have a bias that may be a racial bias. More Information Excerpt from new curriculum "The ability to be objective-neutral is learned and improved with practice. If you become aware of your personal feelings, prejudices, 'blind spots,' implicit bias, and other elements of personality, you have taken a giant step toward introducing objectivity into your behavior. Having achieved this awareness of yourself, you can then view things in their proper perspective." Source: Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Lawmakers plan potential reforms Houston Rep. Garnet Coleman said the following are policy suggestionss for how to improve Texas' criminal justice system, which he and others plan to propose in the 2021 Texas legislative session: New training for new and existing officers, such as tactical communication: the study of verbal communication meant to help an officer de-escalate situations even when under verbal assault Prohibit consent searches, or warantless searches conducted when a suspect agrees to them. Ban pretextual and investigatory stops, the kind used by the officer who pulled over Sandra Bland, in which an officer pulls someone over for a minor infraction in order to investigate other potential crimes. Increase the standard of evidence required to conduct a stop or search a motor vehicle. Strengthen racial profiling law and make it clear that data can be entered into court proceedings to show a pattern of profiling. Prohibit arrests for offenses only punishable by fines (also something that happened to Bland; previous legislation has failed to pass in the past two sessions). Standardize the procedure for a member of the public to make a complaint against an officer See More Collapse When people say, How do you change how people think? This is how you change how people think. Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Gretchen Grigsby, director of government relations at the law enforcement commission, said the agency agreed it could use more reference materials and information about implicit bias for its basic peace officer training course, which is required to receive a license, and added them. The additions will be part of recruits course work as of this week. The benefit of it being early on in the curriculum is that it does set the tone for the rest of the course and allows it to be revisited in different places, Grigsby said, adding that any of the states 114 academies that teach the courses are welcome to and often do go beyond what is required. Texas lawmakers say they hope to implement a number of other reforms during the next legislative session, which starts in January, building on increased attention around criminal justice reform elicited by Floyds death while in the custody of Minneapolis police. Coleman plans to again work with Houston Sen. John Whitmire, chair of the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice. The two worked together to pass the Bland Act, named for the 28-year-old African American woman who was arrested and jailed in 2015 after being pulled over for failing to use her blinker as she changed lanes. She was found dead by suicide in her county jail cell days later. On Monday on San Antonios KSAT, Gov. Greg Abbott said of his private meeting with the Floyd family that he is looking forward to making sure that he will not have died in vain, that his life will be the stimulant for reforms that will make Texas and the country a better place. One such policy Abbott mentioned would prevent the kind of chokehold that killed Floyd, a Houstonian who died after an officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Theres no reason, in an arrest like this, for the officer to have his knee on the neck of this person they are arresting, Abbott said. There must be a better strategy to use. Some local jurisdictions are already moving in that direction: Speaking from Floyds funeral Tuesday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced an executive order that would ban choke-holds. A police reform bill introduced by Congressional Democrats would ban the practice nationwide. REFORMS AHEAD: How George Floyds death has inspired efforts to strengthen Texass Sandra Bland Act Charley Wilkison, executive director of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, a statewide police union, applauded the move on Tuesday. While Wilkison said some agencies may have instituted their own versions of implicit bias training, this change will ensure uniformity. To avoid tragedy, you need more training, more information, more requirements, Wilkison said. Its as important as CPR is. Its going to save a life. Thats how to think about it. This comes as the Texas Legislative Black Caucus announces members will host virtual townhalls at 7 p.m. on June 15 and June 19 on racism, criminal justice and policing in the black community. Those wanting to submit ideas or concerns can email texaslegislativeblackcaucus@gmail.com. More detail on how to join will be released at a later date. We will not see an end to these protests until meaningful change occurs at all levels of government, said state Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, first vice chair of the caucus and chair of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. The only next step is genuine policy reform. 112 International Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has been negotiating the issue of resuming air traffic with Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey, and Cyprus. In his interview for the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Yehen Yenin, the Deputy Minister, said that there are positive signals for that, and this connection could soon be restored. "Ukraine considers the issue of first-priority opening of air traffic with countries where the regular airt traffic is already operating (...), and there are no restrictions for entry of citizens of Ukraine. We actively carry on to work on respective issues on the bilateral level, and currently, there are positive signals that let use expect air connection with Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey, and Cyprus. Our diplomats are in the active negotiation process with other countries, and we'll inform the society as things progress", he said. Yenin added that the Ministry looks into the foreign experience and consults foreign partners on the gradual restoration of air traffic. "In the EU, it will first of all concern the EU member countries", he said. I am stunned by the breathtaking hypocrisy of our elected officials. On May 25, we witnessed the senseless death of a fellow human being. While unquestionably the horrific act of a depraved person, George Floyds killing is more than that. It is another incident added to a mountain of incidents, testifying to the systemic racism that pervades our country and its institutions. And how do our elected and unelected leaders respond? Predictably, they wring their hands and decry this evil. In op-ed pieces and on news programs, they wail and moan and indignantly appeal to our better angels. We are told that we are better than this and that we must reform our systems to ensure that this will never happen again. But they control the levers of reform. Tragically, in the days that follow, as public outrage fades and we are distracted by the next crisis in our lives, our leaders indignation will wane and their cries will grow softer and become fewer until it is politically safe to return to business as usual. The status quo will be restored, until it happens again. And it will happen again. And then the entire process will simply repeat. This evil will never be exorcised from our culture until we rise up and demand its removal. We must hold our leaders accountable. We need actions, not more meaningless words. We need to ignore their platitudes and empty promises and demand an effective solution so that no one else has to die. WILLIAM GLOVER Black River Drive Summerville Stop truck litter Twice in the past month, I have shared westbound I-26 with commercial trash trucks hauling to the landfill in Dorchester. Both trucks were spewing plastic bags, papers and other debris the entire time I followed them. I believe this accounts for much of the roadside litter. Until we stop the trash truck litter, we will never resolve the problem with consumer public education. GLEN HAYNES Drayton Drive Summervillle Greenbergs lessons Black, Jewish and with two masters degrees, Reuben M. Greenberg was Charlestons chief of police from 1982 to 2005. He became renowned for the many innovations he installed in the citys police department to make it an example for emulation throughout the country. His book, Lets Take Back Our Streets (1989), provided a guide for how to develop a failing police department into one of excellence. When Hurricane Hugo was bearing down on Charleston in September 1989, Chief Greenberg proclaimed that, If you loot, we shoot. Since all of Charlestons people knew that he had the full backing and support of Mayor Joseph Riley, there was no looting nor shooting. Once again, the mayors and police chiefs across the nation can learn a lesson from a great teacher. W.H. KASTNER Furman Drive Charleston Hear protesters I would like to thank Post and Courier reporters who took the time to ask various protesters what their hopes are following the end of the marches, and then publish the responses and individual photos. Angry, confrontational shouting does not create a positive response in me, and when that is how the message is delivered, I dont hear it. That, however, does not mean that I am not interested in why they are protesting. These reporters personally introduced me to earnestly engaged people. And, because I did not feel threatened, I was able to read and reread the responses of the marchers. Because it was in print, instead of in the streets, Ive been able to take in their hopes and start to seriously consider what they are asking for. They want to be heard, and I want them to know that I finally have heard, thanks to The Post and Courier. NANCY E. STARNES Prioleau Street Charleston Lesson for beaches All the local beach communities need to take a lesson from Moncks Corner and Summerville. Neither has parking meters. Summerville has a parking garage, but no attendant as there is no fee for parking. Folly Beach seems to have forgotten that, like the other beach communities, they dont own the beach. Folly Beach County Park wouldnt exist if taxpayers hadnt paid for it. Now, Isle of the Palms is thinking of raising parking fees. I refuse to frequent the beaches because going should be free. I refuse to pay to walk on sand that my tax money went to pay for. Personally, Ill stick close to home when I want to relax and use the money I saved on beach parking to support local businesses. CHARLES BILLINGS Rentiers Lane Moncks Corner Nearly 7.7 million American workers under 30 are now unemployed, and stock markets have taken a beating as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic continues to rattle the economy; but surprisingly, these younger generations are imbued with a sense of opportunity, rather than risk. Theyve chosen the background of a pandemic to kickstart their investing careers. The dramatic sell-off in stocks over the last four months, combined with more time at home due to quarantine, has given birth to a new interest in investing--particularly among young novices who favor the new breed of online brokerages. All major online stock trading platforms have seen a surge in demand in recent months and new accounts spike in the first quarter of this year. Many new users are young or even first-time investors, and over half of them are aged 34 or under. In fact, online brokers saw new accounts grow as much as 170% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Corp said that retail clients opened a record 609,000 new funded accounts followed by TD Ameritrade, which reported a record 608,000 new brokerage accounts. E*Trade saw a net gain of 363,000 accounts. Despite glitches and crashes on heavy trading volume days, Robinhood has added 3 million accounts this year, with half of them first-time traders. In March, when the market was tanking, and as volatile as weve ever seen it, the Robinhood platform continuously crashed. The app suffered three outages during the past few weeks of market turbulence. Robinhood attributed the outages to an infrastructure "instability" that kept systems from communicating with each other. The issue prevented clients from accessing its app, website, and help center. Despite the outages, Robinhood has been a major disruptive force in the online brokerage arena. Its pioneering zero-fee commissions policy inspired a new generation of traders to begin their journey. For the novice trader or the would-be dabbler, nothing is betteror easierthan Robinhood. And while its not exactly stealing from the rich to give to the poor--as its name would suggest--it is leveling the playing field a bit. The start-up grew from one million subscribers in 2016 to six million accounts in 2018, and late last year said it had topped 10 million. One of the benefits of having Robinhood in the digital forest is that it has upped the ante for other trading houses. In fact, pressured by Robinhood, all other online trading platforms created their own zero-fee trading platform, instead of charging almost $25 per trade. Robinhood is especially popular with millennials, with a median customer age of 31. Back in 2018, the company decided to go public. In May, the company raised over $470 million in funding rounds, leading to a valuation of $5.6 billion. In late March this year, it was clear that any Robinhood IPO prospects were on hold, just like everyone else, due to the pandemic. However, this month the company completed a new $280 million fundraising round that pushed its valuation even higher, to $8.3 billion. So what are all those online trading newcomers interested while eschewing risk in a time of pandemic? A recent study commissioned by E*TRADE revealed that Gen Z and Millennials are focused on their investments amid the current crisis. According to the findings, investors under 30 say their number one concern during the pandemic is their investment portfolio (53%), followed by their health (44%), and then their ability to afford day-to-day living expenses (43%). On Robinhood, the top stocks trending right now show an interesting pattern, according to Business Insider: Young investors on the app are betting against legendary traders like Warren Buffett, and even winning. Indeed, while Buffett has been liquidating airline stocks because of the coronavirus culling, theyre hugely popular on Robinhood. Even car rental giant Hertz has gained 825% since filing for bankruptcy in late May, thanks to Robinhood investors throwing themselves at this moving train despite another legend--Carl Icahn--liquidating his position. By Michael Kern for Safehaven.com More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: Egypts parliament has approved a $1.74 million agreement with the World Bank agencies the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), the Ministry of International Cooperation said in a statement on Tuesday. The agreement aims to improve Egypts investment environment. International Cooperation Minister Rania Al-Mashat explained that the agreement, which was signed in November, targets supporting investor service centres, the process for issuing licences, achieving transparency regarding industrial land allocation, and enhancing digital transformation and improving information and communication technology. The head of parliaments economic affairs committee Ahmed Samir said that the agreement is part of the governments drive to improve the investment environment in Egypt and it contributes to attracting more investments in accordance with the governments efforts regarding enhancing its long-term economic policies. The IBRD and the IDA are implementation support agencies for the MENA transformation fund that was established in 2012 in order to support MENA countries through technical cooperation to enhance governance, public institutions, and inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the region. The cooperation portfolio between Egypt and the World Bank Group amounts over $8.6 billion, including $6.44 billion with the World Bank (IBRD) and $2.2 billion with the IFC. Search Keywords: Short link: LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A Louisville barbecue cook was fatally shot by a National Guard member after the cook fired his gun as law enforcement approached on a night of protests, a state official said Tuesday. David McAtee was killed May 31 while he was cooking at his eatery miles away from the downtown demonstrations. Louisville Metro Police and National Guard soldiers were in the area responding to a report of a crowd gathering when the shooting occurred. J. Michael Brown, secretary of the states executive Cabinet, said Tuesday that Kentucky State Police investigators examined shrapnel from McAtees body and matched it to rifles carried by National Guard members. So its clear, the fatal shot came from the National Guard, Brown said. We have no doubt about that. Officers were seen on a video distributed by Louisville Metro Police shooting pepper balls into the area where McAtee was cooking outdoors. But Brown said he believes McAtee fired the first live round. I believe Mr. McAtee fired the first shot, paused, and then fired another shot, Brown said. McAtee was hit once in the chest and died at the scene. National Guard members were returning fire, which is part of the engagement and what any law enforcement would do in that case, Brown said. Brown said investigators recovered two shell casings from McAtees handgun, and found gunshot residue on his body. Brown said two guard members were in the vicinity where shell casings were found, but the shrapnel recovered from McAtees body was too twisted to match it to a specific rifle. Investigators also recovered shell casings from shots fired by Louisville police and the findings excluded those officers from firing the fatal shot, Brown said. The evidence released Tuesday shows that officials are committed to getting that truth out good, bad or ugly, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said. The National Guard was in the city to help enforce a curfew amid protests spurred by the deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota and Louisville native Breonna Taylor. Taylor was shot by Louisville detectives serving a warrant in her home in March. The video released by Louisville Police appears to show McAtee firing a gun from the door of his restaurant as officers shot projectiles. Video from a different camera posted outside the building shows a beverage container on a table outside the door exploding and falling to the ground just before smoke emerges from inside the building where McAtee was standing. A lawyer for McAtees family, Steve Romines, said Monday that investigators should release all video linked to the shooting. Romines also said Louisville officials and police should accept responsibility and apologize for violating use of force policies the night of the shooting. He said McAtees niece was hit multiple times with pepper balls as she stood at the door of his business. Louisville police are conducting their own investigation of the shooting. As part of its own ongoing investigation, state police will review available video, frame by frame, Brown said. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer fired the citys police chief after the shooting because Louisville officers did not have body cameras running during the incident. The chief, Steve Conrad, announced his retirement last month but was going to stay on until the end of June. Montgomery recorded nearly twice as many new coronavirus cases as larger Alabama counties over the last two weeks, and critically ill patients are straining the citys medical system, triggering a stark warning today from hospital officials. Montgomery County added 889 new coronavirus cases over the last 14 days more new cases than any other Alabama county, and roughly 15 percent of the states total new cases over that time. The trends we are seeing in Central Alabama are alarming, said Dr. Don Williamson, president, Alabama Hospital Association, in a joint statement from several hospital officials today. Dr. David Thrasher, director of respiratory therapy at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, first warned about increasing cases of coronavirus on May 20, after a message he wrote started making the rounds of Facebook. In it, he described a recent influx of patients, including young people, who needed intensive care and even intubation due to the virus. The situation led to national news coverage of Montgomery, and has not improved since then. Montgomery and the surrounding areas throughout Central Alabama remain a hotspot for the virus, and yet many citizens appear to think the worst is over, Thrasher said in today's statement. I can assure you that Montgomerys cases are not going down, and if our community does not take this seriously, the virus will continue to spread, and at some point, our medical capacity will reach its limit. Montgomery now has more coronavirus cases than the much larger Jefferson County, home to Birmingham, and is on pace to pass Mobile County within the next two weeks for the most cases in Alabama, if current trends dont change. Increases in testing dont explain the capital citys sudden spike. Montgomery has performed significantly fewer tests than Jefferson and Mobile counties, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. As of June 9, it had only tested 12,870 people, compared to about 25,000 in Mobile County and 46,000 in Jefferson County. New cases are putting significant strain on the hospital system. Baptist Health and Jackson Hospital issued the joint statement with the Alabama Hospital Association as the number of coronavirus patients in local hospitals hit record levels. The three hospitals operated by Baptist Health treated a high of 127 coronavirus patients on June 6 and Jackson had 57 on June 3, according to the statement. Hospital officials urged local residents to continue social distancing to slow further spread of the virus. Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed has said he might propose an ordinance that would require people to wear face masks in public. Birmingham is the only large city in Alabama with a face mask requirement. Yet Montgomery during the last two weeks saw almost as many new cases as Jefferson and Mobile counties combined. Jefferson added 493 cases over the last two weeks, and Mobile added 443, compared to Montgomery's 889. City leaders in Montgomery asked state officials late last month to consider issuing a localized stay-at-home order for Montgomery. Williamson, the Alabama Hospital Association president, said social distancing could help slow the spread of the virus. We understand that people are tired of this disease, but in Montgomery and surrounding areas its critical that we not let up at this juncture." On May 21, Reed said city hospitals had almost no intensive care beds left, forcing some to divert patients to Birmingham. But even though coronavirus cases have hit unprecedented levels, hospital administrators say they have the resources to handle the surge. That could change if the number of cases continues to increase at its current pace. We want to assure the River Region that our hospitals are taking every precaution to continue providing quality and safe care to both COVID and nonCOVID patients, but we need the communitys help to avoid becoming further overwhelmed with COVID patients, said Dr. Donovan Kendrick, chief medical officer at Baptist Health, in today's statement. Montgomery County has 56 deaths from coronavirus, according to ADPH, far less than Jefferson (110) and Mobile (126). Its actually seen fewer deaths than Tallapoosa County, which had one of the states worst outbreaks earlier on and lost 67 residents to the virus. Although the number of deaths in Montgomery has been rising in recent weeks, doubling since mid-May. Cases and deaths could continue to mount unless habits or regulations change in Montgomery, Williamson said. We cant stress enough the importance of staying home if possible, keeping at least six feet apart from people, wearing masks, washing your hands frequently and avoiding gatherings where you arent able to maintain these precautions, Williamson said. Montgomerys cases should not be double that of Mobile or Jefferson County simply based on population size." President Muhammadu Buharis nomination of a former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for the position of the director-general of the World Trade Organisation puts Nigeria in a precarious position in the African regional and international politics. This decision may make it difficult for Nigeria to secure pan-African endorsements for its candidates for positions in transnational bodies for five years. It may also affect the countrys diplomatic communication links. This is because Mrs Okonjo-Iweala may not get AUs endorsement for the position as she is joining the race after the bodys stipulated period for nominations. Her belated nomination by Mr Buhari also means she will be contesting the election against candidates already endorsed by the AU, which will be in violation of the bodys rules on candidature for positions in international organisations. Such a violation comes with risks of sanctions on a nominating country. By Mrs Okonjo-Iwealas nomination, another Nigerian, Yonov Agah, whose candidacy was already approved by AU Executive Council, was withdrawn in what appears to be a breach of AUs agreed terms on candidature for the WTOs top job. Mr Agah is currently one of the four deputy DGs and Nigerias representative at the Geneva-based global trade body. And there are concerns among Nigerians in the diplomatic and international development circle that Western interests may be pushing the Okonjo-Iweala candidacy to assuage Nigeria in the circumstance the moves to stop Akinwumi Adesinas re-election at the African Development Bank are successful. But Paul Nwabuikwu, Mrs Okonjo-Iwealas media adviser, told PREMIUM TIMES, Theres absolutely no connection between Dr Adesinas campaign for a second term at the African Development Bank and Dr Okonjo-Iwealas nomination for Director-General of WTO. Substitution In a diplomatic note through Nigerias mission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which hosts the AU headquarters, Mr Buhari last Thursday announced Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, formerly Nigerias finance minister and World Banks managing director, as the countrys candidate for the WTO job. Mr Agah was already shortlisted alongside two other African candidates for the WTOs DG position by the Executive Council of the AU before Mr Buharis decision to replace him with Mrs Okonjo-Iweala on Thursday. The two other African candidates shortlisted by the AU, alongside Mr Agah, are Egypts Hamid Mamdouh, a trade lawyer, member of the WTO Secretariat, and trade negotiator for Egypt; and Beninoise Eloi Laourou, the ambassador and permanent representative of Benin to the United Nations and other organisations in Geneva. Despite the withdrawal of his candidacy for the position of DG, Mr Agah will remain at the WTO as a deputy DG until October 2021 when his second tenure expires. So, if Mrs Okonjo-Iweala succeeds, the world would have two Nigerians, for some time, at the highest level of the WTO. Mr Agah, who has about 30 years in international trade, has spent 15 years at the WTO, starting as Nigerian Permanent Representative to WTO in 2005 before becoming the organisations deputy DG in 2013. Mr Agahs nomination was seen as backing him to the zenith of the organisation, having already held a senior leadership role there. He oversees the organisations, development division, institute for training and technical cooperation and trade policies review division. Mr Buhari did not give reasons for withdrawing Mr Agahs candidacy. But the president mentioned Mrs Okonjo-Iwealas record of accomplishments in international development and finance, including her 2010 role as chair of the World Banks successful drive to raise $49.3 billion in grants and low-interest credits for poorest countries of the world, and presently as Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Nigerias foreign affairs ministry did not comment when its spokesperson, Ferdinand Nwonye, was contacted on Sunday. AUs endorsement process The endorsement of the three from Benin, Egypt and Nigeria was documented as EX.CL/Dec. 1090(XXXVI) and is contained in the official record of the Executive Councils decisions at its February 6-7 2020 36th ordinary session in Addis Ababa. PREMIUM TIMES has seen the record, which also indicates a request to the committee on candidatures within the international system for further consideration of the three candidates with a view to eventually having a single African candidate. The AUs Executive Council, comprising foreign affairs ministers of member states, has standing rules to promote African candidatures within the international system. Its ministerial committee on candidatures consider nominations from member states and makes recommendations to the Executive Council. So, while African member states of transnational bodies are free to nominate their nationals for positions at such bodies, they have agreed to cooperate on presenting common candidatures for positions in the international system. This protocol helped to ensure Mr Adesina was the only candidate for the AfDBs election this year. His endorsement by the AU Executive Council was sealed the same day the council approved the nominations of Mr Agah, Egypts Mr Mamdouh, and Benins Mr Laourouin for the WTO job. These were during the February 2020 26th ordinary session of the Executive Council in Addis Ababa. Decisions of the Executive Council on the recommendations of the Committee on a particular candidature shall be binding on all Member States, provides the Rule 15 of the Rules of Procedure of the Ministerial Committee on Candidatures within the International System. In July 2019, the Executive Council of the AU had, as recorded in EX.CL/Dec. 1072 seen by PREMIUM TIMES, requested member states to nominate candidates for the WTOs DG position by November 30 of 2019. The Council, in that decision of July 2019, reckoned that since the GATT (1948), the WTOs predecessor, no African has held the post of Director-General at the WTO, and strongly recommends that the next DG be African. Pursuant to that Decision, (Nigerias) Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) obtained the approval of His Excellency, Mr. President for the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) to nominate a competent Nigerian candidate for approval and submission to the AU Committee on Candidatures within the International System before the closing date of 30th November 2019, explained a source with inside knowledge. In response to the approval and directive by His Excellency, Mr. President, the Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, CON, submitted the name of Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah, PhD, for approval and submission to the AU Committee on Candidatures within the International as Nigerias candidate for the position of WTO DG. At the end of the closing date of 30th November 2019 only three countries, namely, Benin, Egypt and Nigeria were able to submit candidates to the AU Committee on Candidatures within the International System, as stipulated in its Decision No. EX1072 of July 2019. Advertisements There is just about one month before the window for nominations by member states of WTO closes ahead of the final selection or election. But AUs deadline to receive nominations to choose a candidate it would commonly back ended on November 30, 2019. Mrs Okonjo-Iwealas nomination was only made last Thursday. Egypt against Okonjo-Iweala Egypt is opposing Nigerias substitution and seeking the countrys disqualification from the AU endorsement process. The Egyptian government argued that the new nomination of Mrs Okonjo-Iweala came well after the due dates and that she was not one of the three candidates considered and shortlisted in the period stipulated. Egypt, in a memo circulated in Addis Ababa on Friday, requested the AU to officially inform the African Group that Nigeria has no candidate and so Abdulhameed Mamdouh of the Arab Republic of Egypt and Eloi Laourou of the Republic of Benin are currently the only two endorsed African candidates in the race. The north African country also hinted at consultations with Benin towards a consensus candidate. Cairo feels shortchanged by the nomination (of Okonjo-Iweala), since she (Egypt) had her eyes on the WTO position, after rallying African support in favour of Nigerias Adesina (for re-election at AfDB); in spite of an obvious bad case that weve tried to paper over with blackmail sentiments, analysed a source, who asked not to be named. However, Mrs Okonjo-Iwealas media aide, Mr Nwabuikwu said, Its clear that Egypt is rattled by her emergence as Nigerias candidate and is desperately grabbing at straws. Did you notice that they said they want to quickly convince the Benin Republic candidate to step down for them so that their candidate becomes Africas only candidate? Risks Meanwhile, as it is unlikely that the AU will endorse Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, the WTO rules, however, allow Nigeria to directly nominate a candidate for the election without any regional endorsement. But doing so, that is running against a candidate endorsed by the AU, presents risks of sanctions. Member states that fail to comply with the decisions of the Executive Council on candidatures for elective posts within the International system, in addition to the sanctions provided for in Article 23 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union may also be subject to a suspension of endorsement of their candidatures for a period of five (5) years, provides Rule 16 of the Rules of Procedure of the AUs ministerial committee on candidatures within international system. Further, the Article 23 of the AUs Constitutive Act mentioned in the rule provides that: Furthermore, any Member State that fails to comply with the decisions and policies of the Union may be subjected to other sanctions, such as the denial of transport and communications links with other Member States, and other measures of a political and economic nature to be determined by the Assembly. Mr Nwonye, spokesperson for Nigerias foreign affairs ministry, did not comment when contacted on Sunday over the possible risks involved in Nigerias nomination of Mrs Okonjo-Iweala. I cant make any statement now, he said, but assured Abuja would make a statement during the week certainly. But Mr Nwabuikwu, Mrs Okonjo-Iwealas media adviser, said, It is not accurate to say that AU has concluded the process. Thats not true at all. AU has a practice of encouraging countries which have nominated candidates for an international position to talk and, if possible, come up with one candidate. But this is not cast in stone and it has not always happened. Im not aware of the sanction you are talking about and Im not sure it has ever been applied. Seun Kolade, international development expert at the UKs De Montfort University, Leicester, said it is possible for Mrs Okonjo-Iweala to win without AUs support and despite the risks. I think its possible for the West to rally behind Okonjo-Iweala, he said. But he fears the possibility of Mr Adesinas failure at AfDB. This is amid concerns Mrs Okonjo-Iwealas WTO candidacy has the backing of AfDBs non-African shareholders, mainly the U.S., opposing Mr Adesina. AfDB is an organisation where Africans have the best opportunity to directly influence the economic and development trajectory of the continent, said Mr Kolade. AfDB is also of great strategic importance because it offers an alternative that can further expose the lacklustre impact of other financial institutions, make more Africans look differently at them in retrospect. More importantly. It can practically drive these other institutions out of business. I believe this is one of the main reasons why the US is heavily invested in taking control of AfDB (by installing their own puppet). It takes this alternative source of finance out of the way for African countries. Mr Nwabuikwu did not directly respond to a question on the interests backing Mrs Okonjo-Iweala but he dismissed as unhealthy speculation any alleged connection between her WTO bid and Mr Adesinas AfDB re-election ambition. He said, We should focus on supporting our two strong candidates for both positions and not help those working against Nigerias interests. Nothing wrong with Nigerians heading both organisations. We should be happy that Nigeria has a chance to produce the heads of two critical international institutions. Citizens of smaller and less influential countries like Senegal have been heading different international organisations at the same time for years. Why not Nigeria? Mrs Okonjo-Iweala is an AUs special envoy to mobilise international support for the continents response to the coronavirus pandemic. There is limit to impunity Commenting, the lawyer, Femi Falana, told PREMIUM TIMES that: President Buhari must have been made to believe that elections to positions in international bodies can be handled like appointments in Nigeria which defy the provisions of extant laws and official policies. Egypt is out to humiliate Nigeria for failure to realise that there is limit to impunity in respect of international appointments. Unless the belated nomination of another candidate is immediately withdrawn Nigeria may be disqualified from contesting the election. It will be so sad because out of the three candidates nominated by the African Union the credentials of Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah tower above those of the other contestants for the post. By the way, why should Dr. Agah with 30 years experience in the area of international trade including service in the World Trade Organisation and (who) has done the country proud, be so humiliated at the apogee of his ambassadorial carrier? On May 14, the Director-General of the WTO, Roberto Azevedo, announced his decision to step down on August 31, one year before his term would expire, saying it was the best way to avert more chaos at the organisation in the face of attacks from American President Donald Trump and threats of a global recession. Imagine if scientists invented a special pair of glasses strong enough to reveal where the virus that causes COVID-19 lurks. Such a discovery could warn people about possible danger zones, help stop the spread of the illness and assist Canada in getting past the gruelling lockdown of recent months. Of course, no such pair of glasses is anywhere to be found. But there is, in fact, an existing technology that could automatically notify people if theyve been near someone with COVID-19 and alert public health officials to places where they should intervene. Its called a contact-tracing app. It could be downloaded to every cellphone in Canada. France rolled out its own version last Tuesday and within hours 600,000 people were using it. Italy, Switzerland and Latvia have similar apps up and running for their people. But while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last month that Ottawa intends to recommend strongly to Canadians a particular app that will help us manage the spread of COVID-19, that potentially game-changing technology is nowhere in sight for most of the country. That should change, and as soon as possible. Contact-tracing apps have been developed to inform people if they have come into close contact with someone who later tests positive for COVID-19. That would allow people who have been exposed to self-isolate quickly certainly more quickly than is now the case. And by better identifying those who should be in quarantine, it would make it easier to relax physical-distancing measures in places where such measures are not needed. We could reopen this country more quickly. And we could do it safely. To be sure, public health officials already recognize the value of tracking people who might have come into contact with someone with COVID-19. But the way theyre doing it now, by telephone, is laborious, slow and limited in scope. Its not getting us where we want to be. While Toronto public health officials say they can contact 80 per cent of the people who test positive within 24 hours, reaching all their contacts is proving an almost impossible task. So why hasnt Ottawa already offered Canadians an app? Well, Canada being Canada, the federal and provincial governments need to co-ordinate their response. Part of the challenge facing them will be in determining whether there will be one app for the entire nation or as many as one for every province and territory. Alberta has, with unfortunately poor results, had its own contact-tracing app for a month. Now, its trying to offer an improved version of it. But the countrys COVID-19 hot spots are in Ontario and Quebec. How long must they wait? Another obstacle is the reasonable concern over the potential abuse of the privacy of those who download the app to their cellphones. These concerns can be managed. Yet although Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien is ready to offer his helpful advice, he has not been consulted by the federal government. What an egregious oversight. If our federal and provincial leaders want to introduce contact-tracing apps to the public and they should they need to start talking to Canadians about it. This is the time for a nationwide public-information campaign. This is the time to answer and allay the concerns of those who fear we might be entering an unprecedented era of government surveillance. If there is to be a nationwide rollout of contact-tracing apps, the strategy will work only if the vast majority of the population voluntarily buys into it. But if Canadians arent properly asked, dont be surprised if most say no deal. Nine Years After Cease-fire Fails, 105,000 Kachin Languish in Myanmar Camps 2020-06-08 -- Tens of thousands of internally displaced war refugees in northern Myanmar's Kachin state say they state have not yet been able to return home, nine years after fighting resumed between the Myanmar military and the state's ethnic rebel force. Fighting in Kachin state and in other regions of Myanmar has thwarted de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in her goal of ending numerous civil wars and building a democratic federal union that embraces ethnic regions, as she enters the last eight months of her five-year term. Myanmar's northernmost state bordered by China and India and rich with jade, gold and timber has been rocked by a resurgence of armed conflict since 2011, when a 17-year bilateral cease-fire agreement between the Myanmar Army and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) broke down. The clashes have left hundreds dead and more than 105,000 of the mostly Christian Kachin displaced in 170 camps in both Kachin and neighboring northern Shan state, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Though the internally displaced persons (IDPs) say they are still waiting for the government army to sign a bilateral truce with the KIA, they report less fighting and improved cooperation between the two sides with the Kachin rebel force recently accepting medical supplies from the national military for preventing the spread of COVID-19. "It is very inconvenient to stay here," said Faung Yan Lu, an IDP who resides at the Shwe Set camp in Myitkyina township. "That's why we want to return home. But it is impossible because fighting is still going on." Some humanitarian organizations have suggested that the IDPs should not go back to their villages unless the two sides agree to end their hostilities. "It is still not a good time for us to return home according to situation on the ground," said Francis Saw Htoo, director of the Humanity Institute in Kachin state's capital Myitkyina. "There is no systematic plan to clear landmines, and the government army and the KIA have no plan or agreement for the IDPs to return home." "If we return home in this situation, we won't feel secure physically or mentally," he said. Landmines and other problems Some IDPs from the Nangsang Yang, Injangyang, and Nogmung camps in Waingmaw township have returned home, but they are fearful for their survival because of landmines that litter the area. Rev. Joseph Youngwa from the Nang Sang Yang Church said the IDPs now face shortages of potable water and electricity in the underdeveloped state. "We dug five wells for them last year, but it has not been enough," he said. "We have a lot of IDPs in our church, and we are going to face a water shortage problem when schools soon reopen." "We also have an electricity problem," he added. "We used small solar plates last year. If the government or other organizations still cannot provide electricity, it would be good for us to receive solar plates as donations." The Myanmar government has refused to allow international NGOs help the IDPs, but now the KIA and the Kachin Human Rights Committee are working together to help displaced civilians return home. Before their efforts can be realized, government leaders at the national level, the KIA, and its political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), must first reach an agreement for the IDPs to go back to their villages, said Khar Li, secretary of the Kachin Human Rights Committee. "They can return home safely only after there is an agreement between the government and the KIO," he said. Reported by Elizabeth Jangma for RFA's Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Copyright 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content June not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The leadership of Nigerias house of representatives has described going to prison as an honor for politicians. This was disclosed during a solidarity visit by Principal Officers of the House to Senate Chief Whip Orji Uzor Kalu, who was recently released from the Nigeria Correctional Centre in Kuje, Abuja. Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris Wase who represented speaker of the lower chamber of the national assembly Femi Gbajabiamila at the outing, said the leadership of the House was in Kalus home to sympathise with him over his incarceration. He urged the former Governor of Abia state to see his incarceration as a badge of honor and also put everything before God. Wase said; We are here to sympathise with you on what happened and your incarceration. As a politician, I want you to take it as one of those things. First, we congratulate you and urge you to put everything before God and believe it is part of destiny. My leader, the late Chief Solomon Lar, told me not to fear, as a politician, to go to prison. He told me that going to prison is a badge of honour. If you are a good politician, you should be willing to taste prison experience because it will come to you in very many dimensions. That happened to us sometime in the past when we were being chased and humiliated, and he asked us to be resolute and face the issues as they were. He reminded us of how he was sentenced to over 90 to 150 years in prison. He told us that as leaders, there is always a judgement that could be passed. As our leader, we want you to appreciate what God has done for you; use it for the positive development of our countrys judicial system; use it in the interest of humanity. Advertisement Frustrated parents have hit out at the Government after it scrapped its target of getting all primary school pupils back in the classroom before the summer holidays. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson made the announcement amid warnings the two metre social distancing rule will make a full return to the classroom impossible. The Government's long-stated 'ambition' was to see all primary children return for at least a month in the before the end of the academic year but unions and councils have said school buildings would have to double in size to make that happen. Smaller classes and social distancing requirements have forced the Education Secretary into a rethink as he conceded on Tuesday 'we are not able to welcome all primary children back for a full month before the summer'. He said large schools which do have space to bring back more pupils should do so in the coming weeks as he promised all children will be back in the classroom in England by the autumn, in September. However, anxious parents spoke to MailOnline about their worries for their children if the uncertainty continues and one father demanded to know, 'what is going to be different if they go back in September' instead of if they return to school now. Gary Murray, who has two daughters aged 15 and eight, said: 'The question I feel a lot of parents want answering is; what is going to be different if they go back in September to what is different to them going back to school now?' Another parent, Lindsay Astle, from Nottingham, told MailOnline her eight-year-old son has been 'massively affected' and suffered nightmares as a result of his school being closed. Other parents said they were 'deeply concerned' about the impact of social distancing on their children and likened it to 'child abuse'. Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure from his Cabinet to slash the two metre rule in order to make it easier for schools, shops and the hospitality sector to return. Numerous countries have a one metre or 1.5 metre rule. Hopes of the two metre restriction being reduced were given a boost after the World Health Organisation said it is 'very rare' for asymptomatic coronavirus patients to pass on the disease. The government's plans to reopen schools being thrown into disarray came as: Furious parents demanded to know how they can be expected to go back to work if their children cannot return to school; Education leaders and unions warned there is not enough space to reopen safely if the two metre rule remains in place; A coronavirus testing programme will be rolled out to 100 schools across England by the end of the summer term with around 200 staff and children tested in each ; Senior Tory MP Robert Halfon called on Mr Johnson to set up a 'national education army' of volunteers to set up temporary classrooms in school gyms and public libraries; Mr Williamson resisted calls for schools to sit over the summer but said some sort of longer term 'catch up scheme' is being considered amid fears it could take disadvantaged pupils more than a year to recover; The Education Secretary said a Public Health England restriction on class sizes and social distancing measures are 'limitations' to getting more children back to school; Critics demanded to know why other European nations have managed to fully reopen their schools but the UK is struggling to follow suit; Frustrated parents have hit out at the Government after it scrapped its target of getting all primary school pupils back in the classroom before the summer holidays. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson made the announcement amid warnings the two metre social distancing rule will make a full return to the classroom impossible Mr Murray said his teenage daughter had been invited to an end-of-year picnic despite having no lessons while the school remains closed. He added: 'My [other] daughter has had no contact and very little school homework and no interaction with children her own age. 'We feel this will have a long term affect on her and we are still non the wiser to when she can go back to school. 'Covid 19 is not going anywhere anytime soon and people are now going out to shops and beaches - including teachers - so why can't the schools come back and try and get our kids - the future generation - back to school. 'The government are giving mixed messages and don't really know what they are doing. With safety measures in place why can't schools start to get back to normal? We are just writing off the next year or so with kids education; this will have a far worse affect on people than Covid-19 has.' Anxious parents spoke to MailOnline about their worries for their children if the uncertainty continues and one father demanded to know, 'what is going to be different if they go back in September' instead of if they return to school now. Pictured: Mother-of-three Lindsay Astle, from Nottingham, told MailOnline her eight-year-old son has been 'massively affected' by not going to school Mother-of-three Lindsay Astle, from Nottingham, told MailOnline her eight-year-old son has been 'massively affected' and suffered nightmares as a result of his school being closed. She said: 'He's generally a happy well rounded kid but isolation has done so much damage to him already. 'He's started having nightmares, he's very emotional over everything, lacks focus and drive. School work is very difficult because I also have two four-year-olds who want to be involved with everything and it's hard for my son to focus. 'Plus we haven't had an awful lot of school work direction from his school. 'I am very worried about him and what this is doing to him. My fear of coronavirus has been completely overshadowed by fear of what this whole situation is doing to him, not seeing his friends, socialising, being a normal kid. 'I can't believe what a mess it all is when the chances of anything serious happening to the school children if they catch coronavirus is extremely low! I would send him back to school tomorrow if I could and he would happily skip in desperate to see his friends and have some sort of normality.' Daniella and Anthony Nevill, who are parents to toddlers, told MailOnline they are 'deeply concerned about the effect of any form of social distancing on children.' Mrs Nevill added: 'The debate has failed to focus on the mental health problems that will arise from social distancing. To expect children under 10 to not touch /play naturally, be controlled rigidly and using fear measures signs, PPE ) will end up traumatising a generation of children. 'It is inhumane and tantamount to child abuse. No one is speaking for the children; the economy, the unions.' Primary schools started their phased reopening to pupils in reception, year one and year six on June 1 but official Government statistics showed only 52 per cent of primary schools were actually open by June 4. By that point some 659,000 children were back in the classroom - just seven per cent of all pupils who would normally be attending school. The next step in the Government's reopening plan will see some year 10 and 12 students allowed to meet with their teachers from June 15 as they prepare for an exam year. Ministers want secondary schools to fully reopen in September but there are growing doubts over whether that will be possible with Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying that is the 'earliest' they could return to something approaching normal. Gary Murray, who has two daughters aged 15 and eight, said: 'The question I feel a lot of parents want answering is; what is going to be different if they go back in September to what is different to them going back to school now?'. Pictured: Children at a French bilingual school in Fulham, London, use hoops for social distancing Mr Murray said his teenage daughter had been invited to an end-of-year picnic despite having no lessons while the school remains closed. Pictured: Reception pupils from Landywood Primary School in Staffordshire take part in a socially-distanced outdoor exercise Anne Longfield, the Children's Commissioner for England, today said she was 'incredibly concerned' about the long-term impact on children's education and wellbeing and warned youngsters could remain 'isolated', with many living in 'fragile' family environments. Company director Samantha Jones has a five-year-old and a nine-month-old baby and is juggling childcare and home schooling with working from home. She told MailOnline: 'It's unfair on our five-year-old as he is desperate to see his friends. 'Our school was due to open on Monday and I am an advocate of the mental well being of my child and promote him going back to school as soon as possible to be with friends, teachers and have normality and burn off energy!' The mother added that she and her husband will need to work at 'full capacity' in the summer holidays and do not know what to do for childcare. She said she is unhappy that schools will still close for the traditional summer holiday, despite the fact that they have been closed for months. Teacher Dawn Burrows teaches a maths class to Year 6 pupils from Landywood Primary School in a socially distanced classroom in Staffordshire Children use hoops for social distancing at L'Ecole des Petits, an independent French bilingual school in Fulham, west London 'So I want the Government to ideally open schools as soon as possible and also summer childcare. Failing that can we not just push through this summer for the children and not have summer holidays, instead why not close during December for 4 weeks when flu season is in full swing? 'What do we do for help in the summer holidays when we have to work at full capacity and cannot afford to keep my husband from working any longer? 'What will happen is that people will break rules and pull in help from family and friends (none of whom are nearby) and break rules that may still exist. 'Surely if bars may open by mid Jun /early July; why can't schools and our children restore their mental health and education? They are the lowest risk groups! 'Clearly safety is the first importance and we would never put our child at risk if we didn't feel comfortable in what the school were doing in all of this, but surely some common sense can be applied and specifically to low risk areas / groups.' Another mother said her seven-year-old daughter is 'really suffering' emotionally. 'My year 7-year-old is really suffering emotionally. She Facetimes her friends every day and we have a school structure in place during the week so she is working each day,' she said. 'Luckily I am not working but I also have a 1-year-old so looking after him whilst trying to home school is a challenge. My daughter is dyslexic so I am continuing to be as structured as possible because I am so worried she will fall behind. 'However the guidance from the school has been loose at best. Google classroom has only just been implemented and we have had two measly conversations with the class teacher in the last 11 weeks. ' Social distancing measures in place at L'Ecole des Petits in Fulham today WHO says it is 'very rare' for asymptomatic coronavirus patients to pass on the disease The World Health Organisation has said it is 'very rare' for asymptomatic coronavirus patients to pass on the disease. Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO's emerging diseases unit, said people without symptoms are not believed to be driving outbreaks. She said the focus should therefore be on identifying people with symptoms in comments which are likely to accelerate calls for lockdown to be eased in the UK. She said: 'We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing, they are following asymptomatic cases, they are following contacts and they are not finding secondary transmission onwards - it is very rare. 'Much of that is not published in the literature. From the papers that are published, there is one that came out from Singapore looking at a long term care facility, there are some household transmission studies where you follow individuals over time and you look at the proportion of those that transmit onwards. 'We are constantly looking at this data and we are trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question. 'It still appears to be rare that an asymptomatic individual actually transmits onward. 'What we really want to be focused on is following the symptomatic cases.' Advertisement Senior Tory MP urges Boris Johnson to set up 'national education army' Senior Tory MP Robert Halfon has urged Boris Johnson to set up a 'national education army' to help pupils catch up with their learning in the coming months. Mr Halfon, the chairman of the Education Select Committee, said retired teachers, graduates and Ofsted inspectors should be asked to help open libraries and school gyms to create temporary classrooms. He said such an effort would help mitigate the damage already done by the coronavirus crisis to the education prospects of 'left behind' pupils. He told The Telegraph: 'We could start it now. Boris went on about this wonderful health service volunteering thing - which is great - but why on earth aren't we doing it for education? 'Why isn't Boris getting up there and saying 'I am going to have a national education army in our country to look after the 700,000 vulnerable children who are not doing any home or school work at the moment'? That is what Boris has got to do - it has got to come from the top. Advertisement Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Williamson conceded the Government had no choice but to drop its 'ambition' for all primary school pupils to return before the summer holidays. He said: 'We continue to follow the best scientific advice and believe that this cautious, phased return is the most sensible course of action to take. 'While we are not able to welcome all primary children back for a full month before the summer we continue to work with the sector on the next steps where we would like to see schools who have the capacity to bring back more children in those smaller class sizes. 'To do so, if they are able to, before the summer holidays. 'We will be working to bring all children back to school in September. 'I know students who are due to take exams in 2021 will have experienced considerable disruption to their education this year and we are committed to doing all we can to minimise the effects of this. 'Exams will take place next year and we are working with Ofqual and the exam boards on our approach to these.' Currently children are placed in 'protective bubbles' of no more than 15 per class at primary schools to help prevent the spread of the disease. But this often requires using additional classrooms or different areas of the school, with some not able to find enough space to fit all their pupils in. Mr Williamson said the class size restriction imposed by Public Health England is a 'limitation' to getting more children back to school. 'That obviously does limit the amount of ability to have as many year groups in school as we'd like,' he said. 'But as this is changed and as this is modified this will give us the ability to slowly and cautiously move forward in terms of welcoming more children back to school when that is the right time.' Mr Williamson was asked by MPs if he would consider setting up 'catch-up schemes over the summer' and he replied: 'This is certainly what we are looking at but we are looking at something much more wide and much more long term because we don't believe that actually just purely looking at the summer period is enough in order to be able to assist children to get the catch-up that they truly need.' Tory MP Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons Education Committee, has urged the Government to set up a 'national education army' of volunteers who could set up temporary classrooms in school gyms and public libraries. Earlier he had urged the Government not to ditch its primary schools 'ambition'. He said the UK was a 'strange country' for seemingly prioritising reopening pubs over schools. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, former minister Mr Halfon said: 'I think we're a strange country in which we turn a blind eye to mass demonstrations all over in every city, we campaign for pubs and cafes to open and yet we say to open schools before September is too risky when all the evidence - from the World Health Organisation, from many other European countries, from the chief medical officer in the UK - suggests otherwise. 'I think the Government should definitely think again on this and continue with a phased reopening of schools because I think too many disadvantaged children are not getting an education. 'We could have an epidemic of educational poverty and be damaging the life chances of hundreds of thousands of young people.' Department for Education guidance states that school classes should be capped at 15 pupils in order to follow coronavirus-related social distancing measures and keep children two metres apart at all times. Some headteachers have complained that, after opening up to reception, year one and year six last week, they do not have the 'physical space' to take more children. Addressing the issue of space constraints, Mr Halfon said: 'I appreciate that not all schools can open because they may have old buildings, it may be very difficult. 'But just because you can't do it everywhere, it doesn't mean you shouldn't open schools anywhere.' Boris Johnson is under growing pressure to slash two metre social distancing rule as 'more than half of Cabinet' support the move to unlock the economy A majority of Boris Johnson's Cabinet is in favour of slashing the two metre social distancing rule to deliver a boost to reopening pubs and restaurants - but Government scientists remain against the move. Mr Johnson is pushing for the restriction to be reduced after he was warned more than three million jobs could be lost in the hospitality sector if firms do not reopen. The Prime Minister has made clear Government decisions must be guided by the latest expert advice and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is said to be resisting the change. Political and industry pressure is growing on Mr Johnson to act but doing so in this instance would likely require him to overrule his scientific and health advisers. But hopes of the two metre rule being reduced were given a boost after the World Health Organisation said it is 'very rare' for asymptomatic coronavirus patients to pass on the disease and that the focus should be on quarantining people with symptoms. It is thought social distancing measures were due to be discussed at Cabinet today. A senior minister told the Financial Times that the 'majority of the Cabinet is definitely more inclined not to have an automatic two metre rule'. Advertisement Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: 'It has taken the Government some time to recognise what was obvious to most. 'The Government's social distancing rules made it impossible for primary schools to admit all pupils before the summer holidays. 'Primary schools and secondary schools will not reopen to all pupils until September at the earliest. But even that date cannot, as Matt Hancock has recognised, be taken for granted.' She said a 'national plan for education' was needed in England, covering 'all possible scenarios' with a focus on 'blended learning' at home and in school. There should be free internet access and public buildings such as libraries and community centres could be requisitioned to provide extra space for lessons, she suggested. GCSEs and A-levels should be redesigned to be fair to all pupils - including those without access to computers at home - the union chief added. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union the NAHT, had said before Mr Williamson's announcement: 'Returning all pupils before the end of this term will present unsolvable practical barriers if the hierarchies of control are to be maintained. 'If confirmed in the House of Commons later, we're pleased to see the Government will not force the impossible. 'Schools will continue to use their flexibilities intelligently to deliver the very best for all the pupils in their school.' Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said it has been 'abundantly clear' that the Government's dates for reopening schools were 'ill-considered, premature and unworkable'. There is growing fury on Mumsnet today about the government u-turn The cordoned off play area and equipment of a primary school in London today Why can't we get schools back like the rest of Europe? How classrooms in most of the continent have reopened and there is no spike in cases Evidence from 22 EU states that have restored classes suggests little or no risk to pupils, teachers or families. In Wales, the Government plans to reopen all schools on June 29, with a third of children at most in school at any time. Pupils in Scotland will return on August 11 but they will spend around half their time in school and the other half at home. In Northern Ireland, all children are intended to restart classes on a phased basis in September, but schools can accept pupils preparing for exams in the third week of August. Denmark reopened primaries and nurseries a month ago and has seen infection rates continue to fall. Norway, which is outside the EU, has taken similar action without a rise. Around 1.4million French pupils went back to class in May and of around 40,000 schools and nurseries only 70 were closed again following virus cases. Advertisement Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), welcomed the news that the 'ambition' for a full return to primary schools before the summer had been dropped. But he added: 'The Government needs to have a plan to support disadvantaged children during the summer holidays. 'There needs to be a plan for what happens during the next school year. Education will be disrupted during the autumn term at least.' The difficulty in reopening schools while also sticking to the two metre social distancing rule has increased pressure on ministers to rethink the restriction. But Ian Robinson, chief executive of the Oak Partnership Trust which has schools in Taunton, Somerset, said he did not think reducing the social distancing restrictions from two metres to one would help matters in schools. 'We've worked on the principle of no more than 15 children per classroom, so one of our schools, when we've got all three of our year groups in and over 50 key worker and vulnerable children in, have 250 children on site - they have got 12 classrooms,' he said. 'If you divide those children into groups of 15, you don't have any more classrooms, you don't have any more teachers to be able to bring any more year groups back in.' Mr Robinson said it was not a 'silver bullet' to bring disadvantaged children in before the end of term and said there were 'broader' issues to resolve, including making laptops more available and continuing free school meals during the summer holidays. He added: 'I'm not sure there is much of a gain to bringing children back for four weeks, to be honest.' Mr Hancock last night appeared to concede that the Government could struggle to reopen secondary schools by the start of the new academic year. Students in year 10 and 12 will be allowed to meet teachers from June 15 as they prepare for exam years but the goal of a total reopening in September looks unlikely. Mr Hancock said it was still 'our current working plan' that secondary schools in England would not reopen until September 'at the earliest'. With approval from parents and guardians, children will be tested to see whether they have Covid-19 (pictured: Deep cleaning the classrooms at St Alphege Church of England Junior School, Solihull) Children sit at individual desks during a lesson at the Harris Academy's Shortland's school last week in London The row over reopening came as Mr Hancock announced plans to roll out coronavirus tests to teachers and pupils. The testing programme will be implemented in 100 schools across England by the end of the summer term with around 200 staff and children tested in each. The programme will be entirely voluntary and will be a mix of swab tests to see if people currently have coronavirus and antibody blood tests to see if people have previously had the disease. 'This study will help us better understand how common asymptomatic and mild cases of Covid-19 are so that we can support parents, pupils and teachers and support staff, and inform our ongoing response to this new virus,' Mr Hancock said. The move may allay some concerns that the lockdown has been eased too quickly, as well as those from teaching unions over staff safety. With children less likely to show coronavirus symptoms, swab tests would be used to better understand the spread of the disease throughout schools. Antibody tests on blood samples would also be available for a small proportion of schools to see if pupils and staff have had Covid-19 and recovered. The Department of Health and Social Care stressed the scheme would be voluntary, with parents and guardians being asked to provide informed consent before testing is carried out. Dr Shamez Ladhani, a paediatric infectious diseases consultant at Public Health England, said: 'The results of this study will play an important role in informing wider surveillance planned for educational settings in the autumn term. 'Through active surveillance, contact tracing and the close monitoring of any clusters of cases, we are committed to ensuring the safety of students and staff returning to school in the coming weeks and months.' The Liberal Democrats' education spokeswoman Layla Moran said the measure would be 'too little, too late' as she called for the Government to get the test and trace system up to speed to prevent a second wave of Covid-19. According to Minsk Agreements, the local citizens might participate in the discussion; however, it is not specified who they should be Journalist Denys Kazansky Social networks Two journalists Denys Kazansky and Serhiy Harmash, a doctor, lawyer, and head of the non-governmental organization entered the group of displaced persons at the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk on Donbas, as the Presidents Office reported. Donbas will be represented by journalists Denys Kazansky and Serhiy Harmash who were forced to leave Donetsk in 2014. Vadym Horan, the lawyer, chairman of the International non-governmental organization Luhansk community, will present the Luhansk region. Besides, well-known doctor Kostyantyn Libster will participate in the Trilateral Contact Group talks from particular areas of the Luhansk region. For the first time in five years, the representatives of areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions temporarily occupied by Russia are involved in the dialogue at the Trilateral Contact Group as members of the Ukrainian delegation, the message said. Denys Kazansky reported on Facebook that the issue was not about the advisory board, which had to be created but the society opposed such a decision. This idea was rejected. He explained that the document, signed by Ukraine in Minsk contains points 11 and 12, which state that issue of the local elections in particular areas and the law about the special status of these areas should be discussed and agreed with the representatives of particular areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Meanwhile, the document has no specification of people who should represent these particular areas, Kazansky wrote. Such organizations as the so-called Luhansk Peoples Republic and Donetsk Peoples Republic are not mentioned; consequently, it is not stated that Ukraine should agree on anything with them. For a long time the citizens of Russia Deinego and Nikonorova spoke on behalf of particular areas and nobody chose them but they appropriated the right to speak for Donbas. Meanwhile, the displaced persons natives of Donetsk and Luhansk who were born and grew up in Donbas and who were forced to leave by terror and persecutions were deprived of the possibility to decide the fate of their native region, he stated. He added that the representatives stand for the entrenchment of the special status of occupied Donbas in the Constitution of Ukraine. Serhiy Harmash, in his turn, added on Facebook that they would not hold talks with Donetsk Peoples Republic. Our leadership remembered that not only the admirers of Russia relate to the particular areas of Donetsk and Luhansk areas of Ukraine but also we kicked out from our homes by the so-called patriots, Harmash stated. As we reported, the agreement was reached on the discussion of the forming lists for prisoners exchange at the session of the Trilateral Contact Group. Bollywood star Varun Dhawan shared a rather significant and alarming piece of data on his social media. He posted a few stark imageries from the year 1920 and reflected on the outbreak during the period. He also added the outbreak is very similar to the coronavirus pandemic that the world is currently witnessing. The first image shows a person clad in face mask with an announcement notice in the background. The memo reads, All theatres closed until further notice. At request of Mayor. The second shows a parked road train with a bill that says, Spit spreads death. The third photograph has women on the street with their faces covered in massive protective shields. The October actor captioned the post, 1920 & 2020. The world has been through this before. We have to help our doctors, police force and front line warriors. Based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data. India population is equivalent to 17.7% of the total world population. We all have to take responsibility (sic.) On the work front, Varuns next project is Coolie No. 1 alongside Sara Ali Khan. The movie is an official remake of the 1995 movie of the same name that starred Govinda and Karisma Kapoor. The remake also features Paresh Rawal and Jaaved Jaaferi in important roles. The release was scheduled for May 1 but got postponed due to the coronavirus lockdown. In another news, Varun will be collaborating with his Badlapur director Sriram Raghavan. The duo will be working together on a movie based on the life of late Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal. Happy birthday 2/lt #ArunKhetarpal.It was always my dream to play a soldier of INDIA. #SriramRaghavan cant wait to bring on screen the spectacular tale of 2/LT #ArunKhetarpal. Produced by #DineshVijan .Hope to make you proud #mukeshkhetarpal and #Poonahorse. pic.twitter.com/lRnZ9vfMjm Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) October 14, 2019 Follow @News18Movies for more Lucknow, June 9 : The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has sought more Shramik Special trains from the state in order to send back migrant workers who belong to other states. A sizeable number of workers employed in brick kilns now want to return to their states, especially Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The home department officials held a meeting with the brick kiln operators and directed District Magistrates and senior police officials in all districts to collect the data of such workers and ensure that before they return to their homes, all their dues by the brick kiln owners are cleared. Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Avanish Awasthi said that about 12,000 brick kilns are functional in the state, but with monsoon round the corner, these will now be closed. Workers at these brick kilns want to return home. "Brick kilns have been working during the lockdown but now that monsoon is approaching, they will shut down. A meeting has been held with the owners and all district magistrates have been asked to ensure that all dues are paid before workers are sent home," he said. The Uttar Pradesh government has requested the Centre for more Shramik Special trains to send back kiln workers, along with anyone else who belongs to another state and wants to return. Awasthi said that the government would continue to operate the free train and bus services till the time people from Uttar Pradesh, who were stuck in other states and those in the state who belong to other states and want to go back home, were not duly transported to their respective states. The government has once again appealed to those who wish to return but have still not done so, to contact the nodal officer deputed for the particular state. More than 31 lakh people have been brought back to Uttar Pradesh so far, either in bus or in trains. Many have travelled back on their own. Meanwhile, state Chief Secretary R. K. Tiwari has directed the Noida administration to focus on clearing the crowds at the Noida-Delhi border after Delhi started allowing free movement between the two states since Monday. He has asked the department concerned to put in place a proper mechanism for passes within the next two days. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Students wearing masks attend a class while keeping distance from each other at Chuncheon Middle School in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, Monday. Yonhap By Bahk Eun-ji Many parents are questioning the effectiveness of sending their children to school as most students are only required to attend once or twice a week, a measure taken by schools to avoid overcrowding in classrooms amid lingering fears of the COVID-19 pandemic. The system in which students go to school in shifts in order to maintain social distancing was suggested by the education ministry and health authorities. The only exception is high school and middle school seniors, who attend school daily. Criticism is growing among parents who are questioning whether it is worth sending their children to school when they are at risk of coronavirus infection. "For the first day, I sent my son to school to get familiar with his friends and teachers. Now he has to go to school once a week, and I'm not sure if it's worth it for him," said a 39-year-old father of a first grade elementary school student in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, identified only by his surname Seo. On Monday, about 1.35 million more students those in the first grade of middle school and the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school went back to their classrooms in the final round of the government's four-phased reopening plan, which meant all 5.95 million students below the higher education level were expected to return to school. However, only one- to two-thirds of them actually attended classes. According to data from the Ministry of Education, 517 schools, or 2.5 percent of the country's 20,902, had closed as a precautionary measure, as of 10 a.m. Monday. The actual number of students attending physically can be reduced if they apply for a home schooling program. Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) allowed students to apply for up to 34 days of home schooling this year. Students do not have to go to school throughout the first semester if they apply for the program. "My husband and I decided to send my daughter to school because everyone in this neighborhood seems to do so, but if the virus situation gets any worse, we will apply for home schooling immediately," said Hong Eun-hee, a mother of an elementary school first-grader in Nowon-gu, Seoul. Against the backdrop of persisting concerns over the virus situation, some students and teachers have complained of anxiety and fatigue over switching between remote learning and physical attendance. A high school teacher in Seoul said, "It is confusing for students who have to focus on preparing for college entrance exams which are scheduled in December, and it is quite exhausting for teachers who have to prepare for different types of classes at the same time." She added, "We don't know if it can be handled well if we have to repeat this throughout the semester under the COVID-19 situation." Meanwhile, Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said the education offices, schools and health authorities are connected through hotlines to ensure a fast response to handle any emergency. "We are all aware of how parents and teachers are concerned about potential outbreaks at schools," Yoo said. According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), the country reported 38 new cases, including 35 local infections, Monday, raising the country's total to 11,852. Two were detected as local infection cases in the Seoul metropolitan area. The virus cases in the capital area accounted for nearly 97 percent of the 313 locally transmitted infections reported since June 1, the KCDC said. [June 09, 2020] Boutique Independent Broker-Dealer, Prospera Financial Services, Ranked #4 for Average Annual Gross Production in Investment Advisor Magazine DALLAS, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Prospera Financial Services, Inc. (Prospera) has been ranked #4 in the Investment Advisor's 2020 Broker-Dealer Reference Guide: Best in the Business for Average Annual Gross Production per Advisor, a spot held from the previous 2019 rankings. Prospera, a privately held company, is a Texas-based financial firm founded in 1982 as a full-service, boutique broker-dealer and support organization for successful independent financial professionals across the country. On an annual basis, Investment Advisor magazine tracks the performance of 40-plus broker-dealer firms through different industry measurements. With the eye this year on broker-dealers who had an average annual gross production per rep of over $315,000, Prospera ranked well above this figure, with its advisors producing an average of $476,000, taking the #4 spot for the second year in a row. Prospera is proud to be able to support the needs of independent advisors and has put great effort over the years into maintaining a home-office to advisor staff ratio of 2.4:, along with implementing a culture that revolves around providing hands-on expertise, tailored solutions and legendary service. "We are proud to see the success of our advisors. Through consistent dialogue and our ongoing quest to provide gold-standard interactions, we feel we truly offer the independence and flexibility for our advisors to achieve what we call Success Your WayTM," said David Stringer, President. About Investment Advisor Since 1980, independent and independent-minded advisors, whether a broker-dealer rep or an RIA, have turned to Investment Advisor magazine for the unbiased news, information and analysis on wealth management, alternative investments, retirement planning, technology and practice management that they need to grow and run their practices. Investment Advisor remains the leading media-valued partner in helping that advisor become and remain successful. About Prospera Financial Services Founded in 1982, Prospera Financial Services, Member FINRA, SIPC and a registered investment advisory, offers the flexibility and resources only found at some of the nation's largest broker-dealers. Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Prospera was named Broker-Dealer of the Year by Investment Advisor magazine in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019. The firm supports independent financial advisors nationwide. For more information about Prospera, visit www.joinprospera.com. Media Contact: Tarah Mattia Williams Senior Vice President, Marketing and Advisor Loyalty Prospera Financial Services, Inc. (972) 581-3015 [email protected] www.joinprospera.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/boutique-independent-broker-dealer-prospera-financial-services-ranked-4-for-average-annual-gross-production-in-investment-advisor-magazine-301072337.html SOURCE Prospera Financial Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Narayanasamy yesterday said that holding virtual classes for students appearing for the Puducherry Class 10 was not feasible as most of them in rural areas do not have a smartphone. Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy has announced that Class 10 examinations in the Union Territory have been cancelled and all students will be promoted to the next grade. The decision has been taken in view of the coronavirus pandemic. Class 10th examinations in Puducherry stand cancelled, all the students will be promoted to the next class: Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy pic.twitter.com/2V27fffwbo ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2020 Narayamasamy's decision came close on the heels of Tamil Nadu chief minister E Palaniswami announcing the cancellation of Class 10 and 11 exams in the state. Palaniswami made the announcement a day after Madras High Court, on Monday, said that the state government should consider postponement of Tamil Nadu Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) or Class 10 board examination due to the mounting number of COVID-19 cases. Narayanasamy yesterday said that holding virtual classes for students appearing for the Puducherry Class 10 was not feasible as most of them in rural areas do not have a smartphone. The chief minister also said that he would write to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry informing about the problems in holding virtual classes, reported Hindustan Times. He stated that the interests of rural students will be taken care of and his government would take convenient steps to hold classes for such students. Vice-Chancellor of Pondicherry University Gurmeet Singh was also asked to wait for the directive from the HRD ministry for conducting examinations. Follow Latest Updates on Coronavirus Outbreak The Puducherry government in March, following the imposition of the first phase of the COVID-19 lockdown, decided to cancel all examinations for students of Class 1-9 as part of measures to contain the spread of the deadly virus. The students of these classes were promoted to the next class without conducting exams. The government order was applicable to the schools adopting the State Board syllabus as wells as private schools, reported PTI quoting Director of School Education PT Rudra Goud. The Telanagana government also decided to cancel Class 10 exams due to the coronavirus pandemic. With inputs from agencies F1 sporting boss Ross Brawn says he "completely" supports Lewis Hamilton's political views. In a series of recent social media posts, six time world champion Hamilton hit out at those staying silent about the policy custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Not just that, the Mercedes driver is scathing of British PM Boris Johnson's response to coronavirus, and also openly backed protesters who pulled down and threw in a river the 1895 statue commemorating the philanthropy of Edward Colston. Hamilton called Colston a "slave trader" and said any other "statues of racist men" should also be torn down. "Which one is next?" he asked. But Brawn told Sky that Hamilton's recently declared political views are "very valid", and that Formula 1 supports him "totally". "Lewis is a great ambassador for the sport and his comments are very valid," he said. "We support him completely." (GMM) Gambian citizen Momodou Lamin Sisay was killed during a standoff with police in Georgia on May 29. Activists in The Gambia have delivered a petition to the United States embassy in the country calling for a thorough investigation into the police killing of the son of a retired Gambian diplomat in the US state of Georgia. The petition urges the US government to release body camera footage showing the fatal shooting of Momodou Lamin Sisay late last month during an attempted traffic stop in the town of Snellville. Georgia police said in a preliminary report that Sissay, 39, flashed a gun at the officers, prompting them to shoot. Sisay opened fire at police during the exchange, according to the report. Gambian activist Madi Jobarteh said the petition, which was given on Monday to Rebecca McKnight, a regional security officer at the US embassy in Banjul, is also a statement of solidarity with George Floyd, a Black man who was killed in Minneapolis on May 25 when a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyds killing has sparked protests across the US and elsewhere against police brutality and racial injustice. It calls for the dismantling of institutionalised racism in the US and an overhaul of how African Americans are treated by police. [We] demand a thorough investigation of the killing of Momodou Lamin Sisay by making the police to release their videos on the incident, Jobarteh told Al Jazeera, adding the petition had the support of Sisays family. But also [we] demand the investigation of the murder of George Floyd and to hold those responsible for the killing of African Americans. He said justice would bring great relief to our people here and in America, adding that African migrants equally [face] racism and police brutality in the US. Jobarteh said he and other activists planned to hold a rally in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement when coronavirus restrictions allowed. The delivery of the petition came nearly a week after The Gambias foreign affairs ministry said it had asked its embassy in Washington, DC to engage the relevant US authorities including the State Department to seek a transparent, credible and objective investigation in the matter. The embassy has since sent two representatives to Georgia, according to a family friend of Sisay. A spokeswoman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) told Al Jazeera that body camera footage had not been released because the investigation remained open. She added investigators had met and briefed officials with the Embassy of the Republic of The Gambia and would remain in contact during the probe. Pursuit and standoff According to an initial report from GBI, police attempted to pull Sisay over for a vehicle tag violation in the early hours of May 29. When Sisay did not stop, the police chased his vehicle and used a pursuit intervention technique that forced him off the road. The report said Sisay did not comply with police commands to show his hands and pointed a handgun at the officers when the tried to enter the car. The officers then opened fire on Sisays vehicle and took cover. During an ensuing standoff with a SWAT team, the preliminary report said, Sisay fired his weapon at the officers, one of whom returned fire, killing him. Friends have reportedly rejected that version of events and have called on witnesses to come forward. Sisays father, Lare Sisay, a retired diplomat who used to work for the United Nations Development Fund, told Gambian media he was withholding judgment on the incident pending results of an autopsy and findings from a private investigator. Still, he described the incident as uncharacteristic of his son, whom he described to local media as somebody who abhors violence. In a Facebook post, he called the younger Sisay a very pious and disciplined young man. Trying to find answers Momodou Lamin Sisay [Family photo] Abdul Jaiteh, a Georgia lawyer representing the family, questioned whether police had done all they could to de-escalate the situation if the police account proved accurate. The family is trying to find answers as to what happened. Was this incident avoidable? Could the police have exercised more restraint? Apply more negotiating tactics to get the suspect to surrender? he said. There are a lot of details involved. But in my belief, the decision to kill was done hastily. Jaiteh added the investigation would be under added pressure given the current climate in the US following the death of Floyd. To date, the four officers involved in the Minneapolis killing have been charged. Protests entered their 15th day across the US on Tuesday. Habib Mbye, a family friend in Atlanta who has been in contact with Lare Sisay and other family members, said GBI had so far been open and communicative with the family. He said family and friends in the US and The Gambia were closely following the investigation and hoped to find the truth of what happened. Its very incumbent on us living to make sure that this doesnt happen to somebody elses kid, friend, any other person, he said. We have to follow up to the end and just get the truth out. 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Targeting Cookies We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated sale of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website. While adulthood is a tricky path to follow, a sitcom like Friends that started nearly two decades ago, became a series that youngsters could resonate with. A show that developed with a concept of six friends hanging out at a coffee house, gradually etched a place in everyone's hearts, which didn't just make us binge-watch the show but also made us watch the repeat telecast of it, no matter how many times it was being telecasted. Twitter/Friends_FC But despite being a show that aired for so long, the sitcom has raised questions about the show lacking diversity in the cast. This comes from the viewers and the cast members of this show. To this, the creator of Friends, Marta Kauffman revealed in an interview "I wish I knew then what I knew today, I would have made very different decisions, Weve always encouraged people of diversity in our company, but I didnt do enough. Now all I can think about is what can I do, what can I do differently. How can I run my show in a new way? Thats something I wish I knew when I started show running but all the way up through last year" While we would love Friends to be just the way it is, did you know that there were a few other actors as well who were nearly cast for this iconic sitcom? So, here are Hollywood actors who had auditioned for the role of six dear friends for the series but did not earn it. 1. Jon Cryer For Chandler Getty Images While Jon Cryer fits well for Two And A Half Men, the actor auditioned for the role of Chandler Bing, after he got a call from Marta Kauffman. But unfortunately, his tape did not reach on time to the network executives, which is why he couldn't crack the role of Mr Bing. So glad, though! 2. Hank Azaria For Joey Twitter/Hank Azaria Actor Hank Azaria, besides giving some hit films in Hollywood, has also been a part of several sitcoms. He auditioned for the role of Joey but he didn't deem fit for it. But, despite all of that, he did get to play the part of David, whose Phoebe's lover, in a couple of episodes. Hard luck. 3. Eric McCormack For Ross Twitter/Eric McCormack I can't even imagine Eric screaming We were on a break instead of David Schwimmer. Before making it big with Will and Grace, Eric almost played the role of Ross but he later realised that the part was made, keeping David in mind. 4. Courtney Cox For Rachel Getty Images Courtney Cox was originally offered to play the role of Rachel Green but since Cox was more interested in doing a stronger female character role in the series, she urged the writers to let her play the role of Monica. The writers were convinced and we are so glad she was the 'Mon' of Friends. 5. Kathy Griffin For Phoebe Wikipedia Comedian Kathy Griffin's fun personality was on the maker's mind before the initial casting of Friends had begun but unfortunately, she could not bag the role of Phoebe. Phew! 6. Janeane Garofalo For Monica Medium Before Courtney, the producers had Janeane's face and words in mind, since she is quite edgy and snarky. Initially, the role was written as per that but unfortunately, after changing the character a tad bit, the role went to Courtney for Monica. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / Pac Roots Cannabis Corp. ("PacRoots" or the "Company") (CSE:PACR), is pleased to announce, effective as of yesterday June 8th 2020, Chad Clelland has been appointed to the Board of Directors of PacRoots. Mr. Clelland's experience in the sector dates back to 2009 when he purchased Medicalmarijuana.ca which became an information portal for thousands of patients, doctors and growers. Through this company he and his team have helped thousands of Canadians find legal, safe medication. His team also consulted, designed and submitted dozens of applications to the government under the MMPR, ACMPR and Cannabis Act. In 2011, Mr. Clelland also co-founded Greenleaf Medical Clinic; now recognized as a training facility by the University of British Columbia and offers preceptorships to physicians, nurse practitioners and pharmacists. He also co-founded Folium Life Science in 2013, an approved Canadian Licensed Producer. His roles in these organizations have included Chief Operating Officer, head of security, alternate master grower and alternate responsible person in charge. "We are thrilled to welcome Chad to the board of PacRoots. He brings a tremendous acumen with over 10 years building successful operations in the Cannabis space. Chad has a wealth of corporate governance experience and a substantial repour with Health Canada." Patrick Elliott, President & CEO Also, effective of June 8, 2020, Marc Geen has resigned from the Board of Directors but remains part of the PacRoots team as a strategic operations advisor. Furthermore, the Company announced today that pursuant the company's Stock Option Plan, an aggregate of 3,650,000 shares have been granted to Directors, management and consultants as incentive stock options at an exercise price of $0.205 per shares. The options are exercisable for a period of three years, ending on June 8, 2023. About PacRoots PacRoots Cannabis is the future of genetics. By focusing on elite genetic development, the company expects to maximize the quality of its products, while keeping yields and profit margins high. PacRoots has formed a strategic partnership with Phenome One, giving the Company complete access to one of the largest live genetic libraries in Canada composed of the finest cultivars. The Company will use these genetics to develop unique strains with various beneficial characteristics. The 350+ licensed live cultivars and over 1800 seed varieties are the result of a meticulous gene selection process, whereby Phenome One filters through as many as 600 individual plants to lock in a specific phenotype for a single strain. Tailored elite cultivars are then selected for indoor or outdoor cultivation based on various environmental, biological, medical and market driven factors. Visit www.pacroots.ca ON BEHALF OF PAC ROOTS CANNABIS CORP. (signed) "Patrick Elliott" Chief Executive Officer For further information, please contact: Pac Roots Cannabis Corp. www.pacroots.ca Telephone: 604-609-6171 Not for distribution to United States wire services or dissemination in the United States. This news 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 or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This press release contains forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include failure to obtain a Cannabis Act license in a timely manner or at all, the continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions, including the effects of COVID-19. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that the statements will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Pac Roots Cannabis Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/593244/PacRoots-Announces-New-Member-of-the-Board-of-Directors Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about efforts to promote ethnic unity at Jinhuayuan community in Jinxing Township of Wuzhong City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 8, 2020. Xi inspected Ningxia on Monday. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) YINCHUAN, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Monday inspected northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. On Monday afternoon, Xi visited a village, a section of the Yellow River, and a residential community in the city of Wuzhong to learn about efforts to advance poverty alleviation, strengthen ecological protection of the Yellow River, and promote ethnic unity. The village of Hongde, which Xi visited, has a population of 7,013. It shook off poverty in 2019 through the development of farming and husbandry while providing training to locals to help them secure skilled jobs outside the village. A cardboard packaging workshop was also set up in the village to offer stable local jobs. Monday marked the fourth time Xi visited the Yellow River in less than a year. The 5,464-kilometer-long river is considered the cradle of the Chinese nation. The Jinhuayuan community Xi visited is a national model community of ethnic unity. About 45 percent of its 13,850 residents are ethnic minorities. Enditem 13 1 [ Editor: WPY ] Iranian Scientist Freed By U.S. Arrives In Tehran By RFE/RL June 08, 2020 Iranian scientist Majid Taheri has returned home after his release from prison in the United States as part of a prisoner exchange, semiofficial Iranian news agency ISNA reported. Taheri, who had been detained in the United States for 16 months, was freed on June 4 as Iran released U.S. Navy veteran Michael White, who had been sentenced to 13 years in prison last year for allegedly insulting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and posting private information online. Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari greeted Taheri upon his arrival on June 8 at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport said ISNA, which posted a picture of the pair speaking to reporters. Taheri thanked Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. "I thank the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and dear officials, including Mr. Zarif, who worked hard, and other officials who took months to help release me, as an Iranian physician accused of circumventing U.S. sanctions on medicine," he was quoted as saying. Taheri, an Iranian-American who had been working at a clinic in Tampa, Florida, was the second scientist to have returned to Iran from the United States in the past week, after Sirous Asgari flew home on June 3. Taheri served 16 months for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and on June 4 a federal judge released him to go see family in Iran. According to court documents, he pleaded guilty to charges he violated financial reporting requirements by depositing more than $277,000 at a bank. On June 8, Taheri rejected accusations against him as "unfair and false," according to Iran's Fars news agency. "I was helping the University of Tehran to develop a cancer vaccine, especially for women," he was quoted as saying. Iran-U.S. tensions have been on the rise in recent years as President Donald Trump has pursued a campaign of "maximum pressure" against Tehran. Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the United States from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers and reimposed crippling sanction on Iran. With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iranian-scientist-freed-by-us -arrives-in-tehran/30658525.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 Reality television fans can catch the first episode of 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way Season 2 tonight, June 8, at 9 p.m. ET on TLC. Viewers can also live stream the episode on fuboTV . As the name suggests, the franchise reverses the popular TLC shows original concept, turning the spotlight on Americans who follow their hearts abroad, relocating to other countries for romance. In this season, viewers will meet new characters and catch up with some familiar faces. In a quest to prove that love knows no boundaries, Jenny heads to India to reconnect with Sumit, while Brittany leaves home for Jordan, Kenny goes to Mexico and Ariela travels to Ethiopia. Can love triumph over culture shock? Find out in Episode 1, Home Is Where the Heart Is, on 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way. What channel is TLC on? You can find which channel it is 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. SEOUL, South Korea North Korea said on Tuesday that it would cut off all communication lines with South Korea, including military hotlines, as it vowed to reverse a recent detente on the Korean Peninsula and start treating the South as an enemy. North Korea made the decision when its top officials in charge of relations with the South, including Kim Yo-jong, the sister of the supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, met on Monday, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency said. The officials stressed that the work toward the South should thoroughly turn into one against the enemy, the North Korean news agency reported on Tuesday. We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities, and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay. Shortly after its announcement, North Korea refused to pick up the phone on Tuesday morning when the South made its routine daily call on the military hotlines between the two countries, officials in Seoul said. In a poll with over 13 million votes, actress Son Ye Jin has been hailed as no. 1. Starmometer, a global voting site, conducted the "Most Beautiful Woman of 2020" survey that ran from April 4 to May 22. The results came in, and yes, the "Crash Landing on You" leading lady won the title with slightly over 4.3 million votes from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, as well as an online poll. Son Ye Jin was crowned as the winner of the poll for garnering the highest votes against beautiful stars BLACKPINK's Lisa and TWICE's Tzuyu took the 2nd and 3rd place, respectively. Lisa got a total of 3,852,340 votes, while Tzuyu accumulated a total of 1,232,298 votes. The rest of the good looking celebrities who ranked in the top 10 were the following (in order): Urassaya Sperbund from Thailand BLACKPINK's Jisoo BLACKPINK's Rose Song Hye Kyo BLACKPINK's Jennie Liza Soberano from the Philippines Sina Deinert from Germany Congratulations to the "Most Beautiful Woman" of the year, Son Ye Jin! Son Ye Jin was born as Son Eon Jin on January 11, 1982. She became a well-known actress through her romance-themed movies as well as dramas, such as "Summer Scent" (2003), "The Classic" (2003), "A Moment to Remember" (2004), and "April Snow" (2005). Son Ye Jin took home plenty of acting recognition for her versatility. She became even more recognized in her projects "Alone in Love" (2006), "The Pirates" (2014), "My Wife Got Married" (2008), and the 2016 films "The Last Princess" and "The Truth Beneath." Her fame skyrocketed for her portrayal in her most current romance dramas, "Something in the Rain" (2018) and "Crash Landing on You" (2019-2020). The voice of Son Ye Jin was used in Park Ki Yung's film "Secret Tears" in 2000 as Jung Mi Jo. Following this, she continued to take the leading role in television dramas, such as "Delicious Proposal." Her very first high-profile role in cinema was in Im Kwon-taek's Chi-Hwa-seon, which was screened at Cannes and won the Best Director award in 2002. Fast forward to the year 2018, Son Ye Jin starred together with So Ji Sub in the romance film titled "Be with You." The film was based on a Japanese novel of the same title. Her JTBC romance drama "Something in the Rain," alongside Jung Hae In, concluded as a big hit, and Son Ye Jin garnered a lot of positive feedback for her acting performance. Son Ye Jin has worked with Hyun Bin in a crime-thriller "The Negotiation," portraying the role of professional negotiator working to save hostages. In 2019, the two reunited, playing as a wealthy heiress who crash-lands in North Korea after a storm and eventually falls in love with a North Korean soldier. The drama was a huge success and became the third-highest-rated Korean drama in cable television history! PUNE, India, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global pharmaceutical packaging market size is projected to reach USD 142.59 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.0% during the forecast period. Steady growth in the number of older people in the world will bode well for this market, finds Fortune Business Insights in its report, titled "Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Material (Plastics, Glass, Metal, Paper & Paperboard), By Product (Plastic Bottles, Caps & Closures, Pre-Fillable Inhalers, Pre-Fillable Syringes, Vials & Ampoules, Blister Packs, Bags & Pouches, Jars & Canisters, Cartridges), By Packaging Type (Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary), By Drug Delivery Mode (Oral Drug Delivery Packaging, Injectable Packaging, Topical Drug Delivery Packaging, Pulmonary Drug Delivery Packaging, Transdermal Drug Delivery Packaging, Ocular Drug Delivery Packaging, Nasal Drug Delivery Packaging), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026". Gain More Insights into the Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Research Report https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-102860 Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2016-2027 Estimates released by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) indicate that the number of persons at or above 60-years of age will reach 2.1 billion by 2050. Moreover, by the end of this decade itself older persons will outnumber children under the age of 10. Pharmaceutical packaging products are likely to experience high demand in this scenario as the uptake of drugs and their delivery mechanisms will inevitably spike as larger number of people get older at a faster rate. Moreover, novel packaging solutions such as prefilled inhalers and syringes can enable older persons to self-administer the drugs, eliminating the need to visit a hospital or clinic. 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/enquiry/covid19-impact/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-102860 List of Key Players Profiled in the Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Research Report: Gaplast Gmbh ( Germany ) ) CCL Industries Inc. ( Canada ) ) ALPLA-Werke Alwin Lehner GmbH & Co KG ( Austria ) ) SABIC ( Saudi Arabia ) ) NIPRO ( Japan ) ) AptarGroup, Inc. (US) West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (US) Schott AG ( Germany ) ( ) Nelipak Healthcare ( Canada ) ) Gerresheimer AG ( Germany ) ) Frank Noe Egypt Ltd ( Egypt ) ) Constantia Flexibles ( Austria ) ) Lonza Group AG ( Switzerland ) ) Carcano Antonio S.p.A. ( Italy ) ) Berry Global, Inc. (US) WestRock (US) Becton Dickinson & Company (US) & Company (US) Pharma Packaging Solutions (US) Origin Pharma Packaging (UK) Amcor Plc ( Switzerland ) According to the report, the value of this market was at USD 90.23 billion in 2019. In addition, the report shares the following: Detailed analysis of the various market drivers and trends; Careful study of the market restraints; Comprehensive examination of the regional dynamics of the market; In-depth evaluation of the competitive landscape of the market; and Exhaustive assessment of all the market segments. Market Driver Rising Prevalence of Multiple Chronic Conditions to Augment Market Growth Multiple chronic conditions (MCC), as the name suggests, are essentially several lifelong disorders that befall a person simultaneously or in close frequency to one another. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), approximately 33% of the world's population suffers from MCC such as a combination of cardiovascular disease with stroke. Furthermore, the WEF postulates that such conditions typically entail more medications, with each new chronic condition adding 8 new prescriptions among older adults. This would mean that the demand for packaging material for pharmaceutical purposes is likely to rise as people with chronic disorders will require frequent administration or consumption of different drugs. In consequence, the pharmaceutical packaging market growth is set to get boosted during the forecast period as the risk factors associated with these conditions are also increasing in tandem. Speak to Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-102860 Regional Analysis North America to Lead the Pack; Europe to Follow Closely With a market size of USD 26.89 billion in 2019, North America is well-poised to dominate this market share in the forthcoming years. The major reasons for the market growth in this region include high healthcare spending and robust health infrastructure along with strong support to medical research in the region. Europe, the second-largest region in this market, will be driven by the escalating demand for pharmaceutical products such as vials and syringes to contain the spread of infectious diseases, including the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. The market in Asia-Pacific is expected to enjoy lucrative opportunities owing to increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and massive investments in R&D by regional pharmaceutical companies. Competitive Landscape Key Players to Focus on Portfolio Diversification The competitive landscape of the pharmaceutical packaging market is characterized by the presence of a wide array of companies, with each entity striving to carve its own identity and place in the market. To that end, many players are investing in innovation to build a strong product portfolio and deepen their foothold in the pharmaceutical industry. Industry Developments: January 2020 : UK-based Origin Pharma Packaging introduced a packaging solution exclusively designed and developed for the medicinal cannabis industry. The novel solution is available in a child-resistant jar to ensure safety of children from the product. The company also aims at supporting medicinal cannabis start-ups in the country with the launch of this packaging solution. UK-based Origin Pharma Packaging introduced a packaging solution exclusively designed and developed for the medicinal cannabis industry. The novel solution is available in a child-resistant jar to ensure safety of children from the product. The company also aims at supporting medicinal cannabis start-ups in the country with the launch of this packaging solution. July 2019 : US-based Berry Global completed its takeover of the UK-domiciled plastic packaging company, RPC Group, for approximately USD 6.5 billion . The acquisition allows Berry to become one of the leading providers of superior plastic packaging solutions as well as build one of the largest plastic packaging companies in the world. Quick Buy Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/102860 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 Key Emerging Trends For Major Countries Key Developments: Mergers, Acquisition, Partnership, etc. Latest Technological Advancement Insights on Regulatory Scenario Porters Five Forces Analysis Global Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2016-2027 Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Material Plastics Glass Metal Paper & Paperboard Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Product Type Plastic Bottles Caps & Closures Pre-Fillable Inhalers Pre-Fillable Syringes Vials & Ampoules Blister Packs Bags & Pouches Jars & Canisters Cartridges Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Packaging Type Primary Secondary Tertiary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Drug Delivery Mode Oral Drug Delivery Packaging Injectable Packaging Topical Drug Delivery Packaging Pulmonary Drug Delivery Packaging Transdermal Drug Delivery Packaging Ocular Drug Delivery Packaging Nasal Drug Delivery Packaging Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Region North America Europe Asia pacific pacific South America Middle East & Africa TOC Continued!!! Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-102860 Have a Look at Related Research Insights: Anti-Counterfeiting Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Technology (RFID, Holograms, Barcode, and Others), By End-Use (Food & Beverages, Healthcare & Pharmaceutical, Industrial & Automotive, Consumer Electronics, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Food Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Materials (Glass, Metal, Paper & Paperboard, Wood, and Plastics [Polypropylene, Polyethylene, PET, and Others]), By Product (Rigid, Semi-Rigid, and Flexible) By Application (Fruits & Vegetables, Bakery & Confectionery, Dairy Products, Meat, Poultry & Seafood, Sauces, Dressings and Condiments, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Glass Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By End-use Industry (Alcoholic beverages, Food, Non-Alcoholic beverages, Pharmaceuticals, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Tobacco Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Material (Plastics, Paper, Paperboard, and Others), By Packaging Type (Primary and Secondary), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Beverage Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Material (Plastic, Glass, Metal, and Others), By Product (Can, Bottle & jars, Pouch, Carton, and Others), By Application (Alcoholic and Non-alcoholic) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Cosmetic Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Material (Glass, Paper & Board, Plastic, Metal, and Others), By Application Type (Skin Care, Hair Care, Make-up and Nail care), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Linerless Labels Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Adhesion Type (Permanent, Removable, Repositionable, and Others), By Printing Technology (Direct Thermal, Thermal Transfer, Laser, Inkjet, and Others), By Application (Food & Beverage, Pharmaceuticals & Personal Care, Retail, Logistics and Others), By Component (Facestock, Adhesive, and Release Coating) and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Smart Label Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Technology (Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) Security, RFID, Sensing Labels, Near Field Communication Tag, and QR Code/2D Barcode), By End-User (Retail, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Food & Beverages, Consumer Electronics, Supply Chain and Logistics, Transportation, and Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Thermal Paper Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Width (2.25", 3.125", and Others), By Printing Technology (Direct Thermal, Thermal Transfer, and Others), By Application (Point-of-Sale, Tags & Labels, Ticketing, Lottery & Gaming, Medical, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 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: [email protected] Fortune Business Insights LinkedIn | Twitter | Blogs Read Press Release: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/press-release/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-9995 SOURCE Fortune Business Insights The government of Burundi says President Pierre Nkurunziza has died at the age of 56. The government released a statement on Twitter that said Nkurunziza died of cardiac arrest Monday at the Karusi hospital in eastern Burundi. Nkurunziza was reported to be in critical condition on Monday. VOAs Central Africa service reported that there was a heavy military presence around the hospital. Nkurunziza served three terms as Burundis president. His decision to run for a controversial third term in 2015 set off protests and violence that prompted hundreds of thousands of Burundians to flee the country. Nkurunziza was due to step down in August after his chosen successor, General Evariste Ndayishimiye, won the 2020 presidential election. House Democrats, prompted by demonstrations against racism and police brutality across the country, are renewing a push to expel Confederate statues from the halls of Congress. As cities and states have started taking down their own Confederate statues after the death of George Floyd in police custody, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, plans to reintroduce legislation on Thursday to do the same on Capitol Hill, removing the roughly 10 statues associated with the Confederacy from the National Statuary Hall Collection. "Americans in all 50 states and millions of people around the world are marching to protest racism and police violence directed at people of color, and yet across the country, Confederate statues and monuments still pay tribute to white supremacy and slavery in public spaces," Lee said in a statement to ABC News. "It is time to tell the truth about what these statues are: hateful symbols that have no place in our society and certainly should not be enshrined in the U.S. Capitol." MORE: Statues of Confederate figures, slave owners come down amid protests States contribute two statues to the Capitol, which are on display around the complex. Statues of Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens, the president and vice president of the Confederate States of America, stand in Statuary Hall, just steps away from the Capitol Rotunda and House chamber. A statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, donated by Virginia, stands on the first floor of the building, in the Capitol Crypt. PHOTO: A statue of Confederate States president Jefferson Davis is seen in Statuary Hall of the Capitol in Washington, DC, Aug 24, 2017. (AFP via Getty Images) Each state commissions their own statues before sending them to Congress, where a joint House-Senate committee determines where to place them. Under current law, states can either request to replace older statues or vote on a change in their legislatures. Lee's proposal would remove all Confederate statues from the Capitol within 120 days of being signed into law. States would have the opportunity to reclaim the statues or turn them over to the Smithsonian. Story continues "It's something whose time has obviously has come in the minds of the majority of people in this country, especially in light of what's happening in Minneapolis, Louisville and a bunch of other places," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., a member of the. caucus and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told ABC News in an interview. Thompson, who is working with Lee on the issue, suggested that his home state replace statues of Davis and Zachariah George, a Confederate colonel, with monuments of civil rights leaders Fannie Lou Hamer and Medgar Evers. "Are we going to continue to live in the past and glorify individuals who history was about nullification and racism?" he said. "Or are we going to take a step and listen to the drumbeat of the people who are out here now, saying we want America to represent all people?" Democrats pushed to remove Confederate statues and images from the Capitol in 2015 and 2017, prompted by the mass shooting in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one woman dead. But those campaigns largely fizzled out in the GOP-led House and Senate, though Republican House leaders did replace a display of state flags with pictures of commemorative quarters, after Thompson and other lawmakers objected to the display of Southern flags that included Confederate imagery. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to comment on Tuesday. In 2015, the Kentucky Republican called for the removal of a statue of Davis, the Confederate leader, from the Kentucky statehouse, suggesting that a museum would be a "better place" for it. President Donald Trump previously opposed calls in 2017 to take down Confederate statues and monuments and called the effort "foolish." Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You..... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017 ...can't change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson - who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017 ...the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017 While it's not clear how quickly the chamber might take action on the statues, House Majority Steny Hoyer signaled Tuesday that he supported their removal -- reaffirming the position of Democratic leaders since the last attempt to do so. "The effort to remove symbols of oppression, slavery and segregation and hate and bigotry, I think are appropriate," Hoyer, D-Md., told ABC News during a conference call with reporters. MORE: US Marine Corps issues details on ban of Confederate battle flags But Floyd's death in police custody and the resulting protests in America and around the world have reenergized efforts to tear down statues and other figures representing the Confederacy, slavery and racism. In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, responded to protests with plans to take down a prominent statue of Lee in Richmond, the state capitol. A judge has issued an injunction, preventing the move for now. PHOTO: A tour guide talks about the Statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that is located inside the Capitol, Aug.17, 2017, in Washington, DC. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Jacksonville, Florida, has dismantled a Confederate monument in the city center. The city of Louisville, Kentucky, has also dismantled a statue of John Breckenridge Castleman, a Confederate soldier-turned U.S. general and prominent local businessman. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy earlier this week said he would be willing to begin bipartisan discussions over re-naming installations named after Confederate leaders, such at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Following the Marine Corps decision in February, Navy leadership is also readying an order to prohibit the display of the Confederate flag in public spaces and on any aircraft, ships or submarines. MORE: In a reversal, Army now 'open' to conversation about renaming bases named after Confederate leaders In Bristol, England, protesters took down a statue of a 17th-century slave trader, dumping it in the city harbor. In Antwerp, Belgium, the city took down a statue of King Leopold II, known for his brutal rule of Belgium's African colonies in the late 19th century, that had been defaced by protesters. Thompson said he is optimistic about the latest effort and the message it could send to Americans. "Moving those symbols to the Smithsonian, and not allow them places of honor in the Capitol, would be a seminal moment for this country," he said. "If we don't take this moment in time, and heal our wounds, then I don't think it will ever happen." ABC News' John Parkinson, Luis Martinez and Elizabeth McLaughlin contributed to this report. Democrats push to remove Confederate statues from US Capitol after George Floyd's death originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Coun. Stephen Wright has been stripped of his position as economic development vice-chair and dropped as city councils representative on the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce board. City councillors made the decision Monday night in the wake of Wrights ill-fated trip last month to New Brunswick in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic to see for himself how restaurant reopenings were working out in the province. Wright issued an apology last Wednesday, admitting he made an error in judgment and he was being overzealous. Mayor Diane Therrien had earlier demanded the apology after New Brunswicks premier and the mayor of Saint John, N.B. criticized the trip for putting New Brunswick residents at risk of the virus. Therrien said Monday night that the apology wasnt enough and moved that Wright be removed from the two positions. Councillors voted 8-3 in favour, with Wright opposed along with Coun. Kemi Akapo and Coun. Gary Baldwin. Coun. Don Vassiliadis will replace Wright in those positions (Wright abstained from that vote, and Coun. Kemi Akapo voted against it; all others voted for Vassiliadis as the replacement). Councillors also voted to rescind a vote from March 30 to allow Wright to stand for election for a board position with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). All but Wright voted in favour of that plan. The punishments were suggested by Therrien and she said they were necessary because it was reported in the media locally and in New Brunswick that Wright went on his road trip in May to see firsthand how restaurants were faring in the reopening (which is occurring sooner in New Brunswick than in Ontario). The trip wasnt endorsed by her and wasnt paid for by the city, Therrien said and thats why she felt there needed to be some consequences for Wright on council. But Wright said the mayor was being very heavy-handed when hes apologized already; he said hes been publicly ostracized since his trip, and he deserves no more punishment. He also said it was unnecessary for the mayor to remove the possibility of his running for the FCM. Wright said diversity is badly needed on the FCM board and as one of just 10 Black councillors across Ontario he could have potentially offered that. There have been demonstrations around the world about systemic racism and institutional racism, Wright added, and yet the mayor was looking to remove the opportunity for him to stand for election with this national board. I didnt commit a criminal offence here I wasnt incarcerated, Wright said. Meanwhile the province of New Brunswick is investigating Wrights trip. The province had closed its borders to curb the spread of novel coronavirus and Premier Blaine Higgs said he wanted to know what questions were asked of Wright at the border and what answers he supplied. Wright also spoke on Monday of the Black civil liberties movement and how it kicked the door off the hinges for him to become an elected official. Now hes a councillor who does his job with overwhelming zeal. I said to my kids, I dont get to fail, at what I do on council. Coun. Dean Pappas said he wasnt happy that any question of race should have entered the discussion. I just want to stand up for the integrity of our mayor. I dont think theres any race to be played here she would do the same thing for anybody, Pappas said. I stand up for her integrity at this point, as her friend. Wright said he wasnt commenting about race, that he was highlighting the history that came long before his election: I am not questioning the mayors integrity at all. This is a difficult decision to make. I appreciate that Coun. Wright has apologized and I understand that the mayor has to take some action as well, said Coun. Kemi Akapo. To be quite honest at this moment Im still a little bit undecided, she said, and added nothing further to the discussion. What disturbs me is race and colour are being brought into it as far as Im concerned, those had nothing to do with the issue. Absolutely nothing, said Coun. Henry Clarke. Clarke said that Wright erred and apologized but that sometimes there are still punishments to follow. Therrien tried to be measured in her approach, Clarke said, and he supported her in that. The new coronavirus cases reported by the Spanish Health Ministry on Monday evening, and which correspond to the previous 24-hour period, fell to a new low since the state of alarm was declared by the government on March 14 in a bid to slow the spread of the epidemic. With 48 confirmed infections, not since March 5 has there been such a low number of cases. Shortly after that date, transmission of the virus became completely uncontrolled, and at the end of March there were as many as 10,000 infections detected in a single day. Since the crisis began, however, the figures have tended to be misleading on Mondays, with underreporting over the weekend due to lower staffing levels in hospitals. According to the figures supplied last night by the ministry, no cases were detected in the previous 24 hours in the Balearic Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Murcia. Nor were there any new diagnoses in the North African exclave cities of Ceuta and Melilla. In the last week, a total of 2,157 cases were detected, a figure that has been rising slightly over the last three days. Hospitalizations in the last seven days came in at 145, which is also the lowest figure since the state of alarm was implemented Fernando Simon, the director of the Health Ministrys Coordination Center for Health Alerts, explained on Monday that nearly 40% of the cases registered in the last week were asymptomatic, and were detected in testing carried out in healthcare centers or residences. This indicates that the progress [of the epidemic] continues to be favorable, as we have been observing over this last month or so, he said. The number of fatalities in the last week was 56 according to the latest ministry data, with no new deaths detected in the previous 24 hours. However, this figure is frozen, explained Simon, given that since the Health Ministry changed its statistical system two weeks ago, it has been revising the entire historical series, meaning that it is difficult to interpret the data. There are thousands of deaths that are yet to be assigned to a specific date, and that are in a kind of limbo. The ministry is due to include them in the updated data this week. The figures may suffer a further change due to a new recommendation that was published recently by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which consists in not only including the number of fatalities where coronavirus was confirmed by a PCR test, as Spain has been doing up until now, but also including all suspected Covid-19 deaths that cannot be attributed to other causes. This, Simon admitted last night, could lead to a fresh reevaluation of the whole series. One of the figures that offers a more immediate snapshot of the progress of the epidemic, provided that the regions notify cases quickly, is the number of cases diagnosed where symptoms began in the previous seven days. In the whole of Spain, this number is 0.53 per 100,000 inhabitants. No region exceeds two per 100,000, only the city of Ceuta but this is due to its small population of 80,000 inhabitants, and two new registered cases. The Balearic Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Murcia detected no new cases in the past 24 hours Admissions in intensive care units (ICUs) have held steady in recent days between 10 and 15 patients. On Monday, the figure came in at 14 for the previous 24 hours, in seven regions: Aragon, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y Leon, Catalonia, Madrid and Navarre. Hospitalizations in the last seven days came in at 145, which is also the lowest figure since the state of alarm was implemented. All territories, apart from Melilla, saw at least one. This figure is particularly interesting for epidemiologists, given that it does not rely on capacity for detection. While it is a significant indicator, one that shows the epidemic is on a downward trend, the figures on Tuesday will confirm whether or not underreporting from the weekend has had an effect. Simon also explained that while some healthcare workers have the impression that the virus is losing virulence, this may not necessarily be the case. The capacity for detection is ever greater, meaning that milder cases of coronavirus are being reported. Before May 11 [when the new statistical system was put into action] the average age [of detected cases] was approximately 61 or 62, he explained. Since May 11, its 54, meaning that we are detecting younger cases, which are associated with being light. English version by Simon Hunter. Since Memorial Day, Texas has seen a 36-percent increase in hospitalizations due to COVID-19, new data released Tuesday by the Department of State Health Services show. On Tuesday, the state reported 2,056 hospitalizations the highest number since the pandemic first reached Texas in March. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told KSAT viewers in San Antonio that he is watching the data carefully to guide how much more the state can reopen businesses. We are still evaluating whether or not there was any increase because of Memorial Day and now whether or not there could be an increase in the aftermath of these very large protests that have taken place, said Abbott, a Republican. While hospitalizations are up, Texas is still reporting more than 15,000 hospital beds available and almost 6,000 ventilators available. Every Texan who needs access to a hospital bed will have access to a hospital bed, said John Wittman, Abbotts director of communications. FOR THE LATEST: Interactive maps, charts show spread of coronavirus in Texas The 2,056 hospitalizations reported on Tuesday were up 545 from Memorial Day. Over the past seven days, Texas has averaged 1,877 hospitalizations per day, up from the previous week when the state averaged 1,715 per day. Hospitalizations are one of the most closely watched metrics for public health officials, especially with the coronavirus because a significant number of those who test positive for the illness - which has no vaccine or cure do not require intensive medical care. Hospitalizations show the severity of the spread, and the potential for it to drain medical supplies, especially potentially life-saving ventilators. Much of the spike in hospital patients can be attributed to the Houston region, which showed a surge in hospitalizations starting last week. COVID-19 patients occupied hospital intensive-care units in the nine-county Houston area at higher levels the first three days in June than on any single day in May, according to data compiled by the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council, a state group that coordinates the regions emergency response to disasters. On Tuesday, SETRAC reported 849 hospital patients in the Houston area with confirmed coronavirus infections, up from 631 on May 31 a 34-percent increase. DATA GLITCH: In easing COVID-19 restrictions, Gov. Abbott touted low hospitalizations. His numbers were way off. San Antonio has seen its infection numbers over the last 10 days nearly double from the previous 10 days, hitting 706 per day. But hospitalization numbers are only slightly up since Memorial Day in the state-designated trauma service area that includes Bexar County. The 22-county area stretches west to the Texas border and includes Del Rio and Eagle Pass. The regions 7-day average for lab-confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations now stands at 62 new hospitalizations per day, up from 57 on Memorial Day. Dine-in restaurant crowds can grow starting Friday The increase in hospitalizations was not a surprise to Dr. David Lakey, the former head of the health services agency and now chief medical officer for the University of Texas System, who cited the combination of Memorial Day and the states reopening. It's a balance of trying to open up enough to let some people go back to work while you are also doing things like wearing masks and taking steps to slow the spread, Lakey said. But increases are not consistent around the state. In El Paso and Amarillo, which have seen past spikes, hospitalizations are at 68 total per day, down 24 percent since Memorial Day. Amarillo and El Paso stand out as two areas in which Abbott slowed reopenings by a week because of previous spikes at prisons and meat packing plants. Both those regions began more re-openings last week, behind most of Texas. Abbott has been allowing businesses to reopen in phases since May 1, when he first announced retail stores, restaurants, malls and movie theaters could reopen to 25 percent of their maximum occupancy. On June 3, he allowed those types of businesses to go to 50 percent. And last week, Abbott announced that essentially all businesses in Texas can now operate at 50 percent of maximum occupancy, including bars. Amusement parks and carnivals can also operate at 50 percent of occupancy in counties where there have been less than 1,000 cases of COVID-19. On Friday, under Abbotts reopening plan, all restaurants will be allowed to move to 75 percent capacity. And starting next Friday carnivals and amusement parks in all counties can reopen to 50 percent capacity. Cuomo cites Texas surge as NYC reopens More than 1,840 people in Texas have died from COVID-19, according to data compiled by the Hearst Newspapers data team. But Wittman noted that the toll in Texas remains far less than those in other states. In New York, more than 24,000 people have died. In California, more than 4,600 people have died. On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, pointed to the rising hospitalizations and COVID-19 cases in Texas as a warning to New Yorkers as that state begins to reopen its economy. Cuomo said New Yorkers have to continue to be smart with social distancing to avoid spikes like those in Arizona, Texas and Florida. New York has reported fewer new COVID-19 cases over the last seven days than Texas. New York had 6,442 new cases over the last 7 days. Texas has had 10,736. While Abbott has pushed aggressively to reopen the Texas economy, he has warned that the pandemic hasnt ended. COVID-19 hasnt suddenly left the state of Texas or the United States, Abbott said last week. We need to continue these self-distancing practices as we await the arrival of medications that will treat people who test positive for COVID-19. On Monday, Abbott announced he was expanding testing in underserved and minority communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the virus. "We must address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underserved and minority communities and ensure that anyone who needs a test can have one, Abbott said. As many Texans continue to gather for protests, the state is also taking steps to address potential surges in COVID-19 cases. Staff writer Jeremy Blackman contributed to this report. The recently unveiled Egyptian initiative to resolve the Libyan crisis, known as the Cairo Declaration, once again draws international attention to the need to revive the political track. The political process is not a mere option; it is vital at this time of Turkish military escalation in Libya. Ankara has thrown its military weight behind the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) and against the Libyan National Army (LNA) and large swathes of the Libyan people that oppose what they regard as another Turkish occupation of their country. The repercussions of Libyan warfare spill across its borders, affecting Libyas neighbours first and foremost, as President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi noted in his speech announcing the Cairo Declaration. This initiative seeks to accomplish a number of strategic aims that are fully consistent with the outputs of the Berlin Conference on Libya that was held in January. Although the international community rallied behind these outputs as the central process for resolving the Libyan crisis, the process ground to a halt in part due to the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, but in greater part due to the machinations of international and regional powers that rushed to take advantage of these repercussions in order to engineer a shift in the strategic balances and rules of engagement on the ground. Towards this end, and despite the UN arms embargo and pledges undertaken in Berlin, these repercussions cleared the way for Turkey to broaden its engagement in Libya. Turkey leapt at the chance to pour in more advisors, advanced weaponry and vast numbers of jihadist mercenaries. This has been accompanied by a significant shift in the US position motivated by what Washington perceives as a Russian bid to broaden its influence in the Middle East and North Africa. The Cairo initiative calls for a ceasefire starting Monday, 8 June, which gives the other side 48 hours to reciprocate, and for a resumption of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission, which opens an avenue for the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to resume the UN-sponsored peace process in Geneva. The initiative further calls for the removal of all foreign mercenaries from Libya, the dismantlement of militias and the handover of their weapons in order to enable the LNA to perform its security functions in collaboration with other Libyan security agencies. Cairo has reached out to all Libyan parties, including the GNA. It has appealed to all local, regional and international stakeholders to assume their responsibility to restore stability to that country that has been torn by war for nearly a decade. Cairo has never been a party to military escalation in Libya. It never encouraged the Tripoli offensive. As always, it is keen to end hostilities with whatever means possible because it proceeds from an essential premise: military solutions aggravate crises. Experiences throughout the region as a whole drive this lesson home again and again. Unfortunately, the Tripoli based High Council of State, an unelected advisory body that marches to Ankaras tune, has rejected the Egyptian initiative. In so doing, it is swimming against the international current which fears the reproduction of another regional disaster precipitated by the impetuous policies of such regional powers as Turkey and by the self-serving calculations of other parties who are indifferent to the welfare of the Libyan people who continue to suffer the attrition wrought by conflict. In its reaffirmation of the need to return to the Libyan political process, Egypt places itself on the side of stability in Libya and in the region as a whole. It is a position that has won the appreciation and support of many countries in the Arab region and elsewhere in the world. The task now is to transform this positive response into concrete action to halt the war in Libya and restart the political process. There is no alternative, because if the violence and instability persist, all will pay the price. *A version of this article appears in print in the 11 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Miami, June 9 : Tourists have started returning to Florida after lockdown, with hotels in Miami Beach welcoming them amid strict hygiene measures. Tourism is one of the most important economic engines and generators of employment in Florida and has been one of the hardest-hit sectors by the COVID-19 crisis, reports Efe news. Bernardo Naval, director of the Hotel Riu Plaza Miami Beach, said: "Recovering the figures we had before the pandemic will be difficult and will take months but what we have done has been to change the market. "Before 90 or 80 per cent were either European and South American and now we are concentrating on the local market, which is what will be feeding us in the coming months." The hotel, a 1950s building on the beachfront on the touristy Collins Avenue, reopened its doors last week for the first time in more than two months. Before the pandemic there were 747,000 tourism-dependent jobs in Florida and it is estimated that more than 336,400 will be lost due to the impact of the pandemic, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA). The organization warned that the effect of the pandemic will be nine times higher than the 11 September terrorist attacks in 2001. Florida was no exception, although its hoteliers were trying to make the most of the state's reopening. Security measures implemented by the Florida hotels include obligatory masks in common areas, except the pool, no buffet service in restaurants and a limited capacity in the rest of their services. Visitors and staff have their temperatures checked at the hotel's entrance. The most striking difference is that the golden sands overlooked by the best rooms of Miami Beach's luxurious hotels are deserted. The popular beach has been closed to the public for months, giving guests at many hotels on Collins Avenue an unusual view. Restaurants and cafes on nearby Ocean Drive, a popular tourist spot, have started to come back to life. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Some of the first students back in San Antonio classrooms since the coronavirus pandemic shut down schools in mid-March gladly socialized Tuesday morning at Edison High School and stuck each other with needles. The group of 13 seniors was preparing for a phlebotomy certification exam which, like many vocational tests, was delayed because of the pandemic. Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News After Gov. Greg Abbott decided in-person summer classes could begin this month with certain health precautions, the San Antonio Independent School District invited students back to high schools to practice in small groups for their career certification exams. The Edison seniors, in the schools health professions magnet program, are scheduled to graduate Saturday and take phlebotomy tests at the end of the month. With certifications, they can enter the workforce directly as assistants in doctors offices, clinics or hospitals. Some are angling for jobs in health care systems that offer college tuition benefits. Those who dont get tuition reimbursements can work part-time as medical assistants to help put themselves through college. Still others have no college plans but are eager to start earning a steady wage. The students have already earned medical assisting certifications but need separate phlebotomy credentials to draw blood from patients. Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News Had we not been in quarantine, theyd be eligible to be working, said Deborah Ramirez, magnet programs coordinator at Edison. Another 17 students are coming in on Mondays to practice blood draws, she said. They all had learned about phlebotomy on paper but never got a chance at hands-on practice before school shut down. School staff handed out bags with graduation T-shirts and tickets Tuesday in the parking lot, but the phlebotomy students stayed inside, intent on their work, figuring theyd pick those things up another day. Their teacher, Pauline Sanchez, supervised in a room lined with bedridden medical mannequins, intravenous pumps and a skeleton along one wall, and breakfast tacos, candy and doughnuts along another. Most of the safety precautions they followed wearing face masks and gloves and disinfecting surfaces are rules they learned in health career classes before the emergence of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. We teach the kids that people can get infected with all kinds of things, Ramirez said. Were not worried just about COVID. Hendy Limon, 18, flexed her arm to show classmate Maverick Duran, 17, the blue vein on the inside of her elbow. Duran inserted the needle and a small group watched as dark red blood flowed through a thin tube into a vial. What comes off first? Ramirez asked Duran. When he looked at her blankly, she prompted him: The tourniquet. There, pop it off. After Duran removed the rubber strip, he secured the vial. Ramirez told him to get rid of the needle immediately. Dont leave needles lying around, she said. Duran said hed felt nervous, but Limon hadnt she trusted him. When Limon stuck 18-year-old Andy Espinosa, no blood flowed into the tube. But Limon wasnt doing anything wrong. The teachers said Espinosa was dehydrated, so she went to drink more water. Limon said she was glad for the opportunity to practice, because otherwise she would have taken the phlebotomy exam in a few weeks without ever having tried a blood draw. She plans to go to work right away to help her family, which includes her father and four siblings. She said the coronavirus intensified her desire to enter health care. Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News It seems like people need it more than before, Limon said. Duran also plans to get a job as a medical assistant, though he was worried about exposing himself to the virus, and maybe enroll later in college. He said in Spanish that hed been interested in the medical field ever since he came to Edison. I think its important, he said. Espinosa is enrolling in San Antonio College and intends to get a bachelors degree in nursing she wants to be a pediatric nurse because she likes taking care of children. Earning the phlebotomy certification will help her through the clinical portion of nursing school, Espinosa said. Having been isolated since March, she was happy to hang out with school friends again, masks and medical gowns notwithstanding. Its a fun experience, Espinosa said. We get to stick needles into our classmates. Faith Ruiz, 18, zoomed around the room handing out vials and yelling Does anyone want to be stuck? How many times have you been stuck? Sanchez asked her. Four, Ruiz replied. A bruise was growing inside her left arm. I feel fine, she said. My arms are a little sore, but its OK. Alia Malik covers several school districts and the University of Texas at San Antonio. To read more from Alia, become a subscriber. amalik@express-news.net | Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN India insisted on 'complete disengagement' in all its talks with China on eastern Ladakh row: Govt We will continue to deal with Chinese PLA in firm, resolute manner: Army chief Tense standoff with China, not affecting Indias strategic road projects India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 09: In a bid to provide connectivity to an important forward area, India is working on two key roads near the China border in eastern Ladakh. The first is the Darbuk-Syhok-DBO-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi road, which provides connectivity to the country's norther most outpost, Daulat Beg Oldi. The second one is the being built from Sasoma to Saser La. This clearly indicates that India is not allowing the tense stand off with China affect its strategic road projects, which are being undertaken by the Border Roads Organisation. Stand united, advises Rajnath Singh amidst row with China Meanwhile, New Delhi is readying for a long haul before the problem with China is completely resolved. Following the talks with China on Saturday, sources had told OneIndia that both sides would go back to the top military and political leadership. The Ministry of External Affairs in its first remarks following the talks on Saturday said that the talks took place in a positive and cordial atmosphere. The statement underlined the agreement between Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping that peace and tranquility is essential for the overall development of bilateral relations. Both sides also noted that this year marked the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and agreed that an early resolution would contribute to the further development of the relationship, the MEA also said. WHO says coronavirus situation is worsening globally, disease raging in Americas| Oneindia News South Block has taken note of the sensitivities of the other side. The discussions were cordial and frank, the source cited above said. However, India is aware that this would be a long haul and would require several more rounds of talks, before the issue is resolved completely. The source also said that the talks would continue at the field and Brigadier level. South Block is aware of the sensitivities and would keep that in mind, the source further added. The Indian delegation was led by Lt General Harinder Singh, the general officer commanding of Leh-based 14 Corps, while the Chinese side was headed by the Commander of the Tibet Military District, government sources said. Issues remain, but India-China keep things cordial The talks were held at the Border Personnel Meeting Point in Maldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. Without specifically mentioning the talks, an Indian Army spokesperson said: "Indian and Chinese officials continue to remain engaged through the established military and diplomatic channels to address the current situation in the India-China border areas." For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, June 9, 2020, 8:54 [IST] By Edward Curtin June 07, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - I am not trying to be cute and play with words. That title is meant to convey what it says, so let me explain. The people who own the United States and their allies around the world have a plan. It is so simple that it is extremely devious. Their plan has been in operation for many years. It has most people bamboozled because it is Janus-faced by design, overt one day, covert the next, but both faces operate under one controlling head. Some call this head the Deep-State. Even the Deep-State calls itself the Deep-State in a double fake. It is meant to make people schizoid, which it has. The so called Deep-State has been given many names over the years. I will not bore you with them, except to say that it was once called the power elite. They are the upper classes, the super wealthy who control the financial institutions, Wall Street, the intelligence agencies, the corporate media, the internet, the military, and the politicians. They are multinational. They are the wealthy nihilists who care not one jot for the rest of the world. They operate in secret, yet also run above-ground organizations such as the World Bank (WB), the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), etc. Their bloodstream runs on war, the preparations for war, and economic exploitation of the world. All wealthy people are not party to their machinations, but they are almost always complicit in profiting from their crimes, unless they are very stupid. Or play stupid. Since I am talking about a great confidence game, that is quite common. Other people, all other classes, the poor, middle-classes, even a portion of the upper middle classes mean nothing to the power elite unless they can serve their interests. They are always waging class warfare to maintain their domination and control. Their recent version of this class war is underway in the United States and in many other countries. As of today, they are using race fears to create chaos and outrage to disguise their class warfare that is leading to the imposition of martial law. Soon they will shift back to the coronavirus fraud. Back and forth, in and out, now you see it, now you dont. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter By shutting down the worlds economy, they have destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people and are creating poverty on a vast scale. Much famine and death will follow. In the United States alone, 40-45 million people have applied for unemployment insurance and job loss is the greatest since the Great Depression. The reason: a massive propaganda campaign created around Covid-19 fear porn. This class war is not new, but it is conducted today at warp speed since these people control the technology that has allowed them vastly increased power. In the U.S.A., it is conducted as usual under the guise of Republicans versus Democrats, the two representative political factions that are the faces of the controlled opposition, who are actually allies in the larger confidence game. Keeping hope alive is central to their strategy. Mind control is what they do. Speed is their greatest ally. Race is central to their game plan. They always say they are protecting us. It is all a lie. A show. Nothing but a spectacle for the gullible. A shadow play. The current president, Donald Trump, is the choice of one faction of these psychopaths. This year, Joseph Biden, is the shaky presumptive choice of the other. Both are deranged puppets. Regular people fight over who is better or worse because they are living inside what Jim Garrison, the former District Attorney of New Orleans and the only person to ever bring a trial in the assassination of President Kennedy, long ago called the dolls house. It is a place where illusions and delusions replace reality. It is 24/7 propaganda. It keeps people engaged. It gives them something to argue about, one team to root for. Its a sport. It is similar to Platos Cave. Fire has been replaced with electronic lighting and screens, but little has changed. The sick system of exploitation is oiled and greased with the tantalizing bait of hope dangled for the masses. Shit slogans like We are all in this together. But there is no hope for this system. But when the propaganda is so slick that it creates a double-bind, people grasp at any neurotic solution out of frustration. As I write, huge angry crowds are out in the streets protesting the sick murder of a black man, George Floyd, by a white cop. Police infiltrators have started violent looting. Chaos reigns, as planned. Such killings are routine, but someone turned a switch for this one when just yesterday operation corona lockdown with its fear and fake statistics had everyone cowering behind masks at home as the economic lives of vast numbers were destroyed in a flash. For today, the masquerade is in the streets. Many good people are caught up in it. In a few days the scene will shift and we can expect another bombshell. These surprises will keep happening one after another for the foreseeable future. Shock and Awe for the home crowd. The war come home. The controllers know you cant wage war against the rest of the world unless you do so at home as well. When one group within the deep-state won the internecine battle in 2016 and shocked the country with the election of the comical Trump, the other deep-state group called the Democrats, immediately set in motion a plan to try to oust him or to make it seem as if they were trying to do so. The naive thought this may happen, and their deluded yearning has been stretched until the 2020 presidential election, although some probably think Trump might go before then. He wont. So many people have destroyed their minds and relationships because they cant see through the fraud. Early in 2017, as the outgoing front man for the CIA/warfare/Wall St. state, Barack Obama, left his time bombs for the future. The pink pussy hats were sent out marching to open the show. Russia-gate was launched; eventually impeachment was tried. The Democrats. with their media allies, went on a non-stop attack. It was all so obvious, so shallow in its intent, as it was meant to be. But millions who were in the doll house were outraged, obsessed, frantic with rage. They bought the con-game. Both those who hate Trump and those that love him have spent almost four years foaming at the mouth, breathless. Trump was cast as the personification of evil. A relentless attack on Trump began and has continued all this time. It is pure theater. Trump remains at the helm, as planned, holding the Bible aloft in a style reminiscent of a Bible thumping Klansman from TheBirth of a Nation. Only the ignorant thought it might have been different. He knows how to perform his role. He is a fine actor. He outrages, spews idiocies, as he is supposed to do. That Mussolini style stance, that absurd hair, the pout. Just perfect for an arch-villain. Its so obvious that it isnt. Herein lies the trick. And who profits from his policies? The super-rich, of course, the power-elite. Who just stole 6-10 trillion dollars of public money under the hilariously named Cares Act? The super-rich, of course, the deep-state. It was a bi-partisan bank robbery from the public treasury carried out under the shadow of Covid-19, whose phony hyped up numbers were used to frighten the populace into lockdown mode as the Republican and Democratic bank robbers smiled in unison and announced forcefully, We care! We are here to protect you. Remember how Barack Obama saved us by bailing out Wall St. and the big banks to the tune of trillions in early 2009. Then waged unending wars. Left black Americans bereft. He cared, too, didnt he. Our leaders always care. Obama was the black guy in the white hat. Trump is the white guy in the black hat. Hollywood on the Potomac, as Gary Wills called it when Ronald Reagan was the acting-president. Now Obamas war-loving side-kick, the pale-faced, twisted talking Biden is seriously offered as an alternative to the Elvis impersonator in the White House. This is the false left/right dichotomy that has the residents of the dolls house in its grip. If you cant see whats coming, you might want to break out of the house, take off your mask, go for a walk, and take some deep breaths. The walls are closing in. Knees will be on everyones necks in the months ahead. Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Distinguished author and sociologist Edward Curtin is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. Visit the authors website here. - " Source " - Post your comment below A top World Health Organization (WHO) expert tried to clear up on Tuesday misunderstandings about comments she made that were widely understood to suggest that people without symptoms rarely transmit the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), a comment that had immediately triggered scepticism from health experts around the world. Maria Van Kerkhove, the UN health agencys technical lead on the pandemic, insisted that she was referring only to a few studies, not a complete picture, in the comments she made on Monday. On Tuesday, she said there were also studies that showed that the disease could be spread by asymptomatic careers. Van Kerkhoves remarks on Monday raised questions among outside experts and health officials who have recommended that people wear masks to try to prevent the virus from spreading. Thats a very small subset of studies, she said. I used the phrase very rare, and I think that thats (a) misunderstanding to state that asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare. What I was referring to was a subset of studies. The clarification, which came during a WHO social-media chat, showed questions remain about whether infected people who dont show symptoms can transmit the virus to others. Critics of the agency have previously pointed to WHOs position on wearing masks as an example of inadequate policy recommendations. The agency said for months that wearing masks would not contain the virus, a position that it changed last week. A second WHO official, in comments to HT, sought to make a distinction between asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission. Sars-CoV2 transmission is associated with high virus load in the upper respiratory tract. While a proportion of people (around 15 to 20%) are asymptomatic, most transmission seems to occur from those with symptoms. However, we have to be careful because people can be infectious one to two days before they develop symptoms, so right now it is important for everyone to wear face coverings when they cannot maintain physical distancing, said Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist, WHO, Geneva. On Tuesday, prior to Van Kherkhoves clarification, experts urged caution. The knowledge gaps are there but there are too many contradictory statements from there WHO that are confusing countries, particularly those with limited technical capabilities. The latest statement about asymptomatic transmission being rare will create more confusion in an already volatile situation, said K Sujatha Rao, former health secretary, ministry of health and family welfare. Dr Ashish K Jha, director at the Harvard Global Health Institute, said on Twitter some models suggest 40-60% of spread is from people when they didnt have symptoms. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Gimborn brands have been trusted by European pet parents for over 160 years and are number one in the lickable treats category in Germany. Simply Kind Hearted was crafted to meet the needs of the North American pet parents and their fur babies. "Pet parents are being more conscious about what they feed their pet every day. I am so excited to launch a brand that cares about the holistic health of my fur baby and is fun and delicious at the same time," said Christine Kirby, Marketing Director. Simply Kind Hearted Squeezables are a great bonding tool that can be served in three primary ways: directly from the tube, by hand, or on food as a topper. Munchables can be mixed with food or fed directly, and are a great tool to incentivize a cat's instinct to play. All products are non-GMO and the majority of the line has no sugar added. All treats are intended for daily use, preventive health, and are fortified for optimal nutrition varieties are made with essential vitamins and nutrients such as malt, zinc, taurine, and L-Carnitine. Consumers can find Simply Kind Hearted on Amazon and at their local pet specialty store starting in July. The brand has been active with pre-launch activities and its Instagram page is live. Consumers who interact with the brand online, review it on Amazon, or tag it on Instagram and/or TikTok could receive one free year of Simply Kind Hearted treats. SOURCE Gimborn Related Links gimborn.de For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here. For the last 30 years, Angkor Borei has been a fixture of San Francisco's food scene and one of the Bay Area's few Cambodian restaurants around. But after months of financial struggle, the restaurant has announced it will close for good this month. Owners Tom Prabpan and Chin Han Yat said they will permanently close their restaurant on June 15 without any plans to reopen elsewhere, Hoodline confirmed. When shelter in place orders hit in March, Angkor Borei shifted to takeout and delivery service amid the ongoing pandemic. But as the business made the shift, it soon became apparent that takeout alone wouldn't be enough to pay for rent and other expenses. Bipartisan Senate Report Calls for Strengthened, Mandatory Federal Oversight of Chinese Telecoms in US Congress should move quickly to strengthen the federal governments ability to oversee the activities of Chinas major telecommunications companies operating in the United States, according to a bipartisan Senate subcommittee report issued June 9. Three Chinese state-owned carriers have been operating in the United States since the early 2000s, but only in recent years have the FCC [Federal Communications Commission], Department of Justice (DOJ), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) focused on potential risks associated with these carriers, states the report prepared by the Permanent Investigations Subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is chairman of the subcommittee, while Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) is the ranking minority member. The Chinese Communist Party uses its state-owned enterprises to further its cyber and economic espionage efforts against the United States, and theyve been exploiting our telecommunications networks for nearly two decades while the federal government historically put in little effort to stop it, Portman said in a statement accompanying the release of the report. The report describes how the United States has allowed Chinese government-owned companies to gain a foothold in our telecommunications industry, while their American competitors face significant barriers to entry in China. It makes clear that more has to be done to protect our national security against foreign spies and hackers, Carper said in the statement. This lack of oversight undermined the safety of American communications and endangered our national security, the report stated. Since the subcommittee launched its investigation, the agencies have increased their oversight of the Chinese state-owned carriers. The administration also recently issued an executive order establishing [the EO Telecom Committee] to review the national security and law enforcement risks posed by foreign carriers operating in the United States. Still, the new committees authorities remain limited, and as a result, our country, our privacy, and our information remain at risk. The report focused primarily on three state-owned Chinese telecommunications firms with U.S. operations: China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom. These three and their subsidiaries have operated in the United States since at least 1999 virtually without oversight, despite repeated warnings over the years that the firms are state-owned and thus controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to the report. The report said U.S. officials entered security agreements with two of the firms in 2007 and 2009, but then conducted only two site visits at each to monitor compliance. Three of the four total visits were conducted since 2017. Among the recommendations included in the report were these: Congress should give formal authority to the EO Telecom Committee convened by the 2019 executive order to grant, review, and revoke security agreements with the Chinese firms. Congress should require the committee to review the activities of Chinese telecommunications on a regular schedule and report the results to the legislative branch. Such reviews are currently done infrequently, irregularly, and inconsistently, according to the report. Congress should preserve the role of other federal agencies in the monitoring process overseen by the EO Telecom Committee. Historically, the FCC has sought input on a foreign carriers application from other executive branch agencies, including the Department of State, Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Trade Representative, the report stated. The recent executive order makes these agencies, and others, advisors to the EO Telecom Committee. These agencies provide invaluable input and their role in the review process must be accounted for in any formal legislation. Congress should establish concrete deadlines for completion of all reviews by the EO Telecom Committee. The recent executive order imposed certain timelines, but it allows for the EO Telecom Committee to seek extensions, which could draw out the review process, especially if resources remain limited, the report stated. Congress should ensure the EO Telecom Committee has sustained resources necessary to effectively assess foreign carriers applications and to monitor foreign carriers operating in the United States. Congress should move to require China to grant liberalized and reciprocal access to its domestic markets to U.S. telecommunications companies. In those aspects of telecommunications in which China officially permits foreign participation, China requires forced technology transfers and imposes discriminatory regulatory processes and burdensome licensing and operating requirements, according to the report. This results in a highly asymmetric playing field in which U.S. companies face immensely restrictive policies in China, while Chinese companies are not equally restricted in the United States. Contact Mark Tapscott at Mark.Tapscott@epochtimes.nyc. The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) on Tuesday paid tribute to the memory of the late Lawyer Antwi-Nimo, a former Deputy Interior Minister in the Third Republic, who died in London on June 2. Lawyer Antwi-Nimo, who hails from the Bretuo Family of Kyekyewere in the Afigya Kwabre North District, later become the Ashanti Regional Minister just before the 1981 Revolution which overthrew the Dr Hilla Limann Government. A CPP tribute signed by Mr John B. Daniels, Deputy General Secretary of the Party, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said Lawyer Antwi-Nimo was a member of the GHANASSO the CPP students union at the University of Ghana in the 1960s. It said after the overthrown of the Limann Administration, Lawyer Antwi-Nimo went into exile in the Ivory Coast with other Ghanaians. He was instrumental in organizing the Ghanaian exiles including politicians, businessmen and ex-soldiers into a formidable Ghanaian exile community in Abidjan in opposition to the PNDC military junta. Lawyer Antwi-Nimo did not end his endeavors in the Ivory Coast as he continued to the United Kingdom where he was a formidable force among the Ghanaian community in opposition to the PNDC. He later became the Chairman of the Peoples Convention Party (PCP) and later the CPP, the UK and the Northern Ireland branch when the ban on political activities in Ghana was lifted in the Fourth Republic. Lawyer Antwi-Nimo used part of this law office accommodation as the CPP office in London. During the latter years of his life he was incapacitated by an illness for some time but he never forgot his CPP. Rest in Peace, a gallant Nkrumaist, a true CPPist. 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 The Electoral Commission has written to political parties to inform them of the impending voter registration scheduled to begin on June 30, 2020. A letter sighted by Peacefmonline and signed by the Deputy Chairman, Corporate Services, Dr. Bossman E. Asare to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) said "This letter comes to inform you that the 2020 Voters Registration Exercise has been scheduled to commence on Tuesday, the 30th of June, 2020. The registration will be held at all Registration Centres and District Offices of the Electoral Commission throughout the country." C.I. 126 Passed Parliament, on Tuesday, by a majority decision of 106 votes, approved the report of the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation on the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (C. I 126) to allow the Instrument to come into force after 21 sitting days of Parliament which will mature on Wednesday 10th June 2020, following the laying of the C.I 126 before Parliament on 31st March 2020. Ninety-two (92) members voted against the adoption of the committee's report. It gives legal backing to the plans by the EC to compile a new registration of voters. The C.I 126 seeks to amend the Public Elections ( Registration of Voters ) Regulations 2016 in conformity with the decision of the Supreme Court on the subject matter by compiling a new voters register, according to the report of the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation. By C.I 126, the Electoral Commission is excluding or prohibiting the use of a driver's license or the existing voter identification card as evidence of identity in the registration of a voter as contained in the existing Constitutional Instrument ( C.I 91 ) and allow the use of Ghana Can be issued by the NIA and passport for registration as a voter. The Electoral Commission on Wednesday, 3rd June, 2020 successfully concluded its Pilot Voters Registration Exercise in all regions across the country.With the exception of the Western Region where there was a technical hitch, registration in all the 15 regions went on successfully.Interestingly, Western Region recorded the second highest number of registrants on Tuesday, the second day of the exercise recording some 73 applicants.Ahafo emerged the highest on day one with 83 applicants registered at the close of day.The Commission aims to have each machine register 100 persons per day during the actual registration exercise.The exercise which is being held in all 16 regional capitals in the country is to identify problems associated with the new system for the technical team to address them.In a statement, the EC said: all issues identified will be forwarded to the Commission at the national level for the necessary rectifications to be made before the commencement of the exercise at the end of this month. 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 Some parts of Accra have been flooded following Tuesday's early morning downpour. This has left many people around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange, Alajo, Odaw, Avenor, Dansoman, Sowutuom among others displaced. Speaking in an interview on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo', Mr. Evans Anakwah, Director in-charge of floods at the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) said a lot of the drains in Accra have not been dredged hence the slightest downpour causes floods. "I am sensing danger this year . . . to be honest this year we have not been able to dredge the drains . . . we are going to encounter a lot of challenges this year," he sadly said, attributing it to the failure to get dredging machines. He further described the damage caused by Tuesday's downpour as terrible and urged authorities to embark on an emergency dredging and desilt all the choked gutters. He urged that the kiosk and containers around the drain and desilt the drain especially the one at Alajo otherwise there will be trouble. Asamoah Gyan's mansion and other buildings Mr Anakwah has reiterated calls for authorities to stop the construction of houses on the cliff close to Asamoah Gyan's mansion at Weija. He said the collapse of the cliff will have dire consequences and could block one side of the road. "I have repeatedly said it but to no avail . . . I don't have that authority to demolish," he painfully told Kwami Sefa Kayi on Tuesday morning. According to him NADMO do not have the mandate to demolish any building. " . . If we want demolish we have to go through the Metropolitan, Municaipal and District Assemblies to liaise with them (they have that mandate) unless there is a disaster that has entrapped someone just to save life and properties, aside that you cannot go and demolish, we don't have that mandate. Our bill is now in parliament," he bitterly stated. Listen to him in the video below Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/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 century-old technology firm called for responsible national standards regarding how facial recognition systems should be used by police agencies. In this photo, demonstrators hold a rally and teach-in outside of the Seattle Police Departments East Precinct, which has been boarded up and protected by fencing, on June 8, 2020 in Seattle, Washington.(Photo | AFP) San Francisco: IBM said Monday it is no longer selling general purpose facial recognition software and is opposed to using such technology for racial profiling or mass surveillance. The stance against facial recognition systems that could potentially be used to target minorities or violate human rights was included in a letter IBMs chief executive sent to members of US Congress. IBM no longer offers general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software, wrote Arvind Krishna. IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms. The century-old technology firm called for responsible national standards regarding how facial recognition systems should be used by police agencies. Technology can increase transparency and help police protect communities but must not promote discrimination or racial injustice, Krishna said. Vendors and users of (artificial intelligence) systems have a shared responsibility to ensure that Al is tested for bias, particularity when used in law enforcement, he contended. Technology such as body cameras and data analytics tools should be used to hold police officers accountable as well as for public safety, according to Krishna. IBM offered to work with Congress to pursue justice and racial equity focused initially on police reform, as well as responsible use of technology and broadening skills. The American Civil Liberties Union senior legislative counsel Neema Singh Guliani argued that facial recognition should not be integrated into body cameras worn by police officers. Body cameras are intended to be tools for accountability, not police surveillance, Guliani said in a statement released in regard to policing reform measures being proposed in Congress. We need to invest in technologies that can help eliminate the digital divide, not technologies that create a surveillance infrastructure that exacerbates policing abuses and structural racism. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. The Chinese government could cripple the already-struggling Australian tourism industry by completely banning its citizens from taking package tours Down Under. Chinese travel agent Wang Yonghong said the move could have a huge impact on Australia as almost 60 per cent of Chinese tourists travel on package tours. 'Australia has shown some hostile attitudes towards China so China will take counter measures,' Mr Yonghong told the Australian Financial Review. He explained his government could instruct tour operators to not book trips to Australia, as they have done to South Korea and Canada in the past, and strip operators of their licences if they fail to comply. Fears of a travel ban come after Beijing warned tourists there was a 'significant increase' in violence against Chinese people in Australia due to COVID-19. Chinese tourists take a group photo in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Chinese travel agent Wang Yonghong said his government could ban agencies from booking package tours Down Under Another Chinese travel agent Yao Pei also feared 'a very high-level warning' was on the way for his business. 'This will stop Chinese from going to Australia. For travellers without relatives in Australia they won't go there,' Mr Pei told the AFR. But one travel agent Wang Zheng said independent travellers, who don't use package tours, may ignore warnings and travel to Australia as it remains a popular location. The Australian tourism industry is already struggling as total international arrivals in March dropped by 60.3 per cent from last year due to the COVID-19 travel ban. Since the travel ban only came into place in mid-March, international arrivals are expected to be near zero for April, May and June. A woman poses for a photo in front of the Sydney Opera House. Last year, China was Australias largest inbound market for visitor arrivals and largest market for total spend and visitor nights with 1.44 million tourists Around 1.44 million Chinese tourists visit Australia every year. The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism released a travel warning on Friday telling citizens not to travel to Australia. 'Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial discrimination and violence against Chinese and Asian people in Australia have seen a significant increase,' it said. 'The Ministry of Culture and Tourism reminds Chinese tourists to enhance their safety awareness and do not travel to Australia.' But Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham slammed the travel warning as having 'no basis in fact'. A woman takes a photo of her hand at Bondi Beach in Sydney. Chinese tourists have already been warned by their government not to travel to Australia due to a 'significant increase' in violence against Chinese people The Global Times, which is a Chinese state-owned media organisation, lashed out in an editorial on Sunday about Australia's rejection of a travel alert. 'Empty political rhetoric by Australian politicians would not be enough to improve the current stalemate in bilateral relations,' the editorial said. 'If Australia wants to retain the gain from its economic ties with China, it must make a real change to its current stance on China, or it will completely lose the benefits of Chinese consumers. The tourism loss may be just a tip of iceberg.' The Australian tourism industry is set to get a slight boost in July as the trans-Tasman travel bubble is likely to allow tourists from New Zealand to cross the ditch. Burke/Triolo Productions/ThinkstockBilly Currington is celebrating the five-year anniversary of his sixth studio album, Summer Forever, with a video offering personal reflections on the project. Released on June 2, 2015, Summer Forever spawned such hits as It Dont Hurt Like It Used To, Do I Make You Wanna and Dont It. Canaan Smith has released a new single, "Colder Than You" -- his first since 2017. The song was co-produced by Canaan, along with Florida Georgia Line's Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley. Drew Baldridge paid tribute to a high school graduating class in Dedham, Massachusetts over the weekend during a rolling rally where he performed his new single, "Senior Year." By Cillea Houghton Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. A US Marine veteran stood outside the State Capitol in Utah, with I cant breathe taped over his mouth, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, for so long, that his shoes reportedly started to melt. Todd Winn, who has received the purple heart twice, stood in front of the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, for three hours and in complete silence. Mr Winn stood with the tape over his mouth and a sign that read: Justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, countless others. The veteran stood in the same spot for the duration of his protest, and only moved to take a knee and stand at attention, according to Business Insider. He refused to take water from anybody, and the area became so hot during his protest, that his shoes started to melt, the outlet reported. Recommended Trump advisers concerned president has damaged his election chances He protested on Friday, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, following the death of Mr Floyd, who died after his neck was knelt on by Derek Chauvin, who at the time was a Minneapolis police officer, but has now been charged with second degree murder and manslaughter. Protests, in opposition to police brutality against African Americans, have taken place in areas in every state in the US, over the past couple of weeks. Mr Winns protest was captured by photographer Robin Pendergast, who happened to be driving by the Capitol, while he was demonstrating. Mr Pendergast told Business Insider that he was struck by Mr Winn wearing his full military uniform, and felt he needed to capture it. I see this single blue figure, standing in front of the opening panel to the Capitol, with a homemade banner on a stick, he said, and added: I knew that the statement he was making was pretty special for a lot of people. The photographer said that he knew that he had to get out and support him, and added: Immediately, the respect was there. Mr Pendergast uploaded the photo to Reddit, and Mr Winn commented on the post, to explain the reason behind his protest. I deliberately chose to treat this as an extended moment of silence, because the voices of so many non-whites are often not heard, Mr Winn wrote. I do not consider this a political issue, I consider it a human issue, and a global one at that. He said he wasnt trying to espouse any political ideology, but rather highlight the inalienable rights and protections all Americans should expect to be provided. I swore to uphold those rights, he added, and I feel this is one way of doing so by speaking out against discrimination and failed training/procedure and oversight. Mr Winn commented that he wanted his protest to be seen by the kinds of people who have wilfully ignored the protests. Recommended Police caught on video slashing tyres at Minneapolis protests I hope it will be seen by individuals who would normally tune out the protesters and allow them to at least for a moment stop and consider what is really being asked for here, he wrote. The veteran said those issues are: Equality, justice, fairness. The right to assemble. The right to be free from discrimination no matter the colour of your skin. The right not to fear the police forces whose duty is to protect and serve communities. Mr Winn added: These should not be partisan political issues, but globally valid concerns we all should be willing to support together. A shuttered J. Crew store in New York. The apparel purveyor filed for bankruptcy in May, one of the first major retail casualties of the pandemic. Bryan Thomas/Getty Images The U.S. is officially in a recession. With unemployment at levels unseen since the Great Depression the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world some may be wondering if the country will eventually dip into a depression, and what it would take for that to happen. By some metrics, joblessness while improving may be close to depression standards. But the downturn will likely fall short of a depression relative to overall duration, economists said. That's because the causes of the current meltdown are much different and the government has more policy tools at its disposal to buoy the economy than it did in the early 20th century. Definition of "depression" The Great Depression is the only "depression" the U.S. has ever experienced in industrial times. It spanned a decade, from the stock market crash of 1929 until 1939, when the U.S. began mobilizing for World War II. There is no exact definition of a depression just as there's no precise definition for a recession. The latter label is determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research, often months after a recession occurs. The U.S. officially entered a recession in February, the NBER announced on Monday, bringing an end to the longest expansion in post-World War II history. A recession is typically defined as two straight quarters of negative gross domestic product, but the NBER has leeway to take into account the depth of a contraction, how quickly it occurs and how much of the economy is affected. Simply put, both a recession and depression are periods of significant declines in economic activity. But a depression is a "totally different order of magnitude," said Susan Houseman, research director at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. "We haven't seen anything like it for 80 to 90 years," she said. Unemployment rate The unemployment rate is perhaps the best measurement by which to judge if we're in a depression, according to Stephen Woodbury, an economics professor at Michigan State University. The rate peaked at 25.6% during the Great Depression, in May 1933, according to NBER data. This year, 21 million Americans were unemployed as of mid-May, as the coronavirus pandemic caused broad shutdowns of economic activity, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That translates to an unemployment rate of 13.3% a slight reduction from the 14.7% rate in April, when roughly 23 million Americans were jobless. With the exception of April, the current unemployment rate is at its highest level since the Great Depression. (The statistic includes furloughed workers, or those on temporary layoff.) Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards The unemployment rate has breached 10% only two other times in history, in both cases during recessions in December 1982 and in October 2009 (which was during the Great Recession, the country's most recent recession). The speed with which the unemployment rate increased this year is unparalleled in modern history rising from a half-century low of around 3.5% to its current level in just two months. By comparison, it took more than a year for Depression-era unemployment to witness an equivalent rise, Woodbury said. A rate that breaches 20% and persists for several months would likely meet the definition of a "depression," economists said. That would mean 1 in 5 Americans in the labor force can't find employment. "We're already way past [prior] recessions," said Jay Shambaugh, an economist and director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank. "Do we push this to 20% and stay there for a few quarters? "If the unemployment rate is 20% in December, I think it's very fair to say we're in a depression." Unemployment near 20% In fact, we may closer to that level than the official unemployment rate suggests, according to economists. For one, the BLS has hinted that the true unemployment rate is actually above 16%. The agency determines the official rate based on a household survey. Many Americans who should have been classified as furloughed appear to have been mis-classified in the survey thereby depressing the official unemployment rate, the BLS said. In April, the same mis-classification occurred. At the time, the BLS suggested the true unemployment rate was around 19.7%. However, the similarity between the unemployment rate today and during the Great Depression is somewhat "superficial," Woodbury said. That's because 73% of currently unemployed Americans are temporary layoffs, or furloughs. That means more than 15 million of the 21 million unemployed Americans are still technically attached to an employer and expect to return to their job once states and companies reopen for business. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards (The number of unemployed Americans, from which the unemployment rate is derived, differs from the number of people who file for unemployment insurance. Not all those who are unemployed apply for unemployment insurance, for example.) This level of temporary layoffs relative to the total unemployed population far exceeds any other time in modern history (with the exception of April's figure, which was 78%). The next-closest during the post-war era was 24.4% in June 1975. "That's one big difference between what's happening now and during the Great Depression," Woodbury said. "Those job losses were permanent. "They were jobs that were lost and gone forever." Of course, many of those job losses could ultimately be permanent, depending on the scope of business failures and the speed with which economic activity restarts. Some economists also don't believe the unemployment rate if it officially breaches 20% will hover at that level for an extended time, as it did during the Great Depression. "If the unemployment rate drops down to 10% by end of the year, I think people would say this was a really horrendous recession, but not a full-fledged depression, unless it persists for a number of years," Shambaugh said. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards The current economic situation is different from the Depression era because it's largely self-inflicted, economists said. Federal and state officials decided to shut down broad sectors of the economy to stem the spread of the coronavirus, and the economy could rebound as states and businesses begin reopening. The Great Depression, by contrast, wasn't self-inflicted but the result of many factors, such as a stock-market crash, use of the gold standard, deflation and the lack of any real fiscal or monetary policy from the Hoover administration to combat the crisis, Shambaugh said. Unemployment insurance, for example, wasn't created until 1935, in response to the Great Depression. Doing enough? The U.S. government was caught flat-footed in the early years of the Great Depression, since it didn't yet have many of the economic tools currently at its disposal, economists said. This time, federal officials have implemented relatively aggressive measures, such as various lending programs for small businesses, enhanced unemployment benefits and direct payments to Americans, to try to stave off a further catastrophe from the coronavirus, economists said. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards LAKE CHARLES, La., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sean Ardoin's song "What Do You See" has become the anthem for the Twin Cities protest era, amassing viral video views, leading to it being memorialized as the top feature of Grammy.com. "What Do You See" (Zydekool Records) addresses, head-on, racism and injustice against black males in America. At a time when the nation is mourning George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died last Monday after pleading with Minneapolis police for help while one white officer knelt on his neck, "What Do You See" not only carries a powerful message in the conversation it seeks to start about race, but also grapples with perception's grip on reality in this country. "I hope you watch this and can "see" what I'm trying to say," says Ardoin. "In this song I'm saying 'we are less different than we are alike.' I completely believe this. This is written to spark conversation, talking to each other, not "at" each other. When we start talking, the divide will start to decrease and we can start the healing process in this country. Dr. King once said, "shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will." I want this song to cause REAL conversations, because as we saw with the George Floyd case, we are STILL here... If it moves you, please help spread it... #WHATDOYOUSEE." Sean Ardoin is a two-time Grammy nominated Kreole Rock and Soul artist. Sean's family legacy started with legendary Creole musician Amedee' Ardoin, whose songs are the foundation for Cajun and Creole music, followed by Bois Sec Ardoin, one of the best-known practitioners of the state's rural Creole sound for six decades, and his father Lawrence "Black" Ardoin. After co-leading the critically acclaimed Zydeco outfit Double Clutchin', Sean set out on his own musical journey in 1999. Ardoin has performed at Carnegie Hall, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, BET's Comic View, Southern Charm New Orleans. His music has been featured in commercials, movies, MTV's Road Rules, Real World New Orleans, Fraternity Life and Sorority Life. With his latest album, "Came Thru Pullin,'" Sean Ardoin is ready to bring that Kreole flavor with all the spice you can stand! www.seanardoin.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZguMXX81oY PR Contact: Sean Ardoin (337) 540-8399 [email protected] SOURCE Sean Ardoin German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will travel to Jerusalem on Wednesday, with Israel intent on toning down Europe's reaction to its annexation plans in the occupied West Bank. Maas is the first foreign dignitary to visit since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a coalition government with his election rival Benny Gantz, although US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had visited just days before the May 17 swearing-in. Israel could take initial steps to annex its West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley as soon as July 1, the same day Germany takes the rotating European Union presidency. The EU opposes the move, which forms part of a US peace initiative, and argues it would contravene international law. The Washington plan was unveiled in January and paves the way for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, but it has been rejected by the Palestinians who were not consulted on proposals they see as capitulating to Israeli demands. While Israeli officials are unlikely to change Europe's anti-annexation stance, they see Maas's visit as a chance to at least soften its response. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is the first foreign dignitary to visit Israel since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a joint government with his election rival Benny Gantz on May 17 / POOL/AFP/File Europe is Israel's top business partner with trade totalling 30 billion euros ($34 billion) last year, according to EU figures. "It is the first visit since this new government is established," said Avi Nir, head of the Israeli foreign ministry's European section. "It is a symbol of the strong and the unique relation that Israel and Germany are having, a symbol of the personal friendship of Heiko Maas towards Israel," he told AFP in English. - Europe's reaction - Israel under Prime Ministter Benjamin Netanyahu could take initial steps to annex its West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley as soon as July 1, the same day Germany takes on the rotating European Union presidency / POOL/AFP/File While the EU's view of annexation is well-known, the bloc has not announced retaliatory measures against Israel. Sanctions would need the approval of all 27 member states. "Such a decision (to annex) cannot be without a response," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. Some European countries could formally recognise a Palestinian state but, according to an Israeli official, Germany would not be one of them. "Germany even with annexation would not recognise a Palestinian state and is not going to support sanctions against Israel," he told AFP. Maas's Jerusalem trip is his first outside Europe since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and will see him meet his new Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi. He will then hold talks with Netanyahu and Defence Minister Gantz before travelling on to neighbouring Jordan. A Palestinian man rides his motorcycle past a mural painting of US President Donald Trump on Israel's controversial separation barrier in the West Bank city of Bethlehem / AFP The German diplomat will skip a trip to the West Bank city of Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, due to a lack of time and coronavirus measures, Berlin says. Maas will instead hold a video conference with Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh from the Jordanian capital Amman, where he will meet the country's foreign minister Ayman Safadi. Jordan stands strongly opposed to annexation in the West Bank, home to 450,000 Israeli settlers and 2.7 million Palestinians, and has warned it could spark conflict. - Iran and Hezbollah - Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon's powerful Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, in a recent televised speech / AL-MANAR TV/AFP/File Looking beyond the West Bank, other matters on Maas's Jerusalem agenda include Israeli foe Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah. Along with Paris and London, Berlin was one of the European parties to a landmark 2015 accord signed with Iran to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. But US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the deal and reimpose crippling economic penalties -- a move praised by Israel -- has led Tehran to suspend its compliance with some of the curbs. The UN nuclear watchdog says Iran has gone beyond the limits for enriched uranium set under the accord and has blocked visits to some sites where past research is believed to have taken place, prompting Netanyahu to call on world powers to impose "crippling sanctions". But Iran has kept all of its current nuclear sites under UN supervision, something welcomed by the remaining parties to the deal, including Germany. Germany won praise from Israel in April for announcing a ban on all Hezbollah activities after previously tolerating the militant group's political wing. Israeli officials blame Paris for blocking EU resolutions against Hezbollah, pushing European countries such as Germany to take unilateral measures. With Lebanon now facing a severe economic crisis, Israeli sources say they are hoping any foreign financial aid will be tied to reforms which would reduce Hezbollah's influence. Israel occupied a swathe of southern Lebanon from 1978 to 2000 and went on to fight a war with Hezbollah in 2006. Pune, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global digital signage market size is expected to reach USD 35.94 billion by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period. Rising efforts to make cities smarter through advanced technology will pave the way for the growth of this market in the given time period. Urbanization around the globe is speeding ahead at an exponential rate owing to the movement of people from rural to urban areas. According to UN estimates, by 2050, around 68% of the worlds population will be living in urban areas. This has prompted governments in many countries to transform cities into smart cities to make governance more efficient and effective. For instance, in March 2018, the Independent reported that police authorities in Shenzhen, China have deployed facial recognition technology, using AI-based CCTV cameras to catch jaywalkers and implement traffic rules stringently. As countries develop, the demand for digital signage solutions is likely to spike and this will be one of the leading digital signage market trends during the forecast period. Get Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/sample/digital-signage-market-101898 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/industry-reports/digital-signage-market-101898 The digital signage market value was at USD 19.78 billion in 2018, according to the new Fortune Business Insights report, titled Digital Signage Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Component (Hardware, Software, Content, and Services), By Deployment (On-Premise, Cloud), By Location (Indoor, Outdoor), By Product Type (Video Walls, Digital Posters, Kiosks, Billboards, and Others), By Industry Vertical (Retail, Corporate, Hospitality, Transportation, Education, Healthcare, Sports and Entertainment, and Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026. Besides this, the report shares the following information: A meticulous segmentation of the market and a microscopic study of these segments; A broad overview of the industry outlook and its role in shaping the future of the market; A comprehensive evaluation of the market drivers, factors, and trends; and An exhaustive research into the recent and upcoming competitive and regional developments within the market. Increasing Popularity of Digital Signage among Retailers to Feed Market Growth Retail giants are increasingly focusing on upgrading their infrastructure to integrate digital signage solutions to their existing structures. For example, Nordstrom is employing digital signage tools through 360-degree imagery and intelligent programing to make shopping easier and comfortable. Thus, digitization measures taken by retailers in significantly enhancing the digital signage market potential. Furthermore, digital displays have made accessing critical banking and financial information more convenient for customers and have also reduced waiting times. This technology has widened and deepened customer engagement, which has, in turn, aided the progress of the banking and finance sector. Speak to Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/digital-signage-market-101898 North America to Lead the Pack; Asia-Pacific to Boast an Admirable CAGR North America is poised to dictate the digital signage market share in the forecast period, as the region generated a revenue of USD 8.32 billion in 2018. The primary factor driving the market in this region is the rising demand for digital signage solutions for promotional activities, particularly in the US. Asia-Pacific will grow at an impressive CAGR on account of increasing uptake of digital signage technologies in the commercial, residential, and corporate sectors. The digital signage market research also finds that low cost in deploying electronic signage systems will fuel the market in Asia-Pacific. In Europe, growing investments in digitization will propel the market, while increasing digitization efforts will spur the market in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Intense Efforts to Develop Novel Digital Signage Hardware Solutions to Stimulate Competition The digital signage market report predicts a period of cutthroat competition as companies strategize to solidify their position in the market. Majority of the digital signage market leaders, such as Samsung, are focusing on developing innovative hardware solutions so as to diversify their product portfolio. Key Industry Developments: June 2019: Sony Electronics collaborated with Kramer Electronics to integrate its BZ35F series of BRAVIA 4K HDR professional displays with Kramer Control BRAINware. Kramers software would enhance any Audio-Visual installation by adding advanced controls and analytics to Sonys high-quality display. Sony Electronics collaborated with Kramer Electronics to integrate its BZ35F series of BRAVIA 4K HDR professional displays with Kramer Control BRAINware. Kramers software would enhance any Audio-Visual installation by adding advanced controls and analytics to Sonys high-quality display. June 2019: LG Electronics unveiled its digital signage products at the InfoComm 2019 in Florida. The product line includes Open Frame OLED displays, Transparent OLED signage, and Micro LED signage. This diverse offering of commercial display products boasts of state-of-the-art technologies and would enable LG to augment its footprint in the digital signage market. List of the Key Companies Operating in the Digital Signage Market are: Omnivex Corporation E Ink Holdings Inc. Leyard Optoelectronic Co., Ltd. Panasonic Corporation Exceptional 3D Samsung Electronics Deepsky Corporation Ltd. Scala Sony Corporation LG Electronics Quick Buy Digital Signage Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/101898 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 Global Digital Signage Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 Key Findings / Summary Market Size Estimates and Forecasts By Component (Value) Hardware Content Software Services By Deployment (Value) Cloud On-Premise By Location (Value) Indoor Outdoor By Product Type (Value) Video Walls Digital Posters Kiosks Billboards Others By Industry Vertical (Value) Retail Corporate Hospitality Transportation Education Healthcare Sports and Entertainment Others By Geography (Value) North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa Latin America TOC Continued....!!! Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/digital-signage-market-101898 Have a Look at Related Research Insights: Virtual Reality Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Offering (Hardware, Software), By Technology (Nonimmersive, Semi-Immersive), By Industry Vertical (Gaming & Entertainment Media, Healthcare, Education, Automotive, Aerospace & Defense, Manufacturing), By Application (Training & Simulation, Educational, Attraction, Research & Development) and Regional Forecast, 2019 - 2026 5G Infrastructure Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis By Component (Fibers, Cables, Antenna, Transceiver, Wireless Backhaul, Modem, Router), By Communication Infrastructure (Small Cell, Macro Cell, Radio Access Network (RAN), Distributed Antenna System (DAS)), and Regional Forecast 2019-2026 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis By Component (Hardware, Software, Services), By Technology (Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Others), By Industry Vertical (BFSI, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, IT & Telecom, Government, Others) 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/digital-signage-market-9474 A study is underway as part of an effort to improve quality of life and pedestrian access in a historic section of Pasadena that includes City Hall and the citys central library. The Livable Centers study, funded largely through a Houston-Galveston Area Council grant, looks for ways to enable people to live, work and play with less reliance on their cars. The city is being assisted on the project by consulting group AECOM. The study area is bounded roughly by Southmore, Red Bluff, Shaw and Richey. That section of town is fairly densely populated and includes prominent buildings such as Macroplaza Mall. The study area also has eight schools, 12 parks and 14 churches. Pasadena's historic urban core will benefit greatly from this study and the implementation of the recommended policies and projects because they rely on data and community input, said Sheena Salvino, redevelopment manager for the Pasadena Economic Development Corp. Better lighting, wider sidewalks desired An online survey was conducted in February and March that netted more than 350 responses. It has been a really great effort thus far, and I am very excited about some of the ideas and recommendations that have been generated as a result of the community engagement process, Salvino said. Some of the responses were expected, such as the fact that an overwhelming majority of people use their cars and trucks to get around the historic district. Getting people out of their vehicles is one of the aims of Livable Centers, and Pasadena residents are open to the idea, citing that they would like to better street lighting and wider sidewalks in the historic district. They also would like to see more shared-use paths and off-street bike lanes. Park improvements sought In the quality-of-life department, residents would also like to see improvements at the parks in the study area, most notably at Sunset Park and Memorial Park. Improved walking trails are needed at both parks, respondents said. Adding a dog park at Memorial was also mentioned. Although the online survey has ended, the Livable Centers study group will have another public meeting this summer. The date and time for that event have not been announced. For more information, contact the City of Pasadenas Planning Department at 713-920-7923. John DeLapp is a freelance writer. He can be contacted at texdelapp@gmail.com. Boyd, an acutely perceptive young woman, lives in the Texas Hill Country. Its never quite clear if she is merely sensitive or if there is something else going on, something surreal or supernatural. What grounds the ambiguity for readers of Things You Would Know If You Grew Up Around Here, Nancy Wayson Dinans debut novel, is the insurmountable cataclysm of the Memorial Day floods, which devastated the Hill Country in 2015 and changed the landscape irrevocably. Boyd has been able to read emotions in others since she was a little girl. While this quality piques the interest of others, they never pursue it to any great degree, ignoring, as most people do, talking about feelings or excavating traumas. With each new perception of debilitating grief or sorrow in others, she acts to help, to figure out how to solve their problems or quell their sadness. But also with each new encounter, Boyds own strength is diminished. Her superpower is also her kryptonite. Boyd has enjoyed a long friendship with Isaac, who keeps her at arms length because he wants to leave the Hill Country forever after he graduates from the University of Texas. He finds the provincial town where his father is obsessed with history and treasure-hunting to be insufferably dull. More Information 'Things You Would Know If You Grew Up Around Here' By Nancy Wayson Dinan Bloomsbury 336 pages $27 See More Collapse Isaac himself pans for gold to help pay his tuition. It is the main reason he has returned to the Hill Country, and he cannot wait to leave again even though he has complicated feelings for Boyd. Boyd wants to stay right where she is. She lives with her mother, Lucy Maud, and hangs out with Carla, who is something of a wannabe witch. Then on that May day in 2015, the rains come after a long drought. Isaac goes missing, and Boyd knows he is in grave danger. On a harrowing journey in search of her friend, she encounters spaces that awaken her powers of perception. Ghosts emerge and point the way to historys wretched litany of dark chapters that remain otherwise silent or silenced. For the rest of us, Boyd imparts the many ways we have ravaged our earth. While the title of the novel is a mouthful, its kind of perfect in illustrating a hard fact: If you grew up around here, if you had a point of reference, you would appreciate the history of this place, its hidden secrets and all it has to offer. Then you would know just how much the land has changed is changing and how much we already have lost because of our own lack of awareness or attention. The novel does what good literature manages to do. It tackles the challenges we face as a society, leaving answers behind for future generations. Dinan, who was born in Austin and worked as an elementary school teacher in San Antonio for a time, says she was motivated to create the story because climate change is really pressing. I was also very connected to this world in the Hill Country, she said in an interview from her home in Costa Rica. I dont want to say that its disappearing, because obviously it is still there, but its very, very different than it used to be. More surreal elements emerge. A scarecrow comes to life, lassos of vines festoon a house where a mother cares for her bedridden daughter, and ghosts line the path of Boyds perilous journey. They are ultimately inextricable from the realistic elements of the novel. Things You Would Know If You Grew Up Around Here shows that we dont just accept evidence of climate change or other disasters that befall us. We learn from them in order to move toward the future. I realize that my primary obsession when Im writing is how the past is layered onto the present and how it affects the present in ways that we dont see, Dinan said. She shows us through Boyd that we have to really look to see. We have to immerse ourselves in the spaces and see whats changed. Good fiction can move us through imagined spaces to show us our truths. This novel instructs us on the ways that the first step toward change is caring enough about it to confront it. Yvette Benavides is a professor of creative writing at Our Lady of the Lake University. She cowrote the book San Antonio 365: On this Day in History (Trinity University Press) with David Martin Davies. Charles Lieber, the chair of Harvard University's chemistry and chemical biology department, is released from John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston on Jan. 30, 2020. WASHINGTON The Justice Department announced the indictment of a Harvard professor after he allegedly made false statements to federal authorities regarding his work at Wuhan University of Technology in China. Dr. Charles Lieber, 61, the former Chair of Harvard University's Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, was arrested in January and is slated to be arraigned in federal court in Boston at a later date. The charge of making false statements provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. "It is alleged that, unbeknownst to Harvard University, beginning in 2011, Lieber became a 'Strategic Scientist' at Wuhan University of Technology in China," the Justice Department said in a Tuesday statement. "He later became a contractual participant in China's Thousand Talents Plan from at least 2012 through 2015. China's Thousand Talents Plan is one of the most prominent Chinese talent recruitment plans designed to attract, recruit, and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China's scientific development, economic prosperity and national security," the statement added, saying that the Chinese would "often reward individuals for stealing proprietary information." Wuhan University of Technology allegedly paid Lieber a salary of up to $50,000 per month and covered his living expenses of approximately $158,000. He was also awarded more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at the school. In return, Lieber was obligated to work for no less than nine months out of a year. At the same time, Lieber's research firm received more than $15 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense. These grants required the disclosure of all sources of research support, potential financial conflicts of interest and all foreign collaboration. The coronavirus originated near the city of Wuhan in China's Hubei province and has since triggered a global pandemic that has hit the U.S. harder than any other country. More than 1.96 million cases and at least 111,375 deaths have so far been counted in the U.S., data from Johns Hopkins University show. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex may have had a different idea of what her life in the royal family would really be like, as a royal expert claims that Meghan found the position to be unglamorous. Meghan also was believed to have struggled with the need to be politically neutral in her royal position. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry | SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan exited the royal family In January, Prince Harry and Meghan had a surprising announcement they planned to take a step back from their royal duties so they could live a more normal life out of the spotlight. When Queen Elizabeth sorted the details of the Sussexes proposed plan, it was decided that their royal duties would officially end on March 31. In 2019, Prince Harry and Meghan addressed how the media scrutiny was taking a toll on them, with Meghan noting in the documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey that she believed there would be more fairness in the process. Ive really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a stiff upper lip. Ive tried, Ive really tried. I think that what that does internally is probably really damaging, she explained. The biggest thing that I know is that I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair and thats the part thats really hard to reconcile. The Sussexes had the queens full support, as she shared in a statement about their exit plan. I recognize the challenges they have experienced as a result of intense scrutiny over the last two years and support their wish for a more independent life, her statement explained. It is my whole familys hope that todays agreement allows them to start building a happy and peaceful new life. RELATED: Inside Prince Harry and Meghan Markles Exit Drama: Harry Suffered a Lot and Meghan Was Suffocating Did Meghan have unrealistic expectations about her role? The media scrutiny surrounding the Sussexes and Prince Harrys concern for his wife and sons safety appeared to be the driving forces for their exit decision, though royal commentator Ashley Pearson believes there were other factors in the mix as well. Pearson shared with Market Watch earlier this year that she felt Meghan pushed for the exit plan because there were elements of her royal role that she didnt enjoy. She had no idea how un-glamorous it really is to be a royal and, when she found out she would be a civil servant in a tiara she was, like, No way, Pearson explained. Perhaps the key moment in my interview with Meghan tonight. pic.twitter.com/grIsq7f5QX tom bradby (@tombradby) October 20, 2019 Was the need to be politically neutral a factor? Its also believed that Meghan didnt like the expectation to be politically neutral, with writer Tom McTague sharing in The Atlantic, Another problem the pair appear not to understand is their desire to be progressive but seemingly without the controversy and criticism that comes from taking a stance on issues of public debate. At heart, its unclear whether Harry and Meghan realize being progressive is not an apolitical act, McTague noted. Climate change is not apolitical. Even mental health is not apolitical. These issues, which the couple have voiced their opinion on, come with real, important and political questions attached. BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond supported that idea when he shared how Meghan said she didnt want to become a voiceless figurehead. The mortal remains of sarpanch Ajay Pandita alias Bharti who was shot dead by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmirs Anantnag on Monday, were cremated at Jammus Shakti Nagar crematorium on Tuesday. Pandita (40) was the sarpanch of Lukbawan village in the Larkipora area. He was a member of the Congress party. We wont leave Kashmir but I have a demand that the government should first create a regiment of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley, said Vijay Pandita, brother of the deceased, who lit the pyre. He was helpful to all. He loved his roots and always extended a helping hand to the needy. After becoming sarpanch he had decided to work for the welfare of Muslim villagers, he added. Ajays father Dwarika Nath Pandita described his son as a lion and patriot. My son was a lion. He was a true patriot. In 1996 we returned to Kashmir and re-started our lives. At that time Ajay was around 21 years old. He took bank loans and reconstructed our orchards and house, he said. Pandita recalled that Ajay always rejected his suggestions that they should leave Kashmir because the situation was not normal. He used to say that it is our home. He used Bharti in his name to show his love for the country. Some anti-nationals are behind his killing. They shot him in his back. He was a lion. My son has sacrificed his life for the country, said Pandita. There are forces, who dont want Pandits to return and my son fell to the bullets of such ideology. We are not afraid, but will return and fulfill my sons mission, he added. Last December, Pandita had spoken about threats to his life and had demanded security. Dr Mahesh Kaul, a prominent writer on Kashmir and a community leader said Ajays murder was part of a jihad to eliminate Kashmiri Pandits at different levels. All Parties Migrant Coordination Committee (APMCC) leader Vinod Pandit accused the government of playing with the lives of minorities and demanded a probe into the killing. We strongly condemn the killing of Ajay Pandita (Bharti) by terrorists. He was always under threat for being a sarpanch, and especially because he was a Kashmiri Pandit. Why did the government withdraw his security? Why play with minority lives in Kashmir? A probe is needed. Since the start of June, some parts of Mexico have been permitted by the government to reopen, as reported in an article. Thus far, the government had allowed automotive manufacturing, mining, and construction companies to reopen, said the report. This means that more Mexicans working in these sectors would be getting their paychecks again soon. Operations of businesses that were deemed non-essential have been temporarily postponed by the Mexican government on March 23 as the novel coronavirus spread across the country. Presently, an article reported that Cancun, Tallum, and Riviera Maya will be open for international guests this week. The reopening of tourist spots in the country for foreign travelers is now permitted. Despite the coronavirus still present in the country, its government plans to adjust how businesses operate and some parts of many people's lifestyles to meet COVID-19 preventive measures. There will be frequent cleaning sanitation of places where people often go and people will be seen wearing their face masks as they go outdoors. As the country is still struggling to win against the novel coronavirus, many industries across the country are providing help and support for Mexico to adjust to the 'new normal' brought by the deadly pandemic. Here are a few of them: Health care Sector The country had seen the great contribution of the health care sector in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. They are the ones who had helped prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, by taking care of patients and preventing transmission of the deadly virus. Those who are part of this sector had also provided the country some assistance through financial and in-kind donations. For example, an article reveals that Amgen had given financial donations to FunSalud and the Mexican Red Cross. Sanitizers and protective masks were also donated by Bayer to prevent COVID-19 transmission and infection. Puritan Bennett ventilators were also donated by Medtronic to help patients who have severe cases of COVID-19. Automotive Manufacturing Sector Many businesses that operated in the country had postponed their operations during the quarantine orders by Mexico. As of the moment, they are slowing getting back to operations. Moreover, companies under this sector had also provided help for the country's battle against the novel coronavirus. An article reveals that aside from providing personal protective equipment for their employees, Nissan had also donated tens of thousands of personal protective equipment for communities. Check these out: The Food and Beverage Sector Many businesses from the food and beverage sector are using their expertise at making meals for front line workers. For example, Alsea had provided packed lunches for much medical staff working in the country. The Accommodation Sector Various accommodation sector companies are also helping by offering free or discounted accommodations for those who work as a front line staff against the novel coronavirus. Four times as many fines and notices were handed out at the Black Lives Matter protest in Derry compared to the one held in Belfast, according to figures provided by the PSNI. On Saturday June 6 police officers in Derry issued 56 fines for breaches of Regulations 3,4,6 or 7 of the current Coronavirus Health Protection Regulations and one fine for a breach of Regulation 5. In Belfast 10 fines and one Community Resolution Notice (CRN) were issued for breaches of Regulations 3,4,6 or 7 and one fine and two CRNs for breaches of Regulation 5. Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd said: Two events in support of Black Lives Matter took place in Belfast and Derry this weekend. Around 500 people gathered at each protest, contrary to the current Health Protection Regulations. We were very clear in our messaging ahead of the protests that people should not attend them. Had we not done this, we believe that thousands could have turned up making social distancing impossible and increasing the risk of spreading the virus. We conducted checks on travel routes and transport hubs across Northern Ireland on Saturday, requiring people to return home rather than travel to the unlawful gatherings. No arrests were made in either city but 71 fines and Community Resolution Notices (CRNs) were handed out for breaches of the Health Protection Regulations. A number of individuals will now be reported to the Public Prosecution Service with a view to prosecution. It should be noted that the polices job is to identify offences when they are committed: it is the role of the PPS to decide if prosecutions should take place. In other times, we would have worked with the organisers and protestors to facilitate lawful and peaceful protests to mark the avoidable and unnecessary death of George Floyd, but these are not ordinary times. The Health Protection Regulations are in place to protect us all during this pandemic and it is everyones responsibility to adhere to them to protect our society. People Before Profit Councillor, Shaun Harkin, who spoke at the rally challenged Naomi Long and the PSNI's justification for the 'criminalisation' of the Black Lives Matter rally in Derry. He stated: "The local parties in the so-called 'Unity of Purpose' group need to clarify if they back the crackdown on Saturday. Black people in the Guildhall Square were systematically targeted and harassed by the PSNI. "Four times as many people were given fines in Derry. Protest organisers face prosecution. "It is impossible for this to have happened without the Derry political establishment giving their backing to Naomi Long and the PSNI. "Long and the political establishment talk about opposing institutional racism but they have given us an example of institutional racism in the city of Civil Rights. "We should commend the bravery of Lilian, Beverly, Enya, Blathnaid and all the others who organised the rally and attended despite the harassment and intimidation faced. All charges should be dropped immediately." The Department of Justice was asked whether Minister Long believed the police response on the day was proportionate. A departmental spokesperson said: These are operational matters for the PSNI. Anyone who has complaints or concerns about policing can have them addressed by contacting the Police Ombudsman. The Unity of Purpose group - which urged organisers to cancel the protest to prevent the spread of Coronavirus - was contacted for comment but did not provide one at the time of publishing. Thousands of mourners are expected to attend a public visitation on Monday honoring George Floyd. The viewing is scheduled from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at The Fountain of Praise Church, 13950 Hillcroft Ave. Floyd, 46, died on May 25 after an officer placed his knee on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes. Floyd grew up in the Third Ward and will be buried in Houston next to his mother, according to the Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center. 60K STRONG: Thousands march for George Floyd in downtown Houston The public is expected to begin arriving hours before the public viewing. We expect people to be lined up outside very early in the morning on Monday, the owner of Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center Bobby Swearington said. During Mondays visitation, Floyds body will be lying in state at the church. As people walk-through the viewing, they will enter and exit the building from two different areas. Guests are encouraged to bring an umbrella to shield the sun as they wait outside the church to enter. There will be no gathering or seating in the sanctuary, face masks and gloves are required, organizers have requested that guests social distance and hand sanitizing stations have been set up throughout the church. Attendees will go through a temperature check and a metal detector. No bags are allowed inside the church. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: George Floyd: Im gonna change the world Parking will be available to the public at Windsor Village United Methodist Church, at 6011 W Orem Dr., with shuttles to The Fountain of Praise Church provided by Metro transit. When the lot reached capacity at 1,100 vehicles, a second lot at the Fountain Life Center at 14083 S Main St. will open. Floyd's body arrived in Houston on Saturday at George Bush Intercontinental Airport and was led to Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center by the Houston Police Department. A private service in Houston at an undisclosed location is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday. marcy.deluna@chron.com Members of one of Nigeria's main medical unions say they will go on strike from Monday following frustration over pay and a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). "Inhumane and hopeless" is how the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors has described the situation for some medics in a strongly-worded statement. They are calling on their members to stop providing all medical services including emergency care and coronavirus treatment. A nationwide strike will affect isolation centres where coronavirus patients are being treated as well as hospitals and other medical facilities. Resident doctors make up one of the largest percentages of healthcare workers in state-run specialist hospitals. Other concerns include a weak healthcare system and doctors' families being left without life insurance in the event of their death. Africas most populous nation has had 361 confirmed deaths linked to coronavirus. However, there are concerns that there may be more and that the virus is spreading undetected. 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 Weeks of protests over the death of George Floyd have strengthened calls for police reforms and reducing the amount of money police forces receive. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died on May 25 after a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, kneeled on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Two weeks after Floyds death, a majority of Minneapolis City Council members voted to drop the 800-member police department. It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe, said City Council President Lisa Bender. However, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says he does not support a full end to the department. Derek Chauvin, the officer who held his knee on Floyds neck, has been charged with second-degree murder. The three other officers who were there during Floyds arrest have been charged with aiding and abetting or helping -- in a murder. The state of Minnesota has begun a civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department. This is not the first time that an American city has struggled to deal with aggressive policing methods or unequal treatment among its police force. In 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, a white officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man. The U.S. attorney general at the time, Eric Holder, said federal officials considered breaking up the police department. The city later reached an agreement that required strong reforms. On Monday, congressional Democrats proposed new federal legislation to ban police chokeholds and limit legal protections for officers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knelt with other lawmakers for 8 minutes and 46 seconds the length of time Floyd was under the knee of the Minneapolis officer. Pelosi made note of the nations history of slavery, saying, We cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change. Defund the police Across the United States, protesters are now calling to defund the police, as more videos of aggressive policing methods have been published and widely shared. In Buffalo, New York, two police officers were charged with assault last week after being filmed pushing an old man taking part in a protest. The man fell back and hit his head on the ground. In videos of the incident, blood can be seen flowing onto the ground. A government lawyer called the victim a harmless 75-year-old man and said the police officers crossed the line. In other cities, law enforcement agents have used tear gas and physical force against both looters and peaceful protesters. The Associated Press reports that more than 10,000 people have been arrested around the country since the protests began. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that the city would move money from the police department to programs for young people and social services. He said the changes would still keep the city safe. He did not give any additional information. In Los Angeles, California, Mayor Eric Garcetti said he wants to cut as much as $150 million from a planned increase in the police departments budget. A police union representative answered, At this time, with violent crime increasing, a global pandemic and nearly a weeks worth of violence, arson, and looting, defunding the LAPD [Los Angeles police Department] is the most irresponsible thing anyone can propose. Some supporters of the cause say defunding the police is not about removing police departments or taking away all of their money. They say it is time for the country to deal with problems in policing and to spend more on housing and education. Representative Karen Bass of California is chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. She told CNN, Now, I dont believe that you should disband police departments. But," she added, "I do think that, in cities, in states, we need to look at how we are spending the resources and invest more in our communities." More peaceful protests The protests in recent days have been peaceful. Police appear to have stopped using aggressive methods. Several cities, including Chicago, Illinois, and New York City, have lifted their curfews. Over the weekend, New York City police officers were not wearing riot gear as they watched over the demonstrators. Some shook hands and took pictures with protesters. In Washington, D.C., protesters pleaded with a black female Secret Service officer to, in their words, take the knee. Do it. Do it. Take the knee. Taking a knee is seen as a show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement. The officer stepped forward and knelt for a short time. Another officer told the protesters, Im talking to you as another black man just to say this is something that encourages me. And just like youre out there for me, consider what Im doing here, for you. I'm Caty Weaver. Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on Associated Press and Reuters news reports. Ashley Thompson was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story chokehold - n. a method of holding someone by putting arm or leg around the person's neck with enough pressure to make breathing difficult kneel - v. (past tense - knelt) to put one or both knee on the floor transformative - adj. causing or able to cause change defund - v. to remove money for something assault - n. the crime of trying or threatening to hurt someone physically looter - n. a person who steal things from a place during a war or after a destruction caused by fire, rioting, etc. pandemic - n. an occurrence in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people around the world arson - n. the illegal burning of a building or other structure disband - v. to end an organization or a group Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 17:26:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Education on Tuesday issued an alert asking Chinese students to be prudent in choosing to go or return to Australia for study, citing risks of the COVID-19 pandemic and discrimination against Asian people there. The alert noted risks involved with international travel and on open campuses, as major Australian universities plan to open around July although the spread of COVID-19 around the world is still not under effective control. Also, multiple cases of discrimination against Asian people took place in the country during the pandemic period, the alert said. The ministry warned relevant students to be fully aware of such risks and make prudent choices. Enditem Egypt's prosecutor general has ordered a detained teenager known by the alias Menna Abd El-Aziz, who is well-known for her videos on the TikTok platform, be admitted to a rehabilitation centre designated for abused women. Abd El-Aziz, 17, was arrested on 26 May. She was ordered be detained for 15 days pending investigations over charges including inciting debauchery and forging an online account. She had said in a live Instagram video in May that one of her friends had raped, beaten and injured her, and pleaded for help from the government. Later, Abd El-Aziz appeared in an Instagram video with her alleged rapist and said she had made up with him, asserting that people were trying to drive a wedge between them." According to an official statement on Tuesday, the prosecutor-general gave directions to confine Abd El-Aziz at one the Ministry of Social Solidarity's centres dedicated to hosting and protecting psychologically, socially and financially abused women, instead of in pre-trial detention. Abd El-Aziz accepted the centre as accommodation as she doesn't have a fixed and known abode, the statement added. The psychological and social state of the underage girl was examined by a social expert supervising the project of "hosting and protecting abused women" in Cairo and a mental expert at the ministerial program of "protecting homeless children and adults," per the prosecution's directives, in coordination with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the National Council for Women. "The examination results showed that Abd El-Aziz has emotional and psychological disorders as a result of severe social crises she has gone through since childhood, a matter that drove her, with her lack of experience and weak personality, to form relationships with bad friends in lieu of her failure to make ordinary relationships," the statement added. "The examination suggested that Abd El-Aziz sought to achieve fame in exchange for what she went through ... she was deceived by a fame she attained in a virtual environment that threw her into bad company who exploited her," it said. She will be confined in the centre for three months, with renewal of that term if needed. Search Keywords: Short link: ALBANY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo blasted President Donald J. Trump for a tweet the president posted early Tuesday suggesting a 75-year-old Buffalo man who was shoved by police during a recent protest faked the incident. "He accuses this man of being associated with antifa, no proof whatsoever. No fact, just an assertion," Cuomo said during his daily coronavirus task force briefing. "You think the blood coming out of his head was staged?" Trump tweeted around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, "Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?" Thousands of people have taken to the streets in the last two weeks since George Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes as he was handcuffed on the ground. During a protest in Buffalo late last week, a TV crew captured footage of Gugino, a frequent protester, approaching a line of helmeted officers holding batons as they cleared demonstrators from Niagara Square as a curfew began. Two officers pushed Gugino backward as he walked toward them, and he hit his head on the pavement, causing blood to pool around his head. One officer leaned down to check on the injured man before another officer urged the colleague to keep walking. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who lives in Buffalo, also condemned Trump's tweet, responding: "This is sick. The president continues to use his platform to peddle conspiracy theories, this time about a peaceful protestor and fellow New Yorker. Not sure how this is supposed to bring out country together." While the protests have been largely peaceful, many have devolved into violence as people infiltrated protests or took advantage of police being busy with protesters to loot businesses and engage in other criminal activity. Police officers also have been videotaped using violence against protesters who did not appear to pose a threat, including shoving, pepper-spraying, firing rubber bullets and launching tear gas at them. Cuomo called on Trump to apologize for the tweet, which he described as "wholly unacceptable." "Not a piece of proof. Totally personally disparaging, and at a moment when the man is still in the hospital," the governor said. "Show some decency, show some humanity, show some fairness. You are the president of the United States." Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The recent unrest in New York communities over police brutality has prompted state legislators and Cuomo to publicly support several bills that aim to reform police tactics and policies while encouraging more transparency. The series of sweeping criminal justice reforms including requiring state troopers to wear body cameras and repealing a 44-year-old statute blocking public access to police officers' disciplinary records are expected to pass this week. Additional bills to be voted on include creating new units within the attorney general's office to investigate police misconduct and to probe police-involved deaths. The unrest comes as New York begins to slowly reopen after over two months of non-essential businesses being shuttered and residents being asked to work from home to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Empire State was the hardest hit by COVID-19 in the nation, with more than 24,000 people succumbing to the virus since March. State officials have cautioned protesters to socially distance and wear face masks to avoid outbreaks of the virus, and COVID-19 testing was opened up to protesters last week. In recent weeks, however, New York has seen hospitalizations, deaths and new positive cases of COVID-19 continue to decline as communities reemerge from the NY Pause Cuomo ordered in March to stop the spread of the virus. Muneef Khan By Express News Service BENGALURU: Opening after a gap of 75 days, restaurants and cafes were all geared up on Monday to cater to customers. But in a new manner. With measures like temperature scans, sanitiser use (even top-to-toe sprays, in some cases), recording of travel history, and tables placed at six-feet distance, eateries are ensuring adherence to all guidelines. We have resumed operations only with food services minus the alcohol, while the smoking area has been converted into a takeaway section, says Arun George, owner, Toit, Indiranagar, and The Permit Room, Ashok Nagar. He adds that use of the smoking room and washroom will be limited to only two people at a time, while e-menus will be made available for scanning QR codes to minimise contact. E-menus have also been introduced at Paris Panini, Indiranagar. Says owner Nicolas Grossemy, We want to make people feel good about dining out because fear is still palpable. I dont expect to see many visitors in the coming days since the habit of ordering online has increased due to people working from home. However, customers have started trickling in. I got to meet my friends and grab some pizza after two months which feels like a lifetime. But I would stick to places near my house, said a diner. Cafes such as Third Wave Coffee Roasters and Chaayos have also stepped up with technological assistance. Nitin Saluja, founder of Chaayos, says in order to minimise contact, they have launched an app for placing orders, while ordering at the counter still remains an option. Some restaurants such as Soda Bottle Opener Wala and Bohemians have, however, chosen to remain shut and opt for a wait-and-watch approach. Burma, for instance, was earlier shut even for online orders, and is now looking to start the option. We are concerned about the increase in COVID cases and dont plan to reopen immediately, a staffer told CE. Some others are restructuring their establishments. Nikhil Hegde who owns Smallys Resto Cafe, has converted three of his four outlets into cloud kitchens while retaining his space in Ulsoor as a dine-in facility. (with inputs from Bala Chauhan) ATLANTA, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The coronavirus pandemic is causing businesses of all sizes to rethink the way they do business, and The Greater Women's Business Council (GWBC) and its corporate and women business members are no exception. GWBC, the largest provider of certification and development resources for women business enterprises (WBEs) in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, has amped up its offering of education and business resources with a variety of free, online programs while its members also are transforming the way they do business. "The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we're looking at everything, including the way leaders are running their businesses," said GWBC President and CEO Roz Lewis. "While the future is still uncertain, we have some amazing women business enterprises (WBEs) and corporate members who are pivoting their business models to adapt quickly to our current situation." These four certified women business enterprises have transformed their operations in the wake of COVID-19. GMI Group adds COVID-19 deep cleaning and disinfectant services GMI Group, Inc., a janitorial cleaning company that provides services throughout the Southeastern region of the U.S, is now dedicating itself to providing COVID-19 emergency response and decontamination services and is a distributor for several antimicrobial agents that have been tested for the actives recommended by the CDC and EPA for cleaning and disinfecting for the coronavirus. All of its products are 100% green-certified organic cleaning solutions and disinfectants. GMI's deep cleaning and disinfectant services, known as COVID-19 Decon, follow stringent safety protocols to protect its clients employees and customers and provide 99.9% germ-free spaces. "We are actively using Noroxycdiff and BAC-Botanical Antimicrobial cleaner for preventative measures in consideration of disinfectant protocol for COVID-19," said GMI CEO Kayla Dang. "Our biggest seller is the BAC Hand Sanitizer which is FDA approved and made with organic thyme, lemon, wintergreen oil and 75% (Food Grade) IPA Isopropyl Alcohol from plants." InTandem helps clients adapt to work from home and return to work safely InTandem Promotions, a branding and communications company that builds brand connections through promotional products, has shifted its business to help its clients stay connected to their customers and employees in a meaningful way. InTandem has developed a proprietary software that enables clients to send thank you gifts to employees, clients or prospects and has created virtual event packages to keep partners top of mind. Additionally, the InTandem team has created work-from-home kits with items that include earbuds for calls and blue light blockers as well as drinkware, stretch bands, hand towels, and yoga mats to remind at home workers to drink water and stretch. The Kennesaw, Georgia based company also has leveraged its relationships and resources to source over 9,000,000 gowns, over 500,000 masks (cloth and disposable) as well as gallons of sanitizer. "We are ensuring that our clients have the tools necessary to return to work safely," said InTandem Founder and CEO Sara Webb. "We are developing welcome back kits and helping build brand connections. By establishing a strong supplier network and partnerships, we had the resources at our fingertips to pivot to the needs of our client base." Lexair transforms supply chain to serve customers and community With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, Lexair Electronics Sales Corporation, an established supplier of communication technology and devices based in Greensboro, North Carolina, was at the center of the essential business supply chain. As the demand for headsets, webcams and other essential communication technologies skyrocketed, additional products lines were sourced and stock levels were increased to meet the unprecedented demand. But a new requirement also developed. Customers asked if Lexair could supply masks and hand sanitizer along with their headsets. "In that moment, we knew we had to pivot to help our customers during this critical time," said Lexair President and CEO Paula Edwards. Lexair added essential PPE supplies such as N95-NIOSH approved masks, KN95 masks, disposable masks, washable cloth masks, gowns, face shields, plexiglass barriers, hand sanitizer and COVID rapid antibody test kits. They also created a suite of products and solutions to support "Return to Work" strategies. These include an In Motion Real Time Thermal Temperature Monitoring Solution, UV-LED air filtration lights for offices, and a customizable e-learning platform to educate employees on COVID-19 safety protocols in the workplace. Spartanburg Meat Processing pivots to sourcing masks and sanitizer Spartanburg Meat Processing Co., based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is changing its sales strategy to service the needs of it customers during this pandemic. Due to the meat shortage fear in many areas, this meat processing business has been inundated with orders for many months out. With production now operating at its maximum, the sales team is pivoting from its traditional role of seeking new orders and instead is helping source and supply PPE masks and sanitizer for its employees and customers. "Our sales teams could not continue to seek orders for production time we did not have, so we pivoted their sales strategy to help source and supply PPE masks and sanitizer to folks in need," said Spartanburg Meat Processing President and CEO JoAnne LaBounty. GWBC adds online business tools and live programming to support members GWBC is offering a number of ways businesses can continue to network and obtain business tools and resources during the pandemic. "Maintaining the Health of Your Business" These free weekly webinars hosted by GWBC President Roz Lewis offer tips from business leaders, information and resources to help business owners maintain the health of their business. These free weekly webinars hosted by GWBC President offer tips from business leaders, information and resources to help business owners maintain the health of their business. "Open for Business" A series of podcasts on GWBC Radio feature WBENC-certified women business enterprises who are sharing their inspirational business stories as they pivot during COVID-19. A series of podcasts on GWBC Radio feature WBENC-certified women business enterprises who are sharing their inspirational business stories as they pivot during COVID-19. "Mornings With GWBC" Each Monday, these 30-minute online sessions kick off the week by sharing business resources and tools, informal conversations with business leaders and giveaways. Each Monday, these 30-minute online sessions kick off the week by sharing business resources and tools, informal conversations with business leaders and giveaways. Business Resources to Combat COVID-19 GWBC offers a comprehensive list of resources and current news at https://gwbc.org/covid-19-resources/ to help businesses care for its employees, customers, finances and more during the pandemic. "To support and serve our members, we're also continuing to explore the best ways to educate and inform them of opportunities now and down the road," said Lewis. "In addition to offering a number of ways our members and all businesses can take advantage of current COVID-19 resources, we're keeping our eyes on the future and using this time to plan for an even more robust WBENC National Conference, rescheduled for 2022 in Atlanta." To learn more about GWBC and register for online events and more, visit www.gwbc.org. ABOUT THE GREATER WOMEN'S BUSINESS COUNCIL, INC. The Greater Women's Business Council, Inc. (GWBC) is a nonprofit organization providing nationally-recognized certification through Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), innovative programming and value-driven events customized to the unique needs of women business enterprises (WBEs) in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. GWBC's constituency is comprised of over 1,000 certified WBEs, dozens of corporate member partners, government entities and business alliances united to inspire, engage and empower women-owned businesses. A Regional Partner Organization of WBENC, GWBC is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with offices in Charlotte, North Carolina. Learn more at www.gwbc.org. SOURCE The Greater Women's Business Council, Inc. Related Links https://gwbc.org (Photo : REUTERS/Danny Moloshok ) A man is screened with a backscatter x-ray machine as travellers go through a TSA security checkpoint in terminal 4 at LAX, Los Angeles International Airport, in Los Angeles May 2, 2011. (Photo : REUTERS/Thomas Peter ) People walk past a poster simulating facial recognition software at the Security China 2018 exhibition on public safety and security in Beijing, China October 24, 2018. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna announced on Tuesday, June 9, that the company would no longer sell facial recognition services after a "national dialogue" on whether it should be used at all. In a TechCrunch report, Krishna also voiced support for a new bill aiming to reduce police violence and increase accountability. Krishna explained the company's exit from the controversial business of facial identification as a service in a letter supporting the Justice in Policing Act, according to CNBC. IBM will not tolerate using technology--including facial recognition technology--for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose that goes against the company's values as well as their principles of trust and transparency. Krishna said there should be a national dialogue on how to use facial recognition technology by domestic law enforcement agencies. IBM stops offering facial recognition after a 'national dialogue' The company's measure to carefully develop and deploy the technology is no longer new. Last year, IBM stressed it has a more diverse facial database than anything available at the time. After all, these systems are as good as the information inputted into them. However, it seems the company is not making much money from facial recognition. Since the technology is still new, there only are few applications where enterprise vendors like IBM make sense. Amazon's controversial Rekognition service has been tested by quite a few law enforcement entities but it seems it wasn't well thought of. However, IBM would not benefit much from a product that's similar to the competition and barely good enough to use. "Vendors and users of Al systems have a shared responsibility to ensure that Al is tested for bias, particularly when used in law enforcement, and that such bias testing is audited and reported," said Krishna in the letter. She also mentioned those in the field, particularly Amazon, that has been called out for the poor quality of their facial recognition systems but continued to market them. Meanwhile, it is unclear whether the company will continue to perform AI research or not. The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 Krishna has written a bill that addresses a wide range of issues that police departments encounter. It already has dozens of co-sponsors in the House and the Senate. Primarily, the Act prohibits the "federal, state, and local law enforcement from racial, religious and discriminatory profiling, and mandates training on racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling for all law enforcement." It also prohibits "chokeholds, carotid holds and no-knock warrants" as well as "limits the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement." The bill expands requirements for body cameras while it limits the use of facial recognition in connection with them. It also seeks to provide grants for the hardware only if they are used under publicly developed and listed protocols. It also requires the creation of a National Police Misconduct Registry to inhibit "problematic officers who are fired from or leave the agency from moving to another jurisdiction without any accountability." Meanwhile, a Department of Justice task force will be created "to coordinate the investigation, prosecution and enforcement efforts of federal, state and local governments" towards misconducts of law enforcement. In a statement issued by the ACLU regarding the bill, the group seemed to concur with its approach. "We need to invest in technologies that can help eliminate the digital divide, not technologies that create a surveillance infrastructure that exacerbates policing abuses and structural racism," ACLU said in a statement. Read also: N. Korea Ends Ties With S. Korea Saying They're the 'Enemy' 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. (Bloomberg) -- The Chinese behemoth that makes electric-car batteries for Tesla Inc. and Volkswagen AG developed a power pack that lasts more than a million miles -- an industry landmark and a potential boon for automakers trying to sway drivers to their EV models. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. is ready to produce a battery that lasts 16 years and 2 million kilometers (1.24 million miles), Chairman Zeng Yuqun said in an interview at company headquarters in Ningde, southeastern China. Warranties on batteries currently used in electric cars cover about 150,000 miles or eight years, according to BloombergNEF. Extending that lifespan is viewed as a key advance because the pack could be reused in a second vehicle. That would lower the expense of owning an electric vehicle, a positive for an industry thats seeking to recover sales momentum lost to the coronavirus outbreak and the slumping oil prices that made gas guzzlers more competitive. If someone places an order, we are ready to produce, said Zeng, 52, without disclosing if contracts for the long-distance product have been signed. It would cost about 10% more than the batteries now inside EVs, said Zeng, whose company is the worlds largest maker of the batteries. Concerns about batteries losing strength and having to be replaced after a few years is one factor holding back consumer adoption of EVs. Tesla last year flagged it expected to bring into production a battery capable of a million miles of operation, and General Motors Co. last month said it is nearing the milestone. That distance is equivalent to circling the planet 50 times. Anticipating a rapid return to growth for the EV industry, CATL is plowing research-and-development dollars into advances in battery technology. While the coronavirus outbreak will drag down sales throughout this year, EV demand will pick up in early 2021, said Zeng, who founded CATL a decade ago. Car buyers holding back during the pandemic is creating pent-up demand that will be unleashed starting next year, led by premium models, he said. CATLs customers include BMW AG and Toyota Motor Corp. Story continues Zengs comments strengthen views that electric vehicles are set to weather the economic slowdown caused by the outbreak better than gas guzzlers. Battery-powered cars will swell to 8.1% of all sales next year in China, which accounts for the largest share of global EV sales, and to 5% in Europe, BNEF predicts. The pandemic may have a lasting effect throughout 2020, but wont be a major factor next year, Zeng said. We have great confidence for the long run. CATL struck a two-year contract in February to supply batteries to Tesla, a major boon for the Chinese company as the U.S. electric-car leader has thus far mainly worked with Japans Panasonic Corp. and South Koreas LG Chem Ltd. The deal followed months of negotiations, with Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk traveling to Shanghai to meet with Zeng. The CATL batteries are set to go into Model 3 sedans produced at Teslas massive new factory near Shanghai, which started deliveries around the beginning of this year. Batteries are the costliest part of an EV, meaning suppliers of those components have a chance to reap a lions share of the industrys profits. Zeng said he often shares insights with Musk, with the two exchanging text messages about developments in technology and business. CATL is strengthening its relationship with Tesla, with matters such as cobalt-free batteries on their agenda, Zeng said. Were getting along well and hes a fun guy, Zeng said of Musk. Hes talking about cost all day long, and Im making sure we have the solutions. Zeng said Musk also requested his help in obtaining ventilators for coronavirus patients. The U.S. billionaire delivered more than 1,000 of the breathing machines from China to officials in Los Angeles in March. Shares of CATL have advanced about six-fold in Shenzhen since its initial public offering in 2018, giving the company a market value of about $47 billion. Tesla, by far the most valuable EV maker, has a market capitalization of about $160 billion. A trigger point for electric cars will occur once they overtake gasoline-powered vehicles around 2030-2035, Zeng said. That view is more ambitious than that of researchers such as BNEF, which expects the shift to take place a few years later. CATL, which is adding a production facility in Germany, is set to make more than 70% of batteries required by BMW, an early customer, Zeng said. CATL also works with Volkswagens Audi unit and is cooperating with Porsche, he said. Zeng didnt rule out building a plant in the U.S., though he said the company has no specific plans for now. Our team has made achievements in competing with our global rivals in overseas markets, Zeng said. 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. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 16:26:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SHIJIAZHUANG, June 9 (Xinhua) -- A new, regular air cargo route linking Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province and Manila, the Philippines capital, has been launched recently. This was the third all-cargo air route opened by Shijiazhuang Zhengding International Airport this year. The routes mainly transport general cargo and cross-border e-commerce cargo between the north Chinese city and Southeast Asia region. Using a Boeing 757F aircraft, three flights are scheduled to operate on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays respectively by Shanghai YTO Express (Logistics) Co., Ltd. The Shijiazhuang-Manila flight departs at 9:00 a.m. Beijing time and arrives in Manila at 3:15 p.m., while the return flight departs at 4:25 p.m. and arrives in Shijiazhuang at 10:50 p.m., according to the airport. Enditem Philippines-based fast-food chain Jollibee is now open in Edison, after construction began in the weeks before the coronavirus pandemic spiked in New Jersey. Its located at 760 Route 1 North, replacing a shuttered Roy Rogers, according to a report by ROI-NJ. The dining room is closed indefinitely but drive-thru service is available. A Jollibee employee told NJ Advance Media the grand opening was held June 6. The menu includes casual Filipino fare like fried chicken coined as chickenjoy," Filipino-style spaghetti, burgers and peach mango pie. A traditional Filipino noodle dish Palabok which is smothered in garlic sauce, crushed pork rind, shrimp and egg is also on the menu. Jollibee opened its first New Jersey spot over seven years ago in Jersey City at 393 Danforth Ave. Before the pandemic hit, Jollibee had hoped to open 150 more restaurants in the United States within the next five years, according to ROI-NJ. There are 37 Jollibee restaurants in the United States and about 1,300 worldwide, according to its website. RELATED STORIES ABOUT RETAIL: Face mask options to wear in the summer heat, reasonably priced and available Pools, sprinklers, slides and other water toys for backyard fun this summer Fathers Day gifts 2020: Apple watch is on sale for 20% off Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Nicolette Accardi can be reached at naccardi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter: @N_Accardi. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips The COVID-19 outbreak has been hitting Texas and most parts of the world. In connection to this, black lawmakers are saying that Republican Governor Greg Abbott and state officials have failed to address their requests for better data and initiatives to alleviate the fatal impact of COVID-19 on Black Americans. A The Dallas Morning News report on Sunday said that since the state recorded its first confirmed COVID-19 case in March, black legislators have been requesting for a task force, to get a more accurate number of the effects of the virus on brown and black Texans, and augmented testing in severely affected black and brown communities. The same report said, "Texas has struggled" in tracking racial health differences. More so, many of the over 76,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,700 deaths on the case dashboard of the state lack information on ethnicity and race. As of Friday, The Dallas Morning News reported, Texas had not yet received the ethnicity or race of 79 percent of the cases which were reported to the state, as well as 63 percent of the reported mortalities. Question Remains Unanswered Houston Democrat Sen. Borris Miles said, he, himself, his colleagues "and people of color" have been asking the government without answers. He told the newspaper, "It's like we don't exist." According to the senator, in mid-May, he was able to get COVID-19 testing provided by the state in mostly black and Latino communities that are "considered hot spots" in his district. However, that was a couple of months ago, Sen. Borris said, after the governor's declaration of "a state of disaster." In a newspaper report, John Wittman, a spokesman for Abbott, said Texas would considerably ramp up testing in Latino and black communities. No further details have been provided, though. In April, Gov. Abbott said, he was working with legislators to better respond to the disproportionate effect of the pandemic on African Americans. Meanwhile, spokeswoman for the Department of State Health Services, Lara Anton said, local health authorities are conducting their own COVID-19 case and death investigation. The investigation conducted, she explained, is then turned over to the state. She also said the completion of investigations "take time," and it depends upon the conditions. Such circumstances, the spokeswoman added, do not include ethnicity and race data as people opt not to answer the particular question. State with Enough Data to Determine Trends Texas had enough data to determine trends, Anton said. For instance, she explained, "blacks make up 16 percent of the COVID-19 cases in the state even though they are just 12 percent of the populace. Nevertheless, the spokeswoman continued, "With so much of the data completed" and identified as "unknown," Anton said the real number of cases among blacks could be "much higher than the state's." Other than the Democrats, eight Republicans have also called for the state's action. They, including some of the most conservative members of the House, joined state Rep. Shawn Thierry, calling for a task force to evaluate racial differences. The lone Republican in the Legislature, Rep. James White, said that gathering racial data is essential to address this ongoing global health crisis. Check these out! A Gold Coast family has put their lives on hold as their critically ill baby girl fights for life with an uncertain future ahead of her. Scarlett Furner is just 10 months old but has already had three open-heart surgeries and has gone into cardiac arrest twice. She has been in hospital since April 13 and will likely spend her first birthday there due to a recent failed heart surgery, followed by a series of health complications that have stalled her recovery. Parents Ashleigh Taylor and Josh Furner have put their careers on hold to maintain a constant vigil at their little girl's bedside in the intensive care unit at Queensland Children's Hospital in Brisbane. Scarlett Furner (pictured after the latest setback on May 22 ) has suffered multiple complications following two recent open-heart surgeries, including a sepsis infection Scarlett had just started crawling when she was admitted to hospital for open-heart surgery 'Although very sick, Scarlett is full of smiles all the time and is the happiest little baby,' Ms Taylor told Daily Mail Australia. 'She has every reason to be angry and hate the world but she smiles at everyone. 'She won't be leaving ICU anytime soon. She has gone from crawling to being stuck in a hospital bed for two months.' Born with complicated congenital heart defects, Scarlett was just four weeks old when she underwent open-heart surgery and went into cardiac arrest. Her second open-heart surgery on April 15 failed and resulted in her going into cardiac arrest again and was placed on an extracorporeal life support machine, which can have serious side effects. A third heart surgery eight days later was more successful. Being at their daughter's hospital bedside since April 13 has taken an emotional and financial toll on Ashleigh Taylor and Josh Furner (pictured with Scarlett) However, Scarlett has since suffered a series of complications from being on the ECMO which have affected her kidney, liver, brain, lungs, spleen and other organs. A platelet dysfunction caused Scarlett to bleed into her skin on top of countless lung infections and seizures. Scarlett was recovering in the normal ward when she was rushed back to ICU after being diagnosed with sepsis. 'Scarlett now has two unhealthy lungs as well as a faulty heart,' Ms Taylor said. 'She has had that many defects I've lost count.' Connor, 5, hasn't seen his baby sister Scarlett since she was admitted to hospital in April There are are also fears little Scarlett may have brain damage, but it is too early to tell the extent of it. 'The long-term prognosis for Scarlett is uncertain,' Ms Taylor said. 'We don't know what the future holds. The extent of brain damage is unknown and she will need more heart surgery.' The next goal is to work with doctors to come up with a new treatment plan after Scarlett underwent a catheterisation procedure on Tuesday. 'All we want now is to her to be out of bed and moving around again,' Ms Taylor said. 'Although very sick, Scarlett (pictured in hospital) is full of smiles all the time and is the happiest little baby,' mum Ashleigh Taylor told Daily Mail Australia. Adding to the parents' anguish is the fact they have not seen their son Connor, 5, for two months. 'It's hard being away from Connor but we would do the the same thing if he was the one who was sick, you go to the child that needs you,' Ms Taylor told Daily Mail Australia. 'He just wants his baby sister back home safe.' Scarlett's parents have lived off their savings for the last two months. Unable to afford a hotel, the couple have stayed with friends as they struggle to cover the costs of their baby's surgery. Connor (left) says goodbye to his baby sister Scarlett before she went to hospital in April Ms Taylor and her partner have been overwhelmed by the generous support given through a GoFundMe page that has already raised $17,215 to help ease the financial burden. 'The one time I tried to return to work was when Scarlett's condition rapidly deteriorated,' Ms Taylor said. 'The money raised will be a lifesaver and will make a difference while we remain by her side in hospital. 'When you have a child with a history of being in and out of hospital, it's hard to save money. We've chewed through our entire savings so we're blown away by the money raised.' Scarlett Furner (pictured with dad Josh) will likely spend her first birthday in hospital The United States of America and Russia will begin nuclear arms control talks this month since the remaining treaty between the two big countries is about to expire. According to CNN's latest report, a top U.S. arms control official announced on Monday, June 8, that a meeting for nuclear arms negotiations will be conducted by the United States and Russia. The report confirmed that the time and place for the nuclear arms negotiations, which will be conducted in June, was already agreed on by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea. A number of key arms control pacts, with Open Skies Treaty as the most recent one, was abandoned by the Trump administration in favor of seeking a three-party agreement with Russia and China. To widely scuttle the nuclear reduction treaty between the U.S. and Russia that will expire in February 2021, also called as "New START" or New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a trilateral agreement was insisted. Calls to participate in the trilateral talks were already dismissed by Beijing. Billingslea confirmed in a tweet posted on Monday, June 8, that China was invited to this month's discussion. "Will China show and negotiate in good faith?" wrote Billingslea. "We do absolutely expect that whatever arrangements are reached, the Chinese will be part of a trilateral framework going forward," he added, reiterating last month that a future arms control agreement is expected to be multilateral. U.S. and Russia will begin nuclear arms control talks as the remaining treaty is about to expire The incentive of China to join the talks is still unclear, as stated by Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, since the size of its nuclear arsenal is disproportionate in comparison to that of the U.S. and Russia. Almost 85% of the world's nuclear power weapon belongs to the latter two countries, which is more than 10 times the combined number of strategic nuclear warheads deployed by Britain, France, and China. Kimball also noted that the administration's escalated rhetoric toward China during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will not have helped bring them to the table. The notion stating that China should not participate in the nuclear arms control until it reaches the levels of Russia, and Billingslea dismissed the U.S. in remarks at the Hudson Institute in May. Kimball said that it is good that Russia and the U.S. will conduct a meeting to discuss the nuclear arms control matters, but it should not be celebrated since the Trump administration seems to remain the same. "They're refusing to pick up Russia's offer to extend New START," said Kimball. "They appear to be still demanding new agreements that can't be negotiated before New START expires, not only with Russia but with China. So, I'm not jumping up and down for joy," he added. Also Read: [BREAKING] Senate: U.S. Officials Let Chinese Telecom Abuse America's Privacy For Almost 20 Years 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 11: Ashley Graham walks the runway at Prabal Gurung - Runway - February 2018 - New York Fashion Week: at Spring Studios on February 11, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) Update July 9, 2020: Balmain's Olivier Rousteing and Simon Porte Jacquemus are two designers hosting physical runway shows this summer, despite the coronavirus pandemic, with Balmain's staged on a boat on the River Seine. Jacquemus's spring 2021 L'Amour collection will be revealed at a secret location in Paris in front of a select few guests in keeping with COVID-19 safety guidelines on July 16, 2020. Update July 1, 2020: It looks like Fashion Month in Europe this September will include live shows. While the men's shows will be digital this month, the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, which is in charge of Milan Fashion Week, announced that there will be physical shows taking place from September 22-28. "[Digital fashion week] is designed to support, rather than replace, the physical fashion calendar, which will resume in September and will remain vital in promoting Made in Italy and the value of its manufacturing prowess," CNMI President Carolo Capasa said in a statement. For Paris, the Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode released a statement saying that physical runway shows will be taking place for the Spring 2021 collections. In London, Burberry stated that they will be holding a live outdoor show with no audience this September as well. Original Post: It looks like we'll be seeing a lot more digital fashion shows this summer. The coronavirus pandemic has caused the fashion industry to change its regular Fashion Week format for the next few seasons, and many major events like the Met Gala, the CFDA Awards, and the Cannes Film Festival have all been postponed indefinitely. We've already seen designers like Jacquemus adapt to the new normal by creating fashion campaigns shot via FaceTime starring celebrities like Bella Hadid. Carine Roitfeld even turned her CR Runway show into an online event that premiered live on YouTube, as did Vogue with its virtual event A Moment With the Met. Story continues The British Fashion Council announced that London Fashion Week would be taking place online in June this year. The new digital format will allow brands to showcase collections in whatever format they want, ranging from a virtual runway show all the way to a podcast. Milan Fashion Week will be hosting the first Milan Digital Fashion Week from July 14 to July 17 for the men's Spring 2021 collections, as well as women's and men's precollections for next spring. The Camera Nazionale della Moda in Italy is set to unveil the full calendar of the mainly digital fashion showcase later this week. Its president, Carlo Capasa, stated in an interview with Vogue that it's creating a new platform with Microsoft for these digital shows. "Every one of the 35 or 40 brands showing is free to use their time as the designer wants; you can have a fashion movie, a virtual show, a physical show with a limited audience, something else - whatever the designer feels it's right to do. Every designer is approaching the challenge in a different way, and it's going to be very interesting to see what they do. Plus, we will be showing the womenswear pre-collections for those companies that want to show them too. Designers have been working hard to get collections, most much smaller than usual, ready for July. And maybe sales won't be so strong because this is a difficult time across the world. But we didn't want to miss out entirely a season because a total stop would put a lot of small businesses at risk," Capasa said. As for Paris Fashion Week, the Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode announced that shows from July 9 to 13 will also follow suit, and designers will be able to showcase their new collections solely through video formats. Related: See the Best Model Street Style Outfits at Fashion Week The Supermodels Provided Us With Serious Street Style This Fashion Month TRUMBULL Trumbull High School will celebrate its Class of 2020 with a series of in-car processions and recognition ceremonies, according to a letter to parents and students from Principal Marc Guarino. The decision was based on recommendations from the Graduation Advisory Committee that has been meeting since Guarinos initial graduation announcement May 28. That announcement was met with criticism from studeents and parents that dubbed the plan a drive-thru graduation. Even former First Selectman Timothy Herbst joined the criticism, stating that were he still first selectman, he would have shut down the June 6 George Floyed protest vigil if Trumbull High did not hold an in-person graduation. Following the public backlash, the schools announced that graduation plans were a work in progress. The newly announced plans, though, likely will not satisfy the nearly 3,000 people who signed an online petition demanding graduation be delayed until it could be held outdoors and in-person, but there was simply no other option, Guarino wrote. As it has been shared with you, any plan for our graduation ceremony needs to be aligned with current executive orders issued by our governor, guidelines set forth by the Connecticut State Department of Education and the Department of Public Health and approved by our public safety officials, Guarino wrote. At no time during this process, either this week or before, was there going to be a graduation plan that did not meet these health and safety standards or not have the Town of Trumbulls approval. Gov. Ned Lamonts Executive Order allows for maximum of 25 people for social and recreational gatherings following social distancing guidelines. Last week, Lamont announced outdoor gatherings of 150 people would be allowed after July 6. Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona also has informed school districts that graduations will be allowed with a cap of 150 people total, including graduates, after July 6, 2020, so long as public health data supports the continued reopening of the state. Cardona also told local school officials that the state is developing protocols for outdoor graduation ceremonies that included mandated social distancing rules and the use of face masks. But with more than 500 students in its graduating class, Trumbull High still would be unable to hold an outdoor graduation. Large schools like Trumbull and Greenwich do not gain any flexibility with the governors recent changes, he wrote. As a committee, we felt this recent change does not allow for a ceremony that is inclusive and equitable for a class of over 500 students and their families that would need to be scheduled over multiple weekend days throughout the month of July. In unveiling the new graduation plan, Guarino acknowledged it was unlikely to satisfy some. Our committee...acknowledge that no single graduation plan would be the preferred options for all students and families, he wrote. During this unprecedented time, we understand that many of our daily routines and long standing traditions have been impacted. According to the graduation plan, graduates will sign up for a graduation time slot, and one car per family will be allowed on campus. Each graduate in turn would get out of their vehicle, have their name read by an administrator and walk across the stage to receive their diploma jacket and have their photo taken. Graduates will not have to wear masks. Graduation also will be live streamed and each graduate will receive a grad bag featuring Class of 2020 items. There also will be a recorded virtual graduation ceremony. The rain date is June 27. Guarino said the ceremony is similar to about 60 percent of schools throughout the state, and less restrictive than some that are having virtual ceremonies only. Amid rising tensions between India and China at the LAC, there finally seems to be some thaw in the chill in sight. Highly placed sources in the army gave our sister channel NewsX some inside details on the high-level military dialogue held on Saturday. Top Indian Army Sources inform NewsX that both the corps commanders interacted one to one for almost 3 hours before engaging at the delegation level. Both sides have reportedly identified five conflicting locations- Patrolling point (PP) 14, 15, 17, North Bank of Pangsong Tso lake and Chushul. Also, sources inform us that both the sides mutually decided to meet at these locations on a regular basis for next 10 days and try to sort out the issues. Army officers of the lower rank of Col, Brig and Major Gen will attend these meetings. The first meeting of this series of HMCLs (Higher Military Commander Level) will be held tomorrow at PP14. To ensure smooth relations between the two armies, it was also proposed that both the sides should meet often and conduct a Corps Commanders level meet once or twice a year. The hotlines at tactical level, identified as DBO-TWD & Chushul-Moldo are currently on and open. After the meeting, both the armies have retreated a bit, which wasnt done until Saturday. India has, however, reiterated that that construction at the DBO road, which has been objected by China, will not be halted as the area lies within the Indian boundary. Its response to PLA has also been stopped quickly and strongly. Sources have also expressed that the army headquarters are fully satisfied with the Northern Army & 14 Corps Commanders actions as they have managed to match to the Chineses army in terms of men & machine deployments at every location. If PLA doesnt retreat, the army is also fully ready prepared for a long & permanent deployment. They added that all the three services, are coordinating well among themselves and sharing regular briefs on PLA front. But, as long as the core issue remains undecided at the LAC, these episodic issues will continue to persist. Another major issue that continues to be a bone of contention is actually the built up by both the sides. Also Read: Devise a plan to deal with earthquakes on urgent basis, asks HC to Delhi govt, civic bodies Also Read: BSF warns its hospitals against denial of admission to Covid-19 patients Sources say that China has deployed fighter-bombers, Rocket forces, Air Defence radars, jammers etc on the rear side. To counter that, the Indian side has also deployed all its major assets just few KMs away from the frontline. Though both sides are committed to solution via communication it looks like the face-off is likely to continue until one side decides to re-treat. Also Read: Centre says no community spread of Covid-19 in Delhi, cases will reach around 5.5 lakh till July 31: Deputy CM Manish Sisodia For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms teared up during a TV segment in which she told how she had warned her young son not to play with toy guns. In an interview with Axios on HBO concerning the national response to the killing of George Floyd, Mayor Bottoms said she discovered that her 12-year-old son had bought a cap gun without her knowledge. Seeing him with it she had recalled the 2014 shooting of Tamir Rice. Tamir was fatally shot in a park in Cleveland, Ohio, by a police officer who saw him playing with a toy gun. He was 12 years old. Mayor Bottoms was asked why previous deaths of African Americans at the hands of the police had not been enough for the country to demand change, when Tamirs name was mentioned. Explaining that her son had, unknown to her, accessed her Amazon account and purchased the toy, Ms Bottoms, a mother of four, became understandably emotional, her voice catching in her throat. I just saw my 12-year-old, who's running around the house with a cap gun, a black cap gun. And I thought about Tamir Rice, Ms Bottoms said. My son went into my Amazon account and he ordered it. And I didn't know he had ordered it. She continued, wiping away a tear: You know, the talk again, about you cant play with cap guns children get killed for that. Mayor Bottoms wondered if in the same way she saw her son with the cap gun, did Tamirs mother know that perhaps he had ordered a cap gun on Amazon and was outside playing with it? Elected in 2018 as the city of Atlantas 60th mayor, Ms Bottoms has been lauded for her response to both the Covid-19 pandemic, and the protests and unrest in her city following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. She has walked in the streets with protesters, and chastised those that rioted, telling them that chaos is not protest, protest has purpose. Ms Bottoms also condemned comments by Donald Trump for stoking racial tensions and making it worse. She has encouraged people to register to vote if they want change in America. In June 2019, Mayor Bottoms endorsed former vice president Joe Biden for president and has been tipped as a possible running mate on the Democratic ticket by some observers. North Korea will shut down a liaison office it shares with South Korea by noon Tuesday and sever other official communication including a leaders' hotline, sending a chill in relations between the heavily armed rivals. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said it was taking the move because South Korean authorities had "connived" to carry out "hostile acts" against the country. The statement appeared to be referring to leaflets critical of leader Kim Jong Un being sent across the border by anti-Pyongyang activists in South Korea. "This measure is the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary things," KCNA said, adding that North Korean officials Kim Yong Chol and Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong gave the instruction to "completely cut off all the communication and liaison lines" with the South. The move comes as North Korea has turned a cold shoulder to President Moon Jae-in and his offers to restore economic and trade ties between the neighbors that once represented as much as about 10% of North Korea's economy. Those contributions have dwindled to virtually nothing since global sanctions were imposed on Kim's regime for 2017 tests of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles in defiance of United Nations resolutions. The latest act by North Korea comes as the two nations are about to mark the 20th anniversary of the first summit between their leaders - an event that opened hopes of reconciliation between the neighbors. North Korea also said it would shut a communication channel used by military forces on both sides. South Korea's government hasn't officially commented on the North Korean move to cut communications. North Korea has slammed Moon for standing by the U.S. over sanctions, which are part of President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign to force Kim to give up his nuclear weapons. North Korea tested the patience of South Korea on Monday by delaying a regularly scheduled phone conversation at the inter-Korean liaison office, located in the border city of Kaesong, after saying it was abolishing the project that once allowed the rivals to communicate round the clock. North Korea didn't answer the phone at the office on Tuesday morning, Yonhap News Agency of South Korea said, while the JoongAng Daily said it wasn't answering the military line, as well. The liaison facility was opened in the spirit of rapprochement advocated by Moon and was part of moves to reduce threats along the border, where the two countries have stationed about 1 million troops. It allowed for constant communication between the two sides for the first time since the start of the 1950-53 Korean War. The channels were established in 2018 after Kim and Moon held summits over the course of five months between April and September that resulted in an agreement to lower tensions on their border. North Korea accused South Korea of violating the agreement by allowing the balloon launches. "We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay," KCNA said. South Korea said last week it would look to ban anti-North Korea leaflets flying over the border by balloon after a rebuke from Kim Yo Jong. The younger Kim, who has become a key player in relations with Seoul, accused South Korea of tolerating a "sordid and wicked act of hostility." Millions of leaflets sent by South Korean activists and defectors from North Korea have flown across the border for more than a decade bearing messages critical of North Korea's leaders, fueling friction between the rivals. Leaflets that raise questions about the leader's grip on power have tended to draw some of the sharpest rebukes from Pyongyang over the years. The latest leaflets came after Kim Jong Un has made fewer public appearances over the past several weeks than normal, leading to global speculation about his health. Since the start of last year, North Korea has increased the threat it poses to South Korea and the some 28,500 U.S. military personnel in the country by rolling out new lines of short-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that can hit all of the country and are designed to evade U.S. interceptors. meghan admitting she didn't do research about what defunding the police is about yet asking kamala a baited question. god i'm sick of her Reply Thread Link she's a full moron Reply Parent Thread Link meghan sucks but it's not an illegitmate question. don't say 'defund the police', if you mean 'significantly reduce the funds of police to redistribute to other publlic services'. only say it if you really do mean 'take away all of their funds' Reply Parent Thread Link I dont agree with this? I hear defund the police and I never once thought it meant to eliminate the police. I always figured it meant reducing funds they get. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link You're correct. Defund absolutely began as a call to take all their money (because it originally began as "abolish" but got watered down). Politicians are latching on so they can specifically water down what the actual demand is until it becomes yet another bit of useless liberal reformism that doesn't do anything but move some cash around to some different agencies. Edited at 2020-06-10 08:08 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link I am literally so tired of media giving attention to a woman whose only "merit" in life is being the daughter of a dead racist senator. Her opinion is as valuable as mine and I'm a fucking nobody! lol Reply Parent Thread Link wait, your typo is confusing me. what doe sthe second part of your sentence mean?- after 'police'? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Once again, wishing I could protest but I'm donating/sharing petitions/and doing everything in me to educate people around me and on social media about what is going on. I feel like such a failure for not going out there but I've got my own health issues and literally, everyone in my family aside from my brother is immunocompromised :( Like I just saw an article about people with high blood pressure being super high risk for corona and that'd wipe out two of the most important women in my life that I currently live with. The whole thing just...frustrates me. I hate sitting idle. I'm so proud of everyone going out there and doing their part though, their bravery is inspiring. Reply Thread Link [ TL;DR No1curr ] The interview went well though! It was pretty casual and I explained my life story as a community college kid rising up from a city most people look down on to being at a big university and how important I think it is for young WOC especially to use their voice and never be afraid of looking stupid or wrong or making mistakes. We need more of us in politics and governance. I hope I get a high ranking position (fingers crossed president or VP as I know if a white girl gets it it's going to be whack af)! For my first initiative, I want to help get homeless women and domestic violence survivors registered to vote because community outreach is BIG to me. I know you're right but I feel like this is bigger than me. I want to be there in solidarity. At the same time I live with people who are very high risk and I'm high risk myself so it's like, just unfortunate. Reply Parent Thread Link I feel the same about wanting to protest but I do the COVID testing for my state and I really dont want to risk it for everyone even though I have no symptoms. Reply Parent Thread Link you're doing more than enough Reply Parent Thread Link I have been a frequent critic of her because of some of her past work but she was brilliant, @shaunking says to @POLITICO about @KamalaHarris, referring to a recent @MSNBC appearance. It made me much more comfortable with her as a potential VP pick. https://t.co/lfXfZALGDb Michael Kruse (@michaelkruse) June 7, 2020 Kamala has kicked off her VP campaigning hard, LoL. Even Shaun King had adjusted his grift. Reply Thread Link I'd only enjoy watching her eat Mike Pence alive in a debate, I don't even remember that wax figure's debates in 2016 Reply Parent Thread Link lmao, didn't read the article but i can only imagine the level of criminal justice reformers that'd be willing to go on record to try and claim she has neutralized her tough on crime past. Reply Parent Thread Link lmaooo, just read the article and the reformers quoted were kim foxx, shaun king and ppl who are obviously looking for a paycheck from her forthcoming campaign. Reply Parent Thread Link The saddest part is that her team obviously personally has reached out to those specific grifters to bring them in because that's how they think she'll get VP. Is she going to reach out to Beth Lynch next? LoL, these people DESTROYED her by making her shit record meme-able and they think killing the meme will fix the record?! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link That fact that people still want to know what Sh*un K*ng has to say. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link The fact that people still give Shaun King the time of day in the year of our Lady 2020 blows my mind. Reply Parent Thread Link Lmaoooo the Dem Party really will go with the Kopmala Harris "rebranding" on the basis of the BLM protests, won't they? Trash all around Reply Thread Link LoL, her fucking obnoxious niece even released a children's book featuring Kamala in the past week! I love her unending selfies from the protests. It has Ian Sams all over it. Ma'am, the world's press is RIGHT THERE - wait 10 minutes and they'll take the photo FOR you! Reply Parent Thread Link I'm shocked Stacey Abrams hasn't come back for hardcore self-promo myself. Reply Parent Thread Link Stacey getting overshadowed by the mayor in her own backyard was a plot twist I didnt see coming tbh. Reply Parent Thread Link Biden shut down Stacey when he humiliated her on national television. Reply Parent Thread Link Shell be on Thursday, lol Reply Parent Thread Link She rose to prominence due to performative resistance to Trump despite her record, so it makes sense this would be her next angle. Reply Parent Thread Link lmao everyone going after yashar rn. clown. Reply Thread Link I was trying to make a post about that! But he deleted it and I gave up trying. Reply Parent Thread Link 1. A lot of debate on this tweet of mine to the left. I have deleted it while keeping it here so that it can sit next to @alisoneromans tweet. This is photo was sitting on Alisons MySpace page...you can google it. She has a recent history of being called out for appropriation. pic.twitter.com/HYHNQ2vjNI Yashar Ali (@yashar) June 8, 2020 Do it! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link What he do now? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link And I fucking CALLED it in the original post on here!! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I wanted to go to the LA Pride X BLM protest but then I saw that they were being called out for not even organizing with any of the Black Lives Matter organization Reply Thread Link If you follow inthistogether_la on instagram, they do a pretty good job of making a list of the various protests going on. I'm fortunate that I live pretty central so there have been protests right outside my apt the last two weekends. It definitely is a hassle/risk to take your car to a protest.. not to mention finding parking. Someone I follow on ig was also complaining that the covid testing sites are a struggle to get to with only public transportation. Reply Parent Thread Link if it makes you feel any better, they're getting sued by the ACLU for enacting curfews so curfews are done for now. Reply Parent Thread Link where in LA are you? there's lots of instagram accounts that are very good with giving real time updates about where protests are happening and where they're headed, and with curfew lifted it should be easier Reply Parent Thread Link Fucking yikes Reply Parent Thread Link people are putting a lot of pressure on them so i hope they make some serious changes. Reply Parent Thread Link Meghan is so dumb. Reply Thread Link jfc I was NOT TALKING TO YOU. Reply Parent Thread Link would love to hear ur thoughts anydoppelganger will delete this later so I don't dox myself lol also I called out jia tolentino for posting about blm and she messaged me. I don't even know how to respond to her since she's doubling down on her blog post / framing the entire indictment as ICE going after her parents? there have already been a lot of ppl telling her that she's completely dismissed the voices of the 200+ filipina women that her parents are accused of trafficking.. she also noted that the agency didn't involve usury, threats, or blackmail. but we all know that labor exploitation is not limited to just that.would love to hear ur thoughtswill delete this later so I don't dox myself lol Reply Thread Link she actually messaged you! wtf? I hate that she has a cover from the protests Reply Parent Thread Link Lol tbf I left a message directly on her ig post, which she deleted then dmed me. She actually seems pretty nice otherwise Reply Parent Thread Link how dare she. Reply Parent Thread Link hey bb! idk if there's a way to get notifications when someone mentions your username haha but my friend did see this comment and let me know. good on you for calling her out! and yeah, I'm glad to hear that people have been calling her out and pointing out her hypocrisy (although looking at twitter, i do think some of people who have been doing so are borderline harassing her-- but it sounds like you engaged her honestly because she responded to you). it's interesting that she DM'd you and i'm wondering if she has been responding to any other people criticizing her. did she say anything specific other than doubling down? I understand why she would believe her parents' version of events (they are her parents after all ) but I find it so absurd that she, a journalist, doesn't understand how it looks to use her platform like that. It still makes no sense to me why she chose to respond publicly, even if she truly believes their version of events, she can't present it like that. She, of all people, really should understand the importance of centering the story on the alleged victims. I mean, even from their testimonies, they claimed there was usury and threats, I don't know how she can disregard that or expect reader to. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link ONTD Angelenos, can we discuss how the LAPD called Mayor Garcetti mentally deranged for barely suggesting a fraction of a fraction cut to their budget in order to save face? Reply Thread Link i'm pretty sure garcetti's cut wasn't even a cut. he's cutting part of an increase that they're supposed to get!! Reply Parent Thread Link joyce seem too happy. me think she think the protest was about trump. seem like she couldnt careless about black pp until whoopy brought it up. Reply Thread Link Thats what shes like now, anytime a race issue comes up she starts talking about Trump and pretends Trump invented racism in America. Reply Parent Thread Link Thank you! It's so frustrating to watch, racism didn't begin and end with this creep and sometimes a topic can go by without making it about his malignancy, Joy ffs Reply Parent Thread Link A lot of white libs think like that. They think ICE, police brutality, and racism all started in 2016 when Trump got elected. Reply Parent Thread Link gotta sell that book! Reply Parent Thread Link i hate meghan. i used to think she was a republican i could tolerate/support but she reminds me too much of my unintelligent sister in both looks and wordplay Reply Thread Link Ive been to Two protests in my life and had anxiety attacks at both. So Im One of These people who talks a lot But doesnt walk the walk. I cannot Imagine how brave people are for going to them. I have a meltdown when theres more than 5 people in the room. Reply Thread Link Residents of Yantumaki community in Danmusa Local Government Area of Katsina, on Tuesday, poured on the streets protesting against insecurity following the kidnap of a health worker and his daughter. The health personnel, identified as Mansir Yusuf, was said to have been kidnapped alongside his daughter around 1: 00 am by unidentified gunmen, a source said. The development is coming after PREMIUM TIMES reported how the district head of Yantumaki, Atiku Abubakar, was shot dead by gunmen at his residence. Residents said the kidnapped health worker is a neighbour to the late district head, who was assassinated by unidentified gunmen, a source said, asking not to be named. The protesters, mostly youth and underage children, also blocked highways, castigating the government over security negligence ever since their district head was killed. There have been no security personnel at the community since the district head was killed. We are protesting to call the attention of the government before these gunmen commence daily attacks on our community. READ ALSO: Now, (they) killed our district head, and came back again. This means that they will be coming, since they are not facing any challenge anytime they carry attacks. The government needs to do the needful before the situation went out of control, a senior community leader said. The police spokesperson in Katsina, Gambo Isah, did not respond to calls seeking official comment. The Danmusa Local Government Area in Katsina shares a border with the Zurmi Local Government Area in Zamfara State. Both states in the North-West are under frequent attacks from gunmen. China's warning against travel to Australia based on adequate facts: FM Global Times By Xu Keyue Source:Global Times Published: 2020/6/8 18:15:48 China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the alert against travel to Australia was based on adequate facts, as the country has seen a spike in racial abuse toward Chinese and other Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to an Australian reporter who questioned the warning. "There are ample facts and arguments for China's travel alert to Australia," Hua Chunying, spokesperson of the ministry, said at a press conference. Hua noted that recently, discriminations against Chinese and other Asians in Australia have emerged, as widely reported by Australian media. "For example, some Australian politicians and media called the coronavirus a 'Chinese virus' and maliciously tampered with the Chinese national flag and national emblem. Many overseas Chinese in Australia have been verbally insulted or even attacked, the property of some Chinese and other Asian families was destroyed and they suffered unfair treatment in their daily work," Hua said. "Racist graffiti targeting China was seen in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and other Australian cities," she noted. Data from the Australian Human Rights Commission showed that in the first quarter of 2020, hundreds of Asians complained of racial discriminations, which made up 25 percent of the complaints, according to Hua. The Australian Broadcasting Corp reported that there were three racist attacks against Chinese families in one week in April. The state of New South Wales received 241 racial discrimination complaints between January and April 2020, while police in Queensland received 22 such reports from March to early May, said Hua. Aren't these reports "persuasive enough?" asked Hua. The Chinese government has always taken a responsible attitude and reminded Chinese nationals to take care of their own security, Hua noted. "We also urge the Australian side to face up to the problem and take concrete measures to safeguard the safety and rights of Chinese in Australia," Hua said. China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a travel alert on Friday, warning Chinese people not to travel to Australia, as the country had seen a significant rise in racial discrimination and violence against Chinese and other Asian people due to the pandemic. Echoing Hua's response, dozens of Chinese overseas students in Australia reached by the Global Times said they have seen a surging number of media reports and social media posts about racist insults and attacks targeting Asians, especially Chinese, during the pandemic, and about one-third of them said they have experienced such abuse. A student surnamed Yang at the University of Queensland told the Global Times that she received online and in-person abuse on campus recently. "Anti-China news has been frequently seen on TV. We now choose to stay at home, and when I have to go outside and wear a mask, I avoid white people in case anything happens," Yang said. Another Chinese student surnamed Yu at the University of South Wales said she received online insults with the words "CHINA DIE" after she commented on Twitter saying no evidence showed the novel coronavirus originated from China. Similar incidents made the Chinese students distressed and concerned for their safety in Australia. In April, a video of two individuals dragging, kicking and punching two Asian students at the University of Melbourne while shouting "you fxxking immigrant" multiple times went viral on social media. In March, an anti China Australian rioter Drew Pavlou hung a sign on a wall at the University of Queensland's Confucius Institute that said it was a COVID-19 "biohazard" and uploaded a photo of it on Facebook. However, ignoring the rampant racist abuse, Australian Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham, in rejecting the warning, claimed that Australia was "the most successful multicultural and migrant society in the world" and "the Chinese-Australian community is a significant and valued contributor," Australian media reported. But Chinese analysts said that Birmingham's rebuttal was weak as it boasted of historical successes while failing to recognize the anti-China atmosphere that had risen in recent months, which betrayed its cultural traditions and instigated racism. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address An Accra High Court has directed the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to draft International best practice agreement of payment terms for Daniel Duku, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) and two others who have pleaded guilty for allegedly causing financial loss of GHC42.8 million to the state. Duku appointed during the tenure of the National Democratic Congress in 2010, and his Executive Assistant, Irene Anti-Mensah, Frank Aboogye Mensah, the husband of Irene had indicated their willingness to refund GHC15 million as restitution to the state. The other accused are Richard Lassey Agbenyefia, a former National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Keta and a former member of the Board of Trustees of VCTF; Kofi Sarpong, an Investment Officer of VCTF and Charity Opoku also known as Charity Ameyaw, an accountant at VCTF. They have been variously charged with 86 counts of willfully causing financial loss to the state, abetment of crime, stealing, defrauding by false pretences and issuing of false cheques. The Court presided over by Mr Justice Anthony Oppong however directed the state to use a Kenyan example of plea bargaining in drafting their terms of agreement for payment. According to the court, the state should also explain to the accused for them to could understand the consequences of their plea and also their right to appeal after pleading guilty. The court held that it wanted to ensure that the right thing was done and also the accused must pay more than GHC42.8 million cedis that the state contended they have misappropriated. It would be good to adopt best practices like the Kenyan example. The accused persons must understand why they are pleading guilty. I have look at what you have filed and it looks like you need some guidance, the trial judge said. The court was of the view that in the case of Duku who has two properties, it would be proper for the state to value those two properties and same sold to offset his debt. According to the court when it took pains to do a personal assessment of the property it obtained about GHC40 million but the state had mentioned GHC42.8 million as what was lost in the charge sheet. However, Mrs Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, the DPP said the states agreement was based on Section 35 of the Courts Act. The DPP drew the courts attention to the fact that Kenyas example was about Plea Bargaining Agreement and Ghana was yet to develop that. If it was about Plea Bargaining agreement, Ghana did not have that but we have to go by Section 35 of the Courts Act. She cited various cases that the state had gone under Section 35 and have succeeded in retrieving state funds saying Its the money that we are interested in here. Mr Addo Attuah, Dukus counsel said it was mutually agreed on that his clients property were auctioned to pay the amount involved bearing in mind Section 35. Last week, Duku, who is standing trial with five others for allegedly causing financial loss of GHC42.8 million to the state has decided to refund GHC15 million as restitution to the state. Two other accused Irene and Frank Aboagye Mensah, a couple have entered into an agreement with the Attorney -General (A-G) to pay to the state in line with Section 35 of the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459). The DPP on June 5, this year, informed the Court that the three accused have reached an agreement with the A-G, and therefore the state would like the court to adopt the agreement and convict the accused as guilty. The presiding judge, however, said the agreement for restitution had not been fully executed by the accused and the A-G, since both parties have not signed it. He, therefore, directed the two sides to fully execute the agreement and file it at the court for it to determine it per Section 35 of Act 459. Under Section 35 (1) of Act 459, a person accused of an offence which had caused economic loss, harm or damage to the state or state agency may inform the prosecutor whether the accused admits and is willing to offer compensation or make restitution and reparation for the loss, harm or damage caused. Additionally, the Act explains further that when an accused makes an offer of restitution, the prosecutor shall consider whether the offer is acceptable or not and inform the court. In the event the offer is not acceptable to the prosecution, the trial shall continue, but if the offer is acceptable, the accused will plead guilty and the court will convict him on his own plea. When passing sentence, the court will then order the accused to pay the restitution based on conditions set by the court. However, per Section 35 (7) of Act 459, if the accused person fails to fulfill the conditions set by the court for the payment of the restitution, the court shall pass a custodial sentence on him. Duku, is alleged to have facilitated the recruitment of Irene and Sarpong, who were his work colleagues at the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC). That upon assumption of office, Duku introduced a loan scheme named Development Assistance Fund (DAF) to provide credit directly to individuals and companies in clear contravention of the VCTF Act and contrary to the objects of VCTF. Despite the advice of solicitors of VCTF on the illegality of the proposed loan scheme, Duku allegedly managed to obtain the approval of the Board for the establishment of the DAF scheme. According to the prosecution, Duku, through approval of the Board, could only approve loans not exceeding GHC30,000. Any loan amount above GHC30,000 was subject to the Boards approval. The Board also set out strict guidelines under which the loans were to be disbursed. An amount of GHC1million, which was later increased to GHC2 million was approved by the Board as a revolving fund for the DAF project. According to the prosecution, investigations revealed that the Duku disbursed various sums of money under the scheme, the total of which far exceeded the approved amount of GHC2 million. Prior to the appointment of Duku as Chief Executive Officer and the establishment of DAF, VCTF operated an existing scheme which gave loans to farmers in the Northern and Brong Ahafo Regions for the cultivation of sorghum. This loan scheme known as the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) gave loans to certain Venture Capital Finance Companies (VCFC) namely SINAPI ABA and Techno Serve Company Limited for onward lending to farmers. The SPV had a minimum of GHC50,000 and GHC500,000 as the maximum amount that could be disbursed at a time to the Venture Capital Finance Companies. This programme ran successfully until the Duku assumed leadership in June 2010 when the project stopped. However in or about October 2010, the SPV was reintroduced at the instance of Duku (albeit with Board approval) this time to be controlled directly from the office of Duku. Duku however, could only approve loans up to GHC50,000 and that any loan amount above the GHC50,000 threshold required Board approval. Contrary to and in flagrant disregard of the approved Board thresholds for the CEO, Duku persistently approved loans purportedly under DAF and SPV well above his threshold directly to a number of companies some of which were non-existent whilst some of these fictitious companies bore addresses which belonged to him. Thus the all the accused used the names of a number of companies belonging to other persons to obtain loans without the knowledge, permission and or consent of the owners of these companies. For instance, Charity Opoku, the sixth accused, who was at all material times the accountant at VCTF and a signatory to the VCTF account, aided Duku by signing blank cheques to grant loans to some of these companies while even on annual leave. Some of the cheques were issued even before the purported applications for the loans were received. Duku using these blank cheques signed by the 6th accused, granted loans totaling GHC4,240,000 which resulted in a total loss of GHC12,601,796.25 being principal and accrued interest to the Fund. The Board, upon realizing the financial challenges facing the Fund and its sustainability, instructed Duku in 2013 to stop the disbursement of loans under the DAF scheme and to rather concentrate on recoveries. However, Duku misled the Board by reporting that he had recovered 81 per cent of the outstanding loans under DAF when he knew it to be false and consequently obtained the Boards approval to resume disbursements under the DAF scheme. At the request of Duku, the Board relying on the false report of Duku, increased the DAF Fund from GHC1.5 million to GHC 2 million. Again, in January 2015, the Board instructed Duku to completely stop the disbursement of loans and focus on the recovery of loans already disbursed. These instructions were ignored by Duku who rather authorized the disbursement of more loans without the knowledge or authority of the Board. In June 2015, even though the appointment of Duku had been terminated, he remained in office until September 2015 during which period he disbursed more loans to companies some of which belonged to his official driver and some cronies. During the period, Duku obtained an amount of $26,063 to attend an official programme in the United States of America. Even though Duku did not attend the programme he failed to pay back the money into chest and dishonestly appropriated the entire amount. The Board on realizing that Duku did not attend the programme, directed him to refund the $26,063 to VCTF, to which in response, Duku issued false cheques to VCTF, which were dishonoured upon presentation at the bank. The second accused Agbeyenfia too obtained loans in the names of companies based on false representations to VCTF without the knowledge, permission or approval of the owners of the companies whereas in other instances the loans were obtained in the names of non-existent companies. Thus Irene and Sarpong, who were responsible for evaluation and processing of loan applications to VCTF, failed to conduct the requisite due diligence on loan applicants but rather facilitated the grant of loans through falsified records by entering false information on the loan application forms. It has been established that Frank, husband of Irene used non-existent companies to obtain loans from VCTF and acted together with Duku, Irene and Sarpong to dishonestly appropriate various sums of money from VCTF in the names of these companies. 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 Argentina has lifted lockdown restrictions in 18 of 24 provinces, although maintaining strict social distancing protocols. (AFP/JUAN MABROMATA) Until now, only businesses deemed essential had been allowed to open. Argentina's new phase of lockdown means some activities will be restarted in 18 of its 24 provinces. However, social distancing measures will remain in place until Jun 28, although they will be more flexible in regions with few or no cases of the deadly virus. By Monday, Argentina had recorded more than 22,000 cases, 670 deaths and more than 7,000 recovered patients amongst a population of 44 million. Around 85 per cent of the cases have been in the greater Buenos Aires area, home to 14 million people. Schools throughout the country will remain closed while mass gatherings, shows, concerts and sporting events are still prohibited. Exercise is permitted now, between 8.00pm and 8.00am. "After 80 days we're back!" Natalia Babreno, a 44-year-old, told AFP as she restarted her regular exercise routine. "It's really emotional because it's very important to feel in some way that life is returning to normal," she said. From early morning, dozens of joggers were visible in a park in the Palermo neighborhood of the capital. "You run to feel free, maintaining the precautions and all the rules that you have to follow," said Nicolas Bartiva, a 24-year-old PE teacher. In 18 of Argentina's 24 provinces, economic activities have been restarted, although under social distancing rules and with mandatory face masks in enclosed areas. In the other six provinces, where the virus remains active, stricter lockdown measures persist. The government of center-left President Alberto Fernandez has invested the equivalent of 2.6 per cent of GDP to support workers, the poor, and medium and small companies. Argentina's economy has been in recession since 2018 and in March it recorded an 11.5 per cent contraction compared to the same month in 2019. The country is crippled by debt and owes US$324 billion, around 90 per cent of its GDP. Around 35 per cent of its population live in poverty. More support for local manufacturing could be on the way as the Morrison government examines ways to help companies out of the economic slump, while backbench MPs call for options to replace imports. Prime Minister Scott Morrison signalled the options in remarks to the Coalition party room on Tuesday after several MPs aired their support for Australian manufacturers but stopped short of calls for subsidies. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has flagged more support for Australian manufacturing. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Morrison told his colleagues they were helping to "generate hope" because Australians could see the government had a plan for an economic recovery, but he also hinted at measures that would not fit easily with Liberal Party philosophy. The Prime Minister told them the government would have to go "out of our comfort zone" because of the economic pressures, a remark that could signal more spending in the wake of a $190 billion fiscal stimulus. [June 09, 2020] Valor Digital Announces New Breed of Digital Marketing Partner Aimed at Strengthening & Streamlining In-House Brand and Agency Experience NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Valor Digital, a new breed of digital marketing partner, announced its official launch and major industry partners. Valor is a company that calls itself a digital agent, acting as an extension of its clients' internal marketing teams. Valor empowers brands, and agencies, with customizable tools, strategies and industry leading expertise, allowing them to maintain control over their digital marketing execution and vendors. As the world continues to experience a digital transformation, companies are seeking strategic partners that can assist their in-house teams in delivering exceptional and innovative marketing programs without fully outsourcing execution. All at a lower cost than the traditional managed service partner model offers, while remaining flexible and agile in their operational models. Results have been road tested on beta clients over the past 7 months, with the early adopters seeing transformational results in their operational efficiencies and performance. By choosing a digital agent and connector like Valor Digital, brands and agencies can cut the fees they pay for their advertising in half, add speed and quality to campaign execution, and ultimately drive more revenue. "The needs of today's digitally integrated brands and digital agencies are fast evolving. They demand real transparency with accountability behind it, an agile and flexible way of working, and a business model where they remain in control. With Valor Digital, I'm excited to create the industry's first 'digital agent,'" said Valor Digital founder David Nyurenberg. "Clients know themselves better than any outside partner ever could, so I could never understand why brands could give up control of their digital marketing execution so easily. Valor's goal is simple -- help you tell your story better, not tell it for you. This way, our client is always the hero. In that manner we're able to help our clients cut costs, maintain control over all their data, and provide the transparency clients crave. This is the model progressive advertisers and agencies have been crying out for, finally delivered." "What David and team are building towards, is something of tremendous value, that becomes transparent, data led and transformational in a world where data and technology are merging at the speed of light. Valor offers a new world of outcome based media buying models and the future of services to boost a business' bottom line and not focus solely on impression growth and efficiencies," said Valor advisory board member and brand marketer Vinny Rinaldi. INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS To speed up growth and add proven expertise in privacy by design and cross channel marketing, Valor is partnering with Canton Marketing Solutions to allow expertise and resource sharing etween the two companies. Canton is growing rapidly and has been working with global brands on privacy first execution and next generation data and technology for the last two years in Europe. It's proven techniques, technologies, and expertise are exactly what is needed in the US market right now, as the industry attempts to come to grips with the pandemic, but also privacy regulation, and technology change driven by the phasing out of third party cookies. The newly formed partnership brings together Valor Digital's founder David Nyurenberg and Canton's leadership Rob Webster and Nick King. Webster will be joining Valor as the Head of Tech/Data, while King joins as the Head of Digital Media Operations. Both Rob and Nick will also be joining Valor's advisory board. Together, Valor & Canton will be able to now service international clients in a unified manner across time zones and continents. "The fourth era of digital marketing will be all about privacy by design. New technologies and techniques are emerging to support that world across all channels," said Rob Webster, Co-founder of Canton Marketing Solutions. "Valor and Canton with their belief in transparency, digital expertise, and connections to the new privacy first technologies, are the new partner advertisers need for this era," said Canton co-founder Robert Webster. Lucidity , a Los Angeles-based digital advertising blockchain company that brings transparency and trust to digital advertising, will also be partnering with Valor Digital to power Valor Watchdog, their new cross channel transparency and measurement tool. Watchdog will bring accountability as every client will get a custom Watchdog integration when working with Valor. "In an industry that doesn't always deliver on promises, every marketer deserves quality and dedication, which is exactly what they get with Valor," said Sam Goldberg, President of Lucidity. CAPABILITIES The full list of Valor's capabilities are: Marketing & Digital Advertising, Creative Digital Advertising Strategy & Execution Innovative, Data-Driven Creative Support Forward Thinking Data Strategy Built for Post Cookie World Programmatic Display Social Media Marketing Search Engine Marketing Connected TV & Digital Out of Home Innovative Custom Implementation Products - Valor Watchdog Powered by Lucidity Tech & Data Strategy, Measurement Data strategy Privacy regulation Campaign optimization Measurement & attribution tracking Dedicated data science & engineering team Valor Watchdog Customizable reporting tool to track digital media campaigns Financial supply path transparency Deep post-click performance insights Landing page data matched to digital media campaigns Insourcing & Training Internal employee training Hotline support Dedicated account manager Access to direct messaging app To learn more about Valor Digital, it's founder and industry partners, visit https://www.govalordigital.net . ABOUT VALOR DIGITAL Valor Digital is a new breed of digital marketing partner, the first "digital agent," that operates as an extension of its clients' business, and empowers them with customizable tools, strategies and industry leading expertise, to achieve digital independence. ABOUT CANTON Canton helps brands take control of their marketing by focusing on their digital performance and marketing setup, through various means such as taking technology in-house, relaunching measurement and attribution frameworks or moving media buying operations. ABOUT LUCIDITY Lucidity is a digital advertising blockchain company bringing transparency and trust to digital advertising. Lucidity is the market leader using blockchain technology for digital advertisers and publishers to mitigate fraud, transact with trust, and maximize ROI. Lucidity was founded to tap the power of blockchain and cryptography to deliver transparency to the digital advertising supply chain for a cleaner ecosystem in which honest players benefit the most. The company is based in Los Angeles. For more information, please visit http://lucidity.tech and continue the conversation on Telegram. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/valor-digital-announces-new-breed-of-digital-marketing-partner-aimed-at-strengthening--streamlining-in-house-brand-and-agency-experience-301072719.html SOURCE Valor Digital [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Mourners view Floyds casket at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston, Texas. Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez/Pool via Reuters George Perry Floyd left his hometown of Houston in Texas for Minneapolis hoping to turn his life around. He would return, he told family, when he had "made them proud". Never could they have imagined he would come back to them in a coffin. Yesterday, the son of Houston, who in life struggled to find his place, was in death given a hero's welcome. Mr Floyd's death two weeks ago, after a Minnesota police officer knelt on his neck until he could no longer breathe, was recast on millions of screens across the country. The 46-year-old's name has since become a rallying cry, galvanising one of the largest civil uprisings in modern American history. "Everybody in the world knows who George Floyd is now," said Reginald Smith at a memorial for his friend of 35 years. "Presidents, kings and queens, they know George Floyd." Expand Close Aftermath: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic politicians take a knee to observe a moment of silence for George Floyd. Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Aftermath: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic politicians take a knee to observe a moment of silence for George Floyd. Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP Thousands came to pay their respects at the Fountain of Praise church in Houston at a public viewing before his final farewell today. Some fell to their knees in a gesture that has taken on great significance in the Black Lives Matter movement, before kissing the gold casket. "This is far greater than the civil rights movement, this has become a global issue that can no longer be ignored," said Harry Bonds, 50, who drove five hours with his daughters to attend. "This is a new dawn." To family and friends he will always be 'Perry', the "friendly giant" of few words and a big heart, who loved his children and would do anything for his four younger siblings. His family moved to Houston from North Carolina when he was a boy. He came of age in the Cuney Homes housing project in the city's gritty Third Ward. Mr Floyd's mother, Larcenia, or 'Cissy' as she was known, flipped burgers to put food on the table, but even then there was not enough to go round. His brother, Philonise, joked at Mr Floyd's memorial in Minneapolis last week that they would eat banana-mayonnaise sandwiches when the cupboards were bare. "We didn't have much, but we had a house full of love," said another brother, Rodney. Even by the standards of Houston, life in the neighbourhood was tough. Around 28pc of its households qualified for food stamps. Employment was low and gun crime high. This didn't stop an eight-year-old George having big dreams: his second-grade teacher said he wrote in an essay that he wanted to grow up to be a Supreme Court justice. His teenage years, however, were marred by a series of tragedies that sent his life in a different direction. When he was 15, his close friend and a big-brother figure was shot and killed. Mr Floyd, a gifted athlete, decided not to go professional. Instead he turned to music. He was an early contributor to the development of Houston's hip-hop scene, and a keen rapper. He became something of a community leader and mentor to young men from the projects. The next decade was a struggle for Mr Floyd. He was in and out of work and "fell into the things a lot of the guys in the neighbourhood were doing", according to old friends. After several arrests for theft and drug possession, Mr Floyd was charged in 2007 with armed robbery. After his release on parole a decade later, he decided he needed to make a change. He moved to Minnesota to be near his maternal aunt, taking up a job at the Salvation Army by day and providing security at a restaurant by night. In March, however, he was laid off with the coronavirus pandemic shutdown. On May 25, Mr Floyd was arrested on a charge of trying to pay for a packet of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill at an off-licence in the Powderhorn Park neighbourhood of Minneapolis. The police were called, and the rest is history. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered aviation authorities to restructure the cash-strapped national flag carrier PIA which is making losses worth USD 3.68 million per month, according to an official statement. Khan said this while presiding over a meeting on the aviation sector on Monday in the backdrop of the recent Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash in Karachi that claimed 98 lives. "Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the country''s economy is facing difficulties and the people have had to bear the burden of billions of rupees loss on a monthly basis suffered by the state-owned entities," he said. PIAs Chief Executive Officer Air Marshal Arshad Malik gave a detailed briefing on the prevailing situation of the PIA, saying that it was suffering a loss of USD 3.68 million per month. Malik said USD 14 million was being spent yearly on the payment of salaries to the PIAs 14,500 employees alone. He said litigation was one of the hurdles in the way of reform of the PIA as employees seek court orders to stay reforms and the legal processes linger on for years. Malik said that he too could not perform his duties for three months out of his 16 months tenure due to a case against his appointment. Due to such issues, the reforms process in the organisation has badly suffered, he added. The prime minister was also apprised that during the last 12 years, the PIA had 10 chiefs. According to an official press release, the prime minister asked the PIA to bring down the expenditures and focus on increasing its income and upgrading its fleet. He also directed to utilise the huge domestic and foreign assets of the PIA through a complete transparent and clear manner. The assets should create financial resources for the organisation instead of becoming a burden on the general public, he said. The meeting was attended by Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Minister for Information Senator Shibli Faraz, Adviser on Reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain, Special Assistant retired Lt Gen Asim Salim Bajwa and other senior officials. A timeline for restructuring of the PIA and a comprehensive roadmap over reforms and implementation was also submitted before the prime minister. It was the first meeting on aviation after the recent PIA plane crash in Karachi and the CEO also apprised about the progress about investigation into the crash and other relevant issues. The PIA has been running into huge financial losses. For years, the airlines has only been adding billions to its loss sheets. The PIA faced a huge loss worth Rs 180 million (USD 1.1 million) during 2016-27, according to Pakistani media reports. North Korea is taking steps to shut down all communication with South Korea after its leaders demanded defectors stopped sending information back home. The secretive country has lashed out at South Korea, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and all hotlines between them, after material and leaflets were reportedly sneaked across the border. Top government officials in North Korea, including leader Kim Jong Uns sister, Kim Yo Jong, said that the work towards the South should thoroughly turn into the one against an enemy, the state-run news agency KCNA said. North Korean officials did not answer routine daily calls to the liaison office, nor calls on military hotlines, a South Korean defence ministry spokeswoman told a briefing. On Monday, although two daily calls are usually made, only one was answered. Kim Jong Un reportedly spoke at the 13th Political Bureau meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea The routine calls between South and North Korea should be maintained as they are basic means of communication, the Souths unification ministry said. The ministry said it will continue to follow the agreed principles and strive for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula. The decision to cut communications marks a setback in relations amid efforts to try and persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for relief on tough international sanctions. North Koreas youth and students wearing protective face masks at a rally on June 6 (Image: REUTERS) Students and youths hold a banner reading: Let us burn out the traitorous group who precipitate their self-ruin! (Image: AFP via Getty Images) The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Analysts said the move is likely about more than the defectors, as North Korea is under increasing economic pressure as the coronavirus crisis and international sanctions take their toll. North Korea is in a much more dire situation than we think, said Choo Jae-woo, a professor at Kyung Hee University. I think they are trying to squeeze something out of the South. Cutting communications is a well-worn play for Pyongyang, but one that can be dangerous, Daniel Wertz, of the US-based National Committee on North Korea, said on Twitter. Regular communication channels are needed most during a crisis, and for that reason North Korea cuts them off to create an atmosphere of heightened risk, he said. Source: telegraph.co.uk 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 Director Dealings BISHOPSGATE, LONDON / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / Further to the Company's previous announcement of 5 June 2020 regarding its capital raising, and following admission to trading of the new ordinary shares in the capital of the Company, the Company has received notifications of the shares acquired by Dr Robert Weinberg and Mr Jason Ward in the capital raising, both Directors of SolGold Plc. The notifications below, made in accordance with the requirements of the EU Market Abuse Regulation, provide further detail on the Director Dealing. NOTIFICATION AND PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF TRANSACTIONS BY PERSONS DISCHARGING MANAGERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND PERSONS CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THEM. 1. Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated a) Name: Robert Weinberg 2. Reason for the notification a) Position/status: Director b) Initial notification/Amendment: Initial notification 3. Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name: SolGold plc b) LEI: 213800HGFADQBMIEVI76 4. Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted a) Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument: Identification code: Ordinary shares of 1p GB00B0WD0R35 b) Nature of the transaction: Participation in Capital Raising c) Price(s) and volume(s): Acquisition Price(s) Volume(s) 21.5p 46,511 d) Aggregated information: Aggregated volume: Price: 46,511 21.5p (GBP10,000 in total) e) Date of the transaction: 9 June 2020 f) Place of the transaction: Outside of an Exchange 1. Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated a) Name: Jason Ward 2. Reason for the notification a) Position/status: Director b) Initial notification/Amendment: Initial notification 3. Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name: SolGold plc b) LEI: 213800HGFADQBMIEVI76 4. Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted a) Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument: Identification code: Ordinary shares of 1p GB00B0WD0R35 b) Nature of the transaction: Participation in Capital Raising c) Price(s) and volume(s): Acquisition Price(s) Volume(s) 21.5p 116,279 d) Aggregated information: Aggregated volume: Price: 116,279 21.5p (GBP25,000 in total) e) Date of the transaction: 9 June 2020 f) Place of the transaction: Outside of an Exchange By order of the Board Karl Schlobohm Company Secretary CONTACTS Nicholas Mather SolGold Plc (Chief Executive Officer) nmather@solgold.com.au Tel: +61 (0) 7 3303 0665 +61 (0) 417 880 448 Karl Schlobohm SolGold Plc (Company Secretary) kschlobohm@solgold.com.au Tel: +61 (0) 7 3303 0661 Ingo Hofmaier SolGold Plc (GM - Project & Corporate Finance) ihofmaier@solgold.com.au Tel: +44 (0) 20 3823 2131 Gordon Poole / Nick Hennis Camarco (Financial PR / IR) solgold@camarco.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 20 3757 4997 Andrew Chubb Hannam & Partners (Joint Broker and Financial Advisor) solgold@hannam.partners Tel: +44 (0) 20 7907 8500 Ross Allister / David McKeown Peel Hunt (Joint Broker and Financial Advisor) solgold@peelhunt.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7418 8900 James Kofman / Darren Wallace Cormark Securities Inc. (Financial Advisor) dwallace@cormark.com Tel: +1 416 943 6411 Follow us on twitter @SolGold_plc ABOUT SOLGOLD SolGold is a leading resources company focussed on the discovery, definition and development of world-class copper and gold deposits. In 2018, SolGold's management team was recognised by the "Mines and Money" Forum as an example of excellence in the industry and continues to strive to deliver objectives efficiently and in the interests of shareholders. SolGold is the largest and most active concession holder in Ecuador and is aggressively exploring the length and breadth of this highly prospective and gold-rich section of the Andean Copper Belt. The Company operates with transparency and in accordance with international best practices. SolGold is committed to delivering value to its shareholders, while simultaneously providing economic and social benefits to impacted communities, fostering a healthy and safe workplace and minimizing the environmental impact. Dedicated stakeholders SolGold employs a staff of 700 employees of whom 98% are Ecuadorean. This is expected to grow as the operations expand at Alpala, and in Ecuador generally. SolGold focusses its operations to be safe, reliable and environmentally responsible and maintains close relationships with its local communities. SolGold has engaged an increasingly skilled, refined and experienced team of geoscientists using state of the art geophysical and geochemical modelling applied to an extensive database to enable the delivery of ore grade intersections from nearly every drill hole at Alpala. SolGold has 86 geologists, of whom 30% are female, on the ground in Ecuador exploring for economic copper and gold deposits. About Cascabel and Alpala The Alpala deposit is the main target in the Cascabel concession, located on the northern section of the heavily endowed Andean Copper Belt, the entirety of which is renowned as the base for nearly half of the world's copper production. The project area hosts mineralisation of Eocene age, the same age as numerous Tier 1 deposits along the Andean Copper Belt in Chile and Peru to the south. The project base is located at Rocafuerte within the Cascabel concession in northern Ecuador, an approximately three-hour drive on sealed highway north of the capital Quito, close to water, power supply and Pacific ports. Having fulfilled its earn-in requirements, SolGold is a registered shareholder with an unencumbered legal and beneficial 85% interest in ENSA (Exploraciones Novomining S.A.) which holds 100% of the Cascabel concession covering approximately 50km2. The junior equity owner in ENSA is required to repay 15% of costs since SolGold's earn in was completed, from 90% of its share of distribution of earnings or dividends from ENSA or the Cascabel concession. It is also required to contribute to development or be diluted, and if its interest falls below 10%, it shall reduce to a 0.5% NSR royalty which SolGold may acquire for US$3.5m. Advancing Alpala towards development The resource at the Alpala deposit boasts a high-grade core which is targeted to facilitate early cashflows and an accelerated payback of initial capital. SolGold is currently assessing financing options available to the Company for the development of the Alpala mine following completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study. SolGold's Regional Exploration Drive SolGold is using its successful and cost-efficient blueprint established at Alpala, and Cascabel generally, to explore for additional world class copper and gold projects across Ecuador. SolGold is the largest and most active concessionaire in Ecuador. The Company wholly owns four other subsidiaries active throughout the country that are now focussed on thirteen high priority gold and copper resource targets, several of which the Company believes have the potential, subject to resource definition and feasibility, to be developed in close succession or even on a more accelerated basis compared to Alpala. SolGold is listed on the London Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange (LSE/TSX: SOLG). The Company has on issue a total of 1,923,321,033 fully-paid ordinary shares and 176,662,000 share options. Quality Assurance / Quality Control on Sample Collection, Security and Assaying SolGold operates according to its rigorous Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) protocol, which is consistent with industry best practices. Primary sample collection involves secure transport from SolGold's concessions in Ecuador, to the ALS certified sample preparation facility in Quito, Ecuador. Samples are then air freighted from Quito to the ALS certified laboratory in Lima, Peru where the assaying of drill core, channel samples, rock chips and soil samples is undertaken. SolGold utilises ALS certified laboratories in Canada and Australia for the analysis of metallurgical samples. Samples are prepared and analysed using 100g 4-Acid digest ICP with MS finish for 48 elements on a 0.25g aliquot (ME-MS61). Laboratory performance is routinely monitored using umpire assays, check batches and inter-laboratory comparisons between ALS certified laboratory in Lima and the ACME certified laboratory in Cuenca, Ecuador. In order to monitor the ongoing quality of its analytical database, SolGold's QA/QC protocol encompasses standard sampling methodologies, including the insertion of certified powder blanks, coarse chip blanks, standards, pulp duplicates and field duplicates. The blanks and standards are Certified Reference Materials supplied by Ore Research and Exploration, Australia. SolGold's QA/QC protocol also monitors the ongoing quality of its analytical database. The Company's protocol involves Independent data validation of the digital analytical database including search for sample overlaps, duplicate or absent samples as well as anomalous assay and survey results. These are routinely performed ahead of Mineral Resource Estimates and Feasibility Studies. No material QA/QC issues have been identified with respect to sample collection, security and assaying. Reviews of the sample preparation, chain of custody, data security procedures and assaying methods used by SolGold confirm that they are consistent with industry best practices and all results stated in this announcement have passed SolGold's QA/QC protocol. See www.solgold.com.au for more information. Follow us on twitter @SolGold_plc CAUTIONARY NOTICE News releases, presentations and public commentary made by SolGold plc (the "Company") and its Officers may contain certain statements and expressions of belief, expectation or opinion which are forward looking statements, and which relate, inter alia, to interpretations of exploration results to date and the Company's proposed strategy, plans and objectives or to the expectations or intentions of the Company's Directors. Such forward-looking and interpretative statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors beyond the control of the Company that could cause the actual performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from such interpretations and forward-looking statements. Accordingly, the reader should not rely on any interpretations or forward-looking statements; and save as required by the exchange rules of the TSX and LSE or by applicable laws, the Company does not accept any obligation to disseminate any updates or revisions to such interpretations or forward-looking statements. The Company may reinterpret results to date as the status of its assets and projects changes with time expenditure, metals prices and other affecting circumstances. This release may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding the Company's plans for developing its properties. Generally, forward-looking information 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 state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is 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 forward-looking information, including but not limited to: transaction risks; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; future prices of mineral prices; accidents, labour disputes and shortages and other risks of the mining industry. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause 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. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. The Company and its officers do not endorse, or reject or otherwise comment on the conclusions, interpretations or views expressed in press articles or third-party analysis, and where possible aims to circulate all available material on its website. This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com. SOURCE: SolGold PLC View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/593259/SolGold-PLC-Announces-DirectorPDMR-Shareholding Some of the 269 Rohingya who were detained by the Malaysian authorities are pictured at the Nation Building Camp in Langkawi, Malaysia, after their boat was towed into a local port for engine repairs, June 8, 2020. Malaysian authorities towed a disabled boat ashore and detained 269 Rohingya on Monday after dozens jumped overboard and began swimming to an island off the northwest coast of peninsular Malaysia, officials said. The boat was carrying hundreds more when it left Bangladesh in February, one senior official told BenarNews on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to comment on the matter. Maritime authorities had initially tried to push the boat back into international waters on Monday morning off Langkawi, an island in northern Kedah state. They were believed to have fled Coxs Bazar in February, the source said, referring to a southeastern Bangladeshi district, where close to 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have been sheltering at sprawling camps. Nine [crew members] fled after the boat entered Malaysia, the Malaysian security source added. The boat is believed to have carried 500 Rohingya when it departed Bangladesh but only 269 were found. The landing marked the first time that Rohingya have been allowed to disembark in Malaysia for more than two months due to border closings related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Late on Monday, Malaysias National Task Force issued a statement about the Rohingya boat, but it did not say anything about hundreds of more passenger believed to be on board when it departed Coxs Bazar, nor did it mention that the boat had sailed from Bangladesh. A Malaysian coast guard ship, the KM Kimanis, located the boat early Monday and was moving to intercept it and push it back into international waters, the task force said. When KM Kimanis was approaching the boat at Langkawi waters, a total of 53 Rohingya jumped into the sea and started swimming to shore. However, all of them were arrested by MMEA officers who were on standby on the island, the statement said, referring to the coast guard officially known as the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency. Damage to the boats engine and holes found in the boat prevented the authorities from carrying out further action. KM Kimanis had given assistance in the form of food items and clean water to the illegal immigrants, the statement said. On a humanitarian basis, the National Security Council gave permission for the boat to be towed to Langkawi. According to the task force, 216 Rohingya were found on the boat along with the corpse of a Rohingya woman, which was turned over to police. All 269 refugees those on the boat and those who swam to shore were detained and taken to the Nation Building Camp, a training center in Langkawi. The task force is spearheaded by the military and its other members are the Royal Malaysia Police and MMEA. It was launched in May to coordinate border control operations among security agencies. On May 26, Armed Forces chief Gen. Affendi Buang said the aim of the National Task Force was to tighten border security through collective efforts to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country, stop cross-border crimes and to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Malaysia. Rights groups repeatedly have raised alarms about the impact of governmental policies in turning away boatloads that typically bring Rohingya refugees and other migrants to Malaysia and other hubs for migrant workers at this time of year. Since May 1, authorities have prevented 22 boats from entering the country illegally, according to Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob. Authorities have arrested a total of 396 illegal immigrants and 108 tekong (boat skippers) for attempting to enter the countrys border through illegal routes, he told reporters in Putrajaya on Monday. Also arrested were 11 individuals believed to be human traffickers and 13 vessels were seized. Rohingya boats The boat was the first carrying Rohingya to land in Malaysia since April 5 when one carrying 202 Rohingya, who were turned over to immigration authorities, also landed at Langkawi. On April 16, the Royal Malaysian Air Force announced it had stopped an attempt by a trawler carrying about 200 Rohingya to enter the country. It said air force spotters notified the navy, which sent ships to escort the trawler from Malaysian waters but not before delivering food on a humanitarian basis. That incident led international humanitarian organizations and others to criticize the government over risking lives of Rohingya by preventing them from landing. A day earlier, authorities in Bangladesh rescued nearly 400 Rohingya. Some told horror stories of being at sea on a fishing trawler for almost two months and being refused entry to Malaysia. Rights groups respond The North-South Initiative, a Malaysian humanitarian organization, called for the government to recognize Rohingya as asylum seekers. The groups executive director, Adrian Pereira, said the government must respect the non-refoulement principle because deporting asylum seekers could put them in harms way. The government of Malaysia must realize that the Rohingya are one of the most oppressed minorities on the planet. We must recognize them as asylum seekers and ensure they are given proper care, he told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Lets show the world that Malaysia has a big heart and we can fulfill our international duties and obligations. Malaysia is home to about 180,000 refugees registered through the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, as of February. Rohingya account for more than half of the countrys refugee population, according to Fortify Rights, a human rights advocacy group. Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Winnipeg's black community has joined a growing number of voices across North America calling for the defunding of local police a move, if done suddenly, could put public safety at risk, the city's police chief says. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Winnipeg's black community has joined a growing number of voices across North America calling for the defunding of local police a move, if done suddenly, could put public safety at risk, the city's police chief says. "If you were to just rip (out) a large segment of the (police) budget all at once, then I think you would be putting our environment into a more volatile place than it is now," WPS Chief Danny Smyth said Monday. George Floyd, a black man, died May 25, after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis. His death set off waves of protest against racial injustice and police brutality around the world, including last Friday's rally in Winnipeg. As of Monday afternoon, more than 25,000 people had signed a Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg petition calling for "complete abolition and defunding of the Winnipeg Police Service." "I think we need to rethink what community safety means, and who is safe and who is being over-policed," said Alexa Joy, founder of grassroots organization Black Space Winnipeg. "We know this isn't happening in Charleswood or Wellington Crescent... over-policing is happening predominantly in inner city, Indigenous, newcomer, Afro-newcomer and black communities that's just the reality." A majority of Minneapolis city councillors have now pledged to disband their citys police department. A Toronto city councillor submitted a motion to cut that city's police funding by 10 per cent, as protesters call for the same changes in other major centres. Smyth said the concept of taking money out of the police budget to instead invest in social service agencies could prove especially challenging in Winnipeg. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Police chief Danny Smyth said the concept of taking money out of the police budget to instead invest in social service agencies could prove especially challenging in Winnipeg. "We have social workers on our staff, they wont attend (incidents) unless were with them. Many of our own paramedics wont attend calls unless were with them to ensure their safety Its a little bit too early to just say defund the police and funnel it all back to social services," the chief said. The WPS budget proposed at $304.1 million for 2020 comprises more than one-quarter of the municipality's total spending, a percentage that has been on the rise for the last decade. University of Winnipeg criminologist Kevin Walby said there is room for some of that spending, particularly in officer benefits such as overtime pay, acting pay and shift premiums, to be whittled away. "It actually is something all Winnipeggers should ask themselves: do we want a third of the municipal budget going to policing, or should we take some of that money and put it into our communities in ways that actually alleviate distress, and might help people out more than policing does?" Walby said. Smyth said Monday police have taken on more social service roles themselves over recent years, such as searching for missing children and assisting those who face addictions and/or mental health issues. "It actually is something all Winnipeggers should ask themselves: do we want a third of the municipal budget going to policing, or should we take some of that money and put it into our communities in ways that actually alleviate distress, and might help people out more than policing does?" Criminologist Kevin Walby However, Joy criticized such involvement, noting "wellness checks" when police respond to calls involving mental health concerns have resulted in the deaths of black and Indigenous people throughout the country. In February 2019, Winnipeg police shot and killed 43-year-old South Sudanese man Machuar Madut, after responding to a call regarding a mental health crisis. In Edmunston. N.B., police shot and killed 26-year-old Indigenous woman Chantel Moore during a wellness check last week. "They see black people and grab their guns," Joy said. "They don't call for support; that's their support, is to draw a weapon." Walby noted funding allocated to police could be reinvested into community groups such as the volunteer patrol Bear Clan, which is already positioned to provide social supports. "Police need to listen to the community and really hear what they're saying. The point is to take some of the funds from the police budget and move them directly into funding for the community social development groups to try to address transgression, harm and conflict in our community differently, and to support Winnipeggers and Manitobans in a way police do not," Walby said. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS "We need to look at that model of crime prevention through social development," said Coun. Markus Chambers Joy, too, noted specific examples, saying funds could be redirected into initiatives such as "specific programming and resources for black communities, for black mental health, to revamp what after-school programs look like, and what arts programs do with youth." At city hall, the deputy mayor added his voice in favour of more social service supports. "We need to look at that model of crime prevention through social development," said Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River), a member of the Winnipeg Police Board. In an email late Monday afternoon, Mayor Brian Bowmans office wrote: "The mayor believes that if the provincial and federal governments were more effective at addressing areas of need within their jurisdictions, the Winnipeg Police Service budget could be reduced substantially. It is noteworthy that substantial cost drivers for policing services relate to areas of provincial jurisdiction, notably mental health, addictions, housing and families in crisis." 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 province has long stated it has made substantial investments in those areas, such as new addictions beds and clinics. However, Joy said investments in community supports should be focused where they're needed: in groups that directly support, hire and train members of marginalized communities. julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @jsrutgers joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga Julia-Simone Rutgers Reporter Julia-Simone Rutgers is a general-assignment reporter. Read full biography Nobody can assign the head of the Special Investigation Service to arrest former director of the National Security Service Artur Vanetsyan. This is what Head of the Special Investigation Service of Armenia Sasun Khachatryan told reporters, after which he failed to answer most questions from reporters. When asked if Artur Vanetsyan had provided significant information when he was interviewed at the Special Investigation Service recently, Khachatryan said it would be better, if he didnt answer that question. Asked if the Special Investigation Service has interviewed other people associated with the statements made by former Ambassador of Armenia to the Vatican Mikael Minasyan, Khachatryan said he didnt think it was necessary to answer the question since investigation is underway. As far as the inquest into the case regarding the events of March 1, 2008 is concerned, Khachatryan said investigation is underway. Asked if the authorities are preparing to appoint him to a new position, Khachatryan told reporters to ask those who disseminate that information. When asked if his father, who is a judge, had really acquitted leader of Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan, Khachatryan said the question was political and personal and said he didnt want to answer the question. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Turkeys export of leather goods to Azerbaijan dropped by 30.7 percent from January through May 2020 compared to the same period of 2019 and amounted to $5.8 million, Turkish Trade Ministry told Trend on June 9. In May 2020, the export of Turkish leather to Azerbaijan dropped by 43.8 percent compared to the same month of 2019 and equaled to $978,000. Turkeys export of leather goods to world markets from January through May 2020 shrank by 28.7 percent, compared to the same period of 2019, and made up $530.2 million The export of leather goods from Turkey made up 0.9 percent of the country's total export over the reporting period. In May 2020, Turkey exported leather goods worth $61.3 million to foreign markets, down by 62.2 percent compared to the same month of 2019, the ministry said. Turkeys export of leather goods in May this year amounted to 0.6 percent of the country's total export. During the last twelve months (from May 2019 through May 2020), Turkey exported the leather goods in the amount of over $1.4 billion. In April 2020, Turkey exported the leather goods worth over $54.4 million to the world markets, which is 61.6 percent less compared to the same month of 2019. Meanwhile, Turkeys leather export amounted to 0.6 percent of the country's total export. From April 2019 through April 2020, Turkey exported the leather goods in the amount of over $1.5 billion. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu In the world of commerce, the last few months have underscored the fact that every retailer, brand and entity that sells or distributes something needs to have a digital strategy. Today, one of the startups that's built a platform aimed at giving them more control in that process is announcing a Series A to continue expanding its business. Commerce Layer, which has built a "headless" e-commerce platform -- used to develop online sales strategies that use APIs to plug your inventory to take orders and payments from a variety of endpoints like other marketplaces, your own site and app (and the various payment systems you might use depending on the country you're selling into), messaging services, social channels, and more -- has raised a Series A of $6 million, which CEO and founder Filippo Conforti said the startup will be using to continue expanding in more geographies and adding in more endpoints to fit the needs of its current (and future) customers. The funding is being led by Benchmark Capital, with participation also from Mango Capital, DAXN, PrimeSet, SV Angel, and NVInvestments. The startup is based out of Italy -- specifically, just outside of Florence in Tuscany. And so the funding is notable for a few reasons: first, for the investors; second, what it says about this particular category in the tech ecosystem right now; and third, that even in what was at one point the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in Western countries, we are seeing signs of recovery and activity in the tech ecosystem. In fact, Commerce Layer was talking to Benchmark and others in the Valley well before the outbreak of the pandemic, and the term sheets with those investors were signed in January, also before things really kicked off in Italy. What took significantly longer was the process after, in which many individual investors in the startup, based in Italy, had to sign off paperwork related to the new investors and the fact that Commerce Layer was also incorporating in the US as part of that deal. All of that was handled remotely. Story continues The world of e-commerce has changed a huge amount in the last couple of decades. The early days saw people 'shopping' online but ordering through email, eventually giving way to having your own site or selling perhaps on a marketplace like eBay or Amazon . Modern times have made that process both easier and more complex. Complex, because brands and retailers now have a large array of options and permutations for how to sell something, both on their own sites as well as on a number of other platforms (some, as we have described before, have foregone sites altogether). Easier, because the rise of APIs to enable developers to plug into a number of other systems without building everything themselves from scratch (including, even, platforms like RapidAPI, which has also recently raised $25 million, to help organise and manage how those APIs are used). This is where Commerce Layer fits into the picture, with an API-based system that is able to manage multiple SKUs, prices, and inventory data to help its customers sell in any currency, with distributed inventory models, and global shipping that makes it easy to add or adjust where and when you are selling, be it across your site or app, or a different platform altogether. There are a number of tools on the market today to enable the very smallest, and the very biggest, merchants to develop and power online sales for brick-and-mortar or pure-play e-commerce companies and brands; and there are even a number of "headless" options out there. The wider list is pretty extensive, but some of the bigger names include Shopify, BigCommerce, Commercetools, and Ecwid and Strapi (both of which also announced funding just last week, see here and here). Conforti -- who got his start in e-commerce a decade ago when building online commerce solutions for Gucci -- acknowledges that the competitive landscape is indeed very big, but also believes that the key lies services like his being significantly younger, and thus more modern and easy to use, than even the legacy headless systems or services developed by older e-commerce enablers. "Being headless is mandatory in order to provide a truly omnichannel experience to customers," Conforti said. If youre not API-first that is a flag, he added. "Everyone knows its the future, and the present." He said that he considered Commercetools, another European company, "the only real competitor" although "they were born 15 years ago so you get some older technology. Commerce Layer is more fresh with more modern APIs." Customers of Commerce Layer include Chilly's (the fashionable water bottle company), Au Depart, Richard Ginori and more, who Conforti says help shape what his startup builds next: for example one of its customers wants an integration with Farfetch, the high-end fashion marketplace, and so they are building that to subsequently offer it as an option to others. Eric Vishria, a general partner at Benchmark who is joining the board of the startup with this round, said that the distinction is great enough between what Commerce Layer has built and what already exists on the market to take a bet on the company. "Right now there is a huge gap between the mom-and-pop, give-me-a-generic-template-based-storefront-quickly, and the invest-a-hundred-engineers-and-millions-of-dollars-to-build-everything-from-scratch," he said. "The most likely approach to fill that need is the JAM stack and API approach like Commerce Layer, which will give companies radically more flexibility to create unique experiences than a template. But allows them to build quickly and inexpensively by assembling building blocks rather than everything from scratch. "We committed to investing in Commerce Layer before the pandemic took hold, but I couldnt be more delighted to invest in a company founded in Italy right now. The fact that the team continued to build and grow in Italy through this all is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit. Benchmark once had a full European arm, which separated and now goes by the name Balderton. Meanwhile, it has also continued to invest in a number of startups in the region from its own funds, including Zendesk (Denmark), Elastic (Netherlands), Contentful and ResearchGate. For Subscribers Farmers concerned about chemical costs, supply issues heading into 2022 Higher fertilizer and chemical costs are on the minds of farm groups as they look toward spring planting. Advertisement The former chief of the disbanded police Camden Police Department in New Jersey told on Tuesday how crime in the town went down after the department was torn up and replaced by one in which cops held neighborhood barbecues and went door-to-door to introduce themselves to residents in a bid to win their trust. Camden got rid of its police department in 2013 after becoming known as one of the most violent towns in the US. A new police department replaced it and officers were taught to focus less on arrest quotas and more on making the community feel safe. Since then, crime has gone down drastically; there were 67 murders in 2012 compared to 25 in 2019, and 65 excessive force complaints in 2012 compared to just three in 2019. The unorthodox move has become a national talking point as protesters around the country call for other police departments - namely that of Minneapolis - to be completely dismantled in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of four white cops. Critics say that instead, it should be replaced with community activists and leaders. Others are calling for less drastic measures like reducing the amount of funding police departments get without totally wiping them out, and putting the divested taxpayer's dollars towards schools instead. What happened in Camden after the force was disbanded and replaced is now being heralded as a success story. Cops in Camden, New Jersey, where the police department was disbanded and replaced with one which focused on community outreach. Crime has dropped significantly since the move was taken A cop in Camden plays jump rope with children in the street. Now, officers are trained to connect with the community rather than focusing on making arrests A cop in Camden shakes hands with a Black Lives Matters protester In this Saturday, May 30, 2020, photo, Lt. Zack James of the Camden County Metro Police Department marches along with demonstrators in Camden, N.J. Scott Thomson, the former Camden County Police Chief In an interview on Good Morning America on Tuesday, the former chief of police, Scott Thomson, said the good came from getting residents to 'trust' the new force. He took over in 2013, serving under the new department, and was at the helm until 2020. 'There was a reinvestment into the school systems and by employing a policing practice wherein we stopped focusing on the number of tickets we wrote or the amount of arrests we made. 'What we were more interested in was making people feel safer, making people trust us or getting people to trust us,' he said. In 2012, the city was known as the most dangerous in America. By August 2012, there had already been 39 murders in the town of 77,000. In 2011, the murder rate was ten times than that of New York City and 30 percent higher than New Orleans, Louisiana. HOW CAMDEN BECAME THE 'MOST DANGEROUS CITY IN AMERICA' 1900: Henry G. Morse takes New York Ship to Camden, sets up shipyard on the Delaware River 1914: The SS Gulflight is launched from Camden 1919: American Destroyers are launched for WWI 1939 1945: WWII production including Independence-class light carriers, USS South Dakota, 98 Landing Craft Tanks 1950s: Ship building contracts decline, cutting jobs in Camden 1968: New York Ship goes bankrupt 1969: Violent riots over police beating of young black girl 1971: Riots over police killing of Puerto Rican driver 1991: 'Mischief Night' when dozens of abandoned town homes were set ablaze 1990s-2012: Increasing poverty and unemployment, decreased funding to police and public services 2013: Camden PD is wiped out and new force begins Advertisement The crime rate has dropped from 79 per 1,000 to 44 per 1,000 since the new department was brought in. Camden was once a bustling industry town where Navy ships were built including the USS Kitty, Dakota, Dale, Saratoga, Idaho, and Indianapolis. The boom in shipyard jobs brought thousands to the town and housing had to be constructed quickly to accommodate them. With the rush of activity came other jobs, specifically in manufacturing. But from the 1950s onward, as shipyard work declined and factories shuttered, the population declined and work dried up. By the time the police force was disbanded, more than half the children in the city were living beneath the poverty line and 40 percent of the city were unemployed. It plummeted the town into high crime rates and a bitter distrust between residents and police ensued. Crime escalated at an astronomical rate. In 2008, the city logged 2,333 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents, compared to the national rate of 455. In 2012, the city of Camden and Camden County announced it would be disbanded in favor of the Camden County Police Department, an entirely new force, amidst multiplying excessive force complaints. All of the officers from the Camden Police Department were laid off but given the chance to apply for jobs at the new department. Training required a mental exam and on every officer's first day, they had to go door-to-door in the neighborhood to introduce themselves. Now, cops host drive-in movie nights on a street once known as 'heroin highway'. They lay on barbecues and ice cream vans for the community and play with children in the street. While the still exist as an unequivocal police force, Thomson say their shift in focus is exemplary and could serve as a blue print for the rest of the nation. 'That's a bit extreme. I don't see a democratic society wherein you could completely eliminate a police force. 'I do think that there are some serious conversations that can happen with regards to defunding police. 'There are greater public safety returns on investment with programs other than putting money towards enforcement. A Camden police officer pats down a suspect during a patrol stop in Camden, New Jersey March 24, 2005 Camden police department officers search suspects in a night raid in Camden, New Jersey March 24, 2005 Two men talk on a rooftop near crumbling residential buildings in Camden, New Jersey, July 30, 2000 Camden police arrest a youth following a fight on October 11, 2012 in Camden, New Jersey The vision of Black Lives Matter activists for how to defund and replace traditional police Following the death of George Floyd, thousands have taken to the streets across the US to demand justice. Activists are even calling for police to be defunded, while acknowledging this is a gradual process. The group MPD150, which says it is 'working towards a police-free Minneapolis,' argues that such action would be more about 'strategically reallocating resources, funding, and responsibility away from police and toward community-based models of safety, support, and prevention'. The group states on its website: 'The people who respond to crises in our community should be the people who are best-equipped to deal with those crises. Rather than strangers armed with guns, who very likely do not live in the neighborhoods they're patrolling, we want to create space for more mental health service providers, social workers, victim/survivor advocates, religious leaders, neighbors and friends all of the people who really make up the fabric of a community to look out for one another'. Following the death of George Floyd, thousands have taken to the streets across the US to demand justice. Activists are even calling for police to be defunded, while acknowledging this is a gradual process Adding that those who commit crime often only do so when their basic needs are not filled by other means. Retired Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza told the group: 'The idea of police as crime preventers is rubbish. By the time the cop appears the criminal has been formed and the crime has been committed .' Speaking at a BLM protest today Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said: 'I will never stop saying, not only do we need to dis-invest in police, but we need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis police department, it is rotten to the root. And so when we dismantle we allow for something beautiful to arise. And that re-imagining allows us to figure out what public safety looks like for us.' Among plans put forward by Black Lives Matter, MPD150 and other activists to replace police are: Mental health responders to attend mental health crisis in place of armed police Street outreach teams, more shelters and affordable housing to help solve homelessness and stop the homeless from being criminalized Traffic stops to be eliminated entirely, with traffic violations dealt with via mail Community members to attend domestic violence calls, to help intervene and establish long-term safety for the individuals Specialized physical and emotional support for victims of sexual violence Investing in prevention of sex trafficking to end economic and social conditions that lead to deeply rooted vulnerabilities The legalization of marijuana to stop incarceration for the 'harmless' drug Better handling of drug offences to stop 'criminalizing of communities of color' Decriminalization of sex work and formation of an independent union to ensure individuals have insurance, child care and safety precautions Restorative justice (meetings between victim and offender) to be used to deal with property crimes such as theft and burglary Advertisement 'I would have traded 10 cops for another Boys & Girls Club, but the system needs to change as far as having police respond to incidents such as mental illness. 'Police are not equipped. They're not trained. They're not specialized in that. But yet it continues to get delegated to them,' he told NPR's All Things Considered podcast earlier this week. Whether or not it is a model that can be replicated successfully elsewhere remains unknown. Minneapolis, for example, has a population five times the size of Camden and the demographics differ. In Camden, the majority of the population is black, whereas in Minneapolis, nearly 60 percent are white. It poses the question of how to staff the department. Despite Camden having a predominantly black population, there are still more white officers in its police force than there are African Americans. 'The demographics of the city do not reflect these demographics. 'With a white chief, as thoughtful and progressive as he is, and only one African American captain out of seven, both the dynamics and optics of race are a problem,' Ojii BaBa Madi, a minister in Camden, told CNN. In Minneapolis, the city council says it is moving to disband the police department entirely. Among officials who support the effort is Congresswoman Ilhan Omar who described the department as a 'rotten cancer'. They have not yet laid out plans for how to replace the department. Mayor Jacob Frey says he is against it and that while police reform is undoubtedly needed, doing away with the force entirely is uncalled for. It is an issue that has electrified political debate over the last several days. President Trump, who describes himself as a 'law and order' leader who will never waiver in his support of the police and military, says calls to disband police departments are 'crazy'. Attorney General Bill Barr has urged people against 'demonizing' the police. Barr expressed his concerns during an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier. 'I think defunding the police - holding the entire police structure responsible - for the actions of certain officers is wrong and I think it's dangerous to demonize police,' Barr said. The attorney general, who said there are approximately 900,000 police officers in the nation, backed up his statement by saying departments 'understand the need for change and there has been great change' in the last 60 years. Barr then told the network that if police were to be defunded: 'You would have increases in vigilantism and increases in chaos in the city'. He said that it has 'been shown' that an increase in vigilantism would result in more killings. Barr's remarks come as Black Lives Matter activists pushing to defund the police proposed plans to replace officers with social workers, mental health advocates and homeless charities. Their chants called for widespread disbanding of US police departments after Minneapolis councilors voted to abolish the city's police force in an historic move following days of protests over Floyd's death during an arrest on May 25. However supporters of 'defund the police' say their demands are not necessarily about eliminating police departments or stripping agencies of all of their money. They say it is time for the country to address systemic problems in policing in America and spend more on what communities across the US need, like housing and education. On Sunday, officials including Ilhan Omar and the son of the Attorney General prosecuting the four cops responsible for Floyd's death - signed a pledge vowing to take it apart. They spoke to protesters at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis and revealed their 'reimagining' of the police force. President Donald Trump tweeted Monday morning that: 'LAW & ORDER, NOT DEFUND AND ABOLISH THE POLICE. The Radical Left Democrats have gone Crazy!' He later added: 'This year has seen the lowest crime numbers in our Countrys recorded history, and now the Radical Left Democrats want to Defund and Abandon our Police. Sorry, I want LAW & ORDER!' A man has been arrested in connection with farm vehicle thefts after a van with false plates was stopped in North Yorkshire. Police are investigating the man in connection with offences, including the theft of an all-terrain vehicle from the Pateley Bridge area last month. On 2 June, officers from North Yorkshire Police's Roads Policing Group stopped a Ford Transit Luton van on the A629 western bypass at Skipton. In addition to acting on intelligence about the vehicle, they noticed that its model did not match the vehicle registered with its registration number. The van, which contained a set of vehicle ramps inside, had previously been reported stolen from the Dewsbury area. The driver, a 33-year-old man from Bradford, was arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods, theft of a motor vehicle, driving whilst disqualified, and conspiracy to steal. He was taken into custody, and subsequently released under investigation while enquiries continue. How can I improve agri-vehicle security? Residents and businesses in rural areas are urged by the police to check the security of agricultural vehicles like quad bikes and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). Park as close to your premises as possible, ideally in a locked outbuilding with CCTV and security lighting, preferably out of sight from nearby roads. Remove keys when not in use, and do not leave them near the quad. Fit a GPS tracking device. Secure with wheel clamps and/or locking posts, and consider an alarm. Mark or customise your quad so it is easily identifiable. Keep a record of all vehicles, including photographs and serial numbers. The NFU Mutual Rural Crime Survey in 2019 found that quads and ATVs nationally were being stolen from farms in large numbers. It also found that tracking devices were the most effective security measures, once basic measures of keeping vehicles out of sight in a building with the machine secured had been addressed. Posted on: June 9, 2020 4:58 PM Anglican priest shelters 70 people after flooding in Burundi Intensive heavy rains have forced hundreds of families to leave their homes in Gatumba, a district of western Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. The Anglican Church in the region have been working to alleviate the suffering: one priest sheltered 70 people who were forced from their homes. He said that the situation is likely to become harder as rains continue to fall. Victims, especially children and other vulnerable people, also face the threat of disease caused by poor sanitation and pollution, the Anglican Church of Burundi said on its Facebook page. For those people who have been affected emergency help is needed urgently not only to prevent an epidemic breaking out but also to provide appropriate shelter, food and clothing. Situated along the shore of Lake Tanganyika, Gatumba is particularly vulnerable to flooding when water levels of the lake rises and the Rusizi River floods during prolonged rains. Much damage has been caused mainly affecting houses and crops while in other localities the rain has damaged roads, the Church said. Some people use boats to access their houses where there was normally a street. Some schools and churches have had to close until the water recedes and buildings dry out. Families whose houses have been flooded are finding shelter in churches that remain unaffected and on building sites. Some are sleeping alongside the main road that joins Bujumbura to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Victims say that they have lost all their belongings except some clothes. Archbishop of Cape Town: We are tired, sick to death [and] exhausted at the seemingly never-ending struggle that people of colour still face The Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town, joined other Christian leaders in a multi-faith vigil on Sunday to stand in solidarity with people who have died at the hands of law enforcement officers during lockdown in South Africa and abroad. Two vigils took place: one outside St George's Cathedral in Cape Town and another outside St Alban's cathedral in Pretoria. Speaking at the Cape Town vigil, Archbishop Thabo said: We are gathered here because Black Lives Matter, whether in South Africa, the United States, France, Australia or elsewhere. Our prayers here today have been for Collins Khoza and all those he represents in South Africa who have been killed by forces deployed by the State to enforce lockdown regulations. They have been for George Floyd and all those he represents in the United States, for Adama Traore and all those he represents in France, and for David Dungay, an indigenous Australian who died saying I can't breathe, and all those he represented. Archbishop Thabo added: We are here because we are tired, sick to death, exhausted, at the seemingly never-ending struggle that people of colour still face, well into the 21st century, 50 years after the American civil rights struggle, 25 years after the end of political apartheid, to be treated equally by arms of the State. We are here because we protest against the wanton, unnecessary use of violence by police and soldiers who break the laws they are entrusted to uphold and assault protestors of whatever race who declare that Black Lives Matter. We are shocked at the way in which the SA National Defence Force, with the most rudimentary, inadequate reasoning imaginable, has exonerated its soldiers of any culpability in Mr Khosa's death, and at the repudiation of their minister's statement that the matter has not been finalised. We are shocked at the blatant disrespect for law and order shown by members of the Buffalo, New York police squad, 57 of whom resigned from their unit not because two of their number were implicating in assaulting a 75-year-old man, inflicting head injuries, but because the two were suspended. In South Africa, when President Ramaphosa announced that he would send law enforcement forces to our communities, he made a clear plea to both the police and the military that this should not be a time for skiet en donder [violent action]. His words have fallen on deaf ears. In recent days, at least 12 people have reportedly died in South Africa at the hands of the police and army troops. We recognise that investigations are still ongoing, Archbishop Thabo said, but we are deeply concerned that the plight of our sisters and brothers is going unnoticed and forgotten. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of US-based Episcopal Church addresses overlapping crises [Edited from a report by Egan Millard for the Episcopal News Service] The Presiding Bishop of the US-based Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, opened an online meeting of the Episcopal Churchs Executive Council yesterday (Monday) with a rousing, emotional address that acknowledged the suffering and anguish caused by the overlapping crises of the past three months: the Covid-19 pandemic, racial violence and police brutality against African Americans, and the governments sometimes-violent reaction to protests. Quoting from Isaiah 40, Curry simultaneously expressed the spiritual pain and exhaustion of this moment, the solace of faith in God and the need for the church to double down on its commitment to justice, even when the cameras are gone. Were not going to quit, Curry said. Were going to stay the course. Curry praised the way Episcopalians have risen to the occasion and engaged with the various issues that have arisen in recent weeks, and he gave an impassioned and unvarnished assessment of the political and cultural forces responsible. We have seen false representations of Christianity and Christian nationalism on display for all the world to see, Curry said. We have seen the blatant face of the brutality of racism that is very often far more subtle and pernicious and systemic and institutional. But we have seen its brutal face. We have seen fundamental challenges to the ideals of freedom, justice and human equality. . . We have seen fundamental challenges to the democratic fabric of American society, something I never thought I would live to see. We have seen a ruthless virus, a plague in the land, sickness and death and hardship visited to one degree or another on all of us, but particularly on the most vulnerable among us. And it has exposed inequities and moral wrongs that shouldnt be in our land, or in our world. The Executive Council is meeting to sketch out visions and plans for the churchs future in a world that bears little resemblance to the one that existed when council last met in person, in February. Click here for more Christian communicators condemn police attacks on journalists in the US The North American chapter of the World Association for Christian Communication has joined with the Associated Church Press and Religion Communicators Council to call on American law enforcement authorities to immediately cease their interference and abuse of journalists as they cover protests against police brutality and the extrajudicial killings of Black Americans. The Anglican Communion is a member of the World Association for Christian Communication. In their statement, the groups say that American democracy is built on the First Amendments guarantee of free speech and an unhindered free press. Recently televised and photographed arrests of journalists who have been shot at, teargassed, clubbed, shoved, and otherwise abused, represent an intentional targeting of the press and have prevented the practice of their constitutional rights. We recognise the complex and ever-evolving nature of demonstrations, however, law enforcement violently impeding journalists ability to cover the protests limits free speech and narrows the scope of the coverage. The groups say that preventing the exercise of an independent press in any way is an affront to democracy and the values of a free society. This sentiment is exacerbated by repeated claims of fake news and naming the press as enemies of the state by the United States president. We call on him, and all elected leaders in America, to strongly affirm the constitutional rights of a free press and take swift action to ensure the safety of journalists. Archbishops in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia issue call for prayer The Archbishops of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia have called on Christians in the Church to pray for thanksgiving, prayer and heartfelt reflection in the lead up to Te Pouhere Sunday. Te Pouhere is the name of the constitution of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, which is built on three tikangas, or cultural streams. Each tikanga is led by an Archbishop who, uniquely in the Anglican Communion, combine as the provinces Primate. Archbishops Don Tamihere (Aotearoa), Philip Richardson (New Zealand) and Fereimi Cama (Polynesia) are calling on Anglicans in the islands to reflect and pray on the church's three-Tikanga identity in the light of the big issues rocking the world at this time. Firstly, the Archbishops highlight our nations responses to the global coronavirus pandemic, calling on their Church to offer prayer for those who have suffered, and thanksgiving for those who have served during these hard times, Anglican Taonga says. As we move toward Te Pouhere Sunday when this Church gives thanks for our three-Tikanga life the Archbishops have called on Anglicans to pray for hearts and minds that are open to the kind of reconciliation and change that will help dismantle racism in all its forms. The Archbishops' call to prayer and thanksgiving can be read on Anglican Taonga. Iran has built a fake aircraft carrier that closely resembles US navy vessels for use in live drills, amid escalating tensions between the two countries. The fake carrier, seen in a series of satellite photographs, is similar in appearance to the Nimitz-class carriers routinely sailed by the US Navy. The replica holds 16 mock-ups of fighter jets on its deck, satellite photos taken by Maxar Technologies revealed. While not yet acknowledged by Iranian officials, its appearance in the port city of Bandar Abbas suggests Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is preparing a repeat of a similar mock-sinking in 2015. A a fake aircraft carrier is seen off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran, as revealed in a satellite photo provided by Maxar Technologies, for potential live-fire drills The vessel appears to be some 650ft long and 160ft wide, smaller than a real Nimitz which is 980ft and 245ft wide. The fake carrier sits just a short distance away from the parking lot in which the Guard unveiled over 100 new speedboats in May - the type routinely deployed in encounters between Iranian sailors and the US Navy. Those boats carry both mounted machine guns and missiles. The mock-up strongly resembles a similar one used in February 2015 during a military exercise called 'Great Prophet 9.' During that drill, Iran swarmed the fake aircraft carrier with speedboats firing machine guns and rockets. The replica vessel resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the US Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf. The vessel appears to be some 650ft long and 160ft wide, smaller than a real Nimitz which is 980ft and 245ft wide Surface-to-sea missiles later targeted and destroyed the fake carrier. 'American aircraft carriers are very big ammunition depots housing a lot of missiles, rockets, torpedoes and everything else,' the Guards then-navy chief, Adm. Ali Fadavi, said on state television at the time. That drill, however, came as Iran and world powers remained locked in negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program. Today, the deal born out of those negotiations is in tatters. President Donald Trump withdrew America from the accord in May 2018, and Iran responded by abandoning nearly every tenant of the agreement - though it still allows UN inspectors access to its nuclear sites. Last summer saw a series of attacks ramp up tensions between the two countries. Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, centre, was killed in a US air strike in Baghdad earlier this year The replica vessel resembles the US Navy's Nimitz-class carriers, pictured above in the Western Pacific sea in 2017 They reached a crescendo in January with a US air strike near Baghdad International Airport that killed Qassem Soleimani, head of the Guard's Quds Force. Iran says it will execute 'CIA spy' who helped US target drone strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani 'very soon' By Chris Pleasance Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, an Iranian national, accepted money from both US and Israeli intelligence services in return for handing over information on the Quds intelligence force and Soleimani's whereabouts, Iran claims. He was sentenced to death in recent days and the sentence will be carried out 'very soon', Iran's Justice Ministry spokesman said Tuesday. Little is known about Majd, whose identity had not been previously revealed. It is thought he is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is how he was able to obtain information on Soleimani's whereabouts. Justice ministry officials gave no further information about him - such as when and why he allegedly began collaborating with the US and Israel. Advertisement Iran retaliated with a ballistic missile strike on targeting US forces in Iraq, which left more than 100 American troops with serious brain injuries. That same day, the Guard accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jetliner in Tehran, killing 176 people. The new satellite images of the replica plane come as Iran announced plans to execute a man accused of sharing details on the movements of Soleimani in the lead up to his death. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili revealed on Tuesday that Iranian citizen Mahmoud Mousavi Majd had been convicted in a Revolutionary Court, which handles security cases behind closed doors. He also stopped short of directly linking the information allegedly offered by Majd to Soleimanis death. Iran's announcement of the impending execution shows the county is taking Soleimani's assassination seriously. An exercise targeting a mock US aircraft carrier may also send that message as well, particularly if it involves a swarm attack of smaller vessels. Analysts believe Iran would employ such smaller vessels if it did become involved in a shooting war with the US Navy. Esmaili did not say when Majd would be executed, other than that it would be 'soon.' The Israeli prime minister's office, which oversees the Mossad, declined to comment. The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and it wasnt immediately clear if Majd had an attorney. The US Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, which patrols Mideast waters, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Natural News) Progressive ideology always rests on a conviction that the current regressive system is comprehensively unjust and must be destroyed by exploiting its weaknesses. (Article by John Hayward republished from Breitbart.com) The most famous proponent of such tactics in recent years has been the late Saul Alinksy, the intellectual godfather of the modern Democrat Party, but former Soviet journalist and KGB informant Yuri Bezmenov laid out an even more concise strategy for subversion in a 1984 interview. Alinksys seminal book specified 13 Rules for Radicals, but Bezmenov had only four stages of ideological subversion, and they will sound very familiar to anyone following the current wave of left-wing riots, or the politicized final stages of the coronavirus panic before it: Demoralization, Destabilization, Crisis, and Normalization. Bezmenov defined ideological subversion, or active measures as the KGB preferred to call it, as a slow brainwashing process to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite their abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country. Stage 1: Demoralization Bezmenov said the first stage, Demoralization, could take 15 to 20 years to complete because this is the minimum number of years it takes to educate one generation of students. Marxist-Leninist ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism, American patriotism, he warned in 1984, judging that the demoralization process had been basically completed by that point. Actually, its over-fulfilled, because demoralization now reaches such areas where previously, not even Comrade Andropov and all of his experts would even dream of such tremendous success, he added, referring to former KGB head and Soviet leader Yuri Andropov. Most of it is done by Americans to Americans, thanks to a lack of moral standards. Bezmenov explained that demoralization is important because it robs the targeted population of its ability to process valid information. Even when demoralization targets are showered with authentic proof of contrary positions, they simply refuse to believe it. Demoralization is quite obvious among todays young people, whose faith in their country has been systematically destroyed throughout their lives by the education and media establishment. To take a recent high-profile example, the New York Times fraudulent 1619 Project argued that American history actually began with the arrival of black slaves in North America and the Revolutionary War was fought by the colonists to preserve slavery. Although comprehensively debunked by actual historians, and even the original author has admitted her core thesis was not true, the 1619 Project is now part of some school curricula. Another word for demoralization is guilt. Americans are routinely compelled to feel guilty about their society and national history. Guilt is the most powerful force in left-wing politics and academia. People will not accept the radical expansion of punitive government power unless they feel guilty and deserving of punishment. Stage 2: Destabilization The second stage, Destabilization, is much faster, requiring only two to five years under KGB doctrine. In this stage, the fundamentals of the targeted populations economy, political system, and culture would be attacked, while the demoralized population could not mount much of a defense. Bezmenov in 1984 found it absolutely fantastic how much influence Marxist-Leninist ideas had developed in the American economy and military. In essence, a demoralized population becomes willing to believe the worst criticisms of its own society, while learning to see defenders of that society as their enemies, while avowed enemies become natural allies. The defenders are held to strict standards, while anything goes for the most strident critics. Whatever Bezmenov saw in the destabilized American society of the early 1980s with respect to the Soviet Union, its easy to see how the American Left has destabilized entire segments of modern society after demoralizing them. They see enemies everywhere, while no pro-American authority can be trusted. Its hard to imagine a better illustration of demoralization followed by destabilization than hordes of anti-capitalist activists texting each other on their iPhones. Not coincidentally, hostile foreign powers like Communist China and Iran are reaching out to destabilized American communities and offering themselves as guides and allies. Their sales pitches arent exactly smooth, but they definitely are making an effort. A destabilized population becomes obsessed with hypocrisy as the ultimate political sin. They believe the best ideas individual liberty, sovereign rights, capitalism, even the rule of law are presented insincerely by sinister powers who seek to exploit and manipulate them. The precious resource of goodwill disappears from society as everyone comes to believe their neighbors hate them and cannot be trusted. Demoralized people lose faith in their nation, history, and ideals; destabilized people lose faith in each other. Stage 3: Crisis Once a society has been destabilized, Bezmenov said the time would be ripe to create a Crisis, which he estimated would take six to eight weeks in the Eighties. With turbo Internet speed, the modern era can punch out a crisis much faster than that. A crisis has the obvious benefit of panicking demoralized, destabilized people into abandoning their legal protections and constitutional ideals. During the coronavirus panic, people who brought up those ideals were treated like lunatics. The pendulum swung the other way with blinding speed during the riots. In the span of one week, the right to peaceable assembly went from a crazed defiance of common-sense lockdown rules to an urgent matter that utterly transcended the deadly pandemic. Suddenly, angry political demonstration magically cured the coronavirus, or made the projected wave of sickness and death into a purely secondary concern. If you wanted to work at the store so you could feed your family in late March, you were selfishly trying to kill my Grandma to pad your bank account. If you wanted to burn the store down in early June to protest white supremacy, nobody mentioned their imperiled grandmothers. The more subtle benefit of a crisis is that it tends to de-legitimize aspects of the existing system that have already been softened up by the long process of demoralization and destabilization. Those who control the organs of public communication have the power to decide which aspects of the system are supposedly indicted by the crisis. For example, the dominant media Left will go to great lengths to avoid painting the coronavirus as an indictment of the flabby, blinkered, bureaucratic Big Government that grew over the past few decades, and it will not discuss the failures of left-wing mayors and governors. On the contrary, the pandemic was used to attack the competence of Republican governors who turned out to be entirely correct in their actions, as in Florida and Georgia. During the riots, the media is completely uninterested in discussing the incompetence of left-wing officials who allowed violence to rage out of control with deadly consequences. Somehow the lesson of wanton violence that killed people and destroyed countless livelihoods became lets get rid of the police altogether. The threat of a crisis is essential for terrorizing the middle class into accepting a political agenda that is actively hostile to its interests, which leads to the fourth stage of subversion: the offer to make the pain and fear go away by accepting political domination. Stage 4: Normalization After a crisis, with a violent change of the power structure and economy, you have a so-called period of Normalization that may last indefinitely, Bezmenov said, arriving at the fourth stage of subversion. Normalization is a cynical expression borrowed from Soviet propaganda, he explained. Interestingly, it also happens to be the core theme of the 2020 Democrat presidential campaign. When the Soviet tanks moved into Czechoslovakia in 1968, Comrade Brezhnev said, Now the situation in brotherly Czechoslovakia is normalized. This is what will happen in the United States if you allow all the schmucks to bring the country to crisis, to promise people all kinds of goodies and a paradise on Earth, to destabilize your economy, to eliminate the principle of free-market competition, and to put a Big Brother government in Washington, D.C. with benevolent dictators like Walter Mondale, who will promise lots of things never mind whether the promises are fulfillable or not, Bezmenov cautioned. As things turned out, Walter Mondale never got his chance to be a benevolent dictator, and to some extent Bezmenovs four-step model of subversion could be applied to almost any political campaign. They almost all begin with telling voters things are awful, crises have erupted, and normality can be restored only by voting for the challenger (or preserved only by voting for the incumbent). Bezmenov, however, was insistent that American left-wing professors and civil-rights leaders were deliberately running Andropovs strategy with a conscious effort to achieve destabilization, the step that truly distinguishes ideological subversion from the usual promises to put a chicken in every pot. They are instrumental in the process of subversion only to destabilize a nation, he said of the academics and activists. When their job is completed, they are not needed anymore. They know too much. Some of them, when they get disillusioned, when they see that Marxist-Leninists come to power, obviously they get offended. They think that they will come to power. That will never happen, of course. They will be lined up against the wall and shot. The American version of this process probably would not end with the mass execution of inconvenient intellectuals, but there is a parallel in what would happen to the intellectual supporters of the current riots if the Democrats win in 2020. They would discover that the victorious Democrat Party is not at all interested in their systemic criticisms of public union employees, such as police officers. Many bones would be thrown to activist groups to purchase their loyalty and, much more importantly, the loyalty of their leaders but not the one concession they ostensibly care about the most: a system that makes it easier to discipline and fire government employees. This metaphorical lining up and shooting of intellectuals is already happening with Lockdown Forever enthusiasts, who only a few days ago were hammering out passionate arguments that American businesses must remain shuttered for weeks or months to come, and anyone who dared to question their dire warnings was a selfish monster willing to kill other peoples grandmothers to pad out their 401k accounts. In the blink of an eye, Lockdown Forever went from the vital engineers of a politically useful crisis to inconvenient obstacles for the new crisis, nationwide riots. Most of the lockdown gurus sensed this shift in the political winds and quickly trimmed their sails, hammering out new screeds that claimed protesters are probably immune to the coronavirus somehow, or even more incredibly, that another outbreak would be a small price to pay for righteous political activism: Dozens of public health and disease experts have signed an open letter in support of the nationwide anti-racism protests. "White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19," they wrote.https://t.co/EewPNgDSu3 NPR (@NPR) June 2, 2020 These are the same medical activists who were shrieking in March that the coronavirus could kill millions of Americans if lockdowns were not imposed immediately, and just a few weeks ago, left-wingers were obsessed with calculations that showed COVID-19 is exceptionally deadly to the black community. But suddenly the risk of millions of deaths, 70 percent of them purportedly likely to be black Americans, means nothing compared to the vital urgency of protesting against white supremacy. Read more at: Breitbart.com Texas A&M University has been helpful throughout the process, Sullivan said. The school is working with health officials to plan for how to collaboratively continue contact tracing when students return to campus, he said. This is the key to being able to find where it is so folks know that you are at risk. You were around somebody who had it, so you can now quarantine yourself from others, Sullivan said. And that is really where our effort has to be. If there is a positive case in a household, Sullivan said, all members of the home should quarantine for 14 days. Quarantining, he said, is when someone is at risk from the disease and staying away from the community. Isolating is when someone is infected with COVID-19 and must stay away from the community. About 1% to 3% of people tested at mobile sites have had COVID-19, Sullivan said. He described the slow turnaround time from those sites as frustrating, and said officials are working to improve that at the state level. In its attempt to strengthen traditional friendly relations and build new ones, Egypts post-June 2013 foreign policy faced a host of challenges LIBYA: A possible breakthrough is in the works for one of the most pressing issues facing Cairo. Following a tripartite meeting this week with Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar, and Libyan Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi announced the Cairo Declaration, a joint political initiative that seeks to end the conflict in Libya. In an attempt to ensure the initiative does not meet the same fate as earlier attempt to broker peace, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri is coordinating with UN Secretary-General Antonio Gueterras, Chairman of the African Union (AU) Moussa Faki, and the foreign ministers of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Niger and the UAE. Egypt has long sought a political solution in Libya that includes all active political parties and preserves the unity of the country. COVID-19: The coronavirus pandemic has presented new challenges to foreign policy-makers across the world. Egypt has launched a number of initiatives to raise awareness of the dangers posed by the virus. As chair of the African group at the UNs Geneva headquarters, Egypt organised a series of meetings with the heads of international humanitarian organisations last month to coordinate their support for African states as they face the fallout from the virus. Egypt has also led an international campaign at the UN to reduce the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the money remitted by expatriate workers to their home countries. In collaboration with Egypts National Council for Women, the Foreign Ministry has spearheaded attempts to mitigate the impact of the virus on vulnerable groups of women and take preventive measures to reduce its effects. TERRORISM: Egypts war on terrorism has been one of the abiding features of the last six years. Cairo has raised the threat posed by terrorism at every international meeting, including the Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development. Government efforts to combat terrorism seem to be working. Egypt dropped out of the top 10 countries affected by terrorism in the Institute for Economics and Peaces 2019 Global Terrorism Index issued in November. Deaths from terrorist attacks fell 90 per cent in 2019, with the report attributing the fall to the success of counter-terrorism operations in Sinai. Last week, Shoukri took part via video conference in a meeting of foreign ministers from states committed to combating the Islamic State, and stressed that measures were urgently needed to halt the growth of the groups influence in west Africa and the Sahel, and stop it from restructuring in Iraq and Syria. At the opening ceremony of the 33rd AU Summit in Addis Ababa in February President Al-Sisi proposed an African summit on fighting terrorism. In a later, closed session, African leaders agreed to convene a special meeting to discuss establishing a continental counter-terrorism force. EGYPT IN AFRICA: Building relations with African states has been a top priority for the last six years, and Egypts chairing of the AU in 2019 gave Cairo an opportunity to address challenges to the continent head on. Last year ended with two meetings at which Egypt tried to make the African voice heard: the first round of the Aswan Forum for Peace and Sustainable Development, and the G20 Compact with Africa summit. In addition to taking part in international forums and voicing African concerns, Cairo has continued to play a vital role on the continent, contributing peace-keeping forces, taking part in preventive diplomacy, and promoting conflict resolution in flash points like South Sudan and Burundi. During its 2019 presidency of the AU, Egypt championed the African Free Trade Area Agreement tirelessly. NILE BASIN: One of the main aims of Egypts foreign policy is to establish strong relations with Nile Basin countries and President Al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Shoukri have paid frequent visits to Nile Basin countries over the last six years. Relations with Nile Basin countries began to sour when they signed the Entebbe Agreement in 2010. Tensions escalated when Ethiopia began work on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) which will limit the flow of the Nile, Egypts main source of fresh water. Addis Ababa claims the dam, which will double Ethiopias electricity generating capacity, is critical to its development efforts. After years of tripartite talks, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan failed to agree a timetable for filling the dams reservoir, or how much water should be released during periods of drought and prolonged droughts. In the hope of finding a solution Egypt has sought third-party mediation, a suggestion Addis Ababa refused until November last year when the US Treasury Department hosted ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan in Washington for talks on the GERD. The World Bank attended the talks as an observer. The talks were supposed to lead to a comprehensive agreement by the end of February. However, Ethiopia did not turn up to the final meeting. In March Shoukri embarked on a round of shuttle diplomacy to African, European and Arab states to resume the tripartite negotiations and reach an agreement before the filling of the dam begins. Ethiopia has declared it will begin filling the reservoir next month regardless of whether an agreement is reached. Sudan has repeatedly tried to bring negotiations back on track, efforts that seemed to bear fruit this week when the ministers of irrigation of the three states met on Tuesday. COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA: In the wake of June 2013 relations with Russia improved markedly. President Al-Sisi turned to Moscow in 2014, when US-Egyptian ties were at their lowest ebb. Since then, Egypt and Russia have cemented ties in a number of ways, arms deals among them. In 2015 Egypt reached a deal with Russian state energy firm Rosatom to construct a 4,800 megawatt nuclear power plant at Dabaa on the Mediterranean coast. Under the deal, Moscow is loaning Egypt $25 billion over 35 years to finance the construction and operation of the nuclear plant. In 2017 Vladimir Putin visited Egypt for the signing of the Dabaa deal, a trip that was expected to open the doors to other areas of cooperation. Moscow halted flights between Russia and Egypt in October 2015, following the downing of a Russian passenger jet in Sinai that killed all 224 people on board. Since then Egypt has adopted tighter security measures at its airports to meet Russian demands, and the two sides agreed to hold meetings in April 2018 to discuss the resumption of flights from Moscow to Egyptian resort towns on the Red Sea. Before the plane crash Russians had accounted for a fifth of Egypts tourist traffic. On the political level, there is continuous coordination and consultation between Cairo and Moscow on bilateral and regional issues. Shoukri called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov last week to discuss regional developments, including the situation in Libya and the Palestinian territories. PARTNERSHIP WITH CHINA: Cooperation between Cairo and Beijing has proceeded apace. Relations began their upward trajectory with Al-Sisis visit to China in December 2014, and continued with Chinas announcement of its Belt and Road Initiative, and growing investments in major development projects in Egypt. Recent years have seen the establishing of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Egypt, and a series of cooperation agreements in the field of trade, the economy, aerospace industry and energy. Contacts between Chinese and Egyptian officials is continuous. Last week, Shoukri called his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to discuss bilateral and regional issues. Shoukri briefed Wang of the latest developments on GERD, and Egypts willingness to resume tripartite negotiations in the hope of reaching a comprehensive agreement. China is in a strong position to press Ethiopia into being less intransigent: Beijing is one of the main financiers of hydropower projects in Ethiopia. GREECE AND CYPRUS: Security in the Eastern Mediterranean has steadily climbed the regional agenda in recent years. Egypt has developed alliances with Greece, Cyprus, France and Italy to pursue mutual interests. Following a virtual meeting last month they issued a strongly worded joint communique denouncing illegal Turkish activity in Cypriot territorial waters. They called on Turkey to respect the sovereignty of Mediterranean states, and strongly condemned Turkish military interference in Libya after Ankara moved mercenaries from Syria to Egypts troubled western neighbour. In a meeting held in January the foreign ministers of the five states said Novembers signing of memorandums of understanding between Turkey and Fayez Al-Sarraj, the head of Libyas Presidency Council, violated UN Security Council resolutions and international law, and further undermined regional stability. Tripartite cooperation between Egypt, Greece and Cyprus began in 2014 with the goal of promoting neighbourly relations, regional stability, peace and prosperity. *A version of this article appears in print in the 11 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under headline: Balance and diversity Search Keywords: Short link: [June 09, 2020] QuadTalent Raises over US$20m in Series A, led by Gaorong Capital SHENZHEN, China, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- QuadTalent, a digital transformation solution provider, has closed a US$21m Series-A financing led by Gaorong Capital, with an estimated post-money valuation close to US$200m. QuadTalent was founded in August 2019 by Dr. Wanli Min, former Alibaba Cloud Chief Machine Intelligence Scientist. The company provides value-oriented data technology and digital transformation solutions to enterprise clients in socially critical industries. Min holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Chicago and graduated from Gifted Youth Program from the University of Science and Technology of China at the age of 19. Prior to founding QuadTalent, he held senior research and management positions at renowned tech firms and research institutions including IBM, Google and Alibaba. Last year in June, Min founded a tech-intrinsic private equity fund, North Summit Capital. The fund and QuadTalent closely collaborate under the "tech + capital" model, where the two explore and discover value-creation potential in data and value-intensive traditional industries to create investment opportunities. Unlike typical B2B SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) products offering generic functionalities, QuadTalent tailor cutting-edge technology solutions to tackle high-impact use cases where AI algorithms and cloud computing help exploit data assets to unleash substantial value. To deliver such impact, QuadTalent provides immersive 'B4B Solution-as-a-Service' offerings encompassing digital transformation consulting and implementation, aligning strategic priorities of businesses with value-oriented technology milestones and roadmap. Since 2015, QuadTalent's core team had successfully delivered over 100 digital transformation projects across 8 industries, helping clients generate several billions of RMB in revenue. Leveraging on those extensive experience, QuadTalent has already been scaling innovative digital solutions in industries including manufacturing, retail, smart city, critical infrastructure and logistics. The company also looks to establish a presence beyond China and has been in active client discussions in Europe, the Middle East and APAC. Min said, "In the past decade, numerous tehnology-driven innovation emerged in China, spearheading economic growth and job creation across the country. It's promising for those breakthrough applications to alleviate more countries from post-pandemic recession.' So far, QuadTalent's founding team has assembled a squad of industry-leading experts in technology and applied research. The Chief Technology Officer has 20 years of platform architecture experience, during which he architected Alibaba's e-commerce platform. The Chief Data Officer is a Big Data and AI application expert with a decade of experience steering digital transformation initiatives and delivering data-driven intelligent solutions across industries. The Chief Algorithm Scientist holds a PhD in operational research and optimization from Imperial College London. In her previous position, she led an R&D team for a retail business to optimize supply chain automatically with AI, saving millions on operational cost. Gaorong's commitment to QuadTalent's Series A reflects the capital market's increasing interest in technology penetration to traditional industries. "Gaorong Capital has a firm grasp of industry trends and extensive cross-sector experience," said Min. "With a shared vision and ideology, our collaboration comes naturally." Mr. Bin Yue, co-founder and Managing Partner from Gaorong commented, "Science and technology is a pivotal driving force of productivity growth and society advancement. We believe QuadTalent's is well set-up to deliver on the promise its founding team possesses industry-leading experience and indisputable technology advantages. We respect founding teams who are courageous enough to forage the No Man's Zone. Therefore, we are willing companions on their quest to bring a profound impact on the industries and our community." This investment also brings a much-needed shed of optimism on the traditional industry drowning in dooms day pessimism as world-class talents and resources shift from Silicon Valley and Wall Street to the farmland, the production line and the highways, so does hope. About QuadTalent QuadTalent, the digital transformation solutions provider, was founded in August, 2019 to spearhead the penetration of data and digital technology into data-intensive traditional industries covering agriculture, manufacturing, retail, logistics and healthcare. The firm provides immersive 'Solution-as-a-Service' offerings covering digital strategy consulting all the way to implementation, productizing and deploying data and AI-driven applications to drive tangible value creation. Distilled from over 100+ digital transformation projects spanning various industries, QuadTalent's proprietary DT methodology provides a strong guardrail for transformation initiatives across sectors. With scalable architect scaffolded with highly-reusable modules, QuadTalent's Intelligent Operating System supports rapid customized delivery while ensuring consistently high quality. http://www.quadtalent-intl.com/ Dr. Wanli Min Bio Founder and CEO of North Summit Capital and QuadTalent Technology, Dr. Min is a leading expert in industrial intelligence and business innovations powered by data technology and mathematics. He pioneers a 'technology + capital' strategy to accelerate digital transformation in various industries ranging from e-commerce to manufacturing and smart city. Dr. Min received a Ph.D. in statistics from The University of Chicago and B.S from the University of Science & Technology of China. His research area includes probability, stochastic process, time series analysis, machine learning, smart traffic and signal processing. He served as a researcher at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, IBM Singapore, and Google before joining Alibaba in 2013. Later as Chief Machine Intelligence Scientist for Alibaba Cloud, Dr. Min took charge R&D in the data intelligence solutions. In 2017, Dr. Min was named by Forbes as a leading technologist driving China's AI revolution and also appointed to the advisory committee of the next-generation AI strategy under China's Ministry of Science and Technology. For Media Inquiries: Rania Li [email protected] +1(647)968 8860 SOURCE QuadTalent [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Officials in New Delhi and Mumbai report alarming shortage of hospital beds as India sees record infections in a day. As India reports a record number of coronavirus infections in a single day, the countrys fragile health infrastructure faces a major crisis: a lack of hospital beds. Officials in Indias two largest cities the capital New Delhi and financial hub Mumbai have reported an alarming shortage of space in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) and general wards. On Tuesday, Delhis Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the capital will have more than half a million COVID-19 cases and it does not have the hospital capacity to handle such an outbreak. He said the city will need 80,000 hospital beds to tackle the spike. Sisodias warning came as harrowing accounts of people struggling to get a hospital bed in New Delhi emerged, including some who said their loved ones died on the doorsteps of medical centres that refused to take them in. New Delhis number of infected people jumped to 29,943 on Tuesday, more than 10 percent of Indias total cases, making it the third-worst-hit region after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu states. For Delhi this is a big problem, if cases continue to rise, Sisodia said. Meanwhile, India on Tuesday registered 266,598 total cases nationwide making it the fifth-worst-affected country in the world, and set to overtake the United Kingdom in few days with nearly 7,500 deaths so far. Health workers talk to people accompanying a patient at a hospital that treats COVID-19 patients in New Delhi [Manish Swarup/AP] Row over hospital beds Sisodias statement came a day after Indias federal government reversed the Delhi administrations order to reserve hospital beds for Delhis residents and limit the scope of coronavirus testing. On Sunday, Sisodias boss, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had announced that hospital beds for COVID-19 patients would be reserved for the citys residents. Kejriwal warned the city would soon run out of beds if COVID-19 patients kept coming from across India to its hospitals, drawing criticism that his decision was unethical. The central government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly objected to Kejriwals announcement. Kejriwal later tweeted that making arrangements for treatment for people from across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic is a major challenge. But maybe its Gods will that we have to serve everyone in the country, he said. Kejriwal himself went into self-isolation at home after a bout of fever and throat pain, his party said. A coronavirus test was conducted on Tuesday, and the results are awaited. He has been a corona warrior, he has been at the front line of this fight, we hope he recovers soon, said Raghav Chadha, a party legislator. He was dying in front of family Aniket Goyal, a university student in New Delhi, said his grandfather was refused admission in six government-run hospitals last week because the facilities said they had no beds even though a government app showed that beds were available. When his family went to the citys private healthcare facilities, they found the daily cost of treatment so high, they withdrew. The family filed a public interest petition in court seeking its intervention. The court set a hearing for the following week by which time the 78-year-old man had died. He was dying in front of our family every minute; we could not do anything, Goyal said. Another resident tweeted that she was standing outside the government-run Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Hospital with her ailing father, but it was not accepting him. My dad is having high fever. We need to shift him to hospital. I am standing outside LNJP Delhi and they are not taking him in. He is having corona, high fever and breathing problem[s]. He wont survive without help. Pls help, said the resident, who tweeted under the Twitter handle Amarpreet. An hour later, she wrote that her father had died and that the government had failed them. The hospital said in a statement that the patient was dead on arrival and that its doctors had examined him. The hospital staff is working non-stop for the last several months and are making every effort possible to ensure not a single life is lost, it said adding these were extraordinary circumstances. Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, ChennaiPrivate hospitals turning away corona patients. Public hospitals overcrowded.Thanks to our political class for rotten healthcare system. When did they last speak or agitate on the issue of health policy? And why didnt we question them? nikhil wagle (@waglenikhil) June 9, 2020 A Delhi government coronavirus mobile app showed the city of more than 20 million people had 8,814 COVID-19 beds, with more than half occupied. Of the 96 hospitals listed, 20 had no beds available, the app showed on Tuesday. The app also tracks the availability of ventilators, and data showed that only 260 of the 519 ventilators were in use. Delhis health system is broken, said Indian National Congress MP Manish Tewari. Just 30 ICU beds left in Mumbai Mumbai city is the other coronavirus hotspot. A leading official in Indias financial capital told the NDTV network on Monday night that the citys hospitals had just 30 ICU beds left. Iqbal Chahal, chief of Mumbais civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said the state government plans to add more beds in the coming days. A report by the Indian Express newspaper on Tuesday cited the BMC data as saying 99 percent of Mumbais ICU beds and 94 percent of ventilators were already occupied. The report said Mumbai has 1,094 ICU beds in public and private hospitals, with 1,083 among them occupied. It added that of the 464 ventilators, 437 were already employed for patients. Meanwhile, the Delhi government has also stopped hotels from reopening as it might want to convert them into temporary hospitals if there is a big jump in cases. On Monday, India threw open shopping centres and restaurants in a bid to restart the economy after a lockdown imposed in March left millions without work. But health experts say the countrys coronavirus peak could still be weeks away, if not months. Leader facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in western Sudanese region between 2003-2004. Darfur militia leader Ali Kushayb is in the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity after surrendering to authorities in the Central African Republic (CAR). The court issued an arrest warrant for Kushayb in 2007, accusing him of murder, rape and pillage in the western Sudanese region of Darfur between 2003 and 2004. Ali Kushayb is in the custody of the ICC after surrendering himself voluntarily in the Central African Republic on account of an ICC arrest warrant issued on 27 April 2007, The Hague-based court said in a statement on Tuesday. Prosecutors say Kushayb was a commander of the pro-government Popular Defence Forces that led attacks on towns and villages during a conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people and drove more than two million from their homes. The court did not specify where Kushayb was being held. A government source in CAR told the Reuters News Agency Kushayb was arrested in the northern town of Birao and sent on a plane to the Netherlands on Tuesday morning. Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is also wanted by the ICC on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed by pro-government forces in Darfur. Human Rights Watch welcomed Kushaybs detention. Darfuri victims and their families have waited 13 years for this, said Elise Keppler, associate director of the groups International Justice Program. The world watched in horror as Sudans government carried out brutal attacks on Darfur civilians, killing, raping, burning and looting villages, starting in 2003. BEG PARDON!!! KANSAS CITY PO-PO DON'T FEEL MUCH LOVE FROM POLITICOS RIGHT NOW AS POTENTIAL 12TH & OAK EXONERATION FOR RIOTERS WORSENS LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMNT CRISIS!!! "The police union representing the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department believes all individuals ticketed or charged during last weekend's Black Lives Matter protests should go through the judicial system. "When you start getting rid of cases where police officers need the right to tell people to follow directions, what does it tell you it's anarchy," said Sgt. Brad Lemon, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 99." THE POLITICALLY AGGRESSIVE TONE OF THE KC FOP HAS SPARKED THE IRE OF MANY #BLACKLIVESMATTER ORGANIZERS AS THREATS TO 'CANCEL' THE GROUP EMERGE!!! AND SO WE ASK READERS: SHOULD VOTERS SUPPORT PARDON FOR PROTESTERS OR POLICE UNIONS??? "We have to look at the unions as part of the systemic racism that which continues permeate entire police departments. Look at the composition of police unions. There are very few members of color and none in leadership positions or at least none that we've seen. In other cities police unions have been banned when the community determines that they no longer serve the public interest. This is part of local control. This is part of the defunding movement. The belief and the knowledge that police work for US, not the other way around. The entire culture of policing must change and if that means dissolving a union that contradicts and defies our elected leaders. So be it." Police Unions Confront Push Back From Across The Nation Police unions under fire from left as calls for reform ring out in aftermath of Floyd death In the wake of George Floyd's death, police unions are coming under fire from the political left as impediments to the reform of a system many claim is racist, as politicians and organizations say the groups are more interested in protecting their members than the public. Scribes Type Anti-Po-Po Screed WGA East Calls On AFL-CIO To Give Police Union The Boot The WGA East is calling on the AFL-CIO to disaffiliate with the International Union of Police Associations, a labor organization that represents more than 100,000 police officers around the country. The resolution calling for the ouster, which was adopted unanimously by the guild's Council, refers to the policies and actions of the police union as being consistent with "authoritarianism, totalitarianism, terrorism and other forces that suppress individual liberties and freedom." Progressives Continue Pushing Defund The Police Movement Why Do Police Unions Talk and Act Like the Mafia? How Can We Stop Them? It's been difficult, if not impossible, to end the career of the worst cops who commit many of the abuses... Finally! After an unforgettable week in which America - already reeling from the brutal caught-on-video Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, on top of a pandemic, a recession, and ... Democratic Party Propagates More Conspiracy Theories The End of Policing: Alex Vitale on How Cops & Their Unions Cover Up Inequality, Exploitation Professor Alex Vitale argues the answer to police violence is not "reform." It's defunding. The author of "The End of Policing" says the movement to defund the police is part of "a long story about the use of police and prisons to manage problems of inequality and exploitation." Dont Forget That Libertarians Have Probs With Police From Underneath Tin Foil Hats It's Time To Bust Police Unions Police Abuse In 2018, as a gunman murdered 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Sgt. Brian Miller, a sheriff's deputy with the Broward County Sheriff's Office, hid behind his police cruiser, waiting 10 minutes to radio for help. For his failure to act , Miller was fired. Behind the scenes, tough talk concerning Kansas City public safety escalates and threatens to expose a growing local rift betwixt locals an law enforcement.To wit . . .Here's the glimpse at one report confirming this trend that still doesn't explain the political ramifications . . .Deets:Now, this statement runs contrary to recent moves from Mayor & Council who areDon't forget that Mayor Quinton LucasHowever . . .Accordingly, now we turn to protesters to explain their newfound stance against the local police union. Here's the word:And so, with a reminder that, we offer further reading on the next phase of the "local control" and "defund the police" movement -- The backlash against law enforcement unions:You decide . . . GRAND RAPIDS, MI Dine-in service is back on at Michigans bars and restaurants, but takeout remains an option for customers who dont yet feel comfortable returning to in-person dining amid the coronavirus pandemic. On June 1, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced all restaurants could reopen Monday, June 8 with some restrictions for social distancing. Those in the Upper Peninsula and northern lower Michigan received the green light last month. Many restaurants throughout the Grand Rapids-area still offer takeout and curbside delivery. Delivery, for restaurants that dont offer it directly, can often be accessed through third-party providers such as Uber Eats, Grub Hub or Door Dash. Heres a look at a five spots in Grand Rapids to consider for Takeout Tuesday. Paddock Place Paddock Place, 1033 Lake Dr. SE, in Grand Rapids, offers a variety of items, ranging from peppercorn crusted steak, twin grilled pork rib chops, smoked salmon tacos, Szechuan tofu bowl, and more. The restaurant also sells salads, snacks, and a burger. To see Paddocks menu, click here. Orders can be made by calling (616) 742-0600. The restaurant is offering takeout from 4 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday. The Red Bird Bistro and Grill The Red Bird Bistro and Grill, 22 N. Main St. NE, in Cedar Springs, serves an array of menu items, including burgers, braised pork nachos, salads, a chicken dinner, beef tenderloin, cod, and more. The restaurants full menu can be seen here. According to its website, takeout is available from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Fricanos Pizza Fricanos Pizza, 5808 Alpine Ave. NW, in Alpine Township, is known for its thin crust pizza, and it offers the pizza with a variety of toppings, including Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, green pepper, anchovies, and more. To see Fricanos menu, click here. Orders can be placed online or by calling (616) 785-5800. According to its website, the restaurant is open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday through Saturday. Olives Restaurant and Bar Olives Restaurant and Bar, 2162 Wealthy St. SE, in East Grand Rapids, offers a variety of salads, sandwiches, burgers, and more. Entrees include salmon, chicken thighs, crispy mushrooms, braised meatballs and more. Olives menu can be viewed here. Orders can be made by calling (616) 451-8611. Royals Royals, 701 Wealthy St. SE, in Grand Rapids, is a diner-style restaurant with a wide-selection of menu items, including cinnamon rolls, avocado toast, Belgian waffles, breakfast sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, soups, salads and more. To place an order or view the restaurants menu, click here. The restaurant is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Wednesday of this week. From Thursday onward, its hours will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. 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: Divers recover body of 2nd Lake Michigan drowning victim at Holland State Park Meijer Gardens reopens to hundreds after coronavirus closure Monday, June 8: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan The President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA ), Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, says the lawmaking organ has produced 26 important decisions and resolutions under its silence procedure as adopted on March 27. Mr Muhammad-Bande, who is Nigerias Permanent Representative to the UN, disclosed this at a virtual news briefing on activities of the Assembly amid the COVID-19 pandemic in New York on Monday. Silence procedure is an online decision-making method adopted by member states following the suspension of in-personal plenary meetings at the UN headquarters to avoid the spread of the disease. Normally, the 193-member Assembly adopts resolutions by majority votes or by consensus at its plenary sessions, but under the silence procedure, draft resolutions are circulated to member states online. Ambassadors are then given a 72-hour deadline to consider the proposals and communicate their decisions back to the PGAs office. If a country objects before the deadline, the resolution is defeated, but in the absence of objections, the UNGA President then circulates a letter confirming adoption. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that one of the 26 resolutions tagged 74/270 came on April 2 in which the Assembly called for global solidarity to fight the pandemic. It followed up with Resolution 74/274 on April 24 that urges international cooperation to ensure equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and medical equipment. The Assembly, which is the most representative organ of the UN, also passed Resolution 74/275 on May 28 proclaiming Sept. 9 every year as the International Day to Protect Education from Attack. Mr Muhammad-Bande commended member countries for taking a leap of faith with the silence procedure amid doubts over their ability to virtually work closely together. He also lauded the UN secretariat for coming up with technological innovations to facilitate virtual meetings of the organisation and its agencies. READ ALSO: Life has never been the same for individuals, communities, nations and certainly the United Nations since the outbreak of COVID-19. The world had to change in terms of the tempo and method of work. This was extremely challenging for us at the UN. That we are meeting virtually underscores the necessity to work together to defeat the COVID-19 and strengthen multilateral cooperation on other issues affecting us as a global community, he said. The PGA said with the silence procedure came the need for Member States to work harder at passing resolutions through consensus, which according to him, is normally difficult. Describing 2020 as a critical year for the UN, Mr Muhammad-Bande said the Assembly was poised to get more things done virtually in preparation for the high-level week in September. We are preparing for celebration of the 75th anniversary of the organisation. Serious work is going on robust political declaration to be placed before our Heads of States and Government on Sept. 21. We are confident that a very important declaration will be agreed by all member states, he added. (NAN) Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, gets into a car after leaving a detention center in Euiwang, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday, after the Seoul Central District Court rejected an arrest warrant for him. Yonhap By Kim Se-jeong After the court dismissed the prosecution's request for an arrest warrant for Lee Jae-yong, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, eyes are now on an external committee which is set to discuss the validity of Lee's indictment. The 15-person panel is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss the case. The planned meeting will only cover whether or not they will take the case for review, and if they agree to take it, another round of meetings will be scheduled. While many local outlets said the review will be influenced by the court decision, Prof. Han Sang-hee who teaches law at Konkuk University said the result could be affected by the panel not taking up the case. "When you read the court's statement, it indicates Lee should be tried. Given that, I think there are possibilities that the panel supports the prosecution by dropping the case," Han said. A statement released by the Seoul Central District Court stated, "It seems that prosecutors have obtained a good amount of evidence, but they haven't explained why they need to detain Lee. It would be appropriate to determine whether the suspects are responsible through trials." OTTAWA Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says governments must do much more to address systemic racism in Canada and must do it now, but stopped short Monday of committing anything beyond trying to accelerate the pace of change. Trudeau was responding to the demonstrations against police brutality that took place in several Canadian cities over the weekend, inspired partly by U.S. protests while drawing attention to Canadian law enforcements own failings. The reality is that many people in this country simply do not feel protected by the police. In fact, theyre afraid of them, Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. That alone would be bad enough, but systemic discrimination and racism in Canada goes much further than just policing. Its about poverty and mental health. Its about the fact that people are all too often treated like criminals instead of receiving the support that they need. Trudeau pointed to disturbing reports of violence against Black Canadians and Indigenous people that have emerged in recent weeks. While the prime minister did not single out specific incidents, he did speak to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki just before his daily news conference. The national force has come under increased scrutiny after violent incidents involving Indigenous people, including the beating of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam in March. Trudeau said he wanted to move as quickly as possible to equip the RCMP as well as provincial and municipal police forces with body-worn cameras. He said he plans to take up the issue with provincial and territorial premiers later this week. It is something that is, in my opinion, what we need to move forward with, Trudeau said. Police forces in Canada have been slow to move toward body-worn cameras, arguing the cost is prohibitive. A 2015 RCMP report estimated the cost for each camera to be between $800 and $1,300, with significant additional costs associated with storing footage from the cameras digitally. Still, the internal report recommended each RCMP division outfit a limited number of its officers with body-worn cameras. Its not clear why the force disregarded that recommendation. A spokesperson said Monday that the RCMP has been reviewing past research into body-worn cameras with an eye to rolling them out nationally, but did not explain the five-year delay. The commissioner agrees it is critically important for Canadians to feel protected by the police and is committed to take whatever steps are required to enhance trust between the RCMP and the communities we serve, the force wrote in a statement. Protesters have called on governments across North America to stop the steady increase in policing budgets and divert resources to different supports for vulnerable communities, including social workers, mental health treatment and economic development. The city council in Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed by police, sparking the mass demonstrations across America announced its intention to disband its police force and create a new model for public safety. When asked if the Liberal government would be reviewing the RCMP budget, Trudeau said theres always a need to review every public dollar spent. Thats something that Canadians expect of their governments and we will continue to do that to ensure that budgets are spent appropriately, the budgets themselves are appropriate, and make sure that were also investing in all the things that need to be invested in to ensure truly safer communities, Trudeau said. His office clarified that no new review has been launched of the RCMPs budget, which is expected to reach $3.43 billion in 2019-20. An internal government assessment, obtained under access to information law, suggested in 2019 that the RCMPs contract policing operations in provinces, territories and municipalities are a financial drag on the force and divert resources away from federal investigations into serious crimes. According to the documents, 60 per cent of RCMP resources ($2.6 billion) and 70 per cent of RCMP officers (13,723) are assigned to policing in the provinces and territories. The RCMP has lost almost a third of its officers focused on federal policing national security investigations, organized crime, financial crime since 2010. Read more about: Here are some of the stocks in the news today. (Image: Moneycontrol) Results on June 9 | Hero MotoCorp, Bombay Dyeing, Century Enka, eClerx Services, Gujarat Pipavav Port, Graphite India, Kirloskar Ferrous Industries, KRBL, Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals, PSP Projects, Tata Steel Long Products, TeamLease Services, Xelpmoc Design. Apex Frozen Foods | SPV Traders bought 2 lakh shares at Rs 229 per share. (Image: apexfrozenfoods.in) Coffee Day Enterprises | Kotak Mahindra Investments sold 12,84,619 shares at Rs 14.05 per share. (Image: PTI) Aarey Drugs | LTS Investment Fund sold 2,75,000 shares at Rs 19.52 per share. (Image: Moneycontrol) State Bank of India | Bank said it will reduce marginal cost of fund based lending rate (MCLR) by 25 basis points across all tenors from June 10. The one year MCLR has been revised to 7 percent from 7.25 percent, the bank said in a release. Titan Company Q4 | Profit at Rs 346.25 cr versus Rs 353.6 cr, revenue at Rs 4,711.50 cr versus Rs 4,888.77 cr YoY. (Image: Moneycontrol) Chalet Hotels Q4 | Profit at Rs 42.77 cr versus Rs 13.3 cr, revenue at Rs 227.35 cr versus Rs 269.86 cr YoY. (Image: chalethotels.com) PVR Q4 | Loss at Rs 75 crore versus profit at Rs 47 cr, revenue at Rs 662 crore versus Rs 846 cr. Board approved the fund raising of up to Rs 300 cr through issuance of equity shares on rights issue basis. (Image: PTI) RITES | Company received an order for consultancy services for preparation of detailed project report and providing pre-construction activities for construction of highway tunnels across certain sections on Darcha Padam road (NH-301) including approaches in Himachal Pradesh & Ladhak from National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation. RITES is a Joint Venture partner in the said project and its fee is Rs 55 crore. (Image: rites.com) Gayatri Projects | Company received order of Rs 145.53 crore from State Water and Sanitation Mission in UP. (Image: gayatri.co.in) Inox Leisure Q4 | Loss at Rs 82.15 cr versus profit at Rs 48.08 cr, revenue at Rs 371.58 cr versus Rs 478.84 cr YoY. (Image: Moneycontrol) Om Metals Infraprojects | CARE downgraded rating on bank facilities to BBB-/Stable from BBB/Negative. (Image: ommetals.com) CRISIL | NCLT sanctioned the Scheme of Arrangement between CRISIL and CRISIL Ratings. (Image: Shutterstock) Affle (India) | Company through its subsidiary (Affle) announced the signing of definitive agreements to acquire full control of Appnext Pte. Ltd., Singapore and 100 percent IP of Appnext app discovery and recommendation platform with immediate effect. The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic has been worsening globally and now is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, citing what he said was the highest number of new cases seen in a day by the health agency. More than 136,000 new cases were reported worldwide on Sunday, the most in a single day so far, and nearly 75% of them were reported from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online briefing on Monday. Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening. More than 100,000 cases have been reported on nine of the past 10 days. Yesterday, more than 136,000 cases were reported - the most in a single day so far, said Tedros. More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal. Brazil, India, Russia, Chile, Pakistan, Peru and Mexico account for the highest number of cases after the US, which has continued to add the most number of new cases for close to a month. WHOs tally of cases are based on numbers that are reported to it by member countries. According to data sources used by HT, which include worldometer.info and the Coronavirus Resource Centre by Johns Hopkins University, the highest number of new cases was recorded at a little over 130,000 on Friday. For the past two days, these set of countries added more than half of the daily new cases to the global tally. The larger Asian and South American regions contributed more than 76% of Mondays new cases, becoming drivers of what may loosely be seen as a third spurt in the outbreaks spread: the first was propelled by infections in China in late January. The second spike was driven by European countries such as Italy and Spain beginning in April. The outbreak in the US coincided with the second spike, and the country has continued to remain at the top of the list of nations with the most number of new cases. As of Monday, the US accounted for 2 million of the over 7 million total infections. Brazil, where the outbreak began accelerating in May, now has the third highest number of cases at close to 700,000 cases. Among countries with large populations, the UK has the highest ratio of deaths per million people - 597 - followed by Spain (580) and Italy (561). WHO chief Tedros said that in countries where the situation was improving, the biggest threat is now complacency, adding that most people globally are still susceptible to infection. Experts also said that removing lockdown measures in these countries, which largely comprise of low-to-middle income countries (LMIC), would be dangerous. Politicians may be desperate to get their economies going again, but that could be at the expense of having huge numbers of people die, news agency Associated Press quoted Dr Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Exeter in Britain as saying. He also said reimposing recently lifted lockdown measures was equally dangerous. Argentina will take over bankrupt soy-crushing giant Vicentin, with the aim of saving jobs and protecting the countrys food exporting sector, President Alberto Fernandez said in a televised address on Monday, Trend reports citing Reuters. Argentina is the worlds No. 1 exporter of soymeal livestock feed and Vicentin is one of the countrys main producers. Vicentin, founded in 1929, was Argentinas top exporter of processed soy and an iconic brand in the domestic food market. Today we are signing a decree that provides for the intervention of Vicentin, Fernandez said. We are sending Congress an expropriation bill so that the government takes over, he added. Vicentin has a joint venture with Glencore Plc called Renova, which has a major crushing plant in Argentinas Santa Fe province. Renova has remained operational since Vicentin defaulted on its bank loans and suppliers around the turn of the year. Fernandez said he did not consult Glencore before deciding to intervene in Vicentin. He called the move a strategic decision for the national economy. Argentina exported $12.2 billion in soyoil and soymeal last year. Soy-based livestock feed manufactured along the banks of the Parana River, Argentinas grains superhighway, is used to fatten hogs and cattle from Europe to Southeast Asia, while soyoil is used in cooking and to make biofuels. I want to give peace of mind to all the workers of the company, who will continue in their jobs. And also to the 2,600 farmers who will be able to count on the company to buy their grains for processing and export, Fernandez added. Argentina is facing a grim economic picture after defaulting on its own sovereign bonds last month. Gross domestic product is seen shrinking 9.5% in 2020, according to a recent poll of analysts by the central bank. Activity has gotten walloped by a nationwide lockdown that started March 20 against the coronavirus pandemic. The event will feature presentations by experts from across the cold chain industry, with opportunities for registered delegates to interact and ask questions. The virtual event has been organised to replace the Cold Chain Energy Summit in Manchester, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cold Chain Federation, which leads the UKs temperature controlled logistics industry, is now holding an online event in conjunction with Energy Summit partner Star Refrigeration. Cold Chain Energy Week takes place from Tuesday 16 June to Thursday 18 June 2020, with a series of one hour webinars over three days, each starting at 10am. The event will feature presentations by experts from across the cold chain industry, with opportunities for registered delegates to interact and ask questions. Webinars will focus on UK energy policy, climate change and innovations in renewable energy. Day one of Energy Week features an introduction from Cold Chain Federation Chief Executive, Shane Brennan and Star Refrigeration Sales and Marketing Director, Rob Lamb, exploring the UK energy landscape. The current Climate Change Agreement and what it means for cold store businesses will also be discussed. The theme for day two of the event is renewable energy in the cold chain, with expert insights and a review of the latest innovations. Star Refrigerations Director of Renewable Energy, Dave Pearson, will demonstrate how cold stores can create an income stream by harnessing the waste heat generated from refrigeration plants. Day three will see John Clark, Director of Star Data Analytics, sharing how cold chain businesses can manage energy efficiency and drive improvements. The session will close with the launch of new energy efficiency policy guidance from the Cold Chain Federation. The third and final day of Energy Week will also feature a look ahead to the re-scheduled Cold Chain Energy Summit. There will be a preview of the live event now taking place at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, on Wednesday 18 November 2020. For more information and to register for webinars during Cold Chain Energy Week, please visit: https://www.coldchainfederation.org.uk/connect/. Limiting your consumption of news is often cited as a way to protect your mental health. Its temptingbut its also a luxury. For Lisa Ling, a veteran journalist who has reported on everything from the culture of U.S. prisons to child trafficking around the globe, avoiding the headlines isnt an option. Consuming every bit of coronavirus news while staying mentally strong is Lings current job as host of the new show The Road to a Vaccine. I dont think that Ive ever felt this level of unease about the world before in my life. Its really made me recognize the vast social inequities that exist in this country, she said when I spoke to her in late May. Theyve always been there and Ive always known them to exist, but this has put such a spotlight on how unfair our health care system is mostly to communities of color. The deficiencies that exist in underserved communities, theyre devastating and theyre immoralits incumbent upon all of us to figure out ways to make health care more equitable for everyone. Reading the news these daysand especially reporting itrequires serious mental and emotional stamina. Its estimated that mental health could become the next global pandemic, says Ling. In a recent episode of the show devoted to the mental health implications of the coronavirus pandemic, Arianna Huffington weighed in on the balance between reading the headlines without getting overwhelmed. Her advice: Mute your news alerts before bed. That simple tip has been really helpful for me, Ling says. Im still consuming massive amounts of information, but at night Im doing my best to cut myself off. Spending your day leaning into the news, instead of away from it, also brings hope, Ling says. One of the people that we featured on our show a couple of weeks ago, Dr. Adaora Okoli, is an internal medicine resident physician in New Orleans. She got infected with Ebola herself while she was treating patients in her home country of Nigeria and is now on the front lines in New Orleans holding peoples hands through their battle with COVID-19, she says. Her spirit and her desire to be that person who holds the hands of her patients has just been so inspiring to meshe has really driven me to try to be that person for other people who are struggling. Story continues We asked Ling how she protects her mental health while reporting on some of the biggest crises of our timeand for the books (and beverages) that are nourishing her spirit. What part of the past few months has been the most challenging for you personally? Because the virus originated in China, people who look like me are being targeted. They are being assaulted verbally. Theyre being harassed. In some cases theyre physically attacked. I myself have been the recipient of some very hateful messages on social media. And so in some ways, I get as nervous about the virus of hate as the virus of COVID-19. How have the past few months changed the way you prioritize self-care? Ive really had to make it a priority to figure out ways to take care of myself and calm myself because I know that my anxiety rubs off on my kids. The other night, for example, I was sleeping with my girls and at about three or four oclock in the morning, I felt my eldest daughter kind of touching me. And I looked over and she was wide awake. I said, Honey, why are you awake at three in the morning? And she said, Because you were just thrashing around and almost screaming. I try really hard not to talk about my anxiety during the day when Im with them, but its obviously manifesting in my dreams and when Im with them at night. Thats when I realized that I need to start taking steps to try to ensure that they feel protected and that my anxiety doesnt rub off on them. What does it look like for you to manage that anxiety right now? Im having a glass of wine every night, which is not characteristic of me. Im someone who would socially drink on occasion, but now Im finding myself having a drink every night. And I live in California, so I might have like a gummy here or there, which is very helpful too. Just over the last two weeks, I started reading a non-scientific bookAmericanah. Its so good. I am also listening to an audiobook called The Sword and the Shield. Its about the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the civil rights movementtwo civil rights leaders who had totally different styles, and who relied on each other for different reasons even though they didnt really have much of a relationship. Its really well researched and well written. The Sword and the Shield $30.00, Loyalty Books BUY NOW Americanah $16.00, Mahogany Books BUY NOW Everything that Ive been watching on television, with the exception of The Last Dance about Michael Jordan, has been about the coronavirus. How is your reporting influencing your mental state? Theres nothing that I would rather be doing right now than reading and understanding as much as I can about this virus and the efforts in the global community to develop a vaccine or treatment for people who are infected. Im not a scientist, but Ive never been more interested in trying to understand what viruses are, how they work, and what the likely treatment options are for them. Its inspiring to get to interact with these people who are on fire to develop a vaccine. I just spoke with a scientist who worked for five years on the Ebola vaccine and was just coming up for air when he was told to start working on a vaccine for COVID-19. When I asked him how he felt about that, he said, You know what, it's a huge challenge, but were up for it. I mean, this is their lifes work. These are brilliant people who take it personally to figure out how to come up with treatments and vaccines for this virus. And thats really inspiring to me. How are you finding moments of joy and silver linings during this time? While this virus has put a lot of ugliness on display, its also highlighted incredibly moving things that have happened. This movement around frontline health care workers has been so inspiringtheyre finally getting the recognition that they deserve, and I hope that this continues. I am just so in awe of the risks they take every day, having to leave their own family and head to the front line to do battle with this disease. Those stories have really fueled me. One of the things that touched me when I interviewed Dr. Okolishes a physician, right, so shes always enjoyed taking care of patients. But when she got infected with Ebola herself and had to rely on medical staff and health care workers, she said she developed this new sense of empathy that she brings to her patients in New Orleans. She can relate to them in a way that many people cant. That empathy was just so palpable. A lesser person may have run away from that, but she dug her heels in and headed toward the front line. Hopefully a greater sense of empathy is something that comes out of this moment in our history. I hope so. I think because were all home so much, its easy to fall into that social media death trap where theres so much negative commentary and people are just spewing so much betrayal. Its easy to buy into that. But I think its so fundamentally important to recognize that there are far more people who want good and want positive and want something better to emergeI dont think that we recognize that enough. The Road to a Vaccine airs on Tuesdays at 12 p.m. EDT / 9 a.m. PDT on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and JNJ.com. Originally Appeared on Glamour Thank you for subscribing! By signing up to this free newsletter you agree to receive occasional emails from us informing you about our products and services. You can opt out of these emails at any time. The Tory chairman of the transport committee is attempting to harness support from MPs as he steps up his attack on British Airways over its treatment of staff. Britain's flag carrier has announced plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs but has also come under fire for trying to 'fire and rehire' employees who do survive the cull on reduced pay and benefits. Long-serving cabin crew have complained they face pay cuts of as much as 70 per cent as BA attempts to slash costs to weather the coronavirus crisis. Low flying: Long-serving cabin crew have complained they face pay cuts of as much as 70 per cent Unite and GMB have spearheaded a backlash which has been dismissed as union propaganda by BA's bosses. But the mantle has been taken up by Huw Merriman, Tory MP for Bexhill and Battle, home to many BA staff. Last week he secured a commitment from the aviation minister Kelly Tolhurst to review the airline's lucrative landing slots at Heathrow in an attempt to get the airline to back down. And emailing all MPs, he hit back at comments made by Willie Walsh, the boss of BA's parent company IAG, who has been attempting to drive through the changes. Walsh told MPs in an email last week that claims it is trying to make its entire workforce redundant and rehire them on reduced pay and benefits are 'vastly exaggerated'. But Merriman pointed out that over the weekend it had emerged that 4,300 pilots had also been added to the 'fire and rehire' list, along with cabin crew and other staff. He said in total 35,000 employees out of around 42,000 'will be subject to fire and rehire or redundancy'. Merriman also questioned why Spanish airline Iberia, also part of IAG, is pushing ahead with the 880m acquisition of rival Air Europa if the group is so strapped for cash. Walsh has previously dismissed this criticism, arguing the two airlines are entirely separate entities. And last week he told MPs that claims the company has been exaggerating the impact of the crisis 'could not be further from the truth' with BA 'burning through 20m of cash a day'. But Merriman told MPs that the fact BA has billions of pounds in cash reserves means it 'could be deemed a more secure business than others who are not taking such drastic cuts to workforce jobs and terms and conditions'. But BA's treatment of staff has raised concerns at the heart of government, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Tolhurst questioning the decision to furlough 23,000 staff on the Government's Job Retention Scheme shortly before announcing mass redundancies. A BA spokesman said: 'We are acting now to protect as many jobs as possible. The airline industry is facing the deepest structural change in its history, as well as facing a severely weakened global economy.' ALBANY The fate of a proposal to rename the New York State Thruway in honor of abolitionist and human rights activist Frederick Douglass was unknown after it was laid aside by the sponsor in a committee meeting Monday. Douglass, born into slavery in 1817, escaped north to freedom as a young man in 1838 and built a career as an abolitionist, writer and orator, as well as a proponent of women's rights. He lived in Rochester from 1847 to 1872. Douglass was a frequent visitor to upstate cities when he lived in Rochester, attending conferences in Albany and Troy in the years leading up to the Civil War. He died in 1895. The possible vote on the Thruway bill to honor Douglass would come in the wake of demonstrations over the past two weeks protesting the Memorial Day death of a handcuffed George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police. The measure was introduced in April by Senate Transportation Committee chairman Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo. The New York State Thruway, which was completed in 1954, previously was named for Gov. Thomas E. Dewey. He was in office and broke ground for the limited-access highway in a ceremony on July 11, 1946 in Liverpool, outside Syracuse, according to syracuse.com. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, like Dewey a Republican, renamed the Thruway in early 1964 after an earlier effort to do so in 1955 was vetoed by Gov. Averill Harriman, a Democrat, according to The New York Times. It had been Dewey's idea to establish a separate authority that would issue bonds and charge tolls to repay them. Dewey died in 1971. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Would the name change stick? The Thaddeus Kosciusko Bridge on the Northway continues to be called the Twin Bridges by local residents, while the Thomas E. Dewey Thruway continues to be just the Thruway. But Kennedy has replaced Idlewild as the common name for New York City's international airport. And Glenn Curtiss airport is far better known as LaGuardia. Perhaps soon we'll be taking the Douglass to get to the New York State Fair or to Chautauqua. Russia's Combat Jets, S-400 Finish Large-Scale Drills in Far East Sputnik News 09:16 GMT 08.06.2020(updated 09:17 GMT 08.06.2020) KHABAROVSK, Russia (Sputnik) - Russia's combat aircraft, S-400 air defences and Pantsir-S missile systems were involved in massive drills that the country has just finished in the Far East, the Eastern Military District said on Monday. "The unit of the air force and air defence of the district finished large-scale two-way flight exercises. They involved combat aircraft of the fighter and bomber aviation groups, as well as ground air defences stationed in the Khabarovsk Territory", the military district said. According to the press release, Su-35S fighters fired missiles at aerial targets and escorted Su-34 bombers that hit "columns of equipment" and "communications facilities" of a simulated enemy. The S-400 and Pantsir-S systems provided cover for the Su-34 jets from the ground. In total, about 50 aerial and ground targets were destroyed during the exercise. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Africa: Over 200 health workers claim benefits The Compensation Fund has received over 200 claims from health workers as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise. Already, the Compensation Fund has seen 212 COVID-19 related claims with the largest number coming from KwaZulu-Natal having registered 76 claims. The Fund has accepted liability of 67 of those claims; two have been repudiated while seven are awaiting adjudication, said the department in a statement on Monday. The Western Cape is the second biggest applicant with 75 claims with 41 of those accepted and 34 awaiting adjudication. Gauteng received 30 claims and half of those have been accepted, four repudiated and 11 are awaiting arbitration. The Eastern Cape has registered 28 cases of which 26 have been accepted, one has been repudiated and another awaits arbitration. Meanwhile, in Limpopo, two claims have been registered of which one has been accepted and the other repudiated. Mpumalanga had only one case which has been accepted. The majority of those who have been affected are female accounting for 89% of claims received. According to Fund Commissioner, Vuyo Mafata, most of those affected are nurses in the private sector with 65 in KwaZulu-Natal, 26 in Western Cape and 18 in Gauteng. A further 42 claims have been lodged through the Mutual Association of which one has been accepted, seven repudiated and 34 are pending adjudication. When we say we have accepted the claim as a valid occupational injury or disease, it means we accept responsibility for the costs related to the claim, that is medical aid costs and disability costs, Mafata explained. When a matter is repudiated, it means the Fund has accepted the claim as a valid occupational injury or disease and will not take responsibility for the costs related to the claim. Sometimes we do not accept liability which means we have repudiated a claim but may still reconsider it if additional information is submitted to support the claim, he added. Meanwhile, when a claim is pending adjudication, this means that the claim has been received, but no decision has been made due to outstanding information or it has not been attended to yet. Non-compliance in workplaces Inspector-General Aggy Moiloa has lamented the low level of compliance with health and safety protocols since the commencement of the COVID-19 lockdown. There is no significant change whatsoever in the percentage of compliance since the last inspection, she said. Over this period, there have been 4 306 inspections conducted with 2 374 workplaces complying. This works out to 55%, which translates to 45% of employers not complying. In the public sector non-compliance is at 54% which is unacceptable. In the private sector, compliance is at 57%, which still means non-compliance at 43% is unacceptable," she added. Employers have a legal duty to ensure that all workers operate under conditions of safety especially with rising cases of coronavirus afflictions." She said non-compliance has direct effects on presenting future cases of compensation. UIF pays R20 billion since lockdown The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), which is an entity of the department, has already paid over R20 billion since April, benefitting 3 517 346 workers since lockdown. This includes some payments for May claims that currently stand at just over R2 billion. The figures also reflect an increase in direct payment to workers which now stands at 133 988 being paid directly an amount of R594 million. These workers claims were submitted by 9 747 employers, the department said. On the other hand disbursements to domestic workers have increased to just under R100 million which has been paid out to 25 074 workers represented by 15 014 workers. The UIF however, is still concerned about a high number of undeclared workers on whose behalf employers are putting in claims. In the latest round of claims, employers have claimed for at least 76 599 workers who do not appear on the database for benefit payment of R325 million. In April, the UIF received applications of 697 418 workers who did not appear on its database from 113 080 employers and had payments been made, they would have netted close to R3-billion in relief benefit payments. This is a serious cause for concern and we appeal to employers to help the UIF to be able to reconcile these claims for these workers against our database, said UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping. The department deals with issues relating to compensation for injury or disease contracted on duty; workplace inspections for health and safety; unemployment insurance; the conciliation, mediation and arbitration of workplace conflicts and productivity. We are the centre of governments response to the ill effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, the department said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-06-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. On March 1, which feels about 20 years ago, NBC News published an essay by a congressional candidate, Jamaal Bowman, about the scars he bore from life in New York under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was then still running for president. As a working-class black male educator during the entirety of Bloombergs tenure, I got to experience the horrors and the trauma of how his police department treated people like me, wrote Bowman. He described an inexplicable arrest following a routine traffic stop, and another after he was accused of stealing his own car. He wrote about Eric Garner and Sean Bell, two black men killed by N.Y.P.D. cops, and about the growing police presence in the city schools where Bowman had made his career. At the time, I was only half-aware of Bowmans primary campaign against the high-ranking Democrat Eliot Engel, and didnt think he had much of a chance. In 2018, the Democratic insurgents Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley won surprising victories over longtime Democratic incumbents. But since then, the only progressive primary challenger whos ousted a sitting member of Congress has been Marie Newman in Illinois. Engels district, New Yorks 16th, encompasses parts of Westchester, some quite wealthy, and of the Bronx. As Bowman told me, if it were a country it would be one of the most unequal in the world. Though its majority-minority, affluent white people tend to vote in primaries at higher rates than poorer people of color, and the suburbanites in the New York 16th are probably not as left-leaning as the young gentrifiers who helped elect Ocasio-Cortez. Engel seemed safe. Moga: A head constable was killed and two policemen were injured when a resident of Khosa Pando in Moga district opened fire at a police team that reached the village on getting a complaint about a firing incident early on Tuesday. The accused, Gurwinder Singh, tried to flee after firing at the policemen and taking his mother hostage but was later arrested. He sustained bullet injuries and was admitted to the civil hospital in Moga. Senior superintendent of police Harmanbir Singh Gill said that Gurwinder had a fight with his uncle and burned their wheat straw after which his uncle lodged a complaint at the local police station on Monday night. When the duty officer visited the village, Gurwinder misbehaved with him and later climbed his houses roof and opened fire in the air with his fathers licensed 12-bore rifle, he said. When a special team, comprising staff of the crime investigation agency (CIA), Moga, reached the spot, the accused opened fire at it also, killing head constable Jagmohan Singh on the spot. Inspector Tirlochan Singh and head constable Ridham Singh were injured. They were rushed to the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), Ludhiana, where their condition is stable. A deputy superintendent of police and an SP reached the spot soon after with their teams when the accused opened fire yet again and tried to flee after taking his mother at gunpoint. He sustained bullet injuries while fleeing and called an ambulance that took him to the civil hospital where he was later arrested. Egypt has sent military tanks and helicopters to its borders with Libya after President AbdelFattah al-Sisi backed truce between protege Khalifa Haftar and UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), Defense Blog reports. The Egyptian army has mobilized 18 M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tanks and at least six Mi-24 attack helicopters. The army is ready to enter Libya to antagonize with Turkish forces and Syrian mercenaries fighting on the side of the GNA forces, the media said. The move came on the heels of the presentation on Saturday June 6 of a Cairo declaration, a plan seeking to end years of conflict in neighboring Libya. This initiative calls for respecting all international efforts and initiatives by declaring a ceasefire from 16:00 GMT Monday, June 8, 2020, the Egyptian President told a news conference on Saturday. The Cairo declaration, which backs Haftars agreement to return to truce talks, urged the withdrawal of foreign mercenaries from all Libyan territory. Egypt has become wary of the advance of Turkey-backed GNA forces following several gains at the expense of Haftar forces. Last month, the Egyptian President ordered the army to feed up security at its eastern border, after GNA forces seized the key Wattiyah airbase last month. Eight helmeted curassows an endangered species of bird found in South America were seized by the Border Security Force (BSF) from along the Indo-Bangla border in south Bengal on Tuesday while they were being smuggled into India. The accused persons, however, managed to flee when they saw patrolling teams of the BSF, leaving behind two wooden boxes. There were at least eight helmeted curassows birds in two boxes. These are exotic and endangered species. Earlier too we have seized helmeted curassows, said Satosh Kumar Singh, deputy commandant of BSFs south Bengal frontier. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, helmeted curassows are endangered species and are found in the forests of Columbia and Venezuela. It is estimated that less than 3000 mature individuals can be found. Their population is one the decline because of habitat loss and hunting. BSF officials said that they are in touch with officials of the state forest department and the birds would be handed over to officials from Alipore Zoo in Kolkata. We believe they are smuggled into India to be kept as pets, said a senior BSF officer. An auto-rickshaw plies on a road as its services resumed after a gap of over two months following ease of restrictions in the fifth phase of the COVID-19 lockdown, in Chennai. PTI photo Chennai: In yet another steep day-wise up-climb in persons testing positive for Covid-19, novel coronavirus, Tamil Nadu on Tuesday added 1,685 to its tally, even as 21 deaths confirmed by the Health department on a single day has pushed up the total fatalities due to the virus to 307. The total number of persons testing positive for Covid-19 in the State till date consequently took another big leap to 34,914 cases, with Chennai alone accounting for 1,242 fresh cases in a dizzy northward ascent. This is followed by a sizzling high of 158 cases in Chengalpattu, 90 in Thiruvallur and 32 in Kancheepuram, making these four districts a corona hotbed. The only comfort for the authorities is that the number of patients discharged went up by 798 persons, taking their total to 18,325 as on date, against 16,279 active cases throughout Tamil Nadu as on date. With another spike in Covid-19 positive cases in Chennai, number of containment zones (CZ) has jumped by 70 on a single day from 242 CZS' to 312 CZs'. Sensing the urgency of the situation, Health Minister, Dr C Vijayabaskar, accompanied by the Health Secretary Dr Beela Rajesh and other officials, clinched a 500-beds Covid hospital facility at the King Institute in Guindy, for treating Covid-19 patients, especially geriatric patients with co-morbidities. It has all facilities including ICU and oxygen pipelines, he said. Apart from adding additional beds in the four government medical colleges in Chennai and enlisting the support of more private hospitals for making them Covid-19 isolation and treatment centres, Mr. Vijayabaskar said 300 more beds each were being readied in the Chennai Port Trust old hospital and in the old compound of the historic Egmore Eye hospital. Chennai alone will be getting 4,900 additional beds and people need not panic, he once again urged as he sought their full cooperation with the government. The Government has also recruited more doctors and para-medics, besides calling for more volunteers to fight Covid-19, he said. Of the 21 deaths due to coronavirus confirmed today in the State, 12 of the 15 fatalities that took place in government hospitals were of elderly patients with co-morbidities. Only three patients died in government health facilities without co-morbidities, namely directly due to respiratory failure and Covid pneumonia. Among the six others who died in private health facilities, four of those deaths had the co-morbidities tag on the patients. ATLANTA - Voters endured heat, pouring rain and waits as long as five hours on Tuesday to cast ballots in Georgia, demonstrating a fierce desire to participate in the democratic process while raising questions about the emerging battleground states ability to manage elections in November when the White House is at stake. Its really disheartening to see a line like this in an area with predominantly black residents, said Benaiah Shaw, a 25-year-old African American, as he cast a ballot in Atlanta. A confluence of events disrupted primary elections for president, U.S. Senate and dozens of other contests. There were problems with Georgias new voting machines, which combine touchscreens with scanned paper ballots. The polls were staffed by fewer workers because of coronavirus concerns. A reduced workforce contributed to officials consolidating polling places, which disproportionately affected neighbourhoods with high concentrations of people of colour. Long lines were also reported in whiter suburban areas. Some voters said they requested mail-in ballots that never arrived, forcing them to go to polling places and adding to the lines. Turnout, meanwhile, may be higher than expected as voters said they were determined to exercise their constitutional right after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the ensuing demonstrations that swept cities including Atlanta. Too many people died for me to have this opportunity, said Stephanie Bush, a 49-year-old black independent voter in Atlanta. So for me not to stick it out would be a dishonour to them. Former Vice-President Joe Biden easily won the states Democratic presidential primary. He was facing no real opposition but hoped to post a strong showing among Georgias diverse electorate to show his strength heading into the general election. But the developments were troubling heading into the fall presidential campaign, which will attract even more voters. Biden and President Donald Trump are expected to fiercely compete in this rapidly changing state. That leaves officials, who have already been criticized for attempting to suppress the vote, with less than five months to turn things around. Republican leaders blamed the meltdowns on officials in Fulton and DeKalb counties, which are Democratic strongholds with significant black populations. When these things arise, and its really specifically in one or two counties ... it leads us back to the failure of the management of the county election directors in those counties, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told The Associated Press. It has nothing to do with what were doing in the rest of Georgia. Republican House Speaker David Ralston directed leaders of the House Governmental Affairs Committee to investigate the unacceptable deficiencies across the state, particularly in Fulton County. Voters leaving one Fulton County polling place offered words of encouragement to the many people waiting in line well past the already-extended poll closing time of 9 p.m. Lets vote this guy out of office, one said, a reference to Trump. Volunteers handed out bags of popcorn, chips and candy. People in line smoked cigarettes and cursed the wait. Some said theyd tried to vote earlier in the day but left because the line wrapped around the block. Democrats insisted the issues were more widespread. About 250 miles (400 kilometres) from Atlanta, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said he was inundated with phone calls from voters reporting extensive delays. The Trump campaign seized on the problems to amplify the presidents broader opposition to expanded mail voting this fall. The chaos in Georgia is a direct result of the reduction in the number of in-person polling places and over reliance on mail-in voting, said Trump campaign senior counsel Justin Clark. We have a duty to protect the constitutional rights of all of our citizens to vote in person and to have their votes counted. The Biden campaign called the voting problems in Georgia completely unacceptable and a threat to free and fair elections. We only have a few months left until voters around the nation head to the polls again, and efforts should begin immediately to ensure that every Georgian -- and every American -- is able to safely exercise their right to vote, said Rachana Desai Martin, the campaigns national director for voter protection and senior counsel. Americans also voted in primaries in West Virginia, South Carolina and Nevada. Long lines also plagued voting in Las Vegas, where voters told the AP that they been waiting four and five hours in some cases even as state election officials suggested wait times reached three hours only in one location. But the tumult in Georgia garnered much of the attention, reinforcing concerns about managing elections amid the coronavirus. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said voters in line at one of Atlantas largest precincts reported all the machines were down. She encouraged voters not to give up. If you are in line, PLEASE do not allow your vote to be suppressed, the Democratic mayor tweeted. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said he wasnt surprised that Georgia had voting problems given that the states elections chief is a Republican. He noted that GOP Gov. Brian Kemp faced allegations of suppressing votes when he oversaw the 2018 elections as secretary of state. Republicans want to ensure that it is as hard as possible for people to vote, Perez said. Kemp was largely silent about the voting problems on Tuesday, aside from retweeting a message from his wife urging people to vote. Georgia hasnt voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992, but the state is being closely watched by Trump and Biden. The former vice-president, in particular, hopes to emerge as the prime beneficiary of energy from the African American community and its white allies, who have held massive protests for more than a week. His path to the presidency was already focused on maximizing black turnout and expanding his alliance with white suburbanites and city dwellers, young voters, Asian Americans and Latinos. Trump, meanwhile, hoped to demonstrate strength among his base of white voters in small towns while holding his own in metro areas. Trump, meanwhile, has virtually no path to reelection without victory in Georgia. A nearly four-hour wait outside an Atlanta polling site shook Ross Wakefields faith in the upcoming elections and peoples ability to participate. It doesnt give me a lot of confidence in the future, said Wakefield, a 28-year-old white software engineer. Personally, I feel like were struggling as a country right now to hear people who really need to be heard, and this does not give me a lot of confidence that were doing that. ___ Peoples reported from Montclair, N.J. Associated Press writers Bill Barrow, Janelle Cogan and Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta and Michelle Price in Las Vegas contributed to this report. ___ Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game. Vladimir Lenin once remarked that "there are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen". As the leader of the Russian revolution, he was a bit of an expert on sudden upheavals following long stasis. We are living through such weeks now. In the past week, three important developments continued to accelerate the change to Australia's place in the world. First, the Chinese government told Chinese citizens: "Do not travel to Australia." It's unsafe in Australia because of racist violence against Chinese people, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi conduct a virtual summit. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen At the moment it's academic the border is closed. But it's smarter for Beijing to do it this way. Let the tension build. Now the announcement has been made, the fear in the affected industries will mount in anticipation. The tourism and university sectors will pressure the Morrison government to crack. The travel threat is the third instalment in this year's program of economic coercion against Australia. The others were actions against Australia's barley exports to China, then beef. Beijing is trying to build a constituency of Australian economic interests, one after another, that will clamour for Canberra to capitulate and give China whatever it wants. The Senates chief whip, Orji Kalu, on Tuesday resumed legislative duties about a week after he was released from prison for alleged fraud. The former Abia State governor had been jailed for about six months at the correctional service after he was convicted and sentenced for money laundering to the tune of N7.1 billion by Lagos federal high court. Mr Kalu, who stood trial alongside Ude Udeogu, a former director of finance and account in Abia, was sentenced by Justice Mohammed Idris, who as of then had been elevated to the court of ppeal bench, in a legal tussle that started in 2007. But, on May 8 this year, the supreme court, in a unanimous decision by a seven-member panel led by Justice Amina Augie, held that the Lagos Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction when it convicted Mr Kalu, his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited, and Mr Udeogu. However, the apex court verdict did not include releasing Mr Kalu from prison. His counsels, therefore, filed a suit before the Lagos federal high court for Mr Kalus release. In a judgement read by Justice Mohammed Liman at the Lagos court, the correctional centre was ordered to release Mr Kalu from its Kuje facility in Abuja last Tuesday. The centre obeyed the next day. Upon his return to the Senate on Tuesday, Mr was seen exchanging pleasantries with his colleagues, legislative staff and security operatives. I just want to thank God for everything that has happened. It is the will of God. I want to urge Nigerians to keep hope alive, he told journalists as he approached the Senate chamber entrance. Mr Kalu, however, did not resume his duty as chief whip. The deputy chief whip, Sabi Abdullahi, still acted in his stead. READ ALSO: Welcoming him, Senate President Ahmad Lawan expressed gratitude to God for having Mr Kalu back. I want to welcome our one and only chief whip of the Senate, and indeed the National Assembly. Chief whip, you are welcome, we are very grateful to the Almighty God for his blessings, a cheerful Mr Lawan said as giggles spread across the chamber. Since the beginning of the current vegetation period, precipitation in Germany has been far too low: With nearly 17 l per square meter, April 2020 reached not even a third of its target value of 58 l, the German Weather Service (DWD) reports. Precipitation was lower in 1881 and 2007 only. The drought monitor of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) reveals large regions of extreme and partly even extraordinary drought. Due to the dry years of 2018 and 2019, the soil has already dried out down to a depth of 1.8 m.Unfortunately, this is no regional problem, says Ingmar Wolff, founder of heliopas.ai. Due to global warming, an increase in extreme weather conditions has to be expected. Damage in agriculture due to drought, but also moisture-induced diseases cause multi-billion losses every year and threaten food security of billions of people. Together with his colleague Benno Avino, Wolff wants to help farmers cope with this new situation. We use artificial intelligence to understand very precisely what happens on the field, how the plants are doing, and where potential problems occur. These findings are then used to derive recommendations for the farmer that are displayed on the latters smartphone for him to optimally react, Wolff says.To use the service of heliopas.ai, farmers do not have to install any sensors or other devices on their fields. The new technology is based on satellite images, precipitation volumes, and other data that are collected on a daily basis. Then, artificial intelligence is used to identify relevant parameters, such as soil moisture, but also the occurrence of plant diseases. The WaterFox smartphone app ensures user-friendly access to the data. It is available now. Thanks to the simple and clear recommendations, the farmer only needs to irrigate those areas that actually require irrigation, Wolff says. This helps him save water and reduces the expenditure for planning and coordinating seasonal workers.WaterFox is easy to use: The user creates his fields on the map in the app and can start immediately. Clients are currently invited to test the product cost-free for one month. Then, use will be charged depending on the area. The service is also attractive for small farms. In future, irrigation recommendations will be complemented by recommendations relating to precise fertilization and well-balanced crop protection. This will help farmers increase their yields, produce healthier food, and protect the environment.(in German) (Newser) A slave auction block has been removed from a street corner in downtown Fredericksburg, Va., some 158 years after the Emancipation Proclamationand seven months after the city council voted 6-1 to remove it. The Washington Post reports that the 176-year-old block had been targeted during George Floyd protests, with marchers chanting "Move the block!" Chuck Frye Jr., the only African American member of the city council, has been fighting for years to have the block removed. In 2017, he was the only member to vote in favor of removal, but the council's stance shifted after hiring the International Coalition Sites of Conscience nonprofit, which advises communities on dealing with historical sites associated with human rights violations. Removal was delayed by the pandemic and lawsuits from two business owners who wanted the block to stay where it was. story continues below Frye tells CNN that he remembers people spitting on the block when he was a child, and also heard stories about tourists having photos taken with it. "I think racist folks loved it, historians understood it, and black people were intimidated," he says. The 800-pound block was finally removed Friday morning and transported to the Fredericksburg Area Museum. Sara Poore, the museum's president and CEO, says she supported the block's removal from downtown because it was a "source of pain and suffering for so long." She says the museum is working with the community on telling the block's storyand she wants to leave graffiti on it from the protests intact. "By cleaning it, you erase history," she says. (Read more Virginia stories.) The natural gas well of Oil India Limited (OIL) in Upper Assams Tinsukia district that has been spewing gas and condensate, caught fire on Tuesday 13 days after it had a blowout. Large plumes of smoke are emanating from the well, located at Baghjan, and can be seen several kilometers away from the site close to Dibru Saikhowa National Park and the eco-sensitive Maguri Mottapung wetland. The fire broke out at 1:40 pm at the site. The reason for the outbreak is not ascertained yet. Apart from a fireman of Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), who sustained a minor injury, no one else has been injured, said Jayant Bormudoi, senior manager (corporate communication), OIL. Watch: Massive fire at oil well in Assam, CM Sonowal seeks help from IAF The fire broke out at the well a day after three experts from a Singapore-based firm Alert Disaster Control had reached the site to attempt plugging the well. The experts were not present at the site when the fire broke out. They were attending meetings at OILs office in Duliajan. Theres no immediate threat to residents of the area, who have already been shifted beyond a radius of 1.5 kilometres from the well, Bormudoi added. The Baghjan well had reported the blowout on May 27 while work was underway to produce gas from a new oil and gas-bearing reservoir at a depth of 3,729 metres. A blow out is an uncontrolled release of crude oil or gas from a well, when pressure control systems fail. Around 2,000 people living near the well have been shifted to four relief camps after the May 27 incident. 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 Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar's forces have slowed an advance on the strategic city of Sirte by rival fighters of a Tripoli-based unity government, security sources said Tuesday. Government of National Accord (GNA) forces, which have regained control of the whole of northwest Libya since the weekend, came under attack with air strikes and heavy artillery, the sources said. But General Ibrahim Baytalmal, commander of the drive which made rapid progress on Saturday toward the coastal city, 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of the capital, insisted the target was well within reach. "We are just a few kilometres from Sirte," the general said late Monday on the GNA's Facebook page. "It's liberation is only a matter of time, but we hope we can save its people from the horrors of war." The Mediterranean coastal city -- home of former leader Muammar Gaddafi who was ousted and killed in a 2011 NATO-backed uprising -- is also a gateway to the country's major oil fields in the east, still held by pro-Haftar forces. The Turkish-backed GNA has in past weeks retaken all remaining outposts of western Libya from pro-Haftar loyalists, who had sought to capture Tripoli in a 14-month offensive. After resumption of oil production over the weekend at two of Libya's largest oil fields, which had been shut down for months, an armed group from the south allied with Haftar stormed the Al-Sharara field on Monday, forcing its closure, the National Oil Corporation said. The assailants "stormed the Sharara oilfield and pulled their guns on civilian unarmed workers, coercing them to stop production... only three days after production was resumed", the NOC said. It declared "force majeure" on crude exports from Al-Sharara. Force majeure is a legal measure firms declare when they are unable to meet contractual obligations due to extenuating circumstances such as armed conflict or natural disasters. The pro-Haftar camp had kept the field closed since January to use as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the GNA. Haftar's forces seized Al-Sharara during an offensive early last year in which they seized much of the country's south followed by the push on the capital. Libya, which has Africa's richest proven crude reserves and relies on oil exports for almost all of state revenues, plunged into years of violence with the toppling and killing of longtime leader Gaddafi. The country's oil fields, pipelines and terminals have frequently been damaged in fighting. *This story was edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: Indian and Chinese Military leaders met on Saturday to peacefully resolve the situation in the border areas, Indias Foreign Ministry said in a statement. But for the Global Times, the ongoing standoff is not likely to end immediately, as concrete issues must still be resolved." Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) Military leaders from India and China met on Saturday to "peacefully resolve the situation in the border areas," Indias Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The reference is to a dispute over one of the longest land borders in the world, in the Himalaya, with New Delhi and Beijing accusing each other of breaching the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that separates the two countries. The area has long been disputed, with violence flaring up on several occasions, following the bloody war of 1962. To this day, what is happening on the ground in the highly militarised region remains unclear, in part because the main battleground of this 21st century conflict has mainly been that of propaganda, news leaks and aggressive media posturing. Prior to Saturday's meeting, Chinese media aired footage of Chinas People's Liberation Army (PLA) manoeuvres in the region - complete with planes and troop-carrying lorries, in what state media described as "demonstrating Chinas capability of quickly reinforcing border defences when necessary. Unconfirmed - and in some cases debunked - videos have also been circulating on Chinese and Indian social media, purportedly showing troop incursions and scuffles between soldiers. An analyst in the Hindustan Times on Sunday wrote that Chinese reports on PLA manoeuvres were part of a "disinformation campaign" designed to weaken Indian resolve and overwhelm the enemy into panic so that his capacity to negotiate is weakened. Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have built up public support by exploiting nationalism and promising a future of greatness. This has often resulted in aggressive rhetoric, particularly when playing to a home audience. This is certainly the case of Chinese coverage of PLA manoeuvres in the Himalaya. Likewise, despite Delhi's statements to ease tensions, leading Indian government officials struck an aggressive tone on Monday. At a rally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah said that "any intrusion into the borders of India will be punished. Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also spoke on Monday, noting that "I would remind everyone, India's leadership will not let our self-respect suffer. India's policy is clear, we won't hurt any country's integrity and dignity. At the same time, we will not let any country to hurt our integrity." Such statements come amid growing pressure from Indian opposition parties to take a stronger stance. In a piece in todays Global Times republished by the official PLA website, military analysts are cited as saying that "the ongoing standoff is not likely to end immediately, as concrete issues must still be resolved." It is unclear how the problem can really be solved since it goes back decades and is largely fuelled by the refusal of both sides to accept the others territorial claims. With both sides accusing each other of breaching the LAC, tensions intensified in late May with each boosting its military positions on the de facto border. A 'status quo ante' will require that Chinese soldiers vacate areas where they have dug in for weeks now, writes The Hindu. Nothing short of their full withdrawal should satisfy India, the paper goes on say. This means that more than talks on the ground and by diplomats are needed. Indeed, strong political direction from Beijing to the PLA to do that is required. Otherwise, India must prepare for a long-drawn stand-off, and manoeuvres aimed at ensuring China's pull back." Contact tracing is perhaps the second most widely used term you may have heard in connection with coronavirus. As India shifts from Lockdown 5.0 to Unlock 1.0, the number of coronavirus cases is expected to increase. At such a time, proper contact tracing, something that helps curb the spread of COVID-19, becomes crucial. But what does it entail? How is India managing to do it? Here are your questions answered. What is contact tracing? Contact tracing is finding people who could have come in contact with an infected person. In the case of coronavirus, when a person tests positive, they are first isolated so that the infection does not spread any further. The authorities, with help from the infected person, try and find out the number of people who may have come in contact with them. 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 These individuals are home-quarantined and are followed up for 14 days, which is the incubation period for the coronavirus. If these quarantined people show any sign or symptoms of coronavirus, they are immediately taken to the COVID-19 testing centres for a checkup. The basic agenda of contact tracing is to ensure that the virus does not spread any further, therefore, helping break the chain of transmission. How does contact tracing work? As mentioned earlier, the authorities get in touch with all possible individuals who may have come in contact with the infected person. It is difficult to reach out to all these contacts, considering the fact that people will be out in the open as the lockdown restrictions slowly get lifted. In such a situation, mobile apps are useful. The government has launched a contact tracing app for coronavirus called Aarogya Setu. The app uses the smartphones GPS location to keep a track of the coronavirus-infected person. Aarogya Setu, at the time of writing this, has been downloaded by over 12.55 crore Indians. How does an app like Aarogya Setu helps break the chain of transmission? 1. When an individual is tested positive, the authorities suggest close contacts or persons living with the infected individual to download the Aarogya Setu app and take an assessment test regularly. 2. If the person or a close contact shows any symptom related to coronavirus, it becomes easier for the government to trace and track the person using their smartphones location. Concerned about your privacy? Aarogya Setu has had its fair share of controversy with many raising concerns of data privacy. French hacker and cybersecurity expert who goes by the moniker Elliot Alderson has raised alarm on Twitter over alleged security issues in the app. This was followed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhis comment stating that Aarogya Setu was nothing more than a sophisticated surveillance system. The government said the data is encrypted and saved for a very limited period of time. The Aarogya Setu app data is anonymised and all personal data is encrypted. Theres an anonymous device ID that is used to interact, and as per the government, all data remains on the phone only. It also claims that most of the data would be deleted in 30 days and information pertaining to COVID-positive people would be deleted in 60 days. Once the coronavirus is gone, the government will delete all the data. Track our dedicated LIVE blog to stay updated on developments related to Coronavirus pandemic here Reliance Jio released a nation-wide tool called MyJio Coronavirus Self-diagnostic Tool for all Indian citizens. The tool, available on the MyJio app, aims at assisting the governments measures to contain and mitigate the impact of coronavirus in several ways. The MyJio Coronavirus Self-diagnostic Tool provides a simple and accessible national platform for citizens to declare their health parameters, and be guided to scientifically recommended next-steps based on their risk-status. The back-end data being captured by this national platform can serve as a powerful information source that can give visibility to policymakers and administration officials about the emerging situation on the ground. The tool also aims at having periodic push-campaigns to check-in with citizens about any change in their health situation, and reassess risk and subsequent actions. Apple and Google too have come together and released a coronavirus contact tracing tool that works with iOS and Android. The tool is not an app, and developers or nations will have to embed the API within their own coronavirus tracing app. In the case of Indias Aarogya Setu, app developers will have to incorporate the tool within the app to make it work. However, the Apple and Google COVID-19 app tech will not work with Aarogya Setu. The problem lies in the underlying structure. While the Aarogya Setu traces contacts using user location, Apple and Googles Exposure Notification API only uses the smartphones Bluetooth functionality. Both companies have maintained that privacy and preventing governments from using the system to compile data on citizens was the primary goal behind launching the API. The system, therefore, uses Bluetooth signals from phones to detect encounters and does not use or store GPS location data. The API prohibits access to location data. When two people are in close proximity, the devices will share an anonymous identifier. If an individual is tested COVID-19 positive, the device will transmit a list of people the user came in contact with and alert them. The companies further state that the identification key does not include any location data. The guidelines further state that Apple and Google will not share any location data of users unless the user has been reported COVID-19 positive or they have come in contact/ proximity with a coronavirus patient. This could be the reason why despite the Exposure Notification API being launched, it is not available in India. Regardless of so many tools and apps being available, it is best for people to stay indoors and stay safe to avoid being infected by the coronavirus. Government guidelines have made it mandatory for people to wear masks and maintain social distancing. People have also been informed of washing their hands regularly with soap or a sanitiser. In case you show any symptoms, it is in your best interest to get tested and isolate yourself to help curb the spread. Amid the backlash of the pranking delivery riders made by some netizens and high demand for service during the coronavirus pandemic, a bill seeking to penalize those who cancel food delivery orders is being pushed in the Philippines. If the bill is passed, customers who cancel their delivery orders after a driver has already paid for the food could be at risk of hefty fines and prison terms. ALSO READ: Big Coronavirus Puzzle: Is It Still Safe to Use Food Delivery Services? How Are They Managing To Deliver? How is that possible? The proposed Food and Grocery Delivery Services Safety Act aims to protect delivery riders and service providers from canceling orders the last-minute and people who won't pay up. The bill implies that paid orders by the drivers and that are already in transit to the customer can not be canceled. Pranksters who do not intend to use the delivery services and those who humiliate delivery riders on any platform will also be punished. Customers could face at least six years in prison after a bill was filed last week to stop 'unscrupulous' cancellations of delivery. They can be jailed from 6 months to 6 years for those who demean riders. "This covers instances wherein customers order food and/or grocery items for pranking or those who have no genuine intention of availing of the service [that] causes damage and undue duress to the Delivery Riders and their corresponding services,' the bill reads. The food and delivery service providers shall require their customers to present valid proof of identity and residential address or proof of billing under the bill. The customers' identity shall also be verified via a video call before proceeding with the delivery transaction. The bill exempts consumers who use the credit card as a repayment mode, provided the charge is still credited to the food and delivery company. ALSO READ: Yelp Grabs Food Delivery Service Eat24 For $134 Million Those found guilty of the offense would be forced to compensate drivers for the canceled order and pay PhP 100,000 (US$2,000) fine under the act. However, shoppers who paid the items before canceling will not be penalized. AKO Bicol Party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin, the author of the bill, told CNN Philippines the penalty can be lowered if it's "too harsh." Congressman Garbin noted that doing pranks on deliveries has been widespread nowadays. He said the bill should serve as a warning and sink into the consciousness of people that Congress is serious about the situation. ALSO READ: Why This New Food Delivery Company Is Awesome and Uber-Guaranteed Are there other options for the meantime? Most popular delivery services, such as GrabFood in the Philippines, do not permit cancelations once the order is placed. Grab told Rappler in the case of no-show customers they have a refund policy in place, which enables drivers to get full payment for unclaimed orders. "Delivery partners just need to submit their claim online and get their reimbursements as early as 4 hours, within the same day, Grab said in a text message. Hence, the delivery person won't need to sell unclaimed orders for safety purposes. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. U.S. stock erased the years losses, with the S&P turning positive on Monday; the World Health Organization warned the pandemic is worsening globally; 3M files a lawsuit against a merchant selling masks on Amazon. WSJs Shelby Holliday has the latest. Photo: Johannes Eisele/AFP Who are the three types of travelers most likely to travel internationally this summer? If you guessed the jet-setting elite, adventure enthusiasts and once-in-a-lifetime honeymooners, you'd be wrong. A new report by Sentimantle, a service that advises tourism and airline clients, has identified the types of travelers who are most likely to venture abroad first. Published on May 18, the report entitled "Recovery Plan: How hotels and tourism facilities can recover from Covid-19" analyzed 40 tourism recovery cases from prior epidemics as well as customer behaviors and "risk perceptions," which are subjective feelings about negative consequences that may occur while traveling. Its findings pointed to three main groups as having the demographic characteristics, motivations and "psychological properties" to travel internationally before everyone else. 1. The young professional Age: 20-40 years old Young corporate employees who fall within an age range that is "not as affected" by Covid-19 are expected to travel first. This group skews male, and members are more likely to be single without children, as employees with families will be less inclined to travel due to the potential risk of exposing them to infection. This group has some money to spend. It's predicted they will stay in luxury hotels in business destinations around the world and consume high-end hospitality services. Hotels stand to reap large amounts of revenue from this group of traveler, as multinational organizations are expected to spare few expenses to make travel safe and convenient for them. Mongkol Chuewong The report states that members of this group are more likely to hold low to intermediate management positions and view the post-Covid-19 era as an opportunity to demonstrate their merits. "The propensity of the employee to travel increases with his/her willingness to demonstrate loyalty and exceptional performance," the report says. Where are they going? Unsurprisingly, safe destinations are expected to benefit from these travelers first. "Young professionals are expected to travel mostly to business and financial capitals with current low rates of Covid-19 infections," said Dr. Elad Harison, Sentimantle's CEO and founder. "For example, Copenhagen and Oslo are relatively safe destinations for business travels, while New York, London, Paris, Milan and Madrid have significantly higher numbers of cases, which may prevent executives and business persons from traveling to them or companies sending them to these cities in the next few months." 2. The local family Age: 25-40 years old Families with young children looking for a break after long stay-at-home periods are also more likely to book international travel. Yet, weeks-long summer holidays will likely be replaced with short weekend getaways to close destinations that are familiar to the family. The term "local" refers to families traveling across borders in their geographical vicinity, said Harison. He cited an example of a Dutch family that books a short trip to Belgium, a country with a shared land border that does not impose added medical risks "due to lack of familiarity with the country and language barriers." After being cooped up for so long, families will travel again though not far and most likely to rural places. Oliver Rossi In addition to booking destinations that they know well, families will likely travel without additional family members or friends and will avoid group tours. It's expected they will be enticed by discounts and will book mid-range hotels or agro-tourism trips in rural destinations. Accommodations close to open-air parks and nature are also expected to feature prominently in family travel plans. Harison said the report doesn't take into account the rash of multisystem inflammatory syndrome cases that were reported in May, a rare but serious complication experienced by some children who have been infected with Covid-19. As more is learned, Harison predicts "we will see stronger impact on family decisions to leave home for vacations for good or for bad." 3. The backpacker Age: 18-28 years old Backpackers are expected to travel internationally sooner rather than later as their aversion to travel in troubled times is lower than other groups. Like young professionals, backpackers are young (some even in their upper teens), single, and they trend male. Taking a gap year amid the coronavirus will be a different experience than the international travel plan many recent high school graduates have favored. Hinterhaus Productions The war in Libya has become a proxy conflict between many international players. The Government of National Accord (GNA) under Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj is supported by the Muslim Brotherhood. Its main political and financial sponsor is Qatar and its main military ally is Turkey. Italy is also supporting Sarraj. The GNA controls the capital Tripoli and Misrata in the west of the country. On the other side is the (former?) CIA asset Khalifa Haftar with his Libyan National Army. He controls Libyas east and most of its oil resources. He is supported by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece and France. Russia sees its involvement in the conflict as an adjudicator. It wants to reestablished its long term business interests in Libya which had fallen to the wayside after the war the U.S., UK and France waged against country in 2011. It has sold weapons to Hafter through the UAE and has allowed Russian mercenaries to take part in the war on the side of Haftars LNA. Since April 2019 Haftar attempted to take Tripoli and to evict the GNA. The fight was more difficult and went on much longer than he had hoped for. The economic situation of both sides is interwoven and makes the war complicate. In January Russia called on Hafter to stop it. It held a peace conference in Moscow and urged him to sign a ceasefire agreement: After hours of negotiations brokered by Russia and Turkey, Haftar on Monday evening asked until Tuesday morning to look over the agreement already signed by Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of the United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). But Haftar, whose eastern-based forces launched an offensive to seize the GNAs base of Tripoli in April, left Moscow without signing the deal drafted at the indirect talks, Russias foreign ministry was quoted as saying by TASS news agency on Tuesday. The snub towards Russia was not forgotten. Before the meeting in Moscow Turkey had promised military support to the GNA. In exchange the GNA had signed an agreement with Turkey that supposedly demarcates a sea border between Turkey and Libya. That agreed border ignores the rights of Greece and Cyprus and will never be internationally recognized. But Turkey uses the agreement to claim extensive rights in the eastern Mediterranean sea. A week after the failed talks in Moscow another attempt for ceasefire negotiations, this one in Berlin, also failed. Germany again tried to talk sense into Hafter during a visit in March but without results. Meanwhile the conflict escalated with Turkish supplies of drones and artillery and with 13,000 'Syrian rebels hired by Turkey as mercenaries to strengthen the GNA. The Turkish operation is financed by Qatar which recently also intervened to stop the drop of the Turkish Lira. The UAE countered that Turkish buildup with more supplies of Russian made Pantsyr air defense systems to the LNA and more mercenaries hired from Russia and Sudan. Confronted with the Pantsyrs Turkish drones dropped by the dozens and the front lines hardly moved. On May 17 the picture changed. Turkish drones were suddenly able to hit the Pantsyrs and within a day destroyed at least six of them. At the same time the Russian mercenaries received orders to pull back from the frontline. Left without protection from air defenses Haftars forces mostly fled and the GNA pushed forward. The maps show the recent changes. May 8, 2020 [June 09, 2020] Red River Kicks Off 2020 Academy Program Red River, a technology transformation company, this week began its seventh year of its Academy, an accelerated development program designed for recent college graduates or individuals looking to transition into a career in technology. "We are thrilled to welcome these bright and motivated individuals to Red River this week," said Richard Ackerman, Vice President of Workforce Development at Red River. "The Academy introduces its participants to Red River and the IT industry, building skills and understanding on top of inherent talent for well-rounded employees poised to contribute in meaningful ways." The 12-week Academy program will provide participants with a hands-on overview of Red River from all aspects of its business. These individuals will learn about Red River through the complete sales lifecycle - from creating proposal responses to developing solutions with DevOps and managing quarterly business reviews. This 360-degree view of the company provides participants with a jump start in building relationshps, creating efficiencies and collaborating with other team members. This year Red River accepted 18 participants to the program, representing the major Red River offices: Claremont, N.H., Reston, Va., Austin, Texas and Sacramento, Calif. Academy participants include recent college graduates and members of our military transitioning into new careers. While all Academy participants follow the same curriculum, each comes to the program with a position in a Red River department, including Supply Chain, Business Operations, Project Management, Service Operations, Inside Sales and Customer Experience. Each participant is also paired with a mentor to guide them through their first year at Red River. The Academy Program was started in 2013 as a way to provide accelerated training on Red River's business and now has 25 alumni among its employees. About Red River Red River brings together the ideal combination of talent, partners and products to disrupt the status quo in technology and drive success for business and government in ways previously unattainable. Red River serves organizations well beyond traditional technology integration, bringing 25 years of experience and mission-critical expertise in security, networking, analytics, collaboration, mobility and cloud solutions. Learn more at?redriver.com.?? View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005692/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] US tech company IBM has revealed it will no longer offer facial recognition or analysis software, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests worldwide. The firm said it will stop offering facial recognition software and opposes any use of such technology for purposes of mass surveillance and racial profiling. In a letter to US Congress, the hardware maker's chief executive officer, Arvind Krishna, called for new efforts to pursue justice and racial equity. He also urged policy-makers to consider a 'national dialogue' on how law enforcement agencies should ethically be using facial recognition tech. IBM's announcement comes after public protests over the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis on May 25, after a white police officer knelt on his neck. It also follows long-term criticism of the inherent racial and gender bias of facial recognition systems used as surveillance tools. Critics believe the artificial intelligence powering these systems is less likely to distinguish between two men of colour than two Caucasian faces. IBM's decision was made over a period of months, according to Reuters, and may also have been triggered by a lack of revenue from their facial recognition tech. Arvind Krishna speaks on stage in New York City. The CEO of IBM said his company opposes the use of facial recognition tech for mass surveillance Krishna, who has been CEO of the company just over two months, also called for new federal rules to hold police more accountable for misconduct following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. 'IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and principles of trust and transparency,' he was quoted as saying in the letter to Congress by CNBC. 'We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies. 'Technology can increase transparency and help police protect communities but must not promote discrimination or racial injustice.' Thousands of Americans who hit the streets to protest the death of George Floyd may have come face-to-face with law enforcement who look more like the armed forces than local police Krishna acknowledged that AI is a 'powerful tool that can help law enforcement keep citizens safe', but developers and users have a responsibility to ensure it's tested for racial and gender bias. The letter was addressed to sponsors and co-sponsors of a sweeping police reform bill unveiled by Democrats on Monday, CNBC added. Government officials across the country have proposed reforms to address police brutality and racial injustice aimed at boosting oversight of law enforcement agencies. IBM did not explain the timing of its decision to exit facial recognition development, although CNBC reported that the company's facial recognition business did not generate significant revenue. IBM has been trying to revitalise its business to become a leader in cloud technology. Cloud computing, in which services are delivered over the internet from remote computers, has become a growing portion of IBM's revenue The company will no longer market, sell or update the products but will support clients as needed, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. IBM is no longer developing, creating, researching or selling facial recognition products as an API or any other form. IBM's visual technology will be limited only to visual object detection, not for facial analysis and identification, the person added. In the UK, the decision will affect work at the company's secretive research and development centre in Hursley, just outside Winchester. Last year IBM released a large and diverse dataset called Diversity in Faces (DiF) to 'advance the study of fairness and accuracy' in facial recognition technology IBM said only last year that it would be 'harnessing the power of science' to create more fair and accurate AI systems. In a blog post, the company revealed its new dataset of a million faces, called Diversity in Faces (DiF), to advance the study of fairness and accuracy in facial recognition tech. It said DiF was the first of its kind available to the global research community, making use of publicly available images. But IBM has been focused on trying to revitalise its business to become a leader in cloud computing, in which services are delivered over the internet from remote computers. Krishna, who joined IMB in 1990, had been IBM's senior vice president for cloud computing and cognitive software. Krishna took over the chief executive role in April 2020, replacing Ginni Rometty, the first and only female CEO in IBM's century-long history. He will now focus on growing IBMs cloud services, as it looks to catch up to Microsoft and Amazon, according to CNBC. prince andrew epstein Anthony Devlin-WPA Pool/Getty Images, Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images The US Attorney of the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, accused British royal Prince Andrew of "falsely portraying himself as willing" to cooperate with the Department of Justice in its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sexual misconduct. Epstein died by suicide last year while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in New York. Prince Andrew was one of Epstein's influential connections and has been accused of having sex with a 17-year-old, which he denies. On Monday, a law firm in London representing Prince Andrew issued a statement claiming that the Duke of York has offered his assistance to the Department of Justice "on at least three occasions this year." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. A top US prosecutor released a statement on Monday accusing Prince Andrew of falsely claiming to be cooperative in the investigation into deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sexual misconduct. Epstein died by suicide last year while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in New York. Prince Andrew was one of Epstein's influential connections, though the British royal distanced himself from Epstein in 2008 after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes. According to the office of the US Attorney of the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, Prince Andrew has declined requests to be interviewed about his apparent friendship with Epstein. The Duke of York gave an interview about his relationship to Epstein widely regarded as a PR disaster last year, issuing a statement shortly after that he would be stepping back from royal duties and would be "willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigation." On Monday, Blackfords LLP, a law firm in London representing Prince Andrew, issued a statement claiming that he has offered his assistance to the Department of Justice "on at least three occasions this year." Story continues "As the public record indicates the DOJ has been actively investigating Mr. Epstein and other targets for more than 16 years, yet the first time they requested the Duke's help was on 2nd January 2020," the statement said. "Importantly, the DOJ advised us that the Duke is not and has never been a 'target' of their criminal investigations into Epstein and that they sought his confidential, voluntary cooperation." The statement continues: "In the course of these discussions, we asked the DOJ to confirm that our cooperation and any interview arrangements would remain confidential, in accordance with the ordinary rules that apply to voluntary cooperation with the DOJ. We were given an unequivocal assurance that our discussions and the interview process would remain confidential. "The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ. Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the Duke has offered zero cooperation. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered." In response, Berman accused Prince Andrew of "falsely portraying himself as willing" to cooperate with the DOJ: "Today, Prince Andrew yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate with an ongoing federal criminal investigation into sex trafficking and related offenses committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, even though the Prince has not given an interview to federal authorities, has repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview, and nearly four months ago informed us unequivocally through the very same counsel who issued today's release that he would not come in for such an interview. " "If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we should expect him," the statement added. Representatives for Blackfords did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. On Monday, Attorney General William Barr was asked by Fox News' Bret Baier whether Prince Andrew would be extradited to the US for questioning in the criminal probe. "I don't think it's a question of handing him over," Barr said. "I think it's just a question of having him provide some evidence." He refused to comment further. Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied accusations that he had sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre when she was underage on three occasions in 2001 and 2002. Read the original article on Business Insider China tests inter-satellite links of BeiDou navigation system PLA Daily Source: Xinhuanet Editor: Huang Panyue 2020-06-08 22:53:39 XI'AN, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Xi'an Satellite Control Center's tests have shown links among the satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) are stable to ensure that the constellation can be completed as scheduled. The tests showed that the inter-satellite links meet the demands of the construction of the global system, said Yuan Yong, a senior engineer from the control center. He said that the tests, lasting for more than two years, covered 29 satellites of the BDS-3 system. Since the ground stations in China cannot continuously track and control all the BDS satellites, the inter-satellite links help establish communication among them. Instructions sent by the control center to one satellite in the constellation is transmitted to all. China began to develop its navigation system, named after the Chinese term for the Big Dipper constellation, in the 1990s and started serving the Asia-Pacific Region in 2012. Currently, all the first generation BDS-1 satellites have ended operations, and a total of 54 BDS-2 and BDS-3 satellites have been sent to space. The BDS-3 system will consist of 30 satellites. China aims to launch the last BDS-3 satellite in June to complete the construction of the constellation and provide high-precision and reliable positioning, navigation and timing services around the world. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Donald Trump vowed Tuesday that he would eventually 'tell the real story' about his 'terrible' former Defense secretary after General James Mattis issued scathing criticism of the president's handling of the George Floyd riots. 'Mattis was our Country's most overrated General. He talked a lot, but never 'brought home the bacon.' He was terrible!' Trump tweeted in reupping his attack against Mattis. 'Someday I will tell the real story on him and others - both good and bad!' he continued in a tease of a tell-all of his presidency. The president's post included a tweet from Washington Post reporter Greg Jaffe, who attached an op-ed from conservative news site American Greatness titled: General Mattis Has Betrayed the Marines and America. The piece was posted on Saturday and penned by Sebastian Gorka, who served for about seven months as a deputy assistant to Trump from January 2017 to August 2017. Jaffe says he hopes people will read the article and do some 'soul searching.' 'I'm not a Marine, but I know the Marines,' Gorka asserted in the op-ed. 'Jim Mattis is no Marine.' The Hungarian-American former Trump official turned fish-oil pitchman argued that he's qualified to make that assessment about the retired Marine Corps four-star general due to his two years of teaching U.S. military at Marine Corps University in Quantico. Donald Trump took another hit at his former Defense secretary, claiming General Jim Mattis is 'terrible' Trump previewed in the tweet that he will one day 'tell the real story' about Mattis who he claims he fired and dubbed the nickname 'Mad Dog' Trump's reupped attack against Mattis came after the president's former deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka released an op-ed where he said: 'I'm not a Marine, but I know the Marines. Jim Mattis is no Marine' Trump also reposted a clip from Gorka's radio show where he referred to Mattis, whose less preferred nickname is 'Mad Dog,' as a 'lap dog' and 'embarrassment to America' Trump also reposted a tweet from Gorka including a clip from his radio show, America First, where he plays on Mattis' nickname of 'Mad Dog' and calls him a 'lap dog.' 'Lap Dog Mattis is an embarrassment to America!' the president shared in his repost of Gorka. Gorka maintains that he left the White House because he felt there were those within the administration that were not dedicated to progressing the Make America Great Again doctrine. The White House disputed Gorka's claim that he resigned, but confirmed at the time that he was no longer employed or granted access to the White House. After Gorka's strenuous exit from the White House, he became a Fox News contributor until he left the network in 2019 following a controversial speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Gorka began hosting Sinclair Broadcasting radio show America First at the beginning of 2019, replacing Michael Medved and said he left Fox to focus on that. In September 2019, Gorka became a spokesman for Relief Factor, a fish oil supplement company appearing in a handful of different commercials that aired on Fox News and pushing the pills. The attacks from Gorka and Trump against the former Secretary of Defense comes after Mattis issued harsh criticism against the president for using the National Guard and calling in the military to quell protesters flooding the nation's capital following George Floyd's death. Mattis said Trump was making a 'mockery of the Constitution' by flexing military might against peaceful protesters, and his op-ed published in The Atlantic last week marked his first time he publicly castigated the president. 'Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people - does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,' Mattis said in the article. He also compared Trump's tactics of seeking to 'divide' the nation to the rhetoric used by Nazis in World War II. 'Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that 'The Nazi slogan for destroying us was 'Divide and Conquer,' he writes. 'Our American answer is 'In Union there is Strength.' We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis - confident that we are better than our politics.' In a fiery rebuke of Mattis, Trump wrote on Twitter: 'Probably the only thing Barack Obama & I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world's most overrated General. I asked for his letter of resignation, & felt great about it.' The Trump v. Mattis war of words began when the retired four-star general issues his first ever rebuke of his former boss in an op-ed where he criticized Trump's decision to bring in U.S. troops to respond to George Floyd protesters Mattis' sharp comments also came after law enforcement scattered protesters demonstrating in front of the White House on Monday with non-lethal pepper ball bullets filled with the same resin used in pepper spray so Trump could walk across the street for a photo-op 'His primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations. I gave him a new life,' Trump asserted. 'I didn't like his 'leadership' style or much else about him, and many others agree. Glad he is gone!' 'His nickname was 'Chaos', which I didn't like, & changed to 'Mad Dog,' Trump added in his two-part tweet last Wednesday, which included two false claims. Although Trump continuously asserts that it was him who fired Mattis, the general submitted his resignation to the White House after he disagreed with Trump's decision to pull U.S. forces out of Syria amidst a plethora of other reported disagreements between the two. Mattis' military call sign was 'Chaos' which stands for 'Colonel Has Another Outstanding Suggestion,' a name the former general prefers. He was given his nickname 'Mad Dog', which Mattis has said he does not like, years before Trump came into office. Mattis' op-ed launched the beginning of a series of chides against the president from former and current military leaders, including a memo that insinuated a break in stance between the president and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley. CARLSBAD, Calif., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Thermo Fisher Scientific today announced that it has expanded its strategic partnership with Agios Pharmaceuticals by adding the co-development of a second companion diagnostic (CDx) for oncology to their existing agreement. The CDx will leverage the Oncomine Precision Assay, which runs on the new Ion Torrent Genexus System, and will be used globally to identify low-grade glioma (LGG) patients with isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 (IDH1 and IDH2) mutations who may be eligible for vorasidenib (AG-881). Vorasidenib is an investigational, oral, brain-penetrant inhibitor of IDH1 and IDH2 mutations that is being developed by Agios and is currently under evaluation in the Phase 3 INDIGO study. Gliomas represent a broad range of primary brain tumors, ranging from highly aggressive glioblastomas to slow-growing LGG. About 11,000 new LGG patients are diagnosed in the U.S. and Europe each year, and about 80 percent have an IDH1 gene mutation. Patient symptoms range from seizures and neurologic deficits to sensory impairment and changes in behavior, with a five-year survival rate of 33 percent. "The speed of the Genexus System in combination with the Oncomine Precision Assay has the potential to change the pace in which those diagnosed with LGG can be stratified and directed to a potentially more effective treatment in the future," said Garret Hampton, president of clinical next-generation sequencing and oncology at Thermo Fisher Scientific. "We are committed to collaborating with leading pharmaceutical partners to make precision medicine accessible to more patients everywhere." Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will collaboratively validate the biomarkers for a test that will be based on Thermo Fisher's Oncomine Precision Assay and used to identify variant-positive patients. Thermo Fisher will retain the rights to commercialize the test globally and will lead filings to seek clearance from the appropriate regulatory agencies. The new agreement follows a 2017 partnership between the companies to develop and commercialize a CDx to identify patients with IDH1 mutant cholangiocarcinoma who may be eligible for TIBSOVO (ivosidenib or AG-120) as part of the ClarIDHy Phase 3 clinical study. Data from that clinical trial were presented at the 2019 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress. The Oncomine Precision Assay is a next-generation sequencing (NGS) assay that is used to detect key biomarkers from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue or liquid biopsy specimen. The assay contains more than 50 cancer-related biomarkers and, when run on the Genexus System, features an automated workflow with a one-day turnaround time and the lowest sample requirements on the market for detection of both DNA and RNA variants. The latest CDx agreement is the first that leverages the Oncomine Precision Assay and the Genexus System, which were introduced to the market in November 2019. About Thermo Fisher Scientific Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $25 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 75,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com. Mauricio Minotta Thermo Fisher Scientific +1 760 805-5266 (mobile) [email protected] Jen Heady Greenough Brand Storytellers +1 617 275 6547 [email protected] SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific Related Links http://www.thermofisher.com The shocking video of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer has propelled tens of thousands of protesters into the streets nationwide. Undaunted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, they marched, locked arms during vigils and held die-ins, bringing traffic to a halt, at times facing tear gas and rubber bullets as they clashed with police officers. From veterans of the civil rights movement to college students protesting for the first time, many say they were moved to take part because this moment feels different. - - - 'I wanted to show the pain that I was feeling' Xavier Brown and Akil Riley, 19, Oakland, Calif. "As a black man who's affected by this, the real root of it was just pain at the end of the day," said Riley, a freshman at Howard University. At recent protests, Riley said he has been hit repeatedly with rounds of tear gas by police who "looked ready to hurt somebody." In the past, he's also been harassed while being pulled over, and he said he had a cousin wrongfully sent to jail. Riley and Brown organized a march in their hometown of Oakland, sending the word out to friends and community organizations on social media. The event drew an estimated 15,000 people this past Monday. - - - "We were just trying to inspire other youth that anyone can organize, anyone can protest, so to begin a revolution in your own way," said Brown, a freshman at the University of California at Los Angeles. "I hope America wakes up and really knows how broken their system is I hope that white people stop being blind to our cause. I hate it when white people are not only blind to their own privilege, but blind that other people in this country are routinely oppressed. And lastly, I just hope that it shows that the black community will never give up what they believe in." - - - 'If we stopped protesting because we're scared ... they win' Emily Boa, 18, Kensington, Md. "I've been going to D.C. the past couple days because I was just shocked by what happened to George Floyd. I want to be there in solidarity for the communities that are being affected and to protect them because I'm not nearly as threatened as they are by the police," says Boa, who notes that as a white woman, she can serve as a barrier to others. "When it gets closer to curfew and the police start approaching us, all the white people try to get in the front and link arms, because when black people have been in the front of protests, they get beat and shot. We feel like they won't do that to white people as much. And honestly I'd rather it be me than another black person." On Monday, Boa was part of a group of protesters at the White House who were tear gassed by federal law enforcement. One of her friends was hit by a rubber bullet in the neck. Another was hit in the cheek. She says the crowd dispersed within minutes. "It was empowering to stand up for something, but when the police did all that, I'm only getting angrier," says Boa. She plans to keep heading to Washington to take part in the protests. "We're protesting the police, and if we stopped protesting because we're scared of them, they win." - - - 'I'm tired of the racism' Robin Williams, 63, Ann Arbor, Mich. Williams remembers nearly being shot by a National Guard member when she peeked out of her window at the riots raging in her Detroit neighborhood in 1967. She was 10 years old. The 12th Street Riot, set off after police raided an after-hours club in a black neighborhood, lasted for five days and left 43 people dead. She saw her next-door neighbor shot and killed by police. "I've been traumatized for my life because of that," Williams said. "My PTSD is like oh it feels like I'm living it all over." But a few things have changed since she witnessed the turmoil in the '60s. For one, the crowd at the protest she attended in Ann Arbor also included a coalition of different races, all demanding change. "You have a diverse crowd," Williams said. "It's not just them attacking us. The young people, they care about their friends. We didn't have anybody to care about us." - - - 'I protested to tell police it's not right to kill people' Khalil Kim Allen, 7, and Eun Hye Kim, 43, Oakland, Calif. Eun Hye Kim is a veteran of protests, and this time she decided to bring her son along for a socially distanced car caravan in Oakland. Thousands of vehicles drove through the city for several hours. "I protested to tell police it's not right to kill people," said Khalil Kim Allen, 7. It became a part of his daily lesson about the nation's troubled racial history. "We started it early in the context of his own ancestors, which spanned almost every continent except Australia, so then he understands who he is and his history," Kim, an acupuncturist, said about her son, who is Korean, white, black, Mexican and Native American. "It's something that we have to talk about every day because it just continually comes up in the news and in our lives. Yeah, I mean, we talked about the legacy of slavery in the United States, genocide. It's complicated because he is a descendant of people who also were a part of enslaving Africans." - - - 'I never met George Floyd or Breonna Taylor, but I felt that grief. I felt it down to my bones.' Adriana Allen, 27, Brooklyn, N.Y. Allen couldn't quite understand why she felt such intense grief for people she had never met. She tried sharing her feelings on social media but found "there's only so much that you can really kind of express and get out through posting things and liking things." So she went to a protest in Brooklyn. "It was extremely important to me to be around other people that were feeling the kind of pain that I was," she said. While this is not her first protest, she said she feels that this moment is different. "There are people in my life that were silent in the past," Allen said. "They didn't acknowledge it. They didn't acknowledge that I was hurting because of it. And this is the first time that those same people are reaching out to me and they're asking me what they do." - - - 'Our bodies are less likely to be killed or hurt by police when in police custody' Cameron PajYeeb Yang, 25, Minneapolis "Being a queer, trans individual, I think it's super important for me to be out there protesting and really putting my body on the line,"said Yang, who works for the Coalition of Asian American Leaders, a social justice network of over 3,000 Asian Minnesotans. "Because my queer, trans liberation is really tied to black and brown liberation and their justice, and really all of our histories are tied together and all of our liberation is tied together." As Asian protesters, "our bodies are less likely to be killed or hurt by police when in police custody, ensuring that black and brown protesters are not the ones being painfully inflicted by the police," Yang said. "Having participated in several protests since last week, there was a lot of unity. The protests were very diverse, with people coming out that really believe in justice for George Floyd, but also in transforming the systems," said Yang, a second-generation Hmong American. "It does feel like this is really a transformative and historical moment." - - - 'This is my community' Nevada Littlewolf, 43, Minneapolis "Our community knows what that violence feels like," said Littlewolf, who is Anishinaabe Ojibwe, a citizen of the Leech Lake Nation, and political director of the nonprofit Women Winning. "What we have to do is we have to stand together because none of this is going to stop." As a longtime activist, Littlewolf has participated in protests since she was a teenager. She was at Standing Rock in South Dakota in 2016 and at the Women's March in Washington, D.C., in 2017. But this time felt different, because it was at home. "While we're being traumatized this week, after seeing a community member murdered at the hands of people who are supposed to protect us and serve us, we also see our community destroyed," said Littlewolf, who lives two miles away from where George Floyd was killed. "This is my community. This is where I live. This is where I shop. This is where I do business," she said. "It's hard, sad and hurts to see our neighborhood burned down and destroyed, but if this is what it takes to get justice, this is what it takes. The majority of damage was caused by outsiders, not community members. I don't blame community members who are in pain. We need change. We need justice." - - - 'I thought, looking down at those people Can they actually change?' Cedric Caschetta, 20, Lowell, Ind. Caschetta had some reservations about going to a protest opposing police violence in the nearby town of Crown Point on Monday. In his corner of Indiana, he was known as the black kid in his overwhelmingly white high school. The people of Crown Point don't know him. But, he said, it turned out to be a "beautiful decision." "I loved being a part of it, sharing love and grace to all those people that wanted to show support to a message." As he and his friends walked to the parking lot afterward, a police officer warned them that a group of people with weapons were standing on the side of the road. Caschetta huddled with the other protesters. Demonstrators rallying against police brutality in Lowell, Ind., encountered a group of people holding weapons as they left a protest on June 1. (Bella Gomez) "We had a little game plan to keep walking, not saying anything to them directly, just keep walking Basically we had to make it to the finish line. And we could all go home. " When he approached a row of people holding firearms, he admitted to being "a little bit" afraid. "'I just tried to keep a straight face as I was walking," he said, then added, "Well, not a straight face, I was smiling actually Because, how I saw it was, if I could be so understanding and forgiving, so could you." - - - 'I feel like we're in a moment, in a second civil rights movement' Anniston Weber, 21, Hays, Kan. Weber saw the large protests forming in Chicago, Washington, Minneapolis and wondered: Why not Hays? She was met with more supporters than she expected, more than 100. The protest experience was mostly positive, and her town of 20,000, about 2 1/2 hours northwest of Wichita, was supportive. But there was a small group of counterprotesters. "There were probably six pickup trucks that were circling us and hurling racial slurs at people that were standing there, flipping us off and saying things like Trump 2020, which has nothing to do with our protest," Weber said. For Weber, the negativity reinforced the need for the protest itself. "It shows that there are people in this town that are openly bigoted, even if we don't like to admit it." - - - 'We are on the verge of change' Frederick Joseph, 31, New York Joseph's first encounter with law enforcement was at 12, when he says security guards threw him to the ground when he attempted to return some candy his friends had stolen. As a college student he recalls being stopped and frisked while walking home. The police demanded his backpack, dumped its contents out and broke his laptop, he says. He's since been involved in multiple demonstrations, even traveling to Ferguson to protest after Michael Brown was killed in 2014. "Being black in 2020 is an amalgamation of all of the oppressive forces that we've been talking about happening at one time," said Joseph, who cited unequal education, health care, wealth gaps and police violence. "But I do think that we are on the verge of change. There were much more white people. And one chant in particular I've never heard before was 'White silence is violence.' That's a brand new one I've never heard in my entire life. But I think it was a testament to white people waking up and being activated to the fact that, the very nature of the systems in America are disproportionately impacting and destroying black and brown lives." - - - 'I feel like this is the tipping point' Zach Rosenberg, 36, Washington, D.C. "I walked from Howard University down to the White House on Sunday and I took part in the protest at the White House [on Monday]. I participated because I was angry. I was angry at the police militarization and particularly its use on racial minorities," says Rosenberg, an editor at an aviation magazine. Rosenberg says he was encouraged by the diversity of the crowd, and especially the young people he saw. "I don't think the law-and-order conservatives that traditionally decry such movements really grasp the demographic wave that will soon wash over them. The crowd skewed heavily young, multicolored and multicultural, and there was real anger in the air." "I feel like this is the tipping point. This is something that's been an issue since the country began and certainly since the 1960s. I hope these protests continue over days, weeks, months. This has been going on for too long, and this may finally be the critical mass that's really going to lead to police reform, less police brutality and to greater cooperation between police forces and citizens." - - - 'We have to care about the worst among us, not just the best among us' Ed Fletcher, 46, Sacramento, Calif. "At first, I didn't want to go because it seemed crazy to protest during a pandemic. But the more it sat with me, the more I needed to at least be out there a little bit and maybe show what was happening." Growing up in Orangevale, the "Idaho of Sacramento County," Fletcher's friends were primarily white, and he struggled with feeling "black enough." His parents are from the South, Arkansas and Louisiana. He also lived in Sweden for a year as an exchange student, went to a historically black college and was a fan of the Burning Man festival, which is "not known for being particularly diverse. " Going to protests and explaining what they meant over Facebook helped Fletcher open discussions on race with his white friends. "If you're black and have a lot of white friends, you probably realize you've got some racist friends in your midst, or some prejudiced friends, or some friends that are okay with one level of black, but not the totality," said Fletcher, a documentary filmmaker. "We have to care about the worst among us, not just the best among us." - - - 'Liberation for all oppressed nationalities' Samer Owaida, 23, Chicago Growing up during the second intifada, Samer Owaida says he knows what injustice looks like first hand. His earliest memory is when he was 4 years old and an Israeli army tank rolled through the city of Ramallah. Around the same time, he says, Israeli forces killed one of his family members. "Growing up under occupation," Samer said, "the one thing that is just on my mind is, as cheesy as it sounds, is liberation. Liberation for my people, liberation for black people, liberation for all oppressed nationalities. I have studied this stuff in and out, and I know the military deals these countries have with each other. I know the exchange programs they have with each other." He says he sees the state violence of Israel against Palestinians as not just similar to the oppression of black communities in the United States. The two are deeply interconnected, he says. That's why Samer has been at the forefront of every Black Lives Matter protest in Chicago. "As Palestinians," he said, "we are in solidarity with all oppressed nationalities, and we are against white supremacy and all the insidious ways that it manifests, whether it's through electoral politics or the police murdering of black and brown bodies." - - - 'Even with covid-19, I felt like I had to be there' Karen Wohlleben, 56, Minneapolis "I was protesting on Tuesday, May, 26th, the first evening. It was a very diverse crowd in every way, age, race, background, families. There were no police protecting the intersections or helping us in any way. It felt very organic, like the community feeling very strongly about what had happened to Mr. Floyd and stepping out on their doorsteps to show their support and their frustration." "One of the things I've always done in my life is, is shown up for protests and added my voice. Even with covid-19 and everyone trying to stay at home, I just felt like I had to be there," she says. "I also felt like as an older white woman, I knew I could go there and be allowed to do whatever I needed to do." Wohlleben, a real estate agent, got sick over the weekend, so she is getting a coronavirus test and isolating herself for the time being. She plans to watch the protests from her balcony and wave in support. "Once I'm well, I don't know if the protests are going to keep going. But what I will most likely do is make sure that the organizations that are bringing young and diverse people into the political system have my support, so that they can decide what their world needs to be going forward." A Belfast sign maker whose stickers praising the NHS spread throughout Northern Ireland has raised more than 100,000 for good causes. Sam McClean, 47, started printing balloon-shaped vinyl stickers for display on vehicles, homes and in shopfront windows during the coronavirus pandemic. They featured a rainbow at the top and earned the praise of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has awarded Mr McClean a Points of Light award. Im just a normal person and this has given me a new outlook on life, said Mr McClean. Now I want to do more Im proud to be able to donate to these good causes. Im just a normal person and this has given me a new outlook on life. Now I want to do more - Im proud to be able to donate to these good causes Sam McClean Both sides of the community have come together to deal with Covid-19 in Northern Ireland and this money will be put back into the community for everyone. Among those benefiting from his fundraising are Air Ambulance NI and St John Ambulance NI, while care homes have also been able to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) using the proceeds. The Prime Minister said: Sam has dressed the windows of Belfast with rainbows, imbuing us with hope and uniting us in gratitude for the courage of all those on the front line who are risking their lives to save others. He has raised a fantastic amount to support NHS charities and I am delighted to recognise his service to others. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said he was a great example of how people can make a positive contribution to their communities during the Covid-19 crisis. MILTON After two pride flags were stolen in a weeks time, Milton town officials on Tuesday raised a third during a ceremony at the town's veterans park. Supervisor Benny Zlotnick, who reported the theft to the Saratoga County Sheriffs Office, said the flags that were stripped from the pole overnight on June 1 and again June 3 were meant to honor LGBTQ community members who have served in the military. But instead, he said the flags caused not only two thefts but a hullaballoo on Facebook. People are entitled to their views, but we are living in the year 2020, Zlotnick said. We should be past that. With the third raising, Zlotnick hopes the flag will remain, flying alongside the American and state flags for the month of June to mark LGBTQ Pride month. Councilwoman Barbara Kerr, who attended Tuesdays ceremony, said she disagrees with those who complained that the pride flag was inappropriate to fly at the park. However, she takes issue with the towns Republican Party Chair Anna Stanko who categorized the flag, in a now deleted Facebook post, as an advertisement and political sign. But more upsetting to Kerr is that fact that Wayne Howe, a retired town employee and husband to the towns elected clerk, started the Facebook uproar against Zlotnick. Howe called the Republican supervisor, who ran on the Democratic last fall after losing the Republican primary, disgraceful. He also wrote that the flag raising as an (expletive) move by a libtard Democrat. He ended his comments: It would be a damn shame if it magically blew off the top of a tree a few miles into the woods some night. Robert J. Mink Jr. posted in response, Its down. Howe responded with, Thanks." Those posts, which have since been all been deleted, were preserved in screen shots shared with the Times Union. Howe and Mink did not respond to the Times Unions requests for comments. Stanko said that she is not against the Pride flag. She said her problem with the flag is asking "town employees to raise a non-military flag ... as a political favor." "I believe, as do many others, that the American flag represents all veterans regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation," she said. "The memorial is there to represent the sacrifice, valor and honor of all who served. When I stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance, it is to honor our flag and our country and all people who serve. I believe the American flag is one of unity....To twist my words for someone's political agenda is disheartening." She also said that the Pride flag that flies at Town Hall remains undisturbed and that no one is complaining about it being there. Zlotnick said if the flag swiper is found, he or she could be charged with a hate crime as the LGBTQ community is a protected class. He also said the flag was donated to the town, not costing taxpayers anything. Ballston Spa VFW Commander Denny LaQue attended the ceremony to support the flag's flying. However, he wanted the flag to fly below the state flag, not the American flag. Zlonick complied. "A veteran is a veteran is a veteran," VFW board member Jason Duke said. "We represent all veterans no matter their color, creed, race or sexuality. No way, shape or form do we agree with the theft of the (pride) flag or its descretion in any way." Keith Lewis, who is politically active in the community, has posted a $2,000 reward for information that can lead to the arrest and prosecution of the flag hijacker. I think it was wonderful that Benny hung the pride flag for the month of June in solidarity, Lewis said. Im most upset that vigilantes feel they can make decisions for the town, not through process, but through vandalism. And that they include the Republican Chair of Milton Anna Stanko - who created this mob mentality of individuals set upon by removing that flag. He said LGBTQ community members have always served in the military. And, in a time when the country is grappling with systemic discrimination and injustice, it should be standing with LGBTQ people. The community must stand up and say to the lawbreakers, you are not in charge and you are unpatriotic, Lewis said. We can do better. Kerr said she cant understand the hatred for the LGBTQ community. Our flag represents everyone, Kerr said. I represent everyone. I dont have an issue with the pride flag, I have an issue with it being stolen. I received a message from a trusted but skeptical Jewish person who subscribes to Twitter and knows I just posted an op-ed addressing propaganda. He said, "I don't know if you can confirm this somehow but that's really messed up if true." The challenge was accompanied by a tweet with a picture of three men in dark suits, two with hats and one with a yarmulke. Their garb made them look like observant Jews. Some people in the comments section suggested that the lack of tzitzit visibility is a hint that they were not Jewish, but some observant men simply wear their tzitzit tucked in. The most horrific part of the tweet was the caption by the person who retweeted the original. "Liv BLM" said, "Cops are using OUR synagogues and dressing up as OUR people to harm Black people and innocent protesters. I am so pissed about this all Jews should be so pissed about this." If Liv BLM is who she claims to be, how does she know that cops are using anyone's synagogue? How does she know that these are even cops dressed as Jews? And how does she know that these men are out to "harm Black people and innocent protesters"? After all, there are Orthodox communities walking with the protesters. And the day in question, Saturday, June 6, passed with no fulfillment of said prophecy. These are deliberate and dangerous accusations. When stated in the public realm the burden is to disprove it the default is to accept it. "Liv BLM's" Twitter account managed to get that tweet retweeted over 10 thousand times and liked more than double that in one day. Those figures just seem too outrageously high from an account with fewer than 600 followers. "Liv BLM" retweeted it from "bratt_skoff," whose post with the caption saying, "Getting word that cops went undercover as Haredim at the Lakewood protest yesterday" was retweeted over 1,600 times and liked almost four thousand times in a day. Those figures are also high for an otherwise mostly slow account with only 768 followers. The original tweet, which catapulted into the Twittersphere, curiously started with Mishpacha Magazine's Twitter account. It's a simple six-second video with a caption that says, with such certainty, "Undercover law enforcement dressed as frum Jews as [sic] yesterday's protest in Lakewood. Not clear where they buy these disguises." Others, like the aforementioned, took that original, unconfirmed caption and added to it, making it more and more sinister each time, making sure more and more people would see it. The initial site for the origin of this Tweet, Mishpacha Magazine, has fewer than 2,800 followers and a relatively slow Twitter feed, except for this one post, which got retweeted more than 600 times and liked much more than double that in a day. Most of their other posts have light activity. I reached out to Mishpacha Magazine to ask about the tweet and did not get a response. Then the Forward reported, as if it were fact, that there were undercover police dressed as Jews, just because of a six-second video with a caption on Twitter. This sloppy reporting is irresponsible at best, when the region has already dealt with a spate of attacks on the Jewish community, some violent, others deadly. The title of the Forward's piece implies that one of the Orthodox men held a phone on the Sabbath, which is how that writer seems to have confirmed that the men were imposters. Nonetheless, the phone seems to be held by a man in jeans, not one observing the Sabbath. And really, who knows when and where this video was even taken? So many images in social media turn out to be a distortion of the truth or an outright lie. Anyone can post a picture or video of anything or anyone and label it however he wants, manipulate it, and likely get some bots to help with the numbers to increase the popularity. But he will also get the intellectually lazy on board with his cause. People with ill will will have a bunch of "followers" in the palm of their pixels, and those on the receiving end of the propaganda will need a lot more than just skepticism. Faith Quintero is the author of Loaded Blessings, a family saga that alternates between Inquisition-era Spain and modern-day Israel. It's on the Federalist's top books of 2019 list and a Montaigne Medal finalist for the Eric Hoffer awards. The Montaigne Medal is an additional distinction, awarded to "the most thought-provoking books." 23:13 Central teams have been deputed to assist state health officials in reviewing the public health measures being undertaken to combat COVID-19 in six cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru which are among the major contributors to India's rising tally of coronavirus infections. These teams will provide technical support and handhold the state health departments and municipal health officials for reviewing public health measures implemented for containment and management of COVID-19 outbreak in the six cities, the Union health ministry said. The teams will visit these cities within the next one week to review public health measures being undertaken for COVID-19 and submit a daily report of activities undertaken in collaboration with the local administration there. "They will inform them regarding any issue of urgent importance and also submit a report of its observations and suggestions before concluding the visit," the ministry said. The COVID-19 cases in Mumbai have crossed 51,000, while the national capital has reported more than 31,000 cases. Ahmedabad has reported nearly 15,000 cases while Chennai has over 22,000 cases. On Tuesday, the ministry said that high-level multi-disciplinary central teams have been deployed in over 50 districts and municipal bodies spread across 15 states and UTs, witnessing a spurt in coronavirus cases, to assist local administrations in containment and management of COVID-19 outbreak there. Meanwhile, the ministry said that the number of recoveries has exceeded the total COVID-19 active cases for the first time on Wednesday even as India reported close to 10,000 new instances of the infection pushing the country's cumulative caseload to over 2.7 lakh. The country's death toll has also risen to 7,745, according to the health ministry data updated till 8 am. The number of active cases in the country stands at 1,33,632 while 1,35,205 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. As many as 5,991 patients were cured of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. "Thus, 48.9 per cent of the patients have recovered so far," an official said. As per the global evidence, 80 per cent of COVID cases are mild cases remaining 20 per cent may develop complications which would require hospitalisation. Out of the hospitalized cases of COVID-19 only 5 per cent may require ICU care, the official said. According to ICMR, a total of 50,61,332 samples have been tested till 9 AM with 1,45,216 samples tested in the last 24 hours. India currently is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the United States, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom, according to data issued by the Johns Hopkins University. -- PTI Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Beirut, Lebanon Tue, June 9, 2020 08:55 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd25a4c 2 World Syria,Syria-war,SyrianExtremists,jihadists,Al-Qaeda Free An Al-Qaeda offshoot led an offensive Monday against regime forces in northwest Syria, sparking clashes that left 19 pro-government fighters and 22 jihadists dead, a war monitor said. "Jihadist factions led by Hurras al-Deen launched an assault on two villages in Sahl al-Ghab," a region of the central province of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. They briefly seized the villages of Al-Fatatra and Al-Manara, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. But regime forces took them back just hours later amid Russian air strikes and intense shelling, the Britain-based monitor said. Abdel Rahman said the clashes left 19 government soldiers and 22 jihadists dead. The country's official SANA news agency also reported the attack on "two Syrian army positions," saying it involved "explosive-rigged vehicles and suicide bombers". Citing a military source, it said the situation was now under control after the jihadists were forced to pull out under regime fire. The offensive was launched from within the Idlib region, which is controlled by jihadists and rebels and is the last bastion of resistance to Damascus after nine years of devastating civil war. A truce reached on March 6 has largely stemmed fighting in the region, which President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to fully retake. Hurras al-Deen is a relatively small but powerful armed group led by Al-Qaeda loyalists. It is a rival of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance of Islamist factions dominated by former members of Al-Qaeda's ex-Syria affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra -- although the two groups cooperate at times. The Idlib truce brokered by regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey has largely kept Syrian and Russian warplanes out of the region's skies. The calm came as the novel coronavirus pandemic spread across the Middle East. Aid groups had warned that an outbreak of the COVID-19 illness in the Idlib region could cause a humanitarian disaster of previously unseen proportions. (Bloomberg) -- U.S. authorities are investigating a vast hacking-for-hire operation that involves attempts to pilfer confidential communications from investigative journalists, short sellers and advocacy groups fighting climate change, according to law enforcement officials, court documents and cybersecurity officials who have tracked the scheme for years.The overall operation was stunning in scale and in some instances successful, according to several cybersecurity researchers who have been tracking the hackers. Among the thousands of entities allegedly targeted were hedge funds Coatue Management LLC and Blue Ridge Capital LLC, non-profit groups fighting telecommunications companies over control of the internet, and journalists from multiple news organizations, according to several cybersecurity researchers including the Toronto-based research group Citizen Lab, which tracks illegal hacking and surveillance.The hackers are based in northern India and are typically hired by private investigators and other middlemen in Israel, the U.S. and Europe, the researchers say. But their ultimate clients are often law firms or corporations, which may receive pilfered material under the guise of corporate intelligence or litigation preparation, according to court documents and several people familiar with the scheme. Although its unclear who wrote the checks that ultimately funded the hacking operations, the apparent beneficiaries include specific industries and major companies, including embattled German technology firm Wirecard AG, according to Citizen Lab and other cybersecurity researchers. U.S. prosecutors in New York and FBI agents are investigating the hacker-for-hire scheme, according to three people familiar with the probe. At least one person implicated in the scheme has already been arrested. In an indictment last year, Aviram Azari, an Israeli private investigator, is accused of working with a group of Indian hackers to target hundreds of potential victims with phishing emails. He has pleaded not guilty, according to his attorney Barry S. Zone, who called the charges exaggerated. Story continues The indictment doesn't identify what hackers, victims or companies may benefited from any such activities. A Wirecard spokeswoman, Iris Stoeckl, said her company hasnt been in contact, either directly or indirectly, with a hacker group in India. Wirecard said it acted legally in its investigation into short sellers and critics of the firm. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Manhattan declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Many cyber-attacks involve criminal gangs who try to steal log-in credentials or credit-card data; in these cases, the groups both plan the operation and benefit from the stolen data. But in this instance, the hackers were paid to carry out targeted attacks by third parties. Digital sleuths working at Citizen Lab and two other cybersecurity companies have tied at least some of the hacking back to an Indian company called Belltrox Infotech Services, which operates from a crowded neighborhood of New Delhi. Working independently, the researchers said they tracked the intrusions back to Belltrox through a series of apparent mistakes made over the years by its hackers.Belltrox didn't respond to requests for comment sent to multiple email accounts associated with the company and its officers. Sumit Gupta, who is listed in corporate registration documents as Belltrox director, couldnt be reached for comment. Veenu Arora, who is Guptas wife and is also listed as a Belltrox director, denied any wrongdoing in an interview with Bloomberg News. She said that she runs a medical transcription company and that Gupta runs a cake shop.Surender Mehra, who said he co-founded an earlier incarnation of the company with Gupta called Belltrox Digital Security, said in an interview with Bloomberg News that he left the company after becoming concerned about some of Gupta's activities. He was into hacking, Mehra said. After the split, Mehra said that Gupta started a different company, Belltrox Infotech Services. On Tuesday, Belltrox Infotech Services's website, which was functioning as recently as two weeks ago, was down. This account has been suspended, read a message on the home page. A major investigation into hacking-for-hire would probably trigger probes in other countries, said Polly Sprenger, a UK-based corporate investigations attorney and member of a 2012 Home Office inquiry into private spying. The more important effect of the case is not the actions of this one set of hackers. Its bringing attention to the people who cause this industry to occur the lawyers, the consultants and the corporate clients, she said. Where the DOJ goes, other countries and other prosecutors will follow. In addition to the research conducted by Citizen Lab, at least two confidential reports on Belltrox have been produced by BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, part of the European defense contractor BAE Systems Plc. It refers to Belltrox by the code name Amanda Lovers, because many of its phishing emails were sent from a fictional persona using that name. The reports were described by people familiar with BAEs investigation. Additional details were provided to Bloomberg News by a researcher for another global cybersecurity company that tracked the Belltrox hackers over several years and asked not to be identified. Wirecard, which was founded in 1999 and processes financial transactions over the internet, became one of Germanys hottest technology companies. But its success has been marred by allegations of accounting improprieties by short sellers and financial analysts. Activist investors have called for the ouster of Markus Braun, the chief executive officer. Last week, German authorities searched its headquarters as part of a probe into suspected market manipulation. Wirecard said the investigation wasn't targeting the company but members of the management board and that it was confident the allegations would prove unfounded. Along the way, financial firms and reporters looked into market manipulation by Wirecard. Hedge funds, short sellers, journalists and investigators who explored the topic were among those targeted by the hacking-for-hire operation, Citizen Lab concluded. Some individuals were targeted almost daily for months, and continued to receive messages for years, according to the Citizen Lab report, which didnt identify who hired the hackers. The hackers may have been betrayed by their own mistakes. In trying to attribute a cyber-attack to a specific hacker or group, cybersecurity researchers often search for signature patterns in code or tools used by hackers. In this instance, when the hackers attempted to steal a targets passwords, they often sent emails with custom link shorteners, which linked to fake pages designed to steal login credentials, according to cybersecurity researchers. The shorteners, used to disguise the phishing links, including strongbolthostinghk[.]com and others associated with India, such as Holi, a well-known Indian celebration, according to Citizen Lab.At the end of those links would be a combination of two letters, like bG. By sticking variations of two letters at the end of the domains, researchers found large caches of fake sign-in pages with the targets email address already filled in, the researchers said. Security researchers matched link shorteners used by Belltrox to those used against short sellers for Wirecard and journalists who had published critical articles, among others. At least 130 of these fake sign-in pages were uploaded on Nov. 29, 2017, to the Internet Archive, otherwise known as the Wayback Machine, a non-profit digital library that stores copies of internet pages. Its not clear who uploaded the pages there. Those pages show that dozens of people from at least 10 hedge funds and research firms were targeted with a variety of phishing attempts. They all had a history of short-selling Wirecard stock or publishing critical reports about the firm. Custom link shorteners used in hacking operations have also been used publicly by Belltrox employees, including in one case to link to an online version of the employees resume, according to Citizen Lab and another cybersecurity researcher. The archived pages show these hackers set up bogus log-in pages for several top executives at Coatue Management, including the chief investment officer, chief financial officer, chief legal officer, general counsel and two senior managing directors. At a second firm, the hedge fund Theleme Partners, four people were targeted, including the firms founder and chief executive officer, Patrick Degorce. Five employees at Blue Ridge Capital were targeted. Coatue declined to comment. Theleme and Blue Ridge didnt respond to requests for comment.In another alleged Belltrox operation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a 2017 blog post detailed cyber-attacks on activists fighting for net neutrality, a policy that seeks to treat all internet traffic equally and which telecommunications companies have aggressively lobbied against. One of the targets of the alleged attacks, Evan Greer, told Bloomberg News that she was already on high alert when she realized someone was trying to hack her email. For several weeks in 2017, her colleagues at Fight for the Future, an advocacy group engaged in a battle over the internet rules, had been receiving phishing emails phony messages that appeared to be from friends, family and colleagues but in fact were trying to trick them to give up passwords. Among them was an email Greer received from an account in the name of Sophia Johnson, saying she wanted to buy some of Greers music. Greer replied with a link to her Bandcamp page. But the Johnson account sent back a message saying she was having problems purchasing the music and included a link asking if it was the right one. Thanks for your reply, but link is not working. Kindly check this link, said the email, which was published in the blog post. It led to a bogus Google sign-in page, an apparent attempt to steal her password. Thats when we were like This is serious. This is sophisticated, Greer said. Clearly whoever was doing this had done some amount of research on us. They were clearly targeting us, and it seems very likely that someone was paying them to do so. Eva Galperin, a cybersecurity researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the hackers who targeted Greer also attempted to hack activists in similar groups for months. (EFF provided assistance to Greer and other activists who were attacked.) Although shes seen more sophisticated attacks in her career, these stood out for their ingenuity and persistence. All they needed to do to get access was to have one of their targets have one bad day and rush through and click something. They took advantage of that very, very quickly. EFF's blog post didnt identify the hackers. Citizen Lab linked the EFF hack to the Belltrox hacking operation, and it said another net neutrality advocacy group, Free Press, was also targeted. The hacker-for-hire scheme also targeted climate-change activists involved in a campaign called #ExxonKnew, according to Citizen Lab. Hacking attempts were made against the personal and business email accounts of those involved in the campaign, which accused Exxon of conspiring to cover up its early knowledge of climate change. Family members, including a minor child, were also targeted, according to Citizen Lab. A document stolen by hackers that outlined a potential legal strategy against Exxon was published in a news article, according to court documents. The filings dont identify who stole the document. Exxon Mobil has no knowledge of, or involvement in, the hacking activities outlined in Citizen Labs report, the company said. Although the full scope of the federal investigation into the hacking-for-hire operation isnt known, Azaris arrest by federal agents last September after he arrived at New Yorks John F. Kennedy Airport provides a glimpse into the inquiry. U.S. prosecutors accuse Azari, who ran an investigations firm in Haifa, Israel, of working with a group of Indian hackers that targeted hundreds of victims and infiltrated the accounts of at least six, including several in New York City, according to the indictment, which was unsealed the day after his arrest. Azari was an alleged facilitator for hackers who used spear-phishing attacks against targets he identified to steal login credentials for all manner of digital troves work and personal email accounts, social media sites, online storage services. The indictment doesn't name the Indian hacking group working with Azari. However, because of an apparent error, the indictment reveals the last name of one of the hackers, which also matches the name of a Belltrox employee whose LinkedIn account lists a variety of hacking skills. That person didn't respond to a request for comment. According to the indictment, the hackers described themselves as Email Penetration Experts, sophisticated developers for extracting files, capable of getting the backup of the email from any account and files from any windows computer. The hackers told Azari: We can make some money working together. Belltrox Digital Security was incorporated in Rajasthan, India, in 2012 and marketed itself as a leading cyber investigation litigation support firm. The company's partners split in 2013, according to Mehra, and Gupta renamed the firm Belltrox Infosec Services. The latest incarnation of the website advertised, ''You desire, we do. In an online biography, Gupta describes Belltrox as a cyber intelligence services company that caters to private investigators, corporate lawyers, corporate investigators, corporate firms, celebrities and politicians. Although Belltrox Infotech Services markets itself as a medical transcription company, several of its employees tout their hacking skills or cybersecurity expertise on Linkedin.In 2015, Gupta, who also goes by Sumit Vishnoi, was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2015 in California on 10 counts of email and computer hacking. Two San Francisco-area private investigators were charged with hiring Gupta to access the emails of defendants in a legal dispute between two multi-level marketing companies. Prosecutors unsuccessfully sought his arrest in India; a person familiar with the case said U.S. authorities had difficulty getting cooperation from the Indian government. The case against Gupta stalled, and it was ultimately rolled into a larger federal investigation, said the person, who declined to elaborate. Its not clear whether theres a link between the Gupta case and the current hacker-for-hire investigation. Nonetheless, it illustrates the difficulty of prosecuting such an operation. The middlemen in that case, the two private investigators, pleaded guilty; Gupta remains at large. 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. Kolkata: Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched the Bharatiya Janata Partys campaign for West Bengal Assembly elections by criticising chief minister Mamata Banerjee for opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act and for her alleged apathy towards guest workers. Warning the Trinamul Congress supremo that her fierce opposition to the CAA will render her a political refugee in her home turf and cost her the next Assembly election, Mr Shah, in his address to the BJP cadre during a virtual rally for West Bengal, said, When the CAA was passed, I saw Mamatajis face which turned red, burning in fury I have not seen anyone so furious. She opposed the CAA in Parliament and outside, taking out rallies. I want to ask her: What harm did the Matua community do to you? What problem did the Bengali brothers, who came here from Bangladesh, cause to you? Why are you opposing them to get their identity and honour? The people of Bengal want to know She needs to clarify her stand with reasons. Mamata Didi, when the ballot boxes will be opened, you will find people of Bengal making you a political refugee. Opposition to the CAA will cost you heavily. Tearing into Ms Banerjee for her comment on Shramik Special trains, Mr Shah said, I was surprised to see Mamataji labelling these trains, which were ferrying guest workers to their homes so that they could live with their families, as Corona Express Mamata Didi, the way you have insulted the guest workers by naming these trains Corona Express, this train will be your gateway to exit. It will become an express train to take Trinamul out of Bengal. The TMC reacted sharply to Mr Shah, saying that he peddled lies and that the saffron party was hungry for votes even as the state was battling the double whammy of Covid-19 and devastation caused by Cyclone Amphan. TMCs Rajya Sabha MP Derek OBrien said that it was due to lack of planning on the part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah that the country was witnessing the migrant labour crisis. He also asked if the money collected in the PM-CARES fund would be used for funding the BJPs election campaign. A little girl who was left at home alone has dodged death after she got trapped outside a balcony more than 40 metres (130 feet) above the ground. The five-year-old Chinese child was standing on a tiny ledge and clinging onto the window frame of her 13th floor home when firefighters arrived at the scene. A rescuer abseiled from a flat two storeys above before grabbing the child and pushing her back to safety. It is believed that she was not hurt. Footage released by the fire-fighting authority of Yunnan, China, shows the five-year-old girl standing on a tiny ledge when a rescuer carefully rappels down from a neighbour's apartment The incident took place today at nearly 1pm in Kunming, the capital of southern Chinas Yunnan Province, according to the provincial fire-fighting department. Footage released by the authority shows the girl dangerously stuck on the facade of the high-rise residential building. A firefighter carefully lowered himself down from a neighbours home with the help of a harness and a colleague, who held the protective gear from above. The courageous rescuer slowly moved along the windows and reached the girl about 10 minutes later. He then picked up the child, lifted her and put her back to her apartment. The child reportedly climbed out of the balcony after being left at home alone by her mother who was picking up deliveries. Her mother said she had not expected her daughter to do so Shocked neighbours, who had gathered to watch the rescue effort, applauded to thank the brave fireman. The girl had been left at home on her own by her mother, who had gone downstairs to pick up deliveries, firefighters told local news site Yunnan.cn. The family live on the 13th floor and each storey is typically three metres (9.8 feet) high in China. Therefore, the girl was stranded about 137 metres above the ground. Her mother said she had not expected that her daughter would climb out of the window. She promised to look after the girl better in the future. ALBANY If it isn't one thing that Capital Region business owners have had to deal with in 2020, it's another. Retail businesses that had been closed or had severely reduced services since March began opening last week in the face of two devastating, yet distinct, nationwide crises: the coronavirus pandemic and protests in all 50 states against the mistreatment of black people by law enforcement. In many cities, including Albany, the largely peaceful daytime protests were followed by nighttime acts of vandalism and looting. "Imagine banging your head against the wall and then stopping and then going back to banging your head against the wall," said Patrick Noonan, board president of the Lark Street Business Improvement District. "Theres constant surprises, but you have to be ready, keep your people in line and still find a way to make money." Now, while many shops are opened up, they're also boarded up. "I feel like I'm in a fish tank right now," said Angelo Maddox, owner of the Fresh & Fly clothing store on Pearl Street. In normal times, more than 20 windows allowed plenty of natural sunlight into Maddox's shop. They're now all covered with plywood after two were broken during the unrest late May 30. While Maddox keeps the vibe calm inside of his store, the outside, he admits, "looks more like a war zone than the welcoming atmosphere we would have wanted." More than a week after the looting, which began on Pearl Street before shifting westward up Washington and Central avenues, many businesses still had plywood covering their windows on Monday - either because they had been damaged and are waiting for replacements, or they're worried about further unrest. Rosanna Panetta-Pirotta, owner of the Stella Del Mare Italian grocery store, said she's run into a 10-day backlog on new windows because of demand. Looters broke the window on the Madison Avenue deli and stole a dumpster before they were scared away by her upstairs tenant's two dogs. The next morning, neighbors who were not involved at all in the late night violence came to the deli apologizing for what had happened. "The local people here respect us and we respect them," Panetta-Pirotta said. But both Panetta-Pirotta and Maddox said they hope the damage done to their businesses doesn't overshadow the message of the peaceful protests earlier in the day. Many Troy storefronts were also boarded up Monday following the rally that drew thousands to downtown Sunday. The Hart Cluett Museum and the Arts Center of the Capital Region met Monday to discuss acquiring some of the plywood that was decorated with art work, so as to have as a record of the protests in the city. We are asking businesses with protective window coverings to consider saving the panels along with the artwork, posters and other notations intact so that a selection of examples may become part of the HCM permanent collection, Karin Krasevac-Lenz, executive director of the Hart Cluett Museum and Elizabeth Reiss, CEO of the Arts Center of the Capital Region, wrote in a joint letter to business owners. The Hart Cluett staff has been out on the streets since the end of last week taking photographs to document the panels and the painted windows. We know we must act swiftly to save the historical evidence of this particular time, Krasevac-Lenz and Reiss wrote. Plans call to put on a display of the panels. Most likely this will occur at the Arts Center of the Capital Region as it has the space to host the show. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Business owners face tough choices when grappling with whether to leave the plywood on their windows or remove the boards, said Noonan, the Lark Street BID president. "Its certainly a two-headed monster because if you see something boarded up youre inclined to think it is closed," Noonan said. The Lark Street BID hasn't taken a stance one way or another on whether its members should keep plywood in place. But it is encouraging shop owners to stay smart and safe, Noonan said. The next few weeks will be a challenge for business owners in Albany and across the country. If anybody can handle what's next, Maddox said, it's entrepreneurs. "The real test comes to those prepared to handle them," he said. "We're survivors, and we're going to push forward." Michael.Williams@timesunion.com Major Drilling said on Friday that quarterly revenue was $88.8 million, down 12% from the same quarter last year due to the impact of COVID-19. Annual revenue was $409.1 million, the companys highest annual revenue since 2013. Adjusted net earnings for the year were $3.9 million compared to an adjusted net loss of $8.6 million for the previous year. Earnings were impacted by one-time charges of $71.2 million, including $70.8 million non-cash charges. Adjusted net loss for the quarter was $3.1 million compared to $1.6 million for the same quarter last year. Denis Larocque, President and CEO of Major Drilling Group, said activity level is lifting as COVID-19 restrictions ease. While we had a good start to the quarter, by mid-March, operations were impacted by COVID-19 and in the second half of the quarter, we saw a significant decrease of activity in some of the regions where we operate. North America was impacted particularly hard, with revenue down 22% in Canada, U.S. and Mexico. By mid-May, we started to see a slow yet gradual increase in activity levels in those regions as some of the restrictions were lifted," said Larocque. "Although the company continues to operate globally, there can be no assurance that certain countries will continue to allow mining and drilling related activities as the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic unfolds. The company is closely following developments in each of the regions in which it operates and it will continue to take actions if warranted. (Natural News) Frank Miele at RealClearPolitics.com has penned an outstanding article describing the historical parallels of todays radical left-wing Antifa / Black Lives Matter riots. Far from peaceful protests, the actions and demands of these cultural Marxists closely resemble the history of Maos Cultural Revolution or Hitlers Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass. If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. Read and learn, then warn others of whats coming if the radical left-wing uprising isnt ended. From RealClearPolitics.com: [In America last week,] mob violence replaced police as the standard of authority. When you saw white people taking a knee to prostrate themselves before looters and to renounce their white privilege, you also saw parallels to Maos Cultural Revolution and Hitlers Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. The Cultural Revolution began with an attack on the old order, the old privilege represented by shop owners and college professors. To avoid the mobs rage, the victims were forced to humiliate themselves publicly and to utter self-denunciations, to confess their crimes against the mobs ideology. But there was no escaping the demented wrath of the self-anointed protectors of virtue. Eventually millions of those intellectuals and entrepreneurs were put to death sometimes buried up to their necks so that they could continue to abase themselves until their final breath. Kristallnacht is the name given to a pogrom carried out against Jewish shops, homes, cemeteries and synagogues in November 1938 by Nazi paramilitaries known as Brownshirts. They were an exact parallel of the black-garbed stormtroopers that ravaged neighborhoods in dozens of U.S. cities the last 10 days or so. Dont let the name Antifa fool you. These anti-fascists have adopted the tactics of the fascists as their own (and even the uniform of the Italian Blackshirts). Just as Kristallnacht was intended to send a message to Jews, so too were the riots last week intended to send a signal to law-abiding whites. The words that journalist Hugh Greene wrote about Kristallnacht in 1938 could just as easily have been written today about the riots that followed the murder of George Floyd: Mob law ruled throughout this afternoon and evening, and hordes of hooligans indulged in an orgy of destruction. Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people. You could make the case that the riots last week represented only a fraction of Americans, whether black or white, and that we should not ascribe too much importance to them. But that was true also in Nazi Germany and Maos China. The actual revolutionaries and radicals carrying out the acts of domestic terrorism are always few, but if they are not condemned forcefully and convincingly, then they are emboldened to strike again and again. So-called good Germans celebrated the lawless attacks on Jewish citizens in 1938, giving tacit permission for the death camps that would kill millions. Many in the power structure of the United States are likewise giving a green light to current and future violence by sanctioning riots as protests and by excusing looting and murder as a reasonable response to Floyds death. Tucker Carlson, who has become a modern-day Cassandra , warned us that [w]hat we are watching is not a political protest; it is the opposite of a political protest. It is an attack on the idea of politics. The rioters you have seen are trying to topple our political system. That system is how we resolve our differences without using violence. But these people want a new system, one that is governed by force: Do what we say or we will hurt you! The rioting wasnt about race or justice; it was about power. You saw people beat a woman in Rochester, N.Y., with a two-by-four; smash in the head of a man seeking to defend his store in Dallas; kill a retired 77-year-old policeman in St. Louis who was protecting a friends pawnshop; burn and destroy thousands of stores; and loot everything from Rolex watches to automobiles as if they were the Visigoths sacking Rome. When such wanton destruction is occurring, normal people have no choice against overwhelming force. If there is no army or police force to protect them, they will either die or surrender and hope that obsequious fawning will buy them or at least their families safety. Perhaps that survival instinct is what has led our governing class to kowtow to the looters. The Democratic Party of Fairfax, Virginia, tweeted, Riots are an integral part of this countrys march toward progress. Hillary Clintons former spokesperson Brian Fallon sent a message to Defund the police as if a nation without police could be anything but a barbaric lawless mess. If you want more dead George Floyds, take away the police and the justice system and you will have thousands of them, ultimately millions. The point that the rioters and their enablers miss is that when police become criminals, there is a way to hold them accountable, but when criminals become police, they are a law unto themselves, with no court of appeal and no hope for justice. Who knows what will happen to people in American cities going forward if they dont denounce their so-called white privilege and bend a knee to those who have power and are willing to use it? A few boys on the island of Lord of the Flies resisted the tyranny of the mob and tried to maintain order by an appeal to reason. One boy, Ralph, had been elected as the groups leader because he seemed to symbolize decency, kindness and honor. But slowly he was displaced by boys who valued action over honor, power over principle: The rules! shouted Ralph, youre breaking the rules! Who cares? came the response from the children. If that is the same response we accept from our mayors, our governors, our generals, and our media elites, then we have not only lost our honor; we have lost our country. Read more at RealClearPolitics.com. By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 08, 2020 | 08:27 PM | MCCRACKEN COUNTY McCracken County officials have approved a payment to a local artist to help with the design for the water tower banner project.During Monday's Fiscal Court meeting, McCracken County officials approved a payment of $1,325 to local artist, Nikki D. May, for design work on the unity water tower banner project.McCracken County Judge Executive Craig Clymer says he believes they have settled on a design and are ready to move forward with the project.He said, "We wanted to get this just right and I think now we have it just right. So I think we have the design, and now we're going to work on deciding what the actual project will cost and we'll be poised to actually start asking the community for some money to afford this."Clymer clarified that the project will be funded by donations and not taxpayer money. Although they haven't started actively fundraising yet, he says they have already received several thousand dollars in donations from people hearing about the project without being asked to donate.You can see full meeting below. On the Net: Indian Railways is mulling merging several junior and mid-level posts as part of its plans to rationalize the organisation and making it leaner, following the Union cabinets nod for merging its eight major cadres into a central services Indian Railway Management Service, according to officials aware of the development. The rail ministry has drafted a proposal based on recommendations from all railway zones for merging key posts in the accounts, commercial, electrical, mechanical, engineering, medical, personnel, operating, stores, and signal & telecommunication departments, and also other miscellaneous posts. According to the proposal, all ticket checking, reservation and enquiry posts from the commercial department may be merged. Railway Protection Force constables may be deployed for checking tickets at stations. A single category may be defined with a particular training schedule, the proposal said. According to a suggestion by two railways zones the category of guard and the Loco Pilot should be merged ; the zones also proposed a ticketing process akin to that in airlines. In the accounts department, the zones said, preparation of salary and passing can be done by same department Disbursement of salary should be streamlined along the lines of pension payments which are managed by banks and except supervisory staff of personnel and accounts department, all other categories should be extinguished. Zones have also recommended outsourcing unskilled jobs including that of cleaners. The Union cabinet in December 2019 approved the restructuring -- trimming the Railway Boards strength to half (from 8 to 4) and unifying its eight railways services into a central service in a bid to reform the 150-year-old Railway Board of the Indian Railways. The modalities and unification of the services will be worked out by the rail ministry in consultation with the Department of Personnel and Training. The process was scheduled to be completed within a year. The proposals will be finalised by an eight-member committee constituted last month by the railway board for looking into re-skilling of the staff. Separately, the Centre had also formed a group of secretaries headed by the cabinet secretary for implementing the exercise of restructuring the board; this committee includes the Chairman, Railway Board, the DOPT secretary and the secretary of the department of expenditure. This committee will assist the group of ministers constituted by the government for formalizing the restructured railway board. The GOM will be formed after the recommendations of the committee, officials said. Spokespersons for the ministry of railways did not respond to HTs queries. The plan is to streamline the organisation; 1.3 million employees is too manpower intensive and becomes under productive too hence it is broadly to reduce manpower, a railway official said on condition of anonymity. The national carrier may also merge the medical cadre categories into four from the current seven. Two zones said that only laboratory staff, pharmacists and nursing staff should remain while all other categories should be outsourced. Broadly they have made up their mind to push through manpower rationalization. And since higher cadre merger has been done this wont be much of a problem, another railway official said, asking not to be named. The proposed organizational reforms were aimed at ending the division of the mammoth organisation into different departments. The Indian Railways employs nearly 1.3 million people and its trains carried 2.3 million passengers every day before the lockdown. The government has said the move was aimed at ending a legacy marked by inefficiency in work, infighting over control of assets and resources, and delays in decision-making. I have always maintained that there should be two services instead of one. A single service will always create problems when you ask technical department to do non-technical work all their education and specialization in the field will go to waste, said former railway board chairman Vivek Sahai. Multitalented star Lee Seung-gi will appear on Netflix's new reality show "Twogether," which is slated for release late this month. The travel variety show, co-starring Taiwanese actor Jasper Liu, follows their journeys across Asia. They visit six destinations suggested by local fans -- Yogyakarta and Bali in Indonesia, Bangkok and Chiang Mai in Thailand and Pokhara and Kathmandu in Nepal. Once they complete certain missions in each place, they can meet fans waiting there. The show will be available on Netflix on June 26. Around 50 transgenders will be given primary membership of the Congress in Kerala as the party inaugurates a special cell for the marginalised community on Wednesday. The party leaders said the initiative is the first of its kind in any political outfit and has the blessings of the high command. The memberships to those 50 people will be handed out by state Congress chief Mullapally Ramachandran in a function at party state headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, PCC vice-president KP Anil Kumar said. The initiative came from the transgender community, said the Congress leader, adding that the party chose to honour their long-pending demand. There are historic judgments but most remain only on papers. They are still marginalised and no party is around to air their problems and grievances. We hope the upcoming association will help alleviate their woes, he said, adding former state chief minister Oommen Chandy and the present opposition leader in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala will also attend the function. Most of our community members are often identified with Communist parties. At times people who believe in the Congress ideology are also forced to move in that camp. We have been telling Congress leaders about this for quite some time. We are quite happy finally the party has given us a chance, said P Ranjini, a community member. She said after forming the association, they will get a strong foothold to help address some of the pressing problems of the community. Kerala was the first state to formulate a transgender policy in 2015 aimed at ending discrimination against the community members and bring them into the mainstream. In 2017, it also set up a transgender justice board to deal with their complaints and a separate column called third sex was introduced in birth and death registration forms in the state. The state, touted as one of the most literate ones in country, also made mandatory for all government buildings to have separate washrooms for those who identify themselves as the third sex. According to the transgender board, there are at least 35,000 third sex and trans-sexual persons in the state. Three years back the Kochi Metro had given jobs to 23 transgenders, though some of them had to leave, others are still in service. Despite some initial moves, activists working in the area say more is required to bring them into the mainstream. But they do agree that the situation in Kerala is far better compared to other states. Tony Messenger Tony Messenger is the metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Tony Messenger 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 George Floyd is easy. Michael Brown is hard. Thats why I keep writing about him. A lot of white people have asked me lately to stop mentioning Brown in the litany of bad police shootings and deaths of black men and women, including, most recently, Floyd, who died after a white Minneapolis police officer held a knee to his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, literally crushing the life out of him. Floyds death, which was caught on a cellphone video, has spurred massive, worldwide protests. We can all see with our own eyes what happened, as an apparently nonchalant police officer, hands in pockets, held Floyd down with his knee even after he had been handcuffed and put in a prone restraint, even after he had stopped breathing. Browns death is more complicated. It was not caught on video. The Ferguson police officer who shot him was not charged. A Department of Justice report found conflicting witness testimony about nearly every element of the last moments of Browns life. Those who want me to stop mentioning Brown, like a letter writer last week, and several folks who have emailed me, point to that DOJ report as a primary reason. I think theyre trying to erase an uncomfortable piece of history in St. Louis, and the nation, the reckoning of which has not fully arrived. On the same day the DOJ issued the report that said it would not bring federal civil rights charges against the police officer who killed Brown, it issued a second, more important report, about the circumstances in Ferguson underlying that days events. Thats the report that showed black people in the city being disproportionately hassled by police, including multiple arrests for manner of walking in the roadway, or being pulled over for suspect reasons. Thats the report that found underlying racism in how the police department, the municipal court and city leaders treated black people. The race-based disparities created by Fergusons law enforcement practices cannot be explained by chance or by any difference in the rates at which people of different races adhere to the law, the report said. These disparities occur, at least in part, because Ferguson law enforcement practices are directly shaped and perpetuated by racial bias. Thats the report that laid out the reality for black people in the St. Louis region, not just in Ferguson but in multiple municipalities. That reality is why over a period of weeks, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in protests that changed this region forever and sparked a national movement. The protests the nation is seeking in cities small and large across the country didnt just build overnight. They are a byproduct of a history of police brutality. They are a byproduct of the nation ignoring Colin Kaepernicks knee. They are a byproduct of decades of deaths of black people at the hands of police, including some with video. There was little public accountability for the officers who killed Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Eric Garner, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and, yes, Michael Brown. There is no Floyd without Brown. There is no Kimberly M. Gardner, the first African American woman elected circuit attorney of the city of St. Louis, whose candidacy was supported by those who still talk about Michael Brown and his death. There is no Wesley Bell, a city councilman in Ferguson who became the first African American elected St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney, defeating the man who wouldnt charge the officer who killed Michael Brown. Most black people I know continue to talk about Michael Brown because that is their daily experience in a state that has 20 years of data showing police pulling black people over at disproportionate percentages and yet has done nothing about it. Not every interaction with police is caught on video. Try to tell a black person their Driving While Black or Shopping While Black story isnt real because theres no video. David Dwight, executive director of Forward Through Ferguson, came to this region as a young man to protest Michael Browns death. He fell in love with the city and stayed. The man he replaced, Yinka Faleti, is now seeking the Democratic nomination to run for Missouri Secretary of State. Faleti, an Army veteran and former prosecutor, wouldnt be where he is without Michael Brown. Michael Brown is woven into the nations tapestry of race and police brutality forever. His death led to, as author and Harvard University historian Walter Johnson writes in his new book, The Broken Heart of America, the explosion of the Black Lives Matter movement. Similarly, in his recent book Citizen Brown, historian Colin Gordon writes: We can (and should) understand the death of Michael Brown alongside the deaths of so many other victims of police violence in the era of mass incarceration. That is why I still write about Michael Brown. He is a thread in the frayed tapestry of racial history of St. Louis that some want to pull out and discard. If, as white people, we are moved by Floyds death but not challenged by Browns, then we are still turning a blind eye to the history of what it means to be black in America. From City Hall to the Capitol, metro columnist Tony Messenger shines light on what public officials are doing, tells stories of the disaffected, and brings voice to the issues that matter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. NOW Australia has collapsed two years after former journalist Tracey Spicer launched the initiative as Australia's answer to the #MeToo movement. She established the organisation in March 2018 as a "one-stop shop" to connect survivors of sexual violence to counselling support, lawyers and journalists. Tracey Spicer established the organisation as a "one-stop shop" for survivors of sexual violence. Credit:AAP Spicer stepped back from the organisation more than 18 months ago. "NOW Australia has been run by an independent board since mid-2018," she said in a statement. "While I was one of 26 women who founded the organisation, I stepped away more than 18 months ago. I have never been a member of that board, nor the executive." Kylie Jenner is facing backlash for the lack of diversity at Kylie Cosmetics after revealing only 13 per cent of her employees are Black. The 22-year-old entrepreneur joined dozens of beauty brands on Sunday when she disclosed the number of black employees at her company as part of the Pull Up for Change initiative started by Sharon Chuter, the black CEO and founder of UOMA Beauty. In the statement shared on Instagram, Kylie Cosmetics revealed that 47 per cent of its employees are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), 53 per cent are white, and 100 per cent are women-identifying. Backlash: Kylie Jenner has come under fire after revealing only 13 per cent of the employees at Kylie's Cosmetics are black Transparent: Kylie Cosmetics revealed on Sunday that 47% of its employees are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) and 13% are Black as part of the Pull Up for Change initiative The company also noted that its leadership team is only made up of Kylie and her mother Kris Jenner. Commenters were quick to call out Kylie for the low number of employees who identify as black, with one person asking: '13 per cent?' 'Hire more. 13% is not enough when African Americans set the trends and standards in the beauty industry,' someone else wrote. 'Only 13% black? Damn. Also only all being women identifying isn't that progressive,' another added. 'How about some non binary/trans folks?' One commenter noted that she 'only saw one black person modeling' when she scrolled through the beauty brand's Instagram page. Duo: Duo: Kylie and her mother Kris Jenner are the only two members of her company's leadership team Not having it: Commenters were quick to call out Kylie for the low number of employees who identify as black A number of critics also pointed out that Kylie and her sisters have a history of being accused of cultural appropriation for wearing their hair in braids and cornrows. '13% black employees when all this family has done is appropriate our culture,' one person wrote while questioning why people were praising Kyle for her transparency. 'How are y'all applauding her for posting this and it only shows 13% black employees,' she asked. '13% but everyone in that family has been influenced by black culture and your [sic] raising black children. What a way to set an example.' Fans who were excited to see Kylie committing to ethnic diversity at her company took to the comments to encourage her to hire more models and influencers who are people of color. Concerns: A number of critics also pointed out that Kylie, pictured in 2015, and her sisters have a history of being accused of cultural appropriation for wearing their hair in cornrows Reaching out: Kylie Cosmetics replied to some of the comments, saying the company plans on bringing on more black content creators and influencers. 'Thank you! Please continue to support more black content creators,' one person wrote, while another added: 'Yes this is great! Definitely would love to see more POC as your influencers.' Kylie Cosmetics replied to some of the comments, saying the company plans on bringing on more black content creators and influencers. The company had vowed to do better to promote even more diversity within the brand when it revealed the ethnic breakdown of its employees. 'Kylie Cosmetics is here for Pull Up for Change, for our team, and for the black community. We are proud of the diversity within our company, with a team of Black, White, Asian, Native American, Hispanic and Middle Eastern women,' the statement said. 'As our team grows we commit to a continued focus on ethnic diversity in the workplace and the recruitment of black employees. The numbers you see above represent the people at our Kylie Cosmetics/Kylie Skin HQ.' Duo: Kylie is pictured with her former partner Travis Scott and their daughter Stormi Goal: 'As our team grows we commit to a continued focus on ethnic diversity in the workplace and the recruitment of black employees,' Kylie's brand said in a statement Spreading the word: Kylie also recently shared a letter detailing the ways her company is fighting racism and standing with the Black community Sharon launched the #PullUpOrShutUp challenge last week by asking beauty brands to disclose the number of black employees they have at the corporate level and in leadership roles within their organizations. 'This isn't to shame brands it's to have an honest conversation and think of ways we can do better,' she told Refinery29. 'One of the main causes of the issues is that black people are not afforded the same opportunities, and we aren't hired in the first place.' Kylie also recently shared a letter detailing the ways her company is fighting racism and standing with the Black community amid the ongoing protests in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of a police officer. 'As a beauty brand built around community, we always have, and always will stand for inclusivity, and have set to empower our customers, followers and team members,' read the statement shared on Instagram. Making change: UOMA Beauty founder Sharon Chuter launched the Pull Up for Change initiative, which asks brands to disclose the number of Black employees they have Joining in: Jessica Alba (left) and Drew Barrymore (right) have shared breakdowns of their respective companies, The Honest Company and Flower Beauty, as part of the initiative Numbers: The Honest Company currently has 10 per cent Black employees and 47 percent people of color working across the organization Working on it: Flower Beauty has 12 per cent Black employees and none at the executive level, something the company plans on addressing 'Our team has signed petitions, texted, sent emails, made calls, and come together in solidarity over this last week, but these are not one time actions and this is not a momentary commitment.' 'We will continue to educate ourselves and our followers on how we can come together to fight against racism and will celebrate, uplift and empower the black community through our channels.' The reality star said she will be making donations to five organizations to 'help support the fight against racism': Youth Justice Coalition, Black Lives Matter, Campaign Zero, NAACP, and Equal Justice Initiative. 'Change does not happen overnight. This is an ongoing dialogue, and we hope you all will continue to be vocal about what you want to see, not only from us, but from the beauty community, and from each other. We're in this together,' the statement concluded. Diversity: Revlon reported that 27 per cent of its employees are Black, and 5 per cent are at the director level or above Across the board: Sephora has 14 per cent Black employees, and 6 per cent are in leadership positions, including in stores and distribution centers Taking action: Cover FX vowed to allocate 70 per cent of its remaining 2020 social media budget to work with BIPOC after revealing it only has one Black team member Kylie isn't the only celebrity-owned beauty brand that has taken part in the challenge. Jessica Alba and Drew Barrymore have both been transparent about the breakdown of diversity in their own respective companies, The Honest Company and Flower Beauty. Over the past year, 51 per cent of The Honest Company's new hires identified as people of color. The brand currently has 10 per cent Black employees and 47 percent people of color working across the organization. 'This past week has been a reflection of our values in action and has challenged our entire team to do better. We are proud of the strides we have made internally, but we fully acknowledge and recognize that we can and must do better,' the brand shared in a statement along with the stats. Meanwhile, Flower Beauty has 12 per cent Black employees and none at the executive level, something the company plans on addressing. Places for improvement: Ulta Beauty has 18 per cent Black board members, 13 per cent Black executive team leaders, and 6 per cent Black corporate associates Current situation: As of January, 10 per cent of Shiseido's employees are black Striving to do better: Tarte revealed 6 per cent of its employees are Black and 5 per cent of it's leadership team is Black Breakdown: Anastasia Beverly Hills has 61 per cent of its employees identifying as people of color and 6 per cent are black 'Diversity and equality are ESSENTIAL within our company,' the brand said in a statement. 'We are proud of the team we've built, but there is clearly room for improvement. We're committed to ensuring opportunities are available at every level.' A number of big-name brands have participated in the transparency challenge so far, including Tarte, Glossier, Cover FX, and Anastasia Beverly Hills. Revlon reported that 27 per cent of its employees are Black, and 5 per cent are at the director level or above. Ulta Beauty has 18 per cent Black board members, 13 per cent Black executive team leaders, and 6 per cent Black corporate associates, while Sephora has 14 per cent Black employees, and 6 per cent are in leadership positions, including in stores and distribution centers. Many of the brands that have shared the number of Black employees at their organizations have also acknowledged that they can do better and will continue to broaden their recruitment of people of color to build on their diversity moving forward. UPDATE: WHO clarifies comments, confirms asymptomatic people can spread coronavirus. We do know that some people who are asymptomatic or some people who dont have symptoms can transmit the virus on, the WHOs Maria Van Kerkhove said in a Facebook Live video Tuesday. * * * * * The World Health Organization now says it appears to be very rare for asymptomatic people to spread coronavirus, months after early evidence suggested Covid-19 was spreading from person-to-person contact through people with and without symptoms. CNN reports Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHOs technical lead for coronavirus response and head of the emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, said Monday during a media briefing in Geneva that Covid-19 patients who dont have symptoms have not been causing most of the spread. From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual, Van Kerkhove said. We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing. Theyre following asymptomatic cases, theyre following contacts and theyre not finding secondary transmission onward. It is very rare -- and much of that is not published in the literature." CNBC reports Van Kerkhove added that more research and data is needed to truly answer whether or not coronavirus spreads through asymptomatic people with Covid-19. But health experts cautioned that the WHOs comments do not mean that healthy people cant spread coronavirus. Forbes reports Dr. Isaac Bogoch and Dr. Allan Detsky of the University of Toronto said the term asymptomatic may be misused to describe presymptomatic patients. Pre-symptomatic patients can spread coronavirus while healthy, and then start showing Covid-19 symptoms themselves later. Dr. Ashish K. Jha, director at the Harvard Global Health Institute, said on Twitter that the WHO should be clearer in communication, noting that some models suggest 40-60% of spread is from people when they didnt have symptoms. As Onondaga County ramped up its coronavirus testing over the past few weeks, Syracuse officials found about half of the people testing positive recently had no symptoms of Covid-19. 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. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still says asymptomatic people can spread coronavirus and continues to recommend people wear face masks in public places where social distancing is not possible, such as grocery stores and pharmacies. We now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms (asymptomatic) and that even those who eventually develop symptoms (pre-symptomatic) can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms, the CDC website says. This means that the virus can spread between people interacting in close proximityfor example, speaking, coughing, or sneezingeven if those people are not exhibiting symptoms. The CDC says Covid-19 spreads primarily through respiratory droplets, and cloth face coverings can prevent droplets from traveling in the air and onto other people. In other words, masks will help slow the spread from people who may have the virus and do not know it. According to the CDC, coronavirus symptoms may appear within 2-14 days of exposure to the virus. Symptoms may include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headaches, new loss of taste or smell, a sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea. Some people may never develop symptoms or only show mild symptoms after being infected with Covid-19, and recover without treatment. Others, mostly older people or those with other health conditions, can become severely ill or die from Covid-19 and complications related to the disease caused by coronavirus. As of Tuesday, more than 407,000 people have died worldwide from coronavirus, including over 111,000 people in the U.S. First, about 20% of people who are infected likely never develop any symptoms. They are truly asymptomatic. Some variation in estimates on this. Lots of data points but here's a preprinthttps://t.co/0jdDFIgbUe 2/5 Ashish K. Jha (@ashishkjha) June 8, 2020 Some modeling studies suggest 40-60% of spread is from people when they didnt have symptoms. Here are a few refs:https://t.co/CENFb17TDJhttps://t.co/hiigAQznoF 4/6 Ashish K. Jha (@ashishkjha) June 8, 2020 Both asymptomatic AND pre-symptomatic spread huge problem for controlling disease Because folks shedding virus while asymptomatic Pre-symptomatic has one advantage: you can use contact tracing to find folks they infected But that doesnt help prevent presymptomatic spread 6/7 Ashish K. Jha (@ashishkjha) June 8, 2020 More on @WHO comment by @mvankerkhove As I read her follow-on tweets, best guess is she really is differentiating asymptomatic vs pre-symptomatic Two key points: 1. People without symptoms definitely spread disease (so wear a mask) 2. @WHO should be clearer in communication Ashish K. Jha (@ashishkjha) June 8, 2020 MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Syracuse lounge owner plans for reopening a music venue in midst of a pandemic No uptick of coronavirus cases, so far, a week after large Syracuse protest, McMahon says From hair salons to gyms, experts rank 36 activities by coronavirus risk level Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Royal titles are a complex thing, with many members of the Royal Family choosing not to take on a title or - on the flip side - inheriting numerous ones. Senior members of the Royal Family typically have the letters HRH attached to their titles, however the Countess of Wessex recently revealed her children will not be adopting the initials. HRH is a reference to either His or Her Royal Highness. Both royals born or who have married into the family have been bestowed the title, though some like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have relinquished their titles after stepping down from senior royal roles. Sophie, Countess of Wessex / PA Speaking to The Sunday Times, Sophie, the Countess of Wessex discussed whether or not her children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn were likely to take on HRH titles. Sophie revealed that her children were likely not to be senior royals and would probably take on jobs outside the Royal Family. She said, We try to bring them up with the understanding they are very likely to have to work for a living. Hence we made the decision not to use HRH titles. They have them and can decide to use them from 18, but I think its highly unlikely. Sophie continued that her children go to a regular school and shes tried her best to give them normal lives, which include letting them go on sleepovers and doing lots of dog walking at the weekends. She continued, I guess not everyones grandparents live in a castle, but where you are going is not the important part, or who they are. When they are with the Queen, she is their grandmother. Other royals who do not have an HRH title include Zara Tindall, whose lack of a title comes down to tradition. Traditionally only male royals in the line of succession are allowed to pass on an HRH title - Tindalls mother is the Princess Royal, so therefore she is not able to pass on her HRH title. Zara Tindall and her husband Mike / Getty Images This is reportedly due to a declaration that King George V made in 1917 which read, The grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes of these Our Realms. Queen Elizabeth amended this rule and offered an HRH title to Tindall but it was turned down by the Princess Royal. Tindall, who is an Olympic athlete, said previously, Im very lucky that both my parents decided to not use the title and we grew up and did all the things that gave us the opportunity to do. Besides Tindall, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have also dropped the HRH from their title. Although Meghan obtained the title when she married into the family (like the Duchess of Cambridge), after the Sussex's decision to step down from senior royalty in March, Buckingham Palace said, The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the Royal Family." Getty Images Their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor also does not hold an HRH title. Under King Georges ruling (which was amended to include women in the line of succession by Queen Elizabeth), only Prince Williams children are currently eligible for HRH titles as Prince William is Queen Elizabeths grandchild and a direct heir to the throne. When the title of monarch eventually falls to Prince Charles however, Archie could take on an HRH/prince title but royal expert Roya Nikkah said, The Sussexes are not using a title for their son in the hope that he will live a more normal life. Some controversy surrounded Prince Andrews HRH title in February, following his decision to step down after fallout from his connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Duke of York turned 60 in February and unlike previous years, Prince Andrews HRH title was omitted from birthday messages on social media, though it is not clear if Prince Andrew has lost the HRH status. On his personal website, he is still referred to as His Royal Highness. Royals who have an HRH title Prince Philip Prince Charles Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall Princess Anne Prince William Kate Middleton Prince George Princess Charlotte Prince Louis The Earl of Wessex Sophie, the Countess of Wessex Princess Eugenie Princess Beatrice Duke and Duchess of Gloucester Duke and Duchess of Kent Prince and Princess Michael of Kent Princess Alexandra, the Honourable Lady Ogilvy North Korea said it was shutting a liaison office it shares with South Korea from Tuesday and severing communication over a leaders' hotline, putting pressure on Seoul to break with Washington's effort to isolate the country. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said the state was taking the move because South Korean authorities had "connived" to carry out "hostile acts" against the country. The statement appeared to be referring to leaflets critical of leader Kim Jong Un being floated by balloons across the border by anti-Pyongyang activists in South Korea. "This measure is the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary things," KCNA said, adding that North Korean officials Kim Yong Chol and Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong gave the instruction to "completely cut off all the communication and liaison lines" with the South. The move could end up stoking tensions between South Korea and the Trump administration, which have long differed over how to engage with the Kim regime. North Korea has for months shunned President Moon Jae-in's offers for talks and slammed him for standing by U.S. sanctions, which are part of Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign to force Kim to give up his nuclear weapons. The regime has so far ignored Moon's limited proposals for restoring some of the economic and trade ties that once represented for as much as about 10% of North Korea's economy. That money has dwindled to virtually nothing since global sanctions were imposed on Kim's regime for 2017 tests of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles in defiance of United Nations resolutions. The two nations are about to mark the 20th anniversary of the first summit between their leaders -- an event that opened hopes of reconciliation between the neighbors. After Moon's progressive ruling party scored a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in April, his government made a fresh push to restart some exchanges that could allow a trickle of foreign currency to flow to the cash-starved neighbor. Actually implementing such steps would likely require sanctions waivers from the U.S. -- something Trump has shown no sign of providing. "South Korea has continually given the indication that the North's complaints, threats, and provocations will be tolerated," said Soo Kim, a Rand Corp. policy analyst who specializes in Korean Peninsula issues. "Seoul's pliancy only encourages Pyongyang's provocations." North Korea didn't answer South Korea's calls made on the military line Tuesday for the first time since the inter-Korean communication link was restored in 2018, defense ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo told a briefing in Seoul. "Inter-Korean communication lines are a basic means for communication and should be kept in line with inter-Korean agreements," South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a text message sent to reporters. North Korea tested the patience of South Korea on Monday by delaying a regularly scheduled phone conversation at the inter-Korean liaison office, located in the border city of Kaesong, after saying it was abolishing the project that once allowed the rivals to communicate around the clock. The liaison facility was opened in the spirit of rapprochement advocated by Moon and was part of moves to reduce threats along the border, where the two countries have stationed about 1 million troops. It allowed for constant communication between the two sides for the first time since the start of the 1950-53 Korean War. The channels were established in 2018 after Kim and Moon held summits over the course of five months between April and September. North Korea accused South Korea of violating the agreement by allowing the balloon launches. "We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay," KCNA said. South Korea said last week it would look to ban anti-North Korea leaflets after a rebuke from Kim Yo Jong. The younger Kim accused South Korea of tolerating a "sordid and wicked act of hostility." Millions of leaflets sent by South Korean activists and defectors from North Korea have flown across the border for more than a decade bearing messages critical of North Korea's leaders, fueling friction between the rivals. Leaflets that raise questions about the leader's grip on power have tended to draw some of the sharpest rebukes from Pyongyang over the years. The latest leaflets came after Kim Jong Un has made fewer public appearances over the past several weeks than normal, leading to global speculation about his health. Since the start of last year, North Korea has also increased the threat it poses to South Korea and the some 28,500 U.S. military personnel in the country by rolling out new lines of short-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that can hit all of the country and are designed to evade U.S. interceptors. "The well-organized, quick manner in which they have been issuing statements and carrying out media propaganda indicates to me that they already have a plan laid out and that they will probably want to stick to it," said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a former analyst for the U.S. government specializing in North Korea. "If so, there is probably not much that Moon can do dissuade North Korea." Gairsain is a tehsil in Chamoli district and is located nearly 270 kilometres from Dehradun, which is the existing capital. Gairsain in Chamoli district has formally been declared as the summer capital of Uttarakhand. The declaration was made after Governor of Uttarakhand Baby Rani Maurya gave her assent. Bhararisen (Garisain) district Chamoli has been declared as the summer capital of Uttarakhand: Government of Uttarakhand pic.twitter.com/KaZRbPjWtY ANI (@ANI) June 8, 2020 According to a report by Times of India, the development comes three months after Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in the state budget session on 4 March had announced that Gairsain will become the summer capital of the state. Post receiving the nod from the Governor, the chief minister said, "Today is a historic day. The decision to make Gairsain the summer capital has been taken keeping the sentiments of people in mind. People from all sections of society have welcomed the decision. This was mentioned in our partys vision document too and we have delivered on our promise. He added that the move will benefit the state and will give rise to more job opportunities. According to a report by news agency ANI, the Uttarakhand chief minister said that Gairsain will have an e-Vidhan Sabha. About Gairsain Gairsain is a tehsil in Chamoli district and is located nearly 270 kilometres from Dehradun, which is the existing capital. The place is also the site of the source of the Ramganga river. The name of Gairsain has been derived from two Garhwali words 'gair' meaning at some depth and 'sain' meaning plains. Historically, it is believed that the Chinese traveller, Hiuen-Tsang visited Gairsain, the capital of Brahmaputra Kingdom during the 7th century. An Indian Express report stated then when the state was first carved out from Uttar Pradesh in 2000, activists had said that Gairsain was best suited to be the capital as it lay between Kumaon and Garhwal. However, Dehradun was named the 'temporary capital' instead. In its Vision Document released before the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP had said they would consider declaring Gairsain as the summer capital and promised to equip the place with top-class infrastructure. A number of people hailed the move on social media. Here's what they posted: Only a pahadi can understand pahad and a true Uttarakhandi can appreciate commitment of having state capital in mountains. Finally Ukd got CM @tsrawatbjp ji who delivered on making #Gairsain states summer capital. Congratulations! (@mitravarun2) June 9, 2020 So finally Gairsain () has been declared as the summer capital of Uttarakhand. This was a move awaited since the formation of the state. The @tsrawatbjp government pays a tribute to the martys of the movement through this step.#Gairsain #Uttarakhand https://t.co/XgGg4JFhfx Pranjal Singhal (@SinghalPranjal) June 8, 2020 #gairsain waits for its due status. In law, it is declared UT summer capital. Let @UTDBofficial govt put its best efforts to bring in political discourse here. https://t.co/cFMA1nPAyS Ravi Shankar (@374ravi_shankar) June 8, 2020 OAKLAND, Calif., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- AB&I Foundry today hosted a virtual visit to its facility in Oakland focused on occupational health, for nineteen (19) University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) nursing students in partnership with Dr. Barbara Materna. Dr. Materna is one of California's senior experts in occupational health who serves as the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Occupational Health Branch's Chief and teaches at UCSF. "Protecting the health and safety of our team members is of paramount importance to our company and sharing the knowledge behind it with students from UCSF adds a certain amount of accountability," said Michael Lowe, AB&I's General Manager. "AB&I approaches environmental and workplace safety issues with a clear vision from our corporate leaders, supported by strong policies that place the workplace environment and safety at the core of the business and through a substantial investment in advanced safety technologies and modern infrastructure," said Lowe. "But these investments can only fulfill their real value through applied knowledge by healthcare professionals and UCSF students are among those we may depend upon in the future," he said. Zeydi Gutierrez, Director of Community Relations added, "During this year's virtual visit, we addressed the unique environmental and safety challenges faced by our industry with a comprehensive Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) management system based on the principles of the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) 14001 standard, Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) 18001, and OSHA Management Guidelines. ISO 14001 which is an internationally recognized specification for environmental management systems." Gutierrez continued, "I am proud to be part of this community and forging the partnerships needed support the health and well-being of industrial workers here in East Oakland and beyond." In addition to producing environmentally beneficial products, AB&I has developed ways to make our facility more environmentally friendly as well. AB&I has implemented environmental practices that, in many instances, exceed U.S. standards, producing performance that is among the best of the industries in which we operate. AB&I Foundry, an Oakland-based company that manufactures cast iron pipe and fittings for the plumbing industry, has a long legacy of manufacturing in East Oakland. The company has been manufacturing quality cast iron soil pipe that is used to convey fluids out of commercial and residential buildings since 1906. Plumbing infrastructure is critical to public health and sanitation and there are only three (3) manufacturers remaining in the United States. SOURCE AB&I Foundry A citywide manhunt is under way for the director of a Hong Kong domestic helper agency after her employee was arrested on suspicion of making false claims to a couple looking to hire a maid from the Philippines, a customs official said on Tuesday. The worker a 30-year-old local man was picked up when customs officers raided the office of the employment agency on the ground floor of Marbella Mall in Ma On Shan on Monday evening. Documents were seized from the office. The arrest was made after an investigation indicated the company did not make any application to the Immigration Department in connection with the recruitment of the Filipino woman, according to the Customs and Excise Department. The same man was arrested for a similar offence two years ago, a law enforcement source said. The man was the director of another employment agency during his previous arrest made by customs officers in 2018, he said. The company later folded up following the arrest. The man became the employee of the new agency, which occupies the same office as his now-defunct company, according to the source. The sole proprietor of the new agency is a local woman. Customs officers began investigating the new agency after receiving a complaint from the couple late last year. The couple were charged HK$10,000 (US$1,290) as a handling fee in August for the application of the employment of a woman from the Philippines as a domestic helper via the agency. The pair were told their helper would arrive in Hong Kong in October. They contacted the agency in October as they did not receive any updates on their application. But they were told the application was still in process. A couple filed a complaint to the Customs and Excise Department in December after finding their application had not been submitted. Photo: Xiaomei Chen The couple were later told that a medical check showed there was a shadow in the helpers lung during X-ray examination. They were advised to hire another helper, Superintendent Suzette Ip Tung-ching, head of customs unfair trade practices unit, said. Story continues The couple filed a complaint to customs in December after finding their application had not been submitted to the Immigration Department. Ip said making such false claims was in violation of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail and a HK$500,000 fine. After an in-depth investigation, customs officers from the unit raided the Ma On Shan office and made the arrest at about 6.30pm on Monday. The suspect was released on bail, pending further investigations, which are ongoing. The superintendent urged others who had fallen victim to the practice, but had not come forward, to contact officers via customs 24-hour hotline on 2545 6182. This article Manhunt for director of Hong Kong domestic helper agency suspected of making false claims in hiring of Filipino maid first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020. China says Hainan will not adversely affect Hong Kong's status as trading hub People's Daily Online (CGTN) 14:06, June 08, 2020 China's top economic planner said Monday that both the positioning and industry focus of the Hainan free trade port are different from Hong Kong's, indicating that complementarity outweighs competition in the two regions. The rise of Hainan will also not take a toll on Hong Kong's status, Lin Nianxiu, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a press conference at which he was joined by other government officials, including Wang Shouwen, vice minister of commerce and deputy China international trade representative. The briefing was called by the State Council Information Office to expound on the master plan for the Hainan free trade port that was released on June 1. The plan aims to build the southernmost island province into a globally influential duty-free trading center by the middle of the century. It says a 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. China is to build Hainan, China's largest special economic zone, into the frontline of the country's integration into the global economic system, according to the plan. The tropical island of 9.5 million people will also benefit from a low income tax rate capped at 15 percent for eligible individual and freedoms in terms of foreign trade and capital flows and an easier investment environment. Analysts say Hainan, with an increasingly open financial market, is likely to be seen as a better free port choice by foreign investors who are inclined to further expand in the Chinese mainland market in the longer term, like launching high-tech venture investments. On the other hand, Hong Kong is thought to have an upper hand in capital convertibility and shorting and hedging mechanisms, as well as an established track record that makes it a desirable destination for short-term capital going after high returns. Under the Hainan plan, the local government is set to bolster domestic enterprises registered on the island by allowing them to raise funds by issuing shares overseas. In addition, if an enterprise is engaged in tourism, modern service industry, high-tech industries and other areas Hainan encourages, its earnings from direct investment abroad can be exempted from corporate income tax, according to Shen Xiaoming, governor of Hainan. The decision to develop the entire island province into a pilot free trade port was announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to the island in April 2018. Recently, Xi has underlined the importance of high quality and high standards in the construction in the Hainan free trade port. From April 2018 through February 2020, Hainan notched up foreign trade of 176.13 billion yuan, a steep rise of 30.4 percent compared with the previous comparable cycle. ASEAN is Hainan's largest trading partner with a total import and export volume of 48.02 billion yuan, according to the General Administration of Customs. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The tasks of the Advisory Council on the affairs of war veterans, families of deceased defenders of Ukraine will be to develop a work plan to overcome the problems of veterans, as well as a bill on the activities of private armies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the first meeting of the council. Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak also attended the meeting, the official website of the Ukrainian president said on Friday. "We need a global plan. A normal, living strategy. So that you and I can see: we can solve something by a government decree, something - by law; this is with the support of the President, and this is with the support of business," Zelensky said. According to the Head of State, the Advisory Council, for example, may join the development of a bill on the activities of private military companies. "There are two draft laws on the private army that have not yet been registered in parliament. One of them does not provide for any restrictions. This is a bill so that one or another business group can officially make a private army for itself. And this is very dangerous," the president said, adding that the Veterans Advisory Council could help develop a balanced bill. Zelensky noted that the council should put forward priority legislative developments as soon as possible so that the parliament could approve them before the closing of the current session. Serhiy Kunitsyn, the Chairman of the Advisory Board, thanked the president for establishing such an advisory body and noted that the council would help the authorities avoid duplication and unbalanced decisions. Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak said that the Advisory Council, which consists of seven subgroups, will meet weekly. Such a schedule will help the body work out a decision quickly. The first meeting is scheduled for next week. Zelensky created the Advisory Council on the affairs of war veterans, families of the deceased defenders of Ukraine by his decree No. 209/2020 on June 2. Kuala Lumpur, June 9 : A former ally of Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak, accused of multiple counts of money laundering and corruption, was acquitted on Tuesday after the prosecution applied to withdraw all charges. Musa Aman, former Chief Minister of Borneo state, was acquitted of all 46 charges against him involving logging concessions in Sabah and money laundering, reports Xinhua news agency. A Kuala Lumpur High Court granted an application by the prosecutors to withdraw all the charges during case management on Tuesday. The 69-year-old Musa faced 30 charges of corruption and 16 charges of money laundering after stepping down following the general elections in 2018. The corruption charges alleged that Musa in his capacity as chief minister and chairman of a foundation, had received $50.1 million from eight logging concessionaires as an inducement to approve logging concessions for 16 companies. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges. In a statement following the decision, Musa maintained his innocence. The former Prime Minister, who faces 42 corruption charges, and his wife are accused of siphoning millions of dollars to their private accounts from the state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The 66-year-old leader, who was in office between 2009 and 2018, allegedly appropriated about 2.6 billion ringgit, according to a media investigation carried out in 2015. Three of the five proposed trials against Razak are already underway over charges of corruption, abuse of power and money laundering. By The Associated Press Jun. 09, 2020 | 05:37 AM | MINNEAPOLIS A judge on Monday kept bail at $1 million for a former Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree murder in George Floyd's death. Derek Chauvin, 44, said little during an 11-minute hearing in which he appeared before Hennepin County Judge Jeannice M. Reding on closed-circuit television from the state's maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights. He wore a mask and handcuffs as he sat at a table, where he answered yes or no to routine housekeeping questions and confirmed the the spelling of his name and address. He did not enter a plea; a step that usually comes later in Minnesota courts. A judge raised Chauvins bail from $500,000 to $1 million when a second-degree murder charge was added on Wednesday. Mondays hearing was a chance for arguments over the higher bail. Prosecutor Matthew Frank argued for keeping the higher bail, saying the seriousness of the charges and the strong reaction in the community, to put it mildly, made Chauvin a flight risk. The judge agreed with the state's request for $1.25 million unconditional bail, or $1 million with standard conditions including surrendering firearms, remaining law-abiding and making all future court appearances. Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, did not contest the bail amount and didn't address the substance of the charges, which also include third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Nelson did not speak with reporters afterward. He has not commented on the case publicly since Chauvin's May 29 arrest. Attorneys for two of the three other ex-officers charged in the case made it clear at separate first appearances for their clients on Thursday that a key element of their defenses will be to argue that their clients were rookies who tried to intervene verbally to help Floyd, but that they had no choice but to defer to Chauvin, the most senior officer at the scene. Chauvin's next appearance was set for June 29 at 1:30 p.m. Floyd, a handcuffed black man, died May 25 after the white police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air. His death set off protests, some violent, in Minneapolis that swiftly spread to cities around the U.S. and the globe. Chauvin and three other officers on the scene were fired the day after Floyd's death. The other three officers J. Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and with aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. They remain in the Hennepin County jail on $750,000 bail. If convicted, they potentially face the same maximum penalty as Chauvin: up to 40 years in prison. Lanes family has set up a website seeking donations to help him post bond. The site highlights Lanes relative lack of experience -- he had only recently completed his probationary period -- and his questions to Chauvin about whether Floyd should be rolled onto his side. It also noted his volunteer work. Floyd's death has ignited calls to reform the Minneapolis Police Department, which community activists have long accused of entrenched racial discrimination and brutality. A majority of Minneapolis City Council members said Sunday that they favor disbanding the department entirely, though they have yet to offer concrete plans for what would replace it. Nobody is saying we want to abolish health or safety, Council Member Alondra Cano told WCCO-AM on Monday. What we are saying is we have a broken system that is not producing the outcomes we want. The state last week launched a civil rights investigation of the department. On Friday, the council approved a stipulated agreement that immediately banned the use of chokeholds and neck restraints and included several other changes. That investigation is ongoing. 9 June 2020 EARLY EQUITY PLC ("Early Equity" or the "Company") Resignation of Director Early Equity Plc ('The Company') announces that Tee Wong Pheng ('Mandy') has resigned as a director with immediate effect. Mandy has also resigned as a director within our subsidiary business Meihome (M) Sdn Bhd in which the Company has a 60% stake. The board would like to thank her for her contribution to the business over the past few months and wish her well in her future endeavours. The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the announcement. --ENDS- Enquiries: Early Equity Plc Tel: +44 (0)7830 182501 Greg Collier AQSE GROWTH MARKET CORPORATE ADVISER: Alexander David Securities Limited David Scott - Corporate Finance James Dewhurst - Corporate Broking Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7448 9820 http://www.ad-securities.com Power: Offshore turbines like those at SSEs Beatrice wind farm, Scotland will be installed ARKLOW Harbour has beaten Wicklow to become the future operations and maintenance base for SSE Renewables' planned expansion of Ireland's first operating wind farm. An industry source said that Arklow had won out chiefly because it was closer to the site than Wicklow Port, while Belfast Port was the most likely construction hub for the project, the source added. In a joint announcement, SSE and Wicklow County Council said Arklow's south dock will be redeveloped as the base for supporting future operations of Arklow Bank. They expect 80 full-time jobs at the facility once the second phase is completed in 2025. The existing seven-turbine farm at Arklow Bank - built in 2004 as an early test of offshore technology - currently is Ireland's only offshore wind farm and generates 25 megawatts. That is one-fortieth of one gigawatt, the goal set by the State for Ireland's offshore wind generation by 2025. The second phase, using more powerful turbines, is designed to generate 520 megawatts using 80 to 100 turbines at the site along a swathe of the Irish Sea some 7 kilometres to 13 kilometres offshore. However, SSE first must identify a construction hub for assembling the massive turbines. No Republic of Ireland port currently has the capacity to host these operations, which require 80-tonne cranes, reinforced quaysides and large warehouses. An industry source said Belfast Port was most likely to be the construction hub, although a final decision will be made nearer the planned start of construction in 2023. Once the turbines become operational, Arklow will be the primary operations base. SSE said the south dock facility would include new purpose-built offices, warehouses for storing turbine parts and other stock for repairs, and quayside berthing for up to four crew transfer vessels. The facility also will be a magnet for local firms to contribute to SSE's supply chain, including specialists in ship repairs and site surveying, fuel supply, hospitality, logistics and stevedoring. SSE Renewables said it picked Arklow over Wicklow after analysing both sites and collecting views from commercial, fishery and recreational users of both facilities. "Both Wicklow Port and Arklow Harbour offer very attractive facilities for any offshore wind developer," said Barry Kilcline, director of development at SSE Renewables. "We are very confident that both Wicklow and Arklow will see significant commercial uplift and urban regeneration as a result of the economic boost from our planned investment in construction and operation of Arklow Bank Wind Park." SSE said it had agreed an option to buy an industrial yard on the south dock known locally as the 'old shipyard' and options to take over existing lease agreements with Wicklow County Council for adjoining sites. SSE also would acquire part of the south dock quayside for vessel berthing and pontoons. When complete, SSE said Arklow Bank would be able to power 500,000 homes and offset 600,000 tonnes of carbon gases - representing 1pc of the State's annual emissions. The Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council, Irene Winters, said the expanded Arklow Bank would promote Wicklow "as a centre of excellence for the offshore renewable energy sector". Wicklow Council CEO Frank Curran said it "will act as a catalyst for the regeneration and renewal of Arklow Harbour and the entire town". Iran's Health Minister Replaces 'Coronavirus Spokesman' Who Was Too Active 06/09/20 Source: Radio Farda Iran's Health Minister Saeed Namaki on Tuesday replaced the ministry's spokesman who had become a familiar face during the coronavirus crisis. He advised the new appointee to refrain from "political games" and concentrate on the ministry's expert and specialized activities. Dr. Sima Sadat Lari, the Students Affairs Deputy of the Ministry, who has replaced Dr. Kianoush Jahanpur as spokesperson is a member of the Radiology Faculty of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences. Dr. Sima Sadat Lari In his appointment letter, the Health Minister has emphasized that Dr. Lari is the first "official spokesperson" of the ministry. He also thanked Dr. Jahanpur and said he had fulfilled the work of spokesperson as head Public Relations rather than the ministry's spokesman. Health Minister Namaki has also pointed out that the spokesperson is required to coordinate with him before expressing any opinion [not directly related to the expert opinion of ministry officials] in social media. A tweet by Jahanpur showing destruction in U.S. protests, with an Arabic line saying "America kills the people" The Health Minister's appointment letter implies issues between him and his deputy, Dr. Jahanpur, who often got into heated arguments with journalists and social media users over different matters including the coronavirus statistics that he announced on a daily basis. Jahanpur also frequently tweeted or shared tweets about domestic and international issues such as the recent protests in the United States and his personal views on the same Twitter account that he used to make official ministry announcements and the coronavirus situation. In early April in a tweet Jahanpur criticized China's coronavirus statistics, calling it "a bitter joke". He did not budge when the Chinese Ambassador in Iran, Chang Hua, reacted promptly by demanding him to "show respect to the truths and great efforts of the people of China". The incident drew complaints from the Chinese government, a Revolutionary Guard official publication censured him for questioning China's honesty, and the Iranian Foreign Ministry had to subtly apologize to China for the Health Ministry Spokesman's remarks. Dr. Jahanpur was eventually forced to capitulate and praise China's coronavirus efforts. Angry protesters in Yantumaki town, Danmusa local government area of Katsina state were seen burning a billboard of President Muhammadu Buhari and logo of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The residents took to the streets on Tuesday to protest the insecurities in their communities. The Kaduna state government had entered a peace agreement with the bandits but pulled out of the deal following several attacks on the communities in recent times by gunmen. The protesting residents reportedly barricaded the Katsina/Kankara major highway and blocked the road leading to the town. Advertisement Read Also: Bandits Defile Lockdown; Attack Villages In Katsina According to the report, the kidnap of one Mansir Yusuf and his daughter by bandits around 1 am on Tuesday led to the protest. MIAMI, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Care Angel, the industry leader in automation and exponentially scalable Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered Virtual Nurse Assistants, today announced the availability of two new "HEALS" (Help Early Awareness Logistics and Surveillance) programs intended to address critical employer and public health needs. Business leaders and state, city and county governments' public health operations are desperate to find ways for individuals to return to work and back into the community safely amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Both offerings are an extension of the company's award-winning SmartCare Platform that handles the continuous engagement, management, surveillance, triaging and care of at-risk populations. The HEALS Back to Work (Safely) and HEALS Back to Community (Safely) initiatives are both powered by ANGEL. ANGEL, the company's on demand workforce of Virtual Nurse Assistants, leverages the power of AI, to perform clinical intake and continuous and periodic check-ins through phone calls and texts, freeing up call centers and valuable clinical resources to care for the neediest first. As it relates to the public's re-entry into society following a period of social isolation, the offering is particularly well suited to address COVID-19 safety protocols, handle workflows and automatically add data into the contact-tracing database HEALS Back to Work (Safely) was launched to offer powerful virtual screening tools to detect, identify and reduce employer risk while maintaining business continuity. With this program, ANGEL will be used to provide automated, continuous monitoring, early detection messaging and reporting capabilities to keep both workforces and/or customers safe. Employers and large organizations will benefit from the ability to streamline and drastically improve COVID-19 specific workplace protocols at scale via: Virtual Check Ins Automate brief daily check-ins by talk or text, inbound and outbound Risk Detection - Discover signs and symptoms early, alert stakeholders of risk and help prevent spread Triage to Testing - Prioritize those that show symptoms to designated testing sites/appropriate care Contact Trace - Identify and monitor individuals that came in close contact with infected individuals Enterprise Reporting - Analyze data to understand impact by worksite, region HEALS Back to Community (Safely) was designed to bring advanced health monitoring to where individuals live, work, play, learn and, as a result, reduce risk for federal, state, city and large counties. In this instance Care Angel built enforcements into its Smart Care platform to rapidly offer governments and emergency health organizations automated continuous monitoring, early detection, messaging and reporting tools to keep communities and their families safe. Benefits include: Ability to perform millions of screenings a day Screening entire populations rapidly Reducing likelihood of exposure Addressing existing health and environmental risk factors Controlling misinformation, prevention measures, and testing protocols Reinforcing safety protocols and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance Informing and reminding individuals of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) policies Broadcasting safe social distancing policies Ensuring a seamless, efficient and effective process "In February, Care Angel started preparing our SmartCare Platform for COVID-19. This early preparation allowed us to roll out a pandemic program with one of the largest insurers in the world in record time. Angel extended the human touch to a post-discharge population consisting of millions of Medicaid/Medicare members that produced historic, meaningful engagement at 1/100th of the cost of human labor," said Wolf Shlagman, Care Angel's CEO. "Care Angel understands the critical need to execute scalable screening, detection, triage to testing, contact trace and regular surveillance- within a single seamless workflow," Shlagman continues. "With the HEALS Back to Work (Safely) and HEALS Back to Community (Safely) programs, we are able to extend our capabilities to assist payers, employers, states and cities, to be better prepared. We can deploy a comprehensive protocol-driven program in days, to support their efforts to get back to some level of normalcy." About Care Angel Care Angel is the industry leader in automation and exponentially scalable solutions for continuous engagement, management, surveillance, triage, navigation and care of millions. ANGEL, the world's first voice-enabled Artificial Intelligent (AI), Virtual Nurse Assistant comes to life through the company's award-winning SmartCare Platform. ANGEL enables the most effective, efficient and scalable way to engage, monitor and manage large, at-risk populations with complex and chronic conditions at the lowest cost, starting with a simple phone call or text-based care conversation. Care Angel's AI solutions give care teams the ability to conversationally collect accurate patient data, consistently and continuously, receiving regular updates on vitals and well-being to inform and manage real-time interventions and avoid missed care opportunities. Care Angel's multi-modal engagement platform helps payers and providers to automatically close gaps in care, identify SDoH needs, navigate to appropriate care setting, automatically and achieve higher HEDIS/Stars measures. The technologically advanced platform also extends its capabilities to create a communications ecosystem that pushes specific and configurable alerts and notifications to strengthen the connections and partnership among patients, their providers, their health plans and their families. Care Angel is proven to lower costs and improve medical and financial outcomes, resulting in a strong ROI for customers. Contact: Jessy Green (917) 689-9295 [email protected] SOURCE Care Angel Related Links https://www.careangel.com Pvt. SiKenya Lynch, a member of the D.C. National Guard, was on duty at Lafayette Square near the White House last Monday when U.S. Park Police cleared the area of protesters ahead of President Donald Trumps now-infamous photo op. Lynch said she supports the protests, and that her brother was among the demonstrators on the other side of the line, adding that he coughed a lot due to the tear gas fired into the crowd. I was happy to see him out there ... to walk for me when I couldnt, she said, adding that if she hadnt been activated as a citizen-soldier, she would have been among the protesters to support the people, and I wanted to support what was right. POLITICO spoke to 10 National Guardsmen who have taken part in the protest response across the country since the killing of George Floyd while in police custody. Many Guardsmen said they felt uncomfortable with the way they were used to handle the unrest because demonstrators lumped them in with the police. They felt that while they swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, their presence at times intimidated Americans from expressing their opinions and even escalated the tension. And in the case of Guardsmen involved in the Lafayette incident, some felt used. As a military officer, what I saw was more or less really f---ed up, said one D.C. Guardsman who was deployed to Lafayette Square last Monday and who, like some others, spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely. The official line from the White House that the protesters had turned violent, he said, is false. The crowd was loud but peaceful, and at no point did I feel in danger, and I was standing right there in the front of the line, he said. A lot of us are still struggling to process this, but in a lot of ways, I believe I saw civil rights being violated in order for a photo op. Im here to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and what I just saw goes against my oath and to see everyone try to cover up what really happened, the Guardsman continued. What I saw was just absolutely wrong. Story continues Lafayette Square Since the protest on Lafayette Square last Monday, much of the publics attention has been focused on the decision to clear the area so Trump, flanked by advisers, could pose for photos in front of St. Johns Episcopal Church holding a bible. In the days following, the debate shifted to whether the police used tear gas to break up the protests. The White House insisted they didnt, yet a spokesperson for the park police later acknowledged to Vox that it was a mistake to be that definitive, since tear gas is an umbrella term covering a number of chemical irritants. One of the Guardsmen at the scene said the White House isnt being truthful. Ive been tear gassed before. I was there the night before when we got tear gassed, there was tear gas there on Monday evening, he said. He added that he and some of his soldiers felt the effects of the tear gas from their colleagues because they didnt have masks on. In a statement, Capt. Chelsi Johnson, a spokesperson for the D.C. National Guard, responded to accounts of Guardsmen who had been accidentally affected by tear gas. A line of DC National Guard members stand in Lafayette Park as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, near the White House in Washington. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) They were instructed to put their gas masks on if/when they were ordered to or they noticed the police were putting theirs on. Every Guardsman was issued a gas mask, she said. The U.S. Park Police has acknowledged firing pepper balls into the crowd, which is also a chemical irritant. While the Park Police cleared out the protesters, some Guardsmen said they felt they were there to actually prevent the police from beating up protesters, instead of the other way around. I felt that we were more protecting the people from the police, said D.C. Guardsman Spec. Isaiah Lynch, whos unrelated to SiKenya Lynch. In a statement to POLITICO, Maj. Gen. William Walker, commander of the D.C. National Guard, stressed that during the unrest, the Guard's priority is to protect citizens' right to peaceful protest. "Providing that assistance and security to the people of Washington, D.C., is an honor for every D.C. National Guard member and not a tool for theatrics," he said. This event and others have taken a toll on some Guardsmen. We have a lot of National Guardsmen who are struggling with this, because unlike in combat when you have an enemy, these are our neighbors, our friends, our family, the first Guard officer said. The officer said he even told Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, just before the Park Police moved in that the protests had been peaceful that day, a sentiment that was shared by three other Guardsmen who were there. Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.), a Guardsman who was activated for the coronavirus pandemic but not the unrest, said using the National Guard during a peaceful protest for deterrence value is not really the correct way of employing the forces, which should instead be used as partners with local law enforcement and as a deescalating force. Torrie Osterholm, the D.C. National Guards director of psychological health, said in an interview that many Guardsmen have reached out to her in the past week to express the pain and confusion they struggled with during and after the mission, both for what they witnessed and how the protesters reacted. One Guardsman told her, I never thought Id get a bottle thrown at me and be told I should die and I should kill myself, Osterholm said. Theres not enough Kevlar to protect you from those kinds of statements spoken in your own language. Walker, the D.C. Guard commander, acknowledged the challenges Guardsmen faced in a Sunday briefing with reporters. I have some Guardsmen whose family members came out and criticized them. 'What are you doing out here, arent you black?' Walker said. Of course, were all hurting. The nation is hurting. But not all encounters were negative. Maj. Brent Mangum, who has been in the Utah National Guard for 17 years, said that during his week in D.C., a colleague who was wearing a wristband in memory of a fallen police friend had a warm encounter with a protester. The protester asked him about the wristband and why he wore it. So he took it off and handed it to her, allowing the woman to read it. 'Oh, so youre hurting too? she asked, Mangum recalled. A change in attitude One of the D.C. National Guardsmen said he was worried that a lot of the goodwill that the Guard has built up with local Washingtonians because of their coronavirus response and annual Fourth of July celebrations was in jeopardy. Within the span of 30 to 40 minutes, all of that washed away because of political stuff, he said. Osterholm said the Guardsmen were ill-prepared for the hate directed at them by the protesters, which was reminiscent of the anti-military sentiment during the Vietnam War. The shift from being viewed as heroes during the coronavirus pandemic to villains suppressing citizens right to protest happened overnight, she said. This generation doesnt know what that feels like. This generation knows thank you for your service, this generation knows that they can go to Lowes and Home Depot and they can get 10 percent off, Osterholm said. A lot of us are still in denial of the intensity and the traumatic impact this has had for everyone. Isaiah Lynch said that as an African American, he was called a traitor by some protesters who cursed at him, and also seen as an oppressor protecting the cops. But he said a moment he would remember was when a man who had hit him with a brick the first day approached him a few days later to apologize. He shook my hand and told me, Hey Im sorry. Do you guys need any water or anything? Stopping the bleeding As of Monday, 42,700 National Guardsmen were deployed across 34 states and D.C. to deal with protests. At the height of the response last week, 1,200 D.C. National Guardsmen and another 3,900 from 11 states were patrolling the nations capital. Defense Secretary Mark Esper gave the order for the out-of-state Guardsmen to begin leaving on Friday; all are expected to return home by Wednesday. Guardsmen across the country have tried to signal to Americans in the streets that theyre on their side in several ways, including some taking a knee, giving water to protesters, giving fist or elbow bumps, and even dancing the Macarena in Georgia in a video that went viral. But while theyve worked with local police, a number of them expressed concern about how some police officers have conducted themselves. The police had lost credibility and a considerable amount of ground within their city so we were a last ditch attempt to try to stop the bleeding, said Capt. Maggie Gregg of the Minnesota National Guard. She commanded a group of about 75 cooks, mechanics, medics and even some HR professionals to provide security in south Minneapolis after riots had broken out a few days after Floyds death. Capt. Richard Gilberti, a Nevada Guardsman, said at first he was nervous and unsure about how Reno residents would react to armed soldiers in uniforms on American streets. He worried about whether some people were going to be hostile to him and his fellow soldiers. But pretty quickly, he could tell that most people were happy they were there after the city had been hit with looting and vandalism. Were here to make sure everybody can exercise their constitutional rights safely, he said, adding that soldiers were reminded that these are all U.S. citizens, all Nevadans, just like us, so treat them accordingly. Other Guardsmen who were activated during the protests and unrest said they felt they were being weaponized against fellow Americans. The message that was being conveyed to the public was that we were placed to be another weapon. We were placed there for scare. We were the scarecrow, said Gregg, who noted that some soldiers responding to the Minneapolis protests were assigned to ride along in ambulances largely for shock value, which evoked mixed feelings. Because many Guardsmen are young, their friends were out there protesting but they were here and they were being made to feel like they were part of the problem instead of being part of the solution, Gregg said. She said that the National Guards presence in the community may have even caused more unrest the first night they were deployed. Some local Minneapolis residents, she said, were more upset before they realized that the Guard had been called up to help protect the community, instead of crack down on the protesters. It was hard for people to wrap their heads around the idea: how are you helping us if you have weapons and ammunition? Gregg said. Lara Seligman contributed to this report. Pennsylvanias 14 state universities are planning to bring students back to campus this fall but what that looks is expected to differ from campus to campus. The State System of Higher Educations governing board will meet Wednesday to discuss plans for re-opening the state universities. The board will consider a recommendation from system Chancellor Dan Greenstein and board Chairwoman Cynthia Shapira establishing a general framework that allows each university to develop, publicize via their websites, and implement their plan for supporting student learning while mitigating health and safety risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. In a blog post, Greenstein and Shapira described the reason behind going this route rather than issuing a more definitive directive that all 14 universities must follow. Universities in this system, like communities in this commonwealth, are very different," they wrote. They serve students from different parts of the state and world; are located in areas experiencing the pandemics impacts in different ways; have facilities of different design, size, and capacity; and have access to health care services with different capabilities. These differences reveal themselves in how our universities are choosing to implement guidelines as they re-engage in face-to-face instruction this fall. They point out strategies that universities are considering that comply with the CDC and state Department of Healths social distancing recommendation include integrating in-person and online instruction, inviting only selected groups back to campus, and adjusting course and term schedules to spread out students. Some universities are equipping large, in-person lecture classrooms to allow for social distancing; others plan to move those courses entirely online. Mitigation strategies on a college campus also must include residential halls and dining facilities and other aspects that include interactions that occur with the registrars office, career services, and bookstore. About that, Greenstein and Shapira said universities will use personal protective equipment, remote working, altered work schedules and other tools to try to keep students and employees safe. Jamie Martin, the recently installed president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, said the faculty recognize the best situation is to have students in classrooms with them and they know students want to return to residential life on campus. However, this raises a concern for certain faculty members and students with compromised immune systems or who live with individuals with medical conditions that make them more susceptible to becoming seriously ill if they are exposed to the virus. I know there is planning going on at the 14 [universities] and faculty are involved in that planning but certainly were hopeful and I have an expectation that there will be appropriate accommodations made for individuals who have certain medical conditions that will make it dangerous or potentially dangerous for them to be back in a classroom, she said. Faculty on all campuses are talking about the need for personal protective equipment for students and faculty including masks and plexiglass barriers where students and faculty, students and staff and students and student workers interact, Martin said. I just have concerns for everybody on campus and I know students want to be back but the campuses in August are not going to look like they did in March, she said. Greenstein and Shapiras blog post states a common expectation that will exist on all campuses is that everyone - including visitors behave in ways that protect each other, such as maintaining social distancing wherever possible, wearing masks, washing hands and/or use hand sanitizer frequently, abiding by regulated traffic flow patterns, staying at home or in residences when sick, and isolating if tested positive for COVID-19. They conclude: We believe that this is the right approach for our State System the best, most workable approach, to ensuring that the systems universities continue to pursue their historic role as an engine of economic development and social mobility at a time when that role is arguably more important than ever before. The State System universities include Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities. 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. A total of 197 health workers at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo have been placed in self-quarantine after three patients and a nurse tested positive recently for Covid-19 at the hospital. Two of the patients were positive after they had been admitted at the hospital, while the third person was an outpatient. It is suspected that the nurse contracted Coronavirus due to interactions with one of the patients who had come to the referral hospital. After the confirmed cases at Mpilo Central Hospital, Bulawayo's rapid response team was contacted to contain the potential spread of the virus. Through contact tracing, the team identified 197 health workers who were at high risk of contracting the disease, placing them on 14-day mandatory self-quarantine, while under surveillance. The self-quarantine process started on June 28. The Mpilo Central Hospital staffers have undergone initial tests for Covid-19 and would be retested before being given the green light to resume normal duties. The hospital was also fumigated and disinfected. Mpilo Central Hospital acting chief executive Dr Solwayo Ngwenya said out of more than 2,000 health workers at the facility, 197 were placed on self-quarantine. He commended the health workers for their commitment. "This resulted in 197 health workers going in self-isolation at their homes including the nurse who was asymptomatic. So far all of them have tested negative for the virus. They are in self-isolation for 14 days and are supposed to complete the process on Thursday. I guess we can say we were very lucky to have escaped this one," said Dr Ngwenya. He said the hospital had to improvise to cover for the health workers placed on self-quarantine. Dr Ngwenya said it was critical for communities to adhere to lockdown and Covid-19 preventive measures as the hospital scare gives an impression of how the pandemic could impact on the health sector. "If hospital staff get degraded and are unable to cope with the rising numbers, at the end of the day people will not have anyone to look after them. So, it's extremely important that people follow lockdown regulations, wear masks properly otherwise failure to do so could cripple the health sector," said Dr Ngwenya. Acting Bulawayo provincial medical director Dr Welcome Mlilo, said Government would continue working to improve the safety of health care workers. "It is back to the issue of personal protective equipment. Government is procuring the protective clothing, which is being availed to health workers including those as Mpilo. We also fumigated the hospital, while taking all precautionary measures to ensure that staff does not contract the virus. The rapid response team is following on those who need to be followed for contact tracing and they are put in isolation until they are cleared to come back," said Dr Mlilo. 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 Flan Park, after school leader at the South Philadelphia Library, makes a prepared statement during the rally held by city workers at Dilworth Plaza. Philadelphia city workers gather at Dilworth Plaza, 15th and Market Streets, in Center City Philadelphia on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. They are asking Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney to not cut funding to city services, "Day of Action for a Just Philly Budget." Read more We are two wealthy, white Philadelphians who, from inheritance and salaries, have financial security during this precarious time. Looking at Mayor Jim Kenneys gutted city budget proposal, we say to the mayor: tax us more. Weve often heard politicians say that while they support social services, their hands are tied because money is scarce. But when wealth inequality in our country continues to widen, can we really claim scarcity as the problem? Budgets are moral documents that reflect our values. As wealthy Philadelphians who benefit from an unjust economic system, the moral logic couldnt be more obvious: those who have more should pay more to meet the needs of all. We reject the current budget proposal, which increases spending for the police while severely cutting other services. Our city has continuously disinvested in poor communities, which are, based on racist policies from our past and present, primarily black. This has helped maintain a plurality black city that is still the poorest large city in the nation. And yet wealthy, mostly white people like us are offered tax breaks like the 10-year tax abatement. The word taxes is often thrown around as a dirty word. But we dont see it that way. We want to live in a vibrant city that meets the needs and celebrates the talents of all its residents: strong public schools, accessible and responsive health services, active public spaces like libraries, rec centers, pools, and parks. We want the city to provide these services. If paying more taxes helps provide them, why wouldnt we want to contribute? We know many wealthy people, including ourselves, who give personally or through foundations as a way to distribute money. But this approach is piecemeal and anti-democratic. In contrast, paying taxes shifts power to all city residents to democratically elect officials who will make equitable decisions responsive to residents needs, and who can be held accountable if they dont keep their promises. There are a number of options for raising revenue progressively at the local, state, and federal level (including from local corporations and mega nonprofits, the subject for another op-ed). For example, as wealthy people, we can afford for the city to reimpose the Personal Property Tax at its last stated rate of 0.004. This tax applied to both individuals and corporations and was levied on stocks, bonds, and other financial assets. Litigation determined this tax to be unconstitutional because there was an exemption for the value of stock in Pennsylvania companies, leading to its repeal in 1997. We believe that motivated lawmakers could find a way to leave out this exemption, making the tax constitutional. We are inspired by the acts of change officials are taking in other cities. Look at Los Angeles, where the mayor just announced a cut to the police budget and a reinvestment of that money into poor communities and communities of color. We challenge our city leaders to take similarly bold steps in designing a budget that demonstrates a commitment to justice. Fellow wealthy Philadelphians, we call you to stand in solidarity with municipal workers, black and brown leaders, teachers, librarians, renters, and health-care workers, and take action. One concrete step is to join a collective effort to flood the inboxes of city councilmembers, to hold them accountable for making Philadelphia a liveable city for all. Join us in demanding a budget that ensures the city works for everyone, saying no to a city where the wealthy can buy safety, education, and wellness, while everyone else has to do without. In a time of rampant, structural, and racialized wealth inequality, during a global pandemic, in response to legitimate and deeply felt protests about police brutality, rich people like us must pay our fair share. Hillary Blecker is a consultant, facilitator, leadership coach, and parent who lives in West Philadelphia. Sarah Burgess is a school administrator who lives in West Philadelphia. Both are alumni of Resource Generation, which is committed to the equitable distribution of land, wealth, and power. A natural gas well owned by Oil India Limited (OIL) turned into an inferno in Baghjan, Assam next to Dibru-Saikhowa National Park on Tuesday. The well had been continuously spewing out gas or undergoing a blowout since May 27 in Tinsukia district. It's almost a fortnight the Baghjan oil well in the vicinity of Dibru Saikhowa National Park in upper Assam has been blowing out with fury at a huge cost to flora and fauna, homesteads, agriculture and environment#SaveDibruSaikhowa#savedehingpatkaipic.twitter.com/Pl357vbOma - Pradyut Bordoloi (@pradyutbordoloi) June 9, 2020 Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal called up Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan to get foreign experts to repair the damage. OIL Chairman and Managing Director Sushil Chandra Mishra, on June 8 said three experts from Singapore-based Alert Disaster Control reached Tinsukia district to plug the blowout in the gas well. On the status of repair work, the PSU major had said arrangements were made to create water umbrella to control operation. Besides, the preparation of placement of high capacity water pumps was also under progress. OIL Gas Well Baghjan Blowout Considerable progress made today in testing of Hydraulic BOP (Blowout Preventer) lander to place the BOP over the well head. Built in-house by OIL Team at Central Workshop , Duliajan with inputs from ONGCL CMT team. pic.twitter.com/6yvX3P7xen - Oil India Limited (@OilIndiaLimited) June 8, 2020 However, poor weather condition was hampering the work progress, according to a statement issued by the company. Five people have reportedly died due to the gas leak in the area. However, the district administration, where the gas field is present, has ordered a magisterial inquiry on the matter. According to OIL, it had appointed an environmental consultant to assess the impact of the blowout in nearby areas of the district. Earlier, pictures of carcasses of a river dolphin and fish in Maguri Motapung Beel, adjacent to Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and about 1.5 km from the site, went viral on social media. Following this, the Assam Forest department had issued a notice to OIL on May 29 seeking details of the incident. Since May 27, around 1,610 families were evacuated from the nearby affected areas and were camped in four relief camps set up at Baghjan Dighulturrang LP School, St Joseph School- Baghjan Tea Estate, Gateline LP School-Dighultarrang and No. 1 Baghjan Gaon LP School. OIL had also assured that it would provide immediate financial relief of Rs 30,000 each to over 1,600 families affected by a major blowout from a gas well in Assam. Ambulances with para-medical staff are on stand by and a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been mobilised to look after the relief operation. Also read: Send migrant labourers to their hometowns within 15 days: SC tells Centre, state govts Also read: '5.5 lakh coronavirus cases by July 31': Delhi Deputy CM fears worse case scenario A peaceful march was held in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, on June 8 in support of protests against racial injustice in the United States and around the world. The protesters called it an "I Can't Breathe" protest, drawing attention to the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. The gathering of about 100 people was organized by an informal group of women activists who advocate for global social justice, equality, and respect for human rights. (Natural News) Three individuals in Gwinnett County, Georgia, have been arrested for tailing police officers to their homes and firebombing their patrol cars with Molotov cocktails. Ebuka Chike-Morah, 21; Alvin Joseph, 21; and Lakaila Mack, 20 all face multiple charges, including two counts of first-degree arson, two counts of possession and manufacturing of a destructive device and two felony counts of interference with government property. Chike-Morah is from Duluth, Joseph is from Lawrenceville and Mack is from Dacula. Gwinnett County Police Department (GCPD) reported receiving a 911 call about one of their patrol cars being on fire in Duluth some time between 10 p.m. and midnight. Later on in the same night, GCPD received another 911 call about a police car on fire in neighboring Lawrenceville. This time, however, the caller reported that a dark-colored car had fled the scene. The car was dented, and a fire started on the ground behind it was easily put out with a fire extinguisher. GCPD first tracked down Joseph and Mack; Chike-Morah was arrested shortly after. Officers reported that the three criminals used Molotov cocktail-style incendiary devices to set the fires, and witnesses have confirmed seeing three African American individuals running from one of the fires. The police officers also found accelerant in a vehicle belonging to one of the suspects. Three suspects have been arrested in relation to arson of two GCPD patrol cars at officers' homes. Unrelated case: another officer found a smashed windshield & side window at a his home in Lawrenceville. Seeking tips @StopCrimeATL 404-577-8477 Info: https://t.co/GlVKV3ISLB pic.twitter.com/xjo7SbwhVd Gwinnett County Police (@GwinnettPd) June 4, 2020 Footage from news broadcasts by WSB-TV in Atlanta, Georgia, helped the authorities identify all three suspects as participants in the demonstrations in the state. Chike-Morah had been interviewed by WSB-TV during a demonstration outside Sugarloaf Mills Mall, a shopping mall located between Duluth and Lawrenceville. Im just trying to get the message across, said Chike-Morah while he was at the demonstration. Were going to continue walking until we dont feel like walking no more. Chike-Morah further told the news channel that he wanted to protest peacefully, but then changed his mind a few days later. They unloaded the bus trying to catch us but Im not getting got, he said. I can speak for myself. I dont know what they got going on. Im just trying to go home and go to work. Joseph, on the other hand, was identified in a May 30 video published by the Gwinnett Daily Post. The video showed him and several dozen other rioters facing off with police officers who tried to stop them from blocking roadways. The three suspects are currently being held without bond at the Gwinnett County Jail. Listen to this episode of the Health Ranger Report, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he discusses how rioters and looters are turning into a new class of untouchables who are never required to follow the law, even as they continue calling for violence and property destruction. Police officers struggle to hold the line against rioters and criminals The engineered riots that occurred after the death of George Floyd have made it difficult and dangerous for police officers to continue maintaining law and order around the country. (Related: Democratic mayors are seriously considering DEFUNDING police departments amid persisting riots.) In Georgia, several other police vehicles have been targeted by rioters. In Gainesville, Hall County, six patrol cars were damaged during a riot, and one patrol car was burned outside of a police officers home. In Lawrenceville, one unidentified rioter threw a brick through an officers patrol car. While police officers in Georgia are lucky that they only have to deal with vehicular damage for the time being, rioters in other parts of the country have escalated their attacks. In Las Vegas, Nevada, one police officer was shot in the head by rioters while they were attempting to disperse a large crowd. The officer remains on life support. In Buffalo, New York, an SUV ran over cops, seriously injuring two officers. In St. Louis, Missouri, four police officers were shot while at a police line, and one former police captain was killed by looters while he tried to protect a local pawn shop. The events of the past few weeks may be difficult to keep up with. To read unbiased and up-to-date articles about the escalating civil unrest in the United States, check out the articles at Rioting.news. Sources include: InformationLiberation.com 1 WSBTV.com TheEpochTimes.com AJC.com CBSNews.com InformationLiberation.com 2 StLToday.com 1 StLToday.com 2 Scientists from ITMO in collaboration with their colleagues from Tomsk Polytechnic University came up with an idea to create light sources from ceramics with the addition of chrome: the light from such lamps offers not just red but also infrared (IR) light, which is expected to have a positive effect on plants' growth. The research was completed as part of a Russian Science Foundation grant, and the results were published in Optical Materials. Credit: Anastasiia Babkina Bright pink lights are used for providing sufficient lighting to house plants. Similar lamps are also used by farmers in greenhouses. Still, specialists in photophysiology argue that such lamps do not provide all the light that plants need. Scientists from ITMO in collaboration with their colleagues from Tomsk Polytechnic University have developed light sources from ceramics with the addition of chromethe light from such lamps offers not just red but also infrared (IR) light, which is expected to have a positive effect on plants' growth. The research results are now published in Optical Materials. Growing vegetables, fruit and berries in huge greenhouses rather than in open fields is becoming more common. In such facilities, plants are protected from hail, droughts and chill. However, farmers have to compensate for the lack of natural sunlight in such greenhouses. Advanced agricultural facilities use light diodes for this purpose: They consume little energy, emit bright light and can be easily set up in a greenhouse. The light they emit is pink, which is produced by simultaneous use of blue and red diodes. "Scientists have determined that such lighting isn't optimal," says Anastasia Babkina, a lab assistant at the Faculty of Photonics and Optical Information. "Thing is, a red diode lights in the range of about 650 nanometers, and its spectrum is very narrow, similar to that of a laser. Plants, however, absorb red and IR light better in the range that's a bit more than 650 nanometers, which people can barely see. So you see, this means that we use the light that's more comfortable for humans and not optimal for plants." So scientists have sought a material for light diode lamps that produce light in a wider spectrum, including the IR range. A group of researchers from ITMO and Tomsk Polytechnic University took up this task. Classical red light diodes use materials based on manganese and europium compounds. The crystals of this chemical element make the diode emit at the wavelength of about 650 nanometers, making the light red, and jointly with the emission of the blue diodepink. "We decided not to use a different crystal, but glass-ceramics," says Anastasia Babkina. "This is a transitive material between glass and crystal. What's the difference? We have to specifically grow crystals, whereas glass is synthesized by molding, and it can be produced quickly and in large amounts in any shape you need. The drawback is that glass is fragile. For this reason, we take glass and begin to slowly crystallize it so that it doesn't lose transparency. As a result, we get glass with microscopic crystals inside that are invisible to the eye. Such a material is more sturdy, has better luminescent properties, and is called glass ceramics." Chrome is added to glass ceramics at the production stage: This gives the material a pink tone that allows it to produce red and IR light at the same time. There are two potential applications for the new material.The first is to mill it to obtain microparticles that can be used to produce a new type of light diode. This offers great prospects, but the introduction of such a technology calls for a lot of time and money. Another option is to use it to create lampshades. "We can take blue and green light diodes and use our glass ceramics as a filter to obtain a wide-spectrum emission that will include the IR range," explains Anastasia Babkina. More information: Anastasiia Babkina et al, Spectroscopic properties of chromium/antimony co-doped alkali-alumina-borate glass-ceramics, Optical Materials (2020). Anastasiia Babkina et al, Spectroscopic properties of chromium/antimony co-doped alkali-alumina-borate glass-ceramics,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.optmat.2020.109983 New Delhi, June 9 : As a massive fire broke out in a leaking gas well in Assam on Tuesday, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said that the Centre and Oil India Ltd (OIL) are committed to the safety and well-being of people of the state. Taking to Twitter, the minister said that he spoke to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and has assured him of the centre's commitment. "@dpradhanbjp assured CM Assam @sarbanandsonwal that MoPNG and @OilIndiaLimited are committed for the safety and well-being of people of Assam," he said in a tweet. The gas leak in Assam's Tinsukia district started on May 27 at a well site of Oil India Ltd, post which efforts have been made to plug the leakage which did not result in much success. In another tweet, Pradhan also said that a team of Oil India Ltd led by its CMD have been at the site from day one of the leakage to control the situation. Further, crisis management team of ONGC is also on the ground to further emergency response, he said. Experts from a Singapore-based firm ALERT also arrived on the spot and are trying to plug the leakage. The state government, on the other hand, has sought the Indian Air Force's help to douse the blaze. Chief Minister Sonowal talked to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh seeking help from the IAF, officials said. An Oil India statement said that the well caught fire even while the clearing operations were on at the site. The oil well at Baghjan in Tinsukia, around 550 km east of Guwahati, has been leaking gas for the past 14 days, causing enormous damage to the region's wildlife, wetlands and biodiversity. This Monday marked the 100th day since the first coronavirus death was reported in the United States. I'm going to use that statistic to make what will seem at first glance a rather unfair comparison: I'm comparing these 100 days with the same length of time in the spring of 1933, at the height of the most acute national crisis of the 20th century, the Great Depression.Franklin Roosevelt's 100 days didn't have anything to do with a natural or public-health disaster like the current one; they also came roughly in the middle of the crisis, not at the beginning. Still, a few points are worth making.In the first 100 days of his administration, Roosevelt signed 76 bills into law, including 13 major ones. He stabilized the banking system, presided over the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the National Industrial Recovery Act, and saw to the spending of then-massive sums on blankets and soup kitchens.None of those achievements relate to the present pandemic, but they are relevant in one important way: They created the public perception of a big and powerful federal government willing to try almost anything to lift the country out of the abyss into which it had fallen. By the end of the 100 days, that government had grown stronger and more prestigious, and everyone in the country knew it, whether they were happy about it or not.Whatever else you might want to say about the coronavirus, it hasn't made the federal government look stronger. It has made it look weaker. As my longtimecolleague Don Kettl puts it, "Although COVID-19 became a clearly national problem, the country did not meet it with a national response." There was no federal crash program of testing, no effective distribution of supplies, no clear or consistent message from the president or his administration on what ordinary citizens and their elected leaders should do.But I won't dwell on that. Donald Trump is no FDR. That will come as a surprise to no one. What I want to do is take a look at one kind of strength the Roosevelt administration had in 1933 that the feds do not possess now. That was numerical strength.In just about any political situation you can name, we tend to overvalue personalities and undervalue simple political numbers. Here are the numbers FDR was working with in 1933: The U.S. Senate was Democratic by a margin of 60 to 36. The House had 313 Democrats and 117 Republicans almost a 3-to-1 majority. And there were 38 Democratic governors out of 48 states. FDR could essentially do anything he wanted. Donald Trump most likely wouldn't have had a plan for what to do with those numbers even if he had them. But when they don't exist, it's probably unrealistic to expect that the national government is going to come out of a crisis with enhanced power in the federal system.And it's hard to see this changing any time soon. In large part, that's because of the filibuster. Even if one party has clear majorities in Congress, it won't have 60 votes in the Senate. So decisive action will require a significant amount of bipartisanship. One can always hope, but that does not appear to be anywhere on the horizon.that, in general, political power doesn't evaporate; it transfers. So it's reasonable to ask which level of government is likely to be the beneficiary of this kind of transfer. One reasonable conjecture is that power in the system might be flowing to the states. Let's take a look at that.It's tempting to recall the old Louis Brandeis adage from the Depression about states being the "laboratories of democracy." Suppose we ask which states and which governors have emerged from the last couple of months looking pretty good.Andrew Cuomo attracted something of a national following from New York with his folksy but realistic press conferences addressing the spread of the virus and what could be done about it. Jay Inslee in Washington state led a pioneering effort in the development of contact tracing. Gavin Newsom in California took the early lead on stay-at-home orders, with good results, at least so far.What do those governors have in common? The most important thing is a function of numbers. They have solid legislative majorities willing to cooperate with them. It's also true that they are Democrats, but this isn't strictly a partisan matter. GOP Gov. Mike DeWine in Ohio was able to take early decisive action with a Republican legislature behind him, although there has been some friction lately.If those examples were typical, it might be possible to speculate that the Brandeis doctrine still applies in the 21st century. But they are the exceptions. They are outnumbered (and generally outshouted) by more than a dozen states in which the governorship and the legislature are held by different parties. Those states have generally embarrassed themselves.In most of them, legislatures have sought to obstruct governors rather than providing assistance. Republican lawmakers in Kansas went to the state Supreme Court to prevent Gov. Laura Kelly from carrying out a declaration of emergency. GOP legislators in Michigan did essentially the same thing. Pennsylvania legislators sought to force reopening of businesses in defiance of Gov. Tom Wolf's executive order. More than 40 Wisconsin Republicans said they would turn down federal aid to help with the state's fiscal problems, mostly because some of the federal assistance would go to neighboring Illinois, a state whose misfortunes they consider it a duty to promote. GOP legislators in Kentucky appeared in public with disgruntled militants who hung Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in effigy.Granted, it's a mixed response. There are a handful of Republican governors and Democratic legislatures Maryland and Massachusetts are the best examples who have managed to cooperate. But the sheer volume of disagreement and partisan bickering has worked against any notion of the states as a cohesive or effective alternative to the gridlocked government in Washington.On top of that, legislatures in many of the bickering states have sought to pick quarrels with their localities as well as with their governors. They have proposed (and occasionally enacted) laws pre-empting the locals from taking decisive steps of their own to deal with the pandemic. This has found favor with some zealous constituents at the grassroots level, but it only adds to the perception that the states, as a whole, are too confused right now to be appropriate heirs to the power that the feds are giving up.The feds and the states are, to an alarming extent, behaving badly. Are the locals the cities and counties and their leaders doing any better?It seems to me the answer is yes, especially when it comes to mayors. Eric Garcetti in Los Angeles instituted a massive testing effort that cities around the country quickly copied. Jenny Durkan in Seattle proved to be a West Coast version of Cuomo, delivering effective talks about the need to follow the findings of responsible science and pushing through emergency assistance to vulnerable households. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell came up with an $18 million emergency feeding program aimed at helping both residents and restaurants. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, derided as bland and unimaginative by critics during her five years in office, found an eloquent voice in her challenge to the feds over their response to the George Floyd protests.It isn't just a few big-city mayors. Within hours after the Wisconsin Supreme Court threw out Gov. Tony Evers' statewide stay-at-home order, most of the large cities and counties around the state responded by enacting similar orders of their own. Some localities were uncertain about what to do, and some of the orders have since been relaxed, but the whole episode made a statement about latent power that the localities can exercise when they want to.Here again, numbers matter. Most of the big cities in America are governed by cohesive one-party majorities. The bulk of them are Democratic: 64 Democratic mayors in the 100 largest cities, and Democratic control of city councils (according to the last available figures) by a ratio of 52 percent to 19 percent. But I don't think it's partisanship that matters most here. It's the existence of a majority big enough to govern.In the last few years we've seen a couple of significant books predicting the rise of local power. The late Benjamin Barber wrote one in 2013 called. Barber's call for a global parliament of mayors seemed rather fanciful to me then, and it still does. But lots of mayors know about it, and that may be what matters. Just recently, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel published, which insists that even before the coronavirus struck cities had become the primary locus of entrepreneurial leadership in the United States. Emanuel overstates the case a bit, as he does his own accomplishments. But the overall argument is looking better than it did just a few months ago.I don't want to minimize the enormous financial pressure that cities are under right now. Some things mayors would like to do may not be affordable for a long time. But not all good ideas cost a fortune. And when the ideas are compelling enough, well run governments often manage to find a way.We have had laboratories of democracy do good things in this country, and we have also seen them close down, even for long periods of time. But that doesn't mean we can't look for new ones. June 09 : The Telugu film industry is truly delighted as they spilled the beans on their next big film release NBK 106. Today on June 9, 2020, the much-awaited first roar release (an exciting teaser release) of BB3 will take place at 7: 09 pm and this news is the most trending news on Twitter at the moment. The film will own one of the craziest and energy-packed combinations of talents which include the famous Nandamuri Balakrishna and Boyapati Srinu in one plan. Since it is the third time, this duo will be collaborating with each other, it reasons why they have called this special release moment as #BB3. This time, this release of the first roar is extra special as it will take place just a day ahead of the veteran actor Nandamuri Balakrishnas birthday. He will turn 60 years tomorrow. The name of the film is NBK 106 is tentative and may be changed later. The movie is a Miryala Ravinder production and they had announced that most of the shooting scenes have been completed in Hyderabad itself. The rest will have to be fit into the right slot very soon in the coming days. The film will be released under the banner of Dwarka Creations. This Twitter release has mustered in a lot of unanticipated expectations from fans, as they have loved the duos combination in their previous works too. BB3 will be the third time they get together, as previously people loved their roles in Legend and also Simha. The music will be composed by Thaman and the cinematographer will be none other than Ramprasad. The producers have revealed that they included a lot of elements into the plot and also Balakrishna had gone through an extensive makeover for his role. The federal government is proposing a $4.6 billion plan to protect the low-lying Miami area from the effects of climate change, including the construction of miles of sea walls. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a draft plan last Friday calling for walls to protect the area from sea level rise that could reach about 13 feet (4 meters) in height. The Miami Herald reported Saturday that the plan is designed to protect tens of thousands of homes and businesses from flooding. The plan also calls for movable barriers at the mouths of three waterways, elevating and flood-proofing thousands of buildings throughout the county and restoring mangroves in vulnerable areas. The plan does not contain previous proposals to buy out hundreds of homes and convert them into parks or open spaces. The Corps of Engineers plans to hold online public meetings on the proposal on Tuesday and Thursday of this week. Photo: A Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin aircrew from Air Station Miami assesses the damage of Mexico Beach, Florida, from Hurricane Michael, Oct. 11, 2018. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Colin Hunt) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. M ore than two months have passed since the Government ordered pubs to close as part of the Covid-19 lockdown, in a move that has been devastating for the industry. James Athertons Beerblefish Brewing Company is one of many London breweries which took a huge hit to their incomes when the hospitality industry closed overnight. Mr Atherton, who founded Edmonton-based Beerblefish with his wife Bethany in 2015, said: We are only a young start-up, but our brand had been gaining popularity, with our beers and gins being stocked in a number of north London pubs and some local delis. To suddenly have nobody to supply to was extremely worrying. He said the virus crisis forced the business to accelerate expansion plans it had been mooting for later down the line. The firm opened a takeaway shop, started selling five-litre kegs for the first time to give customers the draft beer experience from home, and embarked on a big social media push. While the company waited for a licence to sell directly from its north London base, it contacted pubs selling bottled beer via takeaways to encourage them to take Beerblefish products. To keep the brand on the radar of customers, Beerblefish started posting regular tweets about its beers and sharing recipes featuring its products, such as a gin and tonic drizzle cake. For the first time it also paid to promote posts on Instagram and Facebook to get the word out that it would soon open for collections. The brewerys collection service began on May 7 and has so far sold the equivalent of about 300 pints, as well as gin. The range includes kegs, bottled beers and cask ale, which is available for takeaway if customers bring their own sealable container. Mr Atherton, 39, said one superfan walked for two hours from East Finchley to pick up beers. In the longer term the firm may introduce a home delivery service. Mr Atherton said: Some of our new plans may not sound radical, but its a big change for us. We were a business that had 95 per cent of our trade with pubs. To suddenly start selling direct to consumers is significant. I am optimistic that this new revenue stream will benefit us greatly, and Im excited about when pubs can reopen from the lockdown. BEIJING - Authorities say at least seven people have died in flooding in central China, with more heavy rain forecast for the region in coming days. The strong rain began falling in Hunan province over the weekend, washing away roads and forcing residents to seek refuge in upper stories of houses. Chinas national observatory on Tuesday said more rain is expected across a wide swath of central and southern China. In Guangdong province along the southeast coast, more than 20,000 people were forced to seek shelter, with local government offices providing hundreds of tents along with bottled water and clothes in the worst-hit areas of Zhaoqing and Qingyuan. Paramilitary police helped with evacuations and the reinforcement of dams. Dozens of rivers have already reached warning levels or risen above them in recent days. There's little question that Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A)(NYSE:BRK.B) CEO Warren Buffett is one of the greatest investors of our generation. For the past 55 years, he's led Berkshire Hathaway's stock to an average annual return of 20.3%. That may not sound like much considering that we just exited a phenomenal 11-year bull market, but in aggregate, this gain works out to 2,744,062% since 1965. Buffett has proven time and again that he's a master at finding value hidden in plain sight. The thing is, investors can find deeply discounted value within Buffett's own portfolio. Among the 46 securities currently held by Berkshire Hathaway, the following three are still historically cheap, even after the S&P 500 bounced 40% off of its recent lows. U.S. Bancorp With the exception of oil and gas drillers, few industries have been hit as hard by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as bank stocks. The Federal Reserve lowering its federal funds rate back to an all-time low of 0% to 0.25% is expected to weigh on the interest income potential of banks. At the same time, high levels of unemployment and economic restart uncertainties could cause loan delinquencies to rise. Yet, despite all of these concerns, U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) looks cheaper than it has in quite some time. The Minnesota-based bank closed this past Wednesday, June 3, at 28% above its book value. That's its cheapest valuation, relative to book value, in at least a decade. For much of the past decade, U.S. Bancorp was valued anywhere between 70% and 110% above its book value. The reason it commands such a premium is because U.S. Bancorp consistently produces the highest return on assets of all the big banks. And too boot, all of its bread-and-butter metrics, such as loans and deposits, are headed in the right direction. At the same time, U.S. Bancorp should be commended for controlling its costs and avoiding risky derivative investments. Avoiding risk allowed it to rebound much quicker than its peers following the Great Recession, while closing some of its physical branches and coercing its customers to lean on digital and mobile banking solutions has helped to lower costs. There's simply not a more efficient big bank out there, and yet it's still arguably cheap. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries In terms of fundamentally inexpensive stocks, they simply don't get any cheaper in Buffett's portfolio than brand-name and generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE:TEVA). Based on its June 3 closing price, Teva is valued at less than 5 times next year's per-share profit estimate. Why so cheap for a profitable drugmaker? The answer to that question lies with Teva's numerous shortcomings in recent years. It's settled bribery charges, had its top-selling brand-name drug (Copaxone) lose exclusivity, been buried under debt following the Actavis acquisition, and has more recently caught flak for its role in the opioid crisis. But Teva has a secret weapon, and his name is Kare Schultz. Schultz was hired in September 2017 as CEO, and his contract was recently extended through November 2023. He's a turnaround specialist, and he's worked wonders for Teva in less than three years. By the end of this year, Teva will have reduced its annual operating expenses by $3 billion, and as of its most recent quarter, it had lowered its net debt to $24.3 billion. Schultz has helped reduce the company's net debt by almost $10 billion since taking over. There's clearly still work to be done with regard to strengthening the company's balance sheet, but with $2 billion or more in annual operating cash flow, Teva is in much stronger shape than its share price appears to reflect. Furthermore, buying Teva is simply a bet on an aging global population gaining increased access to pharmaceutical products. As a premier producer of generics, Teva is well-positioned to benefit, and it should see improved pricing power on its generics over the long run. Amazon Lastly, and to really throw a curveball at you, e-commerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) looks to be historically cheap, even though it's nipping at a new all-time high. How in my right mind can I justify Amazon as a "historically cheap" stock when it's valued at 66 times next year's consensus per-share profit forecast? Simple: I'm not focused on the company's profit potential. There are a lot of ways to measure value, and the price-to-earnings ratio has never been a particularly good indicator of value for Amazon. Rather, I prefer price-to-cash-flow, because Amazon is constantly reinvesting its operating cash flow back into its various business segments. Over the past five years, Amazon has averaged a multiple of 30 times its operating cash flow. However, based on Wall Street's cash flow per share estimates, Amazon is currently trading at about 23 times next year's cash flow and just 12 times its cash flow in 2023. If Amazon were to dip below about 23 times cash flow, we'd be talking about a decade low. Though Amazon's e-commerce operations are great, and they're what drive consumers to purchase Prime and stay within the Amazon seller ecosystem, it's really cloud services that'll drive Amazon's operating cash-flow growth in the years to come. Amazon Web Services generates considerably juicier margins than retail and ad-based revenue, which is what could triple Amazon's cash flow between 2019 and 2023. Despite sporting a nearly $2,500 price tag per share, Amazon stock is still historically cheap. A group of experts at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have found that Covid-19 virus found its way to India via frequently visited countries in Europe, South Asia, Middle East and Oceania. There is a close connection between the source of the virus and the countries that are most travelled by Indians, the study stated. The study, with lead authors Mainak Mondal, Ankita Lawarde and Kumaravel Somasundaram from the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, was published in the scientific journal Current Science. Also read: Delhi expected to have 5.5 lakh Covid-19 cases by July 31 - Manish Sisodia The research noted the potential origin of Covid-19 virus in Indians to be in countries mainly from Europe, Middle East Oceania and South Asia regions, which strongly imply the spread of the virus through most travelled countries. The analysis revealed that most Indian SARS-CoV-2 viruses (129 out of 137) show more similarity to that of specific countries. In cluster A, Indian samples show more similarity to the viruses found in Oceania, Kuwait and South Asian samples, while in the cluster B, Indian samples show more similarity to mainly European and few numbers of Middle East/South Asian samples, the study read. Also read: No community transmission of Covid-19, say Centres officials - Delhi govt The findings indicated that majority of Indian SARS-CoV-2 viruses have originated from Europe, Middle East, South Asia and Oceania regions. A large majority of Indian viral isolates (n = 129), which were collected during March/April 2020, show more similarity with samples from Europe, Middle East, South Asia and Oceania regions, the experts noted. The remaining Indian isolates (n = 8) have grouped with other clusters which contained most samples from China and East Asia. Thus, the study concluded the probable source of origin of Indian SARS-CoV-2 viruses to be in countries from Europe and Oceania regions besides the Middle East and South Asian regions. In another study, experts at the Harvard Medical School believe that coronavirus might have been spreading in China as early as August 2019, news agency Reuters reported. The research used satellite imagery of hospital parking lots in Wuhan - where the disease was first identified in late 2019 - and data for symptom-related queries around cough and diarrhoea on various search engines. In August, we identify a unique increase in searches for diarrhoea which was neither seen in previous flu seasons or mirrored in the cough search data, the research stated. Worldwide, the number of coronavirus cases have crossed the 7 million-mark with over 4 lakh people killed by the deadly contagion. In India, the Covid-19 tally has jumped to 266,598 - fifth highest in the world after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Elected officials in both the city and state governments continued their push for police reforms Tuesday in response to protests that have swept the country following the death of George Floyd. So far, none of their actions go as far as defunding or dissolving police departments as some activists have called for, but do take steps aimed at increased accountability and reduced use of force. Gov. Andrew Cuomo put his support behind four steps at his Tuesday press briefing, including legislation that reforms a 1976 law that has been used to protect officers personnel records, which passed the New York Senate on Tuesday. Dont dismiss this as an issue of the moment, Cuomo said of police reform. This has been brewing for decades and decades and decades -- its not just about Mr. Floyds murder. Floyd died May 25 after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd said repeatedly that he could not breathe. Chauvin, and three other officers who did not intervene, have been charged in relation to Floyds death. His final words recalled the 2014 death of Eric Garner in Tompkinsville, who told officers 11 times that he could not breathe as they attempted to take him into custody. On Monday, the New York Assembly and Senate passed a bill named for Garner that made officer chokeholds a felony except when their lives are determined to be in danger. Cuomo has also voiced support for that bill, but he has yet to sign it into law. Both houses of the state legislature have passed reforms related to policing, including that require officers to report when they discharge a firearm. Other pieces of legislation passed Monday include requirements for law enforcement to file reports on those who die in custody while being held on low-level offenses, and one not related to police that further criminalizes hate-based 911 calls. Meanwhile, City Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) took to social media on Tuesday to announce that the councils Committee on Public Safety would hear testimony that would make chokeholds illegal in the city. Most state police departments, including the NYPD, have banned the use of chokeholds, but Rose said more needs to be done. The passage of this legislation is very personal for me, as I hear the echoes of Eric Garners voice, 11 times saying I cant breathe as Officer (Daniel) Pantaleo choked Eric Garner to death, a blatant violation of NYPDs officers Patrol Guide, she said. Eric Garners death proved that it is not enough that the NYPD prohibits deadly chokeholds. History has shown us that violations of NYPD rules result in little or no discipline for officers, she continued. A grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo immediately following Garners death, and it took the NYPD five years to fire the officer in August 2019. The only other officer to face consequences in relation to Garners death was Sgt. Kizzy Adonis for failure to supervise. The department took 20 of her vacation days after she pleaded guilty. In addition to the ban on chokeholds, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that he supported city legislation that would call for early intervention with problem officers, require officers to display ranks and shield numbers, and codify citizens right to record officers in public. During a Tuesday press conference led by the city Police Benevolent Association, PBA President Pat Lynch railed against moves by lawmakers to reform police departments, but reiterated the unions position against the officers actions in Floyds death. Theyre asking us to pull back, Lynch, joined by 21 law enforcement unions across the state, said. Theyre asking us to walk away from you. Theyre asking us to abandon our communities. Theyre asking me to walk away from where I live. Theyre asking me to walk away from where I work. Theyre asking us to walk away from the neighborhoods that we brought back. Lynch also raised concerns about a return to the high-crime era of the 1980s and 90s -- a concern hes often voiced during his six terms as PBA president, despite a 20-year decline in crime over two mayoral administrations. De Blasios administration has made attempts to reform the NYPD with an increased focus on community policing and a reduction in the stop and frisk tactics championed by the previous mayor, Michael Bloomberg, before his failed 2020 presidential run. The current administration also started a new interpretation of the law -- commonly known as 50-a -- that, in part, necessitated the reforms the state Senate passed Tuesday after the city blocked access to disciplinary records of the nations largest municipal police force. Previously, the public had access to such records. State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore) co-sponsored the bill reforming 50-a, and said it was important to reform the legislation rather than just repeal it. In addition to police officers, the law covers the records of government employees like firefighters and correction officers. In negotiations, Savino said legislators secured protections for certain personnel records like medical records, and blocked the release of information like addresses and social security numbers, while allowing public access to disciplinary records through Freedom of Information Law requests. The version of the bill expected to pass the New York Assembly later on Tuesday was a full repeal of the bill, and did not include those protections. The Assembly and Senate will have to finalize the legislation before it can move on to the Governors desk to be signed into law. Staten Island Republican Party Chairman Brendan Lantry criticized efforts to reform the states police departments, and said the moves would make it easier for criminals to walk the streets. The message (to) voters this November is clear: the Democratic Party is handcuffing police, calling for them to be defunded and allowing unsubstantiated claims against our men and women in blue to be used in court to hinder prosecutions, he said. Assemblyman Michael Cusick leant his support to the reform of 50-a, but expressed his desire to keep unsubstantiated claims private. Savino said during testimony that she hoped to introduce additional legislation to have exonerated cases expunged from officers records. [June 09, 2020] SpyCloud Partners with Spire Solutions to Battle Account Takeovers in the Middle East AUSTIN, Texas, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SpyCloud, the account takeover prevention company and world leader in recovering stolen data, today announced a new partnership with Spire Solutions, the Middle East's preferred value added distributor (VAD) of information security solutions and services, to prevent and fight account takeover (ATO) attacks against businesses and government agencies in the region. Through the partnership with SpyCloud, Spire Solutions aims to alert organizations in the Middle East about their vulnerability to ATO. Currently, the companies are offering a free consultative investigation and report on the risk of ATO, including particular risks to C-level executives. "No organization is immune from the threat of account takeovers that can cost millions of dollars and untold hours of time to address," said Rami Refaat, Threat Intelligence Consultant at Spire Solutions. "SpyCloud's expertise and ability to fight these nefarious attacks are unmatched in th market. Their access to more than 100 billion recovered breached assets ensures we will be able to help organizations protect themselves like never before." Criminals routinely use account credentials exposed in third-party security breaches to take over accounts to perpetrate fraud, steal intellectual property and damage organizations' reputations. These threat actors take advantage of the human tendency to use weak passwords and reuse them across multiple sites, so when they acquire credentials from a breach, they use them to break into more valuable financial and email accounts. They seek out executives and other high-profile or wealthy individuals and attempt to bypass multi-factor authentication through phishing, social engineering and SIM-swapping techniques. Other accounts will be used for credential stuffing attacks, which are large-scale campaigns to test username and password combinations across thousands of websites using inexpensive, widely available automated tools and techniques. These attacks, which can go on for years, cost businesses more than $17.2 billion per year, in addition to consumers' own costs in recovering money stolen from bank accounts or dealing with credit card fraud. "As we've seen over and over again, these threat actors don't care about geographic borders," said Neill Cooper, Director of Sales, EMEA at SpyCloud. "They don't care about anything but going where the money and valuable data are and using any means necessary to access them. We're honored to partner with Spire to help government agencies and businesses in the Middle East protect themselves." About SpyCloud SpyCloud is the leader in account takeover (ATO) prevention, protecting billions of consumer and employee accounts either directly or through product integrations. Our award-winning solutions proactively defeat fraud attempts and disrupt the criminals' ability to profit from stolen information. Check your exposure at https://spycloud.com/ . About Spire Solutions Spire Solutions is a leader in cyber security solutions and services exclusively representing the world's bleeding-edge IT security technologies. Driven by a strong dedication to customer success, Spire Solutions has built a reputation of being the preferred security partner in the Middle East and Africa. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/996702/SpyCloud_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Infiniti Research, a leading market intelligence solutions provider, has recently announced the completion of their latest success story on market access strategy for a pharma company. During this engagement, the experts at Infiniti Research helped the client to meet their revenue goal and enhance market share by 33%. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005019/en/ With healthcare becoming a priority for governments in several countries, the pharmaceutical industry seems to have a bright future. However, due to the rising healthcare costs, payers are demanding insights into a new drug's cost-effectiveness compared with alternative drugs and generics. Consequently, pharmaceutical companies are under the need to revamp the way they develop and market drugs. As such, leveraging pharmaceutical market access strategy is becoming imperative for pharma companies during the early stages of drug development in order to tackle the market access related-issues. Infiniti Research's team of industry experts and analysts are constantly monitoring the business impact of the COVID-19 crisis across the pharma sector to help pharma companies prioritize response, mitigate risk, and continuously monitor the economic adversities on their business operations. Request a FREE proposal here. The business challenge: Our client, a pharmaceutical company, wanted to expand their operations to the United States. However, the client noted that market entry to the US pharma industry was highly challenging due to the need to accommodate rising costs and the proliferation of competing drugs in the same therapeutic areas. In addition, the growth of the generic segment and the advent of biosimilar drugs in the United States were increasing challenges for the company. As the client had already failed in their attempt to launch a new drug in the US market, they did not want to take a chance. They approached the experts at Infiniti Research during the early stages of drug development to leverage their expertise in offering pharmaceutical market access strategy. Our pharmaceutical market access strategy can help you to identify barriers to new market entry and achieve huge commercial success for your new drugs. Contact us here. Infiniti's market access strategy helped the pharma company to: Develop a new drug meeting the market demand and payer's requirement Clear the clinical trials in the initial attempt Devise a sound commercialization strategy for their new drug Set the right price for the product Meet their revenue goal and enhance market share by 33% Wondering how your business can benefit from our market access solution? Request more information from our experts. About Infiniti Research Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. To know more, visit: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005019/en/ Contacts: Infiniti Research Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 844 778 0600 UK: +44 203 893 3400 https://www.infinitiresearch.com/contact-us WASHINGTON - Hundreds of protesters who minutes earlier had been dancing in the street fell silent when Kenithia Alston described the fatal shooting of her son by District of Columbia police. Her voice breaking, Alston detailed a futile effort to get information about his killing and a more than year-long, unsuccessful fight to convince Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, to publicly release body-camera footage. During days of demonstrations in the nation's capital, Alston has repeatedly spoken to the crowd about the 2018 death of her son, Marqueese Alston, hoping to draw attention to the lack of transparency that activists have decried for years. "Tell this mayor to release the body cam," Alston said Saturday, speaking from the bed of a truck where a band had been blasting go-go music. "We got 'Black Lives Matter' spray-painted across Lafayette Square. Do black lives really matter?" With D.C. a focal point in nationwide protests and the D.C. Council on Tuesday approving a sweeping package of police reforms, Alston and activists are hoping the moment for change has arrived. Among other changes, the emergency legislation unanimously approved by the city council mandates that the public release of body camera video from instances where city police use deadly force, including past cases. D.C. police say officers fired at Marqueese Alston after he shot at them. His mother, who was allowed to view the body-camera video last year, said what she saw does not back up that account. She has long wanted the footage out in the open so people can make up their own minds. D.C.'s police force was an early adopter of body cameras, launching a pilot program in 2014 in the wake of a shooting of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo. By the end of 2016, the city's 2,600 patrol officers had cameras. At the time, officials said no other city had more officers wearing cameras. Since the rollout, there has been debate in D.C. and across the country about who gets to see videos from the cameras. Proponents of public release argued it was hypocritical to adopt a program to increase transparency and at the same time block or make it difficult for the public to obtain the videos. Police said that they need to protect investigations and that the video does not always provide a full picture of events. The law already allowed people to request video through D.C. police or a public records request, but many were denied when investigations were in progress. D.C. also allows people who are in the videos to watch them at a police station. The mayor has had the authority to publicly release police body camera video "in matters of significant public interest" - which has generally meant cases that generate attention or outcry. The emergency legislation, effective immediately, mandates that following a deadly or serious use-of-force encounter involving police, footage from body cameras be publicly released within 72 hours. The legislation sponsored by D.C. Council member Charles Allen, a Democrat, also requires the names of officers involved in those incidents be released. The legislation, which includes other policy changes, will be in effect for 90 days, a period that can be extended for several months with a later vote. If the council wants to make the changes permanent, there will need to be standard legislative process that would include public hearings. "We were on the leading edge when the body worn camera program started, and we were very proud," Allen said. "But five years later, a lot of other jurisdictions have passed us when it comes to transparency. It's time for us to step up." "It woudn't have even gotten close to getting out of committee," said Allen, who chairs the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee. "It is only the result of so many voices speaking out and building the political will." Among the large departments nationwide that routinely make body-camera video public in critical police incidents include those in Baltimore, St. Louis and New Orleans. In the past week, Fairfax County, Va., police released body-camera video as they announced assault charges against an officer who used a stun gun on a man who did not appear combative. "Why else would you have a police body-camera program if you're not going to make it public," said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. "If you're not prepared to do that, then you should think twice about implementing a body-camera program." Bowser said at a news conference Monday that she broadly supported the legislation. But she also said officials "certainly think the body-worn camera program works." Asked about complaints from families whose loved ones have been fatally shot by police, Bowser said: "I don't know that I could agree that questions have gone unanswered." Marqueese Alston, who was 22 when he was killed, was living in D.C. and trying to find a job, his mother said. He has a daughter, who was then 2 years old. Kenithia Alston said she learned about her son's death from a friend of his the night of the June 12, 2018, shooting. She said she did not hear from police until the next day, when officers told her that Marqueese Alston had been involved in "an incident," gave her the business card of a sergeant in internal affairs and a Google printout of the D.C. medical examiner's information, according to Emily Gunston, deputy legal director at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, who testified before the D.C. Council last year. "This is the only communication she received from the City for almost a year," wrote Gunston, who began working with Alston in March 2019. "Obtaining access to this video should have been a simple task." It was only in August, after D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, a Democrat, met with Alston, that Bowser's office allowed Alston to watch the footage, Gunston wrote. Alston was permitted to bring three people. She declined to discuss her specific recollections of the video, but said she left unconvinced of the police narrative. She said she still does not know the names of the officers who shot her son and fears returning to the neighborhood where his daughter, now 4, still lives. D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said in an interview Monday that the officers who shot Marqueese Alston have been cleared by the department. He described Marqueese Alston as a "convicted offender armed with an illegal gun who shot at a police officer." Two officers fired back in self-defense, the chief said, and a gun was recovered. Marqueese Alston was on supervised release when he was killed, after serving 30 months in prison for an armed robbery. Newsham said at the time that officers encountered Marqueese Alston during a saturation patrol effort targeting guns and repeat offenders in an area east of the Anacostia River that has for several years led the city in homicides. In D.C., some say Marqueese Alston's case has too long been ignored. April Goggans, a core organizer of Black Lives Matter in the city, posted an emotional video Saturday from the protest in which she said she was "frustrated because none of these people know the names of the people who died right here." "For the past hour, all I can think of is watching Marqueese Alston's body on the ground," she said. "And Mayor Bowser has never said anything." Bowser did not directly address a question about Alston at a news conference in which she celebrated the Black Lives Matter mural painted on a street that leads to the White House. She has released body-camera video in fatal incidents involving police at least four times since 2015, including footage showing the aftermath of the shooting of Terrence Sterling, a 31-year-old motorcyclist who struck a police vehicle with his bike while trying to elude a stop and was shot by an officer. The officer was not criminally charged but was fired by the department. "The community just wants transparency," said public defender Quo Judkins, who protested with Kenithia Alston on Monday. Kenithia Alston raised her fist and chanted with Judkins and dozens who gathered outside the D.C. Superior Court: "No justice, no peace!" "I just want the truth," she said. "If my son did what the chief said, why won't they just release the footage?" On Tuesday afternoon, Kenithia Alston beamed when she learned the D.C. Council had approved the body-camera measure. She said she did not know what the next step would be for her, but she planned to call her lawyer. The legislation requires the city to release the video by July 1. "I'm like so grateful," she said. "I feel like this is one step closer to seeking my baby's truth." President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday the Syrian government was increasing provocations in northwest Syria's Idlib region and that Turkey would not allow it to become a conflict zone again. On Monday jets bombed several villages in the rebel-held region in the first such air strikes since a Turkish-Russian ceasefire deal over three months ago that halted major fighting. Erdogan was speaking after a cabinet meeting. Search Keywords: Short link: Bergamo suffered greatly during the pandemic - PIERO CRUCIATTI/AFP via Getty Images More than half of people in the epicentre of Italys outbreak have been infected with coronavirus and the region has the highest rate of antibodies yet discovered, a study by health authorities has found. The city of Bergamo and its surrounding province were hit hard by the virus, which was first detected in Italy in late February but is believed to have been present in January or even earlier. Blood tests carried out on more than 20,000 people in Bergamo and the surrounding area between April 23 and June 3 revealed that 57 per cent of people had antibodies indicating they had come into contact with Covid-19. Among medical staff, the proportion was 30 per cent. The study suggests that the area may be approaching herd immunity levels experts suggest the threshold for achieving herd immunity against coronavirus may be around 60-65 per cent. A police officer checks the body temperature of a woman at a market in Treviglio, near Bergamo - Shutterstock The idea of herd immunity is that if a certain percentage of the population is immune to an infectious disease, the disease will stop spreading. Testing has shown that around 17 per cent of Londons population now has Covid-19 antibodies, while the figure for the rest of the country is 5 per cent. In New York City, around 25 per cent of the population has tested positive for coronavirus antibodies. Blood testing in Spain revealed that 5 per cent of the overall population has antibodies, with the figure rising to 7 per cent in Barcelona and 11 per cent in Madrid. In Stockholm, around 7 per cent of people have developed antibodies to Covid-19. Several studies suggest that people who have been infected with Covid-19 gain some degree of immunity, although it is not clear for how long. Bergamo is in the northern region of Lombardy, where more than 16,000 people have lost their lives to the virus nearly half Italys total of 34,000 fatalities. Italy has recorded 235,000 infections, of which 35,000 people are still infected. Bergamo became a chilling symbol of Italys battle against the virus when a convoy of army trucks had to be drafted in to remove more than 60 coffins full of bodies from the citys overwhelmed cemetery. Story continues In a report last month, Italys national statistics agency said the number of overall deaths in Bergamo had jumped by 568 per cent in March, compared with previous years. That made it by far the worst affected part of Italy. Population density and atmospheric pollution have been posited for the high number of infections and deaths in Lombardy. There are other factors the region is renowned for its manufacturing, with many businesses having commercial links with China, where the virus originated. Despite Italy declaring a strict national lockdown in early March, many people in the industrious region continued to go to work, with mobile phone data suggesting up to 40 per cent of people were out and about. Lombardy is still discovering hundreds of new cases a week, but the aggressive nature of the virus may be diminishing, experts said. Something has happened in terms of the aggressiveness of the virus, said Sergio Harari, an expert in pneumology from San Giuseppe Hospital in Milan. We dont know whether its something in the viral load or whether its a mutation. While Lombardy and other northern regions emerge slowly from the emergency, several of Italys 20 regions are recording no new cases, including Sardinia, Umbria, Valle dAosta, Molise, Abruzzo, Calabria and Basilicata. Italy has begun rolling out a contact-tracing app called Immuni that people can download to their mobile phones. The app enables users to find out whether they have come into contact with someone infected with Covid-19. If they have, they would undergo tests and self-quarantine to stop the spread of the virus. Testing of the app has started in four regions Puglia, Abruzzo, Liguria and Marche and has been downloaded two million times. "The more people download the app, the more chance there is of them being notified if they come into contact with a positive case," said Paola Pisano, the minister for innovation. The Australian economy is coming out of the coronavirus pandemic better than expected with unemployment unlikely to hit double figures, the Treasury secretary has revealed while taking responsibility for the $60 billion overestimation of the JobKeeper wage subsidy program. Steven Kennedy, giving evidence to a Senate inquiry into the government's policies to deal with the virus outbreak, said Australia was outperforming much of the rest of the world and appeared to have avoided a "cycle of destruction" that would weigh on the nation for years. The government revealed last month the $1500-a-fortnight JobKeeper subsidy, originally forecast to cost $130 billion and support more than 6 million jobs, had been grossly overestimated by Treasury. Now into its second month of operation, JobKeeper is supporting about 3.3 million jobs, with payments worth $13 billion made to 872,000 affected businesses. Victory day celebrations in this city, throughout this State, this continent, and the British Commonwealth contained much more than the exultant cry of the triumphant warrior over his prostate foe. They were vindication of the faith and courage of the common people in a total war which did indeed involve Churchills blood and sweat and toil and tears; a challenge to press on to an assured peace. It was, above all, spiritual victory; hope for a safer, cleaner, more just world for which men strove and died. Brighter, sunnier, more tumultuous marches have passed the saluting base on the steps of Parliament House, Melbourne. Here it was on Anzac Day, 1926, that we stood beside two young, then known as the Duke and Duchess of York, now King and Queen of Great Britain and the Dominions, and saw Sir John Monash lead 25,000 veterans of the first A.I.G. marching in tribute to their mates who did not return. Here, also, in 1940, we saw the first march of boys of the Second A.I.F. prior to embarkation. One was a march of civilians; the other of soldiers as yet unblooded. Each has been repeated in similar setting many times. U.S. Attorney General William Barr waves as he walks onstage to speak at the National Sheriffs' Association Winter Legislative and Technology Conference in Washington on Feb. 10, 2020. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo) DOJ Is Conducting Very Focused Investigations on Individuals Linked to Antifa, Barr Says Attorney General William Barr said federal authorities are conducting comprehensive investigations into certain individuals with ties to the extremist group Antifa. He said this is why the group Antifa hasnt been mentioned in criminal complaints related to the rioting amid protests following the death of George Floyd. We have some investigations underway and very focused investigations on certain individuals that relate to Antifa, Barr said during an interview with Fox News on June 8. But in the initial phase of identifying people and arresting them, they were arrested for crimes that dont require us to identify a particular group or dont necessitate that. Over the past week, federal authorities have attributed the violent activity observed amid protests over Floyd, a black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police, to extremist organizations such as Antifa. Barr said in a press conference on June 3 that Antifa and other similar groups and actors of a variety of different political persuasions have been behind the recent violent activities in order to carry out their own separate agendas. He said these actors had hijacked the protests to engage in lawlessness, violent rioting, arson, looting of businesses, and public property assaults on law enforcement officers and innocent people, and even the murder of a federal agent. Barrs comments were echoed by FBI Director Christopher Wray, who said these individuals have set out to sow discord and upheaval rather than join in the righteous pursuit of equality and justice. The government has made 51 arrests so far for federal crimes in connection with the rioting, the attorney general said. The Travis County District Attorneys Office announced on June 6 that three members of a local anti-government group in Austin formerly called Austin Red Guards, which identifies itself as part of Antifa, were arrested in connection with looting, burglarizing, and damaging property at a Target retail store (pdf). Barr said their investigation will look into the sources of funding behind the extremist groups and will also focus on the coordinated tactics used by these groups during the protests. Some of it relates to an Antifa. Some of it relates to groups that act very much like an Antifa. As I said, theres a witchs brew of extremist groups that are trying to exploit this situation on all sides, Barr said. The Epoch Times has previously reported on the unprecedented and coordinated effort behind the riots, which has spanned several states across the country. Among these efforts include allegedly leaving materials such as bricks and water bottles filled with gasoline in convenient locations to be used to fuel rioting. The Kansas City Police Department in Missouri stated on Twitter on May 31 that it learned of & discovered stashes of bricks and rocks in some areas to be used during a riot, and asked people to report such cases to authorities to be removed. Similarly, the Minneapolis Police Department warned of incendiary materials and accelerants such as water bottles filled with gasoline found hidden in bushes and neighborhoods. Bricks and similar objects have appeared in Manhattan, Baltimore, North Carolina, and more. Protesters outside the White House were caught throwing bricks. Meanwhile, there have also been false alarms, as the Frisco Police Department in Texas determined that one reported pile actually belonged to a legitimate construction project. State authorities have also launched investigations into whether Antifa has been behind the recent rioting. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) announced one such investigation last week. The protest and looting of Target in Austin that was done and organized by an Antifa web page and of course, the surveillance that was provided over the Internet identifying where law enforcement resources were staged, was done over Antifa accounts, said Texas DPS Director Steven McGraw, according to Reform Austin. We are talking about violent extremists. Theres anarchists. Theres Antifa, but there are also criminals that are using this as an opportunity to exploit and to loot and hurt others. Thats happened. Members of other extremist groups have been arrested during the protests. Men with ties to the boogaloo movementwhich federal officials say is focused on the belief that a coming civil war or collapse of society is nearwere arrested and charged with violations of federal and state law for conspiracy to cause destruction during protests in Las Vegas, and possession of a Molotov cocktail. They have also been charged with a number of state offenses including a conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism. The origins of the group Antifa can be traced back to Germanys anti-fascist movement, which was part of the Soviet Unions front operations to incite a communist revolution in the European country. In the United States, the group claims that its members are fighting fascism, but rarely do they confront actual fascists. Instead, their members, who are made up of communists, socialists, and other hard-left radicals, label parties and individuals who dont align with their ideology as fascists to justify their use of violence against them. The group has frequently made headlines for its violent attacks on opposing groups, particularly Trump supporters, whom they have branded as fascists. President Donald Trump announced on May 31 that his administration would designate Antifa as a terrorist organization. Bowen Xiao, Ivan Pentchoukov, and Jack Phillips contributed to this report. Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Anil Baijals office on Tuesday said it had asked officials to prepare a plan to augment Delhis health infrastructure including the possibility of turning public places like the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium and Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium into temporary health facilities to meet with the challenges of rising cases of coronavirus in the capital. The statement came on a day when Delhis tally of coronavirus positive cases was all set to cross the 30,000-mark after reaching 29,943 on Monday. Delhi is the third-worst affected after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and according to Kejriwals deputy Manish Sisodia, the Covid-19 positive cases in the capital were projected to cross 5.5 lakh mark by the end of July which will generate a need for 80,000 hospital beds. The LGs statement said the need to expand Delhis infrastructure to meet with the rapid rise in the cases was discussed at length in the meeting of the state disaster management authority on Tuesday. In todays SDMA meeting also, ideas e.g. use of spaces like Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Tyagraj Stadium, JLN Stadium, Pragati Maidan to make large makeshift medical facilities were discussed. It was also decided to utilize banquet halls, marriage places, etc. to ramp up the facilities, the statement said. The statement further added that all officers concerned were directed by Baijal, who heads the SDMA as Delhis LG, to put in all efforts to make sure that the available health infrastructure is ramped up as early as possible. Honble Lt. Governor also advised the officers concerned to invoke Section 50 of Disaster Management Act, 2005 for expeditious procurement and timely setting up of required infrastructure, the statement said. The statement suggested that the experts from the government of India are also aware of the contingency plans. The possibility of converting stadiums or large spaces into makeshift medical facilities like it was done in China has been discussed before but the need has not arisen in India so far. India currently India has a total of 266,598 coronavirus cases as of Tuesday morning as per the data released by the health ministry. YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. According to Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, the situation over coronavirus pandemic remains escalated, but some hopes for stabilization emerge, ARMENPRESS reports PM Pashinyan said in a briefing on June 9. ''The situation over coronavirus remains escalated, but some minor hopes for stabilization emerge. This should further strengthen our vigilance'', Pashinyan said. The PM once again urged the citizens to follow the anti-pandemic rules set by the Commandant's Office and the Helthcare Ministry, which are wearing masks and preserving social distance. A total of 13, 675 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Armenia by June 9. 4451 patients have recovered. There are 8933 active cases. Death toll is 217. 74 other positive tested patients have died of other health issues. A total of 71,405 tests have been done. State of emergency has been prolonged in the country until June 13. Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan, Editing and Translating by Tigran Sirekanyan The Navy has issued a waiver allowing a transgender lieutenant to continue to serve openly as a woman, despite a military policy that could have resulted in her discharge. In return for the waiver, advocacy groups backing the lieutenant, identified only as Jane Doe, agreed June 5 to the dismissal of a civil suit. The suit had been filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts against Defense Secretary Mark Esper, challenging the military's current transgender policy. Read next: Challenged by Netflix Show, US Space Force Rushes to Trademark Name However, other lawsuits seeking to overturn the policy as discriminatory will continue, according to GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR). The waiver is believed to be the first exemption to the transgender policy granted by the military, although several others are pending, Shannon Minter, national legal director of NCLR, told Military.com. The lieutenant had served as a male for nearly 10 years on active duty in surface warfare but identified as female, Minter said. The waiver will allow the lieutenant to serve openly as a woman and begin the physical transition to female, Minter added. The lieutenant will also be listed as female in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System. "A number of others have asked for waivers, [but] there are no clear guidelines" in the military for seeking them, Minter said. The Navy did not give any reasons for granting the waiver, Minter said. A Navy spokeswoman responded that Acting Secretary of the Navy James E. McPherson reviewed requests on an individual basis, considering the unique facts and circumstances of each case. Under then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, the Obama administration changed policy to allow transgender individuals to serve openly. The policy began to change again in July 2017 when President Donald Trump posted a series of tweets announcing: "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military." The new rules went fully into effect in April 2019 and state that transgender personnel cannot be recruited or serve in uniform if they have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria -- a conflict between one's biological sex and gender identity -- or have yet to transition to an identified gender. Policy waivers will be considered "on a case-by-case basis," according to Defense Department guidelines. In statements announcing the dismissal of the civil suit, Jennifer Levi, Transgender Rights Project director for GLAD, said, "Our client is relieved that she will be able to continue her service without fear of discharge. "While it is frustrating that it took a lawsuit to make it happen, her top priority is to continue using her skills and training to serve her country in the career to which she has dedicated nearly a decade of her life," Levi added. "The transgender military ban is irrational and harmful," Minter said. "The granting of one single waiver does nothing to change that." -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Related: Navy Grants First Service Waiver to Transgender Officer State of Utah employees were ready, willing, and able Facilitating emergency response efforts Creating a new normal for government resiliency Adobes commitment helping government with rapid response Utah is known for its rugged natural beauty, treasured by residents and attracting millions of tourists every year. The state government takes pride in protecting these lands and preserving a great quality of life for its residents.In 2019, Spencer J. Cox, Lieutenant Governor of Utah, introduced eSign as part of the New Workplace Teleworking Initiative , which utilizes Adobe Sig n . Telework was primarily designed as a government efficiency program. Enabling more employees to work remotely would decrease carbon emissions, save on building space, and distribute jobs across the state.State of Utah officials couldnt have possibly foreseen how urgent this telework capability would become. While the State had contingency plans in place for natural disasters, no one could have predicted for Utah to be simultaneously struck by a 5.7 earthquake and the growing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.With dual disasters, multiple areas of Utah residents lives were impacted home, business, health, and finance. Fortunately, the dedicated employees working for the State of Utah had digital solutions in place, enabling them to continue vital services, even while impacted and sheltering-in-place themselves. Almost immediately, residents were able to access these much-needed government services.The response was so positive among the first teams who used Adobe solutions for teleworking, the State of Utah created an eSign video to spread the word and inspire more teams across the state to adopt Adobe Sign. With a goal of launching a swift and strong emergency response effort, the video talks about the value of going 100% paperless and how easy it is to handle high volumes of contracts and other approval processes in a teleworking environment.By design, most government planning processes and services require input and sign-offs from multiple parties, including Incident Action Plans for emergency response. During normal circumstances, government teams huddle around a conference room table or walk down the hallway to circulate documents for revision and approval.Normally, it takes two to three days to circulate and approve an emergency procurement plan. Using Adobe Sign, they accomplished the same result in minutes. Even when in-office operations resume, employees expect the paperless process to continue.Streamlining cross-departmental communicationAs the agencies within the State of Utah started seeing a large volume of new requests for services, many of them embraced a new way of electronically processing paperwork. They quickly expanded their use of Adobe Acrobat DC and Adobe Sign to circulate and approve hundreds of procurement agreements, operational plans, grants, budgets and other contracts. This flexible framework made it easier to customize and coordinate facilitation between finance, operations, logistics, and planning through to final sign-off of each plan.Like government employees around the world, State of Utah employees were concerned about keeping track of all the communications and continuing to serve their constituents from a work-at-home environment, filled with new distractions. State of Utah employees needed clear and easy-to-follow workflows.Thanks to Adobe Sign, employees can see who needs to review and approve each document, providing accountability and clarity throughout the process. Documents dont get lost in the inbox or fall through the cracks among departments. As a result, employees deliver better, timely services for state residents.Residents get answers in hours instead of days or weeks. The State of Utah also made self-service documents available to the public.Not only has eSign enabled the State of Utah to nimbly respond in this emergency situation, it has also placed them in a better position to ensure efficiency and business continuity in the long term.The telework initiative was designed to reduce government spending and improve efficiencies, but quickly evolved to a must-have service as unexpected events made it impossible to do business-as-usual. So far, it has been a resounding success, providing benefits beyond the original scope of the plan. And, by rapidly adapting to the new telework processes, Utah has once again proven that their spirit, resourcefulness, and grit are as rugged as their landscape.Adobe is committed to helping government agencies rise to the challenge of urgent events, stay productive, and serve constituents from any location. We encourage you to read about the Adobe Document Cloud Rapid Response Program to see how were helping agencies address a wide range of challenges, including remote work.Visit our learning resource hub: Respond to urgent challenges with step-by-step use case recipes and curated learning content to get up and running with Adobe Sign in days, not months. Visit resource hub Register for our upcoming telework webinars: Telework strategies for government continuity Contact us: govcovidresponse@adobe.com or 800-872-3623. This site is not available in your country The new talks, set to begin on Tuesday, must not be a tool for stalling, Cairo said Cairo is demanding a timeframe for the technical talks with Ethiopia and Sudan on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that are set to begin on Tuesday, according to a statement by the Egyptian National Security Council. Egypt has received an invitation from the Sudanese irrigation minister to resume the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam talks on 9 June 2020, and as Egypt asserts its initial position that it is ready for negotiations in order to reach for a balanced and fair agreement to achieve the interests of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, it considers this invitation to have come late, three weeks after its launch. That is why it is important to have a timeframe for the talks, in order not to make the talks a new tool for stalling or evading the obligations of the Declaration of Principles of 2015, read the statement, issued after a council meeting on Tuesday. The National Security Council, headed by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in Libya as well as the Ethiopian mega-dam, the presidential spokesman said. Khartoum and Addis Ababa announced on 21 May that Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan had agreed to resume technical discussions on the GERD. This invitation was issued on the same day Ethiopian authorities asserted their determination to fill the GERD without reaching an agreement with Egypt and Sudan, read the statement. Nevertheless, Egypt will participate in the technical talks to discover the political will in order to reach an agreement and to prove Egypts goodwill, the statement concluded. The irrigation ministers of the three countries are scheduled to resume technical talks on the GERD on Tuesday via an online meeting. Previous tripartite negotiations stalled in February after Ethiopia skipped the final round of talks in Washington. El-Sisi also held a meeting with Defence Minister Mohamed Zaki in Cairo on Tuesday, according to a presidential statement. Search Keywords: Short link: Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 03:57:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KAMPALA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) has announced new measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 as it plans the reopening of the country's Entebbe International Airport. Vianney Luggya, spokesperson for UCAA, told Xinhua by telephone on Monday that the measures to be implemented are in line with the operating procedures required by the International Civil Aviation Authority to stem the spread of the disease across borders. Luggya said all passengers reaching the clearing terminals will have to be tested for COVID-19. He said tents have been erected at the airport where temperature screening, profiling and observation of arriving passengers will take place. "Taking of COVID-19 samples from arriving passengers and isolation of those that may have been found to have COVID-19 will all be done at the airport," he said. He said outbound passengers would be required to undergo a rapid test for the virus or present a valid health certificate from the Ministry of Health. "Temperature screening, wearing of face masks, regular sanitizing and social distancing will also be emphasized throughout the various formalities," he said. Uganda closed the Entebbe International Airport on March 23 to stop the importation of COVID-19 cases after the index case was registered on March 21. Only humanitarian, evacuation and cargo flights are allowed. The government has not announced when the airport would be opened but it has started easing the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Public and private transport, shops, restaurants and hotels are all reopened. Public gatherings, worship centers and schools remain closed, and a night curfew is still in place. While the country is easing the restrictions, COVID-19 cases are increasing and the national tally is 646 COVID-19 cases, including 103 recoveries. No death has been registered, according to figures from the Ministry of Health. Enditem Porsha Williams revealed Monday that the first time she ever experienced racism was during a run-in with the Ku Klux Klan as a child. The 38-year-old Real Housewives Of Atlanta star made the admission during a special two-part Watch What Happens Live with her fellow guest W. Kamau Bell. After Andy asked both guests to share their first experience with racism, she was transported back to her first civil rights march as a six-year-old child. Chilling: Porsha Williams, 38, revealed Monday on Watch What Happens Live that her first experience with racism came at age six when Ku Klux Klan protestors chased her and threw rocks at her during a civil rights march 'For me, being the granddaughter of a Civil Rights leader, you would think that I would have been aware of [racism]. I was about six years old when I went to my first march, and it was here in Georgia,' she said. Porsha remembered being excited to finally accompany her grandfather, the civil rights activist Hosea Williams, to a protest match when she was just a little girl. 'We get out there and Im excited again, innocent, singing the songs, We Shall Overcome, etc. and I was smacked in the face with racism,' she said. The uplifting moment took a chilling turn when her family and other marchers were confronted by members of the Ku Klux Klan looking to inflict violence. 'We came across the Ku Klux Klan, who decided they were going to protest our protest, and they threw rocks at us. I actually got hit with one,' she admitted, adding that the KKK members chased them all the way back to the buses they had rented for the march. Joining her family: Porsha remembered being excited to go to her first march with her father and her grandfather, the civil rights activist Hosea Williams Danger: 'We came across the Ku Klux Klan, who decided they were going to protest our protest, and they threw rocks at us. I actually got hit with one,' she admitted Porsha added that they shouted the N-word at the marchers and 'any other thing you can imagine the KKK would be calling us.' 'I was out there at such a young age with my grandfather, because Forsyth County is really racist, they had actually driven out all the African Americans who lived there over the years.' She referenced events from 1912, when the reported rapes of two white women (one of whom was murdered) were blamed on multiple black men. Two young black men were convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to death by all-white juries, and another black suspect was lynched outside of the county jail. Following the verdicts, armed groups of men associated with the KKK drove out the vast majority of the county's black residents, and white residents proceeded to steal their property. In flight: She said the KKK members shouted the N-word and other slurs while chasing the marchers back to their buses Dark history: She was protesting in Georgia's Forsyth County, where white gangs ran black residents out of the county and stole their land following a lynching and sham rape trials against black men in 1912; shown in October 'I didnt understand it,' Porsha said of her experience at the march, 'so of course it was a conversation with my dad when I got home to let me know that some people do hate you, even though you may be trying to do a good thing.' 'What I got out of that is to keep going regardless. I never saw my grandfather stop, I never saw my dad stop, and the movement is still continuing on, and I think that is a part of whats inside of me thats not going to stop,' she said proudly. 'I know that people are protesting now, and I know a lot of times when the media stops covering it it kind of dies down again, but its not going to stop.' More recently, Porsha has been joining protests inspired by the killing of George Floyd on May 25 by a white Minneapolis police officer. BETHEL, Alaska - Donlin Gold announced plans to restart its drilling program as the state loosens coronavirus restrictions. The mining company said the current drilling program is its biggest in 12 years, but operations were suspended in March as the state issued health restrictions on travel and mandated quarantines of out-of-state workers, Alaskas Energy Desk reported Monday. Donlin announced summer plans to rotate 60 people in two crews, working three weeks on and then three weeks off. The company said it will require employees to take coronavirus screening tests before arriving at the mine and again when they leave. In addition to screening, the company expects to use charter flights to transport workers to and from the mine and require workers to maintain six feet (1.8 metres) of distance in eating areas and living quarters. The company hopes to build one of the biggest gold mines in the world, and recently began drilling for samples to expand the mines operating life. After the completing construction of the mine, company officials believe the production could last 27 years or longer depending on the size of the deposit. Donlin Gold spokesperson Kristina Woolston said the company continues to hire employees. As part of its lease agreement with two Alaska Native Regional Corporations that own the land and mineral rights, Donlin must prioritize shareholder hires. Donlin has not provided precise figures of the number of people arriving from outside the region to work at its mining camps. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover. 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 largest study of its kind in the U.S. shows thousands of different types of bacteria living on cell phones and shoes, including groups that have barely been studied by scientists. "This highlights how much we have to learn about the microbial world around us," said David Coil, a researcher at the University of California, Davis Genome Center and first author on the paper, published June 9 in the journal PeerJ. In recent years scientists have started to better understand the communities of microbes, or microbiomes, found in basically every environment on the planet. We all carry around with us our own personal microbiome. While some of the microbes found in and on people can be harmful, the overwhelming majority of these microbes are harmless -- and some are even beneficial. In 2013-2014, Coil, with Russell Neches and Professor Jonathan Eisen of the UC Davis Genome Center, UC Davis graduate student and professional cheerleader Wendy Brown, Darlene Cavalier of Science Cheerleaders, Inc. and colleagues launched an effort to sample microbes from spectators at sporting events across the country. Volunteers swabbed cell phones and shoes from almost 3,500 people and sent the samples to the Argonne National Laboratory, University of Chicago, for processing. The researchers amplified and sequenced DNA from the samples and used the sequence information to identify major groups of bacteria in the samples. They found that shoes and cell phones from the same person consistently had distinct communities of microbes. Cell phone microbes reflected those found on people, while shoes carried microbes characteristic of soil. This is consistent with earlier results. The shoe microbes were also more diverse than those found on a person's phone. Although samples were collected at events across the country, the researchers did not find any conclusive regional trends. In some cases, there were big differences between samples collected at different events in the same city. In others, samples from distant cities looked quite similar. Microbial dark matter Surprisingly, a substantial proportion of the bacteria came from groups that researchers call "microbial dark matter." These microbes are difficult to grow and study in a lab setting and thus have been compared to invisible "dark matter" that astronomers think makes up much of the universe. Since they are so difficult to grow in a lab, these dark matter groups have only been discovered as scientists have used genetic sequencing technology to look for microbes in the world around us. Although many of the dark microbial groups come from remote or extreme environments, such as boiling acid springs and nutrient poor underground aquifers, some have been found in more mundane habitats, such as soil. "Perhaps we were naive, but we did not expect to see such a high relative abundance of bacteria from these microbial dark matter groups on these samples," Eisen said. A number of these dark microbe groups were found in more than 10 percent of samples, with two groups, Armatimonadetes and Patescibacteria, being found in almost 50 percent of swabs and somewhat more frequently in those from shoes than those from phones. Armatimonadetes is known to be widespread in soil. "A remarkable fraction of people are traveling around with representatives from these uncultured groups on commonplace objects," Coil said. ### Additional authors on the paper are: at UC Davis, Jenna Lang and Guillaume Jospin; Jarrad Hampton-Marcell, Argonne National Laboratory; and Jack Gilbert, UC San Diego School of Medicine. The study was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. A two-year-old boy has approached the Delhi High Court against the city government's decision restraining asymptomatic patients from getting tested for Covid-19, claiming that he is at a considerable risk as he has working members in the family. "The petitioner is a minor boy (2 years old) who resides with a joint family comprising of working members who would be resuming work/regular office pursuant to the 'Unlockdown' as announced by the Delhi government. Like several other similar minors and other residents of Delhi, the petitioner is at considerable risk of contacting Covid-19 through these members due to restriction on movements being lifted," the plea filed by the boy, through his father, said. In the plea filed through advocate Arjun Syal and Vidisha Gupta, the petitioner said: "Moreover, the situation has been further aggravated due to discontinuation of testing of asymptomatic cases, shortage of requisite healthcare infrastructure such as hospital beds and ventilators etc." The matter is listed for hearing on Wednesday before a division bench comprising Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan. The petition also claimed that disallowing testing of asymptomatic cases is complete deviation of the testing criteria/guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research from time to time. "The impugned action of impairing the aforesaid testing vis-a-vis asymptomatic Covid 19 patients is arbitrary, mechanical and moreover passed mechanically without application of mind and or ascertaining to the cascading effect on already worsening spread of pandemic in the state," the plea said. It said that the decision of the government to lift the restriction on movement on one hand and on the other hand to discontinue the testing of asymptomatic patient is "mutually contradictory". The petitioner claimed that the asymptomatic patients are highly infectious and can extensively contaminate the environment in a very short time and moreover, are essentially the carriers of the disease. "While a symptomatic patient can be quarantined and be provided appropriate medical healthcare, it the asymptomatic category that are likely to unknowingly spread the same to minors, senior citizens and other high risk category individuals, thereby seriously impairing their health and putting them in serious life risking situations," the petitioner said. The petitioner submitted that testing of asymptomatic patients would help in identifying the suspected Covid-19 positive patients and further help in taking preventive measures with the assistance of the relevant authorities to help combat the same and thus prevent the further spread of Covid-19 in Delhi. International bestselling author Emily Giffin has once again apologized for bashing Meghan Markle, one month after she was accused of racism for branding the duchess 'unmaternal' and 'phony'. Emily, 48, who lives in Atlanta, wrote the 2005 book Something Borrowed, which was later turned into a movie starring Kate Hudson and John Krasinski. However she made headlines for a very different reason last month after taking to Instagram to share a text conversation she had with a friend in which the two of them slammed Meghan, accusing her of trying to get 'attention' and of looking 'fake and forced' while appearing in a reading video with son Archie, which was filmed by Prince Harry. Backtrack: Bestselling author Emily Giffin, 48, has apologized for making 'mean' comments about Meghan Markle, one month after branding the duchess 'unmaternal' and 'phony' Critique: The author made the comments about a video of the duchess, 38, reading with her son Archie, which was shared in honor of the little boy's first birthday Now, the author has apologized for her comments, admitting that they were 'just mean' and 'not legitimate'. 'I need to be more careful about the impact of my words,' Emily told the Associated Press in a recent interview. 'It's one thing to have legitimate criticism about someone,' she continued, noting that the comments she made about Meghan 'were not legitimate'. 'They were just mean... I'm going to do better.' However, she accused society of being too quick to judge women who criticize others, noting that 'women and people' should be able to voice opinions without fear of facing a bitter backlash. 'Phony': Last month, Emily shared a text conversation that she had with a friend about the video, in which the two of them accused Meghan of trying to get 'attention' 'I mean, I do think its OK that theres this whole idea of is it ever OK to criticize one another?' she said. 'You know, as women or as people, like, should we just never get to criticize? 'I think we can go too far with that. I dont think we need to treat each other with kid gloves. Women treat each other as women with kid gloves, especially when criticized. Criticism is legitimate. But just that wasnt the case with these comments.' Emily's latest apology comes almost one month to the day after she faced furious backlash for sharing the 'mean' comments about Meghan, not long after the duchess appeared in a video reading with her son in honor of his first birthday. At the time, Emily shared a screenshot of a conversation she had with a friend about the clip on her Instagram Stories, revealing that her pal texted her 'some thoughts' about the video, which was shows Meghan reading Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld to her son. 'Some thoughts: Archie is adorable but that video screamed look at me! Look at me! I need attention as the doting mother. She's a joke,' the first incoming text, which was sent by Emily's friend, read. The messages continued: 'It was also sad how she seemed just slightly annoyed Archie wasn't fully cooperating to her standards. He's [one] for crying out loud!' Emily chimed in and agreed, texting her friend: 'Completely,' to which her pal replied, 'I feel so sorry for that little boy.' The author then wrote that she felt Meghan 'seemed so unmaternal' in the video, before adding: 'It was so uncomfortable. She's such a phony.' Comments: In a series of posts shared on her Instagram Stories, Emily, who wrote international bestseller Something Borrowed, shared a screenshot of her texts, and an image of Meghan Speaking out: She also shared more of her thoughts on the video, while slamming Meghan for not including Harry in the clip Odd: Interestingly, Emily, pictured posing with Harry and Meghan cardboard cutouts, said in a 2018 interview that she 'likes the royals' and was planning to write a book about them In a later Instagram Stories post, Emily - who, ironically, describes herself as an 'anglophile' on Instagram, shared a grab from the video, which she captioned: 'Happy Birthday Archie. Go away Megan.' She continued in a third post: 'Adorable child and book. But... Holy "me first". This is the Megan show. Why didn't she film and let Harry read? And why didn't she take the moment at the end to say "He said daddy!" Because that would make it about Harry for a split second. God forbid. 'Also, you want privacy for your child so you put our a video (by your authorized biographer) of him... wearing no pants?! Ooookay.' Emily's very candid thoughts about the clip - which was filmed in aid of non-profit organization Save the Children UK, and posted to the charity's Save with Stories Instagram account - sparked a furious backlash online, prompting her to make all of her social media private in the hours after the posts were first shared and then re-posted to Twitter by user Kaitlin Menza. Omid Scobie, a royal correspondent and author of an upcoming biography about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Finding Freedom, slammed Emily, calling her 'hateful and pathetic'. Another person added: 'She clearly wants all the negative engagement she can get. She's about to realize the Meghan haters don't buy books or donate to charity. Hate is their only currency.' The author was also accused of racism, with one Twitter user writing: 'White women hating black women who just mind their business and simply exist will always amuse me. She looks like one of those women that belittles everything black women do. How sad, pathetic and spiteful.' 'Wow. (And I don't mean that in a good way.)' another person wrote. 'Way to show their racist underbellies. That is not a good look on anyone. Meghan can't win with these people.' One user then added: 'The fact that she uses her Instagram as a platform to bully someone who has never harmed anyone and she still thinks shes a better person than Meghan is beyond me. People need to look themselves in the mirror!' A handful of people came to Emily's defense however, pointing out that her criticism of Meghan isn't necessarily rooted in race. However, following the backlash, Emily issued an official apology, insisting that she never meant for her words to have such a 'negative impact', and that she 'loves that a biracial, American woman' had married into the Royal Family. Firing back: Royal correspondent Omid Scobie, author of upcoming Harry and Meghan biography, Finding Freedom, slammed Emily as 'hateful and pathetic' Fury: Others chimed in to share their outrage over Emily's comments, with many accusing her of truly 'hateful' behavior 'Sad, pathetic and spiteful': One person accused Emily of being a 'white woman' who 'hates 'black women' Escalated: One Twitter user brought Emily's publisher, Random House, into the conversation, asking whether the company wants 'to be associated with someone like this' 'To be clear, I absolutely loved that a biracial, American woman was marrying into the Royal Family,' she wrote on Instagram. 'It seemed a wonderful, happy thing for everyone. I celebrated their wedding by hosting a gathering here at my home and posting many, many photos. Further, I was appalled by any signs of racism against her.' She continued by admitting that her 'feelings about both Harry and Meghan have changed' in the past few months, but made clear that her comments about them did not have 'anything to do with [Meghan's] race. 'Further, I understood why she wanted to leave the monarchy and carve out her own path,' Emily wrote. 'I do, however, find fault with the way BOTH she and Harry handled things, and those feelings bled over in later posts, including the ones today. 'I can see how some of my posts may have felt mean-spirited, and could be construed as having racial undertones. It was not my intent, but I understand that intent and impact are two very different things. And I am truly sorry for that negative impact.' According to her Twitter critics, this is not the first time that Emily has been accused of posting 'hateful' things online, with one person accusing her of 'behaving like this regularly'. Indeed this is not the first time that Emily has come under fire for hitting out at the Sussex family; when Archie was born, she posted several Instagram Stories videos hitting out at the new parents' choice of name and its lack of royal heritage. Emily also attacked Harry and Meghan's decision not to give their son a royal title. 'Then we have Archie, which has absolutely no history in the centuries of the British family,' she said in the clip. 'No Archies, no Archibald...' She continued by saying: 'Just Archie. Just Archie Harrison. Just Archie Harrison. 'No royal title for Archie. Just Master Archie.' Interestingly, Emily revealed in a 2018 interview with US Weekly that she was actually considering writing a book about the royal family, using Harry and Meghan's relationship as her inspiration, telling the publication that she 'likes the royals'. Backlash: Emily's comments about the video, which was shared in aid of non-profit Save the Children, sparked outrage Upset: Some people accused Emily of racism over her comments, prompting her to issue an apology in which she insisted she never meant her words to have a 'negative impact' 'Im toying with the idea of something set in the world of the royals,' she said at the time. 'Did you know that I like the royals? Did you know that? Maybe in the backdrop of the story line. 'I think as much as I love the monarchy, I lived in England, I got up early to watch [Princess] Dianas wedding when I was seven years old. I watched The Crown, Im obsessed with all things, Im an anglophile.' She added: 'I think it would be really fun to set a book, a story, within that backdrop. Lets say, for example, theres an actress, and she gets to go on a blind date occurrence and then marries him. Shes really dysfunctional. Im kidding. But that would be a good book.' Emily's criticism of Meghan and Archie's video came just as the husband of the late author of the children's book featured in the clip told DailyMail.com that he found the Duchess's reading 'beautiful, genuine, and relatable'. In an email, Jason Rosenthal, the surviving husband of the late Amy Krouse Rosenthal said that he was touched to see his late wife's book come alive with Meghan, Archie, and Prince Harry. 'Although Meghan Markle is clearly one of the most famous people in the world, seeing her read Duck! Rabbit! to her son Archie was so relatable to any parent anywhere,' he said. 'There he was squirming around, smiling and just being a regular little boy. What a testament to Amy that her book has such meaning to so many families.' The video, which was filmed by Harry last weekend in California, was posted on the Save the Children UK's Instagram page Wednesday as part of the celebrity-backed Save With Stories campaign to help support kids affected by the coronavirus pandemic. A statement released by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed the mom chose to read Duck! Rabbit! because it is one of 'Archie's favorite stories' Meghan's choice of Duck! Rabbit! suggests an early desire in her to teach her son to see both sides of an argument. Published in 2009, the story features two unseen people debating whether the creature before them is a duck or a rabbit, with each making arguments to push their case. Freeman Mbowe was rushed to hospital after an attack the opposition Chadema party dubbed politically motivated. Tanzanias main opposition party says its chairman has been hospitalised after being beaten in a politically-motivated attack, as police said they would investigate the assault. Freeman Mbowe was ambushed by unknown assailants as he returned home late on Monday in the capital Dodoma, and rushed to hospital with injuries, his Chadema party said in a statement on Tuesday. Unknown people surrounded him and assaulted him before he started taking the stairs. Though these people had carried firearms, they didnt use them, said Chademas Secretary-General John Mnyika. A high-profile critic of President John Magufuli, Mbowe has repeatedly accused the government of covering up the extent of Tanzanias coronavirus outbreak and failing to take the pandemic seriously. This is a politically-motivated attack. Our priority now is his health, Mnyika told local media. Police said they were investigating reports that Mbowe had been set upon by three men who broke his leg, but warned against politicising the incident. The police will conduct a thorough investigation. Nothing will be left out, Dodoma Regional Police Commander Gilles Muroto told local media. This is an incident like any other. It is forbidden to use it for political purposes. The assault comes a day after Chadema MP Tundu Lissu announced his intention to run against Magufuli in the presidential election scheduled for October. Lissu lives in self-imposed exile in Belgium, where he was treated after being shot several times at his home in Tanzania in 2017. Outspoken critic In recent months, Mbowe accused Magufuli of being in a state of denial over the coronavirus and warned that his government was hiding information about the real scale of the crisis. Tanzania is one of few countries in Africa that has not taken extensive measures against the virus, and Magufuli is among a handful of world leaders still downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic. On Tuesday, President Magufuli declared the East African country coronavirus-free thanks to prayers by citizens. Tanzania stopped updating information about its cases in April. The following month, the US embassy in Tanzania issued an advisory warning of exponential growth of COVID-19 cases and overwhelmed hospitals, earning a rebuke from the foreign ministry. Mbowe in May asked Tanzanias legislators to stop attending parliament sessions and isolate themselves after three MPs died of unknown causes. Chadema has faced increasing hostility under Magufuli, who took office in 2015 as a corruption-fighting man of the people but has been criticised for his authoritarian leadership style. Rights groups say his administration has crushed dissent, jailed critics and passed draconian laws that have weakened freedoms in Tanzania, once seen as a bastion of democracy in a tumultuous part of East Africa. Chadema has accused police of breaking up party meetings, and its activists have been kidnapped and beaten. Mbowe and several other opposition MPs were briefly jailed in March over a banned protest against Magufuli. Manish Sisodia New Delhi: A meeting chaired by Deputy Governor Anil Baijal was convened on Tuesday to discuss the threat of community spread of corona virus in Delhi. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Health Minister Satyendra Jain. In this meeting, Manish Sisodia said that if the cases continue to increase like this, there will be more than 5 lakh coronavirus cases by July 31. Advertisement Manish SisodiaAfter the meeting, Manish Sisodia said, "I raised the issue of reopening all the hospitals in Delhi and asked LG Sahib why the government's decision was overturned, but the Governor could not respond." Sisodia said that the decision of LG Sahib has created a problem for the people of Delhi. At the current rate of corona cases, it seems that 15,000 beds will be needed by June 30 and 80,000 beds by July 31. In addition, there could be more than 5 lakh cases till July 31. After the meeting, Deputy Governor Anil Baijal has called an all-party meeting at 3 p.m. CoronavirusThe meeting will discuss the current situation regarding Corona and measures to prevent it. Leaders of Aam Aadmi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress are likely to attend the meeting. Records that could reveal whether there was any wrongdoing by Palm Beach prosecutors in their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case will remain sealed, at least for now, a judge has ruled. Palm Beach County Circuit Court Chief Judge Krista Marx dismissed portions of a lawsuit filed by the Palm Beach Post that sought release of the 2006 state grand jury probe into Epsteins sex crimes. In her Monday order, Marx concluded that the Post had no standing to demand that the state attorney, Dave Aronberg, or the county clerk, Sharon Bock, unseal the documents. Rather, it should have sought a court order which would mean that Marx, as chief judge, could be the final arbiter of whether the public will ever know how and why Epstein got special treatment in Palm Beach County. On Friday, the Miami Herald revealed that Marx has both professional and family ties to three of the politicians who are prominent players in the case: Barry Krischer, the then-state attorney who balked at prosecuting Epstein for major crimes; Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, who allowed Epstein to receive liberal work release; and Aronberg, a political ally of Krischers who was sued by the Post. Palm Beach County Chief Circuit Judge Krista Marx The actions of Krischer and Bradshaw are the subject of the Florida Department of Law Enforcements investigation into the handling of the case. In a separate quest, the special criminal prosecutors appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to investigate the Epstein case are also seeking to unseal the grand jury file. Marx ruled against them in January. Marx did not inform the lawyers for the Post or special prosecutors that she worked for Krischer as a state prosecutor from 1992 to 1998, before the Epstein case. Marx also didnt disclose that her daughter works as an assistant state attorney for Aronberg, and her son works as a deputy sheriff under Bradshaw. Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw Marx chairs the states Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates complaints against judges. The criminal prosecutors want to examine whether Krischers office ever told the grand jury the full scope of Epsteins crimes, or whether state prosecutors obstructed justice by keeping key evidence from the panel. The grand jury returned a minor charge of solicitation of prostitution against Epstein, who later managed to negotiate a lenient federal plea deal that resulted in his serving 13 months in the Palm Beach county jail, much of it from his lavish office in West Palm Beach. Story continues Epstein, a multimillionaire financier accused of sexually abusing countless underage girls, got remarkable treatment from both state and federal prosecutors. The 2008 federal probe, overseen by former Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, led to a non-prosecution agreement that sent the case back to state court, where Epstein entered his plea and was forced to register as a sex offender. He was released from jail in 2009. While grand jury records are sealed in Florida, the evidence that is collected and presented can be disclosed during trial. Since Epstein took a plea deal, none of the grand jury evidence has been released even though the case was disposed of more than a decade ago, and Epstein is now dead. Epstein, 66, was rearrested by federal authorities in New York in July on sex trafficking charges. He was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell a month later, and his death was ruled a suicide. Prosecutors in New York are now scrutinizing other people suspected of helping Epstein abuse girls and young women. That case is ongoing. In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether there was any wrongdoing on the part of federal prosecutors, who took over the case after the Palm Beach grand jury initially failed to indict Epstein on more serious child-sex charges. Former Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer In Florida a judge can be disqualified from a case if the judge or one of his/her family members has a direct relationship with one of the parties involved in the case. Judicial ethics call for the judge to disclose any business relationships that the judge believes the parties or their lawyers might consider relevant to the question of disqualification, even if the judge believes there is no real basis for the qualification. Marxs husband, Palm Beach Circuit Judge Joe Marx, does have a disclosure on his county webpage noting that he would recuse himself from any cases that involve his two stepchildren. But Judge Krista Marxs webpage does not mention any such disclosure. Judge Krista Marx has declined to comment. She was not the judge assigned to handle the case. In Mondays order, Marx said she took over the case from another judge because, as chief judge, she has jurisdiction over grand jury matters. Aronberg, a former member of the Florida Senate and a regular commentator on MSNBC, has said he doesnt have custody of the 2006 grand jury records. He is close allies with Krischer, who served on Aronbergs transitional committee, and Krischer also has done some unspecified volunteer work as a sworn assistant district attorney in Aronbergs office, the Post has reported. The state attorneys office has not responded to the Heralds request that he clarify Krischers role in the agency. Krischer is also a paid volunteer in Bradshaws sheriffs department. Public records show that he has earned over $112,000 as a consultant. There is no low too low for President Trump. No lie hes not willing to tell. Trump provided more proof of his devotion to Russian propaganda by smearing a peaceful 75-year-old Buffalo Catholic activist who was seriously injured by police, in a tweet based on a conspiracy theory spread by a Kremlin-linked broadcaster. It was his fault, and he staged the brutality inflicted on him by two Buffalo police officers. President Trump identified the protester, Martin Gugino, as an ANTIFA provocateur, one of the ridiculous lies bouncing around in right-wing media circles and being broadcast on the rabidly pro-Trump One America News Network by Russian propagandist Kristian Rouz A new report finds the latest tensions in the Buffalo Police Department could be the result of a false-flag provocation by far-left group Antifa, Rouz reported for OANN. Kristian Rouz, based in San Diego, continues to work simultaneously for OANN and the Kremlin-owned Sputnik news aggregator that played a role in Russias 2016 election interference, cited in a report by The Conservative Treehouse (CTH). Gugino was attempting to capture the radio communications signature of Buffalo police officers, claimed the right-wing news blog. CTH noted what he was attempting as he was walked up to the police on Thursday night to hack into the police radio signal by waving his cell phone across the officers communications belt. The practice, known as skimming, is an old trick used by Antifa to locate police officers and plan violent activities bypassing the police response, Rouz reported for OANN. In addition, the 75-year-old, whos been referred to as an agitator, was supposedly using the technology to blackout police communications. That, however, didnt quite work, and many Buffalo police officers support their embattled colleagues. President Trump swallowed the propaganda dished out by CTH through OANN whole and posted a Tweet early this morning. Trump suggested that the 75-year-old Gugino, who remains hospitalized after being shoved to the ground by two Buffalo police officers causing his head to hit the pavement, could be an ANTIFA provocateur fell intentionally and injured himself to make the police look bad. Using the same strategy he used in the birther movement of Im just asking questions, Trump has decided to try to turn people who are anti-fascists into enemies of the people I watched, he fell harder than was pushed, the president wrote. Could be a setup? Trump is ignoring the fact that there is no such thing as an ANTIFA organization and theres a growing anti-fascist movement taking place that is increasingly drawing sympathy from Americans of all races and creeds. Many Americans are asking these questions: Didnt we fight WWII against fascism? Since when has our Democratic Republic tolerated fascism? Within minutes of the presidents attack on the elderly Buffalo protestor Martin Gugino, an angry backlash against the increasingly fascist Trump on social media erupted. Stephen Edward Schmidt, a longtime Republican operative and strategist who has worked on Republican political campaigns, including those of President George W. Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arizona Senator John McCain insists that Trump is acting like a desperate cornered animal. Hes capable of anything in an attempt to hold power. He knows that if he loses this Presidential Election, hes facing trial in New York as Individual #1 the unindicted coconspirator who colluded to pay off witnesses to keep his secrets before the 2016 election in the case that leads to one of his personal lawyers Michael Cohen to plea bargain to a 3-year federal sentence. The crime is also a state crime. Buffalo protest shows police pushing 75-year-old man When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats took a knee Monday on Capitol Hill to honor the life of George Floyd, the internet's eyes jumped to the colorful fabric draped around their shoulders. Kente cloth - woven with vibrant strips of silk and cotton - comes from Ghana, where people wear it to show patriotism or celebrate a special occasion. It is associated with royalty, pride and black identity. Why did the Democrats sport it while unveiling a broad police reform bill? "The significance of the kente cloth is our African heritage and, for those of you without that heritage who are acting in solidarity," Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told reporters at Emancipation Hall. "That is the significance of the kente cloth - our origins and respecting our past." The Black Caucus handed out the cloths to the lawmakers. The sartorial statement quickly went viral, sparking strong reactions on social media. "I know we are in unexpected times and anything is possible but listen man I did not have 'Pelosi in Kente cloth' on the bingo card," wrote editor Hanif Abdurraqib in a widely shared tweet. "Everyone was texting me these Kente Cloth photos," wrote Questlove, drummer for the Roots. "I had to come here to make sure the Roots weren't pranking me." Writer Roxane Gay tweeted: "I am not sure what's funnier, those ridiculous politicians wearing kente cloth or Cory Booker smartly opting out of that absurd performance." Across the Atlantic, some in Ghana followed the buzz with a mix of appreciation and skepticism. "I saw that and I was like, 'Wow,' " said Jermaine Nkrumah, the head of a television network in Ghana's capital, Accra. "The optics look good, but what happens when the cameras go away?" He wants to see more action. "There's always this elevation of emotion in the United States," he said. "Then it dies down and everything reverts back to normalcy. We want it to be different this time." After video surfaced of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of Floyd before his death, protesters marched in Accra. The government held a memorial service for the slain American. Another hashtag emerged: #AfricaForBlackLives. "The connection with the U.S., with the African American community, is very deep," Nkrumah said. "It stems from the slave trade 400 years ago. We have a natural feeling to be in this fight." The congressional Democrats wore Ghanaian textiles as they urged President Donald Trump to back measures pointed at strengthening accountability in law enforcement and quashing racial profiling. The proposed Justice in Policing Act of 2020 would outlaw chokeholds and create a national database to track police misconduct. "We cannot settle for anything less than transformative, structural change," Pelosi, D-Calif., said at the bill's televised debut. "I can't believe Pelosi wearing Kente Cloth right now," tweeted Ja'Mal Green, a civil rights advocate and community organizer in Chicago. "It's blowing my mind, I can't even watch this press conference!" It wasn't Pelosi's first time. She put on a stole last year during a visit to Ghana. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, meanwhile, wore yellow, green and black pieces to Trump's first State of the Union address - a move to support the African nations he had described in derogatory terms, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., told the Grio at the time. (Bass's office did not immediately respond for comment.) The fabric can represent resistance. Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, imprisoned for opposing British colonial rule, donned kente when he was released in 1951. Erieka Bennett, who leads the Diaspora African Forum, a cultural networking group in Accra, said she applauded the spirit of the Democrats' gesture. "It means a lot to us," she said. "It's the beginning of a conversation." Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:22:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close People fish on the Galata Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 9, 2020. The old bridge at the historical heart of Turkey's biggest city Istanbul on Tuesday is filled with anglers, raising concerns of the Turkish government and local authorities over the spread of COVID-19. After the government eased the COVID-19 restrictions last week, more than 500 fishermen each day flocked to the Galata Bridge, a hotspot fishing location in the European part of the city, spanning the Golden Horn. (Photo by Osman Orsal/Xinhua) by Zeynep Cermen Osman Orsal ISTANBUL, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The old bridge at the historical heart of Turkey's biggest city Istanbul on Tuesday is filled with anglers, raising concerns of the Turkish government and local authorities over the spread of COVID-19. After the government eased the COVID-19 restrictions last week, more than 500 fishermen each day flocked to the Galata Bridge, a hotspot fishing location in the European part of the city, spanning the Golden Horn. The crowd immediately drew the attention of the Turkish government and local authorities, raising their concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca issued a warning particularly for those fishers on the bridge from his Twitter account on June 6. Commenting on a photo that showed the crowd, Koca said that "we understand from the photo taken ... on the Galata Bridge that the 1.5-meter distance rule among fishermen has not been followed." Municipal police forces also started to patrol the bridge and warn anglers to follow the social distancing rule. Hikmet Durak, a frequenter of the bridge, is a retired Istanbul resident. "I am afraid of COVID-19," Durak said, pulling his face mask upward towards his nose. "I am warning those who come closer to me," he told Xinhua. Huseyin Demir, a 45-year-old Istanbul resident, used to be among the frequenters of the bridge. But now, he prefers to go to the Karakoy port for fishing as it is calmer and safer. "The bridge is the most crowded fishing location in the entire city," he told Xinhua. In Demir's view, most of the regulars of the bridge are economically deprived people and their sole concern is to make a living out of some fish they can get each day. With 900 to 1,000 new cases are recorded each day, the coronavirus still poses a significant threat to the Turkish society, said health officials. On Monday, Turkey confirmed 989 new COVID-19 cases and 19 more deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of cases in the country to 171,121 and the death toll to 4,711, according to the latest official data. Enditem Real Talk: From Hurt to Hope 5 Simple Ways to Get Involved in 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. Within the past two weeks in American history the ugly underbelly of passive racism has been exposed. Race relations in America have come to a head, spawning the ultimate takeaway that progress is still possible. What started with the public execution of George Floyd has spurred a civil rights movement. Today, this moment in civil rights has become larger than the crime it has incited. RELATED: Here's What You Can Do to Help the Black Lives Matter Cause As a person of color, there are so many emotions Ive experienced. The most important thing I have recognized: every emotion Ive experienced is valid. Our feelings, opinions and perspectives on this moment in history are allowed to be as volatile and varied as the issue of systemic racism in America is. The intersectionality of being Jamaican, and Chinese, and gay has heavily impacted my perspective on issues of racism in America. Too black to be Asian, too Asian to black, and often tacitly rejected, unable to claim either for being gay. From an early age, Ive learned that if I allowed others to define my ethnicity Id be confused by my identity to this day. Conversely, Ive had the privilege of knowing where I come from, enabling me to unapologetically claim my Blackness and my Asian-ness. Having a rich heritage and sense of self, Ive been able to navigate through my American experience with empathy for a broad spectrum of races: knowing what it is to be treated differently based on what race others see in me. Experiencing these racial complexities has helped me understand the state of race relations in our nation today. To those who dont understand what the big deal is, having compassion for a topic you dont understand is paramount. If you understand how it hurts when someone doesnt understand your pain, I hope you can imagine how it hurts when someone refuses to even try. Hurt has turned into rage, and through the awakening of black allies, my rage has subsided, and I feel hope. The largest realization to come from this moment is that Black Americans those who felt disenfranchised by our political system, hopeless in fighting for change; those who have given up the fight can see a clear path to a better future. I hope this moment kindles the fires of inactive allies, and reignites the fires of those weve left behind. A resident of Brooklyn, NY, Ive taken the past week to get involved. Participating in protests organized by groups like @JusticeForGeorgeNYC, and donating to organizations that have pledged to match my contributions like Universal Music Group and The NAACP Defense and Education Fund. Through these acts of participation and the witnessing of real results, Ive been inspired to continue my small acts of civil activism. The overwhelming support from allies has given me hope that our country has reached a turning point. So How Do We Continue the Fight? Get Involved The movement must continue. The issues and frustration expressed by these community leaders dont end when the news cycle changes. Here are small actions anyone can take to make a difference. Speak Out: Via social media, at the dinner table, no matter the medium you use to express yourself. Dont be silent. Be heard, even if its uncomfortable. This is no time to be comfortable. Via social media, at the dinner table, no matter the medium you use to express yourself. Dont be silent. Be heard, even if its uncomfortable. This is no time to be comfortable. Donate: Find a relevant cause that supports the movement against civil injustice and contribute what you can. Find a relevant cause that supports the movement against civil injustice and contribute what you can. Brand Boycotting: Exercise your consumer sovereignty by taking a stand against brands that support racist political agendas. Look into black-owned businesses for the purchase of everyday items and beyond. Exercise your consumer sovereignty by taking a stand against brands that support racist political agendas. Look into black-owned businesses for the purchase of everyday items and beyond. Social Media Activism: More than just reposting civil justice graphics and memes, hold the people in your social circle accountable for not saying enough. Unfollow brands and influencers that chose to stand for nothing #weedthemout. More than just reposting civil justice graphics and memes, hold the people in your social circle accountable for not saying enough. Unfollow brands and influencers that chose to stand for nothing #weedthemout. Stay Woke: Stay informed and active. Know what's happening in your local community and government in general. This includes registering to vote and actually voting for those who support what matters to you. You Might Also Dig: Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Tuesday said the central leadership of BJP had discussed him before finalising the names of two "low profile" party workers as candidates for June 19 Rajya Sabha polls from Karnataka. The BJP's central leadership on Monday had sprung a surprise by fielding Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha election ignoring the recommendations of the party state unit. "BJP central leaders have given Rajya Sabha tickets totwo ordinary workers of the party and thereby have given a gift to karyakarts. I compliment Prime Minister Narednra Modi, party national President JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah for this," Yediyurappa said. Speaking to reporters here, he expressed confidence that both candidates would work effectively in Rajya Sabha. "Only BJP can take such decisions and give opportunity to ordinary karyakartas. From our core committee (state) we had sent some names, but ultimately our national president spoke to me and said it has been decided to give tickets to ordinary party workers, we discussed it, after which the two names have been finalised." The state BJP core committee on Saturday had recommended three names to high command as probable candidates-Ramesh Katti, the brother of senior MLA Umesh Katti, incumbent Prabhakar Kore and hotelier Prakash Shetty. Ignoring the state unit's recommendation, two low-key workers Kadadi and Gasti, who have been associated with the party organisation for long, were announced on Monday afternoon by the central leadership. Responding to a question about new names other than the ones decided by the state core committee being announced, Yediyurappa said, "we had sent names after deciding in the core committee. In Delhi under the leadership of the Prime Minister, senior leaders have met and decided to give tickets to ordinary party workers." "It is not for our state alone, the decision is applicable to other states also, I welcome it," he said. While, Kadadi, a Lingayat is party's Belagavi division in-charge; Gasti from Savitha Samaj (barber community) from Raichur district is party in-charge for the Bellary division. Both are with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad background and have worked for the organisation at the grass root level for decades. They will be filing nominations today. The announcement of two names came as a complete surprise to the party state unit and has certainly given a clear message to its leadership, a senior party functionary said, adding "it is a clear indication that loyalty to the party and ideology is what matters, and not to any particular leader." It is also part of a strategy to nurture and elevate second-rung leaders, he noted. The move is also being seen as a setback to Yediyurappa, as names considered close to him have not been considered. This has come at a time for Yediyurappa when there are speculations about dissidence within the state BJP against his leadership, with several MLAs, especially from north Karnataka recently holding separate meetings. Election is scheduled on June 19 to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, represented by Rajeev Gowda and B K Hariprasad of Congress, Prabhakar Kore of the BJP and D. Kupendra Reddy of JD(S) that will fall vacant on June 25, with their retirement. The BJP, with 117 members in the assembly (including Speaker), can ensure easy victory in two seats. WATERLOO City leaders are considering major law enforcement and social justice reforms in the wake of protests following the death of George Floyd. Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart said newly hired Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald plans to unveil a plan of action next week, while at least one council member Monday demanded real change. Councilman Pat Morrissey laid out a dozen proposals, which included defunding nine positions in the police department and using the savings to hire eight social workers and supervisors trained in de-escalating conflict and handling mental health issues. If trouble erupts, the public expects officers to restore that peace, not incite, mistreat, abuse nor deny anyone human and/or constitutional rights, Morrissey said. All too often, though, peace has not been restored, especially so for my brothers and sisters who dont don the pale skin like mine. I am angry inside about what people of color have and continue to be subjected to, he added. Morrissey also called for the city to pass an ordinance banning racial profiling and adopting a social justice tool-kit; refusing to employ peace officers with histories of violent behavior or racists remarks; ridding the police department of any military equipment; and banning the use of chemicals and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters. He also called for the city to remove the griffin symbol from police vehicles and uniforms. While the griffin is a Greek mythological creature symbolizing vigilance, its use has been hotly criticized by black residents. The griffin is seen by many, especially within the African-American community, as a symbol of violence, hate and bigotry, Morrissey said. Morrisseys proposals also included calling on the state to restore voting rights to convicted felons who have served their time and to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Several other council members last week had voiced a desire to discuss reforms as activists in Waterloo and around the nation have taken to the streets to demand change after Floyd died while in Minneapolis police custody on Memorial Day. Hart urged council members to give Fitzgerald, who took over as chief June 1, a chance to work on a very aggressive agenda. Hes going to make a presentation to the City Council (June 15) on how hes going to get input from staff, the community, and from council, Hart said. Hes also going to lay out some of the changes that have already occurred, which is some of the things weve been seeing people advocating for. He told Morrissey some of the suggestions you have, youll be greatly surprised next week as we continue this discussion to make real change. Love 17 Funny 26 Wow 5 Sad 5 Angry 37 The opposition National Communication Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has accused the President, Nana Akufo-Addo of being insensitive to Ghanaians for increasing the BOST margin, a tax component on petroleum products, by 100 percent. Ghanaians beginning June 1, 2020, started paying more for fuel at the pumps following Cabinets decision to increase the BOST margin from three pesewas to six pesewas per litre of fuel. Addressing the press on Monday, Sammy Gyamfi intimated that: This latest action of President Akufo-Addo at a time the nation is grappling with the coronavirus pandemic and its attendant economic effects is a monumental betrayal of the trust of Ghanaians and smacks of insensitivity of the highest order. President Akufo Addo's decision to punish the already impoverished Ghanaian with more taxes, for his corrupt acts and that of his errant appointees that have brought BOST to its knees is most insensitive and completely unacceptable. Even more bizarre and painful is the fact that, after running down BOST through corruption and thievery, President Akufo-Addo who preached against the imposition of taxes on petroleum products while in opposition, and promised to move Ghana from taxation to production if elected, has recently increased the BOST Margin the Mahama government had promised to scrap, by 100% on petroleum products, that is from 3 pesewas to 6 pesewas, ostensibly to raise funds for the management of the company he has collapsed. Background Two weeks ago, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) in a statement said the BOST margin which used to be three pesewas per litre had been increased by an additional three pesewas. The regulator in the statement explained that the increment was approved by Cabinet. We write to inform you of a review of the BOST Margin in the Price Build-Up (PBU) of petroleum products effective 1st June 2020. This is in line with a decision taken by Cabinet and communicated to the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) by the Ministry of Energy, the statement said. But Sammy Gyamfi who was speaking at the launch of the NDCs Corruption Tracker Series accused the President of deceiving Ghanaians. citinewsroom Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has given the go-signal to allow some airports, such as the Clark International Airport and Mactan International Airport, to resume operations amid eased quarantine rules. Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said this is to allow faster travel time and decongestion of passenger traffic at the Ninoy Aquino Internatonal Airport (NAIA), while Metro Manila and some other provinces are under the general community quarantine. "Ito ho ay malaking tulong kung saan yung pag-uwi at pag-eksamen sa manggagawa ay mapapabilis," Tugade said in a media briefing on Tuesday in Clark, Pampanga with other Cabinet officials. [Translation: This will be of big help to workers who need to come home and get tested at a faster pace.] "Bago ho ang linggong ito, concentrated tayo sa NAIA Terminal 1, 2 and 3," he said. "Ngayong umaga ginamit yung CIAP (Clark International Airport Project). Noong Sabado, binuksan na ang Mactan International Airport at nag-umpisa na." [Translation: Before this week, operations at the NAIA Terminals 1, 2 and 3 were concentrated. This morning, CIAP was operational. Last Saturday, Mactan International Airport started operating.] The Davao International Airport also reopened on Monday for domestic flights, with the implementation of strict safety protocols, Tugade disclosed. "Ngayong araw na ito (Tuesday), sa aming pakikipag-ugnayan sa LGU ng Davao mag-uumpisa na yung domestic flights," he said. [Translation: Today, with our coordination with the Davao LGU, domestic flights would resume.] The DOTr is also targeting resumption of domestic flights to Zamboanga, General Santos City, and Iloilo City. The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has previously allowed domestic flights to resume in areas under GCQ, with the approval of corresponding LGUs. After two months of suspension, major airline companies announced the resumption of domestic flights starting June 3 after the national government eased quarantine measures in Metro Manila and other areas. 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. A protestor takes a knee in front of the police scrimmage line at a demonstration in Hancock Park on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) Last Tuesday afternoon, thousands of people gathered in Hancock Park outside the home of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for an anti-racism protest quietly organized by Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. Helicopters roared overhead but the voices of the protestors could not be silenced as they chanted George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the names of many other Black Americans killed by police. Their two demands: to prosecute the police officers involved in these killings and to defund police departments while reinvesting that money in community resources. Police officers in riot gear formed a skirmish line at 6th and Irving streets, cutting off access west on 6th Street where more officers waited. At one point, a group of protestors sat down and chanted "I don't see no riot here, why are you in riot gear?" When police left the area before the 6 p.m. curfew, people cheered. The protest remained non-violent. It was a stark difference from some of the protests the weekend before last, which began peacefully but escalated with heavy police presence and resulted in multiple injuries as demonstrators and journalists were hit with batons, shot with rubber bullets and tear-gassed. Around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, organizers called an end to the protest. Dozens of people stayed past curfew and continued chanting. A woman led the crowd in yoga and breathwork, an elder in the Black community spoke about the various ways to seek justice and demonstrators sat for a moment of silence. A speaker rallies the crowd and shares his perspective on the various forms of protest at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Hancock Park on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) One activist who spoke emphasized that this was an act of civil disobedience and that people who stayed longer could face arrest. By my guess, approximately 150 protestors remained and marched through residential streets in Hancock Park, making their way to Wilshire Boulevard where they were met with multiple lines of riot police performing a kettling maneuver. The crowd split up and turned onto side streets but they were eventually cornered and arrested. I was briefly detained. One protestor cuffed by thick plastic bands, shared that he spent the day dropping off groceries for people before heading to the protest. "Doing it for the people," he explained, as we were marched to the police bus loading area on 8th Street and Crenshaw Boulevard. A protestor writes the phone number of a lawyer on their arm in case they get arrested at a demonstration outside L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's house on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) While handcuffed and waiting for buses to arrive, the protestors continued chanting George Floyd's name. Before I was loaded onto the bus, a fellow reporter, Lexis-Olivier Ray, was able to show the police my journalism work. At around 10 p.m., I was released. Other people weren't so lucky. More than 100 protestors were detained. Some were taken to the 77th Street Community Police Station in South Central where they were given citations with court dates in the fall. What I saw that day was a multi-ethnic group of people who were outraged, motivated, and ready for systemic change. They were met by an incredible show of force orchestrated by the LAPD for violating curfew, a curfew that the ACLU challenged as a First Amendment violation and the city dropped. Protestors persisted even while in handcuffs and being loaded on police buses. To see this level of commitment for Black lives across races and ethnicities felt like a shift. This wasn't a random event and it didn't happen overnight. Protests like these took decades of organizing and activism. Protestors remain outside of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's house, demanding justice for those killed by police and calling on him to defund the LAPD. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) Black Lives Matter activist Janaya Future Khan speaks to the crowd in front of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's house on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) Volunteers pass out water at a protest in front of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's house on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) Protestors take a knee at a demonstration outside L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's house on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) Actor and activist Kendrick Sampson speaks to a news reporter at a protest outside L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's house on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) Protestors raise their fists and chant as they march through Hancock Park during at a Black Lives Matter demonstration on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) Protestors gather at 6th and Irving in Hancock Park outside L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's house on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) The leader of an LAPD police unit makes his way through the crowd as people hold up signs at a Black Lives Matter protest in Hancock Park on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) A police officer holds a rubber bullet gun behind the scrimmage line on 6th Street during a protest outside L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's house on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) A group of police officers gather behind the scrimmage line on 6th Street during a Black Lives Matter protest outside of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's home. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) A helicopter roared overhead as thousands of people chanted George Floyd and Breonna Taylor's names during a demonstration in Hancock Park on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) Black Lives Matter activist Janaya Future Khan confronts police in front of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's house on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) People demonstrate against racism and police brutality at a protest in Hancock Park outside L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's house on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) Protestors sit and raise their fists in unison at a Black Lives Matter protest outside L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's house on Tuesday, June 2, 2020.. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) Protestors march together in Hancock Park on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Samanta Helou Hernandez for LAist) MORE COVERAGE A senior police chief has admitted the PSNI was still grappling with how to enforce the controversial 14-day quarantine as it came into force on Monday. Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd said the "practical details" of how the new rules will work is still being finalised. From Monday, anyone arriving into the UK from abroad via plane, ferry or train is required to provide an address where they will self-isolate for 14 days. The UK rules, however, do not apply to visitors from other parts of the Common Travel Area (CTA). Fines of 100 can be issued to travellers who do not correctly fill in the required forms, with surprise visits by police potentially leading to fines of up to 1,000 in England for individuals breaking the rules. In the rest of the UK, fines start at 60, reduced to 30 if paid early. Repeat offences rise to a maximum of 480 in Scotland, 960 in Northern Ireland and 1,920 in Wales. The regulations do not affect travel between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Overseas visitors arriving at Dublin Airport will be required to fill in a passenger locator form. But those heading straight to Northern Ireland do not have to state where they are staying to self-isolate. It is still not known how information between the two jurisdictions will be shared. Expand Close Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd Travellers arriving in the UK from within the Common Travel Area - which includes the Republic, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands - will not need to self-isolate unless they have arrived in the CTA in the last 14 days. This closes the so-called 'Dublin dodge', a loophole that would have allowed passengers to make a quick trip to the Irish capital and claim exemption. The scheme has been met with widespread criticism from the aviation and tourism industries, which have warned the rules will cripple both sectors. Mr Todd admitted work is still under way over how the scheme will be implemented by the authorities. "The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 have been published which impose requirements on individuals arriving in Northern Ireland from a country outside the Common Travel Area," he explained. "We will be liaising with colleagues in the Department of Health and UK Border Force on the practical details of how they will be implemented." The development comes as TUV leader Jim Allister criticised the lack of apparent preparedness by authorities here in implementing the new rules, which he stressed may be ineffective. "There is something of a too little, too late feel to these proposals," he said. "They would have made more sense at the outset, but instead we kept receiving flights. Now, the greater danger to the UK from these proposals could be to the economy rather than from the virus. Expand Close TUV leader Jim Allister / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp TUV leader Jim Allister "I also question how such could be policed, particularly with the Common Travel Area dimension." His criticism comes as former World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Professor Karol Sikora branded the scheme "bizarre". "It's a very strange rule. Nobody's going on holiday but there will be a few people who will test out the system," he said. "Britain has put quarantine in far too late. It's ridiculous. If you're going to do it, it should have been done four weeks ago, not now. This is just silly. It's just tokenism. "It's unenforceable. Nobody's going to be travelling if they don't have to at the moment. People aren't looking to go on holiday, but if they do, they'll try and go by Dublin." He also added that he believed the steps had been taken for political rather than scientific reasons by the Government. However, the scheme has been defended by First Minister Arlene Foster, who insisted the new rules were necessary. Speaking at Monday's daily Covid-19 Stormont briefing, she said: "I certainly don't think that it's a waste of time, because obviously if people are coming in from places where the coronavirus infection rate is higher, then we run the risk of carrying the virus back in again to the United Kingdom. "That's certainly something we don't want to see happening. We want to eradicate it from Northern Ireland." Mrs Foster continued: "That's what we're focusing on doing ... We'll have to work with the UK Borders Agency to ensure that it is operable when visitors come. At the moment we have very few visitors, but obviously that will rise again as the lockdown restrictions are lifted." However, Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill acknowledged during the briefing that the scheme's complexities pose problems for the PSNI. "We looked very carefully at the level of fines that will be associated with not complying," she said. "No doubt it's difficult for the PSNI, across many of the regulations, to enforce it, but we continue to work with them to ensure that people comply with the regulations as drafted." Guidance released by the Department of Health here continues to advise that travel to other parts of the UK and Irish Republic "should only be undertaken if necessary". "You are strongly advised not to book foreign travel or travel abroad unless it is essential," said a spokesperson. Ukraine has received yet another batch of humanitarian aid with a wide range of medical devices from the Government of the People's Republic of China. According to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, its receipt was the result of close contacts between Ukraine and China at the high and highest levels in overcoming coronavirus disease. "The leadership and people of Ukraine are sincerely grateful to the Chinese side for the assistance and full support for Ukraines efforts to curb the coronavirus infection," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. According to him, the timely and large-scale assistance from the Chinese government greatly contributes to supporting Ukraines efforts in the fight against the spread of COVID-19. The minister also expressed confidence that the frank, open, and friendly atmosphere that had developed in relations between Ukraine and China would continue to strengthen and promote the comprehensive development of Ukraine-China strategic partnership. The humanitarian cargo includes a wide range of medical devices, namely: coronavirus diagnostic test kits (50,016 units), medical masks (50,000 units), medical goggles (30,000 units), contactless thermometers (1,000 units), medical surgical masks (200,000 units), medical protective suits (30,000 units), disposable medical gloves (50,000 units). On March 24, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky discussed with Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Ukraine Fan Xianrong the issues of bilateral cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 and asked the Chinese Government to provide additional assistance to Ukraine in the form of test kits, medical equipment, and drugs for coronavirus treatment. On April 1, the Chinese Government sent Ukraine the first batch of humanitarian aid, which included test kits, personal protective equipment, and contactless thermometers. ol BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 By Samir Ali Trend: The domestic flights will be resumed in Azerbaijan from June 15, Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers Ibrahim Mammadov said. Mammadov made the remark in Baku during a briefing at the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers, Trend reports on June 9. First of all, the flights to Azerbaijans Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic will be resumed, the spokesman added. "The relevant rules will be followed during the flights, Mammadov said. The [charter] flights to Azerbaijan from abroad are being made. Some 130 people have returned from Dagestan today. All of them are on quarantine now. As many as 210 people will arrive from New York to Baku on June 10. The Azerbaijani citizens staying abroad will be brought back gradually." Inflammatory-rheumatic disorders are a widespread ailment, affecting at least 1.5 million people in Germany alone. Because there is a shortage of rheumatologists, however, only half of the patients in this country are adequately treated (1,2). The use of other health care professionals, as is the case in Denmark and the UK, could help to improve the situation. A study in Germany has shown for the first time that the care of patients with inflammatory-rheumatic diseases by 'rheumatological assistants' (RFA*) is just as effective as treatment by specialist rheumatologists. To reduce waiting times and prevent damage to health, the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) strongly recommends the use of RFAs in Germany, which will be announced at a press conference on 3 June 2020 held for its annual congress. Around two percent of the adult population in Germany is affected by chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) or psoriatic arthritis (PsA) (1). "These patients have a considerable medical condition," explains Dr. Kirsten Hoeper from the Clinic for Rheumatology and Immunology at the Hanover Medical School in Germany. Missed opportunities for treating patients due to long waiting times Severe pain, extreme fatigue, lack of strength, stiffness and physical deformity can have a significant impact on activities, education and career, partnership and family and can lead to occupational disability. Early diagnosis and therapy are essential to prevent as far as possible such serious consequences of damage to the joints. "But the existing medical resources do not suffice to provide early, patient-centred and guideline-based care. The waiting times are far too long," states Hoeper. "This is despite the fact that new drugs could almost completely force the disease back into so-called remission for the majority of patients - provided that treatment is administered in good time." The deployment of RFAs could improve the situation, as is already well-established in some Northern European countries. RFAs are members of related medical professions such as paramedic, nurse, student nurse or road traffic/motor traffic accidents, who have acquired additional theoretical and practical knowledge about the care of patients suffering from rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) (3). Such a delegation of medical care in rheumatology is recommended worldwide (4-8, 9). "The legal framework for this also exists in Germany," says Hoeper (10). "In addition, the curriculum for the RFA degree exists since 2006, which is currently available to the German Medical Association for certification in an extended form (3). In order to examine whether and how RFAs can also be used in the German health care system, a prospective, randomised, controlled and multi-centre study was conducted, which was completed in December 2019. "A total of 236 patients from eight German centres participated in the study, where a blood test had confirmed the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis," explains the author of the study Hoeper. Study Involvement of RFAs produces the same treatment results On average, the patients were 58 years of age, over 70 percent were female and suffered from rheumatic complaints for a period of 130 (ranging from 12 to 144) months on average. While one study group was exclusively treated by rheumatologists during the twelve-month study period, the other study group RFAs temporarily took over the care at three fixed intervals with only brief contact to the physicians. The patients' condition was measured using the standard assessment form DAS28 (Disease Activity Score at 28 joints), which assesses the activity of the disease on an ascending scale from 2.0 to 10.0. Values between 3.2 and 5.1 are considered moderate. Result of the study: The structured delegation of medical tasks to an RFA does not undermine the current standard of care. While the disease activity for the group co-treated by RFAs was on average DAS28 2.43, the value for the group with continuous rheumatologist consultation was on average DAS28 2.29. "This difference is not clinically or statistically significant", concludes EULAR President Professor Dr. Iain B. McInnes from Glasgow, Scotland, UK. "For the first time it can be shown for Germany that an RFA consultation is a safe way to complement the care of patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis", says Professor Dr. med. John Isaacs from Newcastle, Great Britain, EULAR Scientific Programme Committee Chair. Better care in a cost-efficient way "Integrating a team approach comprising rheumatologists with other health professionals into the treatment of patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases presents great opportunities," emphasises McInnes. "RFAs can complement a physician's workload, who in turn can use freed-up resources for more complex or new patients," Hoeper adds. The long waiting times for an appointment with a rheumatologist could thus be cut shorter. Hoeper concludes, "by following the international EULAR Recommendations regarding RFAs, Germany will lead to better patient care in a cost-efficient way". ### *RFA: Rheumatologische Fachassistenz Notes to editors: 1. Zink A, Braun J, Gromnica-Ihle E, et al. [Memorandum of the German Society for Rheumatology on the quality of treatment in rheumatology - Update 2016]. Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie 2017;76:195-207. 2. Edelmann E. Outpatient rheumatologic treatment in Germany. Z Rheumatol 2014; 73:123-34. 3. Rheumaakademie. Rheumatologische Fachassistenz. https://www.rheumaakademie.de/jahresprogramm_2020; S. 48-55 4. Koksvik H, Hagen K, R_devand E, Mowinckel P, Kvien T, Zangi H. Patient satisfaction with nursing consultations in a rheumatology outpatient clinic: a 21-month randomised controlled trial in patients with inflammatory arthritides. Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2013:836-43. 5. Ndosi M, Lewis M, Hale C, et al. The outcome and cost-effectiveness of nurse-led care in people with rheumatoid arthritis: a multicentre randomised controlled trial. Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2014:1975-82. 6. Hill J, Thorpe R, Bird H. Outcomes for patients with RA: a rheumatology nurse practitioner clinic compared to standard outpatient care. Musculoskeletal Care 2003;1:5-20. 7. Primdahl J, Sorensen J, Horn H, Petersen R, Horslev-Petersen K. Shared care or nursing consultations as an alternative to rheumatologist follow-up for rheumatoid arthritis outpatients with low disease activity--patient outcomes from a 2-year, randomised controlled trial. Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2014:357-64. 8. de Thurah A, Esbensen BA, Roelsgaard IK, et al. Efficacy of embedded nurse-led versus conventional physician-led follow-up in rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. RMD Open 2017;3:e000481. 9. Bech B et al. 2018 update of the EULAR recommendations for the role of the nurse in the management of chronic inflammatory arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis 2020; 79:61-68. 10. KBV, GKV. Kassenarztliche Bundesvereinigung/GKV Spitzenverband. Vereinbarung u?ber die Delegation arztlicher Leistungen an nichtarztliches Personal in der ambulanten vertragsarztlichen Versorgung gema 28 Abs. 1 S. 3 SGB V: Anlage 24 zum Bundesmantelvertrag-Arzte (BMV-A). Dtsches Arzteblatt 2013;110: A-1757/B-1549/C-1525. Dashcam footage of Maurice Gordon and Randall Wetzel during the incident: (The State of New Jersey office of the attorney general) Video footage showing a state trooper killing a black man after firing his handgun six times during a traffic stop struggle has been released by the New Jersey attorney generals office. Maurice Gordon was killed by Sergeant Randall Wetzel on 23 May, and the office for the attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, has released 11 audio and video recordings that show the incident more clearly, using dash cam footage that recorded the traffic stop last month. Mr Wetzels identity was released to the public for the first time on Monday, and the attorney generals office confirmed that the shooting is still under investigation. The release of the video and audio clips came amid protests across the US, in opposition to police brutality against African Americans following the death of George Floyd. Mr Floyd died after being detained by Derek Chauvin, who at the time was a Minneapolis police officer, but has since been fired and charged with second degree murder and manslaughter. Mr Gordons death happened two days before Mr Floyds, and in an interview with the Associated Press, the attorney for his family, William O Wagstaff III, said that he believed race was a factor in his death. If Maurice Gordon was a white male hed still be alive, Mr Wagstaff told the outlet. Audio recordings of a 911 call made the day before by one of Mr Gordons friends was also released on Monday. In the recording, his friend said that Mr Gordon left his house in the middle of the night, and looked really panicked. In the videos, Mr Wetzel, who is white, pulled Mr Gordon over at around 6.30am and told him that he had been driving at 110mph. Mr Gordon had been stopped 15 minutes earlier, after he was caught driving at 101mph, and a few hours before that was helped to get a tow truck by the police, according to the outlet. When Mr Gordon was pulled over by Mr Wetzel he was told by the officer that where he stopped was not safe. His car wouldnt start, and he was filmed unsuccessfully attempting to turn the engine back on. Story continues Mr Wetzel then said he could wait in the police car, while a tow truck was called for, but Mr Gordon walked towards the highway and the state trooper guided him into his vehicle, but did not put him in handcuffs. The officer asked Mr Gordon where he was going, and he initially said to buy a new car, but after being told he couldnt at that time of day, he was heard saying he was on his way to Atlantic City, according to the AP. After around 20 minutes of questioning, Mr Wetzel offered him a face mask, but Mr Gordon left the car, and the officer, using an expletive, told him to get back inside. Mr Gordon then closed the door at the back of the car, and walked over to the driver's side and attempted to get in, and Mr Wetzel shouted: Get out of the car! The two then appeared to clash at the back of the vehicle, and six shots can be heard in the footage, after Mr Wetzel called for backup from other officers. When the other officer arrived, Mr Wetzel said that he had handcuffed Mr Gordon and used pepper spray before the shooting, although the video does not clearly show either. Mr Wetzel told the other officer: He was in my car, went to give him a mask. He tried getting out of my car. We got in a fight on the side of the road. He tried running into my car. I got him out, sprayed him. We got in a fight again. He ran away from me, tried to hop in my trooper car, grab my gun. We were fighting with my gun and I shot him. He was already cuffed. Mr Grewals spokeswoman Sharon Lauchaire, told the AP that Mr Wetzel was not wearing a body camera during the incident, as his troop is in the process of getting them. Additional reporting by Associated Press. Read more Police caught on video slashing tyres at Minneapolis protests [June 08, 2020] Coca-Cola Amatil Vending Machines Accept Bitcoin via Centrapay Centrapay, the digital asset integrator, has signed agreements with Coca-Cola Amatil (Amatil) in Australia and New Zealand to give thirsty antipodeans the option to use their Sylo Smart Wallet to pay for items across Amatil's vending network using cryptocurrency. Centrapay's world class technology makes it easy for consumers, merchants and machines to leverage digital assets in the physical world. Its platform is designed to help brands connect directly with individuals and increase revenue and operational efficiency for merchants. Transacting with digital assets also reduces how much people need to touch the vending machine, a major concern during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coca-Cola Amatil is the largest bottler and distributor in Asia Pacific, supporting 140 brands and 270 million consumers. Amatil's customers can use their Sylo Smart Wallet at any one of Coca-Cola's 2000+ vending machines with a QR code payment sticker. These are locted across New Zealand and Australia and will accept payments in cryptocurrency or other digital assets with a scan of your phone's camera when Sylo Smart Wallet is installed. People only need to touch the vending machine once to take their purchase. Centrapay CEO, Jerome Faury, says that integration complexity and poor user experiences are barriers to adoption of Web 3 technology, such as digital identity and assets. "We have solved both these issues. Centrapay is pioneering the way to enable this new internet of value and bring its benefits to both consumers and merchants," he says. "And it comes with the added benefit of reducing physical contact and addressing the hygiene concerns we've all become acutely aware of due to COVID-19. "At Centrapay, we're working to create a future where individuals are in control of their own data and digital identity. Brands can connect directly and ethically with people, empowering them to make the right purchasing decision, whilst also supporting their retail and other distribution partners. "Now we've shown how it can work in Australia and New Zealand, we're looking to grow the business globally. We've established a presence in North America and will be targeting the US market next with some world-first innovations," adds Jerome. About Centrapay Centrapay is a digital asset platform. It is changing the way consumers engage with brands and exchange value with merchants. Centrapay is a leader in leveraging blockchain for digital product creation, distribution and payments. It provides the technology to integrate with both consumer and merchant systems to enable everyday usage of digital assets. About Coca-Cola Amatil Coca-Cola Amatil is one of the Asia-Pacific's largest bottlers and distributors of alcoholic and non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages, and one of the world's largest bottlers of The Coca-Cola Company range. With around 12,000 employees working in Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa, the company delights millions of consumers everywhere and every day with their leading range of ready-to-drink non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages and coffee. About Sylo Smart Wallet The Sylo Smart Wallet is a next-generation app that combines a private messenger with a digital wallet. Users can make secure audio and video calls, send messages, send and receive digital currencies in chat, and store Bitcoin or any ERC-20 compatible token. The fastest growing dApp in the world, the Sylo Smart Wallet is available now in the Apple (News - Alert) App and Google Play stores. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200608005783/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] President Donald Trump was furious with Defense Secretary Mark Esper after Esper publicly split with him on sending in active-duty US troops to forcefully subdue protests, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Trump has said he wants to "deploy the United States military" to quell protests and nationwide unrest in the wake of the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Esper broke with the president on Wednesday, catching the White House off guard at a Pentagon news briefing where he expressed opposition to sending US troops into American cities to tackle civil unrest. Trump was outraged by Esper's remarks Wednesday and sharply criticized him at the White House, an administration official told The New York Times. He later consulted advisers on whether he should fire Esper, and Esper also reportedly began preparing his resignation letter, in part because of his disagreement with Trump on the matter. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. esper trump President Donald Trump with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press President Donald Trump was so infuriated by Defense Secretary Mark Esper's public disapproval of his suggestion to send in US troops to subdue protests that he was on the brink of firing Esper, The Wall Street Journal reported. Trump has said he wants to "deploy the United States military" in response to protests and unrest in the nation's capital and elsewhere in the wake of the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd pleaded that he could not breathe. Trump said last week that if a city or state fails to act, "then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them," suggesting that he might invoke the Insurrection Act. Esper broke with the president on Wednesday, catching the White House off guard at a Pentagon press briefing where he expressed opposition to the Insurrection Act and sending active-duty troops into American cities to combat unrest. Story continues "I have always believed and continue to believe that the National Guard is best suited for performing domestic support to civil authorities in these situations in support of local law enforcement," Esper said at the Pentagon on Wednesday. "The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations," he said. "We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act." He also walked back his characterization of US cities as a "battle space" to be dominated, language the president used as well last week, and distanced himself from Trump's photo op at a church and the forceful removal of protesters from a Washington, DC, park that made that possible. His remarks were not well received at the White House, where top officials were "not happy" with the secretary, CNN reported at the time, citing multiple people familiar with the matter. The White House has been frustrated with Esper's tendency to go off message and his lack of enthusiasm for the president's policies, CNN said. Trump was outraged by Esper's remarks Wednesday and sharply criticized him at the White House, an administration official told The New York Times last week. Asked on Wednesday afternoon if the president had lost confidence in Esper, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, "As of right now, Secretary Esper is still Secretary Esper." A few days later, she followed up with a more ringing endorsement, saying, "President Trump remains confident in Secretary Esper. Secretary Esper has been instrumental in securing our nation's streets and ensuring Americans have peace and confidence in the security of their places of business, places of worship, and their homes." According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump consulted several advisers to ask their opinion of the disagreement with Esper and was intent on dismissing him. Esper is Trump's fourth defense secretary since the president took office in 2017. Esper, meanwhile, was also aware of Trump's anger with him and began preparing to resign, in part because of their disagreement over the role of the US military, The Journal said. Read the original article on Business Insider A family in Michigan says a black teen lost several teeth after a white man attacked him with a bike chain in a racially motivated incident Saturday, according to police. The 18-year-old black man identified by his family as Devin Freelon was swimming at a Sterling State Park beach Saturday evening when police say the group he was with and another group began exchanging words as they got out of the water, Monroe News reported. Police said Lee James Mouat Jr., 42, who is white, went to his car and grabbed a bicycle chain with a lock on it, called Freelon a racial slur then hit him in the face with the lock, according to the Monroe News. Investigators said Mouat may have been upset over music, according to WXYZ. Family members said Freelon was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and suffered a busted lip, jaw injuries and three lost teeth, according to an account posted to GoFundMe by Freelons cousin Kiara Phillips. Adrianna Howerton-Lee, also Freelons cousin, said the teen is set to graduate this week. He graduates in four days and he has to do it with missing teeth and a broken jaw, she told WXYZ on Monday. Mouat was arrested and charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and ethnic intimidation, according to court records. Hes scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. Lee Mouat Jr., 42, was arrested after Michigan police said he hit an 18-year-old black man in the face with a bike chain. He faces a number of charges including ethnic intimidation. Michigan Legislatures website refers to ethnic intimidation as a hate crime. Monroe County Prosecutor Michael G. Roehrig told the Monroe News that ethnic intimidation charges were filed after officials determined the incident was racially motivated. He said the attack was isolated and appears to have happened randomly after the groups exchanged words, according to the newspaper. A GoFundMe set up to help cover the cost of new teeth for Freelon has raised more than $15,000 as of the morning of June 9. This year has already taken a lot from him as a senior and as a African American, with the tension going on in America currently its a shame the hate in this world has taken another thing from him, Freelons cousin Phillips wrote on the site. The attack comes as demonstrators across the country have taken to the streets to protest racism, police brutality against black people and the death of George Floyd. Floyd, a black man, died after Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder. Three more officers were charged with aiding and abetting. All four officers have been fired. Iranian mourners gather during the final stage of funeral processions for slain top general Qasem Soleimani, in his hometown Kerman on January 7, 2020. An Iranian man who provided information to U.S. and Israeli intelligence services on the whereabouts of Iran's slain Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani has been sentenced to death, Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday. On Jan. 3, a U.S. drone strike in Iraq killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force. Washington blamed Soleimani for masterminding attacks by Iran-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region. "Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, one of the spies for the CIA and the Mossad, has been sentenced to death ... He gave information about the whereabouts of martyr Soleimani to our enemies," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said in a televised news conference. "He passed on security information to the Israeli and American intelligence agencies about Iran's armed forces, particularly the Guards," Esmaili said. However, he did not say whether the information offered by Mousavi-Majd was linked to Soleimani's killing in Iraq. "He was sentenced to death by a revolutionary court and a supreme court has upheld his death sentence. He will be executed soon." Officials have not said whether Mousavi-Majd's case is linked to Iran's announcement in February that a man had been sentenced to death in Islamic Republic for spying for the CIA and attempting to pass on information about Tehran's nuclear program. Soleimani's killing led to a peak in confrontation between Iran and the United States. Iran retaliated with a rocket attack on an Iraqi air base where U.S. forces were stationed. Hours later, Iranian forces on high alert mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner taking off from Tehran. Kerry Katona has praised beau Ryan Mahoney for being 'the most normal relationship she's ever had and revealed she wants him to propose. The thrice-married former popstar, 39, even admitted she has called up a jeweller enquiring about a Cartier ring, though personal trainer Ryan, 31, has yet to pop the question. Speaking to New! Magazine, the ex Atomic Kitten star gushed about her love for Ryan saying: 'I can't see my life with anyone else, I trust him implicitly. It's the most normal relationship I've ever had. Godsend: Kerry Katona has praised beau Ryan Mahoney for being 'the most normal relationship she's ever had and revealed she wants him to propose 'He's dedicated, determined and loyal and he's been an incredible father figure to my kids. She added:'I've been looking at Cartier rings and I've even called up enquiring about one.' The mum of five also praised Ryan, who she met on dating app Bumble in 2018, for consoling her after her ex husband George Kay's death in 2019. The star - who is mum to Molly, 18, and Lilly-Sue, 17, with first husband Brian McFadden, Heidi, 13, and Max, 12, with second spouse Mark Croft and Dylan-Jorge six, with third husband George, said she and Ryan plan to have a child. Smitten: The thrice-married former popstar, 39, even admitted she has called up a jeweller enquiring about a Cartier ring, though personal trainer Ryan, 31, has yet to pop the question The star added that due to her traumatic delivery with Dylan Jorge, she plans to use a surrogate. Kerry and Ryan originally started dating in June 2018 but split in October 2018 after just four months of dating, following their 'make or break' trip to Thailand. They rekindled their romance in summer 2019. Writing in her column for new! magazine last year, the mother-of-five, branded the hunk a 'godsend' after her ex-husband George died in an abrupt, drug-related death in a Holiday Inn on July 6 at the age of 39. She said: 'He's dedicated, determined and loyal and he's been an incredible father figure to my kids' (above with daughters Heidi and Dylan Jorge) Missed: The mum of five also praised Ryan, who she met on dating app Bumble in 2018, for consoling her after her ex husband George Kay's death in 2019 (pictured 2014) She also insisted the on-off couple are trying to keep their relationship out of the spotlight. Kerry said: 'He's been a good friend to me and over the last few months we just decided to give it a go. He's been a godsend recently when I've needed him most. We're settled, committed, my kids love him and so do I. 'In my mind, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. So this time I'm finally dating a man who has a job, his own money, and is very happy to stay out of the media.' The formation of our solar system was a messy affair. Most of the material that existed before its formation -- material formed around other, long-dead stars -- was vaporized, then recondensed into new materials. But some grains of that material, formed before the sun's birth, still persist. These "stardust" grains arrived on Earth inside primitive meteorites. New Washington University in St. Louis research led by Nan Liu, an assistant research professor in physics and the Laboratory for Space Sciences in Arts & Sciences, shows that stardust was also delivered to another planet-like body in the solar system, asteroid 4 Vesta, by micrometeoroids that also carried water. The research was published in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. "Like our Earth," Liu said, "Vesta has a core, a mantle and crust," features that formed as the materials melted, differentiated and coalesced into a single planet-like object. And like Earth, Vesta is also pummeled by micrometeoroids. The brightest asteroid in the night sky, Vesta orbits the sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Liu, along with Lionel Vacher, a postdoctoral researcher, and Ryan Ogliore, assistant professor of physics, studied samples of the Kapoeta meteorite for this research. Kapoeta fell to Earth in 1942 in what is now South Sudan, landing on a road in front of a British convoy during World War II. NASA's Dawn mission to asteroid Vesta established a link between Vesta and the howardites, eucrites and diogenites, groups of meteorites found on Earth. The research team focused on small, dark inclusions in Kapoeta that seemed out of place, like pieces of clay in lava rock. "They look completely different from surrounding material," Liu said. They turned out to be microscopic meteoroids, less than 100 microns across (smaller than the thickness of a human hair), that landed on Vesta's surface. Liu used the university's mass-spectrometer microscope, the NanoSIMS, to search the inclusions for presolar material. Because stardust has a very different isotopic composition from material that formed within the solar system, it jumped out at her under the microscope. The stardust in asteroid Vesta is a unique record of ancient, galactic material delivered long ago to a body far from Earth. The researchers postulate that the micrometeoroids arrived at Vesta after the violent impacts of the Late Heavy Bombardment, about 3.5 billion years ago. Vacher and Ogliore measured the chemical compositions of the micrometeoroids to understand in what type of environment they formed. They recognized minerals and textures that were linked to interactions between rock and water from melted ice. One of the big questions is: How did water get on Earth? "We need a mechanism to bring ice from the outer solar system, where the temperature is low," Vacher said. "This research shows that you can transport small micrometeoroids that contain ice to dry bodies that formed without water." The ancient record of these micrometeoroids impacting Earth has been erased by weather and plate tectonics. The micrometeoroid record from asteroid Vesta may help to explain how water was delivered to the young Earth. "If icy micrometeoroids delivered water to the inner solar system when the Earth was still forming, this could be one way that the Earth ended up with enough water to support life," Ogliore said. "Habitable planets around other stars may have acquired their water through similar means." More analyses are needed to determine the when and the where. "Our next measurements will constrain when this wet material was delivered to Vesta, and where it came from: an icy asteroid, a comet or some other exotic source," Ogliore said. Take a trip to 4 Vesta You can zoom in on Kapoeta thanks to Ryan Ogliore, assistant professor of physics. He worked to develop techniques to visualize objects from the micrometer to the millimeter scale -- that's a factor of 1,000. "It's like he took a puzzle with 1,000 pieces, but Ryan is doing the same puzzle with 10,000 pieces," said Lionel Vacher, research assistant. Click here to visit the meteorite: https://bit.ly/3dPqord ### Alarm has been rising in Washington over the extent of Chinese influence in the U.S., with particular focus on universities and their research as well as on concerns around Chinas acquisition of critical U.S. technologies that it needs in sectors as diverse as semiconductors and aeronautics. Now, a new bipartisan investigatory report from the Senate urges even further action, this time in monitoring and potentially outright blocking Chinese telecommunications companies from accessing the American market. Released this morning by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the report makes a range of recommendations, including pushing the Trump administration to take a more active role in monitoring Chinese telecom companies like China Unicom and ComNet and also pushing Congress to put more resources and legal heft behind regulations designed to monitor the national security implications of these companies. At the heart of the investigation, which has gone on for more than a year, is the work of Team Telecom, what we have called here at TechCrunch a shadowy informal committee between the departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Defense that works in conjunction with the FCC to review national security issues within the FCCs work. Among its open-ended responsibilities, Team Telecom has focused on reviewing applications for telecom operating licenses by foreign operators as well as opening up new underwater cables for internet traffic, including a key pipe between the U.S. and Asia partially funded by Google and Facebook. The Trump administration, aligned with reducing Chinese telecom operations in the U.S. and perhaps hearing word of the Senates investigation, had previously announced in April a formalization of the process for reviewing the national security implications of telecom licensing that would expand Team Telecoms authority and bring more transparency. Story continues The Senates report notes that executive order, but says it does not go far enough, demanding that the rules be expanded to continually monitor companies receiving licenses. At this time, Team Telecom or what is now known as the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector (Ive dubbed it CAFPUSTSS but that is really hard to type) only reviews applications once at the time of submission and never follows up. From the report: Team Telecom entered into a security agreement with China Telecom Americas in 2007 and ComNet in 2009. Since entering into the agreements more than ten years ago, Team Telecom conducted only two site visits to each companyor four in total. Only one of those visits occurred before 2017. In its recommendations, the Senates report pushes for continual monitoring of foreign telecom operators so that any changes in its operations would be caught by U.S. investigators. In addition to expanding the statutory authority of Team Telecoms new committee, the report also urges more resources be appropriated to fund its work. The report castigated the paltry resources currently assigned to these investigations, noting that [the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security] historically dedicated fewer than five employees to reviewing applications and monitoring compliance with security agreements. This most recent report is part of a long line of studies made by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on China, including investigating the countrys Confucius Institutes at American universities, talent recruitment plans such as Chinas Thousand Talents Plan, and Chinese cyberattacks on American infrastructure. The bipartisan nature of the report shows the growing concern among both parties about Chinese influence in the United States, and the increased inter-party cooperation to unify against the countrys perceived threats. Late last month, a bipartisan Senate bill was introduced to eliminate Hong Kongs special trading status with the U.S. as punishment for Chinas passage of a new national security law that critics fear will chill free speech and freedom for the semi-autonomous city. - Dimitri Neonakis, a pilot in Canada, has flown a path in the shape of a fist to show support to protests calling for justice on George Floyd's death - The pilot said that the fist symbol is one that he so much loves and respects as he called for a total end to racism - On Thursday, June 4, the artsy path went on for two and half hours at the speed of 150 miles per hour Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in A pilot in Canada, Dimitri Neonakis, has taken to the skies to show solidarity with the ongoing protests of the death of Goerge Floyd and other black Americans at the hands of police. On Thursday, June 4, the pilot flew a path to form the shape of a raise first, a symbol synonymous with the Black Lives Matter, USA Today reports. In a Facebook post, Dimitri said that the shape of the movement symbol is one which he respects and supports as he dedicated the flight to Gorge Floyd. READ ALSO: Lady narrates how her single mother took care of all 7 kids by selling 'bofrot' According to PerFlightAware, the air show went on for about two-and-a-half hours at about 150 miles per hour. It should be noted that this is not the first time the pilot will be flying a path for art and social significance. Earlier in the year, he did the same thing for his daughters friend, a cancer survivor. Meanwhile, it was earlier reported that the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, also lent her voice to the killing of George Floyd in the US in a new video. She said that she initially feared that if she spoke, people would pick her words apart. The Duchess added that she then realised that the only wrong thing to say is to say nothing. READ ALSO: Osu Wor-Lumor gives the true origin of the Ga names Nii and Naa And I wasnt sure what I could say to you. I wanted to say the right thing and I was really nervous that I wouldnt or that it would get picked apart, she said during the video message. In a very emotional moment, she listed the names of those who had also suffered the same fate in the hands of policemen in America. George Floyds life mattered and Breonna Taylors life mattered. And Philando Castiles life mattered and Tamir Rices life mattered, she said. Markle also said that everyone who had died that way whose names we know and do not know also mattered. Enjoy reading our stories? Download YEN's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news! Yenkasa: Would You Queue For the Voters' Register? | #Yencomgh Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh Ecology issues remain unresolved, turning into gibberish. It is impossible to evaluate the scale of the ecological disaster in certain regions of Ukraine as no one has conducted a full-fledged audit, while politicians are manipulating the topic of environmental protection, using it as a PR stunt, that's according to the article titled "Ukraine is helpless against the amber mafia," published by 24 TV channel. "At one time, the State Agency for Forest Resources of Ukraine spoke about 3,500 hectares [ha] of damaged forests. Last year, the Cabinet said it was 5,500 ha. An even larger total figure more than 6,000 (!) ha is voiced by the Volyn, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, and Rivne regional forestry and hunting departments," reads the article published on June 9. According to the authors, despite the egregious environmental situation in certain regions of Ukraine related to amber mining, politicians and environmentalists are in no hurry to address the issue. The reason is the lack of political or other dividends from resolving relevant issues. Read alsoUkraine loses 6,000 ha of forests in four regions over illegal amber extraction "Politicians often resort to PR or manipulate the topic of environmental protection, especially ahead of the elections, when they need to 'pump' their rating at any cost. As a result, not only do environmental issues remain unresolved, they also dangerously shift to the plain of gibberish," the article said. Meanwhile, many such issues need to be addressed urgently. Experts with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) talk about climate change, forest fires, illegal trade in rare species of animals, and other problems. Ukrainian politicians are simply obliged to address environmental issues, rather than select some that fit the current political situation. "Because now this is not about the country's development, this is about its survival as such" the authors summed up. According to a recent Statec report, job precariousness is top of the list of worries for 25% of Luxembourg residents after the health crisis. It is primarily people with secondary and university diplomas, people aged 35 to 54 and those who work at home, who are concerned about the impact on their professional careers. One in 16 Luxembourg residents feels uncertain about their future after their work was reduced during the health crisis. Statec compiled the report on the social and economic impact of Covid-19 on the Grand Duchy, in collaboration with market research institute TNS Ilres. 60% of those who expressed concerns over their job security are currently in employment. A quarter have been placed in partial unemployment due to the coronavirus, while 16% are freelancers or self-employed. There was no gender divide in terms of this concern. The majority of those worried about their jobs are Luxembourgers, followed by French and Portuguese nationals. Statec drew the conclusion that the size of the participant's home had an effect on their response, as people owning larger houses were more afraid of losing their jobs. The results of this survey differ greatly from past reports, in which women and those in temporary work expressed more concern over job loss. Generally, a higher level of education indicates a reduced impact on job security, but the latest survey bucks that trend as well. Statec declined to comment on whether these discrepancies were specifically limited to the Grand Duchy or the coronavirus crisis, citing the need for further data. Alongside job security, the crisis has also had an impact on decreasing income and savings, which in turn impacts employees' mental and physical health. 13% of residents in Luxembourg experienced this, with 15% reporting worsened physical health and 28% saying their mental health had deteriorated. Ukrainians at the Ukrainian-Polish border Radio Liberty The Ukrainians are queuing for seven-nine hours at the only pedestrian Medyka checkpoint at the Ukrainian-Polish border. They are heading to work and almost the whole neutral zone is crowded by the citizens of Ukraine. People do not pay attention to the announcement with a request to observe the social distance; many people do not wear the mask as Radio Liberty reported. I am standing here for about seven hours. I have to wait an hour or two to get to the checkpoint. I am heading to Kielce for seasonal work. I was in Poland during the quarantine. But it is the first time when I am waiting so long, one of the people said. People also complain about the absence of toilet facilities and benches; they have to stand all the time. The State Border Guard Service explains that the Polish side imposed the restrictive measures due to the quarantine and the procession of the documents needs more time. Recently, more people come to Poland. There are particular restrictions on the Polish side due to the lockdown that is why they put information about the place of stay of a citizen of Ukraine in Poland, staying in observation, holding sanitary events; it takes extra time. That is why people have to wait near the Polish checkpoint, Spokesperson of the Western regional department of the State Border Guard Service Marharyta Vershynina stated. Earlier, mostly the citizens of Western Ukraine came to Poland for work; however, the Ukrainians from all regions, who lost their jobs due to the lockdown and had no assistance from the state, are heading to Poland now. My wage in Ukraine was 3,826 hryvnia ($143); a doctor of the highest qualification, 25 years of experience. Hello, the president. I am going there not by choice. Ukraine provides nothing. People are thrown overboard. There were only promises from the authority. If there is work in Ukraine, people will not go to foreign countries and will not leave their families. Ukraine does not need me. I am scared in my country, Tatiana Rezvitsova, a person in the line, said. The State Border Guard Service noted that people come to the checkpoints by buses, minibusses, vehicles 24 hours a day. From 2,500 up to 3,000 citizens cross the pedestrian checkpoint daily. As we reported, minibus drivers blocked the Tysa checkpoint on the border with Hungary due to the inability to get to Ukraine. North Korea has closed all lines of communication with South Korea, following a row over defectors living in the South sending leaflets and other materials into the North. State news agency KCNA reported that top government officials in North Korea, including leader Kim Jong-uns sister Kim Yo-jong, and the vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers Party of Korea, determined that the work towards the South should thoroughly turn into the one against an enemy. North Korea had been lashing out at South Korea for several days, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and other projects. The KCNA report said as of noon on Tuesday, North Korea closed lines of communication at the liaison office and hotlines between the two militaries and presidential office. A South Korean defence ministry spokesperson told a briefing on Tuesday morning that North Korean officials did not answer a routine daily call to the liaison office. Spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo said this was the first time the North had not answered phone calls from the South in the liaison office since hotlines started running in 2018. This measure is the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary things, reported KCNA. We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay. According to The Korea Herald, South Koreas unification ministry said the phone rang but no one answered. It urged North Korea to maintain the communication lines. Communication lines between the South and the North are a basic means of communication and should be maintained in accordance with inter-Korean agreements, said an official from the ministry. While abiding by inter-Korean agreements, the government will make efforts for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea called the South Korean governments inability to stop defectors from sending leaflets into the North an affront to the dignity of our supreme leadership, the report added, calling defectors disgusting riff-raff. As far as the issue of the dignity of our supreme leadership is concerned, there can neither be a pardon nor an opportunity. They should be forced to pay dearly for this, it said. Analysts said the move is likely about more than the defectors, as North Korea is under increasing economic pressure as the coronavirus pandemic and international sanctions take their toll. Professor Choo Jae-woo, from Kyung Hee University in South Korea, said: North Korea is in a much more dire situation than we think. I think they are trying to squeeze something out of the South. North Koreas threats come as a United Nations human rights expert voiced alarm at what he called widespread food shortages and malnutrition in the country, which have been exacerbated by a nearly five-month border closure with China and measures to protect against Covid-19. Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, urged the UN Security Council to reconsider sanctions to ensure the flow of food supplies. He said in a statement: There have been reports of an increase of homeless people in large cities, including kotjebi (street children) and medicine prices have reportedly skyrocketed. An increasing number of families eat only twice a day, or eat only corn, and some are starving. Elisabeth Byrs, a spokesperson for the UNs World Food Programme, told a Geneva news briefing that the humanitarian situation in North Korea remains bleak, with around 40 per cent of the population needing humanitarian aid. Additional reporting by agencies The newly appointed general manager of Lough Erne Resort, Joanne Walsh, is optimistic that Northern Ireland's hotels could open in line with the Republic's on June 29. The mother of five, who has just begun her new role at one of the most challenging times for hoteliers, is unreservedly optimistic about business. The doors of the resort are set to re-open on July 20. But an even earlier opening could be possible after the Republic moved forward its opening date for hotels to June 29 from July 20. Expand Close Lough Erne Resort / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lough Erne Resort "The phones haven't stopped and I'm delighted. It's been so positive. I've taken bookings from all over Ireland, three yesterday were from Cork for a week each and I do believe that this is going to be the year of the staycation." Joanne says the resort's rural setting will play to its advantage in a post-lockdown world, adding: "I think we are ideally positioned for that perfect break in this environment. We have the 600 acres of land surrounded by water and beautiful scenery and I think people just want to come out of lockdown and get a big lungful of fresh air. "We're also getting calls from our very loyal customers who are keen to get back to the spa and the restaurants, and a lot more families who want to get that break in before school starts back." Lough Erne has three dining options as well as an award-winning spa facility and, while Stormont has yet to release an opening date for restaurants, bars and beauty facilities, Joanne and her team are taking bookings. "We have not limited our offering because we are very confident that the politicians will make right decisions for the market and under the pressure they're facing." And she says the old job of Fermanagh-based First Minister Arlene Foster will also help. "Arlene Foster was Tourism Minister and she knows how important it is to allow hoteliers to provide a full offering and that's what we are planning on doing. "Obviously restaurant capacity will be reduced with social distancing but we also think, by then, a one-metre rule could be introduced." The Executive has made it clear that its chosen date for hotel openings could be subject to change given scientific advice. Joanne has concerns that the Republic's opening date of June 29 could put Lough Erne and others at an unfair disadvantage. It's her hope that "Stormont will bring us in line with them". "If they don't, it won't be an even playing field and it means, for us, we could lose guests to hotels in Cavan and Donegal." Although born and raised in Manchester, Joanne says her true home is Northern Ireland. Her father, a former pathologist, is English and her mother, a former nurse, is from Belcoo. They met in England in what Joanne describes as a "real hospital romance". "My sisters and I grew up in Manchester but every single holiday we went on was in Northern Ireland, in Belcoo, so this is where my family is, where my home is. My mum told me that I took my first steps here," she continues. At the age of 20 Joanne got married and went on to have five children who are now between the ages of 20 and 29 and living all over the world, from Dubai to Melbourne. When her eldest daughter reached secondary school age, Joanne moved the family to NI. "One of the main reasons was how good the education system is here," she continues. "I then decided once the children were older that I wanted to work and I saw a job at the Slieve Russell (hotel) for a conference and banqueting manager." The rest is history and word soon got about that Joanne Walsh had a unique talent for sales. Even during the past 11 weeks of lockdown, she has successfully secured eight weddings at Lough Erne for 2021. "Sales is just in my blood. I love it," she adds. Joanne's first job at Lough Erne was a few months after the resort launched in 2007. "I watched the walls go up, the windows go in and the roof go on. I was selling rooms from images and off-plan. I helped choose the furnishings and had a role in naming all 25 lodges so Lough Erne is home to me and I'm very protective of it." But the venue later went into administration and was then sold to American investors led by Vine Avenue Advisors and TRU Hotels. A four-year break from hospitality saw Joanne work in dental practices before getting a call from the new Lough Erne owners. "It was an American accent saying that they'd really like to meet me and so I went back. "I returned to a business development post and then deputy general manager. "They've done a great job," she says of the new owners who invested heavily in the resort's wedding offering back in 2017. Looking towards reopening, Joanne adds: "I've missed my management team so much. I thrive on them being around me and it has been a bit lonesome without them here. I can't wait to work with them again and welcome our new guests. The feedback is great and I'm just delighted to be in this role." 'It's time to support tourism in Ireland' Q. Whats the best piece of business (or life) advice youve ever been given? A. Always give 100% whether in business or personal life, do the very best you can do. Give your all to even the smallest tasks you will stand out if you do. Q. If you werent doing this job, what would be your other career? A My family has a very strong medical background therefore I would have definitely gone down the medical route. Q. What was your last holiday, and where next, restrictions permitting? A Dubai was my last holiday as I have a daughter living out there. For the foreseeable future my holidays will be in Ireland, I feel it is very important to support the hospitality industry across Ireland. When the time is right I would like to travel to Thailand, it is next on my bucket list. Q. What are your hobbies/interests? A. Walking with my new puppy, we love going to nearby beaches. Im also a real foodie. Q. How do you sum up working in the hotel business? A. No day will be the same in our customer-focused industry. Teamwork is key and you have to be prepared to go the extra mile in order to deliver stand out experiences. It is extremely challenging but tremendously rewarding. Zoos in England are to be allowed to reopen their doors to visitors from Monday, after Boris Johnson announced a further relaxation of coronavirus lockdown restrictions. The move comes after the prime ministers father Stanley joined pleas from zookeepers and conservationists to bring forward the planned opening date from July, amid warnings that some animal attractions may be forced to shut permanently by the pandemic. Also to be permitted to readmit visitors from 15 June will be outdoor attractions where people stay in their cars, such as safari parks and drive-in cinemas, given the low risk of coronavirus transmission. A spokesman for British zoos welcomed the move but warned that the sector was not out of the woods. Aquariums are still closed, and zoos and safari parks have taken a real hit, said Andrew Hall, spokesperson for the British and Irish Association for Zoos and Aquariums (Biaza). For some zoos, particularly those reliant on tourism, reopening isnt going to be financially viable for them. Its helpful today but its not the full answer to the challenges we face. He added: Zoos and aquariums in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will still be facing significant challenges and we will be working hard to achieve positive outcomes in these nations. Conservationist Stanley Johnson called on Tuesday for zoos to reopen as soon as possible. Stanley Johnson (PA) And the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on zoos, Tory MP Andrew Rosindell, warned that delay would mean animals euthanised and huge amounts of vital work in terms of conservation, protection of endangered species and education being lost. Speaking at the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing, the prime minister is expected to say that reopening will be subject to venues being able to comply with two-metre social distancing rules. This will mean indoor exhibitions like reptile houses, as well as cafes and gift shops, remaining closed, although takeaway services will be allowed. A Downing Street official said: People are continuing to make huge sacrifices to reduce the spread of coronavirus and avoid a second spike, but we know it is tough and where we can safely open up more attractions, and it is supported by the science, we will do so. This is by necessity a careful process, but we hope the reopening of safari parks and zoos will help provide families with more options to spend time outdoors, while supporting the industry caring for these incredible animals. The government has previously provided a 14m support fund to help smaller zoos care for their animals during lockdown. We want to be not just a resource for hotels, but a one-stop shop for key supplies, as we shift gears to benefit the hospitality industry in the most effective way possible. Mark Zisek, Director of Commercial Operations at Front Desk Supply, Front Desk Supply, a leading hospitality supplier, announced today it has launched a new webstore offering a myriad of supplies hoteliers will need as they re-open their hotels. In addition, the company has created a checklist of essential supplies needed as hotels welcome guests back. Many of these items are available for purchase on their new website. The checklist is available to download for free. https://www.frontdesksupply.com/hotelchecklist/ Their June special is on face mask orders, which will be offered at a reduced price when purchased through the new site at https://www.frontdesksupply.com/June or https://shop.frontdesksupply.com/ We want to be not just a resource for hotels, but a one stop shop for key supplies, as we shift gears to benefit the hospitality industry in the most effective way possible. said Mark Zisek, Director of Commercial Operations at Front Desk Supply, As the CDC continues to push the significance of wearing face masks, our hotel customers should have masks readily available. Hotel teams will be coming in contact with guests from around the world in multiple areas of the hotel, therefore masks are currently the best approach to help protect them and those around them. Zisek added. Front Desk Supply is a leading supplier of numerous and diverse PPE supplies for hotels, including face masks, social distancing signs, hand sanitizing stations, room keys, and more. They are also a valuable resource for hoteliers by providing a checklist of items needed for openings that was compiled by summarizing market information from major hotel brands and hotel associations. Front Desk Supply is a valuable source for hotels to rely on during this challenging time. They offer many of the supplies that are needed for re-opening for the many hotels affected by reduced room nights. Further, their team of graphic artists work with front desk managers to bring a hotels vision to life, while their customer service staff ensures each hotel is well equipped for recovery. Support and strength from the hotel industry is needed more than ever. We know that this is a time of change and uncertainty, so we encourage you to reach out to us for advice and an easy stop for many supplies that are new to hoteliers, Zisek added. We have further extended the offering to consumers and small business alike who we know are also in need of many of these products. Hotel supply purchasers can take advantage of the June specials by visiting the Front Desk Supply website at https://www.frontdesksupply.com/june/ =================================================================== About Front Desk Supply Front Desk Supply has over 50 years of Sales, Marketing and Advertising, and Operations experience, along with the wealth of knowledge that comes from producing millions of products for thousands of hotels in the hospitality industry. Their focus on building customer relationships gets ingrained in all employees. Putting the customer first and offering a unique perspective to any situation is a hallmark of Front Desk Supply. Front Desk Supply also excels when being able to provide multiple complementary products it makes for a one-stop shopping experience for customers and ensures messaging flows consistently across products. They do our best to make recommendations that make good business sense. Front Desk Supply: Making hotels more profitable and their guests stays more memorable. Contact: Mark Zisek Front Desk Supply mzisek@access-mktg.com Phone: 858-699-4701 / Fax: 501-665-6489 No time to take 'foot off the pedal' as coronavirus pandemic worsens: WHO 8 June 2020 - The COVID-19 pandemic is worsening globally, with more than 136,000 cases recorded on Sunday: the highest number in a single day, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). "More than six months into this pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal", said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking on Monday during his regular briefing on the crisis. Science, solutions, solidarity "This is the time for countries to continue to work hard, on the basis of science, solutions and solidarity." The COVID-19 caseload is approaching seven million worldwide, with nearly 400,000 deaths. WHO said more than 100,000 cases have been reported on nine of the past 10 days, culminating in the highest one-day total so far, on Sunday. Most cases came from 10 countries, mainly in the Americas and South Asia. While the situation in Europe is improving, "globally it is worsening", Tedros told journalists. "Most countries in the African region are still experiencing an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, with some reporting cases in new geographic areas, although most countries in the region have less than 1,000 cases. We also see increasing numbers of cases in parts of Eastern Europe and central Asia", he said. While encouraged by "positive signs" in some nations, Tedros warned against complacency, especially as countries begin to open up. Anti-racism, pro-safety With millions taking to the streets in anti-racism protests, WHO is underlining the importance of remaining safe during mass gatherings. Demonstrations have been taking place in several cities across the globe, sparked by the 25 May death of George Floyd, an African American, while in police custody, in Minnesota. "WHO fully supports equality and the global movement against racism. We reject discrimination of all kinds", said Tedros. Protestors were reminded of measures to prevent COVID-19 spread, such as maintaining physical distance and wearing a mask. "We also encourage countries to strengthen the fundamental public health measures that remain the basis of the response: find, isolate, test and care for every case, and trace and quarantine every contact", he added. Trapped at seaand on land Measures aimed at containing the new coronavirus have left as many as 200,000 seafarers trapped for months aboard ships around the world, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Monday. The UN agency first raised the alarm in April as these workers have been refused permission to leave their ships. The ILO has called on governments to adopt measures to facilitate crew changes and repatriations, while taking steps to minimize the risk of contagion. Although many seafarers completed their official tours of duty more than four months ago, their contracts were extended due to the pandemic. Some are reportedly experiencing mental health issues and exhaustion, which is reducing their ability to safely carry out their duties. Meanwhile, many of their colleagues on land have lost their incomes because they cannot return to sea. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kim Thompson clutches a piece of paper in her well-manicured hands. On it she has written the names of boyfriends she met while dating online. She talks me through the list. First, there was complicated Chris, followed by Ben who was a disappointment in bed, and strange Tim who had a habit of talking non-stop about his collection of Hornby toy trains. Then there was the property developer who took her out for dinner, slopped spaghetti down his front and told Kim on their first date how much he liked sex. There are lots of others, too, whom she came across when she turned to internet matchmaking sites to find a long-term partner. Unlucky in love: Kims internet dates never proved to be quite what they seemed at first. She wants other women to know that internet dating can be a fools game But please dont portray me as a man-hunter, she begs, perching on an immaculate white sofa at her home. They seemed to be either liars, hopeless in bed, had a mean streak or had a former wife hovering in the background. In normal times, Kim has a good job running an architects office. At 58, the divorcee owns a three-bedroom house in a smart London suburb and looks ten years younger than her age. You would expect her to be pursued by a string of eligible men. Yet earlier this year, Kim reluctantly made the decision to give up on love and romance, scarred by two years of trying to find a man online with whom she might actually want to form a long-term relationship. She is speaking up now because she wants other women to know that internet dating can be a fools game. After half a decade of having no significant other and, she freely confesses, no sex she turned to online dating. With all her friends long married, there was little other option to meet single men. But like Candace Bushnell, author and creator of the blockbuster TV series Sex And The City, which charted the 1990s New York dating scene, Kim found the whole experience a bitter disappointment. Candace, who sampled internet dating to research her new semi-fictional memoir Is There Still Sex In The City?, told the Mail in a recent interview: It was just shockingly sad. There was such a lack of quality men. Candace cited the example of Arnold, a frisky, sexist septuagenarian who declared when giving her a tour of his home, including the bedroom: Ive had a lot of great sex on that bed. I hope to have a lot more in future. Candace blamed herself for failing to find love on the internet, saying that at 61 she is probably too picky when it comes to men. That is not an expression Kim recognises. Why not be picky?, she asks. I found there were too few decent ones to pick from, that was the trouble. Earlier this year Kim, pictured above, reluctantly made the decision to give up on love and romance, scarred by two years of trying to find a man online Kims internet dating adventures began in 2018. Divorced for 15 years and the mother of 28-year-old twins, shed had two relationships since her marriage ended but by then had been single for five years. She has a small circle of good friends, most of them married, but rarely sees a fresh face particularly a male one. Her office-based job and site visits to mainly family homes mean her chances of bumping into a new man are slim. She explains: I was pottering along, happily single, until two years ago when a girlfriend said, You dont want to be alone for the rest of your life and suggested I try online dating. She admits: I was quite naive. I thought the men were looking for what I was looking for: a committed relationship, possibly marriage. I couldnt have got it more wrong. Financially self-sufficient, she says she was keen to find a go-getter, someone who had achieved something in his life, who was educated, had old-fashioned values and would join her on adventures exploring the world. Instead, what she says she found having tried a range of websites including Match.com, Bumble, Tinder and Zoosk was a generation of men who were economical with the truth about their looks and lifestyles, relentlessly bitter about their ex-wives and looking for sex or to find a woman who would support them financially. The men will have a series of pictures on their profiles and the initial ones will often be decades old, when theyve got hair and no paunches, says Kim. Its only when you reach the last picture that you might get something of the truth a balding, overweight man with bad teeth. She continues: I met one for a coffee after seeing his photo with blond hair, then chatting to him on the phone. In reality he had grey hair and a pot belly. Having tried a range of websites including Match.com, Bumble, Tinder and Zoosk, Kim said she found a generation of men who were economical with the truth about their looks (file photo) He was 20 years older than he looked on the dating site. I just said goodbye to him on the spot. They post pictures of themselves with their children to make themselves look like good family men when in reality they have no intention of settling down. Or they will pose by a Mercedes or a yacht and knowing what I know now, Id be very sceptical whether they actually owned them. There is little sense of chivalry left, either. I am happy to pay my way, but in the old days men would have offered to pay for your dinner. Very few do now. One man I met for coffee actually stood back when the waitress asked who was paying. He didnt even go halves with me on a coffee. Internet dating is like a sweet shop, so men will show interest in hundreds of women but I dont think they really want to follow it up. They are always looking for something better. There is something called breadcrumbing where a man will throw out crumbs of interest in you a message every so often just to keep you interested in him. There must be some lovely men out there who are genuinely interested in having a committed relationship, but its like looking for a needle in a haystack. Ive no idea how you find them. At times I sat at home crying. I asked myself what Id done wrong. Am I too old? Am I unattractive? Of course, she is neither of these things. But listening to her litany of romantic disappointments, it is easy to understand her despondency especially as it had all started so well with her first internet date. He was called Chris, aged 57 and lived in the Home Counties. He had a sales job. We chatted online and then over the phone and there was definitely a connection. He was so easy to talk to. Hed been separated for five years and had three kids, she says. When we met for coffee, we hit it off well. There was a lot of sexual chemistry between us. He used the love word quite quickly, within a couple of weeks. I thought I had found the right person for me. But as time went on, it emerged that Chris had some tricky emotional baggage. Despite splitting from his wife five years before, he had never got a divorce. I thought that was a bit odd but I didnt want to push it at first. After a while, though, I began to wonder why. He also talked about her a lot and how she had left him after having an affair at work. That was when the trouble began. As both of them were working, they would meet on a Saturday evening and Chris would ask Kim to meet him at precisely 7.15pm. He instructed me never to turn up before then so as not to bump into his daughter, who was in her early 20s. She visited him for a sandwich after her days work at a shop. To begin with, I understood that he wanted to take things slowly. My son lives with me and I would want to be sure before introducing him to someone new. But this went on for months. I think he was worried that if I met his daughter, she would tell his estranged wife I was on the scene. He wanted me to be a secret. When I left my pink hairbrush at his place once, he panicked and said hed had to tell his daughter it belonged to a work colleague who had visited him. After nearly six months of the strange Saturday-night meetings and a couple of outings to the pub, Kim threw in the towel. We had an argument on the phone about me having to go to his flat all the time. I realised he was a wimp. He was never going to break free from his wife. And he was tight. It was always me bringing expensive champagne and food to his flat. Kim has given up on her internet search for a man. Like Candace Bushnell, she reckons there just arent enough decent ones to go round (file photo) Although she felt dejected, Kim was soon dating again. This time she hitched up with Ben, a 58-year-old hedge fund manager from a trendy part of London who had a two-bedroom flat. He was, at least, divorced, she says wryly. We were on a level playing field financially and he was a university graduate who had studied Classics. I am really interested in Ancient Rome, so when we met for the first time at a restaurant in Richmond during the afternoon, we chatted about it for ages. He was a good conversationalist. Afterwards he walked me back to my car. He kissed me on the lips. When I got home, he texted me asking if we could meet again that same night. We walked along the river and stopped at a pub where we both had a mineral water. He was a strict vegan and I dont drink wine, so again we were on the same page. She got her hopes up when Ben, whose hobby was going to jive dancing classes, asked her to stay overnight a few weeks later. He appeared the perfect gentleman, says Kim. We had a Thai meal, talked about the Romans, then went back to his flat. But when we climbed into bed, he just turned his back on me. He showed no interest in being intimate. The next morning, he said he was sorry. He said it had happened with his last girlfriend and if we tried again a few times it might get better. She hoped their sex life would spark up. It never did. There was always the same dismal outcome. It was embarrassing for him. He had some difficulty in that department, she says now. Not surprisingly, she let their relationship fade away. Next was a banker called Nick, who was divorced and a couple of years younger than her, whom she started dating with high hopes again. We would speak for hours at a time, she says. We both loved cooking so we had that in common, and we were from the same part of the country. They arranged to date by booking into London hotels because Nick lived far away and would visit expensive restaurants during their stays. He would pick up a tab for 150 and say I should pay for the next one. But the next one would be 240. He was so mean, says Kim. Most troubling was his heavy drinking. I think he had a problem, she says. It was always drink after drink after drink. He was extremely bitter about his ex-wife, too. While we did sleep together, it was less than satisfactory. I think there were some issues because of his drinking. So her list of failed romances goes on. Unshaven Tim from Hampshire drove her in a dilapidated car for a weekend to the New Forest before boring her about his collection of Hornby toy trains. He took his sheepdog Molly along with them. The pet lay on the bottom of their bed all night. Then there was a film director called Steve, who incessantly dropped names of the famous people he had met. The last straw was a man who invited her as his date to his birthday party, then ignored her all night even though she had gone to the trouble of baking him a cake and buying him an expensive pen as a present. I think many men who go on dating sites lie about wanting a committed relationship, she says. They say that to get to meet a woman and because they think it is what she wants to hear. I checked some of my men out. They were still looking for other partners on the internet when I was seeing them. It was a huge let-down to find out they were cheating on me, but this just seems to be the way now. Kim has given up on her internet search for a man. Like Candace Bushnell, she reckons there just arent enough decent ones to go round. She concludes, rather sadly, screwing up the list in her hand into a tiny ball: I dont think I will ever find love again. Some names have been changed. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and deputy Angela Rayner have taken the knee in solidarity with all those opposing anti-black racism. The senior opposition MPs adopted the stance synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement as demonstrators met in Parliament Square to mark George Floyds funeral at 5pm on Tuesday. It came after Westminster held a minutes silence for Floyd, whose death in Minneapolis custody has sparked global protests against systemic racism and police brutality. Speaking after the minutes silence, Sir Keir said of George Floyd: He must not become just another name. His death must be a catalyst for change. The official Downing Street spokesperson revealed that the prime minister and his cabinet did not take part in the minutes silence, but that Boris Johnson had told ministers there is so much more to do in eradicating prejudice and creating opportunity. The PM began Cabinet by discussing the anger and the grief that is not just felt in the US but around the world including the UK following the death of George Floyd, the spokesperson said. Sir Keir Starmer and deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner adopt the famous protest stance (Keir Starmer/Twitter) He said those who lead and govern simply cannot ignore the depth of emotion that has been triggered. The PM said there was an undeniable feeling of injustice and that people from black and minority ethnic groups do face discrimination in education, in employment and in the application of criminal law. The PM said were a much, much less racist society than we were but we must also frankly acknowledge that theres so much more to do in eradicating prejudice and creating opportunity. Despite coronavirus fears, tens of thousands have turned out to protest in the UK in the wake of Floyds death in Minneapolis police custody, after officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into the handcuffed African-Americans neck for nearly nine minutes despite Floyds cries of I cant breathe before losing consciousness. Protesters have highlighted that institutional racism is not endemic to the US, pointing to the higher coronavirus death rate among ethnic minorities, and the disproportionate rates of stop and search, arrests and use of force which black people face at the hands of Englands police. Health secretary Matt Hancock faced accusations of ignorance after claiming: Thankfully, this is all based in response to events in America rather than here. The prime minister who has on multiple occasions used language condemned as racist on Monday insisted that the UK is not a racist country, as he warned that demonstrations had been subverted by thuggery. His comments came in response to scuffles with police in central London, which prompted mounted police to charge at protesters, and the toppling of the statue of prolific slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol. Home secretary Priti Patel branded the utterly disgraceful action an example of sheer vandalism and disorder, and reportedly had a firm discussion with Avon and Somerset Polices chief constable, Andy Marsh, over the decision not to intervene. Plaque dedicated to slaves taken from their homes replaces Colston statue While Downing Street has threatened that anyone who topples further statues will face the full force of the law, the Colston memorials dunking into Bristol harbour has sparked a wider debate about Britains colonialist past. Hours after Sadiq Khan unveiled a commission to review all of the Londons statues, it was announced that all Labour councils across England and Wales would start work with their communities to review the appropriateness of monuments and statues in their areas. Meanwhile, peaceful demonstrators in Oxford jammed roads on Tuesday, calling on the university to remove an effigy of white supremacist Cecil Rhodes. Sir Keir has sparked growing opposition within his party after telling LBC that, while Colstons statue should have been removed from our streets a long time ago ... it shouldnt have been done in that way, which he said was completely wrong. However, he has urged Mr Johnson to seek protection for US protesters, calling on the prime minister to challenge Donald Trump to "respect human rights". In his letter, the Labour leader asked what the government was doing to ensure the UK exports "are not being used in the suppression of democratic rights" amid growing calls for ministers to end the sale of riot gear and rubber bullets to the US. The prime minister told the Commons that the UK is possibly the most scrupulous country in the world regarding arms exports, adding he was happy to look into any complaints. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A grand jury has charged Brecksville City Councilman Jack Petsche with having an unlawful interest in a public contract after prosecutors said he voted to award city money to a construction company that had subcontracted with a company that Petsche owns. Petsche, 66, whose legal first name is John, was charged with three counts of having an unlawful interest in a public contract and a fourth count of attempting to have an unlawful interest in a public contract. The charges stem from an Ohio Ethics Commission investigation that began months before Petsche, a 66-year-old attorney, launched an unsuccessful effort to unseat longtime Mayor Jerry Hruby. Petsche, an attorney who also owns USA Roofing, was elected to council in November 2017 and took office in January 2018. Prosecutors said in December 2017, after he was elected but before he took office, a company that the city of Brecksville had hired in 2014 to build a new police station finalized a subcontractor agreement with Petsches roofing company. Petsche voted three times between April 2018 and March 2019 to allow the city to acquire finances to pay the construction company, which was Panzica Construction Company. Panzica later paid Petsches roofing company for its work, prosecutors said. The attempt to have an unlawful interest in a public contract stems from the citys search for a company to oversee renovations to its aquatic center, according to prosecutors. The city began taking quotes in May 2019, and Petsche contacted a construction company on behalf of USA Roofing and engaged in subcontract discussions, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Petsche did not disclose to his fellow city council members the relationship between USA Roofing and the company that was working on the police station until August, after USA Roofing had been paid $142,000. Public servants are held to the highest ethical standard, Prosecutor Michael OMalley said in a news release. This is a clear violation of the law. Petsches attorney, Paul Daiker, said Tuesday that Petsche looks forward to his day in court and believes that he will be exonerated. Daiker said that Petsche and USA Roofing had come to a subcontractor agreement with Panzica in September 2017, but the agreement was not formally signed until after his election that November. The votes that Petsche participated in were related to projects that had nothing to the with the police stations roof, Daiker said. He did not do anything illegal and did not have an unlawful interest in the police station contract, Daiker said. In fact, the contract at issue was bid on and approved prior to the councilman being elected and sworn into office. Petsches colleagues last year asked him to resign his position after he disclosed the relationship and threatened to hold impeachment hearings. Petsches other attorney, Peter Pattakos, said last year that the accusations against Petsche amounted to political retribution because Petsche brought to light more than $600,000 in payments the city and Cuyahoga County made to pay back sewer payments on behalf of two council members and several other residents of a subdivision that had been under billed for several years. Those council members recused themselves from participating in any discussions or votes. Read more stories Ohio Ethics Commissions refers investigation of Brecksville Councilman Jack Petsche to prosecutor Brecksville to pay more than $681,000 in back sewer taxes for dozens of residents, including two council members, due to tax assessment error Brecksville City Council asks fellow Councilman Jack Petsche to resign; threatens impeachment due to bids on municipal jobs Timeline shows Councilman Jack Petsches involvement in Brecksville municipal projects Racial justice protesters in England have marched from Nelson Mandelas statue in London's Parliament Square to Downing Street. They had earlier gathered in Parliament Square to commemorate the life of George Floyd. Mr Floyd died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck for several minutes. Mourners have begun gathering in Parliament Square to commemorate the life of George Floyd on the day of his funeral in the US @PA #BLMLDN pic.twitter.com/zMKML65N4l Laura Parnaby (@PA_Parnaby) June 9, 2020 Mr Floyds death at the age of 46 has inspired worldwide demonstrations over racial injustice and mourners gathered in Westminster to observe a minutes silence on their knees in his memory. Around 50 activists, some carrying Black Lives Matter signs, chanted we want Boris and justice for Windrush at the gates to Number 10. BLM demonstrators arguing with EDL supporters during a rally at Churchill statue in Parliament Square, London, today. Pic: Victoria Jones/PA Wire The demonstration has been organised by the Rhodes Must Fall Oxford campaign group as one of several nationwide anti-racism protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in US police custody. Organisers placed chalk crosses on the floors in either side of the street outside the entrance to the college, to enforce social distancing. Ndjodi Ndeunyema, a law student and one of the organisers of todays demonstration, told the PA news agency: This is to express solidarity with Black Lives Matter around the world, particularly in the US and the recent happenings there. He added the protest was a response to a global conversation about problematic symbolism, particularly statues that celebrate people who are not worthy of celebration. They silently sat down to mark the death of Mr Floyd and afterwards they chanted take it down below the statue of Mr Rhodes. People calling for the removal of the statue of 19th-century imperialist, politician Cecil Rhodes from an Oxford college today. Pic: Steve Parsons/PA Wire The protest took up a large amount of Oxford high street outside of Oriel College, with demonstrators holding up their fists and remaining silent for eight minutes, 46 seconds in memory of Mr Floyd. A police helicopter was overhead and several police officers were at the demonstration, including two officers on the steps of the college. Satellite images show cars (highlighted in red) and trucks (yellow) in the parking lot of a Wuhan, China, hospital in October 2018, left, and October 2019. Researchers say these and other images of increased traffic in October 2019 suggest the coronavirus may have originated then, months earlier than it was reported. Read more Satellite images of hospital parking lot traffic suggest the coronavirus may have originated as early as October, two months earlier than in the official account from Chinese authorities, according to scientists at Boston Childrens Hospital and Boston University. That conclusion was further supported by an analysis of internet search traffic for the Chinese words for cough and diarrhea, the authors wrote. The research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and therefore should be viewed as preliminary. But the use of these two kinds of traffic automobile and internet is a plausible approach, said Paul Digard, professor of virology at the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in the study. Using search engine data and satellite imagery of hospital traffic to detect disease outbreaks is an interesting idea with some validity, he told Science Media Centre, a science communications nonprofit. Chinese officials, who have been accused of being slow to disclose information about the virus, rejected the findings. At a news briefing Tuesday, a spokesperson for the countrys foreign ministry called the analysis incredibly ridiculous, Reuters reported. The first known case occurred in early December, the government says. Still, the countrys original accounting was flawed in at least one respect, the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention told the Wall Street Journal in late May: The virus does not appear to have jumped from animal to human at the live-animal market in Wuhan. While most of the initial cases were identified in patients who had spent time at the market, 14 had no direct connection. Boston Childrens epidemiologist John S. Brownstein, senior author of the new satellite study, agreed. That Wuhan market may have been an innocent bystander, he said. The scientific consensus remains that the virus jumped to humans from a wild animal, not as the result of an accident with laboratory animals in China, as some U.S. government officials have alleged. Genetic evidence suggests the virus spread from a bat to an intermediate species before infecting humans, though its true origin may never be known with certainty. A clearer picture of the timeline, on the other hand, may be within reach. Researchers have tackled that question in various ways, such as analyzing the genetic code of various strains of the virus. Several studies suggest it originated weeks before the Chinese government says it did, in early December. Brownstein and his colleagues analyzed commercial satellite images of six hospital parking lots in the Wuhan area. The number of parked cars increased markedly in early October, as compared with the same month a year earlier, said Brownstein, who also has an appointment at Harvard Medical School. Vehicle volume then dipped below normal in January and February, coinciding with Chinas coronavirus lockdown, he said. Internet search traffic for cough and diarrhea also increased during the fall, he and his coauthors found. Searches for cough coincided with a rise in influenza, but there is no known explanation for a rise in diarrhea besides COVID-19, he said. Digard, the Edinburgh professor, cautioned that a more thorough analysis would have included satellite images and search traffic from elsewhere in China. Another limitation: Satellite images were not available prior to 2018. Brownstein agreed that more research is needed. The idea of this study was to try to add another data element to try to help build the story, Brownstein said. Its not definitive, but it provides this new area of evidence to dig deeper into. 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. A serious sectarian crisis has erupted in Lebanon to add to the Covid-19 crisis and ongoing protests against poverty and economic mismanagement, writes Hassan Al-Qishawi Moves to lift the lockdown in Lebanon due to the Covid-19 pandemic do not bode well for the country, as protesters have now come back onto the streets in order to put pressure on the government. Various political currents have been interfering in the protests with new demands, such as for early parliamentary elections. Matters have also been complicated by quarrels among the protesters, with some demanding that the Lebanese Shia group Hizbullah be disarmed and others holding that this will only reduce the Shia participation in the protests. Some political forces on the left in Lebanon have reservations about this demand, and there have been reports that current and former members of the mostly Sunni Muslim Future Current have joined the protests. Some 35 protesters and one security man were injured on 6 June after clashes between the two sides outside the parliament building in the Lebanese capital Beirut, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered in the capitals Al-Shuhadaa (Martyrs) Square to protest against economic hardships and demand early parliamentary elections. According to sources in the field, some protesters broke the windows of a shop next to the parliament building, causing the security forces immediately to intervene and shoot rubber bullets and tear gas into the air to disperse the protesters. Hizbullah is also trying to use the streets to confront the protesters, and pro-Hizbullah groups marched towards the protesters in the square chanting sectarian slogans in response to demands by the protesters that the group be disarmed. What has been worse than the sectarian dimensions of the protests are the sacrilegious incidents that have taken place amid these tensions, including video footage emerging of Shia groups insulting the Prophets wife Lady Aisha. This has further strained Sunni-Shia relations in Beirut, which have deteriorated into clashes between supporters of Hizbullah and the Future Current. The Lebanese army has attempted to limit the clashes and prevent them from spreading to other areas. The media has tweeted videos of armed clashes in Beirut between Hizbullah and the Future Current, injuring two people in poor areas where automatic and semi-automatic weapons were used. Several tense hours passed on Saturday night, ripping open the wounds of the Lebanese Civil War and the 2008 attack by Hizbullah on the capital. The violence brought back reminders of the dangers of sectarian tensions in Lebanon between Sunnis and Shias, especially after incidents in the towns of Ain Rummanah and Al-Shiyahh between supporters of Amal, a party led by Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri who is an ally of Hizbullah, and the residents of Ain Rummanah, who are mostly Christian. Angry youths burnt pictures of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah and stomped on the groups flag chanting derogatory slogans. Lebanons political and religious leaders have warned against any sectarian violence, and Prime Minister Hassan Diab has tweeted his strong condemnations of all sectarian slogans and urged the Lebanese people and their political and spiritual leaders to be vigilant and cooperate with the army and security agencies. Despite accusations against Hizbullah of manipulating the sectarian issue, the group and Amal have strongly condemned any insults or chants against Lady Aisha on social media. In no way does this express the moral or religious values of believers and Muslims, Hezbollah said, reiterating the groups religious position prohibiting maligning the Prophets wives, the mothers of believers and all Muslim sanctities. It strongly censured those who incite, benefit from or promote strife. We vehemently reject anything that could lead to sectarian or religious division and tension, the group said. Deputy Chief of Amals politburo Sheikh Hassan Al-Masri said that what is being shared on dubious social media outlets is a blatant attempt to incite strife among believers. It violates Islams noble values and benevolent morals. Former prime minister and leader of the Future Current Saad Al-Hariri urged his followers not to engage in strife and commented on the video insulting Lady Aisha by warning them not to take any action that could disturb the peace or allow the ignorant to ignite sectarian tensions. Any insult of Lady Aisha is deplorable and unacceptable and has hurt us in our hearts. It is an insult to all Muslims without exception, and not just to any one sect. It is condemned by all political and religious leaders, both our Shia brothers and Sunnis. I call on all my brethren in all areas to heed the call of Dar Al-Ifta [the Sunni religious authority in Lebanon] and warn all Muslims against falling into the trap of sectarian strife. May God curse all those who seek to ignite it. The Lebanese government is nervously anticipating the impact of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act imposed by the US banning dealings with Syria on Lebanons domestic scene, due to economic hardships such as International Monetary Fund (IMF) dues that will be negotiated soon if it agrees to overlook gaps in the governments financial plans. Through a member of Diabs cabinet, Hizbullah has failed to draw a distinction between the group and the government, even though some cabinet members are dual nationals, among them US citizens. The government has also been unable to hide its subordination to Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement, making it a constant target for the opposition, especially the Future Current and its allies that are in contact with influential countries elsewhere. Lebanese politicians are worried about how the Caesar Act could impact on Lebanons fragile situation. Hizbullah is not prepared to compromise on the Syrian crisis, having taken part for years in the Syrian conflict in support of the Syrian regime. The media have quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Lebanon cannot be exempt from the Caesar Act if it violates its terms. Smuggling dollars, oil or other commodities will bring sanctions on Lebanon because violations will be severely punished. Sources said the law was important for the US because it had started to isolate the Syrian regime and sought to sever its connections with Hizbullah and Iran. Not taking it seriously could be catastrophic, and Lebanon would be subject to US sanctions if it decided to continue trading with Syria, they said. *A version of this article appears in print in the 11 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Woolworths is facing further backlash over its new paper bags after an observant shopper pointed out another embarrassing detail. After reintroducing paper bags to their stores last week, the retail giant was roundly criticised when it was revealed they were made in China. Now eagle-eyed shopper Peter Jones has revealed his paper bag was made in Vietnam - an observation which drew an immediate response from the supermarket. An eagle-eyed shopper noticed his Woolworths paper bag (pictured) was made in Vietnam after the supermarket giant was savaged when it was revealed the items weren't locally made Woolworths reintroduced the paper bag last week but received heavy backlash when shoppers shared images of their bags saying they were 'Made in China' 'Surely someone in Australia makes paper bags. These were made in Vietnam,' he wrote on Facebook. 'I thought we were in the "Buy Australian Made" era.' A Woolworths spokesperson responded to Mr Jones' post to explain why the bags had been made in Vietnam and China. 'We hear you and want to assure you we have every intention of sourcing paper bags in Australia as soon as we can,' the spokesperson wrote. 'Were currently unable to manufacture paper bags at the scale we need here in Australia.' After customers discovered the reintroduced bags weren't made in Australia many took to social media to savage the grocery retailer. 'Great to see you've moved onto paper bags but they're made from China! How about support our own!' one person commented. 'How can we support Australians if large corporations don't give us the option? Very disappointed,' another wrote. The Woolworths spokesperson said the company understood the backlash and was working towards a solution. 'Were working hard with local manufacturers to find a solution. We'll update you on our progress as we work through it,' the spokesperson wrote. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Woolworths for further comment. This is an opinion column. So what are you going to do now, Steve Marshall? A week ago, when the City of Birmingham began removing its Confederate monument from Linn Park, the Alabama Attorney Generals office responded quickly and decisively, suing Birmingham again under the states Memorial Preservation Act. Lets be clear how quickly Marshall acted when his office filed the lawsuit, the base of that monument was still there in Linn Park. Contractors werent even done removing it yet. But heres the curious thing. Before the sun rose last Friday morning, the City of Mobile removed a 120-year-old statue of Raphael Semmes, the commander of the CSS Alabama among other ships in the Confederate navy. Semmes was unrepentant after the Civil War and defended his service in it. Mobiles statue came down four days ago but still no lawsuit from the Alabama Attorney Generals Office. Weird, huh? You cant help but wonder what makes these two things different. Marshall has said it isnt clear to him yet whether the removal of the Semmes statue is permanent and hes gathering more information. But if Marshall is strictly following the letter of the law, theres no exception in it for temporarily removing a monument or obstructing it from public view. In fact, theres legal precedent here for enforcing the law against cities even when a citys actions are temporary measures Steve Marshall v. the City of Birmingham. Marshall brought that first lawsuit in 2017 after Birmingham built plywood barriers around its Confederate monument while the city considered what to do with it permanently. At the time, Marshalls office argued that the city could face fines of up to $25,000 a day for obscuring the statue from public view; however, the Alabama Supreme Court later disagreed and said the law allowed only a one-time fine. Regardless, Mobile and its white Republican mayor and Birmingham and its black Democrat mayor are being treated differently. And this isnt the first time Marshall has singled out the Birmingham mayor. Last month, Marshall sent Woodfin a testy letter after the city approved an ordinance requiring citizens to wear face masks during the coronavirus. In a recent appearance on a local talk radio show, Marshall called removing the monuments capitulating to mob rule and he pondered what might happen if George Soros were to pay all the one-time fines of cities and other entities that chose to remove their edifices to the Confederacy. What Marshall calls mob rule, black citizens in those places might call democracy, and when speaking in coded language, why not throw in some less-than-subtle anti-Semitism as well by name-dropping the rights least favorite Jewish billionaire? But if Marshall thinks he can look the other way in Mobile or give the city some slack until things blow over, hes got another thing coming. On Monday, the University of Alabama removed plaques on campus honoring its Confederate alumni, including one from a monument. The university was clear in a statement that the measure is not temporary and a subcommittee of the board of trustees will decide what to do about the names of campus buildings next. (The monument bill prohibits renaming such buildings, too.) Further, community and business leaders in Huntsville have called for the county to remove a Confederate monument in front of the Madison County Courthouse. They include the president of the Huntsville City Council, Downtown Huntsville Inc. and the Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society. How many universities, cities and counties is Marshall ready to sue? Marshall is boxed in, caught in a trap of his own making. His options are limited and none of them work for him. 1. He can selectively prosecute black mayors in black cities, get destroyed in federal court and be branded a bigot. 2. He can drop the lawsuit against Birmingham, admit he was wrong to bring the first lawsuit, and get blasted by Confederate apologists for surrendering the South all over again. 3. Or he can sue everybody and incur blowback from civic and business leaders who are increasingly opposed to having these things in public parks. Theres no clear way for Marshall to win here, but he can damn sure lose. He can go down in history with those who chose politics over justice. And he has no one to blame for his predicament but himself. The Alabama monuments bill has become Marshalls Lost Cause. UPDATE: In a statement from its spokesman, the Alabama Attorney Generals office says it will enforce the monument bill against anyone who violates it. The spokesman says the office is still seeking information from Mobile and the University of Alabama. In a statement from its spokesperson, the Alabama Attorney General's office says it will continue to enforce the Monument Preservation Act against anyone who violates it. pic.twitter.com/ouowWZl1Ee Kyle Whitmire (@WarOnDumb) June 9, 2020 Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group. You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram. More columns by Kyle Whitmire If Alabama has a coronavirus plan for nursing homes, its hiding it The Confederate monument is gone, but white supremacy still rules Alabama When a Confederate monument wouldnt fall, rioters turned on Birmingham Congrats, Twitter, youve been Jeff Session-ized Alabamas Black Belt is in trouble, again Remember when Alabama lawmakers said porn was a public health emergency? That was three months ago. Alabamas secret prison plan puts public information into quarantine And now we play American Roulette Its not the Alabama State House that needs replacing New service enables Kao Data to fund, design, build and operate OCP-Ready data centres to compliment the UK's expanding hyperscale footprint 'Shell and core lease' to "fully fitted" agreements, offer access to low cost funding, whilst complying with flexible purchasing requirements 30MW planning-approved capacity across three future data centres offers a unique hyperscale location and further development for the East of London availability zone LONDON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kao Data, a provider of advanced, hyperscale-inspired data centres for the UK's Innovation Corridor, has today announced a dedicated 'Built-to-Suit' service for the hyperscale community in the UK. The service enables Kao Data to fund, design, build and operate Open Compute Project (OCP-Ready) data centre capacity, for organisations dependent on scalable, resilient, digital infrastructure. With financial backing from one of the UK's largest investors, the new 'Built-to-Suit' service enables Kao Data to offer attractive, low cost financial terms for hyperscale cloud service providers looking to fund and rapidly develop new data centre capacity around London's perimeter. As part of the service, Kao Data's leadership team will oversee all developments, enabling clients to benefit from the guidance, insight and expertise of award-winning industry professionals who are well positioned to manage the challenges of industrial scale data centre construction projects. "Our Built-to-Suit model presents a significant opportunity for hyperscale providers, removing many of the financial, contractual, logistical and technical complexities often experienced on large data centre builds," said Paul Finch, Interim CEO and COO, Kao Data. "By working with Kao Data's established team of engineering and operational specialists, hyperscalers can significantly shorten the development and build cycle of their future data centre deployments." The Kao Data 'Built-to-Suit' service provides the ability to: Fund - With access to funding options through market-leading UK investment, Kao Data provides hyperscalers with structured, flexible finance on highly competitive terms. - With access to funding options through market-leading UK investment, Kao Data provides hyperscalers with structured, flexible finance on highly competitive terms. Design - Award-winning expertise in customisable data centre architectures delivers highly optimised designs to complement hyperscale global facility portfolios. - Award-winning expertise in customisable data centre architectures delivers highly optimised designs to complement hyperscale global facility portfolios. Build - Kao Data's optimised supply chain reduces construction complexity to deliver hyperscale-inspired data centre developments, on time and on budget. - Kao Data's optimised supply chain reduces construction complexity to deliver hyperscale-inspired data centre developments, on time and on budget. Operate - An Integrated Management System and suite of UKAS (UK Accreditation Service) ISO standards, deliver the highest levels of operational excellence, sustainability and 100% availability. The four key components of Kao Data's 'Built-to-Suit' service can be utilised to provide customisable data centres that specifically meet hyperscale requirements. Where necessary, certain elements can be excluded to accommodate the most suitable commercial model and deliver a market-leading lower TCO. A unique location for hyperscale Located in Harlow, at the heart of the UK Innovation Corridor and less than 20 miles from central London, Kao Data is one of the UK's largest data centre campus developments. Operational in 2018, it provides world-class digital infrastructure and scalability for a further 30MW of technical capacity. The campus offers an important strategic location in the East London availability zone, providing a high capacity, ultra-low latency fibre network within the euNetworks North London Artery; a key route for hyperscale connectivity from Dublin, across the UK and into Europe's FLAP data centre network. "Developing hyperscale data centres can be costly, time consuming and complex. Our Built-to-Suit service streamlines the process and provides megawatts of readily available capacity on an already operational, planning-approved campus," said Spencer Lamb, Vice President, Kao Data. "A key component of our bespoke approach is our ability to flex the model and incorporate the relevant components for each hyperscaler." For more information on the Kao Data 'Built-to-Suit' service, please visit kaodata.com About Kao Data Launched in 2018, Kao Data develop and operate advanced data centres for high performance computing. From our hyperscale inspired campus in the heart of the UK's Innovation Corridor between London and Cambridge - we provide HPC, cloud, AI and enterprise customers with a world-class home for their compute. Our Harlow campus - built on the site of Sir Charles Kao's pioneering discovery of fibre optic cable in 1966 - is a development of four state-of the-art, OCP-Ready, carrier neutral data centres. When fully completed the 15 acre, +230m campus will support an ITE load of over 40MW, across 150,000sq ft of technical space - all powered by 100% renewable energy. Backed by Legal & General and Goldacre - Noe Group, Kao Data is one of the largest campus developments in the UK and represents the future in sustainable, efficient and scalable computing - providing an industry blueprint to develop further best-in-class data centres. kaodata.com Colombo, June 9 (IANS) Sri Lanka, among the top tourist destinations in Asia, has released guidelines for limited resumption of international tourism from August 1 after months of sealed borders during a coronavirus-induced lockdown focusing on repeated testing and pre-booking. Sri Lanka had registered 1,857 cases of COVID-19 and 11 deaths by Monday, most of them among navy personnel and people returning from abroad, reports Efe news. As the country has managed to contain fresh cases and deaths in recent weeks, reopening tourism was a top agenda for the government as it eases restrictions. The guidelines have made it mandatory for visitors to carry a negative COVID-19 test report issued within 72 hours of arrival, apart from undergoing another test at the airport on arrival and a third test within five to seven days or earlier upon developing respiratory symptoms. Another test would be carried out if the stay exceeds 10 days. Other measures include the mandatory requirement of pre-booking tour packages, suspension of on-arrival visas and a flat $100 visa fee for tourists in potential roadblocks for the revival of the crucial sector. A top official at Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), told Efe news that the $100 fee was aimed at discouraging backpackers. "The Ministry of Health, that was consulted when formulating the guidelines, said that tourists who pay more will be more responsible," she said. A minimum stay of five days has been made compulsory, and all accommodation needs to be booked at establishments registered and declared "safe and secure" by the SLTDA. The official told Efe news that the government was initially issuing the safe and secure certification just for five- and four-star category hotels and boutique villas and resorts. Srilal Mittapala, a senior member of the Hotel Association of Sri Lanka, told Efe news that the focus should remain on safety of both tourists and staff amid an unprecedented situation. Tour guides had accounted for both the first reported coronavirus case and the first death in the country. "This is why we have to be careful. We have to reopen for tourism carefully and slowly by not rushing into things," Mittapala added. The island nation had attracted a record 2.3 million tourists in 2018, but arrivals came to a standstill following the Easter bombings in April 2019, in which 269 people including around 40 foreigners were killed and more than 500 people injured. The serial blasts, claimed by the Islamic State, had targeted luxury hotels and churches. As a result, in May 2019 tourist footfall crashed by 70 per cent, although the industry staged a partial recovery, and limited the year-on-year decrease to 18 per cent, registering an annual footfall of 1.9 million. Tourism is the third largest source of foreign exchange in Sri Lanka, earning $4.38 billion in 2018, although revenues fell to $3.61 billion in 2019 as a result of the Easter attacks. --IANS ksk/ Advertisement Most of the fencing put up around the White House to block protests that sprung up in the wake by George Floyd's death will be removed on Wednesday. The 8-foot tall, black metal fencing surrounds 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, being put in place around Lafayette Park, which sits across the street from the White House, along the Ellipse, and up 17th Street around the Eisenhower Executive Office Building - an area roughly the size of four city blocks. The National Park Service will start taking it down after it was erected last week when large crowds of peaceful demonstrators surrounded Lafayette Square and the White House complex, The Washington Post reported. Most of the fencing put up around the White House to block protests will be taken down by Wednesday the National Park Service said Protesters turned the fence into a holding place for their art work Demonstrators put up signs declaring 'Black Lives Matter' Art work included some of George Floyd's last words, which were 'I can't breathe' It's the same area where protesters were gassed and shot with rubber bullets last Monday to clear the space so President Donald Trump could walk to St. John's Episcopal Church - across the street from the White House - for a photo-op where he held the bible. Trump has been heavily criticized for the photo-op but also for his administration's treatment of the protesters, who were described by reporters on the ground as peaceful although the White House claimed they were unruly. The metal bars were also added after demonstrators breached the fence in front of the White House last Friday, prompting Secret Service agents to rush Trump, first lady Melania and son Barron to the underground bunker. The White House did not say why the fencing was added, declining to comment on security matters, but Washington D.C. was the site of many protests over the weekend. President Trump has been trying to position himself as an authoritative, strong figure, calling himself the 'law and order president.' But the extra fencing and the closure of Lafayette Square - long a place of peaceful protests - resulted in comparisons to an autocratic state. Concrete barricades were put inside the fence line, contributing to the fortress like atmosphere surround the White House as protests took place around the country. Armed guards and sharpshooters surrounded the White House perimeter last week as President Trump stayed inside, mostly using Twitter to comment on the situation. 'It's a sad commentary that the [White] House and its inhabitants have to be walled off,' Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters during a press conference on Thursday. 'We should want the White House to be opened up.' A person walks by the fence surrounding Lafayette Square A wreath is seen in front of messages on the security fence on the north side of Lafayette Square, near the White House The 8-foot tall fencing was stretched around an area nearly the size of four city blocks to add extra security around the White House Questions and concerns arose as groups of US Army special operations soldiers joined DC's police force in quelling protests. Pictured: Protesters rally in front of the White House Americans have also been angry after peaceful crowds were cleared with tear gas and rubber bullets so President Trump could have a photo-op outside St John's Church at Lafayette Square last Monday (pictured) A new Washington Post-Schar School poll out Monday found 74 per cent of Americans say they support those protests while 61 per cent disapprove of how Trump handled the demonstrations. Only 35 per cent approved. But demonstrators turned the fence into an art mural, posting signs and art work supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. The National Park Service did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's inquiry on what would happen to the art work. Demonstrators demanding justice for the death of George Floyd, 46, the black man who was killed after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, knelt on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds during an arrest on May 25, have turned the fence into a memorial wall with placards and protest art. Signs that read, 'I can't breathe', which were some of Floyd's final words before his death, were affixed up and down the fence. The incident was captured on video, setting off massive street demonstrations that have spread across the United States and around the world. A large sign reads 'Black Lives Matter' while others call for the defunding of police and an end to police brutality. A newly erected fence in front of the White House that was put up to keep protesters back has been turned into a Black Lives Matter mural Demonstrators demanding justice for the death of George Floyd, 46, who was killed after Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, knelt on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds during an arrest on May 25, have turned the fence into a protest of their own A cross reading 'George Floyd changed the world' is affixed to the fence around Lafayette Square at the scene where protesters clashed with police in the aftermath of Floyd's death People gather to view protest signs now affixed to the fence around Lafayette Square near the White House in DC Messages are attached to the security fence on the north side of Lafayette Square, near the White House, in Washington, DC A t-shirt that reads, 'my body is not a target' was placed in the middle of several signs that read 'silence is violence' and 'my skin color is not a crime' According to the National Park Service, the fence, which was placed in front of a White House protest area, was only meant to be temporary. Park Service spokeswoman Katie Liming said Monday that her agency and the Secret Service expect to reopen part of Lafayette Park in front of the White House on Wednesday. Liming says some areas of the park will remain closed to allow workers to deal with damage and address safety hazards. She gave no details and no time for when the rest of the square would reopen. Lafayette Park in front of the White House is one of the country's most prominent sites for political protests and other free-speech events. Concrete barricades were placed behind the metal fencing as reinforcement Workers erect the metal fencing last Friday in the area around the White House The Washington Monument and the White House are visible behind the words Black Lives Matter sign that has been painted in bright yellow letters on the 16th Street in Washington In this image provided by the Executive Office of the Mayor, Bowser stands on the rooftop of the Hay Adams Hotel near the White House and looks out at the words 'Black Lives Matter' A portion of the street, where Trump had his photo-op, has also been renamed 'Black Lives Matter Plaza' (pictured) It has been closed off since early last week, when law officers used chemical agents and other force to drive out protesters in the nationwide rallies against police brutality following the death of George Floyd. Authorities left the high black fence blocking the square, even though recent protests have been overwhelmingly calm. Liming says the Washington Ellipse, Sherman Park and some other landmark areas also will reopen Wednesday. Bowser also oversaw a massive piece of artwork within the past week. City crews were also seen installing the Black Lives Matter Plaza sign near the White House. Varanasi, June 9 : Amid tight security and new normal norms, scores of devotees from Uttar Pradesh and other neighbouring states on Tuesday offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath temple here, when it was opened after almost two-and-a-half months. The sanctum sanctorum was opened after priests performed a mangalarti. Security peronnel deployed at the vicinity ensured all the protocols being followed, including social distancing. Only those who wear masks are allowed inside the premises to offer their prayers. Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the temple trust Piyush Tiwari said, "Today, the doors of the Vishwanath shrine have been opened to the devotees at 6 a.m. in the morning. But entry into the temple without mask has been barred." He also informed that the devotees were asked to sanitize their hands twice before entering into the temple. At one time only five devotees will be allowed to enter into the temple premises and touching of any statue or ringing the bells are strictly prohibited. In addition, it is mandatory for the devotees to undergo thermal scanning before admission. In case a devotee who has a high temperature will not be allowed to enter the temple. Apart from this, the temple complex will be sanitized 5 times, he added. However, the famous Sankatmochan shrine here has not been opened yet. After the completion of all the points in the 24 point check list issued by the district administration, the date of opening of the temple will be announced. Temple mahant Prof Vishwambhar Nath Mishra said, "Under my supervision, all the preparations were made to open the temple. According to the checklist, arrangements are being made accordingly. After the preparation is complete, the temple will be opened soon after consulting to the district administration. The date will be announced soon." Online darshan has also started for the convenience of devotees in Kashi Vishwanath temple. It has been started by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. With this service, devotees can offer online puja like rudrabhishek and mahamrityunjaya, Tiwari said. 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. Danielle Lloyd felt like a 'freak' before her recent extensive plastic surgery and was 'embarrassed' to be naked in front of her husband because of her 'wonky boobs'. The glamour model, 36, revealed how her cosmetic procedures have helped 'spice up things' in the bedroom with her electrician spouse Michael O'Neill, 33, in a candid new interview. The mother-of four underwent a breast augmentation, liposuction and a Brazilian bum lift in September 2019 at a Turkish clinic, which she said has transformed her confidence and made her feel 'sexy' again following a tragic miscarriage last year. Candid: Danielle Lloyd felt like a 'freak' before her recent extensive plastic surgery and was 'embarrassed' to be naked in front of her husband because of her 'wonky boobs' Speaking in an interview with this week's new! magazine, Danielle said: 'I just felt s**t about myself. It gave me so much confidence. I felt so sexy again and like the old me. Now I'm happy with my body, I don't look at myself and think I look like a "freak". 'Before, even getting naked in front of Michael made me embarrassed over my wonky boobs. He didn't even notice, but when I showed the before and afters, he said: "I didn't even realise how bad they were".' Danielle revealed that things have now 'spiced up' in the bedroom as she's able to wear sexy underwear again and it even influenced her decision to start her OnlyFans page. She sent up an account on the X-rated subscription site in October and offers topless snaps fort 115. Her husband Michael supports the decision and even takes the racy snaps for her. Wow: The glamour model, 36, revealed how her cosmetic procedures have helped 'spice up things' in the bedroom with her electrician spouse Michael O'Neill, 33, in a candid new interview Danielle also admitted she had planned to use the controversial process of gender selection in Dubai this summer, but her plans have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis. The model is already the mother of four boys and has been open about wanting a baby girl as her fifth child. Danielle and Michael share one son together, Ronnie, two, while the model also has sons Archie, nine, Harry, eight, George, six, with her footballer ex-husband Jamie O'Hara, 33. She added to new! magazine: 'We would have been going to Dubai this summer to do it. We were taking my mum, dad, brother and his daughter. We were going as a family.' Baby girl: Danielle also admitted she had planned to use the controversial process of gender selection in Dubai this summer, but her plans have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis When asked whether the cancelled trip had made her think differently, Danielle said 'if it's meant to be, it will be' and admitted she had been changing her mind about a fifth child due to Ronnie, two, being so 'demanding'. Gender selection sees a number of eggs harvested and fertilised, and then one or two of the resulting female embryos will be reimplanted in the mother's womb. The rest will be stored for possible use in the future. It can cost around 8,000 plus flights and accommodation and that's just for one round. It is illegal in the UK. Danielle has recently been helping Kerry Katona, who joined OnlyFans in May, and she insisted during the interview 'why should we be embarrassed'. Family: The model is already the mother of four boys and has been open about wanting a baby girl as her fifth child (pictured with youngest sons George, six, and Ronnie, two) Speaking about her decision to sign up, the mother-of-four previously reasoned: 'The modelling industry has changed massively since I started.' She continued: 'Obviously a lot of the lads mags aren't around anymore, and even the daily women's mags seem to have gone. 'A lot of the stuff has gone online now, and that's why I love using OnlyFans... I'm using it to speak to all my fans that have been following me for the past decade and also my brand new fans and subscribers.' She added: 'In the night, that's when I do my content for my OnlyFans, when the children go to bed. But I also do some content in the gym because people like to see what I'm doing in there, and also when I go to the spa looking sexy in my bikini.' Appointment 9 June 2020 Extended Stay America (ESA), the leading brand in the mid-scale extended stay segment in the United States, announced today the addition of Mark Williams as Managing Director, Franchise Development. In this role, Williams will be responsible for continuing to grow ESA's footprint throughout North America through franchise conversions and new build properties. Williams will report directly to Judi Bikulege, Chief Investment Officer, who will lead the company's franchising business. Prior to joining ESA, Williams served as Senior Vice President for Radisson Hotel Group, overseeing franchise development for the Eastern United States and Canada. He has also held senior franchise management positions at Red Lion, Vantage Hospitality, G6 Hospitality, and Best Western International. Two longtime East Haven police officers, Lt. Joseph Murgo and Lt. David Emerman, have been promoted to captain and will assume their new positions on July 1. Meanwhile, Sgt. Kevin Klarman has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and two new recruits, Dean Bibens and Tyler Pelham, have been hired as Grade C police officers, according to minutes of the recent special meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners. The police board voted to put off promotions to sergeant until its June 30 meeting. All of the changes took place at the June 4 special meeting. Murgo and Emerman, who were promoted to sergeant at the same time in 2012, both will move up following the recent retirement of Capt. Joseph Slane. They have 161/2 years and just over 16 years experience, respectively. Both are well-respected among their peers. For Murgo, who was hired in December 2003 and also is the departments public information officer, this is the latest in a long line of firsts. Murgo, who was born in the Dominican Republic, was the first African-American man (and the second black officer) hired by the department and as he has progressed through the ranks, he has been the departments first African-American sergeant, first black lieutenant and now the first African-American captain. Im excited with the direction of the department, Murgo said Monday. Im honored to be able to hold such a high rank in a police department that has gone through such a transition. Im grateful to my chief and deputy chief and the Board of Police Commissioners who have supported me all this time, and I realize theres a lot of work to do, Murgo said. We have a young department who are going to be looking up to myself and the other senior officers for guidance. ... Collectively, well be able to manage a really progressive department. Emerman said he is definitely very excited about it. Im looking forward looking forward to contributing to the organization in a larger and more deeply-involved manner, he said. Well see how things go, he said. Theres going to be a lot of movement within the department, ... Im looking forward to the challenge. Chief Ed Lennon said both men are highly recommended. Lt., now Capt., Murgo, is well respected and Capt. Emerman ... was our departments first Spanish-speaking officer when he was hired and was compliance officer for the (Department of Justice) settlement after I got promoted to deputy chief. He called the promotions of both men long overdue. The promotions of Emerman and Murgo were approved on unanimous voice votes of the police board: Chairman Paul Carbo, Vice Chairman Dominic Balletto and commission members Dawne Flynn, Eduardo Torrealba and Marc Conte. mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com Less than 24 hours after Editorial Page Editor James Bennet resigned from The New York Times, the ongoing social upheaval over racial injustice continues to force changes across the media industry. On Monday, editors at Bon Appetit and Refinery29 resigned amid staff protest over their leadership, various outlets faced scrutiny over their treatment of black staffers and one publication said it would support its journalists' right to protest. The changes come as media companies are being forced, often by their own staff, to reassess their role in the fight for racial justice, whether that means rethinking diversity inside the company or re-examining their commitment to editorial "objectivity." Patrick McMullan Archives (Nick Hunt / Patrick McMullan / Getty Images) Adam Rapoport, the editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit, resigned after a photo surfaced showing him in brownface and amid allegations that the magazine discriminated against people of color. In a statement, Rapoport said he needed "to reflect on the work that I need to do as a human being and... allow Bon Appetit to get to a better place." Christene Barberich, the editor and co-founder of Refinery29, announced she would step down after several employees said they had been discriminated against while working at the company. "We have to do better," Barberich said in a statement, "and that starts with making room." Meanwhile, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is facing scrutiny after an NPR report showed that the papers editors banned a black reporter from covering protests because of tweets they deemed to be biased. But those editors did not take similar action on tweets from a white reporter, the NPR report showed. Finally, Jim VandeHei, the co-founder and CEO of Axios, announced Monday that his company would take the rare move of supporting Axios journalists who take part in public protests and would cover bail or assist with medical bills if they were arrested or physically harmed. SELBYVILLE, Del., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest report "ICS Security Market by Security Type (Network, Application, Endpoint, Database), Component (Solution [Firewall, SCADA Encryption, Antivirus/Anti-Malware, Intrusion Detection & Prevention, IAM, DDoS, Data Loss Prevention, Virtualization Security, SIEM, UTM], Service [Managed, Integration & Consulting, Audit & Reporting, Risk Management]), Application (Power and Energy, Critical Manufacturing, Mining, Water Utility, Transportation, Chemical), Regional Outlook, Competitive Market Share & Forecast 2026", by Global Market Insights, Inc., the market valuation of ICS security solutions will cross $12 billion by 2026. The growing penetration of IoT, connected devices, and increasing cyberattacks on critical infrastructure systems are fueling market growth. Major players operating in the industrial control systems (ICS) security market are Schneider Electric, Honeywell International Inc., Rockwell Automation, Inc., Kaspersky Lab, and Trend Micro Inc. The ICS endpoint security segment will expand at 15% CAGR during the forecast timeline. The demand to secure and protect network end devices, such as desktop PCs, mobile devices, and laptops, from cyberthreats is supporting ICS security market growth. Endpoint security provides encrypted framework to protect network infrastructure from potential threats of data breaches and attacks on network infrastructure that may result in network malfunction. Endpoint security solutions also help in securing weak connections and strengthening network infrastructure. Request a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2680 The Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution segment is expected to showcase a steady growth of over 20% through 2026 due to numerous benefits offered by UTM over other security solutions. The UTM solutions combine multiple security services and functionalities that assist organizations to protect networks from malware attacks and other security threats. In addition, it enables the management of diverse security functions using a single administration console. The power and energy application segment held a major share of the global ICS security market in 2019 and is predicted to show dominance in the coming years. The enterprises operating in the energy industry are rapidly adopting IoT and robotics systems. This makes them prone to cyber-attacks and system vulnerabilities. The energy sector is the most vulnerable vertical for ICS attacks and has been one of the most affected industries over the past five to seven years. The risk management service segment will witness the highest growth rate of over 35% from 2020 to 2026. The need to secure industrial critical infrastructure from cyberattacks is driving enterprises to adopt risk management services. The risk analysis service providers assist in handling and evaluating cyber security risks in ICS environment. This helps companies to make necessary changes and take security measures to secure overall network infrastructure. North America ICS security market is anticipated to hold a revenue share of around 30% by 2026. Increasing investments and rising cyberattacks in the oil & gas industry in the U.S. are supporting the demand for ICS security solutions. In addition, government authorities are investing in projects to support the development of security solutions for industrial infrastructures. Furthermore, companies are developing innovative security solutions to reduce cyber risks. Request for customization of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/roc/2680 Major players operating in the industrial control systems (ICS) security market are Schneider Electric, Honeywell International Inc., Rockwell Automation, Inc., Kaspersky Lab, and Trend Micro Inc. The companies are focusing on development of advanced ICS security solutions. For instance, in June 2019, Indegy launched CIRRUS, a cloud-based Industrial Cybersecurity as a service solution. It features real-time threat intelligence functionality and provides OT security. Moreover, ICS vendors are collaborating to develop advanced security solutions. Table of Contents (ToC) of the report: Chapter 3 ICS Security Market Insights 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Features/benefits of ICS security solutions 3.3 Industry segmentation 3.4 ICS security industry landscape 3.5 Impact of COVID-19 outbreak 3.5.1 Impact by region 3.5.1.1 North America 3.5.1.2 Europe 3.5.1.3 Asia Pacific 3.5.1.4 LAMEA 3.5.2 Impact on R&D 3.5.3 Impact on growth strategy and business model 3.6 Industry ecosystem analysis 3.7 Top 10 threats and countermeasures for ICS security 3.7.1 Social engineering and phishing 3.7.2 Malware infection through internet and intranet 3.7.3 Human errors and sabotage 3.7.4 Infiltration of malware through removable media and external hardware 3.7.5 Technical malfunctions and unavoidable accidents 3.7.6 Control components connected to the internet 3.7.7 Compromising of cloud and extranet components 3.7.8 Intrusion through remote access 3.7.9 Compromising of smartphones in the production environment 3.7.10 DDoS attacks 3.8 IT/OT 3.8.1 Major cyber-attacks on ICS components 3.8.2 OT/IT Convergence 3.8.3 IT/OT challenges 3.8.4 IT/OT cyber security practices 3.9 Technology & innovation landscape 3.9.1 Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) 3.9.2 AI and machine learning 3.10 Regulatory landscape 3.10.1 The ISA/IEC 62443 standard 3.10.2 NIST SP 800-53 3.10.3 Critical Infrastructure Protection Mandates (NERC) 3.10.4 The Security of Network and Information Services Directive (NIS Directive) (EU) 3.10.5 IT Security ACT (Germany) 3.10.6 Cybersecurity Law (China) 3.11 Industry impact forces 3.11.1 Growth drivers 3.11.2 Industry Pitfalls and Challenges 3.12 Porter's Analysis 3.12.1 Bargaining power of suppliers 3.12.2 Bargaining power of buyers 3.12.3 Threat of new entrants 3.12.4 Threat of substitutes 3.13 PESTEL analysis 3.14 Growth potential analysis Browse Complete Table of Contents (ToC) @ https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/industrial-control-systems-ics-security-market About Global Market Insights, Inc. Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology. Contact Us: Arun Hegde Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights, Inc. Phone: 1-302-846-7766 Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688 Email: [email protected] Related Images global-ics-security-market-revenue.jpg Global ICS Security Market revenue to cross $12 Billion by 2026: GMI Major players operating in the industrial control systems (ICS) security market are Schneider Electric, Honeywell International Inc., Rockwell Automation, Inc., Kaspersky Lab, and Trend Micro Inc. Related Links Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security Market Infographic Cybersecurity Market Infographic SOURCE Global Market Insights, Inc. Related Links https://www.gminsights.com You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Buro Singapore website. (PHOTO: Screenshot) Publishing house Indochine Media Ventures (IMV) has axed five out of seven employees at the digital fashion platform Buro Singapore as the coronavirus pandemic hits the advertising market, Yahoo Lifestyle SEA has learned. The affected team members who were retrenched held core positions at the website: the editor-in-chief, deputy editor, senior culture editor, fashion editor, and associate beauty editor. Russian fashion editor Miroslava Duma started the website Buro 24/7 along with co-founder Fira Chilieva in 2011 and expanded the brand to 11 countries including Mongolia, Mexico, Moscow, Malaysia and Singapore. For the Asia expansion, Duma and her team partnered with publishing house IMV to launch the eighth and ninth global editions of the brand in Singapore and Malaysia respectively. Following a series of scandals, Duma stepped down in 2018 after a 2012 video of her saying transgender models should be censored resurfaced online. In a separate incident, she also had to apologise for sharing a note featuring a racial slur. READ MORE: When Yahoo Lifestyle SEA reached out to IMV for comment, the company said, Indochine Media is unable to provide a comment at this time due to confidentiality reasons. Amidst this uncertainty, two former Buro Singapore employees had recently moved to a new title under IMV, Vogue Singapore. Bettina von Schlippe, Buro Singapores then publisher of five years recently moved to Vogue Singapore, while Norman Tan joined the magazine as editor-in-chief. Tan, who helped launched Buro Singapore, was also the former editor-in-chief of Esquire Singapore, which is published by IMV. Vogue Singapore is slated to launch in September this year with an English-language print issue, website, and presence on all relevant social platforms. It will be published under license agreement between Conde Nast and IMV. By Trend Opening of Made in Uzbekistan Online business forum between entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan and organizations-exporters of Uzbekistan took place on 8 June 2020, Trend reports. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Sherzod Asadov; Ambassador of Uzbekistan in Azerbaijan Bahrom Ashrafkhanov; Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency of Azerbaijan (KOBIA) Rufat Atakishiyev; Director of Investment Promotion Department of the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation Zohrab Gadirov (AZPROMO); Chairman of Uzbek Textile Industry Association Ilhom Haydarov; Director of the Export Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Ulugbek Muradov; Deputy Director of the Agency for Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship Botir Ahmedov; and Head of the Department for Marketing of Uzbekozikovkatholding, Bahodir Yunusov participated in the opening of the event. The forum itself will be held June 9 - June 12. The business forum will be attended by 57 Uzbek producers of export-oriented products and over 60 entrepreneurs from Azerbaijan. During B2B business meetings Uzbek companies will present their products, while Azerbaijani companies will be able to find new opportunities for their business. "Uzbekistan sees Azerbaijan as an important strategic, trade and economic partner," Uzbek Deputy Foreign Minister Sherzod Asadov said. According to him, in 2019 bilateral trade turnover between the countries increased by 55 percent and exceeded $73 million. "Over the past three years, the trade turnover has more than tripled. Despite the current crisis in the world economy caused by the coronavirus pandemic, countries have managed to maintain positive dynamics in mutual trade. Thus, for the period from January to April 2020, the volume increased by 92 percent (compared to 2019) and made up more than $30 million," Asadov noted. Ambassador Bahrom Ashrafkhanov stressed that this online business forum helps ensure continuous dialogue between businessmen of the two countries. "Textile industry of Uzbekistan is one of the largest export-oriented sectors of the country's economy," Chairman of Uzbek Textile Industry Association Ilhom Haydarov said. "For Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan is a well-established partner. In 2019, export deliveries of textiles to Azerbaijan amounted to $11 million. For the period from January through May 2020, exports amounted to $4 million. Speaking about the structure of our export, 40 percent falls on carpets, 40 percent on finished knitted products. Today, we already work with Azerbaijan Supermarket LLC and a number of retailers in Azerbaijan. Also, Haydarov noted that in the future Uzbekistan is ready to share its successful experience in organizing of cotton textile clusters with Azerbaijan. According to Bahodir Yunusov, currently 11,000 enterprises are operating in the food industry of Uzbekistan, of which 1,800 operate on processing of fruit and vegetable products with a capacity of up to 4,000 tons per year. "The main nomenclature of Uzbekistan's exports to Azerbaijan is fresh and dried grapes, dried apricots, legumes and canned products," Yunusov said. "Also, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan are planning to open the Uzbek-Azerbaijani Trade House. It is also planned to open a joint venture for processing of pomegranate products in Uzbekistan. In order to achieve these goals, Uzbekozikovkatholding works in close cooperation with Azerbaijani Agromall company ". All participants noted that the business forum will serve as a tool to support business in the context of the pandemic for both countries. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Malibu, California--(Newsfile Corp. - June 9, 2020) - Green Stream Holdings Inc. (OTC PINK: GSFI) a holding company of Green Stream Finance, Inc., is pleased to announce the following special report on Green Rain Solar, LLC, company milestones and the recent dividend approved by GSFI Board of Directors: To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://media.zenfs.com/en-us/newsfile_64/85991209499d81e44ad3ba878f90b7ec To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://media.zenfs.com/en-us/newsfile_64/1816e8f7c6725472b7cd8cfb3910bf49 Cannot view this video? Visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBM_uBi3EOk About Green Stream Finance, Inc.: Green Stream Finance, Inc., a Wyoming-based corporation with satellite offices in Malibu, CA and New York, NY, is focused on exploiting currently unmet markets in the solar energy space, and is currently licensed in California, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Colorado, Hawaii, and Canada. The Company's next-generation solar greenhouses, constructed and managed by Green Rain Solar, LLC, a Nevada-based division, utilize proprietary greenhouse technology and trademarked design developed by world-renowned architect Mr. Antony Morali. The Company is currently targeting high-growth solar market segments for its advanced solar greenhouse and advanced solar battery products. The Company has a growing footprint in the significantly underserved solar market in New York City where it is targeting 50,000 to 100,000 square feet of rooftop space for the installation of its solar panels. Green Stream is looking to forge key partnership with major investment groups, brokers, and private investors in order to capitalize on a variety of unique investment opportunities in the commercial solar energy markets. The Company is dedicated to becoming a major player in this critical space. Through its innovative solar product offerings and industry partnerships, the Company is well-positioned to become a significant player in the solar space. Story continues Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the safe harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. That includes the possibility that the business outlined in this press release cannot be concluded for some reason. That could be as a result of technical, installation, permitting or other problems that were not anticipated. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Eagle Oil Holding Company Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein. Except for any obligation under the U.S. federal securities laws, Eagle Oil Holding Company, Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Green Steam Holdings, Inc. 16620 Marquez Avenue, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 For All Inquiries Contact: info@greenstreamfinance.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57514 Reflecting on the devastating parallels of fact and fiction in 3 Brothers, Lee takes a moment to clear up what he says has been a 30-year misunderstanding about Do the Right Thing, which ends with two quotes about violence, one from Martin Luther King and one from Malcolm X. There were some people who were saying that Spike put these quotes in the movie for the audience member to make a choice, Lee says. That was not the intent at all. Before Malcolm X got assassinated, [he and] Dr. King were trying to find a common ground, where they could unite their different points of view. But they were united in the freedom of black folks. So the end of Do the Right Thing was not saying to the audience, Pick one or the other. I felt that you could put both of them together. It appears to be the norm in indigenous Ghanaian homes for cases of rape to be settled at home and among families. This popular communal response to abuse has unfortunately deprived countless survivors the relief of knowing their violator is no longer around to cause them more harm. An abuse, no matter where and how it is perpetrated or who metes it out should be handled justly as the laws of Ghana prescribe. Savana Signatures in line with its mission to fight Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) under its GirlsLife Choices project has relentlessly and successfully pushed for the arrest of a 25-year old man who defiled a 2-year old girl at Kunbungu, a district in the Northern Region of Ghana. According to Ethel Emefa Ehla, the project officer for the Girls Life Choices project, issues of rape are often swept under the carpet at the expense of ensuring justice for survivors. This, she said has increased the impunity of unscrupulous persons and has been the reason behind the recent increasing number of rape cases. Perpetrators were never punished for their heinous acts to deter them or act as a deterrent to others. "The defilement of the two-year-old girl is a typical example of this since the family opposed the idea of pursuing the case after it got reported to the police. They did go further to frustrate the police in order to uphold that decision at the expense of the lasting psychological and physical damage done to the child. Circumstances Leading to his arrest The 25-year old man Sulemana Danaah was arrested following a report by CITI TV that came to the attention of Savana Signatures where a team of officers followed up on the CITI TV reporter Maxwell Suuk and the family of the victim to ascertain the level of abuse caused. The team was met with stiff and unwavering opposition. The family of the victim, who proved to have no interest in pursuing the case, were constantly engaged by the officers from Savana Signatures to aid them pursue the case to its logical conclusion. However, the father of the victim never showed interest and posited that Savana Signatures should not be interested in pursuing the case. That did not stop the officers from probing further, they contacted the mother and the grandmother of the victim and appealed to their conscience to support in pursuing the case. After a consensus was met, the officers quickly reported back to the Kumbungu police station in the Northern region and began the medical procedure and had results within 72 hours. On June 3, 2020, the Police in Kumbungu detained the suspect, Sulemana Danaah for assaulting the two-year-old girl. Sulemana DanaahPleaded Guilty to the offence of defilement The Circuit Court in Tamale in the Northern Region on Thursday, June 4, 2020, sentenced Sulemana Danaah to 10 years in prison for defiling the thetwo-year-old girl. The Chief inspector Victor Kwafo, who is the prosecutor of the case said, the minor was playing with her colleagues at the Suniya Primary School in Kumbungu on June 1, 2020, where the suspect; a drivers mate, went and lured her inside one of the classrooms and defiled her. The suspect was put before His Honour William Appiah Twumasi where he pleaded guilty to the offence of defilement. He was convicted after the charge was read by the prosecutor. Savana Signatures Officers who were present at the court sitting said the conviction of the accused, Sulemana Danaah would serve as a deterrent to others and they would not hesitate to bring to justice any issue surrounding SGBV. Similar incidents occur which are often swept under the carpet which posits that individuals and organisations should emulate or join forces with Savana Signatures to collectively provide a safer environment for our children and the vulnerable population of Ghana. It is our duty as a society to ensure the safety of our children. It falls on each and every one of us. Imagine the other damages this young man would cause if he is left to roam the street. Our silence around sexual violence has to stop. And it is only when we speak out that these evil persons lurking around us would understand that this would no longer be tolerated Emefa, Girls Life Choices project officer urges. Aspocomp Group Plc, Company Announcement, June 9, 2020 at 12:25 noon DECISIONS OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2020 The Annual General Meeting of Aspocomp Group Plc held on June 9, 2020 adopted the annual accounts and the consolidated annual accounts as well as granted the members of the Board of Directors and the CEO discharge from liability regarding the financial period 2019. The Annual General Meeting approved the remuneration policy for the governing bodies. In accordance with the proposal of the Board of Directors, the Annual General Meeting decided to authorize the Board of Directors to decide, at its discretion, on the distribution of up to EUR 0.15 per share from retained earnings and / or return on invested equity in one or more tranches. The authorization is valid until the beginning of the next Annual General Meeting. The company will publish any Board decision on the distribution of funds separately and at the same time confirms the relevant reconciliation and payment dates. The Annual General Meeting decided to set the number of Board members at four (4) and re-elected the current members of the Board Ms. Paivi Marttila, Ms. Kaarina Muurinen, Ms. Julianna Borsos and Mr. Juha Putkiranta, for a term of office ending at the closing of the following Annual General Meeting. The Annual General Meeting re-elected PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy, Authorized Public Accountants, as the company's auditor for a term of office ending at the closing of the following Annual General Meeting. PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy has notified that Mr. Jouko Malinen, Authorized Public Accountant, will act as its principal auditor. The Annual General Meeting decided that the chairman of the Board of Directors will be paid EUR 30,000, the vice chairman of the Board of Directors be paid EUR 20,000 and the other members will be paid EUR 15,000 each in remuneration for their term of office. The Annual General Meeting further decided that EUR 1,000 will be paid as remuneration per meeting to the chairman and that the other members be paid EUR 500 per meeting of the Board and its committees. The members of the Board of Directors will further be reimbursed for reasonable travel costs. The auditors fees will be paid according to the auditors invoice. The Annual General Meeting decided to authorize the Board of Directors, in one or more installments, to decide on the issuance of shares and the issuance of options and other special rights entitling to shares referred to in Chapter 10 Section 1 of the Companies Act as follows: The number of shares to be issued based on the authorization may in total amount to a maximum of 683,450 shares. The Board of Directors decides on all the terms and conditions of the issuances of shares and of options and other special rights entitling to shares. The authorization concerns both the issuance of new shares as well as own shares possibly held by the company. The issuance of shares and of options and other special rights entitling to shares referred to in Chapter 10 Section 1 of the Companies Act may be carried out in deviation from the shareholders pre-emptive rights (directed issue). The authorization cancels the authorization given by the General Meeting on April 3, 2019 to decide on the issuance of shares as well as the issuance of special rights entitling to shares. The authorization is valid until June 30, 2021. The minutes of the Annual General Meeting are available on the companys website at www.aspocomp.com/agm starting from June 23, 2020 at the latest. THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS' ORGANIZATION MEETING In its organization meeting held after the Annual General Meeting, the Board of Directors of Aspocomp Group Plc re-elected Ms. Paivi Marttila as Chairman of the Board and Ms. Kaarina Muurinen as Vice Chairman. The Board of Directors did not establish an Audit Committee, the Board itself performs the duties of the Audit Committee. The Board of Directors has at its meeting evaluated the independence of the Board members in compliance with the recommendations of the Finnish Corporate Governance Code. It is the view of the Board of Directors that all Board members, other than Ms. Julianna Borsos, are independent of the company's major shareholders. The Board of Directors has also assessed that all the Board members are independent of the company. For further information, please contact Mikko Montonen, President and CEO, tel. +358 40 5011 262, mikko.montonen(at)aspocomp.com. ASPOCOMP GROUP PLC Mikko Montonen President and CEO Aspocomp heart of your technology A printed circuit board (PCB) is used for electrical interconnection and as a component assembly platform in electronic devices. Aspocomp provides PCB technology design, testing and logistics services over the entire lifecycle of a product. The companys own production and extensive international partner network guarantee cost-effectiveness and reliable deliveries. Aspocomps customers are companies that design and manufacture telecommunication systems and equipment, automotive and industrial electronics, and systems for testing semiconductor components for security technology. The company has customers around the world and most of its net sales are generated by exports. Aspocomp is headquartered in Espoo and its plant is in Oulu, one of Finlands major technology hubs. www.aspocomp.com MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A judge on Monday kept bail at $1 million for a former Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree murder in George Floyds death. Derek Chauvin, 44, said little during an 11-minute hearing in which he appeared before Hennepin County Judge Jeannice M. Reding on closed-circuit television from the state's maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights. He wore a mask and handcuffs as he sat at a table, where he answered yes or no to routine housekeeping questions and confirmed the the spelling of his name and address. He did not enter a plea; a step that usually comes later in Minnesota courts. A judge raised Chauvins bail from $500,000 to $1 million when a second-degree murder charge was added on Wednesday. Mondays hearing was a chance for arguments over the higher bail. Prosecutor Matthew Frank argued for keeping the higher bail, saying the seriousness of the charges and the strong reaction in the community, to put it mildly, made Chauvin a flight risk. The judge agreed with the state's request for $1.25 million unconditional bail, or $1 million with standard conditions including surrendering firearms, remaining law-abiding and making all future court appearances. Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, did not contest the bail amount and didn't address the substance of the charges, which also include third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Nelson did not speak with reporters afterward. He has not commented on the case publicly since Chauvin's May 29 arrest. Attorneys for two of the three other ex-officers charged in the case made it clear at separate first appearances for their clients on Thursday that a key element of their defenses will be to argue that their clients were rookies who tried to intervene verbally to help Floyd, but that they had no choice but to defer to Chauvin, the most senior officer at the scene. Chauvin's next appearance was set for June 29 at 1:30 p.m. Floyd, a handcuffed black man, died May 25 after the white police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air. His death set off protests, some violent, in Minneapolis that swiftly spread to cities around the U.S. and the globe. Chauvin and three other officers on the scene were fired the day after Floyd's death. The other three officers J. Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and with aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. They remain in the Hennepin County jail on $750,000 bail. If convicted, they potentially face the same maximum penalty as Chauvin: up to 40 years in prison. Lanes family has set up a website seeking donations to help him post bond. The site highlights Lanes relative lack of experience -- he had only recently completed his probationary period -- and his questions to Chauvin about whether Floyd should be rolled onto his side. It also noted his volunteer work. Floyd's death has ignited calls to reform the Minneapolis Police Department, which community activists have long accused of entrenched racial discrimination and brutality. A majority of Minneapolis City Council members said Sunday that they favor disbanding the department entirely, though they have yet to offer concrete plans for what would replace it. Nobody is saying we want to abolish health or safety, Council Member Alondra Cano told WCCO-AM on Monday. What we are saying is we have a broken system that is not producing the outcomes we want. The state last week launched a civil rights investigation of the department. On Friday, the council approved a stipulated agreement that immediately banned the use of chokeholds and neck restraints and included several other changes. That investigation is ongoing. The actor wanted to meet workers going to Uttar Pradesh Mumbai: Actor Sonu Sood was on Tuesday stopped from meeting workers outside the Bandra Terminus in Mumbai by the police. A Mumbai police official said the actor was stopped by the Railway Protection Force (RPF). Meanwhile, Western Railway (WR) said they were not allowing in anyone except bonafide passengers. A special Shramik Special train was scheduled from Bandra Terminus to Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh with 1,803 passengers on Monday night. Sood had come to see off the guest workers at Bandra Terminus but he was not allowed to enter the platform. A senior RPF official, who was involved with the arrangement of passengers for a special Shramik train, said that there are guidelines of the railway boards to not allow anyone except the passengers. We have informed the same to the actor who agreed and cooperated with the RPF personnel, the official said. However, Sood met the passengers outside the station. Nirmal Nagar police station's senior inspector Shashikant Bhandare said, "The actor was stopped by the RPF, not by us. He wanted to meet labourers who were going to their native place. We have not received any complaint regarding this till now." Western Railway chief spokesperson Ravinder Bhakar told The Asian Age, We are not allowing anyone to enter the station except passengers and railway staff due to social distancing and safety norms. On Sunday, the executive editor of Saamana and Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut slammed Mr Sood over helping the migrants to reach home. In his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', Raut questioned the sudden rise of Mahatma Sood on the social scene of Maharashtra during the lockdown. However, later that day chief minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray lauded Sood's initiative to arrange buses for stranded migrant workers. The actor met Thackeray at the latter's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra on Sunday night. David Murphey had a long road to finding love. On this season of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days alone, Murphey had to go to Ukraine twice just to get to meet his girlfriend Lana in person. But all of his hard work and money paid off since Lana turned out to be a real person. Over the span of two decades, Murphey has spent an insane amount of money trying to find a Ukrainian woman. Now, he has finally revealed just how much. David Murphey and Lana | Instagram @davidjmurphey David Murphey has been dating Ukrainian women for years On part 2 of the tell-all special, Murphey admitted that hes been dating Ukrainian women since before the Ukrainian dating sites he uses now were even invented. In the beginning, Murphey used to receive actual booklets of Ukrainian women who he could talk to. If he liked one of them, he would invite them to a ball in Ukraine and fly over to meet them. The internet eventually made things more streamlined. When the internet was brand new a tenant of mine showed me a website where you could meet Russian and Filipino women, he wrote to a fan in an Instagram Q&A. I had an interest in Russians. Within months, the Ukrainian women on the site outnumbered the Russians. I went to both countries. A few years later, Ukraine became more Western-like and you didnt even need a visa to go there. Russia requires a visa and you have to register everywhere you go. It was just harder to travel in. RELATED: 90 Day Fiance: How Does David Murphey Have So Much Money to Spend on Ukrainian Dating Sites? And after a while, he began only dating in Ukraine. I stopped dating in the USA 15 years ago, he wrote. Every time I did I would start thinking about Ukraine, so I stopped trying so my heart was free just in case I went to Ukraine. I have dated well over 100 women in Ukraine. Turned down many marriage proposals and have been turned down twice myself. Over the past two decades, Murphey has been to Ukraine 20 times. How much has David spent on dating Ukrainian women? Though Murphey says that he has had a great time dating all of these women, it has come at a hefty price. He estimates that he has spent between $250,000 and $300,000 between flights to Ukraine, the dating sites, and all of the things necessary to woo a Ukrainian woman. But Murphey thinks that he would have been spending close to that if he was dating in America. I was spending $2,000 per month dating when I was dating in the USA, he wrote in the same Q&A. Dinner, shows, activities, and travel. When the website came out I just transferred that expense to them. I know, I know. If you earn 4k a month, this is crazy money, but not if you earn 15k plus. None of this money is lifechanging to me. RELATED: 90 Day Fiance: Big Ed Is Trying to Shut Online Trolls Up by Donating to Charity Is there a cheaper way to date Ukrainian women? According to Murphey, dating women in Ukraine is not a poor mans game. Even if you did it the cheapest way possible, you are still going to be out $15,000 just to get someone here finally, he said. But this will be the same cost if you find someone equally as far away. This is using legitimate methods of meeting someone. Never respond to someone on social media and never ever send any money. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: The Assam governments decision to shut down 17 schools, which registered zero pass percentage in the recently declared results of the High School Leaving Certification (HSLC) exam, has met with a protest. The CPM described the decision as "against education", especially at the time of the alleged merger of schools. Abolishing the 17 schools goes against education. It makes sense if the government will boost infrastructure and appoint the required number of teachers in the schools that registered zero pass percentage, the CPM said in a statement. Demanding revocation of the decision, the party claimed that the education system in the state was increasingly getting weakened due to the faulty policies of the government. The CPM also criticised the government for the hype surrounding Gunotsav. It is a quality enhancement initiative aimed at bringing about improvement in the learning levels of students at the elementary level. The shutdown of the 17 schools was announced by the states Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma two days ago. He said as the schools recorded zero pass percentage in the exam, the government had decided to close them down. Sarma said the teachers of those schools would be transferred to different schools across the state within the next 72 hours, adding that the students would get enrolled in nearby schools. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) traders and shipbuilders are looking to increasingly offer services on mid-size LNG tankers that are capable of traveling on shallower rivers, thus reaching new markets for LNG, Bloomberg reports. Saga LNG Shipping, for example, has already seen a mid-sized LNG tanker, Saga Dawn, complete her maiden voyage, delivering LNG at JOVOs Dongguan Terminal from Singapore LNG. According to David Wu, Founder and CEO of Saga LNG Shipping, the company aims to build up its own fleet of mid-sized LNG carriers to enable new and stranded markets with access to cost-effective LNG. The midsized LNG vessels will be capable of traveling inland on large rivers, which could give more territories, especially in China, direct access to LNG, which is typically being unloaded at big ports and LNG terminals. In two of the biggest LNG customers in Asia, China and India, there are a lot of shallow rivers not suitable for very large LNG ships to travelthat is why midsize LNG tankers could be an option for reaching landlocked areas where rivers run, Sarah Behbehani, former senior vice president for LNG at Jera Global Markets, told Bloomberg. Singapore-based Saga LNG Shipping has recently signed a preliminary deal with Venerable LNG (VLNG) in India, looking to bring LNG to a terminal and infrastructure project under development by VLNG. We are excited to see the progress of Saga LNG in providing custom made supply solutions to draft limited ports, a necessity in order to access the distributed demand centers without dependence on third party infrastructure. We look forward to jointly working with them to open up newer geographies for LNG supply, said Mayank Garg, Managing Director of VLNG. The global LNG fleet has very few midsize LNG tankers at present8.8 percent of the 601 LNG carriers are under 90,000 cubic meters, Bloomberg says, citing data from the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: WASHINGTON - A bill by two Washington D.C.-area members of Congress to mandate body cameras for federal police officers, launched after the 2017 slaying of Bijan Ghaisar by two U.S. Park Police officers, got a jolt of momentum Monday when it was included in the House of Representatives' wide-ranging legislation on police reform. No uniformed federal police officers, in a variety of agencies across the country, wear body cameras, and no cameras are installed in any marked federal police vehicles. Federal agencies say footage from the cameras could compromise their tactics or expose witnesses in their investigations. So when Park Police officers Alejandro Amaya and Lucas Vinyard began pursuing Ghaisar down the George Washington Memorial Parkway on Nov. 17, 2017, they did not record the episode, which included Ghaisar stopping twice and then pulling away as the officers ran at him with their guns drawn. A Fairfax County police lieutenant joined the pursuit, with his in-car camera activated, and captured the first two stops. When Ghaisar stopped in the Fort Hunt neighborhood of Fairfax, then pulled away a third time, the Fairfax camera recorded Amaya and Vinyard firing 10 shots into Ghaisar's Jeep Grand Cherokee, killing him. Ghaisar, 25, was not armed and did not interact with the officers. The Justice Department decided against charging them last year; the Fairfax prosecutor is now considering the case. In November 2018, Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who represents Washington D.C. in Congress, introduced a bill requiring all federal uniformed officers and all federal marked police vehicles to be equipped with cameras. When that session of Congress expired, Norton and Beyer introduced it against last year, but it did not get a hearing. "The events of last week virtually mandate passage of our bill," Norton said in a news release, "just as local police throughout the United States do. ... As the House works to reform policing across the country, we appreciate that today's bill includes the body camera provision." Beyer said that he was "mindful that the event which originally inspired this legislation, the killing of Bijan Ghaisar in 2017 by U.S. Park Police, has never been justified or explained. I hope that the Justice in Policing Act, in which our legislation was included, will help prevent similar injustices in the future." Norton and Beyer said they expected the House to pass the Justice in Policing Act "as soon as this month." Federal officers aren't necessarily opposed to the idea. When Beyer and Norton first proposed the idea, Pat O'Carroll, executive director of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, said his officers support being equipped with cameras but would have several concerns. Officers would want to be equipped with the best technology available and be sure that proper policies and procedures would be in place to handle the use, retention and release of the videos, O'Carroll said. The rule against body cameras has created tension between federal and local police. After an Atlanta officer shot someone while serving on a federal task force, federal officials refused to allow Atlanta officers to wear cameras. So Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields pulled her officers out of all federal task forces, and chiefs in some other cities followed suit. In October, the Justice Department announced a pilot program in which local officers would be allowed to wear cameras on federal task forces in certain cities. Atlanta was not selected. Federal officers were not included in the program. Feature: Sekaya Prescribing Nature Going plant-based? I have good news for you! Did you know that using botanicals to improve ones health is an age-old practice in many parts of the world, including the Philippines? Today, many consumers are going natural and are more conscious about the products they use. Not all-natural solutions in the market, however, are backed by science, producing sub-standard products that are ineffective and may be harmful to consumers. This is why for Filipino plant-based brand Sekaya, produced by Unilabs natural products company Synnovate Pharma Corporation, the only way to create best-in-class natural products is through the convergence of nature and science. I love drinking tea and giddy to find out that SEKAYA banks on science to optimize the earths natural ingredients. This Filipino plant-based brand is Prescribing Nature by making the most out of tradition and science to produce safe, high-quality natural products. More information about the brand and its exciting product line below. Feature: Sekaya Prescribing Nature Drinking Sekaya Botanic Infusion Energy Mix to start my day Sekaya is a brand thats committed to prescribing nature by doing scientific research to develop pharma-grade health products such as food supplements and botanic infusions. All their products are made from plant-based ingredients that have long been backed by tradition and undergone exacting measures to ensure purity and potency. Feature: Sekaya Prescribing Nature Its goal is to provide consumers with products that offer functional wellness and ensures that it only offers natures life-nurturing gifts that are backed by the brilliance of science. Sekaya focuses on plant-based ingredients that have been traditionally used for their health-promoting benefits and are recently backed-up with scientific evidence. Sekayas Prescribing Nature advocacy focuses on promoting the healing benefits of nature as validated by science. As an emerging player in the industry, Sekaya has been providing high-quality plant-based products that go through rigorous testing in pharma-grade facilities to ensure their efficacy, safety, and purity. Feature: Sekaya Prescribing Nature SEKAYA product line: In a virtual conference held last Mayadvocacy focuses on promoting the healing benefits of nature as validated by science. As an emerging player in the industry, Sekaya has been providing high-quality plant-based products that go through rigorous testing in pharma-grade facilities to ensure their efficacy, safety, and purity. Sekaya Botanic Infusions- a curated line of medicinal, loose-leaf botanic infusions for specific health conditions, the company is set to introduce more natural solutions of the same caliber. Made with the highest quality of products that are non-GMO, non-irradiated, and has the USDA and QAI Organic Certification. As these organic ingredients get infused in water, all healthy plant nutrients are extracted which the body then easily absorbs when consumed. Feature: Sekaya Prescribing Nature Sekaya Botanic Infusion Aftermeal Treat It helps relax the digestive system by calming stomach muscles, improving bile flow, reducing acid secretions, and breaking down fats. As its name suggests, you will definitely experience a delightful and healthy after meal infusion. Peppermint, Chamomile flower, Licorice root, Cinnamon bark Easy Nightcap A cup of this blend helps calm down anxiety and relieve stress and tension, helping you achieve a sound and restful sleep. Catnip, Scullcap, Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Peppermint, Spearmint, Oatstraw Energy Mix This green tea botanical blend is combined with energy-giving eleuthero and ginkgo to keep you motivated all day long. Schisandra berry contributes to the positive energy to invigorate you throughout the day. It is a smooth infusion to match your busy lifestyle. Young Hyson Tea, Eleuthero Root, Schisandra Berry, Gingko Leaf, Gotu Kola, Licorice Root, Ginger Pu-erh Trim Pu-erh Trim contains pu-erh tea that originated in Yunnan Province in Imperial China. It is one of the most popular beverages in Asia used as a medicinal drink in the treatment of a variety of illnesses such as common colds, flatulence, poor digestion, and the onset of dysentery. Made of 100% Pu-erh Tea Hibiscus Petals It helps maintain healthy blood pressure. It contains 100% Hibiscus Petals. Product Preparation: In a teacup or small teapot with infuser, put 1 or 2 teaspoons of the botanical blend. Add more for a stronger cup. Pour 250mL of freshly boiled water and infuse for 3 to 4 minutes. To make a liter, put 4 to 8 teaspoons. Strain the botanicals from the water and set aside. 2. Sekaya Raw Actives- are powdered green superfoods, plant proteins, and energy optimizers aimed toward athletes and active individuals who want to up their game and improve their performance naturally. Feature: Sekaya Prescribing Nature Sekaya Raw Actives 3. Sekaya Botanicare is a line of premium natural skincare products that are aimed to keep even the most sensitive skin healthy and smooth all over. 4. Sekaya Food Supplements- (coming soon) natural solutions that will highlight Philippine herbs. Staying true to its name as Sentro ng Katutubong Yaman, Sekayas mission is to put our local herbs and rich tradition These are premium, pharma-grade supplements that are 100% sourced and manufactured in the Philippines, and provide concentrated nutrients from local herbs that are designed to address the needs of Filipinos. One of the products under this line is the Sekaya Organic Moringa, the only European Union (EU)-certified 100% organic 500mg capsule in the market. 1.a curated line of medicinal, loose-leaf botanic infusions for specific health conditions, the company is set to introduce more natural solutions of the same caliber. Made with the highest quality of products that are non-GMO, non-irradiated, and has the USDA and QAI Organic Certification. As these organic ingredients get infused in water, all healthy plant nutrients are extracted which the body then easily absorbs when consumed.2.are powdered green superfoods, plant proteins, and energy optimizers aimed toward athletes and active individuals who want to up their game and improve their performance naturally.3.is a line of premium natural skincare products that are aimed to keep even the most sensitive skin healthy and smooth all over.4.- (coming soon) natural solutions that will highlight Philippine herbs. Staying true to its name as Sentro ng Katutubong Yaman, Sekayas mission is to put our local herbs and rich tradition These are premium, pharma-grade supplements that are 100% sourced and manufactured in the Philippines, and provide concentrated nutrients from local herbs that are designed to address the needs of Filipinos. One of the products under this line is the, the only European Union (EU)-certified 100% organic 500mg capsule in the market. With the influx of natural brands to address demand, and at times overwhelming, even contradictory information on these, Nepomuceno added, Aside from products that offer functional wellness, Sekaya wants to help educate consumers to be more discerning and make well-informed decisions as these impact their health and wellbeing. The current times present a wake-up call and a strong reminder of the utmost importance of keeping our health in check, and nothing perhaps can be more reassuring than being able to turn to natural solutions that are not only tested by tradition but also proven by science. For more information about Sekaya Prescribing Nature visit their official website: https://www.sekaya.com.ph/ Like them on Facebook: Sekaya PH Follow them on Instagram: @sekayaph #SekayaPH #PrescribingNature NY Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a press briefing on COVID-19 at Madison Boys and Girls Club in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on May 28, 2020. With all of New York state now beginning to reopen nonessential businesses and ease restrictions, Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged the public on Tuesday to continue to take precautions to avoid a "spike" in cases as is happening in Florida and other states that reopened early. "We're in a new phase. We're feeling good. We've done great, but we have to stay smart, because reopening resets the whole game," Cuomo said. "When you reopen, when people start coming out, in some ways, you go right back to day one." New York, which was once the epicenter of the country's outbreak, has been gradually reopening regions depending on when they meet certain epidemiological requirements that measure the severity of the local outbreak. New York City, the hardest-hit part of the state, shifted into phase one of reopening on Monday. That first phase of reopening will send up to 400,000 New York City residents back to work, Mayor Bill de Blasio has previously said. "We know as a fact that reopening other states we're seeing significant problems," Cuomo said Tuesday. "Twelve states that reopened are now seeing spikes. This is a very real possibility. Countries across the globe that reopened are seeing spikes." Cuomo pointed to other states, specifically Florida, that have seen a resurgence of the virus since reopening. On June 6, Florida reported about 1,400 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, its most in one day since the state health department began to track data on the outbreak in mid-March. Daily new cases in the state have remained about 1,000 since June 2, according to the state's surveillance dashboard. Despite rising cases, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last week that most of the state could enter phase two of reopening, which eases restrictions on retail locations and allows bars and theaters to reopen. The virus has infected more than 66,000 people in Florida and killed at least 2,765 people, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. "Just because you reopen does not mean you will have a spike, but if you're not smart you can have a spike," Cuomo said. "We're not fine. We've made great progress, but we have to stay smart and we have to stay disciplined." Other states that were among the first and most ambitious to reopen have also reported spikes in recent days. Texas, which began to reopen on May 8 and expanded its reopening on May 18, reported a second-consecutive day of record Covid-19 hospitalizations on Tuesday. There are currently 2,056 confirmed Covid-19 patients in Texas hospitals, according to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services. That figure has been on the rise in recent days. Hospitalization numbers better reflect a state's reopening performance since it's more difficult to skew than the number of confirmed cases, which fluctuates depending on how many tests are being run. New cases are also surging in Arizona, which began to reopen in mid-May. Daily new cases in the state topped 1,000 for the first time on June 1, rising to 1,168 the next day, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. The data since then is incomplete, the state says. Such spikes become especially concerning if the influx of patients begin to stretch the state health systems thin. The Arizona Republic reported Monday that the state health director sent a letter on June 6 to hospitals asking them to "fully activate" their emergency plans to ensure hospitals continue to have adequate capacity. Arizona's largest health-care system, Banner Health, told CNBC on Monday that its number of Covid-19 patients on ventilators has quadrupled since May 15. "We have seen a steady climb of COVID-19 cases in Arizona over the last two weeks," Banner Health's chief clinical officer, Dr. Marjorie Bessel, said in a statement. "This trend is concerning to us, and also correlates with a rise in cases that we are seeing in our hospital ICUs." Nationally, confirmed cases have been ticking upward ever since Memorial Day weekend. While cases aren't spiking on the national level, they appear to have plateaued at more than 20,000 new confirmed cases every day, according to Hopkins' data. Health officials expected cases to rise when restrictions were eased, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC earlier Tuesday, adding that parts of the country, including Arizona and Texas, look "pretty hot" in terms of spread. "Make no mistake, we're going to be tolerating a lot of spread of Covid-19 heading into the summer and the fall," he said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "And we're not going to shut down again." Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a member of the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina. Uluru statement a squandered chance As history unfolds, I note with deep regret the opportunity Malcolm Turnbull missed. While Prime Minister, he was presented with The Uluru Statement from the Heart. Leadership was desperately needed: a respectful recognition of the work many fine, thoughtful, intelligent Indigenous people had put into this peaceful manifesto. The Statement offered healing, but asked for a voice in making a safe and valued future for their ancient and creative culture as well as a safe life for their people now. Does anyone remember what happened then? All lives matter, but the lives of our First Peoples particularly matter now, because the systems which should protect them are flawed and failing dreadfully. - Maralyn Lawson, Greenwich It's now seven days since the incident in Surry Hills during which a police officer arrested a 16-year-old boy by sweeping his feet from under him while holding his hands behind his back, slamming him face-first onto the pavement. The Police Commissioner trivialised the incident, saying that the officer may have had "a bad day". The youth certainly had a bad day resulting in a trip to hospital. I acknowledge that police do a difficult job but if they aren't adequately trained to cope with an insolent 16-year old, that training needs improvement. - David Errington, Zetland John Balazs (Letters, June 9), in criticising Black Lives Matter protesters for acting emotionally and in wilful ignorance of expert opinion about the health risks of joining a mass rally, misses one important point. Protesters acted because of Indigenous lives lost in custody in Australia since 1991. Emotion, yes, a serious public health issue, yes, but the only ignorance around this is ignorance in plain sight. Do we need any more hard evidence to justify strong action to force our reluctant policy-makers to act? - Peter Geelan-Small, Glebe I chose to attend the Black Lives Matter march on the weekend in my hometown. With the resumption of the NRL, crowds lining up in and around coffee shops and filling of caravan parks in town, I decided social restrictions were no longer regarded as necessary for our health. Thankfully a peaceful, sombre and socially distant afternoon followed. Did it achieve anything apart from a sense of solidarity with our most disadvantaged group? Only time will tell. - Gary Snow, Port Macquarie At least the judges of the Court of Appeal have succeeded in uniting community opinion. The protestors in the Black Lives Matter protest march say they have no faith in the legal system. Those of us in the medical profession and/or the COVID-19 high-risk group now share their position. - Dr Ian Rewell, Longueville How it should be done The report on the national cabinet decision-making process reveals three important principles ("A terrible duty: the day that changed the country", June 9). Firstly, listen to the experts. Secondly, put the nation's welfare ahead of politics and thirdly, be clear and open in the way that you communicate with the public. The process has not been without its missteps but surely there is something here that can be used to tackle the other great problems confronting our nation. - Philip Cooney, Wentworth Falls Not meant to be fun Craig Orchard's description of how he gets "an adrenalin rush" by hunting down brumbies for capture is just plain downright cruelty ("Let the buck stop with us, say brumby whisperers of the alps", June 9). It would both be more humane and ecologically wise to cull the brumbies humanely. - Tony Brownlow, Glebe The brumbies are doing untold damage to pristine Alpine areas, especially due to trampling. The Benambra Buck Runners want to take more horses up there to chase them "in a mad gallop" as a solution. Does Craig Orchard practice homeopathy by any chance? - Richard Abram, Bexley Something to answer Nicholas Fisher notes the willingness to pass students irrespective of their ability (Letters, June 9). Many universities and courses now allow 'cheat sheets' into examinations and I do not just mean some mathematical formulas or chemical equations. I have witnessed whole test answers being copied from the allowed page. What a farce. But success rates must be looking good. - Tony Sullivan, Adamstown Heights It's not only overseas undergraduates that create university wealth. Hoards with no undergrad qualifications go straight to a masters using spurious justifications. All that's needed is plenty of money or a generous cashed-up employer. - Keith Parsons, Newcastle Trial and error The childcare sector is the perfect guinea pig for the Coalition's reintroduction of fees and trialling an early pull-back on JobKeeper ("Babes out of alms: childcare fees to hit hard", June 9). Low-income parents and sector workers, who are already focusing mainly on the struggle to survive, are less likely to squeal and if they leave the labour force altogether for a while the main unemployment figures will look better. - Sue Dyer, Downer, ACT Illustration: Matt Golding Credit: So childcare fee subsidies are to be curtailed early but subsidies for write-offs for business assets has been extended ("Business assets write off gets $300m boost", June 9). Seems like a snap back to the old normal. - Geoff Wannan, Dawes Point The government has decided that it will provide a financial stimulus to the building industry. This will not benefit many women as few work in that industry. At the same time financial support for childcare, an industry employing many women and of benefit to women, is to be discontinued. On the basis of their respective fairness and effectiveness, the government should reconsider these decisions. - Carol Quinn, Armidale Class dismissed With all due respect to gifted nine-year-olds ("Opportunity class tests delayed due to pandemic", June 9) I wonder if it is the parents rather than the child who would be dismayed at the failure to gain access to a gifted stream. Gifted and confident children have every opportunity to succeed in our excellent schools selective or not. To perpetuate the myth that an appropriate academic education can only be obtained in a selective school is in itself outrageous. - Natalie Mabbitt, Randwick Grass is always greener The collective sighs of relief following our PM's teleconference meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi last week are almost deafening ("A decade of history in a hurry", June 9). Australia can now move to a close alliance with the word's largest democracy rather than continue to cosy up to an authoritarian one-party state. But people should do a little homework and test how India measures up to the ideals and principles of a democratic state. Modi's far right wing BJP is committed to a single religious country and does nothing to quell the violence and riots against the (significant) Muslim minority. The disparity between the wealthy and the poor is as bad as anywhere else in the world. - Erik Kulakauskas, Port Macquarie Teddy Roosevelt liked to speak softly and carry a big stick. Our government has no stick, but when urged by others, shouts loudly and rudely at China which carries many large sticks. - Ellen Pinnington, Armidale A super position Bernie Dean's demolishment of Andrew Bragg's suggestions for superannuation ("Tinkering with super a dodgy move", June 9) was comprehensive, so it was disappointing that the editorial rehashed some of them ("Super funds must be low cost and transparent", June 9). Our superannuation scheme may not be perfect but it is not for no reason that late last year it was rated number 3 out of 37 countries in the world in the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index. If Mr Bragg's suggestions were to be implemented, our future retirees will be far worse off. - Peter Nash, Fairlight Cashed up Clancy Yeates omits to include merchant fees in the equation ("Digital payments and virus kills the cash king", June 8). The ACCC says these fees are up to 1.5 per cent which ultimately are passed on to the consumer. So the banks win twice, their ATM and branch costs are lower and their merchant fee revenue is higher. - Michael Longhurst, Woolooware Borderline disgrace How distressing to read of Pirthi Pal Singh's inability to return to Australia ("Family twice denied relief from businessman's visa purgatory", June 8). On the day that the national honours are being published, we read about a man who came here in 2008 on a skilled migrant visa, built a trucking business that employs 6 people, and has given his time and trucks to help deliver supplies to fire and drought-stricken communities. His wife is trying to become a registered nurse. He went back to India to see his sick father, and now he's not allowed back. These are exactly the sort of people we want in Australia people who make a great contribution. Instead of blocking his return to his family and business, we should be honouring him as a welcome citizen. - Jeffrey Deakin, Mosman Knocked down Today sees the 50th anniversary of the closure of the "Old Barn" more respectably known as the "Sydney Stadium". Your article highlights boxing although more interesting in my mind is the story of the loss of the largest roofed-in structure in the world ("From the Archives, 1970: The final knockout at Sydney Stadium", June 8). The building, designed by Thomas Pollard Sampson, was a roofed octagonal structure with raked wooden seating for 12,000 people. Would the Sydney of today have allowed such an extraordinary facility to be torn down for road and rail works? - Scott Brandon Smith, Bowral Powerful stuff Another idea would be to move Carriageworks to Parramatta ("Shunt Carriageworks", June 8). Moving art to the west is what the NSW government promised. Then move the Powerhouse Museum to the White Bay Power Station, the perfect site for a Powerhouse Museum. - Ian Brennan, Wareemba Stumped on Black Rock If the biggest investment bank in the world has decided to throw their weight behind renewables ("As warned, world's biggest investor acts against coal", June 9), then how come they call themselves Black Rock? - Peter Bower, Naremburn Branching out So George III knighted an oak tree, Adrian Connelly? (Letters, June 9). Good on him. I know lots of trees that have done more to offset climate change than some in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. - Norman Carter, Roseville Chase School of thought Could we please add a Cathy Wilcox student to each high school as well? (Letters, June 9). - Kathleen Chivers, Vincentia League therapy Medicine-free therapy sessions are back. The English Premier League kicks off next week. - Mustafa Erem, Terrigal Kirsten Dunst stars in the Showtime series "On Becoming a God in Central Florida." (Christina House / For The Times) Kirsten Dunst is sitting next to her 2-year-old son, Ennis, who is scarfing down yogurt drops while watching "Lady and the Tramp" for the second straight day. She's calling from rural New Zealand, where she's holed up with Ennis and her husband, Jesse Plemons. They've been there since January, filming "The Power of the Dog," a Jane Campion movie in which she and Plemons play a husband and wife dealing with a brother (Benedict Cumberbatch) who disapproves of their wedding. The film shut down late, leaving the family stuck there because they didn't feel it was safe to fly. They've been itching to return home to Toluca Lake, though, to be close to family and friends. Dunst is calling in late April. And soon, they are heading home their flight leaves in a few days. She doesn't know when shooting will resume on the movie or when she'll return to playing struggling mom Krystal Stubbs on the second season of her Showtime series, "On Becoming a God in Central Florida." But she does know she's glad her son loves "Lady and the Tramp" because it was the first movie she ever saw in a theater and she loves it too. What's quarantine life been like for you? We wanted to get out of the city, out of Auckland, so we rented a house for our son to have some grass to run around on. There's horses around here. And we have two old cats living with us, one of whom, Sid, brings us a mouse every night. Last night, Jesse and I were sitting outside and he brings a full rabbit. I've never seen so much carcass in my life. I picked up a[n] ... eyeball the other night. I hope you thanked him. These are gifts he's bringing you. Of course. "You're such a great hunter! Thank you!" But Jesse had to catch a mouse in our bathroom the other night and throw it outside. ["Mom's gotta talk on the phone," she tells Ennis. "I can't hide you."] He keeps me sane. Yesterday we let him be naked all day and he'd pee outside in the grass. He thought it was so funny. He was so happy he could pee like a dog. It helps him with his potty training. He was pushing so hard to try to pee because he liked it so much. Story continues Had you ever come close to working with Jane Campion before this? You two seem like a good fit. It's been a lifelong dream. I saved this letter she wrote me in 2000 about this other movie she wanted to make, this Alice Munro book "Runaway" that never got made. We have the same birthday, Jane and I. We work the same way honest and direct. She likes what I like in filmmaking, all the unexpected things that happen. You and Jesse are playing husband and wife again. I hope it works out better here than it did for Peggy and Ed Blumquist on "Fargo." There's still darkness. But, yes, it does. Benedict is the problem. He's kind of silently torturing me. His character ... not Benedict. He's lovely. Krystal has a lot of rage in "On Becoming a God." What do you draw on to play that? Let's not forget. I've been a child actor. [Laughs] I mean, that pretty much sums it up. But you also use relationships you've been in, things that annoy you, anything, everything. Bear your shame! Your son was only 5 months old when you shot the show's 10 episodes. What was the biggest challenge getting through those long days? Well, I couldn't hold my baby after my 5 p.m. spray tan. Krystal is high-maintenance! I think I was just more physically exhausted than I would have been, but that exhaustion fed into playing a character who really acts out all her frustrations. With Krystal, I could let it all hang out. She's a very freeing character to play. What's the first thing you're going to do when you get home? Wash my hands? [Laughs] And after you've dried them off? One thing I am most excited about is just sitting and listening to records. Jesse and I have a killer sound system. We shut off all the lights and we sit in the triangle that's what we call the spot where the sound is perfect and it feels like, certain records, it's like watching "The Godfather" for the first time. I've cried. It feels like a religious experience. The first time I heard Joni Mitchell's "Blue" on this, I was a mess. I want to sit in the triangle! Someday. I'll play you Graham Nash's "Songs for Beginners." The surefire hits, though, are always a Nina Simone song or a Beach Boys song. Anyway, that's what Jesse and I will do when we get home. Wash our hands, put the baby to bed and sit in the triangle. Maybe put on some Judee Sill. A good cry would feel good right about now. School leaders across the nation are preparing to reopen campuses in the fall, and they're quickly learning that, when it comes to necessary supplies, it isn't going to be easy - or cheap. Schools will need gallons of soap, thousands of containers of disinfectant wipes, hundreds of thermometers and masks for students and staffers. On top of that, there are the costly crews that will need to routinely come into school buildings for intensive cleans. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend: Representatives of Uzbekistan and Singapore discussed prospects and mechanisms of bolstering political, trade-economic, investment, transport, cultural and humanitarian cooperation, Trend reports with reference to Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan. Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov held a videoconference with Minister of Finance of Singapore Heng Swee Keat and Senior State Minister of Trade and Industry Koh Poh Koon on July 8, 2020. During the talks, the sides reviewed the status of projects implemented with the participation of Singaporean investors in Uzbekistan, as well as prospects for further expansion of partnership in information and communication technologies, education and healthcare, pharmaceuticals and transport infrastructure. Given the considerable potential for boosting the trade turnover, it has been suggested to intensify joint work in exploring the possibilities of concluding a free trade agreement between Uzbekistan and Singapore. In addition, the two sides discussed the idea of creating an Uzbek-Singaporean business council - a platform to elaborate strategic areas of cooperation and guide business circles of both nations to mutually advantageous cooperation and implementation of joint projects. Possibilities have also been considered to intensify passenger and cargo air travel between the two countries, as well as to borrow the experience of leading Singaporean transport companies in managing cargo transportation flows and improving the performance of airlines. The Singaporean side expressed firm intention to support Uzbekistan in its process of joining the World Trade Organization through the implementation of institutional capacity building programs, as well as the involvement of Singapore experts to share experience in development of free trade principles. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vitali Kremez, a leading malware expert, educator, and cybersecurity industry influencer, joins as the Chairman of Advanced Intelligence LLC, a New York City cyber intelligence boutique firm. Kremez is a former member of the New York County District Attorney's Office and a former leader of the anti-virus cybersecurity intelligence center. He aspires to use this first-hand government experience and private sector experience in order to advance AdvIntel's strategic growth and market expansion. AdvIntel is a boutique business intelligence company, specializing in combating the most vivid and prolific cyber threats such as ransomware groups and botnet networks. The firm prioritizes exclusive advanced SIGINT techniques and places a heavy emphasis on technical analysis, reverse engineering, and malware updates. Kremez' skills as an elite reverse engineer with managerial and business skillset would help elevate all of the company operations to a new level. However, the unmatched technical and business professionalism is not the only reason for the decision. According to AdvIntel's CEO, Yelisey Boguslaskiy the company is an ethically-oriented business that prevents ransomware attacks against non-profits, religious communities, colleges, public schools, and indigenous tribes institutions, and hence requires leaders who understand this essential ethical component. "Our management consists entirely of fellow-refugees, people of color and other vulnerable groups" - commented Boguslavskiy, a refugee himself, struggling with severe vision impairment - "Kremez helped me in my struggles as a mentor and as a friend, never demonstrating arrogance. There is hardly anyone else in this industry who understands the importance of morals and social responsibility while being a true expert." Another AdvIntel employee, - the head of the firm's branding division, Justice Lapsley, who is African-American adds: "Vitali came to this country as a refugee, started from scratch, and devoted his talents to social justice at the County District Attorney's Office. He perfectly understands that security, including, cybersecurity is an essential component of a stable and healthy society." Mr. Kremez will assume his official chairman's duties beginning of June 9, 2020. He stated: "I am excited to join the venture of Advanced Intelligence LLC as Chairman with my trusted friend and former colleague Yelisey Boguslavskiy. The company trajectory and unprecedented growth with law enforcement support establish the firm as the top intelligence leader in the world." SOURCE Advanced Intelligence LLC Related Links https://www.advanced-intel.com Sitting at the Roy dEspagne terrace on the Grand Place in Brussels, Ian Panne enjoyed his first beer in a restaurant after Belgium eased almost 12 weeks of coronavirus lockdown. I would never have thought that having a beer on the Grand Place would be so emotional, Panne, a 48-year-old antiques dealer, told Reuters. Belgium allowed almost all businesses to reopen on Monday, including bars and restaurants, but social distancing measures must remain. At the Roy dEspagne restaurant, one table in two is left empty and customers have to scan a QR code for the menu. Waiters are protected by masks or plastic shields. That has not deterred 39-year-old Caroline Michils, who said the measures were for everyones safety. In contrast, Florence Vandenhoeck, 68, said the masks and the emptiness of the Grand Place, usually packed with tourists, were a frightening sight. Monday also marked the resumption of religious ceremonies such as masses. Up to 100 worshippers are allowed, with face masks, social distancing and sanitizer the norm. We have to think about a lot of things in terms of health security, but from a spiritual and human point of view it is a very beautiful moment, priest and spokesman for Belgiums episcopal conference Tommy Scholtes said. Belgium is set for three years of lost growth from the COVID-19 pandemic as the 2021-2022 recovery will fail to make up for a 9% decline forecast for this year, the central bank said on Monday. Belgium has 59,348 cases of COVID-19 and 9,606 deaths. SOURCE: REUTES A partnership between KiplePay and Visa has now allowed KiplePay to issue Visa prepaid cards to its users. The company also became the latest to join Visas Fintech Fast Track programme. According to the chief executive officer of KiplePay, Kay Tan, the partnership with Visa is an endorsement of KiplePays progress in the fintech industry. It will also allow the payment service provider to further develop its products and solutions for its users. Once we issue a Visa prepaid card, we are able to leverage on Visas global acceptance footprint. Were extremely excited to enable both online and offline payments using the 16-digit payment credential to our customers, said Tan. Tan added that KiplePays vision has always been focused on powering the masses, and that the company has been driving an inclusive cashless agenda across different communities. This ranges from instant disbursement of funds for government aids to powering small merchants and student communities. Meanwhile, Visas country manager (Malaysia), Ng Kong Boon, said that KiplePays enrollment as a partner of its Fintech Fast Track programme and a principal card issuer will enable Visa to reach out to underserved segments in Malaysia. This is aligned with our objectives and the governments goal to accelerate the use of digital payments in the country, he said. Visa has been actively expanding its Fintech Fast Track programme in Malaysia, encouraging fintech companies to tap into its network to explore new digital payment and commerce opportunities. The programme allows them to access and collaborate with Visas network of enablement partners across the fintech payment process, including issuance, push payments, and value-added services. Through their partnership, KiplePay and Visa aim to enhance their e-wallet products, including money withdrawals and access to 61 million merchants in more than 200 countries. They also plan to use features such as loyalty programmes, mobile discounts, peer-to-peer transfers and personalised e-wallet services to encourage KiplePay customers to make online and offline payments through a single app. Additionally, KiplePay e-wallet users and white label customers will also be allowed to link their e-wallet offerings with a physical or virtual Visa card for a more seamless payment process. KiplePay, which was founded in 2017, has been working in the present economic climate to bring new payment solutions for the Malaysian public and business community to operate in the low-touch economy. Previously, the company has collaborated with Bank Islam to pioneer kipleUNI, an e-payment facilities for universities in Malaysia. It also launched a digital platform initiative with the Coalition of Malay Small Traders to help its traders resume their businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Source: The Star, The Edge Markets) 0 0 votes Article Rating SHARE Tropical Storm Cristobal will unite with another storm system coming from the west to form a giant cyclone as 'life-threatening' flooding is poised to hit Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri over the next few days, forecasters have warned. After drenching much of the South and sparking an emergency hurricane response in Louisiana, Cristobal is now on the move and is expected to bring fierce winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms to much of the Midwest by Tuesday. A very strong storm system sweeping out from the Rocky Mountains will meld with the tropical storm in the next couple of days, said Greg Carbin, who oversees forecasts at the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. 'The two will eventually merge into a large cyclone,' Carbin said. 'It's a pretty fascinating interaction we'll see over the next couple of days.' Tropical Storm Cristobal will unite with another storm system coming from the west to form a giant cyclone as 'life-threatening' flooding is poised to hit threaten Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri over the next few days, forecasters have warned The risk of flash flooding and river flooding is high, threatening to impact around 15 million Americans all along the Gulf Coast up to Wisconsin. Its forecast path takes it into Arkansas and Missouri by Tuesday, then through Illinois and Wisconsin to the Great Lakes. At greatest risk is the lower Mississippi River valley and the Ozarks in Arkansas and Missouri, which could see up to 15 inches of rain and life-threatening flash flooding in the next 24 hours across the mid and upper Mississippi Valley, warned the National Hurricane Center. Wildfires poses another risk to parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, where gusty winds and low humidity combined with areas of dry grass are a concern, National Weather Service forecasters warned. View of Tropical Storm Cristobal from the International Space Station High winds could be felt from Nebraska to Wisconsin, and wind gusts of up to 45 mph are then expected in Chicago by Tuesday night, the National Weather Service said. Boaters were being warned of gale-force winds on nearby Lake Michigan on Tuesday and Wednesday. Cristobal will maintain its tropical characteristics until early Wednesday, forecasters warn, before interacting with a cold front which will trigger winds of up to 50 mph in parts of the Great Lake and Canada. The storm first made landfall between the Mississippi River and Louisiana Sunday evening, where two boaters have been found safe after going missing for almost a day. Long Beach on the Mississippi Gulf Coast is submerged after the storm makes landfall Sunday A man walks out of his boathouse in New Orleans Sunday, as Cristobal hits Louisiana Fears had grown for the two boaters after their boat sank in a deepwater straight near Slidell, Louisiana, on Sunday afternoon. They told deputies they survived in the water by clinging to one life jacket all night before they were able to reach the shore Monday morning, St. Tammany Parish sheriff's Sgt. Suzanne Carboni said in a statement. The pair then swam across a marshy area and were found sitting on the porch of a camp Monday afternoon, Carboni said. Footage shared by residents on social media showed Louisianans trapped inside their homes surrounded by heavy flood water. A man films the chaos as the rising storm surges from Lake Pontchartrain Sunday A wave crashes as a man stands on a jetty near Orleans Harbor in Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans on Sunday Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said the storm could have been worse and that it provided the state with 'a good test' of overall hurricane response and preparedness, particularly combined with the ongoing COVID-19 response efforts. 'The storm could have been a lot worse, I'm very thankful to say. We were largely spared,' Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said. Donald Trump has agreed to issue an emergency declaration for Louisiana, officials said. Florida was also hard hit being struck by two tornadoes in as many days over the weekend. The second uprooted trees and downed power lines Sunday afternoon south of Lake City near Interstate 75, the weather service said, though no injuries were reported. Debris lays strewn around the Lake Margaret Village Apartments in Orlando after a tornado struck late Saturday Florida was struck by two tornadoes in as many days over the weekend Trees were uprooted and power lines downed, with some homes destroyed in Florida The storm also forced a waterlogged stretch of Interstate 10 in north Florida to close for a time Sunday. In Alabama, the bridge linking the mainland to Dauphin Island was closed much of Sunday but was being reopened Monday. Police and state transportation department vehicles led convoys of motorists to and from the island when breaks in the weather permitted safe passage. Waves were seen crashing over Mississippi beaches and highways, leaving cars and trucks stalled in flood waters. Shocking footage showed workers at a Mississippi casino being rescued after they were stranded inside the Silver Slipper site due to heavy flooding. According to the City of Biloxi Facebook page, emergency workers helped dozens of motorists through flood waters, mostly on US 90 running along the coast. Owners tie down and secure their boats in the Pass Christian Harbor in Pass Christian, Mississippi ahead of Tropical Storm Cristobal's landfall Cocoa Falls After Q4 North American Cocoa Demand Unexpectedly Declines Barchart - Fri Jan 21, 1:24PM CST March ICE NY cocoa (CCH22 ) on Friday closed down -84 (-3.16%), and March ICE London cocoa #7 (CAH22 ) closed down -21(-1.19%). Cocoa prices on Friday fell sharply after an unexpected drop in North American... CCH22 : 2,576s (-3.16%) CAH22 : 1,737s (-1.19%) Cotton Trading off Highs at Midday Barchart - Fri Jan 21, 11:39AM CST Early session strength has faded for midday cotton futures. Prices are trading 114 to 152 points in the red at midday, though were up by more than a penny earlier. New crop cotton futures are 61 to 83... CTK21 : 89.48s (+3.77%) CTK22 : 117.98s (-1.41%) CTZ21 : 111.55s (+0.25%) Pre COF Losses for Friday Cattle Barchart - Fri Jan 21, 11:39AM CST Pre report positioning has the front month fat cattle futures market $0.52 to $1.07 in the red at midday. Feeder cattle are also weaker going into the NASS update with midday drops of $0.8 to $1.35. USDA... LEG22 : 137.925s (-0.29%) LEM22 : 137.300s (-0.78%) GFF22 : 160.275s (-0.56%) GFH22 : 163.300s (-1.00%) Members of the Washington, D.C., National Guard have tested positive for coronavirus after they responded to massive demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday. We can confirm that we have had COVID-19 positive tests with the DCNG, D.C. National Guard spokeswoman Air Force Lt. Col. Brooke Davis said in a statement. The safety and security of our personnel is always a concern, especially in light of the COVID-19 era. Davis did not clarify how many guardsmen had tested positive. The D.C. National Guard was deployed on May 31 after George Floyd demonstrations descended into rioting, and have guarded national monuments and overseen subsequent protests. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Sunday that he is concerned that the mass demonstrations across major cities could spark new coronavirus outbreaks. As I sat in front of the TV and watched the screen go from Washington, D.C., to New York City, to Los Angeles, to Philadelphia, I got really concerned, Fauci told the Times of London. I was going, Oh my goodness. I hope this doesnt set us back a lot. [After] all of the work in trying to maintain the physical distance and doing all the things, I became very concerned that we might see a resurgence. The demonstrations have engulfed major American cities including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Protesters often do not practice social distancing, and the demonstrations have devolved into riots in many instances. More from National Review This story is the second of a two-part look at China's electric vehicle market. Read part one here. Here's a look at Nio, a homegrown electric vehicle startup with ADSs listed in the U.S.; another domestic player, Xpeng, which is reportedly eyeing a U.S. listing; and Tesla, which is nurturing a strong Chinese ambitions. Nio: A Homegrown Contender Nio, or Weilai in Chinese, meaning "Blue Sky Coming," was founded as Nextev in 2014. It took on its current nameplate in July 2017. Nio's Models EP9 - launched in 2016 ES8 first volume-manufactured EV, unveiled in December 2017 and made available to the public in June 2018 ES6: launched in December 2018; deliveries began in June 2019 EC6: This model was unveiled to the public Dec. 28 and will be made available in September 2020. The ES6 comes in three variants and is priced between 358,000 yuan to 468,000 yuan. It has an intelligent e-AWD system consisting of a 160kw PM motor and a 240kW induction motor. The ideal NEDC estimated range with a 100kWh battery is 610km. Nio uses a combination of marketing methods. It sells vehicles through its own sales network, including NIO Houses, NIO Spaces and its mobile app. Nio Spaces are showrooms for its vehicles, while the Nio Houses serve not only as showrooms but also as clubhouses for customers. Nio has a manufacturing cooperation agreement with state-owned automaker JAC. The cash-strapped company entered into a collaboration agreement with the municipal government of Hefei, in Anhui province, where its main manufacturing hub is located. The company has also struck a deal with a consortium of Hefei Strategic investors, for a 7-billion-yuan cash infusion into Nio China. Pursuant to this deal, Nio will hold about 75.9% of Nio China, while the remainder will be held by the Hefei Strategic investors. Nio Deliveries Nio's cumulative deliveries as of May 31 comprising ES8 and ES6 vehicles totaled 42,342 vehicles. The company delivered 11,348 vehicles in 2018 and 20,565 vehicles in 2019. Story continues Nio Stock Nio went public in September 2018, by offering 160 million ADSs at $6.26 each. The ADSs, which hit a high of $13.80 in their third session, have not found much buoyancy since then. With Nio rebounding strongly from the COVID-19 pandemic, the stock has attracted some buying. Tesla In China Among the foreign companies in China, Tesla has distinction of having a standalone manufacturing plant in China. Its Shanghai Gigafactory began rolling out Model 3s in December. The company plans to make its newly launched Model Y vehicles at the factory beginning in 2021. In 2019, Tesla car registrations in China surged 161% year-over-year to 42,715, Inside EVs reported, citing China Automotive Information Net's data. With the domestically made Model 3 vehicles coming online only this year, this number is expected to increase substantially in 2020. Tesla got off to a strong start in 2020, delivering 3,563 cars in January and 3,900 cars in February and following up with a strong 10,160 units in March. Despite the nation's cars sales recovering after the coronavirus, the U.S. company's sales in China nosedived 64% to 3,635 units in April. Sales rebounded strongly in May, propelling Tesla to the pole position among NEV makers. After two price cuts Tesla effected this year, the standard range Model 3 vehicle is priced at 323,800 yuan. Xpeng Guangzhou-based Xpeng was founded in 2014. The company sells two EV models namely the Xpeng G3 SUV and Xpeng P 7 sedan, with the latter considered a rival to Tesla's Model 3, offering a longer range at cheaper price. The P7 has a maximum range of 706 kms per charge and is priced at 254,900 yuan. The Future Nio is not completely out of the woods yet. Although the company has raised some funding recently, its cash position remains precarious. The company is relying on an industry rebound, cost discipline and innovation to make it big. Tesla has several challenges to sort out before it can claim supremacy in the Chinese market. Given the lucrative market opportunity, the company is a potent threat, with a well thought-out strategy and well-laid out plan. The company may also have to contend with companies such as Xpeng, which are trying to ape Tesla's success with mass market vehicles. Photo courtesy of Nio. See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. SAN DIEGO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ImageWare Systems, Inc. (OTCQB: IWSY), a leader in identity management software, today announced that on June 25, 2020 the Company will file its Form 10-Q for Q1 ended March 31, 2020 shortly after the close of the stock market and host an investor update call the same day at 1:30pm PT (4:30pm ET). The Company invites participants to submit questions via email to our Investor Relations representative [email protected] for receipt by Noon PT on Monday, June 22nd. Conference Call Details Date / Time: Thursday, June 25th at 1:30 pm PT Call Dial In #: 1-631-891-4304 Domestic/International (at least five minutes before start time) Live Webcast: http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=140240 Audio Replay: https://www.iwsinc.com/corporate-updates/ (available for 90 days) or dial 1-844-512-2921 Domestic (1-412-317-6671 International); use PIN Number 10009888 from June 25, 2020, at 7:30pm ET through July 2, 2020 at 11:59 pm ET. About ImageWare Systems, Inc. In 1987, ImageWare was founded to innovate imaging. After a bold start evolving silver halide photography into digital images, ImageWare built the first statewide digital booking platform for the United States law enforcement in 1998. Since then, ImageWare has evolved into the largest holder of multimodal biometrics, managing millions of identities daily. With vast experience in the government sector, ImageWare is democratizing biometrics by offering defense-grade identity and authentication solutions to the masses. By identifying the person, not a device, ImageWare is giving populations around the globe access to their important data. www.iwsinc.com Forward-Looking Statements Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "if," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to ImageWare Systems, Inc. are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. ImageWare may from time to time update publicly announced projections, but it is not obligated to do so. Any projections of future results of operations should not be construed in any manner as a guarantee that such results will in fact occur. These projections are subject to change and could differ materially from final reported results. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, see "Risk Factors" in ImageWare's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 and its other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they are made. Media Contact: Jessica Belair Veritas Lux (310) 717-0877 [email protected] Investor Relations: Harvey Bibicoff, CEO Bibicoff + MacInnis, Inc. (818) 379-8500 [email protected] SOURCE Imageware Systems, Inc. Related Links http://www.iwsinc.com BFIGroup Corporation, the Nigerian-American consortium that the Supreme Court confirmed as the winner of the bid for the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), has urged the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, to respect the courts order and not play hide and seek over its enforcement. Counsel to BFIG, Patrick Ikwueto, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in reaction to statements made on a Channels TV programme last Thursday, urged the Minister not to mislead Nigerians. The letter seen by PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday urged Mr Adegbite to stop playing hide and seek and face the facts as they are (details of the ALSCON transaction). BFIG was declared the winner of the bid for ALSCON in 2004 which the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) canceled under controversial circumstances. The company went to court, till the Supreme Court confirmed it the winner and ordered the BPE to produce the mutually agreed share purchase agreement for it to sign and make the payment. BPE has continued to defy the order. But, in the interview, Mr Adegbite said BFIG, which was declared the winner of the bid in 2004, could not pay for the 10 per cent bid price for ALSCON despite two opportunities given by BPE. The Minister said after failing to meet the initial payment timeframe, BFIG again failed to make the payment of $41 million for ALSCON after the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 in a case filed to contest the cancellation of the bid by BPE. Mr Jaja came into the country with a group of people to bid for ALSCON. They won the bid. But, when they were asked by BPE to pay, Mr Jaja could not produce the funds. When he went to court, the Supreme Court said he should be given another opportunity to pay. Again, he could not produce the money within the timeframe. And the bid was given to the reserve bidder. Government is not wrong in any form. ALSCON was offered to the reserve bidder. Very shortly they should be able to produce aluminium. The problem is the issue of power generation and gas. Once the gas and power issues are resolved, we should start producing aluminium from ALSCON, the Minister had said. Minister economical with truth In his reaction to the ministers allegation, the president of BFIG, Reuben Jaja, who also appeared on the programme, accused him of misinforming Nigerians on the facts of the controversy. The Minister is wrong. He has been economical with the truth. In fact, I dont want to say he lied. Either he is ignorant of the facts, or he has been misled by BPE with the same lies the courts, including the Supreme Court, have since 2012 said they told against BFIG, Mr Jaja said. He said since 2004, when BFIG won the bid for ALSCON, BPE has been feeding Nigerians the lie that BFIG could not pay for the company, till 2012 when the Supreme Court declared BPE has not even reached the point of payment. The Supreme Court looked at the facts of the agreements between the two parties (BFIG and BPE) and gave a unanimous ruling of 5-0, that BPE has not even given BFIG the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) to sign, to commence the process of payment, Mr Jaja said. He said not only has BFIG approached all the relevant authorities over the matter, the Consortium filed a motion before the Federal High Court declaring that the BPE has continued to defy the Supreme Court order. On December 17, 2018, the court ordered that the DG BPE should be imprisoned for 30 days for his serial disobedience of the order of the Supreme Court over the matter. BFIG counsel writes minister In the letter to the minister, counsel to BFIG recalled the background to the ALSCON crisis, which he said began with the unilateral variation by the BPE of a mutually agreed SPA by all parties. Mr Ikwueto said the action by the BPE constrained BFIG to go to court to pursue its right, resulting in the case going up to the Supreme Court which gave its ruling on July 6, 2012. Part of the Supreme Court judgment was for the BPE to provide for execution the mutually agreed SPA for BFIG to sign and commence the process of payment. If the Honourable Minister crosschecks, he will discover that soon after the Supreme Courts judgment, the BPE, by letter dated October 2012 confirmed to BFIG the availability of the list of documents to be included as annexures to the SPA. Unfortunately, despite the Supreme Courts judgment, the BPE and its officials have continued to rigmarole in the enforcement of the binding orders as they were bent on playing hide and seek with RUSAL Group, Mr Ikwueto said. Advertisements By the judgment of January 11, 2019, he said the Court of Appeal in Appeal No CA/A/637/2014 further enjoined the BPE to enforce and comply with the subsisting judgments/orders of the Supreme Court. But, in forwarding the mutually agreed SPA for execution by BFIG, the BPE omitted the annexures to the SPA, which formed part of the SPA, without which the provisions of the SPA would be rendered meaningless and of no effect. He said the continued refusal of the BPE DG to comply with the Supreme Courts order was the reason the Federal High Court on December 17, 2019 ordered that he (DG) should be committed to prison for contempt. It is to say the least unpatriotic to insist that BFIG should pay $41 million being 10 per cent of the agreed bid price for ALSCON without availing the BFIG the complete mutually agreed SPA, which, of course, must include the annexures referred to in the SPA. Let us stop playing hide and seek and face the facts as they are, Mr Ikwueto said. By Conor Humphries DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair expects Britain to join other European nations in dropping COVID-19 quarantine plans in the coming weeks, its CEO told Reuters on Wednesday, as he reported a "big surge" in holiday bookings from the country. Last week, Britain announced a 14-day quarantine from June 8 for all air passenger arrivals, including its own citizens, even as countries such as Italy and Spain move to ease equivalent restrictions. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said many Britons had not been deterred by the move, with booking rates in recent days indicating the 1,000 daily flights it plans to fly in July - 40% of normal capacity - were likely to be 50% to 60% full. "The UK and Ireland will either quietly drop them (quarantine plans) or drop them as another easing measure in the next week or two. I am confident of that," he said in an interview. "We have seen a big surge in bookings on our flights out of Ireland and the UK to Spain, Portugal and Italy over the weekend, and that seems to be continuing this week." Ryanair, Europe's biggest budget airline, hopes a busy holiday season will boost confidence for a return of business travel. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's top adviser Dominic Cummings, who provoked outrage by making a 400 km (250 mile) road trip during the lockdown, has "completely undermined the UK government's credibility" on the quarantine issue, O'Leary said. The CEO repeated his prediction that Ryanair's passenger numbers would return to 2019 levels by summer 2021 and said that if unions across Europe agreed to pay cuts the airline might be able to make fewer redundancies than the current plan of 3,000. "I would be hopeful that the 3,000 figure would be significantly lower because of the progress that we are making on reasonable pay cuts across Europe," he said, saying 25-30% of crew had agreed to cuts so far. In bases where pay cuts are refused, up to half of pilots and cabin crew could be laid off this year, he said, citing Ryanair's home base of Dublin as a possible target. Story continues O'Leary said he had rejected an offer by Irish union Forsa to avoid job and pay cuts by shifting crew to part time as it did not deliver unit cost savings. Forsa has said the insistence on a 5-year pay cut is unreasonable as management forecasts traffic and fare levels may recover in two years. (Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.) (Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Mark Potter) Nine firefighters responding to a fire aboard a ship in Florida have been hospitalized after the ship exploded, injuring eight and sending one to a hospital for heat exhaustion, authorities said. The explosion occurred nearly three hours after firefighters first responded to a ship at Blount Island after reports of a fire on Thursday afternoon, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department tweeted. The ship, a Norwegian vessel called Hoegh Xiamen was carrying old and used cars and had been scheduled to leave Jacksonville, First Coast News reported. More than 20 crew members on the ship during the initial fire were able to safely get off before the explosion occurred, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, and the blast happened with crews inside fighting fire, Jacksonville Fire Chief Keith Powers said. Of the nine firefighters hospitalized, four were treated for burns, one was taken into surgery for injuries Thursday night and another firefighter has been in intensive care, news outlets reported. All firefighters were stable, Powers said. Burns take a lot time to heal, Powers said. Please everyone, keep them in your prayers. Theyll need a lot of that. Nearly 150 firefighters were continuing to rotate in teams to battle the blaze abroad the ship, Powers said. This is one of the days where you roll up on something like this and its one of the worst things probably in a career that you will ever do, Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters President Randy Wyse told the Florida Times-Union. Wyse, who said he spoke to the injured firefighters after the explosion, said they have a long recovery ahead of them. The shipping company thanked the fire department in a statement. Our thoughts and prayers are with those firefighters and their families who were injured during this response. Investigators are trying to determine what caused the fire. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Florida Economic fallout may well cut into stocks, Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) The recent local market surge has been driven largely by the economic recovery since the government lifted the social distancing restrictions. Experts believe that investors could make a virtue of the broad-based rally in the latter half of this year. There is still more upside for the market in the forthcoming time thanks to current supporting factors, including potential progress in the hunt for a vaccine, a well-managed situation, and a slowdown in the unprecedented outbreak. Fiscal and monetary stimulus from governments, a rebound in oil price, as well as upcoming free trade agreement with the EU are viewed as trump cards to cushion the economic fallout. Furthermore, Vietnam could benefit from a larger inflow of foreign capital that targets frontier markets as the country will become the largest constituent in the MSCI Frontier 100 Index, along with the USDs depreciation and a stronger appetite for foreign funds attraction, said Tran Duc Anh, head of Macro and Market Strategy at KB Securities. Anh also noted that certain risks could fuel investors concerns and bring about sell-offs and anxieties over a second COVID-19 wave and the perils of a global crisis. Echoing his view, Le Quang Minh, research director at Mirae Asset Securities said Vietnams stock market is predicted to be challenged. The VN-Index will likely face difficulties stemming from tensions between the US and China, COVID-19, and Hong Kongs political unrest. The potential for retaliation be it political or economic will exert pressure on the global stock market in the short run, Minh told VIR. Therefore, the upside momentum is expected to slow, with a target range of 830 to 890 points, equivalent to an interval of +/-4 per cent. Money flows showed signs of a move towards mid- and small-caps. The risk of a correction is increasing, but remains low, thanks to strong domestic cashflows and positive fundamental elements, with the economy likely to bottom out in April as the easing of monetary policy continues to support the market. Looking on the bright side, experts believe some stocks should be watched closely in the upcoming time. These include the cyclical sectors which are highly sensitive to the health of the economy namely banks, real estate, and construction. It also involves those sectors that have been directly hit by COVID-19 and will be able to bounce back quickly when the pandemic is under control, such as consumer goods and services, airlines, and tourism. For the latter two sectors, the recovery may be slower until the Vietnamese government allows resumption of international flights and welcomes foreign tourists again. However, global supply chain relocation from China to some countries like Vietnam could set the stage for some particular sectors such as industrial parks. Accordingly, a new wave of investment may be right around the corner, insiders insist, and Vietnam is slated to be high on the agency for overseas funds. We believe that growth stocks tend to be more attractive, and investors seem to be more bullish about upbeat performance regarding net sales and income, which is consequently adding to increased earnings per share, such as MWG of Mobile World Group, SCS of SCSC Cargo Service Corporation, and CTR of Viettel Construction JSC among others, noted Minh. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it has activated three additional laboratories, bringing the total number that can carry out PCR testing for Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Nigeria to 33. The Director-General of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja that the health agency had stayed on track in its goal to rapidly scale up laboratory testing for COVID-19 in Nigeria. Mr Ihekweazu mentioned the three new laboratories as: Biorepository and Clinical Virology Laboratory UCH, Ibadan, Oyo; Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, Infectious Disease Unit, General Hospital, Ituk Mkpang, Akwa-Ibom and Jigawa State Molecular Laboratory, Dutse. He said NCDC was currently using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method to test for the COVID-19 virus, in the absence of validated alternative methods. At the moment, the COVID-19 tests that we report daily are coming from the PCR, they detect the genetic information of the virus and the RNA. Thats only possible if the virus is there and someone is actively infected. By detecting viral RNA, the tests can tell whether or not someone has the virus very early on, he explained. The director-general said that PCR remained the most accurate method to determine who was infected. Mr Ihekweazu noted that by scaling up on laboratory testing, the NCDC and other relevant government institutions would get a better understanding of the level of spread of the virus. By the end of June, our goal is to include at least 10 more laboratories with current Gene-Xpert capacity in the network for COVID-19 testing, Mr Ihekweazu said. The director-general noted that PCR tests could be very labour intensive, with several stages at which errors might occur between sampling and analysis. This is why the agency has focussed on strengthening quality assurance in its network of laboratories. Countries have adopted varying strategies for COVID-19 diagnosis, and for us in Nigeria, it is important that we get it right. Nigeria has its national testing strategy for COVID-19 with detailed information on how we will ramp-up testing for various phases of transmission by leveraging existing capacity and technology. We are thinking ahead and also have plans in place to meet the demands for testing at various points of the response, he said. (NAN) (Photo : Pixabay) Teen Protester Attack Falsely Accused to Ex-Police Officer by Internet Vigilantes on Twitter (Photo : Screenshot from Twitter post of @ABC7Kevin) Teen Protester Attack Falsely Accused to Ex-Police Officer by Internet Vigilantes on Twitter Internet vigilantes on Twitter falsely linked an ex-police officer for attacking teen protesters who were putting up signs to commemorate George Floyd's death His family reportedly received scary emails from strangers. According to ABC News's latest report, the nightmare of John Damskey and his wife started when they received emails from strangers saying that his partner should be ashamed of her retired police husband. Their phones wouldn't stop receiving unknown calls from unfamiliar numbers and some even called his 74-year-old mother. Damskey plugged his name into the internet after being baffled by the barrage of hate on Thursday, June 4, leading to a horrifying discovery: He was falsely accused by mobs of Twitter users of being the cyclist on a Maryland trail who assaulted three young adults who were posting flyers to protest the death of George Floyd. They were putting up signs to commemorate the death of George Floyd. He wasn't having it. pic.twitter.com/eukrXrxoLN Victor Stoddard (@VicStoddard) June 4, 2020 The internet attack was caused by a video of the encounter on the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda, a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. Millions of users viewed the video including Damskey, who knew he did nothing to provoke the death threats and angry messages directed at him. Twitter vigilantes falsely accuse retired police officer of attacking teen protesters According to ABC News, John Damskey was one of at least two men who were falsely linked to the teen protesters attack, with internet vigilantes posting their personal information and photos on Twitter before another man, 60-year-old Anthony Brennan III, was arrested and charged by the police on Friday, June 5. John Damskey served as a police officer of Montgomery County for nearly 30 years before retiring in 2016. He said that the experience they received got from the Twitter mob was terrifying and surreal. "I've got a wife who is in tears. My mom is scared to death," said Damksey on Monday, June 8, in his first interview about his ordeal, on Associated Press. "It's sad. It's scary. It's something that I don't ever want to go through again." Hundreds of tips from the public were reportedly received by the Maryland-National Capital Park Police before detectives arrested Brennan, charging him with three counts of second-degree assault. The three teenagers, who ranged from 18 to 19 years old, stated that they were posting flyers promoting justice for George Floyd before a man attacked them. After the arrest, the company where Brennan was working, confirmed in a Twitter post that a man engaged in wrongful, disturbing, and completely unacceptable behavior directed towards peaceful protesters was fired from his position. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Court of Appeal has awarded a cost of GHS5,000 against all the applicants, including Raymond Archer who are former tenants of the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited. This was after a contempt case filed against the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited over the demolition of their structures was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. The tenants of the demolished structures condemned the exercise and accused Trade Fair Company of failing to give them ample notice. Management of Trade Fair has for some time now stated its intention to revamp the facility to restore the once vibrant trading hub to its hay days. It is for this reason that all of its tenants were asked to vacate the premises in 2018. About 20 structures belonging to different companies were pulled down on the authorization of the Trade Fair Company Limited. But some aggrieved tenants filed a contempt suit against the company, on the basis that the company had gone ahead with the demolition despite a pending suit. However, the Court of Appeal ruled that the tenants had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited had committed contempt as alleged. The ruling means the Trade Fair Company can go-ahead to develop its land. Owners of the demolished buildings accused the authorities of carrying out the exercise on February 17, 2020 without giving them ample notice, though the company disputed the claims. The company said it had informed all the tenants about the redevelopment project and gave them the mandatory six months notice on July 10, 2018, to vacate the site by December 31, 2018. The company also referenced High Court ruling on February 12, 2020, which threw out an injunction order paving the way for the redevelopment. It also assured that no business was targeted for demolition because of their political or other affiliations. ---citinewsroom Perhaps more surprising in light of recent events is that Biden has not made substantial gains with nonwhite voters. He leads among them by 46 points in the most recent polls, up a mere percentage point from the polls conducted in March and April. Its still behind the 50-point margin held by Clinton in the final weeks of the 2016 race. Most pollsters do not break out nonwhite voters in much depth because of the small sample size, making it hard to explore the precise sources of Bidens relative weakness. But for now, it seems reasonable to assume that his struggles are most acute among young nonwhite voters and nonwhite men, given the overall national figures. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:27:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GAZA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Ismail Haniyeh, politburo chief of Hamas movement, called on Tuesday for holding emergency Arab and Islamic summits to confront the Israeli plans of annexing lands in the West Bank. The office of Haniyeh in Gaza said in an emailed press statement that he addressed letters to 40 Arab and Islamic countries. "It's necessary to back the Palestinian position which rejected the projects of settlement in the West Bank and the Judaizing of Jerusalem," said the statement, which quoted Haniyeh as saying. It added that Haniyeh stressed in the letters that they have to move as urgent as possible "to confront the Israeli annexation policy because it is a real danger to the present and future of Palestine as well as the Arab and Islamic states." "It is important to ensure a secure political and diplomatic network to defend the Palestinian project and make serious and unified positions that reject and illegalize the annexation plans," said Haniyeh. He also accused Israel of exploiting its attempts of normalization with some Arab and Islamic states "to implement its plans on the occupied territories of Palestine." Enditem YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan had a video talk with Lawrence Meredith, Director for Neighbourhood East and Institution Building at the European Commission, the deputy PMs Office told Armenpress. Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin and several representatives from the European Commission also participated in the online discussion. Deputy PM Grigoryan highly valued the EUs support to Armenia at this difficult period and thanked for the productive cooperation. The sides discussed issues relating to the implementation of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), as well as touched upon Armenias participation to the upcoming video conference of leaders of Eastern Partnership. The discussion participants also discussed the draft agreements developed within the 2020 action plan, as well as the anti-crisis budget support programs aimed at the judiciary and the fight against the pandemic. Lawrence Meredith reaffirmed the EUs readiness to support Armenia in fighting COVID-19, as well as provide constant assistance for the implementation of reforms. He thanked the deputy PM for the carried out consistent work and constructive cooperation. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:37:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian refugees in Ain el Helwe camp in Lebanon urged on Tuesday the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) to increase its support for refugees amid economic deterioration and the COVID-19 outbreak, local media reported. "Palestinians asked UNRWA to consider all Palestinian refugees as the most vulnerable who are in need for continuous support while it called the agency for an announcement of a health emergency situation under the COVID-19 spread in the country," Elnashra, local independent newspaper, reported. Palestinians also demanded for a campaign to compensate students for the past academic year which was halted several times because of nationwide protests that have started in October 2019 and the COVID-19 outbreak earlier this year. Most Palestinian refugees live in 12 overcrowded camps across Lebanon and UNRWA is in charge of providing services such as education and healthcare, including paying for COVID-19 testing and treatment. The UNRWA faced severe financial challenges in 2019 with a deficit valued at 50 million U.S. dollars which will be added to this year's deficit despite the increase in support by donor countries in November and December of last year. Enditem On the occasion, the Head of State was joined by Health Minister Victor Zamora. During his visit, the President met with the doctors who work at the medical center. El presidente @MartinVizcarraC y el ministro de Salud @VictorZamora visitaron el hospital de Emergencia Ate, para reconocer la labor de cuidado y atencion que brinda el personal medico y asistencial para salvar vidas en la lucha contra el COVID-19. #PeruEstaEnNuestrasManos pic.twitter.com/17svJKZuYa ALBANY Mayor Kathy Sheehan signed an executive order on Monday instituting a number of police reforms, including banning city police officers from using chokeholds or "knee to neck" restraints on people, at the urging of the Common Council. The order also now requires officers to intervene when a fellow officer is using excessive force or verbally escalating a situation. It also requires the history of racism in the United States to be taught to all members of the department and reaffirms de-escalation and implicit bias training requirements for all department members. Input from our residents into these efforts is critical to building trust and accountability of policing in our city. I encourage all residents to share their thoughts and ideas about reforms you would like to see with my office or with a member of the Albany Common Council," Sheehan said in a statement. In addition to banning chokeholds, the order says officers can no longer hog-tie people they've taken into custody. In her statement, Sheehan also voiced support for state legislation that would repeal section 50-A of the state's Civil Rights Law. Police spokesman Steve Smith said the department supported Sheehan's reforms and that the department's use-of-force policy banned chokeholds and knee-to-neck holds. "We look forward to being part of the conversations to come as we continue to strengthen relations with the Albany community," he said. Earlier Monday, the council sent Sheehan a letter saying there's no reason for the city to not have already banned practices like chokeholds. "It is important to note that this action would be consistent with what other police departments including the NYPD have already taken," the letter stated. "Taking this action would send a message that Albany will not tolerate the use of aggressive police tactics that threaten the lives of individuals in the custody of the Albany Police Department." Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The action comes in the wake of local and worldwide protests calling for an end to police brutality following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed after a white Minneapolis police officer held him on the ground with a knee to his neck for close to nine minutes. Four officers present during the altercation have been indicted on criminal charges, including murder, in connection with the incident. Last week, the Albany council endorsed a series of reforms at both the state and local level, including giving subpoena power to the Albany Community Police Review Board and establishing more communication between city residents and Sheehan and Police Chief Eric Hawkins. On Monday, Hawkins and Sheehan are supposed to hold the first "Create Change Together" session, where residents can directly bring questions or complaints about their experience with the city's police department to them. To schedule one, residents are asked to email their contact information to change@albanyny.gov. Escalating a controversy roiling New Orleans largest parading krewe, more than two dozen float lieutenants quit the Mystic Krewe of Nyx Monday night in the aftermath of an insensitive social media post made by captain Julie Lea following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in late May. The 27 lieutenants are more than half of the krewes float leaders and are the latest defections from the giant Carnival organization. They represent hundreds of riders who could potentially follow their lead in exiting the all-female organization. The lieutenants' resignations followed their demand -- which was refused -- that Lea resign her post and that the krewe's board re-write its bylaws to strip her of control of the club she has run since its founding in 2012. "The signed lieutenants will be resigning from the Krewe of Nyx and our float members will resign as well, if these changes are not adopted," they said in an email to Lea. Lea's refusal left the 3,500-member krewe at a bitter impasse that has already resulted in resignations and a protest outside the krewe's Mid-City headquarters. Mrs. Lea will not succumb to your bullying demands for her to immediately resign as the Captain of this organization, a letter from Leas lawyer to the lieutenants said. Furthermore, the letter read, "if you are unhappy with the Mystic Krewe of Nyx, please resign from your membership." +7 Krewe of Nyx captain apologizes for All Lives Matter post that angered some members The captain of New Orleans largest Carnival parading organization has apologized for social media posts that featured a photo of a black chil Friction within the krewe began a week ago when Lea used the phrase All Lives Matter in a social media post representing the krewe. The post featured a photo of a black child caressing the face of a white child and included the words our souls are the same color. Leas post came as protests provoked by the death of Floyd, a black man, who was in the custody of four police officers, rippled across the country. The slogan "All Lives Matter" has been associated with criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement, which protests racism and police brutality. Many krewe members felt that Leas post was dismissive of a movement aimed at stemming the killings of black men and women, and did not represent their views. Lea subsequently apologized for the post, saying she was unaware of the subversive implications, but she did not publicly declare that she or her krewe supported the Black Lives Matter movement, as many members hoped she would. During a Zoom meeting of the krewe leadership on June 3, some lieutenants suggested that, considering the crisis, Lea relinquish leadership of the group. But she absolutely refused, according to Stephanie Kreamer, who attended the remote meeting. Kreamer said that when asked if the krewe would seek to add more African-American board members, Lea said that new board members would not be chosen simply because they are black. In a private conversation, Kreamer said, Lea told her she would "never put her name to (the slogan) 'Black Lives Matter.'" On Saturday, roughly 50 members of the krewe gathered near the krewes Mid-City headquarters to protest Leas leadership, ceremoniously throwing krewe merchandise in a trash can marked with the word "nyxed." The 2020 Nyx parade ended tragically when parade-goer Geraldine Carmouche was crushed to death by Float number 21 on Magazine Street. On Saturday, the entire ridership of float 21 resigned from the Nyx organization. According to Monday's letter from her lawyer, Lea believes that the float lieutenants who demanded her departure had blown the situation out of proportion. 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 My client and I cannot help but point out that the outrage you are displaying is greatly disproportionate to the facts and events that have transpired, the letter read. In their ultimatum, the 27 lieutenants not only demanded that Lea step down, they insisted on the dissolution of the krewes board of directors and bylaw changes. Currently, the club rules state that Lea cannot be removed from her position against her wishes. If Lea should resign, the bylaws allow her to name a successor. Serving as captain in a Carnival krewe is typically a post of honor that comes with months of hard work to arrange the krewe's parade and other Carnival events. But for Lea, losing her post could also hurt financially. As president and captain, Lea was paid more than $69,000 last year, according to the krewe's most recent tax filing. The practice of paying krewe officers varies widely by Carnival organization. Muses, Endymion and Tucks, for instance, pay no salaries to krewe captains or other officials, according to the krewes' most recent IRS filings. On the other hand, the Captain of the Krewe of Iris is paid $130,000 and a second officer is paid $90,000. A board member of the Krewe of Orpheus is paid $55,000 a year. Late Monday evening, the 27 Nyx lieutenants sent a letter of resignation to Lea via her lawyer, effective immediately. In it they expressed their regret that Lea would not step down to save the organization "and still be part of the legacy she created." The lieutenants also said that considering the animosity that some New Orleanians now feel toward the krewe, they would be fearful to ride in the parade. "There have been threats to those of us who tried to stay and make positive change," the letter states, "that if we rode, we would be potentially harmed by parade-goers." Lea's lawyer said he does not believe that the ultimatum from the 27 float lieutenants represents the feelings of all club officers. But according to Kreamer, who was one of those who signed the ultimatum to Lea, practically all active float lieutenants have now quit the organization. Another lieutenant, who asked not to be named, estimated that 42 of 44 float leaders have left. It wasn't clear Tuesday how many members had resigned or are planning to do so. Kreamer said she is disappointed with the turn of events, particularly because of the diversity she found in the krewe she is now leaving. I joined Nyx specifically because I saw women like myself and women who were different, she said. Lea co-founded Nyx in 2012 with an aim to unite women of diverse backgrounds for fun, friendship, and the merriment of the Mardi Gras season, according to the club website. It quickly grew into a membership in the thousands and its massive parade on the Wednesday before Mardi Gras launched it into the realm of superkrewes like Endymion and Bacchus. Lea is a former NOPD officer, who joined the force in 1997, rising to the rank of lieutenant in the department's Public Integrity Bureau. She left the force in 2015 to take a position as Delgado Community College police chief, but was fired by the state college in 2017 for assigning two school officers to a private security detail during a funeral, which violated the state institution's policies. The partnership has been refreshing and we are now making big strides in the right direction. said Rob Crites, member at large of Casa Palmero Homeowners Association. FirstService Residential, North Americas leading community management company, was awarded the management contract for Casa Palmero Homeowners Association in West Hollywood, California. FirstService Residential started managing the 209-unit condominium community in April 2020. Built in 1974, Casa Palmero is a 4-story condominium located in the heart of Hollywood Hills and Hollywood Boulevard. Featuring a modern design, the building has four secured access entrances surrounded by a palm tree-lined drive. Amenities include a laundry facility, pool, fitness center, two saunas, a clubhouse and a sun deck. Andrea Thrower, Sascha Macias and the team at FirstService Residential have shown true professionalism during the transition process, said Rob Crites, member at large of Casa Palmero Homeowners Association. The partnership has been refreshing and we are now making big strides in the right direction. Casa Palmero Homeowners Association is located just minutes away from natural landmarks, including Runyon Canyon, Briar Summit Open Space Preserve and Fryman Canyon Park. The community is also surrounded by well-known West Hollywood venues like Whiskey a Go Go and Chateau Marmont and close to popular restaurants, nightclubs and shops. About FirstService Residential FirstService Residential is North Americas property management leader, partnering with 8,000 communities across the U.S. and Canada, including low-, mid- and high-rise condominiums and cooperatives; single-family communities; master-planned, lifestyle and active adult communities; and mixed-use and rental properties. HOAs, community associations, condos and strata corporations rely on their extensive experience, resources and local expertise to maximize property values and enhance their residents lifestyles. Dedicated to making a difference, every day, FirstService Residential goes above and beyond to deliver exceptional service. FirstService Residential is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation (FSV), a North American leader in the property services sector. For more information, visit http://www.fsresidential.com/california. Jamie Foxx is one of several celebrities lending their platform to the Black Lives Matter movement. The Academy Award winner travelled late last month to Minneapolis, where he participated in a protest in honor of George Floyd. He recently took his children to another Black Lives Matter protest over the weekend, which he said was 'bittersweet' and 'heartbreaking' experience. Heartbreaking experience: Jamie Foxx took his children to another Black Lives Matter protest over the weekend, which he said was 'bittersweet' and 'heartbreaking' experience The 52-year-old joined a protest Sunday in Los Angeles, where he was accompanied by his daughters Corinne, 26, and Annalise, 10. While he enjoyed letting his kids see the world 'come together,' he found it difficult to explain to them why they were protesting. He posted some photos to Instagram, writing: 'Having my kids with me at the protest was bitter sweet. Having them watch the world come together was beautiful 'But having to explain to them why we were all there was heartbreaking... lets change the world so they dont have to live in it the way we have been...' Black Lives Matter: The 52-year-old joined a protest Sunday in Los Angeles, where he was accompanied by his daughters Corinne, 26, and Annalise, 10 Bittersweet moment: He posted some photos to Instagram, writing: 'Having my kids with me at the protest was bitter sweet. Having them watch the world come together was beautiful But having to explain to them why we were all there was heartbreaking' Say his name: It comes after the Academy Award winner travelled late last month to Minneapolis, where he participated in a protest in honor of George Floyd Black Lives Matter protests have been taking place across the country following the death of unarmed black man George Floyd. Floyd was killed during an arrest on May 25, when Minneapolis ex-police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Since the protesting began, Chauvin's charge has been increased from third-degree to second-degree murder. Foxx said during his speech in Minneapolis: 'All I wanted to do is let you know that we're not afraid to stand... we're not afraid of the moment. 'At the end of the day, when we see you guys on the frontline, we want to let you know you got support.' Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category A 27-year-old Brantford woman was killed when her vehicle collided with a hydro pole Saturday evening in Norfolk County. Norfolk OPP say Raelynn Jean Haynes was discovered by first responders with life-threatening injuries. Volunteer firefighters arrived on scene and removed Haynes from the vehicle, but she died at the scene of crash. Police say in a media release that a car was travelling southeast on Teeterville Road in Windham just before 10 p.m. when the driver swerved off the roadway, went airborne and collided with a hydro pole. The collision investigation closed more than one-kilometre of Teeterville Road, between Windham Road 6 and Caroline Street, for about eight hours and left several homes without power. Police continue to investigate the collision. SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Social Business Intelligence Market is anticipated to achieve significant revenue share by 2028. Social BI is the management technique that assimilates group sharing to enhance ongoing processes, projects, and products. It is generally managed by third-party analytical software and requests consumer response and contribution at initial points in the process. Drivers Rising adoption of cloud-based technologies and increasing use of social media across the globe will show a positive impact on overall industry growth in the forecast period. Social media websites such as Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have gained enormous popularity among the populace creating their own data. Thus, rising number of potential consumers interacting with each other using such media will boost industrial development. In addition, these are cost-efficient and require low analytical and technical skills will escalate business outlook in the coming years. Restraints, Opportunities, and Challenges Factors such as data privacy and security issues will hamper overall industry growth. Rising adoption by SMEs and growing need to generate insights from unused data will create new opportunities to expand industrial global presence. Maintenance and data management quality and lack of skilled personnel are major challenges faced by the industry. Social business intelligence industry is categorized based on type, application, sales channel, and regions. Based on type, the industry is categorized into the cloud and on-premises. Cloud-based segment is expected to account for the largest revenue share and continue its dominance over the forecast period. This solution come with a regular minimum fee, eradicates the necessity for a huge one-time investment, and eliminates periodic expenses for updates and maintenance. These features of cloud-based solutions will show a positive impact on overall industry growth. Please click here to download the sample pdf and find more details on "Global Social Business Intelligence Market" Report 2028. Based on applications, the industry is categorized into government organizations, SMEs, and large enterprises. The large enterprise's segment is expected to remain dominant over the forecast period. This segment comprises several businesses such as telecommunication, retail, healthcare, IT, and BFSI. These industries use business intelligence for prognostic analysis as it helps them segmenting market-based on consumer preference. SMEs segment is anticipated to witness the fastest growth rate over the projected period. The segment is expected to gain momentum owing to favorable regulatory policies in the BFSI and healthcare sectors and a rise in several online retail consumers will propel segment growth. Based on the sales channel, the industry is categorized into a distribution channel and a direct channel. Geographically, the industry is categorized into Middle East & Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Globally, North America is expected to account for the largest revenue share and continue its dominance over the forecast period. The high growth is attributable to rising demand for wearable devices such as Fitbit that monitors bodily data from sleep to health patterns. In addition, presence of major manufacturers such as IBM Corporation, Qlik Technologies, and Oracle Corporation will enhance product demand in the region. The U.S. is a major consumer in this region as health monitoring is gaining traction among the populace. Access 115 page research report with TOC on "Global Social Business Intelligence Market" available with Radiant Insights, Inc. @: https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/2013-2028-report-on-global-social-business-intelligence-market Competitive Players Prominent players of the market include Cision, IBM, Sysomos, Oracle, Radian6/Salesforce, SAP, NetBase Solutions, SAS Institute, Lithium Technologies, Adobe Systems, Kapow Software/Kofax, Attensity Group, HP, Beevolve, Google, Clarabridge, Evolve24, and Crimson Hexagon. These players are concentrating on R&D activities to introduce novel products and technologies in the industry. Thus, rising popularity of social media platforms encourages enterprises to shift towards social business intelligence services. This report provides detailed historical analysis of global market for Social Business Intelligence from 2013-2018, and provides extensive market forecasts from 2019-2028 by region/country and subsectors. It covers the sales volume, price, revenue, gross margin, historical growth and future perspectives in the Social Business Intelligence market. Market Segmentation: Leading players of Social Business Intelligence including: IBM Oracle SAP SAS Institute Adobe Systems Attensity Group Beevolve Clarabridge Crimson Hexagon Evolve24 Google HP Kapow Software/ Kofax Lithium Technologies NetBase Solutions Radian6/Salesforce Sysomos Cision Market split by Type, can be divided into: On-premises Cloud Market split by Application, can be divided into: SMEs Large Enterprises Government Organizations Market split by Sales Channel, can be divided into: Direct Channel Distribution Channel Market segment by Region/Country including: North America ( United States , Canada and Mexico ) ( , and ) Europe ( Germany , UK, France , Italy , Russia and Spain etc.) ( , UK, , , and etc.) Asia-Pacific ( China , Japan , Korea, India , Australia and Southeast Asia etc.) ( , , Korea, , and etc.) South America Brazil , Argentina , Colombia and Chile etc.) , , and etc.) Middle East & Africa ( South Africa , Egypt , Nigeria and Saudi Arabia etc.) Browse latest market research reports available with Radiant Insights, Inc.: About Radiant Insights, Inc.: At Radiant Insights, we work with the aim to reach the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Our representatives strive to understand diverse client requirements and cater to the same with the most innovative and functional solutions. Contact: Michelle Thoras. Corporate Sales Specialist Radiant Insights, Inc. Phone: +1-415-349-0054 Toll Free: 1-888-928-9744 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.radiantinsights.com Blog: https://radiantinsightsinc.blogspot.com/ SOURCE Radiant Insights, Inc. It is a disturbing number that has risen for decades in the backs of police cars, behind the walls of Australia's prisons and in plain sight. At least 432 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody delivered its final report in 1991. On June 2, Musgrave Park lit up with the words "I Can't Breathe" with 432 candles to represent the number of Aboriginal people who have died in custody since the Royal Commission. Credit:Tony Moore By the time tens of thousands of Australians who marched against police brutality and Indigenous deaths in custody on Saturday returned home, the number had risen again. Helen Eason, a Gomeroi Biripi woman, says the non-Indigenous Australians who marched alongside her in Sydney must continue to back the civil rights actions of First Nations people. Investors were quick out of holiday mode as the Australian sharemarket bolted to fresh three-month highs on Tuesday, gorging on renewed global optimism and better-than-expected US jobs figures. The benchmark ASX 200 rose by as much as 3.3 per cent after the long weekend break - adding $60 billion to its market cap in the first 15 minutes of trade before easing into the session. The ASX 200 has hit a new three-month high. Credit:Jim Rice Gains were by no means muted after that frantic open, with the bourse closing 146 points, or 2.44 per cent higher at 6144.9, bettering its previous close and gaining more ground on a peak last seen on March 9. Wall Street lit the path with US stocks recording a strong start to the week, including setting a new record high for the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500 turning positive for the year-to-date. The heavyweight financials were again a standout in local trading. The sector rose 4.8 per cent to account for more than half of the benchmarks $42 billion market cap increase for the day, according to Refinitiv data. CMC Markets chief market strategist said local trade was clearly underpinned by continued optimism about the global outlook. The financial sector was again strong. Credit:Louie Douvis Mr McCarthy said it also appeared previously pensive traders into the market. As weve pushed through 6000 weve seen a bit of a short squeeze I think, Mr McCarthy said. Theres been a bit of a scramble since Friday, professional investors and analysts who might have been a bit anxious and waiting on the sidelines to see what happens theyve been forced into the market There are risks in underperformance. If youre sitting on a lot of cash, the risk is the market will rise without you. There were 145 companies higher when the dust settled on Tuesday - including 16 of the top 20 - as the ASX 200 made it six straight sessions of gains. Volumes were heightened on the two-week average with 1.4 billion shares traded. ANZ was the best of the big four banks, rising 6.2 per cent to $21. Commonwealth Bank added 5.1 per cent to $72.20, Westpac leapt 5.8 per cent to $19.88, and NAB rose 5.1 per cent to $20.47. Macquarie Group was up 5.42 per cent to $124.40. The mining titans also pulled their weight amid heightened iron ore prices and fresh coronavirus woes for Brazilian rival Vale SA. BHP finished up 3.6 per cent at $37.64, while Rio Tinto hit $101.37 in a 2.8 per cent climb. Fortescue Metals closed 2.27 per cent higher at $14.87 and touched a new intra-day record of $15.25. Health giant CSL was the major counterweight, dropping 2.39 per cent to $278.50. ResMed fell 0.43 per cent, and Ramsay Health Care 1.13 per cent to further drag on the health care sector. There are risks in underperformance. If youre sitting on a lot of cash, the risk is the market will rise without you. Michael McCarthy, CMC Markets chief market strategist Energy stocks rose by a collective 4.7 per cent on higher oil prices and optimism about the rebounding global economy. The property sector also outperformed, rising 3.9 per cent for the day. Qantas added another 6.48 per cent to $4.93 as investors are buoyed by the prospect of the airline returning more of its grounded jets to the skies. The airline has risen 22 per cent over the past five trading days but is still well off January highs of $7.15, before the coronavirus wreaked financial havoc on airlines around the world. Mr McCarthy said attention will turn to the US over the next couple of days as the Federal Reserve meets to discuss the economy. He predicts the two-day meeting will hear plenty of upbeat assessments with traders and analysts looking for upgraded economic projections. That will be key. They can have a lot of strong talk, but if it is not backed up by upwardly revised figures then the tally may very well fall flat, Mr McCarthy said. However, if those numbers are revised higher it could prove very persuasive. Paul OConnor, Head of Multi-Asset at Janus Henderson Investors, warned against extrapolating COVID-recovery trends too energetically. Economic data in the weeks ahead should support the notion of a mid-year bounce in global growth, but we see many threats to the economic recovery beyond this, Mr OConnor said. Where the coronavirus is concerned, the next few weeks will be very informative, clarifying whether Europe and the US have shifted the virus onto a similar trajectory as China or whether contagion will revive as lockdowns are eased. US futures are pointing to a flat open for Wall Street. The trial of Diananta Putra Sumedi, former chief editor of local online media, banjarhits.id, began in Kotabaru District Court, South Kalimantan on June 8. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia calls on authorities to drop the case immediately as it has been resolved by the Press Council. The Coalition for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Press Freedom held a protest to support Diananta Putra Sumedi. Credit: The Coalition for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Press Freedom The online trial was held in line with health protocols amid the coronavirus outbreak. The judges, prosecutors and lawyers were in the court room while Diananta was in the detention room in District Police of Kotabarus office. Dianantas wife flew from East Java to be with her husband after months of not seeing each other. Prosecutors alleged a land conflict article entitled Johnlin seizes land, Dayak complains to the South Kalimantan Police on November 9, 2019 in banjarhits.id, a partner of national news media Kumparan,caused hatred or hostility against individuals and groups.If found guilty, Diananta faces up to 6 years in prison. The next trial is scheduled for June 15. Previously, the Journalist Safety Committee and AJI regretted the decision to have the trials in Kotabaru instead of in the Banjarmasin District Court, the capital city of South Kalimantan. Diananta interviewed his sources, wrote and published the article in Banjarmasin and he currently lives close to Banjarmasin. The witnesses are also based in Banjarmasin. The Committee has highlighted that the eight hour drive from of the Kotabaru district from Banjarmasin might impact on Dianantas legal defence as his lawyers are based in Banjarmasin and Jakarta. The Committee also raised concerns about the difficulties for the family members or lawyers to meet Diananta while he is in police custody in Kotabaru. The Committee are also concerned about the safety of Diananta particularly in light of an incident involving journalist M. Yusuf who died in custody in the prison in Kotabaru in 2018. AJI said: AJI hopes the judges will drop the charge because the Press Council has already solved the issue and press freedom is guaranteed by Indonesian Constitution. AJI also calls Kumparan to take a responsibility and does not let Diananta fights for his rights alone. The IFJ said:IFJ calls the authorities to drop all charges against Diananta and release him immediately so that he can be with his family. These trials, in worrying circumstances, are not necessary given that the Press Council has resolved this matter. India is better positioned in the fight against COVID-19 compared to other nations but there is no space for complacency, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Tuesday, even as a record rise in coronavirus cases for the seventh consecutive day in the country pushed the tally to over 2.6 lakh. IMAGE: Medics take samples of suspected COVID-19 patients for lab test at a government hospital, during the ongoing nationwide lockdown to curb spread of coronavirus, in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo High-level central teams have been deployed in 15 states and Union territories with more than 50 districts or municipal bodies witnessing high case load and high spurt of cases, the Union health ministry said. The teams will assist state governments by providing technical support for containment and facilitate management of the COVID-19 outbreak, it said. The death toll due to the coronavirus infection rose to 7,466 and the cases mounted to 2,66,598 in the country. India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the United States, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Several states like Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Tripura have been showing a spurt in cases. A total of 266 new COVID-19 fatalities and 9,987 cases were reported in the last 24 hours till Tuesday 8 am, according to Union health ministry data. The number of RT-PCR tests for detection of COVID-19 in India crossed the five million mark on Tuesday, Indian Council of Medical Research sources said. Till 6.30 PM Tuesday, 50,30,700 samples were tested. With cases multiplying, multi-disciplinary central teams are helping states and UTs address challenges like testing bottlenecks, low tests per million population, high confirmation rates, risk of capacity shortfall over the next two months, potential bed shortage, growing case fatality rate, high doubling rate and sudden spike in active cases, the ministry said. These states and UTs are Maharashtra (seven districts/ municipalities), Telangana (four), Tamil Nadu (seven), Rajasthan (five), Assam (six), Haryana (four), Gujarat (three), Karnataka (four), Uttarakhand (three), Madhya Pradesh (five), West Bengal (three), Delhi (three), Bihar (four), Uttar Pradesh (four), and Odisha (five). Meanwhile, Vardhan chaired the 16th meeting of the high-level group of ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 which reviewed the containment strategies pertaining to the pandemic via video-conferencing here, the health ministry said. The GoM was briefed about the latest status, response and management of COVID-19 in the country. A brief snapshot was presented to the GOM highlighting the comparative position of India vis-a-vis other countries in a similar stage of easing lockdown, underscoring the benefits that have accrued from the lockdown and how this can be leveraged in management of disease, the ministry said. As the country entered the "Unlock 1.0 phase" when restrictions have been eased and curbs lifted, Vardhan stressed that people need to be more disciplined and adopt appropriate behaviour to ensure norms of physical distancing, use of face covers, hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette are followed. India is better positioned in the fight against COVID-19 compared to other nations,"but there is no space for complacency," Vardhan strongly reiterated. He also reminded everybody to download the Aarogya Setu app which will help in self risk assessment and in protection against COVID-19. More than 12.55 crore people in the country have downloaded the app, as on date, the ministry said in a statement. In the wake of all government offices opening now, Vardhan appealed to the heads of departments, "Let us also not forget the 'social vaccine' against COVID-19 through strict adherence of norms of physical distancing, hand hygiene and mask/face covers." The GoM was informed that as on June 9, COVID-related health infrastructure in the country has been strengthened with the availability of 958 dedicated COVID hospitals with 1,67,883 isolation beds, 21,614 ICU and 73,469 oxygen supported beds. Also, 2,313 dedicated COVID health centres with 1,33,037 isolation beds, 10,748 ICU beds and 46,635 oxygen supported beds have also been operationalised. Moreover, 7,525 COVID care centres with 7,10,642 beds are now available to combat COVID-19 in the country. The ventilators available for COVID beds are 21,494, the ministry said. The Centre has further placed an order of 60,848 ventilators, it added. The central government has also provided 128.48 lakh N95 masks and 104.74 lakh personal protective equipment (PPEs) to the states, union territories and central institutions. Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityananda Rai, Minister of State for Shipping and Chemical and Fertilizers Mansukh Lal Mandaviya and Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey along with other senior officials took part in the meeting which was held following norms of physical distancing, the ministry said. Parameswaran Iyer, Chairman of Empowered Group-5, presented the critical strategies adopted by the EG to ease the burden of lockdown while enabling supply of critical items for the country to fight the pandemic. Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at ICMR, Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar also presented details on the status of testing labs, augmented capacities for testing across the country, and also enlightened the GoM on various issues related to hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, and sero-surveillance studies. The number of active novel coronavirus cases stands at 1,29,917 till Tuesday 8 AM. So far, a total of 1,29,214 people have recovered with 4,785 patients having been cured in the last 24 hours. "This takes the total recovery rate to 48.47 per cent," the ministry said. The rise in cases comes at a time when the country has stepped out of a 75-day coronavirus lockdown with malls, religious places and offices opening in several parts of the country under strict conditions. Since the onset of June, the country has also been witnessing over 200 COVID-19 fatalities each day. Also, the country has registered over 9,000 coronavirus infection cases for the sixth day in a row. New Delhi, June 9 : In a letter sent to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, animal-rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has urged the closure of all licensed slaughterhouses, at least until a suitable daily COVID-19 testing programme is in place for workers. The group has also appealed to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to make daily COVID-19 testing of workers a mandatory part of slaughterhouse registration. The body notes that "slaughterhouses around the world are hotbeds of COVID-19 infections, since maintaining the recommended social distancing among workers is nearly impossible inside them. Recent figures show that in the US, 15,000 slaughterhouse and meat-processing plant employees have COVID-19 and at least 60 workers have died. It was also recently reported that in Europe, more than 1,000 slaughterhouses employees have COVID-19. As the number of cases increases in these facilities, the workers spread the disease to their families and in their communities." Keeping this in mind, PETA India has also asked for the permanent closure of all unlicensed slaughterhouses. The group pointed out that many slaughterhouses in India lack suitable basic facilities, such as ample water, proper cleaning supplies, adequate drainage, and effective waste disposal. Staff spend their days surrounded by blood, faeces, urine, and associated pathogens, often without wearing shoes or any protective gear. "If COVID-19 spreads like wildfire through blood-soaked slaughterhouses, as it has in other countries, workers will become major transmitters of the disease to their families and communities. No one should be in a filthy slaughterhouse right now - not the workers or the terrified animals whose throats are slit for meat that nobody needs," observes PETA India Vegan Outreach Coordinator Dr Kiran Ahuja. Since COVID-19 is overwhelmingly believed by scientists to have jumped from animals to humans at a live-animal market in China - along with previous infectious diseases like SARS, swine flu, and bird flu also traced back to animals used for meat - the animal-rights body said slaughterhouse workers are already at risk for zoonotic diseases (illnesses of animal origin) like brucellosis, leptospirosis, and Q fever. (Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on June 9, 2020 2020/06/09 CCTV: In a video statement on June 8 on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said that under the leadership of President Duterte, the old friendship between the two countries has flourished into a new partnership for mutual profit and progress despite differences. China raised 800 million from poverty, which is an undeniable achievement. Besides, Foreign Affairs Secretary Locsin also said on many recent occasions that Hong Kong-related matters are China's internal affairs, and he objects to interference by other forces. What's your response? How do you evaluate the progress in China-Philippines relationship? Hua Chunying: Today marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the Philippines. As Foreign Secretary Locsin said, the friendship between the two countries is old because our exchanges can date back to ancient times. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 45 years ago, China-Philippines relations have been moving forward steadily thanks to the joint efforts of successive leaders and peoples on both sides. In particular, in recent years, under the guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Duterte, the two countries have taken the opportunity of the Belt and Road Initiative to synergize development strategies. With fruitful cooperation outcomes in various fields, China-Philippines relations have grown more vibrant. In the face of the challenge of COVID-19, the two countries have worked together and lent assistance to each other, which has written a new chapter in our traditional friendship and added new dimensions to our comprehensive strategic partnership. Taking the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties as a new starting point, China will continue working with the Philippines to implement the important consensus reached by leaders of the two countries, further enhance political mutual trust, deepen all-round cooperation and make greater contribution to the well-being of the two peoples and regional prosperity and stability. China highly appreciates Foreign Secretary Locsin's remarks in support of the national security legislation for Hong Kong. As he said, Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs that allow no foreign interference. I believe Foreign Secretary Locsin's attitude represents the rational voices and the strength for justice, which come from the majority in the world. Global Times: The New York Times, the Hill, the Guardian and other media published a lot of stories on journalists being assaulted and arrested in the US while covering protests triggered by the death of George Floyd. These were some 148 arrests or attacks on journalists in the US between May 26 and June 2, with 40 journalists coming under fire, 34 journalists physically assaulted by police officers, and 33 journalists arrested or detained. AP, FOX News, CNN and NBC all have reporters that fell victim to such brutality. What's worse, a female photojournalist was shot in the left eye by a rubber bullet, which led to permanent vision loss. Considering that some US politicians always accuse China of oppressing foreign media in the name of press freedom, what is your comment on those phenomena? Hua Chunying: You have been following the situation very closely. I also read these reports, and I have similar doubts as you do. If those cases happened in other countries like China and Russia, how would some US politicians and media react? China is committed to provide all necessary convenience and facilitation for foreign media to do their job in our country. We hope the US will drop its double standards on media-related matters. China Daily: The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore released information on June 8 that Singapore and China launched a fast lane to facilitate essential travels starting from that day. Can you give us more details on that? Which countries will China discuss similar arrangements with next? Hua Chunying: China and Singapore are each other's important partners for cooperation. Since the epidemics broke out, the two countries have been in close collaboration while supporting and assisting each other. After two months of communication and preparation, both sides agreed to launch a fast lane yesterday to facilitate essential business and official travel. This is an important step for China and Singapore to return to regular exchange and cooperation and resume production and work while both sides are working on an ongoing basis to contain the virus. It is also China's first fast-lane arrangement with a Southeast Asian country that contributes to not only each other's socio-economic development, but also the stability of regional and even global industrial and supply chains. In the first phase, the fast lane is established between six Chinese provinces and municipalities and Singapore. The arrangement will be gradually expanded to other localities, and the two sides will discuss gradually resuming commercial flights. The fast lane between China and the ROK is also in operation with good results. The fast lane arrangement between China and Germany is recently implemented and welcomed by the economic communities on both sides. The first two charter flights carrying German nationals returning to workplace in China arrived in Tianjin and Shanghai on May 30 and June 4 respectively. There are more plans for such charter flights in the future. As I know, some neighboring countries and European countries are also discussing with China similar arrangements. China has been taking necessary measures to facilitate foreign nationals' travel to China for essential economic, trade, scientific and technological activities. While containing the virus and ensuring safety and security, we will continue resuming people-to-people exchange in a step-by-step and orderly manner and contribute to the resumption of work and production in respective countries, deeper cooperation and the stability and smoothness of industrial and supply chains. Yonhap News: According to news reports, the DPRK vowed to cut all lines of communication with the ROK. Do you have any comment? Hua Chunying: The DPRK and the ROK share the same ethnic origin. As a close neighbor, China always hopes for sustained peace and stability on the Peninsula. The Paper: On June 7, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro published an article on the Fox News website, in which he continued launching attacks against China, saying China has exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to advance its strategic interests. Do you have any comment? Hua Chunying: We all know what kind of person Mr. Navarro is. His lies have been exposed by facts time and again. China's epidemic prevention and control is timely and effective, and the whole world bears witness to the sacrifices and achievements we've made in this process. It is recognized by all that China has been actively advancing international cooperation on COVID-19 and supporting other countries' epidemic response to the best of our capability. We advise Navarro to stop playing his old trick of blame-shifting because it will only lead to greater self-inflicted humiliation and further expose his nature as a habitual liar. I hope he will spend some time reading through the white paper titled "Fighting COVID-19: China in Action", which was only recently released by the State Council Information Office, and the "Reality Check of US Allegations Against China on COVID-19" published on Chinese media, in which 24 untrue claims from the US are rebutted. CNN: The novel coronavirus might have been spreading in China as early as late August 2019, according to Harvard Medical School research based on satellite images of hospital travel patterns and the Baidu search engine data. Has China noted this research and do you have any comment? Hua Chunying: I haven't seen this research you mentioned, but I think it's outrageously absurd if anyone comes to such a conclusion only based on superficial elements like traffic patterns. What I did notice are some recent reports that said Sierra Nevada, a major contractor for the US Department of Defense, produced a similar report to conclude that the novel coronavirus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology based on some traffic data. But the report was soon rebutted by the Daily Beast. The US news and opinion website presented detailed facts to prove that the "evidence" in the Sierra Nevada report is full of critical flaws. On this matter, I believe we should respect science. You may have read substantial reports online, including those from the US media saying that there were coronavirus infections among the EVALI and flu cases in the US last fall. Facing such a lot of stories, I think the correct response is to leave this to scientists and hear their research conclusion based on facts. China, the US and the larger international community all share a common task at the moment: fighting disinformation and defeating the pandemic through solidarity. RIA Novosti: US President Donald Trump's special envoy for arms control said that the US and Russia have agreed to restart arms control talks this month and China's also invited. He said, "Will China show and negotiate in good faith?" I wonder if you could confirm that China received an official invitation and if so, will China join these negotiations? Hua Chunying: China has repeatedly reiterated that it has no intention of participating in the so-called trilateral arms control negotiations with the United States and Russia. This position is very clear. We noticed that the US has been dragging China into the issue of the New START extension whenever it is raised. This is just what the US does when it wants to deflect responsibilities to others. In recent years the US has withdrawn from the JCPOA and the INF Treaty, unsigned the Arms Trade Treaty, pulled out of the Open Skies Treaty only recently, and entertained the thought of resuming nuclear tests. The fact that the claim of "negotiating in good faith" comes from an official serving in such a country makes us feel extremely ridiculous and even surreal. CNN: China maintains that the origin of the virus is a matter that should be researched by scientists and professionals. Harvard Medical School is a top and professional team in the US. So are you questioning their research methods or do you need more information to make a specific response? Hua Chunying: You said Harvard Medical School is a top team, but there are various other views presented by leading experts in the field of medical studies and disease prevention and control. Being neither a scientist nor medical expert, I'm in no position to make any judgment. However, it just seems unimaginable to reach a conclusion on the virus based on traffic volume. If there's greater traffic volume here today outside the MFA South Building, will you arrive at any major conclusion out of it? I think such methods are hardly watertight. As a matter of fact, on the origin of the virus, there have been so many conspiracy theories against China, which is so unfair. The most pressing task for the international community at this moment is to do everything to control the spread of the pandemic and save more lives. Someday truth will be out ultimately. China's sacrifice and contribution deserves a fair, just and objective assessment. The white paper "Fighting Covid-19: China in Action" released by the State Council Information Office the other day contains substantial details. It will be a good read for you and something worth covering. Beijing Daily: Politico reported that Australian academics, after analyzing 2.6 million tweets from late March 2020 and 25.5 million retweets over a 10-day period, found that more than 5,000 twitter accounts retweeted nearly 7,000 times coronavirus-related information in a coordinated manner, promoting the same conspiracy theory that China had created the virus as a bioweapon. Many accounts had the hallmarks of so-called bots, or accounts that were remotely controlled, and many users had links to US Republicans and right-wing supporters, according to the research. The UN has pointed out in "Five Ways to Fight the "Infodemic" of Misinformation" that unreliable information is hurting the global effort to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. By dispelling rumors, fake news, and messages of hate and division, the United Nations is working to spread accurate information and messages of hope and solidarity. What is your comment? Hua Chunying: Recent days have seen an increase in disinformation on COVID-19, especially lies and rumors against China, which has severely poisoned international efforts. Facts have shown that the novel coronavirus is the common enemy of mankind, but what's more horrible than the virus are disinformation, rumors and slanders spread by people with ulterior motives. The "political virus" is also a common enemy of all mankind. The international community should adopt a united stance against disinformation and disinfect the cyber space so that rumors, slanders and other forms of the political virus and their spreaders will never be able to find a foothold. NHK: State Councilor Wang Yi had a phone call with British Foreign Secretary Raab yesterday. Recently Foreign Secretary Raab said that the national security legislation will undermine Hong Kong residents' freedom. I wonder if you could share more details of their call regarding Hong Kong? Hua Chunying: State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone call with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab yesterday. The press release is already out there, but I'm pleased to talk about more details. State Councilor Wang Yi told Foreign Secretary Raab China's position on the national security legislation for Hong Kong. He noted that Hong Kong affairs are purely China's domestic affairs that allow no foreign interference. Upholding national security in Hong Kong concerns China's core interest. It is an essential matter of principle that we must stick to. The Central Government is responsible for upholding national security in China, as is the case in any other country. Through Article 23 of the Basic Law, the Central Government authorizes the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) to enact laws on its own. The authorization, however, does not alter the fact that the Central Government is responsible for upholding national security in China. As national security in Hong Kong SAR is faced with real, severe threats, the NPC's decisive legislation applied to Hong Kong helps to fill in the obvious loopholes and long-term gaps in Hong Kong's national security laws. It is a rational and lawful move that we must make. State Councilor Wang Yi stressed that the national security legislation for Hong Kong aims to better implement the "one country, two systems" principle. As the first paragraph of the NPC's decision says, the state shall unswervingly, comprehensively, and accurately implement the policies of "one country, two systems," "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong," and a high degree of autonomy. This is another solemn commitment of "one country, two systems" made by the NPC, the highest body of state power, in its legislation. We never accept the unwarranted accusation of "the legislation will change 'one country, two systems'." State Councilor Wang Yi also noted that the national security legislation for Hong Kong targets only a very small number of "Hong Kong independence" and terrorist rioters whose behaviors gravely jeopardize national security. It will better protect Hong Kong residents' rights and freedoms, and law-abiding foreign nationals can live and work in Hong Kong free of concerns. The capitalist system in Hong Kong will not change. The right to enjoy a high degree of autonomy in accordance with the Basic Law will not change. The Hong Kong residents' way of life will not change. This legislation will only improve Hong Kong's legal system and make its social order more stable and business environment better. The legislation is a litmus test. If you aspire for Hong Kong's stability in the long run, you should support it instead of being worried. If you hope for steady implementation of "one country, two systems", you should endorse the legislation rather than opposing it. Regarding the British side's concerns on Hong Kong residents' freedom, I made a statement in yesterday's press conference. I hope the UK can review the history and answer the following questions. During the 156 years under British colonial rule, did Hong Kong residents ever enjoy any democracy or freedom? Was any of the former 28 Hong Kong governors elected by the Hong Kong residents? Did the Hong Kong residents then enjoy the freedom to take to the street and demonstrate? The UK even applied the Treason Act to Hong Kong during its colonial rule. Since Hong Kong is China's special administrative region, isn't it legitimate for the NPC to pass the legislation for safeguarding national security in Hong Kong? No double standards should be applied to this matter. The British side should grasp the situation and exercise prudence in its words and deeds. Chinese Arabic Television: The 127th Canton Fair is to be held online from June 15 to 24. Do you have more information on that? Hua Chunying: Thank you for your interest in this event. The 127th Canton Fair is going to be held in a format different from previous ones due to COVID-19. The 127th China Import and Export Fair, or the Canton Fair, will be held online from June 15 to 24, altogether 10 days. Against the backdrop of COVID-19, this new format is China's active and innovative measure to help foreign trade enterprises secure orders and market shares. The Commerce Ministry will coordinate imports and exports, smooth out links in production, supply and marketing, mobilize all possible resources, improve technological application, deliver more benefits, offer a whole set of services to enterprises, and enhance the online experience for all enterprises and traders. This is meant to be a very fruitful "online Canton Fair" with special significance amid the special measures at a special time. We welcome the participation of all Chinese and foreign enterprises and traders. As I know, the Commerce Ministry will hold a special press conference tomorrow. You'll get more detailed and authoritative information there. AFP: The Taiwan authorities said that it warned off Chinese fighter jets that flew near southwest Taiwan today. Can you confirm this and do you have any response to that statement? Hua Chunying: I'm not aware of that. Booking mugshot of 32-year-old suspect Steven Carrillo, an active-duty U.S. Air Force sergeant arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting Santa Cruz Sheriff's Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, 38, and wounding two other officers in Santa Cruz, Calif., on June 7, 2020. (Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office/AP) California Sheriff: Gunman Very Intent on Killing Police SANTA CRUZ, Calif.An Air Force sergeant and leader in an elite military security force was armed with homemade bombs, an AR-15 rifle, and other weapons and had a desire to harm police when he launched a deadly attack on unsuspecting officers, a Northern California sheriff said June 8. Gunfire and explosives rained down from a hillside Saturday afternoon as Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo fired from the high ground onto police who scrambled to find cover and defend themselves, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart said. He was very intent on killing these police officers, Hart said at a news conference. They had no idea that they were about to get into this firefight. One of Harts deputies, Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, 38, was shot and killed. Another deputy was shot in the chesthis bulletproof vest saving himand suffered shrapnel wounds from an explosive and then was struck by Carrillos vehicle as the suspect fled the home. File photo of Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller who was shot and killed in Ben Lomond, an unincorporated area near Santa Cruz, Calif., on June 6, 2020. (Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Office via AP) The deputy, whose name has not been released, was in stable condition and good spirits, Hart said. A California Highway Patrol officer was wounded in the hand. Carrillo escaped, carjacked a vehicle and tried to carjack several others before being subdued through the herculean efforts of a heroic resident, Hart said. The man saw Carrillo in his backyard and confronted him. Carrillo, armed with the AR-15, demanded the mans car keys. The man retrieved the keys, gave them to Carrillo, and when Carrillo turned away the man tackled him and the rifle fell away from him. As they struggled, Carrillo pulled a pipe bomb from his pants and tried unsuccessfully to light it. He then pulled out a pistol and the man was able to knock it out of his hands and then subdue him as neighbors came to help, Hart said. This guy could have done a lot more damage in our community, Hart said. The man who subdued Carrillo does not want to be publicly identified, Hart said, but he plans to award him a medal. Carrillo suffered a gunshot wound at some point and was being treated for a non-life-threatening injury. The FBI also is investigating if Carrillo, 32, has any links to the killing of a federal security officer who was shot outside the U.S. courthouse in Oakland during a protest against police mistreatment of black people on May 29. Authorities said the gunman opened fire from a white van. Santa Cruz Sheriff Jim Hart stands next to his wife and child, as more than a thousand people gather outside the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroners Office to pay their respects to fallen Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller in Santa Cruz, Calif., on June 7, 2020. (Martha Mendoza/AP Photo) On Saturday, deputies responded to a 911 call about a suspicious white van in Ben Lomond, an unincorporated area outside the beachfront city of Santa Cruz south of San Francisco. The caller said guns and bomb-making devices were inside, Hart said. When deputies arrived, the van pulled away and they followed. The van went down a driveway at Carrillos home, and the driver ambushed the deputies, authorities said. Afterward, authorities found pipe bombs, multiple firearms, a large amount of ammunition, and bomb-making equipment at the hillside, said Hart, who called Carrillo by name at the start of the news conference and then said I dont even want to say his name again. Neither Hart nor John Bennett, the FBIs special agent in charge in San Francisco, would provide additional information about the possible nexus between Carrillo and the Oakland shooting. Carrillo was a team leader for the Phoenix Ravens at Travis Air Force Base northeast of San Francisco, as part of the 60th Security Forces Squadron. The Phoenix Ravens are tasked with protecting aircraft and crews from assaults on airfields where security is unknown or additional security is needed to counter local threats, according to the Air Force. Carrillo had no record of disciplinary issues during his military career. He was deployed to Kuwait for four months in 2019, according to the Air Force. Carrillos wife, Monika Leigh Scott Carrillo, who also was in the Air Force, was found dead in an off-base hotel in May 2018 while she was stationed in South Carolina. She was 30. Her death was ruled a suicide, according to the Air Force. Carrillo arrived at Travis Air Force Base the month after her death, the military said. Bennett said its believed Carrillo was in California at the time of the suicide and hes not a suspect. Carrillos arraignment is scheduled for Friday afternoon. He is expected to be charged with first-degree murder. Its very important for Damons memory that we get this case right, Hart said. A fundraising site for the Gutzwillers family set up by the states largest law enforcement organization, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, had raised more than $230,000 by Monday afternoon. Gutzwiller is survived by a pregnant wife and one child. By Martha Mendoza and Stefanie Dazio A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv*, in June 2020, reports that the condition of overactive bladder (OAB) could be associated with a different route of infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent for COVID-19 disease. Urinary infection with SARS-CoV-2 Official data shows that the novel coronavirus initially named 2019-nCoV, which first appeared in Wuhan, China, circulated rapidly around the world to most countries in a couple of months. Chiefly characterized at first as causing fever and a dry cough, with significant and sometimes terminal respiratory distress in a minority of cases, it is also known to cause urinary tract damage in a few patients. However, the virus has not been found in urine so far. Despite this, the knowledge that the virus SARS-CoV-1, which caused the earlier SARS epidemic, was detected in the urine of these patients, suggests that the urinary system could potentially convey infection to the host. This prompted the current study to look into the presence of ACE2 receptors for the virus in these organs. This is crucial in understanding how the virus affects urinary tract tissues, and in developing counter-strategies. Both the SARS-CoV and the current SARS-CoV-2 are reported to have the same receptor, namely, the ACE2 molecule. Earlier research supports the bladder epitheliums potential role as the target for the novel coronavirus. The researchers aimed to explore the marked pattern formed by the distribution of ACE2 in the bladder epithelium, decreasing from the umbrella cells in the outer epithelium to the basal cells in the inner layer, and the intermediate cells between these layers. High-Risk Groups It is well recognized that older people and those with coexisting medical conditions are at a much higher risk of both infection from SARS-CoV-2 and death from COVID-19. This adds urgency to the task of finding out how the patterns of viral infection change with the underlying disease. The current study aims at examining the structure of the cell clusters and the expression of the ACE2 receptors in the urinary bladder, and to understand how OAB, associated with human aging, operates on the various bladder epithelial cells, using a mouse model. Using Mice In place of Men OAB mice were preferentially used because OAB is common in older humans, requires costly medication, and can be well simulated in mice. The researchers used bioinformatics scRNA-seq, a tool that has been used extensively in research on the current pandemic. It has the advantage of being able to examine gene expression in all types of cells, at high resolution and without bias. The researchers used two scRNA-Seq transcriptomes to compare bladder tissue from normal and OAB mice, as well as fusing publicly available data on human and mouse bladder ACE2 expression. By doing so, they were able to find how the presence of underlying disease might affect this potential source of infection. The annotated cell types from the dataset did not differ significantly from those in the original work except for the mouse neuron, which was originally labeled as such but later shown to be fibroblasts using superior markers. The study showed that the ACE2 expression in human bladder tissue was seen mainly in three epithelial cell types, and to a low extent in fibroblasts and monocytes. The mouse bladder also showed a higher density of ACE2 than in humans, but with the same distribution. Changes in ACE2 expression in OAB Over 7,000 cells were sequenced, with 8 cell types being differentiated, including epithelial cells, basal cells, monocytes, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and smooth muscle cells. Most of the ACE2 expression was on the intermediate and basal cells, but the highest percentage of expression of this molecule was on the umbrella cells. Bladder stroma and immune cells downregulated ACE2 in OAB. Thus, the ACE2 receptor is now known to be expressed in respiratory, digestive, and urinary tracts. This means the virus can infect these systems. The relatively high expression of ACE2 in the bladder epithelium, and especially the umbrella cells, indicates the greater vulnerability of this tissue to the SARS-CoV-2. The transitional epithelium of the bladder has a high turnover, which may make it more susceptible to bladder conditions like OAB. The researchers wanted to detect changes in the scRNA-Seq transcriptome due to OAB but found it difficult to get samples of healthy bladder tissue. By comparing cell types individually between species, a good correlation was established between human and mouse bladder cells. Concerning cell type, umbrella cells virtually disappeared in OAB, though they were the most frequent cell type in the bladder at 72%. However, myofibroblasts increase in OAB with increased ACE2 expression. OAB may change the infection pathway through the change in ACE2 expression, altering susceptibility, severity, and therapeutic strategy. Limitations and Future Studies Different datasets show widely varying levels of ACE2 expression in the bladder, at 1.3%, and 9.5% in humans according to the GSE108097 reports and the GSE129845 reports, respectively. With mice, GSE129845 showed 18% and the researchers data 72%. More work is therefore needed on this. SARS-CoV could be recovered and cultured from the urine of SARS patients for over 4 weeks, conferring significant infectious potential for a long time. With single-cell evidence supporting the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 infection of the urinary tract, and rapid spread of the disease outside China, the possible role of the urinary tract in spreading infection should be taken note of and prevented. The scientists suggest disinfecting public toilets regularly and safe disposal methods for patient urine to avoid such spread. The studys limitations include the fact that no direct relation was observed between clinical features of SARS-CoV-2 and the mouse scRNA-seq studies, and the low number of mouse bladder samples, which may also be less efficient at binding the virus compared to human specimens. Further study is necessary, using human ACE2 or human specimens and larger sample size. *Important Notice bioRxiv 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. SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Myers-Briggs Company, a Certified B Corporation, announced that its newest distributor, Giunti Psychometrics, will begin offering MBTI certification programmes and selling MBTI products in Italy in June. This coincides with the MBTI certification programme now being available in Italian. "We're thrilled to add our know-how to helping people lead more successful and fulfilling lives through self-awareness and the use of psychometric tools," said Jose Sales Grade, CEO of Giunti Psychometrics. "By offering MBTI certification programs in people's native Italian language, we'll further our mission of helping people understand themselves and those around them on a deeper level without getting lost in translation." The new partnership will strengthen The Myers-Briggs Company's position in Southern Europe and increase the Giunti Psychometrics offering by adding the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment to their portfolio. "With the combined expertise in psychometrics, certification, marketing and consultancy, we're going to be able to serve our clients better," said Grade. Giunti Psychometrics provides opportunities for people in Italy to receive authorized training and certifications based on authentic, verified, and scientifically-validated psychometric assessments. "Your results from valid psychometric assessments have an incredible power to aid understanding, bring together teams, solve communication issues and change your life for the better," says Jeff Hayes, President and CEO of The Myers-Briggs Company. "We're thrilled that our newest partnership can continue to offer this type of development in Italy." About The Myers-Briggs Company In our fast-changing world, your edge lies in harnessing 100 percent of your talent at work, at home, in education, and everywhere in between. Your success and fulfillment aren't just about what you know, they hinge on your relationships and interactions with others. The Myers-Briggs Company helps organizations around the world improve teams, develop inspirational leaders, and solve the most perplexing people challenges. We empower individuals to be the best versions of themselves by enriching their understanding of themselves and others. As a Certified B Corporation, The Myers-Briggs Company is a force for good. Our powerfully practical solutions are grounded in a deep understanding of how significant social and technological trends affect people and organizations. And with an 80-year background of assessment and psychological expertise, a global network of offices, partners and certified independent consultants in 115 countries, products in 29 languages, and experience working with 88 of the Fortune 100 companies, we're ready to help you succeed. +1 800.624.1765 : themyersbriggs.com : The Myers-Briggs Company Contact: Michael Burke MSR Communications [email protected] 415-989-9000 Melissa Summer The Myers-Briggs Company [email protected] 650-691-9105 SOURCE The Myers-Briggs Company Related Links https://www.themyersbriggs.com According to the text of the bill, decisions adopted by the referendum, can be changed by an all-Ukrainian referendum not earlier than three years from the date of its adoption referendum Open source The Law on Democracy through an all-Ukrainian Referendum, introduced today by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, was published on the website of the Verkhovna Rada. According to the text of the bill, decisions adopted by the referendum can be changed by an all-Ukrainian referendum not earlier than three years from the date of its adoption. The results of the referendum do not have to be approved by any state body. The subject of the all-Ukrainian referendum may be about: approval of amendments to Sections I (General Principles), III (Elections. Referendum), XIII (Amendments to the Constitution) of the Constitution; decisions on issues of national importance; approval of the law on ratification of an international agreement, which provides for the change of the territory of Ukraine; termination of the law or some of its provisions. At the same time, the following issues cannot be subjects of an all-Ukrainian referendum: those which contradict the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, universally recognized principles and norms of international law, enshrined primarily in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and protocols to it; those aimed at eliminating the independence of Ukraine, violating the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, creating a threat to the national security of Ukraine, inciting interethnic, racial and religious hatred; concerning bills on taxes, budget, amnesty; those entrusted by the Constitution of Ukraine and the laws of Ukraine to the jurisdiction of law enforcement agencies, prosecutors or courts. The document also expands the range of subjects of the referendum process who are registered in the Central Election Commission as supporters or opponents of the all-Ukrainian referendum. These can be both political parties and public organizations registered with the Central Election Commission. In order to organize and hold an all-Ukrainian referendum, the law proposes to create automated information and analytical system to ensure electronic voting. The explanatory note states that the most difficult thing in electronic voting is to technically protect the personal data of voters and protect such voting systems from unauthorized interference. The document sets the term of constitutional proceedings: it may not exceed 30 calendar days for cases on providing an conclusion on the constitutionality of the issue proposed for submission to the all-Ukrainian referendum on the people's initiative, of an international treaty that provides for change of the territory of Ukraine, which is submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for consent as to its binding nature. Referendum upon people's initiative In order to hold a referendum on the people's initiative, at least three million Ukrainians should make a demand. The signatures for holding it have to be collected in more than two thirds of administrative-territorial units of our state and with over 100,000 signatures in each of them. No later than on the fifteenth day after receiving the CEC decision on the results of collecting signatures of Ukrainian citizens, the President shall issue a decree declaring such a referendum stating the date (the last Sunday of the 60-day period from the date of the decree) and issues to a referendum. The issue of this referendum may be the repeal of the law of Ukraine or some of its provisions. The text of the draft law on termination of the law of Ukraine or its separate provisions, which is proposed for all-Ukrainian referendum on the people's initiative, cannot be changed after it is approved by the majority of registered participants in such a referendum. Referendum to change the territory Such a referendum is set by a resolution of the Verkhovna Rada. The document emphasizes that the all-Ukrainian referendum on changing the territory of Ukraine is a form in which the citizens of Ukraine who have the right to vote, make a decision (approved by the Verkhovna Rada) to adopt the law on ratification of an international agreement on changing the territory of Ukraine. Referendum on approval of amendments to sections of the Constitution Such a referendum approves a bill on relevant amendments to the Constitution, which was previously adopted by the Verkhovna Rada. It is President who assigns an All-Ukrainian Referendum on approval of amendments to Section I General Principles, Section III Elections.Referendum and Section XIII Amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine of the Constitution. As you know, the text of this document was published on the parliament's website on March 4, and its public discussion began since. KAMPALA 11 new cases of COVID19 confirmed in Uganda, 6 of them are contact cases from Kyotera and Amuru while 5 are truck drivers who arrived via Elegu and Malaba border points of entry, says ministry of health. This means Ugandas coronavirus cases have escalated to 657 while those who have gained full recovery from the virus have increased to 118 according to a latest update by Ministry of Health. All the 11 new cases re Ugandan nations while 34 foreign truck drivers who tested positive for the virus were repatriated to their countries of origin. All the COVID-19 cases in the country are spread in 15 regional referral hospitals including Mbale, Masaka, Gulu, Lira and Entebbe among others. On Monday June 8, 28 contacts of a truck driver who tested positive for COVID-19 in Isingiro District have been discharged. A Ugandan truck driver from Rwanda through Mirama Hills in Ntungamo District who tested positive was intercepted last month at Kikagate town council, by the health surveillance team. He was evacuated to Mbarara regional referral hospital for treatment. His contacts, a family of four and others who loaded his truck were also traced and isolated at Kabahinda Technical Institute isolation centre. The family members were quarantined in their home. The head of the family however tested positive and currently is admitted at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital. On Monday, the Isingiro District Health Officer, Dr Edson Tumusherure and members of the district COVID-19 task force discharged the contacts that had spent 14 days in quarantine and had tested negative for COVID-19 more than twice. Related Press Release June 9, 2020 Bong Go reminds public to use social media responsibly; urges DOJ and NBI to crack down on fake news and fake socmed accounts Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go is denouncing the spate of misinformation on social media after Facebook released a statement in which the social media platform revealed it is investigating reports of suspicious activity such as the proliferation of dummy accounts. "Mapaparusahan ang mga nagkakalat ng fake news dahil sa paglabag ng batas. Sisiguraduhin namin na mapanagot kayo sa mga kalokohang ginagawa ninyo," he sternly warned. Go stressed that Facebook and other social media platforms should remain a safe space for everyone to converse and exchange views. "We should not tolerate those who use it to mislead people, spread fake news, conduct anomalous activities and take advantage of the vulnerabilities of fellow Filipinos, especially in times of crises," he said. Go also voiced support for the Department of Justice's decision to launch an investigation with the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police to crack down on these alleged possible cases of cybercrimes. "Lalo na ngayon na may hinaharap tayong krisis, dapat maparusahan ang mga gumagawa ng kalokohan tulad ng maraming nagsisilabasang mga walang katapusang fake news," said Go. Meanwhile, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar also said that concerned government agencies, like the NBI and the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group, have already been directed to look into the matter. He added that the National Privacy Commission has been in touch with Facebook to conduct an investigation and share significant findings with the agency. "We ask the public to do their part and be conscientious and vigilant. Please report fake accounts and do not fall prey to unsubstantiated posts from unverified accounts. Our office continues its programs, such as Dismiss Disinformation and Youth for Truth, meant to quell fake news and combat misleading information," Andanar said. "We urge everyone to be responsible social media users and warn those who commit malicious acts of fake accounts and fake news creation, that you can be made accountable for your actions, as such actions are prohibited and punishable under the Cybercrime Prevention Act," the PCOO head added. On Monday, June 8, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana also confirmed that the Department of National Defense has also reached out to Facebook on the matter. "It's a cause for concern. It creates discordant voices among the people which should not be there," he said. Senator Go for his part also warned those responsible for anomalous activities using social media that the government shall not tolerate such acts and they will be prosecuted in accordance with the law. "Lahat po tayo nagiging biktima ng fake news. Hindi ko maisip-isip na sa kabila ng kinakaharap natin ngayon, napag-isipan pa ng ilang mga tao na magpakalat ng mga malisyosong kasinungalingan o manlinlang ng kapwa nilang Pilipinong naghihirap rin," he said. Go appealed to the public to make use of social media to help fellow Filipinos instead of wasting their time to cause misinformation, especially in this time of crisis. "Gamitin n'yo nalang sana ang oras ninyo para tumulong at magmalasakit. Huwag ninyo sayangin sa pagkalat ng kasinungalingan o sa panloloko ng mga tao. Huwag kayo gumawa ng problema at dumagdag sa pasakit ng bayan," Go said. "Sa kasinungalingang kinakalat ninyo, hindi naman po gobyerno ang sinisira ninyo kundi ang kapwa ninyong Pilipino at ang sarili ninyong bayan. Lahat tayo naghihirap at lahat naman tayo gustong malampasan ang krisis na ito. Unahin nalang sana natin na pagserbisyohan ang kapwa nating Pilipino," Go also stressed in past statements. Go emphasized that while criticisms are welcome and are part of the exercise of democracy, Filipinos must make an effort to verify information they encounter and take part in creating a well-informed citizenry. "Social media should be a platform where freedom of speech can be exercised as part of a democratic society. But let us do this in a responsible manner. Welcome ang mga bumabatikos na magbigay ng kanilang rekomendasyon sa paraan kung saan pwede lahat maging parte ng solusyon at hindi dumagdag sa problema," said Go. Recently, in a statement posted on his Facebook page, Go also warned scammers using his name and that of the President to purchase and sell medical supplies. "I am urging the Executive Branch, particularly the National Bureau of Investigation, to investigate, initiate filing of cases, and arrest corrupt officials and private individuals who are taking advantage of this situation to make money," he said. "Huwag po tayo magpaloko. Kung walang magpapaloko, hindi mananaig ang mga manloloko. Sa mga nangsasamantala lalo na sa panahon ng krisis, huwag kayo mag-alala. Aabutan rin kayo ng hustisya," Go added. To intensify the country's fight against misinformation and scams especially in times of public health emergencies, Go has recently filed Senate Bill 1528 which seeks to amend Republic Act 11332, also known as the "Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act". Aside from strengthening the country's efforts in disease surveillance and epidemiologic investigation, the proposed measure also seeks to hold liable those who are involved in prohibited acts during a health crisis, such as taking advantage of the situation to prey on the public through scams, phishing, fraudulent emails, or other similar illegal acts. It also prohibits creating, perpetuating, or spreading false information on social media and other platforms. This includes spreading information clearly geared to promote chaos, panic, anarchy, fear, or confusion. A British man and his wife (R) at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, where they were both treated for Covid-19, April 14, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Chi Le. Most of the treatment costs for foreign Covid-19 patients in Vietnam, VND20-538 million ($862-23,180) per person, have been covered by overseas insurance firms. The Health Ministry said Monday that most foreign patients had bought travel insurance before coming to Vietnam. The average cost of treating a patient at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi is VND20-45 million. The hospital does not collect payment directly from the patients for the latter to get them reimbursed by the insurance firms later. Instead, it treats the patients and sends a report and bills to the insurance firm, which sends the payment. In many plans, the insurance companies have also paid for the visa extension fees for patients while they were being treated. The National Hospital for Tropical Diseases has successfully treated two critically ill British patients, both of whom were covered by travel insurance. One of them, a 69-year-old man, was admitted to the hospital on March 8 and discharged on April 14. After being admitted to Lao Cai Hospital in the northern highlands, his illness worsened and he had to be transferred to the intensive care department at the Hanoi hospital. He was one of three critically ill patients being treated at the hospital at the time. His insurer paid a total of VND538 million ($23,180) for his hospital treatment. The other patient, a 74-year-old man, was admitted to the hospital on the same day as the other patient and released one day earlier. As an elderly patient whod suffered from blood cancer for 10 years, the process of treating him was not easy, doctors said. His total hospital bill was VND284 million ($12,230). The treatment bill for a 66-year-old British female patient admitted March 8 to the Hue Central General Hospital and discharged on April 7 amounted to more than VND333 million ($14,360). As of Monday, 49 out of 50 foreign Covid- patients had recovered and been discharged from various hospitals in the country. The remaining patient, the most critical of all in the country to date, is being treated at Cho Ray Hospital in HCMC. "Patient 91," the 43-year-old British pilot who was working for national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, has come out of a coma of more than two months during which he was kept alive by the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine. His case is currently under review by his insurer. The head of HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases, where he was treated for 60 days before being declared free of the novel coronavirus and transferred to Cho Ray Hospital, said it had cost the hospital over VND3 billion ($129,200) to treat the patient. Quarantining and treatment is free for Vietnamese patients. Foreigners, meanwhile, can enjoy free quarantining, but have to pay for their Covid-19 treatment. The US Army has accidentally revealed the plan for a new hypersonic weapon they are planning to build via a published photo on an official social media account of Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. Inadvertent Publicity of a New Weapon According to Task & Purpose, the photo was taken during the Association of the United States Army's 2019 Annual Meeting that happened in Washington DC last October 2019 and was published under the secretary's official Flickr account. In the photo, Secretary McCarthy is handling briefing slides with the title "Vintage Racer - Loitering Weapon System (LWS) Overview." The papers that were included in the photo did not reveal much about what Vintage Racer is, but it does show what the briefing about the new weapon comprises, such as "Hypersonic Ingress," "Time Over Target," and "Modular payload," among others. The words "Long Range, Rapid Ingress" can be seen at the bottom of the page. Looking closely, there are several more sub-bullets, but the letters are unreadable, making it hard to know what they say, along with three more papers covered by the first one, so it's impossible to know what those are other slides include. Read Also: IBM Halst Facial Recognition Technology After a 'National Dialogue' What is the Army's New Weapon? In a report by AviationWeek's Steve Trimble, who was the first to notice the inadvertent publicity, the weapon is a Mach 5-plus projectile, which could be launched and could penetrate a defended airspace, and then dispense a multi-role loitering system over the targeted area. Trimble also noted that the concept is already being discussed within the hypersonic weapons community, according to Dmitry Stefanovitch, a Russian military expert from the Moscow-based Russian International Affairs Council. "The fear is that [this] hypersonic 'something' might reach the patrol area of road-mobile ICBM launchers [after] penetrating any possible air and missile defense and then dispense loitering submunitions that will find launchers in the forests," Stefanovitch explained. The community sees it as a potential solution to "elusive" targets, such as road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile launchers. Budget for Fiscal Year 2021 Furthermore, the news outlet noted that the project was vaguely referenced in the Defense Department budget justification documents that were released earlier this year, although it went somewhat unnoticed. In addition, the Vintage Racer was described as a "success story" under the line item that was owned by the Office of Secretary of Defense for a "quick reaction fund." "The project successfully validated aerodynamic design with wind tunnel testing and integrated a guidance subsystem for targeted kinetic effects before culminating in a FY 2019 flight test," the Pentagon slide states. The photo that includes the briefing slide for the Vintage Racer also consists of a General Atomics press release, a 155mm artillery gun rifled barrel with a hole burned through it, as well as what appears to be an LRHW model. Business Insider tried to reach out to the US Army and the Office of Secretary of Defense for any comments regarding the new weapon's accidental publicity, but they did not respond. Besides the photo in question, several more images are taken during the event that is uploaded on the secretary's album on his official Flickr account. Read Also: Cybersecurity Threat: New 'Tycoon' Ransomware is Attacking Windows and Linux PCs 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Getty President Donald Trump and his political lieutenants are privately hoping that former President George W. Bush will endorse Joe Biden this cycle, creating a bizarre confluence of interests with an increasing number of Democrats who are hoping for the same. To Team Trump, a Bush endorsement of Biden would allow them to hitch a formerly unpopular GOP president and the personification of dynastic politics to the Democratic Partys 2020 ticket. They believe that Bushs backing would drive the progressive wing of the party into a tizzy, especially if the Democratic nominee were to accept and promote it, creating internal strife for Biden at a time when he needs unity. According to two people familiar with his private remarks on the matter, Trump has said it would be fun if he could effectively run against both Bush and Biden. These sources with knowledge of the presidents thinking say he views both Biden and Bush as emblematic of the political establishment that he successfully ran against in the last election, and that Trump continues to harbor a visceral distaste for members of the Bush family and administration. We would LOVE him to officially endorse Biden, messaged a source close to the White House adding it would be such a gift to us citing the 43rd presidents legacy on trade, big government policies, and constant war. One senior Trump campaign official even said that some on the team desperately wanted the 43rd president of the United States to come out for Biden 2020, as it would make for easy messaging fodder. I imagine we want it about as much as a lot of Biden people would not want it, the official said. The New York Times reported Saturday that, among other Republicans struggling with an endorsement decision, the former president would not support Trumps re-election efforts, citing people familiar with the situation. A spokesman for Bush told The Texas Tribune that the Times assertion was false. Bush certainly left the White House as a deeply unpopular figure, under the cloud of disastrous wars, various scandals, and a cratered economy. But his standing has improved in his years away from the political scene, including among Democratic voters. And on the few occasions he has waded back into public life, he has conveyed a more socially conscious approach to national affairs, including offering his recent support for ending systemic racism in police forces. Over time, the previously unthinkable has begun to happen, with prominent Democrats warming up to him andnowthe idea that an endorsement from him could provide an assist to the Democrats White House chances. Story continues Our task is to build the broadest coalition possible, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a leading House progressive and former co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) presidential campaign, told The Daily Beast about a hypothetical endorsement. I began my career in public service running against Bushs war in Iraq in 2004. But no one doubts his commitment to tolerance and inclusiveness. Khanna argued that Bush is in a different moral league than Trump, particularly in regard to the latters fondness for promoting divisiveness and fearmongering. His endorsement would help to highlight the enormous stakes in 2020 for our democracy, he said. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a top Biden booster, said he would welcome the endorsement, arguing that the public embracing of a high-profile Republican could have an electoral upside in critical swing states. Ninety percent of Trumps vote is the base. And the base isnt going to care what George Bush says, Rendell said. Then theres the 10 percent of Independents, suburban Republicans that stuck with him. The question is: what effect does a George Bush endorsement have with them? Id say, it adds weight to the entire picture thats growing. I dont think theres any blowback on our side. Ellen Defends Laughing It Up With George W. Bush at Cowboys Game It is unclear if Bush will end up endorsing anyone for president this year, and he could very well sit on the sidelines and merely refuse to publicly support Trumps reelection. According to a New York Times story published this weekend, Bush wont support the re-election of Mr. Trump. But a Bush spokesperson told The Texas Tribune that the detail in the Times piece was false. Bush is hardly a Republican turncoat, having fundraised for conservative House and Senate candidates in the 2018 midterm elections in an effort to help preserve GOP congressional majoritieswhich, had it been successful in the House, would have preserved Trumps sway on Capitol Hill. But his distaste for Trump has been evident for some time. And, in this case, the animus goes both ways. Two White House officials said they simply couldnt care what Bush did or didnt do ahead of this election, casting him as a trivial media obsession. Elections are about the future, not the past, said Ed Brookover, a former senior Trump adviser during the 2016 race. President Bush performed well during his two terms, but people judge todays candidates in todays world. President Trump receives support from many voters who supported President Bush, as well as voters he pulled into his own orbit. President Trumps policies and actions represent a new brand of leadership, which America has been needing for quite a while. Dubya Was Bad, but the Donald Might Be Worse: Richard Clarke For Biden, the risks of accepting a Bush endorsement are fairly clear. The association with the Iraq War (which Biden supported), the use of torture, and the handling of Hurricane Katrina, alone, represents a heaping of political baggage that could outweigh any benefit. And some progressives were clear that they would struggle with having a president they had deeply reviled in their proverbial corner. George W. Bush is a war criminal who lied to the American people in order to illegally invade a country. If nothing else, for that reason alone, I would never support accepting his endorsement, said Charlotte Clymer, a LGBTQ activist who previously backed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and has since thrown her weight behind Biden. But even Clymer found a bigger upside to the idea of an endorsement for party purposes, saying she wouldnt be surprised to see Biden accept it in order to remove our greatest national security threat in modern history: Donald Trump. And among more establishment Democrats, the choice to welcome a potential boost from Bush now was seen as a no-brainer. No one can ever accuse me of being a fan of former President George W. Bush, said Jim Manley, a longtime senior Democratic Senate aide who served as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reids spokesman during the latter Bush years. But as far as Im concerned, it would be fantastic if he were to come out and support the vice president. It would serve as a powerful rebuke to the current president. James Carville, a former top adviser to President Bill Clintons 1992 campaign who is now advising the pro-Biden Democratic group American Bridge, responded enthusiastically about the prospect of a Bush endorsement for the presumptive Democratic nominee. I fought with these guys during impeachment, I fought with these guys on the Iraq War, I fought with these guys left and right, Carville said. Were in a different situation now. We have a deadly pathogen thats infected this country and we got to get rid of it. Put another way, Carville said: What did Churchill say? If Hitler invaded hell, I would side with the devil. 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. After reaching high altitudes in 1984 being the first female American to journey in outer space, Kathy Sullivan has now reached rock bottom. This is after she has also become the first woman to go to the lowest depths of Earth reaching the Challenger Deep. In a report by The Times of the UK, it seemed that Sullivan's historical walk in outer space on the 11th of October in 1984 was not enough for her and decided to dive 36,000 feet into the depths of the Pacific Ocean. In her journey about 6.8 miles under the sea, she was aboard Limited Factor, a submersible. Last Saturday, Sullivan updated her Facebook status and informed everyone that she was able to complete the historic dive into the lowest point of Earth and back. According to the New York Times, 68-year-old Sullivan was accompanied by the Victor Velasco, the 54-year-old pilot of the vessel. The former astronaut and the retired US Navy officer celebrated their successful feat by giving the International Space Station a call after they returned safely from their expedition. Sullivan is only the eight-person in the world who is able to accomplish such feat and reach the Challenger Deep. According to her, being a hybrid astronaut and oceanographer is a moment that is only done once in a lifetime. Read also: Dinosaur's Final Meal: 110 Million Years Old Dinosaur Stomach Contents Unveiled Challenger Deep is a trench within Mariana's Trench which is about a mile deeper down the ocean compared to the altitude of the planet's highest peak, Mount Everest. The said deep belongs to the hadal zone, which got its name from Greek mythology's underworld which is the domain of Hades. The place has also a very high water pressure which is often compared to the pressure of 100 elephants standing in the head of a person. Aside from this, the place's temperature is very low and since it is deep down in the trench there is no light source. In 1960, Lt. Don Walsh of the Us Nave and Jacques Piccard who is an oceanographer from Switzerland became the first people to reach the deep. Before Sullivan, the latest to visit the deep is an underwater explorer and the director of the classic film "Titanic", James Cameron. Cameron went into the depths of Mariana's Trench in 2019 in the vessel Deepsea Challenger. According to CNet, Sullivan's Dive aboard the Limiting Factor which Triton Submarines of Florida manufactured was a collaborative effort with Caladan Oceanic and Eyos Expeditions. Eyos Expedition's Rob McCallum said that Challenger Deep is one if not the most exclusive spot on the planet, He also said that more people have traveled to outer space and the moon than those who have dived into the bottom of the ocean. During her spacewalk, Sullivan traveled to space aboard the space shuttle called the Challenger. It can be noted that both the spacecraft that brought her to outer space and the trench in the Pacific that she dove into is named after the Royal Navy ship which was first to record the depth of the planet's lowest point in 1875. The ship was known as HMS Challenger. Related article: $1 Million Rocky Mountain Treasure Found After Decades @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Shares in Utah Medical Products Inc (NSQ:UTMD) are currently trading at 102.69 but a key question for investors is how the economic uncertainty caused by Covid-19 will affect the price. The answer comes down to judging whether Utah Medical Products Inc is well placed to withstand economic shocks and ride out market volatility. To do that, it's essential to look at the profile of the stock to see where its strengths are. The good news is that Utah Medical Products Inc scores well against some important financial and technical measures. In particular, it has strong exposure to two influential drivers of investment returns: high quality and strong momentum. Decades of research shows that good quality stocks are more likely to be resilient, cash-generating businesses that can compound investment returns over time. Likewise, strong momentum in price and earnings is a pointer to stocks with positive trends that have the potential to continue. GET MORE DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS INTO NSQ:UTMD Why quality stocks pay off When it comes to stock analysis, company quality tends to show up in high profitability and strong industry-leading margins. These kinds of firms are stable, growing and often have accelerating sales and earnings. They also have strong and improving financial histories with no signs of accountancy or bankruptcy risk. One of the stand out quality metrics for Utah Medical Products Inc is its 5-year Return on Capital Employed, which is a solid 20.2%. Good, double-digit ROCEs are a pointer to companies that can grow very profitably. Harnessing the power of momentum Positive momentum trends show up in share prices and earnings growth. You can find the clues in stocks that are trading close to their 52 week high prices and outperforming the market. Theyll often be beating broker estimates and getting forecast upgrades and recommendation changes. This is true at Utah Medical Products Inc, where the share price has seen a 22.0% return relative to the market over the past 12 months. Market volatility and economic uncertainty can be a major drag on momentum, but previously strong stocks can be quick to recover when confidence returns. Story continues In summary, good quality and momentum are pointers to some of the best stocks on the strongest uptrends. This combination of factors can be a clue to finding shares that can deliver solid investment profits over many years. In good times, these shares can become expensive to buy. But in volatile markets, there may be chances to buy them at knock-down prices. Find the strongest shares in the stock market Finding good quality stocks with strong momentum behind them is a strategy used by some of the world's most successful investors. If you want to find more shares that meet these rules, you can see a comprehensive list on Stockopedia's StockRanks page. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 01:15:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Video: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on June 8, 2020, the World Oceans Day, urges governments to commit to the conservation and sustainability of the world's oceans. (Xinhua/Xie E) "We rely on the oceans for food, livelihoods, transport, and trade. And, as the lungs of our planet and its largest carbon sink, the oceans play a vital role in regulating the global climate," says Antonio Guterres. UNITED NATIONS, June 8 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged governments to commit to the conservation and sustainability of the world's oceans. "I urge governments and all stakeholders to commit to the conservation and sustainability of the oceans through innovation and science," Guterres said in his message for the World Oceans Day, an international day that takes place annually on June 8. "As we work to end the pandemic and build back better, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity -- and responsibility -- to correct our relationship with the natural world, including the world's seas and oceans," said the secretary-general. Penguins are seen on floating ice near China's polar icebreaker Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, in the Southern Ocean on Dec. 19, 2019. (Xinhua/Liu Shiping) "We rely on the oceans for food, livelihoods, transport, and trade. And, as the lungs of our planet and its largest carbon sink, the oceans play a vital role in regulating the global climate," he added. "Today, sea levels are rising due to climate change, threatening lives and livelihoods in low-lying nations and coastal cities and communities around the world," Guterres said, adding that "the oceans are becoming more acidic, putting marine biodiversity and essential food chains in jeopardy." "And plastic pollution is everywhere," he noted. The secretary-general said that "on this World Oceans Day, we focus on Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean." Photo taken aboard Xuelong on March 3, 2019 shows the evening glow before the China's research icebreaker crosses the equator on the Indian Ocean. (Xinhua/Liu Shiping) "Better understanding of the oceans is essential for conserving fish stocks and discovering new products and medicines," he added. "The upcoming United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development will provide impetus and a common framework for action," said the UN chief. World Oceans Day was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. The international day supports the implementation worldwide of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and fosters public interest in the management of the oceans and their resources. PORT COQUITLAM, BC, June 9, 2020 /CNW/ - In order to address the need for masks for both consumers and healthcare groups in Canada, Inno Foods Inc. (Inno Foods), a global confectionary producer and distributor in Port Coquitlam, BC, has co-developed a mask-producing machine with manufacturers in South Korea that arrived on May 26th. An official site license has been issued for the mask production. Full production of our consumer masks have started and medical grade masks such as N95 or equivalent are waiting on lab test results in order to begin production very soon. Multiple designs and types can be produced from one machine and they have plans to co-develop more mask machines. As suppliers to many wholesale stores worldwide like Costco, Walmart and Loblaws, Inno Foods is used to meeting and exceeding global food safety standards, which are the most stringent across all industries. Their team will be able to leverage their extensive safety training in order to convert to medical grade procedures, allowing them to quickly pivot from food production into medical mask and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) production. They are used to acting quickly to resolve problems, and though they applied for government grants to help fund this expensive project, they believed this need was too great to wait for the grants to be processed, so decided to use their own money to help Canadians in this time of crisis. Inno Foods has always been active in Research and Development and have their own in-house staff of formulation scientists, equipment engineers, fabrication specialists and product development specialists and have designed and created over fifty percent of their own production equipment. Using their vital technical expertise, Inno Foods worked with a team in South Korea to co-develop a machine that produces masks that meet North America standards, and also modified it to be versatile, so it can produce consumer and N95 or equivalent masks. Furthermore, Inno Foods established a strategic partnership with the machine manufacturer in Korea who will share their knowledge and resources of manufacturing other PPE machines, so that they can also become a PPE machine manufacturer. The goal for Inno Foods is to become a reliable local PPE manufacturer for Canadians. Therefore, they are also contemplating manufacturing a specialized hand sanitizer, a filter and other PPEs that Canada is low on. They are expanding their laboratory facilities to allow for product testing and the development of a sanitizer formulation. The brand name that Inno Foods has created for their PPE products is called Inno Lifecare and its mission statement is "to create consumer and professional product that protect life". "Although we are all going through a difficult time, our mentality is to find a way to still thrive in whichever situation we are in, so that not only our company, but also the whole community can get through this challenge together. We want to contribute our small part to both the community and the economy," stated Jae Park, CEO Inno Foods. About Inno Foods Inno Foods, who have evolved from a local bakery in 1981, to global confectionary production and distribution, strives to be world class in food formulation and food processing innovation with the customer in mind. They continue to excel in creating a culture of customer service, food safety and quality, innovation, possibility thinking and community giving. For more information, please visit www.innofoods.ca. SOURCE Inno Foods Inc. For further information: Press Contact: David Chung, Phone: 604-777-2824, Email: [email protected] The Nigeria Customs Service has handed over 48 sacks of Cannabis sativa, containing 3,722kg, to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Ilorin. The Customs Area Controller, Hassan Ahmed, presented the drugs to NDLEA in his office in Ilorin on Tuesday before newsmen. Mr Ahmed said the management team are doing everything possible to actualise the mandate of the Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Ali. When I assumed office as Controller, we engaged traditional rulers, teeming youths and other stakeholders on the dangers of smuggling, most especially dangerous drugs like Marijuana, Tramadol and others. We have made our territories unfavourable for smugglers of dangerous drugs, foreign rice and other prohibited items, and this led to the seizure of drugs by the command, he said. The area controller said the seizures were made on two different occasions; the first was 3,593kg of marijuana at Bokora, Baruten Local Government Area of Kwara, while the second was 129kg along Ilorin/Jebba road. He said the duty paid value of the first was N237,138,000 and the second worth N7,740,000, with the total value of seized drugs amounting to N244,878,000. Ahmed said that he recognised the critical role that the NDLEA played in safe guarding the nation from dangerous drugs, and as directed from the headquarters, the seized drugs would be handed over to NDLEA. Receiving the exhibits, the State Commander NDLEA, Mr Ambrose Umoru, said that he was pleased to receive the seized narcotic drugs from Customs. He said that the handover symbolises the robust synergy that exist between NDLEA and Customs. By the Sct that govern NDLEA, we are to be found where Customs are operating, so we work together across the nation, and also in Kwara, we are a family. We are here to sanitise the state of all criminal acts and we believe that there is need to work together to ensure effective security in the state. We call on all the security operatives across the state to continue collaborating with NDLEA in order to fight for the security of the country, he said. The state commander said that NDLEA will commence investigation of the seized Cannabis sativa immediately, follow due process and invite journalists to witness the burning of the drugs. On Coronavirus pandemic, the two bosses advised the public on the use of face mask, maintain social distance and take other preventive measures in order to stop the spread of COVID-19. (NAN) European countries experimented with further lifting coronavirus restrictions Monday as New Zealand declared victory over the pandemic, even as global cases topped seven million and deaths mounted in Latin America. The number of COVID-19 fatalities has now passed 403,000 worldwide since the disease emerged in China last year before sweeping the globe, subjecting billions to some form of lockdown and paralysing economies. But even the hardest-hit countries are lurching back to a new kind of normal, with bars and restaurants coming back to life and travel restrictions lifted from London to Brussels to Moscow. But in some places, it was far from business as usual. Britain on Monday rolled out a 14-day quarantine for all travellers entering the country, prompting uproar from the badly hammered aviation industry which is eager to see travel revived. Pubs and eateries flung their doors open in Belgium, but with social distancing measures in force, while Ireland opened shops and allowed gatherings and travel, also with limits. New Zealand meanwhile buoyed hopes for the rest of the world as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared that her country had beaten the virus and lifted all restrictions, though strict border controls remain. The country's measures were lifted after its final coronavirus patient was declared recovered, prompting the leader to dance around her living room in celebration. "We are confident we have eliminated transmission of the virus in New Zealand for now," Ardern said, adding that Kiwis had "united in unprecedented ways to crush the virus". New Zealand Rugby also announced its top-flight domestic competition would restart this week, with fans allowed to pack into the stadiums for the first time in months. - Belgian bar 'invaded' - Governments around the world are cautiously peeling back punishing lockdown measures to resuscitate economies while trying to avoid a resurgence of infections. Moscow said Monday it would ease border restrictions and lift lockdown measures in the Russian capital from Tuesday, while Ireland said it would permit gatherings of six people and allow citizens to travel up to 20 kilometres (12 miles) from home, an extension from the previous five-kilometre limit. In Brussels, thirsty patrons lined up in the early morning for a cold beverage at L'Union, eager to drink in a pub again after three months of closures -- much to the relief of manager Bart Lemmens. "I was a bit worried beforehand," he said, as some 50 people crowded into the pub. "We work to create a convivial atmosphere. I was afraid we'd lose that. But what happened? We were invaded." Britain embarked on a more cautious reopening, imposing a two-week quarantine for anyone coming into the country by land, sea or air -- British nationals included -- sparking legal action by airlines. British Airways and low-cost carriers EasyJet and Ryanair said in a joint statement the measure would devastate tourism and destroy even more jobs. At London's Heathrow Airport, where only two of the five terminals are operating, the quarantine measures were welcomed by some. "It's a good idea," said Sandy Banks, 45, returning to Britain with her three children from Jamaica via the United States. "Other countries are doing it." - Chile death count - But across the Atlantic, countries were gearing up for the worst as the outbreak escalated in Latin America, the new virus hotspot, with Brazil, Mexico and Peru particularly hard hit. Brazil has the world's third-highest death toll at more than 36,000, but President Jair Bolsonaro continues to play down the impact of the virus and has urged regional officials to lift lockdown measures. And in Chile the confirmed death toll reached 2,290 after miscalculations from March and April were corrected, adding 1,541 to the figure, officials said. Meanwhile in Asia, fears that the virus may not be under control persist, with the death toll and infection rate climbing sharply in India. Still, after a 10-week lockdown, the government is risking lifting some curbs to ease the devastating impacts on the economy, and malls and temples reopened in several Indian cities on Monday. burs-jv/dl Meghan Markle delivered a 'pretty raw' speech about George Floyd's death 'without notes' after 'lots of conversations' about Black Lives Matter, a source have revealed. The Duchess of Sussex broke her silence on the murder of George Floyd last night, declaring that 'black lives matter', and revealed that she had not spoken about his death before because she had been 'nervous'. Meghan, 38, gave an address to graduating pupils at her old school, Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, where she also named other African Americans who were killed in the US by police in recent years. Insiders told Newsweek the royal was speaking off-the-cuff, revealing: 'As you can probably tell, it's pretty raw and she spoke without notes. But she's been having lots of conversations about the issue before filming.' Meghan Markle, 38, delivered her 'pretty raw' Black Lives Matter speech 'without notes', sources told Newsweek According to the insider, Meghan and Prince Harry have been holding calls with community leaders about Black Lives Matter during the pandemic. It comes after a source told royal reporter Omid Scobie: 'Harry and Meghan have been having private conversations with community leaders and people at every level, to ensure that they understand current events. Harper's Bazaar's royal editor Omid explained: 'This is something that is incredibly personal to Meghan, especially given everything she has experienced. 'And as a couple, it is, of course, very important. They are both feeling it, just like the rest of us.' The Duchess of Sussex spoke out last week about the death of George Floyd, which has sparked protests across the world In her poignant six-minute virtual speech delivered to pupils at her former school, Meghan said: 'George Floyd's life mattered and Breonna Taylor's life mattered and Philando Castile's life mattered and Tamir Rice's life mattered.' The other three people Meghan mentioned were killed by US police over the past six years. Meghan also referred to Los Angeles as the family's 'home town' after moving there with Harry and their son Archie, one. On speaking out about Mr Floyd, she said: 'I wasn't sure what I could say to you. I wanted to say the right thing and I was really nervous that it would get picked apart. And I realised the only wrong thing to say is to say nothing.' The video was released to black women's lifestyle magazine Essence, which published it on its website saying 'courtesy of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex'. The Duchess of Sussex broke her silence on the murder of George Floyd earlier this week, declaring that 'black lives matter' and revealed that she had not spoken about his death before because she had been 'nervous'. Meghan, 38, gave an address to graduating pupils at her old school, Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles (pictured) The Duchess also said how the students are 'going to have empathy for those who don't see the world through the same lens that you do', adding: With as diverse, vibrant and opened minded as I know the teachings at Immaculate Heart are, I know you know that black lives matter.' Meghan also referred to some advice she was given by a teacher aged 15, saying: 'I remember my teacher at the time, one of my teachers, Ms Pollia, said to me as I was leaving for a day of volunteering, "always remember to put other's needs above your own fears". 'And that has stuck with me throughout my entire life and I have thought about it more in the last week than ever before.' Meghan mentioned three other people who were killed by US police over the past six years during her speech to pupils at her old school. She also referred to Los Angeles as the family's 'home town' after moving there with Harry and their son Archie, one (pictured together in South Africa in September) Meghan was referring to her former theology teacher, Maria Pollia, who has previously described her as a 'remarkable student' who was 'very enthusiastic about the material, but always took it a step further'. Meghan also spoke to the students about their futures, saying: 'You know that you're going to rebuild, rebuild and rebuilt until it is rebuilt. 'Because when the foundation is broken, so are we. You are going to lead with love, you are going to lead with compassion, you are going to use your voice.' Protests have taken place across America and beyond after white police officer Derek Chauvin (seen right) 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 (left and right) passed out and later died Her speech left some Immaculate Heart students in tears, with one on Twitter with the user name 'blm gia' saying: 'Meghan Markle talking about George Floyd and BLM in my virtual graduation. I'm crying.' Mr Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after white police officer Derek Chauvin put his knee on his neck in Minneapolis on May 25 for nine minutes. At least 15,000 protesters have taken to the streets of London and cities across the world to march for black rights following the killing of George Floyd. The COVID-19 pandemic is making it hard for Mexican drug cartels to smuggle cocaine and methamphetamine into Australia. Travel restrictions and ramped up border security have led to dwindling supplies in Australia and skyrocketing prices. The US Drug Enforcement Administration estimates a kilo of meth was worth between $US90,000 and $US130,000 ($A128,000 - $A185,000) in Australia before the pandemic, but now sells for around $US200,000 ($A311,000). Cocaine followed a similar price spike, with dealers passing the rise on to the drug users. Prices of cocaine and methamphetamine have increased since the outbreak of coronavirus as border security measures ramp up (file image) 'As businesses are having to adjust, every arm of cartels are having to adjust,' the DEA's Australia attache Kevin Merkel told the Louisville Courier Journal. Australia is the cartel's 'most sought-after illicit drug market', with Australians more willing to pay a higher price for top-quality Mexican meth than US buyers. The pandemic has substantially cut air travel to Australia and shut down cruise ship visits, making it difficult to sneak drugs in and take the huge sums of cash they make out. America's tightened borders have also slowed the flow of drugs and cash over the US-Mexican border. In Los Angeles, wholesale meth prices have doubled from $US900 per pound at the end of last year to $US1800 to $US2000. 'There's been stockpiling of drugs and money on both sides of the southwest border, and money-laundering activity has decreased,' J. Todd Scott, special agent in charge of the DEA's Louisville field division, said. 'People, in general, aren't moving; stuff isn't moving. Cartels function best when they can kind of move undercover, move with the legitimate commerce.' The Courier Journal also found travel restrictions to and from China slowed the importation of precursor chemicals cartels need to make meth and fentanyl. LYNDHURST, N.J., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Scarinci Hollenbeck welcomed three law students as part of the firm's 2020 Summer Associate Program. The firm's annual program welcomes a group of law students to support the firm's various practice groups. www.sh-law.com Standing left to right: Laura M. Miller and Donald Scarinci Seated left to right: Priya Angara, Amir Botros and Sarah McConnell "We sharpened our pencils to make this year's summer associate program happen," stated Donald Scarinci, Managing Partner of the firm. "If we consider ourselves to be one of New Jersey's most prominent and respected law firms, we need to take some responsibility to help train future lawyers and provide them with some practical experience," he continued. "Laura M. Miller, Partner and Coordinator of the summer associate program did an outstanding job selecting the class of 2020 and organizing a meaningful experience for the ten weeks they will be with firm," Mr. Scarinci stated. This year's program will operate remotely and accommodate the summer associates in the same work-from-home environment that has been in place firmwide since lockdown began. The summer associates support the firm virtually and they will gain hands-on experience safely and with adherence to the health guidelines designed in response to COVID-19. "I am proud that we are able to keep the program alive in the midst of the landscape created by COVID-19. It brings me great joy to play a role in helping prepare the next generation of lawyers," stated Laura M. Miller. The summer associates will assist with all aspects of the firm's practice in key areas such as Public law, Environmental law, Intellectual Property, Labor & Employment law, Creditors' Rights, Business law and Real Estate. They will also assist with the development of CLE programs and legal updates pertaining to COVID-19 and attend virtual meetings alongside the firm's experienced practice leaders. Meet the 2020 Summer Associates Priya Angara is a rising 3L at Rutgers Law School in Newark, NJ. She currently serves as the symposium editor for the Women's Right's Law Reporter. During law school, Priya worked as a legal intern in the Government & Healthcare Fraud section of the New Jersey Attorney General's office and the U.S Attorney's office for the District of New Jersey in their Economic Crimes Unit. Before law school, Priya graduated cum laude from Rutgers University-New Brunswick with a B.A in Political Science and Criminal Justice. Amir Botros is a rising 3L also at Rutgers School of Law in Newark, NJ. He came to the United States with his family when he was 16. He graduated summa cum laude from Montclair State University. He is an Associate Editor at the Rutgers Law Record, a Maida Fellow, and a Fellow for the Center on Law, Inequality & Metropolitan Equity. Sarah McConnell is a rising 3L at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, NJ. She is from St. Louis but currently lives in Newark, NJ. Sarah majored in Government and Law at Lafayette College and graduated in 2018. At Seton Hall, Sarah is a Student Mentor to 1Ls. She won the Best Oral Argument and Best Brief for the Appellee side in her Appellate Advocacy Class and is now a member of the Appellate Advocacy Moot Court Board. About Scarinci Hollenbeck With a growing practice of more than 70 experienced attorneys, Scarinci Hollenbeck is a regional alternative to a National 250 law firm. Named among NJBiz's 2017 Best Places to Work list, we have offices in New Jersey, New York City, the District of Columbia, and now San Francisco, California. We serve the niche practice areas most often required by institutions, corporations, entities, and the people who own and control them. We offer a full range of services necessary to assist clients in public law. We have developed our public law practice with the expertise and specialization necessary to serve our public sector clients in a cost-effective and professional manner. We apply this approach in our work on the behalf of the numerous public sector clients we represent. More information on our firm's expertise and range of practice can be found on our website: www.sh-law.com. Media Contact: Peter Moeller 201-896-4100 [email protected] SOURCE Scarinci Hollenbeck, LLC Actors Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday will be seen sharing screen space in director Puri Jagannadh's upcoming pan-India venture Fighter. Filmmaker Karan Johar had announces the news of the upcoming film in February earlier this year and the two actors were shooting for the project before the lockdown came into effect. Now, Ananya updates fans on Fighter. She says that it is going to be a treat for Vijay's fans and he will be seen in a completely different avatar in the movie. Talking about the same, Ananya said in an interview Bollywood Hungama, "Viajy's fans especially are going to be really excited because he is in a completely different avatar in it." About Vijay, Ananya said, "He is so different from how he is on screen. He has this really powerful presence on screen. He is very strong and stuff but in person he is very soft-spoken, he is very sweet, he's very kind and quiet." Fighter will be releasing in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Apart from this, Ananya has Khaali Peeli opposite Ishaan Khatter, which has a only a few days left for completing its shooting. Apart from these two movies, Ananya will also share screen space with Siddhant Chaturvedi and Deepika Padukone in a yet untitled project, directed by Shakun Batra. During the same interview, Ananya said about it, "It's a very interesting film. I don't think there's been anything like that in Bollywood." Follow @News18Movies for more Bain & Company Korea Partner Lee Hyuk-jin speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the consulting firm's office in central Seoul, May 28. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk Bain Korea partner says PEFs can create virtuous cycle in market By Kim Bo-eun Businesses are increasingly reviewing diversifying their supply chains after experiencing how heavy dependency on one region can wreak havoc in the wake of unexpected events, in particular the global COVID-19 crisis. Because it is difficult to give up manufacturing facilities in China, considering their existing presence and labor costs, many are seeking to secure new vendors in new locations. While companies will inevitably examine their own supply chains, Bain & Company Korea's Partner Lee Hyuk-jin says it is time for Korean firms to check whether they can play a role as vendors as foreign companies seek to rearrange their suppliers. "Korean companies should be thinking about whether they can benefit as foreign firms seek new vendors amid shifts in their supply chains," Lee told The Korea Times in an interview on May 28. Korea earning recognition as a safe and transparent country in the COVID-19 pandemic could serve as a positive factor, he noted. Reviewing new opportunities is part of the long-term strategy that businesses should be considering in addition to taking immediate measures for survival in the pandemic era, Lee said. "It's not only about recovering fast, but faster than others to take a greater share. M&As can be one way of achieving this." Businesses will need to take into account that the COVID-19 situation makes due diligence more difficult. "The M&A process will be shorter than usual, as distressed firms are put out on the market. Potential buyers will have to conduct due diligence in a short period of time with limited information as it is not clear to what extent the company will be able to recover," the partner said. "This is why preparing in advance for M&As has become more important than ever." Lee also noted that now is a good opportunity for zero-base budgeting, which checks every cost based on need, as part of immediate measures to protect a firm's business from the damaging effects of the coronavirus. "Zero-base budgeting is highly painful, but if this takes place amid the COVID-19 situation it will likely be accepted by employees," he said. M&A market amid COVID-19 Deals have stopped for the first half of this year, as the coronavirus crisis makes valuation disadvantageous for firms seeking a sell-off. However, distressed businesses that do not have the option of putting off the plan will present attractive opportunities for capital-loaded private equity firms and conglomerates. This presents risks of monopoly as companies with brand value are likely to acquire those without, as the latter are hit harder by COVID-19. There have been movements in the U.S. to possibly curb the rise of monopolies; but Lee said private equity firms play an important role in the market. "Private equity firms can bring a virtuous cycle in the M&A market by taking over distressed firms. This can be a natural process," he said. Trends in M&A market Lee said "scope acquisitions" through which companies seek to gain new capabilities are defining the M&A market. Scope deals intend on purchasing another business as a launching pad to new markets, or to offer new products or services. This differs from scale acquisitions which are intended on achieving a larger presence in a market or sector to achieve economies of scale. The partner said scope acquisitions have become essential for Korean businesses in a low-growth environment. "Formerly it was a matter of choice; now this has become indispensable for Korean firms," he said. He explained a local company can no longer compete with foreign firms by merely undertaking R&D. "It is a time battle. A company can earn new capabilities in just one to two years through scope acquisitions, as opposed to R&D which could take up to 10 years," Lee said. "Companies need to pursue scope acquisitions if they want to grow, based on new business. Eighty to 90 percent of firms on the Fortune 100 grow through these deals." He said scale deals do not work for Korean companies because of labor regulations that make it difficult to reduce costs after acquiring firms in the same sector. Scope acquisition strategies are taken even in the consulting industry, where not much M&A activity takes place. Such strategies are employed to secure new digital capabilities. "Consulting firms strengthen digital consulting capabilities by acquiring new digital-based technologies," Lee said. This can also be achieved through partnerships. Bain has partnered with German engineering and technology multinational Bosch for consulting on the digitization of operations, for which the latter has set the pace. Bosch has digitized 200 of its factories around the world. Cross border deals are also crucial for Korean firms who need to turn to overseas markets for growth. "Companies can strike M&A deals here, but they also need to acquire overseas entities. This is also a safer way to enter overseas markets than venturing out alone," Lee said. "Of course, it is risker than deals made here, as it requires integration and a more advanced level of management, but this is essential considering the size of Korea's domestic market." Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, marches with a crowd singing "Little Light of Mine" during a protest against police mistreatment of minorities, in Washington on Sunday, June 7, 2020. (Associated Press) "Romney didn't win, did he?" That was former Senate Democratic majority leader Harry Reids response to whether he regretted lying about then-GOP presidential nominee and now Utah senator Mitt Romney. Reid accused Romney on the Senate floor in 2012, when he was running for president, of not having paid any taxes in four years. It was absolutely untrue and was discredited by Washington Post fact-checkers and others at the time. But that didnt stop the onslaught of unfair and inaccurate accusations and innuendos. The Mitt Romney who ran for president in 2012 went on to vote for conviction in President Trumps impeachment trial. And that same Romney became the first known Republican senator to march with the George Floyd protesters over the weekend. You remember 2012, right? That was the year of the last presidential election before Donald Trumps victory. And the way liberals attacked Romneys presidential campaign on opinion pages of newspapers, news broadcasts and in the media echo chamber of blue check-mark Twitter, has a lot to do with how the next election went and how this one will go. Their treatment of Romney was an inflection point for many on the right. A recent fundraising email from the Trump campaign begins: President Trump isnt running against Sleepy Joe Biden. Hes running against the Radical Left, the Deep State, the Do-Nothing Democrats, and their partner, the real opposition party, the Fake News media. Trump didnt invent the idea of the media as the real opposition party. In the modern era the tactic dates to Richard Nixon. It was Nixons VP Spiro Agnew with the help of speechwriters Patrick Buchanan and William Safire who launched a war against the media as a "tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men, elected by no one." In 1988, George H.W. Bush goosed his shot at the nomination by aggressively pushing back against CBS Dan Rather in an interview. In 1992 his campaign sold bumper stickers, Annoy the Liberal Media, Reelect Bush. Rathers failed attempt to destroy his sons reelection in September of 2004 by using forged documents only confirmed conservative hatred of the media in general and Rather in particular. You could see conservative hatred of media reaching critical mass when Newt Gingrich turned nearly every debate question into an attack on the media as an elitist, partisan, fifth column determined to do the Democrats work for them, and the base loved him for it. Story continues But it was the understandable perception of conservatives that the press treated Romney unfairly that caused many on the right to openly declare war on the media, because they believed that the press had already declared war on them. What you see is what you get with Romney, if you dont have partisan blinders on. Hes a transparently decent man who is also a transparently conventional, if a bit stiff, Republican politician. Hes not immune to the charge of flip-flopping on issues like abortion or healthcare, but that hardly makes him unique. What he isnt and wasnt in 2012 is a racist, a sexist or a cold-hearted monster. And yet, that is how he was routinely depicted by his opponents, including commentators across the mainstream media, with precious little pushback from mainstream reporters. Put aside for a moment that New York Times columnist Gail Collins mentioned a trivial incident with Romneys dog in more than 70 columns to make him sound like an abuser of animals (ignoring the equally trivial fact that Barack Obama ate dog while living in Indonesia as a child). Recall instead the time when Romney explained how, when he was elected governor of Massachusetts, he bent over backward to work with womens groups to get names of qualified women to staff his administration. He said he got so many recommendations which he used! that he needed binders to hold all the resumes. In other words, a Republican governor did exactly what feminist groups want elected officials to do, but the internet exploded with condemnation and liberal commentators reacted to his phrase binders full of women like he was a character from "A Handmaids Tale." Then Daily Beast columnist Michael Tomasky called Romney a race-mongering pyromaniac. Why? Because he referred to Obamacare as wait for it Obamacare in a speech to the NAACP. The lesson many on the right took from all the Romney attacks was that a candidate cant win by being decent. At least he fights became a kind of unofficial mantra of the Trump brigades. Now, Trump the Fighter vs. The Fake News is the defining issue for many on the right, as Reids once-damnable cynicism has become a Republican virtue. Now it is the right that attacks Romneys character while the left has a strange new respect for it, not because his character has changed, but because it hasnt. @JonahDispatch Undated artist impression showing the April 14, 1912, shipwreck of the British luxury passenger liner Titanic off the Nova-Scotia coast during its maiden voyage. (OFF/AFP via Getty Images) The Chinese Communist Party Is Sinking Like the Titanic, But Officials Have a Plan Commentary Some people might wonder why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wants to take over Hong Kong regardless of losing the prosperity it generates as a financial center, or why the CCP is building One Belt, One Road, or why it spreads so much money around in Africa, and or why it boasts in its propaganda that China is helping different countries during the pandemic, while the majority of the Chinese people are living in poverty. In the United States, the poverty threshold for a single person is considered to be $1,063 per month. Recently, Chinese premier Li Keqiang said that about 600 million Chinese have incomes of less than 1,000 yuan ($141) per month. According to Beijing Normal University research, around 964 million have incomes of under 2,000 yuan ($283) per month. Thats 69 percent of the total population. Yet top CCP officials and the elite have huge amounts of money. The top 1 percent own one-third of the nations total wealth. Retired top CCP officials medical expenses can be over 1 million yuan ($141,000) per year. They can get injected with young peoples blood to stay healthy, and, of course, they can change organs when needed. China has a unique model: Enrich the party and exploit the people. Under the CCPs rule, the Chinese people have experienced two processes of converting from a system of private property to state-owned property, confiscation followed by privatization. When the CCP first took over China, it killed landowners and took their land, killed business owners and took their businesses. Private property became state-ownedactually, CCP-owned. Everything in China is owned by the CCP. When Chinas economy was close to falling off a cliff, Western countries bailed out the CCP. With the opening of trade and the U.S. market to China, China privatized a lot of land and companies, but CCP officials and their relatives got the lions share of opportunities. The CCP used the ideals of socialism to rob people of their property, then privatized it into their own hands. Among top officials, theres a secret plan for a sinking boat. Theyre insiders and know better than the majority of Chinese how corrupt the system is and that its not sustainable. These CCP elites dont take China as their home country. They see the country as a place temporarily held by them where they can grab money and prepare to leave. Thats why theyre willing to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, just to get a few eggs right now, as in Hong Kong. Its the same model thats applied to the entire country. China is only a temporary hunting ground for grabbing money. In 2012, the following internal data leaked out: 90 percent of central party committee members had relatives and children who had emigrated to foreign countries; 85 percent of top officials were ready to abandon their positions and escape the country. Thats why China doesnt allow any officials above mid-level local positions to hold their passports. The higher the position, the more the CCP officials know that the CCP crisis is reaching a boiling point. Theyve moved their assets out, prepared to run away, and are even prepared in an emergency to destroy the central database to cover their tracks. Thats part of their plan for the sinking boat. Thats why they use state money to corrupt international officials, make friends with many countries, and generously spread money to some foreign lands while giving very little to their own people. Taiwanese economist Wu Jialong said that a Taiwanese businessman told him that Jia Qinglin, the former chairman of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, hired a private jet loaded with gold, dollars, euros, and more, and flew to Cambodia. One can see why the CCP cares even for small countries. The majority of people in China dont know its a sinking boat. They enjoy as much as they can while ignoring how the CCP corrupts the morality of society, just like the drinking, singing passengers on the sinking Titanic. What top CCP officials are most afraid of is Western countries sanctions of individuals. Diana Zhang, Ph.D., is a staff writer with 20 years experience in the study of China. Based in the United States, she uses a pen name to protect her family members in China. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The summer temperatures arrived early in Southern California this year, and like that last lingering neighbor when cookouts used to be held, they're just not leaving. Over the period from May 1 through June 7, the average daily temperature in Los Angeles was 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.3 degrees above the long-term normal. And going back to April 9, there were just two days on which the average daily temperature was below normal, according to AccuWeather records. Sunlight reflects off the water as a man floats down the American River near Discovery Park in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, June 3, 2020. People looked for ways to cool off as temperatures in the area reached triple digits. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) Also, the high temperature in Los Angeles reached 87 degrees on May 7, well before the thermometer hit that mark for the first time last year. In 2019, the temperature didn't reach 87 in the city until July 25. And this week looks like more of the same. "Temperatures are expected to soar across Southern California through Thursday, increasing cooling demands," according to the AccuWeather Long-Range Forecasting team. "Along with the hot weather expected to build across California, a dry air mass will be in place, drying out area vegetation and priming the area for potential wildfire activity." Los Angeles is not alone. The United States Drought Monitor shows parts of Colorado and Kansas are in extreme drought conditions and parts of both states are experiencing severe or moderate drought conditions. Northern California is also experiencing severe long-term drought conditions as is most of Oregon. CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP As a result, estimated costs for cooling from May 1 through May 25 compared to long-term normal averages are higher in those places, according to an AccuWeather analysis, though the sample sizes are small. It's still early in the cooling season, which typically begins May 1 and can last until late in the year in many United States cities. The costs of cooling, including electricity, vary from year to year and from place to place, so the change in your bill may vary. Story continues Elsewhere around the country, the cooling season has run hot and cold. Since May 1, Kansas City has recorded a daily low temperature of 34 and a high of 92, a 58-degree swing between the lowest low temperature and the highest high temperature in little more than a month. Other areas with similar swings include Minneapolis-St. Paul (low: 34/high: 91), Philadelphia (low: 35/high: 90), and Washington, D.C. (low: 37/high: 93). The effects of Tropical Depression Cristobal as it makes its way north will continue the high and low temperature trend. "Heat will build across the Ohio Valley into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast for the middle of the week due to the westward track of the system," Pastelok said. "Temperatures will end up being 5-10 degrees above normal with a scattering of 90s. The cold front held back in the Plains, due to Cristobal's track north, will march slowly eastward across the eastern third of the country during the second half of the week," he said. "Some of these storms will be on the strong to severe side, with heavy rain and damaging winds the biggest threats. The cooling demands will increase ahead of the front, but fall behind, as temperatures end up being 4-8 degrees below normal." Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios Two Indians Held for 'Passing Military Information to Pakistan' From Strategically Important Site Sputnik News 11:42 GMT 08.06.2020 New Delhi (Sputnik): On 31 May, two officials at the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi were detained over espionage charges. A Delhi Police investigation revealed that the officials wanted to lure and trap railway staff and then acquire information about the movement of army units and defence equipment. Police in the western Indian state of Rajasthan have arrested Vikas Kumar, 29, a civil defence employee at an army ammunition depot near Shri Ganganagar, and Chiman Lal, 22, a civil contractual employee of the army's Mahajan Field Firing Range (MFFR), Bikaner, on charges of espionage. The two were allegedly providing sensitive information to Pakistani intelligence as the said ammunition depot and the army's Mahajan Field Firing Range are strategically important military installations in the western front of country. India's Lucknow-based Military Intelligence (MI) found out about a suspected agent near Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, who was passing military information to his handlers in Pakistan. As per the intelligence unit, Kumar was allegedly lured by Pakistani Intelligence Operative (PIO) using a Facebook profile in the name of Anoshka Chopra, being run from Multan, Pakistan, by a young Pakistani woman. "The MI unit could ascertain that Vikas Kumar was passing military information related to ORBAT (Order of Battle; composition and order of a military fighting formation), ammunition (photos, state, quantity, type, arrival, departure), units coming for firing practice/ military exercise to MFFR, personality traits of senior army officers in lieu of money", a statement from the officials said. Kumar confessed that he joined several WhatsApp groups as asked by Anoshka, who introduced him to Amit Kumar Singh (pseudonym used by the handler). Amit convinced Kumar to send him military information in exchange for money. Most of the information shared by Vikas Kumar with his handler was acquired by himself and some through Chiman Lal. Vikas confessed to receiving at least $1,000, of which he paid approximately $120 to Chiman Lal for his assistance. The arrest comes a few days after Delhi Police detained two officials of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi over espionage charges. The Indian Army issued an advisory asking its personnel to be cautious and avoid strangers posing as foreign women or spiritual gurus on social media to check the rise in honey-trap incidents in the armed forces. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address By PTI JAIPUR: Centre's Locust Warning Organization will press into service 25 drones and buy 60 more vehicle-mounted insecticide spraying machines to counter the attack of locust swarms in the near future, an official said on Tuesday. Authorities are worried that millions of locusts may enter India along with monsoon winds from the Arabian Sea to destroy kharif crops. "The locust swarms may attack in late June and early July. There is every possibility that locust swarms will come towards India from African countries along with monsoon winds rising from the Arabian Sea," K L Gurjar, Deputy Director of the Faridabad-based Locust Warning Organisation (LWO), told PTI. He said the summer and rainy weather is favourable for locusts and they move from one place to another during this time, travelling 150 km in a day. India faced a locust attack last month and the swarms reached Jaipur for the first time. Swarms of locusts travelled through several areas of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh amid their worst invasion in years. The swarms entered Rajasthan in April from Pakistan and then spread to areas across the western states, helped by strong winds. Gurjar said the LWO is making full preparations at its level. For the first time, a team of 25 drones is being prepared to fight the locust swarm, which will be ready in a day or two. It will be used for spraying insecticides. Apart from this, the organization will get 60 more vehicle-mounted sprayers by the end of this month. State Agriculture Commissioner Dr Omprakash told PTI that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is predicting that grasshoppers will come so "we have made full preparations". Around 800 tractor-mounted sprayers were already being used, and now the district collectors have been authorized to take into service more such vehicles as per the requirement. He said there is no dearth of resources to counter attack locust swarms. The state government has already given about Rs 6.5 crore to the districts. The department has asked for around Rs 4 crore additionally. The government has decided to purchase 100 fire fighting vehicles from the Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF), which can also be used for locust control. In a meeting with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot recently, State Agriculture Minister Lalchand Kataria said a large number of locust swarms could come to Rajasthan in the coming days. He said swarms are breeding in African countries. A large number of these swarms are expected to reach Rajasthan. In such a situation, a district-wise strategy will have to be made to deal with them, Kataria said. Facial recognition software is nothing if not fallible. In 2019, the National Institute of Standards and Technology demonstrated this with a study on A.I. systems used by police departments to identify alleged criminals. The study found that these algorithms falsely identified Asian and black faces 10 to 100 times more often than Caucasian faces. They misidentified Native Americans at an even higher rate. It is these sorts of findings that have led activists to call for bans on facial recognition technology and for technology companies not to develop such products. That movement scored a win on Monday, when IBM CEO Arvind Krishna announced in a letter to Congress that the company will no longer develop, research, or sell facial recognition technology. Advertisement IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency, Krishna wrote. We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2018, research from computer scientists Timnit Gebru and Joy Buolamwini, who have been leaders in discussing racial justice and artificial intelligence, revealed the breadth of bias across facial recognition software, including systems from IBM. That same year, the American Civil Liberties Union revealed that Amazons facial recognition program Rekognition mismatched 28 members of Congress to faces from public mugshots. Advertisement Advertisement Yet this sort of technology is already in use. In January, for instance, a company called Clearview AI came under fire for marketing its facial recognition program to law enforcement agencies. The powerful tool allowed Indiana State Police officers to track down a shooting suspect in just 20 minutes based on footage from a bystanders phone. (The CEO of Clearview AI has said that the company has a First Amendment right to scrape peoples images from publicly available websites.) On Twitter, critics of facial recognition technology have cheered IBMs decision. While some companies think its enough to tweet support for social justice while marketing a tool for oppression, IBM gets out of the facial recognition business & states opposition to mass surveillance & racial profiling. https://t.co/50wGBnYZqL Evan Selinger (@EvanSelinger) June 9, 2020 Advertisement My great aunts were likely sent to their deaths on the basis of holes in IBM punchcards. Facial recognition faceprints are today's punchcard holes; data ripe for oppression and genocide. Maybe it's a fig leaf, but one less provider of those tools feels worth celebrating. Reuben Binns (@RDBinns) June 9, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement Jeff Bezos instead of answering emails from imaginary customers, you could do this. https://t.co/cfEt3d5KgA All I don't wanna do is zoom-a-zoom-zoom-zoom (@hypervisible) June 9, 2020 In his letter, Krishna also argued that Congress should revise policies that prevent people from seeking damages whenever police violate their constitutional rights. New federal rules should hold police more accountable for misconduct, Krishna wrote. The letter ended with a pledge to form more pathways for everyone, particularly people of color, to develop marketable skills. To this end, IBM says it hopes Congress will expand programs such as P-Tech and federal Pell grants. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. The State must greatly increase grants to small firms to cope with inter-company debts averaging 78,000, business leaders have warned. Isme, the lobbying group for more than 10,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), said most State supports to date were merely loading already crushed firms with extra layers of debt. Isme chief executive Neil McDonnell said members on average owed 78,000 to other SMEs. Without a workable liquidity solution, large amounts of this inter-company debt will go bad, with terrible implications for business and personal insolvencies, Mr McDonnell told the Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 Response. He said the State must increase support to firms in post-lockdown recovery mode to re-engage the unemployed. Without viable businesses it will not be possible to reignite the economy. In this case, Irelands debt levels would frighten the markets. Economic recovery as quickly as possible is essential. The meeting - conducted in a sparsely populated Dail chamber under social distancing protocols - heard similar appeals from Danny McCoy, chief executive of Ibec (Irish Business and Employers Confederation). He called for the next Government to increase its Covid-19 supports for business by 14.5bn. This business reboot programme, he said, would allow SMEs to receive much higher levels of State grants than currently envisaged and to write down some debts. He said the Restart Grants unveiled in mid-May would not provide sufficient help to eligible firms. Restart Grants as planned would give 2,000 to 10,000 maximum to firms that employ fewer than 50 people and can show at least a 25pc drop in turnover during the March-June period. The Restart Grants fund, capped at 250m, should be raised to 1.05bn to make it fit for purpose, he said. When asked by Sinn Fein TD Imelda Munster whether the Restart Grants were wholly inadequate, Mr McDonnell agreed. There are too many strings attached to the funds available. There seems to be a fear, an apprehension, that providing liquidity to businesses is going to be money down the drain, money wasted, he said. Even if a firm received a 10,000 grant and immediately collapsed, Mr McDonnell argued that these funds still would be used to pay redundant workers and creditors. The provisions of grant assistance are too little and theyre too hamstrung with T&Cs (terms and conditions). We need simpler access to liquidity. Ive lived here in Chicago my whole life and America has given me so many opportunities, but it has taken so many away from everybody else. I have friends who are scared to walk outside, Clemente said. My mother is Irish and my father is Filipino. They are two different races and they always taught me the same thing, that if you proceed with love in your heart you always win. People ride bikes while wearing face coverings during the CCP virus pandemic in New York City, New York, on May 20, 2020. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images) WHO: Asymptomatic Spread of CCP Virus Very Rare The spread of COVID-19 by patients who do not have symptoms is very rare, World Health Organization doctors said on Monday. From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHOs emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a news briefing (pdf). We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing, she added. Theyre following asymptomatic cases. Theyre following contacts. And theyre not finding secondary transmission onward. Its very rare. World Health Organization Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove gestures as she speaks during a daily press briefing on COVID-19 virus at the WHO headquarters in Geneva on March 9, 2020. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images) She added that government responses should focus on people who have symptomsincluding isolating them, and tracing down people who they may have come into contact with. Undertaking this response can drastically reduce the reach of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, Van Kerkhove said. The latest comments from the WHO suggests that asymptomatic spread is not the main way the CCP virus is being transmitted, and may in part assuage concerns that asymptomatic patients could be among the key drivers of the global spread of the virus. It appears that Van Kerkhove was referring to asymptomatic cases onlywhere individuals never show symptomsand not presymptomatic caseswhere individuals dont show symptoms at the time of being tested for the CCP virus, but develop symptoms later. Van Kerkhove acknowledged that additional research is necessary to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic spread and how infectious asymptomatic patients are. The latest report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on COVID-19 appears to suggest a stance that contradicts Van Kerkhoves comment, saying that a large number of persons with asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic infections were not detected by the health system and these persons meaningfully contributed to ongoing community transmission. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated in May that about 35 percent of COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic, and about 40 percent of transmissions happen before people show any symptoms. Symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, a sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea, according to the CDC. It adds that patients may be infected and presymptomatic for two to 14 days after exposure to the virus. The CDC notes that while anyone can experience mild to sever symptoms, those who are older and those with severe underlying medical conditions, such as heart or lung disease or diabetes, seem to be at higher risk for developing more serious complications from COVID-19 illness. The majority of U.S. states had implemented lockdown and stay-at-home orders in March, largely to curb the spread of the CCP virus by mobile presymptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 patients, or those who remain in the community with mild symptoms. The CDC in early April cited the potential for presymptomatic transmission as something that underscores the importance of social distancing, including the avoidance of congregate settings in reducing the spread of COVID-19. [T]o control the pandemic, it might not be enough for only persons with symptoms to limit their contact with others because persons without symptoms might transmit infection, the CDC said in its report at the time. The CCP virus has spread to most countries around the world, claiming over 400,000 lives with over 7 million infections reported, according to government data collated by Johns Hopkins University. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 15:32:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CANBERRA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Three quarters of Australians hold negative views of the nation's indigenous people, a survey has revealed. Researchers from Australian National University (ANU) analyzed the "implicit bias" of more than 11,000 Australians over a 10-year period and found that 75 percent of participants held a negative view of indigenous Australians, leading to widespread racism. "The results are shocking, but not surprising," Siddharth Shirodkar, a co-author of the study from ANU's College of Arts and Social Sciences, said in a media release. "These results show there may be an implicit negative bias against Indigenous Australians across the board, which is likely the cause of the racism that many First Australians experience." "This study presents stark evidence of the solid invisible barrier that Indigenous people face in society." Participants' implicit or unconscious bias was measured by how quickly they paired negative or positive words with images of indigenous and Caucasian Australians, according to the survey. Researchers found that participants were biased against indigenous Australians regardless of their age, gender, occupation, education, religion, ethnicity or political beliefs. "As it is often unconscious, implicit bias can seep seamlessly into the everyday decisions at all levels of society," Shirodkar said. "If you implicitly see indigenous people in a negative light then that is going to affect all of your interactions and dealings with Indigenous people. We can only imagine the impact of that collective negativity on outcomes for Indigenous Australians." The study was published days after tens of thousands of Australians participated in Black Lives Matter rallies protesting indigenous deaths in custody and the rate of indigenous incarceration. As of March indigenous Australians accounted for about 30 percent of Australia's prison population despite making up only about 3 percent of the broader population. News Corp Australia reported on Tuesday that in response to the protests the Australian government is pushing for more ambitious targets to reduce the number of Aboriginal Australians in prison, aiming to reduce the rate of indigenous incarceration by 19 percent by 2028 but will reportedly push states to adopt more ambitious targets at a meeting on July 2. Ken Wyatt, Minister for Indigenous Australians, told News Corp that he was "working to address the factors that contribute to high incarceration rates including health, education and employment." Enditem As protests continued around the country over police treatment of black Americans, congressional Democrats unveiled a bill Monday designed to increase accountability and transparency for local law enforcement officials around the country, including school police officers. House Democrats, led by the Congressional Black Caucus, announced the Justice in Policing Act of 2020 , which would create a national registry to track police misconduct, ban chokeholds nationwide, lower the bar for lawsuits over alleged civil rights allegations by law enforcement officers, and mandate training on discriminatory profiling for all law enforcement. In 2017-18, 58 percent of American schools reported having a sworn law enforcement officer on campus at least once a week, federal data show. Civil rights activists have long been concerned that black students are arrested and referred to law enforcement at higher rates than their peers, and that police are sometimes involved in routine discipline that should be handled by school administrators. Heres how the bill that would affect school police. Nationwide School Police Standards If passed, the bill could lead to more consistent standards for school resource officers, which operate under a patchwork of state and local laws and policies. Some activists have complained that many officers dont have adequate special training to work with young people in educational environments. The Justice in Policing Act would require the U.S. attorney general to recommend the adoption of additional standards that will result in greater community accountability of law enforcement agencies and an increased focus on policing with a guardian mentality. Those would include national standards for juvenile justice and school safety, the bill says. The attorney general would make those recommendations in consultation with police accreditation agencies and after reviewing the 2015 recommendations made by President Barack Obamas 21st Century Policing Task Force, which he assembled after police shot and killed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Among that task forces recommendations : School police shouldnt be involved in routine discipline, officers should work to build positive relationships with young people, and there should be a multi-sector approach to tackling youth justice issues. Federal Grants The bill would create federal grants for pilot programs to develop new strategies around areas like recruiting, training, and retaining officers, including school police. Among the issues that grant would cover: The development of uniform standards on juvenile justice and school safety, including standards relating to interaction and communication with juveniles, physical contact, use of lethal and nonlethal force, notification of a parent or guardian, interviews and questioning, custodial interrogation, audio and video recording, conditions of custody, alternatives to arrest, referral to child protection agencies, and removal from school grounds or campus. Military Equipment for School Police The Justice in Policing Act would place new limits on a federal program that transfers military equipment to local law enforcement agencies, including many school police departments. The program, known as 1033, is a section of the National Defense Authorization Act. Among those new requirements: a ban on transfers of items like grenade launchers and mine-resistant vehicles, both of which have been previously acquired by school police departments under the 1033 program. As we wrote recently , several lawmakers in both major parties have proposed eliminating that program all together. Most recently, Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii tweeted that he would call for the end of 1033 after photos spread of heavily armed local police at recent protests. 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 Support for the Bill Its unclear if the bill, which has more than 200 Democratic cosponsors in the House and Senate, will win support from lawmakers on the other side of the aisle. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Monday President Donald Trump is studying a number of proposals for police reform. The administration does not support parts of the Democrats bill, she said, including a provision that would curb immunity for police officers in the case of reckless misconduct. Attorney General Bill Barr fears that provision would lead to police pulling back, McEnany said. The bill comes as student activists around the country hope to seize the momentum of demonstrations over the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd to push for the removal of officers from their schools . Some leaders, including Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, have said the officers are necessary for school safety. Photo: Getty Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa . TRENTON Call in the Al-lies. The Trenton chapter of the NAACP joined former North Ward council candidate Algernon Ward Tuesday in demanding Mayor Reed Gusciora abolish the 10 p.m. curfew. Gusciora relaxed the curfew Monday after it had been 7 p.m. following looting and rioting May 31, in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man slain by a white cop. Trenton NAACP president Jonette Smart urged Gusciora to immediately repeal the curfew, saying her organization would contemplate joining Ward in taking Trentons leader to court to get the mandate lifted. Her call comes the same day that Gov. Phil Murphy announced he was lifting the stay-at-home order thats been in place the last three months. The NAACP Trenton branch would like the curfew of the city of Trenton to be lifted immediately, she said in a statement. The incidents that occur in our city occur throughout the day and not exclusively during the early-evening hours. Its also unconstitutional as stated by other civic-minded residents to place a curfew on the residents . The NAACP will joint others to file suit against the city. The mayors office said Monday the 10 p.m. curfew would be in place until further notice. Gusciora had a sudden change of heart Tuesday. We hear them loud and clear. We want to end it. It is ending on Sunday, he told The Trentonian. Its going back to the traditional 10 p.m. for people 18 and under. Weve always had a 10 oclock curfew [for youth]. Were doing it. Ward said hes not satisfied with the mayors action and is filing a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. He renewed his call for city officials to give amnesty to the hundreds of people issued curfew violations. Now means now. It doesnt mean Sunday, he said. Hes still trying to delay. I dont think its right to fine people $2,000 for violating a curfew that shouldnt be there in the first place. Hes overreaching and being stubborn. Hes gonna find himself on the wrong side of history. Im encouraged hes seeing the light, but he needs to step all the way into it, Ward continued. We want crime prevention. The cops are the last resort, not the first resort. Im not playing. Im not kidding. For the life of me, I cant understand why hes so wedded to this curfew. In defense of the curfew Monday, Gusciora conceded the plan was to lift the curfew in the coming weeks, but he didnt offer a specific date. Gusciora disagreed that Wards and the NAACPs threat to take legal action pressured him to change his mind. I get it that people want to go out. Theyre sick and tired of being cooped up. I get it, he said. If anything, [I felt] pressure to keep it. You cant satisfy everyone. You have to make the best decision on the information you have. I doubt that there would have been any lawsuit, and as a lawyer, I normally dont threaten. I do. People who say theyre gonna sue you end up not doing it. I think there was a valid legal reason [for the curfew]. Wheres anybody going to go anyway? They have a stay-at-home order. Why do you want to encourage people to violate the governors order? Murphy lifted his stay-at-home order Tuesday as the Garden State slowly re-opens the state amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trenton has had more than 3,600 cases and 57 deaths. Gunplay has been a struggle for the capital city amid the pandemic. At least 13 of the 15 murders have occurred since Murphy enacted the stay-at-home order March 21. Gusciora implemented the curfew April 6, following a deadly weekend in which three peopled were gunned down. He said his office received clearance from the AGs Office after a Trenton legislator challenged whether the mayors order went beyond Murphys executive order. Gusciora cited a mob action law on the city books since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated to justify the crackdown. Curfew or not, the violence hasnt abated. Last week, a 12-year-old girl caught a stray bullet in the stomach while playing with her 7-year-old sister at the Roberto Clemente Park. Investigators said the shooting, which occurred a day after Dontae Barnes became the 15th murder victim of the year, stemmed from a personal dispute. The gunman allegedly targeted a group gambling in a nearby. Two men were also injured in the triple shooting. Trenton Police Director Sheliah Coley pointed to a more than 50 percent reduction in after-hours crime in the three weeks after the curfew was imposed. Gusciora did not have updated stats to say whether the trend has continued. Critics suggested the curfew did little to deter violent gun-toters who were committing crimes outside of the lockdown hours. The mayor has to change his heart on this. He cant solve societys problems with a nightstick, Ward told The Trentonian in an interview Monday. Gusciora said the curfew was one tool in law enforcements belt. Its part of the strategy. Its not the end-all, as you well know, he said. Its one of the tools. Theres a reason for it. If somebody is out after, its one way to identify that somebody is up to no good, or theyre hungry. We think that it has helped. And certainly, many neighborhoods were very supportive. They felt they heard less ATV traffic. They were satisfied. We dont like the idea of a curfew, but we like the idea of keeping peace in the neighborhoods, and this was one of the tools. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. More people are relying on telehealth services to receive medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. A lab in Purdue Universitys College of Health and Human Sciences is trying to make that easier for clinicians and patients with swallowing disorders. The Purdue Imaging, Evaluation and Treatment of Swallowing Research Laboratory (I-EaT) is led by Georgia Malandraki, an associate professor of speech, language and hearing sciences. Malandraki has created free resources for providing telehealth services for swallowing disorders, also known as dysphagia. In addition to providing the online resource guide, already viewed more than 15,000 times, Malandraki is also an invited speaker in live and recorded webinars hosted by national organizations. Malandraki said she created the guide in response to the demand for telehealth resources due to COVID-19. I wanted to provide an evidence-based resource guide with practical recommendations for clinicians who want to consider adapting their practices and adopt telehealth solutions for dysphagia management both ethically and safely, Malandraki said. Were facing a situation where medical care is rapidly trying to adapt to this unprecedented pandemic while trying to save as many lives as possible. This guide was our way of helping during this trying time. The recommendations offered are based on published policy documents, high quality peer-review research, and Malandrakis 14 years of clinical and research experience in the telemanagement of dysphagia. The development and validation of telehealth and wearable systems is one of the primary areas of research for the I-EaT lab, in addition to using imaging to understand swallowing disorders and developing interventions for dysphagia. About Purdue University Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Purdue SLHS is a top-ranked department (No. 3 in Speech-Language Pathology and No. 9 in Audiology; US News and World Reports) with research and clinical efforts to mechanistically investigate and treat a variety of hearing, speaking, language, and swallowing disorders. Our state of the art research and clinical laboratories facilitate cutting-edge scientific discoveries, and a committed engagement with citizens of Indiana through top-quality clinical service delivery. The department supports stellar education of its students through four pre-eminent degree programs. Visit https://www.purdue.edu/hhs/slhs/ to learn more. 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: Abbey Nickel, 740-326-0481, nickela@purdue.edu Source: Georgia Malandraki, malandraki@purdue.edu Whats a homeowner to do during a pandemic? Whether you started a renovation project before social distancing went into effect or you urgently need a plumber today, you may need to bring contractors into your home at some point. Fortunately, many contractors and home renovation professionals are continuing to work, including Docia Boylens team at Handyman Connection of Golden. Dont panic, she says. Our craftsmen want to work, and they want to be safe. That said, if you decide to move forward with a renovation or repair, youll want to be extra carefulfor the safety of both your contractors and yourself. So what does this mean, exactly? We talked to experts about what you should know before welcoming contractors into your home. Move it online when you can Many homeowners halted renovations when the pandemic hit, says Cristina Miguelez, remodeling specialist at Fixr, a marketplace for contractors and homeowners. But for many, consultations, walk-throughs, and initial meetings are happening online, she says. Talk to your contractors and ask if theyve been using any virtual workarounds for providing estimates, quotes, and design work. A video call could help avoid at least one unnecessary trip inside the house. Communicate with your contractors Before you move forward, ask your contractors what precautions theyre taking in light of the pandemic. Doug King, president of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry and president of King Contracting in St. Petersburg, FL, recommends asking the following questions: How do you plan to keep my family safe while youre working here? Does your company have a written policy or procedure for performing work at private residences? Who will enforce those policies? Boylen says her company has also taken extra steps to keep contractors and homeowners safe. We got creative with our customers, she says. We stopped exchanging paperwork and moved to online quotes and credit card payments. We stopped shaking our customers hand to thank them for their business. We implemented processes to check every craftsman before work to ensure they were not feeling poorly or had a fever. Your contractors may also want some assurance from you to make sure theyre entering a safe work environment. Be prepared to talk about your own protocol for cleanliness. Its a conversation; you both need to speak to one another and dont assume, Miguelez says. Respect this person coming into your home and try to keep them safe. Cover the cleanliness and safety basics Both you and your contractors should be following CDC guidelines. That includes wearing a mask and washing your hands frequently. Regularly disinfect high-contact surfaces like countertops and doorknobs and make hand sanitizer available at entry points to the house. And remember: You wouldnt want a sick worker coming into your home, so dont let a contractor work in your home if you or someone else in the house is sick. Under no circumstances should a contractor or their subcontractors enter a house if there are sick persons in the house or if any of the workers are showing symptoms, King says. Leave the house, if possible Remodeling is very intrusive and disruptive even without the pandemic, King says. If theres any way at all possible, leave your house while the work is being done. If you dont have anywhere else to go, avoid the work area while contractors are present, and keep any immunocompromised members of the household as far as possible from the worksite. Be sure to wash your hands after visiting the work area, even after the workers have left for the day, King says. Designate one point of entry to limit contact areas. Be patient Remember that your contractors are doing their best to navigate an unprecedented situation. Be understanding if plans change. The craftsman scheduled at your home could have come in contact with someone last week that has let us know they have COVID-19, Boylen says. It means we will not send that craftsman to your home, but we may not have another craftsman [available] in order to keep your original appointment. You may also find that contractors are booked weeks or months in advance. When shelter-in-place orders started taking effect in March, many homeowners delayed projects, King says, which has created a bottleneck now that projects are ramping back up. Contractors have seen the lead times for products like cabinetry, windows, and doors double and triple in some cases, which in turn leads to project delays, he says. The post Contractor Conundrum: How To Stay Safe When Renovating During COVID-19 appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. A 6-year-old boy from Florida has permanent physical scars on his body after he was abused by two adults for years, according to the report of CBS Tampa Bay. Child abuse Last week, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office announced that the deputies arrested 31-year-old Cody Corbin and girlfriend 26-year-old Samantha Smith for child abuse. On May 14, the deputies went to the house of Smith in St. Petersburg and they found the boy in the house with multiple physical injuries. A team of medical examiners determined that the boy had numerous injuries and has acquired permanent scars on his body as a result of abuse for four straight years. The police reported that both Corbin and Smith would repeatedly abuse and strike the boy. The abuse included pinching the child's penis, biting his shoulders and toes, beating him with different objects, and kicking and punching him. Because of the abuse, the child has multiple permanent scars and bruises. Both Corbin and Smith are also accused of preventing the boy from eating as a way to punish him. It was also reported that Smith would put temporary tattoos and put makeup over the child's bruises and scars to conceal them. The child was never rushed to the hospital to get medical care for these injuries. The police arrested Corbin and Smith on June 5. Also Read: Chinese, Iranian Hackers Targeting Trump and Biden's Presidential Campaign, Google Says Smith is charged with one count of aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm and one count of child neglect. Corbin is charged with one count of child abuse and another count of child neglect. Both Corbin and Smith are detained in the Pinellas County Jail. The authorities have not released the nature of the relationship between the couple and the victim. The state law limits what information the police can disclose to the public in their effort to keep the identity of the victim confidential. Similar incident In February, a couple have been charged with child abuse after their 11-year-old daughter was found with bruises on her face. The child also had swollen eyes and multiple scars on her body. The 36-year-old mechanic and his 38-year-old housewife were charged with child abuse and jail time of up to 10 years. The housewife is accused of physically abusing the child and causing mental trauma. She pleaded not guilty. Her husband is accused of abandonment, neglect, and exposing his daughter to abuse. The couple committed the crime between the middle of 2019 and February 2020. The woman pleaded for leniency as she still has five other children and one of whom is still breastfeeding. On February 9, 2020, the police received a tip-off and raided the house. The authorities found the 11-year-old girl with serious injuries on her face and her eyes were so swollen that she had difficulty in opening her bruised eyes. There were numerous items that were used during the abuse and it includes a helmet, clothes hanger, and a wooden stick. The child was eventually brought to the Welfare Department after she underwent treatment at the hospital. Related Article: Stepmom Who Tortured, Starved Little Girl Attempts to Fool Court to be Freed From Jail @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Michigans August and November elections could look much different than voters are used to, as state and local officials consider ways to ensure citizens can safely exercise their rights during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said voters will see local polling places reconfigured to accommodate social distancing, causing some precincts to be moved or consolidated, while $11.2 million in federal COVID-19 relief is being used to promote absentee voting and secure hygiene materials for poll workers and citizens. Librarianship Through a Screen: Getting an Online M.L.I.S. Have you ever wanted to grow your knowledge, advance in your career, battle internet connectivity issues, struggle to make friends, become a more well-rounded professional, have no personal life, and go into debt all at the same time? You must be an adult whos looking into or currently enrolled in a masters degree program! Although many programs share these qualities, for the purposes of this NewsBreak, Ill be focusing specifically on an all-online M.L.I.S. program. I started my program in fall 2019, just a few weeks before I became the executive director of my library. In 2017, I graduated with a masters degree in history from a program that was mostly in-person, with a few online classes sprinkled in here and there, so I felt like I knew what I was getting into with the M.L.I.S. program. I was prepared for the amount of work required, but I was dead wrong about everything else. This is my perspective on online library schoolthe benefits, the pitfalls, and how we can make the process of learning how to be information professionals better for everyone. Technology and Access Technology opens doors that normally would be sealed shut for countless prospective students. There are 62 ALA-accredited M.L.I.S. programs in existence, and 42 of them offer a 100% online program. For people who are looking for a mid-career change, need a higher degree for a promotion, or are coming directly from undergraduate work but cannot change location, online programs are the perfect option for moving up in the library world. However, as online programs grow, new barriers to education arise. Internet connectivity is essential to online work, but internet infrastructure in the U.S. is still subpar. Census data show that nationally, 78% of households subscribe to broadband internet, but these numbers are skewed toward urban and coastal dwellers. Rural subscription rates are much lower, at around 65%. Similarly, counties with residents in higher income brackets have more access to broadband internet. Not only is access easier to obtain for urban and higher-income Americans, but they also have access to better-quality internet. In many rural areas, broadband access is either limited to spotty satellite coverage or monopolized by a single company that has no market-driven motivation to improve service. Subscription costs are high even for lackluster speeds. Economically disadvantaged and rural prospective librarians must conquer infrastructure problems, over which they have no control, while completing the same level of work as their peers. I have struggled with internet connectivity at home for years, with no available remedy. When working on a big project, I have been known to drive somewhere that offers a higher speed and submit assignments from the parking lot. Often, this lack of connectivity is not taken into consideration by programs or professors who tend to assume that the situation where the school is located is the situation for all students. This solipsistic view seems to be common in the online schooling world. While I am learning a great deal in my online program, very little attention is paid to the differing circumstances of small versus large, rural versus urban, or government-run versus nonprofit libraries. If programs are open to teaching students from all geographic locations, they must also acknowledge that libraries come in many different sizes, shapes, and structures. Learning how to run a library with a staff of 100 and a budget in the multimillion-dollar range is not helpful when your real-life library may be struggling to fund 50 dollars worth of supplies for a childrens program. Flexibility, Asynchronicity, and Diversity The online learning platform offers advantages that were not available in my previous in-person programs. Flexibility, asynchronicity, and diversity are all very apparent and valued in online classes. For most adult students with a full-time job, synchronous programs are not a viable option. That scheduling situation is compounded for others who do not have a webcam or enough internet strength to video chat. Asynchronicity and flexibility in the timing of discussions, assignments, and projects is key for online success. Diversity is also more apparent in the online sphere because people from multiple walks of life, and not just the ones geographically closest to you, are represented. I have met people in every U.S. time zone, from the biggest cities to the smallest towns, in a variety of library roles from part-time page to library director, and of an array of genders, sexualities, races, and socioeconomic situations. While this diversity tends to go unacknowledged by professors, students seem to appreciate and recognize the different perspectives their peers bring to the table. Cost Despite their growing popularity, online degrees are still stigmatized by some professionals. In his now-famous 2005 article, James G. Neal included online degree holders in his explanation of feral professionals who were not socialized to the profession in residential programs. While this definition continues to offend readers and fails to consider that distance learners often must do so from a distance because they are already gaining valuable socialization in library jobs, it relates to another aspect of why people turn to online programs: cost. The cost of online M.L.I.S. programs varies tremendously. In creating a comparison, I looked at five popular programs in the U.S.: those from Valdosta State University, San Jose State University, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Kent State University, and the University of WisconsinMadison. Required credit hours range from 36 to 43, with cost per credit hour starting at $293 for Valdosta and ranging up to $850 for Wisconsin (with the 2020 increase taken into consideration where applicable). For the entire degree, online students in these programs could pay anywhere from $13,767 to $33,150. Some programs offer in-state tuition to online students, which is a huge bonus, while others require different cost figures based on geographic location. As an adult student, decisions about which program to attend are not as simple as which school has the best instructors or cutting-edge technologies. Sometimes, it just comes down to what we can afford. The following table shows the (in some cases, approximate) cost for each of the five schools based on spring 2020 semester figures (*except Wisconsin, which is based on fall 2020) and either universal (Valdosta, San Jose, Wisconsin) or out-of-state tuition (Clarion, Kent State). Sources: Valdosta State University San Jose State University Clarion University of Pennsylvania Kent State University University of WisconsinMadison Quality of Instruction and COVID-19 The quality of instruction in online classes is more noticeable now than ever before given that remote learning during COVID-19 is becoming the norm. That is not to say that all online teaching is bad and all in-person teaching is good; certainly not. But there are some things that students of all ages miss out on when conversing from afar. It is much easier to have absentee professorship when the class is running itself on Blackboard or D2L. I have had the same experience in online classes regardless of whether Ive met the professor in person: very little personal interaction. Discussion boards have students bouncing ideas off of one another and giving pleasantries to meet deadlines, while professors get a weekly automated report of how many quantitative posts and comments were written. Some professors are reading the content, but they rarely interact with students regularly. COVID-19 threw a monkey wrench into the spring 2020 semester for all students, although the loudest opinions were from formerly in-person students. While in-person instructors and students had to scramble to adopt an online platformwith variable levels of successothers were already fully online. Those who were already giving or receiving online instruction did not account for the impact the pandemic would have on learning. Adult students who work in libraries while going to school were (and are) dealing with having to manage the wholly new challenges and stressors of life in a pandemic while completing schoolwork and pretending nothing was wrong. After talking to online students across different M.L.I.S. schools, the theme emerged that assignment deadlines were not extended, the burden of modifying requirements was put on students, and administrators talked about understanding and empathy but rarely put those thoughts into action. There will be a lot of undeserved back-patting after we come out on the other side of COVID-19. Some professors and administrators stepped up to the plate to guide, teach, and help students through this difficult period and should be lauded for it. Just as many others think they are in that group and are actually far from it. The question is whether frank conversations will take place that will allow us to be better prepared for the next time we are confronted with unprecedented circumstances. The first step is admitting that we could have done better this time. Library Experience It has always baffled me how society makes teenagers choose what they want to do for the rest of their lives before they have really done anything at all. The same principle applies to libraries. How can you know that you want to work in a library and invest years and thousands of dollars into a specific professional degree when you have never actually worked in one? Library experience (paid or volunteer) should be a requirement for entering an M.L.I.S. program. In a recent article about M.L.I.S. programs, a former student wrote that they had no idea how much customer service was included in public librarianship. The core of public librarianship is customer service. The absolute center of everything we do, be it collections, reference, readers advisory, egovernment, programming, or anything else, is customer service. Having a foundational experience in what libraries are like is essential to taking the knowledge from school and applying it to real life. Not everything is directly transferable. Online school can never teach you how to handle a co-worker dispute or calm an angry patron. It can give you the skills to approach the situation, but the real education is the experience. Library experience should be more valued by M.L.I.S. programs. The perspectives of people who already work with patrons and budgets and stakeholders could be an amazing learning resource if tapped into correctly. Friendships and Networking One part of graduate work that online programs of all types struggle to re-create is the bonds that are forged between students. Graduate work is arduous and challenging on its own. When students do not have anyone to commiserate with, complain to, or discuss assignments with, those challenges can create anxiety and loneliness. Misery not only loves company; it needs company to stay sane. Creating friendships via school is how most human beings find their groups. From elementary to middle and high school, then college and the workplace, groups of people with shared experiences are natural breeding grounds for friendship. When those places do not include personal discussions or face-to-face contact, potential friendships struggle to blossom. Online programs need to specifically focus energy on bonding their students, and not just through group projects (which present their own difficulties for people in different time zones, with different work schedules, and who are part of different family structures). Having a system of mentorship with advanced and new students would help cement early bonds. Schools could have incoming students take a quiz about their hobbies or interests and then place them into first-semester groups that encourage low-pressure, private conversations that will build trust and understanding. Thankfully, in my first semester, a group of four women and I commented on each others discussion boards consistently, and we actively started supporting one anothers work. One of the women friended the others on Facebook, and our group chat has been a lifeline throughout the program. Although we now take different classes, the support of having someone else who intimately understands what you are going through is priceless. Formal education is important, but knowing, trusting, and growing with the people around you are the invisible pieces of the librarianship puzzle. The Future Like any domain of higher education, there are many things that are right and just as many that could be better. Library professionals rely on M.L.I.S. programs to prepare us for both the present and the future of library service. Keeping up with technological advances, changes in information science, political shuffles, and current scholarship helps keep the lifeblood of libraries strong. M.L.I.S. programs are beginning to offer courses that are prescient to modern needs. Grant writing, community building, diverse collections, teen services, archival best practices, digital libraries, user experience, copyright, and other boundary-pushing, knowledge-expanding courses are being offered that better prepare professionals for real-life challenges. Libraries will always be relevant, regardless of whatever think piece captivates momentary attention. The leaders of today and tomorrow need to be prepared for how to best serve their communities. Things are going to look different in a post-COVID-19 world. It is a reality that we cannot escape. Library service will changeand library professionals along with it. M.L.I.S. programs must be ready to mold library leaders for areas that are small, large, rural, urban, impoverished, wealthy, and everything in between. Online instruction is here to stay. The future of librarianship depends on it. Acknowledgements to Sarah, Genesis, Anna, and MJ for our conversations that informed a great deal of this article and for being the best support system that all library students deserve. Thank you. People around the world showed solidarity with US anti-racism protests but in the Arab world mixed reactions percolated On 1 June as protests against the death of an African-American man, George Floyd, at the hands of a police officer peaked in the US, a veteran American Middle East reporter posted on his Facebook page a photograph of a journalist working for the Arab media covering the street protests in Washington. It strikes me as the height of irony, wrote the US journalist on his page about a picture of Nadia Bilbassy, a correspondent for the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV channel in Washington, doing a piece to camera close to a protest in the city. Comments by a chorus of old colleagues and friends followed, mostly sharing the derision and urging the retired reporter to weigh in with his own thoughts and experience from covering the Arab world for decades. There was a hint of cynicism in the debate: while the TV correspondent was reporting on protests in Washington, Arab audiences at home do not have the privilege of watching anti-government demonstrations on their own streets. It was, however, typical bravado by American reporters who pretend they know all about the Middle East but are mostly and utterly lacking in context and probably also facts. The Arabs have become accustomed to orientalist bias, stereotyping, prejudice and even racial stigmatisation in the US media, but their struggle for justice and freedom has never been in question. Over recent months, protests have engulfed cities in Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon and Sudan, with millions of people pouring into the streets for months on end demanding change. Veteran political leaders fell in Sudan and Algeria, while prime ministers were forced to resign in Lebanon and Iraq. The dramatic protest movements revived memories of the 2011 Arab Spring, which swept away regimes in several Arab countries and ignited lengthy civil wars in others. Indeed, the New York Times reported last week that the US protests had brought to the minds of many Americans and people around the world a similarity with the 2011 Arab uprisings. The US Foreign Policy magazine said a central thread linked the unrest across the US with recent upheavals in the Middle East, being the basic demands of the protesters. Under the headline, Yes, Lafayette Square is Tahrir Square, the magazine wrote that recent uprisings in the Middle East do provide a useful lens through which to understand Americas present crisis. As protests over US police racism and racial inequality have spread to more than 140 American cities in the days since the death of Floyd, the Arab world has been watching the unrest in growing disbelief, even sometimes pushing aside news of the Covid-19 pandemic. Worldwide, thousands have defied pandemic-related bans on gatherings to pay homage to Floyd and to express their solidarity with the American protesters, highlighting inequalities worldwide and hoping that the US protests will be a catalyst for change at home. But while the response from Arab governments to the unprecedented street protests in the US has remained largely and understandably muted, there have been mixed reactions from the Arab public towards the unrest. In Iraq, where thousands have been protesting since last October against government corruption and mismanagement and have been demanding jobs and better services, many have spotted the parallels between the US protests and their own grievances. Across their country, Iraqis have showed their solidarity with those Americans fighting for justice, and some of the protesters still camping out in Baghdads Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the Iraqi uprising, have sent warnings and advice to demonstrators across the US. I think what the Americans are doing is brave, and they should be angry, but rioting is not the solution, Yassin Alaa, told the French news agency AFP. In Lebanon, demonstrators who defied the coronavirus lockdown this week to protest against poverty, corruption and the mismanagement that has shattered the countrys economy stood in solidarity with the US protesters. Floyds death at the hands of the US police has also sparked outpourings of sympathy and solidarity from many Arabs who have gone on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to voice their support for the protesters. Yet, for many other Arabs, the turmoil in the US has been an unwelcome reminder of an unruly period during the 2011 and 2019 uprisings that threatened their countries with instability and chaos. In Arab countries known not to be allies of street protesters, the media has been highlighting the chaos and violence of the US protests. Saudi columnist Mashari Al-Thaydi blamed the US unrest on a mix of violent mobs, anarchists, leftist groups and supporters of former US president Barack Obama. They are not after justice, but rather after ending the American era and destroying it, Al-Thayid wrote in Asharq Al-Awsat, a newspaper owned by the Saudi Royal Family. In Bahrain, a writer for Akhbar Al-Khaleej said the US should draw lessons from the protests and stop supporting human-rights activists and pro-democracy movements that he accused of carrying out agendas of sabotage. But whatever the reactions to the US protests, the turmoil has been shining a light on the situation in the US, a country which has had a profound and enduring impact on the Arab countries and the Middle East. For many Arabs, it was the US rediscovered through the lenses of the present crisis that they feel will affect US foreign policy in the Middle East where it has been the preeminent power for decades. Like in Europe, Japan, Australia and elsewhere, the images of the death of Floyd, the protests, the burning cars, police violence and the problem of racism in the US in general have touched strong emotions among many Arabs. For these Arabs, it has been particularly jarring to see such things in the United States, a country whose government and institutions exercise moral authority to advance democracy and human rights in the Arab world. The violence with which the protesters have been met in US cities has certainly undercut US efforts to project the country as promoting universal values or claims to be the worlds moral guardian. Comments such as the ones by the veteran US Middle East reporter and his friends have always been seen as typical orientalist imaginings of the Arabs, but they also reflect the sickening arrogance of those Americans who still cannot look at themselves in the mirror. They also ignore the fact that Western foreign policy and in particular that of the United States is to blame for the present state of affairs in the Middle East. But beyond reactions to the severity of the problems of racism and police violence in the US that the current situation reflects, the crisis is also likely to have serious impacts on the influence and the role the US has been playing in the Arab world. Even with the different approaches seen in the official and public reactions to the violence in US cities, the issue remains not about US moral authority as much as about the countrys projected role as a global power in the post-protest era. At a time when the US is suffering from real political and economic problems that are the outcome of deep inefficiencies, the problem today is that the US political system seems to have lost a lot of the credibility needed to be able to fix the damage caused by the crisis. The USs place in the world will certainly decline because of this civil conflict, but nowhere will its role and influence be brought more into question both by its critics and its allies than in the Arab world. The political turmoil triggered by the protests, coupled with the Covid-19 crisis, may influence the results of the 2020 presidential elections, especially if there is a major swing against the way US President Donald Trump has handled the situation. A Democratic administration under candidate Joe Biden is expected to redraft US policies in the Middle East, which could bring about changes and shifts in power that may reshape the regional environment. Apart from solidarity with the protesters, or the lack of it, this fear of uncertainty probably underlines the Arabs response to the US crises more than the protests themselves. *A version of this article appears in print in the 11 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-08 21:38:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Members of a medical expert team sent by the Chinese government pose for a photo with delegates at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 8, 2020. A medical expert team sent by the Chinese government arrived here on Monday to support Bangladesh's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. (Xinhua/Liu Chuntao) DHAKA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A medical expert team sent by the Chinese government arrived here on Monday to support Bangladesh's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen welcomed the team at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Monday afternoon. Chinese Ambassador Li Jiming, among others, was also present at the airport. The 10-member team, organized by China's National Health Commission, consists of experts from Hainan, the southernmost island province of China. The Chinese medical experts will provide consultations of pandemic control, patients treatment and laboratory tests, and guide and train Bangladeshi medical professionals. The Chinese team will stay in Bangladesh for two weeks, Foreign Minister Momen said in a media briefing at the airport. He thanked the Chinese team for coming to Bangladesh to bolster the country's efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. "Our medical professionals will also be encouraged by them," he added. He expressed hope that the relations between Bangladesh and China will be further deepened for mutual benefits. In his speech, Ambassador Li said a pandemic such as COVID-19 shows that in today's world no country could stand alone in a global crisis, adding that all must work together to address the challenges. Mutual understanding and support between China and Bangladesh since the onset of the pandemic has shown the pragmatic cooperation of the two countries, he said. As a pair of true and time-honored friends, China and Bangladesh have been standing in strong solidarity in the fight against COVID-19, he said. Starting from February, China has provided Bangladesh with over 3 million surgical and N-95 masks, over 110,000 sets of personal protective equipment, and a large number of test kits, thermometers, ventilators, and sanitizers, to meet the most urgent needs of Bangladesh to contain COVID-19, he said. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased to 68,504 in Bangladesh on Monday, with the daily rise of 2,735 cases reported in the last 24 hours. Enditem The TMC reacted sharply to Mr Shah, saying that he peddled lies and that the saffron party was hungry for votes Kolkata: Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched the Bharatiya Janata Partys campaign for West Bengal Assembly elections by criticising chief minister Mamata Banerjee for opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act and for her alleged apathy towards guest workers. Warning the Trinamul Congress supremo that her fierce opposition to the CAA will render her a political refugee in her home turf and cost her the next Assembly election, Mr Shah, in his address to the BJP cadre during a virtual rally for West Bengal, said, When the CAA was passed, I saw Mamatajis face which turned red, burning in fury I have not seen anyone so furious. She opposed the CAA in Parliament and outside, taking out rallies. I want to ask her: What harm did the Matua community do to you? What problem did the Bengali brothers, who came here from Bangladesh, cause to you? Why are you opposing them to get their identity and honour? The people of Bengal want to know She needs to clarify her stand with reasons. Mamata Didi, when the ballot boxes will be opened, you will find people of Bengal making you a political refugee. Opposition to the CAA will cost you heavily. Tearing into Ms Banerjee for her comment on Shramik Special trains, Mr Shah said, I was surprised to see Mamataji labelling these trains, which were ferrying guest workers to their homes so that they could live with their families, as Corona Express Mamata Didi, the way you have insulted the guest workers by naming these trains Corona Express, this train will be your gateway to exit. It will become an express train to take Trinamul out of Bengal. The TMC reacted sharply to Mr Shah, saying that he peddled lies and that the saffron party was hungry for votes even as the state was battling the double whammy of Covid-19 and devastation caused by Cyclone Amphan. TMCs Rajya Sabha MP Derek OBrien said that it was due to lack of planning on the part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah that the country was witnessing the migrant labour crisis. He also asked if the money collected in the PM-CARES fund would be used for funding the BJPs election campaign. Convocation of the Extraordinary General Meeting of LITGRID AB shareholders Extraordinary General meeting of LITGRID AB shareholders is summoned on 30 June 2020, 10:00 at (company code 302564383, registered at Virsuliskiu skg. 99B, Vilnius). The meeting will be held at room 229, at Virsuliskiu skg. 99B, Vilnius. Beginning of shareholders' registration: 30 June 2020, 9:30. End of shareholders' registration: 30 June 2020, 9:55. Taking into account the probability that the quarantine announced in the territory of the Republic of Lithuania by Government Resolution No. 207 of 14 March 2020 may be extended to the Meeting Day, the management of the Company strongly urges the Company's shareholders to vote on the agenda items in writing, by filling voting ballot. More information on shareholders' rights and obligations is provided below in this announcement. The record date of the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders has been set for 23 June 2020. The right of participation and voting in the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders can be exercised only by the persons who remain shareholders of LITGRID AB by the end of the record date of the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders. Agenda and proposed draft resolutions of the general meeting of shareholders: Regarding approval of LITGRID AB Boards decision No. 2 of 5 June 2020 (minutes No. 10) Proposed resolution: 1. To approve the agreement on the sale of all shares of UAB Duomenu logistikos centras owned by LITGRID AB (2,831,942 units - 20.36 per cent of all shares) with the following essential conditions: Parties of the Agreement Subject of the Agreement Sale and purchase of 400 000 units, 0,29 Eur nominal value shares of UAB Duomenu logistikos centras (100 percent of shares) (legal entity code 302527488, address: Juozapaviciaus g. 13, Vilnius) Price of the Agreement EUR 10 101 025 (The price is distributed to the sellers in proportion to the number of shares held. EUR 2 056 568,69 is the price received by LITGRID AB). Arrangement concerning payments and transfer of ownership The shareholders can get familiar with the documents related to the agenda of the meeting, draft decisions and general ballot paper on business days in the premises of LITGRID AB, at Virsuliskiu skg. 99B, Vilnius, room 202, during the office hours of the company (from 7.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. and from 12.15 p.m. to 4.30 p.m., on Fridays from 7.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. and from 12.15 p.m. to 3.15 p.m.). These documents and other information that should be published in accordance with the laws relating to the shareholders right to propose to supplement the agenda of the meeting, propose draft decisions with respect to the items of the agenda and the shareholders right to submit questions in advance to the company with respect to the items of the agenda of the meeting shall also be placed on the companys website at http://www.litgrid.eu . Taking into account that on the date of this announcement quarantine is in force in the territory of the Republic of Lithuania (and there is no possibility to predict or extend its validity) - we invite shareholders of the Company to give priority to familiarization with the information provided in the Companies website section For Investors. Story continues If a shareholder holding voting rights or a proxy duly authorized thereby makes a request in writing, the Company shall draw and send by registered mail, not later than within 10 days prior to the general meeting of shareholders, the general ballot paper or shall serve it on the shareholder personally against acknowledgement of receipt. The general ballot paper is also available on the Companys website at http://www.litgrid.eu. A general ballot paper completed and signed, and a document attesting the voting right may be sent to the Company by registered mail or delivered to the Company at its address at A. Virsuliskiu skg. 99B, Vilnius, until the close of business day (4.30 p.m.) of June 29, 2020. The Company shall have the right to refuse to include the advance voting of the shareholder or a proxy thereof if the general ballot paper submitted does not comply with the requirements laid down in Article 30(3) and 30(4) of the Law on Companies of the Republic of Lithuania, if it has been provided late or has been filled out in a way that makes it impossible to identify the actual will of the shareholder with respect to the questions at stake. A person taking part in the general meeting of shareholders and having the voting right shall present a document certifying his/her identity prior to the end of registration of shareholders to the general meeting of shareholders. A person who is not a shareholder shall, apart from a document certifying his/her identity, also present a document attesting his/her voting right. Persons may vote in a general meeting of shareholders by proxy. A proxy holder shall have the same rights in the general meeting of shareholders as a shareholder represented by him/her unless the proxy provides otherwise. A proxy issued abroad shall be translated into Lithuanian and shall be legalized in the procedure established by law. The Company shall not establish a special form of a proxy. The shareholders who have the right to take part in the general meeting of shareholders shall have the right to authorize, by electronic communication means, a natural person or a legal entity to take part and vote in their name in the general meeting of shareholders. This proxy shall not be certified by a notary. The Company shall acknowledge the proxy issued by electronic means of communication only in case where the shareholder signs it using electronic signature created using secure signature software and approved by the appropriate certificate valid in the Republic of Lithuania, i.e. if the security of transmitted information is ensured and the shareholder can be identified. The shareholder is obliged to notify the Company in writing about the proxy issued by the means of electronic communication sending it by e-mail at info@litgrid.eu until the close of business day (4.30 p.m.) of June 29, 2020. No electronic communication means will be used for participation and voting in the general meeting of shareholders. Annexes: General ballot paper. The individual authorized by LITGRID AB to provide additional information: Jurga Eivaite Project manager Communication Division Phone: +370 613 19977 e-mail: jurga.eivaite@litgrid.eu Attachment Chemists have long sought to understand the origins of life, with one popular model suggesting life began when simple RNA molecules capable of copying themselves formed spontaneously in the primitive environment. How this happened exactly is fraught with difficulties. New research by a team of chemists led by Ruiqin Yi of the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Tokyo Institute of Technology and Albert Fahrenbach, a lecturer at the University of New South Wales, suggests that mixtures of simple organic compounds in water exposed to high energy radiation react to form a variety of more complex organic compounds that could help make RNA. Researchers from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Tokyo Tech and the University of Arizona also assisted in the work. To conduct this work, the team took a mixture of very simple small molecules, common table salt, ammonia, phosphate and hydrogen cyanide, and exposed them to a high energy gamma radiation source at Tokyo Tech. These conditions simulate environments irradiated by naturally occurring radioactive minerals, which were likely much more prevalent on early Earth. They also allowed their reactions to intermittently dry down, simulating evaporation in shallow puddles and beaches. Their reactions surprisingly made a variety of compounds which might have been important for the origins of life, including precursors for amino acids and other small compounds known to be useful for making RNA. They showed that this set of conditions creates what they call a 'continuous reaction network', in which a wide variety of compounds are constantly being formed and destroyed, and these react with each other to form new compounds. These continuous reaction networks make up a complex set of reactions, and because of the way they occur, they can make a whole set of important compounds at once. The team thinks this makes their study especially insightful, as prebiotic chemistry on the primitive Earth could not have been as selective and goal-directed as modern organic chemists working in the lab, who can add chemicals at precisely the right time and purify the exact compounds they want to make. The team thinks models of this type can help explain what sorts of environments are most amenable to making RNA in primitive planetary settings. Indeed, since the surfaces of rocky planets are so variable (think cool mountain streams, bubbling hot springs and sunny beaches), there are many places where such chemistry might happen, only under slightly different conditions. These studies in turn could help other scientists identify the best areas to look for life beyond Earth. As lead author Ruiqin Yi says, 'While we haven't yet made RNA, this work raises new questions. Can we tweak these reactions to make all of the necessary building blocks for RNA from such mixtures in a continuous fashion? Can we generate other useful compounds such as more complex amino acids in this "messy" chemistry from complex chemical reaction networks?' Men have evolved to be taller than women because oestrogen, the primary female sex hormone that also governs bone growth, peaks earlier in females, a study claims. High levels of oestrogen released by the ovaries during puberty cause young women to experience a growth spurt that usually peaks in their early teens. However, oestrogen levels are lower in boys and peak several years later on average, allowing their bones to continue growing for longer, so they end up taller. British naturalist Charles Darwin suggested in his 1871 book The Descent of Man that sexual selection was the main reason for the general differences in size between males and females. The success of the strongest men in the 'struggle for life' and competition for a mate meant the tall and sturdy male gene was passed down, he wrote. However, the different hormonal output of ovaries and testes affects bone structure and can more accurately account for the physical differences, an American anthropologist argues. Human bone growth depends on estrogen, the new research paper argues, and greater estrogen produced by ovaries causes bones in female bodies to fuse before males Theres a lot of importance put on our differences in body size, as if thats the keystone fundamental sex difference, Holly Dunsworth, a biological anthropologist at the University of Rhode Island, told Quanta Magazine. This is what people think is fact, and if you dont agree, they think youre denying science. The burden of proof for sexual selection is so much greater than people realise. Evolutionary explanations for skeletal sex differences focus too narrowly on big competitive men and broad birthing women, she said, which also fits with popular conceptions of how men generally differ from women. But the competition in males could be a consequence of difference in bone size caused by oestrogen, rather than a cause, she claims. While human height varies globally, all human populations exhibit the same pattern where mean adult male height is greater than mean adult female height. Stature of boys (left) and girls (right) as time progress. The X axis shows ages and the y axis height in inches and cm. The female growth curve flattens sooner in girls, this sample of American adolescents shows Taking a US sample of adolescents, after nearly the same growth trajectory from two years of age, both males and females were shown to be roughly 62 inches tall at 13 years. But after that, the female growth curve flattens to reach the average final height of about 64 inches, less than the male average of 70 inches. While children of both sexes initially grow at the same rate before puberty, ovaries ramp up oestrogen production during puberty, which stimulates bone growth plates. Growth plates are the areas of new bone growth in adolescents and their growth adds length and width to the bone. Human babies are born with unfused and more flexible bones to allow for continued growth and the ability to squeeze out of the mothers birth canal. Unfused bones also serve to reduce injury when a baby has an accident. The fact that ovaries ramp up oestrogen production and stimulate the growth of bone plates can explain why teenage girls are generally taller than boys of the same age. However, high levels of oestrogen also make bone growth plates fuse together, putting a halt to the growth spurt. The female pelvis (right) expands more than that of males (left) due to estrogen People with ovaries experience a peak in oestrogen soon after puberty, once their ovaries start to kick in and contribute to the monthly cycle, Dunsworth said. On the other hand, the bones of people with testes continue to grow for several years until their oestrogen peaks, so they end up taller. Men produce oestrogen in the testes and the adrenal glands, although at lower levels than women. The female pelvis also expands more than males' due to two hormones oestrogen, responsible for the regulation of the female reproductive system, and relaxin, produced and employed by the tissues of the pelvic region released from the placenta during pregnancy. During bone development, a female pelvis expands more than that of males due to oestrogen and relaxin produced and employed by the tissues of the pelvic region. Fetal pelves, between seven months and birth, display sex differences that already hint at those in adults, Dunsworth said. And around the transition to adulthood, the female pelvis tends to fuse earlier than those of males at all sites, mirroring general sex differences in bone fusion. And the fact that these differences exist ones that cant be explained by sexual selection show Darwin may have been wrong in his 1871 classic The Descent of Man. Charles Darwin (pictured) said 'mans savagery' and the success of the strongest men in their contests for wives can account for the general differences in height between the sexes Darwin said: There can be little doubt that the greater size and strength of man, in comparison with woman, together with his broader shoulders, more developed muscles, rugged outline of body, his greater courage and pugnacity have been preserved or even augmented during the long ages of mans savagery. Sexual selection likely has contributed to height differences between the sexes, but other possible explanations need to be explored, Dunsworth stressed. We often have this notion that male bodies are the default and womens bodies are a deviation from that default. If we dont start with one body as the default, we look at how these processes lead to sex differences, then you can start testing hypotheses much better. Her research paper has been published in Evolutionary Anthropology. (JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.) On Tuesday, Missouri governor Mike Parson ordered all US and Missouri flags to be flown at half-staff at governments in DeKalb County on Wednesday, June 10 in honor of DeKalb County Sheriff Andy Clark. Sheriff Clark was killed in a motor vehicle crash on Wednesday, June 3 while carrying out his duties and responding to assist a deputy on an emergency call/ Sheriff Clark devoted more than 23 years of his life as a law enforcement officer committed to protecting his fellow citizens and making his community stronger, Governor Mike Parson said. He served Missouri with heart and grit, and his final act of public service was responding to assist one of his deputy sheriffs at an emergency scene. Sheriff Clarks career is an example of public service of the highest order. The flags will be held at half-staff on the day Sheriff Clark is laid to rest. UK theatres will need government help if they are to survive the coronavirus pandemic, actor David Tennant has warned (Isabel Infantes/PA) UK theatres will need government help if they are to survive the coronavirus pandemic, actor David Tennant has warned. Venues across the country closed in March as a national lockdown was imposed in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus. Some prominent industry figures, including playwright James Graham, fear it may take a year for theatres to reopen their doors. Expand Close David Tennant has warned theatres will need government help to survive the coronavirus pandemic (Kirsty OConnor/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp David Tennant has warned theatres will need government help to survive the coronavirus pandemic (Kirsty OConnor/PA) Tennant said one of the biggest stumbling blocks was audience safety. In an interview with the Radio Times, he said: The audience is the bigger issue. Youre asking people to pay a lot of money to potentially have someone coughing into their packet of boiled sweets and infecting them. I dont know what the answer is yet. Its urgent, because the performing arts in this country dont exist with huge profit margins. Former Doctor Who star Tennant said some theatres were teetering, adding: Well need Government intervention until theatres can safely reopen, and audiences are happy to go back. The Nuffield theatre in Southampton has already gone bust. Sir Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning director, struck a more positive note during an appearance on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, expressing hope a solution could be found to support the countrys ailing theatre sector through the lockdown. Video of the Day Sir Sam said: I do feel theres a way through here. I feel very positive about it, I think one has to stay positive. I believe theres a way here and I feel that is a sense that has been listened to and over the next couple of weeks this might begin to have some purchase. Read the full interview with David Tennant in this weeks Radio Times. MIDDLETOWN The Common Council will consider a resolution Thursday on a proposal to create a permanent committee on anti-racism. The discussion began at the June 1 regular council meeting, according to Mayor Ben Florsheim. The deal for that was hatched over the past couple months, and came very quickly to a head ahead of the council meeting. The council will discuss the resolution at 5:30 p.m., ahead of the 7 p.m. budget vote. The council is reviewing funding for the initiative, consulting with Faith Jackson, director of the Middletown Equal Opportunity & Diversity Management department, about moving that project from the purview of the Human Relations Commission, Florsheim said. She was starting to get stretched more and more thinly across different projects, and brought the work to a really good place. It plateaued in terms of capacity, and theres still more to be done, Florsheim explained. Since September 2017, Human Relations Commission members have been taking the pulse of Middletown in terms of inclusion, equity, employment, equality and equity with a three-pronged approach: anti-racism training, focus groups and a series of community conversations. The city hired a consultant to study Middletowns racial climate, in addition to training with department heads and stakeholders, such as those from Liberty Bank, the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce, and black and brown community members, Jackson said. The National Conference for Community and Justice, based in Windsor, recently delivered a preliminary report, which will be reviewed for any changes. She expects to make a report to council members at the July meeting. The findings are based on focus groups, which included youths, as well as community dialogue sessions with between 60 and 70 people, labor and criminal justice system equity and housing segregation, and the need for affordable housing in other areas of town, not just in urban areas, Jackson said. People could own a home, and they can be paying a whole lot less than these $1,200, $1,400, $1,600 rents Im seeing walk into my office when they fall behind on rent, she added. They could be paying a mortgage of $900 or less. Residents also want to see changes to the Police Departments policies, so as to minimize bias when they make motor vehicle stops and arrests, as well as hold officers accountable when those regulations are violated. Many expressed frustration with being tokens when applying for jobs in city government, because those who move on to the interview process often arent hired, she added. The community also is concerned about disparate methods of punishment. In the largest cities, the difference between who is disciplined for infractions, the severity of the punishment, and educational tracking have resulted in more vigorous courses and opportunities being populated primarily by white students, Jackson explained. After the council reviews the report, according to Precious Price, director of the Middletown Racial Justice Project, There will be recommendations that need to have action that will need to be moving and moving quickly. Having the commission overseen by the mayors office gives a little bit more expediency to the process, Price said. A group of 750 citizens marched down Main Street May 30 and ended up at the police station. There, demonstrators took part in a conversation about race and policing with city officials and others. The task force will be overseen by staff in the mayors office so it can remain a priority for him and Chief of Staff Bobbye Peterson. The urgency of that really escalated in the past couple of weeks, Florsheim added. City officials also have been working with the racial justice coalition. There was a universal recognition of the need for there to be some action, said the mayor, who will make sure the task force will have a clear mission. Members will be charged with addressing other things, such as changes to policing, health equity, and housing and welfare policies. A lot of that will be picking up and running with things that have already been done, Florsheim said. The citys focus groups were formed in reaction to a rally that turned deadly in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017, when a man drove into a crowd, killing a woman and injuring 19 people. While watching the June 1 council meeting, Price checked in with friends in other cities who were being tear gassed and arrested. They feel the mayors in their towns werent as receptive to their concerns. Here in Middletown, we have a mayor that wants to take on this work, elevate this work, and let people of color lead this work, said Price, who admitted she was unhappy the council pushed off the decision until members received more information. It was really daunting to watch. I do think the council will make the right decision on Thursday, said Price, who intends to speak at the meeting. Thursday nights Zoom meeting will take place at 7 p.m. To watch the livestream, visit cityofmiddletown.com. The pre-meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Protesters demonstrate on June 2, 2020, during a Growing up in Dominican Republic, I heard a lot of comments that were racist, but I didn't realize it at the time. Things like "tienes que mejorar la raza" ("you have to improve the race," usually by marrying someone white), or "peinate ese pajon" ("brush that mop," referring to unruly hair), were everyday phrases I took very lightly and even laughed along with. I also heard "te vas a poner negra" ("you're going to turn Black") at the beach or pool after I'd been lying under the sun for a while, and I'm pretty sure I said it to family and friends too, como un relajo. Another popular one was "yo no quiero hacer monitos" when talking about future children, referring to someone not wanting to braid or twist their kid's hair - meaning that they'd prefer their daughters in particular to have straight hair. There was - and still is - an unspoken aversion to anything black in Dominican culture: hair, features, music, dance, and even fashion. This blanqueamiento, or whitening, comes from our colonial history. Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon, a sociology professor with a specialization in Latino studies, told HipLatina in an interview that Europeans in power understood they had to create structures to keep whiteness on top. They did that with everything from religion (centering it around a white, male god) to education, erasing our African and indigenous history. Related: Why All Latinx Have a Duty to Demand Justice and Support Black Lives Matter This sentiment has prevailed and evolved in Dominican culture, to the point where we equate Black with poor, uneducated, and often, criminal. It's like we learned about our African heritage in school but ignored it in real life as if it was a shameful secret we had to keep. The worst part is that during my childhood, it seemed as if everyone - including me - thought this was OK. It took a lot of learning and growing on my part to start breaking away from racism and harmful patterns. One of the first events that started changing my perception was meeting a new Black student at my school, which was predominantly white at that time. She was brilliant, kind, and loving, and it didn't take me long to realize I wanted to be like her. Story continues "It's like we learned about our African heritage in school but ignored it in real life, as if it was a shameful secret we had to keep." I started questioning a lot of the misconceptions I had grown up used to, and they became more uncomfortable to fathom. My college experience was more diverse, but it wasn't until I moved to New York City that I understood the racial charge of the everyday phrases I thought were funny. I'd explain Dominican slang or expressions to people I'd befriend, and they'd be so patient with me, understanding these comments were coming from an ignorant place, and my new friends would explain why these expressions weren't appropriate. I began listening, opening my eyes, and understanding, but I was also learning to speak up, especially within the circles where I was the most comfortable. Luckily for me, my siblings were also going through their own awakening, and when we all got together as a family, we were comfortable enough to point out problematic behavior among our relatives and explain why it wasn't OK. Our parents raised us to be loving and accepting human beings capable of thinking critically and objectively, and they are this way themselves too. But they sometimes fall victim to their environment, which is why a lot of conversations regarding race and misconceptions have taken place in our house. Now, given the current events in this country, these conversations are also happening in a lot of Latinx homes. While I can only speak from my experience as a Dominican, I've heard so many Latinx friends share how racism looks in their countries, so I know this is a widespread problem across our community as well. Related: If You Can't Attend a Protest, Here's How to Help in the Fight Against Racial Injustice It is our responsibility to educate our parents, tias y tios, abuelos and abuelas, and any other person in our environment who still doesn't get why these behaviors and attitudes are an issue. We can start by calling out the racially charged comments that they think are harmless. Let's not bite our tongues and ignore them. Explain why we should eliminate them from our vocabulary. We should read about and highlight all the contributions Black Latinx have made to our culture, like Jose Celso Barbosa, one of the first Puerto Ricans and persons of African descent to receive a medical degree in the US; Gwen Ifill, who championed diversity in journalism; Felipe Luciano, who founded the Young Lords New York Branch, an activist group focused on the liberation of oppressed communities; and historian Arturo Schomburg, who raised awareness for the African Diaspora. We also need to bring visibility to the Black Latinx doing the work now, whether that is by promoting their businesses on social media and becoming their clients, by talking about them and recommending their services, or by supporting their causes, attending their events, and showing up for them. However, the support shouldn't end there. It is imperative that we contribute to organizations and encourage activists that fight anti-Blackness, as well as back up policy changes that could help combat structural racism in policing. Let's remember that fighting against that internalized anti-Blackness is an ongoing process. We're never done learning and we should never stop questioning our assumptions. A 35-year-old man, Oluwafemi Kehinde, was on Tuesday arraigned in an Ota Magistrates Court in Ogun, for allegedly raping a physically challenged girl (name withheld). Mr Kehinde is facing a count charge of raping. The prosecutor, E.O. Adaraloye, told the court that the defendant committed the offence at his residence at about 10.30 p.m. on February 12. Mr Adaraloye, an inspector, said the defendant had unlawful carnal knowledge of the complainant, by using his manhood to caress her private part, knowing fully well that she is a physically challenged person. He said that the offence contravened Section 360 of the Criminal Code Vol.1, 2006. The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge. The magistrate, A.O. Adeyemi, granted the him bail in the sum of N50,000 with two sureties in like sum. Mrs Adeyemi also ordered that the sureties must reside within the courts jurisdiction and be gainfully employed with evidence of tax payment to Ogun Government. She adjourned the case until June 19 for trial. (NAN) 11-year-old Isaac Gardner Jr. speaks about injustice near the criminal Justice Center during the Defenders March, Monday, June 8, 2020 Read more A few hundred demonstrators took to city streets for a 10th day on Monday, with Philadelphia public defenders and other supporters walking as part of coordinated marches by public defenders nationwide. It was the first day since May 30 that massive, tireless protests did not overtake the streets, and it became the second night in a row that Philadelphia did not impose a curfew. As Democrats in Harrisburg attempted to persuade their Republican counterparts to allow police reform legislation to move forward, Philadelphia City Council called on Mayor Jim Kenney to enact 15 specific changes in the citys police department. The protesters marching with the Defender Association of Philadelphia asked the city to invest in the Public Defenders Office instead of the Police Department, give public defenders overtime pay, end solitary confinement in juvenile detention, and end mass incarceration. This goes far beyond George Floyd, said Hassan Bennett, whose 2006 murder conviction was overturned in 2019 and who is now an advocate for the Defender Association. It goes to the systemic injustice thats grown in our country for over 400 years. READ MORE: Here's live coverage of what's happening June 9 As protests and pressure continue across the country in the wake of Floyds death, and a majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged to disband that citys police department and create a new system, Democrats in Congress introduced a bill aimed at national reform. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Joe Biden said the Democratic presidential candidate supports reforms but not defunding police. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, speaking at a Senate news conference to unveil the police reform legislation, said black Americans have a wildly different set of experiences with the police. We must change laws and systems of accountability, Booker said, saying the Democrats proposed legislation would create a national registry of police misconduct, to record and track abuses and make it easier to hold officers accountable for misconduct. Floyd, who was killed after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, will be laid to rest Tuesday in Houston, where the mayor has asked other cities to turn on light displays in his honor. Accordingly, Boathouse Row will be lit up in gold, Kenney announced Monday. A petition against militarized policing at the University of Pennsylvania, calling on the school to end what organizers called a campus police state, gained more than 10,000 signatures in the last week. The university disagreed with the petitions premise, and a spokesperson Monday said the school has one of the finest university police departments in the country. READ MORE: Pa. House Democrats block voting session to demand GOP take up police reform bills Fourteen of City Councils 17 members signed a letter, delivered to Kenney on Monday, calling for significant reforms to the Police Department, including fully resourced, independent police oversight and changing the police arbitration process. Philadelphia cant breathe, the letter began. In the poorest big city in America, during a global health pandemic and a massive economic crisis, the people of our city are telling us that police reform cannot wait. We must hear them and act decisively. The letter was signed by all Council members except Brian ONeill, David Oh, and Bobby Henon. A 2019 Inquirer investigation found the police arbitration process has enabled more than 100 Philadelphia cops who were disciplined or fired to have their sanctions reduced or overturned, allowing them to regain their jobs and ranks even after misconduct. The number-one thing would be making sure theres a process in which when bad cops who are held accountable are fired, they are actually fired, said Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, whose office drafted the letter. Johnson said the current arbitration system, which is governed by the citys contract with the police union, actually takes away the trust of the community, because they felt like that person should be held accountable for their actions. The letter called for 14 additional changes, including for community representatives and outside experts to have a seat at the table in contract negotiations between the city and police union, a system to track indicators of risk for police misconduct, specific guidelines for when officers are allowed to unholster or point firearms, and a prohibition of police sitting or kneeling on subjects neck, face, or head. Calling policing vitally important work, the Council members also repeated requests that Kenney drop the proposed $14 million increase to the police budget for next year and recalibrate budget priorities to fund rather than cut spending for public health, housing, social services, civic and arts programs, and other needs. READ MORE: Mayor Jim Kenney gave cops raises and shielded them from coronavirus layoffs. Protesters arent happy. Public defenders and supporters gathered at the National Constitution Center before peacefully marching past the Federal Detention Center, Police Headquarters, and other stops on the way to the Stout Center for Criminal Justice. Police walked and biked alongside. You are not alone, a few hundred chanted outside the prison, looking up at the windows as they held signs above their heads. They also called out demands for equitable funding for public defenders, chanting, We want equity. We have better solutions than the system has produced, said Chief Defender Keir Bradford-Grey after the group reached the Criminal Justice Center. What has it done for us? It has given us lifetime records so we cannot have equal opportunity.... Generational despair has been made because of this system. The group knelt outside the courthouse for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, joined by Bradford-Grey and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal. Afterward, an elementary school student spoke, still kneeling with his protest sign, his voice hoarse with emotion. Im 11 years old! Isaac Gardner Jr. yelled to a captivated crowd as tears streamed down his cheeks. I want to grow up to be as long as I can live, so I can die peacefully, not with a knee on my neck, not with a bullet in my back. Staff writers Valerie Russ, Oona Goodin-Smith, Jonathan Tamari, and Rob Tornoe contributed to this article. Businessman Appeals to the US: Protect Hong Kong Chinas national security law for Hong Kong has drawn worldwide attention. Hong Kong businessman Elmer Yuan expressed his concerns about the devastating impact of the new law and appealed to the United States for help. Yuan wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4. He pleaded for help and protection from the United States to return the sovereignty of Hong Kong back to Britain. He also proposed that Hong Kong citizens hold a referendum within six months so they can choose their own future. The following is Yuans letter to Pompeo. Dear Secretary Pompeo, On behalf of our freedom loving people, I thank you for standing with Hong Kong. The coming June 4th is the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacrea pivotal moment in Chinas hope for democracy. Your decision to stand up for Hong Kongs freedom shows your true dedication to human rights in todays watershed moment, with the heroes of Hong Kong. These heroes are the millions of ordinary Hongkongers marching for the future of their home. The nameless lawyers, volunteers, medical staff, journalists, and artists are doing their part to keep our voices alive. They are the youth who are daring to continue standing up for what they know in their heart to be right. But the fight for freedom has come at a great cost. These warriors are our children. In the last 12 months, too many have been arrested, tortured, raped, murdered and many allegedly shipped across the border to secret concentration camps, never to be heard of again. They have sacrificed their livelihood for a chance to preserve their city. According to Hong Kong Watch, 8,934 protestors aged between 11 and 84 years have been arrested since June 9, 2019. After them, who will be left to fight? How many of our young will have to sacrifice their futures for basic rights? They [Chinese regime] are erasing our language, our identity as Hong Kong people, our right to speak, our rule of law, and our children. We need the United States to stand up to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] now. Waiting for the national security law to be passed in late June is like waiting for another Holocaust to begin. The world has allowed China to commit mass atrocities against human lives under the pretense that one day they will stop. They will never stop until they control the world, including America. If it doesnt stop here now, it will be too late. We must learn from history that appeasement will NEVER work. The one country, two systems promised to Hong Kong in the Sino-British Joint Declaration has been obliterated. Now is the moment for our world leaders to not only stand up, but to fight. And in doing so, history will remember America as a nation that truly dared to be a voice for freedom. Here is what I ask: Since the PRC [Peoples Republic of China] has reneged on all its obligations in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong sovereignty should revert back to the UK. Please convince your ally UK to do the right thing this time, by transferring the sovereignty back to the people of Hong Kong, on the condition of a genuine referendum in six months, supervised by international and independent judges, to choose their own future. Hong Kong belongs to the Hong Kong people. Before the referendum, we need your troops to keep Hong Kong safe as West Berlin from the Communists never ending interference, infiltrations, cheating, and persecution of our youths. Your 85,000 U.S. citizens in Hong Kong also need your protection. Lastly, while you are working to make the South China Sea safe again, please include us in your battle plan. We are also in the South China Sea. Mr. Secretary, as an ally in the free world, please make Hong Kong safe again. Thank you. God Bless USA, God Save Hong Kong. Sincerely yours, Elmer Yuan It has always been a tough fight for a woman to be celebrated in a patriarchal world, and history is proof that women have time and again been questioned for their glory. Back in the day, women writers like Mary Anne Evans had to use George Eliot as her male pseudonym to combat gender bias and such examples go on to prove how women have managed to carve their own niche regardless of these perceptions attached to their gender. Even in Bollywood, we have time and again talked about the tales of men and their glory but times are changing as now, and we are celebrating women. From Piku to Queen, we are letting women speak their tales and we are focusing on stories narrated from their point of view. And now, Janhvi Kapoor is ready to tell us the untold story of Gunjan Saxena. Directed by Sharan Sharma, the film stars Janhvi in the titular role along with Pankaj Tripathi, Angad Bedi, Viineet Kumar, Manav Vij and Ayesha Raza. The movie was scheduled for a theatrical release but owing to the current conditions, the makers have opted for a digital release. A while ago Dharma Productions shared the first look and a short teaser of the film. In the teaser, they have shown Gunjans entire life very beautifully and Janhvi has lent her voice to it. After seeing the teaser and the first look, we are left with wanting for more. So, here are the five things that we are looking forward to seeing in the much-awaited biopic. 1. The Untold Story Of Gunjan Saxena An inspirational true story of a young girl and her dream. Gunjan Saxena - #TheKargilGirl, coming soon on Netflix. #GunjanSaxenaOnNetflix pic.twitter.com/fYw1gORIAT Dharma Productions (@DharmaMovies) June 9, 2020 So, the story is about celebrating one of the first women warriors of Kargil. These names were somewhere lost but shouldnt have been forgotten. She went all guns blazing in the war zone without fearing the consequences. This movie is about celebrating her bravery and reminding people that women were never less. She made history as she flew into a combat zone during the qar, a feat which had not been achieved by a lady officer in the IAF ever. She was also bestowed with the Shaurya Chakra for showing her courage. She made history. Yes, she did belong to the family of fighters and this somewhere gave her the strength to join IAF. Well, Gunjan didnt bother about her tiny Cheetah helicopter being unarmed and she entered the Pakistani territory without fear. Its time that we stand up for the forgotten names. 2. Janhvi Kapoor As Gunjan Saxena Dharma Productions We know that Janhvi Kapoor is just a film old and havent done anything considerable yet, but youth still follows her and wants to see whether she can pull off the role of Gunjan Saxena. People are already excited to see her as Gunjan Saxena and as her last film Dhadak was released in the year 2018, the audience is ready to see more of her. It is the perfect chance for her to make the audience go gaga over her and we are pretty sure that shed be able to pull that off. 3. Pankaj Tripathi As Gunjan Saxena's Father Dharma Productions Pankaj Tripathi is a brilliant actor and just his presence makes the film a delight to watch. Till now we have seen him in rugged and power-played dominant roles that have made us expect a particular type of performance from him. This time as he is playing the role of Gunjans father, we will get to see another side to Pankaj Tripathis acting. 4. Sharan Sharmas Bollywood Debut As A Director Sharan Sharma has assisted in films like Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani earlier and now with Gunjan Saxena biopic he will be making his Bollywood debut as a director and it is going to be full of surprises. 5. Angad Bedi and Vineet Kumar Singh Itll be interesting to see how these two men, Angad Bedi and Vineet Kumar Singh, will contribute to a film that celebrates the story of a woman. We have seen both nailing their roles in the film but from their past performances, we can expect a whole lot of brilliance from them. The film was initially set to release on February 20 but was postponed due to the Coronavirus outbreak and now will be released on Netflix soon. Deputy PM Minh spoke highly of Egypts pioneering role in Africa and the African Union as well as the initiative to hold the phone talks between the two - the first between him and a counterpart from an African nation. He affirmed that Vietnam is ready to share its experience in fighting COVID-19 with Egypt. Both sides expressed their satisfaction at the development of bilateral traditional friendship over the past years, particularly via the Vietnam visit by Egyptian President El-Sisi in September 2017 and the Egypt visit by President Tran Dai Quang in August 2018. Two-way trade neared US$500 million in 2019. They highlighted the priority to deepening the traditional friendship between the two nations. The two sides also agreed to continue effectively implementing signed agreements and enhancing exchanges to seek breakthrough solutions to stepping up bilateral ties, especially as the COVID-19 has been controlled. They proposed giving priority to the exchange of high-level visits, the promotion of trade, investment, education and tourism links towards achieving a two-way trade of US$1 billion as set by the two countries leaders. On regional and global issues of shared interest, Shourkyshared experience in addressing disputes regarding the sharing of water resources on the Nile River. They pledged to continue working closely together at international forums, especially the United Nations, contributing to peace, stability and development in the region and the world. SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Datrium , the leader in cloud-native disaster recovery with ransomware protection, today announced that The University of Auckland in New Zealand has selected Datrium DVX and Datrium DRaaS with VMware Cloud on AWS solutions to modernize its infrastructure by leveraging the cloud and unifying compute, storage, backup and disaster recovery (DR). Challenged with aging infrastructure and an expensive and complex data center environment, the University's infrastructure services team, supported by its Premier Partner, BEarena, an ASI Solutions company, chose Datrium for its cost-effective, easy-to-manage, VMware-centric solutions with built-in data resiliency and powerful DR capabilities. Datrium DRaaS with VMware Cloud on AWS offers flexible and scalable on-demand cloud DR with instant Recovery Time Objective (RTO), easy failover and failback without requiring VM conversions. As New Zealand's leading university, The University of Auckland manages two large-scale data centers that serve 40,000 students and over 5,000 staff with a core value of conserving, advancing and disseminating knowledge at a high standard through teaching, learning, research and creative work. As part of its digital transformation strategy, the infrastructure services team is embracing its agile operation model to deliver better outcomes to its users. "As part of our digital transformation efforts, we're modernizing critical infrastructure including our data centers to empower our IT team to work more efficiently," said Sanit Kumar, Infrastructure Services Portfolio Manager (ISPM) - Cloud, Network and Datacentre Services at The University of Auckland. "Datrium checked all our boxes. We were looking for a simplified solution that combines compute, storage, backup and disaster recovery, and aligns with VMware so we no longer require separate storage, VMware and backup teams. The power of Datrium's converged approach and on-demand disaster recovery to VMware Cloud on AWS and instant RTO capability also brings our team major cost savings." The University of Auckland was introduced to Datrium technology by BEarena, an ASI Solutions company. BEarena and ASI Solutions have applied their market-leading hyperconverged experience to Datrium technology to help their customers reduce cost, simplify management and move to a hybrid cloud model. "Rather than provide the University a like-for-like replacement, we scoured the market for the best solution to achieve their business objectives. Ultimately, Datrium helped the University collapse three infrastructure silos into a single cross-functional team that uses automated management so they can focus on strategic priorities," said Country Manager Lloyd Vickery. "Datrium has exceeded our expectations in every areablazing performance, dramatic total cost of ownership improvements, world-class support, consolidated managementand the list goes on. I couldn't be happier with Datrium and more proud that we are supporting The University of Auckland in continuing its achievements as a world-leading university." BEarena and ASI Solutions are the first Datrium DRaaS Select resellers to achieve the highest level of partnership in the region. As Datrium's first partner in ANZ and exclusive DRaaS Select partners and resellers, BEarena and ASI Solutions deliver significant cost savings, advanced operational intelligence, faster deployment times and simplified DR solutions to their customers. Lloyd Vickery is also the first Datrium DVX Certified Deployment professional in the world; achieving this distinction entails the completion of a rigorous curriculum and passing a certification test. BEarena and ASI Solutions customers benefit from working with highly skilled professionals in the deployment of Datrium to ensure they receive the fastest ROI and best customer experience. Nathan Lowe, Managing Director of ASI Solutions added, "ASI Solutions is extremely excited to be working with Datrium. An innovative company that is transforming data lifecycle management through a single powerful platform delivering speed, agility and efficiency, Datrium allows our customers to focus on strategic initiatives." Datrium DRaaS with VMware Cloud on AWS is a new approach to DR and offers a cloud-native design, built-in backup, instant RTO, continuous compliance and an on-demand pay-as-you-go model. Datrium DRaaS allows organizations to make the cloud their DR site at a fraction of the cost of a second data center. When combined with Datrium DVX software, organizations get the fastest recovery time and simplified data management capabilities. "Given the enormous rise in ransomware attacks and other disasters, a modern approach to DR is critical. However, it doesn't need to be an expensive, complicated and unreliable process," said Datrium CEO Tim Page. "With our on-demand cloud resources, The University of Auckland will be able to recover from a disaster quickly while keeping cloud costs low. We look forward to helping the University transition to cloud DR and supporting its on-premises infrastructure requirements." Join Datrium and The University of Auckland for a webinar on June 30, at 1pm PDT to learn more. About Datrium Datrium, the leader in cloud-native disaster recovery with ransomware protection, automates data protection against modern threats and enables enterprises to pay for DR when they need it. Datrium Disaster Recovery as a Service with VMware Cloud on AWS (DRaaS) is an easy-to-use SaaS solution that delivers the industry's first instant RTO cloud DR from backups on AWS S3 and protects all VMware workloads in the cloud and on-premises. Secure by design with always-on encryption, Datrium's DR with built-in cloud backup is transforming the DR market, empowering enterprises to create their own failproof, on-demand data centers in the public cloud where they only pay for recovery when disaster strikes or for testing. Until now, DR has been a complicated and brittle manual process that needs to interact with many disparate components in the data center. The advent of the cloud has made it possible for Datrium to convert this complex process into a simple-to-use, fully automated SaaS application that delivers 10x more cost-efficient DR. By converging primary, backup, disaster recovery, mobility and encryption into a single multicloud platform called Automatrix, Datrium maintains fast performance at any scale and enables frictionless data portability between public clouds and on-premises data centers. Data services are consistent across clouds and resource orchestration is automated so applications run at peak performance with increased system resilience and reduced data recovery windows. Liberated from managing data infrastructure, IT teams can drive more strategic initiatives for their businesses and application users can get back to productivity faster. Trusted by global enterprises including eMeter A Siemens Business, vPay and Stearns, Datrium is DR done right. Learn More Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Blog Media Contact Diana Brodskiy Bhava Communications for Datrium [email protected] 415-306-6199 SOURCE Datrium Related Links http://www.datrium.com (CNN) Outgoing Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza died after suffering a cardiac arrest on Monday, according to a statement posted on the official Burundi government Twitter account. "The government of the Republic of Burundi present their most sincere condolences to the Burundian people in general and to his afflicted family. Burundi has just lost a dignified son of the country, the President of the Republic, a Supreme Guide of National Patriotism," the statement said. "He was an example for all Burundians, of someone who loved and respected God, the government of the Republic of Burundi asks the Burundian people to stay calm and serene and to guide his Excellence the President of the Republic with many prayers." The government of Burundi has declared seven days of mourning and the country's flag will be flown at half-staff in memory of the late president, the statement read. Nkurunziza was 55 and had served as president of the central African country since 2005, including a controversial third term that critics said violated the country's constitution. Scores died in pre-election violence, as demonstrators rallying against Nkurunziza's candidacy were met with deadly force by police. Nkurunziza survived a failed coup attempt by an army general in 2015 while the President was in Tanzania. In March 2019, the UN Human Rights office in Burundi was forced to close following concerted pressure from Nkurunziza's government. He did not run for a fourth term in presidential elections held in May. Nkurunziza was replaced in the May 2020 elections by a candidate from his ruling party, Evariste Ndayishimiye, after announcing he would not seek another term. According to the ruling party, Ndayishimiye won the election with more than 68% of the vote. A 34-year-old housewife, Hauwau Sulaiman, a mother of 13, gave birth to quadruplets at the Gambo Sawaba General Hospital, Zaria, on Friday, on June 5. Mrs Sulaiman told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Zaria that she had now been blessed with 17 children, adding that the set of the new quadruplets she was recently delivered of was her eighth delivery. The mother and the babies were transferred to the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) for better care after she had been delivered of her latest pregnancy. Mrs Sulaiman, however, said that the only male among the quadruplets died before they arrived ABUTH. She said the remaining three infants had been placed under observation at the pediatrics care unit and she (the mother) had been receiving medical care at the maternity ward. She said that she received two bags of blood during the delivery processes. I am very healthy and strong but the medical experts advised that I need to be monitored very well before they can discharge me, she said. Her husband, Sulaiman Mohammed, also said that his wife had twice in the past given birth to a set of triplets; a set of twins two times, and given birth to three babies at different times before the quadruplets. Mr Mohammed, a driver, expressed gratitude to Allah for the wonderful gift of the babies. He added that it was his senior brother that was assisting him with the children whenever such needs arose. Similarly, his mother, Saudatu Haruna, said the birth of the quadruplets was not a surprise to them attributing it to inheritance, adding that she gave birth to a set of twins at three different occasions. Mrs Haruna added that her mother was a triplet and her father was a twin stressing that the quadruplets were not coming to the family as a surprise to her. Isa Abdulkadir, the leading Consultant in the Pediatrics unit at ABUTH, said the three babies were in good condition. (NAN) There were two published articles back in February 2018 that claimed 35 states allowed their police officers to rape women who were in custody. This report incited fear to the public and people are now asking if it is true or just a hoax. Where did the assumption come from? The articles about the legality of rape in 35 states came from a case of a teenager in New York who accused two police officers of handcuffing her in a police van and taking turns in raping her. While some people thought that the article stated that it is legal in 35 states for police officers to rape women who are detained, the article actually talked about how it is not illegal in 35 states for an off-duty police officer and a detainee to have consensual sex. The statement about the legality of rape in the police force in 35 states all started with the poor reading comprehension of a story that was published by BuzzFeed News on February 7, 2018. The report talked about the account of sexual assault of a teenager named Anna from Brooklyn, New York, and the article described the assault as a legal loophole. Buzzfeed released an article on the case because the site wanted to report that there are no laws in 35 states in America that defines the sex between police officers and detainees as non-consensual, it showed that if the officer is off-duty, then the sex is consensual. That means that a detainee might feel obligated to consent to sex just to avoid being detained or arrested, even if the charges are not true. Also Read: Teen Spent 10 Hours Cleaning Up After Protest, Rewarded a Mustang and Scholarship On February 10, 2018, an article from the site Feministing, explained the issue. It stated that a person in police custody can't give genuine consent because it is not free from coercion. Police officers have the power to arrest them, even on false charges, and that fear prevents them from saying no. The article also explained that if you are in the back of a police van, you are at their mercy. The police should not exploit their power to force themselves on vulnerable women, yet some still do so and they do not face any legal consequences. What is the truth? The article that BuzzFeed published created confusion because of the wording, the reality is it is not legal in all 50 states for police officers to rape women in custody. According to BuzzFeed, the two police officers who attacked Anna have been arrested. When Anna was detained, the cops made no arrest, issued no citation, and filed no paperwork. Hours after Anna's release, she and her mother went to the hospital where Anna told nurses that two detectives had sexually assaulted her. The hospital records matched her claims and the semen collected from her rape kit matched the DNA of 37-year-old detective Eddie Martins and 33-year-old Richard Hall from the Brooklyn South narcotics unit. Both have been removed from the force and they have been charged with rape. What is missing in BuzzFeed's article is that laws exist in 35 states that sex between a detainee and a police officer on-duty is non-consensual, the article pertained not to the laws "allowing" police officers to rape detainees but to the lack of laws in many states that defines sexual contact between an officer and a detainee as non-consensual. Related Article: 57 NY Cops Quit After Two Officers Suspended for Shoving 75-year-old Protester @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Singapore, June 8 (ANI): Air passenger demand globally will remain severely depressed in 2021 and will not see a substantial recovery before 2023, according to Moody's Investors Service. Health concerns, changes in corporate travel policies, potential restrictions on international arrivals and lower discretionary spending because of weaker GDP and higher unemployment will constrain air passenger demand into 2022, Moody's said in its credit outlook released on Monday. Demand in 2023 could approach that of 2019 but the uncertain timing of the coronavirus receding on a more permanent basis makes forecasting a challenge. Many airlines have improved liquidity but at the cost of rising debt burdens. Stronger and state-supported airlines have significantly improved liquidity since March. Rated airlines have sufficient liquidity to survive on average for about 450 days at current low activity levels. For weaker airlines, this may be insufficient if groundings persist into 2021. Moody's modelled two scenarios assuming a recovery by 2023 or later years. Most airlines will carry substantially more debt in 2023. Our faster and slower recovery cases assume 2023 passenger volumes recover to around 95 per cent and 85 per cent of 2019 levels respectively. The airlines Moody's rate will carry on average 20 to 30 per cent more debt in 2023 compared with 2019 with leverage on average 0.5x to 1.5x higher. Moody's downgraded 13 airlines since May 25 and confirmed six. It placed ratings for 22 airlines on review for downgrade in March. The sufficiency of liquidity and the potential for individual companies to retire the debt incurred to restore credit metrics through 2023 were key considerations in resolving the reviews. "The industry will undergo substantial permanent structural changes. Potential for failures of weaker airlines and government intervention to leave fewer, larger companies, polarised between more efficient operators and strategic state-supported airlines," said Moody's. Health screening and risks of denied boarding will affect travellers potentially beyond the pandemic. Corporate travel is likely to be impaired into 2023. Governments may require deeper carbon emissions reductions from airlines. There will be deep repercussions across related sectors, particularly commercial aerospace manufacturers and suppliers, airports, travel distributors and airline service companies. Providers of jet fuel and aircraft lessors will also be deeply affected. By contrast, carbon dioxide emissions will reduce by 750 million to 900 million tonnes over 2020-21, said Moody's. (ANI) Chron.com is following the latest headlines on the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Houston area. 2:30 p.m. Texas has seen a 36 percent increase in COVID-19-related hospitalizations since Memorial Day, the Houston Chronicle reported. A total of 2,056 hospitalizations were reported in Texas on Tuesday, marking the highest number since the pandemic broke out in March. In Harris County, hospital admissions have seen a "statistically significant increase" since the state loosened restrictions and lifted stay-at-home orders, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said during a previous press conference. The state still has ample hospital beds and ventilators. Abbott told KSAT viewers in San Antonio the state is still evaluating if the uptick can be contributed to Memorial Day and "now whether or not there could be an increase in the aftermath of these very large protests that have taken place." Read more on the new data on COVID-19-related hospitalizations on Houston Chronicle.com. 9 a.m. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner took to Twitter to dispute rumors that the days-long Black Lives Matter protests around the Greater Houston area demanding justice for George Floyd have led to the current uptick in novel coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. "Covid-19 positive cases have been increasing for the last two weeks as well as hospitalizations," Turner said in a Monday Twitter post. "This current rise cannot and should not be attributable to the mass protest and demonstrators." Texas reported the single-day largest increase of cases since the pandemic first started on Saturday. Hospitalizations in the Houston region have also begun to spike, about one month after Gov. Greg Abbott approved a multi-phased reopening plan and lifted stay-home, work-safe orders. Harris County public officials and health experts have said that the massive crowds of protesters - the downtown Houston march drew more than 60,000 people - could cause a spike in cases. But the effects of the protests may not be seen for weeks due to the incubation period the virus poses. As of Monday evening, COVID-19 cases in Texas increased by 1.58 percent, or 1,197 cases, for a total of 76,779 statewide, according to the Houston Chronicle's data team. An additional seven deaths were reported, bringing the state's death count up to 1,844. The Houston region's count increased by 2.07 percent, or 415 cases, for a total of 20,420. Four more deaths were reported, with the region's death count now at 394. Harris County saw a 2.28 percent increase, or 332 cases, and is now at 14,918 cases total. 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 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:54:37|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GUIYANG, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Restoring fossils in deep mountains requires a variety of techniques except for speaking skills -- the more silent you are, the louder you could hear a stone talk. In the eyes of Li Gang, a fossil restorer in a national geological park in southwest China's Guizhou Province, an easily-ignored piece of rock might be able to convey a story dating back 220 million years. The area was beneath the sea between 410 million and 350 million years ago. In 2006, fossils of marine reptiles and sea lilies with a history of 220 to 230 million years were unearthed in Guanling County. To better protect and preserve the fossils, the local government established the Guanling Fossil National Geopark, which collects and exhibits fossils of ancient marine creatures. In his office, Li carefully placed a plate-sized fossil of sea lily in a transparent container and used sophisticated equipment to remove dust from the fossil. "The sea lily is an animal -- a kind of echinoderm to be precise. But it looks like a plant, which is why it has a plant's name," said Li. As the surface dust cleared out, the fossil began to show more exquisite stripes and a clearer shape of sea lily bones. "The force used in fossil restoration really matters. It should help remove impurities, and also avoid damage," said Li. Li's life as a fossil restorer began 20 years ago after a chance encounter with a sea lily fossil. "I was instantly enchanted by its exquisite look as if it was telling me a mysterious past," he said. But at that time, due to lack of restoration knowledge and skills, fossil raiders often destroyed the fossils they stole. Given this, Li began advocating scientific restoration among local villagers. "Each and every piece of fossil is unique, which allows for no carelessness," he said. "The restoration of sea lily fossils requires extra care as their skins are as tender as those of humans." Initially, it took Li more than 10 days to restore a palm-sized sea lily fossil. However, as his techniques gradually improved, it now takes him just about an hour. Li also shares his findings with volunteers and apprentices without reservation. In 2018, he was nominated as an "outstanding contributor" by China Fossil Preservation Foundation for his devotion to fossil preservation and protection. The geopark has also held numerous activities to encourage visitors to try fossil restoration with experts, which is also an opportunity for them to learn about the history of sea lilies. In 2009, the geopark was designated as a teaching base for popularizing geological knowledge. Enditem Click here to read the full article. Monday ended with a second top editor resigning. This time, it was Bon Appetits editor in chief Adam Rapoport, who quit after the emergence of a photograph of him in brown face, plus allegations of a discriminatory workplace environment for people of color. Just hours after Refinery29s Christene Barberich announced she would be leaving the feminist lifestyle site she founded 15 years ago, Rapoport took to his Instagram to tell his near 200,000-strong following that he was stepping down from the popular Conde Nast brand to reflect on the work that he needs to do as a human being. The now-deleted photograph of him and his wife Simone Shubuck in brown face for Halloween was posted by the latter some years ago with the caption me and my papi, and it recirculated on social media Monday, sparking outrage among many staffers and readers. That included staffer Sohla El-Waylly, who said on her Instagram stories that she was disgusted by the photo and asked for his resignation. This is just a symptom of the systemic racism that runs rampant within the Conde Nast as a whole, she said. El-Waylly also alleged that only white editors are paid for the video appearances on the brands popular Youtube channel. Alex Lau added to Twitter that he left his position as a staff photographer for multiples reasons, but one of those was that white leadership refused to make changes that my BIPOC coworkers and I constantly pushed for. Others also posted their experiences and Molly Baz, a white senior food editor with a strong social media following, wrote that she would not appear in any Bon Appetit videos until her BIPOC colleagues receive equal pay and are fairly compensated for their appearances. As for the brown face photograph, Rapoport said in his Instagram post that it was an extremely ill-conceived Halloween constume 16 years ago. He also admitted that he had not championed an inclusive vision Bon Appetit. Story continues Ultimately, its been at the expense of Bon Appetit and its staff, as well as our readers. They all deserve better, he continued. The staff has been working hard to evolve the brand in a more positive, more diverse direction. I will do all I can to support that work, but I am not the one to lead that work. I am deeply sorry for my failings and to the position in which I put the editors of BA. Amid national protests over the police killings of George Floyd and other unarmed black people, as well as centuries of systemic racism in the U.S., some companies, including media organizations ranging from The New York Times to Paper magazine, have been taken to task for their own shortcomings. In addition to Barberich and Rapoport, The New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet resigned over his mishandling of the publication of the Tom Cotton op-ed, while The Philadelphia Inquirers top editor Stan Wischnowski also resigned over the recent front page headline: Buildings Matter, Too. Conde did not immediately respond to request for comment. For more, see: Christene Barberich to Step Down as Refinery29 Editor in Chief Refinery29 Called Out by Former Staffers for Toxic Culture James Bennet Resigns From The New York Times Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. SEATTLE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / Baristas Coffee Company/Munchie Magic is opening its twelfth new location since Washington State issued a statewide stay at home order on March 23rd, 2020. The newest of the rapidly expanding Munchie Magic virtual restaurants that delivers Ben & Jerry's ice cream and other snack foods through its third-party delivery partners Uber Eats, GrubHub, and DoorDash, serves the greater Seattle areas of Mountlake Terrace, Lake Forest Park, Brier, WA and surrounding areas. This marks the twelfth new location opened since the order took place. Munchie Magic has been designated as an essential business as it supports the supply of foods and other goods to the consumers who are staying at home. The new "Pick up Point" is near the 1-5 corridor the Mountlake area of South Seattle. Barry Henthorn CEO stated: "The new location is in the heart of Mountlake, WA and serves a dense residential area which is critical for the evening and late-night consumer as well as a strong commercial community that has been ordering during the lunchtime rush as well. We will continue to expand as we are constantly looking for the right partners and locations." Mountlake Terrace is a suburban city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It lies on the southern border of the county, adjacent to Shoreline and Lynnwood, and is 13 miles north of Seattle. The media buys and other cutting edge marketing for the Munchie Magic virtual restaurants designed to deliver Ben and Jerry's ice cream, Baristas Coffee products, and other munchies to homes and businesses throughout America are made possible and are being created via digital media frontrunner ReelTime Media (OTC PINK:RLTR) www.reeltime.com whose capabilities are redefining how companies are evaluating and purchasing their TV, radio, print, and other new digital media. About Ben & Jerry's: Ben & Jerry's is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. It was founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, and sold in 2000 to British-Dutch conglomerate Unilever. Today it operates globally as a fully owned subsidiary of Unilever. Its present-day headquarters is in South Burlington, Vermont, with its main factory in Waterbury, Vermont. Story continues About Baristas Coffee Company/ Munchie Magic: Baristas is a publicly-traded national Coffee Company that is recognized throughout the US. It is the majority shareholder of Munchie Magic, Inc. which manages the virtual restaurant which delivers Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Baristas Coffee, and other snack foods via third party delivery partners. Baristas currently produces and sells coffee related products under the Baristas brand. The Baristas White Coffee single-serve cups compatible with the Keurig 2.0 brewing system is the bestselling product in its category. Baristas also markets other coffee-related products. Baristas gained mainstream exposure when it became the subject of "Grounded in Seattle" the reality show special feature which aired on WE tv. It has been featured nationally including during Shark Tank on CNBC with Front Montgomery, CNN, ESPN, Food Network, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Forbes Magazine, Modern Living with Kathy Ireland, Sports Illustrated, NFL Monday and Thursday Night Football with Megs McLean, at NASCAR Races, The Grammys, NBA TV, and other notable media. CONTACT: Barry Henthorn barry@baristas.tv SOURCE: Baristas Coffee Company Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/593245/12th-Baristas-Munchie-Magic-Location-Delivering-Ben-Jerrys-and-Snacks-to-Customers-Homes-Opening-in-Mountlake-Terrace-WA-Since-COVID-19 BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend: Opening of Made in Uzbekistan Online business forum between entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan and organizations-exporters of Uzbekistan took place on 8 June 2020, Trend reports. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Sherzod Asadov; Ambassador of Uzbekistan in Azerbaijan Bahrom Ashrafkhanov; Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency of Azerbaijan (KOBIA) Rufat Atakishiyev; Director of Investment Promotion Department of the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation Zohrab Gadirov (AZPROMO); Chairman of Uzbek Textile Industry Association Ilhom Haydarov; Director of the Export Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Ulugbek Muradov; Deputy Director of the Agency for Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship Botir Ahmedov; and Head of the Department for Marketing of Uzbekozikovkatholding, Bahodir Yunusov participated in the opening of the event. The forum itself will be held June 9 - June 12. The business forum will be attended by 57 Uzbek producers of export-oriented products and over 60 entrepreneurs from Azerbaijan. During B2B business meetings Uzbek companies will present their products, while Azerbaijani companies will be able to find new opportunities for their business. "Uzbekistan sees Azerbaijan as an important strategic, trade and economic partner," Uzbek Deputy Foreign Minister Sherzod Asadov said. According to him, in 2019 bilateral trade turnover between the countries increased by 55 percent and exceeded $73 million. "Over the past three years, the trade turnover has more than tripled. Despite the current crisis in the world economy caused by the coronavirus pandemic, countries have managed to maintain positive dynamics in mutual trade. Thus, for the period from January to April 2020, the volume increased by 92 percent (compared to 2019) and made up more than $30 million," Asadov noted. Ambassador Bahrom Ashrafkhanov stressed that this online business forum helps ensure continuous dialogue between businessmen of the two countries. "Textile industry of Uzbekistan is one of the largest export-oriented sectors of the country's economy," Chairman of Uzbek Textile Industry Association Ilhom Haydarov said. "For Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan is a well-established partner. In 2019, export deliveries of textiles to Azerbaijan amounted to $11 million. For the period from January through May 2020, exports amounted to $4 million. Speaking about the structure of our export, 40 percent falls on carpets, 40 percent on finished knitted products. Today, we already work with Azerbaijan Supermarket LLC and a number of retailers in Azerbaijan. Also, Haydarov noted that in the future Uzbekistan is ready to share its successful experience in organizing of cotton textile clusters with Azerbaijan. According to Bahodir Yunusov, currently 11,000 enterprises are operating in the food industry of Uzbekistan, of which 1,800 operate on processing of fruit and vegetable products with a capacity of up to 4,000 tons per year. "The main nomenclature of Uzbekistan's exports to Azerbaijan is fresh and dried grapes, dried apricots, legumes and canned products," Yunusov said. "Also, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan are planning to open the Uzbek-Azerbaijani Trade House. It is also planned to open a joint venture for processing of pomegranate products in Uzbekistan. In order to achieve these goals, Uzbekozikovkatholding works in close cooperation with Azerbaijani Agromall company ". All participants noted that the business forum will serve as a tool to support business in the context of the pandemic for both countries. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini Holidaying in Bhutan? Make a pit-stop at the beautiful valley of Paro, and enjoy a refreshing break in the land of the unsullied. Paro is an ideal blend of history and stunning natural beauty, with just enough modern amenities thrown in. Here are 4 things to do in Paro that you must have on your to-do list! 1. Visit the Tigers Nest Monastery View this post on Instagram A post shared by Go Hikes Travel Community (@gohikes.adventures) on May 28, 2020 at 7:16am PDT Taktsang Monastery, popularly known as Tigers Nest Monastery, is a place you must visit when in Bhutan. They say your trip to this happy country is not complete until you've trekked to this most sacred pilgrim monastery. Legend has it that the Father of Bhutanese Buddhism, Guru Rinpoche, arrived here a million years ago on the back of a tigress and meditated at this place. Nestled atop a cliff, this monastery is the most frequented by visitors from all around the globe. The trek takes around two to three hours to complete, with a steep uphill climb. If you get tired, you can opt to go up by pony. Stop by at the cafe you find on the way to refresh yourself. Keep in mind that visitors require a special permit to enter the monastery, which needs to be procured in advance. 2. Try an Adventure Activity View this post on Instagram A post shared by Natucate (@natucate) on Dec 1, 2019 at 8:02am PST Looking to take part in adventure activities in Bhutan? Paro is the perfect place for you. Activities on offer range from trekking and mountain biking to rafting and kayaking. Embark on the famous Snowman Trek if you dare; the trek extends over 5,400 metres. Love mountain biking? There are trails aplenty here and this is an excellent way to explore ruins and monasteries that are inaccessible by foot. If you are curious about water sports, you can also try rafting and kayaking. 3. Unwind With Some Meditation View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mahua Deb (@yoga_dudette) on Jan 27, 2020 at 5:21am PST The serenity of Bhutan makes it the perfect place for meditation and yoga. If youre looking for some spiritual guidance and peace of mind, opt for a meditation workshop at one of the many monasteries around. You can also choose to soak in a thermal spring bath, or tshachu, for its medicinal properties. 4. Savour the Local Flavours View this post on Instagram A post shared by GolfessAAAAAA (@golfess) on Apr 15, 2017 at 9:52am PDT You cannot holiday in Bhutan and not have the staple ema datshi (a mix of red-hot chillies and yak cheese). This delicacy is also the national dish of Bhutan and a must-try. Chillies are a much-loved ingredient. Bhutanese cuisine largely comprises chicken, pork and beef. Try phaksha paa, a pork dish cooked with spicy red chillies and spinach. Another dish you must try is jasha maru (spicy minced chicken). Euclids Elements, first published in 300 BC, was one of the most important and influential textbooks ever written in the history of science and it laid the foundations of mathematics. It was one of the earliest mathematical works to be printed after the invention of the printing press, and by some estimates, it is second only to the Bible in the number of editions published since the first printing in 1482. By Queen Victorias time, The Elements had became a standard textbook in schools, and even today, Euclids mathematics is universally taught to all high school students. Elements was first translated into English from Greek in 1570, by Sir Henry Billingsley, an English merchant who later became the mayor of London. Billingsley was a mathematics graduate of Cambridge University and well versed in Greek. Instead of translating from the well-known Latin translation, Billingsley chose the Greek edition of Theon of Alexandria (ca. 390). Billingsleys translation was a magnum opus. He translated all the thirteen books of Euclid and added three additional books attributed to Euclid, along with notes from various ancient and modern commentators. The finished work was over a thousand pages. A unique feature of Billingsleys translation was the unique pop up modelsthree-dimensional fold-up diagramsthat he included throughout the book to illustrate geometric solids and different mathematical theorems. It was one of the first books to include such a feature. These pop-up models occur throughout Book XI on solid geometry and were hand-glued into each copy of the work. Photo: Special Collections: University of Aberdeen Flaps used to represent three-dimensional shapes. Photo: Special Collections: University of Aberdeen Although Billingsleys work was renowned for its clarity and accuracy, the author made the embarrassing mistake of confusing Euclide of Megara with Euclid of Alexandria. Thus his book is erroneously titled The Elements of Geometrie of the Most Ancient Philosopher Euclide of Megara. For many years a controversy raged as to who was the real author of this work. The 19th century British mathematician Augustus De Morgan suggested that the translation was solely the work of the Anglo-Welsh mathematician John Dee. The English antiquarian Anthony Wood asserted that the translation was largely the work of the priest David Whytehead, who spent his final years at Billingsley's house. It was only towards the end of the 19th century, when the original copy of Euclid used by Billingsley in his translation found its way to Princeton College, the numerous marginal notes and comments left no doubt who the major contributor to the disputed work was. Photo: University Libraries Photo: University Libraries Photo: Before Newton Photo: Before Newton References: # Mathematic Association of America, https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/mathematical-treasures-billingsley-euclid # Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Billingsley Baijal directed the Delhi government to ensure that treatment is not denied to any patient on grounds of not being a resident. NEW DELHI: Delhi lieutenant- governor (L-G) Anil Baijal on Monday overruled chief minister Arvind Kejriwals decision that only bonafide residents of the national capital will get treated for novel coronavirus in hospitals run by the AAP government in Delhi. Everyone will be treated in Delhi, Baijal said, stating in an order that treatment should not be denied to any patient on grounds of being a non-resident. In his capacity as the chairperson of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), Baijal directed the Delhi government to ensure that treatment is not denied to any patient on grounds of not being a resident. Reacting to the L-Gs order, Kejriwal tweeted, L-Gs order has created a huge problem and challenge for the people of Delhi. The final decision on providing treatment to outsiders in the Delhi-government-run hospitals rests with the L-G as he heads the DDMA, while the CM serves as his deputy on the committee. The DDMAs meeting on Monday, in which the decision was taken, was attended by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on behalf of Kejriwal. On Sunday, Kejriwal had announced that hospitals run by his government and private players will treat only Delhis registered residents during the pandemic. While addressing media, he had said that hospitals under the Centre would continue to operate as per the Central governments directions. His decision had attracted a lot of criticism. Baijals decision to overrule the chief minister is expected to bring relief to patients and their families who live in Delhi but are not its registered voters. Welcoming his decision, BJP MP Gautam Gambhir said, Excellent step by L-G to overrule Delhi Govts idiotic order of not treating patients from other states! India is ONE and we have to fight this pandemic together! Amid the rising COVID-19 cases in Delhi, with over 1,000 fresh ones emerging daily, Mr Sisodia said that a meeting of the DDMA will be held on Tuesday to discuss whether community spread is occurring in Delhi. A meeting of State Disaster Management Authority will be held tomorrow (Tuesday) on COVID-19 situation and to discuss whether there is community spread. If participant experts say there is community spread in Delhi, our strategy will change. Ill participate in meeting, Sisodia said. Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential. Winston Churchill You may well wonder just how AD managed this month to bring you extraordinary residences in London, Paris, Los Angeles, and New York in the midst of the global COVID-19 lockdown. In fact, all of these stories were photographed long before the infernal virus appeared; fortunately, team AD is famous for planning ahead. Simon Upton Thus, we are pleased to treat you to a visit to the longtime London home of British interior designer Kit Kemp. The cofounder, with her husband, Tim, of the delightful Firmdale Hotels is a serial renovator who has modified the house many times over the course of 20 years to constantly express the way we live now. Cerruti Draime There is a jaunt to a super-chic apartment in Paris designed by the very buzzy young Italian talent Fabrizio Casiraghi. This sophisticated yet playful space is sure to launch a million skirted yellow sofas into the blogosphere! And we journeyed to beautiful upstate New York to document an Adirondacks camp decorated to rustic-luxe perfection by the masterly Miles Redd, who accurately describes the rural waterfront fantasy as more Gstaad than Saranac Lake. Noe Dewitt Courtesy of The Lacquer Company Only one shoot was missing as our deadlines loomed and coronavirus quarantine wreaked havoc with our best-laid plans: the cover. But as fate and good luck would have it, our cover star, Hollywood hitmaker Ryan Murphy, is married to photographer David Miller, who gallantly stepped in to save the shoot even though he specializes in portraits rather than interiors. Ryan, meanwhile, wrote the accompanying text himself. Enjoy the welcome escape from reality. Stephen Kent Johnson AMY ASTLEY, Editor in Chief Instagram: @amyastley Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (28) FILE PHOTO: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) logo is seen before the FCC Net Neutrality hearing in Washington By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. units of China Telecom Corps <0728.HK> and China Unicom <0762.HK> urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not to revoke the company's nearly two-decade old authorization to provide international telecommunications services to and from the United States. China Telecom (America)'s filing late Monday came after the U.S. Justice Department and other federal agencies in April asked the FCC to act, citing national security concerns in a new flashpoint between Washington and Beijing. China Telecom (Americas), the U.S. subsidiary of a Peoples Republic of China (PRC) state-owned telecommunications company, called the government's claims "unfounded" and argued the FCC should not revoke its right to operate in the United States "based solely on foreign policy concerns in the absence of any evidence whatsoever of specific misconduct." It added the company's "conduct to date does not demonstrate any reasonable basis for the U.S. government's stated lack of trust." The Justice Department, along with Homeland Security, Defense, State and Commerce Departments, in April cited "substantial and unacceptable national security and law enforcement risks associated with China Telecom's operations." In April, the FCC issued show-cause orders warning it might shut down the U.S. operations of three state-controlled Chinese telecommunications companies: China Telecom, China Unicom and Pacific Networks Corp and its subsidiary ComNet (USA). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in April the agency had deep concerns "about these companies' vulnerability to the exploitation, influence, and control of the Chinese Communist Party." China Unicom (Americas) in a June 1 FCC filing said it had "a two-decade track record as a valuable contributor to U.S. telecommunications markets, a good record of compliance with its FCC regulatory obligations, and a demonstrated willingness to cooperate with U.S. law enforcement agencies." Story continues Pacific and ComNet said "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.'" China Telecom (Americas) said that it had 224 employees in the United States, including 72 U.S. citizens, and that it had complied with U.S. law enforcement and national security inquiries. The FCC granted approvals to the firms for U.S. operations about two decades decade ago. In May 2019, the FCC voted unanimously to deny another state-owned Chinese telecommunications company, China Mobile Ltd, the right to provide U.S. services, citing risks that the Chinese government could use the approval to conduct espionage against the U.S. government. (This story has been refiled to fix China Telecom's stock symbol in first paragraph) (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Kim Coghill and Gerry Doyle) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) The controversial Anti-Terrorism Bill that allows the detention of suspected terrorists without a warrant for up to 24 days was received by Malacanang on Tuesday. Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, and the Office of the President have received the emailed copy of the bill. Despite several House lawmakers seeking to withdraw their authorship and votes even after it was approved on final reading, Sotto said he and House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano have signed the final copy of the proposed bill. It now awaits President Rodrigo Duterte's signature. "A bill passed by both Houses of Congress already enrolled and yet some congressmen would like to hold it? It has never been done," Sotto said in a message to reporters. Under House rules, reconsideration of a bill can only be done during session. Congress adjourned sine die on June 5. The proposed measure, certified by Duterte as urgent, will repeal the Human Security Act of 2007 by giving more surveillance powers to government forces. Although Duterte is expected to enact the much-criticized measure, his spokesman assured that it will be subject to final review before deciding on whether to sign it or not. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra expects Malacanang to ask the Department of Justice for its comments on the measure, which he believes the agency can give in 15 days. We shall focus on issues of constitutionality, Guevarra said. I believe that 15 days will be good enough [to comment on the bill.] The President has 30 days to act on the bill. He added that should the bill be approved by Duterte, the DOJ will try to define more clearly the parameters within which the law will be implemented and enforced, in order to erase any latitude for misapplication or abuse in the implementing rules and regulations of the law. Duterte can either approve, reject or simply let the measure lapse into law by not signing it within 30 days. If rejected, the bill will be sent back to Congress and each chamber would have to muster a two-thirds vote to override Dutertes rejection. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque also denied allegations that the bill was railroaded, saying it has been pending in Congress since 2018. The proposed law defines a terrorist as anyone who participates in any activity which endangers a persons life, causes damage or destruction to a government facility or private property, develops or possesses explosive devices or weapons, or releases any weapon of mass destruction. The police and the military can now track down suspected individuals or organizations and record discussions or communications supposedly regarding terrorism. Once enacted into law, suspected terrorists can be detained without a warrant of arrest up to 14 days and that period may be extended by another 10 days. Anyone who threatens to commit terrorism or incite others to do any such act also will be penalized with an imprisonment of 12 years. The Integrated Bar of the Philippines said that the provision that allows the Anti-Terrorism Council to authorize the arrest of suspected terrorists without a warrant is possibly unconstitutional as it usurps some functions of the judiciary. The official organization of all Philippine lawyers is calling on Duterte to reject the bill. Retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said the constitutionality of certain provisions can immediately be questioned in the Supreme Court once Duterte signs the bill it into law. Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said they are ready to challenge it before the Supreme Court once Duterte signs it, arguing that the measure poses threats against progressive groups, who previously faced "red-tagging" from state forces. CNN Philippines Joyce Ilas and Anjo Alimario contributed to this report. She's one of the stars of Bravo's Real Housewives Of Atlanta. And in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the nation, Porsha Williams is joining Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen for a two-part special on racism and what to do about it. In a sneak peek ahead of Monday night's episode, the 38-year-old reality star talks about what she thinks white people can do to bring about meaningful change. Speaking out: Real Housewives Of Atlanta's Porsha Williams is calling on white people not just to protest but also to take action to bring about change in the wake of George Floyd's death While she acknowledged that marching for the cause 'is beautiful' and has raised awareness through the media coverage, Williams said practical things need to be done. 'We already know that the system is full of white supremacy. Correct? So what we need to do is dismantle that system,' she told Cohen. 'And if white people are recognizing that the system has been built by them, and theyre possible the only ones to dismantle it, become a part of that.' She also suggested that special 'integrity units' should be established to provide a check on the police system. 'We also need to start monitoring, and if possible, we need to create a bill that these police people are not in the good ol boy days where they feel so protected and have this immunity. They have a true protective veil around them,' Williams stated. Williams and Cohen are also joined by comedian and activist W. Kamau Bell for the discussion that airs at 11 p.m. ET on Bravo on Monday with part two on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET. Action: 'If white people are recognizing that the system has been built by them, and theyre possible the only ones to dismantle it, become a part of that,' she said in a WWHL special Things to say: Williams, 38, joined Bravo host Andy Cohen and comedian and activist W. Kamau Bell for a special two-part discussion on racism and Black Lives Matter which airs Monday and Tuesday nights on the cable network A week ago, Williams was out protesting with fiance Dennis McKinley in Atlanta when she was hit with tear gas. 'It was devastating to feel like I was out there trying to stand with my people, stand with our allies, and help them raise a message of hope and to be silenced and not able to breathe because of the gas bomb that was thrown,' she told People. She added: 'People want to see change and the time for the change is now. The people are serious this time. We do mean no justice, no peace.' Funeral services are set in Houston on Tuesday for George Floyd who died on May 25 in Minneapolis after a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes as he lay handcuffed and face down on the ground. Derek Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder in the case while three fellow officers who stood by and watched him have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Marching: A week ago, Williams was out protesting with fiance Dennis McKinley in Atlanta when she was hit with tear gas, an experience she described as 'devastating' Israels Shin Bet has reportedly suspended its monitoring of coronavirus carriers as of June 9. One day earlier, the cabinet put on hold a proposal to legalize the tapping of phones of infected citizens. When the coronavirus crisis broke out last March, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Shin Bet to assist the Health Ministry by surveilling the phones of those infected, ostensibly to notify citizens that were in contact with infected people that they need to be tested for the virus. But Netanyahus initiative sparked controversy, with human rights groups arguing it infringed on privacy rights. The High Court ruled against the continued surveillance without a law in place. Faced with growing objections, the government produced a bill that would offer the Shin Bet a clear legal framework in which to operate. Now it seems that Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman was never enthusiastic about the agency engaging in this task. It was apparently Argamans reluctance that tipped the scale on June 8, leading the cabinet to back off from adopting the bill. Argaman said at the meeting that the Shin Bet did not feel comfortable using wiretapping to track coronavirus carriers. Confronted with Argamans opinion, the cabinet decided to suspend the bill for the moment. It will now undergo further work for review by the ministerial committee. This way, the more refined bill could later be pushed through the Knesset in a matter of weeks or even days if needed. The longer preparation of the bill will also enable the Shin Bet to prepare for the possibility of its passage. The cabinet did push forward another controversial proposal, enabling the extension of emergency regulations to fight the pandemic. Israel is facing a new surge in infections, though experts say the country is not necessarily facing a second wave of the pandemic. According to the most recent data from June 9, 18,089 coronavirus cases are currently registered in Israel. Speaking on June 8, after a meeting of a special ministerial coronavirus forum, Netanyahu announced that the government was freezing the easing of restrictions that had been expected in the coming days. We have just finished a meeting of the Corona Cabinet. It opened with a briefing by experts who showed us that there has been a very steep increase in morbidity. It could be that we are already seeing the doubling of the rate of infection within 10 days. I very much hope not, said Netanyahu. A woman wearing a protective face mask visits the Badaling Great Wall of China after it reopened for business following the new coronavirus outbreak in Beijing - AP It was supposedly built to keep the bloodthirsty Mongolian conqueror Genghis Khan at bay. But the northern segment of the Great Wall of China served a more mundane purpose, according to Israeli archaeologists who say it was actually used to hem in livestock. The archaeologists came to the conclusion, which challenges previous assumptions, after mapping out the Great Wall's 460-mile Northern Line for the first time. "Prior to our research, most people thought the wall's purpose was to stop Genghis Khan's army," said Prof Gideon Shelach-Lavi, an expert at Jerusalem's Hebrew University and the leader of the two year-study. But the Northern Line, which lies mostly in Mongolia, winds through valleys, is relatively low in height and close to paths - which suggests it served non-military functions. "Our conclusion is that it was more about monitoring or blocking the movement of people and livestock, maybe to tax them," Prof Shelach-Lavi said. He suggested that people may have been seeking warmer southern pastures during a medieval cold spell. Construction of the Great Wall, which is split into sections that in total stretch for thousands of miles, first began in the third century BC and continued for centuries. The Northern Line, also known as "Genghis Khan's Wall" in reference to the Mongolian conqueror, was built between the 11th and 13th centuries with pounded earth and dotted with 72 structures in small clusters. Prof Shelach-Lavi and his team of Israeli, Mongolian and American researchers used drones, high-resolution satellite images and traditional archaeological tools to map out the wall and find artefacts that helped pin down dates. According to Prof Shelach-Lavi, whose findings from the ongoing study were published in the journal Antiquity, the Northern Line has been largely overlooked by contemporary scientists. LOS ANGELES, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Green Cures & Botanical Distribution, Inc. (OTC: GRCU) (The Company or Green Cures) is announcing a new vision and growth strategy only days after announcing the appointment of new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rich Thomas. Green Cures new vision is to unleash the revolutionary potential of green-products to help humans thrive, said Thomas. We will manufacture iconic green-brands that motivate deep and meaningful experiences with our products. To accomplish his vision, Thomas announced new plans to invest in a California manufacturing facility. This investment will provide more opportunities to launch innovative new brands and bring all product design and development in house, said Thomas. Im radically focused on developing green-products that can become life-style brands and expand into major retail, said Thomas. We will acquire the talent, partnerships, and brands to make that possible. Green Cures also plans to announce new product lines in 2020 and is exploring brand acquisition opportunities. About Green Cures & Botanical Distribution, Inc. (OTC PINK: GRCU) Green Cures & Botanical Distribution, Inc. is revenue-generating company that wholesales and retails hemp-infused nutritional, botanical, sports, and body care products. The company is currently Web-based and focuses on online retailing. Green Cures & Botanical Distribution, Inc. operates a diverse portfolio of products and services within the botanical and cannabis industry, as permitted by law. From concept to production and distribution, Green Cures & Botanical Distribution, Inc. is continuously creating and introducing products that promote a healthy lifestyle. For more information visit: http://www.greencurescorp.com Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "ongoing," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time the statements are made and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainty and other factors that may cause our results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this press release. This press release should be considered in light of all filings of the Company that are contained in the Edgar Archives of the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov . Contact: info@greencurescorp.com Source: Green Cures & Botanical Distribution Inc. Woodbine Mohawk Park hosted a 12-race qualifying session on Thursday morning (June 4) under gorgeous conditions and over a 'fast' track. The session featured a cross section of local trotting and pacing stars that are continuing to prep for their return to live pari-mutuel racing. Musical Rhythm was not content to merely trot around the track during Race 2, as the Ben Baillargeon-trained and Mario Baillargeon-driven horse showed multiple moves before hitting the wire first in 1:55.3. The O'Brien Award winner strode out from Post 7 and was first down to the quarter pole in 29 seconds. After having relinquished the lead early in the second panel, Baillargeon opted to engineer a pocket ride past the :58.2 half-mile pole and through the 1:26.4 three quarters. Baillargeon tipped the son of Cantab Hall out in the lane, and the career winner of $888,488 went on to trot to a handy 1:55.3 win. Karma Seelster was all business in Race 4 for trainer Gregg McNair and pilot Doug McNair. The three-year-old daughter of Sportswriter paced out to the lead early and cut all of the fractions (:29, :57.1, 1:25.3) before kicking home to a solid win in 1:53.2. O'Brien Award winner Alicorn also contested Race 4. The O'Brien Award winner stalked her rivals early and geared up in the lane. Alicorn came on to finish third in the mile. Mayhem Hanover, last season's Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots Final winner, captured Race 5 in 1:54.2. The son of Sportswriter sat third through the fractions (:28.3, :58.2, 1:27) and then swung out three-wide in the stretch for a well-timed victory. Mayhem Hanover has been installed as a 48-1 shot in Trot Magazine's 2020 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book. To view the spring book odds, click here. Port Perry looked fresh for trainer Luc Blais and driver Bob McClure in Race 8, as the three-year-old son of Kadabra trotted to an uncontested victory in 1:56.4. The career winner of $303,000 left from Post 7 and cut all of the fractions (:30, :58.2, 1:27.2) before home cruising through the lane. To view the harness racing results for Mohawk's Thursday qualifying session, click the following link: Thursday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifying). Midland County recorded three new confirmed coronavirus cases Tuesday, according to the afternoon state report, making for seven new cases in two days. Three of the seven cases are results from testing from the May 30-31 drive-through event at Dow Diamond that saw 2,435 people tested, according to Fred Yanoski, Midland County Public Health director/health officer. The other four cases are associated with each other and are not related to any flooding, he said. "We're not out of the woods yet," Yanoski said. "We are still seeing new cases pop up." He urges the community to continue to practice social distancing measures especially as travel eases and businesses begin to open up. Regarding the Dow Diamond testing event, Yanoski said there are hundreds of results that still need to be received, and he indicated there probably will be more positives. He said the three positive cases have been notified. Yanoski said the department has received several hundred negative results and are getting letters out to those people. "We are as frustrated, as I'm sure are the people who got tested and aren't getting their results back," Yanoski said. Test results were due last week but on Friday health department officials were told it would be Monday, June 8, or later that they would be received. The new seven cases come after an eight-day stretch of one new case. Midland County now stands at 90 cases and nine deaths. Also on Tuesday, Bay County added two more cases and Saginaw County one, bringing their totals to 346 cases and 26 deaths and 1,108 cases and 112 deaths, respectively. Isabella County remained at 78 cases and seven deaths and Gladwin County at 19 cases and one death. The state added 108 new cases and 25 deaths. Overall, Michigan is at 59,107 cases and 5,698 deaths. 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. 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 e-mail 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. ISLAMABAD (AP) The Taliban have started putting together their agenda for negotiations with the political leadership in Kabul, Taliban officials said, a significant first step toward talks seen as perhaps the most critical next phase in the Afghan peace process. No date has yet been set for negotiations but Washingtons peace envoy is currently crisscrossing the region in efforts advance the U.S.-Taliban accord signed earlier this year. Zalmay Khalilzad, the architect of Washington's deal with the Taliban, was in Pakistan over the weekend, meeting with the political and military leadership, according to a U.S. Embassy statement on Monday. The Taliban leadership council, meanwhile, began taking proposals from its members in preparation for the start of negotiations, Taliban officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They cited Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhunzada, who expressed the insurgent group's readiness to participate in the talks with Kabul. A sticking point ahead of the talks was the exchange of prisoners between the warring sides. After stalling for weeks, the prisoner swaps unfolded and by Monday, the government had released 2,710 Taliban prisoners, according to Javid Faisal, spokesman for the national security adviser's office in Kabul. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen says the insurgents have so far freed 531 Afghan military and civilian government personnel they held captive. Shaheen, however, tweeted that the government freed so far only 2,284 Taliban prisoners. The discrepancy could not be immediately explained, but the Taliban have been counting only those prisoners they had listed as part of the U.S.-Taliban deal. This deal calls for the Kabul government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the Taliban to free 1,000 government and military personnel ahead of the negotiations an exchange billed as a goodwill gesture. The accord, signed Feb. 29, was seen as Afghanistan's best chance for peace and an opportunity for U.S. and NATO troops to leave the war-torn country after nearly two decades of fighting. Story continues The withdrawal of international forces, which has already begun, is tied to promises from the Taliban that they will not allow Afghanistan to be used as a staging arena for attacks against the United States and its allies. Washington also wants Taliban's help in battling the Islamic State group, based in eastern Afghanistan and increasingly active in recent weeks. The U.S. has blamed IS for a horrific attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul last month that killed 24 people, including two infants and several mothers. IS has also claimed responsibility for several attack over the past two weeks, including on a busload of journalists that killed two people. Khalilzad, who was in Doha, Qatar, meeting the Taliban at their political headquarters before going to Pakistan, was expected sometime on Monday in Kabul for a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as well as his longtime political rival, Abdullah Abdullah. The two have since signed a power-sharing agreement. Sediq Sediqi, a spokesman for Ghani said the president would like to see talks with the Taliban start in one month. However, he did not clarify whether the Afghan government would release the remaining 2,000 plus Taliban prisoners beforehand, which has been a pre-condition for the start of negotiations. ___ Associated Press writer Tameem Akhgar in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report. UK Protesters Deface Churchill Statue, Clash With Police Tens of thousands took to the streets across the UK on Sunday, with peaceful, George Floyd-inspired demonstrations at times turning violent against people and property, with statues of historic figures defaced or torn down. Protests sparked by Floyds police-custody death in Minneapolis have spread across the world, with the ire of protesters in Europe directed against prominent figures in the continents colonial past. Throngs of protesters took to the streets of London for a second day on Sunday, while cities across Britainincluding Bristol, Manchester, Wolverhampton, Nottingham, Glasgow, and Edinburghwere also rocked by demonstrations, ostensibly against racism and police brutality but which some politicians have denounced as mindless vandalism. Protesters in Bristol toppled the statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century English politician and slave trader, before dragging it through the streets and throwing it into the harbor. Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees told BBC that Colstons statue would eventually be fished out of the water and placed in a museum along with placards that were left around the plinth, some of which read No Justice, No Peace, and Black Lives Matter. Rees said in the interview that while he does not condone criminal damage, the events were part of a historical moment in Bristol. In separate remarks to The Telegraph, Rees said that, as a descendant of enslaved Jamaicans brought to England against their will, he found the statue of Colston offensive. The other truth that we hold is that this is a rebellious city, Rees said, adding that residents have a history of rising up against injustice. He dismissed claims from central authorities that the events were just about mindless vandalism, arguing instead that politicians should seek to understand the demonstrators grievances and engage. Police said eight officers were injured in London and 12 people were arrested Sunday, mostly for disorderly conduct, though one arrest was for criminal damage, according to the BBC. The Metropolitan Polices Superintendent Jo Edwards was cited by the British news outlet as saying that after a predominantly peaceful protest, police faced scenes of violence and disorder. Protesters in London threw bottles and flares and chanted, Black lives matter! as they tried to push through a line of riot police. One officer with a bloodied head was helped by colleagues. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that while people have the right to protest peacefully, the demonstrations have been subverted by thuggery. They are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve. Those responsible will be held to account, he wrote on Twitter, denouncing attacks on police. A Black Lives Matter sign was taped to a statue of Winston Churchill, which was also sprayed with graffiti. British foreign office minister James Cleverly criticized the act of defacing Churchills statue as stupid and counterproductive. There are clearly some people who would rather have the fight than win the argument, he wrote on Twitter. Violence, vandalism, etc plays right into the hands of racists who feel that black people dont deserve/cant handle equality, he added. Cleverly shared a video of a group of police officers retreating as demonstrators charged toward them, throwing items and, in one case, taking a swing with what appeared to be a long metal object. Huge respect for the young woman trying to calm things down, Cleverly captioned the video, referring to a woman who confronted the crowd and urged calm. Be like her, not like the people throwing things, Cleverly said. Huge respect for the young woman trying to calm things down. Be like her, not like the people throwing things. pic.twitter.com/cFt1TRxwGj James Cleverly (@JamesCleverly) June 7, 2020 On June 6, thousands gathered in central London in a demonstration that was peaceful but ended with small numbers of people clashing with mounted police near Johnsons Downing Street residence. London police chief Cressida Dick said 27 officers were injured in shocking and completely unacceptable assaults during protests over the past week, including 14 on June 6. Two were seriously hurt and an officer who fell from her horse underwent surgery. BRIMFIELD A motorcyclist was killed and two people were injured in a head-on crash with a minivan on Holland-East Brimfield Road Sunday afternoon, police said. Police Chief Charles T. Kuss told the Telegram & Gazette the crash occurred about 3:10 p.m. near 131 Holland-East Brimfield Road. The motorcyclist was a man in his early 50s. His female passenger, seriously injured, was taken by ambulance to the state police barracks in Sturbridge and then flown by emergency medical helicopter to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. The driver of the minivan was taken to the same hospital by an ambulance, Kuss said. A detective assigned to the Hampden District Attorneys office is assisting with the investigation. The names of the victims have been withheld pending notification of family members. This is a developing story. Additional information will be posted as soon as it is available. Likewise, the statesman recognized the efforts undertaken by the medical, healthcare and administrative personnel who work in said State-run medical center. Currently, they total 800 health servers. The President was joined by Health Minister Victor Zamora on this occasion. El presidente @MartinVizcarraC y el ministro de Salud @VictorZamora visitaron el hospital de Emergencia Ate, para reconocer la labor de cuidado y atencion que brinda el personal medico y asistencial para salvar vidas en la lucha contra el COVID-19. #PeruEstaEnNuestrasManos pic.twitter.com/17svJKZuYa It has been announced that Real 'Coco' Cormier passed away on Friday, June 5, 2020 at the age of 84. Cormier, who was a longtime trainer/driver, owned the Pinehurst track restaurant for the past 24 years with his wife, Tracy. Originally from Quebec, Coco's love of horses started at the age of seven, as he delivered milk door to door with his first horse, 'Jessie.' He came to the United States in his early twenties and began his career as a trainer and driver. He raced in the New York/New Jersey area and in his career featured more than 1,500 driving victories. The Cormiers moved to Pinehurst so Coco could train horses and decided to purchase the restaurant on the grounds. The pair quickly became a local favourite with their famous blueberry pancakes. Coco was loved by all that knew him. He is survived by his wife, Tracy; their daughter, Danielle; two other children, Lee (Linda) and Darcy (Tom) Reynolds; grandchildren, Adrian, Briana, and Calvin; and great-grandchildren, Jaxon and Tanner. Coco will be laid to rest in his hometown in Quebec. Services have been entrusted to Boles Funeral Home of Pinehurst. Online condolences may be left at www.bolesfuneralhome.com. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Coco Cormier. (USTA) HOLYOKE The City Councils Public Safety Committee is again examining the citys negligent landlords and problem properties. The committee met Tuesday with city and state officials, including state Rep. Aaron Vega, (D-Holyoke), and state Sen. John Velis, D-Westfield, during Tuesdays session. Councilors Todd McGee and Mike Sullivan filed an order to implement a plan or procedure to deal with negligent landlords in Holyoke. Ward 2 Councilor Terence Murphy, who chairs the committee, continues to focus on the issue. The committee dedicated part of the agenda to problems properties, neighborhoods plagued by drug dealing, nuisance complaints and other illegal activities. The committee also heard from Board of Health Director Sean Gonsalves, Fire Chief Jeff Przekopowski, and Acting City Solicitor Crystal Barnes. Vega said while legislation and ordinance exist for problem properties, including abandoned buildings and parcels, it comes down to enforcement. For absentee landlords who move properties through shell corporations, few legal mechanisms exist at the state level. The Massachusetts Attorney Generals Office website contains information on abandoned and blighted properties. Sullivan said the abandoned buildings are more straightforward to tackle than the problem properties that draw steady attention from the Holyoke Police Department. As reported in June 2019, two downtown tenements alone racked up 450 police calls and 126 arrests. Velis, newly elected, said he wanted to listen more than talk. During a ride-a-long with the Holyoke police, the conversation steered to hot spots in Holyoke. Murphy spoke about 345-363 Dwight St., the former Silvio Conte Building, which borders the canal on Race. The property, built in 1900, has fallen under severe distress, a blighted behemoth among renovated properties, and the Passenger Rail Station. According to city records, Assets Investments Co., LLC, of San Jose, California, owns the property. Murphy said while the investment company pays fines levied against the property, no plans are forthcoming to rehab the building. It used to be a very nice building, he said. The property represents scores of boarded-up structures in Holyoke, Besides police calls, Przekopowski said his personnel regularly respond to multiple false-alarm at the same properties, including a tenement on Elm and Appleton Streets. Its troublesome on our end because it takes away resources from the rest of the city for nuisance calls, Przekopowski said, smoking in the hallway, things that could be policed by landlords arent being done. In one building, tenants remove smoke detectors and security cameras, according to Przekopowski. Gonsalves said his department rarely fields complaints from the Elm and Appleton Streets property. Were never invited in. We never get any complaints about it. We have an almost nonexistent record of calls and complaints in the last several years, he said. Vega said members of the citys landlord association are annoyed and upset with owners who neglect their properties. He credited OneHolyoke CDC, Virgilio, and other management companies for maintaining standards. Vega filed legislation for a code upgrade funding that would aid owners in bringing their aging buildings up to state codes. He added that federal funding for demolishing buildings is harder to come by. Councilor Joseph McGiverin said bad landlords use the Limited Liability Company (LLC)incorporation to their advantage. Though legal, owners with a portfolio place properties under separate LLCs. The individual LLCs protect the owners overall portfolio from legal risks. Thats where we need some change, McGiverin said. I know its easier said than done. The LLC scheme can add layers, making it challenging to identify the actual owner or owners. When we get to court, its a legal nightmare. Our attorneys in the Law Department tell us its almost like starting over when the LLC changes. McGiverin said. Even though its not a change, it looks like a change. Hyderabad: Please shift me to a private hospital. In spite of several requests and reminders, nobody is taking care of me in the ICU. These are the last words of Manoj, the 32-year-old journalist who lost his life fighting Covid-19 in Gandhi Hospital on Sunday. ICU is not good. Please, we will go to a private hospital. Evaru pattinchukuntaleru ikkada (nobody is taking care here). Please vellipodham ikkada nundi (Please let me leave this place), Manoj went on to say in the last message to his friend from Gandhi Hospital. A resident of Madannapet, the journalist tested positive for coronavirus on June 4 while his brother was already undergoing treatment in Gandhi Hospital. The two days of conversations he had with his friends through his mobile have exposed the lacunae in Gandhi Hospital. According to Manojs friend, the 33-year-old rushed immediately to Gandhi Hospital for admission on June 4 on knowing that he had got coronavirus. To his surprise, the staff said they cannot admit him due to unavailability of beds. They asked him to wait for half an hour. Petrified by the reaction of hospital staff, Manoj immediately called me and asked me to speak to higher authorities, so that his admission process would be expedited, Manojs friend recounted. During the entire conversation, Manojs voice was shivering over phone due to panic. After two hours of heated conversations with the hospital staff, they finally allotted him a bed. Staff nurses in the hospital then dropped him near a bed. None of the doctors attended on him for more than half an hour. This approach further terrified him. During his fatal four-day stay in the hospital, the journalist kept messaging to his friends, explaining about the poor treatment. He even got in touch with his media friends on the health beat, asking them to get in touch with health minister Etela Rajender for better treatment. Responding to requests by his media friends, the health minister telephoned Dr. M. Raja Rao, superintendent of Gandhi Hospital, asking him to provide better treatment for Manoj. Even the ministers instructions fell on deaf ears. The staff neither provided him immunity boosting food nor enhanced treatment, despite keeping him in the ICU. After fighting for four days, the young journalist finally succumbed to coronavirus. - Zambian giants Nkana Red Devis are reportedly struggling financially - As a result, a number of Harambee Stars players playing for the club are set for exit - Former Gor Mahia midfielder Harun Shakava is also set to leave the club barely a year after he joined it Kenyan quartet of Harun Shakava, Duncan Otieno, Duke Abuya and Musa Mohammed are reportedly hunting for new clubs as their Zambian side, Nkana Red Devils, is struggling financially and unable to pay their salaries. The teams woes began when the owners and sole sponsors, Mopani Copper Mines, halved its sponsorship throwing the club into financial turmoil. READ ALSO: Former Harambee Stars midfielder Crispin Olando detained in US READ ALSO: James Rodriguez: Man United offered chance to sign Real Madrid star The teams high wage-bill effectively became a strain on the club and players went for a couple of months without pay. During a recent online interview, Duncan Otieno admitted the club was facing financial problems but downplayed the issue stating he believed things would be better in the near future. It is true that salary has been an issue recently but this happens sometimes. I believe things will be better in the near future, the soft-spoken Otieno said. READ ALSO: Mabinti warembo wa Pasta Ng'ang'a wasimulia maisha yao baada ya kifo cha mamao Shakava only joined Nkana in 2019 from Gor Mahia. Photo: Getty Images. Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Tony Dunne: Man Uniteds European Cup-winning legend dies TUKO.co.ke understands that high-earners at the club including the Kenyan quartet could soon exit as the Kitwe based Zambian Premier League side looks to reduce its high wage bill. Another player who could leave is Congolese forward Idris Ilunga Mbombo who is one of the highest earners in the league. Shakava joined Nkana in August 2019 from Gor Mahia while Otieno ditched AFC Leopards for the Red Devils in October 2018. Abuya moved to Zambia in January 2020 after ditching Kariobangi Sharks while Musa Mohammed preceded him in July 2018. Otieno is linked with a return to the den on a short-term deal while Musa Mohammed is being tracked by Tanzanian giants Simba SC. Abuya and Shakava are reportedly being eyed by Kenyan Premier League moneybags, Wazito FC. Story by Yunasi Kimutai. TUKO.co.ke correspondent Do you have an inspirational story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Tuko news I married a man every woman wanted - Pastor Joan Chege | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV: Source: TUKO.co.ke Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-10 00:11:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia's confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 2,336 after 190 new cases were confirmed on Tuesday, the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) said. The ministry revealed in a statement issued on Tuesday that from a total of 4,599 medical tests that were conducted within the last 24 hours, some 190 of them had been tested positive for COVID-19. According to figures from the ministry, all of the latest confirmed cases are Ethiopian nationals - 135 males and 55 females in total, with an age range from one-year-old to 89. The Ethiopian ministry said that 18 more people who had been tested positive for COVID-19 recovered on Tuesday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 379. The ministry also on Tuesday disclosed that five more people succumbed to the disease, raising the number of COVID-19 deaths in the East African country to 32. The East African country had conducted some 152,334 COVID-19 tests, according to the ministry. Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation with about 107 million people, confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 13. The Ethiopian government has since then instituted a wide range of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. In April, the Ethiopian House of People's Representatives - the lower house of the Ethiopian parliament - announced a five-month state of emergency to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Enditem British farmers are 'greatly concerned' over the speed at which UK and EU trade negotiations are going, the Country Land and Business Association has warned. The fourth round of talks on a post-Brexit deal commenced on Tuesday 2 June, but 'no significant progress' has so far been made. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Friday 5 June that a trade deal with the EU based on the UK's 'very reasonable' demands was still possible. The cabinet minister said he 'very much' hoped a no-deal scenario to the negotiations could be avoided if both sides cooperated. Mr Hancock was speaking after the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier accused the UK of 'backtracking' on its commitments. This week, there have been no significant areas of progress ... We cannot go on like this for ever, the French minister told a news conference. "We have always been open to the possibility of an extension of one or two years - as is possible under the exit agreement. And our door remains open." Now the CLA has raised concerns that without a 'quality' agreement thousands of farmers in both the UK and EU would 'go out of business'. The European Union sells 33bn of agricultural products to the United Kingdom each year almost 20bn more than the UK sells to the bloc. It is of great concern to farmers in the UK, and Im sure the EU too, that these talks are making such limited progress," the group's president Mark Bridgeman said. We understand a degree of posturing is inevitable, but no one on either side of the negotiating table should forget what is at risk. "We strongly encourage both sides to return to the table as quickly as possible. Mr Bridgeman added that rural communities and livelihoods in the UK and the EU would be 'devastated' without a trade deal. The comments come as figures show that the EU presently exports 37bn (33bn) of food products to the UK each year. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom exports 13.7bn (15.3bn) of food products to the European Union. The National Sheep Association has also highlighted concerns over the movement of direction trade talks were going in. It has called on the government to consider the implications if the trade deal 'halted' at a decisive summit scheduled for the end of June. At the summit, the UK and the EU will decide whether the current deadline for negotiating an agreement should be extended beyond the end of December. "Agriculture has already had issues to deal with over the last few months, as we saw exports dry up and the closure of the hospitality and food service industry," NSA chief executive, Phil Stocker said. "While the sheep sector has managed to ride this out reasonably well so far, we know how fragile things will be in the coming months as the bulk of 2020 lambs begin to come through. "If we end up facing a tariff or any disruption to lamb supplies going into Europe it will have a devastating impact on our trade and lamb values." The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) called progress in the negotiations 'worryingly slow', adding that this was causing 'deep concern to firms when resilience has rarely been more fragile'. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Dakar, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th May, 2020 ) :Launching an airline in Africa is a notorious challenge in a continent and sector where opportunities are often crimped by regulations and national champions are dominant. Now, for plucky entrants, coronavirus has added to the checklist of problems, as a small Senegalese airline can attest. Transair, an ambitious company founded 10 years ago, has no passengers because of the pandemic -- but it still has to fly its planes. Once a week, one of its planes makes a sortie out of Dakar's Blaise Diagne International Airport, even though not one of its passenger seats is filled. The reason: The company has to ensure its planes meet standards of airworthiness and pilots carry out at least three takeoffs and three landings every three months -- requirements for retaining their commercial flying licences. Pilot Laurent Klinka said he had mixed feelings as he prepared a 50-seat twin-jet Embraer ERJ 145 for a 30-minute trip up Senegal's coast, reaching the northern town of Saint-Louis before turning round and heading for home. "It's a pleasure to get back in an aircraft, even if it's just for an hour," the French national said. "But everyone is afraid of what could happen with this crisis." - Business blow - All international flights to and from Senegal have been suspended since March 20 -- the exceptions being for a handful of medical evacuations and repatriation flights, as well as for maintenance flights. Late on Thursday, the government announced that the suspension of all flights in and out of the country would be extended until June 30. For Transair, the one-hour validation flights for its four Embraers and two Boeings costs more than a thousand Euros ($1,100) in fuel alone. The pandemic has dealt a crippling blow to firms that have staked much on shuttling European vacationers to Senegal's beaches and forests. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates the crisis will inflict a hit of $314 billion (286 billion euros) on airlines' turnover this year, equivalent to a fall of 55 percent over 2019. The sector is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels before 2023, IATA says. Such talk is grim news for Senegal's three airlines, the biggest of which is the national flag carrier Air Senegal, founded in 2016, which specialises in scheduled flights between West Africa and Europe. The smallest is Arc-en-ciel Aviation, which caters to charter flights. In the middle is Transair, which pitches to both markets -- scheduled and charter -- with a special eye on tourism. In normal times, its fleet carries out around 60 flights a week. Forty of them are on domestic routes, while the remainder are around the West African region, to destinations such as Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. The company says that last year it flew 90,000 people as it carved out new routes, including to Liberia, and recorded a slight deficit on its turnover. It declined to give figures. - 'No idea' - "Before (the pandemic), we were expanding, we were even thinking about starting inter-continental flights in a few years," Transair's boss and founder, Alioune Fall, told AFP. "Now everything's come to a halt. When you have been doing three or four flights a day and then it all suddenly stops, you have no idea what lies ahead." Seeking to dampen the impact of the crisis, the government has earmarked 77 billion CFA francs ($120 million, 110 million euros) in support for the tourism and aviation sector. Of this, 45 billion francs is likely to go to Air Senegal, while Transair, as a private company, is likely to be offered low-interest loans and a delay in value-added tax (VAT) payments. So far, Fall has retained his 104 employees throughout the lockdown, but admits to wondering whether he will be able to meet the wage bill for May. There is a "risk of bankruptcy" in the direst scenarios, he said, but insisted that he remained hopeful. "This is why the planes are still flying," he said. "Activity will pick up, starting within a minimal service."Ibra Wane, a Senegalese who is a consultant for IATA and owner of Arc-en-Ciel (Rainbow), warned that "bloody" days lay ahead. "Budgets for business travel are going to be reduced, and tourism will shrink terribly. If (airline) companies do not scale back their operations and cut costs, they could disappear." In the 48 hours before Steven Carrillo allegedly shot a Santa Cruz County sheriffs deputy to death in an ambush, the Air Force staff sergeant who led an elite protection unit posted a flurry of Facebook posts that were critical of police brutality and law enforcements responses to the Black Lives Matter protests. Who needs antifa to start riots when you have the police to do it for you, Carrillo wrote Friday, sharing a post about tear gas fired at protesters in Richmond, Va. Carrillo posted another meme before Saturdays shootout with deputies in Ben Lomond, mocking the idea that tear gas kills the coronavirus and commenting: Unfortunately it just kills people with asthma, RIP Sarah Grossman. Carrillo was referring to the Ohio woman who died after getting tear gassed by police at a protest in Columbus. Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart said Monday it was too soon to say if Carrillo had an animus toward police, but he called him dangerous and offered additional details about an attack that appeared to be premeditated and included multiple improvised explosives. Hes an angry man intent on bringing harm to police officers, Hart said at a news conference at the Sheriffs Office in Soquel. I trust that our district attorney is going to bring justice for Damons murder. An FBI official said investigators were still looking at whether the slaying of 38-year-old Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller on Saturday was connected to the May 29 killing of a federal security officer standing watch at a federal courthouse in Oakland as protests took place blocks away. LiPo Ching / Special to The Chronicle Were actively investigating the possibility of links between these two cases, FBI Special Agent in Charge John Bennett said Monday. Hart detailed the heroic actions Saturday of a Ben Lomond resident who eventually pinned down and captured Carrillo. After numerous failed carjacking attempts along Highway 9, which travels through the small wooded town, Carrillo asked for the keys of an unnamed citizen who went inside to fetch them. When the man returned he wrestled a rifle away from Carrillo, Hart said. Carrillo grabbed a pipe bomb and attempted to ignite it, but the resident grabbed this from him as well. Finally, Carrillo pulled a pistol from his waistband and yet again the resident disarmed him. Police soon arrived and arrested Carrillo, who is scheduled to be arraigned Friday. The citizen did not want to be named, but the chief said he would be honored for his brave actions. Law enforcement officials said it was too soon to announce a motive for Carrillos alleged attack on Gutzwiller and another unnamed deputy who was wounded and in stable condition Monday, but a fellow airman of Carrillos who served with him at Hill Air Force Base outside of Salt Lake City called the suspects recent social media posts out of character. Just crazy to think that a few minutes before he does this hes posting things on Facebook, said Justin Ehrhardt, who met Carrillo a decade ago. The two last saw each other in person in 2014 but remained in communication, exchanging comments and messages on Facebook and talking on the phone just few weeks ago. LiPo Ching / Special to The Chronicle More recently, Ehrhardt said, posts on Carrillos Facebook page, which appears to have been taken down, turned political as he started posting about police brutality. When another colleague sent a Facebook message to Ehrhardt about the shooting, he thought, There is no way this could be Carrillo. Posts about reforming police and holding law enforcement officials accountable were typical for Carrillo, but he never condoned violence on social media or in person, Ehrhardt said. He also shared an anti-fascism screed and gun rights article. There was nothing ever to the extent of, They should die, or doing anything like that, Ehrhardt said. It threw a lot of us off. Ehrhardt took screenshots of about a dozen recent posts, which he shared with The Chronicle. It appears Carrillo last posted at 1:22 p.m. Saturday, minutes before his alleged attack on the deputies. That post shared an anti-fascism image. Ehrhardt said Carillo has lost every bit of respect from his friends. None of us are ever going to condone what he did, Ehrhardt said. Its not a reflection of how we are in the military at all. Carrillo, 32, was active duty at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, serving as the team leader for a specially trained security group called the Phoenix Ravens, said Technical Sgt. Traci Keller. He arrived at the Northern California base in 2018, and led the team that is tasked with providing security for aircraft transitioning air fields where security is unknown or additional security is deemed necessary. Carrillo also performed recruiting duties in Brentwood and served at Hill Air Force Base and Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Carrillos wife, Monika Leigh Scott Carrillo, died in May 2018 while stationed with the Air Force in South Carolina at the age of 30. A mother of two, she had lived in Boulder Creek (Santa Cruz County) with her husband. She was found dead at a hotel near Fort Sumter, where she was posted, according to reports. Her death was ruled a suicide after a joint investigation by the Sumter County sheriff and Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Martha Mendoza / Associated Press Sheriffs investigators have said Carrillo ambushed the officers Saturday, shortly before 2:30 p.m. at a remote home in Ben Lomond. Hart said Carrillo came upon the officers as they exited their vehicles on the driveway, taking advantage of the high ground and tossing multiple improvised explosives. They had no idea they were about to get into a firefight, Hart said. The deputies originally responded to a 911 call around 1:30 p.m. Saturday about a suspicious van near Jamison Creek in the town of about 6,000 in the Santa Cruz Mountains. 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. The caller reported seeing firearms and bomb-making materials inside the van, but when deputies arrived the van left the area and led them to a home on Waldeberg Road, officials said. Gutzwiller was killed and a second deputy was apparently shot in the chest, Hart said, but his vest stopped the bullet. Authorities had not yet confirmed that through ballistics. The injured deputy also took shrapnel and was hit by the suspects car as he fled the scene. We are looking into all of those injuries, but hes in good spirits, Hart said, adding the deputys condition had been stabilized. A California Highway Patrol officer was also shot in the hand when the suspect engaged with CHP officers, Hart said. That officers condition was unknown. Federal authorities found pipe bombs, bomb-making equipment, a large amount of ammunition and multiple firearms at the scene, Hart said. Video of Carrillos arrest doesnt appear to indicate an injury, but Hart said the alleged gunman was shot at some point. LiPo Ching / Special to The Chronicle Officials said Carrillo fled the shootout with deputies but made it only a short distance to a small retail area along the two-lane Highway 9, where he allegedly attempted to carjack multiple people. Two employees of a marijuana dispensary said they spoke to the armed Carrillo in a parking lot and he asked them for their keys. After turning him down, the pair said, Carrillo entered the drivers side of a parked car, only to immediately exit after the passenger screamed and he apologized. Carrillo then walked about 50 feet to the unnamed residents house, where he finally would be subdued. On May 29, investigators said someone drove a white van past the federal building in downtown Oakland and a passenger fired a weapon from the sliding door of the vehicle, killing David Patrick Underwood, 53, of Pinole in an ambush. Initial reports by the FBI indicated the Ben Lomond van Carrillo allegedly drove was also white. Gutzwiller was a married father of one, with another child on the way. He grew up in the area, graduating from Aptos High School and beginning work at the department in 2006. Thousands of well-wishers attended a vigil for Gutzwiller on Sunday outside the sheriffs headquarters, placing flowers beneath a flag at half staff. A message was read from Gutzwillers widow: You were the heart of our little family and we love you. Matthias Gafni and Alejandro Serrano are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com, alejandro.serrano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mgafni, @serrano_alej In response to Monday's Day of Solidarity, which saw more than 1,100 publishing workers demanding that the industry take action to diversity its workforce and to publish more black authors, three of the Big Five publishers issued statements saying that they will do just that. Penguin Random House had the most comprehensive response. In a letter sent to its American employees, the board of Penguin Random House US acknowledged that while the company has made progress in diversifying its workforce and the types of books it publishes, it must do more on both counts. Last fall, the publisher established the Diversity & Inclusion Council and, in its letter, the board announced some of the actions it will be implementing. PRH said that while it has published groundbreaking Black authors, it said our company and our industry havent published enough works by authors of color. We can, and must, do much more, and in particular, we must live up to our goal of publishing books for all readers. PRH also said that to publish more diverse books, the company needs to create a more diverse and inclusive employee population and culture. Among the actions announced by PRH are a donation to the Equal Justice Initiative, an increase in its donation to We Need Diverse Books, and an expansion of its partnership with WNDB that includes becoming the inaugural sponsor of the Black Creatives Fund, a fund that will focus on encouraging and amplifying the work of black creatives who have written adult or childrens books. The company is also upping its anti-racism training and making it mandatory for all employees. The board will participate in training right away and then rollout programs. Until PRH selects a company to work on the anti-racist program with, it will start a company-wide read: How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, which will be assigned to all employees, along with support materials to facilitate discussions in every team across the company. PRH expects Kendi to take part in a company-wide town hall event, which will serve to launch the anti-racism training program. PRH also promised to share with employees statistics related to its current workforce demographics, and those findings will be used to set and clear goals for increasing PRHs diversity at all levels. To increase the number of books by people of color it publishes, PRH is conducting an audit of its publishing programs to set a baseline from which it can grow the number of books it publishes by diverse authors. The Day of Solidarity led Hachette Book Groups executive management board to expand its current initiatives for expanding diversity of all kinds and work immediately on some "important changes," according to a spokesperson. Among the initiatives in the works are sharing with employees metrics HBG has previously shared with managers on staff diversity and list diversity; setting goals for hiring diverse staff and for publishing diverse voices that HBG agrees to work toward; and expanding its unconscious bias training and accelerating HBG's equity and inclusion training for senior managers. "These broad diversity initiatives will include specific actions to support the discovery and publication of Black voices and the recruitment and hiring of Black applicants," the spokesperson said. A Simon & Schuster spokesperson issued a statement noting that the company agrees with its employees on the need for change. We are committed to working with our employees, authors and the publishing community to make our company and our industry a safe and inclusive environment for all, and a publisher of works that represent the breadth and depth of our diverse population, the statement said in part. HarperCollins and Macmillan did not respond to request for comment. The forest officials have captured a leopard after it was seen near IIT multiple times in Indore district on Sunday. TS Sulia, Divisional Forest Officer said that the animal which belongs to Felidae family was of 3-4 years old. The leopard is around 3 to 4 years old. She was spotted near IIT multiple times, after which we have captured her. She will be released in the jungle, Sulia said. Pictures and videos of the leopard has been circulating on social media. Here are some glimpses of the captured big cat that was released later. Madhya Pradesh: A leopard was captured by the forest officials in Indore yesterday. TS Sulia, Divisional Forest Officer says, "The leopard is around 3 to 4 years old. She was spotted near IIT multiple times, after which we have captured her. She will be released in the jungle." pic.twitter.com/QgZebfWmBI ANI (@ANI) June 8, 2020 Few days ago, a shocking video of a leopard trying to shake a monkey of a tree surfaced on the Internet. The clip had widely stunned netizens. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday said $225 million in government money will be available to small businesses hurt by the coronavirus crisis and subsequent business closure orders. This new program will provide direct support to impacted businesses to cover operating expenses during the shutdown and the transition to reopening, Wolf said in a statement. The money comes originally from the federal government, as one part of the $2.6 billion in spending under the CARES Act to respond to COVID-19. The state Department of Community and Economic Development will pass the money first to community-development lenders, nonprofits that help small-business owners. These lenders will then administer the grants. Its a huge deal, said Maura Shenker, director of Temple Universitys Small Business Development Center. I think its going to be a combination grant and loan with technical assistance, which is ideal. Eligible businesses will be able to use the money to cover operating expenses during the shutdown and transition to reopening. The funds will also pay to train and advise business owners as they relaunch their businesses, the governors office said. The funds will be made available through three programs: $100 million for the Main Street Business Revitalization Program for small businesses that lost money due to the governors March 19 order that closed most firms or had to spend to alter their operations. $100 million for the Historically Disadvantaged Business Revitalization Program for small businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. $25 million for the Loan Payment Deferment and Loss Reserve Program, to allow the community-development lenders to give businesses hit hard by the virus more time or money to pay debts. Some money would go to help the community lenders themselves to cover loan losses. Who is eligible Any business with less than $1 million in sales or less than 25 employees can apply for help, said Daniel Betancourt, chief executive officer of Community First Fund. Grants are expected to be $5,000 to $50,000 per business, which must be based in Pennsylvania and be current on all taxes at least through 2018. The community organizations hope to have a standard website up for applications by the end of June. Grants should start to flow within a few weeks. The grants will be given out in batches, and we expect the window for applications to be open for two weeks, said Lynn Cutler, head of Womens Opportunity Resource Center, another community-based lender. She said business people can approach those lenders for help applying. A list of Pennsylvanias community lenders can be found at https://ofn.org/cdfi-locator. Philadelphia-based organizations include: Community First Fund & FINANTA Reinvestment Fund PIDC Community Capital Impact Loan Fund Beech Capital WPFSI Enterprise Center Capital NPFP Entrepreneur Works WORC United Bank The Pennsylvania $225 million grant program is separate from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, set up this spring to supplement lost wages for workers. PPP rules were just made more lenient for business owners who borrow money through the program and then seek to have the debt forgiven. Adani Green Energy Ltd said on Tuesday it won a government contract to build solar plants in the country which will have a total capacity of 8 gigawatts (GW) and entail an investment of $6 billion over the next five years. The renewable energy developer said the first 2 GW of generation capacity will come online by 2022 and the rest will be added in annual 2 GW increments through 2025 in various parts of the country. Shares of the company rose 5% to a record high of 312.60 rupees ($4.14) on Tuesday. "The projects will include a variety of locations, including a 2 GW single-site generation project that is tied for the rank of the largest single-site project announced globally," Adani Green, part of billionaire Gautam Adani-controlled Adani Group, said in a statement. It did not give financing details of the projects, but a spokesman for the group said funding will be through a mix of debt and equity. The Adani Group will also establish a solar cell and module manufacturing capacity of 2 GW by 2022 as a part of the contract won from state-run Solar Energy Corp of India (SECI), it said. The Peel public school board has one last chance to start seriously addressing issues of racism and dysfunction, warns Education Minister Stephen Lecce, saying he will escalate if necessary. As outlined in the Education Act, I am required to provide a final opportunity for compliance from the board, he said Monday following yet another damning report that found the board both unwilling and incapable of making changes. My expectation is clear: the board must change, or I will take further action, he added. We cannot and will not sit idle while families and students continue to feel isolated, victimized and targeted. While Lecce did not say what the next step will be, it is likely he will send in a supervisor to take over. The latest report, by investigator Arleen Huggins sent in to probe why the board has not complied with Lecces directives following a previous, scathing review reveals the need for real change within this board and provides a necessary component to ensuring these issues are addressed immediately and effectively, Lecce said. Lecce said he finds it most troubling . . . that certain directions have not been complied with, and moreover that the (Peel board) lacks the capacity to provide good governance. Lecce sent in a team of three reviewers late last year after a number of issues came to light, including incidents of anti-Black racism, inequity, dysfunction among trustees and issues with senior leaders. He then released 27 directives to the Peel District School Board with firm deadlines, but more than a month later he brought in Huggins, a veteran employment and human rights lawyer, to determine why little progress was being made. Lecce has now ordered the board to show it can work together and come up with a firm plan to do so by June 22. MPP Laura Mae Lindo, the NDPs anti-racism critic and chair of the partys Black caucus, said its disturbing that the minister of education hired an investigator to investigate his investigation, and despite all these reports pointing to serious systemic anti-Black racism in Peel schools, Stephen Lecce is again taking no actual action to address it. She noted this is happening at a time when people are literally marching in the streets calling for government to address the root causes of anti-Black racism in the systems meant to keep all Ontarians safe. Huggins 27-page report says the Peel board still, after the review report and the (ministers) directions, has a misunderstanding of anti-Black racism. Further, there is no evidence that the board has a willingness to engage in the necessary work to gain such an understanding. The board, she added, has failed to understand that its mandate includes engagement with communities and that respectful, collaborative relationships with communities particularly Black communities are essential to move forward and out of its current crisis of non-confidence. She said board director Peter Joshua has not demonstrated the necessary capacity to lead the implementation of the directives nor in some cases did there seem to be any sense of urgency. Lecce ordered the board to conduct mandatory mediation for trustees whose division one leader likened to a schoolyard brawl but Huggins said the board didnt consult trustees in hiring the mediator nor were they a part of creating a new learning plan, she wrote. She called this a questionable governance practice; it amounts to missed opportunities to include the diversity of perspectives and expertise informed by lived experience of a racially diverse board. And while two trustees refused to take part in mediation, Huggins found they both had concerns about the boards commitment to addressing anti-Black racism and the silencing of discussion and debate given deep divisions among trustees. Huggins also slammed the board for not completing even easy directives, such as hiring an integrity commissioner to review the directors office, by the deadline. And in creating a community consultation plan, it did not seek any community input, she said, despite damaged relationships with Black communities in particular. Huggins said she also heard concerns that while there is a willingness to talk about marginalized communities, senior leadership have an issue with anti-Black racism in particular and get their backs up. Joshua and chair Brad MacDonald said in a joint statement that the leadership team at the Peel District School Board shares a commitment to bring about the changes needed to end the systemic anti-Black racism that exists in our schools, policies and workplaces . . . we acknowledge there is reason for skepticism and mistrust sowed by years of inaction. They said . . . We must intentionally interrupt and disrupt anti-Black racism and all forms of systemic discrimination, and we are committed to doing so. Lashing out at Union home minister Amit Shah, the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday said he "peddled lies" at the Bharatiya Janata Party's virtual rally for West Bengal and the saffron party was "hungry for votes" even as the state was battling the double whammy of COVID-19 and devastation caused by Cyclone Amphan. IMAGE: Union home minister Amit Shah addresses the 'West Bengal Jan Samwad' rally via video conferencing from the party headquarters in New Delhi. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/(PTI Photo Addressing the rally earlier in the day, Shah criticised the TMC-led Bengal government for its alleged apathy towards migrant workers. He said these labourers would ensure chief minister Mamata Banerjee's exit in the 2021 assembly polls as she "insulted" them by terming Shramik Special trains, which were run to ferry them home amid lockdown, 'Corona Express'. Shah also attacked Banerjee over the alleged culture of political violence in the state, saying the only industry that was flourishing in Bengal was that of "crude bombs and illegal weapons". TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien hit out at the Union minister during a virtual press conference, saying Shah "peddled lies" during his speech at the rally. He contended that it was due to lack of planning on the part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah that the country was witnessing the migrant labour crisis. "The labourers are being packed inside trains like they were a herd of cattle. Did the Centre give money to the labourers who lost jobs? The answer is no. The financial stimulus package is a sham," he said. O'Brien claimed the Centre is yet to clear Bengal's legitimate financial dues of more than Rs 50,000 crore. He also asked if the money collected in the PM CARES Fund would be used for funding the BJP's election campaign. Earlier in the day, senior TMC leader and the CM's nephew Abhishek Banerjee said Shah's speech was full of rhetoric and sought to know why he remained silent on the India-China border standoff. "As usual, the speech of Amit Shah Ji was all rhetoric and no substance. Nonetheless, since he has talked about his dream of seeing 'EXIT' of TMC, I would like to ask him one more time - 'When are the Chinese EXITING our territory'," the TMC leader tweeted with hashtag #BengalrejectsAmitShah. Indian and Chinese armies have been engaged in a standoff for a month now in several areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de-facto border between the two countries, in Ladakh. Both countries are trying to defuse the crisis through diplomatic and military channels. State education minister Partha Chatterjee also took to Twitter to attack Shah. "At a time when the state is battling a pandemic and a natural disaster, Amit Shah's priorities are crystal clear. Bengal, remember the face of this man who is just hungry for your votes and nothing else," he said. The official Twitter handle of the TMC said, "Amit Shah, someone who's himself put the inclusivity of India in danger, talks about 'restoring' the culture of Bengal. Doesn't he remember it was Mamata Banerjee who restored statue of Vidya Sagar, vandalised by his men in front of his own eyes." A bust of the 19th century polymath and social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalised during a clash between TMC and BJP workers on May 14 last year when Shah was holding a roadshow in Kolkata ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Both the parties had accused each other of desecrating the bust. Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, who was part of the virtual press conference with O'Brien, too, rebuffed Shah's allegations. "The BJP government at the Centre is a 'nakli maharaj', a copycat. In 2016, we had floated the health scheme 'Swastha Sathi'. The Union government copied our scheme and launched with the name Ayushman Bharat. Under the Swastha Sathi scheme, more than 7.5 crore people have been benefited," he said. During his speech, Shah had assailed the Bengal government for not joining Ayushman Bharat, the Centre's flagship health insurance scheme. "Amit Shah also said that the BJP government has built 10 crore toilets, the fact is it has built only 1.4 crore toilets," Mitra claimed. Tanzanias President John Magufuli has declared the country coronavirus-free thanks to prayers by citizens. The corona disease has been eliminated thanks to God, Mr Magufuli told worshippers in a church in the capital, Dodoma. The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern over the governments strategy on Covid-19. The government has stopped publishing data on the number of coronavirus cases in the country. On 29 April, the last day official data was released, there were 509 cases, with 21 deaths in Tanzania. However, Mr Magufuli said last week that only four patients were receiving treatment in the largest city, Dar es Salaam. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates In 2013, Philadelphias schools were in fiscal freefall. After having laid off thousands of employees in order to fill a multimillion-dollar deficit, district officials at the time said the city needed another source of revenue or else administrators wouldnt be able to open schools doors that fall. The city and the state came up with a solution: They would double the sales tax from one percent to two percent in Philadelphia in order to pay down the districts ballooning pension fund and avoid even more layoffs. For every dollar spent on parking, lottery, hotel rooms and other purchases in the city, two cents would be sent directly to the school district. By doing so, the city joined more than 400 school districts in the nation that are reliant on a local sales tax to bring in revenue to fund the constructions of buildings, prekindergarten programs, or a variety of other services. Polk County school district, for example, instituted a half-cent sales tax 17 years ago to fund new school construction throughout the district. Fulton County schools in Georgia in 1997 instituted a 1 percent sales tax to bring in money for school construction and technology. But COVID19 has sent that sales revenue tumbling as the vast majority of businesses shut their doors in order to prevent the spread of the disease. The revenue will be slow to return even as businesses gradually reopen. That makes these districts especially vulnerable to teacher layoffs this fall,as they also will be hit from a revenue plunge in state sales and income tax aid. Property tax revenue remains relatively stable during recessions because its reassessed so infrequently. For wealthy districts that can afford to do so, school board members typically raise the property tax in order to withstand recessions. Philadelphias plight is a prime example. In 2016, Philadelphia collected more than $381 million from local sales tax, according to federal data. That made up more than 13 percent of its revenue. City and state officials that the revenue has almost been wiped out in recent weeks. Theres no telling when it will rebound. Philadelphias school officials projected in April that if the governors fiscal projections were accurate, the district would face a $1 billion deficit over the next five years. The Pennsylvania legislature last month decided to spare districts by holding their funding flat until congress decides whether or not to provide states with a bailout package this summer. Search below to see if your district has a local sales tax. Burma Former Myanmar State, Regional Govts Have Yet to Return More Than 3 Billion Kyats in Misspent Funds Former President U Thein Sein / The Irrawaddy NAYPYITAWOfficials from former regional and state governments under U Thein Seins administration have yet to return over 3 billion kyats (US$2.14 million at todays rate) they are accused of misappropriating while in office, according to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Union (OAG). In 2018 the OAG, by this time under the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, audited development funds spent by regional and state governments during U Thein Seins term as president and found that some of the money had been used unlawfully. The Auditor-Generals Office examined the use of development funds by former governments in all regions and states as well as the Naypyitaw Union Territory at the instruction of the Presidents Office following a scandal involving the embezzlement of regional development funds by former Magwe Region chief minister U Phone Maw Shwe. In cases where funds could not be accounted for, the Presidents Office ordered officials from the former regional and state governments to return the money. Some members of the erstwhile administrations, including those from the previous Ayeyarwady regional government, returned the missing funds. However, a total of over 3 billion kyats misappropriated by the former administrations of Karen and Shan states and Yangon and Mandalay regions have yet to be returned. They have not yet fully repaid. The Presidents Office has continuously examined it. It has asked us to update it on the latest situation. We are preparing to submit a report to the Presidents Office, said OAG permanent secretary Daw Naing Thet Oo. The former Karen State government has yet to return 1,509.577 million kyats it lent to 45 individuals and organizations. The former Shan State government has yet to return 16.5 million kyats it should have received in rent on land leased out to a power project. The former Yangon regional government has yet to return 1,322.601 million kyats it said it loaned to gem merchants, and the Mandalay regional government has yet to return 322 million kyats it said it loaned for an electrification project. The OAG has instructed the relevant regional and state audit offices to submit reports by Monday. It will then report to the Presidents Office, said the deputy director general of the office, Daw Khin Khin Thi. Dr. Nanda Hla Myint, a spokesman for the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which was the ruling party at the time of the inappropriate fund use, said the missing money has nothing to do with the USDP itself because it was used to implement projects for which the new government assumed responsibility at the time it took power. There is money flowing in and out and projects to implement whenever there is a transfer of power to a new government. And thats the basis on which new governments should proceed. It has nothing to do with the [USDP]. Thats how government works, Dr. Nanda Hla Myint said. The amount of missing regional development funds was highest in Magwe and Ayeyarwady regions, amounting to 4.7 billion kyats in Magwe and some 5.2 billion kyats in Ayeyarwady. Officials from both of those former governments returned the funds. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko You may also like these stories: Myanmars Health Minister Warns of COVID-19 Outbreak Threat Despite Infection Decline Malaysia Seeks to Deport 3,000 Detained Illegal Immigrants to Myanmar Myanmar to Generate its First LNG Power Very Soon: Energy Ministry Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A month from now, the skies over parts of Brazil will fill with smoke. It's fire season in the Amazon, and the planet's largest rain forest is heading for another record burn. Every year, illegal loggers use bulldozers and chainsaws to rip through huge swaths of jungle, land that's then set on fire to make way for crops or cattle. This year, they've been particularly busy. A report released Monday shows an area 11 times the size of New York City could be incinerated. Unlike last year, when images of 300-year-old trees ablaze fueled international outrage, little stands in the way now. The world's focus is squarely on combating COVID-19 and its fallout. Brazilian teams of officers charged with patrolling the biome have been sickened or sidelined. And the federal government, led by a president who has jokingly referred to himself as "Captain Chainsaw," has been quick to seize on the pandemic as cover for further easing already lax environmental rules and enforcement. "Deforestation is almost entirely a reflection of public policy signals from Bolsonaro's government," said Tasso Azevedo, general coordinator at MapBiomas, a land-use monitoring platform. "And what he's signaling is that illegal actors won't be punished." As many as 4,500 square kilometers (1,740 square miles) have already been leveled and prepped for burns starting July, when the region's dry season starts and blazes begin, according to Monday's report from the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, known as Ipam, in collaboration with University of Sao Paulo researchers and the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Research Center. The territorywhich loggers were forced to abandon last year when threats of derailed trade deals strong-armed a reluctant Jair Bolsonaro into boosting enforcementmay double to some 9,000 square kilometers as tree felling continues, said Ipam, citing data from Brazil's national space institute. New York City's five boroughs occupy about 790 square kilometers. The Amazon, which spans nine countries and is larger than the Western U.S., hosts a wealth of biodiversity and helps regulate rains throughout the continent. The forest has lost its superpowers as cleaner of the world's air, as fires spew pollution faster than its plants and trees can absorb it. With COVID-19 racing through Brazil's impoverished north, it's hampering the ability of environmental agencies to fight back, which in turn makes the locals more vulnerable to getting sick as smoke fills the air. In Para state, one Amazon inspector died after catching the bug and almost half a 10-member enforcement team fell ill, as did the state's Environment Secretary Jose Mauro O' de Almeida. "The government hired more enforcement agents and we were training them when the pandemic hit," Almeida said in a telephone interview after recovering. "We were forced to stop everything." Death rates in the north average 31 per 100,000 inhabitants, more than twice the national average, according to Health Ministry statistics. Brazil as a whole has more cases than anywhere else outside the U.S. Depending on weather conditions, the smoke from Amazon fires can spread far and wide, according to Azevedo. Azevedo said fires are also expected across the vast savanna known as the Cerrado in central Brazil. And blazes have surged from a year ago in the Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland, which borders Bolivia and Paraguay, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, known as Inpe. MapBiomas estimates deforestation has accelerated to the fastest pace in 13 years. Meanwhile, the federal government has retrenched after last year's outcry forced Bolsonaro's hand in bolstering enforcement with national troops. Authorization for the army to be there expires on Wednesday and so far there's been no extension. Bolsonaro has argued that the Amazon belongs to Brazil and its natural resources should be used to develop the northern region and reduce poverty, claiming that foreign interest stems from a desire to control its mineral wealth rather than preserve its ecosystem. In a closed-door meeting, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles urged Bolsonaro to take advantage of global leaders' COVID-19 blinders to simplify regulations, according to a video of the gathering released by the Supreme Court on May 22. "We need to make the effort here while it's calm in terms of press coverage, because they're only talking about COVID," Salles said in the recorded meeting, suggesting they "change all the rules." With a month to go before the dry season starts in full force, Amazonas state Environment Secretary Eduardo Taveira said in a telephone interview he's worried fires will eclipse last year's pace. And once the blazes start, MapBiomas's Azevedo said, they're nearly impossible to stop. "It sounds beautifulthe images of helicopters combating fires," Azevedo said. "But in the end, it doesn't work." Explore further Amazon risks combusting with twin fire, virus crises 2020 Bloomberg News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. USC researchers have discovered that an old antibiotic may be a powerful new tool against a deadly superbug, thanks to an innovative screening method that better mimics conditions inside the human body. The antibiotic, rifabutin, is "highly active" in fighting multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, a significant cause of life-threatening infections in medical facilities, researchers found. The study appears today in Nature Microbiology. Rifabutin has been around for more than 35 years, and no one has ever studied it for Acinetobacter infections before. Going forward, we may find many new antibiotics that have been missed over the last 80 years because the screening tests used to discover them were suboptimal." Brian Luna, first author, assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Keck School of Medicine of USC Rifabutin is used to treat TB, especially in people with HIV/AIDS who can't tolerate a similar drug, rifampin. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system. Until now, it hadn't been tried against Acinetobacter baumannii, which emerged during the Iraq War as a troop-killing superbug in military treatment facilities. Acinetobacter causes pneumonia, meningitis and bloodstream infections; it tends to strike patients requiring lengthy hospital stays and invasive devices like catheters and ventilators. Each year, Acinetobacter baumannii is responsible for about 2% of the 99,000 U.S. deaths from hospital-acquired infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One reason rifabutin's superpower against superbugs was overlooked is because of current screening techniques, researchers said. Since the 1940s, new or existing antibiotics have been tested against bacteria grown in "rich culture media," a nutrient-packed broth or gel which speeds up the process by making the bacteria to grow rapidly. "But bacteria grow very differently inside the human body," said Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center and senior author of the study. So, the team designed a new type of "nutrient-limited" media that better mimics conditions inside the body. They hypothesized that the more realistic media might unmask antibiotics with hidden strengths. They found that rifabutin was vigorously active against Acinetobacter baumannii grown in the nutrient-limited media (as well as in animal tissue) but not effective against bacteria grown in the more commonly used media. The scientists discovered that rifabutin uses a unique, Trojan-horse strategy to trick the bacteria into actively importing the drug inside itself, bypassing the bacterial outer cell defenses. This "pump" that imports the drug is only active in the more human-like media. In traditional rich culture media, high levels of iron and amino acids suppress the pump's activity, researchers found. "Rifabutin can be used immediately to treat such infections because it is already FDA-approved, cheap and generic, and on the market," Spellberg said. "But we would like to see randomized controlled human trials to prove its efficacy, so we know for sure one way or the other." LEESBURG, Va., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cofense, the global leader in intelligent phishing defense solutions, today launched a comprehensive resource center and easy-to-use Real Phishing Threats searchable database to help organizations see the phishing threats that slip past their secure email gateways (SEG). In a world where hackers and threat actors constantly innovate and use tried-and-true tactics to stay one step ahead of detection, a multi-layered approach to email security is essential. In 2019, the Cofense Phishing Defense Center analyzed 1.9 million suspicious emails that landed in employee inboxes across the globe, one in seven of which were found to be malicious. Built on the world's largest data lake of phishing threats found by real people, Cofense combines the power of collective human detection and intelligence with automated response, enabling teams to stop phishing attacks rapidly after they have evaded perimeter technologies. To help organizations bolster their defenses, Cofense is revealing the phishing emails that bypass SEGs every single day as well as the steps organizations can take to empower their employees and security teams to detect, report, analyze and quickly neutralize these threats. In the last 90 days alone, Cofense has found: 31,231 malicious emails in environments protected by Microsoft Office 365 13,610 malicious emails in environments protected by Proofpoint 9,356 malicious emails in environments protected by Mimecast 2,936 malicious emails in environments protected by Symantec "Several organizations view SEGs as a panacea to their email security woes. These technologies fail to deliver on their promise every day," said Rohyt Belani, chief executive officer and cofounder, Cofense. "All SEG vendors including Proofpoint, Microsoft, Symantec, Mimecast and Cisco, to name a few, are circumvented every day by even commonplace phishing attacks that use years old malware and credential harvesting tricks. Cofense provides a modern phishing defense and response solution that relies on 23 million humans across the globe for detection, making it impossible for attackers to model their threats. We then leverage machine learning and automation to help our customers rapidly identify the full scope of the attacks and neutralize them before incidents evolve to breaches." SEGs are the most common type of perimeter technology used to stop spam and malicious email from landing in user inboxes, but they fall short every day for several reasons. According to the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, phishing is the top tactic used by adversaries to breach networks, and 92% of all malware is distributed via email according to a recent Cisco report. While SEGs can be tuned to validate senders, they cannot always defend against both tried-and-true and emerging tactics not seen before. Today's phishing emails tend to use multiple stages of packing and obfuscation, rendering signature-based detection useless. Using real email accounts and legitimate websites, threat actors launch attacks and profit within hours. Not to mention, business email compromise (BEC) relies on email conversation, not URLs or other elements SEGs look for, to scam organizations out of billions every year. Cofense will continue to regularly update its SEG Infocenter with the latest examples of real phish that have evaded email security technologies along with additional resources and intelligence related to SEG misses. For a limited time, organizations can also stay on top of the latest threats that are confirmed to have reached employees inboxes with 90 days of free access to Cofense Intelligence, human-vetted, strategic and tactical intelligence that helps organizations inform their phishing defense strategy. For in-depth analysis of phishing threats, visit the Cofense blog, and register for Cofense's webinar on June 24, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific/11 a.m. Eastern to hear about the promise of SEGs, the methods threat actors use to evade them, and how organizations can leverage technology and human intelligence to succeed where SEGs fail. Visit the Cofense Real Phishing Threats searchable database at https://cofense.com/real-phishing-threats and SEG Infocenter at https://cofense.com/what-is-a-seg. About Cofense Cofense, the leading provider of intelligent phishing defense solutions worldwide, is uniting humanity against phishing. The Cofense suite of products combines timely attack intelligence on phishing threats that have evaded perimeter controls and were reported by employees, with best-in-class security operations technologies to stop attacks faster and stay ahead of breaches. Cofense customers include Global 1000 organizations in defense, energy, financial services, healthcare and manufacturing sectors that understand how changing user behavior will improve security, aid incident response and reduce the risk of compromise. For additional information, please visit www.cofense.com or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn. Media Contact [email protected] SOURCE Cofense Related Links https://cofense.com/ How COVID-19 is Stifling Vietnam's Agenda to Vie with China over Disputed Sea By Ralph Jennings June 08, 2020 The coronavirus outbreak is dashing hopes in Vietnam that its lead role in a regional bloc of countries this year will help resolve a sticky maritime sovereignty dispute with China. Vietnam is chairing the 10-member country Association of Southeast Asian Nations through 2020, a once-per-decade opportunity for each bloc member. The association better known as ASEAN sometimes uses statements and talks to pressure Beijing over its South China Sea claims. ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam dispute some of the Chinese claims. Vietnam is the most outspoken. But online meetings of the type that ASEAN members have held this year to date, due to coronavirus concerns, are unlikely to produce diplomatic momentum, scholars say. In-person meetings build more trust, in turn generating more deals, and any events that do take place will focus more on responses to the coronavirus pandemic rather than on geopolitics, they believe. "It's different if you have a face-to-face meeting compared to an online meeting," said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore's public policy school. "Even if there's a face-to-face meeting, I think the mindset of these ministers would be on this pandemic rather than the South China Sea." ASEAN dealmaking thrives on sideline meetings, scheduled breaks and other unrecorded sessions that are common at "live" events, said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines. "You don't have the option of side meetings, or informal sessions," Batongbacal said, referring to online events. "All the online meetings I'm sure will be recorded, so it will be very formal, so it's going to be difficult for them to try to settle things off the record." The chair rotates to a different country each year, and chairs have power to set the year's ASEAN agenda. Normally foreign ministers meet in mid-year and heads of state gather toward the end of each year to approve deals. Vietnam's ASEAN role coincides with its U.N. Security Council presidency this year, giving it extra clout in foreign affairs. Lack of of face-to-face meetings will sideline Vietnam's "agenda" to ease the maritime dispute with China said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies director at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City. It would also spare China the sometimes uncomfortable task of addressing a tough agenda. Vietnam had hoped this year to strengthen relations with ASEAN's "external partners" and expand the network, writes Frederick Kliem, a visiting fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. In the same spirit, Kleim writes in a paper as posted to a Vietnamese government website last month, Vietnam wanted to work on securing consensus among ASEAN nations when the bloc deals with outside countries. Action toward China in the past has faltered because Chinese allies such as Cambodia and Laos won't go along. ASEAN and China are due by next year to finish a code of conduct for the disputed 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea. The code would set aside sovereignty differences and establish steps for handling mishaps between vessels, but no one's sure whether the code will be binding or what tracts of sea it will cover. Claimant countries value the South China Sea for its fisheries, shipping lanes and undersea energy reserves. China is the most militarily powerful. The chair seldom pushes obviously "controversial" measures, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. For that reason, he said, the code of conduct has been pending for about a decade. "That actually is a very good illustration of the ASEAN dilemma," Oh said. As chair in 2010, Vietnam led the first ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus and let the United States join ASEAN's East Asia Summit. The "plus" refers to Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States. Vietnam's chief hope for South China Sea progress this year may be its participation as a "plus" member among a group of four Western-allied countries, Nguyen said. The group called the Quad Plus held two video conferences in March on COVID-19 remedies and economic impacts from the disease. The quad countries Australia, India, Japan and the United States normally take action to keep the South China Sea open internationally rather than letting China tighten its grip. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address With demand for local labourers increasing as the paddy season draws closer, panchayats in Punjab have started issuing diktats to finalise wages for sowing paddy. Some have also threatened dissenters with social boycott and hefty penalties. The paddy season will commence from June 10. As per the resolutions passed by the panchayats, farm labourers will be paid Rs 2,500-Rs 3,200 per acre for sowing paddy. Labourers have also been barred from moving out of village for work. Sukhijit Kaur, sarpanch of Muktsars Bhalayiana village, said, Such a resolution has been passed for the first time due to labour shortage. It will help both farmers and labourers as the rates decided suit both parties. The acute shortage of labour due to mass exodus of the migrant labourers from state during lockdown has driven up the rates of local labour. Labourers are demanding Rs 4,000-4,500 per acre, which is a steep increase from last years Rs 2,800 per acre. Farmers and labourers are at loggerheads with the latter demanding higher wages, and the former reluctant to oblige. THREATS ISSUED However, some resolutions passed by villages, especially in the southern districts of Punjab, primarily Bathinda, Muktsar, Sangrur and Patiala, are threatening in nature. A few panchayats have proposed socially boycotting labourers should they demand more wages than the stipulated rates. Though the department of rural development does not yet have the exact number of panchayats that have passed such orders, officials say villages are increasingly following the trend. The panchayat of Ghanauri Khurd village in Dhuri block of Sangrur district went so far to direct the labourers to carry their own utensils for tea and lunch. Similar directions were issued in the resolution passed by Kharayal village of the Sangrur district. Ghanauri Khurd village sarpanch Rajdeep Kaur said the resolution had been passed so as to avoid confusion while hiring labourers. The decision to bar labourers from providing their services at other villages was taken to cope with shortage of labour, she said. RS 5,000-RS 25,000 FINES TO BE IMPOSED The resolutions have also stipulated a fine ranging between Rs 5,000-Rs 25,000, which will be imposed in case either party violates the panchayats directions. Mogas Singhawala village has decided to increase the fine to Rs 50,000, besides banning entry of labourers from other areas. UNEASY CALM PREVAILS Bhinder Singh, the husband of Bathindas Jeeda village sarpanch Kulwinder Kaur, said an uneasy calm prevails among farmers and labourers as the local labourers were demanding exorbitant. The resolutions have been passed so that farmers are not burdened and labourers are not underpaid, he said. Meanwhile, Gurusar village sarpanch Beant Singh Sidhu said they had dropped the idea of fixing labour prices after drafting a detailed resolution. We have decided to let farmers and labourers negotiate the final prices and other terms and conditions, he said. RESOLUTIONS UNACCEPTABLE, SAY LABOUR UNIONS The resolutions have not gone down well with labour unions. Punjab Khet Majdoor Union general secretary Lachhman Singh Sewewala said the resolutions were illegitimate. We have all the right to demand wages as per the requirement of work. How can a village panchayat force labourers to work in the village only? he asked. Last year, migrant labourers were paid Rs 2,700-3,200 for sowing paddy per acre, and now panchayats are offering the same rates to us, Sewewala said. Panchayats are threatening social boycott and hefty fines, which is unconstitutional, he said. Kashmir Singh, a labour activist and Punjab executive member of the Communist party of India, said village panchayats should immediately roll back their resolutions. We are not bonded labour and should be included in decision making. Moreover, the panchayat has no right to decide anybodys earnings, Singh said. DEPARTMENT SAYS RESOLUTIONS ARE ILLEGAL Punjab rural development and panchayats department director of DPS Kharbanda said, Gram panchayats are not entitled to pass orders determining the wages of labourers. These resolutions are illegal and we will cancel all such resolutions once they are tabled. I have already instructed district-level officials across the state to check and stop such practices, he said. The agriculture department has estimated that around 12.5 lakh labourers will be required to sow paddy in 30 days. Most labour available in villages belong to dalit communities. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A peaceful crowd of around 1,200 demonstrators marched through the Southtown area Monday on the 10th consecutive day of protests in San Antonio calling for an end to racism and prejudice. They ended their trek at Hemisfair Park, where the city lit the Tower of the Americas to show support. A diverse mass of people, many of them young, walked and rallied for hours in 100-degree heat in solidarity with a national movement sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man killed in police custody in Minneapolis two weeks ago. After the demonstration, several buildings on San Antonios skyline were illuminated in gold and crimson to pay tribute to the former Houston resident the night before his funeral in that city. The colors bathed the Tower of the Americas, the Convention Center, the Frost Bank Tower, the Alamodomes marquee and the consolidated car rental facility at San Antonio International Airport. The hues represent Houstons Yates High School, from which Floyd graduated. Other cities around the nation lit their buildings in the same colors. San Antonio was invited by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to join in the tribute. Mondays march, which was silent at times, drew teachers, elected officials, police officers and parents. We want an America that lives up to its highest ideals, said former Mayor Julian Castro at the Blue Star Arts Complex at the start of the march. Where no matter who you are, youre treated fairly and your life is not snuffed out by somebody because of their bigotry. A lot of our police officers are well-intentioned, but I also dont doubt that the system is totally broke, said Castro, who lost a bid for the Democratic nomination for president and is helping craft police reform policies for Joe Biden, the presumptive nominee. Or some might say the system is working as it was designed and we have to change it. Go vote in November, hold elected officials accountable at every level. This lightning bolt of passion around this issue turns into real change. His brother, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said people used to argue over how to interpret police brutality videos. Ill tell you what changed with George Floyd, the congressman told the crowd. We moved beyond interpretation. There was no interpretation. George Floyd was murdered by that police officer. He was an American just like all of us." All of your energy and all of this activism for the last week, ultimately that has to turn into change in legislatures and city councils. At one point, participants stood in front of the Convention Center for about 15 minutes, chanting in unison My life matters, I cant breathe and Hands up, dont shoot. By 7:30 p.m., the march had arrived at Hemisfair Park, more than four hours after it began. On ExpressNews.com: Joe Biden taps Julian Castro for help on police reforms Castro said he wants to ban police chokeholds, demilitarize police and get rid of qualified immunity for officers and collective bargaining agreements that protect them from appropriate discipline. Kevin Cox, 32, a white teacher at McCullom High School, told the crowd that he grew up in Jasper, where 22 years ago, James Byrd Jr. was dragged to his death. We cant take that back, Cox said with an East Texas drawl. We cant fix that, but we can fight moving forward and we can create change. People who sound like me, who look like me, who are from where Im from, can be part of that change. An audience member named Leah Wilson wiped away tears when her daughter Thalia, 6, was applauded for shouting Black lives matter! during an emotional speech by Young Ambitious Activists founder Antonio Lee, who discussed the risks of demonstrating during a pandemic. No matter what color you are, you have to be treated right, Thalia explained later. Wilson, who is white, said shes been bringing her three small children to the protests since they began. A nursing student at UT Health San Antonio, she said she chose her profession partly to help fix racial disparities in maternal and fetal care. I dont know, in all honesty, that the police system can be fixed, Wilson said. I think it might need to be rebuilt. For San Antonio teacher Matthew Alonzo, 32, the focus remains fixing the issues at home to see real change. San Antonios city council could have a major impact when it votes on a budget for the coming fiscal year in the next few months, Alonzo said. Sixty-five percent of our budget is public safety; Los Angeles is 51 percent and Houston is 57 percent, Alonzo said. Are you telling me we are more dangerous than L.A. or Houston? Alonzo proposes giving less funding to the San Antonio Police Department and providing more to social workers and education. But he noted that some San Antonio police officers, whom he called brave public servants, have been hurt during the recent turmoil because of bad actions by Minneapolis police. On ExpressNews.com: Puro Politics Podcast: The keys to police reform SAPD Officer Doug Greene, who was among those speaking at the rally at Blue Star, said he also wants to see progress and change here. A lot of good officers feel so hated right now across the nation, Greene said. But in San Antonio, there is still so much love, and you make us want to serve and be better for you. Some in the crowd questioned why Greene was the only police officer walking with them, but the overwhelming majority cheered and thanked him for taking a stand. Greene, in his police uniform, also spent time mingling with the audience and answering questions. I met some of the demonstrators at the rally last week, and we had a good conversation, so they invited me out here today, Greene said. All I got from them was love there was no judgment, no anger, nothing bad. Our whole conversation was receptive, and everyone is just trying to grow together. But when Greene spoke to the protesters later Monday sharing his personal experiences to show there is a human behind the badge, he said some didnt want to listen. About a dozen shouted that he was the problem and that he needed to quit his job. Others said Greene wasnt saying anything of substance. Organizers of the event quickly shut down the hecklers, asking them to listen and remain respectful. Outside the Arneson River Theater, a young woman lay down, overcome with heatstroke but conscious. People poured water over her and fanned her as police formed a protective ring around the group. Several speakers picked up on a theme of family, describing what they have felt from the San Antonio crowds during protests during the past week. You are surrounded by love, by allies and by friends, said organizer Trevor Taylor, an English teacher at Wagner High School. We are all family out here. Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news reporter for MySA.com | Alia Malik covers education in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Alia, become a subscriber. amalik@express-news.net | Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN Jayson Rowe, a 40 year old North Carolina Pastor of Conway Baptist Church died by apparent suicide on June 2. According to the Conway Police Department, law enforcement officers were in the process of investigating an allegation of criminal sexual misconduct against Rowe when they received a call about his death. Tom Collins, the church deacon board chairman shared with Baptist Press on June 8 that a 17-year-old male church member brought a credible allegation of sexual abuse against Rowe. Collins expressed concern for the church family in a statement, "The victim was a church member and obviously we're concerned and focused on the victim and the family." There is currently no information of physical abuse but "it was sexual abuse by the defection, so it's something we take very seriously, obviously," added Collins. Conway Baptist church is planning to make counseling available to church members and to provide a full report to the church body at the completion of the investigation. Danny Akin, the president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) where Rowe was a former staff member and student at, informed more than 800 current and former students about the allegation against Rowe. Akin shared, "We were grieved and appalled upon learning of this sexual abuse, but I want to be clear: we will do anything in our power to assist sexual abuse victims. Rowe also lived on campus at SEBTS for five years and Akin encouraged current and former students to report any alleged inappropriate behavior. "Our commitment is to stand with victims not only in our prayers and also in our actions. We are taking every necessary step at this time to ensure the protection of those in our community," said Akin. Rowe falsely reported in 2013 that a black male with a knife carjacked and forced him to withdraw money from a bank. Rowe was arrested after his false report being determined as a consensual encounter and unrelated to any violent activity. Rowe was bailed out and when he was hired by the church, the church was aware of the past arrest. "We were satisfied that it was an isolated event that had occurred in this past. We saw no other red flags in our review of his records," Collins explained their decision to hire Rowe despite his arrest record. Michael Wing Editor and Writer Follow Michael Wing is a writer and editor based in Calgary, Canada, where he was born and educated in the arts. He writes mainly on culture, human interest, and trending news. Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk poses with Tesla China-made Model 3 vehicle owners onstage during a delivery event at its Shanghai factory in China January 7, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song Tesla saw a large increase in China sales in May over April, a trade group said Monday. The uptick comes as China, the world's largest car market, also rebounded from months of declines. Shares of Tesla surged Monday after the news. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla sold 11,095 Shanghai-made Model 3 vehicles in China in May, more than triple the volume seen in April, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). Tesla sold 3,635 vehicles in April, down from around 10,160 units in March, CPCA data showed. CPCA uses a different counting method than Tesla's deliveries. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The jump comes as China, the world's largest automotive market, posted its first month-over-month sales gain in almost a year. Sales of cars, SUVs and other vehicles jumped hit 1.64 million in May, a 1.9% uptick from a year earlier and the first increase since Jun 2019, the CPCA said. Tesla's stock price jumped as much as 5.4% to a new all-time high in trading Monday following the data's release. "Strong Model 3 demand out of China remains a ray of light for Tesla in a dark global macro and appears to be on a run rate to hit 100k unit deliveries in the first year out of the gates for Giga 3 which is driving some strength for Tesla as well as Model Y deliveries starting to ramp as well," Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said in a note to clients. (Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh; Editing by Jan Harvey) Read the original article on Business Insider By Xu Xiaoping and Chen Jing HUAIHUA, June 9 -- The Huaihua military sub-command in Central Chinas Hunan province recently organized a combat-led training for a specialized militia detachment. The militia detachment,which is established for camouflage protection, mainly provides logistics support for troops of certain service. The military sub-command and our detachment jointly explored a string of practical techniques and tactics such as camouflaged hiding, sending false signals, and deception and obstruction, to reduce the exposure of troops on the field, said Xie Hong, a battalion commander responsible for the training. Xie also noted that such joint training and exercise has significantly improved the militias support capability in battles and turned militia detachments into an important part in fortifying the troops combat force. According to the deployments of superior military unit, the Huaihua military sub-command has formed 13 specialized militia detachments in recent years, concentrating on different fields of anti-chemical rescue, medical aid, communications support, security alert, etc. Based on their operational characteristics , the military sub-command has carried out joint exercises and training to maximize their support capability for real combats. According to an official from the military sub-command, together with the military organs at the division and regiment level, they have conducted several surveys and battlefield inspections to get the first hand information of the battlefield environment and the targets, as well as to estimate the support demands at the same time. As a result, 32 valuable results in seven aspects have been obtained, and the organizing and commanding procedures for mobilizing militia, coordinated support mode, and military-local coordination mechanism have been established. The final joint training plan is strictly aligned with the troops training requirements, said ShenDingzhen, chief of the Combat Readiness Division of the military sub-command, adding that they have tried to make the training subjects comprehensive and combat-oriented when making annual plans. For example, in terms of contents, the professional training mainly includes camouflage, cable repair, battlefield rescue and aid, and protection and sterilization, while the operational training focuses on combat formation, tactical confrontation, and specific subjects. It is learnt that the Huaihua military sub-command organizes joint real-combat exercises with military troops every year, in a bid to enhance the militia detachments emergency response capabilities through training in a realistic, difficult and rigorous environment. KYODO NEWS - Jun 9, 2020 - 21:30 | All, Japan, Coronavirus An estimated 4,943 nonregular workers had been laid off or were expected to be laid off in Japan due to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic as of last Friday, more than double the figure from a week earlier, data released by the labor ministry showed Tuesday. The figure, which stood at 2,366 as of May 29, is tallied from businesses consulted by prefectural labor bureaus or public job placement offices. A total of 20,933 people in the workforce are expected to have their contracts terminated or have already been dismissed due to the virus outbreak since February, when the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare began collecting data on the matter. But as the tally from February through May 24 does not include a breakdown by employment status, nonregular employees are likely to account for even more than the published figure of 4,943. Of the 20,933, those working in the accommodation sector, such as hotels and traditional "ryokan" inns, accounted for the most at 4,348, followed by the food and beverage sector at 3,484, manufacturing at 2,813 and road transportation at 2,377. The tourism sector has been among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic amid entry bans and calls for residents to stay at home. Sales at department stores and restaurants have also declined significantly since a state of emergency was declared in Tokyo and other urban areas on April 7 and later expanded nationwide. Many businesses are still operating on shortened hours even after the complete lifting of the state of emergency on May 25. By prefecture, workers in Tokyo were the hardest hit with 3,164 laid off, followed by Osaka at 2,998 and Hokkaido at 1,149. Related coverage: Taxis across Japan start delivering hot meals amid pandemic Budget airlines face business model challenge in post-pandemic world NYC starts phased reopening but many remain cautious Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) London Tue, June 9, 2020 16:00 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd4ee7c 2 World UK,Britain,Boris-Johnson,racial-discrimination,racial-incidents,racial-issues,racial-tension,racial-violence,anti-racism,anti-racism-protests,black-lives-matter Free British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged the "cold reality" behind angry protests against racial injustice, but warned he would not tolerate violence or the breaking of coronavirus distancing laws. Demonstrations have broken out across Britain following the death of George Floyd in the United States, most of them peaceful, although clashes in London left 35 police officers hurt. "We simply cannot ignore the depth of emotion that has been triggered by that spectacle of a black man losing his life at the hands of the police," Johnson said in a statement late Monday. "In this country and around the world his dying words -- I can't breathe -- have awakened an anger and a widespread and incontrovertible, undeniable feeling of injustice, a feeling that people from black and minority ethnic groups do face discrimination: in education, in employment, in the application of the criminal law. "And we who lead and who govern simply can't ignore those feelings because in too many cases, I am afraid, they will be founded on a cold reality." He continued: "And so I say yes, you are right, we are all right, to say Black Lives Matter. "And to all those who have chosen to protest peacefully and who have insisted on social distancing, I say, yes of course I hear you, and I understand." He said while Britain had made "huge strides... there is so much more to do -- in eradicating prejudice, and creating opportunity, and the government I lead is committed to that effort." However, he warned the country was "in a time of national trial" as it battled the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed 40,000 people in Britain. 'Bygone era' "I will not support those who flout the rules on social distancing," he said. "And no, I will not support or indulge those who break the law, or attack the police, or desecrate public monuments." London protesters defaced the statue of World War II leader Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, and in Bristol, southwest England, crowds pulled down a statue of a notorious local slave trader. "We have a democracy in this country. If you want to change the urban landscape, you can stand for election, or vote for someone who will," Johnson said. London mayor Sadiq Khan on Tuesday announced a review of the capital's landmarks, including statues and road names, many of which he said "reflect a bygone era". "We must ensure that we celebrate the achievements and diversity of all in our city, and that we commemorate those who have made London what it is -- that includes questioning which legacies are being celebrated," he said. Wiregrass blogger Rickey Stokes was arrested over the weekend on charges of driving under the influence. Stokes, who also serves as chief of staff of the Houston County Emergency Management Agency, was arrested in Washington County, Florida and released on bond about 10 a.m. Saturday, WTVY reported. Stokes operates Rickey Stokes News, a website that covers the Dothan and Houston County area. He also operates A-Advantage, a bail bonding company, the station said. Stokes confirmed the arrest on his website with an article titled Yes, the Rumors are True. Because of the pending case I am limited of what I can say. But do not believe all you hear. And nothing in what I am writing admits or denies anything, other than it is true that I was arrested for DUI (driving under the influence.) Not DWI (driving while intoxicated) but DUI. Stokes is currently involved in an Alabama Ethics Commission complaint being investigated by the Attorney Generals Office, the Dothan Eagle reported. The complaint alleges Stokes used his EMA position and equipment for personal gain. He has denied the charges. Booking Holdings Takes Solitary Path in Online Travel Debate Over Offering Financial Relief to Partners While Airbnb is issuing $17 million in grants to some super hosts, and Google, Expedia Group, Trip.com Group and Tripadvisor are offering various forms of advertising or marketing credits, loans or financial relief to partners, Booking Holdings is a holdout and isnt mounting a financial recovery effort. Booking Holdings, which includes brands such as Booking.com, Priceline and Agoda, has chosen to forego taking the financial relief route and instead is working on recovery toolkits for partners, sharing data to entice bookings, and is rolling out consumer incentives to generate demand, according to spokeswoman Leslie Cafferty. Cafferty argued that some of these measures can have a longer-term impact than offering partners a one-time payment. Some of these travel industry relief efforts particularly Airbnb and Googles programs have found themselves in the line of fire. Airbnb ironically is the only hospitality-specific program that Skift found thats actually handing out any money. Facebook says it is offering a $100 million program of cash grants and advertising credits for small businesses in or near its operational areas. Applications appear to be mostly available in the United States and Canada to date. Airbnbs Super Host Relief Grants Airbnb has a $17 million grant program for super hosts, but many have complained that the criteria for qualifying have been opaque, and they havent even received a grant application, let alone any payments. To apply, super hosts must first receive an application from Airbnb. In mid-May, Airbnb stated that it handed out $7.4 million in grants to 4,000 super hosts, and that qualifying super hosts would receive the remaining $9.6 million, in payments ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, by the end of June. The fund will support thousands of Superhosts, but not all of them will receive invitations, which are prioritized according to several factors, like how long they have been a Superhost and how severely their Airbnb earnings have been impacted, for example, Airbnb stated May 19. Story continues Airbnb added in a community post the next day we compare a hosts earnings from last year to their earnings this year. We look at the percentage of earnings loss, not the total value of losses. This helps ensure we invite hosts who earn at different rates. Airbnb has prioritized sending grant applications to people who have been super hosts for 4-5 years, and the average track record of grant recipients at that date had been four-and-a-half years. Sera Ignatiuk, who has been an Airbnb super host in Durban, South Africa for four years, told Skift Tuesday that the country has been on lockdown since late February, and that only since June 1 have authorities permitted hosts to rent to relief workers and business travelers. Ignatiuk said she lost about 10,000 rand ($600) per month since late February because of the Covid-19 crisis, and this money is her only income. She needs the income to support her two children, Ignatiuk said. That may not seem like a lot of lost income to Airbnb, Ignatiuk said, but in my currency it is a helluva lot. Here, its the earth, its the world. Without it we sit in a situation where we have nothing. The Durban super host said there is a network of super hosts in the city who cooperate when there is an overflow of guests, and shes heard of none receiving Airbnb grants. An Austin, Texas superhost, who declined to be identified, as did several super hosts, out of fear of Airbnb retribution, said hes been a super host for five years, and Airbnb has given him no clue despite repeated attempts about why he hasnt received a grant application. Skift conversed with two other hosts one who received a $1,000 grant and one who didnt even receive an application who had fairly kind words to say about Airbnbs grant program. Meighan Depke, a Chicago super host since 2011 and a moderator of Facebook forum for Airbnb hosts, said her personal take is that the grant, if received, is intended to help hosts, not replace lost income. Hosts around the world should be looking at other options for financial assistance, whether from their government, bank or elsewhere. Depke hasnt received an application, but has received some government assistance, and has been able to host locals to cover some expenses. Depke said she prefers the grants go to Airbnb hosts who are struggling. Asked if Airbnbs grant program is too little, too late, as some super hosts have alleged, Depke said: As for too little, too late, I dont personally feel that Airbnb employees (who donated to the grant) or its founders have a responsibility to support me at this time. Its a gesture and it honestly pisses me off that any host would be crying about not getting it at this point. The $17 million grant monies come from Airbnbs founders, employees, and private equity investors. It should be pointed out that among the various travel industry relief programs for partners, Airbnbs is the only one we found that is actually handing out money that doesnt need to be repaid. Facebook has a small business grant and advertising credit program, as well. There are some apples to oranges comparisons in evidence about various relief programs. Separate from the super host grant program, Airbnb agreed to make $250 million in payments to hosts to compensate them for about 25 percent of the cancellations that occurred from mid-March to the end of that month. But that $250 million came only after Airbnb earlier decided to refund guests for cancellations without compensating hosts. Through the end of March, Booking Holdings paid around $63 milliion in refunds. So these werent recovery programs, per se, but were part of cancellation refunds paid to consumers or property owners. Googles Credits Capped at $1,000 Google is handing out $340 million advertising credits for future campaigns to small- and medium-size businesses, not just in travel, and the search engine caps the credits at $1,000. The program, which took weeks to roll out because Google had to build the technology for it, has come under fire from German and French travel companies for not offering refunds on millions of dollars in advertising spending that didnt lead to bookings because of the pandemic. The Google program has stringent requirements: For example, partners had to advertise in Google in at least 10 months in 2019, and January and/or February 2020. The Covid-19 crisis has deeply impacted small businesses globally and we designed our SMB ad credit to reach our small business customers broadly with a gesture of support, a Google spokesperson said. We hope this will help to defray some of the cost of re-engaging with their customers at a time that is right for them. Expedia Provides Credits Toward Future Campaigns Expedia Group debuted an estimated $275 million relief program for partners that is mostly in the form of advertising and marketing credits for future campaigns. Expedias program is geared to provide credits up to 25 percent of partners 2019 advertising spend for upcoming marketing campaigns; credits would range from $200 to $100,000. Many of Vrbos short-term rental hosts are ineligible for the Expedia Group program. Trip.com Group Loan Program In the first quarter, which ended March 31, Chinas Trip.com Group paid customers around $1.2 billion in refunds, a move mandated by the Chinese government. Trip.com Groups financing arm also provided 17,000 loans worth about $1.4 billion to small businesses as of the end of May. Tripadvisor Provided Relief to Restaurants and Hotels Tripadvisor hasnt publicly disclosed a dollar value on a relief program for its restaurant and hotel partners. But Tripadvisor Chief Financial Officer Ernst Teunissen said in May that the company was pushing out, meaning delaying, some partner payment requirements. The company also provided free subscription services for a couple of months to restaurant and hotel partners during the height of the pandemic, and subsidized some partner advertising placements in coronavirus-impacted markets, a spokesperson said. Subscribe to Skift newsletters for essential news about the business of travel. A pack of British American Tobacco Lucky Strike cigarettes in a Tobacco Store. (Igor Golovniov/SOPA/LightRocket via Getty) British American Tobacco (BATS.L) has cut growth targets for the year and pushed back its goal of hitting 5bn ($6.3bn)in sales for alternative products like vapes. BAT, the company behind brands like Dunhill, Lucky Strike, and Pall Mall, blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for the downgrades. In a statement on Tuesday, BAT said longer-than-expected lockdowns in markets like South Africa, Mexico, and Argentina had contributed to disappointing sales in emerging markets. In South Africa, authorities have temporarily banned tobacco and alcohol sales during the shutdown. Sales falls in markets like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Malaysia has also been more pronounced, the company said. As a result, BAT now expects sales volumes to shrink by 7% this year, worse than its previous forecast of a 5% decline. Revenue for the year is expected to grow by between 1-3%, down from an earlier range of 3-5%. Debt will remain at its current levels, while BATs earnings per share growth forecast was downgraded. The company also pushed back a target to reach 5bn in sales from new products such as vapes and tobacco heating pens. BAT had previously hoped to hit the milestone by 2023/24, but now expects to reach the goal by 2025. However, the company reaffirmed its commitment to continue to pay its dividend at the current rate. Shares in the business fell 2.5% in early trade in London. Chief executive Jack Bowles said in a statement: We have made a good start to the year, with strong volume and value share growth in combustibles underpinning the sustainability of the business. I am pleased to say that we continue to perform well and expect a good performance in 2020, in the context of very challenging circumstances. Looking further ahead, we are confident about the future opportunities for BAT. Our continued commitment to our dividend policy reflects this confidence." Micheal Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said: The last three years have been difficult ones for big tobacco, hit by regulatory crackdowns, and advertising bans on its traditional tobacco products the industry switched focus onto the e-cigarettes and vaping products. British American Tobacco has been no different. Businesses, homes and cars damaged or vandalized in the uprisings and civil unrest after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis will be covered by most insurance policies. With few exceptions, auto, business and homeowner insurance policies cover property damage caused by such incidents, industry experts told USA TODAY. I would expect anyone that has actual, physical damage to their property should be making a claim now, said Kim Winter, an attorney who leads Lathrop GPMs insurance recovery and counseling practice group. We recommend that they make a claim sooner rather than later, even if they don't know what all of their damages are yet. Save better, spend better: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here George Floyd protests: How to avoid disinformation and misinformation on social media Protesters have been rallying against racial inequality and police brutality after Floyd's death. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was seen on video pressing his knee against Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes as the unarmed, handcuffed black man gasped that he couldn't breathe. Court papers show Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd for two minutes after another officer couldn't detect a pulse on him. Chauvin was fired, arrested and charged with second-degree murder and other charges. His bail was set at $1.25 million. Jeff Kidder, 55, cleans up broken glass and debris in front of a building he owns in downtown Erie, Pa., on May 31. The damage occurred during social unrest after the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25. The building houses two businesses, including the Ember + Forge coffee shop, and 10 apartments. Most of the protesters have been peaceful, but in some cities, including Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, individuals and groups resorted to arson, violence, vandalism and burglary of businesses. In terms of the damage nationwide, this could be one of the costliest U.S. civil disorders, said Loretta Worters, vice president of media relations at the Insurance Information Institute. The nation's highest recorded financial damages due to civil disorder stem from the acquittal in 1992 of Los Angeles Police Department officers for using excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King. The estimated loss was $735 million or $1.4 billion adjusted in 2020 dollars, according to data from Property Claim Services, a Verisk Analytics company. It could take months to assess the financial toll related to recent unrest. Story continues What's covered by insurance Small-business insurance policies generally cover damage to windows, doors, light fixtures and contents, including furniture, office supplies, machinery and computers, plus the cost of boarding up windows and securing the business. Damage to cars is covered under auto insurance policies, which include comprehensive coverage. Paul Blume, senior vice president, state government and member relations for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, said, Every effort is being made to assure prompt assessments and payments for covered claims. We can reassure customers that most standard insurance policies for business owners and homeowners provide coverage for property losses related to civil unrest, Blume said in a statement. Pandemic -related losses not covered Businesses might have business interruption insurance, which covers them if theyre forced to suspend operations or limit hours. Those provisions are meant to cover lost income during that period. Damages associated with the uprisings come as some people may have experienced losses connected to COVID-19. The insurance industry said business interruptions related to COVID-19 won't be covered within claims connected to civil unrest. In some cases, to qualify for business interruption coverage, a business has to have damage, and in most cases, the business would have had to be open or have reopened after the COVID-19 lockdowns, Worters said. Financial assistance programs Specific types of coverage and limits vary depending on the policy. Deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs may apply. State and local governments, as well as private groups, are setting up relief funds to help businesses. Some turn to crowdsourcing, such as GoFundMe fundraisers. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a Small Business Emergency Grant Program that will give small businesses up to $10,000 if they were affected by looting and experienced damage to their storefronts. The only way we will move forward and get small businesses back on their feet is by coming together as a community, de Blasio said in a news release. Our small businesses are not going anywhere. They are strong and resilient and they will be back, and we are here to help them do that. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said last week that the city is dedicating at least $10 million to support small businesses and is working with philanthropies and corporations for the Together Now: Chicagos Fund to Rebuild Our Neighborhoods. Filing insurance claims for civil unrest Here are tips on how to expedite the recovery process for property damage claims from the American Property Casualty Insurance Association. Report your claim promptly: It is very important for policyholders to report their claims to their insurer as soon as possible, so the claims handling process can begin. Prevent further damage: Check for safety hazards when it is safe to do so. Board up broken windows or make other temporary repairs. Do not attempt to make permanent repairs on your business until an insurance adjuster has inspected the property. Save receipts: Policyholders should keep receipts for expenses incurred for any repairs made on a temporary basis to protect the property from further damage or to restore operations. Document the damage: Take pictures or video of the damage and preserve any property that may have been destroyed, so the insurance adjuster can look at the damaged property. Attach documentation with claims reports. Work only with reliable professional repair contractors: Ask for and verify references and contact police, chambers of commerce or Better Business Bureaus for complaint information involving a contractor. Your insurance company may have referral options for contractors. Hire a professional cleaning service for your place of business: If you or your employees are involved in cleanup efforts, use safety items such as proper eyewear, gloves, hardhats, dust masks and respirators. Observe social distancing: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, insurers have adopted virtual adjusting tools that can be used in the claims handling process and protect the policyholder and the insurers staff from the risk of exposure to COVID-19. That said, there are some claims when an in-person inspection will be necessary while observing appropriate social distancing protocols. Read your policy: Business interruption coverage can vary, so it is important to talk with your agent, broker or insurer to ensure you understand your policy coverages. Contributing: Mark Williams, The Columbus Dispatch Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Insurance coverage and civil unrest: Policies will cover most damage Barr Supports Chokehold Ban Except When Police Met With Lethal Force Attorney General William Barr says he supports a prohibition on the use of chokeholds by police unless officers are confronted with potentially lethal force. In a wide-ranging interview on Fox Newss Special Report with Bret Baier on June 8, the attorney general covered ground that included the movement to defund law enforcement and addressed what he called a crisis in policing. Barr, at one point, was asked about his views on one aspect of police reform being discussed, namely a ban on certain restraint techniques because they are inherently dangerous. I think we should ban chokeholds, lateral chokeholds unless police officers are confronted with potentially lethal force, Barr said. State and city governments in parts of the country have moved to impose chokehold bans. The Minneapolis City Council voted last week to ban chokeholds and neck restraints such as the one used against George Floyd, who died after an officer applied his knee to Floyds head and neck area for nearly 9 minutes. The incident, which Barr called ghastly, sparked mass protests and led to mounting calls to overhaul police procedures, including to limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force encounters, and ban police chokeholds. A rallying cry of some protesters and proponents of police reform is to defund the police, a many-hued movement that ranges from relatively moderate calls to adjust police budgets to fund the establishment of complementary community-based solutions, to extreme proposals to disband police departments entirely. Activist group MPD150 says on its website that it is working toward a police-free Minneapolis gradually, describing the concept as being about strategically reallocating resources, funding, and responsibility away from police and toward community-based models of safety, support, and prevention. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said part of the movement is really about how money is spent. Now, I dont believe that you should disband police departments, she said in an interview with CNN. But I do think that, in cities, in states, we need to look at how we are spending the resources and invest more in our communities. Maybe this is an opportunity to re-envision public safety. Defunding Police Barr opposes efforts to disband police departments. I think its the exact opposite of the way we should go, Barr said. I understand given the history of racial injustice in this country why the African American community, or at least some of it, would view the ghastly events in Minneapolis as manifestations of institutional racism in police departments. But I think in the past 50 or 60 years, weve had a lot of reform of police departments, Barr said, adding that compared to his previous tenure as attorney general some 30 years ago, I can tell you theres a world of difference. He said theres now a greater understanding of what drove the need for change both among police leadership and rank-and-file members on the force, and there has been great change. Defunding police, holding the entire police structure responsible for the actions of certain officers, is wrong, Barr said, and I think its dangerous to demonize police. He made the point that its unfair to judge entire police structures based on the horrid actions of several bad actors. None of us, as individuals, want to be lumped together with others. We want to be judged by what we do as individuals. We dont want the misconduct of others attributed to us, Barr said. One of the legitimate grievances of the African American community is that theyre treated with suspicion embraced simply because theyre African American. That does happen, Barr said. Barr extended this logic to protesters exercising their First Amendment rights peacefully, among whom there may be a few criminally minded looters and vandals. By the same token, demonstrators, peaceful demonstrators shouldnt be treated as violent extremists simply because theyre out on the streets, Barr said. Its the same with police officers. Every organization has individuals who engage in misconduct, and we have to be very careful before we say the whole organization is rotten.' Barr acknowledged there is a crisis in policing, but said cutting police budgets would only make things worse because this would make it harder to attract and retain talented and responsible staff. You would have increases in vigilantism and you would have increasing chaos, Barr said of what would happen if police departments were defunded. He said moves that prevent the country from having strong and functional police departments are counterproductive. Youll end up having more killings, he said. One of four graves of civilians killed in Ngarbuh Feb. 14 HRW (2020 Private) Soldiers indicted for carrying out the February 14, 2020 killings in Ngarbuh, a locality in the Cameroons North-West region have been appearing before an Examining Magistrate at the Yaounde Military Tribunal as part of a preliminary inquiry into the case. According to the April 21report of the commission of inquiry set up by President Paul Biya to dig into the incident which saw the death of many persons including children and a pregnant woman, at least four members of the countrys defence forces have to answer for their role in the Valentines Day killings and burnings. Following an exchange of gunfire, during which five terrorists were killed, and many weapons seized, the detachment discovered that three women and ten children had died because of its action. Panic-stricken, the three servicemen with the help of some members of the vigilante committee, tried to conceal the facts by causing fires, said the report. On his return to Ntumbaw, Sergeant Baba Guida who led the operation, submitted a deliberately biased report to his superiors, a report on which the Government initially based its statement. Barrister Tamfu Richard, one of the lawyers defending the interest of the Civil Parties (the victims) told Cameroon-Info.Net Monday night that the trial of the suspects has been going on with very little publicity. The government has been conducting a trial by ambush. Can you imagine that the case is going on and the victims (civil claimants) are not aware? The case is under Preliminary Inquiry before an Examining Magistrate of the Yaounde Military Tribunal and an interrogation session is scheduled for tomorrow Tuesday, June 9, 2020, Barrister Tamfu, Member of the Cameroon and Nigerian Bar Associations told Cameroon-Info.Net through messaging app. We the lawyers of the victims (civil claimants) got the information from our sources and we were quick to deposit our appearance letter today to defend the interest of the victims. Barrister Tamfu says they are expected to enter appearance this Tuesday. Government had secretly selected its witnesses but the chamber of the Examining Magistrate was surprised to see lawyers representing civil claim rights. They instructed us to bring our clients tomorrow (June 9) for interrogation, he said. Lawyers representing the civil claimants advise ascendants or descendants of victims (civil claimants) that the case has opened up already. It is necessary for them to come up with their own cases, lawyers counsel. Family relations of the deceased victims, be it ascendants or descendants should be aware that hearing of their own side of the story is going on. Those whose houses or farms were burnt down in that operation should be aware, lawyers say. Sergeant Baba Guida, Commander of the Ntumbaw Joint Regiment as well as Gendarme Sanding Sanding Cyrille and private first class Haranga Gilbert are standing trial at the Yaounde military tribunal for their role in the incident. Some ten members of the vigilante committee who assisted the servicemen to launch the attack on Ngarbuh 3 are actively being tracked down, the inquiry report said. Major Nyiangono Ze Charles Eric, Commander of the 52nd Motorised Infantry Battalion (BIM) is faulted for knowing how sensitive the Ngarbuh area was, due to prevailing high inter-community tensions, but failed to personally supervise the operation carried out by his troops. On his part, Sergeant Baba Guida, Commander of the Ntumbaw Joint Regiment is said to have involved armed civilians in a military operation, failed to control his troops during the operation, ordered the burning down of houses, and deliberately produced a false report on the operation and its toll. Gendarme Sanding Sanding Cyrille and Private 1st Class Haranga Gilbert, the inquiry reveals, took part in an operation that caused the death of several persons and the burning of houses. The Arctic covers about 20% of the planet. But almost everything hydrologists know about the carbon-rich soils blanketing its permafrost comes from very few measurements taken just feet from Alaska's Dalton Highway. The small sample size is a problem, particularly for scientists studying the role of Arctic hydrology on climate change. Permafrost soils hold vast amounts of carbon, which could turn into greenhouse gasses. But the lack of data makes it difficult to predict what will happen to water and carbon as the permafrost melts due to warming temperatures. New research led by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin may help solve that problem. The scientists spent the past four summers measuring permafrost soils across a 5,000 square-mile swath of Alaska's North Slope, an area about the size of Connecticut. While working to buildup a much-needed soil dataset, their measurements revealed an important pattern: The hydrologic properties of different permafrost soil types are very consistent, and can be predicted based on the surrounding landscape. "There is a vast swath of land that is eminently predictable," said Michael O'Connor, who led the research while earning his doctoral degree from the UT Jackson School of Geosciences. "Our paper shows that over an enormous study area, these very simple patterns in these properties hold true." The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Co-authors include researchers from the Jackson School, UT's Cockrell School of Engineering, Utah State University and the University of Michigan. The researchers examined nearly 300 soil samples from different types of terrain. They found that soil types and their thickness are closely associated with the landscape, with the researchers classifying the landscapes into five categories based on the dominant vegetation and whether the environment was on a hill slope or near the bottom of a river valley. They also found that each of the three soil types had distinct properties that impacted how easily the soil could transfer heat and water - which determine how carbon dioxide and methane, another powerful greenhouse gas, are released. The findings will allow scientists to look to the landscape to understand how carbon and greenhouse gasses are moving through the soil below. While the study does not make predictions about carbon release, co-author Bayani Cardenas, a professor in the Jackson School's Department of Geological Sciences, said that it provides a research framework. "Our data fills a knowledge gap that has been around for 30 years," Cardenas said. "The community studying permafrost and climate change will appreciate its inherent value." Permafrost locks away about as much carbon as what is already in the atmosphere. However, until this study, climate modelers lacked direct permafrost soil information, with the research record limited to about a dozen samples taken along the Dalton Highway and engineering reports that studied permafrost for road and pipeline construction. Improving the data available to climate scientists was the primary motivation behind the permafrost collection campaign, said O'Connor. The North Slope of Alaska is almost pure wilderness. The research team relied on a helicopter to get around and an 18-inch breadknife to slice blocks of soil from the earth. "We were in some places that probably no human had set foot on." Cardenas said. Finding a pattern between the landscape and the permafrost soil patterns did not come as a surprise. Plant ecologists working in the region had mentioned it anecdotally. But the newly published data is something the entire research community can draw on. Cathy Wilson, a hydrologist and climate modeler at Los Alamos National Laboratory who also conducts permafrost research in Alaska, said that the study is a big step for climate models, and that she is looking forward to applying study techniques in her own work. "This allows us to really start to scale-up this valuable information on soil properties to at least the North Slope, the foothills of mountain ranges, and beyond," she said. ### The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, The University of Texas at Austin Geology Foundation, the Geological Society of America Student Research Grant program, the American Geophysical Union Horton Research Grant, and the NASA Terrestrial Hydrology Program. By April Joyner NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. presidential election is re-emerging as a potential risk to markets after a shift in polls that has seen President Donald Trump lose ground to Democrat Joe Biden. Concerns over election-fueled volatility have regained prominence in recent weeks, even as broader market swings have subsided and stocks have surged. Futures on the Cboe Volatility Index <.VIX>, known as Wall Street's "fear gauge," show a visible bump in volatility expectations near the election. Election-related risk captured in VIX futures has risen to about three times the levels seen ahead of the 2012 and 2016 elections based on the spread between September and October futures, according to Susquehanna Financial Group. VIX futures reflect volatility expectations for the month-long period after their expiration. (GRAPHIC: As coronavirus risk recedes, election risk rises - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/editorcharts/qmypmoqmbpr/eikon.png) Contributing to investors' election concerns are polls showing that Trump's standing among voters has eroded amid criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic as well as the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in police custody. A Democratic victory could threaten policies championed by Trump and generally favored by Wall Street, including lower corporate tax rates and fewer regulations, analysts said. "A potential victory by Joe Biden ... and to a greater extent, a 'Democratic sweep,' are generally considered more market-unfriendly outcomes," analysts at BofA Global Research said in a recent note to clients. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted June 8-9 showed that Biden, the former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee, led Trump, a Republican, by 8 percentage points among registered voters. The poll also found that 39% of the American public approves of the president's performance in office, while 57% disapproves. In a separate poll last week, more than 55% of Americans said they disapproved of Trump's handling of the protests. Story continues The closely-watched betting site PredictIt put Biden 9 points ahead of Trump, compared with a 6-point lead for Trump a month ago. "I don't believe we'll get to the election without a substantial spike in volatility," said James McDonald, chief executive of hedge fund Hercules Investments. McDonald expects election-related trades to ramp up in the weeks just before the Nov. 3 general election and plans to deploy options and futures strategies that take advantage of volatility spikes once the results come in. The election-related concerns stand in contrast to a recent easing in broader market volatility: the VIX has fallen to its lowest levels since late February, while the S&P 500 <.SPX> has climbed 44% from its March 23 closing low. (Graphic: Positioning for U.S. election volatility - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xlbvggyajvq/April%20-%202020%20election%20positioning%20reflected%20in%20VIX%20futures%20curve.png) Taxes have been one major area of contrast between the two presidential contenders. Biden has criticized Trump's 2017 tax decreases and pledged to reverse some of those cuts, a move that could weigh on companies that benefited from the legislation. Analysts at Goldman Sachs have estimated that Biden's tax reform, if enacted, would reduce earnings for S&P 500 companies by around $20 a share in 2021, to $150 a share. Netflix Inc , Visa Inc and Salesforce.com Inc are among the companies that have received a bigger than average benefit from the 2017 tax reform, the bank said. A Trump win, on the other hand, could raise concerns over the continuation of a U.S.-China trade war that has periodically roiled markets over the last several years. Trump has already taken a harsher tone on China in recent weeks, a move some analysts believe is intended to shore up support among the president's voter base. Financial and technology-related stocks have been particularly sensitive in the past to threats of increased regulation and restrictions on trade with China, and those sectors may again grow more volatile as the election approaches, said Amy Wu Silverman, equity derivatives strategist at RBC Capital Markets. (Reporting by April Joyner; Additional reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Ira Iosebashvili, Nick Zieminski and Tom Brown) Can't get of your favorite Korean dramas? Or your favorite actors? Are you curious about the pieces of jewelry and they wore in their shows? Let's take a closer look. Kim Go Eun's Necklace in "The King: Eternal Monarch" If you have watched episode 12, King Gon bought Tae Eul several necklaces and placed it in his coat pocket. One of them is a cute plum blossom necklace from J. Estina, and this particular design is named "Flolet." It's worth in the market is KRW 180,000. The brand jewelry is one of the sponsored gems that Tae-Eul wore in the series. Kim Hee Ae's Diamond Necklace in "The World of The Married" Dr. Ji Sun Woo often wears elegant clothes and designer bags. But a closer look at her and you'll see the diamond necklace she chose to wear on many scenes. It's from Tiffany & Co., named Tiffany T1 Diamond Necklace. It cost a whopping USD 150,000. The jewelry is made with 18K rose gold with baguette and brilliant round diamond. Son Ye Jin's Engagement Ring in "Crash Landing On You" It's an expensive engagement ring that Yoon Se Ri (Son Ye Jin) decided to pawn to buy gifts for her friends. She also included purchasing a watch for Captain Ri (Hyun Bin) from the money she received. The shining diamond ring is from Josephine's Aigrette Collection by Chaumet. The estimated cost is from USD 10,500 to USD 15,500. The ring features a pave setting on 18-carat white gold. Lee Min Ho's Timewatch Masterpiece in "The King: Eternal Monarch" King Gon's watch, as he describes it, is a rare masterpiece of the parallel worlds. He uses it to check the minutes when the world stops every time the obelisk opens. Eun Sup (Woo Do Hwan) admired its feature as he complimented King Gon's style in the police station. The watch is from the L2.673.4.78.3 from the Swiss watch brand Longines. A master collection that estimated a cost of USD 3,164.50. Kim Da Mi's Smile Pendant - Necklace in "Itaewon Class" Jo Yi-Seo (Kim Da Mi) received a necklace gift that she chose to like from Park Sae-Roy (Park Seo Joon). It was the start of their relationship as she accepted his feelings for her. The cute necklace is from Tiffany & Co. (Tiffany T Medium Smile Pendant). The estimated cost of the jewelry is USD 4,700. It is an 18K slim gold chain and a smile-shaped pendant studded with round, bright diamonds. Here's a video from "Crash Landing On You" with stars on their jewellery pieces. Sources and Images credit to preview.ph with minor edit. AURORA, Ore., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vanguard Scientific Systems, Inc. , a premier provider of equipment, systems, and performance solutions servicing the botanical extraction industry, is hosting the second of a four-part webinar series featuring leading industry experts talking about the business of hemp and cannabis extraction. JOIN THE EXPERTS! Vanguard's "Meeting the Market" FDA-Prep Webinar Series: Episode #2 PRODUCTIZATION FOR DOMESTIC & GLOBAL MARKETS: "Managing the Supply Chain to Produce Formulated Retail-Ready Cannabis and Hemp-based Products in a GMP/FDA Regulated World" Wednesday, June 10th at 1 pm EST / 10 am PST Register here: https://bit.ly/2YekObc You're invited to join Vanguard Scientific for Episode Two of this four-part series, as Vanguard Scientific, Rymedi, and Canna Advisors again team up to deliver a panel-format webinar, featuring leading North American and Global manufacturers of cannabinoid enriched products and ingredients. The webinar will provide attendees an opportunity to 'hear it from the field' as the group addresses and unpacks some of the most high-barrier challenges that the industry faces, and addresses increasingly complex regulation as the world is introduced to cannabis-derived ingredients and formulated products. Session hosts, Matthew Anderson (Vanguard Scientific) and Dr. Jason Cross (Rymedi) will take participants on a full-hour deep-dive, exploring the following: Supply-chain requirements through the lens GAAP, GAAP, cGMP and EUGMP Product market(s)fit: cultivation and extraction variations to meet consumer demand Understanding the mind of the CPG buyer Requirements and restrictions Identifying upcoming, high-performing product categories, and assuring your process is flexible Best practices and lessons learned Compliance, regulation, and process discussion _________________________________ Panelists & hosts for this discussion include: Jay Czarkowski (Co-Founder, Canna Advisors) Jay is a true "Charter Member" of the legal cannabis industry. An influential cannabis entrepreneur, investor, business operator, advocate, and a well-connected and respected industry insider. Jay's leadership of the Canna Advisors company has resulted in more than 200 licenses being awarded across 30 merit-based U.S. states and Canada with a decade of regulatory experience as a consultant and as an award-winning operator. Jay and his team have helped pave the way for license award and expansion of some of the industries leading multi-state operators. Andres Fajardo (President, Clever Leaves) Dedicated to the innovation, development, and commercialization of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis, Andres leads Clever Leaves, a Colombia-based international operator, working with local governments and regulators around the world, to build pathways for a legal and fully global medical-grade cannabis ecosystem. As a large wholesale supplier of cannabinoids to companies around the world, Andres drives the company's pharma, consumer brand, and cultivation undertakings, all under the rigor of various global GMP certifications. William Corbitt (Avient Biosciences) William leads a team of world-class experts from the pharmaceutical, food, beverage, and cosmetic industries, working to help companies of all sizes future-proof their business by delivering cannabinoid ingredients that will stand up to the highest levels of regulation. With more than 100 years of combined pharma and controlled products' experience, the Company's latest project is the completion of a state-of-the-art hemp-derived small ingredient manufacturing facility, designed and built for cGMP and ISO9001 compliance and certification. Dr. Jason Cross (Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Rymedi) Dr. Cross has built Rymedi into a leading technology company enabling healthcare companies to capture, track and share data with blockchain, IoT, and AI. Prior to Rymedi, Dr. Cross was a professor of innovation and entrepreneurship law, policy, and business at Duke University, where he was founding Executive Director of the Innovation & Technology Policy Lab. At the ITPLab, he led the research, consulting, and venture incubation on novel finance, intellectual property, collaboration strategies, and trade policy for enhancing the efficiency and accessibility of innovations across global health, energy, education, and smart infrastructure. Matthew Anderson (CEO, Vanguard Scientific) Matthew is dedicated to spiritual science and the belief plant-based medicines can truly heal. As Co-Founder/CEO of Vanguard Scientific Systems, one of the world's leading providers of end-to-end solutions for integrated botanical extraction and purification equipment and services, Matthew is uniquely positioned to change how the world's leading processing, extraction, and active-ingredient manufacturers work with cannabis, hemp, and other natural botanicals. About Vanguard Scientific: Vanguard Scientific Systems, Inc. ( https://www.vanguardscientific.com ) is a global provider of botanical extraction equipment and professional services with an emphasis on improving the lives of our clients, team members, and the world around them. Steeped in R&D and a legacy in Life Sciences, Vanguard Scientific enables clients to activate and operate extraction and advanced processing facilities through customized integration of systems and solutions. While the Company continues to remain technology agnostic, Vanguard Scientific partners with global leaders in engineering as well as has pioneered its own proprietary systems, including the MIDAS Program, a next-generation supercritical CO2 extraction system. SOURCE Vanguard Scientific Systems Related Links www.vanguardscientific.com Maharashtra crossed the 90,000 mark of Covid-19 cases with 2,259 new infections reported on Tuesday even as authorities in Mumbai expressed concern about the spread of the virus in the western suburbs of the coastal city. The case tally in the state stood at 90,787. Tuesday was ninth day when the state recorded more than 100 deaths in one day. Mumbai recorded 58 deaths, taking its toll of fatalities to 1,638. The city logged 1,015 cases on Tuesday, taking its case tally to 51,110 As part of Mission Begin Again to unlock restrictions in phases, the state government has allowed private offices in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to operate at 10% of its workforce or 10 employees (whichever is higher) from Monday. This relaxation, along with the resumption of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) bus services, saw more people and traffic snarls on roads in the city. Last week, the state also allowed physical activities such as jogging, running and non-essential shops to operate on alternate days in red zones (excluding containment areas). We are closely monitoring the situation as cases may surge following maximum relaxations in lockdown given so far even in red zones. We are more worried of second wave that has hit countries like China and South Korea following relaxations. It will spark panic among people and the state may have to reconsider its decision on giving relaxations, said a senior minister, wishing not to be named. The current situation of Covid-19 was discussed in the state cabinet meeting held on Tuesday evening. We are also expecting curve to flatten by this month end if things remained under our control. After this, decline in cases will start, added the minister. But there was a new cause for concern in Mumbai. While the average growth rate of Covid-19 cases in the city dipped to 2.93 per cent, three wards in the western suburbs covering areas like Malad, Kandivali, Borivali and Dahisar presented a problem for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). While the rate of growth of the disease across the city was between one and four per cent, the rate in wards PN (Malad), RS (Kandivali, RN (Dahisar, Borivali) stood above five per cent. According to the BMCs data, three wards -- covering Malad, Kandivali, Dahisar and parts of Borivali -- have over 4,000 Covid-19 cases. According to BMC officials, the growth rate in these three wards is high given that cases are now being reported from pockets in the city that had no cases initially. A BMC official said, The recovering rate of the three wards including PN, RN and RS is also between 25 to 33 per cent which indicates that the cases have increased in the past few days. Sanjay Kurhade, assistant municipal commissioner of RS Ward that covers Kandivali, said, It is a universal strategy for tracing more, quarantining and testing more focused suspects, and due to this there is no separate strategy as such, but the growth rate is high also because we are having pockets where there were no cases earlier, but we are having cases now. Hence, our focus on such areas. Kurhade added, Slums are having a major chunk of focus when it comes to tracing and quarantining maximum people. There were few slum pockets where the downfall has started and things are under control there, but new pockets are emerging that are in a way contributing to the increased growth rate. Our focus currently is on areas like Poisar and Hanuman Nagar where cases have started reporting. Greek Foreign Minister said "This is a historic day" and confirmed that Greece seeks to establish exclusive economic zones with all its neighbors Greece and Italy signed an agreement on maritime boundaries on Tuesday, establishing an exclusive economic zone between the two countries and resolving longstanding issues over fishing rights in the Ionian Sea. The deal, signed during a visit by Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio, follows months of tension over natural resources in the Eastern Mediterranean region, where Turkey, Greece and Cyprus have been caught in a complex diplomatic standoff. Details of the accord, which effectively extends a 1977 agreement between the two states on continental shelves in the Ionian Sea, were not immediately available. Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said the accord confirmed the right of Greek islands in the area to maritime zones and settled fishing rights issues. "This is a historic day," Dendias said, adding that Greece seeks to establish exclusive economic zones with all its neighbours. The Greek-Italian accord comes months after a deal on maritime boundaries between Turkey and Libya's internationally recognised government, led by Fayez al-Sarraj. That agreement angered Greece, which says it infringes its own sovereign rights. "Maritime boundaries are defined only with valid deals," Dendias said. Greece and Turkey are at odds over various decades-old issues ranging from mineral rights in the Aegean Sea to ethnically split Cyprus. Italy and Greece are already partners in the EastMed gas pipeline project intended to transport 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year from offshore reserves in the eastern Mediterranean to Greece, Italy and other southeastern European countries. The two ministers also discussed tourism and the economic impact of the coronavirus. Di Maio said he was assured that Italian tourists would be allowed in without quarantine restrictions when Greece opens its borders on June 15. *This story was edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: A bear or bears continue being spotted around town. He took his time drinking from my hummingbird feeder and went on his way, Vittoria Quane of Seth Low Mountain Road said of a bear she saw the evening of June 2. He was spotted all over Seth Low, and also got into other neighbors garbage. He was a treat to see. Quane got photographs and a video of the bear on her deck. He/she was smallish and appeared to be alone, she said. A bear was reported in the cozy small-lot neighborhood across Route 35 from the Rite Aide, according to First Selectman Rudy Marocni. On Hillsdale, Marconi said. The first selectman heard about the bear on Tuesday, June 9, but the Hillsdale Avenue who reported it said the bear had been spotted in the area a few days before and he hadnt seen it himself. Marconi put the Hillsdale report in the contest of other bear sightings recently. We had one at Mimosa recently, one crossing Catoonah Street. The bear sighted on Catoonah and a few other spots around the village on May 26, when Megan Holbert got a photo of the bear crossing the street right in front of St. Marys Church, and Jared Moore got video. Police said theyd gotten four or five reports that morning. Marconi said hed reported the bear sightings to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), and recommended the bear information on the agencys website. Theyre pretty harmless. They try and stay away from people, unless you confront them head on, Marconi said. Bang you pots and pans. Dont leave garbage out. Dont leave birdfeeders out. Their constant mission in life is searching for food, 24-7, he said. A male will have about a 50 acres mile area, a female about 10 miles, Marconi said. The younger males, as theyre breaking away, may even have a bigger area. The DEEP told The Press after the May 26 sightings in town that relocation of bears isnt the states general practice waiting for them to wander off is the preferred solution. DEEP rarely relocates bears, Will Healy of the DEEP said. If theyre able to travel out of a developed area, we prefer to give them a chance to do so. Also, bears have a very strong homing instinct, so theyre likely to return to the same vicinity soon after theyre relocated. DEEP does attempt to move bears that get stuck in highly urban settings. Were hopeful this bear was able to get out of town on its own. We encourage people whove seen a bear to report it to us. A link to the online form can be found here: portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Nuisance-Wildlife/Living-with-Black-Bears. The DEEP reports that it has had close to 250 bear sightings reported in Connecticut so far this year. Here are a few suggestions from DEEP for people who encounter bears. Observe it from a distance. Advertise your presence by shouting and waving your arms, or walk slowly away. Never attempt to feed or attract bears. The DEEP also offers some recommendations for ways to avoid attracting bears to the homes: Remove bird feeders from late March through November. If a bear visits a bird feeder in winter, remove the feeder. Wait until the morning of collection before bringing out trash. Add a few capfuls of ammonia to trash bags and garbage cans to mask food odors. Keep trash bags in a container with a tight lid and store in a garage or shed. Do not leave pet food outside overnight. Store livestock food in airtight containers. Do not put meats or sweet-smelling fruit rinds in compost piles. Lime can be sprinkled on the compost pile to reduce the smell and discourage bears. Thoroughly clean grills after use or store in a garage or shed. Never intentionally feed bears. Bears that associate food with people may become aggressive and dangerous. This may lead to personal injury, property damage, and the need to destroy problem animals. Encourage your neighbors to take similar precautions. More information and precautions to take around black bears can be found at: ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Fact-Sheets/Black-Bear. The state also asks people to report bear sightings to the Wildlife Division, at 860-424-301. The monsoon session of Parliament could see some members of Parliament in the house and others online -- a sort of hybrid seating -- so as to ensure that legislative business goes on without compromising on social distancing, officials of both houses involved in planning the session said on condition of anonymity. The last day Parliament sat was on March 24; the national lockdown , aimed at slowing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, was imposed on March 25. The last phase of the lockdown ended on May 31; India is now in what the government calls Unlock 1.0, with more activities and air and rail travel resuming. The monsoon session typically starts in the first week of July. The plan being considered involves physical attendance of only those members whose participation in items of business is required on a particular day. Members of Parliament who have given notices to mention issues, have questions scheduled against their names, or have been nominated by the party to participate in debates will get preference to sit in the House.Those, who have no scheduled business against their name will participate digitally. At this stage, this is just a plan under consideration and a final call on the monsoon session and how it should be conducted will be taken by the union government, one of the officials said. The idea of a hybrid sitting of Parliament came up during a virtual meeting attended by Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu , Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, and senior officials of both Houses on Tuesday. While reviewing options for the monsoon session, the officials pointed out that if the Indian Parliament has to maintain the prescribed social distancing norms, even the Central Hall of Parliament or Vigyan Bhavans plenary hall cant accommodate all Lok Sabha members at a time. Given that, an option discussed was to enable attendance in the Chambers of both the Houses of only those many members who can be accommodated as per the social distancing norm by drawing up lists of such members whose participation in various items of business is required on a daily basis, said a second official official. Officials were asked to examine in detail various issues related to enabling virtual participation of members in the proceedings of both the Houses including the maximum capacity available for enabling such virtual participation and the feasibility, this person added. The original plan was to shift the Rajya Sabha to the Lok Sabha and hold the session of the Lower House in the more spacious Central Hall or even in Vigyan Bhavan. But if the members were to adhere strictly to social distancing norms, the Central Hall can accommodate not more than 200 people while the Rajya Sabha can accommodate about 60 MPs. They further said that even if the Members were to be accommodated in the galleries (the chamber has galleries for public, diplomats and press), the total seating capacity would be much less than the required, if all members were to be accommodated. Meanwhile, the plan to take the session entirely online has hit a technical hurdle. The NIC, governments IT arm, has informed that it can only accommodate 600 participants for any virtual conference. A senior official of the Lok Sabha pointed out that it would be extremely difficult to request some MPs to go online in the hybrid plan, as almost all MPs would prefer to come to the House. If the government brings any contentious bill, or if there is a discussion on issues such as Covid management of Indian economy, do you think the Opposition MPs would watch the proceeding online? If there is a voting on any bill, how will MPs participate? Two former officials of Indian Parliament said that the government should wait for the Covid curve to flatten and only then think of holding a session. One of them pointed out that the Indian Constitution allows a six-month gap between the last day of the previous session and the first day of the next parliament. The government has enough time till September to hold the monsoon session, added this person who asked not to be named. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON As Texas moves forward with a new phase of Gov. Greg Abbotts plan for reopening businesses, the daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases is on a steady, upward trend. Throughout the state, the number of new cases reported each day has grown from an average of about 1,081 during the week ending May 24 to about 1,527 in the past week. (Public health data varies day to day, so officials use a seven-day rolling average to better capture trends over time.) The 14-day trend line shows new infections in Texas have risen about 71 percent in the past two weeks. Although confirmed infections have increased across the state, hot spots like state prisons and meatpacking plants, which have recently been the sites of mass or targeted testing, are responsible for a portion of the increase, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Part of the states increase of new confirmed cases reported since late May is a result of mass testing in some prisons, which began May 12. Since prisons started reporting test results May 26, the number of prisoners reported to be infected with the new coronavirus has skyrocketed jumping from about 2,500 to 6,900 in two weeks. State data shows that overall cases jumped by 19,000, or 34 percent, from May 25 to June 7, and nearly a quarter of that increase came from 10 counties with prisons and meatpacking plants. But determining exactly how much of the statewide increase comes from recent prison testing is complicated because DSHS does not include all prison cases in the statewide total. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which oversees prisons, reports COVID-19 cases directly to DSHS, but DSHS says the statewide tally is based on reports from Texas counties and some counties dont include prison cases in their statistics. (DSHS spokespeople have repeatedly said they are working to ensure all counties include prison cases in their numbers.) Bob Owen /Staff photographer On Friday, Pecos County Judge Joe Shuster told The Texas Tribune that the Texas attorney generals office instructed the county which has a prison that led to a recent spike in COVID-19 cases not to include prisoners in its county infection numbers. Brazoria County officials also said Friday they would no longer include prison cases in their county reports, according to Community Impact. The attorney generals office said it could not comment on advice given to local officials because of attorney-client privilege. A DSHS spokesperson said the agency expected to have an update on its data reporting process this week to ensure that TDCJ cases are consistently included on our dashboard. Some of the statewide increase may be attributable to greater availability of testing for the virus. Along with mass testing at places such as prisons where more than 83,000 tests have been conducted the number of tests rose steadily until the middle of May. Since then, the number of daily tests administered has increased modestly, up about 7 percent from the week ending May 24 to the week ending Saturday. And the percentage of tests coming back positive a metric Abbott and White House officials have pointed to as indicative of a states readiness for reopening is also increasing. The 14-day trend line shows the positive rate in Texas has risen about 62 percent during the past two weeks. In addition, the number of people hospitalized from the coronavirus, reported each day, has grown from an average of 1,656 during the week ending May 24 to 1,811 in the past week. For states to consider reopening, the White House recommends they see either a downward trajectory of COVID-19 cases over 14 days or a downward trajectory in the percentage of positive test results over 14 days. Abbott has said that Texans should anticipate temporary increases in the positivity rate as the state dispatches surge response teams to three kinds of hot spots: prisons and jails, nursing homes and meatpacking plants. Texas began allowing retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters, malls, museums and libraries to open at 25 percent capacity May 1. Jerry Lara /Staff photographer Abbott announced his third phase of reopening Wednesday, allowing most businesses to operate at 50 percent capacity effective immediately. Restaurants will be allowed to operate at 75 percent capacity beginning Friday under the governors order. Edgar Walters contributed to this story. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Google Maps India team has approached the movie star for giving voice directions in the app. Imagine you open Google Maps one fine day, set the destination and start the navigation feature, only to hear Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan giving you voice directions. It has not happened yet but may soon be a reality. As per a report, Google Maps India team has approached the movie star for giving voice directions in the app, a feature some of us use and most of us keep on mute since it becomes annoying at times. Amitabh Bachchan has the most influential and recognisable baritone. Hence, he is the best choice for the voice of Google Maps. He has been approached, but the contract has not been signed yet, said one of the sources to Mid-Day. Also read: Google Maps update now shows how crowded is public transport, medical checkpoints and more on Android, iOS That said, it has been reported that Bachchan has (naturally) been offered an exorbitant amount to come onboard. It is not for sure if this idea will pan out or not."It's up to Bachchan now," says the source to the news website. For whats worth, the teaming up of Google Maps India and Bollywood is not new. Back in 2018, the platform collaborated with Bollywood star Aamir Khan to use his character named Firangi from Thugs of Hindustan, in Google Maps. Meanwhile, Google has rolled out a bunch of new features to its Maps app to help more travellers stay on top of all the information related to Covid-19 areas and transit, while on the move. Now it will show users how crowded transit lines are, pull alerts from local transit agencies, show Covid-19 checkpoints alerts while driving and more. While some are there in India, others will make way in the country soon. Summerville, SC (29483) Today Freezing rain. Low 27F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 90%.. Tonight Freezing rain. Low 27F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 90%. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. America has been burning with rage over the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And rightly so. America was also burning with the fires set by rioters, looters, anarchists and other provocateurs who piggy-backed onto the protests in order to push their own evil agendas. Heres what its gotten us: Calls from coast to coast to defund or disband city police departments. It doesnt make sense. Mayor Bill de Blasio, after initially resisting the calls of the de-funders, over the weekend said that he would move money from the NYPD budget to youth and social service programs. Because, sure, the biggest problem all these years is that New York City doesnt spend enough money on social service programs. But you can see where defunding the NYPD fits onto the law-enforcement slippery slope that weve seen in New York recently. Weve had a general stand-down on enforcing quality-of-life crimes. We saw more than 600,000 warrants vacated. Marijuana was decriminalized. The state eliminated bail for many crimes, sending criminals back out onto the street where they were free to offend again, and often did. And now we have calls to defund the NYPD. Maybe we should be grateful. The anti-police demands are more extreme in other cities, including Minneapolis, some of whose officials want to disband the police department outright. How is eliminating police going to keep people safe? The system clearly failed in Minneapolis. Derek Chauvin, the former officer who kneeled on the prone, handcuffed Floyds neck for more than eight agonizing minutes, had 18 previous complaints filed against him. We dont have details of all the complaints, so its up to Minneapolis officials to shed light on those cases and to explain why Chauvin was still on the street. Or to say that the complaints were not enough to warrant serious discipline. Either way, theres clearly room for reform in the Minneapolis police department. But its extreme to call for dissolving the department entirely. Other cities can reform police practices as well if thats what they want. The NYPD has been undergoing reform ever since Eric Garner died after an encounter with the NYPD in Tompkinsville in 2014. For some, the pace of reform isnt fast enough. Reform itself isnt enough. Things need to change, and they need to change now. And its true: Changing intolerant and racist hearts and minds is a much higher mountain to climb. You can understand the anger. Thats their cry of protest. But how do you keep a city safe without law enforcement? Who do we call when our houses are broken into? Or when we or a family member is assaulted or robbed on the street? How are businesses, big box and mom-and-pop, supposed to feel secure operating in such an environment? This isnt about privilege. Its about the first responsibility of any government: Protecting its citizens. It doesnt mean we want police to run rampant, or that we excuse or condone police brutality. Police officers who cross the line should face discipline, in departmental proceedings or in a court of law. If those internal procedures and laws arent tough enough, then localities should toughen them up. They have plenty of leeway to do so, all across the country. Let all stakeholders be part of the process. Some lawmakers might not want to take on powerful police unions. Theyll have to measure those political costs for themselves. Its not going to be an easy negotiation. It will take leadership. We cant forget that law enforcement sometimes involves actual force as well. Its not a please-and-thank-you job. Its by nature confrontational. And pulling police off the street is only going to make crime worse, including in minority neighborhoods where crime is already high. Thats no way to keep people safe. Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: NHRC issues notice to Delhi Government & Union Health Ministry over serious allegations about COVID mismanagement including non-availability of beds, inadequate number of tests, increasing deaths, delay in last rites of the deceased in Delhi: National Human Rights Commission Auto refresh feeds Since the onset of June, the country has also been witnessing over 200 COVID-19 fatalities each day. Also, the country has registered over 9,000 coronavirus cases for the sixth day in a row. The toll due to the coronavirus infection rose to 7,471 and the cases mounted to 2,66,598 in the country on Tuesday. A total of 336 new COVID-19 fatalities and 9,987 cases were reported in the last 24 hours till Tuesday 8 am, according to Union Health Ministry data. The statistics differ from the daily figures provided by the government, which has virus-related deaths across the UK at 40,597. Those are based on initial cause of death assessments by doctors. Britain's statistics agency says the number of coronavirus-related deaths in the UK has risen to 50,107, reports AP. The updated figures from the Office for National Statistics are up to the week ending May 29 and are collated from death certificates, which can take a couple of weeks to be issued. The order says the decision has been taken to provide first-hand information to people about the position of vacant beds in the city government hospitals and private facilities. It comes in the wake of several families, whose members may have been a positive or suspected case of COVID-19, alleging that they were turned away by various hospitals despite beds being available. Delhi government hospitals and private facilities here will now have to prominently display information about the availability of beds on a flex board at their main gates, according to an official order Tuesday. He was allegedly vomiting and suffered from dysentery, according to his uncle Sheikh Mofijul, who was also travelling with him, police said. He died on Monday while travelling on the train, but the body was taken off after the train reached Malda, Mofijul claimed. Sheikh Khatip, a resident of Chandpur village under the Pukuria police station in Malda was travelling from Alleppey in a Shramik special that was on way to New Jalpaiguri in north Bengal, police said. A 30-year old man died while travelling on a Shramik train from Alleppey in Kerala to Malda town on Tuesday, a government railway police official said here. Alleging large-scale corruption in the procurement of masks, personal protection equipment (PPE) and other paraphernalia, state Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said he would move the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Lokayukta for a thorough probe into the matter. Stepping up the attack on the BJD government in Odisha over its response to the coronavirus outbreak, opposition Congress and BJP on Tuesday alleged a mega scam in the purchase of medical equipment and sought a clarification on the matter from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Delhi on Wednesday reported 1,366 new COVID19 cases, taking the total number of cases in the National Capital to 31,309, including 18543 active cases, 11861 recovered/discharged/migrated and 905 deaths, according to the latest bulletin from the Delhi Health Department. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there is more than enough food to feed the world's 7.8 billion people, but our food systems are failing. The UN secretary-general is calling for immediate action to avoid a global food emergency, saying more than 820 million people are hungry, about 144 million children under the age of 5 have stunted growth, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse. It also said the standard operating procedure of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for religious places should be meticulously complied with by managements of religious institutions. On Tuesday, an order issued by the Punjab's Home Department said, It has now been decided to allow community kitchens (langar) and serving of prasad at religious places, subject to the condition that physical distancing norms and all COVID hygiene precautions while preparing and distributing food shall be strictly followed. The Punjab government on Tuesday allowed langar and the distribution of prasad at religious places, revising its earlier lockdown guidelines. On Tuesday, Mumbai crossed 50,878 coronavirus cases, which was around 700 more than China's Wuhan, where the global pandemic first surfaced in December. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Wuhan is 50,333, including 3,869 deaths. Maharashtra meanwhile stands at 90,000 cases, ahead of the 84,000-plus cases in China, remains the worst affected state in India One more person died of coronavirus in Assam on Tuesday as the infection count crossed the 3,000-mark with 215 fresh cases. According to Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, five people have died of the virus in the state so far while the infection count stands at 3,050. The fresh death was reported from Karbi Anglong district on Monday. Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 72.37 lakh people and claimed over 4.11 lakh lives so far, according to the Johns Hopkins University. As many as 33.70 lakh people have recovered. Senior DMK MLA and party's Chennai west district secretary J Anbazhagan died at a hospital in Chennai on Wednesday morning, reports New18. He was undergoing treatment for the virus. Anbazhagan is the first legislator to die for COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu and was a three-time MLA. Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday questioned the Delhi government over its earlier decision on reserving Delhi hospitals only for 'Delhiites'. He took to Twitter saying, "In my Delhi nobody is an outsider" "We have increased the testing capacity to 1.4 lakh per day. So far, we have 789 laboratories (553 government and 231 private labs). A total of 50, 30,700 samples have been tested till 6 June evening," an ICMR official said. Till 6 June, a total of 50, 30,700 samples were tested across the country. Another 1, 41,682 have been tested in the past 24 hours, ICMR officials said. Over five million RT-PCR tests to detect SARS-CoV-2 - the virus behind COVID-19 pandemic - have been done across the country, India Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said. The toll due to the pandemic reached 3,289 with 120 deaths being reported during the day, he added. 1,663 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery, taking the total of recovered patients to 42,638, the official said. In Maharashtra, 2,259 more individuals tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the total of cases in the state to 90,787, a health official said. The figure includes cases involving active cases, foreign nationals, patients who have recovered and the COVID-19 toll. The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in India has risen to 2,76,583, according to the latest data released by the health ministry on Wednesday. India registered a total of 9,985 confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the overall count across the country to 2,76,583 on Wednesday, according to the health ministry. As many as 7,745 COVID-19 deaths were registered across the country as of Wednesday after 279 more individuals succumbed to the viral infection in the past 24 hours, said the health ministry. Total number of cases in the country is now at 2,76,583, including 1,33,632 active cases, 135206 have been cured/discharged/migrated and 7745 death, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The COVID-19 recovery rate in the country is 49 percent after 1,35,206 patients were cured of the infectious disease, said the health ministry on Wednesday. After 1.35 lakh COVID-19 patients were cured of infectious disease as of Wednesday, India's number of recovered cases exceeded the active ones for first time. There are 1,33,632 active cases across the country. The hybrid session would allow some MPs to be present physically in Parliament with the remaining ones attending it virtually. With neither the central hall of Parliament nor the Vigyan Bhawan plenary hall large enough to seat all the MPs while maintaining a minimum distance of one metre, the presiding officers of both houses are learnt to have been exploring options of holding a 'hybrid' session of Parliament or a virtual one, the sources told PTI. The prospects of a routine session of Parliament have come under question with existing government buildings found inadequate to accommodate all members of Parliament if COVID-19 physical distancing norms are to be followed, according to highly-placed sources. No new COVID-19 case reported in Maharashtra Police in the last 48 hours. Total coronavirus cases in the force stand at 2,562, toll at 34, said the poloce force on Wednesday. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Member of Legislative Assembly J Anbazhagan, who was suffering from the novel coronavirus, passed away at a private hospital in Chennai on Wednesday. As many as 18,325 patients have recovered in the state so far. Tamil Nadu remained the second worst COVID-affected state in the country with 34,914 confirmed coronavirus cases. According to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry, the state has reported 307 COVID-19 deaths so far. The total number of confirmed coronavirus in Pune is at 10,012 with 442 people succumbing to the viral disease till now, said the health officials on Wednesday. Keni, who was the corporator of Kalwa under the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), tested positive for COVID-19 14 days ago and was put on a ventilator support at a private hospital in Mumbai. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator Mukund Keni died of the novel coronavirus disease late at night on Tuesday. Odisha reported 3,250 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday after 110 more individuals tested positive for the novel coronavirus, said health officials. The figure includes 1,106 active cases. Of the total 3,250 COVID-19 cases in Odisha, 2,133 patients have been cured of the infectious disease so far, said health officials on Wednesday. This takes the recovery rate in the state to 65.6 percent. "If one person gets infected, it takes around 2 weeks for him/her to cure and during this period they infect nearly 2-10 other people. Considering the present situation, it's expected that in next 12-15 days, there'll be around 30,000 more cases," said Jain. Taking in accordance the current situation in Delhi, it is likely that there will be around 30,000 more COVID-19 cases in the next 12-15 days, said health minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday. As many as 256 patients have lost their lives to the viral disease in the state. Rajasthan registered a total of 11,368 confirmed coronavirus cases after 123 more people tested positive for COVID-19 till 10.30 am on Wednesday, said the state health department. "The man, about 45 years of age, died at a Bareilly hospital on Tuesday. He was admitted there two days ago," Chief Medical Officer Yashpal Singh said. The victim used to live in Delhi and work as a tailor, they said, adding that he had fled a Ghaziabad hospital and reached his sister's place in Badaun two days ago. A man has died while undergoing treatment for COVID-19 infection in Bareilly, days after escaping from a Ghaziabad hospital where he was initially admitted, officials said on Wednesday. Five more persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Mizoram, taking the state tally to 93. reports PTI. Of the total 93 COVID-19 cases, 92 are active as only one person has recovered from the disease. Rajasthan has closed its borders due to increasing COVID-19 cases, ANI has reported. No person will be allowed to enter the state. Those who wish to leave need to take prior permission, the report adds. At a review meeting of the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Corridor on Tuesday evening, Thackeray said separate zones of industries should be created along the corridor and all facilities required by units should be provided there. The Samruddhi Corridor is a 701-km-long expressway being constructed to cut short the travel time between Mumbai and Nagpur. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has stressed the need for decentralisation of new industries in the state in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak. The findings were first reported in April by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a preprint, prior to traditional academic validation provided by a medical journal. Gilead Sciences Incs antiviral drug remdesivir prevented lung disease in macaque monkeys infected with the new coronavirus, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Tuesday. Kejriwal also said he was constantly thinking of ways to tackle the coronavirus numbers in Delhi when he was in quarantine. He urges people to wear masks, follow physical distancing guidelines and make this a peoples movement and likens this to the odd-even scheme. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses the media about the coronavirus situation. Thank you for your blessings and wishes, have tested negative for the coronavirus, he said. Lt Governor Anil Baijal had directed the government and medical authorities in the National Capital to ensure that treatment was not denied to anybody on the grounds that they were not residents of the city. He also noted that on Monday, the Centre the Lt. Governor overturned Delhis Cabinet decision that Delhi government hospitals be reserved for people of Delhi. "This is not the time for disagreements. We will abide by whatever decision Lt. Governor has taken," he said. The Delhi chief minister on Wednesday said that projections have shown that coronavirus will spread rapidly in Delhi. "We will require around 80,000 beds by 31 July," he said. He also said, "I am requesting neighbouring states to make adequate arrangements there so that more people do not have to come to Delhi. I am sure they are also doing their part." Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while giving a presser on COVID-19 situation in Delhi on Tuesday praised the media for highlighting the problems faced by coronavirus patients in Delhi. He also said that directives of Anil Baijal will be implemented in letter and spirit, saying this is not the time for disagreements or arguments with Opposition parties. The Jama Masjid may have to be closed again due to the deteriorating coronavirus situation in Delhi, the mosques Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari said, reports PTI. This comes after Shahi Imams secretary Amanullah died due to COVID-19 on Tuesday 128 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Bihar, taking the total confirmed cases to 5,583, said the state health department on Wednesday. "In normal time, 50 percent patients come from outside Delhi for treatments. So going by that calculation we need about 1.5 lakh beds by July. I will personally oversee stadiums being turned into quarantine centres. In last eight days, Delhi hospitals admitted 1,900 people. Around 4,200 beds are vacant in hospitals," said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal during a press briefing on Wednesday. This is not the time to do politics, we all have to fight COVID-19 together said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Lt governor's order reversing Delhi government's decision on reservation of hospitals. "We will try our best to make arrangements to provide treatment to all, we all have to fight COVID-19 together," said Kejriwal. Delhi has to arrange for 1.5 lakh hospital beds by July-end if people from other states start coming to the National Capital for COVID-19 treatment, said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday. With 136 more people testing positive for the novel coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh in the past 24 hours, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state climbed to 4,126, said the health department on Wednesday. 82 personnel of State Reserve Police Force have also tested positive for COVID-19 so far, the news agency further reported. A total of 1,908 Mumbai police personnel have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, ANI reported on Wednesday. As many as 905 cops have been cured of the viral infection, while the toll has risen to 21. In a series of tweets in Marathi, Sule has said those involved in the business are facing economic hardship due to closure of barbershops and salons amid the lockdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and MP Supriya Sule urged the Maharashtra government to allow barber shops and salons to reopen. The staff had come in contact with a pregnant woman who recently underwent a cesarean section at the hospital and were placed under quarantine after her report for COVID-19 came positive, they said. Nineteen staffers, including two doctors, at Udhampur district hospital in Jammu and Kashmir tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, officials said. Interventions to reduce the coronavirus spread in Europe have brought down infection rates down by an average of 81 percent compared to pre-intervention times, the Nature report claims. In the first study, published in Nature on 8 June, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley report that shutdowns prevented or delayed an estimated 531 million coronavirus infections across six countries China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France and the United States. A second study by scientists at Imperial College London estimates that shutdowns saved about 3.1 million lives across 11 European countries. Two new studies have pointed to the effectiveness of lockdowns around the world, claiming that proper implementation in some countries has reduced the transmission of coronavirus and controlled its rapid spread, saving millions of people from being infected in the still-raging global pandemic. After 42 more people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Assam till noon on Wednesday, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state climbed to 3,092, said health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Nearly 49 million more people are likely to fall into extreme poverty this year due to the COVID-19 crisis and every percentage point drop in the global GDP would mean hundreds of thousands of additional children will have stunted growth, warned UN chief Antonio Guterres, calling on countries to act immediately to ensure global food security. Meanwhile, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Aurangabad rose to 2,264 on Wednesday after 114 more people tested positive for the disease, a district official said. All the new patients are asymptomatic and they have been quarantined at facilities set up in the jail premises, the official said. Reports of 14 jail staff members, including two officers, came out positive on Wednesday, a senior prison official said. As many as 14 staff members of the Harsul jail in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district have tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, a prison official said. "Karnataka crossed 4 lakh tests mark on Tuesday. So far, we tested 4,00,257 samples in 71 COVID-19 testing labs across the state with a positivity rate of 1.4 per cent," he said. Sharing the daily COVID-19 bulletin on his Twitter handle, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said till Tuesday 4,00,257 samples were tested in 71 COVID-19 testing labs across the state. The Karnataka government on Wednesday said that the COVID-19 tests conducted in the state has crossed the four lakh mark, while the recovery rate remained at 44 percent. So far, as many as 500 people have recovered, it said. The number of people who have died due to the infection in Nagpur till now is 14, the district information office (DIO) said in a statement. Sixty-one people tested COVID-19 positive in Nagpur district of Maharashtra on Wednesday, taking the overall count of such patients to 840, officials said. "Out of 1,450 samples tested for COVID-19, 26 people found positive," Deb said in a tweet. Of the fresh cases, 18 were reported from Sepahijala district, six from Tripura South and two from Khowai. Twenty-six more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Tripura on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 867, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said. The matter has been reviewed and it is now decided to reiterate that all CGHS empanelled hospitals, which are notified as COVID-hospitals by state governments shall provide treatment facilities to CGHS beneficiaries as per norms of the scheme, for all Covid-19 related treatments, said the health ministry. Action would be initiated against all CGHS empanelled hospitals designated as COVID-19 and COVID-19 facilities for denying treatment to coronavirus infected patients and to those suffering from other diseases, the Union health ministry said. The new patient is a high-risk contact of a 72-year- old person who had earlier tested positive for the virus, he added. "One high risk contact of a positive patient has tested positive for COVID-19 in Shillong. Person is under medical supervision," the chief minister tweeted. One more person has tested positive for COVID-19 in Meghalaya, taking the state's overall count to 44 on Wednesday, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said. This is the 14th COVID-19 death in the paramilitary or Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs). A 35-year-old BSF jawan succumbed to the novel coronavirus in Delhi on Wednesday, PTI quoted officials as saying. With this, the COVID-19 toll in the force climbed to three. With 23 more people testing positive for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state climbed to 1,560, said the Directorate of Medical Health and Family Welfare, Uttarakhand. Severe cases of COVID-19 are believed to be triggered by an over-reaction of the immune system, known as a cytokine storm, and researchers are investigating whether drugs that suppress certain elements of the immune system can play a role in arresting a rapid escalation of symptoms. Two drugs used to treat inflammatory diseases and cancer are being tested as potential therapies for patients with COVID-19, the Universities of Birmingham and Oxford announced on Wednesday. As part of its efforts to ramp up the testing capacity, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had approved the use of TrueNat system for conducting coronavirus tests. To ensure quick COVID-19 test results, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday asked officials to make TrueNat machines available in all 75 districts of the state by 15 June. "Starting immediately, Phase 3 of VBM will have 80 flights to Europe (2 daily flights to London & 2 to other European destinations) between now & 30 June; & 10 more flights to US-Canada in addition to 70 already announced," he said. Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the third phase of the Vande Bharat Mission will be launched on Wednesday. Telangana reported 191 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 4,111. Eight new deaths were also recorded as the toll reached 156. Punjab: Farmers in Amritsar have begun sowing paddy. Satnam Singh, a farmer says, "We are finding it very difficult to employ labourers for sowing as migrants have left for their home states & local labourers are comparatively more expensive". pic.twitter.com/iJnQEw6ImN Farmers in Amritsar have begun sowing paddy. Satnam Singh, a farmer says, "We are finding it very difficult to employ labourers for sowing as migrants have left for their home states & local labourers are comparatively more expensive". Reports said that Maharashtra health minister Anil Deshmukh inaugurated a 50-bed COVID-19 care centre for police personnel at the "Navi Mumbai police headquarters in Kalamboli as police personnel who have died due to the coronavirus infection rose to 35 on Wednesday," News18 reported. "Like we imposed the lockdown in phases, it will have to be lifted in a phased manner. The danger is yet to pass. But, we cannot bring the economic cycle to a grinding halt even as we fight coronavirus," the statement added. The Maharashtra CMO said that the state government is taking cautious steps for Mission Begin Again. Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu said that two more patients have recovered and were discharged on Wednesday. Both of them have been sent for 14 days home quarantine. Total positive cases in the state now stand at 61, including ffour recovered. 200 new cases of coronavirus were reported in Madhya Pradesh today, taking the case count to 10,049. Seven more casualties were also reported, taking the state's toll to 427. The BMC said that 1,567 more coronavirus cases and 97 deaths reported in Mumbai on Wednesday. Total number of cases in the city is now at 52,445, including 23,693 recovered/discharged, 26,897 active cases and 1855 deaths. An official statement later said the leaders discussed the potential areas in which India and Israel could expand their cooperation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, including research and development efforts in the fields of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. "India-Israel partnership will grow ever stronger in the days to come," he said. "Had an excellent conversation with my friend PM @netanyahu about how India-Israel can collaborate in the post-COVID world," Modi tweeted. During their telephonic conversation, Modi also congratulated Netanyahu on assuming the prime ministerial office for a record fifth time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday discussed with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu the potential areas in which the two countries can expand cooperation in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, including research and development efforts in the field of vaccines. "Department of Pharmaceuticals has approved the lifting of ban on Export of Hydroxychloroquine API as well as formulations. Manufacturers except SEZ/EOU Units have to supply 20% production in the domestic market. DGFT has been asked to issue formal notification in this regard: Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Sadananda Gowda," News18 reported. "He said the Delhi government is preparing for the "foreseeable situation of June 30", and for that, preparations are being made for Covid-19 infrastructure in stadiums, banquet halls, and hotels," the report added. Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said the government will arrange 15,000 beds for COVID-19 patients by 20 June, India Today reported. Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: NHRC issues notice to Delhi Government & Union Health Ministry over serious allegations about COVID mismanagement including non-availability of beds, inadequate number of tests, increasing deaths, delay in last rites of the deceased in Delhi: National Human Rights Commission. A Shiv Sena corporator from Mira Bhayandar and his mother, who had tested positive for coronavirus, succumbed to the infection, News18 reported. As many as 5,991 patients were cured of #COVID19 in last 24 hrs. Total number of patients recovered to 1,35,205, while total active cases is now 1,33,632.For the first time,total no.of recovered patients has exceeded active cases. Recovery rate now stands at 48.88 percent, the Centre said. Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the third phase of the Vande Bharat Mission will be launched on Wednesday. "Starting immediately, Phase 3 of VBM will have 80 flights to Europe (2 daily flights to London & 2 to other European destinations) between now & 30 June; & 10 more flights to US-Canada in addition to 70 already announced," he said. To ensure quick COVID-19 test results, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday asked officials to make TrueNat machines available in all 75 districts of the state by 15 June. As part of its efforts to ramp up the testing capacity, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had approved the use of TrueNat system for conducting coronavirus tests. A 35-year-old BSF jawan succumbed to the novel coronavirus in Delhi on Wednesday, PTI quoted officials as saying. With this, the COVID-19 toll in the force climbed to three. This is the 14th COVID-19 death in the paramilitary or Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) The Karnataka government on Wednesday said that the COVID-19 tests conducted in the state has crossed the four lakh mark, while the recovery rate remained at 44 percent. Sharing the daily COVID-19 bulletin on his Twitter handle, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said till Tuesday 4,00,257 samples were tested in 71 COVID-19 testing labs across the state. "Karnataka crossed 4 lakh tests mark on Tuesday. So far, we tested 4,00,257 samples in 71 COVID-19 testing labs across the state with a positivity rate of 1.4 per cent," he said. Nearly 49 million more people are likely to fall into extreme poverty this year due to the COVID-19 crisis and every percentage point drop in the global GDP would mean hundreds of thousands of additional children will have stunted growth, warned UN chief Antonio Guterres, calling on countries to act immediately to ensure global food security. A total of 1,908 Mumbai police personnel have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, ANI reported on Wednesday. As many as 905 cops have been cured of the viral infection, while the toll has risen to 21. 82 personnel of State Reserve Police Force have also tested positive for COVID-19 so far, the news agency further reported. Delhi has to arrange for 1.5 lakh hospital beds by July-end if people from other states start coming to the National Capital for COVID-19 treatment, said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday. "We will try our best to make arrangements to provide treatment to all, we all have to fight COVID-19 together," said Kejriwal. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while giving a presser on COVID-19 situation in Delhi on Tuesday praised the media for highlighting the problems faced by coronavirus patients in Delhi. He also said that directives of Anil Baijal will be implemented in letter and spirit, saying this is not the time for disagreements or arguments with Opposition parties. Rajasthan has closed its borders due to increasing COVID-19 cases, ANI has reported. No person will be allowed to enter the state. Those who wish to leave need to take prior permission, the report adds. Rajasthan registered a total of 11,368 confirmed coronavirus cases after 123 more people tested positive for COVID-19 till 10.30 am on Wednesday, said the state health department. As many as 256 patients have lost their lives to the viral disease in the state. A total of 1,24,369 cases have been registered in Maharashtra under Section 188 of IPC since 22 March for violation of coronavirus-lockdown norms, said the police on Wednesday. The police force further said that 846 accused have been arrested in cases of assault on cops. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator Mukund Keni succumbed to the novel coronavirus disease late at night on Tuesday after 14 days of staying on ventilator support. Keni, who was the corporator of Kalwa under the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), tested positive for COVID-19 14 days ago and was put on a ventilator support at a private hospital in Mumbai. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Member of Legislative Assembly J Anbazhagan, who was suffering from the novel coronavirus, passed away at a private hospital in Chennai on Wednesday. After 1.35 lakh COVID-19 patients were cured of infectious disease as of Wednesday, India's number of recovered cases exceeded the active ones for first time. There are 1,33,632 active cases across the country. India registered a total of 9,985 confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the overall count across the country to 2,76,583 on Wednesday, according to the health ministry. As many as 7,745 COVID-19 deaths were registered across the country as of Wednesday after 279 more individuals succumbed to the viral infection in the past 24 hours, said the health ministry. India registered a total of 9,985 confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the overall count across the country to 2,76,583 on Wednesday, according to the health ministry. Delhi government hospitals and private facilities here will now have to prominently display information about the availability of beds on a flex board at their main gates, according to an official order Tuesday. It comes in the wake of several families, whose members may have been a positive or suspected case of COVID-19, alleging that they were turned away by various hospitals despite beds being available. On Tuesday, Mumbai crossed50,878 coronavirus cases, which was around 700 more than China's Wuhan, where the global pandemic first surfaced in December. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Wuhan is 50,333, including 3,869 deaths. Maharashtra meanwhile stands at 90,000 cases, ahead of the 84,000-plus cases in China, remains the worst affected state in India. Since the onset of June, India has been witnessing over 200 COVID-19 fatalities each day. Also, the country has registered over 9,000 coronavirus cases for the sixth day in a row. Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said India is better positioned in the fight against COVID-19 compared to other nations but warned against complacency even as a record rise in coronavirus cases in the country pushed the overall number of infections to 2,66,598 and toll to 7,471. The health ministry said central teams have been deployed in 15 states and UTs with districts or municipal bodies witnessing a major spurt in cases to assist the local administrations in containment and management of the outbreak. India reports 9,987 new cases in 24 hours The toll due to the coronavirus infection rose to 7,471 and the cases mounted to 2,66,598 in the country. A total of 336 new COVID-19 fatalities and 9,987 cases were reported in the last 24 hours till Tuesday 8 am, according to Union Health Ministry data. India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global coronavirus case count has climbed to 71,64,393 while the toll has reached 407,818. The number of active novel coronavirus cases in India stands at 1,29,917 till Tuesday 8 am. So far, a total of 1,29,214 people have recovered with 4,785 patients having been cured in the last 24 hours. "This takes the total recovery rate to 48.47 percent," the ministry said. Of the 266 new deaths reported till Tuesday morning, 109 were in Maharashtra, 62 in Delhi, 31 in Gujarat, 17 in Tamil Nadu, 11 in Haryana, nine in West Bengal, eight in Uttar Pradesh, six in Rajasthan, four in Jammu and Kashmir, three in Karnataka, two each in Madhya Pradesh and Punjab and one each in Bihar and Kerala. Out of the total fatalities, Maharashtra has reported the highest with 3,169 deaths followed by Gujarat with 1,280 deaths, Delhi with 874, Madhya Pradesh with 414, West Bengal with 405, Tamil Nadu with 286, Uttar Pradesh with 283, Rajasthan with 246 and Telangana with 137 deaths. Maharashtra also accounts for the highest number of confirmed cases at 88,528 followed by Tamil Nadu at 33,229, Delhi at 29,943, Gujarat at 20,545, Uttar Pradesh at 10,947, Rajasthan at 10,763 and Madhya Pradesh at 9,638, according to the health ministry's data updated in the morning. The ministry's website said that 8,803 cases are being reassigned to states and "our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR". Central teams deployed in 50 districts, municipalities High-level central teams have been deployed in 50 districts and municipal bodies spread across 15 states and Union Territories witnessing high case load and high spurt of cases, the health ministry said. These multi-disciplinary central teams are helping states and UTs address challenges like testing bottlenecks, low rates of testing, high confirmation rates, risk of capacity shortfall over the next two months, potential bed shortage, growing case fatality rate, high doubling rate and sudden spike in active cases, the ministry said. The states and UTs where these teams have been deployed are Maharashtra (seven districts/ municipalities), Telangana (four), Tamil Nadu (seven), Rajasthan (five), Assam (six), Haryana (four), Gujarat (three), Karnataka (four), Uttarakhand (three), Madhya Pradesh (five), West Bengal (three), Delhi (three), Bihar (four), Uttar Pradesh (four), and Odisha (five). Meanwhile, Vardhan chaired the 16th meeting of the high-level group of ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 which reviewed the containment strategies pertaining to the pandemic via video-conferencing here, health ministry said. As the country entered the "Unlock 1.0 phase" where malls, offices and restaurants have opened in many state outside containment zones, Vardhan stressed that people need to be more disciplined and adopt appropriate behaviour to ensure norms of physical distancing, use of face covers, hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette are followed. State-wise updates Many states and Union Territories continued to show a spurt in cases through the day. Odisha's COVID-19 case count crossed 3,000 as 146 more people tested positive for the infection. These new cases include 49 NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) personnel and 12 ODRAF (Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force) personnel, who tested positive after returning to the state from West Bengal, where they had gone for restoration work in the wake of Cyclone Amphan. The Meghalaya government withdrew its earlier order that allowed religious places to reopen doors to devotees from 14 June, and said congregations of any kind would have to be avoided for the time being, given the unrelenting rise in COVID-19 cases. Four new coronavirus cases have been detected in the state since Monday, increasing the tally to 40 three times of what it was during the second week of May. Andhra Pradesh saw its case count cross 5,000 with 216 fresh cases, while its death toll rose to 77. Uttar Pradesh reported its highest single-day spike of 18 COVID-19 deaths, taking the toll to 301, while 388 new cases detected today pushed the case count to 11,335. Kerala continued to reel under the impact of returnees testing positive for COVID-19 as 91 fresh cases were reported in the state on Tuesday, taking the total number of people under treatment to 1,231. Of the fresh cases, as many as 53 came from abroad while 27 from other states. Ten people contracted the disease through contact, the state government said. The total COVID-19 cases in the state rose to 2,095 and the toll remained unchanged at 16. The virus also reached the Union Territory of Daman which was a green zone till nowas two persons recently returned from Mumbai tested positive. Tamil Nadu registered a single-day record increase of 1,685 cases, taking the number of coronavirus infections to 34,914, while 21 more people died to take the toll to 307. Chennai's own tally rose to 24,545 with 1,242 new cases. Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, reported 2,259 new cases to take its tally to 90,787, while its death toll rose by 120 to 3,289. More than 1,000 new cases were reported in Mumbai alone, pushing its tally past 50,000, while the death toll rose by 58 to 1,758. A 55-year-old deputy commissioner of the city's municipal corporation died on Tuesday, a day after testing positive for the novel coronavirus. However, according to PTI, BMC sources said the exact cause of death was not known yet, and the official was not involved in any fieldwork related to the pandemic. Gujarat, another badly hit state, reported 470 new cases, including 331 in Ahmedabad. The state's tally has now risen to 21,044, while its death toll has mounted to 1,313. Ahmedabad alone now has 14,962 cases, while Surat has 2,207 and Vadodara 1,360. The Himachal Pradesh Police Headquarters was sealed while Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu and about 30 other police officials home-quarantined themselves on Tuesday as a man who had met the police chief died of coronavirus, an official told PTI. Delhi case count may reach 5.5 lakh by 31 July, says Dy CM In Delhi, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the National Capital may see its own case count reach 5.5 lakh by 31 July at the current rate of doubling of cases of 12.6 days, from nearly 30,000 at present. He, however, said that central government officials have maintained there was no community transmission of the novel coronavirus virus in Delhi. Meanwhile, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said the source of infection is "not known" in nearly half of the fresh cases being reported but assured that the Kejriwal government is making all the preparations to handle the huge rush of patients estimated by June end. A Delhi government panel has suggested using Pragati Maidan and various stadiums in the city as makeshift COVID-19 facility to deal with the surge in the number of cases, an official said. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had gone into self-quarantine on Sunday after he developed a sore throat and fever, has tested negative for COVID-19. He was tested on Tuesday morning. The fever has subsided and he is now feeling well, an official said. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has, however, tested positive for COVID-19 and has been admitted to a private hospital in the National Capital. His mother Madhavi Raje Scindia has also tested positive. Disinvestment secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey has also tested positive for COVID-19 and is under home quarantine, sources told PTI. He got himself tested after developing mild fever and was found to be infected by the dreaded coronavirus. Consequently, some other officers of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) have also gone for home quarantine, while its office has been sealed for sanitisation. This is the third case in the department. With inputs from PTI The rise of COVID-19 has forced some artists and creatives to explore the option of online exhibitions. For instance, with galleries and museums temporarily closed, a Nigerian fine art photographer, Chudy Ogobegwu, is showcasing African photos and literary works in an online exhibition tagged The Peace Exhibit. The exhibition, which began on Sunday, is aimed at raising awareness on depression and stir up conversations about mental health. It features a collection of art portraits and literary works created by photographers, artists, and writers around Africa. According to the initiator of the project, the exhibition will also explore themes like and the search for the personal peace that eludes so many. Mr Ogobegwu, who revealed this in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, said, the exhibition, through an array of fine art portraits and literary works that are both beautiful and heart-wrenching, will challenge you to see the world differently and learn empathy. READ ALSO: He added that the dark themes explored by the contributing photographers and writers represent the everyday experiences of people struggling with depression and anxiety. He said, Birthed at a time plagued with uncertainty and fear, with global anxiety levels higher than most people have ever witnessed, we hope this project, though starting as a whisper, grows into a loud, undeniable global voice that speaks to people struggling with depression and says to them YOU. ARE. NOT. ALONE. Exhibition The exhibition will feature weekly video conference calls for creatives across the continent. Mr Ogobegwu, who is also a concert and event photographer, said it q African creatives an opportunity to discuss each others works, the challenges they are facing in a plagued world, and how they are looking after their mental health. The hope is that by hearing the realities of creatives from across the continent and learning from what is working for them, participants who are struggling with anxiety and depression will be armed with hope and practical tools they can use to keep themselves at peace, he noted. Mr Ogobegwu said depression, anxiety, and mental health problems are serious issues that dont get talked about enough in Africa. This is why he believes his project will help spark up an Africa-wide conversation and helping many people who are suffering. On his future goals, he said, we look forward to taking the exhibition on tour and spreading the impact it has had on our visitors across the continent and beyond. The exhibition went live on the website, thepeaceexhibit.com and will run through July 18. Partners include Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI), AVON Healthcare, and Strong Minds, all organisations that provide professional help to Africans struggling with depression and other mental health challenges. San Francisco, June 9 : Waiting for that blue check badge next to your account that verifies that you are the genuine owner of the Twitter account? Twitter is probably working on to bring its verification process back, this time in the simplest form of "Request Verification" right within the app. According to a tweet by famed reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, there is a "Request Verification" field in the Twitter app in the "personal information" section of the app's settings. Twitter confirmed Wong's tweet but declined to comment further, reports The Verge. The functionality has not been made public yet. However, the Twitter help page says its verified account programne is on hold, and "we are not accepting any new requests at this time". "Twitter is working on "Request Verification," tweeted Wong. The Twitter verification process was paused in 2017 after the micro-blogging platform was criticized for a blue check to a white supremacist who tweeted disparaging comments about Heather Heyer, a woman killed during the 2017 Charlottesville rally in the US. "Verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance. We recognize that we have created this confusion and need to resolve it. We have paused all general verifications while we work and will report back soon," the company tweeted in November 2017. Earlier this year, Twitter began granting blue checks to public health officials to give authenticity to their tweets about Covid-19 pandemic. NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Logicalis US, an international IT solution and managed services provider, 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 recognized Logicalis US, a Cisco Global Gold partner and Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Service Provider, for its success providing digital services that accelerate the digital transformation of its customers across verticals including manufacturing, healthcare and education. As Architects of Change, Logicalis leverages its deep knowledge in key IT industry drivers such as security, cloud, data management and IoT to partner with its customers, emphasizing key priorities and enhancing the digital transformation experience. "Success in digital transformation requires strong partnerships, trusted knowledge, and a dedicated workforce, all of which are priorities at Logicalis," said Jon Groves, CEO of Logicalis US. "Recognition on the SP500 underscores the strength of our external partner relationships as well as the continuous efforts of our teams to act as true partners for our customers. I applaud all of our employees on the work they put in every day. This award is a true testament to their commitment and success as Architects of Change." 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. "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 Logicalis US Logicalis is an international solutions provider of digital services currently accelerating the digital transformation of its 10,000 customers around the world. Through a globally connected network of specialist hubs, sector-leading experts (in education, financial services, government, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, retail and telecommunications) and strategic partnerships (including Cisco, Microsoft, HPE, IBM, NetApp, Oracle, ServiceNow, and VMware), Logicalis has more than 6,500 employees focused on understanding customer priorities and enhancing their experience. As Architects of Change, Logicalis' focus is to design, support, and execute customers' digital transformation by bringing together their vision with its technological expertise and industry insights. The company, through its deep knowledge in key IT industry drivers such as Security, Cloud, Data Management and IoT, can address customer priorities such as revenue and business growth, operational efficiency, innovation, risk and compliance, data governance and sustainability. The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of $1.7 billion, from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Africa. It is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, with revenues of over $4.3 billion. For more information, visit https://www.us.logicalis.com/ or visit LogicalisUS on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. 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. SOURCE Logicalis The chairman of Chedma, Tanzanias main opposition party, was reportedly attacked and injured by unknown assailants after which he was hospitalised. According to Tanzanias local media outlet, the police and the party said that there are reports Freeman Mbowe was attacked by three people who broke his right leg. The Regional Police Commander Gilles Muroto reportedly said that the officials are still continuing to follow the case. While taking to Twitter, the opposition party said, "Chadema National Chairman and Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament (KUB), Hon. Freeman Mbowe has been attacked and injured by unknown people while returning to his home in Dodoma. He has been rushed to hospital for treatment. We'll give you more information later. Mwenyekiti wa Chadema Taifa na Kiongozi wa Kambi Rasmi ya Upinzani Bungeni (KUB), Mhe.@freemanmbowetz ameshambuliwa na kujeruhiwa na watu wasiojulikana wakati akirejea nyumbani kwake jijijini Dodoma. Amekimbizwa hospitalini kwa ajili ya matibabu. Tutawapatia taarifa zaidi baadae. CHADEMA Tanzania (@ChademaTz) June 9, 2020 READ: Tanzania Leader Banned From Making Statements Ahead Of Polls READ: Concerns About Virus In Tanzania Grow Amid Lack Of Data Attack believed to be politically motivated As per reports, on June 8 Mbowe was attacked while he was returning home in the capital Dodoma. While speaking to the media outlet, Chadema official John Mnyika called the attack politically motivated. Mnyika also added that the partys priority currently is Mbowes heath. According to an International media outlet, Mbowe has repeatedly accused the ruling government of covering u the true extent of the coronavirus in Tanzania. Mbowe and several other opposition MPs were briefly also jailed back in March in connection with a banned protest against Tanzanias President John Magufulis government, which has been allegedly accused of crushing dissent and harassing political opponents. Magufuli has also been accused of hiding the spread of COVID-19 in the country as his administration reportedly stopped updating figures in April. Magufuli was elected back in 2015 and is now due to run for a second term in October in a country which was once seen as a bastion of democracy in a tumultuous part of East Africa. (Image: Freeman Mbowe/ Twitter) READ: Tanzania: Goat And Fruit Test Positive For COVID-19, President Questions Testing Kits READ: Tanzanian President Wants Citizens To Turn To 'God, Not Masks' Amid COVID-19 Pandemic Embraced by the East, the declaration issued Saturday in Cairo on a political solution to the Libyan crisis has so far received no official response in Tripoli, writes Kamel Abdallah The Cairo Declaration announced by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi on Saturday triggered a variety of reactions from Libyan forces in the east, west and south. The declaration is a political initiative to revive interest in a political settlement process, and to support the UN in making progress on the three tracks of Libyan dialogue launched at the international conference on Libya in Berlin, known as the Berlin Declaration. Meanwhile, escalation continues on the battlefield in Sirte between the Government of National Accord (GNA), which is supported by Turkey militarily, and the Libyan National Army (LNA) under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. The Cairo Declaration was received well in eastern Libya. MPs from the parliament in the eastern zone (Barqa) said Monday it is a balanced political initiative to resolve the Libyan problem and fighting among brothers from the same country. They praised the great effort by the Egyptian government and people and their continuous support of the Libyan state, but also warned against rejecting this peaceful political solution or resorting to armed attacks and battles with the help of Gulf states. The Barqa MPs issued a joint statement demanding the exit of all foreign military forces and mercenaries from all Libyan territories, especially oil ports, fields and facilities, warning that their continued presence will lead to the division of Libyan territories as mentioned in the Cairo Declaration, which was announced in Cairo in the presence of Parliament Speaker Aquila Saleh and General Haftar. The 17 signatories of the Barqa statement said: Parliament is inviting everyone, government, people and institutions, to close ranks in support of the LNA to defend the territories under the control of the interim government in Barqa. They continued that parliament upholds the constitutional declaration and its amendments, as well as the principles of the 17 February Revolution, that it is the only legitimate authority in Libya, and the constitutional headquarters of parliament are in Benghazi or temporarily in Tobruk. They urged all MPs to join parliament, resume sessions and fulfil constitutional and legislative obligations. Barqa MPs, who are the majority bloc in the parliament convening in east Libya, believe the Egyptian proposal is a great opportunity to pursue their demand of restructuring the political system and redistributing powers among the provinces based on the size of their population. Also, redistributing wealth, since their province contains the majority of the countrys resources and key ports for exporting oil. In Tripoli, the GNA did not officially comment on the Cairo Declaration, one source told Al-Ahram Weekly. However, some politicians denounced the initiative due to Cairos bias in favour of their political rivals. Those rejecting Egypts proposal insist the military campaign must continue until they regain control of Sirte and Al-Jufra Airbase, both strategic locations, before returning to negotiations. In southern Libya, historically known as Fezzan province, there was no comment on the Cairo Declaration, either due to divisions among political and social elements between Tripoli and Tobruk, as well as social sensitivities among locals who seem to be waiting for the outcome of ongoing battles in the north between the East and West. Meanwhile, a newly established group of economic and financial experts named as the Libyan Economic Salon Group issued a statement calling for redistributing national resources and wealth among provinces and administrative structures, and unifying national institutions. They did not refer to the Cairo Declaration, even though it states these ideas as well. The Cairo Declaration was announced after LNA forces withdrew from advance positions in Tripoli and areas in western Libya, as GNA forces took over. There are also diplomatic efforts underway, which intensified in the past two weeks due to escalation between the US and Russia in Libya after Washington accused Moscow of directly interfering in the conflict and deploying 14 fighter jets at Al-Jufra Airbase in central Libya, according to the US army. On the ground, GNA forces continue to gain ground around Sirte where they want to wrest control after LNA forces pushed them out in January, as well as at Al-Jufra Airbase which Misrata withdrew from in 2017. LNA control of both locations was facilitated by Madkhali Salafists in Misrata and Sirte. Continued battles in Sirte seem to have caused a rift within the GNA after a visit last week by Presidential Council Deputy Chairman Ahmed Maiteeq to Moscow, along with Foreign Minister Mohamed Al-Taher Siyala. Both men met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his deputy Mikhail Bogdanov. The commander of the Sirte-Jufra operations, Brigadier Ibrahim Beit Al-Mal, said on a video recording on social media on Sunday that he received a phone call from Maiteeq asking him to stop the advance towards Sirte, which is a red line after a deal was made with Russia. Moscow believes the city that was once Gaddafis stronghold must remain in an area under its influence. Beit Al-Mal continued that he also received a phone call from chair of the Presidential Council Fayez Al-Sarraj ordering him to continue military operations to regain control of the Sirte, which Misrata is keen on regaining. Observers believe that phoning the commander of military operations in Sirte (Beit Al-Mal) is a sign that Al-Sarraj rejects the Egyptian initiative. However, sources at the Presidential Council denied any comments were made on the issue. The local channel February, which broadcasts from Istanbul, quoted Maiteeq as saying he delivered a clear message from Russia to Al-Sarraj and military commanders, but did not give any details. He added he did not give orders to any particular party, but did not elaborate, even on red line issues. This prompted the powerful minister of interior in the GNA, Fathi Pasagha, to respond: The red lines are drawn by the blood of our martyrs, noting that the bases of Al-Watiya, Ghardabiya and Jufra, Sirte and all cities in the west and south will come under the control of the GNA led and represented by Al-Sarraj. Indeed, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) declared the state of force majeure was lifted at the northwest Al-Zawiyah oil port and Al-Feel and Sharara oilfields in the southwest, which resumed crude oil production Saturday and Sunday. However, less than 48 hours later, operations in Sharara field were stopped after armed men entered the site Monday and told employees to end activities. Shararas abrupt closure led the Tripoli-based NOC to declare force majeure on loadings of crude from the field, the company said Tuesday in a statement. This criminal group dared to enter the field with heavy weapons, NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in the statement. The forces defending these sites had declared their allegiance to the GNA earlier. The LNA lost control of the southwest region after arriving there in February 2019. Oil, the lifeline of Libyas economy, has long been a key factor in the civil war, as rival authorities jostle for control of oil fields and state revenue. Libya has the ninth largest known oil reserves in the world and the biggest oil reserves in Africa. In a series of angry tweets, Pashagha wrote: Only a few opportunists who are weak-minded and nervous succumb to diktats. Sirte will remain within the fold of the homeland and under the umbrella of legitimacy, and we will not compromise on the blood of men beginning in 2011, then Al-Bunyan and Al-Burkan. Sirte will return without restrictions, through the determination of men. A second tweet added: The bases of Al-Watiya, Ghardabiya and Jufra and all cities of the west and south will be under the umbrella of the GNA led and represented by Al-Sarraj. I hope we wont have to call it how we see it. Glory to the brave men, those alive or martyred. In a third tweet, Pashagha stressed: Libya will not be whole again without its East which represents history, hard work and authenticity. We believe in your ability to cleanse your virtuous land from a handful of corrupt rebels who have spilled the blood of your children and planted strife and division among your brethren. Barqa is greater than Haftar; Libya is greater than All. Pashagha also told Bloomberg news agency that GNA forces will recover territories under Haftars control and will block Russia from establishing a military base in Libya until negotiations are agreed upon. He continued that once Sirte and Al-Jufra base are recovered, the GNA will be ready to enter political talks with the East. Pashagha is a key hawk in the GNA who made great progress on security arrangements, but his efforts were scuttled by the LNA after he was able to gradually begin loosening the grip of militias on state institutions in Tripoli. Meanwhile, LNA Spokesman Major General Ahmed Al-Misamri said military operations continue and will not end until the other side agrees to the Cairo Declaration. Al-Mismari told a news conference Monday that General Command supports the Egyptian initiative and is part of it, but the other side has rejected it. We hoped the militias would agree to a ceasefire but unfortunately they didnt. He continued that this rejection came even though some parties in Misrata and Tripoli want to come to the negotiating table, engage and work with this initiative since it is critically important, a real and serious opportunity to solve the crisis in Libya. He did not elaborate on the identity of these parties. Al-Mismari added that the international community saw that General Command and the Libyan parliament agreed to this initiative but the other party issued six statements of rejection, noting that these statements undercut any patriotic voices who want peace and negotiations. And thus, military operations will continue and not stop until commitment to this initiative is reached or these groups are annihilated and these rogue cities become poor villages. He reiterated that General Command will begin a new battle strategy, namely excessive air power, constant air reconnaissance and deployment on the ground suitable for fighting in the desert. *A version of this article appears in print in the 11 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, directed the Centre and state governments to identify stranded migrants and send all of them to their native places with the next 15 days. A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M R Shah asked the Union government to provide additional trains within 24 hours to send migrant workers back to their hometowns. The top court, which pronounced its order through video conferencing, has also directed authorities to consider withdrawing all cases against migrant labourers for alleged violation of lockdown rules under the Disaster Management Act. Additionally, the apex court asked the state governments to consider granting counselling to migrant workers, who have returned to their homes. It also directed authorities to provide them with employment opportunities as per their skill sets. "Employment relief needs to be mapped out and skill-mapping of migrant labourers needs to be carried out," it said. On May 28, the Supreme Court had directed that the migrant workers wanting to return to their home states will not be charged train or bus fares. It also asked concerned authorities to provide free of cost food to the labourers. The bench, which posted the matter for further hearing on July 8, said the schemes for welfare and employment of migrant workers should be publicised adequately. The SC has taken note of the submissions of the Centre and the state governments on steps taken so far to mitigate the miseries of the migrant workers stranded across the country during the nationwide lockdown. The Centre has claimed it has done its "best" to alleviate miseries of migrants. According to the Central government, till June 3, over 4,200 'Shramik Special' trains have been deployed to transport migrant workers to their native places. And, over one crore stranded migrant workers have been sent to their destinations, the Centre added. Further, the union government has asked states to give details about the leftover migrant workers that need to be shifted. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, had assured the court that trains required are being made available to the concerned states and they would be provided in the future as well when demands are raised. The counsel for states, including Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, West Bengal and Kerala, had given data with regard to migrant workers to the court. According to counsel for Gujarat, "Out of 22 lakhs, 2.5 lakhs migrant workers are remaining". Delhi counsel has stated that less than 10,000 stranded migrants were left in the national capital who were willing to go back to their hometowns. Counsel for the Uttar Pradesh government had said that over 100 special trains were used for transporting people back to the state from various parts of the country. The Bihar government had said that 28 lakh migrant workers have returned to the state. The Kerala government had said that out of 4.34 lakh migrant workers, over 1 lakh have been transported so far. And, 1.2 lakh migrants workers were yet to be sent back. Also read: Jyotiraditya Scindia, mother test positive for coronavirus, admitted to Delhi's Max Hospital Also read: Delhi govt orders hospitals to display full rate list of coronavirus services The petition that was circulated in conjunction with the recent Justice 4 Black Lives protest in Winnipeg was not the main focus of the public gathering, but it was newsworthy nonetheless. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The petition that was circulated in conjunction with the recent Justice 4 Black Lives protest in Winnipeg was not the main focus of the public gathering, but it was newsworthy nonetheless. The principal feature of the petition was a call for the abolition or "defunding" of the Winnipeg Police Service. In a city that often feels rightly or wrongly defined by its violent crime, that was a pretty provocative suggestion and one that was likely seen by many Winnipeggers as unrealistic. But in the two days that followed the Winnipeg protest, something remarkable happened. Defunding the police evolved from a mostly esoteric protest slogan to an idea whose time may have come. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES The petition that was circulated in conjunction with the recent Justice 4 Black Lives protest in Winnipeg was not the main focus of the public gathering, but it was newsworthy nonetheless. The mayors of both New York and Los Angeles promised over the weekend to make significant cuts in police funding and redirect the money to social services. However, those gestures paled in comparison to what happened in Minneapolis. On Sunday, nine Minneapolis city councillors voted to "dismantle" their police force in the wake of the George Floyd killing and more than a week of protest that spread across the globe. This super-majority prevents besieged Mayor Jacob Frey, a skeptic of defunding, from vetoing council's will. None of the councillors who supported the resolution know yet what will replace the old police force, only that it will be different from what exists today. The lack of specific detail means that in cities such as Winnipeg, any discussion about defunding which can involve everything from funding cuts to the abolition of traditional policing will be initially dominated by skeptics and the disciples of the status quo. But take note: while the term has not necessarily been a prominent part of the discussion here, Winnipeg has been working for years now to find alternatives to our current approach to policing. And that the Winnipeg Police Service has been heavily involved. As is the case in so many other urban centres, Winnipeg spends too much on traditional policing and gets too little in terms of results. As is the case in so many other urban centres, Winnipeg spends too much on traditional policing and gets too little in terms of results. Minority communities believe police culture is broken and biased. Mayor Brian Bowman and council are concerned that police funding is eclipsing the city's budget. Meanwhile, others are demanding more policing, not less, to take back the city from criminals. And then there are police. Although it is unlikely the WPS would willingly seek its own abolition, its leaders have complained that its officers are being asked to perform duties better handled by social workers and mental-health and addictions counsellors. In general, the WPS believes that up to 60 per cent of the calls it responds to do not involve criminal acts, and could be handled by other services. That data explains why the city, WPS and more than 30 people with expertise in mental-health and addictions and social services accepted an invitation to participate in the year-long Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership initiative, which is looking for ways to divert hundreds of thousands police calls to other, more appropriate social services. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Mayor Brian Bowman and council are concerned that police funding is eclipsing the city's budget. Although this kind of initiative does not go as far as some activists would like, it does seek one of the primary outcomes of the defunding movement: the removal of police from situations for which they are not trained. Regardless of your perspective on defunding, we should all be able to agree that there is a serious misalignment between police training, resources and responsibilities. For far too long, political leaders in pursuit of tough on crime credentials have promised "more boots on the street" and in so doing, ignored the fact that more spending on police does not make for safer communities. Meanwhile, we have tolerated abuses of authority and force by police because we believe, in a city with a reputation for leading the nation in violent crime, they are necessary evils. We as citizens have watched passively as governments of all levels have ignored the need to provide meaningful support to mental-health and addictions treatment and family services. Instead of matching each social problem with the right people, we dispatch police officers who, like the metaphorical carpenter with a hammer, see every problem as a nail. 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. However, relieving police of mundane calls for service is only one part of the equation here. If traditional policing is to remain, even in a limited form, we must still address a culture that has failed to fully embrace the principles of de-escalation and racial equality. In general, the argument for defunding has at its core the need to find new ways to accomplish the goals of public safety. (Jesse Boily / Winnipeg Free Press Files) In a desperate bid to avoid a serious debate on defunding, the advocates of traditional policing are frantically committing to building a new culture through improved policy and directives. This approach, used repeatedly in the past, is simply not going to satisfy calls for real change. Police all over the world have been asked politely to change their mindset and methods and, in far too many instances, they've consistently disappointed. So, as we prepare to have our own debate on the future of public safety, remember that the defunding debate isn't just about getting rid of status quo policing. It's really about whether we have the collective strength and vision to conceive of a new approach to public safety that features a truly modern culture, and matches the right resources with the right problems. That process will start when we as a community acknowledge that no idea, no matter how outlandish it may seem initially, is off the table. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca International Business Machines Corporation IBM will reportedly no longer sell or develop facial-recognition software in an effort to curb racial discrimination. Moreover, the company will oppose the use of such technology for mass surveillance and racial profiling. The decision comes amid nationwide protests in the United States over the death of George Floyd in police custody. Per a Reuters Report, CEO Arvind Krishna has called for key policy changes in the United States through police reform, responsible use of technology, and broadening skills and educational opportunities to achieve racial equality in the country. The decision to move away from the controversial technology is likely to free up resources for IBM, which can be reinvested in other profitable businesses. It is also expected to boost the companys brand reputation and instill investors optimism in the stock. Notably, shares of the company have returned 1.3% in the year-to-date period against the industrys decline of 3.1%. International Business Machines Corporation Price and Consensus International Business Machines Corporation Price and Consensus Facial Recognition under Fire for Privacy Concerns The facial recognition technology is increasingly being leveraged by various government and law enforcement agencies as well as private entities to fulfill their respective requirements. The use of the tech is almost infinite, for instance, unlocking screens, identifying and uniting family members, and receiving suggestions for tagging a person on a picture, to mention a few. The improvements in sensors and cameras, and strengthened machine learning (ML) capabilities are paving the way for organizations to increasingly leverage the facial recognition technology. However, the technology has been accused of being biased, which leads to disproportionate targeting of people along the lines of race or ethnicity. Notably, per a study published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), facial recognition systems have a higher rate of false positives for Asian and African-American faces as compared to Caucasian faces. As a result, the companies providing facial recognition technology have come under increased pressure to regulate their services. Markedly, Facebook FB came under scrutiny over its use of facial recognition technology. In January, the company paid $550 million to settle a class-action lawsuit regarding the use of this technology to identify peoples faces without consent. Further, in March, Microsoft MSFT divested its stake in Israel-based startup AnyVision and stopped making minority investments in other companies that offer facial recognition technology due to privacy concerns. Thus, IBM is expected to benefit from its decision to exit from its facial recognition business as the technology is not fool-proof and requires significant modifications, at the moment. Zacks Rank & A Key Pick IBM currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock worth considering in the broader sector is Nice Ltd. NICE, which flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Long-term earnings growth rate for Nice is currently pegged at 10%. Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside? Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana. Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look. See the pot trades we're targeting>> Click to get this free report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Facebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis Report Nice Ltd. (NICE) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 17:54:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WINDHOEK, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Namibian government has called for strict monitoring and control of cross-border truck drivers to reduce the risk on inter-country COVID-19 transmission between South Africa and Namibia. Damien Mabengano, deputy director of transportation regulation in the Ministry of Works and Transport in Namibia said countries in the Southern Africa region have agreed to put up an electronic monitoring system for all truck drivers transporting essential supplies across different countries. His assertions come after increasing numbers of truck drivers manning cross-border routes escape from mandatory quarantine facilities, exposing community members to the risk of spreading COVID-19. "We are working with trucking companies as well as security cluster in making sure that all truck drivers adhere to isolation policies in Namibia and the region as a measure to control their movement," he said. "The Namibian government has also put police on high alert to monitor the movement of truck drivers primarily from South Africa who are transport essentials." he said. Enditem Withdraw cases against migrants, provide employment, SC directs Government India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 09: The Supreme Court has ordered that all complaints lodged against migrant workers for violating lockdown norms be withdrawn. The court ordered the withdrawal of those cases that were booked under the Disaster Management Act of 2005. It may be recalled that several cases under the act were booked against the migrant workers for violating lockdown norms, while trying to return to their home towns. Portable social security number on the cards for migrant workers WHO says coronavirus situation is worsening globally, disease raging in Americas| Oneindia News Further, the court also directed that Shramik special trains be provided to the migrants within 24 hours to facilitate their return home. The transportation of all migrants should be completed within 15 days, the court also ordered. The court has also directed the Centre, States and UTs to provide schemes for employment and also benefits for the migrants who have returned home. The details of these schemes shall be disseminated at the village, block levels at the earliest. The Supreme Court also ordered the governments to provide counselling centres for the migrants, with regard to the information on the schemes. Growing Europe renewables team reaps success as ING Bank commences funding for SMR's Black Lough, Three Trees and Enros wind farms Financial close achieved on the 16 April 2020 for the Black Lough onshore wind farm, and on the 25 May 2020 for the Three Trees and Enros wind farms, marks the latest Technical Due Diligence success for Black Veatch Europe's renewable energy business. The company was working on behalf of ING Bank, a branch of ING-DiBa AG, a major backer of renewable energy and sustainability projects globally. "We have a wind energy team which understands every stage in the project lifecycle," said Robbie Gibson, Black Veatch Europe's Director for Renewable Energy. "Our expertise in wind energy engineering, operation and economics is what makes us a trusted advisor for this kind of technical due diligence project; and we are extremely pleased to have supported SMR and ING Bank in reaching a successful financial close." Black Lough is a 14.1 megawatt (MW), six-turbine array in County Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Three Tree and Enros are respectively 4.6 MW and 2.3 MW (two and one-turbine) projects in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland. The projects' sponsor is SMR. Black Veatch's technical due diligence team encompassed environmental consulting, civil and electrical engineering evaluations and leading-edge digital wind yield analytics. The team provided ING with a full technical assessment of the project's sustainability, buildability and profitability. Black Veatch also delivered construction monitoring services. The Black Lough, Three Trees and Enros wind farms are some of the last Irish projects to be supported via the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFIT) 2 Scheme, and in order to qualify had to meet tight construction deadlines. SMR's confidence in the project was such that construction was initiated ahead of financial close. "The delivery of our due diligence while construction was progressing created a unique set of challenges. It required our nimble team to deal with the fast-progressing status of the project," commented Gregory Dudziak, Head of Wind Energy, Black Veatch Europe. Markus Helmes, Vice-President in the Energy Renewables Power team in Frankfurt at ING Bank, commented "The professionalism and reliability from SMR and Black Veatch was crucial for a successful financing execution even during a global pandemic. We are very proud of the achievement, and already look forward to the next opportunities to work together." Globally Black Veatch has supported more than 56 gigawatts (GW) of wind energy projects, including more than 20 GW of new-build owner's engineer experience. "As well as their own expertise, the Black Lough team had ready access to a wealth of Black Veatch's international experience," added Dudziak, "So we ensured our support to the client was informed by global best practise." With Black Lough now operational, Black Veatch's support for ING Bank is continuing with technical due diligence and construction monitoring on the Three Trees and Enros windfarms. Click here to download an image to accompany this story. Editor's Notes: Black Veatch's support for off and onshore wind projects extends over 40 years and covers every point in the infrastructure lifecycle from development support through to delivering major engineer, procure and construct contracts. Gregory Dudziak joined Black Veatch Europe as Head of Wind Energy in 2019. His appointment augmented the company's rapidly developing renewable energy team. ING Bank is a leader in sustainability, seeking to facilitate and finance the shift to a low-carbon future. The bank steers its loan portfolio towards the Paris Climate Agreement's goal to limit rise in global temperatures, and has itself been climate neutral since 2007. 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/20200609005491/en/ Contacts: Media contact MALCOLM HALLSWORTH +44 1737 856594 p +44 7920 701764 m HallsworthM@BV.com 24-HOUR MEDIA HOTLINE +1 866 496 9149 The Greater Accra Regional Council of Zongo Chiefs led by acting Chairman, Chief Siddique Gimala, yesterday, Monday, 8th June, 2020, called on the Hon. Minister for Inner City and Zongo Development, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid at his office in Accra. The Council applauded the Ministry and the Zongo Development Fund for the developmental projects in Zongo communities across the country. According to Chief Alhaji Morro Baba Issah, P.R.O. for the eminent Chiefs, the Council supports the Ministry's focus on educational projects. In view of that, they want to offer a parcel of land for the construction of a Senior High School at the precinct of the Central Mosque, Abbosey Okai in Accra and want the proposed school to be named after the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr. Osman Nuhu Sharubutu. Dr. Abdul-Hamid was presented with a document containing the architectural designs of the proposed project and the site plan of the land. The Hon. Minister thanked the Council for the visit and assured them of the Ministry's continuous support for their activities. To show his commitment to the construction of the proposed "Dr. Osman Nuhu Sharubutu Senior High School", the Hon.Minister told them that he will visit the site today with a technical team from the Ministry. Dr. Abdul-Hamid appealed to them for their continuous support for the work of the Ministry and the Zongo Development Fund. Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[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 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is responding to a recent claim made by actor David Oyelowo and filmmaker Ava DuVernay alleging that Oscars voters refused to support their 2014 film "Selma" after the cast and crew protested the death of Eric Garner. Oyelowo, who played Martin Luther King Jr. in the film, said in an interview published Thursday that members of the academy threatened to sabotage awards chances for "Selma." The voters allegedly disapproved of Oyelowo, DuVernay and others wearing T-shirts with Garner's famous last words, "I can't breathe," to the movie's 2014 premiere in New York. Although "Selma" did win an Oscar, for best original song, DuVernay later confirmed Oyelowo's account on Twitter, and by Thursday night, the academy addressed the controversy. "Ava & David, we hear you," the academy tweeted to DuVernay. "Unacceptable. We're committed to progress." Garner died in July 2014 after a white New York police officer put him in a chokehold and wrestled him to the ground, ignoring Garner's repeated pleas that he could not breathe. The officer, Daniel Pantaleo, did not face charges. Six years ago, the premiere of "Selma" coincided with Garner's death, Oyelowo told Screen Daily. "I remember at the premiere of Selma us wearing 'I Can't Breathe' T-shirts in protest. "Members of the Academy called in to the studio and our producers saying, 'How dare they do that? Why are they stirring S-H---?' and 'We are not going to vote for that film because we do not think it is their place to be doing that.'" "Selma" was nominated for best picture at the 2015 Oscars, yet Oyelowo was snubbed for his critically acclaimed lead performance as the legendary civil rights leader. The academy drew harsh criticism for its all-white slate of acting nominees that year. DuVernay was also snubbed for a directing nomination in 2015, which in part helped foment the social media movement .OscarsSoWhite. "It's part of why that film didn't get everything that people think it should've got and it birthed #OscarsSoWhite," Oyelowo told Screen Daily. "They used their privilege to deny a film on the basis of what they valued in the world." Hours later, DuVernay shared Oyelowo's interview, simply writing, "True story." Both vocal supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, the director and actor have been using their platforms in recent weeks to demand justice for George Floyd and other victims of police brutality. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. In an emotional Instagram video, Oyelowo reflected Thursday on how racism has affected him personally, recounting the hatred he and his family have endured and looking back on his challenging "Selma" experience. "We were protesting the death of a black man, and we felt we had the right to do that," Oyelowo said. "They said, 'We are not gonna vote for that film because they have the audacity to be protesting when all they are is actors.' "You feel like you have these moments of progress. ... But you constantly get slapped in the face with the reality that things are essentially the same." This week wasn't the first time Oyelowo has spoken up about the "Selma" incident. In 2018, he told Variety that academy members "reprimanded" the cast and crew for their activism. On Friday morning, DuVernay announced on Twitter that "Selma" will be free to stream on all digital platforms in the United States from today through the end of June. "We've gotta understand where we've been to strategize where we're going," she tweeted. "History helps us create the blueprint. Onward." To many scientists and doctors, the risk of singing is clear. Its not safe for people to simply return to the choir room and pick things up, Lucinda Halstead, the president-elect of the Performing Arts Medical Association, said in a telephone interview. William Ristenpart, a chemical engineer at the University of California, Davis, who has studied how disease-carrying particles spread during speech, said in a Zoom interview that he would strongly agree with the assessment that singing, especially indoors in enclosed spaces, is a terrible idea right now. The New York Times An automatic response to an email sent to Ayers on Tuesday said questions could go to Stephanie Smiley, the acting administrator for the Division of Public Health. Smiley did not immediately return a message. Ayers told the Journal Sentinel in an interview that she was asked to leave the job she held for 14 months during a May 10 phone call with Palm and Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk. Ayers said she hadnt received any warnings about the quality of her work and she was not aware of any disagreements over her handling of the fight against the pandemic. In her May 12 resignation letter, Ayers said she worked hard to meet the challenges of the job and that she was disappointed that I will not be able to continue that work in the Evers administration, but I wish you and the (division) staff nothing but the best as you carry on the important work of public health. Times of great uncertainty and change create an urgent challenge for leaders to bravely lead with a set of clear aims and values, Ayers said in her letter, adding that she had tried to do that during her time at the department. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 03:28:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Builders work at a construction site in Manhattan of New York, the United States, June 8, 2020. After nearly three months of lockdown, New York City entered the first phase of reopening on Monday, 100 days since the city reported its first COVID-19 case. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) NEW YORK, June 8 (Xinhua) -- After nearly three months of lockdown, New York City entered the first phase of reopening on Monday, 100 days since the city reported its first COVID-19 case. "This is a powerful day," said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday morning at a press briefing in Brooklyn. "It is the day that we start to liberate ourselves from this disease." The mayor thanked New Yorkers for their cooperation in the battle against the coronavirus, urging people to remember the lessons while going forward. "We got this far by the hard work and discipline. We gotta stick to it so we can get to the next phase," he said. According to the phased reopening strategy designed by the New York state government, businesses permitted to reopen in phase one include construction, manufacturing, wholesale and curbside and in-store pick-ups for nonessential retail. The mayor said last week that more than 30,000 construction sites will reopen during the first phase, and up to 400,000 non-essential workers in various sectors including construction, manufacturing, wholesale and curbside retail would go back to work. As most people commute on public transit, the city will add 20 new miles of bus lanes to help some 750,000 New Yorkers to get around more easily with more frequent service and less crowding, de Blasio said on Monday. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has taken a series of measures to ensure safety, including installing no-touch payment scanners and distributing masks and hand sanitizers. Meanwhile, disinfection of train cars will continue every night between 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., and the MTA is using ultraviolet light lamps to kill the virus on subway trains, buses and stations. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo rode the 7 Train to Grand Central Station Monday morning. At a briefing later on the day, Cuomo, who grew up in New York City, said the subway cars "are cleaner than they have ever been in my lifetime." He urged people to keep following necessary guidelines including social distancing and wearing face coverings, or there would be a resurge. "New Yorkers bent the curve by being smart," he said. "Stay smart." Cuomo said 35,000 coronavirus diagnostic tests will be done per day in New York City in phase one at over 240 sites across all five boroughs. Meanwhile, more resources of testing, treatment and education will be distributed to the hardest-hit neighborhood with a majority of lower-income and minority populations. The city will also prioritize 15 sites for those who have participated in recent protests over George Floyd's death, and the governor once again encouraged protesters to get tested for free. New York City has been the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States partly due to a high level of population density in offices, residential areas and the public transit system. It faced critical shortages of medical supplies and personal protective equipment, as well as inadequate testing capacity during the peak of infections in March. It is also the last of New York state's 10 regions to finally enter phase one of reopening after achieving all seven benchmarks including shares of total hospital beds available and ICU beds available. So far, the city has reported over 207,000 COVID-19 cases, accounting for more than 10 percent of the country's total. The positive rate of daily COVID-19 testing dropped from 59 percent nine weeks ago to 2 percent on Sunday, as a result of both expanded testing capacity and a slowing rate of infection, said Cuomo. According to the state's strategy, a region must stay in each phase for at least two weeks, during which the city and the state will closely monitor the trend of the COVID-19 curve. De Blasio said earlier this month that New York City could be ready for phase two by July. Enditem Indian troops kill 4 more pro-independence fighters in Kashmir Iran Press TV Monday, 08 June 2020 4:20 PM Four more pro-independence fighters have been killed in an encounter with government troops in Indian-controlled Kashmir, just hours after a deadly shootout in the same area of the restive disputed Himalayan valley. In the latest incident on Monday, Indian soldiers laid siege around a village in the southern area of Shopian on a tip that fighters were hiding there. Army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said a firefight broke out and four suspected militants were killed in the confrontation. Another army officer said three soldiers were also wounded in the clashes. The killing sparked protests as hundreds of residents tried to march on the site of the battle in solidarity with the slain fighters. Indian government forces fired shotgun pellets and tear gas to disperse the stone-throwing crowd. On Sunday, five fighters were killed after Indian counterinsurgency police and soldiers cordoned off Shopian's Reban village. Such armed encounters are frequent in the Himalayan region, which is disputed by India and Pakistan. At least 85 pro-independence fighters and about two dozen soldiers have died this year during outbreaks of violence in the part of Kashmir controlled by New Delhi, and along the de facto border dividing the disputed Himalayan region between India and Pakistan. The latest incidents came a week after New Delhi expelled two Pakistan Embassy officials over allegations of spying. Tensions remain high in Kashmir against the backdrop of New Delhi's revocation of the region's semi-autonomous status last year. In August 2019, the administration of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the semi-autonomous status of its Jammu and Kashmir state, and imposed a months-long curfew that cut off communications and restricted movement. Despite India's efforts to restore normalcy in Kashmir, the region remains tense as people are reluctant to accept India's move to put the region under its direct control. Senior officials in New Delhi accuse neighboring Pakistan for orchestrating attacks against Indian troops in the disputed region, a charge Pakistan denies. Kashmir has been disputed between India and Pakistan since the partition that accompanied Britain's withdrawal from India in 1947. The two countries have fought three wars over the Himalayan region, currently divided between them by the Line of Control (LoC). Both countries claim the territory in full but control only parts of it. India has deployed hundreds of thousands of troops to maintain security in the Muslim-majority region, where people oppose the Indian rule. Pro-independence fighters, backed by the locals, have fought in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the clashes. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Donald Trump is planning to restart rallies in the next two weeks in a major turning point for the president since the coronavirus shut down traditional campaigning. Trumps advisers are still determining where the rallies will take place and what safety measures will be implemented, depending on the type of venue chosen. Campaign manager Brad Parscale is expected to present Trump with possibilities within the next few days. The president has been itching to resume his boisterous rallies, his favorite way to connect with supporters and let off steam. He's planning to use the events to drive home what is expected to be a major theme of his campaign: that he is the leader of the countrys reopening and economic rebound. Trump held a hastily-called press conference Friday to celebrate an unexpectedly strong jobs report, and his campaign immediately began running a massive ad campaign seizing on the news. Americans are ready to get back to action and so is President Trump. The great American comeback is real and the rallies will be tremendous, Parscale said in a statement. Youll again see the kind of crowds and enthusiasm that sleepy Joe Biden can only dream of. The move comes at a precarious moment for Trump. National and swing state polls show him taking a major hit amid his handling of the pandemic and the social unrest that followed the killing of a African American man at the hands of Minnesota police. He is trailing Joe Biden substantially in many polls. The presidents team views the rallies as a way of rejuvenating his base and displaying the enthusiasm behind his reelection bid. They are eager to create a contrast with Biden, who has largely remained secluded in his Delaware home and hasnt held a major campaign event since spring. While Trump is likely to face blowback for resuming in-person events while the coronavirus pandemic is still ravaging the country, his advisers contend that the recent massive protests in metropolitan areas will make it harder for liberals to criticize him. Story continues Trump hasnt held a rally since March, though in recent weeks he has used ostensibly official events to visit swing states. He is gradually returning to normal political life, with a pair of in-person fundraisers scheduled for this month. He will headline an event Thursday at a private home in Dallas. Aides are factoring in an array of factors in determining where the rallies will be held, including the number of coronavirus cases that exist locally. With the election less than five months away, there's a growing sense of urgency within the Trump campaign. It has recently taken steps to beef up its infrastructure, elevating longtime political adviser Bill Stepien and bringing on Jason Miller, a key figure on Trumps 2016 bid. The staff moves are intended to provide additional support to Parscale, who has been campaign manager since 2018. As indicated by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporations monthly starts survey, the rate of new supply nationwide is on a sustained decline, with British Columbia and the Prairies being particular trouble spots. Excluding Quebec as construction resumed only on April 20 the national housing starts trend was 151,072 units in May, down from 155,600 units in April 2020. Higher multi-family starts in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces were offset by declines in British Columbia and the Prairies. We expect national starts to continue to register declines in the near term, reflecting the impact of COVID-19 measures, said Bob Dugan, chief economist at CMHC. In a reversal, the Army is signaling it is open to renaming military installations named for Confederate leaders. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy would consider changing the name of as many as 10 installations that have Confederate names, a spokesperson said. The Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Army are open to a bi-partisan discussion on the topic, Army spokesperson Col. Sunset Belinsky told Politico. A later statement to CNN added, however, that "each Army installation is named for a soldier who holds a significant place in our military history. Accordingly, the historic names represent individuals, not causes or ideologies. Fort Rucker, located in southeast Alabama, is named for Col. Edmund Rucker, a brigade commander in the Confederate Army during the Civil War who went on to be an industrialist in Birmingham. Other Confederate-related installations include Fort Bragg, Fort Hood, Fort Lee, Fort Benning, Fort Gordon, Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Polk, Fort Pickett and Camp Beauregard. All the installations are located in Southern states Benning and Gordon in Georgia; Pickett, Hill and Lee in Virginia; Polk and Beauregard in Louisiana; Hood in Texas; and Rucker in Alabama. The comments are a change from previous ones that indicated the Army was not considering any name changes even after the Pentagon said it would allow each branch of the military to make its own decisions on installation titles. The Armys new statements were made amid national protests over the police-involved death of Minnesota man George Floyd and an increased emphasis on Confederate monuments and symbols. State and local police prepare to arrest around 100 protesters after they stayed out beyond the governor's 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) Minnesota Officers Slashed Car Tires During Protests Law enforcement officers in Minnesota punctured the tires of numerous unoccupied vehicles during protests and riots following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, two police agencies say. There were instances when State Patrol troopers strategically deflated tires to keep vehicles from being used in attacks, and so we could tow the vehicles later for collection of evidence if necessary, Bruce Gordon, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, said in a statement sent to news outlets. Officials slashed tires to stop cars and trucks from driving dangerously at high speeds in and around protesters and law enforcement, Gordon said. Some of the vehicles contained items such as rocks, concrete, and sticks, which have been used during demonstrations to assault law enforcement officers. While not a typical tactic, vehicles were being used as dangerous weapons and inhibited our ability to clear areas and keep areas safe where violent protests were occurring, Gordon said. Deputies from Anoka County also deflated tires on vehicles during the protests, Anoka County Sheriffs Lt. Andy Knotz said in a statement sent to The Epoch Times. Personnel from the sheriffs office and Minnesota State Patrol acted under the authority of the Multi-Agency Command Center and targeted illegally abandoned vehicles that were inside the law enforcement perimeter and obstructing law enforcement operations, the sheriff said. Life safety issues were a concern due to the previous two days of civil unrest in Minneapolis, Knotz added, as rioters had used unoccupied vehicles as weapons. Protesters march along the freeway that exits St. Paul on their way to US 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, on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Gordon said late last month that the command center helped organize thousands of officers from various state, local, and federal agencies to respond to protests and riots. The sheriffs office wasnt involved in deflating tires at a Kmart parking lot, Knotz said. Several people at the protests saw officers slashing tires in the Kmart parking lot at Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue on May 30. One of the vehicles belonged to Chris Serres, a reporter with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. As far as I could see, it looked like all their tires had been slashed, Serres told his paper. Some video clips showed officers puncturing tires of cars on roadways in and around Minneapolis. Others posted about finding their vehicles with tires deflated, including multiple reporters, but werent sure who did it. A tow truck driver removing some of the vehicles with slashed tires told Andrew Kimmel, a video producer, that he was towing everybodys cars, including random people, medics over there, news crews, random people that were here to protest. Tobias Cossen, project director at GIZ, speaking at the workshop Set to run from 2019 until 2023, BEM aims at improving the preconditions for the sustainable use of bioenergy for electricity and heat generation in Vietnam. Besides an introduction to the BEM project itself, other topics presented at the workshop were the current context and outlook of bioenergy in Vietnam, opportunities and challenges for developing a bioenergy power plant in the country, and the nations need for bioenergy research. At the workshop, Do Duc Quan, EREAs deputy director general said, As an agricultural country with a strong potential for bioenergy, the Vietnamese Government is striving to raise the share of biomass in its power production. Key policies and support mechanisms were promulgated in 2014 and have been amended and supplemented in 2020 to encourage private investment in the sector. With the measures, Vietnam expects to meet its goal for a biomass energy share of 2.1 per cent in the power production in 2030 stated in the revised Power Development Plan VII. Joerg Rueger, the German Embassys First Secretary, affirmed, The BEM project will play a crucial role in supporting the Vietnamese Government in increasing the share of bioenergy within the countrys overall power mix. While wind and especially solar power have already shown their growth potential in Vietnam, the potential of bioenergy remains untapped. Given its specific relevance in the context of climate protection using already existing biomass from for example the agricultural sector such as bagasse from sugar production, it represents an important pillar in a sustainable power transition. A growing number of bioenergy power plants will support Vietnam to achieve its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). In particular, the BEM project will support the implementation and achievement of the renewable energy targets set out in the revised Power Development Plan VII, the Green Growth Strategy and the Politburos Resolution No. 55/NQ-TW on the Orientation of Vietnams National Energy Development Strategy to 2030, with the vision to 2045. This goal will be facilitated through the projects activities; namely, i) the improvement of the regulatory framework for biomass energy development, ii) the enhancement of the capacity of financial institutions, organisations, private sector companies, and individuals involved in the development, and iii) the fostering of technological co-operation, and research and development between international and Vietnamese stakeholders of the bioenergy sector. The BEM project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI), under the implementation of EREA and GIZ. The project will directly support policymakers and state officials at the central and provincial levels, as well as the private sector (including biomass energy investors and local consulting companies), financial institutions, research and development institutions, and universities who are working on the utilisation of biomass for heat and power production in Vietnam. Its indirect and long-term beneficiaries are the electricity and industrial heat consumers, who will enjoy the future sustainable, clean, and cost-effective renewable energy as well as local farmers and workers who can gain economic co-benefits from the stable development of bioenergy (such as additional jobs). After Hanoi, the next stop of the workshop is Ho Chi Minh City on June 11. [June 09, 2020] TechStyle Fashion Group Names Nina Fuhrman Chief Merchant for JustFab and ShoeDazzle TechStyle Fashion Group, the global fashion retailer known for its membership-based digital brands Fabletics, Savage X Fenty, JustFab, ShoeDazzle and FabKids, announced today the appointment of industry veteran Nina Fuhrman to Chief Merchant for JustFab and ShoeDazzle. She will be based at TechStyle's global headquarters in El Segundo, California. As Chief Merchant, Fuhrman will oversee design and product strategy for all merchandising categories, for TechStyle's JustFab and ShoeDazzle brands. Fuhrman will be responsible for leading a data-driven, customer-centric team towards effective end-to-end inventory management across merchandising, design, planning and production functions. Fuhrman will grow and share her intimate knowledge of fashion trends and the competitive landscape to drive merchandise with impeccable style at accessible price points. "We are thrilled to bring Nina on board at such an exciting time for TechStyle," said Laura Jouovski, President of Global Fashion Brands JustFab, ShoeDazzle and FabKids. "We are confident that she will be essential to the growth of the JustFab and ShoeDazzle brands, and we are looking forward to working with her closely and leveraging her vast talent driving experiences and strategy for high growth retail organizations." "I am thankful to be entering into this new chapter with such a dynamic organization whose mission is to reimagine the fashion business," said Fuhrman. "At such an exciting time for retail and e-commerce, I'm excited for the incredible opportunity to operate within TechStyle's unique position at the center of fashion and innovation, building amazing brands for passionate customers." The hiring of Fuhrman comes at an exciting time for JustFab and ShoeDazzle as TechStyle continues to make strategic investments to fuel growth. As the JustFab brand celebrates its 10 year anniversary the business is gearing up for the next chapter, and strategically bringing on new talent to elevate and evolve the customer experience. JustFab and ShoeDazzle are on the path to becoming the best, most loved, footwear-first, accessible price point fashion brands in the world. Fuhrman is a veteran brand strategist skilled at partnering with brands across industries to explore and develop compelling consumer experiences. She brings to TechStyle extensive experience in merchandising and retail strategy for prominent fashion and retail businesses. Most recently, Fuhrman served as the VP and General Manager of FabFitFun Style, where she led a cross-functional team to build an omni-channel apparel vertical within the FabFitFun ecosystem. Prior to joining FabFitFun, Fuhrman served as Head of Retail Strategy at IDEO, a prominent design consulting firm. She led client innovation labs and partnered with multi-disciplinary teams of designers to conceptualize and test new physical and digital experiences, go-to-market strategies, and organizational and brand transformation initiatives that enabled companies to become more relevant to consumers. Before her time at IDEO, Fuhrman built her career in Merchandising, Product Development and Production at leading brands such as Louis Vuitton, Walmart, Ralph Lauren, J. Crew and Gap. Fuhrman earned her B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University. ABOUT TECHSTYLE FASHION GROUP TechStyle Fashion Group is a global fashion and lifestyle Company founded in 2010 to deliver access, quality and style for unprecedented value. TechStyle Fashion Group uniquely merges advanced technology with the latest fashion trends to offer an entirely new shopping experience to millions of customers worldwide, including five million VIP Members, through a portfolio of apparel, accessories and shoe brands. TechStyle Fashion Group is reimagining the business of fashion through data, personalization and vertical integration to benefit the modern shopper. TechStyle Fashion Group's brands include Fabletics, Savage X Fenty, JustFab, ShoeDazzle and FabKids, and are available in 12 countries: the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Austria. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005490/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Photo: The Canadian Press Stressed out while working at a bank in New Zealand, Junelle Kunin began searching for music paired with teachings from the Dalai Lama to calm herself down and allow herself to focus. But she couldnt find it online. Thats when the musician and practising Buddhist proposed an idea to The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Lets make an album fusing music with mantras and chants from the Tibetan spiritual leader. She was politely turned down. But on a trip to India where Kunin says she typically gets a chance to meet the Dalai Lama she asked again, this time writing a letter and handing it to one of his assistants. Five years later, Inner World is born. The album featuring teachings and mantras by the Dalai Lama set to music will be released on July 6, his 85th birthday. Id never heard him speak like this. He really was so excited ... he actually proceeded to explain to me how important music is, Kunin said. He leaned forward and his eyes were sparkling, and his fingers were rubbing together and he (talked) about how music can help people in a way that he cant; it can transcend differences and return us to our true nature and our good heartedness. The 11-track project will be released in conjunction with a companion booklet. On her trip to India in 2015, Kunin wrote down a list of topics and mantras she thought would be great for the album, and recorded the conversations with the Dalai Lama for Inner World. The religious leader recites the mantras of seven Buddhas on the album, discussing topics like wisdom, courage, healing and children. The track Compassion, one of the most famous Buddhist prayers, was released Tuesday. When Kunin returned home, her husband, Abraham, who is also a musician and producer, helped her create music and sounds to enhance the Dalai Lamas messages and powerful words. Kunin said that although theyve worked on the album for the last five years, it feels extremely relevant releasing it now. The entire purpose of this project is to try to help people. Its not a Buddhist project, its to help everyday people like myself, even though I am Buddhist, she said. The messages couldnt be more poignant for our current social climate and needs as humanity. Net proceeds from the sales of the album will benefit Mind & Life Institute as well as Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning (SEE Learning), an international education program developed by Emory University and the Dalai Lama. Paramedics and police officers in Minneapolis carry a demonstrator who fainted at a memorial to George Floyd on Friday at the site where Floyd died in police custody. (Kerem Yuce/AFP via Getty Images) Emergency medical services across the country, already burdened by the high demands of COVID-19, have faced added pressure in the past week as they've responded to protests ignited by the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police. The need to protect themselves against the coronavirus adds another complication to emergency crews efforts in these dangerous conditions. Their personal protective equipment can be difficult to wear in a crowd, emergency medical services officials said. Plus, switching from that gear to equipment needed to shield medics from rubber bullets, rocks or tear gas can be challenging. Brent Stevenson , assistant chief of the Denver Health Paramedic Division, said facing a protest and a pandemic at once was uncharted territory. I dont think there was a rule book for me really to figure out what were gonna do, he said. In addition, many emergency medical technicians must overcome the fatigue caused by months of fighting COVID-19. In Dallas, some senior-level emergency medical services officers have worked every day for the past several weeks, said EMS deputy chief Tami Kayea . First responders are trained to handle emergencies in large events. And even though many protesters have assembled peacefully, the size and mobility of last weeks protests surprised EMS officials in some cities. Any large gathering of people is unpredictable in nature, because its just people, said Sean Larkins, superintendent of emergency medical services in Detroit. You just never know what could happen. An added consideration is how EMTs can distinguish themselves from the police and deflect any crowd hostility, several officials said. In Oakland, the word medic is printed on their vests, said a private ambulance shift commander. Firefighters in Sacramento wear bright yellow fire jackets that set them apart from police, said Keith Wade, a captain paramedic and public information officer for the Sacramento Fire Department. Story continues Theyre not there for war, Wade said. Theyre there to help. In that environment, treating people who get sick or injured while participating in a protest becomes more challenging. On June 1, Kayea started putting ambulances and personnel in position at 5 p.m. for a protest in Dallas that night. Hundreds of people were expected, and the city had experienced violence the previous night. The city issued a curfew for certain areas that had been hit by burglaries and vandalism. When the protesters arrived, they started moving outside the area controlled by Kayea and her team. Kayea had to move her personnel and redraw the map showing where her team would respond to emergencies all in real time, she said. Complicating the work is the crowding and sometimes chaos that can make it difficult to assess health needs when a call for help comes in. In addition, tear gas and other methods used by the police to control demonstrators can cause symptoms similar to those associated with COVID-19, Kayea said. When a sick person seeks help, the crowded environment may hamper the relaying of important information. You dont know where youre at. You dont know whats going on because youre out in public, said Wes Hopkins , a division chief for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services in Texas. Its loud. Hopkins arrived at work early on May 31 after protesters blocked a highway the day before. Officials expected continued trouble that night. He organized the command post, instructed medics to get the equipment they needed and worked through logistics, such as where medics would rendezvous if needed. He anticipated a crowd and was aware it meant a higher risk of spreading the coronavirus. To protect his team, he said, he had his medics pack extra gear. He also had them take frequent breaks throughout the day to wash their hands, eat and hydrate. The temperature in Austin reached the mid-80s that day. Hopkins said he wanted to make sure they didnt become patients in what is a very long weekend for us. Yet even as he prepared for the possibility of mass casualties in the demonstration, the department received an alert just before dark about a person on the sidewalk who wasnt feeling well. A special unit, donning personal protective equipment, waded through the crowd and eventually met the person who fit all the criteria for the virus, said Hopkins. On May 29, Heidi Nishimoto received word that protests were expected in Oakland. Nishimoto works as a shift commander for Falck USA, a private ambulance company that contracts with Alameda County to respond to emergencies. She also leads a tactical team of medics trained to handle extremely dangerous situations and embed with police to provide medical support. Were care under fire, Nishimoto said. That night, her team would have to put their training to the test. As Nishimoto roved around in her command vehicle, she received word that a drive-by shooter had hit the two security guards at a federal building nearby. The tactical team sprang into action. One group a block away rushed to the scene on foot, she said. Two ambulances arrived in three minutes. They quickly stabilized the guards and transported them to a hospital. One man, however, died from the injuries, she said. Nishimoto described the experience as surreal. Tactically speaking, her team completed the job without a problem. Emotionally, the episode was a terrible night for all of us, Nishimoto said. We had to manage that and come right back into the hot zone. EL PASO, Texas, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- West Texas Chiropractic Center is continually improving its digital assets to comply with the accessibility guidelines for levels A and AA in accordance with WCAG 2.1 and is inviting visitors to explore their new website. The new website has been designed to offer the ultimate user-friendly experience with improved navigation and functionality while allowing customers to see the full services West Texas Chiropractic Center can offer. West Texas Chiropractic Center, every chiropractic treatment is designed specifically for each patient No insurance? No problem! We offer incredibly cost-effective services, including a $19 office visit and spinal adjustment Created with the user experience in mind, the site includes many new features to help users to quickly and easily navigate the site and find the film or adhesive product they need. New features include: Look Ahead Navigation to reduce the number of user clicks to navigate the site. Treatments Page which allows users to easily narrow down the services by selecting key performance attributes the wanted service needs to have. which allows users to easily narrow down the services by selecting key performance attributes the wanted service needs to have. Visitors can now easily request an appointment through the Request An Appointment page making the process faster and streamlined. page making the process faster and streamlined. Rapid Response Functionality allows the site to be compatible with all browsers and mobile devices. In addition, they have also added a Virtual Clinic , which allows their customers to book a chiropractic consultation online. West Texas Chiropractic Center offers customers an easy and swift experience for their visitors through their website. Visitors to the new site can stay informed with the latest West Texas Chiropractic Center news through the new online blog . The blog will contain richer online content such as chiropractic tips, press releases, featured services, and newsletters. For more information on West Texas Chiropractic Center and to view the site, please visit westtexaschiropractic.com . Media Contact: Rosie Alvarado West Texas Chiropractic Center, LLC. Phone: (915) 562-5700 [email protected] SOURCE West Texas Chiropractic Center, LLC. Embattled Odessa school board member Doyle Woodall claimed Tuesday that he was truly sorry for my offensive Facebook posts and that he is committed to earning back the trust of the people. Woodall was scrutinized, including by Ector County Independent School District leaders, this past weekend for Facebook posts that school district leaders claimed were offensive and demeaning. ECISD school board President Donna Smith and Ector County ISD Superintendent Scott Muri co-wrote a letter stating Woodalls posts do not represent the views of Ector County ISD and that they cut across many of those diverse groups. We cannot tolerate this kind of insensitivity. Woodalls comments on social media, according to an article in the Odessa American newspaper, included: If we want to make America great again we will have to make evil people fear punishment again. The comments appear with an image of a hangmans noose, according to the newspaper. Its not murder" and Jews arent actually people with a picture of Nazi officers. Spill a few gallons of bacon grease on that street and it would clear out fast, followed by three American flags with a picture of large groups of Muslims in prayer. A comment below, according to the newspaper, also says, This is not Saudi Arabia This is Sweet Home Birmingham, Alabama! Nervous yet? RELATED: ECISD leaders rebuke board members offensive comments On Tuesday, Woodall wrote, I have blinders. There are things I dont see and understand because of my culture and personal experiences. For years, I have prayed daily for God to remove my blinders. Woodall referenced being interviewed by a Jewish reporter and then talking with a former deputy commissioner of the Texas Education Agency -- an African-American and that their perspectives helped blinders come off. Because of these experiences, I am a better man today than I was at this time last week, Woodall wrote. Today, I understand why my posts were offensive. I will remove them from my page. I have a lot to learn about cultural differences and I will dedicate a great deal of time learning by attending cultural awareness and sensitivity training. I want to say again, I am truly sorry. The following is a letter sent out Tuesday by Ector County ISD board member Doyle Woodall: I am truly sorry for my offensive Facebook posts. I am committed to earning back your trust. I have blinders. There are things I dont see and understand because of my culture and personal experiences. For years I have prayed daily for God to remove my blinders. Last Friday, I was being interviewed by Ruth Campbell, a reporter from the Odessa American, and I was still angry at what I saw as a small group of people trying to interfere with my constitutional right to free speech. Near the end of our interview Ruth asked me if I knew she is Jewish, and I said, no. She told me what one of my posts meant to her as a Jewish woman and I felt I had been kicked in the stomach. It was the opposite of my intent for the post. I had seen it only from my perspective. A blinder came off. On Saturday, I visited with A.J. Crabill, the former deputy commissioner for education in state of Texas. We have known each other for a couple of years. We have worked side-by-side for multiple hours on several occasions. I have a lot of respect and admiration for Mr. Crabill. He is black man, and I asked him what that post meant to him and when he told me what it meant to him as a black man, again, it was like another kick in the stomach. Another blinder came off. Because of these experiences, I am a better man today than I was at this time last week. Today, I understand why my posts were offensive. I will remove them from my page. I have a lot to learn about cultural differences and I will dedicate a great deal of time learning by attending cultural awareness and sensitivity training. I want to say again, I am truly sorry. Doyle Woodall Tuesday, June 9th, 2020 (4:33 pm) - Score 1,707 The Liverpool Crown Court has sentenced Michael Whitty (47) to three years in prison after he set fire to one of Vodafone UKs 4G masts in Kirkby on 5th April 2020, which caused damage estimated to be worth up to 15,000. Whittys action was fuelled by a bonkers conspiracy theory that links the spread of COVID-19 to 5G. Sadly the outbreak of COVID-19 brought with it a bizarre new conspiracy theory, which saw supporters ignore common sense in the mistaken belief that the new generation of ultrafast 5G based mobile broadband signals had helped to create or directly transmit the virus. Both ideas are as preposterous as they are lacking in any credible scientific foundation (weve covered this before in our fact check). Leaving aside the fact that a biological virus couldnt be more different from electromagnetic radio waves, or that COVID-19 is spreading just as fast in countries and areas with no 5G at all. The one sure way to actually hurt people during a very real global pandemic is by breaking the law, committing arson and cutting off the ability of people to communicate. On top of that a growing number of telecoms engineers (oddly including those who work on fixed broadband infrastructure) have also faced verbal and physical assault while doing their jobs. Last month Openreach alone reported 56 incidents related to the 5G theory and mobile operators have recorded around 100 attacks against their towers. However, what hasnt really been covered before is the arrests and convictions of people who have committed such a crime, which is partly because operators are wary of the possible impact that speaking about it could have on wider police investigations. Nevertheless weve seen reports of arrests for damage to EE (BT) masts in Dagenham and Birmingham, as well as Vodafone (above) and O2 in N.Ireland etc. One of the first people to be sentenced to prison for this is Michael Whitty, a parent of three children and owner of an independent company providing parking facilities based near Liverpools John Lennon Airport. Simon Christie, prosecuting, said: he had spent a considerable amount of time researching 5G technology and discussing it with others in online chat rooms. Whitty was spotted alongside two other men fleeing the scene of an arson attack on Vodafones mast infrastructure, which took 11 days to repair and caused between 10,000 and 15,000 worth of damage. Perhaps ironically the police officers who searched his home also seized Whittys mobile phone (seemingly he wasnt bothered about its alleged virus spewing ability?), which among other things contained photos and videos of other phone masts. Judge Thomas Teague, QC, said: In my view there was here a high degree of planning and premeditation. There was use of firelighters and, in the sense that the aim was to put the mast out of action, there was intent to cause very serious damage to property. According to the Liverpool Echo, Whitty has a string of 13 convictions for 29 offences, spanning between 1991 and 2019, including for assaulting a police officer and for possession of a firearm. Despite all this the judge said that Whitty had shown genuine remorse and also took into account some of his limited charitable work, before sending him to the slammer for 3 years. More such convictions are expected to take place over the coming months. Homestead Police Officer Anthony Green, from inside his patrol car, shot and killed Edward Foster II at an intersection five years ago. Police said Foster was armed with a 9mm pistol. His family doesnt believe he was a threat. Whatever really happened, the public doesnt yet know the details of the investigation. The reason: the Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office has yet to conclude its probe. The long-running investigation has come under scrutiny again. As part of the nationwide protests of police brutality against blacks, activists in Homestead last weekend also pointed to a sometimes rocky relationship with the department. Protesters at a rally Sunday singled out Green, who has been involved in and cleared in two other fatal shootings, as well as longtime Homestead Police Chief Al Rolle, the longest serving black chief in Miami-Dade County. Demorion Lee, the lead organizer of the protest, blasted the five-year delay in the shooting probe. We are met with hostility and closed doors every time we ask questions, Lee told the rally. Im not a lawyer but something tells me thats wrong. Five years is a lengthy delay even by the standards of Miami-Dade, where its not unusual for police-shooting investigations by prosecutors to drag on for years before inevitably clearing officers. During her 27 years in office, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle has filed plenty of cases of police misconduct but never any against officers in a fatal shooting. Over the decades, few state prosecutors have either Florida law gives officers broad leeway to use deadly force, even allowing cops to shoot suspected felons who are fleeing under the assumption they may harm others. The Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office confirmed Tuesday that the investigation of the Foster shooting is still ongoing because there were additional potential witnesses and potential evidence the family and their lawyers wished reviewed. Miami Purple Church Dancers, Shaniya Bradford, 17, center, Shayla Williams, 9, left, and Breanna Bien-Aime, 9, perform in front of Homestead City Hall during a peaceful protest for Black Lives Matter on Sunday, June 7, 2020. After each request, [police] and our office conducted additional investigations and spoke to additional witnesses. Most of these additional leads were derived through exploration of various social media sources. We are still investigating today, trying to locate an individual who indicated online that he was an eyewitness to the shooting. Story continues Civil court filings say prosecutors were about to close the case in February, but continued the probe after the Foster family pointed them to the Instagram page of that purported witness, known only as Chapo Gutierrez, whod posted on social media about the case, according to one motion. If the witness is located, the State Attorneys Office will determine if this witness has personal knowledge of any facts that would affect the outcome of the investigation, according to a document filed by lawyers involved on both sides of the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Fosters family. The civil lawsuit has been voluntarily dismissed, but can be refiled after the state finishes its probe. Unlike in other counties, where grand juries decided on charges, Miami-Dade prosecutors author detailed memos explaining if an officer was justified or not in using force. For years, the office has been criticized for long delays in finishing probes into police shootings, and its vowed to speed up the process, to give answers to families of those shot and police officers as well. Fernandez Rundle is running for reelection against former prosecutor and American Civil Liberties Union deputy director Melba Pearson, who is running on a campaign of criminal justice reform. Fernandez Rundles record on police-abuse cases has become a rallying point for opponents. She has pointed to a slew of use-of-force cases filed recently, including the conviction of North Miami Police Officer Jonathon Aledda, who shot at an autistic man holding a silver toy truck, and Miami Officer Lester Bohnenblust, who slammed down a nurse supervisor. Fernandez Rundles office is also prosecuting Homestead Police Officer Lester Brown, who was captured on surveillance video ramming the head of a Hispanic man into the wall of a cell. He is awaiting trial. Chief Rolle, in a statement issued Sunday, defended his force. The Homestead Police Department takes all of its complaints extremely seriously and we are proud to say that the members of our agency have stepped up to the plate on several occasions to report and advise when one of their own is suspected of not following the rules, Rolle said. Homestead, home to about 70,000 people, is a predominantly Hispanic South Miami-Dade city where almost 25 percent of people live in poverty. Foster, an African-American father of six, died in Homestead July 2015. At the time, Foster was on probation for attempted murder and armed robbery. His family said he had just left a Dollar Store. About 4 p.m., police said, 911 dispatchers got a call about someone walking around with a gun. When Green arrived at the intersection of Southwest 328th Street and 187th Avenue, near a partially built building and close to a Dollar Store, some type of confrontation ensued with Foster. At the time, his sister claimed she believed Foster was on his hands and knees with his hands up. A police union official said: The officer was in fear for his life. There was a gun pointed at the officer. Protesters gather in front of Homestead City Hall during a peaceful protest for Black Lives Matter on Sunday, June 7, 2020. Green, who is white and has been with the police department for three decades, was no stranger to deadly force. In 2005, Green shot and killed an unarmed man named Jason Williams during a struggle outside a convenience store. He claimed Williams was reaching for his gun, and prosecutors cleared him of any wrongdoing. Two years later, he shot and killed Anthony Cinotti, a convicted murderer who police believe was trying to woo back his girlfriend. Green shot Cinotti, police contend, when Cinotti pulled out a knife and stabbed his girlfriend and her 11-year-old son. Again, Green was cleared of any wrongdoing. A year later, in 2008, Green fired his weapon again. This time he shot at a burglary suspect in what was described as an armed robbery. The suspect was shot twice in the stomach and survived. During Sundays protest, one activist called Green Homesteads own Derek Chauvin the Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd. Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association President Steadman Stahl defended Green as a cop who works in a very dangerous area and stressed that Foster pointed a gun at the officer. No police officer ever wants to take a life, unfortunately, the situations that they find themselves in dictate that they must protect themselves and others, Stahl said in a statement. Bishop David Oyedepo has again lashed out at Nigerian leaders over stalling the reopening of churches to curb the spread of Coronavirus. According to Oyedepo, there's been no Coronavirus outbreak in states where churches have been allowed to reopen. He also compared the vulnerability of churches and markets after he alleged that religious centers were directed not to hold services for more than 1 hour while markets are allowed to open for 8 hours. The founder of Living Faith Church a.k.a Winners Chapel also stated that there might soon be a "preaching censorship board" with the recent directives issued by leaders in the country. Oyedepo who insisted that the "enemy" is fighting against reopening of churches, sarcastically asked if people won't go on with their lives even if a family member dies. He also recalled how he went back to school after his classmate died in class. Here is the video below; Source: LIB 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 Khartoum (AFP) - Sudan on Tuesday said it would hold "daily meetings" with Egypt and Ethiopia to ease tensions over a mega-dam being built on the Nile after a war or words between Cairo and Addis Ababa. "It was agreed to continue daily meetings, except on Friday and Sunday, to reach consensus on the remaining points," Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said. He spoke in Khartoum after a five-hour meeting with his Egyptian and Ethiopian counterparts failed to make any progress in the negotiations amid tensions between Cairo and Addis Ababa. Earlier Tuesday, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi strongly rebuked Ethiopia accusing Addis Ababa of stalling negotiations over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and moving ahead with plans to start filling the reservoir before reaching a deal. "A timeline must be set to finish up negotiations, so it does not turn into a new tactic of stalling and shirking responsibility from the 2015 Declaration of Principles which all three countries agreed to," Sisi's office said in a statement. The agreement signed by Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan paved the way for diplomatic talks after Addis Ababa began construction of the dam nearly a decade ago. The strongly-worded statement from Sisi's office said Ethiopia's position was "inconsistent" with its legal obligations and "casts a shadow over the negotiations". It came on the day the three countries resumed talks, after Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok coaxed Egypt and Ethiopia to resume negotiations to resolve their differences. But Egypt said the invite "comes three weeks too late" as Ethiopian authorities had already "signalled their intention to move forward with filling the reservoir of the Renaissance Dam without reaching an agreement". - 'Fill the Dam' - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told lawmakers on Monday that his country would stick to its plan to soon begin partial filling of the reservoir which can hold 74 billion cubic metres of water. Story continues "The dam is a project that will pull Ethiopia out of poverty. Ethiopia wants to develop together with others, not hurt the interests of other countries," he said. In mid-May, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew accused Egypt of being obstructionist and said his country "does not have a legal obligation to seek the approval of Egypt to fill the dam". Three observers from the United States, European Union and South Africa took part in Tuesday's meeting held via videoconference. Following several failed rounds of negotiations, the United States and the World Bank sponsored talks from November 2019 aimed at reaching a comprehensive agreement. Both Khartoum and Cairo fear the 145-metre-high (480-foot-high) dam will threaten essential water supplies once the reservoir starts being filled in July as planned by Addis Ababa. But while Egypt, which is heavily dependant on the Nile, worries about its share of the water, Sudan hopes the dam could provide much-needed electricity and help regulate flooding. The 6,600-kilometre-long (3,900-mile) Nile is a lifeline supplying both water and electricity to the 10 countries it traverses. Its main tributaries, the White and Blue Niles, converge in the Sudanese capital Khartoum before flowing north through Egypt to drain into the Mediterranean Sea. After making the decision to close its doors on March 14 in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the community, Creative Discovery Museum (CDM) is ready to reopen its exhibits for play and exploration. Being closed for our spring season has undoubtedly been a challenge for the Museum, said Henry Schulson, executive director. We are excited that we can now welcome visitors back. We have worked very hard to ensure that the Museum is as safe as possible so that children and families can enjoy this incredible educational resource. A phased reopening plan will begin June 22 for members only. General admission visitors will have the opportunity to explore the Museum beginning June 29. The safety of our visitors, staff and volunteers has always been a top CDM priority. In the initial phases of reopening, CDM will continue to "Play It Safe" by implementing the following policies and procedures for guests: Members and general admission visitors must have a timed ticket to enter. CDM will be open seven days a week from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Museum will close for an hour between sessions for cleaning. As always, members will receive free admission. Timed tickets will go on sale for members on June 15 and general admission visitors on June 22 at cdmfun.org/tickets. CDM will conduct a daily health screening of all staff using the Ascend Health App. Before entering the building, visitors will also undergo a health screening including a no contact temperature check. Sick employees and visitors will not be allowed in the Museum. If a member of your party is feeling ill, please contact CDM to reschedule your visit. All guests will be required to adhere to our social distancing guidelines which will be posted throughout the Museum. In order to maintain social distancing, daily capacity will be limited to 20 percent of the buildings normal capacity. Limits will also be placed on the capacity of each exhibit gallery. Since face coverings are one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19, all staff, visitors and volunteers ages five and up will be required to wear a face covering. Children ages two to five will also be encouraged to do so. Hand washing will be encouraged with 10 additional hand sanitizing and hand washing stations. CDM staff will be cleaning exhibits and high traffic surfaces throughout the day and will conduct a deep cleaning each day between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Cafe Dino-Mite will be closed. Water fountains will be closed except for no contact water bottle refill stations. Disposable cups will be available. CDMs reopening policies and procedures are based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and align with local and state reopening guidelines. In addition, CDM vetted their policies and procedures with Dr. Jennifer Keates Baleeiro, a Pediatric Hematology-Oncology doctor with Erlanger Hospital, and local infectious disease specialists. The Museum will continue to evaluate its new measures and make changes to the guidelines as needed. With increased measures in place, families will have plenty of opportunities to experience the Museum safely and comfortably, said Mr. Schulson. We have missed having visitors in our exhibits and are very much looking forward to a CDM playdate. CDM is extending the showing of Kenyas Kids through August 23 giving families the opportunity to explore the world and expand their understanding of other cultures that represent our community. Kenya's Kids invites families to discover what life is like for children in Kenya today, a country both technologically-advanced and filled with longtime traditions. As they travel through five immersive environments, children can compare the similarities and differences between their lives and those of children in the East African country of Kenya. Kenyas Kids was created by The Magic House, St. Louis Childrens Museum. Local sponsorship provided by ArtsBuild, the Tennessee Arts Commission, First Horizon Foundation and Bellhop. And while its doors were closed, the play never stopped. CDM provided access to its story times, science shows, art activities, kitchen lessons and beyond through its video series on YouTube and social media, Creativity TV, and with at home STEAM activities listed on its website. In addition, CDM continues to offer virtual experiences for Club Discovery, a program for children with disabilities and their typically developing peers, and PlayGym, an interactive caregiver-and-child class. CDM launched Discovery Kits in partnership with Hamilton County Schools and has distributed over 2,000 STEAM activity kits to families within Opportunity Zone Schools. Over 250 families registered for the Pass It On program and received all the materials needed to write letters of encouragement to Hamilton County first responders, Erlanger Hospital Staff and senior citizens living in Morning Pointe of Hixson. For more information, please visit cdmfun.org/welcome-back. North Korea said it will cut off all communication channels with South Korea at noon Tuesday as it escalates its pressure on the South for failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across their tense border. South Korea's liberal government, which espouses greater ties with North Korea, repeated that it will work toward restoring peace on the Korean Peninsula in its response to the warning. Relations between the Koreas have been strained during a prolonged deadlock in broader nuclear diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington. Some experts say North Korea may be deliberately creating tensions to bolster internal unity or launch a bigger provocation in the face of persistent U.S.-led sanctions. The North's Korean Central News Agency said all cross-border communication lines will be cut off in "the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary things." It said the decision was made by Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, and Kim Yong Chol, a former hard-line military intelligence chief who Seoul believes was behind two 2010 attacks that killed 50 South Koreans. "The South Korean authorities connived at the hostile acts against (North Korea) by the riff-raff, while trying to dodge heavy responsibility with nasty excuses," KCNA said. "They should be forced to pay dearly for this." South Korean conservative activists, including North Korean defectors living in the South, for years have floated huge balloons into North Korea that carry leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un over his nuclear ambitions and abysmal human rights record. The leafleting has long been a source of tensions between the Koreas since the North bristles at any attempt to undermine the Kim leadership. Last week, Kim Yo Jong called the defectors "human scum" and "mongrel dogs" as the North also threatened to permanently shut down a liaison office and a jointly run factory park, as well as nullify a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement that had aimed to reduce tensions. North Korean citizens have also participated recently in a series of mass rallies opposing the Seoul government, activities the North typically organizes in times of tensions with the outside world. South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said cross-border hotlines must be maintained as they are the basic means of communication between the two Koreas. It said the South Korean government will strive to promote peace while abiding by inter-Korean agreements. Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo told reporters the South Korean military was monitoring the situation but didn't say how the South plans to communicate with the North if there's need to quickly defuse tensions. The South Korean government has recently said it would push for legal bans on launching leaflets, but the North has said the South Korean response lacks sincerity. South Korean conservatives have urged their government to get tougher on North Korea and uphold their constitutional rights to free speech. South Korea has typically let activists launch such balloons but has halted some attempts when North Korean warnings appeared to be serious. In 2014, North Korean troops opened fire at propaganda balloons flying toward their territory, triggering an exchange of fire that caused no known causalities. The two Koreas have several phone and fax-like hotline channels across the border as they bar ordinary citizens from exchange telephone calls, letters and emails. Among them is a hotline between Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, which was established after their summit in 2018 but has never been publicly used by the leaders. Officials from the two Koreas usually exchange brief messages twice a day via lower-level channels to check whether they work normally, even if there are no major issues between their governments. When South Korean officials contacted North Korea via at least four channels on Tuesday morning, North Korea didn't respond, according to the South Korean government. It's not the first time North Korea threatened to cut the channels. In previous cases, North Korea didn't reply to South Korean phone calls or fax messages for an extended period before it later restored those communication channels when animosities eased. North Korea has suspended virtually all cooperation with South Korea as its nuclear negotiations with the United States remains stalemated since the breakdown of a summit between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump in early 2019. A main sticking point in the U.S.-North Korea diplomacy is a U.S. refusal to lift much of the crippling sanctions on North Korea in return for limited denuclearization steps. North Korea has slammed South Korea for failing to break away from Washington and for not restoring massive joint economic projects held up by U.S.-led sanctions. Kim Jong Un has recently stressed the need to bolster his domestic strengths to withstand the sanctions. But many experts say North Korea's already weak economy must have deteriorated further when the coronavirus pandemic forced it to shut its border with China, the North's biggest trading partner and aid benefactor. The reopening of schools around the world following the coronavirus crisis has been the subject of much debate. In England, for instance, some pupils returned to the classroom last week, but many parents opted not to send their children back over safety concerns. In fact, more than two-fifths of primary schools the U.K. equivalent of kindergarten and elementary school did not open for reception, year 1, and year 6 classes on June 1, as recommended by the U.K. government. This was according to a poll of 10,953 U.K. schools by the National Education Union published last week. The U.K. government is now expected to drop plans to send all primary school children back before the summer holiday, according to reports. Indeed, research has suggested that certain conditions must be met in order for schools to reopen without causing a second wave of coronavirus cases. Researchers at the U.K.'s University of Warwick said in a paper published on Thursday that the gradual reopening of schools was unlikely to lead to a second wave of Covid-19 cases but that this had become more uncertain when combined with other measures of lockdown being eased at the same time. Studies have shown that most children tend to be only mildly affected by Covid-19 and have a lower risk of dying. Although there is less certainty around the rate at which children transmit the coronavirus. Until last week, schools in England were only open for the children of key workers during lockdown. The gradual reopening comes as a total of 288,834 people have contracted the coronavirus in the U.K. as a whole, with 40,680 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Joshua JJ Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, havent been seen since September, and police say Chad and Lori Daybell lied to investigators about the childrens whereabouts before leaving Idaho. They were found in Hawaii months later, and besides the missing children, the couple has been under scrutiny following the deaths of both of their former spouses. Sky News has apologised after accidentally playing video of Prince Andrew during a report on the Madeleine McCann prime suspect. Last night, broadcaster Dermot Murnaghan introduced the bulletin's top story about the ongoing investigation into Madeleine's disappearance. He told viewers: 'We have actual evidence Madeleine McCann is dead. German prosecutors reveal more on their investigation into the suspect, Christian B.' However, Sky News then played footage of Prince Andrew in conversation with another man at a function who had his back to the camera. Sky News has apologised after accidentally playing video of Prince Andrew during a report on the Madeleine McCann prime suspect last night In the unfortunate blunder, Sky News then aired a video of Prince Andrew in conservation with another man who had his back to the camera. Mr Murnaghan later issued an apology for the mix-up, saying: 'Now in the headlines at the start of this hour, we featured headlines in the wrong order. 'We included a picture of Prince Andrew in the headline about the investigation into Christian B, the German suspect in the Madeleine McCann. 'We apologise for this mistake.' It comes amid reports police investigating a German paedophile over Madeleine's disappearance think they know how she died but don't know her final resting place. Prime suspect Christian Brueckner is languishing in a German jail for drug trafficking while appealing a seven-year sentence for a rape in Praia da Luz 18 months before Madeleine was abducted 13 years ago. Sky News presenter Dermot Murnaghan later issued an apology for the mix-up, saying: 'We included a picture of Prince Andrew in the headline about the investigation into Christian B, the German suspect in the Madeleine McCann. We apologise for this mistake' In the unfortunate blunder, Sky News then aired a video of Prince Andrew (pictured in Adelaide, Australia in 2018) in conservation with another man who had his back to the camera Today the editor-in-chief of German tabloid Bild, Julian Reichelt, told ITV's Good Morning Britain police 'have an idea of how Madeleine McCann died and how the killing was actually done' but don't know where the body is buried. He said that police are interested in Brueckner because he has 'knowledge' of the abduction that only a suspect could be aware of, which has convinced officers Madeleine was killed and he was involved. But police have made an international appeal for a 'knockout' piece of evidence that could put him in the dock - and believe British tourists are likely to be key to finding it. German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has said the authorities have 'evidence' that the three-year-old was killed after she was snatched from Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007 and Brueckner is currently the only suspect. He told Sky News: 'We don't have Madeleine McCann's body but we expect she is dead. We need more information from people to find the places where he has lived and search them for Madeleine'. But he added that they cannot yet 'communicate it' with the public 'at this time' how they know. Detectives said the suspect (left) was regularly living in the Algarve from 1995. He was already convicted of sex offences against children and would have been 19 at the time Rene disappeared. Madeleine McCann (right) disappeared in Praia da Luz in May 2007 Police in Europe are also looking for Brueckner ex-girlfriend. German authorities have issued an Interpol Red Notice for the immediate apprehension of Nakscije Miftari, who has not been seen since leaving her flat last week. MailOnline revealed last night that police believe she could hold vital clues over the disappearance of Madeleine on May 3, 2007 in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Police in Germany are now probing Brueckner in relation to the fate of the countrys most famous murdered girl, Peggy Knobloch was nine when she vanished 19 years ago from Lichtenberg in Upper Franconia. Now Bavarian police have said the case will be reviewed to see if Christian Brueckner, who has links to the region, was involved - bringing the number of missing children he has been linked to to four. A father who likely killed his five-month-old baby with a blow to the head should not be released from jail, Queensland prosecutors say. Kozan Samuel Thomas Ware, 34, was charged with murder after his son, Adrian Joshua Wommie Ware, was found unresponsive in a Brisbane home in March 2017. Ware's lawyer, Deborah Holliday, told a bail hearing on Tuesday in the Brisbane Supreme Court that the Crown's case was weak because there were alternative explanations for what caused the child's injuries. She also said the intracranial bleeding found during an autopsy may not be the cause of baby Adrian's death. "There was nothing in the post-mortem that determined why the child stopped breathing," Ms Holliday said, reading from a doctor's affidavit handed to the court. Regulatory News: In light of the Covid-19 global pandemic and given the measures implemented by the government to restrict travel and mass gatherings, under the provisions of Order No. 2020-321 of 25 March 2020, Etablissements Maurel Prom S.A.'s (Paris:MAU) Combined Ordinary and Extraordinary General Shareholders' Meeting will be held behind closed doors (a huis clos), i.e. without the physical presence of shareholders, on Tuesday, 30 June 2020 at 2.30pm at the Company's head office located at 51, rue d'Anjou 75008 Paris, France. Under these conditions, shareholders may only exercise their voting rights remotely, before the General Shareholders' Meeting, using the postal or proxy voting form, or by electronic means through the VOTACESS secure voting platform. The Company's General Shareholders' Meeting will be broadcast in full live and as a recording on the Company's website (www.maureletprom.fr). Any shareholder may submit questions in writing on topics pertaining to the General Shareholders' Meeting up to four business days before the date of the meeting. It will not be possible to ask questions during the meeting, nor table draft amendments or new resolutions. General Meeting to be held on June 30, 2020: Preparatory documents The notice of meeting including the agenda and draft resolutions proposed to the General Meeting was published in the Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires ("BALO"), on May 3, 2020. Such notice and the related report of the Board of Directors are available on the Company's website (www.maureletprom.fr, section "Investors", sub-section "General Meeting 2020"). It was followed by the publication on June 8, 2020 of the notice of meeting in BALO and in the newspaper "La Loi" of the same day. The preparatory documents for the General Meeting referred to in Article R. 225-73-1 of the French Commercial Code are available, within the time period provided for in the applicable regulation, on the Company's website, on the abovementioned address. In addition, the preparatory documents for the General Meeting referred to in Articles L. 225-115, L. 225-116 and R. 225-83 of the French Commercial Code are available, within the time period provided for in the applicable regulation, at the Company's registered office (51, rue d'Anjou, 75008 Paris). Any holder of registered shares may request, as from the publication of the convening notice and until the fifth day (included) prior to the General Meeting, to be provided with the documents and information referred to in Articles R. 225-81 and R. 225-83 of the French Commercial Code. This request shall be sent by post to the Company or to CACEIS Corporate Trust (CACEIS Corporate Trust, Service Assemblees Generales, 14, rue Rouget-de-Lisle, 92862 Issy-les-Moulineaux Cedex 9). The holders of bearer shares may also be provided with these documents by filing a request with CACEIS Corporate Trust, whose contact details are abovementioned, with evidence of their shareholder status through a shareholding certificate (attestation d'inscription en compte) provided by their authorised financial intermediary. For more information, visit www.maureletprom.fr This document may contain forward-looking statements regarding the financial position, results, business and industrial strategy of Maurel Prom. By nature, forward-looking statements contain risks and uncertainties to the extent that they are based on events or circumstances that may or may not happen in the future. These projections are based on assumptions we believe to be reasonable, but which may prove to be incorrect and which depend on a number of risk factors, such as fluctuations in crude oil prices, changes in exchange rates, uncertainties related to the valuation of our oil reserves, actual rates of oil production and the related costs, operational problems, political stability, legislative or regulatory reforms, or even wars, terrorism and sabotage. Maurel Prom is listed for trading on Euronext Paris CAC All-Tradable CAC Small CAC Mid Small PEA-PME and SRD eligible Isin FR0000051070 / Bloomberg MAU.FP / Reuters MAUP.PA View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005726/en/ Contacts: Maurel Prom Press, shareholder and investor relations Tel: +33 (0)1 53 83 16 45 ir@maureletprom.fr NewCap Financial communication and investor relations Media relations Louis-Victor Delouvrier Nicolas Merigeau Tel: +33 (0)1 44 71 98 53 +33 (0)1 44 71 94 98 maureletprom@newcap.eu The California Institution For Men in Chino, where 12 inmates have died after contracting the coronavirus. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) In three weeks, Chuckawalla Valley State Prison has gone from having zero confirmed cases of COVID-19 to 993, the worst coronavirus outbreak to hit the California prison system to date. About 44% of the 2,256 men incarcerated at Chuckawalla, which sits on the eastern edge of Riverside County, have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to figures published by the state prison system. While no inmates have died at Chuckawalla, the virus has spread swiftly: Before May 15, no inmate had tested positive for COVID-19, according to Dana Simas, a spokeswoman for the California prison system. Nearly 1,000 have been infected since. Every case remains active. By comparison, the California Institute for Men in Chino, where 12 inmates have died, has recorded 759 total cases of COVID-19, 521 of them still active. Chuckawalla houses about 2% of the state prison systems institutional population but accounts for 40% of its active cases of COVID-19, according to state prison figures. We didn't bring this on ourselves, Michael Duran, an inmate who has tested positive for COVID-19, said in a telephone interview. It came to us. Upon learning some inmates had tested positive for COVID-19, Simas said, prison officials immediately placed the buildings they lived in under quarantine and began testing the rest of the prisons population. Officials began moving inmates out of buildings under quarantine and into areas of the prison untouched by the virus, potentially circulating it, according to Robert McBride, who is serving a 16-year sentence for robbery. Last month, McBride said, six men were moved from a quarantined building to his own. While the men had tested negative for COVID-19 at the time, when they were tested again last week, McBride said, five of the six learned they were infected. "We're captive. We are the definition of captive, McBride said. We have to do as we're told. They tell us to do something we can't say no." Story continues Inmates intend to file a formal grievance against the prison administration, McBride said, over its decision to move people out of quarantined sectors and into those that were COVID-free. No new inmates have been admitted to Chuckawalla since the outbreak began, Simas said. The prison has designated separate housing for inmates who have tested negative for COVID-19, and officials are freeing up vacant space to accommodate social distancing measures, she added. But Duran, who has spent the last 35 years in prison on a second-degree murder conviction, questioned how the prison could sequester healthy inmates when nearly half the prison population has been infected. Built to hold 1,738 men, Chuckawalla currently houses 2,256, according to state prison figures. Where are they going to put everyone? Duran asked. There's COVID-positive people everywhere." Social-distancing measures might work outside of prison, but here, he said, there's nowhere to go. Where are you going to go? We're stuck with each other. Were breathing the same air. Inside Chuckawalla, Duran, 57, said they call a COVID-19 diagnosis a guilty verdict. He said he tested positive three weeks ago but has no symptoms beyond a stubborn cough. McBride, 58, worries about contracting the virus, given he is nine months shy of finishing his 16-year sentence. He wants to meet with the prison administration to discuss their plan to contain the virus and keep inmates safe. "There's an underlying anger, McBride said. Theres a great deal of frustration. There's no leadership that we can come to, to sit down with and talk about this. Everyone wants to obtain the car insurance they need at affordable prices. Luckily, there are many clever methods that can help drivers to obtain better insurance deals, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. Compare-autoinsurance.org has launched a new blog post that explains how drivers can obtain affordable car insurance. For more information and free online car insurance quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/how-to-get-really-affordable-car-insurance/. Saving money on car insurance should be a top priority for any driver. There are many methods that can help drivers lower the costs of car insurance. The most common methods that are proven to help drivers save money on car insurance are the following: Choose a safe car. The safety of a vehicle can influence the insurance costs. Insurance companies use different statistics and data to determine how safe is a vehicle. Drivers who own vehicles that are more likely to be involved in crashes or are more likely to be stolen will have to pay more on car insurance premiums. Drivers can improve the safety of their vehicles by installing approved aftermarket safety devices. Maintain a clean driving record. Drivers who manage to stay away from traffic violations will keep the insurance costs under control. Also, drivers who manage to keep their driving records clean for several years will be able to access several discounts. Join a defensive driving course. Defensive driving courses can help policyholders become better drivers by improving and learning new driving skills that can help them avoid car accidents. Also, graduating an approved defensive driving course can help drivers save money on insurance. Car insurance companies are usually offering a discount that is between 5% to 10% to those drivers who manage to graduate. Pay the whole policy at once. Insurers will charge a monthly fee for processing multiple payments and updating the account of a driver who pays monthly insurance rates. Drivers who pay the premiums in one lump sum will eliminate those payment processing needs. By doing so, drivers will save money on car insurance. Shop around. The best method used by drivers to pay lower car insurance rates is to shop around and look for better insurance deals. Getting online car insurance quotes every six months is important for drivers who want to check if they are still paying competitive insurance rates. For additional info, money-saving tips and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/. 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. Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State has announced the relaxation of restriction on the operation of markets, banks and other places of business activities across the state. He also announced the easing of intra-state travels and directed that the internal security checkpoints should be dismantled in order to effect the enforcement of the new directive. Mr Bello, who announced this at a briefing on Tuesday in Minna, said the beneficiary of these directives must strictly adhere to all safety measures against the spread of COVID-19. He, however, directed the compulsory use of face masks in public places and adherence to physical distancing within the state, adding that security agencies should ensure full compliance. Mr Bello said the movement of commercial motorcycle operators remained banned while restriction of interstate movement is also in full force. He added that restriction of movement shall be from 10.00 p.m. to 4.00 a.m., while only movement of agricultural produce, petroleum products, manufactured goods and essential services are allowed. The governor directed public motor parks and other public transportation centers to continue to abide by the guidelines issued by Ministry of Transport for their operations. He said the state government would support IBB University to establish a testing center which included antibody and antigen tests. Mr Bello directed the state Ministry of Education to liaise with all stakeholders in the educational sector towards developing a workable strategy for the reopening of schools. The governor urged all civil servants in the state to remain at home except those on essential services. He asserted that government was redoubling efforts to operationalize a molecular testing laboratory at General Hospital Minna, to increase testing and reduce results turnaround time. (NAN) Communities for Kids in Columbus has partnered with numerous local organizations to provide sanitary supplies for certain licensed child care providers in Columbus that have remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic. Columbus C4K has already identified and contacted eligible child care centers, which will receive their supplies on Thursday. Donated supplies will include hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, bleach, gloves and touchless thermometers. Columbus Public Schools Student Services Facilitator Sara Colford said there has been a concern about how local child care providers will weather the pandemic. The initiative began, in part, in response to those concerns, and the supplies being provided reflect that. It has been particularly difficult for licensed providers in Columbus to obtain basic sanitary supplies essential for high-quality child care such as toilet paper, masks and hand sanitizer. Orders for sanitary supplies are being scheduled three to four weeks out, Columbus Public Schools Marketing and Communications Director Nicole Anderson said. But child care centers must meet specific requirements to stay open. For example, kids need their temperatures taken as they arrive. In that case, the difficulty, Anderson said, has become having enough touchless thermometers on hand to make that process efficient. Theyre having a hard time finding hand sanitizer and enough soap and, at times, toilet paper those things that kind of go in waves. And when youre dealing with kids, you have to have enough of that stuff, Anderson said. Columbus in-home early child care providers specifically those with Nebraska Family Child Care Home I and Home II licenses will pick up donated supplies at the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce Thursday evening. Child care centers with Nebraska Child Care Center licenses will receive their supplies in a delivery Thursday afternoon. The supplies gathered and donated by C4Ks community partners are part of an ongoing plan to show support and appreciation for licensed early childhood care providers. C4K and its partners are dedicated to developing and supporting programs that meet the communitys needs for early childhood care. Those partners include the United Way, Community and Family Partnership, Columbus Public Schools and the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation. C4Ks partners have been especially instrumental in gathering sanitary supplies for licensed early child care providers in Columbus specifically those caring for children ages 5 and below. If there is a return to in-person learning in the upcoming school year, Anderson said, it will be important to consider the supplies public schools will need. Health and safety measures may mean schools will require additional hand sanitizer and touchless thermometers to keep running effectively. For now, though, Colford and Anderson said it has been important to show support for the early child care centers still operating in Columbus. We are so appreciative of our Columbus community and how many different entities came together to make this event possible. It truly is amazing, especially with everything that is going on right now, Colford said. Molly Hunter is a reporter for The Columbus Telegram. Reach her via email at molly.hunter@lee.net. 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. The SIU is investigating the death of a 35-year-old man after an interaction with police in Woodbridge Monday night. York Regional Police were called to a home on Jade Crescent near Langstaff and Martin Grove for a domestic dispute at around 11 p.m. when an interaction ensued between the man and an officer, the agency said in a statement Tuesday. Other police officers had arrived to assist with the mans arrest prior to his death. Officers and paramedics attempted to revive him but the man was pronounced dead. In a statement, police said they came to the home after being told the man was trying to set a fire inside. One of the officers involved was taken to hospital with a non-life-threatening injury, the agency also said. Soon after the first officer arrived at the residence, an interaction ensued between the officer and a man. Other officers then arrived and assisted with the mans arrest, the SIU said in a statement. The man became vital signs absent and officers provided medical assistance until paramedics arrived. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. The Special Investigations Unit is an arms-length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault. With files from Yorkregion.com and Miriam Lafontaine Read more about: Silicon Valley Smile Solutions Offers Bone Grafting and Dental Implants in San Jose, CA I love coming to work because every day is an opportunity for me to make a difference in peoples lives. Dr. Amir HagShenas, the respected dentist of Silicon Valley Smile Solutions, provides bone grafting to those suffering from bone loss in San Jose, CA. Dr. HagShenas regularly treats adults dealing with problems related to missing teeth. Often, those patients want to replace their missing teeth with dental implants. However, many may have been denied dental implant candidacy due to widespread bone loss in the jaw. In those situations, Dr. HagShenas often recommends bone grafting, a proven method to reliably improve bone density and strength. Dental bone loss is often linked to missing teeth. When a tooth is lost due to progressive gum disease, trauma or tooth extraction, the unstimulated bone at the site of the missing tooth is naturally reabsorbed into the body. This reduction of bone can cause a sunken-in appearance, increase the likelihood of gum disease and heighten the chance of movement among the remaining teeth. Although placement of dental implants is the most advanced, permanent method to restore missing teeth, the surgical procedure requires enough bone to support the implants. Bone grafting through socket preservation, sinus lifts and ridge augmentation can add bone material to the area of bone loss, restoring form and function to the jawbone and increasing candidacy for dental implants. Dr. HagShenas offers single dental implants as well as same-day full mouth dental implant treatment at his state-of-the-art San Jose, CA practice. He relies on leading-edge technologies to precisely place implants in areas of the mouth with appropriate levels of bone density. Full mouth dental implants can augment a patients face shape and reduce the chance of future tooth and bone loss. Patients who have undergone bone grafting and dental implant treatment at Silicon Valley Smile Solutions rave about the customized care they received, as well as the advanced tools, protocols and technology used during all procedures. Dr. HagShenas and his team to do everything possible to make every treatment easy, comfortable and positive. I love coming to work because every day is an opportunity for me to make a difference in peoples lives, says Dr. HagShenas. Patients have cried at the end of their treatment. They feel so grateful for what has been done for them. I become a hero for them, and I love that. It makes me feel very special. Those interested in finding out if they are candidates for dental implants or bone grafting in San Jose, CA are invited to connect with Dr. HagShenas by calling Silicon Valley Smile Solutions at 408-377-5134. About the Dentist Silicon Valley Smile Solutions offers full-service dentistry in San Jose, CA. Dr. Amir HagShenas has been practicing dentistry for nearly 30 years. Dr. HagShenas received his doctorate in dental surgery degree from the University of Minnesota, where he has since been honored with the Irwin A. Epstein Award for Excellence in Endodontics, among other numerous accomplishments. Every year, Dr. HagShenas completes many hours of continuing education in implant and surgical dentistry, far above the requirements mandated by the Dental State Board of California. His motive: I am committed to help my patients to receive the very best in dentistry. Dr. HagShenas and his team at Silicon Valley Smile Solutions are dedicated to staying up-to-date on the latest dental technologies in order to provide the highest quality of care for patients undergoing treatments like full arch dental implants. Skilled in numerous areas of dental treatments, Dr. HagShenas is particularly passionate about providing long-lasting, full arch dental implant treatments that are, in many cases, available in just one office visit. It is Dr. HagShenas goal to form lasting connections with every patient built on trust, partnership, and compassion. To learn more about Dr. HagShenas and the services offered at Silicon Valley Smile Solutions visit http://www.svsmilesolutions.com or call 408-377-5134 to schedule a consultation. PG&E Corp.s move from San Francisco to Oakland could shatter real estate records as the utility considers the potential $892 million purchase of its new headquarters building. PG&E has the option to buy 300 Lakeside Drive in 2023 from developer TMG Partners for that price, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday. The potential deal would be the biggest building sale in Oakland history and a sign of strength after the Bay Area has been battered by the coronavirus epidemic, which forced millions of office employees to work from home. Oakland would receive $22.3 million in transfer taxes if the sale occurs. PG&E could instead lease the 900,000-square-foot building next to Lake Merritt for 34 years, paying $57 per square foot annually, with rents increasing 3% per year. The rent is slightly higher than Oaklands average office rent, according to real estate brokerage data. But its significantly lower than San Francisco rents, which exceed $80 per square foot in top buildings. PG&E also plans to sell its current San Francisco headquarters buildings at 77 Beale St. and 245 Market St., which could net the city tens of millions of dollars in transfer taxes. But the city would lose out on PG&E business taxes, a number that isnt publicly disclosed. PG&E said that San Francisco would see a net increase in tax revenue from the move. Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle 2019 The investment will add significant annual property, payroll, and other tax revenue for the city of Oakland, TMG CEO Michael Covarrubias said in a statement. San Francisco will enjoy significant additional annual property tax and commercial rents tax revenue ... we anticipate that San Francisco will also receive other increases in tax revenues from the sale and re-tenanting of the property. Jay Cheng, public policy director at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, said PG&Es departure was nonetheless part of a worrisome trend, with the city already facing a budget deficit of up to $1.7 billion. PG&Es departure follows a larger trend were seeing in the San Francisco economy. The incredibly high cost of doing business in the city, coupled with the COVID-19 economic downturn, are driving businesses and jobs out of the city. This impacts all San Franciscans as these businesses leave, they will take pieces of the citys tax base away with them, he said. Charles Schwab plans to move its headquarters from San Francisco to Texas after its merger with TD Ameritrade, which received Justice Department approval last week. McKesson and Bechtel previously moved San Francisco headquarters out of state. PG&Es Oakland deal price would be nearly 40% higher than a three-tower sale by CIM Group to Starwood Capital last year, which totaled around $500 million, according to property records. TMG Partners still has to purchase 300 Lakeside Drive from the current owners, Swig Co. and Rockpoint Group. Swig paid around $200 million for the 1960 building in 2005, which was built as the headquarters of Kaiser Industries. Swig has renovated the buildings elevators, common areas, conference center and bike room. TMG plans further renovations. A TMG spokeswoman said the company was still in contract to buy the building and would not disclose the sale price. A Swig spokesman declined to comment. PG&E still needs approval from the California Public Utilities Commission and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in order to follow through on its planned office sale and move. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Travis Miller, a utilities analyst at Morningstar Research Services, said the company should probably lease its new Oakland space rather than exercise its option to buy the space. Doing so would help the company focus on its core mission to provide energy services, Miller said. Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle 2019 I think regulators are going to be more amenable to PG&E leasing space rather than owning large office complexes, he said. Thats just not the business that regulators want PG&E to be conducting, and its not the business that PG&E should be conducting. The planned move comes after a so-far-unsuccessful attempt by city officials in San Francisco to buy the companys local power lines for $2.5 billion. PG&E has been headquartered in the city since the companys creation in 1905. Selling real estate and moving to a new city will not help PG&E become a safer company or a more reliable electricity provider, Will Reisman, a spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, said in an email. Reisman said the citys fair and just attempted purchase would do far more to help the company straighten out its finances and it was high time that PG&E leaders reconsider the offer. PG&E shares closed Tuesday at $11.81, down 6%. Miller said the drop was probably not a reflection of how investors were reacting to the sale and was more likely related to developments in the companys bankruptcy case or broader market factors. Roland Li and J.D. Morris are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com, jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf, @thejdmorris Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali on Tuesday said in the parliament that he is hopeful that there will be a meeting between both the countries and the matter would be resolved through dialogue. Nepal on Tuesday reiterated its offer to hold diplomatic talks with India to resolve the territorial issue between the two countries. Speaking in Parliament, Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said that Nepal is hopeful there will be a meeting to resolve the matter. So, we have been requesting them (India) timely and we are hopeful that there will be a meeting. We are confident that it would be resolved through dialogue, we are not thinking of any other options regarding it. I do not think that another approach would also be necessary because we have not asked them for and we do not have any desires for additional geographies, Gyawali said. Tensions have been mounting between the two countries after New Delhi inaugurated a road linking Kailash Mansarovar via Lipulekh on May 8 after which Kathmandu handed over a diplomatic note to New Delhi objecting to the move. Diplomatic ties frayed further after the issuance of a newly updated map by Nepal on May 20. The controversial updated map includes Indian areas of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura in its territory. India has said that the updated map is not based on historical facts and evidence. Also Read: How to recharge Nepal Mobile Number from India Also Read: Nepal to table controversial constitutional amendment for new map today New Delhi urged Kathmandu to refrain from such an unjustified cartographic assertion and respect Indias sovereignty and territorial integrity. India had earlier said it attaches great importance to deep-rooted historical, cultural and friendly relations with Nepal. New Delhi also said that it is open to engaging with all its neighbours on the basis of mutual sensitivity and mutual respect in an environment of trust and confidence. India and Nepal share a 1,800 km open border. Formal discussion over the tabled amendment bill in the parliament is expected to start from today and the government already has managed to garner two-third majority required to amend the constitution to include the newly issued map. The House of Representatives or the lower house of Nepal has 275 seats out of which, ruling NCP has 174 seats and runs out of 10 seats for two-third majority. Main opposition Nepali Congress in last parliamentary election won 63 seats and Janata Samajbadi Party has 34 seats. Last week, the tabling of the bill was taken off the schedule as Nepali Congress asked for time to decide over the issue through Central Working Committee meeting which commenced on Saturday. Also Read: India will be happy to work with US on expansion of G-7: Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu For all the latest World News, download NewsX App Three nominees for Kyiv Mayor post from ruling party to compete in primaries 13:00, 09.06.20 11285 Ukrainian president says primaries will be held in two stages. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. According to a new research published by Polaris Market Research, the cyber security market is anticipated to reach over USD 269 billion by 2026. In 2017, the enterprise segment dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. North America is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue in 2017. Browse for full research summary: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/cyber-security-market The growing need for protection of sensitive data, and increasing cyber terrorism has boosted the adoption of cyber security solutions. The rising penetration of mobile devices, and increasing trend of BYOD further support the growth of this market. Additionally, the increasing demand of cyber security solutions from small and medium enterprises has supported market growth over the years. Increasing investments by vendors in technological advancements coupled with growing demand for cloud-based cyber security solutions would accelerate the growth of the cyber security market. However, However, growing use of pirated cyber security solutions, and complexities associated with device security hinder market growth. Growing demand from emerging economies is expected to provide numerous growth opportunities in the coming years. The cases of cyber-attacks in the healthcare sector have increased significantly over the years. The high demand for electronic health records in the black market has resulted in numerous cyber-attacks. The healthcare sector is prone to cyber-attacks owing to limited budget allocation by healthcare institutions for cyber security. The healthcare sector is dominated by small practices and rural hospitals, which lack the resources for investment in cyber security, thereby increasing risks of cyber-attacks. However, introduction of affordable cyber security solutions for healthcare sector, increasing awareness, and growing incidences of cyber-attacks are expected to promote the adoption of cyber security in this sector. Request For sample copy of this report: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/cyber-security-market/request-for-sample North America generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. The increase in number of cyber-attacks, and growing trend of BYOD drive the market growth in the region. The growing penetration of mobile devices, and technological advancements further support market growth in the region. The increasing spending on data protection in BFSI and defense sectors in the region further promote market growth in the region. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period owing to growing need for data privacy across various industries in the developing countries of the region. The end-users in cyber security market include BFSI, IT & Telecom, healthcare, retail, defense and government, travel and hospitality, and others. In 2017, the defense and government segment accounted for the highest market share owing to increasing need to protect sensitive data and avoid cyber-attacks. The growing government spending to provide enhanced cyber security to the public sector and increasing implementation of cyber security installations in the defense sector, especially in developing countries, supports the market growth in this sector. The increasing adoption of cloud-based cyber security in this sector is expected to support market growth in the coming years. Make Inquiry about this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/cyber-security-market/inquire-before-buying The well-known companies profiled in the report include Symantec Corporation, Cisco Systems Inc., BAE Systems Inc., EMC Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Intel Security, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint Inc., LogRhythm Inc., IBM Corporation, Fortinet, Inc., and Centrify Corporation 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. Cyber Security Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Type Enterprise security Network Security Application Security Endpoint security Others Cyber Security Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Deployment Model On-Premise Cloud-Based Cyber Security Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by End-User BFSI IT & Telecom Healthcare Retail Defense and Government Travel and Hospitality Others Cyber Security Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Organization Large Enterprises Small and Medium Businesses Cyber Security Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Solution Encryption Unified Threat Management Identity and Access Management Data Loss Prevention Antivirus/Anti-Malware Risk and Compliance Management Disaster Recovery Others Cyber Security Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Component Solutions Services Cyber Security 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 Check for discount: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/cyber-security-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. Contact us- Mr. Likhil Corporate Sales, USA Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 10:16:36|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China's fight against COVID-19 is a "integrated and unique" experience" as it "has tackled the virus with successful unprecedented measures that are considered as a model to learn from," an Egyptian lawmaker told Xinhua in a recent interview. China has contained the virus spread by applying strict precautionary measures and Chinese capabilities are represented in its large national database, advanced technology, and up-to-date scientific researches and discoveries, said Mohamed al-Ghobashy, also vice president of Homat Watan party. Homat Watan means "protectors of the nation" in English. The party ranks the fourth place in the Egyptian House of Representatives with 18 members. The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes an incentive for promoting the economic relations between Egypt and China, al-Ghobashy said, expecting China to reach a level of excellence in the field of economy after the end of the pandemic crisis. Al-Ghobashy also thinks the cooperation between Egypt and China will be effectively and largely enhanced in the future. He described the relations between Cairo and Beijing as strong and special. He also said the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership signals that the political support between Egypt and China is strong and continuous, and that bilateral special ties have been manifested in their health cooperation against COVID-19. In early March, Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed visited China with a gift of precautionary supplies that symbolized solidarity with the Chinese people in the face of the coronavirus. Since April 16, Egypt has received nearly 43 tons of medical supplies in three batches. The third shipment of Chinese medical aid that arrived in Egypt on May 16 included 1 million surgical face masks, 180,000 N95 masks, 90,000 sets of medical protective clothing, 80,000 testing reagents, 70,000 pairs of disposable surgical gloves and 1,000 sets of thermometers. Evaluating Egypt's fight against COVID-19, al-Ghobashy hailed the proactive precautionary measures taken by the government, saying resuming work is the right way to rescue the Egyptian economy. Egypt has recorded a total of 34,079 COVID-19 cases with 1,237 deaths. Enditem By Eric M. Johnson and Rachit Vats June 9 (Reuters) - Boeing Co deliveries worsened even further in May compared to April as the coronavirus pandemic's crushing impact on airlines added to a year of crisis following the grounding of its 737 MAX planes, company data showed on Tuesday. The U.S. planemaker said it handed over just four planes in May, down from six it delivered in April, its lowest total for the month in six decades and about 87% fewer than it delivered to customers at the same time a year ago. Deliveries are financially important to planemakers because airlines pay most of the purchase price when they actually receive the plane. Customers also canceled orders for another 18 planes last month, including 14 MAX jets that were the company's top-selling plane until a pair of crashes just over a year ago. While Boeing resumed production last week and expects to make deliveries of the MAX in the third quarter, many airlines have canceled or deferred delivery as the industry faces the fallout of a total collapse in air travel since January. Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported Emirates, one of the world's biggest long-haul airlines, had laid off hundreds of pilots and thousands of cabin crew. Boeing did score nine new orders for widebody planes and its deliveries included two 777 freighters, one NG-based aircraft for US military and one 767 freighter, but no passenger planes. The May cancellations came from a host of aircraft leasing firms including three from Aviation Capital Group, one from CIT Aviation, four from General Electric Co's leasing division and six unidentified customers. Leasing firms, which control over 40% of the global fleet, are among the largest MAX customers. After further accounting adjustments representing jets ordered in previous years but now unlikely to be delivered, Boeing's adjusted net orders sank to a negative 602 airplanes. (Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham) A Minneapolis manufacturing company whose plant was set on fire by rioters plans to leave the city, saying that city officials afforded them no assistance in handling the destruction. They dont care about my business, 7-Sigma Inc.s president and owner, Kris Wyrobek, told The Star Tribune about Minneapolis public officials. They didnt protect our people. We were all on our own. The 7-Sigma plant in south Minneapolis, which the company has maintained since 1987, shut down several hours early around 7 p.m. instead of 11 p.m. as a precautionary measure on the first night of rioting. The company manufactures several products, including rollers for high-speed printing presses and medical training mannequins. When a fire broke out in an apartment complex under construction that was next door to the manufacturing facility, the fire engine was just sitting there, but they wouldnt do anything, Wyrobek said. The apartment complex was leveled by the fire, and several stores across the street including a Target store were looted during the first night of riots. Mayor Jacob Frey said the citys fire department was operating at full capacity in response to the riots, which he said required the states National Guard to quell the violence. Governor Tim Walz, who excoriated the citys weak response, called in the states National Guard to Minneapolis after the mayor requested it. The Minnesota National Guard said in a statement that a key objective is to ensure fire departments are able to respond to calls. This was a Guard-sized crisis and demanded a Guard-sized response, Frey said. And once we had the full presence of the National Guard which by the way hasnt been deployed since World War II there was a significantly different result. The city will lose about 50 jobs when the company skips town, a move that Wyrobek said he had not in my wildest nightmare considered before the riots. Now, he is cautiously optimistic that he can rebuild his company elsewhere, but we are certainly not able to do that in Minneapolis. Story continues Riots broke out in Minneapolis during the last week of May after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, including after Floyd passed out. Rioters set a police precinct ablaze as well as businesses across the city. Both peaceful protests and riots have occurred in metropolitan areas around the country in response to Floyds death and have continued through both of the following weekends. More from National Review You see your dads nonnegotiable as a refusal to spend time with you and you really blame his wife but they are not refusing to see you. They are not refusing to love you. They are refusing to have you live with them while you are smoking. This is a very clear-cut nonnegotiable. Hargan and other senior HHS officials said safety-net hospitals that qualify for some of the $10 billion will receive $5 million to $50 million each. To qualify, a hospital must meet several financial criteria, including the amount of care it provides in a year to patients with no way to pay their bills. It must have a profit margin of no more than 3 percent, though the average hospital expected to take part is operating at a loss, a senior official said. Myanmar & COVID-19 Two-Thirds of Myanmar Businesses Struggle to Survive Pandemic: Survey A business complex in downtown Yangon during the stay-at-home period imposed to curb the further spread of COVID-19. / The Irrawaddy YANGONThe latest nationwide survey on the impacts of COVID-19 on Myanmar businesses shows that nearly two-thirds of businesses expect to face cash flow problems, putting their survival at risk as government emergency loans have reached only a fraction of businesses so far. The survey by The Asia Foundation, backed by the DaNa Facility and aid from the UK, said on Monday that on average, the businesses in the survey estimated that they require 18 million kyats (US$12,851) in additional cash flow in order to survive until September 2020. The survey estimated that nationwide, businesses need an additional 900 billion to 2.1 trillion kyats (US$642.5 million-1.5 billion), equivalent to 0.7-1.7 percent of the International Monetary Fund s (IMF) projection of Myanmars GDP for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. The survey solicited responses from 750 businesses across the country between April 28 and May 10, during the period when the government had imposed strict rules to curb the further spread of COVID-19 in the country. The Myanmar government initiated measures including social distancing, cancelation of public gatherings and limited business hours in order to reduce peoples risk of exposure to the virus. The survey said these measures, although potentially effective in slowing the pandemic, had serious negative impacts on businesses. According to the survey, about half of the businesses reported that their commercial survival was at either moderate or high risk due to COVID-19. The manufacturing sectors for textiles, apparel and leather as well as the accommodation sector are among the industries facing the highest levels of risk. Additionally, accommodation and food and beverage services were also suffering because potential national and international customers have been unable to travel. The governments instructions to people to stay home and avoid gathering in groups of more than five have had a particularly large impact on the food and beverage sector, the survey said. The retail and wholesale industry reported facing relatively smaller risks to its survival. Among the different locations covered in the survey, businesses in townships belonging to the Yangon City Development Committee (CDC), the mid-dry zone and the lower Irrawaddy River valley expressed that they were facing the highest amount of risk to their survival. To relieve the impact on the countrys economy, the government announced a series of stimulus packages in late March, including a COVID-19 fund for small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and textile and tourism businesses. The government also announced a deferral of commercial taxes and quarterly income taxes as well as exemptions from the 2 percent advance income tax on exports. But the survey found out that 67 percent of businesses were still unaware of the loan program, and the least well-known policy was that of exemptions from the income tax on exports, which was unknown to 92 percent of businesses. The survey results suggest that it has been hard for businesses to benefit from any of the four policies; the number of businesses that were denied from the programs or found the application procedures too difficult was higher than or equal to the number that eventually did benefit from the policies. Out of the four policies, the emergency loan had reached the fewest businesses (only two of the interviewed businesses), although many more businesses are still waiting for the results of their applications. The survey also found that many businesses are concerned about repaying their loan principals and interest but have not discussed the issue with their lenders. It suggested that the government should encourage businesses and banks to actively seek an agreement to restructure loan interest and principal payments. It said the move could benefit both banks and businesses as it could lower the number of bankruptcies and defaults during the crisis. According to the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations (MIFER), the government had lent a total of 28 billion kyats (US$20.2 million) to businesses hit by COVID-19 as of June 1. Furthermore, the survey found that about 92 percent of businesses had suffered a drop in sales due to COVID-19. Three out of four businesses had faced sharp revenue decreases of a half or more. For more than one-fifth of businesses, sales had ceased completely due to COVID- 19, the survey said. The businesses surveyed have laid off 16 percent of their workforce due to COVID-19. Given this, the survey said the government may need to reconsider whether the actions outlined in the COVID-19 Economic Relief Plan (CERP) to support employees who have lost their jobs are adequate, or if there are additional or better ways to target these employees. Launched in late April, the CERP focuses on improving the macroeconomic environment through monetary stimulus; easing the impact on the private sector through improvements to the investment, trade and banking sectors; assisting laborers, workers and households; promoting innovative products and platforms; strengthening the health care system; and increasing access to COVID-19 response financing, including contingency funds. The CERP also includes commitments to increase funding for local businesses from 100 billion kyats (US$71.4 million) to 200-500 billion kyats. Under the plan, the government plans to establish a separate 100-billion-kyat fund by the end of 2020 for designated commercial banks to promote trade financing. In May, the deputy head of the Ministry of Planning, Finance and Industry (MOPFI), U Maung Maung Win, said that the government is preparing to spend up to 5 percent of GDP for economic recovery from the pandemic. Myanmars GDP is more than US$70 billion, which means the deputy minister expects the country to spend $3-3.5 billion on stimulus efforts. MOPFI said that the government would need several hundred billion kyats for the economic relief plan, the details of which are currently being worked out between government departments. Based on the findings, the survey said that many businesses appear unaware of government policies and schemes designed to support them. It said that the government should make a greater effort to publicize these policies to help ensure that all eligible businesses are aware of them. It also suggested that the government should make sure that the procedures for accessing the support schemes or policies are not overly complicated. The survey said that there is a risk that businesses will not be able to benefit from these policies if government officials who deal directly with the businesses do not have a sufficient understanding about the policies and schemes themselves. It suggested that the frontline government officials should have a good understanding of policies and schemes with appropriate and clear decision-making power, to ensure that the policies and schemes are applied in a transparent and uniform manner. The survey said that relaxing movement restrictions and other COVID-19-related measures would improve the situation of businesses, however it may take longer for businesses to fully recover from the damage already done and even after reopening and their survival may still be at risk. The survey urged the government to keep a close eye on the countrys business situation. You may also like these stories: How Can the Myanmar Govt Help Businesses and Workers Weather COVID-19? Myanmar Govt Suspends Advance Tax on Exports to Aid Virus-Hit Businesses Myanmar Parliament Approves $700-Million IMF Loan for COVID-19 Spending China smashed its crude oil imports record in May as manufacturing activity picked up and lockdowns eased. Amid recovering demand for gasoline and diesel, Chinas total demand is nearly back up to pre-coronavirus levels, which prompted refineries to ramp up crude processing rates. On the face of it, Chinas record crude oil imports last month are attributable to returning business activity and commuting, while road freight transportation gets a boost from deliveries of surging online sales. Yet, several other factors contributed to Chinas record imports of crude oil in May. The lowest oil price in years was the key driver of the boom in Chinas crude imports in Maya month in which both its exports and imports suffered due to weak global demand amid lockdowns. China imported 47.97 million tons of crude oil in May, equal to a record-high 11.34 million bpd, preliminary data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs showed on Sunday. According to data from IHS Markit, most of the record-high imports are indeed attributable to recovering oil demand in China, which was expected at 92 percent of normal demand in May. According to Wood Mackenzie, Chinas oil demand is set to recover to 13 million bpd in the second quarter of 2020, up by 16.3 percent from Q1. Chinas demand for gasoline and diesel are expected to increase YoY from Q3 2020 onwards, the consultancy said at the end of May, adding that eased lockdowns and a preference for commuting in personal vehicles will push gasoline demand to a quick recovery. Gasoline demand will likely return to last years levels by June 2020. Related: OPEC+ Agrees On Extending Record Output Cuts But the lowest oil prices in four years also triggered opportunistic buying from Chinese refiners. According to Chinas preliminary customs data from Sunday, crude oil imports rose by 5.2 percent year-over-year between January and May even though most of the time, China was under lockdown during this period. The value of the crude imports in U.S. dollars was down by 19.6 percent in the first five months of 2020, as per customs data, suggesting that low oil prices played an important part in Chinas steady crude imports so far this year and the record-high imports in May. The 15-percent jump in imports in May compared to April does not mean that Chinese consumption has fully recovered from Covid-19. Instead, this is most likely just opportunistic buying, given the low price environment the market has been in for the last few months, ING strategists Warren Patterson and Wenyu Yao said on Monday. In recent weeks, China has been taking advantage of the cheapest crude oil in years to stock up as demand returns in the worlds largest oil importer. As of the middle of May, a huge fleet of 117 very large crude carriers (VLCCs) each capable of shipping 2 million barrels of oil was traveling to China for unloading at its ports between the middle of May and the middle of August, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Chinas independent refiners--the so-called teapotscontinued to actively procure oil in May, most likely because of the low prices, oil analytics firm OilX said last week, estimating that crude oil imports jumped by 13 percent from April to near record-highs of 11.11 million bpd in May. There has been a steady recovery in Chinese refinery crude processing rates in recent weeks to warrant higher imports. Still, at least some of the increased crude intake can be attributed to the Shanghai INE crude futures trading at a premium over other deliverable grades, OilX said. Since April, Chinese hedge funds have been betting big on an oil price recovery on the Shanghai crude futures, which has led to major Chinese state oil firms, including PetroChina and Sinopec, delivering oil into the crude oil futures contract. Related: OPEC+ Deal Fails To Give Prices Major Boost Yet another reason for Chinas record oil imports could be the country anticipating further tensions in the U.S.-China trade relations, TS Lombard analyst Bo Zhuang told the Financial Times on Sunday. China wants to fill up its oil tanks and soybean warehouses in case it couldnt import these materials freely, Zhuang told FT. Chinas crude oil imports could slow down in the second half of the year, considering the rising oil prices and the uncertain global economic recovery, which could further stall demand for Chinese goods overseas. In addition, the upcoming refinery maintenance season and independents using up their import quotas could mean Beijings crude oil imports may not be as strong in the second half as in May, Michal Meidan, head of China research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, told Bloomberg. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Prisoners at the California Institution for Men in Chino home of the deadliest coronavirus outbreak in the states prisons were not tested for the virus for weeks before nearly 200 were transferred by bus to other facilities, including one in the Bay Area, The Chronicle has learned. At least 16 of the transferred prisoners have now tested positive for the virus, raising fears that they could spread it inside facilities that for months had beaten back their own outbreaks. Between May 28 and 29, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials transferred 66 medically vulnerable men from the Chino facility to the California State Prison, Corcoran, in an effort to spare the patients from the outbreak at Chino. On May 30, the system transferred 121 others to San Quentin State Prison, according to prison officials. As of Monday, 15 of the men transferred to San Quentin had tested positive, as well as one person transferred to Corcoran. Prison officials on Monday said there are no other confirmed cases at San Quentin, and the recent transfers were placed in 14-day quarantine upon arrival. However, staffers and incarcerated people interviewed by The Chronicle said they are concerned the virus will spread. Somewhere down the line, its going to get inside the building now, said Glen Harder, 58, who is housed at San Quentins North Block. They had it stopped. It wasnt here at all, and all of a sudden they introduced it from CIM right into us. Both San Quentin and Corcoran had reported zero coronavirus cases among their populations until immediately after these transfers with San Quentin reporting 15 cases as of Monday and Corcoran rocketing to 92. Steve Fama, a staff attorney with the Prison Law Office, said the timing of Corcorans outbreak was coincidental, and confirmed the prison officials report that only one of the patients came from CIM. The newly-arrived patients could not have transmitted the disease this quickly. Corcorans first case was recorded on May 29. San Quentins was on June 1. Californias notoriously overcrowded prisons have emerged as coronavirus breeding grounds in a handful of the states 35 facilities, infecting more than 3,000 of the total 111,000 in custody as well as more than 400 staffers. Civil rights advocates say its nearly impossible to social distance behind bars, with poor ventilation systems, tight quarters, and shared spaces for eating and showering. Prison data shows the speed at which the virus can spread: There were 91 CIM cases recorded on April 30, and by May 15 there were 475. The recent transfers were sparked by negotiations in a long-running federal court battle over substandard medical care in California state prisons, in an effort to spare CIMs medically vulnerable patients from infection. But staffers familiar with the situation say the move was rushed and careless in execution, and has endangered the lives of thousands at facilities that for months had successfully beaten back the virus. Paul Chinn / The Chronicle The Chronicle interviewed three San Quentin employees for this story, all of whom spoke under the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation and in accordance with The Chronicles policy on anonymous sources. When the men were transferred they were split up into buses, each carrying about 20 to 25 incarcerated people, as well as a handful of corrections officers. Sources told The Chronicle that four of the men bound for San Quentin were showing symptoms of COVID-19 before they got off the bus. As part of measures to deal with COVID-19 and protect vulnerable populations at prisons with known infections, CDCR recently transferred individuals at California Institution for Men (CIM) that were at high risk of infection to other prisons, including San Quentin, said prison spokesperson Dana Simas. Simas said the men were tested and medically evaluated before and after the transfers, but declined to provide specific testing dates. ... People being transferred out of CIM were tested at different times, depending on their housing location, she said. A San Quentin employee familiar with the situation said some of those transferred from CIM had not been tested since May 1, and others were tested on May 6. The most recent testing was performed on May 12, more than two weeks before the first transfers. The other two employees confirmed this account, saying that the transfers were made up to 30 days since some of the patients last tests. Michael Short/Special to The Chronicle As of Monday, CIM reported 521 coronavirus cases and 12 deaths. Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe reported 989 and Avenal State Prison reported 665, according to the prison systems COVID-19 tracker. Prison officials said those transferred were bused with five reusable cloth barrier masks, which were required to be worn throughout the transportation. 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. Six employees at San Quentin have tested positive for the virus but since returned to work, according to the corrections department. Jerry Pitts, 56, who is in the North Block at San Quentin, just completed radiation for prostate cancer. This prison was clean, it was good, Pitts said in a phone interview. We didnt have anything, and now they jeopardize us by bringing people in. Harder, who is diagnosed with HIV, said the newly transferred people will likely see the same nurses and come into contact with the same correctional staff. Medical here is trying to do the best they can, but theyre getting handed a bunch of crap, he said. Theres only so much they can do. In late March and early April, prisoner advocates filed emergency motions in federal courts, arguing that California should release large numbers of vulnerable and low-risk prisoners to relieve crowded conditions and prevent inevitable sickness. State lawyers fought back and resisted sweeping releases. Eventually, a watchdog appointed by a federal court urged that particularly vulnerable prisoners from the Chino prison who tested negative for the coronavirus should be transferred to facilities in institutions that remain COVID-free, according to a May 27 court filing. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle While prison officials initially intended to transfer nearly 700, the prisons health care system halted the rest of the moves last week, said Steve Fama, a staff attorney with the Prison Law Office who represents the plaintiffs. More Information Inside the newsroom Anonymous sources: The Chronicle strives to attribute all information we report to credible, reliable, identifiable sources. Presenting information from an anonymous source occurs extremely rarely, and only when that information is considered crucially important and all other on-the-record options have been exhausted. In such cases, The Chronicle has complete knowledge of the unnamed person's identity and of how that person is in position to know the information. The Chronicle's detailed policy governing the use of such sources, including the use of pseudonyms, is available on SFChronicle.com. See More Collapse Its disappointing that these transfers, which were done to try to keep people safe, has now created a situation where the people at San Quentin have to now worry about whether theyre safe of the virus, he said. Megan Cassidy and Jason Fagone are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com, jason.fagone@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy, @jfagone Siding with advocates who contend the state has failed to protect inmates from the spread of COVID-19, a North Carolina judge ruled Monday that the state prisons must come up with a plan for testing every inmate. In addition, Wake County Superior Court Judge Vinston Rozier ruled that the prison system must sharply limit the transfers of inmates from prison to prison. The judges ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of North Carolina, the NAACP and other civil rights groups, who argue that the actions of prison leaders have left inmates vulnerable to contracting COVID-19. So far, North Carolina has tested fewer than 6% of state prison inmates a far lower percentage than some other states. Rozier ordered that the state must come up with a plan for testing all inmates by June 22. Tennessee was the first state to enact a plan to test all staff and people housed in state prisons on May 4. And on May 12, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced the mass-testing of inmates through self-administered tests after seeing a surge in illness and deaths among inmates and staff. In a memo outlining his ruling, the judge wrote that the state failed to provide substantial COVID-19 testing and transferred inmates between facilities without properly preventing the spread of COVID-19. The states actions, the judge found, amounted to deliberate indifference. These actions, at the very least, lie somewhere between the poles of negligence at one end and purpose or knowledge at the other, the judge wrote. Further, this Court holds that the risk of irreparable harm is present, including the risk of COVID-19 rapidly spreading throughout the vulnerable prison population, along with the substantial risk of death and long-lasting disability stemming from the disease. COVID-19 and other infectious diseases tend to thrive in prisons because inmates live so closely together. And those diseases endanger more than inmates and prison employees. Thats because employees can carry the virus to their families and communities. Story continues Advocates see victory for public health Prison advocates called the judges ruling a victory for inmates and public health. The deadly outbreaks in our state prisons have already claimed six lives and continue to threaten all North Carolinians, especially communities of color which have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic, said Leah Kang, staff attorney at the ACLU of North Carolina. Were hopeful this ruling will help prevent further loss of life by forcing state officials to implement safety measures and release people from these dangerous conditions. Said the Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, president of the NC NAACP: We will not stop our fight to ensure that the state of North Carolina upholds its constitutional obligations to those most vulnerable during this unprecedented pandemic. DHHS defines a COVID-19 outbreak as two or more laboratory-confirmed cases, meaning North Carolina has seen outbreaks in 12 of its prisons. The N.C. Correctional Institution for Women, in Raleigh, has one of the biggest state prison outbreaks, with 91 confirmed cases. So far, five state prison inmates have died due to complications from COVID-19. At Caswell Correctional Center, nurse Barbara Stewart also died from the disease on May 7. Barbara Stewart State prison leaders did not immediately say how they would respond to the judges order. They previously have said theyre following the recommendations of government health agencies, which urge testing when people show symptoms. The Department of Public Safety has just heard the judges order, received his bench memo, and is consulting with the North Carolina Department of Justice to determine next steps, a prison spokesman wrote. In early April, state officials sharply limited the transfer of inmates from county jails to prisons and from prison to prison in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. But on May 26, the prisons resumed transfers of inmates who have been promoted to lower-custody-level prisons or demoted to higher-custody-level prisons. Officials also began transferring large numbers of inmates from county jails to state prisons this week. In his order, Judge Rozier said the prisons must generally stop transferring inmates unless they need to be moved for medical reasons and unless they are given a COVID-19 test. San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced Tuesday restaurants in the city can begin offering sit-down meal service outdoors with safety measures in place on June 12. The mayor's office will release an official modification to the stay-at-home order later this week along with guidance for restaurants on how to reopen as early as this Friday. Restaurants will be required to maintain social distancing and guests will only be allowed to enter establishments to use restrooms, order at an indoor counter or to access an outdoor space. Tables must be limited to six customers, except for members of the same household. Diners will be required to wear face coverings until seated and any time they leave the table, such as to use the restroom. In addition to reopening, restaurants can seek permits to place tables in what are known as "public right-of-way" spaces, including sidewalks, parking lanes, parks and plazas. Opening our restaurants is a great step that will help our small businesses that are struggling, our workers who need paychecks, and our residents who are ready to safely sit outside and enjoy a meal, Mayor Breed said in a statement. We have supported our small businesses with economic grants and assistance throughout the pandemic and will continue provide health guidance to help keep their employees and customers safe. Our continued reopening is dependent on each of us, as customers, employees, and San Franciscans to do our part by wearing our face coverings, keeping social distance, staying home if sick, and following the other health guidelines that will slow the virus spread. Breed also announced the reopening of in-store retail on June 15. MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here. Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com. News Corp Australia will slash dozens of roles in its metropolitan and national newsrooms as it attempts to simplify its operations to counter a slump in advertising. Staff at The Daily Telegraph in Sydney and The Herald Sun in Melbourne were told on Tuesday that production and editorial would be syndicated across multiple newspapers, resulting in dozens of job losses. National masthead The Australian will also undergo "a small number" of redundancies in the next few weeks, but is unlikely to share its news content with the city mastheads. News Corp has announced more redundancies as it progresses with a restructure. Credit:AAP The Australian is also exploring ways to pay less for contributors, according to multiple sources briefed on the plans. The cuts, which also include commercial roles, are in addition to the hundreds of jobs axed by the Rupert Murdoch-controlled media company two weeks ago. They are a further blow to Australia's media industry, which has lost a number of newsrooms due to factors related to the coronavirus pandemic and a struggling advertising market. Global Responsibility In this unprecedented time of global concern and uncertainty, solace may be taken in the stalwart resilience of mankind...responsible mankind. As each day goes by, we are reminded of how small this planet is, with new cases of COVID-19 declared each day in every corner of the world. Gone are the days when tales of a horror on the other side of world remain just that distant. Today, as a stone hits the waters surface of our shared sea, the ensuing ripples sweep across all coastlines. As we stare down this global pandemic, responsible leaders recognize this and do not blink. They take this realization and turn to resourcefulness and innovation to settle those waters; bringing hope from a concept to a tangible. This innovation can be seen by peoples all over the world, in a myriad of ways, addressing a multitude of factors. It is not only the direct physical threat of this faceless predator, but all of the ancillary havoc it leaves in its wake. Economies have been upended, childrens education and development have been derailed, and families have been forced to face the unthinkable possibility of indigence. The threat that Covid-19 poses is comprehensive and would be insurmountable, if not for the creativity of todays leaders, be they in government, business, or our local community. Recognizing the lack of options at their disposal, from the start, these savvier forward-thinkers looked to new and untraditional solutions to address the rising needs on both macro and micro levels. RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT LEADERSHIP The Norwegian government has reached out to its tech and start-up community, hosting a 48 Hour Online Hackathon that allowed all participants to compete their most creative and innovative solutions to various categories suffering from the pandemic. Harnessing the power of social media to address the concerns of families and mental state of children, New Zealands Prime Minister has been holding regular Facebook Live Chatwith both the parents and children of her nation. In my own homeland of Bahrain, the task force led by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, developed and made available an app called BeAware Bahrain. The app notifies people when they are entering the proximity of an active case of COVID-19. RESPONSIBLE CORPROATE LEADERSHIP Industry has also stepped in to do their part. As in a time of war, corporations are altering their core capabilities and output to accommodate needs, whereas others are putting disproportionate larger focus into pre-existing areas that will address present threats. Singaporean start-up KroniKare developed an AI-driven temperature screening device in as quickly as two weeks and rushed it to the Integrated Health Information Systems Agency for use. KroniKares device, which is made from a smartphone fitted with thermal and 3D laser cameras, is able to scan people's temperature as they walk, detecting and alerting when someone has a fever. As a whole, American companies are no strangers to supporting mankind in times of global war and strife. By such standards, relative new-comer Amazon Web Services has teamed with The Kingdom of Bahrains Ministry of Education to develop both the content and distribution infrastructure necessary to provide virtual schooling. In Bahrain, track engineers from the International Circuit, which hosts the annual F-1 Grand Prix, are now focusing their skills on designing and producing hundreds of ventilators and speedily supplying these new life-savers to the Health Ministry, as well as the blueprints to the worlds manufacturers. ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY HEAD-ON When Covid-19 presented the world with a brutal choice between economic prosperity or public health, our responsible leaders stood up in defiance and declared BOTH! Driven by the pressures that COVID-19 has brought to bear, our more responsible leaders realized the value of supporting dynamic innovation either through their own direct actions or their empowerment of other skilled innovators. Be it by combining modern technology and old-fashioned humanity to maintain the psychological stability of families, reducing long lines and wait times through lasers and optics, or increasing the availability of life-saving ventilators by expanding core competencies, the solutions that these leaders have made available run the gambit of hardships and threats presented by this pandemic. Ultimately, though we all need to acknowledge not only the innovations rising from this strife, but our shared responsibility to push these solutions forward for the betterment of all mankind. For, in doing so, we will not only address todays threats but will shape tomorrow. Abdulla Bin Rashid Al Khalifa is the Kingdom of Bahrains ambassador to the U.S. A bloody pig head was left on a spike outside a Los Angeles police station over the weekend following protests decrying law enforcement brutality and racism. The gruesome message was left on Saturday afternoon in front of the Rampart station, an office famous for a history of corruption and misconduct including unprovoked shootings and unprovoked beatings in the late 90s. The police department is looking into who placed the swine outside the station and is reviewing surveillance footage in the area. Cops with the Rampart station are being told to keep a low profile while off duty in order to avoid clashes with the public over police brutality, according to TMZ. A bloody pig's head was left on a spike outside the Rampart police station in Los Angeles on Saturday amid protests decrying police brutality The grisly pig head was shared on social media by a startled local. 'No way! That is horrendous! I cant believe the things I am seeing and hearing...' one Facebook user said. 'Disgusting,' another added. 'Who ever did that..wow I want them to protect me and lookout for my best interests!!' one Facebook user added. In Los Angeles, there's been over two weeks of protests calling for justice in the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old man who was killed by a white cop who dug his knee into the back of his neck for an excruciating eight minutes and 46 seconds in Minneapolis on May 25. Rampart station became embroiled in scandal in 1998 when more than 70 officers were implicated for misconduct, unprovoked shootings and beatings While the majority of demonstrations that unfolded in the US have been peaceful, there have also been reports of excessive police force where officers fight locals with batons, deploy tear gas and use pepper spray. Rampart still bears the scars of a police misconduct and brutality scandal from 1998, known as one of the most widespread cases of documented police corruption in the US. In the Rampart scandal more than 70 officers were implicated with misconduct for triggering unprovoked shootings against gang members, unprovoked beatings, planting false evidence, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and covering up evidence of these activities. In Los Angeles there's been over two weeks of protests calling for justice in the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old man who was killed by a white cop who dug his knee into the back of his neck for an excruciating eight minutes and 46 seconds in Minneapolis on May 25 Protesters pictured clashing with Riverside County Sheriffs and Riverside Police during a George Floyd protest on June 1 Protesters pictured destroying a cop car in Pan Pacific park on Saturday Cops pictured detaining a protester in Pan Pacific park on Saturday For weeks now protesters have gathered at massive demonstrations in Los Angeles such as this one from Monday Only 24 officers were actually found to have committed any wrongdoing and 12 were given suspensions, seven forced to resign or retire and five terminated. However as of 2019 the full extent of the atrocities including rape, homicide and robbery investigations remained unsolved. Adding to tensions between locals and police, LAPD Chief Michel Moore came under fire for saying in a news conference last week: 'We didnt have protests last night. We had criminal acts.' Speaking on protesters Moore said that Floyds 'death is on their hands, as much as it is those officers.' His comments were met by fury from Los Angeles residents, demanding Moore be fired. Moore later walked back on his statement saying Floyds death 'was at the hands of a police officer and the officers who stood by.' A low pressure area that formed over east-central Bay of Bengal on Tuesday is likely to move west-northwest and become a well-marked low-pressure area and cross near the Odisha coast on June 12, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said. We are not expecting a cyclone. Low pressure systems do not intensify into cyclones during the monsoon. At the most, this will be a depression which will cross the Odisha coast in 48 hours. Such monsoon depressions bring a lot of rain, said Sunitha Devi, in-charge of cyclones at IMD. There are about 10 to 12 feeble low-pressure systems in the June to September period. In June and September, there is usually formation of one depression in each month. These depressions affect the flow pattern of monsoon also. DS Pai, senior scientist at IMD Pune, said: As of now its a low pressure area which has not strengthened. But it will intensify in the next 48 hours. We have to see how that happens. This will cause widespread rains in Odisha, central India, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Konkan region. As of now, there is no cause for worry. It may in fact help the monsoon progress into central Arabian Sea, Goa and Maharashtra. IMD said in its Tuesday bulletin that conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of the monsoon into some more parts of the central Arabian Sea, Goa, some parts of Maharashtra, some more parts of Karnataka and Rayalaseema, remaining parts of Tamil Nadu, some parts of Telangana and coastal Andhra Pradesh over the next 48 hours. Conditions are also likely to become favourable subsequently for further advance of the monsoon into parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana, remaining parts of Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra Pradesh, remaining parts of the Bay of Bengal and northeastern states, Sikkim, parts of Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal later this week. From June 1 to June 8, India received 56% excess rains. There is an orange warning for central India, including Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, on June 13, when very heavy rains are expected. There is also an orange warning for the western coast on June 12. An orange warning implies that government agencies will have to remain alert for rain-related emergencies. For northwest India, there is a lightning and thunderstorm warning during June 11-13 for Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, west and east Uttar Pradesh and west and east Rajasthan. Cyclones normally dont develop during the monsoon season. The southwest monsoon is characterised by strong westerly winds in the lower troposphere (below five kilometres) and very strong easterly winds in the upper troposphere (above nine kilometres). This results in large vertical wind shear. Strong vertical wind shear inhibits cyclone development, according to the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre for Tropical Cyclones. During the monsoons, low pressure systems up to the intensity of depressions form along the monsoon trough, which extends from northwest India to northern Bay of Bengal. These systems have a shorter oceanic stay, which is also one of the reasons why they dont develop into intense cyclones. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting June 7 with Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi to discuss the planned annexation of West Bank lands in accordance with President Donald Trumps blueprint. The surprise participation by US Ambassador David Friedman gave rise to much speculation. Friedman, a staunch annexation advocate, seems to have been cast in the role of mediator between Netanyahu and the two former military chiefs, his political rivals who are now members of his unity government. Although Gantz and Ashkenazi have been keeping a low media profile on the explosive issue, they have made clear to Netanyahu that they will not rubber stamp any annexation plan he proposes and, in any case, would not give their OK without a green light from the White House. Friedman's message at the unusual gathering appeared to boost Blue and Whites position. He said Trump would not give the nod to territorial annexation absent agreement among the top echelons of the Israeli government. The rift that has opened on the political right among annexation supporters and opponents, who view it as a precursor to establishment of a Palestinian state, further complicates Netanyahus predicament. In any case, Netanyahu is unlikely to move without a go-ahead from Washington since he is loath to damage his excellent relationship with the Trump administration. Where, then, is Netanyahu headed? His foreign and defense ministers seem to have no idea. According to a senior Blue and White source, the two have not seen the final maps drawn up by Israeli and US officials delineating the territory to be annexed and the prospective territory for a possible Palestinian state because Netanyahu is deliberately obfuscating the details. It is undoubtedly a strange state of affairs, given the historic issues at stake and their incendiary political and security repercussions. According to Netanyahus coalition agreement with Blue and White, as of July 1 he can push ahead with annexation, or implementing Israeli sovereignty, as he describes it, but without the approval of Gantz and Ashkenazi, he lacks the required government majority to move ahead. The two have not been taken in by Netanyahus vague talk about history in the making. They did publicly support the plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace that Trump presented on Jan. 28, but while Netanyahu has taken a maximalist position advocating the annexation of as much West Bank land as possible, Gantz has taken a minimalist approach. He is also adamant about the need for White House approval. There are growing indications that Gantz and Ashkenazi are maintaining an independent position. Both served as the countrys top soldiers; both are familiar with the history of Israeli negotiations with the Palestinians, with the lay of the land and with Israels defense and security exigencies. They also both know senior American officials from their past and current positions. They have been frequent guests at the White House and Pentagon and have direct links to administration officials. Netanyahu is well aware of their status. For the first time in many years he is not the only senior figure running the show. As long as Israel was led by a right-wing government, with Netanyahu serving as both foreign and defense minister at various times, he was a one-man band. Now he needs Gantz and Ashkenazi to promote the annexation he aspires to leave as his legacy. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is scheduled to pay a brief visit to Israel on June 10 against the backdrop of harsh European criticism of the annexation plan. The German diplomat will hold a video conference with leaders of the Palestinian Authority and then fly to neighboring Jordan. The official reason for the visit is for him to become acquainted with his new Israeli counterpart Ashkenazi, but Maas will likely warn against the repercussions of annexation. A Foreign Ministry media briefing on June 8 reflected the tensions ahead of Maas' visit, with Israeli officials suggesting that annexation would harm bilateral ties. The officials expect Germany to feel less committed to defending Israel at international forums once it assumes the presidency of the European Union next month. Ashkenazi is hearing similar assessments from Foreign Ministry analysts. Netanyahu, obviously, does not like the overt independence of his defense and foreign ministers. They have paid a heavy political and public price for their agreement to join the Netanyahu government after three election campaigns devoted to unseating him. The results of a June 8 poll by Channel 12 News attest to the price that Blue and White paid for its decision to join Netanyahu. The results indicate that if elections were held now, Gantz party would plummet to 12 Knesset seats, compared to the 33 Blue and White received in the March 2 elections, whereas Netanyahus Likud would get 40 seats, four more than in March. Under his power-sharing deal with Netanyahu, Gantz is scheduled to take over as prime minister in October 2021, but the more altitude he loses in the polls, the greater Netanyahus temptation to find an excuse to dismantle the current government and bring about a fourth round of elections. However, Netanyahu also has other considerations. He cannot be certain of Trumps November reelection and will therefore rush to carry out annexation while Trump is still in office. In private conversations and public statements, he reiterates that the historic window of opportunity may never open again. In the evening hours of June 7, Netanyahu met with 12 settler leaders in an attempt to assuage their concerns, telling them the maps had yet to be finalized but promising that their security would be protected. Participants told Al-Monitor that Netanyahu said Israel must take advantage of Trumps presidency to impose Israeli sovereignty over the settlements and make sure Trump thinks Israel cares about his plan and appreciates its largesse. That does not mean we support the establishment of a Palestinian state, and even the proposed resolution we will bring to a government vote will not contain the words Palestinian state, he told the settlers. They seem to have been persuaded. Now Netanyahu has to convince Gantz to back the proposal and get Trump's blessing. COVID-19 tests on dead unscientific, says Telangana health minister India pti-PTI Hyderabad, June 09: Days after the Telangana High Court ordered that COVID-19 tests be done on all deceased in hospitals, Health Minister Etela Rajender on Tuesday said it is 'unscientific' and 'incomprehensible' and the state had no intention of doing so. The court had, while setting aside a government directive not to collect samples from dead bodies for coronavirus tests, ordered the state government to conduct the tests on all the deceased before they were released from hospitals. Southwest Monsoon likely to hit Maharashtra in 48 hours; Heavy rains in Odisha, AP and Telangana Coronavirus first detected in August 2019? Wuhan satellite images 'proof' | Oneindia News "Conducting tests (for COVID-19) on dead people is unscientific. It is incomprehensible. ICMR guidelines did not specify that tests should be conducted on the bodies. Every day about 1,000 people die in this state. Every day about 30,000 people die in this country. They (those filing PILs in courts) should say which ICMR or WHO guidelines specify that tests should be conducted on dead bodies. It is not possible and we have no such intention," Rajender told reporters. He said the Indian Council of Medical Research gave its nod after the state government's repeated requests to treat asymptomatic patients at home, even as patients with moderate to severe symptoms are being treated in hospitals under doctors'' supervision. The court had said the direction was being given keeping in mind the distinct possibility that asymptomatic patients who may have died may be carriers of coronavirus. In such cases, if the body is found to be infected, there is a possibility that those handling it during cremation or burial may be equally exposed to the danger of contracting coronavirus. "Therefore, this Court directs that dead bodies being released by the hospital, by way of abundant caution, will have to be tested for the presence of the coronavirus. The direction being issued for testing of the dead bodies for the presence of coronavirus is, in fact, in tune with the first guidelines issued by the ICMR, quoted above, the court said. Class X students to be promoted without exams in Telangana: KCR A press release from Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao's office on Monday night quoted officials as suggesting that the government go in for an appeal in the Supreme Court, challenging the High Court's order. "It is difficult to implement the High Court order that Corona tests should be conducted on the dead for whatever reasons they have died. In the state every day 900 to 1000 people die due to various reasons. Every day someone will die in some remote part of the state. It is not possible to conduct tests on them," the officials informed Rao at a review meeting on Monday. Observing that the High Court''s directions in this connection were "impossible" to implement, they said the state government needs to move the Supreme Court in this regard. If medical staff in hospitals were deputed for conducting tests on bodies, they would not find time to attend to patients who come to hospitals for other ailments, the officials said. They also claimed that some were regularly filing Public Interest Litigations in the Court to keep the government machinery engaged all day, making it difficult to monitor coronavirus related and other cases. Alleging that the PILs were filed by vested interests, authorities said it would lead to a "waste of valuable time" of senior medical officers. On the alleged misinformation campaigns that no adequate arrangements were made to treat patients if their numbers rose, the Chief Minister said even if there was an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, the government was ready to offer treatment. Laying out the telehealth strategy Reimagining the doctor visit Home care to facilitate chronic care Enhancing emergency response and trauma care Mental health care Improving senior health care and aging in place Reimagining hospital care Telehealth strategies must be comprehensive U.S. senators want to make $2 billion available to communities, including urban cities, to facilitate deployment of broadband and telehealth together. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is lobbying along with Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Angus King Jr., I-Maine, and John Boozman, R-Ark. to allocate this money to the next COVID-19 relief bill for broadband expansion. The goal is to append the funds to the amount thats currently controlled by the Federal Communication Commissions Rural Health Care (RHC) Program. In Congress, representatives are pushing for $86 billion for high-speed broadband as part of a five-year infrastructure investment.Directly and indirectly, a lot of federal money is going to telehealth. But are communities capable of fully leveraging those federal grants so that telehealth reaches its potential? Is there enough strategic thinking to drive effective decision-making within communities?Telehealth is much more than just video consults with doctors, and broadband strategy has to be more than dropping off a bunch of fiber to the nearest hospital and declaring victory. Both can be complex and should be developed in tandem to achieve maximum results.To make the most of all this funding, communities must have strategies in place that will set them up for success. For example, the OpenCape public fiber network team in southern Massachusetts started planning its network months before the federal government included funding for broadband expansion as part of the 2009 stimulus package. We were defining the network, determining how much it would cost, and so on, said John Campbell, OpenCapes chairman of the board. Start planning and acting now.Telehealth uses broadband and an intranet to facilitate the entire continuum of care to prevent, treat and hopefully cure any type of sickness, injury and ailment in the body or the mind. A continuum can be simple as a one-time video chat with the doctor or can involve various specialists, medical staff and health-care resources.My three years of research determined that telehealth strategies can narrow the health-care gap, that divide between those who have access to affordable quality health care and those who do not. A strategy to close the gap requires the full range of telehealth options, plus lots of broadband, political willpower and money.A comprehensive telehealth strategy can achieve six objectives:The health-care gap affects the underserved or unserved in both rural and urban communities, and these objectives can impact huge numbers of people. Pursuing them can impact broadband spending.Consider focusing on reimagining the doctor visit. Twenty-eight percent of U.S. men and 17 percent of women dont have a personal doctor or health-care provider. But an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows worse rates for minorities ; for example, 33 percent of Hispanic women and 31 percent of African-American men dont have personal providers.Increasing the number of homes with broadband will increase telehealth access and change the nature of doctor visits, as is being shown in dealing with the coronavirus. By converting community social or business locations such as barbershops into hypertension testing centers using telehealth and wireless broadband, people who dont have primary care doctors can get screened.Telehealth could also take off in K-12 schools offering general and specialized doctor visits. The top two medical issues children face is acute care for things such as earaches, cold, congestion and the like, and those needing specialty care, in particular behavioral health, said Rena Brewer, CEO of nonprofit vendor Global Partnership for TeleHealth. It may be time to significantly increase the number of schools funded by the FCCs eRate grant program as a way to increase telehealth deployments that can help those top issues.Communities must develop telehealth plans that are tailored to their unique needs.For example, chronic diseases such as cancer and lung disease are leading causes of death and disability. The U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health reports that African-American adults are 60 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to have been diagnosed with diabetes by a physician. And since 2005, colorectal cancer death rates remained about 50 percent higher in black men than in white men, according to the American Cancer Society.Telehealth targeting chronic diseases such as these through home health care requires broadband and can be augmented with Internet of Things and smart home technologies, like sensors that can detect a health crises before it happens, remind patients if they missed taking a pill or guide someone through rehab routines are a part of the next frontier.Mental health is another area where telehealth can make a real impact.There are 65 million Americans that have a diagnosable mental health illness, but we have less than half of the psychiatric providers needed to meet that demand, said Encounter Telehealth CEO Jennifer Amis. When you look at many of the rural areas, we may have less than 20 percent of the number of providers needed. Increased investment in both broadband and telehealth services can improve those numbers.Carly McCord is director of clinical services at the Texas A&M Telehealth Counseling Clinic, which partners with seven rural counties in Texas Brazos Valley to offer behavioral health services and treatments. In addition to telehealth, McCord believes communities should consider using broadband to offer distance learning to train people currently living in rural areas in mental health-care skills so they can help their own neighbors.All of my counselors right now are advanced doctoral students, McCord said. We are training the next generation of health professionals for work in underserved communities and for work with telehealth.The counties served by McCords clinic provide different types of physical spaces a clinic, a school, a hospital where patients can meet staff online and/or in person. I believe that we need both virtual and physical environments, McCord said. Theres a whole host of reasons why people need to go to a place to be seen. For some people, they may not be safe where they are staying. Comprehensive health care means giving patients choices so they can opt for what best suits their specific needs.COVID-19 has turned the world of health care and telehealth on its head. The United States cannot afford to continue to throw money at health care, even in the name of telehealth, and hope the gap heals itself. Ultimately, all health care is local. Communities need to develop local telehealth strategies that meet their unique situations. 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 Both of Frydenbergs parents are Jewish, and his mother arrived in Australia in 1950 after escaping the Holocaust. Protesters hung a sign and painted "racist" on the Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square during the Black Lives Matter protest rally in London. Credit:AP Speaking in the federal Coalition party room in Canberra, Frydenberg asked that "if Churchill was a racist, what would you call the guy he stopped?" Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday defended the late Winston Churchill from charges of racism, and described the defacement by protesters of Churchills statue in London as "disgraceful". There is an aphorism that "where you stand depends on where you sit", and from where Frydenberg and his family sit, Churchill could stand as nothing but a hero, having led Britain in the defeat of Nazism in World War II. But Winston Churchill lived from 1874 to 1965, and played leading roles in the extremes of history for much of that long life. More often than not, he was fighting wars or reporting on them or leading his nation in them. Even before the 20th century had begun, he had served with Spanish forces in Cuba, joined the British army in India, took part in the battle of Omdurman in the Sudan in 1898, and, as a newspaper correspondent during the Boer War, had been captured by the Boers, escaped and returned to England as a hero. Long before he became the most lionised of Britons when he stood against Hitler, he was the First Lord of the Admiralty whose designs took British forces - and thus, Australia - into the disaster that was Gallipoli in World War I. YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. The tender for designing ventilators in Armenia is completing and, the name of the winner company will be announced soon, Deputy Minister of High Technological Industry Stepan Tsaturyan said at a press conference in ARMENPRESS. The deadline for submitting applications is over. Now its the stage to discuss and review the applications. In the coming weeks it will be clear which company is going to deal with the designing of five prototypes of ventilators, the deputy minister said, adding that after that they will try to understand the production process. I would like to state that these processes last long. Eventually, that device is directly linked with ensuring the vital functional part of a person. Therefore, it should pass all the necessary stages with respective standards. After the completion of the designing stage we will understand with which standards and scale we should produce them. The goal is to both meet the domestic needs and export the devices. Here the licensing processes are important, he added. In late May the Armenian government provided 90 million AMD to the high-tech ministry to provide these funds as a grant to the Engineering Association for launching a production of ventilators. The program duration is up to 6 months. Stepan Tsaturyan said in order to overcome the current challenges they have received many calls and letters from technological companies and individuals. They were offering their support, assistance, were informing about their capacities on how they can help in the current situation. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan LEUVEN, Belgium and STAMFORD, Connecticut, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LindaCare is pleased to announce the appointment of Donald L. Deyo into the new roles of Executive Chairman of the LindaCare NV and President and CEO of the US subsidiary, LindaCare Inc. Deyo has served as Chairman of the Board for the Company since 2017. LindaCare is a digital health company specializing in integrated remote cardiac monitoring solutions. With operations in Europe and USA, the Company facilitates better outcomes for healthcare providers and cardiac rhythm patients with software tools and services essential for their management of these chronically ill patients. The Company provides Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Monitoring-as-a-Service (Maas) solutions to meet the needs of health systems, hospitals and private practices throughout the markets in which they operate. Deyo is a medtech veteran with extensive experience in development and commercialization of cardiac disease therapies. In the new roles he will guide acceleration of growth in the US and strategic expansion into areas adjacent to and leveraging the Company's flagship OnePulse remote monitoring platform. A former Medtronic executive, Deyo served in various executive roles in Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) and Neuromodulation over an extended (29 year) career. In addition to LindaCare, Deyo currently serves on the board of Nyxoah S.A. He was a board member for Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation B.V. prior to acquisition of the company by Medtronic in 2014. Following Medtronic, Deyo served as President, CEO and board member of FemPulse, Inc and President, CEO and board member of Medallion Therapeutics, both clinical-stage companies developing overactive bladder and targeted drug delivery therapies, respectively. Deyo also founded the executive consultancy MedTech Execs, which provides strategic and operational services to medical device and pharmaceutical companies. Commenting on the appointment, Deyo added "I have enjoyed working with the Board and our Founder and CEO, Shahram Sharif, in building our company to this point and am honored to have the opportunity to take on an expanded role in leading the company to its next level of success." Sharif added, "Don has been a great partner and mentor for me. I am looking forward to our expanded partnership and building on our vision for the tremendous potential that is LindaCare." About LindaCare LindaCare NV and LindaCare, Inc specialize in the developing and providing advanced remote digital health solutions for chronic disease. The initial focus of LindaCare is patients with heart failure (HF) and cardiac arrhythmia, equipped with Cardiac Implanted Electronic Devices (CIED) for Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM). The solution will subsequently be extended to other chronic disease domains integrating a wide range of remote monitored medical devices. www.LindaCare.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/718356/Lindacare_Logo.jpg Frances government is pumping 15 billion euro (13.3 billion) into the pandemic-battered aerospace industry, including plane manufacturer Airbus and national airline Air France. In exchange for aid, companies will be required to invest more and faster in electric, hydrogen or other lower-emission aircraft, as France aims to make its aviation industry the cleanest in the world. The deal was negotiated with unions, who said they would stay vigilant about job guarantees. Some environmental activists expressed scepticism about green ambitions for such a high-emission industry. We will do everything to support this French industry that is so critical for our sovereignty, our jobs and our economy, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said. Expand Close Frances government has announced billions in aid for its virus-battered aerospace industry (AP/Christophe Ena, FILE) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Frances government has announced billions in aid for its virus-battered aerospace industry (AP/Christophe Ena, FILE) As travel restrictions grounded most flights to keep coronavirus contained, the fallout cascaded across the industry, from airlines to airports to engine makers, maintenance contracts and spare parts suppliers. Airlines around the world have filed for bankruptcy or sought bailouts to survive the near-shutdown in their activity, and officials predict the industry will take years to recover. The French aid money includes direct government investment, subsidies, loans and loan guarantees. It also includes a special fund jointly financed by the government, Airbus and other big manufacturers to support small suppliers. It includes 7 billion euro (6.24 billion) in loans and loan guarantees that the government had already promised to Air France, whose planes were almost entirely grounded by the virus. And like a similar multibillion-euro plan to save the French car industry announced last month, the aviation bailout requires more investment in clean energy and puts pressure on manufacturers to avoid redundancies. It will aim at modernising the production chain and preserving European aviation know-how, Mr Le Maire said. We must save our aeronautical industry. We must avoid any decline in the coming months with regard to the American giant Boeing and the Chinese giant Comac, he said. We wont let the world aeronautical market be shared between China and the United States. France and Europe will retain their position. The government will help Air France buy Airbus planes, and pledged to order 600 million euro (534 million) worth of refuelling tankers, drones and helicopters from Airbuss defence arm. In addition to dominating the global passenger aircraft market alongside Boeing, Airbus is also a major supplier of military aircraft to European governments. The rescue plan includes investment in developing the successor to Airbuss widely used mid-range A320, a new hybrid or hydrogen regional plane, and a new light helicopter. BETHLEHEM Hundreds of people gathered around Delmar's Four Corners Monday night, in a show of solidarity with the many other marches happening in the Capital Region and nationwide to protest police brutality. People took a knee after gathering at Delaware and Kenwood avenues around 6 p.m. Monday, and then marched south on Delaware Avenue. Based on an unsubstantiated report from One America News, President Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted that Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old man who was hospitalized last week after being pushed by Buffalo police during a protest against police brutality could be an ANTIFA provocateur. Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? the president wrote Tuesday. Lis Power of Media Matters, which monitors conservative media, posted the original OAN report on Twitter following Trumps tweet. Also Read: Jim Carrey Gives Buffalo Cops a Cartoon Beating After Injury of 75-Year-Old Protester In it, an anchor for the right-wing network discusses the viral video which led to criminal assault charges and suspension for two officers and the resignation of 57 others from the emergency response team and says, New reports find a protester pushed by Buffalo police was appearing to use common Antifa tactics. A correspondent on OAN then references the report, which is a blog post from a website called Conservative Treehouse. That blog accused the 75-year-old of using a phone as a capture scanner to attempt to capture the radio communications signature of Buffalo police officers, without any evidence to substantiate that claim. OAN picked up the blog post, ran it as a report which prompted Trump, also without factual basis, to suggest Gugino was part of a set up. OAN President Charles Herring defended its report. It is important to report the facts, rather than to tell a story to fit ones narrative. Revealing the intent of Mr. Gugino is critical to understanding HIS actions and what happened, he told TheWrap exclusively. He did not explain the factual basis for the OAN report or how the network had revealed Guginos intent without any apparent attempt to contact Gugino for comment. Story continues Also Read: Scenes From Black Lives Matter Protests in LA With Michael B Jordan and More Making judgements on incomplete information is dangerous, Herring continued. OAN provides its viewers the facts giving them the ability to decide for themselves. Guginos attorney Kelly Zarcone did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but she told Buffalo TV news anchor Ed Drantch of WKBW, There is no need to go around name calling, accusing people of being things theyre not. Everything will work itself out. Martin has always been a peaceful protester, I dont know where that comes from. Read original story Trump Suggests 75-Year-Old Buffalo Protester Was Antifa Provocateur Based on Unsubstantiated OAN Report At TheWrap DUBLIN, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Bluetooth Speaker Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. In-depth analysis and data-driven insights on the impact of COVID-19 included in this global bluetooth speaker market report. Offers sizing and growth prospects of the market for the forecast period 2020-2025. Provides comprehensive insights on the latest industry trends, forecast, and growth drivers in the market. Includes a detailed analysis of growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities. Delivers a complete overview of segments and the regional outlook of the market. Offers an exhaustive summary of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key strategies to gain competitive advantage. The global Bluetooth speaker market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 10% during the period 2019-2025 Bluetooth speakers are gaining significant traction in the voice frequency industry. With advances in headphone technology, speakers are entering the intelligent speaker era. Therefore, the implementation of the new generation technology with improved connectivity is expected to bolster the demand for Bluetooth speakers. The demand has grown in the US and China, where the high internet penetration and the convenience to purchase connected devices via several online distribution channels have enabled the Bluetooth speaker market growth. One of the major factors responsible for market growth is product innovations. This trend is playing a vital role in gaining attention among consumers. With the incorporation of innovative, advanced headphones technology, several products are experiencing enhancements in designing, specification, and features, thereby increasing the demand among consumers. Fugoo offers Bluetooth speakers, which comprise nearly eight symmetrically placed drivers. Similarly, the inclusion of long battery life, 360-degree surround sound, customizable led lights, application sync features, and smart assistant makes its product attractive to a wide audience. This research report includes a detailed segmentation by pricing, portability, devices, end-users, and geography Low-end models are proficiently used by end-users for both residential and commercial purposes. They are the preferred choice as they are convenient and offer hassle-free installation. These devices are portable and offer excellent sound quality, thereby contributing to revenue growth. Besides, the cost-effectiveness offered by these models is expected to increase their application in the residential sector. Mid-end models, which are priced between $50 and $200, can be used both in commercial and residential segments. The segment is expected to experience steady growth in APAC as end-users in the region are highly-priced sensitive and restrain from purchasing high-priced premium items. Thus, APAC could become a potentially large market for mid-range Bluetooth speakers during the forecast period. While the annual saving ratio in APAC countries is higher than the US and European countries, the APAC is likely to emerge one of the largest markets for mid-range devices during the forecast period. A majority of Bluetooth speakers are portable, as they offer convenience and movability. The fixed segment is expected to lose its market share to the portable segment during the forecast period. The portable Bluetooth speaker market is expected to grow at a significant CAGR during the forecast period as they are compact and lightweight, thereby increasing prominence in the Bluetooth speaker market. Also, these devices can easily configure with tablets or smartphones, thereby increasing adoption in the residential segment. Fixed Bluetooth speakers do not include batteries and are not easy to carry. They have a fixed installation in the house. Hence, these models limit the mobility for the equipment, thereby posing a restrain for their market growth. With increasing innovations, professionals are increasingly focusing on the introduction of devices, which are high on compactness and low on inconvenience. The APAC region is expected to contribute significant share toward the fixed segment on account of the increasing popularity of regional music streaming platforms. These platforms are focusing on developing sustainable revenue models in the next few years. The consumers in Asia are increasingly shifting their preferences from downloading to streaming. The traditional market is attaining maturity in developed economies. End-users are looking for product innovations. Further, these devices are priced at a lower end, and thus, generate revenue through mass sales. Bluetooth speakers are profoundly used for sharing music files and play music around the house. The waterproof Bluetooth speaker market, on the other hand, is gaining traction in the US and Western European countries. They are priced in the moderate range, with the market witnessing a shift toward innovative speakers in developed countries. Moreover, their increasing application in outdoor spaces can contribute in the growth of the segment. North America is expected to witness the shipment of over 14 million units by 2025 due to the high spending power of the millennial, the increased adoption of smartphones, and rapid urbanization are driving the segment growth. Bluetooth speakers find their application as home speakers in households. These devices are used for music streaming via smartphones or PCs. These devices are considerably simple to operate. With their increasing popularity, a high percentage of consumers recognize the benefits of Bluetooth devices, which include portability, power-saving options, easy installation, high-quality sound, and seamless wireless connectivity. These features are increasingly driving the application in the residential sector. Key vendors in the Bluetooth speaker market emphasize technological enhancements for product differentiation. The increasing adoption of Bluetooth speakers in small offices, home offices, educational institutions, and smart offices is driving the segment growth. Commercial Bluetooth devices are expensive, but they are powerful and large. They are standalone devices, which offer better sound quality in comparison to built-in counterparts. These devices have been witnessing profound adoption in the past few years in the audio technology segment. These speakers are available in several shapes and sizes, thereby catering to changing consumer demands. North America is one of the largest markets in the music industry. However, the shifting trend toward online communications and digital media is expected to open avenues for music industry professionals and global artists. Streaming services include a wide variety of formats, premium paid subscription services, along with streaming radio services. Nearly 50% of North Americans are using unpaid and paid streaming services. Hence, increasing paid subscriptions are expected to contribute favorably to the Bluetooth speaker market. With the rise in music streaming services, Bluetooth speakers are anticipated to witness the surging rise in demand. The European region is expected to witness an increase in per capita disposable income, thereby driving the overall demand for several electronic appliances among professionals and residential users. Digitalization is expected to have to affect Europe positively. The concept of video streaming in social media is gaining prominence in the region. With increasing internet penetration, the streaming music industry is anticipated to witness an increase. The growing penetration of smartphones in APAC has increased the addressable market for Bluetooth speakers. The penetration of smartphones is rapidly increasing due to urbanization in the region. When smartphones were launched, their price premium made them unaffordable for the middle-class population. However, with the availability of budgeted smartphones, high disposable income, and increased buying power of the middle-class population, especially in developing countries, the sale of Bluetooth speakers is expected to increase. Several innovative regionally centered music streaming platforms are significantly experiencing a rise in demand in the APAC region. Insights by Vendors The global Bluetooth speaker market is moderately concentrated with Bose, HARMAN, Sony, and Beats, capturing more than 40% of the market share. The rapidly changing technological environment could adversely affect vendors as customers expect continual innovations and upgrades. On the one hand, some traditional manufacturers have started to offer Bluetooth speakers with high functionalities and designs. All these companies have a global presence, at least in three major geographical regions of North America, APAC, and Europe. However, there are local vendors providing products with similar specifications at low prices. This will intensify the price wars among vendors during the forecast period. The Bluetooth speaker market has the threat of infiltration with low-quality products. Major vendors continually compete among themselves for the leading position in the market, with occasional spurts of competition coming from other local vendors. Key Topics Covered 1 Research Methodology 2 Research Objectives 3 Research Process 4 Scope & Coverage 4.1 Market Definition 4.2 Base Year 4.3 Scope of the Study 4.4 Market Segments 5 Report Assumptions & Caveats 5.1 Key Caveats 5.2 Currency Conversion 5.3 Market Derivation 6 Market at a Glance 7 Introduction 7.1 Overview 7.2 Bluetooth Technologies 7.3 Bluetooth Speakers 7.4 Comparative Analysis of Bluetooth Speakers And Wi-Fi Speakers 7.5 Working Mechanism of Bluetooth Speakers 7.6 Future Scenario for Bluetooth Speakers 8 Market Opportunities & Trends 8.1 Advancements in Technology & Innovative Solutions 8.2 Increased Investment In IoT by Vendors 8.3 Upsurge in e-Commerce Platforms 9 Market Growth Enablers 9.1 Growing Online Music Streaming 9.2 Advancements in Battery Technology 9.3 Increasing Internet Penetration 10 Market Restraints 10.1 Volatility in Raw Material Prices 10.2 Growing Threat from Smart Speakers 10.3 Commoditization & Low Cost of Chinese Bluetooth Speakers 11 Consumer Behavior Analysis 11.1 Overview 11.2 Consumer Preferences for Bluetooth Speakers 12 Market Landscape 12.1 Market Overview 12.2 Market Size & Forecast 12.3 Five Forces Analysis 13 Value Chain Analysis 13.1 Overview 13.2 Value Chain Analysis 14 Distribution Channel 14.1 Overview 15 Portability 15.1 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine (Revenue) 15.2 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine (Unit Shipments) 15.3 Market Overview 15.4 Fixed Bluetooth Speakers 15.5 Portable Bluetooth Speakers 16 Device 16.1 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine (Revenue) 16.2 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine (Unit Shipments) 16.3 Market Overview 16.4 Traditional Bluetooth Speakers 16.5 Waterproof Bluetooth Speakers 16.6 Rugged Bluetooth Speakers 17 Price Range 17.1 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine (Revenue) 17.2 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine (Unit Shipments) 17.3 Market Overview 17.4 Low-End Bluetooth Speakers 17.5 Mid-Range Bluetooth Speakers 17.6 Premium Range Bluetooth Speakers 18 End-user 18.1 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine (Revenue) 18.2 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine (Unit Shipments) 18.3 Market Overview 18.4 Residential Bluetooth Speakers 18.5 Commercial Bluetooth Speakers 19 Geography 19.1 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine (Revenue) 19.2 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine (Unit Shipments) 19.3 Geographic Overview 20 North America 21 Europe 22 APAC 23 Latin America 24 Middle East & Africa 25 Competitive Landscape 26 Key Company Profiles 26.1 Apple 26.2 Bose 26.3 Samsung 26.4 Sony 27 Other Prominent Vendors 27.1 ALTEC Lansing 27.2 Anker Innovations 27.3 AOMAIS 27.4 ARTIS 27.5 AXESS 27.6 Bang & Olufsen 27.7 Boat Lifestyle 27.8 BRAVEN 27.9 Creative Technology 27.10 DOSS 27.11 Demerbox 27.12 Denon 27.13 Edifier 27.14 Fugoo 27.15 iBall 27.16 iClever 27.17 Ion Audio 27.18 JAM Audio 27.19 Kondor 27.20 Klipsch Group 27.21 Koninklijke Philips 27.22 Lenovo 27.23 LG Electronics 27.24 Logitech 27.25 LINN 27.26 Marshall 27.27 Monster Store 27.28 Mpow 27.29 Onkyo Corporation 27.30 Panasonic 27.31 Photive 27.32 Qualcomm 27.33 Renqing Technology 27.34 Sharkk 27.35 Sharp Corporation 27.36 SHENZHEN Jonter Digital Technology 27.37 Skullcandy 27.38 Sonos 27.39 Soundbot 27.40 Supersonic 27.41 Tagg 27.42 The House of Marley 27.43 Tibo 27.44 Tribit Audio 27.45 Victsing Corporation 27.46 Zebronics For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7yf0tv 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: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com June 26, 2020 / 06:11 PM IST The Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBOSE) has declared the Class 10 board exam 2020 results on June 9. Students who appeared in the Himachal Pradesh Board class 10 examination can check the result on its official website hpbose.org. Students should note that due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, the HPBOSE class 10 Result 2020 will only be released online. To prevent the gathering of students on campus, all schools have been advised against the display of HPBOSE 10th Result 2020 on notice boards. The HPBOSE reportedly started its evaluation process in the month of May, and as per media reports, the evaluation process was completed on May 30, 2020. This year, the evaluation process was done from home. Earlier media reports said that the results will be out on June 5, however, the board officials confirmed that the process will take few more days.In 2019, HPBOSE announced class 10 results on April 29, 2019, and the pass percentage was 61.2 percent. Catch the highlights here: Aircraft seen at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi. Photo by Shutterstock/mark stephens photography. Petrovietnam Oil wants to sell jet fuel to serve the rising demand for air travel as new airlines seek permission to fly. Cao Hoai Duong, CEO of the state-owned oil distribution firm, said at the annual general meeting on Monday that the company is considering adding Jet A1 fuel to its product portfolio. There are only two suppliers of jet fuel in Vietnam -- Skypec, which sells mostly to Vietnam Airlines and foreign carriers, and Petrolimex Aviation, which serves Vietjet Air and Bamboo Airways and so there is room for a new company in the market. Demand for jet fuel is expected to rise since new airlines are applying for licenses, he said. Tourism firm Vietravel has received government approval for its Vietravel Airlines and is seeking an air operator certificate, while Kite Air of hospitality group Thien Minh has applied for a license. Petrovietnam Oil and Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Jsc, the largest producer of Jet A1 fuel in Vietnam, are sister companies and subsidiaries of Petrovietnam. Duong also said the companys distribution network around the country makes it convenient to transport fuel to airports. The company reported a loss of VND537 billion ($23 million) for the first quarter due to plummeting oil prices. Production is expected to fall by 10-18 percent this year. The Manipur high court on Monday ordered that 7 former Congress MLAs, who had defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the 2017 Manipur assembly elections, cannot enter the state legislative assembly till the disqualification petitions filed against them are decided by the Speaker of the House, Y Khemchand Singh. This comes close on the heels of expulsion of BJP minister Thounaojam Shyamkumar from the state assembly in March after the Supreme Court in a strongly worded order restrained Shyamkumar from entering the assembly and also stripped him of his ministerial post while asking the Speaker to decide a similar disqualification petition against him for defecting to BJP. The order passed by justice KH Nobin Singh on Monday would mean that unless the Supreme Court stays the order, the 7 MLAs will not be able to cast their votes in the Rajya Sabha elections which is slated to take place on June 19 for filling the lone seat from the state to the Upper House of the Parliament. The seven MLAs who were disqualified are Sanasam Bira Singh, Ginsuanhau, Oinam Lukhoi Singh, Ngamthang Haokip, Yengkhom Surchandra Singh, Kshetrimayum Bira Singh and Paonam Brojen Singh. Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, SG Hasnain and N Ibotombi represented the Congress leaders who had filed the petition. Senior counsel HS Paonam appeared for the 7 defected MLAs. The Congress party had emerged as the single-largest party in the 2017 Manipur assembly elections, securing 28 seats, three seats short of the majority mark in the 60-seat assembly. However, the BJP, with 21 seats, moved in to stake its claim in an alliance with the Naga Peoples Front, Nationalist Peoples Party and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). Shyamkumar and seven MLAs had contested and won on Congress ticket before extending their support to BJP leader Biren Singh to form a coalition government. U.S. Envoy, Taliban Discuss Afghan Peace Process In Qatar By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan, RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal June 08, 2020 The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, has held a new round of talks in Qatar with the Taliban's political chief. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a spokesman for the militants, said on Twitter late on June 7 that Khalilzad and Baradar discussed the release of prisoners and the start of intra-Afghan talks. In February, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement aimed at ending the 18-year war -- the longest military conflict 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 -- a move expected to lead to intra-Afghan negotiations. Separately, Khalilzad met with Pakistani Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on June 7, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and the Pakistani military said. Both sides discussed "steps required for the start of intra-Afghan negotiations," the embassy said in a statement on June 8. Pakistan and Afghanistan have had strained ties for years. Kabul has long accused Islamabad of providing safe haven to Taliban militants who launch attacks against international and Afghan forces. Pakistan last week appointed a new special envoy to Afghanistan in a fresh bid to improve bilateral relations. Muhammad Sadiq Khan previously served as Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan from 2008 to 2014. Khan, a former spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, would play "an effective role in strengthening ties" between the two neighbors, according to a statement by Pakistan's Foreign Ministry. With reporting by AFP and AP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-envoy-taliban -discuss-afghan-peace-process- in-qatar/30658910.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 A WA Greens senator who praised UK protesters for destroying a historical monument and encouraged his social media followers to tear down Perth's "symbols of white supremacy" has declined to comment further on a series of divisive tweets. Senator Jordon Steele-John celebrated images of protesters in Bristol pulling a statue of 16th century slave trader Edward Colston off its plinth and dragging it into the city's harbour on Monday. Senator Jordon Steele-John . Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "It's great to see these symbols of white supremacy being torn down," he said. "It's made me think a lot about how many similar statues and symbols we have here in WA. nCipher Security, an Entrust Datacard company, and a world leader in hardware security modules (HSMs) that deliver trust, integrity and control for business-critical information and applications, announces that Microsec has chosen nShield HSMs to underpin the security of Microsec's qualified trust services, including its certificate and digital signature services. Microsec's service helps financial institutions meet the requirements of the revised Payments Services Directive (EU) 2015/2366 (PSD2), and take advantage of new business opportunities offered by open banking. PSD2 is the driving force behind open banking, where financial institutions are required to open their customer account data to regulated third party payment service providers. The goal is that those third parties will build innovative new services for banking customers and improve the customer experience. The regulation requires payment service providers to use qualified certificates as defined by Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 covering electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services (eIDAS). eIDAS mandates that trust service providers use trustworthy systems, and the applicable technical standards specifically require the use of certified HSMs to protect the private keys used to issue those digital certificates. nShield HSMs are certified to Common Criteria EAL4 AVA_VAN.5 and ALC_FLR.2 against EN 419 221-5 Protection Profile, under the Dutch NSCIB scheme. Using nShield HSMs to protect the private keys used to issue digital certificates enables Microsec to issue Qualified eIDAS certificates and provide the essential security elements to fulfil the PSD2 authentication and security requirements. "Microsec has long been a customer of nCipher and relied on its HSMs to provide a foundation of trust to all our digital services. By launching this new trust service we can now also support banks and third-party service providers in securing their communications and complying with PSD2 identification requirements," says Dr. Sandor Szoke, deputy director of eIDAS Trust Services at Microsec. "The financial services industry is under the constant threat of fraud and security risk," says Cindy Provin, General Manager, nCipher Security and SVP, Entrust Datacard. "While PSD2 is creating a new digital financial services market, to achieve the benefits requires strong security measures. The use of our nShield HSMs provides a root of trust for business critical applications, facilitating compliance with ever stricter security regulations, such as PSD2 and eIDAS. I am delighted that Microsec is both a customer and partner and that our combined solution will provide highly-trusted, qualified eIDAS certificates to fulfil PSD2 requirements." About nCipher Security nCipher Security, an Entrust Datacard company, is a leader in the general-purpose hardware security module (HSM) market, empowering world-leading organizations by delivering trust, integrity and control to their business-critical information and applications. Today's fast-moving digital environment enhances customer satisfaction, gives competitive advantage and improves operational efficiency it also multiplies the security risks. Our cryptographic solutions secure emerging technologies such as cloud, IoT, blockchain, and digital payments and help meet new compliance mandates. We do this using our same proven technology that global organizations depend on today to protect against threats to their sensitive data, network communications and enterprise infrastructure. We deliver trust for your business-critical applications, ensure the integrity of your data and put you in complete control today, tomorrow, always. www.ncipher.com Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram search nCipherSecurity. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005141/en/ Contacts: nCipher Security Liz Harris liz.harris@ncipher.com +44 7973 973648 BEIJING/SYDNEY (Reuters) - China on Tuesday urged students going overseas to think carefully before choosing Australia, citing a spate of racist incidents targeting Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic and putting A$12 billion ($8.3 billion) of fee revenue at risk. The Ministry of Education's warning came days after the Chinese culture and tourism ministry advised citizens against travelling to Australia due to racial discrimination and violence stemming from the coronavirus outbreak, which first emerged in China in late 2019. The education ministry made a statement advising overseas students "to conduct a good risk assessment and be cautious about choosing to go to Australia or return to Australia to study". Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said Australia had established processes to stamp out racism. "We're a country that has zero tolerance (towards racism)," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "Not zero incidents, I understand that, but I think the idea that Australia, in any way, is an unsafe destination for visitors to come to is one that just does not stand up to scrutiny." Relations between Australia and China have become strained since the Australian government proposed an international inquiry into how the COVID-19 outbreak in China became a global pandemic. The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported on Sunday a survey conducted by the Per Capita think tank had documented 386 racist incidents - ranging from abuse to physical intimidation and spitting - since April 2. China has imposed tariffs on Australian barley imports and blocked some beef imports, though Beijing has denied its actions are connected to the COVID-19 dispute. Australia has also spoken out over China's proposed national security laws for Hong Kong, which critics say undermines freedom in the former British colony. The Australian dollar slipped further on Tuesday on the Chinese education ministry's warning, falling 1% to $0.6951. Story continues About 10% of university students in Australia are from China, and deliver the industry about A$12 billion a year in fees. Universities Australia declined to comment on the warning, saying it was a matter for the governments of Australia and China. (Reporting by Lusha Zhang and Huizhong Wu in Beijing and Byron Kaye and Kirsty Needham in Sydney, Writing by Se Young Lee; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Ed Osmond) San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said in a virtual roundtable Monday night organized by the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club that he has "an open mind" when it comes to calls to "defund the police." In the conversation, also attended by San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto and Public Defender Mano Raju, moderator Niki Solis asked Scott for his thoughts on the recent movement to "defund the police," as put forth in a Washington Post op-ed over the weekend written by Georgetown Law professor Christy E. Lopez. The article, as Solis noted, describes a community over-reliance on police departments and posits "shrinking the scope of police responsibility and shifting most of what government does to keep us safe to entities better equipped to deal with particular situations." "I have an open mind to that," Scott responded, noting that while he's aware any police chief or department head would instinctively want to be protective of their budget, the times have changed. Still, he added, "We're at a time in policing in this country where the whole world is speaking to us and we need to hear whats being said. And what's being said is we have to change the way we police in this country. And I think for me, I'm open to that." Scott did, however, cite the importance of considering changes to the department carefully. "We have an entire system in how we dispatch and whatever we dispatch us to," he continued. "We have to think this through to need to make sure that whatever changes are on the table are thought through and we think about community safety as a whole. And that goes way beyond policing." The San Francisco Police Department had an annual budget of nearly $612 million for the 2018-2019 year. Roughly two-thirds went toward paying the salaries of the department employees. Last week, Mayor London Breed and City Supervisor Shamann Walton announced a commitment to redirect some funding from the SFPD to the city's African American community. The plan is nascent at this point, with Breed and Walton noting that they will be working with community members on how best to distribute the funds. The city also did not disclose how much money might be redistributed. For his part, Scott seemed to agree with the idea that communities tend to over rely on police, and that the idea to rethink what the role of a police officer might be could be beneficial to community safety on the whole. "I do think there are opportunities for agencies and other entities who can help make communities safer receive the funding that will allow them to do that," he added. "At the end of the day, no matter how we get there, we want be less reliant on policing for safe communities and more reliant on self-sufficiency, and it takes everyone to get there." Both Boudin and Miyamoto agreed with Scott that police are not always the best solution to problems. Boudin cited a program in Oregon where dispatchers can deploy specialized clinicians to address mental health crises rather than officers. That program, he said, was both cost-effective and limits the risk of violence. Miyamoto added that though "you would expect us not to support" the ideas behind a term like "defunding," but that local law enforcement understand. San Francisco, he said, has "been trying to do these things for a number of years. Alyssa Pereira is an SFGate digital editor. Email: alyssa.pereira@sfgate.com | Twitter: @alyspereira Sumita Kale At the best of times, the challenges facing Indias manufacturing are well known. The COVID-19 crisis has only accentuated them. We are now in a situation where, despite the push for Make in India in 2014, growth in this sector has been slowing every year since, crashing to a low of less than a percent in 2019. Meanwhile, Indias latest call for self-reliance is echoed by many countries looking to reduce their dependence on the manufacturing powerhouse of the world China. At the moment, the focus of measures taken by governments must be on relieving the deep financial stress that our labour force and small firms are going through. This article is not about the current pain. We need to look ahead and put in place an entirely new economic structure based on trust and security for all, build strong foundations so that we are not caught in such a dire place ever again. There is a long list of reforms needed to boost the manufacturing sector, covering land, labour, power, logistics etc. These are all well-documented and some have already been announced. However, the bottom line for vibrant manufacturing is to ensure meaningful Ease of Doing Business across all levels of government central, state, local. India needs a new economic structure that will incentivise the formalisation of businesses and employment, the only way forward is to shred the red tape that is binding our entrepreneurs and labour down. This is the bus that Indian manufacturers missed in 1991 the license raj was broken down but the inspector raj stayed. 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 Indias push towards providing ease of doing business seems to have made a greater impact on raising our global ranking, rather than on making a significant difference to the way we do business. So on one side, the distress of migrant workers on the highways across India, bereft of support from their employers and the state, has put a spotlight on a law meant to protect their rights but barely implemented (Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979). On the other side, small businesses are bleeding as cashflows dry up and salaries cannot be paid out pointing to the difficulty in accessing working capital finance and enforcing contracts, despite numerous schemes and policies and rules. As a society, we cannot afford such stress again. As an economy, we cannot continue with a system that breeds inefficiencies and unethical operations. India needs a mindset change at every point that entrepreneurs and labour interact with the system. Every regulation should have a specific stated objective, its compliance should be appropriate to meet that objective. For instance, it is well-known that the ESIC needs reform its unused corpus crossed Rs 90,000 crore last year and despite mandatory contributions, workers often prefer private treatment. The objective of health security can be much better achieved by mandating that employers and contractors purchase an IRDA-approved health insurance plan for all their workers. The Centre, state and local governments must recognise that it is not the spirit of the law that investors and businesses resent; it is the endless and mindless paperwork, archaic irrelevant rules accompanied by penal provisions that have led to the inspector raj and corruption defining the current regulatory space. This is what must change. The process had actually begun in September, when the DPIIT announced the finalisation of a National Ease of Doing Business Policy. Till date, the details have not been shared in public; however, the onus was reportedly placed on government departments to measure the time and cost spent by companies on licences, registrations, renewals etc. with the aim of rationalising the compliance burden on firms, simplifying and digitising the compliance process. This policy must be put out in the public domain and implemented at the earliest. Just digitisation is not sufficient; a comprehensive overhaul of the entire process of compliance is essential with integration at the backend across various departments, this will reduce the need for fresh applications for various schemes and multiple uploads of the same documents. It should be possible now, for example, for GST compliant MSMEs to get advantage of the interest subvention scheme automatically, rather than make fresh applications to the banks, with painful follow up, for concessionary loans. Make in India should not and need not be a mirage. The roadmap for the government is clear take the draft National Ease of Doing Business policy, discuss it with stakeholders and implement it now. Sumita Kale, an economist is affiliated with Indicus Foundation and Pune International Centre. Views are personal. Note to readers: Make In India Reboot is a series of articles that will take a top-to-bottom look at ways to breathe life into manufacturing in India. While renewing calls for a political solution in Libya, Egypt is warning against escalation that could threaten regional peace. But as the balance shifts on the ground, resolution might be more difficult than ever. The self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar retreated in the last three weeks from its positions around Tripoli and lost control of the largest airbase in the western part of Libya, Al-Watiya. Last Thursday, 4 June, his forces retreated from another stronghold after the city of Tarhuna fell to the forces of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA). The official spokesman of the Tripoli government said that with the fall of Tarhuna, the forces of the GNA liberated all of the western part of Libya from the forces loyal to Haftar. Moreover, Fayez Al-Sarraj, president of the government in Tripoli, promised that the intention of his government is to retake control of all of Libya, implying that their next move is to advance towards the east where the seat of the interim Libyan government is located in Benghazi. In other words, his forces will get nearer to Egyptian borders, and probably in the presence of Turkish military advisers. If this happens, it would constitute a major escalation in the conflict with uncalculated regional consequences. On Thursday, 4 June, Al-Sarraj was in Turkey where he conferred with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish government promised that it would continue providing assistance and aid to the government in Tripoli to safeguard recent successes achieved by its forces in the war against the LNA. Furthermore, it announced that it would start exploration for gas and oil in the territorial waters of Libya in conformity with the agreement it signed last November with the GNA in Tripoli on the delimitation of an exclusive Libyan economic zone in the Mediterranean. While Al-Sarraj was in Turkey, Haftar and the speaker of the Libyan parliament were conferring with senior Egyptian officials in Cairo. After two days of talks, the Egyptian President, Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, announced in a joint press conference in their presence that the talks held by the Egyptian government had led to agreement, translated to a document dubbed the Cairo Declaration that dealt with an initiative aiming at reaching a political solution for the Libyan conflict in accordance with the Security Council resolutions and the decisions and conclusions of various international meetings on the situation in Libya, namely, the Berlin Summit and other meetings in Paris, Palermo and the United Arab Emirates. The major highlights of the initiative include the reunification of the economic, financial and political institutions in Libya, the fair and transparent distribution of national wealth, and the demobilisation of the various militias operating in Libya, in addition to the exit of foreign mercenaries brought by Turkey, principally from Syria, to fight with the forces of the GNA. The Egyptian president said that the two Libyan officials have called for a ceasefire in Libya to become effective at 6:00am on Monday, 8 June. There is talk of setting up a presidential council, representative of the three Libyan regions, coupled with the drafting of a constitutional declaration that sets forth the next steps in the smooth transition towards a stable national government, representative of the Libyan people. In a nod to the Berlin Declaration of 19 January, the Egyptian president emphasised the importance of complementarity among the three tracks that had been incorporated in this declaration; namely, the economic/financial, the military/security and the political tracks. In this context, he called on Libyan parties to discuss the military aspects of the conflict and how to secure a total ceasefire in the context of United Nations-sponsored 5+5 talks. Furthermore, he proposed an international meeting in Geneva under the auspices of the United Nations and attended by the European Union, the Arab League, as well as the African Union, to provide an international framework for the political process whereby the Libyan parties would reach a political solution for the Libyan conflict. What was striking in the joint press conference was the insistence of the Egyptian president on how dangerous the present situation in Libya is from the standpoint of the national security interests of Egypt. He warned against any attempts to settle the Libyan conflict through the use of military force, stressing that Egypt is closely watching developments on the battlefields in Libya. Some observers would interpret this as a warning to the Tripoli government not to get nearer Egyptian borders with Libya. Similarly, the warning is also addressed, without naming it, to Turkey. Still, I firmly believe that Egypt should never get involved militarily in the Libyan quagmire. Our absolute priority should be to defend our western borders against intrusions and infiltrations from the Libyan side of the border. The Egyptian president was right, of course, in sending out a warning, so that neither the Tripoli government nor the Turkish government misread Egyptian intentions. The New York Times in its edition dated Saturday, 6 June, quoted Emadeddin Badi, who is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, as saying that there is clearly more conflict still to come, but everybody domestically and externally is going to recalculate their position. I tend to agree with this assessment. Needless to say, everyone hopes that the warring parties in Libya would reason that there could never be a military solution in Libya and, consequently, they opt for a political solution that would guarantee the territorial integrity and independence of Libya. However, the recent military gains by forces loyal to the Tripoli government could encourage these forces to push for launching a major attack against the forces of Haftar throughout Libya. The open question is whether Turkey would oblige or not. The Egyptian warning against military escalation in Libya could, hopefully, be a wake-up call for both the Tripoli and the Turkish governments, in this respect, against such a grave miscalculation. Maybe Russia could play the role of a buffer between the two Mediterranean powers, if need be. The day the Cairo Declaration was out, the spokesman of the forces of the Tripoli government announced that these forces are advancing towards Sirte, a major stronghold for Haftar forces, as well as Gafra Airbase. Going to press, indications are that the defences of the forces loyal to Haftar would be overpowered. The balance of power on the Libyan battlefields has shifted dramatically to the advantage of the Tripoli forces, a development that would make it difficult to persuade the Tripoli government to negotiate with the defeated party at least for the time being. *The writer is former assistant foreign minister. *A version of this article appears in print in the 11 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: The International Space Station is about to join the effort to control the world's wildlife. They will revolutionize the science of animal monitoring through Project Icarus - floating about 240 miles above the earth. A large antenna and other devices are being tested onboard the orbital station, installed by Russian spacewalking astronauts in 2018, which will become fully operational this summer. The device can relay a much broader data range than previous tracking systems, recording the location of an animal and its physiology and environment. ALSO READ: NASA Experiments to Fly Aboard Its Gateway Space Station; Is Outer Space a "Safe Zone" From Coronavirus? How can ICARUS help? International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space (ICARUS) would allow animals to be monitored in far larger areas than others. At the same time, ICARUS has shrunk the size of the transmitters the animals carry, making them much cheaper for booting. These changes will allow researchers to track insects and bird flocks as they migrate over long distances instead of monitoring just one or two birds at a time. With climate change and habitat destruction roiling the planet, ICARUS will enable biologists and wildlife managers to respond quickly to changes in where and when species migrate. "It's a new era of discovery," said Walter Jetz, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale, whose center is working with the project. He told The New York Times they will discover new migration paths, habitat requirements, things about species behavior that we didn't even think about. ALSO READ: NASA Cuts Boeing From Competition To Deliver International Space Station Cargo People worldwide will be able to log on to the "Internet of Animals" with a smartphone app to track their favorite wildlife animal as they migrate real-time. This space-based approach in unfolding the untold animal stories is led by Martin Wikelski, director of migration research at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany. He has been pursuing it for years with a passion for overcoming gaps and disadvantages in current technologies. DLR, the German Space Agency, primarily fund it. ICARUS will collaborate with other stakeholders The program will be available to researchers around the world using it for research purposes. And the data should be open to all, with some exceptions. Dr. Wikelski said that ICARUS readings could be combined with other types of information, such as the eBird database, to make the data even more robust. Dr. Wikelski said one of the project's aims is to help conservation managers adapt to a changing environment. Fixed boundaries define protected areas such as wildlife parks and forest preserves. But as several animals are on the move, other changes are causing climate shifts. Wikelski said protecting them would require a sense of where they are going and where new protected areas and corridors might need to be created. Another of ICARUS's ambitions is to allow anyone with a smartphone to track tagged migratory animals. One app, called the Animal Tracker, already exists as a way to tap into wildlife tracking systems based on the ground. Dr. Wikelski aims to create support for conservation by linking people to a single charismatic animal, whose actions they can observe. "If people hear Cecil the lion died, it's [genuine] to them," he said, referring to a lion in Zimbabwe that was killed by an American hunter in 2015. "But if you say 3,000 lions died, nobody cares." 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Protesters in Connecticut and around the world have gathered to demonstrate against racism and police brutality since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Floyd, who was black. With Floyd on the ground, Chauvin had his knee on the man's back for more than eight minutes, video showed. In photos: A weekend of protests in Connecticuut Here are some of the protests that have taken place in Connecticut since that day. GRAFTON You cant keep a good town down. Grafton was getting back to its old self this weekend as shoppers, diners, bikers and sightseers moved through the communitys streets and shops that, until recently, were deserted because of the statewide COVID-19 lockdown. Things werent overly crowded but looked closer normal on Saturday, although people were giving each other a wider berth on sidewalks, in shops and at outdoor dining areas. Some wore protective masks but most didnt, preferring to breathe the unfiltered river air and savor the full aroma of fried fish and motorcycle exhaust. Adam Fowler of Sherman was among the motorcyclists who stopped for food at the Hawg Pit. We called ahead to make sure places were open because we knew the rivers were up, Fowler said. It seems like there are a lot of people here, and we come to Grafton as much as we can. As with all motorcyclists, its about the journey as well as the destination. Getting to Grafton along scenic byways is half the fun. The roads on the way here are nice and smooth, and even if you take a wrong turn the roads are still pretty nice and fun, they kind of twist and turn, there are cool breezes, and the scenery is really great, Fowler said. Being cooped up has been trying at times. But I could not wait to get out here and for this Saturday to come. The outdoor, yellow umbrella-covered tables overlooking the river at The Loading Dock were a popular place on Saturday. Steve Blincoe and friends from St. Charles, Missouri, took advantage of the great weekend weather to return to their favorite Grafton spot. Its a good group of people, nice atmosphere and entertaining, Blincoe said. Grafton always comes back, and well be back ourselves at least a couple more times this summer. Grafton has been dealing with the double whammy of the spring 2019 flood and the equally devastating, although much less dramatic, pandemic precautions that shut down most of the visitor-driven local economy. So the town welcomed weekend visitors on Saturday, visitors like Doug Moody of Edwardsville, who brought his wife and children to meet friends at the Grafton Winery. Last year they got hit with the floods and this year with COVID, so we are here trying to support the town, Moody said. We come here fairly often. We love the shops and the food, plus we had cabin fever and just needed to get out. A trio of Saturday visitors toting winged paraphernalia through Grafton included Robert Woods, his wife and a family friend on a shopping spree. Im a big eagle buff, as you can tell by what weve bought today, said Woods, a Staunton resident. I like going in all of the craft stores and looking at everything. It feels great being able to come out of your house and see people. Its a good tourist attraction and the prices are reasonable. I just enjoy coming up here and walking through these shops and getting some ice cream. The Grafton SkyTours birds-eye view let riders see the village from above. Many took advantage of the aerial transportation to get to the prize at the top of the hill. They are enjoying the best view in the Midwest, and the winery and restaurant are open up top so they are getting to enjoy the picnic-style open-air seating up there, Grafton SkyTour ride manager Holly Coston said. Business has been amazing this weekend, she said. The word is getting out. Weve had a lot of first-time riders this weekend, and everybody is super excited to be outside. Pippi, a Labrador mix, was super-excited when she joined her human family for a meal at OJans Fish Stand and a cool wade into the Mississippi River. We just like being by the water, and this is pretty up here, said Pippis owner, Patti Wise of Granite City, who was joined by her husband and son. Being cooped up for the past few months and not really being able to go anywhere or do anything, we wanted to go someplace where we could be outside, Wise said. They do a good job in Grafton. Outdoor lovers filled the trails, albeit at a respectful distance from one another, at nearby Pere Marquette State Park, where a refreshing dose of pleasant summer weather was just what the doctor ordered to cure the pandemic lockdown blues. Its nice to be out with friends and nature; Ive been cooped up for too long, said Springfield resident Seth Rollins, who was hiking at the state park with friends. This is nice. You can tell that things are going to start kicking back up. Luke Thomas, 10, of OFallon was busy catching and releasing fish at the Pere Marquette pond. Saturday was his first visit to Pere Marquette, but he plans to come back this summer. This is my fifth fish and I was hoping I would get it because I just like fishing, Thomas said. It feels nice to be outside because I enjoy the outdoors. I hate playing video games all the time. Police in Florida are trying to piece together what happened to two men whose blood-spattered bodies were found on a Fort Lauderdale beach early this morning. The grisly discovery was made at around 6.15am on Tuesday in the 3000 block of North Ocean Boulevard near Galt Ocean Mile. The identities of the victims have not been released pending the notification of next of kin. The Broward County Medical Examiner was present at the scene. Grisly: A man's lifeless body is seen sprawled on blood-stained sand on a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, beach early Tuesday morning A second man was found dead on the same beach just steps away from the first body The grisly discovery was made by police at around 6.15am in the 3000 block of North Ocean Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale Fort Lauderdale police said the circumstances of the men's deaths are 'suspicious.' WPLG reported, citing police sources, that the victims, believed to be in their 40s, were stabbed to death. NBC Miami chopper footage showed graphic images of a deceased man dressed in a brown T-shirt and jeans sprawled on blood-stained sand. A few steps away, a second man in a yellow T-shirt is seen laying motionless on his side, with blood surrounding his body. Police say the victims died of stab wounds; the deaths were labeled 'suspicious' Cops in Florida do not believe there is a threat to the general public in the wake of the stabbings on the beach Fort Lauderdale police Detective Ali Adamson said that investigators do not believe that there is a threat to public safety. Anyone with information on the deaths is being asked to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. By Richard Robinson III Last month, I testified in a state Senate Law and Public Safety Committee hearing about the problems at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Hunterdon and I came away to understand one very important thing: New Jersey does not care about rehabilitating women in prison. An April 2020 Department of Justice report determined that women have been treated horribly at the states only prison for women for many years. In addition, testimony by former women inmates vehemently confirms that the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) staff have actually engaged in criminal and unlawful acts, including the rape of inmates. What is troubling here is that this egregious conduct has been widely accepted for decades and its still occurring, according to the report. Leaders from reputable civil rights organizations, leaders from womens rights organizations, professors from universities and former women inmates have already testified before this committee about this horrendous behavior. We were all under the impression that the matter will cease with the creation of new laws and the demand for immediate change in policies. Unfortunately, the DOJ report refutes any positive changes and determined that the findings of alleged rapes, sexual abuses and acts of retaliation by NJDOC staff were substantiated in their findings. Therefore, NJDOC Commissioner Marcus O. Hicks, who was just confirmed by the state Senate in January of 2020, is not the problem. So, what are the problems? According to the report, NJDOC has had a number of issues, involving hiring, training, and most importantly, accountability. Two union leaders complained about areas of operations, with emphasis on the inadequacies of the investigative process, during their testimony. How can anyone be held accountable if your investigative department has limited power to determine findings and punish those who are truly responsible? In other words, NJDOC employees could rape an inmate and get away with it because he knows the incident is going nowhere if she reports him. Now, that particular woman is looking at retaliation from her rapist, an NJDOC employee at Edna Mahan, victimizing the woman yet again. At the hearing, union officials suggested investing in body cameras, buying cameras to cover blind spots and re-training staff. Those arent real solutions to address the problems. Instead, I suggest we hire civilians and create an oversight team. Lets also prosecute individuals who are responsible directly and indirectly for sexual assault of the women. Lets restructure Edna Mahans workforce and operations and examine the institutions budget. Lets take a hard look at the board of trustees and their efforts. Lets evaluate everything at this prison in order to attempt to solve the problems. I am outraged that state-salaried, pension-drawing NJDOC employees engage in these unlawful and criminal acts and our state officials have done nothing to stop this menacing behavior for years. Rape is a crime and the different traumas associated with this crime often never disappear. How can women learn from their mistakes in prison when they are allegedly being sexually abused and treated miserably on a daily basis? NJDOCs charge is to rehabilitate, not to warehouse human beings and have them treated as sexual slaves. The New Jersey NAACP State Conference and the Newark NAACP wishes to thank the Law and Public Safety Committee chairwoman Sen. Linda Greenstein and her Senate colleagues for the ability to testify at both hearings. It is obvious that these problems cannot end with the efforts of the Office of the Governor, the state Legislature or the NJDOC alone. Civilian oversight is warranted. We should all pray for those women. Richard H. Robinson III is chairman of NJ NAACP State Conference & Newark NAACP Criminal Justice Committees 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. I knew him very well. In the party, he was invariably non-controversial, low-profile, well-mannered and always very guarded and measured in his utterances. A perfect description of the late George Michael Chambers, the countrys second prime minister and political leader of the Peoples National Movement (PNM), from Ferdie Ferreira, a foundation member, in his book Political Encounters 1946 -2016. CHICAGO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --According to the new market research report "Genome Editing/Genome Engineering Market by Technology (CRISPR, TALEN, ZFN, Antisense), Product & Service, Application (Cell Line Engineering, Genetic Engineering, Diagnostics, Drug Discovery & Development), End-User and Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Genome Editing/Genome Engineering Market is projected to reach USD 11.2 billion in 2025 from USD 5.1 billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 17.0 % during the forecast period. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=231037000 The market growth is largely driven by factors such as the rise in government funding, growth in the number of genomics projects, high prevalence of infectious diseases and cancer, technological advancements, increasing production of genetically modified crops, and growing application areas of genomics. However, the high cost of genomic equipment will restrain the growth of this market. By technology, the CRISPR segment accounted for the largest share for the genome editing/genome engineering market. The CRISPR technology segment accounted for the largest share of the genome editing/genome engineering industry in 2019. The large share of this segment can be attributed to the ease of use associated with CRISPR, which gives it a significant advantage over ZFN and TALEN. Another potential advantage is its ability to multiplex. Browse in-depth TOC on "Genome Editing/Genome Engineering Market" 154 - Tables 28 - Figures 147 - Pages By end user, the pharmaceutical companies segment accounted for the largest share of the market. Pharmaceutical companies accounted for the largest share of the genome editing/genome engineering market, by end user, in 2019. The increasing prevalence of infectious diseases and cancer are driving research activities worldwide. This, in turn, is expected to drive the demand for genome editing in pharmaceutical companies. By application, the cell line engineering segment accounted for the largest share of the market Based on application, the genome editing/genome engineering market is segmented into cell line engineering, genetic engineering, diagnostic applications, drug discovery & development, and other applications. A number of factors, such as the increased funding from governments and private organizations, growing industry focus on stem cell research, and global awareness are driving market growth in this segment. Get 10% Customization oin this Research Report: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomizationNew.asp?id=231037000 North America accounted for the largest share of the market. The market is divided into four major regions-North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World (RoW). In 2019, North America accounted for the largest share of the global genome editing/genome engineering market, closely followed by Europe. The large share of North America can be attributed to factors such as the development of gene therapy in the US, the increasing use of genetically modified crops, the rising prevalence of infectious diseases and cancer, and the availability of research grants and funding. The market in the Asia Pacific is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, primarily due to increasing investments in research and the application of gene synthesis for genetic engineering in cells, tissues, and organisms. Browse Adjacent Markets: Biotechnology Market Research Reports & Consulting Get Special Pricing on Bundle Reports: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/RequestBundleReport.asp?id=231037000 Browse Related Reports: Next-generation Sequencing (NGS) Market by Product (NOVASEQ, NEXTSEQ, SEQUEL, NANOPORE), Consumables, Bioinformatics, Services (EXOME, RNA, DENOVO), Technology (ION, SMRT), Application (Diagnostics, Cancer), End User, Region - Global Forecast to 2025 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/next-generation-sequencing-ngs-technologies-market-546.html Genomics Market by Product and Service (Systems & Software, Consumables, Services), Technology (Sequencing, Microarray, PCR), Application (Diagnostic Application, and Precision Medicine), End User (Research Institute) - Global Forecast to 2024 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/genomics-market-613.html 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. 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Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/genome-editing-engineering-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/genome-editing-engineering.asp Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg A 21-year-old twin died of an overdose after taking ecstasy for the first time, an inquest has heard. Kirstie Smith's body was discovered in the bathroom of the house she shared with her boyfriend in Wolverhampton in May 2019 after she took a 'significant' amount of MDMA. After paramedics were called to the property, Miss Smith was pronounced dead at the scene, with the post-mortem examination revealing the cause of death as MDMA intoxication. Kirstie Smith died in May 2019 after taking a 'significant' amount of MDMA for the first time, an inquest heard There was no evidence of long-term drug abuse, according to the inquest at the Black Country Coroner's Court, and the toxicology report found a cocktail of drugs in her system including MDA, LSD, cocaine and ketamine. Police have ruled out any criminal or third-party involvement. After the hearing, Miss Smith's heartbroken parents paid tribute to their daughter who they said had made the 'ultimate mistake'. Kirstie's heartbroken parents paid tribute to their daughter who they said had made the 'ultimate mistake' 'It came as a big shock. In our wildest dreams, we didn't imagine anything like this could happen,' her dad, Lindsay, said. 'Kirstie was a loving daughter and a lovely child. She was a twin and had four other sisters and a brother. I'm absolutely shocked. If she was doing what she was doing, she kept it well-hidden from us. It has come as a bolt out of the blue. 'There was an outpouring of love at her funeral. Many people contributed to her funeral and charity and ran on her behalf. 'It was amazing how many people's lives she touched. We have lost a loving daughter and unfortunately if she has made a mistake she made the ultimate mistake that's all I can say.' Miss Smith, who was born in Stoke-on-Trent, had bought her own home and worked as a mortgage advisor, as reported by BirminghamLive. Pictured: The property in Wolverhampton where paramedics were called last year, but Kirstie was pronounced dead at the scene 'She was a beautiful, loving daughter, sister and auntie who was doing really well in her life,' mum Teresa added. 'She kept fit and healthy. She had just bought a new house and got a promotion at work. 'We were really proud of her. We can't believe this has happened. It's a waste of a beautiful life and we miss her so much.' DOJ Disputes Prince Andrew Claims That He Offered to Help Prosecutors With Epstein Case Lawyers for Prince Andrew said their client offered several times to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors into their inquiry into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, claiming that American Justice Department officials were perhaps seeking publicity in claiming the British Royal Family member had provided zero co-operation. The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a statement on Monday disputing the claims, saying that Prince Andrew has yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate with officials, but has actually repeatedly declined DOJ officials requests to schedule an interview. Prince Andrew also told U.S. federal authorities nearly four months ago that he would not come in for such an interview, the DOJ said. If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we should expect him, the DOJ said in its statement. According to multiple reports, including by the UK news outlet the BBC, DOJ officials on Monday formally petitioned the British government to help arrange an interview with Prince Andrew. British news outlet The Sun cited a source as saying that American prosecutors, after trying for months to talk to the Duke of York, grew tired and were getting nowhere so they upped the ante. The move to pressure Prince Andrew to speak to U.S. prosecutors about his friendship with Epstein, who was found dead in a jail cell last year, was hinted at by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. In March, Berman said Prince Andrew refused to cooperate unless compelled to do so and that his office would look into alternatives. Contrary to Prince Andrews very public offer to cooperate with our investigation into Epsteins co-conspirators, an offer that was conveyed via press release, Prince Andrew has now completely shut the door on voluntary cooperation, Berman said, adding that his office is considering its options. Prince Andrews legal team, in a June 8 statement, rejected the claim that their client has refused to cooperate. The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), said his legal firm Blackfords. Unfortunately, the DoJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the duke has offered zero co-operation, the lawyers wrote, adding, In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered. Blackfords added in the statement that U.S. officials insisted their client was not the subject of their investigation. Importantly, the DOJ advised us that the Duke is not and has never been a target of their criminal investigations into Epstein and that they sought his confidential, voluntary co-operation, the lawyers wrote. Prince Andrew stepped away from Royal duties in November last year after an interview with the BBC about his friendship with Epstein, in which he was widely criticized for appearing out of touch and failing to acknowledge the victims of his convicted sex criminal friend. In follow-up statements, Prince Andrew said he sympathised with everyone who has been affected, that he regrets his ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein, and that he would help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required. American officials have taken a dimmer view of the Duke of Yorks offer of cooperation. Prince Andrews lawyers wrote: On 27 January 2020, Mr Geoffrey S Berman, the United States attorney for the southern district of New York, chose to make a public statement about the duke. This led to worldwide media reports that there had been a wall of silence and that there had been zero co-operation by the duke. These statements were inaccurate, and they should not have been made. They said any pursuit of an application for mutual legal assistance would be disappointing, referring to a form of bilateral cooperation between the United States and Great Britain covered by a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), which is similar to a subpoena. If the MLAT request is granted, U.S. prosecutors could potentially force him to attend a court to provide evidence under oath. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment and Britains Home Office said it did not comment on the existence of any MLAT requests. Attorney General William Barr told Fox News on Monday that U.S. authorities were not seeking the extradition ofbut only conversation withthe Duke of York. I dont think its a question of handing him over. I think its just a question of having him provide some evidence, Barr told the outlet. Using data from IMDb and Metacritic, Stacker has compiled a list of the 100 greatest romance movies of all time, from "La La Land" to "Casablanca." This article was first published on Stacker Mx. Bardus estimated that over the past two weeks they have treated 150 to 200 people, most frequently for chemical irritants, and called for an ambulance several times, although emergency medical technicians were not always able to reach injured people through the crowds, highlighting the important role of street medics. On May 28, Mx. Bardus said that they were with a group of peaceful protesters when police started to bombard them with mace and pepper spray. I treated the same guy three times in 15 minutes, Mx. Bardus said. Ive never in my life seen a protester take chemical irritants like that and just pop back up and go right back. They were very, very resilient. They were determined. Darien Belemu, a graduate student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that the possibility that an emergency responder might not be able to reach a protester in time was one of his main motivations for working as a street medic at protests in New York. Mr. Belemu has his EMT-B certification, and took a bridge street-medic training course, designed for people who had medical experience, from a coalition in New York. I see a lot of 20-year-old, 19-year-old kids that are acting, I think, really heroically and standing up to the police and making sure they know theyre not OK with police brutality, Mr. Belemu said. It scares me to think that somebody is not going to get treatment, especially if they have a head wound and its going to affect their ability to live a normal, healthy life. Mr. Belemu said he treated a protester on May 30 whom police had pepper-sprayed directly in the face. When the protester turned to run away, Mr. Belemu said, an officer hit the protester at the base of the skull with a baton. By the time Mr. Belemu reached him, the protester was bleeding profusely. Thats where your brain stem is, and any swelling there could threaten a persons ability to breathe, or it could stop their heart, Mr. Belemu said. That was a very scary situation. Mr. Belemu and a nearby medical worker cared for the protester and urged him to go to the hospital immediately if he vomited or developed a throbbing headache. Stassi Schroeder from Vanderpump Rules continues to feel the effects from her past racially insensitive remarks. Not only that but her former co-star Faith Stowers revealed that Schroeder had called the cops on her for something she wasnt involved in. Sponsors quickly dropped her and now her publicist, as well as her agency, have followed suit. Stassi Schroeder | Hollywood To You/Star Max/GC Images Faith Stowers recounts her story Stowers went on Instagram Live with Floribama Shore star Candace Rice to share her experience being on a show with an all-white cast. The Bravo alum revealed that she didnt have the best experience. She also recounted the time Schroeder and Kristen Doute called the cops on her. There was this article on Daily Mail where there was an African American lady, Stowers explained during an Instagram Live interview. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. They showcased her, and I guess this woman was robbing people. And they called the cops and said it was me. This is like, a true story. I heard this from actually Stassi during an interview. It was just funny, because they thought it was me because it was a black woman with a weave, Stowers added. So they just assumed it would be me, and they called the cops on me, she said. It didnt work, so they were upset about that. I get people being upset [about the affair], but I didnt understand why I was getting so much heat and the man wasnt. Stassi Schroeder apologizes After the backlash took over on social media, Schroeder took a step back to reflect on the issues. A couple of days later she returned with an apology to Stowers. Racially insensitive comments from my past have resurfaced, the TV personality said. It is important that I continue to take accountability for what I have said and done, while pushing myself to do better. I have grown significantly from the person I was then, and I am still filled with remorse and regret for the hurt I caused. I am grateful for the people in my life that continue to check me and push me to evolve into a more educated person. My emotions over something that happened between out friends outweighed my logic, and there is no excuse for that, she said of calling the police on Stowers. I did not recognize then the serious ramifications that could have transpired because of my actions. What I did to Faith was wrong. I apologize and I do not expect forgiveness, she added. I am also sorry to anyone else that feels disappointed in me. I am going to continue to look closer at myself and my actions to take the time to listen, to learn, and to take accountability for my own privilege. Stassi Schroeder gets dropped According to Variety, her agency and publicist have severed ties with Schroeder following the claims by Stowers. She became a client when her publicist joined our company in July 2018. We made the decision this weekend to part ways with Stassi, the UTA spokesperson told Variety. Her publicist played an important part in her transitioning from the Bravo reality series into podcasting and her book deals. RELATED: Vanderpump Rules: Faith Stowers Slams Lisa Vanderpump for Silence on Black Lives Matter SIOUX CITY -- The Woodbury County Sheriff's Office is bracing for a potential influx of COVID-19 cases after seven inmates tested positive for the respiratory illness over the weekend. The seven inmates were all asymptomatic and had been around other inmates prior to being tested. The seven are now in isolation. The remaining 140 inmates have been tested, Sheriff Dave Drew said he expected to receive more results this week. With the daily totals of new cases in Woodbury County slowing recently, Drew said he had hoped the jail might avoid the coronavirus pandemic. That was not to be the case. "I'm surprised it took this long to get to this point, so here we are," Drew said Tuesday at a press conference. Given the close confines inside the facility, jail staff expect to see more inmates test positive. "I would be shocked if we didn't have more," Chief Deputy Sheriff Tony Wingert said. Wingert said two jail officers had tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two weeks. It's believed that they contracted the virus outside the jail, Wingert said. About 25-50 percent of the jail staff has been tested for the virus, he said. Arrangements are being made to have the whole staff tested. Once jail officers know how many positive cases they're dealing with, inmates will be reassigned to new units to isolate those who have tested positive. Wingert said the limited space in the jail is a concern. "We just don't have enough room," he said. "We don't know how to juggle them yet." Infected inmates were awaiting transfer to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale to begin serving their prison sentences. The Iowa Department of Corrections requires new inmates to test negative for COVID-19 before accepting them. Wingert said Woodbury County had tested 10 inmates who were scheduled to be transferred to prison. The county received two of the positive results Saturday, another on Sunday, and four more on Tuesday afternoon. It has yet to be determined how the inmates, who all had been in custody for some time, contracted the virus. Wingert said all new inmates have their temperatures taken and are questioned by a nurse before they are admitted into the jail's booking area. New inmates spend a day or two in isolation after booking before they're assigned to a cell block. Wingert said all inmates have been given masks to wear over their noses and mouths, and inmates also help wipe down their cells with antibacterial solutions. Since the pandemic began, Wingert said staff has increased cleaning procedures. The facility is wiped down daily and a mister that sprays antibacterial solution is used throughout common areas in the jail. Inmates also can request that it be used in their cells. Drew said nurses are on duty around the clock and help monitor inmates and staff for COVID-19 symptoms. As the coronavirus began to spread across the country this spring, the sheriff's office began decreasing the jail population in hopes of limiting inmate exposure by delaying jail sentences or allowing some inmates to serve their time on electronic monitoring devices. Daily inmate counts averaged about 234 prior to the pandemic. The jail population was about 150 on Monday, Drew said. Drew said his staff developed a plan to handle a COVID-19 outbreak weeks ago and has begun to implement it in hopes of getting through the present situation in a couple weeks. "We're kind of in new territory here," he said. 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. Prince Andrew is in a 'Mexican standoff' with US prosecutors who have made it impossible for him to help them, friends claimed yesterday. The duke was said to be 'utterly bewildered' after he was again accused of refusing to be interviewed by Jeffrey Epstein investigators. Yesterday friends said they were mystified by claims Andrew refused to cooperate with the probe yet stopped short of denying it was true. Prince Andrew (pictured during Newsnight interview in November 2019) was said to be 'utterly bewildered' after he was accused of refusing to be interviewed by U.S prosecutors investigating Jeffrey Epstein U.S prosecutor Geoffrey Berman (pictured during a press conference outside Jeffrey Epstein's apartment in January) said the duke had 'repeatedly declined' a request to be interviewed US prosecutor Geoffrey Berman said the duke had 'repeatedly declined' a request to be interviewed and had 'unequivocally' stated he would not come in for one. But Andrew's London lawyers say he offered to provide a witness statement. It suggests the prince is at loggerheads with the Americans because they want a face-to-face interview, whereas he wants to provide evidence in writing. Last night a friend of the duke described the deadlock as a 'Mexican standoff' and said US prosecutors had made it all but impossible for him to cooperate. But victims of Epstein called on Andrew to 'take the oath and just tell the truth'. US lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents some of Epstein's victims, told BBC Breakfast: 'I think Prince Andrew, at this point, has very little credibility. And I have a lot of suspicion about what he is saying, through his representatives.' The royal gave an interview on Newsnight with the BBC's Emily Maitlis in November last year On Monday it emerged that the US Department of Justice had filed a request to the UK Home Office to formally interview prince. Pictured: Footage from last year showed Prince Andrew waving from the door of Epstein's mansion Andrew is photographed with the disgraced Epstein in New York's Central Park in 2010 She added: 'There shouldn't be conditions, there shouldn't be delay, there should be transparency and the victims deserve the truth.' Andrew's extraordinary public spat with Epstein investigators blew up on Monday when it emerged the US Department of Justice had filed a bombshell request to the UK Home Office to formally interview the 60-year-old prince. They claimed he offered 'zero cooperation' with their probe into paedophile Epstein, who took his own life last August while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges. Andrew, who emphatically denies any wrongdoing, is not accused of any crime and would be a witness rather than a suspect in the FBI's inquiry. Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, aged 17, at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London in 2001 One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, alleges she had sex with the Duke of York three times when she was 17 at the behest of Epstein On Monday, he launched an unprecedented attack on the US justice system, complaining he was being treated like a second-class citizen and insisting he had already offered himself as a witness three times this year. That prompted Mr Berman, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, to hit back: 'The prince has not given an interview to federal authorities, has repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview and nearly four months ago informed us unequivocally that he would not come in for such an interview.' Yesterday a friend of the duke called this a 'false characterisation' of the chain of events but stopped short of saying that it was a false statement. They said: 'What really happened was the ball was left in the duke's court to work out the modus operandi [of how to offer evidence] when the US prosecutor suddenly made his statement about 'zero cooperation', which came out of the blue. The duke (second left) has said he became friends with Jeffrey Epstein (right) in 1999, after being introduced to him through Ghislaine Maxwell. Pictured: Melania Trump, Andrew, Epstein's friend Gwendolyn Beck and Epstein at a party at the Mar-a-Lago in Florida in 2000 'The duke is totally committed to trying to cooperate, but the Americans have breached their own rules on confidentiality. 'Trust will never be restored if they continue to act in this way. We were utterly bewildered by Berman's statement. It is mystifying why this man continually breaches his own rules. What power does he have to try to use the duke in this way?' Asked if Mr Berman's claim the duke 'repeatedly' declined to be interviewed is true or false, the friend did not answer. Prince pays 355k of his own money to sort out pay breach by his charity By Rebecca English, Royal Editor for the Daily Mail Prince Andrew has had to pay back more than 350,000 to his charity after a watchdog yesterday ruled it breached the law by making 'unauthorised' payments to a member of his staff. The Prince Andrew Charitable Trust (Pact) handed over hundreds of thousands of pounds to the duke's former private secretary Amanda Thirsk, who stepped down after his disastrous Newsnight interview last year. At the time she was also an unpaid trustee of the trust and accepted payments for work she was said to have done for it. The Prince Andrew Charitable Trust (Pact) has had to pay back more than 350,000 following a breach The Charities Commission yesterday said this was a conflict of interest and breach of charity law. Andrew has now refunded 355,297 from his household funds to Pact, which is in the process of being wound up. The trust was created to support his work in education, entrepreneurship, science, technology and engineering. The Charities Commission identified 'concerns' about Mrs Thirsk being paid by the trust's three trading subsidiary companies, of which she was also a director. The payments were made between April 2015 and January this year via Andrew's office, where Mrs Thirsk was also working as his private secretary. According to charity law, trustees cannot also be paid to act as directors of a subsidiary company unless there is authority from the charity's governing committee or authorisation by the Commission. Helen Earner, director of operations at the Charity Commission, said: 'We're glad that concerns we identified are now resolved, after the charity acted quickly and efficiently to rectify these matters.' Pact said in a statement yesterday that its former trustees had 'inadvertently' breached charity law. Sugar beet growers are facing 'near-drought conditions' due to the extreme weather conditions, British Sugar has warned. The processor said this year's sugar beet crop in the UK is facing 'several challenges', including the dry weather and the number of aphids. It comes after one of the wettest harvests in memory, which led to the longest ever sugar beet campaign in Europe. But this year's drilling of the crop was a 'little later than normal' and germination had been 'challenging' in some fields with the lack of rainfall, it said. British Sugar's agriculture director, Peter Watson said sugar beet growers were facing issues this year due to 'near-drought conditions'. He said the emerging plant populations had been 'mixed' with some 'very poor': Weve also seen unprecedented numbers of aphids on the crop, increasing the disease threat. Although the sugar beet crop has good powers of recovery and recent rainfall is welcome, this would need to persist for some time. "We would therefore predict a reduction in crop harvested compared to last year, Mr Watson explained. British Sugar is the sole processor of the UKs sugar beet crop and supplies around 50 percent of the UKs demand for sugar. The company operates four advanced manufacturing plants across East Anglia and the East Midlands. The 2019/20 sugar beet campaign finished in mid-April, when British Sugars Newark factory closed its gates for beet intake after 208 days the longest known uninterrupted European sugar beet campaign. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray spoke to a three-year-old girl whose parents had playfully chided her for "violating" social distancing norms. Thackeray called up the father of Anshika Shinde, whose video expressing apology for inadvertently touching currency notes while handing them to the milk vendor went viral on social media. The Shinde family, living at Vishrantwadi area in Pune, was in for a pleasant surprise when the chief minister called and spoke to Anshika, telling her to contact him if her parents scolded her again. In the video, Anshika's mother is heard telling her that she will inform "Uddhav uncle" about her act of touching the currency notes while handing them to the milk vendor. Thackeray, who was apprised of the viral video, rang the girl's father and asked him not to trouble a Shiv Sainik (Sena worker). "I came to know that you are scolding Anshika using my name," a jovial Thackeray is heard saying in the call recording. The girl's father told the chief minister that she loves him very much, to which Thackeray responded, "Anshika, tell your parents that you are a good girl and will listen to them. But if they scold you again, then inform me." DETROIT - The Michigan Supreme Court is taking another look at the case of a suburban Detroit man who was sentenced to at least 17 years in prison for killing an unarmed woman on his porch in 2013. The issue is whether Ted Wafers constitutional rights against double jeopardy were violated when he was convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of 19-year-old Renisha McBride. Wafers attorney argues that murder and manslaughter contradict each other because murder requires malice while manslaughter doesnt under Michigan law. The jurors were not instructed in a manner that would allow them to discern that, attorney Jacqueline McCann said in a court filing. McCann wants the Supreme Court to throw out the manslaughter conviction. If granted, Wafer likely would be eligible for a new sentence because his sentencing guidelines for murder were enhanced by the manslaughter verdict. But the Wayne County prosecutors office said the manslaughter conviction is distinctive and should stand because it specifically requires use of a gun. The Supreme Court will hear arguments during its 2020-21 term, which starts in fall. Wafer opened his front door in Dearborn Heights and shot McBride through a screen door. He said he was awakened by pounding and feared for his life, although he didnt call police. A jury rejected his self-defence claim. No one knows why McBride ended up at Wafers home about 4:30 a.m. Prosecutors speculated she may have been confused while seeking help hours after crashing her car about half a mile away in Detroit. An autopsy revealed she was drunk. Wafer, now 61, was sentenced to at least 15 years in prison for murder, plus two years for use of a gun during a crime. He would be eligible for parole in 2031 after serving 17 years. Hes been convicted of two homicides with a single victim, said Detroit-area lawyer Neil Rockind, who is not involved in the case. There is certainly a double jeopardy question. I have never seen a case when I was prosecuting or defending a person where you could be convicted of both. ___ Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwhiteap Providing a variety of purchase options is another way ATS honors our pledge to help communities save lives while saving them time and reducing cost. Andy Souders, ATS President and CEO All Traffic Solutions (ATS) announced today it has been awarded a contract with the North Carolina Sheriffs Association (NCSA) Heavy Equipment Procurement Program (HEPP). The contract runs through May 17, 2021. (Bid #21-05-0506) The Heavy Equipment Procurement Program achieves competitive pricing on equipment that county and city government agencies purchase. The program eliminates duplication of effort through the creation of one statewide bid that can be used by all counties and municipalities in North Carolina. ATS products included in the 2020-2021 contract are: The SpeedAlert 24 speed trailer with ATS TraffiCloud software The SpeedAlert 18 radar message sign or speed trailer including or without TraffiCloud The InstAlert 24 variable message sign or message trailer with ATS Message Suite software The HEPP program gives municipalities in North Carolina including law enforcement and local governments the opportunity to buy top-quality products directly from manufacturers they already know and trust, said ATS CEO Andy Souders. Providing a variety of purchase options for our radar message signs, changeable message signs, speed and message trailers and patented software is another way ATS honors our pledge to help communities save lives while saving them time and reducing cost. Information about all ATS purchasing options can be found on the companys website. About All Traffic Solutions All Traffic Solutions is a leader in traffic safety and data analytics for Intelligent Transportation Systems and smart parking applications. We help law enforcement, municipal agencies and commercial organizations use data and cloud-supported devices such as web-enabled radar speed displays, conditional messaging technology, and lidar technology to calm traffic, optimize parking availability, share notifications, and improve traffic safety while maximizing resources and budget. For more information, visit our website https://www.alltrafficsolutions.com. Most mobile applications that track the spread of COVID-19 require access to users' personal data, but only a handful indicate the data would be anonymous, encrypted and secured, according to a study by Indian-origin researchers in the United States. Professor Masooda Bashir and doctoral student Tanusree Sharma from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign analysed 50 COVID-19-related apps available in the Google Play store for their access to users' personal data and their privacy protections. The researchers noted that it is disconcerting that these apps are continuously collecting and processing highly sensitive and personally identifiable information, about health, location and direct identifiers like name, age, email address and voter or national identification of a user. 'Governments' use of such tracking technology -- and the possibilities for how they might use it after the pandemic -- is chilling to many,' the researchers wrote in the study published in the journal Nature Medicine. 'Notably, surveillance mapping through apps will allow governments to identify people's travel paths and their entire social networks,' they noted. The researchers explained that functionalities of the COVID-related apps developed around the world include live maps and updates of confirmed cases, real-time location-based alerts, systems for monitoring home isolation and quarantine, direct reporting to the government of symptoms, and education about COVID-19. Some also offer monitoring of vital signs, virtual medical consultations and community-driven contact tracing, the said. Of the 50 apps the researchers evaluated, 30 require users' permission to access data from their mobile devices such as contacts, photos, media, files, location data, the camera. These 30 apps also require the device's ID, call information, Wi-Fi connection, microphone, network access, the Google service configuration, and the ability to change network connectivity and audio settings, according to the study. Some of the apps, the researchers said, state they will collect users' age, email address, phone number and postal code; the device's location, unique identifiers, mobile IP address and operating system; and the types of browsers used on the device. Only 16 of the apps indicated such data will be anonymous, encrypted, secured and reported only in aggregate form, they said. Of the apps sampled in the study, 20 were issued by governments, health ministries and other such official sources. The researchers acknowledged that mass surveillance measures may be necessary to contain the spread of the virus. "Health care providers must absolutely use whatever means are available to save lives and confine the spread of the virus," they wrote in the journal. However, the researchers added that it is up to the rest, especially those in the field of information privacy and security, to ask the questions needed to protect the right to privacy. A Guatemalan man died after he was tortured and set on fire by attackers who accused him of performing witchcraft at their family member's grave site. Domingo Choc, 55, was at his home in the El Peten city of San Luis when a group of men kidnapped him. Choc, a well-known Mayan spiritual guide and natural medicine expert in the Chimay neighborhood, was tortured for more than 10 hours. 'They were beating him all night,' said Yulma Rojas, the prosecutor handling the case. 'In the morning they sprayed him with gasoline and set him on fire.' Domingo Choc was forced out of his home in Guatemala on Saturday and tortured by a group after a man told them that the 55-year-old had performed a witchcraft ritual at the grave site of their family member. Choc was a known Mayan natural medicine expert in the San Luis neighborhood of Chimay Domingo Choc participated in a number of scientific research projects about Mayan natural medicine. His work has been featured in papers and books in collaboration with universities in England and Switzerland In the video, Choc is engulfed in flames while running and asking for help. However, none of the bystanders stepped forward assist help. A couple of minutes would pass before he fell to the ground and died. Monica Berger, a medical anthropologist at the University of the Valley of Guatemala who knew Choc well, said he was a Mayan scientist known as 'Grandfather Domingo.' He was a member of the Association of Councils of Spiritual Guides Relebaal Saqe, with whom he worked on natural medicine. The prosecutor's office said it has requested seven arrest warrants for the suspects. At least five are members of the same family; another is a man who allegedly told the family Choc was doing witchcraft at their relative's grave. Berger said Choc had participated in a number of scientific research projects about Mayan natural medicine that yielded papers and books in collaboration with universities in England and Switzerland. Bystanders looked from a distance as Domingo Choc (pictured on fire) screamed for help. Authorities are seeking arrest warrants for seven individuals Choc was an ajilonel, a Mayan medical specialist, a type of expert therapist in natural medicine, Berger said. He had been doing walks through the forest researching natural medicine, 'but for the coronavirus they suspended the walks and the fieldwork.' 'Killing him is like having burned a library,' said a tearful Berger. 'It's an enormous loss.' She said she hoped those responsible would be punished to send a message 'that herbalists are not witches.' Other Mayan spiritual guides and herbalists in the community now fear for their lives, she added. New Delhi: Television actress Ekta Kaul and actor Sumeet Vyas welcomed their first child - a baby boy on June 4, 2020. The couple named their little one Ved. Ekta recently took to her Instagram and put up the first glimpse of their bundle of joy in her story. Here's a screenshot of the Insta story: Daddy Sumeet Vyas can be seen sleeping by the side of Ved and the picture is totally awwdorable! Sumeet and Ekta got married on September 15, 2018. The couple has a huge fan following and their social media pictures often hog the limelight for being adorable and romantic. Sumeet shot to fame with TVF's 2014 web series Permanent Roommates and was also seen opposite Kareena Kapoor Khan in 'Veere Di Wedding'. Ekta Kaul, was first seen in Rab Se Sohna Isshq, Bade Acche Lagte Hain, and Mere Angne Mein. She was also a contestant in dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 6. President Donald Trump is constantly reassessing the best posture for the American military forces and its presence overseas, the White House has said, while clarifying that there is no announcement to make on the withdrawal of US troops in Germany. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany made the comments at a press conference on Monday while responding to media reports that Trump has decided to withdraw thousands of US troops from Germany, a NATO ally. "We have no announcements at this time. I know there's reporting out there, but, as of this moment, there are no ... New Delhi: The Deputy Minister of Department of Atomic Energy, Dr Jitendra Singh on Tuesday (June 9, 2020) said here that private sector will be allowed to use Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) facilities and other relevant assets to improve their capacities. Briefing about India's achievement in the field of Space Technology during the first year of the second term of the Modi Government, Dr Jitendra Singh stated that the Modi Governments Atmanirbhar Bharat roadmap towards self-relied India, as spelt out by Finance Minister, envisages the initiative to boost private participation in Space activities. Indian private sector will be a co-traveller in India's Space sector journey. Private companies to be provided level playing field in satellites, launches and space-based services. Future projects for planetary exploration, outer space travel will be open to the private sector. Updating about India's first-ever Human Space Mission Gaganyaan to be undertaken by ISRO, Dr Jitendra Singh said the selection of the astronauts was accomplished and their training in Russia had also started but got interrupted because of the Corona pandemic. He said the project would be followed up soon. Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr Jitendra Singh said that in the year that has just gone by, ISRO launched a special programme for young school children called Young Scientists Programme - YUVIKA. The programme is primarily aimed at imparting basic knowledge on Space Technology and its applications to the younger generations, he said. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, ISRO scientists have been engaged in search of the best methods to provide essential medical devices, protective kits and other equipment. LAKE GEORGE The town of Lake George on Monday adopted plans aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from municipal operations by as much as 80% over the next 30 years in the hopes of mitigating the impacts of climate change on the tourist-dependent community. The Lake George Climate Joint-Action Plan dates back to 2017, when both the town and village of Lake George formed the Go Green Committee (GGC) after being awarded a combined grant of $25,000 from the states Department of Environmental Conservation to begin drafting a plan that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions while lowering taxpayer burdens. Theres a lot of things in there in terms of trying to reduce the footprint; trying to adapt to change, Dan Barusch, the towns director of Zoning and Planning, said. Under the plan, the municipalities will gradually reduce greenhouse gas emissions from government operations by half of 2016 levels by 2035 and 80% by 2050. A combined 1,271 tons of greenhouse gases were emitted by the town and village in 2016, according to the plan. Because this takes time, the GGC determined that the Lake George Climate Action Plan (CAP) should be a long-term strategic plan that uses a phase in, not force in philosophy, the plan reads. The plan calls for a number of short-term steps which are expected to be implemented in the next three years and several long-term strategies requiring additional feasibility studies to implement. Plans include converting streetlight and facility lighting to 100% LED within the next three years, and install solar panels on municipal buildings wherever possible. A long-term plan to develop a 10-acre community solar farm is also being looked at, though the project might not be feasible at this time, the plan notes. The town will also be reassessing its vehicle fleet to ensure it is using properly sized vehicles and work to adopt a policy requiring greater fuel efficiency in town vehicles moving forward. One of the most easily correctable issues that cause high fleet emissions is from using vehicles oversized for their service requirements, the plan reads. The plan also calls for reducing the reliance on propane and fuel oil by replacing cooling and heating systems in government buildings with cleaner HVAC systems. Mitigating the impacts of climate change will be key in preserving the summer tourism the Lake George community relies on, according to the plan. Summer heat waves, a side effect of climate change, can lead to invasive algal blooms, a major threat to Lake Georges ecosystem. And severe storms which are expected to increase as the climate warms can lead to severe flash flooding, according to the plan. The states changing climate will negatively impact human health, the economy, and the environment, the plan reads. The Town Board, which met virtually via Zoom, adopted the plan unanimously. There was no public comment. Love 0 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. Joe Biden firmly denied any support Monday for the defund police movement as Republicans and Donald Trump attempted to peg the radical stance on the opposition party and presumed Democratic nominee. Trump quoted conservative journalist Miranda Devine in a Tuesday morning tweet, sharing the sentiment that Democrats support defunding police: 'Democrats & Activists call to Defund Police Departments. They've gone so far Left that they eat their young.' @mirandadevine @nypost @foxandfriends' 'No, I don't support defunding the police,' Biden sharply told CBS News' Norah O'Donnell on Monday. He instead signaled backing for some reforms to policing, similar to what Democrats are proposing in a sweeping police reform bill they unveiled Monday morning. 'I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness and, in fact, are able to demonstrate, they can protect the community and everybody in the community,' the candidate continued. The 'defund the police' movement calls for funds to be removed from police departments and allocated to social services instead. Some in the movement are even calling for police departments to be dissolved altogether. Joe Biden asserted Monday that he is against the movement to defund police and dismantle police departments Donald Trump and Republicans have spent the last few days hanging the 'defund' movement on Democrats and the presumed Democratic nominee Trump claimed during a meeting with law enforcement officials at the White House Monday that 'There won't be defunding. They won't be dismantling of our police' The push back of defunding police comes as the far-left section of the Democratic Party and George Floyd protesters have voiced support for the notion The flat and swift denial of support for the notion came out as Republicans ramped up an effort to hang the movement on his campaign but he did not beat Trump to the punch. 'This year has seen the lowest crime numbers in our Country's recorded history, and now the Radical Left Democrats want to Defund and Abandon our Police,' Trump charged on Twitter Monday. 'Sorry, I want LAW & ORDER!' The president's reelection campaign also released a statement Monday 'on Joe Biden's weakness on Defund the Police.' 'Joe Biden cannot be let off the hook after his campaign issued a weak statement from a mid-level staffer,' Trump 2020 Communications Director Tim Murtaugh wrote in the blog post on DonaldJTrump.com. 'Until Americans hear from Joe Biden himself, they have no way of knowing where he really stands,' Murtaugh continued, which was met shortly after with Biden himself coming out against the movement. Trump's campaign asserted that Biden 'could single-handedly step in and steer elected Democrats away from this terrible policy.' The president also retweeted a post from the GOP on Tuesday morning, which claims 'Democrats' calls to defund the police are dangerous!' 'Doing so would weaken the rule of law & cause chaos in the US,' the tweet continued. 'President Trump will ALWAYS fight for law & order & stand up for the men & women in blue who protect American communities.' The president also shared a tweet from a former senior adviser to Ronald Reagan, Ed Rollins, who accused Biden of flip-flopping on several issues in the past, and claimed it was likely he would switch his stance to defunding police in the future. Trump also posted another tweet from the Republican Party that shared a clip of Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of the Florida Sheriff's Association. 'We all support the notion that we can do better but this notion of defunding the police frankly is just a bunch of political rhetoric.' Gualtieri said in the clip. President Trump vowed in a Monday meeting at the White House with law enforcement officials, including police unions and attorneys general, that there will not be any defunding or dismantling of police. 'There won't be defunding. They won't be dismantling of our police. And they are not going to be any disbanding of our police,' Trump said as he praised himself for his response to the protests and police officers for their service. 'Our police have been letting us live in peace,' Trump said, but also acknowledged that there are a few 'bad actors.' On Monday, Biden flew to Houston, Texas to meet George Floyd's family the day before his funeral The same day, Trump held his meeting with police officials and praised their work which Biden said was the president 'patting himself on the back' while ignoring the 'greatest challenges' facing the U.S. in its history He said 99 per cent of cops are great people. 'Let's go with 99% of them are great, great people. They have done jobs that are record-setting, record-setting,' the president said. In the midst of the praiseful meeting, Biden tweeted that Trump is busy 'patting himself on the back' while ignoring the real issues facing the country. 'We're facing some of the greatest challenges in our history, and Donald Trump is patting himself on the back. He just has no idea what's really going on in this country,' Biden tweeted on Monday. 'It's time for him to step out of his bunker and look around at the consequences of his words and actions.' While Trump was holding the meeting at the White House, Biden traveled to Houston, Texas where he spent over an hour meeting with Floyd's family ahead of the victim's funeral on Tuesday. Biden also met with Floyd's six-year-old daughter Gianna and her mother Roxie Washington. He expressed his sympathies to Gianna and 'promised to push for changes in policing,' according to Washington's attorney Chris Stewart, who posted a photo of the meeting on Instagram. Murtaugh claimed in a call with reporters Monday that Biden is 'complicit' in the 'defund police movement,' which has garnered strength in the wake of George Floyd's death and is even more strengthened after Minneapolis officials voted to disband the police force. 'As the protesters like to say, silence is agreement. By his silence, Joe Biden is endorsing defunding the police,' Murtaugh said. Biden's campaign shot back against Team Trump's attempt to turn the topic into an election wedge issue to drive voters to the polls in November. 'As his criminal justice proposal made clear months ago, Vice President Biden does not believe that police should be defunded,' Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. 'He hears and shares the deep grief and frustration of those calling out for change, and is driven to ensure that justice is done and that we put a stop to this terrible pain.' Biden asserted in a tweet last week in a rebuke of Trump's response to the violent riots and peaceful protests that ensued after Floyd's death: 'The nation is crying out for leadership but this president has nothing to offer.' While Biden, who won enough delegates over the weekend to earn the Democratic nomination, received praise from moderate and establishment Democrats for his stance, the far-left section of the party is disappointed. 'The current notion of policing in America must be dismantled. And that is why you see city councils like Minneapolis and other elected bodies on the local and state level doing just that,' Nina Turner, Bernie Sanders former campaign co-chair, asserted. 'So for the vice president to reject the notion out of hand is showing a tone-deafness that the black community certainly can't afford for anybody vying for the presidency to have,' she continued. Biden said last week that Trump has 'nothing to offer' the country in terms of leadership with police reform and race relations Senior Director of Criminal Justice Campaigns Scott Roberts for Color Of Change, a racial justice organization, called Biden's comments and proposals 'disappointing.' 'I feel like it's not a reaction that's rooted in a lot of reflection, frankly,' Roberts said. 'I don't know that Sen. Biden has taken the time to talk to groups that are leading this charge to defund the police.' Barack Obama's former senior adviser, David Axelrod, however, called Biden's move 'the right position.' 'Fundamental change re-imagining public safety, rethinking how money is allocated and doing it in partnership with the community is essential,' Axelrod said. 'But very few people would embrace the elimination of police with nothing to replace them,' he continued. 'Trump would have a field day with that. He's already trying to weaponize the words.' Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Kazakh counterpart Mukhtar Tleuberdi held videoconference talks on Tuesday to discuss cooperation in Central Asia and call for restraint in the nuclear missile sphere, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a news release, Trend reports citing TASS. Lavrov and Tleuberdi exchanged opinion on the main trends in the world and regional scenes. They paid special attention to the pairing of integration processes within the framework of the CIS and the Eurasian Economic Union and touched upon international security and strategic stability with a special emphasis on the need for preserving predictability and restraint in the nuclear missile sphere. "Prospects were considered for cooperation in ensuring biological and chemical security, including that in the corresponding multilateral formats," the news release runs. Russia voiced support for the Central Asian countries efforts along regional consolidation lines. Lavrov and Tleuberdi confirmed their countries interest in holding a third meeting of Central Asian and Russian foreign ministers. As the Russian Foreign Ministry said, Russia and Kazakhstan share approaches to strengthening partnership within the EAEU, CSTO, CIS, SCO and also in the UN and OSCE. "The two sides noted identical priorities in the field of anti-terror, struggle against drug trafficking, protection of traditional values and resistance to Christianophobia and Islamophobia. Bilateral agenda The two sides discussed preparations for the participation of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in special ceremonies in Moscow on June 24, timed for the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. "Special emphasis was placed on the special significance of the common historical heritage that unites the two countries and the heroism of the Soviet people in the struggle against Nazism. Of fundamental importance is the resistance to attempts at the falsification of history, rewriting of the results of the war and heroization of Nazi criminals and their henchmen," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "There was a detailed discussion of the guidelines for trading and economic cooperation and integration from the standpoint of top priority measures to be taken in the interests of post-crisis restoration of mutually beneficial ties (by means of strengthening industrial cooperation and joint manufacturing of high value added products) and the achievement of a new level of integration. In this context the 17th Forum of Inter-Regional Cooperation in Kazakhstan, in which both heads of state will take part, is seen as the most significant event in this context. Lavrov and Tleuberdi previewed plans for a Russia Days series of promotional events in Kazakhstan this year. "Mutual interest was confirmed in promptly coordinating an updated regulatory base for the functioning of branches of Russian universities in Kazakhstan and the implementation of other mutually beneficial projects for cooperation in education," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. LONDON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Makor Group ("Makor"), an international agency brokerage group trading cash equities, fixed income, FX and derivative products, is pleased to announce the expansion of its European derivatives trading desk with the addition of two new senior hires to the team. Mr. Pierre-Olivier Burte and Mr. Gregory Salon will be joining Makor's offices in Paris as Co-Global Heads of Exotic Products focused on developing the execution desk and establishing an advisory and research platform, solidifying the firm's ongoing growth in these times of global crisis. "Despite the present crisis and challenging market outlook, Makor is excited to continue our growth as we tackle new opportunities with the expansion of our Equity Derivatives desk," said Makor Group Founder Michael Halimi. "I am very pleased to welcome Pierre-Olivier [Burte] and Gregory [Salon] to the Makor family and I am certain they will make a positive addition to our team." Mr. Burte joins from Camelia Tech, a fintech company he co-founded specialized in the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of SMEs. Prior to pursuing this venture in 2015, Mr. Burte built an impressive track record in exotics trading at Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank. After graduating from Ecole Polytechnique in Applied Mathematics in 2002 and Ecole National des Ponts et Chaussees's Department of Mathematical Engineering in 2003, Mr. Burte first joined Calyon's Global Equity Derivatives desk focusing on Exotics Trading. From then, he continued to grow his expertise in exotics product trading, rising to a senior management role within CA-CIB's Global Equity Derivatives, where his responsibilities included the development and management of the trading desk, as well as the training of junior traders. Mr. Salon brings with him substantial expertise in Exotics Trading with a stellar record from Societe Generale. After graduating from Ecole Centrale Paris, one of Paris' leading schools, with a major in Mathematics, Finance and Computer Science, Mr. Salon began his career as Corporate Equity Derivatives Trader in Calyon in 2001 after which he specialized as an Exotic Index Trader in 2005. Mr. Salon subsequently joined Societe Generale as Deputy Head of Exotic Trading in New York in 2006. After returning to Paris as Head of Exotic Trading Indices in Europe for the firm, Mr. Salon continued to grow until becoming the Co-Head of Equity Derivatives Trading for Europe at SocGen in 2015. It is his deep understanding of Exotic Trading that lead him to specialized consulting work in Trading/Quant activities since mid-2017 prior to joining Makor, servicing clients including Naxitis CIB and BNP Paribas. The extensive expertise brought forth by Mr. Burte and Mr. Salon as they now join Makor has cemented the firm's forward-looking enthusiasm for its and its team's growth during this ongoing crisis, as Makor continues to evolve, to invest, and to grow. About Makor (www.makor-capital.com) Makor Group is an FCA-regulated international brokerage firm established in March 2011 by Michael Halimi and Avi Bouhadana. Its core business consists of providing institutional investors bespoke financial securities research and execution across a spectrum of products including Cash Equities, Fixed Income securities, derivatives and FX. Previously partnered at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe, Halimi and Bouhadana continue to lead the firm's international growth across its many offices worldwide in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Geneva, Gibraltar, Tel Aviv and Singapore. Today, the firm boasts over 200 employees offering its clients 24-hour global trading through single points of contact for more than 90 execution venues in Cash Equities only. Building on its expertise and trusted reputation, Makor provides its clients with unique and innovative trading ideas specializing in risk arbitrage, special situations, relative value and event-driven opportunities for clients and has consistently ranked 1st at the Thomson Reuters EXTEL risk-arb research surveys for 4 years in a row since 2016. As a client-focused agent, Makor takes no proprietary positions, acting wholly and exclusively for the benefit of the client, and is therefore not susceptible to various conflicts existing in the industry. Leveraging its deep understanding of local markets and extensive client relationships built over 30 years of industry experience, Makor expertly taps into local institutional portfolios in order to maximize liquidity for clients. In addition to its client relationships, Makor has further built strong ties with global custodians and prime brokers, understanding that both are crucial players for a smooth and effective operation. This ensures that the settlement of all trading activity with Makor is consistently timely and problem free, which in many cases is as equally important as execution efficiency. Contact: Michael Halimi +1-212-419-4000 mhalimi@makor-capital.com We have been appalled at what is happening south of the border. Ahmaud Arbery shot dead while he was jogging; Christian Cooper the subject of a 911 call for birdwatching while Black; and George Floyd, pinned down and asphyxiated by a police officer despite his repeated pleas and those of onlookers that he couldnt breathe. And these are just the most recent and most public incidents of egregious racism in the U.S. Theres lots more where those came from. But thinking that racism is only an American issue is a mistake. Canada is not immune; in fact, we are far from it. Yes, Canada is a wonderful country. It is a vibrant democracy. We open our doors to people from around the world and welcome them into the Canadian family. We have created institutions that value our diversity. We protect and support people of different creeds, colours, national origin, etc. The need to attract, welcome and integrate immigrants is commonly accepted in the political sector. But we are not without racism. In Toronto, there is evidence that racial profiling is endemic in law enforcement institutions and in the dealings with black communities. A third of people killed by police between 2000 and 2017 were Black even though they make up only 8 per cent of Torontos population. In Montreal, in Saint-Michel et Montreal-Nord, 40 per cent of young Black men have been carded (that is street checked) by police compared to only 6 per cent of young white men. Black Canadians make up only about 3 per cent of the general population but represent over 7 per cent of the Canadian federal prison population. Black women in Canada earn $0.63 for every dollar earned by white men and $0.85 for every dollar earned by white women. We five organizations are dedicated to the inclusion and representation of minorities, and we condemn inequality in Canada. We have faced racism and bigotry. Today, we stand in support of the Canadian Black community. To quote civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.,injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Concrete steps are needed. But its not enough to issue statements of solidarity, no matter how sincere. We must take real and meaningful action. The most important thing that must be done is to really, deeply and sincerely listen to what the Black community is telling us. After listening and speaking to leaders within the Black community, we suggest four concrete steps. First, in order to effectively address racism and other forms of discrimination/bigotry in Canada, we need to better understand the scope of the problem. For that, we need to collect and analyze data based on race, as well as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and socio-economic status. Without this information, any policy responses will be developed in the dark. Second, Canada must implement a national policy to combat online hate. The internet is the biggest incubator of racism and hate today; curtailing the spread of hate online is essential in the fight against racism and all forms of bigotry. Much work has already been done and the June 2019 report by the Justice Committee is a good place to start. We urge the government to move forward in a timely fashion. Third, we need to equip police to counter hate crime and support targeted communities. The Government of Canada should provide additional resources to bolster existing police hate crime and community liaison units. Where such units do not yet exist, such funding could be used to establish them. And fourth, police services across Canada need to better reflect the diverse communities they serve. Recruiting to police colleges, hiring in police forces, and community policing models all must be examined and evaluated through this lens of diversity. Racism is a global pandemic, but is not an innate human trait; it is a learned behaviour and it must be unlearned. Canada is a great country. But it is not perfect and it is incumbent on all of us to make it an even better country, strengthened by its diversity, warmer in its embrace of inclusivity, and fiercer in its fight against racism and discrimination. On that we must surely all agree. As Chrystul Kizer, charged with killing a Kenosha man last year, had a virtual hearing, supporters gathered outside of the Kenosha County Courthouse to cry out for her release. Kizer, 19, of Milwaukee is charged with first-degree intentional homicide for the June 5, 2018, shooting death of Randall Volar III. She is alleged to have shot Volar, 34, in the head, then set his house on fire before fleeing in Volars car. At the time of his death, Volar was under investigation by the Kenosha Police Department for child trafficking. That investigation began when a 15-year-old girl called 911 and reported a man had given her drugs and wanted to kill her. Approximately 60 supporters took to the sidewalk outside of the courthouse along Sheridan Road, holding signs that said Free Chrystul, Drop the charges and other similar sentiments. Local resident Allison Garren organized Mondays protest, stating that she did so because she knows people who have been sex trafficked and these people do not deserve to be victimized for attempting to escape their abusers. They need our support, not punishment. The Kizer case has been one of interest for many, and has been picked up by even The New York Times and other large media outlets around the country. I believe this case gained so much national attention because people know and agree that it is horrendous to punish a survivor of sex trafficking, Garren said. If Randy Volar was appropriately prosecuted for his previous acts of child sexual abuse in 2018, then none of this would have happened. He was released without bail and that shows a severe issue with our justice system. Our hearts all beat The protest featured diverse speakers on the topic of human trafficking, including Al Resting Hawk of the Nottawaseppi tribe. Resting Hawk has attended a few protests in the area, including one held in Civic Center Park on Saturday in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. According to Resting Hawk, the issues that protesters have taken up lately and the racial troubles that are dividing the nation are heartbreaking. Honestly, it hits hard with me. When I was younger, I went through so many problems. I was raised down South. Beaten on a daily basis at school, which is actually why we moved up here, so that that would stop happening. And even up here, I found out theres such issues with race. And there shouldnt be. Last time I checked we all bleed red. Our hearts all beat. And while much focus has been on racial issues concerning to the situation born out of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, some fail to see how racial issues affect the world of sex trafficking, Resting Hawk explained Monday. This one hits me home personally, because I lost my sister in 2009 to sex trafficking, he said. She was kidnapped off the reservation in North Dakota, Sandy Rock Reservation. My dad and stepmom called the police, and the polices exact answer was, Well look at it when we have the time. Three months later, a young boy found her body in Cannonball River. Since then, 28 bodies have been found in the same exact way as my sister, and they have all been deemed suicides. This man took her life before she took his Sara Chopp, a survivor of sexual assault, served as one of the speakers during the protest, along with Resting Hawk and local resident Quinn Didier. Chopp shared her own experiences with sexual assault, highlighting the emotional and mental trauma that stay with a survivor long after the crime. After a first instance, Chopp recalled how her life as she knew it slid into its almost complete opposite. I secluded myself from friends and family. I went from being a straight A student to failing out of school. I started drinking heavily every day. I continued drinking like this for years following, which led me at the age of 20 to pass out in a friends bed only to wake up on my stomach to him raping me from behind, she said. I had to go to work the next day reeking of his cologne, and to this day, the smell of that cologne brings me back. Now 31, Chopp said she still is dealing with the physical and mental health consequences as well as the impact on her work and her relationships, all because two men decided my body was nothing more than an object for their pleasure. I can only imagine what it would be like to be a victim of sex trafficking, she said. To be 16 and taken by a man twice my age and sexually assaulted multiple times, to have my body used as an object for his pleasure over and over again. Then, to have a brief period of freedom when this man is arrested on charges including sexual assault, only for him to be released without bail. Chopp stated that the justice system left Kizer no choice but to take matter into her own hands. The justice system did not only fail to protect these underage girls from sexual assault; they failed to punish a man who they knew was guilty of the most despicable crime, Chopp said. The justice system left Chrystul no choice but to protect herself and the others being abused. Chopp argued that Kizer had already been given a life sentence from the physical and psychological trauma she experienced. This man took her life before she took his, Chopp said. We should not be taking her life again; we should be protecting her as a victim of sex trafficking, not treating her like a criminal. By sentencing this girl to life, we are communicating to everyone that her life does not matter; that the life of the man who did this to her matters more. We are communicating to everyone that Kenosha, Wis., is a good place for sex trafficking. By sending this message, we are putting every girl and woman in this city at risk. Do better Before marchers chanted Hey hey, ho ho, Chrystul should be free to go and Black Lives Matter and marched around the courthouse, Didier delivered a pointed message about the prevalence of human sex trafficking, especially along the I-94 corridor between Chicago and Milwaukee. We cannot let this happen again, Didier said. We have been outraged on the issue. We are outraged again. When are we going to break the cycle? The Milwaukee area is heavily affected by sex trafficking. It is absolutely imperative to our community that we protect those affected by it. Many young boys and girls have been and will be in this same position as Chrystul. If we cannot help her, we are aiding the traffickers in our area. I urge our judicial system and our community to do better. The bar is so low. We can all do better. While Mondays protest was a start, Garren states that more efforts in support of Kizer are in the future. This isnt over, and people will continue to support Chrystul, Garren said. I will be posting more information on how to get involved on the event page (Stand with Chrystul Kizer on Facebook). Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 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. Firefighters get a handle on a small vegetation fire that broke out Tuesday near the Hollywood Bowl. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Firefighters battled a brush fire that broke out early Tuesday near the Hollywood Bowl as the region braced for another day of sizzling temperatures and Santa Ana winds. The blaze, which broke out about 6:20 a.m. in the 2300 block of Highland Avenue in the Hollywood Hills, had charred three acres by 8 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. After more than an hour of work, roughly 129 firefighters and three water-dropping helicopters had stopped forward progress of the fire. Ground crews will remain at the scene to handle any flare-ups and extinguish smoldering vegetation, according to fire officials. No structures were damaged, and no evacuations were ordered. It was not immediately clear what sparked the fire. The blaze near the Hollywood Bowl, which canceled its season of concerts and films because of the coronavirus pandemic, was the second that L.A. firefighters responded to early Tuesday. The first fire broke out shortly before 5 a.m. atop Radio Hill in the Lincoln Heights area. Fire crews extinguished the two-acre blaze roughly two hours later, fire officials said. The fires marked a busy start for officials as the region heads into another day of scorching temperatures. The combination of heat wind and low humidity can cause a blaze to spread rapidly, creating hazardous conditions for fire crews. "We're always concerned about fires," said Kathy Hoxsie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. "The No. 1 issue with that is wind, so the fact that the wind is not going to be as strong helps, but, really, when you have tinder-dry grass and low relative humidity, even breezy conditions can cause problems." The mercury is expected to rise into the 80s and 90s along the coast, and peak close to 100 degrees in more inland regions by the afternoon. Temperatures broke records in at least three spots in Southern California on Monday. Camarillo Airport reported a high of 89 degrees, surpassing the previous record of 81 set in 1925. At Los Angeles International Airport, the high of 84 shattered the record of 77 set in 1979, and at Long Beach Airport, the high of 90 topped the prior record of 88 set in 2015. Story continues The weather service issued a heat advisory from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, warning of possibly of more record-breaking temperatures along the L.A. County coast that could cause heat-related illnesses. "It's a little early to see temperatures like this," Hoxsie said. "But when you're in the transition season, you can get spikes and dips." Santa Ana winds that buffeted the region Monday are expected to moderate as the week progresses. On Tuesday, winds of 10-20 mph are expected with gusts up to 30 mph in some regions, including along the Interstate 5 corridor, Hoxsie said. On Monday, L.A. County mountains were seeing gusts of 50-60 mph. The wind and dry heat stoked small brush fires in Castaic, Lake View Terrace, Elysian Park, Eagle Rock, Lake Balboa, Corona and El Sereno on Monday. Fire crews were able to extinguish all the blazes quickly, and no homes were damaged. A woman stole a Post Office van filled with parcels as they were being delivered to homes during the coronavirus lockdown, a court heard. Keiley Dobson, 29, took her chance to drive the van away in Camberwell, south London, when it was briefly left unattended by the postie on his rounds. When police tracked down the stolen van, Dobson and her friends had started opening the parcels, Croydon crown court heard. She was fined 100 for breaking the government-ordered coronavirus lockdown during the incident, on April 23, and admitted stealing the Post Office van and its contents as well as driving while disqualified and without insurance. Its a very serious offence, something capable of striking right at the heart of the way even in modern times we communicate with each other, said Judge Peter Gower QC. Particularly in the Covid-19 time, an awful lot is getting delivered by post and if disrupted it could cause particular problems. He said Dobson seized an opportunity to steal the Vauxhall post van when she came across it in Denmark Road, Camberwell with the drivers door left open. No doubt the postman was delivering post, said the judge. You drove it off and removed - with the assistance it seems from others - mail from it. By the time police had arrived at your address after it was reported to them that you had attended there in the stolen mail van, a number of items had already been opened by you or someone else. Dobson, who has 21 previous convictions for theft, was handed a two-year community order by the judge to give her a chance to kick a drug habit and turn your life around. The judge banned Dobson from going to an address in South Norwood or contacting two named individuals, saying when you are in their company its a disaster, and ordered her to attend 35 rehabilitation sessions as well as a nine-month treatment programme. Dobson, who pleaded guilty to two counts of theft, driving while disqualified and driving with no insurance, was also banned from driving for 12 months. She was fined 100 for breaking lockdown by the magistrates court in April. COLUMBUS, Ohio - At least 39,162 Ohioans have had coronavirus, up 325 from Monday, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Of these, at least 2,421 people have died, up from 2,404 on Monday. The increase between Monday and Tuesday doesnt necessarily mean all the cases and deaths happened in that time. There is some lag between when local entities notify the state. At least 7.1 million people have had coronavirus across the globe and at least 408,000 have died with it, according to John Hopkins Universitys coronavirus map. That includes over 1.9 Americans and 111,000 U.S. deaths. Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday provided an update on personal protective equipment for coronavirus and police initiatives for protests, in wake of the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the past two weeks. DeWine said on Thursday, the next scheduled briefing, hell address the rate of transmission, which is a measurement called R0, or R-naught. He said its been creeping upward since Ohio reopened businesses in the past month. The health department is reporting that over 487,500 Ohioans have been tested. And the states effort to expand testing appears to be making some improvements. The state moved up one spot in its testing rate per 100,000 people -- from ninth lowest testing rate to 10th -- of all states, territories and Washington, D.C., according to Johns Hopkins. Policing update On Tuesday, George Floyds funeral began and DeWine announced an effort to ensure all Ohio police officers are certified in the states use-of-force and use-of-deadly force training, as well as a new office to expand diversity among police ranks. Seventy-nine percent of Ohios police officers work for a police agency that has voluntarily complied with the standards or is in the process of becoming certified in the standards, many in the larger population areas of the state. But around 400 of the states 800 departments are not certified in the training, DeWine said. DeWine said he wants the remaining departments to get the certification. Well work with them to help ensure compliance," he said. Ive ordered the Department of Public Safetys Office of Criminal Justice, which oversees the certification process, to reach out directly to every single police agency in the state that is not meeting these standards, and to assist them in any way they can. Hes not going to penalize the departments that havent complied, at this point, because he said some may feel they have legitimate reasons -- such as theyre under consent decrees monitored by that courts that spell out police training and continuing education. The certification and other statewide police standards came from the Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board, established in 2015 by former Gov. John Kasich and former state senator Nina Turner, after a number of police-related shootings of black boys and men, including Tamir Rice in Cleveland and John Crawford in Beavercreek near Dayton. Other recommended standards from the collaborative board include community engagement, body cameras, bias-free policing, employee misconduct, law enforcement telecommunication training and police pursuits. DeWine said there was a new standard he asked the collaborative board to add last week: law enforcements response to mass gatherings, including when use of tear gas, pepper spray and other non-lethal projectiles are considered necessary or excessive, best practices are and how to protect news media from injury. DeWine said he doesnt want to give protestors a free pass to damage property. But police need to respect Ohio must do more to encourage minorities and women to join the ranks of our police departments, he said. So on Tuesday DeWine said hes created the Ohio Office of Law Enforcement Recruitment within the Ohio Department of Public Safetys Office of Criminal Justice. The office will help local agencies with recruitment and retention. Some agencies make it a priority more than others, he said. He said the office will work closely with the Ohio Mayors Alliance, sheriffs and police chiefs. We are going to continue to work on this, he said. This is my first round of announcements. These are additions frankly that I can make quickly without legislation.... We are working on other ideas with our friends in the General Assembly. DeWine wants police changes, but he wont go as far as supporting the growing movement to defund the police and using the money on social services. Im not in favor of defunding the police," he said. "I think that would be absurd. I cant imagine what people are thinking about defunding the police. I mean, we need police. We need fire. We need emergency responders. PPE DeWine said the state has distributed over 30 million pieces of personal protective equipment. The state has obtained them from the federal government, donations and it has purchased some. Of the 37 million, over 27 million have been shipped at county emergency management agencies. About 1.5 million have been distributed to Ohio employers from the Bureau of Workers Compensation. DeWine said that the states looking at the supply chain for PPE. Many pieces of equipment are manufactured in China have been difficult to obtain because of that countrys COVID-19 outbreak. World Health Organization news Although the World Health Organization announced Monday that a very small percentage of asymptomatic people with coronavirus transmit the disease, DeWine had an expert join his briefing Tuesday who said that knowledge should not change how people act. Theres a difference between being asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic, said Susan Koletar, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Ohio State University. And the tricky part is that asymptomatic cases are different than pre-symptomatic cases. The virus can take 14 days to incubate in people who would be pre-symptomatic, Koletar said. Pre-symptomatic: They may have some symptoms but really not enough to cause any alarm, she said. But then those people go on to develop more classic symptoms over time. Koletar said that social distancing, hand-washing and wearing masks are still important, since its hard to know who is asymptomatic and who is pre-symptomatic. And even if a person is asymptomatic, there is still a possibility -- even if its small -- to spread the disease, Koletar said. You should consider yourself contagious, she said. Thats why, particularly outside of households, in public, we need to think about things like masking. More coverage: Gov. Mike DeWine to hold Tuesdays coronavirus update: Watch live At least 2,404 Ohioans have died with coronavirus, up 27: Monday update Ohio BMV will reopen driving test sites June 12 17 Ohio GOP senators sponsoring bill to prohibit state officials from making coronavirus school reopening plans Columbus health officials say protester with the coronavirus attended George Floyd demonstrations Ohio Legislative Black Caucus introduce resolutions to declare racism a public health crisis Ohio Supreme Court assessing damage to building from weekend protests BOISE, Idaho - Authorities said they uncovered human remains at an Idaho mans home Tuesday as they investigated the disappearance of his new wifes two children a case thats drawn global attention for its ties to two other mysterious deaths and the couples doomsday beliefs. Chad Daybell, who married the childrens mother, Lori Vallow Daybell, was arrested on suspicion of concealing or destroying evidence after local and federal investigators searched his property, according to the Fremont County Sheriffs Office. He has not yet been formally charged, and his attorney, Mark Means, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Joshua JJ Vallow, who was 7 when he vanished, and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan havent been seen since September, and police say Chad and Lori Daybell lied to investigators about the childrens whereabouts before quietly leaving Idaho. They were found in Hawaii months later. Besides the missing children, the couple has been under scrutiny following the deaths of both of their former spouses. Police from the small town of Rexburg, the FBI and sheriffs investigators searched Chad Daybells home in the eastern Idaho town of Salem for the second time, bringing in backhoes and setting up tents in a nearby field. The search warrant is sealed, and Rexburg Assistant Police Chief Gary Hagan said he couldnt reveal details other than the search is linked to the childrens disappearance. Throughout the investigation, detectives and investigators have recovered whats believed to be human remains that have not been identified at this time, Hagan said in a news conference. Lori Daybell has been charged with child abandonment and obstructing the investigation and is in jail on $1 million bond. Shes pleaded not guilty. The Idaho attorney generals office has said it was investigating Chad Daybell in the death of his first wife, Tammy Daybell. The complicated case began last summer, when Lori Daybells brother shot and killed her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in Phoenix. Her brother, Alex Cox, said the shooting was in self-defence. Charles Vallow had filed for divorce, claiming Lori believed she had become a god-like figure who was responsible for ushering in the biblical end times. Cox died in December of an apparent blood clot in his lung. Shortly after Charles Vallows death, Lori and her children moved to Idaho, where Chad Daybell lived. He ran a small publishing company, where he published many of his own fiction books that centred on apocalyptic scenarios loosely based on Mormon theology. He also participated in podcasts about preparing for biblical end times, and friends said he claimed to be able to receive visions from beyond the veil. Tylee was last seen in September headed into Yellowstone National Park with her mom and other family for a day trip, and JJ was last seen by school officials several days later. Police began investigating the childrens whereabouts after relatives raised concerns. Investigators have said both Chad and Lori Daybell claimed the children were staying with friends. Tammy Daybell died in her sleep last October of what her obituary said were natural causes. Authorities grew suspicious when Chad Daybell married Lori just two weeks later, and they had Tammy Daybells body exhumed in December. The results of that autopsy have not been released. Law enforcement officers searched Chad Daybells home initially on Jan. 3 in connection with his first wifes death, removing more than 40 items including several pieces of computer equipment. A few days later, JJs grandparents, Larry and Kay Woodcock, announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the kids. They later asked a judge to give them custody of JJ, who was still missing. And they have pushed to keep a spotlight on the search, posting billboards and updating social media on the case. The children were still nowhere to be found when JJs birthday arrived in late May. Our feelings of extreme anguish and despondency were prevalent throughout the period approaching JJs 8th birthday, Kay Woodcock wrote in a Facebook post. Our Rexburg family hosted a poignant vigil on Monday 5/25 in honour of our little man. ... We are comforted knowing their commitment is as strong as ours. Their attorney in the custody case didnt immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Michigan GOP, Democratic Reps Seek Hearing on Iraqi Deportations Thirteen members of Michigan's delegation in the U.S. House are asking the Judiciary Committee for hearings on the deportation of Iraqi nationals, including Christians potentially facing religious persecution. The bipartisan letter -- led by U.S. Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, and Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Township -- also requests that the panel take up their bill to delay deportations for Iraqi nationals for two years until their cases have been heard in immigration court. The letter comes more than four months after President Donald Trump's promise while in Warren to offer relief for Iraqi nationals who have been fighting deportation for three years, fearing their religion, ethnicity or ties to America would make them targets. But no blanket relief from removals has been granted. "Hundreds" of Chaldean Christians are among those facing an immediate risk of deportation, the lawmakers said. "It has become apparent that a legislative solution is necessary to provide the time and opportunity for impacted individuals to seek reopening on their immigration proceedings," Levin and Moolenaar wrote. "We were encouraged to hear of the president's concern and stand ready to work with you on this legislative solution." An Appeals Court in April 2019 affirmed a ruling that federal agents could resume deporting an estimated 1,000 remaining Iraqi detainees swept up in immigration raids in 2017. Over 100 of the 1,400 detained that summer were from Michigan. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said the agency would continue making removal arrangements for those with final orders of removal, consistent with the court's ruling. Levin and Moolenaar previously have written to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security asking for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to refrain from wholesale detention and deportation of the Iraqis, as well as appeals to Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Many of these individuals were ordered removed years or decades ago, and lawmakers contend that conditions in Iraq have since changed "dramatically," citing the "well-documented" threats to religious minorities like Chaldean Christians. "... It would be not only unfair, but dangerous, to deport Iraqis without ensuring that their cases are considered individually based on current country condition," they wrote. "Many individuals have known no home other than America, and they speak little or no Arabic, which puts them in danger in Iraq regardless of religion or ethnicity." They highlighted the case of Jimmy Al-Daoud, 41, who was deported from Detroit a year ago and was found dead in Iraq after a diabetic episode not long after. "Jimmy had never been to Iraq, had no legal, government-recognized identification, had no family, had no knowledge of geography or customs, did not speak the language and, ultimately, had no access to medical care that could have saved his life," Levin and Moolenaar wrote. "We are determined to prevent any further injustices like those that led to Jimmy's death." Levin's Metro Detroit district has the largest Iraqi-born community of any congressional district in the country, according to census data. The House members said they had discussed their bill "at length" with House Judiciary staff and are open to discussing modifications that the panel suggests. Other Michigan members who signed the letter are Reps. Justin Amash, L-Cascade Township; Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet; Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn; Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland; Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township; Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield; Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly; Haley Stevens, D-Rochester; Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit; Tim Walberg, R-Tipton; and Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph. facebook like button Tweet tweet button for twitter Published June 8, 2020 The University of Louisiana Monroe is hosting a University Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Forum from 6-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, at Fant-Ewing Coliseum. WHAT: University Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Forum WHEN: 6-7:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 9, 2020 WHERE: Fant-Ewing Coliseum at ULM NOTE: Please wear masks and observe social distancing The university invites students, faculty, staff, and the public to attend and share ideas on how to accelerate diversity and inclusion at the university. Opening statements will be made by ULM Interim President Edwin Litolff, Ph.D., SGA President Olivia Bailey, ULM Professor Pamela Saulsberry, Ph.D., Wossman High School principal, Harrington Watson, Ed.D., Janet Durden, president of the United Way of Northeast Louisiana, the Rev. Ambrose Douzart, president of the NAACP, and others. To foster unity and understanding, we want to hear from students, faculty, staff, and the community on what we can do as a university to address change, said Litolff. Watch the University Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Forum on https://www.youtube.com/user/hawksulm/live Many readers of Al-Ahram Weekly will remember that the origins of Al-Ahram go back to the arrival on Egypts shores of two Lebanese brothers, Beshara and Selim Takla, towards the end of the 19th century and their foundation of a new newspaper of that name published first in Alexandria and then in Cairo. It paved the way for a flourishing collection of other publications founded by Syrians and Lebanese in Egypt that contributed to the expanding newspaper and magazine landscape of the time, among them the magazine Al-Hilal, founded in the 1890s by the Syrian writer Jurji Zaydan and like Al-Ahram still going strong today, and the newspapers Al-Muqtataf, a weekly, and Al-Muqattam, a daily, founded by the Syrian emigres Faris Nimr and Yacoub Sarrouf. But how many readers will be aware that this Syrian-Lebanese penchant for setting up newspapers was not something restricted only to Egypt? Between 1890 and 1920 Syrian and Lebanese immigrants to the United States founded some two dozen Arabic-language newspapers in the East Coast cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, with some of them being continually published over several decades and achieving significant wider circulation. The Syrian and Lebanese diaspora of this period in the United States is perhaps still associated in many minds with the name of Gibran Khalil Gibran, an originally Lebanese poet and writer who made a name for himself in both Arabic and English and is still perhaps one of the best-known and most widely read Arab writers worldwide. Gibrans The Prophet is still on the worlds bestseller lists in its English version, though perhaps his letters to the Lebanese-Palestinian author Mai Ziyada are at least as widely referred to in Arabic, with their feelings for each other having become proverbial in the period. Though the two never met, Ziyada helped to introduce Gibrans writings to a wider audience through her famous literary salon held in Cairo in the 1920s and 30s. But reducing the Arab diaspora in the US to Gibran massively distorts its scope, since he was only one of a group of Arab writers who gathered in Boston and New York at the end of the 19th century and produced a body of work that had significant influence both in the United States and in their Arab homeland. Called the Al-Rabita Al-Qalamiya, or Pen Club, it included writers such as Ilya Abu Maadi, Mikhail Naima, and Amin Rihani, who went on to become contributors to East Coast Arabic-language newspapers and magazines, as well as, in Rihanis case, many English-language ones as well. These writers, called the Mahjar, or emigrant, generation, were part of a larger movement of people from the Levant to the United States at the time, as well as to Latin America, Europe, and parts of Africa, that have made the Syrian-Lebanese one of the largest of all Arab diaspora populations. According to US scholar Alixa Naff, while about 25 per cent of the 107,593 Syrians admitted [to the US] between 1899 and 1940 returned to the homeland by 1940, over 200,000 Syrians called America their permanent home. Many of their descendants play significant roles in American life today. Former US Senate majority leader George Mitchell, former US senators James Abourezk and James Abdnor, and former Congressional members Pat Danner of Missouri, are all listed as being Arab American by descent by the Arab American Institute in Washington DC and are among the many others celebrated at the Arab American Museum in Dearborn in Michigan. US congresswomen Rashida Tlaib is of Palestinian descent, and former US presidential elections candidate Ralph Nader is the son of Lebanese immigrants to the United States. The late Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said also traced his family back to his fathers decision to leave his native Palestine for a new life in the United States before World War I when Palestine, like todays Syria and Lebanon, was a part of the former Ottoman Empire. Writing in his 2000 memoir Out of Place, Said remembered that his father Wadie had gone first from Haifa to Port Said in 1911 where they [he and a friend] boarded a British freighter to Liverpool before they got jobs as stewards on a passenger liner to New York Arriving in New York without valid papers, they bided their time, until, on the pretext of leaving the ship temporarily to visit a nearby bar, they boarded a passing streetcar going they had no idea where, and rode it to the end of the line. Wadie Said subsequently served in the US expeditionary force during World War I, acquired US citizenship, and later came to Egypt to set up a thriving business in Cairo. While the contributions of the Pen Club to the development of modern Arabic literature and particularly those of Gibran are comparatively well known, recent years have seen a new interest in this movement as a whole, possibly owing to the rise of academic studies devoted to the movements of peoples in the past and the constitution of present-day diasporas. There has also been a desire among the grandchildren and great grandchildren of those who made the journey abroad to discover more about their ancestors. The foundation of the Arab American National Museum in Michigan in 2005 could be part of this new interest among second, third, and fourth-generation Arab Americans. A note on the museums website, for example, says that it is the first and only museum in the United States devoted to Arab American history and culture and by bringing the voices and faces of Arab Americans to mainstream audiences, we continue our commitment to dispel misconceptions about Arab Americans and other minorities. Something similar might be said of the Arab American Institute, which says on its website that it was founded, this time as far back as 1985, in order to nurture and encourage the direct participation of Arab Americans in political and civic life in the United States and to serve as a central resource to [US] government officials, the media, political leaders and community groups on a variety of public policy issues that concern Arab Americans and US-Arab relations. More recent books and exhibitions have sought to excavate and reconstruct the histories of Arab Americans. There was a pathbreaking exhibition at the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration in New York City in 2017 that was an eye-opener for many visitors, for example. Many visitors to this exhibition, called Little Syria, NY: An Immigrant Communitys Life and Legacy, may not have realised that the area of Lower Manhattan now occupied by parts of the financial district was once called Little Syria owing to the Syrian-Lebanese community that lived and worked there at the beginning of the last century. However, this interest has not always been present. When Alixa Naff, herself of Arab origin, began her research on the Arab American diaspora in the United States in the 1960s, for example, there was very little published work on this community. Fortunately, she was able to conduct her research at a time when many of those who had originally arrived were still alive and able to answer questions. Much of this material went into Naffs pathbreaking book Becoming American: The Early Arab Immigrant Experience, published in 1985, and her original archives are now housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington as the Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection. NEWSPAPERS: But none of this quite explains the interest in setting up newspapers or in fostering the talents of writers among members of the early Syrian-Lebanese immigrant generations.Presumably the Takla brothers saw Egypt as fertile ground for their newspaper project since controls on the press in Egypt in the later 19th century were less than they were in directly controlled Ottoman territories (Egypt was still nominally a part of the Ottoman Empire), and commercial opportunities in Egypt, still enjoying the cotton boom that the country had experienced during the US Civil War when supplies had been halted from the Confederate States of the US, were higher. Egypt was a centre of developing Arab nationalism, and its newspapers were forums for sometimes intense political and cultural debate.Writing on journalism and the press in his History of Modern Egypt, historian P J Vatikiotis says that Nimr and Sarrouf had wanted to disseminate progressive reform ideas which could serve as the basis of a secular national independence movement through their newspapers Al-Muqtataf and Al-Muqattam, whereas Zaydan, in Al-Hilal, was interested in seeking a rapprochement between Muslim and non-Muslim Arabs in the common cause of Arab regeneration and reform. The Takla brothers, in Al-Ahram, were initially critical of British policy the British were occupying Egypt at the time and in favour of a continued link between an Egypt ruled by the khedive and the [Ottoman] sultan in Istanbul, he comments.The newspapers thus had clear editorial lines, but in New York or Boston the situation was likely to be rather different, since there the Syrian-Lebanese writers were setting up Arabic-language newspapers and developing a literary movement on foreign and generally non-Arabic-speaking soil. Their relationship to their surrounding environment would thus not have been the same, and they would have drawn on different writers and targeted a different audience to that of Al-Ahram or the other newspapers in Egypt.Fortunately, as a result of the new interest in the Pen Club and the early Arab American generations on the part of their descendants in the US and todays Syria and Lebanon, anyone wishing to read these materials is much better off today than was the case even a decade or so ago.Many people may have memories of reading such material in dusty research-library archives, fighting with microfilm machines and loading up often cracked or torn microfilm rolls of archive material under the beady eyes of librarians. But this no longer has to be the case today, since many institutions in the United States have been digitising these materials and making them available to wider audiences on the Internet, perhaps pre-eminent among them the Moise A Khayrallah Centre for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.This centre, named for Arab American businessman Moise A Khayrallah, has been busily digitising and annotating print runs of the major Arabic newspapers that appeared in the United States between around 1890 and 1920 and supporting research projects on them. It is a fascinating and essential resource for anyone interested in these early Arab American generations and in the literary movements they fostered.Material made available by the centre tells us, for example, that Kawkab Amirka (Star of America) was the first Arabic-language newspaper published in the United States. It was published in New York City between 1892 and 1908, and at first it was released on a weekly schedule, but in 1898 it was upgraded to a daily paper. The roughly 300,000 copies per issue were circulated to subscribers across the world. Though it circulated in the Ottoman Empire as well as in the United States, in its first issue it stated its intention to express the true interests of the early Arabic-speaking diaspora, the Centre says.It tells us that Miraat Al-Gharb (Mirror of the West) was one of the longest-running Arabic newspapers in the United States published from 1899 until the late date of 1961. It was founded by entrepreneur Naguib Diab and owned by his family until its closure. In addition to its significant longevity, it was important for its affiliation with the Eastern Orthodox faith. As a counterpoint to the Maronite Christian viewpoints that are often associated with the early Syrian-Lebanese immigrants, Miraat Al-Gharb provided valuable insight into the religious, political, and intellectual diversity of the early immigrants from Syria, the Centre adds.It also tells us that in 1908 businessmen Salloum Mokarzel and Habib F Otash published an Arabic and English Directory (Al-Dalil) of the businesses owned by Syrians (Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians) in the US. With over 3,300 businesses noted, the Directory represents a significant sample of early immigrants, and thus can be taken as closely resembling the overall Lebanese-American population. It lists in English state, city and street addresses of the businesses, the names of the owners, and the types of businesses that they ran. In Arabic, the Directory provides the names, type of business, and their natal village, town or city in the Middle East.But there are also many more newspapers than these, including titles such as Al-Akhlak (Ethics), Al-Ayyam (Chronicles), Al-Bayan (The Bulletin), Al-Fatat (Youth), Al-Hoda (Guidance), Al-Kown (The Universe), Al-Majalla Al-Tijarriya (Commerce Magazine), Al-Nasr (The Eagle) and Al-Wafa (Fidelity), among many others. The Moise A Khayrallah Centre has done extraordinary work in providing essential clues for those wishing to find their way through them, including on the newspapers religious, political, and other affiliations. Looking through some of this material, one finds fascinating nuggets of information, sometimes in the news and opinion articles, but just as often in the advertisements and other non-editorial materials.The advertisements provide clues about how the new immigrant generations acclimatised to life in the United States, advertising everything from real estate to schools, wholesale and retail goods, business opportunities, and passage to and from Syria and Lebanon. The articles cover the standard news stories of the time mixed with heavy helpings of opinion. There are also other pieces that may provide evidence of a strong desire for integration, while retaining a Syrian and Lebanese heritage, despite sometimes still-faltering English-language skills.One piece discovered by the present author while browsing through back numbers of Miraat Al-Gharb was an early article explaining the background and customs of the US festival of Thanksgiving, the Eid Al-Shukr, even today mysterious to many visitors to the United States, to the newspapers Arabic-speaking readers. There are some charming mistakes and misapprehensions in the article, but these only add to the impression of an earnest desire among Arabic-speaking readers of Miraat Al-Gharb to understand the customs of their English-speaking neighbours.THE MAHJAR GENERATION: However, for literary and more broadly cultural purposes, perhaps the go-to newspaper is Al-Funun (The Arts), an Arabic-language literary journal published in New York City by entrepreneur Nasib Arida.Arida was born in Homs, Syria, in 1887 and immigrated to the United States in 1905. He published the first issue of Al-Funun in April 1913, and the magazine became an important forum for the literature associated with writers of the Mahjar generation including Gibran Khalil Gibran, Mikhail Naimi, and Amin Rihani in the form of short stories, essays, and poems.The first edition of Al-Fanun includes a letter from the editors to all readers of Arabic as well as a manifesto statement, a kalama ila al-qarie (Word to Readers), that connects it to other literary magazines appearing at the same time in languages such as English, French, and Russian. It is explained that Al-Fanun will be concerned to renovate Arabic literature and literary expression notably by bringing it into contact with the best of what is appearing in other languages. Looking at the contents of the first edition, there is certainly a strong emphasis on translation, perhaps as a way of bringing the work of the Pen Club into line with European and other modern and modernist writing.Only a handful of pieces in the first edition are by Arab writers (there is a piece by Rihani and several by Gibran), with the rest consisting of translations into Arabic of writing by Russian writers (Gorky and Turgenev, among others), as well as by Victor Hugo and, strangely, Oscar Wilde. The emphasis seems to be on a kind of creative eclecticism, with later issues indicating the speedy assimilation of modern European writing there are many translations of Nietzsche in Al-Fanun at a time when the German writer was only slowly being translated into English in often inadequate versions.The Arabic-language publications appearing in the US at this time might be felt to have a Janus-headed aspect, with some looking primarily towards the opportunities offered by the new US environment, particularly the commercial magazines, some seeking to comment on events in the Arab world, and some, perhaps most, trying to do both at the same time.Thus Al-Fanun, whose contents were notably cosmopolitan, often more so than many of the English-language magazines appearing in the US at the time, also sought to comment on events in the Arab world during World War I. There was a special issue on Suriya Al-Mankouba, afflicted Syria, in October 1916, for example, with the magazine being given over to discussion of the Nakba fi Suriya, the catastrophe in Syria, as the former Ottoman Empire found itself fighting on the doomed German side during World War I. This edition includes a long piece by Rihani on the humanitarian situation entitled hunger and a long essay, unsigned, on the ongoing wartime crisis.While browsing back numbers of century-old newspapers and magazines is not to everybodys taste, in the case of the Arabic-language publications appearing in the US in this period there are perhaps special reasons for doing so. One is that it can restore to wider consciousness aspects of US and Middle Eastern history that are sometimes forgotten, probably at least in part also the motive of contemporary moves to draw attention to the Arab American heritage by institutions such as the Arab American Museum in Michigan and exhibitions such as the Little Syria exhibition at the US National Museum of Immigration at Ellis Island in New York City in 2017.Another is that it can help us to understand better how history is experienced, and made, among people not always given pride of places in history books or on school or university syllabuses.According to UK academic Robin Ostle writing in the Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, the lasting significance of the poetry of the Mahjar, especially that produced by the writers of the Al-Rabita Al-Qalamiya, [was] first, the fact that these poets were removed from immediate contact with their own societies [and this] meant that they were less inhibited by the dominant canons of literary taste Second was the fact that their achievements did not pass unnoticed inside the Arab world, particularly since theirs was a pocket of immigrant culture that could not establish fruitful connections with the surrounding English-American scene.None of this is wrong, and it is a valuable summary. But it can sometimes help, in order to understand the materials out of which such synthetic statements are made, to look directly at materials like the US Arabic-language newspapers of the period, among them Al-Fanun, since these can help to appreciate the individual hopes and struggles of those involved and refocus ones gaze on the often messy primary sources from which standard historiography is formed.There may also be connections to be drawn among other newspaper-founding members of the Syrian-Lebanese diaspora in other parts of the world, among them Beshara and Selim Takla and their contemporaries in Egypt. *A version of this article appears in print in the 11 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: The president of the UN General Assembly said Monday that world leaders will not be coming to New York for their annual gathering in late September for the first time in the 75-year history of the United Nations because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But Tijjani Muhammad-Bande told a news conference that he hopes to announce in the next two weeks how the 193 heads of state and government will give their speeches on pressing local and world issues during the assembly's so-called General Debate. World leaders cannot come to New York because they cannot come simply as individuals, he ... The Toronto Wildlife Centre says it will no longer protect a family of foxes living under the boardwalk at Woodbine Beach after its volunteers were threatened. Nathalie Karvonen, the executive director of the centre, told the Star on Tuesday that they had to make the difficult decision after two worrying incidents. In the first, a volunteer was threatened by a man who said if he had a knife he would stab her. In the second, a man went after a teenage volunteer with a knife, the centre said. It was the threats of physical violence that really pushed it over the top for us because we cant put our volunteers in a situation where they may actually be in serious danger, Karvonen said. Karvonen said police also had to intervene Monday night when another volunteer was harassed. It was the last day the centre deployed volunteers to the beach since the foxes were first spotted near the boardwalk at the beginning of May. Most people have been very understanding, she said. But as is always the case when dealing with humans, theres always a few bad apples. The centre had originally hoped to keep volunteers in the area until the family of foxes had left the beach, she said. Over the past month, 58 volunteers have contributed nearly 1,500 hours of time to protect the fox family. Shifts included anywhere from two to seven volunteers at a time, with the most coming out at night when the foxes tend to be most active. Over the last several weeks, the volunteers had been carrying out aversive conditioning to retrain the baby foxes to fear and avoid curious onlookers and dogs. Their work had been successful, and foxes began learning to avoid onlookers and hunting on their own, Karvonen said. The city set up fencing around the family on May 6 after residents started flocking to the area to watch the foxes and feed them. Bylaw officers were also assigned to patrol the area. On Tuesday, city workers were seen removing some fences. Wild animals need to learn how to fend for themselves as hand feeding them can lead to an early death if they become accustomed to being fed. Being around plenty of well-behaved dogs can also mislead the animals into assuming all dogs are safe. Thats why the centre is recommending dog walkers avoid around the area where the foxes live. In mid-May, the centre found a dead fox kit in the area in a suspected attack by an off-leash dog. There was still a very huge role for us to play in educating people, and asking them not to feed the foxes, and keeping their aggressive dogs away from the foxes, Karvonen said. Photographers also arent helping the situation, she said. They would arrive at quarter after five in the morning, and some mornings there were already half a dozen photographers camped out there with lights, Karvonen said. Obviously theres great photographers out there, but there were also some very irresponsible photographers who were coming down there, who wouldnt leave, who were baiting them with food, and who would camp there for hours waiting for the perfect shot. The centre said in its Facebook post Monday that the fox kits are older and soon they will be moving on. With files from Raneem Alozzi Miriam Lafontaine is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @mirilafontaine Hundreds of people have marched in Hong Kongs streets to mark a year since the start of anti-government protests. The protesters marched despite police warnings that force could be used to disperse participants and that they faced up to five years in prison. Riot police later charged at a group of demonstrators, deploying pepper spray and tackling some to the ground. Hong Kongs leader Carrie Lam marked the occasion by calling for peace and stability. Expand Close Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (AP/Vincent Yu) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (AP/Vincent Yu) At least 25 people were arrested for participating in unauthorised assemblies, disorderly conduct and other offences, police said. Some protesters were also stopped and searched by police. Lawful protests are always respected but unlawful acts are to be rejected. Please stop breaking the law, police said in a tweet. Tuesday is the one-year anniversary of a huge march through central Hong Kong that grew into a pro-democracy movement that saw protesters break into the legislative building and take to the streets every weekend for months. The mass protest on 9 June last year has been etched in the collective memory of Hongkongers, the Civil Human Rights Front, which organised the event, wrote in a Facebook post. It also marks the beginning of our togetherness in defending our beloved city. Protesters also gathered in shopping centres to mark the anniversary at lunchtime, holding up signs and banners reading Liberate Hong Kong and singing protest songs. Police closed some streets and walkways ahead of possible protests. Expand Close Police in riot gear follow a protest marking the first anniversary of a mass rally against the now-withdrawn extradition bill (AP/Vincent Yu) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Police in riot gear follow a protest marking the first anniversary of a mass rally against the now-withdrawn extradition bill (AP/Vincent Yu) The June 9, 2019, march was in opposition to a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed people in the former British colony, which has its own legal system, to be sent to mainland China to face trial. Organisers said turnout exceeded a million people, while police estimated the crowd at 240,000. In the ensuing months of protests, violent clashes broke out at times between protesters and the police, leading to accusations of police brutality and sparking protester demands for an independent inquiry into police behaviour. There was a lull in protests during the coronavirus outbreak early this year, but as the number of infections has dropped, protesters have returned to the streets to demonstrate against an imminent national security law for Hong Kong as well as a recently approved law that makes it illegal to insult the Chinese national anthem. Critics and protesters say the national security law is a blow to the one country, two systems framework following the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997, which promised the city freedoms not found on the mainland. The semi-autonomous Chinese citys chief executive Ms Lam told reporters: Everyone has to learn their lesson, including the Hong Kong government. Hong Kong cannot bear that kind of chaos, and the people of Hong Kong want a stable and peaceful environment to be able to live and work here happily. Ms Lam did not elaborate on what lessons should be learned. An initiative included in the parade for ratepayers to donate to the lord mayor's charitable trust to support bushfire relief charities through their rates saw 3778 ratepayers donate $15 each, for a total of $56,670. Another $1096.95 was raised through donations on the day of the parade. On January 13, Cr Schrinner's office began planning the parade, discussing who could join a press conference with the lord mayor three days later. "Please let us know as soon as you get some confirmation of Defence Force talent. If need be we can get the lord mayor to touch base prior with the person. We need someone senior," one email from the lord mayor's senior adviser said. Official invitations to QFES and other volunteer organisations to participate in the parade went out hours before the press conference. "We need to email out ASAP to the stakeholders involved in the ticker tape parade inviting them to be part of the parade and its organisation," one email said. "Most urgent being QFES? This needs to be done prior to the 10.30am press conference." A supporter sways his Waltzing Matilda sign as emergency services personnel and volunteers make their way through Brisbane to King George Square. Credit:Jocelyn Garcia QFES confirmed the organisation was not aware of the parade before the announcement, but joined planning for the event a few days later. The council's request for a Defence Force member to attend the press conference was delayed after it was passed up the chain to the Defence Minister Linda Reynolds' office. "... we are told because it involves media it has been forwarded to the minister's office for approval," the lord mayor's adviser emailed to a Defence contact at midday Wednesday, before the Thursday press conference. "Given Army personnel have been deployed from Brisbane to areas around Australia to assist with the bush fire crisis, [the lord mayor] would be delighted if a member of the ADF could attend the media announcement with him." Ultimately, RSPCA Queensland chief executive Darren Maier and a member of the Brisbane SES joined the press conference on Thursday, January 16, with no members of Defence or the firefighting fraternity present. The story had been dropped to News Corp for that day's newspaper, with Cr Schrinner saying it would be an "opportunity for Brisbane residents to recognise and publicly thank our courageous firefighters, defence force, emergency services and wildlife carers for their incredible efforts". The original plan was to have the parade in February, but it was pushed back to March, a move the council attributed to many volunteers still working down in NSW during the bushfire crisis. At the time, questions were asked about the political motivation of holding the parade so close to the March 28 council election, which the lord mayor dismissed as "disappointing". Queenslanders supported the ticker-tape parade in Brisbane's CBD in support of Queensland's fire heroes. Credit:Jocelyn Garcia An internal council PowerPoint presentation noted a "number of people have suggested the lord mayor consider holding a tickertape parade" and at a meeting with volunteer groups, Cr Schrinner said it was a parade they could choose to participate in. The documents also reveal talking points for the lord mayor and deputy mayor Krista Adams were written to reject union comment that money allocated to the parade would have been better spent on equipment. The United Firefighters Union's John Oliver said at the time the union had received no notice of the parade before reading about it in the news, and that firefighters simply did not want such a parade and did not think it necessary. Washington Democrats in Congress proposed a far-reaching overhaul of police procedures and accountability Monday, a sweeping legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement. The political outlook is uncertain for the legislation in a polarized election year. President Donald Trump is staking out a tough "law and order" approach in the face of the outpouring of demonstrations and demands to re-imagine policing in America. "We cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drawing on the nation's history of slavery. Before unveiling the package, House and Senate Democrats held a moment of silence at the Capitol's Emancipation Hall, reading the names of George Floyd and many others killed during police interactions. They knelt for 8 minutes and 46 seconds now a symbol of police brutality and violence the length of time prosecutors say Floyd was pinned under a white police officer's knee before he died. Trump, who met with law enforcement officials at the White House, characterized Democrats as having "gone CRAZY!" As activists beyond Capitol Hill call to restructure police departments and even to "defund the police," the president tweeted, "LAW & ORDER, NOT DEFUND AND ABOLISH THE POLICE." He declared later, "We won't be dismantling our police." Democrats pushed back, saying their plan would not eliminate police departments a decision for cities and states but establish new standards and oversight. Joe Biden, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, "does not believe that police should be defunded," said spokesman Andrew Bates. The Justice in Policing Act, the most ambitious law enforcement reform from Congress in years, confronts several aspects of policing that have come under criticism, especially as more and more police violence is captured on cellphone video and shared widely across the nation and the world. The package would limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force incidents and ban police choke holds, among other changes. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. It would revise the federal criminal police misconduct statute to make it easier to prosecute officers who are involved in "reckless" misconduct and it would change "qualified immunity" protections to more broadly enable damage claims against police in lawsuits. The legislation would ban racial profiling, boost requirements for police body cameras and limit the transfer of military equipment to local jurisdictions. Overall, the bill seeks to provide greater transparency of police behavior in several ways. For one, it would grant subpoena power to the Justice Department to conduct "pattern and practice" investigations of potential misconduct and help states conduct independent investigations. And it would create a "National Police Misconduct Registry," a database to try to prevent officers from transferring from one department to another with past misconduct undetected, the draft says. CHICAGO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As of May 2020, more than 28,000 people have died, greater than a third of COVID-19 deaths, in nursing homes separated from families. This is a hardship not only for families but also for physicians and frontline caregivers. That is why Hucu.ai launched the Patient/Family Messaging as part of the Hucu.ai app, available in android and IOS. This capability allows physicians and frontline workers to use the same patient-centered messaging app that they use every day to now also message back and forth with their patients' families. Benefits include: Physicians/Frontline Workers: No longer tracking down contact info of all concerned relatives every time they need to be contacted. One secure message updates everyone. No longer tracking down contact info of all concerned relatives every time they need to be contacted. One secure message updates everyone. Families: Peace of mind receiving updates and knowing they can message their loved ones and those caring for them (across different organizations) at any time Peace of mind receiving updates and knowing they can message their loved ones and those caring for them (across different organizations) at any time Everyone: Quick & easy way to keep everyone (for a given patient) updated. No more wasted hours of voicemails, emails, 1-1 texts, etc. "Given Hucu's tremendous traction across post-acute care, and through years of seeing the communication challenges among physicians/frontline workers, I knew that we were in a prime position to effectively solve this problem for families and healthcare teams," says Co-founder/CEO Asif Khan. "Lack of organized communication has been a huge problem that was compounded by COVID-19," said Dr. Bader Almoshelli, CEO, Community Physicians. "The ability to communicate with family members will give back significant time in the day to healthcare teams, while also improving patient/family satisfaction tied to quality ratings." How it Works: A physician or a frontline worker simply sends an invite to a family member of a given patient via email or text. Invited family members create a profile and initiate secure messaging with healthcare teams. Authorized healthcare teams can easily switch between their internal discussions to/from family messaging. Learn more: https://www.hucu.ai/patient-family/ About Hucu.ai : Chicago entrepreneurs Asif Khan (Caremerge) and Laura McKee (Autism Home Support Services) founded Hucu.ai, a HIPAA compliant patient-centered messaging network built to address healthcare communication challenges. It's a messaging app with capabilities specific to healthcare. Hucu.ai allows for easy messaging among teams within an organization, with outside physicians and other collaborators, and now with patients & families - all in the context of a given patient. About Community Physicians : Community Physicians is a leading multidisciplinary physician team focused on quality post-acute care. Media Contact: Laura McKee, 773-301-7076, [email protected] SOURCE Hucu.ai Related Links https://www.hucu.ai/ Analysts question the rationale for offensive but agree Haftar is in the back foot. Weakened but not entirely vanquished this is the position that Libyan renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar currently finds himself in. After launching a military campaign to wrest control of the capital in April last year, the 76-year-old was dealt a series of setbacks over the past two months that resulted in the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli bringing most of western Libya back under its control. Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) has since withdrawn to the coastal city of Sirte, some 450km (280 miles) east of Tripoli, and al-Jufra airbase in central Libya. Buoyed by their recent military victories in western Libya, GNA forces have launched an offensive to capture Sirte, with fighting so far concentrated on the citys western and southern outskirts. Known for being the birthplace of former longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi, Sirte holds significant symbolic value as it is located roughly halfway between Tripoli and Haftars bastion of Benghazi in the east. Libya will not be completed without its east, GNA Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha said on Sunday. But symbolism aside, some analysts warned the GNAs decision to continue pursuing Haftar eastwards was counterintuitive and risked jeopardising the gains it has achieved so far. I dont see a strategic rationale for the GNA-aligned militias continued push eastward, said Jason Pack, a fellow at the Middle East Institute and founder of risk consultancy Libya Analysis LLC, in reference to Sirte. Pack said the decision was all the more surprising in light of recent reports suggesting that Turkey and Russia which support the GNA and LNA, respectively appeared to have previously reached an agreement on spheres of influence. If Jufra and Sirte are supposed to reside in the Russian/LNA sphere of influence, this new offensive might reengage Russia, the Emiratis and Egyptians to support, not necessarily Haftar, but the LNA. Whereas if the GNA, had let sleeping dogs lie, they could have proclaimed total victory in their quest to recapture Tripolitania and worked with their Turkish allies on how to consolidate this victory at the international level. Phasing Haftar out Internal dynamics go some way towards explaining the GNAs inclination to opt for a military solution that would see Haftar further marginalised. A number of GNA officials, including Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, have repeatedly refused to hold talks with Haftar, citing the LNAs past violations of ceasefire agreements and attacks on civilian infrastructure, including residential neighbourhoods and hospitals. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq recently met scorn upon his return from talks in Russia after informing his hierarchy that Moscow had declared Sirte a red line. The red lines are drawn by the blood of our martyrs. Only the weak and servile opportunists succumb to foreign pressure, retorted Interior Minister Bashagha in a tweet on Sunday. Meanwhile, events in the Egyptian capital over the weekend may have acted as an incentive for the GNA to pursue its offensive amid suggestions that Haftars foreign backers were looking to phase him out. During a news conference in Cairo on Saturday, Haftar appeared alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, as well as Aguila Saleh, speaker of the eastern-based House of Representatives. Dressed in a suit as opposed to his usual military fatigues Haftar declared his backing for Egypts unilateral ceasefire proposal, after announcing for months the imminent takeover of the capital. Turkeys intervention has allowed GNA-aligned forces to retake large swathes of territory in western Libya [Ismail Zitouny/Reuters] Emadeddin Badi, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and Libya analyst, said the presence of Saleh in Cairo was an indication of the diminishing patience by Haftars foreign supporters. Theres no other figure that anyone can engage with in the east besides him (Saleh), so its the easiest way of having some form of tribal representatives of the eastern bloc but also a political one, said Badi. According to Badi, the LNAs unravelling in western Libya is also causing schisms to emerge among Haftars foreign backers, with the United Arab Emirates and France investing in Haftar as a person and Russia and Egypt betting on his faction as a whole. Further limiting Haftars scope of manoeuvre moving forward is the covert nature of the foreign military backing he has enjoyed. At this juncture, the Emiratis cant back him anymore, at least not enough for him to regain everything he has lost without them compromising their plausible deniability about their involvement in the conflict, Badi said. The French cant do that either, youre left with the Russians and Egyptians whose primary focus, I do not think it is to support Haftar. Their involvement in Libya is not existential. Turkey, in this respect, stands as an outlier, having come open about its role in Libya. This affords Ankara considerable leverage in the way it supports the GNA, according to Badi, and may well see it increase its investment in the GNA. The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature. Latin America Panamanian workers protest reopening of economy Workers belonging to various Panamanian trade unions held street protests June 2 to protest the governments plans to reopen the economy. The decision, beginning with the June 1 reopening of the construction industry, was taken despite the fact that Panama has had 13,000 infections and 350 deaths, the worst record of any Central American nation. The government decreed a shutdown in mid-April, and the weeks that followed were rife with complaints that the promised aid and food distribution were irregular and insufficient. The unions called for a more gradual easing of restrictions to ward off a spike in new infections. The protest included a march through Panama City in which members of the Suntracs construction union carried a mock coffin. The march ended at the Labor Ministry, where Suntracs Secretary General Saul Mendez denounced the decision, saying, Its like throwing everything the people have suffered into the trash. The unions also accused the government of working with employers to weaken labor laws. Mexican hotel workers strike to demand employment stability Some 50 workers for the San Francisco Hotel Inn in Tlaxcala, capital of the Mexican state of the same name, formally initiated a strike June 5, draping the customary red and black flags across the entrance of the building. The workers, who had stayed at home during the first months of the pandemic, were notified June 1 and told to return to their usual shifts. When they showed up, all the doors were locked and there was no activity apparent. The workers were unable to get any response from management. A spokeswoman for the workers told reporters that they decided on the strike because of uncertainty about their jobs and, on attending a hearing before the Conciliation and Arbitration Board, their employer made no concrete proposal. The majority of workers have been employed over 10 years at the hotel. The striking workers have set up and encampment with picket signs and say that they will not leave until they get responses to their demands. Costa Rican banana workers strike over COVID-19 concerns Workers for Finca 3, a banana plantation in Carari, a district in Costa Ricas Pococi canton, went on strike June 5, the day before four workers were found to have contracted COVID-19 and were removed from the premises. The workers also complained that management had not placed adequate sanitary supplies and lavatories at all sites. The workers had asked the Labor Ministry to intervene, but apart from a promise, it has done nothing so far. Dominican dump-truck drivers strike to demand overdue pay Drivers for the Duquesa Municipal Landfill near the Dominican Republic capital Santo Domingo stopped work the morning of June 5 to demand their wages, which they have not received for over a month. Dozens of parked trucks lined the road to the entrance. In January, President Daniel Medina decreed a technical closure of Duquesa, which has not happened yet. The announcement caused consternation among divers, informal workers who scour the dump every day to collect recyclable materials. Some 5,000 divers, who consider 30,000 pesos (US$520) per month to be a good income, scrape by at Duquesa. Duquesa was the scene of a fire, which the government claims was started by criminal hands, that began April 27 and lasted more than a week. The Santo Domingo residents, known as capitalenos, have suffered from respiratory, throat and other maladies resulting from the smoldering smoke cloud produced by the fire, and which still hangs over the city. Colombian teachers hold sit-ins to demand health resources, basic income, change in plans to reopen schools Groups of no more than 50 teachers in Bogota, Cali, Medellin and Bucaramanga held sit-ins on the streets to dramatize their demands June 4. The teachers union federation, Fecode, organized the actions in line with biosafety protocols including social distancing and the wearing of gloves and masks, stating that other teachers were staying at home but in virtual support of the protests. The teachers protested the modelknown as alternation and gradualnessdrawn up by the Education Ministry for the restarting of face-to-face instruction. Classes have been suspended since mid-March, and the ministry is aiming to restart them on August 1. Fecode rejects the scheme because there are no biosafety conditions and teachers, students and parents are at risk, stated a Fecode spokesman. Other issues were highlighted at the sit-ins. Fecode restated its support for a proposal in the Senate to provide a monthly minimum wage of 877,803 pesos (US$245) to unemployed and self-employed workers who have been thrown out of work by the pandemic. It also demanded that the distribution of health resources be better managed. Uruguayan protesters denounce job losses, demand aid Thousands of workers protested in Uruguays capital Montevideo June 4 during a four-hour strike called by the Uruguayan PIT-CNT union federation. The protesters gathered at the Legislative Palace to denounce the hundreds of thousands of layoffs carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Urgent Consideration Law (LUC) promoted by President Luis Lacalle Pou, which was passed ostensibly to help the economy, but which PIT-CNT called regressive and an unfortunate, unconstitutional law that was a bad bet because as well it doesnt attend to the real urgency of the people. Politicians of the PIT-CNT ally Broad Front (Frente Amplio) party, which had lost the presidency and both legislative houses in November after 15 years in power, also spoke. A list of 12 demands was presented at the protest, among them: basic rent for those thrust into unemployment by the pandemic; a minimum salary for all households; aid to small and medium-sized businesses; prohibition of unilateral measures by businesses, such as wage cuts, without negotiation; flexibilize the payment of fares and public services; price controls on anti-pandemic supplies, gas and food; control of speculation; provision of supplies for health workers; hygienic measures for schools and public transportation; access to health facilities for all people; apply measures to prevent femicide. United States Strike at Oregon distillery enters second month Workers at Hood River Distillers in Hood River, Oregon, are entering their second month on strike against unilateral cuts in health insurance and retirement compensation. The 25 members of Teamsters Local 670 first walked off the job on May 6. The Teamsters union says they settled the wage portion of the contract, but after 13 months of negotiations they were deadlocked on medical and pension issues. The company has imposed a more inferior 401(k) plan on strikers that currently covers Hood River non-union workers. Production at the facility is largely at a standstill despite the companys threat to hire replacement workers. Railroad workers have refused to cross picket lines to deliver seven tanker cars containing bulk alcohol, and when the air conditioning unit in the plant broke down, HVAC repair crews also honored picket lines. California blueberry farm workers strike against pay cut Farm workers at Durango Farm Management in California walked off the job May 3 after management unilaterally cut their pay for picking blueberries. When we got here this morning, they told us that if we want to work today, the price would be $6.50 per container, said a striker. They are paying us too little, said another worker. In the store, these are really expensive. Normally, workers are paid $7 per container, with each container of blueberries weighing about 12 pounds. That works out to a mere 54 cents per pound. Considered essential workers in the current pandemic, these farm workers are required to buy their own equipment, which can cost $45 to $50. Canada Frontline workers fight for COVID-19 compensation Despite the occasional fine words about heroic frontline workers spouted by government officials across Canada, essential workers in health care and retail sectors continue to fight for adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and compensation that has been promised but seldom delivered. Hospital and long-term care employees in British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario report, five months since the global pandemic was declared, that they are still forced to re-use masks and other PPE when supplies run short. In Manitoba, only about one-half of grocery store workers are eligible for the C$1,000 bonuses promised for workers regularly attending their jobs and are demanding inclusion. In British Columbia, the New Democratic Party government has refused to include retail workers in a recently announced plan to compensate frontline workers. In Saskatchewan, 12,000 health care workers in the Service Employees International Union have been without a new contract for three years and have been stonewalled by the right-wing Scott Moe government. The workers have now threatened job action. Employees in the government workers union and CUPE have called for a wage top-up program in that province. In an insult to low-wage workers across Saskatchewan, the Moe government announced a 13-cent-per-hour October increase in the minimum wage, which already is the lowest in Canada. In Quebec, the countrys pandemic epicenter, 1,300 Montreal-area government speech therapists, physiotherapists, social workers and psychologists have been involuntarily reassigned to work as aides to patient attendants in the drastically understaffed long-term care facilities. The workers, who have been scheduled into 2021 for the dangerous assignments, are demanding that the government fill the placements with attractive wages so they can return to their fields of expertise. Chandigarh, June 9 : Even as he appealed to the farmers to strictly adhere to the COVID-19 health protocols in the Kharif sowing season beginning Wednesday, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday assured of uninterrupted 8-hour power supply for tube wells and regular water supply for paddy transplantation. In a message to the farmers, the Chief Minister urged them to wear face masks, and diligently follow all health protocols advised by the authorities from time to time. With corona cases rising across India, Punjab could not remain isolated, he warned. Expressing confidence about another bumper Kharif season, Amarinder Singh urged all Punjab farmers to strictly follow all social distancing norms and other precautions. Amid the coronavirus crisis, Punjab had procured 128 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of wheat without a single corona infection case from 4,000 mandis across the state. This, said the Chief Minister, had demonstrated the successful implementation of social distancing norms during the 40-day process, which the farmers had managed against all odds. Amarinder Singh expressed satisfaction at the initial results of the unique direct sowing method for paddy, for which the state government has provided machines to farmers this season. The results have been encouraging, with paddy needing less water, he said, adding that the technique is also less labour-intensive. The state has been encouraging the use of these machines due to reduced migrant worker availability and lesser danger of infections compared with manual sowing. The five worst-affected countries, as per the JHU tracker, US, Brazil, Russia, United Kingdom, followed by India. The World Health Organisation (WHO) held a virtual press conference in Geneva this week, where the agency's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern over the rising number of infections in the US. He reiterated that the situation is worsening globally over time. The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) situation world over is deteriorating, he reiterated, warning nations against becoming complacent and easing necessary restrictions to keep the pandemic from spreading further. Ghebreyesus pointed out that the WHO recorded the highest single-day spike in coronavirus cases after a surge in the American continents. As of 9 June 2020, over 7.1 million (7,119,736 people, to be exact) globally have been infected with Covid-19, while 4,06,542 people have reportedly lost their lives to the pandemic, in the last six months when it went global. "Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference in Geneva. "More than 1,00,000 cases have been reported on nine of the past 10 days. Yesterday, more than 1,36,000 cases were reported the most in a single day so far." The five worst-affected countries, as per the JHU tracker: US (1,961,185 infected/1,11,007 deaths), Brazil (7,07,412 infected/37,134 deaths), Russia (4,76,043 infected/5,963 deaths), United Kingdom (2,88,834 infected/40,680 deaths), India (2,66,598 infected/7,473 deaths) Ghebreyesus said that 75 percent of the reported Covid-19 cases came from just ten countries, and the most affected regions were South America and South Asia. (Also read: Warning against the second wave of Coronavirus, Europe's CDC director says 'its not the time now to completely relax') "The biggest threat is now complacency", Ghebreyesus said, adding that "most people globally are still susceptible to infection. More than six months into this pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal." Another looming threat in the still-growing pandemic is the string of mass protests against racism that have broken out in the United States as well as European countries after the killing of George Floyd, which has sparked fears of a second wave of new Covid-19 cases. "WHO fully supports equality and the global movement against racism. We reject discrimination of all kinds...We encourage all those protesting around the world to do so safely," the WHO chief went on to say. "As much as possible, keep at least one metre from others, clean your hands, cover your cough, and wear a mask if you attend a protest." The chief also insisted that anyone with symptoms of Covid-19 should stay home and seek out help from a healthcare professional. Delhi may record 44,000 COVID-19 cases by June 15 and it would need 6,600 beds in hospitals Medics take samples of suspected COVID-19 patients for lab test at a government hospital, during the ongoing nationwide lockdown to curb spread of coronavirus, in New Delhi. PTI photo Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's coronavirus test has returned negative. Delhi, that is witnessing a steep rise in novel coronavirus cases on a daily basis, may by July end have 5.5 lakh cases. Delhis Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that going by present doubling rate in the city, which is 12.6 days, Delhi may soon be under the grip of the deadly virus and may need roughly 80,000 beds for patients gasping for breath. Incidentally, World Health Organisation (WHO) too has said that COVID-19 pandemic situation was worsening around the globe. However, the Central government continues to insist that there was no community transmission of COVID-19 in the city yet. Delhi may record 44,000 COVID-19 cases by June 15 and it would need 6,600 beds in hospitals. By June 30, there would be one lakh cases of coronavirus in Delhi and we will need 15,000 beds. It is estimated that Delhi will record 2.15 lakh cases by July 15 and 33,000 beds would be required. There might be 5.5 lakh cases by July 31 and Delhi would need 80,000 beds," Mr Sisodia said. He added that in the given scenario, Delhi needs beds and ventilators for its owns residents who may have to scramble for these if people from outside Delhi are allowed to occupy beds in the city. Delhi recorded 2289 fresh cases taking the COVID-19 tally in the city to close to 30,000 and the death toll to 874 after 113 new fatalities were reported. The recovery rate in Delhi is 37.92 per cent, much below the national average of 48.47 per cent. On Tuesday, Delhi Chief Minister tested negative for COVID-19 but former Congress leader who has now joined BJP, Jyotiraditya Scindia, tested positive and was admitted to hospital. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain blamed Centre for the spurt in cases of COVID-19 in the city due to flight operations. "Epidemiologically, community transmission is third stage of the infection... In Delhi, of the new cases being reported, in nearly half of the cases, the source of infection is not known," the health minister said. In Maharashtra, that has reported over 88,000 cases, which is higher than China, on Tuesday, 54-year old Deputy Municipal Commissioner of Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation died of the virus and as per reports, 55 employees of BMC have died due to the virus and close to 2000 are under treatment. Places like Sikkim and Daman that were so far clear of the virus too have started reporting cases. Fearing fast spread of novel coronovirus due to opening up of public places, Meghalaya government on Tuesday withdrew its earlier order that allowed religious places to reopen doors to devotees from June 14 saying congregations of any kind would have to be avoided for the time being, given the unrelenting rise in COVID-19 cases. So far 10 cases of COVID-19 have also been detected among the Tibetan community living in India, of which 4 have recovered, 5 are under treatment and 1 has died. According to the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the few positive cases that have recently surfaced in the Tibetan community were all found to have travel history to red zones, mainly Delhi. CTA has asked its people to help check community transmission in its initial stage. Tibetan Health Department has started door-to-door screening of its persons and is also distributing immunity boosting Tibetan medicines among its 25 settlements throughout India. India on Tuesday had 9982 fresh cases and 336 new deaths and according to union health ministry total 2,66, 598 cases and 7471 deaths have been reported in the country so far. However, other agencies like Covid19India.org said there were 2,70,876 cases and 7554 deaths in India while John Hopkins said it were 2,68,125 cases and 7487 deaths by Tuesday evening. The Health ministry has deployed multi-disciplinary central teams to 15 States/UTs that have more than 50districts/municipal bodies witnessing high case load and high spurt of virus, to assist the State Governments by providing technical support for containment and facilitate management of COVID-19 outbreak. These States/UTs are: Maharashtra (7 districts/municipalities), Telangana (4), Tamil Nadu (7), Rajasthan (5),Assam (6), Haryana (4), Gujarat (3), Karnataka (4), Uttarakhand (3), Madhya Pradesh (5), West Bengal (3), Delhi (3), Bihar (4), Uttar Pradesh (4), and Odisha (5). In the face of dire living conditions, the normally loyal costal province of Lattakia has witnessed protests and slogans on the wall writes The Levant. In light of the escalating living crisis in Syria, and the frightening rise in prices, the country has seen popular protests against the regimes economic policies. These policies have also spurred boiling anger on the Syrian coast, a result of what is being called the Syriatel crisis and its consequences. The crisis has featured a division seen through Rami Makhloufs speeches over social media and ensuing regime statements, as well as the seizure of funds and judicial custody. This spat has now come out into the open as both sides try to mobilize their supporters. Meanwhile, the division is being observed by civilians who are not concerned with the conflict between the two parties, and have always been used as cover for the political and monetary ambitions of both sides. The Levant has gained information on developments along the Syrian coast, where Jableh in particular has seen heightened tension. That tension is reflected in protest slogans on walls, as prices reach unprecedented levels. Sources told The Levant that the Jableh municipality has witnessed, protest slogans spread across city walls. Schools, buildings and everywhere are filled with slogans calling for the fall of the regime for the first time. Previous slogans were demanding matters of lesser importance without touching on this particular demand. According to one source, Bouthaina Shaabans speech on steadfastness only made matters worse. The price of one container of baby formula reached 11,000 Syrian pounds, while stores have started selling triangle cheese by the piece instead of by the container. Medicines have been completely lost. Jableh has seen these types of protests only once before, the source added. That was when Suleiman Hilal al-Assad killed Hassan al-Sheikh over a traffic dispute. At the time, protest demands were directed at Bashar al-Assad, with people demanding the execution of Suleiman al-Assad. 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. (Photo : REUTERS/Ann Wang) A train approaches a metro station at sunset in Taipei, Taiwan, June 8, 2020. Picture taken June 8, 2020. The World Health Organization says the spread of coronavirus from people with no symptoms is "rare," following warnings from various experts around the world that such transmission is more common. Citing data obtained by the WHO, Van Kerkhove said there is spread between asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic people. Still, he suggested concentrating on tracking and isolating symptomatic individuals to help combat the outbreak. "From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person transmits onward to [another] individual," Van Kerkhove said on Monday. ALSO READ: Shocking Coronavirus Update: COVID-19 Can be Transmitted to Online Items Even After 9 Days - Study What exactly does it mean to be asymptomatic? If you're still asymptomatic, that means you're sick with a virus, but you're never showing signs of illness. Those typical symptoms in the case of coronavirus will be dry cough, fever, and fatigue. However, people with asymptomatic COVID-19 disease can be contagious as health officials have repeatedly stressed to follow strict social-distancing measures. The WHO has said this is rarer than commonly thought, but it can happen in nursing homes and household settings. While the comments drew questions from Twitter experts, this may simply be a matter of semantics. Various experts previously pointed out the misuse of the term "asymptomatic" when referring to "pre-symptomatic" patients. Dr. Ashish K. Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, tweeted the distinction and noted that the agency "should be clearer in communication." The official also said that "some models" suggest 40 percent to 60% of the spread is from people who have no symptoms. ALSO READ: NEW CORONAVIRUS STUDY: Flu is Not The Early Sign of COVID-19 But Stomach Ache! How many people with the coronavirus are asymptomatic? Some studies report alarmingly high numbers. In early April, one laboratory in Iceland said that as many as 50% of cases could be asymptomatic. In the same month, the top medical research body in India reported that 80 of the 100 people they studied had no symptoms. In one homeless shelter in Boston, where 400 guests stayed in April, 146 positively tested for COVID-19, all of which were reported asymptomatic. According to Reuters, at least half of the newly discovered cases of coronavirus in Singapore show no symptoms. What do health officials say, then? CDC estimated that at least 25% of people with coronavirus could be asymptomatic. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reported that 25 to 50% of cases may be asymptomatic. Is it possible that some people who were asymptomatic when they were tested later showed symptoms? Absolutely. Van Kerkhove told ProPublica she believes many cases were wrongly classified as asymptomatic when they were pre-symptomatic. Pre-symptomatic people do not have symptoms when testing positive, but then develop symptoms. Some examples of this have been documented. For example, the CDC discovered that of the 13 patients in a Washington State nursing facility who did not show any symptoms after testing positive for coronavirus, then later developed symptoms. It is also possible that some people who have been tested have their own symptoms underplayed. "Most of the people who were thought to be asymptomatic aren't truly asymptomatic," said Van Kerkhove. "When [WHO] went back and interviewed them, most of them said [the patients] didn't feel well but didn't think it was an important thing [for them] to mention," she added. Dr. Jeffrey Shaman, an expert on infectious diseases at Columbia University, cautioned against wasting too much time on the asymptomatic-presymptomatic theoretical controversy. "The bottom line is that there are people out there shedding the virus who don't know that they're infected," he told the New York Times. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Subscriber content preview SEATTLE An apartment complex at 2531-2541 29th Ave. S. sold for a little under $7.6 million, according to King County records. The buyer was CRE Mt Baker Partners LLC, which is associated with Cadence Real Estate. Public records indicate a loan from M&T Bank. . . . Advertisements and Android smartphones dont really go well together. You wouldnt want adverts popping up on your phone willy-nilly as you try to switch between apps, attempt to use an app or perhaps just be trying to play a game. Some smartphone makers, such as Xiaomi, have been in the line of fire in the not too recent past for cluttering up the MIUI interface on most Xiaomi phones. Now it seems, and it is pure rumors at this time mind you, Samsung is planning to do the same. Some leaked images of what are supposed to be the One UI 2.5 updates show that there will be adverts injected into some of some of the stock apps on the phone as well as scattered around the UI. The leaked images, published by a tech blog Tizen Help, suggest that there will be ads on the lock screen with a 15 second timer (apparently), there will be ads in some of Samsungs own apps and perhaps even in the notifications dropdown. The thing to consider is, Samsung doesnt follow the same revenue model as the Chinese phones makers who have already been injecting invasive and frankly very annoying advertisements into the smartphone user interface, including the likes of Xiaomi, Realme and Vivo. At least it hasn't, thus far. If indeed this is true and Samsung is looking at new revenue streams, it will have to do the balancing act rather well. Unlike most of the Chinese phone companies who rely on the popularity and sales of the more affordable phones, Samsung has the Galaxy S series, the Galaxy Note series, the Galaxy Z Flip and the Galaxy Fold to think ofall premium phones in their own right. Those users will most certainly not want adverts ruining the premium smartphone usage experience. This is something Xiaomi also realized and insisted that MIUI on the premium Mi 10 will be ad-free, because it is very true that someone who is spending on a premium smartphone will not appreciate adverts. Could it be then that Samsung may consider these for the really affordable phones that it intends to launch, and this might help it further slash the price to compete better with the Chinese smartphone brands? It is not yet confirmed when One UI 2.5 will roll out for Samsung phones. A constellation of Black names on a boarded up window. An indigenous giant reminding us Together we rise. Black and Brown fists rising from the soil. Larenz Tate from Dead Presidents aiming a 9mm pistol that shoots a rose instead of bullets. A Black child with braided hair. Portraits of George Floyd and memorials for Breonna Taylor. A lilac purple reminder that Black girls deserve better. This is Oakland right now. Matter of fact, this has always been Oakland. Oakland has its own issues, but this week while the rest of the country grapples with how broken it truly is, it's become a focal display of the radical future that many others are beginning to understand is possible. Its a colorful world, a world filled with healing and community and love and cookouts and resistance and music and truth without police brutality. And its now painted on every intersection in downtown. In what has now gone viral, murals from various Oakland artists and youth occupy the city in the aftermath of two weeks worth of marching and organizing. The art originally started on Friday, May 29th, during the first of many protests against the racist killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor -- among so many others -- and quickly took off. Hours later, the city became a living art gallery. Different collectives, including Trust Your Struggle and Good Mother Gallery, banded together to take over their city, literally painting streets and beautifying boarded up windows everywhere. After a history of invisibility what better way to declare yourself against the oppressor than becoming so visible that you can no longer be unseen? For so long, Oakland has dealt with loss and erasure. Not only the loss of Black and Brown lives, but the loss of property, the loss of resources, the loss of community presence, and in many cases, the loss of any hope to see your familys longevity remain, as the violences of gentrification and predatory policing rip a hole bigger than the Oakland Coliseum in this community. RELATED: Woman who rode horse at Oakland protest gets her own mural So, along with the abolition of police terror a constant presence in marginalized communities these artists are responding to the struggles of simply existing in a place that has been designed to eliminate them, in more than one way. This moment is a snapshot in time of a much bigger picture showing a rooted and proud place that refuses to be silenced. Thats why local Filipinx artist Cece Carpio and Andre Jones, a community organizer and Executive Director of the Bay Area Mural Project, became involved in contributing their own time, money, and resources to reclaim their home space. For them, its not about fitting into a trend of the moment, its about being the voice of the people now and forever. [The] majority of these artists arent even getting paid. But its important to document this. When we study any ancient civilization we start by looking at their art. Why? Why not politics? Well, thats not the voice of the people, they just want re-election, Jones says. If you want to know what people are living, thinking and feeling, go study the artists of that place because artists will never bite their tongue. Even children can understand and feel what we are sharing. Indeed, their art doesnt so much represent an impossible hope as it represents the affirmation of a long-known reality. Because in Oakland, laughing from a place of deep joy while kicking it with your favorite cousin, while reading Huey P. Newtons biography, while circumventing police harassment, while protesting for human dignity, while expressing every fabric of yourself for others to understand isnt new. Its a long-held feeling. And trust that no one is biting their tongues about it. Yes, this overnight art gallery was born from the momentum of Black Lives Matter protests, but it is more than that. They are timeless messages of solidarity, unity, activism, and love from the people who practice those values and want others to practice them in their own communities, too. Perhaps thats why it resonates with us all, because it feels necessary in these times. You dont have to be from here to know that there is something urgently human about seeing joy reflected in the environment around you, especially in 2020s unprecedented moments of grief and uncertainty. Its tragic and heartbreaking that it took a worldwide quarantine and the literal erasures of George Floyd and Breonna Taylors breathing among the other Black lives robbed from us to finally get the privileged mainstream American audience to stop, look and listen. But now that their eyes and minds are at attention, these Oakland artists are delivering with messages that have been carved into the bones of this city for decades. The message is: we exist, we are proud, we embody beauty, we are tired of systemic hatred, and although we welcome all, we refuse to be removed from where we stand. We will breathe. RELATED: Oakland in protest: A city of defiance and progress Its poetic how downtown walls that once belonged to Chase and promoted new APR rates have been reclaimed by people demanding their human rights. How corporate properties that once conveyed a stale emptiness now narrate a revolution taking place. Its a metaphoric overlap that captures our moment like none other. The people literally taking back whats theirs. I wasnt raised in Oakland. I grew up in the South Bay Area, and now live in Richmond. But Ive had the privilege of living and teaching in Oakland and have seen it through the eyes of many family members, friends, students, creators, rappers, activists, educators, parents, business owners, hustlers, athletes, poets, and of course, artists. Everything that Ive been lucky to understand about this city over my lifetime is now flourishing in bright and big colors for the outside world to finally understand. These murals are an invitation, but also a reminder of who built this place, and who will fight to keep calling it home. As muralist Carpio reminds us, The history of Oakland and what Oakland stands for is being hella proud. The people here have always been ready to fight. The art is only a small part in terms of the bigger movement. This is one component. Oakland is Oakland. Its always ready to fight. The folks here have had that history and experience and spirit and wont back down, and thats what makes the city special. Authors Note: as mentioned, many of these artists are paying out of pocket for the supplies needed to turn Oakland into a free art museum. Visit and consider supporting organizations such as Trust Your Struggle, the Bay Area Mural Project, Good Mother Gallery, and continue to support all Black and POC owned businesses in Oakland, including Dope Era, The Hatch, and Somar (among many others). Alan Chazaro is a first-generation Mexican American freelancer, and author of This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album (Black Lawrence Press, 2019) and the forthcoming Pinata Theory (Black Lawrence Press, 2020). He is currently a creative writing adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco, and is a writer and editor of NBA stories at HeadFake. Find him on Twitter @alan_chazaro. Political Bureau of C.C., WPK Meets under Guidance of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un Korean Central News Agency of DPRK Pyongyang, June 8 (KCNA) -- The 13th Political Bureau meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) was held on June 7 at a time when the entire Party, the whole country and all the people have vigorously turned out in the general offensive for glorifying the 75th founding anniversary of the WPK as the great festival of victors true to the great idea and strategy of the Party for making a breakthrough head-on and its action program. Kim Jong Un, chairman of the WPK, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and supreme commander of the armed forces of the DPRK, was present in the meeting. Attending the meeting were members and alternate members of the Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK. Vice-premiers of the Cabinet, some chairpersons of provincial party committees and leading officials of committees and ministries were there as observers. Upon authorization of the Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK, Supreme Leader of the Party, state and armed forces Kim Jong Un presided over the meeting. The meeting discussed in depth some crucial issues arising in further developing the self-sufficient economy of the country and improving the standard of people's living. Discussed as the first agenda items were some urgent problems arising in developing the chemical industry of the country in a well-defined framework. He indicated orientation and way to reconstruct the chemical industry as required by Juche and modernity and put it on a track of sustainable development. Repeatedly stressing that the chemical industry is the foundation of industry and a major thrust front of the national economy, he recollected that the Party, regarding the chemical and metallurgical industries as twin pillars of the self-supporting economy, set forth the policy of founding the C1 chemical industry to suit to the specific conditions of the country and to meet the world's trend at its Seventh Congress and has since pushed forward with the work. Recalling that the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the Seventh Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea discussed the issues of establishing the C1 chemical industry and of building the fertilizer production capacity as core points in developing the chemical industry, the Supreme Leader clarified the plan and will of waging a bold struggle to put the overall chemical industry on a Juche and modern basis. The premier of the Cabinet made a report on the review by the scientific group of the scientific and technical guarantee and economic efficiency of founding C1 chemical industry, and the present situation of the chemical industry. The meeting heard suggestions on earlier completion of founding C1 chemical industry and had in-depth discussion of issues of opening a broad avenue to the development of chemical industry. The chemical industrial field has to be activated first to propel and guarantee the economic development of the country, the Supreme Leader said, setting forth immediate tasks for propping up the chemical industry as a whole. He stressed the need to give top priority to increasing the capacity for producing fertilizer, to begin with, in the chemical industrial field and push forward this work and put particular emphasis on promptly settling scientific and technological issues of founding potassic fertilizer industry based on our own raw materials. Indicating orientation and immediate goal for energizing existent chemical factories, the Supreme Leader pointed out the need to conduct in a far-sighted way the work to explore chemical industrial field based on new raw materials. He underlined the need to actively propel the work to perfect and update in a modern way the structure of sectors of the chemical industry. He clarified that the new structure of sectors of Juche-based chemical industry should be multi-lateral production system, which is saving energy, labor and natural resources and which is technology-intensive and development-and-creation-oriented, that produces nonstop all kinds of chemical goods enough to meet demand thoroughly based on locally available raw and other materials. He called for building reliable national level scientific research force, actively pushing forward the development of catalyst and laying a material foundation for developing catalyst technology, catalyst industry. He stressed the importance to carry out substantial work to build talent force in chemical industrial field and to bring up a greater number of talents of practical type who are development-and-creation-oriented in the field of education. As the second agenda item the meeting discussed immediate issues of ensuring living conditions for citizens in the capital city. Pointing out in detail the issues that have to be urgently settled to ensure living conditions of citizens in the city, the Supreme Leader stressed to take strong state measures for ensuring the living conditions of people including the construction of dwelling houses. Important issues for settling issues arising as regards the living conditions of Pyongyang citizens were discussed at the meeting. A resolution on the first and second agenda items was adopted with full approval at the meeting. As the third agenda item, the meeting examined before ratification the suggestion on modifying some rule-related matters arising in the present party work and reflecting them in a draft amendment to the party rules. The fourth agenda item was an organizational matter. There was a by-election of an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee. Kim Yong Hwan was by-elected as an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee. Members and alternate members of the WPK Central Committee were recalled and elected to fill vacancies. Ko Kil Son, Kim Jong Nam, Song Yong Gon were by-elected as members from alternate members while Ri Jae Nam, Kwon Thae Yong and Kwon Yong Jin as members of the WPK Central Committee. Rim Yong Chol, Kang Il Sop, Sin In Yong, Ri Kyong Chon, Kim Ju Sam, Kim Jong Chol, Choe Kwang Jun, Yang Myong Chol, Kim Yong Chol, Pak Man Ho were by-elected as alternate members of the WPK Central Committee. The 13th Political Bureau meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the WPK marked an important occasion in further consolidating the foundation and potential of the self-supporting national economy, giving top priority to the people's dignity, rights and interests under the uplifted banner of people-first principle and opening up a broad avenue to improving the standard of people's living to meet the requirements of the prevailing situation of the revolution. -0- (2020.06.08) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address BAGHDAD The police killing of George Floyd and the ensuing protests in the United States are being used by Iraqi activists to raise awareness about the rights of African-Iraqis. At the same time, many Iraqi protesters have drawn parallels to the US movement, criticizing the way the Iraqi authorities have been dealing with Iraqi protests since they began in October 2019. Online debate has recently focused on the fate of the African-Iraqi minority, which has been deprived of official recognition and political representation in government. The debate has evoked the 2013 assassination in Basra of the most prominent African-Iraqi figure, Jalal Diab. Diab was an African-Iraqi leader who founded the Movement of Free Iraqis (Ansar al-Huriya) in 2007 to protect Iraq's black community, which is estimated at about 400,000. Iraqi activist Ammar Jassem, who served as vice president of the Movement of Free Iraqis, said he was determined to organize a demonstration to give voice to African-Iraqi rights on the occasion of Floyd's death. But the event was canceled due to the fear of the African-Iraqi community. Since the assassination of Diab, he told Al-Monitor, things are no longer the same. "The bullet that penetrated [Diab's] body assassinated all our dreams as a minority seeking equality," said Jassem. African-Iraqis are of several ethnicities. Some are Nubians from Egypt; others are from Zanzibar, Ethiopia and Ghana. They are mostly located in Basra province, particularly in Az Zubayr and Abu al-Khaseeb. African-Iraqi heritage expert Sawra Yusuf told Al-Monitor, Each group has different rites. The Nubians from south Egypt in Africa, al-Habash from Ethiopia and the Kenyans from the coast share Bambassa tribal roots. They all were transferred during slavery time in the Abbasid caliphate between 750 and 785." Blogger Mouayed Sari took to his Facebook page to bring to the forefront African-Iraqis' struggle to gain their rights. He told Al-Monitor that it would only be fair for every Iraqi to put themselves in the shoes of this tormented minority and read about them and their plight throughout the past centuries. He believes this is all part of the collective awareness awakened by the October Revolution that broke out across Iraq in 2019. I hear many complaints along the lines of the majority itself is deprived of rights in this country, so how do you expect minorities to attain their rights, and I believe that such logic is no longer acceptable after the October Revolution in Iraq, as justice should be inclusive of all individuals. But it should first start with the courage of recognition. In this context, the recognition of the injustice that occurred to the Iraqi people is a valid approach to achieving comprehensive social justice, Sari noted. On Nov. 5, 2009, Basras African-Iraqis celebrated the victory of former US President Barack Obama, who thus became a role model for Diab and his comrades. A noticeable change in Iraqi awareness in terms of the rights of this forgotten minority can be seen between Obama's victory in 2009 and Floyds death in 2020, as activists have begun comparing African-Iraqi Diab to African American Floyd, both of whom were victims of racial discrimination and persecution of black people in their societies. In this context, journalist Ali Abdul Ameer Ejam posted a short video on YouTube about the struggle of Diab, who declared the Movement of Free Iraqis to defend the rights of African-Iraqis. The video, which was published as part of a series of videos that Ejam called Iraqi Paradoxes, is titled "Angry at the killing of an African American, but silent about the assassination of African-Iraqi citizens from Basra." Ejam used this video to highlight how Iraqis are disturbed by Floyds killing, which is a positive reflection of human solidarity, but they do not lift a finger when a fellow Iraqi citizen such as Diab is killed. He believes this shows the hypocrisy and double standards because cross-border human and cultural solidarity is indivisible. The comparison is no longer about simply being a victim of discriminatory policies; rather, it is being used by Iraqi activists to criticize the misinformation used by a wide segment of commentators who justified the involvement of Adel Abdul-Mahdis government in killing hundreds of Iraqi citizens in the protests months ago but now criticize US President Donald Trump and his government on dealing with the protests over Floyd's killing. This controversy sheds light once again on the reasons behind Diabs assassination in 2013 after his demands for the rights of all 400,000 African-Iraqis constituted a threat to the parties of political Islam, especially since such demands were associated with an awakening of identity that invoked American figures that these parties consider hostile for ideological reasons. Diab had posters of Martin Luther King Jr. and Obama on the walls of his school that was dedicated to teaching underprivileged African-Iraqis in the slums of Az Zubayr. It was a message of defiance and the sign of a culture that those parties feared, especially amid the Iranian-American rivalry for influence in a region rich in energy and ethnic diversity. African-Iraqi activists are breathing life into Diabs demands for their political rights and underlining how political recognition is the best way to end discrimination at the social level. Other activists focus on the cultural aspects, document the rituals and heritage of African-Iraqis, and stress the need to preserve their distinct cultural identity. Thawra Yousif, an expert on African-Iraqi folklore, told Al-Monitor, Ending discrimination is a cultural issue, and by developing awareness over the importance of the African-Iraqi culture, justice can be achieved even if this does not result in political representation. Today, both Floyd and Diab have become icons of a struggle that has awoken demands for social justice, equality, and an end to discrimination in both Iraqi and American societies. However, the image of Diab is more powerful and iconic in regards to black people's rights in Iraq, since he was a civilian activist influenced by Martin Luther King Jr., demanded an end to racial discrimination, and called for political equality and granting African-Iraqis a quota in power that was equal to other minorities. The Trump administration has expressed little concern over climate change as it pursues its goal of American dominance in the energy market. Federal judges say it should be concerned. At least six times since President Donald Trump took office, courts have rebuked the Interior Department for selling drilling rights or advancing oil projects without adequately considering the consequences to a warming planet. The decisions have jeopardized high-stakes oil development plans across more than a million acres of federal land. The courtroom defeats have dealt a blow to Trump's energy dominance agenda even as he campaigns for reelection on promises to rebuild the American economy -- and brushes aside environmental concerns in the process. Just last week, Trump signed an executive order empowering federal agencies to speed up large infrastructure projects by sidestepping key environmental protections, citing the urgency of economic recovery after the covid-19 pandemic to justify the emergency action. The court rulings also call into question the durability of Trump's efforts to unleash domestic fossil fuel development. If he is defeated for reelection in November, the decisions will make it easier for a new president to swiftly undo the initiatives. "Judges all over the country are saying you can't ignore climate when you're leasing fossil fuels," said Pat Gallagher, director of the Sierra Club's environmental law program. "The judges aren't going to ignore climate even if Trump wants to." The latest climate-related defeat came in May, when Montana-based U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris tossed out 287 oil and gas leases spanning 145,063 acres in the state more than two years after the federal government sold those drilling rights. Morris said the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management failed to adequately scrutinize the consequences of its decision making, even though courts have consistently said such a "hard look" is required under the National Environmental Policy Act. Morris faulted the bureau for failing to consider how the leases would affect the climate when added to other past and "reasonably foreseeable" future actions. Focusing only on the potentially negligible emissions from a single lease sale or energy project isn't enough in the face of a global threat, Morris said. In a series of rulings examined by Bloomberg, federal judges have insisted government agencies must do a better job examining how pipelines, coal leasing and oil development projects affect not just conventional environmental concerns such as wildlife protection, clean air and water quality -- but also the climate. "We see a clear trend of federal courts finding that the federal agencies must consider the cumulative climate impacts of fossil fuel leasing," said Michael Gerrard, director of Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Meanwhile, "the Trump administration has a clear policy of encouraging fossil fuel production and resists any disclosures that could interfere." At the Bureau of Land Management, that approach has translated into a series of narrowly drawn environmental analyses of individual decisions on oil leasing and management. The bureau also applied that narrow focus to oil drilling decisions under former President Barack Obama but has continued it under Trump -- even as federal judges make clear it is inadequate. Gerrard called it self-defeating. --- "If your real objective is to maximize fossil fuel production, the best defensive stance is to cross all the T's and dot all the I's in your review," Gerrard said. "If you intentionally close your eyes you're asking for trouble." So far, trouble is exactly what the land management bureau has gotten. Federal judges have found an array of problems with the bureau's climate analysis -- when it exists it all. For example, in 2019, a Washington-based federal judge called out the bureau for broadly explaining the potential effects of climate change only at the conceptual level without explaining the "direct, indirect, and cumulative climate impacts" of greenhouse gas emissions that would be unleashed by issuing 282 leases spanning more than 303,000 acres in Wyoming. On similar lines, a federal judge in December asked the bureau to update its environmental analysis of an SG Interests gas project in the Colorado River Basin, which spanned both the Obama and Trump administrations. The judge found the bureau failed to take into account the emissions that would be released when oil and gas extracted there was eventually burned to produce electricity, heat homes and fuel cars. However the judge stopped short of vacating the leases, saying that would be "disruptive" as SG had already spent more than 10 years seeking approval of its proposed operations. The Interior Department defended its approach, saying in an emailed statement that the agency was pursuing "reliable, affordable energy from America for Americans, while preserving a healthy environment through responsible development." --- "Special interest groups bring numerous, frivolous lawsuits against the department to show their donors that they are 'taking action,'" the agency said. "It is hardly surprising that these frequent-filer litigants can sometimes find forums to temporarily slow administrative actions." Nevertheless, the administration's poor track record in court is jeopardizing some oil company investments. At least one of the leases tossed out by Morris last month already is actively producing oil and gas, according to government data reviewed by WildEarth Guardians, an environmental group that mounted the successful challenge. The ruling also could curb plans by other companies holding some of the vacated leases, including Oklahoma-based Continental Resources and Kirkwood Oil & Gas. Separately, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been forced to suspend its program for fast-tracking pipelines such as Keystone XL, after environmentalists successfully challenged the agency's handling of endangered species concerns. Another case in federal court illustrates the stakes. Oil and gas companies that spent nearly $192 million on eight leases in Montana, Utah and Wyoming may be prevented from buying new tracts to expand their operations, after a federal judge issued an injunction halting lease sales in and after December 2018. The Western Energy Alliance, an industry trade group fighting to get a suit challenging the lease sales thrown out, warned in a court filing before the ruling that the leasing freeze would cause "millions of dollars of invested capital to sit idle," with the harm "compounded by lost opportunity costs of that capital and having to reallocate personnel resources." --- "It throws uncertainty into the system" without environmental gain, said Kathleen Sgamma, head of the alliance. Even if oil and gas development is blocked on federal lands, people will still need oil and gas to fuel their cars and heat their homes, she said. "You can almost argue that greenhouse gas analysis is fairly irrelevant, because if we don't produce it here in the United States, we're importing it from overseas, in which case the greenhouse gas emissions are actually higher." The rulings pose even greater risk for the oil industry if Trump loses re-election. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has vowed to halt new oil, gas and coal leasing on federal lands. If he is elected, any disputed oil and gas leases would be easier for him to sweep away too. And it's not just private money at issue. The Trump administration has celebrated surging revenue from energy production on federal land -- up 31% to about $12 billion in fiscal 2019. Environmentalists argue there are real climate consequences to fossil fuel development on public lands -- and NEPA requires federal agencies to thoroughly examine the issue before selling leases that could yield oil, gas and coal for decades. The combustion of fossil fuels extracted from public lands accounts for almost a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2018 report from the government's U.S. Geological Survey. --- "Every little setback is important to ensuring that we're not entrenched in fossil fuels long after we should have transitioned" to cleaner-burning alternatives, said WildEarth attorney Becca Fischer. A major challenge for the land management bureau is baking climate analysis into the agency's layered decision making around oil and gas development -- including its approval of broad resource management plans governing certain regions, subsequent lease sales and, even later, individual drilling permits. Oil and gas companies only buy a small fraction of land made available for lease, and many of those tracts never get drilled, said Bret Birdsong, a University of Nevada law professor who spent three years as the Interior Department's deputy solicitor for land resources. It's even harder to pinpoint the location of potential wells, making it difficult for the bureau to specifically predict the environmental effects of its oil leasing plans. But NEPA doesn't require perfection -- just a "reasonable" analysis, and "they aren't even meeting that level in the courts' eyes," Birdsong said. "How many does it take for them to say 'wait a minute, we're going to keep getting beat, we've got to get on top of this thing and figure it out?'" The Trump administration is already responding -- not by beefing up its scrutiny of fossil fuel leasing decisions, but by moving to undercut it. A drafted final rule under review at the White House would narrow the scope of those agencies' environmental reviews under NEPA, so regulators would not be required to assess the "cumulative" impacts of potential decisions. Instead, under the Council on Environmental Quality proposal, agencies would focus their scrutiny on reasonably foreseeable effects with a "close causal relationship to the proposed action" -- a change that would at least temporarily discourage them from considering the climate impacts of their decisions. Since Congress hasn't revised the underlying, 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act, all of its requirements remain on the books. And courts have been clear that the law requires a hard look at the cumulative effects of agency actions, including greenhouse gas emissions, said Hana Vizcarra, staff attorney at Harvard University's Environmental and Energy Law Program. "We'll see how much the change of regulation will shift that," she said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 09:05:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases will continue to rise in the country, and a peak will be witnessed by the end of July or beginning of August. In a televised address on Monday, the prime minister said that there might be difficult times ahead for the country if the people keep on taking COVID-19 as common flu, and do not follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) formed by the government to control the spread of the disease. Khan urged the Pakistani people to follow the SOPs to slow down the spread of the disease as the option of locking down the whole country is not practicable in Pakistan. "A lockdown does not mean it will end COVID-19. It can only slow down the spread of the virus. Sadly, the lockdown also slowed down the economy, creating hard times for our poor people. We have reopened the economy with SOPs and precautions so our poor people can earn a livelihood," he said. Khan said that right now the government is making efforts to slow down the spread of the disease, "so that when we hit the peak, our hospitals are not overburdened and intensive care units are available during the peak. SOPs will help us achieve this." The prime minister's address came after the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases hit 100,000 in the country. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan has risen to 103,671 with 2,067 deaths, according to the data updated by the country's health ministry Monday. Enditem Drs. Steven Krakora and Brandon Humberger, Oral Surgeons in Steubenville, OH and Washington, PA The staff is so friendly and nice, and the doctor is very professional ... It was just painless, quick and easy. Esteemed oral and maxillofacial surgeons, Drs. Steven Krakora and Brandon Humberger are helping patients find a healthier and more comfortable alternative to traditional dentures by offering implant supported dentures in Steubenville, OH and surrounding areas with or without a referral. Patients who have multiple missing teeth or who have lost all their teeth often choose dentures as an affordable tooth replacement option. However, implant supported dentures provide the benefit of both implants and dentures, at a reasonable price. The staff is so friendly and nice, and the doctor is very professional, says Dani, a patient of Dr. Krakora, describing her dental implant treatment. I didnt even realize what he was doing. It was just painless, quick and easy. Implant supported dentures utilize modern dental implants along with time-tested dentures. Instead of being held in place with a paste or suction, dentures can be securely attached to dental implants placed within the jawbone. This allows patients to have a much stronger bite, more security and helps them preserve their overall jawbone volume. Depending on a patients needs and wants, these implant supported dentures can be permanently attached or be easily removed for cleaning. Often, patients choose implant supported dentures when deciding between full mouth dental implants or dentures, as it is a convenient and affordable middle ground. With implant supported dentures, patients often need as few as two dental implants in order to firmly secure the denture to the mouth. This also means that no damage has to occur to surrounding healthy teeth and patients do not have to experience the discomfort of the denture pressing upon the gum tissue. With proper oral care and routine dental appointments, implant supported dentures can be a lifetime investment in a patients smile and health. Drs. Krakora and Humberger of Western Pennsylvania & Ohio Valley Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery are experienced oral surgeons who perform dental implant surgery on a daily basis. With their combined experience and vast education in dentistry and medicine, patients experience improved implant surgery, predictability in care and results that can last for years to come. They conveniently offer dental implant care at both their Steubenville, OH and Washington, PA practice locations. Those interested in learning more about implant supported dentures in Steubenville, OH or Washington, PA are invited to schedule an appointment with Drs. Krakora and Humberger. Consultations can be made by calling 724-223-0579 for the Washington, PA office or 740-264-5300 for the Steubenville, OH office, as well as by visiting the website, http://www.westernpaoms.com. About the Oral Surgeons Western Pennsylvania & Ohio Valley Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery restore smiles and lives of patients in Washington, PA and Steubenville, OH. With over 15 years of experience, board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon, Dr. Steven Krakora, is the head of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Washington Hospital. He is a member of many prestigious organizations, including the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the American Dental Association, and the Pennsylvania Dental Association, and he has been published in major medical journals. Dr. Brandon Humberger received his Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from the University of Pittsburgh, where he received the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Radiology Award. He is now a Clinical Assistant Professor of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. The staff at Western Pennsylvania & Ohio Valley Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery is dedicated to changing lives by changing smiles and prides themselves on ensuring that patients receive constant care throughout every stage of their treatment. The practice has offices in two locations, with one in Washington, PA and one in Steubenville, OH. To learn more about Drs. Krakora and Humberger and the services they offer, visit http://www.westernpaoms.com, or call 724-223-0579 for the Washington, PA office or 740-264-5300 for the Steubenville, OH office. Radius Bank, an industry-leading digital bank, today announced the appointment of Louise Sorrentino as Vice President of Acquisition and Alain Glanzman as Vice President of Small Business Banking. Sorrentino and Glanzman joined the Bank in the first quarter of 2020 to help further strengthen and expand Radius Direct to Consumer and Small Business divisions. As Vice President of Acquisition, Louise brings nearly 20 years of experience to the organization. She joined Radius from Citibank, where she spent 17 years in multiple senior roles delivering innovative customer acquisition programs. During her tenure, Sorrentino has focused heavily on digital acquisition, business development, digital partnerships, and relationship management. In her new role, Louise is responsible for developing and managing digital marketing strategies that drive direct consumer and business new client acquisition and deposits, while enhancing the Banks leadership position in the marketplace. She is based remotely out of her home office in New York. Alain Glanzman brings nearly nine years of experience to his role of Vice President of Small Business Banking. Alain has had an illustrious career, most recently serving as the Co-Founder and CEO of WalletFi, where he led strategic direction and operations for the fintech, raising venture capital and developing innovative products to bring to the market. At Radius, Glanzman is focused on providing a superior banking experience to the Banks micro and small business banking segment, helping these clients efficiently manage their operations and cash flow so they can spend more time running their businesses. Additionally, he is exploring options to expand the overall product suite, including credit and other cash management services, to support the various needs of growing startups. Glanzman is based remotely out of his home office in Florida. Radius Direct to Consumer and Small Business deposit product lines offer a wide range of award-winning features, from the ability to open a checking account digitally in under 5 minutes from anywhere in the U.S. to full-featured mobile banking apps and unlimited debit card cash back and ATM rebates. Since joining the Bank, Sorrentino has been an instrumental part of the team that has expanded the Direct Deposit and Cash Back programs for Radius consumer clients, and Glanzman has been a leader in Radius involvement in the Payment Protection Program, where the Bank has provided close to $900 million in loans to small businesses, which has resulted in over 60,000 people receiving paychecks during this challenging period. Louise and Alain have a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the digital banking space, said Chris Tremont, Executive Vice President of Virtual Banking. Taking their past experience, innovative mindsets and undeniable passion for banking, its without a doubt they will be large contributors to Radius future success. We continue to see an accelerating demand for digital banking features from our growing client base and are excited to have these talented individuals on the team to help us meet and exceed these expectations. To learn more about Radius Bank, visit http://www.radiusbank.com or connect on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. About Radius Bank With assets of approximately $1.5 billion, Radius Bank is a forward-thinking digital bank committed to providing a full complement of accounts and services to meet the banking needs of consumers and businesses nationwide. Radius provides the product depth of a national brand, the technology of a fintech, and the personalized attention typically reserved for a local bank to consumers, small and middle market businesses, unions, government entities and non-profit organizations. The Banks award-winning digital banking platform allows consumer clients to bank from anywhere with a computer or mobile device and provides convenient features such as check deposit, bill pay, card management, and a personal financial management dashboard. Business clients enjoy a wide array of award-winning deposit products, advanced treasury management services, and loan and payment solutions. In addition, Radius suite of open APIs delivers a robust banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform for fintechs to quickly access core banking features and build best-in-class financial solutions. Radius specializes in partnering with forward-thinking fintechs to provide white-label deposit products, cards, digital onboarding, and account management. Radius Bank is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and is an Equal Housing/Equal Opportunity Lender. For further information, visit the Banks website at radiusbank.com, or follow the Bank on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. NEW YORK Two healthcare workers knelt on the sidewalk along Brooklyns Atlantic Avenue and treated a large gash on a young mans knee Friday afternoon. In his hands was a sign that read, STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE. He had fallen in a stampede to escape police breaking up a Times Square protest a few days before, but that hadnt stopped him from coming out to this one. The crowd was large enough, long enough really, that even as the medical workers swabbed and re-wrapped his wound, a continuous stream of people flooded the streets, stopping traffic and chanting Black Lives Matter. The good Samaritans in scrubs work at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Brooklyn Infusion Center. They didnt come to the protest, the protest came to them. Hearing the cheers from the roving crowd, a group of employees emerged from the cancer facility to applaud the protesters. One of the nurses noticed the young mans bandages needed replacing as he was marching past and sprung into action. Afterward, he resumed the march and the healthcare workers returned to their offices. That was so beautiful, one of them said. A few hours later, just as New York has done every day at 7 p.m. for weeks now, people around the city applauded for the healthcare workers who have been hailed as heroes since the start of the pandemic. (Photo illustration by Amber Matsumoto / Yahoo Sports) After a harrowing few months of horrific rising death tolls from the novel coronavirus, New York erupted last week not in celebration but in righteous anger. Pent-up frustration from generations of racial inequality and police brutality targeting black people inflamed by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis finally forced a nationwide reckoning. The call for justice and reform is coming from civilian protesters who have filled public spaces in cities around the country, where theyve been met with often undue force from police and curfews from politicians. At many of these demonstrations, the crowds include healthcare workers sometimes predominantly and intentionally so. Often, they are the same people on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. Their outsized presence is not merely incidental, but rather the result of work that leaves them acutely aware that racism affects health, outraged by the physical abuses theyve seen, and eager to leverage their lionization and lend their authoritative voices to the cause. Story continues We save everyone at their worst time, why are you killing us? said Danielle Mason, an intensive-care unit nurse at a healthcare worker-specific protest Saturday afternoon in Manhattan. She explained that it is important for the public to see another profession of public servants in uniform speak out against the abuse of power perpetrated by the police. When we take off these scrubs, I am a black woman. And you can't ignore, just because of what you do, what's going on in the world. I would like to have that same message be delivered to the police officers: Who are you when you take off that uniform? Many of the medical workers expressed a sense of obligation to be on the frontline in the fight against racism as well as the coronavirus, and a hope that a city crippled by the pandemic would pay particular attention to their protests. Ill take anything for leverage, anything to balance out the inequality, says Cecilia Seo, an ICU nurse at the protest whose mask read I cant breathe. Saturdays march for healthcare workers, down a blisteringly hot but blocked-off Sixth Avenue from Columbus Circle to Washington Square Park, was put together by a group called Frontline4Change. The organizers, who declined to speak to the media, cautioned attendees to stay hydrated, ensure their masks covered their mouths and noses, and advised that people avail themselves of New Yorks free COVID testing in the days following any protest. As the group made its way south through a city shuttered against the pandemic, a white-coated doctor urged police standing at the cross streets to put on masks she proffered. They refused. The Frontline4Change march was one of several healthcare worker demonstrations this past week in New York alone. On social media, the hashtag #WhiteCoatsForBlackLives shows doctors and nurses at hospitals around the country kneeling for 8 minutes and 46 seconds the length of time that officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyds neck. George Floyd died from asphyxiation from sustained pressure to neck NOT hypertension or heart disease, read one of the signs at Saturdays march. Floyds death, and his last words, are reminiscent of Eric Garners death at the hands of the police in 2014 on Staten Island. Eric Garner suffocated and passed out. No one did CPR on him. All the policemen are trained and certified in CPR. They looked at the guy and did nothing about it. George Floyd the same, said Dr. Gabriel Sara, medical director of the Chemotherapy Infusion Suite at Mount Sinai, during the protest on Saturday. With a Black Lives Matter pin on his white coat, just below the stitching of his prestigious title, Sara was outraged at videos showing casual police disregard for the safety and well-being of citizens. Yesterday morning they pushed that old man who fell on his head and bled from his ear, and they were walking by. Its insane, he said, referring to an incident in Buffalo. Lauren Frisk and Kassandra Rice, two nurses who traveled to New York to assist with the city's response to the coronavirus, joined protests against racial injustice Thursday in Brooklyn. (Photo by Yahoo Sports) The failure of the police in juxtaposition to the efforts of healthcare workers was a common refrain on Saturday. It is a privilege to be a healthcare worker, just as its a privilege to be a police officer, a public servant in general. We have a duty to respect and serve the public, said Maryam Smith, a nurse from Pennsylvania, who was proud to be in New York for the protests. You should never lose sight that you are privileged and people are trusting in you to help them. Smith came to the city to fight COVID-19. As our understanding of the pandemic has deepened, it has become clear that it disproportionately affects black communities. Ive been a COVID nurse for months now and Ive had one white patient, said Kassandra Rice, another travel nurse who came from New Orleans to aid the NYU Langone Health system during the pandemic. On Thursday, Rice attended a protest at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn with Lauren Frisk, a nurse from Lake Tahoe, who also came to the city to serve an ICU battling the pandemic. Frisk said that initially the situation in New York was unlike anything she had seen in healthcare before, with conference rooms and hospital basements converted to care for COVID-19 patients. That strain hospitals felt at the height of the pandemic also highlighted how people in power express priorities through action and money. New Yorks early failures to control the coronavirus and outfit frontline workers with necessary personal protective equipment have been thrown into sharp contrast for healthcare professionals now encountering the vast, generously funded police forces patrolling the city in pricey riot gear. Even two weeks, a month into the pandemic happening, we still didnt have PPE and yet you see the militarized police force covered in all kinds of gear that cost millions of dollars. And, you know, our stuff is cheap, it's $5 for a gown, it's $3 for a mask and we didn't have that, said Dr. Preethy Subramanian, an anesthesiology resident physician. It feels like a stab in the back. Frisk is scared that the protests could spark a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the city, but the new cases have been dropping off lately while the plight of black America has reached a boiling point. Im a white American, I already have a huge position of privilege, and thats why I feel like it's my responsibility to use my voice to uplift the voices of others who haven't always had a voice, she said. If the additional respect I get as a healthcare worker is part of that, then that's maybe why I'm out here in my scrubs. We're getting a lot of attention right now, we're getting called heroes, but these people [protesting] are heroes too. And also hopefully we dont get brutalized, Rice said. Hopefully this gives me a better chance. Hannah Keyser is a reporter at Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at Hannah.Keyser@yahoosports.com or reach out on Twitter at @HannahRKeyser. Read more from Yahoo News: The occupants used the weaponry of prohibited calibers The Joint Forces operation in Donbas Open source June 8, pro-Kremlin militants attacked positions of the Ukrainian military 11 times and used the weaponry of prohibited calibers. This was reported by the HQ of Joint Forces operation. Occupants fired with 82-mm mortars and anti-tank grenade launchers at positions near Novotroitske and Mariinka (Donetsk region). 120-mm mortars, grenade/rocket launchers, and small arms were applied at positions near Orikhove and Novoluhanske. One Ukrainian soldier was wounded during the hostile shelling. As we reported earlier, the OSCE observation mission reported on military vehicles drove in and out of the Luhansk region territory controlled by militants. Thus, from 20:40 on June 4 to 00:24 on June 5, an OSCE UAV recorded a convoy of trucks at the village of Cheremshyno that drove into the occupied Luhansk region and the second convoy that traveled to Russia. It is noted that on the night of June 4, a convoy of ten vehicles reached Luhansk and arrived "at the site" in a city uncontrolled by the government. Indian markets witnessed profit-taking at higher levels on June 9. The S&P BSE Sensex fell more than 800 points from the high of 34,811 while the Nifty50 broke below 10,200-10,100 levels. The Sensex ended the day 413 points lower at 33,956 while the Nifty fell 120 points to close at 10,046. Weak global cues and profit-booking saw a more than 100-point slide in the Nifty. Investors will closely track the outcome of the US Fed meeting on June 10, experts say. "After opening on a flat note, the index gradually inched higher but weakness in the European markets triggered a sharp decline in the latter half. Finally, the Nifty index ended near 10,050 levels, almost at the days low, Ajit Mishra, VP-Research, Religare Broking Ltd, told Moneycontrol. Since our markets are currently dancing to the global tunes, the outcome of the US Fed meet and performance of the global markets would be closely watched. We may see further profit-taking in the index and the 9,950-9,850 zone would act as a cushion. Traders should prefer hedged positions and maintain their focus on stock selection, he said. Sectorally, the action was seen in healthcare and realty stocks, while selling pressure was visible in telecom, Bankex, energy, oil & gas and consumer durables. On the broader markets front, the S&P BSE Midcap index was down 0.21 percent and the S&P BSE Smallcap index fell 1 percent. Top Nifty gainers included M&M, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank and Dr Reddy Laboratories. Top Nifty losers included BPCL, Tata Motors, GAIL India and Wipro. Stocks & Sectors Sectorally, the S&P BSE Telecom index fell 3 percent, followed by the S&P BSE Bankex that was down 2.3 percent and the S&P BSE Oil & Gas index fell 1.9 percent. Buying was visible in the S&P BSE Healthcare index which was up 1.1 percent, followed by the S&P BSE Realty index that was up 0.3 percent. A volume spike of more than 100% was seen in stocks such as ITC, GMR Infra, Cadila Healthcare, SBI Life and Dr Reddys Laboratories. Long Buildup was seen in stocks like Bharti Infratel, RBL Bank, ITC and Muthoot Finance. Short Buildup was seen in stocks like Bharat Forge, Tata Chemicals, Hero MotoCorp and Titan Company. Dr Reddys Laboratories, Lupin, Muthoot Finance, Adani Green and Sun Pharma were among more than 60 stocks that hit a 52-week high. Stocks in news IndusInd Bank share price rose over 2 percent after media reports said that the promoters planned to buy more of its shares in the secondary market. Affle India was up 2 percent after the company said it will acquire a 66.67 percent stake in Singapore-based Appnext through one of its subsidiaries for $17.25 million (around Rs 130 crore). Adani Green price jumped 5 percent after it bagged a manufacturing-linked solar contract worth Rs 45,000 crore from SECI. PVR was down 7 percent after the multiplex chain reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 74.61 crore for the March quarter. Sun Pharma jumped 2 percent after CLSA maintained a "buy" call on the stock, with a target of Rs 560 per share. Inox Leisure share price tanked 10 percent after the company reported a consolidated net loss of 82.15 crore for the March quarter. Century Enka share price surged more than 17 percent after the company reported a net profit of Rs 21.8 crore, CNBC-TV18 reported. Technical View The Nifty formed a bearish candle on the daily charts. It faced resistance near 100-DMA placed at 10,277. The pattern indicates sell on intraday rise action in the market. Further weakness is possible. Experts are of the view that the short-term trend of the index seems to have reversed down. The next lower supports to be watched is 9,950 and any upside bounce attempt could find resistance at 10,135 levels. The previous opening downside gap of March 12 at around 10,335 has acted as a key overhead resistance and led to a downward reversal from the highs. One may expect further weakness in the market in the next session, Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities, said. On the lower side, the Nifty is expected to find support at around 10,000-9,950 levels in the short term and the index is expected to slip below this area in the next three to four sessions, he said. The SSUG Flagship Fund I which started the investment phase on May 27th, 2020, is pleased to announce its first investment in the vertical farming startup Growcer.Zurich - The SSUG Flagship Fund I which started the investment phase on May 27th, 2020, is pleased to announce its first investment in the vertical farming startup Growcer. The fund is investing together with two family offices of successful Swiss entrepreneurs as part of the pre-seed funding round. Growcer (www.growcer.com) has set up Switzerland's first vertical farm in Basel. 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. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Alya Nurbaiti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 13:33 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd44a6b 1 World COVID-19,Germany,coronavirus,ambassador,healthcare,industry,international-cooperation Free The government is looking to intensify its cooperation with Germany in the healthcare sector, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Germany has drawn international praise for its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, while Indonesia has continued to struggle with low testing rates and concerns over data accuracy. What we can replicate from Germans experience, in addition to the timely intervention and the discipline of its citizens, is the massive testing and readiness of health infrastructure. Health should become one of our new aspects of cooperation in the future, Indonesian Ambassador to Germany Arif Havas Oegroseno said during a webinar hosted by Hack the Crisis last week. German Ambassador to Indonesia Peter Schoff, who was also present at the webinar, said Germany had developed testing materials at the speed of light and that it was able to conduct around 3.8 million tests, accounting for nearly 5 percent of Germanys population. Our lives and development in the community depend on good infrastructure to monitor the life of the virus continuously. Thats why testing is an essential tool in this interim period until a vaccine is found, Schoff said. The current hospital occupancy in Germany is 28 to 30 percent, a relatively low figure in the pandemic. Arif said Germany had tested around 200 people in a clinical trial for the COVID-19 vaccine on April 23 and that the country could possibly have a vaccine by the end of the year. We also have one Indonesian from Airlangga University who is working in Germany on this particular vaccine, he said. Read also: Indonesia steers clear of COVID-19 resolution politicization He went on to say that the crisis had demonstrated the need for Indonesian students to expand their horizons of studying in Germany. Typically, Indonesian students in Germany study aeronautics, engineering and architecture. I want to expand [the field of study] to medicine and medical technology, Arif said. We plan to have an online discussion with the Education and Culture Ministry on this particular aspect. Arif also stated the importance of diversification of investment, including investment in the health industry, for future strategic economic relations between Germany and Indonesia. The aircraft industry, specifically built by former president BJ Habibie, is one of the cornerstones in our economic strategy [with Germany]. But its time for health sector cooperation to become more visible, he said. Occidental Petroleum may be considering a sale of oil and gas assets in Oman to reduce its debt burden, unnamed source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The assets could fetch over $1 billion, the sources added. Occidental has a debt load of some $40 billion, most of which it took on last year when it bought sector player Anadarko in what now many see as one of the worst-timed acquisitions in history, finalized just months before oil prices tanked. About $11 billion of this debt matures by 2022 and the company is actively seeking ways to conserve and generate cash. The acquisition cost Oxy some $55 billion and aimed at expanding its presence in the U.S. shale patch, which got battered by the oil price crash. Because of the unfortunate timing of its acquisition of Anadarko, Oxy has become one of the worst-affected oil players in the United States. Asset sales, one of the usual means of reducing significant debt loads, will fetch a lot less than before the crisis if they go through at all. Occidental has interests in three oil fields in Oman as well as assets in the United Arab Emirates and Qatars North Field, the largest gas deposit in the world. It is, however, not the only one selling assets in the Middle East. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported BP was selling about 10 percent in the Khazzan gas field in Oman, looking to get more than $1 billion for it. Improving oil priced could help such divestments go through and help reduce debt loads. Meanwhile, Oxy has cut its capital spending program for his year by over 50 percent, outdoing its competitors in the cuts. The company said in May it planned to spend just $2.4-2.6 billion in capex this year, and cut costs by some $1.2 billion. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: It was previously revealed more than half of banknotes are hidden in homes While staring at your wallet you may well have wondered what the numbers of on the edge of Australian banknotes actually mean. Thanks to a helpful TikTok video many social media users were enlightened over the weekend. The Perth-based profile, called The History of Money, explained that the first two letters on a banknote, such as AA or DF, indicate the sheet it was printed on, while the following two numbers show the year they were printed. For instance, the first sheet of new $10 notes printed in 2017 would read AA17 and the second could read AB17. The first two numbers on every banknote show what year it was printed, according to a TikTok video uploaded on Saturday In the video, the serial number on a $20 begins with DD19 because it was printed in 2019, and the number on a $5 note started with CI16 because it was printed in 2016. 'The first two numbers indicate the year the banknote was produced, are the same for all banknotes printed in the same year,' the Reserve Bank of Australia said on its website. It also said the serial number on a $5 made in 2018 would range from AA18 to EJ18, the number on a $20 from 2010 would range from AA10 to DA10 and the number on a $10 note from 2015 would range from AA15 to DF15. The numbers at the end of each banknote - known as the suffix - also correlate with the sheet they were printed on. All banknotes on a sheet will have the same suffix, which decreases by one from one sheet to the next.' The first series of sheets have a six-digit suffix, whereas a new series of banknotes have a seven-digit suffix to accommodate the possibility of larger print runs. The information in the video was corroborated by the Reserve Bank of Australia's website. The serial number on a $20 began with DD19 because it was printed in 2019, and the number on a $5 note started with CI16 because it was printed in 2016 According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, banknotes are printed on a demand basis - replacing notes that have been damaged. Last year, economist Governor Philip Lowe revealed that more than half Australia's banknotes are stored in peoples homes and only a fraction are in circulation. 'At the RBA, we have recently undertaken some work to understand the whereabouts of all these banknotes. It is hard to know exactly,' Dr Lowe said. 'It also appears that between half and three-quarters are held as a store of value in safes, under beds and at the back of cupboards, both here in Australia and elsewhere around the world.' He said another four to eight per cent of banknotes in circulation were used to in transactions that avoided tax, or were used to buy illegal goods such as drugs and weapons. Another five to ten per cent is 'either simply lost, maybe at the beach, or destroyed, perhaps in a natural disaster'. STAINES-UPON-THAMES, United Kingdom, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mallinckrodt plc (NYSE: MNK), a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced that Stratatech, a Mallinckrodt company, has completed its rolling submission of a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for StrataGraft, a regenerative skin tissue therapy in development for the treatment of adult patients with deep partial-thickness thermal burns. The company previously announced initiation of the rolling submission in April. StrataGraft skin tissue is an investigational product, and its safety and effectiveness have not yet been established by the FDA. "Completion of the BLA submission is the culmination of many years of hard work and brings us one step closer to our goal of providing StrataGraft skin tissue as a new treatment option for patients in the United States with deep partial-thickness thermal burns, if approved," said Steven Romano, M.D., executive vice president and chief scientific officer at Mallinckrodt. "We would like to thank the many researchers, clinical trial investigators and patients who helped us reach this important milestone. We look forward to working closely with the FDA during the regulatory review process." The StrataGraft skin tissue BLA is based on data from the pivotal Phase 3 STRATA2016 clinical trial, previously published as an abstract in the Journal of Burn Care & Research and accepted for presentation at the American Burn Association 52nd Annual Meeting, with support from the STRATA2011 clinical trial, previously published in Burns. The FDA granted StrataGraft skin tissue orphan drug status, and it was among the first products designated by the Agency as a Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) under the provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act. About StrataGraft StrataGraft regenerative skin tissue is an investigational treatment being developed to reduce autograft in patients with severe thermal burns. An engineered, bilayer tissue, StrataGraft skin tissue is designed to mimic natural human skin with both inner dermis-like and outer epidermis-like layers. StrataGraft skin tissue can be sutured, stapled or secured with an adhesive. StrataGraft skin tissue is cryopreserved in order to deliver viable cells upon application. Mallinckrodt is currently conducting a StrataGraft skin tissue continued access clinical trial (StrataCAT, NCT04123548) under an Expanded Access Program (EAP). The trial sites involved in the pivotal Phase 3 trial (STRATA2016, NCT03005106) have the opportunity to participate in this multicenter, open-label study. The company is planning to evaluate StrataGraft skin tissue for the treatment of adults with full-thickness burns (also referred to as third-degree burns). Additionally, Mallinckrodt plans to conduct a study evaluating StrataGraft skin tissue in treatment of pediatric populations. StrataGraft skin tissue is an investigational product, and its safety and effectiveness have not yet been established by the FDA. Funding and technical support for the continued development of StrataGraft skin tissue, including the pivotal Phase 3 clinical study (STRATA2016) and the Biological Licensing Application process for StrataGraft tissue in the United States, is being provided by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under Project BioShield Contract No. HHSO100201500027C. These efforts are part of BARDA's strategy to build emergency preparedness in response to mass casualty events involving trauma and thermal burns by developing novel medical countermeasures for adult and at-risk populations. In the case of a mass casualty thermal burn event, the Government Accountability Office estimates that more than 10,000 patients might require thermal burn care.1 The limited number of specialized burn centers and related medical infrastructure in the United States creates a public health need for therapies that could be deployed quickly for use in these and other care sites. About Deep Partial-Thickness Thermal Burns Deep partial-thickness thermal burns are complex skin injuries in which the damage extends through the entire epidermis (outermost layer of skin) and into the lower part of the dermis (innermost layer of skin). Autograft is considered to be a standard of care by many for deep partial-thickness thermal burns. It involves the surgical harvesting of healthy skin tissue from an uninjured site on the patient and transplanting the skin graft to the injury. While this process can be effective in providing closure of the original wound, it has significant limitations related to the donor site wounds created during surgical removal of the skin tissue for grafting. Donor site wounds are painful and can create risks of additional scarring and infection. In addition, the amount of healthy skin available for harvesting is frequently limited in those patients with large burns, necessitating sequential re-harvesting of available donor sites. As a result, there is a need for alternatives to donor site harvesting for the treatment of severe burns. About Mallinckrodt Mallinckrodt is a global business consisting of multiple wholly owned subsidiaries that develop, manufacture, market and distribute specialty pharmaceutical products and therapies. The company's Specialty Brands reportable segment's areas of focus include autoimmune and rare diseases in specialty areas like neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology and ophthalmology; immunotherapy and neonatal respiratory critical care therapies; analgesics and gastrointestinal products. Its Specialty Generics reportable segment includes specialty generic drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients. To learn more about Mallinckrodt, visit www.mallinckrodt.com. Mallinckrodt uses its website as a channel of distribution of important company information, such as press releases, investor presentations and other financial information. It also uses its website to expedite public access to time-critical information regarding the company in advance of or in lieu of distributing a press release or a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosing the same information. Therefore, investors should look to the Investor Relations page of the website for important and time-critical information. Visitors to the website can also register to receive automatic e-mail and other notifications alerting them when new information is made available on the Investor Relations page of the website. Cautionary Statements Related to Forward-Looking Statements This release includes forward-looking statements concerning StrataGraft regenerative skin tissue, including expectations with regard to related regulatory filings, its potential impact on patients, and anticipated benefits associated with its use. The statements are based on assumptions about many important factors, including the following, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements: satisfaction of regulatory and other requirements; actions of regulatory bodies and other governmental authorities; changes in laws and regulations; issues with product quality, manufacturing or supply, or patient safety issues; and other risks identified and described in more detail in the "Risk Factors" section of Mallinckrodt's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC, all of which are available on its website. The forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date hereof and Mallinckrodt does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events and developments or otherwise, except as required by law. CONTACTS Media Relations Sheryl Seapy W2O for Mallinckrodt 213-262-9390 [email protected] Investor Relations Daniel J. Speciale, CPA Vice President, Investor Relations and IRO 314-654-3638 [email protected] Mallinckrodt, the "M" brand mark and the Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals logo are trademarks of a Mallinckrodt company. Other brands are trademarks of a Mallinckrodt company or their respective owners. 2020 Mallinckrodt. US-2000850 05/20. 1 https://www.gao.gov/assets/590/588738.pdf. Accessed February 12, 2020. SOURCE Mallinckrodt plc Related Links http://www.mallinckrodt.com GRAND RAPIDS, MI Sheets of plywood covering storefront windows that were shattered during last months riot in downtown Grand Rapids have been transformed into bright, colorful murals paying tribute to George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. The murals can be seen up and down Monroe Center and beyond, and include messages ranging from All we need is love and I cant breathe, to Silence is the voice of oppression and Emerge with us and fight for justice every day. In a significant order, a special court in Mumbai on Monday ordered the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to confiscate specified properties, worth Rs 1,400 crore, of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi within a month, a lawyer said. "The accused (Nirav Modi) was declared a fugitive economic offender on December 5, 2019, and the order to confiscate the properties has come on Monday," Special Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar told IANS. The order by PMLA Court Special Judge V. C. Barde directs the agencies concerned including the Income Tax Department to attach and confiscate the listed properties, under Sections 12(2) and (8) of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018. However, the properties claimed by certain interested parties which are secured by way of hypothecation, mortgage etc, including valuable paintings seized by the Income Tax Department, are excluded, Special Judge Barde ruled as he partially disposed of the ED plea. These interested parties, including banks, will be required to proceed with their claims on such mortgaged, hypothecated, guaranteed properties before a competent court, authority or tribunal, as provided in the law. The ED has been granted liberty to file a supplementary application in case more properties of Modi are identified for confiscation. Modi, along with his uncle Mehul Choksi, is among the prime accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud of over Rs 14,000 crore, unearthed over two years ago. Currently, Modi is in a London prison after his arrest by the local police in March 2019, while Choksi has become a citizen of the Caribbean island nation of Antigua & Barbuda. A self-proclaimed 'cougar granny' says her mental health has been negatively affected by being unable to have sex during lockdown - and that she has been 'pushed to the point of no return'. Gaynor Evans, 57, from Enfield, North London, has dated more than 200 younger men since she had a fling with a 23-year-old after divorcing her second husband in 2010. She appeared on This Morning today, where she spoke out against government rules which mean adults are unable to have sex with someone who does not live in their household. The mother-of-four teased that she's at the 'point of no return' and that politicians such as 'dishy Rishi and dashing Dominic Raab' are starting to appeal to her. Gaynor Evans, 57, from Enfield, North London,says her mental health has been negatively effected by being unable to have sex during lockdown The cougar gran has dated more than 200 younger men since she had a fling with a 23-year-old after divorcing her second husband in 2010 She said: 'I've done okay, I've been really well behaved as an adult and I'm sure younger single people are not sticking to the rules like me. I've not done that, I've stuck to them. 'And just at the point I thought there would be a bit of light at the end of my tunnel, they bring out this rule, this is ridiculous how are they going to police that.' She told that during lockdown, the likes of Rishi Sunak and Dominic Raab have caught her eye -after her passion had been ignited by the steamy hit BBC Three series staring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal. She said: 'I'm at the point of no return. I was tipped over the edge by the series Normal People. It hasn't helped me at all, watching that was like "oh my god". Gaynor told her passion had been ignited by hit the hit BBC Three series staring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal (both pictured) She told that during lockdown, the likes of Rishi Sunak and Dominic Raab have caught her eye during lockdown 'Even the politicians started to look good, you've got dishy Rishi and dashing Dominic Raab. Viewers thought Gaynor's antics were hilarious, with one tweeting: 'Dishy Rishi and Dashing Dominic Love it! Thanks for the laughs Cougar Gran Another added: 'The Cougar Gran on This Morning is my spirit animal! Gaynor, we love you!'. Gaynor said she had her first liaison with a younger man after meeting him at Royal Ascot following the collapse of her marriage. 'I did try dating older men at the beginning of my divorce', said Gaynor, 'I had a feeling I didn't want to go into as serious relationship at that time . I just wanted to enjoy myself and younger men are more fun'. Viewers thought Gaynor's antics were hilarious and quickly took to Twitter to comment As for trying out online dating during lockdown, Gaynor says she 'doesn't see the point' as she's unable to 'relive stress' through sex. She said: 'What is the point in online dating, I've got people I can see already. The single person, not just my age group, they're struggling with this. 'You either have to break the rules or miss the release from the stress and anxiety - and sex is one way of releasing that stress.' The author and businesswoman never dates exclusively and previously told she has no intention of her love life slowing down. The mother teased to hosts Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield (pictured) that she's at the 'point of no return' Gaynor said she doesn't mind the stigma from other women and claims her family are supportive - even though some of her dates are younger than her children. She said: 'I'm an older woman who has stepped outside convention - I'm very unusual. I'm one of the most openly prolific cougars out there. I'm not boasting about it and I know it's not for everyone, but I'm non-repentant. 'I make no apologies for being a prolific cougar because it's a lifestyle choice and one I'm happy with. Although I'm nearly 60, I feel 30. 'My sexual desire has never waned and I'm dating three men non-exclusively at the moment.' A South Sudanese refugee and child pictured in Bele settlement, Haut Uele province, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. UNHCR/Jean-Jacques Soha Massive funding gaps are threatening hundreds of thousands of lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where surging violence and COVID-19 are exacerbating already dire conditions for millions of forcibly displaced people. As of June 7, DRC has recorded 4,105 confirmed cases of COVID-19 the second largest number in the Southern Africa region. At the same time, surging violence is uprooting hundreds of thousand more people in the east of the country. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is warning that without an urgent injection of cash, underfunding will have a devastating impact on critical lifesaving humanitarian programmes. Our activities to assist and protect the refugees and the displaced are only 20 per cent funded of the US$168 million needed. This gap is seriously undermining our response to bring aid to the multiple humanitarian emergencies, leaving many vulnerable without food, water, shelter, health and hygiene facilities amid a rapid spread of COVID-19 across the country. People uprooted in DR Congo by repeated cycles of conflict, represent Africas largest internal displacement situation 10 per cent of the global numbers of internally displaced people. Over the past few months, hundreds of thousands more people have been displaced in eastern and northern DRC following brutal attacks by various armed groups, intercommunal violence and natural disasters. The country also hosts over half a million refugees mainly from Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), and South Sudan. While the overall humanitarian situation remains alarming, UNHCR is forced to make difficult choices that result in many of those in dire need not getting the assistance they require. We are working to help the most vulnerable to the extent possible, minimum standards in health, water and sanitation, education and other basic needs are often hard to meet with limited resources available for all populations. Among those affected are Rwandan refugees, who had been living in communities now displaced by successive waves of violence in North and South Kivu. The lack of funding also hampers efforts towards finding lasting solutions for these refugees, for whom the Congolese Government indicated an openness to facilitating long stay permits and local integration. In South Ubangis Mole refugee camp, additional resources are needed to ensure that 15,000 refugees from CAR have access to the minimum water requirement of 20 litres per person per day. This is particularly important now, when, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, refugees and their hosts communities need potable water to protect them against endemic cholera and what is now the worlds longest running measles crisis. Current available funding also limits UNHCRs interventions to support the 120,000 refugees from the CAR living outside of camps, who constitute about 70 per cent of refugees from CAR in the DRC. The education gap for 6,000 South Sudanese refugees of secondary age is also increasing. A staggering 92 per cent of them still do not go to school. While UNHCR started a small programme to enrol refugees in secondary school, additional funding is needed to help construct and refurbish school buildings serving both refugees and host communities. Over 47,000 Burundian refugees might not be able to access basic health services in South Kivu. It will also impact on the self-reliance of these refugees as they have been waiting for support with agriculture activities to reduce their dependence on food rations provided by the World Food Programme (WFP). Continued underfunding also undermines UNHCRs shelter programmes, and specifically its work to decongest displaced sites and hosting areas. More funding is needed to provide durable housing solutions which will contribute to reduce public health risks. The outbreak of COVID-19 further aggravates the risks faced by displaced families who are unable to return home due to the ongoing violence, and who often live in overcrowded displacement sites or with impoverished host families. Their circumstances do not allow for distancing, while there is also limited access to water, sanitation systems and health facilities. We have just received US$ 400,000 for COVID-19 prevention measures in DRC. For more information on this topic, please contact: A massive fire engulfed the damaged Baghjan oil well on Tuesday which has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 14 days in Assam's Tinsukia district, official sources said. A massive fire engulfed the damaged Baghjan oil well on Tuesday which has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 14 days in Assam's Tinsukia district, official sources said. The state's chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has requested Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to deploy the Indian Air Force for controlling the fire. No casualties were reported. However, a fire fighter from ONGCL sustained minor injuries during fire fighting operations. The blaze at the Oil India Ltd's oil well is so massive that it can be seen from a distance of more than two kilometres, eyewitnesses said. Three experts from Singaporean firm Alert Disaster Control were at the blowout site and some equipment was being removed when the fire broke out in the afternoon. OIL has estimated a timeline of four weeks for fully capping the well. "Post the incident, emergency meetings are underway with ALERT Team. They have expressed that it is now a safe environment for working and are confident that the situation can be controlled and the well can be capped safely. The situation demands arrangement of large quantities of water, installation of high discharge pumps and removal of debris. All the operations as per ALERT will take about 4 weeks. Efforts will be made to reduce this time frame as much as possible," an OIL press release said. OIL also reported "violent protests around the well site. "There are violent protests around the well site. Request was made to Chief Secretary, Govt. of Assam and District Administration, Tinsukia for maintaining law and order so that the experts are allowed to enter the site and start the well control operations. All officials of OIL / ONGC are being evacuated from nearby areas. Once the situation is normal, the experts from ALERT and the staff of OIL / ONGC will move to the site." Oil India PRO Tridip Hazarika in Duliajan said, "We are confused and worried about the incident. There was enough water under the well. Our experts have the means to douse the fire and hopefully it will be under control within 2-3 days." He said that hot weather may have led to some spark from the heat generated on the pipes above the rig. "Wet weather for all these days and our water blanket was keeping the well from igniting from these many days, sudden hot weather may have led to a spark," Hazarika told Firstpost. Firefighters have rushed to the the spot and efforts are on to douse it, officials said. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, they said. In a series of tweets, the Chief Minister's Office said Sonowal spoke to Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the phone regarding the incident. "The chief minister has already directed to deploy fire & emergency services, army and police officials at the site to control the situation. The chief minister also directed district admin to ensure safety of people and appealed to local people to not panic," it said. The Indian Express reported that the chief minister has also sought the air force's help to control the fire. A major blowout happened at the oil well, next to the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, following which gas started flowing out uncontrollably. The district administration had evacuated thousands of people living nearby due to spouting of natural gas and condensed droplets. With inputs from PTI Russian Air Force will soon get 20 supersonic Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft after the country's Defense Ministry signed a contract for the same. According to TASS, a Russian news agency, the Defense Ministry signed a three-year contract under which the military will get about 20 Sukhoi Su-34 jets to add to its arsenal of 130 fighter-bombers already in service. "Last week, a contract was signed between the Defense Ministry and the Sukhoi Aircraft Company on building about 20 Su-34 frontline bombers," TASS quoted a Russian Defense Ministry source as saying. The final contract for the purchase of the twin-engine, twin-seat medium-range fighter-bombers is likely to be signed in 2021. According to the new contract, the Russian Air Force will get the Su-34M, which is the latest version of the jet. The Su-34M with several advanced features has been modernised based on the operational experience. The Su-34M has been fitted with a new electro-optical infrared targeting pod, a Kopyo-DL rearward-facing radar to track and warn about incoming enemy missiles. The jet also features automatic deployment of countermeasures and jamming for better survival in adverse combat situations. Conceptualised and based on the Sukhoi Su-27, the first Su-34 took to the skies in 1990 and was intended for the now-defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Air Force. However, after the breakup of the USSR, the programme suffered a setback. The programme was later revived and the first Su-34 joined the Russian Air Force in 2014. Unlike other twin-seater combat jets in which the two crew sit in one behind the other, the Su-34 pilots have side-by-side seating in their armoured cockpit. Powered by two Saturn AL-31FM1 series 23 twin-circuit turbojet engines, the Su-34's primary task is to destroy ground, surface and air targets using a range of unguided and guided munitions. The maximum takeoff weight of the Su-34 is 45,100 kilogrammes and the aircraft is capable of flying 2,200 kilometres per hour (Mach 1.78 at high altitude). Even at a low altitude, the Su-34 can achieve 1,400 km/h (Mach 1.2) and has a combat range of 1,000 km with 12,000 kg weapons load. Su-34's armament includes a 30 mm Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-30-1 autocannon with 180 rounds and missiles, rockets and bombs on its 12 hardpoints. 113 Shares Share In early February, I was on my family medicine rotation. This was around Chinese New Year, when many East Asians travel extensively. The hospital I worked in serves a large Chinese community, and rumors about a new pneumonia emerging out of Wuhan, China were spurring patients to seek our reassurance that they didnt have it. One patient thought their stuffy nose might be ominous, while another was worried about a new rash. We told them they were probably fine. Even if they did have it, we believed a missed diagnosis would be of little consequence, since much of what we had read described COVID-19 as a variation of the flu. But the science was (and is) still evolving. It wasnt long before reports confirmed that stuffy noses and rashes are symptoms of COVID-19, that the virus is far more easily transmittable than wed thought, and that it can cause suffering and death far more frequently than the flu. In other words, in early February, despite practicing sound medicine, we were wrong. Thats the trouble with experts: were only as good as the science of the moment. In fact, were only as good as the most up-to-date science weve studied. Many people are surprised to discover that their doctor is in a constant state of continued education, reading just as many tedious medical journal articles as they did when they were medical students. The ever-moving target of medical fact is just one of the barriers stymying those who communicate science and those who need to hear it. So bear these things in mind when you listen to experts: Scientists tend to simplify complex thingsand sometimes oversimplify them. Early on, experts advocated sheltering in place to flatten the curve and prevent a surge of cases that would overwhelm hospitals. Mission accomplished! But there was more they didnt say: continued social distancing would almost certainly be needed, because outbreaks can still occur after the curve is flattenedas is happening in South Korea and Germany, among many other countries. Likewise, consider experts who initially compared COVID-19 to the flu. We thought this would help the public understand how the disease works. The limits of the comparison were quickly obvious. Simplifying or generalizing scientific findings helps experts transform complex ideas into actionable advice. The price? Undercutting public trust in expertise when the situation changes, or laying the groundwork for misleading political debates in which oversimplified ideas are pitched as absolute fact. Its a tough balance to strike, and reasonable people can disagree over the best messaging choice. Expert advice is probabilistic. If you draw one card from a deck, we can only guess what it will be. But if you draw 11 cards, we can almost guarantee that one will be an ace. Lots of people will get COVID-19 doesnt mean most people will. And if you and your friends dont get it, it doesnt mean the prediction was wrong. Scientists, especially epidemiologists, speak in terms of data and trends, while the rest of us think in terms of subjective experience. With few exceptions, scientists tell us what is likely within a group, not what is certain to befall you in particular. Experts talking outside their field probably dont know much. Some talking-head doctors on TV are brilliant. Others are professional commentators who happened to have attended medical school. Consider whos talking: when a so-called expert puts forth something beyond their credentials, he or she is probably not worth your attention. You dont ask your plumber about electrical wiring. Dont quiz your cardiologist about the global pandemic. Start off every engagement by assuming goodwill. As someone who now analyzes COVID-19 research on a daily basis, I deal with data, but trust is ultimately a personal decision. Regardless of their politics or background, I cant name a single scientist studying COVID-19 who hasnt put that aside to get us out of this quickly and with a minimum of suffering and loss of life. Theyre not trying to deceive anybody. But they sometimes assume you know theyre speaking in hypotheses instead of facts. As a result, when their best-guess predictions fall through, you might be tempted to assume ill-intent. As scientists, we have work to do too. We need to get better at communicating with the public, the vast majority of whom have no knowledge of epidemiology, infectious diseases, or the uncertainty of science. We need to acknowledge that public health expertise is not the only factor that informs public policy and that we are aware of how culture, commerce, and human nature must be factored in, too. Lastly, we need to be more available to counteract the misleading information from the non-experts. We need better communication about scienceand better listening. It begins with reminding ourselves of the limits of knowledge, our own, and each others. Henry Bair is a medical student. Image credit: Shutterstock.com University of Ghana says it will be holding a virtual graduation ceremony for some graduands at the end of the 2019/2020 academic year. The arrangement, which will affect final year students in the law school and some others in the medical school, has been necessitated by the partial closure of schools and the risks of congregational activities due to COVID-19. Confirming the decision on the Campus Exclusive show on Tuesday, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (ASA) Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo stated that this was a result of considerations made on the peculiar category of students who have certification and professional exams. Law for instance, because they have to graduate before they take their entrance exams for the professional school, for that one, I can say there'll be virtual graduationThen for a certain group of medical students that are waiting because if they don't graduate within a certain maximum number of months they'll have to retake their examinations, she intimated. Prof. Nana Aba Amfo further stated that the management is in progressive discussions on which particular model of graduation to settle on for the remainder of final year students. The Registrar and her team are having discussions and working on making proposals to management on how to carry out graduation ceremonies for the entire class of 2020, she added She maintained that the new arrangement comes as a useful replacement for the regular graduation ceremonies which are impossible to hold, at least in the next two months. Prof. Appiah Amfo added that the feedback from the first set of virtual graduation ceremonies will inform management on whether or not to stick with the arrangement. Within the next month or two we really can't have physical graduation so we will have some virtual graduation ceremonies and let's see depending on how well it goes, she highlighted. Since the ban on public gatherings and the resultant closure of schools in March this year, there have been concerns about how to hold statutory academic ceremonies including graduation, an important feature on the calendar of universities. Some universities across the world, including several campuses of the University of California, have already embraced the idea of virtual graduation ceremonies. As this novel arrangement increasingly becomes the new normal, the University of Ghana looks to break the ceiling within the West African sub-region by holding the first virtual commencement ceremony. An elderly man is dead and a 78-year-old woman seriously injured after a stabbing attack in South Australia. Police were called to the McLaren Vale home, south of Adelaide, about 7pm on Tuesday to reports of a serious assault. When patrols arrived they found an 81-year-old man dead at the scene and the woman, who was taken to the Flinders Medical Centre, in a serious condition. A 22-year-old man known to the couple was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder. Police at the scene in McLaren Vale near Adelaide on Tuesday evening. Source: Nine News He is scheduled to appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Wednesday. Major Crime officers attended the scene to assist Southern District CIB Detectives with the investigation. Police said the incident is not considered random and all parties are known to each other. Anyone with further information who has not yet spoken to police is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report on line at www.crimestopperssa.com.au 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. DALLAS, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Prospera Financial Services, Inc. (Prospera) has been ranked #4 in the Investment Advisor's 2020 Broker-Dealer Reference Guide: Best in the Business for Average Annual Gross Production per Advisor, a spot held from the previous 2019 rankings. Prospera, a privately held company, is a Texas-based financial firm founded in 1982 as a full-service, boutique broker-dealer and support organization for successful independent financial professionals across the country. On an annual basis, Investment Advisor magazine tracks the performance of 40-plus broker-dealer firms through different industry measurements. With the eye this year on broker-dealers who had an average annual gross production per rep of over $315,000, Prospera ranked well above this figure, with its advisors producing an average of $476,000, taking the #4 spot for the second year in a row. Prospera is proud to be able to support the needs of independent advisors and has put great effort over the years into maintaining a home-office to advisor staff ratio of 2.4:1, along with implementing a culture that revolves around providing hands-on expertise, tailored solutions and legendary service. "We are proud to see the success of our advisors. Through consistent dialogue and our ongoing quest to provide gold-standard interactions, we feel we truly offer the independence and flexibility for our advisors to achieve what we call Success Your WayTM," said David Stringer, President. About Investment Advisor Since 1980, independent and independent-minded advisors, whether a broker-dealer rep or an RIA, have turned to Investment Advisor magazine for the unbiased news, information and analysis on wealth management, alternative investments, retirement planning, technology and practice management that they need to grow and run their practices. Investment Advisor remains the leading media-valued partner in helping that advisor become and remain successful. About Prospera Financial Services Founded in 1982, Prospera Financial Services, Member FINRA, SIPC and a registered investment advisory, offers the flexibility and resources only found at some of the nation's largest broker-dealers. Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Prospera was named Broker-Dealer of the Year by Investment Advisor magazine in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019. The firm supports independent financial advisors nationwide. For more information about Prospera, visit www.joinprospera.com. Media Contact: Tarah Mattia Williams Senior Vice President, Marketing and Advisor Loyalty Prospera Financial Services, Inc. (972) 581-3015 [email protected] www.joinprospera.com SOURCE Prospera Financial Services Related Links http://www.prosperafinancial.com After delivering a super hit film Bheeshma this year, Nithiin is all set to play the lead role in the Telugu remake of Hindi film, Andhadhun. Nithiin will be reprising the role of a blind pianist played by Ayushmann Khurrana in the original. Ever since the film was announced, fans are eager to know who will play the antagonist in the film. In the original version, Tabu played the negative character Simmi. Her acting stole the show and critics and masses just loved her meaty character. Hence, fans are very excited to know who will reprise Tabu's role in the remake. Amidst all, the latest buzz suggests that Shilpa Shetty has expressed her interest to play a negative role in the black comedy, and she is expected to sign the film soon. Well, if the news turned out to be true, this will be a big comeback of the 45-year-old Shilpa in Telugu cinema after 19 years. For those who are unversed, Shilpa Shetty was last seen in 2001 film Bhalevadivi Basu opposite Nandamuri Balakrishna. Earlier, actress Ramya Krishnan was considered for the role, but things didn't work out well between the makers and the actress. Meanwhile, directed by Venkatadri Express fame Merlapaka Gandhi, Andhadhun Telugu remake's shooting started in February with the Puja ceremony. The pre-production is currently going on. The cast and crew, except the antagonist, are almost finalised and the project is expected to go on floors soon. Also Read : Ramya Krishnan To Do Bold Act In Nithiin Starrer Andhadhun Telugu Remake, Details Inside The remake rights of Andhadhun were bought for Rs 3.5 crore by Nithiin's production house, Shrest Movies. The original version was directed by Sriram Raghavan. The film bagged three national awards, which includes Best Feature Film in Hindi, Best Actor for Ayushmann Khurrana and Best Screenplay. Also Read : Nithiin Starrer Telugu Remake Of Andhadhun Won't Have S*X Scene; Here's Why Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press Google is preparing for employees to return to the office on July 6, but with many changes and restrictions in place. In a memo sent to employees this week and obtained by Business Insider, CEO Sundar Pichai said lunches will be distributed in prepared boxes, employees will undergo temperature checks and there will be no access to the company gym or sleep pods. French interior minister Christophe Castaner on Monday banned police officers from using chokeholds on suspects in the wake of the death of George Floyd in the United States. Floyd died on 25 May after an officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes even though Floyd was handcuffed and prone on the floor. Derek Chauvin has been charged with third degree murder. The three officers who filmed the incident while failing to intervene also face charges. Floyd's death in Minneapolis provoked protests in the United States and the rest of the world. It also refired anger in France over alleged police racism and the case of Adama Traore who died in police custody in 2016. An inquiry has cleared the three officers who arrested Traore despite one of the officers telling investigators that 24-year-old Traore had been pinned to the ground with their combined body weight. A report commissioned by Traore's family found he had died due to the police members' actions. Changes In a bid to quell the rising anger, Castaner said: The chokehold method will be abandoned. It will no longer be taught in police and gendarmerie schools. It is a method that has its dangers. During a televised announcement, Castaner also addressed complaints about racist behaviour among police officers. There will be zero tolerance of racism in law enforcement, he said. Racism does not have a place in our society and even less in our Republican police. Too many officers have failed in their republican duty. It is not enough to condemn it," he added. We have to track it down and combat it." Castaner's crackdown on rogue officers came hours after President Emmanuel Macron told his justice minister, Nicole Belloubet, to look into Traore's death. He also said he wanted Castaner to speed up an improvement in police ethics. The IGPN watchdog said on Monday that complaints against officers rose by nearly a quarter last year as police were deployed for months of weekly "yellow vest" anti-government protests. The rallies were often followed by violent clashes left several officers injured as well as civilians who were struck by rubber bullets. The IGPN report said nearly 40 percent of cases reported last year arose from police action during the demonstrations and 13 percent during identity checks and 14 percent during detention. Two men are accused of dressing up as New York police officers and robbing a Manhattan jewelry store of $150,000 in valuables as the city braced for another day of large protests, the authorities said. The men, Ismael Igartua and Jose Rodriguez, both 59, were each charged with robbery conspiracy, robbery, brandishing a firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm, the office of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a statement on Monday. Posing as police officers to prey on a city business during an international pandemic, as alleged, is dangerous to civilians and law enforcement officers, Commissioner Dermot F. Shea of the New York Police Department said in the statement. The allegations reflected rising concerns about how people could exploit for personal gain the crises affecting the country, including unrest over police brutality, the coronavirus pandemic and a battered economy. Across the United States, the authorities have accused people of trying to defraud a government relief program, of profiteering off medical supplies, and of impersonating the police to conduct illegal traffic stops or to harass women. As the number of COVID-19 infection cases in the country continues to rise, with the national death toll now at 1080, President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered his condolences to the families of COVID-19 victims, who have succumbed to the virus. Each one of these deaths is a tragedy. Each one represents a unique life: a parent, a child, a sibling or a friend. Each one leaves behind a family and a community in mourning. I would like to offer my condolences to all South Africans who have lost someone they love, and wish them strength, courage and hope in the days ahead, said the President. On Monday, the total number of COVID-19 cases stood at 50 879. Over 400 000 deaths have been recorded across the world, making this one of the most devastating pandemics in the last century. We should take this moment to remind ourselves that the coronavirus presents a real danger to all of us. While it may be an invisible enemy, it is nevertheless deadly, said the President. While most of those infected with the virus will have only mild symptoms, or no symptoms at all, they can still spread the disease to others who may suffer far more. To protect themselves and others, the President urged citizens to continue to wear a mask when in public so that it covers the mouth and nose, wash hands frequently with soap or sanitiser, and not to sit or stand too close to others in public transport or in a store. While some have tried to downplay the threat posed by the coronavirus, the majority of South Africans have understood its danger and have acted accordingly. Indeed, the patience and solidarity demonstrated by so many South Africans have saved many thousands of lives, said President Ramaphosa. Raising the alert level With the country still anticipating its peak, the President said government will continue to take whatever action necessary to safeguard the lives of citizens. Under lockdown, government built the capacity of the countrys health system, adding thousands of hospital and quarantine beds, securing adequate medical supplies and personal protective equipment, and putting training and protocols in place at all its healthcare facilities to prepare for an increase in infections. These measures will prove invaluable as the number of cases continues to increase. Indeed, this is the moment that we have prepared for. We have been advised by experts that the epidemic will become worse before it gets better, said the President. President Ramaphosa said while the country has had sufficient capacity to cope with the rate of infection so far, it will continue to monitor the situation closely. If necessary, government will impose a higher alert level in specific parts of the country to prevent a rapid increase in cases. It is therefore crucial that all South Africans adhere to the restrictions that remain in place and continue to take basic precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. These precautions remain our best defence against the coronavirus and are necessary to save lives. We all need to play our part in the fight against the coronavirus. Stay safe and protect South Africa, said the President. SA News Maharashtra police have arrested six persons for murder of a 20-year-old youth Viraj Vilas Jagtap, who had fallen in love with a girl from upper caste, according to an FIR registered by deceaseds uncle Jitesh Vasant Jagtap, a resident of Jagtap nagar area of Pimple Saudagar in Pune. Police inspector Mohan Shinde said that four of the six accused-- Hemant Kailas Kate, Sagar Jagdish Kate and two minors--were tracked and arrested by a crime branch unit of Pimpri Chinchwad police. The other two arrested in the case are Kailas Murlidhar Kate and Jagdish Murlidhar Kate, said police. The Jagtaps are dalit, while the Kate family belongs to the upper caste Maratha community. According to the FIR, the accused hurled racial abuse at Viraj before bludgeoning him to death. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Viraj was found lying at the spot in blood-soaked trousers. He had received injuries on his head and elsewhere on his body, says the complaint filed by his uncle. Jitesh Jagtap told police that Viraj was able to give an account of the assault before he died. According to the FIR, the six members of the Kate family had driven their mini tempo into Virajs two-wheeler and attacked him with rods and stones as he fell down. An injured Viraj reportedly told his uncle that he started running when the six charged at him before he fell down. Kailas and Jagdish Kate along with the two minors pinned him down while Sagar and Hemant assaulted him with metal rod and stones, it alleges. Jagdish Kate allegedly also hurled casteist remarks at him for daring to pursue his daughter and even spat on him, the complaint says. Viraj was later rushed to Aditya Birla hospital where he was declared dead on Monday morning. The accused have alleged that the deceased was stalking a girl from the Kate family despite being warned and a history of enmity between the two families. Assistant police inspector Ambrish Deshmukh of unit 4 crime branch that led the team that arrested four members of the Kate family threw light on the version of the accused. They said they had warned him against standing outside their house and stalking the girl. On Sunday night, Sagar Kates tanker got punctured near their house. Sagar says Viraj arrived at the spot under the influence of alcohol and started abusing him. Their fight turned violent, which is when two other family members arrived in a tempo and dashed Virajs two-wheeler and joined the fight. This is the accused mens version, said Deshmukh. A case of murder, criminal conspiracy has been registered at Sangvi police station with sections of prevention of atrocities against scheduled caste and scheduled tribe act and Maharashtra Police Act also invoked. Police inspector Ajay Bhosale is investigating the case. We are now looking at the call records to confirm details. The girls version of the story will also be recorded. What the accused say has no meaning at this point in the investigation, said Bhosale. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) has been given the green light to immediately resume scheduling of elective outpatient surgeries and procedures. Non-emergency medical procedures have been on hold on Staten Island since March 15, when Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order to postpone all elective surgeries in city hospitals. The following week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo did the same for elective procedures across the state. Cuomo announced Monday that New York City is eligible to resume elective surgery and ambulatory care. Previously, he said non-essential procedures could only resume in counties and hospitals without risk of an immediate COVID-19 surge. The state Department of Health (DOH) gave RUMC and all of its outpatient facilities the go-ahead on June 5, stating it has met all of the criteria and requirements for resuming non-essential procedures and surgeries. Dr. Daniel Messina, president and CEO of RUMC, said the hospital submitted a request to resume to the state in late-April. Our immediate priority now will be to assess the emergent needs of our patients and our community so we can focus on the surgeries and procedures to resume the fastest, Messina said. This will be accomplished collaboratively with input from hospital administration, our department chairs, nursing leadership and medical and clinical staff from our departments of surgery and anesthesia, among others, he said. Patients and staff will be required to wear CDC-compliant personal protective equipment (PPE) from pre-op through discharge. All patients will be tested for COVID-19 no more than three days prior and must receive a negative result prior to any surgery or procedure. We want all our patients to rest assured that we are strictly following all of the federal and state guidelines to ensure their safety and protection. We have taken extraordinary measures to ensure this at all of our sites and especially within our hospital, including creating a separate, isolated non-COVID-19 emergency department and complete patient floors designated for only non-COVID-19 patients, Messina said. SIUH TO RESUME NON-ESSENTIAL SURGERIES, PROCEDURES ON JUNE 15 Dr. Brahim Ardolic, executive director of SIUH, told the Advance/SILive.com that both the Ocean Breeze and Princes Bay campuses are slowly beginning to resume elective surgeries and procedures this week. The plan is to be back to a full schedule by June 15, Ardolic said. Its a soft launch; were looking to give accommodation time to our doctors and employees, Ardolic said. We were using 400 employees at the height of COVID-19 that need to go back to where they were previously working. Staff members are really looking forward to going back to their jobs. The hospital is able to resume surgeries and procedures while ensuring all staff, and now patients, will have personal protective equipment (PPE). It is also following Gov. Andrew Cuomos mandate, which requires hospitals to leave at least 30% of beds available for a potential surge of coronavirus patients. SIUH has at least that, he said, adding that some beds are standard medical/surgical beds and others can be converted if necessary. SIUH will continue to remain a COVID-19-contained facility, Ardolic said. Any patient that tests positive at the Princes Bay campus will be transferred to the Ocean Breeze campus if they require admission. Its interesting because its almost like a relief. I really believe were here to take care of Staten Island and meet their needs. So for me, when were not doing that and were not replacing a joint or doing some kind of a surgery so a patients cancer doesnt come back, when were not doing those things its like were not completing our mission, he said. So its been a relief [to get to this point] and kind of been tinged; theres a lot of sadness associated with this disease. I cant tell you how many of our employees were affected by this. Its a moment to reflect and look forward. FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER. Gregory Yee covers the city of Charleston. He's a native Angeleno and previously covered crime and courts for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, CA. He studied journalism and Spanish literature at the University of California, Irvine. When a storm hits the sea, land seems to be a safe place. In that context, when COVID-19 hit the Street, investors looked to take cover in safe sectors to protect their capital. PSUs are considered safe bets, and the big dividend payouts are lucrative. Investors should allocate some percentage of their portfolio towards PSU stocks at any given time. There are around 10 companies that are top portfolio bets of fund managers, FIIs as well as insurance companies. Many of them are common across MFs, FIIs as well as insurance companies. Most of these stocks have sound fundamentals and have corrected sharply since January. Top PSU companies in which fund managers hold their trust as per March quarter data include NTPC, BPCL, Power Grid, Coal India, ONGC, IOC, BEL, HPCL, GAIL India, and PFC, according to a report by LKP Securities. Close Related stories Daily Voice | Market can give double-digit returns, but Nifty rising above 21,000 looks unlikely in ... Trade Spotlight | What should you do with Cholamandalam Investment, Bharat Dynamics, Minda Corporati... Top 15 things you should know before the opening bell today If we see Nifty PSE index, Oil &Gas companies have the most weightage of around 40 percent followed by power companies with around 31 percent and metals with around 15 percent, Gaurav Garg, Head f Research at CapitalVia Global Research Limited- Investment Advisor told Moneycontrol. The major reason why various financial institutions have bet huge proportion of amount in these sectors is the percentage of the holding of the government, and that these sectors are the key to any economy of the world, he said. Garg further added that any announcement or change in policies in these sectors by the government will also impact the government holdings. We may say that these are dependable sectors which the financial institutions watch for. Top stocks in the foreign institutional portfolios include Power Grid, NTPC, BPCL, Coal India, ONGC, GAIL India, IOC, Container Corp, HPCL, and REC etc., as of March quarter, according to a report from LKP Securities. Insurance companies bet on Coal India, ONGC, IOC, BPCL, Power Grid, NMDC, GAIL India, New India Assurance, and GIC, data from LKP Securities showed. The companies mentioned above have a decent fundamental track record. However, in the current scenario, they are also witnessing significant pressure in their respective businesses due to overall demand slowdown, Ajit Mishra, VP Research, Religare Broking Ltd told Moneycontrol. Recently, the government has laid out a public sector policy that would aid higher efficiency in these companies through an increase in private sector participation and privatization. While this is positive for long term growth prospects, they could underperform in the near term due to overall economic slowdown, he said. How much should one invest? The recent announcement made by the government put PSU stocks in a commanding position even though they might have been underperformer in the recent past. The government would formulate a new public sector policy wherein all sectors will be opened up for private firms and PSUs will be privatized in non-strategic sectors. This will not only help improve efficiency in the system but also raise resources for the government, suggest experts. Further sectors like coal, power, refining, defence, and aviation would see greater participation of private players, they say. Though PSUs are high dividend-paying companies, they have been underperforming the benchmark indices for quite some time and have eroded a large amount of investors money due to poor financial performance, said Mishra of Religare Broking Ltd. Despite the recent plunge in the stock prices, we suggest investors not to invest more than 10 percent of their investable corpus until there is any meaningful sign of revival in the companys financial, he said. From the past couple of years, it is observed that the Indian economy is moving slowly, and the government is trying to boost it with various reforms and stimulus packages. The recent announcement of Rs 20 lakh cr package which is focused on various sectors might help to uplift the economy, but one must notice that it might take 2-3 years to see the results of these announcements. An individual investor one may consider 15-20 percent of investment into the PSUs, says Garg of CapitalVia Global Research Limited- Investment Advisor. Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Electric vehicle maker BYD (SEHK:1211) transitioned to making N95 respirators in China in January, with the COVID-19 pandemic spreading in that country. The company has the capacity to make 50 million N95 masks per day, and took a $1 billion order from the state of California as the U.S. faced shortages of the much-needed safety equipment. The Chinese company, which is 25% owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway underestimated the process for getting regulatory approval in the U.S., delaying the California order. Now, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health -- a unit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- has granted approval for the company to supply N95 masks supply to the U.S., according to The Wall Street Journal. The certification process delayed the expected fulfillment of the California order by about a month, according to the report. The original contract was announced by the state in early April, though it didn't name the foreign supplier. There was speculation that it was BYD, as its U.S. office is in Los Angeles. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state had ordered 150 million masks per month, and the manufacturer was to obtain NIOSH approval by the end of April. BYD, which stands for "build your dreams," received an extension for approval as the process was more demanding than expected. According to The Wall Street Journal, Stella Li, the head of BYD's North American business, said that the initial audit failed because of documentation issues and the company underestimated the rigor of the regulatory process. June 09 : Not only Bollywood films, but even Hollywood producers are opting to release their films on OTT platforms. Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions have turned down the theatrical release and the film 'You Should Have Left' will be launched on premium video on demand starting June 19. The trailer of the film got released yesterday which offers haunted weirdness. Based on the novel by German writer Daniel Kehlmann, 'You Should have left' stars Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfriend. The story revolves around a married couple Theo and Susanna who are having a troubled marriage. To repair their relationship, the couple along with their 6-year-old daughter book a vacation at a remote house in the Alps. What first seems to be a perfect holiday change into a nightmare when Theo suspects that a sinister force within the house knows more than he or his wife have revealed, even to each other. The trailer depicts much weirdness that a horror film can offer. Watch the trailer 'You Should Have left' is written and directed by David Koepp, the screenwriter of Jurassic Park. It is produced by Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions and will be available in North America on the premium on-demand digital from June 19. As a practicing clinician, from time to time it's useful to explain to clients the division of responsibility in psychotherapy. I say, "Your job is to put your bottom in the chair, and my job is everything else." I tell clients they can talk about whatever they wish for as long as they need. Every feeling, every memory will get us where we need to go. They don't have to find the mot juste or write a term paper about themselves. If something makes them uncomfortable, please tell me as soon as you can, even if you have to circle back to it. A few days ago, a client said to me, "You do not understand how I feel when I see the video of George Floyd." I said, "It's true I don't understand your experience." That response is called joining. Several schools of psychotherapy employ joining as validation to advance the therapeutic relationship. Joining communicates to the client that every aspect of your experience is indispensable. In fact, during therapy, nothing else exists. Joining can be simply staying quiet and listening to another's pain, which is what decent people do all the time. Narrative therapy creates a momentary, healthy, healing narcissism in which the client's experience is all that matters. After my client had poured out all to be said, I sealed the session by saying, "I was also heartbroken when I saw what happened to Mr. Floyd. It's true, I don't understand as you do, but I have been through the pain of tragic death as his family is going through." I did not mean, "OK, now let's talk about me." That will never happen. I said it because I believed that the client could accept the message that beneath our differences, there is a unifying reality of suffering that we all must experience. The client's provisional, therapeutic narcissism can then resolve into the shared experience that unites us all. I believe that connection through our shared suffering as Americans is gone. American society has ruptured into two irreconcilable camps with no evident path to being reunited as one constitutional republic under God. That brutal rupture happened in 1973, when the left embraced the doctrine of disposability of the youngest human beings. Since then, all that's been happening is the inevitable spreading of infection through the body politic. The path ahead to defend the Constitution and preserve traditional morality is either armed revolution or organized socioeconomic secession and apartheid. The third path is surrender to those who hate us, while swiping our cards to pay for their abuse. One way of conceptualizing the psychodynamics of this schism is that the left wing has become the collective psychotherapy client of the right wing, while being too immature to reciprocate the attention and emotional joining it demands. That one-sided, permanent narcissistic assumption, which never resolves into a mutual understanding of both sides' pain, has destroyed our society. The left wing disgorges its blame, rage, and discontent, believing that its bile deserves recognition and joining, while viewing our anguish and anger at the persecution of our great president, the desecration of our dearest constitutional rights, and the destruction of our national sovereignty as not worthy of understanding, but rather a symptom of the right wing's stupidity and hatefulness. Furthermore, the shrieks and groans expectorated by the left about racism, sexism, "homophobia," kids in kages, global gorming are rarely based on any form of direct knowledge, much less on personal suffering. In fact, it has been my experience that people who have actually suffered racial trauma, generally older like my client, are most capable of forgiveness, while pampered, wannabe victimlettes, sporting liberation fashion statements, are revenge-seeking blood-lusters in their histrionic wailings and gnashings. Psychotherapy often begins with emotionally painful presenting problems. Here are a few of the deep wells of pain that tens of millions of Americans deserve to be joined. We are sick of your verbal abuse of calling us racist. We are so nauseated by being guilty until proven innocent of racism that we could vomit. So gagged by being called privileged, you can add bulimia to the presenting problems. The most race-privileged people in American history are Barack and Michelle Obama. We are angry at your multifarious criminality in persecuting our great president. We are enraged by your schemes to nullify our votes, to disenfranchise us, to cheat us with fraudulent elections. We are tormented by your relentless attack on the U.S. Constitution, on our right to bear arms, our free exercise of religion, and the enslavement you envision for our grandchildren in the banana republic you are building. We grieve every life your evil abortion philosophy has ended. Barack and Michelle Obama have done more to damage race relations in America than any human beings since the end of legal segregation. Their respective booties one skinny, one super-sized, extra fries have been in a ginormous therapy chair sharing the pain of how racist Americans are, which amounts to verbal abuse of the American people. On May 29, Barack sauntered from one of his mansions with a tall shaker of salt to rub in our wounds. His lesion-salting ended by encouraging us "to work together to create a 'new normal' in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts." See, normally you are a racist swine with an infected heart from the legacy of bigotry. Thanks for sharing, Barack. Oprah Winfrey's bountiful butt cheeks have been crammed into the client's chair so long that she can't stand up straight. Oprah emotes passionately about her pain and is unaware of yours. On the death of George Floyd, Oprah writes: "If the largeness of a soul is determined by its sphere of influence, George Floyd is a mighty soul." If largeness of soul is determined by sphere of influence, then Hitler, Stalin, Mao had gigantic souls. Tragically, George Floyd's sphere of influence has already resulted in the bloody murder of at least five black people. Oprah will not publicly grieve for federal officer Patrick Underwood or police chief David Dorn. She may believe they were smaller souls according to her methods of spiritual calculation, though Underwood sacrificed his life for his oath to the Constitution and Dorn died protecting a friend's store. Right-wing people tend to be equally pained by all tragic deaths; for the left wing, someone murdered by a cop is more tragic. Oprah writes of George: "While pouring coffee, lacing my shoes, and taking a breath, I think: He doesn't get to do this." So many babies won't ever draw a breath because they were murdered in the womb. So many souls, so many black boys, won't ever learn to tie shoe laces because of that cataclysm of killing. Oprah doesn't join that ocean of pain. For many, our worst suffering is due to the destruction of the Constitution, for what that portends for our grandchildren. The Constitution is near death. First it was cut open to harvest its organs for abortion and "gender-neutral" marriage. Now there is a knee on the neck of the Constitution, asphyxiating the black-letter rights of the First Amendment. More than anything, the left hates Christianity. It has exploited and perverted and now is simply murdering Christianity. When Americans assert their free exercise of religion, the eunuch John Roberts kneels before a radical left-wing governor and degrades the Supreme Court as "an unelected federal judiciary" which may not "second-guess" the restricting of church worship. Where does he think he works at? The Jiffy Lube? It is especially sickening because the so-called science on the Wuhan virus (which figured in his capitulation) is a pile of trash. When will our fellow Americans, so sensitive, so aggrieved, let us sit in the therapy chair? When will they join our pain? Never. Image: Thijs Paanakker via Flickr. A Co Kildare mother and Intensive Care Nurse says that wearing masks and social distancing for the reopening of creches, primary and secondary schools will have a 'detrimental effect' on Irish children. Having children and teenagers social distancing, and maybe wearing personal protective equipment and for the under sixes, being expected to stay in pods, is 'not practical', says Naas ICU nurse, Hannah Clancy, and mother of four young children. She is calling for a better system of childcare to be announced for the country's children. Both her and her husband are frontline workers, and no childcare is available for them under the Government. Ms Clancy says that in January Naas Hospital was making preparations for a possible pandemic and ensuring that personal protective equipment was being sourced, and made available, for staff, if the need arose. She says that wearing masks and personal protective equipment is difficult enough for frontline healthcare workers like herself and she doesn't think children should have to wear them, adding that children are not showing symptoms of coronavirus or Covid-19. Ms Clancy said: "Masks would be pointless for children, they would be at an increased risk of cross contamination. The proper use of a mask involves not touching it, masks are very uncomfortable to work with, and would be uncomfortable for children. My mind could get foggy over after a few hours of wearing a mask, I find that with a mask on I am sneezing a lot and my airways get dried up." Along with the health risks associated with wearing masks for both teachers and students in schools, and childcare settings, Ms Clancy fears that the wearing of masks along with social distancing, as advised by the HSE and Government, could cause 'psychological difficulties' in an educational setting. She says that masks can 'restrict speech.' Ms Clancy said: "You can't make out what someone is saying, it is giving children a warped opinion of what is normal etiquette, my children observe social distancing when out, but in a classroom setting, this could be very difficult." According to healthcare workers, it is feared that two more surges will be experienced in Ireland of the coronavirus, between now and November. Pakistani troops violated ceasefire along Line of Control (LoC) in Mankote Sector of Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday (June 9) morning. according to sources, Pakistani forces initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and intense shelling with mortars along LoC. Indian Army gave a befittingly reply to the ceasefire violation forcing the Pakistani forces to stop firing from their side of the border. On Monday (June 8), Pakistan violated ceasefire along LoC in Khari Karmara in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. On Thursday (June 4), one Indian Army jawan got martyred in ceasefire violation by Pakistan in the Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district. Jewlan Shirmemet, a Uyghur who has lived in Turkeys largest city Istanbul since 2008, had stayed silent about politics until around six months ago, when he began to speak out as part of a campaign to free his mother, Suriye Tursun, from arbitrary detention back home in Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). At the end of 2019, he learned that his mother was sentenced to five years in prison, while his father, Shirmemet Hudayar, and younger brother, Irpan Shirmemet, served a stint in the regions vast network of internment camps, where authorities are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities since April 2017. After beginning his campaign, Shirmemet was contacted in February by a staffer from the Chinese Embassy in Turkey who confirmed that Tursun had been jailed for allegedly aiding terrorists, without providing further details. The staffer also informed him that his father and brother were interned in 2017 but had since been released. Tursun, a 30-year veteran of the Korgas County Office of Business and Trade Administration who regularly received awards for being an outstanding employee, had traveled abroad oncein 2015 to see her son in Turkey, which has since been blacklisted for travel by Uyghurs because of a perceived threat of extremism. Shirmemet maintains his mothers innocence and argues that Uyghur identity, not terrorism, is what authorities in the XUAR see as the gravest threat from the ethnic group. On June 1, Shirmemet received an unexpected phone call from his father, who resides in Suydung (in Chinese, Shuiding) township, in Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefectures Korgas (Huocheng) county, after not having spoken with him for three years. During the call, his father scolded him for his activism and told him to halt his campaign for his mothers release. He has also since received similar calls from his uncle and younger brother. Shirmemet recently spoke with RFAs Uyghur Service about his suspicion that authorities forced his father to call him and how he will not be swayed from his mission to see his mother released from prison: Shirmemet: I suspect they called me from either a national security office or a police station, because the call didnt come from my fathers number. He also said, I came [here] with your uncle and brother [suggesting that all three went to some location outside their homes]. If Im talking with them on the phone, in real fact Im actually talking with the police, because theyre talking through my father. By forcing my father to call me, theyre trying to warn me to be quiet. Theyre threatening me, more or less. To this I say: I will never be quiet. What would it mean for me to sit quietly by while they lock up my mother, who worked in government administration for 30 years, for nothing? How can I possibly be quiet when they have locked a woman up in prison for no reason at all? I will fight to the end In [Turkey], people will come out to save a cat locked up in a cage. They have imprisoned my mother, and they must release her. I should be able to call and talk to her. Im living in the 21st century, the technologies [for staying in touch] are very developed. Were developing means of communication with other planetsit should be a source of national shame that were living here on this earth but still unable to talk with our family. I am the citizen of a country that has very developed technologies and yet I cannot have contact with my family. They are blocking it. Why else would my father tell me not to call? I spent five years of my time in Turkey studying law ... What good would it be to have studied in this field if I dont do everything I can to protect the rights of my mother, my family? They can let me talk with my dad and try to tell me to be quiet, but they are actually trying to force me to be quiet. I will fight to the end for this. I will not be quiet until my mom, my dad, and my brother can live freely and openly, until we can speak freely and openly with one another, and until [my parents can] return to their normal lives. Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by Elise Anderson. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, center, leaves the Seoul detention center early Tuesday morning after the Seoul Central District Court rejected the prosecution's request for an arrest warrant. / Yonhap By Kim Hyun-bin Samsung leader Lee Jae-yong avoided a second stint in jail when the Seoul Central District Court judge rejected the prosecution's request for an arrest warrant citing insufficient probable cause for his arrest. It is uncertain whether or not the judge's decision was thanks to Lee's continued backing of South Korea's fight against COVID-19. In line with President Moon Jae-in's drive to address COVID-19 problems as quickly as possible, Lee is putting Samsung at the front of a drive to hugely increase the number and availability of COVID-19 testing kits. The group also offered millions of dollars in aid and loaned out doctors, engineers and a corporate jet. Also, Samsung announced massive investment plans in South Korea as an apparent gesture to back the government's initiatives to improve the virus-hit local economy. Now, all eyes are on the public assessment results, as Lee requested on June 2 the formation of an external panel to review the validity of the prosecutors' probe. On Tuesday afternoon, just hours after the judge denied the arrest warrant for Lee that prosecutors had applied for at the end of last week, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office requested both the prosecution and the vice chairman's legal team to submit written opinions regarding the establishment of the panel. From Samsung's standpoint, the upcoming establishment of the external panel is more than crucial as Samsung could use "views and responses" to be discussed and touch upon at the panel session as its "last card" to clear off allegations of various wrongdoings and other offenses in connection with a controversial merger between the two Samsung units for further legal proceedings. Lee's legal team hinted at the importance of the panel, releasing comments soon after the Seoul court rejected the issuance of the arrest warrant. WASHINGTON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Faith Counts, the leading and fastest-growing multi-faith online platform, is launching its fourth Film Your Faith contest, and awarding $35,000 in prizes to top films of two minutes or less showcasing the power of faith in a positive light. Filmmakers may submit their work June 8, 2020 through September 9, 2020. In October, online voters will pick the Fan Favorite, and a diverse group of faith leaders and film industry professionals will serve as the judges to choose the Grand Prize and the Honorable Mention winners. "This is a chance to show the many positive aspects of faith," says Faith Counts Communications Director Kerry Troup. "What does the world look like through your unique lens of faith? Pull out your phone or grab your camera gear, tap record and show us in two minutes or less how faith changes lives, relationships and communities for the better." To kick off the contest, Faith Counts will donate $5,000 to Capital Area Food Bank, a member of Feeding America started by an interfaith movement. Capital Area Food Bank, the largest organization working to solve hunger and its companion problems in the Washington, D.C., area, has served hundreds of thousands of our neighbors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The contest awards three cash prizes. The Grand Prize winner receives $20,000 cash, the Fan Favorite winner receives $10,000 cash, and one Honorable Mention winner receives $5,000 cash. How it works: Video submissions must be two minutes or less and must showcase faith in a positive light. Additional criteria can be found at faithcounts.com/video-contest Upload video entries to YouTube starting June 8, 2020 and then submit them using the entry form on faithcounts.com/video-contest by midnight September 9, 2020 and then submit them using the entry form on by midnight The Top Ten finalists will be announced on the Faith Counts website and social media channels on September 21, 2020 From September 21 to October 2, 2020 , viewers will vote for their Fan Favorite video from amongst the Top Ten. , viewers will vote for their Fan Favorite video from amongst the Top Ten. A panel of judges will select the Grand Prize Winner and the Honorable Mention Winner. Prizes will be announced the week of October 19, 2020 . The Film Your Faith judges -Pastor Teddy Reeves, Specialist of Religion at the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture -Rabbi Josh Bolton, Director, Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design Hillel -Rich Peluso, Executive Vice President, AFFIRM Films -Naima Mora, author, model and the winner of Cycle 4 of America's Next Top Model -Simran Jeet Singh, educator, writer, and activist, columnist for Religion News Service, host of the "Spirited" podcast, visiting professor of religion at Union Theological Seminary -Dale Bannon, Community Relations and Development Director for The Salvation Army -Aysha Khan, journalist covering American Muslims at Religion News Service -Sister Lisa Harkness, first counselor in the Primary general presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints For entry details, frequently asked questions about the contest and a list of rules and restrictions, visit http://faithcounts.com/video-contest/. "Faith is Knowing" by Kyle Churchwell won the 2018 Grand Prize. Watch it here . About Faith Counts Faith Counts, LLC is a nonprofit, non-denominational organization comprised of faith communities representing nearly 80 million Americans. Faith Counts has nearly 600,000 followers and has become the leading, fastest-growing multi-faith online platform with an engagement rate three times the industry standard. Partner organizations include 1st Amendment Partnership, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Hillel International, Hindu American Foundation, Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Salvation Army, the Yaqeen Institute of Islamic Research and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Contact: Desair Shaw [email protected] SOURCE Faith Counts Chua Chee Beng, 48, pleadd guilty to one charge of assault. (Photo: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) SINGAPORE A private hire driver who got involved in a road rage accident hit his own body and then called the police to allege that he had been assaulted by another road user, a court heard. While waiting for the police, Chua Chee Beng, 48, also assaulted the other driver, punching and kicking the latters face, head and neck. At the State Courts on Tuesday (9 June), the culprit was jailed for eight weeks after he pleaded guilty to one charge of causing hurt. Two other charges for giving false information to a public servant and causing alarm via threatening words were considered in sentencing. Culprit hit his own stomach and face, then called the police On 28 November last year, the victim Yeo Choon Seng, 40, was driving his lorry along the Central Expressway (CTE) towards Tuas in the right-most lane when Chua cut into his lane from the left at about 4.20pm. Yeo slowed down and also sounded his horn at Chua. About five minutes later, while Chua was driving along the second lane, Yeo drove up to Chuas car. Yeo gestured to Chua that he had almost crashed into the lorry earlier. Chua then drove to the road shoulder and parked his car there while Yeo parked his lorry in front of the car. Chua disconnected his in-vehicle camera and alighted. Yeo also alighted and the duo had an argument. During the dispute, the victim informed the accused that he was going to call the police, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Mark Yeo. Upon hearing that, the accused started hitting his own stomach and face, and told the victim that he was going to call for the police as well to inform them that the victim had assaulted him, the prosecutor added. Chua called the police hotline and said, I was hit by a man. He come down from the lorry and hit me using hands. My mouth injured. Lorry driver still here. I at road shoulder now. About five minutes later, Yeo called the police hotline and said, Somebody want to hit me. He pushed me two times. When I called the police, he start hitting himself and wants to act like I hit him. I dont need ambulance...I drive lorry. I alighted from my vehicle already. Story continues Culprit assaulted lorry driver Afterwards, Chua walked back to his car. As the victim believed that the accused was going to tamper with his own in-vehicle camera, the victim took a photograph of the accused, said the prosecutor. Chua saw Yeo taking a photo of him and confronted the victim again. The perpetrator punched the victim once in the face, before threatening him in Hokkien, How dare you take a picture of me? I am not scared of the police, the most I go inside and sleep. When I come out, I will find you. The prosecutor said, The accused then took a picture of the victim, and started assaulting him by punching and kicking his head and neck, intending to cause hurt to the victim, while further insulting the victim in Hokkien. The victim did not retaliate despite the accused daring him to do so. Chua only stopped assaulting Yeo when the police arrived at about 4.40pm. The perpetrator was then arrested. Yeo was given six days of medical leave due to pain in the right knee from the assault. The prosecutor asked for at least 10 weeks jail, noting, among other things, that Chua had attempted to deceive the police into believing that the victim was the aggressor, and that he himself had been assaulted. In mitigation, Chua, who did not have a lawyer, told District Judge Kan Shuk Weng that he had acted on impulse. I will control myself better from now on, he pleaded. The judge allowed Chua, who has previous convictions for theft and aggravated robbery, to defer serving his jail term till Friday. Chua had asked for the deferment, saying his mother suffered a stroke because of his court case and that he needed to make caregiving arrangements. The maximum punishment for assault is up to two years jail and a fine of up to $5,000. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Other Singapore stories: Six community cases among 218 new COVID-19 infections in S'pore; no local residents Couple convicted of abusing maid who fled from flat via gondola Two men charged with operating drones without permit near protected areas A young man has been arrested after allegedly threatening to kill NSW Police Minister David Elliott. The man, 25, allegedly made the threats over Facebook on Sunday and was arrested at a home in Belmont around 135km north of Sydney on Monday. When police searched the home they found two toy gel blaster guns, ammunition, cannabis and medication without a prescription. A 25-year-old allegedly made death threats online to NSW Police Minister David Elliott (pictured) Police arrested the man at a home in Belmont before seizing two gel blaster toy guns, cannabis and medication with no prescription He was charged with use carriage service to threaten to kill, possess prohibited drug, possess prescribed restricted substance, possess unauthorised firearm, and possess unauthorised prohibited firearm. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the threats were 'concerning'. 'Obviously, that is a concerning set of circumstances and police are dealing with it,' she said on Monday. The 25-year-old was granted bail and will appear in court on July 20. Rotunda Rumblings The more you know: Seventeen of Ohios 33 state senators are sponsoring a bill that would take the authority of reopening schools away from the state, interrupting work Gov. Mike DeWines administration has undertaken, Laura Hancock reports. The GOP-sponsored bill would only allow school boards and private and charter school officials to make those decisions. Send this order back: Eight Ohio bars and restaurants including TownHall and Harry Buffalo in Cleveland have asked a Lake County judge to overturn Ohios social-distancing rules imposed on them. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, their lawsuit asserts, among other things, that the restrictions are unconstitutionally vague, arbitrary, and potentially open them up to lawsuits from patrons. Court cash: In a year in which the Democrats could achieve a majority on the Ohio Supreme Court, the partys candidates together have closed the fundraising gap with the Republican justices from 15-to-1 in January to nearly 3-to-1 as of Friday. Democrat Jennifer Brunner, former Ohio secretary of state and a judge on Ohios Tenth District Court of Appeals, raised $63,456 in the most recent campaign finance period and now has a campaign fund balance $201,358 in her challenge to Justice Judith French, who raised $48,058 and is sitting on $398,572. Democratic Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John P. ODonnell has raised $50,320 and has $136,000 to spend against Justice Sharon Kennedy, who raised $101,318 and has a balance of $629,735. Money matters: Ohio House Republicans spent about $1.9 million in the final weeks of the states unexpectedly extended primary campaign, according to new state filings. Pelzer dug into the reports and found the House GOP spent a total of about $785,000 on ads to help two incumbents. The tally: At least 2,404 people have died with the coronavirus in Ohio as of Monday. Hancock reports that the states testing rate per 100,000 residents stubbornly remains ninth lowest in the country. Testing curve: Despite the low testing rate, Ohio has expanded testing, and some thought that could inflate the number of reported coronavirus cases in the state. But the rolling seven-day average for newly identified cases is now at its lowest point since April 15, reports Rich Exner. His daily mapping and graphic post on the trends also shows declining counts of patients in hospitals. Less bad: State tax revenues in May remained way below pre-coronavirus estimates, though they improved slightly compared to April. According to preliminary numbers released Monday by the Office of Budget and Management, General Revenue Fund tax receipts last month were $271.3 million (or 13 percent) less than expected. Revenue from auto sales and use taxes and personal-income taxes were 25 percent and 15 percent lower than predicted, respectively. Board certified: The Kasich-era board tasked with creating police department standards across the state could examine protocols for police responses to protests, the Columbus Dispatchs Randy Ludlow reports. In the two weeks since protests over the killing of George Floyd have started, police in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati have used tear-gas, pepper spray and less-than-lethal rounds to disperse crowds, a practice Franklin County Prosecutor Ron OBrien, who sits on the board, said they should explore. Feels like the first time: The statewide protests have activated some to come out and demonstrate for the first time, the Columbus Dispatchs Rita Price and Alissa Widman Neese report. As the Cincinnati Enquirers Dan Horn and Terry DeMio write, thats turned people who might not normally march into activists. Home by curfew: Following several nights of peaceful protests, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said a curfew in place for more than a week will not be renewed, the Cincinnati Enquirers Cameron Knight reports. That comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed against the city stating the curfew unfairly censored and punished protesters, per the Enquirers Kevin Grasha. On call: Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge will join former Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for a moderated discussion on the current state of black America with the NAACP at 8 p.m. Wednesday. No nukes: U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo is disturbed by reports that the Trump administration is considering resumption of nuclear weapons tests. Kaptur and other senior House members wrote to the administration seeking answers on the policy change, Sabrina Eaton reports. Pandemic payout: Investors looking to cash in on rental properties have found a gold mine in Cleveland, the Wall Street Journals Ryan Dezember reports. Home prices are low, but rental prices have kept up roughly with the rest of the country, meaning lots of valuable housing stock. The situation only gets better for investors looking to make a buck as the coronavirus pandemic depresses home buyers meaning more renters in the long run. A closer look: Amusement parks are set to reopen June 19, but a glaring problem could cause some hiccups, Ludlow reports. The states team for ride inspections is still understaffed after layoffs last month. Ohio Department of Agriculture Secretary Dorothy Pelanda said overtime had been approved for the ride inspection team, which is expecting two furloughed members to return within the next couple of weeks. Unmasked: 3M filed a lawsuit naming Preventative Wellness Consultants LLC of Columbus as the ringleader of a price-gouging scheme for N95 masks, the Star Tribunes Jim Spencer reports. The suit alleges Preventative Wellness Consultants represented themselves as a 3M wholesaler when no relationship existed. Full Disclosure Five things we learned from the Feb. 18 financial disclosure form of state Rep. Kyle Koehler, a Springfield Republican. 1. Aside from his legislative salary, Koehler reported earning $100,000 or more as vice president of K.K. Tool Company. 2. Koehlers investments include 401(k)s in four Columbia mutual funds, stock in K.K. Tool Company and a retirement fund through the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. 3. At one point in 2019, Koehler owed more than $1,000 on an MBNA credit card, CitiBank credit card, an installment loan with Sheffield and three car loans with Northwestern, Ally and Park National Corporation. 4. The Ohio House of Representatives reimbursed Koehler $2,311.92 in travel expenses. 5. Friends of Householder, the campaign for Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, gave Koehler a gift worth more than $75. The Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee and the House Republican Campaign Committee gave Koehler meals, food and beverages that exceeded $100. Birthdays State Sen. Bill Coley Jordan Plottner, Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center director of marketing and communications Straight From The Source There are enough tools for us to weed out the bad actors, but we must not buy into this narrative as Joe Biden has apparently bought into. -Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican, during a press call with the Trump campaign Monday about the move to defund the police. Blackwell agreed with the Trump campaign that institutional problems were not the issue with police relations with minorities, but were caused by bad apples. Capitol Letter is a daily briefing providing succinct, timely information for those who care deeply about the decisions made by state government. If you do not already subscribe, you can sign up here to get Capitol Letter in your email box each weekday for free. As protests against police brutality have swept the country, a Hudson County law enforcement agency has petitioned the Board of Chosen Freeholders to authorize purchases of $26,000 worth of riot gear and non-lethal weapons. Last week, the Hudson County Sheriffs Office requested permission to buy 150 riot helmets, as well as tear gas, nonlethal rounds, and riot control grenades, for roughly $26,000. The requests are part of a larger, roughly $100,000 package of requests for equipment from other county law enforcement agencies. Other requests were made earlier this year, before unrest over the killing of George Floyd had consumed the country. But in a June 3 letter requesting the new equipment, Hudson County Sheriff Frank X. Schillari seemed to reference the protests, citing the potential for unruly crowds." These items are essential to provide protection to the Sheriffs Office personnel during a civil disturbance, he wrote. With the public protesting more frequently and the potential of them turning violent, causing destruction to personal property and businesses requiring a large law enforcement response to restore order. According to Atlantic Tactical, the supplier of the gear, its riot control grenades emit a high volume continuous burn and a vast and obtrusive volume of smoke. The foam bullets requested by Schillari can be used as a pain compliance device to either get the crowd or subject moving or keeping them at a designated distance, according to manufacturer Defense Technology. J.P. Escobar, a spokesman for the Hudson County Sheriff, said Schillari supports the peaceful protests throughout the county. The Sheriffs Office has assisted local police departments throughout the county at these demonstrations without incident, and Sheriff Schillari places great value in community policing and building trust with residents, Escobar said. The equipment is intended for use only in extreme circumstances when the lives of officers and residents were at risk, such as the senseless mass shooting that rocked Jersey City a few months back, these measures would never be deployed at peaceful protests, Escobar said, noting that the agency has ordered such equipment in the past. As protests over the police killing of George Floyd have engulfed the nation, cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis, and others have seen the deployment of tear gas and rubber bullets. Images and video of protesters injured by police have made the rounds on social media, leading many to call for demilitarizing law enforcement. But rallies in Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne and elsewhere in Hudson County have been overwhelmingly peaceful. Nevin Perkins, a Jersey City activist and the founder of the Black Men United coalition, said the decision to buy riot gear is unnecessary. Theres been a plethora of different actions and all of them resulted in what they set out to, which is peaceful protesting, Perkins said of local demonstrations. None of them have escalated from the peaceful narrative that they set out with to begin with. The optics of law enforcement officers in riot gear would definitely be inflaming the situation, Perkins added. If the police present the visualization of riot gear, that does something to peoples psyches. The Freeholder board will vote on the requests Thursday. Four-time Grammy winner Missy Elliott shared a special video on Monday congratulating the class of 2020 graduates. 'I want to say congratulations to the class of 2020!' the Virginia-born 48-year-old - who boasts 13.8M social media followers - gushed on Instagram. 'Wooooo! First of all, give yourself a round of applause, because y'all completed your education which is so important. And I know it's a crazy time right now. Y'all didn't get a chance to walk across the stage, but we're going to celebrate y'all virtually because y'all deserve it.' 'Give yourself a round of applause!' Four-time Grammy winner Missy Elliott shared a special video on Monday congratulating the class of 2020 graduates Missy (born Melissa) added: 'I want y'all to continue to be yourself. Be great! Keep going, keep growing, and be bold, be fierce, let your voices be heard because you are the future. 'You are very important and you're a very strong class. So I want to say congratulations again, woooo! Yes, yes, yes, yes! You are one of the great classes. Class of 2020, I love y'all.' In the video, Elliott proudly put on the grey robe, pink sash, and black beret she wore one year earlier at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. The Woodrow Wilson High School grad made history as the first hip-hop artist ever to receive an honorary doctorate from Berklee. The Virginia-born 48-year-old gushed on Instagram: 'I know it's a crazy time right now. Y'all didn't get a chance to walk across the stage, but we're going to celebrate y'all virtually because y'all deserve it' Missy (born Melissa) added: 'I want y'all to continue to be yourself. Be great! Keep going, keep growing, and be bold, be fierce, let your voices be heard because you are the future' Throwback! In the video, Elliott proudly put on the grey robe, pink sash, and black beret she wore one year earlier at the Berklee College of Music in Boston 'Create your own lane!' The Woodrow Wilson High School grad made history as the first hip-hop artist ever to receive an honorary doctorate from Berklee A tearful Missy said in her 2019 commencement address: 'There will be ups and downs - prepare for that. As long as you are breathing, it is never too late. Dont forget that. You have come too far to quit' 'There will be ups and downs - prepare for that,' a tearful Missy said in her 2019 commencement address. 'As long as you are breathing, it is never too late. Dont forget that. You have come too far to quit.' This week, Elliott has been posting and reposting about the Black Lives Matter protests, which have had record numbers of marchers worldwide despite the raging coronavirus pandemic. The Cool Off rapper has been in quarantine with her posh little Yorkshire Terrier Ms. Fendi Dior, who has 4,862 fans following her on Instagram. 'Yep...': This week, Elliott has been posting and reposting about the Black Lives Matter protests, which have had record numbers of marchers worldwide despite the raging coronavirus pandemic 'Me & Mommy': The Cool Off rapper has been in quarantine with her posh little Yorkshire Terrier Ms. Fendi Dior, who has 4,862 fans following her on Instagram (pictured February 24) Missy next portrays the Town Crier in Kay Cannon's reimagining of musical rom-com Cinderella for Sony Pictures, which halted production on March 16 due to COVID-19. Elliott is rumored to have performed a cover of Beyonce's 2008 feminist anthem Single Ladies on the set of the fairytale flick, according to The Sun. The modern live-action remake - hitting US/UK theaters February 5 - also stars Billy Porter, Camila Cabello, James Corden, Pierce Brosnan, Idina Menzel, and Minnie Driver. Halted production on March 16 due to COVID-19: Missy is rumored to have performed a cover of Beyonce's (R) 2008 hit Single Ladies as the Town Crier in Sony Pictures' reimagining of Cinderella (pictured in 2017) Another top official at San Francisco City Hall is now charged in the public corruption scandal that already netted former Director of the Department of Public Works Mohammed Nuru this year, federal officials announced Monday. Sandra Zuniga, San Franciscos Fix-It director and director of the Mayors Office of Neighborhood Services is charged with one count of conspiracy to launder money after prosecutors said she conspired for years with Nuru to launder the proceeds of his alleged honest services wire fraud. Zuniga is one of three additional people officials named Monday in connection to the case, months after the bombshell January arrests of Nuru and restaurateur Nick Bovis. The pair were accused of attempting to bribe an airport commissioner, as well as a number of corruption schemes involving city resources. The additional complaints, unsealed Monday, are the latest to be made public in an ever-widening scandal that includes lavish vacations, hundreds of thousands of dollars in home upgrades, and gifts that include a $40,000 Rolex watch. United States Attorney David L. Anderson issued a thinly veiled warning to unnamed co-conspirators on Monday, vowing that the latest criminal complaints will not be the last. To everyone with a piece of this corruption, again I urge you to help make things right for San Francisco, Anderson said in a statement. Run, dont walk to the FBI, before it is too late for you to cooperate. San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney said it was infuriating how those accused in the case were spending their time, rather than cleaning up San Franciscos filty streets and sidewalks. Theres a culture of corruption within this administration that goes far beyond just Director Nuru, stretching across multiple departments, he said. San Franciscans deserve clean, accountable government working in the public interest, and they clearly havent been getting it. Zuniga, 44, is described as Nurus longtime girlfriend. FBI officials and federal prosecutors say Zuniga conspired with Nuru for years to launder the proceeds of his alleged honest services wire fraud, and from March 2014 to January 2020, made over $135,000 in cash deposits, on top of her city of San Francisco paycheck. Zuniga also deposited over $8,000 in checks from associates of Nuru, officials said in a press statement. The complaint alleges that Zuniga also joined Nuru on a two-week trip to South America in fall 2018, which included business-class flights and a stay at the Ritz-Carlton in Santiago, Chile. The vacation was all paid for, or heavily subsidized by, a contractor doing business with the City, officials said. Officials leveled an additional case against Balmore Hernandez, 55 of Burlingame, who was a longtime employee of San Franciscos Department of Public Works. Hernandez, now chief executive officer and vice president of San Francisco-based construction engineering firm Azul Works Inc., is accused of using his relationship with Nuru to curry favor with the city for his firm. Among the allegations, prosecutors say Hernandez supplied more than $250,000 in labor and materials to help Nuru build a home on his ranch and two adjacent 10-acre parcels of land in Stonyford (Colusa County). San Francisco-based construction company owner Florence Kong, 62, of Hillsborough is the third suspect named Monday by federal officials, and is accused of lying to FBI investigators during the Nuru probe. Officials say Kong owns two companies that do business with San Francisco: a construction company called Kwan Wo Ironworks and a construction debris recycling company called SFR Recovery Inc. In recorded calls, Kong is heard seeking business for her companies from the citys Public Works department, officials said. She is accused of providing Nuru with cash, a Rolex watch worth more than $40,000 and the installation of a gate for his vacation home. Nevertheless, prosecutors said, Kong denied ever discussing business with Nuru. 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. Zuniga is charged with one count of conspiracy to launder money, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Hernandez is charged with bribery and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, and Kong is charged with making false statements and faces up to five years in prison. Bovis and Nuru were arrested in late January and charged with one count each of wire fraud in a federal complaint that alleged they were involved in a number of corruption schemes involving city resources. The complaint alleged that beginning in January 2018, Nuru and Bovis attempted to bribe an airport commissioner in order to win a bid for the right to open a restaurant at San Francisco International Airport. Nuru and Bovis, according to the January complaint, schemed to give the unnamed airport commissioner $5,000 in cash and a free trip in exchange for voting for the restaurant lease, authorities said. But the airport commissioner declined to accept the cash and the scheme fell apart, authorities said. Bovis last month agreed to cooperate with the federal investigation and to plead guilty to committing honest services wire fraud and wire fraud crimes that carry a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Haney said the case is one of the reasons hes proposing a commission to oversee the department of public works, and splitting its responsibilities. The Mayor cant just replace a couple people at the top and expect that this is going to go away, he said. Megan Cassidy and Trisha Thadani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com, tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy, @trishathadani SARATOGA SPRINGS When a tree crashed through Linda Henles Wilton home during a fast-moving storm a few weeks ago, her pastor knew what to do -- call Rebuilding Together Saratoga County. And within weeks, Henles damaged home is expected to be fully repaired. I was gone for the weekend, but the pastor (Adam) Weigand (of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Saratoga Springs) called and asked if there was any way we could help out," said Michelle Larkin, executive director of Rebuilding Together Saratoga County, which provides free home repairs to those who are low-income, disabled, elderly, veterans or victims of natural disaster. "I said, 'Of course, we will.' The nonprofit tapped its emergency funds from the state's Division of Homes and Community Renewal agency for a new roof and other state money from the Housing Trust Fund for the repairs inside. And with the help of Rebuilding Together volunteers, Henles neighbors and Bonacio Construction, the Henles are expected to return to their home this week. And that happy ending is just one of one of nearly 200 repair and renovation projects the nonprofit does each year because, Larkin said, everyone should live in a safe home. Larkin is the founder of the organization, one in a national network of Rebuilding Together affiliates. She said she decided to open a branch in Saratoga County after working as a chaperone for young people from the Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church who volunteered for Rebuilding Together in Washington, D.C., and Boston. I said, 'Maybe I should start one of these locally,' said Larkin who has lived in Saratoga Springs for 40 years. You know how you say things in the moment. But another chaperone egged me on multiple times. So finally, I said 'OK, lets do it.' There is a need for people to remain in their homes and for affordable housing. How hard can it be? That was in 2003. In the beginning, Larkin said, she had no money and nobody understood what the organization did. Still, three businesses Curtis Lumber, Allerdice Building Supplies and Adirondack Trust -- immediately offered to help with her plan to deploy an all-volunteer work crew, one day a year. In 2004, Rebuilding Together, with the help of 100 volunteers, completed six projects on that one work day. It was pretty cool and nobody wanted to stop, Larkin said. So we said, maybe we could do two work days. We were constantly pushing until we are now a year-round organization with a paid staff and a building. We have helped hundreds and hundreds of people. Last year alone, Larkins nonprofit did 183 projects, involving 670 volunteers, that helped 300 people. Overall, Rebuilding Together, which has a $1.25 million annual budget, has repaired 1,252 homes and 100 community spaces. It has also replaced a dozen mobile homes a mission unique to this affiliate as there are more mobile home parks in Saratoga County than any other county in the state. Thats affordable housing for a lot of people, Larkin said. We want everyone to live in a home that is warm, safe and dry. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Many of their efforts are geared toward the elderly, another large population in Saratoga County, who want to stay in their homes. We want to make their homes as safe as possible, Larkin said. Weve done a lot of bathroom renovations, ramps. She also said they have done many roofs, porch and floor repairs, installed heating and recently renovated an entire house in Mechanicville. As the years have gone by, their projects have grown more complex thanks to federal, state and local grants that have allowed Rebuilding Together to bid out to contractors. While the volunteer work crews are essential, the projects dont have to be limited by the volunteers skills and equipment. Of course, she now realizes she was naive to think it would easy. But she persevered, and will continue to do so, because she said the need was great in 2003 and continues to be so. People think people in Saratoga Springs are rich, but people here are just like people around the country, Larkin said. I dont live in a fancy house, but home is a haven for me. Its not like that for everybody. We want every home to be a haven. To me, that always resonates. (Natural News) Medically Unsubstantiated is the warning pop-up you get on social media if you buck the sick-care system and post anything that might actually help people fix their health problems naturally or prevent unnecessary health ills. Thats what the social media tech giants label every conversation or post that speaks the truth about the cover-ups of pharma, and all that vaccine industry carnage of the kids that are maimed for life, so lets be consistent then. Lets label the new rushed vaccine the same, its only fair now right? Because thats what the social media tech giants label every post or comment about a natural remedy thats proven to prevent or cure disease and disorders its always flagged a medically unsubstantiated claim. The CDC and the WHO have made dozens of medically unsubstantianted claims about the Covid-19 pandemic Yes, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization have been making unsubstantiated medical claims left and right, every month, about the spread of novel Covid-19, the testing, the statistics, and much more. Theyre conflating and distorting results of more than one type of test, claiming false metrics to keep the United States in a state of shock and pandemonium. Yet, you wont see Twitter, Facebook or YouTube slapping that Medically Unsubstantiated label on their posts, ever, even after theyre proven wrong. Nothing is labeled. No apology. No admission of guilt, lying or deception. Nothing to see here. Theyve even fessed up about it on their own mainstream stage. Mixing results of antibody and viral tests are doing nobody any good, especially since those provide important, but totally different, sets of information. This is not some miscalculation, technical type of mistake, and its not shoddy work either, its all planned and scripted for the mass media. In fact, Virginia, Texas, Vermont and Georgia are all mixing the data in the same flawed way. Now theyre all suddenly stopping, as independent media calls them all out, and claiming they didnt even realize they were doing it. Please. Wake up people. Youre being juked by scam artists and pro-vaccine psycho-zealots. Everything these medical doctors and scientists claim comes straight from the keyboard of Bill Gates and is parroted across the medical spectrum by the CDC, WHO, and every liberal brainwashed, flu-shot-injected moron who speaks anything about the pandemic. Yes, theres a consensus. Its a consensus of psycho-pathetic globalists who want everyone sick and dying from a disease they paid to have created in a laboratory a genetically modifying coronavirus. Talk about unsubstantiated. You cant rush a vaccine to market and say its safe and effective. Most vaccines that take 2 to 3 years to create are already highly experimental and rarely ever tested for safety or efficacy. When they are, the scientists at Merck just spike the tests with animal antibodies and claim 95% efficiency! Then the CDC buys it for hundreds of millions of dollars and 200 million moronic Americans get jabbed with Medically Unsubstantiated toxins. Wheres the label for that? Negative test results for coronavirus means different things for EACH KIND of test, so most data thats shared with the public is medically unsubstantiated Here we go. If you test negative for the virus, youre probably not sick at that moment. If you test negative for the antibodies, most likely you never got exposed to it or caught it. Now, since antibody tests are far less accurate than viral tests, is also likely you receive a false result. The CDC just throws ALL negative tests in one pile, then reports on that alarming data directly to doctors, nurses and the public. Talk about medically unsubstantiated claims based on botched data collection. It gets worse. The false reporting of negative testing screws up interpretations of positive test result data, making responding to the pandemic way off, in either direction, either playing it way too safe and wrecking the economy, or being too loose and spreading the disease even faster. Now YouTube bans anything that doesnt fit their anti-Trump agenda, which in most cases, is the truth about not only Covid-19, but the natural cures like zinc, vitamin D and medicinal mushrooms (think reishi, lions mane, cordyceps and chaga here). Twitters all in with the pharma-led Left too, banning all truth talk about vaccines. The CDC, WHO and YouTube promote expensive pharmaceuticals and experimental vaccines while denying everyone the cure with no side effects or adverse events. Its all about money, population reduction and sheeple manipulation. Yet its the lying, communist-run World Health Organization (WHO) that you get referred to with pop-up warnings when you read truth news via independent media outlets. No wonder all our youth are brainwashed by social media and think orange man bad, fast food good, vote for socialism for free money for college, and Antifa nice. Meanwhile, Bill Gates will be pushing his mandatory Covid vaccine with tracking chips embedded while wielding medically unsubstantiated claims as if he were a doctor or scientist that he most certainly is not. Theres no way anybody is manufacturing a successful, safe and effective vaccine for the ever-morphing and ever-mutating Covid-19 inside of 3 years, its all a staged event for depopulation. Get the mercury out of your ears and wake up, before its too late. Tune your internet dial to Vaccines.news and find out why, even though people arent getting their routine vaccines right now, no infectious diseases nor sicknesses are increasing. Think about that for a hot minute. Sources for this article include: NYPost.com NaturalNews.com TheAtlantic.com vaccines.news Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 19:54:36|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RAMALLAH, June 9 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestinian official announced on Tuesday that two new cases infected with COVID-19 were recorded in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Mai al-Keileh, Palestinian health minister, said in an emailed press statement that the two cases are for a young woman from the West Bank town of Jericho and a woman from East Jerusalem. The total number of Palestinians infected with the deadly virus since March 15 has reached 654, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry's official figures, which added that 559 cases have recovered. China has helped Palestine in its fight against COVID-19 outbreak. On April 20, China handed over a batch of medical supplies to Palestine. In mid-April, Palestine received a shipment of medical aid donated by China's Alibaba company. Since April 14, Chinese doctors and medical experts have held three video conferences via the internet with Palestinian counterparts to share the Chinese experiences in containing the coronavirus outbreak. Enditem All Lives Matter has been allowed for too long to stand as a legitimate movement, counter-protest slogan and good-faith effort to include people of color. Its pretense and cannot be allowed to stand, not today, as the body of an African American man is laid to rest next to his mother the person to whom he cried out as his life was extinguished by a police officer. The officers knee pressed into the mans neck for almost nine minutes. On the day of George Floyds burial in Houston, the nation has much to do to remake itself to be worthy of All Lives Matter and a host of other slogans, like liberty and justice for all. The very least we can do today, after 14 days of protests around the world, is to stop pretending All Lives Matter. Until they do. All Lives Matter is otherwise offensive, tone deaf and dismissive. Edward A. Ornelas, Staff / San Antonio Express-News At best, its innocent ignorance. At worst, its a calculation of how much lying people are willing to take as fact. No doubt, weve become used to it. All Lives Matter refuses to focus on the real issue that has turned out people all over the planet to say Black Lives Matter. Implicit in the Black Lives Matter movement is that black lives have not mattered. Ever. All Lives Matter has billed itself as an expression of simultaneous love for all people and, by extension, equally supportive of protesters and police. Its none of those things. All Lives Matter is a lie. It feigns that all lives have always mattered and attempts to wipe U.S. history clean. All Lives Matter is well understood by intelligent, fair-minded public officials, police chiefs and academics, especially historians, political scientists and those who study the nuances of English-language use. Using it keeps us from talking effectively about race and racism. It gets in the way of better understanding in a country where both subjects are woefully misunderstood. We dont know our history, and educational systems have systematically failed us from not telling us about the first slave ship that arrived on U.S. shores and the role of slavery at the Battle of the Alamo and in Texas independence to the bloody Civil War. Priscilla Aguirre All Lives Matter has been a statement of denial and defiance. It also divides us. Yet the more some proponents hear that its offensive, the more they seem to use it as a retort to Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter was meant as Black Lives Matter, too, not to say that other lives dont. We dont talk about those explosive topics. But when we do, people talk at or over one another. Its counterproductive. San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller recently made a telling observation about us. He said we might hear one another, but were not listening to one another. We especially arent listening to our best leaders, the thinkers and peacemakers. All Lives Matter is a phrase that captures our aspirational values as a society, said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, adding that the phrase all men and women are created equal is similar. We want All Lives Matter to be true, Nirenberg said, but have failed to live up to the slogans ideals. Mario Salas, a political scientist and longtime civil rights activist, breaks it down a little more. Black lives have never mattered. White lives have always mattered, and Mexican American lives sometimes have mattered. Carolyn Van Houten / Carolyn Van Houten Salas sees All Lives Matter as an attempt to whitewash U.S. history, as if racism didnt exist and equal treatment has been the norm. When confronted about such matters, he prefers to answer with references to historical texts that might help people better understand, among them Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, published in 2000. It explores Tuskegee Institute records documenting 3,436 lynchings of black people between 1882 and 1950, a number considered conservative. Salas also recommends Black Holocaust: The Paris Horror and a Legacy of Texas Terror by E.R. Bills. It looks at a period from 1891 to 1922 in which Texans burned an average of one person of color a year for three decades. They were burned at the stake while alive. Teresa Van Hoy, an historian and St. Marys University professor, calls Black Lives Matter a cri de coeur, French for a passionate outcry or clarion call. Ancient Greek orators exalted words as epea pteroenta, or winged words fired like arrows from one heart to the other. This historical moment and movement deserve no less, she said in an email. Black Lives Matter rings in a holy trinity of clarity to counter the centuries of crafty lies that crippled our nation, she says. To the lie that black humans were chattel, we say Black Lives Matter. To the lie that blacks counted as three-fifths of a human so that South Carolinas sparse white population could secure heftier legislative representation, we say Black Lives Matter. Kin Man Hui /Staff photographer To the lie that honor demanded lynching blacks, we say Black Lives Matter. To the lie that assigned black soldiers the most dangerous and least rewarded roles, we say Black Lives Matter, she said. On the day George Floyd will be put to rest, burying All Lives Matter as a legitimate counter to Black Lives Matter is just the least we can do. eayala@express-news.net Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 21:01:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LONDON, June 9 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged the country's protesters to work "peacefully, lawfully" to defeat racism and discrimination. In a video message posted on his Twitter account on Monday night, he said the government could not ignore the anger and "undeniable feeling of injustice" sparked by the death of George Floyd in the United States and there was "much more to do" to eradicate prejudice in Britain. But he said the cause risked being "undermined" by a minority who attack police and property during protests. "I must say clearly that those who attack public property or the police - who injure the police officers who are trying to keep us all safe - those people will face the full force of the law; not just because of the hurt and damage they are causing, but because of the damage they are doing to the cause they claim to represent." "They are hijacking a peaceful protest and undermining it in the eyes of many who might otherwise be sympathetic," he said. "So let's work peacefully, lawfully, to defeat racism and discrimination wherever we find it, and let us continue to work together across all the communities of this country, as we put Britain back on its feet," he added. At the weekend, nearly 50 police officers were injured in London following clashes with demonstrators, according to BBC reports. A statue of Winston Churchill in London's Parliament Square was daubed with graffiti branding Britain's wartime leader a "racist", while in Bristol, protesters toppled the statue of a slave trader and then threw it into the river. Floyd, the 46-year-old African American, died on May 25 after a white U.S. police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes until he stopped breathing. In a video footage, Floyd was heard saying "I can't breathe" while three other police officers stood by. Enditem US Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper are now 'open' to the idea of renaming several Army bases which were named after prominent Confederate generals. The willingness to entertain the notion of renaming the bases comes in the wake of nearly two weeks of George Floyd protests around the country and is a reversal of the Army's previous position on the idea. It also follows the US Marine Corps June 5 announcement that it will ban Confederate flag iconography from being displayed in its facilities. US Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy (left) and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper (right) are 'open' to the idea of renaming military bases named after prominent Confederate generals There are at least 10 Army bases and installations which are named after prominent Confederate soldiers including North Carolina's Fort Bragg, named for Braxton Bragg 'The Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Army are open to a bi-partisan discussion on the topic,' Army spokesperson Col. Sunset Belinsky said in a statement Monday, obtained by Politico. McCarthy is not planning to change the base names unilaterally, a senior Army official told Fox News Monday. The George Floyd protests 'made us start looking more at ourselves and the things that we do and how that is communicated to the force as well as the American public', an Army official told Politico. Previously, the Army had been reluctant to rename the bases, despite accusations that keeping bases named after Confederate generals has a hand in celebrating slave owners and white supremacy. The Army had said in February that it did not plan to rename any of its bases that bore the names of Confederate generals, due to tradition. It had previously refused calls to rename streets in installations that were also named for prominent Confederate soldiers. Another Army base that could be renamed is Fort Benning, named after Henry L. Benning Texas' Fort Hood - named after General John Bell Hood - could also be given a new name An Army official told Fox News Monday: 'We must recognize history is important, but we must come together and have some sort of open discussion about race' and said that 'This week highlighted the need to start understanding those feelings.' There are currently at least 10 Army installations named after Confederate military figures, all of which are located in Southern states. Up for potential renamed would be North Carolina's Fort Bragg, named for Braxton Bragg; Georgia's Forts Benning and Gordon, named after Henry L. Benning and John Brown Gordon; Virgnia's Forts Pickett, A.P. Hill and Lee, named after George Pickett, AP Hill and Robert E. Lee; Louisana's Fort Polk and Camp Beauregard, named for Leonidas Polk and Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard; Texas' Fort Hood, named for John Bell Hood and Alabama's Fort Rucker, named after Edmund Rucker. The Army's about-face on the concept of renaming the bases comes just a handful of days after McCarthy put his name on a letter addressed to soldiers, their families and civilians who work with the Army. The June 3 letter stated: 'Over the past week, the country has suffered an explosion of frustration over the racial divisions that still plague us as Americans. And because your Army is a reflection of American society, those divisions live in the Army as well. 'We feel the frustration and anger. ... We feel it, even though we can never fully understand the frustration and life experiences of people of color, in or out of uniform.' It also noted, 'We need to work harder to earn the trust of mothers and fathers who hesitate to hand their sons and daughters into our care. How we respond to the anger that has ignited will chart the course of that trust.' The letter was also signed by Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James McConville and Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston. Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) broke from progressive counterparts in calls to defund the police, saying instead that the country needs well-trained, well-educated, and well-paid professionals in police departments. Sanders addressed progressive critics who viewed him as an obstacle to growing calls for defunding the police in the wake of national unrest following the death of George Floyd in a New Yorker interview published Tuesday. Do I think we should not have police departments in America? No, I dont. Theres no city in the world that does not have police departments, He stated. On Sunday, the Minneapolis City Council announced it had a veto-proof majority to abolish the Minneapolis Police system as we know it, and city council president Lisa Bender explained on Monday that fearing the repercussions of dismantling police forces comes from a place of privilege. Ilhan Omar, a former surrogate for Sanderss presidential campaign, applauded the decision. Another Sanders ally, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), attempted to explain on Twitter that the call to defund the police means that Black & Brown communities are asking for the same budget priorities that White communities have already created for themselves. But when asked about how a lot of people in the progressive movement now are calling for defunding or abolishing the police, Sanders demurred. The Vermont senator dismissed the notion that reducing police budgets would help eliminate racial disparities in the use of force, and seemed to suggest that police departments should receive additional resources. Too often around this country right now, you have police officers who take the job at very low payment, dont have much education, dont have much training, he said. I want to change that, he continued. I also called for the transformation of police departments into understanding that many police departments and cops deal every day with issues of mental illness, deal with issues of addiction, and all kinds of issues which should be dealt with by mental-health professionals or others, and not just by police officers. Story continues Sanders concluded by saying he wanted to redefine what police departments do by offering support to help police make their jobs better defined. I do believe that we need well-trained, well-educated, and well-paid professionals in police departments. Anyone who thinks that we should abolish all police departments in America, I dont agree, he said. More from National Review New COVID-19 case and death numbers continue to fall statewide, but health experts are warning that recent massive demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice could lead to an eventual surge in new cases. The impact of protests in the wake of George Floyds death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer may not be fully realized for several weeks, as the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has an incubation period of up to 14 days. Meanwhile, restaurants and bars across the Lower Peninsula were able to open their doors for sit-down service for the first time in nearly three months Monday, June 8. Below is a look at a few recent developments in the coronavirus crisis in Michigan: Black Lives Matter protests could spike coronavirus rates, Michigan experts say Health experts in Michigan say widespread demonstrations could lead to a surge in new COVID-19 cases. If theres a low-level background range (of virus at the protests), you could get enough people infected, and they all go home, or demonstrate other places," Dr. Joel Fishbain, an infectious disease specialist for Beaumont Health in Metro Detroit, told MLive. "And then all of a sudden you have this huge, tremendous spike." Protests were sparked nationwide by the May 25 death of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. The officer continued to press his knee to Floyds neck despite pleas from bystanders and Floyd himself, who appeared unconscious when the officer finally got up. Since May 29, thousands have gathered in more than a dozen cities across the state to protest police brutality and racial injustice. Some cities have seen day-after-day protests drawing hundreds. Sorry, but your browser does not support frames. Petition language to recall Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer approved by state board Petition language to recall Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over her executive orders addressing the COVID-19 pandemic was approved Monday, June 8, by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers. The group behind the petition, the Committee to Recall Governor Gretchen Whitmer, now must come up with more than 1 million signatures from registered voters in 60 days or less. If the group is successful, a recall election will take place. Among the executive orders at issue are the governors state of emergency declarations and those that called for the temporary suspension of business and activities not deemed essential to maintain or protect life. Penalty for violating Gov. Whitmers coronavirus safety guidelines isnt legal, court rules The Michigan Court of Claims recently deemed a portion of Whitmers June 5 order establishing coronavirus safety guidelines as a prerequisite to the opening of businesses "null and void. The portion of the order in question deals with the penalties businesses face for violating the reopening guidelines. At issue is Whitmer increasing the possible penalties by up to $70,000 per infraction within the meaning of the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Act. Court of Claims Judge Christopher M. Murray ruled that penalties under the emergency laws that Whitmer used to create the June 5 order are limited to a misdemeanor, up to 90 days in jail or a $500 fine. Murray went on to say that, if the infractions are also a violation under MIOSHA, then those penalties must be issued under that law. Portions of the June 5 order unrelated to the penalty section remain enforceable, Murray said. Michigan reports 129 new coronavirus cases, 17 new deaths The number of new reported COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to fall in Michigan. On Monday, state health officials reported 129 new confirmed cases and 17 new deaths, bringing the statewide total since mid-March to 58,999 known cases and 5,673 deaths linked to COVID-19. A week ago, the states seven-day average of new cases per day was 379, and new deaths per day at 39. On Monday, that seven-day average was 210 new cases a day and 22 new deaths a day, Dozens of Michigans 250 testing locations offer free testing, and individuals seeking a test no longer need a doctors note to get one. To find a testing site near you, check out the states online test finder, here, send an email to COVID19@michigan.gov, or call 888-535-6136 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays. Detroit casinos to reopen at 15% capacity with mask requirement, smoking ban While Detroits three casinos dont yet have a green light to reopen, the state on Monday issued safety guidelines for how that will work once they do. The Michigan Gaming Control Boards safety guidelines issued Monday call for smoking to be banned throughout the gaming floor, only 15 percent of the maximum capacity allowed in, temperature checks of anyone entering the casinos and no poker rooms, self-serve buffets and beverage stations. Patrons and employees are required to wear masks unless they are eating or drinking, and the casinos must provide employees and patrons with masks. The guidelines do not extend to Michigans American Indian, tribal-run casinos. Many of those casinos, including Firekeepers in Battle Creek, Soaring Eagle in Mount Pleasant and Turtle Creek in Williamsburg have reopened with guidelines similar to those issued for the Detroit casinos. 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: Detroit casinos to reopen with smoking ban Updated chart of what may reopen Michigan restaurants can reopen June 8 but many wont be ready Advice from Up North: QR codes, UV lights and more pointers, as Michigan restaurants reopen 7 numbers that stand out as Michigan begins to re-open after coronavirus quarantine From hair salons to gyms, experts rank 36 activities by coronavirus risk level Reopening their doors is the first of many challenges for Michigans leisure industries High Grade Drill Results Continue At Rose Hill Gold Project Perth, June 9, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Horizon Minerals Limited ( ASX:HRZ ) is pleased to announce further excellent high grade drilling results from the Rose Hill gold project, located near Coolgardie, 35km west of Kalgoorlie in the heart of the Western Australian goldfields (Figure 1*).HIGHLIGHTS- Follow up infill and extensional diamond drilling completed at the Rose Hill gold project in Coolgardie, 35km west of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the Western Australian goldfields- Current Rosehill Mineral Resource estimate to 300m depth stands at:o 1.2Mt @ 2.49g/t Au for 95,000oz at a 0.7g/t lower cut-off grade- Three holes drilled in April 2020 for 398m to a maximum depth of 172m with the program temporarily reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic- Significant high grade intercepts received include:o 3.4m @ 17.92g/t Au from 78.7m (RHRCD20015)o 3.7m @ 9.77g/t Au from 84.3m (RHRCD20014)o 5m @ 2.10 g/t Au from 142m including 2.5m @ 3.16g/t Au from 114.5m (RHRCD20018)- These results and recently retrieved historic data will inform an updated open pit and underground geological model and Mineral Resource estimate expected to be completed in the September Quarter 2020- Core samples have provided geotechnical information and metallurgical samples for confirmatory testwork as part of the mine optimisation and reserve generation studies- Further infill and extensional drilling at Rose Hill and the adjacent Brilliant North gold project is planned for the September and December quarters 2020- Rose Hill and Brilliant North join Binduli, Teal and the Boorara deposit as core advanced development projects being assessed as part of the consolidated Feasibility StudyCommenting on the Rose Hill results, Horizon Managing Director Mr Jon Price said:"Rose Hill continues to demonstrate significant open cut and underground potential and we look forward to completion of the updated resource models, reserve generation studies and further drilling results in coming quarters.""The Company's aim is to generate additional high grade open pit and underground reserves supplementing the large scale baseload Boorara project in Kalgoorlie to underpin a longer term production pipeline and a standalone processing plant at Boorara."During the June Quarter, the Company completed three infill RC and diamond tail holes to a maximum depth of 172m. The aim of the drilling was to improve geological confidence, test extensions in poorly drilled areas and provide additional geotechnical information and metallurgical samples from the diamond core.Rose Hill Project GeologyRose Hill is located 0.5km southeast of Coolgardie and lies on the western margin of the Archean Norseman-Menzies Greenstone Belt. Mineralisation is hosted within the main Rose Hill diorite (porphyry), adjacent to the hanging wall ultramafic and an eastern porphyry unit alongside the Greenmount Sill (Figure 2*). It is part of the same mafic-ultramafic package that includes Brilliant, Tindals and Dreadnought to the south and Queen of Sheba immediately to the north.Rose Hill sections and drilling data summaryA list of significant assays is shown in the Table 1 on Page 9*. Gold is found within a steep dipping, bleached dioritic porphyry host rock and is associated with thin stock work quartz veining and sulphides. Visible gold was observed in some of the quartz veins.There are variable abundances of biotite and garnet within the diorite that are typically associated with lower grades. Pyrite, pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite are the dominant sulphides.The three drill holes had RC pre-collars and diamond HQ core. The core has provided the opportunity to view the Rose Hill orebody and assist with creating an "underground" high grade resource. All three holes, particularly RHRCD20014 and 20015, have grades, widths and geological continuity that will support the underground resource model.Brilliant North SummaryThe Brilliant North project lies 80m south of Rose Hill and is located on M15/1204. Horizon retains the mineral rights to the top 30m of this tenure. The Brilliant North orebody is believed to represent the southern extension of the Rose Hill deposit.Horizon will commence resource drilling in the September quarter at Brilliant North in order to establish a standalone, open cut resource model. Horizon feels there is considerable encouragement given some of the historical intercepts as shown below.- 16m @ 2.00 g/t from the surface (1SBRC006) (Wamex Report A66135)- 11m @ 2.44 g/t Au from 21m (SB5) (Wamex Report A62255)Next StepsFurther drilling is planned at Rose Hill and includes several RC holes targeting the shallow, potential open cut area and redrilling some of the historic open percussion holes. Deep RC and diamond drilling will also be completed in selected areas to improve and confirm the geological and grade confidence. Confirmatory metallurgical and processing testwork of the existing core will also be completed.Initial drilling at the adjacent Brilliant North prospect (M15/1204) is also scheduled. This drilling will target shallow, open pittable mineralisation within 30m of surface and result in a separate JORC compliant resource.Consistent with Horizon's Coolgardie strategy, the Company will undertake a more detailed assessment of the nearby Gunga leases (Figure 1*) which contain several advanced prospects including the 60koz Gunga West deposit and Silverstar.The updated Mineral Resources at Rose Hill and Brilliant North will form part of the consolidated Feasibility Study with the aim of generating a minimum 4-5 year mine plan underpinning the construction of a stand-alone processing plant at the Boorara mine site, 10km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.Core advanced projects under evaluation for reserve generation and the initial production profile includes the 507,000 ounce base load Boorara project where trial mining has commenced, the Binduli gold project area including the 74,000 ounce Crake discovery, the 289,000 ounce Teal gold camp and the Rose Hill and Brilliant North open cut and underground gold projects.*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Horizon Minerals Limited Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia's richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed. Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline. Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE's, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage. Pro-democracy demonstrators carry a banner reading "Librate Hong Kong, Revolution of our Time" during a protest marking the first anniversary of a mass rally against the now-withdrawn extradition bill in Hong Kong, Tuesday, June 9, 2020. One year ago, a sea of humanity, a million people by some estimates, marched through central Hong Kong on a steamy afternoon. It was the start of what would grow into the longest-lasting and most violent anti-government movement the city has seen since its return to China in 1997. Read more As I watched youthful demonstrators pour into Philadelphia streets to protest police violence and the murder of George Floyd, I couldnt help recalling the past protests for justice Id witnessed overseas. From people power in the Philippines in 1986, to the Eastern European revolts against Soviet rule in the late-1980s; from mass protests against Kremlin repression in Moscow over the past three decades to the popular ouster of a Kremlin clone in Kyiv in 2014; from the Arab Spring rebellions, to the French Yellow Vest upheavals, to the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong: I watched individuals express outrage over arrogant rulers, police repression, official corruption, and indifference to the will of their people. Of course, comparisons with the current U.S. protests have severe limits. In most of these revolts, the aim was to topple oppressive rulers or systems at a historic moment when these regimes had weakened. READ MORE: Live coverage of Tuesday's protests: Mayor Kenney promises police reform But despite the many cultural, historical, and political differences, two of these revolts haunted my thinking over the past week. Both of them were organized by young activists via social media: first, the Tahrir Square rebellion in Egypt that began in 2011, and second, the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. The Egyptian revolt, in one obvious comparison, was sparked in 2011, when police beat to death a 28-year-old blogger named Khaled Said, who had been protesting police corruption in Alexandria. Brilliant organizing tactics by a group of young Egyptian techies via Facebook including a memorial page called We are all Khaled Said led to the peaceful toppling of President Hosni Mubarak. It was fascinating to watch how these young leaders mapped out a strategy to disperse police forces and coax Cairenes from working- and upper-class districts to join marches. They used this moment to unite Egyptians fed up with regime corruption and nepotism, rising food prices, and heavy-handed behavior by police for which citizens had no recourse. READ MORE: U.S. must stand with Hong Kong against Beijing's efforts to crush its freedoms | Trudy Rubin And it was astonishing to watch Egyptians of different classes, educations, religions, and skin colors march beside each other by the tens of thousands into Tahrir Square in the name of dignity and justice. I will never forget a taxi driver telling me he had felt like a donkey before the upheaval, but standing with fellow Egyptians, he finally felt proud to be an Egyptian. Yet, the Tahrir Square revolution failed, and Egyptians are now ruled by a military dictator, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who is worse than Mubarak. And the young leaders of Tahrir Square are either in jail, in exile, or trying to keep out of sight. Several of the revolts leaders told me their biggest weakness was their inability to translate their organizing skills into political impact. They were unwilling or unable to organize the poor and less educated in rural and urban Egypt into a movement. Instead of uniting behind one presidential candidate, they split their support between several, which enabled the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohamed Morsi, to narrowly win the presidency in 2012. One 25-year-old leader later told me, over coffee in the legendary intellectuals Cafe Riche in Cairo, The Muslim Brotherhood succeeded in reaching power because of liberals mistakes. When Morsi became repressive, young activists again tried to unseat his government with a massive demonstration, gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures demanding his ouster. Again, they failed to organize those signatories into a political movement. Military officials took advantage of public weariness with continued upheavals and staged a coup. In Hong Kong, the protests also revolved around police violence and legal injustice. The spark was Beijings attempt to curb the independence of the territorys courts, which operate under a one country, two systems framework. This system allows Hong Kong to maintain freedoms (until 2047) that are denied to Chinese on the mainland, including the right to assembly and limited suffrage. READ MORE: Three years later, the hope of Tahrir Square is gone | Trudy Rubin Under pressure from Beijing, the Hong Kong police cracked down hard on the protests, with thousands of arrests along with beatings. Protesters then demanded an investigation into police brutality, along with long-promised universal suffrage. But a minority of angry young people also began using violence, smashing stores whose owners were sympathetic to Beijing and throwing Molotov cocktails at police cars. Falsely tarring all demonstrators as violent, and aided by the shutdown during COVID-19, Beijing has now endorsed draconian security legislation that will expose Hong Kong demonstrators to serious punishment. One country, two systems is almost dead. Again, the context and politics in Cairo and Hong Kong are very different from the protests here. Yet, when I think of what young people achieved and lost in Cairo and Hong Kong, heres what comes to my mind: The Egyptian tragedy reminds us of the need for focused, coherent political demands, with as much unity as possible, at a historical moment when a nation is open to change. And the Hong Kong struggle should remind us that our flawed and stressed system which supposedly includes universal suffrage (if we can keep it) still holds out the possibility of change, including an overhaul of policing. We are not Egypt or Hong Kong, and this is the moment to prove we are still the United States. The delay in extradition proceedings against Liam Campbell, who was found civilly liable for the Omagh bombing and who is wanted on international weapons trafficking charges in Lithuania, is "shameful", the High Court has heard. Campbell (58) was arrested in Upper Faughart, Dundalk, Co Louth on December 2, 2016, on foot of a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by Lithuanian authorities. The arrest warrant for Campbell states that he allegedly organised the preparation for the smuggling of weapons in support of the terrorist grouping the Real IRA (RIRA) between the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007. Barrister for Campbell, Mr Remy Farrell SC, this morning (Tuesday) told the High Court that the objection to extradition was based on the length of time his client had been subject of the warrant and that his client could be subjected to "inhuman or degrading treatment" in another EU prison. Mr Farrell said that the Lithuanian authorities were "culpable, with a capital C" over the delay, which amounted to an "abuse of process", and that they had been seeking his client's extradition for over ten years. The High Court previously heard that an issue had arisen over the independence, or otherwise, of the Lithuanian public prosecutor and this issue was referred to the European courts by the Supreme Court. In May 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union found that the Prosecutor General of Lithuania can be considered a judicial authority capable of issuing European Arrest Warrants. The CJEU found it was up to the referring court to determine whether the prosecutor's decisions are subject to court proceedings fully meeting the requirements for effective judicial protection. Mr Farrell added that the remand prison of Lukiskes, in Vilnius, had closed in July of last year, that his client's bail was "hanging over him for four years" and that the delay in proceedings was "shameful". Mr Patrick McGrath SC, representing the Minister for Justice and Equality, said that he would consent to a variation regarding bail, so that Campbell could be released of a signing-on obligation at a Garda station. Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly, granting continuing bail, adjourned the matter to 13 July, adding that she would be working on a judgement in the interim. Campbell was not present in court and will not be required for the 13 July sitting. SEOUL, South Korea As American protesters took to the streets to mourn the death of George Floyd, they found an unexpected ally: K-pop fans. Floyd died May 25 after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving. K-pop fans galvanized by police brutality and political disappointments swiftly mobilized, re-purposing their usual platforms and hashtags from boosting their favorite stars to backing the Black Lives Matter movement. They flooded right-wing hashtags and police apps with short video clips and memes of their K-pop stars. In a tweet Thursday to its 26 million fans, South Korean boy band BTS said it opposes racial discrimination and violence and announced a $1 million donation to Black Lives Matter. Fans quickly followed suit with the hashtag #MatchAMillion on Twitter, matching the donation after 24 hours according to One One In An ARMY, a global fundraising team made up of BTS fans. Even so, political activism isnt exactly associated with K-pop fans. Over the years, K-pop fans have gained notoriety for overtaking Twitter trends and Instagram feeds. The loose network of fans mobilizes in a heartbeat usually to promote new songs from their favorite K-pop artists or to put down their critics. That same social media energy is being repurposed to support the Black Lives Matter movement, and BTS fans, known as ARMY, are at the forefront. Chloe Gallot, a French university student, said she joined ARMY Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth earlier this year when she fell into the rabbit hole while searching for a distraction from the coronavirus outbreak and personal troubles. A few days ago, Gallot became one of the ARMY members to respond to the #MatchAMillion hashtag, donating around $90 to Black Lives Matter. They (BTS) are pushing us to use our platforms even more. Gallot told The Associated Press, adding that BTS fans, including herself, had already started fundraising before BTS donation was made public. K-pop experts say zealous activism is nothing new for the fans. Despite the stereotypes about boy band fans, they are known for being politically aware and helping raise money for charitable causes online, especially on Twitter, said Hyun-su Yim, K-pop reporter at the Korea Herald. Which is why it took many people by surprise when the fandom spearheaded efforts to drown out racist hashtags, Yim said, referring to K-pop fandoms clogging up U.S. police apps and flooding racist hashtags like whitelivesmatter and WhiteOutWednednesday with their favorite K-pop memes and fancies, rendering them useless. Although K-pop has been popular in Asia for decades, the rise of BTS around the mid-2010s has grown fans in all corners of the world. However, that global expansion has sometimes created tension within the industry, spurred by multiple factors including language and cultural differences. Korean artists and labels have been thrust into uncharted territories where theyre forced to take a stance on social issues, drawing criticism from fans who say some issues are too far-removed from their own backyards. Danny Kim, who runs DKDKTV, a popular YouTube channel on all things K-pop, points out that Korean celebrities are not known to be vocal about social issues. The general perception of a celebrity is hes not there to voice his opinion hes there to for the enjoyment of the people,' Kim said. He also said K-pop stars are often bound by legal contracts, keeping them from making remarks that could come cause friction. Joseph Dorsey, a black fan from Chicago, said he wants K-pop artists to support the Black Lives Matter movement because the music industry has long benefited from adopting black American music and black American culture. Kim thinks its time for K-pop stars to speak themselves. K-pop has become not strictly a Korean thing anymore. An unfortunate and barbaric incident in Minneapolis city of the United States has stirred up widespread protests across the world. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it has once again brought to the fore issues such as racial discrimination, apartheid and torture of black people. George Floyd, an African-American man, was killed after a police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for close to 10 minutes while taking him into custody. The incident took place after Floyd allegedly bought a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. According to standard protocol, the shopkeeper informed the police and they caught hold of him. Cops said he was resisting arrest. After that Chauvin knelt on his neck even as Floyd kept pleading that he was unable to breathe. The US has not been alien to incidents of racial discrimination and police brutality in recent years. In 2016 as well there was a public uprising against the killing of two black men by the police. The peoples protest started after this because they say the police have a history of racial discrimination against blacks. The protests this time, however, turned violent. By taking the law into their hands, the demonstrators went beyond the virtue of their right and turned a legitimate movement into a violent protest. Shops were raided by people, properties were burnt, and the President then threatened people with virtually a military takeover. The acts of the protesters in the United States were a threat to the rule of law. British jurist AV Dicey in his 1885 book Introduction to Law of Constitution gave the concept of rule of law: nobody is above the law and everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. There are mainly three principles in this theory, that are supremacy of law, equality of law and predominance of the legal spirit. The violent protests in the United States allegedly supported by political leaders opposed to President Donald Trump pose a threat to this concept. Since nobody is above the law, loosely interpreted as no one can take the law in their own hands, the rioting by the people was uncalled for. It is a classic example of people defying the rule of law, the very essence of a healthy democracy. Failure of law and order is a typical example of a dystopian society. Generally, people resort to such means because they feel that the concerned authorities are not working to the best of their potential and no adequate relief can be provided to them if they go by the rules. The job of ensuring justice is entrusted with the judiciary whose functioning is out of the purview of the government. The judiciary, in order to ensure justice, has to go through a plethora of procedures that might be time-consuming, but it is the best viable option for an egalitarian and just society. Some people have lost their faith in the judiciary due to the delay in the justice delivery, but little do they know that speed may lead to miscarriage of justice. The USA is known for its robust legal system and seeing such violence for justice is indeed shocking. People have been of the view that the judicial system is weak and hence they defy the law. A wrong practice that can adversely affect the country in the long run. Thus, in order to attain justice, it is intrinsic that we lay our faith in the judiciary and go along with the system. Dr BR Ambedkar during his speech in the constituent assembly said that there is a need to do away with any type of violent protests prevalent during colonial India and resort to constitutional methods to attain justice. These words are not confined to the Indian context but must be followed worldwide to achieve a just society. The United States protests, till the little time they were peaceful, were well and good. But the second they took the course of violence by raiding shops and defying the rule of law, they became illegitimate. Indeed, it is a bold statement but it is the reality. Protests should be conducted in a precise manner with the aim of not creating anarchy but to yield results. There is an institutional hierarchy that must be followed. An institutional hierarchy is a structure of organisations in a specific order where one organisation is subordinate to another, except the one at the top. The media plays a pivotal role in shaping the structure of society. Media is considered as the fourth pillar of the democratic system. However, it has been witnessed that media agencies fall into the trap of some individuals or organisational ideology with ulterior motive. Often we come across instances where propaganda is being spread in the name of news. Fake news is a paradigm of ways through which false narratives are spread which are filled with malice, with an attempt to break the conventional institution. To conclude, it is a fallacy if we say that the protests are not politically motivated keeping in mind the US presidential elections scheduled this year. These protests are infusing violence and fear in people's mind because of its nature. There is no doubt that the protests have been started from the demand of justice but it was hijacked by some people in later period. Protests should not take the course of violence which leads to discursiveness from the agenda of the protests. The rule of law should be upheld under every condition and a question must not be raised on the job of the judiciary unless there is a breakdown of law and order and there is a complete state of lawlessness. However, we are indeed sympathetic to the unfortunate act of police brutality and condemn it, and further feel that justice must take its due course. Also, the need of the hour is to make stricter provisions for the police departments so that they are not in a position to subvert society by misusing their prerogative. Punitive punishment for them is a must that will act as a deterrent in the coming times. We must understand that everyone is equal before the law and thus if they go scot-free, it will be a huge setback for the legal system. Reform and justice is the need of the hour and it should be delivered at any cost, but It can not be delivered in chaos and anarchism. For justice reform, we need a system which only a democratically elected government can provide. (Ramanand Nand is director of Center of Policy Research and Governance and has worked with the MHRD on the new education policy. Abhinav Kumar is faculty at Law Centre, University of Delhi and a public policy expert. Views expressed are personal.) If youre reading this then I am sure these are the questions in your mind right now after reading the title - have even donkeys started gambling now? Are donkeys that smart in Pakistan? Ahem! Well, you never know maybe they are, just saying! But the fact is that the world is full of unusual instances and it only keeps getting bizarre every day. In one such instance, recently, a donkey was arrested in Pakistan for taking part in gambling. Yes, let that sink in! Twitter Recently, renowned journalist Naila Inayat tweeted a video of the four-legged animal along with the other accused humans in the gambling case in Pakistan. In her post, she also shared a link of Samaa TV, a news organisation in Pakistan, that details the entire not-so-ordinary incident. Heres what happened According to her post, during a raid in Raheem Yaar Khan, a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan, police arrested eight people along with the donkey for a gambling case. Besides, the authorities seized over Rs. 1 lakh from the perpetrators. According to a report in HT, the police filed a case against the accused and the animals name was also included in it. The SHO of the police station, as per the report, said that since the donkeys name is also in the FIR, it cannot be released. donkey unsplash Well, turns out it wasnt a great day for the donkey! *Tch tch* Check out the full video here: Donkey arrested for participating in a gambling racing in Rahim Yar Khan. Eight humans also rounded up, Rs 120,000 recovered. https://t.co/RIULiecduw pic.twitter.com/1FipntTR60 Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) June 7, 2020 Ever since the video was made available online, it has garnered mixed reactions on the micro-blogging site, wherein some people wondered how this could have happened, whereas this bizarre incident left others in splits. Check out some of the reactions here: what more than this?? Ramesh Bastola (@R_Bastola) June 7, 2020 Someone told me that @ImranKhanPTI will keep that donkey for riding. (@The_Singhel_Guy) June 7, 2020 Ok. Madhav Yadav (@MadhavYadav33) June 7, 2020 Wah wah wah, What a great News ReClaimIndiaYogiRaj (@DeadIsAlive3) June 7, 2020 Multiple speakers asked Birmingham City Council Tuesday to redirect funds from the Birmingham Police Department budget to other social services. As protests over the death of black people at the hands of police have continued throughout the United States, in the wake of George Floyds killing in Minnesota, some groups have been calling for cities to take funds from their police department budgets and put them toward other causes such as housing, mental health services and community revitalization. Today, speakers included local activists and medical students. They all asked the city council to redirect funds from the citys $92 million police budget to other social services with the hope those services can prevent violence. Four people spoke at the meeting Tuesday morning. More were waiting to speak but werent called. We have been working nonstop to try to encourage the city of Birmingham to get street outreach workers on the ground. Weve looked at your plans for interaction in the community and they focus on reentry and prevention but theres no intervention," said Onoyemi Williams, co-chair of Faith in Action Alabama. Those who are already caught in the cycle of violence have to have an opportunity to be brought out of the cycle of violence without having all of their dignity stripped away by going through the judicial system." Williams said shes asking the city to put $1.5 million into community programs, including programs to support families and communities affected by violent crime. She criticized police communication with families impacted by violence. Today @faithinactional called on Mayor Woodfin&city council 2 earmark $1.5 mil 4 anti-gun violence street outreach strategy that has reduced gun violence in other cities by 40-60%.These $s would b redirected from BHM police dept.s proposed $92 mil budget. @roysj @JohnArchibald Faith in Action AL (@faithinactional) June 9, 2020 One speaker asked if there was a better way to spend city money than spending $150,000 on ammunition for the police. The proposed 2020 police department budget earmarks $150,000 for ammunition. You can view the 2020 budget here. The push for action nationwide has taken many forms; activists and some elected leaders are pushing to defund or deactivate police. District 9 Councilor John Hilliard said the council cannot abolish the police department. Hilliard also referenced the citys dilemma of slashed tax revenues brought on by the extended closure of businesses in the coronavirus pandemic. Another speaker explained to Hilliard theyre not asking for the council to abolish the police, but to redirect funding. After a fourth person, Satura Dudley, spoke, Council President William Parker said he would set up a meeting between citizens and the council to discuss the city budget. He said he would exchange contact information with speakers and set up a meeting, but did not publicly announce a time or place. The meeting adjourned as other people in the chambers asked why they werent given a chance to speak. After the meeting, Parker, Hoyt and District 5 Councilor Darrell OQuinn talked to the rest of the group outside. View the full meeting here: Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila says prison experience for any politician is a badge of honour. Gbajabiamila who was represented by Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris Wase, said this when he led Principal Officers of the House on a visit to Senate Chief Whip Orji Uzor Kalu, who was recently released from the Nigeria Correctional Centre in Kuje, Abuja. According to Wase, the leadership of the House was in Kalus home to sympathise with him over his incarceration and urged him to take his experience as a lifes lesson and put everything before God. Advertisement He said: We are here to sympathise with you on what happened and your incarceration. As a politician, I want you to take it as one of those things. First, we congratulate you and urge you to put everything before God and believe it is part of destiny. My Leader, the late Chief Solomon Lar, told me not to fear, as a politician, to go to prison. He told me that going to prison is a badge of honour. Read Also: Court Stops House Of Reps From Passing NCDC Bill, Summons Gbajabiamila If you are a good politician, you should be willing to taste prison experience because it will come to you in very many dimensions. That happened to us sometime in the past when we were being chased and humiliated, and he asked us to be resolute and face the issues as they were. He reminded us of how he was sentenced to over 90 to 150 years in prison. He told us that as leaders, there is always a judgment that could be passed. As our leader, we want you to appreciate what God has done for you; use it for the positive development of our countrys judicial system; use it in the interest of humanity. A little-known Indian IT firm offered its hacking services to help clients spy on more than 10,000 email accounts over a period of seven years. Delhi-based BellTroX InfoTech Services targeted government officials in Europe, gambling tycoons in the Bahamas, and well-known investors in the United States including private equity giant KKR and short seller Muddy Waters, according to three former employees, outside researchers and a trail of online evidence. Aspects of BellTroXs hacking spree aimed at US targets are currently under investigation by US law enforcement, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters news agency. The US Department of Justice declined to comment. Reuters does not know the identity of BellTroXs clients. In a telephone interview, the companys owner, Sumit Gupta, declined to disclose who had hired him and denied any wrongdoing. Muddy Waters founder Carson Block said he was disappointed, but not surprised, to learn that we were likely targeted for hacking by a client of BellTroX. KKR declined to comment. Researchers at internet watchdog group Citizen Lab, who spent more than two years mapping out the infrastructure used by the hackers, said they had high confidence that BellTroX employees were behind the espionage campaign. This is one of the largest spy-for-hire operations ever exposed, said Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton. Although they receive a fraction of the attention devoted to state-sponsored espionage groups or headline-grabbing heists, cyber mercenary services are widely used, he said, noting Our investigation found that no sector is immune. A cache of data reviewed by Reuters provides insight into the operation, detailing tens of thousands of malicious messages designed to trick victims into giving up their passwords that were sent by BellTroX between 2013 and 2020. The data was supplied on condition of anonymity by online service providers used by the hackers after Reuters alerted the firms to unusual patterns of activity on their platforms. The data is effectively a digital hit list showing who was targeted and when. Reuters validated the data by checking it against emails received by the targets. On the list: judges in South Africa, politicians in Mexico, lawyers in France and environmental groups in the US. These dozens of people, among the thousands targeted by BellTroX, did not respond to messages or declined comment. Reuters was not able to establish how many of the hacking attempts were successful. BellTroXs Gupta was charged in a 2015 hacking case in which two US private investigators admitted to paying him to hack the accounts of marketing executives. Gupta was declared a fugitive in 2017, although the US Department of Justice declined to comment on the current status of the case or whether an extradition request had been issued. Speaking by phone from his home in New Delhi, Gupta denied hacking and said he had never been contacted by law enforcement. He said he had only ever helped private investigators download messages from email inboxes after they provided him with login details. I didnt help them access anything, I just helped them with downloading the mails and they provided me all the details, he told Reuters. I am not aware how they got these details but I was just helping them with the technical support. Reuters could not determine why the private investigators might need Gupta to download emails. Gupta did not return follow-up messages and repeatedly declined to talk when a Reuters reporter visited him at his office on Monday. Spokesmen for Delhi police and Indias foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment. Horoscopes and pornography Operating from a small room above a shuttered tea stall in a west-Delhi retail complex, BellTroX bombarded its targets with tens of thousands of malicious emails, according to the data reviewed by Reuters. Some messages would imitate colleagues or relatives; others posed as Facebook login requests or graphic notifications to unsubscribe from pornography websites. Fahmi Quadirs New York-based short selling firm Safkhet Capital was among 17 investment companies targeted by BellTroX between 2017 and 2019. She said she noticed a surge in suspicious emails in early 2018, shortly after she launched her fund. Initially it didnt seem necessarily malicious, Quadir said. It was just horoscopes; then it escalated to pornography. Eventually the hackers upped their game, sending her credible-sounding messages that looked like they came from her co-workers, other short sellers or members of her family. They were even trying to emulate my sister, Quadir said, adding that she believes the attacks were unsuccessful. US advocacy groups were also repeatedly targeted. Among them were digital rights organisations Free Press and Fight for the Future, both of which have lobbied for net neutrality. The groups said a small number of employee accounts were compromised, but the wider organisations networks were untouched. The spying on those groups was detailed in a report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 2017, but has not been publicly tied to BellTroX until now. Timothy Karr, a director at Free Press, said his organisation sees an uptick in breach attempts whenever were engaged in heated and high-profile public policy debate. Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, said: When corporations and politicians can hire digital mercenaries to target civil society advocates, it undermines our democratic process. While Reuters was not able to establish who hired BellTroX to carry out the hacking, two former employees said the company and others like it were usually contracted by private investigators on behalf of business rivals or political opponents. Bart Santos of San Diego-based Bulldog Investigations was one of a dozen private detectives in the US and Europe who told Reuters they had received unsolicited advertisements for hacking services out of India including one from a person who described himself as a former BellTroX employee. The pitch offered to carry out data penetration and email penetration. Santos said he ignored those overtures, but could understand why some people didnt. The Indian guys have a reputation for customer service, he said. The 2020 edition of CPhI Middle East & Africa, a leading regional pharmaceutical event, will no longer take place in Abu Dhabi in September, instead it will now debut in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in March 2021, said Informa, event organisers. Sherma Ellis, Brand Manager, CPhI Middle East & Africa, said: Maintaining the health and safety of all employees, partners, exhibitors and of course our visitors, as well as preparing and delivering an organised gathering that provides effective participation and a positive experience for all, was becoming extremely difficult under the current circumstances. For the past two years CPhI Middle East & Africa has been successful in Abu Dhabi and we would like to thank the UAE Government, the Ministry of Health & Prevention, and our partners for their contribution and support. However, having consulted with all stakeholders, regarding the venue for the 2021 edition of CPhI Middle East & Africa, the show will take place at the RICEC, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the 24-25 March 2021. "As the second-largest pharma market in the region and the 18th largest economy in the world, there is a myriad of business opportunities for our partners and exhibitors to unlock in Saudi Arabia and we look forward to the opportunities this burgeoning market offers, Ellis concluded. A range of healthcare reforms have taken place in Saudi Arabia in recent years to support and incentivise pharma manufacturers. These include 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) into the sector, efforts to increase the total local pharmaceutical production by 20% by the end of 2020, the launch of e-visas to make the country more accessible, as well as opportunities for business expansion, due to the countrys reliance on imported pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, socioeconomic factors including increased medical insurance coverage, a growing population, higher living standards, and the incidence of non-communicable diseases are all driving additional demand for pharmaceuticals within the kingdom. The Saudi Arabian edition of CPhI Middle East & Africa will be held at a time when the Mena pharmaceutical market is growing exponentially. According to Fitch Solutions Q1 2020 Mena Pharmaceutical & Healthcare Report, Mena pharmaceutical sales are expected to increase by over 24% from US$35.5 billion in 2019 to $44.1 billion by 2023 primarily a result of the regions chronic diseases, particularly cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. CPhI Middle East & Africa is pharmas regional exhibition for innovation, networking, and business. Together, with its co-located events ICSE, FDF, P-MEC, and InnoPack, and being the only pharma event in the region that covers pharma manufacturing, it brings together nearly 4,000 key pharma suppliers and buyers, connecting local, regional and international professionals from across the entire pharma supply chain, from ingredients to finished product distribution. TradeArabia News Service New Delhi, June 9 : Amid condemnation for the killing of a Kashmiri Pandit Sarpanch in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district, some comments on social media related to the death of the 40-year-old outraged many. While some made jokes that the Sarpanch's post laid vacant after his death, others even linked his killing to a domicile debate. Some even tagged the Kashmir Zone Police to report a Facebook comment apparently by a young man who allegedly threatened Kasmiri Pandits with dire consequences. There were others who were not so direct, but subtly justified the unjustifiable. "As Kashmiri I'm numb & sad for his loss of life. Let's be clear, India used him as scapegoat for domicile laws in Kashmir. India wants to change demography when world is facing pandemic. He wasn't serving Kashmiris there but Indian designs. Sorry you had to die so young," wrote one user on Twitter. The Sarpanch, Ajay Pandita, was shot dead by unidentified terrorists in Anantnag district on Monday, evoking widespread anger among the Kashmiri Pandit community which was ethnically cleansed from the Valley in 1990 by Pakistan-backed terror groups. Others even lamented that not many people came forward to condemn the killing. They particularly targeted those who generally mourn the killing of militants. "All those shouting, tweeting, writing grand op-eds, sermonizing & high roading, distributing certifications while in support of those #Pulitzer prize winners and photo journalists who support and perpetuate terrorists propaganda haven't been able to thumb down a single word yet," a user, Ieshan Vinay Misri, tweeted in anger. In a video posted on Twitter on Tuesday, veteran actor Anupam Kher echoed a similar feeling. "Deeply saddened & angry at the merciless killing of the lone #KashmiriPandit sarpanch #AjayPandita in Anantnag yesterday. My heartfelt condolences to his family. There is an obvious silence from the usual suspects who cry their heart hoarse otherwise," Kher said. But there were no dearth of those from the Muslim community who chastised others "enjoying" the killing of the Sarpanch. "Those people enjoying death of any human being are the worst lot among us. May Allah guide them," wrote one Facebook user in a comment to a post. "Killing any innocent person is like killing the entire humanity...my sympathies with the bereaved family..I pray that this bloodshed comes to an end," wrote another. New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will get himself tested for coronavirus (COVID-19) on Tuesday (June 9) as he was suffering from ill-health since the past two days. Kejriwal developed mild fever and sore throat since Sunday which is a cause of worry as these falls under coronavirus symptoms. The Chief Minister has isolated himself and has cancelled all meetings scheduled for the day. The cause of worry regarding Kejriwal's health is more he is a diabetic patient. In the past few days, CM Kejriwal had attended a few meetings and had also visited the Delhi Secretariat. On Sunday morning, Kejriwal held a cabinet meeting at his official residence which was attended by many AAP ministers, including Sisodia, Environment Minister Gopal Rai, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, officials said. After the cabinet meeting, Kejriwal cancelled all his official engagements as he felt sick. Kejriwal had addressed an online media briefing on Sunday afternoon when he announced that all government and private hospitals, barring a few which perform specialised surgeries, would be restricted to city dwellers till the crisis gets over. Meanwhile, Kejriwal will be unable to attend the state disaster management authoritys meeting on community transmission of Covid-19 in Delhi and health care strategies. In his behalf deputy Cheif Minister Manish Sisodia will take part in the meeting. Delhi BJP Chief Adesh Gupta and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee called Kejriwal to know about his health condition. New Delhi, June 9 : Sounding the poll bugle for the West Bengal Assembly elections which are still months away, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday claimed that the state had lagged behind other states in development and its law and order was in bad shape. The senior BJP leader appealed to the people of West Bengal to vote his party to power in the next Assembly elections, promising to make it 'Sonar Bangla'. Continuing his attack on the Trinamool Congress government led by Mamata Banerjee, he said that there was open play of bomb blasts, kidnappings, narcotics and corruption and thus a political change was necessary in West Bengal. "MLAs are being held captive, MPs are stopped. The BJP helped Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan - which were BIMARU states - to develop. You have seen the governments of the Left and the TMC; now give a chance to the BJP," he said while addressing a poll rally in the eastern state from here through videoconference. The BJP leader also demanded that the TMC supremo give an account of what she did in the last 10 years in power in Bengal. "Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's government is only doing politics. It has only been complaining against the Centre. If the Modi government is giving what all it did in the last 6 years, her government should also do the same," Shah added. Shah claimed that if the BJP was voted to power in Bengal, it will ensure the end of corruption, terrorism, nepotism and appeasement. The state would be rid of scams like Narada and Sharada, he added. Shah said that Banerjee had opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act due to her policy of appeasement and used unparliamentary words for her political rivals. "What wrong have the Hindu refugees from Bangladesh done for you to oppose grant of Indian citizenship to them?" he asked. The Union Home Minister said that one crore people across the country had benefited from the Aayushman Bharat health insurance scheme of the central government, but the people of West Bengal had been deprived of its benefits. He said that the Centre had repeatedly asked for list of intended poor beneficiaries in the state but the TMC government had been allegedly refusing to share the same. Shah alleged that West Bengal government did not share the list of people who could benefit from the Kissan Samman Nidhi Yojana, due to which the intended beneficiaries could not get the money. Around 1.25 crore migrant workers had been helped to return to their native states through 4300 Shramik Special trains so far by the central government, the BJP leader said. He alleged that the TMC government allowed only 3 lakh migrants to return to West Bengal through 236 trains. "We called them Shramik Special trains but the TMC government called them Corona Express trains. This is an insult to the people of West Bengal," Shah claimed. He said that the state which reverberated earlier with Rabindra Sangeet was now hearing the sounds of bullets and bomb blasts, adding that more than 100 BJP workers had been killed in the political violence in the eastern state. The last Assembly election in West Bengal were held in April-May 2016, and are slated to be held in the first half of next year. Donald Trump makes remarks as he participates in a roundtable with law enforcement officials in the State Dining Room of the White House on 8 June 2020 in Washington, DC: Doug Mills/Getty Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to suggest a 75-year-old Black Lives Matter protester knocked to the ground and injured in Buffalo, New York, during the George Floyd protests could be an ANTIFA provocateur and the incident, which was filmed and went viral, a set up during a barrage of tweets onTuesday. The president has also claimed his re-election rallies could begin "next week" while dismissing calls for local authorities to defund the police and redistribute resources towards social services in the wake of Floyds killing. There wont be defunding. There wont be dismantling of our police. And there is not going to be any disbanding of our police, he said on Monday. After two weeks of nationwide protests and civil unrest, Floyds funeral is taking place in Houston, Texas, with Trumps Democratic challenger Joe Biden in attendance. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load Mark Saunders seldom looked as happy as when he announced on Monday that he will step down as Torontos police chief at the end of July. No wonder. Simultaneously too cautious for critics of policing in general and the Toronto force in particular, and too inclined to shake things up for many of his own officers, Saunders ended up caught in the middle. He was said to be the status quo choice when he was appointed chief in 2015, but instead proposed a transformation plan that would have cut some $100 million from the forces budget of $1 billion and trimmed hundreds of uniformed officers from its ranks. These days, after massive protests against police violence in both Canada and the United States, that might be welcomed as a step toward defunding the police and redefining its role. Instead, Saunders ran into massive resistance from the police union, which successfully pressured his political masters into reversing course. When a new wave of gun violence broke out, the police services board and city council threw money at the force again, increasing its budget by $40 million and hiring hundreds of new officers. Instead of defunding, the city in the end chose re-funding. And yet Saunders refused to feed into public panic as the number of shootings rose. He insisted, rightly, that policing could be just part of the solution, that its wrong to think we can arrest our way out of this. Governments, he said, must also invest in social supports for troubled communities. It shouldnt have been unexpected, then, that Saunders made the dramatic gesture of taking a knee last week in the midst of a protest against police violence. As the first Black chief of the Toronto force, he needed no lessons in the corrosive impact of racism. And he gave a strong hint of the direction he may take once he leaves his current job. I see a lot of young Black boys getting killed by young Black boys, he said. I want to find a cure for the disease. Whatever the verdict on his time as chief, Saunders has done the Toronto force a final service by stepping down now, eight months before the end of his contract. Debate over the role of policing has never been so charged. Proposals to defund, even dismantle, police forces have moved from the radical fringe to the centre of public discussion in a matter of days, driven by world-wide outrage over the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In Toronto, two city councillors, Josh Matlow and Kristyn Wong-Tam, kicked off the debate on Monday by proposing a motion to cut 10 per cent of the budget of the police service, or about $122 million, and reallocate the money to community programs. That will be far too little for some critics of the police, who just want to tear the whole thing down. But it would be a big step toward rebalancing the citys priorities, if the mayor and council are willing to stick with it in the face of inevitable push-back from the police union and its many allies. Matlow and Wong-Tam also want the province to give city council more control over details of the police budget, the citys biggest spending item. Its doubtful the Ford government would go along with that, but it should, if only in the name of democratic control. This is the context in which Toronto will select its next chief. The times call for a truly extraordinary leader. Reform on the scale that Saunders proposed in his transformation plan wont be nearly enough to satisfy the demands for change in the months ahead. Torontos force needs something much more ambitious, and a chief capable of delivering on it. The new chief must also excel at communicating the need for change, something that wasnt Saunders strong suit. He was right to step down now and clear the way for a new beginning. Read more about: Kylie Jenner's best friend Stassie Baby - whose real name is Stassie Karanikolaou - turned 23 years old on Tuesday. And the 22-year-old makeup mogul wishes her buddy a good one by sharing several flashback images of the two dressed up to the nines together over the past year. 'Happy birthday to my fairy 42 sister @stassiebaby!!' began the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star. 'You are the rarest of all time.. truly a gift to this world.' Power duo: Kylie Jenner's best friend Stassie Baby - whose real name is Stassie Karanikolaou - turned 23 years old on Tuesday. And the 22-year-old makeup mogul wishes her buddy a good one by sharing several flashback images of the two The best: 'Happy birthday to my fairy 42 sister @stassiebaby!!' began the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star. 'You are the rarest of all time.. truly a gift to this world' Kylie then added, 'And the best aunty to my babygirl [Stormi]. i cant believe we are celebrating your 23rd birthday. 'I cherish every year weve spent together and i thank God for putting you in my life. i wouldnt be able to do it without you. 'I have your back till the end of time. today and every day.. we celebrate you.' So much love: Kylie then added, 'And the best aunty to my babygirl [Stormi]. i cant believe we are celebrating your 23rd birthday' Followers loved the images which included the two dressed as Playboy Playmates, in Chanel crop tops, in swimwear, matching minidress and in glam gowns all done up for Christmas. Zackbia said, 'The greatest duo there ever was.' Memesfaills's added, 'I Love you .' Stassie also took to Instagram as she posed in a hot pink sparkly bra top and matching skirt while in a mansion. Close as can be: 'I cherish every year weve spent together and i thank God for putting you in my life. i wouldnt be able to do it without you,' she added Ride or die: 'I have your back till the end of time. today and every day.. we celebrate you,' she then said The beauty had on a brunette wig - her hair is normally blonde - and had a deep tan. '23 years around the sun - my birthday wish is for you to please please go out and vote today!!!' All spring Stassie has been by Kylie's side as they stay in the pinup's $36.5M mansion in Holmby Hills, California. Variety: Followers loved the images which included the two dressed as Playboy Playmates, in Chanel crop tops, in swimwear, matching minidress and in glam gowns all done up for Christmas So many fans: Zackbia said, 'The greatest duo there ever was.' Memesfaills's added, 'I Love you ' Side by side so often: The two seem to be inseparable and may be living together Her last steamy post saw her in a sexy yellow lace bra and panties by Savage X Fenty, for which she serves as a brand ambassador. She sat on the edge of her bed, posing in Rihanna's size-inclusive lingerie brand. It comes after Kylie's billionaire status was revoked by Forbes, the very publication that recently declared her the 'youngest self-made billionaire' for the second consecutive year. Ready to party: Stassie also took to Instagram as she posed in a hot pink sparkly bra top and matching skirt while in a mansion Pinup fever: The beauty had on a brunette wig - her hair is normally blonde - and had a deep tan. '23 years around the sun - my birthday wish is for you to please please go out and vote today!!!' They alleged that the beauty mogul 'inflated the size and success of her business for years,' claiming her tax returns were 'likely forged.' Top financial fraud attorney Jan Handzlik told DailyMail.com on Friday that Kylie could face a criminal investigation over the alleged exaggerations. She responded on Twitter: 'What am i even waking up to. i thought this was a reputable site. 'All i see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. i've never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. period.' Serving body: Karanikolaou flaunted her curves as she modeled a sexy yellow lace bra and panties by Savage X Fenty, for which she serves as a brand ambassador, in May Stassie took to TikTok earlier this month with a brief tour of Kylie's $36.5 million Holmby Hills mansion, which she bought last month. She exclaimed before dancing and posing around the 15,000-square-foot: 'Ayo, my best friends rich check!' Kylie recently put her Calabasas starter mansion, which she bought at 17 for $2.5million, back on the market for $3.6million. Allentown, PA (18103) Today Partly cloudy and very cold. Near or below zero wind chills again late at night towards sunrise. . Tonight Partly cloudy and very cold. Near or below zero wind chills again late at night towards sunrise. " " Giganotosaurus carolinii on display at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, in Atlanta, Georgia. James Emery /Flickr (CC BY 2.0) The skeleton ofon display at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, in Atlanta, Georgia. They lived about 30 million years apart and never set foot on the same continent. Yet Giganotosaurus carolinii is always getting compared to the world's most popular dinosaur, the beloved and well-known Tyrannosaurus rex. Tyrannosaurus rex has been a media darling since (arguably) 1906, when The New York Times called it "the prize fighter of antiquity." Named just one year prior, this big beast was already making a splash over at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Today we know an adult T. rex could stand 12 feet (or 3.6 meters) tall at the hip and measure 40 feet (12 meters) long. As such, Tyrannosaurus was one of the largest predators to ever walk the earth. But hold your horses. A handful of other meat-eating dinos rivaled, or possibly exceeded, the creature in size. Giganotosaurus belongs to this elite group and it's part of a dinosaurian mystery that's never been solved. Advertisement Beasts of the Southern Wild T. rex and Giganotosaurus were both representatives of the theropoda clade. (A "clade" is a group of organisms which includes a common ancestor species and all of its presumed descendents.) Hollow-boned and bipedal, the theropods were (and are) a highly successful bunch. On the list of documented theropods, you'll find every carnivorous dinosaur yet discovered, quite a few plant-gobbling species and all birds, living and extinct. The last nonavian dinos were wiped out at the close of the Cretaceous period, an expanse of geologic time that lasted from 145 to 66 million years ago. Its conclusion marked the end of the Mesozoic Era, sometimes called "The Age of Dinosaurs." Tyrannosaurus rex lived in North America during the twilight of the Cretaceous, making its evolutionary debut around 68 million years before the present. Our buddy Giganotosaurus was the product of another time and a different landmass. " " A reconstructed Giganotosaurus carolinii skeleton on display at The Australian Museum in Sydney, Australia. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images Native to western Argentina, it came along much earlier in the Cretaceous, roughly 98 to 97 million years ago. South America was a realm of giants back then. Huge sauropods, or "long-necked dinosaurs," roamed the countryside, with some species like Andesaurus and Limayasaurus stretching around 50 feet (15 meters) long. Rounding out the local bestiary were crocodylians, early snakes and beaked herbivores. No doubt Giganotosaurus kept its neighbors on guard. The theropod's discovery was first announced in 1995 by paleontologists Rodolfo A. Coria and Leonardo Salgado. In all the years since, we have yet to find a complete skeleton. However, the backbones and tail vertebrae at our disposal suggest Giganotosaurus was at least 41 feet (12.5 meters) in length. So Giganotosaurus might've been slightly longer than Tyrannosaurus. Cool beans. On the other hand, a 2014 paper published in the journal Plos Biology, argued T. rex had a much heavier build. Using the circumference of its upper leg bone, Roger Benson and his colleagues calculated that a mature Giganotosaurus weighed about 13,448 pounds (6,100 kilograms). The same technique put T. rex at a whopping 16,975 pounds (7,700 kilograms). Advertisement Shark-like Teeth Sliced Ribbons of Flesh off Prey Weight gaps are all well and good, but the jaws tell better stories. Anatomical evidence suggests these two carnivores used very different methods to bring down their prey. Thick and banana-shaped, the teeth of Tyrannosaurus would've excelled at crushing bone. In contrast, Giganotosaurus had tall, skinny teeth which looked an awful lot like recurved kitchen knives. Serrated on both sides, the pearly whites were housed inside a narrow snout. (By the way, Giganotosaurus had a monstrous skull; scientists estimate the noggin was around 6 feet or 2 meters long.) " " A 7.5-inch resin cast from a Giganotosaurus dinosaur tooth. Independent Picture Service/Universal Images Group via Getty Combine these features and you're looking at a theropod that probably killed by slicing ribbons of meat off its unfortunate prey as opposed to shattering bones. Once bitten, a victim may have bled out while the carnivore lurked nearby. Giganotosaurus hails from one of the fossil record's most intimidating families: the carcharodontosaurids. If you're into sharks, that name should ring a bell; scientists call the great white Carcharodon carcharias. Likewise, the word "carcharodontosaurid" roughly means "shark-toothed lizard" in Greek. Steve Brusatte is a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh who's studied these remarkable theropods and happens to be a scientific adviser for the next "Jurassic World" movie. "The roster of carcharodontosaurid fossils has expanded tremendously over the last decade as people have found new fossils all over the world, particularly in South America and Africa, but also in Asia and Europe," says Brusatte in an email. "Most carcharodontosaurids [like Giganotosaurus] were giant meat-eating dinosaurs with deep jaws and sharp, thin, almost shark-like teeth. They were the largest and most formidable predators in many ecosystems during the early to middle part of the Cretaceous, before the rise of tyrannosaurs." Indeed, T. rex had some puny forebears. The first members of its lineage were human-sized predators that showed up around 170 million years ago. Giant tyrannosaurs wouldn't start evolving until the late Cretaceous Period, after the mighty carcharodontosaurids died out. "This changeover remains a mystery," explains Brusatte. "We don't really know why it happened, and it is one of the biggest remaining mysteries of dinosaur evolution, in my opinion." Now That's Interesting You can't talk about theropod superlatives and ignore Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. Our understanding of this African dinosaur is a bit murky but the picture's getting clearer. In 2020, the scientific community learned that this animal had a weird, paddle-shaped tail. Though its legs seem disproportionately short, experts theorize Spinosaurus had an overall length of about 47 feet (over 14 meters). In a significant, albeit delayed directive, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday asked states and Union Territories to identify stranded migrants and arrange their transport back home within 15 days. It has also asked administrations to withdraw cases filed against migrants for violating the lockdown guidelines, and the Indian Railways to ensure the availability of trains within 24 hours if there is demand. Both the Centre and the states have been told to prepare a detailed list to identify migrants. The court has instructed that all schemes and employment opportunities available to migrant workers must be publicised; and there must be employment relief and skill mapping. The SCs decision comes over 75 days after the national lockdown, imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), led to a humanitarian crisis. Migrant workers, suffering from an acute shortage of food and income and yearning to return home to their families and communities, began walking home, before the Centre, in early May, introduced special trains and buses for their transport. But this process has been riddled with complications. There was a controversy over train fares (before the court stepped in to say that migrants cannot be charged); there have been difficulties in Centre-state coordination over trains; social distancing norms have often not been observed; migrants have had to wait for days, if not weeks, to be able to get on to trains, prompting many to walk; many have died due to hunger and fatigue. All of it has led to a socio-economic tragedy which is almost unprecedented in independent Indias history; this scale of people movement has not been seen since the Partition. This newspaper has argued that the SC was remiss in not taking up the issue of migrant workers earlier. It only took up the issue on May 26, two months after the crisis began. To be sure, its intervention now is welcome. But it is not just the judiciary; the primary blame for failing to anticipate the needs of migrants and not providing an adequate safety net lies with the executive. It must now expedite the movement of migrants back, and both the Centre and the state governments need to plan ahead. While the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has emerged as an indispensable policy tool to provide incomes to those who have returned, governments will have to do more in ensuring employment even as they focus on tackling the spread of the disease. The plight of migrant workers has undermined the credibility of the State and caused enormous distress. It is time to correct the mistakes and find ways to give them a dignified future. The SC should continue to keep an eye on this. Chinese state media CCTV has today reported that Binance is still letting local users trade cryptocurrencies, despite previously saying that it no longer provides services in the country. A CCTV reporter in Beijing could set up an account at Binances Chinese platform - binancezh.com - and trade cryptocurrencies, per the report. They registered as an individual on the website, uploaded necessary verification documents, and even completed face verification on Binance's mobile app. Specifically, the reporter purchased some bitcoin by engaging with a counterparty via Binance's P2P platform. They transferred fiat to the counterparty via a third-party payment tool and received a notification from Binance saying that the transaction was completed, according to the report. In response to CCTV's inquiry, Binance said its app now cannot be downloaded in China, and its website cannot be accessed. Regarding the binancezh.com website, Binance told the news outlet that it is a test site, and most of its users are from Egypt. Binance declined to comment to The Block when reached. Chinese regulators moved to ban centralized crypto exchanges in September 2017. However, Chinese citizens can still buy crypto via peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms or over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks. Last October, Binance also launched its P2P platform in China, enabling users to buy crypto via Alipay and WeChat. Alipay later said it doesn't support crypto transactions. Chinese regulators are yet to greenlight P2P and OTC crypto trading activities. It is also worth noting that the OTC route has recently come under the Chinese police's lens. Police have reportedly frozen bank accounts of OTC merchants and their clients over money laundering concerns. 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. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal As New Mexicos energy production looks to bounce back from historic lows, some regulators and lawmakers support the idea of a new federal fund to give oil and gas workers jobs plugging abandoned wells. There are more than 700 orphaned or abandoned oil and natural gas wells in New Mexico, said Adrienne Sandoval, director of the Oil Conservation Division of the states Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. Plugging each well has a price tag of about $35,000, meaning it would cost upward of $24 million to plug all the abandoned wells in New Mexico. Sandoval said federal money to expand the state well plugging program could support 100 jobs, with additional jobs for complete site remediation. The work could start tomorrow, she said during a Monday hearing of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee. We could begin ramping up contracts immediately. The OCD oversees about 57,000 active wells. When wells are no longer productive, they are filled with cement, dirt and plugs to prevent contamination of soil, water and air. New Mexico operators plug wells and remediate sites with state supervision. If a company goes bankrupt, the state steps in. New Mexico plugs about 50 wells a year by contracting with local companies. The program is funded by about $2 million in financial assurance from operators, $1 million each year from the Bureau of Land Management, and a reclamation fund fueled by taxes on operators. But that money is not nearly enough to address all abandoned wells. The states funding may also be in jeopardy during the pandemic as operators limit oil production. Sandoval said active rigs in the state had dropped from 113 in January to 66 in May. And as of May 5, more than 4,000 oil and gas workers had filed for unemployment. Operators face tough economic decisions, Sandoval said. With limited capital and the possibility of bankruptcy, the oil and gas operators may not be able to plug wells and reclaim (sites). Lawmakers said funding an expanded plugging program for New Mexico and other oil-producing states would stimulate the local economy. This is a great opportunity to put many people who have lost their jobs back to work, and in a way that supports cleanup of our lands and waters, U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan said during the hearing. U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, both Democrats, also issued statements of support for more federal money to plug abandoned wells on state and tribal land. Theresa Davis is a Report for America corps member covering water and the environment for the Albuquerque Journal. Visit reportforamerica.org to learn about the effort to place journalists in local newsrooms around the country. Economic and social imbalances must be addressed and corrected as part of Northern Irelands recovery plan, says SDLP economy spokesperson Sinead McLaughlin. The Foyle MLA asked the Minister for the Economy whether she will give a commitment to the appointment of representatives from the north west to her reformed economic advisory group to assist the group in developing policies to redress existing economic imbalances. In her response, Dianne Dodds could not give that commitment. She said the Economic Advisory Group is being re-established to assist her in developing a new economic strategy and to provide ongoing advice on how to grow the economy. She added that members will be appointed on the basis of their knowledge, experience and expertise, and will be expected to act and advise on the wider Northern Ireland economy interests rather than their own sectoral or geographical interests. Sinead McLaughlin was disappointed with that response, she said: Northern Ireland has serious inequalities and removing these must be a priority for the Department for the Economy and its minister. "So I am very disappointed that the minister has rejected my requests for this to be a core part of the remit for her Economic Advisory Group and for that group to contain representatives from the North West, who could provide specialist expertise and understanding of these inequalities. It is unacceptable that for years, indeed decades, that Derry and the North West suffer the highest levels of unemployment and the hidden unemployment that is called economic inactivity. This must be addressed and it is astonishing to find that we are still hearing arguments that the wider economic interests of Northern Ireland are being considered without addressing the very serious problems of high unemployment and poverty that exists in the North West. I hope that despite the ministers response that the Economic Advisory Group will make it a priority to consider how to ensure that the parts of Northern Ireland with the highest unemployment and poverty are supported to achieve the highest levels of growth and recovery. We know from experience that in recessions it is the areas with the weakest economies that usually suffer the most. There must be additional investment in skills and infrastructure to support the North West achieve a proper economic recovery. The Economic Advisory Group must have the courage and independence to say that and as a core part of their work to identify the sectors which offer the best prospects for increased employment, productivity and growth. It is unacceptable for Derry, Strabane and the rest of the North West to be simply told to put up with more of the same. Prince Charles played a much larger role at Prince William and Prince Harrys weddings than previously thought. While Charles is currently isolating due to the coronavirus pandemic, he recently took part in a video call where he revealed that he had a secret role in both of his sons weddings. What was Charless astonishing secret role at William and Harrys respective weddings? Prince Harry, Prince Charles, and Prince William | John Stillwell WPA Pool/Getty Images Inside Prince William and Prince Harrys weddings William tied the knot with Kate Middleton way back in April of 2011. After dating for several years, William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, exchanged vows inside Westminster Abbey before greeting the public on a balcony at Buckingham Palace. Harry, meanwhile, did not get married until 2018. The Duke of Sussex made things official with Meghan Markle in the spring of that year, though they did not choose to have their wedding at Westminster Abbey. Instead, the pair tied the knot at St. Georges Chapel, which is located on the grounds of Windsor Castle. Charles, of course, was present for both weddings. For Harrys ceremony, the Prince of Wales helped walk Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, down the aisle because her father, Thomas Markle, could not make it. Although Charles made an appearance at both weddings, he recently revealed that he had a secret role in William and Harrys ceremonies. Prince Charles helped pick out music for Prince William and Prince Harrys weddings According to Express, Charles dished on William and Harrys wedding during an interview with Classic FM. The Prince of Wales revealed that he picked out the music for both ceremonies and often gives them advice on what music to play at events. Royal expert Chris Ship later discussed Charles revelation and pointed out that he has an affinity for classical music and Charles love for classical tunes came in handy during the weddings. He likes classical music so much that hes often suggested pieces of music that certain high profile people, such as his sons, should have at their weddings, Ship noted. That obviously became very helpful for Prince William to have a father thats so knowledgeable. When youve got millions of people around the world watching your wedding, its quite good to have some music. Ship added that Charles also helped pick out the music for Harry and Meghans recent anniversary. As royal watchers may recall, the two had the Kingdom Choir perform the popular song, Stand by Me to mark their two-year milestone. Apart from dishing on William and Harrys weddings, Charles also opened up about his recent battle with COVID-19. The Prince of Wales opens up about getting COVID-19 Charles interview comes a few months after he tested positive for the coronavirus. After receiving the test results, Charles self-isolated at his estate in Scotland, where he and Camilla Parker Bowles have been staying ever since. Luckily, Charles only suffered from mild symptoms related to the coronavirus pandemic. During his interview with Classic FM, Charles revealed that he now understands what people are going through and admitted that he was one of the lucky ones. I was lucky in my case but Ive had it, and I can so understand what other people have gone through, Charles shared. I feel particularly for those who have lost their loved ones and have been unable to be with them at the time. That, to me, is the most ghastly thing. Although Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, was living with Charles at his Birkhall house she did not contract the virus. Charles and other members of the royal family are isolating at various estates until the current crisis is over. Although they are not holding in-person meetings, the royals have been taking part in video calls and updating fans on social media. Prince Charles admits he misses his grandchildren While Charles is hunkering down with Camilla, one thing he is missing out on is spending time with his grandchildren. In the same interview, Charles confessed that he misses his four grandchildren Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, and Archie Harrison greatly. Well I havent seen my father for a long time, Charles said of Prince Philip, who is about to turn 99 years old. Hes going to be 99 next week, so yes, or my grandchildren or anything. Ive been doing the FaceTime, its all very well, but RELATED: Queen Elizabeth Is Passing On One Very Unexpected Title to Prince Charles as He Prepares To Take the Throne Charles went on to say that it has been great talking to his family members on the phone, but it isnt quite the same as seeing them in person. At the end of the day, Charles said that sometimes you really just want to give people a hug. William and his family are currently staying at their country estate, Anmer Hall, while Harry and his family are in Los Angeles, where they are starting their new lives now that they are no longer active members of the royal family. The purchase of a secondhand couch from a thrift store in Michigan led to an incredible discovery for Howard Kirby. Afterward, however, Kirby and his daughter felt something not quite right inside one of the couch cushions. Upon opening the cushion, they found stacks of $100 bills, adding up to over $43,000. I still have to pinch myself to make sure Im not dreaming or something, Kirby said to WNEM. Kirby lives on a fixed income and his house is in need of serious repairs, so it seemed like a dream come true. (Illustration Africa Studio/Shutterstock) Everything just ran through my mind: Now I can pay off the house, I can get a roof on my house, and I can retire real good and everything, he told WJRT. A lawyer told Kirby that he could have legally kept the money, yet his faith led him to a different decision. Jesus would give it back to the rightful owner, he shared. Once Kirby decided to do what he felt was right, he contacted the manager of the Saginaw-Shiawassee Habitat for Humanity thrift store, and they managed to track down the person who had donated the couch, Kim Fauth-Newberry, whose grandfather had originally owned it. For the Fauth-Newberry family, the whole story was just crazy, as Kim said. Kirby and the Fauth-Newberrys have since developed a relationship. I think I got something that $43,000 just isnt going to buy if I kept it, and that is friendship, Kirby said. Yet, that friendship led to something more: the family, alongside Habitat for Humanity, offered to help replace Kirbys roof. Store manager Rick Merling was just as stunned by the gesture as the couchs original owners were. He shared, To me, this is someone that despite what theyre going throughand in spite of their own needssays Im just going to do the right thing. Nor were they alone in recognizing the extraordinary gesture, and yet more reward was in store. Donors from all over the country contributed to a GoFundMe campaign that successfully raised $15,000 to repay Kirby for his honesty. Meanwhile, Kirby appreciates the clean conscience his good deed brought him. Ive heard about it happening before and I always thought, what would I do if I found that money? Now I know, he shared. Makes me feel good. I believe Im doing the right thing. He added, I know that there have been other comments, my son brought up on saying that I was crazy for doing it, well yeah I am crazy. Im crazy for Christ. Faith was a major factor for many who decided to donate to the initiative. One donor who grew up in Kirbys hometown of Ovid, Michigan, shared, We never know the impact one godly decision can have on many others. Jesus said the seeds planted in rich soil would reap a hundred fold, and this is a present day example of that illustration! Others added that it was important to share Kirbys story because of the example it would set for others. Doing the right thing when others are not looking is a rare thing these days, sadly, one person added. Rewarding good behavior encourages folks to act right in tough circumstances. We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has, in this month, issued 55 small scale mining licences to beneficiaries of the Community Mining Scheme. Twenty-two of them were at Nsiana and Manso-Nkwanta in the Ashanti Region, covering an area of 554 acres and 17 at Akoase in the Eastern Region covering 428 acres of land. Also, seven licences have been issued at Mempehia in the Ahafo Region covering 176 acres, six at Tinga in the Savannah Region covering 151 acres and three at Abosso in the Western Region covering an area of 75 acres. The scheme is a new mining model introduced by government to allow host mining communities engage in lawful mining and address underlying causes of illegal mining within mining areas across the country. Launching the scheme at Nsania in the Amansie West District on June 3, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, said the scheme, was a novel intervention that encourages persons in mining communities to undertake meaningful mining ventures and ensure sustainable livelihoods for the beneficiaries. As provided for within the small scale mining, the scheme is reserved for only Ghanaian citizens but with an emphasis on host mining communities. Simply put, the scheme is of the people, by the people, for the people of the community, he stated. One key benefit of the scheme, he said, was the creation of 16,000 jobs which could positively impact local and rural economies. The scheme would stimulate wealth creation and improve the local economy through the generation of value within local economies and further create horizontal, vertical as well as other linkages with other sectors of the Ghanaian economy, he added. Additionally, the minister stated, that the scheme would enable community involvement in mining in response to the legitimate desire by host communities to participate in the mining industry value chain. To ensure a successful implementation, Community Mining Oversight Committees have been formed while Small-Scale Miners Code of Practice have been adopted, he said. He noted that the community miners would also be provided with support services to enable them work effectively. Mr Asomah-Cheremeh urged the beneficiaries to take advantage of the scheme improve their livelihoods and promote community development. 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 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:08:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that he is willing to work with his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte to continuously lift their countries' relationship of comprehensive strategic cooperation to new levels. "I attach great importance to the development of China-Philippines ties," Xi said when exchanging congratulatory messages with Duterte to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties. Both China and the Philippines are at a critical moment for development, Xi stressed in his message, noting that the two countries share broad prospects for cooperation. Xi said China feels empathy for the Philippines amid the COVID-19 epidemic, and is ready to work with the Philippine side to overcome the difficulties together. China and the Philippines are good neighbors with profound traditional friendship, Xi said, noting that over the past 45 years of diplomatic relations, China-Philippines ties have made remarkable progress. In recent years, in particular, Xi said, the two countries have deepened their political mutual trust, continuously expanded cooperation in various areas, and achieved fruitful results in Belt and Road cooperation, bringing concrete benefits to the two peoples and contributing to regional stability and development. In his message, Duterte said friendship and kinship between the Philippine and Chinese people have been lasting for a thousand years. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1975, the friendship between the two countries has developed steadily. Currently, global security and stability continue to face challenges and non-traditional security threats such as the COVID-19 epidemic have become increasingly prominent, he said, noting that it is of great importance to further consolidate Philippines-China partnership. Duterte said the Philippine side takes China as a close neighbor and an important partner, and is ready to deepen bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperation and facilitate peace, development and prosperity of the two countries by upholding the principle of peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation. Enditem Updated June 9, 2020 at 1:34 p.m.: A Madison County commissioner posted on Facebook on Tuesday morning that he plans to introduce a resolution calling for the removal of the Confederate statue outside the courthouse. This past Wednesday as I spoke during the NAACP rally, I told you we were going to remove this monument from the core of our city, Commissioner JesHenry Malone posted. Tomorrow at Commission meeting, I will be introducing a resolution to effect that change. Madison County IT IS TIME! This past Wednesday as I spoke during the NAACP rally, I told you we were going to remove this monument from the core of... Posted by JesHenry Malone on Tuesday, June 9, 2020 The agenda item -- described as Resolution Regarding Application to the Committee on Alabama Monument Preservation -- indicates the commission, if it approved the resolution, would seek a waiver permitting the removal of the monument from the committee established in the 2017 law that prohibits removal of, among other things, historically significant monuments. According to the law, the monument preservation committee must act on a resolution within 90 days. A failure to do so would deem the requested waiver to be granted. The commission meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday. Original story: After a week of protests in Huntsville, city council president Devyn Keith on Monday indicated support for the removal of a Confederate monument at the Madison County Courthouse. In a post on his Facebook page, Keith said he will introduce a resolution at Thursday's council meeting to support the commission "in the removal (or relocation)" of the monument. Thursday. At council. I will be introducing a resolution for the City of Huntsville to support... Posted by Devyn Keith on Monday, June 8, 2020 The monument, erected in 1905, sits outside the courthouse on property owned by the commission in downtown Huntsville and a block from city hall. Protests in Huntsville sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd while pinned with a knee to his neck by a Minneapolis police officer also targeted the confederate statue. Protesters chanted "take the statue down" outside the courthouse during protests June 1 and June 3. 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 Related: More voices say take down Madison County Confederate monument; group offers to pay fine Influential voices in Huntsville such as the Committee of 100, Downtown Huntsville Inc. and the Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society have spoken out in recent days advocating for the removal of the monument. A grassroots organization, Tennessee Valley Progressives, said Monday it has raised $25,000 to pay the fine -- set by the state legislature -- for removal of the monument The county commission is scheduled to meet Wednesday at 10 a.m. The meeting's agenda has not been published on the commission's website nor distributed to the media. In his Facebook post, Keith defines support to the commission of removing the monument as monetary, labor and location. I trust my colleagues will join me in support, Keith said in his post. The council will consider the resolution at Thursdays meeting at 5:30 p.m. Dale Strong, chair of the commission, said last week he wants to have a community dialogue regarding the monument. On Monday, Mayor Tommy Battle declined to say when asked if he believed the monument should be removed. We work very closely with the county commission," Battle said. "I dont want to put words into their mouth. If they chose to move that statue, we would work with them and make sure it happened. Confederate statues or monuments were removed last week in Birmingham and Mobile and while protesters toppled a statue of Robert E. Lee in Montgomery. The University of Alabama on Monday announced three Confederate plaques on display at the Tuscaloosa campus will be removed by decision of the UA System Board of Trustees. A Los Angeles city official has come under fire for using the LAPD as her 'personal security' for the last two months at a cost of $100,000 to the city, while she has filed a motion to cut the police department's budget by $150 million. LA City Council President Nury Martinez has been slammed after it emerged LAPD cops were stationed outside her home at the same time she was introducing the motion calling for the force to be defunded. Martinez joined other council members Herb Wesson, Curren Price and Monica Rodriguez last week in demanding millions of dollars be cut from the LAPD's budget, amid widespread calls for police forces across America to be disbanded and replaced by alternative community measures following the death of George Floyd at the hands of cops in Minneapolis. 'We need a vision for our city that says "there is going to be justice." American society is founded on a racial hierarchy, one that is born out of slavery, followed by Jim Crow segregation and corporate abuse of labor,' the motion reads. LA City Council President Nury Martinez (pictured) has been slammed after it emerged LAPD cops were stationed outside her home at the same time she was introducing the motion calling for the force to be defunded 'As such, police departments are asked to enforce a system of laws that are designed to reinforce and maintain economic and racial inequality.' Jamie McBride, director of the LAPD union Los Angeles Police Protective League Detective, slammed Martinez's actions as 'disgusting' as he estimated the security set the city back a staggering $100,000 - at a time when it is in the midst of a budget crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic. 'It's disgusting. For two officers in front of a residence since April, you're probably over $100,000 of the people's money,' McBride told Spectrum News 1. 'It's kind of ironic. Here she is demanding $150 million be reallocated from the police budget, but yet she has security at her house by the Los Angeles Police Department.' McBride said Martinez should have hired private security instead of using taxpayer money to protect her and her family. The city council leader first began receiving round-the-clock guard, usually with two cops stationed outside her home 24 hours a day, back on April 4, according to Spectrum. A spokesman for Martinez told Spectrum the security was put in place after Martinez and her daughter had received death threats. From May 6, the 24/7 coverage was then lowered to cops standing guard from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., with regular patrol checks throughout the night. Cops are seen stationed outside Martinez's house. LA City Council President Nury Martinez filed a motion last week in demanding $150 million be cut from the LAPD's budget Martinez has been slammed after it emerged LAPD cops were stationed outside her home (pictured) at the same time she called for the force to be defunded. The security detail has cost the city an estimated $100,000 Jamie McBride, director of the LAPD union Los Angeles Police Protective League, slammed Martinez's actions as 'disgusting' The private security only came to an end Thursday night when Spectrum said it contacted Martinez's office over the claims. Martinez's spokesman told Spectrum the detail had been axed because the security being made public meant the protection was then compromised. However, McBride told Spectrum if the threat was credible the security would have been kept in place. DailyMail.com reached out to Martinez's office for comment. Calls are mounting across the nation for police forces to be defunded or dismantled altogether after Floyd's death sparked protests calling for an end to police brutality and racism. Floyd died on Memorial Day when white cop Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while the black man begged him to stop and gasped 'I can't breathe'. A cut of $150 million from the LAPD would work out at around to eight percent of the force's annual budget of around $3.1 billion. On Wednesday LA Mayor Eric Garcetti agreed to redirect $250 million from the department and other city programs towards youth jobs, health initiatives and 'peace centers' for the black community. Garcetti angered the force on announcing the news and came under fire for saying LAPD cops were 'killers' in a speech last Thursday. '[Reform] starts someplace, and we say we are going to be who we want to be, or we're going to continue being the killers that we are,' Garcetti said in a speech at First African Methodist Episcopal Church. Washington, June 9 : US Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea said that Washington and Moscow had set the date and venue for nuclear arms negotiations this month. "Today agreed with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov on time and place for nuclear arms negotiations in June," Xinhua news agency quoted Billingslea as saying in a tweet on Monday, without providing further details. China is also invited for the talks, according to Billingslea's tweet. China, however, has repeatedly reiterated that it has no intention of participating in the so-called trilateral arms control negotiations with the US and Russia. Citing a US Department of State official, Bloomberg reported on Monday that a new round of arms control talks between the two nuclear superpowers would be held in Vienna on June 22. The upcoming meeting will be the first arms control talks between Billingslea and his Russian counterpart, said Bloomberg, suggesting that "the Trump administration has softened its stance on extending New START (New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty)". In 2010, Washington and Moscow signed the New START, which stipulates the limits to the numbers of deployed nuclear warheads and strategic delivery systems by both. The New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty in force between the two nuclear superpowers, will expire on February 5, 2021. The agreement can be extended for at most five years with the consent of the two countries. Russia has expressed willingness to extend the treaty, while the Trump administration has yet to officially reply. Millions of Americans are grieving right now. The reasons for our collective grief are obvious: a pandemic, economic upheaval, widespread uncertainty, persistent and devastating racism, and police brutality. And then, of course, there's the obvious cause: death. Coronavirus has already claimed more than 100,000 U.S. lives, forcing a wave of shaken families to honor the dead apart and in small groups during an era of social distancing. For many people who have lost loved ones, the inability to hold traditional funerals and memorial services has made their pain even more acute. "Our normal grieving rituals have been disrupted," said Alyssa Rheingold, a clinical psychologist with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. "Everyone is unique and different in how they grieve, but typically six months to a year is when you see people start accepting that loss (of a loved one). ... I do worry about what impact (the pandemic) will have on peoples grief trajectories." As restrictions related to social distancing in South Carolina, and in other states, are only now easing, many people have had to deny themselves the collective show of affection that helps the living cope with grief. "We do know that funerals are very important psychologically," said Amanda Jones, director of pastoral care for the Roper St. Francis clinical pastoral education program. "One of the things that a funeral does is help confirm the reality of the death. It gives structure theyre doing something during a very chaotic and disorganized time." When Eudiana Smith, a retired mental health professional who died at age 73, was laid to rest at a cemetery this month near her home in Jersey City, New Jersey, mourners watched from their cars as workers interred the casket. Then, only one person at a time was allowed at her graveside. My mother was healthy and still full of life, said her daughter, Erika Bermudez. She called her mother a trailblazer, the first in the family to emigrate from Jamaica to the United States. I was robbed of the experience of being able to celebrate her life in a manner that would offer some kind of respect for the woman she was," Bermudez said. Bermudez did her best, livestreaming the ceremony to friends and family who couldn't attend. After Altaf, a car service driver and father of three young children, died in Brooklyn at age 48, two dozen men gathered at Al-Rayaan Muslim Funeral Services on May 17 for the traditional washing and prayer ceremonies. My brother, hes got so many good friends, I was expecting maybe too many people would participate in the funeral," said his younger brother, Tariq Aziz. But because of this kind of situation, its very risky." Both New York and New Jersey have, in the past few days, loosened rules that had previously all but shut funerals down by barring groups of people from gathering. But even the new rules will require subdued funerals. Jim Dobbins, general manager and funeral director of Simplicity Lowcountry Cremation and Burial Services, said, until recently, the business wasn't conducting any services. Then, it started limiting services to a maximum of 10 people. Now, he said, the space can safely accommodate 30 people while allowing them to remain socially distant. "We are still advising and holding true to a self-imposed number based on our square footage in our chapel," Dobbins said. Restrictions differ in other states. Groups of as many as 10 people are now allowed in New York as long as mourners stay 6 feet apart. Groups of as many as 25 people are allowed in New Jersey if the ceremony is outdoors, or 10 people if indoors. Before his death last month at age 79, Servius Collin, of Newark, N.J., rarely missed gatherings of his tight-knit Haitian family, especially funerals. His own would be a quiet affair. Three of his children and two of their spouses gathered for a brief viewing at a Newark funeral home on April 30 to see him lie in a sharp suit, red paisley tie and fashionable fedora. The family waited on the porch of the funeral home until the door was unlocked. They were ushered in and had about 15 minutes to pay their respects and take some pictures to send to relatives who couldn't attend. Diuene Collin said he felt as if his father had died with no dignity. I kept on saying," he said, if I knew my dad was going to leave me like this, that I would have spent more time with him. Rob Arp, the manager of pastoral care at Roper St. Francis and Roper Hospice, said death in the time of COVID-19 has required hospital chaplains to keep in closer contact with grieving family members after their loved ones have passed away. Historically, those relationships have ended after families leave the hospital, unless a family member reaches out to a chaplain to help. "When youve got this emotional and spiritual crisis, chaplains can really rise to the occasion and I think our chaplains have certainly done that," Arp said. "Its given us an opportunity to be leaders in the midst of a very, very difficult situation, which is what were called to do anyway." Delhi is witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases at a time when India has moved into Unlock-1. Till June 8, the national capital had recorded 29,943 cases and 17,712 of them were active cases. In 874 people, the primary cause of death was the virus. Delhis Health Minister Satyendar Jain has said that cases are estimated to rise to 56,000 in the next two weeks. However, more importantly, Delhis Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday that the state disaster management authority will meet on Tuesday and the possibility of community transmission in the Capital will be examined. Sisodia said if community transmission is established, the strategies will have to change. But what does community transmission mean and how is it established? What different strategies are adopted for it? News18 explains. What are the different stages of coronavirus transmissions and how are they classified? As per the World Health Organization (WHO), transmissions are characterised or classified as sporadic cases, cluster of cases and community transmission. Earlier, it also used the local transmission classification. Sporadic cases refer to a small number of cases that are either imported or are detected locally. Local transmission indicates locations where the source of infection is within the reporting location. A cluster of cases refers to cases that are clustered in time, geographic location and or by a common exposure. In India, clusters have been identified in Dharavi and Worli in Mumbai, Nizamuddin in Delhi, Bhilawara in Rajasthan and Koyambedu in Chennai. The WHO refers to community transmission as larger outbreaks of local transmission that can be defined or identified through different approaches. It can be characterized by a situation where the original source of exposure cannot be found or cases that are detected through surveillance of a specific group of people. It can also be identified through multiple clusters in several areas. What stage is India in right now? The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has steadfastly denied that India is community transmission stage of SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus -2) and said that the country is witnessing local transmission, clusters and large outbreaks in some places. How does it get established that there is community transmission? In simple terms, the inability to trace back the source of transmission in a well-defined geographical area can lead authorities to examine if there is community transmission. Till now, the Indian government has not made public any predefined protocol to establish community spread. In each state, health departments have deployed frontline health workers for contact tracing of lab-confirmed positive cases. If contact tracing in multiple cases is unable to trace back the source, it is a strong indication of community transmission. The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) in each state maintains a line-list of people who have had contact with lab-confirmed Covid-19 positive cases and this data is also shared with the National Centre for Disease Control. The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) can get a clear indication of community transmission in specific geographic locations based on the contact tracing and case load data. Besides, state governments have used epidemiological surveillance. State governments such as Kerala have used epidemiological surveillance and sentinel surveillance to rule out prevalence of community spread. As News18 had reported in April, Kerala began this exercise late in April and collected samples from a carefully chosen cross-section of the society to see if there were clear signs of hints of community transmission. In May end, The Hindu reported that states department found only four Covid-19 positive cases at the end of the survey and none of the contacts of those four people tested positive. The state, thus, said the survey did not find any community transmission. However, the state government is going to have another round of survey, according to news reports. Has the Indian government tried to check if there is community transmission? Yes. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had carried out sentinel surveillance among patients of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) in the month of March to ostensibly find out prevalence of the Covid-19 outbreak, and for possible community transmission. Of the 5,911 people with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) who were tested by the ICMR, 104 tested positive and 40 did not have any history of foreign travel or contact with a coronavirus-positive case. Even as the results of the survey hinted at community transmission as no source could be found for 40 patients, the Union Health Ministry flatly denied any community transmission. The government also began a facility-based sero-survey last month across 67 districts to check for prevalence of Covid-19 infection in the country and to check for prevalence of antibodies. The survey aimed to look at low-risk and high-risk populations and asked states to collect 800 samples per month. Preliminary findings have revealed that in some districts facing high-case load, the infection has spread to 30 per cent of the population. Does India have a broad strategy outlining management of different strategies? India has a containment plan for large outbreaks that outlines the actions to be taken in case there is a large outbreak of the infection. However, this plan does not specify strategies to tackle community transmission. A senior health department official of the Delhi government said, We will have to scale up the containment plan outlined for large outbreaks if community transmission is established. As per the containment plan, a geographic quarantine strategy and cluster containment strategy have to kick-in. This means strict restrictions on movement in a well-demarcated geographical area, house-to-house detection, quick quarantine, isolation and enhancement of surveillance through proactive testing. - Bounce back in China's manufacturing sector points the way; other countries expected to follow as lockdown is lifted - Latest in series of on-line ADIPEC Energy Dialogues hears it could be late 2021 before oil and gas markets recover to 2019 volumes - OPEC+ supply constraints coming under pressure from US shale and indebted oil producers as prices strengthen; production cuts likely to be rolled over and extended ABU DHABI, UAE, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A revival in manufacturing across the world holds the key to the mid-term recovery of oil and gas markets, with consumer demand likely to lag as the energy industry begins to recover from the twin shock of the COVID-19 crisis and the resulting demand crash. Participating in the latest online ADIPEC Energy Dialogue, Rachel Ziemba, an economic and political risk expert and Founder of Ziemba Insights, said the early signs from China, the first major economy to exit from the COVID-19 induced lockdown, are that manufacturing has bounced back more than consumption and that trend could be repeated in other countries. "It is notable that the COVID-19 crisis and the associated economic and energy crisis has really been the first to blow out the global consumer," Ziemba said. "2008 was much more of a hit to the financial sector and manufacturing. This time it is the reverse. The big question is how quickly consumer demand will come back." Ziemba added it could be well into 2021 before oil and gas markets get to volumes approaching where the industry was at the end of 2019. Looking at the trends likely to impact the recovery of oil markets in the mid-term, Ziemba said the OPEC Plus group of producers has had some success in tightening the market. But a question mark hangs over how long supply can be constrained. "The challenge is that a few countries, those that are most economically strapped and not eligible for debt relief, are not complying in full and some have barely reduced production," Ziemba said. "Despite pressure from the likes of Saudi Arabia and Russia, it is going to be very difficult for them to comply because these are countries that had big fiscal deficits when oil was $70 a barrel. "The other challenge is that we are starting to see parts of the US shale industry starting to reverse shut ins. We are also seeing more rig activity after many weeks of decline. In a price range of mid-30s into a 40 range, there will be more entities that can make some money and the risk is that it puts even more pressure on OPEC Plus. So, I do think the most likely scenario is a rolling over and extension of the supply cuts." Access to credit, to support economic recovery, is an additional challenge for indebted oil producing countries, which are having to deal with multiple shocks at the same time, including sizable outbreaks of the COVID-19 coronavirus that may or may not be under control. Many of the oil producers that are in a tougher financial position than their rich peers are too wealthy to qualify for debt relief, Ziemba said, heightening social, political and economic risks which could further impact the oil and gas industry. Elsewhere, as oil and gas companies seek for ways to recover, Ziemba said she expects to see some industry consolidation, particularly in the United States with more cash rich entities looking to go into smaller, more speculative areas that are lower cost. She also highlighted the possibility of further job cuts as companies become leaner and decide between boosting commercial reserves, or partnering with governments. Meanwhile, she added she expects to see more National Oil Company enter into partnerships, for example Middle East producers and Asian buyers, which enable greater creativity in payment terms and contracts. The ADIPEC Energy Dialogue is a series of weekly online thought leadership events created by dmg events, organisers of the annual Abu Dhabi International Exhibition and Conference. Featuring key stakeholders and decision-makers in the oil and gas industry, the dialogues focus on how the industry is evolving and transforming in response to the rapidly changing energy market. ADIPEC 2020 is projected to attract more than 155,000 energy professionals from 67 countries; including senior decision-makers and energy industry thought leaders, over 2,200 exhibiting companies and 23 national exhibiting pavilions as oil and gas companies convene to share views and best practices to address the long-term impact of the triple challenge of lower oil prices, weaker demand and over supply. Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE; hosted by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC); and supported by the UAE Ministry of Energy & Industry, the Abu Dhabi Chamber, and the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, ADIPEC is scheduled to take place from November 9 to 11, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). To watch the Energy Dialogue series go to: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnFtPtFwMrRkuGUTk4Rh4tA About ADIPEC Held under the patronage of the President of the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and organised by the Global Energy division of dmg events, ADIPEC is the global meeting point for oil and gas professionals. Standing as one of the world's top energy events, and the largest in the Middle East and North Africa, ADIPEC is a knowledge-sharing platform that enables industry experts to exchange ideas and information that shape the future of the energy sector. The 36th edition of ADIPEC will be hosted by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and supported by the UAE Ministry of Energy & Industry, Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Chamber, the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi Ports and the Department of Education and Knowledge. dmg events is committed to helping the growing international energy community. To know more, visit: www.adipec.com. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1176492/ADIPEC_Logo.jpg Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1178248/ADIPEC_Energy_Dialogues.jpg Failte Ireland has published sector specific operational guidelines for the tourism industry to ensure the safe re-opening of tourism businesses on June 29th. The National Tourism Development Authority developed the guidelines in collaboration with industry groups; the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), the Irish Self Catering Federation (ISCF), the Irish Caravan and Camping Council, the Association of Visitor Experiences (AVEA), Irelands Association of Adventure Tourism (IAAT) and B&B Ireland. Relevant Government departments including the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Department of Health, State agencies including the Health Service Executive (HSE), wider Government and the Labour Employer Economic Forum (LEEF) were also consulted in the drafting of these operational guidelines which are in line with the Governments Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business and the Return to Work Safely Protocol. The guidelines provide detailed advice on the necessary systems to be implemented in order to instil public confidence and reboot business while adhering to public health advice and Government protocols. They are the first in a suite of new supports being rolled out by Failte Ireland to help tourism businesses to recover and re-open safely. The guidelines are live on Failte Irelands dedicated COVID-19 Business Support Hub on www.failteireland.ie. Sector specific guidelines are available for: Hotels & Guesthouses Self-Catering businesses Caravan & Camping businesses Visitor Attractions Activity Providers B&Bs & Historic Houses Restaurants & Cafes Failte Irelands sector specific operational guidelines will be regularly updated in line with Government public health advice as and when this advice evolves. This includes any further guidance that is given following work by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and National Public Health Emergency Team on the application of the existing social distancing requirements in specific, defined and controlled environments in the hospitality industry during periods of low incidence of the disease. Paul Kelly, CEO of Failte Ireland, said the new guidelines are a critical part in helping tourism businesses re-open safely: Throughout this crisis we have been working with tourism and hospitality businesses to give them the guidance and supports they urgently need. The next phase of our response is recovery, re-opening and rebuilding the tourism industry and renewing its vital contribution to job creation and regional development. This is the greatest crisis our industry has ever faced and the reality is that many tourism businesses will not be in a position to re-open. The purpose of the operational guidelines we have developed in collaboration with industry groups is to try to help those businesses that can re-open their doors to do so safely. I would like to thank the industry groups, individual businesses, worker representation groups, relevant State agencies, Government departments and all those involved in the development of these guidelines. We will continue to focus all of our resources on providing critical operational and business supports to ensure the re-opening of as many tourism businesses as possible and to safeguard the viability of our tourism industry. Jenny De Saulles, Director of Sector Development at Failte Ireland, added: We have worked closely with a number of industry groups and an infection control expert to develop these operational guidelines that will equip tourism and hospitality businesses with the necessary information and advice to enable them to re-open safely while also helping to instil public confidence. Our consumer tracker research is finding that health and safety protocols in premises and safe breaks are emerging as strong themes as people plan their domestic holiday. Speaking about the guidelines for re-opening, Tim Fenn, Chief Executive of the Irish Hotels Federation, said: The health and safety of employees and guests will always be our main priority. Hotels have already begun to adapt their services and facilities in anticipation of reopening under COVID-19 guidelines and the publication of these standards gives them further clarity on what they must do, while providing important reassurance for guests that they can book and look forward to an enjoyable and safe staycation in an Irish hotel this year. Irelands hotels have a well-earned reputation globally for their high service standards and we will be applying that same commitment to the implementation of these new standards. Jacinta Doolan, Chair of the Irish Self Catering Federation (ISCF): The ISCF welcomes the guidelines prepared by Failte Ireland outlining the protocols for the re-opening of the self-catering sector, currently proposed for June 29th. The safety of staff and visitors is our priority and well covered in the document. It is very important to be working with Failte Ireland to offer assurance to our staff and guests. Con Quill, CEO of the Irish Caravan and Camping Council: We are grateful to Failte Ireland for the development of these operational guidelines on our behalf to support the re-opening of our businesses. We can now focus on the health and safety of guests and staff, providing a safe environment while ensuring our guests enjoy a well-earned and memorable stay. Niall OCallaghan, Chairman of the Association of Visitor Experiences and Attractions (AVEA): The development of re-opening guidelines is an essential element of the toolkit required by members of AVEA to provide confidence in re-opening attractions across Ireland. The safety of AVEA members, customers and staff always comes first; therefore this detailed and insightful document, created in conjunction with Failte Ireland, will provide an enormous sense of reassurance to our members that they can re-open in the knowledge that they have the best available advice and procedures in place. Without these guidelines, re-opening would be an extremely daunting, and potentially insurmountable, task. Brendan Kenny, CEO of Ireland's Association for Adventure Tourism (IAAT): "The Activities sector is looking forward to welcoming customers back throughout the summer. We're delighted to work off Failte Ireland's comprehensive operational guidelines, giving real confidence to our customers and staff. In Ireland we have the stunning natural landscape for all sorts of adventure, so we encourage everyone to get out there with your families or households - safely returning to your passion or to try something new! Helena Healy, CEO of B&B Ireland said: I am delighted to see the release of the guidelines for re-opening the B&B sector. It is a very positive document that will help all B&B Operators to get their homes ready for opening. In addition, it will give reassurance to the customer that B&B properties have implemented the necessary additional protocols to comply with the required regulations to ensure their safety in this COVID-19 world that we live in right now. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Failte Ireland has created an online COVID-19 Business Support Hub for the tourism and hospitality industry which includes expert guidance and practical supports on business liquidity, insurance, HR risk, safeguarding future revenues, and more. Following the development of the new guidelines for safe re-opening, Failte Ireland is working with tourism businesses to support them to determine the capacity of their business and the financial implications of this new operating model. A new suite of financial recovery supports, a Calculating Capacity tool and supports around HR for re-opening are now available on the COVID-19 Business Support Hub. To access the new Failte Ireland operational guidelines for re-opening and to find out more about Failte Irelands suite of free supports, please visit the online COVID-19 Business Support Hub. Follow us on Twitter @Failte_Ireland and LinkedIn Jump to top Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-15 20:10:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KUWAIT CITY, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait on Friday reported 885 new cases of COVID-19 and eight more deaths, raising the tally of infections in the country to 12,860 and the death toll to 96, the health ministry said in a statement. Currently, 9,124 patients are receiving treatment, including 190 in ICU, according to the statement. The ministry also announced the recovery of 189 more patients, raising the total number of recoveries in the country to 3,640. The Kuwaiti government has imposed a full curfew in the country to curb the rapid rise in coronavirus cases. On March 13, Kuwait suspended all commercial flights. The government also closed stores, malls and barbershops in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. Enditem 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. Homeowners in West Bethlehem woke up Tuesday morning to vandalism including graffiti and flags damaged or torn down. One home on Spring Street had the word racist painted on the sidewalk, and ACAB, an acronym for All Cops Are B*******, and FU tagged on the front patio. A thin blue and red flag -- an American flag in black and white, with a half blue and half red line signifying law enforcement and firefighters -- was torn down and left on the front porch. ACAB" was also painted on a neighbors sidewalk, but was already faint after the homeowner scrubbed it with soap and water. Their American flag was taken down, but a thin blue line flag still hung Tuesday morning outside a home across the street. On Seventh Avenue, both sides of a double home had BLM spray painted on their sidewalks. An American flag with corporate symbols replacing the white stars on one half was untouched. One of the homeowners on Seventh Avenue said she understood where the sentiment was coming from, and previously had several protest phrases including #BLM Say Their Names written on her sidewalk. A longtime resident, she said she believed the vandals may have been confused by her American flag, which had corporate symbols replacing the stars. A lawn sign with the thin blue line flag on it remained on a home further down the street. Four homes were vandalized overnight June 8 to June 9, 2020 in West Bethlehem. The graffiti included BLM for Black Lives Matter and flags that were damaged or torn down.Sarah Cassi | For lehighvalleylive.com A little before 8 a.m. Bethlehem police were seen speaking with the victims. Police confirmed they took a report of graffiti in West Bethlehem, but did not have details. Anyone with information or who has surveillance video from the area can call the police tip line at 610-691-6660. Peaceful protests and marches against racism and police brutality, and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, have swept across the country and the Lehigh Valley since George Floyd was killed. Derek Chauvin, a now-former Minneapolis police officer, has been charged with the killing, as well as three other officers who witnessed it. Floyds funeral is today in Houston. Multiple events have been held in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, as well as protests in smaller municipalities including Catasauqua, Nazareth and Phillipsburg. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. World News: Human rights driving sustainable small-scale fisheries June 09,2020 | Source: Danish Institute for Human Rights In order to protect and provide access for small-scale fishers to marine resources and markets you need human rights, states new report by the Danish Institute for Human Rights. Many small-scale fishers live in poverty with insufficient income to ensure an adequate standard of living due to adverse impacts of commercialisation, overfishing, climate change and unfair distribution of access to marine resources between large-scale and small-scale fishers. This affects their human rights to work, to food, to an adequate standards of living, among others. Small-scale fisheries and human rights Generally, human rights and SDGs are tied together in a mutually-reinforcing way. More specifically, an effective and adequate implementation of SDG target 14.b requires the realisation of a series of human rights. The good news is that human rights monitoring mechanisms have already produced data and recommendations that can guide and drive efficient implementation of SDG target 14.b. A database from the Institute shows the connection between the SDG, including target 14.b, and human rights data and recommendations. Human rights monitoring can help identify gaps and barriers in access to marine resources for small-scale fishers and help identify vulnerable and marginalised groups within the sector who may need the development of special measures to overcome discriminatory barriers. Human rights data can complement the work, that is already being done to monitor and reach SDG target 14.b. Monitoring human rights data plays a major part in achieving target 14.b. Going forward, it is interesting to see how we can increase the attention of human rights monitoring mechanisms to the situation of small-scale fishers and develop even more human rights-based data in the field to provide access for small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets. says Birgitte Feiring. Human rights monitoring act like a spotlight showing the people who are being discriminated or excluded from marine resources. A global project In 2018, the Institute initiated a global project on sustainable oceans in a unique collaboration with organisations across different sectors. The project is funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). The report is a result of this project. We believe that it is difficult to implement target 14.b in an efficient manner that leaves no one behind, unless we use human rights. The report tells us that human rights standards, principles and monitoring mechanisms can help drive the needed change to achieve the target properly, says Birgitte Feiring, Department Director for Human Rights and Development at the Institute. Human rights-based approach is the solution In order to reach target 14.b efficient and leaving no one behind the report argues for a human rights-based approach, which ensures participation, accountability and non-discrimination. Moreover, National Human Rights Institution (NHRIs) can play a crucial role in upholding and protecting the human rights of small-scale fishers. The report highlights an example from Malaysia. The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) conducted an outreach programme with fishing communities in the country, and received a complaint from a fishing community regarding planned project to build three man-made islands. As proposed, the project will destroy areas for catching crabs, prawns and fish, meaning that fishermen will have to incur additional time and cost to travel further to catch fish. The local fishing community is concerned that the project will have a range of environmental and human rights impacts. If SUHAKAM finds the project could cause human rights violations, it has the power to refer the matter to appropriate or relevant authorities and make any necessary recommendations. Full Report is available at: https://www.humanrights.dk/publications/enhancing-accoutability-small-scale-fisher British tech founder Mike Lynch, who sold a software company Autonomy to HP for almost $11 billion in 2011, believes there's a long way to go before machines start to show general intelligence. Speaking on a livestreamed video call at the CogX tech conference, Lynch said: "We're nowhere near broad AI at the moment as far as we can tell." "We're in a situation where what's interesting in AI are these difficult problems that can now be solved by systems of software," continued Lynch, whose appearance was somewhat surprising given he is being sued by HP for $5 billion in damages. HP has accused Lynch of deliberately inflating the value of Autonomy before he sold it. Lynch denies the allegations. Over the last few years, some tech companies have talked up the abilities of their AI systems and speculated that machines could become generally intelligent in the coming decades. Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, has been referred to as the holy grail in AI and is widely viewed as the point when machine intelligence passes human intelligence. "As soon as you see that amazing leap, people then assume that intelligence is on some sort of continuum and because, for example, we've managed to solve something very difficult like image recognition or text generation type problems, we've got the ability to produce sort of super intelligences," said Lynch, who studied early forms of AI at the University of Cambridge. Lynch, who was described by U.K. media as "Britain's Bill Gates" around the time of the HP deal, said there's a big difference between a narrow AI and broad AI. Narrow AI has got a very defined problem, while broad AI was described by Lynch as "something that would make its way in the real world in general, in the way that an animal does." Lynch added that one of the major challenges with AI development is researchers can't simply "copy across" the human decision-making process to a machine, partly because scientists don't fully understand how humans make decisions. Another big problem is bias. As an example, he pointed to an AI that is currently looking at literally trillions of words of text from humanity. "It is going to come out with some of the typical stereotypes and some of the biases around gender and race, because it's reading everything that we write, and that is inherent," he said. "That's actually a very difficult problem to solve because if you've got trillions of words, how do you go in and tell the AI, not to include those things?" The U.S. Justice Department wants to extradite Lynch to the U.S. so that he can face criminal charges. In February, Lynch submitted himself for arrest in London and was released on bail. ALBANY, New York, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rapidly growing demand for high-speed connectivity in various sectors, notably in IT and telecommunication, healthcare, and energy, especially in developing regions is key to use of fiber optic cables. They are gathering traction among network providers to enable industries to send and access high-speed data reliably. In recent times, large-scale deployment of cloud based storage solutions has spurred use of fiber optic cables in networks. The global fiber optic cables market is projected to garner CAGR of ~7% during 20202030, taking its valuation to touch ~US$ 15 bn by the end of 2030. The unveiling of fiber optics multiplex equipment and adoption of wavelength division multiplexing are promising trends. Analysts note that the current COVID-19 lockdown has halted construction of new optical networks; however, post-COVID era will bring lucrative avenues. This is underpinned mainly by large-scale fiber optic projects, such in the U.S., they further assert. Download PDF Brochure https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=77447 Key Findings of Fiber Optic Cables Market Report Of the different fiber types, single-mode fiber holds a remarkably high share; the opportunities are expected to rise at rapid pace during the assessment period Among the various end-use industry, the IT and telecom industry is expected to offer substantial opportunities to players in fiber optic cables market Of the various regions, Asia Pacific leads the pack, with the major share of revenue contributed by China ; rapid pace of deployment of single-mode optical fiber cables keeps the country market increasingly lucrative leads the pack, with the major share of revenue contributed by ; rapid pace of deployment of single-mode optical fiber cables keeps the country market increasingly lucrative North America and Europe anticipated to grow at impressive CAGR during 2020 - 2030 Explore 253 pages of top-notch research, incisive insights, and detailed country-level projections of Fiber Optic Cable Market (Fiber Type: Single-mode Fiber, Multi-mode Fiber, and Others; Cable Design: Ribbon Tube, Loose Tube, Tight Buffered, Central Core, and Others; Deployment: Underground, Underwater, Aerial, and Others; and End-use Industry: IT & Telecommunication, Energy & Power, Healthcare, Aerospace & Defense, and Others) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2020 2030 at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/fiber-optic-cable-market.html Global Fiber Optic Cables Market: Key Driving Factors and Promising Avenues A wide range of networks use fiber optic cables, such as gigabit Ethernet, fiber distributed data interface, asynchronous transfer mode, and synchronous optical networking. Some of the end-use industry-driven trends that expected to shape the contours of the fiber optic cables market from 2020 to 2030 are mentioned as follows: Demand for bandwidth-intensive data files in telecom, IT, defense, and aerospace industries have propelled the growth of fiber optic cables market Demand for 24x7 high-speed connectivity services among enterprises is a key trend. Fiber optic cables are extensively being used in installation and upgrade of new cabling infrastructure, thus bolstering growth in fiber optic cables market Construction of new 5G network architecture in a number of developing and developed economies across the world may prove to be a promising trend in the deployment of fiber optic cables Focus of governments to promote network infrastructure has spurred investments in new error detection techniques between transmitters and receivers. This has cemented the potential if fiber optic cables market Deployment of multi-mode fibers in large-scale data centers is boosting revenues in fiber optic cables market. Request the coronavirus impact analysis across industries and markets at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=covid19&rep_id=77447 Global Fiber Optic Cables Market: Regional Assessment Among the various regions, Asia Pacific held the top share in 2019 in the fiber optic cables market. The regional market has witnessed a notable rise in production of fiber optic networks to support advanced networking technology for use in several industries. Both India and China will key to the revenues in the regional market. Meanwhile, the Middle East and Africa is expected to rise at moderate growth, fueled on the back of industry collaborations in the developing economies of the region. Analyze Global Wireless Charging ICs Market growth in 30+ countries including US, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Russia, Poland, Benelux, Nordic, China, Japan, India, and South Korea, Request a sample of the study. Global Fiber Optic Cables Market: Key Impediments The fiber optic cables market witnesses considerable snags from large-scale deployment. The lack of industry standards has constrained the demand for fiber optic cables, even in developed countries, such as in the U.S. The incompatibility also has kept the deployment slow among businesses in various end-use industries. View Detailed Table of Contents at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/77447 Global Fiber Optic Cable Market: Segmentation Fiber Optic Cable Market, by Fiber Type Single-mode Fiber Multi-mode Fiber Others Fiber Optic Cable Market, by Cable Design Ribbon Tube Loose Tube Tight Buffered Central Core Others Fiber Optic Cable Market, by Deployment Underground Underwater Aerial Others Fiber Optic Cable Market, by End-use Industry IT & Telecommunication Energy & Power Healthcare Aerospace & Defense Others Fiber Optic Cable Market, by Region North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa & South America Explore Transparency Market Research's award-winning coverage of the Global Electronics & Semiconductors Industry : Laser Designator Market Scientific and technical progress over the past decade has played a key role in increasing the deployment of lasers in the defense sector. The growing demand for laser designators for airborne military applications is another major factor that is likely to boost the prospects of the laser designator market during the assessment period. Pulsed Laser Deposition Systems Market The demand for solar energy systems has witnessed exponential growth worldwide in the past few years and the trend is set to continue in the forthcoming years a factor that is likely to boost the pulsed laser deposition systems market during the forecast period. Pulsed laser deposition systems are increasingly being used to develop carbon thin films with the enhanced crystal structure. AC-DC Power Supply Adapter Market The power supply sector has witnessed notable technological advancements over the past couple of decades. The growing demand for AC-DC power supply adapters for use in low-voltage high current processor applications is a major factor that is likely to provide an impetus for growth of the AC-DC power supply adapter market in the upcoming years. Sensor Signal Conditioner (SSC) ICs Market Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) propulsion systems are witnessing commercial applications beyond their traditional relevance in the military and Defense sector, and are likely to draw volume sales tantamount to ~5.8 Bn units by the end of 2027. Gain access to Market Ngage , an AI-powered, real-time business intelligence that goes beyond the archaic research solutions to solve the complex strategy challenges that organizations face today. With over 15,000+ global and country-wise reports across 50,000+ application areas, Market Ngage is your tool for research on-the-go. From tracking new investment avenues to keeping a track of your competitor's moves, Market Ngage provides you with all the essential information to up your strategic game. Power your business with Market Ngage's actionable insights and remove the guesswork in making colossal decisions. About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports. Contact Mr Rohit Bhisey Transparency Market Research State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Blog: https://tmrblog.com/ SOURCE Transparency Market Research Investors were more than annoyed when Royal Dutch Shell slashed its dividend by two thirds. Just last year, the giant oil company announced its plan to pay out huge dividends over the coming five years. Actually, the investors used stronger terms than annoyed. They had reason to be annoyed after the strong commitment to the dividend, but maybe they should have previously shown a greater skepticism about the ability of any management to make such a commitment. Times change and perhaps no managements or boards should publicly commit to actions so far ahead of time. Royal Dutch Shell has a reputation for forward planning. And dividend policy, which is supposed to reflect managements best long term projections is not something that is trifled with lightly. So what does the significant dividend cut say? Management offered two explanations: 1) it was unwise to pay a dividend that would not be earned. i.e. that would require borrowing to sustain. That would reduce the resilience (a favorite word nowadays) of the company. Royal Dutch Shell, however, has the borrowing power and resources to pay an unearned dividend as well as carry out other activities during a short period of difficulties. We could see cash flow of $35 billion and capital expenditures of $20 billion during a bad year, which leaves just enough to pay the annual dividend of $15 billion. An optimistic management would not see this as a problem at all. But a 66% dividend reduction suggests less than optimistic hopes for a sharp rebound in demand. Or perhaps instead that increasingly volatile global oil market conditions may become the new normal, therefore making a large dividend imprudent. Management added another explanation, though: 2) The company also needed the cash resources of the dividend to shift to a position of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This seems to have puzzled investors even more than concerns about profound future market volatility. Royal Dutch Shells management did not explain how cash conserved in this manner would be profitably redeployed to reach this goal. The collateral issue for investors is how seriously to take managements guidance which assumes a financial policy continuity for many decades in the future long after the retirements of current senior management and directors. Related: China Set To Ramp Up Natural Gas Imports This Decade Royal Dutch Shell could cease investing in new oil properties, sell off what it owns and put the money into non-fossil energy or just return the cash to its investors. That would get it into a net zero position sooner. Or it could wind down its oil businesses gradually and liquidate the company by paying out dividends rather than retain the money. But with so much money going into the development of oil properties, it is difficult for outsiders to evaluate the companys new direction, which seems to be: We want to go green, but not quite yet. This ambivalence about capital investment direction puts investors in an uncomfortable position. Those looking for steady, high yields have been served notice. They can no longer depend on this sector for above average dividend yields. More risk tolerant growth investors may also become reticent about a business gradually losing market share in an energy market that is itself slow growing. Investors who want exposure to the renewables market will not likely do so via investment in oil companies that increasingly own renewables. In this respect oil companies at this stage dont bring much to the table except their money. And there is plenty of that around from other sources. Also the environmental-social-governance (ESG) investor movement is growing in importance. And this vocal group is decidedly anti oil and all other fossil fuels. Back in the day portfolio managers catering to yield oriented investors could say, Yeah, those oil companies are big time polluters but where else can you get 500 or 600 basis points over the risk free rate? Well with this dividend cut that argument just went out the window. Almost five decades ago, the US electric utility industry had a reputation for rock-solid common stock dividends with above average yields. But power plants, especially those located on the east and west coasts, were at that time heavily fueled by cheap oil from the Middle East. Suddenly this formerly cheap fuel first became scarce and then far more expensive. New Yorks own Consolidated Edison Company found itself heavily exposed in the early 1970s and did the unthinkable, omitting its dividend. That was the icebreaker so to speak. Others followed. The key takeaway, to us, is that after the Con Ed dividend cut, yield oriented investors looked at electric utilities differently. They could no longer rely on a dividend even during times of stress. We wonder if, in a similar way, Royal Dutch Shells dividend action has similarly broken the ice. By Leonard Hyman and William Tilles for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The cancelled edition of the Cannes Film Festival rolled out the virtual red carpet, featuring a number of Arab filmmakers whose films will receive the 'Cannes 2020 Label' this year For the past couple of years, Arab cinema has been making waves at the Cannes Film Festival with many Arab filmmakers making a mark on the famed Promenade de la Croisette (Boulevard de la Croisette). From Yommedines participation in the official selection in 2018 to Nadine Labakis jury member position in 2019, Arab films and filmmakers have increasingly gained visibility at the festival and its auxiliary market and events. From the work of the Arab Cinema Centre to the pavilions of various North African and Southwest Asian countries to the screenings of Arab films both in and out of competition, the Cannes Film Festival has been providing an important platform for filmmakers from the region to share their stories with the rest of the world. This year, instead of gathering by the Croisette, or in the Salle Auditorium Louis Lumiere, filmmakers from the region and beyond, for the most part, are isolated in their homes. The COVID-19 crisis has had tragic effects on all aspects of society, and this did not spare the film industry. Around the world, many film professionals in all sectors of the industry have lost their jobs and have had to reimagine ways of storytelling that would not put them and their teams at risk. The Cannes Film Festival was not exempt from this. After delaying the festival from May to July, the festivals organisers eventually announced that the physical festival would not take place this year. Instead, they opted for a Cannes 2020 Label that would be given to selected films. This label entitles the selected films to year-round support from Cannes while they apply to other film festivals (such as TIFF, San Sebastian, or Venice). The label is also anticipated to help draw audiences to selected films once they are released in theatres, or digitally. On 3 June, Thierry Fremaux, the festivals general delegate, and Pierre Lescure, the festivals president, finally announced the selected films. Instead of the usual categories, In Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition, Special Screenings, and beyond, this year all films are considered part of the official selection. For once, this gives all films an equal footing and allows rising filmmakers to have their work recognised alongside some of their idols. Let us have a look at the North African and Southwest Asian films that have been selected and that have generated talk this year. As they have not yet been screened, and thus reviewed, we all look forward to eventually watching them and hearing their creators speak about them, in person or virtually. First on the list is DNA by Maiwenn, a French and Algerian filmmaker of Vietnamese origin. She began her career in the film industry as an actress, and transitioned to writing and directing in 2006 with her film Pardonnez-Moi. A regular at international and French film festivals, Maiwenn returns to Cannes with her film DNA, which tells the story of a young woman who develops close ties with her Algerian grandfather who protected her from toxic family life when she was younger. When he dies, she comes face to face with a deep identity crisis, while tensions in her family begin to resurface. Another Cannes returnee, Danielle Arbid is one of the selected directors this year. Arbid is a Beirut-born filmmaker who moved to France to study Comparative Literature at La Sorbonne Nouvelle. Five years after the release of her drama film Parisienne, she returns to the (virtual) red carpet with Passion Simple, a convoluted love story. It follows a man and a woman who meet in the Paris suburbs for several months, tracing the evolution of their love. No specific explanation is given for the origin of the encounter. The benefit of this years single Official Selection category is the fact that it has allowed rising filmmakers to receive accolades they werent expecting. One of them is Egyptian filmmaker Ayten Amin, a filmmaker from Alexandria. Amin began her feature film career with Tahrir 2011, a documentary about the Revolution a film on which she collaborated with Amr Salama and Tamer Ezzat. This year, her newest feature, Souad, has made it to Cannes. Souad tells the story of a 19-year-old girl who lives with her conservative family in the city of Zagazig. After Souad commits suicide, her sister, Rabab, decides to look for answers. This leads her to Alexandria, where Ahmed, a central figure in Souads virtual life, lives. When announcing the films selection, Fremaux noted: The film is about Egyptian youth. Here, cinema allows us to enter into homes, to see how young women live... Its a very well-made film. Next comes Farid Bentoumi, a French and Algerian filmmaker. He began his career in the film industry as an actor, starring mainly in TV series. In 2015, he released his first feature, Good Luck Algeria, a comedy inspired by his brothers journey to the Turino Winter Olympics. Today, his drama Red Soil is one of the selected films for the Cannes label. Red Soil follows the journey of Nour, a nurse hired by the company where her father has always worked. When she meets a journalist investigating the companys waste management, both young women discover the many secrets of the company. Nour then has to choose between staying silent or speaking up, thus betraying her father. Finally, this years Cannes 2020 list of selected films is going to go down in history for including a large number of first features. Of these, one is directed by Arab filmmaker Jimmy Keyrouz, who this year presents Broken Keys. A Lebanese filmmaker, Keyrouz received a Masters in Fine Arts in Writing and Directing from Columbia University in 2016. His short film Nocturne in Black was very well-received and even went so far as winning him the Gold Medal at the Student Academy Awards. His first feature, Broken Keys, which tells the story of a pianist who decides to leave his village where modern life and music are banned, now also makes him a Cannes veteran. 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: Race official says inequality a pressing issue in New Zealand as U.S. protests persist WELLINGTON, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The wall to wall coverage from the United States on social media feeds on the case of George Floyd is prompting many New Zealanders to explore racism here, New Zealand Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon said on Tuesday. "The case of George Floyd has been a trigger in the U.S. and is being closely observed in New Zealand," Foon told Xinhua. Floyd was an unarmed African American man suffocated to death by a white police officer in the mid-western U.S. state of Minnesota on May 25. "Certainly, inequality is a pressing issue in New Zealand," he said. The Commission has made recent statements about inequality, and how The Treaty of Waitangi can inform the COVID-19 recovery period, as an example of where this treaty partnership can play a central role in promoting equality in New Zealand, the commissioner said. The Treaty of Waitangi was New Zealand's founding document made in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs. While Maori were presenting Kiwis with a bicultural perspective, immigration was making the country multicultural. "Many New Zealanders are becoming aware of how African American people have been mis-treated by police in modern times and historically," Foon said, adding many people have taken a strong stance here in response to the video of George Floyd being killed. Foon said the recent New Zealand protests were organized almost overnight, responding to an escalation of protests in the United States. Thousands of New Zealanders joined Black Lives Matter protesters in the United States on June 1 by demonstrating peacefully in major Kiwi cities over the death of George Floyd. Thousands of people gathered in a square in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, with hundreds more protestors in Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington. Some demonstrators wore face masks and carried signs, or did haka in support of Black Lives Matter, protesting against the murder of Floyd. A woman missing near a major south-east Queensland dam west of Brisbane for four days has been found "safe and well", police say. Dozens of SES volunteers had joined police in their search for Leanne Edwards, 39, around Somerset Dam, as temperatures began to plunge. Missing 39-year-old Queensland woman Leanne Edwards was found on Tuesday morning. Ms Edwards left a home on Robson Street at Kilcoy about 3.30pm on Thursday and was last seen walking along Kilcoy-Esk Road, about 7pm that night. Police and family members had held concerns for the woman as she has a condition that requires medication and her disappearance was out of character. Facebook has invested in Indonesia-based Gojek The ride-hailing circle last week was astonished by news that the social networking site announced an investment in Indonesia-based Gojek that is present in Vietnam under the name of Go-Viet. Accordingly, Facebook has been working on expanding to emerging markets as well as seeking partners for its WhatsApp application. This is the second-largest deal Facebook has conducted the last seven weeks. In April, the US-based platform purchased 10 per cent of Indian Reliance Jio at $5.7 billion. Despite not revealing the value of the investment, Gojek most recently announced that it has received more than $3 billion from its Series F investment round. This suggests that along with the recent investment of PayPal, Facebook's capital in Gojek is not small at all. Facebook is planning to set up an e-commerce platform linked with WhatsApp and integrated payment features. Currently, companies running business on Facebook can also use WhatsApp as a tool to interact with customers. This investment will support Facebook and Gojeks shared goal of empowering businesses and driving financial inclusion across the archipelago. WhatsApp helps small businesses communicate with customers and make sales, and together with Gojek, we believe we can bring millions of people into Indonesias growing digital economy, Facebook said in a blog spot. The ambition is also reflected by its launch of the new feature named Shops last month which is very similar to online shopping platforms and is seen as a direct offensive to break into e-commerce. The tool supports businesses in setting up virtual stores to sell items both on Facebook and Instagram. Thus, with the latest move of injecting capital into Gojek, Facebook may be nursing aspirations of dominating Southeast Asia where the market is shaped by Singaporean e-commerce giant Shopee and ride-hailing platform Grab. Meanwhile, Gojek is a big counterpart in the area, so using the Indonesian player as a jumping board to enter the market is a good choice. In addition to Facebook, Gojek is backed by Google, Tencent, and Singaporean fund Temasek. The startup's value was assessed at $10 billion in the latest investment round and is now the largest unicorn in Indonesia. Iran says its citizen who provided information to US and Israeli intelligence services on the whereabouts of the slain Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qassem Soleimani will be executed soon. Soleimani, leader of the IRGCs Quds Force, was assassinated in a US drone attack in Iraq on January 3. Washington blamed Soleimani for masterminding attacks by Iran-aligned militias on US forces in the region. Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, one of the spies for CIA and Mossad, has been sentenced to death. He gave the whereabouts of martyr Soleimani to our enemies, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said in a televised news conference on Tuesday. Esmaili did not say when Majd would be executed and also stopped short of directly linking the information allegedly offered by Majd to Soleimanis death. Officials have also not said whether Mousavi-Majds case is linked to Irans announcement last summer that it had captured 17 spies working for the CIA, some of whom it said were sentenced to death. Al Jazeeras correspondent in Tehran Zein Basravi said that there has been no public information on any ongoing cases into Soleimanis death and that it was the first time Mousavi-Majds name had been mentioned publicly by the judiciary. With this execution verdict, there is not a great deal of transparency from the judiciary, specifically when it comes to espionage related cases, said Basravi. Iran in February handed down a similar sentence for Amir Rahimpour, another man convicted of spying for the US and conspiring to sell information on Irans nuclear programme. Soleimanis killing led to a peak in confrontation between Iran and the United States. Tehran retaliated with a rocket attack on an Iraqi airbase where US forces were stationed. Hours later, Iranian forces on high alert mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner taking off from Tehran, killing all 176 passengers on board. On Monday (June 8) the World Health Organization warned that the coronavirus pandemic -- is still worsening globally. More than 136,000 cases were reported worldwide on Sunday (June 7), the most in a single day so far. That announcement comes just as countries like New Zealand, which no longer has any active coronavirus cases, further relax their stay-at-home restrictions. Technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove urged countries not to let down their guard too quickly. "So let's celebrate the successes that we do have but let's remain focused on the remaining work that needs to be done because unfortunately this is far from over." The WHO noted that the pandemic had not yet hit its peak in places like Central America, where infections are still on the rise. Brazil is now one of the hotspots of the pandemic, with the second highest number of infections, only behind the United States. More than 7 million people have been infected globally -- and over 400,000 have died. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon discusses his support for a proposed measure to make it "illegal to use the chokehold and carotid artery restrain tactics to forcibly detain a suspect" during a news conference in Sacramento on June 8, 2020. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Californias Assembly speaker and other key lawmakers on Monday backed making it illegal statewide for police to use a type of neck hold that blocks the flow of blood to the brain, a proposal that appears to go beyond that of any other state. Major law enforcement groups did not immediately say whether they would oppose the move, which comes after a different restraint used by Minneapolis police was blamed for the death of George Floyd, triggering ongoing nationwide protests. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) endorsed legislation that Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D-Carson) said he will amend to make it illegal to use chokeholds and a carotid artery restraint tactic to forcibly detain a suspect. We ... have to change a culture of excessive force that seems to exist among some members of law enforcement, Rendon said at a news conference. This bill will end one brutal method that police use for restraining people. The method, also known as a sleeper hold, involves applying pressure to the sides of the neck with an arm. It can almost immediately block blood flow in the carotid arteries and render someone unconscious, but can cause serious injury or death if the blood flow is restricted too long. These methods and techniques are supposed to save lives, but they dont they take lives, Gipson said. Colorado and Illinois allow use of the hold only if police deem lethal force to be justified, said Amber Widgery, a criminal justice analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures, while Tennessee allows its use if other means of restraint have been ineffective. Washington, D.C., bans a similar trachea hold but permits the carotid hold under circumstances where lethal force is allowed. Other states use more general legal language, she said, and its unclear whether Californias proposal will allow any exceptions because Gipson did not release the actual language of his bill. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday said he would sign Gipsons bill if it is approved by lawmakers, and ordered the states police training program to stop teaching officers how to use the neck hold. Story continues Congressional Democrats on Monday also introduced legislation aimed at reforming police practices, including by banning certain policing tactics including chokeholds. Although the Legislature is controlled by Democrats, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said law enforcement reforms are incredibly hard to move forward. He also mentioned proposed legislation that would restrict when police can use rubber bullets. The sleeper hold ban was backed Monday by black, Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, Jewish and LGBTQ legislative caucuses. It is also supported by the California Medical Assn. because the holds can be misapplied and botched easily, incoming President Dr. Lee Snook said One problem is the holds can fatally aggravate underlying health issues, Snook said, something police cant know about on the spur of the moment. It is a difficult procedure to do ... but it is effective when applied effectively, said Brian Marvel, president of the rank-and-file Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, which represents more than 77,000 individuals and 930 associations. His association is likely to defer to organizations representing police chiefs and sheriffs that determine what methods officers and deputies are allowed to use. The sheriffs association has not taken a position in part because it hasnt seen the details, spokesman Cory Salzillo said. The chiefs association did not respond to requests for comment Monday. Officers would still have a variety of tools to control suspects if the hold is banned, Marvel said, including voice commands, nightsticks, Tasers, pepper spray and firearms. Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), a bill coauthor, said 23 California law enforcement agencies have already limited its use, several in the last week. Marvel urged California lawmakers to make it clear that police still can do what they need to do to save themselves. He said lawmakers should consider allowing its continued use in certain circumstances, for instance when police or air marshals have limited options to control a suspect aboard an airplane. Gipson, a former police officer, was among lawmakers who said they hope other states will follow Californias lead in banning the hold. Greece and Italy signed an agreement Tuesday that marks the maritime boundary in the Ionian Sea between the exclusive economic zones of the two European Union members. The deal is "an important development" and shows Greece's constant goal is to delimit maritime zones with all its neighbors, with valid agreements that adhere to international law -- unlike Turkey's agreement with Libya, Greek Foreign Minister Nikolaos Dendias said in Athens, following the signing of the accord with his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio. Kim Yo-jong Takes Role of Bad Cop With Seoul as She's Now Reportedly in Charge of Inter-Korean Ties Sputnik News 15:33 GMT 08.06.2020(updated 15:58 GMT 08.06.2020) Kim Yo-jong was thrown into the media spotlight two months ago after Kim Jong-un's long absence in the public prompted rumours that he was gravely ill and had even died or that he had been deposed in a coup, with his sister Ms Kim, who is believed to be next in line to run the country, assuming power. Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo-jong, is now allegedly in charge of inter-Korean matters, reported The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's leading newspaper, citing sources within the country's government. According to the newspaper, Kim Jong-un has personally assigned his sister to a role that was previously performed by a committee of North Korea's governing party in order to modernise the government. One indication that the woman, said to be in her mid-thirties, is now in control of Pyongyang's relations with its southern neighbour is the fact that a spokesperson for the United Front Department, a commission tasked with relations with South Korea, recently "parroted" a warning she made earlier, wrote The Chosun Ilbo. The warning in question was Kim Yo-jong's remark about South Korean activists sending propaganda leaflets across the border to North Korea with the help of balloons. Ms Kim threatened to close the Inter-Korean Liaison Office that functions as a de-facto embassy in the absence of diplomatic relations and a communication channel between the two states, if authorities Seoul fails to stop activists from sending leaflets into the DPRK. An anonymous government source told The Chosun Ilbo that Kim Yo-jong's statements are being treated as "a directive from the leader". The newspaper stressed that more and more North Korean agencies are quoting Kim Yo-jong's remarks on South Korea. According to The Chosun Ilbo, Kim Jong-un's sister has assumed the role of a bad cop in relations with South Korea. The newspaper cites as an example when the North Korean leader sent a letter of condolence to South Korean President Moon Jae-in only a day after his sister Kim Yo-jong heavily criticised Seoul. Kim Yo-jong was thrown into the media spotlight two months ago after Kim Jong-un's weeks-long absence from the public eye. After he failed to appear at the celebrations of the birth anniversary of his grandfather Kim Il-sung, the most important holiday in North Korea, media started speculating that he was gravely ill and had even died or that he had been deposed in a coup, with Ms Kim, who is believed to be next in line to run the country, assuming power. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address TORONTO, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- dynaCERT Inc. (TSX VENTURE: DYA) (OTCQX: DYFSF) (FRA: DMJ) ("dynaCERT" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the Company has qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market in the United States. The Companys shares were previously traded in the USA on the OTC Markets OTCQB under the ticker "DYFSF" and will begin trading on the top tier OTCQX Best Market under the same ticker number DYFSF at the opening on June 9, 2020. The OTCQX which is operator of financial markets for 10,000 U.S. and global securities, today announced that the Company has qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market. dynaCERT has been upgraded to OTCQX from the OTCQB Venture Market. U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on www.otcmarkets.com. The OTCQX Market is designed for established, investor-focused U.S. and international companies. To qualify for OTCQX, companies must meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance, and demonstrate compliance with applicable securities laws. Graduating to the OTCQX Market from the OTCQB Market marks an important milestone for companies, enabling them to demonstrate their qualifications and build visibility among U.S. investors. The Company is also pleased to report that Nauth LPC acted as OTCQX Sponsor. While the Companys common shares have been conditionally approved to be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (see Press Release dated May 14, 2020), the Companys common shares continue to be listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol DYA and on the ATS Platforms in Canada and in Europe on the following Exchanges and Trading Platforms: Borse Stuttgart, Borse Berlin, Borse Dusseldorf, Frankfurter Wertpapierborse, Borse Hamburg, Borse Hannover, Borse Munchen, LS Exchange, and Tradegate. Jean-Pierre Colin, dynaCERTs Executive Vice President & Director, stated, Being traded on the OTCQX market is expected to provide dynaCERT with greater visibility for U.S. and international investors who are looking for opportunities to participate in the ESG and the CleanTech industry through companies that have already achieved commercially available products ready for deployment into global diesel markets. Our unique proprietary and patented technology is gaining an enormous reception in the USA, so it makes very good sense for dynaCERT to embrace the OTCQX as a new additional trading platform. Jim Payne, dynaCERTs CEO & Director stated, dynaCERT has spent over $60 million and 16 years to develop a unique Hydrogen based innovation that can provide a Carbon Emissions Reduction Technology and Carbon Credits applicable throughout every diesel engine world-wide, while at the same time providing reduced fuel consumption, commencing in North America and more specifically, the USA. At dynaCERT, we have built a remarkable team with associates that can reach throughout the USA from coast to coast, in order to service the US market with our HydraGEN Technology products. Although we are more well-known globally and in Canadian markets, we are fully committed to our American friends in the transportation, construction, mining, oil & gas and diesel generator energy business. About dynaCERT Inc. dynaCERT Inc. manufactures and distributes Carbon Emission Reduction Technology for use with internal combustion engines. As part of the growing global hydrogen economy, our patented technology creates hydrogen and oxygen on-demand through a unique electrolysis system and supplies these gases through the air intake to enhance combustion, resulting in lower carbon emissions and greater fuel efficiency. Our technology is designed for use with many types and sizes of diesel engines used in on-road vehicles, reefer trailers, off-road construction, power generation, mining and forestry equipment, marine vessels and railroad locomotives. Website: www.dynaCERT.com. READER ADVISORY Except for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. In particular, forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to completion of the Offering, satisfaction of TSX listing conditions and regulatory approvals. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance of achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: uncertainty as to whether our strategies and business plans will yield the expected benefits; availability and cost of capital; the ability to identify and develop and achieve commercial success for new products and technologies; the level of expenditures necessary to maintain and improve the quality of products and services; changes in technology and changes in laws and regulations; the uncertainty of the emerging hydrogen economy; including the hydrogen economy moving at a pace not anticipated; our ability to secure and maintain strategic relationships and distribution agreements; and the other risk factors disclosed under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward-looking information to conform such information to actual results or to changes in our expectations except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. 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 the release. On Behalf of the Board Murray James Payne, CEO For more information, please contact: Jim Payne, CEO & President dynaCERT Inc. #101 501 Alliance Avenue Toronto, Ontario M6N 2J1 +1 (416) 766-9691 x 2 jpayne@dynaCERT.com Investor Relations dynaCERT Inc. Nancy Massicotte +1 (416) 766-9691 x 1 nmassicotte@dynaCERT.com Small businesses in Bexar County that have suffered losses from the COVID-19 pandemic have until June 19 to apply for a second round of grants. The application process for the countywide program, which opened Monday, is designed to provide aid based on need. It is being administered by the nonprofit LiftFund in coordination with the county. On ExpressNews.com: Bexar County approves millions in coronavirus aid for suburbs, businesses Following up on a first round of loans and grants totaling about $5.2 million in county funds and distributed by LiftFund in recent weeks, Bexar County commissioners last week approved a second round of support, all in the form of grants funded with $6.5 million in federal COVID-19 aid, to help micro and small businesses recover and create and maintain jobs during the public health and economic crisis. Microbusinesses with one to five full-time employees can apply for grants up to $10,000. Small businesses that employ six to 10 full-time workers are eligible for grants up to $25,000. To help reach all areas of the county, Liftfund is working in collaboration with Southside First, Westside Development Corp., the North Chamber and San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside. The program is open to proprietors and businesses established before August 2019 with annual gross revenues not exceeding $1 million, and that have not already received a grant or loan from the county. A loss of at least 15 percent of revenue since March 12 must be demonstrated. On ExpressNews.com: County leaders gauge COVID-19 assistance programs Professional services, such as physicians, clinics, dentists, lawyers, engineers, architects, insurance agencies, vacation and long-term rentals, and sexually oriented businesses are not eligible for the program. Local nonprofits can apply for a limited number of grants available to support operational expenses. Eligible micro and small businesses can apply online at www.liftfund.com. Grant recipients will be notified no earlier than June 29. 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 One hundred days into the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Ned Lamont became reflective on Tuesday and eagerly pointed to the Phase 2 reopening next week that could get 95 percent of the economy working again. A lot is getting opened next week, Lamont said during a morning news conference outside the Connecticut Science Center, along with its director, Matt Fleury. I dont think we opened too early and I think weve opened cautiously and I think we kept things moving in the right direction. Thats why June 17 will be such an important change for us going forward. He said that state officials have learned a lot since mid-March, when he ordered a shutdown that resulted in hundreds of thousands of people unemployed. He is also worried about a second wave of the pandemic later this year. The state Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported 13 new fatalities in the coronavirus pandemic, bringing the total to 4,097. There was also a net decrease of 31 patients, bringing the statewide total to 293, the fewest since March 28. Our infection rate was the lowest weve seen in a long time, down around 2 percent or less, Lamont said. Thats incredibly important. Hospitalization are two-thirds below where they were when we opened up on Phase 1, May 20. He said that one of the pieces of progress is the inter-agency cooperation that has emerged through the leadership of Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe, who also heads the state Department of Administrative Services. He said that while such teamwork is routine in the private sector, it had been less likely in state government. We were having a unified command meeting virtually every day for 60 days, Lamont said. We realized, my god, Public Health has a lot to say to Corrections, and everybody wanted to hear from the Department of Administrative Services, because they were tracking the flight from China, bringing the next supply of gowns and masks that were in such short supply back then. So we learned how we could work together better as a state. Unifying hospitals in the crisis was another key. Hospitals were at the table early on and they worked together as one, he said. When the hospitals in the southern part of the state were getting overwhelmed, our hospitals here in Hartford were able to help out. Then it was southern Connecticuts turn to help out as well. Lamont said that his relationship with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which started during a fishing trip last summer, became closer as they and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker agreed to close bars and restaurants at the same time. We saw them as places where infection could spread and spread quickly, and we did that, Lamont said. Its very helpful for us to be speaking with one voice. He was disappointed that there was pushback against his business-dominated Reopen CT Advisory Group, and the now-disbanded public private partnership with hedge-fund billionaire Ray Dalio. I know the hesitancy of not having everything decided here, within this Hartford ecosystem, but I think were better when we keep open on this, Lamont said. He said the Partnership for Connecticut, with the Dalio Philanthropies investing $100 million with the promise of $100 million from the state and $100 million from outside donations for at-risk kids, was a little more complicated but doomed by sniping and criticism over its lack of transparency. Within a week or two of us announcing the Partnership and someone went to the floor of the state House of Representatives and said who are all these corporate board guys dropping dollars on we peasants? Lamont said. That was an attitude that killed any opportunity for us to do much fundraising. Ive got to figure out how we can do better to put together a structure that is transparent, that gives you confidence that theyre acting in the public interest, and we can leverage their amazing resources, their intellectual resources and their financial resources. He wants Republican and Democratic leaders of the legislature to develop guidelines to encourage future public-private partnerships. So we dont stiff arm people that want to be helpful in any way, but we welcome them to the table where we can tap their expertise, tap their incredible sense of citizenship, to participate and make a difference, he said. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT Joel Osteen: George Floyd's death was a 'turning point,' 'ignited something in me' Televangelist says 'this is not a political issue': 'Wrong is wrong' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Days after marching with thousands in a George Floyd demonstration in downtown Houston, Texas, televangelist Joel Osteen said Monday that he thinks Floyds death represents a turning point and the incident ignited something in him. The 57-year-old Osteen, who rarely makes his political opinions public, told African American Pastor John Gray during an hour-long conversation on race and the church Monday that issues of injustice and inequality are not political issues. I stay away from political issues but this is not a political issue, Osteen said. This is a human issue. Wrong is wrong and we want to lend our voice you know this but to stand with our black brothers and sisters and stand against injustice and the things that have been wrong. Osteen, the senior pastor of Houstons Lakewood Church, one of Americas largest evangelical megachurches, was among many who marched last Tuesday in Houston against instances of police brutality and to pay tribute to Floyd. Floyd was a 46-year-old Houston native who had moved to Minnesota to start a new life following several incarcerations, including a felony conviction for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in Texas. On Memorial Day, a store clerk at Cup Foods in Minneapolis called 911 to report that Floyd had given him a counterfeit $20 bill to purchase cigarettes and that he appeared to be intoxicated. After he was arrested and handcuffed at the scene, Floyd refused to get into the squad car, "fell to the ground, and told the officers he was claustrophobic," according to details in a criminal complaint against former officer Derek Chauvin who was later fired and charged with second-degree murder for kneeling on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, even after Floyd had stopped moving and breathing. Video of the incident sparked nationwide protests and renewed condemnation of instances of police brutality and calls for defunding police departments. Osteen also participated in #BlackOutTuesday, a social media hashtag movement in which users posted pictures of black squares to show solidarity with the African American community. I know we can do better. I think this incident with George and it's not just him, it is what it represents I feel like it is a turning point, Osteen told Gray. It has ignited something in me about, as I said, what can we do better. Osteen stressed that as terrible as Floyds death was, he is hopeful because God takes what is meant for harm and He knows how to bring some good out of it. But I do believe that we have to be open and acknowledge the pain, seek to understand, grieve with you and realize that you have it more difficult than us, Osteen told Gray, who served as an associate pastor at Lakewood before moving on to lead Relentless Church in South Carolina. Then again, God knew you were going to be you and He knew I was going to be me. So lets take what we have and lets move forward with it. Osteen stressed that Lakewood Church, which founded by his father, has stood in unity for 60 years. You couldnt possibly know the power of this moment, not only for the body of Christ but for particularly, black people, Gray told Osteen. There are so many people in the African American community who love you and love your wife and love the work of this church. They may know you from a television broadcast, but I have had the honor and privilege of being in a relationship with you for over 11 years now. Having seen your life up front and up close. And to know your heart is one thing, but to have this moment for other people to kind of step into what I know and what I believe is a critical moment for leaders to get off the fence. Gray agreed that the issue at hand is not political, but rather spiritual and human. For you to not just be a global pastor, but the pastor Lakewood Church in Houston, where George Floyd was from Third Ward it was critical for you to have a moment like this so we can talk about the pain, Gray said. Osteen recalled an incident that occurred with his wife, Victoria, at a bookstore at Houston Community College a few years back that opened his eyes to the hardships that many black and impoverished people face across the U.S. He said his wife went down to the college bookstore to buy books for their kids who were taking classes at the school while they were still in high school. The place was packed with young African American kids with people in this itty bitty room. Victoria walks in, this white beautiful girl, and she gets in the back of the line. They asked what she was there for. She said she was there to get some books for her children, Osteen explained. They said, Do you have cash, have money? She said, Yeah, I have money. I am going to buy them. They said, you can go to the front of the line. We are all waiting for financial aid. I thought, how can they get ahead when they are sitting there waiting in line and waiting for somebody to give them a $40 book, Osteen continued. It's hard enough to raise kids and get ahead these days, [but] when you see how much is against some people you think, how can that happen? Osteen again reiterated that we are here to learn how can we do better. Gray suggested that churches that have access to capital and resources can look to partner with colleges and commit a certain portion of their mission budgets to help impoverished people who are trying to better their lives through education. He suggested churches should partner with historically black colleges or universities. I think that is something that should be considered. Because when we think of missions, we think of places that dont have access to resources and capital, where people have been disenfranchised. Well, if that is really what missions is about, you can look down the street, Gray said. I think that churches, particularly white churches that have money in the bank, you can help with your relationships: you know the bank president, you know the mayor, the county commissioner, you know the president of that college. Tell some of these corporations to put some money into a pool and lets get 100 kids and lets pay for their books and lets give them a stipend so they dont have to go to work and they can just focus on their education. Gray stressed that if several churches did such a thing in every community, there would be an immediate response and return on investment. What you said about Pastor Victorias experience at Houston Community College is critical, because you got kids in line who have the stress of trying to learn with the added burden of not being able to have the financial resources to do so without having to take two or three jobs and student loans that are going to add debt, Gray said. So even after they get that degree, they are going to be paying for that degree before they can put a down payment on a house. Now, that hinders my ability for how I want to plan out my family. The conversation between Gray and Osteen at Lakewood Church is part of Grays series titled A Necessary Conversation. Last week, Gray held a similar conversation with Steven Furtick, pastor of the popular Elevation Church in North Carolina. Churches need to respond in real-time to systemic injustices they see within their communities to bring solutions, Gray said in the conversation with Furtick. George Floyd dying on TV with a knee on his neck was our Emmett Till moment where we see the brutality and the lack of humanity that we can literally not ignore any longer. Thiruvananthapuram, June 9 : It was a new experience for the devotees on Tuesday morning who came to temples and churches, as they were subjected to thermal screening, washing of hands and were asked to register their names before they enter the places of worship. Masks have now become the order of the day in Kerala, the moment one steps out of their homes even if for a while now. At the famed Sree Krishna temple at Guruvayoor, devotees after the screening were asked to stand in circles marked on the ground in accordance with the social distancing norms and moved forward circle by circle to pray before their favourite deity, which was closed for over two months. "I am very happy to stand in the queue, waiting for my turn to pray. Things have changed and all have to be self disciplined to the new world order. It's very good that this temple has opened," said a devotee. At this temple one has to book their 'darshan' and arrive at the temple accordingly. For Tuesday, 'darshan' is allowed for around 300 devotees. Meanwhile, all the temples under the Travancore, Cochin and Malabar Devasoms have opened. President of the Travancore Devasom Board, N. Vasu said they have abided by the guidelines of the Centre with regards to places of worship that came out on May 30. "All our temples (1,248) have opened and there is nothing left to chance as all the 26 directions of the Centre are being strictly followed. Sabarimala temple will open (on June 14th till June 19th ) and there also the entry is through virtual queue. Under the new norms, actually, temples will be incurring a loss and not make any money as lots of expenses will be there," said Vasu. In a Kochi church that opened and held its mass, there were just 80 devotees and the new norms was observed and all those who entered the church was screened. "It was a good experience to be back at our church. All those who were attending the mass followed the new norms. Felt a lot happy to be back," said two lady devotees. Churches like the Mar Thoma Church, the various dioceses of the Syro Malabar Catholic Church and the Latin dioceses have decided to wait till June 30 for opening, while the Kottayam based Syrian Orthodox Church will make its decision on Tuesday. With regards to the opening of the mosques, a majority from the Muslim community has decided to wait for the opening, but a few have decided to open mosques. Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan, said the Pinarayi Vijayan led Left Front government was trying to escape from the way it has handled the Covid-19 spread which has gone out of hand with cases increasing after opening the places of worship. Reacting to that, State Devasom Minister Kadakampally Surendran pointed out that he felt sorry for Muraleedharan. "Since Muraleedharan is only a State Minister, he will not be attending the Union cabinet meetings. It was the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who cleared the opening of places of worship. The decision to open places of worship in Kerala is not a decision of the Vijayan government," hit back Surendran. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text June 1 leases have taken effect and Grinnell College students are moving into off-campus residences this week, navigating COVID-19 risks and precautions along the way. As the College community awaits news about the plan for the fall 2020 semester, off-campus students are already wrestling with social distancing and other concerns while adjusting to life in Grinnell during a pandemic. Approximately 200 students were granted permission to live off-campus for the coming academic year, according to Dean of Students Ben Newhouse. Most of those students signed leases for their new residences before the campus shut down in mid-March. Currently, there are around 60 members in the Summer in Grinnell 2020 group on Facebook. The new influx of off-campus students means many are traveling from other cities and towns in the U.S. and around the world, potentially bringing the novel coronavirus with them. To mitigate the COVID-19 travel risks, Dean for Health and Wellness Terry Mason recommended students coming from different parts of the U.S. or other countries stay distant from other travelers, wear a mask, practice vigilant hygiene during the trip and self-isolate for 14 days on arrival if possible. Mason urged students living in Grinnell this summer to continue practicing social distancing and other prevention measures. Mason emphasized the importance of wearing a mask when coming into close contact with other people. Mask-wearing is so crucial, he said, because 30 to 40 percent of people with COVID-19 are asymptomatic or presymptomatic and may feel fine at the time they are interacting with others. Deb Shill, director of student health services, said she had not participated in any administrative conversations about off-campus move-ins. She reiterated Masons recommendations. For reminders about social distancing guidelines and handwashing hygiene, Mason and Shill directed students towards the Colleges Weekly Campus Memos and on the COVID-19: Meeting the Challenge webpage, as well as information from the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH). They also urged students to call or email College faculty and staff, particularly Student Health and Wellness (SHAW) with any questions or concerns they may have. Students should call SHAW if they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, which include dry cough, fever, headache, fatigue and shortness of breath, Mason said. In practice, social distancing and COVID-19 precautions are more complex than simply abiding by College and city health recommendations. After three months of anxiety-ridden isolation, public health experts are warning of quarantine fatigue. Official College health guidelines are often tailored to the stricter isolation measures of March and April. The May 27 Campus Memo recommended students curtail direct contact with others outside their homes and avoid gathering in groups. As businesses reopen in Iowa, the IDPH has published infographics providing more detailed guidelines about COVID-19 prevention in different settings. For a summer party, for example, they suggest using disposable plates, keeping gatherings outdoors, and limiting the number of people in a group. National Public Radio (NPR) released a breakdown of the relative risks of popular summer activities on March 23 as states begin to reopen. The guide incorporates information from epidemiologists and public health experts to examine the low risk of activities like walking or biking with a friend in contrast to high-risk activities such as eating at a full restaurant or attending a house party. As students move back to Grinnell, socializing is an essential part of combatting the increased anxiety, depression, loneliness and stress experienced among many students during this time, said Mason. He encouraged students both on- and off-campus to see friends safely while wearing a mask and staying six feet apart. If students can set up a place where they are at least six feet apart and wearing a mask, thats ideal, he said. He also recommends restricting gatherings to outdoor spaces, as research about COVID-19 suggests that if the virus is spread outside it poses a much lower risk than in enclosed spaces. Mason has been barbecuing and spending time with friends outside while sticking to these rules. Seth Bartusek 21 realized the complexity of negotiating social distancing when he moved back to Grinnell this past week. Moving from Chicago to his house on Broad Street, Bartusek said he had been planning to spend as much time as possible in his room and outside to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus asymptomatically. He was surprised at his housemates relaxed attitude towards his arrival, considering he had come from a city struggling with higher levels of coronavirus. Some of his own caution fell to the wayside. Everybody was so cool with it that I didnt really feel like I had the place to be a stickler about it, he said. Bartusek sensed that other students arriving in the neighborhood this week were laying low for a couple of weeks to mitigate risk of transmission, but his concern hasnt abated. I worry that maybe people arent really being that thorough. People are wearing masks going to the grocery stores and stuff like that. But its not just the grocery stores, he said. Theres a lot of other ways [to catch the virus] Im a little concerned that Grinnell is so relaxed about it and putting so much trust in the fact that were a fairly isolated rural setting, that we just wont get exposed. Avery Lewis 21, who arrived in Grinnell this week, expressed concern over the lack of masks being worn by Hy-Vee and Walmart customers in Grinnell. By his rough estimate, one in ten people were wearing a mask. Looking ahead to the rest of the summer, Bartusek expressed optimism about recent research suggesting the risk of COVID-19 infection is reduced dramatically by socializing outside. I love that, because I would rather be outside than inside, regardless, said Bartusek. It would be such a bummer to live in Grinnell but have to isolate from all these people that are around. Bartusek admitted his real worry was about off-campus students social distancing efforts during the fall semester, as the weather gets colder and socializing outside becomes harder. It takes just a level of trust in other people that theyre being as careful as you are, he said. Today told the central and state governments to identify stranded in the nationwide and send them home within 15 days. orders states that cases against them should be dropped. The court asked the authorities to consider withdrawing legal complaints against charged with violating rules. On Friday itself, the Friday said it intends to give 15 days to the Centre and states for transporting all stranded to their native places. The bench was informed on Friday by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that till June 3, over 4,200 Shramik Special' trains have been deployed to transport migrant workers to their native places. Mehta said that till now over one crore migrant workers have been transported to their destinations and most of the trains ended up in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. He said state governments can tell as to how many more migrant workers need to be shifted and how many trains are required for that purpose. Supreme Court today said in its order that in the event of demand of Shramik Trains, Railways shall provide trains within 24 hours; also Railways will provide all schemes to migrant workers and publicise them. On May 28, the top court had directed that the migrant workers wanting to return to their home states will not be charged train or bus fares and those stranded across the country will be provided food free of cost by the authorities concerned. A Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M R Shah said the schemes for the welfare and employment of migrant workers should be publicised, and posted the matter for further hearing in July. The central government had on May 28 given the court a preliminary report, which said 9.1 million migrant workers had been taken to their states during the (as of the previous day). Tens of thousands of people walked home from cities after losing their jobs when India announced one of the worlds strictest lockdowns and suspended all public transport to contain the spread of Last Thursday, Supreme Court had asked Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to respond to a plea alleging that the authorities concerned failed to take prompt action to help 187 victims of bonded labour who are working in brick kilns in these two states. A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao was hearing the plea which has sought urgent release and rehabilitation of the victims, including pregnant women and children, who are being allegedly held at three different brick kilns in these states. Nearly 200 migrant workers died in road accidents while returning to their homes during the lockdown, according to reports. According to the SaveLIFE Foundation, a charity that works towards improving road safety and emergency care in India, more than 1,400 road accidents killed 750 people, including 198 migrant workers, between March 25 and May 31, reported news agency Reuters. At present, India is the fifth-worst-hit nation by number of cases, the total number of cases in India has jumped to 267,046, while 7,473 people have died from the disease so far. Maharashtra has recorded a tally of 88,528, which is more than China's Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 02:55:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close People wait to attend the public viewing for George Floyd in Houston, Texas, the United States, June 8, 2020. A public viewing for George Floyd, an African American man who died while in police custody, is underway on Monday in Houston, Texas, the United States. (Photo by Steven Song/Xinhua) HOUSTON, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A public viewing for George Floyd, an African American man who died while in police custody, is underway on Monday in Houston, Texas, the United States. The memorial is being held in the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston, where 46-year-old Floyd grew up. A private funeral service will be held at the same place Tuesday. The public viewing started at noon and will continue till 6 p.m. local time, according to the Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center, the organizer of the public viewing and funeral. Hours before the viewing began, people from Houston and across the country waited outside the church to pay tribute to Floyd. Police have also been deployed at the scene. An African American who identified himself as Kelvin brought his whole family to the viewing, including three children. "We are here to show the support to the Floyd family. I'm an African American male myself so I understand how important this move is right now," he told Xinhua. "People need to be held accountable for the actions," he said, adding that the former police officers who are responsible for the death of Floyd "need to be convicted to show that they are not above the law." Expecting a large number of visitors, the organizer said it is a tough task to make sure the social distancing regulation is met as confirmed COVID-19 cases are still growing in Houston. Due to social distancing requirements, only 15 guests are allowed inside the church at a time. Visitors must go through metal detector and temperature check before entering the church. Masks are also mandatory. The organizer told local media that Floyd's family contacted them a day after he passed away to conduct the services. Bobby Swearington, owner of the Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center, told a local TV station that the family had only one request -- the funeral be a grand experience. Last week, two memorials were held in Minneapolis, the city in which Floyd died after being pinned by the neck for almost nine minutes by a white police officer's knee, and Raeford, North Carolina, the state where Floyd was born. Hundreds of people paid their tribute to Floyd by laying wreaths at the memorials. Floyd's body arrived in Houston Saturday night, the Houston Police Department said. At the request of the family, his entry was made private. Demonstrations and riots have spread to cities across the United States since a video went viral of Floyd being suffocated to death in the midwestern U.S. state of Minnesota in late May. Enditem NEW YORK and LONDON, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW), a full-service, boutique investment bank and broker-dealer that specializes in the financial services sector, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corp. (SF), today announced that Andrew (Andy) Stimpson has rejoined the firm as Head of European Banks Research, based in KBWs London office. Mr. Stimpson rejoins KBW after spending six years at Bank of America, where he covered the Swiss, German, and Nordic banks and closely followed regulatory change and technological disruption to the global banking sector. During his tenure at Bank of America, the firms European banks team was voted #1 by Institutional Investor for four consecutive years. We are thrilled to have Andy lead our bank research effort in Europe, said Thomas B. Michaud, KBW President & CEO. This hire is yet another example of KBWs continued investment in our European equities platform and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to being the premier global investment bank focused exclusively on financial services and FinTech. Mr. Stimpson covered the Swiss and German banks during a previous nine year stint at KBW. During that time, he also authored countless strategy reports and cooperated with various policy makers, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Banking Authority (EBA). Erick Davis, KBW Head of European Equities, added, Andys European banks research is valued for its thought leadership and prescriptive analysis. His intensity of focus on client service has made him a trusted advisor to institutional investors and he will be an asset to both our global bank research product and our European team. Mr. Stimpson earned a BA (Hons) degree from the University of Brighton, where he studied International Finance and Capital Markets. KBW Information KBW, a Stifel company, operates in the U.S. and Europe through its broker dealer subsidiaries, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. and Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (SNEL), also trading as Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Europe (KBW Europe). Over the years, KBW has established itself as a leading authority in the banking, insurance, brokerage, asset management, mortgage banking, fintech and specialty finance sectors. Founded in 1962, the firm maintains industry-leading positions in the areas of research, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and capital raising as well as sales and trading in equities securities of financial services companies. Story continues Stifel Company Information Stifel Financial Corp. (SF) is a financial services holding company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, that conducts its banking, securities, and financial services business through several wholly owned subsidiaries. Stifels broker-dealer clients are served in the United States through Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, including its Eaton Partners business division; Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc.; Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC and Century Securities Associates, Inc. The Companys broker-dealer affiliates provide securities brokerage, investment banking, trading, investment advisory, and related financial services to individual investors, professional money managers, businesses, and municipalities. Stifel Bank and Stifel Bank & Trust offer a full range of consumer and commercial lending solutions. Stifel Trust Company, N.A. and Stifel Trust Company Delaware, N.A. offer trust and related services. To learn more about Stifel, please visit the Companys website at www.stifel.com . For global disclosures, please visit https://www.stifel.com/investor-relations/press-releases . Media Contacts: Neil Shapiro, (+1 212) 271-3447 shapiron@stifel.com Jeff Preis, (+1 212) 271-3749 preisj@stifel.com The death of American George Floyd has sparked protests and Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the United States in the past week, with thousands taking to the streets to speak up on institutionalized racism and police brutality. Some appeared violent while others, like the ones that took place in Santa Fe, New Mexico, have so far been peaceful, Onysha Boak told Coconuts KL recently. The 21-year-old is a liberal arts student at the St. Johns College and had chatted with us to share about life at where she is at the moment. We spoke to her days after a protest took place just outside the Plaza, a historical landmark in the city. Onysha Boak (right) tells Coconuts KL about the current situation in the US over a Skype interview There was just a small group of a few hundred, compared to Minneapolis where they have many thousands of people showing up, she said. The Kuala Lumpur student moved to the capital in 2018 to pursue her studies. Since the COVID-19 outbreak had shut campuses in the state, her college friends have gone back to their respective hometowns and attended protests there. Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25 after former police officer, and white man, Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck, suffocating the 46-year-old. Chauvin has since been charged with second-degree murder on June 3. The incident, which was captured on video, resulted in nationwide protests and demonstrations and reigniting the Black Lives Matter movement in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. In some cases, luxury stores were looted. Peaceful protests; slowing down of services In Santa Fe, nearly 2,000km away from Minneapolis, the police have been pretty chill when patrolling protests, Boak said. This is a world of a difference from what happened in Lafayette Square, Washington D.C previously, where police had fired tear gas at thousands of people. The police were just sitting around and watching the protests happen, Boak said, referring to the protests that took place last Wednesday at The Plaza, the Roundhouse, aka Santa Fes state capital building, as well as the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Ongoing protests in Albuquerque, the largest city in New Mexico, began May 31, while Santa Fe has seen at least three protests so far. Story continues Boak said that most of the protesters knew about the protests through social media platforms, like Facebook events. She is looking forward to the next event. They can follow their local Black Lives Matter chapters or other activism groups, she said. Police vehicle on the road. Photo: Matt Popovich Boak lives in a remote part of Santa Fe, where life is not as greatly affected by the protests but has definitely seen better days. A lot of services have been slowing down, like mail and delivery services, due to the protests. There have been curfews placed on certain cities, she said. Minneapolis, where Floyd died, along with New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC, were among the cities with curfews ranging from 7pm to 9pm. Some people have had their businesses broken into or looted, and their buildings burned down, Boak added. Several big and small businesses were looted amid riots, but it was unclear whether the looters were protesters too. Protesting during a pandemic Protest in Santa Fe on May 29. Photo Ana G Y Reinhardt / Facebook With COVID-19 still claiming lives in the U.S, the nationwide protests may have happened at a very unfortunate time. More than 100,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S so far. But Boak believes that they were just waiting to happen since race-related issues had not been properly handled by the police. The protests needed to happen in the middle of a pandemic to make sure that people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor could get justice, she said. Breonna Taylor is another African-American who was killed on March 13 when she was shot eight times by police who mistook her home for a drug front. Boak also noted that only some protesters would wear masks, making these demonstrations possible breeding grounds for the coronavirus. You cant really observe social distancing at protests, Boak said. Whats worrying also is that because the police have been using tear gas on the protesters, and tear gas actually makes you sneeze or cough. Other stories to check out: AirAsia retrenches more than 300 employees as part of corporate restructuring Malaysian doodle artist reimagines Disney characters in traditional attire Authorities nab Bersatu youth leader over Syed Saddiqs missing cash This article, You cant really observe social distancing: Msian on US protests amid a pandemic, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters! NEW HAVEN Rabbi Daniel Greer, who was convicted on four felony counts and then was released from prison and granted house arrest status because of the coronavirus threat, has had his release extended by another 45 days, according to sources familiar with the case. Greer was convicted last year on four counts of risk of injury to a minor and subsequently was sentenced to 20 years in prison, to be suspended after serving 12 years. He was sent to prison on the day of his sentencing, Dec. 2. But just four months later, after Greers attorney, David Grudberg, filed an emergency motion for release on bond based on pandemic health threat, Superior Court Judge Jon M. Alander ordered Greer released. Alander, who presided over Greers jury trial, wrote in his ruling: Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. Alander noted Greer is 79 and has chronic asthma, putting him at a higher risk for developing serious complications from COVID-19. Alander ordered Greer to be electronically monitored at his Westville home and to be put under intensive supervision. He is allowed to visit his attorneys office, go to medical appointments and attend religious services. When Alander issued his ruling on April 24, he termed it a temporary release from prison until the crisis abates. The order enabled Greer to remain out of prison for 45 days; that time period expired Monday. But in his first ruling, Alander said it covered those 45 days unless extended or terminated by the court. The issue of people in prison seeking release during the coronavirus pandemic has come up a number of time in Connecticut. While some people have been released, many of them to home confinement, the courts denied other requests. Greers victim of the risk of injury to a minor charges, Eliyahu Mirlis, strongly objected to Greers April release. Mirlis said he had never seen any evidence Greer has asthma. In a letter to Alander after his April 24 order, Mirlis said Greers release was not beneficial for society. Mirlis asked: Why should he be cut a break? Mirlis has agreed to have his name made public despite the sexual nature of Greers crimes. During Greers trial last September, Senior Assistant States Attorney Maxine Wilensky told the jurors that Greer had repeatedly sexually abused Mirlis, then 15, from 2002-03 at Yeshiva New Haven, which Greer founded. Wilensky said other sites for the offenses included Greers home in New Haven, Edgewood Park and a motel in Branford. Greer initially also was charged with four counts of second-degree sexual assault. But on the last day of testimony in the September trial, Greers defense cited a state statute concerning a statute of limitations on those charges. Alander then dismissed those counts. Wilensky and Grudberg did not return phone call messages seeking comment by deadline. But some defense attorneys in the state have been vocal about the system used to decide who is released during the pandemic. New Haven attorney Michael Moscowitz, who unsuccessfully filed motions seeking compassionate release for two defendants because of their health issues in a time when COVID-19 is affecting Connecticuts prisons, objected to Alanders extension order. Its blatantly unfair, Moscowitz said, when other individuals such as Lynne Friend have served 22 years of a 25-year sentence and cant get compassionate release. She has diabetes, lung disease and kidney disease. Friend, now 60, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and risk of injury to a minor for killing her six-year-old nephew, David Ryan Keeley. The state Parole Board denied compassionate release for Friend and another Moscowitz client, Michael Seifert. Seifert committed a series of robberies, many of them in banks, in towns that included Ansonia, Waterbury, Naugatuck and Southington. Seifert, 69, has multiple sclerosis, autoimmune disorder and diabetes. He pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and in 2011 received a 13-year prison sentence. Moscowitz said both Friend and Seifert might die in prison if they were to contract COVID-19. Citing those inmates who are granted release and those who remain incarcerated, Moscowitz said of Greer: The rabbi has served only a few months. And he noted, Very rarely does anyone get out on an appeal bond. Greer is appealing his conviction. Contact Randall Beach at randall.beach@hearstmediact.com. For people who admire the worlds oldest democracy, the developments in the United States (US) have caused considerable concern. If President Donald Trumps politics remains perplexing, the latest public outburst on the merciless killing of a black man, George Floyd, came as a frightening validation of the thesis that democracy is in deep trouble. To think that four years after President Barack Obamas comforting tenure, to quote from William Butler Yeats Second Coming, things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, and mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. But there is a bright light yet in the spontaneous kneeling gesture of the Miami police to apologise for the inhuman conduct of a killer in uniform. Nations do not have unexceptional goodness. But if they know how to swiftly contain moral aberrations and encourage acts of forgiveness and reconciliation, such as the Miami police exhibited, ones faith and confidence in democracy is preserved. What happened in Minneapolis is wrong, and even in a divided society, white supremacists have been silenced, and liberals across colour and communities have been openly arguing that black lives matter. Curiously, some Bollywood stars, who seem unmoved by recent events in India, have joined the US chorus for justice. As protests over Floyds death intensified in the US, social media was flooded with posts on police brutality. However, amid the news of rioting, tear-gas and baton charge, there were also reports of police personnel in Miami joining the protesters cause and apologising for the brutality. Police forces at several places laid down their shields and helmets to express solidarity with those speaking out against racism and for human rights, while some knelt before the demonstrators. But here, at home, some courts have not found the time to seek an explanation for the police brutality writ large, but heartlessly shrouded in the exigencies of the Covid-19 lockdown. Jamia Millia Islamia awaits justice for brutal assaults on protesting students on two separate occasions in the wake of anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests, despite the university management having publicly complained of the unwarranted conduct of the police. Far from reaching out to the aggrieved student body, the police have issued notices to dozens of them and arrested several under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) or Indian Penal Code to begin with, and immediately, if granted bail, under UAPA a period of incarceration without bail. The State might well be able to inflict unnecessary pain upon these young persons, even derail their career prospects, but hopefully will not crush their spirit and commitment to democracy and freedom. The State has a solemn duty to intervene wherever there is even a hint of suspicion about any person working to undermine national integrity. There can be no cavil with that proposition. But there is a difference between the State and the government of the day. Vigorous opposition of the latter cannot remotely be an anti-State posture. Much evil has been done in history in the name of State security. We see the same happening today in India. If people and institutions fail to step in to expose this, this will amount to a situation when history is retold. Unable to support wild charges of sedition, the investigation officers are reportedly browbeating innocent political activists to surrender to their will and give evidence against their colleagues. This is a gross violation of human rights under the very nose of the top courts in the capital. Similar infractions of the law in Uttar Pradesh (UP) were brought to the notice of the National Human Rights Commission by the Congress general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi, several weeks ago, but there has been no forward movement. The pain is now, but the panacea will come at some distant moment, and that too if the truth prevails. Although the ostensible object of the investigation launched by the special cell of Delhi Police is to get to the bottom of what they claim is a larger conspiracy to create civil unrest at the time of Trumps New Delhi visit, the focus seems to be on Jamia and Shaheen Bagh. People are being asked why they participated or organised the anti-CAA protests and how they were connected. The Northeast riots are used to conveniently blame the violence on innocent persons. Despite attempts to create a misleading narrative that includes the home minister telling Parliament how proud he was of the Delhi Police bringing the violence under control within 48 hours, the fact remains that former Supreme Court judges took public transport to visit the affected areas and pointed out clear dereliction of duty by the police. The harsh comments made by Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi High Court before he was suddenly transferred to Chandigarh, the unequivocal concern expressed by a trial court in remand proceedings that the investigation was targeted to one end, and another high court judge granting bail to an accused by stating that jail was for convicted prisoners and not under-trials, all point to a serious disquiet in the judiciary. But we are also a witness to government law officers speaking of high courts running a parallel government even as the government rewards them with engagements such as special public prosecutors. The months ahead will be a serious contest between the rule of law and the ruse of law. Salman Khurshid is former Union Cabinet minister The views expressed are personal Its sunrise on the Cham Islands. Members of the local land crab cooperative rush home with baskets full of crabs after a night hunting in the hilly forest. The catch is reported to the cooperative management board before their shell size is measured and, if they meet the criteria, a label attached denoting they are for legal sale at the market. Land crab (Gecarcoidea lalandii) a purple shelled crustacean is sealed for sale at the Cham Islands, off the coast of Hoi An. Nguyen Duy Khanh, 38, head of the cooperative, is waiting for the hunters to return to the cooperative centre, where he will check the catch. Only crabs with a shell at least 7cm long will head to the market. Its a strictly-enforced rule aimed at ensuring the sustainable protection and conservation of land crabs, he explained. Labels are only attached on crabs that meet the criteria for sale, while pregnant or smaller crabs are released back into the forest. Each member of the cooperative is permitted to catch only 50 crabs, or 8kg, each season, which lasts from March to late July, he said. Khanh said the cooperative was established to ensure the community-based management and exploitation of the natural resource, helping islanders increase their earnings while protecting the natural environment. The cooperative and its 42 members also work to ensure harmony between people and nature, and only members are permitted to catch crab in the forest. Land crabs (Gecarcoidea lalandii) - purple shelled crustaceans - have become an eco-tour product that will support the sustainable development of the Cham Islands. Twenty kilometres off the coast of central Hoi An ancient city, a world biosphere reserve, the islands are the only place in the country to have successfully monitored and managed wild crab catching. Visitors will be unable to see any crabs at the local market during the reproduction season, between July and October, when all catching is banned, Khanh adds. When in season, he explained, crab hunters head into the forest at 6pm and stay there overnight, with each kilo selling for 1.2 million VND (52 USD), which is a handy sum when added to regular incomes from fishing and tourism services like driving motorbike taxis or boats, guiding tours, and diving. The 25 members of the cooperative have benefited from zero interest loans of 150 million VND (6,500 USD) from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), to support the sustainable protection and conservation of land crab species, Khanh said. The fund encourages members to strictly follow the no crab catching ban in place between August and February. According to experts from the Cham Islands Marine Protected Area (MPA), each purple-shelled crab produces as many as 27,000 offspring each year, but only 3 percent survive. Mother crabs often move from the forest to the sea for seven days to lay eggs. Baby crabs must then seek a way back to the forest, and the females among them will reproduce 16 years later. Khanh said an adult crab, with a shell size from 7cm to 12cm, needs these 16 years to fully grow in an area of the forest with abundant food sources. Dr Chu Manh Trinh from the Cham Islands MPA says the establishment of the cooperative has ended over-catching and illegal hunting of crabs. Only people with power can protect their natural surroundings, he said. Community-based management has generated success stories, and the Cham Islands is a great example of sustainable development at work. Management has also helped boost the value of the islands crab brand in recent decades, which benefits conservation efforts. The community has established a crab protection team, he says, which monitors over-catching and illegal hunting. A report from the Cham Islands MPA notes that about 7,000 crabs are caught each year and 75 percent of the islands crab population are conserved. Trinh explained that the sustainable exploitation of the crabs guarantees livelihood for islanders into the future, with all involved having a stake in reducing over-catching and mass exploitation. The islands are the only place in Vietnam with a land crab bank - a free crab-catching zone on Dai Islet, one of eight islets making up the Cham Islands. Nguyen Van Phong, a member of staff at the Cham Islands MPA, said crab conservation is appealing to many tourists visiting the islands, along with a Say No to plastic bags campaign instituted in the community and among tourists since 2011. Many islanders, he says, can earn more money from providing services such as homestays, motorbike rentals, boat trips to islets, diving, or trekking. Tran Quy Tay from the Cham Islands Peoples Committee said at least 40 percent of local people earn a living from tourism and not just fishing. Life for the islanders was previously reliant upon fishing, Trinh said, but eco-tours and environmental protection have changed the islands economic structure towards sustainability. Challenges to address The director of the Cham Islands-Hoi An MPA Centre, Tran Thi Hong Thuy, says mass tourism has come with major challenges for the islands as an excessive number of boat trips from the mainland will threaten its rich ecosystem. The demand for seafood among increasing numbers of tourists will also lead to over-fishing offshore. Thuy recalled that a large area of sea grass was destroyed between 2009 and 2018, while tourist numbers have increased by a factor of 20 since 2009. She said about a hundred restaurants, shops, seafood agents, and homestay services have appeared on the islands, which combined with the building of road infrastructure have cleared 102ha of special use forest (out of a total 1,500ha of forested area) over the last decade. The Cham Islands-Hoi An World Biosphere Reserve, which covers more than 33,000ha, was recognised by UNESCO in 2009. It has 1,500ha of tropical forests and 6,700ha of ocean area boasting a wide range of marine flora and fauna. The islands are the only location in Vietnam banning the use of plastic bags and promoting 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) programmes, since 2011. Khanh said each member of the cooperative can earn 25 million VND (over 1,000 USD) or more in total from crab hunting being strictly controlled. The cooperative has also been farming mushrooms and other organic crops, he added, creating more income-earning opportunities for members and easing over-exploitation of forests and oceans./.VNS As remains of Cristobal move north, it is expected to combine with a new storm system that is moving out of the Rockies and should produce damaging winds, flooding rain, and a threat for tornadoes Already this new storm system has brought damaging winds of up to 101 mph in Colorado with five reported tornadoes in Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska. Storm damage was also reported in parts of Mississippi where trees were downed on homes due to gusty winds with Cristobal remains. Also yesterday, as remnants of Cristobal moved north, flooding was reported along the northern shores of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana where homes were flooded and people had to be rescued. Today, severe weather is expected in two pockets, one area from Nashville to Chicago where damaging winds and a few tornadoes are possible. The other area will be from Omaha to Kansas City where damaging winds, large hail and a few tornadoes will also be possible. PHOTO: Today, severe weather is expected in two pockets, one area from Nashville to Chicago where damaging winds and a few tornadoes are possible. The other area will be from Omaha to Kansas City where large hail and a few tornadoes will also be possible. (ABC News) In addition to damaging winds and tornadoes, these two storm systems will bring heavy rain that is forecast to bring flooding. PHOTO: In addition to damaging winds and tornadoes, these two storm systems will bring heavy rain that is forecast to bring flooding. (ABC News) This morning, 10 states from South Dakota to Mississippi are under flood alerts. The heaviest rain is forecast from Missouri to Michigan where some areas could see up to 4 inches of rain and flash flooding is forecast. PHOTO: The heaviest rain is forecast from Missouri to Mississippi where some areas could see up to 4 inches of rain and flash flooding is forecast. (ABC News) Flooding, damaging winds and threat for tornadoes from the Plains to the Ohio River valley originally appeared on abcnews.go.com David Tennant has warned that the UK government will need to intervene if British theatre is to survive the coronavirus crisis. Speaking to the Radio Times, the former Doctor Who actor said that concerns for audience safety may be one of the biggest stumbling blocks preventing theatres from returning. Youre asking people to pay a lot of money to potentially have someone coughing into their packet of boiled sweets and infecting them, he said. I dont know what the answer is yet. Its urgent, because the performing arts in this country dont exist with huge profit margins. Adding that some theatres were teetering close to closure, he continued: Well need Government intervention until theatres can safely reopen, and audiences are happy to go back. Last week, director Sam Mendes wrote an impassioned argument for investing in the cultural sector rather than relying on charity to save it from total collapse. The performing arts need to be saved now, he wrote. Not next week, or next month. If they die, an ecosystem this intricate and evolved cannot be rebuilt from scratch. If it stops breathing, it cannot be resuscitated. It is the product of decades of capital projects, loyal audiences, and of communities large and small. He continued: It would be deeply ironic if the streaming services Netflix, Amazon Prime et al should be making lockdown millions from our finest acting, producing, writing and directing talent, while the very arts culture that nurtured that talent pool is allowed to die. On Monday (8 June), culture secretary Oliver Dowden said that he was in intricate discussions to save the industry, saying: I am not going to stand by and see our world-leading position in arts and culture destroyed. TORONTO - Small business owners have spent months urging the Ontario government to hear their pleas for a temporary ban on commercial evictions, but some say the answer theyve received doesnt go nearly far enough. A provincial order to protect entrepreneurs from eviction for the next three months is a welcome move, said bar owner Christopher Hudspeth, but it doesnt address the likelihood that many businesses will still be struggling at the end of the summer when it expires. Its a little late and only for a short period of time, said Hudspeth, who owns Torontos Pegasus on Church. Ontario premier Doug Ford on Monday announced the eviction moratorium, which applies to small businesses who qualify for the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program (CECRA), where their revenues have dropped at least 70 per cent due to the pandemic. The ban is retroactive to June 3, but ends on Aug. 31. Wed rather see that go to the end of the year to give people the ability to restart, Hudspeth added. I think thats going to be when some people still have the potential of getting into trouble with being able to pay rent. Other provinces introduced eviction bans in recent weeks, but the length of the support structure varies, with an option to extend some windows. In British Columbia, the policy introduced June 1 only lasts until the end of the month, while Quebecs expires on Aug. 1. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says details are coming next week on legislation to address businesses facing eviction due to the COVID-19 pandemic in his province. A gradual resumption of Canadas economy has been widely anticipated by economists, but some business owners say the pace of a comeback doesnt appear to be factoring into the decisions being made by leaders. A survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business found that 44 per cent of small businesses have reopened, an increase from 38 per cent two weeks ago, but that normal sales volumes are only 15 per cent of their pre-crisis levels. Business is not going to return as quickly as it as wed want it to, said Gilleen Pearce, co-ordinator at Better Way Alliance, which advocates for a group of small businesses in Ontario. (The measures) need to take into account not just when the stages of reopening happens, but the number of months that well need to get back into the swing of things, economically and financially. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2020. "We know that without a vaccine we're going to be dealing with this virus for a while," said Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health, in an interview with Johannes Czernin. "We have to learn how to continue to provide health care as a health system with the presence of this emerging infectious disease." The interview is one of 5 new COVID-related articles and commentaries published in the June issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM). In the interview, a JNM "Discussions with Leaders" column, Spisso discusses how UCLA Health and the UCLA Hospital System have dealt with the pandemic and some of their ongoing initiatives in research, including a convalescent plasma study. The organization has now begun dealing with reintroduction of care that had been postponed at the height of the crisis. In "Guidance and Best Practices for Nuclear Cardiology Laboratories during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic: An Information Statement from ASNC and SNMMI," Hicham Skali, MD, MSc, and colleagues address the practice of nuclear cardiology in the setting of the pandemic, reflecting perspectives of diverse practices across the United States and worldwide. The statement focuses on how to adapt nuclear cardiology practice to COVID, including steps for protecting healthcare personnel and patients. In "The Role of Nuclear Medicine for COVID-19 - Time to Act Now," Freimut Juengling and colleagues point out that nuclear medicine has much to offer in COVID research, including substantial experience in detecting inflammatory disease. The authors suggest repurposing established nuclear medicine pharmaceuticals and developing new ones to target different aspects of the virus. In "Yttrium-90 Radioembolization: Telemedicine during the COVID-19 Outbreak, Opportunity for Prime Time," Lawrence Han Hwee Quek and colleagues discuss the use of telemedicine in Singapore to bridge the gap among physicians with necessary medical expertise and ensure continuity of service. "This outbreak may spark a wider adoption of tele-nuclear medicine in the post-COVID-19 era--not just in diagnosis and therapy but also in education for developing nations with limited access to formal training," the authors said. In "Who Was the First Doctor to Report the COVID-19 Outbreak in Wuhan, China?" Xixing Li and colleagues tell the story of Dr. Zhang Jixian, who is considered to be the first doctor to report the novel coronavirus before its outbreak. JNM is fast-tracking COVID-related content and providing free access without subscription. ### Please visit the SNMMI Media Center for more information about molecular imaging and precision imaging. To schedule an interview with the authors, please contact Rebecca Maxey at (703) 652-6772 or rmaxey@snmmi.org. About the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) is the world's leading nuclear medicine, molecular imaging and theranostics journal, accessed close to 10 million times each year by practitioners around the globe, providing them with the information they need to advance this rapidly expanding field. Current and past issues of the journal can be found online at http://jnm.snmjournals.org. JNM is published by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to advancing nuclear medicine and molecular imaging--precision medicine that allows diagnosis and treatment to be tailored to individual patients in order to achieve the best possible outcomes. For more information, visit http://www.snmmi.org. 2. His Phone Its partly my brain, first of all, because Im so old that it has a far better memory than I do. Its my newspaper that gives me multiple perspectives. In a way it has become my stage because I film stuff like Songs of Comfort from it. And its a place where I can do research. When I was growing up, you used to go to the Britannica if you had a question. Now I go to the iPhone and I find what I need to find. Of course, Im going to not tell you what my average screen time is. 3. Scotch Tape Scotch tape is like a Band-Aid for music because the scores fall apart, and there are page turns with no time to turn, and they all have to fit on a music stand. Since Im pretty scattered, I end up cutting up pages and taping them together in not such great ways, but long enough to last through a performance. If you also have to record yourself on the phone, you have to get the right angle. So I found myself using Scotch tape to tape my phone onto something so that its poised precariously at the right angle for a certain number of minutes. I mean, its pathetic, right? 4. Benoit Rolland Hes an artist-scientist who is an inventor, and I mean that very seriously. For my 60th birthday, my wife surprised me and commissioned a bow from him. You know, Im not an equipment guy. I never like to think about bows or instruments or even strings and rosin. When Im on tour, I cant count on anything. If Im an equipment freak, Ill just be a miserable guy all the time because things are not exactly right. So when my wife first presented it to me, I thought: Its wonderful. How thoughtful. Whatever. Then I started playing and then I just never stopped. It did something extraordinary. I never knew that a bow can make such a difference. 5. Fred Rogers Do we need him now or what? What an unbelievable, remarkable human being he was. One of the things he did when I met him was that he started asking me questions with his face about six inches from my face, which, if you imagine, that is very much into my personal space. You feel uncomfortable. And I didnt know why until I realized that he was actually using the space that a child has before they become socialized. He taught me that the space between the television screen and the childs face is sacred. [The] greatest lesson in trust. 6. Pablo Casals We owe the Bach suites to him because hes the one who played each suite in its entirety. He was the first cellist who gave it that meaning that today a lot of people ascribe to as music that gives you solace, consolation. But beyond that, I loved Casals when I was 9 years old because I read that he said that he was a human being first, a musician second and a cellist third. At that time, I was being groomed: Oh, youre going to be a wonderful cellist. And I thought: Yuck. No, Im not just that. So I was so pleased that my greatest musical hero said those words. And to this day I still think hes absolutely right. GENEVA and BLUE BELL, Pa., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) today announced its support of the CyberPeace Institute's Cyber4Healthcare initiative, a program designed to offer free cybersecurity services to healthcare providers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. This follows a public call last month asking governments around the globe to join forces with the private sector and academia to ensure that medical facilities are protected from cyber threats. As part of its support for the program, Unisys will be providing pro bono online consultations designed to help healthcare organizations address the following critical areas of cyber defense: How to minimize the effect of ransomware within an organization by leveraging proven strategies like Zero Trust and network architectures like microsegmentation; How to more safely extend cyber perimeters to include work-from-home (WFH) with better identity and encryption practices; and A "spot check" of current cyber risk based on an individual organization's operational goals. "The world is at a critical moment in time, as the security risks we all face and our reliance on internet connectivity has been magnified as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Tom Patterson, Unisys Chief Trust Officer. "We know that adversaries can attack our most critical infrastructures through the click of a single WFH employee. That's why Unisys is proud to stand with government, industry and academic leaders around the world to safeguard patient data, testing information and intellectual property so that our medical workers on the frontline can focus on delivering care to patients in their hour of need." Cyber4Healthcare further calls for a stop to cyberattacks on hospitals, healthcare and medical research facilities, and for attackers to be held accountable with international law to be applied where possible. Hospitals and healthcare organizations are increasingly under attack as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. INTERPOL recently warned that it has detected a significant increase in cyber-attacks against hospitals around the world that are engaged in the COVID-19 response. And a joint alert from the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned of a rise in Coronavirus-related cyber campaigns that use malware and "password spraying" to target healthcare organizations, pharmaceutical companies, medical research organizations, local governments and academia. "Protecting the healthcare as any other critical civilian infrastructure is a collective responsibility," said Stephane Duguin, CEO of the CyberPeace Institute. "We are very excited to work with Unisys to bring assistance to healthcare organizations so they can continue protecting human life during the pandemic." As a global security provider to critical infrastructure around the world, Unisys is committed to making cyberspace more secure. Unisys Chairman and CEO Peter Altabef has co-chaired the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee's (NSTAC) Cybersecurity Moonshot initiative, which calls for a "whole-of-nation approach" to create a safer, more resilient internet for government and critical infrastructure services. In October 2019, the Aspen Institute announced commitments from industry representatives, including Unisys, to address the mounting shortfall in the nation's cybersecurity workforce. Unisys Security Solutions, including Unisys Stealth, bring "Always On" security, built on a foundation of Zero Trust that grows with an organization's business. Leveraging identity-driven microsegmentation to isolate critical data, Unisys identifies, validates and secures trusted users, devices and data flows. For more information on Unisys Security Solutions, click here. About Unisys Unisys is a global information technology company that builds high-performance, security-centric solutions for the most demanding businesses and governments. Unisys offerings include security software and services; digital transformation and workplace services; industry applications and services; and innovative software operating environments for high-intensity enterprise computing. For more information on how Unisys builds better outcomes securely for its clients across the government, financial services and commercial markets, visit www.unisys.com. Follow Unisys on Twitter and LinkedIn. RELEASE NO.: 0609/9772 Unisys and other Unisys products and services mentioned herein, as well as their respective logos, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unisys Corporation. Any other brand or product referenced herein is acknowledged to be a trademark or registered trademark of its respective holder. UIS-C SOURCE Unisys Corporation Related Links https://www.unisys.com Ms. Berger asked Ms. Spriggle to message her privately, which she did. Ms. Spriggle then received a series of hostile messages from Ms. Berger and was booted from the group after Ms. Berger falsely claimed Ms. Spriggle had threatened and harassed her. (Ms. Berger later apologized for the claim.) For women of color in the group and their allies, this was the final straw. They piled on Ms. Berger with criticism. A black woman shouldnt be falsely accused of harassment for assertively (not aggressively) saying they will follow up later on the issue of better representation in a large group. I think you owe her an apology, one mom commented. Ms. Berger responded by deactivating the group. By Thursday of last week, the group was back up and two new moderators had been added: one black woman and one Asian woman. However, any discussion of racism, racial issues, or controversial topics like police brutality was discouraged. Members of the group were frustrated and began to leave in droves to join and form splinter groups. The UES Mommas group has been the worst, but racism and the silencing women of color and their allies is pervasive throughout these mom groups, said Amanda Fialk, 42. Several groups such as UWS People of Color Allies and Anti-Racist Parents of NYC have begun recruiting members from UES Mommas and other New York parenting groups. The goal of these groups is to provide a safe space to discuss parenting issues without fear of racist comments or censorship. A lot of people of color on Facebook have to join groups that are focused on being a parent of color, because we arent safe posting in groups that are majority white, said Nevette Bailey, 39, who was kicked out of the UES Mommas group for supporting Ms. Spriggles campaign for a black moderator. With Black Lives Matter and the stuff I have to talk about with my 6-year-old son, theres no way anyone can still question whether this is a parenting issue. Ms. Spriggle said she believed that the current national conversation around race set the conditions for members to lobby for UES Mommas to be more inclusive. I thought, right now would be the right time to talk about everything, she said, with George Floyd and the protests happening in our country, now is the time people are listening. [June 09, 2020] Navidea Biopharmaceuticals to Present at the Virtual Investor Fireside Chat Series Live Video Moderated Discussion with CEO, Jed Latkin, to be Held on Tuesday, June 16th, at 2:00 PM ET, Immediately Followed by an Interactive Q&A Session DUBLIN, Ohio, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American: NAVB) (Navidea or the Company), a company focused on the development of precision immunodiagnostic agents and immunotherapeutics, today announced that Jed Latkin, Navideas Chief Executive Officer, will present at the Virtual Investor Fireside Chat Series on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 at 2:00 PM ET. A live video webcast of the fireside chat will be available on the IR Calendar page of the Investors section of the Companys website ( www.navidea.com ). Immediately following the fireside chat, management will participate in an interactive Q&A session with interested parties, allowing participants to type in questions and receive live responses. A webcast replay will be available two hours following the live presentation and will be accessible for one year. To schedule a one-on-one call with management, please submit a request through the conference website vifiresidechat.com, or contact the conference at [email protected] . For more information about the event, please visit vifiresidechat.com . About Navidea Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American: NAVB) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of precision immunodiagnostic agents and immunotherapeutics. Navidea is developing multiple precision-targeted products based on its Manocept platform to enhance patient care by identifying the sites and pathways of disease and enable better diagnostic accuracy, clinical decision-making, and targeted treatment. Navideas Manocept platform is predicated on the ability to specifically target the CD206 mannose receptor expressed on activated macrophages. The Manocept platform serves as the molecular backbone of Tc99m tilmanocept, the first product developed and commercialized by Navidea based on the platform. Navideas strategy is to deliver superior growth and shareholder return by bringing to market novel products and advancing the Companys pipeline through global partnering and commercialization efforts. For more information, please visit www.navidea.com . Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends affecting the financial condition of our business. Forward-looking statements include our expectations regarding our current studies and potential results, FDA approval process, ability to provide rheumatologists and those suffering from RA with expected benefits, the accuracy and timing of our imaging as an indication of treatment effectiveness, the use of our imaging as part of treatment for RA patients, our ability to progress into a Phase 3 study, our ability to successfully develop products, and the role of Navidea in the management of RA worldwide. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, among other things: our history of operating losses and uncertainty of future profitability; the final outcome of any pending litigation; our ability to successfully complete research and further development of our drug candidates; the timing, cost and uncertainty of obtaining regulatory approvals of our drug candidates; our ability to successfully commercialize our drug candidates; dependence on royalties and grant revenue; our ability to implement our growth strategy; anticipated trends in our business; our limited product line and distribution channels; advances in technologies and development of new competitive products; our ability to comply with the NYSE American continued listing standards; our ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting; the impact of the current coronavirus pandemic; and other risk factors detailed in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other SEC filings. You are urged to carefully review and consider the disclosures found in our SEC filings, which are available at http://www.sec.gov or at http://ir.navidea.com . Investors are urged to consider statements that include the words will, may, could, should, plan, continue, designed, goal, forecast, future, believe, intend, expect, anticipate, estimate, project, and similar expressions, as well as the negatives of those words or other comparable words, to be uncertain forward-looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, any of which could turn out to be incorrect. We undertake no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this report. In light of these risks and uncertainties, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this report may not occur and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. References and links to websites have been provided as a convenience, and the information contained on such websites is not incorporated by reference into this press release. Navidea is not responsible for the contents of third-party websites. Contact Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. Jed Latkin, CEO 614-973-7490 [email protected] PCG Advisory, Inc. Adam Holdsworth 646-862-4607 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Little Britain comedians Matt Lucas starred as Andy and David Walliams as Lou. (PA Images via Getty Images) Little Britain has been removed from BBC iPlayer as well as other streaming sites BritBox and Netflix. The controversial BBC comedy, which aired from 2003 to 2005 and starred David Walliams and Matt Lucas, has been criticised over the years for its use of blackface and stereotyping. Their follow-up show Come Fly With Me, on air between 2010 and 2011, also attracted similar complaints. Read more: Jimmy Fallon apologises for wearing blackface make-up in SNL skit Both shows were pulled from Netflix on Friday, while the Daily Mail reports BBC iPlayer recently took down the first series of Little Britain that had been available. A spokesperson for the BBC told the publication: "Theres a lot of historical programming available on BBC iPlayer, which we regularly review. Times have changed since Little Britain first aired so it is not currently available on BBC iPlayer." Matt Lucas and David Walliams pose during the Brexit Comedy Show by Radio 4 at Shaw Theatre on October 27, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Dave J Hogan/Getty Images) Lucas performed in blackface to portray Precious Little in Come Fly With Me, while Walliams also used blackface to play a black woman, Desiree DeVere, in Little Britain. Other characters featured in Little Britain included Lucas as Ting Tong, a "Thai bride", and Walliams as mental health patient, Anne. Little Britain is no longer on BritBox, the video subscription service created by the BBC and ITV, while Come Fly With Me has not been available on the platform for six months. A statement shared to Yahoo UK from BritBox read: "Times have changed since Little Britain first aired, so it is not currently available on BritBox." Matt Lucas and David Walliams played ethnic minority characters on their shows as well as members of other marginalised groups. (Photo by Jo Hale/Getty Images) Back in 2017, Lucas expressed regret in the approach the show had made to imitating minority groups. He told the Big Issue: If I could go back and do Little Britain again, I wouldnt make those jokes about transvestites. I wouldnt play black characters. Basically, I wouldnt make that show now. It would upset people. A TV return for Little Britain was hinted at during the beginning of the year, with Lucas suggesting certain characters would be retired to "reflect how we all are now". The show did make a comeback for the BBCs Big Night In back in April where the shows more controversial characters were not revived. Christian Cooper, the black man who filmed a disturbing confrontation with white dog walker Amy Cooper in Central Park last month, says the incident pulled the pin on the race grenade that later exploded nationwide following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Harvard graduate Christian, 57, had been bird watching in an area of the park known as The Ramble over the Memorial Day weekend when he encountered Amy Cooper walking her dog unleashed, against park rules. After pointing out to Cooper that dogs must be leashed in area at all times to protect wildlife habitats, she quickly became irate, with the 41-year-old hysterically dialing 911, wailing into her cell phone that an African American man is threatening my life. Speaking to Gail King as part of CBS upcoming special on the state of policing in the US on Tuesday, Christian said his decision to start filming Cooper had nothing to do with race at first, but what transpired would go on to fuel a national conversation about the centuries-long history of racial bias in America. She basically pulled the pin on the race grenade and tried to lob it at me, Christian told the network. She was going to tap into a deep, deep, dark vein of racism and racial bias that runs through this country and has done for centuries. Scroll down for video Christian Cooper, the black man who filmed a disturbing confrontation with white dog walker Amy Cooper in Central Park last month, says the incident pulled the pin on the race grenade which would go on to explode 24 hours later after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis Harvard graduate Christian, 57, had been bird watching in an area of the park known as The Ramble over the Memorial Day weekend when he encountered Amy Cooper walking her dog unleashed, against park rules In the hours that followed the videos emergence, outrage over the incident commonly referred to as 'Central Park Karen' rippled out nationwide. The following day, video footage taken by a bystander in Minneapolis surfaced on social media showing white officer Derek Chauvin kneeling down on the neck of George Floyd for eight minutes and 46 seconds before he later died. The unarmed and handcuffed 46-year-old lay face down on a Minneapolis street, gasping for air and groaning for help, before falling deathly silent. The case was reminiscent of the 2014 killing of another African American, Eric Garner, who died after being placed by police in a chokehold while under arrest in New York City. The dying words of both men, 'I cant breathe,' have since become a rallying cry in a global outpouring of rage, drawing crowds by the thousands to the streets demanding justice and reforms to US policing, despite health hazards from the coronavirus pandemic. Christians encounter with Amy Cooper became an integral part of the nationwide unrest, along with the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Speaking to Gail King as part of CBS upcoming special on the state of policing in the US on Tuesday, Christian said his decision to start filming Cooper had nothing to do with race at first, but what transpired would go on to fuel a national conversation about the centuries-long history of racial bias in America The preliminary results of an autopsy on George Floyd have found he died from a combination of heart disease and potential intoxicants in his system that were exacerbated by the restraint placed on him by police officers not by strangulation or asphyxiation Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white cop 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) The birdwatcher would later accept Coopers publicly released apology to him, insisting she isnt a racist and suffered an untimely lapse in judgement, but urged the public to look at the bigger picture of racism that the encounter displayed. I do accept her apology, Christian told The View late last month. I think its a first step. I think shes gotta do some reflection on what happened. It was just a conflict between a birder and a dog walker, and then she took it to a very dark place. I think shes gotta sort of examine why and how that happened. Christian said whether Cooper reacted with malice or not doesnt really matter, rather the underlying current of racism and racial perceptions" she tapped into within a snap-second. Thats what we really have to address; not the specifics of her, but why are we still plagued with that and how do we fix it. She basically pulled the pin on the race grenade and tried to lob it at me, Christian told the network. She was going to tap into a deep, deep, dark vein of racism and racial bias that runs through this country and has done for centuries' Christian Cooper's sister, Melody Cooper, a writer for HBO who also shared the video to social media, said that when she saw the footage, she thought Its personal. I just imagined what happened to Mike Brown or George Floyd happening to him, and I wanted to make sure no other black person would have to go through that kind of weaponization of racism from her, she said. If the cops showed up, they wouldnt have seen his resume or known his job, she said of her high-flying brother, who now works as a biomedical editor for Health Science Communications. This kind of racism can kill people. It couldve killed my brother. Murphy became one of the leaders of a campaign to get jobs for women - taking action against BHP subsidiary Australian Iron and Steel for discrimination - that took 14 years for a landmark legal win and compensation payout in 1994. A graduate of the first year at what is now the Australian Film Television and Radio School alongside well-known directors including Phil Noyce, Gillian Armstrong and Chris Noonan in 1973, she diverted from filmmaking to spend three decades working at Port Kembla steelworks. For a director with a documentary screening at the Sydney Film Festival's virtual edition, Robynne Murphy has an unlikely background. The campaign to get jobs for women at Port Kembla steelworks is detailed in Women of Steel: Robynne Murphy (from left) with Donka Najdovska and Slobodanka Joncevsk in 1986. Credit:Sydney Film Festival "I got quite active in social justice campaigns and the filming and the hard work of trying to raise money for making films went to one side and I just went to the other side," she said. After leaving the last of a dozen jobs at the steelworks, Murphy took on a longstanding passion project: making a documentary about the campaign by mostly migrant women who were effectively locked out of the 20,000-strong workforce at the steelworks. And now she faces an unusual world premiere with the festival streaming films online for the first time from Wednesday until June 21 because of the pandemic. Her film, Women of Steel, is in the $10,000 competition for best Australian documentary. "It's great that the festival is going to be out there for everybody for everybody across Australia," Murphy said. "But on the other hand, I'd love to be sitting there to see how the audience is reacting to the film. That's the downer." CASEVILLE The city of Caseville will carry on with plans to hold a fireworks show this July 4 holiday weekend, but organizers will make a few changes this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The fireworks show is scheduled for Friday, July 3, at dusk. Caseville Chamber of Commerce President Steve Louwers said this years show will be moved from its usual spot near the Caseville break wall to the wooded island just off Main Street near the chamber of commerce office. Louwers said a few thousand people typically crowd the beach to watch the show, so this years show will be relocated to ensure social distancing while still allowing fireworks fans to come and enjoy the display from the comfort of their vehicles. You can watch it sitting in your car, which is good and safe for people, Louwers said. You can watch it behind the Blue Water Inn, you can watch it from The Wooded Island restaurant parking lot. We wont have to worry about any large gatherings. Were going to make sure that doesnt occur. He added the show will be scaled down because the budget is smaller this year, but he assured fireworks fans they will be in for a treat. Its going to be a good show, he said. Were excited about it, and the city council is all for it and theyre excited about it. Its always nice to get support from them. Caseville is not the only lakeside town that will celebrate the holiday with fireworks this year. Port Austin is planning to move ahead with its fireworks display and July 4 parade, according to the Port Austin Area Chamber of Commerce Facebook page. More details will be announced in the coming weeks. Delhi Police Tuesday filed three charge sheets before a court here in cases related to the communal violence in northeast Delhi during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in February. The Crime Branch filed the chargesheets before Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Kumar Rampuri who has put up the matter for further hearing on June 23. It has filed 20 chargesheets till now in cases related to the riots. It was investigating 59 cases related to it. The three chargesheets were filed in connection with the alleged murder of two people -- Mohd Furkan and Deepak -- and violence by a mob at Maujpur Chowk in which anti-CAA protestors and those supporting it resorted to stone pelting, arson, firing and sabotage. According to all the three chargesheets, there was a deep-rooted conspiracy which triggered the communal riot. A web of conspirators, instigators and rioters has been identified and several have been arrested, police said. It has been established during investigation that the riots were not impromptu but were conspired with intent to create communal strife, to malign the image of the country under the garb of democratically opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act, the charge sheets said. The police charged four persons in the murder case of Furkan who was allegedly shot during the riots on February 24. Furkan was present at Kardam Puri area where the rioters were pelting stones and committing arson, police said. According to the chargesheet, Furkan and four others sustained gunshot injuries; 17 police officials also received injuries in heavy stone pelting. Furkan, who ran a corrugated box manufacturing unit in the area, later succumbed to his injuries, it said. The second chargesheet in the murder case of Deepak was filed against four persons for allegedly rioting and lynching him to death near a government dispensary at Kardam Puri. It said that on February 25, communal riots continued at Kardam Puri, behind Ambedkar College, near a government dispensary. The rioters torched vehicles in two parking lots and Deepak, who worked as a battery rickshaw driver, was caught near the dispensary and lynched by them and declared brought dead at GTB Hospital, it said. The third chargesheet was filed against five persons for allegedly resorting to violence when pro-CAA and anti-CAA protestors clashed at Maujpur area on February 24. Shahrukh Pathan, who allegedly brandished his gun and shot at a constable during the riots, was one of the main accused in the case. The allegedly illicit firearm, a 7.65 mm pistol along with two live rounds, was recovered from him, police said. Police further claimed several shots had been fired by him and three empty shells were recovered at the spot. The chargesheet said that initially the protest was peaceful but soon it became violent and led to incidents of stone pelting, brick batting, arson, firing and sabotage from both sides. Several police personnel as well as public persons were injured and it created an atmosphere of fear among the public, it said. The University of Manitoba last week released a report on the overlap between the child welfare system and the youth criminal justice system. The report contains lots of very bleak statistics about the extent of the overlap, the characteristics of kids who are involved in both systems, and the number and types of crimes youth (aged 12-17) are charged with. But the underlying theme of the report is the structural racism in our province and in our country. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion The University of Manitoba last week released a report on the overlap between the child welfare system and the youth criminal justice system. The report contains lots of very bleak statistics about the extent of the overlap, the characteristics of kids who are involved in both systems, and the number and types of crimes youth (aged 12-17) are charged with. But the underlying theme of the report is the structural racism in our province and in our country. The report shows us that about one-third of kids who have been in care of Child and Family Services (CFS) end up charged with a criminal offence as youths. And nearly half of them will have been charged with a crime by the time they are 21 years of age. The province of Manitoba becomes the legal guardian of these children when they come into care. It is hard to fathom how setting this staggering number of children on the path to incarceration is "in their best interests," as laid out in the CFS Act. These children are often left to their own devices to navigate the Manitoba Justice system, from first contact with the Winnipeg Police Service or the RCMP to Legal Aid and through the Manitoba courts. Where is their legal guardian through these processes? While it is tempting to lay the blame for youth becoming involved in the justice system solely on CFS, holding just that one system accountable would be over-simplifying the complex and multi-faceted issues that are the true origin of child welfare and youth criminal justice involvement. Consider that almost 90 per cent of the children in care in Manitoba are Indigenous, and more than 80 per cent of youth incarcerated in Manitoba are Indigenous this is how we know this story is rooted in structural racism. So while there is a critical need for changes to both CFS and the youth criminal justice system, these changes will not affect the root causes of structural racism. As desperately as these changes are needed, they will not be sufficient to address the underlying societal and structural barriers that Indigenous peoples in Manitoba face on a daily basis. For more than 150 years, there have been consistent policies in place that separate Indigenous children from their families and communities: residential schools, then the Sixties Scoop, and now the child welfare system. All of these forms of removal cause irreparable damage and are the basis for many social issues, impacting subsequent generations of children. There is a design and intent to the removal of Indigenous children: it strips them of their identity, their connection to land, their languages, traditions and spirituality. 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. Further evidence of structural racism is found in chronically underfunded prevention and support services in Indigenous communities, the denial of the right to self-govern, and inequitable access to basic human rights and resources, such as clean drinking water and education. Too many Manitoba children are institutionalized from birth through to adulthood. So many of these children are living lives that they are not meant to live. Historically, when First Nations children were born, from the moment they were delivered, midwives would read the birth water and reveal the gifts and talents of that baby. From that moment forward, it was the responsibility of parents, family and community to provide the tools and invest in the children. For children removed from their families, all of this is ripped away. For far too many of them, their trajectory leads them to jail. If Manitoba wants to reduce child welfare involvement, and subsequent youth criminal justice system involvement, then we need to commit to changing policies, systems and structures so that Indigenous peoples are not systematically discriminated against and disenfranchised. We must take action against these long-standing, complex and multi-faceted social and structural factors using innovative, intersectoral approaches and genuine collaboration with Indigenous partners. In the spirit of reconciliation, we owe it to all Manitoba children to ensure they can achieve their full potential. Cora Morgan is First Nations Family Advocate for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. Marni Brownell is a professor in the community health sciences department of the University of Manitoba. SACRAMENTO When California set aside $100 million to launch its first fully online community college, supporters led by then-Gov. Jerry Brown said the school would prepare adults stuck in dead-end careers for the modern workforce. After two years of halting progress, state lawmakers facing a budget disaster and mounting complaints from faculty unions are pushing to scrap the college entirely. Calbright College, the online-only community college, has 526 students who have enrolled in its entry-level courses. Its $20 million budget for the current year works out to $38,000 per student, though the college says its working to rapidly expand. The colleges first president, Heather Hiles, abruptly resigned after less than a year on the job. And the school has struggled to bring on full-time faculty members. Meanwhile, Calbright is sitting on $117 million, largely left over from its startup fund, and would get $17 million more this year under Gov. Gavin Newsoms proposed budget even as the state tries to close a $54.3 billion deficit. Legislators have other ideas. A budget plan worked out last week by Assembly and Senate leaders would eliminate Calbrights funding and use its leftover surplus to save other programs. Lawmakers and the Newsom administration are negotiating on a budget that the Legislature must pass by Monday or go without pay. Faculty unions call Calbright a botched experiment that duplicates the work of traditional community colleges, which serve 2.1 million students and are at risk of steep budget cuts. We would have to say it was a failure, said Jeff Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers, which represents faculty members. We want our local community colleges to do it, and they can do it. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, he noted, almost every class in every community college has gone online. But Calbright has powerful defenders. Newsoms administration said the pandemic has underscored the need for distancing learning and makes an even more compelling case for Calbright. The governor wants to continue funding for the online school, minus a modest $3 million cut to its budget. One advocate is Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley. He said lawmakers should be accelerating online learning amid soaring unemployment. Asking the California Community Colleges to cannibalize some programs to save others is a choice that I reject, Oakley said in a statement. He also cast Calbright funding in racial-justice terms, saying that a majority of the community college systems students are people of color. Now is not the time to deny educational opportunities to our black and Latinx learners, Oakley said. Legislators say the money for Calbright would be better spent to support campuses serving large student bodies. Under their budget plan, the state would take the $134 million that Newsom proposes to earmark for Calbright and use it to avoid cuts to programs like food pantries for students, part-time faculty salaries and apprenticeship teaching. Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle The nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office wrote in May that Calbright has a very high cost per student, is currently unaccredited and largely duplicates programs at other colleges. Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat who chairs the Budget Committee, said it makes no sense to create a whole new bureaucracy for online learning. He said it makes significantly more sense to use Californias established 114 established community colleges to expand remote learning. The idea itself has merit, Ting said of expanding online learning. But, to me, the way it has been executed has been very inefficient and very costly. Ting said he also has concerns that Calbright has inflated its number of students. For example, the college reports that 526 students have enrolled. But only 66 have completed an entry-level course and advanced in their core subject area. You have a public college and you cant even get accurate enrollment information, Ting said. Thats concerning. Taylor Huckaby, a spokesman for Calbright, said the college began enrolling students less than a year ago, and initially capped enrollment for a few months after it opened in October. He said Calbright aims to enroll an additional 1,000 students by the fall. Thats a somewhat bad-faith argument that continues to come up, Huckaby said of enrollment numbers. Weve been around for a very short period. But critics of Calbright say thats precisely the point it takes a long time to build a new college from scratch and receive accreditation. Freitas, the California Federation of Teachers president, said existing community colleges could expand distance learning without having to hire an entire administrative team. At a fraction of that cost, our current community colleges could do that, he said. Its competing against our local community college as opposed to investing. Calbright has also drawn scrutiny over its expenses. Its first CEO, Hiles, who previously worked as a spokeswoman on Newsoms 2003 San Francisco mayoral campaign, received a base salary of $385,000 and a $10,000 annual car allowance. Hiles resigned in January, after an 11-month tenure that brought controversy including a no-bid contract she pushed for a friend and politically connected executive recruiter. The colleges interim president, Ajita Talwalker Menon, earns substantially less, about $258,000 per year. Calbright also has three deans and an executive team. There are currently two full-time faculty members on contract and nine part-time instructors. Huckaby said the college plans to hire seven faculty members this summer, pending approval from the colleges board. He said Calbright aims to enroll 5,600 students by 2023. Calbright has also spent heavily to protect its image at the Capitol in Sacramento. According to disclosure forms, the college has spent more than $141,000 on contract lobbyists since early 2019. It also recently hired a public-relations firm, at $240,000 per year. Legislators have long been skeptical of the online-only school and initially resisted Browns proposal to fund the college in 2018. The former governor won that fight, despite opposition from faculty unions. The college also has a limited curriculum. Students must enter one of three program pathways: medical coding, information technology and cybersecurity. Programs are designed to teach students competency in a skill set, not necessarily to help them obtain a specific degree, though Calbright says it can be a bridge to connect students to traditional colleges. The college was supposed to follow an aggressive timeline and quickly develop a new approach to online learning. Legislators say theyre done with the experiment. It seems like this could be done smarter, Ting said. Theres no question. Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner The origin of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is not natural, Norwegian scientist Birger Srensen has claimed. The co-author of the British-Norwegian study indicated in the "Quarterly Review of Biophysics" was backed by Richard Dearlove, the former head of Britain's MI6. Dearlove stated that he thinks the novel coronavirus pandemic could have originated as an accident, with the virus escaping from a lab in China. According to the researchers, they have detected clues alluding that key elements were included in the coronavirus' genetic sequence. However, the published study does not seem to tell that the inserts were man-made. It could have been transmitted from a Wuhan lab in China during an accident, the former leader of Britain's foreign intelligence service said to The Telegraph. According to the chief of MI6 from 1999 to 2004, he proposed that a biosecurity malfunction could have caused the virus fleeing during a gene-splicing experiment on bat coronaviruses, Taiwan News reported. The roots of the coronavirus may not come from a Wuhan wet market, wherein it had initially been proposed that it was transmitted from bats to humans. The debatable study by British and Norwegian researchers includes John Fredrik Moxnes, a chief scientific adviser to the Norwegian military, and Prof. Angus Dalgleish of St. George's at the University of London. The authors discovered that the coronavirus' spike protein consists of seemingly artificially inserted sequences. Srensen spoke to the NRK, "The inserted sequences should never have been published. Had it been today, it would never have happened. It was a big mistake the Chinese made. The inserted sequences have a functionality that we describe. We explain why they are essential. But the Chinese pointed to them first." Also Read: Coronavirus Weaker? Doctor Claims COVID-19 is Becoming Less Lethal The coronavirus had been engineered to be tethered to humans, according to the researchers. They said it was barely mutated since humans contracted it, alluding that the virus was already fully-adjusted to humans. Prior to its publishing, the research had been denied by numerous journals and revised many times to clear out alleging claims about China. Early co-author John Fredrik Moxnes, a chief scientific adviser to the military in Norway, apparently requested for his name to be eliminated. The scientific discovery is wont to elevate the likelihood of China to compensate for the fatalities and economic turmoil wreaked upon the globe. This coincides with Beijing tackling rising pressure to accurately demonstrate how the coronavirus first prevailed in late 2019. The study further illustrated the rationale for the creation of Biovacc-19, a potential vaccine for the coronavirus undergoing advanced pre-clinical development. Srensen stated that the coronavirus has components that vary much from SARS and have not been detected in nature before. China and the US have joined forces for several years. Srensen declared that both nations engage in "gain of function" studies. This is wherein the transmissibility of potential pandemic pathogens or pathogenicity can be improved in order for them to be more perceptible. Rumors have endured for months that the coronavirus was developed in Wuhan's advanced virology laboratory. Related Article: COVID-19 Does Not Spread Easily From Contaminated Surfaces or Animals @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. As part of measures to fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sefwi Wiawso branch of the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) has put in place some measures to protect clients who visit the office. Mr. Robert Aklamanu, the Municipal Manager, who disclosed this to the media, said the necessary protocols like social distancing, washing of hands with soap under running water, wearing of nose masks and the use of hand sanitizers were put in place at the office. He said management had also put stringent safety measures in place to protect customers and staff of DVLA. The number of workers and clients that attend the office have been reduced and compulsory wearing of nose masks before an officer attends to a client were being practiced by the authorities. We have also provided enough thermometer guns to check the temperature of every staff or client before entering the office, he added. Mr. Aklamanu acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic had greatly affected their work, stressing that, before the COVID-19, they used to go out to register and educate drivers, but now it was not possible to embark on such programmes, resulting in low turnout. He noted that the measures put in place by the DVLA were clear indications that they cared about their staff and clients. He in this regard advised Ghanaians especially drivers to adhere to the safety protocols by reducing the number of passengers they carry in their vehicles, wear nose and face masks, regularly use hand sanitizers as well as ensure passengers wore their nose masks. 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 woman who a judge said should have known better pleaded guilty Monday to helping people cash stolen cheques. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us A woman who a judge said should have known better pleaded guilty Monday to helping people cash stolen cheques. Edlyn Blacksmith, 42, pleaded guilty in a Brandon courtroom to possession of property obtained by crime and fraud under $5,000. Crown attorney Diedre Badcock told the court that in March 2019 the landlord for a house on College Avenue noticed during a check that the property was broken into while the renter was out of the country. Police arrived and found clear evidence of a break and enter, including damage to the back door. In May 2019, the renter, who was extremely upset, contacted police to say two cheques he had left blank had been cashed, which he believed were taken during the break-in. In total, more than $7,000 was taken from his account, Badcock said. The renter provided his banking information to police, who found that both cheques had been deposited into the same account. In August, a co-accused was arrested and charged. He denied signing the cheques, but admitted the signature on them looked like his. Police came into contact with Blacksmith after discovering the money was deposited into her bank account, Badcock said. She agreed to talk to police right away and told them she cashed the cheques for a friend who didnt have a bank account. In exchange, she received payment of approximately $950, a few hundred dollars at a time. Badcock called the charges "all too common" in Brandon. "These kinds of files are unfortunately the kind that actually takes a lot of resources away from police on the street; they are very involved in terms of writing production orders, compiling different banking information and really putting together a whole bunch of different puzzle pieces to try and figure out what occurred here," she said. While Badcock said Blacksmith should be given some credit for co-operating with police, she suggested a fine, period of probation and an order to pay back the money as a sentence for the crimes. Defence lawyer Jennifer Janssens said Blacksmith was ready and willing to co-operate with police from Day 1 of the investigation and expressed remorse. She admits it was a bad decision and immediately took responsibility. Spring 2019 was a "bad time" for Blacksmith, Janssens said, but Blacksmith takes full accountability for it. Janssens asked for a sentence of probation and for Blacksmith to have to pay back the $950 she received from the crimes. "She is a full-time single mother, income is from social assistance and essentially everything goes to her children," Janssens said. Judge Donovan Dvorak said cheque fraud is something the court sees too often. "It seems to me that people, knowing better, get a hold of a stolen cheque, or cheques, and its looked on as perhaps free money, and Ms. Blacksmith and individuals of like-mind need to understand that this isnt a free ride that you get the money and then come to court and say Well, Ill pay it back," Dvorak said. He sentenced her to a total fine of $1,000 to be paid or worked off over the course of two years. She was also sentenced to a year of probation and to pay back the $950 she received from the scheme. dmay@brandonsun.com Twitter: @DrewMay_ (CNN) After a weekend of massive peaceful protests around the country, White House officials are currently deliberating a plan for President Donald Trump to address the nation this week on issues related to race and national unity, as Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson hinted in an interview with CNN on Sunday and a senior administration official said was under serious consideration. Many allies of the President spent the last week distraught as they watched Trump fumble his response to the police killing of George Floyd, only to follow his perceived silence on the resulting racial tensions with a federal law enforcement crackdown on the protesters near his fortified doorstep. Aides and allies were not comforted by the backlash over his decision to have federal officers aggressively clear Lafayette Park in front of the White House to facilitate a widely-panned attempt at a photo-op in front of St. John's Church. And the rest of the week continued on a downward spiral, as protests across the country grew and Trump faced an onslaught of well-known conservatives, generals and former Trump administration officials who excoriated his response and called for new leadership come November. Carson suggested during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" that the President this week would further address Floyd's killing and the tensions it exposed. "I believe you're going to be hearing from the President this week on this topic in some detail. And I would ask you maybe to reserve judgment until after that time," Carson said. Despite the belief by many aides and allies that this was one of the worst weeks of Trump's tenure, a source close to the White House said there has been a more optimistic shift in the last two days. The shocking job numbers released Friday showing a better-than-expected picture kicked off the weekend, and while the White House has struggled to come up with any sort of consistent messaging in response to Floyd's death while in police custody, and the movement it touched off, officials are starting the week with new resolve and new talking points. Allies and advisers believe that the lack of violence over the weekend allows the President to double down on his "law and order" message, painting the relative calm as a direct result of his push for "domination" in the streets, a source close to the White House told CNN. Additionally, some in and around the White House now believe they were given a gift by protesters over the weekend, as chants of "defund the police" permeated the streets. This source said there are plans to link Democrats to this effort in the hope of siphoning off more moderate voters who may view it as extreme. Trump spent Sunday morning linking former Vice President Joe Biden to the "defund the police" movement, and his campaign has already begun to hammer Biden and other Democrats over what the President's team has tried to frame as their tolerance of destruction and lawlessness. "Defund the Police" is the push by some activists for a sizable chunk of a city's police budget to instead be invested in communities, especially marginalized ones where much of the policing occurs. This story was first published on CNN.com, "White House is considering a Trump speech to the nation on race and unity." Herders and officials say goats that produce cashmere wool are being pushed out of grazing lands in the sensitive area. The world is heading for a shortage of the highly prized and super-soft cashmere wool as pashmina goats that live on the roof of the world are caught up in the fractious border dispute between nuclear neighbours India and China. Wool from pashmina goats reared by nomads in the inhospitable high-altitude cold desert region of Ladakh a federal territory in India is the most expensive and coveted cashmere in the world. But the shaggy creatures that provide the wool are being pushed out of their grazing lands in the confrontation between the worlds two most populous nations, causing the death of tens of thousands of kids this season, locals and officials said. In about three years, when the newborn goats would have started yielding pashmina, well see a significant drop in production, Sonam Tsering of the All Changtang Pashmina Growers Cooperative Marketing Society told the AFP news agency. A Changpa child sits near pashmina goats in a nomadic camp near Korzok village in Ladakhs Leh district [File: Noemi Cassanelli/AFP] There have been numerous face-offs and skirmishes between Chinese and Indian soldiers over their 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) frontier, which has never been properly demarcated. The latest is concentrated in the Ladakh region, just opposite Tibet, with Indian officials claiming Chinese troops overstepped the boundary in recent weeks. The alleged movements came after military face-offs at the eastern part of the border near Sikkim in May. Newborns dead Some traditional grazing land is lost to China each year, Tsering said. But this year, even the main winter grazing areas near KakJung, Tum Tselay, Chumar, Damchok and Korzok are out of bounds amid the heightened tensions, he added. Its devastating. The PLA [Chinas Peoples Liberation Army] used to encroach into our side by the metres, but this time they have come inside several kilometres, said Jurmet, a former elected official with only one name. It was breeding season for the goats. Around 85 percent of their newborns died this year because large herds were pushed out into the cold from the grazing lands [in February], he told AFP over the phone from Leh, the regions capital city. Tsering said Indian soldiers were blocking the animals from entering areas deemed as sensitive, while herders told him the Chinese army was pushing Tibetan nomads into their grazing areas. Half a dozen residents involved with goat herding who spoke to AFP said until a few years ago, they would cross the frozen Indus river for grazing during the winter, areas now being encroached by China. Meanwhile, communicating with the herders whose satellite phones provided by Indian officials have been withdrawn in recent years has become difficult, said Jurmet. Vital handicrafts industry The huge number of deaths in the tens of thousands according to a local Indian official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity could devastate the sector in the coming years. A pashmina goat out to pasture near Durbuk village between Chang La mountain pass and Tangste in Ladakh [File: Noemi Cassanelli/AFP] The goats yield some 50 tonnes of the finest and most expensive feather-light cashmere wool each year, supporting a vital handicrafts industry in the Himalayan region of Kashmir that employs thousands of people. Most of the wool is woven into exquisite shawls sold the world over from luxury store Harrods in London to the Dubai Mall in the United Arab Emirates; one shawl can cost up to $800. More than 1,000 families of nomadic Changpa herders roam the vast Changtang Plateau at an altitude of more than 5,000 metres (16,400 feet), grazing some 300,000 pashmina goats, black yaks and horses through the summer months. They move to the slightly lower-altitude grazing lands straddling Tibet and along the mighty Indus river during the harsh winter months of December to February when temperatures drop up to minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit). The military tensions are the latest blow for the herders, who are already reeling from the impact of climate change, which has made winters harsher and summers drier. Some have even abandoned their generations-long way of life to migrate to towns in Ladakh in search of other sources of income. A FIFO worker has provided a raw account of what life is like working in his industry and revealed the mental health struggles that forced him to quit his job completely. Gold Coast father Jerra Rowe said he had worked on mining projects for the past 10 years across Queensland and Western Australia. But after the birth of his son he said he started suffering from homesickness, depression and anxiety each time he had to leave his family. A FIFO worker has provided a raw account of his life in the industry - and revealed how the struggle of having a young family forced him to quit his job Sharing his story on TikTok, Mr Rowe said he felt he had to keep going to provide for his young family but the emotional toll of each stint took too much of a toll. 'I worked fly-in fly-out for 10 years but after my son was born I started to suffer from anxiety and depression when flying back to work,' he said. 'It nearly broke me so I had no choice but to quit - I've never felt so much relief.' In an emotionally-charged montage he said he now gets to see his son every day after starting a new job as an electrical supervisor 15 minutes away from his home at the Gold Coast's Wet'n'Wild water park. 'I'm not the best talker but luckily I manned up and spoke about how I was feeling,' he said. 'You feel you have a responsibility to provide a good life financially for your family but is it at a cost mentally?' The video has gone viral with 39,00 shares since being posted on the social media platform, with many other FIFO workers commenting about the pain of having to leave home to do their job. He said he felt he had to keep going to work as a fly-in fly-out worker to provide for young family but the emotional toll of leaving his baby son soon became overbearing In an emotionally-charged montage he said he now gets to see his son every day after starting a new job as an electrical supervisor 15 minutes away from his home 'I wish [I could quit] but with bills and five kids and one on the way I can't stop but work,' one person wrote. 'The youngest cries when I leave and tries to hold my legs - it breaks me.' 'Brother I have never felt depressed or anxious until my daughter was born while I worked as a FIFO,' another said. 'I lasted one swing back and have gone home happy ever since.' A brave surfer who fought off a monster shark as it mauled his friend to death is having to get trauma counselling due to the horrific experience. Robin 'Rob' Pedretti, 60, had his leg viciously attacked while surfing at Salt Beach near Kingscliff in far northern New South Wales on Sunday. The retired tradie from the Gold Coast died on the beach from his injuries a short time later. His mate, Frank Schlee, along with another Gold Coast surfer, Mark Hayes, risked their own lives to fight off the shark which circled them as they dragged a conscious Mr Pedretti back to shore. Mr Hayes was so shaken by the scary ordeal he has since had to seek counselling for the trauma. Scroll down for video Rob Pedretti's heartbroken family released this photo of the experienced surfer whose life was tragically cut short in a shark attack on Sunday The ocean was retired tiler Rob Pedretti's second home where he surfed on a daily basis 'I saw the whole thing and it was a pretty horrendous thing that happened,' he told the Courier Mail. 'It could have been all of us either one of us could have died. It was a female shark and she wasn't letting us go.' Mr Hayes knows he is lucky to be alive and thinks the 3.5metre shark was not getting away without a bite. He said he expected others to help him if he was struggling in the same situation. 'In that situation, unfortunately there's not much you can do. It was a terribly sad outcome,' he said. Friend Mr Hayes, Keith Parsons, said he was 'still struggling as expected' but they all thought he was a hero. Mr Schlee is still processing the horrific tragedy and has declined talking to the media. Surfers and friends of Mr Pedretti gathered at his favourite surfing break at Tugan on Monday to mourn the 'gentle giant', where they insisted he wouldn't want the three metre predator to be culled. As mates gathered at Tugan to remember Mr Pedretti, tributes were also laid at the beach south of the border where he spent his final moments. Rob Pedretti (pictured) travelled the world chasing waves. He's pictured enjoying life in Indonesia, one of his favourite destinations A jet ski rider monitors the movements of a massive shark lurking close to shore near where a surfer was mauled to death near Kingscliff on Sunday morning 'He was everyone's mate. He loved surfing and he loved life,' Craig Tulloch told reporters on Monday. 'Loved surfing, loved life. He was starting to enjoy life in retirement.' Keith Parsons added: 'Great heart. So gentle. Just one of the gentle souls.' His friends are adamant he wouldn't want the shark to be culled. 'No, not at all. He'd be angry with it though,' Mr Tulloch said. 'We're in the shark's waters,' 'You jump over a fence and there's a dog in the backyard wanting to attack you, then it's your choice isn't it?' Police plan to recognise the two surfers for their brave and heroic actions at a later date. 'The actions of the two surfers involved yesterday were extraordinary in the circumstances,' Detective Inspector Matt Kehoe said on Monday. Rob Pedretti (pictured) is the third fatal shark victim in Australia so far this year Several surfers rushed to help the man fight the shark off before he was dragged to shore. Pictured are emergency service at the harrowing scene 'They put themselves at great personal risk and it certainly warrants recognition.' Well-known local surfing identity Nev Hyman expressed his shock over the fatal attack south of the border, initially unaware it was his good friend Mr Pedretti. 'He was one of the many people who lived and breathed surfing, we love it more than anything, apart from our loved ones,' Mr Hyman told the Gold Coast Bulletin. 'There is no rhyme or reason to it. Rob didn't do anything wrong and the shark didn't either.' The Palm Beach Boardriders Facebook page was flooded with tributes, where he was remembered as a real gentleman who was always up for a chat. 'He was a nice bloke who had big chiny smile and never hurt a fly. So sad,' one man wrote. Another added: 'He was one of the good ones.' It was confirmed by Surf Life Saving NSW on Tuesday morning that all beaches between Kingscliff and Cabarita have been reopened. A police boat circled the massive predator before it vanished from the vicinity Tributes in memory of shark attack victim Rob Pedretti were laid at Salt Beach on Monday The three-metre great white shark remains at large after escaping a widespread police hunt following the fatal attack. Helicopters, jet skies and drones scoured the ocean from the water and air to locate the shark responsible for the mauling. Extraordinary footage shows jet skis and a police boat following the massive predator lurking close to shore before it vanished from the vicinity almost three hours after the fatal attack. Police had been given authority to capture or kill the shark before it disappeared, which has since been revoked. 'Under the Department of Primary Industry's shark Incident response protocols, permission may be granted to destroy the shark, if it is considered an ongoing threat to human life,' a NSW Police statement read. Shark attack victim Rob Pedretti (pictured) has been remembered by the Gold Coast surfing community as a real gentleman who loved to chat The 60-year-old man was surfing at Salt Beach near Kingscliff when his leg was bitten off by a three-metre shark (pictured) about 10.40am Sunday 'Due to concerns that the shark had to be fought off by other board-riders, and that it remained in the vicinity for several hours after the attack, police were granted permission to destroy the shark. 'Police and local rescue helicopter crews monitored the area for some hours; however, the shark left the vicinity about 1.15 pm and has not been seen since.' No police firearm was discharged in the search. It's the third fatal shark attack in Australia this year, following the death of Gary Johnson, 57, on Western Australia's south coast in January and Zachary Robba in Central Queensland in April. It's five years since the last fatal shark attack in northern NSW when Tadashi Nakahara was killed while surfing at Ballina's Shelly Beach. A memorial paddle-out will be held to celebrate Mr Pedretti's life at Tugun this weekend. Britain's Prince Andrew has offered on "three occasions" to be a witness in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case, according to a statement from Andrew's lawyers. It comes after a US prosecutor claimed Andrew had provided "zero cooperation" with FBI officials and reports emerged that the US had made a mutual legal assistance request to the UK to try to obtain his testimony. But the prince's representatives suggested the US Department of Justice was seeking publicity rather than accepting the offer of help. Andrew, known in Britain as the Duke of York, has been heavily criticised for his friendship with Epstein. He has said he did not witness suspicious behaviour during visits to Epstein's homes. Andrew's legal team has hit back at allegations from the US prosecutor in charge of the investigation into Epstein that the prince had provided "zero co-operation" to the Department of Justice (DoJ). The legal team said: "The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DoJ. "Unfortunately, the DoJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the duke has offered zero cooperation. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered." Andrew stepped away from royal duties last year following a widely criticised BBC interview about his relationship with Epstein, who took his own life in a US jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy. The prince told BBC 'Newsnight' he first met the financier through "his girlfriend back in 1999". But in March 2011, his then-private secretary Alastair Watson wrote to 'The Times' saying Andrew met Epstein in the "early 1990s". Andrew later said he saw Epstein "infrequently", adding "probably no more than only once or twice a year". But the prince and Ghislaine Maxwell were seen on holiday with Epstein at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida in 2000. Epstein and Ms Maxwell attend a party at Windsor Castle hosted by the queen to mark Andrew's 40th birthday, the princess royal's 50th, the queen mother's 100th and Princess Margaret's 70th. In 2008, Epstein admitted to prostituting minors and is sentenced to 18 months in prison. Epstein was released from jail in 2010. Andrew was photographed with him in New York's Central Park. Footage emerged years later, reportedly shot on December 6, 2010, showing him inside Epstein's Manhattan mansion, looking out from a large door. Then in 2011, Andrew quit his role as UK trade envoy after the fallout from the Central Park photos. In 2015, Buckingham Palace denied Andrew had committed any impropriety after he was named in US court documents related to Epstein. A woman, later named in reports as Virginia Roberts, alleged in papers filed in Florida that she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, under the age of consent in the state. The claims against Andrew were struck from US civil court records following a federal judge's ruling. Ms Roberts, also known as Virginia Giuffre, claims to have had sex with Andrew "three times, including one orgy", with the first encounter allegedly taking place in Ms Maxwell's London townhouse in 2001. She claims to have had sex with Andrew on two more occasions, at Epstein's New York home and at an "orgy" on his private island. Andrew denies the claims. Brussels, 8 May 2020 (SPS) - Speeding up the implementation of the United Nations resolutions linked in particular to the organization of a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara is the sole guarantor of the respect of the Sahrawi people rights, said legal international experts. In a declaration following a virtual training day organized by the Sahrawi representation in Europe and in the European Union (EU), entitled "Western Sahara and the role of international human rights mechanisms," activists and experts under international law stressed that enlarging the MINURSO mandate to monitoring of human rights and the organization of a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara, is "the only guarantor of the respect of the human rights of the Sahrawi people and the end of their suffering which lasted more than 45 years due to the Moroccan military occupation." The authors of the Declaration called on the Moroccan government to respond to the appeal launched by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to release the Sahrawi prisoners, in particular those having health issues, prisoners of conscience and political prisoners who are daily exposed to Covid-19 without the benefit of care outside the prisons. The day has been an opportunity to listen to testimonies which helped to identify the "most glaring" aspects of human rights issues in the occupied Sahrawi territories in general and that of the Sahrawi prisoners in particular. (SPS) 062/SPS/APS Attorney General William Barr said that the U.S. Secret Service told Donald Trump to go to a secure part of the White House as large protests unfolded outside, contradicting the presidents account of what happened. Things were so bad that the Secret Service recommended that the president go down to the bunker, Barr said Monday evening in an interview on Fox News. We cant have that in our country. The opposing versions of what occurred center on the night of May 31, as demonstrations over the death of George Floyd had spread to the capital. Trump last week denied going to the bunker for his safety. Well, that was a false report, Trump said Wednesday on Brian Kilmeades Fox News Radio show. I was there for a tiny, little short period of time. It was much more for an inspection. On the previous Friday night, demonstrators skirmished with the U.S. Secret Service in Lafayette Square outside the White House. Floyd, an African-American Minneapolis man, had died in police custody on May 25. The clashes occurred alongside an outer ring of temporary fencing set up along the edge of the park, leading to six arrests and multiple injuries among the agencys personnel, the Secret Service said. Barr said that when a crowd of protesters was forcibly cleared from the park last Monday to make way for Trump to pose for photos outside St. Johns Church, we were reacting to three days of extremely violent demonstrations right across from the White House. A lot of injuries to police officers. Arson. Barr, a longtime advocate of a muscular presidency, played a key role in the removal of the protesters, who were demonstrating peacefully. He stood in the square as police in riot gear prepared to move against them. He said that some of the demonstrators were throwing rocks and bottles, although that wasnt seen on video. The clearance of Lafayette Square, and Trumps threat to send federal troops to cities and states to quell unrest touched off widespread criticism, including from Jim Mattis, his former Defense secretary and a retired Marine general. Japan News-Yomiuri A natural phenomenon called the "dragon's eye," which heralds the arrival of spring, can now be seen at a pond near the peak of 1,613-meter Mt. Hachimantai on the border between Iwate and Akita prefectures in Japan.The phenomenon is named after the landscape, which is believed to resemble the eye of a dragon. The snow that accumulated around the edges of Kagaminuma pond, which has a diameter of about 50 meters, thawed while the center remains frozen.In recent years, photos posted on social media have spurred more amateur photographers and climbers to visit the place. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend: Institutional reforms and opening up of various sectors of the economy of Uzbekistan under presidency of Shavkat Mirziyoyev in recent years have been noticed globally, Ambassador of India in Uzbekistan Shri Santosh Jha told Trend. Santosh Jha said that these changes created new boundless opportunities for cooperation in a wide range of areas. He added that India welcomes these positive developments and intends to strengthen bilateral cooperation, including in ways that can be conducive to further growth and prosperity of Uzbekistan. Both countries have strong interest in intensifying ties in all areas contributing to our respective economic development. Stronger trade and investment cooperation and building of infrastructure will therefore remain a high priority. Both sides are engaged in negotiations for finalizing a Preferential Trade Agreement and a Bilateral Investment Treaty with a view to boost our trade and investment relationship, noted the ambassador. Jha said that India has offered a concessional line of credit to Uzbekistan of $1 billion to support social and economic infrastructure development in Uzbekistan. So far, the two sides have identified four projects worth $450 million for implementation. These include road projects, urban infrastructure projects and IT and computer education. Promoting connectivity, both terrestrial and air cargo, are an important priority area. India has also proposed implementation of Quick Impact Projects on a grant basis in Uzbekistan to support community development in Uzbekistan which can bring quick and direct benefit to ordinary people in relatively backward areas of the country, stated Jha. The ambassador stressed that India organized the first ever defense-industrial workshop in Tashkent to promote joint ventures and other industrial cooperation in September 2019. We are also seeking to expand our defense-industrial cooperation. To support these efforts and to enable Uzbekistan to procure defense equipment aimed at modernization of its forces, India has offered a concessional line of credit of $40 million to Uzbekistan. We also are seeking to support training and capacity building efforts of various security agencies in Uzbekistan, said Jha. Furthermore, the ambassador noted that the sides continue to promote close cultural ties between the countries through various programs, including granting educational scholarships and organization of cultural events through Indian Cultural Centers in Uzbekistan. We also have plans to organize Days of Indian Culture in Uzbekistan and also to organize a Youth Festival, which have been delayed due to the current COVID pandemic and will be held as soon as the situation with the pandemic improves. We hope that these events would further strengthen our strong cultural and historical links, advance cooperation in cultural sphere and promote close people-to-people contacts, he pointed out. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini MIAMI, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Cansortium Inc. (CSE: TIUM.U) (OTCQB: CNTMF) ("Cansortium" or the "Company") announced today the issuance of common shares to its debentureholders in connection with obtaining their consent to the Company's sale of its non-core assets in Canada (the "Transaction"). The Company is issuing an aggregate of 1,492,854 common shares at a deemed price of U.S.$0.385 per share to debentureholders pro rata based on the principal amount of the debentures held. Holders representing over 99% of the principal amount of the debentures responded and consented to the Transaction. Previously, on May 23, 2019, the Company had completed a U.S.$27,144,000 private placement of convertible debentures governed by a secured trust indenture entered into among, inter alios, the Company and Capital Transfer Agency, ULC, as trustee for the debentureholders; and it was pursuant to such indenture that the Company obtained consent from debentureholders for the Transaction, in exchange for the issuance of shares. 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/ Palestinians send mediators response to the US plan, which endorses Israel annexing parts of the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Authority (PA) says it has sent international mediators a counterproposal to United States President Donald Trumps Middle East plan, proposing the establishment of a demilitarised and sovereign Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. In a news conference with foreign journalists on Tuesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the proposal was submitted to the Quartet, an international body made up of the United Nations, the European Union, the US and Russia that is tasked with mediating peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian proposal seeks to create a sovereign Palestinian state, independent and demilitarised, with East Jerusalem as its capital. It also leaves the door open to border modifications between the proposed state and Israel, as well as exchanges of land equal in size and volume and in value one to one, according to Shtayyeh. No other details were immediately available. The Palestinian proposal came as a response to Trumps controversial plan that gives a green light for Israel to annex large swaths of the occupied West Bank, including illegal settlements, and the Jordan Valley. Unveiled in late January, Trumps plan proposed the establishment of a demilitarised Palestinian state on the remaining patchwork of disjointed parts of the Palestinian territories without East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of their state. The Palestinians rejected Trumps plan as utterly biased in favour of Israel and threatened to withdraw from the Oslo Accords. The Palestinian leadership had already cut ties with the Trump administration in 2017 over its pro-Israel stance, including its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the relocation of the US embassy there in May 2018. The planned Israeli annexation would deprive Palestinians of key agricultural land and water resources, especially in the Jordan Valley region. It would also effectively kill the two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict that was based on the idea of land for peace. Shtayyeh warned that if the Israeli government moved ahead with the planned annexation, the Palestinian government will issue an announcement to establish a constitution for the [intended] state and establish a founding council to function in the place of Parliament. Wasel Abu Yousef, senior leader and member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), described Tuesdays announcement as part of several steps the Palestinian leadership is working on, such as achieving Palestinian unity, boycotting Israeli products and pressing ahead with war crimes charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court ( ICC) for its war on Gaza in 2014. These efforts, he told Al Jazeera, were aimed at countering both Israeli and US policies designed to undermine the Palestinian right to an independent state and the right of return of Palestinian refugees who were forcibly expelled from their homes and towns when Israel was founded in 1948. Abu Yousef said the Palestinian leadership has no other choice but to confront the US and Israeli objectives to deny Palestinians their rights and reject the current peace proposals that fall far short of the Palestinians demands. No Palestinian leader can agree to the American and Israeli conditions to give up the right or return of Palestinian refugees, agreeing to the annexation of Jerusalem or allowing Israel to annex parts of the West Bank where it had built its illegal Jewish settlements, he said. Follow Ali Younes on Twitter: @Ali_reports A revival in manufacturing across the world holds the key to the mid-term recovery of oil and gas markets, with consumer demand likely to lag as the energy industry begins to recover from the twin shocks of the Covid-19 crisis and the resulting demand crash. Participating in the latest online Adipec Energy Dialogue, Rachel Ziemba, an economic and political risk expert and Founder of Ziemba Insights, said the early signs from China, the first major economy to exit from the Covid-19-induced lockdown, are that manufacturing has bounced back more than consumption and that trend could be repeated in other countries. "It is notable that the Covid-19 crisis and the associated economic and energy crisis has really been the first to blow out the global consumer," Ziemba said. "2008 was much more of a hit to the financial sector and manufacturing. This time it is the reverse. The big question is how quickly consumer demand will come back." Ziemba added it could be well into 2021 before oil and gas markets get to volumes approaching where the industry was at the end of 2019. Looking at the trends likely to impact the recovery of oil markets in the mid-term, Ziemba said the Opec Plus group of producers has had some success in tightening the market. But a question mark hangs over how long supply can be constrained. "The challenge is that a few countries, those that are most economically strapped and not eligible for debt relief, are not complying in full and some have barely reduced production," Ziemba said. "Despite pressure from the likes of Saudi Arabia and Russia, it is going to be very difficult for them to comply because these are countries that had big fiscal deficits when oil was $70 a barrel. "The other challenge is that we are starting to see parts of the US shale industry starting to reverse shut ins. We are also seeing more rig activity after many weeks of decline. In a price range of mid-30s into a 40 range, there will be more entities that can make some money and the risk is that it puts even more pressure on Opec Plus. So, I do think the most likely scenario is a rolling over and extension of the supply cuts." Access to credit, to support economic recovery, is an additional challenge for indebted oil producing countries, which are having to deal with multiple shocks at the same time, including sizable outbreaks of the Covid-19 that may or may not be under control. Many of the oil producers that are in a tougher financial position than their rich peers are too wealthy to qualify for debt relief, Ziemba said, heightening social, political and economic risks which could further impact the oil and gas industry. Elsewhere, as oil and gas companies seek for ways to recover, Ziemba said she expects to see some industry consolidation, particularly in the United States with more cash rich entities looking to go into smaller, more speculative areas that are lower cost. She also highlighted the possibility of further job cuts as companies become leaner and decide between boosting commercial reserves, or partnering with governments. Meanwhile, she added she expects to see more National Oil Company enter into partnerships, for example Middle East producers and Asian buyers, which enable greater creativity in payment terms and contracts. The Adipec Energy Dialogue is a series of weekly online thought leadership events created by dmg events, organisers of the annual Abu Dhabi International Exhibition and Conference. Featuring key stakeholders and decision-makers in the oil and gas industry, the dialogues focus on how the industry is evolving and transforming in response to the rapidly changing energy market. Adipec 2020 is projected to attract more than 155,000 energy professionals from 67 countries, including senior decision-makers and energy industry thought leaders, over 2,200 exhibiting companies and 23 national exhibiting pavilions as oil and gas companies convene to share views and best practices to address the long-term impact of the triple challenge of lower oil prices, weaker demand and over supply. Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE; hosted by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc); and supported by the UAE Ministry of Energy & Industry, the Abu Dhabi Chamber, and the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, Adipec is scheduled to take place from November 9 to 11, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec). Energy Dialogue series can be watched at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnFtPtFwMrRkuGUTk4Rh4tA Retired New Jersey Police Officer to Lose University Job for Shooting a Black Teen 26 Years Ago A university in New Jersey said it would not renew the employment contract with a former police officer who killed a black teenager in a shooting 26 years ago, following a petition calling for his firing. In a June 8 statement, Rowan University President Ali Houshmand said that the decision not to reappoint Peter Amico as director of the universitys Office of Emergency Management was made amid the national spotlight on social justice and police matters. Amico, then 29, was a police officer at Glassboro in April 1994 when he responded to a domestic dispute in which 14-year-old Eltarmaine Sanders was chasing his cousin with a knife, according to a New York Times report at that time. Amico, who is white, said that Sanders charged at him with the knife as soon as he arrived on the scene and that he fatally shot the black teenager in self-defense. The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into Sanders killing and found no civil rights violation a year later, noted Houshmand in his statement. A county grand jury also declined to bring any charges against Amico, although eyewitnesses disputed the officers account of what happened. Houshman said Amico has been working with Rowan University since September 2008 as a private contractor. Amico was hired full-time in 2010, a year after he retired from Glassboro police department. At Rowan, he was tasked with preparing and responding to natural disasters and other emergencies. Given the circumstances of Amicos employment prior to serving at the University and the necessarily painstaking evaluation of Rowans institutional commitment to racial justice and equity, Amicos employment will be discontinued, said Houshman, in response to an online petition demanding Rowan to fire Amico, while calling his employment a revolting insult to the Sanders family and to African Americans everywhere. The petition, which came in the wake of nationwide uproar triggered by the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, gained nearly 3,500 supporting signatures from Glassboro community in a week. The past week has seen colleges and school districts reviewing the role of police on their campuses, as many advocate groups urge the institutions to either cut ties with local police departments or dismantle their own police forces. Minneapolis Public Schools became the first to sever its relationship with the citys police department. Meanwhile, in Chicago, teachers union members are also calling for the removal of police in public schools, a demand that has been dismissed by Lori Lightfoot, the citys mayor. A prominent Greens activist has been charged with child sex abuse offences, after allegedly paying to watch live streams of children being abused online. Jonathan Peter Doig, a wannabee Greens MP and one-time challenger for Scott Morrison's seat, was arrested at his Gymea Bay home on Tuesday by AFP officers. Following a lengthy investigation, the 57-year-old has been accused of paying more than $120,000 over ten years for child abuse material. This includes paying for the live-streaming of children being abused in the Philippines, according to The Australian. The climate activist will appear in court on Wednesday charged with numerous offences spanning a decade, including possessing and soliciting child abuse material. Jonathan Peter Doig (pictured) has been charged with three child sex abuse offences, including procuring a child to engage in sexual activity outside Australia Another charge is of procuring a child to engage in sexual activity outside Australia, with police alleging he made numerous payments to people overseas who are known to live-stream child sex abuse. The offences carry maximum sentences of 15 years in prison. Doig, who has posted on social media about making donations to charities in the Philippines, allegedly sent money to numerous people, including minors. His social media pages are littered with pro-environmental causes and petitions, boasting of his greenie credentials. He has even posed with numerous Greens politicians, including former federal Greens leader Richard di Natale and senator Mehreen Faruqi. An active critic of politicians including American president Donald Trump, he regularly posts provocative political content online, including attacking newspapers and the free press. Hoping to become an MP himself, Doig once ran against Mr Morrison for the seat of Cook in New South Wales and is often a candidate in state and federal elections. Doig (pictured, second from left) with Greens councillor Dominic WY Kanak (left), former federal Greens leader Richard di Natale (second from right) and senator Mehreen Faruqi (right) His grandfather served two terms as a Liberal MP in Burwood, but after failed attempts to get into parliament, Doig became a software engineer. Regularly attending protests across Sydney, Doig is a proud supporter of Extinction Rebellion, regularly criticising the government and Mr Morrison's stance on coal. His arrest and charges come after the AFP, Department of Home Affairs, and Britain's National Crime Agency began working with anti-child abuse investigators in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw has warned that the dark web - which often hides vile child sex abuse content - has become busier during the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this year, he said he would be willing to name and shame tech companies who block officials from finding the identities of these predators. Several tech giants, including Apple and Facebook, are hoping to enable end-to-end encryption, making it virtually impossible to track a user's activity or identity. Doig (pictured at a climate change protest) is a vocal critic of the government and is often at protests as a member of Extinction Rebellion But the Greens, of which Doig is a member, have been critical of the government's plans to allow national security agencies to access such encrypted data. The move is aimed at targeting online criminals, particularly paedophiles, who can operate on the dark web undetected. 'If Im feeling as though certain companies are not co-operating, we will actually end up outing them and probably damaging their reputation,' Mr Kershaw told the National Press Club in February. 'Thats one of the techniques law enforcement has used before, to say "if youre a company thats going to be obstructionist with law enforcement and not help us out when it comes to protecting our children, then, again, all bets are off".' Indian Country is declaring victory after a federal judge blasted the Trump administration for threatening the sovereignty of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and breaking its promises to the People of the First Light In a series of decisions, Judge Paul L. Friedman unleashed the "trouble" he warned about just a couple of weeks ago. He ordered the Department of the Interior to take yet another look at the tribe's request for a reservation, holding that Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney acted in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner by disapproving the land-into-trust application in one of her first major actions of the Trump era But Friedman wasn't done with the lashing. He said Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt , who is Sweeney's boss, "went back on his word" by ordering the tribe's reservation in Massachusetts to be taken out of trust -- in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic -- after pledging not to do so. "If the land is taken out of trust, then the Mashpee Tribe will lose its sovereignty over the land in its entirety," Friedman wrote in one of three actions he took on Friday. "The total loss of sovereign authority, self-government, and jurisdiction over the land is unquestionably an irreparable harm." "One of the worst written documents I've ever read from any government agency": A federal judge trashed the Trump administration for changing course on tribal homelands policy during the worst public health crisis in decades. #COVID19 #StandWithMashpee https://t.co/cy8S8rfnPA indianz.com (@indianz) May 21, 2020 The development comes less than three weeks after Friedman trashed the Trump administration for changing course on Indian Country homelands policy during the worst public health crisis in decades. It brings major relief to the Mashpee people, whose ancestors helped the first European settlers survive 400 years ago but whose future well-being has been put in doubt by official Washington. The DC District Court righted what would have been a terrible and historic injustice by finding that the Department of the Interior broke the law in attempting to take our land out of trust, Chairman Cedric Cromwell said in a statement on Friday . We will continue to work with the Department of the Interior and fight them if necessary to ensure our land remains in trust. Leaders of the National Congress of American Indians and the United South and Eastern Tribes joined Cromwell in cheering the victory. They called on the Trump administration to stop undermining the sovereignty of a fellow Indian nation. "The Mashpee Wampanoag relationship with the United States is one of political equality, derived from their inherent sovereignty, powers, and authority that long predates the United States," said NCAI President Fawn Sharp. "No federal agency or civil servant has the authority to diminish or in any way undermine that unique political relationship and standing." The Department of the Interior was under no order to take the land out of trust, and so to attempt to rob the Mashpee of their homelands is nothing short of shameful," added President Kirk Francis of USET's Sovereignty Protection Fund. But the judge's rulings are more than just legal fodder. A day after the May 19 hearing in the case, NCAI, USET and three other major Indian Country organizations called on Assistant Secretary Sweeney to resign , citing her handling of the Mashpee case as one of her "consistent and repeated failures" as the official who promised to advance tribal interests, not set them back. In their letter to Secretary Bernhardt on May 20, Sharp, Francis and other Indian leaders noted: "just days after the United States declared COVID-19 a national pandemic, and before the court had issued any decision requiring Interior to take Mashpees lands out of trust status Sweeney took actions to disestablish Mashpees reservation entirely." "This type of unilateral assault on Tribal lands has not occurred since the Termination Era more than 60 years ago," the letter continued. In addition to NCAI and USET, the Association on American Indian Affairs, the Great Plains Tribal Chairmans Association and the Midwest Alliance of Sovereign Tribes called on Sweeney to step down for breaking promises "over and over again." Sweeney, who is the first Alaska Native person to serve as Assistant Secretary and only the second woman in history in the post, has not publicly reacted to the demand, nor has anyone else from Interior. A request for comment about the matter went unanswered by the department's media team. The last time tribes took aim at an Assistant Secretary was during the Republican Ronald Reagan era. Ross Swimmer, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, was accused of undermining the sovereignty of tribes by trying to transfer their monetary trust assets to a private bank without their consent. He later resurfaced during the Republican George W. Bush years, and continued to face tribal opposition when he was appointed to oversee those same trust funds. Interior's only defense of Sweeney , who is Inupiat and a citizen of both the Native Village of Barrow and of the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, came in response to her handling of an $8 billion COVID-19 relief fund promised to tribes more than two months ago. The Trump administration has determined that a portion of the money should go to Alaska Native corporations, which are for-profit entities that do not enjoy a government-to-government relationship with the United States. Tribal nations, whose sovereignty predates the existence of the U.S. government, have accused Sweeney of a conflict of interest because she served as a high-ranking executive at Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, the wealthiest Alaska Native entity, before joining the Trump team . She promised to recuse herself from any matters affecting her former employer but Interior won't say whether she has continued to abide by that pledge. "Assistant Secretary Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney is committed to supporting all American Indians and Alaska Natives, and to suggest she has personal motives or that she is attempting to divert funds away from American Indians is completely false," an April 16 statement from Interior read. Sweeney, though, has her defenders: executives from other Alaska Native corporations. Like Arctic Slope, their entities stand to benefit financially should they gain access to the $8 billion coronavirus relief fund. A federal judge is hearing arguments on the matter on Friday. "Assistant Secretary Sweeney is an honorable person, and a tireless advocate for ALL Native people," a spokesperson for CIRI , one of the Alaska corporations, told Indianz.Com in April. "We are disappointed at the mere suggestion of impropriety on her part." Sweeney has repeatedly described herself as an "advocate" for Indian Country. But she previously admitted that she was unable to carry out that role with respect to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. "I walked into this decision," Sweeney said at NCAI's annual convention in October 2018, a month after determining that the tribe could not restore its homelands through the fee-to-trust process at the Bureau of Indian Affairs 'Do your job': The Trump administration's face on Indian policy took a brutal beating as tribal leaders opened a meeting in the nation's capital with warnings about dire threats to their sovereignty. #ECWS2020 https://t.co/5x6pJKkxCr indianz.com (@indianz) February 12, 2020 Earlier this year, her explanation was much the same. Sweeney told Mashpee Vice Chairwoman Jessie "Little Doe" Baird that her supposed advocacy efforts were overruled by the legal team at Interior "I have to tell you that the Solicitor's Office sets the position for the department," Sweeney said at NCAI's winter session in February. "My role is one of advocacy, and advocacy for clarity and decision-making." "In my discussions with the Solicitor, I continue to advocate that Indian Country deserves to have transparency in the process," Sweeney continued. "Indian Country deserves to have decisions rendered in a timely manner and that there's clarity in how we make decisions." I dont know how anyone could take that as guidance because its incomprehensible & so convoluted that it couldnt guide any lawyer in the field. AND it took 3 lawyers from Interior to write that thing": @USInterior memo has #StandWithMashpee judge onhttps://t.co/LIwkACeZuv pic.twitter.com/yPyOKHKWnx indianz.com (@indianz) May 20, 2020 But Judge Friedman has not seen much transparency. In early May, he blasted the Solicitor's Office for withdrawing a legal opinion affecting tribal land applications without telling him Then, at the hearing later in the month, he said the March 5 legal memorandum in which the Solicitor's Office laid out new criteria for evaluating applications was "one of the worst written documents I've ever read from any government agency." "For them to be talking about grammar, when they don't know the first thing about grammar, when they have typos throughout the whole thing, when they don't know how to spell [U.S. Supreme Court] Justice Stevens' name, is a joke," Friedman said during a hearing that took place via video and teleconference because the COVID-19 pandemic has shut down the federal courthouse in the nation's capital. "And you can tell your client that," Friedman told a government attorney. "It's a joke, that March 5 document." I dont know how anyone could take that as guidance, because its incomprehensible and so convoluted that it couldnt guide any lawyer in the field," added Friedman, who previously worked as a federal government attorney. "YOU CAN TELL YOUR CLIENT THAT. IT'S A JOKE." JUDGE IN MASHPEE WAMPANOAG TRIBE CASE IS ON #StandWithMashpee pic.twitter.com/0px1boyhkv indianz.com (@indianz) May 20, 2020 Thanks to Friedman, the guidance won't be applied to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. He instead ordered Interior to apply the criteria set forth in M-Opinion 37029 to the tribe's application instead of the newer document, which he said would make it more difficult for the tribe to succeed. Sweeney, in her September 2018 record of decision (ROD) against the tribe, had in fact relied on M-Opinion 37029, which was developed during the Obama era. But Friedman said her analysis was "contrary to law" because she rejected key evidence submitted by the tribe, such as federal census counts of the Mashpee people, as well as enrollment of Mashpee students in federal Indian schools. "The Secretarys incorrect application of the M-Opinion evaluating the evidence in isolation and failing to view the probative evidence in concert taints every category of evidence that the Secretary discussed in the 2018 ROD," Friedman wrote in his decision. The tribe's reservation in Massachusetts consists of about 321 acres. It includes 151 acres in the town of Mashpee, the location of tribal headquarters, and another 170 acres in the city of Taunton, where a gaming establishment is in limbo as a result of the changes in policy at Interior. In a separate memorandum , Friedman barred Interior from taking any actions to undo the legal status of the reservation pending re-evaluation of the tribe's land-into-trust application This is a major victory for the Mashpee Wampanoag & for justice but the fight's not over. Im glad the court acknowledged the arguments my colleagues & I made in our congressional amicus brief in this case. I'll continue to #StandWithMashpee to protect their ancestral homeland. https://t.co/ZEhmZQ7O12 Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 7, 2020 "This is an important victory for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and for justice. The Mashpee Wampanoag have a right to their ancestral homeland no matter what political games the Trump administration tries to play," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), a former Democratic candidate for president, and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) said in a joint statement on Saturday. "We are glad that the court acknowledged the importance of the arguments we made in the bicameral, bipartisan amicus brief we filed with our colleagues opposing the U.S. Department of the Interior's cruel actions," Warren and Markey said of a filing signed by more than two dozen members of the U.S. Congress. "The fight is not yet finished, though," the lawmakers continued. "We continue to stand with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and we will continue to hold this administration accountable." Relevant Documents: Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe v. Bernhardt Join the Conversation Related Stories All political groups within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos have been dissolved. The Mandate Group and the Justice G... All political groups within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos have been dissolved. The Mandate Group and the Justice Group, the two most powerful groups, will no longer exist, according to the communique issued by the party leaders in the state after a meeting on Tuesday. Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the APC, and Rauf Aregbesola, his associate, have been in a cold war, TheCable reports. Aregbesola was accused of re-launching political groups in the state without the knowledge of Tinubu, who is regarded as the political leader. There are insinuations that Aregbesola, former governor of Osun state, is interested in running for president in 2023 an ambition that may pit him against Tinubu, who is also believed to be warming up. The Mandate Group, made up of Tinubus core loyalists, was relaunched by Aregbesola on May 26, 2020 but TheCable also reports that the former Lagos governor was not in the picture. Abdullahi Enilolobo, the APC organising secretary in the state, was picked as the new chairman to replace James Odunmbaku, who moved up as the apex leader. Aregbesola was made the grand patron at the meeting which took place at his Ikeja GRA residence. The rug has now been pulled off his feet with the latest development. APC IS ONE GROUP, ONE FAMILY In the communique signed by 27 party chieftains who are members of the Governors Advisory Council (GAC), they said it was unequivocally resolved that all factions like JG and MG are inimical to party unity and are hereby permanently disbanded and prohibited within the party. Party members should no longer make use of these factions or their names with regard to future party business and activities. To continue to hold meetings in the name of these groups or to continue to promote such associations will amount to a violation of this resolution. The only permitted use of the names will be limited to historic references. Any violation of this decision is subject to party discipline, including suspension and expulsion. This prohibition extends solely to official party business. We are in no way trying to abridge anyones constitutional rights to free speech or assembly. The party chairman is hereby tasked with promulgating more detailed regulations with regard to prohibited and permissible activities for sub-party groupings. The party remains supreme. It has developed structures from the ward level to local government and state levels. These are recognized by the partys constitution. They are adequate platforms for members to congregate and to present their views. The APC in Lagos is one party and one family. We must always act in this spirit if we are to attain the dream of democratic prosperity that we set out to achieve. We must do this in honor of June 12 and those who gave of themselves to make democracy our reality. Signatories to the communique include Tinubu, Babajide Sanwoolu, the state governor, Obafemi Hamzat, the deputy governor, Akinwunmi Ambode and Babatunde Raji Fashola, both former governors. Others are: Tajudeen Oluyole Olusi, Henry Oladele Ajomale, Bushura Alebiosu, Abiodun Ogunleye, Murphy Adetoro, James Odunmbaku, Tony Adefuye, S.A. Seriki, Olorunfunmi Bashorun, Rabiu Oluwa, M.A. Taiwo, Mutiu Lawal Are, Yomi Finnih, Muyiwa Sosanya, Tunde Samuel, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, Rasak Lanre, Mudashiru Adisa Obasa (speaker), Babatunde Balogun, Wale Edun, Ranti Adebule and Kemi Nelson. Former Kerala Ranji Trophy player Jayamohan Thambis (64) death is suspected to be a case of murder, said Kerala police on Tuesday, adding his son has been detained for questioning in the case. Thambi was found dead in his Thiruvananthapuram house on Monday. His body was two-days old and was found in a decomposed state. He was staying with his son, who later told police that he was not aware of his death. In post-mortem, it was found that Thambi died of a serious head injury and police also found some traces of a struggle in the report. Police suspect that the injury was allegedly inflicted by his son who is said to be an alcoholic. Though odour emanated from the two-day old decomposing body, his son who was found in the house in a drunken stupor, told police that he had no idea how his father died. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Police have started questioning his son Aswin Thampy. Jayamohans wife had predeceased him. A wicket keeper batsman, Thambi had donned Keralas jersey in many first- class matches between 1979 and 83. Later, he joined the State Bank of Travancore and held many positions. He is survived by two sons, his first son is settled in Bengaluru. His other family members refused to comment saying a police investigation was on. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON President Donald Trump blasted out a conspiracy theory Tuesday claiming the 75-year-old cancer sufferer seen on video getting shoved to the ground by Buffalo police during a protest fell 'harder than he was pushed' and had connections to Antifa. The tweet referenced a report on the right wing One America News Network with close-up, slowed footage of the incident while voice-over from a correspondent touts possible connections to Antifa, a group Trump has said wants to label as domestic terrorist organization. The report claims that the incident where 75-year-old protester Martin Gugino was shoved to the ground by police 'could be the result of a false flag provocation by far left group Antifa.' It cites information that appeared on the Conservative Treehouse blog which identifies Gugino as a 'well-known activist.' Trump tweeted Tuesday morning: 'Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN.' The president added that he agreed with at least part of what was put forward by the broadcast on a network he regularly touts. 'I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?' Trump asked. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ripped the president Tuesday for issuing a 'reckless, irresponsible, mean, crude if there was ever a reprehensible, dumb comment.' 'And from the president of the United States at this moment of anguish and anger. He pours gasoline on the fire. If there was ever, if he ever feels a moment of decency, he should apologize fr that tweet,' Cuomo added. He called it 'wholly unacceptable' and said there was 'Not a piece of proof. Personally disparaging when the man is still in the hospital. Show some decency, some humanity,' he continued. Trump's tweet again siding with police after repeatedly calling for 'law and order' amid protests over the death of George Floyd comes despite advisors inside and outside the White House counseling him to address racial discrimination. An elderly man was seen approaching Buffalo police officers in riot gear outside of City Hall on Thursday President Trump tweeted that 75-year old Martin Gugino 'fell harder than was pushed' Martin Gugino, a longtime peace activist from Amherst, had been at a protest at Niagara Square near Buffalo City Hall when he was pushed. He hit his head on the ground causing it to bleed The OANN correspondent identifies himself as Kristian Rouz, who has been revealed to simultaneously be working for Kremlin-backed Sputnik news. The Daily Beast previously reported that Rouz was born in Siberia, graduated from Novosibirsk State University, and moved to the U.S. in 2017. Gugino remains hospitalized in Buffalo. He texted USA Today after being asked about Trump's tweet. 'No comment other than Black lives matter. Just out of the ICU. Should recover eventually. Thx,' he wrote. His attorney blasted the 'dangerous' and 'untrue' accusations. against him. Attorney Kelly Zarcone told CNN Tuesday: 'No one from law enforcement has ever even suggested anything otherwise so we're at a loss to understand why the president of the United States would make such a dark, dangerous and untrue accusation against him. Martin has always been a peaceful protester because he cares about today's society.' Earlier, Zarcone said Gugino was 'in serious but stable condition. Martin has acknowledged and sincerely appreciates the tremendous outpouring of support he has received nationwide. Martin and his family continue to request privacy as they focus on Martin's health and recovery,' lawyer Kelly Zarcone said, WGRZ reported. Rival former Vice President Joe Biden pounced on President Trump for the tweet Tuesday afternoon. 'My Dad used to say there's no greater sin than the abuse of power. Whether it's an officer bloodying a peaceful protester or a President defending him with a conspiracy theory he saw on TV. I'm a Catholic just like Martin,' Biden said. 'Our faith says that we can't accept either,' he added. Two police officers who shoved him last week in an incident captured on dramatic video have pleaded not guilty to assault. Video of the incident shows Gugino bleeding on the pavement as a group of officers walk by. Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe were charged with assault in the second degree Saturday morning. Aaron Torgalski (left) and Robert McCabe (right) pictured in their mugs. They were each charged with one count of assault in the second degree in a court hearing Saturday morning over the shocking incident that left peaceful protester Martin Gugino in a 'serious condition' in hospital Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said Gugino was an 'agitator' In this image from video provided by WBFO, a Buffalo police officer appears to shove a man who walked up to police Thursday, June 4, 2020, in Buffalo, N.Y. Video from WBFO shows the man appearing to hit his head on the pavement, with blood leaking out as officers walk past to clear Niagara Square. Buffalo police initially said in a statement that a person 'was injured when he tripped & fell,' WIVB-TV reported, but Capt. Jeff Rinaldo later told the TV station that an internal affairs investigation was opened Former White House press secretary for George W. Bush Ari Fliescher Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said Gugino was an 'agitator' who tried to work up the crowd and had been asked to leave the area 'numerous' times. The OANN report zeroed in on footage of the man waving his phone while coming in close contact with members of a Buffalo police unit during the protest. All 57 officers on the Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response Team resigned from the squad on Friday in support of their colleagues who were suspended over the incident. The report Trump tweeted says video 'appear to show Gugino using a police tracker on his phone trying to scan police communications during the protest.' It describes it as an 'old trick used by Antifa' to locate police officers and plan violent activities' and was 'supposedly using the communication to black out police technologies.' The report says mainstream media continued to 'push the narrative of so-called police brutality.' Two prominent Republican senators turned down the chance to criticize the president when asked about his tweet. 'I didn't see it. You're telling me about it. I don't read Twitter. I only write on it, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told CNN. Added Texas Sen. John Cornyn: 'You know, a lot of this stuff just goes over my head.' Former Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona did weigh in. 'This was a 75 year-old-man shoved to the ground, left bleeding from a head wound. Trafficking in conspiracy theories like these is beneath your office, Mr President,' Flake wrote. 'Most of us up here would rather not be political commentators on the president's tweets,' said South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune, a Senate party leader. Thune added: 'It's a serious accusation, which should only be made with facts and evidence. And I havent seen any yet.' There are multiple holes in the conspiracy theory. There have been multiple actual instances of police using force to subdue protesters, which limits the utility of Gugino deliberately falling backward onto his head, putting himself in a situation which could cause brain damage or death. It cites newly released videos but merely captures days-old videos that have already been published, the Washington Post noted. The video itself contains no evidence Gugino was somehow capturing information with his cell phone. It also fails to substantiate the claim that antifa makes use of the tactic or otherwise connect Gugino to antifa, a favorite target of Trump's. Gugino has been undergoing chemotherapy treatments for cancer, Vicki Ross of the Western New York Peace Center and Latin American Solidarity Committee told the Associated Press. Martin Gugino's history of peaceful activism Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old man who got pushed to the ground by Buffalo police and who Trump accused of possibly being in on a 'set up' has a long history of activism for a range of causes. The resident of Amherst in upstate New York outside Buffalo has been involved with the Western New York Peace Center. 'He's a gentle person who really believes that he must stand up for what he thinks is right,' his friend Terrence Bisson told the Buffalo News. He has advocated for closing the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, climate change, and other issues. He has protested the treatment of child immigrants at the southern border. Martin Gugino pictured with actor Ed Asner Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown called him an 'agitator' and President Donald Trump claimed after watching a video where Buffalo police shoved him that Gugino 'fell harder than was pushed.' Trump tweeted that Gugino 'could be an ANTIFA provocateur' but did not provide evidence of a connection to the loosely-defined left-wing group. 'He's the last person you would want to push down. He's the kind of person who you would want to speak up,' said Bisson. 'He'd never shout or oppose someone. He would ask questions if he thought something was not right,' Bisson told WKBW. The day before he got pushed by police, he posted a tweet that said 'F*** the police.' On June 4, he tweeted: 'Protests are exempt from curfews because Congress (and mayors) may make no laws that abridge the right of the people peaceably to assemble and complain to the government. The government should receive the complaint with thanks, not arrest the people or beat them.' He has been photographed holding signs dealing with detention of immigrants and Guantanamo. Advertisement Lucknow, June 9 : The Special Task Force (STF) will now investigate the scam in recruitment of assistant teachers in Uttar Pradesh. UP Basic Education Minister, Satish Dwiwedi told reporters that the UP Police have arrested 10 people for allegedly accepting bribes running into lakhs of rupees from aspirants who sought jobs as assistant teachers during a recruitment drive for 69,000 posts in the Basic Education Department. The main accused has been identified as K.L. Patel, a former zila panchayat member, who reportedly runs many educational institutions. The police have also unearthed cash worth Rs 22 lakh and two luxury cars from the arrested persons. The probe began after one of the candidates complained of the scam. Prayagraj SP Satyartha Annirudh Pankaj said that the 10 were arrested in connection with fraud perpetrated in the recruitment and police was establishing facts and probing the links. The arrests were made a week after the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court stayed teachers' appointments over petitions of candidates over the nature of the 'correct answers' to questions in the recruitment exam. The petitioners contended that many questions had multiple correct answers as they were argumentative or ambiguous and not objective as prescribed. The state government has, however, challenged the stay. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, meanwhile, has likened the teachers' recruitment irregularity with the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh. BSP President Mayawati has sought a CBI probe into the scam. WINNIPEG, Manitoba, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DELTA 9 CANNABIS INC. (TSX: DN) (OTCQX: VRNDF) (Delta 9 or the Company), is pleased to announce the grand opening of its Delta 9 Cannabis Store in the First Alberta Place building in Calgary, Alberta for June 10, 2020. We are thrilled to bring the Delta 9 experience to Albertans by opening our first of many cannabis stores in the province," said John Arbuthnot, CEO of Delta 9. Customer response to the Delta 9 experience in our four Manitoba stores has been tremendous as we offer customers some of best selection at the lowest prices on cannabis products from the most popular cannabis producers in Canada. Delta 9 Cannabis Stores have had early success by providing competitive value on cannabis products to customers in convenient and high traffic shopping destinations which makes for a unique shopping experience for customers and compliments our companys overall vertical integration strategy. With this newest store opening were extremely excited to be able to offer the citizens of Calgary a great value cannabis product line and a truly unique retail cannabis shopping experience, said John Arbuthnot. The newest Delta 9 Cannabis Store is located in the heart of downtown Calgary business district at 777-8th Ave SW in the First Alberta Place building. The Delta 9 store will offer customers an open and modern shopping decor, highly trained staff and a wide range of value cannabis products including dried cannabis flower, cannabis oil, vapes & cartridges, edibles and a full assortment of cannabis accessories. For more information contact: Investor & Media Contact: Ian Chadsey VP Corporate Affairs Mobile: 204-898-7722 E-mail: ian.chadsey@delta9.ca About Delta 9 Cannabis Inc. Delta 9 Cannabis Inc. is a vertically integrated cannabis company focused on bringing the highest quality cannabis products to market. The company sells cannabis products through its wholesale and retail sales channels and sells its cannabis grow pods to other businesses. Delta 9's wholly-owned subsidiary, Delta 9 Bio-Tech Inc., is a licensed producer of medical and recreational cannabis and operates an 80,000 square foot production facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Delta 9 owns and operates a chain of retail stores under the Delta 9 Cannabis Store brand. Delta 9's shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "DN" and on the OTCQX under the symbol "VRNDF". For more information, please visit www.delta9.ca. Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which reflect the expectations of management regarding the Companys future business plans and other matters. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Forward looking statements in this news release include statements relating to the Companys expansion plans. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements, including all risk factors set forth in the annual information form of Delta 9 dated March 19, 2020 which has been filed on SEDAR. 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 urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements contained in this news release and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Fat red tomatoes bursting with flavour, delicately sweet hake that just flakes off the bone, and sugar-snap peas that add zing to any stir frythe best of local produce is available right now. And theres never been a better time to support our farmers and fishermen than by buying locally sourced, in-season vegetables and the very freshest of fish from UK waters. Because by buying local, you wont just be getting the very best quality food, youll also be helping sustain these vital industries at a difficult time. Share your recipes using #SeasonalVeg and find out more at vegpower.org.uk/seasonalveg and vegpower.org.uk Lockdown has meant many of their regular customers such as bars, restaurants and hotels have cancelled their usual orders, leaving a mountain of produce thats at risk of going to waste. So if you demand food produced locally, youll be supporting growers and fishermen when they really need your help. And if youve got time this summer, you can go one step further by actually helping pick the crops yourself! PACKED WITH GOODNESS By buying local and seasonal, youll be guaranteed to be getting the very best produce packed full of the vitamins, minerals and fibres we need. June is the beginning of the harvest when the most incredible array of vegetables starts to come in from the fields. Map of goodness: Where our fruit, veg, flowers and other produce come from in Britain Right now, you should be able to get your hands on locally-grown asparagus, cucumber, mushrooms, salad leaves, courgettes, spinach and beetroot. And dont forget aubergines, cabbages, carrots, fennel, onions, peas and runner beans among many others. Theres so much around, parents can be assured even the pickiest little eater should find something they love. Farmer Scott Watson of Gs Growers in Feltwell, Norfolk, says theres already been strong demand for local crops this year because of the good weather. Scott Watson, a farmer in Feltwell, Norfolk, says his radishes sell well when the sun's shining He says: The UK outdoor salads season is now well under way with lettuce, spring onions and radishes all being harvested on UK farms. Our radish harvest started at the end of April they always sell well when the sun is out and people get going with BBQs. Theyre great value, really low calorie and make a great healthy snack thats not just beloved of Peter Rabbit. PICK FOR BRITAIN Another challenge for farmers has been getting enough people to harvest the crops. Each summer thousands of people usually come in from abroad to help out but cant this year because of coronavirus. So a new campaign called Pick For Britain has been launched to fill their places. Anyone who needs work over summer, whether theyre unemployed or students looking to make a bit of money, is being encouraged to apply. So are any furloughed workers whose contracts allow it. There are plenty of jobs available from pickers and packers to tractor and forklift drivers you just need to be fit and healthy. 'It's quite a lovely place to be': Stylist Robyn Philip took a picking job when her work dried up Stylist Robyn Philip took a job on New Moor Farm in Essex when her work dried up and says: The community is amazing, its really quite a lovely place to be. Im doing a little bit of everything - Im helping on the [picking] line, bundling, helping customers, grading. Spirits are high and work is constant. Co-worker Madeline Owen was doing her A Levels when schools closed. I needed a reason to get out of bed in the morning, she says. Its like nothing Ive ever done before. Its good fun. *Go to pickforbritain.org.uk A Level student Madeline Owen says her job is fun and gives her a reason to get up every day GET SEAFOOD SAVVY! The UK is surrounded by waters containing some of the best seafood in the world and nows the time to take advantage of it. Currently being caught around our shores are mackerel, herring, rainbow trout, hake, monkfish, crab and mussels to name but a few. Theyre packed full of protein and so good for us, its recommended we eat two portions a week, of which one should be oily like mackerel. For more inspiration on where to find fish caught in UK waters, whats available and how to cook it, go to fishisthedish.co.uk Seafood and eat it: This spicy monkfish and coconut curry is easy to make and delicious ETON MESS Locally-grown strawberries are at their best right now, so why not try this easy, classic recipe: 6 shop-bought meringues 1lb strawberries 1 rounded tablespoon icing sugar 1-pint double cream Method: Blend half the strawberries with the icing sugar then pass through a sieve. Chop the rest into pieces. Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks and break up the meringues into bite-sized pieces. Mix all the ingredients together gently the puree will add a lovely marble effect and serve immediately. Eton Mess is the perfect dessert for this time of year, with local strawberries at their very best *This is Government advice for England only Living in close proximity to oil and gas operations may increase the risk of preterm birth, according to new research on births in California's primary oil-producing region. The work could inform discussions about the state's implementation of setbacks from oil and gas extraction facilities. Researchers examined 225,000 births from mothers who lived within about six miles of oil and gas wells in the San Joaquin Valley from 1998 to 2011. The results show that women who lived near wells in the first and second trimesters were 8 to 14 percent more likely to experience a spontaneous preterm birth - one that would otherwise be unexplained - at 20 to 31 weeks. Spontaneous preterm birth, in which a pregnancy ends before 37 weeks of gestation, is the leading cause of infant death in the United States. The study, published June 5 in Environmental Epidemiology, adds to a small body of population-based research aimed at better understanding how environmental factors may affect the health outcomes of pregnancy, and it is among the first to investigate a potential link between residential proximity to oil and gas operations and spontaneous preterm birth in California. About 17 million people in the United States live within one mile of an active oil or gas well, including 2.1 million in California. "There's some evidence that environmental exposures increase risk of preterm birth, but this particular exposure - oil and gas - has received very little attention in California, despite having millions of people living in close proximity to wells," said lead author David Gonzalez, a PhD candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at Stanford University's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). "We're getting a sense that this does potentially have an adverse effect on health outcomes of pregnancy." The analyses focused on how exposure to wells may affect spontaneous preterm births. Therefore, the researchers excluded multiple births and women who had medical conditions associated with early delivery, like maternal preeclampsia. Of about 225,000 birth outcomes analyzed over a 13-year period, 28,000 were spontaneous preterm births. The negative impact of living near a well appeared strongest among women who were Hispanic, Black or had fewer than 12 years of education. "For me, the higher risk for the Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black women is an important signal and it makes me want to ask more questions," Gonzalez said. The new findings differ with those from another recent study from the University of California, Berkeley, which found that living near oil and gas operations throughout the state may increase the risk of low birth weight and small gestational age - but not preterm birth. The Stanford researchers note that one thing they did differently was to look only at cases of spontaneous preterm births, which the UC Berkeley group did not do. "The causes of preterm birth, particularly those that occur spontaneously, remain a mystery. If you group all types of preterm births together, it makes it very hard to identify possible causes," said senior author Gary Shaw, DrPH, a professor of pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. "We looked exclusively at spontaneous preterm with our best efforts to look at narrower slices of when babies were born." While previous studies on birth outcomes in Pennsylvania, Texas and Colorado have focused on unconventional natural gas extraction (commonly known as fracking), most wells in California are drilled using conventional methods. The researchers only analyzed wells that were active or in the preproduction stage - when the wells were being constructed - since those are expected to have the most emissions. The analyses included about 83,000 wells, 12,000 of which were in preproduction. They included mothers living within six miles of a well into their analyses of the highest risk of exposure. "California is considering regulating how close to sensitive sites like schools these wells should be allowed to operate. I think this paper is strong evidence that we need to think carefully about that decision," said co-author Marshall Burke, an associate professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford Earth. "A key next step, I think, is finding out explicitly how close you need to be to a well for it to cause harm." The researchers also hope to further explore why living near a well could be associated with a spontaneous preterm birth. Residents near wells may be exposed to a range of environmental contaminants and stressors. For example, they could be breathing in chemicals used in extraction, experiencing stress from drilling noise, drinking contaminated water or breathing in higher levels of particulate matter in the air around such sites. "We don't understand what causes preterm birth, but we understand that certain factors increase your risk, and environmental exposures are among those factors," Gonzalez said. ### Shaw is also a member of Bio-X and the Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI). Burke is also deputy director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, a member of Bio-X, and a fellow with the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). Co-authors on the study include Allison Sherris, an E-IPER PhD candidate; Wei Yang, a research engineer in the Department of Pediatrics; David Stevenson, MD, The Harold K. Faber Professor of Pediatrics; Michael Baiocchi, an assistant professor of epidemiology and population health; and Mark Cullen, MD, professor of medicine, of biomedical data science, of health research and policy, and senior fellow with SIEPR. Amy Padula from the University of California, San Francisco was also a co-author on the study. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Stanford University. Birthday wishes Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun. Happy Birthday Wishes A few weeks ago, many of us on Twitter were scoffing at protesters against lockdown. John Waters and Gemma O'Doherty (no relation, I hope) had brought people to stand outside the Four Courts in Dublin to break the regulations governing social distancing. They were roundly abused and laughed at, rightly I thought, for they claimed a civil right to endanger themselves and others. And the key worry about Covid-19 is that it is infectious before it shows symptoms. So, you can't claim not to have it and then go out in public with confidence that you are not passing it to someone else who will take it home to their parents. We were hearing the same claims from groups in the United States about the need to preserve their citizens' rights, regardless of the danger. People had died to defend those rights, so it was already clear that the rights themselves were more important than personal survival. Again, many of us mocked those rednecks. In some of their protests, they stood apart, according to social distancing regulations, but still the epidemic accelerated its spread. The cheerleader for this protest was Donald Trump, the US president. He was tweeting that he wanted states "liberated". Now things have changed and the freedom to protest is not regarded as eccentric, but socially responsible. Huge numbers are on the streets, probably including many of those who sneered at the Right-wing libertarians who gathered to object to the lockdown. The issue that entitles them, they believe, to disregard the pandemic is racism. This has been building as a huge concern, and a police officer accused of murdering a black man on the street by kneeling on his neck was inevitably going to anger people not just in America, but around the world. That's because this happens so often. And when the irritant is added of an insensitive and bullish president, who thinks only of his own public image - ludicrous as it is - the rage deepens and extends. Enormous crowds of people in the US are breaking curfews to stand together in the streets to protest against racist and brutal police forces. They are showing the courage to face violent state forces. But they are also being reckless with their own health and the health of those they love by adding to the spread of an incurable disease. They are spreading contagion among each other and people will die as a direct consequence of that. And that was ridiculous and contemptible when Right-wing headcases were doing it for the right to assembly alone, but it is clearly, they think, more acceptable when the concern is racism and police brutality. I would not be with those protesters. I will not be joining any of the protests here against racism where they breach the health regulations, because I could not live with myself if, for the sake of protest on any issue, I brought the virus home and infected my wife. I know something of racism. I have seen the abuse that people have been subjected to for being black, Asian, or Jewish. I have lived and worked in Asia and Africa and seen how some of my white colleagues relished their contempt for those around them. But I do not, for instance, accept that the PSNI is racist. We have better equality legislation here than in the rest of the UK and Ireland. At some of the weekend protests, police officers were abused and harangued by members of the crowd for doing their job of reminding people of the regulations. I want the police to be just and personable in their dealings with people, but I also want them to be free to do their work without prejudice and interference. The police have gone a long way in saying that they would be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the protesters, but for the pandemic regulations. They have a clear interest in defending professional standards of policing. They have their own history of brutality and sectarianism and they have outgrown it through reform. They have done what the US police forces must do. They must be monitored to be sure they uphold that standard, but it would be absurd to deny them respect for what they achieved after demanding that they do it. It would be a serious pity if the PSNI, which can be a corrective example to the loutishness of American policing, was caught up in an upsurge of general, ill-considered anti-policing sentiment, or worse, wrong-footed into using force to defend officers, people and property. Images came from London of the police being chased by a crowd. That can't be allowed to happen again. No police force is going to accept that. On Saturday, some twerp here was arguing with police officers that they should address him as a person, as if their offence was being in uniform and approaching him in a professional capacity. There is a video of it on Twitter. That is just nonsense. Those police officers were there on my behalf as a citizen entitled to their protection. The argument of the organisers is that the protests in Belfast and Derry were socially distanced, no different from the queues at Ikea, for example, which are legal. Well, there may be anomalies in the regulations, but those who, myself included, wanted the sacking of Dominic Cummings for his comings-and-goings up and down England do not now have a leg to stand on if they insist that, ultimately, all that this comes down to is personal discretion. The Black Lives Matter protests now include the argument that the state does not have the right to legislate for social distancing and the restrictions on numbers who can meet. That is the logical inference of what they are doing. Some cite the higher numbers of deaths of black and Asian people from the coronavirus as evidence of racism, too. They may well be right. Covid-19 discriminates. And that may be a consequence of more black and Asian people being pushed to the frontline against it. But while those social structures continue, then black and Asian people will continue to die in greater numbers. Black lives matter. They have been treated as if they don't. People have a right to be bloody angry. But we also have a right to protection against the virus until we have a weapon that kills, or neutralises, it. If protesters were just risking their own lives, I would have more respect for them. They have no right to risk anyone else's. YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan introduced today new Chief of Police Vahe Ghazaryan to staff. Pashinyan congratulated the new Police Chief, stating that Mr. Ghazaryan should be able to give a new energy to the structure. Today our biggest challenge, which is an additional function for the police, is the coronavirus pandemic. In the past three months the police in fact carried out a major work and consumed a lot of energy in this respect. The quality of the operation of the police as well will play a key role in overcoming the pandemic in the future, Pashinyan said. According to him, the police officer, the uniform must be of a strict importance for each citizen, but on the other hand, when seeing a police officer the citizen of Armenia should feel himself protected. This requires a long, consistent work based on knowledge and experience. Mr. Ghazaryan, your task is to do this job. This is very important because the police is a body subject to the prime minister and the actions of the police are directly linked with the relations of the countrys leader and the citizen, PM Nikol Pashinyan said, adding that each police officer should feel himself as a representative of the PM who is communicating with the people, the citizen and the criminal. He said in 2018 after assuming office a key task for him has been the stability of law enforcement agencies, and the police in particular. After the well-known events of the revolution I didnt want to view you as a person standing on the other side of the barbed wire. There hasnt been even the slightest manifestation of such an attitude, and all staffs of the police have received that chance to position themselves before new Armenia, the new values and new goals. Today its already the time to see who used that opportunity and how, he said. Pashinyan said those who will abuse that chance do not have any place in the police, because his goal is to raise the efficiency of the police for the benefit of the citizen of Armenia. The PM thanked former Police Chief Arman Sargsyan for the works done, stating that they will together analyze what has been done at this period, as well as what has resulted in success or failure. Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan This mother, who works selling sweets, completed her period of home isolation and after receiving a medical discharge joins the 89,556 Peruvians who managed to beat the new coronavirus after having received treatment at the first level of care comprised in "The Hour of Primary Care Strategy." Mrs. Evelina says that once she was hit by the disease she became very afraid to show up at the hospital. "I preferred to go to the health center located near my house. I received a great surprise when the doctor treated me free of charge. Thanks to that, I am now fully recovered ," she expresses. (Newser) Police may have made a grim breakthrough in the months-long search for two missing Idaho children. Rexburg Police Sgt. Gary Hagen says human remains were found at the Fremont County home of Chad Daybell, husband of mother Lori Vallow Daybell, who has been charged with child abandonment in connection with the case, the Idaho Statesman reports. Police say Daybell has been taken into custody but he has not been arrested or charged yet. The children, 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow, and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, have not been seen since September last year and police have accused the couple of lying about their whereabouts. Police declined to say Tuesday whether multiple bodies were found at the home, reports KUTV. story continues below Police said earlier Tuesday that they and FBI investigators were searching Daybell's home for a second time in connection with the case, the AP reports. In a Jan. 3 raid, investigators seized 43 items from the home and used probes and rakes to search several sections of the yard, reports the East Idaho News. The Idaho attorney general's office said earlier this ear that it was investigating Daybell in connection with the death of his then-wife Tammy Daybell at the home in October. He married Lori Vallow two weeks later. Vallow's former husband, Charles Vallow, was killed by her brother, Alex Cox, in July. Cox died in December from what an autopsy determined was a blood clot. (Another Vallow allegation involves zombies and demons.) The return of workers is important for firms to get production back on track, which fell to record lows in April and May. Chief executives in the real estate, consumer products, automobiles, construction, and textile sectors said they were all expecting workers to re-join in the next 45-60 days, which would help them ramp-up production from July. Labour is among the biggest problem faced by ... 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 (Natural News) Nearly half of all Americans, according to the AFP and take this with a huge grain of salt supposedly now agree that police officers unfairly target black culprits with excessive force. This is why some white people are now marching in the streets for black lives alongside actual black lives. But what about the violence that blacks commit all the time against other blacks? There is a new saying going around that says white silence is violence, the implication being that if a white person is not actively protesting with Antifa and Black Lives Matter that he or she is guilty of complicit violence. But, again, what about all of the black-on-black violence that is being whitewashed or flat-out ignored? On the last day of May, Chicago reported its deadliest day in 60 years with a shocking 18 murders committed in just 24 hours. This means that 18 George Floyds, so to speak, lost their lives in a single day, and yet nobody out there is protesting this wave of mostly black violence. Weve never seen anything like it, at all, stated Max Kapustin, senior research director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab. I dont even know how to put it into context. Its beyond anything that weve ever seen before. The only other day that ever even came close was August 4, 1991, when 13 murders were reported in the streets of Chicago. This means that the new record set on May 31 is almost 40 percent higher than the previous record. But is Black Lives Matter or Antifa taking notice? Of course not. Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about how Democrats are now wanting to make crime in places like Chicago even worse by abolishing police forces: The protesters are the complacent ones who refuse to acknowledge the facts With this in mind, it is truly laughable that mobs of angry protesters are now lashing out at white people for their alleged historic complacency in ignoring what they claim is systemic racism against blacks. If anything, it is actually the protesters who are demonstrating historic complacency by not acknowledging the scourge of black-on-black violence that goes almost completely unnoticed by the left. Do black lives only matter when they are taken by non-black lives? Since the obvious answer to this question is yes, can anyone explain why? Does ignoring black-on-black violence also constitute a form of silence that indicates complicity in that violence? By remaining silent on this issue, leftists are sending the message that they simply do not care about black lives like 18-year-old Lazarra Daniels, a student at DRW College Prep in Lawndale, who was one of the black lives gunned down in Chicago on May 31. They also do not care about Keishanay Bolden, another 18-year-old black life who was fatally shot during an argument in the Englewood neighborhood where she grew up. Ironically, Bolden was studying law enforcement and justice at Western Illinois University WIU. After graduating, she had planned to become a corrections officer, where she could have contributed to criminal justice reform. Keishanay always had a smile on her face and a contagious laugh, stated Rebeka Buchanan, an English professor at WIU. Not only was she fun to have in class, she was dedicated to learning and her community. This is tragic. Another black life that was lost on May 31 was Angelo Bronson, a 36-year-old father of two young children who was randomly gunned down during a drive-by shooting. He lives in Washington state, but was visiting family members in Chicago over the weekend. To keep up with the latest news about the rioting and looting taking place at the hands of Antifa and Black Lives Matter, be sure to check out LiberalMob.com. Sources for this article include: Breitbart.com FoxNews.com NaturalNews.com UN receives 'deeply disturbing' reports of deaths, destruction in liberated Libya towns Iran Press TV Monday, 08 June 2020 6:14 AM The United Nations says it has received "deeply disturbing" reports of deaths, destruction and looting from areas recently recaptured by forces of the internationally-recognized Libyan government, calling on the warring sides to respect the rule of law. Forces of the Tripoli-based Libyan government on Thursday regained control of more areas in southern Tripoli as part of an advance ending a 14-month offensive on the capital by eastern-based militias led by renegade general Khalifa Haftar. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Sunday issued a statement and said it was "alarmed by the harm inflicted on the civilian population by the continuing cycle of violence in Libya. "The recent military movements in Greater Tripoli and Tarhouna have led to new waves of displacement and suffering of over 16,000 Libyans in the past few days," the statement added. The statement said the UN had received "deeply disturbing" reports of dead bodies discovered at a Tarhouna hospital. "We have also received numerous reports of the looting and destruction of public and private property in Tarhouna and Alasabaa," it added. The UNSMIL warned in its statement that "some cases appear to be acts of retribution and revenge," urging the authorities in Tripoli to launch a prompt and impartial investigation into the reports. The warring sides in Libya need to respect "the rule of law, international human rights law and humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including health facilities ... particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic," the UN mission said in the statement. In the past days, videos have emerged online reportedly showing looting of shops and torching of houses belonging to affiliates of Haftar's so-called Libyan National Army (LNA). According to Reuters, the Tripoli government has warned its forces that reprisals in recaptured areas would be punished. The Tripoli-based Justice Ministry also said more than 100 bodies had been discovered in a morgue when forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA) entered Tarhouna. Elsewhere in the statement, the UNSMIL said it was "encouraged" by calls for the resolution of the Libyan conflict, adding that fighting for control of the capital "has proven, beyond any doubt, that any war among Libyans is a losing war." The statement urged Libyan parties to "engage swiftly and constructively" in the UN-brokered talks aimed at reaching a lasting ceasefire agreement. Libya plunged into chaos in 2011 when a popular uprising backed by a NATO intervention led to the ouster of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Since then the oil-producing North African country has been divided between forces affiliated either with the GNA, backed by Turkey, or the LNA, supported by the UAE, Egypt, and Jordan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address New Delhi/Bengaluru, June 9 : The UP Mitra portal launched by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi to help stranded migrant workers go back to their native places is yielding positive results, as senior party leader in Karnataka, D.K. Shivakumar, has arranged for booking tickets for the return of over 99 workers. Priyanka Gandhi, who is party in-charge for eastern Uttar Pradesh, had launched the UP Mitra portal on May 5, a day after Congress chief Sonia Gandhi announced that the party will bear the cost of train tickets for stranded migrant workers. Highly-placed sources in the Congress told IANS that Priyanka Gandhi had received around 10 lakh requests from the migrant workers of Uttar Pradesh for their return to their native places on the UP Mitra portal and at the district Congress committees. "She forwarded the list of stranded migrant workers in Karnataka to the Karnataka Congress to ensure their safe return," the source said. Suraj Hegde, Karnataka Congress spokesperson, told IANS, "Till yesterday (Monday), we had booked tickets for over 99 people who wanted to go back to their native places from June 2 onwards." According to the Congress leaders, tickets for stranded migrant workers were being booked on the basis of the availability. Sharing the figures of the people who returned to their native places on the initiative of the Congress, Hegde said that out of the 99 people, about 54 people have returned to Uttar Pradesh, 22 to Assam, three to four people to Nagaland, around eight people to Bihar and the rest to other parts of the country. The Karnataka Congress leader further said that the return of these 99 people was arranged after June 1, when the Indian Railways started to run 200 time tabled trains. He said their tickets were arranged on the intervention of senior Congress leader former Karnataka minister Shivakumar, who paid the expenses. Hegde said that Priyanka Gandhi forwarded the list to the AICC in the Covid-19 control room in Delhi, which then shared the list with the state unit of the party. "The list was then extensively followed up by the party and Priyanka Gandhi's team," he said. "There was extensive mapping and follow-up of the list shared with us by Priyanka Gandhi's office. They called us everyday for updates," Hegde said. He added that before June 2, when only Shramik Special trains were being operated, the Congress workers helped in preparing the list of the migrant workers who wanted to return to their native places. "In Karnataka, having the Sewa application on the phone is mandatory. The party workers and leaders helped the migrant workers get themselves enrolled on the app, since many of them didn't have access to smartphones," he said. After their enrolment on the Sewa app, the Congress arranged for their travel till the railway station and also provided them with food packets and gave money to those who did not have cash with them for the journey, he said. In mid May, Priyanka Gandhi was engaged in a stand-off with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the arrangement of 1,000 buses to transport migrant workers. However, the state government had turned down the request. But despite getting discouraged, she ensured the safe return of over 44,000 migrant workers to Uttar Pradesh from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Punjab and other states. (Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in) BJP said health infrastructure in the national capital has only worsened in last over six years of Kejriwal's rule. New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday accused the Aam Aadmi Party dispensation of doing politics over the LG's decision to overrule its stand that Delhi government hospitals will be reserved only for city residents. BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said health infrastructure in the national capital has only worsened in last over six years of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's rule, and that his government does not work but indulges in blame game. "Delhi government has shown its incapacity to govern and uphold law. What it is doing is pure politics," the New Delhi MP told reporters. Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Monday overruled two controversial orders of the AAP government on reserving Delhi government-run and private hospitals in the national capital for Delhiites and allowing COVID-19 test of only symptomatic patients. The AAP reacted sharply to the LG's move, alleging that he had been pressured by the BJP which is doing "dirty politics" on the issue. Lekhi noted that the Delhi High Court had quashed a similar order, which said only Delhi domiciles will be treated in Delhi government hospitals, and said the AAP government made a similar decision despite being aware of the verdict. The Lieutenant Governor has taken the right decision by overruling the Delhi government. "Delhi government is indulging in charade to hide its incompetence. Lockdown period was supposed to create better infrastructure. The number of primary health centres in city are stagnant at seven while the number of dispensaries has come down," Lekhi said. Mohalla clinics started by the AAP government are nothing but farce, she said. It does not understand quasi structure of states and that they are part of India. Kejriwal himself got treatment in Bangalore, she noted. The coronovirus infection is so high in Delhi that people from outside will not come here for treatment, she said, taking a swipe at the AAP government and asserted that it is competing with Maharashtra over high COVID spread. "Delhi government lied to the people about beds and preparation for COVID-19. Instead of 32,000 beds it claimed to have, it gave in writing that it has only 3,100 beds," she said. Kasautii Zindagii Kay fame Parth Samthaan shared a picture of himself on Monday along with a giant plate of biryani on Instagram. The picture was taken to celebrate the easing out of rules as India enters the stage of unlock 1.0. Captioning the image, Parth wrote, Getting back to normalcy. #unlockindia #foodstagram #foodie. Dressed in a round neck T-shirt, the 29-year-old actor is seen sporting goggles and looks extremely handsome. Soon after posting the image, Parths industry friends and followers flooded the post with beautiful comments. Actor Arjun Bijlani wrote, I want that. Parths friends and actor Karan Jotwani dropped a series of comments on the post. Karan wrote, Akele khatam Nahi kar payega (You will not be able to finish it alone). He then said, Glares nikal ke khaaaa le (Take your sunglasses off before eating), the biryani looks better that way.. Nice t shirt btw (sic)," adding, Nice thread latkofying. Love its flexibility (sic). Last month, the actor had to face huge backlash after he posted a couple of pictures of him having a pool party with friends in Hyderabad. He had taken a flight from Mumbai to Hyderabad. Users have criticised him for not following the social distancing norms amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Parth plays the role of Anurag Basu in Ekta Kapoor-produced Kasautii Zindagii Kay. The daily soap stars Erica Fernandes, Karan Singh Grover and Aamna Sharif in lead roles. He will be also seen playing the role of a gangster in the ALT Balaji web series titled Mai Hero Boll Raha Hu. Talking about the role of a gangster, Parth told SpotboyE, I am extremely excited about this new project as it is my first full-fledged web venture with ALTBalaji. Its a gangster-based show from the 90s and my character is inspired by a true story. Follow @News18Movies for more China to cut teapot refining capacity as plans for mega complex FILE PHOTO: Refinery plants are seen in Boxing By Chen Aizhu and Muyu Xu SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) - China's oil hub Shandong has embarked on a plan to shut down capacity of half a million barrels per day shared among small, independent refiners to make way for a giant complex that should spur economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis. Reuters exclusively reported last week that China, the world's largest oil consumer after the United States, was going ahead with the $20 billion Yulong Petrochemical complex. The planned 400,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery and 3 million tonne-per-year ethylene plant in Yantai, Shandong, the country's hub for independent refineries, sometimes referred to as teapot refineries, had long failed to get approval as China struggled with excess refining capacity. The drop in demand because of coronavirus lockdowns, as well as expectations climate concerns will reduce conventional motor fuel use, is likely to increase over-supply in the near term. But state approval was granted last week for a new mega refining complex, weighted towards petrochemical production whose demand is expected to be relatively robust. That has prompted Shandong to accelerate a plan dating from 2018 to close 500,000 bpd in capacity over the next two-to-three years, Shandong-based industry officials and consultancies said. That amounts to 20% of Shandong's capacity, made up of more than 60 small plants. The Shandong government, which has yet to make public any details of the restructuring, did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. (Graphic: Teapot refineries in China's Shandong province (updated), https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/ygdvzqjlnpw/teapot%20SD.jpg) 'DEAD SERIOUS' Wang Zhao, senior analyst with consultancy Sublime Information Group, said Shandong will first target plants of less than 60,000 bpd, especially those with financial losses, out of about a dozen that have shown interest in compensation. "The government is dead serious about restructuring, but its execution hinges on how smoothly the relevant parties reach a deal on compensation," said Wang, who is based in Shandong's Zibo city. Story continues The first closures would include Binyang Ranhua, Zhonghai Jingxi Chemical, Yuhuang Chemical and Jinshi Asphalt, with combined crude distillation capacity of just over 200,000 bpd, Wang said. A separate Shandong oil source, who asked not to be named, shared the view. The semi-official China Chemical News reported last week the Shandong government has asked creditors of the targeted plants, mostly state-run banks, to stop chasing debt repayments and urged compensation to be prioritised for relocating workers and investing in new projects. Jinshi Asphalt, a bitumen-producing unit with capacity to refine 20,000 bpd of crude, based in Binzhou, northern Shandong, is expected to start closing imminently. "We've received the first payment as compensation to shut down our crude oil unit," a manager, who declined to be named because of company policy, told Reuters. "Dismantling will start soon." He did not specify the amount of compensation. Shandong sources said the government had proposed last year a fee of 800 yuan for each tonne of capacity, taking the total expense to 20 billion yuan ($2.82 billion) for closing 500,000-bpd. Binyang Ranhua, also based in Binzhou, has agreed to dismantle its 88,000 bpd unit, and will channel the funding into new chemical units, a plant executive said. Of the others expected to be among the first to close, Zhonghai Jingxi Chemical declined to comment and Yuhuang Chemical could not be reached for comment. NOT ALL KEEN TO TAKE THE CASH Some refiners are reluctant to shut capacity. "We were all legal entities when we started, and our plant is running well. Why should we close down?" said an executive with a refiner based in Dongying on Shandong's northern coast. Shandong in any case is expected to proceed with caution. "The main preoccupation for local authorities is likely to be employment and tax revenue, so protecting these through the consolidation process will be the top priority," Michal Meidan, director of the China Energy Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said. (Graphic: China's mega-sized oil refineries with annual refining capacity over 10 million tonnes, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/xegvbybgdpq/China's%20mega-sized%20refineries.jpg) (Graphic: Utilisation rates at Chinese oil refineries in 2012-2019, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/qzjvqjylapx/utilisation%20rate%20at%20Chinese%20refineries.JPG) (Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Muyu Xu; editing by Barbara Lewis) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 8) The Department of Education on Monday complied with President Rodrigo Duterte's directive to postpone face-to-face classes until a vaccine for COVID-19 becomes available. Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the department is ready to take on the challenges of offering alternatives to physical classes, such as online and "blended" learning. "Hindi pa pwedeng ang face-to-face learning so blended approach muna. Mukhang masarap, mukhang epektibo at mag-eenjoy ang mga bata," she said in a media briefing. [Translation: Face-to-face learning is not yet allowed so we will take a blended approach. It looks better and more effective and students will enjoy this kind of learning.] Online classes will be tapped if gadgets and a stable internet connection is available. Briones cited that 87 percent of teachers surveyed said they have computers at home. She added that the DepEd is also convincing the private sector to donate gadgets rather than the usual school bag and supplies during the annual Brigada Eskwela. But in areas with slow internet connection and lack of personal gadgets, the delivery of lessons could be done through the use of television, radio, and learning modules and packets both in print and digital format. "Kailangan i-adjust natin ito sa sitwasyon ng eskwelahan kung ano ang pangangailangan, ano ang estado ng mga bata, mag-aadjust ang teacher at ang school. Halimbawa, ang approach for NCR, iba ang magiging approach to a remote island or mountain. Depende sa availability ng communication," the secretary said. [Translation: We have to adjust the mode of learning based on the needs and what is available. The teachers and school will adapt. The approach for far-flung areas will be different from the approach used in Metro Manila. It will depend on what mode of communication is available.] Duterte has reiterated that he wants face-to-face classes postponed until there is a vaccine so students can safely go to their classes. Some 6.4 million students have enrolled for the 2020-2021 school year. Briones believes DepEd will be ready for "blended learning" when classes resume again, insisting the concept has been in place since decades ago. 'We have nearly three months. We have been preparing from the time na nag-community lockdown [that we started the community lockdown]. We already saw the direction of policy kaya [so] we have been preparing since March... We are not inventing anything new kaya ang readiness ay importante [so readiness is important]," she said. DepEd earlier released the calendar for the next school year, with classes slated to begin this August 24, and expected to end in April 2021. The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases previously recommended moving the opening of classes to September to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. The bill seeking to give the President the power to move the school year opening beyond August during a state of emergency is now up for Duterte's signature. Story Highlights 17% strongly agree their alma mater is passionate about mental health Public, not-for-profit school alums more likely to say alma mater is passionate WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Amid the global coronavirus pandemic, colleges and universities have rallied to provide virtual mental health services for students battling anxiety and depression. Yet, before the pandemic, only 17% of recent graduates strongly agreed that their alma mater is passionate about the mental health of its students. Alumni Rate Alma Mater's Passion for Students' Mental Health On a scale of 1 to 5, in which 1 means strongly disagree and 5 means strongly agree, please rate your level of agreement with the following statement: [University] is passionate about the mental health of its students. Recent graduates % Strongly agree 17 4 28 3 26 2 10 Strongly disagree 4 Does not include the 16% of respondents who answered "Don't know" GALLUP ALUMNI SURVEY, OCT. 24-NOV. 7, 2019 These results are based on interviews conducted Oct. 24-Nov. 7, 2019, with 1,617 U.S. college graduates who completed their bachelor's degree between 2010 and 2019. Not-for-Profit Schools Viewed as More Passionate About Mental Health Recent graduates of public and private not-for-profit schools are more than twice as likely as alumni from private for-profit schools to strongly agree that their alma mater is passionate about students' mental health. Nonprofit Schools Viewed as More Passionate About Students' Mental Health On a scale of 1 to 5, in which 1 means strongly disagree and 5 means strongly agree, please rate your level of agreement with the following statement: [University] is passionate about the mental health of its students. Public Private not-for-profit Private for-profit % % % Strongly agree 17 19 7 4 27 30 15 3 27 26 25 2 9 10 6 Strongly disagree 3 3 13 Does not include the percentages of respondents who answered "Don't know" GALLUP ALUMNI SURVEY, OCT. 24-NOV. 7, 2019 This suggests that private for-profit universities, which serve higher rates of nontraditional students who are more likely to study on a part-time basis, have room for improvement in the provision of mental health resources. Notably, school size does not affect graduates' views on this matter. Recent graduates from the largest schools (20,000 or more students) are about as likely as those from the smallest schools (fewer than 1,000 students) to believe that their alma mater is passionate about mental health. There is also no clear pattern among schools of intermediate size. Faculty Relationships Linked to Perceptions of Mental Health Outlook Graduates who perceive their professors as empathetic have rosier views of mental health attitudes on campus. Alumni who strongly agree that their professors cared about them "as a person" are three times more likely to also strongly agree that their school is passionate about students' mental health. Mentorship matters too. Recent graduates who strongly agree that they had a mentor who encouraged them to pursue their goals and dreams are more than twice as likely to also strongly agree that their school handles mental health issues with vigor. Implications Nearly 45% of U.S. college students were treated for anxiety or depression during the 2018-2019 academic year, according to the American College Health Association. Building a robust network of mental health support -- including a reliable teletherapy practice -- to treat these students is even more important in the wake of COVID-19. Students' views of their school's attitude toward mental health are also tied to experiences with faculty that fall outside a formal counseling network. These experiences leave a lasting impact, as students with mentors and caring professors are almost twice as likely to be thriving in their wellbeing as adults. In addition, those who strongly agree that their institution is passionate about its students' mental health are more likely to strongly agree that their school prepared them well for life after college and that their education was worth the cost. As a result, prioritizing students' mental health needs can provide cascading benefits for universities and students alike. During a public health crisis, caring for students' mental health has become even more vital. Learn more about the Gallup Alumni Survey. Learn more about Gallup Education. Brisbane City Council's LNP administration has been urged to advocate for the coronavirus-boosted JobSeeker rate to be retained to stop more residents falling into poverty. Australian Unemployed Workers' Union's Jeremy Poxon addressed Tuesday's council meeting, asking councillors to advocate for a "permanent and much-needed raise" to the JobSeeker - formerly Newstart - payment. Jeremy Poxon, pictured in Canberra last year. Credit:Elesa Kurtz "This is something I'm calling on Brisbane City Council to do today, as soon as possible," Mr Poxon said. "To put up a motion to start publicly advocating for all the residents here who are subsisting on the JobSeeker rate who are terrified of what's going to happen if and when the federal government dumps us back to $40 a day, because we know what's going to happen." Individual boulders on steep slopes and cliffs can slide, roll, and bounce into the valley below, a process known as rockfall. This happens with boulders on Earth and on the Moon. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany and ETH Zurich have analyzed an archive of more than two million images of the lunar surface and present the first global map of rockfalls on the Moon in today's edition of Nature Communications. Their analyses show that impacts, not moonquakes, appear to drive the displacement of lunar boulders - and that billion-year-old landscapes are still evolving. In October 2015, a spectacular rockfall occurred in the Swiss Alps: in the late morning hours, a large, snow-covered block with a volume of more than 1500 cubic meters suddenly detached from the summit of Mel de la Niva. It fell apart on its way downslope, but a number of boulders continued their journey into the valley. One of the large boulders came to a halt at the foot of the summit next to a mountain hut, after travelling more than 1.4 kilometers and cutting through woods and meadows. On the Moon, time and again boulders and blocks of rock travel downslope, leaving behind impressive tracks, a phenomenon that has been observed since the first unmanned flights to the Moon in the 1960s. During the Apollo missions, astronauts examined a few such tracks on site and returned displaced rock block samples to Earth. However, until a few years ago, it remained difficult to gain an overview of how widespread such rock movements are and where exactly they occur. "The vast majority of displaced boulders on the Moon have a diameter of between seven and ten meters," explains Valentin Bickel of MPS and ETH Zurich, first author of the new study. "Earlier space probes that have studied the Moon were unable to detect such small features on a global scale," he adds. It was not until 2010, with the launch of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, that imagery of the entire lunar surface, with the necessary spatial resolution and coverage, has been available. In recent months, Bickel has searched through an archive of more than two million of these images. Not manually, of course. Instead, he has deployed a search algorithm that is driven by a neural network that gradually learns to recognize the typical tracks of rockfalls in satellite images. The result is a map of the lunar surface between 80 degrees northern and southern latitude that shows 136,610 rockfalls with diameters of more than two and a half meters. "For the first time, this map enables us to systematically analyze the occurrence and causes of rockfalls on another celestial body", says Dr. Urs Mall from MPS. Previously, scientists had assumed that lunar quakes in particular were responsible for the displacement of boulders. The new global map of rockfalls indicates that impacts from asteroids may play a much more important role. They are apparently - directly or indirectly - responsible for more than 80 percent of all observed rockfalls. "Most of the rockfalls are found near crater walls," says Prof. Dr. Simon Loew of ETH Zurich. Some of the boulders are displaced soon after the impact, others much later. The researchers hypothesize that impacts cause a network of cracks that extend in the underlying bedrock. Parts of the surface can thus become unstable even after very long periods of time. Surprisingly, even in the oldest lunar landscapes, i.e. in the areas of the pre-imbrian period, which formed up to 4 billion years ago or even earlier, traces of rockfall events can be found. Since such imprints would typically disappear after a few million years, these surfaces are apparently still subject to erosion through rockfall, even billions of years after they were formed. "Apparently, impacts influence and modify the geology of a region over very, very long time scales," says Bickel. The results also suggest that very old surfaces on other airless bodies such as Mercury or the large asteroid Vesta may still be evolving as well. Where rockfalls are not related to craters, a seismic or volcanic origin is likely. For example, the researchers found rockfalls near tectonic fractures and volcanic vents. The new global map can thus help to identify currently unknown seismically active regions. For future robotic or even crewed missions to the Moon, such regions could turn out to be potentially challenging. Impacts drive lunar rockfalls over billions of years, Nature Communications https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16653-3 Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. This recognition is a result of a lot of hard work, hustle and focus on delivering exceptional service to our clients by our dedicated team of digital marketing and tech PR professionals." - Leah Nurik, founder and CEO of Gabriel Marketing Group. Gabriel Marketing Group (GMG), the industrys leading technology marketing and public relations agency for disruptive high-growth companies, today announced it received two ACQ5 Global Awards from ACQ magazine. For the fourth year in a row, GMG was named "U.S. Boutique Communications Firm of the Year, Technology, and its founder and CEO, Leah Nurik, received the 2020 U.S. Marketing Executive of the Year award. This recognition is a result of a lot of hard work, hustle and focus on delivering exceptional service to our clients by our dedicated team of digital marketing and tech PR professionals, said Nurik. As we continue to look for additional and new growth paths in the changing global climate, these two awards inspire us to renew our commitment to be a strategic partner to our clients, helping them communicate their vision and grow their market share through fulfilling their corporate missions. The ACQ5 Global Awards program recognizes institutions and individuals that demonstrate leadership, innovation and momentum in the markets in which they excel. Since 2006, the ACQ has been celebrating achievement, innovation and brilliance in their annual award programs. ACQ5 Global Awards decisions are based on peer nominations and extensive year-round research into the markets in all global regions. Under Nuriks leadership, GMG continues to focus on growth and the delivery of market-leading growth marketing and public relations services while serving a wide spectrum of diverse clients, from emerging startups to established global enterprises, across a multitude of industries including SaaS, cybersecurity, fintech, healthcare, nonprofit tech, telecommunications and retail some of which continue to flourish in their markets, while others successfully exited through profitable acquisitions. Nurik has been widely recognized for her contributions and has received numerous industry awards, including being named CEO of the Year for Boutique PR Agencies, receiving multiple Stevie awards for Women in Business and being named to PR News prestigious One to Watch list. DC Inno also recognized her as one of Washington D.C.s 50 on Fire. In 2016, Nurik was honored as a SmartCEO BRAVA Award winner for her dynamic involvement in the D.C. tech community and charitable contributions. These two awards add to Expertise.com naming GMG one of the Best Marketing Consultants in Washington, D.C. and Best PR Firms in Washington, D.C. for 2020, the second year in a row for the dual honors from Expertise.com. GMG also won a 2020 Gold Communicator Award in the B2B Integrated Campaign category for its digital advertising, digital marketing and PR campaign for User1st, a provider of advanced software solutions for digital accessibility. For more information about Gabriel Marketing Group, visit https://www.gabrielmarketing.com/. About Gabriel Marketing Group Gabriel Marketing Group (GMG) is a Growth Marketing and Public Relations firm that caters almost exclusively to high-growth technology companies looking to increase market awareness and rapidly grow sales through the strategic planning and execution of highly effective marketing, public relations, branding and communications programs. GMGs services include award-winning public and analyst relations as well as market strategy consulting, digital marketing, advertising, SEO, marketing automation and content development and implementation. Over the past 6 years, GMG has been repeatedly recognized for its work with top industry accolades including multiple Stevies, Communicators, MarComs and Daveys, among others. GMG has also landed on DCs 50on Fire List and was named one of the Best Places to Work by the Washington Business Journal. GMG is a Gold Certified HubSpot Agency Partner and a proud member of the Eurocom Worldwide Global PR Network. To learn more about GMG and its services, visit https://www.gabrielmarketing.com/ or follow on Twitter @GabrielMrktg. Street Vendors Shatter CCP Lies Chinese Premier Li Keqiangi recently made a speech on Chinas economy at the Two Sessions meeting in Beijing, and one of the highlights of his speech was to praise the street vendor economy in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. Chinese state media quickly followed up by reporting fabricated stories of people getting rich quick by selling second-hand Audis or Mercedes. But Chinese netizens quickly pointed out the ridiculous lies. They left comments saying, The promotion of the street vendor economy is because Chinas economy is in an awful situation. Currently the unemployment rate is very high. Chinese authorities have no other choice but to allow more people to engage in street selling. But Lis speech may have some positive impact. Chinas Urban Management team has been bullying street vendors for years. Now that Li has advocated for street sales as a state leader, it may have some restraining effects on the Urban Management officers. In a video taken on June 2, a street vendor described her life and burst into tears. Female vendor: I was here selling on the street yesterday, but I did not have any sales. It was because the Urban Management Officers targeted me and took pictures of me as warnings. They threw away the dragonfruit jelly I made. Today, although it is raining, I am surprised that I was able to sell five orders of jelly. I am content with that. I dont know why I feel like crying. I feel that life is too tough! A visitor wearing a face mask poses as he attends the "Meet Vicent Van Gogh" exhibition, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Lisbon, Portugal, - RAFAEL MARCHANTE/REUTERS The only joint letter from Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin in which the Dutch post-impressionist recounts their visits to French brothels is expected to sell for up to 250,000 at an auction in Paris next week. Addressed to fellow painter Emile Bernard, another key figure in the Post-Impressionist movement, the letter was handwritten by the two artists across four pages. The unique note is expected to sell for 180,000 to 250,000. Dated November 1888, it was penned shortly after Van Gogh produced some of his best-known works, including "Bedroom in Arles", "Van Gogh's Chair" and much of his famed "Sunflowers" series. It was written in Arles, the French town where the Dutch painter had been staying since February of that year. Gauguin had just joined him when the letter was sent. The pair had met in Paris two years earlier. Van Gogh starts the letter with a description of his friend as an "unspoiled creature with the instincts of a wild beast". "With Gauguin, blood and sex have the edge over ambition," he wrote. He was "more amorous and benevolent than the decadent and exhausted Parisian man-about-town," he added, before recounting some of the pair's recent painting trips. Two Tahitian Women', oil on canvas, 94 x 72.4 cm, by Paul Gauguin, 1899, - The Metropolitan Museum of Art "We've made some excursions in the brothels, and it's likely that we'll eventually go there often to work," he continued. "At the moment Gauguin has a canvas in progress of the same night cafe that I also painted, but with figures seen in the brothels. It promises to become a beautiful thing." Gauguin then takes over on the following two pages with a shorter note to say: "Don't listen to Vincent... "As you know, he's prone to admire and ditto to be indulgent." Van Gogh paid frequent visits to brothels throughout his life. He even delivered his severed ear to a maison close, as the French called them, after his notorious act of self-harm. The moment of madness effectively ended his friendship with Gauguin. Story continues The Dutch painter depicted scenes from inside brothels and produced portraits of several prostitutes including Sien Hoornik, a seamstress with whom he had a relationship in the early 1880s. French auction house Drouot Estimations wrote that despite the letter's "fragility," the item is "exceptional for the extraordinary meeting of two immense painters but also for the lucidity and the certainty that their painting will revolutionize the art of future generations." Next Tuesday's sale will also feature other correspondence written by Gauguin, including letters to both his wife and an unknown lover. Bac Giang, Vietnam -- Hundreds of lychee farmers sorted and graded huge piles of the tropical fruit at a busy wholesale market in northern Vietnam on Tuesday, but many bemoaned slumping prices as foreign traders were held up in quarantine. After mounting an aggressive response to the coronavirus pandemic, life in the country is back to relative normality and workers clustered together mask-free at dawn in Bac Giang province, their motorbikes fitted with baskets overflowing with the sweet fruit. The Southeast Asian nation usually exports around 100,000 tonnes of fresh lychees worth more than $30 million -- mostly to China but to Japan, Australia and the US too -- each season. But business is down this year as Vietnam keeps its borders shut. "Because of the pandemic, we aren't seeing Chinese traders and we mostly sell to domestic traders so the price is very low," Nguyen Van Thanh, 35, told AFP, adding that half his haul ends up overseas in a normal year. Foreign buyers tend to come directly to the market -- just a few hours drive from the Chinese border -- during the fruit's short six-week season. Already a major coffee, rice and catfish exporter, Vietnam has in recent years turned its attention to fruit. Photo: AFP But state media reported last week several hundred from China and Japan had been quarantined for 14 days. Despite authorities saying they would promote domestic consumption, prices have dropped to half of what they were last year. "We have worked hard the whole year... but this is not enough to live on," said farmer Do Van Toan, 47, who estimated he would earn not more than $4000 this season. Already a major coffee, rice and catfish exporter, Vietnam has in recent years turned its attention to fruit. Last year it exported $3.76 billion worth of fruit and vegetables. So far, Vietnam has officially recorded only 332 cases of the coronavirus, and no deaths. Although some of its borders are open for goods, foreigners -- save some specialists and highly-skilled workers -- are not permitted to enter. On Tuesday Hanoi said it would look to resume flights with "safe zones" -- places that had no new cases for 30 days. Mumbai, June 9 : Varun Dhawan has appealed to all to help the doctors, police force and frontline workers amid the COVID 19 pandemic. Citing example of the Spanish flu pandemic, which affected the world exactly 100 years ago, the actor said we all must take responsibility. "1920 and 2020. The world has been through this before. We have to help our doctors, police force and front line warriors. Based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data. India 2020 population is estimated at 1,380,004,385 people at mid year according to UN data. India population is equivalent to 17.7% of the total world population. We all have to take responsibility," shared Varun Dhawan on Instagram. The actor shared several photographs from the time of the Spanish flu. In one photo it can be seen that a cinema theatre has been shut down as per the order of the mayor. Another picture shows a tram with a poster which reads: "Spit spreads death". Varun Dhawan's appeal to the public comes at a time when India is going through a phased opening of the lockdown. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 21:04:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on June 9, 2020 shows oriental white storks in their nest at a coastal wetland in Fengnan District of Tangshan, north China's Hebei Province. Eight oriental white stork couples had nested at the wetland and incubated 17 nestlings here. The oriental white stork is under first-class national protection in China and listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao) GSEB Gujarat Board 10th Result 2020 Declared: This year, 60.64 percent students cleared the Gujarat state board's Class 10 examination. GSEB Gujarat Board 10th Result 2020 Declared | This year, 60.64 percent students cleared the Gujarat state board's Class 10 examination, the result of which was declared on Tuesday. With 66.02 pass percentage, girls fared better than boys in the GSEB SSC 2020 exam declared by the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB) today. Among boys, the pass percentage was 56.53. This year a total of 1,671 students got 90% which was a drop of 3,303 students as compared to last year. Among districts, Surat has emerged as the the highest performing region once again with 74.66 pass percentage. In 2019, Surat had become the highest performing region with 79.63 percent pass percentage. Students who appeared for the Gujarat Board Class 10 exam can check their scores on the official website of GSEB at www.gseb.org. In 2019, the pass percentage of SSC exam was 66.97 percent as girls outperformed boys with 72.64 percent. The pass percentage among boys was 62.83 percent. In Gujarati medium, 64.97 percent students had cleared the examination, while 72.66 percent students passed in the Hindi medium. As many as 366 schools in the state have scored 100 percent result. However, 63 schools had 0 percent result. To check live results of GSEB Class 10 2020 exam, students may enter their log-in details in our widget given below. Surat had become the highest performing region with 79.63 percent pass percentage in 2019. However, Chhota Udaipur became the least performing region with 46.38 students clearing the exam. Here is how you can check your GSEB SSC result: Step 1: Visit the official website of Gujarat board www.gseb.org Step 2: On the homepage, click on the link that says 'Class 10 SSC Results 2020' Step 3: Fill seat number at the result page Step 4: Hit 'submit' button Step 5: Your GSEB Class 10 Result 2020 will appear online Step 6: Download the results and take a print out for future references However, due to many students trying to access their scores, the official website is likely to experience a heavy traffic. Similarly, alternative options can be accessed if they are facing logging in issues. Websites like examresults.net, results.nic.in and indiaresults.com will also display the GSEB SSC results. If the internet is down in general or all the websites cited above act unresponsive, there is no need to worry. Students will also be able to check their scores on their mobile phone via SMS service. How to check result via SMS To receive GSEB SSC exam results on your mobile phone, send an SMS in the format SSC SEAT NUMBER to 56263. This year, the GSEB SSC exams were held between 5 and 17 March and over 11 lakh students appeared for the exam across 1,548 centres. When Amy Cooper a Canadian white woman apologized for calling the American police on an African-American man for asking her to put her dog on a leash she said the three most damning words possible: Im not racist. If you are white like me, you have almost certainly said those words if not aloud, then inside your own head. Whether or not we see ourselves as individuals who would call the police on a birdwatching Black man, as white people, when the topic of race is raised we are often obsessed with a quiet fear: am I racist? No, no we tell ourselves. We are nice to our Black colleagues. We love our Black friends. We have never actively objected to BLM movements. We donated to that anti-racist thing that one time. We really liked Octavia Spencer in that movie you know the one. We smiled at a Black guy on the street the other day, remember? No, no we are not racist. Heres the thing, fellow white people: it doesnt matter if we are or think we are not racist. The question should not be am I racist? but how am I racist? Or, more precisely, how have I been comfortable continuing to benefit from systemic racism? Amy Coopers Im not racist may seem more benign than horrific images of police violence, but one upholds the other. One sustains and allows the other. The white insistence of Im not racist and the police brutality that killed Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and countless others are part of the same fabric the same vast knit of racism and white supremacy that holds both Canada and America together. In the wake of racial justice issues having what appear to be a watershed political moment, many of us white people are falling over ourselves with anxiety to suddenly be seen doing something to show that we personally are not part of the problem. If we desire to act now for racial justice that is good. But a crucial part of that action is reflecting on how and why we have not acted until now. We need to ask ourselves why we are both terrified of being seen as racist and suddenly very eager to visibly prove we are not. Why are we so very afraid of simply being called out on our internalized racism or ignorance or inaction when Black people are regularly afraid for their lives and are still going out to fight? Why, when the political moment is hot, do we suddenly feel possessed with the need to jump from lifetimes of passivity and inaction to being Visible Important Actors? The truth is that its because if we can feel that we are truly not racist and particularly if we can get people of colour to validate us in that feeling then we can feel absolved of our guilt that comes from knowing either consciously or deep-down that whatever hardships we may have suffered would likely have been a thousand times worse if we had been born Black or Indigenous in this country. Wanting to be not racist is of course better than being actively racist, but, hey, maybe we should all aim a bit higher than just not being a Nazi. At the very least, we should not pat ourselves on the back and feel absolved of the responsibility to act in service of racial justice for the mere fact that we personally are not actively racist. Just as crucial is that we not ask Black friends, colleagues, or public figures to help us help. They have more important things to do right now including giving themselves a break from all this trauma than suddenly get us caught up to speed on something they have been forced to deal with their whole lives. Our role in this struggle is not in the spotlight it is to keep the curtain open and help ensure the spotlight stays on. Our role is to listen and learn. It is to shine a light on others who have been doing this work for decades. Above all, ours is a role of humility a role that requires long hours and days and years and lifetimes of reckoning with uncomfortable reflections and feelings. It is a role that requires us to ask not how can I do this right? but how can I learn to keep humbly trying when I will inevitably do this wrong? The Coalition of Muslim Organizations, Ghana (COMOG) has called for a dialogue among all political parties and the Electoral Commission (EC) to reach a consensus that will ensure a credible process towards election 2020 and beyond. This, it said, would be in the best interest of the citizens of Ghana and the international community and ensure that the 2020 election would be peaceful, free and fair. More so, it said, this would enable the outside world continue to recognize Ghana and ensure that the nation remains a beacon of democracy on the African continent. This was contained in a statement issued in Accra by Mr Mawuli Mustapha Braimah, the Chairman, COMOG Media, PR and Research Committee, and copied to the Ghana News Agency. It said COMOG considers it important to add its voice to the current impasse between the EC and other stakeholders. Ghana's presidential and parliamentary elections are six months away but the political environment in the country is filled with tension with the main stakeholders divided on the process to compile a New Biometric Voter Register. Already the main opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the country has taken the electoral commission to the apex court to get the EC to include the existing valid voter's card and the birth certificate as elements of proof of nationality to be accepted for the impending compilation of new voter's register. It said in past months, COMOG has witnessed heightened tension and actions by other nonpolitical interest groups voicing out their concerns on the standoff among the EC, NIA, NDC, the ruling party New Patriotic Party and the Inter-Party Coalition Against New Voter's Register (IPRAN). COMOG has also heard the two former presidents of Ghana J. J. Rawlings and J. A. Kuffour, legal experts, political scientists and Civil Social Organizations adding their voices to the call for adequate dialogue. "It is the fervent hope of COMOG to see the EC, the NDC and other stakeholders resolve their differences amicably to restore hope and confidence in the electoral system of Ghana," it said. 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 BANGUI, Central African Republic A Sudanese militia leader who is charged with 50 crimes against humanity and war crimes related to the conflict in Darfur, has been arrested more than 13 years after a warrant was issued for him, the authorities said Tuesday. Ali Kushayb, the militia leader, surrendered to the authorities in a remote corner of northern Central African Republic, near the countrys border with Sudan, the International Criminal Court spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said. The court said in a statement that it was detaining Mr. Kushayb, but didnt immediately elaborate on where he was being held. In the Darfur conflict, rebels from the territorys ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. The government responded with a scorched-earth assault of aerial bombings and unleashed militias known as the janjaweed, who are accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes. The number of reported coronavirus cases in India rose 8.1 percent over the last two days to 266,598, latest data from the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) showed. This is slightly slower than the pace in the previous 48-hour period, when the number of cases went up 8.8 percent. The death toll has reached 7,466, after increasing 7.8 percent over the last two days. The number had risen 9.2 percent in the preceding 48 hours. The death count in India has nearly doubled in the last seventeen days. The number of infections is now twice what it was sixteen days ago, and given the rate of growth in this period, could hit the 300,000-mark by Friday. The continuing rise in cases poses a severe challenge for Indias strained medical capacity and overburdened health system. Despite a much slower case doubling rate than earlier in the outbreak, new infections and deaths are now rising faster in India than in most other badly-hit countries. Among countries with death counts greater than 4,000, India has recorded the second fastest increase in deaths over the past week and the biggest spike in confirmed cases. At 3,169 deaths, Maharashtra has the highest toll in the country so far due to covid-19, followed by Gujarat (1,280), Delhi (874), Madhya Pradesh (414), and West Bengal (405). These five states have recorded 82 percent of all covid-related deaths in India so far. Deaths have surged the most in Haryana, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu in the last seven days. The case fatality rates vary widely. At 6.2 percent, Gujarat has the worst fatality rate, followed by West Bengal, where 4.7 percent of those who tested positive for coronavirus have died. Madhya Pradesh is next with 4.3 percent. Indias case fatality rate is now 2.8 percent. Among all states that have had deaths, the case fatality rates are the lowest in Assam (0.1%), Odisha (0.3%), and Chhattisgarh (0.3%). It is worth noting that data quality on cases and deaths vary across countries and regions because of factors such as differences in testing standards, and in protocols being followed for recording covid-related deaths. Maharashtra has 44,384 patients still under treatment, the most in the country, followed by Delhi with 17,712 and Tamil Nadu with 15,416 active cases. Gujarat is fourth on the list with 5,309 active cases and West Bengal fifth with 4,743 cases. Out of the 129,917 active cases in India as of Tuesday morning, the top five states together have 67 percent and the top ten states account for 80 percent. Active cases exclude deaths and recoveries from the list of confirmed cases. As many as 129,215 patients have now been discharged in India. Among the ten states with most active cases, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, and Karnataka have seen the highest percentage spike over the past seven days. Among districts, Mumbai, Chennai, Thane, Ahmedabad, and Pune have seen the biggest jump in confirmed cases in the last two days. These five districts account for 40 percent of the new cases over this period, data compiled by howindialives.com last evening shows. Other districts that have seen a sharp spike over the past two days are Gurugram in Haryana, Hyderabad in Telangana, and Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu. View Full Image Source: MoHFW, state health ministries, national/regional publications View Full Image Source: NDMA, state health ministries, national/regional publications So far, 325 districts have had deaths in the country. Mumbai (1,702 deaths) has reported the most deaths among all districts, followed by Ahmedabad (1,039) in Gujarat, Pune (410) and Thane (353) in Maharashtra, and Kolkata (260) in West Bengal. These five districts now account for 58 percent of deaths in the country. Chennai (233) in Tamil Nadu, Indore (156) in Madhya Pradesh, Jaipur (115) in Rajasthan, Jalgaon (115) in Maharashtra, and Solapur (110) in Maharashtra are the other districts with the highest tolls. The top ten districts account for 69 percent of all the deaths nationally. District-wise data for Delhi are unavailable and hence not part of this list. The number of coronavirus infections is likely to keep increasing in the coming days, as Indias testing numbers continue to grow. According to the Indian Council for Medical Research, over 49.16 lakh samples have been tested so far, including 1.42 lakh in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, the global coronavirus case count has crossed 7.1 million, with over 400,000 deaths, and more than 3.2 million recoveries. 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!! North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. His country has vowed to cut off communications with South Korea over political leaflets sent across the two countries border (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP) North Korea says it will cut off all communication channels with South Korea as it escalates pressure on Seoul for failing to stop activists floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border. The Norths Korean Central News Agency said it would be the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with south Korea and get rid of unnecessary things. KNCA said all cross-border communication lines would be cut off on Tuesday at noon local time. The South Korean authorities connived at the hostile acts against (North Korea) by the riff-raff, while trying to dodge heavy responsibility with nasty excuses, KCNA said. In recent days, North Korea has increasingly expressed its anger over the leafleting by threatening to permanently shut down a liaison office with South Korea and a jointly run factory park, and to nullify a 2018 inter-Korean tension-reduction agreement. Expand Close North Koreas relations with South Korea and the US have been strained of late (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp North Koreas relations with South Korea and the US have been strained of late (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP) The North Korean threats come amid a prolonged deadlock in its broader nuclear diplomacy with the US, which has subsequently led to the straining of inter-Korean ties. South Korea made no immediate response to the North Korean announcement. It has recently said it will push for new legal steps to ban activists from launching leaflets in an attempt to save faltering ties with North Korea, but the North claims that response lacks sincerity. The leafleting has been a long-running source of tensions between the two Koreas. In recent years, North Korean defectors and conservative activists have floated huge balloons carrying leaflets criticising North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over his nuclear ambitions and abysmal human rights record. The North, which bristles at any outside attempt to undermine the Kim leadership, has often made a furious response to the South Korean government. South Korea has typically let activists launch such balloons, citing their rights to exercise freedom of speech, but it sometimes sent police officers to stop them from floating leaflets in times of tensions with North Korea. NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Industry veteran Caroline Abramo, Founder & CIO of Pana LCE, has confirmed the launch of the Pana Low Carbon Economy ("LCE") Platform, providing institutional and private investors access to Pana's proprietary investment process across the ESG landscape. Pana LCE's mission is to provide risk-adjusted absolute returns through targeted investments in businesses that are committed to an LCE. A certified WBE Women's Business Enterprise, Pana LCE adheres to UNPRI, SDG, IFC Impact, GRESB, and SASB certification requirements and principles. "I started Pana LCE as a manifestation of my life's work," Ms. Abramo said. "Preserving the earth's limited resources demands transitioning capital to an LCE. I've arrived at this conclusion supported by nearly 30 years of research as a commodity trader and investor through cycles including peak oil, the US shale revolution, trade wars, subsidies, and the ever-present uncertainties of weather, geopolitics, and now a global pandemic." Pana LCE is based in New York City and boasts a full team of research analysts and portfolio managers serving family offices, endowments and global institutions. The Pana LCE team has experience spanning four decades in real asset investments, within their target sectors of agriculture, energy, water, and waste. Anchored by personal capital, Pana LCE expects to soft close at $2B Assets Under Management. Ms. Abramo states that while investors previously haven't had the data to support the thesis that an ESG portfolio could outperform a multi-asset portfolio exposed to similar sectors, Pana LCE has "proven that altruism and capitalism are not mutually exclusive." "The ESG investing space has matured considerably since the 2000s, when it was seen as 'nice to have,'" notes Michelle McCloskey, former President of Americas for Man Group and Senior advisor to Pana LCE. "ESG is now being seen more clearly as both an opportunity and a definitive risk if ignored. Altruism or not, ESG investments have the growth potential to be an essential and highly performing element when evaluating all types of securities." SOURCE Pana LCE Port of New Orleans terminals were closed Monday after Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall near Grand Isle, Louisiana, on Sunday evening. Although the storm had been downgraded to a tropical depression and moved east on Monday, terminals were closed "given the continued heavy rainfall and uncertainty of rain and wind conditions," said Renee Aragon Dolese, Port NOLA's director of marketing and communications. She said Port NOLA expected normal business operations at the New Orleans Terminal and Ports America container terminals and all breakbulk terminals to resume Tuesday. The U.S. Coast Guard had closed the Lower Mississippi River to vessel traffic at 10 p.m. Saturday. The Coast Guard conducted an assessment after the storm passed and reopened the Lower Mississippi to navigation effective 1:15 p.m. Monday. There was no damage reported at Port NOLA facilities. Texas Port Houston reported normal operations on Monday. Lisa Ashley, Port Houston's director of media relations, did say there will be an International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) work stoppage from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday "to show respect to George Floyd and support for unity, justice and equality." Floyd, whose death while in police custody in Minneapolis sparked protests across the country, will be buried in Houston on Tuesday. The ILA and the U.S. Maritime Alliance announced that a "peaceful protest hour" will be conducted Tuesday at all ports from Maine to Texas. At Port Freeport in Texas on Monday, all vessel and terminal operations were being conducted normally. Mobile, Alabama Port of Mobile bar pilot operations remained suspended Monday. "The bar pilots suspended deep-draft operations on Saturday night at 8:12 p.m. CDT due to high seas at the sea buoy," said Judith Adams, Alabama State Port Authority (ASPA) vice president of marketing. Adams said as of midmorning Monday, two container ships and one neo-bulk vessel were waiting to enter the port and one roll-on/roll-off ship and a crude carrier were waiting to depart. Story continues "This vessel backlog is considered to be rather low in numbers, meaning this backlog can be quickly cleared once pilot operations resume," she said. Adams said Port of Mobile terminals remained open Monday except during bouts of rain, when general cargo operations are suspended, and wind. "Bulk, neo-bulk and container gantry cranes will stop operations in winds that exceed 25-30 mph," she said. "Despite cessation of some operations, our employees admin and shift [workers] are on the job and there is no damage to note at facilities." Nick Austin, FreightWaves' senior meteorologist, said 5.56 inches of rain pounded Mobile on Sunday. Although Cristobal had weakened to a tropical depression with sustained winds of 35 mph, heavy rainfall continued across the lower Mississippi Valley on Monday. APM Terminals Mobile said to accommodate the planned ILA observance in honor of Floyd its in-gate processing will be closed from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday. "This will allow the staff to service all the trucks in the yard prior to the 12 p.m. closure," APM Terminals Mobile said in an announcement. "No out-gate transactions will occur from noon to 1 p.m." See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Alice Gabriel has been honored with the Seismological Society of America's (SSA) 2020 Charles F. Richter Early Career Award for her innovative research in earthquake rupture dynamics and tsunami genesis, among other topics, using physics-based models and high-performance computing. Gabriel, an assistant professor at the Institute of Geophysics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen, will receive the Richter Award at the 2021 SSA Annual Meeting. Gabriel is best known for her prolific research in earthquake physics, using high-performance computing to simulate large earthquakes. Her computational simulations are notable for their inclusion of complex rock responses and 3D fault geometry provided by real-world geophysical and geological investigations. In particular, her studies have focused on the influence of off-fault rock deformation and fault complexities such as roughness and segmentation on rupture properties. Her simulations of the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, the 2016 Kaikoura and the 2018 Sulawesi earthquakes, addressing the growth and seismic radiation of earthquakes under complex fault conditions, "have broad implications for seismic and tsunami hazard assessments," said Martin Mai of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, who nominated Gabriel for the award. Gabriel is also known for her work in developing and expanding SeisSol, the most advanced open-source software package for earthquake source dynamics and seismic wave propagation. Gabriel and her students have collaborated with applied mathematicians and computer scientists to use SeisSol in computations that zero in on the small-scale processes taking place during rupture of large earthquakes. "By making SeisSol accessible to the whole community, Alice is enabling a new generation of computational earthquake dynamics studies seamlessly integrated into multi-disciplinary studies in seismology and tectonics," Mai said. For her extensive work on SeisSol and numerical modeling, Gabriel has been recognized for her outstanding work within the high-performance computing community as well as the seismological field. Among other honors, she was the 2020 PRACE Ada Lovelace Award for High Performance Computing recipient. The massive scale of her computational experiments has also made Gabriel a leader within large-scale collaborative research projects across Europe. She serves as a principal investigator for the Centre of Excellence for Exascale in Solid Earth (ChEESE), a project to integrate supercomputing centers and Earth science modeling and to prepare researchers for exascale computing in this research realm. Exascale computing refers to computers capable of performing at least one quintillion calculations per second. "Receiving this award is an incredible honor, and it is an even greater honor to be placed in a row with the inspiring past awardees contributing to advance seismology and the understanding of earthquakes for the benefit of society," said Gabriel. "In my personal view, being honored this year spotlights interdisciplinary research, from physics-based modeling to integrating multi-scale observations to supercomputing, as an important part of our seismological community." "I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the nomination committee and my team at LMU, my collaborators in Earth science and in computer science specifically at the Technical University Munich and funding agencies without whom this research would not be possible," she added. Gabriel received her bachelor's and master's degree in physics from Technical University Dresden, Germany, in 2008, and her Ph.D. in geophysics from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, in 2013. The Charles F. Richter Early Career Award honors outstanding contributions to the goals of the SSA by a member early in her or his career. Nominees must have been awarded their most recent academic degree no more than six years prior to April 18 of the year that she or he is selected for the award. ### Regional Medical reimbursement facility to be provided to all retired employees of HPBSE: Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur inaugurates Dharamshala Skyway Rains are likely in Punjab Haryana and Chandigarh on January 31 to 23 This is the heart-stopping moment unsuspecting restaurant workers are almost wiped out by an out-of-control SUV after it slammed into a drive-thru. Surveillance video showed the silver vehicle swerving off a nearby road before hitting a parked car and crashing through the wall of a Smoothie King in Fairfield, Ohio, shortly after 7pm on Friday June 6. Employees in the food prep area were hit with falling masonry, glass shards, and kitchen appliances which were uprooted on impact - but somehow managed to escape serious injury. Surveillance video shows asilver vehicle swerving off a nearby road before hitting a parked car and crashing through the wall of a Smoothie King in Fairfield, Ohio, shortly after 7pm on Friday June 6 The silver SUV smashes through the wall of the drive-thru restaurant and sends glass and plaster flying and uproots cooking appliances One worker suffered minor injuries and the driver of the SUV was cited for reckless operation, according to media reports. The suspected cause of the collision has not been revealed. Horrifying footage of the smash was leaked on social media this week and has since gone viral. It shows a black car pulling into the drive-thru of the Smoothie King and stopping at the service window. Suddenly, a silver SUV loses control on a bend in a nearby road and comes hurtling through the parking lot towards the juice bar. The vehicle hits a curb and launches into the air, hitting the black car before smashing through the wall of the drive-thru. The suspect - apparently unhurt by the collision - is seen getting out of the SUV and checking on the people in the other car and inside the restaurant. Security footage shows the out-of-control silver SUV swerve into the parking lot and head straight towards the stationary black car Seeing the approaching SUV, the black car attempts to pull forward. The silver vehicle clips a curb and bounces into the air The silver SUV then lands on the back end of the black car as it comes back down to the ground As the car hits the ground it smashes into the wall of the Smoothie King drive-thru behind the food prep area Security footage filmed inside the Smoothie King shows employees calmly going about their tasks at the moment of impact. A male employee prepping food is struck from behind by debris and broken glass - as a metal appliance is ripped from its fittings and avoids crushing him by inches. He then climbs over his demolished workstation to safety with the help of a colleague. A female employee was also knocked down by a metal appliance but was able to walk away from the wreckage seemingly unscathed. Viewers on social media were amazed that the male employee was not seriously hurt. Tara Renee asked: 'How the hell did he walk away from that?' Hunter Reed Chrisman added: 'Dude's lucky he didn't get paralyzed.' Internal CCTV video shows staff at the drive-thru working behind the counter before the car hits the building The silver SUV crashes into the wall of Smoothie King sending debris flying across the restaurant Chinas insects and other invertebrates are spoilt for choice with the countrys array of deserts, rainforests, mountains and tropical coastlines. The winning photographs of the Wild China Biodiversity Photography Contest hosted by Wild China Film present the countrys sweeping lands and rare plants from unexpected perspectives. Here is a pick of the crop Jan 21, 2022 06:20 PM Chicago saw its deadliest day in at least 60 years last month, with 18 killings within a 24-hour period on 31 May. The violence occurred as protests over George Floyd's death in Minneapolis also spurred rioting and looting in the Windy City, the BBC reported. Over the last weekend in May - a three day holiday - 85 people were shot and 24 killed, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab. Most of the victims were black. The dead and injured include students, parents and middle-aged workers, according to the data published in the Chicago Sun-Times. "We've never seen anything like it, at all," senior research director Max Kapustin told the newspaper, noting that the Crime Lab's data only goes back as far as 1961. "I don't even know how to put it into context," he said. "It's beyond anything that we've ever seen before." Kapustin added that protests over Floyd's 25 May death in police custody may have distracted Chicago Police Department (CPD) resources from normal patrol duties. "When CPD has to turn its attention elsewhere and there's suddenly this vacuum that opens up, you also unfortunately see a picture like you saw with [last] weekend where you see an absurd amount of carnage, people getting injured and killed," he said. The second deadliest day in the city's history was 4 August 1991, when 13 people were killed, according to the data. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that on 31 May, the city's 911 emergency call centre received 65,000 calls - 50,000 more than on an average day. Police told the Sun-Times: "The level of activity experienced over the last week has been unprecedented and the Department is actively investigating multiple incidents across the city and working to determine the motives in these cases." It added that it "is actively working to seek justice for all the residents impacted, especially those who have been killed or injured by these senseless acts of violence". Chicago's murder rate, though among the highest in US cities, has fallen in recent times. In the 1990s, it was not unusual for the city to see more than 900 murders in a year. In 2018, Chicago recorded 561 murders, more than the two biggest US cities - New York and Los Angeles - combined. In 2019, there were 492 murders recorded. Video PlayerClose Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about efforts to promote ethnic unity at Jinhuayuan community in Jinxing Township of Wuzhong City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 8, 2020. Xi inspected Ningxia on Monday. [Xinhua/Yan Yan] YINCHUAN, June 9 (Xinhua) Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, hailed community volunteers' work while visiting the Jinhuayuan community of Litong District in Wuzhong City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Monday. He was pleased to learn that an increasing number of local people had been participating in volunteer service. Wang Lanhua, a 70-year-old volunteer of Hui ethnic group and a CPC member, said that a local volunteer service team was formed in 2005, with the number of its volunteers increasing from seven in the beginning to the current more than 60,000. The success of socialism is achieved through hard work and requires concerted efforts of people of all ethnic groups, Xi said. Xi urged volunteers to give full play to their role in this regard and expressed thanks for their efforts and contribution. Video PlayerClose Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about efforts to promote ethnic unity at Jinhuayuan community in Jinxing Township of Wuzhong City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 8, 2020. Xi inspected Ningxia on Monday. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Video PlayerClose Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about efforts to promote ethnic unity at Jinhuayuan community in Jinxing Township of Wuzhong City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 8, 2020. Xi inspected Ningxia on Monday. [Xinhua/Ju Peng] (Source: Xinhua) Boris Johnsons government is pressing ahead with its homicidal plan to send millions of workers back to work, and school children back to school, ignoring mounting evidence that the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic is still infecting masses of people. Last Monday, the government began the phased reopening of nurseries and primary schools and has instructed secondary schools to open on June 15. By Friday, Public Health England reported that the critical R (reproduction) rate of the virus was at 1 or above in two of Englands nine regions. The regional breakdown was calculated in conjunction with Cambridge Universitys MRC Biostatistics Unit. In the north-west of England, R stands at 1.01. In the south-west it is at 1. If the R rate is at 1 or above, a virus will continue to spread through a population, while a value less than 1 indicates the virus is in decline. The north-west region has a population of over 7 million people and contains the cities of Manchester and Liverpool. The south-west has a population of 5.6 million, and includes its eight cities: Salisbury, Bath, Wells, Bristol, Gloucester, Exeter, Plymouth, Truro and large towns including Plymouth, Swindon, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Exeter, Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch. Just as significant as the R value reaching the tipping point in two regions is the fact that the R value has risen to between 0.7 and 1 throughout England. In London, the capital and most populated area of the UK, the R value is almost at 1 (0.95). In the south-east of England as a wholein which London is locatedthe R value was also recorded at almost 1 (0.97). All other regions are almost at 1, including East of England (0.94), Midlands (0.9) and North-east and Yorkshire (0.89). The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data on the R value is out of date as soon as it is published due to the surveying required. The latest data only covers the last two weeks in Mayending on May 29. This will not take into account the movement of the R value since then, with many nursery and primary schools opened last week and increasing number of retail outlets allowed to open. From June 15, all non-essential shops will be allowed to open. Since imposing a lockdown on March 23, Johnson and government ministersalong with Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallancehave proclaimed keeping the R rate below 1 as the precondition for ending the lockdown. Instead, ending the lockdown continues. Monday saw the government proclaim that the R rate was below 1 in every region and in declinebased on test figures that massively underestimate the infection rate and figures for the weekend that are always low due to a lack of reporting. Nothing the government is doing in abandoning the lockdown has any scientific basis. Generally, the Tories are citing a fall in the number of deaths and infections since their high point in April. But the dip is the product of the lockdown, which is estimated to have cut infections by over 80 percent, and that is now being abandoned. The PHE/Cambridge team said there was some evidence that the R value has risen in all regions of England. The rise was probably due to increasing mobility and mixing between households and in public and workplace settings, after lockdown measures were eased. Even after the high point of fatalities in April, hundreds of people have continued to die every day from COVID-19. In the first seven days of this month, another 1,608 people died. On June 2, there were 324 deaths; on June 3, 359; and on June 5, 357. The UK has passed 40,000 COVID-19 deaths according to the governments own manipulated figures. These deaths equate to almost 10 percent of all 407,000+ deaths officially recorded worldwide, despite the UKs 67 million population making up just 0.87 percent of the global population. Even this terrible toll is not the true picture. According to a new study based on ONS data by health care business consultancy LaingBuisson, by the end of June excess deaths from coronavirus are likely to approach 59,000 across the entire English population, of which about 34,000 (57%) will have been care home residents. These figures exclude deaths in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Fatalities are likely much higher already. Modelling last week by the Times estimated that, up to June 2, there were 66,400 deaths. According to the BBC, at least 12 members of the governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) have spoken out against relaxing the lockdown under conditions in which the R value is rising. Other scientists have opposed the governments moves to prematurely end the lockdown, with some raising that the government was also too late in putting the lockdown. But statements that raise widespread concern among workers are met with supreme indifference by the Tories. Scientists have challenged the governments daily figures regarding the number of new infections, generally reported in the low thousands. On Monday, the figure was recorded as 1,205, but the ONS Infection Survey suggested there were around 6,000 new infections just in England each day. Other estimates put the figure at around 8,000 a day. Professor John Edmunds of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a SAGE member told the BBCs Andrew Marr Show Sunday, I wish we had gone into lockdown earlier. That has cost a lot of lives. Edmunds warned that the pandemic was now concentrated in harder to control areas such as hospitals and care homes, and these areas had to be addressed in any strategy. The pandemic was definitely not over, he said. Theres an awful long way to go. And if we relax, then this epidemic will come back very fast. The government is to reopen most of the economy this month in the firm knowledge that the infection rate will rise and many more people will die. The Times reported yesterday, According to Sage papers, the government was advised last month that it is likely that R will rise above 1 should non-essential businesses reopen. There could be no clearer demonstration that the government is imposing its herd immunity policy, which envisages a mass infection of tens of millions of people and mass deaths. Despite knowing the terrible consequences of sending people back to work and children to school in the middle of a pandemic, the Labour Party and trade unions are collaborating fully in these crimes. Commenting on the new R values, Labours mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, stated only that it was very worrying. He told the Manchester Evening News, It appears, I would say, that lockdown has been relaxed too early, given the fact that track, test and trace is some way from being up and running, I think it begs the question as to whether the advice is right to people in the North West, he added. Yet like the rest of the Labour Party, Burnham proposed nothing by way of opposing the governments plans. No amount of pressure from scientists, certainly not the polite complaints of the Labourites, will even slow down the back-to-work drive. Opposition must be built in the working class, acting independently of the trade unions working openly with Johnson, and making their own appeal to scientists and public health experts for advice. Editor : Ling Xiao Source : xinhuanet.com BEIJING Graduating students of universities in Beijing are allowed to return to campuses gradually from Saturday, according to local authorities. More than 20 universities including Peking University, the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) and Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) are expected to welcome back over 4,800 graduating students on Saturday. This move follows the reopening of primary and middle schools on June 1, as the COVID-19 epidemic continues to wane in the Chinese capital. Beijing announced Friday that it would lower its emergency response to the novel coronavirus epidemic from the second level to the third level starting from Saturday. Peking University said around 7,000 final year students will return to campus on a voluntary basis in four batches this month. It said its staff has started to embark on back-to-campus work for graduating students since May and established 10 special teams to engage in the work. Twelve teachers of Peking University even traveled to Central China's Hubei Province, a hard-hit province of the virus, and accompanied over 200 Hubei students back to Beijing on Saturday and took care of them during the journey. More than 1,000 workers from BIT have made preparation for the returning students in recent days, including cleaning and disinfecting elevators, canteens, dormitories, classrooms and laboratories, and ventilating other public areas. BIT is expected to see more than 200 graduating students back at the university on Saturday. "I will finally get back to my university and I'm so excited. I missed my university so much," said Geng Baoqun, a PhD student at BIT, coming from North China's Shanxi Province. "The university has adopted very detailed and considerate epidemic prevention-and-control measures. We also received an 'anti-epidemic package' from the university, which contains medical masks, disinfectants and food. I feel safe and reassured," Geng added. Xu Haijun, director of the epidemic prevention-and-control office of BUCT, said the university has conducted free nucleic acid tests for all students and taken anti-epidemic measures to ensure students' safety. Returning students of BUCT were seen at the gate on Saturday to show their health QR code, nucleic acid test reports and had their body temperatures taken, under the guidance of university staff. Face recognition facilities and temperature checking points have also been set up at the entrances of the student dormitories. Li Peijing, an official at the China Agricultural University (CAU), introduced university plans to welcome back a total of 5,000 graduating students from June 8 to 26. Two other batches, including other postgraduate students and undergraduates, will return to the university in the following months. "Our university canteens also adopt a meal reservation system, which requires students to book their meals in advance in a bid to avoid gathering. Meanwhile, dining-tables have been marked so that students can keep a safe distance from each other," said Xiao Li, director of the dining center of CAU. Li Yi, a spokesman of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, said that it is far more complicated for colleges and universities to resume classes than primary or secondary schools and communities. This is because university students have to attend classes, do experiments and live and eat together. "Therefore, universities need to strengthen epidemic prevention-and-control measures and implement those measures to make sure students are healthy and safe," Li added. Nearly 100 colleges and universities in Beijing have carried out epidemic prevention drills in recent days under the supervision of municipal educational departments. Only those who meet the standards are allowed to have their students back and resume classes. (Source: Xinhua) South Africa: Gauteng records 85% attendance on school reopening Schools in Gauteng recorded an 85% attendance of learners and educators for the first day of reopening of schools on Monday. On Monday, Gauteng Education (GDE) MEC Panyaza Lesufi provided an update of the first day of schools reopening since the country went into lockdown on 27 March 2020, to curb the spread of COVID-19. On educator attendance, Lesufi said most districts reported no problems with attendance also estimated at over 85% with the absence of some teachers attributed to them having comorbidities. On comorbidities, we have noticed some absence of educators last week and today, due to having underlying conditions, he said. The MEC appealed to all educators to comply with the guidelines by contacting the school principal and district for clarity on whether their application is approved and not just stay away. A number of teachers who have not attended claim to have comorbidities but they have not applied to work from home. A number of teachers submitted medical reports without application or filling in a sick leave forms, said Lesufi. According the provincial department, 11 schools where deemed not to be ready to open on Monday. Reports from districts show that two of these schools were opened successfully. The remaining schools did not open mainly due to infrastructure issues which are currently being addressed, said the MEC. In cases where the department is unable to resolve challenges immediately, Lesufi said the department is using alternative measures including temporary relocation of learners to neighbouring schools. COVID-19 cases A number of cases of COVID-19 positive teachers were reported by the Department of Health. In the main, these cases arose prior to schools reopening for teachers. Currently we have recorded 39 COVID-19 positive, from 38 schools and 38 cases under investigation, said the MEC. To assist with screening at schools, the provincial department recruited COVID-19 brigades many of whom are in the process of being deployed to schools. Lesufi said the brigades are an additional resource to schools but that other personnel have been assigned to deal with screening and other issues. Enock Mpianzi Meanwhile, Lesufi confirmed that the family of Enock Mpianzi through their attorney claimed for about R10 million for compensation. Mpianzi lost his life when a makeshift boat built by him and his school mates capsized during a river rafting exercise during a school orientation camp in Brits, North West. Lesufi said the department had no appetite to oppose the claim, adding that the departments legal team will engage them accordingly. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-06-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. 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 Once you crush, cut or fracture a rock, there are no do-overs. It's a fact that means geoscientists have to be particularly careful about which rock samples they can sacrifice to physics experiments versus which ones should stay on the shelf. A team of geoscience researchers from The University of Texas at Austin is working to change that with a new method for creating digital replicas of rock samples that is more accurate and simpler to use than other techniques. The digital replicas can take the place of the real thing in certain experiments, allowing scientists to learn about rock samples without having to touch them. They also allow scientists to collect data from samples that are too small to run certain experiments on, such as cuttings brought up when drilling for oil. "Now we don't have to take a rock into the lab," said Ken Ikeda, a graduate student at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences. "We don't have to risk a sample, there's no way to ruin it." Ikeda is the lead author of a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research -- Solid Earth on April 14, 2020, that describes the new method. The research was conducted entirely by Jackson School researchers in the Department of Geological Sciences, with the other two authors being graduate student Eric Goldfarb, and Nicola Tisato, an assistant professor in the Jackson School's Department of Geological Sciences. In their study, the researchers tested their method against two others, comparing how the three techniques fared at calculating how fast seismic waves could move through a sample. The new method came closest to the speeds measured in the actual sample, with the calculation being off by 4.5%. The other methods were off by 4.7% and 29%. advertisement Seismic velocity data is a fundamental tool used by geoscientists to learn about rock formations underground. But the researchers said that their method could be used for calculating a number of other important rock properties, such as permeability or electrical conductivity. All digital rock replicas are built using data collected from a CT scan of a rock sample, which provides a high-resolution record of how the rock interacts with X-rays. By analyzing that information, researchers can determine physical properties about the sample. The other two methods came with processing trade offs. One of these methods can account for pores and fractures in the rock sample -- features that have a big influence on overall elasticity -- but requires a target, a pure sample of the mineral that makes up the majority of the rock, to be scanned at the same time as the rock. The other method doesn't require a target, but can't account for the pores and fractures. The new technique gets around these trade-offs by sampling itself for targets, using extremes in the X-ray data to find bits of pure mineral -- something the researchers call a "pseudotarget" -- as well as fractures and pores. "A rock has certain areas that are pristine, grains of quartz that are pristine, and space, pores, that are totally empty," Tisato said. "So if you find those points, you have calibration points." With no need for a pure mineral target to accompany a sample, the technique simplifies the CT scanning process. The study also shows that, when it comes to calculating seismic speed, the technique is more accurate than the other two methods. advertisement Gary Mavko, a professor emeritus in geophysics at Stanford University who did not take part in the research, said that the study helps advance research in a rapidly growing field. "This work represents a promising new approach for elastic digital rock physics -- the much studied problem of predicting effective elastic properties of porous Earth materials from high-resolution CT image," he said. Currently, the new technique can only be applied to samples that are made mostly of a single mineral -- such as the Berea Sandstone core used in the study. Nevertheless, there are plenty of fascinating rocks that fit the bill. Goldfarb said he has applied the technique to three Mars meteorites, samples currently being studied by fellow Jackson School graduate student Scott Eckley. The meteorite example highlights the value of the technique as a way to make rare specimens more accessible for research, Goldfarb said. A high-quality rock replica means you don't need a meteorite in your lab to be able to study one. The Jackson School funded the research. In a ceremony that touched on police violence, racial inequity and the treatment of black Americans, family members, friends, politicians and officials commemorated George Floyd's life and pledged to make changes that they say could avoid deaths like his. Kathleen McGee, Floyd's aunt, told attendees at the Fountain of Praise church in Houston that she wanted to "thank the world for what they have done for my entire family." She added: "The world knows George Floyd. I know Perry Jr." Family and friends often referred to Floyd as "Perry," his middle name, and McGee jokingly described him as a "pesky little rascal." "But we all loved him," she added. Floyd died May 25 in Minneapolis police custody after an officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. His final words, recorded by a bystander and shared around the world in a viral video, included "I can't breathe" and became a rallying cry, sparking widespread protests against police brutality and racial injustice. At the public ceremony Tuesday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that his police officers will no longer be allowed to use chokeholds on people in their custody. As the crowd applauded, Turner said he planned to sign an executive order formalizing the ban when he returned to city hall. Chokeholds are neck restraints meant to make uncooperative people in custody stop resisting without seriously injuring or killing them. Several other cities, including Minneapolis, where Floyd died in police custody, and states have banned chokeholds since Floyd's death. Turner said his executive order will also require police to de-escalate confrontations, exhaust all alternatives before using their guns and give a warning before shooting. The mayor also declared Tuesday "George 'Perry' Day" in Houston. "We honor him today because when he took his last breath, the rest of us were able to breathe," Turner, a Democrat, said. Earlier in the service, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, said the aftermath of Floyd's death can't be "like other times" and called for a new government office specializing in race relations with black Americans. "We have a responsibility to not only George Floyd, but to those other persons, to . . . ensure the future generations that this won't happen again," he said. The congressman represents parts of Houston and some of its suburbs. Green also mentioned the Justice in Policing Act, introduced Monday by the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and other lawmakers, that would make it illegal for police to put a foot on someone's neck. Green also condemned other policing tactics that are being criticized after Floyd's death. "You can't have a no-knock law. It's against the law," he said, referring to what the bill would do if signed into law. "You're going to have to wear your body cameras." Green demanded a resolution between the country and its "differences" with black Americans. "We survived slavery, but we didn't reconcile. We survived segregation but we didn't reconcile," he said. "It's time for a Department of Reconciliation in the highest land, in the highest office. It's time to have someone who is going to make it his or her business to seek reconciliation for black people in the United States of America." In Washington, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he asked Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone black Republican senator, to take the lead on drafting legislative proposals to address racial discrimination in law enforcement. McConnell, addressing reporters on Capitol Hill, said "absolutely" it was "important that we have a response" to the protests and outrage after Floyd's death. He said he chose Scott because no one else in the Senate GOP caucus has had "the experience as an African American dealing with this discrimination that persists some 50 years" after the civil rights movement. "The best way is to listen to one of our own who has had these experiences," McConnell said, adding that it will be under Scott's "guidance and leadership" that the Senate GOP will produce a proposal "that we think makes the most sense for the federal government in the wake of what we've seen and experienced in the last several weeks." In a video played at the funeral, former vice president Joe Biden linked Floyd's death in police custody to the nation's enduring struggle for civil rights. The Rev. Al Sharpton said in his eulogy that the outcome for Derek Chauvin, the now-fired Minneapolis police officer who was filmed kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, and other officers who stood by without intervening would be very different if their races were flipped. "If four black cops had done to one white what was done to George, they wouldn't have to teach no new lessons," Sharpton said at Floyd's funeral. "They would send them to jail." Sharpton called for a commitment to seek justice for Floyd's death "because lives like George's will not matter until somebody pays the cost." He said it has long been the practice to fail to deliver consequences for ending black lives. "This was not just a tragedy," Sharpton said. "It was a crime. This family has born this." Floyd's niece Brooke Williams spoke strongly about Chauvin's actions. "As long as I'm breathing, justice will be served for Perry," she said. "These laws need to be changed. No more hate crimes, please," she added. "Someone said make America great again, but when has America ever been great?" Williams recounted some of her favorite memories of her uncle and underscored the deep affection he held for his mother. Williams called Floyd a comedian and recalled how she lovingly scratched his head after her uncle had a long day at work. Williams said Floyd encouraged her often, telling his niece, "You're going to go so far with that smile and brain of yours." "Now that's all I have, are memories," she said. Bahrain Association of Banks (BAB) affirmed its keenness to continue coordination, cooperation and joint work with the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) to secure the banking system and ensure the continued provision of all its financial services to clients and companies and provide all support to the national economy at this stage. Adnan Ahmed Yousif, BAB Chairman of the Board of Directors, expressed his deep appreciation for the results of the meeting held recently with the CBB headed by Governor Rasheed Al Maraj and in the presence of senior officials of prominent banks operating in Bahrain. Yousif said he appreciates the continuous support that CBB provides to banks in Bahrain to enable them to fulfill their role in these difficult circumstances. "Since the outbreak of corona pandemic, CBB has initiated a series of preventive and supportive measures for banks operating in Bahrain, which has had the most extensive impact in enabling these banks to sufficiently respond to all directives issued by the CBB on supporting companies and individuals affected by the pandemic, providing protection for the economy and society. We also value the importance of control and regulatory measures issued by CBB recently to ensure the regularity of banking services and secure financial stability in the Kingdom of Bahrain," Yousif added. Dr Waheed Al Qassim, CEO of Bahrain Association of Banks, praised the support of CBB Governor to banks in Bahrain to intensify efforts to achieve more expansion in banking services and electronic payment systems, and confirmed his appreciation to CBB keenness to ahave a sturdy base of advanced systems and equipment to ensure the provision of these services easily and at a reasonable cost. "This fruitful coordination meeting with the Central Bank of Bahrain confirms the importance of continuing the joint work between CBB and the banks operating in Bahrain to follow the banking developments in the current circumstances and come out with mutual understandings to respond to them. The aim is to support banks and the banking system on the one hand, and ensuring that banks continue to provide their services to the fullest extent for individual and corporate clients and grant them the necessary support at present, Dr Al Qassim said. TradeArabia News Service More than 90 residents and local political leaders in Palo Alto have signed a letter that calls on the City Council to end systemic inequities and overturn a 1965 law that restricts access to bucolic Foothills Park to city residents. For 55 years, Palo Alto has made it illegal for nonresidents to visit the 1,400-acre park, which sits high above the city and offers sweeping views of the bay, peaceful picnic areas and a small lake. On weekends and holidays, guards check drivers licenses and turn away those who dont live inside the city limits. Efforts to change the law have come up several times and gone nowhere. But the letter from Palo Alto activists inspired by calls for ending systemic racism after the police killing of George Floyd and new attention being given to long-standing inequities could bring an end to the unusual city law and throw open Foothills Parks gates to everyone. Palo Alto Mayor Adrian Fine said hes in favor of ending the residents-only policy and will place the issue on the City Councils agenda as soon as possible. Like other cities, Palo Alto is dealing with the coronavirus outbreak, faltering city finances and protests over police brutality against people of color. Absolutely, we should explore ways to open the park to non-Palo Altoans, said Fine, a city native who attended summer camps in Foothills Park, attended memorial services there and often walks his dog in its grassy hills. Especially in these times, we should look at how to have reasonable regulations. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle The letter, delivered Sunday to the City Council, calls the residents-only restriction an outdated policy that requires action. This policy sends a terrible message to our neighboring communities particularly those which do not enjoy the same socioeconomic advantages that Palo Alto does and leaves a bad taste in the mouths of thousands of would-be visitors who are prohibited by uniformed City staff from entering a public park, the letter reads. It is also expensive, costing nearly $90,000 per year to enforce. Rep. Anna Eshoo and a collection of former Palo Alto council members joined religious leaders, school board members and people from a variety of city commissions and organizations in signing the letter. Public spaces are exactly that public, Eshoo told The Chronicle. This is the only park in our region that is not open to everyone and the old ordinance needs to be changed. Id like to hike it without being fined or stopped from entering and so would many others. The parks no-outsiders law dates to 1959, when Palo Alto decided to buy the land to preserve it as open space. The city asked neighboring cities to participate in the purchase, but they declined. So, Palo Alto decided to restrict access to the park to residents. Attempts to overturn the ordinance were made in the 1970s, again in the 1990s and most recently in 2005. A new campaign to end the law last year made it to the citys Parks and Recreation Commission, which held a contentious two-hour discussion on how park access could be expanded to everyone. 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. Supporters of the ban said that it helps protect the sensitive area from being overrun with visitors. Critics have said its exclusionary at best and smacks of racism at worst. The Rev. Kaloma Smith, head of the citys Human Relations Commission and pastor of the 101-year-old University AME Zion Church, the citys oldest black church, called the park ban systemic exclusion. This was a vestige of the exclusivity and privilege of our area and a desire to keep the area the same way, Smith said. The reverend authored a recent opinion column for Palo Alto Online in which he cited overturning the Foothills Parks nonresident ban as one of the top actions the city could take, along with extensive reforms and policy changes in the Police Department. Opening the park to everyone drew the most complaints from readers, he said. Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan Longtime fugitive militiaman Ali Kushayb has turned himself in to the International Criminal Court, where he is facing war crimes charges for his role in Sudans Darfur conflict, the ICC announced Tuesday. Kushayb, around 63, also known as Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, is wanted on 50 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between 2002-2004 in Sudans western Darfur region. Ali Kushayb is in the custody of the ICC after surrendering himself voluntarily in the Central African Republic on account of an ICC arrest warrant issued on 27 April 2007, the Hague-based court said in a statement. ICC prosecutors say Kushayb was a senior commander in the notorious Janjaweed militia during the fighting, which erupted in 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against Khartoums then Arab-dominated government, lead by the now-ousted Omar al-Bashir. The rebels say they suffered racial discrimination, marginalisation and exclusion in one of the countrys poorest regions. But Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, a group of mostly Arab raiding nomads, recruited and armed to create a militia of gunmen who often mounted horses or camels. They have been accused of applying a scorched earth policy against ethnic groups suspected of supporting the rebels, raping, killing, looting and burning villages. Their terror campaign saw the ICC issue arrest warrants against Kushayb in 2007 and Bashir in 2009 and 2010. About 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in the conflict, the United Nations says. Thousands of peacekeeping troops from a joint UN-African Union mission were deployed in 2007 to curb the conflict, but their numbers have been gradually reduced since mid-2018 as the conflict has subsided. An independent tribunal, the ICC was set up in 2002 to deal with the worlds worst crimes which also includes genocide. (TNS) Frustrated by what they say is Gov. Ron DeSantis' refusal to fix the state's crippled unemployment system, activists are planning to take to the streets and social media this week to demand action.Protests will be held Wednesday, June 9, in Tallahassee, Orlando and Tampa, Fla., to draw attention to the untold number of the coronavirus-related unemployed who have received either nothing or only partial payment of benefits. Virtual protests will also be held throughout the week via social media."We need to stand up as Floridians," said Kelly Johnson, a laid-off restaurant manager who founded the group Action Group for COVID-19 unemployment (Florida) after she could not access her unemployment benefits in a timely manner. "We need to start paying more attention to what's happening in our government. I want to encourage everyone to do their research, and show up when it's time to vote, because we really need Florida to be given back to the people."She said standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other protesters is empowering, and she hopes others who are frustrated with the state's response to the unemployment crisis will choose to get involved to help others who are still without benefits.I was furloughed and got too many unemployment payments. Here's how I sent the money backAbout 2 million unemployment claims have been filed in Florida as a result of coronavirus business shutdown ordered in March to prevent the spread of COVID-19.But as laid off and furloughed Floridians sought aid, they were met with months of delays and frustration. Jammed phone lines, a difficult-to-navigate online system, and the inability to reach a state official for help with problems led to countless unpaid claims.Once the checks rolled in, Floridians were further dismayed to learn the state capped jobless assistance at a meager $275 a week. And even then, many recipients are infuriated that they have not been given the additional $600 federal supplement.The severity and scope of the issue has now thrust Florida into the national spotlight.On Monday, it was not Florida's two U.S. senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, who demanded action on paying Floridians their share of federal unemployment benefits. Instead, but Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, who called on the U.S. Department of Labor to look into why Florida does not seem to be properly paying unemployment claims."While all states have seen record increases in the number of its residents applying for unemployment," their letter states, "the state of Florida's performance has proved uniquely poor in its abject inability to assist millions of Florida residents who have applied for and continue to await unemployment benefits."DeSantis himself as called the broken system a "jalopy." He has called for a state inspector general probe of the Florida unemployment benefits process.DeSantis, however, quickly dismissed the U.S. senators' call for a federal Labor Dept. review as "partisan." In addition, the Florida Legislature's GOP leaders have rebuffed state and federal Democrats call for a special session by lawmakers to repair the system and address the low caps on payments.Bonnie Armstrong, founder of Florida Workers Fight for your UE Benefits!, agrees that there are certainly politics at play. But she said the problem, is not with the Democrats, but with DeSantis and Florida U.S. Sens. Scott and Rubio for failing to stand up for the people of Florida."I really feel like they did a disservice by describing us, who have become unemployed through no fault of our own, as lazy," she said. "I'm a Republican. I voted for DeSantis. I've never filed for unemployment in my life. It's really making me think hard about how I'm going to vote in the next election, I'll say that."Armstrong, whose group has grown to about 5,700 members since it's first protest on April 17, calls herself an "accidental activist." It began when she lost her job as a server at a Naples, Fla. restaurant when it shut down due to coronavirus fears. After "hundreds" of emails and letters to state authorities over a seven-week period, she said, she eventually received state benefits, but only a portion of the $600 weekly federal subsidy.Her group's goal is to bring attention to the fact that, despite DeSantis' contention that "99.9 percent" of unemployment claims have been paid, many of the state's unemployed have not received a dime. Others, she said, have received only partial payment, and many are facing a desperate financial crisis."I would like to see the governor take some responsibility," she said. "He's shifted the blame from the beginning. The website was created to get people to give up."Armstrong is not the only one who agrees the politics at play in Florida's unemployment crisis is very real, but blames the DeSantis administration, not "partisan" Senate Democrats.Johnson, the jobless restaurant worker, is taking her activism one step further. She has decided to run for state office as well."I am running for office because of all the unemployment stuff," said Johnson, a Democrat who is challenging Republican incumbent Chris Sprowls for the state House seat in District 65 northwest of Tampa. "After seeing all the stuff happening to Floridians, my first instinct was to move. And then I thought, maybe we can elect people who can make some changes."Judy Tanzosch, a former contract administrator who was laid off March 27, is organizing frustrated unemployed people in the state capital. After spending six weeks fighting for her own unemployment benefits, she founded Fix It Florida, which now has 1,300 members, she said.The Tallahassee-based group has been organizing rallies statewide for weeks until taking a break during the recent George Floyd protests."That's such an important issue too, and we didn't want to take away from that, so we just sort of paused everything."But Wednesday, June 9, they return with both in-person protests, where attendees are requested to social distance and wear masks, and an auto caravan, where people can fight for their rights from the safety of their own vehicles, she said."Asking people to wait four weeks for benefits when we know most Americans are one to two checks away from being homeless is absolutely unacceptable," she said. "Other states are being paid, but in Florida we have people waiting 10, 11, 12 weeks that have not seen a dime."Tanzosch said her group also offers ways to get involved that don't require attending a protest."Next week, we're going to have a call-in day to U.S. Government Accountability Office," she said. "We're also going to lodge a formal complaint about this."Florida Unemployment Weekly Virtual Protest is another group taking to social media and the Internet to further awareness and demand action from Florida leaders."I think it's that the system was designed by the past administration to fail, which is something Ron DeSantis has since done a very good job of making clear," said founder Kayla Langborgh. "In that way, he doesn't hold any responsibility."Langborgh was laid off on March 17 from her job at an event rental company in Jacksonville. After a month of fighting for her benefits, she eventually got paid, although she said she believes it was because of "all the protesting I did."Her group opts for virtual protests, she said, because many people still feel unsafe in large groups when the virus is still around. So, each Friday at 9 a.m., the organization peppers the Twitter and Facebook accounts of the DEO and DeSantis, with posts bearing the hashtag #FLDEOVirtualProtest.The goal, she said, is to force them to see the names and faces of Floridians who are broke, frustrated and desperate as a direct result of his refusal to fix the system."I honestly just want to see everyone get paid and the website start working better," she said. "It has been working better than it has in the past, but it's not in the capacity it should be and that's just not acceptable."DeSantis did not respond to a request to comment for this article. Technology giant IBM announced that it will no longer offer facial recognition or analysis software as the companys new chief executive officer Arvind Krishna voiced support for policies to advance racial justice and combatting systematic racism. In a letter to the members of the United States Congress, Krishna urged a national discussion on whether domestic law enforcement agencies should be allowed to use facial recognition technology at all. IBM's decision to shut down its facial recognition business comes at a time when government officials across the United States have proposed reforms to address police brutality and racial inequity, following the death of George Floyd that has led to mass protests worldwide. IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency, Krishna wrote in the letter delivered to members of Congress. We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies," the letter read. Krishna's letter was addressed to prominent senators in the US including the likes of Kamala Harris and Cory Booker in which he called for greater transparency and accountability to policing. Furthermore, IBM says they are willing to work with lawmakers on enacting police reform legislation that will further racial equity. Krishna, who took over as CEO from Ginni Rometty in April, also noted that while artificial intelligence can be a powerful tool to help keep people safe, the technology needs to be tested for bias. Artificial Intelligence is a powerful tool that can help law enforcement keep citizens safe. But vendors and users of Al systems have a shared responsibility to ensure that Al is tested for bias, particularly when used in law enforcement, and that such bias testing is audited and reported, he wrote. Portlands mayor and top officials promised meaningful and bold reforms at the citys law enforcement agency Monday in the wake of local and nationwide protests after the police killing of George Floyd. During a news conference Monday, Mayor Ted Wheeler said he intends to announce a large list of reforms Tuesday that he plans to pursue including policy changes and actions he will to take as mayor and with other elected leaders. But he didnt say what specific changes he will advance. He said the protests over police violence and systemic anti-black racism have sparked the city to want to act with urgency and to put into motion reforms that will serve, that will heal and provide the kind of safety that our community have asked us for. With the murder of George Floyd and the many others that were lost prior, including locally, we must reimagine, reform and rebuild what public safety looks like and we must go through this process together, Wheeler said. He noted recommendations from groups such as the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing, which has called for banning officers use of tear gas and other changes, as well as community demands are all under consideration. But Wheeler reiterated Monday that he wants police to discontinue their use of CS gas except when life or safety is in immediate danger and there is no alternative that doesnt require a higher use of force and do not put lives in danger. Wheeler oversees the bureau as police commissioner. Wheeler also accepted Police Chief Jami Reschs resignation as the bureaus head and the appointment of 18-year police bureau veteran Lt. Chuck Lovell, who is African American, to the role of chief. Resch said it was her decision to resign as chief and appoint Lovell as her successor, and she called on police staff and the community to trust her choices to move the bureau in a new direction geared toward change. This is the right thing to do, she said. Resch will remain with the police bureau, but its unclear what her new role will be. She said the move was the start of the change that this city needs. Resch was appointed as police chief in January after then-chief Danielle Outlaw accepted the job as the head of Philadelphias police department. Outlaw was Portland police chief for two years and was the first African-American woman to lead the agency. Lovell was hired as a Portland police officer in 2002. He is the third African-American man to lead the police bureau. Lovell said he thought the bureau had to be mindful of what changes need to be made, how they are implemented and how they will affect the community and the local justice system. Change for the sake of change doesnt always have the best outcomes for people, he said. Lovell said he is already looking into more ways Portland officers can more positively engage with residents. He noted in the past more Portland officers were assigned to patrol specific areas of the city and said he felt it was effective in building relationships between officers and residents. Budget cuts and lower staffing levels were among the reasons the bureau decreased using that model, he said. I feel like its gotten to the point where we dont know each other anymore. In order for the community to trust us, they have to know us, Lovell said. Lovell said he hadnt seen recent videos shared via social media of Portland officers pepper spraying members of the media. He and Wheeler said the agency would review any allegations of misconduct provided to police leaders, the city auditor or other city officials. Wheeler acknowledged that the fence around the Justice Center in downtown Portland has become a centerpoint of tension during protests. He said it is necessary after some demonstrators broke into the building and set fires inside May 29, endangering county employees and inmates of the jail on the upper floors. He suggested the county could move people housed there. Its not about the fence, we dont care about the fence, Wheeler said. Its about protecting the lives of the people who live in the justice facility who we have a legal and moral obligation to protect which they are in custody. Chris Liedle, a Multnomah County Sheriffs Office spokesperson, said Monday evening that there isnt another suitable facility to temporarily house downtown jail inmates. -- Everton Bailey Jr; ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 | @EvertonBailey Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI Superintendents working on K-12 school reopening plans for the fall say instruction could be online again, all in-person or a combination of both depending on what course coronavirus takes. Educators -- and students -- will have to remain flexible as the learning scenarios could change, and all of this is happening under the looming threat of cuts to education funding. That was the message that three superintendents shared with MLive in an interview about their preparation to reopen the next school year safely, coming out of the most unusual one that most public educators can remember. Rane Garcia, superintendent of the Muskegon Heights Public School Academy System; Tom Livezey, superintendent of Oakridge Public Schools; and John Severson, superintendent of the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District, serve on state work groups that meet weekly to advise Gov. Gretchen Whitmers COVID-19 Task Force on Education, a policy group to reopen public schools. Livezey is on the suburban work group, and Severson and Garcia serve on the urban work group. Superintendents are spending the summer working out how to reopen safely in the fall, and in a way that is responsive to the academic and equity-based needs of their students, they said. For that reason, theyre planning for several possible reopening plans in the fall. School could remain all virtual; it could be part virtual, with staggered in-person learning; or it could be entirely in person, but with new systems and structures in place to mitigate risk of new infection, they said. It depends on where in the states six-phase reopening plan Michigan sits. Currently, the state is in phase four, which indicates that healthcare systems can handle new coronavirus cases, but that distance measures must remain in place. If the state is still in this phase come September, students will continue in their virtual classrooms, said Livezey. Phase six, which imagines a post-pandemic scenario, likely after there is a vaccine for COVID-19, would mean schools could take a more normal approach, he said. Most tricky would be a school year within phase five, which would require a hybrid approach, with students able to attend school, but given less freedom to move around, Livezey said. Theyd have to eat lunch in their classrooms, for example, he said. What were focused on (is) developing a learning model for each one of those phases, while having the flexibility to transition from one phase to another, depending on what public health advises us (and) the infection rates that are in our communities, Livezey said. One of the primary challenges is balancing safety with equity, Severson said. Districts must think about how to ensure access to quality educational opportunities within each scenario. And the end goal is not just academic achievement, but also providing the physical and mental health resources, social stimulation, and other nonacademic benefits kids get from school, Garcia said. Its a lot to plan for, said Garcia. Its an awesome responsibility that we dont take lightly. Dr. John Severson, superintendent of Muskegon Area ISD, talks during a roundtable meeting with U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow at the Kent Career Tech Center in Grand Rapids on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017. She then took a brief tour of the classrooms at the school. (Neil Blake | MLive.com) Neil Blake | MLiveNeil Blake | MLive Equity is one of our greatest lenses, Severson added. The superintendents are working to make sure that when we talk about barriers, and struggles, were capturing every voice, especially our most vulnerable." In Muskegon County, 17,000 students receive free or reduced-cost breakfast and lunch, which is an indicator of poverty at home. In the Muskegon Heights and Oakridge districts, 100 percent of students fit that criteria, Livezey and Garcia have previously told MLive. These challenges are always present to an educator, but overturning the traditional classroom setting in the midst of a global health crisis has posed new challenges for students. The superintendents described students without access to internet or regular meals at home, and students whose parents are health workers who need to send their children to a relatives home during the pandemic. Thats why, no matter what phase of reopening schools are in, Garcia said, it is important for schools to stay in regular communication. All of this corresponds with increased costs. Bringing kids back to school with social distancing guidelines in place could increase the busing budget, for example. Improving equity in distance learning may involve sending more materials to students homes. Schools already spent time developing ways of getting food and supplies to students homes throughout their three months of shutdown. This summer, theyre also going to be investing in preparing their staffs for multiple contingency plans, Livezey said. This comes at a time, too, Livezey added, when state lawmakers are weighing educational cuts that could amount to $700 per student - or about $1.3 billion - in West Michigan. At a time where we need unprecedented collaboration with our staff, were potentially seeing unprecedented disinvestment in public education, Livezey said. Were going into this, trying to prepare for three different scenarios of which we dont know which one were going to be implementing in September. Its going to take a lot of time and resources, particularly (among) our staff. Just having those two aspects, of increased collaboration with decreased resources to do that, is going to be an extreme challenge, he added. As educators begin the planning phase, their students are about to start a strange summer vacation - one with less homework, but perhaps just as much time at home as the last few months, when their routine was, suddenly and unexpectedly, no longer anchored by their schools. Whitmer closed K-12 schools on March 16 for what was projected to be several weeks, prompting districts to move to virtual instruction. On April 30, she announced that schools would remain closed for the rest of the school year. Some students are hungry to return to their classrooms, Garcia said. You know, we normally get to this time of year and all you hear is, Oh man, I cant wait for summer, she said. And right now were hearing - and weve been hearing for four weeks now - I just want to be back in school. So if we can somehow, in this process, capture that and capture a greater desire to be in school and to be learning and to be invested in personal education, then I believe well come out stronger. Read more on MLive: Breakwater at Muskegons Pere Marquette Park is walkable again, after months of repair work Muskegons Western Market pop-up shops to reopen this weekend Match Day donations to Muskegon area nonprofits exceeded expectations The defense of Yevhen Dobrynsky hopes that the Supreme Court of occupied Crimea will choose the milder restrictive measure Lawyer Islyam Velilyaev Krym.Realii The Supreme Court of occupation authorities of Crimea received the appeal of the lawyers against the arrest of Ukrainian military Yevhen Dobrynsky, detained by Russias FSB at the administrative border, as Krym.Realii reported citing lawyer of the Ukrainian Islyam Velilyaev. We will hope that the Supreme Court of Crimea will consider our appeal on the change of the restrictive measure for Dobrynsky for another one. There are other restricting measures house arrest, commitment to appear. I hope for these mild restricting measures, Velilyaev stated. He noted that a three-day term for filing of appeal for change of restricting measure ends on June 8. 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. Later, Russias FSB stated that the Ukrainian military was detained and he was accused of illegal crossing of the border of Russia. On June 3, the court of annexed Simferopol arrested Yevhen Dobrynsky until July 1. SHELTON, CT / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / NanoViricides, Inc. (NYSE American:NNVC) (the "Company") a leader in the development of highly effective antiviral therapies based on a novel nanomedicines platform, reported today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU") with respect to anti-viral treatments for coronavirus derived human infections (the "Field") with TheraCour Pharma, Inc. The MoU specifically provides a limited, exclusive license to all research and development in the Field for further research and development purposes towards human clinical trials. NanoViricides intends to retain an independent consultant for the evaluation of the assets in order to develop the full license agreement. NanoViricides has been working on drug development to treat the SARS-CoV-2 infection in COVID-19 patients since January, 2020. Prior to this, the Company had engaged in limited research and development work for the treatment of MERS coronavirus during 2014 which allowed for rapid drug candidate identification against SARS-CoV-2. The MERS coronavirus program was set aside as the 2014 outbreak remained contained. The Company has found that the broad-spectrum anti-coronavirus drug candidates that it is developing were several times more effective than favirpravir in cell culture assays against two different coronaviruses, namely hCoV-229E, and hCoV-NL63. These circulating coronaviruses use distinctly different, but related cellular receptors, namely APN for hCoV-229E and ACE2 for hCoV-NL63. The Company believes the fact that these nanoviricides anti-coronavirus drug candidates are highly effective against two distinctly different coronaviruses that use different cellular receptors is very significant. Specifically, it provides a rational basis to scientists indicating that even if the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus mutates, the nanoviricides can be expected to continue to remain effective. The Company has also found that these drug candidates showed strong effectiveness in an animal model of human coronavirus disease, potentially superior to remdesivir in this particular model, although no firm conclusions to that effect can be drawn with the limited dataset at present. The Company employed hCoV-NL63 in this animal study, because hCoV-NL63 binds to the same cell receptor, namely ACE2, as does SARS-CoV-2 and the 2002-03 SARS-CoV. NL-63 causes clinical pathology in humans that is similar to SARS-CoV-2, but much milder. Thus this virus (NL-63) is expected to be a good surrogate for SARS-CoV-2. The Company believes that it now has broad-spectrum anti-coronavirus drug candidates that are worthy of human clinical trials based on their effectiveness in cell culture and animal models. Importantly, nanoviricides are designed to act by a novel mechanism of action, trapping the virus particle like the "Venus-fly-trap" flower does for insects. Antibodies, in contrast, only label the virus for other components of the immune system to take care of. It is well known that the immune system is not functioning properly at least in severe COVID-19 patients. Prior to filing for human clinical trials, NanoViricides plans on conducting studies to further determine the effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2, perform drug development studies for safety/toxicology, and request a pre-IND Meeting with the US FDA for regulatory guidance. Human coronavirus NL63 (hCoV-NL63) uses the same ACE2 receptor as the SARS-CoV-2 that causes CoVID-19. Both in terms of its clinical pathology, and its receptor usage, it is known to be very similar to SARS-CoV-2, except much milder. Therefore the Company believes hCoV-NL63 is a good surrogate model for therapeutics development against SARS-CoV-2. HCoV-NL63 can be studied in a BSL2 lab whereas SARS-CoV-2 currently requires a BSL3 or BSL4 facility. TheraCour Pharma, Inc. is a privately owned company, controlled by Anil R. Diwan, PhD, the principal developer of the polymeric-micelle based nanomedicines technologies. Dr. Diwan is co-founder, President and Chairman of the Board for NanoViricides, Inc. TharaCour licenses its intellectual property from AllExcel, Inc., another company which is owned and controlled by Dr. Diwan. Dr. Diwan recused himself in the Board's discussions on the MoU, and recuses himself from the Company's discussions regarding the license agreements as well. McCarter & English, LLP advised the NanoViricides Board of Directors and DuaneMorris, LLP advised TheraCour on this MoU. These law firms are expected to continue as attorneys for the parties for the negotiation of the license predicated in the MoU. About NanoViricides NanoViricides, Inc. (www.nanoviricides.com) is a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for antiviral therapy. The Company's novel nanoviricide class of drug candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus particles and to dismantle them. Our lead drug candidate is NV-HHV-101 with its first indication as dermal topical cream for the treatment of shingles rash. The Company is also developing drugs against a number of viral diseases including oral and genital Herpes, viral diseases of the eye including EKC and herpes keratitis, H1N1 swine flu, H5N1 bird flu, seasonal Influenza, HIV, Hepatitis C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others. The Company's technology is based on broad, exclusive, sub-licensable, field licenses to drugs developed in these areas from TheraCour Pharma, Inc. The Company has a limited license from TheraCour for the field of all human coronavirus infections under a Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU") to that effect, and is working on a full license which will replace the MoU. This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's current expectation regarding future events. Actual events could differ materially and substantially from those projected herein and depend on a number of factors. Certain statements in this release, and other written or oral statements made by NanoViricides, Inc. are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in documents filed by the company from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. Although it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors, they may include the following: demonstration and proof of principle in preclinical trials that a nanoviricide is safe and effective; successful development of our product candidates; our ability to seek and obtain regulatory approvals, including with respect to the indications we are seeking; the successful commercialization of our product candidates; and market acceptance of our products. As with any drug development efforts, there can be no assurance that any of these candidates would show sufficient effectiveness and safety for human clinical development at this time. There can be no assurance that the Company will be successful in establishing the necessary collaborations, although the Company has been successful at establishing necessary collaborations for its drug programs in the past. FDA refers to US Food and Drug Administration. IND application refers to "Investigational New Drug" application. CMC refers to "Chemistry, Manufacture, and Controls". Contact: NanoViricides, Inc. info@nanoviricides.com Public Relations Contact: MJ Clyburn TraDigital IR clyburn@tradigitalir.com SOURCE: NanoViricides, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/593253/NanoViricides-Signs-Memorandum-of-Understanding-for-Human-Coronavirus-Drug-Development-License Late on Sunday evening, as the city prepared to tuck into a good nights sleep, Full Circle Book Store announced that it will be closing the shutters at its Khan Market outlet, bringing down the curtains on a 20-year old legacy. It came down to the basic fact that we could not afford the rent. We tried to negotiate with our landlord, but he didnt agree to any sort of relief at all, says Priyanka Malhotra, director, Full Circle Bookstore. It was not an easy time, but their other landlords in Greater Kailash and Nizamuddin outlets were more accommodating. Quite a few shops are leaving Khan Market. It comes down to the math, unfortunately. We were not earning anything for the past three months. The losses are in lakhs, she says. The bookstore, with its winding staircase leading to the warmly-lit first floor full of shelves with enchanting titles, the corner landing opening to the iconic Cafe Turtle, was known as much for its turquoise and green interiors as for its old-world hospitality. A steaming cup of coffee and a good read Full Circle introduced the cafe culture in the city. They now plan to open the bookstore in Meharchand Market with an additional bookshop dedicated solely to childrens books. Cafe Turtle will also make a comeback. We will wait a month or two because we need to understand the (new) guidelines of operating a kitchen. Food is a different thing; it requires far more engagement and there is a lot of tactile involvement, she says. The bookstore will open any time within the coming week. We already have the team and the stock; its just a question of doing up the store our way. Until the cafe opens, we plan to have a coffee machine in the bookshop so that it remains alive in some way, she elaborates. Read: Good news for Capitals bookworms: Bookstores will deliver to your doorstep amid lockdown 3.0 The journey, which began with her mother Poonam Malhotra in the year 1998, has come a full circle, with the daughter now at the helm of things as the bookstore undergoes a journey of its own. We started in Santushti. I was in college and would be there during my summer holidays. It was another world. People would browse, review books it was a slower kind of world, she reminisces. When the move came, her parents, and a couple of friends, set up the cafe, painted the walls. In the beginning, her mother would bake from home and this continued even at the Khan Market store. It was the early 2000s. Cafe culture was something people saw on American sitcoms or heard of from their NRI relatives. Commercial coffee chains were yet to mushroom. You either had a five-star hotel to go for a cup of coffee, or a dhaba it was that extreme. My mother thought how nice would it be to have a cup of coffee and read a book, but where does one do that here? Thats how it all came about, she says. The bookstore and the family grew in a symbiotic relationship. Each grew into the other, merging to create a space that went beyond the physical. We have a gem of a team and they have been with us for ages. Its really something special thats been created, she says. For many, the tryst with a bookstore is nothing short of an experiential journey. A journey taken across worlds, under a cozy nook we claim our own. A bookstore, then, ceased to be a mere physical entity. It would become a keeper of secrets, stolen glances and lost loves. Full circle evokes a sense of wholeness, a coming back to oneself. Its where you want to come home to comfort, she says. Interact with Etti Bali @TheBalinian Follow @htlifeandstyle for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Fresh IRCC data provides more insights on how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted Canada's immigration levels. Canada only welcomed 4,000 immigrants in April Fresh IRCC data provides more insights on how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted Canada's immigration levels. Canada only welcomed 4,000 immigrants in April Fresh IRCC data provides more insights on how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted Canada's immigration levels. Canada only welcomed 4,000 immigrants in April Fresh IRCC data provides more insights on how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted Canada's immigration levels. Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A The coronavirus pandemic had a devastating impact on Canadas immigrant intake in April. In a typical month, some 25,000-35,000 new permanent resident (PR) visa holders will complete their landing in Canada. However, only 4,100 new PRs could complete this process in April due to the major disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In new information released today, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) data shows the countrys PR intake fell by 78 per cent compared with March 2020. The March 2020 intake fell by 26 per cent compared with February. Coronavirus-related disruptions have included IRCC employees working remotely, thereby limiting Canadas PR processing capacity, travel restrictions limiting some PR visa holders from coming to Canada, reduced flights by airlines around the world, among other challenges. Canadas monthly immigration data for previous decades is not readily available, however Canadas April 2020 PR intake may have been the lowest since the 1940s when global immigration was reduced due to the Second World War. Despite the pandemic, IRCC has not indicated that it plans to change its 2020-2022 Immigration Levels Plan. The plan states that IRCC will aim to welcome over 340,000 immigrants annually in the coming years. Achieving Canadas 2020 PR target seems unlikely due to the pandemic but the Canadian government remains unwavering in its commitment to welcoming immigrants. Recently, immigration minister Marco Mendicino has made several remarks that immigration will continue to be key to Canadas economic success and post-coronavirus recovery. Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs Both IRCC and provinces across Canada have continued to invite immigration applicants to apply for permanent residence since the start of travel restrictions. IRCC has held 11 Express Entry draws since the restrictions took effect on March 18 with Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) scores continuing to decline. IRCC is also expected to hold two more Express Entry draws this week. In addition, the likes of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island have each held Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draws in recent months. These draws are also inviting immigration candidates who are outside of Canada. One example of this is Ontarios PNP draw last week. New signs indicate that Canada is preparing to increase its intake of foreign nationals in the near future. Canada announced a significant easing to its travel restrictions yesterday for immediate family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. IRCC is exempting overseas biometrics requirements for some foreign workers, and has indicated it will aim to process as many study permits as possible in time for the start of the fall 2020 academic semester. As such, it appears likely that Canada will also seek to accommodate the arrival of more permanent residents in the coming months. Canada will provide more details before its travel restrictions expire on July 1. Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved Jaipur, June 8 (IANS) Two youths from Bikaner and Jhunjhunu have been arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan while working for its intelligence agency ISI, in a joint operation launched by Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorist Squad and the Rajasthan Police, said Umesh Mishra, Additional Director General of Rajasthan Police Intelligence on Monday. The arrested accused were identified as Vikas Tilotiya and Chimanlal. The duo were honey trapped on Facebook. While Vikas is a resident of Jhunjhunu and his father is retired from the Army, Chimanlal used to supply water for the Army's Mahajan Firing Range. Vikas used to send important information related to the Indian Army to his Pakistani handlers in Bikaner, said officials. Investigations have revealed that he so far he has passed the Army's order of battle, composition, order of military fighting formation, ammunition photos and highly confidential information to Pakistan. Vikas used to collect pictures of the firing range from Chimanlal who used to click pictures while supplying water. He further used to get the money transferred into Vikas' brother Hemant's account from Pakistan so that no one could suspect them. Police have also detained Hemant for interrogation. Mishra further said that the primary specific information of the activities of the said suspects was given to the State Special Branch, Rajasthan by Military Intelligence Lucknow and later the two agencies worked jointly for further investigation. --IANS arc/kr (CNN) During these turbulent times, the stress on families is palpable. Parents and children alike are feeling understandably anxious about their futures. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health concerns in the United States. And because long-term exposure to stressful events contributes to the risk of developing an anxiety disorder, it's important to avoid letting anxiety persist unchecked, especially in children. Thankfully, families can proactively leverage science-backed ways to ease anxiousness and restore a sense of connection and joyfulness at home. When family members spend time together, actively engaged in the anxiety-relieving activities mentioned below, they also strengthen their bonds, create opportunities for open dialogue, increase feelings of joy and generate a sense of consistency, all much-needed benefits during this time of heightened stress and uncertainty. Here are four ways to get started. Start a daily gratitude practice Studies abound on the stress-busting, mood-boosting, and, even, sleep-improving benefits of practicing gratitude. Research shows that people who participate in activities that foster a sense of gratitude experience an immediate increase in feelings of happiness and decrease in negative emotions; however, without consistency, the positive effects dissipate over time. Families can cultivate a consistent attitude of gratitude by incorporating giving thanks into shared daily routines. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, like family members verbally expressing something they're grateful for during family meals or using some form of communal gratitude jar, whiteboard or journal. In our family, we recently established a shared gratitude chalkboard wall, where we each write one thing we're grateful for daily. It's a feel-good activity that not only reminds us of all the positives in our lives, but, as a parent, I find it provides insight into my son's focus and values, enabling me to relate to him in a more meaningful manner. Practicing gratitude also offers a means for parents to strengthen their bonds with each other. A 2010 study of couples in committed relationships found that gratitude for everyday gestures increased their relationship connection and satisfaction. As I mentioned many years ago in a piece I did specifically on everyday gratitude practices, my husband and I keep our own gratitude white board in our master bathroom. Nightly, we each write things we're grateful for relative to one another. Break out the crayons and art supplies There's a reason child psychologists encourage children to express their feelings through drawings, teachers use coloring activities to conquer pre-test jitters and some dentists use coloring before appointments to ease dental anxiety. The anxiety-busting benefits of artistic expression are undeniable. You've likely witnessed a child's care-free concentration when coloring, and the pride they exude when showing off their completed works of art. Maybe you remember that relaxed, confidence-building feeling from your own childhood. But coloring isn't just for kids! Over the past decade, emerging research supports art-making's therapeutic value for people of all ages, showing that it can significantly lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and has the potential to alleviate anxiousness, facilitate focus, and increase mindfulness. Although much of the latest research focuses on coloring, therapeutic benefits have been shown with many types of art making, so don't limit yourself to crayons or colored pencils. Experiment with other mediumsand don't stress over your artistic ability! It's about the creative expression, not expertise. Whether you've got skills like Rembrandt or can barely draw a stick figure, pick up your preferred art tool and start creating alongside your kids. Foster fantasy play Playing pretend is a natural childhood tendency that helps children unwind and release stress. That's why it's important to create a home environment that fosters and supports playtime. "Dramatic play can help children relieve anxiety by allowing them to act-out real-world events in a way that gives them a sense of control, for instance, pretending to take a trip to the hospital, or acting out a trip to the store where everyone wears masks," says Danielle Sutton, a Tampa, Florida-based, licensed child and family psychologist, Although younger children may seem more sheltered from the direct impact of current events, they still face anxiety-inducing changes to how they experience the world outside their homes. That includes wearing masks and social distancing, as well as disruptions in their routines and the inability to see friends and family members. "While symbolic play might just look like simple pretend activity, it is the basis for helping children understand the events of the world around them," adds Sutton. Play shouldn't be reserved for the youngest members of the family. Teens can and should engage in games that spark imagination, like Pictionary or Charades. And playtime shouldn't always exclude parents, Sutton says. In addition to having family game nights, get down on the floor with your younger kids during playtime and follow their lead. "While children can and do benefit from engaging in imaginative play on their own," says Sutton, "play interaction with family members can really deepen the emotional content of the play and support a child's ability to explore a wide range of feelings." Make family fitness a priority Designating time for family fitness is an effective way to strengthen your family bond while relieving stress and anxiety. And, with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting that obesity rates have tripled for children and quadrupled for adolescents over the last 30 years, it's important for families to increase opportunities for everyone to get moving. There are myriad studies on the mental health benefits of regular exercise, but when it comes to specifically dealing with anxiousness, the most effective forms of exercise focus on the mind-body connection. Think yoga, tai chi and qigong. However, research also shows significant benefits for anxiety and depression with just 15-30 minutes of low-to-moderate aerobic activity. This could be as simple as taking a walk all together or as involved as doing a fun, family workout. Family fitness doesn't have to be complicated, but it does need to be consistent. Whether it's yoga, a walk or a workout, make a commitment and hold all family members accountable to participating several times per week. With all the uncertainty in the world right now, one thing is certain, families possess profound potential to provide much-needed solace and support. This story was first published on CNN.com, "4 ways families can ease anxiety together." - DJ Zinhle has blasted social media trolls for what she has called bullying - The muso put her foot down when her daughter started trending due to AKA's rants about her - Zinhle reminded the masses that Kairo is only four years old and did not ask to be in the spotlight PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! DJ Zinhle has come out guns blazing to defend her daughter after she was caught in the crossfire of AKA's social media rants. Baby daddy, AKA ruffled up feathers on social media when he used his daughter's name to drag people who disagreed with him. The tweet that got people riled up, read: "Kairo is ten times richer than you and she can neither read nor write." Social media users did not take kindly to the post and soon the young girl's name was trending for the wrong reasons. When Kairo's mother heard about the media mess, she did not hold back her rage. She quickly clapped back at tweeps and reminded them that her child was only four years old and did not ask for any of this. "If you have a problem with Kairo's father, take it up with him but LEAVE MY CHILD ALONE." Some social media user said the DJ should rather address AKA because he was the one who started the chaos. Zinhle responded: "Now. People keep telling me I must talk to the father of my child. You're missing the point... Nothing anyone does can ever justify abuse. Are you saying that every time Kiernan does or says something, you guys then have the right to attack my child? Niyajabula yaz!" Celebrities also came out in support of Zinhle, with Mmusi Maimane posting a tweet encouraging both Zinhle and Pearl Thusi. READ ALSO: Nando's hilariously reacts to couple's TikTok flour game, goes viral Pearl Thusi has also been the victim of internet trolls recently. Briefly.co.za reported that Pearl Thusi took to social media to respond to tweeps after she was dragged for recently defending foreign nationals. The stunner trended on Sunday evening after she said she would not support any movement that aimed at ridding South Africa of foreign nationals. As a result, the hashtag #PearlThusiMustFall trended with most tweeps taking shots at the Queen Sono actress. 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 China is withdrawing soldiers deployed in the Galwan area of eastern Ladakh and thinning out troops in the Pangong Tso sector where it was locked in a standoff with Indian military for a month, people familiar with the development told Hindustan Times. Top government officials said the process of the Chinese side withdrawing troops had started yesterday. We have also reciprocated and moved back our troops, a top government official said on Tuesday evening. The process to restore status quo ante has started at the standoff locations, the official said. The next steps will be worked out at a meeting of Major General-level officers scheduled for tomorrow. Hindustan Times was the first to report on Monday that the activity at the standoff points had declined after discussions between military commanders of the two countries. Lt Gen Harinder Singh, commander of Leh-based 14 Corps, who had been in constant touch with national security planners in Delhi, had led the Indian delegation. The Chinese side was led by Maj Gen Liu Lin, commander of the South Xinjiang military region. The standoff started after a May 5 clash after Chinese soldiers clashed in eastern Ladakh near Pangong Lake. This was the first major flare-up along the LAC since the 73-day standoff at Doklam in 2017. Chinese troops also moved in three more locations in the Galwan sector, setting up the standoff in three locations of the Galwan valley with additional troops and support elements. Also Read: India China standoff explained: Bridge over troubled waters The standoff in the Galwan valley was at three points, marked as the Indian armys patrolling points 14, 15 and 17. These locations are about 6 km east to the confluence of the Galwan rivulet and Shyok river. ALSO WATCH | Indian, Chinese troops disengage at standoff points in eastern Ladakh At patrolling point 14, Chinese soldiers had come to their claim of the Line of Actual Line and objected to India building a 60-metre-long strategic bridge being built to give troops easy access to Daulat Beg Oldie, the last military post south of the Karakoram Pass. They have gone back from patrolling point 14, a government official said. At patrolling point 15, Chinese soldiers had put up a large number of tents and had been camping there for the last one month. India had also matched their presence and had been camping at the same place. Both sides have started reducing their tents at this point, the official explained. At the third standoff point, marked on a map as Galwan sectors patrolling point 17, both sides had mobilised a large number of troops and armoured carriers. The armoured carriers have been moved back; the soldiers will be next, an official said. The de-escalation exercise has started near the Pangong lake standoff point also. It will take some time to complete the process, a senior army officer said. Chinese troops had come to Finger 4 - the name given to one of the 8 cliffs jutting out of the Sirijap range that overlooks the lake - and brought along 124 vehicles and 14 boats. The boats have been moved back and the thinning out process has begun in this sector, a top government official said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON She has been in lockdown in NYC. So Sarah Silverman was having to get creative with her sun-worshipping in the Big Apple as she shared a hilarious and saucy picture on Instagram on Tuesday. The stand-up comedian, 49, was flaunting her sensational figure in a mismatched bikini while she revealed her unique location in the caption: 'Took an unprecedented vitamin d break on the fire escape and it felt so good'. Hot stuff: Sarah Silverman was having to get creative with her sunworshipping in the Big Apple as she shared a hilarious and saucy picture on Instagram on Tuesday Sarah looked stunning in a striped bikini top which drew attention to her eye-popping cleavage while she also showed off her taut abs. Prior to her sunbathing session, last week Sarah put down her pots and pans to show solidarity with demonstrators protesting the senseless killing of George Floyd. The comedian draped a homemade sign with the phrase 'White Silence = White Consent' over the railing of her apartment's balcony in New York City. Oh my! The stand-up comedian, 49, was flaunting her sensational figure in a mismatched bikini while she revealed her unique location in the caption: 'Took an unprecedented vitamin d break on the fire escape and it felt so good' Silverman and her quarantine partner Annie Segal, who typically enter out onto their balcony nightly to cheer on essential workers, remained indoors. She has also been showing her support on social media by resharing protest resources to her Instagram Story and posting inspirational messages on Instagram. New York implemented a city-wide curfew on Monday as a means of gaining control over the sometimes violent protests. Appreciation: Prior to her sunbathing session, last week Sarah put down her pots and pans to show solidarity with demonstrators protesting the senseless killing of George Floyd The curfew was changed from 11pm to 8pm on Tuesday, but that did not stop demonstrators from gathering and passionately communicating their dissatisfaction. According to the New York Times, protesters walked 'peacefully through Brooklyn and Manhattan,' while 'chanting protest slogans and urging change as they had for nearly a week' in prior demonstrations. Protests erupted across the nation last week following the senseless killing of 46-year-old George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota who died at the hands of police on May 25. WASHINGTON In the two weeks since George Floyd died, President Donald Trump has shared lots of opinions about the need for law and order, about fighting crime and the dangerous ideas of the liberal left. When it comes to addressing racism, not so much. Trump has remained largely silent on that, except to argue that a strong economy is the best antidote. He insists hes done more for the black community than any president since Abraham Lincoln. But the lack of substantive discussion of racism by the White House has opened the president to criticism that he has failed to show leadership during the unrest following Floyds death and has inflamed the situation with his law and order mantra and tweets about looting and shooting, vicious dogs and ominous weapons. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat, says Trumps relative silence on racism and harsh rhetoric toward protesters have created a confounding dynamic for a consequential national conversation. I think we have to have the conversation with him being absent, Bottoms said. Having a conversation with him would be like having a conversation with a madman. It would mean nothing. Trump, for his part, has been quick to cite an economy that hummed before the outbreak of coronavirus and benefited all racial groups, along with his work to secure permanent funding for historically black colleges and universities, opportunity zones in cities and an overhaul of criminal sentencing procedures. But those who flooded the streets after Floyds death want to know what he plans to address the systemic racism they believe is at fault and what Trump himself believes. At a recent event highlighting job growth during May, Trump was asked about his plan to address racial inequality and framed his answer through an economic prism: Whats happened to our country, and what you now see, its been happening, is the greatest thing that can happen for race relations. For the African American community, for the Asian American, for the Hispanic American community, for women, for everything, because our country is so strong, and thats what my plan is. Housing Secretary Ben Carson, the highest-ranking black administration official, suggested over the weekend that Trump will address the issues in some detail this week and that Americans should reserve judgment. Administration officials say Trump is reviewing various proposals. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has avoided answering directly when asked if Trump believes systemic racism exists, replying only that the president calls out injustice when he sees it. Some Trump advisers have spoken internally about having the president address the nation on police-community relations and racial injustice but others have counseled against it, believing it would do little good. Presidents long before Trump have grappled with racism and its effects, from the Kerner commission that Lyndon B. Johnson created to investigate 1960s race riots to Bill Clintons Initiative on Race to the White House beer summit Barack Obama held in 2009 with African American Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and the white Cambridge, Massachusetts, police sergeant who had arrested Gates after a misunderstanding outside his home. More discussion is needed, said Meena Bose, a presidential historian at Hofstra University. I dont know that the United States has really had a sustained conversation about race and wrestled with these questions, really, in kind of that extended way that we saw in the 1950s and 1960s, Bose said. Trump has said Derek Chauvin, the fired Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree murder after pinning Floyds neck beneath his knee for several minutes, must have snapped. Over two weeks of daily protests, tens of thousands of Americans from urban centers to small towns have called for police reform and a reckoning on the stain of racial injustice. Trump, meanwhile, has focused on organized leftist protesters and tried to make the case that disaster awaits if the nation turns its back on him in November and elects Democrat Joe Biden. The president used Twitter on Tuesday to claim without evidence that a 75-year-old Buffalo, New York, protester who was seriously injured by police belonged to radical Antifa and Democrats should let police do their job. Sometimes youll see some horrible things like we witnessed recently, he said, referring to Floyds death at a White House meeting Monday with law enforcement officials. But 99, I say 99.9, but lets go with 99 percent of them are great, great people. Trump, a former real estate developer who attended top schools and lived in a Manhattan penthouse before moving to the White House, has long had a complicated relationship with the black community. In 1989, he took out a full-page ad in New York newspapers following the arrest of five young black and Latino men for the assault of a white woman jogging in Central Park in which he urged, BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE! The convictions of the men, known as the Central Park Five, were vacated in 2002 after another man confessed. Trump never apologized. Early in his real estate career, Trump and his father were sued by the Justice Department for violating fair housing laws by discriminating against black applicants. The Trumps ultimately entered a consent decree but did not admit guilt. Before his 2016 run, Trump spent years pushing the false claim that President Barack Obama, the nations only black president, was not born in the United States. The Rev. Darrell Scott, a Cleveland pastor who has served as liaison for Trump to the African American community, said that before the killing of Floyd, there was a relative detente in the conversation because Trump had made progress in addressing economic inequity. The fact is the mainstream media wont give the president the credit he deserves for improving lives in the black community, Scott said. And be sure, George Floyds death will be a catalyst for change. Bottoms, the Atlanta mayor, praised Defense Secretary Mark Esper for publicly disagreeing with the presidents push to deploy active-duty military to quell the unrest, and former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for repudiating the presidents handling of the crisis. She noted that Trumps wife, Melania, has called for unity and peace. We may not agree on policies, but fundamentally there is a piece of goodness in everyones heart, said Bottoms, who is among several people Biden is considering as his vice presidential running mate. And thats what we are seeing from everyone other than Donald Trump. ___ Madhani reported from Chicago and Lemire reported from New York. PRESS RELEASE Bollene, June 8, 2020 06:00 pm (CET) EGIDE SA STRENGTHENS ITS SALES PRESENCE IN RUSSIA BY SIGNING A DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT WITH SD SOLUTIONS Egide (Euronext Paris - FR0000072373), a leading group with an international dimension, specialized in the manufacture of hermetic packages and heat dissipation solutions for sensitive electronic components, announces a new Distribution Agreement. In the frame of its worldwide sales strategy to develop Egides export business, a new agreement has been signed in Russia with SD Solutions LLC (headquartered in St Petersburg). SD Solutions LLC will cover Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan for EGIDE SA. Headed by Mr Vladimir A. Tertychenko, this Company has a proven experience of technical sales of high reliability electronics solutions in this region of the world within the targeted markets of Egide: Space, Avionics, Oil drilling, Power industry and Medical applications. Egides package and thermal management solutions will perfectly complement the product portfolio of SD Solutions, for the full benefit of the same customer base. Mr Tertychenko comments on this new Agreement with Egide: Egide - SD Solutions Teams established the first Working Group in 2019 to explore ways for deepen partnership in Space and Industrials markets. The decision to sign a Distribution Agreement between Egide and SD Solutions is one more step to strengthen the cooperation between French and Russian high-tech companies in these markets. Egides solutions, expertise, and ability to develop custom products for the most demanding spheres are expected to be great support for our traditional customer list and allow us to extend our partnership with potential partners from the new industrial areas. We appreciate this new cooperation for the greater benefit of both our companies. Vincent Courty, VP Worldwide Sales of Egide group says: We are delighted to sign this Agreement with a premium distributor such as SD Solutions as our partner in the Russian market. This proves our strong commitment to offer a wide range of innovative products to our customers wherever they are in the world, and now in Russia. These customers, with the support of SD Solutions, will now get access to the re-known technical expertise and excellence of Egide teams to provide high quality hermetic packages. The strong presence of SD Solutions in the Space and Industrial markets in Russia, will help us continue to build strong relationships with these new customers and achieve high quality growth for the Egide Group in the future. Story continues Financial Agenda : General Meeting: June 19, 2020 (behind closed doors) 2020 H1 revenue: July 23, 2020 To find out more about Egide: www.egide-group.com About Egide Egide is a group with an international dimension, specialized in the manufacture of hermetic packages and heat dissipation solutions for sensitive electronic components. It operates in cutting edge markets with strong technology barriers to entry in all critical industry segments (Thermal Imaging, Optronics, High-Frequency, Power Units). Egide is the only pure player in this market niche with manufacturing bases in France and the United States. Egides eligibility for tax efficient French innovation-focused mutual funds (FCPI) was renewed on May 14, 2018. Egide is listed on Euronext Paris- Segment C ISIN code: FR0000072373 Reuters: EGID.PA Bloomberg: GID CONTACTS EGIDE Finance Department - Luc Ardon - +33 4 90 30 35 94 luc.ardon@fr.egide-group.com INBOUND CAPITAL Investor Relations Frederic Portier - +44 7802 533333 fportier@inbound.capital FINEXTENSO Press Relations - Isabelle Aprile - +33 1 39 97 61 22 i.aprile@finextenso.fr Attachment New Delhi, June 9 : The Health Department of the Aam Aadmi Party government informed Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal during the DDMA meet on Tuesday that it is extending Covid hospitals by linking big hospitals with nearby 5/4 star hotels with an upper price cap of Rs 10,000 per day per bed. The hotels would provide beds, housekeeping, fooding as well as medical services. A press statement from the LG office said, "Eight hotels-hospitals have been linked to act as extended Covid Hospitals, approx." The information was shared by Principal Secretary (health) in the DDMA meet headed by Baijal. The District Magistrates are carrying out the exercise of linking 19 more hospitals with hotels which would tentatively increase the capacity by another 2,000 beds (approx.) by June 15. The Delhi government apprised the LG that the CATS ambulance fleet has been augmented to 450 from earlier 160 with reduced response time of less than 30 minutes. All 42 testing labs have been made functional in the national capital. A committee under the chairmanship of the Divisional Commissioner has been constituted to explore the possibility of creation of additional bed capacity. It has suggested using Pragati Maidan, Talkatora Indoor stadium, Thyagaraj Indoor stadium, Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, Dhyanchand National Stadium etc. as make-shift hospitals, said the statement. It was also informed that at present, 11,259 cases are in home isolation and specialised healthcare companies have been engaged exclusively for such cases. A total of 2,000 pulse oxymeters have been reserved for patients under home isolation. Also, extensive TV and print media activities have been initiated to make people understand how to conduct themselves under home isolation. Baijal has directed all the stakeholders for containment zone strategies as per the ICMR guidelines and has instructed the field officials to delineate the containment zones properly to ensure their effective management to contain the spread of the infection. The LG also advised the officials to take lessons from the best practices of other cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru for better management of Covid-19 cases in Delhi. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Over a century ago, many European and American cities experienced the worst pandemic in recent history. When the first cases of the Spanish flu began emerging in 1918, officials in Saint Louis ordered schools and churches to close, banned street demonstrations and parades, and recommended that people self-quarantine at home. In Philadelphia, by contrast, nothing was done until several weeks after the first cases were detected. Mortality from the flu was eight times higher there. Or, looking at it the other way around, the leaders of Saint Louis managed to save thousands of lives thanks to quick, decisive action. A new study published in the journal Nature has calculated how many lives were saved in 11 European countries thanks to confinement policies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Researchers estimate that the measures imposed first in Italy, then in Spain and later in the other countries under analysis may have saved over three million lives including around 450,000 in Spain. These figures should be viewed skeptically: they are probably an overestimate Miguel Angel Martinez-Beneito, Valencia University The study, called Estimating the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on Covid-19 in Europe and conducted by a team headed by Imperial College London, focused on Spain, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Researchers used the number of deaths in each country to estimate the number of infections around two weeks earlier, and studied their evolution to May 4, when some countries began lifting their lockdowns. The study concluded that major non-pharmaceutical interventions and lockdowns in particular have had a large effect on reducing transmission. In all analyzed countries, the reproduction number the number of new cases generated by one infected person fell below one, a value at which it is considered that the virus can no longer expand. Without any measures, experts estimate that there would have been 3.1 million additional deaths in these countries. The virus-transmission rate has dropped until it has come under control in all the analyzed countries, says Shamir Batt, a statistician at Oxford University and co-author of the study. The main thing now is to assess which measures must remain in place to keep transmission under control. Study limitations This kind of model is controversial because it does not faithfully reproduce the complexity of an evolving pandemic in individual countries, with the differences inherent to each one. In late March, for instance, this same team predicted that 15% of the Spanish population had been infected with the coronavirus. An ongoing large-scale antibody study conducted in Spain places this figure closer to 5.2%. This time around, the authors posit that 5.5% of the Spanish population has been infected with SARS-CoV-2, putting Spain only behind Belgium, where the figure is around 8%. The countries with the lowest prevalence are Norway (0.46%) and Germany (0.85%). These figures should be viewed skeptically: they are probably an overestimate, warns Miguel Angel Martinez-Beneito, a biostatistician at Valencia University and main author of the National Atlas of Mortality in Spain, which explores the varying risk of death from 74 causes depending on which part of the country people live in. If the infection fatality rate [number of deaths among infected people] in our country is around 1%, this means that the Imperial Colleges model gives us nearly 47 million infected people, which is the entire Spanish population, he adds. This is impossible, since herd immunity would be achieved with a contagion rate of 60%. The authors admit that one of their main limitations is the fact that they rely on official death tallies, which may not be a reliable reflection of the true number of coronavirus-related fatalities. Amidst the ongoing pandemic, we rely on death data that is incomplete, with systematic biases in reporting, and subject to future consolidation, warns the study. The authors underscore that their estimate of saved lives assumes that only official interventions contributed to lowering the reproduction number, explains Saul Ares, a researcher at the National Biotechnology Center of the Higher Scientific Research Council (CSIC). This is evidently not so; even if no official measures had been taken, at some point people would have locked themselves at home anyway. In fact this was already happening: in our data analysis, we saw from the beginning that the epidemic was spreading at a increasingly lower rate, even before measures were introduced, and thats because people began being more cautious. English version by Susana Urra. T he statue of a former monarch has been removed in the Belgian city of Antwerp after being daubed with red paint and set alight by anti-racism protesters. Memorials to King Leopold II of Belgium have long been targeted by activists because of his brutal colonial rule in former central African colonies, particularly in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. The bronze figure was finally lifted away on Tuesday after days of being defaced. It came just 48 hours after Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrators in the British city of Bristol tore down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston and threw it into the harbour. Speaking about the removal of Leopold II, Johan Vermant, a spokesman for Antwerp's mayor Bart de Wever, said: "The statue was seriously vandalised last week and needs to be restored by the Middelheim sculpture museum." He added that it probably would not be returned to its public pedestal next to a church in the citys district of Ekeren. "Because of the renovation work planned for 2023 in the square in which it was placed, the statue will not be replaced. It will probably become part of the museum collection," Mr Vermant said. A spokeswoman for the Middelheim Museum confirmed they had received the statue and said they would assess the damage, and the broader situation, before confirming what steps to take. The statue of King Leopold II of Belgium is pictured on June 4 in Antwerp after being set on fire the night before / Belga/AFP via Getty Images Six days earlier, in the wake of George Floyds death, a petition was started calling for the elimination of all tributes to the tyrannical ruler in the Belgian capital. A message on the Change.org website reads in French: Despite the disregard it shows the Congolese people, Leopold remains commemorated throughout Belgium. The message continued: This is why we are asking Brussels authorities to remove all monuments to (him). The damaged statue is seen being removed for possible renovation in Ekeren, Atwerp / via REUTERS "Brussels welcomes millions of tourists each year this is what we want to show them. Millions of Congolese were killed or beaten while working in rubber plantations and in military expeditions while the king amassed a huge personal fortune during his rule between 1865 and 1909. The petitions founders have suggested all statues of Leopold be removed by June 30 the 60th anniversary of Congos independence. Demonstrators stand on a statue of Leopold II as one of them holds a national flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Brussels / REUTERS With the growing surge in support for the BLM movement, which has sparked global protests since Mr Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25, a number of petitions have emerged online demanding controversial monuments in the UK are taken down. In Edinburgh, a petition was launched to remove the statue of slave owner Henry Dundas in St Andrew Square and for streets bearing his name to be renamed. In Wales, Cardiffs first black Lord Mayor, Dan DeAth, is calling on local councillors to remove the statue of Sir Thomas Picton, stating it is no longer acceptable for it to remain in City Hall. Another petition was launched to take down the statue of Robert Clive, known as Clive of India, in The Square in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, which described the 18th century figure as nothing more than an figure of oppression and white supremacy. Similarly, thousands of people have signed two new petitions calling for the statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes to be taken down from Oriel College at the University of Oxford. MEDINA, Ohio -- Police Chief Ed Kinney had nothing but positive things to say about this weekends racial justice protests in the city when he addressed City Council Monday night (June 8). It was a very peaceful gathering. We got a lot of good feedback, said Kinney. Im really proud of how the officers handled themselves. They protected the demonstrators. Two of them included marches where our officers escorted them across the street. In addition to the Medina police and the peaceful protesters, Kinney acknowledged the other entities involved in keeping the weekend safe. Police departments and other agencies from across Medina County helped out. In other news, City Council approved an ordinance allowing the police department to file for grant assistance through the Ohio Criminal Justice Service. Theyre offering reimbursement for COVID-19-related expenses for the police department, said Kinney. The amount were requesting is $50,725.43. Additionally, Medina Municipal Court has received a body armor grant and council approved an ordinance allowing the city to receive it. On behalf of the court, the Ohio Attorney Generals Office and Ohio Bureau of Workers Comp(ensation) created the new Ohio Law Enforcement Body Armor Program, said Mayor Dennis Hanwell. The Municipal Court has applied and been awarded $4,272.75 for these vests and asks the City Council to permit them to accept this grant. The city also received a donation of hand sanitizer from Spray Products. The value totaled $1,560. The company also donated to Main Street Medina to get them through the farmers market season. The company converted part of their operation to make this hand sanitizer, and they wanted to help the city during this pandemic, said Economic Development Director Kimberly Marshall. The donation consists of 13 cases of spray cans and two cases of pour bottle cans, and each can is 8.5 ounces. Read more from the Medina Sun. On June 5, a young Dalit boy was beaten to death by upper caste men in his village after he tried to enter a temple. On June 7, Dalit social activist Arvind Bansod was driven to suicide following harassment in Maharashtra. On the same day, in Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit father and his son were murdered over a property dispute. Even as Dalits in the Indian subcontinent continue to be subjected to atrocities and harassment on a daily basis on grounds of caste, a jewellery company based in Los Angeles, United States decided it was okay to sell a ring they called "Dalit Ring" for 2000 US dollars. Ironically, the company named 'Haati Chai' claims to be inclusive and transparent and boasts of having a diverse team consisting of white Americans, Asian and South Asian employees. Their social media handles describe the company as makers of "luxury heirloom jewellery." In fact, the company has been quite vocal about the 'Black Lives Matter' movement which has gained momentum in the wake of George Floyd's death in the hands of Minneapolis cops. Here's a screenshot of what the ring was initially called: Photo: Ronny Sen/Facebook What is more infuriating is the way the brand decided to romanticise the struggles of the Dalit community. "The Dalit ring has raw, unfinished stones, which many dont find beautiful because they want perfectly finished diamonds. Just like the Dalit caste, the Dalit ring is very unique and extremely beautiful," the caption in the product description reads. READ: A Popular Company Launched Atta Maker With Classist Ad, Suggesting Only Domestic Help Get Covid-19 There are a few problems here. By essentially claiming that people look down upon Dalits, the brand is normalising (and even worse, glorifying) the casteist attitude that is pervasive in the Indian society. No, we aren't denying the fact that Dalits in India face injustice. In fact, caste-related violence is at an all-time high in the country even as we deal with a deadly pandemic. But for a brand to "draw inspiration" from it and to monetise it is what's wrong here. What is inspirational about violence against the community going up by 70% in the last decade? The question arises, how does a brand say "Black Lives Matter" and show solidarity with anti-racism protests and simultaneously capitalise on the struggles of another minority group? Wondering what the thought process is .How much of it is really going to go to the Dalit community ,to whom the ring is supposedly dedicated . pic.twitter.com/EukdHhRhvK Shashank (@Shanxdimniqjwls) June 8, 2020 The 'Dalit Ring' triggered outrage on social media. I couldnt see it properly so I visited the website to check and Im sure they mustve seen her story by then and changed the description which said just like dalit caste, dalit ring is uniqueand added a name Uda Devi. pic.twitter.com/W2In3iXCeC cucumber with anxiety (@samosaapav) June 9, 2020 Pull up or shut up unless its a ring called Dalit. Wonder how much of those easy pay $2000 go to any cause hmm. pic.twitter.com/jef8gTPpBq hk (@chiaseedpuddin) June 8, 2020 Even though u search Dalit ring they will show u same ring pic.twitter.com/XNTtLcjx3n D (@ShoyoOnoda) June 9, 2020 Many couldn't help but wonder how much of this would be going to the Dalit community or how they would benefit from it if that's what the brand's intention was. Following the outrage, the brand was quick to alter the product's name to 'Devi Ring.' The new product description pays a tribute to Uda Devi, a Dalit woman who fought valiantly against the British rule but was denied recognition on account of her caste. Uda Devi had become a symbol of Dalit resistance during the colonial era. "Uda Devi is an inspiration and an example of how we must be bold and channel our inner Devi," the caption now reads. The brand owners also issued an apology and an explanation on their Instagram page. According to them, they never intended to hurt the sentiments of the minority group. "Rather than make excuses the piece has been renamed Devi Ring to honour Uda Devi," the post reads. The owners have also clarified as to why they have not been able to contribute to the cause. As per the Instagram post, the company has not been able to vet and verify grassroot organisations working for Dalit groups in India as the former is based in Los Angeles. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) took a jibe at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruling in the Centre on Tuesday morning, minutes before union home minister Amit Shah was scheduled to address the people of Bengal through social media from the partys central office in New Delhi. Respected @AmitShah Ji, Bengal has not heard you speak during these times of crisis, but we hope today you would take a minute to answer this: Are the Chinese occupying our territory or not? Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and TMCs youth wing chief, tweeted on Tuesday morning. TMC has continually targeted the Centre over alleged lack of planning before announcing the lockdown. They also blamed the centre for the plight of the migrant workers and also for the recent spike in Covid-19 cases all over the country. This is the first time that the Trinamool Congress brought forth the issue of the recent tensions along the international borders with China. The Centre and the state government had locked horns in April and May over alleged Covid-19 data fudging by the state government and the states alleged reluctance in bringing back the migrant workers. Leaders of the BJP Bengal unit hoped that apart from describing the second Narendra Modi governments successes in the past one year, Shah will also highlight how the state government mishandled the pandemic along with causing distress to the migrant workers. After Shah stung the state government on issues related to political violence, corruption, politics of appeasement, politicisation of peoples welfare and other administrative failures, Abhishek Banerjee wrote in another tweet, As usual the speech of @AmitShah Ji was all rhetoric and no substance. Nonetheless since he has talked about his dream of seeing EXIT of TMC, I would like to ask him one more time - When are the Chinese EXITING our territory #BengalRejectsAmitShah. Its a sign of the times. Many companies are taking a hard look at their businesses and deciding next steps in moving forward while still engaged in the battle against the pandemic. A new normal is anticipated along with a paradigm shift in how many businesses will operate. Principal/Owner of Red Kite Business Advisors, Evelyn Olson Lamden, has determined that now is a good time to fully retire and close business operations.This has been a decision in the making for quite some time, and in recent years, Ive been in a semi-retirement phase. While Ive not actively pursued new business, Red Kite has continued to function through referrals and by facilitating marketing workshops. With projects virtually at a stand-still, it seems the right time to close our doors. Red Kite was founded in 2007 by Lamden and a former business partner who left the business in 2013. The company has been active in working with supplier diversity groups and is certified to do business as a woman-owned business, with certifications in WBENC, WOSB, and CPUC. The brand is well-established and if anyone is interested in taking over at the helm of Red Kite, they need to contact me soon. Otherwise, our flying kite will be grounded. While its a bit sad to close, Ive been looking forward to spending more time with my volunteer and community work. Lamden has spent several years serving on non-profit boards of organizations involved with the performing and visual arts, her passion. Arts feed the soul and in these difficult times, Im hoping that my efforts can help in the healing of our community and country. While no date has been set for closure, Red Kite will begin phasing out through the summer and anticipates a closure by the fall of 2020. Lamden may consider select projects during the phase out period. Contact: Evelyn Olson Lamden evelyn@redkitesite.com 858-232-4555 About: Red Kite Business Advisors is a marketing consulting firm based in San Diego, CA and founded in 2007, offering scalable marketing services to businesses. Principal, Evelyn Olson Lamden, brings 30+ years experience in market and media analysis, research, strategic planning, branding, ad campaigns, integrated marketing, database marketing, social media, and search engine optimization. Through a network of national strategic partners, Red Kite delivers customized services to their clients. Red Kite is WBENC, CPUC, and WOSB certified. (Bloomberg) -- Huawei Technologies Co. owns the most patents on next-generation 5G technology, ensuring the Chinese company will get paid despite Trump administration efforts to erase it from the supply chain, according to a new study. The study by two research firms identified the inventions most closely connected to the 5G standards and found that six companies owned more than 80% -- Huawei, Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc., Nokia Oyj, Ericsson AB and Qualcomm Inc., the only U.S.-based company in the group. That may be awkward for President Donald Trump, whose administration has launched a global effort to shut out Huawei, accusing the Chinese company of being a security threat. The administration has launched a number of salvos, including a ban on the sale of any silicon made with U.S. know-how, which is hurting the Chinese companys aspirations to grow in cutting-edge fields. Even if they hire some other company to build the 5G infrastructure, they still have to pay the Chinese company because of the intellectual contribution to develop the technology, said Deepak Syal, director of GreyB Services Pte., a technology research firm that conducted the study with software firm Amplified AI Inc. Identifying how many patents a company holds -- and how key they are to the industry standards -- will help determine who profits most from the next generation of technology that promises to revolutionize developments such as autonomous cars, robotic surgery, and connected homes. The administrations efforts against Huawei have borne fruit. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the main chipmaker to Apple Inc. and Huawei, is planning a plant in Arizona to allay national security concerns and shift high-tech manufacturing to America. In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson is taking steps to exclude Huawei from its fifth-generation mobile networks by lining up potential replacements. Industry standards are critical to ensure devices work together and communicate with each other, even across national boundaries. Tech companies get together to establish those standards and pledge that any relevant patents will be licensed on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Story continues There have been global patent wars for years over how to define those fair terms and whos entitled to how much money in royalties. They were at the heart of since-settled fights, including Apples scorched-earth battle with Qualcomm, and Huaweis dispute with Samsung. Huawei has also stopped paying Qualcomm what may amount to billions in royalties amid a dispute. The GreyB and Amplified study looked at about 6,400 inventions declared essential to 5G by their owners that had active patents somewhere in the world as of Dec. 31, 2019. By comparing the wording of the patent to the standard, the team of 25 researchers deemed 1,658 to be patents core to 5G. Courts and negotiators will ultimately have to decide, though, if the patents really are essential to the standard, whether theyre valid or not, and how much they are worth. Based on the study, all of the companies were found to be padding their patent submissions to ensure they would be able to enforce their rights later, and in an effort to increase the amount theyd be able to collect in royalties. Companies over-declare pretty equally, so reducing everyones share by 75% or so yields the same pecking order, said Jorge Contreras, a law professor at the University of Utah whos written about determining what is essential to a standard. Huawei has collected more than $1.4 billion in licensing revenue and has paid some $6 billion to other companies, it said in a court filing in its patent dispute with Verizon Communications Inc. Huawei creates plenty of its own intellectual property; we dont need to steal anyone elses, Ben Howes, a Huawei spokesman, said in an opinion video. The company said it put together the video in response to the U.S. governments attempts to prevent Huawei from collaborating with academic institutions and innovating with our R&D and patents. First-Phase Study The GreyB and Amplified study, considered the first phase as more patents are analyzed and the standards continue to evolve, showed the interconnectedness between companies around the world, Syal said. He said the purpose of the study was to bring more clarity to where the discussions or decisions are being made. Rather than saying who has less contributions or who has less number of patents, lets work toward increasing the intellectual contribution of our country or our company and then build the 5G infrastructure, he said. Otherwise, even by blocking, they are not helping in the end because theyre paying money in terms of royalties. As part of the Trump administrations efforts against Huawei, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo last week said European countries need to get it out of their system. They need to use Western technologies. While the administration has helped curtail Huaweis growth outside China, it remains a player because of its global footprint and advanced technology. From a pure technology standpoint, nationalism just doesnt work anymore, said Contreras. (Updates with U.K. plans and Taiwan Semiconductor plant proposal in sixth paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected the amount Huawei pays in patent royalties.) 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. A plus-size woman wants to teach women to love their bodies and know their worth after years of being used for sex by guys who didn't want to be seen in public with her because of her size. Susan Curry, a 38-year-old insurance customer service worker and model from Cashion, Oklahoma, is 5 feet 11 inches tall and wears a size 18. After years of being shamed, she has learned to embrace her body and understand her self-worth. 'I do feel that some partners did not take me seriously in the relationship due to my size,' she said. 'I put up with things in my earlier years that I would not even give the time of day at this point in my life including being talked down to, called names, and verbal and physical abuse.' Body-positive: Susan Curry, a 38-year-old insurance customer service worker and model from Cashion, Oklahoma, is 5 feet 11 inches tall and wears a size 18 Hard to handle: Susan said she learned to love her body after years of being shamed Difficult: Susan said she had always been 'big' as a child and she would get made fun of growing up Susan grew up in a disadvantaged neighborhood and had always been 'big' as a child. By the age of 11 she was already wearing a size 8. 'I recall family members asking why I was so much larger than others my age and felt the pain when shopping in the stores,' she said. Susan's confidence was at her lowest during her teenage years. She had to have clothes specially made for her larger frame by her family and always felt like she towered over her classmates. She bought jeans from men's department stores in order to get the length and width right and lived in baggy clothes which would hide her figure. She avoided swimming pools and water parks, and if she did go to one, she would wear a supersize T-shirt to hide her voluptuous figure. Susan was constantly told she needed to watch what she ate. She had her fat rolls pinched, and at one point, she was forced to exercise by running at a park. Looking back: Susan's confidence was at her lowest during her teenage years. She had to have clothes specially made for her larger frame by her family Devastating: Susan recalled a boy she had a crush on in middle school telling her she was 'too fat' for him to date '[My] confidence was knocked down by kids who were cruel about my size and even by adults in my life,' she said. Susan's classmates would make fun of her because of her size, which only contributed to her low self-esteem. She never dated anyone in high school because of what she went through. 'I never even looked at school as a potential pool of suitors as the fat jokes and my own self-esteem created invisible barriers,' she explained. 'I never dated anyone in high school and barely even dated anyone in my teens. 'I recall having a crush on a boy in middle school and he told another that I was "too fat for him to date." I was self-conscious of my weight and in turn felt like I had nothing to wear, nothing that would be appealing to anyone I was interested in. 'I often felt less than or not as capable as my counterparts due to my size. School became something that I just had to get done to move on into adulthood.' Shamed: She recalled being in her 20s and having guys want to hook up with her but keep their relationship secret because of her size Misconception: Susan said men would expect her to have sex with them because they were paying attention to her Susan reached a turning point in her life when she 'met a few amazing women' who introduced her to tight jeans, bodycon dresses, and two-piece swimsuits. They inspired her to start showing off her figure, and she realized the only barrier to wearing the same clothes that thin girls modeled in magazines was her own mind. 'I realized I had missed way too many events or made events less fun due to my body issues,' she said. 'The turning point for me was really looking at my body in different clothes or no clothes and loving each imperfection, roll, out of place feature for what it was. 'Although I didn't look like the bodies I saw in the magazines, I would see something beautiful when I looked in the mirror,' she explained. 'I remember when I tried on my first two-piece set and crop top and did not want to show my belly as all I could see was an explosion of fat bursting out of the shirt. Leaning to love herself: Susan reached a turning point in her life when she 'met a few amazing women' who introduced her to tight jeans, bodycon dresses, and two-piece swimsuits Realization: She realized she'd missed too many events in her life because of her body issues 'When I began to embrace my curves, my body, and love my body for what it was, I was then able to wear clothing that I would have never dreamed of putting on before,' she noted. 'I think because we look so much different from skinny bodies, and that's all we used to see in media, this created an altered perception for myself. 'I never imagined I would love pools let alone dive off of a diving board when I was younger and here I was, living it up. Susan's newfound confidence helped her meet guys, but it took some time for her to realize her self-worth. She recalled dating one man who insisted on keeping their relationship a secret. 'In my 20s, there was a guy who wanted to "hang out with me" now known as "Netflix and chill" but didn't want anyone to know that he was seeing me,' she recalled. Living it up: 'Although I can't drop it like it's hot anymore as I approach forty, I can still dip it like it's warm,' she said Model: Susan has more than 255,000 followers on Instagram, where she shares racy lingerie photos of herself showing off her curves 'I realized many were just after their pleasures and not into having a serious relationship and in some instances, I believe this was because of my size. 'I have also heard the comment that plus size women were "easier" and I have had men expect that because they are giving me attention that I am obligated to sleep with them,' she added. Susan said 'sex has never been an issue' for her and the men have been 'plentiful.' 'Plenty of men have needs that they want fulfilled,' she said. 'I wonder how many men truly care, when it comes to the bedroom, if their partner is plus size or not.' Some of her partners have told her that she is 'like a pillow, soft and comfortable.' 'Positions in sex have never been an issue, plus size or not. I think sex is sex, and, well, it's pretty amazing,' she said. 'Although I can't drop it like it's hot anymore as I approach forty, I can still dip it like it's warm.' Susan has more than 255,000 followers on Instagram, where she shares racy lingerie photos of herself showing off her curves. Goal: Susan wants to encourage other women to know their worth and embrace their bodies regardless of their size Boundaries: 'Knowing my own worth and value and what I will and will not accept has helped me create healthier romantic relationships,' she said Although she still gets negative comments from people regarding her size online, she chooses to delete the messages and discard them from her mind because they no longer matter to her. Susan wants to encourage other women to know their worth and embrace their bodies regardless of their size. 'Knowing my own worth and value and what I will and will not accept has helped me create healthier romantic relationships,' she said. 'If I am to show others how to love themselves, how to be confident, I must also practice this and ensure my self-esteem and personal self-care is a priority. 'Knowing my worth has been a big determining factor in who I accept into my life, and I try and help teach other women to also know their worth, to get through the lows, and excel in the highs, and have a balance in it all,' she explained. 'Embrace your imperfections, study your imperfections and these characteristics will become the unique features that set you apart. 'We are rewriting the rules of the plus-size industry and I am here for it.' An Aboriginal activist has likened 'gutless' online trolls who posted vile racist comments about a fatal crash that claimed the lives of four teens to the Ku Klux Klan. Lucias Baira-Hill, 13, Cayenne Nona, 14, Rayveena Coolwell, 15, and Aaliyah Tappa Brown, 17, were killed instantly when an allegedly stolen Kia Sorento they were travelling in clipped a roundabout, flipped and hit a light pole in Townsville early Sunday morning. The alleged driver, 14, and sole crash survivor was charged with a string of offences, including dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, two counts of unlawful use of a motor vehicle, burglary and possessing dangerous drugs. Stolen Generation survivor and local activist Florence Onus has been shocked and angered to read the barrage of disgusting comments online in the wake of the crash. A horror single vehicle crash in Townsville on Sunday that claimed the lives of four teens has sparked a barrage of racist comments from online trolls. Pictured is the crash scene The comments are too vile to publish. Ms Onus likened the racist keyboard warriors to the white supremacist hate group Ku Klux Klan. 'Think about if this was your own children, how would you be feeling?' she told the Townsville Bulletin. 'Regardless if the car was stolen or not, it is a tragedy and children are dead.' Cayenne Nona (pictured, left) was remembered online as a 'beautiful soul', while a funeral fundraiser has been set up for Aaliyah Tappa Brown (right) after her death in the crash The crash happened hours after hundreds of Townsville locals attended the Black Matters Lives protest to take a stand for the rights of indigenous Australians in the wake of George Floyd's death in the U.S. But a disappointed Ms Onus said the North Queensland community has since taken 'three steps back' in the wake of the fatal crash. She described racism as a 'sickness without a cure' and called for everyone to show more respect for the teens' grieving families left behind. 'This is just another example of the racism pandemic that continues on out there in our own backyard from people who have no empathy for the families,' she said. 'When you're a target of racism and when you're reading those sorts of comments, it's very upsetting and makes you feel sick and you feel powerless.' Problems continue for reality TV star Stassi Schroeder, who is dealing with the fallout from the resurfacing of racially insensitive material found online and through her social media channels. A day after further audio resurfaced of the Vanderpump Rules star, 31, speaking negatively about black people, and after losing several endorsement deals over the past week, Schroeder has now been forced to part ways with both her agent and her publicist, Variety reports. A spokesperson for UTA, where Schroeder was represented, has confirmed she is no longer a client of the agency. Problems continue: Reality TV star Stassi Schroeder has now been forced to part ways with both her agent and her publicist after previous racist remarks and behavior has resurfaced Additionally, a representative of the PR firm Metro Public Relations told the publication: '[Schroeder] became a client when her publicist joined our company in July 2018. We made the decision this weekend to part ways with Stassi.' The moves by her former reps come after Schroeder apologized for past 'racially insensitive comments' and for a particularly demeaning stunt, in which she purposefully misled the police in an effort to get her black former costar Faith Stowers whom she didn't like in trouble. Schroeder was vocal online recently about her support for the Black Lives Matter movement; however, the gestures seemed significantly different to her output from three years ago. She claimed that black people demanded special treatment in her March 2, 2017 podcast in which she talked about the lack of diversity of Academy Award candidates, referred to on social media as #OscarsSoWhite. Most damning: Stassi along with Vanderpump cast mate Kristen Doute called the cops on her black former costar Faith Stowers whom she didn't like in an effort to get her in trouble on a previous season of the show; Faith is seen in 2016 above 'Maybe you weren't nominated because you didn't do that great of a job in your movie,' said Schroeder. 'Like it's not about race. It's literally like not about what you look like at all. It's like your acting ability, so like, what the actual f***?' The New Orleans-born reality star said on the podcast (which she later deleted from her site, according to US) of black people: 'When they get upset, everybody has to go above and beyond to then make them happy. 'I'm like, really sick of everyone making everything about race - I'm kind of over it.' Despite the take on race, Schroeder had plenty more to say about the topic: 'Like, everyone giving their impassioned speeches about race and all of that stuff, I'm like, "Why is it always just about African Americans?'' In a 2018 photo: Schroeder described her fashion ensemble as Nazi chic alongside Rachel O'Brien and Kristen Doute Timeline: Stowers appeared on season four of VPR and then later made cameos in season six after her involvement with Jax Taylor. Faith is seen in 2017 above Speaking out: Stassi said she's refocused her mentality amid the career crisis, which has seen her lose sponsors and admit to 'racially insensitive comments' 'Like why aren't the Asians like, "We're not represented? Why aren't ... Native Americans and Latinos not like, "We're not represented?" Why is it always just "that"?' 'And then when they get upset, everybody has to go above and beyond to then make them happy. And I hate saying the word 'them' because I'm not ... not everybody's the same.' She said that black people were 'the ones that are out there b****ing about things.' 'I'm like, really sick of everyone making everything about race - I'm kind of over it': Schroeder is quoted as saying some wildly racist things in a 2017 podcast, including, 'Why is it always just about African Americans?' She implied that Moonlight's victory over LaLa Land was racial 'politics' in play, noting that she 'didn't f--kin see' the movie, but that 'the reason why it won was because it was like, "The message."' She added: 'It's groundbreaking because of 'the message'. Winning Best Picture to me isn't about the f***ing message - like it's not church.' Schroeder said that she was 'not allowed to say that' as her opinion was marginalized as 'a white, privileged, blonde 28-year old.' 'My privilege blinded me': Doute also shared an apology after she also tweeted the accusations with Schroeder Incredibly sorry: Kristen posted this statement to her Instagram on Sunday Another Bravo reality star, Porsha Williams, 38, questioned 'WTH' of a 2018 photo of Schroeder describing her fashion ensemble as Nazi chic alongside Rachel O'Brien and Kristen Doute. The revelation came a day after Schroeder and Doute took to social media to apologize for the past incident in which they admittedly misled police in an effort to get castmate Stowers into legal trouble. 'Racially insensitive comments from my past have resurfaced,' Schroeder said in a statement on the site. 'It is important that I continue to take accountability for what I have said and done, while pushing myself to do better,' she said. 'I have grown significantly from the person I was then, and I am still filled with remorse and regret for the hurt I caused.' How low can you go? Vanderpump Rules' Schroeder and Doute have come under fire after an incident where they called the cops on former castmate Faith Stowers resurfaced last week She directly apologized to Stowers for her actions to try and land her in trouble with the authorities, admitting that she didn't consider how severe the consequences could have been. 'I also want to address my former castmate, Faith Stowers,' said Stassi, who cooked up the scheme with castmate Doute. 'My emotions over something that happened between our friends outweighed my logic, and there is no excuse for that. 'I did not recognize then the serious ramifications that could have transpired because of my actions. What I did to Faith was wrong. I apologize and I do not expect forgiveness.' Schroeder said she was sorry to 'anyone else that feels disappointed in' her, and vowed to focus her efforts on being more conscientious and evolving 'into a more educated person.' She vowed, 'I am going to continue to look closer at myself and my actions, to take the time to listen, to learn, and to take accountability for my own privilege.' Doute followed up with a statement on her Instagram page on Sunday. 'I have been taking some time to really process what I've been seeing, feeling and learning. And I need to address something specifically that happened a few years ago with my former castmate, Faith Stowers,' she wrote. 'Although, my actions were not racially driven, I am now completely aware of how my privilege blinded me from the reality of law enforcement's treatment of the black community, and how dangerous my actions would have been to her.' Doute added, 'It never was my intention to add to the injustice and imbalance. I'm ashamed, embarrassed, and incredibly sorry. I will do better. I have to do better.' Former Bravo player Stowers called out her former SUR coworkers during an Instagram live with Floribama Shore star Candace Rice, talking about her time on the show and the incidents that followed. Stassi herself bragged about calling the cops in an interview on the B**** Bible podcast in 2018, while Doute tweeted about it at the time. Stower recalled how Schroeder and Doute called the authorities after seeing a report about an African American woman who was drugging and robbing men around LA. 'There was this article where there was an African-American lady. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. I guess this woman was robbing people. 'And they called the cops and said it was me. This is like, a true story. I heard this from, actually, Stassi during an interview.' The Next Level Basic writer was happy to brag about wrongfully accusing Stowers in 2018, telling the B**** Bible podcast how she and Kristen 'solved a crime.' After comparing a grainy surveillance image of the suspected criminal to Stowers, they decided they had enough evidence to go to the police. Speaking out: The former Bravo player (bottom) called out her former SUR coworkers during an Instagram live with Floribama Shore star Candace Rice (top) How it happened... Recalling the incident, Faith said 'There was this article where there was an African-American lady. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. I guess this woman was robbing people. And they called the cops and said it was me' 'We are like, we just solved a f**king crime,' she reportedly said on the now-deleted episode, reported by People. 'We start calling the police. The police dont give a f***.' Doute tweeted about the situation, all but naming Stowers as she wrote: 'Hey tweeties, doesnt this ex #pumprules thief look familiar?' Kristen continued to malign her former castmate - who also appeared on MTV's The Challenge and Ex On The Beach - saying: 'Someone put her on mtv & gave her a platform for press. I didnt wanna go there but Im going there.' Since Faith's account came to light, Stassi has been dropped as a spokesperson for shaving brand Billie and vitamin startup Ritual. In addition, a planned partnership with Glamour magazine focusing on her upcoming nuptials 'has no plans to continue at this time,' according to Page Six. Variety also reports that Stassi has lost an endorsement deal with Secret deodorant. Doute has, thus far, not lost any deals or representation. DailyMail.com has reached out to Schroeder and Doute's camps for comment. Schroeder and Doute's antagonism towards Stowers was likely because of her affair with Jax Taylor, which was documented during season six of the show. What a detective: Doute tweeted about the situation, all but naming Stowers as she wrote: 'Hey tweeties, doesnt this ex #pumprules thief look familiar?' and later referenced MTV - who has employed Faith Cheater: Schroeder and Doute's antagonism towards Stowers was likely because of her affair with Jax Taylor, which was documented during season six of the show Taylor - whose chronic infidelity has been a VPR plot point throughout the years - cheated on now-wife Brittany Cartwright with Stowers, who was a recurring character in season four. Talking about the dynamic during the Live session, Faith said: 'I felt like after their friend did something that we both were involved in that he's done like, a thousand times, they wanted to attack me instead of him.' 'They wanted to attack, attack, attack, attack, attack. I was wrong, I was this, I was that, calling me names, saying my hair was nappy, which is weird coming out of their mouths. 'And I believe it hit the ceiling for me, and made me really want to run for the hills, when Kristen and Stassi decided they were going to call the cops on me,' she went on. 'I [had] left the show [at that point]. I was invited back to tell my truth, but decided it wasn't going to do anything for me. So I ended up not coming back, I decided to go over to MTV. Once I did that, I felt like they got upset with me.' Vanderpump has been criticized for its lack of diversity over the years. Since premiering in 2013 the show has featured only two black cast members as recurring characters: Stowers and Tina McDowelle, who appeared in seasons one and two. The bodies of two murdered sisters were seen lying in a park the day before they were discovered by police, it was claimed today. Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, were discovered by police on Sunday lunchtime at Fryent Country Park in Wembley, north west London. Yesterday, the Met announced that the deaths were being treated as 'suspicious' and a murder inquiry had been launched. It has now emerged that a passer-by saw the bodies of the sisters and a single rucksack when she visited the park on Saturday, but presumed they were asleep. Police believe the sisters had been part of a group of 10 people who congregated in the park from around 7pm on Friday, June 5 to celebrate Bibaa's birthday. Gradually, people left throughout the evening until only Nicole and Bibaa remained. They were then both reported as missing to police late on Saturday before they were discovered on Sunday. The two women found dead in a north west London park are half sisters Bibaa Henry, 46, (left) and Nicole Smallman, 27 (right). A murder investigation has been launched Nicole Smallman, 27, and her sister Bibaa Henry, 46, were discovered dead on Sunday lunchtime at Fryent Country Park in Wembley, north west London Nicole, a Westminster university graduate, and mother-of-one social worker Bibaa were declared dead at the scene at 1.08pm. A 66-year-old retired shopkeeper said he spotted a group, though to be Bibaa's party, on Friday. She added a neighbour saw two bodies in the park the following day, assuming they were asleep. She said: 'I go running at the top of the hill every evening. On Friday, there were about three groups of people at around 9pm. 'There was a group of men, a group of two women with a dog. Then there was a larger group of around eight or so people which could have been them, but I don't remember seeing either of the women specifically. 'Everybody just seemed to be relaxing and enjoying the view. 'Every night when the weather is okay there are always groups of young men and women up there drinking and smoking, especially since the lockdown. 'My neighbour saw the two girls on Saturday, but she thought they were rough sleepers. Police an entrance to Fryent Country Park, in Wembley, north London, where a murder investigation has been launched following deaths of two sisters 'It was not clear they were injured or anything. She said she just saw the two girls lying on the floor and there was a backpack next to them. 'If I ever see people sleeping up there, I usually go up to them and say 'are you okay?' 'Sometimes there are people lying up there who might look dead, but they are sleeping.' A police statement yesterday said: 'Detectives from the Specialist Crime Command (Homicide) are investigating, with the assistance of officers from the North West Command Unit. 'The deaths are being treated as suspicious and a murder investigation has begun.' Senior investigating officer DCI Simon Harding said: 'We are in the very early stages of the investigation and are working hard to find out what led to these two women losing their lives. Police officers guard forensics tents at Fryent Country Park near Wembley, north London this afternoon An officer stands watch at the entrance to Fryent Country Park close by to flowers paying tribute to the two sisters 'Their families have been devastated by their loss and they need answers. They have asked that their privacy is respected at this time as they come to terms with this horrific incident. 'I need to hear from anyone who was in Fryent Country Park on the evening of Friday, 5 June, or early into Saturday, 6 June. The area the group were situated in is around a five minute walk from the Valley Drive entrance of the park, leading to a hill area. 'The area the group were in would be a well-known spot to sit and look over London. If you were in that area of the park from the evening of 5 June through to Sunday lunchtime, noticed the group, or saw anything else suspicions, please contact us immediately. 'You may have stumbled upon items of property, but not realised the significance of them. If you did, you may well have information that could assist us hugely. No matter how insignificant it may seem, please contact us via the incident room on 0208 721 4205, or via 101.' Put your money where your mouth heart is. Protest. Donate. Sign petitions. Listen and learn. Yes, yes, yes and yes. Another way to make a difference and support the Bay Area Black community: Buy from Black-owned businesses. Here, get to know five of our favorite Bay Area fashion brands run by Black women. McMullen See on Instagram Ever since she opened her namesake Oakland flagship in 2007, Sherri McMullen has been a force for fashion good and a style star in her own right. The concept shop is loved and lauded from coast to coast for featuring global and local brands with a focus on emerging African and African-American fashion and home-decor designers. Nine months ago, McMullen opened a second store, in Palo Alto. The sibling boutiques carry elegantly understated styles with a roster of labels including Christopher John Rogers, Khiry, Tibi, Bole Road, Kamperett, and Jacquemus. The stores are located at 2257 Broadway (Oakland) and 855 El Camino Real #36 (Palo Alto). Our pick: Change Cadet's "Keep Being Amazing" tee, $35. // shopmcmullen.com Taylor Jay Collection See on Instagram Like so many founders, Oakland designer Taylor Jay was inspired to create her business to fill a need. What was she hunting for? Elevated, comfy and simple-chic silhouettes designed for a woman's ever-changing body. She realized her dream five years ago with the launch of her anything-but-basic basics (dresses, skirts, jumpsuits, tops) collection, designed for women of all sizes and body types. Garments are made from certified eco-friendly fabrics and use environmentally safe dyes at an Oakland factorywhere ethical sourcing and fair labor practices are the order of the day. TJC's Oakland brick-and-mortar is located at 2355 Broadway, Suite 1 (Oakland). Our pick: Midi skirt, $64. // taylorjaycollection.com Aliya Wanek See on Instagram Oakland designer Aliya Wanek has a simple mission: create sustainable and ethically sourced styles that allow a woman's individuality to shine through. Everything in her eponymous label is handmade in the Bay Area from natural fibers. Both the Jorja dress, a mid-length number with pockets, puff sleeves and elasticized waist, and the Rumi jacket, a three-quarter-length quilted cover with hidden front pockets, are representative of her effortless aesthetic. And like most of the tightly edited line, they're crafted of hemp and organic cotton. We're huge fans of Wanek's vibrant colors (fuchsia, marine blue, and pine), clean silhouettes, and cool detailing. Our pick: Hiroko pants, $190. // aliyawanek.com Harwell Godfrey See on Instagram To say that San Franciscobased jewelry designer Lauren Harwell Godfrey has a Midas touch is an understatement: She works 18-karat gold, precious gemstones, and vibrant enamel to brilliant effect. The handcrafted and eye-catching pieces (rings, earrings, medallions, and necklaces) take inspiration from ancient cultures, textiles, and motifs. Jewelry is made to order and often features delicate hand engraving on the back. Godfrey recently created the Black Onyx Heartwith 100 percent of the profits going to the NAACP. Envisioned as a healing talisman, the stunning black onyx, diamond, and 18-karat pendant ($2,500) features Godfrey's signature triangle motif down the centerit looks like a broken heart that has been put back together. Our pick: Knife Edge hoop earrings, $7,450 (a girl can dream). // harwellgodfrey.com Beija Flor Naturals See on Instagram From ridiculously moisturizing (and multi-purpose) Organic Hemp Buttercream to glow-enhancing Agave Aloe Polisher and nourishing Body + Hair Honey, Beija Flor Naturals products are chockfull of organic and nutrient-rich botanical ingredients from Brazil. Oaklander Stevonne Ratliff founded her natural skincare and haircare biz in 2013, after being inspired by the healing properties of many of the vitamin-packed botanicals she encountered while living in Rio de Janeiro. Handmade soy candles, botanical smudge sticks, and probiotic deodorant are also part of the small-batch (and affordable) mix. Our pick: Amazon Antioxidant Treatment, $22. // beijaflornaturals.com. To find more Black-owned businesses, visit the Bay Area Black Market. Also, the Bay Area Black Owned Business Relief Fund and the Oakland Black Business Damage Fund are providing direct donations to small local businesses. // Get more info and resources on how to support Black lives and community in the Bay Area; @7x7bayarea, #buyblack, #phenomenalwomen, #blacklivesbayarea. Armenias Penitentiary Service has appealed against a courts decision to allow the jailed former President Robert Kocharian to remain in hospital until the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Kocharian was taken to Yerevans Izmirlian Medical Center and underwent surgery there in late April for the second time in seven months. On May 13, a district court in the Armenian capital again refused to release him from custody pending the outcome of his ongoing trial. Two weeks later, Kocharians lawyers succeeded in convincing another court to rule that the ex-president should not be sent back to prison as long as he remains at risk of contracting the coronavirus. It emerged on Tuesday that the Penitentiary Service, which is part of the Armenian Ministry of Justice, challenged that decision made by the Administrative Court. The agency running Armenian prisons did not explain the move condemned by Kocharians lawyers. The Administrative Court is guided by a very clear logic, one of the lawyers, Aram Vartevanian, told RFE/RLs Armenian service. After all, penitentiary institutions do not have the capacity to preclude the spread of the coronavirus among arrested suspects or convicts. Vartevanian argued that at least one inmate at the Kosh prison 40 kilometers west of Yerevan tested positive for the virus late last week. It was the first reported case of a COVID-19 infection among prisoners. The Penitentiary Service had previously reported coronavirus cases only among prison guards. Kocharian was held in Yerevans Kentron jail prior to his hospitalization. His lawyers have insisted in recent month that the pandemic is another reason why he should be set free. Law-enforcement authorities have dismissed those demands, saying that his chances of catching the disease at Kentron are minimal. Kocharian, 65, and three other former senior officials stand trial on charges mostly stemming from the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. The ex-president, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, also stands accused of bribery. He rejects all accusations leveled against him as politically motivated. On July 1, Israel intends to begin the annexation of the Jordan Valley and the Jewish towns and cities of the West Bank. The problem is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing this while distancing himself from other parts of the Mideast plan that the Trump administration put together. Without the whole package, it probably will fail badly. The annexation was meant to be an early down payment to Israel in the broader context of the American vision for peace in the Middle East. That plan has many parts, but at its heart is the creation of a Palestinian state, with limited sovereignty, in roughly 70% of the West Bank and, eventually, all of Gaza. Netanyahu was well aware of this when he enthusiastically embraced the plan back in January. He had been touting a "state-minus" solution for years exactly like the proposed state in the Trump plan. Ramallah can raise a flag, but not an army. It can have a capital in the outskirts of Jerusalem, but not downtown. Palestinian police can keep the peace on their own streets as long as they protect the streets of Israel. Palestinian civilians living abroad would be welcome to enter, but not hostile armies. These limitations would amount to a Palestinian declaration of Israel's legitimacy as a Jewish state, and a quit claim on the territory beyond the new state's borders. For Israel, a limited Palestinian state is a feature, not a bug. The elderly Palestinian leadership in Ramallah and the Hamas regime in Gaza bitterly oppose the deal. But while it is not even-handed (reflecting the existing imbalance of power), it is also not nothing. There has never been a Palestinian state of any size or shape. A younger generation might feel that a Palestinian country aligned with Israel and the U.S., and backed by billions in startup money, would be preferable to another 50 years of Israeli occupation and Palestinian stonewalling. Like the Palestinian leaders, Israeli Jews on the far right hate the deal. They oppose a Palestinian state as a matter of ideology and principle. They fear that the American plan might actually work. This hard core is not heavily populated, but it is influential among Likud voters that Netanyahu relies on. They aim to convince the public that the deal is poisonous, and that President Donald Trump is an enemy in disguise. Netanyahu has stood up for Trump, but he is clearly distancing himself from the plan. Last week he told a right-wing newspaper that if the Palestinians fulfill the conditions of the Trump plan, "then they will have an entity that President Trump defines as a state." That dismissive language was a first salvo. A few days later, Minister of Energy Yuval Steinitz was more explicit. "We didn't announce that we're adopting the Trump plan," he said, "just parts of it." Those parts include annexing the settlements and the Jordan Valley. As for the rest, it's no longer clear what Israel is planning. This approach amounts to a gratuitous land grab (Israeli control of the Valley and the settlements is already a fact of life). And it empties the plan of its promise. Benny Gantz, the coalition's No. 2 and Netanyahu's presumptive successor, understands this. The center-left faction he leads supports the American plan in its entirety. Gantz is already under fire from his center-left voters for breaking his campaign vow not to serve in a Netanyahu-led government. If he acquiesces to Bibi's annexation game, it could very well destroy his remaining credibility and his political ambitions. If, on the other hand, Gantz opposes Netanyahu, it probably would bring down the government. To stay in power, the prime minister would then need the same right-wing hardliners, currently in the opposition, whose price would be rejection of the American plan. The Middle East is not presently at the top of the Trump administration's to-do list. Restoring racial calm, dealing with Covid-19 and its economic consequences and waging cold war against China all have more urgent claims on the president's attention. But the Trump administration is not exactly overflowing with foreign policy successes. The plan is worth defending. Trump (or, more probably, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo) needs to tell Netanyahu in clear terms that he can't chip away at the American plan for his own political convenience. The U.S. should assure Gantz that the administration will back him up if he opposes the premature annexation. The Trump plan, perhaps improbably given its provenance, reflects the realities of today's West Bank demography and the balance of power between Israel and its neighbors. The two-state solution of 2020 cannot be the same as the one envisioned 50 years ago. Even so, its success is a long shot. A necessary condition is the belief of young Palestinians in the good faith of Israel and the United States. An unnecessary and provocative annexation right now is a mistake. - - - This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Chafets is a journalist and author who was a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the founding managing editor of the Jerusalem Report Magazine. " " Treasure hunters have been searching for "Fenn's Treasure" for nearly a decade. One lucky hunter found it, according to Forrest Fenn's website announcement. Fertnig/Getty Images Perhaps thousands of people have searched for a bronze chest full of gold and gemstones hidden in the Rocky Mountains between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Canadian border hidden by a reclusive millionaire adventurer. At least four people died in their quest for the treasure. But it's all over now. "Fenn's Treasure" has been found. The 89-year-old adventurer named Forrest Fenn, who created the treasure hunt, announced the news on Sunday, June 7, 2020, via his website. "I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot," Fenn wrote. Fenn told the Santa Fe New Mexican the treasure was confirmed by a photograph the lucky finder sent him. Advertisement The treasure hunt began when Fenn published a poem containing clues to the chest's location in 2010. The Man Who Started It All Forrest Fenn, the man who started the hunt, lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War and later amassed his wealth as a dealer in art and antiquities. The treasure hunt was a modified version of an earlier idea. Fenn was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer in 1988 and had planned to die peacefully in the woods with his treasure. But when his cancer went into remission, he put his plans on hiatus, eventually writing the poem that described his ideal resting place, which is where he hid the treasure. The poem appeared in a self-published memoir called "The Thrill of the Chase." Fenn told Business Insider that the chest wouldn't be found by accident; only a treasure hunter who correctly interpreted the clues would find it. Several treasure hunters went missing while attempting to find the chest, including hunter Jeff Murphy of Batavia, Illinois. Murphy disappeared from Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 2017. Murphy had been hunting for the treasure for a few years and had been in contact with Fenn before his search. He was reported missing when he didn't check in with his wife, and his remains were found on June 9, 2017. The death was ruled accidental Murphy is believed to have lost his footing in the mountains, resulting in a 500-foot (152-meter) fall. Fenn offered to help pay for a helicopter to aid in the search for Murphy. Fenn told the Washington Post that he had never been in the part of the park where the accident occurred, and repeatedly said at that time, the treasure was not in a dangerous place. He told HowStuffWorks that he believed most searchers were being responsible. "Most people do not disregard their safety when they search, and I get emails every day that say that," Fenn said in 2018, via email. "Even those who were lost didn't think they were overextending themselves at the time. Two of them had successfully visited the same location several times. We have emphasized safety all along the way and I think it has had a positive effect." Still, several other hunters ended up missing, as well, including: Paris Wallace, lost in summer 2017 in New Mexico Eric Ashby, lost in summer 2017 on the Arkansas River in Colorado Randy Bilyeu, lost in early 2016 outside Santa Fe, New Mexico Mike Petersen, summer 2017, Yellowstone National Park Jeff Schultz, April 2016, Arizona Of course, it turns out the treasure was not in Yellowstone, and not even a national park. "It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago," Fenn wrote on his website. Good thing because it is illegal to remove anything from a national park, which would cause complications in legally claiming the treasure if it was found there. Kathy Kupper, a public affairs specialist for the National Park Service, told us in 2018 that if the treasure was found on park land, only Fenn could claim it. Now That's Rich Chicago real estate attorney, Barbara Andersen, has filed an injunction with Chicago's federal district court. Andersen claims she solved Fenn's puzzle, but was hacked by someone she doesnt know who got to the treasure first. Andersen wants credit is asking the courts to prevent the finder from selling any of the treasure and for her to be granted possession. For more than a decades, TLC viewers have been tuning in to follow the adventures of the Roloff family on Little People, Big World. The family which includes parents Matt and Amy Roloff and their four kids has gone through some big changes over the years, from the birth of several grandkids to Matt and Amys divorce in 2016. The show has changed as well, with some once-familiar faces disappearing. Several of the Roloff kids no longer appear on LPBW, including Matt and Amys only daughter Molly. Molly Roloff is no longer on Little People, Big World Amy Roloff with her daughter Molly and son-in-law Joel | amyjroloff via Instagram RELATED: LPBW: Amy Roloff Just Explained Why Her Daughter, Molly, Isnt at Any of the Recent Family Events When Little People, Big World began in 2006, Molly was a young teen. The show chronicled some of her experiences growing up, including her 8th-grade graduation, getting her driving permit, and her first high school formal. But as Molly got older, she appeared on her familys reality series less and less frequently. Eventually, she graduated from high school, went away to college at Whitworth University, and got married. Now 26, she currently lives in Spokane, Washington, with her husband Joel. Shes still close to her family Molly has opted to distance herself from Little People, Big World, but that doesnt mean shes broken ties with her family. When she got married in 2017, she had her wedding at Roloff Farms. Her sisters-in-law Tori and Audrey Roloff were part of her bridal party and photos shared on social media of the event show the whole family celebrating together. While Molly doesnt have a public social media presence, she does pop up occasionally in her familys posts. When her younger brother Jacob got married in 2019, Molly was one of his witnesses. And she seems close with her sister-in-law and Jacobs wife Isabel. But because she lives several hours away from her family, she isnt always able to attend family events, her mom explained last year. Molly recently made an appearance on her moms Instagram RELATED: LPBW: Amy Roloff Only Wants to Get Remarried on Roloff Farms as a Last Resort LPBW fans eager to know what Molly is up to got an update recently from her mom Amy. The 55-year-old traveled to Spokane from Oregon to spend a weekend with her daughter and son-in-law, and she shared some photos from her visit. Love my family, Amy wrote. Im so glad I took a road trip to Spokane last weekend to hang out with my daughter Molly and SIL Joel. The best time. I had a blast- went on walks, played games, ate, made bread with Molly and just hang out with them. Amy added that she misses both Molly and Joel so much but that they are happy and doing great. Fans are glad to see Molly is doing well Many fans who commented on Amys post were happy to see that she was doing well. Nice to see Molly! one wrote. So happy to see Molly happy! You look great Amy! another added. A few added that they miss seeing Molly on the show. But from the looks of things, Molly is happy with her life away from the cameras, so it seems unlikely well see her on TV again anytime soon. Check out Showbiz Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Dangerous surf warning issued as Phuket beaches reopen PHUKET: As all Phuket beaches reopened to visitors today (June 9), lifeguards along the west coast warned all people thinking of going into the water to swim to do so only between the yellow flags, and to avoid entering the water at all where red No Swimming flags have been posted due to dangerous rip currents. SafetyCoronavirusCOVID-19healthtourism By The Phuket News Tuesday 9 June 2020, 05:56PM A lifeguard at Naiharn beach plants a warning flag to advise swimmers of dangerous conditions as beaches reopened today (June 9) across the island. Photo: Tanyaluk Sakoot. Due to the monsoon season the waves are strong and the beach is still polluted with garbage that has washed up from the sea, Patong Mayor Chalermluck Kebsup told The Phuket News sister paper Khao Phuket. Mayor Chalermluck explained that the municipality has prepared beach areas as best as possible although conditions may not be as ideal as they could or should be. We welcome all visitors to the Patong area and beach, now that the beach is open again although we must stress this is the monsoon season and I urge visitors to follow the new normal rules, she said. Please do not congregate in groups. We must safeguard against any return of the COVID-19 situation occurring again as this has had a hugely detrimental impact on the economy, on many businesses and the image of tourism. Mayor Chalermluck acknowledged the likelihood of new tourists coming anytime soon is remote due to Phuket International Airport remaining closed but did stress that she has urged Patong lifeguards to be extra diligent with tourists that remain and live in the area. She explained that she has requested the lifeguards to observe water safety measures and to ensure people adhere to social distancing and face mask regulations. People must wear a face mask when they are on the beach. Officials will also be inspecting beach chairs and any massage stations at the beach to ensure the rules are respected and implemented fully, she explained. Patong Surf Life Saving Chief Somprasong Sangchart reiterated the point about the fierce weather conditions brought about by the monsoon and also urged extra caution before entering the water. Please observe the yellow and red flags, and obey any instructions from lifeguards, he said. It is also important to observe the social distancing rules and requirements to wear face masks while on the beach, he added. The beach is open but tourists need to be careful when in the water, commented Surin beach lifeguard Amnad Chuasaman. It is dangerous to swim alone during the monsoon season so we urge people to look for the cautionary yellow and red flags which stipulate appropriate swimming zones, he added. Witanya Chuayaun, Lifeguard Education Coordinator and International Lifeguard Supervisor and Acting President of Phuket Lifeguard Service (PLS), further stressed the point for extra caution during the monsoon season, stating the extra strong currents can be extremely dangerous. We have recently witnessed waves reaching up to two metres high dumping on the beach, while deadly rip currents whisked swimmers away from the shore, she said. Ms. Witanya urged people not enter the water at beaches where lifeguards were not present and on duty. She also expressed concern about beaches being a potential area for the spreading of the COVID-19 disease. People need to take care and ensure they wear face masks at all times while on the beach while respecting social distancing rules, she said. Group activities are therefore not encouraged. Instead people should enjoy individual activities such as swimming, bodyboarding, surfing, jogging and walking. Our lifeguards will do their best to avoid contact with tourists in the event they require assistance or experience difficulty when in the water, Ms. Witanya added. We will try to help people exit the water by jet ski or with float boards to assist them to swim back to the shore, she concluded. N igel Farage was branded "outrageous" on Good Morning Britain during a furious row over the toppling of a slave trader statue at a Black Lives Matter protest. The Brexit Party defended Edward Colston after a statue honouring him in Bristol city centre was ripped down by protesters on Sunday and dumped into a harbour. Mr Farage also compared the Black Lives Matter movement to the Taliban. During a fierce debate on ITV, Piers Morgan told him Mr Colston was "responsible for the deaths of 20,000 people" as a member of the Royal African Company, which shipped 80,000 men, women and children from Africa to the Americas. But Mr Farage defended the imperialist as a "big philanthropist" and branded those who toppled the statue "a violent mob, making their own decisions on what they thought was right and wrong." It prompted the lawyer and activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu to interject: "How dare you." Nigel Farage sparked fury on GMB this morning / GMB She told Mr Farage: "The only thing you're an expert on right now is your backside because everything you say stinks. Everything you are saying is utter rubbish." Historian Professor Kate Williams added in the four-way debate: "You are inciting racism, and this is outrageous." Mr Farage went on to call the Black Lives Matter movement a "Marxist organisation" with the intention of de-funding the police. Nigel Farage was branded 'outrageous' during the row / GMB/ITV Some 137,500 people took to the streets in UK cities for Black Lives Matter demonstrations at the weekend following George Floyd's death. "I understand why they did it, but don't forget those same people have been destroying historical monuments in Syria that are thousands of years old," blasted Mr Farage. His microphone was eventually muted so the other guests could speak. Upon his death in 1721, Mr Colston bequeathed large sums of his wealth to charities in Bristol and many parts of the city are named after him today. Piers agreed that comparing the BLM movement to the Taliban was "incendiary". It comes amid growing calls for other historical monuments to be removed over their apparent imperial links. Local councillors have joined students and academics at Oxford University in calling for a statue of the prominent imperialist Cecil Rhodes, at Oriel College, Oxford, to be removed. Soon after Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal overturned the decision of the Arvind Kejriwal government reserving hospitals only for city residents, a high-voltage fight ensued between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP on Monday. The Lt Governor acted a day after Kejriwal announced that Delhi government hospitals will be available for the residents of the city only, while those run by the Central government will remain open to all. Kejriwal's deputy Manish Sisodia hit out at Baijal saying: "BJP state governments are involved in PPE and ventilator scams. The Delhi government is trying to manage the disaster. The BJP is not able to bear it. Therefore, it has indulged in cheap politics by pressurising the LG." The BJP, on the other hand, welcomed Baijal's decision and said it would give a big relief to people. "It was against civil rights of people," BJP's newly-appointed state President Adesh Kumar Gupta said about the Chief Minister's decision. Gupta said the BJP had been already seeking a rollback of the move. He was critical of the manner in which the Kejriwal government had "tried to cover up its inefficiency" by blocking the testing of asymptomatic people and the treatment of people from outside the city. Appealing to Kejriwal to work on the ground so that the "present atmosphere of fear" came to an end, he maintained that every citizen had a right to access health services anywhere, and no state government could discriminate against anyone on this count. The Lt Governor, who is also the Chairman of Delhi Disaster Management Authority, had in his order, said that "treatment should not be denied to any patient on grounds of being a non-resident". MINNEAPOLIS, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ally Law, a premier global legal network with 3,000 lawyers worldwide, congratulates ten member firms ranked in the 2020 Legal 500 Guides for EMEA, Deutschland and the United Kingdom. Said Bjorn Welinder, president of Ally Law and a partner in Lund, Sweden-based law firm Lindmark Welinder, "I congratulate all of our honored European member firms. The stature of our member firms is the cornerstone of our cost-effective, coordinated legal service model." Ally Law member firms ranked in the 2020 Legal 500 EMEA Guide include: Ally Law's German member firm Melchers was ranked in the 2020 Legal 500 Deutschland Guide as a Leading Law Firm, Tier 2, Metropolitan Area Rhein-Neckar; and Tier 3, Metropolitan Region Rhein-Neckar. Ally Law's UK member firm Edwin Coe LLP was ranked in the 2020 Legal 500 UK Guide in several areas including: Tier 2, Employment- Legal Executives; Tier 3, Insurance Litigation For Policyholders; Tier 3, M&A- Smaller Deals, Up to 50M; Tier 3, Personal Tax Trusts & Probate; Tier 4, Commercial Property- Corporate Occupiers; Tier 4, Fraud- Civil; Tier 4, Property Litigation; Tier 5, Commercial Litigation; Tier 5, Professional Negligence; Tier 6, Intellectual Property; Tier 7, Employment- Employers; and Immigration. About Ally Law Ally Law provides sophisticated legal services to major corporations, with a sharp focus on value. Our 70+ firms include nearly 3,000 lawyers in 100+ business centers worldwide. Press contact: Wendy Horn, Executive Director, Ally Law +1 612 770 6046, [email protected] SOURCE Ally Law Sunder Pichai New Delhi: If you want to learn how to stay positive in difficult times, then the message of Google CEO Sundar Pichai can be an important tool. Addressing the students, he advised them to be optimistic, open minded and enthusiastic because of the coronavirus in which the world is facing many crisis. Sunder PichaiIn such a situation, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has a special message. He addressed students from all over the world through the Virtual Graduation Ceremony. In his address, Sundar Pichai recalled his roots and spoke about the importance of staying positive in difficult times. Advertisement He shared the challenges he faced while leaving India. Recalling the old days, Sundar Pichai said, My father spent a year's salary on my plane ticket to study at Stanford. This was my first flight. America is an expensive place. It cost 2 dollar a minute to call in the house. "Without the convenience of technology, he recalled his days and compared himself to children who have computers of all kinds and sizes. "I didn't have the technology," he said. We didn't have a telephone until we were ten years old. Sunder Pichai"I didn't even have a computer until I came to the United States to study. When we got television, we only had access to one channel," said Sundar Pichai. Advertisement Sundar Pichai grew up in Chennai and started his career as an engineer. Sundar joined Google in 2004 as a managing executive. Then he did not look back and reached the CEO's office. The program that Sundar Pichai was addressing included former US President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle Obama and many other celebrities. Demonstrators protest Saturday, June 6, 2020, near the White House in Washington, 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. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Read more Ten thousand people in the street ... singin songs and a-carrying signs, mostly say hooray for our side. For what its worth, America just survived an incredible week, with new optimism that the long arm of the moral universe is bending toward justice. Did someone forward you this email? Sign up to receive this newsletter weekly at inquirer.com/bunch. We are covering a revolution here! Why it took a police killing, and not a dictatorial president, to finally fill Americas streets The remarkable images that came out of Washington, D.C. this weekend were, in some ways, a near-fulfillment of the political fantasies of the large but loosely aligned group called the Resistance that had literally started forming in the pre-dawn hours of November 9, 2016 vowing to protest, impede and eventually end the presidency of Donald Trump by virtually any means necessary. Now, nearly 41 months into Trumps term, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue appeared under siege, literally surrounded by tens of thousands of chanting, occasionally singing protesters. In response, the 45th president has surrounded his palace with a new insurmountable fence, and had even famously retreated to the White House bunker for a short time, in fear of the crowd. On the surface, it looked very much like what one clique on the left the faction that has protested Trumps unfitness from 2017s Womens March straight through his impeachment trial this year had prayed for, a Hong Kong-style protest aimed at bringing an end to Trumpism. Except there was just one thing the hordes out in the streets of D.C. (and literally hundreds of other U.S. cities and towns) this weekend werent there to protest Trump, not really. The much deeper issues of systemic racism in America, enforced by violent policing and illustrated by the killing of one man, George Floyd, on a Minneapolis street corner, brought out thousands of Millennials/Gen Zers and people of color whod once viewed the Trump resistance as more their moms fight. As early as January 2018, when I attended the large but somewhat unfocused second annual Womens March, I began to worry that the Resistance and its appeal weighted toward white suburban women older than 35 was falling short of what was needed for radical change that would address not only Trumps election but Americas broader problems. There were lots of families in strollers, and no cops in riot gear. Was that something to be celebrated, or did the lack of police presence prove that the established order didnt feel threatened? I spoke Tuesday morning with Dana Fisher, a University of Maryland sociology professor (and Philly-area native) whos been studying Trump-era protest and recently authored American Resistance. She argues that the suburban-flavored movement that emerged organically from the ashes of Trumps election is now more ready to tackle thornier issues such as racism and with a more confrontational approach than at the start of the journey. The people who started out as the mainstays of the Resistance needed this time, Fisher told me. She, a colleague and some volunteers surveyed protesters last week in New York, D,C., L.A., and even London. They found a significant number had taken part in earlier protests like the Womens March, but also something surprising: That sizable numbers 65% in Washington, for example now agree that some level of violence is justified in pursuit of political goals, up sharply from early protests. On one hand, I cant help but wonder if the Trump resistance (and Im including myself and my own focus as a columnist) while it helped motivate #MeToo and the 2018 flip of the House could have accomplished even more from the get-go. What if the movement had focused less on Trump himself and more on the social justice issues, as well as climate change, that bring young people into the street and force The Establishment to react? In hindsight, it probably would have been better to view Trump not as the illness but as an especially gross symptom of a larger disease. But lets not lose sight of the good news here. What started as a narrow resistance movement has now been radicalized. A growing number of Americans get it now: The removal of Trump by next January is still very important, but its only the starting line for a better world. 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 Iranian doctor Majid Taheri back home after release from US jail Iran Press TV Monday, 08 June 2020 2:15 AM An Iranian doctor who had been imprisoned in the US for 16 months has arrived back home after being released. Taheri arrived in Tehran early Monday, and was welcomed by Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari at the airport. The Iranian doctor, who had spent nearly 16 months in US jails for allegedly violating the US sanctions on Iran, told reporters at the airport that charges against him were false and unfair. He said he was jailed for helping Iranian researchers at the University of Tehran develop an anti-cancer vaccine. Taheri thanked Iranian officials and the government, especially Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for securing his release. Iran has stressed no direct talks had taken place between the Islamic Republic and the United States over the release, saying the process was facilitated by the Swiss Embassy. In an interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said, "This... was carried out with the help of the Swiss government and, therefore, it is necessary to thank the government of Switzerland for its help." Emphasizing that the Swiss diplomats were responsible for talks with the US government, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman emphasized, "There has been no direct negotiations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the government of the United States." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Museum of Vancouver and Vancouver Maritime Museum are reopening on June 11th with new protocols and procedures in place that allow the public to safely enjoy the galleries and exhibitions on view. Vancouver Maritime Museum Reopening Location: 1905 Ogden Ave, Vanier Park, Kitsilano, Vancouver 1905 Ogden Ave, Vanier Park, Kitsilano, Vancouver Tickets: Purchase online in advance here. Tickets will be sold in 15 minute intervals to avoid congestion. The volume of people in the museum will be limited to 50 people at any given time. This includes staff and visitors. Purchase online in advance here. Tickets will be sold in 15 minute intervals to avoid congestion. The volume of people in the museum will be limited to 50 people at any given time. This includes staff and visitors. Hours: Thursday to Sunday from 10:00am to 5:00pm Thursday to Sunday from 10:00am to 5:00pm Read full COVID-19 Safety Measures Some of the current VMM exhibitions include: Lessons from the Arctic: How Roald Amundsen Won the Race to the South Pole (a free outdoor exhibition). VMM partnered with the Norwegian Embassy to bring back a popular exhibition. As a gift to the community, the VMM has displayed the exhibition in the windows of the St. Roch shelter so the public can safely enjoy it while remaining outdoors. Climb Aboard the St. Roch: Explore one of the worlds great Arctic explorers and a National Historic Site of Canada. The St. Roch was the first vessel to traverse the Northwest Passage from west to east (1940-1942), the first to complete the passage in one season (1944) and the first to circumnavigate North America. And just for the reopening, VMM will feature the exhibition By The Shore: Maritime BC in Paintings, featuring works by Emily Carr, E.J. Hughes and more. There will also be a Virtual Birthday Celebration for the VMM on June 11th. Museum of Vancouver Reopening Location: 1100 Chestnut Street, Vanier Park, Kitsilano, Vancouver 1100 Chestnut Street, Vanier Park, Kitsilano, Vancouver Tickets: Purchase online in advance here Purchase online in advance here Hours: Thursday to Sunday from 10:00am to 4:00pm Thursday to Sunday from 10:00am to 4:00pm Read full COVID-19 Safety Measures Some of the current MOV exhibitions include: Acts of Resistance: On view until July 2020, showcasing the artwork of seven indigenous artist activists from the Pacific Northwest, whose designs flew from the Iron Workers Memorial bridge on July 3, 2018 to protest the Trans Mountain Expansion Pipeline project. Haida Now: On view until December 2020, MOV in partnership with Haida Gwaii Museum, presents a visual feast of innovation and tradition with, Haida Now. Guest curated by Haida Curator Kwiaahwah Jones in collaboration with Viviane Gosselin, Co-curator and Director of Collections & Exhibitions at MOV, this exhibition features an unparalleled collection of Haida art, boasting more than 450 works. csnam: the city before the city: Known to archaeologists variously as the Eburne Midden, Great Fraser Midden, and Marpole Midden, recently made headlines when ancient burials were uncovered through urban development and the Musqueam strove to protect them. This collaborative project aims to generate public discussions about heritage and Indigenous history, and to raise awareness of the significance of csnam for the Musqueam people and for the City of Vancouver. Related: Virtual Museum Tours in Vancouver WASHINGTON The Trump administration grossly miscalculated budget projections before it cited funding problems to replace many immigration court interpreters in San Francisco and elsewhere with recorded videos, according to a new watchdog report. The Justice Department began requiring immigration judges to use videos last year to explain the court system at immigrants initial appearances instead of in-person interpreters, a move first reported by The Chronicle. The department said the move was necessary to save money. But an analysis by the departments inspector general released Tuesday found that Justice Department officials were working off faulty numbers, part of an inaccurate portrayal of the agencys larger budget situation. The department erroneously estimated its yearly interpreter costs by extrapolating a single, unusually high monthly interpreter expense, which was not supported by invoices or other contemporaneous evidence, the watchdog wrote. This erroneous estimate adversely affected (agency) leaderships communication of accurate budget needs to department and congressional decision makers. In-person interpreters formerly were present at immigrants first court appearances, where judges typically explain their rights and how the process will work, and hear from them for the first time about their cases. Many people fighting deportation do not speak English, and some speak only indigenous languages. Instead of having interpreters on hand, the Justice Department last summer recorded 15- to 20-minute videos in English and Spanish to play for large groups of immigrants in courtrooms. When judges spoke to individual immigrants about their cases, they were told by the Justice Department to use a telephone service for interpreting services, a system many of them called inadequate. Lawyers and advocates who represent immigrants argued the cutback made it difficult to have a fair court process. After a rocky rollout of the videos in courts in four cities, including San Francisco, the Justice Department abandoned plans to expand the videos nationwide, and adherence to the original policy has slowly subsided. The department runs the immigration courts, with the attorney general wielding a great deal of control over their direction. As part of its hard-line immigration agenda, the Trump administration has paid particular attention to overhauling the courts in the name of efficiency and shaping policy. Advocates for immigrants and the union that represents immigration judges say many of the moves under Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr have jeopardized the courts fairness and made the system less efficient, citing the interpreter change as one prominent example. The inspector generals report traces budget miscalculations that led to the change. At the beginning of 2019, it said, staffers told Justice Department officials that interpreter fees the previous month had cost $9 million, which would mean spending $110 million by the end of the year far above what the agency had requested from Congress. In March, the director of the courts sent an email to all staffers citing that figure as a budget problem. Two weeks later, however, Justice Department officials learned that estimate was inaccurate. Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle 2019 Employees could neither explain to us how staff calculated the $9 million nor provide to us invoices or other contemporaneous documentation to support the $9 million figure, the watchdog found. But the director of the courts, James McHenry, did not send any updates to staffers because he experienced what he considered a backlash after sending the previous emails, he told the inspector generals office. In the end, the agency spent $74.4 million on interpretation, in line with original estimates at the beginning of the fiscal year. The watchdog also found that budget staffers advised McHenry not to send his March email, but he did so anyway to explain his cost-cutting decisions. The miscalculations were part of a bigger failure of communication over the courts budget, the watchdog found. The agency did not accurately predict what it would need from Congress, the report said, but operating staffers concluded the department ended up with adequate funding. The Justice Department had no comment on the report. In its response to the draft findings, the agency told the inspector generals office that it was committed to accurate and robust budget management and agreed with investigators recommendations. Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan Iran says it will execute man convicted of spying on Soleimani for CIA An Iranian who spied for U.S. and Israeli intelligence on slain Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani has been sentenced to death, Iran said on Tuesday, adding the case was not linked to Soleimani's killing earlier this year. Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, Chairman of the Ashanti Regional NPP constituency chairmen, has appealed to all Party members and supporters to abide by the decisions of the national leadership of the Party. He said the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Party had been mandated to take firm and appropriate decisions for the entire good of the Party and it was important for all to respect its decision or follow the due process to seek redress. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in reaction to the current wrangling and protestations going on in some constituencies over the disqualification of some parliamentary aspirants, Odeneho Appiah called for peace to prevail. He said it was important for Party members to learn a lesson from the bitter experience they had in the run-up to the 2008 general elections and put their acts in order, to prevent the reoccurrence of such painful experience. Some Party members in some constituencies in the Ashanti Region had in the past week, resorted to mass protests and invoking curses on constituency, regional and national executives of the Party for their alleged roles in the disqualification of their preferred candidates contesting the upcoming primaries. Offinso South, Asokwa, Dormaa East and Juaben for instance, had series of demonstrations by some aggrieved Party members over the disqualification of their candidates in the upcoming parliamentary primaries of the Party. The aggrieved Party members have also resorted to invoking curses on their Party leaders for their alleged complicity in the disqualifications. The unfolding events is creating a lot of tension in the Ashanti Region, which is considered as the stronghold of the NPP. It is to help address the issues and reduce tension to help the Party concentrate on its campaign towards the upcoming general elections that was why some leading members were coming out to calm nerves. Odeneho Appiah, who is also the Afigya-Kwabre South Constituency Chairman, said instead of Party members concentrating on telling Ghanaians the good works of the government, they were channeling energy to address internal wrangling and confusions. He said not every decision by the leadership of the Party would be palatable to everybody. In every judgement, there will be winners and losers. But in the interest of the Party, we should accept whatever, comes out and move forward, he stated. Odeneho Appiah said if care was not taken, the Party would pay dearly for it. He appealed to those supporting the ongoing wrangling to desist from that act since it was going to affect the Party in future. 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 Claiming a 75-year-old peace protester pushed to the ground by police is an ANTIFA provocateur who was trying to jam their radios is the latest in a long line of Trump's conspiracy theories. Others from his political career include: TED CRUZ'S FATHER SHOT JFK In May 2016, before Cruz dropped out of the 2016 presidential race, Trump seized on a National Enquirer story which claimed to show the Texas senator's father Rafael Cruz having breakfast with Lee Harvey Oswald. 'His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being, you know, shot,' he told Fox News. 'I mean the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this? Right? Prior to his being shot. And nobody even brings it up.' He later said he was only highlighting the National Enquirer, adding: 'They got OJ. They got [John] Edwards.' Cruz's campaign said the picture was not of Rafael Cruz. MARCO RUBIO AND TED CRUZ CAN'T BE PRESIDENT Trump retweeted a theory that because both Rubio's parents were born in Cuba and Cruz's father was born there too, they could not become president. Trump's mother was also not a natural-born citizen so if the theory was true, he would be ineligible. JOE SCARBOROUGH MURDERED HIS 'INTERN' Trump has recently repeatedly accused his friend-turned-archenemy, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough of playing an unspecified role in the tragic death of Lori Klausitus. She worked for the Morning Joe host when he was a Florida Republican congressman in 2001 and was found dead at one of his offices early one morning. An autopsy said she had an undiagnosed heart condition which caused her to fall and strike her head; Scarborough was in Washington D.C. at the time. But Trump has latched on a debunked theory he was involved and demanded a 'cold case' investigation, to the distress of her widower and family almost 20 years later. THE CLINTONS KILLED JEFFREY EPSTEIN In the wake of the discovery of the pedophile financier hanging in his cell in a New York federal prison, Trump retweeted a claim that he was part of a 'Clinton kill list' because of the former president and first lady's long association with him. Trump's own attorney general Bill Barr has said repeatedly that the death was suicide. Trump was also a long-term Epstein associate. WINDMILLS CAUSE CANCER Trump has repeatedly claimed that windmills used to generate electricity somehow cause cancer, apparently through the 'noise' from them. There is no known scientific theory that lies at the base of his claim but it makes frequent appearances at his free-wheeling campaign rallies. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 9, 2020) - Bluestone Resources Inc. (TSXV: BSR) (OTCQB: BBSRF) ("Bluestone" or the "Company") is pleased to report additional high grade drill assays received from its infill drilling activities currently underway at the Cerro Blanco gold project. In addition, Bluestone announces that John Robins, Founder and Executive Chair has transitioned to the role of non-executive Chair; this change is part of the Company's efforts to streamline reporting structures as the Company moves into the engineering and development phase of the project. Results from 14 underground and 4 surface holes are reported in this press release. Highlights include the following intercepts representing true widths of the veins: 21.6 g/t Au and 52 g/t Ag over 15.0 meters including 48.5 g/t Au and 97 g/t Ag over 3.8 meters (CB20-420) 10.7 g/t Au and 131 g/t Ag over 7.0 meters (CBUG19-157) 22.2 g/t Au and 18 g/t Ag over 1.0 meters (CBUG19-161) 18.2 g/t Au and 97 g/t Ag over 4.8 meters CBUG19-168) 14.6 g/t Au and 9 g/t Ag over 2.3 meters (CBUG19-162) Following the Guatemalan Government's recommendations and guidelines, the Company is taking steps to gradually resume drilling activities. The Company will continue to follow measures that were implemented in March to protect and prioritize the well-being of employees, contractors, their families, and the communities in which it operates. A 9,000-meter drill program is ongoing focused on the South Zone of the deposit. Three drill rigs will continue drilling the South Zone from surface, and in the underground workings two additional rigs are expected to be added over the coming weeks. The drilling will build on the infill drill program completed in the North Zone of the deposit in 2019 which resulted in an updated resource estimate of 1.41 million ounces of gold averaging 10.3 g/t in Measured and Indicated categories (see Press Release dated November 6, 2019). Jack Lundin, CEO, commented, "Our drill program at Cerro Blanco for 2020 kicked off in earnest in January. Despite a temporary hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to successfully resume activities with additional health and safety protocols. Together with the cooperation of the Entre Mares team, the drilling contractor, and the local government agencies, we will look to ramp up drilling initiatives with two additional rigs when deemed appropriate. We are very encouraged with the results from the drilling achieved to date. The Cerro Blanco deposit continues to display upside potential as evidenced by the attractive intercepts contained within this news release." The focus of the current drill program is infill drilling and improved definition of key veins in parallel to testing vein extensions outside of the current resource envelope. The drilling is expected to continue into Q4 2020. Table 1. Significant Intercepts (this Press Release) HOLE ID FROM (m) TO (m) CORE INTERVAL (m) TRUE WIDTH (m) Au g/t Ag g/t Vein ID UGCB19-156 30.6 42.1 61.5 100.5 113.7 122.0 31.6 43.3 64.0 101.5 117.0 136.6 1.0 1.2 2.5 1.0 3.3 14.5 1.0 1.0 2.5 1.0 3.1 13.9 5.5 6.3 5.8 5.3 6.5 4.5 42.4 25.4 44.3 20.1 24.6 32.2 VS_20 VS_20 VS_23 VS_31 VS_24 VS_25 UGCB19-157 32.9 89.9 103.2 107.3 121.8 132.3 143.0 151.8 37.9 93.0 104.2 109.8 123.3 139.3 144.3 153.0 5.0 3.0 1.0 2.5 1.5 7.0 1.3 1.2 5.0 3.0 1.0 2.5 1.5 7.0 1.3 1.2 4.4 7.0 8.7 5.5 5.3 10.7 7.8 11.3 27.1 25.9 77.3 43.6 39.4 131.5 30.5 239.0 VS_22 VS_24 New VS_26 New New New New UGCB19-158 94.2 126.3 95.3 127.4 1.1 1.0 1.1 1.0 6.4 4.4 30.9 20.1 VS_24 New UGCB19-159 30.3 36.5 93.6 101.2 114.3 148.7 31.3 38.7 94.8 102.4 115.5 150.8 1.0 2.1 1.2 1.2 1.2 2.1 1.0 2.0 1.1 1.2 1.2 2.1 7.8 4.8 5.7 5.0 8.5 5.3 16.4 26.8 28.5 12.9 31.0 33.0 New VS_31 VS_24 VS_25 VS_26 New UGCB19-160 35.9 116.2 130.2 38.1 117.5 134.7 2.3 1.3 4.6 2.3 1.3 4.6 8.6 5.2 6.5 63.5 7.7 10.3 VS_22 VS_26 New UGCB19-161 40.0 118.4 128.8 174.6 197.5 202.7 41.5 119.5 129.9 176.0 198.5 203.7 1.4 1.1 1.0 1.4 1.0 1.0 1.4 1.1 1.0 1.4 1.0 1.0 8.9 9.3 8.4 9.9 10.5 22.2 24.1 21.3 22.7 13.6 10.3 17.7 VS_22 VS_26 New New VS_29 VS_29 UGCB19-162 113.4 168.2 195.6 212.0 114.5 170.6 196.6 213.1 1.1 2.4 1.0 1.1 1.1 2.3 1.0 1.1 8.9 14.6 5.8 8.0 7.8 9.0 5.9 11.4 VS_26 VS_29 New New UGCB19-163 76.5 77.5 1.0 1.0 6.0 32.5 VS_01 UGCB19-164 4.8 5.8 1.0 1.0 11.5 47.9 VS_02 UGCB19-165 UGCB19-165 UGCB20-167 UGCB20-168 UGCB20-169 CB20-417 3.6 90.5 93.0 70.7 52.6 127.9 4.4 91.7 94.4 75.7 54.6 129.5 0.8 1.2 1.4 5.01 2.0 1.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 4.8 1.8 1.4 5.3 5.2 4.6 18.2 8.0 7.9 16.5 14.6 1.3 97.2 81.6 42.7 VN_24 VS_01 VS_01 VS_01,07 VS_01 VS_01 CB20-420 inc. inc. inc. 114.9 121.2 167.6 179.5 179.5 185.4 189.8 200.1 115.9 123.4 169.2 195.0 183.7 189.8 195.0 201.2 1.0 2.3 1.5 15.5 4.2 4.4 5.2 1.0 0.9 1.8 1.3 15.0 3.8 4.1 5.1 1.0 15.4 4.6 4.6 21.6 48.5 23.0 4.8 3.9 19.8 11.3 10.8 51.7 96.7 25.0 53.5 3.5 VS_22 VS_22 VS_14 VS_06,07,08,10 VS_10 VS_8 VS_6 & 7 VS_05 Hole coordinates and azimuth/dip information are included in Figure 1 in the link below. Intervals in bold are cited in the text of this press release. No assay top-cut was applied (maximum assay 107.7 g/t Au, CB20-420 181.9 to 183.7m). Plans and sections showing drill hole locations, core photos and a full table of assay results can be accessed by clicking HERE. Drilling Summary Drill holes UGCB19-156 to 162 were horizontal to sub-horizontal holes drilled at positive and negative angles from a single platform in the underground workings to improve definition of a wide zone of veining located in the hanging wall of the main South Zone resource (Figure 3). All holes intercepted multiple mineralized zones with three new veins delineated (VS_34, 35, 36) plus many new vein intercepts requiring further modelling and follow-up that could represent additional new structures. Hole CB20-420 is the first of several step-out holes to be drilled to test for extensions of Vein VS_10 and sub-parallel veins in the deeper levels of the South Zone (Figure 4). The hole was drilled at -63 degrees to the north-west. Vein VS_10 was successfully intercepted some 25 meters outside the current vein envelope and assayed 48.5 g/t Au and 97 g/t Ag over 3.84 meters (true width). This interval was part of a wider zone of converging veins and stockworks mineralization comprising veins VS_06, 07 ,08, and 10 that assayed 21.6 g/t Au and 52 g/t Ag over a true width of 15.0 meters. Holes UGCB19-163 to UGCB20-168, and CB20-417 to CB20-419 targeted the upper extension of vein VS-101, the principal footwall feeder vein. Five of seven holes drilled in the underground workings successfully intercepted the target vein, with a best intercept of 4.8 meters grading 18.2 g/t Au in UGCB20-168. CB20-417, drilled from surface, intersected the vein at 127.9 meters and assayed 1.4 meters grading 7.9 g. Au and 42.7 g/t Ag. CB20-418 and CB20-419 did not intercept the vein, instead intercepted clay fault gouge. Precious metal mineralization at Cerro Blanco is associated with classic low sulphidation adularia-sericite epithermal quartz veins and vein swarms hosted in altered sequence of volcanoclastic and sedimentary rocks. Higher grades (>20 g/t Au and >60 g/t Ag) are associated with visible gold and silver sulphides in ginguro-style colloform-banded veins. Quality Analysis and Quality Control Assay results listed within this release were performed by Inspectorate Laboratories ("Inspectorate"), a division of Bureau Veritas, which are ISO 17025 accredited laboratories. Logging and sampling are undertaken on site at Cerro Blanco by Company personnel under a QA/QC protocol developed by Bluestone. Samples are transported in security-sealed bags to Inspectorate, Guatemala City, Guatemala, for sample preparation. Sample pulps are shipped to Inspectorate Laboratories in Vancouver, BC, Canada or Reno, NV, USA, and assayed using industry-standard assay techniques for gold and silver. Gold and silver were analyzed by a 30-gram charge with atomic absorption and/or gravimetric finish for values exceeding 5 g/t Au and 100 g/t Ag. Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored by the analysis of reagent blanks, reference material, and replicate samples. Quality control is further assured by Bluestone's QA/QC program, which involves the insertion of blind certified reference materials (standards) and field duplicates into the sample stream to independently assess analytical precision and accuracy of each batch of samples as they are received from the laboratory. A selection of samples is submitted to ALS Chemex Laboratories in Vancouver for check analysis and additional quality control. Qualified Person David Cass, P.Geo., Vice President Exploration, is the designated Qualified Person for this news release within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and verified that the scientific and technical information set out above in this news release is accurate and therefore approves this written disclosure of the technical information. About Bluestone Resources Bluestone Resources is a mineral exploration and development company that is focused on advancing its 100%-owned Cerro Blanco Gold and Mita Geothermal projects located in Guatemala. A Feasibility Study on Cerro Blanco returned robust economics with a quick pay back. The average annual production is projected to be 146,000 ounces per year over the first three years of production with all-in sustaining costs of $579/oz (as defined per World Gold Council guidelines, less corporate general and administration costs). The Company trades under the symbol "BSR" on the TSX Venture Exchange and "BBSRF" on the OTCQB. On Behalf of Bluestone Resources Inc. "Jack Lundin" Jack Lundin | Chief Executive Officer & Director For further information, please contact: Bluestone Resources Inc. Stephen Williams | VP Corporate Development & Investor Relations Phone: +1 604 646 4534 info@bluestoneresources.ca www.bluestoneresources.ca 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 press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that Bluestone Resources Inc. ("Bluestone" or the "Company") believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including, without limitation: to the market for Bluestone's common shares, preferred shares, debt securities, subscription receipts, units, warrants and share purchase contracts; the conversion of the inferred mineral resources; increasing the amount of measured mineral and indicated mineral resources; the proposed timeline and benefits of further drilling; the proposed timeline and benefits of the Feasibility Study; statements about the Company's plans for its mineral properties; Bluestone's business strategy, plans and outlook; the future financial or operating performance of Bluestone; capital expenditures, corporate general and administration expenses and exploration and development expenses; expected working capital requirements; the future financial estimates of the Cerro Blanco Project economics, including estimates of capital costs of constructing mine facilities and bringing a mine into production and of sustaining capital costs, estimates of operating costs and total costs, net present value and economic returns; proposed production timelines and rates; funding availability; resource estimates; and future exploration and operating plans are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to Bluestone and often use words such as "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "estimates", "intends", "may" or variations thereof or the negative of any of these terms. All forward-looking statements are made based on Bluestone's current beliefs as well as various assumptions made by Bluestone and information currently available to Bluestone. Generally, these assumptions include, among others: the presence of and continuity of metals at the Cerro Blanco Project at estimated grades; the availability of personnel, machinery, and equipment at estimated prices and within estimated delivery times; currency exchange rates; metals sales prices and exchange rates assumed; appropriate discount rates applied to the cash flows in economic analyses; tax rates and royalty rates applicable to the proposed mining operations; the availability of acceptable financing; the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19); anticipated mining losses and dilution; success in realizing proposed operations; and anticipated timelines for community consultations and the impact of those consultations on the regulatory approval process. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of Bluestone to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and, even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, Bluestone. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: risks and uncertainties related to expected production rates; timing and amount of production and total costs of production; risks and uncertainties related to the ability to obtain, amend, or maintain necessary licenses, permits, or surface rights; risks associated with technical difficulties in connection with mining development activities; risks and uncertainties related to the accuracy of mineral resource estimates and estimates of future production, future cash flow, total costs of production, and diminishing quantities or grades of mineral resources; risks associated with geopolitical uncertainty and political and economic instability in Guatemala; risks related to global epidemics or pandemics and other health crises, including the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19); risks and uncertainties related to interruptions in production; the possibility that future exploration, development, or mining results will not be consistent with Bluestone's expectations; uncertain political and economic environments and relationships with local communities and governmental authorities; risks relating to variations in the mineral content within the mineral identified as mineral resources from that predicted; variations in rates of recovery and extraction; developments in world metals markets; and risks related to fluctuations in currency exchange rates. For a further discussion of risks relevant to Bluestone, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2019, available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was made, and except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Bluestone disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although Bluestone believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to their inherent uncertainty. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Non-IFRS Financial Performance Measures The Company has included certain non-International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") measures in this news release. The Company believes that these measures, in addition to measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, provide investors an improved ability to evaluate the underlying performance of the Company and to compare it to information reported by other companies. The non-IFRS measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. These measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS, and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. All-in sustaining costs The Company believes that all-in sustaining costs ("AISC") more fully defines the total costs associated with producing gold. The Company calculates AISC as the sum of refining costs, third party royalties, site operating costs, sustaining capital costs and closure capital costs all divided by the gold ounces sold to arrive at a per ounce amount. Other companies may calculate this measure differently as a result of differences in underlying principles and policies applied. Differences may also arise due to a different definition of sustaining versus non-sustaining capital. AISC reconciliation AISC and costs are calculated based on the definitions published by the World Gold Council ("WGC") (a market development organization for the gold industry comprised of and funded by 18 gold mining companies from around the world). The WGC is not a regulatory organization. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57512 MIDDLETOWN Middlesex Community College conducted the 53rd annual commencement ceremony via the Zoom platform June 4. In total, 364 students earned 406 associate degrees and certificates, with several students receiving multiple diplomas, according to a press release. Among the class of 2020 are 18 military veterans, 20 foreign/international students and two incarcerated graduates from Cheshire Correctional Institute who will receive degrees during a later ceremony. The oldest graduate is 66, and the youngest 15. One graduate began classes at Middlesex in 1987, and attended the college and off during the next 33 years before completing the necessary requirements to graduate this year, the release added. The class also includes two pairs of siblings (a brother and sister and two sisters), as well as a mother and daughter. Jacob Murphy, who grew up without a standard formal education, said he was understandably nervous when he first considered attending college. Murphy, an engineering science major from Berlin, gave the student address, according to the college. When I considered my MxCC experience, Im reminded of what it takes to facilitate student self-actualization. It takes a dedicated team of faculty and staff members and students alike all working toward the same goal, Murphy told the students. I have faith you will take the skills you have learned here, in conjunction the innate competence and willpower to get you to this point, and use them to usher us through these strange times, he said. Middlesex Dean of Academic and Students Affairs Sharale Mathis introduced class valedictorian, Abigail Brooke Ingalls, a veterinary technology major from Ledyard. She has worked at a veterinary clinic in Mystic and taught piano while in school. Her volunteer work includes building cat shelters and feeding stations, the release said. Ingalls, a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, was selected to be on the All-Connecticut Academic Team and is Connecticuts only recipient of the New Century Workforce Pathway Scholarship. MxCC Chief Executive Officer Steven Minkler presided over the online recognition ceremony. Tonight we gather as one. We are a united community that believes in this college, believes in our mission to put students in the center of everything we do, and believes in each and every member of the class of 2020, he said in his remarks. Minkler reminded the audience about the spring semesters shadow of events that cannot be ignored, from the coronavirus pandemic that shut down the campus in mid-March to the tragedy in Minnesota that brought the nations systemic racism to the forefront. I need to speak up and act on what I believe. I need to speak up and act on behalf of my college. Enough is enough. If one of us cant breathe, none of us can, he told those on Zoom. Among the colleges many other initiatives, Minkler announced the formation of a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council to address racial disparities in enrollment patterns, student success metrics and graduation rates. The council will also look for strategies to address cultural competence in employees and improve efforts to diversify faculty and staff on campus. Mark Ojakian, Connecticut State Colleges and Universities president, reminded the graduates they adapted quickly to a completely new way of learning and put in the hard work necessary to complete their degrees. Gov. Ned Lamont also offered his congratulations from Hartford, saying this is a graduation you will never forget. Jennifer Reilly of Old Saybrook, also a veterinary technology major, and Ingalls earned the Award for Academic Excellence. It is given to graduating students who have achieved a cumulative grade point average of 4.00 in an associate degree program and who have completed 50 percent of their requirements at Middlesex. Graduates Ingalls and Reilly also received the Pritchett-Taylor Award presented by Dean of Administration Kimberly Hogan. These scholarships are awarded to the graduates with the highest cumulative GPA who have earned at least 30 credits at MxCC, and have attended full-time for at least two semesters. Several students in the colleges distinguished honors program received degrees and plan to transfer to four-year institutions. They are Joshua Budney of Meriden (University of Hartford), Aillis Frost of East Hampton (University of Connecticut), Jake Hesseltine of Durham (Central Connecticut State University), Ayal Rosen (Wallingford) and Jessenia Sterling of Southington (University of Saint Joseph), according to MxCC. John Guillamon of Deep River, president of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society chapter at MxCC, earned the Etherington Scholarship from Wesleyan University. The college hopes to conduct an in-person commencement at a later date. Pakistan again violated ceasefire on the Line of Control (LoC) on Monday by intense shelling and firing in J&K's Poonch district. Defence ministry spokesman, Colonel Devender Anand, said that at about 7.45 p.m. on Monday, Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and intense shelling with mortars along the LoC in Khari Karmara sector of Poonch district. "Indian army is retaliating befittingly," he said. Pakistan has been violating bilateral ceasefire with impunity along the LoC in Poonch and Rajouri districts to provide fire cover to intruding terrorists, senior army officers sai Some finished marking up their signs with messages like Defund the Police and White Silence Is Violence on patches of grass while volunteers walked around with snacks like roasted ham, lamb tacos and chocolate chip cookies. A few artists added finishing touches to table-size tableaus along the fence as smoke billowed up from grills. What organizers called music of resistance started from a stage and continued as the crowd grew, stretching back toward West Cermak Road. Read more here. -- Morgan Greene Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain At the center of our galaxy resides the galactic bulge, a densely packed region of stars, dust and gas. Within this massive structure, which spans thousands of light-years, there are an estimated 10 billion stars, most of which are old red giant stars. Because of this density, astronomers have often wondered if a galactic bulge is a likely place to find stars with habitable planets orbiting them. Essentially, stars that are closely packed together are more likely to experience close encounters with other stars, which can be catastrophic for any planets that orbit them. According to a new study from Columbia University's Cool Worlds Lab, most stars in the bulge will experience dozens of close encounters over the course of a billion years, which could have significant implications for long-term habitability in this region. The study, in prepublication and set to appear in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, was led by Moiya McTieran NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Columbia University and a member of Cool Worlds Lab. She was joined by Prof. David Kipping (founder of the Cool Worlds Labs) and Kathryn Johnston, the chair of Astronomy at Columbia and a member of the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics. To put it simply, stellar close encounters are relatively common in our galaxy, occurring once every 50,000 years or so. As the stars in the galactic disk orbit around the center of the Milky Way, their individual paths cause them to occasionally pass closer to one another. The last time our solar system experienced a close stellar encounter was roughly 70,000 years ago. At this time, the binary system known as Scholtz's Star (WISE 0720-0846) passed about 52,000 astronomical units (0.25 parsecs; 0.82 light-years) from the sun, disturbing the Oort Cloud and the orbits of comets and asteroids in the solar system. This was not the first time Scholz's Star passed near to our solar systemroughly 80,000 years ago, it passed within ~66,000-70,000 AU from the sun. For the most part, these encounters have resulted in long-period comets and asteroids being kicked out of the Oort Clouda few of which collided with Earth and caused extinction-level events. However, stellar encounters can get much closer (as close as ~20,000 AUs) and have a detrimental effect on planetary systems. This include the possibility that planets will be stripped away from their stars or have their orbits destabilized. As McTier explained to Universe Today via email: "Close stellar encounters can have dangerous consequences for planets, but the exact results depend on a lot of factors: the mass ratio of the two stars involved, how fast they're moving, the angle of approach, and of course, the encounter distance. But in general, these close encounters can potentially rip planets from their host stars or destabilize their orbits so that they get flung out of the system many years after the fly by. Both of those would render a planet uninhabitable according to the most common criteria." In a previous study that appeared in MNRAS last year, a team of Swedish astronomers found that sun-like stars in open clusters have a 25% chance of losing their outer planets to a close flyby. Two similar studies that were also released last year (both led by astronomers from the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands) found that 14% of planets in dense stellar clusters will be lost from their stars within ten million years of formation. Credit: ESA Naturally, this raises the question of what would occur in the galactic bulge, where stellar densities are much higher than in the Milky Way's disk. To calculate the rate at which close encounters happen in the bulge, Moiya and her team simulated the orbits of the millions of stars that reside there. They then used the analytic density profile for each star's position to estimate the number of flybys that occur. As McTier indicated, it was a time-consuming process that led to some interesting findings: "We found that 80% of bulge stars should come within 1000 AU of another star every billion years. Half of the stars have dozens of such encounters in the same timeframe. The encounter rate goes down when you consider closer fly bys, but encounters within 100 AU are still quite common." Beyond an increased risk of stellar close-encounters, planets located around stars in the galactic bulge are also at greater risk of "sterilizing energetic events." These occur when stars in closely packed clusters undergo gravitational collapse and explode in a supernova, which results in nearby star systems (and their planets) being hit by the resulting gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and the release of heavy (and radioactive) elements. During the past 11 million years, supernovae that have taken place in near-Earth space have been linked to sudden periods of global warming on Earth, the depletion of the ozone layer, and the surface becoming exposed to harmful levels of solar and cosmic radiation as a result. For stars that are grouped closer together, supernovae would have a far greater impact, as they would happen more often and closer by. It is little wonder that astronomers believe galaxies like ours also have "habitable zones," which reside between the galactic bulge and the spiral arms. Whereas the bulge is a dangerous place for life because of the increased risk of close encounters and radiation, the spiral arms pose an elevated risk due to higher rates of star formation. Aside from the rigorous nature of their study, McTier indicated that it is also significant because it offers additional confirmation for this theory. "Our results are novel because we took a new dynamics approach to understanding galactic habitability, but we really just confirmed what astronomers already knew: the bulge likely isn't a stable place for life," she said. Studies like this one could also have a significant impact on the search for habitable exoplanets, not to mention the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). By knowing that life is most likely to arise and evolve within the galactic habitable zone (GHZ), the part of the disk located between the core and the periphery, scientists can narrow their search efforts and increase the odds of finding life. Explore further TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits not misaligned More information: 8 in 10 Stars in the Milky Way Bulge Experience Stellar Encounters Within 1000 AU in a Gigayear: 8 in 10 Stars in the Milky Way Bulge Experience Stellar Encounters Within 1000 AU in a Gigayear: arxiv.org/pdf/2005.00026.pdf Daohai Li et al. Fly-by encounters between two planetary systems I: Solar system analogues, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2019). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1794 Journal information: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Reese Witherspoon has been sued over a Draper James dress giveaway for teachers in quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic. The 44-year-old actress founded the Draper James clothing line in 2015 and the brand made a 'free dress' offer to teachers April 2 on Instagram. Three women were seeking class-action status for a lawsuit against Witherspoon and Draper James alleging that teachers were expecting free dresses instead of being entered into a lottery for a limited supply, according to an article Monday by TMZ. Dress giveaway: Reese Witherspoon, shown in January in Paris, has been sued over a Draper James dress giveaway for teachers in quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic The Instagram offer stated: 'Dear Teachers: We want to say thank you. During quarantine we see you working harder than every to educate our children. To show our gratitude, Draper James would like to give teachers a free dress.' The message urged teachers to apply by completing a form by April 5 and noted parenthetically that the offer was valid while supplies last and that winners would be notified April 7. The lawsuit alleged that participants were required to provide personal information to Draper James, including contact information and education employment identification information. The plaintiffs also alleged that Draper James did not make it clear that there were only 250 dresses to give away and they all believed they were getting free dresses. For teachers: Three women were seeking class-action status for a lawsuit against Witherspoon and Draper James alleging that teachers were expecting free dresses instead of being entered into a lottery for a limited supply Free dress: The Instagram offer noted parenthetically that the offer was valid while supplies last The lawsuit also pointed out the cost of the 250 dress was an 'estimated paltry $12,500 in actual cost' to Witherspoon and Draper James ...'at a time when other individuals of [Reese] Witherspoon's renown were offering millions of dollars to COVID-19 victims.' The plaintiffs also alleged that Witherspoon and Draper James benefitied from publicity about the dress giveaway, including mentions on Today and Good Morning America. Draper James' attorney Theane Evangelis told TMZ: 'This lawsuit is an unjust attempt to exploit Draper James' good intentions to honor the teacher community by gifting hundreds of free dresses. The fact that supplies were limited, such that a free dress could not be provided to every teacher who responded, was disclosed and is no basis for a lawsuit.' Fashion line: Witherspoon, shown in November 2017 at a Draper James store opening in Atlanta, launched the fashion line in 2015 She added, 'Draper James looks forward to defending this case, to continuing its efforts to acknowledge the extraordinary contributions made by teachers during this time of need, and to being vindicated in court.' The Draper James line is a nod to Witherspoon's Southern roots and it was named in honor of Witherspoon's grandparents, Dorothea Draper and William James Witherspoon. The Oscar winning actress stars and executive produces the Apple TV Plus drama The Morning Show and also is an executive producer of Truth Be Told on Apple TV Plus. Mortgage wars in New Zealand are not finished yet, with the Bank of China having launched one of the cheapest fixed home loans in the market. A report by Good Returns revealed that the Bank of China launched its record-low, one-year mortgage rate at 2.55% one of the lowest rates in the market. It also cut its 18-month and two-year fixed rates to 2.65%, matching those of HSBC Premier. The bank's decision comes two weeks after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) had called for further mortgage rate cuts. [June 08, 2020] FWD, Fidelity, and AXA Score as Best Websites Overall in the Top Financial Websites in Hong Kong Report 2020 Monsido releases new report analysing the website user experience of 38 top-performing finance companies in Hong Kong. SYDNEY, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Monsido, an innovative software company, analysed the websites of the Top 38 Banking, Insurance, and Asset Management companies in Hong Kong to reveal the best performing websites in various categories. Based on assessments using Monsido's website auditing and management platform, the report revealed the Best Websites Overall as well as the Top Financial Websites for Content Quality Assurance, Readability (content complexity), and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). FWD, Fidelity, and AXA have scored the Best Websites Overall. The global hunger for digital transformation in the financial sector is growing, fed by increasingly comptitive global markets. This has increased the drive for companies to have a powerful digital presence; intuitive website design; superior user experience; well-written content; and streamlined website management. "Navigating the evolving digital landscape of the financial services industry will require innovation, visibility, and new strategies. We believe it's essential for companies to automate and prioritise website performance in order to provide a superior web experience," said Sam Rahmanian, Managing Director APAC at Monsido. You can view the report here: https://monsi.do/30jsUC3 About Monsido Monsido is a software company that provides an easy-to-use website management platform which automates processes and streamlines reporting. Our time-saving software scans websites for financial regulations compliance, content issues, SEO opportunities, loading speed, and branding and styling inconsistencies. Monsido has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Denmark. For more information, visit www.monsido.com . SOURCE Monsido Those attending parked nearby and then boarded buses that dropped them off at The Fountain of Praise. American flags lined the street outside. More than an hour before the viewing began at noon, there were already more than 100 people in line. Hundreds of others continued to line up outside the churchs glass doors; the line went around a water fountain, down a walkway to the street and then back up the driveway of the parking lot. From noon to the end of the service shortly after 6 p.m., nearly 6,400 people had walked past Mr. Floyds coffin, said a spokeswoman for Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center, the funeral home handling the arrangements. Mr. Floyd died on Memorial Day in Minneapolis, as a police officer pinned him to the ground with his knee as Mr. Floyd cried out for his mother and pleaded with the officers for help. His death has ignited a protest movement around the country, and his name has become a global chant, a hashtag, a cause. But he was one of Houstons own. Some of those who attended said they were heartbroken by the video and wanted to do something to honor a man who had experienced what so many black men had at the hands of the police, and paid for it with his life. Standing in line to view his body and pay their respects, they said, was the least they could do. When epidemiologists talked about "flattening the curve," they probably didn't mean it this way: the US hit its peak coronavirus caseload in April, but since that time the graph has been on a seemingly unending plateau. That's unlike several other hard-hit countries which have successfully pushed down their numbers of new cases, including Spain and Italy, which now have bell-shaped curves. Experts say the prolonged nature of the US epidemic is the result of the cumulative impact of regional outbreaks, as the virus that started out primarily on the coasts and in major cities moves inward. Layered on top of that are the effects of lifting lockdowns in parts of the country that are experiencing rising cases, as well as a lapse in compliance with social distancing guidelines because of economic hardship, and in some cases a belief that the threat is overstated. "The US is a large country both in geography and population, and the virus is at very different stages in different parts of the country," Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told AFP. The US saw more than 35,000 new cases for several days in April. While that figure has declined, it has still been exceeding 20,000 regularly in recent days. By contrast, Italy was regularly hitting more than 5,000 cases per day in March but is currently experiencing figures in the low hundreds. "We did not act quickly and robustly enough to stop the virus spreading initially, and data indicate that it travelled from initial hotspots along major transport routes into other urban and rural areas," added Frieden, now CEO of the non-profit Resolve to Save Lives. To wit: the East Coast states of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts accounted for about 50 percent of all cases until about a month or so ago -- but now the geographic footprint of the US epidemic has shifted to the Midwest and southeast, including Florida. - Still not enough testing - Another key problem, said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, is that the United States is still not doing enough testing, contact tracing and isolation. After coming late to the testing party -- for reasons ranging from technical issues to regulatory hurdles -- the US has now conducted more COVID-19 tests than any other country. It even has one of the highest per capita rates per country of 62 per 1,000 people, according to the website ourworldindata.org -- better than Germany (52 per 1,000) and South Korea (20 per 1,000). But according to Nuzzo, these numbers are misleading, because "the amount of testing that a country should do should be scaled to the size of its epidemic. "The United States has the largest epidemic in the world so obviously we need to do a lot more testing than any other country." For Johns Hopkins, the more important metric is the positivity rate -- that is, out of all tests conducted, how many came back positive for COVID-19. As of June 7, the United States had an average daily positivity rate of 14 percent, well above the World Health Organization guideline of 5 percent over two weeks before social distancing guidelines should be relaxed. By contrast, Germany, which has tested far fewer people in relation to its population, has a positivity rate of 5 percent. - Social behavior - Even if testing were scaled up, carrying out tests in of itself does very little good without the next steps -- finding out who was exposed and then asking them to isolate. Here also, too many US states are lagging woefully behind. Texas, which is experiencing a surge in cases after relaxing its lockdown, is a case in point. The state targeted hiring a modest 4,000 tracers by June, but according to local reports is still more than a thousand shy of even that goal. Opt-in app based efforts have also been slow to get off the ground. Then there is the fact that some people are growing tired of lockdowns, while others don't have the economic luxury of being able to stay home for prolonged periods. The government sent some 160 million Americans a single stimulus check of up to $1,200 back in April but it's not clear whether more will be forthcoming. Still others, particularly in so-called red states under Republican leadership, have chafed under restrictions and mask-wearing guidelines that they see as an affront to their personal freedom. "The US is kind of on the extreme of the individual liberty side," Sten Vermund, dean of the Yale School of Public Health, told AFP. Part of this has to do with mixed messaging from Republican leaders, including President Donald Trump, said Nuzzo. "We have had at the highest political level an assertion that this is a situation that's been overblown, and that maybe certain protective behaviors are not necessary," she said. More recently, tens of thousands of people across the country have taken to the streets to protest the killing on an unarmed black man by police, risking coronavirus infection to demonstrate against the public health threat of racialized state violence. Chahid El-hafed, June 9, 2020 (SPS) - As one of the most important figures in the contemporary history of Western Sahara, the Saharawi people have commemorated, today, the 44th anniversary of the death of El Uali Mustafa Sayed founder of the Frente POLISARIO, with political-cultural acts to remember his legacy and renew the commitment to fight and take the oath with the martyrs of the revolution The Uali was born in 1948. He was a young man ahead of his time and had a vision of the future, he was a man who was convinced. He leaded the front line of fighting, by example, a fact that made many men join him without hesitation. He was a man with deep convictions and an unequaled capacity for sacrifice. He knew our society deeply and because of its simplicity he spoke to both the old man and the child, which gave him great sympathy within our society. He was a man who did so much in such a short time that we were undoubtedly in the presence of a genius. On February 27, 1976, the last Spanish soldier left the Western Sahara, and that same day in the town of Bir Lehlu, El Uali proclaimed on behalf of the Frente POLISARIO, the Democratic Saharawi Arab Republic (RASD) before various media, being he himself elected as its first president. The Uali, founder of the Frente POLISARIO, died in combat on June 9, 1976, returning from an attack on the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, in the midst of the armed conflict of the Saharawi people against the occupation of their territory by Mauritania and Morocco, after the illegal and illegitimate "Madrid Agreements" and the hasty withdrawal from Spain, at the end of 1975. In his memory, this date has been declared "Martyrs' Day", a holiday that honors the memory of all Sahrawis who fell in the war for independence. SPS 125/090/TRA [June 09, 2020] Morgan Stanley Commits $5 Million to NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF) In response to protests across the country and around the world in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, Morgan Stanley has announced a contribution of $5 million to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF) to support its work in fighting for racial justice and will match the donations of all U.S. employees to the organization. "We are proud to support the Legal Defense Fund which is the leading organization fighting racial discrimination in the U.S.," said Thomas R. Nides, Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley. "We hope this contribution and support of Morgan Stanley employees will encourage other corporations to support the LDF at this critical time in our country." The LDF is America's premier legal organization fightin for racial justice. Through litigation, advocacy and public education, LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans. The funds raised by Morgan Stanley will support programs related to the policing reform campaign, voter rights activities and COVID-19 relief. Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in more than 41 countries, the Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For more information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005647/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Q. Why is the Crossroads mall so empty? Do they plan on demolishing? A. Shopping malls across the country are struggling with vacancy rates because retail stores are folding as they lose business to online sales. There are no current plans to demolish the building. Q. What is Mr. Foods recipe for Chicken Salad bake? A. Here it is: What you'll need 3 cups chopped cooked chicken 2 celery stalks, chopped 1 small onion, finely chopped 1 (2-ounce) jar chopped pimientos 1 (10-3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken soup 1/3 cup mayonnaise 3/4 cup (3-ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese 3/4 cup crushed potato chips What to do 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. 2. In a large bowl, combine chicken, celery, onion, pimientos, soup, and mayonnaise; mix well and pour into an 8-inch square baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese and potato chips. 3. Bake 20 minutes, or until heated through. Q. Is Goodwill still closed for accepting donations? A. The Goodwill Industries of Northeast Iowa thrift stores are open and accepting donations. Q. If they allow adult softball in the complex, how are they going to enforce the 6-foot rule? A. Waterloo Softball is using "return to play guidelines" provided by Waterloo Leisure Services and Iowa USA Softball to keep players and fans safe at Hoing-Rice Complex, said association president Jake Schaefer. Modified team dugout areas as well as additional signage and markings on the ground will aid visitors in the practice of social distancing between different household units and accepting personal responsibility for public health guidelines while visiting the complex. Q. Did Bath and Body Works leave Crossroads Mall? A. We can't answer this yet. Bath and Body Works announced in May that it was closing 50 locations nationwide but has not identified which stores will be shuttered. Q. Will U.S. Highway 218 between La Porte City and Vinton be receiving a final coat of asphalt this construction season? A. No work is scheduled for U.S. 218 from Vinton to La Porte City, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation. The slurry seal that was placed recently is the finished surface and will be for the foreseeable future. Q. Are the weigh stations on I-380 closed due to coronavirus? A. The weigh stations are not officially closed. During the pandemic, officers have been assisting with other missions related to COVID-19 and working on patrol. Over the next few weeks you will start seeing staff working the weigh stations across Iowa. Q: Sundays Sudoku needs a solution printed. Thank you. A: There were two Sudoku puzzles in the May 24 Courier on pages E9 and E10. Perhaps the caller missed one. Q. The post office told me the food drive is canceled this year. The Food Bank says it's postponed. Which one is it? A. As of May 29, the National Association of Letter Carriers was hoping to reschedule the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, originally slated for May 9, later in 2020. No date has been set, and the event could be canceled depending on the COVID-19 situation. Calls are taken on a special Courier phone line at 234-3566. Questions are answered by Courier staff and staff at the Waterloo Public Library. Vitol veteran Taylor, who transformed oil trade, dies aged 64 FILE PHOTO: Chairman of Vitol Group Taylor attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic By Florence Tan, Julia Payne and Olga Yagova SINGAPORE/LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ian Taylor, who built Vitol into the world's biggest oil trader, has died from pneumonia at the age of 64, the company said on Tuesday, after surviving bouts of cancer and a stroke last year. From drinking with Fidel Castro to providing billions of dollars to Kazakhstan, Taylor was known as a risk taker who even flew to Libya during the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi. In 1995 the Oxford University graduate became CEO of Vitol, which with Britain's blessing supplied the opposition in Benghazi with vital fuel in exchange for crude oil cargoes. During Taylor's time in charge, Vitol also carried on trading Iranian fuel oil in 2012, despite U.S. sanctions. Glencore's CEO Ivan Glasenberg said Taylor was "one of the last of the pioneers that helped transform the oil trading industry", adding that he would be missed. Described by his successor Russell Hardy as "exceptional", Taylor became one of Britain's richest businessmen and in 2007 stepped in to save Scottish fabric maker Harris Tweed Hebrides. "He combined energy and a determination to succeed with humility, humour and humanity," Hardy said in a statement. A Conservative party donor who turned down the offer of a knighthood from former British Prime Minister David Cameron, Taylor was chairman of the Royal Opera House until 2019. After starting his career at Shell in 1978 and working in South America and southeast Asia, Taylor joined privately-owned Vitol in 1985, turning the once modest Dutch fuel dealer into a global trading operation. "Ian was a formidable figure in the modern commodities trading industry, and central to the establishment of Vitol as a successful company," Trafigura CEO Jeremy Weir said. Vitol, run out of London, became the biggest trading rival to BP and Shell under Taylor, partly by poaching their top staff. Last year, the firm traded around 8 million barrels of oil per day. Story continues "We owe him a great deal," Hardy added. Taylor, who stepped down as Vitol CEO in 2018, told The Times last year that he was first diagnosed with throat cancer in his late fifties and would donate funds to develop the proton beam therapy machine that saved his life. (Reporting by Julia Payne, Olga Yagova and Florence Tan; Additional reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Writing by Julia Payne; Editing by Louise Heavens and Alexander Smith) WASHINGTON Relief workers are broadly restricted from using United States funding to buy surgical masks, gloves and other protective medical gear to confront the coronavirus overseas, in order to keep that equipment available for health providers in America, according to regulations issued Tuesday by the United States Agency for International Development. The new rules did grant an exception: The money can be used to buy equipment if it is produced in the part of the world where it would be used. Humanitarian aid groups have waited for months for the guidance, the topic of an intense debate within the Trump administration, as masks, gloves, ventilators and respirators were desperately needed by American health workers to care for pandemic patients in the United States. As they waited, relief groups received only a fraction of nearly $1.6 billion that Congress approved in March to send to aid workers in foreign countries. Two cops who were fired after video showed them using stun guns on a young couple during a protest in Atlanta are now suing the city's mayor and police chief. Former Investigators Mark Gardner and Ivory Streeter filed a court order through their attorney Monday against Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Police Chief Erika Shields in an attempt to get their jobs back. The lawsuit alleges that the officers were fired in violation of the city's code; without investigation, proper notice or a pre-disciplinary hearing following the May 30 incident during protests over the death of George Floyd. Bottoms said that she and Shields reviewed body camera footage from traffic stop and decided to immediately fire the officers and place three others on desk duty. The clip showed the moment officers dragged college students Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young from their car. Dramatic body-camera video released by police shows a group of officers shouting orders, smashing the driver's side window, deploying stun guns and pulling Pilgrim and Messiah Young from a sedan. Throughout, the couple can be heard screaming and asking officers what is happening. Six Atlanta police officers were charged, including Gardner and Streeter, who were fired. The other four are said to have been placed on administrative leave. Ivory Streeter The video shows Pilgrim in the passenger seat screaming in terror as an officer aims a Taser at her and deploys it Gardner and Streeter have been charged with aggravated assault - Gardner for using a Taser against 20-year-old Taniyah Pilgrim and Streeter for using a Taser against 22-year-old Messiah Young - according to a warrant. 'Use of excessive force is never acceptable,' Bottoms told reporters. Shields called the footage 'really shocking to watch'. Shields has since questioned the timing and appropriateness of the charges. The fired officers want their jobs to be reinstated, as well as back pay and benefits, according to Monday's court order. It states they were denied due process, and that the other officers who 'engaged in substantially similar conduct,' were not dismissed. Lonnie Hood is charged with aggravated assault against both Young and Pilgrim for using a Taser against both of them, an arrest warrant says. He is also charged with simple battery for violently pulling Pilgrim from the car and throwing her down on to the street, a warrant says. Willie Sauls is charged with aggravated assault for pointing a Taser at Pilgrim, a warrant says. Hes also charged with criminal damage for repeatedly hitting and damaging the drivers side window of the car, a warrant says. Armon Jones is charged with aggravated battery for hurting Youngs left arm when he dragged him from the car and slammed him onto the street, a warrant says. Hes also charged with pointing a gun at Young. Roland Claud is charged with criminal damage for breaking the cars windows, a warrant says. 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'. 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 Mawuli 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. Police also released video from seven officers' body cameras. It shows the officers taking the other young man into custody as he pleads with them to let him go, saying he didn't do anything. Young, behind the wheel of a car stopped in the street, is holding his phone up as an officer approaches and pulls his door open. He then pulls it shut and says repeatedly, 'I'm not dying today'. College students, Taniyah Pilgrim (left, with her boyfriend and right) and Messiah Young. Atlanta police release bodycam footage from college student arrest Young tells officers the other man is with them and urges them to release his friend and let him get in the car. The car advances and gets stuck in traffic as officers run up to both sides, shouting orders. An officer uses a stun gun on Pilgrim as she's trying to get out, and officers pull her from the car. Another officer yells at Young to put the car in park and open the window. An officer repeatedly hits the driver's side window with a baton, and another finally manages to break it. Officers also slashed the tires, the lawyers said. 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 he's out and on the ground, officers zip tie his hands behind his back and lead him away. 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 Police reports do not list a gun as having been recovered. Davis said Young has never been arrested and there was no gun or drugs in the car. 'There is no justification, none whatsoever, for what they did to them and for what the system did to them,' 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' Bottoms said Pilgrim was released without charges. She said Young was released, too, and she's ordering charges against him dropped. A police report says he was charged with attempting to elude police and driving with a suspended license. Davis said criminal defense attorney Gary Spencer is working pro bono to make sure Young's charges are dropped and to get the arrest wiped from his record so it doesn't cause him problems later in life. 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.' Training records from the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, which certifies law enforcement officers in Georgia, show that Streeter and Gardner recently completed training in use of force and in deescalation tactics. 'I still can't even process what happened,' Pilgrim said at a news conference. 'We felt like we were going to die in that car.' 1 of 2 India`s COVID-19 count tops 2.66 lakh, nearly 7,500 dead India on Tuesday reported the highest single-day spike of 9,987 new COVID19 cases & 331 deaths in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases in the country now at 266598, including 129917 active cases, 129215 cured/discharged/migrated and 7466 deaths according to the latest update by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. There is no community spread of coronavirus in Delhi according to central officials, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said even as his cabinet colleague expressed concern about the capital entering the phase with more and more cases that cannot be traced to any source. "On community spread in Delhi, central government officials said it has not happened yet," Manish Sisodia said after a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority. Maharashtra also accounts for the highest number of cases at 85,975, followed by Tamil Nadu at 31,667, Delhi at 27,654, Gujarat at 20,070, Rajasthan at 11,020, Uttar Pradesh at 10,536 and Madhya Pradesh at 9,401, according to the health ministry's data updated in the morning. The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 8,613 in West Bengal, 5,452 in Karnataka, 5,364 in Bihar and 4,708 in Andhra Pradesh. Rajasthan reports 144 fresh Covid-19 cases, 5 deaths. Rajasthan's total number of registered coronavirus cases has gone up to 11,020 after 144 news cases were added today. The state has seen 251 deaths, out of which five fatalities were recorded today. Bihar reports 117 new Covid-19 cases, total cases registered goes up to 5,364. Read More... In just one week after the Loving the Migrant Worker group was formed, Christians from over 50 different cities in India joined the group. A handful of friends in Bengaluru moved by the plight of migrant workers decided to do something about it but being clueless about where to begin, they decided to set up a WhatsApp group called Loving the Migrant Worker. But much to their surprise the WhatsApp group was filled to capacity in just one week since it was formed and hundreds of migrant workers were fed, provided transport with and given dry ration kits in what became a wave in just three weeks since it was set up. Whats noteworthy is that most people in the WhatsApp group, which was set up on 14 May, dont know each other but what they have in common is that they are all Christians attached to different churches and denominations across India who have come together to help the migrant workers in whatever way they can. Some groups have been providing migrants with cooked food and water as they walk to their homes, some have arranged and paid for transport for migrants in buses, truck or trains and others have been providing them dry ration kits or doing whatever is needed to help them. In just one week after the Loving the Migrant Worker group was formed, Christians from over 50 different cities in India joined the group. Rahul George, a Bangalore-based entrepreneur who is the founder of this group spoke at length about this initiative which took him by surprise. I was so distressed by the daily stories of migrant labourers walking for hundreds of kilometres to reach their homes, but I didnt know what I could do alone. Since I wanted to ensure that I could pay my eight employees and also take care of my family, I had very little with which I could support others. But then I remembered the story in the Bible where Jesus Christ fed a crowd of 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and two fishes. I decided that I will give what I have and God will be the multiplier. With one boy with me, we began a WhatsApp group and since then thousands have been helped in multiple ways and most of those who are engaged in this initiative I dont know them personally, Rahul said. He began by helping a group of Saura tribal families from Odisha who was stranded in Bengaluru with no food and work. Rahul first provided them with dry ration kits and then helped them reach their homes along with Mark Raja, his friend in Bengaluru. Since then he and all those others who joined the group from Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Amravati, Ahmedabad, Surat, Delhi, Varanasi, Vijaywada, and many other cities have worked in tandem to ensure that the sufferings of the migrant workers are mitigated in some way. Speaking about her involvement in the group, Pranitha Timothy, a Chennai-based activist said, I am not able to move out of the house as I have a brain tumour but I am helping out by providing funds to others who are in the field and also some of my staff is in the field are helping by providing food, transport etc. (to migrant workers). There are countless stories of success that the group has had. One of the stories is about the 118 Adivasi girls and 23 boys from Jharkhand who were stranded at Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu, almost 480 kilometres from Chennai. People from the group arranged for three buses to transport these girls and boys to Chennai from where they were able to board a train on 20 May which reached Dhanbad on 22 May. From Dhanbad all 141 of them were helped to reach their homes by 23 May. In Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modis consistency, a group of Christian youths started providing ready food kits and a bottle of water to all migrants who began arriving there in mid-May. Ashish Praynord, along with his friend Nigel David and their team began this initiative from 16 May onwards when the Shramik Special trains started arriving. They served the arriving migrants with biscuits, bread and jam, banana and a water bottle. We have been giving out mini food kits to around 1,500 people daily from 16 May onwards but now the number of migrant workers coming back home has reduced drastically. So now we are focusing on distributing dry ration kits to marginalised families like ragpickers and Musahar families. We began helping people with cooked food from 28 March onwards with police permission but after joining with the Loving the Migrant Worker group we have been able to raise over Rs 1.5 lakh and feed a lot of migrants. Many local people also helped by giving us biscuits, bread, water etc, Praynord said. Its amazing that none of us has fallen sick though we have been on the streets for more than two months. Sanjay Diwe from Amravati in Maharashtra also joined the Loving the Migrant Worker group a few days after the group was formed. Diwe said he was already helping people by providing food from the beginning but after joining the group he was able to get financial help from various people who he didnt know personally. We started distributing food to people from the time the lockdown started. We helped people who are extremely marginalised and do odd jobs like sharpening knives, making brooms and selling Ayurvedic medicines. We have fed around 33,000 people already and distributed 630 dry ration kits. We got help from people we dont know," Diwe said. The National Highway 6 which begins from Surat passes through Amravati and ends in Kolkata had many migrant workers walking on it going to their homes in Odisha, West Bengal and Chhatisgarh. Many of these workers were provided with food by Diwe and his team when they passed through Amravati. In just over three weeks, this group has been able to achieve a lot of success in helping people without any organisation, institution or church support. Sharon Dominica, who runs Noida-based NGO Project Kalpana, has been helping children of construction workers by providing them with education. We are trying to streamline the whole process. We started with one group but it grew so quickly that we had to make regional groups and in some cases state groups. Now we have nine regional groups for Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Bengaluru, NCR, western states, eastern states, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana etc. More than one thousand people have joined the groups and the number is growing, said Dominica who is helping Loving the Migrant Worker WhatsApp group by providing backend coordination and data management. T heatres need clarity to know whether Christmas is cancelled, an industry figure has told MPs. Society Of London Theatre and UK Theatre chief executive Julian Bird said the festive period is crucial to theatres around the country. He cited Christmas shows, musicals and pantomimes as an "absolutely essential" factor for theatres, explaining, "Its where they can make profits that they use later in the year for other productions." Its vital Do I think its cancelled yet? I very, very much hope not, he said. But he added that the industry needed to know what support would be available were that scenario to arise. We need that in a timely fashion because most theatres have to make a decision around their Christmas production by early August. London's West End Theatres go dark during coronavirus - In pictures 1 /25 London's West End Theatres go dark during coronavirus - In pictures A woman wearing a face mask waits for an evening show of "Les Miserables" at Queen's Theatre AFP via Getty Images Staff from The Prince of Wales Theatre, London, inform patrons, as it shuts its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson PA A notice outside The Apollo Theatre, London, informing patrons, that it has shut its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson PA Staff from The Sondheim Theatre, London, inform patrons, as it shuts its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson today PA Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London, inform patrons, as it shuts its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson today PA Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London, inform patrons, as it shuts its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson PA A notice outside The Prince Edward Theatre, London, informing patrons, that it has shut its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson PA Staff from The Prince Edward Theatre, London, inform patrons, as it shuts its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson PA A notice outside The Apollo Theatre, London, informing patrons, that it has shut its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnso PA Pretty Woman at Piccadilly Theatre SplashNews.com Jamie at The Apollo SplashNews.com The Seagull at The Playhouse Theatre SplashNews.com Thriller at The Lyric SplashNews.com Thriller at The Lyric SplashNews.com Thriller at The Lyric SplashNews.com Thriller at The Lyric SplashNews.com SplashNews.com The Seagull at The Playhouse Theatre SplashNews.com Pretty Woman at Piccadilly Theatre SplashNews.com He warned that 70% of theatres, which are at the heart of our communities, could run out of cash by the end of the year and said: I dont think we should underestimate, if they go away, what that means for the future of our country. The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee was also warned about the "desperate situation" faced by the music industry as a result of the pandemic. Horace Trubridge, general secretary of the Musicians Union, told MPs: All the work live work, studio work, orchestras, everything just fell off a cliff, it all disappeared. Our members have had no income whatsoever from work since the middle of March and its had a devastating effect on the profession. Our wonderful industry is so dependent upon audiences and we cant see a pointwhen we will be able to put an audience in a venue to see a live performance for quite some time. Were very different to other areas of the economy which are poised to step forward to resume their activities. Our industry isnt like that. Thats been recognised in other countries where theyve set up cultural funds to make sure they dont lose the arts and culture in their countries which is so valuable to them. He also said musicians were suffering because they are not being paid fairly in the streaming world. Theres a fundamental problem Were calling for a full investigation into the streaming world and where the money is going because its not finding its way into the pockets of musicians. Additional reporting by Press Association 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. Since Tsikhanouski's candidacy was rejected, his wife Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has been trying to get registered as a candidate herself. Syarhey Tsikhanouski, a jailed Belarusian vlogger who is seeking to take part in an August presidential election, may face up to three years in prison for organizing pro-democracy rallies. The Belarusian Investigative Committee said on June 9 on Telegram that Tsikhanouski and seven other persons had been charged "with the organization and preparation of actions that severely violated public order" in the western city of Hrodna, on May 29, a reference to rallies held to collect signatures for potential independent presidential candidates, including himself, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said. According to the statement, all of the suspects have been placed in pretrial detention, in accordance with a prosecutor's arrest warrant. Read alsoRFE/RL: Belarusian opposition leader Statkevich detained on way to rally If convicted, Tsikhanouski and the other detainees face up to three years in prison. One of the individuals is also charged with assaulting two law enforcement officers and may face up to 6 years in prison if convicted. Tsikhanouski was supposed to be released from jail on June 8 after finishing his 10-day incarceration for taking part in the unsanctioned rally on May 29. He was not released and city authorities have said they will explain later why he remained in custody. Tsikhanouski is the owner of a popular YouTube channel called "The Country for Life," which challenges Belarusian authorities. Before his 10-day incarceration, Tsikhanouski was jailed in May for several days for organizing and taking part in other rallies. On May 15, the Central Election Commission rejected Tsikhanouski's registration documents for his candidacy for the presidential election scheduled for August 9. Since Tsikhanouski's candidacy was rejected, his wife Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has been trying to get registered as a candidate herself, collecting the necessary 100,000 signatures to qualify. SAGINAW, MI -- The Saginaw City Council stood with protesters at its Monday, June 8 meeting, adopting a resolution declaring support for the anti-racism and police brutality demonstrations held across the world. Saginaw, like many other communities throughout the nation, saw protests after the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, with residents demanding justice for their deaths and denouncing police brutality. Floyd, a black man, died May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest. The resolution commits the city to enacting policies to fight systemic racism, promote equity and understand the affects of racism on economic development, public safety and social services. It also declares zero tolerance for excessive use of force by the citys police department, and calls upon Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and state legislative leaders to declare racism a public health crisis. The city of Saginaw grieves with the families and communities across the nation and calls for accountability of those who perpetuate violence under the badge of the law, the resolution states. No change will be realized until all citizens of this country stand beside those exclaiming for justice." The resolution was unanimously adopted by the council. I cant say how proud I am of our city, for coming out and making their voices heard, for holding us accountable, for putting a fire under us to reassess what were doing, what we have done, said councilmember Annie Boensch. I know for a lot of people who see these things it doesnt matter what work has been done and what progress has been made, because its just a matter of time for them. Before its them or someone they care about on the receiving end of some kind of police mistreatment or racial brutality. Boesnch also expressed confidence in Saginaw Police Chief Bob Ruth, who she said has worked tirelessly to reform the departments culture and to be responsive to the community, though theres still plenty of work to be done. ABC12 reports the departments unions recently voted no confidence in Ruth. The moment is exposing the ugly heart within some among us, Boensch said. She encouraged protesters to keep holding officials feet to the fire, and said council needs them to help them take bold action. Regardless of whether its our police department right now or not, what goes on in the national news is felt by everybody here as we watch it, Boesnch said. ...I want to state unequivocally that black lives matter to me. If you dont agree with that statement or cant say it yourself without following it with some sort of qualifier, I dont want your support and I dont seek your approval. Councilmember Reggie Williams II said hes proud of Saginaw and also the planet, seeing the human race rally together for the cause of racial justice. He said hes open to participating in any discussions that will help the community understand and resolve cultural differences. I want people to understand: black lives matter is not anti-police, it is anti-police brutality, anti-police misconduct, Williams said. I wouldnt follow and organization that was anti-police since my daily job is as a police officer, and also for me to denounce black lives matter literally means I dont believe my life matters. Showing emotion during his turn to comment, Kloc said the council has an obligation to not be silent in the face of racism and discrimination. This is one of those occasions, Kloc said. Its up to us as a council now. The city and Ruth are looking to reinstate a civilian police oversight board, City Manager Tim Morales said. Council also passed a motion from councilmember Jamie Forbes to form a committee to look at forming a human rights commission that would oversee institutional equity throughout the city. Read more: Police look for man who displayed gun at George Floyd protest near Saginaw Saginaw police chief says department changed its policies and culture after Milton Hall shooting Michigan school district superintendent fired after Facebook comments about George Floyd At least 47 members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday disobeyed a resolution of the House to dress in black in solidarity with rape victims across the country. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the House had on June 4 resolved to wear black in their next sitting scheduled for Tuesday in Abuja. Among the lawmakers who ignored the resolution were the Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Wase (APC-Plateau), and the Majority Leader, Ado Doguwa (APC-Kano). Other defaulters are the Majority Whip, Mohammed Monguno (APC-Borno), and the Chairman, Rules and Business Committee, Abubakar Fulata (APC-Jigawa). While the deputy speaker wore an ash agbada, the majority whip and the chairman rules and business appeared in white agbada. The majority leader of the House wore dark blue agbada, while many other members wore different colours including the spokesman of the House, Benjamin Kalu (APC-Abia). The House was however adorned with posters which read: Reps Say No to Rape. (NAN) LAWRENCE -- Researchers from the University of Kansas are monitoring and evaluating COVID-19 response activities in 47 African countries. The project -- in partnership with the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa -- is led by KU's Center for Community Health and Development, a designated WHO Collaborating Centre since 2004. The center is affiliated with KU's Department of Applied Behavioral Science and the Life Span Institute. The monitoring system is designed to capture and communicate COVID-19 response activities, such as programs and policies related to infection-control and risk communication, in order to help eliminate transmission of the disease. The KU-WHO team leads training of partners from 47 African countries so they can monitor and communicate their countries' progress in responding to the pandemic. "Our partner, the WHO Regional Office for Africa, has the responsibility of supporting countries in monitoring and evaluating response activities related to COVID-19," said Stephen Fawcett, senior adviser at the KU center and co-director of KU's WHO Collaborating Centre for Community Health and Development. "This work is critical to each country being able to show progress in taking action and in using data to make adjustments related to suppression of transmission and follow-on recovery. We worked together with our WHO AFRO partners to evaluate the Ebola response in 2014, so the regional office reached out to us for similar technical support with the COVID-19 response." On May 27, the KU-WHO AFRO team launched monitoring and evaluation (M&E) training with the first cohort: 200 participants working in 29 different African countries. This training will continue with French-speaking countries in early June until all 47 African countries have been engaged. The WHO M&E team is based in the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville-Congo. "The WHO AFRO M&E team includes staff trained by the KU team in monitoring and evaluation of the COVID-19 response," Fawcett said. "WHO focal points will be reporting from their Ministry of Health offices in each of the 47 countries. Reports of COVID-19 response activities will be reviewed and characterized by the WHO AFRO M&E team, for example by the type of response activity, and by country in which they're implemented. These data will be entered and stored in the online COVID-19 Response M&E System developed by the KU center." According to the KU researcher, the online COVID-19 Response M&E System is able to capture response activities and support communication using online graphs of the pattern in COVID-19 response -- for instance, when increasing and decreasing -- and factors associated with those patterns. "This will contribute to country-level reports of the association of response activities and suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19," Fawcett said. "This participatory M&E system will enable systematic reflection by country partners in what they are seeing, what it means and implications for adjustment." Peter Phori, technical officer at the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, leads the M&E team. "Capturing and communicating what countries are doing to respond to COVID-19 is essential to tracking what we are doing to address this pandemic in the African region," Phori said. "Our WHO Regional Office relies on KU's WHO Collaborating Centre for its world-leading technical support in monitoring and evaluation. We could not do this without them." The KU WHO Collaborating Centre team is supported by an initial six-month grant of $30,000 from the WHO Regional Office for Africa. "As a designated WHO Collaborating Centre at KU, we have the privilege of working to have an impact with talented and committed global partners," Fawcett said. "This is why we came together as a KU center and why we treasure being a part of KU's mission of building healthy communities -- locally and globally." ### Laos has plans to build a new coal-fired power plant in Sekong province in the southeastern part of the country, raising concerns among local residents and environmental groups who fear damage to area farmland and forests, sources in the one-party communist state say. Permission to carry out the project has been granted to the Singapore-based Evolution Power Investment Corporation (EPIC) working together with a Lao firm, the Khounmixay Bridge and Road Construction and Repair Company, an official of the Ministry of Energy and Mines told RFA on Tuesday. The company [EPIC] has just gained the concession, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A large reserve holding up to 700 million tons of lignite, a soft coal, was found many years ago by a foreign company contracted to explore in Sekongs Dac Chung district, the official said, adding The reserve has been well studied since 2008. No company was financially stable enough to extract or make use of the coal until EPIC was approved on May 27 to carry out a feasibility study for the project, though, the official said. Residents of Dac Chung gave different views of the power plants likely impact on the district, with one villager saying that work on the plant will destroy the environment, including forests, trees, and grass. It will also destroy farmland; and wildlife will become extinct, the villager said. There wont be any problems, because [the authorities] will have good measures in place for safety and protection, another district resident said, citing approval for the project from many different levels from the Ministry all the way down to local authorities. The project when completed will cover up to 100 hectares of forested land and will be a coal-fired thermal plant like a plant already built in Xayaburi provinces Hongsa district, and will definitely have a local impact, a Lao environmental expert said. For example, it will have an impact on the forests, the community, and on the natural environment, the expert said, also speaking on condition he not be named. The Lao government and the companies doing the work should collect and analyze information and carefully discuss what they learn before moving ahead with construction, he said. Communities at risk The 1,000 megawatt (MW) power plant will cost $1.7 billion to build, is scheduled for completion in 2027, and will export electricity to neighboring Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, Lao sources said. Laoss first lignite plant, the 1,878 MW Hongsa power plant in Xayaburi province, opened in 2015 amid concerns about negative environmental impacts on farmland, sensitive forests,and the watershed in Laos and nearby Thailand. Almost all of Hongsas power is exported to Thailand, and the plant is mostly Thai-owned. Health experts say local communities are at risk of cancer, respiratory problems, and birth defects from pollution. Hongsas construction entailed a land grab that resulted in thousands of villagers losing land with little compensation. Laos has already built dozens of hydropower dams on the Mekong and its tributaries in its quest to become the battery of Southeast Asia, exporting the electricity they generate to other countries in the region, and is preparing to build scores more dams in the years ahead. Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the countrys economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact on fisheries and agriculture, and the displacement of villagers. Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney. Police bodycam footage shows the moment a black man was pinned to the ground and arrested in northern California last month after a woman called 911 to report 'an African American man dancing in the street.' Videos of the May 23 incident were released on Monday by Alameda city officials, who have called for an independent investigation into the man's arrest. Two police officers had arrived at a residential area on Central Avenue just before 8am, after receiving a call from a woman who said: 'an African-American man is dancing in the street... clearly something is wrong with him.' The cops are seen approaching Mali Watkins, a 44-year-old martial artist, who neighbors say is known for exercising outside daily. Scroll down for video Alameda city officials released police body cam footage from the May 23 incident on Monday Two police officers are seen approaching and detaining Mali Watkins after receiving reports of an 'African American man dancing on the street' While he is questioned, Watkins is seen becoming increasingly frustrated before one cop tells him he's being detained for 'dancing on the street' During the encounter, Watkins is heard becoming frustrated while officers question him and then tell him he's being detained for dancing on the street. 'Is there any particular reason you're not doing it on the sidewalk?' the cop asks. When the officer asks to detain him, Watkins asks: 'For what?' 'You're dancing on the street,' the cop replies. Watkins told local media he was just doing his 'normal workout regimen' when he was approached 'So what? I'm dancing on the street,' Watkins says, visibly annoyed, as he begins to walk away from them. The cop then tells Watkins he's not free to go before they both grab him by the wrist and place him in handcuffs. Bystander footage of the incident had also been shared on social media earlier, after Watkins asked witnesses to record the arrest. He is heard repeatedly telling police officers to let him go as they tell him to stop resisting. 'Ma'am can you let these people know that I'm not....please record. Please record,' he pleads with a woman watching nearby. He was later cited for resisting arrest. Alameda Vice Mayor John Knox White later issued a statement confirming authorities are investigating the incident. 'I am outraged and I am sad and I am committed to ensuring that there is a full, independent investigation and that there is accountability for those involved, including those who created a system that allowed this to happen,' he said. Officials also released an audio recording of the 911 call in which a woman is heard telling the dispatcher she was 'worried.' When asked if the man appears to be under the influence or mentally unwell, she replies: 'Either one.' Neighbor Robert Davidson told ABC7 Watkins is a resident of the neighborhood and is always seen exercising. 'Hey... he's from around here, he exercises every day, we know his routine, he didn't do anything wrong,' he told the news station. Watkins is later seen being held down on the ground after he repeatedly asks cops to let him go The incident was also captured by witnesses after Watkins asked bystanders to record it City Manager Eric Levitt later released a statement addressing cellphone video showing a 'use of force incident' which he said 'raised understandable concerns from residents over how the encounter was handled.' 'I am interested in moving the Department in a positive direction. At this time, I do not know the reasons why the initial officers approached the call the way they did,' he said. 'I am hopeful that an investigation will provide better understanding to that question. I have spoken with the POA President and understand that he shares my interest in having the Department work with the community in addressing concerns brought forward by the community.' In this March 2, 2019, file photo, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam. AP North Korea did not answer daily phone calls from South Korea via liaison and military hotlines on Tuesday after vowing to cut off all inter-Korean communication lines in anger over anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent from the South. The decision to sever all phone lines at noon Tuesday was the latest in a series of angry protests the communist nation has made since last week while blasting Seoul for failing to stop North Korean defectors from sending propaganda leaflets criticizing Pyongyang's leadership. Hours after announcing the decision, the North refused to answer a series of phone calls the South made Tuesday morning via liaison and military communication lines, officials at the unification and defense ministries said. The South tried unsuccessfully to call the North again at noon. "The inter-Korean joint liaison office attempted to call North Korea at noon, but the North did not answer," the unification ministry said. It was unclear if the North has already cut off the phone lines. In the latest attempt, the phone was ringing, but the North didn't answer, ministry officials said. South Korea urged the North to maintain the communication lines. "Communication lines between the South and the North are a basic means of communication and should be maintained in accordance with inter-Korean agreements," a unification ministry official said. "While abiding by inter-Korean agreements, the government will make efforts for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula." Defense ministry spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo said it was the first time that the North has not answered military phone calls from the South since the hotlines were restored in 2018. The North has denounced leaflet-sending as a hostile act breaching peace agreements the two sides signed during a series of summits in 2018, including a military tension reduction agreement that calls for a halt to all hostile acts along the border. While announcing Tuesday's decision, the North said it will deal with the South as an "enemy." "The disgusting riff-raff have committed hostile acts against the DPRK by taking advantage of the south Korean authorities' irresponsible stance and with their connivance. They dared to hurt the dignity of our supreme leadership," the Korean Central News Agency said. PUNE Three months into the pandemic in Pune and city obstetricians claim there is evidence of any case in the city where the Sars-Cov-2 virus that causes the Covid-19 infection is transmitted from an infected pregnant woman to her new-born child. Dr Madhuri Rokade, resident medical officer at the Pune Municipal Corporations (PMC) Sonawane hospital, said, Our hospital was opened exclusively for Covid-19 positive women on May 2 and since then, we have had three deliveries. ICMR guidelines state that a pregnant woman must be tested for Covid-19 five days before the date of delivery. There have been reports in some studies globally that the infection could cause pre-term delivery, but no such incident has been recorded in Pune yet, however, it would be too soon to say it cannot happen, Dr Rokade added. The civic body has been actively surveying pregnant women who are then followed up with, randomly, to check for any flu-like symptoms. The civic body has conducted door-to-door surveys in which 2,502 pregnant women in the city were identified in containment zones as of June 5. Of these 2,502 women, Hadapsar ward has 648, followed by Bhavani peth (378) and Aundh (233) the three areas with the highest number of pregnant women. The PMCs mobile swab collection van focuses on comorbid, pregnant and senior citizens, all of whom are tested for Covid-19. Dr Rokade details how strict care is taken to ensure safety of all involved in the delivery process. We adhere to the strict guidelines of wearing PPEs at the time of delivery. The woman is given an N95 mask and every person, including the ward boy and sanitation staff, who enter the operation theatre is given a PPE kit. Since there is no proof that the virus enters the placenta the only source of infection from a mother to a baby are respiratory droplets, which is possible during breastfeeding. Once the baby is delivered we check the baby for infection on the fifth day and if the result is negative, the baby is handed over to a relative, she said. PMC commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad said, The civic body has taken four major steps which includes creating a separate hospital for Covid-19 positive pregnant woman which is the Sonawane hospital. We also started surveying pregnant woman across the city and focused on them by following up on symptoms and testing. We also have tied up with a private hospital to treat Covid-19 positive pregnant women. Finally, we have reserved maternity wards for non-Covid-19 pregnant women. Dr Rajeshwari Pawar, obstetrician and gynaecologist, Motherhood hospital, said, The fear of infection if mothers-to-be go to a multi-speciality hospital is more, since there is no guarantee that a person who comes to a hospital is not Covid-19 positive. Since maternity hospitals have pregnant women who have been tested and are found negative, there is some assurance. Also, all appointments are done in phases - be it delivery, vaccinations or routine check-ups. Six people charged with the downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 near Tehran airport on January 8 have currently been detained in Iran, according to IRNA. "[Iran's] judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said that six defendants had been detained so far in connection with the case of the crash of a Ukrainian plane, three of whom were released on bail and three others are in custody," the report reads. According to him, the judiciary, in particular, the Judicial Organization of the Armed Forces, deals with the case of the crash of the Ukrainian plane. The Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) plane (flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after it took off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport at about 06:00 Tehran time (04:30 Kyiv time) on January 8. There were 176 people on board nine crew members (all Ukrainians) and 167 passengers (citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK). They all died. Iran's official in the International Civil Aviation Organization agreed in March to hand over the black box flight recorders to France or Ukraine for analysis, but this has not been done so far. Photo: AA 183 Shares Share When we think of the legacy of racism in the U.S., hospitals arent one of the first places we imagine but they should be. Its never going to change. Sometimes its too heavy to bear. Im so angry Im just tired of holding it all in. These statements reflect the pain of our patients of color. They may resonate with all of us in our countrys current climate, as the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement collide, but they are anything but new. Those who are forced to navigate the racism and discrimination embedded in the social fabric of our nation face these concerns daily. Many Americans are just awakening to the realization that there is a common thread between police brutality, incarceration, and health disparities in this country. That common thread is anti-black racism, where white signifies dominant culture, and black represents otherness. It is historically rooted in systems, institutions, policies, and practices that create and perpetuate inequality based on race. Racial equity cannot be achieved unless the issues surrounding systemic and individual racism are addressed. Health care must lead the way in acknowledging and challenging these disparities. While the media has tried to address disparities in access to health care, particularly during the past decade, less attention has been paid to the role that health care professionals play in perpetuating these inequities, whether consciously or unconsciously. The COVID-19 pandemic has only underscored inequity in our health care system, where racial disparities have contributed to disproportionately higher rates of COVID-19 infections among people of color, who are dying at two to three times the rate experienced by whites when adjusted for age. The principle of equity tells us that care should be delivered to provide equal outcomes for all populations, many of which start with disadvantages. Yet we tolerate significant differences in, for example, maternal health. Black and indigenous women in the U.S. are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. This statistic has not changed in the last ten years nor across states. And while educational levels for white women seem to protect against maternal death, black women with college degrees are still five times more at risk than their white counterparts. As health care providers, educators, and administrators, we witness and, at times, even perpetuate the practice of unequal delivery in health care services, particularly among overweight or obese women of color. The underlying and silent bias is one that unfairly presumes a lower level of cognition and willingness to assume self-health responsibility. If she were smarter, she wouldnt be so fat. She just wants pain medications. Shes just angry. Such judgments are deeply rooted in the implicit biases borne of our privilege. Health care reflects such biases in our society, manifesting in hospitals, operating rooms, and clinics. Discussions about social justice may feel political, but are inherently health care issues. These conversations are integral to how nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals view the health of their patients. Shining a light on anti-black racism and the unconscious bias of health care providers is uncomfortable, but in order to change, we must become comfortable with being uncomfortable. We call on all health care professionals to: 1) identify, acknowledge, and change individual racist attitudes, mindsets, and implicit biases and the impact they have on the care we provide; 2) create space for patients voices in their care during visits and through ongoing evaluation; 3) analyze how organizational policies and practices either contribute to or disrupt institutional racism; and 4) make a commitment to developing and implementing an action plan to dismantle policies and practices that perpetuate systems of oppression. Social justice is health. We have a duty as health care professionals to demand change. We should not accept anything less. Kimberly Grocher, Divya K. Chhabra, Yolanda Kirkham, Naila Russell, Mary Pan Wierusz, Susan Dix Lyons, Adham Sameer A. Bardeesi, and Gillian S. Gould are media and medicine fellows, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Zelensky about situation in Donbas: I have 'an ocean of information,' no need to respond to those 'in the lake' President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that people who criticize the government for its policy and steps aimed at putting an end to the war in Donbas and reintegration of the occupied territories lack information about the situation. "It's like a labyrinth [the war in Donbas]. But I am inside it, I am sure there is a way out. People are rather emotions when they protest or express indignations this is clear. My conclusions were quite similar before I became the president. It seems that you are diving, swimming in information. Here is a lake, and it is full of information. But it's not a lake, it's an ocean! I am inside this ocean. Due to my current status. Due to the fact that I am filled with information," he said in an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth) publication during his trip to Khmelnytsky region on June 3-4. Zelensky said that for this reason he does not overreact to statements from "people swimming in the lake." "The depth is not like this! It's different. But we have the same goal people from the ocean and people from the lake. We live in the same country. We all are Ukrainians. We want one and the same thing. Dive with me I am ready! Dive with me and help me there," he said. The president also said that when it comes to the settlement of the conflict in Donbas he is not interested in personal qualities of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I think that no one knows such people to a full degree. Probably, he is the only person who knows in full. I think no president is allowed to put the country on the line by making offensive statements about another president. Sometimes offensive statements cause thousands of deaths. It is not me or my ratings I expose to a risk. These are human lives that's all! So, excuse me, but let me act as I find it necessary," he said. Young BAME people are likely to be hit hardest by the coronavirus recession, researchers at the University of Sheffield have warned. Dr. Gurleen Popli from the University's Department of Economics has been awarded a prestigious Leverhulme Research Fellowship in order to investigate why young BAME people experience higher levels of unemployment and economic inactivity. Economic inactivity describes those without a job who are not seeking or available for work, including students and full-time carers. In 2018 the unemployment rate for all 16- to 24-year-olds was 12%, while their rate of economic inactivity stood at 39%. For young white people, the unemployment rate was 11% and economic inactivity was at 35%while for young BAME people the rates were 18% and over 50%, respectively. With little existing research into the reasons for this disparity, Dr. Popli's project aims to explain the differences between BAME and white youths' decisions at the end of compulsory education, and examine the consequences for them when they reach the age of 25. Dr. Popli fears the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic threatens to exacerbate existing racial inequalitiesas happened during previous UK recessions in the 1980s, 1990s and 2008-09. Dr. Gurleen Popli, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Sheffield, said: "COVID-19 has brought into focus the widespread ethnic inequalities in our society, with BAME communities experiencing significantly higher death rates. Public Health England last week highlighted how the pandemic replicated and increased existing health inequalitiesand we are likely to see similar trends when it comes to youth unemployment. "When shocks hit the economy, low-wage, low-skilled and BAME young workers tend to bear the brunt of job cuts. We saw this during the recessions of the 1980s, 1990s and 2008-2009and without strong government action, history is likely to repeat itself as the coronavirus recession bites. "As the Black Lives Matter movement gains pace in the UK and globally, it becomes imperative to understand why young BAME people experience such high levels of unemployment and economic inactivity relative to their white peers." Chennai, June 9 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Tuesday scrapped the Class 10 public exams for the academic year 2019-20 and declared all the students as successful. Announcing this Palaniswami said the marks of the students will be calculated based on the marks scored by the students in their quarterly and half yearly exams and their school attendance. Palaniswami said 80 per cent of the marks will be based on the marks scored by the students in the quarterly and half yearly exams and 20 per cent based on their school attendance. Citing the Madras High Court's observation that the government should reconsider holding the exams from June 15 onwards and the experts' view that the coronavirus infection rate will not come down in the near future, Palaniswami said the government studied the issue in detail. He said the virus infection was on the rise in Chennai and in few other districts. He said the exams for the remaining subjects for Class 11 students are also cancelled. The supplementary exams for Class 12 students, who didn't clear the exams have also been postponed and will be held later depending on the situation, Palaniswami said. The Madras High Court on Monday adjourned hearing of the public interest litigation filed against the state government's decision to hold the Class 10 exams from June 15 onwards. The two member bench consisting of Justices Vineet Kothari and R. Suresh Kumar posted the case, filed by the Tamil Nadu High and Higher Secondary School Grade Teachers Association, for June 11. Hearing the case, the court had questioned the government's decision to hold the exams when the coronavirus infection is on the rise. The court also said it cannot allow the government to risk the lives of over nine lakh students who will be writing the exams, adding that it is not like opening the liquor shops. However, Advocate General Vijay Narayan in the afternoon told the court that the time for holding the exams -- from June 15 onwards -- is right as experts have predicted the infection would go up manifold. The court then asked the state government to file a detailed reply on June 11 and adjourned the case for that day. The opposition parties in the state led by the DMK had demanded the government not to hold the Class 10 exams. On Monday, another south Indian state, Telangana had also decided to do away with the Class 10 board exams this year and promote all students, with grades decided upon internal assessments. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB) will release Gujarat Board class 10th result on Tuesday (June 9) at 8:00 am. Students who have appeared in the GSEB SSC examinations will be able to check their results online at gseb.org, the official website of the GSEB. It is to be noted that this year results would only be made available through digital mode due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. As per the rules laid down by GSEB, students will have to score at least a D grade in every subject as well as overall to pass the examination. The students who score E grade will have to appear for the supplementary exams. The Board exams were conducted in Gujarat from March 5-21, 2020 and the results for GSEB HSC Science have been released, whereas GSEB Arts and Commerce stream results are still awaited. Here's how you can check the Gujarat Board class 10th result 2020 online: -Go to the official website of the board, which is gseb.org -Look for SSC Result 2020 -Enter your exam roll number and other details in the space provided. -Gujarat SSC result 2020 will be displayed on your screen. -Download the scorecard in PDF format for your future reference. Students can also check their result by sending SMS in this format to get their scorecard on their phones SSC SEAT NUMBER to 56263. The GSEB had released the HSC Science results, which saw a pass percentage of 71.34 per cent, on May 17. Reach Cyber Charter School Celebrates Class of 2020 We are incredibly proud of the Class of 2020 who, despite these challenging times, persevered and remained committed to their schoolwork and finishing their final semester...It has been a privilege to watch these students grow. Its black gowns, black caps and orange and gold tassels today for the at-home celebrations of more than 450 graduating students from Reach Cyber Charter School, a Pennsylvania statewide, tuition-free, online public charter school. While graduates wont physically cross the stage to receive their diplomas this year, the school will commemorate this years class with a virtual ceremony filled with extra pomp and circumstance to celebrate their outstanding achievements. We are incredibly proud of the Class of 2020 who, despite these challenging times, persevered and remained committed to their schoolwork and finishing their final semester, said Jane Swan, Reach Cyber Charter School CEO. The entire Reach Cyber team, faculty and teachers, are excited to celebrate with our seniors and their loved ones. It has been a privilege to watch these students grow. Swan added 42% of graduates plan to attend two- or four-year schools, 13% plan to attend vocational/technical schools, 22% plan to enter the workforce, 5% plan to enter the military, and 18% are undecided. The 2020 Reach Cyber graduating class lives in various parts of the state and represents a diverse group of students, in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, gender identity, physical and learning disabilities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Some are part of single-parent households, others from large families. Students choose a cyber charter education for many different reasons, such as seeking individualized educational experiences; wanting a safe learning environment; having the flexibility to pace their own learning to catch up scholastically or accelerate their coursework; or having the ability to learn from anywhere at any time, which allowed them to pursue passions like competitive sports, travel, music and arts careers, and volunteerism. Here are just three examples of standout students from Reach Cyber Charters Class of 2020: Alessandra DAvella from Easton, Pa.: DAvellas dedication to her education has afforded her the opportunity to graduate a semester early and earned her the honor of being the Class of 2020s valedictorian. Throughout her high school career, she dedicated her time to volunteering at Equi-librium, an equestrian center that gives riding lessons as a form of therapy for children and adults with mental and physical disabilities. She also volunteers with the Bethlehem Special Olympics swim league. Post-graduation, DAvella will be attending John Cabot University in Rome, Italy to study international relations and politics. Eugene Pronio, Oakmont, Pa.: After a traumatic brain injury caused him to miss out on a lot of his previous schooling, Pronio turned to the flexibility of cyber education, which allowed him to thrive on his own terms. Pronio was highly involved at Reach Cyber. He was a member of National Honor Society, Reach Cybers Steering Committee, participated in the statewide PennDOT Innovations Challenge, and composed original works of poetry for Reach Cybers Literary Magazine. Focused on his future, Pronio will follow his passion for writing at his local community college with plans of transferring to the University of Pittsburgh after earning his Associates Degree. Charlie Pottorff, Marysville, Pa.: Pottorff has worked through the complex challenges of Autism and Dysgraphia throughout his education. He chose cyber school so he could have a more personalized, flexible approach to his education. His experience with Reach Cyber afforded him unique opportunities like one-on-one sessions with teachers, which increasingly built his confidence. After graduation, Pottorff will attend Central Penn College on a scholarship to study homeland security on an accelerated, full-year schedule that accommodates his individual learning needs and allows him to finish his degree in under four years. The Reach Cyber Charter high school program offers a wide range of courses to provide a solid foundation for whatever path graduates choose, whether attending college or starting a career, through numerous in and out of classroom professional development opportunities. Starting in the 2020-21 school year, high school students will be able to earn industry-recognized credentials and certifications with the new Career Pathways Program. Reach Cyber opened in 2016 with a few hundred students through ninth grade and has grown to support more than 3,600 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Reach Cyber is committed to providing a broad range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) enrichment for students of all ages. Through a variety of STEM offerings, Reach Cyber provides frequent and early access to STEM learning across disciplines, preparing students for future courses and careers in this high-growth field. Enrollment for Reach Cyber Charter Schools 2020-2021 school year is currently underway. To learn more go to http://www.ReachCyberCharter.com or call 1-844-227-0920. ABOUT REACH CYBER CHARTER SCHOOL Reach Cyber Charter School is a Pennsylvania statewide, tuition-free, online public charter school for students in grades K-12. Reach Cyber, a Pennsylvania Connections Academy school, provides students with the flexibility to learn from anywhere there is an Internet connection and with an innovative, online school curriculum that meets rigorous state education standards. The combination of certified Pennsylvania-based teachers, an award-winning curriculum, engaging electives, technology tools, and social experiences provides a supportive online learning opportunity for students who want an individualized approach to education. Reach Cyber incorporates 21st century learning and STEM-enrichment opportunities, as well as flexible pacing options that allow students to choose from a traditional calendar option, year-round option, or for high school students, an accelerated schedule. For more information, call 1-844-227-0920 or visit http://www.ReachCyberCharter.com. Im no World War II historian. My rudimentary knowledge of history leaves me believing this, though: Showing up as one of the ally powers required more than just a statement of commitment. FDR didnt call Churchill to say, Hey, bro, Ive got your back. I cant really understand what youre going through, but man . . . thoughts and prayers, yknow? And if theres anything I can do to help, you let me know. Im here for you. It didnt go that way because when an ally joined the forces, they were not joining someone elses war: An ally joined the fight because the cause was their cause; they believed in the world they envisioned on the other side and could not tolerate the alternative that would exist if the wrong side won the war. There were sacrifices made, resources fully devoted, a commitment to victory no matter the cost. The word ally is being thrown around a lot these days . . . mostly in labels that we white people apply to ourselves, tied to a hashtag or an inspirational quote. It doesnt mean nothing, but it also doesnt hold the power it should. We are calling ourselves allies without going beyond words of solidarity. Dont be mistaken: Solidarity is better than silence, but on its own, it isnt action that affects change. It wont help win the war against systemic racism. To get there, we must truly align with this cause. We must believe this fight is ours and we must act with a commitment equivalent to that belief. Credit union leaders are uniquely positioned to be true allies in this fight and to leverage our personal and business resources for systemic change. Many of us as individuals have power or influence in our communities, as well as the privilege of being (well-compensated) executives in a movement that was built for the purpose of social change. If dismantling systemic racism and the economic inequity that accompanies it is not our fight, what is? Your public declaration of allyship shows what side you are on. Now, take the action that supports it by deciding what resources youll bring to this fight, both personally and organizationally. There are many lists available to share how white people can work toward anti-racism. Here are some credit union-specific ideas that also support your fight toward economic equality, access to financial services, and your desire to be a top employer: Join or start community coalitions that address community well-being and economic inequality and its root causes. Create safe spaces for your black employees to talk about their experiences. Listen with empathy and actively choose to relegate any leadership-centric approach (because statistically, most of your senior leadership is probably white). Participate in or offer Individual Development Account programs that help people obtain wealth-building assets for the first time in their families histories. Scrutinize lending policies and practices to ensure you are lending to minority-owned businesses and minority homebuyers. Have advisors (Board members, community partners, paid staff) that are of the community you want to serve. Listen to their input and look for ways to take action. If this is not happening or you dont believe the talent is there in your community, access a resource that can help you look deeper. Support college scholarships for first-generation college students, at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or through the United Negro College Fund (personally or through your credit unions existing scholarship fund). Join the African American Credit Union Coalition or make a donation (personally or through your credit union). When you become a member, support their programs and build your knowledge, taking responsibility to better understand the experiences of our black colleagues in the credit union space. Educate yourself by reading work by black authors, watching documentaries by black filmmakers, or listening to podcasts by black producers. (A friend recently recommended 1619 to me, and I pass that on to you.) Shop at minority-owned businesses. Consider hosting a book circle to discuss your learning (personally or at your organization). I recommend Me & White Supremacy or Blind Spot to start, though the stack is growing daily. The Circle Way can provide a structure that gives equal voice to participants in these conversations. (If you have your own favorite learning tools, please use the comments below to share resources for the benefit of all.) This list of ideas is infinitesimal compared to the work that lies ahead. Each bullet point is just one tiny action, but they are actions that may add up to something that matters if we all show up like the allies we have declared ourselves to be. This credit union system is one that accomplishes much when we come together. I cant imagine a finer bunch of allies or a better industry to work in for addressing systemic racism. If I can help you in taking action, please reach out: Im ready to serve. The latest developments around the region related to the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, as of Monday afternoon include: Emergency health and safety measures taken in China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, France and the United States have prevented more than 500 million infections during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published Monday by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Tameeka Coleman and six of her children lived on the streets with her before moving into a shelter in Fairfield. We were together, so it was bearable, Coleman, 38, said. The hardest part was when her children cried for their home. They wanted to know how we had lost our apartment, said Coleman, who was evicted after she couldnt pay the rent. Living conditions play a key role in childrens well-being. Several studies show that parental income and their ability to invest in their offspring affect children well into adulthood. Access to health care, nutritious food and reliable transportation have a direct bearing on childhood outcomes. Now, new reports from the Fairfield-headquartered Save the Children and Brandeis University show that children who are already on the wrong side of the statistical divide are experiencing a higher burden from the coronavirus pandemic, which has affected blacks and Latinos disproportionately. The impact is far-reaching: from loss of shelter, household income, and access to food, to heightened stress during quarantine, and barriers to health care. When you talk about children, youre talking about the adults, because children need the adults, Dr. Lucia Benzoni, a pediatrician with Hartford HealthCare in Litchfield, said. If their parent or grandparent gets very sick and ends up in the hospital, where do the children end up? Who takes care of those children in that household? As with any pandemicincluding tuberculosis and AIDS in the pastthe stresses experienced by people of color are exacerbated and increase the risk for the most vulnerable children. The STC report, which examines how well states provide for children, shows that children living in New Haven and Hartford counties have a COVID-19 vulnerability index of 0.52 (with 1 being the highest), followed by Fairfield County with an index of 0.45. The remaining counties fared better, with Windham receiving a score of 0.42; New London, 0.36; Middlesex, 0.12; Litchfield, 0.08; and Tolland, 0.07. Coronavirus has a heart-wrenching impact on our nation, leaving kids further behind in communities across America, said Betsy Zorio, vice president of U.S. Programs & Advocacy at Save the Children. Margarita Alegria, chief of the Disparities Research Unit at the Mongan Institute, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, said, Theres no question that COVID is disproportionately affecting communities of color. We are seeing it in Latino communities, in Asian communities, and in black communities where theyre undergoing tremendous stress. Coleman, a single mother, now calls a three-bedroom condo in Bridgeport her home, which she managed to secure through the nonprofit Alpha Community Services, YMCA, Bridgeport. Currently unemployed and without a car, she takes her seven children, including her newborn, by bus and train to doctor appointments. My mom was addicted to heroin, and I went to prison for selling drugs, Coleman said, adding that she gave birth to her first child while she was incarcerated. Since then, she said, she has stayed on the straight path and is making efforts to get a job, while cutting hair on the side. I dont have no income, Coleman explained. I receive food stamps, I receive medical, but I dont receive cash. Her rent, though, is covered under the program for now. The uncertainty of employment, childcare, and housing in the future is adding to her depression and anxiety. Colemans case manager, Grisselle Gonzalez, said that because of COVID-19, Coleman had been unable to see her psychiatrist. When things got too difficult, she recommended her client to a free behavioral telehealth service called Warm Lines. To her relief, Coleman was recently able to get back to her regular psychiatrist over the phone. Meanwhile, her children receive mental health support at school when needed, Gonzalez said. Now that the kids are home, Coleman said she is their go-to person when they become stressed. Colemans situation is by no means unique. At least a third of the 1,400 women in need of assistance from the nonprofit Women & Family Life Center in Guilford have lost their jobs either temporarily or permanently as a result of the pandemic, said Meghan Scanlon, executive director. A lot of them were daycare workers, many were in the service industry, others were cleaning houses and buildings, Scanlon said. Some families have to choose betweenwhat weve been trying to mitigate with our assistancemedical costs and food, or rent and food. These are individuals who are really hard-working but dont have a lot of savings. And COVID-19 hit them really hard. Despite the safety nets such as the Alpha program and the Women & Life Family Center, black and Latino children in disadvantaged neighborhoods are disproportionately affected. A Brandeis University study concluded that children living in neighborhoods with very low Child Opportunity Scores in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven, had shorter life expectancies. Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, director of the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis, explained how some children are faring worse in the pandemic, given the risk and struggles that their parents face. In a column on Datakids.org, Acevedo-Garcia wrote, We dont yet have data to examine the relationship between child opportunity and the prevalence and mortality from COVID-19, but we suspect that if we could, we would see a high concentration of cases and deaths in very low-opportunity neighborhoods. We know that segregation and neighborhood inequities lead to an unfair concentration of health vulnerability in minority communities. This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team (c-hit.org), a nonprofit news organization dedicated to health reporting. Maryland further eased restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus by allowing businesses to reopen Friday, but some of the states largest jurisdictions are waiting to enter Phase 2 of the states reopening plan. Governor Larry Hogan announced earlier this week that nonessential businesses can reopen at 5 p.m. Friday as the state begins Phase 2 of the economys reopening. The governor ordered nonessential businesses closed on March 23 in response to the virus. Hogan announced Friday that the state has conducted more than 405,000 virus tests. The states COVID-19 positivity rate has dropped to 8.4%, the governor said, and the total number of hospitalizations in Maryland has dropped to its lowest level since April 13. There were 1,076 people in hospitals due to the virus as of Friday morning. Businesses that will be able to reopen include manufacturing, construction, large and small retail shops, specialty vendors, wholesalers and warehouses. Offices including information technology firms, legal offices, accounting, banking and financial institutions, and insurance agencies also can open. Real estate offices, travel agencies, auto dealer showrooms and bank branches also can reopen with public health and safety guidance recommendations in place, the governors office said. That includes wearing face coverings during face-to-face interactions, taking workers temperatures and limiting the proximity of employees by rotating work hours. Employees who can are being urged to continue working from home when possible. Personal services such as nail and tanning salons, message therapy and tattoo parlors can reopen with 50% capacity and by appointment only. A ban on indoor restaurant dining will remain in place. Fitness centers, senior centers, theaters, malls and amusement parks also will remain closed throughout the state. Local officials have the authority to decide how much they want to reopen their jurisdictions at this time. All of Marylands 24 jurisdictions have entered the states Phase 1 reopening plan. Most will implement Phase 2 on Friday, but some are taking a slower approach. Marylands two largest counties with the highest number of virus cases just implemented the first stage of the recovery plan on Monday, and they are waiting to implement Phase 2. Montgomery County, the states largest jurisdiction with more than 1 million residents, is proceeding with caution, said County Executive Marc Elrich. Prince Georges County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced Thursday that the county could move to Phase 2 on June 15. Baltimore Mayor Bernard Jack Young said Marylands largest city will fully implement Phase 1 on Monday. Wed like to be able to review the data as we begin to open more things up and understand if were going to see trends, said Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, the citys health commissioner. Maryland has had 56,770 confirmed cases of the virus and 290,956 negative tests. The state reported Friday morning that there have been a total of 2,580 deaths in Maryland from the virus, an increase of 34 deaths since Thursday morning. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics COVID-19 Maryland Two more textile factories in Armenia suspended their operations on Tuesday after dozens of their workers tested positive for the coronavirus. The Gyumri-based factories belonging to the local Lentex and Svetex companies employ a total of about 400 people. Tigran Petrosian, the governor of the surrounding Shirak province, said 120 workers underwent coronavirus tests nearly half of which came back positive on Monday. He said the company owners decided to temporarily shut down their plants without any government orders. Svetex decided to take a two-week break while Lentex is discussing mechanisms and ways of continuing its work, Petrosian told RFE/RLs Armenian service. We cant operate right now because the [infected] people have self-isolated while others, who feel unwell, are having tests in policlinics, said the Lentex owner, Karen Gomtsian. Gomtsian said he will decide in the coming days when to reopen the plant. He suggested that some of his 350 or so employees will return to work soon so that Lentex can fulfill its contractual obligations to foreign buyers. They have not been in contact with infected workers and feel well, he said. While insisting that the company has followed all anti-epidemic rules set by the government, Gomtsian admitted that sanitary inspectors forced it to close for one day late last month. The provincial administration has reported 135 coronavirus cases among residents of Gyumri and other Shirak communities. Only 42 of them are in hospital at present. Armenias largest textile plant located in Vanadzor, the administrative center of neighboring Lori province, has been hit by a similar COVID-19 outbreak. Authorities ordered the Gloria companys plant to close on June 3 one of day after three of its 2,600 predominantly female workers tested positive for the virus. The number of infected workers has since risen to 149. One of them, Lilik Bayadian, was informed about her positive test result on Tuesday three days after developing a fever and apparent pneumonia. Bayadian repeatedly coughed when she spoke to RFE/RLs Armenian service by phone hours before being taken to hospital. I have gotten sick many times but never felt such pain in my muscles, arms and legs before, said the middle-aged woman. My daughter-in-law also has a fever but she is not in bed. Another Gloria employee, Karine Rafaelian, has had no coronavirus tests and shown no symptoms of the disease. But like many of her colleagues, she too has been told by the Vanadzor police to quarantine at home. In my circumstances self-isolating means committing a suicide because I live alone, complained Rafaelian. My children live in Russia and my husband is dead. Who is going to buy food for me? The Lori governor, Andrei Ghukasian, pledged to help people like her. We keep in touch with everyone by phone to see if they need food, he said. We have food packages that will be delivered to them by our workers and volunteers so that they dont leave their homes. Gloria will remain closed at least until June 20. This and other Armenian firms manufacturing clothing were allowed to resume their work in late April following a month-long stoppage ordered by the government as part of a nationwide lockdown. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on April 12 that the textile industry should be able to reopen 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 safety standards for the export-oriented industry. Glorias owner, Bagrat Darbinian, claimed that those requirements are too strict when his employees defied the government ban and returned to their workplaces on April 21. The authorities shut down the plant again the following day. Still, they agreed to soften the rules. The daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia 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 the rules. The authorities have registered 13,675 coronavirus cases and 217 deaths to date. Six people died from the virus on Monday, according to the Armenian Ministry of Health. The official count does not include the deaths of 74 other Armenians who were also infected with the respiratory disease. The ministry says that these fatalities were caused by other, pre-existing conditions. West Bengal has reported the fastest increase in the Covid-19 cases since June 1 followed by Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar, according to the data from the state health departments. These states have received the maximum number of migrant workers left jobless by the Covid-19 lockdown in industrial states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka. The Centre on May 30 released details of the first of a three-phase plan - Unlock 1.0 - to lift stringent restrictions imposed over two months ago to stop the spread of the Covid-19 and allowed unrestricted interstate movement from June 1. According to an affidavit submitted in the Supreme Court, around 10 million migrant workers had returned to the states like Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand on special Shramik trains till the first week of June from May 1, when the special railway services were started. The return of the migrant workers has been cited among the reasons for the spike in the Covid cases in these states even though they are still lesser than those in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. As the lockdown restrictions have been eased since June 1, the increase in Covid cases is much higher in the states that received a large number of migrant workers than Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. In the first eight days of June, West Bengal recorded about 3,300 new cases as compared to 1,042 in the last eight days of May. The cases in Jharkhand increased from 360 to 610 in the last eight days of May. In the first eight days of June, the cases went up to 1,290 there. Similarly, Covid cases in Odisha increased to 2,994 from 1,948 on May 31. The number was 1,335 on May 24. The pace of increase in cases in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh from June 1 to June 8 (between 8 to 6%) was not as high as in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha but was higher than the western states. The cases have increased because of the migrant workers, who account for 72% of the total cases. In fact, their contribution has increased from about 66% in last week of May to 72% now, said Bihars health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh. He added two million migrants have arrived in the state on 1,491 Shramik Special trains between May 3 and June 5. A Madhya Pradesh health department official, who did not want to be named, said, Though the recovery rate has gone up to more than 65%, there is no reduction in the number of positive cases being reported daily.... He added that this was even as major cities like Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur are still under lockdown. Jharkhand health secretary Nitin Kulkarni said a large number of untested samples had piled up (over 13,000 as on June 1). Their results started coming in the first week of June, a reason for the increase in the cases. Dr DK Singh, director of government-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, said, Only a target group [in the quarantine centres] are being tested. Samples are not coming from the community as a whole. So it is difficult to assess the actual effect of unlock-1 when movements within the cities, towns and villages started. Odisha government officials said over the last 15 days, 80% of 1,557 cases have been detected in quarantine centres housing migrant workers. What is worrying is that new cases have emerged from rural areas of Odisha, said a health official on condition of anonymity. In Bengal, ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) blamed the Centre for the spike from 3,816 cases on May 25 to 8,613 on June 8. I would like to ask the Union government, who runs the Indian Railways? Who packed the migrant workers in the trains like cattle? TMC spokesman Derek OBrien said. Bharatiya Janata Party state unit chief, Dalip Ghosh, accused the state government of mismanagement and fudging data to hide the real picture. The situation is really bad due to the failure of the TMC government. The backlash to facial recognition among governments is extending to corporate heavyweights. IBM chief Arvind Krishna has sent a letter (via Axios and CNBC) to Congress revealing that the company has exited its general purpose facial recognition business. The company firmly opposes use of the technology for surveillance, racial profiling and violations of basic human rights and freedoms, according to Krishna. Instead, he suggested that now was the moment for a national dialogue on not only how facial recognition should be used, but whether or not it should be used at all. The CEO contended that AI was a powerful tool for law enforcement, but that its use had to be kept in check with audited tests for bias. He also pushed for technology that improved accountability and transparency, such as body cameras. Krishnas letter was part of a broader call on Congress to push for broader police accountability and conduct reforms, including some that were already part of the recently introduced Justice in Policing Act of 2020. The move comes in the midst of protests over police brutality and discrimination, and not long after Clearview AIs facial recognition raised privacy and bias issues. More than one report has indicated that facial recognition systems can be biased against non-whites and women, particularly if the training data includes relatively few people from those groups. And while some facial recognition systems may only correlate faces with publicly available data, there are concerns this could be used for tracking and profile generation that could be used to intimidate people or otherwise limit their real-world privacy. As CNBC noted, its relatively easy for IBM to back out when facial recognition wasnt a major contributor to its bottom line. The media buzz may be as important as anything. IBM is still a major company, though, and it frequently works with governments. This could spur other providers to follow suit, and might even get some would-be customers to drop facial recognition entirely. As the incumbent president slips in the polls, he will need divine intervention to win. As America implodes, the president would like to have all Americans know of his two rules. Rule one: Donald Trump is always a winner. Rule two: when Donald Trump is losing, refer back to rule one. So as an increasing number of Republicans and conservatives abandon him; as former generals and government officials denounce a president who is losing the public trust, refer back to rule one. As the economy dips and unemployment rises to an historic high, and Americans die in record numbers from the coronavirus, all under his watch: Ditto. As an historic protest against racism and police brutality spreads nationwide and shakes the presidency. Ditto. Trump would like to have you rest assured that he will beat these pathetic losers, thugs, agitators and news fakers. Just as he built the greatest economy in the world, the best the US has ever had, he is doing it again! After all, God is on our side, as he told his political supporters at a megachurch outside Miami back in January. After all, he is the incarnation of the Second Coming; he is the chosen one. Or is he now! Piety and patriotism Such use of Gods name in vain may be especially dishonest and narcissistic, but Trump is not the first leader to use religion to advance his views and policies; far from it. Russian President Vladimir Putins use of the Orthodox church, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis use of Hinduism, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameneis use of Shia Islam, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus use of Judaism are no less cynical. But Trump is mainly tapping into a long American history of political exploitation of religion, which intensified as America began to identify more pronouncedly as a nation under God, or a Christian nation. In fact, it was a Democrat who first made a notable use of biblical scripture to advance his vision of a kinder society. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt recited biblical verses in speeches to defend and advance his liberal policies, notably the New Deal in the 1930s following the Great Depression. President Dwight Eisenhower of the Republican Party did the same in the 1950s, but to advance a conservative agenda, notably to unify Americans against the godless Soviet Union during the Cold War. He presided in 1953 over the first National Prayer Breakfast, and in 1954 enthusiastically supported the addition of under God to the national allegiance, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all under God. Soon after, In God We Trust appeared on stamps, coins and currency to become the official national motto. Since then, Democrats and Republicans have followed in the footsteps of both Roosevelt and Eisenhower. Some have preached the social gospel of the welfare state helping the powerless and vulnerable; others have preached the freedom gospel of individual sovereignty, small government and free enterprise. Needless to say, Trump belongs to the latter camp, having long expressed his personal admiration for Eisenhower, but focusing mainly on the gospel of I, me and myself. Unholy matrimony In 2016, conservative Christians embraced Trump knowing all too well he is an adulterer, blasphemer and thrice married. They even picked him over their favourite Christian, Ted Cruz. This was a marriage of convenience, considering God has used worse people. Conservative Christians saw Trump as a necessary evil, a cutthroat businessman, and a winner who would do anything, for them, to win. And he has. Big time. From assigning conservative judges, to cutting taxes and supporting pro-life and other socially conservative policies, to recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and demonising Iran, Trump has indeed done a lot to satisfy Christian libertarians. He saw them as indispensable allies: without them he could not win; with them he would not fail. And it all seemed to work rather well until recently, when his mismanagement of the pandemic and his mishandling of the protest movement against racism and police brutality backfired. As word got out that Trump cowardly sought shelter in the White House bunker in fear of the unrest while calling for military deployment to cover up for his impotence and incompetence, public anger intensified. In an attempt to appear like a strong and pious leader and appeal to his Christian base, Trump walked from the White House to nearby St Johns church, which was damaged during the protests. Brandishing a copy of the Bible, he posed for photos in front of the church and cajoled administration officials to join him. This staged photo op seemed like a hypocritical act of using Gods name in vain. The man who boasted, no president has ever done what I have done for evangelicals, or religion itself, was now calling for his Christian base to return the favour, to help him against, well, mainly fellow Christian Americans. Neither cool, nor Christian The answer came swift, clear and surprisingly damning from one of the most popular conservative evangelical leaders in the country. Media mogul and televangelist Pat Robertson scolded Trump for responding harshly and punitively by threatening to deploy the military, instead of responding with compassion to the plight of the protesters. You just dont do that, Mr President. It isnt cool, he said. The church stunt clearly backfired. Trump, who has been gripped by anxiety about losing conservative evangelical voters, is now bleeding more support with his desperate attempts to save his presidency. The first signs that his solid base has started to crack appeared in December, when a damning editorial in the influential evangelical magazine, Christianity Today, called for his removal from office. By May, his approval ratings among white evangelicals had declined from 77 in March to 62 percent. An even greater decline of 27 points was registered among white Catholics. That is more than the decline in the general population. Clearly, as the countrys mood changes, so does the mood of the evangelicals, whose support for Trump has been guided by the Machiavellian, and arguably unchristian, principle: the ends justify the means. But in recent months, Evangelicals and conservative Christians in general may increasingly see the unpopular Trump as a meaningless mean; even a liability that may cost them some loss among their own followers. In that case, and short of a total turnaround of the economy, Trump will need more than one or two rules to win. He will need divine intervention. But in the memorable words of former Senate Majority leader George Mitchell, Although hes regularly asked to do so, God does not take sides in American politics. Journal-Courier A Manchester man was arrested on several charges this weekend after police said he drove over a fire hydrant dragging it about 6 miles before his car caught on fire. Police said Leland R. Clayton, 22, of 208 Main St., Manchester, was going north on South Mauvaisterre Street at 5:04 a.m. Saturday when he over-steered while turning onto Central Park Plaza, ended up going the wrong direction and drove over a curb, where the car ran over a fire hydrant, according to a police report. Photo by China Daily In 1848, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, the celebrated French novelist, observed that "the more things change, the more they remain the same". This observation applies with special force to US foreign policy. As a young student during the 1960s, I was taught that the United States was fighting for "freedom" and "democracy" in Vietnam, while supporting other "democracies" overseas. But I was taught lies. South Vietnam was a corrupt dictatorship. And the US' support for the region's dictators was not limited to South Vietnam. For example, the US also propped up the then authoritarian regimes in "Free China" (Taiwan) and South Korea. US collaboration with authoritarian regimes As a university student, I was taught that such inconsistencies in US policy could be attributed to the practice of "realpolitik", a foreign policy approach based on practical concerns rather than moral considerations. According to this interpretation, the US' actual goal was to stop the spread of the Soviet Union not to promote democracy. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, some predicted that the US might change its behavior. As one US official observed, human rights might be taken off the "back-burner" of foreign policy. But this never happened. Rather, the US continued to collaborate with numerous authoritarian regimes, while criticizing, demonizing and destabilizing other governments. Some have sought to explain this phenomenon. According to the "dictatorship hypothesis" of Kent Calder, director of Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins University, the US "tends to support dictators in nations where it enjoys basing facilities". And as Washington has far more foreign military bases than any other country, it props up a lot of authoritarian governments. Given its unfortunate experience with imperialist powers in the 19th and early 20th century, China has long refused permission for foreign forces to station troops on its soil. Although China has supported some of the US' international initiatives, it has never served as a "pawn" in Washington's "chess game", let alone granting it basing privileges. Which made China an easy "target of opportunity" for some US politicians and media outlets. Gross interference in internal affairs For the past year, Washington has criticized Beijing for the tragic events unfolding in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China. The US Congress continued to support the turmoil even after demonstrations turned violent. Some American lawmakers appeared to goad on protesters. In October 2019, for example, Senator Ted Cruz (Republican, Texas) flew to the SAR and dressed in black to express his "solidarity" with demonstrators. He defended his interference in China's internal affairs by explaining that "the people of Hong Kong are engaged in an existential battle for liberty and they should know that the people of America stand with Hong Kong". Like most other lawmakers, Cruz had little to say when protesters trashed the University of Hong Kong, set a man on fire and committed other violent acts. Fast forward to the turmoil rocking American society today, and you can see the hypocrisy of Congress on full display. Those same lawmakers who praised Hong Kong's turmoil exhibit little tolerance for lawlessness at home. Appearing on Fox News on June 2, Cruz exclaimed that "rioting cannot be tolerated, it cannot be allowed and we need strong leadership from the president". He has called for Antifa, a self-proclaimed anti-fascist organization involved in many civil disobedience-related disturbances, to be officially branded a "terrorist organization". American politicians need self-introspection Clearly, the time has arrived for US politicians to stop the hypocritical finger-pointing and engage in some thoughtful reflection. If US lawmakers are genuinely interested in Hong Kong's internal affairs, they ought to ask themselves why there are no disturbances in the neighboring Macao Special Administrative Region, a former colony located only a short commute from Hong Kong, which also practices "one country, two systems". As it happens, housing is roughly 33 percent cheaper in Macao than Hong Kong. Also,wages are higher in Macao than Hong Kong. Unlike Hong Kong, young people in Macao can find affordable housing and better jobs. Might such considerations help explain the unrest and violence in Hong Kong? Are there any lessons for Americans to be learned here? Within the US, economic factors might go a long way toward explaining why some peaceful protests against police brutality degenerate into looting, burning and senseless violence. As a recent study by the Pew Research Center observed, in the US, "economic inequality, whether measured through the gaps in income or wealth between richer and poorer households, continues to widen". The cost of education has skyrocketed, and other ladders out of poverty have become increasingly out of reach for many Americans. A sense of hopelessness now pervades large swaths of major US cities (and rural areas). And all of this is happening while the Chinese government has vowed to eradicate abject poverty by the end of this year. China's achievements receive no attention In five short years between 2012 and 2017 the Chinese mainland's poverty rate dropped from 10 percent to 3 percent. According to China's official statistics, the government has lifted more than 800 million out of poverty during the past four decades. This cannot be dismissed as propaganda. As one who lived in China 30 years ago, I've seen the remarkable changes. But such progress and the Chinese government's drive to reduce poverty receive little or no attention from US politicians and media pundits. Rather, they prefer to engage in "China bashing". Governments will always have differences. The US trade dispute with China is one such example. But quarrels must remain on a sensible level. Politicians in Washington need to abandon the tendency to engage in bombastic rhetoric about a "China threat" and face up to reality. Like most other countries, China's political system differs from the US system and has its own set of problems. Those problems are China's problems not the US' problems. We have our own troubles. Clearly, the time is long overdue for the US to get its house in order. As a first step, the US should follow China's example and launch a new war on poverty. It's worth the effort. The author is a distinguished professor and the James Morris Endowed professor of political science at Missouri State University. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Missouri State University or China Daily. Philadelphia police Staff Inspector Joseph Bolonga, left, watches Shoshana Akins, in pink bandanna, as she is detained by police at a protest last Monday. Akins said Bologna twisted her fingers, to the point she feared they would break, while she was detained and in handcuffs. Read more Joseph Bologna Jr., the high-ranking Philadelphia police official charged with assaulting a protester during demonstrations last week, has been suspended with intent to dismiss, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw announced Tuesday. The departments one-line early evening statement didnt specify the reasons behind the decision, but a spokesperson later clarified it was a procedural move taken when any officer is charged with a crime. The announcement came a day after Bologna, a 31-year veteran of the force, was arraigned on charges connected to the beating of a Temple University student, and hours after The Inquirer published an account from another protester who alleged that Bologna assaulted her after she was arrested that day. In an interview, Shoshana Akins, 31, said Bologna twisted her fingers so badly after she had been restrained at the June 1 protest that she feared he would break them. The injuries to her hands so alarmed other officers, she said, that they asked a National Guard member to cut off the zip ties binding her wrists, Akins said. READ MORE: Live coverage of Tuesday's protests: Mayor Kenney promises police reform Bologna systematically went along each of my fingers to twist them at a 90-degree angle to break them, she said. He went down all my bottom knuckles, and he started on my top knuckles, and he did this in about 20 seconds. So fast. Akins account is the third to emerge accusing Bologna of an overly aggressive response while policing protests over the death of George Floyd last week. Her story has drawn attention from investigators in a case that has exacerbated the tense relationship between District Attorney Larry Krasner and the citys police union. READ MORE: Read the criminal complaint charging Philly police inspector Joseph Bologna with assaulting a protester Bolognas charges stem from the alleged assault of student protester Evan Gorski the same day as Akins encounter. A second account involving a video that showed Bologna tackling a demonstrator near 10th and Market Streets a day later after she tapped the wheel of his bike has also drawn scrutiny from prosecutors. Bolognas attorney did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday about the new accusations from Akins or Outlaws intention to force the inspector out of the department. He has maintained that his client always acted within the Police Departments policies for use of force. A police spokesperson said the department was unaware of Akins account and encouraged her to file a complaint with Internal Affairs, though she said that she had told police about the incident when she was booked at district headquarters. Akins alleged assault was not caught on video, unlike the prior two incidents. But video of the protest that day, viewed by The Inquirer, shows the inspector standing closely behind her after her hands were zip-tied and as she awaited transport to a police district for booking. READ MORE: Philly Police Inspector Joseph Bologna applauded by fellow officers as he surrenders on charges of assaulting a protester Another demonstrator arrested that day supported Akins account of the extent of the injuries to her hands once she was loaded aboard a police van. When Akins got in the van, her hands were turning blue, said Carmen Perry, 26. She said she thought some of her fingers might be broken, Perry said. READ MORE: Who is Joseph Bologna? Officer charged with beating Temple student has a checkered and charmed past Akins, a participation planner at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission with a masters degree in public health from Drexel University, has participated in racial justice marches in the city for years. She said she had no idea who Bologna was until after she got home and recognized him from some of the other videos circulating online showing his aggressive encounters with demonstrators. Akins said she was nearly clipped by a squad car while trying to catch up with marchers around 4:30 p.m. on June 1 just north of City Hall. Within seconds, she said, officers on bike patrol surrounded her, crashed their bikes into hers, moved to restrain her, and took her bag to search it. She said she tried to remain calm as officers yelled at her and bound her hands with zip-ties so tight she could feel her circulation fading. Then Bologna came up behind her and began twisting her fingers back, she said. Thats when I thought, I need help, and I cant get it from this guy," she said. The worry going through her mind: "He knows how to do this, he knows how to hurt people, and how to hurt them in a way that no one can see. The video of the encounter, filmed from a distance, shows Bologna standing closely behind Akins, but from the vantage point of the videographer, it is impossible to tell if he is doing anything to her hands. Akins said that when she was placed in a police van with two other demonstrators, they were so horrified by her battered hands, they begged two officers to loosen her restraints. The officers reacted with alarm and tried to remove the zip ties, said Perry, one of the other protesters in the van. Eventually, it took a member of the National Guard with a knife to cut them off, Perry said, and even hours after they arrived at the police district for booking, Akins still had deep grooves in her skin from where the ties had cut into her wrists. Akins was issued a code violation for failing to disperse and released. READ MORE: 'Police just went nuts': Charges dropped after video surfaces of police beating student, other protesters with batons She said she never saw Bolognas name tag or badge. But as she watched videos of police interactions with protesters she recognized his face and his distinctive, raspy voice. Days later, she said, she still has no feeling from the middle of her forearms to the base of her thumbs in both hands. She believes some of her fingers may be broken, but she has put off a hospital visit out of concern of being exposed to COVID-19. She did consult a doctor through telemedicine who warned her to monitor her fingers and pulse for nerve damage, and ordered her to go to the emergency room if her condition worsened. Outlaw and Krasner continue to pursue complaints involving Bologna as part of separate investigations. Akins said shed been contacted by Krasners office about the incident. And she said she had not considered speaking publicly about the incident until she saw the videos of other demonstrators. As someone who works in public health and justice work, I knew this is what happened to black and brown people every day, even when theres not a huge protest, she said. And the small taste that I got, I cant believe this has systematically been going on in our country for this long. On April 11, 1994, a team of archaeologists led by Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz explored the jungles of Chiapas near the famous Mayan city of Palenque when they uncovered a sealed door. Upon opening, Gonzalez and his team found a tomb in the Temple of the Skull where over 700 jade pieces were found. The team immediately assessed the stability of the building and formed a plan to discover what was encased inside Temple Thirteen. What they found was beyond their imagination. Inside the tomb was the final resting place of a powerful and influential woman of Palenque. Her body, which was coated in bright, rust-colored cinnabar, would earn her the name "The Red Queen." Temple XIII The newly uncovered temple was a smaller pyramid structure that was connected to the Temple of the Inscriptions where the famous Mayan ruler, K'inch Janaab Pakal I, rests. Inside the Red Queen's tomb, they found precious artifacts-including a spindle whorl, whistles, and ceramic bowls. The objects found inside the tomb led the archaeologists to suspect the royal woman was linked to Pakal. The team took nearly eight weeks to remove the monolithic limestone lid off the sarcophagus. Inside, they found the skeleton of the royal woman who was lying on her back and permeated with red cinnabar. Her skull was adorned with jade beads. Hundreds of bright green fragments also formed a broken mask. Surrounding the skeleton were luxurious items such as jade, shells, obsidian blades, pearls, and bone needles. Gonzalez and his team also found two skeletons lying outside the sarcophagus. The first belonged to an adolescent male believed to have died when he was about 12 years of age. His body held evidence of cuts and blows to his rib cage-signs that he may have been part of a sacrificial ritual. The other body belonged to an adult female thought to have died in her 30s. She was stretched out on the floor, with her body bearing signs of fatal injuries. Both skeletons were believed to have been sacrificed to accompany the Red Queen on the journey into the afterlife. The Red Queen Mexican researchers carried out extensive studies of the remains to uncover the identity of the Red Queen between 1997 and 2002. Several scholars narrowed the options to three well-known females in Palenque: Yohl ik Naal, Sak K'uk, and Tz'akbu Ajaw. Yohl ik Naal was the true queen and was the grandmother to Mayan ruler, K'inch Janaab Pakal I. However-based on the sacrificial victims, who were thought to have died in 650 to 700 A.D.-it is unlikely the skeleton belonged to Pakal's grandmother who died in 604 A.D. The next theory involved Pakal's mother, Sak K'uk, who served as the provisional ruler of Palenque. However, the result of a DNA comparison between the skeleton and Pakal revealed they were not related. The last option was Lady Tz'akbu Ajaw, the wife of Pakal. A dental analysis showed the skeleton was a Palenque-native. The finding supported the theory that Ajaw, who was part of a marriage alliance, might be the skeleton inside the tomb. The skeleton also bore signs of osteoporosis that may have been due to late childbirth. A facial reconstruction allowed the researchers to match the Red Queen's face to Pakal's wife, who was depicted on the iconography the Mayans left behind. The conclusions fit with identifying the skeleton as the ruler's wife. If the researchers could find the tomb of her sons, and their DNA matched hers, the mystery surrounding the Red Queen of Palenque will be revealed. Want to read more? Maurice Gordons mother and sister were at home in London when the call came. Mr. Gordon, a 28-year-old black man who had moved to the United States from Jamaica to work and attend college, had been shot and killed by a New Jersey State Police trooper during a traffic stop on May 23. There had been a struggle, his mother said she was told, and Mr. Gordon had been shot four times. The shooting occurred two days before the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis after a white officer held a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes, setting off weeks of nationwide protests by demonstrators demanding an overhaul of policing and increased accountability. Im broken inside, Mr. Gordons mother, Racquel Barrett, said in an interview early Monday. I just need answers: Why did they kill my son? Hours later, the states attorney general, Gurbir S. Grewal, released 12 audio and video recordings, including a limited backward-facing camera view of the deadly struggle between Mr. Gordon and the trooper, Sgt. Randall Wetzel, who is white. Atlanta Officers Fired in Excessive Force Arrests File Lawsuit Asking for Jobs Back Two Atlanta police officers who were charged with assault after using excessive force during the arrest of two college students during protests last month are trying to get their jobs back, according to a lawsuit filed June 8. The two offending officers, Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner, were seen in downtown Atlanta breaking the windows of a vehicle before using a stun gun on a man and pulling out a woman. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced on May 31 that the pair would be fired immediately after she and police Chief Erika Shields reviewed body camera footage of the incident, which was widely circulated online. Use of excessive force is never acceptable, Bottoms told reporters, while Shields called the footage really shocking to watch. The lawsuit, filed by the two police officers in Fulton County State Court Monday, states that their use of force was proper and lawful, and that they were both denied due process. It asks for back pay and the reinstatement of both Streeter and Gardner. Petitioners have suffered irreparable injury to their personal and professional reputations as a result of their unlawful dismissal, the lawsuit states. We filed for a writ of mandamus against the mayor and chief to force them to return my clients to work. The city violated a lot of procedures and their rights, their attorney Lance LoRusso told FOX 5. Streeter was hired as a investigator in December 2003, and Gardner was hired in August 1997. Both worked with the Atlanta Police Departments fugitive unit, NBC News reported. People clean up damage to CNN Center following an overnight demonstration over the Minneapolis death of George Floyd while in police custody in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 30, 2020. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images) Dramatic video footage showed officers forcibly pulling college students Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young from their vehicle on the evening of May 30, during protests over the May 25 death of George Floydthe 46-year-old Minneapolis man who died while in police custody after an officer knelt on his neck. An officer uses a stun gun on Pilgrim as shes trying to get out of the car and then officers pull her 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 officer finally manages to break it. As the 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 of the car and on the ground, officers zip tie Youngs hands behind his back and lead him away. Police reports do not list a gun as having been recovered. A further four officers were charged in the incident: Lonnie Hood, Willie Sauls, Armond Jones, and Roland Claud. The charges include aggravated assault of Young, aggravated assault of Pilgrim, simple battery, and criminal damage to property, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said on June 2. Howard added that the students involved were innocent, and 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 last week, without elaborating. Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report. A dairy co-operative has donated over a tonne of its award-winning Welsh cheese worth 10,000 to foods banks and community schemes. In total 5,000 packs of South Caernarfon Creameries' Dragon Mild Cheddar will be distributed to help families that need it the most during the Covid-19 crisis. The company collects milk from 135 farmer members throughout North and Mid Wales and have continued to produce cheeses and butter throughout the pandemic. Its structure is quite unique in that its wholly owned by Welsh farmer-co-operative and one of the key objectives is to ensure that it contributes to the local communities. Managing director Alan Wyn-Jones said it was challenging times for everyone, but particularly for those who were struggling to put food on the table. I know a few people that are involved in the running of local food banks and of the demands being put upon them at this difficult time," he said. "We felt that we could make a difference by providing 5,000 packs of our Dragon grated cheese which can be used as a key ingredient for many nutritious family meals. "Food banks provide an invaluable service across all parts of the country and we thank all of the volunteers who continue to help those that need it the most. The cheese will also be included in community meals on wheels services in Gwynedd and in free lunch boxes being delivered to vulnerable people through the Cynllun Neges project run by Dylan's Restaurant and Menter Mon. Thank you for reading! To read this article and more, subscribe now for as little as $1.99. L&T Heavy Engineering has announced that its 1,250 MT-Cryostat base, the single largest section of the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor, was successfully lifted and placed into a reactor building in France, accomplishing a major milestone in the nuclear engineering world. Assembly tools of cryostat were delivered during the lockdown by Larsen & Toubro. The cryostat forms the vacuum-tight container surrounding the reactor vacuum vessel and the superconducting magnets and acts essentially as a very large refrigerator. The reactor base, the single largest and heaviest Tokamak component of the world's largest stainless-steel, high-vacuum, pressure chamber cryostat, will eventually contain the rest of the reactor. Dr Bernard Bigot, Director-General, ITER organisation said, "We thank L&T for the timely deliveries in the current difficult circumstances of the cryostat base alignment tool and shims, which are critical to installing cryostat base. This installation into the ITER Tokamak building is a significant activity for other downstream activities to achieve the mission for first plasma as soon as possible by the end of 2025." L&T has also already delivered the lower cylinder of the Cryostat in March 2019 and upper cylinder in March 2020. The final part, the Top Lid Sectors will be dispatched from Hazira in July 2020. "ITER is a first of its kind futuristic global project. The cryostat is the largest vacuum vessel ever built with 29.4 meters in diameter, 29 meters in height weighing 3,850 MT. Successful delivery of such complex projects is ingrained in L&T's culture," says Anil V Parab, Executive Vice President and Head, L&T Heavy Engineering. India is among the seven elite countries funding the $20 billion international thermonuclear experimental reactor programme in Cadarache, France. This is one of the world's largest research projects that seeks to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power. Also read: L&T FY20 results: Profit rises 7% to Rs 9,594 crore; board announces final dividend of Rs 8 per share L ucky Strike cigarettes giant British American Tobacco today warned sales and profits would be lower than expected due to stricter-than-expected lockdowns in South Africa, Mexico and Argentina. The London-based tobacco giant, which sells Pall Mall, Rothmans and other higher-end brands overseas, pointed to South Africa in particular, where sales of tobacco were stopped altogether in March as part of strict measures to stop the virus from spreading through the country where 37% of men smoke. Alongside the previously announced hit from the lack of people buying boxes of cigarettes as they pass through airport, revenues for this year will now be only 1-3% up on a year ago instead of the lower end of 3-5% as previously forecast by the company. Shares fell 3% as investors responded to the gloomier picture for the group, which has now pushed back its target for revenues of 5 billion from new generation products such as vapes by a year to 2025. Profits would also come in at "mid-single digit" percentage growth instead of "high single figure" indicated before. However, the company insisted it would still be paying down its debts, albeit at a slower rate than previously hoped due to the covid impact on revenues. It also noted that there were few signs of smokers "trading down" to cheaper brands from other suppliers. Although debts are not coming down as fast as predicted, BAT will still be paying out dividends at the same ratio to profits as before - 65% - as it cited continued strong growth in its share of the cigarette market despite the industry being down around 7%. Chief executive Jack Bowles said: "We have made a good start to the year, with strong volume and value share growth in combustibles underpinning the sustainability of the business." In the US, where BAT is a leading player, it said sales were proving more resilient than expected across the industry, with sales volumes declining only around 4% this year. World Health Organisation figures suggest more than 8 million people a year are killed by smoking, with more than 7 million from direct tobacco use and a further 1.2 million from passive smoking. BAT, like other Big Tobacco companies, has shifted towards vaping products. Despite being hit by safety concerns around vaping in the US, BAT said its Vuse brand was growing its share of the market there in value terms, likewise in the UK and Canada, France and Germany. Its Vype brand also increased its share of the UK market, but grew more in France and Germany. Its tobacco-free nicotine pouch Velo, which users put under their lip, is growing across the US although the marketing push has been held back by covid. Tobacco pouches known as snus - whose sale is banned in the UK because of fears they cause mouth cancer, are growing strongly in Scandinavia. Rae Maile, analyst at Panmure Gordon said BAT remained a high quality company and praised its resilience. He said: "The sector is cheap. While they may not outperform the market in the short term [with BAT's dividends], if you hold the shares you will make money. Hold it for 10 to 15 years and you could very well make a lot of money." Ottawa, June 9 : Canada will begin to allow some family members separated by temporary COVID-19 travel restrictions to cross the border into the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. "We are bringing in a limited exemption to allow immediate family members of citizens or permanent residents to come to Canada," CBC News quoted Trudeau as saying on Monday. "This is an incredibly difficult time to be apart from a spouse, a child, or mom or dad." Anyone who enters the country will have to self-quarantine for 14 days, he said. "And if you don't follow these rules, you could face serious penalties." The Canada Border Services Agency said the exemption applies to foreign nationals who are immediate family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and who do not have COVID-19 or are showing any signs or symptoms of COVID-19, "or who do not have reason to believe they have COVID-19". Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino clarified that the exemption applies in the context of Canada's temporary deal with the US banning non-essential travel (meaning no recreational visits) across the shared border, while keeping it open to commercial traffic and essential workers, reports CBC News. That deal remains in effect until June 21. "It's important to note that the exemption we announced today is very incremental, it's very targeted," he said. "To be clear, the immediate family exemption does not mean the border will now be open to weekend travellers, or those seeking just to attend a personal or social gathering," Mendicino added. Through this exemption, the government is defining an 'immediate family member' as someone's spouse or common-law partner; dependent child; parent or step-parent or the parent or step-parent of the person's spouse or common-law partner; guardian or tutor. Outside of its US agreement, the government barred entry to most non-residents back in March. 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. New Delhi, June 9 : Jaideep Bhatnagar, Officer on Special Duty in News Service Division of All India Radio, was on Tuesday given charge of Principal Director General of Press Information Bureau until K.S. Dhatwalia resumes duties. "During the absence of K.S. Dhatwalia, Principal DG, PIB, Jaideep Bhatnagar, OSD, NSD-AIR, shall officiate as Principal DG, PIB, with immediate effect and till Dhatwalia resumes his duties," an order issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said. Bhatnagar is a 1986-batch Indian Information Service officer. Dhatwalia had tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday and was admitted at All India Institute of Medical Sciences here. Dhatwalia had on June 3 shared the stage with Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prakash Javadekar when they had briefed the media on the Union Cabinet decisions. Helping a man get oxygen, saving a pet gold fish, fixing a banister while delivering food and water and helping oust flood waters from peoples houses is just a glimpse of what the United Cajun Navy did recently while in Midland and Gladwin counties. Members of UCN, based in Lafayette, Louisiana, spent several days in Midland and Gladwin counties, bringing supplies, food, water, diapers, clothing, blankets, muck-out buckets, etc., and helping rebuild what was lost when the Edenville Dam failed, flooding everything in its path. We are among the ones that run in when people are fleeing, said UCN Commander Brian Antisdel, a Dowagiac, Michigan native. The near two-year UCN Commander Antisdel, who spent ages 13 to 25 homeless in Michigan and was once banned from Dowagiac for getting in trouble, led a large team in Gladwin, Edenville, Homer and Midland. They brought in supplies and other needed items. They talked to residents to find out what was needed and gave their all to help. He said churches and other organizations helped them in their plight, by donating items and food. I never heard of them before, but I wont forget them, said Jenn Hamilton, whose parents in Midland were recipients of the groups kindness. My parents (both 72) said they came and made sure they were OK. My dad thinks one of them actually fixed a railing that hes been meaning to get to for years. Hamilton said her parents, like many people, have started to cave to a bit of depression. She said the isolation from COVID-19, followed by the flooding has just been a lot to take in. But, she said, the volunteers helped restore their hope. People reached out to us, needing help, said Antisdel, recalling a man low on oxygen. The commander got the man a nebulizer and hooked up a generator. Antisdel said the volunteers encountered many stories like that in their near 16-hour days on the ground. In a UCN mission statement, it says the Navy knows that their strength lies not only in the words they stand by, but through the actions of their initiatives. The nonprofit organization focuses on helping make the world a better place. Bound with a tireless staff and volunteers, they organize search and rescue teams during natural disasters. In addition, they provide relief efforts through fundraisers, community building events, and in-depth training sessions for volunteers. Antisdel, who owns IT3 Computer Solutions, LLC, got the call about the flooding. He was in Hot Springs, Arkansas, at the time and immediately took the nearly 19-hour drive to Midland. Lets do it for the home state, Antisdel said to himself while making the drive. The group worked out of the Arnold Centers in Midland and Gladwin, which were used as distribution centers. They were also assisted by UCN Founder Todd Terrell, who ensured the group and victims had hand sanitizer and personal protective equipment, which he sent via plane. Antisdel said it was a different environment working in a flood disaster during a pandemic. Antisdel said they were so touched by the participants at the Arnold Centers. He said seeing the faces of the participants at the agency left a lasting impression. They really touched my heart, Antisdel said of the Arnold Center participants. I saw the folks there who just wanted to give and help others. Midland Arnold Center Marketing & Development Director Tony F. Mediate said he didnt get to work directly with the group but heard many good things from the people who did, including executive director Jennifer Grace. Mediate said it was heartwarming to see all the people who were right there to help others. He noted a group of private citizens from Hartland, Michigan, and a Boy Scout group from Sterling Heights were also instrumental in offering donations. He said the Hartland residents also donated $900 to United Way for flood victims. I know the (UCN) was very generous, Mediate said of the group. The Arnold Center is a community rehabilitation organization that provides services to individuals with barriers to employment. The Arnold Center in collaboration with the United Way is honored to be a repository and distribution location of generously donated bottled drinking water, food, and other staple good items which are arriving daily from local and statewide organizations and individuals for relief and aid to those affected by the recent flooding and resulting damages in the Midland (area) and neighboring communities, Grace said. The commander said the local visit will leave a lasting impact. This one changed me, he said, recalling walking a Midland street handing out muck-out buckets and found a woman mucking out her home and crying. She looked at me crying, with jaws shaking as I handed her a bucket, Antisdel said. I wanted to do more. I had to find more buckets. There was also Midlander Nicole, who is in stage four cancer. Knowing she is dying, she wanted to make a difference. Antisdel said the woman drove a truck to deliver muck-out buckets. The mission also threw the group some curve balls, like when an emergency manager informed the volunteers, they were needed to cook meals for 500 flood victims in Edenville. Antisdel said they cooked up a tasty barbecue. Hamilton said the UCN along with the many organizations, donors and more showing they cared about the people who were going through the devastation, meant so much to them. She said for them to know people cared, and they werent alone, will help them to be there for others in difficult times. Antisdel said his tough times being homeless stemming from leaving home at 13 because of home violence then joining a gang, leaves him with compassion for others. Once youve been to the bottom, it builds character and empathy, said Antisdel, who has been with the UCN since 2005, when Hurricane Katrina happened. Antisdel said he and the other volunteers experienced a lot while in Midland and Gladwin counties. A lot transpired while we were there, he said, saying he even shed a tear when turning in his keys to the Emergency Operations Center as the group had to head to another mission in Louisiana. The Health and Safety Executive (HSENI) has launched an investigation into the death of a man on a farm in Londonderry on Monday. The man has been named locally as farmer David Crockett. It has been reported that he died in an accident. The incident occurred at around 5pm on Monday on the farm on the Coshquin Road, near the border with Donegal. Mr Crockett had been regularly featured in the media around Brexit, with his farm being on both sides of the border. SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said he was saddened to hear of Mr Crockett's passing. "Really sorry to hear about the death of David Crockett in Derry last night," the Foyle MP said. "My thoughts and condolences are with his family and friends at this time." Sinn Fein MLA Martina Anderson said the local community had been shocked and saddened by the death. An investigation into the cause of the mans death is now underway," she said. My thoughts are with the family, friends and loved ones of the man who lost his life at this sad and difficult time." A HSENI spokesperson confirmed an investigation was underway. "HSENI is aware of the incident and is making enquires. Our thoughts are with the deceased's family at this tragic time," he said. Stacie Blair, Founder & CEO, The Pacific Firm The COVID-19 pandemic and emerging shift to remote workstyles and teams are changing not only how we recruit, but also what we look for in executive candidates how well they can adapt, lead, and help build resilient organizations. The Pacific Firm, a San Francisco Bay Area-based leader in executive search, has again been ranked as a top executive recruiting firm in Forbes recently released list of Americas Best Executive Recruiting Firms for 2020. Of the more than 17,000 nominations collected, 200 firms made the list. For the fourth year, Forbes partnered with the market research firm Statista to compile the list. A total of 25,000 recruiters and 5,000 job candidates were surveyed, including human resources managers who had worked with recruitment agencies over the last three years. Respondents were asked to nominate up to 10 recruiting firms in the executive and professional search categories, not including themselves. Findings from 2019 were also considered. Respondents ranked the companies on several dimensions including quality of candidates, communications, and service. Its an honor to again be recognized in the Forbes list, said The Pacific Firms founder and CEO, Stacie Blair. The COVID-19 pandemic and emerging shift to remote workstyles and teams are changing not only how we recruit, but also what we look for in executive candidates how well they can adapt, lead, and help build resilient organizations. These times are challenging for all of us, but also exciting in terms of new opportunities. The Pacific Firms deep experience in our industry, as well as many others, translates into spending less time explaining what you need and more time interviewing and hiring qualified candidates, explained Heather Lourie, Chief Operating Officer at theBalm. We have successfully hired several wonderful candidates with The Pacific Firms help and expect we will continue to do so in the coming years. Blair founded The Pacific Firm in 1999. Specializing in the technology, retail, consumer products, and financial services sectors, the firm provides retained executive search for clients including private equity and venture capital firms and their portfolio companies, emerging and mid-sized companies, as well as large and publicly traded companies including many of the Fortune 500 across the U.S. and globally. The Pacific Firm prides itself on finding high-caliber talent by employing targeted research and sourcing skills to proactively seek out passive candidates. Blairs expertise also includes organizational consulting, helping companies define their long-term talent needs, and assessing and optimizing organizational performance. Clients include Autodesk, iRobot, Peets Coffee, hello products, and Christian Church Homes. The Pacific Firm is a registered veteran- and women-owned small business. Blair is also the founder of Caves Du Vin, a Berkeley-based fine wine storage facility and service. More information can be found at pacfirm.com. The Wolf administration has been criticized for its slow response to the coronavirus in Pennsylvania nursing homes, and is only now mandating universal testing. 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 Three months after the coronavirus began infecting and killing nursing home residents who account for a large majority of deaths from the virus in the state the Wolf administration on Monday ordered facilities to test all staff and residents once by mid-summer. The order applies to all 693 nursing homes in the state and requires them to complete the tests by July 24 a pace and timeline many criticized as glacial amid continuing infections and an ongoing pandemic that calls for an urgent response. Thats really incredibly slow, said Charlene Harrington, a professor of sociology and nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. Its dangerous because every day you delay testing, the residents are more vulnerable to getting the infection. In Pennsylvania, advocates, family members, nursing home associations, and public health experts have been pushing for mandated widespread testing for months. They say it is the key to identifying asymptomatic residents and staff, and preventing them from unknowingly spreading the virus to others. Last month, the administration appeared to make such a move, announcing a robust and universal testing plan for long-term-care facilities. Gov. Tom Wolf touted the effort as fairly radical and noted the goal was to test all staff and residents weekly. But a closer examination by Spotlight PA found the plan fell far short of official claims. And as of early this month, only 75 facilities or 12% of those reporting positive cases and just 4% of all long-term-care homes in the state had voluntarily completed widespread testing. READ MORE: Pa. sold nursing home testing plan as universal and radical, but advocates say its optional and insufficient Mondays announcement addressed one of the main holes in the previous guidance by making testing mandatory rather than optional. Facilities that dont meet the July 24 deadline could face fines of up to $300. However, many other shortcomings remain: The order only requires testing of all residents and staff once to establish a baseline. Without repeated testing, asymptomatic individuals could go unnoticed in the months to come, and could easily spread the infection, experts said. The mandate only applies to nursing homes, and excludes the nearly 1,200 personal care and assisted living homes in Pennsylvania, which have also had outbreaks. Pennsylvania is well behind other states in testing, and advocates said a deadline six weeks out does little to help residents and staff who are getting sick daily. It should have been done in March, Harrington said, so it is pretty scary that they are still delaying" the compliance date. To date, the coronavirus has infected more than 16,000 residents in long-term-care facilities and killed more than 4,000. Throughout this time, the Wolf administration has been repeatedly criticized for its response time and missteps in protecting these vulnerable residents. A Spotlight PA investigation found the state had an early plan to protect nursing homes, using strike teams of medical professionals that could visit as soon as cases were detected and prevent further harm. But it was never fully implemented. READ MORE: Pa. had an early plan to protect nursing home residents from the coronavirus, but never fully implemented it And last month, when the state Department of Health announced testing guidance, many wondered why it wasnt made mandatory, as it was in Maryland or New York. West Virginia completed baseline testing of nursing homes in early May, and New Jersey set its deadline for May 26. Were three months too late, frankly, said Zach Shamberg, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, which represents more than 400 long-term-care facilities. This could have been done earlier if it was positioned as a mandate, but providers need to know whats expected of them in order to do it. The Health Department said it issued guidance in early May suggesting facilities do widespread testing. Spokesperson Nate Wardle said this weeks order was to spur the remaining facilities to do universal testing. Health officials encourage facilities to complete testing prior to the deadline, Wardle added, and the department is working with human services officials who oversee personal care and assisted living homes to issue a mandate for testing in those facilities soon. The varied guidance has already fueled confusion, said Margie Zelenak, executive director of the Pennsylvania Assisted Living Association, which represents more than 200 assisted living and personal care homes. Shes fielded several calls from members asking whether the mandate applies to them, and if theyll be expected to do testing in the future. Personal care homes are not medical facilities like nursing homes, Zelenak said. They may not have medical directors or nurses on site to do testing, so they need time to prepare for a mandate, she said. Shamberg said that even in nursing homes, questions are arising about how the testing will be implemented. Many facilities are short staffed and some are still struggling to access testing supplies or labs to process the results. At a news conference Monday, Secretary of Health Rachel Levine said the states testing capabilities have grown greatly since April, and we are very confident of our ability to do this testing now. The state can provide some nasal swabs and process tests for priority facilities free at its lab in Exton, she said. But the guidance issued to nursing homes notes that support services are limited and should be considered a last resort, raising questions among providers about how much support theyll truly receive. Separately, the facilities are slated to receive millions of dollars in federal coronavirus stimulus money. In late May, Wolf signed a bill that creates collaborations between academic health systems and long-term-care facilities to address testing, infection control, contact tracing, and more. But the money has not been distributed and the collaboratives are still in early stages, meaning they may not be ready prior to the July 24 deadline. In the meantime, residents and staff continue to face high levels of risk, said Diane Menio, executive director of the Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly, based in Philadelphia. Many staff in long-term care work in more than one facility. Without testing, they could unknowingly carry the virus between homes. Widespread testing is also the key to allowing visitors and ombudsmen, who have been barred since mid-March, back into nursing homes, Menio added, which is crucial for residents mental health. Baseline testing is good, but it doesnt finish the job, Menio said. I know its a big undertaking, but we have vulnerable lives at stake here and we cant cut short in protecting them. We should do better. Rebecca Moss of Spotlight PA contributed to this article. 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. MANISTEE The statewide school closure that began March 13 presented Manistee Area Public Schools with challenges for meeting the nutritional needs of their students during the Stay Home, Stay Safe Order. Food Services director, Keri Carlson rose to the challenge, and in a few days time was able to create an adapted process for preparing and distributing hundreds of meals daily for students of Manistee that still continues today. This experience has taught us a lot," said Carlson. "We have been seeking new ways to provide students with nutritious meals that can be delivered safely and efficiently. It has uncovered needs that we never anticipated. Once needs were identified, Keri got to work looking for ways to fund new equipment that would help with efficiency and food safety. In doing so she applied for two grant opportunities for which MAPS was recently notified of approved funding. A grant application from MAPS Food Program to the Community Response Fund was approved in full in the amount of $500. The Manistee Community Foundation, the United Way of Manistee County, and Human Services Collaborative Body, made funding available that will allow MAPS Food Services to purchase insulated milk crate bags. MAPS offers milk with each meal, and as the summer months come so does the hot weather. These insulated bags will ensure the milk remains at the proper temperature during the food distribution process. explained Carlson. The second grant was awarded on behalf of GENYOUth and the United Dairy Industry of Michigan, through a COVID-19 Emergency School Nutrition Funding. This grant of $2,000 will allows MAPS Food Services to purchase much needed carts for transporting food to the distribution site. Right now, we dont have enough carts to stack all of our meals when preparing to distribute Grab & Go meals. That makes it difficult when we are moving them from the walk-in cooler, through the commons area to the student drop off area. The carts are piled so high sometimes it causes food to teeter. Any additional funds will be used for food purchases as the summer feeding program begins. shared Carlson. The MAPS Food Service team is grateful for the opportunity to serve the Manistee community by providing expanded food services. This essential nutrition program is made possible in cooperation with the Michigan Department of Education and the dedicated food services staff that will continue to serve students through the summer. A consumer group is warning that homeowners could pay billions more for their home insurance under what it calls an insurance industry legislative attack on Californias effective rate regulation. Assembly Bill 2167 would allow homeowners insurance companies to hike rates as high as they desire by exempting them from the protections of Californias rate regulation law, voter-approved Proposition 103, according to Consumer Watchdog. The legislation made its way through the Assembly Appropriations Committee late last week and is headed for action on the Assembly Floor. Consumer Watchdog is arguing that AB 2167, authored by Anaheim Assemblyman Tom Daly, would override Proposition 103s protections against unnecessary and unjustified rate increases. Under cover of darkness, in the midst of a pandemic and civil protests, the insurance industry is pushing through the California legislature a plan to loot California homeowners and renters, Harvey Rosenfield, the author of Prop 103 and founder of Consumer Watchdog, said in a statement. At a time when homeowners can least afford it, the insurance industry should not be able to buy its way out of accountability to the elected insurance commissioner for the rates it charges. The two largest insurance trade associations, representing most property/casualty insurers operating in California, argued that the bill provides homeowners more choices in the face of increased wildfire threats in the state. They made the following statement after the California State Assembly hearing on AB 2167: The prolonged wildfire threat spurred by climate change has changed the California landscape and challenged the availability of insurance in high fire-threat regions. AB 2167 strikes a balance that provides homeowners in wildfire zones access to more choice and competition among insurers based on price and coverage while avoiding costly and more limited FAIR Plan coverage. This bill upholds existing consumer protections by ensuring rates are reviewed by the Insurance Commissioner and allows for transparent consumer review of rates. Consumer Watchdog was joined by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, Consumer Federation of California and United Policyholders in opposing AB 2167. Topics Carriers California Legislation Wildfire Market Homeowners 09 Jun 2020, 12:19 PM Flipkart to deliver in paper-based packaging instead of poly bags Flipkart had earlier announced it would eliminate single use plastic in packaging. The idea was to move towards using 100% recycled plastic in its supply chain by March 2021. The firm has already reduced its new plastic consumption by 50% through different initiatives. One of its latest initiatives is to use eco-friendly recycled paper bags to replace the poly pouches for packaging of products. Delhi govt to assess possibility of COVID-19 community transmission in national capital Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday said the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) will hold a meeting today to assess whether there is community transmission of COVID-19 in the national capital. Sisodia said if community transmission of the virus was taking place in Delhi, the AAP government would have to change its strategy accordingly to deal with the situation. 'No time to play politics; use MGNREGA wisely,' Sonia Gandhi tells Modi govt Sonia Gandhi has said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) passed during the tenure of the Congress government has proved its worth during its existence despite "enduring six years of a hostile government". The Congress President said that MGNREGA is a shining example of a radical and rational systemic change. She also asked the Modi government to not play politics and use a "powerful mechanism" as MGNREGA wisely. Google CEO Sundar Pichai recalls how his father spent a year's salary on his flight ticket to US Binny Bansal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma invest Rs 325 crore in new venture capital firm Arkam Homegrown venture fund Arkam Ventures has received backing from top entrepreneurs such as ex-Flipart co-founder Binny Bansal, Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India), and US-based global fund of funds Capria. Arkam, formerly known as Unitary Helion, is looking to raise Rs 700 crore by March 2021. LG Anil Baijal overrules CM Kejriwal's decision; orders Delhi hospitals to treat all COVID-19 patients Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has reportedly overruled Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's order that prohibited coronavirus patients from other states to get treatment at private and government hospitals, except those run by the Centre, in Delhi. In his capacity as the Chairperson of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, Baijal has directed departments and authorities of NCT of Delhi to ensure that no coronavirus patient is denied treatment in hospitals on grounds of not being a resident of Delhi Coronavirus vaccine update: AstraZeneca 'on track' to roll out vaccine in September Drugmaker AstraZeneca has said that it is "on track" to roll out up to two billion doses of coronavirus vaccine in September. AstraZeneca is developing the AZD1222 vaccine in partnership with Oxford University. AstraZeneca recently approached rival drugmaker Gilead Sciences about a potential merger. According to a Bloomberg report, Gilead was contacted last month by AstraZeneca about the possibilities of merger. Coronavirus effect: Parle-G clocks best sales in 8 decades; maker's market share increases by 5% London, June 9 : The UK's Prince Andrew has "sought to falsely portray himself" as eager to co-operate with an inquiry into late American financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the US prosecutor in charge of the investigation has said. On Monday, Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the Duke of York "has repeatedly declined our request" to schedule an interview, reports the BBC. But Prince Andrew's lawyers responded for the first time and hit back at the claims as "inaccurate". Berman then issued a statement, deepening the row, saying: "Today, Prince Andrew yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to co-operate with an ongoing federal criminal investigation into sex trafficking and related offences committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates." He said the Duke "has not given an interview to federal authorities, has repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview, and nearly four months ago informed us unequivocally - through the very same counsel who issued today's release - that he would not come in for such an interview". "If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about co-operating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we should expect him," theBBC quoted Berman as saying in the statement. The Duke's lawyers declined to comment further. But a source was quoted by the BBC as saying: "This is the third time Berman has breached his own confidentiality rules, further diminishing our trust in the DoJ's (Department of Justice) willingness to play a straight bat. It's frankly bewildering." The DoJ has made a formal request to speak to the prince as part of its Epstein inquiry, by submitting a mutual legal assistance (MLA) request to the UK Home Office. Under the terms of a MLA request if Prince Andrew does not voluntarily respond, he can be called to a UK court to answer questions, said the BBC report. The UK royal was removed from public duties last November following allegations he had slept with a teenager who was trafficked by Epstein, who was found dead in his New York jail cell while awaiting trial last August. The victim, Virginia Giuffre, has claimed she was trafficked when she was 17 and was forced into sexual encounters with the Prince in London, New York and on a private Caribbean island owned by Epstein. Prince Andrew has denied any wrongdoing and last year, he had indicated his willingness to cooperate with investigators. St. Louis police lost a respected former police captain during the violent protests when George Floyd protestors was looting a pawnshop. He tried to stop them but they shot and killed him in cold blood. This was the scene when police got footage of the murder, catching seven persons of interest who fatally shot him last Tuesday, as reported by Crime Online. The respected police captain is retired, but he died in that pawnshop in Northwest St. Louis as a cop who tried to stop unidentified looters who were ransacking the stores. The respect police officer, David Dorn, aged 77, would not live out his retirement. His dedication to his duty as a policeman led him to attempt stopping the theft of Lee's Pawn & Jewelry, which ended with him getting shot and killed on the spot. Sources reveal that the owner of the shop was Dorn's friend, and it became a habit to make sure nothing happened to the building. On that Tuesday night, it would be his last round as opportunistic George Floyd looters would shoot him until he dropped dead. Footage captured his last moments The video obtained captured the final moment of Capt. Dorn, carrying out his duty one last time. One thing should be stated is that looters were active during the rioting, taking advantage of it to steal from the establishment during the chaos. The video shows the inside of the pawnshop, where the seven suspects who accessed the pawnshop via going under the security gate, were captured on camera. Further inspection of the shop that was in the shot revealed all items of value were taken, and all the glass cases were destroyed as the looters had destroyed anything not valuable on the entire floor. Also read: Skeletal Remains of Girl Discovered in Feces-Filled Basement Along With Her Brother in Dismal Condition Based on the time, the video was capture at approximately 2:13 a.m. and 2:16 am. Surveillance was able to capture more footage of the looters, running about in the building and going in and out of rooms, looking for something of value to steal. Two of the looters had firearms, while another one of their companions got an injured hand while crawling in. Investigators speculate that Captain Dorn might have stumbled on the looters on their way out of the pawnshop. Approximately, the shooting started at 2.32 am, based on a video at Facebook Live. According to most reports, the video was able to catch the shooting. He served for 38 years as an officer The captured video showed the last moments asCaptain Dorn dispensed his last act as an ex-police office, as he was brutally murdered by the looters. David Dorn was killed for protecting his friend's shop from George Floyd looters, yet these people claim themselves as victims, like Floyd. One of the Dorn's family shared his sentiments on social media, saying looters killed him at the pawnshop. He did not hesitate to give his life if needed. Violence is wrong, on both sides whether policeman or civilian. The heroic ex-captain also received admiration from former St Louis police chief Tim Fitch, calling him a true public servant, on Twitter. Dorn worked as an officer for 38 years, before becoming police chief at Moline Acres, he was a model officer to the end. St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden, he was a role model for rookie officers too. The looters killed Captain Dorn, who never flinched from duty and the looters have it coming. Related article: Estranged Husband Dead, While 8-Year Old is Seriously Injured @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Carr Workplaces will open its first university-based entrepreneurial services June 15 in Purdues Discovery Park District Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration. (Carr Workspaces image) Carr Workplaces, a pioneer and leader in the co-working industry, will open the doors of its newest location, Carr Workplaces Convergence, on June 15 adjacent to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Carr Workplaces Convergence will be located within the Convergence Center on the west side of Purdues renowned campus, at the heart of the groundbreaking Discovery Park District. It will serve as the new home of innovation and collaboration for entrepreneurs and industry pioneers alike. Purdues newest co-working hub will occupy roughly 20,000 square feet of space within the five-story Convergence building. Businesses will have the opportunity to plant their flag within walking distance of Purdues research centers allowing companies to be in direct contact with over 2,000 accomplished faculty members and about 45,000 of Indianas brightest undergraduate and graduate students. Carr Workplaces Convergence will occupy the first and second floor of the Convergence Center and will feature 68 state-of-the-art private offices complete with four solid walls and a lockable door. With a distinct focus on collaboration, Carr Workplaces Convergence will provide students, administrators and faculty with access to a drop-in workspace as well as meeting rooms that will drive innovative team projects. Additionally, Carr Workplaces also is proud to provide virtual and in-person support services for tenants on all five floors of the Convergence Center. As Carr Workplaces Convergence is the companys first location in Indiana, Carr Workplaces has announced that it is now a member of the Indiana Co-working Passport. Known shortly as the ICP, the Indiana Co-working Passport allows members of any participating space to collaborate at any other participating location, for a day each month at no cost. We are thrilled to bring Carr Workplaces to West Lafayette, to the Discovery Park District, and to the Purdue University campus, said Ashley Buckner, chief operations officer of Carr Workplaces. We immediately recognized the synergies between a dynamic, forward-thinking, innovative community and the flexible, service-focused workspace product that we provide. We look forward to serving the community as a place where businesses, faculty, and students can gather and grow together. Carr Workplaces provides an important component for Convergence Center and all that is happening on the west side of the Purdue University campus, said David Broecker, chief innovation and collaboration officer for Purdue Research Foundation. The entrepreneurial community across the state is already taking advantage of what Carr can offer as a co-working hub in our Discovery Park District. We anticipate that the space will attract a vibrant mix of companies and startups as well as individual entrepreneurs and innovators. Ahead of Mondays opening, Zorion Medical an Indianapolis-based innovative medical device company expanded its operations by signing on as one of the first businesses to move into Carr Workplaces Convergence. Carr Workplaces Convergence will open on June 15 at 101 Foundry Drive in Purdues Discovery Park District. The facility serves as the entryway to the $1 billion-plus district by providing an exceptional environment for educational, economic, community, and real estate development within the Purdue University community. About Carr Workplaces Headquartered in historic Washington, D.C., Carr Workplaces is the premier provider of co-working space, with 29 prestigious locations across the United States. Carr Workplaces delivers the same level of concierge service experienced at a luxury hotel but in a co-working setting. As the company is driven by a passion to deliver on every level for its clients, hospitality is what separates Carr Workplaces from its competition as it strives to help members add to their bottom line. Carr Workplaces operates workspaces in major markets across the United States including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. About Discovery Park District Discovery Park District, a $1 billion-plus project, is a transformational center of innovation on the western edge of the Purdue University campus. The more than 400-acre district offers a thriving, walkable, urban setting that provides unique opportunities to collaborate with thought leaders, visionaries, researchers and students at Purdue University. The district includes laboratories, advanced manufacturing facilities, offices, retail shops, restaurants, housing, green space and trails. Managed by the Purdue Research Foundation and its master planning partner Browning Investments LLC, the district boasts a public airport with a 7,000-foot runway, as well as international companies that include Rolls-Royce, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories or SEL and Saab aerospace facility. For more information, visit discoveryparkdistrict.com. Contacts Cynthia Sequin Marketing and Media, Purdue Research Foundation, casequin@prf.org Clark Cummings Director of Marketing, Carr Workplaces, clark.cummings@carrworkplaces.com Sources Ashley Buckner chief operations officer, Carr Workplaces: ashley.buckner@carrworkplaces.com David Broecker chief innovation and collaboration officer, Purdue Research Foundation: dabroecker@prf.org Image Carr Workplaces will open its first university-based entrepreneurial services June 15 in Purdues Discovery Park District Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration. (Image provided by Carr Workspaces) Image can be downloaded at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/2019/carr-convergence.jpg George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in police custody on May 25 in Minneapolis, became a household name in Turkey overnight. As protests in the United States took a violent turn, images of police brutality began bombarding Turkish news. Radical Islamists, ultra-nationalists and left-wing media all had a say about why racism is so prominent in the United States and what needs to be done. On May 28, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan posted a series of tweets in English about the racist and fascist approach that led to the death of George Floyd. Erdogan sent his condolences to Floyds family and made references to hadith (Prophet Mohammeds recorded words) about how there is no room for racism in Islam. Over the 10 days that followed, pro-government media oscillated between exaggerated views of America burning and criticizing the United States for racism and the lack of press freedom; it made mind-boggling allegations such as the support of the Gulen movement and the Kurdistan Workers Party (the PKK, which is deemed a terrorist organization in the United States and Turkey) for the uprising in the United States. This is one of the unique moments where an otherwise awfully divided society like Turkey comes together. Why are Turks so eager to criticize the United States while diligently ignoring hate crimes in their own country against Kurds, Alevis, Jews, Christians and LGBT, and police brutality against all possible critical voices? The way racism is perceived in Turkey may best be reflected in one of the recent news reports from Hurriyet Daily in which reporters surveyed black people in Turkey. The title of the print piece was Our blacks are happy, but online it was titled We asked blacks in Turkey: Do you experience racism? The answers of African immigrants were summarized as that, in general, they do not experience racism or they only experience it only from time to time and in small doses. One response read, Sometimes they [Turks] are afraid of us; that upsets us. Another one read, My Syrian friends face problems, but we are fine. Kemal Ozkiraz, director of the Eurasia Public Opinion Research Center, told Al-Monitor that based on his observations, Condescending words toward disadvantaged groups in Turkey are used frequently, so much so that they are normalized and people who engage in this hate speech are usually unaware. He explained how in the heart of Ankara his apartment management wanted to evict a same-sex couple. Management wanted to gather signatures for eviction simply because they suspected the residents are gay. Ozkiraz said, The word gypsy is still used as a slang; there are several terms and sayings that are heavily sexist. A crucial point that Ozkiraz emphasized is that this sort of prejudice is so imbued in the culture that it is normalized. For example, listening to music in Kurdish or attempting to speak Kurdish in the wrong neighborhood can get one killed in Turkey. The systemic discrimination is internalized. For example, when the Justice and Development Party (AKP) began expelling pro-Kurdish parties' elected officials from parliament or from their mayoral seats, there was no uproar in Turkey. Most Turks were confident these kinds of activities can only be done in the southeast,'' where the majority of the population is Kurdish and the AKP would not dare touch Turkish officials of the opposition. The difficulty of government officials to talk about racism can be explained by their Islamist mindset as well. Islam urges the end of discrimination based on skin color. The Turkish Religious Affairs Directorate says Islam is about global brotherhood, in which there is no room for racism. AKP elites become defensive when their racist tendencies and actions are questioned. It is a taboo subject. This Turkish-Islamist fragility explains how little it takes for the dominant male Sunni Turkish elitist culture to melt down when speaking of possible acts of discrimination against Kurds, Alevis, non-Muslims and identities that may be perceived as a challenge. This fragility could be deadly more frequently than government elites would like to acknowledge. The blunt rejection that Muslims cannot be racist blocks any healthy and much-needed public debate about the suffering of the disadvantaged groups. Eren Keskin, a prominent human rights attorney and vice president of the Turkish Human Rights Association, told Al-Monitor, After the 1915 Armenian genocide and attacks against Assyrians and other Christians of Anatolia, the new republic was established. The Turkish and Sunni identity was the base of this official new ideology. People were educated to internalize this mindset. Racism became ordinary and legitimized. Keskin did not mince words when analyzing the Turkish reaction to the uprising in the United States when she said the most effective explanation is anti-Americanism. She also recalled a case quite similar to that of George Floyd. Festus Okey, a black asylum seeker, was brutally murdered at an Istanbul police station in 2007. Keskin said that his murder "generated no public outrage except for a handful of human rights activists no one knew or cared about. Several cities around the world held vigils and crowded protests for George Floyd. Although Erdogan and government elites shield themselves behind no racism in Islam or Turkey slogans, there were only a few small protests in Istanbul in front of the US Consulate and Istanbul Trump Towers. A sociology professor who has been studying social movements at a prominent Istanbul university and who spoke to Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity said, Erdogans men violently lash out against protesters in the United States. How can you expect a protest genuinely against fascism in Turkey? It is much easier to criticize the United States for racism and inequality than to question the Turkish government. The sociology professor said that Islamist fragility makes it impossible even to discuss the existence of racism or other forms of discrimination with Turkish elites. The Erdogan administration is struggling with its own mindset. On the one hand, they are deeply concerned about the growing white supremacist movement in Europe, which fuels Islamophobia and violent attacks on Muslims. On the other hand, the roots of this white supremacy are anti-Semitic. Anti-Semitism is strong in Turkey. It is quite a challenge to battle white power while you are encouraging the supremacy of the Sunni Turkish mindset. In todays Turkey, racism is seen as a foreign concept. Turks are immune to it, and it has become "normal" not to want Syrian, Alevi, Kurdish, Armenian, Greek or gay neighbors. It is kind of you if you can tolerate them. It is encouraged to crack belittling jokes about them just do not touch the male, Sunni, Turkish core. In March President Donald Trump signed the $2.2 trillion CARES Act that intended to aid millions of Americans who lost their job because of the coronavirus pandemic. In mid-April the IRS started sending the stimulus relief packages and havent stopped since then. So far the government has sent 159 million stimulus checks and an estimated 35 million are still waiting to receive the money. The stimulus checks give $1,200 per individual or $2,400 per married couple, as well as $500 per child under 17 up to three. The money was first issued to low-to-middle income individuals and families to help them financially through the outbreak, one that saw the US enter recession in February. Since there are more than 30 million Americans still waiting, the IRS has set a 15 October stimulus check registration deadline for those who do not file taxes. The people that fall in this category are those with incomes below $24,400 for married couples, and $12,200 for individuals. They are being urged by the IRS to use its Non-filers tool to apply for their stimulus payment. The following information will be required: Maharashtra crossed the 90,000 mark for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases as 2,259 more infections were reported on Tuesday. The states case count stands at 90,787, of which, 43,591 are active ones, according to the state health department. With more relaxations even in red zones, the state is concerned about an increase in cases as the infection curve has not slowed down so far. The government is worried about a second wave, following more relaxations as seen in countries like China and South Korea. The death toll of the state also reached 3,289 after 120 casualties were reported on Tuesday, of which 49 were in the past two days, while the rest were between May 11 and June 6, clarified the state government. Tuesday was the ninth day wherein the state recorded over 100 deaths. Of them, Mumbai recorded 58, taking its toll to 1,638. The city saw an addition of 1,015 cases on Tuesday. Despite the case count not reducing, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) decided to further relax timings for shops and market places in Mumbai. The civic body has allowed shops and market places to remain open for full working hours. Earlier, they were allowed to operate between 9am to 5pm in the city. The case count in Mumbai is 51,100. Of these, 26,391 are active cases. As part of the state governments Mission Begin Again to unlock restrictions in phases, the state has allowed private offices in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to operate at 10% of its workforce or 10 employees (whichever is higher) from Monday. This relaxation, along with the resumption of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) bus services, saw more people and traffic snarls on roads in the city. Last week, the state had also allowed physical activities such as jogging, running and non-essential shops to operate on alternate days in red zones (excluding containment areas). We are closely monitoring the situation as cases may surge following maximum relaxations in lockdown given so far, even in red zones. We are more worried of a second wave that has hit countries like China and South Korea following relaxations. It will spark panic among people and the state may have to reconsider its decision on giving relaxations, said a senior minister, wishing not to be named. The current situation of Covid-19 was discussed in the state cabinet meeting held on Tuesday evening. State health secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas also made a presentation in the meeting. He informed the cabinet that the doubling rate of cases of the state has increased to 20.67 days, as against 16.05 days of the country, while the doubling rate of Mumbai has increased to 24.53 days. We are also expecting the curve to flatten by this month- end if things remained under our control. After this, the decline in cases will start, added the minister. The ministers also expressed concern over the rising mortality rate. The mortality rate has increased to 3.58% (3,169 deaths on June 8) from 3.27% (1,792 deaths on May 26). It is also more than the national mortality rate, which is 2.80% with 7,466 deaths till Monday, stated a report of the state medical education department. On the positive side, the recovery rate in the state is showing constant improvement. It was 26.25% on May 20, 29.06% on May 24. It improved to 43.28% on May 29 after as many as 8,381 patients were reported as recovered following the changes in norms to discharge patients. On Tuesday, it reached 46.96% as 42,638 patients have been discharged so far. Health minister Rajesh Tope said 5,77,819 tests have been conducted at various public and private facilities across Maharashtra. Of them, 4,87,032 people tested negative. It means, only 15.81% of the cases are positive. The state currently has 3,750 containment zones. A total of 18,994 survey teams, comprising doctors and assisting staff, have screened more than 69.17 lakh people. So far, 26,470 people have been kept in institutional quarantine in the state and over 5,68,073 people have been put under home quarantine. Meanwhile, the state government has asked people not to consume half-cooked meat as one of the precautionary measures to be safe from Covid-19. On Monday, the state medical education department has issued guidelines as general precautionary measures for people. It has asked people to stay away from pets, avoid visiting poultry farm, animal breeding centres and abattoirs. It has also approved treatments for asymptomatic patients in homeopathy, ayurvedic and unani medicines. The treatment was approved based on the recommendations made by an AYUSH task-force set up by the state to look at the way forward, using alternative medicine therapies. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A Queensland father accused of killing his five-month-old son with a blow to the head has applied for bail after spending two years in jail awaiting trial. Kozan Ware posted this image on his Facebook page on the anniversary of the infant\'s death. Credit:Facebook Kozan Samuel Thomas Ware, 34, was charged with murder after Adrian Joshua Wommie Ware was found unresponsive in a Brisbane home in March 2017. An autopsy revealed the boy suffered bleeding around his brain, a torn vein near his brainstem, damage to an optical nerve, and a wound to his scalp. Prosecutor Caroline Marco says the injury was probably caused by deliberate blunt force trauma and or shaking. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 23:36:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian police said on Tuesday they had discovered about 100 hectares of cannabis in Morogoro region's five villages and arrested 12 suspects. "The five villages that have a combined 100 hectares of cannabis are located along Mgeta valley," said Wilbroad Mutafungwa, Morogoro regional police commander. Mutafungwa ordered the leaders of the villages in Doma ward in Mvomero district to report to police within two days for questioning. He said the cannabis plantations were discovered during a special operation by police in collaboration with other security organs that lasted for one week. Mutafungwa said the nearest cannabis plantation was discovered about 30 km from a residential area at one village. Mapambano Mkopi, Doma ward executive officer, said the ward authorities could not notice the presence of the cannabis plantations because they were located afar from the villages. The discovery of the cannabis plantations is part of the government's anti-narcotics crackdown aimed at making the east African nation free from illicit drugs. Enditem Georgia voters are casting their first votes Tuesday in an election cycle that could potentially have earthshaking consequences for the U.S. Senate, and Democrats are increasingly optimistic they could wrest two seats - and ultimately the Senate majority - from Republicans. A deteriorating national political environment for Republicans - driven by President Donald Trump's sagging job approval amid the coronavirus pandemic and social unrest in U.S. cities - combined with a continued demographic shift and signs of rising enthusiasm among liberal donors have Democrats more bullish than ever that Georgia's Senate seats are in play. Only one of the two seats is on the ballot Tuesday, with Sen. David Perdue running unopposed for the Republican nomination, while seven Democrats are vying for the chance to face him in the Nov. 3 general election. A second seat, held by appointed GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler, will be decided in November, with an early January runoff likely to follow. On Tuesday, voters experienced significant obstacles in trying to cast their ballots, including long lines, polling places that didn't open on time and new touch screen machines that failed to work. Those issues threatened to delay vote-counting in metropolitan Atlanta and scattered other parts of the state well into Wednesday morning. With about 15 percent of precincts reporting statewide late Tuesday, filmmaker Jon Ossoff appeared to be in strong position to qualify for an Aug. 11 runoff with about 44 percent of the vote. Former Columbus mayor Teresa Tomlinson, business executive Sarah Riggs Amico, and lawyer Maya Dillard-Smith were in a close contest for the second runoff slot, with each earning between 10 and 15 percent. A candidate could claim the nomination outright and avoid the runoff by winning a majority of votes Tuesday. Democrats' optimism is tempered by their recent history of falling short in Georgia despite high expectations, most recently in former state legislator Stacey Abrams's narrow 2018 loss in her run for governor. But the candidates facing both Perdue and Loeffler argue the trend is unmistakable - includuing Ossoff, who suffered a narrow loss in a hard-fought 2017 House special election. "That old conventional wisdom about Georgia is entirely wrong - Georgia will be the most competitive state in the country this year," Ossoff said in an interview Tuesday, noting that statewide general elections have gotten progressively closer over the past six years. "Georgia is daily becoming younger and more diverse. The massive defection from Donald Trump's GOP in the suburbs continues. And all of these monumental efforts of the last several years . . . have all built enduring infrastructure." Republicans themselves have sounded alarm bells about the race, citing internal polls, and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved the race from "likely Republican" to "lean Republican" last month, reflecting the favorable environment for Democrats. "Here's the reality: The state of Georgia is in play," Perdue said at an April 27 "Women for Trump" event, according to audio obtained by CNN. "The Democrats have made it that way." Republicans, who hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, have grown fearful about losing control this November, with competitive seats in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and North Carolina while Democrats are playing defense in Alabama. Of the 35 Senate seats up for grabs this fall, Republicans are defending 23 of them. Perdue, meanwhile, has enjoyed a massive fundraising lead, with more than $9 million in his bank account as he faces nominal opposition in the Republican primary. He has had to bat away unfavorable headlines about stock sales that he made in the early weeks of the pandemic, arguing that they were part of his normal trading activity rather than an effort to use insider information to avoid massive losses. Unlike Loeffler, who was cleared of possible criminal wrongdoing last month, he was not under serious federal law enforcement scrutiny. The national parties are beginning to draw battle lines as the highly competitive Senate race take shape. Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Georgia voters would opt for Perdue, an "original outsider" former business executive over the Democratic nominee attached to a liberal national platform. "Georgians recognize that today's Democratic Party and the policies they rally around do not mesh with the values they hold dear," he said. DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla, in turn, called Perdue a "weak incumbent" who will "face a strong Democratic challenger holding him accountable for his sketchy and unethical stock trading, his attacks on Social Security and Medicare, and his support for the lawsuit to erase health care protections for preexisting conditions." Perdue spokeswoman Casey Black predicted that the incumbent would ultimately face Ossoff in the general election and previewed in a statement the campaign Perdue would wage against him. "While our campaign has known this will be a competitive race from day one, we look forward to contrasting David Perdue's record as a conservative outsider getting results for all Georgians with Ossoff's history as an unaccomplished liberal insider," she said. Ossoff played down the possibility that he would be able to clear the field Tuesday and avoid a runoff, while also highlighting Perdue's vulnerabilities in the general election. "We are prepared to win a runoff in August and don't believe that in any way that will impair the prospects for a victory in November," he said. Earlier this year, national Democrats appeared sheepish about their Senate chances in Georgia, following Abrams's decision not to enter either race as well as early recruiting and fundraising struggles. Major national Democratic groups did not include Georgia among their initial fall advertising reservations, sending an early signal that Georgia was a long shot. While that has not changed, Democratic strategists are keeping a close eye on key metrics in the state - none more so than voter registrations and absentee ballot data. Since the 2018 election, hundreds of thousands of new voters have registered, and there is reason to believe they may trend Democratic. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis found that more than 300,000 new voters registered in the state in 2019, representing a 3% increase in the state's total number of voters. Nearly a third of those are under 35, and the relative proportion of black, Latino and Asian voters have risen since 2016, the analysis found. In one encouraging sign for Democrats, about 45,000 more Georgia voters have applied for Democratic ballots in Tuesday's primary than Republicans. While that partly reflects the competitiveness of the Senate race, there are also competitive Republican primaries across the state boosting GOP interest. Senate candidates also have stepped up their fundraising. Ossoff outraised Perdue in the pre-primary period from April 1 through May 20, and Tomlinson has also shown the ability to raise enough money to compete. Meanwhile, in the special election that won't be contested until November, Republicans continue to face a messy intraparty struggle between Loeffler and Rep. Douglas Collins. Many Republicans fear the internecine battle could consume the party's messaging against the eventual Democratic challenger. The racial unrest of the recent weeks have simultaneously given a prominent Democratic candidate, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a higher profile in the state. The pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Warnock has used his perch - one held by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. - to call for a new focus on racial justice and civil rights, and his sermons and media appearances have in some cases translated into viral videos. "It is the mutation of an old virus, covid-1619," he said about the plague of police violence in one sermon, referencing the year slaves were first brought to America. "We've been trying to beat back this virus since 1619." Warnock's campaign has not reported updated fundraising figures since April, but several prominent Democrats have looked to channel their national donor bases in his direction in the wake of George Floyd's death after a brutal police chokehold. Also on the ballot Tuesday are primaries with general-election implications, including in the suburban Atlanta district held by retiring GOP Rep. Rob Woodall that Democrats narrowly missed winning in 2018. Republican candidates include business executive Lynne Homrich, physician Rich McCormick and state Sen. Renee Unterman, while Democrats are choosing whether to renominate Carolyn Bourdeaux, a Georgia State University professor who came within 433 votes of unseating Woodall. Among the five other candidates seeking the nomination are activist Nabilah Islam, state Sen. Zahra Karinshak, state Rep. Brenda Lopez Romero. Another key primary will take place among Republicans in South Carolina, where four candidates seeking to face freshman Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham in one of the House GOP's top pickup opportunities. National Republicans are optimistic they will be able to nominate a woman to face Cunningham, with local official Katherine Landing and state Rep. Nancy Mace raising the most money and garnering the most prominent endorsements. In South Carolina's Senate race, voters are likely to formalize a race between three-term Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and former state Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison. While the state is considered safe for President Trump in the electoral college, Harrison's strong fundraising - nearing $20 million for the cycle - has prompted some independent forecasters to move the race onto the national Senate battlefield. Meanwhile, primary voters in Nevada will also pick Republican challengers for two other contested seats the party is targeting, facing Democratic Reps. Steven Horsford and Susie Lee. Several thousand demonstrators marched in Hong Kong on Tuesday evening -- defying authorities a year after huge pro-democracy protests erupted -- as the movement struggles in the face of arrests, coronavirus bans on crowds and a looming national security law. Seven months of massive and often violent rallies kicked off on June 9 last year when as many as a million people took to the streets to oppose a bill allowing extraditions to mainland China. As city leaders dug in, battles between police and protesters became routine, leaving the financial hub's reputation for stability in tatters and swathes of the population in open revolt against Beijing's rule. A year later, protesters are on the back foot with Beijing planning to impose a sweeping law banning subversion, secession, terrorism and foreign interference. Anti-virus measures also forbid more than eight people gathering in public. Small rallies still flare up, however. Defiant crowds a few thousand strong gathered on Tuesday evening in the city's upmarket Central district to march and chant slogans. Riot police were quick to charge and fire pepper spray to disperse the crowds in a series of small cat and mouse confrontations, with at least 25 arrests made throughout the evening. "We have been through a lot," a 23-year-old protester who gave his first name as Michael, told AFP. "But I still have to show my position, come out and tell the regime that we haven't forgotten." Earlier Tuesday, organisers of last year's huge rallies called on the government to lift legitimate protest restrictions on a city now largely free of coronavirus infections. "This movement has not finished," said Jimmy Sham of the Civil Human Rights group, which espouses non-violence. But city leader Carrie Lam, an unpopular pro-Beijing appointee, said the protests must end. "Hong Kong cannot afford such chaos," she said, adding residents needed to prove Hong Kong people "are reasonable and sensible citizens of the People's Republic of China" if they want their freedoms and autonomy to continue. - 'Forced loyalty' - Under a deal signed with Britain ahead of the 1997 handover, China agreed to let Hong Kong keep certain freedoms and autonomy for 50 years. But protests over the last decade have been fuelled by fears those freedoms are being prematurely curtailed, something Beijing denies. Analysts say the space for dissent has rapidly diminished in the last year. "I don't think the passion has subsided much, but the problem is that many actions are now not allowed," Leung Kai-chi, an analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), told AFP. Beyond a withdrawal of the extradition bill, the informal and largely leaderless protest movement's core demands -- such as universal suffrage and an inquiry into police tactics -- have been rejected. China's planned national security law -- which will bypass the city's legislature once written -- has pushed anxieties further. Opponents fear the law will bring mainland-style political oppression to the business hub given similar anti-subversion laws are routinely used to stamp out dissent over the border. "First (Beijing) loses the hearts and minds of Hong Kong's people and then it seeks to force them to be loyal," said Kong Tsung-gan, an activist who has published three books on the protest movement. Beijing says the law will only target "a small minority" and will restore business confidence. Over the last year, around 9,000 people have been arrested and more than 500 people have been charged with rioting -- facing up to 10 years in jail if convicted. The protest movement was already on the back foot before emergency coronavirus laws banned gatherings of more than eight people. Still, demonstrations have resurfaced since the security law plans were announced -- including tens of thousands defying a ban on a June 4 gathering to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. Defiant crowds a few-thousand strong gathered evening in the city's upmarket Central district to march and chant slogans Riot police stand guard ahead of a pro-democracy march in the Central district of Hong Kong Timeline on political unrest in Hong Kong since June 2019. Protesters held brief evening rallies in Hong Kong but were dispersed by riot police Fairbanks, AK (99707) Today Cloudy with snow showers becoming a steady accumulating snow later on. High 17F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 90%. Snowfall around one inch.. Tonight Cloudy. Low 14F. Winds light and variable. As the COVID-19 cases in India spiral out of control, setting new one-day high, almost every day, the frontline healthcare workers are putting themselves at an ever-increasing threat of contracting the virus themselves, due to the exposure with patients. This is happening at a time when the medical fraternity needs all hands on deck to combat the challenge. While doctors and other healthcare workers across the country are testing positive for COVID-19, what is happening in Hyderabad is a matter of concern. In the past two weeks alone 79 doctors from six government hospitals have tested positive for COVID in Hyderabad. BCCL According to Dr. G Srinivas, president, Resident Doctors Association, Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) 49 doctors at the Osmania Medical College, 26 doctors of NIMS, and 4 at Gandhi Medical College have tested positive. Doctors at Modern Government Maternity Hospital, Niloufer Hospital, King Koti Hospital have also tested positive after which over 400 doctors and staff who have come in contact with them are in quarantine. Last week, the Telangana-Junior Doctors Association (T-JUDA) said that 32 doctors have tested positive for COVID-19 in Osmania Medical College affiliated hospitals. "32 working doctors have been tested positive for coronavirus till now. As COVID-19 cases are increasing day by day in our state especially in the GHMC area and also nearly 32 Doctors tested positive in Osmania Medical College affiliated hospitals (many tests reports awaited)," Uma Nagendra Vishnu, President, T-JUDA said. Despite the government's repeated assurance that there is no shortage of PPE kits, doctors have long complained that they do not get adequate protective equipment. "Many healthcare workers are afraid of their family members getting infected and are requesting accommodation as per the circular. Hence, we requested the Health Department to provide accommodation to willing healthcare workers. PPE kits and N-95 masks provided for duty are of poor quality and are intermittently and insufficiently supplied," Vishnu had said. BCCL "The number of medicos affected is really a concern for me and hence I wanted to visit and convey that we are with you. Don't worry," Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan who on Monday visited NIMS said. The governor said she wanted to convey moral support to doctors, staff nurses and paramedics and also to sanitary workers, policemen and media persons who are all first line warriors in the fight against coronavirus. "Most of the medicos here got infected while doing procedures to save patients. The purpose of my visit is to give moral support to the first line warriors," she said. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Tuesday issued notices of intention to commence enforcement action against seven electricity distribution companies (DISCos) over their failure to comply with its Order 197/2020 on capping of unmetered residential (R2) and commercial (C1) electricity customers. The electricity regulatory agency gave the indication about the enforcement notice through its Twitter handle, @NERCNG. The order was to ensure consumers in the two categories, who do not have electricity meters installed for them by the DISCos, were not disconnected from the electricity supply grid. It listed the affected DISCos to include those in Benin, Enugu, Eko, Ikeja, Kano, Kaduna and Port Harcourt. The DISCos were given 14 days beginning from June 4, 2020, to explain why they should not be sanctioned over their alleged non-compliance. The Order On February 20, 2020, NERC issued Order No/NERC/197/2020 on capping of estimated billings in Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). The Order repealed the NERC (Methodology for Estimated Billing) Regulations 2012 and placed a cap on estimated bill to unmetered customers by DISCos in the NESI effective February 20, 2020. The NERC said the Order was to protect unmetered R2 (Residential-single and 3-phase meters, who consume more than 50kWh per month) and C1 (Commercial-single and 3-phase meters, small businesses) customers from arbitrary billing and expedite their metering process. Details of the Order was for DISCos to ensure all tariff class A1 customers were properly identified and metered latest by April 30, 2020. A1 customers are those using grid-connected premises for agriculture, schools, water boards, religious houses, government and teaching hospitals, and others, requiring single or three phase meters. All unmetered R2 and C1 customers, the Order said, shall not be invoiced for consumption of energy beyond the price capped in schedule. The capped prices included in the Order, was N1,872.00 for R2, where consumption is capped at 78-kilowatt hour per month at a tariff of N24 per kilowatt. Also, all Residential customers who consume not more than 50-kilowatt hour (R1 Customers) per month shall be billed N4 per kilowatt hour at a total maximum of N200 per month. Besides, the Order said all other customers on higher tariffs shall be metered by April 30, 2020, otherwise they shall remain connected to supply, but without further payment to the DISCos until a meter is installed for them. The Order directed that any customer whose current estimated bill was below the capped price shall remain so without upward review until the installation of a meter by the DISCos. Any customer who rejects the installation of a meter must be disconnected by the DISCo. The Supreme Court has granted the States bid to overturn an important finding that the word child in the International Protection Act can extend beyond biological and adopted children for family reunification purposes. The definition of child, as used in the relevant provision of the 2015 Act (section 56.9.d) can only be a reference to a biological/adoptive child of the sponsor, the court ruled today. That is the literal and ordinary meaning of the word, Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne said, when giving the five-judge courts judgment. This was reinforced by the legislative history of the 2015 Act which, unlike earlier legislation, excluded grandparents, wards or guardians, from the definition of member of the family, she said. On the face of it, the provisions of the 2015 Act are clearly more restrictive than its legislative predecessors, she added. The State had appealed a High Court finding in the case of an African man, Mr X, who came here in 2006. After getting protection in 2014, he sought family reunification in early 2015 with two children, then aged 15 and 12, whom he claims are his. He described himself as single and produced birth certificates for the children naming him as their father and a judgment from a court in his native country appointing him as their sole legal guardian. He initially agreed to the Minister for Justice's request to undergo a DNA test but changed his mind in 2016, saying he suspected his "wife" was unfaithful and he was afraid to discover he might not be the children's biological father. After twice being refused reunification, he took proceedings and the High Court found in his favour. Mr Justice Max Barrett said section 56.9 provides reunification may be sought regarding a member of the family of the sponsor, and that member includes a child of the sponsor, aged under 18 and unmarried at the date of application. Assuming the two children are the biological children of another man, although Mr X regards them as his, each of them can properly be described as a child of Mr X for the purposes of section 56.9, he held. There is a wide diversity of familial structures and the relationship of father/child is not confined by the 2015 Act to a biological father, he added. The State appealed and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was involved in the appeal as assistant to the court on legal issues. It argued family unity is an essential right of refugees, an essential element in enabling them to resume a normal life and facilitates refugee integration in their host State. In the Supreme Court judgment, Ms Justice Dunne said, while she accepted there is now a wide diversity of family structures, she could not agree with the High Court the relationship of father/child is not confined to a biological father in the context of this legislation. The definition of child, as used in section 56.9.d can only be a reference to a biological/adoptive child of the sponsor and this was reinforced by the fact that, rather than introducing a broader meaning of the word child in section 56, the overall effect was restrictive in terms of those to whom family reunification could apply. This was also a case in which a serious doubt arose as to the paternity of the two children in respect of whom Mr X sought family reunification. That serious doubt was created by Mr X himself in correspondence with the immigration service, INIS and, in those circumstances, it was appropriate to seek DNA testing to establish the relationship between Mr X and the two children. As he refused to undergo such testing, the Minister was entitled to draw an inference from that fact and to refuse the application, she said. DNA testing, she stressed, should only arise in the limited circumstances where serious doubt has been raised as to the issue of paternity. There is no doubt DNA testing has implications for the right to privacy and as such, care should be taken before seeking that an individual undergoes DNA testing to establish paternity, she said. It would be inappropriate if the Minister were to do so as a matter of course and resorting to DNA testing should be limited to cases of serious doubt. Mr X could not rely on 2013 Regulations which had provided for a wider definition of a family member, she further ruled. Those regulations have been repealed and Mr X had no entitlement to rely on them by way of vested right or otherwise, she held. Dubai, 08 June 2020 In an effort to assist stranded Ghanaians in the UAE get home, Emirates plans to operate two flights from Dubai to Accra on 12 and 16 June. Flights can be booked via the Ghanaian Embassy in the UAE. Only citizens of Ghana who meet the entry requirements of the destination will be allowed to board. Passengers will be required to comply with all requirements of the destination country. Similar to other repatriation flights that Emirates has operated thus far, for health and safety reasons, the airline will offer a modified inflight service that reduces contact, and the risk of infection. More information is available on emirates.com. Passengers will be required to apply social distancing guidelines during their journey and wear their own masks when at the airport and on board the aircraft. Travellers should arrive at Dubai International airport Terminal 3 for check-in, three hours before departure. Emirates check-in counters will only process passengers holding confirmed bookings. Grander Rum founder Dan DeHart may have been born in the bourbon capital, but that didnt stop him creating an authentic new Panama rum with the help of a legendary blender Dan DeHart is a native Kentuckian. Growing up he knew people in the bourbon industry and was always infatuated with distillation and the spirits world. It was a big part of my life, he said, but I was really an outsider looking in who always wanted to become part of the spirits industry. I instead joined the corporate world, but often I would look back on the spirits side and wonder how I can really jump into this. While DeHart is an avid bourbon drinker, he developed a fondness for rum and grew frustrated with the perception that it was simply a cheap party mixer and that it couldnt rival whisky in terms of pedigree and profile. I was amazed to find that there is rum out there that I could enjoy like my bourbon, neat, over ice or in a great cocktail. The versatility of it drew me in and opened a Pandoras box for me to jump into the rum world, DeHart says. Id really wanted to get into the spirits business but I hadnt found my calling. This was it. I realised that, particularly in the US, there was a great opportunity to create a high-quality rum and begin to educate people that there is a whole other world of rum out there. The first big step for DeHart was to decide if he would found a distillery or focus on making a brand and partnering with a distillery. That was really a fork in the road for me. I went back to Kentucky to do a distilling course to educate myself, gain an appreciation for the craft and understand what level of commitment it would take to go down the distillery route, DeHart said. Ultimately he decided on the brand building route and founded Grander Rum, the first expressions of which were launched in 2015. As fishing enthusiasts will know, a grander is a marlin that weighs more than a thousand pounds and is considered quite the catch. DeHart chose this name as he felt it best reflected his brand. Theyre one of the most beautiful fish out there and my aim is to produce a beautiful rum and a 1000lb marlin is quite uncommon and I like to believe that I am taking an uncommon approach with my rums, DeHart said. Also, these fish are typically found in tropical/subtropical climates which of course is where sugarcane is grown and they are independent. The fish do not roam in schools and are more likely to be found on their own and I wanted my company to be perceived as independent and not beholden to a big house, which gives us leeway to chart our own course. What followed was a period of trial and error, sampling a multitude of rum styles to find his desired profile. DeHart settled on the lighter, sweet-tasting Spanish style-rum, which is usually produced in column stills. I felt that allowed me the most versatility for what I wanted to do. That style provides a really good basis that was accessible and would give me a lot of options to innovate. Now all DeHart needed was the perfect partner, which he found in the Las Cabras Distillery, a Panamanian rum distillery located in Herrera, about a four and a half four drive from Panama City and home to an abundance of sugar cane fields. DeHart was impressed with the quality of the sugar cane, which grows in volcanic soil fed by rivers stemming from mineral-rich mountain springs and that the Las Cabras Distillery was able to harvest it locally and converted it into molasses on site. The distillery also ferments its molasses using an in-house strain of yeast cultivated from pineapples, giving it a unique profile, before the spirit is distilled in column stills to 94-96% ABV and then cut to 75% ABV when it enters the barrel. When I visited the distillery and I tried the distillate theyre making, I found that they were creating some really great stuff. The rum itself was exactly what I was looking for, says DeHart. I call it a single origin rum, which means that its 100% Panamanian. Everything is done on the site, from harvesting the sugar cane, to distillation, maturation and bottling. The distillery is housed in a former sugar mill that dates back to 1919. Its ownership changed hands a number of times and by the mid-nineties, it was a neglected warehouse overgrown with grass, which covered, among other things, a copper column still with a small medallion inscribed with Cincinnati 1922, made by the American Copper & Brass Works in 1922. A fortuitous chain of events meant that when Carlos Esquivel, eventual CEO of Don Pancho Origenes Rum and whose family owned the building, began working with master blender Francisco Don Pancho Fernandez to found a rum brand, Don Pancho told Esquivel that he could create rum at this site. Today the distillery has four different sized independent column stills that produce light to heavy distillate and the facility produces its own brands, including Cana Brava Rum. Don Pancho is famous figure for rum enthusiasts. Born in Cuba in 1938, his first forays into the rum business were labouring in the sugar cane fields and learning from his father, Don Antonio Fernandez Castro, who worked in wine and spirits. Don Panchos career in Cuba lasted 35 years and saw him earn a degree in microbiology and become an expert in creating Cuban-style rum for brands like Matusalem and Havana Club. When Pernod Ricard acquired the rights to distribute Havana Club in 1993, Don Pancho moved to Panama, initially to work for Ron Abuelo. Now at Las Cabras distillery, he creates products for a number of brands. He has a tremendous amount of experience, hes a very gentle, sweet individual and to see him at work is always so interesting, says DeHart. Whenever I go to Panama to approve a new batch of Grander Rum, if I feel I need to make changes well go sit in his office and discuss it and he can rectify things so quickly thanks to his experience. Its amazing to see that process. While DeHart looked to Panama to create his rum brand, he didnt forget his Kentucky roots. The core range of Grander Rum is an 8 Year Old and a 12 Year Old expression. The former is matured in first-fill American white oak ex-bourbon barrels and the latter is aged in refill American white oak ex-bourbon barrels with some sherry seasoning, which is why the 12 Year Old is actually lighter in colour and has more distillate profile, which is unusual for the older spirit (I love the fact that the 12 Year Old is lighter than an 8 Year Old and that this confuses people, DeHart admits). The majority of the barrels DeHart sourced were from Heaven Hill, but hes also worked with Woodford Reserve and a barrel manufacturer in Kentucky. It is such a great industry because the folks and families in Kentucky are so nice and some of the most down-to-earth people youll meet. Theyll bend over backwards for you. Im a small player, who asks for maybe 20 barrels from someone like Heaven Hill compared to the truckloads they usually do, so theyre very generous with their casks, says DeHart. Ageing your rum in Panama means you contend with the tropical climate, which sees the angels help themselves to 10-12% of the spirit in the first year and eventually to 3-4% annually. But DeHart welcomes the challenge of tropical maturation. Grander is 100% Panamanian rum and this is part of it. The evaporation can be brutal, we had a cask finish that was just eight months long and we lost about 10%, so you have to be very mindful, says DeHart. An issue you can have with aged rum is that they can be too woody and Ive sampled a number of rums where the wood is overbearing, so there is a fine balance. Not living in Panama means that keeping tabs on maturation is important. Ive got some peated casks and its crazy how quickly the peat seeps into the rum. The key is understanding how you can play with these flavours without destroying your base rum. DeHarts approach to Grander is about experimenting with different styles of cask, such as the Rye Finish expression launched last year, or the peated barrels from Scotland hes working with at the moment, and testing to see if theres a marriage happening between his rum and the cask. Logistically its not easy, because Im buying a small number of casks, sending them down to Panama, which is costly, to do my evaluation of testing and innovation. But Im very fortunate to have a distillery thats so collaborative and accommodating, he explains. I get very excited because I have this unaltered distillate from Panama over which I can establish my own style so I can innovate and bring out interesting expressions. I make rum thats really interesting to me, Im not trying to chase someone elses idea of what they think a great rum is. Thats what Grander is all about. Another aspect of Grander that rum fans will warm to is DeHarts insistence on transparency. The 8 Year Old and 12 Year Old, which were bottled at 45% ABV, were filtered through cellulose plates, but theres no chill-filtration or added colouring, flavouring or sweeteners. I have no problem with rums adding colouring, but its important the consumer is informed about what youre selling them. I wanted to inform people of how Grander was made, Ive got nothing to hide and I dont want to hide anything. Transparency is really important if rum wants to compete in the super-premium category, which in the US is defined by price point. If somebody is spending that kind of money they deserve to know what theyre getting, DeHart says, who also made sure his core range of rums has age statements, I was attracted to the idea of putting an age on it, again because taking an authentic approach is important to me. While making rum that had enough quality to be enjoyed neat was always an ambition of DeHarts, this didnt stop him from embracing cocktail culture. DeHart recommended a few serves for those who want to get mixing, all of which you kind find here. His favourites are a classic Daiquiri and an Old Fashioned, which makes sense for somebody who loves rum and bourbon. Ive made both at home myself and can confirm theyre delicious. We end by discussing what the future holds for Grander, which is mostly going to be DeHart continuing to build his brand. The goal is to expose more people to Grander and hope they fall in love with it. Its incredibly fulfilling to know youve created a product that somebody enjoys. DeHart is also focused on continuing to innovate within the Panamanian rum category, particularly with casks. However, when we discuss the possibility of any other spirits becoming part of the Grander roster, DeHart is typically honest. That door is open. Never say never, he says. I do look at spirits and other styles of rums, but right now my focus is working with Panamanian rum. Theres a lot of work to be done with the distillery in Panama and lots of things I can still do with casks. Im really excited about the products I have finishing in Panama right now. Down the road, who knows, there may be some other spirits I do as well You can purchase Grander Rum right here. Grander 8 Year Old Tasting Notes: Nose: Baking spice, red chilli and black pepper create a spicy base from which classic bourbon sweetness emerges, mostly vanilla sponge, butterscotch and a touch of orange peel. The cask notes make way for more distillery character with time in the form of dried fruit, cane sugar, roasted pineapple and a slightly grassy element. Palate: Darker and fruitier on the palate: more cooked pineapple, dates, baked apple and orange oil. Earthy vanilla pod, salted caramel and dark chocolate are present throughout, while grated nutmeg adds a lovely touch of aromatic spice. Finish: Golden syrup, tropical fruit and toasty oak spices linger. Grander 12 Year Old Tasting Notes: Nose: Through creamy vanilla and waxy orange peels theres heaps of tropical fruit, notably mango, fried banana and pineapple juice. Bourbon oak, sweet spices and gingerbread are all present underneath along with hints of parsley, dried earth, old-fashioned cola, cassia and chocolate mousse. Palate: Its a sweet and mouth-coating palate filled with rummy goodness. Treacle, creme brulee and candied ginger come first, then coconut cream and sweet vanilla. Rich, thick slabs of toffee appear in the mid-palate with another tropical medley, this time guava, pineapple and passion fruit. The back-end of the palate is very juicy. Finish: Buttery biscuits and manuka honey keep things sweet as a prickle of fiery spice appears on the finish. BRIDGEPORT A city resident has been sentenced to a decade in prison after being convicted of drug and firearm-related offenses, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for Connecticut. Lynwood Cogdell, 32, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense in February, officials said in a release. He was previously arrested by Stamford Police on Aug. 10, 2018 after he was found in possession of a loaded .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol and 150 folds of heroin that he intended to distribute while on supervised release after an earlier sentence, according to the release. He was then arrested again by state police in Bridgeport on April 15, 2019 after being found in possession of a loaded .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol and 58 folds of heroin/fentanyl that he intended to distribute, officials said. Public Defender Charles F. Willson argued for a decade-long sentence in his sentencing memorandum, saying that appropriately reflected the seriousness of the offense and was the minimum required for the charges. Willson said Cogdells life been characterized by instability and noted he faces an uncertain future, given the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Cogdells life appears to be two sides of one coin. On the one side, there is the guy who was arrested twice by two different local police departments for having resale quantities of narcotics but also a firearm each time, Willson said. On the other side of the coin, there is a man with an easy nature, big smile and bigger laugh, and a gentle presence that belies his physicality and masks his years of trauma. Hopefully, that side came through during his presentence interview. He has family, and a future beyond prison. Much of that will be up to him, which is not to say that it is in his control. Judge Janet C. Hall sentenced Cogdell to 10 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, on Tuesday. Officials with the U.S. Attorneys Office for Connecticut noted the investigation was conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service, Stamford Police Department, Bridgeport Police Department and Connecticut State Police and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren C. Clark. Officials noted that, (p)ursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the sentencing occurred via videoconference. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com A search has been declared against Artyom Khachatrya, the second son of former chairman of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia Gagik Khachatryan. This is stated in the statement issued by the Khachatryans attorneys. The statement particularly states the following: On June 5, 2020, Armenian Times newspaper released an article stating that Head of the Investigation Department of the National Security Service of Armenia had told the newspaper that former chairman of the State Revenue Committee Gagik Khachatryans son, co-founder of Galaxy Group Artyom Khachatryan is involved as an accused-on-trial under four articles of the Criminal Code of Armenia, arrest has been applied as a pre-trial measure against him and a search has been declared against him. The attorneys inform that this procedure has been implemented by violation of the law and that they didnt know about this. The attorneys also state that the previous searches against the Khachatryans had also been declared secretly. We believe the only reason for implementing these procedures secretly is that the preliminary investigation body is well aware of the fact that they are unlawful and groundless. Through these procedures, citizen of Armenia Artyom Khachatryan and the Khachatryans attorneys have been deprived of the opportunity to become engaged in those procedures, to reveal the unlawful acts and speak out about them, as well as to protect Artyom Khachatryans rights. The Birmingham Board of Education voted Tuesday night to end its leases with the Church of the Highlands after controversy over social media activity by Pastor Chris Hodges. The church paid an average of $12,000 a month each to rent Parker High School and Woodlawn High School for Sunday worship services, a total of $288,000 per year. Since 2014, the church has paid Birmingham City Schools about $817,000 to use its facilities. Services have been held at Woodlawn since 2012 and at Parker since 2018. Prior to March 14, when public in-person meetings were suspended to avoid spread of the coronavirus, Church of the Highlands held worship services in those locations as branch campuses, among its more than 20 campuses statewide. The church has its main campus on Grants Mill Road in Irondale. Hodges and Christ Health Clinics CEO responded today to the Birmingham Housing Authority banning the church and clinic because of a controversy over Hodges liking social media posts by the politically conservative group Turning Point USA. The services provided by Christ Health Clinic included free COVID-19 testing for residents of Birmingham public housing. The Housing Authority of Birmingham Division voted on Monday to no longer allow church volunteers and clinic workers to do work at public housing communities. The Church of the Highlands, Alabamas largest church, provided free mentoring, community support groups and faith, health and social service activities at the Housing Authority of Birmingham Divisions nine public housing communities. The church did not receive any money for the services, but had an agreement to allow its volunteers at the facilities. Hodges has apologized for liking social media posts by Charlie Kirk, president of Turning Point USA, a high school and college campus organization sometimes considered controversial for its political stances. The controversy has garnered attention nationwide, with President Donald Trumps son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeting about it. The Church of the Highlands launched Christ Health Center in 2009 in Woodlawn to offer medical services to the Woodlawn area, including the Marks Village public housing complex in Gate City. The church and clinic attracted national attention for launching the first mass testing for COVID-19 in Alabama, March 17-22, administering about 2,200 tests at a drive-through set up on the church campus. Christ Health chose our Woodlawn clinic specifically for its proximity to Birmingham public housing communities and the people who call them home, said Christ Health Center CEO Dr. Robert Record, who also attends and is on staff at the Church of the Highlands. Record spoke to AL.com on Tuesday. The church continues to fund the clinic, but the church and the clinic are separate entities, with separate boards of directors. We are thankful to serve thousands of patients who live in these great neighborhoods," Record said. "The vast majority of this medical work is done in our clinic and grows into relationships within homes across the community. These patients are our neighbors and friends, and we will continue to provide care as we always have. We were happy to partner recently with HABD to bring free COVID-testing right into the community our first direct patient care on HABD property. This mobile-testing opportunity may take some reworking. Public housing residents are still welcome to come to the clinic for free testing, Record said. We will keep testing in our Woodlawn clinic open to all regardless of ability to pay and are confident great next steps can be developed with this community we love, Record said. Hodges also made a statement Tuesday to AL.com about the continuing controversy. Jesus Christ teaches us to love our neighbors, Hodges said. In these complex times we want to do more than ever to listen, love and serve our city. We want to publicly thank the Birmingham Housing Authority for the opportunity they provided us to serve them over the years. We continue to support their work and encourage others to do the same. After the vote by the Birmingham Board of Education, the church sent a letter to the board. We are grateful for the opportunity to love and serve our community together over the years, it said. Going forward, we will continue our financial support of the school system and encourage others to do the same. Stormont ministers have raised concerns with the Irish Government over a perceived lack of consultation on its lockdown exit plans. The issue was discussed at a virtual meeting on Tuesday involving senior ministers from both administrations and Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis. Later, Stormont health minister Robin Swann said the executive was being made to look as if it should be playing catch up with moves south of the border. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he and Tanaiste Simon Coveney did inform counterparts north of the border ahead of Fridays announcement on an acceleration of Irelands road map to recovery. But First Minister Arlene Foster and Mr Swann are among those to have voiced concerns about the extent of that consultation. Northern Ireland ministers have previously expressed concern about a lack of consultation ahead of other steps taken by the Irish Government during the Covid-19 emergency. Mr Swann told Tuesdays daily Covid-19 briefing that he had raised it directly at the now regular cross-border political Quad Call earlier in the day. The call involved Mr Coveney, Irelands health minister Simon Harris, Mrs Foster, Mr Swann, Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill and Mr Lewis. Where they moved without giving us a lot of consultation as to their movements was raised, said Mr Swann. I raised it because it does put our executive into a place where it seems that we should be playing catch up, when in fact were not. We were always clear from the start that our programme was not being date-led, it would be led by where the coronavirus was in Northern Ireland and where science is. Mr Swann acknowledged it was for the Irish Government to make its own decisions on its lockdown plan. The strategic decision that the Irish government made in regards to last week, in regards to how they came out of their restrictions, was one for them to make, he said. We have asked that approaching the next date that there is more of an engagement, so that we can make sure were on similar pages, similar understanding. But it has always been clear that the Northern Ireland Executive will make its own decisions when the time is right for the Northern Ireland Executive. During Tuesdays call, they also discussed efforts to ensure compliance with quarantine regulations imposed by both the UK and Ireland on overseas travellers. It come amid concerns about the monitoring of people who arrive into one jurisdiction from overseas and then travel across the border to get home. Mr Swann said discussions were ongoing about getting mutual signage in place at airports and ports across the island, informing passengers what the law was on the opposite side of the border. He stressed that the restrictions people must place themselves under are the restrictions that apply in their place of residence, not their port of arrival. So if you land in Dublin and come to NI youre duty bound under our regulations, he said. If you land in Belfast and go south youre duty bound under their regulations. An online book of condolences in memory of George Floyd, who was allegedly murdered by policemen in the US last month, has been opened by the Mayor of Limerick. Cllr Michael Sheahan opened the book this evening, as protests calling for police reform, and highlighting the mistreatment of black people continued across the world 15 days since Mr Floyd was killed. A video appearing to show a police officer kneeling on Mr Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes while he called out for help and said he couldnt breathe, led to the officers sacking and subsequent charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter being brought against him. Three other arresting officers were charged with aiding and abetting murder. I have opened this book of condolence to allow the people of Limerick to express their sympathies to the family of Mr Floyd and to stand in solidarity with the people who are appalled by his murder, said Mayor Sheahan. George Floyd has shocked the entire world and shone a spotlight on the ongoing issues with race in the United States and as a consequence around the world. Mayor Sheahan continued that the book of condolence was to show our support for the millions of peaceful protestors in Ireland, America and across the world against racial injustice. A Black Lives Matter protest took place in Limerick last weekend. Around 300 protestors joined together in one voice to call out racism and violence towards black people. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the Limerick book of condolence is available only online to allow people to express their sympathies to his family and to stand in solidarity with those who are appalled by his murder, and who are opposing racial injustice around the world, stated Limerick City and County Council. The book which is available on the Councils website (www.limerick.ie), will remain open until June 16. This book will then be forwarded to the US Embassy in Dublin. COLUMBIA Reform-minded public defenders took to the streets of Columbia on Monday night, promising to fight for equality within the criminal justice system as protests over the death of George Floyd entered their 10th day in the capital city. Earlier Monday, a student-run demonstration at North Charleston City Hall brought fresh voices to the plea for racial justice that has reverberated across South Carolina in a wave of protests that show no sign of abating. Black lives matter, and they have always mattered, said Julien Bynoe, a legal assistant in the Fifth Circuit Public Defender Office that covers Richland and Kershaw counties. Before you make assumptions, give us a chance. The roughly 400 people who assembled on the S.C. Statehouse grounds following a seven-block march down Columbias Main Street was the largest crowd in more than a week, when an initial round of street protests broke out after Floyds May 25 death. But this was the first time members of the legal community at least publicly in a group walked alongside them, passing displays highlighting pivotal moments in the citys civil rights history. I promised our black community that were going find ways to right racial injustice better, harder, stronger, said Richland County Chief Public Defender Fielding Pringle. I promise to hold myself accountable, I promise to hold my family and my friends accountable. My office will hold prosecutors accountable. My office will hold law enforcement accountable." The protest was organized by I Cant Breathe SC, which has coordinated several events over the past week. Its leader, Lawrence Nathaniel, said a key measure of victory would be the prohibition of knee-to-neck and chokehold restraints in every South Carolina law enforcement agency. Meanwhile, Fort Dorchester High School graduating senior Sydney Clinton helped organize a protest in front of North Charlestons seat of government. Clinton said the group would like to see a racial bias audit of the city's police department, as well as the demilitarization of the citys law enforcement. Were not going away until we get what we want, Clinton said. Clinton said she spoke in the morning with the Chief Reggie Burgess, who offered his support of the student-led demonstration. She didnt reach out to the city before then because a big part of these protests is being able to disrupt. Efforts to reach North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey were unsuccessful Monday. And he didnt appear to pass by the protesters at the entrance all day. After the conversation with Burgess, the city had no more contact with the group. Chidera Nkem-osai, a Fort Dorchester senior, recited a poem that spoke of the inner strength of black people and their creative culture. You stole our culture and called it ghetto, she said. Thats OK, because our words will pierce your heart like a stiletto. ... You my black child are the epitome of grace. Despite temperatures that soared close to 90 degrees, Columbias group of protesters said they had no intention of stopping until reforms are made. No more murder! No more blood! they chanted. We want change, we want justice! A new coronavirus drug is newly registered in Russia that said to ease the pain of virus patients experiencing inflammation complications. Though it is not a vaccine, this drug may treat a sick person to feel less pain during COVID-19 treatment. Until a vaccine comes into the world, this might be helpful for most infected people. Russia has a new formulated COVID-19 drug that eases the pain of patients As reported via CGTN, a newly-registered COVID-19 drug is set to be made available in the market. The drug, Levilimab, is made by Russian scientists and produced in the BIOCAD biotechnology company in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Just to clarify, this drug is not a vaccine to totally cure patients with Coronavirus. However, it does help to curb the so-called "cytokine storm," a common complication from COVID-19 when the sick person's immune system overreacts to the virus, and the excessive inflammation leads to a deadly result. The developers said that the drug may help to ease the pain that COVID-19 patients had been experiencing in the hospitals, hopefully, with just enough time for other scientists and experts to find the best cure against the Novel Coronavirus, before its too late. Ekaterina Trifonova, head of the infectious ward at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow, said that the drug helped many of their patients to increase the speed of recovery compared to their foreign counterparts. With the first two-week trial of Levilimab, 10 people were already discharged from their hospital out of the 45 COVID-19 patients who got tested with the drug. Other patients also felt a satisfactory level of pain when they were injected with the medicine. "The highlight of Levilimab is that it can be administered not only to patients already in a serious condition but used as a prophylactic to prevent the "cytokine storm" from occurring and allowing the patient to avoid intensive care and lung ventilation," said Dmitry Morozov, general director of Biocad, the biopharmaceutical company behind the drug. Russia also has its first antiviral drug called Avifavir Levilimab isn't the only COVID-19 drug that Russia can be proud of. A week earlier, the country also approved its first antiviral drug called Avifavir. This drug helps to seek "high efficacy in treating patients with coronavirus during clinical trials." As reported, Avifavir can treat COVID-19 patients within four days of treatment, compared to the nine-day standard operation in most countries. The first batch of the antiviral drug will be delivered to hospitals in Russia and will be given quickly to patients, with no charges. But, it must be used with a doctor's supervision. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. President Donald Trump on Tuesday took to Twitter to claim without evidence that an elderly protester who was shoved to the ground and seriously injured by police in Buffalo, New York could be an ANTIFA provocateur. Graphic video taken by WBFO, a local radio station, on June 4 showed 75-year-old Martin Gugino being pushed by two police officers after he approached them in Niagara Square. Gugino then fell, hitting his head on the sidewalk. Blood can be seen pooling from the wound. Get a medic, a person can be heard saying. Gugino was later identified as an activist and a member of the Western New York Peace Center, The New York Times reported. He was marching in a protest sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the time of the incident. Just about an hour ago, police officers shove man in Niagara Square to the ground (WARNING: Graphic). Video from: @MikeDesmondWBFO pic.twitter.com/JBKQLvzfET WBFO (@WBFO) June 5, 2020 The two officers - 39-year-old Aaron Torgalski and 32-year-old Robert McCabe - have been charged with second-degree assault for pushing Gugino, according to Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn. The 75-year-old man was hospitalized with a head injury, loss of consciousness and bleeding from his right ear. He remained in the hospital in critical condition as of June 6, Flynn noted. Despite Guginos serious injuries, the president tweeted that the elderly man may have fallen harder than he was shoved. Trump also shared an unfounded conspiracy that Gugino may be a member of the loosely organized anti-fascism group called Antifa." In his social media post, the commander in chief cited One America News, a far-right news and opinion channel. Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment, Trump tweeted. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? The president appeared to be referencing a controversial report from OANN in which the conservative news outlet claimed that Gugino is an Antifa operative and tried to use a tracker on his phone to scan police communications from the two Buffalo officers accused of pushing him. There is no evidence suggesting any truth to OANNs accusations against Gugino, a longtime peace activist from Amherst, New York, and an advocate for the social justice organization the Catholic Worker Movement, The Buffalo News reported. The person who reported the OANN segment was Kristian Rouz, who also works for the Russian propaganda news outlet Sputnik, according to a report from The Daily Beast. In late May, Trump announced the White House would designate the movement as a terrorist organization after pinning some of the blame for unrest in the wake of Floyds death in Minneapolis on Antifa. Related Content: Apostle Kwabena Owusu Agyei, Founder and Leader of the Hezekiah Apostolic Payer Ministry, who allegedly threatened to kill Mrs Jean Mensah, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), has been remanded by an Accra Circuit Court. The self-styled man of God is also said to have insulted President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. He has been charged with threat of death, offensive conduct to the breach of peace, and possessing narcotic drug. He is said to have threatened the life of Mrs Jean Mensah after insulting her and the President. He has denied all the charges and would make his next appearance on June 23. Police Sergeant Frederick Sarpong, told the court presided over by Mr Emmanuel Essandoh that the accused, on Thursday, June 4, made a live video of himself on Facebook and YouTube threatening to kill the EC Chairperson if she went ahead with the compilation of the new voters register. In the same video, he rained insults on Mrs Mensah and the President. The Prosecution said, the police got a copy of the video, obtained a court order, and arrested him at GREDA Estates, Nungua, where he was speaking to radio journalists in an interview. A search conducted on him, uncovered a quantity of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp. 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 Defund the police. Those three words have sparked debate about the future of policing in the United States. And it's become a campaign issue ahead of the 2020 elections. But there is a misunderstanding about what the slogan means. Does it mean completely cutting funding for police departments? Disbanding police agencies? Depending on which cable news host or politician you listen to, it could mean either one of those things or something entirely different. However, the three-word slogan doesn't tell the full story. Black Lives Matter, which launched the "Defund the Police" effort, posted a petition on its website calling for a national defunding of police and investments in communities "to ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive." The petition does not call for abolishing or dismantling police agencies. Alicia Garza, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday and reiterated that "Defund the Police" is about providing resources that communities need. "So much of policing right now is generated and directed toward quality of life issues, homelessness, drug addiction, domestic violence ... But what we do need is increased funding for housing. We need increased funding for education. We need increased funding for quality of life of communities that are over-policed and over-surveilled." Minneapolis could be the first city to defund its police department, but it would go beyond shifting funds from the agency to other services. Members of the city council there have openly discussed "dismantling" the force. There haven't been any plans finalized, so it's unclear what the department would look like if the city takes action. One area that could be addressed is the city's police budget, which is $193 million this year nearly 15% of the city's total budget of $1.3 billion. That would be in line with Black Lives Matter's call for defunding the police shift investments to other parts of the community. There have been growing calls to defund the New York Police Department, which has a $6 billion annual budget more than 6% of the city's overall budget. New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer criticized Mayor Bill de Blasio's budget proposal because while it cut the NYPD budget by 0.3%, there were deeper cuts to education, social services and other programs. De Blasio has since said he would support cuts to the NYPD and shifting those funds to other needs. While the "Defund the Police" push is focused on federal, state and local budgetary priorities, it's also become a hot-button political issue five months before the 2020 presidential election. President Donald Trump criticized the movement in a tweet that also targeted former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. In the tweet, Trump wrote that Biden and "the Radical Left Democrats want to 'DEFUND THE POLICE.' I want great and well paid LAW ENFORCEMENT. I want LAW & ORDER!" On Monday, Biden came out against defunding the police. The top Democrats in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, didn't endorse the concept. Despite the Democrats' unwillingness to support the idea, Republicans still used it to go on the attack. U.S. Rep. John Katko, a Republican, accused one of his potential Democratic opponents, Dana Balter, of being "silent" on whether she supports defunding the police. Katko contends that "few rational Americans" support defunding and disbanding police departments. Balter didn't endorse the "Defund the Police" effort in her response, but her message was consistent with what Black Lives Matter leaders have said that there should be more funding for education and to address quality of life issues. "This is a national crisis that requires immediate action and my position has always been that we need to reform policing by ending police brutality and racist law enforcement policies," Balter said. "That, along with investing in vital community programs to end homelessness, provide mental health care and substance abuse treatment, and end domestic violence is how we increase public safety for everyone." The defunding of police is part the larger goal of ending police brutality and systemic racism. There have been nationwide protests after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The protesters' message is that police reform is needed. Police reform may include a national use of force policy, demilitarizing police departments and more oversight. There are several proposals to address systemic racism, some of which aim to combat mass incarceration and other problems within the criminal justice system. On its website, Black Lives Matter demands "real transformation NOW." "Transformation that will hold law enforcement accountable for the violence they inflict, transformation of this racist system that breeds corruption and transformation that ensures our people are not left behind," the group wrote. "It's time for our cities and states to #DefundThePolice and #InvestinCommunities." Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding. Love 8 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 0 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. The Himachal Pradesh police headquarters in Shimla has been sealed for 48 hours from Tuesday after a visitor, who called on director general of police (DGP) Sanjay Kundu a week ago, tested positive for Covid-19 and died. Kundu has ben tested neagtive for the virus but will remain in home quarantine. The man had visited Kundu in office on June 1 to felicitate him after he took charge as the state DGP following the retirement of Sita Ram Mardi. The person tested positive for coronavirus infection in Delhi and passed away on June 9, police spokesman and superintendent of police Kushal Sharma said in a release. Director general of police Sanjay Kundu was tested negative for the virus, but will stay in home quarantine. (HT PHOTO ) The police department is following the protocol issued by the Union health ministry and sealing the areas he visited. All officers who had come in contact with the infected person were medically examined and tested negative. They have gone into self quarantine. A team of doctors was at the police headquarters on Tuesday morning to take swab samples of 20 police personnel. All those who have been examined will remain in self quarantine, Sharma said. Nearly 200 police personnel work at the headquarters that also houses the offices of the additional director general, law and order; additional DGP and IG, armed police and training; IG, headquarters, SP, cyber crime, and SP, law and order. Total 28 of the 29 samples taken from police headquarters for Covid-19 testing, including that of director general of police Sanjay Kundu, have reported negative. BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - At 5.00 am ET Tuesday, Eurostat releases euro area revised quarterly national accounts for the first quarter. The economy is expected to shrink 3.8 percent sequentially, as initially estimated. Ahead of the data, the euro traded mixed against its major rivals. While it rose against the pound, it declined against the rest of major rivals. The euro was worth 1.1265 against the greenback, 121.62 against the yen, 1.0760 against the franc and 0.8902 against the pound as of 4:55 am ET. 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. [June 09, 2020] American Campus Communities, Inc. Announces Pricing of $400 Million 3.875 Percent Senior Unsecured Notes Due 2031 American Campus Communities, Inc. (NYSE:ACC), the largest owner, manager and developer of high-quality student housing properties in the U.S., today announced that its operating partnership, American Campus Communities Operating Partnership LP, priced a $400 million offering of senior unsecured notes under its existing shelf registration. These 10-year notes were issued at 99.142 percent of par value with a coupon of 3.875 percent and are fully and unconditionally guaranteed by American Campus Communities, Inc. Interest on the notes is payable semi-annually on January 30 and July 30, with the first payment due and payable on January 30, 2021. The notes will mature on January 30, 2031. American Campus Communities Operating Partnership LP expects to use the net proceeds (after expenses) of approximately $392.0 million to repay borrowings under its revolving credit facility, to fund projects in its current development pipeline and for general business purposes. Settlement is scheduled for June 11, 2020, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, BofA Securities, Inc., Capital One (News - Alert) Securities, Inc., KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC are the Joint Book-Running Managers for the offering and BBVA Securities Inc., Piper Sandler & Co., PNC (News - Alert) Capital Markets LLC, Regions Securities LLC and U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc. are the Co-Managers. American Campus Communities, Inc. and American Campus Communities Operating Partnership LP have filed a registration statement (including a prospectus) with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC (News - Alert)") for the offering to which this press release relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and other documents that American Campus Communities, Inc. and American Cmpus Communities Operating Partnership LP have filed with the SEC, including the prospectus supplement, for more complete information about American Campus Communities, Inc., American Campus Communities Operating Partnership LP and this offering. You may get these documents for free by visiting the SEC Web site at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, American Campus Communities, Inc., American Campus Communities Operating Partnership LP or any underwriter or any dealer participating in the offering will arrange to send you the prospectus and the accompanying prospectus supplement if you request it by contacting Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., toll free at 800-503-4611; or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, collect at 212-834-4533. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these notes in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction. 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 owned167 student housing properties containing approximately 112,800 beds. Including its owned and third-party managed properties, ACC's total managed portfolio consisted of 203 properties with approximately 139,300 beds. 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. For discussions of some risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 and other periodic reports, including those under the heading "Risk Factors" and under the heading "Business - Forward-looking Statements." We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005819/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Ayatollah Khamenei praises crew of Iranian tankers taking gasoline to Venezuela Iran Press TV Monday, 08 June 2020 2:58 PM Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has issued a message praising the efforts of the crew and captains of tankers that took Iran's gasoline to Venezuela despite threats by the administration of US President Donald Trump to take action against them. "I thank all of you dear ones, captains and crew of the ship. You did a great job. Your move was a great feat. You made the country proud," the Leader's message read. Iran sent five ships -- Fortune, Forest, Petunia, Faxon and Clavel -- carrying Iranian fuel to Venezuela in May and June to help revive oil refineries in the South American country, which is suffering from a severe fuel shortage caused by US sanctions. Iran's fuel shipments have drawn the ire of the US, which has imposed draconian sanctions on Iran and Venezuela with the aim of crippling their oil sectors. US officials said Washington was considering responses to Iran's move, prompting Tehran to warn of retaliatory measures if Washington causes any problem for the Venezuela-bound tankers. The United States threatened stiff sanctions against foreign governments, shipping firms, seaports, and insurers if they aid the Iranian tankers. In a letter to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in May, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif issued a stern warning against the US' provocative acts through dispatching its naval forces to the Caribbean Sea with the goal of disrupting the course of Iranian tankers carrying fuel for Venezuela. Zarif described "the illegal, dangerous and provocative US threats [against the Iranian tankers]" as a form of piracy and a big threat to international peace and security. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address ATHENS, Greece (AP) Greece will gradually lift all restrictions on Italian tourists entering the country by the end of the month, Greeces foreign minister said Tuesday. Nikos Dendias, speaking after meeting in Athens with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, said the decision was taken based on the improving situation regarding the spread of the coronavirus in Italy. Rome had been angered by its exclusion from a list of 29 countries whose citizens Athens had initially announced would be allowed into Greece from June 15 without compulsory coronavirus tests or quarantines. The Greek government later clarified tourists would be allowed to enter without restrictions if they arrived from airports rather than countries that were not on a European air safety agency list of those considered high risk regarding the virus. Mr. Di Maio informed me about the radically improving epidemiological data in Italy, Dendias said. Based on this, Greece is lifting ... from next Monday and gradually until the end of the month, any restrictions on the arrival of tourists. He did not elaborate on what the gradual steps will be. Greece has said tourists can fly to Athens or the main northern city of Thessaloniki from June 15, while international flights can land at regional airports across the country from July 1. Visitors arriving from airports not on the European air safety agency list of at-risk regions will be subjected to random spot coronavirus tests only and will not face the mandatory testing and quarantine currently in place for all international travelers. Greece expects that our Italian friends will spend their holidays in our country this year, too, as in all previous years, Dendias said. Italy has recorded a continuing downward trend of infections, deaths and intensive care admissions, more than a month after it began loosening lockdown restrictions. Thankfully, Italy has managed to emerge with its head held high, Di Maio said, adding that the figures in some Italian regions were better than those in some other parts of Europe. Story continues Tourism both for us and for Greece is an economic sector of primary importance, Di Maio said, adding that he was happy Dendias had assured him that Greece will reopen ... by the end of the month, eliminating any type of restriction or quarantine requirement for Italians and with the commitment to evaluate on the basis of the data the reopening in the next few weeks." Neither minister gave more details and they did not take questions from the press after delivering their statements. Italy registered 280 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours to Monday, with over one-third of those in the hardest-hit region of Lombardy. Italys total confirmed number of positives has reached 235,278 although experts believe the actual number is much higher as only certain groups, such as nursing home residents, medical personnel and people with serious symptoms, are being tested. Civil protection recorded 65 more coronavirus deaths, raising the total to 33,964. Most Italian regions are showing either no cases or new positives in the single digits. Lombardy is the only region with triple-digit positives, with the next closest region, Emilia Romagna, adding just 20. By comparison, Greece has confirmed just over 3,000 cases and 182 deaths. The country is highly dependent on tourism, which accounts for around 20% of its economy, and is hoping to salvage what is left of the summer tourist season by promoting itself as a safe destination. ___ Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report. Bishop Curtis Guillory announced at St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica Monday that Monsignor David L. Toups will be the sixth bishop of the Beaumont Diocese. Toups will be the first bishop to be ordained at the Beaumont Diocese in its 53-year history. Guillory served as bishop for the Beaumont Diocese for 20 years. The federal government has approved the payment of two months hazard allowance for health workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic. ... The federal government has approved the payment of two months hazard allowance for health workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic. Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, made this known at a meeting between representatives of the federal government and health professionals associations. Ngige, who noted that the approval was granted by President Muhammadu Buhari to appreciate the effort of health workers in the fight against COVID-19, said the allowance for the months of April and May would be paid before the end of the week. The minister said the decision was part of the agreement reached between the federal government representatives and health sector workers. He added that insurance coverage for the health workers has also been approved in consonance with the memorandum of understanding signed between government representatives and health unions in April. We reviewed all, and also reviewed all the emoluments that we are to give these gallant workers who are at the frontline taking the risk for all of us and the federal government side has given them the financial implication of what they have done. We have fixed a timeline for ourselves that before the end of this week, the health workers captured in that particular COVID-19 net and frontline workers should get all their hazard and inducement allowances for the month of April and May before the close of the week. Truth and Facts about China's Fight against COVID -19 2020/06/09 By Hu Zhangliang, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Republic of Sierra Leone On June 7, 2020, China's State Council Information Office published a white paper titled "Fighting COVID-19: China in Action", which is an authoritative, fact-based document recording China's fight against the virus. It aims to keep a complete record of the process on China's arduous efforts in fighting COVID-19, to share its experience with the rest of the world and to clarify its ideas on the global battle. The white paper says that facing this unknown, unexpected, and devastating disease, China launched a resolute battle to prevent and control its spread. Making people's lives and health its first priority, China adopted extensive, stringent, and thorough containment measures, and has for now succeeded in cutting all channels for the transmission of the virus. The white paper states that having forged the idea that the world is a global community of shared future, and believing that it must act as a responsible member, China has fought shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world. In an open, transparent, and responsible manner and in accordance with the law, China gave timely notification to the international community of the onset of a new coronavirus, and shared without reserve its experience in containing the spread of the virus and treating the infected. China has great empathy with victims all over the world, and has done all it can to provide humanitarian aid in support of the international community's endeavors to stem the pandemic. However, for quite a time, some politicians and media in certain western countries kept slandering and scapegoating China to shirk responsibility in their inadequate responses to the pandemic. They deliberately turned a blind eye to China's contribution in safeguarding the world public health security, claimed that China was the source of the virus and tried to politicize the COVID-19 pandemic. They played up the presumptions that China was accountable for spreading the virus and concealing the facts, which have no factual basis and disrespect science. The white paper responds to those fallacies with a clear timeline and detailed data. It states that since the first case of pneumonia of unknown cause reported in Hubei, Wuhan on December 27, 2019, China acted immediately to conduct etiological and epidemiological investigations and to stop the spread of the disease. From January 3 on, China began to update the WHO, relevant countries including the US, and regional organizations on the development of the disease on a regular basis. As a crucial step to stem the spread of the virus, the Chinese government took the decisive measure to close outbound traffic from Wuhan on January 23, by then there was only one officially confirmed case in the US. The timeline shown in the white paper clearly proves that some countries have been informed of the pandemic information very timely. The reason why situation in a certain country gets out of control at present is entirely the result of their own inaction and incompetence in the fight against the pandemic. The related accusations are totally untenable. As the white paper points out, China has been doing all it can to support the international community in the fight against the pandemic. It has provided two batches of cash support totalling US$50 million to the WHO and has been active in providing medical aid to other countries. As of May 31, China had sent 29 medical expert teams to 27 countries, and offered assistance to 150 countries and 4 international organizations. China has speeded up its resumption of work and production to produce much-needed medical supplies to support the world's fighting against the virus. From March 1 to May 31, China exported protective materials to 200 countries and regions, among which there were more than 70.6 billion masks, 340 million protective suits, 115 million pairs of goggles, 96,700 ventilators, 225 million test kits, and 40.29 million infrared thermometers. At the virtual event of the opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly, President Xi Jinping pledged that COVID-19 vaccine development and deployment in China, when available, will be made a global public good. This will be China's contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries. As a sincere and reliable friend and good partner of Sierra Leone, China has provided six batches of much-needed medical materials to Sierra Leone to support its fight against the pandemic. The Chinese medical team, China CDC experts team and military medical experts team have also been working assiduously in case testing and treatment to support their Sierra Leonean counterparts in this battle. In the future, China will continue to provide support to Sierra Leone within its capacity. As COVID-19 continues spreading, the world is still going through tough times. As the white paper points out, the most urgent task is to defeat it through solidarity and cooperation. The common enemy of humanity is this virus, not any particular country or any particular race. China calls on the international community to come together, acknowledge the facts and truth about China's efforts in fight against the pandemic, abandon prejudice and arrogance, resist scapegoating and other such self-serving artifices, and stand against stigmatization and politicization of the virus. In doing so, we will see that the spirit of solidarity, cooperation, responsibility and dedication leads people around the world towards victory in our fight against the pandemic. The sun will always shine again after a storm. As long as we don't lose hope, we will prevail on the pandemic and the world will be a better place for all to live in. Lucknow, June 9 : The real Anamika Shukla, who had been impersonated by other women to get a job, finally surfaced on Tuesday. Anamika Shukla has now lodged an FIR in Gonda against unknown persons for misusing her documents to take up jobs in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidhyayas (KGBVs) across several districts of Uttar Pradesh. A teacher, believed to be Anamika Shukla, was arrested from the Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) office in Kasganj on Saturday for allegedly working simultaneously in 25 KGBVs and withdrawing Rs one crore in total as salary. Talking to reporters in Gonda, the real Anamika Shukla said on Tuesday that in 2007 she had applied for a science teacher's job at KGBVs in Sultanpur, Jaunpur, Basti, Mirzapur and Lucknow districts. However, she did not go for counselling in any district. She said that she is not teaching in any school at present or has never taught in the past. Daughter of Subhash Chand, she is a resident of village Bhulideeh, post Kamrawa, in Gonda. In her complaint letter submitted personally to Gonda Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA), Inderjit Prajapati, she gave a detailed list of her qualifications from high school to TTE, which she had completed in Gonda, Ambedkar Nagar and Allahabad, respectively. She also submitted scanned copies of her original documents and her photograph to help in investigating the fake Anamika Shuklas who were working under her name. Shukla said in her complaint that she came to know through media reports that her name has been misused and documents forged to take up jobs in various KGBVs. Prajapati said that now with the original Anamika Shukla surfacing and lodging a complaint with the police, the investigation would pick up speed to uncover the racket. Earlier in the day, oblivious to the developments in Gonda, state Minister for Basic Education, Satish Dwivedi, admitted that Anamika Shukla's forged documents were used to take up jobs in nine KGBVs in the districts of Baghpat, Varanasi, Aligarh, Kasganj, Amethi, Rae Bareli, Prayagraj, Saharanpur and Ambedkar Nagar. However, he clarified that a few teachers did not join, went on long leave, or resigned. Only six teachers actually took up the jobs on the basis of the same set of forged documents. He said that the teacher arrested and sent to jail in Kasganj was one of the several Anamika Shuklas. The minister further said that following the unearthing of the racket, the department has sought the original documents of 5,000 teachers of 746 KGBVs across the state for verification along with their Aadhaar cards and IDs. Republic Media Network TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on Tuesday assured that he would go to the N.M. Joshi Marg Police station at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. "The Mumbai Police Commissioner should not worry. I will be there... sharp at 2 p.m. The police have sent me another summon... to appear... I will arrive 5 minutes early," Goswami said in a statement here on Tuesday evening. Late on Monday night, the police had issued the summons asking Goswami to appear at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, which was revised to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, for the second round of questioning. Goswami's statement came after he suffered a setback when the Bombay High Court on Tuesday declined to grant any relief to his plea seeking quashing of two FIRs lodged against him and the Republic TV in Mumbai and Nagpur. A division bench comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Riyaz Chagla also refused his plea seeking exemption from personal appearance before the Mumbai Police, but the court granted him protection from arrest. Last month, the Supreme Court had also refused to grant a similar plea filed by Goswami. Goswami is facing two FIRs -- in Mumbai and Nagpur -- accusing him of making provocative comments about a particular community during a news show. (Newser) President Trump's retreat to the White House's underground bunker late last month as hundreds of protesters for George Floyd demonstrated outside earned derision from many and an excuse from Trump: He'd gone there just for a "tiny little short period of time," during the daytime, for an "inspection." On Monday evening, Attorney General Bill Barr appeared on Fox News with a story not quite in sync with the president's, the Hill reports. "We were reacting to three days of extremely violent demonstrations right across from the White House, a lot of injuries to police officers, arson," Barr told Bret Baier of what happened on May 29. "Things were so bad that the Secret Service recommended the president go down to the bunker. We can't have that in our country." Barr added that's why federal law enforcement forcibly removed peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square that evening. story continues below The New York Times notes that since it was revealed Trump had retreated to the bunker, more officially known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, he's been the butt of jokes online, and from late-night TV hosts and protesters, who've been referencing the bunker visit on placards. A source tells CNN that if things ever get so bad that President Trump is moved to the bunker, first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron, as well as any other members of the first family who happen to be on the premises, would also be moved there. Town & Country offers a brief history of the facility, which was built during World War II for use in case of an air raid from foes. It's not used often, but one of its most famous visitors was then-Vice President Dick Cheney, who was taken there on Sept. 11, 2001. Former President George W. Bush also met with administration officials there in the following days. (Read more William Barr stories.) LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / World High Life Plc (AQSE:LIFE)(OTCQB:WRHLF) is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, London-based CBD brand, Love Hemp Limited ("Love Hemp") , has appointed Dr. Sepe Sehati as Chief Scientific & Regulatory Advisor. Dr. Sehati is a healthcare innovator and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. A passionate advocate and practitioner of both critical thinking and tactical cross-pollination of disciplines, Sepe holds a Doctorate in Bioengineering from the University of Oxford. Sepe's innovative approach to problem solving, fuelled through the application of diverse scientific fields, analytics, neuroscience, behavioural science and evidence-based principles, has led him to contribute to various high-profile initiatives ranging from President Obama's Transition Health Policy, to the UK Prime Minister's sustainable development plan, to the late Dr Richard Rockefeller's innovative healthcare models. Sepe is also an advisor for the UK's Centre for Medicinal Cannabis. Highlights of Dr. Sehati's Appointment as Love Hemp's Chief Scientific & Regulatory Advisor Dr. Sehati holds a Doctorate in Bioengineering from the University of Oxford Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine Contributor to President Obama's Transition Health Policy Contributor to the UK Prime Minister's sustainable development plan Advisor for the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Tony Calamita, CEO at Love Hemp says: "We are proud to welcome Sepe to the Love Hemp team. His experience will be a tremendous asset as CBD continues to gain momentum with consumers. He will be instrumental as we expand our range of trusted CBD products." Love Hemp's Chief Scientific & Regulatory Advisor Dr. Sepe Sehati added: "Having carried out a critical review of CBD in 2018, the WHO concluded that CBD is generally well tolerated with a good safety profile. As research surrounding suggested benefits for CBD use evolves, the evolution we are seeing around CBD product development reflects a shift in consumer demand, and it is more important than ever to ensure accessibility to trusted, regulated and high-quality CBD products. I am excited to be working with Love Hemp to ensure the brand continues on its path of being a standard-bearer for the CBD industry and for the development of a safe, legally compliant and thriving CBD industry in the UK." For further information please contact: David Stadnyk Founder & CEO World High Life PLC North America toll-free, 1 (888) 616-WRHLF (9745) +44 (0) 7926 397 675 info@worldhighlife.uk AQSE Corporate Adviser Mark Anwyl/Allie Feuerlein Peterhouse Capital Limited +44 (0) 20 7469 0930 ma@peterhousecap.com af@peterhousecap.com Financial PR Camilla Horsfall/Megan Ray Blytheweigh +44 (0) 20 7138 3224 Camilla.horsfall@blytheweigh.com Megan.Ray@blytheweigh.com For more information on World High Life please visit: www.worldhighlife.uk Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Information We seek safe harbour. Some statements contained in this news release are "forward looking information" within the meaning of securities laws. Forward looking information include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the use of proceeds of the non-brokered private placement and payment of the debt settlements. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words and phrases (including negative or grammatical variations) or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and involves risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting the Company will be those anticipated by management. The forward-looking information contained in this press release constitutes management's current estimates, as of the date of this press release, with respect to the matters covered thereby. We expect that these estimates will change as new information is received. We do not undertake to update any estimate at any particular time or in response to any particular event, except as required by law. SOURCE: World High Life Plc View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/593173/Love-Hemp-Appoints-Dr-Sepe-Sehati-as-Chief-Scientific-Regulatory-Advisor WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Macy's Inc. (M) said that it has raised about $4.5 billion of financing, including its previously announced $1.3 billion of 8.375% senior secured notes, as well as a new $3.15 billion asset-based credit agreement. In addition, the company has amended and substantially reduced the credit commitments of its existing $1.5 billion unsecured credit agreement. The company plans to use the proceeds of the notes offering, along with cash on hand, to repay the outstanding borrowings under the existing $1.5 billion unsecured credit agreement. The company said that, after the closing of the financings, it expects to have sufficient liquidity to address the needs of the business, including funding operations and the purchase of new inventory for upcoming merchandising seasons, resolving its accrued payables obligations, and repaying upcoming debt maturities in fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021. 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. JSC Ukrtransnafta transported West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil for the first time in May, the company's press service said. "After checking the quality indicators of crude oil, the company began accepting WTI oil for transportation to Kremenchuk oil refinery. 'Light Sweet' will be transported through the Odesa-Kremenchuk crude oil pipeline," the company said in the statement. Thus, except for pumping oil from Ukrainian fields, Ukrtransnafta already has experience in transporting five grades of imported oil, namely, Urals, Azeri Light, Bakken (from July 2019), El Sharara (from November 2019) and WTI. As more Michigan businesses begin the reopening process, legislative Democrats and labor groups are calling for additional paid sick time for workers and other measures to protect those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the Michigan Legislative Labor Caucus rolled out a Workers First Reopening Plan this week featuring several proposals to allow workers to stay home without penalty if they are required to self-quarantine, stay home to care for a sick family member or are at heightened risk of complications from COVID-19. Working people can no longer afford to allow economic considerations to discourage them from taking the necessary actions to protect their health and safety, and the health and safety of their families, Labor Caucus Chair Rep. Brian K. Elder, D-Bay City, said in a statement. The cost is just too high. The plan also calls for the reversal of significant revisions to a citizen-led paid sick time proposal. In 2018, the Republican-led legislature opted to pass the initiative and amend it later on, significantly narrowing its scope. Democrats have long criticized the move, and some now say the current policy puts workers at a disadvantage during the coronavirus pandemic. Business groups contend the original paid sick time proposal would have put a strain on businesses and potentially caused some employees to lose their jobs, and many Republicans who supported the changes remain in the legislature. Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber called the measures necessary to keep those who have been on the frontline during the pandemic are protected. The legislature needs to step up and do right by working people, to make sure they are protected as they return to the workplace," he said in a statement. The Workers First Reopening Plan provides workers with the support and security they need to stay healthy at work, but also protections if they get sick on the job. Other measures proposed in the plan include allowing workers to leave an unsafe work environment and still be eligible for unemployment compensation and creating standards for scheduling and shift notices. The proposals come as more Michigan businesses are being cleared to reopen after months of closures and bans on non-essential in-person activity. Retail businesses are now allowed to reopen with strict social distancing requirements, and Michigan bars and restaurants were allowed to resume in-person dining services Monday. Personal care businesses like hair salons will be allowed to reopen next week. Movie theaters, gyms and other places of public accommodation remain closed for the time being, although outdoor fitness classes are now allowed. 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 As Michigan reopens after coronavirus quarantine, experts more cautious than optimistic Michigan shopping malls, retail stores weigh risk of opening doors during COVID-19 pandemic Michigan restaurants can reopen June 8 but many wont be ready From hair salons to gyms, experts rank 36 activities by coronavirus risk level The sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is still on track for a 2022 release. The superhero film was originally slated to come out on April 8, 2022, and despite scheduling setbacks due to COVID-19 is still on course for a release sometime that year, according to a tweet by animator Nick Kondo on Tuesday. His tweet showed a brief video of the film's logo, along with the number '2022'. Coming soon-ish: The sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is still on track for a 2022 release The film and video game technician captioned the tweet, 'First day on the job!' indicating that the highly-anticipated film had only just started production. In April, Sony announced that Into the Spider-Verse 2 would move its original release date back to October 7, 2022. The film will be directed by Joaquim Does Santos, taking over from the helming trio of Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman from the first film. 2022: The superhero film was originally slated to come out on April 8, 2022, and despite scheduling setbacks due to COVID-19 is still on course for a release sometime that year New blood: The film will be directed by Joaquim Does Santos, taking over from the helming trio of Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman from the first film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was honored with Best Animated Feature at the 2019 Academy Awards. The critical darling featured the voices of actors such as Chris Pine, Shameik Moore, Lily Tomlin and Nicolas Cage. It holds an astounding 97% Fresh rating on critical aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and fan ratings have placed it at #66 on IMDb's Top 250 movies of all time. Chinese Stranded Overseas Feel Abandoned by Chinese Government A drastic reduction in flights to China and soaring airfares have stranded Chinese nationals almost in every corner of the world. Zhou Ting (pseudonym), a Chinese intern in Boston, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that many Chinese have to leave the United States in summer, but are having great difficulty purchasing air tickets. Chinas Civil Aviation Administration announced the Five-One policy on March 29, which means, in each foreign country, any existing Chinese airline is to operate only one route, and no more than one flight per week. The original plan was to implement the policy until May 31, but China recently extended it to October. The interview was conducted on May 25 by Chen Han of the Chinese-language Epoch Times. Don't tell Aurelian Balan the American Dream is dead. It may be on pause because of COVID-19 and other societal challenges that are rocking America, but some worldly perspective can help people realize that the United States of America remains the Land of Opportunity. Balan, a Delta College associate professor of physics, is a first generation American born to parents from villages in Yugoslavia, now Serbia. His parents, Maria Balan and Aurelijan Balan, emigrated to New York City in 1969 by way of Austria. They raised their son in Queens, where a young Aurelian found a passion for the violin and astronomy. He has continued those interests into adulthood and has become so skilled at sharing his love for astronomy as a college instructor that he recently walked away with Delta's highest teaching honor--The Bergstein Award for Teaching Excellence. Sponsored by the Bergstein Family of Midland since 1965, the award recognizes commitment to teaching excellence. Balan and Bethleen Glady-Teschendorf, associate professor of English, shared this year's coveted award. Recipients are chosen by a vote of Delta students and faculty. "It was a big surprise," Balan said of word he had won the Bergstein Award. "It was announced at our last division meeting of the year. Obviously we've been focused on other things but I have received some very kind emails." Balan may be a physics instructor but he primarily teaches astronomy at Delta's Planetarium in downtown Bay City. As a kid he became fascinated with astronomy after seeing famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse at the Hayden Planetarium in his hometown of New York City. "Every time I saw and listened to him I got excited about the field," Balan said. He credits his high school physics teacher, Konstantinos Alexakos, now a professor at Brooklyn College, New York, with piquing his interest in physics. "He made it fun and interesting," said Balan, who would go on to double major in music and physics. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics at The State University of New York at Potsdam and completed coursework for a bachelor's in violin performance from the Crane School of Music. Balan then left New York to come to Michigan, where he completed graduate work in physics at Central Michigan University. There he met the woman who would become his wife. After a stint teaching at the University of Texas at Arlington, Balan jumped at the chance to return to Michigan when the Delta teaching position became available. "I like the area," said Balan, who resides in Midland and has taught at Delta since 2009. "Texas is so hot. I like the pace here and though I've only worked at a couple of other places, Delta is my favorite place to work. I feel fortunate to work there and help students, especially during this time." Balan recognizes he wouldn't be in the position he's in today if not for the sacrifices of his parents. In 1969, they traveled from their homeland to Vienna, Austria, where they stayed in an apartment for four months. "My mother always told me that travel to the United States from Yugoslavia at the time was difficult, so that's why they traveled to Vienna initially," Balan said. "Then they needed to wait there for awhile as they secured plane tickets and receive proper documentation to submit to the embassy. I believe they needed to prove they would have work and a place to stay lined up." As the story goes, Maria and Aurelian Balan found work the day after they set foot on American soil in August of 1969. Maria had just turned 18. "It's quite the American dream story with lots of twists and turns after they got here," said Balan. He describes his father as a hard man who struggled with personal demons and died of a stroke in 2013. "My mother was the loving type. They balanced each other out," Balan said. "Both pushed me academically and made sure I was heading in the right direction as a kid wreaking havoc with my friends growing up in the '90s on the streets of New York." Maria Balan has lived in the same apartment since the day she arrived in New York City in 1969. Her son says he is struck by how much of Serbia and Yugoslavia's cultures and customs influence her to this day. He visits her about twice a year and still has friends he grew up with in Queens he remains in contact with. "My mom still prefers to walk everywhere, lives in a culturally diverse neighborhood and while she embraces the traditions of the past, she's open to embracing new traditions." Balan lives in Midland with his wife Alyssa and their two children. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-10 04:29:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ALGIERS, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Algeria said on Tuesday that it supports any peace initiative for resolving the Libyan civil war. Mohamed Belaid Oussaid, spokesman for the Algerian Presidency, told a press conference that "Algeria is favorable to any initiative, whatever its origin, as long as it is aiming to put an end to the bloodshed of the Libyan brothers." He was referring to the latest Egyptian initiative that called for a cease-fire in the war-torn Libya. The Algerian official stressed that "any political solution for Libya must be based on respecting the people's legitimacy within the framework of territorial integrity and national sovereignty of the Libyan people." Oussaid, also the communication minister, confirmed that Algeria's peace initiative to mediate between the warring parties in Libya is still up to date, especially in light of the recent developments in this neighboring nation. "The Algerian peace initiative is still existing as long as it is still welcomed by Libyans themselves," he said. He said the recent developments in Libya will accelerate the implementation of the Algerian initiative because the parties will discover more than ever before that the Algerian initiative is inevitable as a serious, honest and sincere solution to the crisis. Libya has been hit by a civil war since the killing of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The situation escalated in 2014, splitting power between two major rivals with armed forces, namely the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital Tripoli and the eastern-based Libyan National Army led by Marshal Khalifa Haftar. Later last month, Haftar proclaimed himself as the country's ruler by "popular mandate," as he announced the breakdown of the 2015 UN-brokered peace deal signed by the warring parties on Dec 17, 2015 in the Moroccan city of Skhirat. On Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi announced an initiative to end the Libyan internal conflict following his meeting in Cairo with Haftar and Tobruk-based parliament speaker Aguila Saleh. Dubbed Cairo Declaration, the Egyptian initiative proposes a cease-fire between Libyan warring parties starting June 8, disbanding militias and handing over their arms, pulling out foreign forces, electing a ruling presidential council representing all Libyans, and drafting a constitutional declaration to regulate elections for later stages. Enditem Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman, senate committee on Niger Delta, says the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is indicting itself to ex... Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman, senate committee on Niger Delta, says the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is indicting itself to exonerate Godswill Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta affairs. Nwaoboshi said this in reaction to a statement credited to the commission, in which the NDDC had accused the senator of using 11 companies as fronts to get a N3.6 billion contract in September 2016. The commissions claim came a few days after Nwaoboshi alleged that Akpabio secured a N300 million fencing contract which was inserted into its budget. In a statement on Monday, Luka Igbonoba, media aide to the senator, quoted his principal as saying that he did not have anything to do with the 11 companies ascribed to him. These are companies that he does not know nor had anything to do with. A simple search at the Corporate Affairs Commission will, at least, show both former and present directors, he said. How do you libelously claim a man owns companies that perhaps belong to other people? Apparently, the officials might have generated names of companies they have probably used to siphon the peoples common patrimony. Everyone involved must face the wrath of the law as it is expected that due diligence should precede any contract award. In any case, if the contracts were actually awarded in 2016 as alleged, the forensic audit which covers the period is expected to expose every detail surrounding these contracts and save the public from this shameless falsehood. The commission keeps indicting itself in the desperate attempt to exonerate Akpabio. The inconsistency in lies dished out by the interim management committee of NDDC against Senator Peter Nwaoboshi easily exposes the laughable attempt to smear an innocent man. First they alleged he was receiving N1 billion monthly as consultancy fee. Same NDDC admitted that the allegation is false. They later turned around to allege that he received 1000 contracts. When that again fell like every other, the narrative changed to 350 contracts. All of a sudden, it has all collapsed to 11 contracts. The allegations and counter-allegations against Akpabio, Nwaoboshi and the commission began after the senate passed a resolution to probe an alleged diversion of N40 billion by the interim management committee (IMC) of the NDDC. In turn, the commission accused the members of the national assembly of inserting over 500 non-existent projects into its 2019 budget. The IMC is expected to undertake a forensic audit of the commissions finances from 2001 to 2019. President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the audit in October 2019. [June 09, 2020] Landers, Brockman Join Concord Technologies as Company Expands in Healthcare SEATTLE, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Concord Technologies, a leading provider of cloud-based fax and intelligent document automation software for healthcare providers and enterprises in other regulated industries, announced today that Allegra Landers has been appointed Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). In her new role, Landers will lead all Concord's marketing activities, including go-to-market strategy, demand generation and customer engagement, further building the company's brand in alignment with its mission to reduce administrative and clinical burdens of document processing in healthcare. The company also named Shawn Brockman as Director of Health Strategy and Applications. In this new product management position, Brockman will create healthcare market strategies and work with product and commercial teams to design applications that best meet the needs of providers and payers. "As we are rapidly growing our presence in healthcare, we're excited to welcome Allegra Landers and Shawn Brockman to our team to further our impact across provider and payer organizations," said Chris Moore, Chief Executive Officer and Founder at Concord Technologies. "Both Allegra and Shawn have a deep understanding of the healthcare industry, which will help us spot new development opportunities and achieve growth objectives while enabling our customers to enhance patient care." Prior to Concord, Landers was director of marketing for Qualifacts Systems, Inc., contributing to the company's strong growth through innovative marketing strategy, programs and partnerships. She also held a director position at HealthTeacher Inc., where she led the national marketing strategy for customer acquisition. With the background in health information echnology marketing, Landers brings to Concord her 16 years of experience in building healthcare-specific marketing strategy, operations and analytics infrastructure to enable data-driven program implementation and decision-making. "Concord is taking an innovative approach to digitizing and automating the document processing tasks that dominate the workday in most healthcare provider and payer organizations," said Landers. "I'm excited to help tell the story of Concord's customers who are leveraging our solutions throughout the healthcare continuum to enable clinical and administrative staff to work more efficiently and dedicate more time towards engaging patients and improving outcomes." Brockman, prior to Concord, was director of market development at PointClickCare; a senior program manager for the GE Healthcare Software Analytics Center of Excellence; and a senior program manager and a healthcare architect at Microsoft. Drawing on his experience as a Registered Nurse and software designer for electronic health records, Brockman brings a healthcare and technology background that will guide Concord's upward trajectory in the mission of healthcare digitization. "There are several aspects of user workflow, patient care and technology that I'm passionate about," said Brockman. "In today's value-driven healthcare delivery ecosystem, I'm especially interested in the challenges related to safe and effective patient transfers between disparate care settings. Technology can make patient careand transitions of caresafer, and workflow more effective for the teams managing care delivery and payment. Concord has a unique opportunity to usher in important changes in these areas, and I am excited to innovate and deliver with the Concord team." Concord Technologies has developed a platform that uses machine learning to identify different healthcare documents, extract patient information, and form it into structured data. The structured data can then be used within clinical and administrative applicationssuch as electronic health recordsto update patient records, triage documents, and automate document workflows. In utilizing the platform, physicians and administrative personnel can move the conversation from "records transfer" to true coordination of safer, more efficient care. The additions of Landers and Brockmanas well as Christopher Larkin as Chief Technology Officer earlier this yearindicate a significant progression of Concord's senior leadership team. Spectrum Search partners, a retained national search firm based in Denver, conducted the searches. For more information about Concord's automation tools for the healthcare market, visit https://concord.net. About Concord Technologies Concord Technologies helps organizations in healthcare and other highly regulated industries automate their manual and document-intensive processes. Concord's cloud fax service is the dominant, cloud fax solution in healthcare in the U.S. and is responsible for the delivery of more than a billion healthcare documents each year. Concord is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and employs more than a 100 people in the USA and India. Media Contact Yuliya Kutuzava KNB Communications [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/landers-brockman-join-concord-technologies-as-company-expands-in-healthcare-301072813.html SOURCE Concord Technologies [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Otto Waterlander, Naftogaz Group Chief Executive Officer - Chief Transformation Officer Ukraine remained for more than the decades strongly dependent on the supply of gas from Russia and on the transit of Russian gas to Europe. Those dependencies became a straightjacket when Russian leadership decided to use gas for political motives. Since 2014, the new management in Naftogaz together with government and international support broke the Russian dependence. Ukraine escaped from the modern slavery, that was created by old contracts with Gazprom, and secured new 5-years contract for gas-transport. What's next? How to move forward in securing supply for Ukrainian energy customers? How to secure Ukrainian energy/gas independence in the short-term and medium-term? Some are pointing towards the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) market as the answer, there are now some 30 suppliers of LNG across the globe. Among others, the United States has significant ambitions to grow LNG exports and is eager to sell to Ukraine. Ukraine already is supporting the import of LNG in Europe, especially in Poland. Poland receives LNG at their terminal throughout the whole year, and transports the gas through pipeline to Ukrainian storage facilities. The Ukrainian spare capacity allows to store gas delivered in summer for use in winter. Should Ukraine act like Poland and embrace the direct import of LNG as well? Ukraine could invest to build a large import terminal at the Black Sea or use the route through Poland. However, having limited funds, Ukraine must decide if it should prioritize investment in its own new gas reservoirs or in large LNG facilities and infrastructure to bring competing gas? Asking the question is answering it! The economic case for long-term 20-year LNG contracts in Ukraine proves difficult because it is unlikely that long term-contract will include a guaranteed discount versus European prices. The political case is equally difficult. While the USA may seem an attractive partner, does Ukraine really want to return to the era of dependence and enter in long term, inflexible, take or pay contracts? Ukraine has better alternatives. Firstly, Ukraine gas market today is connected very well with the European market and Ukrainian market prices now reflect the realities of the entire European market. Ukrainians enjoy a huge benefit as the gas prices more than halved over the past year, translating directly in lower gas-bills for all Ukrainians. Lower prices combined with mild winter resulted in the estimated benefit for all Ukrainian consumers of over UAH40 bn in Jan-May 2020. Interestingly, prices of long-term LNG volumes is some 50-100% above European market prices today. If Ukraine would have relied on LNG imports, the benefit to customers would be significantly smaller and gas prices higher. Ukraine does not need long term contracts to buy gas in Europe. Another alternative is to seek cooperation with Romania Romania has struggled to find export markets for a large potential production they (ExxonMobil) found in the Black Sea. Ukraine could import gas directly from Romania. Stronger integration of both Ukrainian/Romanian gas-markets would further help increase the security of supply of both countries. Romania has already proven its production potential and could start supplying much sooner than Ukraine (perhaps already in the coming 3-4 years) and Ukraine with its vast gas-storage possibilities could dedicate part of this to Romania in return. Growing challenge for Naftogaz to reduce dependence on gas imports, to increase production of Ukrainian gas and reduction of gas demand Most of Ukraines proven gas reservoirs are already opened for production: 99% of Naftogaz blocks with proven reserves are into production today. Naftogaz, like all companies in the Oil & Gas sector, invest every year to counter that decline. In fact, about two-thirds of Naftogaz investments are dedicated to this cause. Therefore, Ukraine must find new reservoirs in order to grow gas-production. Industry prognoses of further resources of Ukraine amount to more than 4 trillion m3. This could triple the amount of resources Ukraine has brought into production to date. Investment in own gas can deliver an extra 3% GDP every year Due to the war with Russia, the annexation of Crimea and part of Black Sea, doubts about rule of law in Ukraine and uncertainty about regulation, international oil & gas companies have now all-but-one left the country. Ukraine is therefore at its own to find and invest in new reservoirs. After new reservoirs are found, foreign companies may however be excited to come (back) to Ukraine: With less risk, a stronger case for investment can be made. Naftogaz and Ukraine should welcome those partners at that stage and be prepared to share some of the benefits of increased production with those that are willing to invest alongside with Naftogaz. This is because Ukraine needs much more investment capital than Naftogaz (or Ukraine) will be able to make available. Also Naftogaz role will have to shift to becoming an orchestrator that leads the identification of new reservoirs, who undertakes the initial investments to prove their size and who brings on board experienced investors to accelerate production from those new reservoirs. Over the coming 10 years, Ukraine should attract some $2-3B investments, annually. With Offshore, this number should be higher even. The Oil & Gas sector in this way may become one of Ukraines pillars of economic growth, delivering an extra 3% points GDP growth every year for the coming 10 years. An exciting perspective lies ahead! Even if youve never lived with a dog, it doesnt really take much to be blessed by their love and affection. A few moments of petting and quick belly rubs is all it takes for these furballs to find their way to you any time you are in their vicinity. Theyll come tumbling down the streets, all with wagging tails and cheerful barks welcoming you to start with the playtime already. And if you happen to throw in a few treats, you can easily become their number one human for extending that kind gesture apart from spending time with them. If a time comes to protect you, they will form the first line of defense, fighting until they have neutralised the threat. Pexels Now imagine living with such furry balls of joy. The depth of love and attachment you will mutually come to feel shall know no bounds. The connection is such, you will come to depend on each other without even realising it. Their loyalty and selfless love is unparalleled, just like these five dogs who loved their owners so much, they never stopped waiting for them to come back even after the owners passed away. 1. Dog Waits For Days For Owner Who Committed Suicide Pear Video A loyal dog in Wuhan instantly became an internet sensation after it was reported that he had been waiting on a bridge after witnessing his owner jump off the bridge. Reportedly, the dog sat by the pavement of Yangtze Bridge for four days continuously when a local resident noticed him. 2. Waited For 3 Months At The Hospital Where Owner Died Of COVID-19 Twitter thandojo When his human was admitted to a hospital after contracting the coronavirus infection in February, a seven-year-old Xiao Bao sat waiting in the lobby of Wuhan Taikang Hospital for him to return. Unfortunately, the owner died five days after being admitted, but the unaware dog kept waiting for three long months for his owner. 3. Dog Waits At Accident Site For Owners Return NAFPAKTIANEWS WEB TV-YOUTUBE In the Greek town of Nafpaktos, a loyal dog patiently waited for his owner at the spot where he met with an accident, and eventually died. Since the loving pet wouldnt move from the spot, locals erected a roadside shrine where the dog endlessly waited for his master for a year and half. 4. Dog Waits For Dead Owner In The Middle Of The Road Pear Video Unable to accept the passing of its owner, a loyal dog waited for her at the spot where she was hit by a car in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. Last heard, the dog had already been waiting for its owner in the middle of the road for over two months, at the very spot where she lost her life. 5. Dog Who Didnt Leave His Dead Owners Grave Metro-AFP Getty Images Following the massive floods in Rio De Janeiro in 2011, Cristina Cesario Maria Santana and her family lost their lives, The family was survived by their pet dog Leao who helped rescuers discover the bodies of his owner and the family. But even after their burial, Leao refused to leave their side and sat by their graves for weeks until an animal organization rescued him. michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. [music] Today: Long before the world understood that seemingly healthy people could spread the coronavirus, a doctor in Germany tried to sound the alarm. Matt Apuzzo on why that warning was so unwelcome. Its Thursday, July 9. michael barbaro Good. OK, so were going to get started. camilla rothe Very good, OK. michael barbaro So youre recording, right? camilla rothe Yep. michael barbaro You are recording, and Im recording. So I think we can michael barbaro Matt, tell me about this doctor in Germany, Dr. Camilla Rothe. matt apuzzo Yeah, she is a tropical medicine specialist, basically an infectious disease specialist. Shes at the Munich University Hospital. Shes at the infectious disease clinic there. And shes part of this network of doctors around the world that serve as kind of like an early detection system. camilla rothe We mainly work with returned travelers, as well as with migrants from tropical destinations and who may import even novel pathogens. matt apuzzo They kind of report back to major health organizations, like, hey, Im seeing a weird virus over here, or Ebola case pops up over here, or heres a weird thing. camilla rothe In Germany, we are responsible for anything exotic. michael barbaro And so what prompted you to begin talking to her? matt apuzzo So January 27, this patient in Munich 33-year-old employee from an auto parts company walks into her clinic. And right away its pretty clear something weird is going on. camilla rothe He informed us that when he came to work in the morning, hed been told by his boss that a business partner whod visited the company the week before, coming from China, had just phoned. And shed said that on the weekend back home in China, shed been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus infection. And hed actually been ill over the weekend himself. And hed asked us whether he could be checked for this new virus at our institution. michael barbaro And this was January 27, so had the coronavirus been detected in Germany? camilla rothe No, not yet. michael barbaro So what were you thinking when this man came into your office? camilla rothe Well, it was January. It was a time of year when there are lots of respiratory infections circulating. In fact, its the peak of the influenza season. And hed been very unspectacularly ill over the weekend, so it could have been anything. In contrast, the pictures that we received from China by then were pictures of a very serious disease people being on ventilators, et cetera. So I thought, well, I mean, interesting story, but this could be anything. And we took a swab from his nasal pharynx and sent it to the lab. And a few hours later, I was phoned by the lab and informed that, in fact, the test tested positive for the novel virus. michael barbaro Huh. So at this point, you have just been told that you have the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Germany. And based on what you knew about the contact that had brought him to you in the first place, what were you thinking about that? camilla rothe That was quite a puzzle, because Id obviously grilled him on the fact whether the Chinese business colleague appeared in any way ill. Had she coughed, or did she have a runny nose, or did she look ill in any way? And actually, he said she had held quite intense business workshops and meetings without showing any obvious signs of illness. And then on day two, which was the Tuesday, more employees of the company came to our clinic. And another three, all of them with very minor mild symptoms, were tested positive. That was the point when I thought, we need to spread the news to get this out to the world. And we contacted The New England Journal of Medicine, and they were interested. And it was very rapidly accepted and put online for people to read it. michael barbaro Matt, this paper that Dr. Rothe publishes, what does it find? matt apuzzo On the surface, its a really simple straightforward paper. It just says, we had this weird case with this guy who tested positive for the coronavirus, and the person he caught it from didnt appear to have any symptoms. And thats kind of weird because thats not what we think is supposed to happen with this disease. So we thought it was important to just put it out there, and this could have serious ramifications. Just telling the world. In a nutshell, thats all it really says. michael barbaro Well, help me understand that. For people who dont work in the world of infectious diseases, what is the significance of this mans diagnosis? matt apuzzo Its funny. You look back now at the end of January, and its sort of like youre looking at another time, another world. Were still trying to find out what this disease is. And so the assumption kind of was, well, this is probably going to behave like SARS, because their genetic cousins. So good chance its going to spread like that. And the thing about SARS is, you dont spread it until you are sick. Until you have symptoms, you are not really contagious. camilla rothe So if a disease behaves like that, it is much more easy to control. Its easy to define what a case is, who is a suspect case, someone who has symptoms. And if you ask these people to stay at home, you have already a good means to contain the virus. Now, if you have a virus that behaves differently, like what we had observed, which spreads before it even causes symptoms, this is much more difficult to control because people would never go for a test. They are not aware they are infected. They are mixing with people in the same way that they normally do with colleagues, with friends, with loved ones. So its far more difficult to contain an infection like that. michael barbaro So this just flew in the face of the common understanding of the virus at that point. camilla rothe Absolutely. And then something strange happened that I personally dont fully understand until today. matt apuzzo What Dr. Rothe didnt know was that around 20 minutes away, in this sort of suburb of Munich, in the regional health office, they were starting up a command center basically to do all the tracking and the tracing and all of the stuff that needed to be done. And the doctors there were working on their own paper that they were going to get published in a different journal. And so now youve got two separate groups of scientists writing on the same case for different journals. michael barbaro And what did this group 20 minutes away, what did they find in their paper? matt apuzzo Its really, really similar. So whereas Dr. Rothe says, this woman is not symptomatic and she says that because this woman is leading two days of business meetings and shes not sneezing, shes not coughing. Shes not showing any signs of being fatigued or feverish or in any way sick. The government doctors, after extensive interviews, they come back and say, yeah, but we dont think the Chinese patient had no symptoms. We think she was probably experiencing some symptoms that were so mild that even she didnt recognize them. And so this dispute became, does she have no symptoms, or does she have such mild symptoms that even she doesnt recognize that shes sick? michael barbaro OK, so Dr. Rothe has published a paper saying that the patient had no symptoms. This government agency has now published a paper saying that she had early, essentially undetectable symptoms. So whats the significance of that distinction? matt apuzzo So this has been the story of my life for the past however many months. The amount of time Ive spent in conversations about the word asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic or oligosymptomatic or any of these words, right? What does it mean? If you are somebody who studies diseases, and you are somebody who really wants to understand the characteristics of this new virus, well, then obviously you want to know what exactly needs to happen before you can become contagious. Can you be just a passive carrier? Can you just walk around spreading this thing and youll never get sick? Is that a real thing that happens? Or does it only spread after you get symptoms? Or does it only spread when you have mild symptoms? That is a real distinction in the scientific world. michael barbaro Right. matt apuzzo However, from a practical standpoint of what youre going to tell the public and how youre going to control this disease, if you wake up in the morning and youre like, aw man, my neck is kind of stiff, I probably just slept wrong. And then you go into work and you infect people, what does it matter whether you are pre-symptomatic, whether that neck ache was actually an early sign that you were getting sick and you just didnt recognize it? If your strategy is, if you are sick, stay home, that all falls apart if you can spread this disease before you even know youre sick. michael barbaro In other words, any version of not feeling sick is a huge danger when it comes to this virus. matt apuzzo Absolutely. Because it means, I dont recognize that Im a danger to you. And you dont recognize that youre a danger to me. And I dont recognize that youre a danger to me. And we all walk around and we dont know that we can make each other sick. camilla rothe Whether this person is ever going to be symptomatic or not doesnt really matter. What the key message is, you can infect other people without knowing that youre infected. I think the somehow sad thing is that this semantic debate which is OK between scientists and so on, but its slightly splitting hairs this debate somehow obscured the message we wanted to send out. And was somehow misleading, because its led us away from the core message to say, guys, keep your eyes open. This virus may spread without people knowing. matt apuzzo So this all would have been a kind of academic discussion between two groups of doctors in Germany. But at the beginning of February, a couple of days after Dr. Rothes paper came out, this thing completely escalated. [music] And what happened was, Science Magazine, a very respected journal, wrote a story in which the German national health official said, Dr. Rothes paper is flawed. She never interviewed the woman. We dont think she was asymptomatic. We do think she had symptoms. And now suddenly, this issue that might have otherwise been a very academic debate is now front and center in the national discussion over what exactly are the characteristics of this new virus. camilla rothe We were accused of, how can you claim someone is asymptomatic when you havent talked to him? So if you like, this is formally a correct accusation, so the correct title could have been pre-symptomatic because the patient then developed symptoms at some point. But that was a slightly misguiding debate we were somehow sucked into then. michael barbaro And Matt, as best you can tell, is there validity to this critique from the government scientists of Dr. Rothes paper and her findings? matt apuzzo Yeah, I mean, I think theres definitely a fair critique that she should have interviewed the Chinese patient before asserting that she had no symptoms. camilla rothe Which, by the way, wouldnt have been our role because we are physicians. Its none of our business if anyone should have spoken to her, then the public health authorities of Bavaria. And they did. And they kind of summarized their phone call to say, she didnt have any symptoms while she was in Munich. All she had was what she already knew as a feeling of jet lag and, well, the way you feel after a long distance flight. And she herself had not noticed anything abnormal to the situation until the Thursday when shed returned to Shanghai and she fell ill, when she had chills and fever and cough and all that. matt apuzzo So as if this debate couldnt get any bigger, its now going to go totally global because the worlds leading health organization, the W.H.O., is about to weigh in. [music] michael barbaro Well be right back. matt apuzzo So the morning of February 4, Dr. Sylvie Briand from the World Health Organization tweets the science article, and she says, It is important to differentiate asymptomatic from pre-symptomatic transition. 2019-nCoV study claiming new coronavirus can be transmitted by people without symptoms was flawed. And so now everybody whos on the frontlines of this discussion is now basically saying Dr. Rothe got it wrong. camilla rothe And that, of course, was disappointing in a way to see that even the highest-ranking somehow health authority didnt get a very simple clinical message, but also got lost in semantics. michael barbaro Matt, why did the W.H.O. take the step of publicly disputing and criticizing Dr. Rothes finding? matt apuzzo I think theres a couple ways to look at it. And one is that if you are the World Health Organization, and you jump in with two feet into this idea that this disease can spread without symptoms, it is a seismic change in the way we think about Covid-19, and has massive ramifications for public health policy in every country in the world. So of course, they need to be cautious. They cant just go, oh my god, heres an observation by one doctor with one patient, and were going to change the worlds policies based on that. Thats unrealistic. But whats really confusing about all this is it didnt take very long until it wasnt just Dr. Rothe in Munich. Because the Bavarian health authorities get genetic information back, and they find genetic proof that it did spread before symptom onset in two other patients. And so now its not just Dr. Rothe saying, hey, I saw something weird. Now we have mounting evidence from this cluster saying, its pretty darn clear this is happening. And so now you really do wonder, why was the response from the World Health Organization, we dont think this is a big deal? And not, boy, the evidence is growing, were not there yet, but were taking this really seriously. And we should maybe be start thinking about how we would adapt our policies if this really catches on. camilla rothe I would have expected a very neutral and curious way and an open way, and to at least take into consideration that this virus might behave different than the other SARS virus that we knew. And that somehow didnt happen. I dont understand why it wasnt. I still dont understand. Maybe one day someone will be able to explain to me. I dont know. matt apuzzo I talked to a lot of doctors about this. And there are many who say that you have to look at this from kind of a stark public policy standpoint. This is early to mid February. If you tell the world that this thing can spread before people are symptomatic, before they even know theyre sick, then the next question is, OK, so what do we do about it? We dont have enough testing. We dont have a contact tracing capability to handle this, and we dont have P.P.E. for everybody. What do we do? Weve talked to public health officials in other countries who said, yeah, looking back, we probably could have said, this is looking more and more like a possibility. But thats a scary place to be if you dont have an answer for what youre supposed to do next, and thats kind of where we found ourselves. michael barbaro I mean, I just want to wrap my head around this. Because what you seem to be saying is that theres a possibility that embracing this finding is just too frightening for the people of the W.H.O., because of what it would mean for policymakers in every country of the world. But isnt that the job of the World Health Organization to sometimes scare the crap out of people, even if theres no logical solution to the scare, because they need to know? matt apuzzo So the W.H.O. says they definitely did not do that. That is not what happened. But this issue of should the World Health Organization or other public health officials be scaring the crap out of people, I mean, I get that. But I think most people would tell you no. Because theres a huge danger in telling people, this is the big one, this is it. Because the vast majority of alerts arent the big one. You need people to take their advice seriously and rationally and not feel like, oh, here comes another alert. And so its like they got to constantly straddle this line between, I need you to hear me and take this seriously, but I cant also get crazy and say, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, this is the one, tbjs is the one. Because if its not the one and most arent then the next time, youre just not going to listen. [music] michael barbaro Matt, what is the implication on the ground of organizations like the W.H.O. resisting this idea that there is symptomless spread? What does that actually mean throughout the world? matt apuzzo Well, I mean, so Im in Belgium. And heres a practical example. Belgium locked down nursing homes and said, you cant visit if youre sick. And thousands of people in nursing homes died. And they think that symptomless visitors and symptomless care workers brought the disease in, and they just had no idea that was even a possibility. We had the Diamond Princess cruise off the coast of Japan, where one of the reasons that people were allowed to mix and mingle and go to the buffet, even after a former passenger tested positive, was because, well, we dont think he was symptomatic when he was on board. And then February 29, we get a tweet from the U.S. surgeon general, all caps: Seriously, people, stop buying masks. They are not effective in preventing the general public from catching coronavirus. And its hard to imagine the surgeon general weighing in like that if there was kind of a growing acceptance in the medical community that, boy, this might actually be spreading before symptoms. michael barbaro And of course, now we know that symptomless spread can be curbed, and a primary way to curb it is masks. matt apuzzo Yeah, and now good luck messaging that when youve been telling the public, in all caps, masks dont help. As you look at these moments, it just cost us time. And thats kind of the story of Covid right now. We lost time. [music] michael barbaro So, Matt, where does this debate stand at the moment? I mean, is there a settled understanding of whether or not, and how frequently, someone without symptoms can spread the coronavirus? matt apuzzo I think the best science now is people without symptoms are contributing to the spread of this pandemic. Its significant. We dont know exactly how significant it is. michael barbaro Mm-hmm. But it is clearly something that happens. And because its symptomless, it represents a special danger in this pandemic. matt apuzzo Exactly right. michael barbaro So thats the public health consensus. But given everything that you have just told us, do you think that the public has reached that same conclusion? Has that message convincingly reached the world? matt apuzzo Well, the message is still a mess, right? I mean, we saw in early June, the W.H.O. came out and said, oh, symptomless spreading is really rare. And then they walked it back the next day. And part of what the W.H.O. is still doing is trying to draw this distinction between asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic, and it feels like were right back in February. michael barbaro Right. Were making distinctions that dont mean all that much to people who are trying to decide whether to go to work, whether to go to a restaurant, whether to see friends. matt apuzzo Yeah, and those are life and death situations right now. If I wake up in the morning and I believe that Im not sick, and if the whole policy comes down to me understanding the difference between asymptomatic and oligosymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, then the important message is lost. Im putting other peoples lives in danger with my decisions. michael barbaro Matt, thank you very much. matt apuzzo Good to be with you. [music] michael barbaro Doctor, if German authorities and European health officials and the W.H.O. had taken your findings seriously back in January, despite the fact that it was a single patient, despite the fact that there was a semantic debate around the title of the paper, how do you think it would have made a difference in the state of the pandemic today? camilla rothe Ha. That is very difficult to tell. It would be too easy, even though I would like to say that that could have saved hundred thousands of lives. Had authorities been stricter at an earlier point in time, well, would have people accepted it? This may sound strange, but maybe we needed the drastic pictures that we saw in Italy, when the military had to basically bury the coffins because nobody else could, or the dramatic pictures from New York City. Maybe that we needed, all of us needed that shock to take it seriously and really to pull up our socks to fight the virus. So its very difficult to tell what would have happened had we taken this onboard early on. matt apuzzo Has this experience changed how you see the global health community, your colleagues essentially? camilla rothe Oh, yes, definitely. Definitely. It was a very sobering experience. I still dont know what to make of it. What I really hope is that someone is going to somehow work this up in a, again, in a scientific way to say, what happened? What happened in the heads of people? Why was this unwelcome news? Why was this dismissed? Can we learn from this? Is this, if you like, a cognitive error on the side of decision makers? And what can we do to prevent this from happening again? And I was, to be honest, deeply disappointed by it. But more so, I really wish to understand what was behind it. Im really hoping that one day someone will come and explain to me what the issue really was. [music] michael barbaro Well, Doctor, we really appreciate your time, and we wish you the best of luck. camilla rothe Thank you so much. Thank you. michael barbaro Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today. Amid intense pressure from President Trump to reopen schools, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would issue new guidelines to local school districts. In tweets on Wednesday morning, Trump described the original C.D.C. guidelines, which call for masks, social distancing, staggered arrival times and no meals in cafeterias, as, quote, tough, expensive and impractical. archived recording (robert redfield) But I want to make it very clear that what is not the intent of C.D.C.s guidelines is to be used as a rationale to keep schools closed. michael barbaro A few hours later during a briefing at the White House, the C.D.C.s director emphasized that those guidelines are suggestions, not requirements, and said that he did not want the guidelines to prevent schools from reopening. And in a major ruling on Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld a regulation from the Trump administration that lets companies with religious or moral objections to birth control limit coverage of them under the Affordable Care Act. The 7-to-2 ruling could result in as many as 126,000 women losing coverage for contraceptives from their employers. It was the latest case involving the relationship between church and state, in which the courts majority has sided with religious groups. [music] The Ruby Princess docks at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney, Australia on Feb. 8, 2020. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images) Ruby Princess Deemed Low-Risk Without Info A New South Wales Health medical officer deemed the Ruby Princess cruise ship low-risk mainly because no passengers had been to countries with worrying COVID-19 outbreaks, an inquiry has heard. NSW Health communicable disease senior medical officer Sean Tobin was one of several public health experts who gave the ill-fated cruise ship permission via email to disembark at Circular Quay on the afternoon of March 18. The Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess on Tuesday heard that Tobin had acknowledged the fair number of passengers and crew presented with respiratory systems when deciding on the low-risk rating. But counsel assisting Richard Beasley SC noted Tobin had only seen the Ruby Princess pre-arrival risk assessment form and not the acute respiratory disease logs. The pre-arrival form stated 2.7 percent of passengers or crew had presented with respiratory illness but only 0.94 percent had influenza-like illness, which met the states low-risk criteria of under one percent. Beasley asked Tobin if consideration was given to treat the 0.94 percent by rounding it up to one percent as a precaution. Tobin, who is also the states chief human biosecurity officer, said he didnt believe the one percent was a hard and fast rule, the inquiry heard. He also confirmed he was not aware of an upward trajectory being reported on the ship as he had not been shown the acute respiratory disease logs which indicated daily increases of influenza-like illness or acute respiratory illness from March 15. He confirmed it could have possibly been helpful to see the report before making his assessment but added those involved hadnt discussed disease trajectory as part of their decision-making process. No high-risk passengers and crew was the major motivator for Tobins decision. Youve said the most significant factor was the absence of passengers and crew who had travelled through China, South Korea, Iran or Italy in the last 14 days before embarkation, Beasley read from Tobins statement. Commissioner Bret Walker SC said he thought it was a bit odd that clinical judgements were being made without the authorities having seen individual patient records. There were a number of key factors we were considering, Tobin replied. I didnt see anything in this that would suggest that I should look at the ARD log in more detail. Beasley later told the hearing Tobin now believed the ship should have been classified as a medium risk. But the counsel assisting said he believed it should be high-risk status considering there were 104 suspect cases on board. Walker agreed with the potential high-risk status and asked why people would be left off the ship before test results were revealed. With the benefit of hindsight we may have done things differently but I think one of the things that was weighing on our mind was the impact on those couple of thousand passengers, the senior medical officer said. Tobin told the inquiry earlier he was part of a panel that initially discussed the health and risk assessments of cruise ship entry into NSW and was also involved in providing insight on the states draft cruise ship protocol document. The special commission of inquiry will continue with Tobin on Wednesday. The Ruby Princess has been linked to more than 20 COVID-19 deaths and 600 infections across Australia including a cluster in Tasmania. By Ashlea Witoslawski PHILIPSBURG:--- As part of a mini-series, the Department of Interior and Kingdom Relations (BAK) organized a policy platform meeting on Thursday 4th June, at the Governments Administration Building. The objective of this first meeting series was to lay a foundation as it regards the basic functioning of government and its services. Six presentations were given on the internal procedures of: Disaster Management, Personnel Affairs, the Public Service Center, Department of Records and Information (DIV), Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and Facilities. The overall intention of the series falls in line with the objective of the platform: which is to synchronize policy efforts, share information, build capacity and ultimately elevate the effectiveness and functionality of the entire government apparatus by strengthening the policy level: Connect, Share, And Progress! Overall the policy platform will enhance operational governance by ensuring that all policy workers throughout government is apprised of basic operational aspects within government. The series will continue for the next consecutive three Thursdays. North Korean youth and students march from the Pyongyang Youth Park Open-air Theatre to Kim Il Sung Square during a protest demonstration to denounce South Korean authorities policy against North Korea and defectors from the north, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, June 8, 2020. AP North Korea's anger at propaganda leaflets flown across the border from South Korea shows how sensitive the autocratic regime is to criticism of leader Kim Jong-un, especially at a time of economic difficulties deepened by the coronavirus and sanctions. Pyongyang said earlier in the day it will cut off all phone lines with Seoul starting Tuesday noon, accusing Seoul of turning a blind eye to North Korean defectors and activists sending propaganda leaflets criticizing its leadership. Branding leafleting as a hostile act, the North also vowed to treat the South as an "enemy." "The disgusting riff-raff have committed hostile acts against the DPRK by taking advantage of the South Korean authorities' irresponsible stance and with their connivance," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, using the acronym for the North's official name. A staff member takes out 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) BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A white paper on China's battle against COVID-19 has recorded how the country has worked to defeat the epidemic and helped other countries, providing solid evidence that China's painstaking yet effective efforts can never be downplayed. A white paper is a regular means of elaborating and interpreting China's official stance on key issues concerning the country's core interests and issues with global implications. For an event like the COVID-19 epidemic, it is a realistic way to let the world know exactly what happened. The document of 37,000 Chinese characters illustrates how China coped with this "unknown, unexpected and devastating" disease, and how it succeeded in cutting all channels for the transmission of the virus. The white paper also records how China joined hands with other countries to show why cooperation and solidarity are the most powerful weapons against the disease. Ethiopian Minister of Health Lia Tadesse talks with Chinese medical experts from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou via a video conference on April 10, 2020.(Xinhua/Yin Xiaosheng) It is known to all that the United States has the most COVID-19 infections and deaths in the world. But ironically, some U.S. politicians have been shifting blame and shirking responsibility for their own inaction and incompetence in coping with the disease. They have been fabricating rumors and making groundless accusations against China. But these rumors have even been refuted by scientists and medical experts from the United States. The novel coronavirus is a brand-new virus. When it struck suddenly, no one knew what it was, how it was transmitted or how to stop it, thus making its prevention and control particularly difficult in the beginning. China has made the fight against the virus a top priority, putting people's lives and health first. A series of prevention, control and treatment measures were taken decisively. As a result, in little more than a month, China contained the rising spread of the virus; in around two months, the daily increase in domestic coronavirus cases had fallen to single digits; and in about three months, a decisive victory was secured in the battle to defend Hubei Province and its capital city of Wuhan, laying a solid foundation for the strategic achievements nationwide. An Indian entrepreneur has comes up with an ingenious and ultra expensive way to reunite pet owners with the pets they had to leave behind in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic an all-pet charter plane to fly the animals back to their owners. Deepika Singh, a young entrepreneur and cyber security researcher in Mumbai, came up with the idea of an all-pet chartered plane when she was arranging a jet to fly in some relatives from Delhi. Some of them wanted to travel with their pets, but the others refused, so she ended up having to look for another plane for them. She realized that she couldnt have been the only one to experience this issue, so she devised a plan to reunite pets abandoned during the national lockdown with their owners, without cramming them in cargo shipments. Photo: Angelina Litvin/Unsplash Singh got in touch with private jet aggregator Accretion Aviation, and managed to secure a six-seater private jet for an all-pet flight from Mumbai to Delhi, at a total cost of 9.06 lakh (about $12,000). The price per ticket was set at 1.6 lakh (about $2,100), but if the 25-year-old entrepreneur fails to find six passengers, it will be even higher. Despite the hefty price, four tickets have already been sold, so only 2 seats remain available. I did not care about money. They are like my children. I miss them terribly, fifty-eight-year-old Harvinder Kaur, the owner of two 14-month-old Shih Tzus stranded in Delhi, told The Print. Deepika has spoken to four pet owners. As soon as we get two more pets, we will start the preparations. At the latest, the plane will be ready to fly in the second week of this month, Rahul Muchhal, the owner of Accretion Aviation, said, adding that all necessary COVID-19 precautions will be followed for the animals as well as their handlers. Photo: Pixabay The animals will travel in cages, but because the flight is expected to take several hours, Deepika Singh managed to hire some human carers to accompany the pampered pets on their journey. So we are waiting for two more pet passengers. The six seaters are for human passengers and most of these jets accommodate roughly 75 kg per passenger that adds up to 450 kg or more but these are tiny pets. So many more could fit in, Singh told the Mumbai Mirror. Itll be interesting to see how many pet owners end up paying over $2,000 per ticket to be reunited with their beloved animals. The all-pet plane is scheduled to take off from Delhi to Mumbai in mid June. Coronavirus Lost and Found is an online public archive where anyone can log any losses theyre mourning or solaces theyve found in recent months. By Rebecca A Adelman There is so much to mourn at the moment. Even those of us spared the worst of the coronavirus pandemic are missing things: favorite pastimes, places and people. At the same time, pleasure takes unexpected forms, as we find ways to sustain ourselves and others despite sadness and upheaval. To document the everyday ways people are living and coping with this catastrophe, I launched Coronavirus Lost and Found, an online public archive where anyone can log any losses theyre mourning or solaces theyve found in recent months. Since mid-April, dozens of people from across the United States and the world have contributed posts. I never intended to inventory a pandemic. My academic research usually focuses on the role of emotion in American wartime culture, especially the forms of suffering that often get overlooked in periods of crisis. But like most people, I spent much of the early spring unmaking plans. Canceling weekend adventures, gatherings with family and friends and professional opportunities I had worked so hard to arrange was dispiriting enough. I found the thought they would vanish without record to be unspeakably sad. I created the archive as a space for people to memorialise what could have been and to record what can now emerge, in its absence. Whats been lost Alyssa Samek, a communications professor in Southern California, is expecting her second child and had been looking forward to more frequent swims in the campus pool as her pregnancy progressed. With the pool closed now, Samek writes, she misses the feeling of gratitude for the gentleness of the water holding my body so softly, the beauty of the sunny blue sky above me as I lie back at the end of my swim. Jessica Grim of Ohio, a retired academic librarian and published poet, lost her other life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Myanmar. Grim was 14 months into her 27-month term teaching English to middle schoolers there when coronavirus forced a hasty evacuation. The pandemic snapped Grim out of a landscape of pomelo, rambutan, snakefruit, durian, jackfruit, 15 varieties of mango, 25 varieties of banana, she writes. Lost, too, are the quiet streets at dawn in the Muslim quarter. Other contributors to the archive lament creative projects interrupted and disconnection from the communities that animated their work. For 15 years Steve Loya, an elementary school art teacher in Sterling, Virginia, has run a popular after-school art club, now canceled. In one favorite project, Loya encourages experimenting when the kids build whatever they want out of scrap wood. Normally, the final product is a physical testament to what young people are capable of doing when their imaginations are unlocked and free to wander, Loya writes. This year, the sculptures remain unbuilt. Whats been found Ive been astonished by the weight of all the loss shared in Coronavirus Lost and Found. But Im also amazed by the ingenuity with which people have sought and found comfort, even delight. As the pandemic has scrambled routines, for example, some people have discovered news ways to be with their loved ones. For weeks, the aggressive pandemic response in Israel compelled Ilana Blumberg, who teaches literature and writing at Bar Ilan University, to stay within 100 meters of her Jerusalem home. That made getting her 10,000 steps a day exasperatingly difficult. So on one of the many corona nights, Blumberg writes, she and her 16-year-old daughter threw themselves an impromptu dance party. As they laughed and sweated, Blumberg found renewed wonder at parenthood, marveling that I gave birth to the body now next to me, independent and strong and eager. Jessica Sanfilippo-Schulzs Coronavirus Lost and Found contribution reflects her perspective as both a mother and a daughter. Time feels different these days, she realizes, opening up new ways to experience both those roles. Reflecting on a routine maintained for more than two months now, Sanfilippo-Schulz who lives in Germany says she has found every morning a pleasure for long slow phone calls with her mother, who lives near hard-hit Milan, Italy. And then, I found in my teenage daughter a keenness to cook slow recipes at lunchtime with me. Mara, a health researcher from Seattle, wanted to set new arrangements for co-parenting her two boys, ages three and nine, in the midst of her pandemic routine of juggling, improvising, cleaning, half-working, trying to breathe. Ensuring the kids get one-on-one time with both parents under these circumstances, Mara writes, she has learned to be more patient, understanding, responsive, and appreciative of her ex-partner. She has even discovered compassion for his days without [the children], because I know that emptiness and loss. Losing and finding at once The pandemic is measured on a massive scale in millions of cases, trillions of dollars and a global death toll that ticks upward by the thousands. But as Coronavirus Lost and Found reveals, the losses that truly stagger us are often much smaller. They cant easily be counted, and theyll never make the news. The selected stories I featured here, with permission of the authors, testify to the magnitude of a calamity affecting every facet of our lives. And although the archive requires contributors to categorize their entries as lost or found, the distinction is not so tidy. (Add an entry to Coronavirus Lost and Found here.) When we grieve a loss, we realize how much something meant before it was gone a mournful accounting of past pleasures. And any happiness we find during the pandemic may well be tinged with sadness. As the archive grows, accounts of refreshed hope stack up next to stories of days emptied out. The losses and founds do not diminish one another, but simply continue to accumulate, side by side, no end in sight. Rebecca A Adelman, Associate Professor - Department of Media Communication Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore County This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Mandana Karimi has revealed that she had a huge showdown with Karanvir Bohra while shooting for their new series, The Casino. The two stars almost stormed off the set after their massive fight and the entire crew was tense. However, they ended up becoming good friends during the course of the shoot. In an interview with Pinkvilla, Mandana said that her spat with Karanvir happened right before they were set to shoot an intimate scene. I remember, we were shooting for an intimate scene, and exactly before the scene, we had a heated argument. We both were super annoyed and were on the verge of leaving the set. Everyone around us was quiet after that. But the scene went so well. I mean, it kind of helped us you know, just like how a couple fights and then you end up making love, she said. She added, Initially, we did have our shares of disagreements on a few things but later we became good friends. I would rather put it like Karanvir and I are like Tom & Jerry on the sets, we have literally gotten into fights and arguments and then suddenly things are normal between us. His kids and wife were also in Nepal when we were shooting. I had a great time with them. Also read | Daniel Radcliffe apologises to hurt Harry Potter fans after JK Rowlings anti-trans tweets: Transgender women are women Last month, Mandana was suffering from an eye infection, which was probably caused when her hand that was in contact with chemicals while cleaning the house, accidentally touched her eye. She went live on Instagram and clarified that she was not diagnosed with coronavirus. Guys, educate yourselves, before making any suggestions to anyone. When you dont even know about the symptoms of any sort of sickness, you cant really be a doctor and you cant be making assumptions, she said. Follow @htshowbiz for more The Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBOSE) is expected to declare the result of Class 10 board examinations on Tuesday, June 9. Students who have appeared in the HPBOSE SSC board exams can check their results online at hpbose.org after it is declared. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020 shortly: Check latest updates According to the latest report, the result may be declared at 4pm today. However, it may also get delayed. The HPBOSE Class 10 Board examinations were held from March 5 to March 19, 2020, across 2,227 exam centres, in which around 1.5 lakh students appeared. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Full details here The evaluation process was delayed due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Answer sheets were evaluated by the teacher at their homes. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020 : How to check online Students can visit the official website at hpbose.org On the homepage, click on the link that reads, HPBOSE 10th result 2020 Key in your logging details and submit HPBOSE Class 10 board results will appear on the display screen Download the results and take its print out for future references. New Delhi, June 9 : The Uttar Pradesh Police have arrested a man from West Bengal for allegedly uploading obscene photos of a Noida-based woman on social media platforms. According to the police, the woman had ended her relationship with the accused over four years ago. He used to upload several links to her pictures and videos every day on various social media platforms and used to sell them for money. On May 3, the woman filed a complaint, pursuant to which a case was registered under Section 67-A of the Information Technology Act and the location of the accused was traced to Baruipur in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, where he worked with a private insurance company. A police team was then rushed to Baruipur, where they nabbed him with the help of the local police and brought him back to Noida on June 6. The police seized his phone, which contained the photos and videos he had uploaded on social media platforms. The police said that Twitter has deleted his tweets from its platform, while other platforms like Instagram and Telegram are being contacted for the same. A confidential report into the death of a 22-month-old boy has revealed Queensland child safety officers underestimated his mother's violent ice-addict boyfriend. 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. O'Sullivan and Mason's mother Anne-Maree Lee are both serving jail sentences for his manslaughter. The Queensland Government on Tuesday released the Child Death Case Review Panel report, which was finalised in December 2016. It comes a coroner ruled on June 2 that the Department of Child Safety had failed Mason in 'nearly every possible way'. 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 The panel found there were 'many child protection concerns' about Mason's family life but the case work 'failed to piece these together to consider an overall picture' before Mason died. The child safety officer who visited Mason three days before his death did not know about his stepfather's violent history due to staff turnover. 'As such this may have impacted the assessed level of risk to mother and the children,' the report read. The internal investigation also found Mason was not seen by child safety officers at key moments to identify the abuse and neglect. 'He was not with his mother when staff were having contact with her, despite the fact that he was the youngest and most vulnerable child in the family,' the report said. It was also found the child safety officers were focusing on assisting Mason's mum to leave O'Sullivan and that 'may have reduced the focus on the safety needs of the children'. Further, the danger Mason and his half-siblings faced 'may have been underestimated by departmental officers'. The report said an individual officer could not be blamed for Mason's death but the problems were 'systemic'. William O'Sullivan (right) and Mason's mother Anne Maree Lee (left) pleaded guilty to manslaughter after failing to get the toddler medical treatment 'The panel observed a number of systemic problems evident in this case, which beset child protection systems in many jurisdictions,' the report said. 'Therefore care must be taken in determining individual accountability. 'The panel's report also outlines a number of concerns with office processes and case decisions. 'However, the panel found that there was insufficient information available to determine that further action is required in relation to any individual worker.' Deputy state coroner Jane Bentley gave her findings in the Brisbane Coroners Court last Tuesday and said 'the handling of Mason's case was a failure in nearly every possible way'. '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. A coroner ruled on June 2 that the Department of Child Safety had failed Mason in 'nearly every possible way' '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.' 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. He suffered an agonising death. Ms Bentley told the court her findings contained graphic and distressing details about Mason's life and last days. Baby Mason Jet Lee was neglected and abused by his mother and stepfather William O'Sullivan '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. '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. When Baines heard this, he recalled a book he had read about ethical wills and suggested the patient create one with some guidance from a chaplain. The patient grabbed onto the idea like a drowning person grabs onto a life preserver, and when it was done, he said his spiritual suffering had dropped to zero. Barry Baines, a hospice medical director in Minneapolis and St. Paul and author of Ethical Wills: Putting Your Values on Paper, says he first came upon the concept in the 1990s when he and his colleagues were working on a project about existential pain at the end of life. A dying young man told them his nonphysical pain was a 10 out of 10. Even though this patient was a husband and father, he told us, I feel like Im going to die and there wont be any trace that I was ever on the Earth. Ethical wills or legacy letters, as they are also called, are documents to communicate values, experiences and life lessons to your family, says Abby Schneiderman, co-founder of Everplans , which helps people plan and store important documents in one place online. Rebecca Schreiber, a Manhattan real estate agent, was getting her papers in order after a divorce and decided that, along with redoing her legal will , she would also write up an ethical will for her two young children. It was a way to convey my wishes and hopes to my children, says Schreiber, 42. Baines, is also co-founder of livingwisely.org, a company that, among other things, offers both guidance for creating ethical wills and trains facilitators such as financial planners, hospice workers and those who work in faith communities about how to help people fashion their own legacy letters. No one needs an expert to write their own ethical will, Baines acknowledges, but services like his are a way to prompt people to do it. Everyone is capable of doing it by themselves, he says. But you need that protected time to reflect and write. While the task may seem daunting, most peoples ethical wills arent long, perhaps only a page or two. For those who dont know where to start, Schneiderman suggests writing about their personal history, favorite things, academic and professional life, religious and political views, and hopes for the future. Be creative. Jo Kline, a retired, attorney and author of So Grows the Tree: Creating an Ethical Will, says hers is a slideshow with photos of loved ones and her favorite quotes. Or think of how a favorite hobby can convey to others your passions and beliefs. For example, says Kline, 68, of West Des Moines, Iowa, if you love cooking, take beloved recipes and annotate them with memories and hopes for future family gatherings. Legacy letters can even be accidental. Kline discovered a two-page typewritten letter from her uncle that was saved by his brother her father while clearing out her parents house in the early 2000s. Her uncle had written the letter in 1963 on the back of a church bulletin shortly after his only child had died in an airplane crash. Although the family sent hundreds of letters back and forth between Iowa and Michigan, this was the only one saved, Kline notes. In it, her Uncle Bill urges his brother to take walks, to worry about his mental health as well as his physical health, to keep an open mind and be tolerant of others. When I saw it, I thought, this is my uncles ethical will. But he didnt have any idea what it was called. For many, leaving an ethical will seems like a grandiose idea, that their lives are too ordinary or unsuccessful for them to have valuable insights to share. But the struggles are where life lessons come from, Baines says. Kline also urges those considering writing a legacy letter to perhaps do it at lifes milestones for instance, when you become an empty nester or when you retire. The document can also be one of self-reflection for how you want to live the rest of your life. Its a way to soul-search what I want the rest of my footprint to look like, she says, to ask, What do I stand for? (Natural News) Looters and rioters clearing out grocery store shelves in Chicagos South Side has exposed how vulnerable many communities in the area are to becoming food deserts, or places where it is difficult for residents to find fresh, affordable and good quality food. One of the stores that was ransacked was the Jewel-Osco, located on 75th street. On the evening of May 31, the grocery store was swept clean by looters, and on the following morning, volunteers from the community were called in to help tidy up the store. Looters were still around during the cleanup, but all the Jewel-Osco managers could do was to ask them to be peaceful, as the damage had already been done. Its kind of a sad thing to think about, said William Wright, a resident living near the grocery store. I take my grandma here every Sunday. For many people living near the Jewel-Osco, it was their only option for fresh, healthy foods. Because of the looters, Wright has resorted to purchasing food from McDonalds and water from a nearby gas station. Jewel-Osco isnt the only grocery store that was ravaged. William Calloway, an activist and resident of Chicagos South Side said that at least two other grocery stores near the Jewel-Osco were also looted. Because of this, people now have to either resort to unhealthy fast food or to go out of their way to get to a grocery store in a different neighborhood. Emir Lions, another resident, said that this is problematic because a lot of people dont have a car to easily travel to a different store, and some people dont have any family or friends in the area they can call upon for help. Furthermore, many senior citizens in the South Side cant easily travel. A reporter from CBS 2 even witnessed senior citizens taking buses or walking several miles to bring home groceries they are carrying with their two hands. Calloway remarked that, if Chicagos South Side cant get any help soon or if the situation doesnt deescalate, the situation could get worse. If you have people that are hungry, that are quite angry already, that could escalate to something more disastrous, said Calloway. Democratic Alderman Leslie Hairston, who represents the neighborhood where the Jewel-Osco was looted, fears that many of the stores in her community wont come back once the civil unrest dies down. (Related: Illinois man charged with attempting to INCITE RIOTING; Antifa hijacking peaceful protests to start riots and cause violence.) Listen to this episode of the Health Ranger Report, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about how police officers who kneel before rioters are surrendering the United States to Antifas anarchy. Worst is behind us, says Chicago top cop Since the rioting, looting and demonstrations in Chicago that began over the death of George Floyd, the Chicago Police Department has arrested more than 3,000 people 2,665 arrests were made for civil unrest and disorderly conduct since May 29, while another 788 arrests have been made in connection to looting. During this same time, Superintendent of the CPD David Brown said that officers found and seized 529 guns. Democratic Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot said that the CPD remains vigilant. She and other city officials agree that some organized criminal groups may be using the civil unrest as a cover to ramp up their illicit activities. Despite his boss pessimism, Supt. Brown said that the data shows that the large-scale looting that followed the weekend after George Floyds death was over. Weve had several days of peaceful protests. Minimal arrests for disorderly conduct or civil unrest and looting, he said. For more news about rioting, looting and terrorism in the United States, read up on the unbiased articles at Antifa.news. Sources include: TruePundit.com News.WTTW.com Chicago.CBSLocal.com BlockClubChicago.org Chicago.SunTimes.com According to information released by the U.S. Navy on June 7, 2020, the Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 embarked on U.S. Navy USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) aircraft carrier logged significant milestones this week during Post Delivery Test and Trials (PDT&T) operations at sea. The Carrier Air Wing Eight (CVW-8), is a United States Navy aircraft carrier air wing based at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia. The air wing is attached to the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78). According to information released by the U.S. Navy on June 7, 2020, the Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 embarked on U.S. Navy USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) aircraft carrier logged significant milestones this week during Post Delivery Test and Trials (PDT&T) operations at sea. The Carrier Air Wing Eight (CVW-8), is a United States Navy aircraft carrier air wing based at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia. The air wing is attached to the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78). Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link The Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) Transits the Atlantic Ocean, June 4, 2020. (Picture source U.S. Navy) During Fords largest aircraft embark to date, CVW-8 completed critical milestones on the first-in-class ship, testing secure communications and tactical data links, supporting the use of Network Enabled Weapons (NEW), Combined fixed- and rotary-wing Close Air Support integration, and SIMDIS, a multi-dimensional interactive graphical and video display to playback large events for debriefs. Underway, CVW-8 conducted day and night cyclic flight operations totaling 324 catapult launches and arrested landings, qualifying 50 pilots, including Fords Commanding Officer, Capt. J.J. Cummings. To date, Ford has conducted 3,480 catapult launches and arrested landings with EMALS and AAG. Additionally, during this execution of cyclic flight operations with CVW-8, Ford moved thousands of pounds of inert ordnance via Advanced Weapons Elevators to F/A-18 Super Hornets, employed during Close Air Support and air-to-ground training missions. Executing cyclic operations and arming aircraft with bombs from the ships magazines were firsts for the team. The air wings embark provided the first opportunity for Fords weapons department to execute a full ordnance movement using a lower stage weapons elevator. Performing as advertised, Fords AWEs conducted more than 1,300 cycles during this latest at sea period that enabled the successful transfer of 176 inert bombs in support of air wing operations. Ford's AWEs have conducted over 10,000 cycles to date. Commander, Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 12 also embarked Ford during this underway, marking the first time a Strike Group Commander and staff embarked Ford for operations. CSG-12 was able to successfully conduct all intended command and control operations, control and distribute the link picture, and coordinate with Ford and Truman Strike Group assets as well as higher headquarters. Rear Adm. Craig Clapperton, commander, Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 12 assessed that the Strike Group and ship are ahead of schedule in this important command and control domain. An F/A-18F Super Hornet attached to the "Black Lions" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 213 launches off USS Gerald R. Ford's (CVN 78) flight deck during flight operations June 7, 2020. (Picture source U.S. Navy) The US Navy USS Gerald R. Ford CVN-78 aircraft carrier is able to carry up to 90 aircraft, including the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Boeing EA-18G Growler, Grumman C-2 Greyhound, Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II, Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, and unmanned combat aerial vehicles. The missions of Carrier Air Wing Eight (CVW-8) are to conduct carrier air warfare operations and assist in the planning, control, coordination and integration of nine air wing squadrons in support of carrier air warfare including; Interception and destruction of enemy aircraft and missiles in all-weather conditions to establish and maintain local air superiority. All-weather offensive air-to-surface attacks, Detection, localization, and destruction of enemy ships and submarines to establish and maintain local sea control. The missions of CVW-8 also include Aerial photographic, sighting, and electronic intelligence for naval and joint operations. Airborne early warning service to fleet forces and shore warning nets. Airborne electronic countermeasures. In-flight refueling operations to extend the range and the endurance of air wing aircraft and Search and rescue operations. The CVW-8 consists of 8 Squadrons including the VFA-34 with F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter, the VFA-37 with F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter, VFA-97 with F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter, VFA-213 with F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter, the VAW-124 with E-2C Hawkeye all-weather carrier-capable tactical airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft, the VAQ-131 with EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, the VRC-40 with C-2A Greyhound cargo aircraft, the HSC-90 with MH-60S Seahawk naval helicopters and the HSM-70 with MH-60R naval helicopters. Bengaluru, June 9 : The Karnataka government on Tuesday denied permission to Congress troubleshooter D.K. Shivakumar to assume charge as his party's state unit President on June 14, as a ban on large public gatherings/congregations continues. "By denying permission to it (event) again, the BJP government is indulging in vendetta politics," said Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) in a statement after the state government wrote to him on refusal of permission. Shivakumar wrote to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on June 5 for permission to take charge as KPCC chief on June 14 with an assurance to comply with the extended lockdown guidelines like wearing of masks and maintaining social distancing. "If permitted, I shall take charge in the presence of about 150 senior party leaders at our party office at a special programme, which will be telecast live across the state," Shivakumar had requested in his letter to the Chief Minister. "On June 14, 'Prathijna Dina' (swearing-in day) was to be held at 7,800 locations across the state with over 10-lakh Congress 'karyakartas' (workers) attending it, with safety precautions for Covid and social distancing," said the party statement. Citing the central government's May 30 guidelines during the extended lockdown from June 1-30, the state government said as there was a ban on public events on a large scale, the permission cannot be given to Shivakumar to assume charge of the party post in a public place. A state official said the guidelines permit only 50 people at a public gatherings like marriage or other functions. "Taking charge as the party's state unit President is one of the important events for any political party. Tradition has it that this is done in a big way with huge gathering. In view of the lockdown protocol due to the pandemic, the function will be held without large gathering at a given place and time," said the letter. Though Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi appointed Shivakumar, 58, on March 11 as the KPCC President, he could not take charge as lockdown was enforced on March 25 and extended till June 30, with partial relaxation of curbs on some activities. Shivakumar had cancelled the programme scheduled on May 31 and on June 7, as the central government on May 30 extended the lockdown till June 30. At the proposed event, the party's local leaders and workers in all gram panchayats, municipality/corporation ward areas, block Congress and district Congress offices were to gather at designated places to participate in the programme digitally. Shivakumar's appointment came three months after Dinesh Gundu Rao resigned on December 9 following the party's debacle in the Assembly by-elections on December 5, in which it won only 2 of the 15 seats, while the ruling BJP won 12 and one was won by an independent with the support of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S). Shivakumar is a senior legislator from the Kanakapura segment, about 60km south of Bengaluru in the southern state. Shivakumar's brother D.K. Suresh is the party's Lok Sabha member from the Bengaluru Rural constituency for the second time. He was the party's only candidate to have retained the seat, while 20 others lost in the May 2019 general elections. WASHINGTON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In a new guidance released today, NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, has released best practices for the safe return to work in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown. Download the report: www.naiop.org/safeofficereturn "We are glad to see the gradual and steady reopening of our office workplaces," said NAIOP President and CEO Thomas J. Bisacquino. "We have to do this correctly to keep people safe and to avoid a resurgence of this disease. Commercial real estate is front and center among the economic factors that will lead us out of this crisis." NAIOP offers best practices for building owners: Equipping and Training Staff All staff require training in the proper usage and disposal of personal protective equipment (PPE), the proper application of disinfectants, proper hand washing techniques and social-distancing measures that are in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines. All staff require training in the proper usage and disposal of personal protective equipment (PPE), the proper application of disinfectants, proper hand washing techniques and social-distancing measures that are in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines. Cleaning and Disinfecting Adopting advanced cleaning and sanitation protocols is one of the most immediate and important steps that building owners must adopt to improve occupant health and safety. Adopting advanced cleaning and sanitation protocols is one of the most immediate and important steps that building owners must adopt to improve occupant health and safety. Inspection and Maintenance Maintenance staff need to thoroughly inspect buildings for any damage that might have occurred during vacancy and to ensure that all building systems are in good working order. Maintenance staff need to thoroughly inspect buildings for any damage that might have occurred during vacancy and to ensure that all building systems are in good working order. HVAC Systems HVAC systems are of particular importance due to their role in circulating and purifying the air. Prior to reopening, conduct an air flush of the building to reduce pollutants and particulate matter in interior space. HVAC systems are of particular importance due to their role in circulating and purifying the air. Prior to reopening, conduct an air flush of the building to reduce pollutants and particulate matter in interior space. Facilitating Social Distancing and Hygiene Use signs to identify the safest routes for foot traffic within buildings. Where possible, owners should collaborate with tenants to identify and demarcate one-way traffic flows that allow occupants to circulate within the building without passing each other in narrow corridors. Use signs to identify the safest routes for foot traffic within buildings. Where possible, owners should collaborate with tenants to identify and demarcate one-way traffic flows that allow occupants to circulate within the building without passing each other in narrow corridors. Screening for Coronavirus Symptoms Building owners should consider screening their own staff for fevers and asking employees to monitor their health for other symptoms of the coronavirus. Temperature checks would normally be considered a medical exam and restricted by the Americans with Disabilities Act, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has updated its guidance to employers, permitting them to screen employees for fevers due to the coronavirus outbreak. Building owners should consider screening their own staff for fevers and asking employees to monitor their health for other symptoms of the coronavirus. Temperature checks would normally be considered a medical exam and restricted by the Americans with Disabilities Act, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has updated its guidance to employers, permitting them to screen employees for fevers due to the coronavirus outbreak. Entry and Receiving Protocols Staff can reduce the number of building entrances to more easily direct entrants to monitored routes that receive additional cleaning. Staff can reduce the number of building entrances to more easily direct entrants to monitored routes that receive additional cleaning. State and Federal Guidelines for a Phased Return to Work Building owners should frequently consult the most recent state and local regulations that apply to their buildings and tenants, as guidelines are continually being updated. NAIOP also offers best practices for tenants: Communication is Key Fears about the virus are likely to be a significant and ongoing concern for employees during the outbreak. Encourage employees to express their concerns so that they can be effectively addressed. Solicit input through emails, surveys and virtual suggestion boxes. Once employers develop new protocols for returning to the workplace, these must be communicated clearly and frequently to employees through emails, virtual meetings and virtual training. Fears about the virus are likely to be a significant and ongoing concern for employees during the outbreak. Encourage employees to express their concerns so that they can be effectively addressed. Solicit input through emails, surveys and virtual suggestion boxes. Once employers develop new protocols for returning to the workplace, these must be communicated clearly and frequently to employees through emails, virtual meetings and virtual training. Reconfiguring Work Arrangements Employers should consider returning their employees to the office in phases until the outbreak is no longer a major threat to public health. To allow more employees to access the office while maintaining safe spacing, employers can place non-vulnerable employees on a rotational schedule so that they alternate between days in the office and days at home. Employers should consider returning their employees to the office in phases until the outbreak is no longer a major threat to public health. To allow more employees to access the office while maintaining safe spacing, employers can place non-vulnerable employees on a rotational schedule so that they alternate between days in the office and days at home. Reconfiguring Space Most employers will need to reconfigure office interiors to adhere to physical-distancing measures. In offices where employees do not already sit six feet apart, employers will need to increase the space between them. This can be accomplished by a combination of measures assigned seating, employees alternating workdays in the office, moving desks farther away from each other, and removing chairs from desks or shared workstations. Most employers will need to reconfigure office interiors to adhere to physical-distancing measures. In offices where employees do not already sit six feet apart, employers will need to increase the space between them. This can be accomplished by a combination of measures assigned seating, employees alternating workdays in the office, moving desks farther away from each other, and removing chairs from desks or shared workstations. Be Ready for a Second Wave Employers should prepare for the possibility that a second wave of infections could force them to close their office again. To that end, they should have a plan in place for a smooth transition to a remote work environment. Employers can review the steps they took during the initial closure to identify measures that worked well and those that did not. Communicate any plan to employees so that everyone is prepared should they need to return to teleworking. Download NAIOP's complete guidance. SOURCE NAIOP (Newser) Critics say an enthralling performance by Elisabeth Moss as horror writer Shirley Jackson is one of the best things about Shirley, which the New York Times describes as a "gothic, feverish anti-biopic." The 1950s-set movie, very loosely based on the reclusive writer's life, begins with a young couple moving into the unhappy Bennington, Vermont, home that Jackson shares with her husband, philandering professor Stanley Hyman. Josephine Decker directs. Shirley, which was released on Hulu and at drive-in theaters, currently has an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Four takes from critics: Decker and screenwriter Sarah Gubbins "weave the reality of Shirleys struggles with agoraphobia and anxiety into a fictional horror story of sorts," writes David Sims at the Atlantic. He says Shirley has given Jackson the "unsettling and incisive" treatment she needs. "Though this is a highly specific period piece, Shirley's claustrophobia resonates loudly in 2020, especially because Decker renders it with inimitable panache," he writes. story continues below AO Scott at the Times describes the movie as "equal parts term paper and gothic nightmare." Jackson, he writes, is "much too interesting" to be the subject of a conventional, mainstream biopic. "Instead, Decker and Moss approach Jackson as if she were a character in her own fiction, which is to say as an object of pity, terror, fascination, and awe rather than straightforward sympathy," he writes. "Shirley is a mystery and a monster, and Shirley is at once a sincere tribute and a sly hatchet job." The "increasingly claustrophobic psychological drama" is "prickly" and "unnerving," according to Jake Coyle at the AP, who praises Moss's performance and Decker's directing. With her fourth film, Decker "has firmly established herself as a director of intense and immersive craft," he writes. "Her filmmaking, cunning in its perspectives, is intricately tied to the psychologiesand sometimes the psychosesof its characters." Mick LaSalle at the San Francisco Chronicle describes Shirley's story as "a kind of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? situation, albeit less fun." He found it only "intermittently interesting," but says an "extraordinary" performance from Moss tips it "into the realm of recommendation." (Read more movie review stories.) UK Police To Gain New Powers to Question Individuals Suspected of Espionage Sputnik News 16:01 GMT 08.06.2020(updated 16:30 GMT 08.06.2020) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Law enforcement officers at the United Kingdom's ports will be given greater powers to detain and question individuals suspected of espionage, according to a government statement on Monday. "Schedule 7 is already a vital tool for police to protect the UK from terrorist threats, and I am pleased that subject to Parliament's approval police will be able to use Schedule 3 to protect us from hostile state actors", Security Minister James Brokenshire said in the government statement. The measures were first proposed as part of the government's Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act, which was introduced in 2019. The so-called Schedule 3 measures, which will give the police the ability to question individuals suspected of espionage, require parliamentary approval before entering into force. The government has also updated the so-called Schedule 7 powers, which allow law enforcement officers at UK ports to detain individuals suspected of terrorist activity. According to the UK government, the new measures are in response to the death of Dawn Sturgess, who died after being poisoned by a nerve agent in the town of Salisbury in 2018. Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were also exposed to the harmful substance. London has accused Moscow of being responsible for the incident. Russia has continually refuted all allegations of involvement in the poisoning and has stated that UK officials have yet to offer credible evidence. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The coronavirus and agency shakeups are making NASA's goal of landing people back on the Moon in 2024 seem less likely. Why it matters: The Trump administration has hung its hat on the Artemis Moon program as its defining space policy, with the goal of accomplishing the first crewed landing before the end of President Trump's second term if he is re-elected. "I think basically, making 2024 would be a miracle," John Logsdon, the founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told Axios. What's happening: The coronavirus pandemic forced NASA to shut down much of the work involving its Space Launch System rocket, designed to bring people to the Moon's surface. That likely compounds delays announced earlier this year to the first uncrewed test flight, called Artemis I, of the SLS and Orion capsule. "It is still too early to predict the full impact of COVID-19, but teams are working at the best possible pace to move the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft toward the launch of Artemis I," NASA spokesperson Kathryn Hambleton told Axios via email. NASA says it intends to make up lost ground on development of the rocket and spacecraft by optimizing testing and operations at Stennis Space Center and Kennedy Space Center. The space agency also put the restructuring of its human spaceflight operations on hold, and the agency's head of human spaceflight, Doug Loverro, resigned suddenly in May. Between the lines: That restructuring is more than a minor bureaucratic roadblock to a Moon landing. "One of the important things about Apollo was that it had exceptionally good management and consistent and steady management throughout the program," the Planetary Society's Casey Dreier told Axios. The Trump administration asked Congress for an influx of funding for the Artemis program for fiscal year 2021 in February, but NASA likely won't see that extra funding before the end of Trump's first term. And if NASA is funded under a continuing resolution ahead of the election, it will further set back the agency's plans. "Every month counts at this point if you're looking at 48 months to landing on the Moon," Dreier said. What they're saying: Despite recent setbacks, the Trump administration says Artemis is still on track. "By 2024, our astronauts will return to the lunar surface to establish a permanent presence and the launching pad to Mars," Trump said after SpaceX's first crewed launch on May 30. Meanwhile, NASA is continuing to award contracts for the program to private industry partners, funneling much-needed funds to companies during the coronavirus pandemic. The agency will rely on private companies to build human-rated lunar landers, a complicated piece of hardware expected to take a fair amount of time and millions of dollars to develop. But while these types of partnerships may save money, they don't necessarily get new systems flying more quickly, according to Dreier, who referenced NASA's lengthy Commercial Crew development as an example. (The program originated under the Obama administration and took six years to come to fruition last month.) What to watch: If Trump doesn't win a second term, it's unclear whether the 2024 deadline would stick. It's not yet known exactly what Joe Biden would take on as his space agenda if he were to be elected. Go deeper: NASA passes the torch Editor's note: This story has been updated to include further comment from NASA. New Delhi, June 9 : Nepal's House of Representative has unanimously endorsed the Constitution Amendment Bill to adopt a new map of the country which includes Indian areas of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura, according to media reports in Nepal. The proposal was backed by Nepal Communist Party headed by Prime Minister K.P. Oli, the opposition Nepali Congress and Madhesi -based parties. Nepal's Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shivamaya Tumbahangphe had on May 30 tabled the bill for discussions in the Parliament to update the country's map and amend the Constitution. On May 28, India had said that it was open to engage with Nepal on the basis of mutual respect and in an environment of trust to resolve the boundary issue. This came after Nepal had issued a new political map which included Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani, areas which have been part of the Indian territory. On May 8, after Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a new road connecting the Lipulekh pass in Uttarakhand with the Kailash Mansarovar route in China, Nepal had protested against it and threatened to put up a security post in the area. Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer biotherapeutics and reagents, is pleased to announce that a BAMS (bead-assisted mass spectrometry) diagnostic test for the COVID-19 infection, being developed with its partner Adeptrix (Beverly MA, USA), has reached the prototype stage and can detect the coronavirus spike protein in model samples in the concentration range appropriate for a clinical diagnostic test. The BAMS assay uses the Affimer reagents specific to the SARS-COV-2 virus recently developed by Avacta to capture the virus spike protein from the sample for rapid detection by mass spectrometry. A prototype assay has now been developed and evaluated by Adeptrix using model samples containing the coronavirus spike protein. The unique method breaks up the spike protein captured from the samples by Affimer coated beads and is able to identify fragments of the spike protein using mass spectrometry, at concentrations in the range found in patient samples generated from standard throat swabs. The combination of the selectivity of the Affimer reagents used to capture the virus spike protein with the precision and accuracy of mass spectrometry detection provides for a very high degree of specificity in the assay. The next step in the development of the final product to run on the installed base of mass spectrometers in clinical laboratories around the world is to evaluate and optimize the BAMS assay using patient samples at laboratory sites in the UK and US which will be done imminently before moving to manufacturing, clinical validation to quantify the sensitivity and specificity and CE/FDA approval for professional use in the summer. I am very pleased with the rapid progress made by our partners at Adeptrix and delighted that the Affimer reagents that we have developed to detect the SARS-COV-2 spike protein are working very well in the BAMS assay. This bodes well for all our COVID-19 antigen test development programs. We are now looking forward to testing the prototype BAMS assay with patient samples in the UK very soon, whilst Adeptrix does the same at a site in the US. This will keep us on track for the launch of a product for professional use in the summer. A COVID-19 BAMS assay could provide highly sensitive and specific testing for up to a thousand samples per day in the hospital setting using standard equipment that is available but not currently used for coronavirus testing thus contributing significantly to an increase in a global testing capacity. We continue to make very good progress with Cytiva on the saliva-based antigen test and I look forward to updating the market soon on both of these product developments as well as future additional partnerships. Dr. Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Avacta Group, commented: Dr. Jeffrey C. Silva, Director of Product Development, Adeptrix Corporation commented: We are excited to apply Avactas Affimer reagents to monitor COVID-19 infection because they are very well suited for large-scale manufacturing and have stable lot-to-lot performance due to it being a recombinant technology. The BAMS assay for the spike protein serves as a useful diagnostic tool because this particular viral protein is displayed on the surface of the virus particle and directly involved in engaging host cells (via ACE2 receptor) during infection. For this reason, the same BAMS assay for the spike protein can also be used for drug development efforts to screen compounds that block interaction with host cells through the ACE2 receptor to prevent virus infection. Future work will include testing Affimer reagents to other SARS-COV-2 antigens, such as nucleocapsid protein. Diagnostic assays to nucleocapsid protein may enhance sensitivity for detection of COVID-19 infection since this is a highly abundant viral protein. Expanding detection to other SARS-COV-2 antigens will enable the configuration of a multiplexed BAMS assay to simultaneously monitor multiple viral proteins for added specificity in the case of future pandemics. The precision and accuracy of mass spectrometry detection using the BAMS assay platform will allow researchers to monitor molecular changes that may occur through the natural evolution of the virus. This announcement contains information which, prior to its disclosure, was considered inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR). Arnab Goswami's lawyer Harish Salve on Tuesday sought exemption for him from appearing before the Mumbai police on Wednesday and also later pending the hearing of the petition. Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to grant Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami exemption from appearance before the city police in a case about alleged provocative comments. A division bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Riyaz Chagla, which was hearing his petition seeking quashing of the FIRs, asked him to appear before the police on Wednesday. Two First Information Reports (FIRs) have been registered against Goswami in Nagpur and Mumbai accusing him of making provocative comments about a community during a news show. The show was about migrant workers gathering in large numbers outside the Bandra railway terminus during lockdown. His lawyer Harish Salve on Tuesday sought exemption for him from appearing before the Mumbai police on Wednesday and also later pending the hearing of the petition. Last month, Goswami moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing of all the FIRs lodged against him. The Supreme Court on 19 May refused to quash the FIRs lodged in Maharashtra and said he could approach the Bombay High Court for relief. During the hearing on Tuesday, Maharashtra government's counsel Kapil Sibal opposed the plea for exemption and said his interrogation was necessary for probe. The bench then directed Goswami to appear before the concerned police station on Wednesday and posted the petition for hearing to 12 June. Patricia "Bonnie" Pointer, of the Grammy-winning family act The Pointer Sisters, has died. She was 69. PHOTO: Bonnie Pointer attends The Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce 98th Annual Board Installation And Lifetime Achievement Awards Gala at Avalon Hollywood on April 10, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Leon Bennett/Getty Images) "It is with great sadness that I have to announce to the fans of The Pointer Sisters that my sister Bonnie died this morning Our family is devastated, on behalf of my siblings and I and the entire Pointer family, we ask for your prayers at this time," her sister Anita Pointer announced Monday in a statement via the group's rep. "Bonnie was my best friend and we talked every day, we never had a fight in our life, I already miss her and I will see her again one day. The Pointer Sisters would never have happened had it not been for Bonnie." MORE: Bonnie Pointer, early member of Pointer Sisters, dies at 69 Bonnie is survived by sisters Anita and Ruth Pointer, as well as by brothers Aaron and Fritz Pointer. She is pre-deceased by her sister, June, who died in 2006. Anita and Bonnie had just released a song called "Feels Like June," in honor of their sister June's memory. It was Bonnie's final recording. Bonnie made five albums with The Pointer Sisters; she and Anita co-wrote the group's song "Fairytale," which became a hit on both the pop and country charts and was later recorded by Elvis Presley. The song won them the Grammy for best country duo or group in 1975, and The Pointer Sisters became the first African-American group to ever perform at the Grand Ole Opry. MORE: Remembering the King: Elvis Presley died 40 years ago today Bonnie also appeared with her sisters in the 1976 film "Car Wash." In 1977, she left the group to pursue a solo career -- her biggest hit was 1979's "Heaven Must Have Sent You." It was after Bonnie's departure that the group found their biggest success, releasing such hits as "Slow Hand," "He's So Shy," "I'm So Excited" and "Jump (For My Love)." Bonnie appeared with her sisters at their Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony in 1994, and at a show in Las Vegas in 1996, when she joined them for "Jump (For My Love)." Pointer Sisters member Bonnie Pointer dead at 69 originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com At his first court appearance Monday, Minneapolis former policeman, Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee on George Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes, was granted an unconditional bail of $1.25 million (1 million). Initially, Mr Chauvins bail was $1 million, but it was upped due to the severity of the charges and public outrage, according to the CNN. But the accused was, upon the urging of the prosecuting counsel, also given an option of $1 million with conditions by Judge Jeannice Reding. The conditions include Mr Chauvin not contacting George Floyds family, being law-abiding, surrendering his firearms and any firearm permit, not working in law enforcement or security capacity, not leaving Minnesota as he awaits trial. The defence counsel did not object to the bail terms, and June 29 was set for the accuseds next court hearing. Mr Chauvin participated in Mondays hearing at the public safety facility in downtown Minneapolis on a video feed from jail, where he has been held for almost two weeks since he was filmed pressing his knee into the neck of an unarmed black man George Floyd, who died in the process. He appeared at the virtual session handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit and a blue mask as he sat on a small table, with Yes, your honour his only words the few times procedural questions were directed to him. Charged with unintentional second-degree murder and manslaughter and third-degree murder, what is before his counsel is to prove that Mr Chauvins action as seen in the video was not what killed George Floyd directly. For each of those charges, if convicted, the maximum penalties are prison terms of 40, 25 and 10 years respectively. Although further charges could be brought, it appears unlikely he will be accused of first-degree murder as prosecutors would have to prove premeditation, intent and motive, the Associated Press reported. It is believed that by bringing multiple charges against the 44-year-old former policeman, who had been in the Force for 19 years, prosecutors widen the chances of a conviction. Since George Floyds name joined the litany of blacks who have been extrajudicially killed by policemen in the United States, the demand for justice and end to police brutality have gained traction across American cities and the world. GEORGE FLOYD: A TREND? On Monday, Democrat lawmakers knelt down for nearly nine minutes in a moment of silence in honour of George Floyd at the Capitol in Washington. Later, they introduced sweeping legislation on police reform. Some state mayors are also considering defunding their police forces. A veto-proof majority of the city council in Minneapolis has publicly expressed support for disbanding the citys force. Mayors in Los Angeles and New York promised to funnel some funds from the police to community programs, USAToday reported. READ ALSO: In Europe, the agitations took a different twist as demonstrators are asking authorities to revisit the continents pro-racism past. In Bristol, a city in the southwest of England, images on social media showed anti-racism protesters toppling a 125-year-old bronze statue of Edward Colston, a notorious 17th-century slave trader, and a prominent philanthropic shareholder in Royal African Company, Englands sole slaving company at the time. Protesters knelt on the statue for eight minutes before rolling it into a nearby harbour. In Ghent, capital of East Flanders, one of Belgiums ten provinces, protesters also defaced the statues and busts of King Leopold II, Belgiums longest-reigning monarch notorious for his brutal regime in the Congo Free State (now DR Congo), which killed over 10 million Congolese. Some authorities in those countries said the actions of the protesters are criminal, but protesters said the monuments are a kick in their faces as they haunt their memories about how their forefathers were enslaved. Yet, authorities insisted that democratic procedures be taken to address the issue, but the agitators said democratic discussions around the monuments have for decades remained within the realm of petitions, columns and unyielding debates. The secretary of the Army recently acknowledged the emotional challenges National Guard members face in their civil unrest response mission, but said soldiers and airmen cannot protest in uniform. Roughly 42,700 National Guard members have been deployed all over the United States since a surge of protests broke out after the May 25 death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis police custody. Read Next: How the Pentagon Could Cut Forces in Germany, And Which Bases Might Be Affected Guardsmen supporting federal and state law enforcement have faced angry crowds that are often verbally and, at times, physically abusive. But on occasion, these citizen soldiers and airmen have also become swept up in the emotion of the demonstrations and expressed solidarity with those protesting racial injustice. A YouTube video, posted by The Telegraph, showed Guard soldiers taking a knee with protesters in Minnesota on June 1. "As a citizen of Minnesota, I am sorry for the loss of George Floyd," Lt. Col. Sam Andrews told the crowd after taking a knee. Andrews later hugged protesters and said, "Hey, we can hear you. Respect our property, and we will respect, 100% preserve and protect the Constitution and your liberties to peacefully assemble and speak the First Amendment." Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy spoke to reporters recently about the issue and said he understands the challenges Guard members face in such a complex time in the country. "We're not allowed really to protest in uniform, but you see the emotions in the country," he said. "In many cases, protesters are hugging soldiers. ... It's a very complex and difficult time. "We are a reflection of the country. We're Americans," he added. The Guard members in Minnesota did not receive any disciplinary action for taking a knee with demonstrators during the June 1 protest, Master Sgt. Blair Heusdens, spokeswoman for the Minnesota Guard, told Military.com. Story continues On Sunday, Guard members from 11 states began leaving Washington, D.C., after a tense week that often showed demonstrators venting their anger directly at Guard forces standing behind shield barriers. But on Friday, a young black soldier with the D.C. National Guard is seen in a Fox News video whispering, "I'm black and I'm proud" as demonstrators shouted the chant. Maj. Gen. William Walker, commander of the D.C. Guard, told reporters that its members have maintained discipline but often feel the same emotions as protesters. "We're all hurting; the nation is hurting," he said. "You know, I have some Guardsmen whose family members came out and criticized them. 'What are you doing out here? Aren't you black?'" As time has passed, the demonstrations have become more peaceful, prompting the Pentagon to dial back the Guard's presence. In the after-action reviews that will follow, leaders will work to reinforce to Guard members the importance of staying out of protests, while acknowledging that "emotions are running high," McCarthy said. "We don't want to punish our soldiers," he said. "A lot of this is we're going to talk to each other; we're going to have very hard, uncomfortable conversations. We're going to listen to each other, and we want to just make sure everybody understands, we don't want to protest in uniform." -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Related: Thousands of Guard Troops Pull Out of DC as Peaceful Protests Continue There are various rabbit holes you can fall down in Venice. From ill-timed selfies to expensive coffee faux pas, travellers have fine and fine again proven themselves as inventive at getting into hot water as they are at getting six months out of two sets of undies and one pair of jeans. Speaking of hot water, two German tourists found themselves in a spot of bother last Wednesday when, around 3pm local time, they undressed near the iconic Rialto bridge, jumped into the water, and swam across the Grand Canal. The two men were then fined AU $1,124 (US $790) and removed from the city. Venice is renowned for its waterways a maze of attractions which usually draws up to 30 million tourists a year. The Grand Canal is the lifeblood of this set up, and is lined on both sides by churches, palaces, and hotels and is thus one of the cities most frequented places. For our two German swimmers, however, these tourist drawcards were swiftly put out of reach as police temporarily removed them from the city. As a police spokesperson told CNN on Friday, members of the citys military police first noticed the two men swimming and began to film them. They then showed the footage to local police, who fined the tourists the standard amount for such an offence. The two men were fined 350 each and were temporarily removed from the city. As CNN reports, The men were temporarily removed from Venice under the DASPO Urbano regulation, which allows authorities to remove a person from a city to maintain public order. Though this fine was unrelated to new pandemic regulations, as Italy begins to welcome visitors back (after two months of stringent lockdown measures) we may see an uptick in police visibility. View this post on Instagram A post shared by (@tam_dolic) on Jun 10, 2020 at 2:42pm PDT This also comes after Italys Foreign Ministry announced EU, UK or Schengen arrivals can now travel to Italy without having to go into quarantine. Read Next As Africa braces itself for a surge of coronavirus infections, both China and the US are claiming to be Africa's greatest supporter, but there is more at stake in this escalating rivalry than simply tackling the virus, writes BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was adamant that "no country will rival what the US is doing" in terms of supporting the fight against Covid-19 in Africa. And he went further to say that "no nation ever has, or ever will" do more to support global health. Mr Pompeo was speaking on a conference call with a small group of African and Africa-based journalists. I was one of them. At the time - last month - I put the bluster about "no nation ever doing more" down to the now-familiar rhetorical habits of the Trump administration, which was evidently trying to polish its internationalist credentials in the aftermath of its decision to turn its back on the World Health Organization (WHO) at the height of a global health crisis. It seemed churlish to point out that the $170m (134m) in new aid that Mr Pompeo was bragging about giving Africa was almost certainly matched - or exceeded - by the donation of just one Chinese billionaire - Jack Ma. But a few days ago, I saw an article about Africa in a Chinese state-controlled media outlet, the Global Times, and was reminded of Mr Pompeo's remarks, and struck by the extent to which Africa has become a part - a small corner, perhaps - of Washington and Beijing's new cold war battlefield, and that - as in the previous, official Cold War - a sudden crisis, like Covid-19, is inevitably transformed into some sort of proxy conflict. Push against multi-party democracy The Global Times article boasted that China's "solid political system" had underpinned its own success in countering Covid-19. And then it went further. Surely now was the time, it argued, for African nations to end their failed experiment with western multi-party democracy - an experiment that had led to inequality, ethnic and religious divisions, violence, and "the destruction of lives and properties." Instead, Africa should follow China's one-party-state path. Soon afterwards, I spotted another article in another state-controlled Chinese newspaper, China Daily, that praised the "domino effect" of Beijing's ambitious "Belt and Road Initiative" in Africa, a giant investment and infrastructure strategy that was accelerating the continent's recovery "from centuries of slavery, colonialism, neo-colonial domination, and now Covid-19". Mr Pompeo's answer to that was brusque. China's Communist Party was imposing "an enormous amount of debt on African countries on incredibly onerous terms that will impact African people for an awful long time". 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 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 01:45:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RIGA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Latvia's center-right government coalition on Monday struck a deal on teachers' salaries, which will be increased in the coming school year starting Sept. 1, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said at a news conference following the weekly meeting with the coalition partners. The prime minister indicated that the coalition partners have only reached a political agreement but that his government will decide on the matter at a cabinet meeting when all the formalities are completed. The pay rise for teachers of Latvia's comprehensive and vocational schools will require a budget allocation of 8.6 million euros by the end of this year and a considerably larger sum will be needed for this purpose next year. "The agreement on raising the teachers' salaries from September means that the minimum salary in comprehensive and vocational education will rise from 750 euros to 790 euros per month," said Education and Science Minister Ilga Suplinska, noting that the wage hike had been approved in 2018 but was never included in the government budget. The minister said that talks will still continue in the coalition on a pay increase for academic staff at institutions of higher education. "We will still debate it in budget talks," the minister noted. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars) Enditem This article is excerpted from the Tow Centers weekly newsletter. To stay updated about the Tow Centers work on how technology is changing journalism, subscribe here. At one of the most tumultuous times in US domestic political history, news organisations are struggling with key questions about both their internal practices and their purpose in a changed world. This weekend, James Bennet, the senior opinion editor at the New York Times, resigned as a result of an inflammatory op-ed authored by conservative US Senator Tom Cotton under the initial headline Send In the Troops. Bennet at first defended the column, which he later admitted he had not read. Yet a statement from the Times which said the piece did not meet editorial standards and an apparent U-turn in support from publisher Arthur G. Sulzberger made Bennets departure inevitable. In a similar flashpoint, Stan Wischnowski, a top editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, resigned last weekend after the newspaper ran the headline Buildings Matter, Too, which provoked a number of staff to walk out, as it drew an offensive equivalence between damage to buildings caused by civil unrest and deaths of black citizens at the hands of violent police. New York Times columnist Ben Smith swept up the problems at his own paper along with those in other newsrooms, including the Washington Post, pointing to the slowly changing demographics within newsrooms as a key reason for growing internal pressure to change editorial practices and norms. He cited an internal document from the Post which reviewed social media practices at the paper. Rather blandly entitled Recommendations for Social Media Use on the National Desk, the document lays out a series of problems familiar to many newsrooms. Editors addicted to commissioning and reacting to Twitter before considering their own staffs points of view, a two-tiered system of censure on social media (one rule for the older whiter male staff members, another for the younger female and non-white staff), and a general confusion over how and why the Post uses social media in the first place. Within the long and detailed document, which was the result of interviews with national desk reporters and editors, there are recommendations for more detailed and up-to-date social media policies which include the views and perspectives of staff members who are more well-versed with social platforms. The Posts document carries many recommendations about how reporters and editors ought to use platforms like Twitter. However, it touches only briefly on how the presence of social media should reform the core outputs of the Post itself: Police opinionated content not only on social media, but also in stories. Consider the effect of giving prominent homepage play to analyses with strong points of view. While Twitter has a small user base when compared to other platformsmere hundreds of millions compared to over two billion on Facebookit remains a central conduit for politicians, reporters, and other official sources, and therefore has a disproportionate hold over both newsroom attention and how coverage is shaped. It is a platform which integrates easily and frequently into every part of the news media, so its impact far outruns its direct user numbers. The prolific use of Twitter by President Donald Trump has only elevated its influence in US newsrooms. The desire of many journalists to spend less time on Twitter is met with the harsh reality that absence from the platform can work to their career disadvantage. Sign up for CJR 's daily email The relationship between journalism and social platforms needs a thorough rethinking from both sides. While the New York Times staff expressed frustration and outrage that the newspaper would provide a platform for incendiary views such as Cottons, the bigger question might be why, when there are so many other platforms available, should news media provide an unmediated platform for a sitting politician at all? Those of use who worked in the news during the 1990s and 2000s are familiar with the arguments that a breadth of opinion in op-ed pages shows a pluralistic outlook that supports free speech, and that those principles should not be tempered by the external pressures of a noisy social platform. However, with the rise of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms that enable politicians to communicate directly with large audiences, the role of the newsroom necessarily has to change. Once, the New York Times deemed it acceptable to run excerpts from Mein Kampf in order to illustrate Adolf Hitlers approach to propaganda. In 2004, the Guardian ran a column by Osama bin Laden calling for Jihad on a similar basis. A lack of alternative routes to audience allowed news organisations to justify publishing unmediated agendas without considering the wider influence of the pieces, or their implied endorsement of those views. If there is any benefit for journalism to the shift in media control from press institutions to platforms as gatekeepers, it is that news organizations can deploy resources more thoughtfully in this regard. Calls to limit violent or offensive views in op-ed pages echo recent debates about content moderation policies at social media companies. The internal pushback to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg after the platform left up a statement from Donald Trump that incited violence against protesters (even after other platforms including Twitter had flagged it) shows that the blurred lines of speech governance are as vexed for the new gatekeepers as they were for the old ones. Social media policies, in as much as they exist, tend to assume there is a well-understood hard bright line between content published on social media and content published in a news publishers own outlet. Therefore, guidelines still focus on journalists behavior and language on social media first, and the interplay between core editorial output and social platforms second. As a result, much of what happens in newsrooms in relation to social media is often left to personal impulse and free from policy. Share buttons on articles are universally applied without much thought as to what their effect might be. Punctuation, carefully crafted by copy editors, is often stripped out and lost on social platforms in ways that fundamentally alter the way a piece is perceived. If a newsrooms style guide included the recommendation Do not place a headline on a piece you would not write yourself in a tweet, then both the Cotton piece and the Philadelphia Inquirer article would have been presented differently, even if their fundamental flaws remained. Social media policies are hard to find on many publishers platforms, and even where they exist in some detail, such as at the BBC or the New York Times, they are both out of date and inadequate. As the Posts document showed, reporters want more rather than less guidance on how to work on social platforms. In perhaps an early sign that the tides are changing, the BBC has brought back former head of news Richard Sambrook to review the corporations rules and use of social media in the newsroom. Perhaps the most critical piece of thinking is still to be done on what the real relationship is between the platform aspects of news publishing and the publishing aspects of social platforms, and how new and old media can work together to both inform democracy and strengthen journalistic integrity. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Emily Bell is a frequent CJR contributor and the director of Columbias Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Previously, she oversaw digital publishing at The Guardian. An online petition seeks the ouster of a Lehigh County commissioner over comments she made on social media. The petition shows comments made by commissioner Amy Zanelli concerning recent Black Lives Matter protests. She said to stop blaming people for looting when those people live in a country that enslaved people for generations in the name of greed. The comment led to further comments on the topic between Zanelli, of West Bethlehem, and her constituents, as outlined on the petition. Zanelli said Tuesday she does not support looting or violence. I wanted to talk about systemic racism in our country and how to fix it, she said. The petition calls Zanellis comments reckless. More than 250 people have signed it. She said the petition from the group Restore Lehigh County is backed by Republicans upset that she and her slate of Democrats won a Democratic majority of seats for the first time since the Home Rule Charter was adopted. Theyre doing whatever they can to be divisive, she said. Restore Lehigh County administrator and founder Robert Hoffman said the group has Republicans, Democrats and independents among its 2,500 members. Zanelli took office in January 2018. Shes a licensed Realtor. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Lehighvalleylive.com. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. DUBLIN, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global and China Automotive Gateway Industry Report, 2019-2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Tenfold Improvement in Gateway Performance Breaks the Bottleneck of Software-defined Vehicles Automotive gateway chip is actually a field with scarcely ever changes in a long period of time, but since 2020, many chip vendors have rolled out new solutions for automotive gateways. In early 2020, NXP Semiconductors unveiled its new S32G vehicle gateway processor which plays a key part in service-oriented gateways and helps OEMs be the data-driven service providers with expanded business opportunities. In January 2020, Texas Instruments (TI) introduced the new Jacinto 7 processor platform on which DRA829V processor is available for gateway systems. In March 2020, ST released the modular Smart-Gateway Platform (SGP) built on gigabit Ethernet communication between the secure and ASIL-B Telemaco3P microprocessor (MPU) and the ASIL-D SPC58/Chorus microcontroller (MCU) to provide a valuable development tool for prototyping automotive Smart-Gateway and Domain-Controller applications. NXP believes that a gateway is a central hub that securely and reliably interconnects and processes data across heterogeneous vehicle networks. It provides physical isolation and protocol translation to route data between functional domains (powertrain, chassis and safety, body control, infotainment, telematics, ADAS) that share data to enable new features. The hardware-centric model of traditional gateways are turning to be a software-based and service-oriented model to support over-the-air (OTA) updates and vehicle analytics with secure communications to OEM servers (cloud), allowing to make adjustments according to the user's preferences, apply safety updates, address warranty and repair problems, address security vulnerabilities, and enable new features that improve the user experience. Service-oriented gateways enriches functionality of traditional gateways, getting data processing and network transmission improved by at least ten times, offering new services, integrating ECUs to be responsive to vehicle data surge. Software-defined cars, already a consensus of the industry, require changes in the automotive system architecture, SOA (service-oriented architecture), powerful gateways and domain controllers. To follow this trend, chip giants have launched smart gateways ten times better than previous products. According to YummyCookiePuff, a WeChat public account, the chips with enhanced capabilities and access to vehicle data make gateway controllers ideal as automotive data servers. In the vehicle design of the domain-based architecture, different domain controllers register services, discover services and use services from gateways. Domain controllers and service-oriented gateways constitute a distributed system inside the vehicle. Automotive data servers with data and computing power are no longer simple route forwarders, not only providing public data storage and sharing services for vehicles but generating new data (such as cross-domain fusion data) from data processing to serve each domain upon demand. Part of telematics data services originally done over the cloud can also be deployed in vehicles, delivering real-time services for automotive HMI and autonomous driving. The design driven by signals and control is being replaced by the data- and service-driven modern vehicle E/E architecture design. Smart gateways exist in many forms: stand alone, integrated with T-BOX, integrated with domain controllers, etc. Now, a dozen vendors offer stand-alone gateways. Gateways needs developing in harness with software integrated such as network security and OTA. Powerful Tier1 suppliers address software problems by independent R&D and acquisitions, for instance, Continental offers cyber security solutions from Argus and Elektrobit for all connected vehicle electronics (Argus is part of Continental's subsidiary Elektrobit). However, less competitive Tier1 suppliers team up with third-party cybersecurity companies. Given the importance of gateways, some automakers work directly with software providers, e.g., GAC Motor partners with Tata Elxsi to develop smart gateway modules. Key Topics Covered 1 Automotive Gateway 1.1 Definition and Functionality 1.1.1 Definition of Automotive Gateway 1.1.2 Classification of Automotive Gateways 1.1.3 Core Technologies on Automotive Gateway 1.1.4 Role of Automotive Gateway (I) 1.1.5 Role of Automotive Gateway (II) 1.1.6 Automotive Gateway and OTA 1.1.7 Criteria for Automotive Gateway 1.2 Development Trends of Automotive Gateway 2 Automotive Network and Gateway 2.1 On-board Network at a Glance 2.1.1 Classification and Comparison of On-board Network 2.1.2 The Rise of Automotive Ethernet 2.1.3 Status Quo of Automotive Ethernet Standards 2.1.4 Development Trends of Automotive Ethernet 2.2 On-board Network and Gateway 2.2.1 CAN Bus Gateway 2.2.2 LIN Bus Gateway 2.2.3 In-vehicle Ethernet Gateway 2.2.4 T-BOX and Gateway 3 Automotive Gateway Suppliers 3.1 Continental 3.1.1 Profile 3.1.2 Organization Structure 3.1.3 Continental Automotive Gateway 3.1.4 Continental Commercial Vehicle E/E Gateway 3.1.5 Continental Commercial Vehicle E/E Architecture 3.1.6 Continental Passenger Car E/E Architecture 3.2 Bosch 3.3 Aptiv 3.4 Lear 3.5 Micron 3.6 UAES 3.7 Jingwei HiRain Technologies 3.8 Neusoft 3.9 InHand Networks 3.10 ZHIYUAN Electronics (ZLG) 3.11 Yaxon Network 3.12 FEV 3.13 TTTech 4 Automotive Gateway Chip Vendors 4.1 Infineon 4.1.1 Infineon Automotive MCU Product Line 4.1.2 Infineon AURIX 2G Chip 4.1.3 Infineon Automotive Safety Solutions 4.1.4 Introduction to OPTIGA TPM 4.1.5 Central Gateway Solutions 4.1.6 Central Gateway Products 4.1.7 Other Gateway Chips 4.2 NXP 4.3 Renesas 4.4 STMicroelectronics 4.5 TI 5 Automotive Gateway Software Providers 5.1 EB 5.1.1 Profile 5.1.2 Classical AUTOSAR Software Stack 5.1.3 Adaptive AUTOSAR Software Stack 5.1.4 Embedded Safety Solution 5.1.5 Collaborations 5.1.6 Other News 5.2 ETAS 5.3 KPIT 5.4 Arilou 5.5 GuardKNOX 5.6 KarambaSecurity For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ebsken 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: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com POOL/AFP via Getty Images George Floyd is to be buried in his home town of Houston after his death during an arrest last month ignited worldwide protests over racial injustice and calls for police reform. A private funeral for the 46-year-old, who was filmed gasping for air and pleading for help as a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck, comes after thousands of people paid tribute at a public memorial service on Monday. One of the speakers announced for the private service was former Vice President Joe Biden, who met with the family on Monday to discuss Mr Floyd's life. He delivered his speech via video and told Mr Floyd's daughter that the father would be "so proud" of his daughter. In contrast, President Donald Trump will remain in Washington DC during the service. A Minnesota judge has set bail of $1.25m for Derek Chauvin, the officer charged with second-degree murder over Mr Floyd's death. Lucknow, June 9 : An expelled Congress leader from Agra has asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to punish and book arrested UPCC chief Ajay Kumar Lallu for allegedly trying to harass him. Expelled Congress leader Mohd Nadeem Noor has sent a message to the Chief Minister in which he said that he had been "mentally harassed" by the UPCC chief. Talking to IANS on Tuesday, Noor said, "I was elected as a district president of Youth Congress in 2015 but when Lallu took over, he deliberately ignored Congress workers and opted for turncoats. When I went to met him during his Agra visit last year in October, he made me wait for more than six hours but met leaders from other parties. I was removed from my post merely because I did not chant 'Lallu Zindabad'. He later expelled me." Noor's Twitter handle is filled with slogans like "Lallu ko bail nahin, jail." He said that he had requested the chief minister to book Lallu under relevant sections of law for harassing a party worker. "Ajay Kumar Lallu should also be booked for the non-culpable homicide of veteran party leader Ram Krishna Dwiwedi who was expelled from the party and died shortly after," he said. Konark Dixit, another 'expelled' leader said that more and more party workers were raising their voices against the UPCC chief who has been ignoring dedicated party workers and was giving preference to those who had recently joined the party. The rebellion in the UP Congress comes at a time when the state unit has launched a 'Sewa Satyagrah' programme to mount pressure for the release of its state chief. Under the programme, the party has set up community kitchens across the state where food is being provided to 25 lakh people. The party is putting up 10 lakh posters seeking the release of its state president. However, veterans and senior leaders in the state Congress have kept away from the programme and are maintaining a studied silence on the issue. Ajay Kumar Lallu was arrested by the Lucknow police on May 20 on charges of fraud and forgery in the list of buses submitted to the state government for migrant workers. The buses had been arranged by the Congress but on verification, it was found that the registration numbers were of two-wheelers, autos and even ambulances. Lallu's bail application has been rejected by the session's court. Henry Ford College (HFC) student Hassan Hammoud is the 2020 recipient of the Rotary Club of Dearborns annual HFC nursing scholarship that was established approximately 18 years ago. A graduate of Fordson High School, Hammoud is scheduled to graduate from HFC in December 2020. In addition to taking online classes through HFC, Hammoud is working full time as an extern at Beaumont Hospital Dearborn in the neurology department. Passionate about the nursing profession, Hammoud shared that his brother, cousin, and uncle are all nurses. Following graduation from HFC, he looks forward to earning a bachelors degree in nursing and long term wants to become a nurse practitioner or nursing instructor. MiKayla Adams received the Archer Veterans scholarship. A student at University of Michigan-Dearborn, Adams is a cadet in the Army National Guard and enrolled in the UM-D ROTC program. She is majoring in communications and will graduate in 2021 as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Currently, she is secretary of the Student Veterans Association and is doing an internship with a foster care organization. When asked how COVID-19 has impacted her life, Adams replied, Not being able to socialize is hard, but its given me more time to volunteer my services. Volunteering at Focus Hope, she delivers food boxes to people in the community. The Archer Veterans scholarship awarded by Dearborn Rotary is made possible by an endowment funded by the Archer family, Dearborn Rotary Foundation, and Spiratex Corporation, a company founded by Hugh Archer, a Dearborn resident and Rotarian who died in 2005. An astute businessman, engineer, scientist, attorney and humanitarian, Archer became the president of Rotary International in 1989-1990 and served as its General Secretary. In honor of Archers service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, the Archer Veterans scholarship was established in 2017. Two years ago, funds from Archer Veterans scholarship were also made available to qualifying participants in the 19th District Veterans Court, a program designed to help veterans in need of mental health or substance abuse treatment and other services. According to Murray Davis, program coordinator at the 19th District Veterans Treatment Court in Dearborn, the Archer funds help veterans with educational expenses to help further their schooling or training as they become contributing members of the community. Eric Rader, Dearborn Rotary president for 2019-2020, thanked Rotarian Lee Hollmann for his service as liaison for the Henry Ford College (HFC) nursing scholarship selected by the HFC nursing department. Both Hollmann and Rotarian Darlene Schoolmaster helped in the establishment of the Archer Veterans Scholarship, whose recipients are selected by UM-Dearborn and the 19th District Court. Rader said, In addition to serving as a liaison, Hollmann has spent untold hours with committee support to document all of our scholarship programs and selection process. In May, Dearborn Rotary announced a total of more than $60,000 awarded to 24 graduating high school seniors in Dearborn. Since 1999, the Dearborn Rotary Foundation has awarded a total of more than $535,000 in scholarships in the different categories. Founded in 1923, the Rotary Club of Dearborn is the citys oldest service organization and is a proud member of Rotary International bringing 1.2 million members in over 34,000 individual clubs together to live the motto of Service Above Self. The events leading to the death of the gymnast and church volunteer are murky. According to the familys lawyer, Korchinski-Paquets mother called police to the apartment after a family dispute and pleaded with them to take her to a psychiatric hospital. Korchinski-Paquet spoke with officers in the hallway, the lawyer said, and then asked to use the bathroom. She was escorted inside by officers who blocked her family from following, the lawyer said. After several minutes, her family heard a ruckus and cries of Mom, help! They later learned she had fallen and was dead. Attorney General William Barr speaks during in a roundtable with law enforcement officials in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on June, 8, 2020. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images) AG Barr Says Trump Admin Will Work on Use of Force Standards, Training With Police Leaders Attorney General William Barr said on Monday that the Trump administration will work with law enforcement leaders to reform policing practices by improving standards and training amid days of protests calling for change following the death of George Floyd. Barr made the comments while participating in a roundtable with law enforcement officials in the White House. He was joined by President Donald Trump, other members of the Trump administration, and law enforcement leaders. During the meeting, Barr expressed the Trump administrations commitment to making reforms in the policing profession, adding that the administration had already taken steps to make changes to the criminal justice system. I know that there is a lot of interest from police leaders for clarity and guidance on the use of force making sure the standards are out there, making sure they are trained and making sure they are adhered to, Barr said. Were looking forward to working with you to get that done. The time for waiting is over. Its now incumbent on us to bring good out of bad, he added. The attorney generals comments come as protests have erupted across the United States in dozens of cities and towns following the death of Floyd, a black man who died as former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest. Amid the protests, some city officials have said the would defund or even dismantle the police. Among them is New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, who said on Sunday that the city will move some of its funding from the New York Police Department to social services, while the City Council of Minneapolis said it will abolish its police department but didnt offer many details. A Defund the Police sign is held up during a protest near the White House following the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody, in Washington on June 6, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) A protester holds a Defund the Police sign during a protest near the White House following the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody, in Washington on June 6, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) The Defund the Police movement, which has been seen during protests and on social media in recent days, calls for reallocating funding destined for police departments to social programs, particularly to assist the African American community. During the meeting on Monday, Trump said that he does not support local plans to reallocate police funding to other programs. There wont be defunding. There wont be dismantling of our police. Theres not going to be any disbanding of our police, Trump said. Our police have been letting us live in peace and we want to make sure we dont have any bad actors in there and sometimes well see some horrible things like we witnessed recently but I say 99.9lets go with 99 percent of themgreat, great people and theyve done jobs that are record-setting, he said. The president also expressed that he was opened to ideas for revamping police tactics, including using gentler tactics. Were going to work and were going to talk about ideas, how we can do it better, and how we can do it, if possible, in a much more gentle fashion, the president said. Trump has urged a law and order approach to the protests, which was echoed by Barr who added that law and order is the foundation of civilization. It is our responsibility to make sure that our country is ruled by law and not by violence, he said. Meanwhile, in an interview with Fox News on Monday, the attorney general said he believes it was wrong to defund the police and hold the entire police structure responsible for actions of certain officers, adding that he thinks it was also dangerous to demonize [the] police. He added that pulling back the police from communities that usually see a high number of gun violence could result in more harm done in these communities. Jack Phillips contributed to this report. (Photo : REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw) A woman donates blood plasma, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Sanquin blood bank in Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 19, 2020. (Photo : REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw) A medical worker wearing a face mask checks a blood plasma donation, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Sanquin blood bank in Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 19, 2020. Injecting survivors' blood boosts the recovery of COVID-19 patients and reduces their symptoms, according to the Daily Mail report. This was according to a review of scientific literature that found convalescent immune plasma cleared the disease on adults under 60 years old in less than a week. Elderly patients will recover from the illness after 10 to 30 days after receiving plasma. Scientists in Sweden and Finland said various studies worldwide indicate the therapy 'is safe and effective.' However, none of the reviewed research compared patients receiving plasma to a control group, which is the gold standard of scientific research. In the first randomized control study in China, early results suggest the treatment makes no difference. Injecting Survivors' Plasma May Boost Recovery of COVID-19 Patients Hundreds of COVID-19 patients in London's Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals are currently being treated with convalescent plasma. They are part of a trial whether antibodies in survivors' blood can bolster the currently affected patients' struggling immune system. In 1918, the treatment used the liquid part of the blood, known as convalescent plasma. This is then injected into COVID-19 patients who struggle to produce their antibodies. The donation process takes around 45 minutes, and then the medical staff filters the blood through a machine to remove the plasma using the plasmapheresis process. Donors who have tested positive for the coronavirus should have recovered already for at least three to four weeks, or ideally 29 days. Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland have recently reviewed 10 studies on convalescent plasma (CP) therapy. A total of 61 coronavirus patients who volunteered in various trials in China, South Korea, and the US were aged between 19 and 100. According to the reviews, half of the patients recovered within the first week, while 40% cleared the disease between eight and 29 days after receiving CP transfusion. Meanwhile, recovery data was unavailable for the remaining patients. While the analysis is not yet peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal, it showed that patients over 60 years old recovered after twice as much time as younger patients. However, there was no indicative disparity in recovery time between genders. "The results reviewed here suggest that CP therapy for COVID-19 is safe and effective.... and created an immediate recovery response in about half of the patients reviewed," said researchers of Karolinska Institute, which is led by Ville Pimenoff. They also noted that the recovery was significantly faster for patients aged under 60. Also, the scientists acknowledged that early results of the Chinese study showed the therapy does not affect COVID-19 patients. "Accordingly, we argue that older patients may need a significantly longer time for recovery. Further randomized clinical trial data for COVID-19 with rigorous ethical standards are urgently needed," they wrote on the academics. As of this writing, no cure is yet found for the coronavirus, which has already taken the lives of more than 400,000 patients worldwide. However, convalescent plasma therapy is immediately available and relies only on drawing blood from a former patient. This is significantly cheaper than developing a new drug, which costs millions and a longer time to take through trials and regulation before mass-produced. Read also: Google Maps to Help Commuters Learn More About COVID-19-Related Travel Restrictions 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal has called an all-party meeting later in the day to discuss the Covid-19 situation in the city and measures to contain the spread of the dreaded virus. The meeting will be held after the Delhi Disaster Management Authority's high-level meet to assess whether coronavirus has entered the community spread stage in the national capital. "The LG has called a meeting with all political parties at 3 pm on Tuesday to discuss the present situation of COVID-19 in Delhi and measures to contain the spread of the same," an official said. On Monday, Delhi recorded 1,007 fresh coronavirus cases, taking the COVID-19 tally in the city to over 29,000, while the death toll due to the disease mounted to 874. To make matters worse, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was down with flu-like symptoms, underwent a Covid-19 test on Tuesday. Kejriwal had cancelled all his meetings and was in self-isolation pending the test. The increasing cases of coronavirus in Delhi have become a cause for concern. It has also triggered a political slugfest, with the L-G on Monday overruling the AAP government's order to reserve Delhi government-run and some private hospitals in the national capital for Delhiites. The lieutenant governor is also the Chairman of Delhi Disaster Management Authority. Australia must join America in a 'new Cold War' against an aggressive and expansionist China seeking global supremacy, a U.S. senator has warned. Republican Rick Scott said it was vital that democracies stand up for each other and prevent China from achieving its ultimate goal of 'world domination'. 'They don't believe in human rights. They don't believe in free trade, they don't believe in fair trade. They don't believe in the rule of law,' Mr Scott told the Sydney Morning Herald. Chinese President Xi Jinping reviews troops from a car during a military parade at Tiananmen Square in October last year Australia must join America in a 'New Cold War' against Beijing to stop China from 'world domination', Republican Senator Rick Scott says 'They believe in world domination by the Communist Party of China. The way I look at it is that the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party has made a decision to have a cold war against the U.S. and democracies around the world.' Mr Scott, a member of the Homeland Security and Armed Services Senate committees, was elected to the U.S. Senate last year after two terms as the Governor of Florida. Considered a China hawk, Mr Scott has previously demanded Beijing be stripped of the 2022 Winter Olympics and demanded a boycott of all Chinese goods. In the interview he urged traditional allies including Australia to help counter the ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party, and said policymakers in Washington had kept a close eye on the escalating tensions between China and Australia. Canberra-Beijing relations have worsened since the Australian Government led a global charge for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus. Pictured: The flag guard formation holding the flag of the Communist Party of China during a military parade in 2017 Senator Scott said Australia and the U.S. should rally together against the Communist Party of China. Pictured: President Donald Trump (second from the right) and first lady Melania Trump (right) welcome Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (second from the left) and his wife Jenny Morrison(left) to an official dinner at the White House in September 2019 Beijing responded by slapping 80 per cent tariffs on Australian barley and banning beef imports from four abattoirs, and threatened a Chinese consumer boycott. 'What I admire about Australians is they will stand for their convictions. Australia, like America, has been working to hold China accountable. We've got to find out what happened here, why it happened and make sure it doesn't happen again,' Senator Scott said. He also commended Prime Minister Scott Morrison for banning Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from Australia's 5G rollout. The senator tweeted about the 'New Cold War' on Tuesday night. 'We know Communist China is our adversary, violates human rights and wants to be the sole global power,' he wrote. 'Real accountability will come when every democracy stands up to Communist China.' Pictured: Military vehicles roll down as members of a Chinese military honor guard march during the parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in October, 2019 A barley farmer is seen in central NSW (pictured). The industry has been hit by drought and now by China's crippling tariff Senator Scott's comments come as relations between Canberra and Beijing reached unprecedented lows. On May 18, China slapped a crippling 80 per cent tariff on barely exports from Australian farmers - already struggling after severe droughts earlier in the year. Australia sends between half and two-thirds of all its barley to China, making the tariff decision a massive blow to the $600 million a year industry. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham is still waiting to speak to his Chinese counterpart about the beef and barley dispute. Chinese tourists take a group photo in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House The Chinese government has also cautioned its citizens against travelling to Australia, warning of a significant increase in 'racist attacks' during the coronavirus pandemic. The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a statement on Friday that 'Asian people' were being targeted with racial discrimination and violence. 'Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial discrimination and violence against Chinese and Asian people in Australia have seen a significant increase,' the statement said. 'The Ministry of Culture and Tourism reminds Chinese tourists to enhance their safety awareness and do not travel to Australia.' China slapped huge tariffs on Australian barley and banned beef imports from four abattoirs after the Morrison government led the charge for an independent global inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus The Chinese Ministry of Education then urged students to conduct a 'good risk assessment' and be 'cautious' about heading Down Under. This could be a major blow for Australian universities as they prepare to welcome back students for face-to-face lessons. More than one-third of foreign students who come to Australia to study are from China and they contribute an estimated $12billion to the economy each year. 'The spread of the new global pneumonia outbreak has not been effectively controlled, and there are risks in international travel and open campuses,' The Chinese Ministry of Education said. 'During the epidemic, there were multiple discriminatory incidents against Asians in Australia. The Ministry of Education reminds all overseas students to do a risk assessment and is currently cautious in choosing to study in Australia or return to Australia.' BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Austria's trade deficit decreased in March amid a fall exports and imports, data from the Statistics Austria showed on Tuesday. The trade deficit fell to EUR 20.9 million in March from EUR 442 million in the same month last year. Exports fell 5.2 percent year-on-year in March and imports declined 8.0 percent. On a working-day adjusted, exports and imports decreased 8.5 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively. The trade with EU nations resulted in a deficit of EUR 14.18 million in March versus a shortfall of EUR 578.98 million in the same month last year. For the January to March period, exports declined 5.0 percent and imports fell 6.8 percent. The trade deficit was EUR 579.90 million. 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. MILWAUKEE, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Employers globally report significant declines in hiring intentions for Q3, reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on health, the economy and employment across the world. ManpowerGroup's Employment Outlook Survey (NYSE-MAN) asks 38,000 employers across 43 countries whether they intend to hire additional workers or reduce the size of their workforce in the coming quarter. The report reveals weaker hiring intentions in all 43 countries compared with this time one year ago, and a dip to a 20 year low in 27 markets, reflecting the magnitude of the pandemic's impact. The survey is the most comprehensive, forward-looking employment survey of its kind, used globally as a key economic indicator and the research was conducted in April 2020. "These results show the impact the health crisis has had on hiring plans as COVID-19 moved in waves across the globe," said Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup Chairman & CEO. "The significant declines across many countries reflect the unprecedented speed and magnitude of shutdown, which resulted in an almost total activity freeze across many industries. Typically, structural labor market changes take months if not years to impact. We believe this crisis will accelerate transformation that we have been tracking and predicting for some time. Employers will continue to require increasingly specific technical and soft skills, digitization will accelerate, and individuals will demand a way of working that is closer to what they have wanted all along more inclusive, more flexible and more wellbeing-oriented than we could ever have imagined." Employers were also asked when they expect hiring to return to pre-COVID-19 levels, with results revealing cautious optimism, and 54% predicting a return by April 2021: View complete Q3 2020 survey results: www.manpowergroup.com/meos Global Hiring Plans by Region EMEA: Q3 employment outlooks decline quarter-over-quarter in all 26 countries. UK employers report the weakest hiring prospects since the survey began in 1992 with hiring plans weakening considerably quarter-over-quarter (declining by 17 percentage points). Employers in France report the weakest outlook since the survey began 17 years ago. The most significant declines are reported by employers in the Restaurants & Hotels sector and in Wholesale & Retail Trade, declining by 66 and 27 percentage points respectively. report the weakest outlook since the survey began 17 years ago. The most significant declines are reported by employers in the Restaurants & Hotels sector and in Wholesale & Retail Trade, declining by 66 and 27 percentage points respectively. In Italy employers report the weakest hiring intentions in six years (-15%) driven by deep declines in the Restaurants & Hotels and the Finance & Business Services sectors. employers report the weakest hiring intentions in six years (-15%) driven by deep declines in the Restaurants & Hotels and the Finance & Business Services sectors. Employers in Germany report weaker quarter-over-quarter outlooks across all seven sectors, with the outlook in Finance & Business Services declining by 17 percentage points to an 11 year low. Americas: This quarter marks a record low outlook for nine of the 10 Americas countries surveyed in almost twenty years, excluding the U.S. In the U.S. employers expect very modest hiring with outlooks declining by 16 percentage points when compared with the previous quarter and are the weakest since 2009. One of the most significant declines is reported in Leisure & Hospitality with employers reporting the weakest outlook in more than ten years. Employers in Mexico report the weakest hiring prospects since the survey began 18 years ago, the most significant declines are reported by employers in Commerce, Construction, Services and Transport & Communication. report the weakest hiring prospects since the survey began 18 years ago, the most significant declines are reported by employers in Commerce, Construction, Services and Transport & Communication. In Argentina hiring plans weaken quarter-over-quarter in all nine industry sectors with employers in Finance, Insurance & Real Estate, Manufacturing and Transportation & Utilities reporting their weakest outlooks since the survey began 13 years ago. Asia Pacific: Outlooks from employers in Japan and India rank as the strongest globally, while Singapore has the weakest employment outlook globally. Employers in Singapore report the weakest outlook in 11 years. In both the Manufacturing sector (-21%) and the Services sector (-35%), employers anticipate a considerable decline in hiring plans. report the weakest outlook in 11 years. In both the Manufacturing sector (-21%) and the Services sector (-35%), employers anticipate a considerable decline in hiring plans. Hiring intentions are the weakest in 17 years in Australia (-12%), the weakest outlooks are reported by employers in Finance, Insurance & Real Estate (-21%) and Wholesale & Retail Trade (-19%). (-12%), the weakest outlooks are reported by employers in Finance, Insurance & Real Estate (-21%) and Wholesale & Retail Trade (-19%). The employment outlook in India has hit a 17 year low, with employers in Manufacturing, Services and Wholesale & Retail Trade reporting their weakest forecasts since the survey began in 2005. To view complete results for the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, visit: www.manpowergroup.com/meos. The next survey will be released 8 September 2020 and will report hiring expectations for Q4 2020. To receive the latest survey results each quarter, sign up here. *The Net Employment Outlook is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting from this the percentage of employers expecting a decrease in hiring activity. ABOUT MANPOWERGROUP ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), the leading global workforce solutions company, helps organizations transform in a fast-changing world of work by sourcing, assessing, developing and managing the talent that enables them to win. We develop innovative solutions for hundreds of thousands of organizations every year, providing them with skilled talent while finding meaningful, sustainable employment for millions of people across a wide range of industries and skills. Our expert family of brands Manpower, Experis and Talent Solutions creates substantial value for candidates and clients across more than 75 countries and territories and has done so for over 70 years. We are recognized consistently for our diversity - as a best place to work for Women, Inclusion, Equality and Disability and in 2020 ManpowerGroup was named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the eleventh year - all confirming our position as the brand of choice for in-demand talent. SOURCE ManpowerGroup Related Links http://www.manpowergroup.com SAO PAULO As many countries gingerly start lifting their lockdown measures, experts worry that a further surge of the coronavirus in underdeveloped regions with shaky health systems could undermine efforts to halt the pandemic, and they say more realistic options are needed. Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, India and Pakistan are among countries easing tight restrictions, not only before their outbreaks have peaked but also before any detailed surveillance and testing system is in place to keep the virus under control. That could ultimately have devastating consequences, health experts warn. "Politicians may be desperate to get their economies going again, but that could be at the expense of having huge numbers of people die," said Dr. Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Exeter in Britain. He said reimposing recently lifted lockdown measures was equally dangerous. "Doing that is extremely worrying because then you will build up a highly resentful and angry population, and it's unknown how they will react," Pankhania said. And as nearly every developed country struggles with its own outbreak, there may be fewer resources to help those with long overstretched capacities. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said Monday the pandemic was "worsening" globally, noting that countries on Sunday reported the biggest-ever one-day total: more than 136,000 cases. Among those, nearly 75 percent of the cases were from 10 countries in the Americas and South Asia. Wealthy countries in Europe and North America hit first by the pandemic are training armies of contact tracers to hunt down cases, designing tracking apps and planning virus-free air travel corridors. But in many poor regions where crowded slums and streets mean even basic measures like hand-washing and social distancing are difficult, the coronavirus is exploding now that restrictions are being removed. Last week, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, India and Pakistan all saw one-day records of new infections or deaths as they reopened public spaces and businesses. Clare Wenham of the London School of Economics described the situation in Brazil as "terrifying," noting the government's decision to stop publishing a running total of COVID-19 cases and deaths. "We've seen problems with countries reporting data all over the world, but to not even report data at all is clearly a political decision," she said. That could complicate efforts to understand how the virus is spreading in the region and how it's affecting the Brazilian population, Wenham said. Johns Hopkins University numbers showed Brazil recorded more than 36,000 coronavirus deaths Monday, the third-highest in the world, just ahead of Italy. There were nearly 692,000 cases, putting it second behind the U.S. Rio de Janeiro allowed surfers and swimmers back in the water and small numbers of beach-goers were defying a still-active ban on gathering on the sand. Relaxing restrictions "is dangerous because we're still at the peak, right? So it's a little dangerous," said Alessandra Barros, a 46-year-old cashier on the sidewalk next to Ipanema beach. "Today it's calm, but this weekend will be crowded." Bolivia has authorized reopening most of the country, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also recently unwound restrictions, Ecuador's airports have resumed flights and shoppers have returned to some of Colombia's malls. In Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged the country to stay calm after officials last week reported escalating fatalities that rivaled those in Brazil or the U.S. "Let there not be psychosis, let there not be fear," Lopez Obrador said, while accusing the media of fanning concerns of an escalating crisis. Across Latin America, countries that cracked down early and hard, like El Salvador and Panama, have done relatively well, although some of that has come at the expense of human rights and civil liberties, Wenham said. "Countries willing to take the short-term hit are the ones coming out better," she said, adding that poor countries weren't entirely without options, noting early, pre-emptive actions by Sierra Leone and Liberia. "They learned from the Ebola outbreak and moved quickly when they decided their economy couldn't cope with community transmission," she said. So far, numbers have been relatively low in both West African countries. Dr. Nathalie MacDermott, a clinical lecturer at King's College London, warned that some countries might be lulled into a false sense of security, citing South Africa as an example. "Their response looked quite promising initially, but it seems premature to release the lockdown without a better level of testing in place," she said. South Africa's cases are "rising fast," according to President Cyril Ramaphosa. More than half of its approximately 48,000 confirmed cases have been recorded in the last two weeks, prompting concerns that Africa's most developed economy could see a steep rise in infections shortly after restrictions are relaxed. MacDermott said the surge of COVID-19 in many developing countries suggests "we will potentially struggle more to get on top of it," and that the virus might persist long after developed countries bring it under control. "That could result in very stringent travel measures on those parts of the world where the virus is still circulating," she said. In Pakistan, the number of infections continued to rise as Prime Minister Imran Khan said the country's poorest cannot survive a strict lockdown after easing restrictions last month. After refusing to close mosques and opening up the country even as medical experts pleaded for stricter measures, Pakistan's caseload soared Monday to 103,671, with 2,067 deaths. Still, authorities shut down thousands of shops and markets nationwide last week in raids of those violating social distancing regulations. Some experts say lockdowns were always "panic measures" and not designed to be sustainable, particularly in developing countries. "The strategy has its roots in China, in the desire to eliminate the disease, but that clearly went out the window a couple of months ago," said Mark Woolhouse, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh. "Many countries are now deciding that the cure could turn out to be worse than the disease," he said. Woolhouse suggested that countries unable to lock down their populations could focus instead on targeted interventions to protect those most at risk, such as people over 60 or those with underlying medical conditions. "Countries are simply not following World Health Organization advice to lock down and are saying they need another strategy," Woolhouse said. He noted the relatively younger demographics of many developing countries might help them avoid the high death rates seen in Italy, Spain and Britain. Even tiny Panama, once Latin America's fastest-growing economy, is struggling to maintain some of the region's tightest controls amid simultaneous economic slowdown and disease spread. "It's impossible to maintain a quarantine for all of 2020,"' said Dr. Xavier Saenz-Llorens, a government adviser on the disease response. "The country would sink." Europes $48.2 billion of airline bailouts could herald a shift to lower-emission travel as countries impose environmental strings on aid. Those requirements may also mean customers have less choice and pay more. Austria is taking the most radical steps in agreeing to fund the local arm of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. The government will impose a minimum 40-euro ($61) ticket price to discourage non-vital journeys while hiking fees on flights under 350 kilometers to 30 euros. And Austria Airlines services to locations less than three hours from Vienna will be replaced by train journeys. Its good to end things that just dont make sense, such as tickets that are too cheap, Lufthansa chief executive officer Carsten Spohr said Monday after the German groups Austrian Airlines unit sealed 450 million euros in state support. It doesnt make sense ecologically or economically. In that respect I can imagine implementing these measures in other European locations. France is also taking steps to reduce short-haul flights, requiring Air France to cut domestic services by 40 per cent as part of a 7 billion-euro package, and the Netherlands is expected to impose environmental conditions on funding for sister company KLM. Lufthansa itself avoided such strings in its rescue. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said the government wants to remake Air France into the greenest carrier in the world partly by curbing domestic flights by 40 per cent and pulling service between cities that are less than two and a half hours away from each other by rail. His Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra said in an April 24 letter to the House of Representatives that KLM would be need to take steps such as reducing CO2 emissions and night flights to win taxpayer funds. For low-cost airlines, which are more profitable than network airlines and have received far less state support, elements of the new green agenda threaten to add insult to injury. Ryanair Holdings Plc, Europes biggest discounter, and Wizz Air Holdings Plc, the No. 1 in Eastern Europe, have already hit out at the bailouts for their potential to distort competition for years to come. Tamara Vallois, spokeswoman for Wizz, said Tuesday in an email that Austria hasnt yet made it aware of any stipulation on minimum fares but it rejects any decision that undermines the freedom of pricing and the European Unions principles regarding the free movement of services, people, goods and capital. Ryanairs Lauda arm, a low-cost service operating in Austria, raised the same concerns about the EUs founding principles in an emailed statement and said it opposes any restrictions on fares. Ryanair CEO Michael OLeary was involved in a spat with Spohr last year as airlines came under increased pressure to cut carbon emissions. Lufthansa argued that discount carriers were to blame for encouraging people to take unnecessary trips, while OLeary blamed the German company for operating older, thirstier planes and said Spohr wanted to stop poorer people from flying. Train vs. Plane Austrias phasing out of short-hop routes will focus on those where the train can make the trip in three hours. That could end to Vienna-Salzburg flights, and also services from the capital to Graz and Klagenfurt once new rail tunnels are completed later this decade. Even then, Austrian Airlines has insisted regional airports retain air links to one of Lufthansas other hubs in Munich, Frankfurt and Zurich. Austria, where the Green Party is a junior partner in a coalition government, also plans to negotiate a climate agreement with Lufthansa to achieve further carbon and noise reductions, though Spohr has said the replacement of older aircraft will only be possible when Austrian Airlines can afford it. Read more about: What happened Shares of casino operator MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) were up by roughly 10% at 10:30 a.m. EDT on Wall Street. They pulled back a little from that peak, but were still up in the high single digits by 11:30 a.m. Investors appear to be anticipating good news from the company on June 4. So what On May 27, MGM announced that it would reopen some of its properties in Las Vegas on June 4, notably the iconic Bellagio, New York-New York, MGM Grand Las Vegas, and The Signature. Basically all of the company's operations had been shut down because of the global effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. However, as social distancing rules have been eased and non-essential businesses have been, slowly, allowed to reopen, MGM is hoping it can get back to business as usual as quickly as possible. Of course, the first step is opening the doors. And investors, it seems, are bidding the stock higher in anticipation of a successful restart on June 4. Although there's no way to know what will happen when Las Vegas starts to reopen, there's actually good reason to be excited. When regional casinos along the U.S. Gulf Coast reopened over the Labor Day holiday weekend, they saw gambling revenue increase 17% year over year, according to The Sun Herald. That was likely driven by pent-up local demand. Although Las Vegas is more of a destination for out of town clientele, the Gulf Coast results speak to a desire for gamblers to get back in the action. That's a clear positive, and it looks like investors are extrapolating it to Las Vegas and MGM Resorts. Now what There's still a lot of uncertainty for casino operators like MGM as they look to restart their businesses. They will face higher costs because of new cleaning regimens and they will likely need to operate below pre-COVID-19 capacity to accommodate social distancing. Even if the opening weekend is a smashing success, long-term investors should tread carefully. There's still likely to be material volatility from here, especially if the COVID-19 containment efforts lead to a global recession. Statement from McDonalds: McDonalds responded to having three employees from its West Loop 250 store test positive for coronavirus. Our highest priority is to protect the health and well-being of our people. We recently learned that three employees at our restaurant located at 3310 West Loop 250 North in Midland have tested positive for the coronavirus and are currently under medical care. As soon as we were notified of the confirmed cases, we immediately enlisted a professional cleaning and restoration service to conduct a thorough sanitization procedure per CDC guidelines and notified local health authorities. At the same time, we identified and reached out to all restaurant staff who had been in close contact with the employees who contracted the virus. These employees have been asked to self-quarantine for 14 days to ensure they remain healthy before returning to work and will be paid during their time away from the restaurant. To help ensure the safety of our employees and customers, gloves and masks are provided to our crew members on a daily basis, and were also conducting wellness and temperature checks before each shift. Weve also installed protective barriers at the counter and drive-thru, in addition to adhering to social distancing guidelines and enhanced hygiene procedures. We have been in contact with the employees and are providing support during this time. Our people are the heart and soul of the McDonalds family. We are keeping these employees in our thoughts for a fast and full recovery. Anthony Carrillo, McDonalds owner/operator Priests and ministers of the eucharist will wear face coverings while distributing Communion. The catholic bishops today issued their formal guidance to priests on the return to public sacraments and the health protocols parishes must put in place to ensure people can worship safely. The prescriptions contained in the Framework Document for a return to the public celebration of Mass and the Sacraments issued on Tuesday recommend priests and Ministers of the Eucharist should wear a face-covering while distributing Communion and that Communion should be received in the hand only and be restricted to the Communion host. They must also visibly sanitise their hands both before and after the distribution of Communion. Numbers attending Masses, communions and confirmations, will be tightly restricted in line with social distancing requirements of two metres. In their statement, the hierarchy stress that physical distancing must be applied as people enter and leave churches. They have provided priests with a checklist on social distancing and hygiene protocols. These require churches to clearly indicate the areas where people can sit by closing off rows of seats, and allowing one person to sit at the end of each free row, though those from the same household can sit together. Every church must have stewards to assist people and direct them to available seats and churches must provide clear advice on physical distancing outside as people wait to enter and sanitise their hands. The bishops recommendations require churches to keep all their holy water fonts empty and to provide hand sanitisers at all entrances and exits. In their statement, the bishops appealed for patience, perseverance and self-sacrifice. They said the prescriptions contained in the Framework Document will only be effective if we have the generous support of volunteers who will help to plan, implement and manage the transition back to full parish life and the celebration of the sacraments. They appealed to younger members of parishes to get involved. The Framework was developed after extensive consultation across the dioceses of Ireland and takes cognisance of the most up-to-date public health advice the hierarchy said. They said they were also very conscious of the demands that the transition will place upon priests, many of whom may still need to remain shielded from the virus. Speaking to RTEs Today with Sarah McInerney Show, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said that in the Archdiocese of Dublin alone there are 200 priests cocooning. He said there may not be enough priests to have Masses every parish. Those parishes that do reopen on 29th June may adopt a system of online booking to keep the numbers restricted. In relation to baptisms, the bishops guidelines require priests to bless the child with touching and to anoint the baby with the holy oils using a cotton bud Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel by telephone, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. "Pressing issues were discussed in relation to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. A determination was confirmed for further close coordination between the health ministries and other relevant authorities," the press service said. The two sides also "expressed concern by the absence of progress in the implementation of the 2015 Minsk agreements and the Normandy Four's decisions following their summit in Paris in 2019. The importance was noted of intensifying Contact Group and 'Normandy-format' negotiations. The president of Russia reiterated the expediency of Kyiv starting direct dialogue with Donetsk and Luhansk, which would be aimed, among other things, at agreeing steps [ensuring] consistent implementation of the Minsk Package of Measures. "Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel expressed concern over escalating hostilities in Libya. It was stressed that there is no alternative to swift ceasefire and the launch of intra-Libyan talks under the UN aegis. The Russian side gave a positive assessment of Egypt's efforts to mediate a peaceful settlement of the Libyan crisis in furtherance to the resolutions of the Berlin international conference of January 19 this year," the press service said. The two leaders also examined "key aspects of the situation in Syria, including those relating to meeting the humanitarian needs of [its] population" and agreed to maintain further contact. Dubai Culture has forged a strategic collaboration with LinkedIn, the worlds largest professional network, to ease the challenges faced by the creative community amidst the Covid-19 outbreak. Hala Badri, Director General of Dubai Culture; and Ali Matar, LinkedIns head of Mena and emerging markets in Europe and Africa, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that establishes cooperation in three main areas: creating an educational programme to provide training and learning opportunities for creative professionals, fostering connections and networking to establish a global cultural network from Dubai, and developing data and insights for future studies and research, reported state-run news agency Wam. The collaborative effort seeks to provide opportunities for professionals in the cultural and creative field to benefit from 100 specialised learning courses, some of which are specifically tailored to their needs. The professionals will be granted long-term membership in this programme. Under this initiative, Dubai Culture will provide learning licences to the creative and arts industry that enable UAE-based professionals to gain access to courses in two main domains. The first is business management, which includes courses on the digital shift of businesses, crisis management, business development, and legal and financial knowledge. The second domain comprises specialised skill development courses in the fields of photography, graphic design, game design, art, product design, fashion and more. "In order to support the growth of our creative industries during these trying times, Dubai Culture is pleased to partner with LinkedIn, the worlds largest professional network, and consistently seeks to collaborate with its partners for the benefit of the creative industry, said Badri. The UAE has the largest community of artists, designers, and creatives in the Mena region and this initiative is our gesture of support to them during times of crises when they most need it; as well as a testament to our efforts in consolidating learning and knowledge exchange. This is the ideal time for us to launch this important initiative to fully support talent and creative people across the country as part of our mission to provide them with tools and easy access to professional development from their homes. "By collaborating with LinkedIn Learning, the educational arm of LinkedIn, Dubai Culture will grant the community access to courses that will help them advance their skillsets and raise their knowledge and expertise. We will use this collaboration for both short- and long-term creative projects, Badri added. Ali Matar, Head of Mena and Emerging Markets in Europe and Africa, LinkedIn said: "LinkedIns mission is to connect the worlds professionals to make them more productive and successful, and with over 690 million members worldwide, we are in a unique position that enables us to build networks within and across professional sectors. We are proud to partner with Dubai Culture to support and empower the creative community in the UAE, which has inspired us all over the years with its contributions." In a setback for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, here on Monday, overruled his decision that Delhi government hospitals would treat only the residents of the city. Baijal said the "treatment should not be denied to any patient on grounds of being a non-resident". Over-ruling Kejriwal's order, Baijal cited a Delhi High Court ruling and said, "The Delhi High Court in a writ petition 'Social Jurist, a Civil Rights Group versus GNCTD and Another' after examining constitutional provisions in details, especially Article 14 and 21, after looking at jurisprudence in this regard, has held that denying patients medical treatment on ground of not being resident of NCT of Delhi is impermissible." The LG's order has come a day after Kejriwal said the Delhi government hospitals would be available for the citizens of the city only, while those run by the central government would remain open for all. He also said private hospitals, except those where surgeries like neurosurgery, are performed would also be kept reserved for Delhi residents. Bulletin staff report Carlisles Upper School Drama students recently had the opportunity to watch a Masterclass hosted by the New York Theater Workshop as part of their distance learning curriculum. The guest speaker for the seminar, Jeremy O. Harris, is an award-winning Broadway playwright (Daddy, Slave Play) but also a 2007 alumnus of Carlisle. Jeremy is a talented playwright, performer, speaker, and activist. Carlisle is fortunate to have him as an alumnus, Drama Instructor Susan Aaron said. Harris is a 2019 graduate of the Yale School of Drama and holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree. In his Masterclass for the NYTW, Dramaturgies for Dystopias 101, Harris spoke remotely from his London apartment to discuss his creative process for writing plays, sources of inspiration, COVID-19s impact on the theater industry, and how the pandemic is prompting playwrights to look at the future of theatrical performances differently. Following the Masterclass, Aaron facilitated a virtual class discussion with her students. Steven Doyle is Local Editor of the Martinsville Bulletin. Contact him at 276-638-8801 ext. 245. Follow @StevenLDoyle. Steven Doyle is Local Editor of the Martinsville Bulletin. Contact him at 276-638-8801 ext. 245. Follow @StevenLDoyle. Militants shot dead a Kashmiri Pandit sarpanch in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, police said. Srinagar: Militants shot dead a sarpanch in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, police said. Ajay Pandita, sarpanch of the Larkipora area in Anantnag district and a member of the Congress party, was shot by militants in his native village at around 6 pm, a police official said. He said Pandita was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries. A Congress spokesman, while condemning the killing, said Pandita was a dedicated party worker. No militant outfit has claimed the responsibility for the killing so far. [June 09, 2020] Starling Minds announced in a $2.5M Digital Technology Supercluster Project to deliver personalized mental health tools for frontline healthcare workers VANCOUVER, June 9, 2020 /CNW/ - The Digital Technology Supercluster announced its co-investment into a $2.5M project to deliver a suite of interactive digital therapy tools to healthcare organizations for readily accessible and personalized mental health care for their workers. Led by Starling Minds, one of Canada's leading online cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) platforms, the project will deliver to healthcare organizations an engaging, scalable, cost-effective, and proactive suite of digital mental health tools. The tools will be immediately available to help healthcare workers combat both personal and workplace stressors unique to their profession and compounded by extraordinary situations like COVID-19. This project aims to establish a strong foundation for healthcare organizations to safeguard frontline workers' mental health, who are the foundation of a high-functioning healthcare system. "The co-investment in this project from the Digital Supercluster and Federal government demonstrates a strong commitment to the mental health of Canadian healthcare workers. We are honoured to be a chosen solution to help make mental health as common and accepted as physical fitness," says Peter Oxley, Chief Executive Officer at Starling Minds. "Thank you to Navdeep Bains, Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry, and the Digital Technology Supercluster for their endorsement in our technology and our team and mission." "We are deeply grateful to organizations such as Starling Minds for supporting Canadians impacted by the complex mental health challenges that COVID-19 has created," said Sue Paish, CEO of the Digital Technology Supercluster. "By leveraging collaborative innovation we can create and deliver life-changing technologies to address the psychological impacts COVID-19 has had on our healthcare workers, our communities, and workforces, now and for future pandemics." Starling has already helped thousands of individuals improve their mental health by providing cost-effective, timely, on-demand access to digitally-delivered CBT through an employer, union, or insurance provider. Approximately 80% of healthcare workers within Starling's COVID-19 program found that the digital CBT therapy tools help combat stress, anxiety, and worry during pandemics. Dave Keen, Executive Director, Workplace Health at Fraser Health, Canada's largest health authority shares, "We are proud to contribute to this project to help address the challenges facing the healthcare sector. Healthcare workers are fundamental to keeping our healthcare systems, communities, and citizens healthy and safe. Protecting their mental health will be essential in those efforts." Starling Minds' solution will be available to Canada's healthcare organizations to support the mental health of all healthcare workers. Learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic will be applied to help prepare for future disasters and pandemics in a cost-effective and scalable manner across key sectors of the workforce. To learn more about Starling's Digital Supercluster Project, go to https://www.digitalsupercluster.ca/supercluster-using-digital-technologies-to-create-a-safe-return-to-work-environment-and-supports-for-mental-health-wellness/ . ABOUT STARLING MINDS Starling Minds is a leading digital mental health platform that empowers organizations to cst-effectively support the wellbeing of their most important asset - their workforce. By using personalized and digitally-delivered Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) available on-demand, Starling helps to overcome barriers that prevent most people from seeking mental health support - cost, access, and stigma. ABOUT DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY SUPERCLUSTER The Digital Technology Supercluster solves some of industry's and society's biggest problems through Canadian-made technologies. We bring together private and public sector organizations of all sizes to address challenges facing Canada's economic sectors including healthcare, natural resources, manufacturing and transportation. Through this 'collaborative innovation' the Supercluster helps to drive solutions better than any single organization could on its own. The Digital Technology Supercluster is led by industry leaders such as D-Wave , Finger Food Advanced Technology Group , LifeLabs , LlamaZOO , Lululemon , MDA , Microsoft , Mosaic Forest Management , Sanctuary AI , Teck Resources Limited , TELUS , Terramera , and 1Qbit . Together, we work to position Canada as a global hub for digital innovation. A full list of Members can be found here . ABOUT THE COVID-19 PROGRAM The COVID-19 Program aims to improve the health and safety of Canadians and support Canada's ability to address issues created by the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, the program will build expertise and capacity to anticipate and address issues that may arise in future health crises, from healthcare to a return to work and community. More information can be found here . SOURCE Starling Minds Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] "BioFlyte's focus is critical infrastructure protection and emergency response," said Charles Call, PhD, cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of BioFlyte. "BioFlyte builds on more than a decade of critical research and development, including the work of our sister company Zeteo Tech, Inc., a technology development and innovation engine based in Sykesville, Maryland." BioFlyte's first product is the z750 handheld collector, designed to provide CBRN Defense Forces and Emergency Response Teams with an advanced high-performance handheld aerosol sampler. The z750 handheld collector is designed around a proven dry filter technology that has been in use worldwide for decades. The advanced filter design incorporated into the z750 has extensively validated sample extraction protocols, and is compatible with PCR, immunoassay, and fieldable mass spec instruments, as well as analytical methods associated with laboratory confirmation. The BioFlyte z200 is a breakthrough combination collector/detector/identifier system that uses matrix-assisted laser desorption and ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry to acquire a mass spectrum from the collected aerosol sample. The US Department of Defense has supported the development of the z200 mass spectrometer technology in part through the Small Business Innovative Research, or SBIR program. The company also announced that Dr. Wayne Bryden and Mr. David Seldin have joined the company's Board of Directors. Dr Bryden is a co-founder and CEO of Zeteo Tech and previously served as the Chief Science Officer at ICx Technologies (acquired by FLIR Systems) and as a DARPA program manager after many years of research at the John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. Mr. Seldin is a managing partner at Anzu Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in breakthrough industrial technologies. "BioFlyte is commercializing some much-needed breakthrough technology for the biodefense community," said Dr. Bryden. "The z200 provides a presumptive identification in five minutes and can be quickly and inexpensively upgraded to detect new or emerging threats." For more information about BioFlyte and its products, please visit: https://bioflyte.com. About BioFltye BioFlyte is a venture-backed biodefense and microbial identification company that is commercializing a revolutionary new class of fieldable biological threat collection, detection, and identification solutions. The firm's current application focus is critical infrastructure protection and emergency response. For more information about BioFlyte and its technology, please visit: https://bioflyte.com. About Anzu Partners Anzu Partners is a venture capital and private equity firm that invests in breakthrough industrial technologies. Anzu teams with entrepreneurs to develop and commercialize technological innovations by providing capital and deep expertise in business development, market positioning, global connectivity, and operations. For more information, please visit https://anzupartners.com. On Twitter: @anzupartners. CONTACT Rob Haralson for BioFlyte (202) 674-6679, [email protected] SOURCE BioFlyte Related Links https://bioflyte.com Perth, Australia, June 9, 2020 - (ABN Newswire) - The Board of Blackham Resources Limited (ASX:BLK.AX - News) (HAM:NZ3.HM - News) (OTCMKTS:BKHRF - News) is pleased to advise that the current Executive Chair, Mr Milan Jerkovic, has agreed to a new contract committing him to the Company for a further three years. The Board considers this a most vital appointment as Mr Jerkovic has been instrumental in leading the turnaround in the performance of the Company since he became full time Executive Chair and assumed responsibility for the day-to-day management of the Company. The Board considers his leadership over the next three years as essential to the Company's ongoing success. Also one of the Company's largest shareholders, Mr Jerkovic originally undertook the role of Executive Chair in 2018 and responsibility for the day to day management of the company in May 2019. Since late last year the Board has been in discussions with Mr Jerkovic about extending his term as Executive Chair and are very pleased to have successfully negotiated an extension. The remuneration terms agreed with Mr Jerkovic are set out in schedule 1*. Mr Jerkovic's experience and leadership, as well as his commitment and success in building large mining companies, will help guide the Company through its five-point strategic plan to create maximum shareholder value. The five-point plan is to; 1. Strengthen the balance sheet; 2. Increase operational cashflow; 3. Transition to include gold concentrate production; 4. Expand production; and 5. Undertake exploration and feasibility studies to fully develop a more than 200kozpa, long life gold operation. Mr Jerkovic commented: "I am delighted to commit to Blackham for another three years. We have managed to start turning the Company around in the last 10 months but there is a lot of work still to be done to build a successful mining company. I am genuinely excited by the opportunity to lead the Company through this journey. Story continues We have put together a fine team at Blackham in the last six months, and we are all excited about the prospectivity of the Wiluna geology, with its four mining centres, existing production, high calibre people and culture, infrastructure and potential for scale. Going forward we want to create a large and successful mining company by using the Wiluna Mining Operations as the key building block." Blackham Resources Limited (soon to be renamed Wiluna Mining Corporation Ltd; ASX code WMX), owns 100% of the Wiluna Mining Operation which comprises four mining centres, significant infrastructure and is currently producing approximately 66kozpa of gold. The Company's current Mineral Resource is 6.4Moz and its reserves are 1.4Moz. *To view Schedule 1, please visit: https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/15X907KB About Blackham Resources Ltd: Blackham Resources Limited (ASX:BLK.AX - News) (OTCMKTS:BKHRF - News) Wiluna-Matilda Gold Operation is located in Australia's largest gold belt which stretches from Norseman through Kalgoorlie to Wiluna. The Operation now includes resources of 96Mt @ 2.2g/t for 6.7Moz Au all within 20kms of the central processing facility. Blackham has consolidated the entire Wiluna Goldfield within a +1,440km2 tenure package which has historically produced in excess of 4.4 million ounces over a 120-year mining history. Contact: Milan Jerkovic Executive Chairman Office: +61-8-9322-6418 Jim Malone Investor Relations Mobile: +61-419-537-714 Source: Blackham Resources Ltd Copyright (C) 2020 ABN Newswire. All rights reserved. VANCOUVER, British Columbia and KNOXVILLE, Tenn., June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Solar Alliance Energy Inc. (Solar Alliance or the Company) (TSX-V: SOLR, OTC: SAENF) is pleased to announce it has signed agreements to build commercial solar systems at three farms in Kentucky and Tennessee. All three projects include U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant applications that have been submitted, which provide significant support for renewable energy projects for agricultural producers. The USDA program includes grants for up to 25% of total eligible project costs and loans for up to 75% of total eligible solar project costs. Two of the projects in Kentucky are being built through Solar Alliances partnership with Boyd CAT (formerly Whayne Supply), a Caterpillar dealership. The third project, in Tennessee, is for a separate farming customer. These three projects total approximately 108 kW of solar and will be installed in the next two months. The agricultural sector is a growing part of the Solar Alliance business model and we are excited to be working with Boyd Caterpillar on the Kentucky projects, said CEO Myke Clark. Our team continues to sell and install solar systems during these challenging times and we are committed to providing renewable energy solutions to our customers. The combination of low cost, renewable solar power and a USDA grant provides an excellent solution for agricultural businesses to lower their operating costs and reinvest the savings into their business. Solar Alliance continues to work with Boyd CAT on signing additional solar systems for agricultural businesses located in Southern Indiana and Kentucky. According to the Kentucky Poultry Federation, there are more than 850 large-scale poultry farms in Kentucky, and together, Solar Alliance and Boyd CAT are targeting them for solar deployment. Agricultural businesses that are interested in a simple, environmentally friendly way to save money on operating costs are encouraged to visit our website ( www.solaralliance.com ) or give us a call at (865) 309-4674. Story continues Myke Clark, CEO For more information: Solar Alliance Sales (865) 309-4674 Solar Alliance Myke Clark, CEO 416-848-7744 mclark@solaralliance.com About Solar Alliance Energy Inc. ( www.solaralliance.com ) Solar Alliance is an energy solutions provider focused on residential, commercial and industrial solar installations. The Company operates in California, Tennessee, North/South Carolina and Kentucky and has an expanding pipeline of solar projects. Since it was founded in 2003, the Company has developed $1 billion of wind and solar projects that provide enough electricity to power 150,000 homes. Our passion is improving life through ingenuity, simplicity and freedom of choice. Solar Alliance reduces or eliminates customers' vulnerability to rising energy costs, offers an environmentally-friendly source of electricity generation, and provides affordable, turnkey clean energy solutions. Statements in this news release, other than purely historical information, including statements relating to the Company's future plans and objectives or expected results, constitute Forward-looking statements. The words would, will, expected and estimated or other similar words and phrases are intended to identify forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Companys actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different than those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: uncertainties related to the ability to raise sufficient capital, changes in economic conditions or financial markets, litigation, legislative or other judicial, regulatory and political competitive developments and technological or operational difficulties. Consequently, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. 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." During a Black Lives Matter protest in Seattle, a man reportedly drove his car into a crowd of protesters then shot a demonstrator who tried to stop him. According to reports, the gunman shot a 27-year-old African-American man, identified as Daniel Gregory, who was trying to stop the vehicle. The driver crashed through a police barricade and headed down the street toward a second barricade cordoning off a crowd of a protester. Twitter/@rafsanchez A viral Twitter video shows a group of protesters chasing a black Honda Civic as it speeds on toward the larger crowd. One protester grabs at the drivers side window which is when a gunshot is heard and the protester falls to the ground. Daniel Gregory was taken to Harborview Medical Center. He had surgery Monday to remove the bullet under his arm and is expected to make a full recovery. A man appears to have driven car into a crowd at a Black Lives Matter protest in Seattle yesterday and then shot a protester who confronted him. The shooter has been arrested and victim is in stable condition, per @seattletimes pic.twitter.com/FvhvUILL6M Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) June 8, 2020 It was like a movie, said Dino Gregory who is Daniels brother told Komonews. He grabbed the steering wheel, the guy stopped driving and the guy shot him." While protesting at 11th and Pine the 27-year-old tried to stop the driver from hurting others and was shot in the process. Wilderness First Responder Braden Torras helped Daniel to safety and is now calling him a hero. He risked his life outright to run toward a car that had been weaponised and was barreling into a crow of protesters, Torras told Komonews. B.J. Hayes, who witnessed the incident from the street, told the Times that as the gunman drove his car through the demonstration, he seemed to plow straight through the crowd. I totally thought I was going to see a bunch of bodies flying through the air, Hayes said. As reported by Vice News, after the shooting, the man exited the car, waving his gun as protesters fled in terror, and then made his way to the police line where he was peacefully taken into custody. #BlackLivesMatter #seattleprotest Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and police Chief Carmen Best said Friday that tear gas wouldnt be used during protests for at least 30 days except in life-threatening situations. Sunday night: pic.twitter.com/2P4NPTbuSX Cameron Grey (@camerongrey) June 8, 2020 Seattle police reportedly also deployed tear gas against protesters over the weekend, despite the order by mayor Jenny Durkan banning the use of CS tear gas for 30 days. As India slowly eases its lockdown restrictions, television actor Parth Samthaan is celebrating with a meal at a restaurant. He shared a picture of himself posing with a giant plate of biryani and captioned it, Getting back to normalcy. #unlockindia #foodstagram #foodie. Parth was hilariously trolled by his Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan co-star Karan Jotwani, who dropped a series of comments on the Instagram post. Nice thread latkofying. Love its flexibility, he wrote, pointing out a stray thread on his T-shirt. Glares nikal ke khaaaa le (Take off your sunglasses before eating), the biryani looks better that way.. nice t shirt btw, another comment read. Akele khatam Nahi kar payega (You will not be able to finish it alone), Karan wrote in another comment. Abs marlena chaval khaane ke baaad (Do an ab workout after eating rice), another comment read. Parth is currently in Hyderabad. He travelled to the city from Mumbai last month as domestic flight services resumed operations. On his Instagram stories, he shared a selfie video of himself with a face shield and joked that he looked like a character from the popular show Breaking Bad. Also read | Daniel Radcliffe apologises to hurt Harry Potter fans after JK Rowlings anti-trans tweets: Transgender women are women On the work front, Parth has been playing Anurag Basu in the Kasautii Zindagii Kay reboot, which also stars Erica Fernandes, Karan Singh Grover and Aamna Sharif. The show is currently not shooting, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Parth will be seen playing a gangster in the ALT Balaji web series Mai Hero Boll Raha Hu. In an interview with IANS, he said that the role was completely new territory for him. I have been known for playing a perfect hero kind on television which has received immense love from my fans and audiences. With this show, I am venturing into a completely new territory and viewers will get to see me in a completely different avatar. The character has its own machismo, attitude, glamour style from the 90s and far from the usual stuff, he said. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON There are factors in Chicago, however, that arent present in the other big U.S. cities that are pledging funding cuts to police forces. Perhaps most importantly, swaths of Chicagos West and South sides are chronically plagued by gun violence, and the citys homicide tallies are higher than those of Los Angeles and New York. In the middle of a violent 2016, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a push to add 1,000 cops. Prince Andrew's trust has been found to have breached charity law. (Getty Images) Prince Andrews charitable trust has been found to have breached charity law by paying one of its former trustees. The trust has repaid more than 355,000 which is to be distributed among charities, after the Charity Commission identified the breach in an investigation. Andrews charitable body allowed the former trustee to work as a director for a fee for three of its subsidiary companies in breach of rules. It marks another blow for the Duke of York who has been caught in a legal row over requests by US authorities to be a witness in their ongoing investigation of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The commission started the investigation into the Prince Andrew Charitable Trust, which supported his charitable work in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, science, technology and engineering, because of his disastrous interview on BBC Newsnight. After that interview he was forced to step back from his public royal duties, citing the unnecessary distraction his friendship with Epstein created from the familys work. The interview has also inadvertently led to the breach being discovered as the charity sought to ensure the interview did not bring reputational damage to the work. Read more: Prince Andrew has 'very little credibility' says lawyer of Epstein victims Prince Andrew abseiling down the Shard building to raise money for the Outward Bound Trust and the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund in 2012. (Reuters) In a statement, the Charity Commission said: The Commission identified concerns about a former trustee being paid by the charitys three trading subsidiary companies as a director of those companies. The former trustee was an employee of the Duke of Yorks Household and from April 2015 to January 2020 undertook work for the trading subsidiaries. The Duke of Yorks Household was then reimbursed for a proportion of this employees time by the subsidiaries after the year end. These payments totalled 355,297. The investigation found the charity could not show the conflict of interest relating to the trustee receiving payments were adequately managed at trustee meetings, and that open and fair competition was not conducted before the trustee got the role. Story continues The Duke of Yorks household has paid back the money. Helen Earner, director of operations at the Charity Commission, said: Charity is special - with unpaid trusteeship a defining characteristic of the sector. By allowing the payment of a trustee via its subsidiaries the Prince Andrew Charitable Trust breached charity law and by insufficiently managing the resulting conflict of interest from this payment the trustees did not demonstrate the behaviour expected of them. Were glad that concerns we identified are now resolved, after the charity acted quickly and efficiently to rectify these matters. The recovered funds will now go towards the causes intended, and we will continue to work with the trustees as they wind up the charity. Read more: Prince Andrew accuses US prosecutors of seeking publicity instead of answers Prince Andrew hasn't been seen in public much since stepping back last year. (Getty Images) The charitable trust is now winding up and remaining funds will be distributed among charities with similar aims. It will request to be taken off the charity register. Yahoo UK has contacted Buckingham Palace for comment. The news comes a day after the Duke of York made a rare statement about his offer to help American investigators over the Epstein case. The duke and the US financier were friends and the duke has been accused of having sex with a trafficked woman, Virginia Giuffre, on one occasion when she was a minor in US law. The duke denies all allegations of wrongdoing and on Monday claimed he had offered help on three occasions but that US authorities were breaching confidentiality rules. The Centre has deployed a three-member multi-disciplinary team each in 50 districts of 15 states that are laden under a high burden of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) for direct monitoring of the situation, and assist in the management of the pandemic. The 15 states that have reported a surge in cases over the past few weeks are Maharashtra (7 districts), Telangana (4), Tamil Nadu (7), Rajasthan (5), Assam (6), Haryana (4), Gujarat (3), Karnataka (4), Uttarakhand (3), Madhya Pradesh (5), West Bengal (3), Delhi (3), Bihar (4), Uttar Pradesh (4), and Odisha (5). There are about 15 states where large clustering has been reported in some districts that needs meticulous implementation of containment strategies. The teams will review the situation, and look into ways that can be adopted for better containment and clinical management of cases. They will be in direct contact with the respective state governments on ground to chalk-out areas-specific plans, said a health ministry official. The three-member teams consist of two public health expertsan epidemiologist and a clinician and a senior joint secretary level nodal officer for handholding states on administrative matters related to Covid-19 management and also technical support for assisting in containment measures. Whatever bottlenecks are faced on ground in terms of getting approvals to follow certain protocols or specific measures needed to manage the situation it will be quickly addressed, said the official, who requested anonymity The health ministry in a statement also said, These teams are working in the field and visiting health care facilities to support the State health department in implementation of containment measures and efficient treatment/clinical management of cases within the districts/cities. In order to ensure better coordination, quick action on the ground, adoption of a more granular strategy, it is proposed that these districts/municipalities should regularly remain in touch with central teams which are already coordinating with the States. Such frequent interaction would further strengthen the surveillance, containment, testing and treatment related action on the ground, the statement said. The focus areas of the teams are to address gaps mainly in testing, especially low tests that are performed on per million population, high confirmation rates, risk of capacity shortfall over the next two months and potential bed shortage, apart from looking at the growing case fatality rate, high doubling rate, sudden spike in active cases, etc. Many districts and municipalities have already constituted a dedicated core team at the district level consisting of district level medical and administrative officials to coordinate over regular basis directly with the central team for better flow of information. Experts say area-specific strategies should have been started early on when there was noticed a surge in cases. That is how epidemics are contained by going back to the drawing board and devising strategies that are specific to a particular geographical area. What works in one state may not work in another, so the plan has to created accordingly. And there should be no communication loss between the centre and the states when dealing with an outbreak situation, says Dr Jacob John, former head of virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore. As the lockdown is being lifted, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan urged everyone to download the Aarogya Setu app to help in self risk assessment and in protection against the disease while chairing the 16th meeting of the high-level group of ministers (GoM) on Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Tuesday. At least 1.25 billion people in the country have already downloaded the app so far, and according to the experts the app will be most effective when maximum number of people download it. It can be an effective surveillance tool but how effective the app is will depend on how many people have downloaded it, said a senior health ministry official. The health minister also said that there was no space for complacency as curbs were being eased. as we enter into the Unlock1.0 phase where restrictions have been eased and curbs have been lifted, we need to be more disciplined in our COVID appropriate behaviour to ensure that all follow norms of physical distancing, make use of masks and face covers in all public places, adhere to norms of hand hygiene and follow protocols of respiratory etiquette. There is no space for complacency, said Harsh Vardhan, in a statement. The meeting was attended by S Jaishankar, minister of external affairs, Hardeep Puri, Civil aviation minister, Nityananda Rai, minister of state for home affairs, Mansukh Lal Mandaviya, minister of state for shipping & chemical and fertilizers, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, minister of state for health and family welfare and Bipin Rawat, chief of defence staff. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Anies Baswedan says he is confident the city has controlled the virus spread and officials are alert to the risks. Jakarta, Indonesia Southeast Asias biggest city is easing COVID-19 restrictions this week, entering what authorities call a transition period. After weeks of partial lockdown mosques, churches and temples will welcome worshippers, restaurants will open their doors, and workers around the capital will return to their offices all at half capacity. For months, Indonesia and in particular, its densely populated capital city was a cause of major concern in the region. There were fears it would become the next global epicentre of the virus. Dozens of countries advised their citizens to leave Indonesia, over fears the countrys health system would collapse under the strain of the outbreak. And while some have expressed concern that Jakarta is easing restrictions too soon, city governor Anies Baswedan told Al Jazeeras Jessica Washington the situation has changed dramatically, and he is confident the worst is over. Al Jazeera: Its been around three months since Indonesia confirmed its first case of COVID-19. How would you assess the situation here in Jakarta, and across the country? Anies Baswedan: In the past month, COVID-19 is still an issue, but not as big as it used to be in March and April. We started with eight hospitals dedicated for COVID patients. Today, we have 67 hospitals for handling COVID cases. Jakarta today has flattened the curve, and we are moving into a new period, which we call transition. We are not yet able to say Jakarta is safe, healthy and productive but we are moving into that direction. Al Jazeera: Before we come to that transition, lets talk about the restrictions that we have all been living under for the past few months. What were some of the challenges in imposing those restrictions? Anies: Were so fortunate that when we decided to close our schools, at the beginning of March, there was almost no negative response. Everyone agreed. When we called for the private sector to work from home, everyone responded positively. When we called religious leaders, and I explained to them, this is the situation, everyone responded in a positive way. Anies Baswedan, the governor of Jakarta, prays after the lockdown in Indonesias capital was relaxed [Tri Handhono/Al Jazeera] But, at the beginning of early Ramadan (the Muslim fasting month), we started to see an increase in the number of people leaving their home. Its just people needing to be outside, to meet, and see the world its natural. But it hasnt disturbed our efforts to control the pandemic. Al Jazeera: Obviously, its easy for some people to work from home for others, daily wage earners on a low income, its not that simple. Anies: That was why, when we announced the restrictions, we began providing food subsidies to families that needed support. We started to do that before the restrictions were adopted. We distributed these to 1.2 million families in Jakarta. After two weeks, we distributed another batch. Well continue to provide this support until the economy is ticking again. Al Jazeera: There was a lot of concern from other countries about how Indonesia would handle this outbreak some countries told their citizens to leave and go home. Are you confident it is safe for these residents to return? Anies: They can look at our approach. We are being consistent in implementing policy, weve been transparent. Were doing everything we can to make sure that Jakarta is a great home for everyone, including the international community. Lets look at where we are Jakarta is ready to be part of the global community. Al Jazeera: Now we are entering this transition period, youve talked about an emergency brake policy that if cases began to spike, we would have restrictions reintroduced. What would it take for you to use that brake? Anies: We dont want to see new cases, new patients, or new fatalities. If those numbers suddenly jump to the level that is worrying to us, we will pull that brake. The transition period should not be taken for granted; we have to work for this. Were monitoring it every day, and wed like the transition to be smooth. The emergency brake is a last resort. Al Jazeera: How concerned are you about people who left Jakarta before Eid (the celebration at the end of the fasting month), now trying to return to the city? Anies: Very much. Last month, I introduced a law requiring entry and exit permits for Jakarta. We are trying to manage the transmissions within Jakarta, and now, wed like to make sure theres no mobility that disrupts the stability of the situation. We are enforcing these rules at our borders. Al Jazeera: There was that period, before Eid, when there was confusion: People were waiting for the national government to make a decision, and ultimately, travel back to hometowns before Eid was banned. But initially, there was mixed messaging from the government. Was that frustrating for you? Anies: My message to everyone from the beginning was, do not leave Jakarta. The reason was simple: We didnt want COVID-19 to spread. We understand the challenges of health facilities outside the capital, and its a lot better here. My message was always do not leave because if you do, you may not be able to return, as you wish. Al Jazeera: Its a complicated situation, though, isnt it? The messaging from the central government wasnt consistent. Then, we had travel restrictions brought in and watered down. Was it difficult for you, knowing that the messaging wasnt the same across the board? Anies: Its a situation that we in government can be reflective and learn from this period. The public needs a consistent message. Now, we are doing much better. But we always work in close coordination with the central government, we always report our policies, and in fact, the enforcement of our rules is by the help of the national government. Al Jazeera: But earlier on, there was a lot of criticism against the central government. What should have been done differently? Anies: Now, from our experience in Jakarta, its important to be united. It doesnt matter which party or politics. Its the same thing at the national level; its now time for us to support the policies of the president. The challenges are complex and heavy, and across Indonesia. Whats needed: decisiveness, and clarity in message, and consistency. Al Jazeera: There was criticism that the central government wasnt being transparent. Is that a mistake, to not be open with the public? Anies: I can only comment about our policies. We believe that we have to be transparent, especially on health issues. On security, strategy thats a different ball game. But on the issue of public health, this is a pandemic, if we didnt tell the public, theres no way we can control the spread of the virus. Al Jazeera: One thing that is key to controlling the spread is testing. The new target set by the president is 20,000 tests per day. How confident are you that can be achieved? Anies: I do hope that 20,000 a day is achievable. In March, even 1,000 seemed so high. Our labs are designed for research, not for handling a pandemic. But we transformed ourselves. Al Jazeera: The president has talked about this idea of the new normal. What does that mean to you? Anies: We would like to come back to a situation where our society feels safe, and can be productive. Social activities, cultural activities and education can all function, but there are new habits to learn. In the early 90s, we all drove motorcycles and never wore helmets. Then, we adopted that policy. Now, everyone does it, but it takes time. Now, wearing a face mask is something we need to become a new norm. A family member puts a face mask on a child in Jakarta during the coronavirus outbreak [Willy Kurniawan/Reuters] Al Jazeera: There was a lot of concern in Jakarta about the death rate, about low testing, and undetected cases. Are you confident, for the most part, the city is in the clear? Anies: Yes. We needed to make sure that they were prepared, even for the worst-case scenario. The doctors, paramedics, hospitals if that is all ready, then Im comfortable to start this transition period. Al Jazeera: We know that there have been instances of over-crowding: at markets, at the airport, and more. What needs to be done to make sure that doesnt happen? Anies: Cases will always be there. We need to look at it from the wider perspective. Were talking about 10 million people. The fact that six million stayed home. Some did not, and you will always see that. Law enforcement is key, tracing and testing is also key. A free pizza supply for over a decade may seem like a dream come true for many, but it is certainly not the case for 65-year-old Jean Van Landeghem. The Belgian man has been getting constant deliveries of pizzas that he has never ordered, for the last 10 years and he is certainly not happy with it. In fact, as per a report published in the New York Post, the man has been troubled because of this act. He told a local media portal that he gets rattled each time he hears the sound of a scooter as he fears that someone might just end up dropping a pizza on his doorstep. Initially, he presumed that it was probably some person who accidentally gave the wrong address to the pizza delivery outlet. But, now that it has been happening for a decade, Jean is clear that someone is doing this deliberately. Coincidentally, Jean is not alone in this as his friend, who stays in a nearby city, too gets these pizza deliveries often. He believes that it is the same person who is sending the hot pies to both of them. But, none of them is able to find out the person till date. The matter has been brought into the notice of concerned authorities but the identity of the person is still a mystery. Sharing his ordeal with a local Dutch media portal, he asserted how the Pizza Terror has impacted his life. The deliveries are not only restricted to pizzas. On some days, he also gets unordered kebabs at his doorstep. Last year in January, Jean had received 14 pizzas which were dropped by 10 delivery riders. Till date, he has not paid for a single pizza as he refuses them. On June 4 at about 8:30pm, I was advised in my capacity as chief security officer, about the violent and unlawful takeover occupation of the MRT House. The report that I received, whose details I have confirmed to be true, was to the effect that those acting on behalf of Matanga and Sibanda, together with the other 18 working in cahoots in the acts of violence, forcefully and violently gained entry into the building and they have refused to vacate therefrom, Gaga swore. WUXI, CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2020 / Lisen Imprinting Diagnostics Inc. ("Lisen" or "the company"), a US company headquartered with main operations in Wuxi, China which specializes on tumor epigenetics research for advancing early-stage cancer detection, announces a new epigenetic-based cancer diagnostic method. The technology which innovatively applied visualized epigenetic imprinting biomarkers has been published in the open access journal Clinical Epigenetics on May 24. Lisen developed and patented the QCIGISH (Quantitative Chromogenic Imprinted Gene In-Situ Hybridization) technology - a novel approach in identifying, visualizing, and quantifying the biallelic and multiallelic expressions of an imprinted gene panel associated with cancer status. In a 1013-case clinical study involving ten different cancer types including bladder, breast, colorectal, esophageal, gastric, lung, pancreatic, prostate, skin and thyroid cancers, QCIGISH achieved 94% overall sensitivity and 92% overall specificity. Dr. Chunxue Bai, chief physician and professor of Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, one of the corresponding authors said, "Epigenetic alterations which occur prior to morphological changes are involved in most cancers, but its application in cancer diagnosis is still limited. More practical and intuitive methods to detect the aberrant expressions from clinical samples using highly sensitive biomarkers are needed." Using the QCIGISH technology, Dr. Bai and a group of researchers from Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Texas, Fudan University, Tongji University, Chinese Navy Medical University, Jiangsu Jiangyuan Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science, evaluated the normal and aberrant expressions measured using the imprinted gene panel to formulate diagnostic models, which could accurately distinguish the imprinting differences of normal and benign cases from cancerous tissues. The new method proved effective for many different cancer types. Story continues "We believe that QCIGISH will become a practically useful and powerful clinical tool by effectively supplementing standard cytologic and histopathologic diagnosis for early-stage cancer detection", the paper's primary author Dr. Rulong Shen, a pathologist of Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center remarked. Dr. Ning Zhou, Lisen's CEO and co-founder, and the paper's other corresponding author added, "We have barely scratched the surface. Our current research conceptually opens a new diagnostic area in epigenetics-based cancer detection and demonstrates strong potential for high throughput clinical application. We expect that this technology may go beyond a diagnostic technique to also provide information on prognostic and predictive markers of treatment response. We are excited to discover more imprinted gene cancer biomarkers, proceed with an even larger prospective validation and extend the capabilities of our technology to foster hope to cancer patients around the world." About Cancer Early Detection and Epigenetics The incidence of cancer is 18.1 million and the mortality is 9.6 million every year (GLOBOCAN 2018). The survival rate of cancer patients decreases dramatically from early to advanced stages. Therefore, early cancer detection plays a vital role in improving patients' long-term survival. However, this remains a huge clinical challenge due to the absence of sufficient morphological evidences to enable a definitive diagnosis. Epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation, histone methylation and acetylation, and expression status of imprinting genes which all occur at precancerous stages and promote carcinogenesis, could serve as sensitive biomarkers for early cancer detection. About Lisen Imprinting Diagnostics, Inc. Lisen Imprinting Diagnostics, Inc. is a US company registered in Delaware dedicated to the accurate and early identification of cancers at their most curable stages. By developing advanced cancer detection technology, Lisen hopes to provide a personalized pathway for patients towards effective therapies while avoiding unnecessary, costly and potentially futile treatment. Collaborating with various medical centers from Shanghai, Nanjing, Dalian, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou and Wuxi, China, Lisen has studied 6500+ clinical cases involving 12 different cancer types. The company holds 20 Chinese and international intellectual properties on early cancer detection. (Updated on June 9, 2020) For further information, contact: Ning Zhou | 001-8016990666| zhou.ning@lisenid.com Lisen, CEO Lisen Imprinting Diagnostics Inc. 66 Jinghui East Boulevard #5601 Wuxi, Jiangsu 214135 China SOURCE: Lisen Imprinting Diagnostics Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/593232/Lisen-Imprinting-Diagnostics-Inc-Announces-a-New-Innovative-and-Highly-Accurate-Epigenetic-Solution-for-Early-Cancer-Detection Exclusive: Chanel, Revlon, L'Oreal pivoting away from talc in some products FILE PHOTO: The Chanel makeup section of the Nordstrom flagship store is seen during a media preview in New York By Martinne Geller and Lisa Girion LONDON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Chanel, Revlon and L'Oreal, three of the biggest brands in cosmetics, are quietly moving away from using talc in some products as U.S. cancer lawsuits and consumer concerns mount. Luxury beauty company Chanel has removed talc from a loose face powder and dropped a talc body powder because of negative perceptions around the mineral, court documents reviewed by Reuters show. Revlon Inc removed talc from its body products, and L'Oreal SA is exploring alternatives for the mineral, those companies told Reuters. The moves come amid a reappraisal of talc in body powders and cosmetics by consumers, regulators and manufacturers. Talc - which is sometimes found in the same rock as asbestos, a potent carcinogen - is used in thousands of cosmetic and personal care products to absorb moisture, prevent caking and add softness. Thousands of cancer lawsuits, some dating back to 2013, have been filed against body-powder market leader Johnson & Johnson. Allegations that asbestos contamination caused plaintiffs' cancers began in 2017. Other makers of talc powders also face suits, including Revlon, Chanel and Avon, securities filings and court records show. Scrutiny of talc products intensified after a 2018 Reuters investigation https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/johnsonandjohnson-cancer reported that J&J knew for decades that asbestos lurked in its talc and powders. The company has disputed Reuters report and maintains its powders are safe and asbestos free. https://reut.rs/2BShyeh J&J announced last month that it would stop selling talc Baby Powder in the United States and Canada, attributing the decision to declining sales and negative publicity. In March, a Chanel representative disclosed in a court deposition that in 2017 the company had stopped making a talc-based body powder, scented with its iconic No. 5 fragrance that it had made since 1924. The deposition was taken in a 2018 case filed in a Los Angeles court. In it, a California woman alleges she got mesothelioma, in part from asbestos-tainted Chanel and J&J powders she used for decades. Story continues Asbestos is the only well established cause of mesothelioma, an incurable rare cancer of the lining of the lungs and other organs. Chanel representative Amy Wyatt said in the deposition that Chanel was sued for the first time over its talc powder in 2016 and she denied Chanel powders contained asbestos. "We know that it was a safe product," Wyatt said in the deposition. But "we determined from public perception to remove it from the market." Wyatt said Chanel had also removed talc from its loose face powder, but she was not sure when the new formulation would be on the market. She did not say what the talc was replaced with. Chanel told Reuters that it routinely updates its products "to ensure we continue to meet our customers' changing needs and expectations," a spokeswoman said in an email. Chanel, which continues to use talc in other products including pressed powder, blush and eye shadow, said all the talc it uses is "selected according to strict purity criteria, fully complies with current global regulations, and is safe under standard conditions of cosmetic use." The privately held company did not respond to questions about the deposition or litigation. A Revlon spokesman told Reuters the company removed talc from its body products. He declined to say when or why; he also declined to comment on litigation. L'Oreal said it is looking for a talc replacement but has not found anything that works as well. "Well known partial alternatives exist, and we continue to explore and seriously consider performant alternatives," a spokeswoman told Reuters in an email. "But none meet the same performance for our products." LOreal - like other companies - requires its suppliers to certify annually that its talc is asbestos-free, and it does in-house testing, she said. "We have not detected any trace of asbestos in any of our raw materials containing more than 20% talcum powder," L'Oreal's spokeswoman said. Other personal care companies have also stopped selling talc powder. Germany's Beiersdorf said it switched to corn starch in its Nivea baby powder in 2018. Bausch Health changed the formula of its Shower to Shower powder in 2018 "to keep the product in line with market trends and customer preferences," and not because of safety concerns, a spokeswoman said. Bausch, which last sold talc powder in February 2019, has been named in 165 lawsuits; 12 are pending, though Bausch is indemnified by J&J, the brand's prior owner, for any liability, securities filings show. Avon, which declined to comment, said in a securities filing that 128 lawsuits were pending against it over talc products. Sanofi, maker of Gold Bond powder, told Reuters it stood by the safety of its talc powder and was "vigorously" contesting talc lawsuits against it. "Sanofi will continue to evaluate its product offerings in light of supply and consumer demand," a spokesman said. Globally, consumers are expected to purchase 139,350 tonnes of talc this year, down 0.6 percent from last year, according to Euromonitor International. Last year, during an analysis of 52 talc-containing cosmetic products, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found asbestos in nine products, including three sold by tween retailer Claire's and one bottle of Johnsons Baby Powder. All products were voluntarily recalled. A spokeswoman said Claire's had stopped using talc, and replaced it with mica in most of its products. The FDA is analyzing 50 more samples this year and is considering establishing an asbestos testing standard. Canada's Health Ministry tentatively concluded in 2018 that talc itself may cause lung problems if inhaled, and ovarian cancer if used in the genital area. A final decision, expected next year, could lead to a ban or restriction on the use of talc in certain products in Canada. (Additional reporting by Ritsuko Shimizu in Tokyo; editing by Vanessa O'Connell and Edward Tobin) [June 09, 2020] Craig Newmark Philanthropies Commits $650K to IWMF's Emergency Support of U.S. Journalists WASHINGTON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- This morning the International Women's Media Foundation announced it will receive an additional $650,000 from Craig Newmark Philanthropies to support U.S.-based journalists. Combined with Craig Newmark Philanthropies' recent $350,000 gift to the IWMF supporting programming to combat online harassment, this funding brings the Philanthropies' recent contributions to the IWMF to $1 million. This additional funding from Craig Newmark Philanthropies will directly support U.S. journalists in need so they can resume work essential to our functioning democracy. Made available to U.S. based journalists regardless of gender, these funds will: support journalists with immediate needs related to their professional work, such as medical aid, destroyed or stolen equipment and protective gear; support long-term journalist needs such as trama, mental health services and referrals to legal support; and, support journalists targeted as a result of their reporting at events related to the highly charged political unrest and polarization in the U.S., including but not limited to elections, civil movements and other challenging environments. "Journalists defend democracy, and the U.S. in particular, by demanding accountability from those who might abuse their power," says Craig Newmark, Founder of Craig Newmark Philanthropies. "Now more than ever, journalists deserve the support of the people they protect. I am honored to aid these truth warriors and the IWMF by supporting their critical needs." Applicants must be U.S. journalists with journalism serving as their primary profession and must provide proof of their financial need. Funding is available to both staff journalists and those working independently, as the IWMF recognizes the tremendous needs of freelancers, who are more likely to face mounting medical bills and bankruptcy since many do not have access to health insurance or institutional support. About the International Women's Media Foundation Founded in 1990, the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) is the only global non-profit organization that offers emergency support, safety training, reporting opportunities and funding avenues offered specifically for women-identifying journalists. We are making more women's bylines possible and work tirelessly to ensure a greater diversity of voices represented in the news industry worldwide. Follow the IWMF on Twitter at @IWMF, on Facebook at @IWMFPage, and Instagram on @TheIWMF. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/craig-newmark-philanthropies-commits-650k-to-iwmfs-emergency-support-of-us-journalists-301072900.html SOURCE The International Women's Media Foundation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] As the proud owner of Tampas food truck in New Haven County, I have witnessed many ups and downs in terms of the economy. However, our small business has been particularly hard hit by the current pandemic. Foot traffic has dropped off significantly as people try to stay home and stay safe. Once this pandemic turns a corner and people can go back to work, it will still be a challenge in rebuilding my business to what it was up until a couple of weeks ago. Itll be even more challenging if the legislature decides to move forward with the proposed ban on polystyrene food containers. These single-use containers are critical in the food truck business and now, more than ever, well need the most cost-effective options in our arsenal as we endure this crisis and continue providing take-away meals for Connecticut residents until the pace of business picks up again. A new breakaway Afghan Taliban faction that has close ties to neighboring Iran and opposes efforts aimed at ending the 18-year insurgency in Afghanistan has emerged. The Hezb-e Walayat-e Islami, or Party of Islamic Guardianship, is believed to have split from the mainstream Taliban soon after the United States and the militant group signed a landmark peace agreement in February. The formation of the splinter group underlines the possible divisions within the Taliban, which has seen bitter leadership transitions and growing internal dissent in recent years. It is unclear whether the new splinter group will rally broad support, but its emergence could pose a new hurdle for the U.S.-Taliban deal, which has been undermined by violence, disputes, and delays. Under that agreement, international forces will withdraw from Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for counterterrorism guarantees from the Taliban, which pledged to negotiate a permanent cease-fire and power-sharing deal with the Afghan government. 'Early Stages Of Forming' Antonio Giustozzi, a Taliban expert with the Royal United Services Institute in London, said it appears the new splinter group is based in Iran, which shares a 900-kilometer border with Afghanistan and has a sizable Afghan population. "It's still in the early stages of forming," said Giustozzi, adding that the military strength and the leadership of the faction is unknown. An Afghan intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFE/RL that the new splinter group has not been "officially announced." The official said members of the group included radical Taliban commanders and members of small Taliban offshoots. A new report by a United Nations monitoring team made public on June 1 said that "at least one group of senior Taliban" had "formed a new group in opposition to any possible peace agreement." The breakaway faction was "composed mainly of dissident senior Taliban members residing outside Afghanistan," said the report, which was based on information provided by Afghan and foreign intelligence and security services, think tanks, experts, and interlocutors. Iran Building Taliban 'Combat Capabilities' The Hezb-e Walayat-e Islami joins a growing list of Taliban factions that support continued fighting against Afghan and international troops. "There are several Taliban leaders, fronts, and commanders who oppose peace and are linked to Iran," said Giustozzi. Among them, he added, is Sirajuddin Haqqani, the deputy leader of the Taliban and the head of the Haqqani network, a powerful Taliban faction that is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. That is despite Haqqani's op-ed in February in The New York Times, in which he voiced support for the peace deal with the United States. Haqqani, who is the Taliban's operational chief, has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. He is the son of the late radical Islamist leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the Al-Qaeda-linked network blamed for some of Afghanistan's deadliest suicide attacks. The Haqqani network has strong ties to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. But Giustozzi said the network is "getting closer" to Iran as Islamabad and Riyadh cut funding to it. Other Iran-linked Taliban leaders who oppose peace efforts include Mullah Qayum Zakir, a powerful battlefield commander and the former military chief of the Taliban until 2014. A former inmate in the infamous U.S. prison at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay, Mullah Zakir has the backing of hard-line field commanders. Mullah Zakir leads a conservative Taliban faction along with Ibrahim Sadr, the Taliban's former military commission chief. In October 2018, Sadr was among eight Taliban members designated global terrorists by the U.S. Treasury Department. "Iranian officials agreed to provide Ibrahim with monetary support and individualized training in order to prevent a possible tracing back to Iran," the Treasury Department said, adding that "Iranian trainers would help build Taliban tactical and combat capabilities." An Afghan intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the new splinter group included the followers of Sadr. The officials said the new group also includes members of the Feday-e Mahaz (Suicide Brigade) a small, hard-core offshoot of the mainstream Taliban. The group is believed to be led by Haji Najibullah, a loyalist to radical Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, who was killed in a U.S.-led attack in Helmand Province in 2007. The group, vehemently against reconciliation with Kabul, has claimed several high-profile assassinations over the years. 'Material Support' Iran backed the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance before the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, when the Taliban controlled most of Afghanistan. Tehran also provided help to U.S. forces as they toppled the Taliban regime. But in recent years the Islamic republic and the Taliban have forged closer ties, with militant leaders even visiting Tehran. The relationship between Shi'ite-majority Iran and the Taliban, a fundamentalist Sunni group, is complex. Iran officially opposes the Taliban, but experts say it provides some military support to the mainstream Taliban and rival breakaway factions. Experts say Tehran is hedging its bets and preparing for different scenarios following a U.S. military pullout from Afghanistan, including a possible Taliban takeover of the country. Tehran has confirmed it has contacts with the Taliban but insists that it is aimed at ensuring the safety of Iranian citizens in Afghanistan and encouraging the Taliban to join peace talks. But U.S. officials have accused Tehran of providing material support to the Taliban, an allegation it denies. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in January accused Tehran of "actively working" to undermine the peace process in Afghanistan, adding that Iran was supporting the Taliban and the Haqqani network. In a report released in November, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) said Iran provides financial, political, training, and material support to the Taliban. "Tehran does not seek to return the Taliban to power but aims to maintain influence with the group as a hedge in the event that the Taliban gains a role in a future Afghan government," the report said, adding that Iran's support enabled it to advance its interests in Afghanistan and attain "strategic depth" in the country. Taliban Divided Over Peace The emergence of the Taliban splinter group has exposed divisions within the militant group. The Taliban is believed to be divided over a peace settlement. Its political leadership based in Pakistan is believed to be more open to a peace deal, but hard-line military commanders on the battlefield in Afghanistan demand the restoration of the Taliban regime that ruled from 1996 to 2001. Internal Taliban divisions have intensified after the death of founder and spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose death was revealed in 2015, more than two years after he had died in Pakistan. Some Taliban commanders accused his successor, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur, of covering up Mullah Omar's death and assuming leadership of the extremist group without proper approval. Mullah Mansur struggled to quell the internal dissent and reconcile feuding factions, with some commanders splitting from the group and challenging his leadership. Mullah Mansur was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in May 2016. The succession of Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, a low-key Islamic scholar who was Mullah Mansur's deputy, was also opposed. But experts said the Taliban has overcome the succession crises, has fended off competition from the global appeal of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, and has remained a relatively coherent fighting force despite a deadly war against foreign and Afghan forces. Borhan Osman, an independent analyst and a leading expert on Islamic extremism and the militant networks operating in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, said divisions within the Taliban are not yet visible. "So far, the Taliban has been successful in spinning the agreement with the United States as an outright victory," he said. Osman said the Taliban's unity will be tested during intra-Afghan talks, when Afghan and Taliban negotiators will discuss a permanent cease-fire and a power-sharing deal. The negotiations were scheduled to start in March but were delayed by disputes over the release of Taliban prisoners by the government and escalating militant attacks. "The Taliban will be forced to come up with specific positions on issues and present their vision for a future Afghanistan," said Osman. The Taliban has been ambiguous on key issues, including women's rights, the future distribution of power, and changes to the Afghan Constitution, reflecting the divisions within the group. Many expect intra-Afghan negotiations to be complex and protracted, considering the gulf between the sides on policy and the sharing of power between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Taliban Offshoots Internal rifts and rivalries have led to the emergence of various Taliban offshoots over the years, although many lack the military strength and support to pose a threat to the mainstream group. The High Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan -- led by Mullah Mohammad Rasul -- has been engaged in deadly clashes with fighters from the mainstream Taliban in southern and western Afghanistan since 2015, leaving scores dead on both sides. The clashes have left the offshoot severely weakened, experts said, with many considering the group to be militarily irrelevant. Mullah Rasul is believed to receive arms and support from Afghan intelligence in an attempt to divide the militant group. India's economy will shrink by 3.2 percent in the current fiscal, the World Bank said on Monday as it joined a chorus of international agencies that are forecasting a contraction in growth rate due to the coronavirus lockdown India's economy will shrink by 3.2 percent in the current fiscal, the World Bank said on Monday as it joined a chorus of international agencies that are forecasting a contraction in growth rate due to the coronavirus lockdown halting economic activity. The Washington-based multilateral lender said that the COVID-19 pandemic and the multi-phased lockdown imposed to curb its spread has resulted in a devastating blow to the Indian economy. In its latest edition of the Global Economic Prospect, the World Bank downgraded its projection of India by a massive negative nine per cent. However, the Indian economy is expected to bounce back in 2021, the World Bank said. "In India, growth is estimated to have slowed to 4.2 percent in the fiscal year 2019/20 (the year ending in March-2020) and output is projected to contract by 3.2 percent in fiscal year 2020/21, when the impact of COVID-19 will largely materialise. "Stringent measures to restrict the spread of the virus, which heavily curtail short-term activity, will contribute to the contraction," it said in the Global Economic Prospect report. International rating agencies like Moody's Investors Service, Fitch Rating and S&P Global Ratings have all predicted a 4-5 percent contraction in India's economic growth rate during April 2020 to March 2021 fiscal. Crisil has said this would be the country's fourth recession since Independence, first since liberalisation, and perhaps the worst to date. The World Bank said spillovers from the weaker global growth and balance sheet stress in the financial sector will also weigh on activity, despite some support from the fiscal stimulus and continued monetary policy easing. According to the report, the central bank has been purchasing government bonds to further ease the financial conditions. The Indian government has also increased its spending on healthcare to bolster the COVID-19 response, wage support, in-kind and cash transfers to lower-income households, deferral of tax payments, as well as loan and liquidity support for small businesses and financial institutions. The growth rate of the Indian economy in fiscal 2017 was seven percent, which dropped to 6.1 percent in fiscal 2018 and to 4.2 percent in fiscal 2020, it said. The real impact of the COVID-19 and lockdown would be felt in the current fiscal (2020-21) beginning April, the bank said as it forecast a negative growth rate of 3.2 percent. The World Bank revised its January projection on India by a massive negative nine per cent for the year 2020 and minus three per cent for the year 2021. The contraction in the Indian economy will have a spillover impact in South Asia, according to the bank's projections. Growth in the region is projected to register a contraction of -2.7 per cent in 2020 and is marked by high uncertainty, the report said. Across the region, the pandemic mitigation measures will severely hinder consumption and services activity, while high uncertainty about the pandemic will constrain private investment. The sheer depth of global contractionary activity in the current environment will also weigh substantially on South Asian regional activity, despite relatively more modest trade linkages with the advanced economies than other EMDE (Emerging Market and Developing Economies) regions. Despite the relatively low number of reported cases per capita, COVID-19 infections are still rising in several economies in the region. As a result, the outlook is highly uncertain and subject to large downside risks, the bank said. Pakistan and Afghanistan are both projected to experience contractions in 2020. The mitigation measures imposed in these countries are expected to weigh heavily on private consumption, contributing to output contractions of -2.6 percent and -5.5 percent respectively, it said, adding that key labor-intensive export sectors like textiles are expected to contract sharply and subsequently recover slowly. Bangladesh and Nepal are projected to experience substantial decelerations in fiscal year 2019/20. In Bangladesh, growth is expected to slow to 1.6 percent, as the recovery in industrial production is reversed by COVID-19-related disruptions such as mitigation measures and global exports plunge, and as remittances fall. In Nepal, growth is projected to decline to 1.8 percent largely due to the same factors, in addition to a drop in tourism (more than one-third of which are from China and India). A sharp decline in tourism is also expected to weigh on activity in Bhutan and Sri Lanka, and even more so in the Maldives, it added. India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The number of active novel coronavirus cases in India stands at 1,25,381 while 1,24,094 people have recovered and one patient has migrated. The contagion has so far killed 7,135 people in the country. The Indian government announced a nationwide lockdown in March to contain the spread of the coronavirus and extended it in phases. From 8 June, the government has announced a calibrated exit strategy under which more economic activities will be allowed across the country. It is the first of the three-phase plan for reopening of prohibited activities in non-containment zones with a stringent set of Standard Operating Procedures which will be in place till 30 June. KYODO NEWS - Jun 9, 2020 - 16:29 | Coronavirus, All, Japan Taxi operators across Japan hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic have launched hot meal delivery services to make up for their losses after the government allowed them to transport food for profit in April as a deregulation step. Around 1,300 taxi operators nationwide have started delivering hot meals as of May 22 to overcome the hardship brought on by the virus epidemic. In April, when the state of emergency was declared for the entire nation, sales of taxi operators across Japan tumbled 62.1 percent on average from a year earlier, according to a survey by the Japan Federation of Hire-Taxi Associations. An Osaka-based taxi firm filed for bankruptcy in May, becoming the first case of collapse in the industry related to the new virus epidemic. As the central government is considering making the deregulation step permanent, many taxi companies expect the service, which enables drivers to utilize their spare time effectively, to be a new source of revenue post-pandemic. Tsubame-taxi group in Nagoya, central Japan, has been delivering curry "udon" noodle, "miso" (soybean paste) pork cutlet and other major local dishes from about 30 restaurants in the city to customers since late April. Customers are charged between 1,000 yen ($9.3) and 2,000 yen for the food to be delivered, with a maximum journey of 7 kilometers. The taxi group company saw its sales nosedive 70 percent in April from the previous year, after people were requested to avoid unnecessary outings under the state of emergency. "(The delivery service) doesn't earn enough to make up for the sales plunge, but we appreciate it as it gives us work," said Toshiyuki Sawai, vice president of the group's core company. With the taxi group continuing to receive stable orders for its delivery service even after the emergency declaration was lifted in May amid a general reluctance to eat out, it plans to continue the business. Taxi firms in other areas such as Sapporo, Kyoto, Nagano and Fukuoka have similarly launched delivery services. An official of Kyoto-based MK Co., which began such a service in late April, said the scheme "helps increase drivers' motivation when there are few customers." Food establishments that have also been struggling, in particular high-end restaurants, have pinned their hopes on the taxi delivery service. Tsutamo, a high-class Japanese restaurant located in the busy Sakae district of Nagoya, said its sales plummeted 90 percent in April from a year earlier but they have started to recover, helped by taxis delivering its "bento" boxed food. "(The service) enables our customers to enjoy the taste of 'ryotei' high-class Japanese food in a casual manner," said Masao Fukada, chairman of the restaurant operator. The bento delivery service has been popular because it "helps lower the hurdle of experiencing the upscale restaurant compared to visiting the place in person," Fukada added. Related coverage: Budget airlines face business model challenge in post-pandemic world NYC starts phased reopening but many remain cautious Japan's pro baseball to test all players every month during season 'Priceless' Mayan wall paintings discovered in a house in Guatemala blend indigenous techniques with colonial-era Spanish motifs, researchers have revealed. The artworks thought to date back to around 15241821 AD were first uncovered in 2003 during renovations of the property, which lies in the town of Chajul. Wall art from this period is normally found adorning churches and depicting Christian-themed subjects which the Spanish used to affirm their presence. Accordingly, the blend of styles in the Chajul paintings may represent a resurgence of local culture as the imperial power's religious and political influence waned. 'Priceless' Mayan wall paintings discovered in a house in Guatemala, pictured, blend indigenous techniques with colonial-era Spanish motifs The artworks thought to date back to around 15241821 AD were uncovered in 2003 during renovations of the property, which lies in the town of Chajul. Pictured, three musicians in European attire (1, 2 & 3, left) play beside a dancer (4, right) in traditional Maya dress The wall paintings which were uncovered in the colonial-era house in 2003 and have since been conserved by a Polish team cover three of the walls of the property's central room. Experts believe that the works may once have been accompanied by others which did not survive until the present day. In their study, archaeologist Jarosanw Zraka of Poland's Jagiellonian University and colleagues teamed up with members of the local Ixil Maya community to analyse the paintings' pigments and style. The team found that the wall paintings bear many similarities with local pre-Hispanic Maya art suggesting that they were most likely made by indigenous artists using traditional materials and methods, albeit picking up some colonial influences. Specifically, the paintings appear to depict ceremonial dances that recreate important historical events or religious rituals with figures in the art seen dancing and playing instruments, with some wearing traditional Maya dress while others are clothed in European attire from the colonial period. The Ixil Maya people believe that the paintings may represent the 'Baile de la Conquista' the 'Dance of the Conquest' which recounts the conquest of the Maya by the Spanish and their eventual conversion to Christianity. Wall art from this period is normally found adorning churches and depicting Christian-themed subjects which the Spanish used to affirm their presence. Accordingly, the blend of styles in the Chajul paintings may represent a resurgence of local culture as the imperial power's religious and political influence waned. Pictured, part of the mural Archaeologist Jarosanw Zraka of Poland's Jagiellonian University and colleagues teamed up with members of the local Ixil Maya community to analyse the paintings' pigments and style The wall paintings which were uncovered in the colonial-era house in 2003 and have since been conserved by a Polish team cover three of the walls of the property's central room The team found that the wall paintings bear many similarities with local pre-Hispanic Maya art suggesting that they were most likely made be indigenous artists using traditional materials and methods, albeit picking up some colonial influences Alternatively, the art may depict the 'Baile de los Moros y Cristianos' the 'Dance of the Moors and Christians'. This tells the story of the Reconquista, a part of Spanish Medieval history in which former Christian territory was taken back from Muslim kingdoms. Many of these dances were created by the Spanish to inject their ideals and history into local tradition, in an attempt to legitimatise their conquest and promote conversion to Christianity. Some such practices, however, ended up being co-opted by the Maya such as the 'Baile de la Conquista', which was reclaimed as a tale of local history and repression. Many of these dances ultimately ended up being prohibited in this region of Guatemala raising the possibility that the wall paintings could even reflect a 'lost dance' that had been banned and subsequently forgotten. The Ixil Maya people believe that the paintings may represent the 'Baile de la Conquista' the 'Dance of the Conquest' which recounts the conquest of the Maya by the Spanish and their conversion to Christianity. Pictured, a modern performance of the dance in the Ixil Region The researchers also endeavoured to conduct radiocarbon dating on the pigments used to make the art, as well as the underlying mudbrick walls. Unfortunately, the fact that the mural appeared to have been painted over a number of times over the centuries leaving behind several layers of pigment from different times made narrowing down a specific date within the colonial period impossible. 'Our research raises the important question as to why wall paintings appeared at Chajul during the latter part of the Colonial period,' the team wrote in their paper. 'There are other houses that have murals awaiting conservation and analysis, and these may provide more information on dating and may show that, in some contexts, paintings appear earlier. 'Nevertheless, if most, or perhaps all of the Chajul murals appear to date to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they may be connected to a contemporaneous pattern observed in New World Spanish colonies.' This, they explained, was 'characterised by a strengthening and even revival of local cofradias [the local religious organisation] and a loss of control by Spanish authorities in some regions.' The full findings of the study were published in the journal Antiquity. The artworks thought to date back to around 15241821 AD were first uncovered in 2003 during renovations of the property, which lies in Guatemalan town of Chajul A resident of Abetifi, one Eric Ansong, whose property has become the center of controversy in his tussle with the Minister of State at the Ministry of the Interior, Bryan Acheampong, has sent a note to the security capo, pleading for forgiveness over his indiscreet actions against him. Ansong, popularly known in Abetifi as Japan Burger, also wants the Hon. Acheampong to disregard all the allegations hes levelled against him in connection to his property which shares a wall with him. Additionally, he is retracting all the falsehood he peddled against him in a publication in the New Crusading Guide newspaper and some online news portals and to render unqualified apology to him for any harm caused and or dragging his hard won reputation into disrepute. Japan Burger, in an interview with journalists on Saturday, June 6, 2020, said his plea and retraction of all the allegations he levelled against Hon. Bryan Acheampong, are premised on records presented to him by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on his property. Yes, I have a property that shares a wall with a hotel that belongs to Hon. Bryan Acheampong. He recently contacted me to sell my property to him. I declined but he kept on calling. So, I thought he wanted to use force to buy my property because of his position. As a result, I went to the media and said Hon. Bryan Acheampong wanted to use coercive means to buy my property. I didnt know he was just acting on a report to my own good. There is an environmental assessment on his property which was carried by the EPA. The report stated in part that my property was so close to the hotels kitchen which was going to produce some hazards. So, the report advised that they should relocate me. So, I think it was based on that report that Hon. Bryan Acheampong contacted me. After knowing the facts, I believe Hon. Bryan Acheampong acted in good faith and that is why I am pleading with him for forgiveness and to retract all the allegations I levelled against him, he noted. Eric Ansong, had in the various media publications expressed worry about how the Hon. Bryan Acheampong who is also the lawmaker for Abetifi, been consistently using various means to acquire his two-storey building property, after he initially declined such an offer. He has been sued by the lawmaker demanding GH10,000,000.00 for defaming his character. 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 Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Adrian Wail Akhlas (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9 2020 The government is considering whether to issue Indonesias first-ever diaspora bonds in November to raise money from nationals living abroad as it struggles to finance the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The Finance Ministry's director for government debt securities Deni Ridwan said the government pushed back the date of issuing the diaspora bonds from August to November because of the pandemic, adding that it was currently assessing demand for such bonds. Read also: Bond financing to swell further as Finance Ministry plans to issue samurai bonds 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 More than one week after protests began in Portland over the police killing of George Floyd, the citys police force still insisted it did not know how many officers had been deployed to respond to the ongoing protests. Portland police officials also said Friday that they did not have information showing how many officers from outside the city have helped or how many times officers from any of the agencies have used force against civilians. Sgt. Michael Roberts, a Portland police spokesperson, said Friday that the information is not available because it is an active event. The questions about police response come as members of the Portland City Council and others have publicly called on the law agency to stop using force on demonstrators and have pushed to cut funding for police units that the bureaus own data show have historically over-policed the black community and people of color. The Portland Police Bureau has confirmed that the bureau is relying on help from other agencies to police the protests and the rest of the city. Yet the specific nature of the outside involvement remains unclear. Portland police said they could not say how many officers from the bureau or other agencies worked each night of protests between May 29 and Thursday or say if officers from partner agencies had engaged in use of force or crowd dispersal tactics. A Gresham police officer fatally shot a man in Southeast Portland while responding to a call on behalf of Portland police May 31. Few details have been released about the circumstances of the shooting, which Portland police are investigating. Gresham police have not responded to multiple calls and emails since Thursday from The Oregonian/OregonLive regarding its assistance of Portland police. The Oregonian/OregonLive has submitted formal public records requests to Portland police, Gresham police and other involved agencies seeking that information. Oregon State Police said it could not provide a timeline of when it could provide more details, citing coronavirus as the cause. However, some police agencies did disclose information to The Oregonian/OregonLive about how their roles during the protests. This is what is known so far about the police response, as of Friday: Oregon State Police, Multnomah County Sheriffs Office, Clackamas County Sheriffs Office, Washington County Sheriffs Office, Port of Portland Police, Vancouver Police and Gresham Police have provided personnel to assist Portland police at various points since protests began over the police killing of George Floyd. Three agencies, the Washington County and Clackamas County sheriffs offices and Vancouver Police, said that none of their personnel had used force during protests as of Thursday. Oregon State Police has provided 50 to 100 troopers to assist Portland police each night since May 30. On five of those days, the personnel has included 50 SWAT and Mobile Response Team members. Seven Port of Portland Police officers helped with the East County Rapid Response Team assisted Portland police with protests on Tuesday night. They have also provided officers for priority calls unrelated to protests. Vancouver police said they had sent approximately seven to 12 officers depending on the night to provide static security to critical infrastructure. Washington County Sheriffs deputies have not assisted directly in policing protests, but have provided four to five deputies and a supervisor to take routine calls on the west side of Portland since June 1, according to an email from Sgt. Danny DiPietro Friday. -- K. Rambo krambo@oregonian.com @k_rambo_ Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. MADISON United Church of Christ clergy gathered at the First Congregational Church of Madison to denounce the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other African Americans and to speak out against systemic racism. The UCC clergy represented churches in Madison and north Madison, Guilford and north Guilford, Northford and North Branford, Branford, East Haven, North Haven and Durham. We gather as this association of clergy in response to the killing of George Floyd and the centuries of systemic racism, injustice, pain and rage that have led to this present moment, said the Rev. Sarah Vetter, minister of community life for the Madison parish. The gathering of clergy came a day after a prayer vigil that drew hundreds of people and other rallies across the shoreline. We are here to pray for and recommission our calling as followers of Christ to work for the day when black and brown people can breathe freely and our society is restructured to reflect the humanity of all, she said. In the joint statement, which Vetter said was issued by 16 clergy, the church leaders said they mourned Floyds death at the hands of police officers who showed callous disregard for his health in a situation where he posed no danger to anyone. They also stated their anguish over the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, the latter killed during a police raid on her home. In addition to the daily acts of racism, we are deeply saddened and disturbed by the growing awareness that communities of color have borne a disproportionate burden of the severe illness and death wrought by COVID19, the statement said. This reality is a reflection of deep inequality in our healthcare system and in our society. They then prayed, As we hold your vision for this world, we recommit ourselves to the work of dismantling racism and insisting on justice, equality, dignity, and respect for every person. Vetter said her parish has been holding community conversations about race every month or two, when people come together and educate ourselves and grow in our awareness. We have to be more woke in our white community to what is going on. She said we could not believe the number of people who came out to the prayer vigil on Sunday evening on the lawn in front of the Madison church. The parishes are members of the New Haven East Consociation of the United Church of Christ. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has announced cancellation of Classes 10th and 11th examination this year. Students of these classes in Tamil Nadu will be promoted on the basis of quarterly and half-yearly exams and their previous attendance. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has announced cancellation of Classes 10th and 11th examination this year. Students of these classes in Tamil Nadu will be promoted on the basis of quarterly and half-yearly exams and their previous attendance. According to news agency ANI, the Palaniswami said that the decision regarding Class 12th exams in the state will be taken by the government in the coming days. Students of classes 10th and 11th to be promoted on the basis of quarterly and half-yearly exam results as well as their attendance; their exams stand cancelled. Decision regarding class 12th exams will be taken in coming days: Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami (file pic) pic.twitter.com/6Y3xgvNp7p ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2020 The announcement comes a day after Madras High Court, on Monday, said that the state government should consider postponement of Tamil Nadu Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) or Class 10 board examination due to the mounting number of COVID-19 cases. Tamil Nadu Class 10 board examination 2020 was scheduled to commence from 15 June. The Madras High Court was hearing a petition by a teachers' association challenging the decision of the Tamil Nadu government to conduct the exam amid the pandemic. The court said that the state government cannot put lives of more than nine lakh students at stake. Tamil Nadu government informed the court that the date of commencement of the examination was the right time as experts' opinion published in news reports forecast COVID-19 cases in the state might increase up to two lakh in the coming days. Tamil Nadu has so far reported more than 33,200 COVID-19 cases. The virus has claimed lives of over 286 people in the state. After two weeks of largely peaceful protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, it is becoming clearer that the Black Lives Matter movement is upending the way many white Americans view policing in this country. On Monday, CNN released a poll showing that 84 percent of respondentsincluding 88 percent of white respondentsviewed the peaceful protests as justified.* In contrast, 67 percent of respondents overall and 67 percent of white respondents answered the question similarly during a 2016 Black Lives Matter protest. Also on Monday, conservative-leaning polling outlet Rasmussen released numbers showing that belief that blacks are treated unfairly by police and that police discrimination is a bigger issue than inner city crime have jumped to new highs. As Politicos Tim Alberta noted on Sunday, there has been an enormous jump in the number of poll respondentsand particularly white poll respondentswho believe that black people are more likely to be victims of excessive police force in this country, from 33 percent overall and 26 percent among white respondents in 2014 to 57 percent overall and 49 percent among white Americans in a survey taken last week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In my 35 years of polling, Ive never seen opinion shift this fast or deeply, wrote conservative pollster Frank Luntz in response to the numbers. We are a different country today than just 30 days ago. The outrage in the streets is not just leading to shifting public opinions. Its also producing tangible results. While the goals of protesters calling for widespread defunding of police departments across the country have obviously not been entirely met, its worth discussing some of what the protests have already achieved. Here is a brief list of some of the reforms that have resulted directly or in part from the protests. Disband and Defund One of the principal battle cries of the protesters demands that cities defund the police or replace their current police forces with more community-oriented services like social workers, educators, and violence intervention programs. After Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey faced a stinging chorus of boos for declining to embrace the abolition movement in his city, the Minneapolis City Council announced Sunday that it had a veto-proof majority in support of dismantling the police department as it currently exists. Commissioner members made clear on Monday that the process of disbanding and replacing the department still needs to be hashed out between the commission and the community in the months ahead. The promise itself, though, is a tremendous win for the protesters in the city where the latest iteration of the movement began after former MPD officer Derek Chauvin was recorded kneeling on George Floyds neck for more than eight minutes until he died. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The calls for cuts to police budgets have spread to the two largest cities in the country. Last week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti pledged to cut upward of $150 million from the proposed LAPD budget after a violent police crackdown on weekend protests and outrage over remarks by police Chief Michael Moore comparing people in the streets to Floyds killer.* As recently as Friday, meanwhile, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested he was not in favor of budget cuts to the NYPD. On Sunday, though he announcedwithout offering specificsthat he would support some cuts to the NYPDs $6 billion budget. Taking Police Out of Schools Within days of Floyds death, the Minneapolis Public Schools board voted unanimously to end a $1 million contract for school security with the MPD. Like the broader push to cut police department budgets generally, the move to end school contracts with police departments has also gone nationwide. Last weeks, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education director announced that his board had the votes to remove Denver police officers from security positions in city schools. Similarly, the Portland Public Schools superintendent announced last week that his citys schools would be discontinuing the regular presence of school resource officers. Disempowering Police Unions The protests have also zeroed in on the political power of police unions as one reason police are so rarely held accountable for misconduct. Public officials are now being pressured to renounce campaign contributions from organizations representing police officers, particularly district attorneys who might have the responsibility of prosecuting officers in excessive force cases. In New York, more than a dozen public officials promised to donate contributions from law enforcementaffiliated political groups. In California, Bay Area district attorneys called on the state bar to ban political contributions from law enforcement organizations, and a number of elected officials promised to donate any past contributions from law enforcement. (Notably, Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who has received $2.2 million in contributions from law enforcement, said that she opposed any state bar prohibition on such contribution.) Prosecuting Police After police crackdowns on protesters across the country, multiple district attorneys have actually sought to prosecute police officers caught on tape using excessive force on protesters, while also opting not to press charges against those protesters for alleged curfew and unlawful assembly violations. In Los Angeles, Lacey said on Monday she would not prosecute these cases. In New York, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said on Friday that he would not prosecute those low-level arrests. On the flip side, district attorneys in multiple jurisdictions have pledged to prosecute police officers caught on tape abusing protesters. In Buffalo, New York, two officers were charged with second-degree assault after pushing over a 75-year-old man and leaving him to bleed from his ear in the street. In Philadelphia, one officer was charged with aggravated assault after beating a protester with a baton during a protest last week. In Fairfax County, Virginia, an officer was charged with three counts of assault and battery after using a stun gun on a peaceful black protester, who was saying I cant breathe in an echo of Floyds last words. In Atlanta, six officers were charged with aggravated assault, simple battery, and damage of property after breaking into a car and stunning two black college students in the middle of a protest. There are hundreds of more similar cases that need to be investigated from last week, but at least some district attorneys have begun to take action. Criminal Charges for Floyds Killers The police officers who took part in the killing of Floyd are facing prosecution for second-degree murder and aiding and abetting murder. The upgraded charges for Derek Chauvin and the charges for three other officers by the Minnesota attorney general only happened after days of protest following Floyds death and Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freemans initial reluctance to prosecute the men and decision to file lesser charges against Chauvin. The delay in holding these officers accountable for their alleged criminal actions was one of the major galvanizing forces for the current movement. A Reckoning in the Press Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the protests did not explicitly address this goal, they have forced multiple prominent news organizations to undergo consequential public reckonings over coverage of police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement as well as general treatment of staff members of color. Most notably, James Bennet, once considered a top candidate to be the next editor of the New York Times, resigned from his position as the Times editorial page editor after failing to properly vet an editorial by Sen. Tom Cotton that called on the U.S. military to violently confront the public assemblies in cities and towns across the country. Similarly, on Monday, Refinery29 co-founder and editor Christene Barberich stepped down following public criticisms by former employees of color who said that they experienced discrimination on the job. These high-profile resignations were preceded by the ousting of the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who resigned after an uproar over a front-page headline in response to the Black Lives Matter protests that read Buildings Matter, Too. While the public reckoning over the medias treatment of the protest movement and police brutality has not necessarily been one of the larger public goals of the movement, that reckoning is still one profound consequence of these protests. Even with all that it has accomplished thus far, its clear that the efforts of these protesters are nowhere near finished. The Minister for Railways Development, Mr. Joe Ghartey has inspected the progress of work on the Western Railway Line. According to him, the indicative scope of the works includes the construction, provision, testing, and commissioning of the construction of approximately 8km of standard gauge railway tracks connecting the existing dual gauge tracks in Takoradi to the Takoradi port for easy and efficient access for cargo. It would be recalled that the Government, on June 3, 2020, signed a 500 million contract for the construction of sections of the Western Railway Line. The historic signing is for the construction of a standard gauge rail line between Takoradi Harbour and Huni Valley. The deal is considered the largest single rail contract in the post-independence history of Ghana. The contract was signed between the government represented by the Sector Minister and Amandi Holdings Limited. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mr. Joe Ghartey said the project consists of the construction of sections of the Western Railway line. He emphasized that it will form a total of 102 kilometers of a continuous single-track railway line, with sections along the tracks, an initial workshop facility at a location to be specified by the employer, and an initial complement of rolling stock. There will also be the conversion of 10.6km the dual gauge tracks between Takoradi to Kojokrom from narrow gauge to standard gauge, adding that this shall include conversion works and materials involved and supply of 10 new gauge turnouts. Mr. Ghartey also noted that the project is to commence hopefully in October 2020 to be completed in 42 months, adding that it will lead to the construction of the railway line from Manso to Huni Valley approximately 60km of single-track lines, and in addition, the construction of 8 basic stations along the existing line from Amantin to Huni Valley including all construction works, station building, access roads, CCTV and access control, backup generator and water tanks. ---PeacefmOnline.com London: Activists have drawn up a hit list of 60 monuments in the United Kingdom that "celebrate slavery and racism", as an influential politician paves the way for the legal removal of a swathe of historic statues in the British capital. The Labour mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, on Tuesday ordered a snap public inquiry into the potential axing of other memorials and street names following the toppling of a statue of slave trader and philanthropist Edward Colston by Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol on Sunday. Khan stressed he could not condone destruction and damage but said he did support the peaceful, coordinated dismantling of prominent London statues recognising 18th-century slave traders. "It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been wilfully ignored," Khan said. - Zanzibar's minister of tourism said all tourists will be required to have a health insurance and also follow containment measures - The minister said all hotels, bars and restaurants will be opened and ready to receive visitors - The sightseers will be screened for COVID-19 upon arrival and those found sick will be isolated Zanzibar has announced the reopening of tourism a little over three months after it closed its borders due to COVID-19. Zanzibar's Minister of Information, Tourism and Heritage Mahmoud Thabit Kombo announced this development and said all visitors will be required to heed to the COVID-19 containment measures. READ ALSO: Kenyans hit at Martha Karua for decrying law violation, remind her of Kibaki's night swearing-in Zanzibar beach. The island reopened for tourism. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Waiguru out: Gladys Wanga asks govt to quarantine MCAs who slept in room to plot impeachment According to People Daily, Kombo said the tourists would also be required to have medical insurance before visiting the country. "All hotels, restaurants and bars in Zanzibar are now opened," the minister said. Kombo said all travellers would be screened on arrival and those who will exhibit COVID-19 symptoms will be isolated. READ ALSO: Netizens photoshop Lulu Hassan, hubby's faces on ashy bodies to protest their rosy love Magufuli recently declared Tanzania a COVID-19 free nation. Photo: John Pombe. Source: Facebook This came days after four tourists, aboard a chartered plane from Greece landed at Kilimanjaro International Airport. The tourists grabbed the opportunity to visit Tanzania after authorities opened airports for international arrivals and also lifted the 14 days mandatory quarantine for visitors entering the country. President John Pombe Magufuli said there was no need to impose more business restrictions while the number of COVID-19 patients and the rate of infections had greatly reduced. On Sunday, June 7, Magufuli declared Tanzania a COVID-19 free country and thanked his citizens for praying for the global crisis. "I want to thank Tanzanians of all faiths. We have been praying and fasting for God to save us from the pandemic that has afflicted our country and the world. But God has answered us," he said. According to the last update on coronavirus that was issued in April 29, there were 509 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 21 deaths in Tanzania and on Friday, June 5, Magufuli said only four patients were receiving treatment in Dar es Salaam. 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. I married a man every woman wanted - Pastor Joan Chege | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke Shocking new pictures of the new Big Brother house show reveal what the compound is really like, without the magic of TV editing. The Channel Seven reboot is filmed in a custom-built compound in Sydney, after the show's original house at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast burnt down in 2019. And although the new clifftop set, located in Manly, may look impressive on screen, in reality it's a little less flash. Big Brother EXCLUSIVE: Shocking new pictures of the new Big Brother house show reveal what the compound is really like, without the magic of TV editing New home: The Channel Seven reboot is filmed in a custom-built compound in Sydney, after the show's original house at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast burnt down in 2019 Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday, newly evicted housemate Allan Liang voiced his shock at just how 'budget' the new location was. 'It was literally just Survivor in a warehouse. Or, as I would say, Survivor in a shoe box because it was so bloody small,' he vented. The Sydney-based salesman continued: 'Honestly, my backyard is bigger. It was so small, there was nowhere to hide and nowhere to go.' Earlier this year, Daily Mail Australia revealed that Channel Seven had hired a huge warehouse to film the reboot in, rather than build a new luxury home. Budget: Although the new clifftop set, located in Manly, may look impressive on screen, in reality it's a little less flash Over: Days after filming wrapped at the start of April, the eye logo had already been dismantled and the custom-built entrance was boarded up The set designers behind the show then attached a huge wooden panel to the front of the warehouse, which features the Big Brother eye logo. Days after filming wrapped at the start of April, the eye logo had already been dismantled and the custom-built entrance was boarded up. Additionally, one of the circular plastic light panels leading up to the front entrance had come loose and was swinging in the wind. Impressive: The 'house' looks more impressive when lit up at night on television 'It was literally just Survivor in a warehouse': Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday, newly evicted housemate Allan Liang voiced his shock at just how 'budget' the new location was The show moved to Sydney for the reboot after the original Big Brother Australia house at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast burnt down in June 2019. Four children aged between 11 and 15 were charged with arson after it was set ablaze. Two nine-year-olds who were also arrested were released after assisting police with inquiries. After the show was axed in 2014, the original house was left to rot for five years. Arson: The show moved to Sydney for the reboot after the original Big Brother Australia house at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast burnt down in June 2019 Sad: After the show was axed in 2014, the original house was left to rot for five years India is considering a universal basic income and will not consider a repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers ) Act or a moratorium on the death penalty, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has told the United Nations. In a first, NHRC, submitted a mid-term report to the United Nations on the human rights situation in the country , highlighting the governments policies on climate change, rights of women, children, disabled, and the elderly, and the right to food, work and health. In the report, Universal Periodic Review (UPR)-III, the UN has been informed that the Indian government is examining and actively considering the possibility of a universal basic income to reduce poverty. Universal basic income (UBI) refers to periodic cash transfers to every citizen. The government has focused cash transfer schemes aimed at farmers, especially, but no universal cash transfer programme. As part of UPR-III, the Indian government accepted 152 recommendations out of 250 by 112 UN member states in September 2017 pertaining to poverty alleviation, rights of women, children, persons with disabilities, elderly, marginalized populations and right to education etc. However, it refused to accept 98 recommendations including repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers ) Act, a moratorium on the death penalty, violence against marginalized groups and concerns over the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), a law regulating foreign funding to non-governmental organizations etc. UPR is an international peer review mechanism based on a periodic self-assessment by each country of its human rights record, achievements and challenges, which is supplemented by reports from UN human rights experts, entities, treaty bodies, national human rights institutions, and civil society organizations. India was one of the first countries to be reviewed under the UPR mechanism. In the mid-term report submitted last month, accessed by Hindustan Times, NHRC has listed passing of Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, which criminalizes instant Triple Talaq, as a key step in eliminating discrimination against women. It has also listed government flagship schemes such as the PM Awas Yojana affordable housing initiative , the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, the Swachh Bharat Mission, and the Ujjwala scheme of free cooking gas connections for the poor. Civil society organizations, which are part of the Working Group of Human Rights (WGHR), say NHRC has done the bidding of the government of India rather than giving an independent view on the human rights conditions in India. Henri Tiphagne, executive director of the Peoples Watch, said: We are quite surprised because this NHRC UPR report reads like a government of India report. Many events have taken place (since India accepted the recommendations of UN member countries) but nothing has been mentioned in the report. The report doesnt show the independent view of NHRC. Sanjoy Hazarika, director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, welcomed NHRC submitting a mid-term report but added that the non-government organisation was meeting in couple of days to brainstorm on the findings. A 12-member Working Group of Human Rights (WGHR) for India, which includes CHRI, will prepare its own report and send it to the UN. NHRC chairperson, justice (retd) H L Dattu, said, This (mid-term) report addresses all the recommendations given by the UN members for the central government during last review meeting (in September 2017 in Geneva). The UPR is significant because it takes into account issues pertaining to human rights including poverty, religious issues, women rights etc. Asked about NHRCs role in the whole process, Dattu said, The Commission has the role of an onlooker as these recommendations are for the central government (to address). Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) said: The NHRC, to meet standards set out under the Paris Principles, should act as an independent authority to ensure human rights protections, recommend reforms, call for accountability when there are violations. It should act as a constitutional body to provide independent checks and balances. The commission should also be speaking out about violations linked to a crackdown on freedom of speech and peaceful protest. It is not supposed to report government achievements. That is for the state party to do. Convicted mastermind of 1998 murder of Russian MP abandons parole petition RAPSI 17:44 09/06/2020 ST. PETERSBURG, June 9 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) - Mikhail Glushchenko, a former State Duma lawmaker sentenced to 17 years in prison for the murder of fellow parliamentarian Galina Starovoitova, has withdrawn his petition for parole, RAPSI has learnt from the United press service of St. Petersburg courts. He filed for parole on May 20. A hearing was scheduled for May 25 but later postponed until June 15. Glushchenko decided not to wait for the hearing and lodged a new motion to withdraw the previous one. His defense lawyer Georgy Valovich declined to comment on. In August 2015, the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg convicted and sentenced Glushchenko to jail. The court also imposed a 300,000-ruble (about $4,500) fine on him. However, he is still held in a detention center of the regional directorate of the Federal Security Service (FSB). Starovoitova was killed in St. Petersburg in November 1998. Her assistant Ruslan Linkov was wounded in the attack. Eight suspects, including Yury Kolchin, a former employee of Russias military intelligence service (GRU), were charged with taking part in the assassination. In June 2005, a court in St. Petersburg sentenced all the men to prison terms varying from 11 to 23.5 years. In 2004, a witness in the murder named Glushchenko as one of its masterminds. As part of his plea agreement, Glushchenko reportedly agreed to testify against Vladimir Barsukov, who is believed to be a leader of one of the countrys most powerful criminal syndicates. Barsukov, who changed his name from Kumarin earlier, went on trial on charges of attempted murder. He was sentenced in November 2009 to 14 years in prison for illegal corporate raiding, extortion and fraud, among other crimes. The sentence was reconsidered in March 2012, and Barsukov received 15 years in prison. Glushchenko was also charged in another criminal case with extortion and sentenced in March 2012 to eight years in prison. (CNN) Thousands of brave souls have ventured into the Rocky Mountains for the past decade, searching for a treasure chest filled with gold, rubies, emeralds and diamonds. But that adventure has finally come to an end. The treasure has been found. Forrest Fenn, the 89-year-old art and antiquities collector who created the treasure hunt, made the announcement Sunday on his website. "It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago," Fenn wrote in his announcement. "I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot." The treasure was found a few days ago by a man who did not want to be named, Fenn told the Santa Fe New Mexican. He noted, however, that the man was from "back East" and that he confirmed his discovery by sending Fenn a photograph of his newfound riches. The treasure, estimated to be worth over $1 million, was a way for Fenn to inspire people to explore nature and give hope to people affected by the Great Recession, he said. Clues leading to the treasure's location were included in a 24-line poem published in Fenn's 2010 autobiography "The Thrill of the Chase." Fenn estimated that as many as 350,000 people from all over the world went hunting for the treasure, according to the New Mexican. Some quit their jobs to fully dedicate their lives to the hunt and some even died. "I congratulate the thousands of people who participated in the search and hope they will continue to be drawn by the promise of other discoveries," Fenn said on his website. This story was first published on CNN.com A treasure chest hidden in the Rocky Mountains for a decade has finally been found Experts forecast Vietnams wind power sector would further grow in line with the Governments stronger regulatory support announced recently and rising investor interest, which has strengthened the project pipeline. Viet Nam contains one of the highest potential for wind power in the Asian region. Photo vietnambiz.vn According to experts from the international financial information provider Fitch Solutions, the Government has proposed several policies in recent months to boost the development of the wind sector, in particular offshore wind, which bodes well for the industry. We note that Viet Nam contains one of the highest potentials for wind power in the region, as it is endowed with high wind speeds particularly in the offshore or near-shore areas, Fitch experts said. The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) estimates this potential to be at approximately 475GW. The Prime Minister issued a resolution in March 2020 for a five-year plan to 2025 to develop renewable energy sources off the coast, with specific mechanisms and policies to attract both foreign and local developers to invest in the sector. The offshore wind sector was also emphasised under the National Energy Development Strategy of Viet Nam to 2030, and the MoIT has proposed to include several wind projects in the upcoming Power Development Plan. The Government is also in the process of amending seabed lease and licensing requirements for large-scale offshore wind farms, alongside the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment (MoNRE). In contrast to Viet Nams approach toward its solar sector, the MoIT has also proposed to extend the feed-in-tariff (FiT) deadlines for wind by two years, from the original commercial operation date (COD) deadline in November 2021 to the end of 2023, before implementing auctions thereafter. The current FiT for offshore wind is highly attractive at 9.8 US cents per kWh, which was increased from the previous rate of 7.8 US cents per kWh. This extension follows appeals from several wind energy developers, industry associations and local governments from nine provinces after the COVID-19 outbreak has caused some near-term headwinds to the sector. This is largely due to project delays stemming from supply chain disruptions, labour shortages, and construction being forced to stop temporarily due to the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as delays to several wind project approvals. We believe that the more amenable approach the Government is taking to the wind sector when compared to the solar sector is because growth to date has been at a more manageable pace for the system to cope with, given that the development or wind projects are typically longer and more complicated. This also occurs against a broad support for renewable energy in general, particularly as Viet Nam is set to see a surge in power demand, which offers capacity growth opportunities for the sector, the experts said. Fitch expects the Government to announce a new Power Development Plan VIII this month with renewable energy to likely see a greater focus. Capacity targets for the countrys wind sector are expected to increase to 6GW by 2025 and 10GW by 2030, from the existing targets of 2GW and 6GW respectively. The Government is also looking to introduce a new Direct Power Purchase Agreement (DPPA), where renewable energy producers can sell and deliver electricity directly to corporate customers. We believe these developments will encourage further growth and investment in the sector. We have already seen growing investor interest across Viet Nam's wind sector over the past year, which has strengthened the pipeline significantly, Fitch said. VNS Ha Tinh approves $695 million wind power plant The People's Committee of the central province of Ha Tinh has approved a wind power project with a total investment of VND16.2 trillion (US$695.3 million). Belarus, which is known as "the last dictatorship in Europe," has long been Russia's most faithful ally and client state. With the advent of the novel coronavirus crisis, though, that might just be changing. To start, Russia seems to be inexplicably squeezing its only ally in Europe, and at a time of trouble. The crisis has caused major drop in energy prices, but Russia keeps refusing to reduce the costs of its natural gas to Belarus. The two countries recently signed an agreement on prices, leaving one to conclude that Russia does not seem to be willing to keep subsidizing Belarus's Soviet-style economy any more. Failing to find common ground with Russia on oil prices, Belarus recently started importing crude from countries such as Norway, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan. It's a sign that Minsk aims to cut down on imports of Russian oil to about 40 percent, which may have a strong impact on the Belarusian economy, as Russian crude is much cheaper than other imports, with lower transport costs. Until now, Belarus has always benefited from buying subsidized oil products from its neighbor and re-exporting them, just as Cuba has done with its Venezuelan oil imports. In May, Russia banned imports of refined oil products, including gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel to protect its refining industry from cheap imports, including imports from Belarus. Belarus will be heavily affected by this measure, as the country had been refining Russian oil and then selling it back to Russia. Clearly, the Kremlin does not intend to make any concessions to Minsk. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently rejected the possibility of imposing a unit gas price for members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) price because "it can only be implemented in a single market with a single budget and a single tax system." Both Russia and Belarus, are members of this entity that exists mainly on paper. In reality, the two countries, as well as Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, have numerous disputes and can hardly agree on some very basic issues such as common prices, taxes, and tariffs, let alone big geopolitical topics. Russia has been using the EEU as a tool in order to solidify its influence over Minsk, Nur-Sultan, Yerevan and Bishkek, the capitals of these member states. However, it does not treat all the EEU member-states equally. For Moscow, energy-rich Kazakhstan has far greater importance than Belarus, which many Russian policy makers see as a client state, or even some sort of an energy vampire since it constantly demands lower energy prices from Russia. Gazprom chief Alexey Miller said that the Russian gas giant will be ready to negotiate gas deliveries to Belarus in the period starting 2021 only after the issue of Belarus' gas debt, which amounts to $165.6 million, is settled. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, on the other hand, accused Moscow of selling natural gas to Europe at the price under $70 per thousand cubic meters, while Belarus has to pay $127. Armenia, another Russian ally, is paying an even higher price - $165 per thousand cubic meters. That way Russia is clearly demonstrating its policy of double standards. It often makes concessions to rich Western nations, yet at the same time charges its closest allies extremely high prices. The Kremlin is quite aware that countries such as Belarus and Armenia are heavily dependent on Russia and that they can hardly make any political maneuvers that would push them away from Russia's geopolitical orbit. In the case of Belarus, Russia remains its primary trade and energy partner. The Eastern European country serves as an important transit route between Russia and Europe, hosting the worlds largest oil pipeline, Druzhba, which goes from Russia to Western Europe. Most Belarusian exports go to Russia, and the country also hosts two Russian military bases. Even though the two countries are allies through the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Moscow also has reportedly refused to work with Belarus on missile development. The rhetoric from Belarus's leader has been getting negative, too: Do not kneel in front of Russians. By refusing to collaborate in developing this missile and by refusing to provide even a testing area they are sending us a signal, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said. In an attempt to show Russians that Belarus has an alternative to its alliance with Moscow, Lukashenko expressed his desire to discuss possible cooperation in rocket construction with China's President Xi Jinping. Due to Lukashenkos flirting with China and the West, some analysts have speculated that Russia might eventually turn Belarus into another Ukraine, either by invading and annexing the country or else by trying to destabilize it. The cultural and linguistic similarities between the two nations is closer than even that of Russia and Ukraine, and talk has been rife for years about merging the two countries. But this point, Minsk's leaders see no risk of becoming another Ukraine. Even if Lukashenko radically shifts away from Russia, or if the nationalist anti-Russian opposition ever somehow comes to power in Belarus, the perception in Belarus is that it is very unlikely that Moscow will ever militarily intervene in it the same way it did in Crimea and the Donbass. For Russia, the Donbass region, in eastern Ukraine, is significant due to its energy resources, primarily coal. In Crimea, Moscow controls vast offshore oil and gas resources in the Black Sea, estimated between 4-13 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. Since Belarus does not have any natural resources, a land grab in Belarus is unlikely to be one of the Kremlins priorities, because its policy decisions are primarily driven by economics. As long as Lukashenko is in power, Moscow and Minsk will likely stay formal allies. But on the ground, Belarus will have no choice but to find ways to diversify from Russia, as the Kremlin is unlikely to change its energy policy to benefit Belarus. Without that cheap oil and gas, the Belarusian economy is expected to weaken, and it could get even worse for the country if relations with the Kremlin deteriorate: Russia also could easily close its market for Belarusian goods, which would create even more economic hardship for Belarus. If that happens, Belarus's export-oriented economy will be in trouble, and Lukashenko may face social unrest. That, however, does not mean the Kremlin will use the situation and invade the country, as that would mean feeding additional nine million people. Instead, Russian officials will likely keep pressuring Belarus to make concessions regarding a deeper integration into the Russia-Belarus Union State. Finally, the Kremlin may insist that Lukashenko sell some of Belarus's most successful state-owned companies to Russian oligarchs, which is something he has been refusing to do for the past two decades. Given the fact that the coronavirus has already brought many changes to international politics, relations between Belarus and Russia will not be the same as they were before the war against the invisible enemy. Even though Alexander Lukashenko is expected to win the presidential election scheduled for August 9, a battered economy with little reason to expect better may mean that his sixth term in office could be his last one. Nikola Mikovic is a Serbian freelance journalist. He has written for CGTN, Tsarizm (reprinted at RealClearWorld), Global Comment, and Weekly Blitz, among others. Nikola is also a regular contributor to KJ Reports YouTube geopolitical channel. He mostly covers the foreign policies of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, as well as energy issues. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons, public domain [June 09, 2020] Congressman Van Drew Visits Inspira Vineland to Advocate for Equitable Provider Relief Funding Congressman Jefferson Van Drew (R - CD2) reaffirmed his commitment to helping Inspira Health and other 2nd Congressional District health systems receive their equitable share of federal Provider Relief Funding. Also known as hotspot funding, these payments are designed to help hospitals recover financially from the enormous costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Since early March, Inspira Health has incurred $15 million of unanticipated spending on capital and operations, while losing more than $44 million in projected revenue. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005828/en/ Congressman Jefferson Van Drew visited Inspira Medical Center Vineland to advocate for equitable Provider Relief Funding for hospitals in his district. Pictured left to right are: Peter Kaprielyan, vice president of Government Relations, Inspira Health; John DiAngelo, president and CEO, Inspira Health; Congressman Van Drew; Ron Rossi, chairman, Inspira Health Board of Trustees. (Photo: Business Wire) "Inspira and all of the hospitals in my district have taken heroic steps to care for the people of Southern New Jersey during this pandemic," said Van Drew. "They have prepared, spent millions on supplies and capital, all while losing tens of millions of dollars of revenue from surgeries and other services that were put on hold. They deserve equitable funding, and I will continue to advocate on their behalf." Van Drew spoke with John DiAngelo, president and CEO of Inspira Health, and Ron Rossi Jr.,chairman of the Inspira Health Board of Trustees. DiAngelo shared how Inspira experienced a significant patient surge at the end of April, almost three weeks after North and Central Jersey hit their peak volume of COVID-19 patients. This difference in when hospitals in the southernmost counties experienced their highest volumes of patients with COVID-19 was a key reason that Inspira and other South Jersey hospitals did not receive any dollars from the second round of Provider Relief Funding. Inspira did receive approximately $14 million in the first round. "Congressman Van Drew supported us when he was in Trenton and continues to support us in Congress," said DiAngelo. "All we are asking is to be treated equitably, along with all of the hospitals in the 2nd Congressional District. The congressman has made it clear that he will continue to do all he can to address our concerns." Since receiving its first presumptive COVID-19 patients in mid-March, Inspira's hospitals have cared for 755 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 and an additional 1,761 patients who were presumed to be ill with the disease. It should be noted that presumptive patients receive the same level of critical care as positive patients, while test results are pending. Although the number of COVID-19 patients continues to decline in the region, Inspira continues to safely care for these patients in its hospitals, with the largest number receiving care at Inspira Medical Center Vineland. For more information about Inspira Health, please visit www.InspiraHealthNetwork.org or call 1-800-INSPIRA. To stay connected with Inspira announcements and work being done in the community, please join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Inspira is proud to be the Official Health Care Partner of the Philadelphia Wings professional lacrosse team. Editor's Note: Our name is now Inspira Health. "Network" is no longer part of our name. About Inspira Health Inspira Health is a charitable nonprofit health care organization and a regional leader in physician training, with approximately 160 medical residents and fellows in nine nationally accredited specialty programs. The system, which traces its roots to 1899, comprises three hospitals, two comprehensive cancer centers, several multi-specialty health centers and a total of more than 150 access points. These include urgent care; outpatient imaging and rehabilitation; sleep medicine labs; cardiac testing facilities; digestive health and wound care centers; home care and hospice; and more than 30 primary and specialty physician practices in Gloucester, Cumberland, Salem, Camden and Atlantic counties. Together with its medical staff of more than 1,300 physicians and other care providers, as well as more than 6,200 employees, Inspira Health provides evidence-based care to help each patient achieve the best possible outcome. Accredited by DNV Healthcare, the system's clinical and support staffs are focused on providing quality care in a safe environment. For more information about Inspira Health, visit www.InspiraHealthNetwork.org or call 1-800-INSPIRA. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005828/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Angelo Bronson, a 36-year-old father of two, died when someone fired shots from a car - Via Facebook Chicago suffered its most violent day in almost 60 years when 18 people were killed as rioting and looting broke out amid the George Floyd protests. The fatalities figure on Sunday 31 May was the highest on record according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab, which has been tracking the data since 1961. Among those reportedly killed was a man paying his cell phone bill, a high school student and a visitor from Washington DC seeing his family for the weekend. Intense pressure on police resources as the protests turned violent could be one factor, with 65,000 calls being made to 911 emergency services that day - 50,000 more than usual. The spike also contrasts with a longer-term trend of declining killings in the city, with the number of total murders in 2019 around a third lower than 2016. Community leaders, law enforcement and the researchers who monitor the data have all expressed shock at the number of fatalities. Max Kapustin, the senior research director at the crime lab, told the Chicago Sun-Times the death tally was so high that he struggled to find historic comparisons. Darius and Maurice Jelks were killed on May 31, the most violent day in Chicago in modern history. "We've never seen anything like it, at all," Mr Max Kapustin told the paper. He added: "I don't even know how to put it into context. It's beyond anything that we've ever seen before." Rev Michael Pfleger, who leads Chicago's St Sabina Church and is a campaigner against gun violence, pointed to the anti-police brutality protests that had broken out in the city. Chicago, like cities across America, saw protests triggered by the death of Mr Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis tip into episodes of violence and looting on Sunday. On Saturday and particularly Sunday, I heard people saying all over, 'Hey, there's no police anywhere, police ain't doing nothing, Rev Pfleger told the Chicago Sun-Times. I sat and watched a store looted for over an hour," he added. "No police came. I got in my car and drove around to some other places getting looted [and] didn't see police anywhere. Story continues According to the crime labs records the previous highest single day of murders in the city was on August 4 1991, when 13 people were killed. Keishanay Bolden was enrolled at Western Illinois University, where she was studying law enforcement and justice and hoped to become a correctional office In a 2,500-word piece published on Monday the Chicago Sun-Times covered the killings and gave details for some of those who lost their lives. John Tiggs, 32, was shot as he walked into a mobile phone shop. His family said he was paying a bill. John had a big heart. He was there for us, his aunt was quoted in the paper saying. Lazarra Daniels was a student at the high school DRW College Prep. She was shot close to 11pm on Sunday evening. The schools principal called her death an incalculable loss. Angelo Bronson, a 36-year-old father of two, had travelled down from Washington DC where he worked installing solar panels. He was shot when someone in a passing car opened fire. Among the others who died that day was Keishanay Bolden. She was studying law enforcement and justice at Western Illinois University and hoped to become a correctional officer. Two brothers, 31-year-old Darius Jelks and 39-year-old Maurice Jelks, were fatally shot while driving from their mother's home, according to Mail Online, while Danyal Jones, 30, was shot while standing on the porch in the middle of the night. Teyonna Lofton, 18, was reportedly shot after her own graduation party. A bullet struck her elbow during a trip to the petrol station after the celebration. She survived but faces months of physical therapy. During the entire weekend, from 7pm on Friday May 29 through to 11pm on Sunday May 31, some 25 people were killed in Chicago and a further 85 were wounded by gunfire. Violence in Chicago has repeatedly made headlines in recent years, with Donald Trump at times drawing attention to the killings there in tweets. The city is the hometown of Barack Obama, the former US president, and the former mayor Rahm Emanuel, also a Democrat, has clashed with Mr Trump in the past. During a visit to Chicago last October, his first as president, Mr Trump called the city a haven for criminals that was embarrassing to us as a nation. Wyoming's only pending death-penalty case on Tuesday returned to Natrona County courts, where defense attorneys will contest Dale Wayne Eaton's mental competency in advance of a new sentencing hearing. The case is back in state courts following years of appeals that reached as high as the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear Eaton's requests. Prosecutors here will ask again that Eaton be put to death. Eaton's attorneys, though, have asked that his mental state be evaluated before a new sentencing hearing is scheduled. Such evaluations can determine whether a person is mentally competent to face criminal proceedings. At issue now is a defense attorney request to be present during the evaluation. Eaton's attorneys issued an updated request to that effect late last month. During Tuesday's hearing, Assistant District Attorney Mike Blonigen said he would respond to the filing by June 19th. Eaton's lawyers will have another week to respond, and then Judge Daniel Forgey on July 10th will hold a hearing to rule on the issue before ordering the evaluation. Eaton has been imprisoned since 2004 for his conviction that year of the kidnapping, rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell, a Montana woman who disappeared in 1988 as she traveled through Natrona County. Although he was sentenced to death shortly after his conviction, Eaton has mounted a series of appeals since. A federal judge in 2014 threw out his death sentence, ruling that the state's only death row inmate had not received appropriate representation during the sentencing stage of the case. He has not yet received a new sentence. Defense attorneys following the 2014 determination brought a series of appeals seeking to avert a new death sentence. After a defense appeal to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals failed, local prosecutors in 2019 announced they would again seek Eatons execution. Shortly after, the Kansas City law professor who is representing Eaton in the case asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. The country's highest court earlier this year declined to take the case. Nobody else currently faces the death penalty in Wyoming. Although state legislators have in recent years cited the cost of death penalty prosecutions in their attempts to end capital punishment, those efforts have failed. This year, an introductory vote on the issue failed narrowly. 10 Montana "Unsolved Mysteries" cases Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 On Tuesday, June 9, the United States Senate Panel accuse different government communication agencies of overseeing Chinese telecoms to operate in the country. This was despite claims of security danger of these companies with America's security and privacy on mobile devices. Now, the Chinese telecoms said they will not let go easily of the U.S. market, not like this. US Senate wants FCC to explain about Chinese telecom permits in America The report from the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations says the U.S. government may have "provided little-to-no oversight of Chinese state-owned telecommunications carriers operating in the United States for nearly twenty years." The companies include China Telecom (Americas) Corp, China Unicom (Americas), and Pacific Networks Corp. These were three of the biggest Chinese telecoms in the country, serving millions of Americans. Both Republican and Democratic governments agree that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other related agencies are responsible for taking less time of consideration in approving Chinese companies' permits in the court. "Federal agencies have done little to protect the integrity of U.S. telecommunications networks and counter national security threats from China," the panel's chairman, Rob Portman, a Republican, said in a statement. The FCC, however, said that they'd be willing to be part of the investigation regarding the matter and open to read the recommendations of the Senate panel. "We look forward to reviewing the contribution of these senators and committee staff to this important national security work," a spokesman for the Federal Communications Commission, Will Wiquist, said in a statement. Chinese telecom wants FCC decision to be revoked Though it was the only assumption of Senate panel that there might be overseeing in the part of government agencies, the Chinese telecoms that were affected by this ruling seemed to be unimpressed. Reuters reported that Chinese firms called the claims "unfounded" and have no basis at all. Last year, the FCC already prohibited another Chinese telecom from operating in the country after its said national security threat. Since then, the safety behind Chinese telecoms is now in question. "A two-decade track record as a valuable contributor to U.S. telecommunications markets, a good record of compliance with its FCC regulatory obligations, and a demonstrated willingness to cooperate with U.S. law enforcement agencies," said China Unicom. While Pacific and ComNet said 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." Remove China app in India America is not the only one letting go of the Chinese community. India, for example, has made an app solely for deleting all Chinese apps on a user's smartphone. However, Google now removed the app from Google Store after the app was accused of violation with their Deceptive Behavior Policy. ALSO READ: How Will App Developers Benefit from GDSA? China Tech Giants Unite To Create Google Play Alternative Google Play 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A white paper titled Fighting COVID-19: China in Action was issued by Chinas State Council Information Office at a press conference on June 7. Xu Lin, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the State Council Information Office, introduces a white paper on Chinas fight against COVID-19 at a press conference, June 7. (Photo by Xu Xiang, courtesy of scio.gov.cn) The around-37,000-character white paper keeps a record of Chinas efforts in its fight against the virus, shares the countrys experience with the rest of the world, and clarifies its ideas on the global battle. Chinas fight against the virus fully demonstrates the leadership and science-based decisions of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee with Xi Jinping at its core. When the novel coronavirus struck, catching the country unawares, the CPC Central Committee and the Chinese government have given its full attention to the matter and taken swift action. General Secretary Xi Jinping has taken personal command, planned the response, overseen the general situation and acted decisively, pointing the way forward in the fight against the epidemic. Putting peoples lives and health first, China swiftly adopted a series of policies on epidemic prevention and control and treatment of the infected. In little more than a single month, the rising spread of the virus was contained; in around two months, the daily increase in domestic coronavirus cases had fallen to single digits; and in approximately three months, a decisive victory was secured in the battle to defend central Chinas Hubei province and its capital city of Wuhan, the white paper records Chinas arduous efforts in the fight against the epidemic with a clear and detailed timeline. Xu Lin, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and director of the State Council Information Office, said at the press conference that all 1.4 billion Chinese people will always remember the hardship in fighting against COVID-19. In fighting the epidemic, China has put the peoples interests first nothing is more precious than peoples lives. It followed the principle of early detection, reporting, quarantine and treatment, and treated the infected in dedicated medical facilities where medical specialists from all over the country and all the necessary medical resources were concentrated, with a goal to improve the patient admission and cure rates and reduce the infection and fatality rates. By May 31, 94.3 percent of the confirmed cases had been cured, surpassing the average recovery rate for normal viral pneumonia. The countrys nationwide virus control measures are now being conducted on an ongoing basis. Wang Chen, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said China attaches great importance to regular COVID-19 prevention and control measures. Systematic actions should be taken in the whole society to strike a balance between effective epidemic prevention and normal life and work, Wang added. Ma Xiaowei, director of Chinas National Health Commission, noted that the Chinese government has acted with openness, transparency and responsibility, and quickly put in place response mechanisms. Racing against time to conduct etiological and epidemiological studies, China identified the pathogen in eight days and developed testing reagents in 16 days, he explained. The country wasted no time in reporting the outbreak to the World Health Organization and relevant countries and regions, and shared with them the genetic sequence at the first opportunity, Ma said, adding that China also immediately carried out international cooperation in epidemic prevention and control. The clear timeline reveals that the work done by the Chinese government and scientists can stand the test of history and time, Ma said. Chinas battle against the epidemic fully demonstrated its governance capacity and comprehensive national strength. The country rallied 346 national medical teams, consisting of 42,600 medical workers and more than 900 public health professionals to the immediate aid of Hubei. The construction of the 1,000-bed Huoshenshan Hospital was completed in just 10 days, and that of the 1,600-bed Leishenshan Hospital in just 12 days. In over 10 days, 16 temporary treatment centers providing over 14,000 beds were built. After the outbreak, the entire country acted promptly. Relying on its overall national strength, China pooled all its strength in the shortest period of time and halted the spread of the epidemic. Its strength was fully revealed in the epidemic. Chinas Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said that the countrys outstanding contribution to global anti-pandemic cooperation has won itself wide applause from the international community. Foreigners not only praised China on the internet, but also lit up landmarks in red, played Chinese songs in neighborhoods and cheered Thank you, China on the streets. After the COVID-19 epidemic, Chinas ties with the majority of countries in the world have been strengthened rather than undermined, and the countrys circle of friends was further expanded, the vice minister said. Wang Zhigang, minister of science and technology, noted that China has engaged in international cooperation in the whole process of developing COVID-19 vaccines. The country will make its coronavirus vaccine a global public good when it is available, as President Xi Jinping promised at the virtual event of the opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly, the minister added. However, at the same time, some foreign politicians and media claimed that China is guilty of being the source of the virus based on presumption of guilt, trying to label the virus and politicize the COVID-19 pandemic, said Xu. They played up the accusations that China was accountable for spreading the virus and concealing the facts, which have no factual basis and disrespect science, Xu noted, adding such remarks have triggered strong indignation among the Chinese people. Faced with defamation and slanders, the country must and will respond, Xu said, adding that its not a verbal game, but is clarifying the facts, restoring the truths and maintaining moral justice and human conscience. The Department of Justice has formally requested that Britain hand over Prince Andrew to be quizzed over his links to billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. What Happened: Epstein died of suicide Aug. 10, 2019 in a New York jail. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who was used as a sex slave by Epstein, alleges she was sexually involved with Prince Andrew on three occasions between 2001 and 2002, twice while she was underage. Prince Andrew has denied he was ever involved with Giuffre. In November 2019, Prince Andrew officially stepped back from public duties after facing a backlash for saying he did not regret his friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein. U.S. officials previously accused him of providing "zero co-operation" and have filed a mutual legal assistance request to the U.K. Home Office, reports the BBC. Under the MLA request, if Prince Andrew does not voluntarily respond, he could be called to a U.K. court to answer questions. What Next: Prince Andrew's lawyers have described the request as "disappointing" and stressed he was "not a target of the DoJ investigation and has recently repeated his willingness to provide a witness statement." Lawyers say he is treated "by a lower standard" than any other citizen over the Epstein investigation. Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman tweeted Monday: pic.twitter.com/KUKvXQsrzd US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) June 8, 2020 The situation has been described by the U.K. press as a diplomatic nightmare. Related Links: UK's Prince Andrew 'Stepping Back' From Royal Duties After Disastrous Interview On Epstein Ties Photo by Chatham House via Wikimedia. See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. (Newser) Authorities are considering hate crime charges after a man they called a Ku Klux Klan leader drove into a crowd of protesters in Virginia. The number of people struck wasn't clear, the New York Daily News reports, but police reported no serious injuries. "A vehicle revved their engine and drove through the protesters occupying the roadway" on Sunday in Lakeside, a Richmond suburb, police said. Harry Rogers was denied bail in a court hearing; he's charged with crimes including attempted malicious wounding and assault and battery. Rogers "is an admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology," the prosecutor said. "We are investigating whether hate crimes charges are appropriate." story continues below Authorities said Rogers, 36, told officers when he was arrested that he's president of the Virginia KKK and the highest-ranking official who's not in prison. Interviewed in jail Monday, Rogers said he has ties to the KKK, per WTVR, but said he didn't tell anyone that he's its president. Rogers said he drove on the median and revved his engine to get away from the protesters. Calling Rogers' actions "heinous and despicable," the prosecutor said, "We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law." Rogers' next court appearance is scheduled for August. (In Seattle, a man drove into protesters and opened fire.) With travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak in place, it seems highly unlikely that a plane full of celebrities can jet off to the South African jungle in January. And on Monday, New Idea magazine reported that the seventh season of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! will still go ahead and producers are looking at a filming location very close to home. 'They have been looking for ways to trim the budget and now with the coronavirus issue, this will allow them to film locally and save a fortune,' a source told the publication. Returning! New Idea magazine reported on Monday that the new season of Im a Celebrity WILL go ahead in 2021, but with surprising changes due to the global COVID-19 pandemic (Pictured left to right Billy Brownless, Rhonda Burchmore and Ryan Gallagher from the 2020 season) They added: 'It's a very big crew and the stars are all flown business class'. Producers from Channel 10 are said to be negotiating to use the custom-built site in Australia where the UK version of the hit franchise is filmed. The camp is located between Byron Bay and the Gold Coast along the NSW and QLD borders. Changes: A source told New Idea that producers are negotiating to use the Australian site near Byron Bay where the UK films their version of the hit franchise (Pictured is Caitlyn Jenner in the 2019 UK season) Following the success of MasterChef Back to Win, the network is also said to be keen to film an All Stars version. New Idea reports that past favourites, including former winner Richard Reid, Australia's stage and screen darling Rhonda Burchmore, MKR star Ash pollard and TV host Tom Williams have all been approached. Meanwhile, I'm A Celebrity... isn't the only Channel 10 program to have been impacted due to the pandemic. All stars! Following the success of MasterChef Back to win, the network is said to be keen to host an All Star series and have approached former winner Richard Reid (pictured), Australia's stage and screen darling Rhonda Burchmore, MKR star Ash pollard and TV host Tom Williams The Amazing Race was initially scaled down to a domestic version, but with state borders closing the entire project is now in limbo. MasterChef's 'pimp my noodle' cooking challenge was also nearly ruined by the panic buying frenzy which stripped Australian shelves bare in March. After fans took to Twitter to complain that Indomie Mi Goreng wasn't included in the instant noodle-cooking challenge, Judge Melissa Leong quickly explained. Travel troubles: Channel 10's The Amazing Race was initially scaled down to a domestic version, but with state borders closing the entire project is now in limbo 'Before anyone asks, there are no IndoMie Mi Goreng noodles on the table because: a) it was the very early stages of COVID and yall bulk bought them out of circulation,' she wrote on Twitter. Production of the Bachelor was halted in late March and the program is said to be focusing on virtual dates. Brisbane radio presenter Matty Acton said that one of his friends had caught his neighbour on a group date with Locky and a few other women last month. 'Yall bulk bought them out of circulation': MasterChef judge Melissa Leong (pictured) was forced to explain how panic buying nearly ruined the 'pimp my noodle' challenge on Thursday's episode after viewers complained that Mi Goreng wasn't included The virtual date was supposedly taking place over Zoom, a video conferencing program that has surged in popularity during the COVID-19 crisis. Matty explained on Hit 105's Stav, Abby and Matt that his friend had been working from home when he looked out his window and noticed the bizarre sight. '[My friend said that] there was, on a picnic rug, a girl on a laptop with a TV crew. They're filming, and she was on a date with The Bachelor,' he explained. [June 09, 2020] AmoMama Media Limited Announces the #WomenWithWill Project LARNACA, Cyprus, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- To help raise breast cancer awareness, AmoMama has created the Women With Will project. The initiative consists of posting a series of interviews with the directors of breast cancer foundations and breast cancer survivors. By doing so, they get a platform to share their experiences dealing with the disease and to communicate what they have been doing to support patients. Women With Will is also determined to help foundations receive more donations from their audience through a "Donate" hyperlink added to their articles. "Our goal is to help their stories reach and educate as many people as possible," said Edduin Carvajal, AmoMama's correspondent and editor of the project. "It is the perfect opportunity to not only share the stories of breast cancer survivors and spread the word about the good deeds that breast cancer foundations do regularly but also to educate people on this disease." One of the organizations involved with the initiative is the Connie Dwyer Breast Cancer Foundation . According to them, "about 1 in 8 women developbreast cancer over their lifetime, so we must always remind others to get their yearly mammograms. Because the Connie Dwyer Breast Center serves underprivileged and underserved women, the community must be aware they can receive the breast care they need regardless of their economic status." Janet Chambers, cancer survivor and creator of the I Have Wings Breast Cancer Foundation , also joined the project. "Our hearts bleed for families all year long that struggle with a breast cancer diagnosis. The pain, the loss of self-esteem, loss of independence, and the psychological magnitude of the diagnosis is devastatingly real for families each and every day." The Women With Will project will be operating until the end of 2020, which is why AmoMama Media Limited is open to hearing more stories from breast cancer survivors and patients willing to help and educate others with their experiences. The company also urges other media websites to join their initiative. AmoMama is a large community of women around the world launched in 2017. Their goal is to magnify the voice of women around the globe with the help of a team of over 120 people. Their non-political, independent, and nonpartisan content is shared in English, Spanish, French, and German with an audience of more than 23 million people through their several Facebook pages. To learn more about the project visit the page WomenWithWill. For further information, please contact us via email. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amomama-media-limited-announces-the-womenwithwill-project-301072649.html SOURCE AmoMama Media Limited [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] As protests and marches continue across the nation, many want to put their money behind Black-owned businesses and restaurants. Its one way to get involved in the fight against racial injustice. The increased attention comes as people are marching to denounce the death of George Floyd, protest police brutality and support Black Lives Matter. In bigger cities, Google docs and lists of Black-owned establishments are circulating on social media to give more attention to the establishments. In central Pennsylvania, restaurants continue to operate under takeout, delivery and curbside pickup models due to the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, PennLive has profiled more than 100 area restaurants trying to make a go of it during the pandemic with our portrait series. If you want to show your support, we put together this list of nine places to start. If you know of other restaurants, please email sgleiter@pennlive.com. Peter Lewis, co-owner of Capow Jamaican Restaurant at 1403 Market St. in the Allison Hill neighborhood of Harrisburg, makes all of the food from scratch. File photo by Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.comPENNLIVE.COM Capow Jamaican Restaurant 1403 Market St., Harrisburg, 717-238-1543 Its safe to say the lime-painted and stainless restaurant tucked along Market Street is Harrisburgs tiniest dining spot. It has room for two tables. In the warmer months, seating spills outside. Co-owner Peter Lewis, who is from Jamaica, heads the small kitchen fixing island staples - oxtail and jerk chicken - served with sides such as cabbage, plantains and potato salad. His wife, Betty, takes orders. Several years ago the couple dumped their savings into opening Capow after realizing the area lacked Jamaican cuisine. Originally, they had thought about selling hot dogs and coffee but changed the focus. Fortunately, it didnt take long for customers to catch on. Meats are seasoned ahead of time and well-marinated. Jerk chicken cooks on a charcoal grill. Smoky, sweet pieces of jerk chicken studded with bones are served over rice and peas and served with a choice of a side - plantains, potato salad, cabbage or French fries. Oxtail simmers for four hours. For now, Capow is operating as takeout only. Hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Closed Sunday. Crawdaddys 1500 6th St., Harrisburg, 717-232-7374 William and Diane Crawford branched out from caterers to full-time restauranteurs in 2012 when they opened Crawdaddys, a sit-down restaurant in Harrisburg. Crawdaddys specializes in southern food with a New Orleans flair. The menu is punctuated with crab-stuffed catfish, gator etouffee, bayou chicken and shrimp gumbo and Creole style shrimp and grits. Its known for lunch and dinner as well as Sunday brunch. While the restaurant is currently closed for indoor seating, you can nab limited seating on the patio with social distancing. Crawdaddys is also offering takeout. Hours are 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. Feed Your Soul opened in 2019 at the TecPort Business Center in Swatara Township. Feed Your Soul 421 Friendship Road, Swatara Township, 717-970-3055 Last year, Blondie Smith opened Feed Your Soul. The restaurant dishes out hearty specialties such as fried chicken, smothered pork chops, burgers and sweet potato pie. Shes joined by her husband, Jerome, and their daughters, Alexis and Angel and grandson, Romeo. The restaurant sits near the Harrisburg Mall in the TecPort Business Center complex with neighbors Lin Hibachi Buffet Grill and Quechuas Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken & Cuisine. Customers gravitate toward the pig feet, catfish, wings, crab cakes, oxtails and smothered pork chops made with gravy and caramelized onions. Rib dinners and racks of ribs (priced $14.99 to $21.99) also score high points. Its open 1-7 p.m., daily. Closed Tuesday. Got Jerk Island Grill 4220 Union Deposit Road, Lower Paxton Township A Sunoco is an unsuspecting place to find flavorful Caribbean cuisine. But at one gas station on the East Shore, you can fuel up your car and order jerk chicken, wings, curried chicken and house specialty, Ooohwee chicken made with brown gravy over a bed of rice and kidney beans. One of the newest items, a jerk chicken mac and cheese, combines two favorites. Its like a nice trip to the islands, said Darren Johnson, co-owner. Last year, Johnson and his three partners opened Got Jerk Island Grill inside the station between Dunkin and the Hampton Inn Harrisburg East. The takeout counter is a spinoff of their Got Jerk line of Caribbean-influenced sauces made in central Pa. The company was founded in 2014 and born out of a sauce created by Kenny Henny, a native of Kingston, Jamaica who has lived in the Harrisburg area and operated restaurants including the former New Papine Jamaican Restaurant. Now the partners are expanding with even more locations including 255 Harrisburg Pike in Carlisle. The Lower Paxton shop is open 10 am.-8 p.m. Monday-Friday and 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday. Just Baked Cakes & Pies 270 Verbeke St., Harrisburg, 717-236-3626 Earlier this year, the bakery arrived at Midtown Scholar in Harrisburg with a sweet inventory. Owner Tammy Worthy-Jones business operates under the tagline, desserts that remind you of grandma. She bakes a variety of cookies, cakes, pudding and sweet potato pies as well as an array of cheesecakes in flavors like strawberry and sweet potato. The bakery also operates an outdoor cafe with grilled beef franks and sausage, and of course, desserts. Hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday-Monday. Mariamas African & Jamaican Restaurant 150 S. Cameron St., Harrisburg, 717-525-9501 Diners are greeted by owner Mariama Ides welcoming smile. The corner establishment at Market and Cameron street is a popular spot for oxtail, grilled lamb, curry goat and whole fried fish. They come for the authentic African and Jamaican dishes. Ide was born and raised in Niger, West Africa. She came to the United States in 2004 and worked several warehouse jobs. She always wanted to open a restaurant in the United States, something she did in Africa. The menu covers traditional foods such as lamb sauce with rice, okra sauce with rice and grilled chicken with plantains. Its open 11 a.m.-9 p.m., daily. Queens BBQ & Southern Cuisine 912 N. Third St., Harrisburg, 717-526-9998 Titus and Anya Queen are heading the establishment at 912 N. Third St., serving southern barbecue along with several new items including breakfast, soups and desserts. They took over the former Boo Boos BBQ. Titus had attended culinary school through Job Corps. and worked his way around the industry, landing in the Harrisburg area as a chef with the local Applebees Neighborhood Grill and Bar franchise. (His claim to fame is a starring role in an Applebees Fathers Day commercial in 2016.) Queens favorites include beef brisket, baby back ribs, wing dings, pulled pork and pulled chicken along with sides such as baked mac and cheese, green beans and smoked turkey, collard greens and smoked turkey, sweet potatoes and yellow rice. Specialty menus also are offered and posted on the business Facebook page. For now, Queens is operating as curbside and sidewalk pickup only. Soul Burrito co-owner Obi Linton's restaurant sells signature burritos along with new items including quesadillas and Soulquitos. Soul Burrito 314 S. Progress Ave., Susquehanna Township, 717-497-8343 Obi and Nicole Linton operate a restaurant and food trucks under the Soul Burrito name. They focus on globally inspired burritos, homemade mac and cheese and wings. The restaurant occupies a portion of the first floor of the Lintons home, which has served as Soul Burritos base and commissary for the past couple of years. Favorite burritos include The Greedy made with tender grilled steak and marinated chicken and the Jamaican Sensation with marinated chicken and a mild coconut curry sauce. Soul Burrito also caters and the Lintons continue to book their trucks for events. Its open 2-8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. Katie Talley, left, and Darmayne Robertson at Sweet Confections Cakes at 4702 Fritchey St. in Lower Paxton Township. File photo by Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com Sweet Confections Cakes 4702 Fritchey St., Lower Paxton Township, 717-671-7111 For more than 25 years, Darmayne Robertson has decorated cakes for every occasion from stunning wedding cakes to fun birthday creations. The shop, tucked in a quiet section of Lower Paxton Township, is open for curbside pickup. It reopens June 12 with walk-in service. Robertson focuses on specialty cakes, cupcakes and signature cheesecake. The house specialty is a white almond cake layered between a creamy raspberry mousse She has also taken her talents to television, competing on several shows including Halloween Wars on the Food Network. In 2005, Robertson and her husband, Robby Robertson, opened their first shop along Queen Avenue in Colonial Park after she sold cakes to clients from her home for more than 10 years. The self-taught baker and cake decorator - she took Wilton classes - quickly gained a reputation for her decorated and three-dimensional cakes. Last year the couple relocated the business which sits behind Stephensons Flowers. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Closed. Sunday-Monday. READ MORE: 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. In only a few months, millions of people have lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which could forever transform the way we work. Illustrative image. Photo : VOV According to recent research by Vietnamworks, about 40 per cent of workers in Vietnam have lost their jobs. Ngoc Mai, 29, my high school friend, told me that she lost her job as an accountant in a tourism company because of the effects of the pandemic. I thought I was safe from being laid off since my position was quite important. However, I lost it in mid-March, and I'm currently looking for a new job at the moment, she said. As travel of all kinds was halted at that time, I totally understood that my company had to cut costs to balance their budget, she added. Thanh Quy, 25, a managers assistant at Mais company, was asked to submit his resignation letter as well. My lack of experience made it easier for the company to make a decision. Even though I was upset at first, I believe I still have multiple opportunities now that the pandemic situation in Vietnam has turned a brighter page, he said. After talking to two other friends who have experienced the same issue, I have come to realise that they were sort of mentally ready for what could have come and were thus quite positive, even though their financial status was at risk. It might be because were from the younger generation that usually expects the unexpected, Quy said. Mai and Quy all agreed that it must be more difficult if their dads and uncles were to experience the cut off. The longer an employee stays at a company, the stronger bonds he or she makes. I cannot imagine how devastating it could be for an experienced older person to cope up with the situation, especially if they are the breadwinner of their family, Mai said. Its almost June and my friends have moved on from this unfortunate incident. As they are looking for new jobs, they've raised an issue that Ive found to be very relevant has employees' value been affected if they were on their companys layoff list during the pandemic? I'm nervous because I dont want my future recruiters to think that Im less competent compared to my colleagues who were able to keep their jobs at my former company where I used to work, Thanh said. Of course, an employees value or status is affected somehow. However, given the situation that 40 per cent of workers are experiencing the same problem, I believe its more important to tell recruiters what you have learned during this time and what you have done to perfect your skills during the social distancing period. According to Tang Gia Hai Lam from Buzzmetrics, new candidates applying for the companys interviews must show that they are ready for the new normal in the company to which they are applying. Are you aware of the 'new normal' conditions in your field? What have you done to get yourself ready for this new state? Why should the company choose you during this 'new normal' period? These are some of the questions that candidates must keep in mind before the interviews, Lam told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. I did exactly so! Thanh said. Ive sent out several applications and I am currently looking forward to two interviews. Since it is extremely difficult to find jobs at the moment, Im putting in 200 per cent of my effort to seize any opportunity. The 'new normal' needs people who are truly capable of performing meaningful tasks." Thanhs answer inspired me to think of another relevant topic, which is how the coronavirus pandemic might have changed the way we work forever. In addition to useful skills, I believe employees in the 'new normal' world must never take anything for granted. The belief that my job was stable and my position was safe enough sort of destroyed me mentally when I first heard of the layoff, Thanh said. In fact, two other friends of mine who were working in technology and the food and beverage industries told me the same thing. Now that weve learned the lesson the hard way, we will never let ourselves become too comfortable with the job but always seek better solutions to get the job done. The market is very competitive at the moment, they said. Its also very important to be digitally competent during the 'new normal' because most meetings could be replaced by emails and automation could increase. As many 9-to-5 jobs could be effectively done from home during the social distancing period, small companies these days have thought of cutting costs on office rentals and letting their employees work on their own, said Tuan Tu, 30, a friend of mine and product manager at a financial company. Digital competence now has become an indispensable skill when it comes to assessing one persons work skill, he said, noting that the pandemic has highlighted the most essential activities that certain companies should perform to sustain their business. The 'new normal' will be built upon these. To add to Tus point of view, I would also like to address the importance of flexibility in the 'new normal' world. I love flexibility in almost every aspect of life, but when it comes to professional work, its crucial for all employers to communicate their expectations, Tu added. Compared to last year, 2020 has definitely witnessed drastic changes with how we are going about our daily lives and professional work. 2020 needs stronger workers, and, in fact, everyone should be stronger not just for themselves, but for your close ones around you. VNS An Phuong Over five million employees lose jobs due to COVID-19 Multiple businesses in Vietnam suspended or scaled down their operations, and over five million employees nationwide lost their jobs in the first five months of 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Rajab was sentenced in 2018 to five years in prison over social media posts criticising Saudi Arabias war in Yemen. Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab has been released from prison following a court decision to convert his internationally criticised jail term into an alternative sentence. Rajab wore a garland of white roses after his release on Tuesday, smiling while posing with his family. He will serve out the remainder of his prison term at home, his family reportedly said. Rajab, an outspoken critic of the Bahraini government and a leading figure in the 2011 pro-democracy protests, was sentenced in 2018 to five years in prison over social media posts accusing authorities of prison abuse and criticising Saudi Arabias air bombardment in Yemen. He had been in jail since 2016 and served another two-year term for torture allegations he made in a news interview. Rajab also faced a number of other cases, and it was unclear how much time he had left to serve. Bahrain, where a Sunni Muslim royal family rules over a Shia-majority population, has kept a tight lid on dissent since the Shia opposition staged a failed uprising in 2011. The sentences conversion was possible thanks to new legislation introduced in 2018 that allows Bahrains courts to convert jail terms into non-custodial sentences. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Girls dominated class 10 Board exam A total of 37 students made it to the top-10 list, out of which 23 are girls and 14 are boys. This year the pass percentage of girls is 71.50% while that of boys is 64.9%. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: How to check result on third party websites Students can also check their results on other websites like examresults.net Click here to check your result at examresults.net (direct link) Get HPBOSE 10th result on SMS HPBOSE 10th result is declared but the official website hpbose.org is not opening now. Students can also get their results on SMS. Type HP10 ROLL NUMBER and send it 56263 HPBOSE website not opening, heres some alternative websites to check result Currently the website of HPBOSE is not opening. However, students can check their results on third party websites examresults.net and indiaresults.com. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Girls outshine boys This year also, girls have outshone boys. This year a total of 71.5% girls have passed the exam while the pass percentage of boys is 64.9. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020 out, check details HOBOSE 10th result has been declared. Check pass percent, toppers list here. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Three toppers bag 3rd rank Vansh Gupta, Shagun Rana and Anisha Sharma have scored 98.43% to get third rank in the state. Kshitiz Sharma bags 2nd rank Kshitiz Sharma of New Gurukul Public School, Gopal Nagar has got 2nd rank. He has scored 98.56% HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: 68.11% students pass This year a total of 68.11% students have passed the exam. Out of the total 104323 students, 70571 have passed the exam. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Tanu has got 1st rank Tanu has bagged 1st rank in Himachal Pradesh 10th Board results 2020 by scoring 98.71%. Check your results at hpbose.org HPBOSE 10th Result out: 23 girls, 14 boys in top 10 merit list Himachal Pradesh Board class 10th result has been declared. A total of 23 girls and 14 boys have made it to top 10 merit list. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020 declared at hpbose.org HPBOSE class 10th result 2020 has been declared at hpbose.org.HPBOSE chairperson Suresh Kumar Soni and secretary Akshay Sood announced the matric results in a press conference today. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Officials arrive at office HPBOSE officials have arrived at the office. The results will be declared shortly. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Chairperson, secretary to announce results shortly HPBOSE chairperson Suresh Kumar Soni and secretary Akshay Sood are expected to announce the results today in the press conference. They have not yet arrived yet. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Officials to hold a press conference Officials of HP Board will hold a press conference to announce the results. The officials are yet to arrive. HPBOSE 10th result 2020 to be declared anytime soon Himachal Pradesh matric result 2020 will be declared anytime soon. The officials are expected to arrive soon. Media persons are waiting for the announcement of results.. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020 shortly, officials have not yet arrived HPBOSE 10th result 2020 will be declared shortly. Media persons are waiting at the Gyan Alok Parishar (HP Board office). Officials are yet arrive. Stay tuned.. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Result to be declared in few minutes, keep your admit card ready Himachal Pradesh Board 10th result is expected to be declared in next few minutes. Keep your admit cards with you to key in your roll number in order to check your result. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020 shortly HImachal Pradesh 10th board result 2020 is expected to be announced shortly at hpbose.org. Stay tuned for updates HPBOSE 10th Result 2020 likely at 4:15 pm today As per reports, the Himachal Pradesh Board 10th result will be declared by 4:15 pm today. Stay tuned. Himachal Pradesh 10th Board Result 2020: Grace marks to be given this year This year, the Himachal Pradesh board will also award grace marks in Sanskrit and Urdu subjects. HPBOSE Himachal Pradesh 10th Result 2020: Effects of Covid- 19 on result The evaluation process for HPBOSE 10th exam answerhseet was delayed due to lockdown in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Answer sheets were evaluated by the teacher at their homes. Himachal Pradesh Board Result 2020: Figures of last year Over 1.22 lakh students had appeared for the HP board Class 10 exams, conducted by Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBoSE) from March 7 to March 20, 2019. Of the total, 1,11,977 appeared in regular mode while 10,414 appeared through State Open School (SOS). HPBOSE 10th result 2020: Steps to check results online HPBOSE 10th Result: Follow these steps to check your result online Students can visit the official website at hpbose.org On the homepage, click on the link that reads, HPBOSE 10th result 2020 Key in your logging details and submit HPBOSE Class 10 board results will appear on the display screen Download the results and take its print out for future references. HPBOSE 10th result 2020: 39 students were under top 10 rank in 2019 In the year 2019, A total of 39 students had made it to the top 10 merit list out of which 28 were girls and 11 were boys. The pass percentage for girls was 64.33% and for boys it was 57.48%. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Take a look at last year toppers performance In the year 2019, Atharv Thakur has bagged the first position with 98.71% marks. Paras, Dhruv Sharna, Ridhi Sharma are joint second with 98.57% marks. Komal Zinta and Sakshi are joint third with 98.43% marks. Ruchira Singh, Mannat Rana are joint fourth with 98.29% marks. Kritika Thakur, Lokeshwari are joint fifth with 98% marks. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: 64.33% girls passed the exam in 2019 In the year 2019, out of the total 53388 girls, 34348 had passed making a total of 64.33% HPBOSE 10th result 2020: Girls outscored boys by 7% in 2019 In the year 2019, the pass percentage of girl students was 64.33 against the boys pass percentage of 57.38. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Marks of 2019 toppers In the year 2019, Atharv Thakur had bagged the first rank by scoring 98.71% Paras, Dhruv Sharna, Ridhi Sharma had got 98.5% and were at the second position. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Keep your admit cards handy Students are advised to keep their admit card ready with them. As soon as the result is declared, students can login to the website at hpbose.org and key in their roll number and other login credentials as mentioned in their admit card. HPBOSE 10th result 2020: Last year 60.79% students had passed In the year 2019, a total of 60.79% students had passed the exam. The HPBOSE 10th result was declared on April 29 last year. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: How to check results online Himachal Pradesh Class 10th board result is expected to be declared today. Click here to know how to check your results online. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: Exam was concluded on March 19 The Class 10 Board examination were held from March 5 to March 19, 2020 across 2,227 exam centres across the state. HPBOSE 10th Result 2020: 1.5 lakh students waiting for their result This year around 1.5 lakh students have taken the HPBOSE 10th exam. The result can be checked at hpbose.org after it is declared. Check full details here. HPBOSE 10th result 2020 expected to be declared today Himachal Pradesh Board is expected to declare HPBOSE 10th result today at hpbose.org. The result is expected to be out at 4 pm today. However, it might also get delayed. Press Release 9 June 2020 Following a recent webinar event hosted by New York University, which saw the senior executives of Accor, Sebastien Bazin and Marriott, Arne Sorenson stating opposing outlooks regarding how demand recovery in Europe will play out; Advertisements Ralph Hollister, Analyst, Travel & Tourism at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on the situation: "Sorenson thinks both the US and China have the same kind of travel industry fundamentals to fuel a stronger recovery than Europe. Europe's situation is more precarious, the region is made up of a vast number of countries that are still applying different rules regarding quarantines and restrictions on travel. An incoherent approach leads to further uncertainty for all tourism stakeholders in Europe, creating further economic damage to a range of tourism reliant destinations. "Bazin does not expect Europe's hotel recovery to lag too far behind the US and China's, as Sorenson implies. Europe is not as dependent on domestic tourism as the US and China - 80% of Accor's business is domestic in Europe, compared to domestic tourism in the US and China providing Marriott with 95% of its business. Accor's core market is Europe and it is most successful in this region. Bazin may have a hidden agenda here, a prolonged recovery in Europe will have a more significant impact on Accor than it would Marriott. "Sorenson's argument here does seem to be more substantial. The un-uniformed approach in Europe will be likely to hinder the industry's recovery. Markets with less reliance on international and long-haul tourism will do better. This is already being seen in the US, most of Marriott's recent occupancy growth in the country was from drive-to markets, which is in line with expectations that domestic local travel will be the first type of tourism demand to return. "However 'train-to' destinations may not work as Bazin states they could in Europe. He hinted that Europe's extensive train network could help the industry recover at a quicker pace. But, the prospect of taking unnecessary public transport for many travelers may be off-putting, especially if precautions such as temperature checks and the enforcement of mask wearing is not being done at all stations on a long-haul journey." The terms of this critique made reasonable discussion impossible, which is a hallmark of illiberal thought everywhere: Youre either on the bus or off the bus, part of the problem or part of the solution. The Times eventually apologized for the Cotton op-ed, citing several inaccuracies in it. But its hard to imagine how better fact-checking would have staved off the social media stampede, which was premised on the notion that the column itself harmed minorities. So almost everyone on the left dutifully got in line or at least bit their tongues while Sen. Cotton crowed about how he had exposed the bias and cowardice of The New York Times. Ukrainian and Polish transmission system operators have signed new agreement to unite existing two interconnection points into a single virtual interconnection point GCP GAZ-SYSTEM/UA TSO. The agreement will take effect on July 1, 2020. Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine LLC and Operator Gazociagow Przesyowych GAZ SYSTEM S.A., concluded new interconnection agreement, which prescribes uniting existing two interconnection points IP Drozdowicze and IP Hermanowice into one single virtual interconnection point GCP GAZ-SYSTEM/UA TSO which comes into force on the gas day the 1st of July 2020, reads the statement of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine. As noted, uniting existing physical interconnection points is one of the latest requirements prescribed by the NC CAM. In the case of Ukraine and Poland, it became possible finally in 2020, since the same business rules have started to be applied at the beginning of this year. The TSOs draw the attention of network users to the fact that starting from the 6:00 AM (CET) 1st of July 2020, capacity booking requests and nominations/renominations shall be submitted to GCP GAZ-SYSTEM/UA TSO only. Network users will not need to choose via which interconnection point the transportation should be carried out. Still, they will only need to specify the direction of gas transportation. Already booked capacities of the IPs Drozdowicze and Hermanowice will be transferred automatically to the capacities of the new GCP GAZ-SYSTEM/UA TSO, the company explains. The tariff for gas transportation on interconnection points does not change. Capacity booking will be conducted in accordance with the current network codes of Ukraine and Poland. As reported, in January-May 2020, Ukraine imported 5.2 billion cubic meters of gas from the European Union, including 1.1 billion cubic meters through virtual reverse. ol Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:17:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TAIPEI, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's total exports in May shrank 2 percent year on year to 27 billion U.S. dollars, making the third consecutive monthly fall, according to the island's finance department. Exports to Europe and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) continued to decline in May, but exports to the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, the United States and Japan were up, the department said in a press release. Taiwan's exports to the mainland and Hong Kong increased by 10.3 percent year on year to 12.12 billion U.S. dollars in May, accounting for about 44.9 percent of its total exports and remaining the biggest among the island's major export markets, the statement said. The department attributed the continuous reduction of exports to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lowering prices of raw materials in international markets, which heavily affected traditional export industries such as mining, rubber, base metals and textiles. With the easing of COVID-19 and the favorable development of new technologies, Taiwan expects a recovery of its exports but remains cautious about the long-term prospect, the statement said. The island's total imports in May fell 3.5 percent year on year to 22.28 billion U.S. dollars. Enditem With no community transmission of the Covid-19 virus for 54 days, the PM has okayed the reopening of karaoke parlors and discos. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc gave the go ahead at a government meeting Tuesday, around a month after the government allowed resumption of most non-essential services except karaoke parlors and discos. No specific date for the reopening was mentioned at the meeting, with each locality to decide this on its own. However, Phuc asked law enforcement agencies to deal strictly with violations, especially drug trading and abuse, at karaoke parlors, discos and night clubs. Vietnamese police had intensified their crackdown on nightclubs and karaoke parlors across the country following a spurt in drug abuse at such establishments. Vietnam had closed all non-essential business services in late March in an unprecedented move to contain the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. The closure resulted in huge job losses and financial damage. While most non-essential services were allowed to resume operations after a social distancing campaign was lifted in late April, karaoke parlors and disco bars were not allowed to reopen. Phuc said at the meeting that the results of Vietnam's anti-pandemic measures were "very respectable." Addressing the issue of reopening international commercial flights, the PM assigned the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control to provide for consideration a list of safe countries and territories where there have been no new cases for at least 30 days. The PM emphasized it was impossible to completely close international flights, but the reopening had to be done carefully, depending on the safety level in the countries involved. Vietnam's entry suspension for foreign nationals since March 22 is still in effect. Only those with diplomatic or official passports, or coming for special economic projects, are allowed to enter the country under strict medical surveillance. At the meeting, the PM also agreed to create favorable conditions for foreign experts and investors as well as skilled workers to enter the country to seek work and investment opportunities. Around 2,700 foreign experts are expected to enter Vietnam in June and July, the committee said. Some 1,800 others have been given special entry. Vietnams Covid-19 tally rose to 332 Monday night with the confirmation of a new case. Of these, 316 have recovered and the remaining 16 are active cases receiving treatment. TICKERS: MRO; MLRKF Source: Maurice Jackson for Streetwise Reports (6/9/20) Millrock Resources CEO Gregory Beischer speaks with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable about his company's drill program in the shadow of the Pogo gold mine. Maurice Jackson: Welcome to Proven and Probable. Joining us for a conversation is Gregory Beischer of Millrock Resources Inc. (MRO:TSX.V; MLRKF:OTCQB). Gregory for someone new to Millrock Resources, please introduce the opportunity the company presents to the market and in particular, the 64North project, which has market participants anxiously awaiting news results. Gregory Beischer: Millrock is a team of early-stage exploration geologists. We want to make a discovery of a giant ore deposit and sell it to a major mining company, that's our goal, but we take a different approach than a lot of early-stage explorers. It's a risky business. So we will invest our capital to generate projects, come up with a new idea, acquire the mineral rights, but before any really big dollars are spent for exploratory drilling, we'll bring in a partner. And that way we can operate five or six projects at any one time, increasing our odds of making the discovery that will drive our share price way up, but also it's a sustainable company, one that has a core group that's with us year after year doing excellent scientific work. And we know that's one of the key ingredients to successful mineral exploration and discoveries. Maurice Jackson: Sticking with the 64North project, can you provide us with an update on drilling? Gregory Beischer: These are exciting times for Millrock right now. We've developed a huge district-scale project looking for another gold deposit in the vicinity of the Pogo gold mine. Pogo was discovered in 19941995. It's been producing excellent gold grades and ounces over the past decade. Millrock is confident that we may find another mine just like it. And I believe the area around Pogo has the potential to host multiple mines in the future. I think the Goodpaster Mining District in which our 64North project is located will have in the end multiple mines that will produce tens of millions of ounces of gold, comparable to something like Red Lake in Ontario, or Val-d'Or in Quebec, or Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Millrock has the dominant land position by far in the district. We had a unique opportunity a year ago where after eight bad years in the mining cycle, the ground had all come open. And so we were able to stake the whole district. And there was an aggressive move on our part, but one that's paid off. We have an Australian junior company funding the work. We're executing that work in collaboration with their technical team. I am glad to convey that our geological crews are mobilizing to the field today. And the drill is meant to have arrived on site today. And by the end of the week, we should be drilling again at the Aurora target on the 64North project, just to the immediate west of the Pogo gold mine, so exciting times. I know you and other shareholders have been following this particular project quite closely. And it's a relief now to be exploring again, after being slightly derailed by this pandemic. Maurice Jackson: Besides drilling, what other work is being conducted to delineate the 64North project to increase the chances for success? Gregory Beischer: Millrock is conducting work on multiple fronts. It's an enormous attractive claim, we've done a lot of studies, desktop studies looking at our extensive database for the district generating new drill targets. We have this obvious, compelling target at Aurora west of Pogo, but there are lots of other places that are coming forward too. We're going to have a steady pipeline of drill-ready targets on this project for years to come. And so we've developed plans, exploration plans for each one of those prospects that will be executed later in the year, but also more particularly on the West Pogo, we're about to do two geophysical surveys, airborne geophysical surveys that will help our image below the surface of the Earth, map out the structures. And as you know, the deposits at the Pogo mine are relatively flat-lying. They dip gently, and so at about 25 or 30 degrees. As those dip off to the Northwest, they're going to come on to Millrock's ground. And these geophysical surveys will help confirm the existence of the structures, and to determine the depth to which we'll have to drill, to intersect them. And we would plan to do the geophysics, in early June, but we would plan then to drill those targets in the down-dip direction from the Goodpaster Deposit Pogo Mine later in the summer. The Aurora is being drilled now, geophysics happening now, but we should be drilling through the year on this project. Maurice Jackson: Truly exciting times for Millrock Resources. Sir, what is the next unanswered question on the 64North project? When can we expect a response, and what will determine success? Gregory Beischer: The very first hole we drilled at 64North in March had a lot of great geological signs in it. We could see a lot of hydrothermal fluids had moved through the rocks, mineralizing them with quartz veins and veinlets and sulfide minerals that are very typically associated with gold. Everything looked great, but surprisingly the gold values were pretty weak. But we know we're in the right area, and we're probably peripheral to a deposit by a short distance. And we know we've got the structures. We know we've got the right mineralization. We just need the gold. Millrock will be moving our drill northward. And I'm very hopeful that we'll intersect the same structures, but this time with lots of gold in them, and that'll be the next big test and measure of success for Millrock and its team. So we're hoping to make in this drill program that we're currently executing a new gold deposit discovery. And if we do, I don't think Millrock's share price will be 22 cents much longer. It's been great to see some exploration companies having exploration success, and shareholders being rewarded at the same time as there are some good drill holes lately, and one particularly in Alaska that resulted in a tenfold share price increase. So we're hoping to repeat that kind of success. Maurice Jackson: Well, in many regards you have, in nine months the stock prices almost tripled. What are the current stock price and the capital structure for Millrock Resources? Gregory Beischer: Now, the last time I looked, an hour or so ago, we were at 22 cents. That's three times higher than it was a year ago when you and I and others participated in a private placement financing when Millrock raised some money. So that feels good to have had that success, but I think we're just barely getting going. Maurice, I think about 2009, Millrock share price has got all the way down to a similar level of 5 cents when the market crashed badly in 2008, but 12 months later Millrock was at $1.05. And that was simply because we had a very supportive market. Things came roaring back, and Teck invested in Millrock; Altius Minerals and Kinross all invested in Millrock. We were doing really good work and in that rising tide, in that good market, our share price increased significantly. Today we're a much, much stronger company. And if we were to make a real bona fide gold deposit discovery at this time, it would be a remarkable thing for our share price. Maurice Jackson: Well, speaking of a strong company, what is the capital structure? Gregory Beischer: Millrock has 109 million shares outstanding right now. The market cap is roughly $20 million. We also have warrants that are outstanding and now in the money. And so we anticipate that we may get some warrants exercised and that would bring some more money into our treasury. We want to deploy some cash as soon as we can to buy up more gold projects. We see that the market is here. We're getting inquiries from other junior explorers looking for projects. And so we want to make some quick moves to generate more gold projects in Alaska, as soon as we possibly can. Maurice Jackson: Sir, what keeps you up at night that we don't know about? Gregory Beischer: Well, I'm like everyone concerned about this pandemic. We put in rigorous safety precautions for our teams, so they can get back to work safely. As you can imagine though, traveling together in vehicles and that sort of thing poses some risks. We think we've got it well handled, but it's a worry. We would hate for this drilling program to get derailed again. And so we're trying our very best to have those safety protocols to minimize the chance that that's going to happen. Maurice Jackson: Last question, what did I forget to ask? Gregory Beischer: Well, often, Maurice, we talk about the gold price, and I've already done that to some degree, seems like it's moving up and so much of capital availability and interest in the mining and mineral exploration sector seems to depend on the gold price, but everything's moving the right way now. And I'm sure you're seeing it, but the generalist investing public now is starting to pour into precious metals. And it's great to see because it's putting some wind under the wings of mining companies and explorers. Maurice Jackson: Yes, sir. A lot of synergies and a lot of catalysts coming into the space. Mr. Beischer, where can audience members receive more information on Millrock Resources? Gregory Beischer: The website address is www.MillrockResources.com. There you'll find the contact information for Melanie Henderson who's in charge of investor relations for Millrock. And if any of the current shareholders or future shareholders would like to speak directly to me, I'd be glad to take the time to speak with them. Maurice Jackson: Mr. Beischer, thank you for joining us today on Proven and Probable. Wishing you and the entire Millrock team the absolute best, sir. Millrock Resources is a sponsor and we are proud shareholders. And as a reminder, I'm a licensed representative for Miles Franklin Precious Metals Investments, where we provide a number of options to expand your precious metals portfolio from physical delivery, off-shore depositories, and precious metal IRAs. Call me directly at 855-505-1900 or you may email, [email protected]. And finally, please subscribe to provenandprobable.com, where we provide mining insights and bullion sales. Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world. [NLINSERT] Disclosure: 1) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Millrock Resources. 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: Millrock Resources is a sponsor of Proven and Probable. Proven and Probable disclosures are listed below. 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. 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You understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this forum at your own risk. Images provided by the author. Authorities continued Tuesday to investigate the fatal shooting of an Easton man who was found along the side of the road early Sunday in Lehigh County. Maurice Dennis, 45, was pronounced dead at 4 a.m. Sunday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township, according to the Lehigh County Coroner's Office. A passing motorist had found Dennis suffering from a gunshot wound at Route 145 and Clearview Road in North Whitehall Township, and he was taken to the hospital by Northern Valley EMS, Pennsylvania State Police at Bethlehem said. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the body, the coroner's office said, and the death was ruled a homicide. "The investigation is ongoing," Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin stated Tuesday. "There is no one in custody. There is nothing further to be added at this time." Authorities would not comment on whether Dennis was believed to have been shot at the intersection, or elsewhere and dropped off there. State police spokesman Trooper Nathan Branosky reiterated Tuesday there is no immediate danger to the public. Investigators ask anyone with information on the killing to call state police at Bethlehem at 610-861-2026. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Last week, Elon Musk's SpaceX sent two astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the International Space Station in a privately-funded spacecraft. This is the first time such a thing has happened. AFP Now, joining the 'spacewagon,' Bengaluru-based startup Pixxel is all geared up to launch its first satellite by the end of 2020, reported Business Today. Speaking to Awais Ahmed, founder and CEO of Pixxel, the publication quote him as saying, "The small satellite will go in a Russian launch vehicle and will focus on high clarity satellite imagery. It would be helpful for governments and private organisations in collecting AI-powered analytical data related to agriculture, climate, spread of crop pests and diseases, defence monitoring, and mining in order to find illegal operations, monitor oil and gas pipelines, natural disasters, forest fire etc." He added, "We were planning to launch it from Russia on a Soyuz rocket next month, but have pushed the launch to November due to coronavirus. We are planning the second satellite launch by July 2021 and to have a constellation of 24 satellites, to be launched in a gap of 3-6 months". He also mentioned that Pixxel is one of the first private ventures in the satellite-business. They have tied up with an Italian service provider by the name of 'Leaf Space' for ground station services to gather and analyse data from the satellite. ET The startup has also entered into tie-ups with some private organisations like Skymet to use data based on user fee. The report further said that, 'Advantage of such refrigerator sized micro satellites is they can monitor the earth with focussed precision and costs only one-tenth of multi-purpose big satellites launched by government agencies like the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).' Pixxel was founded by BITS Pilani graduates Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal in May 2018 and has funding from private equity company GrowX Ventures and from some other investors. The company is the only start-up in Asia to be selected for the first batch of 10 start-ups in Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator in Los Angeles. Presently, the space tech market stands at a worth of almost $350 billion globally and the global commercial satellite imaging market size is expected to reach $4.7 billion by 2025. According to analysts, the market growth will be around 11.3 percent based on annual growth rate. Astronomy Another Bangalore-based space-tech startup named Astrome has similar plans to launch a constellation of 198 Low Earth Orbit satellites. India has around 300 private companies operating in the space technology area and a majority of them are suppliers to the ISRO ecosystem. (TNS) An influential libertarian group has launched what it says is a "multimillion-dollar" campaign in support of a telemedicine bill sponsored by Tenneesee state Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, blanketing mail boxes across the state with support for the measure.Americans For Prosperity-Tennessee state director Tori Venable said that "over the past two months, we have seen how Gov. [Bill] Lee's implementation of telemedicine and repealing our state's burdensome certificate-of-need laws saved people's lives during this public health crisis."When government gets out of the way, our health care system is better prepared to handle emergencies and help patients get the care whenever they need it," Venable added.The effort comes as the Tennessee House and Senate are at odds over House Bill 2350/Senate Bill 2312, the telemedicine bill that Smith is carrying. Lee has made use of telemedicine far more available during the coronavirus pandemic, invoking his emergency powers to do so.But that's only during the pandemic. Thus, Smith said, her bill is still needed. Both the House and Senate passed the legislation earlier but in different versions before lawmakers' abrupt March 19 recess as the extent of the coronavirus pandemic became clearer.As lawmakers returned May 26, Senate leaders said they would focus solely on revising the state's budget and similar must-do measures, with the telehealth legislation not included. But the House opened the floodgates on most legislation. And on Wednesday, Smith moved on the House floor to stick to the House telemedicine version, refusing to go along with the Senate's version of the bill.One of the major differences is a dispute over what physicians and other professionals can charge when conducting some patient encounters online or by phone versus with an actual in-person visit. Smith's bill allows medical professionals to be reimbursed at the same rates as those conducted at an office or clinical setting.Many insurers reimburse physicians and medical professionals here using telemedicine at lower rates than in-facility interactions with patients, Smith said. Proponents call the issue "pay equity" and Smith said it has become central in the dispute between the House and Senate. The House is insisting insurers reimburse providers using telemedicine at the same rates as comparable procedures in an office or hospital setting.Moreover, Smith said, a number of insurers that do allow telemedicine now rely on national companies that have networks of physicians or other professionals outside the state.What can be done via telemedicine is limited in a number of ways, Smith said, noting standard procedures like drawing blood or weighing a patient can't be done online or by phone. More complex procedures such as use of diagnostic imaging equipment can only be done in an office or clinical setting as well, she said. Insurers have auditing teams that can determine whether a practice is trying to "upcode" such procedures that telehealth can't do, Smith added.The "pay equity" issue is a long-standing battle between providers such as physicians over telehealth and insurers resisting making it, in their view, wide open. But as a result of the pandemic, telemedicine came into its own when in-person visits were restricted due to the coronavirus, making it more difficult for people to get medical advice or checkups.Last month, the state's largest insurer, Chattanooga-based BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, announced a major shift, declaring it was permanently retaining its coverage of telemedicine with its in-network doctors and other health care professionals.BlueCross BlueShield began doing that back in March when federal officials suggested that people keep at least 6 feet apart, wherever possible, to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Then came Lee's executive order.Smith said Tennessee physicians and professionals should have similar access and praised BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee as setting an example that it can be done.But sentiment among senators is that with Lee's executive order in effect, there is no need to rush and lawmakers can return to the issue next year.Moreover, the senators also note, because of BlueCross BlueShield's huge market share, other insurers will eventually follow.Smith, however, believes that could be a long time coming and argued action is needed now. Another issue involved, she said, is the move can "help save the bottom line" for embattled rural hospitals."I understand the differences in the chambers, but I am very proud to stand with all my House colleagues," she said, noting her bill has widespread bipartisan support. "This is a Tennessee patient, Tennessee provider, Tennessee hospital" benefit.Smith, a registered nurse, said that following the House's refusal on Wednesday to go along with the Senate version, the measure is headed to a conference committee. There the chambers would hammer out their respective differences.In its direct mail and online support efforts, AFP-Tennessee's Venable said the group is also including another issue it supports, overhauling the state's certificate of need process involving how the state approves certification of hospitals, facilities and practices that would-be new providers say unfairly discriminates against them. That battle has gone on for years. Incumbent providers, especially many hospitals, charge the newcomers are "cherry picking" the highest-paying services. The story is distressingly familiar. A black man calls out I cant breathe and dies as police physically restrain him. But rather than the well-known story of George Floyd, whose death in Minneapolis has triggered widespread outrage and national protests, this is the story of Manuel Ellis, who died in Tacoma, Washington. The Pierce County Medical Examiners Office determined that Ellis died in March of respiratory arrest due to hypoxia due to physical restraint. Contributing factors included methamphetamine intoxication and an enlarged heart. There was no national outcry for Ellis. No protests in front of the White House. No viral video to spark calls for action. But his death is no less tragic and no less meaningful than Floyds. And it represents the deep divide that must be bridged to advance race relations in this nation and rebuild faith in police departments. Washington residents have called for that faith to be restored, approving a measure that rewrites standards for the use of deadly force and adds de-escalation techniques and mental health training for officers. Before that, state law shielded officers from prosecution so long as they acted without malice a nebulous standard that was regarded as the most lenient in the nation and which provided nearly blanket protection for law enforcement. The ballot measure was the result of three years of contentious debate. The law is imperfect, requiring prosecutors to use a subjective good faith test when considering whether to charge an officer in a questionable death. There must be a balance between holding law enforcement accountable and allowing officers to effectively perform their jobs. That should not be viewed as a binary choice. Advocating for policing reform and demanding accountability for law enforcement does not make one anti-police. It is possible, indeed necessary, to expect officers to follow the law as well as enforce it. And it is a moral obligation to call out racist acts, whether perpetrated by citizens or officers. The vast majority of officers are noble public servants who are besmirched by the nefarious actions of a few. Floyds death has exposed wounds to the American psyche, drawing much-needed attention to a long history of police violence against African-Americans. Two weeks before an officer kneeled on Floyds neck for more than eight minutes, police in Louisville, Kentucky executing a search warrant used a battering ram to crash into the apartment of Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death after a confrontation. The list goes on, contributing to a week of mostly peaceful protests demanding racial justice. In Washington, D.C., peaceful demonstrators were cleared from outside the White House by tear gas so President Trump could walk to a nearby church for a photo opportunity. When the pepper spray and the tear gas and the demonstrations subside, the United States must face a reckoning of how to address social justice and how to properly hold law enforcement accountable. Washington has a good framework in place to answer those questions. It is tragic the answers will come too late for Manuel Ellis. The Columbian, Vancouver, Washington Our Divisions Copyright 2021-22 DB Corp ltd., All Rights Reserved This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics. Andhra Pradesh joined the list of Indian states to have registered more than 5,000 positive coronavirus cases on Tuesday with the addition of 216 new Covid-19 patients taking the tally to 5,029 infections in the state, according to news agency PTI. The state also reported two new deaths to take the casualty figure to 77. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Karnataka and Haryana are other Indian states with 5,000 or more cases. These states are primarily behind India regularly logging an average rise of 10,000 new cases for the past few days. According to Johns Hopkins data, India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the Covid-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK. According to union health ministry data, India has a total of 266,598 cases. The data released by Andhra Pradeshs Covid command control centre suggests that infections are rising not only among the locals but also amongst those arriving in the state. 147 of 216 new infections were detected in locals in the last 24 hours, while 69 positive cases were found among arrivals from other states. For Coronavirus Live Updates Andhras tally of 5,029 positive cases also includes 132 foreign returnees. Of the two deaths reported in the last 24 hours, Krishna and Anantapur districts accounted for one each casualty. The bulletin said 64 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the cumulative discharges to 2,775 and active cases to 2,177. New Delhi: In what could pose a threat to your privacy, a new bug has been discovered in WhatsApp that makes your phone number discoverable on Google search. A Zeebiz report, quoting a research said that the feature called 'Click to Chat' reportedly puts mobile numbers at risk. Heres how the bug exploits the loophole Several websites use the Click to Chat facility to start a WhatsApp chat session with those visiting the website. The website and the site visitor can interact without having the need to save the WhatsApp number. It simply asks you to scan through a QR code image created via third-party services. The users phone numbers is visible in plain text in the URL -- https://wa.me/ -- that are consequently being used by scammers put together a list of exposed phone numbers. The even severe threat on your privacy is that not only your number is searchable, the scammers who get hold of your number can actually do reverse-image search using your profile photo to find your other social media accounts. In November 2019, a weird bug had surfaced that triggered snooping concerns via an MP4 file. If someone sent you an MP4 file on WhatsApp, guard against downloading it as hackers may use a critical vulnerability in the Facebook-owned app to execute snooping attack on both Android and iOS devices. The specially crafted MP4 file triggers the remote code execution (RCE) and denial of service (DoS) cyber attack. With IANS Inputs With his call for the military to be deployed in U.S. cities gripped by protests over police brutality, Sen. Tom Cotton has found himself in a familiar position: Rallying conservatives, enraging Democrats and further raising his national profile amid growing speculation over his future ambitions. The Arkansas Republican has been minted as a political up-and-comer since he entered Congress in 2013, yet he cemented his status as a hero on the right when an op-ed he authored for the New York Times on using the military to deter looting and violent unrest amid the demonstrations provoked an unusual public furor among its journalists, who called it inflammatory. The uproar led to the ouster of the newspaper's powerful opinions editor. That turmoil at the Times has only emboldened Cotton, 43, a relatively junior senator who has nonetheless demonstrated his influence in the Trump era by having the president's ear and embracing key tenets of Trumpism that have, at times, put the men at odds with some in their own party. In interviews and through his Twitter account, Cotton has made it clear that he is enjoying the fallout from his Times piece. His campaign coffers have also benefited, with his raising roughly $200,000 since the op-ed controversy for a reelection race this fall in which he has no Democratic challenger. His campaign arm will use the money in part to run ads against former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in battleground states. "Within a day it turned into something like a struggle session from the Cultural Revolution in Mao's China, where the adults had to prostrate themselves and apologize in front of the woke children that apparently now run the New York Times newsroom," Cotton said in a Fox News interview Monday. Cotton's newly elevated folk hero status on the right stems from his call for President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, a law more than two centuries old that allows a president to send in troops to deter an "insurrection" in states against its government. The senator has argued that active-duty troops should work with local law enforcement authorities to contain violent and other criminal activity - a presidential power that Trump has warned he would deploy but that has met with opposition from his defense secretary, Mark Esper. Few of Cotton's colleagues have endorsed using the Insurrection Act at this point. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., another close Trump confidant in the Senate who at times has found himself at odds with Cotton, has said it would only be appropriate as a last resort. But the conflicting views within the GOP on the issue have largely been overshadowed by the unified pleasure that Republicans have taken from Cotton's trolling of the left. Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday that Cotton's actions in recent days have put him at the top of front-runners for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. "One of the qualities that Republican voters most appreciate about President Trump is his ability to unmask the motives of his opponents," Holmes said. "Tom Cotton has that same ability to drive his opponents so crazy that they reveal their darkest secrets in public." He added: "The metaphorical time bomb he left inside the New York Times opinion page last week is a perfect example of the kind of thing that gets many conservative voters excited." Elected as part of the class of 2014 that flipped control of the Senate to Republicans, Cotton is up for reelection but has no opponent. Democrat Josh Mahony abruptly withdrew after it was too late for his party to replace him on the ballot. Freed from the constraints of having to aggressively campaign for a second term, Cotton is using his financial resources in an unusual fashion for a senator: Running ads against Biden. In March, Cotton ran ads in Ohio ahead of the state's primary claiming that Biden was weak on China. Cotton's political arm will launch another digital ad campaign this week, questioning whether Biden is capable of taking a tough stance on China, while highlighting some of the former vice president's verbal gaffes, according to a political adviser for the senator. The digital ads, which will run in Michigan and Iowa, are five figures, according to the adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a campaign that has yet to begin. But the relatively small ad campaign is meant not only to boost Trump's reelection chances in key battlegrounds and bring attention to the China issue, but also for Cotton's political team to test messages against Biden and see what attack lines resonate with voters. Cotton is also focusing attention in retaining the Senate majority, hosting more than half-dozen virtual fundraisers for Senate Republicans in recent weeks and doing digital fundraising for nearly all GOP senators locked in competitive reelection races. "They will often rely on Tom to deliver kind of a harsher, negative message and Tom is willing to do that," the adviser said. Democrats criticized Cotton's anti-Biden effort. "Tom Cotton is desperately trying to do two things, distract voters from the damage Trump's failed leadership has done to this country and get Trump to tweet something nice about him," said Josh Schwerin, a spokesman for the Democratic group Priorities USA. "The fact that he's doing it in states like Ohio and Iowa, states that are only in play because of Trump's weaknesses, makes it that much worse." Cotton has certainly not concealed his broader political ambitions. At the Republican National Convention four years ago, Cotton made sure to appear before delegations from Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina - three critical early-nomination states - as well as meet with GOP leaders from Florida and Ohio. At a lunch with Iowa Republicans, Cotton boasted that he loves the state so much "that I married a girl born in Iowa." With delegates from New Hampshire, Cotton noted his fandom of the New England Patriots. And at both appearances, he mocked Democrats and sidestepped mentions of Trump, who at the time had been struggling to coalesce broad support from the party. But with Trump in the White House, the senator has become a stalwart ally - even as the two men have sometimes differed on policies such as an overhaul of the prison system that has been one of Trump's key bipartisan legislative achievements. Cotton, who once argued that the United States has an "under-incarceration" problem, led efforts to kill the legislation. The senator is currently drafting a symbolic resolution that says the Senate opposes efforts to defund the police and argues that doing so "would leave police departments understaffed and undertrained while also increasing the risk of violent crime to our communities," according to a copy of the measure. Cotton would consider serving in the Cabinet in a second Trump administration, according to a person close to the senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly. The Harvard Law graduate, who is also a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, positioned himself as a vocal national security hawk early in his Senate tenure when he authored a letter to Iranian leaders meant to try to scuttle a nuclear deal that the Obama administration had been negotiating at the time. The missive infuriated Democrats but garnered support from most other Senate Republicans. And on Monday, Cotton was back to being a familiar source of anger for congressional Democrats. "Let me say to Mr. Cotton: Pick up any history book of America," said House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., as he referred to the story of Sgt. Isaac Woodard, a black World War II veteran who was assaulted while in uniform by a police chief in 1946, leaving him permanently blinded. "Cotton is from Arkansas. He ought to be ashamed of himself." A spokeswoman for Cotton declined to comment on Clyburn's remarks. What happened In the first few minutes of trading on June 9, mall real estate investment trust (REIT) giant Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) fell 12%, and it wasn't alone. Peers Macerich (NYSE:MAC), Washington Prime Group, CBL & Associates (OTC:CBL), and Pennsylvania REIT (NYSE:PEI) all dropped more than 10%, as well. Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (NYSE:SKT) held up best, witnessing only a high-single-digit drop. All of these REITs have seen their shares rise in recent weeks, often in dramatic fashion. Penn REIT's stock has more than doubled over the past month. Macerich is up nearly 80%. CBL's shares have advanced a touch more than 70%. Simon and Tanger have posted gains of 50% and 38%, respectively. So what Today's quick drop shows there's still a great deal of uncertainty in the mall space and that investors can easily get spooked. This type of volatility is likely to continue for some time, perhaps until there's a fuller understanding of COVID-19 or a successful vaccine. So far, neither of those things have come to pass, though there have been glimmers of hope on the vaccine front. Investor sentiment, however, is a powerful force and of late the mood has been upbeat. Although that changed at the open of trading today, with investors taking a risk-off stance, tomorrow could just as quickly see investor exuberance return. What's interesting here is that there are very large differences within the mall REIT space. For example, CBL is in active discussions with restructuring experts. It looks very likely that it will end up in bankruptcy court in an attempt to deal with a heavily leveraged balance sheet. At the other end of the spectrum, Tanger has said that it currently has enough liquidity to go as much as 24 months without collecting rent, which seems unlikely given that its reopened centers have seen traffic recover to around 80% of pre-coronavirus levels. Still, it's using its financial strength to give lessees a two-month rent deferral, no questions asked, to help them get back on their feet. That's a very real benefit now that malls are again starting to reopen. Industry bellwether Simon Property Group led the way on that front, as it began by reopening 49 malls in early May. Others quickly followed, with Macerich announcing that it had 20 malls reopened on May 19. Penn REIT lagged behind on this front, with just 4 malls open or close to being open on May 22. The reopenings were a big piece of the investor enthusiasm over the past month or so. Notably, however, within this trio there are very material differences, with Simon's balance sheet in far stronger shape than the other two. In fact, only Tanger is remotely close to Simon when it comes to financial debt to equity. And that doesn't even begin to consider the actual properties that each of these REITs owns. Macerich, for example, has one of the best-performing portfolios while CBL owns a terrible collection of malls, relatively speaking. The others are somewhere in between, though Simon's portfolio has an enviable combination of scale and operating performance and Tanger's outlet center focus makes it a bit of a tough comparison because the business model is inherently different from enclosed malls. Now what Price volatility in the mall REIT space is going to continue, with more good and bad days to come in often dramatic fashion. That said, it's important for investors to dig beneath the surface here, because all mall REITs, despite the tendency to trade in rough unison, are not created equal. As business gets back to normal, the underlying differences will likely become increasingly important to know and understand. Risk-on and risk-off days aside, in this market you're probably better off sticking to the best names and avoiding the most troubled ones. The Aliso Canyon gas storage field and the nearby Porter Ranch neighborhood in May. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) While campaigning for governor, Gavin Newsom said he was committed to shutting down the Aliso Canyon storage field, the site of a record-setting methane blowout that spewed heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere and sickened nearby residents. But Southern California Gas Co.'s use of Aliso Canyon to provide natural gas to its customers has only grown during Newsom's tenure, a new analysis finds. The environmental group Food and Water Watch, which wants to see Aliso closed, analyzed publicly available data and found that SoCalGas withdrew 20 billion cubic feet of gas from the storage field this winter, primarily to heat homes in the Los Angeles area. That's up from 14 billion cubic feet in the winter of 2018-19, and just 1 billion cubic feet the winter before that. The more the gas company uses the storage field, the higher the risk of additional leaks, said Najmedin Meshkati, a USC engineering professor who co-authored a 2017 study examining the causes of the methane blowout. "There are more chances for human error. There are more chances for equipment failure," Meshkati said. The October 2015 leak lasted four months and caused the largest known release of methane a powerful climate pollutant and the main component of natural gas in U.S. history. The leak also included small amounts of the cancer-causing chemical benzene and other toxic pollutants, as well as mercaptan, an odorant that gives natural gas its rotten-egg smell. Around 8,000 nearby families fled their homes, many complaining of symptoms including headaches, nosebleeds and nausea. SoCalGas is still using Aliso far less than before the blowout. And the California Public Utilities Commission is still limiting the amount of gas stored at the facility to less than half what was previously allowed to reduce the risk of another failure. Gas company officials also say they've made significant safety improvements in how they operate the storage field. Story continues "What we've done makes Aliso Canyon, and our other storage fields as well, the safest in the state," Rodger Schwecke, the utility's senior vice president for gas operations and construction, said in an interview. "Of the 66 wells that we currently have available at Aliso Canyon, we're going to have 30 or 40 of them reassessed this year and they are required to be assessed every two years." SoCalGas ramped up its use of Aliso this winter with the blessing of the Public Utilities Commission, which loosened restrictions that it first implemented after the blowout. Commission staff had expressed concern that continuing to severely restrict the gas company's use of the storage field could drive up energy prices statewide and potentially cause supply shortages. Activists at Food and Water Watch are furious that Newsom's administration has allowed SoCalGas to rely more heavily on Aliso. Alex Nagy, the nonprofit group's California director, said the increased use of Aliso is just one example of Newsom not doing enough to combat climate change and air pollution. She also pointed to the governor's latest budget proposal, which reneges on his promise to hire more oil and gas regulators, and to the quiet approval of a dozen fracking permits in Kern County last week. "How willing is Newsom to really take on the fossil fuel industry?" Nagy asked. "He's not, in my opinion." The Aliso Canyon gas storage field in the Santa Susana Mountains north of Los Angeles. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) Newsom said last year he wanted to "fast track" the shutdown of Aliso Canyon and get it closed faster than the 10-year timeline proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown's administration in 2017. In November, Newsom wrote to Marybel Batjer, whom he had recently appointed as Public Utilities Commission president, asking her to "expedite planning" for the facility's closure. Newsom said he was concerned the commission's ongoing efforts to study the feasibility of shutting down Aliso "will not yield the fastest and most workable path toward closure of the facility." The agency responded by speeding up its slow-moving process, although the earliest closure date it's studying is 2027, alongside a 2045 shutdown option. A spokeswoman for the governor declined to comment on the data showing increased use of Aliso. The storage field's future is one of several key unanswered questions in California's ongoing transition from planet-warming fossil fuels to climate-friendly energy sources. The Golden State has nearly eliminated its use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. But natural gas is now the state's largest electricity source. And millions of people use gas for space heating, water heating and cooking. Clean energy advocates hope to spur a transition to all-electric homes powered by solar panels and wind turbines. But they've faced pushback from SoCalGas, one of the country's largest gas utilities. To SoCalGas, electrification is an existential threat. How a pipeline explosion changed everything Aliso Canyon lies at the heart of a complex network of pipes, poles and wires that power Southern California. Several aging pipelines carry natural gas toward the Los Angeles Basin, where SoCalGas distributes the fuel to homes and businesses for heating and cooking, and to power plants for electricity generation. The company also stores gas locally at four facilities. The largest is Aliso Canyon, a former oil field north of L.A.'s Porter Ranch neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. During the first few years after the blowout, Southern California residents largely got by without Aliso Canyon. Enough gas flowed into Los Angeles through pipelines to fuel electric power plants on hot summer days and to heat homes on cold winter days. Then everything changed. In October 2017, a key SoCalGas pipeline exploded in the desert, taking it out of service. The company suddenly had less ability to bring gas into the L.A. Basin, and it wasn't allowed to draw much from storage at Aliso. Natural gas prices soared, as did electricity prices. Repairs continued on Southern California Gas Co.'s Line 235, near Newberry Springs, Calif., in July 2019. The line returned to service in October 2019, two years after it ruptured. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) The effects were most dramatic during a summer heat wave. The electric utility Southern California Edison incurred $850 million in unexpected costs, which it's now passing along to its customers. A cold snap in February 2019 caused energy prices to jump once again and forced some electric power plants to shut down on a handful of days to conserve gas supplies for home heating. The Public Utilities Commission responded to the volatility by giving SoCalGas greater leeway to withdraw gas from Aliso. Following conditions laid out by the commission, the company pulled from Aliso on two days last summer and 54 days this winter, Food and Water Watch's analysis shows. That compared to 38 days the previous winter and six days the winter before that. Relatively mild weather in winter 2019-20 helped keep energy prices down, as did the long-awaited return of the exploded desert pipeline. But Aliso also played a role in stabilizing prices, according to Public Utilities Commission official Jean Spencer. Without Aliso, Spencer said in an interview, a lack of sufficient pipeline capacity could have roiled energy markets once again. "During the high demand days of winter, there's not a lot of wiggle room between supply and demand" without Aliso, she said. An energy system in flux Why is there so little wiggle room? In part because some of those pipelines were built six decades ago and aren't in great shape. It took SoCalGas two years to bring Line 235 back into service after the October 2017 explosion a delay the company attributed to corrosive soil, tough working conditions and environmental rules. But critics questioned whether SoCalGas was slow-walking the repairs or not trying hard enough, pointing to examples of other gas utilities fixing broken pipelines much more quickly. With the pipelines out of service, "you've set up a situation where Aliso is more likely to be needed," said Bill Powers, a San Diego-based energy consultant and consumer advocate who has analyzed Aliso Canyon's operations for Food and Water Watch. Critics say SoCalGas has a financial interest in keeping Aliso running. The facility was worth $769 million at the end of 2019, and as long as it remains in use, SoCalGas customers will be on the hook to pay off the companys investment, plus shareholder profits. Protesters unfurl a banner during a rally in Porter Ranch marking the fourth anniversary of the Aliso Canyon methane blowout on Oct. 23, 2019. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) The gas company rejects those criticisms as baseless. Schwecke said the utility uses Aliso Canyon solely for "the safe and reliable operation of our system." He also argued that using the storage field in 2020 doesn't stop policymakers from potentially finding ways to get rid of it years or decades from now. "Today is about ensuring price stability, price mitigation and reliability. That's what we use it for today," he said. "For people to say we're somehow manipulating the system I do take offense, because that impugns my integrity as a system operator." Line 235 is back in service now or at least it was until last week, when SoCalGas took it offline again for more inspections and repairs. And even during the months Line 235 was back online, SoCalGas was flowing less gas through the 1950s-era pipe as a safety precaution, to avoid another explosion. The company is operating a nearby line at reduced pressure for the same reason. The reductions are unlikely to end unless SoCalGas replaces the aging pipes a costly and time-consuming prospect. Regulated utilities like SoCalGas usually love spending money on infrastructure projects because they can recoup their costs from customers, plus profits for shareholders. But at a time when California is trying to transition to cleaner energy, it's unclear whether the Public Utilities Commission would allow the gas company to charge customers for a massive investment in new pipelines. A protest in Porter Ranch against the Alison Canyon natural gas storage facility. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) The commission faces a "tough dilemma from a policy perspective," said Simon Baker, deputy director of the agency's energy division. On the one hand, Californians currently rely on natural gas. On the other hand, climate policies are likely to reduce gas use over time. Gas infrastructure might look like a smart investment today, then quickly become a stranded asset tomorrow. "Those are the tricky balancing acts that the PUC needs to weigh when these kinds of decisions come before us," Baker said. And if pipeline capacity stays limited? Regulators will likely be more susceptible to arguments that Aliso Canyon is still needed. Does California need Aliso Canyon? Clean energy advocates would rather see state officials limit the need for all types of fossil fuel infrastructure by encouraging fast, dramatic reductions in natural gas demand. But they aren't sure the Public Utilities Commission is up to the task. The agency has been studying what might happen to energy prices and reliability if Aliso Canyon is shut down but only under scenarios that assume gas demand stays relatively flat. To clean energy advocates, that's missing the point, which is that California can minimize or eliminate the need for Aliso and fight climate change by enacting policies that reduce the need for gas. Jim Caldwell, a technical consultant at the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, said the commission's ongoing process to study the feasibility of shutting down Aliso "is designed to show that you can't shut Aliso down, because it doesn't really look at anything else other than using Aliso." "I'm so, so upset with that thing," he said. "I try not to follow it so closely or my blood pressure goes up." Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times. Caldwell said the commission should start by assuming there is no Aliso, then figure out how much gas demand would need to drop to make it happen. Then officials could develop policies to phase out natural gas, such as incentives for homeowners to tear out their gas heaters and gas stoves and replace them with heat pumps and induction cooktops powered by electricity. Commission staffers say they recently launched a new phase of their study, in response to Newsom's prodding, that will examine options for reducing gas demand more than three years after lawmakers ordered them to study the closure of Aliso. But even now, it's not clear how aggressively the utilities commission might act to support all-electric homes. "People talk about heat pumps and different things that can be done," said Spencer, a supervisor in the commission's gas policy and reliability section. "But how fast can those things happen, particularly given our current economic situation? Construction manager Chris Smith shows off an induction cooktop at an all-electric, solar-powered town home development being built by City Ventures in Bellflower, Calif., in 2019. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) SoCalGas has promoted a different climate solution: replacing some of the fossil gas it delivers to customers with renewable gas, captured from sources such as manure lagoons at dairy farms. There's already some manure methane flowing through the company's pipelines, although even gas industry-funded studies suggest a relatively limited role for renewable gas. Whatever climate strategies California pursues, Porter Ranch residents won't be satisfied until Aliso Canyon is shut down. More than 100 people living near the facility sent odor complaints last month to the South Coast Air Quality Management District, many of them fearful there had been another leak. According to Food and Water Watch, residents "reported an increase in burning eyes, heart palpitations, asthma, lung irritation and nose bleeds" symptoms reminiscent of the 2015 blowout. Nahal Mogharabi, a spokesman for the Air Quality Management District, said in an email that inspectors didn't detect any odors and found methane gas to be "within typical background levels." SoCalGas, too, says it didn't detect any leaks. By Express News Service CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday announced that the public examination for SSLC and the pending subjects for the Plus One course for the academic year 2019-20 have been cancelled and all students will be promoted without examinations. As far as the Plus Two examinations are concerned, the examinations for the pending subjects are postponed. The dates for these examinations will be announced later. In his address to the public through television channels, the Chief Minister said: "The public examinations for SSLC and the pending examinations for the subjects of Plus One Course for the academic year 2019-20 - Chemistry, Accountancy, Geography (new syllabus), Chemistry, Accountancy, Geography and Vocational Accountacy (Old syllabus) were scheduled to take place between June 15 to June 25. The government has been making arrangements for conducting these examinations." "Petitions have been filed before the Madras High Court regarding these examinations and the HC has also asked the government to consider postponing the examinations. The government has studied this issue in detail. In the present situation, COVID-19 cases are going up in Chennai and in some districts and health experts are of the view that the infection may not come down in the near future. Considering the requests of the parents, the government has decided to protect the students from infection and hence taken the decision to cancel the above examinations," the Chief Minister further said. Palaniswami said: "The public examination for SSLC and the examinations for the pending subjects for Plus One are being cancelled completely. Hence the students will be promoted without examinations; 80 per cent of the marks for the students will be given based on the marks they scored in quarterly and half year examinations while 20 per cent of marks will be given based on their attendance." Welcoming the announcement, DMK president MK Stalin said had the government taken this decision in advance, it would have avoided the unnecessary tension among the students and their parents. Since the Chief Minister has accepted the demand of the opposition parties, the demonstration scheduled for tomorrow stands cancelled. TNCC president KS Alagiri, PMK founder S Ramadoss, DK president K Veeramani, MDMK general secretary Vaiko have also welcomed the Chief Minister's announcement. However, striking a different note, DMDK founder Vijayakant, one of the allies of the AIADMK,strongly condemned the state government for taking the decision to cancel the public examination for SSLC. "If the government takes a stance on a particular issue, it should stick to it. The government should avoid changing its stance every day. Now, the exams have been cancelled after the protest from opposition parties, stricture from the High Court besides the opposition from teachers. The decision has come after all arrangements have been made for issuing hall tickets, examination centres etc. The DMDK would have welcomed it if the decision was taken in advance," Vijayakant said in a statement here. Pockets of British industry are vulnerable to Chinese predators looking to snap up bargains in the coronavirus crisis, according to a leading business group. Paul Everitt, head of UK aerospace and defence body ADS, said cutting-edge manufacturers at risk of going bust could become easy targets for foreign buyers. That could pose a threat to national security, if they are working on sensitive technologies, he added. Moving in opposite directions: The Government is rushing to draw up tougher foreign takeover rules, amid growing concern about China's efforts to dominate high-tech industries His comments came as the Government rushes to draw up tougher foreign takeover rules, amid growing concern about China's efforts to dominate high-tech industries. Critics fear Beijing is buying so-called 'dual use' technologies from foreign companies and universities that appear harmless but can be weaponised to boost its military capabilities. And in a warning that will underline the concerns, Everitt said aerospace firms with close defence links could be left vulnerable in the months ahead as the industry is ravaged by the coronavirus and tumbling demand. He said: 'If you look at China, they want an aerospace industry and they already have taken stakes in UK businesses. 'They might see this as an opportunity. But given there is a close relationship between aerospace and defence, that might make people slightly uncomfortable.' Prime Minister Boris Johnson is said to be planning significant changes to UK takeovers rules, following years of criticism that the current regime is too lax. Relations with Beijing have turned sour over the communist regime's brutal crackdown on Hong Kong and its early handling of the coronavirus crisis. Concerns are mounting over China's involvement in a host of major projects in the UK from the building of nuclear power stations to the rollout of 5G. The changes to takeover rules would make it mandatory for British firms to report deals that could give rise to security risks, the Times reported, with directors who fail to do so threatened with hefty fines and potential jail sentences. There will also be greater scrutiny of partnerships between foreign entities and British universities, which are feared to have given scientists with links to China's military access to vast amounts of sensitive research already. Matthew Henderson, a former British diplomat and Asia expert based at the Henry Jackson Society think-tank, said: 'You have to recognise the importance of continued engagement with China but we must do so on pragmatic terms that make it plain that there are red lines we cannot cross. China has been using these technologies in ways that are often harmful to the continued security and stability of the world.' The row over whether Huawei should be allowed to have a role in developing Britain's 5G networks has made Chinese investment a controversial topic, with Beijing reportedly threatening to pull investment in several UK power plants over the row. The Chinese ambassador, Liu Xiaoming, is said to have described the issue as 'a litmus test of whether Britain is a true and faithful partner of China'. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) Internet speeds must be fast and cheap or else it may hinder the revival of the Philippine economy, the World Bank said, as the "new normal" will see more Filipinos relying on digital platforms for work, school, and day-to-day needs. In its special report included in its Philippine Economic Update, the multilateral lender said the government should act fast in relaxing regulatory rules and in allowing more internet service providers to enter the local broadband market to boost connectivity and make the service more affordable to consumers. READ: DepEd heeds Duterte's call: No face-to-face classes until COVID-19 vaccine is available "The current state of internet in the Philippines, calls for urgent and substantial improvements for the digital economy to play a key role in the economic recovery," read the World Bank report released on Tuesday, noting that widely-available internet services will support medium-term economic recovery and ensure long-term growth. The Philippines is seen as a "potentially significant player" in the global digital market with 73 million internet users, emerging as one of the world leaders in social media usage. However, the country remains a laggard in terms of digital adoption. Citing data, only 70 percent of Filipinos are active broadband subscribers against the 88 percent average in Southeast Asia, the World Bank said. Among internet users, only 72 percent had 4G or LTE mobile broadband coverage versus 82 percent for the region. More dismal is the local download speeds: mobile connections yield about 7 Megabits per second (Mbps), while fixed broadband speeds average 26 Mbps. For Asean, the average download rates are at 13 Mbps for mobile and 59 Mbps for fixed broadband. Filipinos also pay more despite the slower service they are getting the fourth highest cost at $6.30 (about 315) per 500 megabytes of prepaid mobile connection. The lender pointed out that the cost of fixed broadband plans here is close to the fees paid in Singapore and Thailand, home to the fastest internet speeds in the region. There are also too few cell sites servicing mobile users, the report added. RELATED: As COVID-19 forces life to move online, who is left behind? World Bank senior economist Rong Qian also told reporters that reliable internet speeds are the "prerequisite" of any plans to spur the digital economy. For this to work, data connections must be cheap, of better quality, and accessible everywhere. She added that better internet will be critical as more Filipinos work from home, millions of students rely on online learning, and people turn to e-commerce to buy their food and supplies amid stay-at-home rules. The sorry state of connectivity can be blamed on three things: an outdated regulatory framework for telecommunications companies, underinvestment in the sector, and the lack of competitors. The Washington-based lender took note of state efforts to improve access to the web through the Free Public Wi-Fi program and the selection of a third network provider. Internet services are limited to a few players, while mobile data is controlled by the duopoly of telco firms Smart and Globe. Dennis Uy's Dito Telecommunity is only expected to roll out its services by next year, barring further delays due to the pandemic. MSME survival Private sector groups added that connectivity could make or break small businesses, which have been forced to migrate to digital operations to make a profit. Philippine Franchise Association president Richard Sanz said that delivery platforms are bound to grow as more people tap online services during the pandemic, with most member-firms reporting the downsizing of head offices as they realized the cost savings of letting employees work from home. However, the concern was that about 30 percent of workers did not have stable internet and only relied on mobile data connections. READ: PH internet economy still the smallest in Southeast Asia The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry said numerous small-scale firms have also closed shop or were forced to retrench workers, while those which remain open are either part of a larger supply chain or were able to recover up to 60 percent of operations and sales by offering their products and services online. However, most retailers remain worried as the economic slump and job losses will keep market demand weak, which would translate to lower sales even after the lockdown period. Meanwhile, Qian said any plans to impose a digital tax on online purchases should be premised on the current practice where buyers, not sellers, shoulder the 12 percent value-added tax whenever they purchase something from physical stores. Some 7.3 million Filipinos went jobless in April. The World Bank said social distancing rules and the earlier lockdowns will shrink the economy by 1.9 percent this 2020, even worse than the slump during the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:51:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TIANJIN, June 9 (Xinhua) -- China's Tianjin Municipality have received approval to set up three new comprehensive bonded areas in its Binhai New Area, according to local authorities. Comprehensive bonded areas are special commercial zones that enjoy favorable taxation policies and are managed by customs officials. The State Council, China's cabinet, approved the upgrade of the Tianjin Export Processing Zone, Tianjin Dongjiang Free Trade Port Zone, and Tianjin Bonded Logistics Park to comprehensive bonded areas. Now, Tianjin has four comprehensive bonded areas covering 13.41 square km. As important platforms for an open economy, comprehensive bonded areas are significant to developing foreign trade, attracting foreign investment, and promoting industrial transformation and upgrade, said Liu Xintong, deputy director of Tianjin Customs, Monday at a news briefing. Taking advantage of the location and policies, the zones will focus on aircraft and ship leasing business, full chains of the automobile import trade, inspection and maintenance industry, service trade, and other industries. Huang Chunyan, deputy director of the Tianjin Commission of Commerce, said at the news briefing that Tianjin will take advantage of the policies on the comprehensive bonded zones to promote the open economy to a higher level. Total imports and exports by comprehensive bonded areas across China reached 2.9 trillion yuan (407 million U.S. dollars) in 2019, up 11.9 percent year on year, contributing 30 percent to growth of the country's foreign trade. Enditem The UFC's mysterious Fight Island is actually Yas Island, a popular tourist destination in Abu Dhabi where the mixed martial arts promotion will hold four shows in July. The UFC revealed the location Tuesday and announced a series of fan-free shows at Fight Island, starting with a card tentatively featuring three title fights at UFC 251 on July 11. UFC President Dana White made headlines at the start of the coronavirus pandemic when he announced plans to stage fights on an unnamed private island where the promotion wouldn't face travel restrictions for fighters living outside the U.S. While his description conjured up images of an exotic setting with an octagon lapped by waves amid palm trees on an isolated beach, White instead was taking the UFC back to ultramodern Abu Dhabi. The UFC has staged past fight cards most recently in September on the leisure island in the United Arab Emirates. The pay-per-view UFC 251 show is expected to be headlined by U.S. welterweight Kamaru Usman's title defense against Brazil's Gilbert Burns. Australian featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski is slated for a rematch with former champ Max Holloway, and Jose Aldo is expected to fight Russia's Petr Yan for the vacant bantamweight belt. UFC 251 also will feature a rematch between former strawweight champions Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade, according to White. The UFC will hold subsequent shows on Yas Island on July 15, July 18 and July 25. The promotion signed a five-year deal to hold annual events in Abu Dhabi last year. White told ESPN, his promotion's broadcast partner, that Fight Island will encompass a hotel and restaurants along with an octagon. Only people directly involved with the fights will be allowed inside the area. White also said the UFC will have a training octagon set up on the beach. The UFC led the return of major pro sports in North America with three shows in Florida last month. The promotion has since staged two shows in Las Vegas, and three more cards are scheduled for this month. ___ More AP sports: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper, Ben Ephson says the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is likely to lose some votes following the disqualification of some parliamentary aspirants in their upcoming primaries on June 20. Speaking in an interview on Kumasi-based Hello FM, he said even though the NPP is justified to disqualify some of the candidates, like Emmanuel Kotin, some supporters of other aspirants might not understand and thus may chose to vote against the party or not vote at all. According to him, the party executives need to explain to their supporters reasons why their candidates was disqualified. NPP could lose 400,000 votes Pollster Ben Ephson has predicted the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) will lose not less than 400,000 votes in the December 2020 general elections should the party sidestep its primaries and hand-pick parliamentary candidates. He explained that apathy will set in if parliamentary candidates are picked and imposed on voters especially in their strongholds. They (NPP) have made the attempt to protect some sitting MPs, Mr Ephson said. That idea, even before COVID-19, surfaced they had been trying to protect some sitting MPs and trying to disqualify others. There were statements that in view of COVID-19 they could decide to hand-pick parliamentary candidates for the various constituencies. If they did Nana Akufo-Addo could go into the 2020 elections minus at least 400,000 votes. That is if they decide to avoid elections of their primaries, he stated Mr Epshon claimed on the Sunrise morning show on 3FM. Listen to him on Hello FM The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has announced the names of eligible candidates cleared to contest in its upcoming parliamentary and presidential primary on June 20, 2020.For the presidential primary, President Akufo-Addo is the only candidate to have filed his nomination and is expected to go unopposed on the day.However, across the nation, a host of incumbent Members of Parliament and hopeful party members have filed to contest in the elections.After weeks of vetting and appeals, the party is finally announcing candidates cleared by the National Executive Committee to contest in the primary. Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/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 Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar's forces have slowed an advance on the strategic city of Sirte by rival fighters of a Tripoli-based unity government, security sources said Tuesday. Government of National Accord (GNA) forces, which have regained control of the whole of northwest Libya since the weekend, came under attack with air strikes and heavy artillery, the sources said. But General Ibrahim Baytalmal, commander of the drive which made rapid progress on Saturday toward the coastal city, 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of the capital, insisted the target was well within reach. "We are just a few kilometres from Sirte," the general said late Monday on the GNA's Facebook page. "It's liberation is only a matter of time, but we hope we can save its people from the horrors of war." The Mediterranean coastal city -- home of former dictator Moamer Kadhafi who was ousted and killed in a 2011 NATO-backed uprising -- is also a gateway to the country's major oil fields in the east, still held by pro-Haftar forces. The Turkish-backed GNA has in past weeks retaken all remaining outposts of western Libya from pro-Haftar loyalists, who had sought to capture Tripoli in a 14-month offensive. After resumption of oil production over the weekend at two of Libya's largest oil fields, which had been shut down for months, an armed group from the south allied with Haftar stormed the Al-Sharara field on Monday, forcing its closure, the National Oil Corporation said. The assailants "stormed the Sharara oilfield and pulled their guns on civilian unarmed workers, coercing them to stop production... only three days after production was resumed", the NOC said. It declared "force majeure" on crude exports from Al-Sharara. Force majeure is a legal measure firms declare when they are unable to meet contractual obligations due to extenuating circumstances such as armed conflict or natural disasters. The pro-Haftar camp had kept the field closed since January to use as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the GNA. Haftar's forces seized Al-Sharara during an offensive early last year in which they seized much of the country's south followed by the push on the capital. Libya, which has Africa's richest proven crude reserves and relies on oil exports for almost all of state revenues, plunged into years of violence with the toppling and killing of longtime dictator Kadhafi. The country's oil fields, pipelines and terminals have frequently been damaged in fighting. Bengaluru: Chamarajanagar district which tightly safeguarded its region ever since the Corona outbreak, had to forego its 'green tag'. An interstate returnee from Maharashtra tested positive on Tuesday. It should be noted that despite sharing its borders with Tamil Nadu which is having the second highest case load in India and Kerala, Chamarajanagar had not recorded a single case. With the entry of Corona to Chamarajanagar, almost all the 30 districts in Karnataka have at least one case. Karnataka recorded 161 cases of which 91 are interstate travellers. Maharashtra is continuing to add up more cases in the state. Out of 161, 84 are returnees from Maharashtra and 24 are international passengers. The fresh cases are - 61 from Yadagiri, 29 from Bengaluru, 23 from Dakshin Kannada, 10 from Kalburagi, 9 from Bidar, 8 from Davangere, 6 from Koppala, 4 from Shivamogga, 2 each from Vijayapura, Chikkaballapura, Mysuru, Dharwad and one each from Dharwad, Bagalkot, Tumkur and Chamrajnagar. In 13 cases across the state, health officials are yet to trace the source of infection. The state recorded two more deaths - one from Bengaluru and one from Kalburing on Monday. The total death tally in the state now stands at 66 and Bengaluru leads them with 19 deaths. Chamrajnagar administration is not worried much, as the returnee from Maharastra was under institutional quarantine and now shifted to designated hospital, preventing any chances of the virus spread to others. Bengaluru's containment zones keep adding: India's Silicon Valley Bengaluru is adding its containment zones. The city had 54 containment zones as on Monday which jumped to 64 by Tuesday evening. Nineteen cases out of 29 cases were primary contacts of the infected persons. Three cases are international returnees from Kuwait and in three cases the source of infection is yet to be traced by the health officials. The city has 204 active cases. MINSK, Belarus - A Belarusian opposition activist who has rallied against the re-election of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko could face years behind bars, officials said Tuesday. Belarus state Investigative Committee said that popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovski could be sentenced to three years in prison if convicted on charges of violating public order and assaulting police. Tikhanovski has been in custody since being detained May 31 during a rally in Grodno, western Belarus. He was collecting signatures for his wifes nomination as a presidential candidate. The Viasna human rights centre said that some 100 opposition activists have been detained across the country. Lukashenko, who has relentlessly suppressed opposition and independent news media during more than a quarter-century in power, is seeking a sixth term in an election scheduled for Aug. 9. The 65-year-old leader appears certain to secure an easy victory despite opposition protests. Donald Trumps star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame has been vandalised once again, this time with spraypaint and a bag of dog excrement (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Donald Trumps star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame has been vandalised once again, this time with spraypaint and a bag of dog excrement. An estimated 20,000 protesters marched through Los Angeles on Sunday as demonstrations against police treatment of black people continued across the US. Pictures have since emerged of the presidents Walk Of Fame star installed on Hollywood Boulevard in 2007 in recognition of Mr Trumps TV career blacked out with paint. Expand Close Donald Trumps star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame has been vandalised (Gregg Donovan/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Trumps star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame has been vandalised (Gregg Donovan/PA) The slogans FDT an acronym believed for stand for F*** Donald Trump and BLM, for Black Lives Matter, were spraypainted around the star. A bag, said by one witness to contain dog excrement, was also placed on top of the installation. Mr Trumps star has been a frequent target of vandals and since the 2016 presidential campaign has become a battleground for his supporters and opponents. In November 2018 a man pleaded no contest to charges of smashing the installation with a pickaxe. The star has been written on, spat on and urinated on. The Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce, the body which oversees the Walk Of Fame, has denied repeated calls to remove the star. An old rumor resurfaced in May, 2020, on news outlet the Global Times, which states the Chinese central bank has gold stored at Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY). From the Global Times: an analyst [Dong] said there is a risk that the US may freeze Chinas assets, including gold reserves. Dong suggested the regulators lower the portion of US Treasuries in Chinas forex reserve basket and transport gold stored in the US back to China as soon as possible. The first time I came across this rumor was in 2013, on the website of one of the largest Chinese lenders, Agriculture Bank of China (ABC). Liu Zhongbo from ABC stated: Statistics show that China has at least 600 tons of gold deposited with the US Federal Reserve There are also other websites and blogs that mention the 600 tonnes figure. Unfortunately, I havent been able to contact the analyst quoted in the Global Times (Dong Dengxin), nor ABCs analyst Liu Zhongbo. Neither did I find any official statistics that proof gold owned by the PBoC is in New York. Though, I did collect valuable intelligence from my contacts in China mainland. Added with data from Chinas State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), my analysis is that the PBoC does not store gold in at the FRBNY. One of my contacts, a former precious metals trader at ICBC, told me its very unlikely the Chinese central bank stores gold in the U.S. And his logic is compelling. First of all, the U.S. has never been an ally of the current Chinese regimequite the opposite. Second, China has ample foreign exchange reserves. China doesnt need to store gold in the West, to be able to swap or sell gold for dollars when it has a balance of payments problem. I would say, China didnt need to permanently store gold in the West since the early 1980s. By then, its gold reserves were significant (400 tonnes), and there is evidence the PBoC was occasionally transporting gold to London to sell for dollars. Story continues We know that in the 1970s China ramped up domestic gold mining, for a number of reasons*. The most important reason was to obtain foreign exchange to reform its closed planned economy. Since 1978, the State Council approved individual prospecting, which made tens of thousands of Chinese farmers replaced their ploughs for gold pans. All domestic gold production was required to be sold to the PBoC, who was the monopoly dealer in the Chinese gold market until the Shanghai Gold Exchange was erected in 2002. In the 1983, China transported at least 120 tonnes of gold to London to exchange for dollars. Through these gold sales China started building its foreign exchange reserves. In 1983, Chinas foreign exchange reserves exceeded $8 billion U.S. dollars. In the early 2000s, Chinas foreign exchange reserves significantly increased, which removed the necessity to store gold in London or New York altogether. Hence, in my view the PBoC currently does not store gold in New York. If I find any evidence to the contrary I will report accordingly. Below you can read part of a blogpost by Feng Yi, who worked for the Bank of China (BOC) in the 1980s, and was involved in foreign exchange and precious metals transactions on behalf of the Chinese government. The blogpost is inter alia about how Feng and a small team transported 120 tonnes of gold to the U.K. in 1983. At night, they brought the gold from Beijing to London in one Boeing 747. (If you can read Chinese, the entire blogpost is worth reading, as it describes how China first started trading in international financial markets in the 1980s, how the pioneers had to learn everything from scratch, and eventually wrote their own textbooks and set up SAFE.) While we were flying through the night, we slept on the gold beds. The cross-border transport of gold and silver In the early days of the trading room, we executed across-border escort for gold and silver. The Treasury Department of the Head Office was about to transport a large amount of gold deposited in Beijing to London, where it would be stored for sales in the international market. According to the conditions at that time, we not only didnt have to pay a storage fee, but could also charge a considerable rental fee [lease rate]. The escort work was carried out by Mr. Li Shucun and Mr. Dong Wenchao from the Peoples Bank of China (PBoC), and Mr. Chen Zhentai and Mr. Gao Jilu from the Bank of China (BOC). I was responsible for the escort work on site. It was in 1983, a month or two after the armed hijacking incident with Zhuo Changren, so it brought a high degree of tension to the air transport of the gold. The Ministry of Public Security send their men to accompany us to London. During a meeting, we had to decide whether or not the men from the Ministry of Public Security should be armed. From the viewpoint of security, it was needed. If anything went wrong, the pilots and treasury staff would be very vulnerable. But it was a problem entering other countries with arms, so we finally decided not to carry any weapons. We also discussed the plane to fly through Pakistan territorial sky. Do we need to inform the government of Pakistan? We thought. If we did, it might cause a news leak. If we didnt, there would be no protection from the Pakistani government. Finally, it was decided not to inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan until the plane took off, to minimize the possibility of a news leak. At the same momentright after the aircraft took offwe would notify Lloyds for the insurance policy. Back then one of the places where gold was stored was at the basement of the Head Office at the East End of Xijiaominxiang, Beijing, which is near the Mao Memorial Hall. Gold was to be transported out from there to the Capital Airport and then to Gatwick Airport in Londons by air. For the urban transport in Beijing, only the open Jiefang trucks were available. About ten trucks were lined up. In each ride a heavily armed PLA [Peoples Liberation Army] soldier and two staff members of the Treasury Department were present. We relied on ourselves to handle, load and unload the trucks. A staff member of the Treasury Department used a steel hook to move each package, a black steel carton in the size of a shoe box, bound by steel bars, containing two pieces of pure gold weighing about 25 kilograms, to the trucks one by one. Because the entrance to the courtyard of the head office at Xijiaominxiang was too narrow, the big Jiefang trucks had to park on the street to load the gold, which delayed the operation. Many passers-by saw it. It created a rumor that the gold was dug up during an excavation of Memorial Hall. Of course, the rumor was harmless. The gold was transported to the airport, and loaded on the airplane by a machine quite smoothly. The Boeing 747 was loaded with 120 tonnes, instead of being fully loaded, because of the high mass density of gold and the safety of the flight. We laid out the steel cartons with gold on the deck in the middle of the plane, each of which was laid out as a large single bed, and twenty or thirty single beds in the entire cabin. While we were flying through the night, we slept on these gold beds. We joked; we were flying on a golden dream. The plane arrived at London airport in the early morning, but I was surprised that no guards were arranged on site for the arrival of the gold. It was not long before the BOC London branch contacted several professional escorts to transport the gold to the vault of the Bank of England. Due to the international recognition stamp on the gold, inspection procedures were waived. Because there were no metal detectors [for assay testing] at the time, it only relied on weighing at the Bank of England. Less than a month after our shipment of gold, we heard that bandits had robbed gold at the airport. We had been lucky. * The Prospect for Gold, by Timothy Green (1987). For a look at all of todays economic events, check out our economic calendar. Stay up to date, subscribe to Voima Insightclick here Written by Jan Nieuwenhuijs for Voima Insight. 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This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Mumbai, June 9 : Actor Sanjay Dutt has shared concerns and extended support towards the dabbawalas, considered as Mumbai's lifeline. Taking to his social media, the actor wrote: "The dabbawalas have been serving us for decades & bringing food to so many Mumbaikars. Now is the time when we should come forward and support them! @CMOMaharashtra @AUThackeray @SunielVShetty." His message comes after politician Aslam Shaikh tweeted: "#Dabbawala, the second lifeline of #Mumbai,having more than 100yrs of relentless service standards in feeding d workforce every single day. #MahaVikasAghadi government is committed to stand with them in times of crisis due to lockdown." Earlier also the "Munna Bhai MBBS" star had used his celebrity status to bring attention to causes. Sanjay had pitched in to feed a thousand families in Mumbai. "We are going through a global crisis and it is at this time that everyone should stand with each other and do their bit to make it out of this situation. I've been fortunate enough to be in the position where I can extend my support and help others. That's what I'm focusing on, currently. Providing food to the distressed is a small way, of us making a contribution towards our society and country," Sanjay had said. As Coronavirus cases in Pakistan crossed 1,00,000-mark, country's Railway Minister and former Prime Minister has tested positive for the virus. Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad took to Twitter on Monday and informed that he has tested Covid-19 positive. He also added that he needs prayer of the people and is fine at the present moment. His office also added that he has gone into self-isolation and will remain in quarantine for two weeks as per doctors' advice. I have been tested Positive for COVID-19 though I have no symptoms of COVID-19, whatsoever. I am fine, Alhamdu Lillah. Need your prayers. -SR- Sheikh Rashid Ahmad (@ShkhRasheed) June 8, 2020 READ | Top Pakistani doc caught ripping off mask after camera stops rolling; follows Imran's lead Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) spokesperson Maryam Aurangzeb confirmed that 61-year-old Shahid Abbasi has also been infected by the virus. Abbasi, who is the Senior Vice President of the PML-N, served as prime minister from August 2017 to May 2018 after his party leader Nawaz Sharif was de-seated by a court ruling in a corruption case. He has gone into self-isolation at his house after receiving the COVID-19 test report on Monday, party officials said. READ | Pakistan squirms at IMF's demand to cut salaries of govt employees; cites inflation Other Pakistani leaders who tested positive for Covid-19 Since the outbreak of the virus, a number of Pakistani leaders have been infected. While fear of Covid-19 infection surrounded Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan when Faisal Edhi tested positive days after his meeting with Khan. However, Khan's test result came negative on April 22. Other leaders who tested positive were Governor of Pakistan's southern Sindh province Imran Ismail, People's Party (PPP) leader and former provincial minister Sharjeel Memon, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's provincial lawmaker Chaudhry Ali Akhtar. READ | Pakistan Minister calls nuclear weapon as 'patakha', says 'flew away before 1998 test' Pakistan's Covid-19 tally Pakistan has recorded over 100 deaths in a single day for the first time due to the coronavirus, health officials said on Tuesday. Another 4,646 new COVID-19 patents were diagnosed in the last 24 hours, taking the total tally to 108,317, the Ministry of Health Services said. The ministry said a total of 105 deaths were reported on Monday in the country, taking the total number of fatalities to 2,172. Official data also showed that at least 35,018 patients have fully recovered from the coronavirus. Punjab has registered 40,819 cases, Sind 39,555, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 14,006, Balochistan 6,788, Islamabad 5,785, Gilgit-Baltistan 952 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 412. The authorities conducted a record 24,620 tests in the last 24 hours, taking the number of total tests done so far to 730,453 across the country. READ | Pakistan media shows PM Imran Khan Uttar Pradesh's Covid figures; says 'compare with this' The Prince William Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 23:11:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close COPENHAGEN, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Denmark's nursing home residents, hospital patients, and patients in psychiatric wards will be given more opportunities to receive visitors, according to a press release from the Ministry of Health on Tuesday. The guidelines, which will be officially released on June 11, consist of six main points for the gradual easing of restrictions in medical facilities so as to reduce reinfection, said the ministry. "We will continue to do everything we can to prevent infecting chains in hospitals and nursing homes because we, unfortunately, know that more than one-third of all deaths among COVID-19 cases in Denmark occur in nursing homes. That is why we have to have some restrictions continue," said Magnus Heunicke, Minister of Health and Elderly. Major highlights of the new guidelines included visits should, as a starting point, be conducted outdoors. Indoor visits could be made when people visited are in critical situations. An opportunity to have indoor visits from one to two visiting persons will be made available. Visitors can accompany a patient for treatment, examination or a medical conversation. The relatives have the option to get tested prior to visiting a nursing home or hospital. The management at medical facilities get to arbitrarily decide the specific situation for all visits. As of Tuesday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Denmark stands at 11,962, with 593 deaths, according to the latest official figure published by the Statens Serum Institut. Enditem Dr. Collins gave the example of a white child asking why another child had brown skin. A parent can take this opportunity to explain what melanin is, and to talk about how wonderful it is that the world has so many different kinds of people. Older children will be much more aware of whats going on right now. So find out how much your child knows about the protests, Dr. Harris-Smith said, because kids may know more than we think they do from overhearing the news, their parents talking, or simply noticing what is going on outside in their neighborhoods. Once you assess what they know, you can have a conversation about the violence against black people without being too explicit with elementary-age children. Dr. Douge suggested starting with something like: There are things happening in the news that are upsetting us. Unfortunately there were police officers that made bad choices for the wrong reasons because of the color of our skin. Dr. Collins said that with children in elementary school, you should focus on how unfairly black and brown people have been treated throughout American history to the present day, because fairness is something all children can understand. If you live someplace where people are actively protesting and your children have observed some destruction, First and foremost, reassure them youre there to keep them safe, Dr. Douge said. But also explain why people are protesting, and show them positive images of protesting now and from history, she suggested. By Azernews By Aisha Jabbarova Azerbaijan today registered 323 new COVID-19 cases, brining the tally of infection cases to 7,876, the Cabinet of Ministers reported on its website on June 8. Five people died and 228 patients recovered today. As of June 8, Azerbaijan, the nation of ten million, has registered 93 coronavirus-related deaths, while the number of recovered patients is 4,377. Some 343,391 tests have been carried out in the country to this date, to reveal COVID-19 cases. Azerbaijan registered its first COVID-19 case in February and imposed anti-coronavirus quarantine regime on March 24. The number of infection cases surged after the relaxation of the quarantine regime on May 18, which lifted restriction on the residents movement. On June 6-7, the country imposed a two-day weekend lockdown to curb the surge of COVID-19 cases. Darjeeling hotel owners association has reversed its decision to suspend operations during the off season beginning July 1, triggering hope that it may encourage gradual restoration of tourism to the Darjeeling-Kalimpong and the Dooars tourism circuits that support around 50,000 jobs. Stakeholders in tourism business in the Darjeeling region of West Bengal were relieved with the retraction of the decision rooted in fears that the flow of guests to the region, choked by the coronavirus induced lockdown, was unlikely to pick up despite easing of restrictions in the off season beginning July. The association also felt paying salaries to staff may not be possible after June. The Darjeeling Hotel Owners Association (DHOA) had earlier termed it was pointless keeping the hotels open and declared that staff would not be paid after July 1 and will receive only 35 per cent salary for April, May and June. It predicted that the tourism industry would be among the last to recover from the effects of the nationwide lockdown. Anit Thapa, chairman of the board of administrators of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), said, Differences over payment of salary to hotel staff will be sorted out within a week. A committee has been constituted to find a solution. The employees trade unions are opposed to the proposed salary cut. Travel Agents Association of Bengal (TAAB) has welcomed the decision saying it will send a positive message to tourists, some of whom have started enquiring about trips to Darjeeling. No end to commuters woes in Bengal as limited number of buses hit streets A section of tourists will not be deterred by the pandemic. They know we will have to live with the virus for some time. The Darjeeling-Kalimpong and the Dooars tourism circuits provide employment to more than 50,000 people. There are 380 hotels in Darjeeling and its outskirts. They accommodate nearly 4.5 lakh tourists every year, Nilanjan Basu, secretary, TAAB, said. For Coronavirus Live Updates The decision was also welcomed by the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF). Ajoy Edwards, the spokesperson for the outfit, had earlier threatened to move the Calcutta High Court if hotels went ahead with the shut down call. Samrat Sanyal, general secretary, Himalayan Hospitality and Tourism Development Network requested the government to look at the financial issues faced by the hotel owners in the region. There is not going to be an influx of tourists right now. The government should look into the problems faced by hotel owners and their employees, said Sanyal. Editors note: This article was originally published on Jan. 8, 2007. Happy birthday to you! Today is the 174th anniversary of Hamiltons incorporation as a town. On Jan. 8, 1833, the legislative council of Upper Canada passed the Act to Define the Limits of the Town of Hamilton, in the District of Gore and to Establish a Police and Public Market therein quite a mouthful for a newborn town. The Upper Canada House of Assembly passed it into law 10 days later. Hamilton Harbour skyline April 15, 1970. The Hamilton Spectator file photo Hamilton left small town status far behind and became the Ambitious City 13 years later on June 9, 1846. Some may think Hamilton would have been better off to stay a town perhaps those who want to overturn the 2000 amalgamation of the former municipalities of Dundas, Flamborough, Ancaster, Glanbrook and Stoney Creek with Hamilton. It's probably the biggest hole in Hamilton right now. The excavations for the new Hamilton General Hospital are well under way at Barton Street East and Wellington Street. The new General will take three-and-a-half years to build and has been described as one of the largest construction projects in Hamilton's history. The $76.5 million facility is part of a massive $95 million rebuilding and renovation project at the General and Henderson Civic hospitals. The new General will rise 10 storeys and is being built by Pigott Construction Ltd., Jan. 24, 1986. Bob Chambers/The Hamilton Spectator file photo Oakville has managed to keep its town status for 150 years. Thats right, 2007 is the 150th anniversary of the big little towns incorporation. But Citylog knows the town where there are more maple trees than oaks harbours secret longings for big status. The towns own website calls it ... a beautiful lakeside city. Gage Park Hamilton bandshell. The Hamilton Spectator file photo Maybe its because Oakville, with 145,000 people, is no longer Canadas biggest town. That honour goes to Markham, home to 208,615 souls. So what. The Hammer, with 490,288 residents, is bigger than the two of them combined. By Express News Service CHENNAI: On a day when the State recorded 1,562 fresh Covid-positive cases including 1,149 in Chennai and 17 deaths, Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar rejected rumours that there arent enough hospital beds in the city. Assuring that adequate beds are in place, he warned of strict action against those spreading rumours. In Chennai alone, we have 5,000 beds in five government hospitals with ventilator capacity. Chennai Corporations care centres have 17,000 beds. There are 75,000 beds across the State, the minister said on Monday. However, a look at the bed status on the governments www.stopcoronatn.in website revealed that six of 25 private hospitals in Chennai were full while some hospitals were filled up to 75 per cent capacity. Among them, ICU beds in at least eight hospitals were full. But, more than 10 private hospitals which recently started treating Covid-19, have vacant beds. Among the government facilities, officials at KMC and Stanley Hospital said beds for Covid patients were almost fully occupied, whereas in Omandurar, 160 beds are available out of the total capacity of 500. In KMC, the bed capacity is 400 and its almost full, said a hospital official. Officials at Stanley said that only eight beds are available while close to 800 beds are occupied. We are sending stable patients to care centres, the official added. Officials at RGGGH too said the beds were almost full and they were moving patients to care centres. With 17 more deaths, toll in the State went up to 286 while cases reached 33,229. Active cases stood at 15,413. Twelve of those who died were from Chennai and the state capitals overall tally touched 23,298. The Minister said that the recovery rate is 56 per cent and currently, only six patients are there on ventilators in the State. Total discharges (17,527) are higher than active cases (15,413). State tally reaches 33,229 The Statewide tally stands at 33,229, while the number of active cases, 15,413. Death toll stands at 286. The number of discharged patients so far is 17,527 HC asks govt to consider pushing boards The Madras High Court on Monday asked the State government to consider postponing the Class-X board examinations. It also asked for a comprehensive report on the arrangements that have been made by the school education department. A division bench heard petitions seeking postponement of the examinations for another two months. 286 deaths due to Covid Seventeen more people died due to Covid-19 on Monday. Twelve of those who died were from Chennai. The total number of deaths in the State stood at 286 Amazon is ramping up its plans to test its fulfillment center workers for coronavirus after several outbreaks at its warehouses. The goal, according to three people familiar with the company's plans, is to test the bulk of the company's warehouse workers every two weeks. Workers would test themselves with nasal swabs, using a video for guidance, with a clinical professional supervising. The move would require Amazon to roll out millions of tests throughout the summer. That's in line with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' pronouncement in April, when he told shareholders that he hoped the company would soon begin "regular testing of all Amazonians, including those showing no symptoms." The people who spoke to CNBC asked not to be named discussing internal company matters. Amazon has already ramped up its testing of warehouse workers following outbreaks of Covid-19 in New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Oregon, among other states. By ramping up Covid-19 testing, it is hoping to stem the spread of the virus before it gets out of control. The company previously said it would invest its expected Q2 profit of $4 billion into its Covid-19 response, and will spend $1 billion on testing throughout the year. In addition to collecting nasal swabs, the company is planning to develop standalone diagnostic labs in several sites, starting off in Sunnyvale, California, and in Kentucky, the people said. These labs would analyze some of the samples to see if they're positive or negative. Medical diagnostics has long been an area of interest for Amazon. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that the company has launched a testing pilot program at a handful of fulfillment centers. The company declined to disclose which facilities have launched testing sites so far. It also declined to comment on whether it plans to test corporate employees for the coronavirus. "We've started our first small-scale testing pilot," an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. "We don't know exactly yet how it's going to shape up, but we continue to believe it's worth trying." To aid the process, Amazon has built a dedicated team that's working to develop coronavirus testing capacity. The team is made up of research scientists, program managers, procurement specialists and software engineers -- all essential personnel for building out new labs. That team appears to be growing. Amazon's hardware group Lab126, based in Sunnyvale, California, is hiring three additional research scientists in diagnostics to help scale its testing efforts, according to recent job postings. Lab126 is also hiring several lab assistants, engineers and scientists in Hebron, Kentucky. Some of the key Amazon employees participating on calls with external partners about the project include Douglas Wiebel, a scientist and engineer who has been at the company for almost six years; Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist recruited to Amazon Care; Matt Wood, a general manager of artificial intelligence at Amazon AWS; and Taha Kass Hout, a former government health official also working for AWS. The company is also looking at other mechanisms to test workers beyond nasal swabs. It's exploring pulse oximetry screening, which measures oxygen levels in the blood, according to two of the people. Pulse oximeters, which are small devices that fit onto the fingertip, are suspected by some scientists to identify a subgroup of patients with respiratory symptoms. The company is also exploring more regular temperature checks. Amazon has not disclosed its plans publicly, but has consulted with academic centers and other groups about the scope of the project. Vanuatu Daily Post journalist Kizzy Kalsakau was intimidated by police and ordered to delete photos taken during reporting at Vanuatus Port Vila airport on June 3. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate, MAV, in urging authorities to allow journalists to do their jobs without fear of harassment or intimidation. On June 3, Kalsakau was ordered to delete photos of the arrival of a plane from New Zealand transporting relief supplies for Cyclone Harold victims and the repatriation the following day of 58 Vanuatu nationals who had been prevented from travelling due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Vanuatu has no recorded cases of Covid-19. After the incident, MAV raised concerns with the National Disaster Management Office which then permitted the Vanuatu National Broadcaster (VBTC) to film the arrival of nationals from the Philippines. MAV raised additional concerns about delays in the release of footage. Airport security has since apologised to the Vanuatu Daily Post over the incident. MAV said: The intimidation of Kizzy Kalsakau by airport officials is inadmissible in a country that prides itself on having a free media.MAV is, however, pleased that Airports Vanuatu Limited have admitted their fault in the incident and is developing a clearer media policy for filming protocols. IFJ said: Its disappointing that Vanuatus airport authorities harassed a journalist for taking photos on a critical news issue for the country. Timely and accurate reporting is vital at this time of health and environmental challenges. We strongly urge all authorities in Vanuatu to continue to respect the rights of journalists. GREENWICH For years, Greenwichs police chief has submitted budget requests that, if granted, would help institute the use of body-worn cameras in the department. But for several years, the first selectman and town administrators have pushed back due to the costs of the equipment, uncertainty about freedom of information laws and privacy concerns for the public, according to Police Chief Jim Heavey. Also, town leaders felt there wasnt a significant need for the cameras because officers have a good relationship with the community, he said. But with the intense scrutiny on law enforcement and widespread calls for transparency after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis Heavey suspects that body cameras may move to the forefront of the conversation. Not so much because we need them to keep the officers from doing something (bad), but I think it will demonstrate some transparency of the officers actions, he said during a virtual meeting moderated by the Greenwich League of Women Voters on Tuesday, the day of Floyds funeral service in Houston. First Selectman Fred Camillo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The police chief estimated the body-worn cameras would be instituted in the department within 12 to 18 months. Moderators said they set up the Greenwich conversation to talk about the challenges of policing after worldwide protests since Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin placed his knee on Floyds neck to restrain him, while the man pleaded, I cant breathe. Heavey fielded many questions from participants about efforts by police to ensure people of color are treated fairly by local law enforcement. A moderator asked whether there was a formal process to collect feedback from communities of color and examine how they feel about policing in Greenwich. No designated group is set up to collect that kind of information, Heavey said. But he said the department does a great job of reaching out to houses of worship, public housing complexes and the Greenwich Housing Authority. Three months ago, Heavey said he invited the Anti-Defamation League to lead extensive implicit bias training with all of the departments supervisors. File / Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media I think that, again, we have a lot of good (community) relationships and were going to work on ever-improving those, he said. But if theres anybody who has a belief that they have been treated unfairly by us, we certainly will investigate that. Other participants raised concerns about policing in Greenwich Public Schools, with one attendee saying they felt more students of color were arrested in schools in comparison to their white counterparts. Heavey said he didnt have the data in front of him but he disagreed. School resources officers are stationed in schools to provide safety, security and education, he said. Overall, there have been fewer arrests in schools since the program began, the police chief added. A few years ago, there was a high instance in statistics reporting that more Hispanics were arrested than whites or blacks, he continued. We found that it was one Hispanic student who had been arrested several times. So thats why it looked like there was a higher instance, Heavey said. A moderator asked Heavey what personality traits or skills that make for an effective police officer. Heavey said that he and other department leaders look for candidates who demonstrate patience and empathy through previous volunteer or work experiences or during interviews. Once an officer is hired, the police department focuses on ongoing education. In departments with more of those requirements, there are fewer lawsuits and complaints, Heavey said. He said he reminds his staff that their interactions with community members might not be a big deal for officers, but it can be for community members, especially when its negative. At the beginning of the conversation, Heavey opened the discussion by giving information about the demographics of the police force. Of the 154 officers in the Greenwich Police Department, 10 percent are women and 16 percent are people of color, which Heavey called diverse compared to other police departments. When it comes to disciplining officers, the department has a continuum of different levels, which could include a letter of reprimand, suspension without pay, retraining or termination. In his nearly decade-long experience as police chief, Heavey said he tried to terminate an officer but a labor board made me rehire them. Heavey did not disclose his reasoning for trying to terminate the officer. In a separate incident, Heavey also recommended firing an officer to a first selectman but it was overturned and reduced to a suspension of the employee, he said. But there is, I think, a fair process for the officer involved and theres also a process thats stringent enough to protect the community from an officer who might not be following the rules, Heavey concluded. For information on filing a complaint with the Greenwich Police Department, visit www.greenwichct.gov/403/Civilian-Complaint-Forms. For information on filing a complaint with the state Commission on Human Rights & Opportunities, visit www.ct.gov/chro/cwp/view.asp?a=2524&Q=315884. tatiana.flowers@thehour.com @TATIANADFLOWERS Successful Delivery of First Turkish Gasification Unit Triggers Acceleration of Manufacturing Timeline PHOENIX, AZ, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Taronis Fuels, Inc., (Taronis or the Company) (TRNF), a global producer of renewable and socially responsible fuel products, today announced the Company has secured a long term lease for a 65,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Peoria, Arizona. The facility has the capacity to manufacture in excess of one hundred Venturi plasma arc gasification units annually. The new manufacturing facility will also house the Companys newest MagneGas Welding Supply location. Taronis Fuels has also begun the permitting process to operate its third MagneGas production facility and an industrial gas fill plant hub to support the launch of its heating, ventilation and air conditioning specialty gas distribution business, operated under the TGS brand. The Company is expecting the MagneGas production hub and TGS operations to be fully operational prior to year end. The Company expects to commence its manufacturing operations in early third quarter of 2020. The Company accelerated the timeline to move forward with the new manufacturing facility based on recent positive events related to two previously disclosed international contracts. The Company has confirmed the successful arrival of a 50KW mobile gasification unit into customs in Turkey. The unit is currently clearing customs and is expected to reach its final destination in Ankara in the coming days. This is perhaps one of the most significant accomplishments in our Companys corporate history, commented Scott Mahoney, CEO of Taronis Fuels. With the first international sale of a gasification unit under our executive team, we are steadily executing on our business objectives. This new facility will impact our domestic retail strategy, both in Arizona and California. This facility will also serve as a launch point for our aggressive expansion of TGS into the Phoenix, Tucson and Las Vegas markets. Lastly, with our third MagneGas production facility, we can more assertively market MagneGas throughout California, where we benefit from a 50% price advantage relative to acetylene products. Story continues Beyond all of these domestic benefits, we can now meet the anticipated demand for our gasification units in Turkey, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. We are fortunate to have secured the capacity to construct in excess of one hundred gasification units annually at such a facility, and for that facility to be located less than fifteen minutes from our new global headquarters. We look forward to providing our shareholders virtual walkthroughs of both facilities via our social media platforms in the near term, concluded Mr. Mahoney. Upon final delivery, the Company is expected to commission the unit for final government inspection in Ankara. This inspection will then satisfy all remaining conditions for the payment of an initial $4.7 million cash deposit on an initial order for five 300KW Venturi plasma arc gasification units with a total purchase price of $27.5 million. The terms of the purchase require an initial 25% payment within 3 days of commissioning the unit presently in transit. A second and third deposit for $4.7 million each is required 30 and 60 days after the initial deposit is made as progress payments. The final deposit for $4.7 million will then be due upon commissioning the five gasification units in Ankara. The Company expects final deployment would be in first quarter of 2021. A combined $8.75 million in maintenance contracts payments would commence and would be payable in equal installments quarterly over ten years. The Company is currently coordinating with its joint venture partners to complete the customs clearing process. Once delivered, the Company will schedule a team to complete the commissioning process, most likely in early July. During the commissioning process, the Company will also conduct a ribbon cutting ceremony for key Turkish government officials. Lastly, the Company will conduct a live demonstration of the gasification process, as well as a MagneGas metal cutting demonstration at the Ankara production facility. These demonstrations will be conducted for strategic marketing purposes. The Companys joint venture partners have made arrangements for a number of prospective buyers of additional gasification units that would be sold into neighboring countries in central Asia and the Middle East. The Companys manufacturing process offers several key operational benefits that are appealing to desert-based economies, including fresh water conservation and energy savings. About Taronis Fuels, Inc. Taronis Fuels, Inc. is a global producer of renewable and socially responsible fuel products. Our goal is to deliver environmentally sustainable, technology driven alternatives to traditional fossil fuel and carbon-based economy products. We believe our products offer a vastly cleaner solution to legacy acetylene and propane alternatives. Taronis is also dedicated to providing fundamentally safer solutions to meet the industrial, commercial and residential needs of tomorrows global economy. Our products have been rigorously tested and independently validated by global gas authorities as vastly safer than acetylene, the most dangerous industrial gas in use today. Lastly, we strive to deliver products that offer significant function superiority at a reduced cost to the end consumer. Through these efforts, we support 9 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. For more information, please visit our website at www.taronisfuels.com/ FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements relate to future events, including our ability to raise capital, or to our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our 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 forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond our control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects our current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our public filings with the SEC are available from commercial document retrieval services and at the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov . SPRINGFIELD Keith Fairey has been named the next president and CEO of Way Finders following the retirement of Peter Gagliardi on June 30 after nearly 30 years with the organization. Way Finders, formerly known as HAP Housing, began a national search for a new CEO following Gagliardis retirement announcement in December. The search process was led by six members of Way Finders Board of Directors in partnership with consultants from Marcum LLP. LeeAnn Pasquini, who chaired of the search committee, said the board was excited to welcome Fairey. His expertise in the affordable housing sector, his demonstrated ability to collaborate with federal, state, and local partners, and his strong business and fundraising acumen make him well-suited to lead Way Finders into the future, Pasquini said. At the same time, we want to celebrate Peter Gagliardis tenure and his legacy of building collaboration, and in playing such a vital role in building strong, inclusive communities. Fairey most recently served as senior vice president at Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., where he led the management, oversight and strategic guidance of Enterprises 11 regional market teams across the United States. He has extensive experience in community development and real estate finance, organizational development, and strategic planning. Prior to joining Enterprise, Fairey was chief operating officer of the Mount Hope Housing Company in the Bronx. He has also served as the assistant director of Community Pride, the community building program of the Harlem Childrens Zone. He has a masters degree in public administration with a concentration in public finance and financial management from New York Universitys Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a bachelor of arts in history education from the University of Delaware. I am thrilled to be joining Way Finders as its next president and CEO. I am also extremely grateful to Peter Gagliardi for his tireless, compassionate, and transformative leadership in the region and Commonwealth," Fairey said. I look forward to working with the exceptional staff and committed board on furthering the organizations mission of lighting pathways and opening doors to homes and communities where people thrive. I believe our programs and services that support housing stability, economic security, and upward mobility are critical during this time of crisis and will be essential to an equitable recovery for our clients and communities. By PTI MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday, asked the Union government to reconsider its pricing policy for N95 masks to ensure that the protective gear remained affordable and prevent hoarding during the COVID-19 pandemic. A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice S S Shinde said the Centre must take into account the law involving pricing of essential items and accordingly cap the price of N95 masks, said senior counsel Mihir Desai. The court had earlier asked the Centre to clarify whether it plans to cap the price of N95 masks. It was hearing a PIL filed by Sucheta Dalal and Anjali Damania, claiming that prices need to be capped to prevent black marketing of masks during the coronavirus-induced lockdown. In the previous hearing on May 19, Desai had informed the court that there was a shortage of N95 masks for frontline health workers and it was imperative to prevent hoarding or black marketing of the protective gear. However, the Maharashtra government had told the court at the time that it had already written to the Centre seeking that a ceiling price be fixed for N95 masks. On Tuesday, the Union government's counsel Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told the court that there were no plans to cap the price of such masks, as they were already being sold at a "reduced price by 47 per cent" following the government's intervention. On May 21, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority had issued an advisory asking all manufacturers, importers and suppliers of N95 masks to maintain parity in prices for non-government procurements and ensure that masks were sold at reasonable prices, Singh said. Following the advisory, prices had been slashed by 47 per cent, he said. The ASG, however, agreed to further reconsider the pricing after the court said otherwise, it will pass appropriate orders. As per the PIL, although N95 masks had been categorised as essential commodities under the Essential Commodities Act, hoarding and profiteering from the sale of such masks by black marketeers continued in the state. 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. Europe: Heading for a Fight By Jamie Dettmer June 08, 2020 Eurocrats admit they are breathing a sigh of relief that Britain is out of the European Union. If it had still been a member, they would face an even trickier prospect of persuading the fractious bloc to agree a politically ambitious pandemic economic recovery plan to lift flagging economic fortunes. Even without Britain, a proposal that would see $850 billion of grants and loans being splashed around is facing strong resistance from some north and central European states. The EU is heading for yet another fight, one that may well set the bloc on the path of closer political and fiscal union but risks stirring up a renewed populist backlash as disruptive as the one spawned by the 2015 migration crisis. Jacques Delors, a former European Commission president, has warned that lack of EU solidarity poses "a mortal danger to the European Union." The European Union has weathered crisis before from the eurozone bailouts after the 2008 global financial crash to the unruly migration crisis and an ill-tempered Brexit, but some fear the coronavirus could be even more destructive as it sets neighbor against neighbor. Italy, a flashpoint It is not often that the likes of Nigel Farage, Britain's arch-Brexiter, and the pro-EU philanthropist George Soros, agree, but last month they did with both arguing that the pandemic and its political and economic impact risks breaking up the bloc with public opinion towards the EU turning increasingly sour in southern European countries. In an interview with the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Soros said: "I am particularly concerned about Italy. What would be left of Europe without Italy? Italy used to be the most pro-European country." Farage said on his London show radio show, "I am truly astonished for the first time in my life to find that I am in total agreement with George Soros." Farage has long argued that Italy is the most likely country to follow Britain out of the EU. Many Italians feel they were abandoned by their European partners, who declined requests for medical equipment and economic aid when the pandemic unfolded in February and March, overwhelming hospitals in the north of Italy. Italians are also affronted about their country being singled out as its neighbors start lifting travel restrictions and open up their borders for tourists and travelers. Many EU countries are requiring anyone returning from an Italian holiday to quarantine for 14 days, even though Italy is now recording low number of new coronavirus cases. That has infuriated Italian ministers. Last week, Italy's interior minister Luigi Di Maio warned in a Facebook post: "If anyone thinks they can treat us like a leper colony, then they should know that we will not stand for it." He added: "We do not accept blacklists." Polls are reflecting a dramatic shift in public opinion in Italy towards the EU. According to one survey by the pollster Tecne, 42% of Italians want to leave the EU, up from 26% in November 2018. Eurocrats are drawing some comfort from the fact that a quarter of those ready to leave now would be prepared to remain in the bloc, if Europe approved economic measures that help Italy. Saving wrecked economies Eurocrats hope to do so. On June 19, the heads of the bloc's national governments will meet in Brussels to thrash out a joint response to the economic havoc the pandemic has left in its wake. The European Commission has warned the EU economy would likely shrink by 7.5% this year much worse than the 2009 contraction of around 4.5%. "The EU economy will experience a recession of historic proportions," the commission cautioned after weeks of economic shutdowns because of the coronavirus. Last month, France and Germany gave added impetus to a plan that would see the bloc take a step towards mutualizing debt. Under the proposal, grants and loans being envisaged to help member states weather a recession would come from money borrowed from capital markets funded by future EU taxes. Two thirds of the money would be distributed as grants that do not have to be paid back by the individual states that receive them. The other third would be offered as loans. The proposal has been greeted by some as Europe's Hamiltonian moment and is being compared to the 1790 deal between U.S. founding fathers Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, who agreed that the newly formed U.S. federal government would assume the outstanding debts of the individual states, creating a single fiscal union. The money being proposed is "small change in an era when politicians and central bankers conjure up trillions almost daily," says Anatole Kaletsky, chief economist at Gavekal Dragonomics, a financial services company, and a former columnist at the Financial Times. "If adopted, the proposal might be remembered as the moment when Europe became a genuine political federation," he said. Writing for Project Syndicate, a site that publishes commentary, Kaletsky said the plan would see the EU "issue bonds in its own name and guaranteed by its own revenues, instead of using funds raised by national governments, whether acting together or separately." It would also mean the bloc's taking a major step towards a fiscal federation because to "guarantee and service hundreds of billions of euros of new borrowing on its own account, the EU will require more tax revenue than it now receives." It would have to levy new taxes of its own, in addition to the customs duties and a small share of national sales taxes it already receives. Not in this together But there is strong resistance to the plan from a group of four northern states Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden which are opposed to the scheme and are unhappy with the idea of grants, wanting any financial aid paid back and only offered contingent on borrowing nations' promising economic reform. Some central European countries, notably Hungary and Poland, are also dissatisfied, fearing that they will be short-changed and that Italy, France and Spain, the three European countries hardest hit by the virus, will receive the lion's share of the grant money. They note all three have bigger economies than they do. Far from bringing Europe together in solidarity, the pandemic and its economic impact risk deepening fissures in a bloc already split over foreign, defense and migration policies. Economic inequality between member states is likely to increase. The clash over the economic recovery plan is coinciding with mounting fears that the 27-member bloc's single market fraying with richer members doling out huge amounts of state aid and subsidies to support their pandemic-struck businesses, giving them a competitive edge over rivals in poorer countries, struggling neighbors, mainly in the south, who cannot match the subsidies. That will aggravate the endemic imbalance within the eurozone between creditor countries in the north and debtor countries in the south, which the economic recovery plan will not correct. An uneven recovery across the bloc risks fueling populist anger and anti-EU sentiment. Ill-natured squabbling has prompted warnings from Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that the EU project itself could be placed in jeopardy unless the rich northern states are more generous in helping those in the south. Dutch claims that the ailing south has only itself to blame for its economic woes prompted outrage recently from Portugal's prime minister, Antonio Costa, who called the charge "disgusting." While the recovery package, if approved, may help to take the sting out of anti-EU populism in Italy, it could trigger a backlash northern states, like the Netherlands and Germany, say analysts. The say the pandemic hit as Europe was already worried about long-term trends. The continent's population is graying with birth rates declining. The slow pace of technological innovation, compared to Asia, had already slowed economic growth before the virus appeared. National rivalries are coming to the fore. Governments now are worried that much like after the 2008 financial crash, their businesses will become the target of hostile foreign takeovers. After 2008, Greek ports were bought by China and Gulf states grabbed a string of European banks. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The owner of womens fashion brand Max is planning to close 17 stores after having virtually no revenue during the COVID-19 lockdown. Max Fashions currently has more than 40 outlets in New Zealand. It wont say how many staff will lose their jobs as a result. The clothing chain owned by Chris Grieve, Gary Hitchcock and James Whiting is restructuring and is seeking a creditors compromise so it can keep trading. The company has not paid rent since the end of March. Max says that separate negotiations with landlords failed and offers varied significantly. Most only dealt with the immediate lockdown period and not with the potential economic consequences of the unemployment and GDP impact to come. "Unfortunately, some landlords were unwilling to provide any concessions at all, the company said in an emailed response to BusinessDesk questions. The company is requesting a compromise where if enough landlords agree to discount rent any others will be forced to do so as well, so that the business doesnt have to go into receivership or liquidation. If the landlords approve the proposed formal creditors compromise, we are confident that we can continue on the exciting journey of rebuilding this iconic brand on the other side of this very difficult but necessary restructure, managing director Jamie Whiting says in a statement. We forecast trading to be impacted for some time to come, as a result of the wider economic crisis, reduced consumer confidence and spending, lower foot traffic and disruption of supply chains." Losses In the proposal documents, Max says despite the wage subsidy, it has incurred considerable losses due to costs that could not be avoided during the lockdown. Ministry of Social Development data shows the company received $1.7 million for 284 staff. The documents say Max will terminate 17 leases by the end of next month, just over half in Auckland and Christchurch. Max says its shareholders dont have the funds to sustain the company through COVID-19 and complete the business transformation it had embarked on since it was purchased from private equity two years ago. Under the proposal, the directors estimate that if trading goes as forecast, landlords take a haircut of about 30-to-40 percent of rent for the 2021 financial year. Under the deal terms, landlords for most of Maxs remaining outlets will receive none of Aprils rent, and 10 percent of Mays rent, as well as Mays turnover. From June this year, the clothing company will pay varying rents based on the compromise, until the end of the lease. The payments that will be made to landlords will be calculated as proportion of the base rent and a percentage of sales. For some longer leases, the company has agreed to pay a minimum amount from June 2022. For example, its deal for its shop in The Plaza, Palmerston North would see it pay 20 percent of its rent plus 10 percent of its sales to landlord Kiwi Property Holdings. Other landlords affected by this compromise include the owners of malls including Westfield Albany, St Lukes, DressSmart Onehungas owner Lendlease. In locations where Max is pulling out completely, the company has said it will only pay a must reduced proportion of rent. It also said it will gift landlords the fit-out of the stores. The company says that its other suppliers have agreed to discounts and deferred payments, and senior management have taken a permanent 30 per cent pay cut. It says that should the compromise go through, staff will be paid wages as usual. BNZ is the companys biggest creditor, but it is not clear how much it is owed. The bank has said it will waive loan repayments for a year if the creditors compromise goes through. Maxs owners also own mens clothing chain Barkers but would not be drawn on that companys performance. The proposal documents indicate that Barkers is a creditor of Max Fashions. The menswear chain has taken $1.5 million in wage subsidies, for 263 staff, Ministry of Social Development figures show. Max Fashions most recently available public financial statements were under its previous ownership of Australian private equity firm Catalyst. In the 12 months to June 30, 2018 the company had sales of $50.1 million, and made $2.3 million in profit after tax. Its then chief executive Simon West, who was also a director, was paid $456,000. Government schemes won't work McGrath Nicol partner Conor McElhinney, who is acting for Max, says the governments business debt hibernation - BDH - scheme or its rent arbitration scheme did not fit the circumstances the retailer was facing. The key flaw with BDH is that all of the debt must still be paid in full in the future, including potentially rent for April and May for example. It only hibernates debt, it does not eliminate debt. BDH also does not work to allow leases to be cancelled and stores closed." McElhinney says the commercial rent arbitration scheme, which was introduced on June 4, did not suit the size of business because Max would have to enter arbitration with more than 30 landlords which was not practical. Retail is expected to be one of the sectors worst hit by COVID-19 due to the impact of lockdown and the acceleration of wider online shopping trends. Industry association Retail NZs most recent Retail Radar report, published June 4, estimated that by May this year 7500 had already been lost, and its worst case scenario for the medium term was that up to 17,100 retail businesses may cease trading, equating to 65,000 job losses. The report had assumed most retailers would not qualify for the wage subsidy extension. On June 5 the government said it would reduce the revenue reduction required to qualify from 50 percent to 40 percent. McGrath Nicol warns in its In Retail Report released today that recent electronic card data suggesting retail spending was down just 2 percent from a year earlier was just a short term result. The advisory firm said retail foot traffic data showed inside footfall dropped 16 percent in the second week of level 2. Max locations to close if proposal goes through: Broadway Newmarket, Auckland Manukau, Auckland ShoreCity Takapuna, Auckland Queen Street, Auckland Northwest Shopping Centre Westgate, Auckland Chartwell, Hamilton Centreplace, Hamilton Papamoa North City, Porirua Outlet City Tawa, Wellington Northlands Mall, Christchurch High Street, Christchurch Hornby, Christchurch The Palms, Christchurch Timaru Queenstown -Originally published by BusinessDesk. A visitor carrying a South Korean flag uses binoculars to view the northern side at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, June 9, 2020. North Korea said Tuesday it will cut off all communication channels with South Korea as it escalates its pressure on the South for failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across their tense border. AP North Korea's decision to cut off all inter-Korean communication lines appears aimed at voicing its pent-up frustration over South Korea's failure of advancing inter-Korean relations and also intended to strengthen its bargaining power in cross-border issues, experts said Tuesday. The latest hard-line move is also seen as efforts to close ranks and rally domestic support behind the Kim Jong-un regime through "South Korea bashing" as Pyongyang must be facing a double whammy of growing its anemic economy under the strain of global sanctions and the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, they said. Earlier in the day, North Korea announced it will cut off all inter-Korean communications lines at noon Tuesday, including the hotline between the North's ruling Workers' Party and the South's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. The move comes days after North Korea vowed to abolish an inter-Korean liaison office in the North's border town of Kaesong and completely shut down other major cross-border programs, denouncing leaflet-sending from South Korea as a hostile act breaching a series of peace agreements between the two sides. The North stressed the decisions will be the first in a series of steps against South Korea and that the "work towards the South should thoroughly turn into the one against enemy." "The latest move appears to be in line with North Korea's strong and long-held displeasure with the stalemated inter-Korean relations and intended to strengthen domestic unity through South Korea bashing and rally support behind the Kim Jong-un regime," said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korean studies professor at Dongguk University in Seoul. "The decision could have also reflected the growing fatigue brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and its current economic situations," he added. "For all of them, the North appears to have determined that it is necessary to do something to ramp up loyalty for the Kim Jong-un regime, and it used the leaflet issue as a chance to do that." The North has been vehemently protesting propaganda leaflets since last week. On Friday, the North's United Front Department handling inter-Korean affairs issued a statement, saying it will abolish the liaison office in the first in a series of measures that Kim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, threatened a day earlier to take unless Seoul stops the sending of such leaflets. She also warned of dismantling a now-shuttered industrial park in Kaesong and scrapping a military tension reduction agreement signed in 2018, calling for a halt to all hostilities along the border. Sen. Mitt Romney announced plans on Monday to introduce a bipartisan police reform bill in the wake of the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, slamming congressional Democrats for their sweeping legislation that has yet to draw Republican support. The Utah Republican, who marched with Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington on Sunday, is working with a handful of GOP senators on a bill aimed at garnering broad support from members of both parties and both chambers. The fact that it has no Republican sponsors, the fact that there was no effort to contact any of us to have us weigh in on the legislation, suggests its designed to be a message piece, as opposed to a real piece of legislation, Romney said of the Democrats proposal. Romney who won praise from Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike on Monday for joining the nationwide demonstrations said he had talked with Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only African American Republican senator, among other GOP lawmakers. The plan is in its early stages and has yet to be written into legislative text, but Romney said hes aiming to create supervisory boards to determine whether unnecessary force or racial profiling was employed by a police officer, in addition to new training programs aimed at combating racial bias. The Democratic proposal includes creating a National Police Misconduct Registry, developing a national standard on the use of force, and limiting the transfer of surplus military equipment to local police departments. Well try and fashion something that has broader bipartisan appeal, Romney said. If theres injustice, we want to correct that. If there is prejudice, we want to change that. If theres bias, we hope to give people a different perspective and that we can provide a sense of equality among our people. Romney also spoke emotionally about his decision to march with a group of Christian church leaders through the streets of Washington on Sunday, adding that one of his sons and some of his grandchildren also participated in protests. He also said he looked to his father, the late George Romney, whose tenure as governor of Michigan in the 1960s included marching with African Americans who were demanding racial equality. Story continues One of the fundamental principles of Christianity is that were all sons and daughters of the same God, Romney said. And a fundamental principle of this country is that were entitled to equal rights under the law and that were all esteemed as brothers and sisters. I stated the obvious, which is black lives matter. Our whole family is very animated about the bias and the prejudice that too often still exists in a country, which is the land of the free and which was founded upon the principle that all men are created in the image of God, and are equal under the law, he added. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, marches with a crowd singing Romney declined to respond to President Donald Trumps recent Twitter jabs, which were aimed at mocking Romney for joining the protests. Romney has long criticized Trump, and he was the only Republican who voted to remove the president from office in the impeachment trial earlier this year. Trump has largely alienated Romney as a result, and continues to go after him on Twitter. Tremendous sincerity, what a guy, Trump tweeted in response to a video of Romney speaking with a reporter at the protests. Hard to believe, with this kind of political talent, his numbers would tank so badly in Utah! Despite Trumps assertions, Romneys approval rating has spiked in his home state in recent months. He said he hoped his efforts could bring more African American voters into the Republican Party. My party obviously has an embarrassingly small share of African American votes, Romney said. I certainly did in my election and we have since. And Id like to see that change. But that isnt what motivated me to stand up and speak. I saw a heinous murder carried out by a person with a badge. And I know thats an outlier. ... But when theres a bad apple, its got to be pointed out and addressed. Romney did not vote for Trump in 2016, instead writing in his wife, Ann. On Monday, he said he planned to stay quiet on his 2020 vote. Im not going to be describing who Ill be voting for, I dont imagine, he said. My plan is to stay quiet on that. The Kyiv-based Pechersky District Court's decision that revokes ex-deputy prosecutor general Vitaliy Kasko's resolution relaunching criminal proceedings against Oleg Bakhmatyuk should let UkrLandFarming get back to normal work. Former owner of VAB Bank and owner of one of Ukraine's largest agricultural producers, UkrLandFarming, Oleg Bakhmatyuk, has announced his intention to sue ex-deputy prosecutor general Vitaliy Kasko for reopening the criminal case against him, which led to "eight-months terror" against the businessman and the holding's personnel. "We will sue Kasko, as he violated all the provisions. He has terrorized me personally, UkrLandFarming, and people [the holding's workers]. We will appeal to Ukraine's courts and law enforcement agencies regarding his offense, which in fact is the source of almost eight months' terror against one of Ukraine's major employers, which employs 27,000 people," he told UNIAN on June 9. Read alsoResumed unlawfully: Court rules in case of Pysaruk and Bakhmatyuk (Document) According to Bakhmatyuk, the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has since then conducted dozens of searches in the company, threatening its management. However, thanks to the ruling by Kyiv's Pechersky District Court, which overturned Kasko's resolution to resume criminal prosecution of Bakhmatyuk, UkrLandFarming's work is expected to get back to normal. "Kasko's resolution is the basis, without which such actions will no longer be possible. Threatening messages and tens of thousands of summons were issued to our employees. We brought people out onto the streets three times to reach out to authorities. These are the people who work, pay taxes, and create GDP," he added. The Pechersky District Court's ruling is expected to cancel a resolution by the Appellate Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court on Bakhmatyuk's arrest in absentia, he said. "I hope this ruling will give us the opportunity to reach some constructive logical conclusion. It will be final, not subject to appeal Now all prosecutions shall be stopped. After that, we will continue to have an open dialogue with the government," he summed up. As UNIAN reported, on May 28, 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court upheld an appeal motion tabled by the prosecutor from the Special Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) and ruled that Bakhmatyuk be remanded in custody. On November 22, 2019, the website of the Ministry of the Interior published information on putting ex-owner of VAB Bank and owner of UkrLandFarming Agro Holding Oleg Bakhmatyuk on the wanted list. In fact, investigators were aware of his whereabouts, while Interpol refused to declare Bakhmatyuk wanted internationally. Earlier, on November 14, NABU detectives informed Bakhmatyuk he was suspected of embezzling a UAH 1.2 billion [US$45.1 million) stabilization loan issued by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to VAB Bank. Bakhmatyuk was charged with committing crimes under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. UNIAN memo. The UkrLandFarming group of companies was founded in 2007. The holding's land bank is 570,000 hectares. The company engaged in production of grain, sugar, meat, raw milk, leather, eggs and egg products. UkrLandFarming operates one of Ukraine's major network of modern silo complexes, two of which are the largest in Eurasia, with a capacity of 2.6 million tonnes. The company exports products to 40 countries. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 9, 2020) NASCAR today announced its plan to reintroduce guests at select NASCAR Cup Series races beginning with the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (June 14 on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (June 21 on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). NASCARs modified event procedures, protocols and number of attendees have been finalized with guidance from public health officials, medical experts and local, state and federal officials. All guests in attendance will be screened before entering, required to wear face coverings, mandated to social distance at six feet, and will not have access to the infield, among other revised operational protocols. NASCAR will continue to adapt and improve its procedures to ensure they are effective and can be scaled to support an increased number of fans in the future. We have tremendous respect and appreciation for the responsibility that comes with integrating guests back into our events, said Daryl Wolfe, Executive Vice President, Chief Operations and Sales Officer, NASCAR. We believe implementing this methodical process is an important step forward for the sport and the future of live sporting events. The passion and unwavering support of our industry and fans is the reason we race each weekend and we look forward to slowly and responsibly welcoming them back at select events. NASCAR will continue its long history of honoring military members by welcoming them as the first guests allowed entrance to a NASCAR Cup Series event since March 8th. Homestead-Miami Speedway will invite up to 1,000 South Florida service members as honorary guests for the Dixie Vodka 400, representing the Homestead Air Reserve Base and U.S. Southern Command in Doral. Talladega Superspeedway will allow up to 5,000 guests in the frontstretch grandstands/towers for the GEICO 500. In addition, there will be limited motorhome/fifth-wheel camping spots available outside the track high atop the Alabama Gang Superstretch. Tickets are open exclusively on a first come, first served basis to fans who purchased tickets or reserved camping for the originally scheduled GEICO 500 (April 26) and live within a designated proximity to the track. Additional protocols and procedures for guests planning to attend can be found at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. About NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is the sanctioning body for the No. 1 form of motorsports in the United States and owner of 16 of the nations major motorsports entertainment facilities. NASCAR consists of three national series (NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series), four regional series (ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East & West and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour), one local grassroots series and three international series. The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) governs the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier U.S. sports car series. NASCAR also owns Motor Racing Network, Racing Electronics, Americrown Service and ONE DAYTONA. Based in Daytona Beach, Florida, with offices in eight cities across North America, NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races in more than 30 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico and Europe. For more information visit www.NASCAR.com and www.IMSA.com, and follow NASCAR on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat (NASCAR). by Mathias Hariyadi The clergymen want the government to promote a culture of tolerance between different ethnic groups, and boost Papuan social inclusion through dialogue and education. Ethnic Papuans are often mocked as "monkeys". They also demand the release of Buchtar Tabuni and other political prisoners arrested in 2019. Jayapura (AsiaNews) A group of priests from Papua province yesterday launched an appeal to stop all forms of racism, injustice and violence against ethnic Papuans. The Five dioceses in Indonesian Papua took part in the initiative in the wake of Pope Franciss condemnation of the recent killing in the United States of an African-American man, George Floyd, by some police officers. A strong pro-independence movement has developed in West Papua, the western part of the island of New Guinea, after it was placed under Indonesian control in 1962 following the departure of the Dutch, with the indigenous population feeling discriminated by the Indonesian government. On the basis of the Document on human fraternity, signed on 4 February, 2019 by Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayyeb, Papuan priests want national and local leaders to promote a culture of tolerance and peace among various ethnic groups, and encourage Papuan social inclusion and development through dialogue and education. They also urge the national government to take steps to fight the violation of Papuan human rights and the criminalisation of ethnic Papuans. The authors of the appeal also express concern about the fate of Buchtar Tabuni, a leader in the United Liberation Movement for West Papua. Along with other activists, he was arrested in September 2019 for organising a series of anti-racism protests the preceding month, which were marred by acts of violence. According to the priests, the protests led by Tabuni were peaceful. Pro-independence groups and agent provocateurs allegedly infiltrated the protests, attacking non-Papuans and setting fires on the streets. Thousands of Papuans had taken to the streets to protest the treatment of Papuan students in Surabaya (East Java) a few days earlier by a local crowd that had gathered in front of a students' dormitory calling them "monkeys". News of the incident reverberated across Indonesia, causing resentment among Papuans. Papuan priests demand that Tabuni and six political prisoners be freed. They believe that it was unfair that these activists received sentences ranging from five to 17 years, whilst those responsible for the racist attack in Surabaya were given only five months in prison. DMK moved the Supreme Court Tuesday seeking a direction to Tamil Nadu Speaker P Dhanapal to decide forthwith the pending plea of the party seeking disqualification of 11 AIADMK lawmakers who had voted against Chief Minister K Palaniswami during the 2017 confidence vote. The 11 lawmakers included Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and the DMK plea for their disqualification before the Speaker has been pending since March 20, 2017. The fresh plea of DMK, filed through lawyer Amit Anand Tiwari, referred to an earlier order of the top court which had disposed of the plea after taking note of the submission that the Speaker has initiated proceedings on the disqualification plea. The plea has sought a direction to hold the deliberate action of the Speaker in not deciding the disqualification petition as arbitrary and violative fundamental rights and constitutional schemes. ALSO READ: Vedanta's Anil Agarwal seeks PM's help to reopen copper plant in Tuticorin Issue a writ...directing Respondent No. 2 (Speaker) to declare that Respondent Nos. 3-13 (11 AIADMK MLAs) are disqualified or in the alternative, direct the Speaker to decide the disqualification petition forthwith, said the plea filed through R Sakkrapani, whip of DMK in assembly. DMK referred to an apex court order in another case in which it had ordered forthwith removal of BJP lawmaker and Manipur Forest Cabinet Minister TH Shyamkumar, restraining him from entering the Assembly till further orders. The apex court had invoked its plenary power under Article 142 of the Constitution to remove a cabinet minister from any government as the Assembly speaker could not decide the disqualification plea despite its specific directions. For the last three years and 3 months, speaker (R-2) has not decided the issue. This inaction of the Respondent no 2 assumes greater significance in view of the fact that in the earlier round of litigation, before this Court vide an order dated February 14, speaker was asked to decide the disqualification petitions in accordance with law. ALSO READ: Covid-19 impact: Maruti Suzuki cut production by 98% in the month of May "Despite that nothing has been done for last 4 months, whereas the law requires the Speaker to decide a petition from disqualification within an outer limit of three months, the plea said. The speaker has continued to sit over the issue and the undertaking given by the Advocate General on his behalf was not followed in letter and spirit, it said. The plea has sought disqualification of Panneerselvam and 10 others for having voted against the Palaniswami government when they were in the rebel camp. It had contended that by voting against the trust motion, these MLAs violated the whip issued by the ruling party and hence attracted disqualification under the anti-defection law. A statue of 18th century slave trader Robert Milligan in east London has been brought down after campaigners vowed to protest every day until it was removed. This evening workmen were on the site near Canary Wharf, which is run by the Canal and River Trust, winching the statue off its plinth. It comes after more than 3,000 people signed a petition to rip down the monument to the merchant, which was first erected in 1813 by directors of the West India Dock Company. On Monday protesters covered the statue in Black Lives Matter signs and placed fabric over its head. Protesters covered the Robert Milligan statue's head with fabric / Ehtasham Haque Tower Hamlets councillor Ehtasham Haque, who started the petition, had called for protests at the monument every day at 6.30pm until it was removed. He said: "There is a real sense of liberation now it has been taken down. "The East End has a proud history of fighting against inequality and we can hold our heads up high that we no longer have a statue celebrating a man who caused so much pain to so many on display. "This isn't about destroying history - this is history. It is about creating a more equal society. "A monument honouring a slaver has no relevance to us in the 21st century, when we are fighting for equality and saying black lives matter. "There is still a lot more to be done and this is just the first step." The Canal and River Trust said in a statement: "We recognise the wishes of the local community concerning the statue of Robert Milligan at London Docklands. "The Trust stands with out waterside communities against racism. We promote equality, diversity and inclusion, using our canals to enrich the lives of all those alongside our waterways from every community." The move follows BLM protesters in Bristol tearing down a monument to slave trader Edward Colston at the weekend and Mayor Sadiq Khan launching a commission to review the capital's landmarks to ensure they reflect diversity. Tonight the Mayor of London welcomed the Trusts decision, tweeting: "Whilst its a sad truth that much of our city and nations wealth was derived from the slave trade - this does not have to be celebrated in our public spaces." Milligan, born in 1746, was involved in the construction of the West India Docks. When he died in 1809, he owned 526 people who were forced to work on his family's sugar plantations in Jamaica. He also advised the government on how to quash a rebellion by escaped slaves on the island in the late 1700s. His statue originally stood inside the Hibbert Gate but was moved in 1875 to the dock's central pier. Tonight, we have removed the statue of slave trader Robert Milligan that previously stood at West India Quay. We have also announced a review into monuments and other sites in our borough to understand how we should represent the more troubling periods in our history. pic.twitter.com/Thfz3UHU96 Tower Hamlets Council (@TowerHamletsNow) June 9, 2020 When the pier was torn down in 1943, the monument went into storage. It was re-erected outside the Museum of London Docklands in 1997. Nearby Milligan Street is also named after him. Loading.... The statue was again been moved into storage on Tuesday night until a decision about its future is made. BRUSSELSA 150-year-old statue of King Leopold II of Belgium, whose forces seized Congo in the late 19th century and ran an exploitative regime that led to the death of millions, was removed from a public square in Antwerp on Tuesday, as protests against racism continued around the world. It was a striking moment for a country that has struggled, at times, to reckon with one of the most sordid eras in the history of European colonialism. For decades, many Belgians were taught that the country had brought civilization to the African region, and some have defended Leopold as a foundational figure. Streets and parks are named after him, and statues of the king can be found throughout the country. Yet there has been growing pressure in recent years, particularly from younger Belgians, to confront the countrys legacy in central Africa a movement bolstered by worldwide protests prompted by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died in the custody of the Minneapolis police. Last week, the statue in Antwerp was set on fire. This week, another statue of Leopold in the city of Ghent was covered in red paint. During a protest in Brussels on Sunday that drew more than 10,000 people, some climbed on another statue of Leopold and flew a giant flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo, chanting murderer and reparations. As of Tuesday evening, 65,000 people had signed a petition to remove all statues of Leopold II from across the country. But in an illustration of how divisive grappling with that brutal colonial history is in Belgium, a spokesman for the mayor of Antwerp, Bart De Wever, said the statue of Leopold was not being removed because of the recent outcry. The spokesman for the mayor, whose right-wing party has pushed for a crackdown on immigration, said that leaving the damaged statue in its place would pose a public safety issue. He said that it was taken to the Middelheim Museum, where it would remain for the time being and that it would be restored, if not placed back. He added that the square where it had stood was set to be redesigned in 2023, probably without a space for the statue. Video footage shows the charred statue in Antwerp being slowly lifted off a pedestal Sunday. Taking down statues is important on the symbolic level, but it is just the beginning, said Joelle Sambi Nzeba, a spokeswoman for the Belgian Network for Black Lives. Those monuments are present not just in public space but also in peoples mentalities. Sambi Nzeba, who is Belgian-Congolese, said that she had to educate herself about the colonial atrocities. Its symptomatic of the absence of responsibility for colonial history, she said. It is invisible in the public discourse. The statues removal was an example of how monuments have become focal points during recent demonstrations after Floyds killing, which occurred after a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. Confederate monuments in America, seen as symbols of white supremacy, continue to be targeted by protests and removed. In Bristol, England, a bronze statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century slave trader, was toppled into Bristol Harbor on Sunday. And a statue of Robert Milligan, an 18th-century slave trader, was taken down in London on Tuesday. Leopold, who was born in 1835 and became king in 1865, has loomed especially large as a symbol of European exploitation in Africa. In the mid-1880s, with the help of explorer Henry Morton Stanley, Leopold seized a part of central Africa, more than 76 times the size of Belgium, in a region that includes the modern Democratic Republic of Congo. Until 1908, Leopold ran Congo as a venture for personal profit. Using a private army that included Congolese orphans, the king and his agents drained the land of resources, killing elephants for ivory and tapping trees for rubber. Congolese families were forcibly moved and their members separated and enslaved, leaving as many as 10 million dead, by some estimates. Leopolds enforcers became infamous even among European colonial powers, so much so that in 1906, the king, denying accusations of atrocities, admitted that most likely cruelties, even crimes had been committed. There are no official statistics on how many people were killed. Leopold relinquished control to the Belgian state in 1908, and Congo gained independence in 1960. But the colonial era set the stage for the civil war and the dictatorship that followed for many years. Some churches in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis (STMA) and the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality (EKMA) of the Western Region have had their auditoriums and premises disinfected in compliance with the governments directives to them as part of the COVID-19 protocols for the resumption of religious activities in the country. Religious activities in Ghana was partially banned for over two months as part of raft measures introduced by the government in March to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic which has now affected over 9,000 people in the country. However, recently after weeks of wider stakeholder consultations, President Nana Akufo-Addo announced the easing of the restrictions to among others, enable religious activities to resume but amid stringent protocols. Among the modalities prescribed by the Ministry for Religious Affairs for the religious bodies are the mandatory disinfection of their venues before resumption and also at least once every month. Against this background, a number of churches in the Western Region on Tuesday engaged waste management experts, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, as recommended by the government, to disinfect their church auditoriums and premises in preparation for church service to reopen. At the end of the exercise, each Area or Circuit Offices of the church was certified with a COVID-19 disinfection certificate while the local assemblies or branches had stickers which were posted at the entrance of the auditoriums to inform users that the place has been disinfected and cleared for use as directed by the government. Alhaji Abdul Abdallah, Western Regional Manager of Zoomlion told Today newspaper that the exercise will cover all churches, mosques, schools and the military barracks who have contacted the company for the disinfection exercise ahead of their opening. He explained that following the Presidents directive to the religious bodies to disinfect their venue for worship, a number of churches have contacted Zoomlion Ghana Limited, which has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 disinfection in the country, to disinfect their venues. Alhaji Abdallah argued that alone is not a panacea for stemming the spread of the coronavirus and called on the populace to keep to the protocols of washing the hands with soap under running water, keeping social distancing, using alcohol-based hand sanitizer and the wearing of the nose masks. Madam Eva Nana Ama Essilfie, Society Steward of the Gethsemane Methodist Church at Mpatado commended Zoomlion for the exercise and hinted that measures have been put into place to ensure that all the other protocols are adhered to. The virus is real and we dont have to compromise on safety, we dont have to compromise on the safety protocols. So we will make sure that when members are coming into the premises they wear their nose mask and observe social distancing. By Express News Service BENGALURU: Chamarajanagar district lost its green tag as it recorded its first-ever Covid-19 case and a 17-year-old girl from Kalaburagi died, making her the youngest coronavirus victim in the state, on Tuesday. The state also recorded 161 fresh cases in a 24-hour span. The lone case from Chamarajanagar is of a Maharashtra returnee, while apart from the girl, one more person from Bengaluru died, taking the toll to 66 with two non-Covid deaths. Also, the states positive tally went up to 5921, a shade short of the 6,000-mark. The 17-year-old girl was suffering from demyelinating disorder, with severe dengue in decompensated shock with pulmonary haemorrhage and Covid positivity. She was referred to the designated Covid hospital by a private hospital on June 4 with complaints of fever over the previous five days and breathlessness for the previous day. She died the same day. The deceased patient from Bengaluru was a 65-year-old man, who was diagnosed with ILI and was suffering from diabetes mellitus, hypertension and chronic kidney disease. He was admitted on June 3 and died on June 8. The state, which conducted over 10,000 tests every day, tested only 7,036 samples on Tuesday. Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, said, We were focusing on testing people coming from Mahrashtra. But today the cases were less, which led to low testing. We also had some backlog testings which were conducted on Tuesday. Among the 161 patients, the state had 91 interstate passengers, with Yadgir taking the lead with 61 positive cases all of whom were Maharashtra returnees. Bengaluru Urban was second on the list with 29 positive cases, of which three had returned from Kuwait, one from Tamil Nadu, two cases of Influenza Like Illness and others contacts of previous patients. Dakshina Kannada had 23 positive cases. Photo: (Photo : pexels.com) Some mothers and daughters find joy in wearing the same design of clothes. The Kudji mother and daughter duo, Dr. Cynthia Kudji Sylvester and Dr. Jasmine Kudji, are no different. Recently, they gladly posed for a picture wearing a matching cap and gown. They also had mini placards indicating their specialization. The two are about to start their medical careers. Although they also have fears, the duo is excited to begin their journey in the middle of a pandemic. The TODAY featured the mother and daughter duo. In the feature, they shared their journey in the medical profession. READ ALSO: Mother and Daughter Duo Graduates Together Why is the mother and daughter duo in the same field? It is not unusual for children to follow the steps of their parents. However, in the case of the Kudjis, they took the steps towards their medical careers together. Several years before Dr. Kudji dreamed of becoming a medical professional, her mother, Cynthia, has been working as a nurse assistant and a licensed nurse. Jasmine says this is also why she felt this profession is already a part of her being. Cynthia initially dreamed of becoming a physician when she was younger. However, she had to put this dream on hold. That is for her to be able to provide for the needs of her family. When Jasmine was already in college, that was the time when Cynthia thought of pursuing her dream, along with her daughter. In 2013, mom Cynthia enrolled to become a physician at the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts at the University of Medicine and Health Science. Two years later, her daughter, Jasmine, started medical school in New Orleans, at the Louisiana State University. That is right after she finished her undergraduate studies. The Kudjis supported each other while in medical school. To Jasmine, it was a blessing to take every step with her mother. That is because she had someone to rely on during this process. READ ALSO: Daughter Visits Mom in Retirement Home Wearing Hippo Costume The beginning of the medical careers of the mother and daughter duo The Kudji girls first made headlines in March when they attended medical school at the same time. They also got matched up at the same institution. Both Dr. Kudji Sylvester and Dr. Kudji committed their medical careers in Louisiana at the LSU Health System. Dr. Kudji Sylvester is a family medicine resident at the LSU Health Lafayette. On the other hand, Dr. Kudji is at LSU Health New Orleans as a general surgery resident. The mother and daughter duo are both members of the National Resident Matching Program. The Kudjis will start their medical career in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. The situation might have been unique because of a pandemic challenge, but the mother and daughter duo are not hesitant to continue. As a mom, Dr. Kudji Sylvestre is concerned about her daughter contracting the coronavirus during this pandemic, while they are at the frontlines. However, the two Kudjis are excited about becoming part of the solution to address the pandemic, especially at the beginning of their medical careers. "So, it's all about perspective and what you can contribute during this time," Dr. Kudji Sylvestre said. READ ALSO: Mom Finished Her Dream Degree After More Than A Decade TriMet and Oregons smaller transit agencies want lawmakers to let them spend payroll tax dollars on basic operations instead of expanding service and efforts like converting diesel fleets to lower-emission vehicles as the state intended. Under a landmark 2017 transportation bill, Oregon lawmakers added a 0.1% tax on employer payrolls statewide to enhance public transit. But agencies now say they need the money to shore up their core budgets and avoid layoffs. Transit agencies lobbied lawmakers on that front Monday during a legislative hearing of the Joint Committee on Transportation. TriMet, the Eugene-areas Lane Transit District and the nonprofit Oregon Transit Association told lawmakers COVID-19s effect on ridership will likely continue for months if not years , and more financial tools are critical. The request comes as agencies are still seeing ridership woes TriMet saw declines of upward of 70% during the depths of the pandemic but are slowly starting to regain ground. But, expansion isnt in the cards anytime soon, they said. I do know were going to have to reduce service, TriMet general manager Doug Kelsey said. What I dont know is how far we have to fall. Without legislative action, the money would still be distributed. TriMets spokeswoman, Roberta Alststadt, said it doesnt make sense for TriMet to expand service with those funds while we have to cut existing services funded with our general fund. Aurora Jackson, general manager of Lane Transit District, said their agency had to eliminate more than 50 jobs, and it expects to rip through the $25 million it received from the federal stimulus package quickly. Without another round of funding, we will be forced to make even tougher decisions next year, Jackson said. Lane Transit and other transit agencies are asking lawmakers to revise state laws outlined by House Bill 2017, the $5.3 billion transportation package which created a payroll tax of 0.1% on wages paid to employees. According to a pre-pandemic December forecast, that tax was expected to generate $253 million in revenue for the transit expansion programs in 2019-21. Agencies are statutorily required to spend the money on expansion, more frequent service in low-income communities and other priorities. As of April, that revenue estimate was revised downward to $230.1 million. Kelsey said he hopes the transit sectors financial issues will be temporary and the payroll taxes can eventually be devoted to expanded services once again Flexibility of STIF would be greatly appreciated, he told the lawmakers. TriMet received $70 million from the program during the last two years, money the transit service directed toward service expansion like adding more buses on heavily used routes, expanding its battery-electric fleet, building out its low-income fare program and other programs. Karyn Criswell, Oregons public transportation division administrator, said the next disbursement to agencies statewide will be early July. Due to the approximately six-month lag between assessment of the tax, collection of revenues and disbursements to transit providers, we do not expect the July disbursement to be significantly impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Criswell said. But with unemployment rates at historic highs, revenue will be significantly lower starting with the next quarterly allocation. The state expects to update its projections in early July, which will give a better indication of likely future revenue impacts, Criswell said. Sen. Lee Beyer, D-Springfield, told the transit leaders hes already discussing with Democratic leadership the need to amend the bill whenever we have a special session. Beyer said. He cautioned that the bill was designed to expand services, and transit agencies have to acknowledge that reality. Obviously in the short term, the environment were in now, we need to keep the systems up and viable, he said. TriMet received some help from the federal stimulus package; it can submit receipts and be reimbursed up to $185 million in eligible expenses. The agency said it expects a $135 million shortfall in the coming fiscal year due to the compounding payroll tax revenue losses and passenger fare declines. Despite those financial crises, Kelsey told lawmakers he plans to double down on the agencys efforts to try its best to keep the system clean. TriMet has already hired 30 cleaners to help with cleaning stations and high-touch areas. Kelsey said Monday he wants to hire another 130 additional cleaning workers, which he said could cost nearly $10 million. Before were out of business, I think these are expenditures we have to make, he said, saying sanitation is going to be key to encouraging riders to return. -- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. The Uttarakhand government in its fresh guidelines on inter-state and intra-state travel has exempted VIPs from mandatory quarantine. The guidelines have drawn flak from the opposition Congress which described the guidelines as foolish since Covid-19 cases continued to soar every day in the state. On Tuesday, 77 new cases took Uttarakhands Covid-19 tally to 1488. The BJP-led Uttarakhand government on Monday evening had issued guidelines on inter-state and intra-state travel under which all the inbound people have to go under quarantine. Those coming from high-load Covid-19 cities by any mode of transport will have to be in institutional quarantine for a period of seven days followed by 14 days of home quarantine. People coming from non-high-load Covid-19 cities will have to go under home quarantine of 14 days. Some exceptional cases including pregnant women, serious illness, death, senior citizen sabove 65 years of age could go under home quarantine of 14 days without seven days of institutional quarantine with proper directions and screening by the government. Also read: Uttarakhand hotels to remain shut, hoteliers say govt guidelines impractical The guidelines exempted central ministers and Uttarakhand ministers, chief justice and judges of the High Court, judges and judicial officers of district and sub-ordinate judiciary of the state, Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly of Uttarakhand, all officers of Centre, state government, PSUs, Central and State government organisations, from any sort of quarantine in case of inter-state or intra-state travel for official purposes. However, they will have to adhere to the Centres norms of safety and social distancing. The Congress has reacted strongly on the exemption and termed the governments decision as foolish citing the recent case of state tourism minister Satpal Maharaj who tested positive for Covid-19 along with his family members and staffers. Suryakant Dhasamana, vice president of the Uttarakhand Congress unit said, When the cases in the state are increasing every day, how could the government take such a foolish decision? It is beyond ones understanding. First this government termed coronavirus as Jamaati and now with the latest exemption, they have divided it between VIPs and the common man. Its simply ridiculous. They should understand that the virus doesnt discriminate about religion, class, caste, creed or race. It can infect anyone, said Dhasmana. Pointing towards Satpal Maharajs case, he said what better example for the same than him. Is there any bigger VIP than Maharaj in the state. He is a minister in the present government, former minister in Centre, and also a Maharaj. Even he has tested positive for the virus, so what is the meaning of this exemption? Instead of taking more stringent decisions to contain the spread, the government is coming up with these decisions, said Dhasmana. The northern segment of the Great Wall of China was built not to block invading armies but rather to monitor civilian movement, an Israeli archaeologist said Tuesday. When researchers fully mapped the Great Walls 740-kilometre (460-mile) Northern Line for the first time, their findings challenged previous assumptions. Prior to our research, most people thought the walls purpose was to stop Genghis Khans army, said Gideon Shelach-Lavi from Jerusalems Hebrew University, who led the two-year study. But the Northern Line, lying mostly in Mongolia, winds through valleys, is relatively low in height and close to paths, pointing to non-military functions. Our conclusion is that it was more about monitoring or blocking the movement of people and livestock, maybe to tax them, Shelach-Lavi said. He suggested people may have been seeking warmer southern pastures during a medieval cold spell. Construction of the Great Wall, which is split into sections that in total stretch for thousands of kilometres, first began in the third century BC and continued for centuries. The Northern Line, also known as Genghis Khans Wall in reference to the legendary Mongolian conqueror, was built between the 11th and 13th centuries with pounded earth and dotted with 72 structures in small clusters. Shelach-Lavi and his team of Israeli, Mongolian and American researchers used drones, high-resolution satellite images and traditional archaeological tools to map out the wall and find artefacts that helped pin down dates. According to Shelach-Lavi, whose findings from the ongoing study were published in the journal Antiquity, the Northern Line has been largely overlooked by contemporary scientists. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Nepal's foreign minister said on Tuesday that the country was still waiting for a response from India on holding talks to resolve a border dispute that has strained relations between the South Asian neighbours. Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali told The Associated Press in an interview that requests to talk were made in November and December last year, and again in May. "We have expressed time and again that Nepal wants to sit at the table to resolve this problem," Gyawali said. "We are waiting for formal negotiations so that these two countries with ... a very unique type of partnership can develop a more inspiring relationship that reflects the requirements of the 21st century." The latest border dispute between the countries began over India's inauguration last month of a Himalayan link road built in a region that lies at a strategic three-way junction with Tibet and China. The 80-km road, inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, cuts through the Lipu Lekh Himalayan pass, considered one of the shortest and most feasible trade routes between India and China. Nepal fiercely contested the inauguration of the road. The government of Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli issued a new political map of Nepal that showed the disputed territory within its borders. There have been reports that India does not want to hold negotiations with Nepal until its coronavirus outbreak is brought under control. Nepal, however, is in a rush for talks. "If the coronavirus is an obstacle for not being able to hold diplomatic dialogue soon, it should have been an obstacle for the inauguration of the link road as well," Gyawali said. "But if the coronavirus did not create any problem to the inauguration, that means there are some controversies, there are some paradoxes." The dispute over the territory brought a new wedge in relations between the two nations, leading to an exchange of strong-worded statements and remarks from both sides. "There is no any alternative to dialogue and friendly talk, and talk not just for formality, but with commitment to solve the problem and to develop such an environment where both countries can prosper together, where both countries can journey together toward a prosperous region of South Asia," Gyawali said. Lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 have saved millions of lives and easing them now carries high risks, according to two international studies published on Monday. The risk of a second wave happening if all interventions and all precautions are abandoned is very real, Samir Bhatt, who co-led one of the studies by researchers at Imperial College London, told reporters in a briefing. Most European nations, worried about the economic impact of their lockdowns, have started to ease restrictions as the number of new COVID-19 cases falls. The Imperial study analysed the impact of lockdowns and social distancing steps in 11 European countries and found they had a substantial effect, helping to lower the infections reproductive rate, or R value, below one by early May. The R value measures the average number of people that one infected person will pass the disease on to. An R value above 1 can lead to exponential growth. But any claims that this is all over, that weve reached the herd immunity threshold, can be firmly rejected, Bhatt said. We are only at the beginning of this pandemic. The Imperial team estimated that by early May, between 12 and 15 million people in total in Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland - around 4% of their combined population - had been infected with COVID-19. By comparing the number of deaths counted with deaths predicted by their model if no lockdown measures had been introduced, they found some 3.1 million deaths were averted. A second study by scientists in the United States, published alongside the Imperial-led one in the journal Nature, estimated that lockdowns in China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, France and the United States had prevented or delayed around 530 million COVID-19 cases. Focusing on those six nations, the U.S. team compared infection growth rates before and after the implementation of more than 1,700 local, regional and national policies designed to slow or halt the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. They found that without anti-contagion policies in place, early infection rates of SARS-CoV-2 grew by 68% a day in Iran and an average of 38% a day across the other five countries. Without these policies, we would have lived through a very different April and May, said Solomon Hsiang, who co-led the second study at the University of California, Berkeley. (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 The state has created a dashboard of metrics showing what needs to happen to move from one phase of reopening to the next, such as a lasting drop in hospital admissions or a certain percentage of ICU beds available. But the state has not set out exact criteria for moving back to a previous phase, other than sustained poor performance in certain indicators. According to Iranian authorities, a man they say passed on information about the whereabouts of a top Iranian general who was killed in a U.S. air strike in Iraq earlier this year has been sentenced to death. Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC) elite Qods Force, died in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad's airport in early January, ratcheting up tensions between Washington and Tehran. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhussein Esmaili said on June 9 that the death sentence handed to Seyed Mahmud Musavi-Majd earlier has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Iran and will be carried out "soon." The spokesman said Musavi-Majd had received large sums of money from both the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Israel's Mossad. He said the man had passed on information about the Iranian armed forces, including the Qods Force, and Soleimani's whereabouts. In retaliation for Soleimani's killing in the early hours of January 3, an Iranian ballistic-missile strike on an Iraqi air base left some 110 U.S. troops suffering from traumatic brain injuries. Hours later, Iranian forces accidently shot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner taking off from Tehran, killing all 176 people on board. Iranian officials did not say whether Musavi-Majd's case was linked to Iran's announcement in the summer of 2019 that it had captured 17 spies working for the CIA. It said some of them had been sentenced to death. In February of this year, Iran handed down a death sentence for Amir Rahimpour, a man convicted of spying for the United States and attempting to pass on information about Tehran's nuclear program. With reporting by dpa, AFP, and Reuters CAMBRIDGE Police are investigating after a man was reported to have been assaulted and robbed at knifepoint in Cambridge. Waterloo Regional Police were called to an area of Holiday Inn Drive in Cambridge Friday at 11:45 p.m. for a robbery. Police said the victim was held to the ground by two men with a knife and had his personal property stolen. The victim was not physically injured. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 519-570-9777 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. State Rep. Annette Glenn, R-Midland, updated the Daily News this week on a variety of topics, ranging from Michigan House Democrats' criticism of her voting record to assistance that is available for people filing insurance claims related to last month's flooding. Michigan House Democrats recently issued a news release that attacked Glenn's voting record and included a quote from Sarah Schulz, Glenn's Democrat challenger in the upcoming November election. People in our community are trying to rebuild after their homes were literally washed away, Schulz said in the release. Our state representative, who is supposed to stand up for people in this community, had the opportunity to bring us relief, investigate and hold people accountable for these dam failures, and help us get the additional resources we need to combat COVID-19. She did none of those things. "Representative Glenn failed us. She failed every single person in this community by passing on and voting down these amendments. We need relief, and we need answers and our representative made it clear she wasnt willing to get us either of those things," Schulz concluded. The release stated that last Wednesday, Glenn did not vote on an amendment to appropriate $4 million for flood relief in Michigan, $2 million of which would support Midland families without flood insurance; and did not vote on another amendment to fund the attorney general's office to support investigations in dam failures. The release also said Glenn voted against an amendment for $9 million in federal funding for county health departments to support coronavirus needs, including testing, contact tracing and personal protective equipment. Glenn's legislative director, Kaylee Mead, emailed a statement to the Daily News when asked for a response to the release from Michigan House Democrats. "While House Democrats are busy playing political games with the lives of people impacted by this flood, Annette (Glenn) has led the fight to get them critical resources, coordinated volunteer efforts, and pushed to begin a truly independent investigation (into the failure of the Edenville Dam)," Mead wrote. "These amendments were sprung on members minutes before committee, would have redirected critical flood funding to Detroit, and allowed state bureaucrats to investigate their own failures. The people of Midland County deserve better. They deserve the real tangible results provided by Annette Glenn," Mead continued. Mead wrote Glenn is working on a funding plan in response to the flooding and will be releasing it soon. "When Rep. Glenn isnt in Midland helping with the cleanup and working with locals on the immediate response to the flooding, she is working through the budget line by line to find a responsible funding solution for Midland. Annette has developed a real plan that will be released in the coming days. It is much wiser to get this done right than to rush it through the budget process in a last-minute amendment to a coronavirus funding bill," Mead wrote. Glenn, who was not available for an interview on Friday, told the Daily News on Monday that her constituents broadly support having an independent agency instead of the state department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) investigate the failure of the Edenville Dam. EGLE is itself a defendant in multiple lawsuits related to the failure of the dam. "I have not run into anybody in Midland who does not think we deserve an independent investigation," Glenn said. "I think an independent investigation is absolutely the way to go. With all the lawsuits going on, including (against) the Attorney General and EGLE, it does not feel right to have them be doing the investigating." State Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, and Schulz, also of Midland, are among those who have also called for an independent investigation. Glenn said that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who announced that she was assigning the investigation to EGLE during a news conference in Sanford on May 27, was back in Sanford on Monday, still saying she would like EGLE to be in charge. Glenn, who represents eastern Midland County and part of Bay County, said she has also heard a mix of emotions from her many constituents whose homes or businesses were damaged or destroyed by the flood. "I hear everything from immense gratitude, to frustration that things don't move faster (in terms of getting help for rebuilding)," Glenn said. "But there's a lot of gratitude for the community coming together and supporting each other. "And thankfully, we've got the United Way that is continuing to assess needs (of people impacted by the flood). I'm in regular communication with them and with the local foundations and businesses that are stepping up to provide food, clothing and shelter while we await longer-term answers, which we hope to be coming soon," Glenn said in reference to a possible major disaster declaration for Midland County by President Trump. Meanwhile, Glenn said she is ready to help anyone who needs assistance with insurance questions related to the flood. She serves on the House committee that oversees the Department of Insurance and Financial Services. Glenn also wants to help anyone who is having trouble filing for unemployment or who has been waiting a long time for an unemployment check. She can be reached at 517-373-1791 or AnnetteGlenn@house.mi.gov. "We have people in Midland that filed for unemployment in March and still don't have their check, and now have lost their homes in the flood," Glenn said. "That can't happen. This is a huge issue." Glenn also attended the Rally for Racial Justice that drew more than 1,200 people in Midland on Sunday. It is one of many similar rallies that have been held around the country and the world since George Floyd died in Minneapolis after a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. "I think the big hope is that this was not (just) the community pulling together for two hours, but the beginning of true work in the community," Glenn said. "It's important that we stand together. ... Midland is a great place and Midland desires to be better. And I think these incidents (of violence against black people) that we have seen and experienced have made that a higher priority than in the past." Rep. Cleaver Joins Congressional Democrats to Introduce Transformative Police Reform Legislation In the past week the American people have made one thing abundantly clear: The time for change has come, said Congressman Cleaver. Ive heard from countless Missourians of all stripes who want to see substantive changes to our system of justice which has disproportionately harmed the Black community for decades. With this piece of legislation, we are taking the initial steps needed to create concrete changes that will lead to a more just and equitable system for all. The public is sick and tired of turning on the nightly news to see yet another African American killed at the hands of law enforcement, Congressman Cleaver continued. We cannot continue to kick the can down the road as more Black men and women fall victim to police brutality and racial profiling. The American people are pleading for comprehensive, common sense reforms, and, as their representatives in the United States Congress, its time that we heeded their calls. Democratic Party Push For Reform Starts On Bended Knee Democrats unveil ambitious plan for police reform: 'This is a first step' Democrats in Congress have unveiled a sweeping new set of proposals aimed at reforming policing and transforming law enforcement across the country. The new legislation, called the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, comes during ongoing mass protests across the country in response to the death of George Floyd while under police custody, and is the most ambitious change to law enforcement sought by Congress in years. Politics Of Outcry Persist Democrats unveil sweeping legislation in response to protests of police brutality Democrats in both chambers introduced sweeping reforms on Monday designed to combat racial disparities in the criminal justice system - the party's much awaited legislative response to recent police violence against African Americans that's sparked mass protests across the country and beyond. Police Unions Resist Change Police unions dig in as calls for reform grow A crowd of police officers in Philadelphia gathered outside their local union headquarters on Monday to show their support for one of their own -- a staff inspector facing assault charges after allegedly beating a college student at an anti-racism protest last week. Here's street level protest evoking legislative calls for change in our nation's capital . . .Today, Congressional Democrats introduced the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, an historic piece of legislation that would transform the nations policing policies and begin to create structural reform in the United States Justice System. United States Representative Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO) joined with over 200 House and Senate Democrats to support the legislation as an original cosponsor, which was introduced in the House of Representatives by Reps. Karen Bass (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.Following the murder of George Floyd by officers from the Minneapolis Police Department on May 25, civil demonstrations began throughout the United States. Last week, demonstrations were held in every state in the union, even sparking protests in other nations around the globe, with activists demanding systemic changes to the U.S. justice system. The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 is the first comprehensive legislative package introduced by the CBC and Congressional Democrats following the outpouring of calls for reform.The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 would:by reforming qualified immunity so that individuals are not entirely barred from recovering damages when police violate their constitutional rights; improving the use of patterns and practices investigations at the federal level; and incentivizing states to create independent investigative structures for police involved deaths through grantsby collecting better and more accurate data of police misconduct and use-of-force, including a National Police Misconduct Registry to prevent problem-officers from changing jurisdictions to avoid accountability; and mandating state and local law enforcement agencies to report use of force data, disaggregated by race, sex, disability, religion, and age.by ending racial and religious profiling; mandating training on racial bias and the duty to intervene; banning no-knock warrant in drug cases; banning chokeholds and carotid holds; requiring federal uniformed police officers to wear body cameras; and lowering the standard to evaluate whether law enforcement use of force was justified.Accordingly, here's a collection of news links on the Democratic Party power play:Developing . . . The tale of how two of Australias largest companies have fared during COVID was outlined to their respective investors on Tuesday. Both are heavily retail dependent - GPT, a retail landlord, and Wesfarmers, a retail conglomerate. The difference could not have been more stark. Wesfarmers whose major retail brands are Bunnings, Officeworks, Kmart and Target, hit the ball out of the park on sales during the COVID peak. In doing so Wesfarmers has effectively created another retail category - discretionary essentials. Bunnings posted a stunning rise in sales of 19.2 per cent during the first five months of the calendar year. By way of comparison, in the same four months last year Bunnings sales rose 5.8 per cent. CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sense ( sense.com ) announced today that more than 150 new solar installers have joined the company's Sense Pro partner program over the past year. Together, Sense partners have equipped tens of thousands of homes across the country with solar power. New partners include Solgen Power , Pure Energy , Zenernet Solar , and Pro Bid Solar , among others. Sense also debuted the new Sense Pro app and a number of hardware and software improvements that streamline installations and help homeowners understand their energy use. With in-person solar sales challenged by the pandemic, many solar installers are adapting to a remote sales approach. Leveraging the Sense Home Energy Monitor strengthens an online pitch by highlighting the engaging customer experience that can be expected after solar and Sense are installed. "Sense is an impressive piece of smart-home technology that allows our homeowners to get even more value from their solar investment," said JP Gerken, CEO of Zenernet. "The app is incredibly intuitive and helps our homeowners really understand their solar production and energy consumption, and make easy adjustments that maximize the impact of going solar. The visuals are engaging and make the impact of solar production hit home in an entirely new and unique way." "Sense has taken our amazing customer experience to a new level. Our customers are so pleased with how easy the Sense app is to use and understand," said Preston House, vice president at Solgen Power. "Each customer is using less energy and better understanding how their solar system is working and benefiting them. This, combined with our top quality product, has really helped in our mission of building a brighter future for our people." Referrals from existing customers continue to be an industry focus in order to win new business at a lower cost of customer acquisition. The best time to ask for referrals is after the first utility bill arrives and shows solar savings, but many providers report that customers can be disappointed if their electricity usage exceeds solar production. The Sense app sets realistic expectations for homeowners and provides engaging, real-time insights into their energy usage and solar production to ensure they realize the savings benefit of going solar. Said Gabe Abbott, Sense's vice president of strategic partnerships, "Sense partners have found that their customers' satisfaction increases when homeowners have greater visibility into the whole home energy picture, not just solar production. Building a strong foundation for customer satisfaction can lead to higher referrals and lower customer acquisition costs, driving business success even in challenging times." Sense customer David Henderson was initially frustrated after he installed solar at his California home. "The first couple of bills showed almost zero change in my bill," says Henderson. He used Sense to audit his home and discovered several energy hogs, including a chandelier with incandescent lighting and a pool pump. Says Henderson, "It was so easy: the data that it gives, instant information." For more details about how Sense customers and partners are taking advantage of energy monitoring, download this Sense white paper . The Sense Pro Program's Expanded Benefits With feedback from Sense's partners, the Pro program now includes several new features. Sense partners now have exclusive access to new Sense hardware capabilities that provide additional Internet connectivity options in homes and accommodate installation in a wider variety of electrical panel configurations. Sense also announced the release of the new Sense Pro mobile app for iOS and Android, which simplifies the installation process for solar installers, electricians, builders, and other Sense partners. With the Sense Pro app, installers are guided step-by-step through the installation process, including verification, troubleshooting, and support in real-time, to ensure the installation is completed in a single home visit and homeowners can start using the Sense app right away. The Sense Pro App integrates with Fleet Manager, Sense's online partner dashboard where partners can maintain careful record-keeping of Sense monitor installation details in one place. Fleet Manager tracks each monitor installed by a partner after securing the homeowner's permission. With Fleet Manager, providers can generate reports that help customers understand their energy use so they can maximize savings from their solar investment. To learn more about the Sense Pro program, visit sense.com/pro or contact [email protected]. About Sense Sense's mission is to make all homes intelligent by keeping people informed about what's happening in their homes, and helping to make homes safer, more efficient, and more reliable. Founded in 2013 by pioneers in speech recognition, Sense uses machine learning technology to provide real-time insights on device behavior, even for those devices that are not "smart." Customers rely on Sense for a wide range of uses including monitoring their home appliances, determining whether they left appliances running and identifying how to reduce their energy costs. Sense has received investments from two of the world's largest energy technology companies, Schneider Electric and Landis + Gyr. Sense is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. To make sense of your energy, visit: https://sense.com . Media contact: [email protected] SOURCE Sense Related Links www.sense.com Parliament has by a majority decision, approved the report of the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation on the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (C. I 126) to allow the Instrument to come into force after 21 sitting days of Parliament which will mature on Wednesday 10th June 2020, following the laying of the C.I 126 before Parliament on 31st March 2020. Ninety-two (92) members voted against the adoption of the committee's report, while 106 members of the Majority side of the House voted in support of the C.I. Chairman of the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation Hon Dr. Dominic Ayine and MP for Bolgatanga East Hon Dominic Ayine moved the motion for the adoption of the report of the committee in the House, whilst Hon Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, Ranking Member of the Committee and MP for Adenta seconded the motion. The C.I 126 seeks to amend the Public Elections ( Registration of Voters ) Regulations 2016 in conformity with the decision of the Supreme Court on the subject matter by compiling a new voters register, according to the report of the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation. It gives legal backing to the plans by the EC to compile a new registration of voters. By C.I 126, the Electoral Commission is excluding or prohibiting the use of a driver's license or the existing voter identification card as evidence of identity in the registration of a voter as contained in the existing Constitutional Instrument ( C.I 91 ) and allow the use of Ghana Card issued by the NIA and passport for registration as a voter. Furthermore, a registered voter may guarantee for ten persons to register under C.I 126. Minority Members of Parliament kicked against the adoption of the committee's report on the ground that it will disenfranchise many prospective voters as they cannot register as voters. The MP for Bawku Central Hon Mahama Ayariga said C.I 126 is "restrictive and will not give citizens of Ghana a fair opportunity to register as voters" for the election. Hon Haruna Iddrisu commented on the issue and expressed the same concern. However, majority members of Parliament supported the adoption of the Committee's report to allow C.I. 126 to come into effect from Wednesday 10th June 2020. Hon Yaw Buabeng Asamoah in his contribution to the debate on the motion said the "approval of C.I 126 by Parliament will enable the Electoral Commission to discharge its duties lawfully with regard to the conduct of the December 7th Election". The Majority Leader and MP for Suame Hon Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu said the arguments made by the Minority Members against C.I 126 are "weak and not convincing". "....C.I 126 will not disenfranchise Ghanaians," he added. Source: Emmanuel Akorli/Parliamentary Correspondent/Peace Fm 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 (Newser) Minneapolis police officers slashed tires on parked cars during recent protests in the city, the Star-Tribune reports. Two agencies have acknowledged doing so after Mother Jones published videos of cops puncturing tires in a K-Mart parking lot on May 30 and on a highway overpass the following day. Both locations were near large protests amid ongoing unrest over the deaths of black people at the hands of police, and both were used as police staging areas. According to reports, all the cars in the parking lot had their tires slashed, including some belonging to journalists covering the protests. Now, the Department of Public Safety has acknowledged the Minnesota State Patrol took part, and a local sheriff's department has done the same. The statements: story continues below From the Public Safety department: "State Patrol troopers strategically deflated tires in order to stop behaviors such as vehicles driving dangerously and at high speeds in and around protesters and law enforcement. ... While not a typical tactic, vehicles were being used as dangerous weapons and inhibited our ability to clear areas and keep areas safe where violent protests were occurring." "State Patrol troopers strategically deflated tires in order to stop behaviors such as vehicles driving dangerously and at high speeds in and around protesters and law enforcement. ... While not a typical tactic, vehicles were being used as dangerous weapons and inhibited our ability to clear areas and keep areas safe where violent protests were occurring." From the Anoka County Sheriff's Department: Deputies were following orders from the state's Multiagency Command Center when they joined the troopers in cutting tires on Washington Avenue, a spokesperson says. "You could not get any tow trucks in there" due to mass protests, he explains. (Read more Minneapolis stories.) Former Union minister Arjun Charan Sethi died in a hospital here on Monday following a brief illness, family sources said. He was 79. Sethi was admitted to the private hospital on Sunday night, they said. An eight-time MP from Bhadrak Lok Sabha constituency, Sethi was the Union Water Resources Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government from 2000 to 2004. Active in social and political spheres since his youth, soft-spoken Sethi was also elected to the Odisha Assembly twice. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik condoled Sethi's death, describing him as a veteran parliamentarian and an able administrator. During his long stint as an MP and an MLA, the late Arjun Sethi had earned the goodwill of the people for his dedicated service and commitment. In his death Odisha has lost a political leader of high stature, he said. Union Petroleum and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Sethi's death has created a void in the politics of the state. Leader of the Opposition in Odisha Assembly, Pradipta Kumar Naik and state BJP president Sameer Mohanty said Sethi's death has created a vacuum which is difficult to fill. Expressing grief over Sethi's demise, former Union minister Srikant Jena said he was a popular figure not only in Bhadrak but in entire Odisha. Senior BJD leader Sanjay Dasburma said Odisha has lost a seasoned politician in the passing away of Sethi. Born on September 18, 1941, Sethi was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bhadrak constituency in 1971 and 1980 as a Congress candidate. He was re-elected from the same constituency in 1991 on a Janata Dal ticket and won from the seat in subsequent elections in 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009 as a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate. In the run-up to the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Odisha Assembly elections held in 2019, Sethi had quit the BJD and joined the BJP along with his son Abhimanyu Sethi. Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference on the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2020. Reuters New coronavirus cases had their biggest daily increase ever as the pandemic worsens globally and has yet to peak in central America, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, urging countries to press on with efforts to contains the virus. "More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online briefing. More than 136,000 new cases were reported worldwide on Sunday, the most in a single day so far, he said. Nearly 75% of them were reported from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia. In response to a question on China, WHO's top emergencies expert, Dr. Mike Ryan, said retrospective studies of how the outbreak has been addressed could wait, adding: "We need to focus now on what we are doing today to prevent second peaks." Ryan also said infections in central American countries including Guatemala were still on the rise, and that they were "complex" epidemics. "I think this is a time of great concern," he said, calling for strong government leadership and international support for the region. ROME - Pau Dones, leader of the band Jarabe de Palo, has died, Spanish media reported on Tuesday, quoting a family post on social media. He was 53. Dones was diagnosed with cancer in August 2015. His family thanked ''the medical team and all personnel'' of the hospitals that have treated Dones during his illness ''for the work and dedication they have devoted to him during this period'' and asked for their ''privacy to be respected at this difficult time''. Born in Montanuy, in Aragona, Dones tied his career to Jarabe de Palo starting in1995. In 1996 their debut album, La flaca, the title of one of the songs in the album, became a worldwide hit in the summer of 1997. The success continued with Depende (1998), De Vuelta y Vuelta (2001) o Bonito (2003). The latest album, Traga o escupe, dates back to the end of May. Pau Dones had been fighting colon cancer since 2015. His condition worsened a few days ago. After taking a break, he had announced a few weeks ago the intention of returning to music as a soloist. Last summer, he had visited Nepal with a humanitarian mission. Pau was extremely loved in Italy and not only for his songs. He had many friends in the country and close relationships with colleagues with whom he had collaborated, including Jovanotti, Niccolo Fabi, Kekko Silvestre dei Moda, Fabrizio Moro and Ermal Meta. Jovanotti and Ermal Meta remembered him with warm messages. ''I will miss you very much, friend and maestro'', Jovanotti wrote on social media. ''Nothing will cancel the beautiful moments we experienced together, the beautiful music, the meals and drinks, endless conversations, the strength we gave each other. Getting to know you and being your friend was a great gift. Where are you now? It's hard to believe it''. ''Nooooooo Pau nooooooo. You cut me in half'', wrote Ermal Meta. Dones had founded the Jarabedepalo (this is the correct spelling their name) at the beginning of the 1990s, with the idea of creating a band that played original latino music - a mixture of Catalan tradition, rock, raggae, Cuban music and flamenco, with words inspired by tolerance, sense of humanity, happiness and the joy of those who live without thinking about barriers and differences. Success arrived in 1996 with ''La Flaca'', a song that talks about an adventure with a Cuban girl met by accident in the Havana and who became the protagonist of a video. It was an incredible success and the song is still popular. During the lockdown due to the COVID pandemic - El Pais recalled - Pau Dones had recorded with his guitar on the balcony of his home Vuelvo, a song that said ''I am doing the new things I always wanted to do''. His most recent concerts include one in Barcelona at the end of 2019 to raise funds for the oncological institute Vall d'Hebron. During the epidemic, he donated 2,500 facemasks to another public hospital, the Moises Broggi. New Delhi : The combat readiness of a countrys defence forces is of utmost importance to safeguard the sovereign and territorial integrity of a nation. The Indian Air Force has long been wanting to overhaul its obsolete fleet of fighter aircrafts which it procured long time back in the early 70s and 80s. Ever since the collapse of our long term defence partner mighty Soviet Union in the early 90s, India has never been able to strike a long term relationship with a foreign partner in procuring the state of art fighters, which are critical to Indias strike capabilities in air. Once again the Russians came to our rescue by providing us with the state of art Sukhoi 30 in 2002 which proved to be a perfect counter to the F-16s procured by our neighbours Pakistan from the United States. The IAF currently operates with around 33 fighter squadrons including 11 obsolete MiG-21 and MiG-27 squadrons which are scheduled for retirement. This number is much less than the proposed 42 squadrons which are required to keep the "collusive China-Pakistan threat" at bay. In the past two decades, there have been several incidents of our age old MiGs crashing. Terming our fighters as Flying Coffins dint help to increase the morale and motivation of our braveheart pilots, who have found them quite unsafe to fly them. These incidents dint send out a very good image about the defence capabilities of our Air Force. So it was high time the Ministry of Defence and the Indian Air Force brought in a proposal to completely overhaul its fleet. Here are some insights into how the Rafale deal unfolded - Rationale behind the Rafale Deal Rafale was not the only contender in Indian Air Forces bid to revamp its fighter fleet. Several international aviation manufacturers expressed interest upon knowing that the Indian government had a massive plan to revamp its Indian Airforce fleet by introducing MMRCAs. Six world-renowned aircraft manufacturers entered the fray and competed hard to bag the contract of 126 fighter jets, which was touted to be the largest-ever defence procurement deal of India. The Initial bidders were Lockheed Martins F-16s, Boeings F/A-18s, Eurofighter Typhoon, Russias MiG-35, Swedens Saabs Gripen and Rafale. The IAF tested all aircraft and after careful analysis on the bids, two of them Eurofighter and Rafale were shortlisted. Dassault finally was awarded the contract to provide 126 fighter jets, as it was the lowest bidder and the aircraft was easy on maintenance. Rafale Fighter Category: Fighter Role: Twin-engine Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) Manufactured By: Dassault Aviation (France) Role: Multirole aircraft that is capable of performing a wide-range of combat roles such as air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence. Rationale behind Actual Procurement Process Indian Air Force sought additional fighter jets in 2001 as their fleet largely consists of heavy and light-weight combat aircraft. So the Defence Ministry considered bringing in intermediate medium-weight fighter jets. Though the idea has been around since 2001, the actual process began in 2007. The Defence Acquisition Council, headed by then Defence Minister A.K. Antony, approved the Request for Proposal to buy 126 aircraft in August 2007. This kick-started the bidding process. How many Rafale's is Indian procuring: Deal was initially estimated to be worth $10.2 billion (Rs.54, 000 crore). The plan included acquiring 126 aircraft, 18 of them in fly-away condition and the rest to be made in India at the Hindustan Aeronautics facility under transfer of technology. So Rafale won the contract. The Indian side and Dassault started negotiations in 2012. While it is usual for such negotiations to stretch to several months, the Rafale negotiations has been on for almost four years now. The agreement was signed only in January this year. Though the initial plan was to buy 126 jets, India brought it down to 36 fighters so as to have it in ready condition. Benefits of the Deals: France: Rafale jets are currently operational in only the French, Egyptian and Qatari Airforce. Therefore, Dassault hopes to meet its revenue targets by exporting Rafale jets. India was the first country that agreed to buy Rafale, after it was in operation in the Libyan airstrikes. If India inducts these jets in its military fold, other nations could well be potential buyers for the Rafales. India: India chose Dassault over its traditional partner Russias MiG. It also overlooked U.S.'s Lockheed, at a time when India and U.S. were aiming for improve military ties. Procurement of combat aircraft is long overdue for the Indian Air Force. This deal is Indias biggest-ever procurement. If all goes well with the Rafale deal in terms of transparency and quality norms, it would well set an example for the future of other major defence procurements. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Cell-Easy, a start-up based in Toulouse specialized in stem cell therapy, announces today the signature of an agreement with the University Hospital Centre in Toulouse, as well as securing the authorization to open a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant dedicated to the production of stem cells a first in France. This follows the announcement made last December of raising 1M capital investment. Thanks to its innovative mass scale stem cells manufacturing process, Cell Easy aims to develop regenerative medicine through therapeutic solutions based on Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products compatible with affordable access for millions of patients. The start-up has now signed a first partnership with the University Hospital Center in Toulouse and will be producing Mesenchymal stem cells (or stromal cells) sourced from qualified fat tissue in accordance with good manufacturing practices. A first clinical trial is on its way to fight against Alzheimer disease. Our ambition is to industrialize our proprietary stem cell manufacturing process to make Cell Therapy accessible to the largest number possible of patients. The aim is to cut costs by ten and increase production capacity beyond 100 0000 doses /year. explains Pierre Monsan, DG of Cell-Easy and Founder of Toulouse White Biotechnology (TWB). Today, stem cell-based treatments represent a major therapeutic hope. What has been set up here is very much the expression of the way the University Hospital Centre approaches the development of innovative technologies, therapies and organizations that support new therapies founded on cross fertilization of talent and expertise. says Marc Penaud, Executive Manager of the University Hospital Center in Toulouse. Furthermore, the French Medicines Agency, also gave Cell-Easy the authorization to open a pharmaceutical plant to manufacture stem cell batches at large scale, in accordance with GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) standards. This authorization makes Cell-Easy the only private pharmaceutical organization able to manufacture stem cells in France on an industrial scale. This firmly puts Cell-Easy on the European stage. Capital investment is being secured to finance the quick implementation of their strategy in France but also in Europe where patients' needs are high. Cell-Easy will now be able to manufacture stem cells batches for industrial partners and is one of the world's precursors in cell therapy. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005563/en/ Contacts: Press: Aurelie Mauries aurelie@oxygen-rp.com Not all co-stars get along, but Breaking Bad duo Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul really are best friends in real life. Which is a far cry from their eventual relationship on the show. Walter White was not a good mentor for Jesse Pinkman and the two men had an endlessly complicated relationship. Ultimately, Walt tries to have Jesse killed, then saves his life from the same men who kept him captive and helps him escape. It was a long, twisted road to get there. But thankfully Cranston and Paul dont have a similar real-life story. Even years after the Breaking Bad series finale, these two are still collaborating and hanging out all the time. Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul | Mark Davis/Getty Images RELATED: The Worst Thing About Bryan Cranston and Aaron Pauls Dos Hombres Mezcal Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul almost didnt get the parts The fact that Cranston and Paul got to work together must have been fate. Paul apparently competed against several other actors for the role of Jesse and almost didnt get the part, Insider reported. And even though showrunner Vince Gilligan wanted Cranston to play Walt, the network executives at AMC preferred Matthew Broderick. He declined their offer. Its impossible to imagine anyone besides Paul and Cranston teaming up to cook meth and make money in Albuquerque. And that on-screen chemistry wasnt simply good acting these two really do get along. Aaron Paul has said sweet things about Bryan Cranston To hear Paul tell it, his friendship with Cranston happened instantly. The moment I met Bryan, I instantly fell in love with the man, he said during an interview. I mean, how could you not? Hes charming, hes brilliant, and hes a beautiful human being inside and out who is constantly running around in his underwear making people laugh. He continued: Breaking Bad would not be the same without this man. Lets be honest, television would not be the same without this man. But Im here to tell you all that I, personally, would not be the same without this manThanks for teaching me so much my friend. The pair partnered up after Breaking Bad Even after the show ended, the actors still found reasons to spend time together. They even started a business together. Three years ago we sat in a sushi bar in New York. Talking about life and what we could possibly do down the road together. We had the time of our lives while shooting Breaking Bad and truly built a very special bond, Cranston and Paul wrote on Instagram. That bond turned into a business partnership and a product. Fittingly, the actors decided to manufacture Dos Hombres, real, artisanal Mezcal made by hand in Mexico. It may not be as lucrative as their blue meth, but at least its legal. Cranston and Paul have a teasing relationship Even though Paul has plenty of kind words for his co-star, the two of them have a very silly relationship and love to tease each other. For one thing, Cranston always joked that the writers were going to kill off his character on Breaking Bad. [Cranston] would say, Hey, did you read the next script?' Paul said. And Id go, Nah, did you get it? And hes like, Oh. And he just would give me this big hug. The implication, of course, was that Paul was getting written off the show. Apparently Cranston would then tell Paul, Hey man, you know, it had to end sometime, but at least you go out, like, guns blazing, or something like that. Originally, Paul was only supposed to have a small role in the show. But Gilligan changed his mind once he saw them together. Ever since Ananya Panday stepped in the film industry, there has been no stopping her. The young actress is achieving milestones one after the other. Opting for a change of style and seen at her raw best, Ananya recently graced the cover of a leading magazine, where she won hearts with her beguiling beauty and innocence. Taking to her Instagram page, the Student Of The Year 2 actress posted, "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light @bazaarindia @sopositivedsr." Crystalizing the cover with her positivity and being the 'So Positive' icon that the world is in dire need of, Ananya looks every bit of pristine and beautiful. Being a responsive and confident millennial, Her "So Positive" initiative against social media bullying provides a digital platform and puts across efforts to create maximum awareness of the same. Sitting on the royal blue sofa against a grey door, dressed in a white crop top and beige athleisure pants, Ananya is giving us the girl next door vibes. We're sure every girl can relate to Ananya right now, donning the most comfortable clothes, sitting at home and reading the classic novel of Harry Potter. Keeping the makeup at minimum and tresses tied in two half buns, her scintillating smile is adding an extra shine to the cover. Everything this girl does, makes us love her even more!! Earlier, the magazine, released a one-off its kind motion cover to intrigue the audiences asking them to guess their next cover star. Balleying her way to having Breakfast at Tiffany's, the star is twirling into positivity and happiness. Having an impressive array of projects in the line up, Ananya is all set to take over the silver screen. There is a romantic action movie titled 'Khaali Peeli' opposite Ishaan Khatter, Shakun Batra's untitled next alongside Siddhant Chaturvedi and Deepika Padukone and her recently announced romantic action entertainer film Fighter opposite Vijay Deverakonda. The film marks her debut in South cinema, and is also her first PAN India release. ALSO READ: Ananya Panday Shares Her Favourite Memory With BFF Suhana Khan And AbRam ALSO READ: Deepika Padukone And Ananya Panday Want Fans To Watch These Films In Quarantine Which lands stand the best chance for conservation and wildfire restoration? Some landscapes can hold their own against climate change better than others.A studyfrom the University of California, Davis, maps these places, called climate refugia, where existing vegetation is most likely to buffer the impacts of climate change through the end of the century. It found that about 15 percent of natural lands in California serve as climate refugia for the states plants, including trees, shrubs, annuals and perennials. The mapping tool can help natural resource managers prioritize and plan climate-adaptive management efforts, such as wildlife habitat conservation and post-wildfire restoration. The study is published in a special issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution devoted to the theme of climate refugia. The issue and an accompanyingwebsite, climaterefugia.org,include other refugia related to fish and wildlife, rivers and wetlands, mountains and forests. THE SLOW LANE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE As climate change intensifies, identifying and mapping areas of relative stability -- what the journal calls the "slow lane" for climate change -- marks a path toward conserving them and the habitat and services they provide to wildlife and humans. "This paper shows that there are places where, if you retain what's standing there now, it would have a better chance of remaining for a longer period of time -- like a century -- under wetter and drier conditions," said lead author James Thorne, a research scientist with the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy. SO WHERE ARE THESE PLACES? The northwest Klamath Mountains, northern Sierra Nevada and the Central Coast ranges contain large areas where existing vegetation types are expected to persist under both wetter and drier future climate conditions. These areas are called "consensus refugia." The three forest types occupying consensus refugia across large parts of Northern California include Klamath mixed conifer, Sierra mixed conifer and Douglas fir. Grasslands and coastal sage scrub cover much of the refugia in the Central Coast ranges. Vegetation with the largest portions (more than 50 percent) of their extent in climate refugia include montane chaparral and Klamath mixed conifer forests. A quarter of existing Douglas fir also occurs in consensus refugia. Other findings: - Elevation and latitude matter: Blue oak woodland and blue oak-foothill pine occurred less in consensus refugia than oaks at higher elevations. -Iconic coast redwood forests (0.4 percent of its current range), coast live oak woodland (3.8 percent) and red fir forests (2.3 percent) were poorly represented within the consensus refugia. POCKETS OF REFUGIA, WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY If only 15 percent of California's natural lands have climate refugia characteristics for both a wetter and drier future, what does that mean for the remaining 85 percent? Thorne explains that it doesn't mean all other plants and trees will be outright destroyed. But they will likely face a higher level of climate stress than vegetation in refugia. Stress can affect rates of regeneration, reproduction and resilience under warming temperatures, drought, flood and fire. Previous work by Thorne modeled climate risk to California's native vegetation under various emissions-saving scenarios and found that half the state's native vegetation is at risk for climatic stress. This new paper assumes a business-as-usual climate scenario under which greenhouse gas emissions continue their current trajectory. "California is one of the biodiversity hot spots of the world," Thorne said. "Our natural ecosystems help to support all of the people in the state as well as this incredible range of species. My hope is that we start to be proactive in our management of landscapes, understanding that climate change is going to bring impacts and that we have to change how we address them." ### The study's co-authors include Melanie Gogol-Prokurat and Sandra Hill of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Dana Walsh of the USDA Forest Service, Ryan Boynton of UC Davis, and Hyeyeong Choe of Kangwon National University. Publication of the special issue that includes this study was funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior National, Northeast and Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Centers. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based broker, announced the acquisition of CA Insurance Brokers in Australia. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 2002 by Andrew Howard, CA Insurance Brokers is a mid-market insurance broker specializing in commercial transportation, construction, earthmoving and professional risks. It is headquartered in Brisbane, Queensland. Andrew Howard and his associates will relocate to Gallaghers Brisbane office, operating under the direction of Paul Harvey, managing director Specialisms. Through this acquisition, CA Insurance Brokers gains access to a range of new markets and client product offerings, while we expand Gallaghers presence and capabilities in the Brisbane market, said J. Patrick Gallagher Jr., chairman, president and CEO. I am very pleased to welcome Andrew and his associates to our team. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has operations in 49 countries and offers client-service capabilities in more than 150 countries through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants. Source: Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Topics Mergers California Agencies A.J. Gallagher Australia Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 11:50:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A commuter train pulls into a station in Wellington, New Zealand, June 9, 2020. The Ministry of Health reported no cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand on Tuesday, the first day of epidemic Alert Level 1, 18 days since the last new case was reported in the country. (Xinhua/Guo Lei) WELLINGTON, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Health reported no cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand on Tuesday, the first day of epidemic Alert Level 1, 18 days since the last new case was reported in the country. "We are confident we have eliminated community transmission of the virus here in New Zealand," Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a press conference. Border restrictions have increased although people's lives are back to normal domestically, Bloomfield said. He said people at the border are being tested no matter they have symptoms or not. "Having no active cases for the first time since February 28 is certainly a significant mark in our journey but as we've previously said, ongoing vigilance against COVID-19 will continue to be essential," a Ministry of Health statement said on Monday. The combined number of confirmed and probable cases was 1,504, including 1,154 confirmed cases of COVID-19, which is the number reported to the World Health Organization. The number of COVID-19 related deaths in New Zealand was 22. The number of recovered cases was 1,482. New Zealand's medical system could handle the COVID-19 pandemic as the country is heading into a colder winter with increasing influenza risks, said David Murdoch, dean of the University of Otago (Christchurch campus) and co-leader of The Infection Group under the university. "New Zealand is heading into winter. The big worry is the influenza season," Murdoch told Xinhua. June marks the start of winter in New Zealand, a season which usually sees the highest number of respiratory virus infections in a year. "The country has had a pandemic plan for quite a few years. So there has been preparation. We all thought influenza was the most likely virus, but a lot of the principles and the pandemic plan apply to other infections, so the key parts of that can be adapted for this," he said. However, this sort of pandemic potentially could overwhelm any system if it was really bad, Murdoch added. "The acquisition of Bridges data expertise expands SevenFiftys technical talent, and most importantly gives off-premise retailers using SevenFifty a one-stop-shop for managing their relationships with the trade and their own customers online." - Aaron Sherman, CEO of SevenFifty SevenFifty Technologies (http://www.sevenfifty.com), the leading online marketplace and data platform for the US alcohol beverage industry, today announced that it has acquired Bridge, a Florida-based technology and data-driven solutions provider specializing in e-commerce platforms designed exclusively for independent retailers of wine, beer, and spirits. With online sales of alcohol skyrocketing to over twice that of a year ago, up 234% during the seven-week COVID-impacted period ended April 18*, the need for scalable solutions to sell alcohol in a COVID-impacted world is now more important than ever. SevenFiftys vision of delivering best-in-class e-commerce tools to the retail tier will now be given a significant boost through the Bridge acquisition. Founded in 2018 as a result of a merger with Tipsi and a subsequent acquisition of Drync, Bridge has very quickly emerged as a developer of intuitive, easy-to-use, custom-branded web and mobile e-commerce applications designed to help retailers extend their brick and mortar presence and capture increasing online sales with a Progressive Web App (PWA) technology stack designed to work across any platform. SevenFifty continues to be a pioneer in the alcohol business bringing cutting-edge technologies to the industry. With the team and technology of Bridge, SevenFifty will be able to fast track the rollout of its new e-commerce platform, SevenFifty Storefronts in Summer 2020. The launch enables SevenFifty to extend the best e-commerce tool in the industry to its 25,000 off-premise retailers with intuitive and effective customer experience hubs built on the companys modern technology. SevenFiftys high-quality product data will integrate seamlessly with a whole suite of POS systems, making it very easy for retailers to set up their e-commerce shop with a trusted partner. The acquisition of Bridges best-in-class technology and data expertise expands SevenFiftys technical talent, allows us to scale our data and analytics capabilities even faster, andmost importantly gives off-premise retailers using SevenFifty a one-stop-shop for managing their relationships with the trade and their own customers online, said Aaron Sherman, CEO of SevenFifty. "By working with SevenFifty, retail partners will have the ability to get up and running with a progressive and dynamic e-commerce tool to respond to the rapidly increasing consumer demand for online purchasing. The whole team at Bridge is excited to bring our data-driven approach to SevenFifty, where well be able to unify our missions of providing and delivering industry-leading technology and data-related services to the online world of beverage alcohol retail, said Bridge Co-Founder Alex Miningham, who will transition to his new role as Vice President of Data Strategy for SevenFifty. COVID-19 has dramatically changed the way that consumers search for and purchase alcohol, and now more than ever, brick and mortar stores need access to efficient solutions that allow them to take advantage of the evolving world of online alcohol sales. We look forward to helping to bring these solutions to SevenFiftys off-premise buyers around the country as part of the Storefronts rollout later this year. *Source: Nielsen U.S. - Rebalancing the COVID-19 effect on alcohol sales, May 7, 2020 About SevenFifty - http://www.sevenfifty.com SevenFifty brings innovative technology and data insights to the beverage alcohol industry with next-generation solutions that power the three-tier supply chain. The companys people-first approach to technology enables producers, distributors, importers, retailers, and restaurants with the tools they need to connect with each other and do business in a modern world. About Bridge - http://www.joinbridge.com Bridge is a technology and data-driven solutions provider for the beverage alcohol industry that leverages the power of artificial intelligence to transform raw data into actionable insights to drive bottom-line results for brands, wholesalers, and retailers. Data is Bridges secret weapon with intelligence on over 67 million beverage alcohol consumers on an easy-to-use platform. Bridge Intelligence wants to arm beverage professionals with the tools they need to operate effectively in the marketplace. The Young and the Restless has been on the air for 47 seasons on CBS, making it one of the longest-running television shows in history. The classic soap opera has followed the triumphs and misfortunes of many characters throughout the years, some good people, and some quite the opposite. The soap is also connected to the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, which has run alongside The Young and the Restless for many years. The show has a linked history through various shared charters. One of these characters is the evil Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown), who triumphs by causing the misfortune of others with her evil ways. What is The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful The Young and the Restless | Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images RELATED: The Young and the Restless: Two Other Actors Were Let Go Before Michael Graziadei Took Over Set in Genoa City, Wisconsin, The Young and the Restless follows the life of various families as they marry, divorce, shock, betray, and love one another. The show has a variety of characters, some heroic, some evil, and some in between. Similarly, The Bold and the Beautiful follows the lives of a large cast of characters, with the central focus on the Forrester family. The Forresters are at the top of the glamorous L.A. fashion scene. There has been a large amount of crossover between the sister shows, mostly in the form of various characters appearing on both shows. One of the decidedly villainous characters that has been a major part of both of the shows is the evil Sheila Carter. Who is the villainous Sheila Carter? On today's classic episode of #YR, Sheila makes a surprise appearance during Lauren and Michael's honeymoon, while John learns the truth about Gloria's past. WATCH FULL EPISODE: https://t.co/mjHWKMLJQh pic.twitter.com/WHByQN7v43 Young and Restless (@YandR_CBS) May 28, 2020 Carter has not just terrorized the members of Genoa City in The Young and the Restless, but also the characters on the shows sibling soap The Bold and the Beautiful. Carter has been an important part of the shows since her first episode in 1990. Carters first appearance was on The Young and the Restless, and her first time on The Bold and the Beautiful came soon after. From the beginning, Carter has clearly been a force of evil. One of the worst things she has ever done is the drugging of Dr. Scott Grainger (Peter Barton) to force him to conceive a child with her. Carter also forced the doctor to leave his also pregnant girlfriend Lauren Fenmore (Tracy E. Bergman). When Carters child died, the villainous nurse attempted to steal Laurens baby. Carter then moved to Los Angeles, and into the home of the Forrester family. The Forresters are the long-standing main characters of The Bold and the Beautiful. Once in the family, Carter went back to her evil ways, and even escalated to attempted murder as she tried to drown her rival Lauren in a hot tub. She also threatened to kill members of the Forrester family with a gun. Many of these evil incidents are a result of Sheilas desire for love, which she clearly has a difficult time properly expressing. Sheila has not been seen on the show since 2018, but it is very possible that she could return for another wicked scheme. Fan reactions to seeing Carter on Villains Week RELATED: Fans Divided Over Former The Young and the Restless Stars Long-Running Feud Due to production shutdowns necessary because of COVID-19 concerns, the CBS both soap operas have been replaying classic episodes. These episodes have been collected into a special theme each week, and these themes have included The Young and the Restlesss greatest love stories, a celebration of the Winters family, and a whole week dedicated to the shows legendary character Katherine Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper). One of these weeks has been a look back at the characters that fans love to hate. During an episode of the shows Villains Week, Carter once again attempts to destroy her rival Lauren by making a surprise and unwelcome appearance during Laurens honeymoon. Many fans have taken to social media to declare that Sheila is one of, if not the greatest villain in soap opera history. These devoted fans have also called for Sheilas return, which would reintroduce the gritty punch some fans feel the show has been lacking in recent years. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 13:50:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JAKARTA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake with a magnitude of revised 5.8 struck off Indonesia's eastern province of Maluku on Tuesday, the meteorology and geophysics agency said here. The agency initially issued the quake at 6.0 Richter scale, official in charge at the agency Alfart Abubakar said. The quake struck at 11:56 a.m. Jakarta time (0456 GMT) with the epicenter at 126 km southwest Buru district and the shallow at 10 km under sea bed, he told Xinhua via phone. The quake did not potentially trigger a tsunami, the official said. The intensity of the quake was felt at III to IV MMI (Modified Mercally Intensity) in Namole sub-district, III MMI in Piru of Seram Barat district and II to III MMI in Namlea of the district and II MMI in the provincial capital of Ambon, he said. Over 100 houses were damaged when a 6.8-magnitude quake struck off nearby North Maluku province on June 4, national disaster management agency said. Indonesia has been frequently stricken by earthquakes as it lies on a vulnerable quake-hit zone called "the Pacific Ring of Fire." Enditem Amid efforts to resolve the ongoing dispute in Eastern Ladakh, members of the Indian military team are in Chushul preparing for talks with China which are likely to be held in the next few days. "Members of the military team are in Chushul and preparing for talks expected to be held in the next few days," sources told ANI. The team has been provided with directions and instructions from the Army headquarters and government officials to help in the resolution of the matter which has entered its second month now. Talks between the two sides were held on June 6 at the military commanders' level, including the 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh from the Indian side while the Chinese side was represented by its South Xinjiang Military District commander Major General Liu Lin at Moldo opposite Chushul in Ladakh. Even though the talks had not yielded any immediate results on the ground as both sides continue to be in a standoff position opposite each other, they had agreed to continue talks at both diplomatic and military levels to find a solution to the problem. On Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had stated that 'talks with China are on at military and diplomatic level. The June 6 talks were very positive and both the countries have agreed to continue talks to resolve the ongoing tussle' while assuring the country that 'leadership of the country is in strong hands and we will not compromise on India's pride and self-respect'. The issue started early last month when the Chinese started building up militarily along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh and started deploying troops at multiple locations along the LAC including Finger area, Pangong Tso Lake, and the Galwan valley. The Chinese also wanted to carry out deeper incursions into the Indian territory but they were checked because of the timely deployment of troops at the right locations by the Indian side. After the Chinese side built up at a rapid pace on the Indian front, the Indian side also rushed in troops from other locations to more than match it. The Chinese troops have been engaged in multiple face-offs with the Indian security forces in the disputed areas and injuries have been caused to soldiers from both the countries. Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders surprise announcement that hell resign as Torontos top cop has left a serious vacuum at a time of crisis between police and the citys Black community, say observers and community members. Saunders announced Monday that he will be leaving his post July 31 nearly eight months before his recently-renewed contract with the Toronto Police Service is set to expire. In a news conference, he said he was leaving the job to spend more time with his family, and in a news release Mayor John Tory said Saunders had informed him that he would be retiring the previous week, as cities in the U.S. and Canada erupted with protests about the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Tory released a statement praising Saunders. He has been a dedicated and responsible Chief of Police who has always worked to protect the city. He cares deeply about the people of the city, all of its neighbourhoods, and about the men and women who serve with him, said Tory. Community members and leaders were puzzled by his quick departure. I am struck by the timing of it in the midst of one of the most critical moments of policing in North America, and specifically when the whole question of defunding police has taken hold, said Alok Mukherjee, a former chair of the Toronto Police Services Board and frequent critic of the current board. And there is the whole question of anti-Black racism whatever the quality of Chief Saunders leadership, with him gone in a matter of weeks there will be virtually a leaderless Toronto Police Service. Toronto-Danforth Coun. Paula Fletcher called Saunders departure a huge disappointment in the wake of George Floyds murder and the upswell of protest in the United States and in cities around the world, including Toronto. What a huge disappointment that Torontos first Black chief ever is leaving eight months early just when a bridge is so badly needed between the police force and the Black community and their allies who are in motion for change, she said. But Fletcher and others questioned whether Saunders, who was selected to take the job in 2015 during the first year of Mayor John Torys first term, would have been in a position to be that bridge. Sandy Hudson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, said that Saunders hiring as Torontos first Black police chief, did not cause the Toronto Police Service to be more diverse. It very clearly proves diversity does nothing in an inherently anti-Black institution, she said. He will be remembered as the guy who made sure (the TPS) had military, assault-style weapons. Hell be remembered for the redesign of the Toronto police cars, and for that stingray machine. Last Friday, Saunders made a gesture to reach out to protesters in downtown Toronto, dropping to a knee in a show of solidarity. But his record over the past five years has drawn criticism particularly his early opposition to the elimination of carding of Black youth by Toronto police, and also for the forces handling of the investigation into serial killer Bruce MacArthur. Black writer and activist Andray Domise in 2018 called on Saunders to resign over the handling of the investigation into the murders of men in Torontos gay community. Domise said that news of Saunders resignation was kind of bittersweet, and said he was concerned that Saunders departure might lead to a worse situation. Im really worried for what happens next, he said. I do think that whoever comes in to take that position is going to be far worse. Scarborough Centre Coun. Michael Thompson, one of Torys deputy mayors and a police board member before Tory took office, called the boards current leadership stunningly disappointing. True leadership is needed, declared Thompson, who said he wished Saunders well in retirement, but when asked about Saunders legacy as chief, could think of only one thing: He painted the police cars (grey); thats all I know, Thompson said. Among other things, Saunders was responsible for unilaterally ordering new grey police cars. Thompson was vice-chairperson of the board when it commissioned its Transformational Task Force on policing. Released early in 2017, the task forces report, Action Plan: The Way Forward, contained 32 recommendations, but Thompson said its been an opportunity missed. The city hasnt seen the expected results in how money is spent on the police, he said. Promises have not been kept. with files from Mike Adler and Joanna Lavoie David Nickle is a reporter and columnist for Metroland Media Toronto, who specializes in municipal politics. Read more about: Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 8) The Department of Health has received 95.6-million in cash allocations to buy COVID-19 test kits, President Rodrigo Duterte said in his latest report to Congress on his administrations response to the pandemic. The cash allocations, which will be used to buy reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction detection kits, were pulled from this years budget, Duterte said. RT-PCR tests, considered by health experts to be the gold standard in the testing for COVID-19, detect the actual virus that causes the disease, unlike rapid test kits which only screen for antibodies that fight against the virus. Thinkwell Philippines senior policy adviser of Marife Yap previously told CNN Philippines that the lack of test kits is among the reasons behind the backlog in the countrys testing capacity. Thinkwell Philippines is a private consulting agency to the Department of Health. The government is targeting to test 30,000 people a day, but actual tests done per day hover only at around 10,000. US sanctions imposed on Irans shipping network for allegedly supporting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction came into effect from June 8. The State Department had announced in December 2019 that the United States would take action against the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and its Shanghai-based subsidiary, E-Sail Shipping Company Ltd (E-Sail), targeting WMD proliferators and their supporters. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that a 180-days window was given to allow exporters of humanitarian goods to Iran sufficient time to find alternate shipping methods. Pompeo emphasised that any commercial and maritime industries doing business with Iran must use carriers or shipping methods other than IRISL or E-Sail. These designations serve as a clear warning that anyone doing business with or otherwise supporting IRISL or E-Sail are exposed to potential sanctions and risk contributing to Irans proliferation-sensitive programs, including its nuclear and missile programs, warned the top US diplomat. Read: Russia Rejects US Drive For Permanent Iran Arms Embargo 'Continued deception' Pompeo accused IRISL of repeatedly transporting items related to Irans ballistic missile and military programs and said that it is also a longstanding carrier of other proliferation-sensitive items, including Nuclear Suppliers-Group controlled items. He said that the Iranian regime has continued to pursue and procure proliferation-sensitive items in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 despite making claims that it will never develop nuclear weapons and associated delivery systems The international community should take notice of Irans continued deception, added Pompeo. Meanwhile, the US has been trying to get the Security Council to renew the arms embargo on Iran that is set to expire in October. It has also publicly threatened to trigger all UN sanctions on Iran if the Security Council fails to extend the arms embargo which is due to expire in October. The Iran nuclear deal was enshrined in a UN Security Council resolution which still names the United States as a participant and the Trump administration is arguing on the technicality that Washington could still trigger a snapback. Read: China Says Unilateral Withdrawal Of US From JCPOA Led To Iranian Nuclear Crisis DETROIT, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Henry Ford Health System and Michigan State University (MSU) announced today the two organizations have signed a letter of intent (LOI) to significantly expand their long-term partnership, a unique primary affiliation among the first of its kind for the region between a fully integrated academic health system and major state university. Committed to redesigning care around patients and communities through education, research and clinical care, the enhanced collaboration will focus on improving access, affordability and outcomes, especially for Detroit and Michigan's most vulnerable populations. "Partnerships with the potential for greater impact are more important than ever before," said Wright Lassiter, III, president and CEO, Henry Ford Health System. "The COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing injustices and recent protests in cities across our nation have amplified the importance of and urgency for innovation and discovery that radically improves the health of all of the communities we serve." "Health care is one of the most important building blocks of a strong community, and for that we believe every individual deserves accessible, affordable, compassionate, quality care," said Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D., MSU's president. "We must seek solutions to address disparities across cultural, racial and socioeconomic lines. This pandemic has demonstrated the willingness of individuals from multiple disciplines and from different organizations to unite the time to build upon that is now." The non-binding LOI was signed after months of talks and has several hallmark elements including a primary affiliation for a shared research enterprise, expanded opportunities for health students and long-term plan to build a joint Research Institute in Detroit, MI. Combined research areas will include Health Inequities and Disparities as well as Social Determinants of Health, Primary Care, Implementation Sciences, Precision Health and Cancer. "As a land-grant institution engaging in the highest level of research, we are defined by working with communities to address areas of greatest need and making a difference through partnerships. This effort will uniquely prepare our students to lead the way in improving health and health care in the future," said Norman J. Beauchamp Jr., M.D., MSU's executive vice president for health sciences, overseeing the colleges of Human Medicine, Nursing and Osteopathic Medicine, as well as clinical practices. "Aligning the education, clinical and research strengths of Henry Ford, with MSU strengths campus-wide, we will drive discovery, enhance existing partnerships and ultimately bring more to bear in serving the communities of Michigan." Adnan Munkarah, M.D., Henry Ford Health System executive vice president and chief clinical officer, said the partnership will also enable the expansion of translational research, already a differentiator for Henry Ford. "Together, we have a tremendous opportunity to think about the whole care continuum," said Dr. Munkarah. "From accelerating the speed at which patients benefit from new discoveries to working with our health plan on innovative care models to drive down costs we will partner with patients, families and communities across their whole health care journey, including primary care and prevention to complex specialty care and chronic disease management." Another major partnership component includes a fully integrated cancer program, which will combine research and clinical applications to create a national and international destination for access to the most advanced cancer therapies and research, including a joint effort to achieve National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation. Additionally, with both institutions sharing a long history of and commitment to medical education and training, MSU and Henry Ford will expand education opportunities for physicians, nurses and other health care professionals, focused on diversity, recruitment and retention, and revolutionized training models. "One of the things about which I am most passionate is the amazing revitalization we're continuing to see in our great city of Detroit," said Steven N. Kalkanis, M.D., CEO, Henry Ford Medical Group and senior vice president and chief academic officer, Henry Ford Health System. "We know that providing a progressive approach to medical education strongly rooted in early collaboration and integrated care modeling can attract and retain the best and brightest health care talent. That's a truly unique way we can promote economic growth and vitality for Detroit and all of Michigan." "The current brace of generational disruptions in our social, economic and health systems have highlighted disparities, inequities and inefficiencies that can and must be addressed," said Norm Hubbard, MBA, chief business officer for MSU's Office of Health Sciences. "Meeting that challenge and rising to that opportunity will require transformational thinking about how our care providers are educated, how we improve and sustain the health of our communities, and how we conduct the research and promote the innovation that will inform and drive not only incremental, but quantum improvements. The combined capabilities of these two great organizations, and importantly the cultural resonance between them, will allow us to create a unique platform with the ability to achieve those vital goals." The two organizations will now work toward a series of definitive agreements which they hope to finalize this fall. About Henry Ford Health System: Under the leadership of President and CEO Wright L. Lassiter, III, Henry Ford Health System is a $6.5 billion integrated health system comprised of six hospitals, a health plan, and 250+ sites including medical centers, walk-in and urgent care clinics, pharmacy, eye care facilities and other health care retail. Established in 1915 by auto industry pioneer Henry Ford, the health system has more than 33,000 employees and remains home to the 1,900-member Henry Ford Medical Group, one of the nation's oldest physician groups. More than 2,500 physicians are also affiliated with the health system through the Henry Ford Physician Network and Jackson Health Network. Henry Ford is also one of the region's major academic medical centers, receiving nearly $100 million in annual research funding and ranking among Michigan's largest NIH-funded institutions. Also an active participant in medical education and training, the health system has trained nearly 40% of physicians currently practicing in the state and also provides education and training for other health professionals including nurses, pharmacists, radiology and respiratory technicians. About Michigan State University: Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 160 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery and forges enduring partnerships to solve the most pressing global challenges while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges. For MSU news on the web, go to MSUToday. Follow MSU News on Twitter at twitter.com/MSUnews. SOURCE Henry Ford Health System; Michigan State University Related Links http://www.henryford.com BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 By Fidan Babayeva Trend: As of June 1, more than 9.2 million manat ($5.4 million) have been allocated to farmers in Azerbaijan for spring sowing, the Agrarian Credit and Development Agency under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Agriculture told Trend. The subsidies for spring crops were paid to 17,355 farmers, the agency said. "Farmers sent the applications related to 61,245 land plots for spring sowing, of which 33,350 were approved. The monitoring is underway at 9,108 land plots. On April 14, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the allocation of funds to improve the process of providing agricultural producers with microloans in terms of the coronavirus pandemic and in the further period. In accordance with the decree, 30 million manat ($17.6 million) are allocated from the Azerbaijani Presidential Reserve Fund to the Agrarian Credit and Development Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture envisaged in the state budget for 2020 for the issuance of non-guarantee loans in the agricultural sector to meet the needs of agricultural producers for funds during the coronavirus pandemic and in the post-pandemic period. --- Follow the author on Twitter: Fidan_Babaeva New Delhi, June 9 : With the Government now announcing unlocking of the country in three planned phases, citizens are getting anxious due to the growing numbers of COVID-19 cases, according to a survey by Local Circles. The survey found that from Lockdown 1.0 (March 25) to Unlock 1.0 (June 1), there has been a 166 per cent rise in number of Indians who are feeling anxious or worried. While 56 per cent people are now feeling anxious or worried, 21 per cent felt that way in April. A 79 per cent citizens feel that Unlock 1.0 will lead to significant increase in COVID-19 cases. People feel that enough testing is not being done by the Government due to which a large number of cases are still going unnoticed. Local Circles received several complaints where an asymptomatic individual was denied testing with reasons cited as not enough kits or that they have been told only to test people with severe symptoms. Some citizens are increasingly feeling that the daily positive cases being reported are being controlled by some local administrations and State Governments by reducing the number of tests conducted so their district or state doesn't have to report high numbers. When the curve in many countries has started to flatten, India is still witnessing record single-day spikes in the number of patients. India has now overtaken Spain to become the 5th worst-hit country by Coronavirus, with the numbers of infected crossing 2,50,000. LocalCircles conducted a survey to get a citizen pulse on how they are feeling about the opening up of most activities. The survey received over 17,000 votes from 211 districts of the country. Citizens were asked with COVID-19 cases in India hitting new peaks each day, how do they feel about opening up of most activities via Unlock 1.0. In response, 27 per cent said it will likely lead to significant uptick in cases and complete lockdown should have been implemented in High Virus Load districts to control the virus, while 52 per cent said it will likely lead to significant uptick in cases but we as a nation do not have the option of staying locked any more. A 12 per cent said that the peak is almost here, and cases will reduce from here so unlocking makes sense. Only 6 per cent said that we shouldn't have locked down in the first place at all and just learned to live with the risk of the virus. This means that 79 per cent citizens feel that Unlock 1.0 will lead to a significant uptick in COVID-19 cases in India. While, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi have so far been leading the infamous chart of having the most number of COVID-19 cases in the country, several other states have seen major surge as well. People were also asked what best describes how they currently feel. A 56 per cent said they were anxious or worried, only 1 per cent said they were bored, 10 per cent said they were thankful, 25 per cent said they were calm or peaceful, while 4 per cent said they were excited. After the migration of workers returned from bigger cities to their native places, new cases are increasingly getting reported from rural areas. The comparison of the current numbers with those from early April when Lockdown 1.0 was in place pan India, show that the percentage of citizens that are feeling worried or anxious has risen by 166 per cent between Lockdown 1.0 and Unlock 1.0, which shows the state of mental trauma and agony the fear of catching the virus coupled with testing and hospital accessibility is making people go through. The situation in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai seems to be the worst as reported by citizens in these cities. In Delhi, Local Circles said several cases have come to light where the helplines could not be reached, the hospitals bed availability was drastically different than what was advised on the helpline or the website of Delhi Government. Some private hospitals have also been reported to charge an upfront amount of Rs 3 lakh before even admission despite the various Government advisories and orders. Several State Governments have reportedly started directing people to home quarantine for Covid-19 patients with no or very mild symptoms in a bid to ensure that enough beds are available for critical care patients. The survey results clearly point to the fact that with the Central and State Governments implementing Unlock 1.0, 56 per cent citizens are feeling worried or anxious, a 166 per cent rise from how they felt in early April during Lockdown 1.0. The survey said the need to the hour is for Government to evaluate if Unlock 1.0 makes sense for every district or the high virus load districts like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, etc. must be treated differently. Also, a serious plan needs to be drawn upon how the healthcare system should be scaled effectively if the daily case load rises from 11,000 to 20,000 within a few weeks. "A clear message also needs to be put out stating "the lockdown has ended, the pandemic hasn't and it is getting worse" for there is a sizable group who feels Corona has ended with the lockdown ending," Local Circles said. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Representative image Merchant payments company Innoviti Payments has raised its series C round of funding from FMO-Entrepreneurial Development Bank, the Netherlands, and existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners from the US. It did not disclose the amount raised or the valuation at which the funding happened, but said they were looking for some more funds before closing this round. We are expecting this to be our last equity fundraise, we are aiming at cash positivity within the next six to eight months, Rajeev Agrawal, chief executive officer, Innoviti Payments, told Moneycontrol. Only if there is an inorganic acquisition opportunity will we consider another round. Till this round, the Bengaluru-headquartered company had raised $25 million and has investors like Catamaran Ventures, Bessemer Ventures and SBI-FMO on its cap table. It had raised Rs 80 crore in debt funding from Trifecta Capital and a few non-banking finance corporations last year. This round is all primary capital and had no secondary component, Agrawal said. Innoviti deploys point of sales terminals for accepting digital payments on behalf of banks. It mostly targets mid- and large- scale retailers. It competes with players like Pine Labs, MSwipe, Ezetap and others. Innoviti wants to become a software player which has deep integrations with merchants, offering them ways to digitise their business. The days of a simple QR code or a plain vanilla terminal are over, said Agrawal. Related stories Narayana Murthy's Catamaran invests in payment co Innoviti We are looking to leverage wholesale distribution channels for sales to retail merchants, this will help us reduce our cost of customer acquisition and also improve utility of the terminals at the outlets, he said. This can help Agrawal acquire new merchants at one-fourth of the original cost. Innoviti currently processes $6.5 billion of gross payments volume annually through its terminals. It has deployed 80,000 terminals in more than 20,000 shops spread across more than 1000 locations. Recently Innoviti published a report where they spoke about how local retailers are seeing faster sales recovery compared to organised retail in a post-COVID-19 scenario. The report added that smaller retailers were being able to adjust better than larger ones to local supply-side disruptions. The digital payments business in India is a hyper-competitive space with a few extremely well-funded players vying for a larger market share. Pine Labs, which is a larger competitor to Innoviti, processes $30 billion of gross transactions annually. It counts investors like Mastercard, Temasek Holdings, Sequoia Capital and PayPal Ventures as its main investors. Overall, the card payment companies compete with smartphone-based payment startups like Paytm, PhonePe, BharatPe and Google Pay. Innoviti has partnered with Google Pay for a UPI based payment offering. It also works with HDFC Bank for deploying BharatQR based payments solution at small merchant outlets. UPI is attractive for merchants and we are seeing increased traction on that side of the business, said Agrawal. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 19:31:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SYDNEY, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Two major Australian media companies, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the News Corp Australia, were both set to cut jobs further to save the cost, Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported on Tuesday. To meet the Australian federal government's budget cut, the ABC management said they were prepared to cut more than 200 positions across all divisions in the company, with voluntary redundancies offered to its staff. "The budget gap of 41 million Australian dollars (28 million U.S. dollars) per annum means that despite our best efforts some of our services will be affected and, regrettably, there will be redundancies," ABC's managing director David Anderson said. "As we finalise those change proposals, we have decided to provide employees in divisions where it is anticipated that more than 10 redundancies will be required with an opportunity to express an interest in redundancy." Meanwhile, staff at News Corp Australia are told at the same day to expect dozens of jobs to be axed as the company will merge the production and editorial positions in its two metropolitan newspapers, The Daily Telegraph in Sydney and The Herald Sun in Melbourne. The company's national newspaper, The Australian will also cut "a small number" of staff but likely to keep its' editorial positions separate from metropolitan papers. Australia's media sector has gone through widespread job cuts and closure in recent months with hundreds of jobs lost during the process. Enditem Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has developed a mild fever and a sore throat, following which he isolated himself at home and is scheduled to get tested for Covid-19 on Tuesday, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday. The chief minister is not keeping well. He has a sore throat and mild fever. He has quarantined himself and will take the test tomorrow (Tuesday), the deputy CM said. A spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that Kejriwal developed the symptoms on Sunday and consulted a doctor over the phone, who suggested that he get tested by Tuesday if the symptoms did not subside. On Sunday, Kejriwal briefed the media through a webcast on allowing shopping malls, restaurants and places of religious worship in the city to reopen. At the state disaster management authoritys meeting to look into the possibility of community transmission of Covid-19 in Delhi and health care strategies, scheduled on Tuesday, Sisodia will represent Kejriwal. The committee is headed by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and has roped in teams of health experts for guidance. On Sunday morning, the CM held a cabinet meeting at his official residence which was attended by many ministers, including Sisodia, Environment Minister Gopal Rai, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, officials said. Chief Secretary Vijay Dev was also present during the meeting. After the cabinet meeting, Kejriwal cancelled all his official engagements, officials said. The national capital has 29,943 Covid cases, the countrys third highest tally after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. In its second round of funding, the Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund has awarded two county nonprofits funding for the next 90 days. The funds, organized by the United Way of Greater Houston and the Greater Houston Community Foundation, are being aimed at organizations providing basic needs assistance to residents affected by COVID-19. In its last round of allocation, the fund awarded $79,600 to the Montgomery County Food Bank to help the community providers purchase basics like food and rice. This time, the fund has allocated $200,000 to Meals on Wheels Montgomery County, and $35,000 to Mission Northeast in New Caney. Basic services Mission Northeast will be using the funds for a variety of services in both Harris and Montgomery counties, including rental assistance, which is in extremely high demand three months after the state started closing due to the pandemic. The biggest needs that weve seen so far are rent or mortgage, and utilities, said Pam Dickson, director of Mission Northeast. By the time that your readers read this, we will have already expended that money that we have received for rent and utilities. Well still be providing assistance with food, but we will have depleted the rent and utilities funds. The organization has also been providing families with food through drive-thru distributions. Dickson said that in the past 12 weeks, Mission Northeast has served 2,443 families, and 664 were new to them. The organization started as a small food pantry and the majority of the clients it serves fall below the federal poverty level. Now, the organization also does work in homeless prevention and has numerous programs, including education and job training. East Montgomery County, Dickson said, is an often under-served part of the county, and a lot of people in the area have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Dickson said Mission Northeast is the only non-profit physically located in the area. Sometimes it seems like the east Montgomery County ZIP codes get overlooked when it comes to funding, and there is a great need here, Dickson said. Im just very pleased that that need is recognized by this grant. We really appreciate it. Money for meals With the $200,000 funding, Meals on Wheels Montgomery County will be able to provide about 1,000 meals a week to knew clients, as well as allow the organization to purchase other necessities for existing clients. Recently, the organization moved into a new building with a commercial kitchen. Executive Director Summer Day said that she knew the community needed their services, and with the new facility they had the capacity, they just needed the funding. We can provide those hot nutritious meals every day now that we have this grant, Day said. Meals on Wheels has applied for numerous grants, and have received generous local funding since the pandemic started, but Day knows the increased need is going to be around for a while. So far, the organization has received $100,000 from Meals on Wheels America, as well as $50,000 from both Commissioner Charlie Riley and Commissioner Mike Meador. After the last round of funding from the emergency fund, over 400 nonprofits inquired about applying. This round, the fund gave out $8.5 million to 65 local nonprofits, according to a release from the fund organizers. Mary Vazquez, Vice President, Community Outreach for United Way of Greater Houston, said that the fund wanted to be strategic about its fund allocation, and focused on areas hardest hit by the pandemic. Calls for help We identified 20 communities that were disproportionately impacted due to COVID, and in Montgomery County, the community around Conroe was disproportionately impacted, is what our data showed, Vasquez said. What United Way is hearing from the community is the same as what Mission Northeast is hearing. Rental assistance, followed by utility and food assistance, is the biggest need. Since March 1, the United Way 211 helpline has received 3,542 calls from the Montgomery County area, looking for assistance with these needs. For many in this community, this is the second or third month that they have not been able to afford rent, Vasquez said. That eviction moratorium has been lifted and so many individuals are calling us fearful that they are going to get evicted because they dont have the means to pay for rent. Eviction hearings were filed even while courts were closed due to the disaster deceleration, but starting this month as courts opened back up many in the community were concerned that they would be evicted. So far, the fund has raised around $15 million, but it wont last forever. We believe that the majority of the significant gifts have already come in that we had planned or hoped for, she said. Our intent is to expend all of the resources from the fund my middle of August. The fund could continue past August but Vasquez said they know that most of the funds raised after a disaster usually come in within the first month and then fundraising tend to slow down. The pandemic, as a disaster, is different from other disasters in that it affects people from all industries and walks of life. jamie.swinnerton@chron.com After a conservative qualifying effort in his 2020 charted debut last week, Canada's reigning Horse of the Year, Forbidden Trade, tasted victory during Woodbine Mohawk Park's Tuesday, June 9 qualifying session. The 2019 Hambletonian winner had his regular pilot, Bob McClure, in the sulky, and the duo lined up in Post 3 for the second race of the morning session, which was contested over a 'fast' track. The career winner of $1.37-million in purses floated out from the gate and McClure positioned the son of Kadabra into the three-hole early, prior to the :29.2 quarter pole. McClure and Forbidden Trade watched from third as the opening half was clicked off in :59.1, but the duo wouldn't be sitting for too long. Forbidden Trade was tipped out as the three-quarters pole neared. A reading of 1:28.2 flashed up for three quarters, and at that point Forbidden Trade was just starting to begin his ascent. Although it didn't appear as though McClure asked him for any real trot at any point in the mile, Forbidden Trade got up with ease when it mattered. He closed with a :27.2 final quarter and posted an effortless, one-length win in 1:56.2. The career winner of 15 of his 25 races is trained by Luc Blais and is owned by the Determination stable of Montreal, Quebec. The Ontario Sires Stakes' 2019 Two-Year-Old Colt and Gelding Trot Grassroots Championship winner Lovedbythemasses also stood out during the session, as the three-year-old son of Muscle Mass posted a 1:55.3 win for driver Mike Saftic and trainer Ed Peconi in Race 3. Race 4 saw three-year-old Captaintreacherous filly Sure Do Love You record the first charted line of her career, which was a 1:58.3 closing win for driver Scott Young and trainer Chantal Mitchell. The bay was a $150,000 yearling sale purchase in 2018. To view the harness racing results from the Tuesday qualifiers at Mohawk, click the following link: Tuesday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers). Barack Obama inspired the youth once again after he shared some words of wisdom amid the challenging times that the world is facing right now. In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests against racial injustice, Obama delivered a speech in YouTube's "Dear Class of 2020" virtual ceremony. In the virtual event, he shared an inspiring message to the youth. The former U.S. president and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, joined the star-studded lineup and uplifted the new graduates. "Graduation is a big achievement under any circumstances, yours comes as the world is turned upside down by a pandemic and by a country that has been swept up by protests. I can barely imagine how head-spinning these last few months have been for you. None of this is how any of you imagined finishing your final spring at school," Obama said in his speech. Despite the uncertain times that people are facing right now, the former president reminded the graduates that the pandemic has somehow brought a positive impact, as it highlighted America's ongoing issues -- from healthcare to the dysfunction that beset the U.S. political system. He then referred to the protests after George Floyd's death as something that was fueled from "decades worth of anguish, frustration, over unequal treatment and a failure to perform police practices." Despite such scary events, Obama urged everyone not to overlook the wake-up call since it is an incredible opportunity for them. "The point is, don't let the lack of a big crowded ceremony take anything away from what your graduation signifies. Go ahead and bask in the glory of your achievement," Barack Obama continued. Obama Supports "YOUR Lives Matter" Though he supports the "Black Lives Matter" movement, he also told the young people that "your lives matter." Last Wednesday, America's first black president also spoke at "Reimagining Policing in the Wake of Continued Police Violence" -- an event arranged by the "My Brother's Keeper" alliance, a program of the Obama Foundation. It was considered as Obama's first appearance ever since Floyd was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer, who kneeled on the victim's neck. It ignited several ongoing protests across the country. "I want you to know that you matter, I want you to know that your lives matter, that your dreams matter, and when I go home and I look at the faces of my daughters, Sasha and Malia, and I look at my nephews and nieces, I see limitless potential that deserves to flourish and thrive," Obama said. Aside from acknowledging all the lives of the members of the African-American community, he also paid tribute to police officers who still showed solidarity with protesters and respected their feelings despite the ongoing dispute. However, he also advised police reforms, including a ban on shooting at moving vehicles and some forms of restraint used by authorities. "Chokeholds and strangleholds, that's not what we do," Obama said. "I'm urging every mayor in this country to review your use-of-force policies with members of your community and to commit to reforms." Daniel Radcliffe has slammed Harry Potter author JK Rowling over her comments about transgender people. The actor, 30, felt compelled to make a statement about the acclaimed novelist, after she tweeted about an article entitled 'Creating a more equal post COVID-19 world for people who menstruate' on Friday. Rowling wrote: ''People who menstruate.' I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?' In response, Radcliffe hit out at the author who made him famous, saying: 'To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you'. Scroll down for video Taking a stand: Daniel Radcliffe has slammed Harry Potter author JK Rowling over her comments about transgender people Radcliffe wrote: 'Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I'. He continued: 'I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between JK Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what's important right now. 'While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honored to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment.' Radcliffe, 30, released his statement via The Trevor Project on Monday. Taking a stand: He has made a statement about Rowling, after she tweeted about an article entitled 'Creating a more equal post COVID-19 world for people who menstruate' Daniel Radcliffe released a statement with The Trevor Project, an American non-profit organization founded in 1998 focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth The Trevor Project is an American non-profit organization founded in 1998 focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth. 'According to The Trevor Project, 78% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported being the subject of discrimination due to their gender identity... 'It's clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm,' Radcliffe said. He went on to share resources for trans allies, as he admitted: 'I am still learning how to be a better ally.' DANIEL RADCLIFFE RESPONDS TO J.K. ROWLING'S TWEETS ON GENDER IDENTITY By Daniel Radcliffe I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what's important right now. While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honored to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment. Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I. According to The Trevor Project, 78% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported being the subject of discrimination due to their gender identity. It's clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm. I am still learning how to be a better ally, so if you want to join me in learning more about transgender and nonbinary identities check out The Trevor Project's Guide to Being an Ally to Transgender and Nonbinary Youth. It's an introductory educational resource that covers a wide range of topics, including the differences between sex and gender, and shares best practices on how to support transgender and nonbinary people. To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don't entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you. If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. And in my opinion nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much. Love always, Dan Advertisement Discussing: JK Rowling went on an extraordinary rant on Twitter last week Radcliffe also reached out to loyal Harry Potter fans: 'If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything... 'If they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups... 'If you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. 'And in my opinion nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much.' Not important: He wrote: 'I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between JK Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what's important right now' (pictured in July, 2011) He starred as the titular wizard in all eight of the Harry Potter movies, originating the role at the age of 11 in 2000's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The British writer followed up in a thread: 'If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction. If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. 'I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn't hate to speak the truth.' She continued: 'The idea that women like me, who've been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they're vulnerable in the same way as women - ie, to male violence - 'hate' trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences - is a nonsense. Hogwarts alum: He starred as the titular wizard in all eight of the Harry Potter movies, originating the role at the age of 11 in 2000's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 'I respect every trans person's right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. 'I'd march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it's hateful to say so.' In December, Rowling discussed the trans community, in a move which earned her the label of trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF). Her most recent comments were met with backlash from many fans and followers, as well as some notable names like Jameela Jamil, Sarah Paulson, Jonathan Van Ness and more. Jameela Jamil challenged her to put her money where her mouth is, tweeting her a GoFundMe link for homeless Black trans women in Atlanta. She wrote: 'Hey JK as you claim to support trans rights and this is a historical moment where we are globally discussing the impact of white supremacy on Black People, please share some of your $650million mega wealth with this charity.' Sarah Paulson wrote, 'Word. Goodnight and shut up @jk_rowling' while retweeting creative producer Ben O'Keefe. He wrote: 'This woman is complete scum. Shut the f*** up you transphobic f***. You don't know or love any trans people if you won't even acknowledge their existence... 'Thanks for ruining the books of my childhood. Just stop talking. We know you're a TERF. You don't need to keep doing this.' Van Ness, who identifies as non-binary, responded to the author: 'Trans women are women. Trans Black people & trans non-Black people are discriminated against every single day. They're dying. We're fighting for Black people & trans people and you're doing this?' Tegan and Sara issued an ultimatum to their followers: 'If you are a TERF and following us, please f*** off and unfollow us.' Mara Wilson called Rowling out further: 'How did she manage to have a victim complex about all of this?' Anthony Rapp used the opportunity to promote GLAAD and some organizations that support Black trans people. He wrote: 'Amplifying this. Amazing and horrifying that a hugely powerful, super rich white lady chose to double- and triple- and quadruple-punch down on the #Trans community.' Mary Lambert responded to Rowling: 'What the actual fuck??? This is so disgraceful, @jk_rowling. Of all the hills to die on, and for what reason? Trans women are women and they are fighting for their lives. When you push this trans exclusionary agenda, you make their lives infinitely more difficult. Shame on you.' A representative for Rowling declined to comment when approached by DailyMail.com. This is not the first time she has come under fire over the topic, liking a 2018 tweet that referred to transgender women as 'men in dresses.' At the time, a spokesperson told The Sun that Rowling's like was a 'clumsy and middle-aged moment.' She previously confirmed suspicions of her transphobic views back in December, while showing support for Maya Forstater, who lost a court case against her former employers after they fired her over transphobic comments. Rowling tweeted: 'Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who'll have you... Re-think: Elsewhere, Jonathan Ross backtracked on his comments about J.K. Rowling, after he defended the Harry Potter novelist's remarks about transgender people [pictured in 2015] 'Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill'. Elsewhere, Jonathan Ross backtracked on his comments about J.K. Rowling, after he defended the Harry Potter novelist's remarks about transgender people. The chat show host, 59, took to Twitter on Monday evening to admit that his 23-year-old daughter Honey had helped him see things from a different view. This comes after Honey slammed Rowling for her comments about the use of the word woman, despite her famous father defending the author. U.S. customs officials recently seized a shipment of counterfeit $100 bills in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which would have been worth $351,500 if they were real. The seizure, which took place at a facility that processes express consignment shipments, was made on May 27, according to a June 3 press release by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The shipment of fake bills originated from Shanghai and was destined for a residence in Milwaukee. Investigators said the fake bills were made of poor material and did not have the watermark real currency possess. Moreover, each fake bill had the same serial number and contained Chinese characters in red on the back of these bills. These fake bills have been destroyed, according to the press release. However, it is not known if any arrests have been made in connection with the seizure. At press time, Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment. The importation of counterfeit currency can pose a threat not only to the United States economy, but our national security as well, said William Braun, service port director for the port of Milwaukee, in the press release. Braun added: The illegal importation of this amount of counterfeit currency has the potential to be a very serious criminal act. In the United States, the main agency responsible for investing and combating counterfeit currency is the Secret Service. In its 2016 annual report, the Secret Service stated that it prevented the circulation of over $64 million in counterfeit U.S. currency, and arrested 543 criminals as a result of counterfeit investigations. The following year, the Secret Service announced it stopped the circulation of over $73 million in counterfeit U.S. currency and made 1,548 arrests, according to its latest published 2017 report. Though Peru is the main source of the worlds fake U.S. notes, counterfeit money originating from China has continually been discovered and seized by U.S. authorities in the past six months. According to a May 22 press release, U.S. customs officials seized $252,300 in counterfeit $100 bills at an express consignment facility in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 13. The shipmentfrom Shenzhen, a port city in southern Chinawas headed for Guthrie, Oklahoma. The fake money was likely produced by a high-end printer on regular paper, U.S. officials said. Simplified Chinese characters were seen on the back of the bills. On December 14 last year, U.S. customs officials seized $900,000 in counterfeit $1 bills at the International Falls Ports of Entry in Minnesota, according to a press release. The shipment was discovered in a commercial rail shipment originating from China. According to the press release, the Secret Service was called in and they determined the money to be fake. Local U.S. authorities have previously warned people about fake money with Chinese characters. In February 2019, the city government of Hilliard, Ohio, announced that five currency counterfeiters were arrested and charged. Police discovered paper, ink, and other items used in the production of fake U.S. currency at their homes. The city government issued five suggestions on how residents could protect themselves from becoming victims of fake currency. One suggestion was to see whether the bills have a watermark and a vertical security thread. Another suggestion was: Look for strange markings. Many of the bills in Hilliard have had Chinese writing on them. The coloring is also a little off. From The Epoch Times In this file photo taken on August 29, 2019, a young Changpa nomad sits near pashmina goats in a nomadic camp, about 1 km from Korzok village in the Leh district of Ladakh. AP Photo A meeting between India and China took place on Saturday about the problem on the Ladakh border. It didnt produce the breakthrough that we wanted, and the status quo will continue. Further talks will be needed and till then the situation on the ground will remain unchanged for an unknown period, while negotiations happen. This is to the advantage of China as its aggressive policy in that area produced the change in status quo. The meeting was advertised initially in the media as one between two lieutenant-generals. These are three-star generals, one rank below the highest rank of four stars. But what actually happened is that a three-star Indian general went over and had discussions with a two-star general, which took some observers by surprise. Meetings of this nature should be between equals. A previous meeting of major-generals, who are two-star officers, failed to produce the result India wants. What does India want? There was a zone in Ladakh which both sides were patrolling till May. They would send groups of soldiers from one area, called Finger 4, that was near the Indian base, to another area called Finger 8, near the Chinese base. The patrols would be unarmed and in 90 per cent of cases there would be no confrontation or a minor one. In 10 per cent of them there would be some pushing or shoving, but rarely anything serious. The road from the Indian side to Finger 4 is difficult and can only be travelled on foot and in single file up a mountainside. The Chinese access is far easier, and they have built roads for their vehicles. Despite the difficulty, India has been regularly reaching Finger 4 and patrolling up to Finger 8 because it is our land and many thousands of Indians had died in the 1962 war defending this land. From May, China has physically stopped Indian patrols from proceeding beyond Finger 4, effectively giving China full control over the entire area. Reports say the Chinese have moved between 5,000 to 10,000 troops to three places, which are no longer accessible to India. This is the problem, and this is why we are talking today. What India wants and has failed to get in the previous talks is for the Chinese to go away from our land. The day before the June 6 talks, an external affairs ministry official talked to a Chinese counterpart, and put out a statement saying the issue will be resolved through peaceful discussion. Meaning Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ruled out fighting to take back our land and believes we can get it back through talks. Presumably, the talks that are yet to come will not consist of Indias generals pleading with Chinese generals. Armies exist because the capacity for violence is required for a state to compel another state to stop doing what its doing. India appears to have surrendered that option when it comes to the Ladakh intrusion and capture. Is that wise? That depends. What does the opponent want? Here is the problem. We know what India wants, but there seems to be no agreement on what China really wants and why it is doing this mischief in Ladakh. The experts, mostly former soldiers who are now analysts for the media, have a few theories. One is that the scrapping of Article 370 was accompanied by the formation of the Union territory of Ladakh, the issuance of new maps and the claim made in Parliament by the home minister that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin (which is with China) will be taken back, even at the cost of lives. This had upset China. The second theory is that Xi Jinping believes Modi is violating the Wuhan Agreement, which the two had signed a couple of years ago. India and China agreed to be friends and partners, and not rivals. But recent actions by India, such as specifically curbing Chinese investments in Indian companies, did not reflect that spirit. India also formed an alliance with the United States, Japan and Australia to conduct naval exercises regularly. China feels threatened by that. The third is that China wants to ensure it has more control over its Belt and Road Initiative by blocking Indian access to the north. The parts in Ladakh that China has captured lead up to that zone. This is what China wants. The fourth is that China wants to block Indias infrastructure buildup on the border and front against China and is using this to slow India down. The fifth theory is that its a nationalist distraction being spread by Xi as his authoritarian rule has weakened under Covid19, and so he is being adventurous in Hong Kong and against India. These are some of the theories put forward by the experts. There is no consensus among them on why exactly China is doing what it is. I should stress here these are theories put forward by soldier scholars who admit they are speculating based on the input they have. Some of the people in the media who usually write in favour of the government have said that there is no intrusion at all, and no problem in Ladakh. In short, China knows what we want, but we dont know what they want. This isnt a good starting point for any negotiation. India is a democracy and therefore in some ways it has fewer options. The government faces much more pressure from the media and the Opposition to provide an immediate solution (meaning withdrawal of Chinese troops), and if such a thing happens then victory can be declared. Modi himself has not taken either the country as a whole or the Opposition parties into confidence on what is happening and what has happened. We havent even officially been told what the position is over the land lost between Fingers 4 to 8. The media, which puts other parties under pressure at such times, is giving Modi a lot of rope. China can play a longer and bigger game strategically. Its leadership faces no media pressure and so it can pursue its long-term objectives by keeping its rivals unstable through such things as this current Ladakh occupation. What are its long-term strategic objectives and how are they aligned to the current crisis? What does it ultimately want? The experts have no idea. One only hopes Modi and his government does, as they give up the military option. The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission decided on Friday that former Gov. John Hickenlooper violated the provisions of Amendment 41, the state's ethics law, in two of six cases where he accepted private flights in 2018 that went against the amendment's ban on gifts from corporations to elected officials. The federal Liberal-National Coalition government announced yesterday the axing of childcare subsidies that were introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The move will deepen a social crisis confronting working class families amid widespread job cuts, pay reductions and high costs of living. Education Minister Dan Tehan told the media that the scheme, introduced by the government in early April, would end on July 12. Childcare workers also would be cut off JobKeeper, a multi-billion dollar program under which the government has paid a substantial portion of the wages bill of private businesses. The removal of JobKeeper pay subsidies, originally promised for six months, paves the way for sackings and wage cuts. As the WSWS noted when the governments childcare subsidies were unveiled, they amounted to a $1.6 billion bailout for the private corporations that dominate the sector. They were aimed at ensuring the revenue of the lucrative industry, after enrolments plummeted when COVID-19 restrictions were introduced and hundreds of thousands of workers were stood-down or laid-off. Under the program, the government provided cash handouts of up to 50 percent of pre-pandemic revenue to private childcare operators. This was given on the basis that the centres remain open throughout the pandemic and provide fee-free childcare. In addition to boosting the fortunes of childcare businesses, the subsidy was aimed at ensuring that broad sections of the working class, especially in manufacturing, mining and construction, remained on the job despite the health risks associated with COVID-19. Tehans abrupt announcement is part of a broader roll-back of limited relief measures that were introduced when the pandemic began, and that were always geared to the interests of big business. The decision goes hand in hand with the rapid and premature overturning of pandemic safety measures by federal, state and territory governments, Labor and Liberal alike, including the resumption of face-to-face classroom teaching. It is a component of a pro-business offensive aimed at forcing workers back into their places of employment, despite the ongoing dangers of the coronavirus, to resume corporate profit-making. At the same time, governments, corporations and the unions are coming together to implement further pro-business restructuring of the economy, aimed at slashing wages, increasing casual and precarious employment, and clearing the way for a continuous offensive against working conditions. The end of the childcare subsidy will intensify the hardships facing working class families. A survey of 2,280 parents by advocacy group, The Parenthood, found that in more than 60 percent of households, one parent would be required to reduce their working hours because they could not afford full childcare fees. Georgie Dent, a spokesperson for the group, said the return to pre-COVID fees will put an enormous amount of pressure on the sector because services will not be able to function viably if up to a third of families have to take their children out. Dent pointed to the social impact, stating: We also know that is going to be really devastating for the children themselves, because they will miss out on all the proven, long-term, quantifiable benefits that kids who access early education and care derive. This month, Goodstart Early Learning, the countrys largest provider, conducted a survey of 33,000 families enrolled in its 665 private childcare centres. It found that 54 percent had experienced a decline in household income since March. The average reduction was a staggering 41 percent. Some 37 percent of families said they would be compelled to withdraw their children from childcare or reduce hours if the subsidies were removed. Around 45 percent said their income would not return to pre-pandemic levels prior to the then scheduled ending of the subsidy. The wind-back of the measure will result in a further consolidation of the largely privatised sector. The largest businesses will be able to offset the impact of any reduction in demand. They will be aided by an additional $708 million in government funding, amounting to about 25 percent of pre-pandemic revenue. A number of smaller operators will likely go bust. The withdrawal of JobKeeper is aimed at ensuring that the brunt of the sectors crisis will be borne by its lowly-paid workforce. Under the scheme the government paid up to 80 percent of an employees pre-pandemic wage, capped to $1,500 a fortnight. The identity of businesses that successfully signed up to the program is shrouded in secrecy, but it appears that they were primarily larger corporations. Childcare workers have reported having their hours slashed, as companies sought to prevent paying anything on top of the $1,500. Now they confront the prospect of further pay cuts, lay-offs and cuts to conditions. Childcare workers protest in Sydney over wages and conditions in 2018 Business commentators welcomed the government announcement. The Conversations Michelle Grattan wrote: The removal of free childcare will be a big first test of the political reaction to the government winding back COVID emergency help. The federal Labor Party opposition cynically bemoaned the end of the subsidy, with senior ministers feigning concern over its impact on working families. Significantly, however, Labors childcare spokeswoman, Amanda Rishworth, condemned the move primarily because it could obstruct the corporate elites back-to-work campaign. This could well act as a handbrake on the economy, Rishworth said. If women and families are not able to access affordable childcare, how are they going to get back to work? Childcare is a massive social issue because successive governments, Labor and Liberal alike, have privatised the sector. The federal Labor government of Paul Keating began a pro-market overhaul in the 1990s. Before then, 85 percent of childcare services were provided on a not-for-profit basis. Now, almost 50 percent of the sector is in the hands of businesses. This has resulted in some of the highest childcare costs in the world. A study by Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) last year found that household childcare costs had increased by 145 percent since 2002. It reported that childcare costs account for a massive 27 percent of average household income. The author also recommends: Australian government hands more cash to big business as recession deepens [6 June 2020] Australia: NSW government pushes public sector wage freeze [5 June 2020] Oppose the premature lifting of COVID-19 safety restrictions! [3 June 2020] Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh and EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan reached consensus on the point of time for the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) to take effect, during their phone talks on June 8. Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh talks over the phone with EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan on June 8 The talks took place right after the Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) had ratified the deal earlier the same day. According to the EUs internal procedures, the EVFTA needs the European Parliaments ratification and then the European Councils approval to come into force. On February 12 this year, the European Parliament ratified the agreement with 63,35 percent of votes in favour. The European Council also approved the trade pact on March 30 and sent a document to Vietnam on April 24 to inform about the EUs completion of its last legal procedure. Meanwhile, the EVFTA sailed through the Vietnamese NA on June 8 with the support of all lawmakers present at the plenum. Under Article 17.16 of this deal, the EVFTA will take effect on the first day of the second month after the month when both sides inform each other about the completion of corresponding legal procedures for the enforcement, or another date agreed on by both sides. According to Vietnams 2016 law on international treaties, after the NA issued a resolution ratifying the EVFTA (usually one week), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will announce the countrys completion of domestic legal procedures to the EU. As the EU already gave the notification to Vietnam in April, Vietnams coming announcement will also set the date for the EVFTA to take effect for both sides, August 1 as expected. In case the country wishes the agreement to become effective on an earlier date, it will have to discuss with the EU and wait for results of the blocs internal consultation. If the internal consultation lasts for more than three weeks, it will be hard for the Foreign Ministry of Vietnam to send the announcement of the countrys completion of internal procedures to the EU before July 1, according to the officials./.VNA BCCL Mumbai, the worst affected city in India due to the COVID-19 pandemic crossed another grim milestone on Tuesday as it passed the 50,000 mark. As of Tuesday morning, Mumbai's tally was at 50,085 including 26,345 active cases. Read more Here's more top news of the day: 1) 20-Yr-Old Dalit Youth Allegedly Beaten To Death For Relationship With Upper Caste Girl In Pune Representational Image Even as the country fights the coronavirus pandemic, the caste evil which has plagued India since ages doesn't seem to be going away. Instead, in these trying times, murders and lynching are happening alongside. Read more 2) Dalit Teen Allegedly Shot Dead By Upper Caste Youth After Argument Over Entry In Temple In UP Representational Image According to various reports, four youth in the Domkheda village came to 17-year-old Vikas Jatav's house at night and shot him dead while he was sleeping. The accused belongs to an upper caste. Read more 3) Mumbai-Born Nurse Rija Abraham Conferred With UK's Corona Critical Worker Hero Title Twitter Rija Abraham, a Mumbai-born nurse working in the United Kingdom's Harlow town, has been conferred with the title of Corona Critical Worker Hero. Rija assists the surgical team at the hospital. Read more 4) In Yet Another Shocking Case Of Animal Cruelty, Jackal Dies After Biting Explosive-Laden Meat BCCL In the past few days, we have several cases of shocking incidents of animal cruelty from across the country that had surfaced. And it appears like there is no end to such shocking human behaviour. Read more 5) Are Asymptomatic COVID-19 Patients Silent Super-Spreader Of The Deadly Virus Reuters Over the past one week, India has witnessed a massive surge in COVID-19 cases across the country with cases almost touching the 10,000-mark and set to surpass the number in a few days. Read more India may be the fifth worst-affected country by the coronavirus disease, it has the highest the number of serious Covid-19 patients after United States. According to data analysis by Hindustan Times Hindi language publication Hindustan, the US has 16,923 patients in serious condition and India has 8,944. Brazil is now the new global hotspot of the country, but even there, the number of patients with serious conditions is less than India. Brazil has thrice the number of Covid-19 patients that India, but the number of serious patients is 8,318, Hindustan reported. In Russia, the number of Covid-19 patients in serious condition is one-fourth of India. In Spain, Britain, Germany and Italy, their number is less than 1,000. The Union health ministry had earlier said that less than five per cent of the Covid-19 patients in the country need intensive care. Out of these, 2.25 per cent were admitted to the ICU and 1.91 peer cent needed oxygen support. The ministry also said that only few people needed ventilator support. Most of these patients belonged to Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. India recorded nearly 10,000 cases on Monday which took its Covid-19 tally to 2.6 lakh. Mumbai, the countrys financial capital and the worst hit city by the dreaded virus outbreak, alone saw its tally of confirmed cases crossing 50,000. India also recorded the deadliest day due to Covid-19 outbreak, a compilation of data released by states showed on Monday when the fatality count rose by 342, taking the total number of deaths due to the illness to 7,476. Mondays jump in fatalities is only the second time the number has been in the 300s. On Friday, this number was exactly 300, the data released by officials across the country showed. Tamil Nadu, which has the second-highest number of infections, added 1,542. Jerry Falwell apologizes for racially insensitive tweet; Liberty U staffers resign Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. has apologized for a racially insensitive tweet he posted last month making fun of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's blackface controversy after some staffers resigned and African American alumni demanded an apology. I understand that by tweeting an image to remind all of the governors racist past I actually refreshed the trauma that image had caused and offended some by using the image to make a political point, he tweeted on Monday. Based on our long relationships, they uniformly understood this was not my intent, but because it was the result I have deleted the tweet and apologize for any hurt my effort caused, especially within the African American community. On May 27, the 57-year-old head of the Virginia-based evangelical institution posted a tweet joking that he created a face mask featuring a school photo of Northam in blackface. The photo in question surfaced last year and caused major controversy for the governor and Falwells tweet was seemingly a jab at the Democrat politician for issuing a face mask requirement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Falwell initially refused to remove the tweet or apologize but has since deleted the controversial tweet. His apology came after a group of 35 African American Liberty alumni signed an open letter to Falwell denouncing the tweet and his overall political rhetoric and activism. The June 1 letter accused Falwell of defending inappropriate statements and behaviors of politicians, belittling staff, students and parents as well as disrespecting people of other faiths. Pastor Chris Williamson of Strong Tower Bible Church, the lead signatory of the letter, sent a follow-up letter to Falwell commending him for the apology and expressing optimism that healing and reconciliation can occur. Liberty deserves leadership that is Christlike in its actions and rhetoric, for you and those under your leadership, read the new letter, a copy of which was emailed to The Christian Post. The advice, counsel, and spiritual covering of pastors was important to your father [Liberty founder Jerry Falwell Sr.] and we believe it would also serve you and your leadership well. According to The Washington Post, at least three African American Liberty staffers resigned after Falwells tweet. But Falwell told the newspaper in an interview that he was unaware of the resignations. Among the resignations is the universitys former director of diversity retention, LeeQuan McLaurin. McLaurin told The Washington Post that Falwells tweet was tipping for larger racial issues he experienced at Liberty and has contributed to a drop in the university's residential African American enrollment from 2007 to 2018. Keyvon Scott, a former online admissions counselor, announced on Twitter Monday that he also resigned Liberty University. I cannot in good faith encourage people to attend a school with racially insensitive leadership and culture, Scott tweeted. It is a poor reflection of what Jesus Christ requires of us. Falwells apology came after he met with African American members of Liberty's board of trustees and some alumni on Monday. Among them was Allen McFarland, a black pastor and vice-chair of the Libertys board of trustees. I just wanted to get with him today with my heart, McFarland told The News & Advance without going into too much detail about the conversation. Williamson told The Christian Post in an earlier interview before Falwell apologized that he was "disappointed" by Falwells actions. "I am just disappointed, like many other graduates, about his rhetoric and statements over the last several years because I believe they're a poor representation of Jesus and the mission of Liberty University," said Williamson. "This alumni letter is not about Gov. Northam, it's about Falwell using racist imagery like that as a joke and an opportunity to attack a political opponent. That is the behavior of a political candidate, not a Christian leader of one of the largest evangelical institutions in the world. Williamsons follow-up letter after the apology implored Falwell to have more ethnically diverse pastors and advisers in leadership roles at Liberty and consider creating an advisory council that meets with you frequently for prayer, spiritual exhortation, and accountability. In Born in Evin, the German actress Maryam Zaree says that shes tired of playing television cliches of Middle Eastern refugees fleeing from made-up horrors. She wants to tell the story of the real horrors that she and her parents fled in the 1980s in Iran, where Zaree was born in the notorious Evin Prison for political dissidents. The problem is she has no memories of that time and her parents refuse to speak of it. In her directorial debut, Zaree interviews family, friends, sociologists and psychologists to try to demystify the circumstances of her birth. She doesnt arrive at clear-cut answers but instead comes to a realization that displaces her from the center of her story. MIDLAND, MI - The American Red Cross has created an Immediate Assistance Program to provide emergency cash to mid-Michiganders affected by flooding on the Tittabawassee and other rivers. The heads of households that were destroyed or suffered major damage in the floods, whether the homes were rented or owned, are eligible to apply, according to a news release. Residents can apply by calling 1-800 RED-CROSS and selecting option four between 7:30 a.m. and 10 p.m. on weekdays, or 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. The deadline is Monday, June 22. The program has distributed more than $200,000 to date, said Perry Rech, Red Cross Michigans Regional Communication and Marketing Director. There isnt necessarily a cap on how much can be given to victims, Rech said, so that number can grow as more residents apply. Families can expect about $450 in cash relief per person in their household, with some variables, he said. The money is not a loan and does not have to be paid back, said Jenny Legaspi, Red Cross liason. That is a gift we give to the disaster victims to help get their recovery started, Legaspi said. Each family that applies will have their homes damage assessed in cooperation with the Red Cross local emergency management partners, Rech said. Damage assessment is still ongoing, there are still teams on the ground throughout the watershed," Rech said. It was really far-reaching. The organizations relief efforts include providing housing for more than 180 residents still displaced by the floods. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are being housed in local hotels and motels, Rech said. The Red Cross is working with 18 local establishments to provide the housing, he said. To learn about more Red Cross resources available to residents, enter your zip code on this website or call 211, a news release states. Read more: Gale Warnings issued for Lake Michigan, Saginaw Bay, Lake Superior ahead of storm Whitmer will soon request federal major disaster declaration for mid-Michigan floods Gail: Forgot that. Chalk up a point for Marianne. Bret: More seriously, I think he should avoid some of the obvious names out there, like Stacey Abrams, who has never held any sort of high government office, despite her background as a legislative leader, or Kamala Harris, another former prosecutor who ran a terrible campaign, and go for someone like Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, who could appeal to middle-of-the-road voters, especially in the Midwest. And, honestly, I wish Biden hadnt boxed himself in by declaring in advance that his running mate would be a woman. There are a lot of good male candidates I can think of, too. Gail: I was happy with Bidens promise to put a woman on his ticket. The history of discrimination against women in politics especially when it comes to executive offices is long and bleak. The only one who ever got a major party nomination was the wife of a former president. Given that there are a ton of excellent, qualified women available, this is just something we ought to see. Bret: But about something else you just said: I know Elizabeth Warren isnt too far left for you. Is there anyone in the Democratic field who is? Gail: Not in terms of aspirations. Im all for using tax and social policy to close a bit of the gap between the ridiculously wealthy top one percent and the masses of struggling families who need more government support. But I want to see the party rally behind a platform that the Republicans cant twist around to scare average voters. For instance, Medicare for All means lots of different things to different people. For some it just means making sure everybody is able to get good health coverage at a price they can afford. For others, it means a socialized system that wipes out private health insurance. That idea unnerves the many Americans who like the insurance they get at work. So I didnt think it made sense to nominate a candidate like Bernie Sanders who made it the centerpiece of his campaign. Were both still on the Anybody But Donald team, right? Bret: Well, I suppose that if Joe Stalin rose from the dead and got the Democratic nomination, Id have to rethink my A.B.D. membership. But otherwise, yes. Trump is to our nations agonies what salt is to a wound. He is to our collective intelligence what a frying pan is to an egg. He is to the interests of a better world what a lemon is to the cause of hot milk. - One person has been confirmed dead at Odawna at Circle after over five non-stop hours of heavy rainfall - The deceased was believed to have been electrocuted and later died during the heavy downpour - An eye-witness report indicated that the deceased was in his flooded home packing items when the incident happened Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in As has been the norm for years now, after every heavy downpour that leaves the city flooded, Ghanaians wake up to the news of either death or destruction of properties. News reaching YEN.com.gh has revealed that one person has been confirmed dead at Odawna at Circle after over five non-stop hours of heavy rainfall in Accra, Tuesday dawn, June 9, 2020. The death was confirmed military man, Lt. Col. Michael Mfum from the 48 Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces during the rescue mission. File Photo of a flooded area Source: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: NDC, other parties set to report gov't & EC to ECOWAS over new voters' register According to a report filed by JoyNews, the deceased was believed to have been electrocuted and later died during the heavy downpour. An eye-witness report indicated that the deceased was in his flooded home packing items when the incident happened. As usual, the affected victims are calling on NADMO and other benevolent individuals to come to their aid as they have lost most of their properties worth thousands of cedis. READ ALSO: COVID-19: Ghana 90 cases away from hitting 10,000; 4 more deaths recorded In other news, sixteen out of the 48 recorded Ghanaians who lost their lives from the coronavirus disease have been buried by the Environmental Health Division of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. Among the 16 bodies buried was the 9-year-old boy who reportedly passed away at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. READ ALSO: COVID-19: 111 health workers test positive for virus in Central Region 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 Five candidates who are planning to run for Manhattan district attorney in 2021 co-signed a letter criticizing the incumbent, Cyrus Vance Jr., for asking the state for authority to hold accused looters in jail ahead of trial. Vance asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo to enact an executive order or the state Legislature to pass a law that would eliminate the practice of cash bail, but allow judges to order defendants to be held in jail ahead of trial if they are deemed dangerous or have a clear risk of re-offense, CBS 2 reported on Wednesday. Vance said he thinks those at risk of reoffending include the alleged burglars who looted stores across the city last week in a crime wave loosely connected to the recent protests against police brutality and systemic racism. But under the changes to New Yorks bail law that went into effect on Jan. 1, most cases of burglary arent bail-eligible, meaning that alleged looters must be allowed to walk free after arrest. This is about people who are taking advantage of this moment when people want to come out and protest peacefully, Vance said about the looters on CBS 2. Im calling for more judicial discretion. In a letter shared exclusively with City & State, Vances opponents said the district attorneys remarks were his latest harmful political stunt. Tahanie Aboushi, Alvin Bragg, Janos Marton, Eliza Orlins and Assemblyman Dan Quart, who signed on to the letter, all are running as progressive candidates in the 2021 Democratic primary for Manhattan district attorney. Aboushi and Marton are civil rights attorneys, Bragg is a former chief deputy state attorney general, Orlins is a public defender and Quart is a state lawmaker and civil litigator and defense attorney. Vance has not yet announced whether hell run for re-election for the office he has held since 2010. Many observers assume he wont, since the Democrat has come under fire in the last few years for a variety of offenses, including an alleged soft-pedaling of his case against convicted rapist and Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Vances opponents accused the district attorney of using his platform to call for more incarceration, urging Governor Cuomo to expand bail eligible offenses in order to unlawfully detain people protesting the murder of George Floyd and the many Black and brown people killed by police violence. Candidate Statement on DA Vance_060920 by City & State NY on Scribd But the candidates accusations against Vance seem to be well beyond what the district attorney actually asked for. The letter says Vance is calling for the incarceration of Black people on unaffordable money bail, in violation of the letter and spirit of the law, for exercising their constitutional right to protest systemic racism in our city. In fact, Vance specifically said in the CBS 2 interview that he would like cash bail to be eliminated entirely a position that he has held for years, along with the citys four other district attorneys. Along with that, however, Vance has asked for judicial discretion, or a dangerousness standard, that could allow for the alleged looters to be held pre-trial. Cuomo and the state legislature have repeatedly declined to allow judicial discretion in the state of New York, even as they tweaked the 2019 bail law earlier this year. Vance asking for an emergency order highlights the fact that certain crimes such as looting arent eligible for bail but nevertheless may seem more egregious to the public. Other critics of the current bail law, such as NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea and the New York Post, have used similar tactics to discredit the law, and were instrumental in passing a change to the law in April that allowed defendants to be detained pre-trial in more circumstances. In a phone call Tuesday with City & State, Quart said that Vances request was tantamount to lawlessness. What hes saying is I want powers to do things which the legislature never allowed. But the candidates letter also accused Vance of calling for the incarceration of those protesting systemic racism. While there is disagreement on the question of whether looting should be considered an act of protest, Vance attempted to draw a clear line between the two. While he asked for authority to hold looters in jail, he also announced on Friday that he would decline to prosecute the charges commonly brought against peaceful protesters, including unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct. However, he said, if evidence emerges that any individuals personally participated in violence against police officers, destruction, or looting, such individuals will be charged with appropriate crimes. Vances call for action by Cuomo and the Legislature is likely to go unanswered. Theres no indication that the Legislature plans to revisit bail laws after changing the law just two months ago. Cuomo has publicly agreed with Vances call to hold looters in jail, but doesnt think a change to the law is necessary to do so. Rich Azzopardi, senior advisor to the governor, claims that the looters could be charged with burglary in the second degree, with is a bail-eligible offense under certain circumstances. But David Hoovler, president of the District Attorneys Association of the state of New York, argued that Cuomos office is asking prosecutors to overcharge defendants. A spokesman for the Legal Aid Society told City & State that most cases of looting are facing the lesser charge of burglary in the third degree. That isnt bail-eligible under current law, which means people accused of looting cant be held in jail while they await their trial. Turkish Airlines will gradually reinstate flights from its hub in Istanbul to Belgrade, Sarajevo and Skopje towards the end of the month. The carrier will serve countries with which Turkey has held direct talks with over the resumption of operations. Services to the three cities are expected to restart on June 21 and will initially run three times per week, each Monday, Friday and Sunday. Flights to Belgrade will operate with the Airbus A321 aircraft, while the A320 will be deployed to Sarajevo and Skopje. At this point, Skopje Airport remains closed, although the countrys Civil Aviation Agency has said it expects for commercial services to resume during the second half of the month. Changes to the schedule remain possible. Turkish Airlines believes it will take four months to return to near full operations. It plans to gradually build up its number of destinations to 99 countries in September although this may be subject to change in line with developments. The carrier flew to 126 countries prior to the pandemic. "Following two months spent away from the skies, our global brand is preparing for the new era by coordinating with national and international authorities", it said. Turkish Airlines is among the busiest carriers on several markets in the former Yugoslavia, among which are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Slovenia. The airline serves a total of eight destinations in the region, including Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Podgorica, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje and Zagreb. The Istanbul-based low cost carrier Pegasus, which also serves several destinations in the former Yugoslavia, is yet to announce its plans for the resumption of international flights, although all services have been cancelled until June 14, with the airline reinstating some domestic operations last week. Among local carriers, Air Serbia will resume services from Belgrade to Istanbul on June 15, although this is subject to change. Frankie & Benny's owner The Restaurant Group (TRG) is in talks with its landlords as it looks to close more than 100 sites. The company, whose 650 restaurants and pubs include the Wagamama and Garfunkel's brands, is planning not to reopen as many as 120 outlets after the lockdown ends, putting up to 3,000 jobs at risk. 'We are in discussions with our landlords regarding potential restructuring options for our leisure estate,' a TRG spokesman said, referring to the arm of its business that includes Frankie & Benny's, Coast to Coast and Garfunkel's. Struggling: TRG stressed that the restaurant sector is 'facing exceptional challenges' due to the lockdown The warning came as the boss of Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca said starting up again after the lockdown is 'going to be hell' for the restaurant industry. 'A lot of people are going to be nervous about coming out,' said Mark Selby, chief executive and co-founder of Wahaca. 'We've all got to do our jobs in making people feel confident, making them feel safe, but also giving them that experience that hospitality is.' TRG stressed that the restaurant sector is 'facing exceptional challenges' due to the lockdown, and was 'already facing significant challenges prior to the onset of Covid-19'. In March, it shut 60 of its Chiquito Mexican-style outlets, as well as its Food & Fuel chain of pubs, after placing them into administration. The company, which has about 22,000 staff on furlough, is one of Britain's largest restaurant operators. But analysts at Citi said it would benefit from selling its whole leisure business, saying that it comprises nearly half of the group's sites but is likely to account for only 20 per cent of profits in the 2021 financial year. The brokerage said: 'A clean exit would leave the group focused on its growth businesses, which we think have stronger prospects and would command a higher multiple.' Most of Wahaca's 1,000 employees have also been furloughed, but Selby called on the Government to go further to protect jobs and firms that will continue to struggle even after the lockdown ends. 'I can guarantee for the next six to eight months, with sales where we expect them to be, we are going to need serious rent concessions.' Every smartphone can double as a powerful gaming device. There's just one problem: They don't have buttons. Well, not beyond the tiny nubs that line either side of their wafer-thin frame. If you're craving real buttons and triggers, you basically have two options: a wireless controller and phone clip combo, or a third-party accessory that turns your device into a Nintendo Switch clone. One name dominates the latter category: Gamevice. The California-based company wasn't the first to market, but its initial effort stood out with decent if not mind-blowing design and build quality. These days, the market is littered with alternatives developed by Chinese companies like Flydigi and Saitake. They can be hard to come by, though, and most rely on a Bluetooth connection. Razer made a similar product called the Junglecat, but the detachable controllers snapped on to cases that only supported a handful of devices. Gamevice is still around, but its current offerings are similarly designed for specific iPhone and Android models. Enter the Razer Kishi. The $80 Junglecat follow-up, co-designed by Gamevice, seems, on paper, the best solution to date. It has a wired connection, for instance, and doesn't need to be charged. The Android version supports almost any smartphone, too. But how does it compare with a traditional controller and phone clip combo? Quite admirably, provided you have smaller hands or don't mind playing with shrunken sticks and triggers. In its disassembled form, the Kishi is smaller than a traditional controller. Nick Summers Connecting your phone is simple. Flip the Kishi over and you'll find a plastic plate with some release latches above and below. Push these outward and the plate will detach, revealing a rubberized belt that gently stretches the two sides of the controller. Razer recommends pushing your phone into the Lightning or USB-C connector first then easing the left side of the controller until you have enough space to secure the other end of the display. I never felt that the Kishi was going to slacken and allow my OnePlus 8 to wriggle loose. If you use a case, however, you'll need to take it off. That adds to the assembly process and could be annoying if you're traveling on a plane or crowded train, for instance and don't have an obvious place to put it. I don't have that problem with the phone clips I've bought for Microsoft's official Xbox One controller and 8BitDos wonderful SN30 Pro+ pad. In its disassembled form, however, the Kishi is smaller than both of these accessories. So small, in fact, that it can slide into the fraying back pocket of my favorite jeans. At 265 grams, it's also a touch lighter than my Xbox One controller. To be frank, I've never used a pad and phone clip outside the house I just don't want the extra bulk in my backpack. But Kishi's dinky form factor, is a tempting proposition. In a post-COVID-19 world, I can imagine myself taking it out and playing something more involved than Threes and Alto's Odyssey on the bus. A better point of comparison is arguably the Switch. Each side of the Kishi controller is slightly wider than a standard Joy-Con. Combined with my OnePlus 8, the Kishi was roughly 20mm broader than Nintendo's hybrid system. It might not sound like much, but trust me, the extra width has a massive impact on how the Kishi feels over longer play sessions. The larger size was never uncomfortable, but I would often find myself with both elbows planted on the table or putting the entire device down between online multiplayer matches. Workers can refuse to return to their offices after coronavirus restrictions ease if conditions are not safe, unions have claimed. Big firms, such as banking giants Westpac, have started to slowly bring some employees back to the office, after more than two months of working from home. But strict control measures are being brought in place to prevent against future COVID-19 outbreaks, and employees can refuse to attend if it's not up to scratch. 'Workers have the right to refuse work that is a risk to their health and safety,' Liam O'Brien, assistant secretary of the ACTU said. A risk to health and safety would include an office forcing employees to sit close together, hot desk or share cramped facilities, such as lifts. Temperature checks (pictured in Perth on May 18) could become a daily occurrence for office workers as they return to the office after months of working from home Cramming into office lifts (pictured) will become a thing of the past thanks to strict coronavirus distancing rules Employees in a high-risk category, such as having severe asthma or another respiratory problem, could also argue it was unsafe for them to return while the virus is active. But lawyer Erin Kidd warned that it is a legally grey area, and employees might face disciplinary action if they refuse returning to the office unless they are high-risk. 'Employers need to have a COVID-safe plan in place,' lawyer Erin Kidd told the AFR. 'An employee must mot be in a high-risk health category - there's no other reasonable ground for an employee to continue working from home. 'The employer can say "look it's time to come back" and if the employee doesn't, it becomes a disciplinary issue.' Temperature checks (pictured at a Melbourne school on May 26) may be in place for large offices, such as Sydney's major banks Social distancing will become the norm in offices, with employees encouraged to keep 1.5 metres apart (pictured, a social distancing sign in Sydney on May 13) The ACTU has said it is the employer's job to ensure correct COVID-safe measures are put in place. 'Employers have obligations to ensure the health and safety of workers and others,' the union said. 'They must have a plan on what will be done to protect and support workers, and health and safety representatives must be consulted on this plan. Rigorous cleaning will have to be undertaken (pictured at a Melbourne school on May 25) to ensure offices are COVID-safe 'As with any other risk, employers must consider how to implement the most reliable ways to prevent harm.' In Westpac's trial, 500 staff will start returning to its Sydney, Adelaide and Perth offices from Wednesday. They will be temperature-checked when entering the office, with all staff given a permanent desk - signaling and end to hot-desking. Alternate desks will also be taped off to ensure people are social distancing, keeping at least 1.5 metres away from one another at all times. At Woodside's offices in Perth, bosses have gone a step further and introduced an alternating roster system where staff come to the office in selected groups which switch around. Hot desking will likely become a thing of the past, with employees given their own permanent desk in a more spread-out office (stock image) Commonwealth Bank is bringing half of its staff back to the office soon, using temperature checks and a four-person limit for the lifts. On May 5, treasurer Josh Frydenberg lit the fuse for restrictions to be gradually eased so employees to get back to work sooner to stop $4 billion being bled from the economy every week. Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy detailed what a COVID-19-safe workplace will look like, including staggered start times. He explained that workers making their way into the office or worksite at different times throughout the day could help lessen the spread of coronavirus on peak hour public transport. Employees may also be given staggered start times to ensure they are able to socially distance at busy train stations (pictured, signs at St Peters station in Sydney on May 19) 'We don't want everybody crowding on public transport at the same time,' he told reporters. 'We don't want everyone crowding in the lifts at the beginning of the day and the end of the day.' Despite many workplaces already offering hand sanitiser since the outbreak started, Prof Murphy said the frequency of hand cleaning will ramp up once offices are filled with more workers. 'If you are doing hot desks or sharing common spaces we want frequent cleaning, we want cleaning products everywhere,' he said. 'We want staff to have a responsibility for hygiene. Hand sanitiser everywhere. Everybody sanitising their hands.' Two people have been arrested by the police for allegedly possessing fake currency at Ayikai Doblo in the Ga West municipality of the Greater Accra Region, on Sunday. The Amasaman Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent (Chief Supt) Christopher Klomegah, who confirmed the arrest to the Ghanaian Times, in Accra, yesterday, said suspects, Stephen Addison and Francis Achina, were in the custody of the police assisting in investigations. Chief Supt Klomegah explained that while on patrol the police received a call from its control room that a mob attempted to lynch Addison for allegedly carrying fake currency in his vehicle, at Ayikai Doblo. He said police patrol team rescued and brought to the Amasaman Divisional Police Command Addison with blood all over his body. The Police Commander said Addison was rushed to the Amasaman Municipal Hospital and later to the Police Hospital, where he was treated and discharged, but was arrested by the police. Chief Supt Klomegah said an accomplice Achina escaped during the mob attack, but was later grabbed. He said when the police searched a Toyota Corolla with registration number GS 6927-13 belonging to the suspects and abandoned at the scene with deflated tyres, they found GH2170 (currency) believed to be fake. Chief Supt Klomegah said the vehicle was yet to be towed to the police station. 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 Lucknow, June 9 : The release of superstar Amitabh Bachchan's much-awaited film "Gulabo Sitabo" is barely three days away, but there is a sense of despondency is the air. The reason for this is that the film is releasing on the digital platform on June 12 and is not likely to have a theatrical release. Bachchan fans are naturally disappointed -- more so because "Gulabo Sitabo" has been shot extensively in Lucknow. "This is probably the first film that Amitabh Bachchan has shot in Lucknow and we were waiting eagerly to see it on the big screen. Watching a film -- that too, a Bachchan film -- on the OTT platform is just not acceptable," said Raju Sharma, a software engineer and a hardcore Bachchan fan. He said that Lucknowites had been waiting for "Gulabo Sitabo" for almost a year now. The film was shot in Lucknow in June last year. "We were ready to wait for another two months for cinema halls to open to see the film, but we will certainly not see the megastar on a tiny screen," he said. A number of local artists who were a part of the film when it was shot in Lucknow, are equally disappointed. One of the actors, who did not wish to be named, said, "I had saved up so that I could book one full show for my family and friends. I wanted them to see me share screen space with Mr Bachchan but the digital release has dashed my hopes. We cannot question it because it is the film maker's decision. If other films can wait for theatres to reopen, surely 'Gulabo Sitabo' could have waited too." Theatre owners are also disappointed with the digital release of "Gulabo Sitabo". "This was one of the films that we knew would bring back the audience to the theatres. Mr Bachchan in a film shot in Lucknow was the perfect recipe to drive away lockdown blues. We are not sure whether the film will get a theatrical release or not," said a manager of a local multiplex. "Gulabo Sitabo" is special for Uttar Pradesh since it is named after a popular puppet duo that had slipped into oblivion. The puppets were created by a Kayastha family in Pratapgarh -- ironically, a district to which Amitabh Bachchan's ancestors belong. Ram Niranjan Lal Srivastava belonged to Narharpur village in Pratapgarh and he was working in the Agricultural Institute in Prayagraj, then known as Allahabad, when he learnt the art of puppetry. In the sixties, Srivastava created the Gulabo-Sitabo puppets and presented them at shows as warring sisters-in-law. He also wrote short poems focusing on social evils that were a part of the Gulabo-Sitabo shows. After Srivastava, his nephew Alakh Narain Srivastava carried forward the tradition. He also trained other people in the art and Gulabo-Sitabo went on to become an integral part of the folklore. With the advent of TV and computer games, Gulabo-Sitabo slowly drifted into oblivion. Members of the Srivastava family are not sure whether the film "Gulabo Sitabo" has any connection with his puppet characters but added that 'the mere title has evoked so much interest in the puppets and we can hope for a massive revival of the art.' The film, according to sources, revolves around the love-hate relationship and the banter between a house owner, played by Bachchan, and his tenant, played by Ayushman Khurana -- Shades of "Gulabo-Sitabo" definitely. Kathy Sullivan and Victor Vescovo after their dive to Challenger Deep on June 8, 2020. (Enrique Alvarez/EYOS) First American Woman to Walk in Space Reaches Oceans Deepest Point Former NASA astronaut and oceanographer Kathy Sullivan, who was the first American woman to walk in space, reached another milestone on June 7 by becoming the first woman to reach the lowest point on Earth. Sullivan, 68, reached the deepest known spot in the oceanknown as the Challenger Deepinside the Pacific Oceans Mariana Trench, after completing a 35,810-foot dive on June 7, according to EYOS Expeditions, which coordinated the missions logistics. What a way to kick off #WorldOceansDay Dr. Kathy Sullivan becomes 1st woman to Challenger Deep & then connects to the @Space_Station Private companies leading the way in next generation of exploration @SpaceX @tritonsubs @CaladanOceanic https://t.co/U4NMc8iLa1 Photo:E. Alvarez pic.twitter.com/7nhqtUBKoY EYOS Expeditions (@EYOSExpeditions) June 8, 2020 The geologist and oceanographer, who became the first American woman to walk in space in 1984, was the eighth person to reach the spot in a submersible named the Limiting Factor (LF). The low point of the Mariana Trench, a great canyon below the Pacific, was reached by U.S. Navy Lt. Don Walsh and the late Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard in 1960. They spent 20 minutes there in the submersible craft Trieste. In 2012, Titanic, Avatar, and Aliens, film director James Cameron became the first person to make a solo dive to the spot. Sullivan and Victor L. Vescovo, a 54-year-old explorer and retired U.S. Navy officer funding the mission, remained at the Challenger Deep for about 90 minutes, capturing images of the trench from the LF some 200 miles southwest of Guam, before beginning their four-hour journey back to the surface. The deep-sea research submersible, which was designed by Florida-based company Triton Submarines, is the first-ever vehicle to have repeatedly reached the Challenger Deep. As a hybrid oceanographer and astronaut this was an extraordinary day, a once-in-a-lifetime day, seeing the moonscape of the Challenger Deep and then comparing notes with my colleagues on the ISS about our remarkable reusable inner-space outer-spacecraft, Sullivan said in a statement released June 8. Just back up from Challenger Deep! My co-pilot was Dr. Kathy Sullivan now the first woman to the bottom of the ocean and a former astronaut as well as NOAA Administrator! Big congratulations to her! This was my 3rd time to the bottom. Well done by the crew, Triton, and EYOS. Victor Vescovo (@VictorVescovo) June 7, 2020 Just back up from Challenger Deep! My co-pilot was Dr. Kathy Sullivannow the first woman to the bottom of the ocean and a former astronaut as well as NOAA administrator! Big congratulations to her! Vescovo wrote on Twitter early June 7. This was my third time to the bottom. Well done by the crew, Triton, and EYOS. The team completed its dive on June 7, and is expected to return to the island of Guam on June 15. EYOS Expeditions founder Rob McCallum described the spot as the most exclusive destination on Earth. More people have been to the moon than to the bottom of the ocean, he said. As we glided along the ocean floor, it reminded me of video clips from astronauts flying over the lunar surface, Sullivan told The Times of London. Moonscape was the word that kept coming back to melike I was seeing the moon right here on our own planet. If youre looking for that absolutely glorious picture postcard view, space wins it every time. But if you want to be dazzled beyond anything you can imagine about the variety and abundance of life on Earth, go into the sea, she continued. She added that she hopes future generations will be compelled to appreciate the mystery of the ocean. I hope that spark is ignited within them of intrigue and curiosity, about the ingenuity of engineering, of science, of the mystery of the ocean and that it would inspire another young Kathy Sullivan, who as a teenager interested in the ocean would never have imagined being the first woman to reach the bottom of it. Reuters contributed to this report. Honda suspended work at its production facilities all over the world after discovering a computer virus had infiltrated the company's servers. Factories were taken offline for a full day at the company's plants in the US, Brazil, India, Turkey, Italy, and Japan, while Honda investigated the virus. The virus was initially identified on internal servers at the Honda's Tokyo headquarters, and the company said it found further evidence the virus had spread through its network. Honda confirmed it had identified a virus on the company's internal servers and suspended production at its facilities all around the world while it investigated 'Honda can confirm that a cyber-attack has taken place on the Honda network,' a Honda spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC. Honda says the virus had affected the company's email and other internal systems, but promised that there was no data breach or other risk of personal data being exposed. The effects of the attack also seemed to have extended to Honda's Automobile Customer Service, which confirmed in a Twitter post that the company's financial services and customer support 'are experiencing technical difficulties and are unavailable.' Honda said that many of the production facilities affected by the suspension had been brought back online after a day, but a few facilities remained closed pending further investigation. Those facilities include plants in Ohio, Turkey, and motorcycle assembly factories in Brazil and India. The company says no sensitive data was breached and that most production facilities that were closed have been brought back online Some cybersecurity experts have speculated that the virus could have been a ransomware attack, in which hackers use encryption tools to keep a person from being able to open or access their own files. Ransomware attacks are common hacking tactic, but they don't necessarily give hackers access to protected information on a target's systems. Honda hasn't offered further details on the virus or who might be behind the attack, but said it expected the attack would cause 'minimal business impact.' MEXICO CITY (AP) Ten more people in Mexico have died from drinking alcohol adulterated with methanol, bringing the death toll in the latest incident to 18, authorities said Monday. Adulterated liquor has cost more than a hundred lives in the country since the coronavirus pandemic began. The government of the southern state of Guerrero said Monday the latest 18 deaths occurred in and around the mountain township of Tlapa de Comonfort, after inhabitants drank a tequila-type drink from little-known brands. called Rancho Escondido. Another 16 people were hospitalized for poisoning symptoms; four remain in serious condition. The area is known for its impoverished farming hamlets. The Guerrero Health Department said the liquor was labeled as distilled agave, the cactus-like plant from which both tequila and mescal are made. Because tequila production is strictly limited to certain regions, drinks made outside those areas are sometimes labelled agave liquor. The department said at least three brands were implicated in the poisonings: Rancho Escondido," Jalon and 100 Anos. The department said the victims were admitted to hospitals in such serious condition that they rapidly died. Authorities seized 505 bottles of the liquor from four stores in the area. Such deaths have mounted in Mexico since coronavirus lockdowns began and many towns banned legitimate liquor sales. Many people also lost their jobs and apparently became unable to buy more professionally made liquors. But officials have not said whether the poisonings have arisen from either of those factors. In May, authorities said as many as 40 people died after drinking methanol in two states in central Mexico. The suspect liquor in that case was a little-known brand called Refino, which translates roughly as very fine. In late April, 25 people died in the state of Jalisco after drinking a cheap brand of cane alcohol known as El Chorrito. Methanol is a poisonous cousin of the ethanol alcohol in normal liquors and cannot be smelled or tasted in drinks. It causes organ and brain damage, and its symptoms include chest pain, nausea, hyperventilation, blindness and even coma. Sonya Duhe, who recently left Loyola University's communications school after a decade as its director, was abruptly nixed as the next journalism dean at Arizona State University after ASU began investigating allegations by more than 20 former Loyola students who said Duhe had a history of making racist and insensitive comments. ASU had announced Duhes hiring on March 6. She was set to officially become dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication on July 1, but ASU terminated the contract Sunday night amid a growing furor over the allegations, which had been covered by student newspapers at both universities. A group of ASU students started a petition that garnered more than 3,000 signatures calling for the university to rescind Duhes appointment. Cronkite faculty members also sent a letter to ASU President Michael Crow asking for a meeting and expressing concerns about "erratic behavior and denigrating comments" during Duhes interactions with ASU staff in the past two weeks. Loyola officials said Monday that Duhe had already resigned and wouldnt be returning to the university. For now, the School of Communication and Design is being run by an interim director, Lisa Collins; a search for a permanent director is ongoing. +2 Loyola won't rehire Duhe after dean job yanked at Arizona university amid racism allegations Loyola University officials said late Sunday that they will proceed with plans to hire a successor for Sonya Duhe as director of the School of Tania Tetlow, Loyolas president, issued a letter Monday apologizing for the universitys handling of complaints about Duhe during her time there and promising to do better. The controversy over Duhes ASU appointment erupted last week against a backdrop of nationwide protests against racism and police brutality, and, in fact, it was a tweet from Duhe over the protests that set her undoing into motion. Duhes tweet said: For the family of George Floyd, the good police officers who keep us safe, my students, faculty and staff. Praying for peace this #BlackOutTuesday." Responding by Twitter, Whitney Woods, a 2015 Loyola graduate, called out what she said were racist and insensitive comments Duhe had made about her natural hair and identity as a black woman. Duhe eventually deleted her tweet, but by then, other students had added their own critical responses. Woods was one of two students, both of them black, who came forward to say they had filed complaints with Loyola about Duhe. Meanwhile, more than a dozen former students told Loyola's student paper, The Maroon, that they were subjected to racist comments, abusive behavior and unwarranted remarks about their physical appearance from Duhe while at Loyola. The State Press, the ASU paper, reported that it had spoken with 23 former students who reported similar encounters. Two gay former students told the ASU paper that Duhe made comments they considered homophobic, telling one that his voice was too "theatrical" and that he should stick to print journalism. Woods said she filed two bias incident reports against Duhe while at Loyola and was a witness to three other students human-resources complaints about Duhe. In one of those complaints, which Woods said she filed in late 2014, Duhe told her she didnt act black and asked about her African roots when Woods proposed the school host a black graduation celebration for students of color and first-generation college graduates. Leah Banks, a 2019 Loyola graduate, filed a human-resources complaint against Duhe in 2019 alleging verbal abuse, racial discrimination and frustrations with the senior journalism class taught by Duhe. Banks alleged that during an in-class session about photo headshots, Dr. Duhe said that girls of African-American descent should have their hair pressed or neatly combed, and not natural. She has said this numerous times before, including bringing hairspray to newscast days, according to a 104-page human resources investigation report filed by Banks and obtained by the Maroon. +2 Arizona State rescinds offer to former Loyola director Sonya Duhe amid racism allegations Sonya Duhe, who recently left Loyola University's school of mass communication after a decade as its director, has been nixed as the next jour Banks also said in the complaint that Duhe had been touching the hair of African-American girls in class. In her response to that formal complaint, Duhe denied ever telling female students of color to get their hair pressed or treated and called Banks complaint ludicrous, according to the university's investigation report. 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 In fact, Ive never heard or used the word pressed in regards to peoples hair. Never did I tell students of African-American descent to not be natural when dealing with their hair, Duhe said in the report. I expect all students, male and female, taking a professional photograph to be well groomed. I have never created a hostile environment in my class, verbally harassed or had verbal or physical aggression against Ms. Banks or any student, Duhe wrote in the report. Professor Michael Giusti, who is white, worked alongside Duhe for 11 years and was a witness during the school's investigation, according to the report. It was his sense that Dr. Duhes being white, southern and conservative often led students to believe that also meant racist, but he emphasized he had not witnessed anything that he would classify as racially biased during his time in the classroom, the report said. Duhe, who lives locally did not return several calls seeking comment. ASU representatives said that, during the hiring process, the school had not been aware of any allegations or racial bias complaints filed against Duhe, who is white. We had high confidence we had selected the right person for the position," ASU Provost Mark Searle said in an email to faculty of the Cronkite School. "Subsequently, issues and concerns have arisen and additional information has come to light. I now find that the future of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and our public television station will be better served by not advancing with Dr. Duhe as their leader. It's not clear exactly what became of the complaints that students filed with Loyola; the outcomes are kept private. Tetlow's letter noted that the system for adjudicating such complaints is imperfect. The second complaint came during Tetlow's tenure as president, which began in 2018. +3 Loyola president: University didn't do enough after racism allegations against journalism director Loyola University President Tania Tetlow apologized to the campus community Monday morning for the schools handling of past allegations about More broadly, Tetlow pointed out that Duhes purported comments about black hairstyles were reflective of deeper biases in the broadcast news business, and suggested that perhaps Duhe was simply offering pragmatic career advice rather than indicating a personal prejudice. However, she added: I hear with dismay the expressions of deep pain by students who felt that the implied limits of their opportunities were expressed as fact, without regret or acknowledgement of the deep injustice embedded in those limits. I apologize on behalf of the University that Loyola did not do a better job of fixing this situation that was, in fact, brought to our attention. Tetlow said educators must strike a balance between warning about unfair expectations that may exist in the professional world, and appearing to endorse those expectations. "Of course we have an obligation to advise and warn students about these biases and expectations in the profession," she wrote. "But we must do so while making clear how unfair those unwritten rules are in their application, how rooted they are in the oppression of people of color, particularly women. Our responsibility is to make our students aware of implicit and systematic racism by acknowledging that it exists and helping them strategize about how they can help the profession, and society, make changes. As a Jesuit institution, we analyze injustices in order to dismantle them." Woods on Sunday said she was surprised at the snowball effect of what started as a simple Twitter thread. Words cant even begin to describe how Im feeling, she said. The real victory here is that people finally had a space to speak their truth and to finally feel like that truth was heard. What the ASU faculty and staff did is what we wish Loyola faculty and staff did while we were in school. I hope the ASU students are empowered in knowing that their voices made change, Woods said. -Staff writer Gordon Russell contributed to this report. On Monday, Ajay Pandita an elected sarpanch in South Kashmirs Anantnag district was shot dead by terrorists. This is the second targeted killing of a local grassroots leader, after another sarpanch was shot dead in November. Panditas killing is a reminder of political and security challenges in the Valley. Despite the coronavirus pandemic spreading widely in Pakistan and devastating its economy, its military-intelligence complex has not let go of its sponsorship of terror across the border. Be it through constant attempts at infiltration, stoking tensions across the Line of Control, or spreading fear through terror proxies in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Pakistan continues to seek to destabilise India. New Delhi will have to remain vigilant, ensure sharper intelligence collection, keep its security personnel on high alert, and protect its citizens and political leaders in J&K. Along with stepping up its security preparedness, the government should also consider opening up the political space in Kashmir, releasing mainstream leaders still under detention, opening channels of communication with all stakeholders who remain committed to Indias unity and believe in peaceful politics, and providing a road map for eventual elections. Expanding the democratic space will strengthen the pro-India constituency in J&K, which in turn, will provide strong local political, intelligence and administrative networks to defeat terror. Are we getting our road to recovery from the Covid-19 crisis wrong and is our strategy leaving us in the power of the virus for longer? It was a question posed in an open letter by 1,000 fine scientific and medical minds yesterday. The Government has chosen a policy of suppression, where we live with a low level of the virus that may not leave us, until there is a vaccine, and threatens a second wave. But should we aim for elimination, beating the virus down to zero, a joyful feat New Zealand marked yesterday? New Zealand has been strict about who is allowed enter the country. Its borders are closed to almost all travellers. But within the country, weddings, funerals, hospitality and public transport will resume and there will be real people among crowds of supporters on its rugby stands from next weekend. Read More An open letter, signed by more than 1,000 scientists and medics in Ireland, yesterday kick-started the suppression versus elimination debate. Expand Close Professor Anthony Staines / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Professor Anthony Staines Led by Prof Anthony Staines of Dublin City University and two fellow academics, they said instead of "suppressing" the virus, we need to "eliminate" it. "We have come to a watershed moment, a fork in our road. The path we choose will determine our future for years to come. "Our current policy is to live with the virus under a long-term mitigation strategy, with the risk of future surges and lockdowns until when, or if, a vaccine becomes available. "We have another option: we can do as many other countries have done, choose to suppress and eliminate this virus - 'crushing the curve'." The other authors of the letter are Prof Gerard Killeen of University College Cork and Dr Tomas Ryan of the school of biochemistry and immunology in Trinity College, Dublin. The letter pointed to the rush to get back to "normal". It asked: "What does 'normal' look like if the virus continues to circulate? "Right now, public transport is planning for 20pc of 'normal' capacity, pubs and restaurants 30pc, schools, at best only 50pc. The costs of childcare, already high, will be impossible for many. "Many workplaces will need expensive re-design. Many people will drop out, or be pushed out of the labour force. "All of these are real costs, and will, we believe, far exceed the short-term costs of lockdown." They want an all-island approach, pointing to other countries that have already "largely halted the virus, including South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Greece, China and Iceland". So what do they propose needs to done to aim for elimination? They identify three key areas, including a testing and contact tracing regime with a super-fast turnaround. The HSE reported last week it met its three-day target in 82pc of cases. This is still too long a turnaround in the eyes of many scientists. They also want the widespread use of face masks and "sensible restrictions" on travel. Those three elements unite them, although there are varying opinions among the signatories on whether the country should stay in semi-lockdown. If the strategy is followed it would mean no lifting any time soon of the advice against non-essential travel abroad, despite the ads by airlines resuming flights to sun spots from July. It would also mean the introduction of mandatory two-week quarantine for people flying here. Currently the filling out of a location form is mandatory and the arrivals are advised to quarantine, but it is not compulsory. Prof Staines said yesterday: "Right now, we're aiming to live with the virus, into the future. "A vaccine, if there ever is one, is a distant hope. Looking in the papers today, we see new rules for shops, fewer tables and seats in pubs and restaurants, reduced capacity on public transport, fewer beds in hospitals - and trolleys back in emergency departments - no tourists, higher costs for childcare, and staggered school start times. "These are huge costs, possibly lasting for many years." He called for testing and contact tracing within 48-72 hours from initial symptoms to quarantine of close contacts. Test visitors at the airport, and again at their accommodation, he said. Assess the lockdown measures, and modify as is safe. "The lockdown has a lot of separate measures. Some are very questionable. Some are vital. "We urge that each separate measure be subject to a public risk assessment, before further changes are made. "Many other EU countries have made the choice to go for zero, to 'crush the curve'. "They will benefit from restoration of more or less normal life, working public transport, freedom to travel, and for people to visit. It's not an easy choice, and it's not easy to do." He said if we can do it too, we can link with these countries and more for travel, business, and trade. Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said the aim is to push the virus as low as possible. He believes it is impossible to fully eliminate it. A balance has to be struck and the country could not stay in fully restrictive measures, he said. It was good New Zealand had eliminated the virus but it is at the other end of world. We are in Europe, the epicentre of the virus, he added. NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Japan Diagnostic Imaging Market Outlook to 2025 - Angio Suites, Bone Densitometers, C-Arms, Computed Tomography (CT) Systems and Others Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05909076/?utm_source=PRN Summary "Japan Diagnostic Imaging Market Outlook to 2025" is a comprehensive databook report, covering key market data on the Japan Diagnostic Imaging market. The databook report provides value (USD), volume (units) and average prices (USD) within market segments - Angio Suites, Bone Densitometers, C-Arms, Computed Tomography (CT) Systems, Contrast Media Injectors, Mammography Equipment, MRI Systems, Nuclear Imaging Equipment, Ultrasound Systems, X-ray Systems. The Japan Diagnostic Imaging Market report provides key information and data on - - Annualized market revenues (USD), volume (units) and average prices (USD) data for each of the market segments. Data is provided from 2015 to 2025. - 2019 company share and distribution share data for Diagnostic Imaging Market. - Global corporate-level profiles of key companies operating within the Japan Diagnostic Imaging Market. Based on the availability of data for the particular category and country, information related to pipeline products, news and deals is also available in the report. Scope Japan Diagnostic Imaging is segmented as follows - - Angio Suites - Bone Densitometers - C-Arms - Computed Tomography (CT) Systems - Contrast Media Injectors - Mammography Equipment - MRI Systems - Nuclear Imaging Equipment - Ultrasound Systems - X-ray Systems Reasons to Buy The Japan Diagnostic Imaging Market report helps you to develop - - Business strategies by identifying the key market segments poised for strong growth in the future. - Market-entry and market expansion strategies. - Design competition strategies by identifying who-stands-where in the market. - Develop investment strategies by identifying the key market segments expected to register strong growth in the near future. - Understand the key distribution channels and what's the most preferred mode of product distribution - Identify, understand and capitalize. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05909076/?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 In this satellite image provided by Planet Labs, the Ngari Gansa civil-military airport base is seen near the border with India in far western region of Tibet in China. There is evidence of development around the airport. Tensions along the China-India border high in the Himalayas have flared again in recent weeks. (AP) New Delhi: As a confidence-building measure, Chinese and Indian armies have slightly moved back from three flash points in eastern Ladakh. The Chinese army has pulled back its troops from Patrolling Point 14 (Galwan area), Patrolling Point 15, and Hot Springs by 2 km. The Indian Army reciprocated by retracting some of its troops and vehicles from the area. Major General level talks between the two sides are scheduled on Wednesday to try to resolve the month-long stand-off between the two armies at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). These will be a follow-up of the Lieutenant General level talks which were held between Indian and Chinese armies on Saturday. There will also be Brigadier and Commanding Officers levels this week at Galwan and Hot Springs areas. The main contention between Indian and Chinese troops remains the Northern bank of Pangong Tso lake where Chinese troops have pitched tents at finger 4 location to prevent the Indian army to patrol till Finger 8 which India believes is part of its territory. The troops from the two sides were involved in a brutal clash at Pangong Tso on the intervening night of May 5th and May 6th. There is a possibility that another round of Lieutenant General level talks may be needed to try to resolve the Pangong Tso issue. However, the major threat still remains the massive buildup by both armies along with artillery, armored vehicles and tanks in their in-depth areas along the line of actual control (LAC). Until and unless these troops move back to the peace-time locations the threat perception will remain high at the LAC. Defence minister Rajnath Singh had said on Monday that talks between top India-China military commanders have been very positive and both countries have agreed that further talks will be held to resolve the current tussle at the line of actual control (LAC). He had said that the border dispute between India and China has been going on from a long time and we want that this border dispute should be resolved as soon as possible. Indian armys 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh and Peoples Liberation Armys South Xinjiang Military Region, commander Maj Gen Liu Lin had held over 5 hours long meeting on Saturday in Moldo. India has asked China to reduce the build-up of its troops at the LAC and revert back to the status quo of April in Pangong Tso, Hot Springs and Galwan Valley. Click here to read the full article. Zaba Hoque, a young woman from Queens Village, N.Y., made stops at two New York City protest sites on the afternoon of June 3 with a handmade placard in tow. Hoque stood on the edge of Union Square for about an hour, brandishing her carefully lettered sign that declared, Say Their Names, with the image of a clenched fist followed by the names of more than two dozen recent victims of police violence against Black people. Near the top was George Floyd. On the bottom left corner she added: #F Trump. More from Variety Even the pandemic didnt stop the cops from acting the way they did in Floyds case, Hoque said. Enough was enough. Hoque then moved on to nearby Washington Square, where she staked a good spot by the parks iconic arch before the hordes came. She was among the hundreds of thousands of people, many of them women, who took to the streets across America last week to raise a fist against police brutality and the shameful history of Black victims dying while in the hands of law enforcement. Television cameras have focused on some of the protests, but they have been unable to document the full extent of the outrage that has spread even beyond U.S. borders in response to the May 25 death of Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a police officer in Minneapolis pressed a knee into his neck for nearly 9 minutes. In her work with low-income communities for a nonprofit organization, Hoque witnesses firsthand the impact of racial inequity, with the lack of access to health care or fresh food and limited government support. I see injustices every single day of my life, she said. We need to be about change in our system. Karin Schall, of Hells Kitchen, didnt want to put on her We Are Better Than This T-shirt, grab her spray-painted Stop Killing Black People banner and head to Manhattans Union Square Park around lunchtime on June 3. She didnt want to do any of that. But she had to. Im here because Im a human being. Its a moral obligation to hear the anger and the pain in the community, Schall said as she and a friend stood in the plaza at the south end of the park, holding up the banner. As a white woman of privilege, it is my responsibility and my honor to show up and support and be connected. I dont want to just sign a petition on an online forum. Story continues Floyds brutal death, captured by a bystander on video, has become a tipping point, as more than one protester in New York described it, for people from all walks of life to get on their feet and demand justice. It has brought a renewed level of national focus to the Black Lives Matter movement, a cry for recognition of the injustice and the mortal threat that people of color in general and Black people in particular face from police. For many women in New York City, joining in on mass gatherings and marches was not about corporate sloganeering (even the digital billboards in Times Square were flashing Black Lives Matter messages) or busting out of COVID-19 lockdown mentality. It was about demanding that the nation finally take the painful first steps of dismantling the systemic roots of racial injustice in a country that was built on the foundation of slavery and white supremacy. Floyds killing was another tipping point for us, said Amanda Lugg, of East Harlem, who stood on the other side of the banner with Schall. Lugg cited the agonizing few weeks that included headlines about the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and the false accusation against bird-watching enthusiast Christian Cooper in Central Park, followed by Floyds senseless death. Lugg blames President Trump for the nonstop turmoil in the nation. We cant leave it up to the leaders. It takes people to make the change that is so necessary in this country, she said. Lugg, who described herself as a longtime member of ACT UP NY, said she has been heartened by the diversity of the crowds at the numerous protests shes attended. As a Black woman of a certain age with underlying health conditions, I still had a certain reticence to come to mass marches. But we have to keep coming out. In the [1960s] civil rights movement, it wasnt just a day, a week, a month. It was years and years of protesting. Change always comes from the bottom up. Luvia Anderson, a surgical tech who works across the street from Union Square at a Mount Sinai Hospital facility, came out in her scrubs to watch as the crowd swelled in Union Square. Her husband has been subjected to police brutality and pulled over for no reason while driving, she said. Anderson echoed Luggs view that the prevalence of white faces in the protest crowds was significant. Change cant just be on African Americans, she said. Im happy and sad at the same time to see so many people coming together putting a big light around an issue thats been a problem for so many years. As tears formed, she asked quietly: Why are they afraid of us? Alicia Robinson of Brooklyn leaned against a concrete NYPD barrier as the crowd began to chant, Black lives matter, George Floyd and No peace, no justice. Im not down for looting, Robinson was quick to observe, noting the pockets of violence that erupted amid the largely peaceful protests. Like Lugg, she wants to see big changes in Washington, D.C., come Election Day on Nov. 3. I want to be optimistic that people will vote differently this year, she said, and use their dollars to support African American businesses. On June 4, a march on a muggy afternoon in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens drew upwards of 500 people, including resident Anne OByrne, who brought a small handmade cardboard sign that read: Justice for George. We have to keep coming out. In the civil rights movement, it wasnt just a day, a week, a month. It was years and years of protesting. Change always comes from the bottom up. Amanda Lugg, protester It seemed important to show up, OByrne said. Another woman who gave her name as Tanya O. said the protests were important to allow angry people to express their frustration. But the real power is at the ballot box, she said. Protesting is great. But change starts with dismantling systemic racism, she said. We need to vote to change policy. As the Sunnyside march snaked through residential streets, a clutch of about a dozen cops trailed the group, marching behind cardboard signs advocating Defund NYPD and NYPD is Racist. A female officer in the group, who asked that her surname not be used because she is not authorized to speak to the media, said seeing those signs brandished by residents that she is sworn to protect does not bother her anymore. Im numb to it, she said. Numerous Sunnyside residents leaned out of windows of prewar brick-bunker apartment buildings to cheer on the protesters. Shouts of Thank you, officers were also heard. As the marchers navigated a left turn in their route, an elderly woman in a New York Yankees hat (a defiant statement in Mets country) stood on a street corner, clapping and smiling. As the group of police officers passed, she gave them a thumbs-up gesture and a timely bit of advice. Remember, she said matter-of-factly, youre part of the community. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Marysville, CA (95901) Today Windy with a mix of clouds and sun. High 64F. Winds NNW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Partly cloudy. Low around 45F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Reformation founder Yael Aflalo has publicly said shes failed after former employees accused her and her clothing company of racism and workplace discrimination. The accusations and criticism of the company first began in late May, when Reformation shared an Instagram post listing civil rights organisations dedicated to fighting for justice following the death of George Floyd. "If you want to help fight for justice right now, here are a few organisations we recommend supporting, the sustainable fashion brand wrote alongside the names of Black Lives Matter, the ACLU and the NAACP. We will be donating to the organisations above. The post prompted Leslieann Elle Santiago, a former assistant manager of the Reformation flagship in Soho, New York, to share her experience working for the brand, which she said deeply traumatised her. Working for Reformation deeply traumatised me, Santiago wrote in the comments. Being overlooked and undervalued as a woman of colour who worked & managed their flagship store for three years was the hardest. I cried many times knowing the colour of my skin would get me nowhere in this company. Yael never looked at me. She would walk past me and never spoke to me. But would tell white associates that they were pretty. I once went to visit the shop after a couple years gone and a new black associate asked me if I honestly thought there was a chance for black people to move up in the company, Santiago continued. "And I said if you're asking this two years after I left, then the answer was and will always be no. This story goes deeper and I've always been afraid to tell it. But no more fear from me. Recommended Companies must do more than tweet their opposition to racism In response to Santiagos comment, numerous other former employees detailed their own experiences working at the company, which included further allegations of workplace discrimination, pay disparity and racism. On Sunday, Aflalo responded to the criticism on Instagram, where she apologised and acknowledged Reformation has practised diversity through a white gaze. Ive failed, Aflalo wrote. Our mission is to bring sustainability to everyone, and part of that sustainability is treating people equally. I realise that I have failed all of you in that regard - especially the black community. Im sorry. Unfortunately, the way we have practised diversity in the past has been through a white gaze that falls too close to ignorance. In the post, Aflalo said she learned of the companys ignorance after asking and listening to our team members, especially those who identify as BIPOC. I am so angry at myself for not seeing it sooner, she continued. As a company, we have not leveraged our platform, our voice, and our content to combat the racism and injustice that pervades our country, and that will change, starting now. Aflalo, who started Reformation in 2009, also acknowledged that she was not a very good leader and that she ignored accusations made by former team members in the past. According to Aflalo, going forward the company will be launching an independent investigation to look into the workplace concerns and will be creating a Diversity and Inclusion board. We will put more emphasis on working with black creators throughout the creative process and we will strive for authentic diversity in our imagery, partnerships and voice, the statement continues. Aflalo also said she will personally be making a donation of $500,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the National Black Child Development Institute. We know this isnt everything and it wont all happen overnight, but we are committed to using our brand to promote anti-racism, using our voice to stand for equality and justice, and using our platform to end systemic racism, Aflalo concluded. Despite the apology, many people said they would no longer be shopping at Reformation. Unfollow. So incredibly disappointing. I absolutely love this brand but will not stand for any discrimination. I cant wait to sell my clothes from yall and donate the money to anti-racist charities, one person wrote. The Independent has contacted Reformation for comment. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment As an African American who has held elected office at the state and local level, and served as the US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission, I believe a full and frank discussion on issues of race and injustice is important. I also know too well that many places are far more dangerous for me as a black Christian man than the United States. The religious freedom executive order signed last Tuesday (June 2) addressed this reality: about a million Christians (mostly people of color) were killed for their faith in the past decade. Yet those including religious figures who denounced the presidents religious freedom activities last week, generally seemed to miss that his actions on religious freedom would actually help black lives. When the president visited the site in Washington that is arguably the most connected to international religious freedom, partisan attacks ensued, ignoring what the president was doing that day for some of the worlds most vulnerable people. Lost in these woke hot takes some cloaked in religion was the fact that the presidents visit to the St. John Paul II National Shrine was not only previously arranged but was one of many activities devoted that day to international religious freedom an issue that has, until now, transcended partisanship. The day was of enormous benefit not harm to believers of color, putting the US government to work defending the rights of religious minorities for whom persecution means the death of thousands each year. Why is this shrine so important to the issue? First, St. John Paul II championed religious freedom at the Second Vatican Council, and then as pope. He helped bring freedom to the oppressed people of the Soviet Bloc including countless people of faith. Second, according to the Pew Foundation, Christians (two-thirds of whom are predominately people of color) are the most persecuted religious group on earth. Finally, the visit and executive order signing were timed to coincide with the anniversary of John Pauls visit to Poland in 1979: a watershed moment in the history of freedom. The days events and the presidents executive order deserve praise for paying attention to those in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere that the woke leftists criticizing him continue to ignore. That some have gone so far as to criticize the Shrine and its sponsor for political purposes is also alarming. As I know from my own extensive involvement in the cause of religious freedom, few have done as much in recent years on a bipartisan basis to help persecuted religious minorities around the world than the Knights of Columbus. The Knights have led bi-partisan coalitions in defense of religious minorities. They produced a report along with In Defense of Christians in 2016 at the request of the Obama administration documenting ISIS crimes against Middle Eastern Christians, and helping to convince Secretary Kerry to name those crimes genocide. The Knights continued this advocacy in the Trump administration, again helping shape policies that made substantial strides for those who had endured genocide for their faith. Only those ignorant of the Knights actions over the past five years not to mention the past century would call the groups willingness to advance the cause of religious freedom a partisan photo-op. On the legislative front as well, the Knights have been bipartisan and effective. They were key players in not one, but two unanimously passed pieces of legislation related to international religious freedom in the past five years (H.Con.Res 75 and HR 390). As the religious freedom community has raised concerns more recently about a burgeoning genocide in Africa, the Knights have been among those effectively sounding the alarm, playing a quiet but crucial role in urging government focus on the persecution of Christians throughout Africa and especially in Nigeria. Working with an inter-religious coalition, including both Muslims and Christians, and meeting with African Church leaders from around the continent, the Knights have urged the administration to protect the most threatened black lives on earth in Africa. The need is not abstract. Writing in the Hill last year, another leading religious freedom advocate, former Congressman Frank Wolf warned that tens of thousands of people mainly Christians had been killed in Nigeria and that this combined with the targeted sex slavery being carried out there had reached the point of genocide for African Christians. This is a real priority. Only by decontextualizing it can it be classified as partisan. Here we have a group that has openly accepted black members since the 19th century, ran the only integrated military centers in World War I, supported black schools and the civil rights movement, and commissioned and published the book The Gift of Black Folk by WEB DuBois cofounder of the NAACP in the 1920s. Today, they focus on the lives of people of color, not just here at home with numerous charitable programs for the vulnerable, and speaking out publicly against racism and funding the Catholic bishops response to it, but also in terms of assistance in Africa to those without water, to AIDS orphans and in providing a voice for the tens of thousands there and the Middle East who die for their faith generally ignored by commentariat here in the United States. But maybe this context just isnt woke enough. Why let facts get in the way of politicizing a day that will help black lives in Africa? In fact, it is shocking that some people of faith criticizing the presidents visit to the Shrine have shown so little concern about the troubling elements of the Black Lives Matter agenda. Generally ignored is that the BLM organization explicitly seeks to move away from the agenda of past civil rights movements (of which MLKs Christian, non-violent model is best-known). Why are so many priests, imams, pastors and bishops silent about the BLM organizations plan to promote at its center an LGBT and transgender agenda, or its stated desire to disrupt the nuclear family structure. This ulterior agenda seems far more inconsistent and dangerous to the values of many people of faith than protecting religious freedom in Africa or the Middle East does. The Soviet Bloc which St. John Paul helped dismantle used to call those who helped promote their agenda globally without fully understanding it useful idiots. One wonders if the BLM leadership (fond of the Soviet term comrade) view certain woke religious voices the same way. ST. LOUIS, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Graybar, a leading distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products and provider of related supply chain management and logistics services, announced today that Regional Vice President Robert C. Lyons will retire on August 1, 2020, after 41 years with the company. Lyons is a member of the company's Board of Directors, serving on several committees and as a Voting Trustee of the corporation. Upon his retirement, he will step down from his committee responsibilities, as well as his role as a member of Graybar's Board of Directors and as a Voting Trustee. Graybar also announced the election of Dennis E. DeSousa to the position of Senior Vice President and General Manager, effective August 1, 2020. DeSousa currently serves as Regional Vice President for the company's western region, a position he has held since 2017. In his expanded role, he will have responsibility for all of Graybar's districts, as well as certain subsidiaries. "On behalf of Graybar's employees, shareholders and Board of Directors, I thank Bob Lyons for his extraordinary contributions to the company. Bob is a remarkable leader who has earned the trust and respect of those around him, and we wish him all the best in his retirement," said Kathleen M. Mazzarella, Graybar's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We also congratulate Dennis DeSousa on his new assignment. Dennis is a highly effective leader who will play a vital role in moving our business forward for the future." Graybar, a Fortune 500 corporation and one of the largest employee-owned companies in North America, is a leader in the distribution of high quality electrical, communications and data networking products, and specializes in related supply chain management and logistics services. Through its network of 288 North American distribution facilities, it stocks and sells products from thousands of manufacturers, helping its customers power, network and secure their facilities with speed, intelligence and efficiency. For more information, visit www.graybar.com or call 1-800-GRAYBAR. Media Contact: Tim Sommer (314) 578-7672 [email protected] SOURCE Graybar Related Links http://www.Graybar.com Urging people to be more disciplined in Unlock 1.0 phase, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday has emphasised the need for a Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday chaired the meeting of high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 and said that people need to be more disciplined in COVID appropriate behaviour with the country having entered Unlock1.0 phase after over two months of lockdown. He emphasised the need to observe norms of physical distancing, use masks and face covers at all public places, adhere to norms of hand hygiene and follow protocols of respiratory etiquette. The GoM was informed that the Centre has provided 128.48 lakh N95 masks and 104.74 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to the states, UTs and central institutions and the Centre has further placed an order of 60,848 ventilators. The GoM was also apprised about the growing medical infrastructure in the country and informed that as of June 2020, COVID-related health infrastructure has been strengthened with availability of 958 dedicated COVID Hospitals with 1,67,883 isolation beds, 21,614 ICU beds and 73,469 oxygen supported beds. A Health Ministry release said that there were 2,313 dedicated COVID Health Centres with 1,33,037 isolation beds, 10,748 ICU beds and 46,635 oxygen supported beds. It said 7,525 COVID Care Centres with 7,10,642 beds are now available to combat COVID-19 in the country. The ventilators available for COVID beds are 21,494, it added. The 16th meeting of GoM was attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityananda Rai, Minister of State for Shipping and Chemical and Fertilisers Mansukh Lal Mandaviya, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat. Harsh Vardhan chaired the meeting through video-conferencing. As we enter into the Unlock1.0 phase where restrictions have been eased and curbs have been lifted, we need to be more disciplined in our COVID appropriate behaviour to ensure that all follow norms of physical distancing, make use of masks and face covers in all public places, adhere to norms of hand hygiene and follow protocols of respiratory etiquette, Harsh Vardhan said. There is no space for complacency, he emphasised. He also referred to the opening of government offices and appealed to heads of departments not to forget social vaccine against COVID-19. Let us also not forget social vaccine against COVID-19 through strict adherence of norms of physical distancing, hand hygiene and mask and face covers, he said The minister also urged people to download the Aarogya Setu app which will help in the self-risk assessment and in protection against COVID-19. More than 12.55 crore people in the country have downloaded the app as on date, the release said. The GoM was briefed about how SoPs issued by the Health Ministry for public and semi-public environments would allow the resumption of economic activity without compromising the preventive measures to contain COVID-19. It was also briefed about the latest status, response and management of COVID-19 in the country. A brief snapshot was presented to the GOM highlighting the comparative position of India vis-a-vis other countries in a similar stage of easing lockdown, underscoring the benefits that have accrued from the lockdown and how this can be leveraged in management of the disease. The GOM was briefed on the progress made on the tasks assigned to the 11 Empowered Groups (EGs). The release said that ICMRs testing capacity has increased through 553 government and 231 private laboratories (total of 784 labs). More than 49 lakh cumulative tests have been conducted in the country as on date. Also, 1,41,682 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours. Parameswaran Iyer, Chairman of Empowered Group-5, presented the critical strategies adopted by the EG to ease the burden of lockdown while enabling supply of critical items for the country to fight the pandemic. Dr Raman Gangakhedkar from ICMR presented details on the status of testing labs, augmented capacities for testing across the country, and also enlightened the GoM on various issues related to HCQ, Remdesivir, and sero-surveillance studies. The release said that a total of 1,29,214 people has been cured of which 4,785 patients were cured in the last 24 hours and Indias recovery rate was 48.47 per cent. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Citrus greening disease (Huanglongbing of HLB), transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid, is currently the biggest threat to the citrus industry and is threat to many parts of the world, including Asia, Africa, South America, and the Unites States. In Florida alone, citrus greening disease has accounted for losses of several billions of U.S. dollars. Despite HLB's widespread prevalence, factors influencing the epidemic are poorly understood because most research has been conducted after the pathogen has been introduced. In an attempt to change this, several Texas-based scientists surveyed commercial and residential citrus trees from 2007 to 2017 and monitored the time-course variations in the proportion of citrus trees and the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP). "Unlike previous studies on citrus greening disease epidemics that were typically initiated in commercial orchards after the disease had been introduced or became widespread in the area, our study commenced 5-years prior to the first detection of the greening bacterium in Texas and continued for 5 additional years," said Olufemi Alabi, one of the scientists involved in this research. "This gave us unique opportunity to obtain a holistic picture of the progression of the disease epidemics from its onset in both commercial and residential ecologies. Despite the first appearance of citrus greening disease in Florida in 2005, the bacterium wasn't found in Texas until 2011, when scientists detected it in the psyllids. The disease was not detected in citrus years until 2012, suggesting that psyllids may actually be used for early detection of the HLB pathogen in newly invaded areas. Over the course of this decade-long study, the proportion of infected trees and psyllids increased exponentially over time while the number of fields and residential backyards with at least one disease-affected citrus tree reached 26% and 40% respectively by 2017. Research also revealed seasonal fluctuations and will provide comprehensive insight into the ongoing citrus greening epidemic in Texas, with potential lessons for California and other citrus-growing regions that have not yet been affected. "Our study suggest that a flatter progression of citrus greening disease epidemics could be achieved through the implementation of strategies to protect new plantings from infection and the continued implementation of the area-wide ACP management program," said Mamoudou Setamou, the lead author of the article . This study is good news for Texas farmers, who were alarmed by the rapid spread of citrus greening disease epidemics in Florida and worried that the smaller Texas citrus industry would be quickly overwhelmed once the disease appeared. "Surprisingly, our research showed that although an exponential growth was observed in progression of infected trees in Texas, the annual rate of increase was relatively slower than reported from Florida. This led us to conduct series of analyses that enabled us to identify potential climatic and cultural factors that may be contributing to the relatively slow spread of citrus greening disease in Texas." ### For more information, read "Distribution of Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus in Citrus and the Asian Citrus Psyllid in Texas Over a Decade," published in the April issue of Plant Disease. ROUND ROCK, Texas, June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) announces a fireside chat hosted by Amit Daryanani from Evercore ISI on Thursday, June 11, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. CT / 11:00 a.m. ET. Mr. Daryanani and Tom Burns, senior vice president and general manager of Dell Technologies Integrated Products & Solutions, will discuss the company's integrated approach to solutions that deliver the full value of the Dell Technologies portfolio, including converged and hyperconverged infrastructure and networking solutions. A live webcast and a replay of the webcast will be available on Dell Technologies' Investor Relations page at investors.delltechnologies.com. About Dell Technologies Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) helps organizations and individuals build their digital future and transform how they work, live and play. The company provides customers with the industry's broadest and most innovative technology and services portfolio for the data era. Copyright 2020 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell Technologies, Dell, EMC and Dell EMC are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners. SOURCE Dell Technologies Related Links http://www.delltechnologies.com Made from chickpea flour and little else, socca is a nutty, smoky, and naturally gluten-free snack Socca, a savory chickpea flour pancake, is a humble culinary treasure hailing from the French Riviera. Its a popular street snack in the city of Nice, in southern France, where you can often watch it being made right in the streets and markets, cooked by vendors with portable wood-fired ovens on wheels. The pancake is baked over the fire until its edges are crisp and charred, kissed with the flavor of smoke, but the interior remains soft and creamy. Its then cut into big, rustic wedges and handed out piping hot in paper cones, with just a crack of pepperand ideally accompanied by a glass of chilled Provencal rose. From Worker Fare to Tourist Gem Chickpea flour mixed with water is the base of most Provencal street food. In Marseille, the mixture is cut into circles or sticks and fried, to make crispy fries called panisses. In Nice, its spread thin like a pancake and baked, to make socca. Other Southern French cities such as Toulon and Hyere also adopted socca, but call it cade (from the Italian caldo, meaning hot). Arabs are thought to have brought chickpea flour to Italy during the Middle Ages, and since then, baked and fried chickpea flour-based treats have been widely made and enjoyed in the Mediterranean, especially in northern Italy and southern France. The origins of socca are likely rooted in the province of Genoa, Italy, further up the Ligurian coast from Nice. There, the dish is called farinata, meaning made of flour. It has since become a staple food all along the coastthe same recipe under different names. At the start of the 20th century, socca was made and sold throughout the streets of Nice to early-morning factory workers and hungry fishermen setting out to sea. Once a humble blue-collar meal, socca has since gained fame as one of the citys must-try dishes for tourists. Its cost has risen with its fame: in the 70s, a slice of socca sold for 50 centimes (in French francs, equivalent to $0.08); today, you can expect to pay at least 3 euros ($3.30). But socca is wonderfully quick and easy to make at homeno trip to France required. The recipe is simple, requiring just a handful of pantry ingredientschickpea flour, water, olive oil, and salt and pepperand a few tricks. Tips for Homemade Socca This is a one-bowl recipe that only requires five minutes of prep time. The batter then needs some hands-off resting time, followed by a cooking time of no more than 10 minutes. Here are a few tips for making foolproof, authentic socca at home. Use Good Quality Chickpea Flour With such a short ingredient list, the quality of the starring chickpea flouralso called garbanzo bean flour, gram flour, or besanwill make a big difference in your socca. Make sure you buy one labeled as gluten-free (some are mixed with other flours), ground very fine, and pale yellow in color. Chickpea flour has recently grown in popularity across the world, alongside a growing demand for gluten-free recipes. It used to be tricky to find, but is now more common to see in grocery stores, usually in the organic products aisle. Most Middle Eastern and Indian grocery stores also carry it, as it is a common ingredient in their cuisines. Along with being a versatile gluten-free flour with lovely nutty notes, chickpea flour has less calories and carbs than regular wheat flour, but more fiber and protein, making it more filling. This makes socca a naturally gluten-free and vegan recipe that is healthy, satisfying, and affordable. Sift the Flour Chickpea flour is an ultra-fine flour with a powdery texture when dry, and a sticky consistency when mixed with water. For this reason, it is very important to sift it before you add water, to avoid forming any lumps. Sift together the chickpea flour, salt, and pepper. (Audrey Le Goff) Whisk in warm water and olive oil. (Audrey Le Goff) Use a Cast-Iron Skillet In Nice, socca is traditionally cooked in a wood-burning oven on a large copper disk, sometimes more than a yard in diameter. At home, using a pre-heated cast-iron skillet is the best way to recreate an authentic soccas slightly charred bottom. Finishing off the baking with one minute of broiling adds some smoky flavors, too. Rest the Batter The batter comes together quickly, but needs to rest at least one hour, and up to 12 hours, before cooking. This allows the chickpea flour to absorb moisture evenly, making for a socca with a very creamy interior. Let rest at room temperature for at least one hour. (Audrey Le Goff) Keep it Simple Socca is traditionally enjoyed plain, with a sprinkle of salt, a crack of black pepper, or a sprinkle of rosemary. While not authentic, a pinch of cumin or cayenne pepper can also add a delicious touch of smokiness. Some Americanized recipes include garlic, caramelized onions, or even cheeseall of which make it too different from its original taste and texture, in my opinion. Keep it simple, at least your first time making ityou wont regret it! Pour the batter into a preheated pan, bake, and broil until set and slightly charred on the edges. (Audrey Le Goff) Serve Hot Socca is meant to be enjoyed right out of the oven, piping hot, so it can best deliver its signature culinary assets: a warm and creamy interior with crisp, charred edges. To serve, cut it into wedges or simply tear pieces off with your fingers. Cut or tear into wedges to serve, piping hot. (Audrey Le Goff) Classic Socca Makes one 9-inch socca, enough to serve 6 people 1 cup chickpea flour 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 1/4 cup lukewarm water 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (plus 1 tablespoon for the pan) In a large bowl, sift together chickpea flour, salt, and pepper. Whisk in warm water and olive oil. Let sit, covered with a cloth, at room temperature for at least one hour. Place a 9-inch cast-iron skillet on the middle rack of your oven and preheat to 450 degrees F. Once pre-heated, carefully remove your skillet from the oven and add a tablespoon of olive oilit will sizzle a bit. Immediately pour in your batter in a steady stream until it reaches the edges of the pan. Bake for 89 minutes, until the edges are set. Then, turn on your broiler on high, and broil for 1 minute, until the top of the socca looks completely dry and the edges are slightly charred. Keep your eyes on the socca: the top can turn dark brown very quickly, so make sure not to overdo it. Remove the skillet from the oven and gently lift the edges of the socca with a spatula. With your hands (or with a small knife), cut into wedges. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper, and serve immediately. Audrey Le Goff is a French food writer, photographer, and creator of the food blog Pardon Your French, where she shares recipes and stories from her beloved home country, France. She is the author of the cookbook Rustic French Cooking Made Easy (2019). She currently lives in Niagara, Canada. Follow her on Instagram @pardonyourfrench The sale of a United States medal of honour, awarded to Longford man, Thomas Kelly, by a German auction house has sparked fury stateside. Private Kelly was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry during the Spanish-American War and the medal was sold by Hermann Historica, a Munich-based auction house, for over $15,000 (close to $20,000 when commission is added). The sale of the Congressional Medal of Honor is illegal in the US and there were attempts to prevent the auction of Private Kellys medal, one of only 3,525 in existence. However, it proceeded as it is legal in Germany to sell military decorations. Republican Senator Ted Cruz, from Texas, wrote to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking that he intervene in the sale. Senator Cruz said, The sale harms the dignity and honor of all recipients of the Medal of Honor." While Joe Daniels, President and CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum, wrote to a number of US Federal government officials, including President Donald Trump to stop the sale. Mr Daniels wrote, "The history of Private Kellys bravery, as well as the artefacts associated with it, must be preserved here in our land where they can be used to inspire future generations of American patriots." In the Washington Times, last Sunday, Private Kellys great-granddaughter Kasey LeClercq, who lives in the Seattle area said, Our family believes deeply that Thomas medal belongs on US soil and with the American people he fought for. He was a proud Irish American and served most of his life protecting our country. According to the Washington Times, the medal was missing for decades before surfacing at auction and all the family has was a 1973 certificate from the Department of Defense acknowledging the award. Ms LeClercq outlined that the family asked the auction house to forward their information to the collector, who paid $15,000 for Kellys Medal of Honor, and a spokesperson for Hermann Historica confirmed that they have forwarded the details of the Kelly family members to the buyer. About Thomas Kelly According to the OLD BASE Museum Campus - Plattsburgh, NY, Thomas Albert Kelly was born in Longford, to Bernard Kelly and Ann Gray. He first enlisted in the 4th US Infantry at Fort Sherman, ID, April 11, 1894. In 1907, he joined the 21st Infantry at the expiration of his first enlistment and was assigned to H Company of the 21st Infantry under command of Captain Cornman with headquarters at Plattsburgh Barracks. During the Spanish-American War, Private Kelly served through the Cuban Campaign. On July 1, 1898, during the battle to take San Juan and Kettle Hills outside Santiago, Cuba, he was one of the soldiers assisting in the rescue of wounded from the front lines. When the 21st Infantry was advancing across a large area of open ground, he rushed to the rescue of the wounded under heavy enemy shell fire and snipers at the edges of the jungle. For gallantry in the face of the enemy, he was awarded the Medal of Honor on June 22, 1899, and later achieved the rank of Sergeant First Class. Returning to Plattsburgh Barracks in 1907, Thomas became a member of the 5th US Infantry, then garrisoned at the Post. He re-enlisted in the Quartermasters Corps in 1914 and was a Quartermaster Sergeant from 1917 until his retirement in 1920. On November 12, 1908, he married his second wife, Julia Breshaw, of Middlebury, VT. They had three children. Bernard, who was named after his father, died before he was less than a year old in 1918, and his father was buried beside him in 1920. His daughter, Anna Mae, died in 2000 and is buried with her husband, a WWII veteran, in Arlington National Cemetery. His second son, Thomas Albert, served in WWII and was buried in Port Townsend, WA, when he died in 1994. After Thomas death Julia married another soldier at Plattsburgh Barracks, Victor Brown, with whom she had twins. Victor died of a heart attack at the Barracks in January 1928, and was also buried in the Post Cemetery. On June 5, Kyiv's Pechersky district court ruled to acknowledge as unlawful the decision issued by Vitaliy Kasko, ex-deputy of Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka, to resume the case against former Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Oleksandr Pysaruk and businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk. By its judgment, the court ordered that the prosecutor general cancel Kasko's decision, as reported by Ukrainian News. The court upheld the lawyer's complaint about the inaction of the prosecutor general and found it unlawful to consider the request to repeal Vitaliy Kasko's decision, which was made unlawfully. This is a decision on resuming a criminal case into VAB Bank refinancing, which had already been investigated and shut down by a court judgment over the lack of corpus delicti. In pursuance of a court judgment, the prosecutor general shall cancel the controversial ruling. The decision is final and not subject to appeal. Former owner of VAB Bank Oleg Bakhmatyuk made a statement regarding the decision of the Pechersk court, where he said former Deputy Prosecutor General Kasko had signed the illegal decision to institute criminal proceedings against him and his company by direct order of former Head of the President's Office Andriy Bohdan. "We have repeatedly stated that Kasko made that decision in violation of norms and principles of law. This was also confirmed by the conclusions of a number of leading experts. In the end, the court finally put an end to this lawlessness, the court decision is final and cannot be appealed. Kasko's unlawful decision testified to an obvious political motivation, namely, persecution of me personally and of my company by a group of persons who exploit power in their own interests, rather than in those of the state. Kasko made the decision in conspiracy with former Head of the President's Office Bohdan and Director of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine Artem Sytnyk, who acted out of personal revenge. This unlawful decision by Kasko has taken hostage a large company that's important for the country's economy, providing decent jobs to 27,000 Ukrainians, having paid UAH 7.7 billion (US$289.4 million) in taxes over the past three years, creating 1% of our country's GDP," Bakhmatyuk said. As reported earlier, the case targeting Pysaruk and Bakhmatyuk was opened due to the alleged misuse of refinancing funds provided by the NBU to VAB Bank during the 2014 banking crisis. The conclusions of the examinations of the Deposit Guarantee Fund and NBU statements confirm that all refinancing funds were spent for their intended purpose they were received by bank depositors. In addition, Oleg Bakhmatyuk himself proposed to the state to return UAH 8 billion (US$300.7 million) debts to the budget, but did not receive a response to his proposal from the NBU. A young black man named Antonio Gwynn Jr. grabbed a broom, brought a couple of trash bags, and started cleaning the streets of his hometown of Buffalo, New York after he saw the damage from the protest. Amazing rewards Gwynn started cleaning up at 2 a.m on June 8 and he continued cleaning for 10 hours. A group arrived hours later to start cleaning the streets, but they already found Gwynn finishing up. Gwynn is 18-years-old and is currently a high school senior. He said in his interview with CNN that he saw on the local news that the street of Bailey Avenue in Buffalo was littered with garbage and covered in glass and he knew that people will need to use the street again especially those who will go to work. The word immediately spread about Gwynn's action, and the community wanted to give back. Matt Block, one of the residents of the community, saw Gwynn's act of kindness on the news and he decided to give the boy a 2004 red Mustang convertible. The 27-year-old man told CNN that the Mustang was his dream car ever since, but he is only using it occasionally these days. He saw that the boy asked for some advice about buying a car on Facebook and that was when he decided to offer his own car. The Mustang may just be a car for Block, but it turns out that it has a sentimental value to Gwynn. The boy's mother passed away in 2018, and she also used to drive a red Mustang. Also Read: 57 NY Cops Quit After Two Officers Suspended for Shoving 75-year-old Protester When Gwynn realized the coincidence, he said that he was so shocked that he was speechless and Block said that it gave him the shivers. Bob Briceland, a local businessman, heard about the gift, and he decided to cover the auto insurance for a year through an insurance agency. Briceland said that he felt compelled to help Gwynn out and that people need to get the city together and show people that there are so many good people in Buffalo, New York. Gwynn plans to go to trade school after high school, while he saves up for college. After hearing Gwynn's story in the news, Medaille College in Buffalo, New York, offered the boy a full scholarship where he plans to study business starting this year. One of his goals is to open a cleaning business. Although this is the first time that Gwynn received recognition for his act of kindness, this is not the first time that he stepped up to help the community. Gwynn is a member of Kappa Phi where he does community service and he helps out at churches. Gwynn is grateful for the response of the community. Protest in Buffalo, New York A week after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while in the custody of four Minneapolis police officers, the protests all across the United States are still strong. In Buffalo, New York, peaceful protesters still gather in Niagara Square, demanding to defund the police and all police officers who were involved in the killings of African Americans in the country be arrested. On June 6, the protesters met at the MLK Park and held a vigil. Related Article: Is George Floyd Death a Staged Event? Texas Politician Cynthia Brehm Says So @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. KYODO NEWS - Jun 9, 2020 - 20:04 | All, Japan The Group of Seven industrialized nations, using its influence, needs to send an appropriate message over the situation in Hong Kong, the top Japanese government spokesman said Tuesday, as China attempts to tighten its grip on the semiautonomous region. "In responding to the situation in Hong Kong, we believe it's effective to send an appropriate message through the (G-7) framework and based on this view Japan will continue to work closely with the other members," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference. The G-7 is an "extremely influential" international framework that shares basic values and beliefs, Suga added. The group consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. The remarks came in response to media reports that G-7 foreign ministers are arranging to issue a joint statement to express concern about China's move to enforce a national security law in Hong Kong and urge Beijing to uphold the "one country, two systems" principle. Asked if Japan was taking the initiative and if so why, Suga did not give a clear answer. China's envisaged introduction of the national security law has raised concerns it will curtail political freedom in the former British colony, sparking local protests and international criticism. Under the "one country, two systems" principle, Hong Kong was promised it would enjoy the rights and freedoms of a semiautonomous region for 50 years when it reverted to Chinese from British rule in 1997. Of the G-7, the United States, Britain and Canada issued a statement in late May condemning China's push, along with non-member Australia. Japan was not part of the move. The recent Chinese attempt has led to growing opposition in Japan, especially among conservatives, to welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping as a state guest once the coronavirus pandemic subsides. Tokyo and Beijing have agreed to reschedule the visit that was due to take place this spring. Speaking in parliament, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he is "deeply concerned" about the Hong Kong situation. "Under the one country, two systems framework, it's important that a free and open system will be maintained in Hong Kong and it will thrive in a democratic and stable manner," he said. On the timing of Xi's visit, Abe said bringing coronavirus infections under control is of utmost importance. "We will continue to maintain communication with China but for now at least, we have yet to reach a stage where we can arrange a specific date," the prime minister told a session of the lower house budget committee. Related coverage: Japan opts not to join U.S., others in rapping China for Hong Kong law China urges Britain not to meddle in internal issue of Hong Kong FOCUS: Trump's hardline response to protests may benefit China in East Asia Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Overview: Industrial Films are used in various end user industries such as building and construction, automobile, agriculture, and packaging among others. The growing demand from the developing region across the globe are the major factors driving the COVID-19 Industrial Films Market Analysis. The growing government investments in the infrastructural development coupled with the augmenting demand from the automobile sector are other factors contributing to the growth of the market. Among the various end-user industry agriculture, the dominant segment and expected to show the same trend during the forecast years. The properties such as improving crop quality, higher yield, and reduction of soil erosion has increased the demand for Industrial Films in the agricultural industry. Competitive Analysis: Some of the prominent players operating in the Global Industrial Films Market are DuPont Teijin Films (U.S.), SKC Co., Ltd. (South Korea), 3M (U.S.), Toray Industries Inc. (Japan), Berry Global Inc. (U.S.), Saint-Gobain (France), Eastman Chemical Company (U.S), Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Japan), and RKW SE (Germany) among others. Market Segmentation: Global Industrial Films Market is segmented into Product Type and End User Industry. On the Basis of the Product Type, the market is segregated into linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyethylene terephthalate/bi-axially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (PET/BOPET), polypropylene/bi-axially oriented polypropylene (PP/BOPP), cast polypropylene (CPP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyamide/bi-axially oriented polyamide (BOPA), and others. Get a Free Sample @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5282 The market by the End-User Industry is further categorized into transportation, construction, industrial packaging, agriculture, medical, and others. Regional Analysis: Global Industrial Films Market is spanned across five key regions: Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Among these, Asia Pacific holds a major portion of the global market and is anticipated to continue its dominance during the forecast period. The developing end user industries in the region such as construction and automotive is expected to fuel the market growth. Moreover, the favorable government regulation has resulted in the shifting of manufacturing base in the Asia Pacific which has further propelled the market growth. The major counties attributing to growth of Industrial Films in this region are India, China and Japan. North America is the dominant region for the market Industrial Films. The developed end user industries coupled with the growing adoption of Industrial Films are the major factor contributing to the growth of the market. The major countries attributing to this growth are the U.S. and Canada. The European market of industrial films is mainly driven by the developed automobile and medical industry. Moreover, the growing use of Industrial Films in agriculture is further adding to the market growth. COVID-19 Study in Detail: Corona virus Outbreak and Protective Fabrics Market @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/report/covid-19-impact-protective-fabrics-market COVID-19 Impact on Polyvinyl Alcohol Market @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/report/covid-19-impact-polyvinyl-alcohol-market COVID-19 Outbreak Impact on Renewable Chemicals Market @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/report/covid-19-impact-renewable-chemicals-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 a better analysis of markets and industries. Cordially get in touch for more details. About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions. Contact: Market Research Future +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com [June 08, 2020] Global launch of World's first virtual team building software to help organization cope with COVID-19 SINGAPORE, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WorkJoys announces the global launch of the world's first virtual team building software to help companies around the world and their employees cope with the emotional impact of COVID-19. WorkJoys helps teams and individuals build bonds with each other by playing simple and fun team-building games. By playing WorkJoys games asynchronously and only during pockets of downtimes, employees do not compromise their productivity and yet able to improve relationships with their colleagues and team over games while working from home. WorkJoys is a free software to enable both large organisations and small enterprises around the world to benefit from virtual team building because in-person team building is no longer possible or advisable during and post COVID-19 pandemic. More than 100 companies and organizations and more than 5,000 employees are using WorkJoys since beta release in 17th April 2020. A Human Resource Manager for a technology company based in Singapore shared, "WorkJoys has quite literall brought joy into my work life, especially during this work-from-home period! It created many opportunities for me and my colleagues to connect over what we have been voted over, and all the topics that were included in the fun quiz. We enjoyed using WorkJoys, and would like to recommend it to other companies looking to add some fun into their daily work." On the mission behind WorkJoys, Founder Joshua Koh said, "The COVID-19 pandemic has caused business disruption to businesses and require both personal and organizational adjustments, increasing stress and anxieties among employees. As a result, the bonds between employees, teams and managers are put under more pressure than before. Hence I founded WorkJoys as a community project to help employees and managers build better relationship while coping with the pandemic. WorkJoys offer companies simple virtual team building games for their employees and teams to play with. They can share quirks and trivia about themselves, play positive polling questions, discover more about each other and have a good laugh through the chat functions. What's more, its free!" WorkJoys currently have 3 social games for any companies and employees. The first game is a Positive Polling game where users get polled with only positive questions about their colleagues and the chosen colleagues will receive notification (and points) and then both users can connect through WorkJoys chat and find out who has chosen who and why. The second game is a Trivia game where users are posed quirks about their colleagues and they have to choose the right colleague. If the correct colleague is chosen, they will receive notification and connect through WorkJoys chat. The third game is True or False Story Game where each user provide a true and a false story about themselves for rest of their colleagues to guess. WorkJoys is planning to rollout a total of 10 games by September. A security technology company has also created a list of prizes internally for their employees who topped the leaderboard in WorkJoys as scores are accrued to users who know their colleagues best through correct guesses and more engagements. For interested companies, please visit www.workjoys.com or write an email to [email protected] About WorkJoys WorkJoys is a community project founded to use technology to help companies and employees cope with effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. WorkJoys helps individuals and teams build bonds by playing simple social games asynchronously to have fun without compromising productivity. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200605/2822563-1 SOURCE WorkJoys [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] New Delhi, June 9 : Alibaba Cloud on Tuesday said it is planning to recruit 5,000 people worldwide in areas including network, database, servers, chips and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Cloud computing company in April announced it would invest additional $28 billion in the next three years to build the next-generation datacentres. "The digital transformation journey for businesses in China, which was previously expected to take three to five years, is now likely to be accelerated to be completed within one year." said Jeff Zhang, President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. "In light of the fast-growing demand of digital shift from global clients in all sectors, we are continuing with our commitment to offering world-class cloud services," Zhang said in a statement. The company in 2017 established Alibaba DAMO Academy which pools global talent for fundamental technology research in areas such as machine intelligence, vision computing, natural language processing, human-machine interactions, IoT and financial technology. "To move forward in full speed, we are not only building trusted cloud technologies and services, but also investing in worldwide IT talents who are pioneering the development of cutting-edge cloud and data intelligence technologies," Zhang added. Pioneering technologies from Alibaba DAMO Academy, including speech AI, image search, and CT image analytics, have been introduced to Alibaba Cloud's clients worldwide over the past years. Alibaba Cloud has data centres in 63 availability zones, two of which are in India, across 21 regions serving millions of customers across the globe. It has more than 70 security and compliance accreditations worldwide. Alibaba Cloud, which is the data intelligence backbone of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, in April launched a $30 million global "anti-COVID" programme to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including in India. Who is the leader of the protests that have swept across America in the last two weeks? Who is its Martin Luther King Jr., its Mahatma Gandhi, its Nelson Mandela? For that matter, whats the main organization behind it? Its Southern Christian Leadership Conference or African National Congress? Whats remarkable about this new movement, born from a video of a Minneapolis police officer crushing George Floyd under his knee, is the speed with which it has spread across the country and the world without any central coordination. But this lack of central organization is not unusual these days. The ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have also been noted for their decentralized, leaderless model. So, for that matter, are a number of protests that have swept the globe in recent months, including the anti-austerity movements in Chile, Ecuador, and Lebanon; protests against corruption and inequality from Haiti to Iraq; nationalist demonstrations in Catalonia, and Frances anti-establishment Gilet Jaunes. These movements differ in the events and underlying conditions that precipitated them, but share a nonhierarchical structure and sense of spontaneity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many Black Lives Matter activists reject the term leaderless. Patrisse Cullors, the activist who originally promoted the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag in 2013 after George Zimmermans acquittal for the killing of Trayvon Martin, refers to it in contrast as a leader-full movement, in which individual activists are empowered rather than asked to defer to a hierarchy. While the concept has deeper roots, particularly in anti-capitalist and feminist activism, decentralized protest movements have become the norm in recent years. The phenomenon first became apparent around 2011, in the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring protests. The most frequently credited reason for this change is the advent of social media. Irans 2010 Green Movement was dubbed the Twitter Revolution. Wael Ghonim, the former Google employee who became a key figure in Egypts 2011 Tahrir Square protests, would often thank Mark Zuckerberg in interviews for developing the platform that made organizing the movement possible. This optimism about the possibilities of social media feels very dated today, but its undeniable that the internet has opened up possibilities for organizing without a centralized leadership structure. Advertisement Advertisement The leaderless movement can be more flexible. What we see here is a totally different media environment than our foremothers in the civil rights movement had. We have the technology and the access to allow more people to take the lead, said Meredith Clark, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia who has researched the Black Lives Matter movements organizing tactics. Advertisement But its not just about technology. Its a philosophical difference, too. Clark contrasts the current anti-racist movements emphasis on the empowerment of individual activists with the civil rights movement, and the leadership we saw at that time, which was highly patriarchal, that focused on respectability, that engaged people along very strict lines. The discipline of those historical movements could be remarkable. Think of the famous incident on March 9, 1965, when King brought supporters to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, two days after they were beaten by police in the infamous Bloody Sunday incident, and had them kneel and pray rather than cross the bridge and risk another violent confrontation. A leaderless movement, for better or worse, would have more trouble ensuring everyone turned back from the bridge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But rejecting centralized leadership has certain benefits as well. No individual can claim to speak for the whole movement, said Carne Ross, a British diplomat-turned-activist and author of The Leaderless Revolution. He recalled an activist telling him during Occupy Wall Street, Nobody speaks for me. The tragic history of the American civil rights movement also points to another limitation of a movement organized around one or two charismatic figureheads. If that person was harmed or assassinated, as happened with Martin Luther King or Malcolm X, a large part of the movement dies, Clark said. Advertisement Advertisement The leaderless movement can be more flexible. In Hong Kong, activists have adopted martial arts star Bruce Lees Taoism-influenced motto be water to describe their resilient and flexible approach. Erica Chenoweth, an expert on nonviolent social movements at Harvard Kennedy School, said theres research showing that decentralized movements are able to react quickly to challenges and innovate tactics. A movement thats overly organized can become too invested in its own tactics. Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administrations fixation on the role of antifa, the militant anti-fascist activists who make up a very small portion of the crowds, suggests the White House wants to avoid confronting how widespread and diverse the support for this movement is. The very spontaneity of the movement is a large part of its power. After the last two weeks, no one should doubt that power. In addition to the historic number of people it has brought onto the streets, the movement has also already achieved several concrete victories, including the city of Minneapolis committing to disbanding its police department, major cities pledging to cut their police budgets, and policing policy changes throughout the country. Popular support for police reform has grown, while President Donald Trump has become less popular and more politically isolated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, the decentralized approach is not without its drawbacks. The protests rely on social media to get the message out, plan, and coordinate logistics. Theres a greater recognition that the same technologies that are used to organize are being used to surveil, noted Clark. In the movement against Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Chenoweth pointed out, because of the digital organizing space, it was very easy to figure out who was organizing things, even if there wasnt a formal leader. The flipside of tactical innovation, Ross said, is that there is no mechanism in a leaderless movement to enforce consistent tactics, particularly when it comes to crossing the line into violence. The risk is that the actions of a few will besmirch the reputation of the whole. One widely shared video shows two white women, perhaps associated with antifa, graffitiing BLM on a Starbucks while the woman filming tells them to stop, saying theyre gonna blame black people for this. Advertisement Other movements have faced this challenge as well. Hong Kongs protesters were widely criticized after a journalist from Chinas state-run Global Times newspaper was assaulted and his hands bound by a crowd during an airport sit-in last August. Other protesters made statements of apology for the incident. Advertisement Advertisement Its also often not clear who is speaking for the movement. Black Lives Matter, for instance, is a slogan, a decentralized movement, as well as the name of a network of established organizations. When D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser last week renamed a street in front of the White House Black Lives Matter Plaza and had the slogan painted on the street, she was criticized by the group Black Lives Matter DC, which called the move a distraction from a politician who has supported increasing the budget for the police and had days earlier sent police to crack down on protests. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The big-tent approach of decentralized movements is highly effective at getting people into the streets. For instance, some taking part in the current protests may favor the specific policing reforms advocated by groups like Campaign Zero, while others favor defunding or eliminating police forces entirely. But a lack of message discipline can also make it hard to sustain movements once the time comes to translate their goals into lasting policy changes. The Gilets Jaunes protests that emerged in France in 2018 were such a big tent that journalists often seemed unsure if they were a movement of the right or the left. Eventually, they lost momentum over infighting. The Tahrir Square protests may have succeeded in forcing Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak from office, but it was the Muslim Brotherhood, a well-established and highly disciplined political movement, that was in a position to take power after him, until it was eventually ousted by another highly disciplined institution: the countrys military. Advertisement Advertisement Then theres the question of whether these movements are actually as open and egalitarian as they seem. Even the most anarchical movement has underlying power dynamics. In 1970, when leaderless consciousness-raising groups were growing in popularity within the womens movement, the feminist scholar Jo Freeman criticized the approach in an article titled The Tyranny of Structurelessness, which argued that there is no such thing as a structureless group. Any group of people of whatever nature that comes together for any length of time for any purpose will inevitably structure itself in some fashion. Thus, she wrote, structurelessness becomes a way of masking power that benefits those who best understand a movements unwritten rules. Better, she argues, to make the power structure explicit, open to participation and critique by all. Advertisement The critique is worth keeping in mind. But a less cynical way of viewing this is that lasting formal structures can emerge from informal movements. Decentralized movements become organizations in towns and cities where people are active. Narrative control comes from long-standing organizations that have been doing this all along, said Chenoweth. This was the case with the first major wave of Black Lives Matter organizing between 2014 and 2016. Many organizers of the initial Black Lives Matter protests have gone on to found new organizations focusing on different aspects and approaches to policing and criminal justice. Whatever its benefits and drawbacks, the decentralized approach is likely to grow more popular. It may be the only approach suited to a world in which theres growing distrust of large, formal institutions, whether in politics, business, or the media. As they develop and innovate, activists will need to figure out how movements that are inherently mistrustful of power can start wielding it. SAN MATEO, Calif., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Applitools, provider of a next generation test automation platform through Visual AI and Ultrafast Grid, today announced Test Automation University (TAU) has surpassed the 50,000 student mark. Since announcing its first course in January 2019, the program's 33 renowned instructors have produced a curriculum of 40 courses and 12 unique Learning Pathways. Test Automation University Growth from October 2018 - May 2020. (Source: Applitools) Test Automation University Ranks and Badges as of June 2020. (Source: Applitools) Created as a community-driven collection of free educational training resources, TAU helps test engineers, automation engineers and developers learn relevant skill sets to advance their careers. TAU provides video courses with transcripts, quizzes to earn credits, rankings and badges. The 40 available courses cover web, API, mobile, visual, AI, and codeless automation frameworks and provide training in multiple programming languages, such as Java, JavaScript, C#, Python, Ruby, and Swift. Join Test Automation University to gain free access to all courses and learning pathways: ( https://testautomationu.com/ ) Until now, Test Automation University students could achieve five possible ranks that are awarded based on completed course credits. TAU students have achieved such high levels of success in the program that four additional rankings have been added. The original five ranks, in order, were: Unicorn, Pegasus, Phoenix, Dragon and Kraken. Due to the growing number of courses students are completing, TAU has added an additional two ranks including Chimera and Griffin. To celebrate the success of the TAU community, Angie Jones, Director of Test Automation University, will lead a virtual party on June 18, 2020 at 9 am PT. The live stream is open to the public and broadcast through Twitch, YouTube, LinkedIn and Periscope. During the celebration, instructors and students will join Angie Jones on-screen to share their experiences with TAU. The celebration will also include trivia games and giveaways, including a free 50K TAU course badge awarded to those who attend as well as exclusive TAU paraphernalia. Join the Live Stream party on June 18, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. PT: https://angiejones.tech/test-automation-university-50k "I am so grateful to be able to live out my passion to support the software engineering community," said Jones, who is also an instructor of six courses ranging from 'Java Programming' to 'Selenium Webdriver' to next generation test automation via 'Automated Visual Testing'. "Test Automation University is growing daily and I am continually inspired by the hard work done by our students and the stories they share of success thanks to participating in the program. We can't wait to celebrate their achievements during our party on June 18." "We're excited to bring the community live, virtual Test Automation University courses to offer up a unique way of learning," said Raja Rao, Sr. Director of Growth Marketing, Applitools, and Director of Test Automation University. "The personal and professional growth of the test and QA community is our driving force and we hope the virtual courses offer an enriching learning experience. We are also incredibly impressed by the progress TAU students have made in just over a year and couldn't be prouder to offer two additional ranks for them to work towards." "Test Automation University is by far the best resource for learning both fundamentals and tactical skills for software testing and automation. As a student, I love learning new things from industry experts. As an instructor, I love TAU's comprehensive platform that structures education so well. I can hit so many angles when I develop courses for TAU," said Andrew Knight, Lead Software Engineer in Test at PrecisionLeader and frequent TAU instructor. "TAU is an amazing platform that covers a wide variety of materials in a way that allows a person to learn at their own pace whilst still having the support needed from the instructors. Being a TAU instructor has allowed me the opportunity to share my knowledge with the community. I'm looking forward to the continued growth of the platform," said Julia Pottinger, Lead QA Consultant at QualityWorks Consulting Group and TAU instructor. Test Automation University is sponsored by Applitools. Contact us at ( https://applitools.com/contact/sales ) to speak with a Visual AI testing expert. About Applitools Applitools delivers a Next Generation Test Automation Platform through Visual AI and Ultrafast Grid. We enable engineering teams to release high quality web and mobile apps at incredible speed and at a reduced cost. Applitools Visual AI modernizes important test automation use cases -- Functional Testing, Visual Testing, Web and Mobile UI/UX Testing, Cross Browser Testing, Responsive Web Design Testing, Cross Device Testing, PDF Testing, Accessibility Testing and Compliance Testing -- to transform the way organizations deliver innovation at the speed of CI/CD at a significantly lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Hundreds of companies from verticals such as Tech, Banking, Insurance, Retail, Pharma, and Publishing -- including 50 of the Fortune 100 -- use Applitools to deliver the best possible digital experiences to millions of customers on any device and browser, and across every screen size and operating system. Applitools is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with an R&D center in Tel Aviv, Israel. For more information, please visit applitools.com. Media Contact: Jeremy Douglas Catapult PR-IR +1 303-581-7760, ext. 16 [email protected] SOURCE Applitools Related Links https://info.applitools.com Protesters chant and wave signs at the Chicago Police Department during a protest: (2020 Getty Images) A Chicago police officer who raised his middle fingers to demonstrators during George Floyd protests last week, has been assigned to desk duty. During the protests last Thursday, an officer was photographed raising the middle fingers of both of his hands at protesters, as police drove away from the demonstrations. The unnamed officer has since been stripped of his police powers by superintendent David Brown, according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department. The officer used a vulgar, offensive gesture directed at a member of the public while on duty and in uniform, the statement read. The member will be limited to administrative duties at the direction of the superintendent. On Monday, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot told reporters that she had been shown a photograph of the officer giving people the finger at a protest. Well find that person and in my view, that person needs to be immediately stripped of their police power and start the process for firing him, she said. The mayor added: They forfeited their right to be a Chicago police officer. Protests have taken place across the US, following the death of Mr Floyd, who died after being detained by Derek Chauvin, who at the time was a Minneapolis police officer, but has now been charged with second degree murder and manslaughter. The protests, in opposition of police brutality against African Americans, started in Minneapolis, but quickly spread to Chicago and New York, among cities in every state in the US. Police have clashed with protesters all over the US, and some officers have been filmed using excessive force and antagonising peaceful protesters. Nine instances of excessive force by police were filmed in the space of a week, during the protests, according to CNN. One incident involved an officer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, pushing a black protester to the floor, who was kneeling peacefully at a demonstration. Last week, footage circulated on social media of a Chicago police officer shouting homophobic slurs at a protester. That incident is also under investigation. Story continues During a press conference last Friday, Ms Lightfoot praised a majority of the citys police officers, but made it clear that she and the department would not tolerate officers who crossed the line. While I believe that the vast majority of Chicago Police officers have done their job well and, under difficult circumstances, have exercised restraint, unfortunately were seeing evidence of some who have not, she said. We will not tolerate people who cross the line. We will not tolerate excessive force. We will not tolerate profanity and homophobic comments that demean the badge, demean the honour of being a Chicago Police officer and demean the value of who we are as Chicagoans. We will not tolerate that. Read more Joe Biden gives powerful address at George Floyds funeral We will continue to deal with Chinese PLA in firm, resolute manner: Army chief Viral Video: People forced to quarantine in metal boxes as China enforces zero Covid policy 'Have Chinese occupied Indian territory in Ladakh'?: Rahul to Rajnath Singh India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, June 09: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday asked defence minister Rajnath Singh if Chinese troops have occupied Indian territory in Ladakh. "Once RM (Rajnath Singh) is done commenting on the hand symbol, can he answer: Have the Chinese occupied Indian territory in Ladakh?", Rahul Gandhi tweeted this morning. On Monday, Singh took a jibe at Congress after Gandhi raised questions over the issue of a border dispute with China. Improvising yet another Mirza Ghalib couplet and with an obvious pun on Congress party's symbol - 'hand', he said: "If your hand aches, you have medicine; But what to do when the reason of ache is your hand." WHO says coronavirus situation is worsening globally, disease raging in Americas| Oneindia News 'Everyone knows': Rahul Gandhi's jibe at Amit Shah over defence policy Singh said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and some opposition leaders had sought the government''s clarification on what is happening at the India-China border. "As the Defence Minister of the country, I want to say that whatever I have to say I will say it inside Parliament, I will not mislead the people," the minister said. Gandhi targeted Amit Shah over his statement at a virtual rally about the surgical and air strikes after the terror attacks in Uri and Pulwama showed that India's defence policy was strong and the country knows how to protect its borders. "India's defence policy has gained global acceptance. The whole world agrees that after US and Israel if there is any other country that is able to protect its borders, it is India," Shah had said. Gandhi responded using an often-quoted couplet by legendary Urdu-Persian poet Mirza Ghalib. "Everyone knows the reality of 'Seema' (Border) but to keep the heart happy, 'Shah-yad' it is a good idea," Rahul Gandhi tweeted sarcastically. Rahul has been questioning the government's response to Chinese aggression in Ladakh at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border between the two countries. Tension between the two sides mounted after reports of skirmishes between soldiers in the Pangong Lake region on May 5 and May 6. D etectives investigating the fatal shooting of a man in east London have issued an image of a car which they believe could have been used by the killers. Oluwamayowa Adeyemi, 21, also known as Samson, was found with gunshot wounds in Brackenfield Close, Hackney, at 11.30pm on Friday. A Volvo estate, recovered by police on Saturday from Cowper Road, near Highbury, is believed to be connected to those responsible. The car was found damaged and with the false number plate EX18EXE. Detective Chief Inspector Paul Considine added: The car had some distinguishing features in that there were scuff marks to both corners of the front bumper and the front passenger door mirror was held on with tape. Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. COVID-19 has stalled just about every element of the economy and the housing construction component is no exception. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. COVID-19 has stalled just about every element of the economy and the housing construction component is no exception. And according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, housing starts slowed down more significantly in Manitoba that just about any other province in the country. But there is a general consensus among industry officials in Winnipeg that the severe decline in housing starts a 47 per cent drop from April to May and 58 per cent comparing May 2020 to May 2019 has a lot to do with something that was occurring before the coronavirus pandemic. According to the CMHC, seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in May were 3,335 in Manitoba compared to 6,320 in April. From April to May, the 47 per cent drop in starts in Manitoba was the largest in the country. Only Newfoundland and Labrador had a greater drop from May 2019 to May 2020 than Manitobas 58 per cent decline. An overbuilt condo sector is whats really driving the numbers down, the experts say. Lanny McInnes, CEO of Manitoba Home Builders Association said there was a 69 per cent decline in the number of multi-family starts this May compared to last May. "Thats because there was a significant number of rental apartment (and condo development) starts last year," he said. "From a market perspective there was not going to be a similar number of multi-family starts this year." Year to date, McInnes said single-family housing starts in Winnipeg are only down seven per cent from last year. All other types of housing are down by 21 per cent through the end of May. Heather Bowyer, CMHCs senior market analyst for Manitoba, also blamed the large percentage decline in Manitoba on the fact that the market has been dealing with an overbuilt condo market for some time. She makes a distinction between rental housing and condo developments. She said last year there was a pretty strong level of multi-family rental starts and in the year to date, rental starts are only down four per cent, whereas condo starts are down almost 40 per cent. "We are seeing quite a difference between the type of multi-family units in Winnipeg and the impact COVID is having," she said. "But one caveat to this is that condos have seen a bit of a downward trend in new construction over the last little while anyway. We have seen a lot of overbuilding in that market segment." The challenges in the condo market are seen on the resale side as well, where prices have barely been able to hold their ground. In its recent report on home sales in Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Realtors Association noted overall sales during the last week in May surpassed sales during the same week last year. But according to Peter Squire, vice-president of external relations and market intelligence at Winnipeg Realtors, there was an excess of condos on the market even going into 2020. Whereas some popular neighbourhoods in Winnipeg did not have enough detached single-family inventory for sale in May, there were plenty of condos for sale across the city. "COVID-19 has exacerbated some of the challenges of condos versus single family dwellings," he said. The construction industry has had to impose physical-distancing protocols like everyone else, but it was deemed an essential service in Manitoba and has not had to shut down. Having said that, Ron Hambley, president of the Winnipeg Construction Association, said there was a general construction slowdown at the end of March. As contractors have become more comfortable with the new guidelines, things are on track now. "Everything that was underway is still being worked on," he said. "There is still lots of multi-family projects under construction but we are not seeing any new (multi-family) starts." CMHC records a project as having started when the foundation has been built. McInnes believes another factor that may be at play in the severe drop in Manitoba numbers could be a gap between permits that have been issued and the actual start of construction. "Single-family detached starts are down more than what we have seen on the permit numbers," he said. "We think it might be just a lag in construction starting." Across the country the annual pace of housing starts, excluding Quebec, fell 20.4 per cent in May compared with April. 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. TD Bank economist Rishi Sondhi said homebuilding has generally remained resilient in the face of the pandemic. "While this result may surprise some, we note that homebuilding is in part a function of past housing demand, which has been strong," Sondhi wrote in a report. "In addition, most provinces didnt shut down their construction sectors in response to the outbreak." Sondhi noted that it is fair to question how long this resilience will hold up. with files from The Canadian Press martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca City bar and restaurant owners were breathing a sigh of relief Monday after St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson lifted the citys curfew, while bar owners in St. Louis County got to open their doors for the first time in months. The curfew that took effect in the city June 2 after a night of violent looting had caused many restaurants and bars to close well before 9 p.m. over the past week. But in the county, bars that dont serve full meals have been limited to curbside service since March 23. Dan Ritter, owner of River City Pub in south St. Louis County said his inside bar and dining space was opening Monday. Finally, Ritter said with a laugh. He said the bars main attraction is karaoke, something not possible in pandemic conditions as patrons stand elbow-to-elbow waiting for their turn to sing with the same microphone. Its hard because youre caught between a rock and a hard place, because youre trying to make money reopening but youre also trying to distance people, with alcohol in the mix, Ritter said. So that will be difficult. Those kinds of issues pushed bars toward the bottom of the countys reopening schedule. Carol Fallart, owner of Brew House bar in Maryland Heights, said she opened Monday. Shutting her doors for three months meant not seeing patrons who come in regularly from the neighborhood, she said. Now, in keeping with county regulations, she can welcome up to 25% of them back at a time. The hardest part is were a family thats part of my customer base, Fallart said. The customers that come in here, were their second home. Fallart said since the bars closing date, March 17, shes lost thousands of dollars and had to throw out at least 500 bottles of beer. She said in addition to not seeing customers, the toll that closing took on her employees also was difficult. City bars were allowed to reopen May 18. But after just two weeks in business, they faced the curfew hurdle. Kevin Liese, owner of Jack Patricks Bar and Grill, said the curfew was the right thing to do, even though hes lost revenue between that and the coronavirus outbreak. A peaceful protest on June 1 turned violent that night near Lieses business. We lucked out only one window broken, he said. The grill is just east of Tucker Boulevard and is less than a mile from the 7-Eleven that was burned by looters. At 2:30 (a.m.) a neighbor saw somebody throw a planter at the window, he said. Liese said even before the curfew, his revenue had been affected. Its depressing down here because there arent people on the streets, he said. We need that foot traffic. Though restaurants and bars are opening their doors, the mayor was still encouraging mask-wearing and hand-washing Monday. Case numbers are down in St. Louis, Krewson said, because of such safety precautions. There are currently 279 people hospitalized with COVID-19, Krewson said. That is the lowest number weve seen in a very long time. Dipping below 300 is great news. On Monday, Missouri recorded 14,734 COVID-19 cases and 819 deaths. St. Louis County accounted for 5,300 of those cases, according to the countys website. And in Illinois Monday, the state counted 128,415 positive cases with almost 6,000 deaths. Krewson announced free COVID-19 testing for all, even for residents who are not symptomatic, due to the city gaining over 250,000 tests. Meanwhile, some bar owners are still trying to figure out how to ensure social distancing in an industry that is meant to foster sociability. James Smallwood, owner of 33 Wine Shop and Bar in Lafayette Square, said alcohol and social distancing can be a difficult formula to master. He hopes to open by next Monday, but hes trying to figure out how to keep his customers comfortable and maintain the atmosphere of a bar, while taking precautions. Hes thought about plexiglass floor to ceiling. Hes thought about table distancing. The dining area will have four tables available instead of the usual eight, and no barstools at the bar. Well be taking reservations for the first time ever, he said. Thats just weird in and of itself. Hey, Im gonna go to a bar. Well, do you have a reservation? Thats just weird. Flannerys Irish Pub on Washington Avenue has been open since May 22 but has brought in a fraction of its weekly profit from before the pandemic, said manager Jordan Vipond-Gilbert. We did have to throw away a lot of alcohol and a lot of food, Vipond-Gilbert said. Probably close to 1,000 bottles of beer. The Irish pub had prepared for St. Patricks Day, stocking up on liquid refreshments, but was not able to sell the surplus as coronavirus swept the nation following the March holiday. Vipond-Gilbert said the bar is now pulling in less revenue in a full week than it used to make on a busy weekend. Liese, owner of Jack Patricks, said his business is about more than serving alcohol. Protest and virus aside, were not going to get back to normal until we have ballgames, hockey, all that, Liese said. I tell people Im not going to worry unless the Blues dont start like normal in October. If that doesnt happen, then were all in some trouble down here. 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. A self-styled preacher, Prophet Kwabena Owusu Agyei who was seen in a viral video threatening and castigating President Akufo-Addo and the Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jean Mensa has been arrested. The preacher was reportedly arrested by plain cloth security men during a live interview with Accra-based Hot FM Tuesday morning. The pastor at a Church Service on Facebook live via NDC TV on Sunday served a strong warning to the EC boss to stop the compilation of the new voters' register. He arrogantly displayed that if the voters register is allowed to be changed, the Electoral Commissioner will die, adding that Ghana will not allow a small family to dictate to the nation. The NDC pastor stated categorically that, during the June 4 revolution, it was the blood of the military that flowed and that, what he is hearing in this time, it is the blood of the Akyem mafia that will flow. He said should the EC Chairperson attempt the compilation of a new electoral roll she will die at 12 midday without indicating the day. Arrest In a video seen by Peacefmonline.com, the Prophet was arrested on Tuesday morning at what appears to be his home (coded location) during a live interview with Accra based Hot FM. He was apprehended by the plain cloth security personnel immediately he started ranting again during the interview. The officers with an arrest warrant interuppted the interview and whisked him away in a black vehicle. Indian Hemp In another video seen in an office where he was taken to after the arrest, the Prophet in handcuff was seen holding a substance suspected to be Indian Hemp wrapped in a brown paper and being search thouroughly by the security personnel. Decision to compile a new register Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission of Ghana has stated that the underlying legal reasons for its decision not to include the existing voters Identification Card (ID) in its upcoming registration exercise is because the Supreme Court itself has held that the register is reasonably not credible and that by implication, the cards issued pursuant to it are also reasonably not credible. The EC made this accession in its thirty-one (31) page response to the order of a seven-member Supreme Court panel on the 4th of June 2020, to provide legal basis for its decision to exclude the existing voters identity card from the list of IDs that are admissible for the upcoming voters' registration exercise due to commence at the end of the month of June. The ECs Supplementary Statement of Case was filed today Monday, the 8th of June 2020 in fulfilment of the timelines given by the Supreme Court.
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Source: Ghanaweb 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 Hundreds of protestors have crowded onto the street outside Oxford Universitys Oriel College to call for the removal of the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes the latest in a string of anti-racist action that has spread across the globe in recent weeks. Students at the university first called for the statue of Rhodes to be brought down in 2015 part of a multinational movement to highlight his legacy of white supremacist views and his role in paving the way for apartheid in South Africa. Now global Black Lives Matter protests and events in Bristol where activists removed a statue of slaver Edward Colston and flung it into Bristol Harbour have renewed calls for action against the statue of Rhodes. Chanting Dont be fooled, Rhodes was a racist and Rhodes must fall, take it down, protestors including many students at the university as well as local residents demanded the removal of the statue, as well as a reparation scholarship aimed at people of African descent. Ndjodi Ndeunyema, an Oxford student who is among the events organisers, said action in Bristol to remove the Colston statue had allowed them to reinvigorate that conversation that began in 2015. Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Show all 16 1 /16 Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest The Edward Colston statue has been pulled down by Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol. Colston was a 17th century slave trader who has numerous landmarks named after him in Bristol. Pictured is the statue covered up before it was pulled down Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Protesters pulling down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston William Want Twitter account/AFP Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Protesters pulling down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston William Want Twitter account/AFP Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest A protester presses his knee into the neck of the Edward Colston statue Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest The protest rally was in College Green, Bristol Ben Birchall/PA Wire Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest The Edward Colston statue is defaced Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest A crowd gathers Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Protesters dragging the statue of Edward Colston to Bristol harbourside PA Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest The statue is rolled along the street before being dropped into a nearby river SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Protesters throw the statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour PA Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Ben Birchall/PA Wire Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest TWITTER/SELLOTTIE via REUTERS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest PA Many of the demands that well present at this protest have not been satisfied, he told The Independent. Theyve fallen on deaf ears and it is on us to communicate clearly to the university and to the college that yes, you can kick this into the long grass but it wont go away. Yes students will move on, but students will continue to object to the institutional practises that are symbolised by objectionable iconography such as that of Cecil Rhodes. Referring to the inscription beneath Rhodes describing him as a magnificent benefactor, he added: There is nothing magnificent about someone who has overseen the genocide and land expropriation regime that weve seen in Southern Africa in particular in the beginning of the 20th century. Police officers remained outside the college and on its rooftop throughout the peaceful event, where cautiously spaced protesters struggled to maintain social distancing amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It comes after the home secretary Priti Patel said it was not for mobs to tear down statues and instead urged the public to go through the proper channels like local councils and mayors to remove such symbols. However, while the decision lays with the university, local officials in Oxford have voiced support for the removal of the Rhodes statue. In a tweet, Labour councillor Susan Brown said: I have today written to Oriel College to invite them to apply for planning permission to remove the statue, as it is a Grade II* listed building. Typically, such actions are only allowed in the most exceptional of circumstances. But these are exceptional circumstances, and as a city council we are keen to work with Oriel to help them find the right balance between the laws that protect our historic buildings and the moral obligation to reflect on the malign symbolism of this statue. Mr Ndeunyema, who was also part of the original push to remove the statue, added: Many a time weve heard arguments that were seeking to obfuscate democratic processes we have stressed and continued to stress the use of the democratic processes to express our disgruntlement with the veneration of people such as Cecil Rhodes here at Oxford University. It is upon those institutions to take such matters seriously, not only in reflecting critically upon figures such as Rhodes, but also taking substantive steps to show meaningful solidarity with black lives. Cecil Rhodes, once the prime minister of the Cape Colony in modern-day South Africa, professed his belief that Anglo Saxons were the first race and that the world was improved by the colonial spread of the race. As well as the statue, the universitys prestigious Rhodes scholarship remains, boasting Bill Clinton among its alumni. The controversial statue of Cecil Rhodes on the front of Oriel College, Oxford (Rex) In a statement, a spokesperson for the college said it abhors racism and discrimination in all its forms, adding that its governing body is deeply committed to equality within our community at Oriel, the University of Oxford and the wider world. The spokesperson added: As an academic institution we aim to fight prejudice and champion equal opportunities for everyone regardless of race, gender, sexuality or faith. We believe Black Lives Matter and support the right to peaceful protest. The power of education is a catalyst for equality and inclusiveness. We understand that we are, and we want to be, a part of the public conversation about the relationship between the study of history, public commemoration, social justice, and educational equality. As a college, we continue to debate and discuss the issues raised by the presence on our site of examples of contested heritage relating to Cecil Rhodes. RIO DE JANEIRO - A Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered the government of President Jair Bolsonaro to resume publication of full COVID-19 data, including the cumulative death toll, following allegations the government was trying to hide the severity of the pandemic in Latin Americas biggest country. The government complied with the decision Tuesday afternoon. Justice Alexandre de Moraes said late Monday that the government is obliged to provide necessary information to Brazilian citizens, days after the Health Ministry scrubbed the cumulative death toll from the new coronavirus from its website. De Moraes said in his decision that the gravity of the pandemic, which has killed more than 38,400 Brazilians, requires transparency from the government as the country shapes policies to curb the virus. Brazils health ministry stopped publishing the number of total COVID-19 deaths and confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday. The restriction on the release of data, combined with its announcement after evening news programs had ended, generated widespread criticism. Gilmar Mendes, another Supreme Court justice, said Saturday that manipulation of data is a tactic of authoritarian regimes and that hiding the numbers wouldnt exempt the government from responsibility for the pandemics heavy toll in Brazil. Facing intense criticism, a top Health Ministry official told reporters Monday night that the ministry would restore the cumulative death toll to its website, but with changes to the methodology for how daily deaths are tallied. In the midst of the ongoing border standoff, the Indian Army won a rare public compliment from a Chinese military expert who said India has the world's largest and experienced plateau and mountain troops equipped with some of the best weapons suited for such terrain in the Tibetan border. "At present, the world's largest and experienced country with plateau and mountain troops is neither the US, Russia, nor any European powerhouse, but India, Huang Guozhi, senior editor of Modern Weaponry magazine, wrote in an article published by China's thepaper.cn on Tuesday. His remarks coincided with the current military standoff between India-China troops along the Line of Actual Control. Mountain brigades being raised by India are mostly meant for the Chinese border, especially the Tibetan plateau, and it is perhaps the first time a Chinese military expert publicly complimented their strength and strategic importance. "With more than 200,000 troops in 12 divisions, the Indian mountain force is the largest mountain fighting force in the world, Huang wrote. Huang said that since the 1970s, the Indian military has established and expanded the size and personnel of the mountain troops on a large-scale, and also plans to create a mountain strike force of more than 50,000 troops. "Mountaineering is an essential skill for almost every member of the Indian mountain army. To this end, India even recruited a large number of professional mountaineers and amateur mountaineers from the private sector, he said. Referring to the Indian Army's presence in the Siachen glacier, he said "the Indian Army has set up hundreds of outposts in the Siachen Glacier area with an altitude of more than 5,000 metres, with 6,000 to 7,000 fighters stationed. The highest post has reached 6,749 metres. The Indian military is equipped with a large number of weapons adapted to the highland and mountain operating environment through procurement and domestic research and development, he said. The Indian military has also spent heavily on advanced heavy equipment from the United States, including the M777, the world's lightest 155mm towed howitzer, and the Chinook heavy transport helicopter that lifts the gun, to boost its fire support and anti-armour capabilities, he said. "In addition, there are many conflicts and differences between the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force. This has also led the Indian Army to decide to equip its own US-made AH-64E Longbow Apache attack helicopters instead of relying entirely on airfield support from the air force, Huang wrote. Highlighting the difficulties for the troops, Huang said the mountain region, especially the plateau mountain region, is the most severe and difficult operational environment recognised by all countries in the world. In this environment, combatants must not only do their own warm protection, but also prevent acute altitude sickness such as cerebral pulmonary edema due to low pressure and hypoxia, he said. About the shortcomings of the Indian armed forces, he said the Indian military, for example, is not yet fully self-sufficient in weaponry. Especially when India procures large quantities of advanced light weapons using Western calibre, ammunition supply becomes a big problem, he wrote. Texas A&M University San Antonio, still largely a commuter campus, will not change its academic calendar this fall, Vice President and Provost Mike OBrien said. Nationwide, colleges and universities are announcing drastic changes to what school will look like in the fall amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Two weeks ago, Texas A&M System regents released reopening guidelines for its 11 campuses but said the details would be decided by individual university leaders. About 70 percent of courses will be offered online and classes will be staggered to try to limit the daily number of students and faculty on campus, OBrien said. What weve done is design a way to offer classes on campus as well as virtually, OBrien said. About 30 percent of our section courses will be offered face-to-face. Bob Owen /San Antonio Express-News Students at the University of Texas at Austin and St. Marys University will not return after Thanksgiving, with St. Marys scheduling final exams before the holiday, those schools have announced. But A&M San Antonio officials dont anticipate many of their 6,700 students will travel far for Thanksgiving because most of them live in or near San Antonio and commute to campus, OBrien said. Required Reading: Get San Antonio education news sent directly to your inbox The one dormitory building at A&M San Antonio houses about 365 students. Systemwide, campuses with residence halls are to set aside spaces where students can quarantine if they come in contact with someone infected with the virus. Federal stimulus money the university received will pay for cameras installed in classrooms so more students can remain home and watch the class online. The cameras will follow instructors as they move around the classroom. Tom Reel /Staff photographer The funds also will cover faculty training on using virtual tools so online options are more effective. In March, schools were quick to move classes online as COVID-19 spread in the community. All courses are being designed for another move to online should a second wave of COVID-19 cases occur, system leaders said. On ExpressNews.com: Texas A&M University System releases guidelines for re-opening campuses University leaders do not anticipate longer weekday class schedules or adding classes on weekends, OBrien said. Freshmen will select courses from two four-course blocks of 50-minute classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 75-minute classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those groups of freshmen will remain in the same classroom together for all four courses to reduce overall exposure to COVID-19. Class sizes will be smaller in the fall and will be spaced to adhere to social distancing guidelines, OBrien said. We really targeted first-time college students and freshmen. If you dont hook freshmen by about the third week, theres a very good chance youre going to lose them and we certainly dont want that, he said. Krista Torralva covers several school districts and public universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Krista, become a subscriber. Krista.Torralva@express-news.net | Twitter: @KMTorralva The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) have confirmed nine deaths from Covid-19 today. The HPSC also said there were nine new cases of coronavirus in Ireland. This brings the total deaths from Covid-19 in Ireland to 1,691. There are now 25,215 cases of Coronavirus in Ireland in total. One previous confirmed case of Covid-19 was denotified today by the HPSC reflected in the current total of cases. One previous confirmed death from Covid-19 was also denotified reflected in the total number of deaths. A breakdown of the data for Covid-19 patients provided by the HPSC shows: 57% are female and 43% are male The median age of confirmed cases is 48 years 3,331 cases (13%) have been hospitalised Of those hospitalised, 413 cases have been admitted to ICU 8,087 cases are associated with healthcare workers Dublin has the highest number of cases at 12,159 (48% of all cases) followed by Cork with 1,529 cases (6%) and then Kildare with 1,424 cases (6%) Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 38%, close contact accounts for 59%, travel abroad accounts for 2% 35 cases of Covid-19 are being treated in intensive care units (ICU) and there is currently a total of 110 confirmed coronavirus cases in Ireland's hospitals. Speaking about the new Covid-19 data, Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health, said; While today we report nine new cases and the situation continues to improve in both Ireland and across Europe, the World Health Organisation has noted that now is not the time to take the foot off the pedal and that countries need to continue to work hard to avoid complacency and promote solidarity. Meanwhile, Dr Cillian De Gascun, chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) Expert Advisory Group, said there is currently no specific evidence that Covid-19 was particularly associated with people who travelled to and from Ireland to attend the Cheltenham racing festival or rugby matches. He said: At the moment we dont have specific evidence that the virus would have been particular associated with those groups of individuals. "We are an island nation with significant transport links to other European countries on a daily basis. I dont think we have evidence to support the assertion that they would have been points of introduction for the virus. In March, there was criticism in Ireland at the festival organisers decision to allow Cheltenham go ahead. Earlier today a professor of genetics warned that there is every possibility of a resurge in Covid-19 and that Ireland could be facing waves of infection and waves of lockdown. Speaking on on RTE radios Today with Sarah McInerney show, Professor David McConnell of Trinity College, Dublin said: " People think we're out of the woods, it's really quite dangerous. Today we are in the same position as we were on March 12. "What happened on that date - we went into an epidemic. Everything is there for us to resurge to have an equally vigorous epidemic. We could have waves of infection, waves of lockdown. Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Teachers Association have declared that they are going to take ZIMSEC to court over its insistence to go ahead with June exams in the wake of Covid-19 without putting necessary protective measures in place, H-Metro can reveal. According to a memo supposedly written by the Permanent secretary Tumisang Thabela, to provincial education directors, school heads, examination class teachers, school health coordinators and invigilators are supposed to undertake a Covid-19 training as schools prepare for re-opening. Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe secretary general Raymond Majongwe said there is chaos on the way forward between the unions and the parliamentary portfolio committee on one hand and ZIMSEC together with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary education on the other hand. We have the case of the right hand doing what the left hand is saying dont, the parliamentary portfolio committee has recommended that the examination board should go ahead with exams when it is safe to do so, it not yet safe yet they have remained insistent so our union has resolved to take ZIMSEC to court and we will have our papers ready by the end of the week. We are the implementers and executioners in the education sectors, ZIMSEC hasnt assured us of our safety yet. We do want to proceed to exams but our safety is of concern, are the PPEs, sanitisers and extra furniture ready for schools re-opening. We will only get back to work when they satisfy us, ZIMSECs job is to facilitate exams, we are the ones who deal with the students so when we say its unsafe, we know what we are referring to as we are the ones who know the setup of our classrooms and how social distancing is impossible. As for the training, we dont know what they want to train us because so far, our concerns havent been addressed yet, said Majongwe. The ZIMSEC director Lazarus Nembaware revealed before the parliamentary portfolio committee that 60 000 students are expected to sit for the June 0level exams while 5 700 are expected to sit for the A level exam. Zimbabwe Teachers Association national president Richard Gundane also expressed concern over ZIMSECs intention to proceed with exams. ZIMSECs decision to proceed with exams is going to have serious implications, its a bad decision which must not be implemented, we made submissions to the ministry as well as to the parliament, in the wake of Covid-19, and the environment isnt conducive for students to be travelling to exams centres and write exams. Mind you ZIMSEC wants to run exams while schools havent resumed, exams cant run without schools being open, they need to take heed of the recommendations we have given them, with regard to the training thats ongoing, we discourage our teachers from engaging in harmful environments that expose them to Covid-19, they should stay at home until its safe to get back at work. We are also considering taking legal action against ZIMSEC because forcing teachers to go back to work in this kind of environment amounts to coercion so we will take the matter to court and let the courts decide the way forward, and if we lose, we will go back for more dialogue because we arent risking our lives, he said. The chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio for the Ministry of Primary and Secondary education Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga said they are happy that the ministry has undertaken training of ministry personnel in preparation of the re-opening of schools. Misihairabwi said this move by the ministry addresses one of her committees concerns, which was lack of preparedness. We have seen the circular circulated by the ministrys permanent secretary over the training of ministry personnel in preparation of the re-opening of schools amidst Covid-19, as the committee we werent stopping them from operating per se, we were making recommendations and were concerned over the lack of preparedness, so we are happy that they are training their personnel. Training doesnt mean they are opening immediately, they can train to open in September, or next year, as long as Covid-19 is still there, they need to get ready, she said. Misihairabwi, however, expressed great concern over ZIMSEC, which is determined to go ahead with exams, which have been scheduled for June 29. We have problems with ZIMSEC, we hear they are intending to proceed with exams, Im not sure if they are trying to tell us to go to hell or they have not heeded parliaments recommendations, from the engagements we have been having with them, we are not persuaded that they are ready for schools re-opening. If they think they are ready, they should come forward and convince us, they should tell us where the exams are going to be written, do the teachers and invigilators have PPE, have they fumigated the classrooms and examination papers, do they have the masks and sanitisers for the learners to use when they get back to school, queried Misihairabwi. The chairperson also added that while parliament does not have arresting powers and they cant stop ZIMSEC from going ahead with exams but the board will be held responsible for any infection of the learners and their teachers. As protests around the country against racism and police violence extend well into their second week, demand for books about race and anti-racism has surged. As of this writing, almost all of the top bestselling books on Amazon (seven out of 10) and at Barnes & Noble (nine out of 10) take on these topics, including How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi, White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo, and So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo. On the most recent New York Times list of bestselling nonfiction in e-books and print, five of the Top 15 titles address racism. One of them, The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexanders book about mass incarceration, was published 10 years ago. The week before, there were none. People want these books in hand today, said Kelly Estep, one of the owners of Carmichaels Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor, a black emergency room technician, was shot and killed by police in March. They feel like its something they can do right now. Jason Reynolds book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You, adapted from a book by Kendi, was No. 1 this week on The New York Times young adult hardcover list. Stamped distills the history of racist ideas into three kinds of people, Reynolds explained: segregationists, assimilationists and anti-racists. The goal of the book, he said, is to help young people identify what is racist. Reynolds said that seeing his book return to the top of the list, where it had debuted at No. 1 in March, leaves him hopeful but cautiously so. Im grateful that people are working to seek out information to help them better understand whats happening in our country, and I hope its not a knee-jerk reaction due to shame and guilt and not wanting to be on the outside, he said. I hope people understand that this book is the beginning of a journey of a lifetime. He added: I mean, its a wonderful thing to say Im a New York Times bestseller, but it would be more wonderful to be able to say we live in a world that is a little more anti-racist. Even board books for very young children where current events are not usually a consideration are reflecting this demand. Antiracist Baby, by Kendi, is scheduled to be published later this month. Penguin Young Readers had originally planned a first print run of 50,000 books, but in response to the demand it is seeing in pre-orders, it is printing an additional 100,000 copies. These numbers are extraordinary for any childrens book, and in particular one that is in the board book format aimed at readers 0-3, Elyse Marshall, executive director of publicity at Penguin Young Readers, said in an email. Its rare to see a board book hit and stay on a bestseller list weeks before it goes on sale, and the sustained presence reflects the moment that we are in. The demand for some titles has been so high that stores are having trouble keeping them in stock. Miriam Chotiner-Gardner, a buyer for Three Lives & Co. bookshop in Manhattan, said shes seen increased demand every which way. Some people are ordering just these books, while others are buying them along with unrelated novels or essay collections. There are customers purchasing just one title, and others stocking up on whole reading lists of five to seven books. Publishers, she added, are working to help the store restock quickly. Books that are out today will come back next week, she said. Usually it takes weeks to get a reprint. Estep of Carmichaels said Thursday that she didnt have any copies left of her biggest sellers on the subject, including White Fragility, How to Be an Antiracist and Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. We did get a couple copies of So You Want to Talk About Race today, she said, shortly before 5 p.m. But I havent been at the store since about 3 p.m., and I would be surprised if they were still there. These titles are dominating audiobook sales as well. Libro.fm is a company that partners with 1,200 bookstores in the United States and Canada to sell audiobooks, and on Friday, every one of its Top 10 bestsellers was about race. The company said its Top 10 list on the first day of June, again consisting entirely of books about race, had sold 500% more than the Top 10 list did on the first day of May. But buying books and reading books, Reynolds said, is not enough. If you read this book and you feel like youre ready to do some good work, and you happen to be a white person, it is imperative to know you do not deserve cookies for being a good human being, he said. This is an opportunity to be good for goods sake. Imagine that. Elizabeth A. Harris c.2020 The New York Times Company Chinese incursion in eastern Ladakh has turned into a latest soft spot for Central government -- already dealing with a pandemic which refuses to abate -- as Opposition parties shored up their attack. Chinese incursion in eastern Ladakh has turned into a latest soft spot for Central government -- already dealing with a pandemic which refuses to abate -- as Opposition parties shored up their attack. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi too has been demanding a response from the Centre on the issue. Merely a day after his "everyone knows the reality" of border situation jibe, Rahul on Tuesday asked Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to clarify whether China has occupied the Indian territory in Ladakh. Once RM is done commenting on the hand symbol, can he answer: Have the Chinese occupied Indian territory in Ladakh? Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 9, 2020 Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should call a Parliamentary session to discuss the "infiltration of Chinese troops on Indian territory". PM must call Session of Parliament to discuss the infiltration of Chinese Troops on Indian Territory. No less than the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh ji has accepted the fact. We do understand Modi is no Pt Nehru but the seriousness of the issue demands discussion in Parliament https://t.co/msO0dl7oW3 digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) June 9, 2020 Rajnath had on Monday hit out at Rahul with a couplet of noted Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib, saying when someone's hand aches they can treat it, but what does one do when the hand itself has become a pain. 'Hand' is the Congress party's election symbol. Rahul and Rajnath have been engaged in war of words on Twitter since Monday evening on the issue and have been taking swipes at each other by using couplets of Ghalib. The Congress leader on Monday had taken a swipe at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks that India is strong in protecting its borders, and said the truth seems dormant as "everyone knows" the reality of the situation at the country's borders. "Everyone knows the reality of the 'borders', but the thought is good to keep one's heart happy," he said in a tweet in Hindi, tweaking a couplet of Ghalib. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala also asked the defence minister to respond to the issue of Chinese incursion, instead of denigrating party symbols of opposition party. . . , https://t.co/sm0zhHsZ2t Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) June 9, 2020 Surjewala also sought answers on the border dispute with Nepal which flared up recently after the Himalayan nation's efforts to revise its political map to include areas within Indian territory, such as Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani within its borders. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi also said the government was being reluctant in sharing information and accused it of maintaining a "deliberate ambiguity". "It is time that you shared (information) with us under whatever conditions you like. What is the area which has been encroached and by not doing it, remember, you are creating more doubts, more rumours, more speculation. "What is the direction and content of the talks? What is the situation and so on and so forth, this is in the interest of the nation, but this government has always been reluctant, when it comes to other parties and that is the tragedy," he noted. Singhvi accused the government of giving a "step-motherly or step-brotherly" treatment to the opposition party. The Congress leader said there should be not even the slightest doubt that the Congress stood with the government, with the people of this nation beyond the last mile on India's security, borders, integrity. "It is not something to be even stated to you, but, it is you, who are treating us in this step brotherly or step motherly fashion. It is for you to decide, how much you share, when to share, in which committee to share, to share with some nominees of which party. But you have treated us as if we are enemies just because we are political adversaries," he said. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had on Monday demanded that the government tell the country whether or not Chinese troops have occupied Indian territory and on what exactly is it talking to the Chinese. "What exactly are they speaking to the Chinese, because our Army people and the Chinese PLA are talking to each other. The Central government should tell the country...why are they embarrassed? why are they maintaining this silence. Can they tell us whether the Chinese have occupied Indian territory....," Owaisi said. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh-based Opposition parties Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party said the "encroachment" of Indian territory by China is unacceptable and that they are with the government but other parties should rise above politics on the issue of national interest. "In East Ladakh, the encroachment of Chinese forces for past one month is unacceptable to the country. The government should initiate strict steps to raise the morale of our forces. As BJP takes 'akadhikari' decision (decision by itself), it's feeling itself weak even though the people and opposition are with them on this issue," SP national president Akhilesh Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi. BSP chief Mayawati attacked the BJP and the Congress on playing "dirty politics" on this issue when the people are facing hardships due to coronavirus pandemic. "It's unfortunate that at time when people are facing difficult times due to the pandemic, the BJP and Congress are playing dirty politics and allegations and counter allegations on the border dispute with China. This is not in the nation interest," she said in a tweet in Hindi. "The dispute with China and also Nepal is becoming very serious. In such a situation all parties should rise above party politics and think in nation interest. In such a matter, it would be better if the Centre takes all in confidence," she said in another tweet. With inputs from PTI The US Navy will be sending two carrier strike groups to the Pacific on Monday. Due to the recent coronavirus outbreaks, it prompted Navy sailors to keep the crew from getting COVID-19. Several deployments from two sides of the world will be forthcoming as two carrier group that will meet in the pacific for operations. This is a representation of the carrier forces that only the US can muster, as one of the most powerful warships on earth Navy sources have confirmed that the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) embarked from its homeport, Yokosuka in Japan to begin its yearly spring patrol, the US 7th Fleet. Along with the ship is its Air Wing 5 that stays at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni with the Destroyer Squadron 15 as its escorts on the patrol, reported by USNI News. Before going on patrol, the ship has done its annual repair in April with sea trials completed in May in preparation for spring patrol. As an ad joiner, the Navy said that the USS Reagan dispatch will be included adding about 1,000 tons ordnance stored onboard, these weapons will lower it about 5-inches from the waterline, in addition to the crew and all the planes from CVW-5, this statement came from Task Force 70. How did the navy keep infection of the crew to 0? According to Stripes, one precaution taken to avoid getting sidelined by the COVID-19 infection, all the 5,000 crew were kept in isolation for two -weeks or restriction of movement (ROM period), all members were tested for COVID-19. This action to isolate all personnel is to create a protective bubble, keeping the virus out. The USS Nimitz back in action! On the West Coast in the US, the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group (CSG) underwent the same isolation method, exactly two-weeks ahead of the exact dispatch starting on Monday. Many Navy ship and crew were affected by the coronavirus, so counter-measures are taken seriously. Also read: Guided-Missile Destroyer USS Russell Crosses Taiwan Strait After Chinese Aircraft Carrier Went for Sea Trials Reports say that the USS Nimitz has begun its deployment when it leaves San Diego on 11:30 am, local time, for an extended Western Pacific Deployment, Navy ship spotter sent a confirmation of the ship moving out to USNI News on a Monday. Sources confirm that the 8,000 crew of the Nimitz CSG and the Air Wing 17 assigned to it were placed in isolation early in April. Respectively, the Nimitz was as the homeport in Bremerton, Washington, the CSG personnel and pilots were in California to keep the schedule for the spring patrol with USS Reagan, mention in CBS8. Just like the Reagan, Nimitz returned from finishing the training exercises called composite training unit exercise (COMPTUEX). All the ships that will be joining the USS Nimitz CSG and do the composite training unit exercise for all the ships in the carrier strike group. These ships will be the USS Princeton (CG-59) a guided-missile cruiser, USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53), USS Sterett (DDG-104), and the USS Ralph Johnson (DDG-114). All these are Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers. Last is the Carrier Air Wing 17, with air groups from several airbases from several states in the US. The USS Prince left the San Diego Naval Station as one of the Nimitz CSG, confirmed USNI News. Princeton departed Naval Station San Diego on Saturday as part of the Nimitz CSG. These procedures used on the two CSG was developed after the USS Theodore Roosevelt, got docked for 60 days because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Both the Reagan and Nimitz CSGs will enter the pacific with increased tensions from China, and provide more support to small US Naval squadrons. Related article: Two US Warships Warned Chinese Navy to Stop Coercing an Unarmed Drilling Ship in Malaysian Waters @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. MOSCOW Floating barriers hastily laid across rivers in the far north of Russia have failed to contain a major diesel fuel spill that has now spread to a lake near the Arctic Ocean and is threatening a nature reserve, a regional governor said Tuesday. The environmental disaster is unfolding far to the north of the Arctic Circle, in a marshy wilderness near the isolated mining city of Norilsk. Diesel fuel spilled from a tank that burst last week after settling into permafrost that had stood firm for years but gave way during a warm spring, Russian officials said. The accident, which environmental groups have compared to the Exxon Valdez tanker spill in Alaska in 1989, has highlighted the risks of industrial development in the thawing Arctic, where climate change is warming the environment at a rate about twice as fast as the rest of the Earth. The third edition of Data Science Congress (DSC) 2020 virtual, an initiative of Aegis School of Data Science and Cyber Security; with support of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Chamber partner Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI); powered by mUni Campus, with support of Cloud4C & Dunhummby for maximum women participation concluded with a bigger bang this year with participation from across industries, sectors and nationalities on June 6th and 7th. DSC 2020 was inaugurated by Sanjay Dhotre, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India. This edition of DSC discussed topics around banning the production and usage of killer robots, insights about India's first Data protection bill; technical talks by various experts including co-creator of Tensorflow, a bioinformatician showcased how to store data in one's DNA; IBM Chief Scientist showcase how to create a scalable Artificial Intelligence, panel on challenges & opportunities for women in data; highlights of the both days was keynotes by Dr Juergen Schmidhuber, Father of modern Artificial Intelligence and Father of Internet and Dr Vint Cerf, Father of Internet. At the event, Dr Vint Cerf, Father of Internet and Creator of TCP/IP facilitated and appreciated 20 talented students from India selected through Aegis Graham Bell Award National Talent Hunt for Data Science, AI and Cyber Security Phase II who were provided with a 100 per cent scholarship to study Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Data Science; PGP in Applied AI, Machine Learning & Deep Learning and PGP in Cyber Security from Aegis School of Data Science & Cyber Security in association with IBM. In Pphase I, likewise 20 students were awarded the scholarship in the month of February 2020 by Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport & Highways of India and Shipping Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the Government of India. The candidates were selected from across the country who had the potential to grow as leaders in Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security. "Limited availability of sufficient skilled and updated manpower is one of the big challenges which the academia must look into. The skill set imparting knowledge is still mainly in English, whereas we have tremendously talented youth studying in regional languages as well. There is a huge void of content creation in local languages," commented Sanjay Dhotre, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India while inaugurating the event and addressing the Indian Artificial Intelligence ecosystem. "I am very impressed with this event and the program of honouring students with 100 per cent scholarship. These students have worked very hard to reach here. This shows a great deal of creativity and energy in a tremendous way. Congratulations to all the students and have a bright future ahead," said Dr Vint Cerf, Father of Internet. Dr Jurgen Schmidhuber, Father of modern Artificial Intelligence raised the concern about the pandemic coronavirus. "Artificial Intelligence based on deep neural networks and deep learning can help to fight the COVID-19 virus in many ways. Neural networks can learn to detect patterns in data from viruses and patients, we can use those neural networks to predict the future consequences of possible actions and we will act to minimise the damage," he mentioned in his key note. "I believe India with 1.35 billion population which is 1/6th of the world population, If we are transforming we are transforming 1/6th of the world," said Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, adding to minister points on AI role in academia. "Indian data and technology service market is segmented by solutions and we are expecting India to become the largest data science market in the world with better use cases and significant opportunities for data scientist in the future therefore the emphasis should be on education," mentioned Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI. "Learning in the last two days from these world leaders at the event will surely help in paving a path for the mission of making India as a world leader in research, education, and skill development in the fields of AI, Data Science and Cyber Security, Thank you to our partners AICTE, FICCI, AIQRATE, ASMA, Dunnhumby, Cloud4C, Safe N' happy Periods for making this event a grand success," said Bhupesh Daheria, Founder, mUni Campus, and CEO, Aegis School of Data Science & Cyber Security. Aegis School of Business, Data Science, Cyber Security is a leading school for exponential technologies started in 2002 with Bharti Airtel's support. In 2015 Aegis and IBM collaborated to launch, Asia's first Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Data Science, Business Analytics and Big Data and subsequently PGP in Cyber Security and PGP in Applied AI. These programs are jointly certified and delivered by Aegis School of Business in association with IBM. IBM has set up high-end Business Analytics and Cloud Computing Lab at Campus. Aegis takes up various industry projects, research and consulting assignments in the field of data science under its initiative 'Data Science Delivered' and 'Data Science for social good', and helping organizations for devolving skills on data science, ML, DL, Big Data, Analytics etc. For more information on many more topics and speakers, please visit www.datasciencecongress.com. For further information, please visit: www.aegis.edu.in. mUni Campus provides a cloud-based end to end robust digital infrastructure for improving learning outcomes, improving efficiency, and effectiveness of the entire education system. mUni Campus system works well for brick mortar classroom-based environment and online world. It offers various solutions under one platform which eliminates the problem of dealing with several vendors and their silo systems. It has virtual class for delivering live video lectures integrated with Learning Management System (LMS) for course creation, content dissemination, and knowledge management; academic admin; online examination system; admission suite; and online job placement all in one cloud platform. For more information, please visit www.muniversity.mobi/ds/mUniIgnite.html. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Safariland, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based manufacturer of law enforcement and military supplies including the bulletproof vests and tear gas, as well as bomb-defusing robots and gun holsters has seen a drastic increase in demand from police departments because of the protests. Under the planned divestment, the Safariland Group has agreed to divest two business segments Defense Technology and Monadnock that made tear gas and other crowd control products. The two segments are responsible for 6 percent of the companys overall total revenue of roughly $500 million. The transaction, expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year, is subject to customary conditions, according to Safarilands announcement, such as ensuring it abides by regulations governing international trade and the transfer of operating licenses. Defense Technologys current management team will become the owners of the new, separated company. Additional terms were not disclosed, leaving uncertain the price of the deal, whether Mr. Kanders will receive continuing payments and whether he will continue to own stock. Mr. Kanderss presence on the Whitney board became a flash point last year that brought increasing attention to the question of where cultural institutions get their funding. Actor Gajraj Rao breathes cinema! He loves his work and enjoys every bit of it. See, if you will not love and enjoy your work means you are in a wrong field. I have been in advertising for long and enjoyed every bit of it. Then, in 90s, when I took up acting, it took me to another level and gave the recognition that we all want in our lives, he said over the phone. Approving Unlock 1.0, Gajraj wants people to still be cautious. In all these months I evolved as a person, now I have become more enduring and dont hurry on issues. Unlock 1.0 had to happen to bring back life back on track but as responsible citizen we should not rush and lets take things slowly as ultimately markets, places of worship, restaurants are not going to go anywhere. So, as and when things get better one can socialise like before. Talking about his last release and his conventional yet modern character, Gajraj said, Though the central issue of Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan was homophobia yet it was out-and-out a family entertainer. Playing conservative Shankar Tripathi was completely a different experience. I have been a bit sceptical with both my projects be Badhaai Ho or SMZS but the makers conviction made me so very confident. And see, how both the characters were an instant hit and lauded by the audience and at the same time contented me as an actor, he said. His next Maidaan with actor Ajay Devgn and co-produced by Boney Kapoor was being partially shot in UP, Mumbai and Kolkata. This film of mine was supposed be extensively shot in April but lockdown happened. After months of hard work, the makers have got a huge set made in Madh Island, Mumbai but heavy rains due to cyclone Nisarga damaged much of it. To cope with all the damages, work may start soon and if the makers ask me to join in 15 days, I will sure join because they are much more knowledgeable than me and they have already suffered so much. So, with all proper guidelines we can start the shoot. Gajraj is also busy reading scripts for digital as well as films. I have a number of scripts to read and give a nod but I am taking my time. The digital platform is booming so I too wish to a part of it. However, I have already become a part of it as my film Lootcase is getting an OTT release. Its a comedy drama and we hope it will be liked by all. Philip Shaibu, Deputy Governor of Edo State has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, of sponsoring protests against Governor Godwin Obaseki over alleged certificate forgery. Shaibu, made the allegation in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, saying the protests were targeted at destroying the Governors goodwill with President Muhammadu Buhari. The Deputy Governor said this in a statement via his Special Assistant on Media to the Deputy Governor, Benjamin Atu. He however called upon well- meaning Nigerians to prevail on Oshiomhole to stop the attempts at pulling the Governor down. Advertisement The truth is that Godwin Obaseki has the goodwill of the president. He has exceeded expectations in terms of performance in office. They have no other way to tarnish his image they therefore decided to sponsor protest to create false impression. The protest is the handiwork of the APC National Chairman. It was alleged that the Governor had no certificate and now that the certificate of the Governor has been made public, they have shifted their accusation from no certificate to the next level of questioning the number of credits awarded in the certificate. The question that should be asked is, if Governor Godwin Obaseki has certificate or not. Did the Nigerian Constitution mention the number of sittings or the number of subjects one must pass in the School Certificate Examinations before he could qualify to contest as Governor? Leading a state is different from leading the mob and the earlier Oshiomhole assumes his rightful position as a National Leader and not as a sectional Chairman the better for him, he said. According to him, those behind the protest were either ignorant about the nations norm or were being economical with the truth. In Nigeria, the requirement to contest for the position of Governor is a WAEC certificate. The Constitution didnt specify the number of subjects or the grades in such subjects for the purpose of evaluation. What is the scale of evaluation upon which the National Chairman of the APC is standing to question the certificate of the Edo State Governor? In the first instance, Obaseki wouldnt have emerged as a Governor of Edo State in 2016, if he had no certificate. Oshiomhole wouldnt have also insisted that Obaseki must be the Governor if he knew that Obaseki had no requisite certificate. Read Also: Oshiomhole Says He Didnt Choose Direct Primary For Edo In order to put the record straight, it has been clearly stated that the Governor proceeded to the Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), Benin City, before furthering his education. The law doesnt require the Governor to tender all his certificate but only his WAEC certificate. The problem is that Oshiomhole has elevated sycophancy to an art. The task of governing requires that he maintain a cool mien to enable him carry out the affairs of the party. But rather than been a national Chairman he has chosen to be a sectional leader instigating crisis in a party he was elected to model. As at today, Godwin Obaseki is qualified to contest as Governor because nobody went to write an examination for him like other aspirants who used mercenaries in acquiring their educational certificates. TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2020 BULLETPROOF HEART: SEASON 3 | 6X90' | MYSTERY | ITALIAN Italian megastar Gigi Proietti returns as investigative journalist Bruno Palmieri in Bulletproof Heart: Season 3. Proietti has entertained Italian audiences for decades in his varied roles and as the dubbing artist for actors like Robert De Niro, Sean Connery, Sylvester Stallone, Richard Burton, Dustin Hoffman, Charlton Heston and Marlon Brando. Americans might know him from US films such as The Appointment and A Wedding. Bulletproof Heart takes place in a print newsroom, creating a nostalgic feel and a gentle screwball sensibility. TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020 CAPTAIN MARLEAU: SEASON 2 | 6X90' | MYSTERY | FRENCH Prepare for another blast of eccentricity! She's quirky, she doesn't care how she comes off and she possesses a dogged tenacity for finding the perp. Creator Elsa Marpeau describes Captain Marleau (Corinne Masiero) as a combination of Peter Falk's "Columbo," Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Marge Gunderson from the Coen brothers' Fargo. Captain Marleau broke records in 2017 as the most watched television show in France. TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2020 ALMOST PERFECT CRIMES: SEASON 2 | 10X60' | DOCUMENTARY | FRENCH Using a combination of archival images, reenactments and expert interviews, Almost Perfect Crimes is a fascinating investigation into some of the most notorious, infamous and terrifying crimes in French history. Each episode examines the historical, political and social circumstances that shaped a specific crime or series of crimes and, using the investigative techniques of the time, follows the clues that lead to the perpetrators' capture. The series features English narration and French interviews all with English subtitles. TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2020 ABER BERGEN: SEASON 2 | 10X60' | LEGAL DRAMA | NORWEGIAN Erik and Elea, two of Norway's shrewdest and most persistent defense lawyers, can't live with each other yet can't live without each other either in this engaging, character-driven legal drama. Sharp, sexy and successful, high-flying lawyer Erik Aber knows everyone, and everyone knows him. With a sensible exterior that belies her inner strength, Elea Bergen is the love of Erik's life. Until she kicks him out. And so the company they built together is deadlocked its unorthodox team of attorneys caught in positional warfare between two souls who think they have stopped loving each other. In the second season, we rejoin the team to find one of Erik's best friends and trusted associates leaving the firm to work for the competition Elea's father. TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2020 ALEX: SEASON 2 | 6X60' | CRIME DRAMA | SWEDISH A dark, gritty Scandi Noir thriller about a very bad cop desperately trying to go straight. At the end of Season 1, Alex's world totally fell apart. He saved his son from the mafia but paid a heavy price. His wife left him and he was sent to jail for killing a fellow police officer. His only chance for survival might very well be to join the gangs he fought in his other life. But when his ex-partner Frida comes to him and offers to reduce his sentence in exchange for becoming an undercover informant, hope reignites in Alex. His family needs him, especially his son Simon, who is taking a wrong path in life. Maybe he still has a shot at redemption? Alex's resolve and character is tested once again as he gets caught into a complex game, where everyone, including the police, tries to play him and danger is always lurking. About MHz Networks MHz Networks offers viewers access to a library of the best international television mysteries, dramas, comedies and documentaries subtitled in English through its subscription streaming service, MHz Choice. Select MHz Networks content is also available on DVD and on its free ad-supported service MHz Now available on Samsung TV Plus. New MHz Choice customers receive a free 7-Day Trial. For more information, go to mhzchoice.com SOURCE MHz Networks Related Links http://www.mhznetworks.org Hundreds of people signed an online petition on Monday demanding the removal of a statue of Robert Clive, who played a key role in establishing Britains colonial domination over India, in Shrewsbury, western England. The petition on Change.Org is addressed to the local Shropshire County Council and came within hours of dramatic scenes of a former slave trader Edward Colstons sculpture being pulled down and dragged into a river in Bristol on Sunday, during a weekend of fiery Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests. Robert Clive was one of the early figures of the British imperial domination of India, Bengal and much of South-East Asia, reads the petition, which has already attracted over 1,700 people of its 2,500 target within hours. Clive as a symbol of British colonialism is significantly offensive to Indian, Bengali and south-east Asian descent and to attempt to justify it as a celebration of British pride and nationalism is only justifiable if one revels in the persecution and murder of millions of innocent people, it reads. Clive served as the first Governor of Bengal Presidency under the East India Company in the 18th century, earning the title Clive of India. The petition highlights his role in the looting of Bengal in the early years of the British Empire, with many of the regions riches finding their way back with him to Britain. To have a statue commemorating the man that ruined a nation and held innocent people to his barbaric orders is both offensive and embarrassing. Just because a figure is historical, that doesnt make him good. He is nothing more than a figure of oppression and white supremacy that has, whether consciously or not, been celebrated and commemorated in Shrewsbury town centre for hundreds of years, it notes. Local Shrewsbury MP, Conservative Partys Daniel Kawczynski, called for a peaceful discussion on the statue and pledged to conduct a blow by blow research on the life of locally-born Clive. We are doing a research paper and while I wont comment on his life until after its written, the British Empire was a tremendous source for good during its time, said Kawczynski, who said he would be using the House of Commons library for the research. We honour and celebrate those who helped establish this empire. They are part of our history and should be treated with respect and dignity. I know some people will want to eradicate all traces of the British Empire, but Ive seen huge pluses of things it did around the world, he said. The MP also paid tribute to Britains war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whose statue on Parliament Square in London was among those targeted by protesters over the weekend with graffiti reading was a racist. The steps below Mahatma Gandhis statue nearby were also left marked with the word racist. Peter Nutting, the leader of Shropshire Council, said that in line with the councils constitution, all petitions that gain 1,000 signatures are debated to determine any action required. In the meantime, while we recognise the strength of feeling around the Black Lives Matter campaign, and acknowledge peoples right to protest, we ask them to do so peacefully and safely, abiding by the social distancing guidelines, he said. There is a similar life-size statue of Clive near the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) building on King Charles Street, Whitehall, in central London. The plinth records his two major career spurts in India, including the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765. Clive, born in Market Drayton in Shropshire before his schooling in London, travelled to India for the East India Company in 1743 before returning to his London home later in life where he died in 1774 -- believed to have committed suicide. The Black Lives Matter protests over the weekend took place across different parts of the UK in solidarity with similar protests in the US and around the world against the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man who was a victim of police brutality. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ORANGE One week into an anticipated active hurricane season, a Southeast Texas lawmaker is calling on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to streamline their disaster assistance program to make it easier for individuals and municipalities to benefit in the wake of storm damage. We are trying to make sure that we have a standardized system where you dont have to continue to be second guessed (by FEMA), U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, R-Woodville, told The Enterprise Monday at his office in Orange. The way that it is now really hurts a lot of our municipalities and our school districts. Babin was in town to celebrate the placement of the West Orange-Stark Capitol Hill Challenge team, who placed seventh out of about 2,200 teams consisting of 8,000 overall students nationwide. The 14-week investment competition requires public middle and high school teams to invest a hypothetical $100,000 in listed stocks, mutual funds, and bonds. The lawmaker sought answers from FEMA and the Trump administration earlier this year when a pair Vidor schools previously had approved demolitions delayed because of federal review. The process for those schools still is ongoing. Related: Patience wears thin as FEMA again delays school demo We are also absolutely determined to renew and reauthorize the national flood insurance program, Babin told The Enterprise. Weve got some flood mapping problems, some changes that really kind of need to be made to facilitate making it easier for people to get help without having to jump through all these hoops and for local entities. During the Monday celebration, Ivory Roberts, president and CEO of Young Financial Wizards Inc. and a West Orange-Stark alum, said he worked with the students and other instructors once a week at a local McDonalds during the competition a contrast to other teams that worked daily in their schools. Each student got a challenge coin and a congressional certificate from the congressman, who said he was incredibly proud of the feat. After the ceremony, the congressman addressed the sustained protests sweeping the nation following the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, who both died in incidents with police. Related: Officials urge demonstrators to turn protests into action This is a terrible thing that happened to Mr. George Floyd, Babin said. I think no one can look at the video and say that was not a terrible thing, and I certainly support people who want to go out and peacefully protest, but we are a nation built on law and order. The lawmaker decried calls by a handful of progressive democratic lawmakers to defund police departments a move that members of the Minneapolis City Council announced Sunday they would take following the police killing of Floyd by that department. That is a prescription for a lot of people to be harmed, either killed or other loss of property, Babin said. I fail to see how defunding the police department is going to help anything. While he did not give specifics, Babin said he was not opposed to police reform, while adding that he does not believe there is systemic racism in law enforcement in America. I think there are some things that could be done, he said. Every profession including dentistry every profession has bad actors. Babin was a dentist before becoming a congressman. I think there is not systemic racism in our police departments on any large scale, he said. I think most cops are good, I think youve got a lot of police officers who are Hispanic, who are Asian, who are Black and the White folks. And we all need to work together. When asked about recent use of force that has drawn the ire of civil rights groups and even former military generals for being used on peaceful protests across the country, Babin said force is needed if it gets that bad. Thats the presidents call, Babin said in reference to the use of the insurrection act, which allows the president to deploy active duty military to maintain or restore peace in times of crisis Weve got to reestablish the rule of law in this country. And that is your constitutional right to peacefully demonstrate and protest, I support a hundred percent, but listen, when you start assaulting people and burning down places and destroying property and walking off and stealing thingsthere has to be an accountability. Babin, who grabbed extra face masks as he left his office, commended Gov. Gregg Abbott for reopening the state of Texas just over a month ago, while sharing caution about the virus. Im a doctor of dental surgery. Ive practiced dentistry for 36, 37 years, so I fully understand the dangers of this COVID-19, Babin said. I think we are just going to have to play it by ear, but America has got to go back to work. Babin said that reopening has to be done with caution, adding that spikes could occur, and that there are dangers associated with continuing stay-at-home orders as well. If there is a spike, then we are going to need to make those decisions to maybe slow down reopening, he said. But so far things are looking good. isaac.windes@hearstnp.com twitter.com/isaacdwindes The Miao people maintain the tradition of wearing silver jewelry both in their daily lives and on formal occasions. [Xinhua] The making of a silver hairpin involves melting, forging, carving and brushing, and takes at least three hours. But the thriving tourism in Li Dongjun's village has made it worth his while. Li and his wife Lu Ying run a silver jewelry shop in Maliao village, Leishan county of Southwest China's Guizhou Province. Most of the villagers from a total of 176 households belong to the Miao ethnic group. The Miao people maintain the tradition of wearing silver jewelry both in their daily lives and on formal occasions. In the village, over 70 percent of the locals have mastered the Miao silver jewelry-making technique, which has a history of over 600 years. However, due to a lack of transportation, young villagers have to make a living with their techniques in other places and only come home once a year for the lunar new year, leaving the elderly and the young behind. The couple used to run a shop in the neighboring city of Kaili. In 2007, they went back home because Li's father was seriously ill. Supported by the local government, they opened their current shop in the village. Last year, the shop brought in a net profit of about 50,000 yuan (about $7,030). "I earn a proper income in my home village, and the blessing is that I can look after my family," said Li. The Miao silver jewelry-making technique was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2006. To inherit and develop this technique, an increasing number of young people like Li and Lu decided to return home and revitalize the craft. "When I was running a silver shop in a popular ancient town in Hunan Province, I always wondered when there would be so many tourists in our village, making it possible for me to make money at home," recalled Pan Shixue, who had been working elsewhere after graduating from high school in 2006, and went back home in 2018. As tourism picked up in the area surrounding the village which features stilted houses, his dreams gradually morphed into reality. Pan employed two craftsmen in the village to work at his workshop. Meanwhile, he created job opportunities for another 16 artisans fulfilling orders from home. Inspired by Pan's workshop, 20-year-old Pan Yuanding decided to return home from the southern island province of Hainan two years ago. "I earn 3,000 yuan a month here. The most important thing is that I am finally able to learn true technique in my hometown," he said. Having made some progress in silver processing, he plans to invest one more year in improving his techniques before opening a workshop in the coming year. Due to his hard work, his family shook off poverty in 2018. Behind the growing number of young people in the village is the increasing importance attached to the protection and inheritance of the traditional craft. In 2017, 140 villagers raised 1 million yuan to set up a Miao silver jewelry and embroidery company, and applied for a government poverty-relief fund of 580,000 yuan for renovating an abandoned elementary school into a museum. "Tourists can learn Miao ethnic culture in the museum, and experience making the silver jewelry firsthand," said Li Linshu, president of the company. Li Guangheng, 51, works as an artisan in the museum. Whenever there are tourists, he teaches and demonstrates the silver-making technique. "I make 5,000 yuan a month here. Including the earnings from selling jewelry, my total monthly income is comparable to that from working outside," said Li. "It's also a good opportunity to promote our traditional craft." (Source: Xinhua) Health officials announced on Friday that a resident from Kansas who attended a protest tested positive for COVID-19. This could indicate a possible virus outbreak in the area. Health Officials Were Alarmed Top US health officials and experts were alarmed after seeing on their television screens thousands of people from different colors attending protests amid the global pandemic. This could possibly increase the number of COVID-19 infections in the country. An article published in Financial Times said health officials will determine after two weeks if a surge in COVID-19 cases would happen, as thousands were on the streets protesting and some were not wearing facemasks. Most of all, social distancing has not been properly observed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already announced that they are closely monitoring the demonstrations and protests across the country because it put more people at risk to catch COVID-19. However, they admitted also that they cannot yet predict the degree and proximity of infections not unless the result of those who were tested will be delivered. Former U.S. Health Secretary Katheleen Sebelius also caught her attention after seeing thousands of protesters. She said that there would be an increase of COVID-19 cases but she does not know yet of it could be a massive outbreak or not. A Resident in Kansas Tested Positive for COVID-19 After Attending the Protest The most feared problem of health experts already happened when health officials announced on Friday that a resident from Kansas who joined the protest tested positive for COVID-19. It was found out that she caught the virus during the protest. Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health Department Officials said that the person joined the protest that was held in downtown Lawrence on May 31. Additionally, right now they are advising those who joined in the protest to isolate and observe themselves for any symptoms. Informatics Director Sonia Jordan told a news outlet, "Similar to what we would ask anyone who goes out in public right now, we are asking anyone who attended the recent protest to self-monitor for COVID-19 symptoms and isolate if they become sick as well as call their healthcare provider for next steps." The virus contagion might be massive because a Kansas resident who chose not to be named said and admitted that he was not wearing a facemask during the protest. This means that there is a great chance of virus transmission through droplets while he was chanting. Dr. Anthony Fauci Was Also Alarmed of the Protests Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading disease expert, told a local news outlet of London that he was really concern while watching the protesters in the different places in the U.S. on his TV screen. He also added that all the efforts like social distancing seem to become useless because of the protests. Meanwhile, the CDC also emphasized that those who attended the protest in the downtown Lawrence may experience the COVID-19 symptoms 2-14 days after the exposure. It is for this reason that everyone who joined is encouraged to isolate and observe themselves. And since the protests across the country cannot be controlled nor stopped, health officials advised that protesters must observe social distancing and to wear face masks at all times. Check these out! Adelaide, AUS, June 9, 2020 - (ACN Newswire) - The leading Australian CRO for biotechs, Avance Clinical announced at BIO Digital today that Australia currently has 2,413 trials planned or ongoing. Importantly in Australia, despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, no healthy volunteer studies have been suspended, and only 27 Phase 1 or 2 studies were temporarily put on hold for various reasons (TrialTrove, 9 June 2020).Avance Clinical commended the Australian industry for exceptional COVID-19 management which has meant Australia leads the world in maintaining clinical trials business as usual.Avance Clinical's Chief Strategy Officer, Ben Edwards presented at BIO Digital 2020 today on the many benefits of running trials in Australia.Watch the Avance Clinical BIO Digital presentation On Demand here.https://www.bio.org/events/bio-digital/sessions/search?name=Avance%20ClinicalMr Edwards said: "Approximately 96% of our work is supporting small to medium-sized biotechnology companies executing Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials. Our client base currently extends across North America, Canada, New Zealand, Europe and Asia.Australia is a well-established location for international clinical trials and our management of the COVID-19 crisis has made it an even more attractive trials destination."Avance Clinical is a medium-sized full-service CRO known for its nimble and collaborative approach, with more than 20-years of experience in managing early phase trials.In addition to the impressive COVID-19 management, a key factor in sponsor demand is the speed, access to high quality sites and attractive cost of running trials in Australia including:- The Australian Government financial rebate of 43.5% on clinical trial spend- No IND required for clinical trials and streamlined regulatory processes- Advanced medical, research & scientific community, leading investigators & KOLs, modern medical facilitiesWatch the video: How we work during the COVID-19 pandemic here. https://tinyurl.com/yc2z6kjjAustralia's reputation for FDA compliant scientific and research excellence, its advanced healthcare, and the opportunity to access patients in a less clinical trial competitive environment further reinforces its advantage as a destination for clinical trials.For more information about the benefits of running your next study with Avance Clinical contact us: https://www.avancecro.com/contact-us/About Avance ClinicalAustralia's Avance Clinical has more than 20-years of experience and is now one of Australia's leading Contract Research Organisations. Avance Clinical facilitates quality drug development by aligning people, skills, and expertise in the pursuit of drug development for a healthier world.Avance Clinical is committed to providing high-quality clinical research services with its highly-experienced team. The collective pool of knowledge and experience at Avance Clinical continually grows through the careful selection of experts who also demonstrate passion in their chosen field.Avance Clinical offers high quality services in an established clinical trial ecosystem, that includes world-class Investigators and Sites able to access specialised patient groups. Other benefits include:1. The Government R&D grant means up to 43.5% rebate on clinical trial spend2. Telehealth pivot during COVID-19 pandemic - speed and continuity3. Site Initiation Visit (SIV) and Study Start achieved in 5 - 6 weeks4. No IND required for clinical trials5. Full GMP material is not mandated for Phase I clinical trials6. Established clinical trial environment with world-class Investigators and sites7. Established healthy subject databases and specialised patient populations8. Five independent Phase 1 facilities across Australia including hospital-based units for critical care9. Major hospitals with world class infrastructures and dedicated Clinical Trial Units with a long track-record in FDA compliant research10. Seasonal studies: Northern hemisphere Sponsors can conduct their studies year-round by taking advantage of Australia's counter-flu and allergy seasonsMedia Contact:media@avancecro.comChris ThompsonSource: Avance ClinicalCopyright 2020 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. The global death toll from the coronavirus is almost 408,000 with more than 7.16 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness. Here's a roundup of COVID-19 developments in RFE/RL's broadcast regions. Russia Moscow has abandoned its self-isolation regime, electronic-pass system, and scheduled outdoor walks imposed among other measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Russian capital's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said in a video statement that starting on June 9, residents of Moscow will "return to their normal lives." Beauty salons, hairdressers, veterinary clinics, car-sharing companies, research facilities, noncommercial organizations, employment agencies, theaters, concert halls, and film studios also resumed operations on June 9. Sobyanin also said that remaining restrictions will be lifted by the end of June, though he stressed that the threat of a second wave of the virus remained. According to Sobyanin, dental clinics, libraries, rental services, real estate companies, museums, zoos, outdoor restaurants and cafes will resume operations as of June 16. As of June 23, fitness clubs, swimming pools, and kindergartens will restart operations as well, Sobyanin said. Russian health authorities said on June 9 that 8,595 new cases of coronavirus had been registered in the country in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to more than 485,000, including 6,142 deaths. Earlier on June 9, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced that Russians were now allowed to travel abroad to care for ill relatives, for work, education, or medical treatment. Foreigners can enter Russia to care for relatives or to receive medical treatment, he added. WATCH: In the Soviet era, Severodvinsk was a closed city because of its defense industries. Now it's been cut off again amid an outbreak of the coronavirus at nuclear submarine factories. Kazakhstan Women from lower-income families are continuing to demand government assistance as coronavirus restrictions in the Central Asian state are eased. Some 20 women on June 9 resumed their so-called "silent protest" after spending the night in front of the Ministry of Labor and Social Support. The women were wearing sanitary masks marked with an "X" on them, which they said symbolized "the fact that we are not allowed to speak up." They also held posters saying: "Cheap mortgages for families in need," "Financial support for each child," "Amnesty for poor families' bank credits," and "We are on a hunger strike." Rallies and pickets by poor women have been held regularly in Nur-Sultan and other Kazakh cities since February 2019, after five children from a single family died in a fire at night when their parents were working. The tragedy triggered anger across the country and demonstrations where protesters demanded increased government support for families that have several children. The protests were held periodically until restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus were introduced in mid-March. Dauren Babamuratov, an adviser to Nur-Sultan's mayor, and Arman Qurbanov, a representative of the city's health authorities, met with the women on June 9 and attempted to persuade them to leave the site, but the women refused. Since the protests began last year, the government has announced a special program to support families with more than three children. Initially, such families were provided with an additional monthly allowance of 21,000 tenges ($50) per child. However, the sum has since been cut twice. From January, the allowances were given only to families officially recognized as living in poverty. The protesters are demanding a return of the benefits to initial levels, as well as for more benefits to be given to all families with more than three children. Romania President Klaus Iohannis says he will call on parliament to extend by one month Romania's current state of alert to fight the coronavirus. Iohannis ordered a strict lockdown on March 16 to curb the spread of the outbreak, but replaced the state of emergency with a softer "state of alert" mode last month. To take full effect, the extension proposed on June 9 must be approved by parliament, where Iohannis's centrist government lacks a majority. The leftist Social Democrats that lead the opposition have threatened to block the extension. After a large outbreak in the northeastern city of Suceava in early April, Romania has managed to bring the spread of the virus largely under control. A country of 19.5 million, Romania so far recorded 20,749 coronavirus cases and 1,345 fatalities. Over the past 24 hours it recorded 145 new cases. In early June, the government eased movement restrictions, and allowed the opening of some schools and outside terraces under strict social-distancing rules. Iohannis said further restrictions would be lifted on June 15 with shopping malls, kindergartens, after-school facilities, and swimming pools reopening after three months of closure. But restaurants with indoor seating would remain closed. On June 9, new infections were reported in two schools in eastern Romania prompting concern that the easing of restrictions could lead to a resurgence in infections. Bulgaria Neighboring Bulgaria on June 9 also reported an abrupt growth in the number of COVID-19 cases with 83 new infections -- a five-fold increase compared to the previous day, and more than double the average number of infections for the past several days -- after a new outbreak of the disease was recorded in the southern town of Dospat. Bulgaria now has 2,810 confirmed cases, with 164 deaths. With reporting by RFE/RL's Kazakh, Romanian, and Bulgarian services, digi24.ro, hotnews.ro, dpa, AP, and Reuters Horse trapping in Kosciuszko National Park is expected to begin in the coming weeks despite the opposition of NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro and lobbying efforts by groups championing the brumbies' protection. No aerial shooting would take place, the Planning, Industry and Environment department confirmed, but it could not rule out some horses would be sent to the knackery during the process. Brumbies in the high grasslands near Kiandra in the Snowy Mountains. Credit:Nick Moir "To move ahead with the removal of horses from the park without conducting an urgent survey would be a deliberate and reckless act, one against the spirit of the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act 2018," said Mr Barilaro via Twitter last week, referring to legislation he backed that was designed in part to help protect the feral horses on heritage grounds. He said he had written a letter outlining his concerns to Environment Minister Matt Kean, who would not comment for this story. As the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread around the world, many researchers are studying epidemiological models to predict its propagation. As of yet, there are no effective vaccines that could counter the SARS- CoV-2 infection or drugs to treat COVID-19 disease. Now, a new study shows that one of the enzymes of the virus a protease called Mpro, could be a target that could be utilized to kill the virus. The study titled, Topological analysis of SARS-CoV-2 main protease, was released prior to peer-review on the online site bioRxiv and is to be published this week in the journal Chaos. Schematic of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 (left), the protein residue network of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 (center), and a zoomed-in view of the region around the binding site as detected by Estrada (right). CREDIT Ernesto Estrada What was this study about? The researchers wrote that the SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the genus Betacoronavirus. They explained that the SARS (SARS CoV-1) and the MERS virus before this had caused prior respiratory disease epidemics and that the novel SARS-CoV-2 shares about 82 percent of its genome with SARS-CoV-1. They explained that this was the reason that the earlier antiviral drugs such as Remdesivir or the antimalarials Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine, were being repurposed and tested as COVID-19 treatments. They wrote that specific therapy against the virus is still elusive. The team of researchers wrote that earlier drugs had targeted viral proteases in the case of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and SARS-CoV-1. They call these proteases an attractive pharmacological target. SARS-CoV-2s main protease (Mpro) which is the main enzyme that allows it to process the polyproteins by proteolysis - breaking up of the proteins. They speculated that if the activity of the Mpro could be blocked, viral replication could also be stopped. What is the role of the protease? The team led by Ernesto Estrada, a mathematician, an expert in complex systems of the ARAID Foundation at the University of Zaragoza, suggests that the protease is specific for the virus and is absent in humans. This would mean that if targeted, this drug would leave the host cells unaffected and reduced the risks of toxicities. The team wrote that in an earlier study, another group of researchers led by Zhang had already found the three-dimensional structure of the CoV-2 Mpro. The size of the protease is 1.75A (Angstrom). They wrote that the structure of the protease CoV-2 Mpro was similar to another molecule - -ketoamide inhibitor. This has also been elucidated by other researchers, they wrote. This protease they wrote has an amino acid sequence that has 96 percent common with the protease of CoV-1. Of the 303 amino acids, they explained, only 12 were different. The difference between the two was only 0.53 A. It seems like the two proteases are almost identical in their three-dimensional structures. Estrada said, I noticed that chemists had already found some potent inhibitors of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 and that they'd resolved the structure of this protein via X-ray crystallography. It was shocking to see that this protease is very similar to that of the SARS coronavirus, which produced the epidemics of 2003, SARS-CoV-1. He added, If you line up the amino acid sequences of both proteases, there are only 12 out of 306 residues that don't coincide. Is there something hidden behind these apparent similarities between the two proteases? Can we learn something from them to improve the design of drugs against the virus? They're called protein residue networks, where we represent every amino acid as a node, and the interaction between two amino acids is represented by a link between the two, he explained. The hypotheses raised included if the similarities between the two proteases could also mean topological similarities. They wrote that topological similarity would mean network theoretic representation of a protein. They explained that in this network of the protein structure, there is a network that represents amino acids and the edges connecting them indicate that the corresponding residues are at a distance in which they can interact with each other. They wrote that this calculation could get the importance of the structural and dynamic of an amino acid within the protein. For this study, the team thus constructed protein residue networks (PRN) for CoV-2 Mpro as well as for its inhibitors. What was found? The results of the study show that both the proteases of CoV-1 and 2 hare similar in terms of topological characteristics. They found that the difference was not more than 4 percent. Transmissions, however, can alter the proteases they wrote. They wrote, CoV-2 Mpro is 300% more sensitive than CoV-1 Mpro in transmitting tiny structural changes across the whole protein through long-range interactions. These alterations of the amino acids on the Mpro are found in the catalytic site Cyst-145, where the inhibitors can bind. They found that the most important amino acids in the protease structure were also the most important ones in the binding of the inhibitors with the CoV-2 Mpro. This, they wrote, could play a role in the drug design that could inhibit the protease. Speaking on the study, Estrada said, But a couple of years ago, we developed a more sophisticated mathematical measure that allows us to detect how far away a perturbation within a network can be propagated. That work was of a very theoretical, mathematical nature, but we had speculated that it could be useful for the study of proteins. He added, This means that when a protein is perturbed, for instance, by water within the intracellular environment, such perturbations are transmitted through a network of intraresidues that form the 3D structure of the protein. If such perturbation is produced around a given amino acid within the protease of SARS-CoV-1, it's transmitted only through a close environment around that perturbed amino acid. Conclusions and implications Estrada said, It's remarkable because it means that with tiny structural differences, the protease of SARS-CoV-2 is much more effective within intra-residue communications. It should be much more effective in doing its job as a proteolytic enzyme of the virus. The devil did a nearly perfect job here, but he left the door open. This great sensibility of the SARS-CoV-2 protease to perturbations can be its Achilles' heel in relation to inhibitors. [June 09, 2020] Employers Holdings Announces CEO Retirement and Transition Plan Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG), America's small business insurance specialist, today announced that Douglas Dirks, president and chief executive officer, has informed the board of directors of his intention to retire from his position on April 1, 2021. Employers' board of directors has initiated a search process to identify the successor for Mr. Dirks. "It has been the privilege of my professional life to oversee the evolution of the company, which was started in 1913 as Nevada's State Fund to provide workers' compensation insurance for Nevada businesses," said Mr. Dirks. "We privatized in 1999 as Employers Insurance Company of Nevada, de-mutualized, and then went public in February 2007. I extend my deepest thanks to our executive management team and our 700 employees, without whom our shared success would not have been possible. I'm extremely proud of the team that is in place and have complete confidence that Employers will continue to grow and thrive. I look forward to working with the board of directors to ensure a seamless transition to my successor." Michael J. McSally, chairman of the board, stated, "For the past 27 years, Doug has provided Employers with superb leadership, dedication and vision. Many of us think of him as the company's founder. He is leaving Employers in an excellent position, as the quality and strength of the management team and operating platforms have never been better and our financial position has never been stronger. Doug has the profound gratitude of the board of directors for the value creation he has overseen. We look forward to a smooth leadership transition." Forward-Looking Statements In this press release, Employers Holdings, Inc. (the "Company") and its management discuss and make statements based on currently available information regarding their intentions, beliefs, current expectations, and projections of, among other things, the Company's future performance. Certain of these statements may constitute "forward-looking" statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to istorical or current facts and are often identified by words such as "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "target," "project," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "pro forma," "seek," "likely," or "continue," or other comparable terminology and their negatives. The Company and its management caution investors that such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Risks and uncertainties are inherent in the Company's future performance. Factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements include, among other things, those discussed or identified from time to time in the Company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC (News - Alert)"), including the risks detailed in the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and the Company's Annual Reports on Form 10-K. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Filings with the SEC The Company's filings with the SEC and its quarterly investor presentations can be accessed through the "Investors" link on the Company's website, www.employers.com. The Company's filings with the SEC can also be accessed through the SEC's EDGAR Database at www.sec.gov (EDGAR CIK No. 0001379041). The Company also provides its quarterly Investor Presentations on its web site at www.employers.com. About Employers Holdings, Inc. EMPLOYERS and America's small business insurance specialist are registered trademarks of EIG Services, Inc. Employers Holdings, Inc. is a holding company with subsidiaries that are specialty providers of workers' compensation insurance and services focused on select, small businesses engaged in low-to-medium hazard industries. The Company operates throughout the United States, with the exception of four states that are served exclusively by their state funds. Insurance is offered through Employers Insurance Company of Nevada, Employers Compensation Insurance Company, Employers Preferred Insurance Company, Employers Assurance Company and Cerity Insurance Company, all rated A- (Excellent) by the A.M. Best Company. Not all companies do business in all jurisdictions. See www.employers.com and www.cerity.com for coverage availability. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005829/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton, London. Hundreds of current and former students at a leading independent girls school in London have signed an open letter to their headteacher calling for the history of racism and white privilege to be taught on the curriculum. More than 500 parents, students and alumnae of Lady Eleanor Holles (LEH), in Hampton, south-west London, signed the letter amid continuing Black Lives Matter protests over the killing of George Floyd in the US. The letter describes LEH, which charges 6,934 per term for secondary students, as a very privileged independent secondary school, and calls on the headteacher and governors to improve teaching of Black British History, white privilege and systemic racism. The pupils say the current teaching of these topics is severely lacking. Children and young adults should be provided with education on conscious anti-racism and thus, educated on oppression, white privilege and systemic racism, the letter states. As an independent school, you have the power to decide your curriculum in years not designated to national exams, without the barriers and time constraints associated with changing the curriculum at a national level. People pass by banners and street arts related to the recent protests from Black Lives Matter in Brick Lane and Shoreditch, London. (PA) Read more: Thousands sign petition to replace Bristol statue with one of anti-racism campaigner The letter goes on to say an increased teaching of black culture and of representation of BAME communities as a whole should be part of the wider curriculum. Systemic racism, its roots and white privilege must be raised in subjects which every pupil undertakes, such as PSHE, where books specifically addressing the issue can be studied, and in English, where the school could support BAME authors by including their works on the syllabus, it says. Black Lives Matters protesters seen at Trafalgar Square, London. (PA) A spokesperson for the school, which caters to around 900 students aged between seven and 18, has confirmed receipt of the letter and said it would respond when it had a considered comment to make. The students say that while the subjects of racism and civil rights movements are touched upon in the history curriculum at the school, these topics always focus on America, giving rise to the misleading impression that racial inequality is an American problem. Story continues This is not the case and is a dangerous belief, as it allows insidious, systemic racism to prevail in the UK, it states. Read more: George Floyd death: 14 police officers hurt as violence erupts at protest in London A need for diversity within the school community, particularly in regards to those in a position of power as educators and role models, was also highlighted. Young protesters seen at Trafalgar Square with Black Lives Matters placards during the demonstration. (PA) Pressure has been mounting on the government to make the teaching of black history mandatory for all pupils. A campaign, led by Black Curriculum, has been collecting signatures for an open letter to be sent this week to Gavin Williamson, the education secretary. The group states on its website: The outcomes of young people in the UK are affected by the implicit racial bias within the curriculum. When young people are not taught their history within Britain, their sense of identity and belonging is negatively impacted and social relations, hindered. A 2007 report on the over-representation of young Black people in the criminal justice system demonstrated the link between these shortcomings in the curriculum as causing underachievement and disaffection. The group states that its aims are to provide a sense of belonging and identity to young people across the UK, teach an accessible educational black British history curriculum that raises attainment for young people, and improve social cohesion between young people in the UK. Organisers have requested a face-to-face meeting with Williamson and want a response by Windrush Day on 22 June. Read the full letter signed by current and former students to Lady Eleanor Holles: Dear Mrs Hanbury and Board of Governors, We hope this email finds you well. We, as alumnae, current students and parents wish to contact you with regard to the teaching of Black British History. Current events throw into sharp relief the need for meaningful change, and meaningful change begins with education. Having attended LEH, a very privileged independent secondary school, we would hope that the education we received was very well rounded, however, upon reflection we are not sure this was always the case. Independent learning since leaving the school, spurred on by increasing awareness of racial inequality, has shown that our knowledge of Black British History, white privilege and systemic racism was severely lacking. It should not be possible for a child to go through school without gaining an understanding of these critical topics. Whilst we must always strive to educate ourselves, school must be the foundation for learning. On the 1st of June 2020, The Impact of Omission survey was launched, finding that: 86.2 % of school pupils were educated on the Tudors in-depth as part of their curriculum, whereas only 9.3% learned about the role of slavery in British Industrialisation; 72.2% learned about The Great Fire of London, whereas only 7% learned about Britains colonisation of Africa; and 71.5% were taught about the Battle of Hastings, whereas only 5.2% learned about the role of BAME soldiers in WWI and II. A large part of the Black Lives Matter movement concerns educating oneself and then sharing this knowledge with the people around you. Many alumnae have been sharing anti-racism resources on social media, thus illustrating the hunger for knowledge in our alumnae. However, social media should not be the first place one gains a deeper understanding of how to be actively anti-racist. This concept should be addressed in school, as it is a key driver for meaningful change. Children and young adults should be provided with education on conscious anti-racism and thus, educated on oppression, white privilege and systemic racism. As an independent school, you have the power to decide your curriculum in years not designated to national exams, without the barriers and time constraints associated with changing the curriculum at a national level. This gives LEH a measure of freedom when it comes to making the necessary changes to incorporate Black British History into the curriculum. Whilst Black History, racism and civil rights movements are touched upon in the history curriculum, these topics always focus on America, giving rise to the misleading impression that racial inequality is an American problem. This is not the case and is a dangerous belief, as it allows insidious, systemic racism to prevail in the UK. We urge you to exert this freedom to build a foundation of knowledge around this topic, particularly in the early years of education. Whilst we recognise that we are not trained educators, we would suggest that this change must go beyond the history curriculum. This is not only a question of teaching of historical events, but also a question of general understanding, the recognition of black culture and of representation of BAME communities as a whole. Systemic racism, its roots and white privilege must be raised in subjects which every pupil undertakes, such as PSHE, where books specifically addressing the issue can be studied, and in English, where the school could support BAME authors by including their works on the syllabus. Whilst this letter focuses on education and the curriculum we would also like to highlight the need for diversity within the school community, particularly in regards to those in a position of power as educators and role models. Representation and diversity must be prevalent in both the curriculum and the LEH community to drive meaningful change and empower BAME students. Research at universities across the country shows that when a focus on diversity is introduced into the curriculum, BAME students feel more represented in their study environment. We believe it does a disservice to the schools BAME students to have a curriculum which does not mirror the countrys diversity and may lead to the feeling that they are not represented. Future alumnae could go on to enact real, positive change in the world, building on values that they learnt at LEH, if the right changes are made. The fact that the national curriculum has no real emphasis on the impacts of colonialism, imperialism, racism and white privilege is deeply distressing, and severely in need of reform, but LEH has the power to address this more swiftly than many other schools. We hope that the freedom granted to LEH as an independent school spurs you to take the necessary steps towards reversing this erasure of Britains troubling colonial past, and building an inclusive and equal society. You may already be making these positive changes, and if so we would welcome hearing about them. If not, we urge you to take the necessary steps to address this global societal crisis, and we look forward to seeing the necessary changes we are sure you will strive to make. Kind regards, The current and former pupils and parents of LEH. Some of Donald Trumps advisers are concerned that his response to the George Floyd protests has damaged support with his own voters, according to reports. The presidents aides and advisers are concerned for his chances at the 2020 presidential election, after his responses to the coronavirus pandemic and the protests have been criticised, according to the Associated Press. Some of the aides are concerned that Mr Trumps push for law and order and his hard-line response to protesters, has energised young and African American voters to vote against him in November. Protests have taken place all over the US for more than a week now, in opposition to police brutality against African Americans, following the death of Mr Floyd. Mr Floyd died after being detained by Derek Chauvin, who at the time was a Minneapolis police officer, but has since been fired and charged with second degree murder and manslaughter. The presidents response to the protests has been controversial, and one of his tweets about demonstrators was flagged and hidden by Twitter. Last month, Mr Trump tweeted: These THUGS are dishonouring 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! Mr Trumps post was later hidden by Twitter for glorifying violence, but was kept on the site, as the social media giants argued it was in the publics interest. The president has fared poorly in polls this year, and has seen his approval rating fall steadily during the coronavirus pandemic, as his refusal to wear a face mask and early attempts to downplay the seriousness of the virus attracted widespread criticism. In a PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll, that was published in April at the height of the pandemic, 55 per cent of Americans said that they disapproved of the presidents handling of the outbreak, which was up from 49 per cent the month prior. The president has also seen his support fall with Republicans, and In a poll by Ramussen Reports, published in May, 23 per cent of likely Republican voters said they wanted the GOP to nominate a different candidate for Novembers election. Mr Trump is now planning an address to the nation on TV this week, in order to spread a message of unity and restart his election campaign, according to CNN. One of Mr Trumps top advisers, told Axios that some of his aides think that the president needs to present a more unifying message to the voters, if he is going to gain enough support be re-elected this year. A senior adviser told the outlet: Theres a thought that we need to shift to be much more cohesive in terms of a message of healing, rebuilding, restoring, recovering...a theme that goes with Covid and the economy and the race stuff. Kerala's Kumbalangi to be first synthetic pad-free village in India How Kerala Police CCSE under Cyberdome is fighting crimes against children Kerala: Central, State Ministers spar over opening of Temples India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Thiruvananthapuram, June 09: As places of worship opened its doors to devotees in Kerala after an over two-and-half month-long coronavirus induced lockdown, Minister of state for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan and Kerala Devaswom minister, Kadakampally Surendra sparred over the opening of temples. Muraleedharan had in a Facebook post hit out at the left government saying, "your government is unable to even maintain social distancing in the state. As the COVID-19 cases are increasing in the state, are you trying to put the blame on temples by opening them? We need the government to withdraw the decision to open the temples under the Travancore Devaswom Board," he said. Malls, Restaurants and places of worship open in Kerala The Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra had on Monday evening tweeted that neither devotees nor the temple committees had demanded the re-opening of temples. "The Kerala governments decision to reopen temples despite opposition from devotees smell foul. Neither the devotees nor the temple committees demanded the opening of temples. What is the haste? Is this a deliberate attempt by the atheist @vijayanpinarayi (sic) Govt to denigrate devotees? Govt must heed to the voice of devotees and withdraw its decision," he said in two tweets. Delhi Health Minister claims 50% have no contact, Centre says no community spread | Oneindia News Slamming Muraleedharan, Surendran on Tuesday said the state government had not shown any undue haste with regard to the re-opening of temples and that he sympathises with the central minister. The central minister should ask his ministerial colleagues about the decision taken in the cabinet meeting on opening of places of worship. "I feel sad for him (Muraleedharan). The decision on opening of places of worship was taken by the central cabinet in a meeting chaired by our honourable Prime Minister. The state government never showed any kind of haste in opening the religious places." The decision was not taken by the state in a jiffy, he said but after holding discussions with various religious heads and community leaders. "The decision of the state was taken after discussing with various religious and community leaders. We understand that a minister of state can't take part in the cabinet meeting. But, at least he should ask other ministers on the Centre's decision before attacking the state," Surendran said. Malls, restaurants and places of worship opened in Kerala on Tuesday morning in line with the Centre's graded exit plan from the Lockdown, 'Unlock 1.0'. Joining the issue, BJP state president K Surendran alleged that while the government consulted the who-is-who of other religions, it had a taken a unilateral decision in the case of temples. No spiritual leader or scholars who matter were consulted in the issue, Surendran told media in Kozhikode. The decision to reopen the temples was only aimed at the wealth of the shrines under the control of the Devaswams. The state government did not bother to spend a penny for hundreds of temples which had nothing in their kitty to survive during the past two months, he alleged. Tens of thousands of staff of these temples were "neglected" by the government without giving any financial aid for survival. Unlock 1.0: Places of worship all set to reopen in Kerala on June 9 The BJP and Hindu Akiya Vedi had come out on Monday against the state's decision to open places of worship. Various temples under the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) opened on Tuesday along with some churches and mosques in parts of the state. While the famed Lord Krishna temple at Guruvayoor opened its doors by following the various norms laid down by the government, the Padmanabha Swamy and Attukkal temples in the state capital were among those which remained shut. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:11:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, June 9 (Xinhua) -- A district chief and four pro-government militiamen were killed in a bomb attack in Afghanistan's northern province of Balkh on Tuesday, a provincial government spokesman confirmed. "Qari Ibrahim, chief of Shortepa district, and four local uprising fighters were killed in an improvised bomb explosion in Ariqgh Batur area of Shortepa roughly at midday," spokesman Muir Ahmad Farhad told Xinhua. Local uprising fighters, who are receiving support from Afghan security agencies, provide security and protect remote villages and districts across the country where the army and police have limited presence. A local uprising divisional commander Mahwin Sharif was among the killed and a vehicle carrying the victims were also destroyed in the explosion. Zabiullah Mujhaid, a purported Taliban spokesman, claimed the attack shortly after the incident. Mujahid tweeted that the district chief was traveling to the desert area to lead a military operation against the Taliban before his vehicle touch off a Taliban-planted improvised roadside bomb. Violence lingers in the war-torn country after a peace deal was signed between the United States and Taliban in Qatar in February. Enditem Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) - The oldest of the six jeepney drivers arrested for protesting their loss of livelihood due to quarantine transportation protocols is now free after posting bail. The Caloocan City Metropolitan Court Branch 51 ordered the Caloocan City Police Station to release Elmer Cordero, 72, and his companion Wilson Remilla, after posting bail. Cordero and Remilla were not allowed to walk free yesterday along with four other arrested members of the jeepney drivers organization Piston. Police said Cordero has a namesake with a pending estafa case while Remilla has an undismissed carnapping case. Earlier, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said during a briefing that age does not exempt anyone from facing charges. Titingnan po natin 'yan kasi regardless of your age, kapag may pending case kinakailangan harapin yung kaso, said Roque. [Translation: Well look into that, because regardless of your age, if you have a pending case, you have to face it.] Magkakaroon lamang po yan ng clemency if he is found guilty. so meron po tayong probisyon that the court can recommend pardon or parole to senior citizens. [Translation: There can only be clemency if he is (already) found guilty. So, we have a provision that the court can recommend pardon or parole to senior citizens.] The drivers, dubbed the Piston Six, were arrested last Tuesday along Edsa for allegedly refusing to stop their protest action calling for government aid and permission to ply their routes again. Jeepneys continue to be banned on Metro Manila's streets since mid-March, when the government imposed strict quarantine measures to help curb the spread of the coronavirus disease. The ban continued, however, despite the easing of quarantine measures in the capital region, after jeepney operators failed to convince authorities that social distancing measures would be strictly observed by drivers and passengers. Candles are placed next to a photo of Madeleine McCann inside the Church of Nossa Senhora da Luz in Praia Da Luz, Portugal, where a special service was held to mark the 10th anniversary of her disappearance. A German prosecutor has said he has evidence Madeleine McCann is dead as he appealed to British tourists to help identify the suspect's former homes. Hans Christian Wolters said police need more information about where the new suspect, named only as Christian B , has lived so police can search for Madeleine's body. He admitted he does not have enough "hard evidence" for the suspect to go on trial. Mr Wolters believes there are other British victims of sex attacks and has urged them to contact police. He told Sky News: "After all the information we got, the girl is dead. We have no information that she is alive. "All indications we have got that I can't tell you point in the direction that Madeleine is dead. "We got things we cannot communicate that speak for the theory that Madeleine is dead, even if I have to admit that we don't have the body." Mr Wolters continued: "The hard evidence we don't have, we don't have the crucial evidence of Madeleine McCann's body. "We expect that she is dead, but we don't have enough evidence that we can get a warrant for our suspect in Germany for the murder of Madeleine McCann. "At the moment we also don't have enough proof for a trial at court, but we have some evidence that the suspect has done the deed. "That's why we need more information from people , especially places he has lived so we can target these places especially and search there for Madeleine." Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007. She had been left sleeping with her young twin siblings while their parents dined with friends nearby. Speaking at his office in Braunschweig, Mr Wolters said his investigation now covered the entire time the suspect lived in the Algarve, from 1995 to 2007. He said: "We need help from the people, from British tourists that might have been between 1995 and 2007 in Praia da Luz. Only with these calls we can solve the case of Madeleine McCann." Story continues He also believes that over those years there may have been other victims of sex attacks who had not reported them to police. He said: "We think our suspect has done more crimes possibly against British, Irish or American people. All these people are asked to call us so we can solve these cases." Like Scotland Yard, the prosecutor said he and the German police he directs had also had hundreds of calls offering information on the suspect and two vehicles he is thought to have used. He added: "We are going through them right now and we hope that there are some of them which can help us to make a big step to solve this case. "Basically, we need every information in that time period, where did he live, where did he work, to which places he had a special relationship, who were his friends and the people he knew. "Who can tell us what the suspect's life was like, where has he been with his cars, who has been in his houses and can tell us what they look like from the inside. And we hope that maybe we find victims that maybe also got in these houses, victims of sexual crimes." :: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Spotify , Spreaker The suspect is currently in a German jail for drugs offences, but this week completed two thirds of his sentence and is eligible for early release if a judge agrees to free him. He is also challenging a conviction last December for the rape of an elderly American woman in Portugal in 2005. In theory, he could be freed on either count, though legal experts in Germany say it is unlikely while he remains the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann mystery. Were thrilled to partner with Venture University to provide their graduates with job opportunities across venture capital, private equity, and asset management. Matchbook, the talent marketplace for the financial services industry, has entered into a partnership with Venture University, the world's leading investor accelerator for venture capital, private equity, and angel investing, to provide Venture University graduates access to buy-side job opportunities within investment management. Employers will be able to access Venture Universitys highly curated, trained, and top quality candidates through Matchbook to facilitate direct employment conversations. Matchbook, a OneWire brand, provides a role-based marketplace of screened and vetted talent ready to make a move. Hiring firms can subscribe to different roles, view detailed profiles including recruiter notes, and interview candidates all free of charge. The Company charges a reduced success fee if a hire is made, limiting the up-front risk, and putting the firm in control of the hiring process. Were thrilled to partner with Venture University to provide their graduates with job opportunities across venture capital, private equity, and asset management. VU provides an excellent foundation to build an investment skill set that is in high demand and hard to come by through its Investor Accelerator, where individuals learn by doing by participating in a VC/PE Investment Apprenticeship at a top investment fund and an immersive Executive Education Program. VUs program aligns perfectly with the knowledge and experience our clients are seeking on the buy-side, said Eric Stutzke, CEO of OneWire. Each quarter Venture University graduates roughly 30 individuals from its highly competitive Investor Accelerator, sourced from thousands of applications in the United States and globally. The graduates learn from and work alongside top performing VC/PE investors who have invested $1.8B+ in 250+ companies and were early investors in Beyond Meat, Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Venmo, etc. During VUs program the graduates source deal flow, conduct due diligence, participate in weekly Partners Meeting and Investment Committees, make 2-5 investments each quarter co-investing with other top tier funds, and personally share in the financial upside on the investments made. VU was created to disrupt the future of education and the funnel for how individuals break into the venture capital and private equity industry. Graduating from a top undergrad and/or MBA program, or working at a top investment bank or consulting firm, is the old way, and was a simple filtering strategy for employers since nothing better existed previously to filter top candidates for the VC/PE industry. However, with Venture University, thats now changed. With the increased demand for entering the VC/PE industry, more is needed to differentiate top candidates, and the bar is higher now than ever before. Buy-side employers put higher value on previous relevant investment work experience, a track record, and an established network within the industry, because that is what will actually help the hiring funds succeed, said J. Skyler Fernandes, Co-Founder of Venture University Please direct all press inquiries to: For Matchbook & OneWire: Eric Stutzke, CEO | eric@onewire.com | (646) 786-0866 For Venture University: Jenna Fernandes, Head of Admissions | jenna@venture.university | (812) 483-3097 About OneWire | OneWire is a SaaS-based recruiting platform that hosts the largest community of professionals in the financial services industry. Candidates can confidentially search and apply to jobs, while employers can advertise open opportunities or search directly from our candidate database. Through the Companys Matchbook product, candidates are pre-screened in advance and showcased in a talent marketplace where employers can directly send interview requests and pay on success. The Company also offers tech-enabled executive search services that is customized for each firm. About Venture University | Venture University is the world's leading investor accelerator for individuals breaking into venture capital, private equity, and angel investing. VU's investor accelerator is a modern day trade school, where individuals gain high quality investment experience through a VC/PE Investment Apprenticeship and take academic courses as part of VU's Executive Education Program. Individuals "learn by doing" by joining VU's investment team, VU Venture Partners, a multi-stage investment fund focusing on seed through growth stage companies, investing in 2-5 companies per quarter, across Consumer, Enterprise, Fintech, Frontier Tech, Healthcare, and Proptech, and share in the financial upside on the investments made via a Profit Sharing Agreement Rap star Wretch 32 has released shocking footage of police tasering his father at his house causing him to fall down a flight of stairs - but Scotland Yard says an internal investigation has already found officers did nothing wrong. The clip, which was released by the grime artist this evening, shows people in the background screaming as his father, Millard Scott, lays prone on the floor on April 21, this year. The distressing scenes were captured on police body cam footage as officers push past a woman to enter a house in Tottenham, North London. As they go inside, a woman says: 'Don't touch me, I'm not resisting, social distancing, please don't touch me.' Police move through the house saying 'police officer with taser move move' and then 'police officer with taser stay where you are' before firing. The Metropolitan Police last night confirmed they attended the address 'to carry out arrest enquiries as part of a long running operation to tackle drugs supply linked to serious violence in the Borough of Haringey'. A spokesman added: 'The incident, including body worn footage, has been reviewed by the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards and no indication of misconduct has been identified.' He added: 'A 22-year-old man located inside the address was arrested and later charged with encouraging another to commit an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007. The rapper said he will appear with his father on the news later to discuss the incident The police warn they are going to use a taser and then shoot the man, causing him to fall down the stairs Officers then check on him as he lays prone on the floor. Met Police confirmed that an ambulance was called but Mr Scott required no further treatment London Mayor Sadiq Khan has demanded an 'urgent explanation of the distressing incident' from the Met Police 'A 52-year-old woman was also arrested at the scene on suspicion of obstructing/resisting a police constable in the execution of duties but was de-arrested at the scene. 'She was subsequently charged with the offence after being interviewed by police under caution at a later date. 'As officers entered the premises, a man came downstairs and started moving towards an officer suddenly. 'He was ordered to remain where he was but continued towards officers who, after several warnings, deployed a Taser.' The spokesman said the man was not arrested and the London Ambulance Service was called to the scene, but the man required no further treatment. Commander of the North Area Command Unit, Treena Fleming said: 'I can understand why any use of Taser can look alarming - that is why it receives heavy scrutiny which we welcome. 'Met officers are highly trained to engage, explain and try to resolve situations, using force only when absolutely necessary. We examine our processes regularly to ensure Taser is being used in an appropriate manner. 'This incident has been thoroughly reviewed by our professional standards department and no misconduct has been identified. I continue to talk to the family about their concerns.' A man, who Wretch 32 has said is his father, collapses down the stairs and lays limp on the floor. A woman shouts 'oh my god, oh my god' as he falls. The officers then check on the prone man asking 'are you ok', as he lays stricken on the floor. The clip then ends. The grime artist, real name Jermaine Scott Sinclair, from Tottenham, North London, posted the video to his social media accounts this evening. He said: 'This is how the police think they can treat a 62 year old black man in Tottenham but this 1 happens to be my dad #Nojusticenopeace'. The rapper, who has amassed more than a million in record sales, says he will be appeared with his father on ITV News at 10. Millard Scott said: 'I'm lucky to be alive. The only people who have invaded our space are the Metropolitan Police. The only people who seem to ignore all the guidelines put out there are the metropolitan police.' Wretch 32 described how his father and his uncle fought against police brutality in London Millard Scott, appearing on ITV News tonight, said he was 'lucky to be alive' after the incident Asked if the same thing would happen to him if he was white, he said 'no way, no how'. Mr Scott is shown an interview of Met Commissioner Cressida Dick saying there is no discrimination in the force. He responds: 'It seems to me that in this moment in time are are being singled out and targeted.' His son Wretch 32, adds: 'Ive grown up in a household with my dad and my uncle and I've watched them fight against police brutality my whole life. 'I'm 35 now and we are still here again today and I now have to have the same conversations that my dad and my uncle and my grandparents had with me when I was a child. That means there is no progression. Social media users reacted with fury at the clip, describing the incident as 'vile' and that things like this 'must stop'. One user said: 'I'd love to know the context here. They shout at him to 'stay where you are' and give him no time to comply, then taser him at the top of the stairs so he has to fall. 'Looking at him on the stairs his size hardly looks to be a physical threat. This just seems so wrong' And another said: 'I am so sorry to see this, solidarity.' The grime artist (pictured), real name Jermaine Scott Sinclair, from Tottenham, North London, posted the video to his social media accounts this evening The shocking video comes in the wake of the Black Lives Matters movement sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis. The death of Mr Floyd - whose funeral was today in Houston, his home town - comes amid demonstrations all over the world against racial injustice and police brutality. In the UK, there have been multiple marches in cities and town all over the country for the past week, as Black Lives Matters protesters called for the country to face its imperialist past, and tear down statues of people associated with the slave trade. Winston Churchill's statue in Parliament Square was covered in graffiti after protests in the capital at the weekend. And the statue of Edward Colston was thrown in Bristol's harbour after being dragged on its plinth by activists on Sunday. Today, more than a thousand protesters blocked an Oxford street in a loud but peaceful anti-racism protest over the statue of an imperialist at a university college. A campaign to remove the statue of colonialist Cecil Rhodes from the second floor of Oxford University's Oriel College has gained renewed attention in recent days, with thousands signing new petitions to have the monument taken down. Demonstrators hold placards as they protest for the removal of a statue of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes on the outside of Oriel College in Oxford, on Tuesday Tuesday's demonstration attracted around a thousand people as speakers called for the college to remove the statue from the High Street entrance of Oriel College and put it in context, as well as protesting against racism across society. Ndjodi Ndeunyema, a law student and one of the organisers of Tuesday's demonstration, said: 'We are here to shame the college that seeks to venerate and glorify someone who is not worthy of glorification or veneration. 'We demand an official and public acknowledgement of the colonial violence on which Oriel is built. 'We demand the immediate removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes.' The Oxford protest comes after several Black Lives Matter protests nationwide, including a demonstration on Saturday where a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down and thrown into Bristol Harbour. At one moment during Tuesday's peaceful protest, attendees spent eight minutes and 46 seconds silently sitting on the floor to mark Mr Floyd's death. In 2016, Oriel College decided to keep the statue despite widespread student demands to remove it. Demonstrators gather outside University of Oxford's Oriel College during a protest called by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign on Tuesday University of Oxford associate professor of African politics Simukai Chigudu said: 'This campaign has been important for a very long time, one of the challenges of being black in this country or belonging to a minority group is that you feel that your presence is unwelcome, and that's true of Oxford University as well. 'The institution is structured according to a legacy and a culture that is very white and very elitist.' Dr Chigudu added that the campaign to remove Rhodes' statue could help highlight a deeper set of structural issues in society. Several vans worth of police officers were in the area of the demonstration. After the protest ended and numbers reduced, an officer in a blue liaison uniform knelt in the middle of the crowd and was met with cheers. Many of the protesters wore masks or gloves at the demonstration while organisers also handed out masks and drew chalk crosses on the floor to encourage distancing - though protesters and journalists were in close proximity by the doors of the college. Ahead of the protest, the leader of Oxford City Council Susan Brown invited the college to apply for planning permission to have the statue removed - despite its Grade II listed status. She suggested the statue should be placed in the Ashmolean or the Museum of Oxford. Labour councillor Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini addressed the crowd and said the statue commemorated white supremacy. She said: 'I'm going to give the college a message from Oxford City Council - please do apply for planning permission to have the statue removed.' Oriel College declined to comment on the letter when approached by PA, and instead pointed to a statement it made earlier in the day. In the statement, the college said it supported the right to peaceful protest, adding: 'We will continue to examine our practices and strive to improve them to ensure that Oriel is open to students and staff of all backgrounds, and we are determined to build a more equal and inclusive community and society.' A man is in stable condition after he was shot by Oxford police this afternoon after he got out of a stolen car holding an object that resembled a gun, Chief Bill Partridge said. Partridge did not say if it was in fact a gun. Terrell Lawler Jr., 28, of Eastaboga, was injured and taken to UAB Hospital, where he underwent surgery. He is in stable condition, Partridge told a 6 p.m. news conference. The shooting occurred when officers attempted to stop a vehicle reported stolen out of Florida. The driver crossed from I-20 onto Richeytown Road. Lawler got out of the car with the object in his hands and refused multiple verbal commands to drop it while holding his hands in a position that indicated he may have had a gun. That is when he was shot one time, Partridge said. The Talladega County sheriffs office and district attorneys office are investigating the incident, according to Partridge. The police chief said the incident could have been avoided if Lawler obeyed police commands to put the object down. We can end officer-involved shootings today, its very easy to do, Partridge said. You comply with the officers when they tell you to do something, its simple as that. We send officers out every day to do very dangerous things..and we expect them to be perfect. We dont live in a perfect world, and none of us can say that were perfect. But if we do what the officers tell you to do we wont have this problem in the future, the chief continued. Partridge did not take questions at the news conference. US Justice Dept, dukes lawyers dispute terms of an interview about his relationship with the late US sex trafficker. A public dispute has exploded between US authorities and lawyers for UK Prince Andrew about whether the British royal will provide a legal interview about his relationship with the late US sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Prince Andrews lawyers broke months of silence on June 8 issuing a statement accusing the US Justice Department of breaching its own confidentiality rules and refusing the dukes offers to be interviewed. The lead US prosecutor investigating the Epstein case, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Geoffrey Berman, responded that Prince Andrew, through his lawyers, had repeatedly declined to be interviewed. The dispute has drawn in US Attorney General William Barr, the top US law enforcement official, who was asked in a television interview whether the Department of Justice would seek to have Prince Andrew turned over to US authorities. I dont think its a question of handing him over, Barr told Fox News. I think its just a question of having him provide some evidence. Very little credibility Prince Andrew has relinquished public roles in the UK after details of his relationship with Epstein came to light last year. Epstein died in prison in 2019 after he was re-arrested on federal charges of sex trafficking underage girls. Gloria Allred, a US lawyer representing some of Epsteins victims, told the BBC on Tuesday Prince Andrew at this point has very little credibility. Her clients just want to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about who may have conspired with Prince Andrew to sex traffic them and other underage girls, Allred said. Trying to delay, trying to deny, trying to evade the questions and attack the questioners is really not helpful at all, she said. Lawyers for the duke, who is the second son of Queen Elizabeth, said in their statement that US authorities were mischaracterizing offers to have him cooperate. The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ, the law firm Blackfords LLC said. Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the Duke has offered zero cooperation, the statement said. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered, Blackfords said. False portrayal Berman said Prince Andrew had not been cooperative with the US investigation of Epstein. Prince Andrew yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate with an ongoing federal criminal investigation into sex trafficking and related offences committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, Berman said. The prince has not given an interview to federal authorities, has repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview, and nearly four months ago informed us unequivocally through the very same counsel who issued todays release that he would not come in for such an interview, Berman said. BREAKING EXCL: Huge development tonight in the Prince Andrew/Jeffrey #Epstein saga. @thesun can reveal the US has officially demanded Britain allow #Andrew to be quizzed over his ties to the paedophile: https://t.co/LffY46bS7b Tom Wells (@ByTomWells) June 7, 2020 Underlying the public dispute, however, are terms under which Prince Andrew would agree to be interviewed. US authorities have made a formal request to the UK Home Office that Prince Andrew be made available for an interview, according to reports. A 1994 treaty between the US and the UK provides for cooperation in criminal matters including, potentially, placing witnesses under oath. Any pursuit of an application for mutual legal assistance would be disappointing, since the Duke of York is not a target of the DOJ investigation and has recently repeated his willingness to provide a witness statement, Prince Andrews lawyers said. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epsteins sex trafficking victims, has claimed in court documents she had sex with Prince Andrew multiple times when she was underage in 2001. The Duke of York denied in a UK television interview in 2019 that he ever had sex with Roberts and said he did not recall meeting her. But a photograph of him with his arm around her waist has been widely circulated. Prince Andrew has received criticism for maintaining ties with Epstein even after Epstein was arrested and charged with paedophilia in 2008. The duke visited Epstein and stayed at his home in New York City in 2010. WASHINGTON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Coalition for Taxpayer Rights (ACTR) praised the IRS in a letter today as newly released data shows that the public-private partnership among federal and state tax agencies and private-sector partners has scored major successes in reducing identity theft tax refund fraud in the past five years. "The reduction in the incidence of identity theft tax refund fraud is extremely good news for taxpayers," said Stephen M. Ryan, counsel to ACTR, a 14-member trade group of the nation's leading tax preparation companies and the financial institutions that offer tax-time financial products. "But the coalition of industry and government must remain vigilant in combating these crimes." Today, IRS Commissioner Rettig convened the first virtual meeting of the five-year-old Security Summit, as the public-private partnership is known. New statistics show that: Between 2015 and 2019, the number of taxpayers filing affidavits to report they were identity theft victims fell from 677,000 to 137,000 a reduction of 80%. The number of confirmed false-identity returns stopped by the IRS in the return process has fallen from 1.4 million in 2015 to 443,000 in 2019 a decline of 68%. The IRS was able to prevent a total of $26 billion in fraudulent refunds that would otherwise have been paid over the last five years. And Security Summit financial industry partners recovered $1.7 billion in fraudulent refund during this period. Since it was launched five years ago, the IRS Security Summit partnership has put together an array of different safeguards and strategies to combat and prevent individual thieves and criminal syndicates from appropriating taxpayers' identities and filing fraudulent returns to steal tax revenue. In its Agency Priority Goal Action Plan, filed in December, the IRS laid out the challenges it faces in fighting identity-theft fraud.1 Data breaches of personal information outside the tax system are increasing the susceptibility of the system to criminals, and there has been an "increase in more sophisticated identity theft techniques. . ." coming from "new cyber gangs [that] were highly organized, highly sophisticated and well-funded."2 ACTR member companies who are the nation's leading retail tax preparation and tax software companies and related financial institutions3 -- play a critical role in the Security Summit. And they have been at the forefront of the effort to combat fraud even before the Summit was convened. ACTR has assisted in the establishment of the Identity Theft and Tax Fraud Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or ISAC, a public-private partnership that shares information with the goal of detecting, preventing and deterring activities related to stolen-identity refund fraud.4 In addition, ACTR has convened cybersecurity meetings at the Pell Center at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I., home to a renowned cyber-security program,5 and funded the preparation and delivery of training for tax-preparation professionals at the IRS Tax Forums. The ACTR letter to Commissioner Rettig concluded: "Our industry and our ACTR group are dedicated to serving the American taxpayer, and we will continue to work hard under the IRS's leadership -- to keep the tax-filing system as safe and secure as it can possibly be for the taxpayers we serve." The American Coalition for Taxpayer Rights is dedicated to ensuring taxpayer rights and the American tradition of a voluntary compliance tax system. Its members include CCH/Wolters Kluwer, Drake Tax, H&R Block, Intuit, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, Liberty Tax Service, Metabank, NetSpend, OnLine Taxes, Republic Bank & Trust, TaxACT, Tax Hawk, Tax Products Group/Green Dot, and TaxSlayer. 1 https://www.performance.gov/treasury/2019_dec_Treasury_Fraud_Prevention.pdf 2 https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/about_the_security_summit.pdf 3 http://www.americancoalitionfortaxpayerrights.org/ 4 https://www.irs.gov/pub/newsroom/IDTTRF%20ISAC%20April%202018%20Annual%20Report.pdf 5 https://salve.edu/pell-center SOURCE American Coalition for Taxpayer Rights (ACTR) Related Links https://www.americancoalitionfortaxpayerrights.org Unchartered waters. This is where I would suggest America is as a nation and people, as we continue to sail onward into the stormy waters ahead. While our world has previously faced pandemics and world wars, which took many times more lives, never before have we found ourselves facing such an overwhelming set of problems, with such a lack of wise leadership to solve them. Regardless of your belief about the cause or response to COVID-19, the reality is that we are facing dramatic challenges, involving public health, rising deaths, political dissension, racial unrest, economic crisis, overbearing debt, collapsing businesses, and so much more. Voices are competing to describe the varying explanations for these challenges. But with each viewpoint comes armies of opinions who line up against those with alternate perspectives. The further we navigate into these murky waters, the deeper the lines are drawn that separate us from our fellow citizens, neighbors, church members, and even our families. So who is right? What is true? How can we know? Who has the answers? As Ive considered all this, I was reminded of a story from ancient times where an answer was being sought by a once great king. This king had a dream that greatly troubled him, but for which he had no explanation. All of his advisors and political allies could not interpret the dreams. Yet there was one man, held unjustly in the kings prison, who possessed supernatural abilities, enabling him to interpret the dreams of others. This man we know to be Joseph. And the king was Pharaoh. The time that the dreams predicted would be unprecedented: a season of great prosperity, followed by another season of even greater famine. But without Joseph, the king would never have understood the warnings that were mercifully offered by God Himself to the pagan ruler. In the years before the sovereign appointment between Pharaoh and Joseph, God had taken Joseph through his own season of trouble and turmoil. This season took him from being the favored son of his father, to being sold into slavery and ultimately ending up in prison, stemming from a false accusation. But all these personal trials were in fact preparing and refining Joseph for what would be his time on center stage. Joseph responded with humility and trust to the God who allowed, or caused, his dire circumstances. As a result, God elevated Joseph to a position that was second only to the king himself, and blessed Joseph beyond measure. But the blessing Joseph received was not only for his own good. Rather, because of Josephs response, his humility, in the midst of great injustice, brought blessings to literally millions of men and women and their families, as the famine descended on the land. Now fast forward several thousand years to the present. Consider that our nation is facing challenges and struggles that are not only existential to our nation as we know it, but to date they have resulted in the tragic deaths of 100,000+ of our citizens. While we search for answers to the COVID-19 virus, there are no answers for all the other societal ailments that COVID continues to expose. So the question I am led to ask is Where is Americas Joseph? Is God preparing someone to come to the aid of our nation or to our community? Is God still in the business of humbling men and women so that, as we come to the end of ourselves, God can use us as instruments to bless others? While we as Americans love to focus our attention at the highest levels, beginning in Washington DC, I believe we may be casting our focus in the wrong place. We tend to prefer big solutions to big problems. Thus we start with a top-down approach. But while Jesus walked this earth, He did not prioritize his efforts in reforming from the top-down. Rather, Jesus approach was generally one person at a time. He called his twelve disciples, one person at a time. He healed the sick, one person at a time. He raised the dead, one person at a time. And so on. Yes, he did teach to multitudes, even 5,000 or more at a time. But that was not in the hopes of seeking to bring political reform for Rome, or even Israel. Jesus was always focused on an inside-out solution. He focused on the hearts of people, one at a time. So is God preparing you to serve Him in a manner that will bring blessing and the message of salvation to others? If so, it may include struggles, even monumental unjust ones. It may require refining that can only happen in the crucible of lifes fiery trials. But if you respond as Joseph did, maintaining your trust in the One who stands with you in the midst of those trials, you can be certain that God has greater works ahead for you. And who knows but that He may be preparing you for such a time as this. Recently I was watching a video where Pastor Tony Walliser recounted his own testimony of personal struggles and doubt that he had growing up, that continued on as an adult, even as he became pastor of Silverdale Baptist Church here in Chattanooga. Because of these struggles, Tony would regularly default to a feeling of inferiority and doubt about his ability to serve God. Yet, God used the story of Moses to teach Tony that it wasnt about him and his limited abilities, but rather it is about God, and His infinite abilities. The following verse was the one that God used to confirm this truth to Tony: The Lord replied, Listen, I am making a covenant with you in the presence of all your people. I will perform miracles that have never been performed anywhere in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people around you will see the power of the Lord the awesome power I will display for you. ??Exodus? ?34:10? I cannot answer the question Where is Americas Joseph? I hope God is preparing him for us today. But whether God is or isnt, you and I can still learn from the story of Joseph, and how he responded as God used difficulties and trials to prepare the shepherd boy for one of the most powerful positions in the world at that time. So whether God is preparing you to save America or simply to stand ready to serve your family or community, we can know this about our God: "Little is much when offered to the Lord." Live Free like Joseph. Mark West Google has rolled out several new features for its Maps navigation app for Android and iOS which aim to make it easier and safer for people to travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first feature is intended to assist public transport users with information on transit measures. When users look up public transit directions for a trip that is likely to be affected by COVID-19 restrictions, Google Maps will display relevant alerts from local transit agencies. These alerts can help you prepare accordingly if government mandates impact transit services or require you to wear a mask on public transportation, Google explained. Transit alerts will initially be rolled out in countries where Google has information from local transit agencies including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, France, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, and the U.S. Google added these alerts will soon be coming to more countries. Alerts for drivers Drivers who use Google Maps will benefit from alerts about COVID-19 checkpoints and possible travel restrictions along their route. The alerts will be displayed on the directions screen and after starting navigation if the route is impacted by these restrictions. These notifications will first be available in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. In addition, when navigating to medical facilities or COVID-19 testing centres, Maps will display an alert reminding users to verify eligibility and facility guidelines to avoid being turned away or causing additional strain on the local healthcare system. From this week, alerts for medical facilities will be available in Indonesia, Israel, the Philippines, South Korea, and the U.S., and testing centre alerts will be available in the US. Were showing these alerts where weve received authoritative data from local, state and federal governments or from their websites, and are actively working with other agencies around the world to bring even more of this helpful data to users in Google Maps, Google said. Avoiding crowds The company said it has also improved its crowdedness predictions feature, which helps public transport users see how crowded a particular bus line or train tends to be. This could be useful in avoiding highly-congested hubs or routes which may be hotspots for COVID-19 transmission. Starting today, you can easily see the times when a transit station is historically more or less busy to plan your trip accordingly or you can look at live data showing how busy it is right now compared to its usual level of activity, Google said. To check crowdedness, search for a station in Google Maps or tap on the station on the map to see the departure board and busyness data, where available. Google sources this information from aggregated and anonymised data from users who opt into Google Location History. Contributing crowdedness information on transit lines is now simpler, Google stated. Look up Directions, tap through to see the Transit Details, then scroll down to find crowdedness predictions (where available) and easily contribute your own experiences, Google said. Now read: Google launches new search highlighting feature Key companies covered are Gaplast Gmbh, CCL Industries Inc., ALPLA-Werke Alwin Lehner GmbH & Co KG, SABIC, NIPRO, AptarGroup, Inc, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc, Schott AG, Nelipak Healthcare, Gerresheimer AG, Frank Noe Egypt Ltd, Constantia Flexible, etc. PUNE, India, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global pharmaceutical packaging market size is projected to reach USD 142.59 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.0% during the forecast period. Steady growth in the number of older people in the world will bode well for this market, finds Fortune Business Insights in its report, titled "Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Material (Plastics, Glass, Metal, Paper & Paperboard), By Product (Plastic Bottles, Caps & Closures, Pre-Fillable Inhalers, Pre-Fillable Syringes, Vials & Ampoules, Blister Packs, Bags & Pouches, Jars & Canisters, Cartridges), By Packaging Type (Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary), By Drug Delivery Mode (Oral Drug Delivery Packaging, Injectable Packaging, Topical Drug Delivery Packaging, Pulmonary Drug Delivery Packaging, Transdermal Drug Delivery Packaging, Ocular Drug Delivery Packaging, Nasal Drug Delivery Packaging), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026". Gain More Insights into the Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Research Report https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-102860 Estimates released by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) indicate that the number of persons at or above 60-years of age will reach 2.1 billion by 2050. Moreover, by the end of this decade itself older persons will outnumber children under the age of 10. Pharmaceutical packaging products are likely to experience high demand in this scenario as the uptake of drugs and their delivery mechanisms will inevitably spike as larger number of people get older at a faster rate. Moreover, novel packaging solutions such as prefilled inhalers and syringes can enable older persons to self-administer the drugs, eliminating the need to visit a hospital or clinic. 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/enquiry/covid19-impact/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-102860 List of Key Players Profiled in the Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Research Report: Gaplast Gmbh ( Germany ) ) CCL Industries Inc. ( Canada ) ) ALPLA-Werke Alwin Lehner GmbH & Co KG ( Austria ) ) SABIC ( Saudi Arabia ) ) NIPRO ( Japan ) ) AptarGroup, Inc. (US) West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (US) Schott AG ( Germany ) ( ) Nelipak Healthcare ( Canada ) ) Gerresheimer AG ( Germany ) ) Frank Noe Egypt Ltd ( Egypt ) ) Constantia Flexibles ( Austria ) ) Lonza Group AG ( Switzerland ) ) Carcano Antonio S.p.A. ( Italy ) ) Berry Global, Inc. (US) WestRock (US) Becton Dickinson & Company (US) & Company (US) Pharma Packaging Solutions (US) Origin Pharma Packaging (UK) Amcor Plc ( Switzerland ) According to the report, the value of this market was at USD 90.23 billion in 2019. In addition, the report shares the following: Detailed analysis of the various market drivers and trends; Careful study of the market restraints; Comprehensive examination of the regional dynamics of the market; In-depth evaluation of the competitive landscape of the market; and Exhaustive assessment of all the market segments. Market Driver Rising Prevalence of Multiple Chronic Conditions to Augment Market Growth Multiple chronic conditions (MCC), as the name suggests, are essentially several lifelong disorders that befall a person simultaneously or in close frequency to one another. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), approximately 33% of the world's population suffers from MCC such as a combination of cardiovascular disease with stroke. Furthermore, the WEF postulates that such conditions typically entail more medications, with each new chronic condition adding 8 new prescriptions among older adults. This would mean that the demand for packaging material for pharmaceutical purposes is likely to rise as people with chronic disorders will require frequent administration or consumption of different drugs. In consequence, the pharmaceutical packaging market growth is set to get boosted during the forecast period as the risk factors associated with these conditions are also increasing in tandem. Speak to Analyst:https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-102860 Regional Analysis North America to Lead the Pack; Europe to Follow Closely With a market size of USD 26.89 billion in 2019, North America is well-poised to dominate this market share in the forthcoming years. The major reasons for the market growth in this region include high healthcare spending and robust health infrastructure along with strong support to medical research in the region. Europe, the second-largest region in this market, will be driven by the escalating demand for pharmaceutical products such as vials and syringes to contain the spread of infectious diseases, including the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. The market in Asia-Pacific is expected to enjoy lucrative opportunities owing to increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and massive investments in R&D by regional pharmaceutical companies. Competitive Landscape Key Players to Focus on Portfolio Diversification The competitive landscape of the pharmaceutical packaging market is characterized by the presence of a wide array of companies, with each entity striving to carve its own identity and place in the market. To that end, many players are investing in innovation to build a strong product portfolio and deepen their foothold in the pharmaceutical industry. Industry Developments: January 2020 : UK-based Origin Pharma Packaging introduced a packaging solution exclusively designed and developed for the medicinal cannabis industry. The novel solution is available in a child-resistant jar to ensure safety of children from the product. The company also aims at supporting medicinal cannabis start-ups in the country with the launch of this packaging solution. UK-based Origin Pharma Packaging introduced a packaging solution exclusively designed and developed for the medicinal cannabis industry. The novel solution is available in a child-resistant jar to ensure safety of children from the product. The company also aims at supporting medicinal cannabis start-ups in the country with the launch of this packaging solution. July 2019 : US-based Berry Global completed its takeover of the UK-domiciled plastic packaging company, RPC Group, for approximately USD 6.5 billion . The acquisition allows Berry to become one of the leading providers of superior plastic packaging solutions as well as build one of the largest plastic packaging companies in the world. Quick Buy - Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/102860 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 Key Emerging Trends - For Major Countries Key Developments: Mergers, Acquisition, Partnership, etc. Latest Technological Advancement Insights on Regulatory Scenario Porters Five Forces Analysis Global Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2016-2027 Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Material Plastics Glass Metal Paper & Paperboard Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Product Type Plastic Bottles Caps & Closures Pre-Fillable Inhalers Pre-Fillable Syringes Vials & Ampoules Blister Packs Bags & Pouches Jars & Canisters Cartridges Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Packaging Type Primary Secondary Tertiary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Drug Delivery Mode Oral Drug Delivery Packaging Injectable Packaging Topical Drug Delivery Packaging Pulmonary Drug Delivery Packaging Transdermal Drug Delivery Packaging Ocular Drug Delivery Packaging Nasal Drug Delivery Packaging Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Region North America Europe Asia pacific pacific South America Middle East & Africa TOC Continued!!! Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-102860 Have a Look at Related Research Insights: Anti-Counterfeiting Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Technology (RFID, Holograms, Barcode, and Others), By End-Use (Food & Beverages, Healthcare & Pharmaceutical, Industrial & Automotive, Consumer Electronics, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Food Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Materials (Glass, Metal, Paper & Paperboard, Wood, and Plastics [Polypropylene, Polyethylene, PET, and Others]), By Product (Rigid, Semi-Rigid, and Flexible) By Application (Fruits & Vegetables, Bakery & Confectionery, Dairy Products, Meat, Poultry & Seafood, Sauces, Dressings and Condiments, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Glass Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By End-use Industry (Alcoholic beverages, Food, Non-Alcoholic beverages, Pharmaceuticals, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Tobacco Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Material (Plastics, Paper, Paperboard, and Others), By Packaging Type (Primary and Secondary), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Beverage Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Material (Plastic, Glass, Metal, and Others), By Product (Can, Bottle & jars, Pouch, Carton, and Others), By Application (Alcoholic and Non-alcoholic) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Cosmetic Packaging Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Material (Glass, Paper & Board, Plastic, Metal, and Others), By Application Type (Skin Care, Hair Care, Make-up and Nail care), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Linerless Labels Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Adhesion Type (Permanent, Removable, Repositionable, and Others), By Printing Technology (Direct Thermal, Thermal Transfer, Laser, Inkjet, and Others), By Application (Food & Beverage, Pharmaceuticals & Personal Care, Retail, Logistics and Others), By Component (Facestock, Adhesive, and Release Coating) and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Smart Label Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Technology (Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) Security, RFID, Sensing Labels, Near Field Communication Tag, and QR Code/2D Barcode), By End-User (Retail, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Food & Beverages, Consumer Electronics, Supply Chain and Logistics, Transportation, and Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Thermal Paper Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Width (2.25", 3.125", and Others), By Printing Technology (Direct Thermal, Thermal Transfer, and Others), By Application (Point-of-Sale, Tags & Labels, Ticketing, Lottery & Gaming, Medical, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 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 Read Press Release: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/press-release/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-9995 Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/881202/Fortune_Business_Insights_Logo.jpg Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1178250/FBI_Pharmaceutical_Packaging_Market.jpg A Health Minister today sparked a row over the Government's approach to protecting care homes from coronavirus as she suggested scientists could be blamed for deaths before furiously backtracking. The movement of elderly patients into residential care without testing them for coronavirus in order to free up hospital beds has been blamed for the high death toll in care homes. Helen Whately was forced to U-turn on Sky News this morning after seemingly claiming the decision was guided by science. Health Minister Helen Whately immediately backtracked this morning after suggesting that scientists could be blamed for care home deaths Sky News presenter Kay Burley told Ms Whately that 'you can't stick this on the scientists'. Ms Whateley said she could before then correcting the record Helen Whately suffers fresh car crash interview after four in one day in April Helen Whately's car crash interview on Sky News this morning was not the Health Minister's first tough grilling of the coronavirus crisis. Back on April 22 she was savaged during a series of brutal interviews as she struggled to provide answers to key questions on the supply of PPE, deaths of frontline workers and testing errors. She was hammered by ITV Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan who accused her of not knowing how many health and care staff have died from coronavirus. It was the second interview between the pair in less than a week with Ms Whately's previous appearance seeing her criticised for laughing after Mr Morgan confronted her over the number of people dying in care homes during the current crisis. Ms Whately also faced a tough time today during separate interviews with BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 4's Today programme and Sky News. She was forced to defend the government's record on the supply of vital PPE for the NHS amid fears shortages were putting the lives of frontline workers at risk. She insisted ministers were moving as quickly as possible to boost supply as she spelled out the challenge of finding the 'billions' of items needed. The Tory frontbencher was unable to explain why current coronavirus testing numbers were so far below the available capacity. She also admitted some of the early coronavirus checks carried out on NHS workers 'weren't effective enough', raising the prospect that some staff who were told they were negative for the disease may have gone back to work while they were actually infectious. Advertisement When quizzed by presenter Kay Burley over the policy, Ms Whately said: 'As we have learned more about the virus we have updated those infection control guidance, we have taken more steps, we have done the social care action plan. 'At all points in this we have followed the scientific guidance.' Ms Burley replied: 'And then you make the policy - you take (scientists') advice and then you make the policy - you can't stick this on the scientists.' The MP then responded 'well I can, because...' prompting Ms Burley to intervene and ask: 'You can stick it on the scientists?' 'No, no, no - that is not what I mean to say,' Ms Whately replied. Ms Burley said: 'You just said you can stick this on the scientists - either you can or you can't.' 'To be clear, that is your words,' Ms Whately responded. Ms Burley hit back: 'I said "you can't stick this on the scientists" and you said you can - I didn't put those words in your mouth.' Ms Whately responded: 'What I mean to say is that we have taken the scientific advice at every stage of this process - we have taken the scientific advice and then judgment is made about what is the right decision to take.' She continued: 'We have been trying to do everything we can for those in care homes because we know that they are at greater risk.' It is not the first time Ms Whately has suffered a car crash interview during the coronavirus crisis. In April she was savaged during a series of brutal grillings as she struggled to provide answers to key questions on the supply of PPE, deaths of frontline workers and testing errors. During an interview with ITV Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan she was accused of not knowing how many health and care staff have died from coronavirus. An earlier interview with Mr Morgan had seen Ms Whately criticised for laughing after he had confronted her over the number of people dying in care homes during the outbreak. Data published by NHS England in early June revealed an increase in the number of patients discharged from hospitals to care homes in March. It showed that the number of patients transferred to homes - as a proportion of all hospital discharges - rose from 2.2 per cent at the start of March to 3.5 per cent by the end of the month. It had dropped back to 2.3 per cent by April 16. The Government has repeatedly defended its track record on protecting care homes during the coronavirus crisis. Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted in the Commons last month that a 'ring of protection' had been thrown around them from the very start of the crisis. A DHSC spokesman said previously: 'We have been working tirelessly with the care sector to reduce transmission and save lives, and have based all our decisions on the latest scientific and clinical advice - as a result nearly two-thirds of care homes have had no outbreak at all.' Last month, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey was also accused of trying to deflect criticism from Government policy by laying the blame at scientists' door. Speaking to Sky News on May 19, she said: 'If the science was wrong, advice at the time was wrong, I'm not surprised if people then think we made a wrong decision.' Your browser does not support the audio element. Bidding farewell to teaching after eight years working in the education sector, 32-year-old Truong Le Huy Hoang invested his savings on buffalo jerky and fish skin snacks. The man stood his ground firmly as his family members fiercely rejected his plans to leave the school for a risky business plan. Now his buffalo jerky and fish skin snacks are found in supermarkets and convenience stores all over Vietnam and possibly in other Asian countries in the years to come. Hoang has won prestigious awards for charity work as a business entrepreneur. The zeal for business Being a teacher is a highly respected and meaningful job, but I like to push the limits, he said. After meticulously weighing the pros and cons of such a career move, he bravely entered the business world. From his accounts, buffalo jerky was his favorite choice as a souvenir to bring back after every trip he made to his home during his years working as a teacher. Buffalo jerky is the specialty of Tan Hong District in Dong Thap Province, located in the Mekong Delta, where he worked. This is one of the three most renowned lands for buffalo jerky in southern Vietnam. The other two are in Bac Lieu and Soc Trang, he said, referring to the two Mekong Delta provinces. The man emphasized that utilizing resources from his own hometown in business will benefit his fellow countrymen. Yet, he did not have any intention of mass producing buffalo jerky at that time. The idea only crossed his mind after he asked for a transfer from Tan Hong District to Sa Dec City, as it was closer to his home. When he started making buffalo jerky, his goal was a better income, and he stuck to the traditional way of processing beef jerky: after seasoning the jerky is dried in direct sunshine. Seeing that his products were becoming popular as holiday gifts, Hoang quit his teaching career and focused solely on his business. Without a background in the business sector, the former teacher signed up for business administration courses in his province. Gradually he built his image, found partners, and commercialized his products. The man was determined to go large scale, so he equipped himself with food dehydrators and vacuum sealers. Modern machinery extends the expiration date of buffalo jerky. Jerky done the manual way is prone to fungi, he said. He advertised his products at large and small trade fairs. In pursuit of more consumers, he targeted supermarkets and convenience stores. Initially, he failed as consumers were accustomed to beef jerky and squid jerky. They simply were not sure about buffalo jerky. According to Hoang, his products could not distinguish themselves from the other players' already established in the market. The daring entrepreneur kept on approaching trade fairs that connected large supermarket owners and suppliers. Besides acquainting himself with procurement managers, he conducted research into imported products similar to his. With modifications to flavor, quality, and packaging, Hoangs buffalo jerky finally made it onto the shelves. Using this success, Hoang went on to attend trade fairs on foods and drinks in countries like South Korea and Singapore. He found big partners and now his buffalo jerky has found a market. Truong Le Huy Hoang receives the 2019 Luong Dinh Cua awards for agricultural entrepreneurs who benefit the community in this supplied photo. Fish skin snacks Dong Thap Province is also known for its abundant supply of catfish. Aware that fish skin snacks from Singapore, which are made using catfish, are quite popular with Vietnamese eaters, Hoang targeted this product as his next venture. His sources of catfish skin came from Co May Company, but the first steps were met with immediate failures. As the fish skin contained a large amount of gelatin, he could not produce snacks that were crispy like the Singaporean products. The man racked his brain. It was really hard. My snacks are way different from the imported type, he said. After hundreds of failed attempts, the businessman finally got his hands on fish skin snacks that were similar to the ones from Singapore. He modified the flavor to suit Vietnamese tastes and his products were welcomed at Big C supermarkets, Satra supermarkets and 7 Eleven convenience stores. His snacks won second prize at a business idea competition for Vietnamese in 2019 in his hometown while he received provincial funding for his business plan. He was also one of the 34 individuals who were presented with the honorable Luong Dinh Cua Awards for entrepreneurs working in agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, and salt production who benefit the community. His idea made the top five potential projects to be sponsored for development. In the coming time, I plan to launch fast-food carts that offer fish skin snacks on their menus, Hoang said. This should help to popularize my products, and I will try to have them exported to international markets. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Houston's police chief has decried 'knee jerk reactions' to defunding police departments across the country in the wake of George Floyd's death, saying that policing is not broken but acknowledged it does need to do better. Chief Art Acevedo, who runs one of the largest departments in the US with 5,300 officers, told NBC's Today on Tuesday that he did not support calls to defund police departments. Instead, he said Congress needed to pass laws that ensured all 18,000 police departments across the United States are run the same way. Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25 has resulted in widespread protests and raised demands for police reforms and racial justice across the country. It has prompted Democrats in Congress to propose an overhaul of police procedures and accountability and local lawmakers in Minneapolis to consider disbanding the city's police department. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who runs one of the largest departments in the US with 5,300 officers, said he does not support calls to defund police departments in the wake of George Floyd's death Acevedo, who was among those to attend Floyd's public memorial in Houston on Monday, said that poorer communities and those with people of color would suffer the most if police departments were defunded. 'The people that are impacted most by violence in this country... need the police the most. They'll be the ones that will pay the price,' he said. 'People don't want less police, they want good police. 'The problem with our country is that our policing model is very much decentralized. We have 18,000 policing departments and it's time for Congress to look at the critical policies... and make sure they pass laws that make sure all 18,000 police departments do business the same way. He said the fact that the Minneapolis police department was still allowing officers to manipulate a person's neck, or chokehold, during arrests had impacted the entire nation. 'We've got to have standards nationwide. (Policing) is not broken but it does need to do better,' he said. Acevedo said 'knee jerk reactions' by elected officials to defund or disband police departments was not what communities wanted. 'Let's make sure we support the good police and hold accountable the bad policing, it's not one or the other,' he said. Acevedo, who was among those to attend Floyd's public memorial in Houston on Monday, said that poorer communities and those with people of color would suffer the most if police departments were defunded Mourners wait in line to pass by the casket of George Floyd during a public viewing at the Fountain of Praise church in Houston on Monday 'The nation has united against police misconduct. 'I really believe we're in a watershed moment and very hopeful that we're going to see some systemic change in our country.' His comments came ahead of Floyd's burial in his hometown of Houston on Tuesday. George Floyd (pictured), was killed when Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck during an arrest on May 25 Acevedo was among those who met with Floyd's family when the slain man's body arrived in the city at the weekend. The police chief was also present at Floyd's public memorial as thousands of mourners attended a viewing at the Fountain of Praise Church. It comes as Democrats in Congress are proposing an overhaul of police procedures and accountability after the mass protests over the deaths of black Americans at the hand of law enforcement. The Justice in Policing Act is among the most ambitious law enforcement reforms from Congress in years and confronts several aspects of policing that have come under strong criticism, especially as more and more police violence is captured on cellphone video and shared across the nation and the world. The package limits legal protections for police, creates a national database of excessive-force encounters and bans police choke holds, among other changes. The changes, if enacted, would have massive implications on policing in the US. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress kneel and observe a moment of silence at the Capitol's Emancipation Hall on Monday. Democrats in Congress are proposing an overhaul of police procedures and accountability after the mass protests over the deaths of black Americans at the hands of law enforcement Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25 has resulted in widespread protests and raised demands for police reforms and racial justice across the country Demonstrators are pictured above in Minneapolis calling to defund the Minneapolis Police Department It's not clear whether the legislation will pass, especially in an election year and amid calls to 'defund the police' and growing protests. Some departments are already taking action. On Monday, the Los Angeles Police Commission said the city's police department had agreed to an immediate moratorium on training and using chokeholds. The legislation does not call for police departments to be de-funded or abolished, as some activists have demanded. But lawmakers called for spending priorities to change. Trump pledged to maintain funding for police departments, saying 99% of police were 'great, great people.' 'There won't be defunding, there won't be dismantling of our police,' Trump told a roundtable of state, federal, and local law enforcement officials at the White House. He has tried to set himself up as a 'law and order' leader and has criticized the package, claiming Democrats have 'gone CRAZY.' Former Vice President Joe Biden opposes the movement to defund police departments but supports the 'urgent need' for reform, a spokesman for his presidential campaign said. Lufthansa group has offered to fly empty planes to India and carry passengers only on its outbound flights to destinations in Europe, senior government officials said on Tuesday. Scheduled international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, there is a pent up demand for outbound international travel, especially among non-resident Indians (NRIs) who are in a hurry to go back either for personal or professional reasons. Lufthansa group (which operates airline brands like Lufthansa, SWISS, etc) have offered to fly ferry (empty) flights to India and carry passengers only on its outbound flights to destinations in Europe. A decision is yet to be taken on this matter, said the senior government official. The Civil Aviation Ministry started Vande Bharat Mission on May 7 to bring back stranded Indians from abroad on flights operated by Air India group amid the coronavirus lockdown. Air India group has been taking bookings on its outbound flights too, and for some destinations the demand has been huge. Since March 23, foreign airlines have operated non-scheduled repatriation flights to take their stranded citizens back home. Lufthansa did not respond to the request for a statement from PTI. The offer from the German airlines group Lufthansa has come at a time when the number of Covid-19 cases continue to rise in India, especially in metro cities that have the countrys largest airports like Delhi and Mumbai. State governments in the past have expressed reluctance to deal with large numbers of incoming flyers as their health infrastructure has been swamped with a huge number of Covid-19 cases. For example, when scheduled domestic passenger flights started operating on May 25, Mumbai airport was permitted to handle only 50 flights per day as per the request of Maharashtra government. Similarly, Kolkata airport was permitted to handle just 20 flights per day from May 28 onwards, as per the request of the West Bengal government. More than 2.46 lakh people have been infected and around 7,400 people have died due to Covid-19 in India till now. Click here to read the full article. Last month, Facebook teased plans to make customer communication easier with a new business inbox within Messenger. Now the updates ready and going live, the company revealed Tuesday. The change essentially puts customer messages within the same app that store owners or other entrepreneurs use to chat with friends. The update arrives on iPhones immediately, with the Android version to follow. More from WWD According to Facebook, more than 90 percent of business administrators already use Messenger to chat with personal contacts, and many of them find switching between apps frustrating. Now small businesses can respond to customer messages and easily toggle between their personal and business accounts in the Messenger app, Mike Weingert, a product manager for Facebook Messenger, explained in a post on the companys blog. Weingert cited a Hubspot survey, which said 90 percent of customers consider immediate response as important or very important when they have a marketing or sales question. Customers nowadays have a lot of questions about store hours, product availability, delivery and pick-up options, and more, he added. The new business inbox in Messenger will make it easy and convenient for businesses to respond quickly. Accountholders can also set reminders for timely Messenger replies. Business inbox ties into Facebooks Page Manager App, where administrators can manage Facebook posts, make ads and view Page insights. Tech companies have rallied around the retail sector in recent weeks, particularly independent businesses, which have been particularly ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic and, in some places, recent looting events have scuttled planned reopenings. While putting business and personal chats into one app may not seem like a seismic shift, for a small operator contending with an influx of messaging, it can be a meaningful change. Facebook cited an outdoor excursion operator that saw a 250 percent increase in messages from guests, as they shifted plans due to COVID-19. Story continues The new business inbox launches during a key moment for online retail, as consumers have been relying more on online retail tools over weeks of shelter-at-home orders. And even as states and municipalities enter various stages of reopenings, at least some of those shopping habits are expected to stick. The update may be helpful to retailers. It may also help Facebook. The social giant noted in March that overall messaging had soared by as much as 50 percent, but that those personal communications were not monetizable. Its not clear if pulling customer service and other shopping-related communications into the same bucket as personal communications will elevate business chats. But if it does, it seems likely that it will lay groundwork for some form of future Messenger monetization. New Delhi: Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia will take part in a meeting of State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) to discuss whether there is community spread of COVID-19 in the national capital and to decide the further strategy to combat coronavirus on Tuesday (June 9, 2020). Deputy CM Manish Sisodia will be attending the meeting on behalf of CM Arvind Kejriwal, who is unable to attend the meeting due to ill-health. Addressing a press conference on Monday, Sisodia shared the information, saying, "A meeting of State Disaster Management Authority will be held tomorrow on COVID-19 situation and to discuss whether there is community spread. If participant experts say there is a community spread in Delhi, our strategy will change. I will ll participate in the meeting.'' The SDMA meeting is chaired by the Lieutenant Governor, while the Delhi CM is the deputy in the meeting. The meeting comes at a time when the national capital has been witnessing an unprecedented surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the past one week. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), community transmission is"evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases." Kejriwal, who has quarantined himself at his residence and will be tested for COVID-19 today. Kejriwal has been experiencing a fever and sore throat since Sunday. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has isolated himself and has cancelled all meetings scheduled for the day. In the past few days, CM Kejriwal had attended a few meetings and had also visited the Delhi Secretariat. Delhi on Monday reported a total of 1,007 new COVID-19 positive cases and 17 fatalities in the past 24 hours. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Delhi now stands at 29,943, including 17,712 active cases and 874 deaths. A total of 358 patients have recovered/discharged/migrated in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 11,357.So far, there are 183 containment zones in the national capital. Thousands lined both sides of a nearly one-mile stretch of Haddon Avenue in Collingswood on Monday for a protest against police brutality that was organized by three local high school seniors. The crowd, a mix of students and adults, some with young kids of their own in tow, began filling the sidewalk on both sides of the main street in this town of nearly 14,000 residents just east of Camden shortly after 4 p.m. The goal was to have a peaceful protest to honor those lost to police brutality." Traffic continued to flow on this busy, two-lane road during the protest, and just about every driver honked a horn in support, many with arms extended out windows with fists clinched. Sena Amuzu, one of the organizers, said she hoped at least 250 people would show up. Nearly 10 times that amount eventually spilled into the roadway after police blocked traffic, Police Chief Kevin Carey said. The organizers of Mondays event in Collingswood stressed it would be a peaceful protest," and it was. The crowd walked just over a mile, down Haddon Avenue, then down a spur on to Collings Avenue for a rally infront of Collingswood High School. The gathering ended at just about 6 p.m. sharp after students and local community activists led the crowd in singing a rendition of Lean on Me, a 1970s Rhythm & Blues hit by Bill Withers. You just call on me brother, when you need a hand...We all need somebody to lean on...I just might have a problem that youll understand...We all need somebody to lean on, the lyrics say. Were standing in solidarity as a community to honor the lives lost to police brutality, Amuzu said. But beyond that, as well, we want to stand in solidarity for recent events. Amuzu said the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Minnesota man killed last month after an officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes, was the catalyst for the march. Floyds death has sparked nationwide protests over the past two weeks, as well as over 100 in New Jersey in that time. Amuzu said she and her friends Amanda Yeager and Ayanna Jones started stirring up interest on social media for a protest. The trio then reached out to Carey and within three days, the protest was scheduled. Careys force appeared to be all in. At one point during the demonstration on Haddon Avenue, an officer hopped out of an SUV and handed out bottles of water on demand to the crowd. It wasnt all smooth, though. As Carey addressed the crowd gathered in front of the high school on a public address system, a voice in the crowd yelled Youre part of the problem! Unphased, the chief continued pledging he and his force were committed to bridging racial gaps. All lives cant matter until Black Lives Matter, the police chief pledged. "It is amazing the turn out we have here. It says a lot about who we are as a community. Collingswood is 81% white, 10% Hispanic and 9% black. It has a vibrant business district lined with BYOB restaurants. Photo placards of the graduating class of Collingswood High School lined the final leg of the march. The photos featured a multiracial array of smiling faces decked out in formal wear. It wasnt always like this here. Black people and other minorities were once strongly encouraged not to wander off Haddon Avenue into neighborhoods of working-class white people, one speaker told the crowd. Time has softened many of those jagged edges here and in other towns bordering Camden, which was once known as one of the poorest and most dangerous cities in the country. Now, protests against police brutality and racism have been held recently in Collingswood, Gloucester City and the two other towns bordering Camden. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. NEW HAVEN The vision of a society without the need for police is something to work toward, but the question of defunding the department goes too far without significant action on the state and federal levels to support social services, Mayor Justin Elicker said. Across the country, and in the city, advocates have called for defunding police departments as the nation wrestles with racism and police killings of its black citizens. The mayor on Monday answered questions on that as part of his frequent virtual press calls held on the Zoom app. He also addressed the differences between the way police approached the first anti-racism rally on May 31 and the second one less than a week later on Friday. On May 31, more than 1,000 people marched through the city and occupied a portion of Interstate 95, before walking to the police station where they were met with a line of officers that covered the length of the building, After a time, as the crowd shouted its demands, that vision became another rallying cry as too militaristic. On Friday, about five times as many people marched and again ended up at the police station, but this time, a small group of police officials stood to the side with Police Chief Otoniel Reyes. At both rallies, there were no arrests, but police used pepper spray in the first after the crowd pushed in to get into the lobby. Elicker Monday said the different approach came out of many conversations between the chief and himself, as well as with community members and organizers of Fridays march led by the Citywide Youth Coalition and Black Lives Matter in New Haven. I think there were a combination of things, Elicker said. He said in addition to the communal reflections, there was a change in the national climate. Part of the discussions also addressed the role of the police in calming and de-escalating events. He said on May 31, there was a lot of unrest in other cities and he and Reyes were concerned about that happening here. I think hindsight is 20/20. In looking back I think that I could have done some things differently. I dont want to speak for the chiefs choices, Elicker said. I want to look forward and certainly realized that, it is important for me to be present even if there are a few signs I dont agree with and slogans that are said that I dont agree with, when overall the overwhelming majority of people that are participating in events and their views I do agree with, the mayor said. Elicker did not march on May 31, but was part of the crowd on Friday, an event that had some 5,000 participants. At the first rally, he said he didnt march because he didnt agree with defunding the police. On that issue, Elicker said in so many ways the vision of traditional policing addresses the symptoms, but not the roots of societys problems, which stem from income inequality, mental health problems, substance abuse and systemic racism. As much as we can support social services rather than policing is a good thing. I wouldnt go as far as abolishing policing, or defunding policing. Elicker said. The mayor said city police answer 100,000 calls a year and while people have different definitions of what they mean by defunding, he doesnt believe the majority of New Haven residents would want that. He said in a way, they have started striking the balance between social services and policing with his proposed 10 percent reduction in the number of officers covered in his budget plan - something he did to put more funds in youth services and helping the homeless. The Board of Alders has ordered more cuts across the board in city departments and a $2.5 million cut in education. Elicker said additional cuts to the $42 million police budget will require a lively conversation as a community. I just presented my first budget a month ago and the world is a very different place. Just after the press conference, the mayor posted a video sent to residents where he talked about the marches over the past two weeks and the role of the city will take to undo so many wrongs.. He said the city is reviewing the use of force by police, signing President Obamas Commit to Action pledge. He said they are implementing Eight Cant Wait, restrictions on the use of force, many of which are already adopted by New Haven in its general orders. Chief Reyes and I agree the language needs to be strengthened, something they will be work on with the Police Commission. He said they welcome the input of the public. Elicker said as far as accountability is concerned, he will finalize the creation of the Civilian Review Board. Eight of the 15 seats have been appointed to date. Of the remaining seven seats, one is for an alder, four are at large and appointed by the alders, two more are from policing districts appointed by the alders in consultation with the mayor. The alders next meeting is in early July, where it is likely they will initiate the formal process, Elicker said. He said he will share some of his suggestions for appointees with the aldermanic leadership, and do whatever is needed to support them on finalizing the appointment process. Accountability also means sharing information with the public. The Police Department will begin posting use of force data online to be transparent and so we as a community can be more informed as we look at how to reduce incidents where force is used, Elicker said. As he has already promised, his administration will review the Yale and Hamden Memorandums of Understanding to ensure that any police activity in our city reflects our values. This has always been something I intend to address, and it will be a priority. Lastly, he said he will review the role of School Resource Officers in our public schools to ensure a safe and supportive environment for students. I look forward to partnering with School Superintendent Dr. IleneTracey, my colleagues on the Board of Education, and the Chief of Police to explore potential changes here. In the end, Elicker said it was critical to put the spotlight on other levels of in ending systemic racism. New Haven has work to do. But we also must work as one to push state and other municipalities not only to address issues around policing but more importantly to address the extreme income inequality that perpetuates racism, he said. mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:33:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close An employee wearing a thermal imaging VF helmet monitors people at the Istanbul Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 9, 2020. Technology and innovation will top the precautions of Turkey's biggest airport Istanbul Airport against the COVID-19 in the post-pandemic era, according to the management of the airport. The management on Tuesday presented their final preparations and measures taken against coronavirus while Turkish airline companies are preparing to resume their international operations the next day. (Photo by Yasin Akgul/Xinhua) ISTANBUL, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Technology and innovation will top the precautions of Turkey's biggest airport Istanbul Airport against the COVID-19 in the post-pandemic era, according to the management of the airport. The management on Tuesday presented their final preparations and measures taken against coronavirus while Turkish airline companies are preparing to resume their international operations the next day. "We are ready... We have taken every measure against the COVID-19 pandemic in all areas from airport access to boarding gates for a healthy and safe travel experience," an official told Xinhua. The sterilization activities would begin before entering into the terminal, with the use of specific sanitization mats to disinfect shoes. New ultraviolet-based tunnels would also disinfect security trays and baggage to ensure that the viruses do not stay on the surface. Through the sensors installed at several locations, people who violate the 1.5-meter social distance rule would be automatically warned. Additionally, passengers can easily obtain masks and hand sanitizers from hygiene-automats located in almost every corner in the terminal. Airport personnel also started to use new high-tech smart screening helmets, which are equipped with thermo-scan sensors. The helmets automatically take the temperatures of passengers and staff of the terminal, matching each measurement with the personalized "QR" code produced through face recognition devices and mobile phones. "So that those with fever would be diverted to healthcare centers inside the terminal," the official continued. Within the scope of the measures, information boards about coronavirus were placed in certain areas in the terminal, continuously notifying people about the rules that they should obey. Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines earlier announced that it would start flying to a couple of countries, including Greece, Bulgaria, Bahrain, and Qatar on June 10 from Istanbul. Turkey is expected to gradually increase the number of its international flights to 40 countries in the upcoming days in June. Enditem Lucknow, June 9 : Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) national President Mayawati on Tuesday targeted both the BJP and the Congress for "playing dirty politics" on the China-India and India-Nepal border issues and urged all political parties to rise above party politics and think in national interest. Mayawati tweeted: "Along with China, the border dispute with other neighbouring country Nepal is now taking a very serious turn. In such a situation, all political parties should rise above politics and think in the interest of the country. The central government should also take everyone into confidence on the issue." In another tweet, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said: "It is a matter of great concern that even when the people of the country are reeling under the impact of coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide lockdown, the BJP and the Congress are engaged in dirty politics and now they are accusing each other over the border dispute with China, which does not augur well in the interest of the nation." The Congress and the BJP are engaged in a war of words over the China-India border issue in Ladakh with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi constantly attacking the Narendra Modi government. In return, he is being targeted by the BJP leaders. Press Release 9 June 2020 A Travel Leaders Network survey of nearly 2,700 frequent travelers found that half are starting to make finite plans for their next vacation or have already made plans, while the other half say they are dreaming of when they can travel again. Fifty percent of those surveyed said they plan to take their next vacation in 2020. Advertisements "Traveling somewhere this year is on the agenda for many travel enthusiasts. These findings align with reports from our travel advisors who are seeing calls and bookings on the rise," said Roger Block, President of Travel Leaders Network. The survey was conducted in mid to late May and sent to clients of select Travel Leaders Network agencies in the U.S. When asked when they plan to take their next vacation, 18 percent of those surveyed said this summer; 24 percent chose fall; 8 percent plan to travel during the upcoming holiday season; 43 percent opted for 2021 and 8 percent said 2022. Most of those surveyed who said they will travel this year said they plan to fly to their next vacation destination (45 percent), 25 percent will drive, while 18 percent said they plan to cruise. Uncrowded, outdoor and beach experiences topped the list of desired domestic destinations, with National Parks, Florida, Hawaii, Alaska and "anywhere uncrowded" high on the list while traditionally popular sites such as New York and Nevada, popular for Las Vegas trips, scoring lower. Europe (38 percent), the Caribbean (34 percent) and Mexico (15 percent) are the top-ranked International destinations of interest. "Despite enthusiastic plans to travel, respondents did acknowledge concerns they had about increased risk of transmission while traveling, as well as being quarantined," said Block. Still, travelers are eager for information on travel planning. A strong majority of those surveyed (nearly 60 percent) want to receive promotional offers and details about supplier Peace of Mind policies. Peace of Mind policies outline the cancellation and refund requirements of the booked hotel, airline, cruise ship or tour operator. The survey found that financial incentives and flexible refund policies are strong motivators. Tips on health and safety are desired by 57 percent. Travel Leaders travel advisors speaking directly about their recent bookings expressed that their savvier travelers are excited to travel again soon and are not particularly concerned about Covid-19, as they can protect themselves as easily on vacation as they can shopping at home. Clients have expressed more concern about whether or not a second wave would cause the cancellation of their travel plans for this summer or fall because they are eager to travel. Others have expressed concern about their employers putting them on a two-week quarantine upon return if they do travel. Here's what three advisors said about some of their recent bookings of clients traveling in 2020. "I have new clients from Houston who found me through an internet search in April and they are leaving on June 6for their 15th wedding anniversary trip to Antigua," said Pam McIntyre of Travel Leaders in Maple Grove, Minn. "They originally wanted to go to Jamaica, but the resort there is not opening until later in the month and the husband said they couldn't change the date because his in-laws are coming in to watch the kids. He has no concerns about traveling, and in fact says he is looking forward to there being fewer guests at the resort than there would have been if we were not dealing with a pandemic." "I have four women going to Cancun the first week of July 2020," said Angela Hendricks with Bentley Hedges Travel in Oklahoma City. "They were my first phone call since the pandemic started that wasn't a cancellation. I've had several bookings since then. I have a family with two teenage sons, ages 15 and 13, who are going to Alaska for 10 days. They will visit Anchorage, Talkeetna, Girdwood and Soldotna for fishing and wildlife excursions." "I have a destination wedding in the Riviera Maya, Mexico that was canceled in March and rebooked for November," said Jamie Buss, a Market Square Travel advisor in Woodbury, Minn. "About 25 guests ranging in age from 2 to 70 are scheduled to attend - this is about 80 percent of the original attendees. Some of the others have a wait-and-see approach." "There is no better time to use a travel agent," said Block. "Our travel advisors have up-to-the-minute information and they are there to help you if plans change." Consumers dreaming of taking a vacation this year, next year or beyond can find a Travel Leaders specialist at travelleaders.com who can assist them with a variety of destination options. Kobalt Founder Willard Ahdritz on The New Normal [Midem 2020 Digital Edition Keynote] In this Midem 2020 Digital Edition Keynote, Kobalt founder Willard Ahdritz looks at the radical but not altogether negative effects the pandemic will have on musicians and the music industry. Willard Ahdritz: There is definitely a lot of passion at Kobalt for our mission to change the industry and make it better for everyone, from fans to rights owners to creators, so when I came up with the idea for Kobalt in 2000, I saw three clear themes. First, I strongly believed in the digital transformation and the opportunities that came with it. As you know, it was doom and gloom up until 2015 people said streaming was death. But already in 2000, I thought that having access to music on a global scale was a huge opportunity. I also understood that there would be a problem of high volume, low transaction values that could be solved with technology and a centralized global platform. Second, I feel for creators and musicians and, having been in the industry both as an artist and having run an independent record and publishing company using the majors systems, I wanted to introduce transparency into the industry. Technology needs transparency, and I thought transparency drives liquidity, drives volume. And in this, I also saw a huge opportunity for creators to improve their relationship with fans and be able to go directly to them and actually for the first time in music industry history, have the upper hand in being the content creators. I always wanted to be a service provider in order to be aligned with creators. And lastly, I also thought it was very important that, to be successful in this environment, Kobalt should be both a music company and a tech company. I wanted to have respect both in Hollywood and in San Francisco to work with creators, understand their needs, take care of their copyrights, and at the same time speak the language of tech people and create tools that would allow everyone to benefit from the opportunities I saw. Kobalt Founder Willard Ahdritz How the pandemic has changed the way Kobalt works So as you know, we take care of 40,000 creators. Every week, we represent 50 70% of the Top 100 on the charts. We have 14 offices around the world so we have an organization to take care of and I think we all feel sad for all the suffering we see everywhere. Not just in the music industry but physical suffering, so it is a tough time for a lot of people. At Kobalt, we closed our offices around the world on March 10th. Being a tech company, all employees have a laptop and we are all used to working remotely, globally, across borders. Within 24 hours we were all up and running remotely and after a week, our productivity actually went up. I think that shows Kobalts great spirit and we realize that supporting our creators and making sure they receive their distributions is even more important during these tough times. How the business has changed during the pandemic If we talk revenue side first, there are some financial reports out in the market that say publishing will be up 3% this year and 3.5% next year. We see a bigger impact in areas like synch, given that major film and TV productions have stopped. We know that live, which in certain territories in Europe is a good income for publishers, is lost for the time being. Performance fees from restaurants and bars have suffered but having said that, PROs are delayed and only very few societies pay out directly what they have. Most pay out six months, twelve months after they have collected. So we see this being drawn out but overall, I think we can say that if we are -10% this year, we believe that we will be at +20% next year, that people will bounce back, and we see certain productions starting again around the world. There is talk about production hubs where people work and live to start TV production again. We are lucky in publishing and in recording. At AWAL, our recording arm, its very much business as usual. Its a digital streaming label and we are working marketing remotely so overall, we are doing very well. What is exciting is that we do get a lot of songs. Creatives have continued to create even more today so I believe later in the year or next year we are going to see some fantastic songs, fantastic music that is just now being written. Reports on the global music economy Dont worry, the genie is out of the bottle when it comes to music and streaming. My comment on Goldmans report, which is a very detailed report and has a lot of good data, is that overall I believe that short-term publishing will be negative this year rather than the 3% growth they mentioned just because of the impact on synch, live, and the restaurants and bars I mentioned. Having said that, I think we are going to bounce back and have 20% growth next year in publishing overall. I agree on the longer term growth they see in the coming ten years. In recordings, Im actually more bullish than the Goldman report this year; I think they are too conservative as the business has moved so much to online or streaming, so I think we are going to see bigger growth than they are seeing on that point. And one very interesting take-away from the IFPI report that came out a couple of weeks ago is that independents have grown 38% last year and artists direct 42%. And if you include that 12% of what the majors do is distribute independents, it was really a fundamental shift for independents and access, which I thought could happen when I started Kobalt. I think there is a huge opportunity now for the middle tier artists that I have pushed for and believed in to live on their music. We can see now hundreds of thousands of artists that can live on their art. On average, we saw that at AWAL, artists are getting twice as much from recording royalties than from their touring income. So that is a fundamental change in artist economics, and that was pre-pandemic. And obviously that is even more important today. We have artists that you have never heard of even if youre a huge fan of live music and cool bands. We have hundreds and hundreds of bands that you have never heard about making $100,000 or more per annum in royalties. And for me, that is a great success in itself for fans, for culture, and for the artists and creators. How AWAL artists are making more from recording royalties than steaming It is about what kind of contracts you have entered into and how you are making sure that your money is reaching you. We have full transparency at Kobalt so for example in publishing, within our management, we have our own global digital society called AMRA. AMRA has deals with the 30 biggest DSPs in the world. We take in the global usage files, we match, and we send one invoice to Spotify for the global consumption and claim. I have audit rights on my society, our clients have audit rights on the society, and as you maybe know, that is not the case in the traditional society environments. We have control of the cost, control over the information, as do our clients. That obviously drives more. On the AWAL side, we are a service provider and we deliver a different kind of deal. Having said that, there are also great record labels who put in big risk money upfront to do that so obviously the deals are different in a way but I have always said that breaking online globally is very different today. Today, you can be #1 without having one video. You have to know how to navigate, how to promote, to work gradually cross border in one go instead of working in one territory and trying to replicate that in a different territory. Why independents had so much growth in 2019 I think it is the access to music that people can see today. You know yourself how you explore music, how you access music, how artists are recommending other artists they like or fans are recommending. And the latest data suggests that half the people in the UK listen to music through Facebook today. Theres more interesting access to music coming. Think about Tik Tok, where were they on the map two years ago? And in this pandemic, I see people are investing in how they can enjoy live streaming, how they can use new tools and new services. I think the pandemic will fast forward the transformation. I believe that the music industry will be even bigger than what we thought it would be pre-pandemic. Fundamentally, 85% of people think that music is essential or very important. Fundamental human behavior has not changed, so I am positive. How Paul McCartney came to Kobalt I can only say what I believe myself, that I met his advisor and lawyer, Lee Eastman, who followed me over the course of 5/6 years where I told them what we do, how we work. They did their due diligence, saw us delivering. In the end, they came on board and they were very happy that we delivered what we had told them we would. I like to say that Kobalt is the smart peoples platform, and clients recommend clients. I think up to half of our clients have been recommended by someone they trust or they work with and they see on our apps or portal what we have delivered for them. It is very humbling that Max Martin and Paul McCartney are competing for who has the most #1s on the Billboard charts, and they are both clients. What I find exciting is that technology treats everyone the same. I am pleased to say that whether you are Paul McCartney or the new young band, you keep your copyrights and get the same great service. We learn something new, we develop something, and we roll it out to every client. That is how I think we create a great industry, how we create value for everyone in the industry. For more than 50 years, Midem has brought the global music community together in Cannes. This year, Midem Digital Edition (June 2-5) will feature 264 speakers from 48 countries, 64 sessions, and 23 livestreamed keynote sessions, talks, and presentations. Register for all of the full sessions here: https://www.midem.com/en-gb/midem-digital-edition.html Share on: 'We are all Indians, Delhi belongs to all': LG office rejects Kejriwals decision to reserve hospitals India pti-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, June 09: Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal's office on Tuesday rejected the AAP government's criticism of his order overturning the decision to reserve some hospitals here only for Delhiites, saying "we are all Indians and Delhi belongs to all". In a statement, the LG office also said that rather than discriminating among patients, the goal of the government should be to plan and prepare for adequate infrastructure. On Monday, the LG overruled the AAP government's order to reserve Delhi government-run and private hospitals in the national capital for Delhiites. Coronavirus first detected in August 2019? Wuhan satellite images 'proof' | Oneindia News "We are all Indians and Delhi belongs to all," Baijal's office said on Tuesday, responding to the AAP government's criticism. "It is unfortunate that any responsible government should attempt to discriminate amongst patients on grounds of residence," the statement said. Arvind Kejriwal tests negative for coronavirus It is the responsibility of the state to provide universal healthcare to all patients coming to hospitals in accordance with constitutional provisions, it stated. The Lt Governor is fully aware of the need to ramp up medical infrastructure, it said. Earlier in the day, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that there might be 5.5 lakh coronavirus cases in the city by July 31 and the city will then need 80,000 beds. "The LG did not have any idea on numbers of COVID-19 cases and beds in Delhi once people from all over the country start coming to Delhi (for treatment)," Sisodia said. Two men who believe they were switched at birth nearly 80 years ago are suing a Roman Catholic diocese in West Virginia. The Dominion Post reported Monday that John William Carr III and Jackie Lee Spencer allege negligence and breach of duty by the Buckhannon hospital where they were born. The lawsuit against the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston says St. Joseph Hospital staffers sent them home with the wrong families. The switch was discovered last year when DNA tests revealed they were unrelated to the families that raised them. They are seeking unspecified damages. The diocese had no comment. WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government is offering another subsidy to encourage student summer jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Premier Brian Pallister responds to questions from Manitoba opposition NDP Leader Wab Kinew during question and answer period at the Legislative Building in Winnipeg, Wednesday, May 20, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ruth Bonneville - POOL WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government is offering another subsidy to encourage student summer jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. 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. Premier Brian Pallister says non-profit groups that hire at least one student this summer can get a flat subsidy of $6,000. That is in addition to a $7-an-hour wage subsidy announced in April for any non-profit or small business that hires students for the summer, for up to five students. Pallister says encouraging more summer jobs will help the province's economic recovery. The announcement came as health officials announced no new COVID-19 cases for the fourth consecutive day. The province's total of confirmed and probable cases to date remains at 300, and there are eight cases that remain active. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2020 Two Maynooth University projects have today been awarded funding under the Science Foundation Ireland-coordinated research and innovation response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD, today announced an investment of 1.4 million in 11 projects under the SFI-coordinated research and innovation response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Research undertaken by Prof Andrew Parnell will look at developing tools to predict the disease and economic related consequences of easing Covid-19 restrictions. The second research project, led by Prof Sean Doyle, will develop two new antibody tests to help identify who has been exposed to the virus and who may have developed immunity. Prediction tool Prof Andrew Parnell will lead a team at the Hamilton Institute, Maynooth University, to generate computational tools to help Ireland predict the epidemiological (disease-related) and economic consequences of removing interventions during the path to recovery in the Covid-19 pandemic. The project will focus on putting rigorously-tested computational models for medium term forecasting in place that will enable the state to make evidence-based decisions about the impact of relaxing Covid-19 restrictions. The models developed in this project will forecast the likelihood of spatial spread of the disease as travel routes re-open. It will forecast the impact of testing for the virus at borders and of relaxing interventions of different types at home and abroad. It will also forecast economic recovery by mapping financial indicators from multiple countries. This will support a faster, safer recovery to normality. Tests A project led by Prof Sean Doyle, Biotechnology Programme Coordinator at Maynooth University, will develop two new tests for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. The project will help to identify who has been exposed to the virus and who may have developed immunity to Covid-19. The tests will also help to find people with high levels of antibodies who can donate them to protect others. The consortium of expertise includes Dr David Fitzpatrick, Dr Rebecca Owens and Dr Ozgur Bayram, at the Department of Biology and the Kathleen Lonsdale Institute for Human Health Research. The Maynooth University led project is in collaboration with the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) and National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL). Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:02:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TIRANA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Albania reported 36 new coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period, the highest daily increase since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 1,299, said Silva Bino from the Public Health Institute on Tuesday during a daily briefing. According to Bino, the main cause of this increase is mass gatherings and non-compliance with the protective measures advised by the Health Ministry. A total of 359 suspected cases have been tested in the last 24 hours, resulting in 36 new confirmed cases, 27 of which in the capital, Tirana, Bino said. Bino said that 41 patients are being treated at the Infectious Diseases Hospital. Six of them are in intensive care and two are intubated. She called on the citizens to be "more responsible throughout these months so as not to lose what we have gained with so much effort." Fifteen citizens have recovered over the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 960. "Since the beginning of the epidemic, over 18,500 molecular and serological tests have been performed and 1,299 have been confirmed as positive," Bino said. The COVID-19 death toll in Albania remains unchanged at 34. The government has lifted most of the restrictions imposed over the past three months to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Enditem Flute Theatre has announced a series of online interactive performances that will be streamed to individual households for those with autism and their families. Specialising in bringing Shakespearean productions to audiences that wouldn't necessarily be able to experience them, particularly children on the autism spectrum, the company has performed productions across Europe, in countries such as Poland, Romania and the UK. The company was founded in 2014 and its current artistic director is Kelly Hunter (who was recently made MBE). Hunter previously worked with children with autism during her time at the RSC. Before the lockdown, a large portion of the company's day-to-day work takes place at the Bush Theatre. The new interactive performances of Pericles will take place from 22 June to 18 July. The piece was originally created in 2019 to be toured in 2020, but has now been adapted to allow for remote access and engagement. Hunter said: "The Covid-19 crisis has changed everything I do; in the last three months I've worked every day adapting my games to be played online without losing the drama, the impact and the love. Just as Pericles reaches across oceans to find his family, we've stretched ourselves to keep contact with our community of autistic individuals and in doing so we've created a whole new way of telling this story that we can now share with the world, one family at a time. "The story of Pericles is one of hope in the face of adversity; our performances will offer families who feel marginalised and locked away a place to combat their isolation, express their feelings and shine their inner lights as brightly as they are able." Tickets cost 10, though for those struggling they will be free. You can find out more here. The company were the designated charity for the 20th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards earlier this year you can see a video of them in action below: Prosecutor Dedy Woei-A-Tsoi believes that many of the so-called "separatists" in Donbas were Russian citizens who came to Ukraine to fight The crash of the Malaysian Boeing-777 (Flight MH17) RFE/RL One of the prosecutors in the case of the crash of the Malaysian Boeing-777 (Flight MH17) stated about Russia's involvement in the armed conflict in Donbas. This was reported by Deutsche Welle. "Russia has played and continues to play an important role in the events in Donbas," prosecutor Dedy Woei-A-Tsoi said during a presentation of the prosecution's position. The prosecutor described the war in Donbas as "an armed conflict between the Ukrainian army and several armed groups." According to her, the accusation uses the general term "separatists" against the militants. "Although many of these groups were not Ukrainian citizens who wanted to secede, Russian citizens who came to Ukraine to fight," the prosecution said. As we reported earlier, none of the four suspects appeared at the second session of the trial in the case of a plane shot down (Flight MH17) over Donbas. The status of the accused has three citizens of Russia: Sergey Dubinsky, Igor Girkin, and Oleg Pulatov, as well as a citizen of Ukraine, Leonid Kharchenko. They were also absent during the first meeting in March. The District Court of The Hague has reserved the following periods for the MH17 trial at the Schiphol Judicial Complex (JCS). The court has reserved these periods in order to ensure there will be space available to conduct hearings in the MH17 trial, as other district courts also use the JCS for legal proceedings. The sister of a black man killed in police custody after he was heard telling them 'I can't breathe', wants the police officers involved to get the death penalty. Cops in Washington state claimed that Manuel 'Manny' Ellis a father-of-two was harassing a woman in her car in March and when they confronted him he slammed an officer to the ground. But Marcia Carter, Ellis' mother, and his sister Monet Mixon said police still haven't told them anything about how their confrontation became so violent and believe they're trying to cover up another unjust killing of an African American. 'So we didn't get a video until Friday. I knew from the day that I was told that my brother was killed in police custody... that they were lying and that it was a cover-up,' Mixon told CNN on Tuesday morning. 'Because I know my brother.' Manuel Ellis' sister Monet (right) wants the death penalty for the cops involved in her brother's death in March. She is pictured with her mother Marcia Carter on Tuesday morning Ellis was heard in a recording of police radio yelling 'I can't breathe' as the Tacoma Police officers restrained and handcuffed him Mixon said Ellis wouldn't have been combative with police because the family was taught their whole lives not disrespect authoritative figures. Ellis' fatal confrontation with cops came after countless incidents of police brutality against unarmed black Americans, including Eric Garner who died in a choke hold at the hands of New York police in 201, and the 1991 beating of Rodney King in LA. 'You have to respect especially law enforcement because of what they can potentially do to you,' Mixon explained to New Day With Alisyn Camerota and John Berman. 'So we have known this our whole lives. He would teach it to my kids.' Ellis' mother said there has been a lot of crying in the past couple of weeks following the death of George Floyd at the hands of white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Floyd, like Eric Garner before him, cried 'I can't breathe' before dying in the custody of law enforcement. Cops are seen throwing punches at Ellis, who is on the ground and kicking at them. The video only emerged after Mixon started reaching out to certain people but the mother said she too 'knew from the beginning' that her son did not hit a police officer. Video of the beating only came out last week after Ellis' sister made some calls for evidence But his family said they knew he hadn't attacked police and Marcia Carter said: 'I think my son was just picked out personally'. Family lawyer James Bible (inset bottom left) told CNN that more evidence is yet to emerge that adds to the many discrepancies in the story already 'My son talked to me that night for 15 minutes. His mind was on the lord and making his life and his path in a straight and narrow way,' Marcia Carter said. 'So I think my son was just picked out personally. That's what I feel.' Before the video emerged, Ellis' friend also said he had a video call with the drummer after he'd finished performing with the church band. The friend said Ellis was excited about the future. In a video released June 5, a witness filming the incident is heard yelling at cops to stop hitting him. 'Oh, my god, that was so scary,' she says as Ellis is thrown to the ground. 'Just arrest him. Please stop hitting him.' Family lawyer James Bible told CNN that more evidence is yet to emerge that adds to the many discrepancies in the story already. 'What I can tell you is that the police department's narrative is ever shifting and ever changing based on additional information that we have been forwarded,' Mr Bible said. 'I think it's critical to note that this independent witness actually was in a place where she saw the initial interaction and she says that Manuel Ellis wasn't doing anything wrong. 'He hadn't assaulted an officer, hadn't done anything wrong and he got first smashed by a police officer door, thrown to the ground and beaten.' Manny Ellis' last words 'I can't breathe', is 'a repeated theme from New York to Minnesota to Texas and now Washington' the family lawyer said Masyih Ford (left) and Timothy Rankine (right), are two of the four officers involved. They were not wearing body cameras. The four officers were initially placed on paid leave, but returned to the force, then were placed on administrative leave again Wednesday He added about Manny Ellis' last words 'I can't breathe': 'It's a repeated theme from New York to Minnesota to Texas and now Washington. We are actively investigating this matter and asking for a fully independent investigation to be led by the state.' Bible said it's 'deeply disappointing' that the Pierce County's Sheriff's Office is investigating this case as they're too linked to the Tacoma Police Department. Bible said Pierce County has claimed since March that there's 'nothing to see here' however 'as we present more evidence, they change their story'. 'Ultimately, where we are now is something that totally undoes what they have initially said and what they continue to say,' Bible added about the video evidence that followed a police audio capturing Ellis's last words. Officers Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins, Masyih Ford and Timothy Rankine were at the scene. Burbank, 34, and Collins, 37, are white and have been on the force four and a half years, and five years, respectively. Ford, 28, is black and Rankine, 31, is Asian. They have been on the force two years and two months, and one year and 10 months respectively. The police officers were initially put on administrative leave but returned to work. They were put on leave again after the video emerged but they're not charged, and have not been fired. Mixon, wants the officers involved in her brother's death to face the death penalty. 'They need to go to jail, they need to be charged to the fullest extent of the law,' Mixon said. 'Me personally I would like them to receive the death penalty because they carelessly took my brother's life. 'They took my brother from me and so for that they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.' Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards announces Thursday that she wants to fire the police officers involved in the fatal police arrest after a witness video emerged showing the 33-year-old black man being aggressively beaten and restrained Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards previously called for the firing of the four cops involved. She wanted a full investigation by the Pierce County Sheriff after the video was posted on Twitter by the Tacoma Action Collective, a racial justice group. The March 3 death of Ellis - father to an 11-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter - was ruled a homicide by the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office. On Wednesday, the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office determined that Ellis died of respiratory arrest due to hypoxia due to physical restraint. Hypoxia describes how not enough oxygen can reach the lungs. Contributing factors included methamphetamine intoxication and dilated cardiomyopathy, commonly known as an enlarged heart, the Medical Examiner said. Cops initially said they believed Ellis died from excited delirium which can result in overwhelming strength, an overheated body and attempts at violence. The findings came back on May 11. It's unclear why they were not announced until June 3. The announcement of the Ellis' death by homicide came as Americans across all 50 states were marching in protest of police brutality against African Americans and racial inequality. The officers involved were not wearing their bodycams. The mayor said she would tell the city manager 'to move forward for allocating funding for body cams immediately.' 'We have waited way too long,' she said. By Jin Xin BEIJING, June 9 -- The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and the Peoples Armed Police (PAP) Force play important roles in the nations poverty alleviation campaign. For a long time, they have been carrying out poverty alleviation efforts in designated villages extensively, and explored several practical approaches based on local conditions, such as alleviating poverty through the development of characteristic industries, consumption, education, and medical assistance. As of the end of May 2020, all the 4,100 impoverished villages that the military was designated to help and support had been lifted out of poverty, involving 924,000 poor villagers in 293,000 low-income families. Industrial development holds the key to poverty alleviation in the real sense. The General Office of the Central Military Commission (CMC) helped the Fushankou Village of Laishui County, Hebei Province develop the red culture industry. The CMC Defense Mobilization Department helped build a deep processing plant with the annual output of 200,000 tons in Dianfang Village of Hebeis Fuping County that abounds in jujubes. The CMC Political Work Department helped plant 10,000 mu (about1,647 acres) of crisp and red plums in Hongxin Village of Zunyi, Guizhou Province. The CMC Equipment Development Department used the donations from officers and soldiers to build a greenhouse of edible fungus in Jingui Village of Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County, Sichuan Province. The PLA Eastern Theater Command helped develop ecological breeding projects in Dupi Village of Aoli Township in Jinggangshan, Jiangxi Province. The whole military has supported 8,351 industrial projects, covering breeding and planting, processing of agricultural products, rural tourism, and PV power generation, lifting the people out of poverty and propelling them to increase income. To help those poor villages develop industries, the military also resorted to consumption to help the fledgling industries grow and realize circular development. Relevant departments of the CMC established the mechanisms for poor villages to sell their agricultural and sideline products to barracks and provided the policy basis for the troops to give priority to those villages in procurement. The goods from mountains to barracks program initiated by the Guizhou Provincial Military Command directly benefited more than 1,100 poor households. Education is the fundamental way to eradicate poverty at root, and providing better education to children in impoverished areas is a significant means of cutting the inter-generational transmission of poverty. The military has paid close attention to education in its poverty alleviation work. It has helped build 156 Schools along the route of the Long March and 1,544 primary schools in designated villages, and also fostered several branding programs for poverty alleviation through education, such as the Bayi student aid program at old revolutionary bases, fostering children in the new era initiated by the PLA Army, the Naval Aimin Primary School, Lantian Chunlei Program and Lijian student aid program by the PLA Rocket Force. Apart from industrial and educational development, medical assistance is another important part of the PLA and PAP forces poverty alleviation efforts. The 113 hospitals in poor counties paired with 74 military hospitals have all reached or surpassed the standard for level-2 hospitals. The troops have also helped build 1,458 clinics in impoverished villages, some of which are installed with long-distance medical systems so that the villagers can enjoy quality medical service without traveling. The Joint Logistic Support Force launched the military doctors to revolutionary bases program, whereby 1,028 experts provided medical services in 106 districts and counties, including Yanan city in Chinas Shaanxi Province and Ruijin city in Jiangxi Province. The 5th Medical Center of the Chinese PLA General Hospital initiated a program to treat echinococcosis in Xizang autonomous region under which 11 groups of 77 experts, overcoming anoxia and other plateau-related difficulties, treated the local residents on pastures and in yurts. They stayed in the stationary point for more than three months every time, and screened 7,520 patients and cured 657 ones cumulatively. NASCAR is set to allow a limited number of fans back at the track for races this month at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. NASCAR will allow up to 1,000 Florida service members, representing the Homestead Air Reserve Base and U.S. Southern Command in Doral, to attend the Cup Series race Sunday as honorary guests and view the race from the grandstands. Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama will allow up to 5,000 guests in the frontstretch grandstands/towers for the June 21 Cup race. There will be limited motorhome/camping spots available outside the track. NASCAR Cup Series driver Erik Jones (20) before the Folds of Honor Quik Trip 500 in Atlanta NASCAR says all fans will be screened before entering, required to wear face coverings, mandated to social distance at six feet, and will not have access to the infield, among other revised operational protocols. NASCAR has returned to racing, but had not allowed fans inside the tracks in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. 'We have tremendous respect and appreciation for the responsibility that comes with integrating guests back into our events,' said Daryl Wolfe, NASCAR executive vice president and chief sales and operations officer. 'We believe implementing this methodical process is an important step forward for the sport and the future of live sporting events. The passion and unwavering support of our industry and fans is the reason we race each weekend and we look forward to slowly and responsibly welcoming them back at select events.' NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch (18) makes a pit stop during the Folds of Honor Quik Trip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. NASCAR has returned to racing, but had not allowed fans inside the tracks in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia New Delhi, June 9 : A Delhi Court on Tuesday denied interim bail to a Kashmiri woman, who had recently tested Covid-19 positive in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody. Hina Bashir Khan and her husband Jahanzaib Sami were arrested in March for instigating protests against the new citizenship law and planning a terror attack. Last week, the court had directed the NIA to admit her to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital after she tested positive for coronavirus. Pursuant to that, her counsel M.S. Khan moved an interim bail plea asserting there was lack of proper treatment facilities in government hospitals in the national capital. "Delhi is struggling to cope up with the rising number of Covid-19 positive cases and due to the lack of proper treatment facilities in government hospitals, the Delhi government has been compelled to issue a list of 56 private hospitals for coronavirus treatment," the bail plea stated. Another accused Abdul Basith was arrested with the duo in March. The case was later transferred to the NIA. "Accused, including Abdul Basith, are actively following the ideology of ISIS and planning terror strikes in India and also recruiting cadres for ISKP," the police had told the court. The police said the trio was in contact with Abu Ushman al Kashmiri, head of Indian affairs of ISKP. Qatar will begin easing restrictions related to the coronavirus next week, state media announced today. In a series of tweets, Qatar News Agency said that reopening would begin on June 15 in phases until September. The decision is due to "the commitment of the majority of society to the instructions imposed by the state, along with the precautionary measures that enabled the curve to be flattened, the outlet reported. The first stage will include reopening mosques. Further stages will include allowing large gatherings and the ability for some foreigners to enter Qatar, the agency reported. Like other Gulf countries, Qatar has experienced tens of thousands of confirmed coronavirus cases. The pandemic is still spreading in the oil-rich country, despite reports of success. Qatar has recorded 71,817 cases of the novel coronavirus to date. This includes 1,721 in the last 24 hours and 24,248 current cases, according to statistics from the Ministry of Public Health. Qatar is a major oil producer and global transit hub, and both industries have been hit hard by the pandemic. Qatar Airways has continued operating passenger flights throughout the crisis despite cutting jobs and seeking loans. Qatars state-owned oil and gas company also recently signed a deal to buy $19 billion in ships from South Korean companies in the face of falling oil prices. Cuban nurse Mileydis Tamayo Salgado, second from right, visits tents in the camp in Matamoros, Mexico, taking migrants' temperatures with U.S. volunteer Megan Reynolds, a nurse, right. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) The Cuban nurse picked her way through the sprawling border camp on the banks of the Rio Grande, past tents housing a couple of thousand migrants. Mileydis Tamayo Salgado navigated a maze of worn dirt tracks wearing a red T-shirt labeled "Medico." She ducked under clotheslines and tarps before entering treatment tents, thermometer in hand. There she took asylum seekers temperatures and asked if they had symptoms of COVID-19. Tamayo, 50, slipped a thermometer in a protective sleeve between the lips of a 6-year-old Mexican girl. Close your mouth thank you, my love, the nurse said in Spanish, explaining, If they have fevers, we take them to the clinic. The clinic, run by U.S. volunteers with Florida-based nonprofit Global Response Management, has been staffed since it opened last fall almost entirely by asylum seekers. Most are Cubans like Tamayo with prior medical training, plus a pharmacist from Nicaragua, an assistant from El Salvador, a nurse from Colombia and Mexican translators. Theyre trying to prevent the virus from spreading as they and other migrants await U.S. immigration hearings repeatedly postponed because of the pandemic. Migrants who work at the clinic receive $15 to $30 a day in a weekly stipend. So far, no one at the camp has tested positive for COVID-19. Those entering the camp, inside a new chain-link perimeter fence Mexican officials installed this month, must submit to a temperature check. Three migrants who showed symptoms earlier this month were isolated in tents just outside the fence. Some of the migrants working at the clinic had fled to the border after obtaining visas and flying directly to Mexico. Others got visas to Ecuador and Nicaragua, then traveled north to Mexico by bus. Dr. Dairon Elisondo Rojas, a Cuban migrant, and his girlfriend traveled for more than a month by plane, boat and bus before they reached the U.S. border last August. He initially worked at a Mexican border factory, or maquiladora, then came to work at the clinic after it opened. His girlfriend, a fellow physician, was working at a local boutique and salon. She has relatives they hope to join in Louisiana. Their next court date is June 23. Story continues Back in Cuba, Elisondo, 29, was banned from practicing medicine and harassed by the police. Here, we treat people with dignity, he said between consultations at the clinic May 15. A migrant girl named Stephanie, 10, takes a bath in the Rio Grande, which runs between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas. Her father, Manuel de Jesus Gomez, says they've been living in the refugee camp since October 2019, hoping to go to the United States. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) Tamayo arrived at the camp two months ago after traveling to Mexico from her hometown of Guantanamo in Cuba. She said she wasnt afraid to work with migrants who might have the virus. In Cuba, she treated patients for AIDS, cholera and dengue fever. When this is your profession, you cant be afraid of anything, she said as she sat in one of the clinics three temporary huts, beside the trailer that serves as the main exam room. Tamayo fled Cuba with her 23-year-old daughter, hoping to join her brother in Miami. Her asylum hearing was supposed to be June 3 at a tent court on the opposite riverbank, in Brownsville, Texas. But the tent court remained closed due to the pandemic, and Tamayo expected her hearing would soon be postponed, as others have been. In one way its good, because we avoid contact with people in the tent court, she said. But in another way its bad, because there are people waiting longer than a year for their immigration cases to be resolved. Cuban nurse Alberto Lopez had his May 26 court hearing postponed until later this summer. Lopez, 56, like other Cuban medical staff at the clinic, had been sent to Venezuela by his government five years ago to provide care in exchange for the country giving oil to Cuba. He married a Venezuelan woman, and she became pregnant. As violence escalated last year, Lopez fled to the U.S. border. His wife and child remained behind. Lopez settled at the camp, where he felt it was his duty to work at the clinic. We are taught to help people regardless of nationality and politics, he said as he helped a father who had brought his two children to be tested for COVID-19 (both were negative). Half as many migrants have sought treatment at the clinic as visited the facility before the pandemic, about 20 people daily. Migrants were self-isolating in their tents, afraid they might be exposed to the virus if they visited the clinic. But those who sought treatment for themselves and their children said they trusted clinic staff. They know we are migrants, the training we have and the sacrifices we made, Lopez said. A man raises his cap so his temperature can be taken before he enters the camp in Matamoros, Mexico. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) Dr. Lestter Guerra worked with his wife, a fellow Cuban physician, in Venezuela and Brazil before they were recalled to Cuba two years ago and disciplined for trying to remain abroad. They knew we were not agreeing with the governments ideology, he said between appointments in one of the clinic huts. And it was impossible to work as a doctor in Cuba. Guerra, 34, works at the clinic two days a week for about $30 a day. The rest of the time, he works at a supermarket deli with his wife, where he earns about $45 a week. Its been wonderful for me to work here in my profession with migrants just like us, he said. He had read reports about front-line workers in the U.S. catching COVID-19 and worried he could be next, he said, but Im a doctor, and they need me. Cuban physician Ernesto Marino Almaguar greeted one of the about 300 pregnant migrants they'd been treating at the camp and in the surrounding city. Cuban physician Ernesto Marino Almaguar conducts an ultrasound on Maria Rivas de Garcia, who is among about 300 pregnant migrant women at the border camp. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) Maria Rivas de Garcia entered the hut that served as Marinos exam room, lay down on the padded exam table and lifted her shirt as he hooked an ultrasound wand to his tablet. Marino, who trained in Cuba, squirted blue gel on Rivas de Garcias belly and slowly slid the ultrasound wand across. A black-and-white image appeared on the tablet, and he explained what she was seeing. You can see the head, the heart, two normal feet, he said. The fetus was healthy, he said. At 15 weeks, it was too early to tell whether it was a boy or a girl. Rivas de Garcia, 35, smiled. The pregnancy was unplanned. She and husband Carlos, a police officer, had fled El Salvador with their 3-year-old daughter, Angie, last summer after they received death threats from gangs who had killed his co-workers. They hoped to join her relatives in Santa Cruz. Their next court date was July 23. Thank God theres the clinic, she said, adding that the migrant doctors inspire trust. Theyre living the same situation we are. Angel Gabriel Recinos, 5, of El Salvador has his blood pressure checked by Cuban nurse and asylum seeker Mileydis Tamayo Salgado. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) Rivas de Garcia, a social worker, told the doctor she knew to take prenatal vitamins. After examining her, he prescribed an antibiotic for a urinary tract infection, then handed her pills from the clinic's pharmacy. The doctor, whose wife is an unemployed nurse, said he left Cuba for the U.S. border a year ago hoping to join relatives in Houston. Then he arrived and saw the Trump administrations lengthy system for processing asylum claims. I lost hope, he said. Instead of applying for asylum in the U.S., he plans to stay in Mexico. He has been working at the clinic and private hospitals, which pay about the same. He prefers the clinic. "It's a debt we owe to society as doctors," he said. This is my mission, and I feel better because Im doing something that really helps people." Commemorating the unconditional spirit of love, June signifies Global Pride Month, a worldwide tribute to the LGBTQIA+ community celebrating the spirit of equality and freedom of choice. Along with resilience at the core of the celebrations worldwide, comes an alluring sparkle, in the form of rainbow flags, parades, parties and more. And while we are all staying indoors this year, Vh1 understands that just like music, love has no boundaries. So this year, as the lockdown continues to distance us from one another, Vh1 India brings you closer, virtually, with a slew of reasons for you to soak into the festivities. Vh1 India is all about music and pop culture, and music is the soul of every celebration. Riding on the Pride Month festivities, in its musical style, Vh1 India has curated a new block Vh1 Pride, that features an exquisite line-up of tracks by LGBTQIA+ artists, who have always been at the forefront of music, across genres and eras. Vh1 Pride airs Monday nights at 8pm. But it doesnt stop there! Fans dont have to keep their rainbow spirits on hold, as Vh1 India invites everyone to dress up in their parade avatars and share their Pride on Instagram stories tagging @Vh1India using #VirtualPrideParade. The most vibrant stories will be part of a Pride film showcasing the celebratory spirit of fans. As part of the celebrations, the followers will get up close and personal with prominent faces of the LGBTQIA+ community such as Maya the Drag Queen, Betta Naan Stop, Zeeshan Ali, Ma Faiza, amongst others. With fun interviews with them on the Vh1 social media pages, fans will be able to catch them at their candid best, talking about their life journey, music playing an integral part in their life, loving unabashedly and much more. Click HERE to watch the first interview from the series. Commenting on Vh1 India soaking in the festivities of the Pride Month, Navin Shenoy Head of Marketing, Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Viacom18 said, Vh1 India has been known for celebrating the greatest music of all times and offering the best of pop culture; whether its through exclusively airing prominent musical extravaganzas around the world or featuring renowned artists across multiple genres. Since Pride is a time to celebrate love in all forms, we have curated multicultural programming that breaks all borders and celebrates the voice of prominent LGBTQIA+ artists who, through music and lyrics of their songs, have owned and celebrated their queerness. We also have a lot of other activities planned so that everyone, from their homes, can join us in this celebration of love, acceptance and diversity, with Pride. While Pride is loud and fierce, it is also quiet and reflective. It is about individual voices. Hence Vh1 India will curate the voice of the youth using #Vh1ForPride, in the form of new age slogans, and add a twist of musical lyrics, while drenching them in the colors of Pride. Make these vivacious slogan creatives your voice, use them as your next desktop wallpaper or video call background or wear them on your sleeves, literally, and celebrate love, with aplomb, this month of Pride. ~ Partake in a joyous fiesta of lively celebrations this Global Pride Month and express your love, from your homes, only on Vh1 India ~ D emocrats in Congress have unveiled sweeping legislation aimed at reforming police in the US, following weeks of protests against police brutality and racism. The bill, which came as Minneapolis lawmakers threatened to disband the city's police force, will make it easier to prosecute officers for misconduct. Chock holds would also be banned under the proposals. The death of George Floyd at the hands of a white officer in the US city sparked demonstrations that spread all over the nation and the across of the world. It was not immediately clear if Republicans, who control the US Senate, would support the proposals outlined by Democrats late on Monday. Mourners pay final respects to George Floyd - In pictures 1 /17 Mourners pay final respects to George Floyd - In pictures People line up to attend the public viewing Getty Images Mourners view the remains of George Floyd Getty Images People line up to attend the public viewing for George Floyd at the Fountain of Praise church Getty Images Texas Gov. Greg Abbott visits the casket during the public visitation AP People visit the casket POOL/AFP via Getty Images Texas Gov. Greg Abbott passes by the casket bearing the remains of George Floyd Getty Images Women carry a poster during the public visitation for George Floyd REUTERS People start lining up at the Fountain of Praise church AFP via Getty Images Rapper and local activist Trae tha Truth (left) Getty Images A family enters to view the remains of George Floyd Getty Images Texas Governor Gregg Abbott speaks to the press after attending the public viewing for George Floyd AFP via Getty Images Mourners pass by the casket POOL/AFP via Getty Images Mourners pass by the casket POOL/AFP via Getty Images President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that "the Radical Left Democrats want to Defund and Abandon our Police. Sorry, I want LAW & ORDER!" It comes after Thousands of mourners on Monday viewed the casket of MrFloyd, whose death from a police officer kneeling on his neck ignited the worldwide protests. American flags fluttered along the route to the Fountain of Praise church in Houston, where Mr Floyd grew up, as throngs of mourners formed a solemn procession to pay final respects. Filing through a Houston church in two parallel lines, some people bowed their heads, others made the sign of the cross or raised a fist, as they reached Mr Floyd's open casket. The public viewing came two weeks to the day after Mr Floyd's death was captured by an onlooker's video. As a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, Mr Floyd, 46, an unarmed black man suspected of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill, died in handcuffs, lying face down on a Minneapolis street, gasping for air and groaning, "I can't breathe." As the public viewing unfolded in Houston, Derek Chauvin, 44, the police officer charged with second-degree murder in the case, made his first court appearance in Minneapolis by video link, with a judge ordering his bail raised from $1 million to $1.25 million (1 million). Chauvin's three co-defendants, accused of aiding and abetting Mr Floyd's murder, were previously ordered held on $750,000 bond each. Facebook/Darnella Frazier/AFP/Getty Images Mr Floyd's dying words became a rallying cry for an outpouring of rage that crossed racial and other social boundaries around the United States and abroad. Demonstrations, unleashed amid anxiety and joblessness from the coronavirus pandemic, invigorated the Black Lives Matter movement, thrusting calls for racial justice and police reforms to the top of America's political agenda ahead of the November 3 presidential election. Protests in a number of US cities were initially punctuated by episodes of arson, looting and clashes with police, deepening a political crisis for President Trump as he repeatedly threatened to order active-duty military troops into the streets to help restore order. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who is challenging the Republican Mr Trump in the Nov. 3 election, met with Mr Floyd's relatives for more than an hour in Houston on Monday, according to the family's lawyer. "He listened, heard their pain and shared in their woe," Benjamin Crump said of Mr Biden's private meeting. "That compassion meant the world to this grieving family." Floyd was due to be buried on Tuesday. Meanwhile In Washington, Democrats in Congress unveiled legislation to make lynching a federal hate crime and to allow victims of police misconduct and their families to sue law enforcement for damages in civil court, ending a legal doctrine known as qualified immunity. Their 134-page bill also would ban chokeholds and require the use of body cameras by federal law enforcement officers, place new restrictions on the use of lethal force and facilitate independent probes of police departments that show patterns of misconduct. The legislation does not call for police departments to be de-funded or abolished, as some activists have demanded. But lawmakers called for spending priorities to change. Mr Trump "is appalled by the defund-the-police movement," White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told a media briefing. She said the president was weighing various proposals in response to Mr Floyd's death. Mr Biden said he opposes the movement to defund police departments as a response to police brutality but supports the "urgent need" for reform, a spokesman for his presidential campaign said on Monday. Huge weekend crowds gathered across the country and in Europe for some of the largest Black Lives Matter rallies seen since Mr Floyd's death. There are marks on the floors, letting visitors know where they need to stand while waiting. And the seating areas have been removed, so people have to remain standing on those marks. Obermier said later, during a community leader online meeting, that he expects the out-of-county influx to last at least another week or so, as other counties are starting to open their courthouses. Because of that issue, York County residents are encouraged to do their other types of business on Mondays, Tuesday and Wednesdays to avoid standing in line for long periods of time. And they can continue to do business online and utilize the drop-box on the west side of the courthouse. The sudden influx of those from other counties also prompted Obermier and Commissioner Vice-Chairman Kurt Bulgrin to send an email to all the other commissioners in the state, asking them to consider opening their courthouses so not everyone (many of which are teenagers getting their first licenses) is traveling to York County. It was also noted that while some counties have had examiners, all the people who tested in at least one location brought their certificates here to pay and process the temporary documents. Mayank Singh By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The news of thinning of Indian and Chinese troops from the standoff points at the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh came on Tuesday. Also, the Division Commanders of the two sides are slated to meet on Wednesday before the Corps Commanders of the two countries meet again in near future. A senior Army officer said, The troop de-escalation has taken place from Patrolling Point 14 and Patrolling Point 15 in Galwan Valley and from Patrolling Point 17A lying in the Hot Springs sector. But, as added by the sources, the focal issue remained unresolved as India and China are preparing for next Corps Commander level talks. The standoff at Finger-4 area continues and it is to be discussed again at the Corps Commanders meeting to be held later. told a source. Also, the Indian Reserve Force of a little more than 8000 moved in after China increased deployment on their side remains deployed at its designated locations. Chinese had gradually moved in Tanks and Artillery with India matching its deployment. The development is being attributed to the first-ever Corps Commanders level talk happening on the border issue on June 6 at Moldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), said the sources. The Heavy Vehicles from both sides were moved back on May 25 as first reported by this paper. Another marginal troop retreat took place on June 2. In the coming days multiple meetings of the highest-ranking officers of the front, Division Commanders and Sector Commanders of both sides, will be taking place to chalk out areawise troop withdrawal. These will happen before the next Corps Commanders meeting takes place. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had said on Monday that the first Corps Commanders level talks held on June 6 were positive. Both India and China have agreed to resolve the border dispute in future and also the present tussle with the talks. he added. The Major General (Division Commander) level meeting, Highest Level Military Commander, is likely to be held on Wednesday, weather depending, to pave the way for future stepwise de-escalations. said the sources. Both the sides are in standoff position in the Eastern Ladakh stretching from Galwan Valley to Finger-4 along the Northern Flank of Pangong Tso Lake since intervening night of 5-6 May. It started at Finger-4, as reported first by this paper, and stretched to the locations in Hot Spring Sector and Galwan valley. The points of contention have been the roads at the base of Finger-4 and the link road connecting the Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi road to the Galwan valley. Chinese troops attacked the Indian soldiers with iron rods, stones and fists to which the Indian side retaliated and soldiers from both sides got injured. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Adrian Wail Akhlas (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 16:35 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd55dd7 1 Business World-Bank,GDP-growth,economic-growth,Indonesia,COVID-19,recession,global-economy,Global-Economic-Prospect-report Free Indonesias gross domestic product (GDP) will grow at zero percent this year as the global economy is expected to see its deepest downturn since the Second World War, the World Bank has forecast. Southeast Asias biggest economy will see its weakest economic performance since the 1998 Asian financial crisis as the COVID-19 crisis strikes a devastating blow to an already-fragile global economy, the Washington, DC-based development bank said in its latest Global Economic Prospect report. Necessary but economically costly lockdowns have become widespread and resulted in a sharp contraction of economic activity, while an abrupt tightening of global financial conditions has led to sizable capital outflows, it said in the report. While not contractions, Indonesias growth rate would nevertheless be 5.1 percentage points lower than January forecasts, the World Bank said. Regional commodity exporters [including Indonesia] were also hit by a steep decline in commodity prices. Read also: Pandemic drives broadest economic collapse in 150 years: World Bank The countrys economy is projected to rebound sharply and record 4.8 percent growth in 2021, although still lower than the World Banks earlier projection in January. The coronavirus outbreak has disrupted economic activity throughout the archipelago as the government has called on citizens to implement physical-distancing measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus, forcing offices, factories, shops and schools to shut down. Four provinces and 11 regencies/cities have imposed large scale social restrictions (PSBB), which have forced non-essential businesses to close. The government expects this years economic growth to reach 2.3 percent under the baseline scenario, or to contract by 0.4 percent under the worst-case scenario as consumer spending and investment dry up amid the pandemic. Indonesias economy grew by 2.97 percent in the first quarter, the slowest pace in 19 years. Senior World Bank economist for Indonesia Ralph van Doorn said earlier this month that Indonesias economy might shrink 3.5 percent this year should the PSBB imposed by several regional administrations last for four months, according to the institutions worst-case projection. [The zero percent growth in the baseline scenario] assumes two months of large-scale social restrictions and takes into account a severe global economic slowdown and a very big drop in commodity prices, all of which will have an effect on Indonesias economy, Van Doorn told reporters in a livestreamed news conference. Read also: Indonesias economy may shrink 3.5% if PSBB last for 4 months: World Bank We expect private consumption to slow down due to job losses and a decline in consumer confidence. We also expect a slowdown in investment growth because of weaker economic activity and lower commodity prices. Domestic consumer spending expanded just 2.84 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the first quarter from 5.01 percent during the same period last year. In the case of the global economy, the World Bank now forecasts it will shrink by 5.2 percent, the worst in 80 years, as the coronavirus pandemic inflicts a swift and massive shock on the economy. This is a deeply sobering outlook, with the crisis likely to leave long-lasting scars and pose major global challenges, said World Bank Group vice president for equitable growth, finance and institutions Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, as reported by Agence France-Presse. The depth of the crisis will drive 70 to 100 million people into extreme poverty worse than the prior estimate of 60 million, she told reporters on Monday. Under the worst-case scenario, the global recession could mean a contraction of 8 percent, according to the report. The development lender projects a rebound for 2021 with the global economy growing by as much as 4.2 percent. The pandemic will likely further slow potential growth in the [East Asia and Pacific] region by weakening investment and the supply chains that have been an important conduit for productivity gains over the last decade, the report read. Read also: Indonesias COVID-19 budget swells but still not enough, observers say The regional outlook will significantly deteriorate if global trade tensions re-escalate. Advanced economies, including the United States and the eurozone, are projected to contract by 7 percent this year, while emerging market and developing economies will shrink by 2.5 percent. Meanwhile, the economy in China, Indonesias largest trading partner and the country where the outbreak began, is expected to grow by 1 percent this year. Chinese intelligence officers have been covertly operating in Hong Kong for years, but Hong Kongs new national security law means Beijings spies will likely establish a more official presence there. Why it matters: Allowing mainland Chinas security and intelligence services to operate with impunity in Hong Kong would dramatically reduce the political freedoms enshrined in the one country, two systems agreement that was supposed to provide the region with a high degree of autonomy until 2047. This could endanger Hong Kong-based pro-democracy figures and other local anti-Communist Party dissidents. Whats happening: A draft of the new national security law states, When needed, relevant national security organs of the Central Peoples Government will set up agencies in Hong Kong. Background: The Ministry of State Security (MSS), Chinas foremost intelligence and political security agency, is notoriously brutal. It operates both domestically and abroad, monitoring political and criminal targets, detaining and torturing those deemed threats to the state, and performing traditional espionage. The national security law likely means Chinas security and intelligence officers could legally be allowed to pursue targets in Hong Kong in one of two ways. Extradition: The security law could pave the way for establishing a framework for extradition from Hong Kong to China. This would mean that Chinese security agencies would have to submit extradition requests to Hong Kong authorities, and cases would go through Hong Kongs courts before a target could be sent to mainland China. The security law could pave the way for establishing a framework for extradition from Hong Kong to China. This would mean that Chinese security agencies would have to submit extradition requests to Hong Kong authorities, and cases would go through Hong Kongs courts before a target could be sent to mainland China. Rendition: In a darker scenario, mainland security officers could apprehend individuals and simply take them over the border to the mainland for interrogation or imprisonment. In a darker scenario, mainland security officers could apprehend individuals and simply take them over the border to the mainland for interrogation or imprisonment. There have already been several known cases of Chinese intelligence officers operating in Hong Kong and Macao taking people over the border, said Rodney Faraon, a partner at Crumpton Group and former senior CIA officer. But these have always been officially denied. The most infamous recent case is that of Causeway Bay Books, a well-known bookstore and monument to press freedom, whose employees were kidnapped from Hong Kong and elsewhere and detained in mainland China in 2015. (The bookstore was subsequently forced to relocate to Taiwan.) But a formal presence for the MSS in Hong Kong doesnt necessarily mean a visible one. "Even in China they can be pretty quiet and don't try to build a large overt presence, preferring to work through fronts and proxies, said Alex Joske, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. If Chinese intelligence agencies are allowed to operate openly and officially, then that becomes an alternative center of power to the law enforcement agencies that the Hong Kong government currently has, one that would undoubtedly have legal primacy in the jurisdiction, said Faraon. It would be the subversion of the role that Hong Kong law enforcement is supposed to play under one country two systems. Go deeper: New book unveils Chinas formidable spy agencies AMHERST Although there was optimism town-run summer day camps would happen in 2020, the idea is not feasible this year, Town Manager Paul Bockelman said during a Finance Committee meeting Monday night. He said an official announcement that the camps are canceled would be posted in writing on Tuesday. He said the rules and guidelines promulgated by the state, that take into consideration public health dangers from COVID-19, are just too onerous to comply with. A notice posted previously on the town website said: We hope we will still have the ability to see all of our LSSE Campers at Early Adventures and Adventure Playground this summer, but we are unsure whether or not that will happen. The towns Leisure Services and Supplement Education Department runs the camp program. By Akbar Mammadov Azerbaijans Interior Ministry has dismissed a police officer who behaved unethically toward a citizen during the detention of 11 residents who had insulted police officers on the weekend lockdown on June 8, the ministrys press service reported on June 9. The ministry said that it has investigated the video footages recorded during the detention of the people who threw household items at police officers patrolling the strict quarantine regime in the Yasamal district on 7 June. As a result of the investigation, it has been revealed that one of the officers spoke in a loud voice to a woman and used inappropriate expressions against her husband. Thus, taking into account this unacceptable behaviour, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has decided to dismiss the police officer in question and launch an investigation into the incident. Moreover, the woman insulted by that police officer has been invited to the Baku City Main Police Department to convey the police officers apologies to her. It should be noted that on June 7, while detaining a lockdown violator in the yard of a residential building in Bakus Yasamal district, the police officers were thrown at various items from balcony and windows by a group of citizens living in the building. The police later detained the 11 people who had insulted the police. Investigations are underway to give a legal assessment to the suspects. It should be noted that in order to ensure the total lockdown, the police officers and internal troops were working in a reinforced to regularly and intensively monitor compliance with quarantine regime during the weekend. Azerbaijan imposed a two-day nationwide quarantine regime in Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, Lankaran and Absheron region on June 6 and 7. Under the lockdown, effective from 00:00 on June 6 to 06:00 on June 8, leaving the place of residence was prohibited (except when there is immediate danger of life and health). In order to leave the place of residence or location on the basis specified in the decision, each person had to get permission by calling "102" of the Duty Part Management Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. --- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz BISHKEK -- A parliamentary committee in Kyrgyzstan has approved a bill that would increase Russia's annual fee for renting land for its combined military base in the Central Asian nation. The bill, approved by members of the Kyrgyz parliamentary committee on international affairs, defense, and security on June 9, concerns the ratification of a Kyrgyz-Russian protocol on amendments to the agreement on the status and conditions of usage of the military base. The bill was presented after a topographic survey of the land rented by the Russian military base had found that the combined base occupies 924.52 hectares, which is 58.32 hectares more than the area specified in the lease agreement. After the amount of rented territory is amended, the current annual rental fee of $4,502,495 will be increased by $291,600, according to the bill. The bill stirred controversy in Kyrgyzstan after some Internet users questioned the lease agreement, according to which, the runway at Russia's military air base in the northern Kyrgyz city of Kant would be owned by the Russian side after it is renovated. Meanwhile, the bill says that "the General Staff of the Kyrgyz Armed Forces has outlined amendments to...the agreement that envisions return to the Kyrgyz side of the objects after the documents expiration date." "Additionally, the runway's buildings have been included to the list of joint [Kyrgyz-Russian] use," the bill says. Russia's air base at Kant was opened in 2003 under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which includes Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. A U.S. air base outside the capital, Bishkek, began hosting U.S. troops in 2001 as part of the campaign in nearby Afghanistan, but Kyrgyzstan shut it in 2014 amid pressure from Moscow. In 2017, the Kant air base and three other Russian military facilities in Kyrgyzstan were consolidated into a single combined base. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has introduced newly appointed Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Valeriy Kondratiuk to the staff of the service, the presidential press service has reported. "Excellent professional training, high level of education, significant managerial experience gained while working in senior positions in military intelligence, security agencies, diplomatic service and other government agencies allow Valeriy Kondratiuk to successfully perform a full range of responsible tasks for our country," Zelensky said. He said that under Kondratiuk's leadership, the Foreign Intelligence Service would strengthen its ability to defend national interests amid a hybrid war against Ukraine. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Denys Shmyal, Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov, Defense Minister Andriy Taran, and Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Ruslan Khomchak. Zelensky signed a decree appointing Kondratiuk head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine on June 5. Photo credit: President's Office DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - As tensions remain high between Iran and the U.S., the Islamic Republic appears to have constructed a new mock-up of an aircraft carrier off its southern coast for potential live-fire drills. The faux foe, seen in satellite photographs obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the U.S. Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, its narrow mouth where 20% of all the worlds oil passes through. While not yet acknowledged by Iranian officials, the replicas appearance in the port city of Bandar Abbas suggests Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is preparing an encore of a similar mock-sinking it conducted in 2015. It also comes as Iran announced Tuesday it will execute a man it accused of sharing details on the movements of the Guards Gen. Qassem Soleimani, whom the U.S. killed in a January drone strike in Baghdad. The replica carries 16 mock-ups of fighter jets on its deck, according to satellite photos taken by Maxar Technologies. The vessel appears to be some 200 metres (650 feet) long and 50 metres (160 feet) wide. A real Nimitz is over 300 metres (980 feet) long and 75 metres (245 feet) wide. The fake carrier sits just a short distance away from the parking lot in which the Guard unveiled over 100 new speedboats in May, the kind it routinely employs in tense encounters between Iranian sailors and the U.S. Navy. Those boats carry both mounted machine-guns and missiles. The mock-up, which first began to be noticed among defence and intelligence analysts in January, strongly resembles a similar one used in February 2015 during a military exercise called Great Prophet 9. During that drill, Iran swarmed the fake aircraft carrier with speedboats firing machine-guns and rockets. Surface-to-sea missiles later targeted and destroyed the fake carrier. American aircraft carriers are very big ammunition depots housing a lot of missiles, rockets, torpedoes and everything else, the Guards then-navy chief, Adm. Ali Fadavi, said on state television at the time. That drill, however, came as Iran and world powers remained locked in negotiations over Tehrans nuclear program. Today, the deal born of those negotiations is in tatters. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord in May 2018. Iran later responded by slowly abandoning nearly every tenant of the agreement, though it still allows U.N. inspectors access to its nuclear sites. Last summer saw a series of attacks and incidents further ramp up tensions between Iran and the U.S. They reached a crescendo with the Jan. 3 strike near Baghdad International Airport that killed Soleimani, head of the Guards expeditionary Quds, or Jerusalem, Force. Also on Tuesday, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said Iranian citizen Mahmoud Mousavi Majd had been convicted in a Revolutionary Court, which handles security cases behind closed doors. Esmaili accused Majd of receiving money for allegedly sharing security information on the Guard and the Quds Force, as well as the positions and movement routes of Soleimani. Majd was linked to the CIA and the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, Esmaili alleged, without providing evidence. Both the CIA and the Israeli prime ministers office, which oversees the Mossad, declined to comment. It wasnt immediately clear if Majd had an attorney. Esmaili did not say when Majd would be executed, other than that it would be soon. He also stopped short of directly linking the information allegedly offered by Majd to Soleimanis death. Later Tuesday, the judiciary said Majd was detained in October 2018 and sentenced to death in September 2019, before Soleimanis killing. Esmailis description also suggested Majd could be a member of Irans military, paramilitary or intelligence apparatus, given his ability to access what would be the establishments innermost secrets. It recalled the 1984 execution of Iranian navy chief Adm. Bahram Afzali, whom Iran killed along with nine others in the military over allegations they passed classified material onto the Communist Tudeh party, which then gave the material to the Soviet Union. Iran retaliated for Soleimanis killing with a ballistic missile strike Jan. 8 targeting U.S. forces in Iraq, an assault that left over 100 American troops with serious brain injuries. That same day, the Guard accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jetliner in Tehran, killing 176 people. Irans announcement of the looming execution shows how seriously they still take Soleimanis assassination. An exercise targeting a mock U.S. aircraft carrier could send that message as well, particularly if it involves a swarm attack of smaller vessels, which analysts believe Iran would employ if it did get into a shooting war with the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navys Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, which patrols Mideast waters, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hundreds of people have marched in Hong Kongs streets to mark a year since the start of anti-government protests. The protesters marched despite police warnings that force could be used to disperse participants and that they faced up to five years in prison. Riot police later charged at a group of demonstrators, deploying pepper spray and tackling some to the ground. Hong Kongs leader Carrie Lam marked the occasion by calling for peace and stability. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (AP/Vincent Yu) At least 25 people were arrested for participating in unauthorised assemblies, disorderly conduct and other offences, police said. Some protesters were also stopped and searched by police. Lawful protests are always respected but unlawful acts are to be rejected. Please stop breaking the law, police said in a tweet. Tuesday is the one-year anniversary of a huge march through central Hong Kong that grew into a pro-democracy movement that saw protesters break into the legislative building and take to the streets every weekend for months. The mass protest on 9 June last year has been etched in the collective memory of Hongkongers, the Civil Human Rights Front, which organised the event, wrote in a Facebook post. It also marks the beginning of our togetherness in defending our beloved city. Protesters also gathered in shopping centres to mark the anniversary at lunchtime, holding up signs and banners reading Liberate Hong Kong and singing protest songs. Police closed some streets and walkways ahead of possible protests. Police in riot gear follow a protest marking the first anniversary of a mass rally against the now-withdrawn extradition bill (AP/Vincent Yu) The June 9, 2019, march was in opposition to a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed people in the former British colony, which has its own legal system, to be sent to mainland China to face trial. Organisers said turnout exceeded a million people, while police estimated the crowd at 240,000. In the ensuing months of protests, violent clashes broke out at times between protesters and the police, leading to accusations of police brutality and sparking protester demands for an independent inquiry into police behaviour. Story continues There was a lull in protests during the coronavirus outbreak early this year, but as the number of infections has dropped, protesters have returned to the streets to demonstrate against an imminent national security law for Hong Kong as well as a recently approved law that makes it illegal to insult the Chinese national anthem. Critics and protesters say the national security law is a blow to the one country, two systems framework following the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997, which promised the city freedoms not found on the mainland. The semi-autonomous Chinese citys chief executive Ms Lam told reporters: Everyone has to learn their lesson, including the Hong Kong government. Hong Kong cannot bear that kind of chaos, and the people of Hong Kong want a stable and peaceful environment to be able to live and work here happily. Ms Lam did not elaborate on what lessons should be learned. Hong Kong police control access to a street in the central Mongkok neighborhood during the demonstrations in response to China's national security law. SOPA Images Like most economies, Hong Kong should have a national security law even if Beijing is the one imposing it on the city, a think tank said on Tuesday. "There's a significant majority, particularly in the business community which is more conservative, of course that accepts that at some point, we should have a security law," said David Dodwell, executive director of the Hong Kong-APEC Trade Policy Group, a think tank. The issue, said Dodwell, is not whether or not the city should have a security law, but what the exact content would be and how it would be implemented. In fact, most economies have national security laws in place and Hong Kong was supposed to draft and enact one under the territory's mini constitution, the Basic Law, he noted. Last month, Beijing approved a plan to institute a national security law in Hong Kong, bypassing the city's legislature. That raised concerns about China's increasing grip on the territory, which is governed under the "one country, two systems" principle. The structure grants the city a high level of autonomy for 50 years from 1997, when its sovereignty was transferred from the U.K. to China. "It's a matter of regret for most of us that Hong Kong's administration has not been able, over these years, to get an appropriate law in place," Dodwell said. A previous attempt to introduce national security legislation in Hong Kong in 2003 was shelved after mass protests. "But we need a security law. It's regrettable that Beijing has had to step in to do it. Now, we have to look at the content and the way in which they plan to implement (it) to make sure that the 'one country, two systems' (system) and the autonomies that we have are properly protected," he said. Dodwell spoke on the one-year anniversary of a massive protest against a separate and now-withdrawn extradition bill that would have allowed people to be brought to mainland China for trial. Since then, Hong Kong has witnessed prolonged demonstrations and anti-government protests. Anxieties about Hong Kong's future After a lull earlier this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, the movement gained pace again due to Beijing's plans to impose the national security law and a bill passed last week that criminalizes disrespect of China's national anthem. Dodwell said despite pervasive worries, the mainland authorities have, so far, not interfered with the freedom of expression and the right to protest peacefully in Hong Kong. But the Hong Kong community has been anxious about how the former British colony's path would be charted after its sovereignty was handed over to China. "A lot of the confidence that existed in Hong Kong through the transition in 1997 rested on an assumption that over the (next) 50 years, China would become to look more like Hong Kong than vice versa," he said. The last 12 weeks will haunt me forever. At the Montefiore Health System, where I am the chief executive, the coronavirus has killed 2,204 patients and 21 members of our courageous staff, despite our best efforts. Now, as the pandemic has subsided and our Covid-19 caseload has dropped to 143 patients from a peak of 2,208 on April 12, the nation is coming to grips with another fearful crisis the lethal effects of racism, the pain of which is all too familiar to me. It was hard for me to watch the video of Amy Cooper calling 911 after Christian Cooper, a black bird watcher in Central Park, asked her to leash her dog. Theres an African-American man threatening myself and my dog, she told the dispatcher, putting Mr. Coopers freedom and life in the balance. I know what he must have expected would come next, because Im a black man. I know from when I was stopped years ago in Los Angeles while walking through a white neighborhood to catch a bus that the police could ask him to put his arms up in the air, turn around, walk backward, get on his knees, interlace his fingers behind his head and get frisked, all before any questions were asked. And if he dared to be indignant and ask why, well now hes resisting, and the situation could easily escalate. He may not go home that day. GPs are demanding a permanent seat at the table of national advisers guiding Australia's COVID-19 response, and full access to government modelling, in preparation for a potential second wave or the next pandemic. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has warned Australia must learn from mistakes in its response to the COVID-19 disease (which is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) to guard against the next pandemic. Some GPs began swabbing patients for COVID-19 in their cars in March, amid fears GPs were ill-equipped to deal with a potential outbreak. Credit:Jason South "There will be a SARS-CoV-3. Let's be ready for it," the College president Dr Harry Nespolon said. In a submission to the Senate inquiry investigating the government's response to the COVID-19 crisis, the College has outlined a series of failings in Australia's pandemic defences, including the nation's unreliable supply of protective equipment, confusing public health messages and the dangerous proliferation of fake cures and conspiracy theories. President Donald Trump alleged without substantiation that an elderly protester who was shoved to the ground and seriously injured by police in Buffalo, New York, was a provocateur who exaggerated his fall. Trumps tweet Tuesday came after the injury last week of protester Martin Gugino, 75, who has been identified as an activist and a member of the Western New York Peace Center. Video showed him approach police and speak to them before being pushed. Gugino fell backward to the ground and was motionless afterward, bleeding from his head. WGRZ-TV reports he was still hospitalized. Two officers have been suspended and charged with assault, and have pleaded not guilty. The president said it could be a set up and claimed he believed Gugino was attempting to tamper with police equipment by scanning it. He cited a report from a fringe conservative media agency. Trump has regularly downplayed the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. He criticized the death of Floyd and the actions of the officers involved, but has otherwise generally praised the actions of police in protests this month. Floyds funeral will be held in Houston on Tuesday. The Spanish government gave the green light on Monday to allow foreign tourists to visit the Balearic Islands on a pilot test from June 15 more than two weeks before Spain will officially open to international visitors. This program is designed to assess whether the coronavirus safety protocols in airports, hotels, and holiday destinations are working correctly ahead of July 1, when tourists will officially be able return to Spain without being subject to a two-week quarantine. Only tourists from Germany will be allowed to visit the Balearic Islands on the program, given that the country has a similar epidemiological situation of the coronavirus as Spain, according to sources from the Balearic regional government. A beach in Calvia in the Balearic island of Mallorca. lucia bohorque The central government approved the plan on Monday after a meeting between several ministers. The regional Balearic government had been waiting for weeks for permission to proceed with the plan, which will be the first safe travel corridor Spain has opened with other regions of Europe. The regional premier of the archipelago, Francina Armengol, is expected to provide more details about the tourism pilot test on Tuesday. Whats known so far is that 6,000 tourists from Germany will visit the Balearic Islands 4,000 in Mallorca, 1,000 in Ibiza and 1,000 in Menorca, according to government sources. These visitors will not have to observe the 14-day quarantine for international visitors, even though the requirement will remain in place in the rest of Spain until July 1. Canary Islands The regional government of the Canary Islands has also agreed to take part in a similar pilot project, but wants to introduce tighter safety measures, as it explained in a letter to the tourism state secretary. Sources from the Canaries government said: We have asked the [tourism] ministry for more safety measures, as we consider those that are included in the pilot test to be insufficient. We have proposed that tourists get tested [for Covid-19], and we are even willing to pay for it. The Spanish Tourism Ministry has not yet replied to the letter. For now, foreign visitors will only be allowed to visit the Balearic Islands before July 1. The main obstacle to the program in the Canary Islands concerns the extra safety measures requested and whether these changes can be implemented in such a short time frame. Regional authorities also called on the European Union to provide common guidelines on travel controls. Beachgoers in Las Teresitas, in the Canary island of Tenerife. Miguel Barreto (EFE) A pilot program in these conditions does not make sense for us. We are negotiating with airlines, hotels, the government of Spain and Germany, and we have asked that the EU adopt a common position so that the security controls are homogeneous, explained sources from the Canary Islands government. The regional and central governments are continuing to discuss the plan, meaning it will be difficult for international tourists to arrive from June 15. But there is still time. The coronavirus crisis has devastated the Spanish tourism industry, which accounts for 12% of Spains gross domestic product (GDP). As a result of the lockdown measures, not a single hotel was open in April, and not one international visitor showed up, leading to zero tourist spending, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE). Although there has been a slight rise in tourist reservations for August, industry spokespeople say it will not be enough to save the summer season. English version by Melissa Kitson. An 8-year-old Brockton girl who went missing Monday night has been found, Massachusetts State Police said Tuesday afternoon. Grace Adorno has been located in Brockton, state police wrote in a statement. She is unharmed. We are still gathering details and will update when appropriate. We thank everyone who shared the alerts for her. Adorno was reported missing around 8 p.m. Her family said they believed she walked out of their apartment at 29.5 Ames Street, according to a statement from the Brockton Police Department. The girls disappearance sparked a response from both local and state law enforcement. State police said earlier Tuesday that the agencys Special Emergency Response Team was deployed to aid in the search for Adorno. SERT is comprised of several dozen Troopers, the majority of whom have other full-time assignments. We stand up the unit and deploy for special missions such as this one, state police said. Related Content: Brockton police searching for missing 8-year-old girl Grace Adorno What just happened? Carmakers are already having a tough time amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, but things have just gotten worse for Honda. The company today revealed that a "cyber attack" has taken place on its network, which has hindered its operations worldwide. The attack is reportedly the result of an external virus and has affected Honda employees' ability to access computer systems. According to the company, production and operations across various regions -- including the UK, North America, Italy, Japan, and Turkey -- have also been temporarily halted due to the attack. Even Honda's customer service and financial departments (which are likely working from home now) have struggled to respond to customer queries. Indeed, the company's official Automobile Customer Service Twitter account has pinned the following tweet to briefly describe the situation: At this time Honda Customer Service and Honda Financial Services are experiencing technical difficulties and are unavailable. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and understanding. Honda Automobile Customer Service (@HondaCustSvc) June 8, 2020 Honda seems hopeful that work will resume soon -- perhaps as early as this afternoon, according to the BBC -- but the exact timeline will probably depend on the nature of this attack, and how far it's already spread. Reports suggest that the virus could be a form of ransomware, which is often extraordinarily difficult to deal with -- see 2017's WannaCry debacle for evidence of that. Nonetheless, the good news here is that no sensitive data has been obtained by attackers as of writing. All employee and customer records are still secure, and if this is a ransomware attack, that will likely remain the case moving forward. Ransomware attackers typically just lock down computer systems and attempt to extort money out of users in exchange for unlocking them. We've reached out to Honda for more details about the nature of the cyber attack, but we don't expect a detailed response at this time. The carmaker's investigation still appears to be ongoing, and Honda will likely want to wait until it has concluded before it shares any specifics. Image credit: Grisha Bruev, Allied Telesis There are many reasons and ways to disagree with Cottons ideas and the way he presented them without censorship as prequel or apology as sequel. It is sadly ironic that the Times ultimately aided and abetted Cottons larger goals. The senators presidential ambitions are well-known and, thanks to the Times, have been well-served. Already, Cotton has added at least $200,000 to his coffers and made an instant name for himself in those quarters of the Republican Party in which it is never bad politics to do harm to the media. Heres his schadenfreude-drenched tweet: How is everyone at the @nytimes doing this morning? Did you have a late night trying to come up with an excuse to pretend you didnt cave to the woke mob? The statue near the Indian Embassy was vandalised prompting Indian embassy to register a complaint with local law enforcement agencies Washington: The defacement of Mahatma Gandhi's statue here was a "disgrace, US President Donald Trump has said, days after it was vandalised by unknown miscreants with graffiti and spray painting during the nationwide protests against the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd. The statue, which is across the road from the Indian Embassy, was vandalised on the intervening night of June 2 and 3, prompting the Indian embassy to register a complaint with the local law enforcement agencies. The incident happened during the week of nationwide protests against the custodial killing of Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. It was a disgrace, Trump made the brief comment at the White House on Monday when asked about the incident. The Indian Embassy here has taken up the matter with the US Department of State for early investigation into the matter, as also with the Metropolitan Police and National Park Service. It is working with the US Department of State, Metropolitan Police and National Park Service for expeditious restoration of the statue at the park. The US president and First Lady Melania Trump, during their visit to India in February, had spent considerable time at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had personally given them a tour of the historic place. The First Lady and I have just had a pleasure of visiting Mahatma Gandhi's Ashram, a few miles from here, where he launched the famous Salt March, Trump had said during his address at the Namaste Trump rally at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad on February 24. A day later, Trump and the first lady also laid a wreath at Raj Ghat in New Delhi. Pictures of Trump and the first lady with Gandhi's spinning wheel during their visit to the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad are seen hanging on the walls of the White House. Last week, top US lawmakers and the Trump Campaign condemned the vandalisation of the statue. "Very disappointing, tweeted Kimberly Guilfoyle, advisor to Donald J Trump for President Inc. and National Chair of the Trump Victory Finance Committees. North Carolina Senator Tom Tillis said, "It's disgraceful to see the defacing of the Gandhi statue" in Washington DC. Gandhi was a pioneer of peaceful protesting, demonstrating the great change it can bring. Rioting, looting and vandalising do not bring us together, he said. Senator Marco Rubio said, more evidence that violent radicals and run of the mill crazies have hijacked legitimate protests to create anarchy or for their own purposes. Protests against the custodial killing of Floyd turned violent in the US and prestigious monuments were damaged. In Washington DC, protestors burnt a historic church and damaged monuments like the Lincoln Memorial. US Ambassador to India Ken Juster apologised for the incident. "So sorry to see the desecration of the Gandhi statue in Wash, DC. Please accept our sincere apologies, he said. Appalled as well by the horrific death of George Floyd and the awful violence and vandalism. We stand against prejudice & discrimination of any type. We will recover and be better," he said in a tweet last week. One of the few statues of a foreign leader on a federal land in Washington DC, the statue of Gandhi was dedicated by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the presence of the then US president Bill Clinton on September 16, 2000, during his state visit to the US. The defacement of Mahatma Gandhi's statue by unknown miscreants was a "disgrace, US President Donald Trump has said, days after it was vandalised with graffiti and spray painting during the nationwide protests against the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd. The statue, which is across the road from the Indian Embassy, was vandalised on the intervening night of June 2 and 3, prompting the Indian embassy to register a complaint with the local law enforcement agencies. The incident happened during the week of nationwide protests against the custodial killing of Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. It was a disgrace, Trump made the brief comment at the White House on Monday when asked about the incident. The Indian Embassy here has taken up the matter with the US Department of State for early investigation into the matter, as also with the Metropolitan Police and National Park Service. It is working with the US Department of State, Metropolitan Police and National Park Service for expeditious restoration of the statue at the park. The US president and First Lady Melania Trump, during their visit to India in February, had spent considerable time at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had personally given them a tour of the historic place. The First Lady and I have just had a pleasure of visiting Mahatma Gandhi's Ashram, a few miles from here, where he launched the famous Salt March, Trump had said during his address at the Namaste Trump rally at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad on February 24. A day later, Trump and the first lady also laid a wreath at Raj Ghat in New Delhi. Pictures of Trump and the first lady with Gandhi's spinning wheel during their visit to the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad are seen hanging on the walls of the White House. Last week, top US lawmakers and the Trump Campaign condemned the vandalisation of the statue. "Very disappointing, tweeted Kimberly Guilfoyle, advisor to Donald J Trump for President Inc. and National Chair of the Trump Victory Finance Committees. North Carolina Senator Tom Tillis said, "It's disgraceful to see the defacing of the Gandhi statue" in Washington DC. Gandhi was a pioneer of peaceful protesting, demonstrating the great change it can bring. Rioting, looting and vandalising do not bring us together, he said. Senator Marco Rubio said more evidence that violent radicals and run of the mill crazies have hijacked legitimate protests to create anarchy or for their own purposes. Protests against the custodial killing of Floyd turned violent in the US and prestigious monuments were damaged. In Washington DC, protestors burnt a historic church and damaged monuments like the Lincoln Memorial. US Ambassador to India Ken Juster apologised for the incident. "So sorry to see the desecration of the Gandhi statue in Wash, DC. Please accept our sincere apologies, he said. Appalled as well by the horrific death of George Floyd and the awful violence and vandalism. We stand against prejudice & discrimination of any type. We will recover and be better," he said in a tweet last week. One of the few statues of a foreign leader on a federal land in Washington DC, the statue of Gandhi was dedicated by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the presence of the then US president Bill Clinton on September 16, 2000, during his state visit to the US. Even as West Bengals death toll due to coronavirus disease Covid-19 has crossed the 400-mark, its fatality rate has improved. With nine more deaths reported on Monday, the states death count now stands at 405, according to the state health department bulletin released on Monday night. Of the 405 deaths, 266 or 65.6% had co-morbid conditions. The last time the state had given data for comorbidity in the deaths of Covid-19 patients was on April 30, when the state attributed 72 of the 105 deaths, or 68.5%, to comorbidity. The fatality rate due to Covid-19 in the state has, however, significantly improved. On April 30, the states death rate stood at 10.19%, with 105 deaths among 1,030 Covid-19 positive patients. As on June 8, the states death rate stood at 4.7%, with 405 deaths among the total 8,613 persons testing positive for the coronavirus infection. This, however, is still higher than the national average. Indias fatality rate stood at 2.8% as of Monday morning, with 7,200 deaths reported against 256,611 persons testing positive for the disease. Only four states have recorded more deaths than Bengal, as of June 8 -- Maharashtra (3169), Gujarat (1,280), Delhi (874) and Madhya Pradesh (414). While Maharashtra has a mortality rate of 3.57% and Delhi has it as 2.91%, Madhya Pradeshs mortality rate due to Covid-19 is at 4.29% and Gujarat at 6.22%. Among the districts, Kolkata reported a much higher fatality rate at 9% nearly double Bengals average. The capital city accounted for 260 deaths against 2,886 persons testing positive. Kolkata and its neighbouring districts of Howrah and North 24-Parganas have long been the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in Bengal, until a couple of weeks ago when migrant workers returning to the rural districts started testing positive in their dozens. The death rate is low in the districts, first because most of the cases are new ones and secondly because most of the migrant workers are asymptomatic patients. In Kolkata, symptomatic patients made a large majority, said a health department official while explaining Kolkatas high death rate. Government officials also said a higher percentage of deaths in private Covid-19 hospitals has been noticed and it has been decided that a death audit committee will look into such cases. As per the health department data, death rate has been lower among men, at 4.48%, whereas for women it stood at 5.4%. There is also a huge gap in death rate between the age groups of 1-45 years and above 45 years. The death rate is lowest among 16-30 age groups at .17%. It is also low in the 1-16 age group at .69% and at 1.67% for the 30-45 age group. However, the rate is very high at 21.07% for those aged above 75. It stands at 15.39% for the age group of 60-75 and at 7.03% for the 40-60 age group.. Bengals discharge rate stood at 40.2%, with 3,465 persons discharged from hospitals following recovery. Meanwhile, the West Bengal government on Monday extended lockdown restrictions in containment zones till June 30 in line with the Union home ministrys guidelines. The restrictions were earlier in force till June 15. However, there would be certain relaxations outside the containment zones, where only essential services are allowed. A government order on extending lockdown said 25 people can attend marriages, funerals and places of worship at a time. The number was previously fixed at 10. Norms of physical distancing and health hygiene protocol must be strictly followed. Any violation in compliance of norms of physical distancing, health hygiene protocol and wearing of masks shall attract penal action as per law, the Bengal government order said. It is reiterated that movement of individuals shall remain prohibited between 9 pm to 5am, except for essential activities. District administration and local authorities shall issue appropriate orders in this regard and ensure strict compliance, the order said. People in many parts of Ontario will be able to dine at restaurants by Friday. Much of the Golden Horseshoe, including Toronto and the rest of the GTA, wont have that luxury, the provincial government announced Monday as it outlined plans for phase two of Ontarios reopening. The GTA is still driving new COVID-19 cases in the province, accounting for about 86 per cent of the total one day last week. The inability to scale back cases here could be due a number of reasons, including increased testing, which has led to the discovery of more positive cases, or an increase in public gatherings, said Dr. Jennifer Kwan, a family physician whos been tracking COVID-19 data in the province. Kwan belongs to #Masks4Canada, a group of physicians and citizens advocating for the mandatory wearing of masks. As well, she said, delayed reports of positive tests to public health units, which the province acknowledged happened earlier this month at a drive-thru assessment centre in Etobicoke, could have allowed people to spread the virus unknowingly. Heres the latest snapshot of coronavirus in chart form. Provincial vs. GTA cases On Monday evening, the provinces regional health units reported 314 new COVID-19 cases, a decrease of 101 cases reported the same time Sunday. The seven-day rolling average has remained below 400 new daily cases since May 27. Most of Mondays reported cases were in the GTA, a trend that has been ongoing for several weeks. Todd Coleman, epidemiologist and assistant professor in health sciences at Wilfrid Laurier University, said while the rolling seven-day average indicates a plateau in recent days, circulation is still occurring at the community level and the number of new cases are not going down. He said this could be because people are relaxing their social distancing at the community level, or because of more aggressive testing in recent days. The more you test, the more you find. Its just a natural function of testing, Coleman said. While cases in Ontario appear to have plateaued, Susan Bondy, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health, noted that provincial officials previously had planned to reopen when they saw a clear decline in cases. But when push came to shove, it seems as though the Ontario population is pressuring their government to open up, she said. Values change. You live with your decisions and you feel how much the pain hurts and then you learn what you can sustain and what you cant sustain. In Ontario, there have been 32,612 positive cases of COVID-19 reported since the pandemic began, and 2,507 deaths (22 more than the day before). R is for reproduction number For the past month, the COVID-19 reproduction number has hovered stubbornly around 1 in Ontario, meaning that on average, every person who has the virus continues to infect at least one other person. If the number goes below one, it means the number of new daily cases in the province will finally decrease. Worldwide, many countries like Italy, Switzerland, and Germany are using R as a metric to guide reopening, said Ryan Imgrund, who is head of the science department at Sacred Heart Catholic High School in Newmarket, as well as a biostatistician with Southlake Regional Health Centre. Imgrund began monitoring the reproduction number in April for Southlake and says that studies show it increases about a week prior to an increased demand for ICU and ward beds. That is exactly what we have found, said Imgrund. His data also shows the reproduction number varies by region in Ontario. Research also shows that if 60 to 80 per cent of people wear masks, it can have a significant impact on the reproduction number, according to an open letter signed by more than 25 doctors from the GTA, Hamilton and Windsor. The letter, addressed to Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer of Canada, and Dr. David Williams, Ontarios chief medical officer among others, says masks are critical in order to ensure a safe reopening, prevent additional outbreaks, and save lives. A Leger web survey conducted May 30 and May 31 found 48 per cent of people used masks in public in Canada. The group of doctors is asking the province to consider making masks mandatory in all indoor spaces outside the home, in crowds and public transit. By Monday morning, another 79 doctors from across the province had added their names to the open letter. Hospitalizations are down Since May 14, the number of hospitalizations in Ontario due to COVID-19 has been declining steadily. At the same time, the numbers of people ending up in the ICU and as a subset of that, those on ventilators, have also been declining, but at a slower rate. As of Monday, there were 603 COVID-19 hospitalizations, down from 1,026 on May 14. Of Mondays 603 hospitalizations due to the virus, 118 of those were in the ICU, and of those, 81 were on ventilators. Wilfrid Lauriers Coleman said the drop makes sense given that there has been a reduction in active cases of the virus in long-term-care settings, which are made up of some of societys most vulnerable. If were seeing a drop in (long-term care), were going to see a drop in hospitalizations, he said, noting that he expects to see a certain percentage of hospitalizations. People who are going into hospitals are likely to be more severe cases, which would likely mean that there is a certain proportion of that group that progresses to ICU and to ventilators. LTC Homes For the sixth straight day, the number of active cases of COVID-19 in residents of long-term care homes has fallen below 1,000. As of Monday, there were 884 cases of the virus in Ontario nursing homes. At the same time, the number of long-term-care staff members with the virus fell below 1,000 for the ninth straight day, with 665 reported Monday. The numbers show a continuation of a decline in cases at long-term-care facilities that began around the beginning of May. Coleman illustrated the trend with an example: Think about it in terms of a disease spreading in a town of 2,000 people. If its gone through 1,500 of them, then the probability of the other 500 getting infected will be lower than what it was originally when one person came in and infected the 1,500. He also said its possible safety measures homes have put in place to protect residents after the media highlighted the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care have started to work. Bondy noted that while more proactive testing, more effective isolation and more efforts to minimize the importation of the virus have had positive results in long-term care, there are other areas of society in need of similar interventions. Theres a really important socio-economic lens and equality lens to look at this. The very earliest cases were people who brought it in from international travel. They had enough money to travel for vacation or they were very connected and affluent and travelling for work. Infectious disease tends to settle into the most disenfranchised populations, she said, pointing specifically to recent outbreaks in the food processing industry and among migrant farm workers. Can they get tested? Or will that cause them economic harm? Do they have access to testing? Countries compared New Zealand announced Monday that no new cases of COVID-19 had been reported for two weeks and that the country would lift all of the restrictions implemented during the pandemic, including social distancing, although the countrys borders remain closed to non-residents. Meanwhile, June 15 has become a popular date for border openings in a number of countries. On that date, the Netherlands will reopen its borders to tourists from 30 countries. Switzerland will welcome tourists from all EU states including Britain, as well as from Liechtenstein, Norway, and Iceland on June 15. And Iceland will open its borders to tourists around the world June 15. Travellers to the country can avoid a 14-day quarantine by voluntarily agreeing to a test for the virus at the airport. They will also be asked to download the governments official automated contact-tracing app. On Monday, Britain implemented a 14-day quarantine policy for all arrivals and the governments Foreign Office continued to advise against all but essential travel. But the Sun newspaper in the U.K. reports that policy may soon be scrapped and that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pushing for an agreement with certain EU countries to exempt Brits from a two-week quarantine to allow for sunshine summer holidays. Correction - June 9, 2020: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled the name of Newmarkets Sacred Heart Catholic High School. 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 on an armored vehicle patrol downtown Walnut Creek, Calif., last Monday after a protest resulted in looting. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Digital First Media/The Mercury News via Getty Images) The high plains and rugged mountains of Wyoming arent exactly synonymous with high crime rates or modern warfare, much less the kinds of mass protests currently roiling the country. But police agencies in the sparsely populated state have been arming themselves to the teeth in recent years. Just 80,000 people reside in sprawling Natrona County, home of the city of Casper, yet the county sheriffs office has scored three military-style armored trucks since 1997 worth a combined $195,000, plus a $126,000 cargo carrier. The sheriffs office in nearby Campbell County, which has just 48,000 residents, helped itself to a $658,000 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle, or MRAP, in 2013 and a $733,000 version the following year. In the capital city of Cheyenne, police ordered a pair of MRAPs worth a combined $1.42 million. All of it has been virtually free, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense and its 1033 program, which has given law enforcement agencies across the country access to a huge array of surplus military weapons, equipment and, reportedly, more than 13,000 MRAP vehicles, many of which have been seen driving on city streets recently as police confront those protesting the death of George Floyd in police custody. It has contributed to what many say is an alarming militarization of civilian police forces sworn to protect, not attack, citizens. And its drawing fresh scrutiny from those who decry the aggressive crackdown on protesters, and the killing of unarmed black Americans, by police. Controversial for many years, the 1033 program now faces renewed, bipartisan calls in Congress to limit it or shut it down. As a combat veteran and proud Marine, very little of my equipment or training was relevant to policing Phoenix or other American communities, U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and military veteran, told The New York Times. Our neighborhoods arent war zones. Story continues Originally developed out of need to protect U.S. soldiers from improvised explosive devices and ambushes in Iraq and Afghanistan, MRAP production ended in 2012 after nearly 27,000 were built by seven manufacturers, but many are still in use. Weighing up to 18 tons, they typically feature a V-shaped hull, raised chassis, armored plating and blast-resistant underbodies. Law enforcement agencies cite their usefulness in responding to natural disasters situations like floods or hurricanes, for use by SWAT teams or for responding to terrorist attacks. But theyve also featured in the police response to Black Lives Matter protests in cities including Minneapolis, Miami and Washington D.C. According to BuzzFeed News, the most recent inventory of property held by local law enforcement agencies shows that police in New York City have two MRAP vehicles worth $1.5 million. The Chicago Police Department helped itself to one to go with a $916,000 helicopter and more than 300 military rifles, part of a total haul of more than $1.8 million worth of gear. In suburban Winthrop Harbor, Ill., a tony enclave of 6,767, police have six helicopters from the program, part of $1 million worth of military gear the department now possesses. The 1033 program is managed by the Defense Logistics Agency. Much of the equipment is standard-issue gear including office supplies, furniture, firearms and other equipment. Local law enforcement agencies can acquire the equipment through a wide array of federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Treasury and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Between 4% and 7% of what is transferred is considered controlled property that cannot be distributed to the public. Details of the program, including what equipment went where, were a closely held secret until late in 2014, when the Pentagon released details, identifying for the first time the police departments that received equipment. The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news service, reported that year that the program had delivered $5 billion worth of equipment between 1990 and 2014, including $1.4 billion in tactical military equipment. The program began in 1990 to funnel surplus military equipment to help police departments wage the war on drugs. It expanded in 1997, and then again after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. But then Ferguson, Mo., erupted in protests in 2014 following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a white police officer. Images of police armed with assault weapons and other military equipment obtained under the program shocked the nation. President Obama enacted restrictions on the program in 2015 after a review ordered a year before found that the rules vary between the federal departments participating in 1033, that the program lacked transparency, and that equipment often piled up at levels inconsistent with the size and training capacity of smaller departments. Despite the restrictions, BuzzFeed found that local law enforcement agencies had still netted more than $850 million worth of equipment since Ferguson. Birch Run, Mich., is a village of about 1,600 known for its outlet mall and a diner famous for serving a BLT sandwich with a pound of bacon on it. Its police department has $50,000 worth of military gear, including a $14,000 interrogator set. In 2017, the GAO Government Accountability Office, as part of a routine review of the program, set up a fictitious federal agency and obtained more than 100 controlled items worth an estimated $1.2 million, including simulated M-16 rifles and pipe bombs meant for training but that the GAO said could be rendered lethal if modified. President Trump rescinded the restrictions placed on the program by his predecessor in 2017. Today, the list of equipment held by local police agencies shows how they have benefited from military largesse. In Washington state, police in Aberdeen (population 16,654) got a mine-resistant vehicle worth $733,000 in 2014. So did police in Walla Walla (pop. 32,986), in southeast Washingtons bucolic wine country. The King County Sheriffs Office in the Seattle area nabbed a four-wheel ATV valued at $11,000, four helicopters totaling $3.42 million and a $19,000 mine-detecting set, part of a total haul worth $4.09 million. In Illinois, the Cook County Sheriffs Office obtained 11 utility trucks valued at $705,682. In suburban Winthrop Harbor, Ill., a tony enclave of 6,767, police have six helicopters from the program, part of $1 million worth of military gear the department now possesses. MRAP vehicles have also gone to police in locations as incongruous as Aberdeen, S.D., and Lewiston, Maine. In Michigan, the police department for Thetford Township, a rural area of fewer than 7,000 residents just north of Flint, has a whopping 53 line items for nearly $280,000 worth of equipment, including a nearly $19,000 set of bulletproof armor, a $5,600 mine-detection kit and two thermal sights valued at $12,000 each. The department was also the beneficiary of two utility trucks valued at nearly $64,000 apiece, delivered in 2012. Not far up Interstate 75 is Birch Run, a village of about 1,600 known for its outlet mall and a diner famous for serving a BLT sandwich with a pound of bacon on it. Its police department has benefitted from $50,000 worth of military gear, including a $21,000 portable light unit and a $14,000 interrogator set. To see what equipment police agencies near you have obtained under the 1033 program, check out this comprehensive database at the Defense Logistics Agency's website. Google Play Movies is offering movie rentals and discounts to raise awareness and support the Black Lives Matter movement. Google Play Movies offers rentals and discounts for Black Lives Matter The Google Play Movies selection eligible for discounts and free rentals includes movies such as Just Mercy, Antwone Fisher, Ali, Malcolm X (1972), Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, The Color Purple, and others. Keep in mind that some movies are free to rent but come at a discount to purchase. Other movies are eligible for rent and purchase discounts. Some movies are only eligible for purchase, no rents allowed. A total of 37 movies are available for rent and purchase, which means that Play Store shoppers have a lot of content to watch for educational purposes. Advertisement Black Lives Matter: what is it? What does the term Black Lives Matter mean? Some see it as nothing more than a racist term against what is a racist movement. And yet, its not. The term does not refer to African-Americans only, as though no other races (such as Hispanics, Native Americans, and People of Color) matter. Rather, Black Lives Matter is a movement devoted to raising awareness to police brutality and discrimination against African-Americans. It assumes that all lives matter, which is why its fighting against racism targeted against black people. With the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Manuel Ellis, Botham Jean, and others, it is important to understand that African-Americans have become a specific target of police brutality. Advertisement African-Americans are being killed at an alarming rate. Though African-Americans comprise small portions of the population in their respective US states, they are more a police target than their Caucasian counterparts. Recently, George Floyd was called out of his car when he was reported for having paid a store clerk with a presumably counterfeit $20 bill. After being called out of the car by police, he was forced on the ground by four police officers. Two policemen held down his legs. One policeman applied pressure to Mr. Floyds back. Advertisement Another police officer put his knee on Mr. Floyds neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. By that time, Mr. Floyd had stopped breathing and died at the scene. Two medical examiners, one an independent examiner hired by the Floyd family, state that the cause of death is homicide by hypoxia. He was just 46 years old and leaves behind at least 3 children, including a 6-year-old daughter. Googles Play Movies Add To Black Lives Matter movement support The rental and purchase discounts come as yet another move to support Black Lives Matter. Googles YouTube is donating $1 million to the Center for Policing Equity. Some YouTube video creators are also pledging their ad revenue to the BLM movement. In the first all-party meeting called by Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Delhi, the BJP and Congress demanded that the testing be increased, while the ruling AAP raised the issue of patients from outside the national capital seeking treatment in hospitals here. Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said he emphasised on the need to increase the COVID-19 testing and the number of hospital beds for the affected. He also suggested that schools and metro services should not be resumed and the government should reconsider its decision to permit opening of malls in view of the rising cases of coronavirus. "The situation is deteriorating in Delhi due to the failure of the Delhi government and the situation warrants raising the number of tests and beds. The government should rise above politics to work with other parties and organisations," Gupta said. Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar claimed in the meeting that since the coronavirus cases started to spike after June 3, Delhi has been testing fewer people every day, and said it was a "dangerous" situation. "Delhi has completely failed on the testing front," he said after the meeting. Kumar also demanded that a cash transfer of Rs 10,000 be immediately made to the account of each coronavirus affected family in containment zones to help them survive the financial and health crises. The Delhi government should share the data of contact tracing and isolation, Kumar demanded and suggested tele-consultation facilities to avoid crowding at hospitals, and simplifying information sharing about bed availability through Delhi government mobile app. The meeting came a day after the LG overruled the AAP government's decision to reserve private and Delhi government hospitals for local residents while leaving central government hospitals for outsider patients. AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said he raised the issue of patients coming from outside Delhi for treatment and how the city will deal with the pressure. "When I asked the LG if any arrangement for the people who will be coming from all over the country has been made, he did not have an answer," Singh said. He also attacked the BJP over the issue. "It is clear that Yogi and Khattar governments have collapsed in tackling the coronavirus crisis and health services in Noida, Ghaziabad and Guragaon are in shambles. That is why the BJP pressured the LG into revoking the decision of Delhi government," he told reporters after the all-party meeting. New York, June 10 : With elections looming just 21 week away, President Donald Trump is planning to hold rallies again this month in a move to boost his sagging support. Trump will be holding "full rallies" with safety precautions, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told a Fox News TV programme on Tuesday. She said that he could resume his rallies now that states are relaxing restrictions that were imposed to combat COVID-19, but did not say when he would. Politico said that the rallies could start as soon as two weeks. It quoted Trump's campaign chief Brad Parscale as saying, "Americans are ready to get back to action and so is President Trump. The great American comeback is real and the rallies will be tremendous. You'll again see the kind of crowds and enthusiasm that sleepy Joe Biden can only dream of." Biden, a former vice president who will be the Democratic presidential candidate, is leading Trump by 8 percentage points according to the latest aggregation of poll numbers by RealClear Politics. He has consistently led Trump in the RealClear Politics averaging of major polls with his lead fluctuating between 4.4 per cent and 8 per cent since January. Of the so-called battleground states, which can swing either way, Trump is expected to concentrate on six of them, which he won in 2016 but where he is now trailing Biden. Trump is in his elements at the massive rallies he addresses and his fiery - and down-to-earth - oratory are his strongest bet to draw votes. But COVID-19 -- which he calls the "China Virus" -- has bottled him up for about 90 days. A man with an obsession for superlatives, Trump boasts of the 100,000 attendance at the "Namaste Trump" rally in Ahmedabad in February, although probably only a handful of audience were American voters. McDaniel said that there would be temperature checks and other safety precautions similar to those proposed for holding the party's convention in Raleigh, North Carolina. Holding of the convention at which Trump would be formally anointed as the party's presidential candidate is up in the air because Roy Cooper, the Democratic governor of North Carolina, has refused to say whether because of the COVID-19 restrictions he would allow it to be held in Charlotte as planned. The RNC had said it was expecting 50,000 people for its convention and is looking at alternative sites. Not being able to hold the convention, a national tradition that gets three days of national attention and TV time, or scaling it down will be a set-back for Trump to get his message out. The Democrats, who have been cautious about loosening the pandemic restrictions and criticised Trump for advocating restarting the economy and society, have yet to decide if they will hold the convention scheduled for August in Milwaukee. But they have made provisions in their rules for virtual voting by convention delegates to formally nominate Biden as the party candidate. If Trump holds rallies, it will create a dilemma for Democrats, who oppose a full opening of the country but will have to counter Trump. But the tens of thousands of its supporters who have participated in the protests against police brutality have flouted social distancing - and even mask - guidelines for preventing the spread of COVID-19, which may make strictly holding on to them for the convention moot. Trump initially had a propaganda advantage after suspending his campaign rallies in March because he held centre-stage in the daily briefings on the coronavirus crisis along with experts. But the briefings are now only held intermittently. Trump's campaign web site has not listed any live events as of Tuesday, but has schedules for virtual meetings but none mentioned Trump's participation. When Trump holds his rallies, he will face several logistical problems such as how to maintain social distancing among the tens of thousands of his supporters. (Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis) Description GIS 08 June 2020: 08 June 2020: The Budget 2020-2021, in addition to the well-documented measures targeting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) under the Plan de Soutien, has earmarked some Rs 10 billion to support SMEs. The Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah, made this statement, today, in his intervention during budget debates at the National Assembly, in Port Louis. In addition, said the Minister, the new Data Technology Park to be set up at Cote dOr epitomises Governments commitment to accompany enterprises in their digital transformation drive through the provision of an adequate ecosystem for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. he highlighted that the need of the hour is more than ever propitious to adopt technologies associated with Industry 4.0 and embed automation in production processes so as to increase agility and flexibility. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Augmented Virtual Reality and Cloud Computing, he pointed out, have the potential to increase our preparedness when coping with any unprecedented crisis, such as the Covid-19. According to him, the Technology and Innovation Fund announced in the current Budget will help SMEs with equity of up to Rs 2 million in their projects so as to further foster entrepreneurship and ideas. This new fund adds to the numerous existing schemes already put in place for SMEs, he added. Minister Bholah further stated that a common shared Facility Centre to the tune of Rs 9.5 million will be established at Coromandel in order to further improve and encourage the creative and innovative capabilities of SMEs. The Centre will host working spaces where entrepreneurs will be able to innovate, invent, and co-create while using state-of-the-art technology put at their disposal. It will also host jewellery and other innovation studios, providing necessary tools to tailor and customise products with digital fabrication of prototypes and printing. Other measures announced in Budget 2020-2021 for SMEs include: an increase of the one-off grant towards certification under Made in Moris label from Rs 5,000 to a maximum of Rs 50,000; a Margin of Preference of 40 % instead of 30 % under Public Procurement for SMEs holding the Made in Moris label; and a Margin of Preference of 20 to 30% on public purchases for all local manufacturing companies. Half-Empty Classrooms, Hybrid Teaching Models Mulled in Mount Greylock District WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. Much is unknown about how the start of school will look in the fall, but the Education Subcommittee of the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee got one definite piece of information on Monday morning. "Is it possible that we might be in a guidance situation where we could have a full classroom of students?" Chair Steven Miller asked Superintendent Kimberley Grady. "No," Grady answered. "Its going to be reduced class sizes." How schools go about reducing numbers in the classroom is yet to be determined, and districts like Mount Greylock are waiting for further guidance from the commonwealths commissioner of education that is due to come out some time next week, Grady said. Social distancing because of the COVID-19 pandemic is a certainty. "Theyre not talking about a full opening with 100 percent of the students in any of the conversations that they are having at this point," she said. "If we stay all remote [learning], it will look differently than it looks now. Well begin to have conversations with [the local teachers union] about what remote learning will look like in the fall. The hybrid model is what it would look like if we had a partial opening of a percentage of students and faculty and we had alternating days and weeks of when students would be getting remote versus in-person presentations." The state has asked local districts to begin preliminary planning for operations in either of those scenarios. Mount Greylock has designated seven planning teams to begin looking at various issues within those scenarios: governance, instruction, technology, facilities, operations, wellness and parent/community/student. On Monday, Grady discussed with the subcommittee who will be leading each of those working groups. "With instructional components, [union head Marty Walter] had reached out to the teachers for us, so we do have a building-based rep just to have them in the ground level conversations," she said. "Then we will have smaller groups, and we will need additional teachers to be covering things within our roadmap of what reopening looks like. "We do have one teacher from each building to be on the instructional conversation as well as Pat [Blackman] on tech, [Lanesborough Elementarys Juliann Haskins and Williamstown Elementarys Rebecca Leonard] potentially on tech, social workers, psychologists, guidance counsellors and nurses on wellness. Our parent/community/student group, we have eight or nine parents, a representative from each of the three schools, and at the middle/high school, Mary [MacDonald] has reached out to some students to participate in that component. Theyll be assisting with getting some feedback from the communities as well as a survey that well be sending out." As for the districts first foray into the world of remote learning, the Education Subcommittee members were struck by the results of a late April survey of teachers about student engagement with classwork since the closure of the school buildings. According to data presented to the committee on Monday, a little less than 30 percent of the students at all three schools were completed more than 75 percent of their assigned work (based on 75 teacher responses). "Just over half of the students were participating in virtual classrooms at least 75 percent of the time, and not even 30 percent were completing three quarters or more of the assigned work," Alison Carter said. "The numbers could go up, they could go down. Ive seen in my childrens classrooms, one of them seems to be pretty consistent in terms of participation, and one seems to be just a few kids dialing in now. "Im sure there are a lot of conversations going on about how to get these numbers up. It might be interesting to hear some reflections on what the thoughts are around engagement and how we can -- for those days that likely will be remote -- how to make sure students arent just falling off." WES Assistant Principal Elea Kaatz talked about the steps teachers and administrators take to reach out to families when pupils are not engaging in their remote classrooms. If emails or phone calls to a family are not answered or returned, Kaatz said she will visit a childs home or even ask the police to do a wellness check. But she noted it can be difficult for parents to step into the role of teacher. "In a lot of cases, parents are in touch with us and say, 'Im working from 8 to 4, and Im doing my very best to get dinner on the table and do schoolwork at 7 oclock, but then I have to get my student to bed, " Kaatz said. "So well work on a strategy to say, 'OK, right now, theyre not doing any work. Lets get them back on track doing an assignment. "Were making sure we can give families supports to get re-engaged because sometimes its really hard. Of course, we want 100 percent work completion. We would love that. But in reality, we know we have to support parents in developing those strategies at home, giving them checklists. "The rate of work completion is something we have to think about and evaluate, but I also know we have a lot of families who are doing their very, very best to balance. Supporting them in every way we can has really been our mission since we closed." WES Principal Joelle Brookner noted that as late as last week she was still distributing Chromebooks to families. Sometimes families began the remote learning process thinking they had adequate devices only to realize later that they needed school-issued hardware. "Any plan we have for remote learning [in the fall], we will be right away giving people devices," Brookner said. MacDonald, the Mount Greylock principal, said that from her conversations with teachers, the lack of engagement has led educators to re-evaluate "not just how theyre teaching but what theyre teaching." "I think we went into this really full force saying, What are the most important components of our curriculum? How do I turn that into digital lessons and get students engaged and give them the opportunity to address and achieve the standards? " MacDonald said. "You hear these conversations at all levels of education. Now were stepping back and saying, What is the pedagogy? Lets not worry so much about replicating what we do in class because the critical teacher isnt there in the same way. "So youre beginning to say, what are the standards, how can I do it? I may not be able to do something thats been beloved by the students and successful in the past in a face-to-face model. Were going to have to spend a lot of time thinking about how do I reorganize that curriculum." Looking to the 2020-21 academic year, School Committee Chair Christina Conry asked whether too much of a burden was going to be put on teachers who will have to plan for both in-person and remote instruction simultaneously. "As for teachers having to do two sets of lessons, thats not necessarily the case," Grady said. "Theres a lot that has to come out in the commissioners guidelines before we start thinking. All the what ifs create a lot of uncertainty and a lot of anxiety for faculty and staff. That is why were talking regularly with the [union] so as were learning things, they learn things. "I dont want them thinking they will have twice the amount of work to do. They may just be an in-person teacher and have a colleague in a co-taught model who is doing the week that the students arent here in a remote platform. Theres a lot of conversations that have to happen before we make people think their caseload has doubled or tripled." Ireland will not go back into full lockdown even if there is a second wave of Covid-19 later in the year. Those involved in the State's response to the pandemic believe that if there is a new surge of infection they will be able to take a more targeted approach. "We now know the buttons to press. We know what interrupts transition," a source told the Irish Independent. Very little was known about the coronavirus when it reached Europe. However, there is now strong evidence that individual responsibility can stall its spread. Read More "Mass gathering and indoor meeting may be stopped again at the drop of a hat - but you won't see a situation where every school in the country is closed again," a well-placed source said. They noted that a proper test and trace system is now in place and the public understands social distancing. It's understood there are now fewer than 1,000 active cases of Covid-19 in Ireland and just 122 people receiving treatment in hospital due to the virus. Separately, virus expert Dr Cillian De Gascun will today warn that lessons must be learned so Ireland can be "better prepared" for the next pandemic. Expand Close Dr Cillian De Gascun / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dr Cillian De Gascun The National Virus Reference Laboratory director will tell TDs of hundreds of types of coronaviruses in bats - and viruses are likely to cross species again. Two metre rule Meanwhile, a senior Government minister has offered hope to the hospitality industry that the two-metre social distancing rule can be relaxed to allow the sector to recover from the massive hit it has taken from the coronavirus crisis. Business Minister Heather Humphreys said it may not be necessary for the two metres to strictly apply if the transmission rate of the disease remains low. Expand Close Minister Heather Humphreys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Minister Heather Humphreys It comes after it was revealed by the Irish Independent less than a quarter of people working in hotels, restaurants and pubs will return to their jobs at the end of the month if the strict rule is maintained for the industry. The Department of Business report, based on Failte Ireland research, said just 63,200 of the 260,000 people employed in the sector will return to work if the restriction is not eased. However, if the social distancing rule was cut to one metre, around 148,300 could return to work. Ms Humphreys said that Failte Ireland is working with the sector and the HSE to develop detailed protocols for reopening. "As part of their work they're looking at the implementation of the two-metre rule across the hospitality sector and provided that figures go in the right direction and provided that the transmission rate remains low, it might be that in certain spaces it won't be necessary to strictly apply the two-metre rule." She said the matter is under review. Ms Humphreys added: "We have a number of weeks yet before they open. And I think it's important that we obviously work together and look at all the options." The Dail's Special Committee on Covid-19 Response will today hear from officials from Ms Humphreys's department as well as representatives from business lobby groups Isme and Ibec. Orlaigh Quinn, the secretary general of the Department of Business, will set out how the accommodation and food sector has been "the hardest hit so far" with 90pc of its workers either receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) or the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS). She will set out the various financial supports that the Government is offering businesses. Isme, which represents small and medium enterprises (SMEs), is expected to claim that the State is "fixated" on foreign multinationals and SMEs are a "blind-spot" for the Government. Its submission to the committee also includes a warning that many businesses "would simply not survive a longer shutdown". It said sentiment on the chances of businesses surviving has improved but pointed to surveys showing that 6pc of businesses believe they will cease trading in a month and 44pc in six months. The Isme submission adds: "It is imperative that these figures do not actually materialise." Isme also said the Government should make further changes to the PUP so that people earning between 230 and 350 before the pandemic only get an unemployment payment equal to their previous wages. Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy will call for "immediate action" to remove the 14-day quarantine restrictions for people coming into the country, reduce the two-metre rule and bring in an "extensive and systematic" Covid track and trace programme. Ibec is also calling for a 15bn "reboot plan" within the first 100 days of the new government. An Irish rape victim who was assaulted while living in Portugal has said she believes a key suspect in the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann could be her attacker. Hazel Behan was working as a holiday representative in Praia da Rocha, Portugal, when she was raped in June 2004, two weeks before her 21st birthday, in her apartment. Her attacker has never been caught. The victim believes that a key suspect in the Madeleine McCann case, named as Christian Bruckner, could be her attacker after she noted similarities in Bruckner's 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz to her own ordeal. Expand Close A picture taken in 2018 of Christian Brueckner, when he was arrested for drug trafficking in Italy. Photo: ITALIAN CARABINIERI PRESS OFFICE / AFP / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A picture taken in 2018 of Christian Brueckner, when he was arrested for drug trafficking in Italy. Photo: ITALIAN CARABINIERI PRESS OFFICE / AFP Hazel, who waived her right to anonymity, told the Guardian: "My mind was blown when I read how he had attacked a woman in 2005, both the tactics and the methods he used, the tools he had with him, how well he had planned it out. "I puked, to be honest with you, as reading about it took me right back to my experience." Recalling the horrific ordeal, Hazel told the newspaper she was woken up in the early hours of the morning by someone calling her name. "I had gone to bed around 1am, and was awoken by someone calling my name. I turned on to my back and standing there was a masked man dressed in tights and what resembled a leotard, a machete around 12in long in his hand," she said. She said her attacker was about 6ft 1in and wore a mask that covered his whole head, but she could "see he had blonde eyebrows, and piercing blue eyes, even in the dark". The man, who she told police spoke English with a German accent, had removed his shoes at the door and set up a video camera in the room. He took out a bag full of whips and chains before cutting her clothes from her body with a scissors and gagging her. She said: "It seemed to me he had worked everything out, he had a plan and was very deliberate. He consistently cleaned his hands, and repeatedly changed condoms. This went on, I guess, for around four or five hours. "When he was finished, he took me down from the counter, but I could not stand up because of the ropes digging into the backs of my legs. He wanted me to perform a certain act on him which I just couldnt, I was gagging. "He got angry and ordered me into the bathroom and he picked up the machete. I was convinced he was going to kill me, and I threatened to scream and said I would not go in there. "My hands were still tied behind my back and he leaned me over a small bench and put a sheet over my head. I thought that was it, my life was over. But underneath the sheet I watched as he backed out of the door, put on his shoes and ran away down the street." Once her attacker left, she ran down the corridor to find help. Shortly after, around 30 policemen and officials came to investigate. Hazel said they took her back to the room "where I was asked to strip off and stand in a star jump-like stance whilst they took pictures of me. That was one of the most humiliating aspects of the whole ordeal." She was brought to the local hospital where she was examined, but she does not know if forensic evidence was taken. Hazel added that she is "not very confident" that police examined her room correctly either. She said she had "little hope" over the past 16 years that detectives would find her assailant. "I was told at the time that I should just be quiet, that if I talked about what had happened I would bring bad publicity to the resort and put off the tourists. "Then I read about the poor American woman who was raped in September 2005 who I would love to talk to and the possible link that was being made between her attack and the person who abducted Madeleine McCann, and I was so full of anger, I knew in my gut it was the right thing to do to speak out. "I think if the police had done their job investigating what happened to me, if this is indeed the same man that attacked the American and abducted Madeleine McCann, they might have prevented the attack on her, and Madeleine would now be at home with her parents." Hazel has given a statement to the Met police, who have told her they are taking her case seriously and would be contacting Portuguese police. On Twitter, top UK tea brand Yorkshire Tea told a racist to get lost. The racist said they would henceforth drink PG Tips instead. The account of PG Tips waded in to tell them to get lost too. Please don't buy our tea again. We're taking some time to educate ourselves and plan proper action before we post. We stand against racism. #BlackLivesMatter Yorkshire Tea (@YorkshireTea) June 8, 2020 Per the BBC's summary: Laura Towler, a right-wing vlogger based in Yorkshire, praised her local brand for not having voiced support for the movement. Yorkshire Tea said it had not yet commented on the BLM protests as it had been "taking time to educate" itself. It tweeted: "Please don't buy our tea again." PG Tips, which is owned by consumer goods giant Unilever, soon lent its support to its rival as right-wing commentators urged a boycott on Twitter. "If you are boycotting teas that stand against racism, you're going to have to find two new brands now #blacklivesmatter #solidaritea," the brand tweeted. Attention, Americans: there are few superior options for bagged tea than Yorkshire Gold, available by the box or in bulk from Amazon. I have them ship five boxes to me every three months and still run out. Steep in freshly-boiled water in a warmed cup or teapot for the best results. The other brand is not quite so good as Yorkshire Tea, in my opinion, but Amazon sells these enormous 1000-teabag sacks of PG Tips that bring the price of a quality cup to just 4 cents. It takes me at least six months to take out one of these, drinking at an orderly pace. Rolling out a coronavirus vaccine too quickly could spell trouble because scientists won't know how long it offers protection for, a top expert has warned. Professor Robin Shattock heading up trials of Imperial College London's Covid-19 jab admitted it could be 'dangerous' to give doses while the puzzle of immunity remains unsolved. Researchers have yet to uncover firm proof of immunity, raising fears that survivors could get re-infected after already fighting off the disease. Typically if a person gets a coronavirus which can cause the common cold they would only be protected for a couple of months. However immunity against SARS the most closely related coronavirus to the new one lasts for around two years, research suggests. Human trials of experimental vaccines are still in the early stages, meaning it is still unclear whether the jabs can offer any immunity. The Imperial vaccine will be given to Brits next week in the next crucial step of research. Professor Shattock said he doesn't expect results until 2021, and his team are not in a race with Oxford University the other leading British vaccine candidate. The two vaccines have been compared against each other for several weeks, given they offer policymakers the potential to end global lockdowns. Oxford's vaccine has been in trials since April 23. Drug giant AstraZeneca has already started manufacturing the jab in hope it can be ready by September. Ministers have said the Government is hoping to be in a position to roll-out a mass vaccination programme in the autumn of this year. Rolling out a coronavirus vaccine too quickly could spell trouble because it's not clear how long protection lasts, a scientist has said (file photo) Imperial's Professor Robin Shattock said it could be 'dangerous' to administer the vaccine before knowing more about immunity How the vaccines from Imperial College London and Oxford University would work Speaking at a Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) webinar, Professor Shattock said it is not currently known how long Covid-19 immunity lasts. But he said that it is known that other coronavirus infections can give relatively short-lived immunity. Professor Shattock said: 'So we hope that a vaccine will do better than that. I think one of the dangers that we may see is if vaccines are rolled out early after a few months of data, we'll know that they're protective for a few months, we won't know whether they give long-term immunity. What is the difference between the vaccines being developed by Oxford University and Imperial College? The science behind both vaccine attempts hinges on recreating the 'spike' proteins that are found all over the outside of the COVID-19 viruses. Both will attempt to recreate or mimic these spikes inside the body. The difference between the two is how they achieve this effect. Imperial College London will try to deliver genetic material (RNA) from the coronavirus which programs cells inside the patient's body to recreate the spike proteins. It will transport the RNA inside liquid droplets injected into the bloodstream. The team at the University of Oxford, on the other hand, will genetically engineer a virus to look like the coronavirus - to have the same spike proteins on the outside - but be unable to cause any infection inside a person. This virus, weakened by genetic engineering, is a type of virus called an adenovirus, the same as those which cause common colds, that has been taken from chimpanzees. If the vaccines can successfully mimic the spikes inside a person's bloodstream, and stimulate the immune system to create special antibodies to attack it, this could train the body to destroy the real coronavirus if they get infected with it in future. The same process is thought to happen in people who catch COVID-19 for real, but this is far more dangerous - a vaccine will have the same end-point but without causing illness in the process. Advertisement 'So, there is a danger of moving too fast, and we need to keep monitoring to look at duration.' Vaccines that wear off after time will need to be administered again in a 'booster'. For example, a tetanus shot is recommended every ten years. Professor Shattock said: 'I think we need to have a fallback that if we do need annual boosting that we have the capacity to do that. I think that's a sensible risk reduction strategy.' Asked when a vaccine from Imperial may be available, Professor Shattock said it will not be ready by Christmas but 'maybe in the first two quarters of next year if things go extremely well'. 'But it's getting those numbers to show it works,' he said. It was revealed yesterday that Imperial's vaccine is ready to go into the first phase of clinical trials. As well as the trial of 300 volunteers this month, there is a further trial involving 6,000 people planned for October. A working vaccine is viewed as likely the only surefire way for the world to go back to something resembling normal life. Both the Oxford University and Imperial College London vaccine projects are viewed as two of the world's 'frontrunners'. But Professor Shattock said there are 'quite a lot of differences' between the vaccines developed by Imperial and Oxford. Imperial's vaccine is based on RNA, a form of genetic material found in viruses and similar to DNA. Researchers copied the unique spike on the surface of the coronavirus and inserted it into a harmless jab. When injected into the body, the RNA spike will trigger a reaction from the immune system in the same way as the virus does, but it is harmless. It is hoped that if a person who receives the inoculation then contracts the coronavirus, they will be protected against COVID-19. Meanwhile Oxford's vaccine is known as a recombinant viral vector vaccine. Researchers place genetic material from the coronavirus into another virus, called an adenovirus, thats been modified. They will then inject the virus into a human, hoping to produce an immune response against SARS-CoV-2. This could train the body to destroy the real coronavirus if they get infected with it in future. AstraZeneca's chief executive, Pascal Soriot, has claimed British people will get first access to the vaccine from autumn Oxford University's jab was known as ChAdOx1 nCoV but has now been called AZD1222 since a partnership was pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca was secured Professor Shattock said: 'We are often pitted against each other or seen to be in race. 'But actually we are collaborating closely together and exchanging material. The two approaches may well be able to be used together in a prime boost approach. 'So we are not actually trying to beat each other, but work together to make a vaccine available in the fastest possible time.' Professor Shattock added: 'There is no guarantee or certainty that A; a vaccine will work, and B; that data is reliable and robust enough to get it licensed. 'There is a lot of speculation. We really need to deal with facts and data rather than overpromising and under delivering.' Business Secretary Alok Sharma said in May the Government is hoping to be in a position to roll-out a mass vaccination programme in the autumn of this year. He confirmed a deal was signed with AstraZeneca to produce 100million doses of Oxford's vaccine for the UK - 30million of which will be ready by September. Days later on May 24, Pascal Soriot, chief executive of Cambridge-based AstraZeneca, told The Andrew Marr Show that British people will get first access to the vaccine from autumn. He added on June 5 that AstraZeneca has already started to mass-produce the experimental AZD1222 jab at factories in India, Oxford, Switzerland and Norway. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme he said: 'We are starting to manufacture this vaccine right now. And we have to have it ready to be used by the time we have the results.' The results of Oxford's trial are not expected until August at the earliest, having started on April 23. But when the results are available, the data will need to be looked over in detail by other scientists and regulators to decide if it is safe to start administering. Professor Shattock has previously said it's highly unlikely that a vaccine will be available for use by September. He told the BBC: 'Generating doses of the vaccine is very different to having the necessary data to show that any vaccine is both safe and effective against COVID-19. 'It will be critical to build the evidence base to show a vaccine works before it's deployed. This takes time and is dependent on seeing a difference in the number of infections between active vaccine and a placebo. 'The lower the transmission rate in the UK, the longer it will take to generate such data.' There is concern the results of vaccine trials may be stalled because there is lower transmission of the coronavirus in the community. It will be harder for trial participants to catch the virus, and for scientists to see if the vaccine is protective. Professor Adrian Hill, director of Oxford University's Jenner Institute and a leading member of the project has said there is only a 50 per cent chance of being successfully completed. '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.' Scientists and ministers alike have warned there is no guarantee that a vaccine will ever be found. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It was a special moment for Jose Basurto, a 21-year-old student with disabilities, when he was surprised with a graduation celebration on Monday by his teachers, paraprofessionals, nurses and physical therapist. Staff at The Richard H. Hungerford School at the Jerome Parker Campus in New Springville wanted to make sure Basurtos accomplishment was celebrated, as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic canceled many graduation ceremonies across the country. The staff made a plan to meet at Basurtos group home for individuals with disabilities in Woodrow. Hes the light of our lives, said Lauren Franca, a paraprofessional at the school. Hes always acting positive...We wanted to show him how much we appreciate him." And Basurto couldnt have been any happier. He was dressed in his golden cap and gown, and he was surrounded by school staff, balloons and decorated signs. Staff also brought a speaker playing Basurtos favorite songs. He loves his music, said Michael Catanese, Basurtos teacher. They brought a speaker with his favorite songs. He loves Spanish music." Franca said that people at the school would call him the mayor because everyone loves him. Hes very popular, said Franca. He participates in everything. He can answer any question. Hell show it in his eyes, hell say yes or no. Catanese added that Basurto is always smiling and has the best smile. And Basurto was smiling ear-to-ear on Monday -- even under his face covering. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** 30 Photos of the pandemic in NYC: The gradual return to normalcy FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. Shirish Dixit, a 55-year-old deputy commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) died on Tuesday, day after testing positive for COVID-19 A 55-year-old deputy commissioner of Mumbai's Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation died on Tuesday, day after testing positive to the novel coronavirus. A chief engineer in the water supply department, Shirish Dixit, passed away at his home. He is the first high-ranking BMC official who has died after contracting the viral infection. Reports said that Dixit, who had tested positive on Monday, was mostly asymptomatic. Dixit's news comes on a day when Mumbai's total cases have crossed 51,100 and the city's toll exceeded 1,760. So far, at least 56 BMC staffers have died due to the virus. The Times of India reported that the BMC deputy commissioner was reporting to work at the Fort-based headquarters of BMC in South Mumbai till Monday evening and remained largely asymptomatic. He, however, suddenly took ill on Monday night. His family informed the authorities about his health. When a COVID-19 team reached his home, he was pronounced dead. A resident of Mahim, Dixits reports turned out to be COVID-19 positive. Following his death, three other members of his family have been quarantined, India Today reported. However, according to PTI, BMC sources, said the exact cause of death was not known yet, and the official was not involved in any field work related to the pandemic. Dixit was instrumental in pushing the Gargai dam project and also in the successful completion of a 15 km water tunnel between Gundawali and Bhandup, a senior official said. The municipal body has announced a compensation of Rs 50,00,000 for the kin of its employees who die due to the virus. "If an employee of BMC unfortunately succumbs to COVID-19 while on duty, BMC will provide an ex-gratia assistance of 50,00,000 to their heirs. BMC is the first municipal corporation to implement this program and it will be applicable from 1.03.2020 till 30.09.2020," BMC said in a tweet. With inputs from PTI As Goldfish Swim School starts to welcome communities back to its schools, the safety and wellbeing of students, guests and team members remains the top priority. While the brand has always taken great pride in the cleanliness and safety of its schools, each individually owned and operated facility has been working closely with their local health authorities and in accordance with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines on reopening plans to ensure the safest environment possible. Protocol found in Goldfish Swim School's Safer. Stronger. Together. initiative will help ensure safety-focused and thoughtful reopenings across the country. While protocol varies school-to-school, notable adjustments have been made to class sizes, sanitization procedures and school policies to ensure social distancing and to abide by local health department regulations. Some of the various updates include: Health Assessments : Prior to entering, members will be asked to self-asses their health and the health of their children. If anyone is not feeling well, has a fever, shortness of breath or any COVID-19 like symptoms, or has been directly exposed to COVID-19, they are to cancel their lesson and makeup lessons will be credited to their accounts. Team members will also be evaluated with a health assessment upon arrival for each shift. : Prior to entering, members will be asked to self-asses their health and the health of their children. If anyone is not feeling well, has a fever, shortness of breath or any COVID-19 like symptoms, or has been directly exposed to COVID-19, they are to cancel their lesson and makeup lessons will be credited to their accounts. Team members will also be evaluated with a health assessment upon arrival for each shift. Protective Equipment : Face masks are strongly encouraged in all schools for both members and team members and will be required for entry where recommended by state and local health authorities. : Face masks are strongly encouraged in all schools for both members and team members and will be required for entry where recommended by state and local health authorities. Social Distancing : Members are being asked to maintain social distance from one another in the parent viewing area. Chairs in the viewing area will be set up to reflect state and local recommendations. Children will also be seated at a safe social distance from one another in the pool during lessons, where required. Instructors will also maintain social distance from children where applicable, but will absolutely assist swimmers as needed to provide a safe swimming experience. : Members are being asked to maintain social distance from one another in the parent viewing area. Chairs in the viewing area will be set up to reflect state and local recommendations. Children will also be seated at a safe social distance from one another in the pool during lessons, where required. Instructors will also maintain social distance from children where applicable, but will absolutely assist swimmers as needed to provide a safe swimming experience. Increased Facility Cleaning and Sanitization Stations : There is an increased attention to high traffic areas and commonly touched facility elements. Schools will also continue to provide antibacterial hand soaps and hand sanitizer, with increased availability in key areas of the facility. : There is an increased attention to high traffic areas and commonly touched facility elements. Schools will also continue to provide antibacterial hand soaps and hand sanitizer, with increased availability in key areas of the facility. Removal of Commonly Shared Amenities: Shared amenities such as books and toys, hair dryers, hair products, quarter candy and in some cases, retail items, will be temporarily removed to help prevent the spread of germs and bacteria. If members need something to purchase for lessons, the front desk will be able to assist. "The last few months have been a challenge, but together we stayed separate, we stayed strong, we stayed safe - and now it's time to reunite and dive back in," shared Goldfish Swim School CEO & Co-Founder, Chris McCuiston. "Our teams are making sure our reopening plans are all-encompassing, so that we can continue to educate and teach water safety. This year has been incredibly challenging for families, businesses and communities alike. And for a while, it seemed as though many aspects of life were on pause, but water safety is one thing that cannot wait which is why we are grateful to have the opportunity to start safely reopening our schools." Drowning remains the number one cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 1-4, taking the lives of three children in the United States every day. Goldfish Swim School is committed to making a positive difference to help lower these staggering statistics and has recently joined forces with a network of swimming partners to work with an Aquatics Coalition via USA Swimming to lobby for the safe reopening of purposeful, instructional aquatics. With the ability to limit capacity with scheduled lessons, enforce social distancing with swim lane protocol, direct traffic flow and provide PPE, these facilities are in a much better position to safely reopen in compliance with government requirements and provide children a lifesaving skill. With rising concerns of an increase in childhood drownings this summer, Goldfish Swim School remains committed to helping families promote water safety with their children whether it be in the pool or out. Amid the pandemic, the brand launched ' Goldfish At Home ' to provide free, virtual dry-land swim lessons to families nationwide, along with a variety of online and interactive water-safety focused initiatives and activities. As Goldfish Swim Schools continue to safely reopen, families can enroll their children, ages four months to 12 years, in a wide range of swim lesson and water safety instruction utilizing a proprietary curriculum, The Science of SwimPlay, which helps to build life skills both in and out of the water using play-based learning in a fun and safe environment. Given how quickly COVID-19 continues to evolve, Goldfish Swim School is constantly monitoring for new developments and will continue to reevaluate steps and actions to assure it continues to do the right things, as well as following the guidelines outlined by the CDC and the local public health officials. For more information on Goldfish Swim School's reopening policies and procedures, please visit www.goldfishswimschool.com/safer-stronger-together/. About Goldfish Swim School Founded by husband and wife team Chris and Jenny McCuiston, Goldfish Swim School provides swim lessons and water safety instruction to infants and children ages four months to 12 years. Classes are offered by specially trained instructors in a safe, child-friendly and fun environment using their research-based philosophy called The Science of SwimPlay. Goldfish currently teaches more than 138,000 students per week to swim and be safer in and around the water. Headquartered in Troy, Michigan, Goldfish Swim School was established in Birmingham, Michigan in 2006, and opened its first franchise location in 2009. Recently, the brand was recognized by Entrepreneur in its Franchise 500 ranking, Franchise Times' 2020 Fast & Serious List, and Inc. Magazine's 2019 Top 5000. Goldfish Swim School is currently in the process of expanding franchise opportunities throughout North America, with more than 100 schools open, and an additional 100+ in development in more than 34 states and Canada. Media Contact: Kelly McNamara, Fishman Public Relations, (847) 945-1300, [email protected] SOURCE Goldfish Swim School 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 Senate ad-hoc committee investigating the N40 billion corruption allegation against the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has presented an update on the matter to senators. The Senate and the House of Representatives are probing an allegation that the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC squandered N40 billion within three months. The Senate committee chairman, Olubunmi Adetunmbi, during plenary on Tuesday, said the committees work had been slowed down by the coronavirus pandemic. The proceedings of the plenary are published in a series of tweets by the Senate (@NGRSenate). Mr Adetunmbi said his committee has just started receiving responses from those they sent invitation letters to. Based on Mr Adetunmbis request, the Senate extended the committees tenure for four weeks. On behalf of my colleagues here, I want to wish you a successful exercise, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, said to the committee. I will urge you to be focused on the assignment. This investigation has generated a lot of attention and side attractions, but we must not listen to all those things people are saying, Mr Lawan added. The NDDC management had said that the Senate investigation was instigated by people who want to scuttle the planned forensic audit of the commission. The NDDC, backed by its supervising minister, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, accused the Senate of corruption and undue interference in the running of the commission. The NDDC, three days ago, released a shocking statement which appears to implicate the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Niger Delta and the NDDC, Peter Nwaoboshi, in N3.6 billion contract fraud in the commission. The NDDC spokesperson, Charles Odili, in the statement, said Mr Nwaoboshi (Delta North/PDP) used 11 companies as fronts to secure for himself a N3.6 billion contract in September 2016. The inventory records show that these items were supplied and received on Senator Nwaoboshis business premises and warehouse. However, some of the items supplied to Nwaoboshis warehouse through his cronies, were later resold to the Delta state government, while the others were sold to other states through contracts awarded to him, Mr Odili stated. Mr Nwaoboshi denied the allegations, saying he did not have any relationship with the companies mentioned by the NDDC. The senator told PREMIUM TIMES that the NDDCs statement was merely an attempt to distract the public from the National Assemblys probe. It is a desperate attempt to save Akpabio, said Mr Nwaoboshi, who is not a member of the ad-hoc committee probing the NDDC. He had earlier released to the public a letter by Mr Akapbio requesting that N500 million worth of projects should be inserted for him in the 2017 NDDC budget. Mr Akpabio wrote the letter when he was a senator representing Akwa Ibom North-West District and the Senate Minority Leader. [June 08, 2020] Global Fintech Platform Nium Partners with Visa to Offer Card Issuance in Australia SINGAPORE, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nium, a global financial technology platform, has become a Visa issuer in Australia as part of its membership in Visa's Fintech Fast Track programme. With this licence, Nium is able to provide end-to-end issuing, processing and onboarding services, and shorten the lead time for Visa card issuance to just four to six weeks. Nium plans to use the issuance license to extend its portfolio to clients in Australia and beyond, providing end-to-end B2B and B2C issuing services globally. Through this partnership, Nium will be able to: Conduct real-time funds transfers to both physical and virtual Visa Credit and Debit cards, for instance, deposition of payroll into Visa cards to both physical and virtual Visa Credit and Debit cards, for instance, deposition of payroll into Visa cards Enable secure digital payments through tokenization for in-stores, online payments and at ATM points for in-stores, online payments and at points Unlock simple payment experiences for businesses and consumers around the world through multi-currency cards with multi-pocket/wallet spend management features Currently, business owners rely on outdated card management systems as part of their corporate bank accounts. There is limited or no digital access, and significant time is spent on reconciling expenses and claims. Integrating and managing a card issuing programme can generate significant competitive advantage for businesses, such as an increase in productivity, but it also can pose a significant challenge as it requires deep vertical expertise and considerable commitment from the business. Nium would streamline and simplify access for companies with end-to-end card issuing solutions, allowing them to operate intelligent digital wallets that can easily be used across millions of points of sale within Visa's global acceptance network. "One of Nium's primary goals is to improve business efficiency through the introduction and facilitation of financial technology, and this partnership with Visa allows us to do that at scale. The flexibility of our APIs ools and turnkey infrastructure, coupled with Visa products and services, allow us to support different use cases for Spend Management seen across various business models and platforms, from companies looking to reconcile T&E for employees, businesses looking to pay suppliers and vendors overseas, or innovative technology companies looking to send payments to their community, we are able to customise the solution for each and every single one of them," said Gitesh Athavale, Head of Product (Cards), Nium. For instance, Nium has recently worked with Australian SME banking solutions provider, Budgetly, to offer corporate cards to their SME clientale. The card will be linked to Budgetly's analytics tools to help small businesses with cash flow monitoring and expense tracking. "Businesses in Australia are starting to recognise the need for a digital solution that will revamp existing corporate card management system. The antiquated system that involves physical paperwork to edit card management settings, lack of rewards interface and delayed expense tracking will no longer survive in today's age where digitisation is king, and we are glad to be partnering with Nium to provide a robust digital solution for the next generation of business owners whom are demanding a better banking experience," said Simon Lenoir, Founder and CEO of Budgetly. Nium is also working with Australian music platform Emanate, to disburse royalties to musicians and artistes via the corporate StreamCard. Fees are topped up automatically once the artistes' music has been played, enabling them to access and use the funds across all Visa's points of sales immediately. "As a music community dedicated to increasing speed and fairness for our artists through technology, Emanate is excited to be able to use a progressive and financial services product like Nium. Our goal of giving musicians near real-time access to streaming royalties is becoming much easier thanks to the Nium-powered Emanate StreamCard. This will change the lives of our musicians from day one. Imagine releasing a song in the morning, and that night your plays cover a round of beers with your friends to celebrate. It's never been done before," said Sean Gardner, CEO Blockchain Music Pty Ltd (Emanate). This announcement comes shortly after Nium introduced the addition of Visa and BRI Ventures as new investors to the six-year-old startup in May 2020. For more information on Nium's card issuance service, please visit: https://www.nium.com/platform/?tab=spend. About Nium Nium is a global financial technology platform redefining the way consumers and businesses send, spend and receive funds across borders. The company is continuously innovating to provide the most relevant and agile solutions to meet the needs of consumers and businesses, having evolved from solely focusing on consumer remittance via InstaReM, to also providing fintech solutions for businesses from 2019. Nium is regulated in Australia, Canada, European Union, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States of America, and processes billions of dollars a year for banks and payments institutions, the next generation of e-commerce players, OTAs and retail users across the world. Nium's investors include Visa, BRI Ventures, Vertex Ventures, Vertex Growth, Fullerton Financial Holdings, GSR Ventures, Rocket Internet, Global Founders Capital, SBI Japan, FMO (Netherlands Development Finance Company), MDI Ventures, Beacon Venture Capital and Atinum Investment. For more information, visit: http://www.nium.com. Media Contacts: Gillian Loo +65 9863 8120 [email protected] Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200120/2696826-1LOGO SOURCE Nium [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Participating in the latest online ADIPEC Energy Dialogue, Rachel Ziemba, an economic and political risk expert and Founder of Ziemba Insights, said the early signs from China, the first major economy to exit from the COVID-19 induced lockdown, are that manufacturing has bounced back more than consumption and that trend could be repeated in other countries. "It is notable that the COVID-19 crisis and the associated economic and energy crisis has really been the first to blow out the global consumer," Ziemba said. "2008 was much more of a hit to the financial sector and manufacturing. This time it is the reverse. The big question is how quickly consumer demand will come back." Ziemba added it could be well into 2021 before oil and gas markets get to volumes approaching where the industry was at the end of 2019. Looking at the trends likely to impact the recovery of oil markets in the mid-term, Ziemba said the OPEC Plus group of producers has had some success in tightening the market. But a question mark hangs over how long supply can be constrained. "The challenge is that a few countries, those that are most economically strapped and not eligible for debt relief, are not complying in full and some have barely reduced production," Ziemba said. "Despite pressure from the likes of Saudi Arabia and Russia, it is going to be very difficult for them to comply because these are countries that had big fiscal deficits when oil was $70 a barrel. "The other challenge is that we are starting to see parts of the US shale industry starting to reverse shut ins. We are also seeing more rig activity after many weeks of decline. In a price range of mid-30s into a 40 range, there will be more entities that can make some money and the risk is that it puts even more pressure on OPEC Plus. So, I do think the most likely scenario is a rolling over and extension of the supply cuts." Access to credit, to support economic recovery, is an additional challenge for indebted oil producing countries, which are having to deal with multiple shocks at the same time, including sizable outbreaks of the COVID-19 coronavirus that may or may not be under control. Many of the oil producers that are in a tougher financial position than their rich peers are too wealthy to qualify for debt relief, Ziemba said, heightening social, political and economic risks which could further impact the oil and gas industry. Elsewhere, as oil and gas companies seek for ways to recover, Ziemba said she expects to see some industry consolidation, particularly in the United States with more cash rich entities looking to go into smaller, more speculative areas that are lower cost. She also highlighted the possibility of further job cuts as companies become leaner and decide between boosting commercial reserves, or partnering with governments. Meanwhile, she added she expects to see more National Oil Company enter into partnerships, for example Middle East producers and Asian buyers, which enable greater creativity in payment terms and contracts. The ADIPEC Energy Dialogue is a series of weekly online thought leadership events created by dmg events, organisers of the annual Abu Dhabi International Exhibition and Conference. Featuring key stakeholders and decision-makers in the oil and gas industry, the dialogues focus on how the industry is evolving and transforming in response to the rapidly changing energy market. ADIPEC 2020 is projected to attract more than 155,000 energy professionals from 67 countries; including senior decision-makers and energy industry thought leaders, over 2,200 exhibiting companies and 23 national exhibiting pavilions as oil and gas companies convene to share views and best practices to address the long-term impact of the triple challenge of lower oil prices, weaker demand and over supply. Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE; hosted by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC); and supported by the UAE Ministry of Energy & Industry, the Abu Dhabi Chamber, and the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, ADIPEC is scheduled to take place from November 9 to 11, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). To watch the Energy Dialogue series go to: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnFtPtFwMrRkuGUTk4Rh4tA About ADIPEC Held under the patronage of the President of the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and organised by the Global Energy division of dmg events, ADIPEC is the global meeting point for oil and gas professionals. Standing as one of the world's top energy events, and the largest in the Middle East and North Africa, ADIPEC is a knowledge-sharing platform that enables industry experts to exchange ideas and information that shape the future of the energy sector. The 36th edition of ADIPEC will be hosted by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and supported by the UAE Ministry of Energy & Industry, Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Chamber, the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi Ports and the Department of Education and Knowledge. dmg events is committed to helping the growing international energy community. To know more, visit: www.adipec.com. SOURCE Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) This was also the first day of the ninth session lawmakers met in person at the NAs building in Hanoi. The sitting in the morning was also attended by Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong, as well as the EU Ambassador to Vietnam and representatives of EU countries embassies in Hanoi, namely France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Romania, Ireland, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. After NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan reported on the outcomes of the ninth sessions online discussion from May 20 to 28, legislators voted on the resolutions ratifying the EVFTA, the EVIPA and the ILOs Convention 105 (Abolition of Forced Labour Convention), which won the majority of support. These activities were broadcast live by Radio The Voice of Vietnam, the Vietnam Television and the NAs TV channel. Besides, parliamentarians also agreed to supplement the ninth sessions agenda with the consideration of a draft resolution on the reduction of the corporate income tax that businesses, cooperatives, public service agencies and other organisations have to pay in 2020. On behalf of the Prime Minister, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Le Minh Hung proposed the NA raise the charter capital at the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. Chairman of the NAs Committee for Economic Affairs Vu Hong Thanh delivered a verification report on this issue. Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, on behalf of the PM, submitted a draft resolution on recognising and allowing the enforcement of rulings issued by dispute settlement agencies under the EVIPA. A verification report on this draft was later presented by Chairwoman of the NAs Committee for Judicial Affairs Le Thi Nga. In the afternoon, deputies held group discussions on several socio-economic issues. "Leveraging EBlock's technology gives our auction a proven means to facilitate and expedite digital transactions." Chad Bailey, President of Akron Auto Auction, said "Truthfully, we've been looking for a partner that understands the auction business and has a vision for its future." "Our partnership with EBlock comes at a critical time as not only do we believe our customers have wanted us to offer this platform, but we internally have felt like this is another tool that will fit very well within our already vast tool belt." The partnership with EBlock will give Akron Auto Auction clients a state-of-the-art dealer-to-dealer auction platform that captures and complements the buying and selling experience of a physical auction. Run lists, set auction times, virtual lanes, and units transacting in 60 seconds are just a few reasons why EBlock is growing 100% YOY in Canada, and has sold over $1 billion worth of vehicles in the dealer-to-dealer space. "Our goal at EBlock is to set innovative, independent brick-and-mortar auctions up to compete in the dealer-to-dealer auction space, leveraging their relationships and infrastructure to deliver the ultimate auction experience online for their customers." Jason McClenahan, President and CEO of EBlock, said. "We come from the auction world; our focus is to take a technology-first approach towards expanding the auctions digital offering, without compromising the experience buyers and sellers alike expect when dealing with brick-and-mortar auctions. That is what really separates the EBlock experience from everyone else in the space." The partnership's first live auction event will take place on June 18th, with weekly events on Thursdays at 1:00pm EST. About EBlock EBlock is the premier remarketing technology platform for independent automotive auctions, delivering a unique combination of a vast selection of inventory from trusted auction partners, uncompromising technology, and an online auction experience that increases efficiencies for buyers, sellers, and auctions alike. About Akron Auto Auction Akron Auto Auction, a leader in the auto auction industry for over 45 years, provides wholesale used vehicle buyers and sellers a fast-paced auto auction marketplace focused on driving their business forward. Built on long lasting relationships, Akron Auto Auction prides itself on superior customer service and providing clients with a wide range of auto remarketing solutions for their every need. Each Tuesday, Akron Auto Auction hosts an auction of 1000 vehicles across 6 Lanes and on Simulcast, handling consignments from new and used car stores, banks, fleets, and government agencies. For more information, go to www.akronautoauction.com SOURCE Akron Auto Auction FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the media at the State Department in Washington WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday chided British bank HSBC for backing moves by China to end Hong Kong's autonomy, saying such "corporate kowtows" got little in return from Beijing. Pompeo said the United States stood ready to help Britain with alternatives after Beijing reportedly threatened to punish HSBC and break commitments to build nuclear power plants in the country unless the British government allowed China's Huawei Technologies to participate in building a 5G network. "The United States stands with our allies and partners against the Chinese Communist Partys coercive bullying tactics," Pompeo said in a statement, his latest swipe at China's ruling party. Pompeo referred to HSBC's Asia-Pacific CEO, Peter Wong, signing a petition supporting Beijings plans to impose new security legislation on Hong Kong. He said the "browbeating" of HSBC by China's communist leadership "should serve as a cautionary tale" . "That show of fealty seems to have earned HSBC little respect in Beijing, which continues to use the banks business in China as political leverage against London," he said. China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters during a daily briefing on Wednesday that Beijing hopes the United States will stop using Hong Kong to stoke fires and interfere in China's affairs. Sino-U.S. ties have deteriorated rapidly since the start of the year over the coronavirus pandemic and Hong Kong. Washington sees Huawei as an extension of the Chinese government and urges European allies to exclude it from mobile networks. Pompeo said Australia, Denmark, "and other free nations" had faced pressure from Beijing and it showed why countries needed to avoid economic overreliance on China and to guard their critical infrastructure from CCP influence. "Free nations deal in true friendship and desire mutual prosperity, not political and corporate kowtows," he said. Story continues Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday that HSBC Chairman Mark Tucker had warned Britain against a ban on networking equipment made by Huawei, claiming the bank could face reprisals in China. Senior British and U.S. politicians criticized HSBC and Standard Chartered last week after they both backed the national security law for Hong Kong. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Humeyra Pamuk; additional reporting by Yew Lun Tian in Beijing; Editing by Tom Brown & Simon Cameron-Moore) MBABANE Police have discovered a Nedbank Swaziland account with E1 142 215.48 million belonging to Danilla, the wife of controversial South African law professor, Frances Whelpton. Whelpton, who was previously reported to be a lecturer at UNISA, is the man who was once entrusted with the responsibility to recover a E28 million deposit for the purchase of the Kings jet. He also used to hold himself as the Kings personal advisor. The investigations against the professor by the local police and their South African counterparts started after it emerged that he allegedly used the kingdom and local banks to defraud a number of businesspeople, especially in the Republic of South Africa, in excess of E200 million. The State has since obtained an order to freeze the bank account belonging to his wife, who resides in South Africa with Whelpton. According to the police, there was reasonable belief that the professor was using his wifes account as his offshore account outside the Republic of South Africa, where most of the alleged conning occurred. Balance The freezing of the bank account comes after the director of public prosecutions (DPP) moved an application at the High Court in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crimes Act (POCA) 2018. According to the Crown, as at September 25, 2019, Dannillas account had a credit balance of E2 303 157.25 In its application, the State submitted that, as per police investigations, it came to the fore that the professor was actually using the Kingdom of Eswatini as his playground and he used the local banks as instrumentality in making sure his schemes were successful. In motivating the application, Principal Crown Counsel Elsie Matsebula submitted that the Crown sought to join Danilla (wife) as the second respondent in the matter, because fresh intelligence had emerged showing that she held a personal bank account with Nedbank Swaziland, which its transactions were highly suspicious. Matsebula, who is the Head of Asset Forfeiture Unit in the office of the DPP, averred that it was reasonably believed that the funds in the bank account were proceeds of criminal activities attributed to her husband. It is not known why Danilla would open an account here in Eswatini. Further, the transactions raise a lot of questions than answers as the account receives large sums of money without any value attached and credible source, submitted the principal Crown Counsel. She further highlighted that large sums of money were immediately transferred to certain individuals by the account, hence a case of money laundering was reasonably suspected. According to Matsebula, it was imperative to have the wifes bank account frozen as well. Matsebula submitted that it was reasonably believed that the bank account was laden with proceeds of crime. I humbly submit that there is intelligence by police to the fact that Whelpton is involved in shady dealings where he normally induces his victims to enter into business ventures with him. As per investigations, he uses Eswatini as a destination country for the lucrative projects or investment schemes he wants to open for the generation of huge income, submitted the Crown. Partnership She informed the court that as per police investigations, the respondents modus operandi was basically to misrepresent to unsuspecting members of the public to enter into partnership with him in his well- researched business project in return for the lucrative profits. According to Matsebula, these projects came through beautifully moulded business opportunities that would attract even the smartest businessman to blindly invest. This is because as per investigations, the gullible members of the society in both the Republic of South Africa and Eswatini are promised heaven and earth by the respondent as they are made to believe that they will work closely with Eswatini Royalty, averred the Head of Asset forfeiture Unit in the office of the DPP. According to Matsebula, investigations have unearthed further that the respondent would after accosting his prey then convince them to pump in money into the business ventures to kick-start the projects. I submit that both Eswatini and South African police were not aware that Whelpton also held a bank account here in Eswatini up until red flags were raised by swift transfer of a whopping E500 000. I hasten to add that it is for that reason that I reasonably believe that the funds therein are proceeds of criminal activities hence liable to be preserved, she argued, The order was granted by Judge Cyril Maphanga. President Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion with law enforcement officials Monday at the White House. (Patrick Semansky / Associated Press) As Joe Biden stood with the family of George Floyd on Monday in demanding police accountability, President Trump made clear where he stands, meeting with law enforcement officers and accusing Biden of undermining public safety. Much of the nation is also taking a position, and a raft of recent polls indicate that it is not with Trump. The president finds himself with some of his lowest approval ratings since moving to the White House, facing an electorate that has swung sharply toward the belief that racism remains prevalent in America's police departments a view Trump said he rejects. Our police have been letting us live in peace, and we want to make sure we dont have any bad actors in there, and sometimes well see some horrible things like we witnessed recently, but I say 99.9 lets go with 99% of them great, great people, and theyve done jobs that are record-setting, Trump said during a meeting Monday with police officials. Biden, by contrast, spent an hour in Houston in a private meeting sharing the grief of the family of Floyd, the black man choked to death by a Minneapolis police officer two weeks ago a videotaped killing that set off a wave of nationwide protest. Floyd's funeral is planned for Tuesday. He listened, heard their pain and shared in their woe," Benjamin Crump, the family's lawyer said in a statement on Twitter. That compassion meant the world to this grieving family." The contrasting scenes reinforced the messages of the two campaigns. For the African American and liberal white voters on whom Democrats depend, Floyd's killing has pushed far-reaching change in the nation's police high on the national agenda. By contrast, Trump's conservative white followers consistently tell pollsters they do not believe police systemically treat African Americans unfairly. In the aftermath of Floyd's death, public opinion has shifted strongly against that view. About two-thirds of Americans say black and white people do not receive equal treatment from the police, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted as protests erupted. That's up sharply from 38% in a 2015 YouGov survey. Several other recent polls have shown similar shifts. Story continues Trump hopes to move the debate back in his direction by portraying Democrats as "radicals" intent on abolishing police departments. On Monday, Biden and fellow Democrats found themselves carefully navigating around calls by activists to defund and disband police departments, which some Democrats worry could give Trump a fresh opening to drive a wedge between them and voters. This is where danger lurks for Biden, said Ruy Teixeira, a political demographer at the liberal Center for American Progress. People want to see the police do better, and they believe the complaints are justified. But people dont hate the police. They dont want to defund their local police departments. In practice, defunding proposals are more about re-imagining, rather than retreating from, policing. The Minneapolis City Council, for example, could vote this week on a disbanding proposal that calls for replacing the city's current police department with a community-based public safety system. Camden, N.J., disbanded its police force in 2013 and replaced it with a countywide force. More recently, other cities have undertaken incremental initiatives to cut their police budgets and reinvest more in the black community. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti last week pledged that the city would find $250 million in cuts to invest in jobs, in health, in education and in healing, especially in communities of color. He said the cuts would include at least $100 million from the Los Angeles Police Department, which grew rapidly during the last two decades. Although voters believe police departments need reform, when asked if they support defunding departments, the answer is a resounding no. The Yahoo News/YouGov poll for example, found that only 16% of voters wanted to cut funding for police departments. Trump is now relentlessly painting Biden as champion of the defund movement. There wont be defunding, Trump said during his Monday event at the White House, at which he signaled openness to incremental reforms on standards for training and use of force. There wont be dismantling of our police. Theres not going to be any disbanding of our police." Biden supporters think it will be hard for Trump to portray him as a fringe radical. In an interview Monday on CBS, Biden said, "No, I don't support defunding the police. I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain standards of decency and honorableness and, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community and everybody in the community. "What's happening here is one of those great inflection points in American history, for real, in terms of civil liberties, civil rights and just treating people with dignity," he said. Steve Phillips, founder and podcast host at Democracy in Color, an advocacy group focused on empowering minority voters, offered a cautionary note. Its a near-historic moment, and you dont want to miss it and be behind the trend, he said. Cities are moving forward with this. Biden does not want to be seen as out of touch. "There is a way to speak to this that does not fall into the conservative trap," Phillips said. The Trump campaign, badly in need of a lifeline amid plunging poll numbers, sees an opportunity. "It's clear the protests have broad public support, but the idea of defunding police is not going to play well in the places that matter to us," said a person involved in the reelection effort, who spoke about the state of the campaign on the condition of anonymity. "This is a gift for us when we really need one. Democrats are talking about firing cops instead of 40 million Americans being out of work." Aligning Biden with radicals, the person said, could enable the campaign to regain lost ground with white voters. So far, however, that effort has failed to take off, in part because the public has become much more receptive to the argument that police violence goes beyond just the few "bad actors" Trump blamed and requires a systemwide response. In the past, people felt police were not exerting racial bias, and that these incidents people were protesting about were tragic but isolated, said Emily Ekins, director of polling at the Cato Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank that advocates criminal justice reform. People did not think there was a systemic problem that needed to be addressed. Those assumptions are changing. That leaves voters open to some aggressive and innovative reforms, Ekins said. But she cautioned that defunding and disbanding police departments do not appear to be among them. Biden supporters say the polling trends are a clear indication that the former vice presidents style in meeting this moment is playing well with voters. Clearly people are gravitating toward what he has been doing in terms of demonstrating and modeling what real leadership looks like, what a healing message looks like, said Karen Finney, who was an advisor to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Yet the goodwill of voters could dissipate if Biden is perceived as embracing changes to the criminal justice system that go too far, some Democrats warn. Just because Trumps strategy has not worked so far does not mean it wont work in the future, said Teixeira. It depends on how things evolve. If Democrats are not clear that they do not support defunding the police, that is going to help him. Times staff writers Noah Bierman and Eli Stokols contributed to this report. In a new court filing last week, former Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti complained of unfair treatment by prosecutors who agreed in April to let him out of jail due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. But in a new filing Sunday, those prosecutors say that Avenatti violated the terms of his releaseraising the possibility that he could be sent back to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. Avenatti is currently under home confinement in Venice, California, at the home of a friend, Jay Manheimer. When prosecutors performed a metadata analysis of recent court filings by Avenattis defense, they found that the documents were authored on a computer owned by Manheimerindicating, they say, that Avenatti himself wrote the documents on Manheimers internet-connected computer. Under the terms of his release, Avenatti is prohibited from accessing the internet. The documents that prosecutors say he wrote contain news articles downloaded from online sites. "The government believes that defendant has likely violated the conditions of his temporary release by using his third-party custodian Jay Manheimer's internet-accessible computer to draft his last five filings in this case, the prosecutors wrote in a 33-page court brief. At a minimum, defendant and his counsel have not been candid with this Court. Avenattis lawyer Dean Steward, according to a CNN report, denied that his client had accessed Manheimers computer, and said that the metadata showed only that Manheimer had created PDF files of the court filings. "There is also nothing prohibiting Mr. Manheimer from printing to PDF the final agreed-upon filing," Steward wrote in his own court filing. Avenatti, who was convicted in February of attempting to extort $20 million from the Nike Corporation, now faces an array of bank fraud and tax-related charges, as well as a charge that he embezzled a nearly-$300,000 book advance from Daniels. In the court filing, prosecutors also allege that Avenatti has deliberately chosen not to provide his retained counsel in this case with the resources necessary to prepare for trial in a timely manner. Instead, defendant has chosen to devote his resources to his other prosecutions or ongoing civil matters, and to continue to fund his lavish lifestyle. Avenatti has claimed that he needs a delay in the upcoming trial on the various financial charges because his lawyers lack the resources to review the massive amount of discovery material provided by the government prosecutors. Prosecutors now want a hearing on whether Avenatti violated the terms of his release, and asked a judge to green-light a search of Manheimers home, and his computer. Photo By Showtime The Circus / Wikimedia Commons Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) Social media platform Facebook has begun cracking down on reported dummy accounts in the country, the National Privacy Commission said Tuesday as authorities continue to probe the sudden proliferation of the fake profiles. They just reported to us that they have already taken down many of these supposed or alleged impostor sites. Complaints continue to stream in, and theyre acting on these complaints, National Privacy Commissioner Raymund Liboro told CNN Philippines The Source. The NPC has yet to release the exact data on the number of pages taken down, as the commissioner said they are still awaiting the official review from the company. He added Facebook has launched its own global response to address the issue on fake accounts, which may cause a bit of delay in the transmission of reports. We understand that investigations of this type require also a little time and due diligence on their part, especially since Facebook has launched their own global response to this, Liboro stressed. Liboro, however, remains hopeful they could get a report from the company within the week, noting how the case should rank high among Facebooks concerns due to its security and privacy aspects. I suppose and I expect Facebook will not tolerate the creation of impostor accounts or dummy accounts. It really undermines their business model. It undermines their image as a platform that can be trusted, the commissioner said. System glitch or external factors? Too early to determine Some groups reportedly claimed that the surge in fake social media accounts could just be a result of a system glitch. But NPC, for its part, said it is still too early to determine whether the case was brought about by an internal glitch or by external factors. Its either an internal glitch as they call it, or also, it could be the work of an external force, Liboro said. Theres a range of possibilities. We do not want to second guess at this point or offer any conjectures about this occurrence. We will have to wait for their technical review, for evidence to accompany any determination about what happened. Its too early to determine anything at this point. Netizens earlier said the incident came in light of the backlash against the controversial anti-terrorism bill, with some students particularly those who have been vocal government critics reporting that they have received threats from the dummy accounts with their names. Senator Panfilo Ping Lacson, however, disagreed with the claim, saying that the proliferation of fake accounts may actually be just part of a scare tactic against the measure. READ: Scare tactics? Anti-terrorism bill dissenters may be behind fake Facebook profiles, solon says Dangerous The University of the Philippines-Cebu administration also raised alarm over the case, saying how the surge in the number of dummy profiles can be dangerous and worrisome for students and other affected parties. Its so dangerous that there are existing fake accounts under their names, which are not theirs, UP Cebu chancellor Liza Corro said in a separate interview with CNN Philippines. Kung papasukan 'yan ng mga (If there will be an infiltration of) information and messages which are not their own messages, which might be incriminating to them, of course, thats really worrisome for all of us. Tug-ani, the official student publication of the UP Cebu, first reported on Saturday how several Facebook pages copied the usernames of its students. This came a day after the arrest of some students who joined an anti-terrorism bill rally in the area. Aside from Facebook, the Justice Department said it will also launch a probe into the matter. Authorities have repeatedly advised citizens to continue reporting suspicious accounts to the platform's data protection team. Russian authorities seek to complete Nord Stream 2 as a political and economic weapon to cut off critical gas transit through Ukraine, as well as to increase Kremlin's leverage over Europe, members of Congress stress. Members of the bipartisan Congressional Ukraine Caucus have expressed concern regarding Russia's efforts to circumvent Congressional sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, urging State Secretary Mike Pompeo to "urgently apply sanctions on Russian entities should they engage in pipelaying or provide technical support. "Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. longstanding interests in European energy security and opposition to Nord Stream 2 remains firm, and we remain vigilant in our efforts to protect Ukrainian sovereignty and European allies and partners from malign Russian influence," Ukrainian Caucus members wrote in a letter to Pompeo. "Russian dictator Vladimir Putin seeks to sow discord in the Transatlantic alliance through hybrid warfare operations," the letter reads. "This includes weaponizing energy to weaken democratic institutions and solidarity through the export of strategic corruption." Members of Congress recall that in 2006 and 2009 Russian authorities cut off gas flows through Ukraine during the winter leading to hardship for Ukraine and also neighboring countries, including Bulgaria and Romania. This year, the Kremlin has attempted to coerce Belarus into forming a union state to chart a path to keep Putin in power beyond Russia's own Presidential term by engaging in a cutoff of oil shipments. "More recently, Russian authorities seek to complete Nord Stream 2 as a political and economic weapon to cut off critical gas transit through Ukraine, a nation fighting for its survival against Russian aggression and occupation of its regions, as well as to increase its leverage over Europe," the letter says. "That is why several eastern European, Nordic and Baltic countries have joined the United States in expressing their concerns with the project." It is recalled that the U.S. Congress "on an overwhelming bipartisan basis established the means to apply targeted sanctions on pipelaying companies to halt the pipeline and protect Ukraine's security." "Unfortunately, it appears that Russian authorities believe Western officials are distracted by COVID-19 and currently seek to circumvent these sanctions and finish the pipeline through use of two Russian pipelaying vessels: the Akademik Cherskiy owned by STIF (previously Gazflot) and the Fortuna owned by Russian-owned MRTS," members of Congress note. "These ships are currently docked near the German Port of Mukran and could potentially be joined by other maritime technology service vessels in the future." Read alsoU.S. - sanctions - Gazprom: Washington's attempt to defeat Nord Stream 2 The Kremlin is hoping that by fast-tracking the completion of the project, the U.S. will fail to respond in due speed, the authors of the letter stress, adding that they remain optimistic this will not be the case given continued U.S. bipartisan opposition to the pipeline. "While we applaud the German energy regulator's decision to apply EU energy anti-monopoly laws to Nord Stream 2, any gas transit through the pipeline would create incentives to reduce transit through Ukraine, weakening that country's sovereignty and ability to defend itself against Russian aggression," Congress members note. "For these reasons, we respectfully urge you, in consultation with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, to apply NDAA sanctions on STIF and MRTS and any other firm should they engage in pipelaying or provide technical support, to protect Ukraine and our European allies and partners from this tool in the Kremlin's broader tool-kit of malign influence," the letter reads. Members of Congress also stressed the need for the U.S. to continue to provide Europe with alternative energy source options and pursue with diplomatic efforts to support European energy diversification efforts through the Three Seas Initiative, and to promote member nation and private investments to move forward with joint financing of infrastructure projects. 'Racist' thugs were filmed hurling shocking abuse at Black Lives Matter protestors in Hertfordshire yesterday, with one man shouting: 'Go back to Africa'. The footage was recorded in the town of Hoddesdon as around 300 peaceful protestors gathered to demonstrate against the death of George Floyd in America and racism in society. They gathered by the Clock Tower in the town's centre, holding signs and chanting 'No justice, no peace' while appearing to maintain social distancing. However, they were met by a horde of angry locals, who numbered around 200 and hurled abuse at them. In shocking scenes, the counter-demonstrators swore and threatened the Black Lives Matter protestors, with one telling them to 'go back to Africa'. Others hurled a string of foul-mouthed curses and even seemed to challenge the activists to fights. Black Lives Matter protestors in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire were met by furious locals who hurled abuse at them A particularly furious thug was taken aside by police and spoken to but told the officer 'don't you even think about it'. The Black Lives Matter protestors appeared to be made up of young people, with a large number of young women. The counter-demonstrators were heard chanting: 'Get your t**s out for the lads.' They also shouted that the protests were because KFC was closed because of the coronavirus lockdown, a reference to the racist stereotype that black people enjoy fried chicken. The event organisers posted a message on their Instagram page after the event that read: 'Thank you to everyone who came out and protested today. 'Though we had to directly face racists who tried to discredit our efforts, together we showed solidarity, letting Hoddesdon know that #blacklivesmatter.' Some protestors also reported that the counter-demonstrators made Nazi salutes, though this wasn't captured on film. One protestor said: 'They were saying, 'go back to your own country', 'go back to your rock', there were Nazi salutes, 'you're not welcome here','educate yourself', 'you're only here because we allowed you to come here' - that narrative the whole time.' Around 300 peaceful protestors gathered to demonstrate against the death of George Floyd in America and racism in society in Hoddesdon Demi-Leigh Sheahan attended the protest: 'Personally, what I find so disgusting and frightening about these videos is, firstly, that ending racism has somehow become a controversial topic. 'Regardless whether you support the riots or not, I would find it hard to believe that you would be comfortable with a fully grown adult man shouting 'get your t**s out' at your daughter, mother, sister, friend or even just anyone you know.' Hertfordshire Police did not make any arrests at the protest, though they are currently looking at some of the ugly scenes from the demonstration that have been shared on social media. The angry locals claimed they were attempting to protect the town's war memorial after seeing statues defaced in other protests across the UK. However, there is no indication that the protestors planned to damage the memorial, with organisers insisting the demonstration was peaceful. They were met by a horde of angry locals, who numbered around 200 and hurled abuse at them Hertfordshire Police did not make any arrests at the protest, though they are currently looking at some of the ugly scenes from the demonstration This woman was stunned after hearing someone yell 'Go back to Africa' at the protestors Speaking ahead of the demonstration, Zain, one of the organisers, said: 'We wanted to show solidarity within Hertfordshire as well as bringing other black people and others in Hertfordshire together. It's to show that in the UK there are still issues that black people are facing. 'It's important as, while we're facing a pandemic, there's still also the risk of being killed as a black person - we're facing two pandemics. 'I think the main issues are that it's not as blatant here [in Hertfordshire]. So people will sometimes make comments that are ignorant or that they don't realise are racist to say. 'The people here don't know because it's a predominantly white area so they don't realise how that actually affects people. 'I'd like to see more education on this because one thing that we have noticed is that so many people are unaware of what is even going on in this country. 'We need to make sure people stay educated on these issues and that it's made more apparent. People will say 'oh it's a multicultural society' but they don't look at the darker side of things. 'It should be made one of the main things we study in history in schools. 'Some schools offer a brief African history as an option but it's not pushed enough and making it one of the main focuses on the curriculum would be really useful.' Advertisement A museum has created postcard versions depicting how its artworks may look in times of social distancing. The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge has been closed since March, along with galleries across the country, due to the coronavirus pandemic. In a light-hearted attempt to raise vital funds, the museum has created postcards of its exhibits, with personal protective equipment covering the painted portraits. PPE has been added to the likes of the Bridesmaid, painted by John Everett Millais, his subject now wears a floral mask. Other works by Millais including The Twins and his portrait of Kate and Grace Hoare are among the new adaptations, as well as Belgian painter Alfred Emile Leopold Stevens's La Liseuse, which translates as The Reader. Luke Syson, the museum's director, said: 'Over the last few weeks, things we took for granted have become precious. One of those is humour, that sometimes feels in short supply. 'These doctored versions of some of the Fitz's great masterpieces wittily re-imagine their protagonists as living at this moment. 'What a difference to our understanding of their actions and interactions the addition of a face-cover makes. 'But perhaps they make a serious point too - of how we expect to greet one another with hugs and kisses - and how much changes when that's not possible. 'At least we can still laugh together. That's not changed. And I hope these might help.' The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge has re-imagined how some of its most famous works of art would look in a world of social distancing. Titian's Venus and Cupid with a Lute Player - dating back to the 16th century - is among the exhibits to get a new look The daughters of Sir Matthew Decker, originally by Jan Van Meyer, are now wearing personal protective equipment, along with their doll. However, there isn't much room for two-metre distancing in the 18th century artwork John Everett Millais' Bridesmaid dons a floral mask to match her dress. The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is selling postcards adapting its exhibits to raise vital funds after shutting during the coronavirus lockdown The Twins, by John Everett Millais, was painted in 1876. While the sisters were already wearing gloves, they now have protective masks on too in the Fitzwilliam Museum's social distancing parody STEPANAKERT, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. The Parliament of Artsakh convened an extraordinary session today chaired by Speaker Artur Tovmasyan, the Parliament told Armenpress. The issue on electing Prosecutor General has been put for debate at the initiative of the President of the Republic. Official representative of the President of Artsakh Arayik Lazaryan introduced the biography of candidate for Prosecutor General Mher Aghajanyan to the lawmakers. Presenting his program provisions Mher Aghajanyan stated that they will act more publicly and transparently to ensure public trust and support. The proposals voiced in the factions have been taken into account, and I assure you that in case of receiving your vote I will be consistent with the implementation of programs presented by me for the benefit of the Republic of Artsakh and its people, he said. Based on the results of the voting Mher Aghajanyan was elected Prosecutor General of Artsakh. 30 MPs voted in favor of his candidacy and 3 voted against. The swearing-in ceremony took place according to the law on the Rules of Procedure. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan The COVID-19 pandemic has reached a new grim milestone as global confirmed cases surpassed 7 million, with the United States having the highest coronavirus caseload and death toll in the world; Seeing reassuring signs of the anti-pandemic fight at home, many governments in Europe and Asia have started easing COVID-19 restrictions and reopening the economy, while cautioning against a resurgence of the virus; Solidarity and cooperation are the right way forward as the spread of the coronavirus has not been effectively contained globally. BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) The COVID-19 pandemic has reached a new grim milestone as global confirmed cases surpassed 7 million on Monday, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. As of 0233 GMT in the day, the global tally has reached 7,007,948, and 402,709 people worldwide have died of the disease, the data showed. Facing a grave epidemic situation, world leaders and experts have stressed the significance of urgently-needed and strengthened international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, especially on the coordination of vaccine research and development. A staff member displays samples of the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine at Sinovac Biotech Ltd., in Beijing, capital of China, March 16, 2020. [Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei] Americas Become Epicenter The United States has by far the highest coronavirus caseload and death toll in the world, and the situation remains grim in the country as its tally of confirmed cases is nearing 2 million now over 1,942,000 on the CSSE tally. The number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States has topped 110,000 on Sunday, more than a quarter of the world's total, according to the CSSE. Moreover, domestic outrage over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in the custody of Minneapolis police, has sparked waves of nationwide protests, triggering worries that the rallies may result in new outbreaks. "Based on the way the disease spreads, there is every reason to expect that we will see new clusters and potentially new outbreaks moving forward," said U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. Demonstrators march across Brooklyn Bridge during a protest over the death of George Floyd in New York, the United States, June 6, 2020. [Xinhua/Michael Nagle] Meanwhile, in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, daily infections have surpassed those in Europe and the United States, making it the new epicenter of the pandemic, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said last week. Brazil, with a population of over 210 million, is the worst-hit country by the pandemic in Latin America, and the second hardest-hit in the world. Its death toll surpassed that of Italy to become the third highest globally on Thursday, following only the United States and Britain. The country so far has 691,758 cases and 36,455 deaths till press time, according to the CSSE. Peru, with the second largest caseload in Latin America after Brazil, surpassed France to host the eighth-highest number of infections in the world on Sunday. Its caseload has reached 196,515 so far, according to the CSSE. Chile, Mexico, and Ecuador are also among the countries with high infections in the region. Staff members conduct disinfection at the Clinicas Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 24, 2020. [Xinhua/Rahel Patrasso] Governments Prevent Resurgence Seeing reassuring signs of the anti-pandemic fight at home, many governments in Europe and Asia have started easing COVID-19 restrictions and reopening the economy, while cautioning against a resurgence of the virus. European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides warned that "this summer will not be a summer like all the others, and we're going to have to adapt to the new reality." In Italy, data on the coronavirus outbreak continued to trend in the right direction on Sunday, with new infections, intensive care patients, and deaths all lower than previous statistics despite the lifting of a wide array of restrictions related to the national lockdown. An airport employee wearing a "smart-helmet" portable thermal scanner checks the temperature of passengers at the Fiumicino airport in Rome, Italy, June 3, 2020. [Xinhua/Alberto Lingria] Last week, Italy began allowing free movement between regions and the unrestricted arrival of travelers from most of the rest of Europe. Most shops, restaurants, and bars have reopened, albeit with strict restrictions on the use of masks and disinfectants, as well as on social distancing. On Tuesday, France entered the second phase of de-confinement, allowing non-essential businesses to resume activities and free movement for the public, after the nation started a phased recovery plan on May 11. Jean-Francois Delfraissy, head of the scientific council that advises the French government on COVID-19, pointed out on Friday "a significant decrease" in virus circulation and strengthened capacity to test and isolate confirmed cases and trace their contacts to break the chain of contamination. In Southeast Asia, countries such as Malaysia and the Philippines are further easing restrictive measures. For some countries in West Asia, the process of easing restrictions has not been smooth, as the numbers of confirmed cases continue to climb. People visit the Chateau de Versailles (Palace of Versailles) on its reopening day near Paris, France, June 6, 2020. [Xinhua/Gao Jing] Both Iran and Turkey have seen their confirmed cases surpassing 170,000 on Sunday. Iran reported an overnight registration of 2,364 new infections, according to the official IRNA news agency. Iran's health officials have urged people to wear face masks in public places, particularly in public transport vehicles as the country has started to restart businesses and social activities. As Turkey on Friday announced the cancellation of an initially planned weekend lockdown, Turkish people rushed to the streets and parks over the weekend. However, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca urged citizens to stick to social distancing. "Let's not overdo the normalization," he tweeted. People walk on a street in Ankara, Turkey, June 7, 2020. [Xinhua/Mustafa Kaya] Call for Cooperation In a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that "solidarity and cooperation are the right way forward" as the spread of the coronavirus has not been effectively contained globally. In phone calls or meetings with nearly 50 foreign leaders and heads of international organizations, Xi explained China's tactics and achievements in fighting the virus, and emphasized China's open, transparent and responsible approach toward releasing information and sharing its experience in virus control and the treatment of infected cases, according to a white paper released by China's State Council Information Office on Sunday. He called on all parties to build a global community of shared future, strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and support international organizations in order to work together to meet the challenge, said the white paper. Vendors sell disinfectant and personal protective equipment (PPE) in Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, May 27, 2020. [Xinhua/Michael Nagle] China will continue to support the core role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in coordinating vaccine research, while making its contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday told a virtual global vaccine summit hosted by Britain. The summit drew pledges of 8.8 billion U.S. dollars from governments and organizations to fund the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation to ensure vaccine accessibility worldwide, far more than its target of 7.4 billion dollars. "China, after its success in controlling the spread of COVID-19, has turned towards helping countries hit by the disease, and is working seriously to develop a vaccine for treatment," said Ahmad al-Marikhy, vice chairman of Egypt's state-run Television and Radio Magazine. A staff member takes out 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] "Global cooperation is very important, so that the best vaccine is chosen and is available throughout the world," Stanley Perlman, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa in the United States, told Xinhua. According to the WHO, there were over 130 COVID-19 candidate vaccines by June 2, with 10 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation and 123 candidate vaccines in preclinical evaluation. Oren Zimhony, head of the infectious diseases unit at Kaplan Medical Center in Israel, said international collaboration on creating a vaccine is now stronger than ever. "The major game-changer to overcome this pandemic is vaccine development," Zimhony said, expressing hope that the first clinical implications of the intense vaccine research will be available in six months. (Source: Xinhua) OC Chief Health Officer Resigns SANTA ANA, Calif. (CNS)Orange Countys chief health officer, Dr. Nichole Quick, resigned on June 8 after drawing criticism from residents for her order last month to require face coverings as the county allowed some businesses to reopen. Quick was receiving heightened security due to threats stemming from her the mask order. Protesters brought a poster with Quicks photo on it with a Hitler mustache on her face and swastikas to a Board of Supervisors meeting. Supervisor Doug Chaffee said Quick resigned apparently because it was too much for her. She has three young children and shes been severely criticized by people who came out demanding her resignation, demonstrations in front of her home. He added, Shes done her best to give her medical opinion and its not popular so she has resigned. Quicks resignation was the second major and abrupt departure in Orange County since the pandemic began. David Souleles decided to retire in April as deputy agency director of public health services. The plan is to have the Health Care Agency Director Dr. Clayton Chau also serve as the chief health officer as well, so the county can issue health orders required by the state to reopen businesses and activities such as bars, day camps, community pools, hotels, and youth sports. Chaffee was not sure what would happen with Quicks mask order. Chau has defended it, explaining it is required when residents cannot maintain 6 feet of social distancing. Chaffee noted that for all the residents who show up at board of supervisors meetings to complain about the mask order, officials have received a great deal of expressions of support for it. The email is 10-to-1 to keep it, Chaffee said. Theyre afraid to show up [at board meetings] because of the confrontation it will entail. Chaffee said he would stand by whatever the medical opinion is going forward. Quick said she would reconsider the mask order in three weeks, and were at day 9 or 10, Chaffee said. Quick said she issued the order because she was concerned about an increase in COVID-19 cases, as residents would be interacting more as stay-at-home orders were relaxed. Earlier in June, Quick drew criticism from Supervisor Don Wagner, who questioned the need for face coverings as he said other parts of the state were backing away from those orders. Quick replied that Los Angeles and San Diego counties were requiring them. We are seeing an increase in community transmission, Quick said at the June 2 board meeting. I also think our hospitalization rates have been trending up. Quick said face coverings can help prevent the transmission of COVID-19. There is evidence to support that, and I feel strongly we need a face-covering order in place as we continue to send people out into more social interactions. Wagner said some residents have complained of public shaming for not wearing a face covering, and have been denied service in pharmacies and other places. Is that an appropriate response to your mask policy? Quick replied, I absolutely think people should not be shamed if they have a medical reason for not wearing a mask. When Wagner asked her how much longer it needed to be in place, Quick said, Like all things in COVID, we evaluate the data and evidence on a daily basis. As long as were seeing increasing numbers in the county I feel the need for a face-covering mandate. On June 8, Orange County health officials reported 113 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the countys cumulative total to 7,527. The number of deaths remained unchanged at 177. The number of hospitalized patients dipped from 297 on June 7 to 291 on June 8, with the number in intensive care rising from 129 to 135, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. Health officials say 85 of the deaths in the county involved residents of skilled nursing home facilities. The number of people tested for COVID-19 in the county stands at 161,547, with 3,326 documented recoveries. The Egyptian ambassador to the Czech Republic signed Tuesday a protocol to return an Egyptian artifact seized by Czech authorities while monitoring illegal possession of and trade in antiquities. Saeed Hindam signed the deal with Czech Minister of Culture Lubomir Zaoralek who handed over the piece of antiquity, a statue dating back to the Naqada II Period (3350 -3200 B.C) to the Egyptian ambassador. The deal reflects the strong historical ties between both countries as well as the Czech interest in ancient Egyptian history and antiquities, which is demonstrated by the excavation activities carried out by the Czech archaeological mission in Egypt for more than 60 years, Zaoralek said. The retrieval of the priceless piece is the fruit of the close cooperation between the ministries of foreign affairs and tourism to reclaim smuggled Egyptian artifacts from abroad. Search Keywords: Short link: The body of a 62-year-old suspected Covid-19 victim was handed over to her kin by the civic-run Sion Hospital without confirming if the woman was infected, putting the family at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus. Medical health experts called it a case of gross negligence on part of the hospital, which has 400 beds for Covid-19 patients. Gyanti Devi was first admitted to the Bandra-Kurla Complexs (BKC) makeshift Covid care facility at 5am on June 2 with breathing issues and lower body pain, after the family was turned away from Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivli and Cooper Hospital in Andheri owing to unavailability of beds. The same afternoon, as many as 200 patients were moved from the BKC centre to the Covid care facility at NSCI Exhibition Centre in Worli and Sion Hospital due to the threat of Cyclone Nisarga. Gyanti Devi was taken to Sion Hospital, where she succumbed on June 3, and her body was handed over to her family the next day. Her death certificate, a copy of which is with Hindustan Times, states that she died of type-two respiratory failure, lower respiratory tract infection, hypertension and chronic kidney disease. Respiratory failure coupled with comorbidities is one of the major causes of deaths in Covid-19 patients. However, there was no Covid test conducted on Gyanti Devi. When asked about Gyanti Devis case, Ramesh Bharmal, dean of Sion Hospital, said she was supposed to get tested at the BKC facility. We thought the patient was already tested. She was admitted in a semi-coma state and had several comorbidities. She was treated as a non-Covid patient, said Bharmal, adding that after her death, we asked if she was tested, but we didnt get any information if the swab samples were taken or not. On June 8, when Gyanti Devis grandson, Sandeep Sharma, received all her medical reports from Sion Hospital, he said the deputy dean told him that a test may not have been conducted. The doctor told me that looking at the treatment documents, it looks like the patient was not tested for Covid-19, said Sharma. However, a Sion Hospital staff, on condition of anonymity, said Gyanti Devis swab samples could have been misplaced. The swabs may have gone missing as there is no report about them, he said. Health and medico-legal experts, however, said a Covid test should have been conducted on Gyanti Devi. If patient is kept at a Covid facility and if she is suspected to have Covid, a test needs to be conducted. If a test is not necessary, why was the patient kept at a Covid facility then? said Dr Wiqar Shaikh, a senior allergy and asthma specialist. The death certificate says the patient died of respiratory failure and lower respiratory tract infection. In that case, a Covid test was mandatory. Noted criminal lawyer Sudeep Pasbola said the standard operating procedure says that a Covid-19 test needs to be conducted in such cases otherwise they [hospital] are liable for negligence. Even if a person dies of heart attack at home, you cannot cremate the body as it is sent for post-mortem and a Covid-19 test is done. If the test result is positive, the body is wrapped and the relatives are called to directly take it to the crematorium with all precautions in place, said Pasbola. When HT contacted Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner (health), he said, I will look into the matter. THE 48-HOUR CHAOS For Gyanti Devis family, finding out that she had died and locating her body was also a horrifying experience. Her grandson had to run from pillar to post for 48 hours to locate Gyanti Devi, after she was moved from the BKC facility. The family claim they did not receive any intimation from the BKC facility about transferring Gyanti Devi even though they had submitted their contact details. We were not even informed that my grandmother had been shifted and we waited outside BKC facility for eight hours as no one was allowed us to enter inside, said Sharma. After we pressured the security guard, we were let in, but could not find her. The staff at the facility had no clue where she had been sent. I was just told that several patients were shifted to Worli NSCI and Sion Hospital. Sharma and his family then did the rounds of Worli NSCI and Sion Hospital for two days, but could not find Gyanti Devi at both places. We could not even find her name in the list of patients that were moved from BKC, said Sharma. Finally, on the evening of June 4, while enquiring with the Sion Hospital staff, the family was told that there was an unclaimed body of a woman who had died on June 3. We searched in all wards at Sion Hospital and went to the enquiry counter multiple times. The staff then suspected that she could have died and they contacted the Sion crematorium. They then found out that an unclaimed body had been sent to the cremation. It was my grandmother, said Sharma. After Sharma reach the crematorium, the body was handed over to him, but the family still does not know if Gyanti Devi was Covid-19. BJP corporator Vinod Mishra called the case a huge blunder by the health staff at both the facilities. The details of the patient were not shared properly because of which it led to so much trouble for the family. We are going to legally challenge this matter in court, said Mishra. SANTA ANA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / As educational leaders continue the challenging conversation about what the new normal will look like for students across the nation, Allied Universal, a leading security and facility services company in North America, is helping school administrators and campus safety departments plan and prepare for students returning to school. Allied Universal's more than 7,500 campus Security Professionals safeguard nearly 700 schools/universities nationwide. Over last several months, Allied Universal's K-12 and higher education experts have been sharing best practices, guidance and tools to help schools provide a safe and secure environment for all students and faculty. This guidance includes the following: Support "no touch" entry into buildings, dissemination of personal protection equipment (PPE) and disinfecting supplies and social distancing requirements to keep staff, students and parents safe. Allied Universal's CARE Ambassadors are available to help ease return to school anxieties and are available to welcome, inform and educate students and parents on all aspects of the return to school initiatives. Conduct distance temperature screening with a broad range of solutions such as handheld, fixed or semi-permanent thermal screening imaging and robotic and kiosk screening technology. Assist with traffic control, provide improved management of drop-offs and pickups, and support ingress and egress locations around school buildings. Help mitigate further risks with advanced technologies such as Allied Universal's HELIAUS platform, LiveSafe's Mobile Safety and Security App, access control and remote video monitoring solutions. "Institutional stakeholders are asking questions about what the 'new normal' will look like for our students, while, at the same time, our educational leaders are balancing budgets and dealing with lay-offs and staffing decisions while continuing to provide a high quality academic experience for students across the country," said Stephen R. Aborn, Director of Higher Education at Allied Universal. "We are here to support and offer a variety of solutions to keep all school campuses safe during the COVD-19 pandemic." Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided recommendations on how to keep our communities safe while resuming peer-to-peer learning. The CDC released this guidance to inform a gradual scale up of operations with the ultimate goal to decrease further spread of the virus. "We recognize the hard work of our education leaders and support their mission of furthering learning and education to all students in a safe environment," said Mahsa Karimi, Education Manager at Allied Universal. "It is our #1 goal to provide our education partners with the safety resources and tools they need so they can focus on what they do best-to continue to teach and inspire our students." About Allied Universal Allied Universal, a leading security and facility services company in North America with more than 235,000 employees and revenues over $8.4 billion, provides unparalleled security services and technology solutions. With offices located throughout the nation as well as internationally (Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom), Allied Universal is responsible for protecting client sites covering multiple specialty sectors such as higher education, healthcare, retail, commercial real estate, government and corporate campuses, etc. Supported by vast experience gained from being in business for over 60 years, Allied Universal provides proactive security services and cutting-edge smart technology to deliver evolving, tailored solutions that allow clients to focus on their core business. Through world-class customer service, highly advanced systems and cohesive technology solutionsAllied Universal is There for you. For more information, please visit www.aus.com. Media Contacts : Vanessa Showalter, Allied Universal/PR Manager Phone: 714-619-9744 Email: Vanessa.Showalter@aus.com Nancy Thompson, Vorticom Public Relations Phone: 212-532-2208 Email: nancyt@vorticom.com SOURCE: Allied Universal View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/593145/Allied-UniversalR-Helps-Schools-and-Universities-Prepare-for-the-Upcoming-Academic-Year-Offering-Highly-Advanced-Safety-Protocols Taking a stand against cyberbullying, Alanna Panday, daughter of fitness expert Deanne Panday and cousin of actor Ananya Panday, has revealed that a woman threatened her with rape after she posted a photo in a bikini. She said while she was shocked, this has now become an everyday part of her life. Her mother and fitness expert Deanne Panday also added to her testimony. The model and internet celeb shared a note on Instagram, This happened months ago, I wish I had spoken about it sooner, but waking up and reading things like this just became normal to me-its an everyday part of my life. Heres 1% of what I have to wake up and read everyday. The note read, Ive had a women comment on my post saying I deserve to be gang raped because I posted a picture in a bikini.She then tagged my mother and father in the comment to make sure that they saw it too. I wish I had a screenshot but I was so shaken when I saw it I blocked her immediately and Instagram deleted the comment. When I went to her profile to block her I saw that she was married and had a daughter a little younger than me. I dont understand how you can wish that upon someone elses child. Also Watch | Ayushmann Khurrana, Ananya Panday at birthday bash of Bhumi Pednekars sister She also shared a screenshot of a womans Instagram profile and captioned it, Educated women in our country still talk/think like this. According to her bio shes either a doctor or a nurse. Her mother Deanne also added to her post in the comments section. She wrote, This is the same person who sent me messages saying I am bringing up my daughter in the wrong way and I should be ashamed .. that you are influenced by Bollywood so thats why you wear less clothes.She also said you have no assets .. so you wear these clothes for attention.She said a lot more as its all on your previous Instagram post .. her nasty comments. Also read: Anil Kapoor, Anand Ahuja cant emphasise how scared they are of Sonam Kapoor, see fun banter between actor and son-in-law A day before, film and TV producer Ekta Kapoor had shamed a man for allegedly hurting the sentiments of the Indian Army in her web show, XXX: Uncensored. Taking a standing against cyber bullying, she had told Shobhaa De during a chat, This gentleman who thinks that hes the patriot of the year decided to come out there, abuse my mother and me. And now, he has openly put a rape threat on a social platform. This is now no longer about the army or sexual content because the idea of this is rape a girl, rape her son, rape her 71-year-old mother for making sexual content. It means sex is bad but rape is okay. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Karl Marx wasnt much of an economist. But his analysis of history was right on the money. History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce, Marx famously said. He got that right, especially as regards our governor. When the coronavirus first hit back in March, Phil Murphy said the pandemic was so serious that all New Jerseyans would be required to comply with an order to stay at home. That order, which remains in effect, said residents shouldnt go out except to get essentials like food and medicine, according to the governors Covid-19 website. That website also advises us that All residents and businesses should follow state and federal safeguarding guidelines, that mandate no mass gatherings. And the site connects to CDC recommendations that when going outdoors you wear a mask and keep about 6 feet between yourself and others. The site noted that a face cover is not a substitute for social distancing. So who was that guy pictured on the front page of the Monday Star-Ledger marching shoulder-to-shoulder with a crowd of other people who were ignoring social distancing? Why, it was the same guy who just extended his state of emergency into the summer. The photo, which is from Murphys own website, shows the governor ignoring all his own rules as he marches behind a banner representing the Hillside Strong March to End Racism, Police Brutality and Embrace Diversity event. That is a wonderful political position for a Democratic politician to take, especially one whos striving to become a big force in the national party. But the governors own website lists no exceptions for attending political protests. This is the point at which Murphys handling of the pandemic has descended into farce. (The tragedy was experienced by the thousands of New Jerseyans who died because of the Murphy administrations bungled handling of nursing homes.) If even a wealthy politician finds it impossible to comply with the rules Murphy has put out, how can he expect the public to do so? Theres one sign pushing these rules that I pass whenever I drive over to the Point Pleasant canal, a pleasant spot to walk the dog while watching the boats go by. On the way there is a flashing display that reads, When fishing and boating, observe social distancing. Im sure the governor can afford a yacht big enough for the passengers and crew to stay 6 feet away from each other. But on the typical boat, the only way to get that far away from your fellow sailors is to jump overboard. Such silliness abounds. Soon after that photo started getting passed around the internet on Sunday, I heard from several irate readers. They wanted to know why, if its safe for protesters to assemble cheek-by-jowl, school graduations cannot be held until July 6. They also wanted to know what explains the absurd level of micromanagement put forward by Murphys recovery committee of handpicked political hacks. Caps and gowns, for example, must be ordered online and delivered by mail to each graduates home. As for the caps, they cannot be thrown in the air at the end of the ceremony under Murphys law. We are so far above the level of micromanagement we need, said the state senator who represents the district in which Murphys expansive estate is located. I think I counted 43 bullet points for graduation, said Monmouth Republican Declan OScanlon. When it comes to day-care center guidelines, its as if theyre saying they might as well not reopen. And as Murphy ignores his own rulings, his administration continues to crack down on merchants who are merely trying to make a living. Last week his website boasted of corralling the Morris County man who had the temerity to reopen his pool-supply store ahead of the June 15 date set by Murphy. But if you need pool supplies, you just do what I did last weekend: Go to Home Depot. If youre forced to buy at Home Depot, a local guy goes out of business, said OScanlon. Ill bet 80 percent of pool supplies are sold in this period. Meanwhile many Shore merchants are missing out on the first two weekends in June, he said. People are ready for this to end, but there are 49 other states that are further ahead than we are, OScanlon said. All 49 other states have issued some sort of metrics for reopening. Not New Jersey. We got nothing. We get whatever the governor wants when he wakes up in the morning. If he wants to go marching to make a political point, thats fine, said OScanlon. But the hypocrisys just stunning, he said. It is indeed. If a picture is worth a thousand words, every one of those words will be about the fall of a politician who failed to realize the lessons of history apply to him. ALSO - UNBELIEVABLE! BUSINESS OWNER THREATENED WITH A YEAR IN JAIL FOR DOING WHAT THE GOVERNOR DID: A reader sent me this article about a Hackettstown woman who faces up to $2,000 in fines and a year in jail for holding a pro-business rally. Note that the summons comes from the state of New Jersey. Im emailing Murphys office to ask why he shouldnt be cited under the same laws. Mental health nurses will be based at some Sydney police stations and accompany officers to psychiatric emergencies as part of a new program to help people in a mental health crisis. The Berejiklian government will employ 36 specialist mental health clinicians across 10 police area commands and districts in Sydney following the strong results of a pilot program. Mental health nurses will accompany police and ambulance officers to psychiatric emergencies. Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor and Police Minister David Elliott will expand the Police, Ambulance and Clinical Early Response (PACER) program which offers expert support to police and ambulance officers called to mental health emergencies. NSW Police last year attended more than 55,000 mental health incidents. Fighters from Hurras al-Deen attempted to attack a Syrian army position in the town of Tanjarah, but were repulsed by the defending forces reports Al-Masdar. The Syrian army squared off against a group of jihadist rebels that attempted to infiltrate their positions in the northwestern countryside of the Hama Governorate on Monday. According to a field report from northwestern Hama, the jihadists of Hurras al-Deen stormed the Syrian armys positions along the administrative border of Hama and Idleb. A source from the army said the jihadist attack targeted their positions in the town of Tanjarah, which is located inside the northern region of the al-Ghab Plain. The source said the jihadists managed to infiltrate the armys positions at Tanjarah, prompting the nearby Syrian army troops to unleash a large barrage of missiles and artillery shells on the Hurras al-Deen forces. The source revealed that Syrian army reinforcements were quickly moved to the frontlines after the initial attack by Hurras al-Deen, as they attempted to restore order around this volatile front in northwestern Syria. Last month, the jihadist rebels launched a similar attack on the Syrian armys positions, resulting in over 30 casualties for the Syrian armys forces. 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. Gary Palmatier, who is retired, had biked roughly eight miles from his Arlington County home that morning to reach Lafayette Square. It was far longer than the 66-year-old normally biked in a day. Sweat darkened the front of his lime-green T-shirt and wet the corners of his cloth face mask, which was covered with images of newspaper front pages. Hed timed the trip so he could begin strolling along the fence just as noon struck just as people in a Houston church fell silent, listening to a pastor who would try to honor the life of a man who never expected to die beneath the knee of a police officer. Leaflets urge people to go for strikes at coal mines and take to the streets to topple the self-styled "authorities". Ukrainian Army officer Anatoly Stefan says Russian puppet "authorities" in the self-proclaimed "Luhansk People's Republic" ("LPR") in Donbas have put police forces on high alert after loads of leaflets were posted in the streets of Antratsyt and Slovianoserbsk, urging the local population to firmly resist occupation. "Today, the occupation authorities put on alert units of the so-called police in the pseudo 'LPR'. The reason for such measures was the mass planting of propaganda leaflets (in the area of Antratsyt and Slovianoserbsk) with calls for a coup, sabotage, and strikes at coal mines, health care facilities, and other institutions," the officer reported on June 7. Read alsoOne Ukrainian soldier wounded amid 11 enemy attacks in Donbas on June 8 As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian activists held a daring campaign in Donbas. "Donetsk region is part of Ukraine, even its occupied areas," read paper leaflets, posted on walls and lamp poles across towns in the occupied territories. Separate groups of like-minded citizens earlier held a series of secret meetings where a decision was made to unite in a larger organization that will go by the name of "Committee for Donbas Liberation." At the time of the shooting, the departments policy for responding to aggression was to meet your aggression with the suspects aggression, according to the court ruling. The department did not have any program or policy for handling interactions with people with mental illness. According to the court ruling, the police chief said the incident had prompted such training. File image The president of the UN General Assembly said Monday that world leaders will not be coming to New York for their annual gathering in late September for the first time in the 75-year history of the United Nations because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But Tijjani Muhammad-Bande told a news conference that he hopes to announce in the next two weeks how the 193 heads of state and government will give their speeches on pressing local and world issues during the assembly's so-called General Debate. World leaders cannot come to New York because they cannot come simply as individuals, he said. A president doesn't travel alone, leaders don't travel alone and it is impossible to bring large delegations to New York during the pandemic. We cannot have them in person as we used to what happened in the last 74 years but it will happen Muhammad-Bande said of the annual event. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recommended last month that the gathering of world leaders, which was supposed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, be dramatically scaled back because of the pandemic. Guterres suggested in a letter to the General Assembly president that heads of state and government deliver prerecorded messages instead, with only one New York-based diplomat from each of the 193 UN member nations present in the assembly hall. Muhammad-Bande said Monday that by late September maybe a hundred or so people might be allowed in the General Assembly chamber. The meeting of world leaders usually brings thousands of government officials, diplomats and civil society representatives to New York for over a week of speeches, dinners, receptions, one-on-one meetings and hundreds of side events. This year was expected to bring an especially large number of leaders to UN headquarters to celebrate the founding of the United Nations in 1945 on the ashes of World War II. Muhammad-Bande said the 75th anniversary celebration is not conceived as one moment but will continue throughout the year starting on June 26, the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Charter of the United Nations in San Francisco. He said a political declaration on the United Nations at 75 is also being negotiated, and world leaders will have the opportunity to mark the occasion only not in person. Instances of xenophobia shook the cities, each one worse than the next, in the anxious years of the early fifth-century Roman Empire. Doors were slammed in immigrants faces when they asked for food, immigrant family members were kidnapped and beaten on the road, an immigrant house of worship was set on fire. One commentator, taking up his stylus to decry the foreign pestilence ravaging his comfortable way of life, won instant applause from Latin-speaking audiences. He twittered about contemporary events with matter-of-fact indifference. Everyone insults the immigrant, the poet Claudian said. Among the many ideas modern societies have inherited from Claudians Rome, none has had a more pernicious power than his peoples questionable notion of dividing the world into the civilized and barbarian, us and them. A modern version of that antiquated ideology still holds power. For example, even before the pandemic, Trump adviser Stephen Millerwho, the Southern Poverty Law Center has found, has shared material from white nationalist websitesreportedly scoured the federal law code for novel ways to restrict legalized immigration. The arrival of the novel coronavirus has only intensified the Trump Administrations priorities, offering a convenient pretext to reduce green cards and tighten the borders. But history didnt have to turn out this way. The circumstances that led Western Europe and the U.S. to embrace the worst of classical culture demand a second look, now more than ever. According to tradition, the once-great and formerly welcoming city of Rome had been founded in the eighth century B.C. as an asylum, a Latin word meaning sanctuary for refugees. As Rome grew from monarchy to humble republic to unrivaled empire, the Roman people developed a winning formula for ending wars, fostering stability and achieving widespread, lasting economic success: They extended citizenship to non-residents of the capital. Story continues By any conservative account, Romes government did so three times by Claudians day: first, in its wars of Italian conquest in the first century B.C.; then, during its aggressive period of colonial expansion in the first and second centuries A.D.; and finally, in 212 A.D., when Emperor Caracalla granted citizenship rights to every free-born person in Romes orbit. In this multilingual, multiethnic world of nearly 60 million peoplea disturbing number of whom were enslavedhundreds of thousands of people in Europe, Africa and Asia saw their fortunes improve because of Caracallas law. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter If you lived at the empires frontier, citizenship guaranteed your ability to hear a case before a Roman judge. If you grew up at the border, it ensured that you and your family could not suffer arbitrarily at the hands of slave traders, who stole boys and girls like hungry wolves. Citizenship also promoted a widespread public trust in investment and fostered economic growth. Fides, the Roman god of reliability, always looked favorably on citizens who drew up their contracts in writing, or so the Romans believed. Citizenship had long worked quieter miracles throughout Romes long history. After 25 years of service, veterans were regularly handed a diploma, a bronze certificate folded in two that recorded for posterity their hard-won citizenship status. They passed it to their children. Outside the military, individuals earned citizenship when struggling families left the Mediterranean for a more precariousbut potentially more lucrative lifeon the frontiers. When they petitioned the government to grant them equal resident status to families in Italy, thankful emperors obliged. As Romans and locals married, the picture of a Roman changed. But that shift also spawned a backlash, the legacy of which still appeals to racists, xenophobes and white nationalists, many of whom have opted to embrace the worst features of Western civilization to justify their own bigotries. When a foreign-born soldier named Maximinus was acclaimed emperor after Caracallas law, traditionalists in the Roman Senate resorted to stereotypes to undermine his rule. Pegging him as monstrous Cyclops, they groused about his lowly origin and implied, one contemporary wrote, that he had won his position by luck, not talent. Stereotyping left a lasting mark on Europe. By the Middle Ages, monks circulated short, alliterative lists, cataloging what they thought to be the worst of foreigners supposed behavior, immortalizing tropes they copied from classical writers. Egyptians were evasive, Jews jealous, Gauls gluttons, Saxons stupid. Modern opponents of immigration draw on this same ancient playbook, as if theyre waging a battle against the globes new barbarians. But theyd better look more closely at the history of what happened to Rome. After Caracallas reform extended citizenship, one generation passed, then the next, but a repeat was not forthcoming. The new waves of new foreigners who wanted a Roman life were met with no such welcome. Even as Rome became noticeably dependent on the help of these same foreigners for their livelihood (as the great chronicler of the fourth-century empire, Ammianus, wrote), a more rigid, two-tiered society hardened over time. Citizens and non-citizens lived side-by-side, often in the same towns, but with widely different rights. Roman law variously categorized them as allies, transfers or fortunate ones. Still, no politician ever proposed a policy for releasing them from these second-tier categories. By Claudians day, Romes government and its people simply presumed that immigrants would always till their farms, stock their cupboard, and serve at the front lines of the next war, without any reward for their sacrifices. But on Aug. 24, 410, a disgruntled immigrant named Alaric the Goth gave up waiting for change and unleashed a surprise attack on Romes unjust empire. Even as the Romans picked up the pieces of their city in the weeks that followed, their political convictions remained stubbornly unchanged. Within a decade, it was widely thought to be more convenient to dissolve the empire than to articulate a strategy for incorporating foreigners within it. By 476, Rome fell apart. Many policy-makers have drawn the wrong lessons from Alarics attack, seeing in it a reason to fear outsiders. But in fact, the long-beating heart of classical civilization had depended on its embrace of immigrantsand for citizens of modern states who aspire to stay united, this turning point in world history invites a closer look. Norton Douglas Boin is a historian at Saint Louis University and the author, most recently, of Alaric the Goth: An Outsiders History of the Fall of Rome (Norton). On the Topic of Racial Injustice: How My Views Have Been Shaped and Why I Still Have Work To Do It could be easy to say whats happening right now isnt about me. Im not racist. Im not part of the problem. But have I been openly ANTI-racist? Have I condemned it ENOUGH? Am I part of the solution? Weve all been processing so much over the past weeks. Ive had lots of productive conversations, and actually just learned a lot from lots of different voices on social media and their publications. I really enjoy sharing my thoughts here on the blog, where I can write longer form content, so wanted to share my thoughts, feelings, and how I move forward from all Ive learned. And also, a little background on how my views have been shaped over the years. On the Topic of Racial Injustice: How My Views Have Been Shaped and Why I Still Have Work To Do Im from a very small, very white town in Ohio outside of a small, but diverse, city, Toledo. My formative years were spent in the countrynot the suburbs. I grew up on five acres, rode and showed horses from age 5-17, was in 4H, and had lots of friends who were farmers. It was very homogenous town where a lot of people stay putmany stay local for college and come back home afterwards. The diversity I was exposed to as a kid was limited to The Cosby Show and Family Matters (which I loved, btw). I decided early on that I wanted a different pathand Im actually not sure what triggered it; when I was about to go to high school, I changed my tune and decided to go to a private school in the cityan all-girls school and that opened my eyes to some diversity, even if it was still 70% white. All of the sudden, I was driving 30 minutes to school each way, meeting kids who actually lived in the city of Toledo and making friends from all different backgroundsincluding a handful of black friends. Although the socioeconomic makeup was similar at my high school, the new experience was fun and expanded my worldview; I knew from that point I wanted to live in a big city that was full of all different people. I share my early background because I think theres still a large part of America who grew up similarly and dont fully grasp the current race conversations. They havent seen what they consider typically racist behavior so they dont believe that narrative. The mention of white supremacy conjures up images of the KKK, the stuff in movies, and lit crosses in the yard (which doesnt happen where Im from, thank God). But its so much more complex and layered than that. And part of me understands that because I lived in that safe bubble through college (even if my eyes were more opened in high school), but the other part of me knows that just because it doesnt affect you, doesnt make it less important. Its honestly a painful realization once you come to terms with it. Its uncomfortable thinking about the privilege you have, solely based on your skin color. And you can either ignore it and act like you dont know its happening or you can help course correct and recognize first and foremost that our country has been built on a pretty racist system. Id liken the current situation to how much of the country rallied around our soldiers in WWII. The average American hadnt heard of Hitler and didnt know much about the atrocities he was committingbut they were behind Americas decision to get involved in the war. Well, currently in our country, racism is that bad guythat social construct that has defined our roles as we know it in society. The black community is still experiencing overt acts of racism and even more importantly, the playing field isnt as level as most people think it is. As a citizen of this country, shouldnt we fight for our fellow Americans to have equal rights? Weve made so much progress through the years since the civil rights movement in the 1960s, but those racial tensions didnt just disappear in 1970. Just like they didnt disappear once the Union won the Civil War. Those attitudes, prejudices, and systems in place have lasted for generations because they are taught to us and its all we knowuntil we realize that we know better. What has shaped my views is friendships with people of different races. Its traveling throughout our country and abroad. Or volunteering in underserved communities. And reading books from not just white authors. I posted on instagram last night about how Im talking about the race conversations in my own home and how the fact that having a black best friend has really molded my views. When I talked to her about posting it, we both knew I would get some pushback or eyerolls from people who thought I was using the black best friend card as a narrative to push some agenda but that risk was worth it for getting my message across. Someone even chastised me and said I was using her as a prop (and honestly, that hurt). But its not a narrativeits only my experience, which is all my blog has ever been. Ive spoken from the heart for yearsshared with you all the death of a parent, the loss of pregnancies, and the happy moments and lots of clothes in between, so getting called out on using a friend to push an agenda was really was a punch to the gut. But the experience is REAL and those experiences are what define me. Having her as a friend has absolutely opened my eyes to casual racism. We met on my first day at a new job and were fast friends. Because we worked together so 6+ years, we spent a LOT of time together. I heard as people in the office would tell her, youre so well-spoken or you dont sound black. (Yes, that should make you cringe.). I learned that shes heard them her whole life and soon I realized that it was just a sliver of what she had to deal with growing up black in a mostly white American city. Its just not something Ive ever had to understand and that is true for so many white Americans. And the whole white privilege awareness isnt to minimize their hardships and struggles. Its to explain that your skin color been a hindrance or put a target on your back, like it does for the black community. And I know I said I wouldnt get political on my blog. And I really wont. I have zero interest in debating politics with anyone on the internet; whenever I get caught in a political debate online it sucks the life out of me (but Im happy to do it in person! ha) and I doubt that either one of us is going to convince each other of anything. If anyone is dying to know my views, Im not shy about itIm a registered Independent and Im voting for Biden in 2020, but thats as far as Ill go on touting my views. (BTW, I IMPLORE you to vote and to pay close attention to local and state elections. Local elections determine so much of what affects your daily life: housing, schools, policing!) But anyway, THISracial injustice, systemic racism, it transcends politics. And so many disagree with me about that because of course, its being politicized, much like the global pandemic was (actually nuts that you can politicize a virus, but here we are), because in our country, we like to debate until were red in the face. But you wont find a debate here because I believe in equality. I believe in equal human rights. I believe in the fair treatment of all. And youll never convince me otherwise. So, if youre still with me after this super long blog post, I have something to leave you with that I cant stop thinking about. I went to a local march against injustice this weekend and had a lump in my throat when the young, black speaker said that when she received a better grade than a classmate, the classmate angrily responded, I wish slavery still existed. The woman who shared her story looked fresh out of high school. The classmate who said that had clearly grown up with the mentality that she deserves more because shes white, simply based on that comment. We have to commit to do better. We have to take a hard look in the mirror. And address it with ourselves. We have to have tough conversations with our kids. And I know Im far from perfect and certainly not the first to speak out on this. I also know that I have loads more work to do in terms of figuring out how I can better myself, community, family, and actually make a difference here. And even though so much of my content on the blog and instagram centers around me, I will continue to provide introspective essays and feature brands by more diverse designers, books by more diverse authors, or local entrepreneurs that arent only white. Thats what you can expect from me because weve got to move forward from this and do better. Iceland founder Malcolm Walker and chief executive Tarsem Dhaliwal have taken full ownership of the frozen food retailer after buying out South African investor Brait. The duo will pay 115million for the 63 per cent stake, bringing Iceland totally under their control and back into British hands eight years after Brait first bought into the company. Brait, the South African investment firm part-owned by billionaire retail tycoon Christo Wiese which is also the majority owner of gym brand Virgin Active, had signalled in November last year it was looking to offload some of its assets. Back into British hands: Iceland was majority owned by South African investment firm Brait 'It is particularly satisfying to turn this new page in Iceland's history just before the 50th anniversary of the opening of our first shop on November 18 1970,' Sir Malcolm said. 'Having started the business in partnership with a friend, I am delighted to have come full circle and own what are now more than 1,000 stores with another good friend in 2020.' Sir Malcolm and Mr Dhaliwal have long been keen to buy their partner's stake. Mr Dhaliwal added: 'We have always been a genuine family business and it is not just Sir Malcolm and I but many of our colleagues who have children working for the company. 'We are totally committed to running and growing this business for the long-term benefit of all our stakeholders and their families.' Iceland, like many other supermarkets, has been doing well during the pandemic, grabbing a 2.4 per cent share of the market - its highest level for 20 years. The latest industry figures by Kantar show Iceland sales rose 28.6 per cent in the 12 weeks to May 17. New Delhi, June 9 : In Delhi, patients have to wander from hospital to hospital for treatment of coronavirus. Some of those admitted to hospitals have also gone missing. In Covid-designated Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital, the bodies could not be accounted for. At the same time, private hospitals have been accused of allotting beds at a premium. A case of missing corona-infected elderly patient has been reported at LNJP hospital. A 65-year-old corona-infected person was admitted to LNJP hospital on June 1 by his son Naveen (name changed). The patient was referred from Mata Chanan Devi Hospital in Janakpuri to LNJP. Naveen alleged, "I kept fetching food for my father from home for several days but the food was returned. I inquired about my father but the hospital did not give any satisfactory answer. I have checked at all the wards with the hospital staff but could not find my father there." "At first my father was in ward number 31, then he was shifted to ICU-4 but he is not there either. He does not have a mobile phone. I have also complained to the police so that the administration could investigate into my father's whereabouts," Naveen added. A young man Anil Kumar made rounds of the hospitals with his sick sister-in-law all through the night. By morning, the patient died. Anil said, "First of all we went to Sir Gangaram Hospital. The hospital refused to treat the patient or allot her a bed. We were told all beds were occupied. Then we went to the nearest BL Kapoor Hospital but did not get a bed there either. After a while we reached RML hospital. First they asked to admit the patient but later they refused, saying there was no bed available. On appealing again, the hospital staff misbehaved and we were thrown out." The Delhi government app showed beds were available in hospitals but they refused to admit the patient when approached. A call was also made to the helpline number of the Delhi government but to no avail, added Anil. "After visiting several private hospitals, we reached Safdarjung Hospital. Though the patient was admitted but was kept waiting outside the corona ward for nearly an hour. After putting the patient on oxygen, the cylinder ran out of gas and the patient died." Asked to comment on the matter, Dr Balwinder of Safdarjung Hospital said, "You talk to the PRO of the hospital. I am not an authorized person to talk on this subject". The hospital's PRO declined to comment. Vishal, whose relative was under treatment at GTB hospital, said, "Our relative died in the hospital during the corona treatment but the body was not handed over by the hospital administration for three hours. Later the relatives and an attendant of the hospital removed the body from there and wrapped it in a cloth." Sunil Singh (name changed), a corona patient, said, "After being found corona positive I went to a private corona hospital near Karol Bagh. However, the hospital refused to provide me a bed. The hospital asked for a deposit of Rs 4.5 lakh. Of which Rs 2.5 lakh were demanded through the credit card and another Rs 2 lakh in cash. The Delhi government has also registered an FIR against this private hospital in another case." Asked that millions of rupees were being sought by private hospitals for treatment of corona, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said action would be taken against such hospitals. There has also been a case of swapping of two bodies in LNJP Hospital. Two persons both named Aslam were admitted to the hospital for corona treatment but both died. Following their death, the two bodies were swapped due to the same name and handed over to the wrong families. The funerals were also done on mistaken identity. Realising the mistake, the hospital and the police have accused the families of wrong identification of the bodies. The hospital administration said, "The corpses of two persons of the same name got interchanged as the face begins to decay post-death, hence the mistake in identifying the body." Press Release June 9, 2020 GORDON URGES GOV'T TO SET A CLEAR POLICY TO CONTAIN COVID, CONDUCT MASSIVE TESTING BASED ON WHO RECOMMENDATION Four months after the Department of Health (DOH) reported the country's first case of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and with the continuous increase of number of positive cases, Senator Richard J. Gordon urged the government to set a clear policy on containing COVID-19 and reiterated the need for a massive testing in the fight to flatten the curve. "I have consistently declared that the best way to fight the virus is to unmask it, to expose the virus as it hides in our people. Exposing the virus means testing the population to find out those who are positive, isolate them, do contact tracing, provide medical treatment and take care of the other family members," said Gordon. Gordon pointed out that the World Health Organization (WHO) has been recommending to test at least 13% of the country's total population or 1.6 million individuals. In support of this target, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), which Gordon heads, has invested in test facilities that currently has a capacity of 12,000 tests per day. When more of the PRC's molecular laboratories start to operate, the daily testing capacity will increase to 22,000. Since April 14, the PRC has tested over 90,000 individuals but according to Gordon, only 25% of the tests were for Metro Manila local government units (LGU). "This is not good for our country. The government should make up its mind on this matter and the DOH and PhilHealth must get their act together on testing everybody. It seems deplorable that a very minor percentage of the Metro Manila population has been tested. At the same time, the number of people getting infected and worse, succumbing to the virus, keep increasing," Gordon said. "We recommend that the IATF set a definitive goal for testing in Metro Manila and coordinate with the Department of Interior and Local Government as well as with the Metro Manila Development Authority to ensure implementation of this target," he added. Photo: mil.huanqiu.com By Hai Jing Russias Northern Fleet announced on June 1 that the fleet will soon conduct a massive exercise involving more than 30 ships and 20 warplanes in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Previously, navies of the US and other NATO members sailed to the Barents Sea in the Arctic region in the name of freedom of navigation. In fact, the recent military activities in the Arctic region by the US and Russia have drawn close attention in the international community. In late April, two F-35A fighter jets of the US military flew to the Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, where 54 of this fighter are planned to be deployed by the end of 2021, after two F-22 squadrons were already assigned to the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska earlier. The state of Alaska that faces Russia across the Bering Strait will see the highest density of Americas new stealth fighter jets in the near future. Also in late April, Russian airborne troops conducted landing training from 10,000 meters above the Franz Josef Land of the Arctic, which the Russian Defense Ministry said was the worlds first systematic parachuting from such a high altitude in such a severe environment. Senior officials of the Russian military vowed to make such exercises in the Arctic region an annual thing in the future, which will cover the whole polar region. These moves indicate an escalated contention between Washington and Moscow over the Arctic and more conspicuoussigns shown for perceived competition between their armed forces. At the moment, Moscow has deployed a number of fighter jets in the Arctic Circle, with the Mig-31 that is dubbed as a flying missile being the most advanced one. Being able to perform a raft of missions, such as ultra-long-range anti-missile air defense, counter low-orbit satellite, and counter submarine, while loaded with multiple types of missiles, this fighter jet is a powerful escort when Russias strategic bombers are patrolling the North Pole. It has also exercised joint assault operations in conjunction with other types of planes, and successfully test-launched the hypersonic missile Dagger in the Arctic. Besides, the Russian Space Force stationed in the Arctic has extensively adopted the modified S-300 and S-400 air defense missile systems from August 2019 to April 2020 and is actively conducting coordinated training with warplanes. Russian Space Forces accelerated military deployments in the Arctic are seenas serious challengesby the US military, so it has also rushed to deploy the latest fighter jets in the region in response to Moscows intensified airborne and air defense systems. But the US-Russia contention in the Arctic doesnt stop in the air. In March 2020, the US Navy held the biennial joint exercise code-named ICEX 2020 in the Arctic, with the participation of Britain, Canada, Norway, and Japan. During the exercise, the Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut and the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Toledopracticedsurfacingthrough the ice, which was declared to be a move to assess the US Navys combat readiness in the Arctic. A Russian naval general commented that while all nuclear submarines of the Northern Fleet and Pacific Fleet are capable of icebreaking and surfacing, only a few American submarines can do that. In recent years, Moscow has kept increasing its military presence in the Arctic to better protect its interests. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the consolidation of Russias military forces in the Arctic is one of the top priorities of his ministry. It is reported that four new vessels will be commissioned and join the Northern Fleet by the end of 2020, along with more than 180 pieces of new weapons and equipment suitable for the dire environment in the Arctic. The blazing of the Arctic route has highlighted the regions latent strategic values at a faster pace. In face of the strategic suppression of the US and its allies, Russia has attempted to seek domination in Arctic affairs leveraged on its geographical advantages, while countries around the pole area have all followed suit in making deployments there. These all point to the fact that the Arctic will become the focal point of multi-party contention in the time to come. Amid protests throughout the country over racial injustice and police brutality, Northampton received a brief moment in the national spotlight this week. A video clip of a police officer in the city speaking during a protest earlier this month has gone viral to the point that it was included in an episode of political satirist and talkshow host John Olivers HBO show, Last Week Tonight. In the 33-minute episode, Oliver discussed the history of race and policing in the United States in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. The television host also talked about roadblocks to fixing deep-rooted problems entrenched in law enforcement in the U.S. Too many still seem to think that this is an issue of a few bad actors," Oliver said during the episode. "In fact, just listen to one officer unsuccessfully try to make that argument to some protesters just this week. The comedian then took to a clip of Northampton Police Capt. Robert Powers addressing demonstrators during a June 1 protest in the community. One bad hamburger at McDonalds does not make McDonalds bad," Powers told protesters over a megaphone. A demonstrators responds, What the f--- does that mean? Oliver then expressed his agreement with the demonstrator. Yeah, that protesters right. What the f--- does that mean?," he said. Because one hamburger should mean a health inspection. A few bad hamburgers might mean that McDonalds getting shut down, and bad hamburgers regularly killing people on the street would mean that we would maybe all consider going f---ing vegan. "But this clearly isnt about individual officers. Its about a structure built on systemic racism that this country created intentionally and now needs to dismantle intentionally and replace with one that takes into account the needs of the people that it actually serves, and this is going to take sustained pressure and attention over a long period of time from all of us. The episode has more than 6.1 million views on YouTube, and the original clip of Powers, which was uploaded to Twitter on June 3, has more than 1.4 million views. Powers, at the time he made the comment, was attempting to deescalate the demonstration after a long standoff between protesters and law enforcement. The police captain was asked by the protests organizer, Grace Coates, as well as other demonstrators to take a knee. The officer said he could not. A moment later, though, Northampton Chief of Police Jody Kasper, Massachusetts State Police Major Michael Habel and Northampton police Lieutenant Alan Borowski came out of the citys police station and told the protesters they wanted to take a knee with them. Related Content: Screenshot of Superintendent William R. Hite, Jr. speaking during the School District of Philadelphia virtual graduation on June 9, 2020. Read more They squeaked by, and they graduated with highest honors. They are heading to Ivy League institutions, they are entering the work world, and they are the first members of their families to earn high school diplomas. Roughly 13,000 strong, they are Philadelphias high school graduating Class of 2020, students from traditional public schools, charters, and alternative programs. The public school system feted them with a virtual ceremony Tuesday unlike any had imagined watched from the privacy of their homes, without classmates or the ability to cross a stage to collect a diploma, featuring prerecorded speeches, student performances, and cameos from the likes of Jill Scott and Black Thought. The realities of COVID-19 and ongoing public health concerns forced the changes, as well as the loss of in-person schooling since mid-March, and certainly there are other losses, Mayor Jim Kenney told the students: prom, senior trip, yearbook signing, and myriad other rituals. These events are important, but not nearly as important as the determination you have shown to get to this moment, he said. The virtual graduation marked the end of an academic year that had been upended for thousands of pupils when schools were closed to try and reduce the spread of the coronavirus. During the ceremony, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. urged the students to be proud of their accomplishments, and also said he understood how unsettling the very real, very upsetting consequences of systemic racism and social injustice are, especially in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and other black people killed by police. While things may seem overwhelming or hopeless, we must look ahead. And we look to you," said Hite, adding that the potential in the Class of 2020 is simply extraordinary. Former Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, chosen by officials to speak for his community-mindedness and social activism, acknowledged that the world is a frightening place right now, and reassured students both of their value and their ability to shape what comes next. He encouraged them not to take the easy way out and to have a strong work ethic. I want you to know that the world is ever-changing, both good and bad, and you get to decide the life you want to have and the difference you can make in our community, Jenkins said. The talents of the Class of 2020 were on full display, from the soulful acoustic guitar and original song of Saw Tar Thar Chit Ba, a Furness High graduating senior, to the powerful a cappella voice of Jalyn Tabourn, a Franklin Learning Center graduate who also composed and sang an original song. Hailey Molina, a graduate of Philadelphia High School for Girls, recited an oral essay she wrote for the occasion. The Class of 2020 may be filled with rage, because this isnt the way it was supposed to be, Molina said, but would press on. Trust me, we did not wait this long to give up, said Molina. Its time to lift our hands to the sky, because look, we made it. Across the region, schools are also providing nontraditional ways to celebrate the Class of 2020. Earlier Tuesday morning, more than 700 people tuned in to the Upper Darby School Districts YouTube channel to watch its virtual graduation ceremony, which featured photos of seniors in their caps and gowns flashing across the screen as Pomp and Circumstance played, and student speakers reflected on the unprecedented disruption to their senior year. You didnt think something as little as a global pandemic was going to keep me from giving my last message, did you? senior Hanief Wilcox said before describing how his class and the entire world had been forced to reckon with the virus and grow in the process. We realized the simple things, like giving a hug, opening the door for someone, or fist-bumping our teachers in the hallways were not so simple, Wilcox said. Still, to see my classmates raising each other up and promoting positivity during this time was an amazing sight. Senior Maryam Peters who recalled that entering high school felt like trying to figure out a giant puzzle and where she fit in told classmates that while the pandemic had upended a pivotal moment of their lives, just because we were impacted doesnt mean it has to break us. Smaller firms to land on tax cushion, illustration photo Vietnamese authorities are mulling over providing financial assistance for micro- and small-sized enterprises (MSEs) by slashing 30 per cent of their corporate income tax (CIT). Last week, the National Assemblys Standing Committee agreed to put this plan up for discussion by the legislatures members before a related resolution on the plan will be adopted. Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung stated that businesses have braced themselves for a long and steep coronavirus-triggered downturn, while market turmoil has disrupted many companies. Therefore, local administrations hoped to boost MSEs affected by the economic fallout of the outbreak, as well as help the hardest-hit industries through tax reduction and deferrals. Micro-sized enterprises are defined as those with a maximum workforce of 10 people, with annual revenue or total capital of less than VND3 billion ($130,500), while small-sized enterprises are those with a maximum workforce of 50-100 people, with total annual revenue of VND50-100 billion ($2.17-4.35 million). The proposed CIT reduction would cost the state budget VND15.84 trillion ($688.7 million) if implemented for MSEs, and VND22.44 trillion ($975.65 million) if extended to mid-sized enterprises. The Ministry of Planning and Investment previously proposed a 50 per cent cut in income tax for small- and medium-sized businesses and an equal cut in VAT for raw materials, goods, and services. It has also proposed VAT refunds for businesses in industries directly affected by the pandemic like aviation and tourism and a reduction in fees related to road, port, and airport services, as well as vehicle registration. The final suite of policy proposals has not yet been completed and is still subject to discussions with lawmakers. Just a few days ago, the National Assemblys Standing Committee adopted a personal income tax (PIT) deduction based on the number of dependents. The deduction for taxpayers will be raised from VND9 million ($390) to VND11 million ($480) per month, while the monthly deduction after each dependent will be lifted from VND3.6 million ($160) to VND4.4 million ($190). The new scheme will take effect from July 1 and be applicable for this years tax period for employment income only, not for capital gains and investment income. Nguyen Van Phung, director of the Department of Tax Administration at Large Enterprises from the General Department of Taxation, told VIR that PIT deductions would be applied to all employees, including those who work for foreign-invested enterprises. According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), there are around 6.89 million individual taxpayers, with the total PIT collected reaching over VND79.22 trillion ($3.44 billion) in 2019. However, the MoF estimates that if the proposal is implemented, the annual budget will constrict by about VND10.3 trillion ($447.8 million). In April, the government enacted Decree No.41/2020/ND-CP on extending the deadline for tax and land use fee payments by an additional five months from the original deadline. Under which, the nationwide deferral is estimated to be VND180 trillion ($7.83 billion) in temporary liquidity, giving more than 700,000 businesses financial cushion as they cope with the escalating tension of the pandemic. However, the lack of clear guidance could expose taxpayers to more risks, since a mistaken tax deferral can be overturned later on. In some cases, it will take three to five years in retroactive assessment to clarify the legality of a tax deferment to a particular company. In the case the extension is unfounded and is turned around, the enterprise will be slammed with a huge bill for unpaid taxes, and of course, further penalties, warned Nguyen Duc Nghia, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Agent Club. A representative of Vingroup the largest local conglomerate also emphasised the urgent need to extend the tax deferral to one year instead of the current five months since the virus has brought the economy to its knees. Do Quang Hien, chairman of the Hanoi Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises Association suggested, Authorities should provide more relief such as cutting further tax lines, not only for now but also for the time ahead to encourage production and shore up businesses hit by the outbreak. Speeding up the construction of industrial clusters will also pave the way for smaller and mid-sized groups to recover, Hien added. Hotelbeds , the worlds leading bedbank, has announced the launch of a webinar series entitled Travel Talk Webinars. The free monthly webinar series will provide insights into the Covid-19 challenges currently faced by the whole travel industry, as well as recommendations for both identifying and capturing opportunities for recovery. Each month Travel Talk will be hosted by Hotelbeds and will feature a panellist of leading experts from across the industry such as hoteliers and lobby groups, plus travel buyers such as tour operators, airlines and point redemption schemes. Travel Talks first edition will take place on June 18 at 5pm CET/11am ET and the topic will be What does the journey to recovery look like?. This first panel will address key issues such as how to look out for the signs of recovery, how travel companies should adapt their business for when the recovery begins, and a debate around the biggest challenges the industry faces, both now and in the future. Paul Anthony, Commercial Excellence and Global Partnerships Sourcing Director at Hotelbeds, will moderate the panel and will be accompanied by the following speakers: Maribel Rodriguez, Senior Vice President at World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Michael Savage, Director at American Airlines Vacations Cheryl Williams, Regional Vice President at Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach and HIGHGATE Hawaii. Gareth Matthews, Director of Marketing & Communications at Hotelbeds, commented: For some time weve been working hard behind-the-scenes to help our partners respond to the challenges of Covid-19. But we felt that the combination of our strong industry knowledge and global portfolio of leading industry partners places us in a unique position to produce significant insights and advice for the industry as a whole and one of the most appropriate ways to present this is via a programme of free webinars that everyone in the industry is welcome to join. We have some impressive guests planned for both this first edition and the future webinars that will form part of the programme. Watch this space. The webinar is open to anyone in the industry to attend via the following registration page: https://joinus.hotelbeds.com/traveltalk1-the-journey-to-recovery/ . -TradeArabia News Service By Express News Service CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has banned plastic packaging of items even at the manufacturing stage. This means even items like biscuits and chips can no longer be packed in plastic covers. So far such items were exempted even as the state government banned since January 2019 on a range of single-use plastic items, like carry bags. The Environment and Forest department had on June 5 issued an order to this effect. However, the order came to light only on Tuesday. Officials said it has to be enforced with immediate effect, but it is unclear as to how authorities will proceed with the enforcement when Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai and neighboring districts are registering a record number of Covid-19 cases each passing day. According to a notification, plastic bags, which constitute or form an integral part of packaging in which goods are sealed prior to use at manufacturing or processing units, are not exempted any more from the plastic ban. The decision comes in the backdrop of the Madras high court's repeated observations that the state government must take steps to ban single use plastics that are used for packaging at the manufacturing stage. The government order says that alternatives will be explored by the Central Institute of Plastic Engineering and Technology. The alternative packaging material has to be "compostable plastics". Such alternatives should also get sanctioned by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. The Chairman of Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board too had in his communication to the State government in January this year stated that the exemption for the plastic packaging of goods, which are sealed prior to use has not helped the State in achieving the goal of 'Plastic Pollution Free Tamil Nadu', despite the implementation of the ban. The National Sheep Association Wales and Border Ram Sales will not be going ahead this year due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Organisers of the shows, which usually place in August and September, said the decision was made with 'deep regret'. The two sales are held at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth, giving both buyers and sellers an opportunity to meet each others needs. The committee behind the shows said a free online register would be created to link NSA member vendors to potential buyers. They added that the event cancellations was the 'safest decision' amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis affecting the UK. "The decision was left for as long as possible, in the hope that the situation might improve by August," NSA Wales & Border Ram Sale Committee said in an online update. "However, with current social distancing regulations, the health, safety and well being of buyers and sellers and everyone involved in the sales is the main priority." The committee said it will release more details in the near future. By Helena Soderpalm and Supantha Mukherjee STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Ericsson expects to take a second-quarter writedown of about 1 billion crowns ($109 million) on product inventory in China, the Swedish telecoms gear maker said on Monday. The company, which has won 5G contracts from three major operators in China, said it expected negative gross margins in China in the quarter reflecting the high initial costs for new products. Ericsson had warned in its first-quarter report that an increasing share of strategic contracts would hurt profitability in the second quarter, primarily due to negative gross margins in China. Ericsson shares, which have gained 7% this year, were down 2.2% in early trade. China's three largest telecom operators - China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom - have awarded 5G contracts worth billions of dollars this year, mostly to Huawei and ZTE, according to media reports. Ericsson's writedown was likely associated with free products given to the Chinese telecom companies and is not a real one-off and needs to be taken into the gross margin estimates, JP Morgan analysts wrote in a client note. "This has always been an issue with China contracts in our opinion that they cause gross margin issues so though this announcement is not a surprise, investors will want further clarity on the extent of the impact," the investment bank said. Ericsson, which maintained its financial targets for 2020 and 2022, said while the deployment of 5G in China will hurt in the short term, it is expected to have healthy profitability over the life of the contracts. European rival Nokia won a share of China Unicom's 5G core network, but has been on the sidelines for larger China radio orders which often mean taking losses in the early years of a contract. (Reporting by Helena Soderpalm and Supantha Mukherjee; editing by Niklas Pollard and Jason Neely) In a latest development at the India China LAC standoff, the troops have disengaged on the ground at multiple locations in Eastern Ladakh. New Delhi [India], June 9 (ANI): Ahead of the next round of military talks scheduled to start this week, troops of India and China have disengaged on the ground at multiple locations in Eastern Ladakh. The talks between the two armies are going to be held this week at multiple locations including Patroling point 14 (Galwan area), Patrolling point 15, and Hot Springs area, top government sources told ANI. Because of the talks to be held in the next few days and the Lt Gen-level talks held on June 6, the Chinese Army has pulled back its troops from the Galwan valley, PP-15 and Hot Springs in Eastern Ladakh area by 2 to 2.5 kilometres, they said. The sources said to reciprocate the Chinese disengagement, the Indian side also brought back some of its troops and vehicles from these areas. Sources said the talks are being held on these points at the battalion commander level and they have had hotline talks with their counterparts. Also Read: Biggest Inside Scoop on India-China LAC meet Also Read: Devise a plan to deal with earthquakes on urgent basis, asks HC to Delhi govt, civic bodies The initial talks are being held in these areas, the Chinese activities had also started in Eastern Ladakh from this location only, they said. Indian military teams are already in Chushul to engage the Chinese in talks and are coordinating with the senior officials in this regard. Also Read: BSF warns its hospitals against denial of admission to Covid-19 patients For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Attendees at a rally and protest to support sanitation workers who are requesting hazard pay and PPE, engage in a social distancing protest at LOVE Park, in Philadelphia, June 09, 2020. Read more Philadelphias municipal sanitation workers, who are predominantly black, rallied Tuesday morning in John F. Kennedy Plaza for better personal protective equipment, hazard pay, and coronavirus testing. Their rally came on the 11th straight day of protests in Philadelphia sparked by the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, and follows marches held by different groups of workers, including public defenders, health-care staff, and teachers. It builds on the anger among city workers both union and nonunion who are calling for Mayor Jim Kenney to more heavily tax the rich instead of cutting department budgets and laying off hundreds of workers. And it shines a light on the intersection of worker rights and the Black Lives Matter movement. About 150 people filled LOVE Park for the mid-morning rally, which was organized by AFSCME Local 427, part of District Council 33. That reflects how the protests are drawing different kinds of groups into the activist fold. When city workers are under attack, what do we do? Stand up and fight back! the demonstrators chanted as about a dozen police officers stood watching. While the rally was not explicitly focused on police violence or Black Lives Matter, its timing makes it hard to ignore the parallels. The rally calls attention to the fact that the issue of worker rights especially black workers rights is part of the nationwide protests that seek to protect the lives of black Americans. At LOVE Park, sanitation worker Durrell Rothwell described the difficulties of social distancing on a garbage truck. He said he couldnt work for a month after being diagnosed with COVID-19, which was hard because we make most of our money on overtime." His son tested positive after he did. The fact is that black lives wont matter unless sanitation workers lives also matter, said Daniel Reyes, a teacher and member of the Democratic Socialists of America who helped organize the rally. The rally, he said, shows that black lives matter not only in neighborhoods and in schools, but they also matter at work. The rally aimed to draw attention to longstanding issues these workers have faced, ones that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, said Omar Salaam, business agent for Local 427. Were definitely one of the most undervalued departments in the city, said Salaam, who worked in sanitation for 20 years, most recently as a truck driver, before becoming a union staffer. The median salary among the citys 1,100 sanitation workers is $36,000, Salaam said, though many work overtime because they need it to be able to take care of their families. Many spend their own money to get better quality PPE. They fear contracting diseases on the job, as some have had to handle human feces and syringes. And theyve been working throughout the pandemic as essential workers. Sixty have tested positive for the coronavirus, he said. 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. The rally is not a strike, Salaam said, and the union told members that they should not use an unauthorized absence to attend. Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams sent a letter to workers on Monday addressing the rally, saying that unauthorized absences ... will result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination. The city must follow its unexcused-absence policies and treat any unexcused absence in accordance with those policies, a city spokesperson said, adding that an individual commissioner could not make an exemption to the policy. The city has purchased and distributed thousands of masks, disposable gloves, and reusable gloves to Streets Department employees, in addition to the standard issue reusable gloves, the city spokesperson said. Employees are also given hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, safety glasses, face shields, and puncture-proof boots. The department will continue to provide the necessary PPE, but as with all entities across the country, the city has experienced some challenges with supply and delivery of this equipment due to high demand. The spokesperson added that all employees can be tested at Rite-Aid stores, urgent care centers such as Vybe, and other sites. Kenneys coronavirus-era revised budget cuts $18.5 million from the Streets Department from his original budget, including an $8.6 million cut to personal services and $9.3 million cut from equipment. The administration and D.C. 33 negotiated a one-year extension of their contract with a 2% raise and $750 signing bonus, a city spokesperson said. READ MORE: City workers facing layoffs say Philadelphia should tax the rich. Is that possible? The mayor has also proposed adding $14 million to the Police Department budget over his originally proposed budget, a move that has angered protesters and politicians amid nationwide calls to defund" the police. Salaam said it was unacceptable that the city was increasing its police budget while cutting from other departments, including Streets. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there was no exact date of resuming flights between Russia and other countries amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but the issue was on the agenda. "This issue (on resuming flights) is on the agenda. There are no exact dates yet," TASS News Agency quoted Peskov as saying to the media on Monday, adding that it was up to the government to decide on this matter. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin had earlier ordered to draw up proposals on a possible date of resuming flights. On Sunday, an airline source told TASS that the Federal Air Transport Agency in the near future planned to send to the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing its proposals on resuming flights from Russia to 15 countries since July 15. According to the source, there were plans to open flights to "nearly all countries" for business aviation. The list of countries will be drawn up jointly by the Federal Air Transport Agency and the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing. In March, Russia fully suspended flights with other countries amid the pandemic, except for evacuation, cargo and mail flights. The first step was made when Russia limited flights to China since February 1, and then to South Korea, Iran and several more countries, TASS News Agency reported. In March, Russia imposed restrictions on flights to Spain, Italy, Germany and France and several days after they were applied to entire Europe. By March 23, flights were banned to 95 countries and since March 27 Russia fully shut down regular and charter flights. Amid the lockdown introduced in most Russian regions, in April passenger traffic of Russian airlines dropped 91.8 per cent to slightly more than 770,000 passengers. Also Watch: Dr. Rueben Devlin, a special adviser on hallway health care to Premier Doug Ford, has died in the state-of-the-art Humber River Hospital he shepherded to completion before retiring as its CEO in 2016. The hospital announced Devlins passing late Monday, saying he leaves behind an inspiring and historic legacy of public service. Devlin, known for his affable and approachable manner, had been fighting cancer for nine years. An emotional Ford thanked Devlin, a long-time friend, for his passionate work in the health-care system at a news conference Tuesday. He was instrumental in putting together the first digital hospital in the province, the premier added. An orthopedic surgeon by training, Devlin practiced politics as well as medicine, serving a term as president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario while Mike Harris was premier and publicly pushed for a review of former PC leader John Torys tenure after he lost the 2007 election. Tory survived the leadership review but quit in 2009. Devlin also played a major role as a health-care adviser on Fords transition team two years ago this month, and was frequently seen at campaign events. Dr. Devlin was a visionary and leader who helped reimagine what health care could be in Ontario, said Health Minister Christine Elliott. As chief executive of Humber River Hospital from 1999 to 2016, Devlin merged three aging campuses into one with the creation of North Americas first fully digital hospital at the new location near Keele and Highway 401. It opened in 2015 and is designed like an airport, with patients directed to specific entrances closest to their intended destination, whether its for an MRI or the emergency room. His life demonstrates the tremendous impact that physicians can make on their communities, the hospital said in a statement. When the PCs defeated former premier Kathleen Wynnes Liberals and returned to power after 15 years in opposition, retaining the services of Devlin was one of Fords first acts after being sworn in on June 29, 2018. The premier appointed him to a $348,000-a-year job overseeing a new panel tackling hospital overcrowding, raising the ire of opposition parties. Highly regarded by journalists for his candour and good nature, it was Devlin who disclosed to the media that the premiers brother and former Toronto mayor Rob Ford had a tumour and helped the family through the ordeal. Ill never forget his friendship and support to my family, Ford said. He had the biggest heart anyone could have. Devlin leaves Rhonda, his wife of 48 years, three children and seven grandchildren. Read more about: Haiti - FLASH : Nearly 500 new cases in 48 hours The Ministry of Public Health informs that 204 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Haiti (the day before : 262), for a total of 3,538 cases throughout the national territory (40.2% women and 59.8% of 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 ). 3 new deaths were recorded in GrandAnse bringing the national total to 54. Active cases : (minus death and recovery) : 3,460 cases (+ 8.71%) +201 in 24 hours (the day before : +261) Number of suspected cases investigated since March 19 : 7,451 cases +100 in 24 hours (the day before : +677) All the details in our daily report of 11am See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30977-haiti-covid-19-daily-report-june-8-2020.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30971-haiti-flash-more-than-3-200-cases-in-1-month.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html S/ HaitiLibre Pub groups were on the rise as investors cheered moves to reopen the hospitality sector. Ministers are said to be looking at whether pubs, restaurants and cafes could be back in action by June 22, rather than July 4, in a bid to 'save the summer'. A reduction to Britain's two-metre social distancing rule to just one-metre is also on the cards, meaning venues could serve more customers, according to reports. It gave brewery and pubs operator Marston's a boost, with shares rising 8.3 per cent, or 5.75p, to 75.35p. Rival Mitchells & Butlers was up 6.3 per cent, or 13.5p, to 227p and Tim Martin's Wetherspoons gained 0.6 per cent, or 7p, to close at 1174p. Frankie & Benny's owner The Restaurant Group made modest gains as well, edging up 0.7 per cent, or 0.5p, to 74.5p and Premier Inn and Beefeater owner Whitbread rose 1 per cent, or 27p, to 2774p. In another positive boost for the hospitality sector, the Government's plans to help the economy recover from Covid-19 are also said to include making it easier for venues to serve customers outdoors. The summer is crucial for hospitality, with Wetherspoons founder Martin saying efforts to reopen the sector more quickly were a 'psychological boost' amid fears that mass redundancies could be on the way otherwise. And despite new quarantine rules coming into effect, which require all those arriving into the UK to self-isolate for two weeks, the recovery optimism also boosted some travel operators. Cruise provider Carnival rose 9.9 per cent, or 142p, to 1573.5p, although its chief executive Arnold Donald played down suggestions that cruises could restart as early as August 1. At the same time, British Airways owner IAG was up 1.3 per cent, or 4.1p, at 331.6p. Airline bosses have said they will try to overturn the 'unenforceable' rules in the courts but ministers insist they are 'proportionate' and will help to prevent a second wave of coronavirus infections. Rolls-Royce got a lift from the news that airlines around the world are preparing to rev up their engines again, following the easing of lockdown. Shares in the engineering company were up 11.9 per cent, or 42.5p, to 398.4p. The firm has been beaten down since the pandemic began and flights were grounded, since it makes many essential components for aeroplanes. However, the FTSE100 fell into negative territory, finishing 0.2 per cent, or 11.71 points lower at 6472.59. It was dragged down in part by drugs giant Astrazeneca, which saw shares fall 2.7 per cent, or 227p, to 8200p after reports emerged that it had held merger discussions with smaller US rival Gilead. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'Investors are unlikely to welcome a large deal at a time when both companies are trying to fight coronavirus, as it could prove to be a distraction to management. 'The timing seems wrong.' And shares in fellow blue chip firm HSBC also dipped 0.5 per cent, or 2.2p to 420.8p. That was after the High Street lender was said to have warned that its Asian operations face retribution from Beijing if the UK seeks to exclude Chinese telecoms firm Huawei from 5G networks. Mark Tucker, the bank's chairman, is said to have made personal representations to Prime Minister Boris Johnson about the matter. The mid-cap FTSE250 was down slightly, by 0.5 per cent or 92.42 points to 18136.9 points, despite a recovery at Aston Martin, which climbed 12.1 per cent, or 8.7p, to 80.7p. At least 28 states are not following US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on reporting new Covid-19 cases -- half of which saw the trend of new cases increasing in the last week. Those states are not reporting probable cases, according to the daily case count listed on the CDC's website. Probable cases include those that show evidence of an infection without the confirmation of a lab test and cases where coronavirus was listed as a cause or contributing cause of death but are not confirmed with a lab test. Some of the states with the largest populations -- like California, Florida, New York and Texas -- are among those listed as not reporting probable cases, despite CDC guidance that they should be included in the case count. This comes as 26 states see an increased or steady rate of new cases. Accurate rates of new cases are among the metrics that help officials track how the disease is spreading in the US and make decisions about how to reopen and loosen restrictions put in place to mitigate its impact. More than 1.9 million Americans have been infected, and more than 111,000 have died in just over four months, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Though coronavirus reporting guidelines are voluntary, states not reporting probable cases likely undercount the number of people infected and make it difficult for officials to get the true picture of where the nation stands in the midst of a pandemic that has rocked almost every aspect of life. How will students go back to school? Schools have been especially upended, with students across the country not having been on campus in months. While many local governments have expressed that the path forward for the fall is unclear, North Carolina and California have released guidelines for reopening schools. Though California's 1,000 school districts will make their own decision about how and when to resume in-classroom learning, the state's Department of Education released a 62-page guidebook Monday to help them plan ahead of time. The guide gives options for staggered schedules, ongoing distance learning, and models that combine both. It also directs educators to teach proper handwashing and limits the number of students allowed on buses to prevent the virus from breaking out in schools. "This guidance is only as good as what's implemented," State Superintendent Tony Thurmond said in a press conference. "We expect it will be adjusted as we go." North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper also released health guidance for reopening schools Monday, telling reporters that this school year will be unlike any other. "Students and staff will be screened for illness before they enter the school. Children will be asked to stay distant from classmates. They won't be sharing pencils or textbooks and there will be a lot of cleaning," he said. Openings will be dependent on health metrics, he said. But North Carolina Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mandy Cohen said during a press conference Monday that she's concerned the state's positive tests are among the highest in the nation. "These trends moving in the wrong direction is a signal we need to take very seriously," Cohen said. California takes steps back toward normal While North Carolina is seeing cases rise, California -- with trends holding steady -- is beginning to reopen some recreational sites. The state, which has been among those most affected, has Yosemite National Park, which has been off limits to visitors since March 20, will reopen to the public Thursday. It will aim to admit only half of its average visitor rate, beginning by allowing 1,700 vehicle passes each day, according a statement from park spokesman Jamie Richards. "There is no place like Yosemite, and we can't wait to welcome visitors back," said Acting Superintendent Cicely Muldoon. "It's going to be a different kind of summer, and we will continue to work hand in hand with our gateway communities to protect community health and restore access to Yosemite National Park." As early as Friday, indoor California movie theaters may reopen, according to guidance from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) released on Monday. Theaters are required to limit attendees to 25% of capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, whichever is lower. Theaters will also need to reconfigure seats to ensure physical distancing between moviegoers, who must wear face coverings when not eating or drinking to mitigate virus spread, the guidance says. Concerns raise in new states As many of the hardest hit states begin to recover from the pandemic, cases rise elsewhere. Vermont, where new cases are increasing, had an outbreak reported Friday with at least 62 people infected near Winooski, Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said. Dozens of children were among those infected, and more than 1,000 people in the state went to get tested following the outbreak, Levine said. Vermont State Epidemiologist Patsy Kelso said the outbreak was spread by friends and relatives, and through contact tracing it appears to be well-contained. In Utah, state Rep. Suzanne Harrison called a recent spike of cases "very concerning (and) approaching exponential." The positive test rate doubled from one day to the next to 18.5%, she tweeted over the weekend. "When you're away from home, please avoid close contact with others, and wear a mask when other social distancing measures aren't feasible," the Utah Department of Health tweeted. In the last week, Texas and Arizona have seen spikes in cases, with both reporting more than 1,000 new cases in one day. Several universities have also reported new cases within their athletic programs -- including Arkansas State University, Auburn University and Oklahoma State University. CNN's Jennifer Henderson, Carma Hassan, Jen Christensen, Holly Yan and Christina Maxouris contributed to this report. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Scott Schroeder, chef and co-owner of Hungry Pigeon, indicated that he would part ways with the popular Queen Village restaurant after former staff denounced his anti-black rhetoric as well as his recent lashing out at former employees" last week, leading to broader backlash in the Philadelphia community. Meanwhile, his business partner, Pat OMalley, is wrestling with the restaurants future, including its name, as he and Schroeder work out a separation agreement. The statement from the former Hungry Pigeon workers was posted on Medium last Tuesday, as protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd continued in Philadelphia and around the country. It cited a string of posts on Schroeders now-deleted Instagram account, including one that read, Thank you Black America. You had me at hip hop and fried chicken. It also described the chef disparaging former employees and protesters on social media, which the former staffers wrote did not come as a surprise given his bullyish behavior in the workplace. I need to get away from the restaurant industry, Schroeder said Monday. I dont know if thats forever. Im going to think about all thats happened. For now, Im going to do something more meaningful and helpful to underprivileged people. Schroeders planned departure, first reported by Eater Philly, was announced in an email sent to current and former employees on Saturday, June 6. I am sincerely sorry to anyone I have made feel this way," the email read. But actions speak louder than words so Pat and I are currently working out the legalities of me leaving the restaurant permanently. Im not going to pursue a chef job either. Im going to think about all of this and what you have said and make a change. Including taking sensitivity training before I am anyones chef again. I have heard you and do not take this lightly. OMalley said he expected the legal matters to be resolved quickly. Last week, Hungry Pigeon said it would cease operations until further notice after news of Schroeders posts and the former staffers statement began circulating. In a message on its website, it encouraged readers to donate to groups for social reform, including Black Lives Matter and Justice for George Floyd, or to neighboring businesses that had suffered damage during the bouts of looting that occurred the previous weekend. The comments also prompted backlash in Hungry Pigeons neighborhood. Late last week, a letter addressed to Schroeder and signed by the Queen Village & Meredith Elementary School communities was posted to the restaurants door. "Scott, please know that the world is watching us, and that your patrons have been watching you, too. Please know that racism against black Americans is real, despite the fact that, as a white person, you have not felt it. Lastly, Scott, please know that, above all else, racism will not be tolerated in this community, it concluded. A larger sign read, Not in our neighborhood. Below, someone scrawled Scott Schroeder owner of Hungry Pigeon is a racist!! on the bench in front of the restaurant. Before the latest incidents, Schroeder had served as the pandemic-era face of Hungry Pigeon, posting frequent video updates to Instagram shot on his front porch, coffee mug in hand. The restaurant opened in 2016 as an all-day cafe and won local and national acclaim for its playful menus, croissants, and brunch offerings. OMalley wants the restaurant to continue but is on the fence about keeping the name. We have a responsibility to meet our goal of feeding people, and in addition meet a goal of repairing and improving the workplace and the culture in general, said OMalley, who said he and some employees were at the restaurant on Tuesday to salvage food. OMalley said he did not see the Instagram story because some time ago, I muted Scott on Instagram on my personal account. Schroeder approached him the day after the post, and said: Hey, we should talk about this thing that happened, OMalley said, adding, I do think its in poor taste. OMalley acknowledged systemic issues at the restaurant. "Im not saying it was just one person and that getting rid of one person is going to fix the culture. ... Each of us had one hand on the wheel. When youre in a partnership with someone, you are forced to make decisions together, but you also place certain responsibilities under certain operators roles. As a result, you tend to be less involved in every decision made, simply to stay out of each others way. Unfortunately, this can also create a dynamic of simply maintaining the status quo. OMalley said he was reaching out to HR firms. He planned to incorporate better training, including improvements to the employee manual, to create better expectations. The clearer you are with expectations, the easier it is for everyone. We pay them a decent wage. We also need to see what needs to be done for the employee to grow. Schroeders departure is the latest in a series of protest-related fallout in Philadelphias food scene. Most notably, Di Bruno Bros. has seen similar backlash after first offering cops free lunch, then rescinding the offer and apologizing after employees spoke out publicly and threatened to strike. In response, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 president John McNesby said cops would boycott Di Brunos. Kensington brewery Evil Genius also issued a statement clarifying its standpoint and explaining its actions after firing its head brewer for social media posts expressing anti-police sentiments. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 21:06:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close -- The Yangtze River Delta region is a land of opportunity for investors and enterprises from all around the world. -- Despite the impact of COVID-19, foreign enterprises are ramping up investment in the region. -- The region's integration covers government services, transportation, medicare, environmental protection and other fields. by Xinhua writers He Lingling, Xuan Liqi and Yin Xiaosheng HANGZHOU, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Contributing about one-fourth of the country's GDP and about one-third of foreign trade and investment, the Yangtze River Delta region in east China is a land of opportunity for investors and enterprises from all around the world. Covering a 358,000-square-km expanse, about the size of Germany, the region consists of Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui with a total population of about 220 million. Photo taken on April 9, 2020 shows the Lujiazui area in Shanghai, east China. (Xinhua/Chen Fei) HOT DESTINATION FOR FOREIGN INVESTMENT Despite the impact of COVID-19, foreign enterprises are ramping up investment in the region. With 892 newly approved foreign-invested projects from January to April, Jiangsu Province led the country in the actual use of foreign capital with 10.37 billion U.S. dollars posted in the period, up 5.7 percent year on year. The figures in Shanghai and Zhejiang reached 6.46 billion U.S. dollars and 4.96 billion U.S. dollars, respectively. German carmaker Volkswagen has announced plans to invest 2.1 billion euros (about 2.3 billion U.S. dollars) in China to develop its electric vehicle business in the country. With an investment of 1 billion euros, Volkswagen will acquire 50 percent of JAG, the parent company of Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp., Ltd. (JAC Motors), and increase its stake in JAC Volkswagen to 75 percent, according to the agreement signed in Beijing on May 29. Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen AG, said the company, together with strong and reliable partners, is strengthening its electrification strategy in China. Its electric car business is growing rapidly and offers a great deal of potential for JAC Volkswagen. By opening its market, China is offering Volkswagen new business opportunities, said Stephan Wollenstein, CEO of Volkswagen Group China. Aerial photo taken on March 18, 2020 shows a container dock of Yangshan Port of Shanghai, east China. (Xinhua/Ding Ting) China's huge market and the Chinese government's quick and effective actions during the COVID-19 epidemic gave foreign investors confidence, said Sugimoto Takayuki, general manager of Nidec Shibaura (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd., who has been working in China for two years. "The region has unique advantages in attracting foreign investment," said Wen Jianning, associate professor of Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance. ATTRACTIVE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT "Hangzhou and Shanghai are very flexible cities. Not only citizens are flexible, policymakers here are also open-minded, providing as much convenience for local companies and foreign investors as possible," said Lauri Tammi, a Finnish entrepreneur. Tammi has lived in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, for eight years, offering policy advice to entrepreneurs from Finland and other countries. Now his business has expanded to Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing and other cities in the region. Local governments in the cities learn from each other and compete to provide enterprises with good services and a high-quality business environment, he said. Last week, government officials in the region gathered at a conference in the city of Huzhou in Zhejiang, to mark the first anniversary of the implementation of the integrated regional development of the Yangtze River Delta. Xia Xingxing, a technical engineer of Alipay, China's mobile payment giant, has been working on a "shared metro pass" program in dozens of cities in the region, using digital power to accelerate regional integration. "By using blockchain and other digital technologies, we solved the problem of cross-regional settlement and information exchange. Now citizens in 10 cities can use a QR code to commute in the region," Xia said. Photo taken on May 28, 2020 shows an administrative service center offering one-stop e-government service in Wujiang District of Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province. (Xinhua/Li Bo) Apart from the program, the region's integration also covers government services, transportation, medicare, environmental protection and other fields. Last Friday, groundbreaking ceremonies for a high-speed railway were held simultaneously in several cities in the Yangtze River Delta region. The 163-km railway track, allowing trains to travel at up to 350 km per hour, will open a new route connecting Shanghai with neighboring cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. It is expected to serve as a new transportation artery in the city cluster. Aerial photo taken on April 22, 2020 shows a train running during its trial operation along the Shangqiu-Hefei-Hangzhou high-speed railway in Huzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi) More than 10 railway projects are planned to be opened and started in the region this year, with the annual investment exceeding 80 billion yuan (about 11.3 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for nearly one-sixth of the total investment in China's railway system. "The integrated and coordinated development of the region has cultivated not only a complete high-tech industrial chain, but also a large number of high-quality technical workers. All are conducive to attracting foreign investment in manufacturing and research and development," said Wen. "This region has a unique advantage," Wen said. (Xinhua reporters Shang Yiying, Wei Donghua, Qu Lingyan also contributed to the story. Video reporters: Li Tao, Yin Xiaosheng, Xia Liang; Video editor: Yang Zhixiang) Haiti - Covid-19 : Japan raises the travel alert level of 18 countries, including Haiti Japan raised its travel alert to level 3 for 18 countries, including Haiti, and urged its citizens to avoid traveling to these destinations, which have recently seen a significant increase in cases of Covid-19 coronavirus. List of countries concerned : Algeria, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Cuba, Eswatini, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Iraq, Jamaica, Lebanon, Mauritania, Nicaragua, the Central African Republic, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Senegal. These countries are added to the list of countries and regions already subject to an entry ban for foreign travelers, said Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi. Japan currently denies entry to foreign travelers who have visited any of 111 countries and regions, including the United States, China and South Korea, as well as most other parts of Asia, within two weeks of their arrival. Note that level 3 is the second highest level in the travel alert system of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, level 4 being a call for immediate evacuation. As a reminder, travel to and from Japan has practically stopped due to restrictions to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Foreign visitors fell bt 99.9% and Japanese people leaving the country by 99.8% in April compared with the previous year. HL/ HaitiLibre Toamasina (Madagascar) (AFP) - Scuffles broke out between Madagascar police and protesters on Wednesday as citizens took to the streets in the eastern town of Toamasina to denounce anti-coronavirus lockdown measures. Tensions flared after a police officer allegedly beat a street vendor accused of breaching an afternoon ban on commercial activities, according to an AFP reporter at the scene. Pictures of the man lying on the ground were shared on social media, sparking anger among the town's residents. Protesters burned tyres, blocked roads and threw stones at security forces, who responded with rubber bullets. Police denied committing any form of violence and claim the street vendor had returned home after a brief hospital visit. "The mobs are still continuing and security forces are restoring order," they said in a statement on Wednesday night. Madagascar's government sent troops and doctors to Toamasina last week after two people died from coronavirus and the number of cases spiked. The Indian Ocean island nation has registered around 900 infections to date and six deaths -- all of which were recorded in Toamasina. The soldiers were dispatched to maintain order and enforce measures against coronavirus, such as wearing face masks and maintaining social distance. "Coronavirus does not exist here, the state is manipulating us," the protesters shouted. "We are going to show these soldiers from (the capital) Antananarivo what we are made of," they said. Hours before the clashes, a town collective took to social media to denounce President Andry Rajoelina's decision to send troops as well as his response to the pandemic -- demanding he step down within 12 hours. "I do not understand, there is no war here," Toamasina waitress Teodety Raharimamy complained. "We are fighting an invisible virus, and they are sending out the military rather than doctors." Rajoelina imposed a lockdown on Madagascar's three main cities at the end of March to try and contain the spread of infection. Story continues Restrictions have been gradually lifted in Antananarivo and in the southeastern city of Fianarantsoa, but Toamasina residents remain under confinement. Meanwhile, authorities across the island have been handing out a herbal tea touted by the president as a powerful remedy against COVID-19. The potential benefits of the drink, called Covid-Organics, have not been validated by any scientific study. The Savannah Economic Development Authority has established a new incentive that reimburses individual moving expenses up to $2,000 for qualified technology workers. The Savannah region is a great place to choose to live and we think we can tap into talent that is able to work from anywhere, said SEDA Vice President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Jen Bonnett. The Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA), which attracts investment, creates jobs and supports established businesses in Savannah and Chatham County, Ga., has established a new Savannah Technology Workforce Incentive. The program reimburses individual moving expenses up to $2,000 for qualified technology workers currently located outside of Savannah. The offering is part of a SEDA initiative to continue boosting the regions technology industry which includes Fortune 500 companies, international employers and a host of headquarter locations that are innovating in areas including health care tech, aerospace and advanced manufacturing. The Savannah region is a great place to choose to live and we think we can tap into talent that is able to work from anywhere, said SEDA Vice President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Jen Bonnett. Our beautiful, historic downtown, plus access to wonderful beaches and our reasonable real estate market makes us quite an attractive place to live and work. According to SEDA President and CEO Trip Tollison, the organization will allocate funds for the incentive, opening it up for 50 people to apply by the end of 2020. The $2,000 reimbursement would cover expenses such as moving service charges, vehicle rental, utility deposits and gasoline. This incentive is a great way for technology workers that can work remotely to think about relocating to Savannah as a permanent location. We know once these technology workers arrive, Savannah and its diverse offerings and high quality of life will sell itself, said Tollison. Applicants must have at least three years of verifiable experience, must relocate to Chatham County with a minimum one-year lease or purchase property and must have resided in the county for 30 days before applying. Applicants must also provide receipts from their move, have a Georgia drivers license and a Chatham County address. Kevin Lawver, the chief technology officer for Planted Inc., has called Savannah home for 10 years and says, Living in Savannah gives my family an opportunity to be a part of the community in a way we werent able to when we lived in Washington, D.C. Were a part of civic life here and are helping to build the tech community and entrepreneurs with TechSAV a group of innovators, designers and technologists who are passionate about building better products and a better community. We choose to live here, when we could live anywhere, because of the quality of life, and the qualities of our neighbors, Lawver added. Gwendolyn Dipert, a product manager for Zift Solutions, based out of Raleigh, N.C., described her move to Savannah by noting: When I came here two years ago, I was grateful and a bit surprised to find a lively tech community. Everyone cares deeply about their work, but they know how to have fun, too. Were laid back around here with an enthusiasm for sharing knowledge and zero interest in any pretense. The humble but hardworking attitudes are what I love the most. Savannah, named SmartAssets No. 1 City for Creatives in 2019, boasts the lowest cost of living among cities including Nashville, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Minneapolis. Plus, the creative talent of students at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) are infusing digital know-how and innovation to generate business solutions with companies such as Uber, NASA, Google, Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola and more. Georgia Southern University Computer Science students are also learning advanced coding and are recent winners of the Center for Disease Controls Games for Health competition. Overall, 65,000-plus students are pursuing higher education at 18 local colleges and universities. Savannahs digital innovation extends to health care, as well, as more than 200 health care technology companies, including Savannahs OXOS Medical C, Candor and Corstrata, are located in Georgia. The Savannah Economic Development Authority also offers several other corporate incentives in addition to state incentives. The Facility Rental Assistance Grant is a cash grant of up to $12,000 toward office rental for technology firms that create a minimum of 10 new positions. Further, the High Wage Job Creation Grant is a cash grant of up to $20,000 for every five high-technology jobs created and retained for a year. Interested candidates can learn more about the program and apply for the incentive here. About Savannah Economic Development Authority The Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA) provides professional site services and eases access to state and local resources. The organization, twice ranked as one of the best development groups in the country, has a clear record of success. SEDA exists to improve the standard of living for all citizens of Savannah/Chatham County by stimulating the economy through the attraction of investment, the creation of jobs and the support of established businesses already in the area. For more information, visit: https://seda.org/. There is a growing recognition that comparing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock to, for example, emissions from transport is a case of apples and oranges - this development is being keenly watched by the agriculture industry. At a national and global level we measure our climate impact, producing 'accounts' of our emissions. When auditing we try to convert everything to a standard unit for comparison and, as the most common greenhouse gas, we tend to use carbon dioxide. In 2018 a whopping 22pc of our total equivalent carbon dioxide emissions were attributed to enteric fermentation and manure management - ruminants such as cattle and sheep producing the powerful greenhouse gas methane from their waste and as they belch. For the purpose of our national audit, 1kg of methane emissions is seen as equal to 25kg of CO2 (other countries use 28kg) - hence the large contribution of farming to the total. This is based on sound science but doesn't allow for much nuance: methane emissions from a natural gas leak are treated the same as those from a cow. However, it now seems that the formula we have used is not entirely fit for purpose. Science is a process of continually challenging and updating our collective knowledge. There are no "alternative facts", just genuine scientific discussion. And the evidence suggests the effect of agricultural methane emissions on climate change have not been appropriately audited. Difference CO2 emissions are long-lived: once they go up they practically stay there forever, continuing to cause warming at pretty much the same rate. That is unless we pull it back down by growing extra biomass (trees, grass, hedgerows) or suck it down mechanically and store it, neither an easy task when you consider where to put these trees or who pays to suck it down and lock it away safely. Methane emissions are more complex: they have a much stronger warming influence at first, but it diminishes over a shorter time. Natural processes convert about half of the methane to CO2 within ten years, three-quarters by 20 years, and only CO2 remains by about 60 years. The key difference here, however, is that while the CO2 derived from fossil fuels is as a result of burning something locked away underground, the CO2 converted from methane ideally came from grass in the first place. CO2 from the breakdown of agricultural methane is therefore climate neutral, as grass uses it to grow, cows eat grass, and then burp out methane. Over time this methane breaks down into the same volume of CO2, and eventually it is used again to make more grass. The interim effect of the methane is key. In this way, there are important differences between fossil fuel emissions and those from farming. There are lots of extra little complications though, and it would be incorrect to call this a nice closed loop. The planet is too complex, and these natural processes cannot be modelled with such accuracy. It is also very important to clarify that methane does have a substantial impact while it remains in the atmosphere, and that cows consume a lot more resources than just fresh green grass. But that is the basis of the argument for why methane emissions should not be lumped in with CO2, or why the days of comparing cows to cars could soon be at an end. Herd reduction Some groups have used these studies to imply that we need not worry about livestock farming and that it has been unfairly targeted. However, any changes to the metrics by which we measure emissions cannot be seen as a free pass. We need to reduce the methane being produced by our agricultural sector, and if anything the new metric shows how beneficial reductions would be in avoiding climate change. The oft-cited solution of reducing the national herd is too simplistic though, and could actually make matters worse globally. The volume of methane being emitted is what is important, not necessarily the number of cattle/sheep, and culling the herd, although effective, is far from our only option. If Ireland reduces its herd, and its subsequent supply of animal products, there is no guarantee of a corresponding reduction in demand. We must therefore also worry about 'carbon leakage': when cutting Ireland's production, will the gap just be plugged by another less efficient producer? That doesn't mean we can rest on our laurels, or continue comparing ourselves to the worst performers in South America as we often do. This is a terrible long-term strategy, especially in a world increasingly focused on the impact our food system has on the planet. We have technologies that can trap the methane or even stop it from being produced in the first place. This has potentially huge implications for Ireland, and especially that 7pc per annum target with which we have all become familiar. Unless global diary/beef consumption reduces significantly, the best thing Ireland can do is advance these technologies and potentially export them to other parts of the world, similar to the strategy adopted by New Zealand. If Irish agriculture wants to remain relevant, sustainability is the frontline and we need to be looking to emulate the highest performers, not pointing at the lowest. Opportunity What this also means is agriculture no longer needs to gobble up our carbon budget - if done correctly it could instead be a contributor to emissions reductions. This represents a massive opportunity for farming to go from black sheep to golden goose in our pursuit of sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions in line with the Paris agreement. We could take the New Zealand approach and separate our targets, where they have opted for a 24-47pc reduction in biogenic methane and invested heavily in research, aiming for net zero for all other gases by 2050. Incentivising reductions could be central to the equitable transition, and not a punitive tax on farmers. To date talks between farmers and environmentalists have been presented as a battleground, a land of only compromise where nobody wins. It need not be like this, and in an increasingly globalised and environmentally conscious world the technologies exist to help Irish farmers go green and maintain an edge. Every sector must contribute to the transition. Methane may not be as bad as once thought, but it is time that agricultural groups realised being good is no excuse not to do better. Shane McDonagh is a researcher at UCC's MaREI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine The coronavirus pandemic advanced steadily Wednesday through Latin America, where the death toll passed the grim milestone of 70,000 fatalities even as Europe planned to reopen its external borders to foreigners in July. The Americas -- North and South -- remained the epicenter of the global health crisis, accounting for almost half the 412,926 deaths and 7.3 million infections worldwide, based on an AFP tally of figures released by national health ministries by 1900 GMT. Brazil accounts for almost 40,000 -- or more than half -- of Latin America's total deaths, registering 1,274 fatalities in the last 24 hours. Even as the virus continued to cut a swath through the country, economic capital Sao Paulo began reopening shops on Wednesday as part of a gradual resumption of activity. Shopping malls were set to reopen in a slew of cities on Thursday, the day before Brazilians celebrate Valentine's Day. Mexico, with nearly 15,000 COVID-19 deaths, and Peru, with almost 6,000 deaths from 208,000 cases, are also battling a deep surge. However lawmakers in Bolivia, with a relatively small toll of 487 coronavirus deaths, Wednesday approved the date of September 6 for the country's virus-delayed general elections. Elsewhere, tourism-dependent Miami reopened its beaches for the first time in three months amid evidence that despite nearly two million cases and 112,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the US, that the worst may have passed for the economy. "I almost started crying as soon as I came out onto the beach," said travel agent Julie Isaacson, 63. The US Federal Reserve projected a solid rebound for the US economy next year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell however cautioned that the outlook remains highly uncertain, and both the central bank and Congress may have to do more to boost the recovery. - 'Gradual and partial' reopening - Across the Atlantic, the European Union said it hoped to reopen its external borders to foreigners in July, as leaders look to loosen the economic stranglehold of virus lockdowns that are triggering a steep global downturn. Meanwhile the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in a grim warning that the world economy is on course to contract by at least six percent this year due to virus shutdowns. By the end of next year, the loss of income should surpass that of "any previous recession over the last 100 years outside wartime", the forecast warned. EU member states have the final say on border measures. But Brussels is suggesting a "gradual and partial" reopening of external frontiers to travellers outside the bloc from July 1, diplomatic chief Josep Borrell said Wednesday. Greece, whose economy depends heavily on tourism, has already announced it will reopen its skies from June 15 to a list of countries including non-EU states such as Australia, China and South Korea. Austria and Germany also announced they were easing travel restrictions, though Germany extended a warning against travel outside the EU until August 31. In Spain, where more than 27,000 people have died from COVID-19, La Liga soccer championships are set to resume on Thursday for the first time in three months. Meanwhile in Britain, which has the highest death toll in Europe, Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended what he described as the country's "astonishing" efforts to tackle the virus. But one top scientist there said the number of fatalities could have been halved had lockdown measures been introduced a week sooner. Italian prosecutors said they wanted to question Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and the health and interior ministers over how the government handled the pandemic. - Second wave fears - Elsewhere around the globe, clusters of infection were growing as governments relaxed restrictions. Earlier this week, the WHO warned against complacency. The WHO's regional arm, the Pan American Health Organization, has warned that the upcoming hurricane season could further hamper the fight against the virus. Iran announced more than 2,000 new cases Wednesday, part of a recent surge the government attributes to increased testing. Indonesia also posted a record number of 1,241 new coronavirus cases, sparking calls from health experts for the world's fourth most populous country to slow down the easing of its lockdown measures. In India's capital New Delhi, authorities say they expect half a million COVID-19 cases that will need 150,000 hospital beds by mid-July. burs-db/st Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek revealed on a recent episode that hes got a bucket list. Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek | Ben Hider/Getty Images RELATED: Jeopardy!: What Host Alex Trebek Doesnt Want Said At His Funeral The 79-year-old quiz show host has actually been working on it for quite a while, and in light of his recent cancer diagnosis Jeopardy! fans are rooting for him to enjoy every item on his list. Trebek (sort of) appeared in the film The Bucket List In 2007, Trebek filmed a scene for The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. In the scene, Freemans character, Carter Chambers, dies on the Jeopardy! set. Unfortunately, Trebeks scene didnt make it into the final movie. RELATED: Jeopardy! Fans Furiously Call For Tabloids to Leave Alex Trebek Alone They came to the studio, and they shot Morgan Freemans death scene in our studio, the Canadian native told the Television Critics Association winter press tour in 2020. He was a contestant on Jeopardy which had been his lifelong ambition, and he died on our set. So then when I went to see the movie, he didnt die on our set. He never even appeared on Jeopardy. He died at home in his bedroom. So that disappointed me. I wound up on the cutting room floor. That disappointed me, to end up on the cutting room floor. [But] every time that movie is shown I receive a nice residual. Whats on Trebeks bucket list? On a recent episode of Jeopardy!, contestant Tonya Schaan shared during contestant interviews after the first commercial break that she has traveled to Angkor Wat, a vast temple complex in Cambodia. At that revelation, Trebek replied that he has always wanted to see the sunrise at that location and that, in fact, its on his bucket list. Knowing what the host of the show has been through in the past year after his cancer diagnosis, his mention of a bucket list made it especially poignant. RELATED: Jeopardy!: Are Alex Trebek and Ken Jennings Friends? As it turns out, according to SmarterTravel, it sounds like Trebek has been working on his list for a while and talked about the travel spots hes longing to see. In 2017, Trebek told the site of his desire to visit Iguazu Falls thats inland. The Amazon has always interested me because Ive had this long desire to get to Manaus, for some reason, and Manaus is a fascinating city. It had the first opera house in South America, 200 years ago, and thats on my bucket list. Lhasa, in Tibet, is also very much on my list, and I almost did it this past year with National Geographic. The father of three then discussed the location that contestant Schaan mentioned: Angkor Wat. I missed out two years ago we sent our Clue Crew to Cambodia and Vietnam and Laos, and I didnt get to Angkor Wat, which is on my bucket list also. The host reflected on his legacy In his conversation with the Television Critics Association, Trebek touched on the legacy he hopes he is defining through his work on the classic question-and-answer show. I hope I have been an influence on the benefits of emphasizing the importance of knowledge, he said. It enriches you and makes you a better human being and a more understanding human being. After almost 40 years on Jeopardy!, its clear Trebek has already achieved this goal through his own love for knowledge and curiosity for learning. RELATED: Jeopardy! Is Running Out of Original Episodes Due to the Pandemic The Final One Is Coming Up Soon Wyomings only pending death penalty case on Tuesday returned to Natrona County courts, where defense attorneys will contest Dale Wayne Eatons mental competency in advance of a new sentencing hearing. The case is back in state courts following years of appeals that reached as high as the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear Eatons requests. Prosecutors here will ask again that Eaton be put to death. Eatons attorneys, though, have asked that his mental state be evaluated before a new sentencing hearing is scheduled. Such evaluations can determine whether a person is mentally competent to face criminal proceedings. At issue now is a defense attorney request to be present during the evaluation. Eatons attorneys issued an updated request to that effect late last month. During Tuesdays hearing, Assistant District Attorney Mike Blonigen said he would respond to the filing by June 19. Eatons lawyers will have another week to respond, and then Judge Daniel Forgey on July 10 will hold a hearing to rule on the issue before ordering the evaluation. Eaton has been imprisoned since 2004 for his conviction that year of the kidnapping, rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell, a Montana woman who disappeared in 1988 as she traveled through Natrona County. Although he was sentenced to death shortly after his conviction, Eaton has mounted a series of appeals since. A federal judge in 2014 threw out his death sentence, ruling that the states only death row inmate had not received appropriate representation during the sentencing stage of the case. He has not yet received a new sentence. Defense attorneys following the 2014 determination brought a series of appeals seeking to avert a new death sentence. After a defense appeal to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals failed, local prosecutors in 2019 announced they would again seek Eatons execution. Shortly after, the Kansas City law professor who is representing Eaton in the case asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. The countrys highest court earlier this year declined to take the case. Nobody else currently faces the death penalty in Wyoming. Although state legislators have in recent years cited the cost of death penalty prosecutions in their attempts to end capital punishment, those efforts have failed. This year, an introductory vote on the issue failed narrowly. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 13 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. CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tipperary Sales, d.b.a. La-Z-Boy Southeast, is recognized as No. 91 in Furniture Today's 37th annual "Top 100 U.S. Furniture Stores" exclusive list with annual sales of $55.3M, up $5.5M from 2019. Furniture Today, known as the premier publication for the retail and manufacturing home furnishings landscape, compiles its 2020 list ranking furniture stores by 2019 sales of furniture, bedding and decorative accessories, including fabric and furniture protection, warranties and delivery. "We are grateful to once again achieve a spot on Furniture Today's Top 100, which includes some of the industry's most excellent and reputable retail operations," says Martha Brown, CEO, Tipperary Sales. "As a family owned and operated business, we are deeply committed to our mission of creating customers for life through exceptional experiences. We believe our continued growth on the Top 100 list exemplifies that this sincere pledge to our customers is being realized by our dedicated staff. We are fortunate to have an incredible team who made this possible." With eight stores throughout the region (located in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina), La-Z-Boy Southeast offers customers an exceptional buying experience. The company's vigilant training creates a staff that are experts in the retail and interior design industry. Customers are offered the opportunity to engage with a professional, degreed interior designer for a complimentary design program that was created to take the fear out of furniture buying. And, with more than 900 fabrics and leathers for a wide-variety of both in-stock and custom styles, La-Z-Boy Southeast is equipped to meet customers' needs effectively. A comprehensive website and YouTube channel also provides customers with a detailed and helpful pre-buying experience, answering frequent questions about products and the furniture buying experience. "We continue to challenge ourselves to better our customer experience through a variety of virtual and technological improvements, all necessary in our digitally-driven marketplace," continued Brown. "We also remain committed to charitable organizations in our marketplaces, which we hope demonstrates dedication to the communities in which our teams and our clients live and work. Based on client feedback and sales, our investment in these efforts demonstrates merit." A strong emphasis on building well-trained teams with a focus on bold leadership, innovative problem-solving, and a sincere commitment to excellence was also a top priority for the company. "We were pleased to see our sales team develop strong skills relating to customer leads, follow-up, and closing sales," continued Brown. "Anticipating the needs of our buyer, identifying solutions, and first-rate customer service will be an ongoing focus as we aim to climb the Top 100 list in the future." About Tipperary Sales, Inc. Tipperary Sales, Inc., a family-owned company, founded in 1976, operates eigh La-Z-Boy Galleries in the Southeast. La-Z-Boy Home Furnishings & Decor stores operated by Tipperary Sales, Inc. are in the following locations: 4205 Washington Rd. in Evans, Ga.; 150 Traders Way in Pooler, Ga.; 107-B River Hills Rd in Asheville, Nc.; 7035 Smith Corners Blvd. in Charlotte, Nc.; 11515 Carolina Place Pkwy. in Pineville, Nc.; 4960 Centre Pointe Dr Suite 102 in N. Charleston, Sc.; 5342 Sunset Boulevard in Lexington, Sc.: 1046 Woodruff Rd. in Greenville, Sc. For more information, please visit https://www.furnitureacademy.com. About La-Z-Boy Headquartered in Monroe, MI, La-Z-Boy is one of the world's leading residential furniture producers. The company manufactures a full line of comfortable products for the living room and family room, including the company's world-famous recliners, reclining sofas and love seats, sleep sofas, modular furniture and leather upholstery, as well as stationary sofas, love seats and chairs. It is a division of La-Z-Boy Incorporated (NYSE: LZB), one of the world's leading residential furniture producers, marketing furniture for every room of the home. Live Life Comfortably. SM SOURCE La-Z-Boy Southeast Former President Jerry John Rawlings has cautioned Ghanaians not to let down their guard on the dangers of the Covid-19 virus till it has been contained. The former President who made the call during a courtesy call on him by 95-year-old Ex-Private Ashiteye Hammond, a World War II veteran on Tuesday, said, I dont want to take any chances and I think we should all cooperate to handle the pandemic as seriously as we can. Ex-Private Hammond undertook a seven-day walk a couple of weeks ago to raise funds for frontline health workers dealing with the corona virus pandemic. He walked a total of 14 miles, doing two miles a day. The former President described the effort by Ex-Private Hammond as a noble cause and urged other former Presidents and corporate institutions to support the fundraising campaign. He pledged a $1000 towards the fund. The former World War II veteran said he was inspired by what Captain Sir Thomas Moore did in the United Kingdom to raise funds for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday in April this year. He is a veteran and I am also a veteran. He fought in Burma and I also fought in Burma, so I decided that if he has done it for Europe why cant I also do the same for Africa. I am very happy that I was able to do it. I did not let our people down and I am appealing to all Presidents and former Presidents across Africa to emulate President Rawlings gesture, Ex-Private Hammond urged. The fund which aims to raise 500,000 has so far raised 27,000. Ex-Private Hammond was accompanied by Ex-WO1 Bright Segbefia, Public Relations Officer of the Veterans Association of Ghana (VAG), Derek Cobbina, a representative of the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League and Klenam Fiajoe, a team member. 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 The boiling tension between Chief Justice David Maraga and President Uhuru Kenyatta dominated major newspaper headlines on Tuesday, June 9. Also given focus are the record 97 COVID-19 patients who were discharged from hospital on Monday, June 8, and the fate of National Assembly majority leader Aden Duale that has now been left in the hands of the head of state. READ ALSO: Still funny: Dagoretti North MP John Kiarie perfectly imitates Mutahi Kagwe's accent As of Monday, June 8, Kenya had registered 2,862 cases of COVID-19. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC READ ALSO: ODM is plotting Musalia Mudavadi's ouster from ANC - Lugari MP Ayub Savula 1. The Standard The daily lays bare a list of leaders who catalysed the noisy divorce between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto. From the president's side, ODM leader Raila Odinga takes lead, followed by Jubilee vice-chair David Murathe, party secretary-general Raphael Tuju, Uhuru's private political advisor Nancy Gitau and COTU leader Francis Atwoli. The intentions of the five were given meaning by Interior PS Karanja Kibicho and nominated MP Maina Kamanda. From Ruto's side, players who influenced the acrimonious fall out include Senators Kipchumba Murkomen, Susan Kihika, former CS Mwangi Kiunjuri and troubled majority leader Aden Duale. Others who also had a hand in the mess are MPs Ndindi Nyoro, Rigathi Gachagua, Alice Wahome, Oscar Sudi and Kimani Ngunjiri, among others. READ ALSO: Buff Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho breaks internet with breathtaking body transformation 2. The Star The Star reveals that as Chief Justice David Maraga launched a scathing attack on President Uhuru Kenyatta over his failure to appoint judges, it emerged the head of state had planned to pick the judges next week. Maraga was totally unaware of this before he took to the stairs of Supreme Court on Monday, June 8, and read a riot act to the president. Section of members of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) said they were not aware Maraga had planned to issue a statement. This came to the fore as the Law Society of Kenya threatened it was going to initiate a motion seeking to impeach the president accusing him of disobeying court orders. READ ALSO: Mama ajifungua mtoto katika seli ya polisi na kuachiliwa kwa dhamana na korti 3. People Daily Since April 7 when the government ordered every citizen to wear face masks while in public, it has emerged the directive has been turned into a cash cow by law enforcers. According to the daily, people in rural areas with little information about the disease, are hardest hit by the menace of extortion from police officers. The officers are said to be walking from village to village looking for people working in their farms without masks and are charged between KSh 1,000 to KSh 5,000 or risk being held in kangaroo cells. It was in this light that Uasin Gishu county commissioner Abdirasack Jaldesa directed police in the devolved unit to stop apprehending people working in their farms without wearing face masks. READ ALSO: Netizens photoshop Lulu Hassan, hubby's faces on ashy bodies to protest their rosy love 4. Daily Nation Daily Nation reports that the new wrangle between Chief Justice David Maraga and President Uhuru Kenyatta has opened another war-front between the Judiciary and Executive. The two arms of government have in the past been at war over under-staffing in courts and budget cuts. About three months ago, Uhuru and Maraga mend their fences but it was evident their meeting did not solve the CJ's grievances. According to Maraga, Uhuru was not concerned with the plight of citizens since his failure to appoint 41 judge nominees had caused an acute shortage of jurists in the country. Maraga said in case anyone filed a case in the Environment and Lands Courts today, the earliest it could be heard would be in 2022 as a result of a heavy backlog. It has, however, emerged that the CJ, who is set to vacate office in December 2020, may launch another attack on the Executive if the KSh 18.5 billion proposed budget earmarked for the Judiciary will be adopted in 2020/2021 fiscal year. The amount is KSh 1.35 billion less than what was approved for the 2019/2020 financial year. READ ALSO: Nandi man smiles away with KSh 111,000 after betting with KSh 10 5. Taifa Leo The newspaper reports that President Uhuru Kenyatta may be trying to save the job of embattled National Assembly majority leader Aden Duale. During the Tuesday, June 2, Jubilee Parliamentary Group meeting, the president failed to mention Duale's name and wanted Duale's fate to be decided by MPs. The MP's, led by Kieni's Kanini Kega, kick-started the process of removing Duale from the position and had managed to collect over 100 signatures. On Monday, June 8, Uhuru intervened into Duale's plight and now it is up to him to decide on whether or not the Garissa Township MP will continue serving as majority leader. 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. I married a man every woman wanted - Pastor Joan Chege | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke Thirty-eight Thai expats living in Egypt have contracted COVID-19 and wont be returning home today, the Thai embassy in Cairo announced. The embassy said yesterday that 37 of those diagnosed with COVID-19 were still being treated in the Egyptian capital on the same day 220 Thai nationals were being flown home on a chartered flight. They will be placed into government quarantine for two weeks upon their arrival today. The Thai embassy said it had contacted the Egytian health ministry to monitor the conditions of those not healthy enough to travel home. Thousands of Thais were stranded overseas after the government shutting down air travel into the kingdom. In recent weeks, it has organized flights to repatriate them, leading to a steady trickle of new COVID-19 cases emerging at quarantine facilities. Egypt on Monday reported 1,365 new COVID-19 cases and 34 deaths, bringing its total to 35,444 infections and 1,271 fatalities. The Egyptian government has imposed a nighttime curfew since late March. In a statement, the Thai embassy advised Thais living in Egypt to avoid crowded venues as much as possible and wear face masks every time they leave their residence. Thais in Egypt can contact the embassy via +201 0194 01243 and Facebook. Read more of Coconuts Bangkoks content here. This article, 38 Thais in Egypt infected with COVID-19: embassy, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters! Hanoi, June 10 : Vietnam reported no new cases of COVID-19 infection, with its total confirmed cases remained at 332 and zero deaths so far, according to its Ministry of Health. Meanwhile, one more patient was announced to recover from the disease, bringing the total number of cured cases in the country to 317, Xinhua news agency reported. Vietnam has recorded no local transmission for 54 straight days while there are nearly 9,100 people being quarantined and monitored in the country, said the health ministry on Tuesday. Speaking at a government meeting held here on Tuesday, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc assigned the country's National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control to announce safe areas that have recorded no COVID-19 infection in the last 30 days for the reopening of international flight routes, Vietnam News Agency reported. The prime minister also ordered relevant authorities to work to facilitate the movement of foreign experts, investors and skilled workers to Vietnam while approving the reopening of bar and karaoke services, according to the report. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text A couple in their 20s are in a critical condition in hospital after a shooting south of Perth on Monday night. Police spokesman Adam Brouwer said police were called to a house on Hayeswater Circuit in Waikiki at 11.25pm where two people were found with gunshot wounds. A man, 28, and a 27-year-old woman who were known to each other were rushed to hospital by St John Ambulance where they received medical treatment. Nine News Perth reporter Jacquelin Robson who was at the scene said parts of Hayeswater Circuit had been cordoned off by police as officers investigated what led to the shooting. "Both are in an induced coma in the intensive care unit, fighting for their lives," she said. By Express News Service TIRUPUR: Profit making is not as smooth as a knife through a lump of butter for Uthukuli traders. What with Covid-19, and the lockdown, sales have hit rock bottom, they claim. One of the traders, Rajesh, told TNIE that this is the first time that the sales of Uthukuli butter have slumped. "Usually, 120 tonnes are sold every month. "So, many of us stocked the butter in a private freezing facility on March 22. We failed to gauge that the lockdown would get extended. Only ten tonnes were sold in the past three weeks. I have stored over 170 tonnes in the past two months and am paying a rent of Rs 1.50 a kg per month." Former coordinator of Uthukuli Butter Sellers Association K Ponnusamy said, "More than 600 units in Uthukuli manufacture butter. When the lockdown was announced on March 22, trading came to a halt. I had bought several hundred kilos of butter by that time and was forced to store them in a private freezing facility in Kangeyam. "The procurement price of the butter was Rs 350 per kg. Depending on the quality, the selling price varies from Rs 450 to Rs 550 per kg. But now, I have been selling them at below Rs 300 a kg to the retailers." He said that the ban on transportation affected them the most. "Though it is a food item, transportation to Kerala and Karnataka was stopped. Later, transportation to Chennai also stopped. This led to glut, resulting in price drop," he explained. According to a source from Tirupur Sarvodaya Sangam, their procurement process is limited and transparent. "We avoid the involvement of middlemen. We directly buy from the producers. After keeping Rs 20 as profit margin and paying 12 per cent GST, we sell it for around Rs 415 per kg. The procurement price of butter has come down from Rs 370 to Rs 350 per kg in the past two months. Still, many retailers are demanding the product at below Rs 300 per kg," source added. It's been two weeks since George Floyd was killed while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers, sparking demonstrations calling for widespread policing reform across the country. But President Donald Trump has yet to meet with black advocates calling for those changes or travel to Minneapolis to speak with the community reeling in the wake of Floyd's death. A visit to the site of a national tragedy is something a US president is often called to do -- listening to Americans impacted by an event that has captured the country's attention and calling for national unity. Trump has expressed his sympathies from within the heavily fortified White House gates, and invoked Floyd's name during an event focused on American jobs. He's posed for a photo at a church damaged by looters after peaceful demonstrators were cleared from the area with anti-riot deterrents, such as pepper balls. And he's held a roundtable with representatives of national law enforcement organizations, a Republican sheriff and two Republican attorneys general, to hear their side of the issue. But Trump's efforts to address the demonstrations have, in many ways, garnered criticism and sown division. Vice President Mike Pence has held a series of listening sessions with members of the African American community. So far, these carefully curated events have not included Floyd's family, Black Lives Matter organizers or national civil rights activists. Instead, they've been held in and around Washington, and the guests were black conservatives, spiritual leaders and Washington-area community leaders. One guest, Candace Owens, has said Floyd was "an example of a violent criminal his entire life, up until the very last moment," that he shouldn't be held up as a martyr and that he "was not a good person." Trump has also said he's spoken to Floyd's family over the phone. But Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, said their conversation was "brief" and one-sided. "He didn't give me an opportunity to even speak," Floyd said. "It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept, like, pushing me off, like 'I don't want to hear what you're talking about.' " The White House's belated solution to call for national unity may come in the form of a presidential address this week. A senior administration official said an address on issues related to race and national unity is under serious consideration. And Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson -- the only black member of Trump's Cabinet -- hinted in an interview with CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that we're "going to be hearing from the President this week on this topic in some detail." But so far, Trump has had little direct exposure to members of the American public who disagree with his politics since taking office. From time to time, Trump has met with Democratic lawmakers, seen a protester escorted out of a rally, or driven past someone carrying a protest sign from the insulation of his motorcade. And Pence, in a rare, public, direct interaction with someone who disagreed with his principles, was once confronted by a Medicaid and Medicare expansion advocate while dropping into an Iowa diner for a reelection campaign stop. By and large, though, the White House does not put the President in a position to be challenged by everyday Americans who oppose his political views. In fact, it's quite rare for a modern American president to be publicly confronted by everyday Americans dissenting from their administrations' policies. Every meeting, roundtable and event is carefully curated with guests vetted by White House staff. But there is precedent for US presidents to meet with activists and civil rights leaders, or, in at least one case, to visit the sites of mass protests rooted in racial tensions. President John F. Kennedy met with civil rights leaders the same day Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. President George H.W. Bush was criticized for waiting five days to visit Los Angeles in the wake of the LA riots following the acquittal of police officers involved in brutally beating Rodney King. And President Richard Nixon met with anti-Vietnam War protesters before dawn at the Lincoln Memorial five days after the incident at Kent State University, when Ohio National Guard opened fire and killed four students protesting the war's expansion into Cambodia. Some of Trump's previous visits to American communities nursing the wounds of national tragedy have been met by criticism and division. During a visit to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria, Trump was criticized for casually tossing around rolls of paper towels at a supply center while visiting well-fortified neighborhoods on the island and celebrating his administration's response to the hurricane season. Trump also faced political blowback for his visits to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, in the wake of mass shootings in their communities. Some politicians in those cities discouraged the President's visit and some El Paso shooting victims said they didn't want to meet with the President. Trump also falsely accused Ohio Democrats Sen. Sherrod Brown and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley of "totally misrepresenting" his visit to an Ohio hospital to meet with the Dayton victims. But neither Brown nor Whaley had suggested his visit to the hospital got a poor reception. The president says he wanted to go through this stage himself to ease people's stress. Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, says he sought to become an example of what it is to contract the novel coronavirus and what the disease does to people. "I wanted to go through this stage myself. To make sure people perceive it less stressfully," Zelensky told Ukrainian Pravda. "When we had a moment of depression, we gathered. I suggested the team: 'Let me get infected and be immediately isolated on Bankova [The Presidential Office HQ in Kyiv]. And I'll get through this alright.' So that people understand it really is scary, you can get sick, you do feel bad. And I will let this go through me and show them. But at the same time, people will understand that it's no plague. That's to make sure they aren't depressed. At the very onset, there was a very scary moment when people thought we would all die," said Zelensky. Read alsoWHO says asymptomatic spread of coronavirus "very rare" However, the idea was never implemented. "We decided it was too much," said the president. Also, according to Zelensky, his family would not have forgiven him such a step. "They would say I'm crazy. And they'd be right, actually, the president summed up. As UNIAN reported earlier, the president, as well as prime minister, head of the presidential office and his deputies, were PCR-tested for COVID-19. The test was conducted due to the fact that they had all been in contact with MP Serhiy Shakhov who had earlier tested positive. NYC OPENING DAY: Phase 1 is here; massive (peaceful) protest on Staten Island over the weekend, and latest coronavirus updates. (Hot Zone) Posted by Staten Island Advance on Monday, June 8, 2020 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. The coronavirus pandemic has turned our world upside-down. We need information like we never have before. How many new cases were there on Staten Island today? How many deaths? How many people have been released from the hospital? What did President Donald Trump say about the pandemic? What about Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio? More importantly, when is this pandemic going to be over? When are we going to get back to normal, whatever normal is? Its almost too much to keep up with. So twice a day, Mark Stein and I take to Facebook Live to give you all the Island information you need. Look for us around 2 p.m. and again at around 5:30 p.m. Then look for this wrap-up on SILive.com at the end of the day. Well give you the numbers and all the latest news. Well answer your questions. Well follow up on your news tips. Well share the good news too, the way that the Staten Island community is coming together in this time of crisis. Or well just share this strange and unique pandemic moment with you, as fellow Staten Islanders. On Monday, we talked about the first day of re-opening in New York City, which also included talk about the massive George Floyd protest seen on Staten Island over the weekend. See the video above for that. In the video below, Mark and I talked about the latest encouraging coronavirus numbers, including the fact that there were no deaths on Staten Island in the recent 24-hour period. Were all in this together. Well all get through this together. New Delhi, June 9 : With the emergence of the real Anamika Shukla, in whose name a teacher in Uttar Pradesh was allegedly drawing salary from 25 places and hadd garnered more than Rs 1 crore, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday demanded the state government should apologise to the woman who is still unemployed. "UP government should go and apologise to Anamika Shukla... she is living in poverty and doesn't know what is happening in her name, this is a loot system. "Anamika should be given justice job and security," Priyanka Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi. After the scam was unearthed, Anamika Shukla went to meet officials on Tuesday in Gonda where she said she applied to many places but could not attend counselling. Police on Saturday had arrested a woman who had claimed to be Anamika Shukla and got a teacher's job. The accused had allegedly worked in 25 schools for several months and had withdrawn over Rs 1 crore in salaries till February last. A native of Mainpuri, the accused woman was working as a full-time science teacher at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in Faridpur in Kasganj and simultaneously at many schools in Ambedkar Nagar, Baghpat, Aligarh, Saharanpur and Prayagraj districts etc. The matter came to light when a database of teachers was being created on Manav Sampada portal that required details like teachers' personal records, date of joining, and promotion. Once the records were uploaded, Anamika Shukla's personal details were allegedly found listed at 25 schools across the state. New Delhi, June 9 : Food categories like biscuits, salty snacks, instant noodles, beverages, edible oils are seeing an increase in demand as in home consumption increases while out of home consumption of FMCG products is expected to take a back seat as the lockdown keeps more people at home. According to a research by UK broking house, Investec Securities, in the near term, out of home consumption is expected to take a back seat as the lockdown keeps more people at home. Nestle's Professional division, which posted double digit growth in 2019 is expected to witness some level of slowdown as offices, hotels, restaurants, airlines, educational institutions remain close/ operate at sub-par levels. HUL's ice-cream business will be impacted. Management in Q4 FY20 results stated, "There was near cessation of sales in some of our out-of-home businesses and ice creams business, right from mid-month, and these contributed to the revenue drop. Our ice cream business started to really see a sharp decline right from mid-month." Meanwhile, in home consumption has surged. Food categories such as biscuits, salty snacks, instant noodles, beverages, refined edible oils have witnessed a jump in demand. Britannia has witnessed strong demand of biscuits. April and May has seen strong revenue growth of 20 per cent and 28 per cent respectively. In the FMCG space, companies are looking to substitute traditional wholesale by increasing stockist count, driving growth through organised wholesale cash and carry and increasing growth through e-commerce. "In retail, companies like ABFRL, Indian Terrain and Page Industries are likely to re-think their small MBO (multi-brand outlets) strategy and compensate the impact through larger retailers and e-commerce," the research said. Hand wash, Sanitizers, floor & toilet cleaners, antiseptic liquids have seen a sharp jump in sales in India. Immunity products such as chyawanprash, honey and turmeric have also seen a sharp rise in sales since lockdown started in March. Most companies believe that the trend will continue and hence, in a scenario where manufacturing capacity is constrained, companies are focussing on these higher demand products. While many companies have entered the Sanitizer space, fewer entrants are seen in handwash category as its manufacturing process is difficult. "It remains to be seen the longer term sustainability of this category; we believe larger brands will be eventual winners here as fly by night operators exit the market once demand normalizes," the research said. Colgate has launched the Palmolive hand sanitiser, Emami has launched Boroplus hand sanitiser, Jyothy Labs has launched the Margo hand sanitiser, Marico has launched Mediker hand sanitiser and Veggie Clean, in the fruits and vegetables wash segment. In jts management commentary on health and hygiene demand, HUL said sanitizer production has been ramped up by a factor of 60 times from the pre-covid levels. We are seeing heightened consumer focus on health, hygiene, and nutritional needs. In the lockdown period, companies have seen the contribution e-commerce sales increasing. FMCG companies have partnered with various last mile delivery apps such as Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo, Grofers, Bigbasket, etc. to improve availability of their products. Companies expect the current crisis to lead to an uptick in ecommerce sales as people become averse to stepping out. Most FMCG companies had made changes in their product offerings on e-commerce platforms to address distributors' complaints of e-commerce sales impacting their sales. FMCG companies now use e-commerce to drive more premium packs, to serve niche demand spaces such as face sheet masks, beard grooming products, hand cream, foot cream and as a platform to test the success of new launches. According to the report, even though personal care category has witnessed a decline in lockdown, we believe this category will be a major beneficiary of higher e-commerce adoption in Urban areas as its contribution to e-commerce sales in FMCG is highest at 42 per cent. In e-commerce, personal care had started to gradually pick up in Lockdown 3.0. (Sanjeev Sharma can be contacted at sanjeev.s@ians.in) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Vivien Killilea/Getty ImagesBy MEREDITH DELISO and IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News (NEW YORK) -- After years of civil rights activists calling for the removal of Confederate monuments, they're falling like dominoes amid nationwide protests in the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody. On Monday evening, the University of Alabama announced that it will remove three plaques that are dedicated to Confederate soldiers who attended the school. The plaques will be placed in an "a more appropriate historical," setting, according to the school. The school will also convene a group from its board of trustees to review all of the names put on campus property and bring forth recommended changes. "The final decisions regarding those recommendations will be made by the full Board of Trustees at a public meeting, at a time to be announced," the school said in a statement. Hours later, the bronze topper of the Confederate monument in Hemming Park in Jacksonville, Florida, was removed early Tuesday morning. Around 4 a.m., without notice, crews used cranes to take down the statue of the Jacksonville Light Infantry that has been in the park since 1898. The removals followed announcements last week that Confederate monuments would be taken down from sites in Indianapolis, Richmond and Alexandria, Virginia, and Birmingham, Alabama. The statues, which honor soldiers and leaders on the losing side of the Civil War, are seen by many as symbols of racism and oppression. That's why the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, should be removed, Gov. Ralph Northam said last Thursday. "The legacy of racism continues, not just in isolated incidents," Northam said. "The legacy of racism also continues as part of a system that touches every person and every aspect of our lives." Those protesting Floyd's death and police brutality had gathered at the statue last week, chanting, "Tear it down!" But Northam's plan hit a roadblock on Monday after a Richmond Circuit Court judge issued a 10-day injunction against the removal following a complaint from the statue's supporters. Alena Yarmosky, Northam's spokeswoman, said the governor is reviewing the order. "Governor Northam remains committed to removing this divisive symbol from Virginias capital city, and were confident in his authority to do so, she told the Richmond Times Dispatch. Northam acknowledged that many residents won't support removing the Robert E. Lee statue, which was erected in 1890. "I believe in a Virginia that studies its past in an honest way," said Northam, who signed legislation authorizing localities to remove Confederate statues in April. "When we learn more, when we take that honest look at our past, we must do more than just talk about the future -- we must take action." The Rev. Robert Wright Lee, a descendant of Robert E. Lee, said he fully supports the monument's removal. "We have a chance here today ... to say this will indeed not be our final moment and our final stand," Lee said at a press conference last Thursday. "There are more important things to address than just a statue, but this statue is a symbol of oppression." Meanwhile, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett acknowledged the current protests in his decision to remove a monument dedicated to Confederate soldiers who died at a prison camp. "Our streets are filled with voices of anger and anguish, testament to centuries of racism directed at Black Americans," he wrote on Twitter. "We must name these instances of discrimination and never forget our past -- but we should not honor them." The grave monument was commissioned in 1912 and relocated to Garfield Park in 1928 following efforts by public officials active in the Ku Klux Klan to make it more visible, Hogsett said. "Whatever original purpose this grave marker might once have had, for far too long it has served as nothing more than a painful reminder of our state's horrific embrace of the Ku Klux Klan a century ago," the mayor said. "For some time, we have urged that this grave monument belongs in a museum, not in a park, but no organization has stepped forward to assume that responsibility. Time is up, and this grave marker will come down." If the injunction is lifted, the Richmond monument could join the fate of an Alexandria monument honoring Confederate soldiers that came down last week. "Some said this day would never come," Alexandria City Councilman John Chapman said on Facebook Tuesday. "The confederate statue at Appomattox is starting to be taken down. We, our community made this happen." A Confederate monument in a Birmingham, Alabama, park was also removed last week after it was damaged in weekend protests, local ABC News affiliate WBMA reported. Confederate monuments in Bentonville, Arkansas, and Rocky Mount, North Carolina, also will soon be taken down. In Philadelphia, a target of protesters also came down this week. The controversial statue of former mayor Pete Rizzo near City Hall was removed on Wednesday, following vandalism. Many saw the statue of the former police commissioner as a symbol of police brutality. "The statue represented bigotry, hatred, and oppression for too many people, for too long," Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said on Twitter Wednesday. "It is finally gone." It was not just in the United States that statues that symbolized racism were taken down. In Bristol, United Kingdom, protesters tore down a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston on Sunday. The protesters dragged the statue through the streets and then threw it into the river. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. New Delhi : An open war broke out on Tuesday within the Samajwadi Party (SP) with UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav stripping his uncle Shivpal Yadav of key ministerial portfolios, hours after his removal as the partys state unit chief and appointment of the latter in his place. (Read More: Mulayam steps in but feud in Samajwadi pariwar far from over) On Wednesday, Shivpal Yadav met elder brother and party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav at the latter's official residence in New Delhi. After meeting his brother Shivpal said, "Neither I nor Netaji (Mulayam) is angry. We all are happy... There are no differences." According to sources, Shivpal said in the meeting he gave examples of how as a senior minister in the Akhilesh government, he never publicly opposed the decisions taken by Akhilesh or Mulayam even though he may have expressed difference of opinion to them in private. (Read More: Yadav family feud: Akhilesh says no rift; Mulayam, Shivpal hold high-level meet in Delhi) "The decision on Cabinet portfolios are the discretion of the chief minister," Shivpal told mediapersons outside. While talking to media persons, Shivpal siad, "Netaji has decided to appoint me as the party's state unit chief. My role is to bring back SP to power in next polls 2017." Im still a minister, plus new big responsibility. Netaji is our leader & we all follow his directions: Shivpal Yadav pic.twitter.com/oafHIf3DsT ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 15, 2016 Shivpal denied rumour of his stepping down from the post. "I will fulfil my responsibility...I will not resign...I am still part of the cabinet," he said. Sab theek hai. Chunaav ka waqt hai badi zimedaari mili hai, SP phir se 2017 mei jeetegi: Shivpal Yadav For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Mukesh Ranjan By Express News Service RANCHI: A migrant worker, who had returned from Mumbai recently, committed suicide at a COVID-19 hospital in Lohardaga early in the morning on Tuesday, hours after testing positive for coronavirus on the previous day. Doctors said that the man killed himself after the four persons he was sharing the facility with were discharged after their reports came negative. The man, however, had been asked to remain in isolation for a few more days till the final report comes for the test samples sent to Ranchi on May 27. The man, around 35 years, took the help of the cot and bedsheet for hanging himself from the ceiling, said in-charge of Covid-19 ward Dr. Shambhumath Chaudhary. Prima facie, it appears that acute depression led him to the extreme step, he added. According to Chaudhary, the man had returned from Mumbai on May 24 and was taken to the local quarantine centre, but shifted immediately to the COVID-19 ward at Sadar Hospital as he was symptomatic and suffering from high fever. He, however, was cured in three days. After becoming normal on May 27, his samples were sent for testing, the result of which is still awaited. Meanwhile, testing was done on trunet machine on Monday which indicated positive results, following which he was asked to remain for few more days at the hospital while four others sharing the room, were discharged, said Dr Chaudhary. Now, the blood samples have been taken for testing and further action will be taken on the basis of the results, he added. Notably, out of the total of 1066 positive cases detected in Jharkhand so far, all the positive cases registered in Lohardaga are migrants who returned home from other states. The bitter row between Easyjet and its founder flared up yesterday as two more board members quit. The budget airline announced that its deputy chairman Charles Gurassa, and most senior independent board member Andy Martin, will step down later this year. Easyjet insisted they are simply following corporate governance guidelines which stipulate that non-executive directors should serve no more than nine years to preserve the board's independence, unless they can explain why they should stay on. Following guidelines: Easyjet announced that Charles Gurassa and Andy Martin will step down later this year But their departure comes less than two weeks after finance chief Andrew Findlay resigned just days after a failed boardroom coup by the airline's combative founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Speaking yesterday, Stelios said: 'Two more scoundrels running for the hills following the CFO's resignation just two weeks ago. This is a board that only 10 working days earlier was telling investors that this is not the time for regime change. The real question in my mind is were Gurassa and Martin pushed or did they jump?' Finance chief Findlay was one of four boardroom members labelled 'scoundrels' by Stelios for pushing through a 4.5billion order with Airbus for new planes. The 53-year-old Greek has claimed this could bankrupt the troubled airline. More than 99 per cent of votes cast by shareholders other than Stelios and his family supported the executives, including chief executive Johan Lundgren, chairman John Barton and director Andreas Bierwirth. The woman was found dead in Koh Samui - Viral Press A British gym instructor has been assisting police in Thailand over the suspected murder of his Ukrainian girlfriend. Phillip Armstrong, 47, was interviewed by police on Monday evening after Olha Frolova, 32, was found dead on Koh Samui island in southern Thailand. Mrs Frolova went missing on May 25 and her badly decomposed body was discovered covered by a pile of coconut palm leaves deep in the jungle on Friday, sparking fears she had been murdered, due to the apparent way her corpse had been concealed. She had reportedly left her husband Dimas Frolov, 40, two months ago to stay with Mr Armstrong following a year-long affair. The British fitness fanatic told officers that he had been in a relationship with Mrs Frolova but was unaware what had happened to her after she went missing. He said: "I don't know where Olha went after she disappeared. Neither me nor her husband know." Police from the Bo Phut district station said that Mrs Frolova suffered from bi-polar disorder and was prone to violent outbursts. They examined CCTV which showed Mrs Frolova returning a rented motorcycle on May 25, the last day she was alive. Olha Frolova, 32 - Viral Press Local media reported that she then returned to the shop on a motorcycle with Mr Armstrong. Officers said that Mr Frolov had identified the body of his late wife. He told police that she had left him two months ago to live with another man on the island but they stayed in touch. Mr Frolov, who first reported his wife missing, said: "We have been married for 12 years and have one son together. We moved to Koh Samui for about five years ago. "My wife started to see someone else about a year ago before she decided she wanted a divorce and to move out to live with her new boyfriend, who is also a foreigner. "However, while we were working on the paperwork, she sometimes still brought our boy to me and asked me to take care of him for a day or two. "The last time I saw her she had done the same but this time she had not come back for our kid for four days, so I decided to go to the police." Story continues The Thai man who found the body found a corpse hidden under coconut leaves. He rushed home to tell his wife and friends, who went with him back to the area to see before they reported it to the police. Officers who attended the scene removed coconut leaves and found a decomposed body with the skeleton visible. They believe the dead woman had been there for around two weeks. In 1970, Burke, an English teacher at Bronx Community College, bought it for $1,000 to use as a houseboat. By then it had been partially burned in a fire and its diesels had been stripped out. Burke had the boat towed from City Island in the Bronx to a spot in the Harlem River and docked it at an abandoned pier at 208th Street. Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday that the state employees bargaining coalition has rejected his call for workers to forgo raises owed them at months end and help the state cope with financial pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I would have put it off, and I think we should put it off, Lamont said of the raises. I think were in an economy where youve got close to 20 percent unemployment. I think youre in an economy where you see a lot of people on furlough. Under the public health emergency declared in March, Lamont has sweeping powers to set aside state laws and regulations, but he said he has no authority to unilaterally abrogate a contract and postpone raises. No, I tried, he said. No, we cant find any way I can do that. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo instituted a 90-day pay freeze in April, using emergency contractual language not available to Lamont. You could do layoffs or you could buy some time, Cuomo said then. Lets freeze the raises because thats better than actually losing your job. The freeze saved New York $50 million. Daniel Livingston, the lawyer who represents SEBAC, the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition, had no comment on Lamonts announcement other than to refer to a statement the labor group posted on May 9 after the coalitions only meeting on the topic of COVID-related givebacks: Of course, state employees are already sharing the states fiscal pain. Those raises are due in accordance with the 2017 SEBAC Agreement, where state employees to date have received one general wage increase in the last four fiscal years. Meanwhile large corporations and multi-millionaires and billionaires have done little to help address state fiscal issues. Their state and local tax rate remains below that of working families. Lamont, a Democrat elected in 2018 with the support of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, said he tried to provide added benefits combat pay to front-line workers during the pandemic, while asking for sacrifice from others. You delivered, and you delivered at considerable risk to yourself, and you deserve that, Lamont said. But I also said something else. I said I cant see giving everybody, everybody, in state government a raise right now, scheduled for June 30, Lamont said. Many unionized employees are scheduled by contract to receive a 3.5 percent general wage increase when the fiscal year begins July 1. And all except the most senior also are owed a 2 percent step increase. Forfeiting those wages would generate an estimated $132 million in savings. State employees should be cognizant of the wage givebacks now common in the private sector as businesses cope with COVID-19 closures and limits on their businesses, Lamont said. I think that would send the right signal and thats how we work together. Im not looking to lay anybody off, but I think thats what you should do, Lamont said. Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, among the first to publicly call for a postponement of the raises, said he hopes that the legislature and public remember the unions refusal when the contracts expire. When they raise this issue tomorrow in a new contract, I hope people remember they wouldnt even postpone the raises, Fasano said. I just hope they remember that at a time when we all could use a break, they werent willing to sit with the governor, a Democratic governor, to work with him. Lamont responded cautiously in late April, when he was facing a projected shortfall of about $530 million, at the prospect of stripping raises from amazing front-line state workers who are putting it out every day. First of all, thats where my heart goes out to, Lamont said. I also understand the fact that I look around the state of Connecticut, I see people who are losing their jobs, taking pay cuts and this hits a note with people. So its something Ive got to think about seriously in terms of trying to get that right balance there, and I am going to think about that. The $530 million shortfall projected for the fiscal year that ends June 30 has grown to about $900 million, a result of a delay in federal Medicaid payments. But bigger problems lay just over the horizon. Simply put, from 2021 through 2023, the states revenue craters. State budget analysts project shortfalls ranging from $2 billion to $2.33 billion in each of those three fiscal years. By Lambert Strether of Corrente I was reading Consortium Newss reconstruction of Dominic Cummings horrid, prehensile clambering up the greasy pole of Tory Inner Party politics to become BoJos Chief adviser (What Made Dominic Cummings Dash to Durham?), when I came across this astonishing passage (Ive helpfully lettered the gobsmacking bits in square brackets): As to the sort of persons whom Cummings says he wants to recruit into government in place of those he wants to sack, he has described them in a post on his personal blog. As well as the usual emphasis on mathematics and science graduates, the post invites applications from: Super-talented weirdos. People in SW1 talk a lot about diversity but they rarely mean true cognitive diversity. They are usually babbling about gender identity diversity blah blah. What SW1 needs is not more drivel about identity and diversity from Oxbridge humanities graduates but more genuine cognitive diversity. We need some true wild cards, artists, people who never went to university and fought their way out of an appalling hell hole, weirdos from William Gibson novels like [A] that girl hired by Bigend as a brand diviner who feels sick at the sight of Tommy Hilfiger or [B] that Chinese-Cuban free runner from a crime family hired by the KGB . If you want to figure out what characters around Putin might do, or how international criminal gangs might exploit holes in our border security, you dont want more Oxbridge English graduates who chat about Lacan at dinner parties with TV producers and spread fake news about fake news. The comments about Oxbridge humanities graduates and Oxbridge English graduates who chat about Lacan at dinner parties with TV producers come across as rather odd, especially coming from Cummings, who is himself an Oxford humanities graduate. Now, to be fair to Cummings, he does not explicitly claim that hes read either of the two William Gibson novels to which he refers ([A], Pattern Recognition, and [B] Spook Country). However, when Cummings writes that girl hired by [Belgian advertising mogul Hubertus] Bigend, as if both he and the reader share an easy familiarity with the character, I think even this humble blogger and former humanities major, although not at an exalted venue like Oxford is entitled to infer that Cummings has done the reading. Except he hasnt. In case [A], that girl, Cummings merely displays laziness. In case [B], hired by the KGB. he goes grotesquely astray. Case [A] depends on close reading. Case [B] is open and shut. Lets take each case in turn. Cayce Pollard, in Pattern Recognition, is that girl. Cummings writes: that girl hired by Bigend as a brand diviner Cummings surrounds the word diviner with single quotation marks, implying thats how Gibson describes her job in his text (University of Oxford Style Guide, page 16: Use single quotation marks for direct speech or a quote). Unfortunately, the word diviner appears nowhere in the book. Google books: And, for that matter, Amazon: Worse, Cummings little fabrication misrepresents Pollards talent, as described by Gibson and understood by Cayce and Bigend. Divination, what Cummings diviner does, is defined by Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as follows: 1. The action or practice of divining; an act of divining; insight into or discovery of the unknown or the future by supernatural or magical means; (an) augury, (a) prophecy. 2. Guessing by happy instinct or unusual insight; successful conjecture; an inspired insight, a skilful forecast, a good guess. For sense 1, there is nothing supernatural about Pollards talent; for sense 2, Bigend has hired Pollard to pronounce on a corporate logo. He is not hiring her to guess; he is hiring her because she will know. Gibson describes, obliquely, Pollards talent and process at the start of the book (pages 10-14 in my paperback): The new logo will be this firms pivot into the new century, and Cayce, with her marketable allergy, has been brought over [to Bigends London office] to do in person the thing that she does best. Doreatea [representing Bigends client] removes an eleven=inch square of art board from the envelope [and] displays it to Cayce. No, [Cayce] says. Cayces contract for a consulation of this sort specifies that she absolutely not be asked to critique anything. She is there only as a very specialized piece of human litmus paper. It must be difficult, [Bigends representative Bernard] Stonestreet says. when you dont like something. Emotionally, I mean. It isnt about liking anything, Bernard, Cayce say Its like that roll of carpet, there; its either blue or its not. Whether or not its blue isnt something I have an emotional investment in. Needless to say, this is not divination; theres nothing of the divine about it. Even if one wished to force the issue and compare Cayces pronouncements to, say, dowsing, no dowser would ever describe their talent as an allergy.[1] Now, lets turn to case [B]. Cummings writes: . that Chinese-Cuban [sic] free runner from a crime family hired by the KGB Tito, the Cuban-Chinese (Gibsons ordering throughout) free-runner, is most definitely not hired by the KGB, or Gibsons novel being set in the very near future, and the Soviet Union having been dissolved in 1991, the KGB along with it any organ of Russian state security. Tito has been hired by an American, The Old Man, a retired American intelligence agent. Gibsons plotting is too complex for me to excerpt or explain, so Ill just show Tito working for Old Man in the operation that drives the book. Page 250 (Amazon): And now Ill show that the Old Man is American (page 413): And that the Old Man is a spook from the intelligence community (page 414): So, as you can see, Tito has been hired by a protagonist who is about as far from the KGB as its possible to be. Cummings cannot have read or, to be fair, have finished the book. * * * Now, I will concede theres some room for judgment in Case [A], since leaving aside the issue of Cummings quoting material that doesnt actually appear my interpretation is based on a close reading of the text. Not very much room, but some. But for Case [B], theres no room for judgment at all. Cummings has made a grotesque error. My question: Why? The passage excerpted comes, after all, from what is in essence a Help Wanted advertisement. Cummings is trying to recruit people into government, his partys government. One would think Cummings would be writing very carefully. Two explanations come to mind: (1) Cummings is writing as well as he can. He is lazy and ignorant, hasnt done the reading, and by the Dunning-Kruger syndome, doesnt know what he is. So he picked up a few taglines from a Spectator review, say, and plugged them into his deliverable, assuming nobody would call him on his effort to appear more cognitively diverse than he really is. Cummings has form; this explanation is consistent with it. (2) Cummings introduced the errors deliberately. He is psychotic and devious. He doesnt want a candidate who will point out the errors; he wants a candidate who will not: A sycophant and a yes -man -person. This too, is consisent with Cummings past form. Who can say? NOTES [1] To be fair once more to Cummings, Gibsons usual envoi includes this passage (page 366). Of Pollards allergy to logos: Even the Michelin Man now registers as neutral. She wonders whether this change, whatever it is, will affect her ability to know whether or not a given trademark will work. So one could work up various theories for why Pollards talent is supernatural a product of her unresolved relation with her dead but oddly communicative father figure, for example. But thats not how Pollard or Bigend think of it. BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks tumbled on Tuesday as a lack of fresh catalysts prompted investors to lock in some profits after recent strong gains on hopes of a relatively quick global economic recovery. Growth worries swayed market mood after the World Bank warned the global economy will shrink by 5.2 percent this year, representing the deepest recession since the Second World War. In economic releases, the euro area economy contracted less-than-expected in the first quarter, the latest estimate by Eurostat showed. The bloc's quarterly reading came in at -3.6 percent, versus -3.8 percent reported in the preliminary reading The benchmark CAC 40 fell 107 points, or 2.1 percent, to 5,068 after declining 0.4 percent in the previous session. Banks paced the declines, with BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole falling over 6 percent. Societe Generale shares slumped 8.4 percent. 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. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) and Chinese multinational technology company Huawei are in talks to expand their strategic partnership in the artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation cooperation fields. The duo also discussed the best international solutions, experiences and practices in innovation, disruptive technologies, smart grids, digital transformation, automation, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. During a video conference, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Dewa Managing Director and CEO, and Charles Yang, President of Huawei Middle East, discussed ways to strengthen co-operation and promoting bilateral relations, as well as sharing the best international practices and experiences. Al Tayer spoke about Dewas precautionary measures to combat the pandemic, and protect the health and safety of employees, customers, and society. Al Tayer said that Dewa works in line with the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, who instructed Dubai's Government organisations to implement services 10 years ahead of other cities around the world. In line with its vision to become a leading sustainable innovative corporation, Dewa has come a long way in this area by launching Digital Dewa, its digital arm, to redefine the concept of utilities and create a new digital future for Dubai. OCKERO, Sweden, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gula Skrinet AB has reached an agreement with Caterpillar Luxembourg Sarl to acquire Caterpillar Propulsion AB and its subsidiaries. The sale is expected to close on June 30, 2020. Caterpillar Propulsion AB, formerly Berg Propulsion AB, is a leading manufacturer of mechanically and electrically driven propulsion systems and marine controls for ships. The proposed acquisition includes Caterpillar Propulsion AB and its subsidiaries, including Caterpillar Propulsion Production AB, as well as Caterpillar Propulsion Pte. Ltd, its subsidiary Caterpillar Propulsion International Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd and its Dubai branch. The transaction will include the manufacturing operations in Sweden and Singapore and office locations in Shanghai and Dubai. Stefan Sedersten, previously the COO and shareholder of the former Berg Propulsion AB, has a decade of experience in different roles within Berg along with a deep understanding of the global marine business. Stefan is the chairman of Lean Marine Sweden AB and I-Tech AB (publ.), businesses focused on marine equipment and vessel optimization. The current team within Caterpillar Propulsion will transfer with the sale ensuring continuity of support for current and future customers. Stefan Sedersten is committed to preserve continuity with Caterpillar customers and dealers and to maintain a close business relationship with Caterpillar Inc., supporting both MaK and Cat marine sales, as well as developing its products and services further with other customers in the marine sector. "My message to customers, suppliers and other external partners is clear - we will honor all existing contracts and agreements and make sure to safeguard a seamless transition," Mr Sedersten said. The new owner of the company is dedicated to building on what has been achieved during the years with Caterpillar and to continue to develop the company's external relationships, products and services in close cooperation with customers and partners. "Our aim is to combine the best of two worlds, the innovative and efficient approach of the big company with the flexibility and nimbleness of the small enterprise. This propulsion business is a household name in the industry, well-known for its dedication to customer satisfaction, reliable products and services, and we have every intention to make sure it continues that way. I look forward to serve the customers together with the skilled and experienced people in the entity where I've spent much of my past career". Headquartered in Ockero Islands outside Gothenburg, Sweden, Caterpillar Propulsion AB has designed and manufactured heavy-duty marine thrusters and controllable pitch propellers since the late 1920s. Its proprietary systems are employed in maritime applications throughout the world. Upon closing of the sale, the products and services will be branded Berg Propulsion. About Gula Skrinet AB: For information, please contact Stefan Sedersten +46-768-690-509 stefan.sedersten@bergpropulsion.com About Caterpillar Propulsion AB: Caterpillar Propulsion AB is one of the world's leading designers and producers of Controllable Pitch Propellers for the shipping industry. The company is a global supplier of customized marine propulsion systems comprising transverse and azimuth thrusters, controllable pitch propellers and control systems. Technical expertise coupled with extensive industry knowledge deliver products and services with high and durable performance including 24-hour service. For information, visit www.catpropulsion.com. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/gula-skrinet/r/gula-skrinet-ab-to-acquire-caterpillar-propulsion-ab,c3130453 The following files are available for download: A team of Pakistani experts has returned from France with the evidence extracted from the cockpit voice and flight data recorders of the PIA aircraft that crashed in a densely populated area last month in Karachi, officials said on Monday. The French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) on Friday last said the downloading and decoding of the black box of the Airbus A-320 aircraft have been completed. Yannick Malinge, the chief product safety officer at Airbus, also informed the Pakistani authorities that the flight data and the cockpit voice recorders have been analysed and listened to, officials said. The aircraft of the national carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) crashed minutes before landing on May 22, killing 97 out of 99 people on board. Ninety-seven passengers died in the crash. Eleven people on the ground were injured. A 13-year-old girl who was injured on the ground died last week, taking the death toll in the accident to 98. Following the mishap, Pakistan set up a two-member probe team led by Air Commodore Usman Ghani. The team was in France to get the decoded data from the French investigators. According to PIA officials, the team was back in Karachi with the vital data, which it will use to finalise the preliminary findings. The government has already announced that it would table the report in Parliament and would share the findings with the public on June 22. An 11-member team of experts from an Airbus facility in the French city of Toulouse was in Pakistan after the incident to conduct an independent probe into the crash involving its aircraft. The experts team last week left for the French city of Le Bourget, taking with them the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) -- the two components of the PK-8303 black box. The Pakistani experts accompanied the French investigators and the devices were decoded in their presence. The FDR records time, altitude, airspeed, heading, and aircraft attitude and other in-flight characteristics. The CVR is a device used to record the audio environment in the flight deck for accidents and incident investigation purposes. It records and stores the audio signals of the microphones and earphones of the pilots' headsets and of an area microphone installed in the cockpit. On June 2, Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in a letter to the national carrier said the pilot of the crashed aircraft did not follow the instructions of the air traffic controller (ATC). The letter, which was published in Pakistani media, has reportedly irked the government which said that such information should be provided to the inquiry board already set up to probe the crash. Suddenly what once seemed to be a potential gift to Trumps reelection now looks more like a gift to his Democratic opponent Joe Biden. Caught between the need to answer protesters calls for a law enforcement overhaul (defund the police) and the danger of alienating moderate voters, I think he chose the best course, consistent with his beliefs and those of most Americans. CAMDEN Sentencings have been postponed again for the more than two dozen people who have pleaded guilty as part of a more than $50 million health care benefits fraud scheme. Originally scheduled for Monday and Tuesday of this week, the majority of the sentencings were moved to October before federal Judge Robert B. Kugler, court records show. Richard Erick McAllister, a former English teacher in Pleasantville, and James Wildman, an Ocean City school maintenance worker, are scheduled to be sentenced July 23 and Aug. 3, respectively. Given that its a complex federal case involving a large number of co-defendants, some of the defendants attorneys previously said postponements are not at all unusual. Sentencings in compounding case delayed; attorneys say that's typical CAMDEN The federal sentencing for a retired Margate firefighter who has pleaded guilty in The case is centered on a massive prescription fraud scheme between January 2015 and April 2016 that involved the recruitment of public employees, including teachers, firefighters and police officers, to obtain medically unnecessary prescriptions, netting kickbacks for the conspirators, court documents show. More than 30 people have been charged in the case since August 2017, and only one defendant has been sentenced so far. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} A court in Yerevan has thrown out controversial criminal charges brought against a judge who ordered former President Robert Kocharians release from prison a year ago. The judge, Davit Grigorian, presided over the ongoing trial of Kocharian and three other former officials when it got underway in May 2019. A few days later, he not only agreed to free the ex-president but also suspended the trial, questioning the legality of coup charges brought against him. The decisions angered political allies and supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Heeding Pashinians calls, hundreds of them blocked the entrances to court buildings across Armenia. Pashinian demanded a mandatory vetting of all Armenian judges, saying that many of them remain linked to the countrys corrupt former leadership. Kocharian was arrested again in June 2019 after Armenias Court of Appeals overturned Grigorians decisions. Three weeks later, law-enforcement officers searched and sealed the judges offices. Later in July, a state body overseeing the Armenian judiciary suspended Grigorian and allowed the Special Investigative Service (SIS) to prosecute him. Grigorian denied the ensuing accusations of document forgery brought against him and his secretary. He considers them government retribution for Kocharian release. Investigators have denied any connection between the Kocharian case and Grigorians prosecution. Prosecutors endorsed the accusations and sent the case to a Yerevan district court last month, paving the way for the suspended judges trial. It emerged on Monday that the court decided to throw out the case due to lack of evidence even before the start of the trial. Grigorians lawyer, Yervand Varosian, hailed the decision made by a district court judge, Davit Balayan. Justice in Armenia will not be killed, Varosian wrote on Facebook. On the contrary, it will recuperate and consist of competent, courageous and independent judges. Today Judge Davit Balayan took a very important step in that direction, said the lawyer critical of the Armenian government. The Office of the Prosecutor-General and the SIS did not immediately react to the development. Kocharians high-profile trial has been presided over by another judge, Anna Danibekian, since August. Danibekian has repeatedly refused to release him pending the outcome of the trial. The ex-president rejects the coup and corruption charges leveled against him as politically motivated. Sri Lanka: Seychelles: A special relationship June 09,2020 | Source: Daily News LK The special relationship of Sri Lanka with Seychelles started when Seychelles was a permanent member of the UNHRC. Seychelles was a former French Colony but the country stood against American imperialism, and was in the former socialist block. Being a permanent member of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), it voted along with Russia, China, Cuba etc. against the resolution condemning our country and defeated it in the first instance. As a result we developed a close relationship with Seychelles. The population of Seychelles is only about 100,000. However it has much more than that number of migrant workers in the hotel, fisheries and construction industries. Among them are many Sri Lankans employed as teachers, hotel workers and in the construction field. In fact the Chief Justice and two Supreme Court judges at that time were Sri Lankans. It is interesting to note that over 400,000 high end tourists, mostly from Russia and Europe, billionaires and millionaires, visit the country every year. Tourism is the main income for the country. The fisheries industry comes close to it. Multinational fisheries companies are registered in Seychelles as it is a tax heaven with liberalized registration laws. Per capita income is very high and all the unemployed are paid a handsome dole. There are hundreds of very attractive islands mostly owned by billionaires like Bill Gates who spends one month every year holidaying in Seychelles. Even Prince William and Princess Kate spent their honeymoon in Seychelles. Although the country is rich and beautiful, its Banking industry and Insurance Industry were not well developed and not properly structured at that time. There were no leasing or hire purchase facilities in operation. The Health Services were also in a poor state. They used to go to Mauritius even for minor surgery and to Mumbai or Mauritius for major treatment like heart surgery. Due to the newly developed relationship with Sri Lanka, the President of Seychelles had requested the then Sri Lankan government to open Banking, Insurance and Healthcare facilities. During that period Bank of Ceylon (BOC), had several overseas branches in London, Chennai and Maldives. Despite being not so profitable, the London branch continued to operate due to the prestige involved in having a foothold in the business capital of the world, the large number of Sri Lankans in UK transacted business there due to the nostalgia involved in being the first overseas branch. BOC was planning to expand operations in Chennai as Sri Lankan businesses like Damro and others were expanding their operations there. Ive been saying for the last several years American policing is at a crossroads. - Mike Cutone, former Massachusetts officer, June 5, 2020 If you can envisage the commencement of a police force as a band of auxiliaries to keep slaves in check, capture escapees and sow much terror, it becomes that much clearer. Such men were not stewards to keep the people safe; they were there to protect a propertied status quo at the end of the whip and baton. In the southern US states, the modern police organisation that found form was the Slave Patrol, vested with powers to hunt down, apprehend and return runaway slaves to their owners while maintaining a deterrent of terror and discipline. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Southern police departments continued to exert a degree of control over freed slaves within the context of Jim Crow segregation. Appearances were kept up. The rage following the death of George Floyd on May 25 has sent a shiver of reform down the spine of the Minneapolis establishment. In Minneapolis, nine members of the city council spoke of their intention to disband the citys police force. Council President Lisa Bender told CNN about a pledge to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe. One method of change making its way in public policy land is a traditional one: redirecting the public purse. Take the funding away from the agency with a monopoly on the use of force within the state or city in this case, the police and invest it in the marginalised communities where policing would otherwise be required. On Sunday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a measure along such lines, cutting the budget of the NYPD and relocating resources to youth and social services. Our young people need to be reached, not policed. Advocates are not entirely clear, however, whether to go the whole hog on this and abolish departments altogether, or retain some skeleton force. In the case of Minneapolis, a cut of $200 million is being proposed to its $1.3 billion annual budget. The police budget in 2020 was $189 million, which will supposedly be directed towards community-based strategies, a term that could encompass anything. Bender, at least, has an inkling of the problem, given that most 911 calls tend to focus on matters touching on mental health services, general health issues and fire services. Community organisations with a pro-defunding platform for police are not calling for an immediate cessation of cash. As MPD150, a group based in Minneapolis, argues, were talking about a gradual process of strategically reallocating resources, funding, and responsibility away from the police and toward community-based models of safety, support and prevention. MPD150 suggests drawing out other participants better equipped to deal with social crisis. Drop the idea of deploying strangers armed with guns, who very likely do not live in the neighbourhoods theyre patrolling. Shift the emphasis, rather, to mental health providers, social workers, victim/survivor advocates, religious leaders, neighbours and friends all of the people who really make up the fabric of a community to look out for one another. As with any abolitionist community, the views are scrappy and fractious. Do you embrace gradualism? Or do you go for the proverbial policy jugular? Campaign Zeros 8cantwait campaign has been attacked by another group, 8toAbolition, which has mauled it for its claims, assumptions and faulty science. Scratch the surface of radicalism, and the accused collaborator will be found. The central problem with Campaign Zeros main claim that adopting its policies of restraint would reduce police killings by 72% - has been seen to preserve a tinkered system rather than tearing it apart. 8cantwait advocated a pacification method, rather than a solution. For its part, 8toAbolitions to-do list includes defunding police, demilitarising communities, removing police from schools, freeing people from the prison system, repeal laws criminalising survival, investing in community self-governance, providing safe housing for all and investment in care, not cops. The organisation envisages a society without police or prisons, where communities are equipped to provide for their safety and wellbeing. This may sound a touch treacly, but social experiments of this kind have been tested on US soil. The entire Camden police force was disbanded in New Jersey which was succeeded by a larger, county force with a focus on community service. The 2013 decision seemed counter-intuitive: Camden boasted the dubious honour of having one of the highest crime rates in the country. All the accompaniments were there: dilapidated and distressed neighbourhoods, abandoned store fronts and homes; ruined playgrounds. In place of the former 141-year old police force was a new outfit. Police officers were re-hired, along with fresh blood, at lower salaries. They were encouraged to mingle with residents and build a rapport with the community. Arrests and the issuing of tickets would be frowned upon. In 2014, Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli, Jr. was confident that the shift had worked. Weve started taking back sectors of the city on behalf of residents. Parks had been reclaimed for children; the bloated murder rate began to fall. Anoka County Sheriff James Stuart is far from impressed with such suggestions, as is Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who has publicly opposed the abolition route. Abolitions, defunding and reduction in police personnel could never take place in a vacuum. His agency had no appetite in working in a city with an abolished police department. The members of the Minneapolis City Council should be mindful that numerous other law enforcement agencies have responded to them, to restore order, to protect their citizens, and to return peace to their city during recent tragic days. Should they choose to eliminate their police department through defunding operations without a realistic plan, they must also choose to live with the consequences of their decisions. The question of logistics is one thing, but whether the councillors of Minneapolis will have the iron cast stomach to pursue the promised change is the question that will remain begging till actual steps are taken. We dont have all the answers for what the future looks like, Ward 5 councillor Jeremiah Ellison airily declared, but the community does. Till then, much of this will seem like moral posturing, the performance of a role that will simply pass. Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected] Greece to start lifting restrictions on Italians Monday Athens will scrap all restrictions by end of June, Italian FM (ANSAmed) - ROME, JUNE 9 - Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias on Tuesday told a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio in Athens that Greece will gradually lift all restrictions on Italian travelers starting on Monday until the end of the month. ''Minister Di Maio has updated me on significantly improved data in Italy'', he said, referring to Italy's good COVID epidemic stats. ''Greece starting next Monday will gradually lift all limitations towards Italy until the end of the month. I express solidarity from the Greek people to the Italian population''. Di Maio said he was ''happy'' about the foreign minister's ''reassurance on the fact that Greece will surely open to Italy by the end of the month, eliminating any type of blockade and quarantine obligation for Italians with the pledge to evaluate, based on data, on the reopening already in the coming weeks. Arriving in Athens, Di Maio said he was visiting Greece ''also to discuss the theme of tourism flows''. ''We are doing our best. We know well that it is necessary to confront this economic crisis with decision'', ''we are working to unlock tourism flows with EU countries'', the minister wrote on Facebook. ''Letting foreign tourists into Italy means allowing retailers, artisans, companies to work - making the economy turn. We need to be concrete because we need to recuperate the months of stalemate of the lockdown'', stressed Di Maio.(ANSAmed). By Trend The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry at the bilateral level is actively discussing the restoration of flights with countries, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Trend reports. Presently, there are positive signals stipulating the restoration of flights with Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey and Cyprus, the deputy foreign minister added. Ukraine is considering restoring the flights with those countries in which, besides a controlled pandemic situation, there are regular flights and there are no restrictions on the entry of Ukrainian citizens, Yenin added. We are actively continuing to work on relevant issues at the bilateral level, the deputy foreign minister said. Our diplomats are actively holding the negotiations with several countries. In case of the progress, we will inform the public." Yenin stressed that the Foreign Ministry is actively learning from the foreign experience and is consulting with foreign partners on the gradual restoration of flights. "Of course, we expect the countries that have canceled regular flights to gradually restore them, starting primarily from the domestic flights, the deputy foreign minister said. The countries will gradually remove restrictions for the categories of citizens who are allowed to enter the country. In the EU, this will concern, first of all, citizens of the EU countries." Moreover, the deputy foreign minister stressed that as of today, in almost all cases, countries resort to the restrictions of one level or another, either by determining the categories of citizens who are allowed to fly (now this applies only to the citizens of the country or the citizens with the right to permanent residence) or restrictions on the regions from which the flights are prohibited to be made due to the outbreak of a pandemic there. "For example, the vast majority of countries monitor the symptoms, Yenin added. At the same time, some countries, such as Austria, China, Japan also conduct mandatory coronavirus tests upon arrival. Such countries as Cyprus, Singapore or the United Arab Emirates carry out quick tests, the deputy foreign minister added. "There is a duty of self-isolation in almost all countries. It is possible to enter Austria, the Czech Republic and Serbia with a certificate about COVID-19 negative test results made during the last 2-4 days." -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz New Delhi, Jun 9 (UNI) Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia here on Tuesday said that the "community spread" of novel coronavirus has not begun in Delhi but the infection could spread rapidly in the coming weeks with total number of cases touching 5.5 lakh by July 31. The assertion came after the meeting called by State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), chaired by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, to discuss the COVID-19 situation in the national capital where the tally has almost reached 30,000, including 874 deaths. Mr Sisodia, along with Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain were were part of the meeting. Speaking to the mediapersons after the meeting, Mr Sisodia said, "The Union government officials present in the meeting told that there was no community spread of in Delhi yet.' However, Mr Sisodia alerted that by July 31, COVID-19 cases in Delhi can reach 5.5 lakhs, which will require atleast 80,000 beds. Elaborating on possible virus spread, the deputy CM said that by June 15, the cases are likely to reach 44,000 and by the end of this month atleast 15,000 beds will be needed. He further informed that July 15, the cases are likely to shoot to 2.25 lakhs and will reach 5.5 lakhs till July 31. If such a situation arise, at least 80,000 beds will be needed, Mr Sisodia underlined. Community spread implies that the virus is now circulating in the community, and can infect people with no history either of travel to affected areas, or of contact with the infected person. Since few days, the COVID-19 cases in the national capital have been rising at an average of more than 1,000, making Delhi the third-worst affected countrywide. Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal got Covid test done on Monday as he was showing symptoms of the virus infection since Sunday. He has gone for self isolation as per the protocols. UNI APS PS 1710 Wetherspoon willing to consider a change of name as petition launched due to pub namesakes slavery links This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jun 9th, 2020 A Wetherspoon pub in Wrexham could be renamed due to its namesakes links to the slave trade. It follows the launch of a petition asking for The Elihu Yale on Regent Street to be retitled in light of the Black Lives Matters movement, which saw hundreds turn out to a peaceful protest against racism in the town on Sunday. It also comes after the statue of another 17th-century slave trader was torn from its plinth during a separate demonstration in Bristol over the weekend. As an official for the East India Company in Madras, Yale presided over a key part of the Indian Ocean slave trade, and is better known as the benefactor of Yale University in the United States. The pub is one of a number of locations in Wrexham to have adopted his name, including the towns college campus and the Spire Yale Hospital, with his remains buried in St Giles Parish Church where his grave inscription states Much good, some ill, he did; so hope alls even. However, calls have been made for Wetherspoon to rename the establishment a move the chain said it was willing to consider. Posting on the petition website change.org, the main signatory of the appeal said the pub should not be commemorating historical figures associated with slavery, and suggested a new name for the pub its local nickname Old Man Spoons. Eleanor Lee said: This is a petition to change the name of the Wetherspoons pub The Elihu Yale, in Wrexham town centre to what it is more frequently known as from all generations Old Man Spoons or Llwyau Hen Ddyn in Welsh. Elihu Yale, who was originally from Massachusetts, America moved to London when he was 3 years old. He and his family made their fortune within the slave trade and has since been glorified for their involvement in the most sadistic part of humans history. This needs to be acknowledged and rectified and we need your signatures to make this happen. Wrexham is a small town, but Im sure I speak for most members of the community in agreeing that this is not what our town and local pubs should be commemorating; an infamous racist, slave trader who made his notoriety and fortune off the suffering of others. The petition was created yesterday and has already attracted more than 300 signatures. A sign outside the pub was removed in 2017 after it was defaced with the word racist. Back in 2017 in a now deleted tweet by visiting artist, @TraxxCardiff published a picture of the pub sign which then mysteriously disappeared (above and below) commenting: This damn pub in Wrexham has a sign with a guy and a slave with a yoke of iron around his neck !!!! If I had a ladder Id rip it down, PRICKS, later adding Wrexham is disgusting, tagging in Wrexham Council asking for the sign to be taken down and posting a screengrab of Elihu Yales wikipedia page noting he was a slave trader. The sign itself was based off the James Worsdale painting Elihu Yale with his Servant, the original being in the archives of Ivy League Yale University, itself named after Elihu Yale. At the time, Wetherspoon told Wrexham.com The name has been used for the pub since it has been opened, around 15 or 16 years ago and has been used in good faith as it is connected to the local history of Wrexham, and said they had no plans to change the name. However, now in 2020 a spokesman has said it is willing to consider changing the title, yet appeared to have no knowledge of the issue being flagged up a few years ago: We were not aware of any connections with the slave trade. We called it The Elihu Yale because he was involved in the foundation of what is now Yale University in the US, as we understand it. We will look into these allegations, which are very concerning. Wetherspoon is certainly willing to consider a change of name. As we noted back in 2017 Elihu Yales history is well documented, although the Councils version does omit documenting the slave trade element and his dodgy deals outlined elsewhere, similar to the Wetherspoons summary. Yale University have previously published this essay entitled Elihu Yale was a Slave Trader, which references the image used on the pub sign describing it as Yale with yet another collared slave this time euphemized as a servant and is well worth the time to read. By Liam Randall BBC Local Democracy Reporter / Wrexham.com Camper fire claims the life of two people in Marshall County From May, China has physically stopped Indian patrols from proceeding beyond Finger 4, effectively giving China full control over the area In this file photo taken on August 29, 2019 a Changpa nomad shepherd puts pashmina goats out to pasture near Korzok village in the Leh district of Ladakh. AP Photo A meeting between India and China took place on Saturday about the problem on the Ladakh border. It didnt produce the breakthrough that we wanted, and the status quo will continue. Further talks will be needed and till then the situation on the ground will remain unchanged for an unknown period, while negotiations happen. This is to the advantage of China as its aggressive policy in that area produced the change in status quo. The meeting was advertised initially in the media as one between two lieutenant-generals. These are three-star generals, one rank below the highest rank of four stars. But what actually happened is that a three-star Indian general went over and had discussions with a two-star general, which took some observers by surprise. Meetings of this nature should be between equals. A previous meeting of major-generals, who are two-star officers, failed to produce the result India wants. What does India want? There was a zone in Ladakh which both sides were patrolling till May. They would send groups of soldiers from one area, called Finger 4, that was near the Indian base, to another area called Finger 8, near the Chinese base. The patrols would be unarmed and in 90 per cent of cases there would be no confrontation or a minor one. In 10 per cent of them there would be some pushing or shoving, but rarely anything serious. The road from the Indian side to Finger 4 is difficult and can only be travelled on foot and in single file up a mountainside. The Chinese access is far easier, and they have built roads for their vehicles. Despite the difficulty, India has been regularly reaching Finger 4 and patrolling up to Finger 8 because it is our land and many thousands of Indians had died in the 1962 war defending this land. From May, China has physically stopped Indian patrols from proceeding beyond Finger 4, effectively giving China full control over the entire area. Reports say the Chinese have moved between 5,000 to 10,000 troops to three places, which are no longer accessible to India. This is the problem, and this is why we are talking today. What India wants and has failed to get in the previous talks is for the Chinese to go away from our land. The day before the June 6 talks, an external affairs ministry official talked to a Chinese counterpart, and put out a statement saying the issue will be resolved through peaceful discussion. Meaning Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ruled out fighting to take back our land and believes we can get it back through talks. Presumably, the talks that are yet to come will not consist of Indias generals pleading with Chinese generals. Armies exist because the capacity for violence is required for a state to compel another state to stop doing what its doing. India appears to have surrendered that option when it comes to the Ladakh intrusion and capture. Is that wise? That depends. What does the opponent want? Here is the problem. We know what India wants, but there seems to be no agreement on what China really wants and why it is doing this mischief in Ladakh. The experts, mostly former soldiers who are now analysts for the media, have a few theories. One is that the scrapping of Article 370 was accompanied by the formation of the Union territory of Ladakh, the issuance of new maps and the claim made in Parliament by the home minister that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin (which is with China) will be taken back, even at the cost of lives. This had upset China. The second theory is that Xi Jinping believes Modi is violating the Wuhan Agreement, which the two had signed a couple of years ago. India and China agreed to be friends and partners, and not rivals. But recent actions by India, such as specifically curbing Chinese investments in Indian companies, did not reflect that spirit. India also formed an alliance with the United States, Japan and Australia to conduct naval exercises regularly. China feels threatened by that. The third is that China wants to ensure it has more control over its Belt and Road Initiative by blocking Indian access to the north. The parts in Ladakh that China has captured lead up to that zone. This is what China wants. The fourth is that China wants to block Indias infrastructure buildup on the border and front against China and is using this to slow India down. The fifth theory is that its a nationalist distraction being spread by Xi as his authoritarian rule has weakened under Covid19, and so he is being adventurous in Hong Kong and against India. These are some of the theories put forward by the experts. There is no consensus among them on why exactly China is doing what it is. I should stress here these are theories put forward by soldier scholars who admit they are speculating based on the input they have. Some of the people in the media who usually write in favour of the government have said that there is no intrusion at all, and no problem in Ladakh. In short, China knows what we want, but we dont know what they want. This isnt a good starting point for any negotiation. India is a democracy and therefore in some ways it has fewer options. The government faces much more pressure from the media and the Opposition to provide an immediate solution (meaning withdrawal of Chinese troops), and if such a thing happens then victory can be declared. Modi himself has not taken either the country as a whole or the Opposition parties into confidence on what is happening and what has happened. We havent even officially been told what the position is over the land lost between Fingers 4 to 8. The media, which puts other parties under pressure at such times, is giving Modi a lot of rope. China can play a longer and bigger game strategically. Its leadership faces no media pressure and so it can pursue its long-term objectives by keeping its rivals unstable through such things as this current Ladakh occupation. What are its long-term strategic objectives and how are they aligned to the current crisis? What does it ultimately want? The experts have no idea. One only hopes Modi and his government does, as they give up the military option. 09.06.2020 LISTEN The Partnership for Poverty Reduction (PPR) has over the weekend presented 2,400 bottles of weedicides, 800 bags of fertilizer, 600 pieces of cutlasses, 600 wellington boots, and 400 bottles of anti-snake venom to over 900 famers in the Yendi constituency. The gesture is aimed to support farmers to boost their production and to eradicate poverty in the area. Founder of the PPR and aspiring parliamentary candidate for Yendi, Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama said the gesture forms part of concerted efforts to develop and make Yendi the breadbasket of Ghana. The son of late former Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama also acknowledged their hard work and pleaded to establish a fertilizer plant in Yendi. Alhaji Farouk Mahama addressing some group of farmers in Yendi However, the beneficiaries commended Alhaji Farouk Mahama and the team at PPR for their continued support to farms in the area. We are extremely grateful for your continuous support to our business over the years. We are grateful and pray for you to succeed in your endeavors, the beneficiaries said. The Partnership for Poverty Reduction (PPR) has for the past four (4) years supported large and smallholder farms in Yendi to boost their production in the agricultural sector. The Social Invention project is hinged on three strategic areas namely; Agriculture, Education, and Women Empowerment. Two of the most senior figures in US diplomacy in recent times have accused Donald Trump of an abject failure of leadership which has led to dire responses to the coronavirus pandemic and the protests sweeping across the country. In their withering assessment, John Kerry, the former secretary of state, and Samantha Power, former ambassador to the UN, charged the president with peddling fantasies and sacrificing national interest for his own political agenda. Mr Trump was also accused of abdicating US leadership in the wider international arena. As a result of this, they said, China is seeking to step into the vacuum with some success. Speaking at the Global Leadership Summit, CogX, Mr Kerry said: The odds were against us from the beginning ... You have the United States with a leader who has no ability to tell the truth, or face it, or to lead. And so the result was that you had our president attacking the World Health Organisation almost from the beginning. He wanted to dismiss the notion of really knowing how many the numbers were because he knew it would affect his politics. Recommended Trump defends cops who shoved elderly man to ground Mr Kerry continued: Everybody needs to understand one of the greatest lessons this was a denial of science. It was a denial of experts. It was a denial of facts and evidence, by procrastinators, by deniers, by people who want to live with an alternative reality. It is not just the US, Mr Kerry wanted to point out, who is suffering because of Mr Trump. We have been empowered ever since World War Two, to be able to summon other nations to a set of values and principles around which weve organised the world, Mr Kerry stated. But that has changed. We have the only president in the world, who constructed his own reality and created his own facts ... Were living in a very different place as a result of that. The United States has reneged on its role as leader of the free world and today, frankly, there is no leader of the free world at this particular moment, said Mr Kerry. Americans are however, the former secretary of state held, fighting back. They are really angry and absolutely should be, and are going to refuse to accept the notion that we have to be the prisoners of people who deny science, deny facts, deny evidence and create their own reality. I think Im hopeful as a result of what has happened on Covid, and most recently on the demonstrations, that were going to move in a new direction, he said. Colin Powell says he will not be voting for Donald Trump Ms Power, who served at the United Nations in the Obama presidency, said that seeing dysfunction in our democracy is not a great advert for a democratic system, and China has taken advantage of that in their propaganda. To pull funding from the WHO during an pandemic ... Seems like something you would do if trying to destroy your standing in the world, and also create a big vacuum that China is stepping into. Its going to take a lot of digging out, but the way forward will require global cooperation and we do need catalytic leadership and Im hoping that with humility we can together carve out the path for the 21st century. Tony Blair told the CogX conference that the fear of people in Britain over the easing of Coronavirus lockdown on schools was understandable but: We must explain to people concerned about their children going back to schools that yes, they are scared but the risk of not getting an education is much worse for socially deprived children. Regulatory News: IMPLANET (Euronext Growth: ALIMP, FR0013470168, eligible for PEA-PME equity savings plans) (Paris:ALIMP), a medical technology company specializing in vertebral and knee-surgery implants, announces that the European authorities have extended the CE marking on its entire range of MADISONTM knee prostheses for a further four years. Implanet is continuing to invest in innovation and the clinical validation of its two product ranges, Spine with JAZZ and Knee with MADISONTM, in order to be able to meet customer's requirements and ensure the long-term continuance of CE and FDA regulatory clearance. Thanks to this substantial and important initiative, Implanet now has excellent regulatory visibility through May 2024. This will allow the Company to obtain clearance more comfortably for its product ranges under the new European MDR (Medical Device Regulation) by 2024. Ludovic Lastennet, CEO of Implanet, comments: "We are delighted to announce that we have met this key regulatory milestone and secured all our CE marking into 2024. Despite the challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic and increasingly stringent regulations covering medical devices, Implanet has remained mobilized and provided the authorities with all the elements demonstrating the clinical quality of its product ranges. Moreover, we are still involved in exclusive negotiations to sell our Knee range, the development of which is further enhanced thanks to this CE marking renewal. Our next objective is to accelerate our growth and devote ourselves 100% to the treatment of spinal disorders to establish our positioning as a powerful player in this sector, both in France and abroad Upcoming financial events: H1 2020 revenue, on July 7, 2020, after market - H1 2020 results, on September 15, 2020, after market About Implanet Founded in 2007, Implanet is a medical technology company that manufactures high-quality implants for orthopedic surgery. Its activity revolves around two product ranges, the latest generation JAZZ implant, designed to improve the treatment of spinal pathologies requiring vertebral fusion surgery, and the MADISON implant designed for first-line prosthetic knee surgery. Implanet's tried-and-tested orthopedic platform is based on product traceability. Protected by four families of international patents, JAZZ and MADISON have obtained 510(k) regulatory clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, the CE mark as well as the ANVISA authorization in Brazil. Implanet employs 36 staff and recorded 2019 sales of 7.4 million. For further information, please visit www.implanet.com. Based near Bordeaux in France, Implanet established a US subsidiary in Boston in 2013. Implanet is listed on Euronext Growth market in Paris. The Company would like to remind that the table for monitoring the equity line (OCA, OCAPI, BSA) and the number of shares outstanding, is available on its website: http://www.implanet-invest.com/suivi-des-actions-80 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200608005653/en/ Contacts: IMPLANET Ludovic Lastennet, CEO David Dieumegard, CFO Tel.: +33(0)5 57 99 55 55 investors@Implanet.com NewCap Investor Relations Sandrine Boussard-Gallien Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94 implanet@newcap.eu NewCap Media Relations Nicolas Merigeau Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94 implanet@newcap.eu Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 18:25:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MALE, June 9 (Xinhua) -- A report prepared by 14 Maldivian parliamentary committees on the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on the Indian Ocean nation, was handed over to President Ibrahim Solih by Parliament Speaker Mohammed Nasheed on Monday. Quoting Nasheed, the Maldivian media said on Tuesday, that the 400-page summary of the 1500-page report which was submitted to the President, highlights the economic challenges posed by COVID-19 to individuals and businesses, while recommending mitigation strategies and guidelines for easing anti-pandemic restriction measures. The report includes estimates of COVID-19 related job losses and its effect on housing, among other pressing issues. President Solih thanked those who worked on the report and welcomed the support given by members of Parliament in the ongoing battle against COVID-19. He highlighted the importance of collaboration between all state and government institutions to end the scourge. According to the Ministry of Health, the Maldives has so far recorded 1,916 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 925 recoveries, and eight deaths. Enditem RENO, Nev. and PLANO, Texas, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivify Health, the developer of the nation's leading connected care platform for remote patient care, announced today it has partnered with the Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority (REMSA) to implement Vivify's COVID-19 Screening and Monitoring Pathways, enabling both high and low-risk employees to self-screen for COVID-19 at home using their mobile devices. Vivify designed the COVID-19 Screening Pathway to stop the virulent spread of COVID-19 by providing a user-friendly, at-home screening option. By making the solution available on mobile devices, users can continually upload and update their symptoms, which are monitored remotely by providers; users can also receive regular updates based on current CDC guidelines. Since partnering with Vivify over the past few months, 340 of REMSA's 500 employees have voluntarily enrolled to participate in the COVID-19 Screening program, a 68 percent enrollment rate. REMSA has had multiple cases of employees having symptoms of influenza-like illness and were able to monitor and follow them through their recovery using technology. Through Vivify, the care team is able to catch symptoms early, direct employees to get tested and self-isolate, and provide organizational support to them. REMSA is closely following the guidance issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) whereby employers may screen employees for COVID-19. "Keeping frontline healthcare workers safe has never been more critical as it is during this pandemic," said Eric Rock, Founder and CEO of Vivify Health. "It is essential for healthcare providers to leverage technology like remote patient monitoring, not only to keep patients safe, but also the essential workers who care for them." With the Vivify COVID-19 Screening Pathway, employers have the ability to customize the screening pathway with questions that are specific to their workforce, such as, "If you have been in contact with an infected person, did you have adequate PPE?" For REMSA employees, which include office staff as well as healthcare providers who respond to emergency calls in northern and rural Nevada and northeastern California, the convenience of Vivify's COVID-19 Pathways allows for easy access to screening and monitoring on a daily basis. This helps REMSA reduce the risk of exposure for already-vulnerable patients and keep infected employees from passing on the virus to others. "As the largest employer of mobile health care personnel in northern Nevada, REMSA responds to more than 70,000 requests for service every year," said Markus Dorsey-Hirt, REMSA's Chief Nursing Officer. "As our community worked to flatten the curve, and now moves through our reopening phases, REMSA has a responsibility to keep our providers and staff healthy and well. Implementing Vivify's COVID-19 Screening Pathway, provides reassurance to our employees, as well as our patients and first responder colleagues. Our employees have told us that this screening tool helps them feel supported and able to quickly get direction for their questions." About REMSA REMSA is a high-performance, high-value private healthcare organization and emergency medical services agency serving northern Nevada since 1986. We are a private, nonprofit, community-based organization funded only by user fees with no local community tax subsidy. Through an exclusive franchise agreement, REMSA provides Washoe County's 420,000 residents with 24/7 ALS and ILS ground ambulance services. REMSA encompasses Care Flight, a regional helicopter, airplane and ground critical care transport service; Care Flight also operates Care Flight Ground in Plumas County. REMSA offers a Nevada-licensed, post-secondary educational institution, a state-of-the-art, fully accredited medical 9-1-1 dispatch communications center, a Tactical Emergency Medical Support team and special events EMS teams. REMSA and Care Flight are Always Ready. About Vivify Health Vivify Health is the innovative leader in connected healthcare delivery solutions. The company's mobile, cloud-based platform powers holistic remote care management through personalized care plans, biometric data monitoring, multi-channel patient education and functionality configured to each patient's unique needs. Vivify Health serves the nation's largest and most progressive health systems, healthcare organizations and employersempowering clinicians to proactively manage the complexities of remote care and catalyzing employee health and productivity with a single-platform solution for all device and digital health data. The comprehensive, content-rich platform and turnkey workflow services enable providers to intuitively scale and maximize value across populations. For more information about Vivify Health, visit www.vivifyhealth.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. Visit our Company Blog to access case studies, thought leadership and news. Media Contacts Alexia Bratiotis Jobson REMSA 775-750-7890 [email protected] Marcia Rhodes 480-664-8412 [email protected] SOURCE Vivify Health Related Links https://www.vivifyhealth.com Derek Chauvin, then a Minneapolis police officer, looked right at the camera as he pressed a knee into George Floyds neck. He understood he was being filmed. Why didnt that stop him? Ethan Zuckerman, the director of the Center for Civic Media at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, writes that the conventional wisdom for years has been that [i]f police officers know theyre being watched both by their body cameras and by civilians with cell phones, they will discipline themselves and refrain from engaging in unnecessary violence. By now, though, it should be clear this isnt the way it works, he writes. Zuckerman, in MIT Technology Review, points to a large-scale 2017 study that compared the behavior of Washington, D.C., police officers sporting body-worn cameras with those who worked without cameras. The result, the studys authors wrote: Across each of the four outcome categories -- police use of force, civilian complaints, policing activity and judicial outcomes -- our analyses consistently point to a null result: the average treatment effect on all of the measured outcomes was very small, and no estimate rose to statistical significance at conventional levels. This file photo provided by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office shows former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin. (Courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff's Office via AP, File) The researchers posited that officers may not have been actually aware they were being filmed or that they were aware but other factors in the heat of the moment may override any deterrent effect the cameras may have had. But Zuckerman believes theres another key factor at play. In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that if police officers have an objectively reasonable fear that their lives or safety are in danger, they are justified in using deadly force, he writes. Videos from body cameras and bystander cell phones have worked to bolster reasonable fear defense claims as much as they have demonstrated the culpability of police officers. In short, images matter, but so does power. Zuckerman concludes that, when Chauvin spotted a witness filming him on May 25 as he pressed a knee into the neck of a man who was handcuffed and face down on the ground, the cop surely knew it was rare for police officers to be charged with murder or manslaughter and rarer still for them to be convicted. On Monday, a judge set unconditional bail for Chauvin at $1.25 million. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of George Floyd. Read Ethan Zuckermans essay. -- Douglas Perry @douglasmperry Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Cannabis veteran Bruce Linton has left Vireo Health International Inc. (CNSX: VREO) (OTCQX: VREOF) after being at the company for just seven months. Vireo confirmed late Monday that it "elected to terminate its employment agreement" with Linton, who had been executive chairman, effective immediately. "We wish Bruce well in his future endeavors," Vireo CEO Kyle Kingsley said in a prepared statement. "Our organization will remain focused on executing a strategy which benefits all stakeholders and developing our core medical markets of Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, and Pennsylvania." The Vancouver, Canada-based company did not disclose why it chose to terminate Linton's employment. A successor has not been named and Vireo said it does not expect to fill Linton's vacated executive chairman role. Linton joined Vireo in November. His term on the Vireo board of directors was set to expire at the company's July 15 annual meeting of shareholders. Linton is the co-founder and former CEO of Canopy Growth (NYSE: CGC). Under Linton's guidance, the Smiths Falls, Ontario-based cannabis giant became the first North American company within the cannabis market to become listed on a major stock exchange, the TSX. He now serves on the advisory board for psychedelics company Red Light Holland. Courtesy photo. See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. We are very excited to offer this shake in support of the LGBTQ Pride Month.Patrick Conlin, President Wayback Burgers Wayback Burgers, Americas Favorite Hometown Burger Joint and one of the nations fastest-growing burger franchises, is supporting the LGBTQ community this month with a special Pride Shake promotion. The entire month of June, guests will be able to purchase a Pride Shake: a 16 -ounce Vanilla milkshake with rainbow sprinkles and whipped cream. This limited time only shake will be available at participating locations. We are very excited to offer this shake in support of the LGBTQ Pride Month, said Wayback Burgers President Patrick Conlin. We are also proud to support Boys & Girls Clubs of America and their commitment to providing an inclusive environment for all, including LGBTQ youth. Funds raised at Wayback Burgers during LGBTQ Pride Month in June support Boys & Girls Clubs of America in doing whatever it takes to ensure equity and inclusion for all kids. Boys & Girls Clubs of America supports local Clubs in providing a safe, positive, and inclusive environment to assure LGBTQ youth are welcome at Clubs. Through the LGBTQ Inclusion Initiative, we seek to equip Club staff with the support and Club-specific resources that are needed to cultivate a safe, positive and inclusive environment where LGBTQ youth, families and staff can thrive, said Crystal Brown, BGCA National Vice President, Youth Development Programs. For more information on Wayback Burgers and all 2020 promotions/limited time offers, please visit their website (https://waybackburgers.com/) and social media profiles Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For more information about Wayback Burgers, please go to https://waybackburgers.com/. For franchising information about Wayback Burgers, please go to https://waybackburgers.com/franchising/. About Wayback Burgers Founded in 1991 in Newark, Delaware, Wayback Burgers is a Connecticut-based fast-casual franchise with a reputation for cooked to order burgers and thick, hand-dipped milkshakes, served in an environment that hearkens back to a simpler place and time when customer service meant something and everyone felt the warmth of the community. Wayback Burgers currently operates in over 30 states with over 166 locations nationally and internationally in Brunei, Sudan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Canada and the Netherlands. Through its executed master franchise agreements, Wayback Burgers plans to open in 38 provinces/countries in the Middle East, Northern Africa, South Africa, Argentina, Pakistan, Brunei, Bangladesh, Ireland; Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada; and the Netherlands, with a pending letter of intent sent out to Germany. As Sen. Joe Biden struggled 26 years ago to put together a massive crime bill, he relied on a man named Tom Scotto, who had become a fixture in his Capitol Hill office. Day after day, Scotto walked into Biden's sanctum and convinced him to up the ante, asking for billions of dollars for 100,000 police officers, which in turn required a major expansion of prisons across the country. "There wasn't one thing when he said, 'No,' " Scotto recalled in an interview. Scotto, however, was not a member of Biden's staff. He was the president of the National Association of Police Organizations, representing about 220,000 police department employees, the nation's second-largest such group. As Scotto worked alongside Biden in writing the bill, which became law, he personified the bond that the senator from Delaware proudly maintained with the law enforcement community's power brokers. As Biden later said of his work with Scotto's organization, boasting of his ties: "You guys sat at that conference table of mine for a six-month period, and you wrote the bill." Biden's deep relationship with the police groups while crafting the landmark 1994 legislation reflected his decades-long partnership with them as he embraced a tough-on-crime persona - one that extended from his time in the Senate to his work as vice president when he served as a liaison between police and the White House. But now, as Biden runs for president amid a national reckoning over police violence and racial injustice, that long alliance is threatening to undermine a cornerstone of his candidacy. The presumptive Democratic nominee is seeking to channel the anger of African Americans, one of his party's most important voting blocs, by calling for "real police reform" and vowing to combat systemic racism. In doing so, however, Biden is effectively distancing himself from some of his work with law enforcement groups - and from his own comments about not caring about the socioeconomic background of those who turn to crime - while promising to undo some of the very measures he helped enact 26 years ago. Biden last year said some parts of the bill had failed while others had succeeded. His record is undergoing heightened scrutiny as protests mount over the death of George Floyd and police conduct emerges as a central campaign issue. Biden's past ties to police groups could become more of a challenge for him as some police unions resist changes and defend officers accused of racism. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Friday noted that he had signed a criminal justice overhaul bill into law, while retweeting a statement from a conservative African American author that Biden's crime bill "led to mass incarceration of my people." Then Trump tweeted on Sunday that "Sleepy Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats want to "DEFUND THE POLICE," but a spokesman said Monday that "Biden does not believe the police should be defunded." Addressing the wave of violence sweeping the country in response to the death of Floyd, Biden said the recent events were a wake-up call "for all of us. And I mean all of us." He said "the moment has come" to deal with racism and inequality. Floyd, who was African American, died after a white police officer pressed his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes, even as Floyd was handcuffed. Biden met privately with Floyd's family for an hour in Houston on Monday and recorded a video for Tuesday's funeral. Some black activists remain skeptical of Biden's turnaround at such a politically convenient moment. "This is not a wake-up call," said Cori Bush, who was a leading community activist in Ferguson, Mo., where Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old, was killed in 2014 by a white police officer. "We protested for more than 400 days." Bush, who is running for Congress in Missouri's 1st District, which includes Ferguson, said she has "huge concerns" about Biden's ties to police groups, saying "that bothers me a lot; it doesn't personally make me feel safe." "I want to support him," Bush said, "but I need to know what he has been doing. I want him to do right so my son can live." For Biden, who declined an interview request, the uproar over Floyd's death and his response to it comes at a crucial moment. Even as his record on crime is questioned by some in his party, he has seen his support from law enforcement groups slip away. He has yet to receive an endorsement from a national police union. The largest such group, the 351,000-member national Fraternal Order of Police, is expected to request to interview Biden in the coming weeks and then take a vote of its membership on whom to endorse. In 2016, the group voted to back Trump. - - - While Biden presents himself today as a liberal allied with social justice groups, he first ran as a more conservative candidate in Delaware in 1972, when he defeated an incumbent Republican. By the early 1990s, as a violent crime wave swept through much of the nation, Biden was among the most outspoken Democrats supporting stiffer penalties for criminal offenses. In a Senate floor speech in 1993, Biden said he was tired of the idea that when it came to crime, Republicans were tough and Democrats were weak. In advocating for his bill, Biden rebutted the idea that he was one of those "wacko liberals [who] only want to look at the causes" of criminal behavior, dismissing concerns that poverty, discrimination and abuse contribute to illegal conduct. "It doesn't matter whether or not they were deprived as a youth," he said. "It doesn't matter whether or not they had no background that enabled them to become socialized into the fabric of society. It doesn't matter whether or not they're the victims of society." He said if the "end result" is that they harm his family, "I don't want to ask, 'What made them do this?' They must be taken off the street." Biden worked closely on the legislation with Scotto. At the time, Scotto said, there was such a big wave of crime across the country that "everyone was demanding new laws. They would tell you, 'Put them in jail for 50 years, lock them up.' " Scotto helped draft the provision providing funds for local departments to hire 100,000 police officers. That, in turn, required massive expenditures in new equipment. And with so many more officers, Scotto said it was inevitable that would lead to many more arrests, which in turn required money for more prisons. Biden enthusiastically agreed to it all, and crime went down as a result, Scotto said. In the decade after the bill was passed, the violent crime rate dropped by 33%, according to federal statistics. "Joe Biden deserves credit," Scotto said. "He was the key guy all along." The bill also included a ban on assault weapons - which at the time was favored by many law enforcement groups and has since been rescinded - as well as a number of measures designed to provide treatment to people jailed with drug offenses. Scotto said he does not recall discussion at the time about the bill's impact on the black community because he never looked at crime as a racial matter, and he noted that black groups endorsed the measure. For years, Biden did not acknowledge the criticism of the bill's impact on minority communities. The NAACP says black people are incarcerated at a rate five times higher than whites. Instead, he criticized Republicans who sought to cut funding for his program to hire 100,000 police officers. In 2002, he wrote in an editorial that the best way to fight crime was "simple - more police on the streets." He made no reference to criticism that his crime bill increased incarceration rates. - - - During his 2008 run for vice president, Biden served as an informal liaison to the law enforcement community, a tie that helped Barack Obama's campaign win the endorsement of the National Association of Police Organizations, which Scotto left as president in 2002. (The group also backed the Obama-Biden ticket in 2012). Biden assured the group that, just as he had let it participate in writing his 1994 crime bill, he would give it a prominent voice whenever criminal justice issues arose. "We're not going to do anything, literally, without having you guys at the table," Biden said. Obama, meanwhile, praised the way Biden "brought Democrats and Republicans together to pass the 1994 crime bill, putting 100,000 cops on the streets, and starting an eight-year drop in crime across the country." But after the Obama administration's investigation of several killings of black people by white officers, some of the national police organizations that once backed Biden all but ended their relationship with him. Among those upset with the administration was the National Association of Police Organizations. Bill Johnson, the group's executive director, said in an interview that he worked with Biden for years but became dismayed at the administration's handling of the investigation into the killing of Brown in Ferguson. While the Justice Department under Obama did not file charges against the officer, it issued a report finding that Ferguson's police department had a "pattern of civil rights violations." Johnson said that during a meeting in the White House's Roosevelt Room, Biden said police officers did not face a significant threat of being targeted by criminals. "He said, 'C'mon man, you know it's not that dangerous for police,' " according to Johnson, who disagreed with the vice president's assessment. (A spokesman said Biden denied making the comment). Since then, Johnson said, he has concluded that Biden has changed his views about law enforcement "for political reasons." The association, after having backed Biden for so many years, has asked for an interview with him as it prepares for a possible decision on endorsement. "We'd love to work with him again," Johnson said, while stressing that the group needs answers about his changing views. A smaller group, the International Association of Police Organizations, endorsed Trump last year, deciding not to wait to see who was nominated by the Democrats. Dennis Slocumb, the group's executive director, said he has known Biden since 2000 and has long respected him. But Slocumb said police officers in his group became disenchanted with Biden because of the Obama administration's Ferguson investigation. "It further alienated our membership from the Democratic Party," Slocumb said. Under the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, investigations were launched into whether there was systemic bias in police departments, but only one such probe has occurred during the Trump administration, according to CNN. The virtual shutdown of such investigations has earned Trump support from some police groups who said they were unnecessary. - - - While Biden has not been endorsed by law enforcement groups, he does have the backing of the International Association of Fire Fighters, whose president, Harold Schaitberger, said he has known Biden for 44 years. Schaitberger, who in his role as a public safety advocate worked alongside police union officials, said he was stunned that law enforcement has abandoned the former vice president. He said Biden had evolved in his views on criminal justice like much of his party and the country have evolved. "I'm dismayed that the strong support he has had from law enforcement throughout his career" from unions has now been given to Trump, Schaitberger said. "I get it; the president embraced law enforcement, that's good, but for them to abandon and forget about the decades of support for Joe Biden as senator and vice president, the law enforcement community will have to answer that." Scotto said he is similarly dismayed at the criticism Biden is receiving from some law enforcement leaders. "I think people are taking his comments to the far extreme that he is severing his relationship with law enforcement," Scotto said. "I don't take it that way. I take it that his desire to have police reform includes guidelines that law enforcement can follow," which Scotto said would help officers. Biden also is facing criticism from social justice groups that question his commitment. Biden has acknowledged that his crime bill had flaws, but he has defended it. In a speech last year to the NAACP, Biden stressed that the bill was supported by the Democratic Party, including a majority of the Congressional Black Caucus. "It worked in some areas," he said. "But it failed in others. . . . I will accept responsibility for where it went right. But I will also accept responsibility for what went wrong." In response to questions for this article, his campaign said the legislation should be seen in the context of a time when violent crime was at record levels. The Biden campaign also noted that the law had a number of provisions that enable the federal government to examine racist policies at police departments. Biden has issued an agenda that would effectively undo some of the impact of his legislative accomplishments. It would, for example, seek to reduce the number of people in prison. Biden also proposed abolishing the death penalty, a sharp turn from his view in the 1990s when he boasted of drafting a bill that had 53 crimes eligible for such a penalty. Most notably, Biden backs the gist of a proposed bill from the Brennan Center for Justice called the Reverse Mass Incarceration Act. It is designed to reverse some of Biden's crime bill, sending $20 billion to states to enact programs to reduce prison populations. The Biden campaign says it is "inspired" by the center's idea, according to his website, which does not mention that it is based on an effort to undo some of Biden's previous work. In a speech last week, Biden sounded far removed from the politician who declared in 1993 that he didn't care whether criminals were the victims of socioeconomic problems or had been victimized themselves. He expressed empathy for Americans who he said are "suffering under the weight of generation after generation after generation of hurt inflicted on people of color." - - - The Washington Post's Jenna Johnson and Alice Crites contributed to this report. Hong Kong, June 9 : Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will no pay rise for top officials, senior advisers, as well as for herself this year. In a media briefing, Lam said the decision was taken to show that officials wanted to stand with the people amid the coronavirus pandemic and recession, reports the South China Morning Post. "We want to be united with the whole society as we get through the difficulties - that's why we are also rolling out various measures to protect employment and create jobs," she said. Lam's decision came a week after her cabinet, the Executive Council decided that Hong Kong's 180,000 civil servants would have their pay frozen this financial year. Lam said on Tuesday she hoped civil servants would accept the decision. "I appeal to civil servants to be understanding, as society wants us to stand with them amid difficulties," she said. "I can also announce that all political appointees, including myself, the secretaries, undersecretaries and political assistants, will not have our pay increased this year." Under mounting pressure from lawmakers and the public, Lam announced in April that her pay, and also those of her ministers, would be cut by 10 per cent, said the South China Morning Post report. Last July, Lam's monthly salary was increased to HK$434,000 ($56,000) a month. The 10 per cent pay cut means she has been earning about $391,000 a month. Two tax incentives for undocumented families are included in the latest budget plan of the Democrats in Sacramento. Also part of the proposed budget is health coverage for older immigrants regardless of their immigration status. In a statement, Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles said, "We must do what we can" to provide a more considerable financial support to Latinos in California who have been left out in the COVID-19 response. The proposed plan by California Democrats, Napa Valley Registered reported, would "allow tax filers who have Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers with at least one child" whose age is six or below, to have access to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Young Child Tax Credit programs or the CalEITC. The CalEITC The CalEITC is designed for individuals with low income and are employed. It provides the beneficiaries with a refund or cuts their tax owed. More so, one who qualifies for this credit and has a child whose age is six years or younger, he may also apply for the "Young Child Tax Credit. Together, based on the program's overview, both state credits can provide hundreds or even thousands of dollars in the qualified receivers' pocket. But to be eligible for, and claim the two programs, one needs to file his state tax return. The Young Child Tax Credit was introduced in the tax year 2019. One who qualifies for CaIEITC and has a child below six years of age by the end of the tax year may be eligible for up to $1,000 through this program. Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service or IRS issues ITINs to an individual who is not qualified to secure Social Security Numbers or SSN so they can comply with the US tax laws. According to the IRS guideline, ITINs do not qualify dependents to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit programs, neither do they provide Social Security benefits. Medical Coverage for Undocumented Elderly The Medi-Cal expansion, which was part of the January budget of Gov. Gavin Newsom, was designed to provide medical coverage to undocumented elderly individuals whose ages are 65 and above. This benefit's start date would not start until January 2022, and Gov. Newsom has the power to postpone or defer the launch depending on the ability of the budget to afford the expenditure. Undocumented immigrants working and filing taxes, according to California Immigrant Policy Center economic justice policy manager, Sasha Feldstein, are not qualified for the "federal stimulus relief for unemployment insurance." She added the tax breaks would function as a "critical resource" for households. As essential workers, Durazo continued, the "COVID-19 economic shutdown has significantly impacted immigrant communities." Black Americans and Latinos are among the most affected by the virus. Relatively, based on the data gathered by the California Department of health, California Latinos comprise almost 39 percent of the population of the state, "yet account for more than 50 percent of the COVID-19 cases of the state. The Medi-Cal and tax credit expansion takes place after Gov. Newsom's announcement of the first-ever plan for the nation to provide COVID-19 assistance to the undocumented immigrants of California, who, he stated, comprise 10 percent of the workforce of the state. Check these out! Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Ottawa, Canada Tue, June 9, 2020 10:00 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd3163f 2 World Canada,justin-trudeau,police,police-brutality,body-cams Free Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday he supports the use of police body cameras in Canada to ensure "transparency" from officers and hopefully curb brutality and racial bias. He said he has discussed the matter with Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioner Brenda Lucki, and planned to raise it with provincial leaders who have jurisdiction over regional police forces. "With the many disturbing reports of violence against black Canadians and indigenous people, we know that we need to do much more, and we need to do it now," Trudeau told a news conference. Having police wear body cameras would be "a significant step towards transparency and we're going to work on that this week," Trudeau said. "It is something that is, in my opinion, what we need to move forward with." Body cams are used to document police interactions with the public and gather evidence at crime scenes. Proponents of their use say they provide increased transparency in policing. Thousands of Canadians in recent days have marched in solidarity with US protesters against racism and police brutality, following the death in police custody of a black man in Minneapolis. Trudeau himself took a knee on Friday at a demonstration outside his office in Ottawa. He pushed back at critics who said protesting did not adhere to public health guidelines about social distancing during the pandemic, saying he sought to "balance very important competing interests." "As best I could, I followed social distancing measures and wore a mask," he said. "But for me, it was important that I be there." BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Switzerland stock market ended modestly higher on Tuesday, bucking the weak trend in European markets, as select blue chip shares moved higher in late afternoon trades. After a flat start and a subsequent move up into positive territory, the market faltered and traded weak till a little past mid afternoon before edging higher. The benchmark SMI ended up 32.05 points or 0.32% at 10,184.82, after moving between 10,112.43 and 10,205.64. Worries about the impact of coronavirus pandemic resurfaced after reports showed a jump in new coronavirus cases in central America, and the World Health Organization said the pandemic was 'far from over' and urged countries to press on with effors to contain the virus. Meanwhile, Switzerland's lower house of parliament gave a preliminary green light to contact tracing app SwissCovid, which should roll out this month to help contain the coronavirus pandemic. Lonza Group gained about 3.2%, Novartis surged up 2.1% and Nestle moved up 1.75%. Roche Holding and Givaudan both ended higher by about 1.2%, while Sika gained 0.7%. Adecco declined 3.28%, while UBS Group, Swiss Re, Credit Suisse and Zurich Insurance Group ended lower by 2.5 to 2.75%. Geberit, Alcon, LafargeHolcim, ABB and Swiss Re lost 1.3 to 1.7%. Swiss Re CEO said the company would look into possible acquisitions at the end of the year or early 2021 in case there are opportunities. In the midcap section, OC Oerlikon Corp, PSP Swiss Property, Baloise Holding, Flughafen Zurich, Georg Fischer, Straumann Holding, Julius Baer, Clariant and Sunrise Communications lost 2 to 5%. Dufry declined by about 2.1%. The company said it was adapting its organization to the new business environment to accelerate growth and support profitability during the recovery phase of the economic crisis and beyond, by integrating its headquarters and divisions, simplifying the first management level and reducing its Global Executive Committee to reflect organizational changes. VAT Group surged up nearly 4%. Logitech and AMS gained 2.2% and 1.55%, respectively. In economic news, the unemployment rate in Switzerland edged up to a non-seasonally adjusted 3.4% in May 2020 from 3.3% in the previous month and compared with market consensus of 3.5%. This was the highest jobless rate since February 2017, as the number of unemployed people rose by 2,585 or 1.7% to 155,998. Other major European markets ended lower on Tuesday as World Bank's warning that the global economy this year will see the deepest recession since the World Wart II rendered the mood cautious and prompted investors to sell stocks. Slightly fading hopes of a quicker global economic recovery following a jump in the number of new coronavirus cases across the globe and WHO's warning that the pandmic was 'far from over' prompted investors to take some profits. Data showing a sharp contraction in Euro Zone Gross Domestic Product and a marked decline in German exports too contributed to the weakness in the markets. A lack of progress in trade talks between the UK and EU also hurt sentiment. The pan European Stoxx 600 declined 1.22%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 2.11%, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 lost 1.57% and 1.55%, respectively. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de WASHINGTON - Federal health officials announced a new round of financial help Tuesday to ease the financial strains on safety-net health-care providers in the coronavirus pandemic, committing $25 billion to hospitals and other providers of care for the nation's poorest patients. The Department of Health and Human Services plans to devote $10 billion of that amount to about 750 hospitals that treat many patients on Medicaid, or who are uninsured, officials said. The other $15 billion will go to doctors, dentists, clinics and other facilities that treat low-income adults and children if they have not received assistance through two earlier rounds of federal aid to providers coping with the pandemic's effects. The announcement follows criticism of the Trump administration by members of Congress in both major political parties, experts and hospitals themselves that, in deciding how to use $175 billion in coronavirus relief aid to health-care institutions, HHS has not focused help before now on the most vulnerable corners of the industry. Across the country, hospitals and other parts of the health-care system have been hurt by increased costs to treat people with covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, combined with sharp revenue losses as elective surgeries and other moneymaking services were suspended through much of the spring. Earlier batches of money disbursed by HHS did not take into account hospitals' financial condition. Analyses by health-policy specialists and journalists have found that much of the aid has gone to relatively wealthy health systems while safety-net hospitals received comparatively little. The first $30 billion round of aid was distributed based on hospitals' Medicare income, and hospitals in poor areas sometimes have a relatively small proportion of patients on Medicare. Hospital trade groups had urged HHS, which has latitude in how to allot the money Congress provided this spring, to take the steps it did Tuesday. In announcing the latest assistance, HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan termed the pots of money essential, saying they focus on hospitals that "operate on thin [profit] margins and may be struggling more during this crisis." Hargan also nodded to the protests over racial injustice that have erupted around the United States after the death of George Floyd in police custody. He noted that African Americans have been hospitalized for covid-19 at a rate 4 1/2 times higher than whites, while Hispanics and Native Americans have been hospitalized at 3 1/2 and 5 times higher, respectively. "We put a focus on providers who disproportionally serve these populations," Hargan said during a conference call with journalists. Hargan and other senior HHS officials said safety-net hospitals that qualify for some of the $10 billion will receive $5 million to $50 million each. To qualify, a hospital must meet several financial criteria, including the amount of care it provides in a year to patients with no way to pay their bills. It must have a profit margin of no more than 3%, though the average hospital expected to take part is operating at a loss, a senior official said. The larger pot - $15 billion - will be paid to hospitals and other providers that participate in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, an insurance program for children of the poor and the working class. According to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, the requirement to have not received relief money earlier this spring means that most of the nation's community health centers will be unable to claim any of the $15 billion. Their exclusion on those grounds comes after a survey last month by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy organization, found that nearly 2,000 such clinics had closed at least temporarily because of financial pressures from the pandemic. HHS officials also announced Tuesday that they are preparing to deliver a separate $10 billion to hospitals and other providers of care located in coronavirus hot spots, following a similar amount in late April. Last week, the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate committees that oversee Medicaid sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, warning that "the delay in disbursing funds . . . for Medicaid-dependent providers could result in long term financial hardship for providers who serve some of our most vulnerable populations." Asked Tuesday why HHS did not arrange for the new funds earlier, a senior HHS official said "the biggest challenge" was getting a list from each state of doctors, hospitals and others that participate in Medicaid. Tom Nickels, the American Hospital Association's vice president for government relations, said HHS's new formula for handing out money to hospitals with large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients is reasonable. America's Essential Hospitals, a coalition of safety-net hospitals, had previously asked for $20 billion in aid. The trade group's president, Bruce Siegel, said in a statement Tuesday that the $10 billion "will help ease the financial pain this public health emergency has inflicted on these caregivers," though he again pressed Congress and the administration to provide more help. New Delhi, June 9 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who developed mild fever and sore throat on Monday, has tested negative for coronavirus, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sources said here on Tuesday. "Kejriwal has tested negative for Covid-19," a party source told IANS. Kejriwal, who had opted for home isolation following symptoms, gave his sample on Tuesday morning for the Covid-19 test. The report of the corona test has come and Kejriwal is completely safe as the test came negative on Tuesday evening. Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said, "Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is not feeling well. He has fever and sore throat. That is why the Chief Minister has isolated himself. He is not even attending meetings." Earlier, the Chief Minister had already isolated himself from all government programmes and meetings. He did not meet any officials on Monday. The Chief Minister kept himself in isolation inside his residence. According to Delhi government officials, on Sunday morning, the Chief Minister held a Cabinet meeting. Several ministers including Sisodia, Environment Minister Gopal Rai, and Health Minister Satyendar Jain attended the meeting. Chief Secretary Vijay Dev was also present. However, developing fever, the Chief Minister cancelled all his programmes. On Tuesday, the State Disaster Management also had an important meeting. The coronavirus situation in Delhi was discussed at this meeting. But the Chief Minister did not attend as a precaution. In his place, Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia attended. Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in Delhi. By the end of July, the number of coronavirus patients in Delhi is expected to increase to 5.5 million, the Delhi government has said. Sisodia said, "In such a situation, at least 80,000 beds will be required in Delhi hospitals to treat corona patients." Many citizens living along Au Co Street are disappointed with the plan to demolish 600m of Hanoi's ceramic mosaic mural. - Photo kenh14.vn The expansion of the street, which is the second phase of a project for an overpass at the An Duong - Thanh Nien intersection, has started. The demolition of a section of the mural, which spans almost 4km along the Song Hong Dyke, has been criticised by citizens, particularly the artist behind the work. I feel great pity. It is a waste to demolish a part of this ceramic mural. I have lived here for 50 years and found the road looked more beautiful with the ceramic art. I hope that the mural is restored after the project is finished, said Ngo Thi Tien, a resident on Au Co Street. According to artist Nguyen Thu Thuy, director of the New Hanoi Arts Company directly involved in designing and building the ceramic mural since 2007 the part to be demolished includes many meaningful parts, like the images of Hanoi streets by Bui Xuan Phai and images of the International Labour Organisation. After Hanoi finishes expanding the road, I would like to ask for funding to rebuild the demolished part as it is the demonstration of the love of international organisations for the city, in addition to the efforts of the artists, said Thuy. We feel deeply sorry. It is the joint efforts of the collective, of the artists and sponsors who have come up with the meaningful outline and spent a lot of time creating every single ceramic piece of the paintings, she continued. The painter recalled that teams worked hard despite severe weather conditions and difficulties to help the mural break the Guinness World Record on Hanois 1,000th-birthday in 2010. We worked in harsh weather conditions along with all-day-long traffic. We strived to overcome difficulties, with the enthusiastic support of the households living behind the dyke who have helped us with water and electricity. Many restaurants even offered us free meals. The demolition of nearly 600 metres of the mural affects its world record. I will have to report to Guinness World Record with the promise that I will compensate, and even break a new record with an additional 1,000m. Hanoi will certainly break its own record, Thuy said. UK archives awarded United Nations Recognition The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has inscribed three archival collections onto the UKs Memory of the World Register - the documentary heritage equivalent of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Collections have been inscribed following an independent process by the UK Memory of the World Committee, supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. One of the three collections recognised is The Crutchley Archive held at Southwark Archives whose significant and importance has been documented by a research team led by University of Glasgows Dr Anita Quye. Dr Quye said: The Crutchley Archive is a rare chance to understand textile dyeing and dyers practice in London in the early 1700s. Red splashes and tinted pages in the calculation books from Crutchley dye houses, hundreds of detailed instructions to dye wool with cochineal, madder and tin spirits in ye great kettle using water from the River Thams, and thousands of dyed fabric samples of the end results its the closest we can get to looking over the dyers shoulders as they work. If we hadnt researched the Crutchley Archive in depth it would still be a colourful curiosity in a box in Southwark Archives collection store. Along with Dr Quye, senior lecturer and Head of History of Art, University of Glasgow, the research team includes Dr Dominique Cardon, Emerita Directeur de Recherche, National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) in Lyon, and Dr Jenny Balfour Paul, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Exeter University. The announcement of the three archives will join other wealth of national material arleady on the prestigious UK register was made on International Archives Day, 9 June 2020. The inscription onto the UK Memory of the World Register of these significant examples highlights the critical importance of their survival and accessibility of UNESCOs commitment to their preservation. They are: The Crutchley Archive: books from master dyers of wool fabrics in Southwark, London 1716-1744 (Held at Southwark Archives) The Crutchley archive provides a unique, important and detailed record of a once ubiquitous industry which has all but vanished from the UK. The provision of measured recipes for dyes and the survival and preservation of quality samples, makes this collection very significant in understanding a prominent 18th century UK industry, both at home and internationally. James Watt Papers and the Separate Condenser (Held at Birmingham Library) The James Watt Papers and specifically his work on the separate condenser nominated here contain a unique insight into the inspiration and development one of the most important scientific and technological advancements of the industrial revolution, a turning point in UK and world history. IK Brunels Screw Propeller Report (Held at SS Great Britain) IK Brunels Screw Propeller Report marks an immensely important turning point in UK and world history. While Brunel did not invent the screw propeller, his experiments and the production of this meticulously evidenced document enabled its adoption and were pivotal in creating the modern world economy through trade. Ambassador Matthew Lodge, UK Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, said: On behalf of the UK Permanent Delegation to UNESCO, I am delighted that these rich and varied examples of the United Kingdoms documentary heritage will be inscribed onto UNESCOs Memory of the World Register. In UNESCOs 75th anniversary year, and for the UK as a proud founding member of the organisation, the inscription of these documents marks a further positive step in our international efforts to preserve and share material that tells the story of modern humanitys journey. From the records of the textile dye houses in the 18th century, to James Watt and IK Brunels inventions that shaped Britain and the modern world, these documents remind us all of our nations history and our shared heritage. We look forward to continuing to support UNESCOs work and this valuable programme over the coming years. In 1993, a United Nations advisory committee met to produce an action plan to preserve significant documentary heritage from across the globe by cataloguing and protecting historical archives for future generations to learn from and enjoy. The result was the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, the documentary heritage equivalent of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The collection includes historical documents such as the Bill of Rights, the HIV/Aids collections from Lothian Health Services Archive, The Children Society and the Peterloo Massacre Relief Fund. Alongside some of our more well-known archives in the UK, the programme also has a responsibility to champion lesser-known but uniquely important collections and make them understood in terms of national significance. The aim is to represent UK society as broadly as possible through cultural heritage. About the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Programme The first inscriptions to the UK Memory of the World Register were announced in July 2010 to highlight documentary heritage, which holds cultural significance specific to the UK. The UK Register helps raise awareness of some of the UKs exceptional, but lesser-known documentary riches by awarding them with the globally-recognised Memory of the World status, but within a UK context and is separate to the International Register. The UK Register complements the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register, which is a catalogue of documentary heritage of global significance and outstanding universal value. Country-level Memory of the World Registers exist around the globe, helping to promote documentary heritage of national significance. About the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is the intellectual agency of the United Nations and was established in 1945. The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme aims to facilitate preservation of the world's documentary heritage, to assist universal access and to increase awareness worldwide of the existence and significance of this documentary heritage through both an international Register and individual country Registers. This globally-recognised status celebrates some of the UKs most exceptional archive riches. The International Memory of the World Register recognises documentary heritage of global significance and includes UK-based documents such as Magna Carta. The UK Memory of the World Register honours documentary heritage of national and regional significance and includes documents suchas the Death Warrant of King Charles I. North Korea said on Tuesday it will sever hotlines with South Korea as the first step toward shutting down all contact with Seoul, state news agency KCNA reported. For several days, North Korea has lashed out at South Korea, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and other projects if the South does not stop defectors from sending leaflets and other material into the North. Top government officials in North Korea, including leader Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, and Kim Yong Chol, vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, determined "that the work towards the South should thoroughly turn into the one against an enemy," KCNA said. As a first step, at noon on Tuesday, North Korea will close lines of communication at an inter-Korean liaison office, and hotlines between the two militaries and presidential offices, the report said. On Tuesday morning, North Korean officials did not answer a routine daily call to the liaison office, nor calls on military hotlines, a South Korean defence ministry spokeswoman told a briefing. The routine calls between South and North Korea should be maintained as they are basic means of communication, said the South's unification ministry, responsible for inter-Korean affairs. The ministry said it will continue to follow the agreed principles and strive for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula. On Monday morning, North Korea did not answer the liaison phone call for the first time since 2018, though it later answered an afternoon call. The decision to cut communications marks a setback in relations amid efforts to try and persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for relief on tough international sanctions. The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Shares of South Korea's defence firms surged after North Korea announced it would sever the hotlines. Analysts said the move is likely about more than the defectors, as North Korea is under increasing economic pressure as the coronavirus crisis and international sanctions take their toll. "North Korea is in a much more dire situation than we think," said Choo Jae-woo, a professor at Kyung Hee University "I think they are trying to squeeze something out of the South." Cutting communications is "a well-worn play for Pyongyang," but one that can be dangerous, Daniel Wertz, of the U.S.-based National Committee on North Korea, said on Twitter. "Regular communication channels are needed most during a crisis, and for that reason North Korea cuts them off to create an atmosphere of heightened risk," he said. The people of North Korea have "been angered by the treacherous and cunning behaviour of the South Korean authorities, with whom we still have lots of accounts to settle," KCNA said. The report accused South Korean authorities of irresponsibly allowing defectors to hurt the dignity of North Korea's supreme leadership. "We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay," KCNA said. Also read: Hong Kong issue: North Korea supports China's decision to impose new national security laws The past several days have been profoundly unsettling and scary, not least because of the horrifying tragedy of what happened to George Floyd. Many people have been galvanized, to use President Obamas term, to action. In yesterdays Town Hall, President Obama reminds that, Dr. King was a young man when he got involved. So were Malcolm X, the leaders of the feminist movement, leaders of the LBGTQI movement, leaders of union movements, and the environmental movement, along with countless others. These words could not come at a more opportune time. President Obama also said something that many people who are minorities, myself included, need to hear: I want you to know that you matter. I want you to know that your lives matter, that your dreams matter. Racism, vulnerability to structural inequality and brutality, economic and social class, access to opportunity, and episodes like the murder of George Floyd are all intertwined. How so? One of the ways structural racism manifests is by keeping people of color and other minorities under the control of society by denying them access to basic services and rights of participation. Basic services include, but are not limited to, education, healthcare, childcare, transportation, water, sanitation, food, and shelter. Rights of participation include, but are not limited to, the above, but also political participation (the vote) and employment. For a man like George Floyd, accessing all of these would have probably been a challenge at some point in his life, on account of his skin color. George Floyd was a casual worker. According to the Boston Globe, he had lost his job as a bouncer after the Minnesota governor ordered the lockdown. Right before his death, Floyd was apparently shopping at a grocery store and allegedly tried to pay with counterfeit money. George Floyd was a man who had apparently faced great challenges in his life, who had tried to make an honest living, and had made mistakes in a country like the United States, where Jim Crow laws were on the books as late as the 1960s, two decades before I entered this world. Another example makes the connection between racism, systemic and structural violence, casual employment, and bleeding union activity dry abundantly clear. This time, it involves a company that has become ubiquitous: Amazon. In April, a memo was leaked from Amazon in which one of its lawyers attempted to deflect recent attention from its anti-union action and firing of unionist Christian Smalls. David Zapolsky, Amazons general counsel, described Smalls as not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how were trying to protect workers. Zapolsky seems to have thought that the press and the public would share his view that Smalls is not smart, or articulate, which would discredit Smalls as an activist fighting for labor justice on account of a perception of him being a not smart, or articulate black man. Zapolsky apparently thought that this would help Amazon save face. In other words, he sought to capitalize and cash in on something that has contributed to George Floyds death: white privilege. Entitlement. Greed. Confidence that the press and public will believe an educated person with a well-paying job over a low-wage worker of color. America needs to dig deep and to think hard about how we want to live in the future. Employers should be supporting their staff as much as they can, if they can afford it. The Zapolskys, Chauvins (the police officer whose knee cut off Floyds windpipe), and Amy Coopers of the world are many. They should be held accountable for what happened to George Floyd, Christian Smalls, and Christian Cooper. Parisa Zangeneh is a lawyer and a PhD student at the Irish Center for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway and is originally from Wallingford, Pennsylvania. Some 250 Microsoft employees have signed a letter addressed to the companys executives asking that it takes greater action in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests. The message, leaked to OneZero, requests that Microsoft formally announces its support for the movement, cancels contracts with the Seattle Police Department, and the resignation of the citys mayor. Microsofts Redmond campus, the informal name of its corporate headquarters, is in a Seattle suburb. Entitled Our neighborhood has been turned into a warzone, the letter was addressed to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and executive vice president Kurt DelBene and focused on the polices response to the protests. Every passing day, we feel that our fellow coworkers, managers, and leaders who live miles away outside of Seattle are severely disconnected to the violent reality thousands of people have been facing every single day since last Saturday, the letter says. 24/7 helicopter noise, teargassing, flashbanging, rubber bullet, gun shots, and vans/buses filled with armed law enforcement. We need leaders like yourselves to help bridge this gap of disconnection, misinformation, and complacency. The employees also made a list of suggestions the executives could implement: Condemn the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and flashbangs on peaceful protestors Cancel Microsoft contracts with the Seattle Police Department and other law enforcement organisations Support defunding and demilitarisating of the police department Sign the petition for the resignation of Mayor Durkan Support Black Lives Matter Seattles List of Demands Implement a formal 4-day work week policy Ensure that employees with reduced productivity because of COVID-19 will not be penalised in annual performance reviews Although the original email was sent on behalf of only 20 employees, it quickly spread through the company with hundreds more asking to be included. Those who choose to support the movement in ways other than boots-on-the-ground protests have also suffered the results of the SPD response, wrote one in an email thread reportedly seen by OneZero. Tear gas streams into apartments through cracks in the wall as far as a mile away. The sound of flashbangs and fired tear gas canisters reverberates through the night, past 23am most days this week, including last night. Worse yet is the fear and stress that these employees are dealing with; fear that has been compounded by SPDs ever-escalating response. That same employee also said that they had been tear gassed three times, hit with a flashbang once, and mentioned a video that showed another company employee being put into a chokehold by Seattle police. Microsoft directed journalists to an earlier blog post from Satya Nadella, its chief executive, in which he addressed concerns around the Black Lives Matter movement generally. The company also said it "continue[s] to openly engage in dialogue with employees around these important topics." Microsoft is not the only technology company to have employees ask for greater action from company leaders; Facebook employees staged a walkout over the companys decision not to take action against inflammatory posts made by Donald Trump about the death of George Floyd. with employees saying they are caught in an abusive relationship with the president. IBM today also took the decision not to develop facial recognition software following the protests, because that technology discriminates against minority faces and can be used to disproportionately target communities of colour. Further talks are scheduled between the two armies on Wednesday In this satellite image provided by Planet Labs, the Ngari Gansa civil-military airport base is seen near the border with India in far western region of Tibet in China. There is evidence of development around the airport. Tensions along the China-India border high in the Himalayas have flared again in recent weeks. (AP) New Delhi: As a confidence-building measure, Chinese and Indian armies have slightly moved back from three flash points in eastern Ladakh. The Chinese army has pulled back its troops from Patrolling Point 14 (Galwan area), Patrolling Point 15, and Hot Springs by 2 km. The Indian Army reciprocated by retracting some of its troops and vehicles from the area. Major General level talks between the two sides are scheduled on Wednesday to try to resolve the month-long stand-off between the two armies at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). These will be a follow-up of the Lieutenant General level talks which were held between Indian and Chinese armies on Saturday. There will also be Brigadier and Commanding Officers levels this week at Galwan and Hot Springs areas. The main contention between Indian and Chinese troops remains the Northern bank of Pangong Tso lake where Chinese troops have pitched tents at finger 4 location to prevent the Indian army to patrol till Finger 8 which India believes is part of its territory. The troops from the two sides were involved in a brutal clash at Pangong Tso on the intervening night of May 5th and May 6th. There is a possibility that another round of Lieutenant General level talks may be needed to try to resolve the Pangong Tso issue. However, the major threat still remains the massive buildup by both armies along with artillery, armored vehicles and tanks in their in-depth areas along the line of actual control (LAC). Until and unless these troops move back to the peace-time locations the threat perception will remain high at the LAC. Defence minister Rajnath Singh had said on Monday that talks between top India-China military commanders have been very positive and both countries have agreed that further talks will be held to resolve the current tussle at the line of actual control (LAC). He had said that the border dispute between India and China has been going on from a long time and we want that this border dispute should be resolved as soon as possible. Indian armys 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh and Peoples Liberation Armys South Xinjiang Military Region, commander Maj Gen Liu Lin had held over 5 hours long meeting on Saturday in Moldo. India has asked China to reduce the build-up of its troops at the LAC and revert back to the status quo of April in Pangong Tso, Hot Springs and Galwan Valley. While invited by Kyiv government to represent the occupied territories, the two stress they won't hold direct talks with "DPR" representatives. Ukrainian journalists Denys Kazansky and Sergiy Garmash who were forced to flee from the occupied part of Donbas amid Russian aggression will start participating in the meetings of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) for the Donbas settlement as representatives of the occupied territories. "An important announcement. Starting today, I participate in the meetings of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas. Let me remind you that it is called 'trilateral' since Ukraine, the Russian Federation, and the OSCE are considered parties to the negotiations ("LPR/DPR" is not party to the conflict). Immediately, before any questions arise, I'll say this is not about the Advisory Council, which was previously planned to be created and which the public opposed. The idea of creating such a Council was rejected, and it won't be implemented," Kazansky wrote on Facebook. Read alsoVice PM says it's OSCE who invites Donbas separatists to Minsk talks The journalist said he opposes the idea of fixing a special status of the occupied territories in the Constitution of Ukraine, and stands for elections in the occupied territories to be held only once Ukraine has regained full control of the border, exclusively according to Ukrainian laws, with the return of Ukrainian TV, Ukrainian journalists, Ukrainian political parties, and internally displaced persons (IDPs). "I was offered to join the Ukrainian delegation to the Minsk TCG. Today I will already take part in the work of the political subgroup. As a representative of the occupied territories," journalist Serhiy Garmash wrote on Facebook. He emphasized the representatives of the occupied territories from the Ukrainian side would not negotiate with the "DPR" since "there are no such three letters in Minsk agreements," but would consult with the Ukrainian authorities and agree or not agree to decisions regarding issues regarding Donbas important for IDPs. As UNIAN reported earlier, Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak said Ukraine from May 14 would start inviting internally displaced persons to partake in the work of the Trilateral Contact Group meetings on Donbas settlement as representatives of the occupied territories. Washington : When US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats took a knee on Capitol Hill to honour the life of George Floyd, the internet's eyes jumped to the colourful fabric draped around their shoulders. Kente cloth - woven with vibrant strips of silk and cotton - comes from Ghana, where people wear it to show patriotism or celebrate a special occasion. It is associated with royalty, pride and black identity. Why did the Democrats sport it while unveiling a broad police reform bill? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, centre, and other members of Congress, wear Kente cloth scarves while kneeling at the Capitol's Emancipation Hall, in Washington on Monday. Credit:AP "The significance of the kente cloth is our African heritage and, for those of you without that heritage who are acting in solidarity," California Democrat Karen Bass, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told reporters at Emancipation Hall. "That is the significance of the kente cloth - our origins and respecting our past." Egypt-based Palm Hills Developments said it has signed a co-development agreement for a mixed-use community project, being built at a cost of E3.5 billion ($215 million) in Ain Sokhna region on a revenue sharing basis with Al Shorouk for Touristic Developments. The project, which is spread over a 487,200-sq-m area, is located on the Red Sea along Suez Zaafrana road with direct access from Galala highway, around 75 minutes away from capital Cairo, said a statement from Palm Hills Developments. As per the co-development deal, Palm Hills will be responsible for all work related to construction, development, infrastructure, marketing and sales activities. The two companies have finalised the projects master plan, which will offer standalone units, town houses, senior and junior chalets as well as serviced apartments, in addition to hospitality and recreational components plus commercial facilities, it stated. Chairman and Group CEO Yasseen Mansour said Palm Hills was expecting to generate residential sales of E5.1 billion ($314 million) from the project. The first units are being planned for handover within three years from the projects launch, he stated. "I am very pleased with this milestone and our expansion into Ain Sokhna, which will further solidify our secondary homes proposition with this yearround destination. We hope to create a successful destination building on our success with the Hacienda brand on the Mediterranean North Coast," he added. Al Shorouk for Touristic Developments CEO Mohamed Roushdy Saleh said this agreement is a key boost to touristic developments in Ain Sokhna offering hospitality, secondary homes, and leisure facilities, capitalising on the two companies track record. To be developed in five phases, the mixed-use development boasts 1,201 residential units with a total built-up area of up 163,655 sq m and a 1.5-km-long beachfront, he added.-TradeArabia News Service BOISE, Idaho Authorities said they uncovered human remains at an Idaho mans home Tuesday as they investigated the disappearance of his new wifes two children a case thats drawn global attention for its ties to two other mysterious deaths and the couples doomsday beliefs. Chad Daybell, who married the childrens mother, Lori Vallow Daybell, was arrested on suspicion of concealing or destroying evidence after local and federal investigators searched his property, according to the Fremont County Sheriffs Office. He has not yet been formally charged, and his attorney, Mark Means, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Joshua JJ Vallow, who was 7 when he vanished, and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan havent been seen since September, and police say Chad and Lori Daybell lied to investigators about the childrens whereabouts before quietly leaving Idaho. They were found in Hawaii months later. Besides the missing children, the couple has been under scrutiny following the deaths of both of their former spouses. Police from the small town of Rexburg, the FBI and sheriffs investigators searched Chad Daybells home in the eastern Idaho town of Salem for the second time, bringing in backhoes and setting up tents in a nearby field. The search warrant is sealed, and Rexburg Assistant Police Chief Gary Hagan said he couldnt reveal details other than the search is linked to the childrens disappearance. Throughout the investigation, detectives and investigators have recovered whats believed to be human remains that have not been identified at this time, Hagan said in a news conference. Lori Daybell has been charged with child abandonment and obstructing the investigation and is in jail on $1 million bond. Shes pleaded not guilty. The Idaho attorney generals office has said it was investigating Chad Daybell in the death of his first wife, Tammy Daybell. The complicated case began last summer, when Lori Daybells brother shot and killed her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in Phoenix. Her brother, Alex Cox, said the shooting was in self-defense. Charles Vallow had filed for divorce, claiming Lori believed she had become a god-like figure who was responsible for ushering in the biblical end times. Cox died in December of an apparent blood clot in his lung. Shortly after Charles Vallows death, Lori and her children moved to Idaho, where Chad Daybell lived. He ran a small publishing company, where he published many of his own fiction books that centered on apocalyptic scenarios loosely based on Mormon theology. He also participated in podcasts about preparing for biblical end times, and friends said he claimed to be able to receive visions from beyond the veil. Tylee was last seen in September headed into Yellowstone National Park with her mom and other family for a day trip, and JJ was last seen by school officials several days later. Police began investigating the childrens whereabouts after relatives raised concerns. Investigators have said both Chad and Lori Daybell claimed the children were staying with friends. Tammy Daybell died in her sleep last October of what her obituary said were natural causes. Authorities grew suspicious when Chad Daybell married Lori just two weeks later, and they had Tammy Daybells body exhumed in December. The results of that autopsy have not been released. Law enforcement officers searched Chad Daybells home initially on Jan. 3 in connection with his first wifes death, removing more than 40 items including several pieces of computer equipment. A few days later, JJs grandparents, Larry and Kay Woodcock, announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the kids. They later asked a judge to give them custody of JJ, who was still missing. And they have pushed to keep a spotlight on the search, posting billboards and updating social media on the case. The children were still nowhere to be found when JJs birthday arrived in late May. Our feelings of extreme anguish and despondency were prevalent throughout the period approaching JJs 8th birthday, Kay Woodcock wrote in a Facebook post. Our Rexburg family hosted a poignant vigil on Monday 5/25 in honor of our little man. We are comforted knowing their commitment is as strong as ours. Their attorney in the custody case didnt immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. A far-right activist with a love of Yorkshire Tea has been asked by the historic British brand to not buy its products in future - after she posted an anti-Black Lives Matter tweet. Laura Towler, a Yorkshire-based YouTuber who posts extreme views on social media - including last year sharing an image of former British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley drinking Yorkshire Tea - tweeted the company on Saturday. She wrote that she was 'chuffed' Yorkshire Tea hadn't posted in support of the Black Lives Matter protests happening globally in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis on May 25th. Posting a smiling face emoji, she wrote: 'Im dead chuffed that Yorkshire Tea has not supported BLM.' Yorkshire-based YouTuber and far-right activist Laura Towler, a self-proclaimed fan of Yorkshire Tea, tweeted the brand on June 6th saying she was 'dead chuffed' the company hadn't yet spoken out on the Black Lives Matter protests The historic British tea brand, which is owned by the Harrogate-based Bettys and Taylors group, sent an unflinching response to Towler's tweet, asking her not to 'buy our tea again' More than 60,000 people have since liked Yorkshire Tea's response to the vlogger, who, last year, shared a photo of former British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley drinking the brand Yesterday, Yorkshire Tea, which is owned by the Harrogate-based Bettys and Taylors group, hit back at the tweet, telling Towler: 'Please don't buy our tea again. 'We're taking some time to educate ourselves and plan proper action before we post. We stand against racism.' The response has since had 60,000 likes but Towler, once named by advocacy group Hope Not Hate as one of UK's most influential far-right vloggers, remains defiant, changing her Twitter bio to 'disavowed by Yorkshire Tea'. This morning, after an avalanche of tweets about the exchange appeared on Twitter, she wrote: 'Me: Im glad this one brand hasnt supported BLM. *Disavowed by tea brand, blue tick liberals in meltdown, trending on Twitter, news articles written, mentioned on TV*' After Yorkshire Tea's response to Towler, fellow tea brand PG Tips spoke out in support of its rival. The YouTuber was once named by advocacy group Hope Not Hate as one of UK's most influential far-right vloggers Towler changed her Twitter bio following the response from Yorkshire Tea, adding: 'Disavowed by Yorkshire Tea' The company, the second largest tea maker in the UK, wrote: 'If you are boycotting teas that stand against racism, youre going to have to find two new brands now #blacklivesmatter #solidaritea.' Earlier, when another Twitter user said the brand had been 'silent' and mooted changing teas, PG Tips responded: 'No need. #BlackLivesMatter' and said it was 'with' Yorkshire Tea on supporting the anti-racism campaign. Many praised the companies for shutting down Towler's tweet. @Andre_DirtRider added: 'As an American and a bit of an Anglophile I'd like to say thank you! I love Yorkshire tea and now I'm even more proud to purchase it.' @Nclarke30 penned: 'Well done guys . Excellent response. I'm switching from PG tips now !!! Yorkshire Tea all the way #blm' @Frawdster wrote: 'I didn't think it could get better than @yorkshiretea's original response. And then it did @PGtips #solidaritea.' However, others called on the companies to make clear their politics on racism in more detail. One social media user, @1brianmccarthy wrote: 'Can we have your full political declaration then please. Just so everyone is clear where you stand on all the issues rather than appearing to be opportunistic is order to sell more tea.' A person is seen in front of the burning 3rd Precinct of the Minneapolis Police Department in Minn., on May 28, 2020. (Julio Cortez/AP Photo) Man Charged With Helping to Torch Minneapolis Police Precinct A 23-year-old man was arrested and federally charged with helping to set fire to a Minneapolis police precinct amid riots following George Floyds death. The Minneapolis Police Departments 3rd Precinct was abandoned by police officers on May 28 as rioters breached the buildings perimeter. After police left, rioters streamed inside, setting fires and damaging equipment. Branden Michael Wolfe was one of them, federal officials announced this week. According to a criminal complaint, Wolfe was arrested on June 3 near a home improvement store in St. Paul, where he lives, after a caller alerted officials to a person wearing body armor attempting to break into the shop. Wolfe was a security guard at a Menards store, but was fired after social media posts showed him allegedly stealing items from the police precinct. Branden Michael Wolfe being arrested. (ATF) The Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct the day after it was attacked and burned by rioters following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Wolfe was caught riding in a vehicle near the store wearing body armor with his name handwritten on duct tape on the back along with a police-issue duty belt with handcuffs, an earphone piece, a baton, and a knife. He agreed to speak to officers without a lawyer and admitted to being inside the 3rd Precinct. He said he stole property from the building and pushed a wooden barrel into a fire, aware the barrel would burn, making the fire bigger. Investigators found charred barrel rings near where the barrel was seen in a photograph. Wolfe identified himself as a shirtless individual in several photographs captured by witnesses at the scene, according to the complaint. Law enforcement officers found items belonging to the Minneapolis Police Department at Wolfes apartment, including a riot helmet, a police radio, and a 9mm pistol magazine. Anyone with information about suspected arson, use of explosive devices, or violent, destructive acts associated with the recent unrest is being urged to contact the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or the FBI. Anyone with information specifically related to the Third Precinct fire or other business fires in the Twin Cities can call 1-888-ATF-TIPS (1-888-283-8477), email ATFTips@atf.gov or submit information anonymously via ReportIt.com. Information about people who may have incited or promoted violence of any kind can be submitted to the FBI at FBI.gov/violence or over the phone at 1-800-CALLFBI (800-225-5342). In an extraordinary gazette issued on June 2, Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse announced the establishment of a military-led taskforce with far-reaching powers and answerable only to him. The 13-member taskforce is chaired by the defence ministry secretary, retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne, and features the commanders of the Army, Navy and Air ForceLieutenant General Shavendra Silva, Vice Admiral Piyal de Silva and Air Marshal Sumangala Dias, respectively. Others members include the intelligence chiefs from the three armed forces, and retired senior military officers recently appointed by Rajapakse to key government institutions, as well as the Acting Inspector General of Police and two other senior police officers. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) warns that the taskforce is a major step toward a presidential dictatorship, based on the military, in preparation to take on the working class, amid the deepening economic and political crisis and social tensions intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Gotabaya Rajapaksa (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Rajapakse has declared that the governments principal responsibility is to give priority to national security and create a virtuous, disciplined and lawful society which respects the rule of law and justice. The newly-established body is tasked with imposing this sinister, reactionary agenda. To achieve these objectives, Rajapakse declared, the taskforce will take immediate steps to curb the illegal activities of social groups that are violating the law and emerging as harmful to the free and peaceful existence of society. It will also initiate legal action against persons responsible for illegal and antisocial activities conducted in Sri Lanka, whilst located in other countries. The taskforce will be directed against the working class, now coming into struggles in defence of its rights, and against political opponents, including the SEP. The government will brand their activities as illegal, anti-social and harmful for peaceful coexistence of society. The taskforce, the president claims, will take measures for prevention against the drug menace and to investigate and prevent any illegal and anti-social activities in and around the prisons. The bourgeois media has uncritically promoted Rajapakses posturing about drugs and illegal activities. This is a cover up. The taskforce has nothing to do with fighting drugs and other criminal activities but is a military cabal with authoritarian powers. The military-led taskforce can issue instructions or requests to government officers from any ministry, department, corporation or similar institution, for assistance in the provision of services. These state officers will be duty bound to act on the taskforces demands, with all cases of delay or default reported to the president and regarded as disobedience, with possible penalties. In Sri Lanka, state officers are considered part of the civil administration. Now, they can be brought under the control of the military taskforce, which has the power to circumvent cabinet ministers and the parliament. These measures violate the constitution and, in particular, the 19th amendment introduced by the previous Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration, which curtailed certain powers of the executive presidency. Although the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government backed away from its promise to abolish the executive presidency, its 19th amendment established that the president has to act with the advice of the prime minister and the cabinet, cannot hold a ministerial position, and is responsible to the parliament. Rajapakse addressed the military and government officers on the day his gazette was announced and later issued a tweet that declared: I will not hesitate to exercise the power vested in me by the people to make decisions that are needed for a better country. The presidents claims are in clear violation of constitution. Rajapakses rapid move toward a dictatorship parallels the actions of the ruling classes in every country in response to the deepening economic and political crisis. In the US, the centre of world imperialism, President Donald Trump is encouraging fascistic forces and mobilising the military in response to the mass demonstrations that have erupted against police violence and the police murder of George Floyd. As the statement issued by our sister party, the SEP in the USA call to the working class! Stop Trumps coup detat explains: The target of the conspiracy in the White House is the working class. The corporate-financial oligarchy is terrified that the eruption of mass demonstrations against police violence will intersect with the immense social anger among workers over social inequality, which has been enormously intensified as a result of the ruling class response to the coronavirus pandemic and the homicidal back-to-work campaign. The Sri Lankan economy is in a shambles. Tourism, exports and migrant workers remittances have dried up, international investments on the countrys sovereign bonds are being withdrawn and economic growth is predicted to decline this year to 1 percent or less. Falling international reserves have created the prospect of a foreign debt default. While the Rajapakse government plans to impose the burden of this crisis onto the backs of the masses, working-class anger is mounting against the destruction of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and employer assaults on wages and pension rights. Workers in the garment industries and in the health and Samurdhi welfare sectors have already demonstrated and taken industrial action against these attacks. Rajapakse became president last November, following the rising wave of workers strikes and protests that shattered the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe regime. Rajapakse has promised big business strong and stable rule, but he and his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)-led minority government are well aware that they are sitting on a political tinderbox. Rajapakses reaction to the coronavirus pandemic has been to further undermine democratic rights and expand military power. He appointed Army chief, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, head of the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 and mobilised the military and its intelligence apparatus in large numbers in Colombo. Military generals have been placed in charge of the ports authority, customs and the health ministry, and made governors of several provinces. The government is also deliberately stirring up anti-Tamil and anti-Muslim communal tensions to divide and derail growing social opposition. Not a single opposition party has opposed Rajapakses military-led taskforce and its dictatorial agenda. Over the past three months, the United National Party (UNP), Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Muslim parties have participated in two all-party meetings with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and pledged their support to the administrations so-called fight against the pandemic. Last month, the UNP, SJB, TNA and Muslim parties also signed a letter urging Rajapakse to reconvene the parliament, which was dissolved because of the pending national elections. They pledged not to bring down the government and to pass any legislation required by the government. None of Sri Lankas opposition parties defends the democratic rights of workers and the poor. Whether in or out of government, these pro-imperialist parties have imposed International Monetary Fund-dictated austerity measures, attacked the rights of all working people, and mobilised the military and police to suppress any resistance. Every political faction of the ruling elite has a blood-soaked history, having backed the 30-year bloody communalist war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the North and East, and numerous other crimes. The ruling elites are united in their fear of the growing unrest among workers and poor and all depend on the military to maintain capitalist rule. The working class can defeat the growing threat of dictatorship only by mobilising its independent revolutionary strength across all ethnic and religious divides, and uniting with the international working class now coming to struggle in every country. This requires the building of action committees in workplaces and neighbourhoods to rally the working class, young people and the rural poor to defend their jobs and basic rights. This struggle can advance only in the fight for a workers and peasants government, which seizes capitalist property and rationally reorganises society on a socialist and internationalist basis. This is the program of the SEP, the Sri Lankan section of the International Committee of the Fourth International. We urge our readers to join and build this party. European Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan confirmed on Tuesday that he was considering a bid to become the next director-general of the World Trade Organization, a post that will become vacant at start of September. "Certainly I am exploring the option of being a candidate for the director-general of the WTO. I think that there is an important amount of work to be done to reform the organization, to make it more effective and efficient, but also to deal with many of the trade issues that are bedeviling the international community now arising from COVID-19," he said. Gretta Hochsprung reporter Follow Gretta Hochsprung 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 downside of virtual meetings revealed itself Monday afternoon as four teenage boys from New Zealand attended and disrupted the virtual Hudson Falls Village Board meeting via Zoom. At first, I thought perhaps the boys were logging in to get some credit for a high school class. Turns out, they were "Zoombombing." It's a thing. The board held two public hearings Monday, but the kids in question had nothing to say about the Community Development Block Grant or the waterline replacement on Union and Clark streets. Instead, the kidswho all seemed to know each otherlaughed, made funny faces, logged on and off, made noises and were generally disruptive during the meeting. When asked to identify themselves for the public record, one said he was from New Zealand. Their names were Simon Minter, Ian Moore, Philip Hartley and Harry Edwards. They also tried to second a couple motions and vote on resolutions. After the board clerk realized they were there to disrupt, not contribute, she kicked them off the meeting, but one lingered and played air guitar as the meeting ended. The board members were clearly annoyed, but kept their composure and managed to finish the meeting. Turns out, Zoom can and does get hacked. It has something to do with credential stuffing, which is a subject far too complicated for this 40-plus soccer mom. But in reality, anyone could participate in the village board meeting, since the Meeting ID and password are posted right on the villages website. Its easier now, more than ever, to participate in your local government meetings right from home. People could and should watch. I hope these kids don't show up again. But I do hope to see more Hudson Falls faces fill the boxes on the screen. The next meeting is at 4 p.m. July 13. Gretta Hochsprung writes hometown news and covers Washington County. You can reach her at ghochsprung@poststar.com or 518-742-3206. Follow her on Twitter @GrettaHoch or at her blog on www.poststar.com. 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. Christianity Today asked a group of contributors how, if at all, the Bible should inform what a nation expects of immigrants. This is one of five essays in the series. I am not a good immigrant. I dont know any good immigrants. Good immigrants, according to our American mythology, work hard and keep their head down. They assume the necessary risks to keep our economy running during a health pandemic, and they dont complain about being blocked from public benefits our economy affords or being excluded from CARES Act stimulus payments. Good immigrants are eternally grateful for admission to this great country and never critique it. They speak English fluently and are fully assimilated into American culture, forgetting the old country except in the occasional nostalgic moment or holiday. They are so law abiding as to be above reproach. In short, they are shining examples of what it means to be an American. Above all, good immigrants find a way to be legal immigrants, never mind an ever-shifting immigration system that favors some, marginalizes others, and strands many in a world of loopholes and technicalities. They would separate from their families, even see their children suffer, before they would cross a border without papers. I used to aspire to this mythical and impossible level of perfection. Not only did it keep me from living fully into my identity as a child of God who bears the image of God, but it also kept me from seeing my own immigrant family and neighbors through the lens of the gospel. Instead, I demanded this impossible standard from them as well, evaluating them through the same rubric of worthiness used to evaluate me. In simple terms, my aspirations for good immigrant status drew me away from the gospel, not toward it. We often run into problems, biblically speaking, when we label people as good or badimmigrants included. I migrated from Guatemala in the 1980s and have fought to preserve my first language and culture while integrating into American society. I am an image-bearer of God with flaws, struggles, and habitual sins. I often speed on the highway and have earned my share of parking tickets as a city-dweller. I get angry and frustrated with US laws that harm people, and I have taken part in protests. I collected unemployment for a season. Our own history suggests that good immigrants, as we imagine them, were few and far between. Those who arrived in earlier centuries did not migrate to become good Americans but to replicate the best of their old country in a more favorable environment. They were often slow to learn English and integrate into American society. That is why we have New England and Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and why many cities have Little Italy and Chinatown. Early immigrants didnt think of themselves as legal or illegal, because that language wasnt part of the national vocabulary. There was no mechanism to enforce the few immigration laws that existed, and newcomers came across our borders with ease, often without even an interview. For most of American history, our borders were, effectively, open borders. The uncomfortable truth is that immigrants have changed little. Immigration laws and enforcement have changed a lot. Followers of Christ can turn to their Bibles to find stories of imperfect immigrants, saints seeking to live as faithfully as they can in a land that is not their own. Abram migrates to Egypt, fleeing a famine, and commits fraud by presenting Sarai as his sister instead of his wife (Gen. 12). Then he traffics her for his own well-being. Naomi migrates to Moab, escaping a different famine and seeking economic security for her family (Ruth 1). Her sons marry Moabite women, an action Gods law explicitly prohibits (Deut. 23, Ezra 9, Neh. 13). Ignoring Gods law yet again, she later instructs her Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth, to pursue and marry Boaz, a man from Bethlehem. In the New Testament, a Syrophoenician womanan unclean foreignerinvades Jesus privacy and threatens his honor as a Jewish man to seek a favor (Mark 7:2430). In the end, Jesus grants her the favor and affirms her faith. Somehow, all of these flawed biblical heroes are held up as pillars of the faith, examples for Christians to follow. We recognize that these imperfect people bore the imago Dei, and Gods plans and purposes are made known to us through them. For God, their offenses did not overshadow their identities as part of his family. Jesus own humanity was complex and multi-faceted. His history included both forced migration as a child refugee and persecution under a foreign empire. His incarnation invites us to fully and unreservedly embrace our own and each others humanity. In our shared life in Christ, we do not escape our humanity, nor do we take it from one another. We delve more deeply into it, choosing truly to love our neighbors as ourselves, even our imperfect immigrant neighbors. Subscribing to the rhetoric of the good and bad immigrant reduces our neighbors to objects that either benefit or dont benefit us. But God sees us all as his beloved children and friends. Do we see as God sees? Karen Gonzalez is a speaker, immigrant advocate, and the author of The God Who Sees: Immigrants, The Bible, and the Journey to Belong. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @_karenjgonzalez. Ukrainian peacekeepers have undergone a two-week medical observation at the Truskavetskyi Center for medical rehabilitation and sanatorium treatment Ukraine has sent its military contingent to peacekeeping mission to Kosovo ArmyInform Ukraine has sent its military contingent to a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. This was reported by ArmyInform, the news agency of the Ministry of Defense. "A Ukrainian military contingent of 40 servicemen has left the city of Truskavets, Lviv region, to carry out a peacekeeping mission in the Republic of Kosovo," the statement said. Before departing to Kosovo, Ukrainian peacekeepers underwent a two-week medical observation at the Truskavetskyi Center for Medical Rehabilitation and Sanatorium Treatment. According to the head of the military sanatorium, Colonel of the Medical Service Vasyl Vovchansky, this is the fourth peacekeeping contingent that has been undergoing medical observation at the Truskavetskyi military sanatorium since the beginning of the quarantine. As we reported earlier, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Valerii Kondratiuk as the new head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service. Kondratiuk, 50 years old, is a special services officer and a lieutenant general. From 2016 to 2019, Kondratiuk held the position of Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration during Petro Poroshenko's presidency. Click here to read the full article. The pandemic has been painful, but it has also opened up some new avenues of opportunity for Kohls. In a presentation at the Cowen and Co. New Retail Ecosystem Summit Tuesday morning, Michelle Gass, chief executive officer of the Wisconsin-based retailer, said although sales have plummeted since the companys stores were forced to close in mid-March, there have been some bright spots that will now become a permanent part of the its strategy going forward. That includes a substantially stronger digital presence, curbside pickup and a more-edited merchandise assortment tweaked to meet consumer demand, she said. The most dramatic change has been in digital. In April, the companys online sales rose 60 percent, a number that jumped to 90 percent in May, when most Kohls stores were closed, she said. And while Gass acknowledged that online sales cannot begin to rival in-store sales, the move toward digital has significantly accelerated the companys ominchannel strategy. So even as our stores have begun to open, weve seen the digital business continue to perform at very high levels, she said. And thats driven off of a lot of things. Its driven off of relevancy, adopting our site to be focusing on categories that people are interested in right now, like active and home and kids products. Its about the marketing that we put in place. And lastly, its about the innovation, things like curbside drive up that we [instituted] very quickly. She said in normal times, getting to this penetration of online sales would have taken five years, but by adjusting the messaging it pushed out during the pandemic to really speak to where people are at this point in time, Kohls has reaped the benefits. We really want to be a significant leader in omnichannel, and having a thriving digital business is part of that, she said. COVID-19 is the great accelerator on so many trends. And clearly, for us, were benefiting from the acceleration on an already high-growth channel for us. Story continues Turning to curbside pickup, which has become commonplace among grocery stores, Gass said it is still fairly new to our industry. But within two weeks, Kohls was able to implement the strategy and use its stores as fulfillment centers. During the pandemic, more than 40 percent of all digital orders were fulfilled by stores, which also allowed Kohls to leverage that inventory that was sitting in the stores for six-plus weeks that we hadnt been able to sell, she said. As a result, she said curbside pickup will be something that we will continue forward because convenience is always really important to our customers. Kohls will also continue to narrow its assortment. National brands such as Under Armour, Nike, Adidas, Levis and Carters now represent 60 percent of the companys sales, she said, and the mix will continue to shrink going forward. On its earnings call last month, Kohls said it would exit eight underperforming womens brands: Dana Buchman, Jennifer Lopez, Mudd, Candies, Rock and Republic, Popsugar, Elle and Juicy Couture. Gass said although that decision was made pre-pandemic, I think you can expect to see more of that from us. When weve been at our best, weve been highly focused, weve had great clarity, weve narrowed our choices. You can expect to see more editing, especially on the private brand [front], as we make the shopping experience more clear to our customer. Accessories, along with the very dressy part of apparel, are also expected to be trimmed, she said. Thats not to say Kohls wont be bringing in new brands or categories. Gass said the company will continue to add brands such as Nine West and Elizabeth and James that are targeted to young shoppers, and will also enhance its offerings in activewear, home and beauty. She said the company will expand a test it implemented in 12 stores to create beauty experiences. We are a small player today, Gass said of the beauty test. But what weve seen as weve put elevated product probably the best example is what weve done with very high-end fragrances the customer is responding. Were in lots of conversations with lots of different brands, and I think we provide a new customer for these beauty players that they havent had access to before. More than 70 percent of our customers are women and with 65 million customers, thats a tremendous opportunity. Gass and Jill Timm, chief financial officer, also acknowledged the impact of the coronavirus on the companys business. In the first quarter, Kohls racked up net losses of $541 million as sales dropped more than 40 percent to $2.4 billion. In the prior years quarter, the company posted earnings of $62 million on sales of $4.1 billion. Gass said Tuesday that Kohls has now reopened 90 percent of its stores, or 1,047 units, and those stores are performing at 75 percent of the productivity they would have experienced pre-pandemic. Looking ahead, the company will cut 60 percent of its receipts for the second quarter on top of a 30 percent cut in the first quarter and is taking a very conservative approach to holiday, Timm said, but it will keep cash on hand to chase product that is performing well in season. Gass said although Kohls is encouraged with the signs, she admitted it is still a very fluid environment and the future is uncertain. But, she remains optimistic. I think were in a great position. We believe in our stores, we have a vast store base and were optimistic as we come out of this point in time, that we will rebuild our business. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. AN Offaly man has revealed he once considered jumping off a bridge as the pressure of mortgage arrears and unemployment took its toll. Tom Roche, 70, has urged people in difficulty to contact the Money Advice & Budgeting Service (MABS) because with their help he is now on the verge of securing his future in his own home through the mortgage-to-rent scheme. A native of Tullamore, Mr Roche bought a half-acre site near Rhode with over 70,000 in savings in 2001 and then received loan approval from Permanent TSB for a 150,000 15-year mortgage to build his house. At the time, he was on a very good salary with the non-governmental organisation he founded, Just Forests. An education and lobbying group for environmental causes, with a focus on sustainable forestry, Just Forests was receiving funding from the Department of the Environment and Concern. I got mortgage approval straight away, said Mr Roche. He went ahead and built a 1,200 square feet two-bedroom bungalow, plus a detached workshop for his carpentry and furniture restoration business. Everything was good for a while, I paid [the bank] back 72,000 over the next eight or nine years. Never once did they have to pick up the phone looking for the mortgage, it was there every month on the day. The recession of the late 2000s spelled the end of the Government grant for Just Forests. When the crisis came NGOs like Just Forests were the first ones cut, the first to be wiped off the payroll, said Mr Roche. I knew what was happening and I was straight into TSB in Tullamore. I didn't delay one minute and I said I have lost my job, I have no livelihood coming in and I'm going in to sign on social welfare. He made an effort to keep up some repayments but soon found it almost impossible. Meanwhile, the bank began to contact him constantly. The letters were coming and the phone calls were almost daily... I started to ignore them because I couldn't deal with them. He was advised to contact a personal insolvency practitioner and because he entered that process, he was given some breathing space. Page 2 However, partly because of an issue with a previous property which was unresolved at the time, an insolvency arrangement never came to fruition. The pressure from the bank, plus his continuing unemployment, was affecting him severely. There was times I thought of jumping off Rhode bridge, he said. His lucky break came when he got a part-time job in Killarney working in the National Park through the Coillte Compass Club and he moved to Kerry for a couple of years. He worked in outdoor education for children aged between six and 12, worked with Killarney Mountain Meitheal on the removal of rhododendron, supported Killarney Looking Good, Killarney Tidy Towns and Killarney Chamber of Commerce and Tourism and was named as the 2016 Volunteer of the Year in Killarney. He also organised the Killarney Celebration of Trees where over 2,000 people hugged 2,000 trees. It was really that, that kept me sane, he explained. Killarney was a lifesaver for me. It gave me a reason to want to go on, it gave me a reason to use my skills as best I could. I had been working since I was 13 years of age when I left school. I emigrated to Australia at 18, I never had my hand out in my life until the financial crisis hit. I was always well able to fund myself. His problem was that the arrears on his home had gone sky high so that even after paying back 72,000 the bank were looking for 165,000 from him - 15,000 more than the original loan. Through personal insolvency negotiations the balance sought was lowered to between 70,000 and 80,000 but an arrangement was never agreed and his application was dismissed in the Personal Insolvency Court. Mr Roche, who is divorced, contacted the MABS office in Mullingar and immediately felt he was on the right track. I am just so sorry I didn't go there 10 years earlier. They were just superb. Not only did they put my mind at ease but they just took on the whole thing and did all the spadework for me for the mortgage-to-rent. To avail of the mortgage-to-rent scheme, Mr Roche went on the Offaly County Council social housing list and negotiated an agreement between his bank and iCare, an approved housing body set up by the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation. As a retired single man (who still works part-time) living in a two-bedroom house he met the criteria for social housing and last year was told he qualified for the mortgage-to-rent. Final approval is due soon and though going into the scheme will mean he no longer owns the house he built, Mr Roche has no regrets. I'll have a manageable rent and I'll relinquish ownership of the house but I can't take it with me, I've no one to leave it to. I just want to be left here in peace for the rest of my life. He says mortgage-to-rent is preferable for all sides than kicking me out and having to be provided with other accommodation. I was doing my work, getting paid sufficiently and all of a sudden the rug was pulled from under my feet and my whole life was turned upside down. I would recommend MABS 100% if everything else fails. Maybe I should have gone to MABS first, but the fact that MABS knew I went through the personal insolvency service they knew I was making a huge effort to address it with my own resources so I think that stood to me when I went to MABS. I wasn't going with a begging bowl or with a poor mouth. I made every effort to deal with this. I wasn't looking for a handout, I was looking for justice, I was looking for a fair deal. That's all I was looking for. San Franciscans have long had a certain smugness, thinking were better than the rest of the country in pretty much every way. Were so woke, were protesting in the streets, changing our social media profile pictures to raised black fists and buying out every copy of How to Be an Anti-Racist from independent bookstores. We assume everybody else in our perfectly progressive city is doing the same thing. Guess what? Theyre not. (Dont get me started on how a truly progressive city would not have thousands of people, most of them people of color, sleeping on the sidewalks, and truly progressive residents would not sue the city when a small shelter or safe sleeping site is proposed near them. But thats another column.) The current symbol of very imperfect San Francisco is the big rock atop Bernal Heights Park that serves as a sometimes silly, sometimes serious artists canvas. People have been painting and repainting it for years, and recent incarnations have included a slice of watermelon, an avocado, a Pride flag, a ghost, a poop emoji, a face wearing a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic and even a black thong with a heart tattoo on the butt cheek reading, Mom. On Monday, artists toiled in the hot sun painting Black Lives Matter on the rock for the fifth time. Thats because theyve been painting it since last Wednesday, and every time, somebody visits in the dead of night to cover it in different paint. The redo hasnt been artistic, but just sloppily sprayed paint in solid colors. The point is clearly to get rid of the Black Lives Matter message. I basically almost had a panic attack I was just shaking, said Kseniya Makarova, 32, of seeing her first Black Lives Matter iteration, neon green with black lettering, covered over in copper-colored paint the next day. Now Playing: Pancho Kachingwe joined Oakland community members, artists and local businesses to paint Black Lives Matter across three blocks of 15th Street on Sunday, June 7. The project responds to the civil unrest over police violence and systemic racism, sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Video: Caron Creighton Makarova is an artist and Bernal Heights resident who thought the rock, overlooking the San Francisco skyline, should say something regarding the current protests about police brutality and racial injustice. Shes painted a memorial on the back of the rock to black and brown people killed by police including Sean Monterrosa, a 22-year-old San Francisco resident who was killed in Vallejo last week despite being on his knees with his hands up. Sadly, the memorials, too, keep getting painted over. Walkers and joggers passing by the artists redoing their work again and again have consistently told them the vandal cant be one of their Bernal Heights neighbors. After all, in our perfectly progressive city, Bernal Heights is one of the most perfectly progressive neighborhoods of all. But they were wrong. Rocky Smith, a 35-year-old Bernal Heights resident and a software engineer at Facebook, read about the boulder brouhaha on social media and wanted to figure out why this mysterious person kept covering up such an important message. He thought about hanging a security camera in a tree, but had second thoughts about the ethics and practicality of that idea. So instead, he and some friends waged an overnight stakeout. His shift began at 3:30 a.m. Monday, and he sat near the rock for 90 minutes before needing to stretch his legs. He took a short walk, returned to the rock and bam! A shadowy figure was spray-painting the boulder. Smith said he thought hed find a man a grumpy, old stickler for the rules who objected to the rock being painted. There is such a man named Bud who has been emailing the one artist of color on Makarovas team about the importance of preserving the beauty of unpainted rocks. But it wasnt him. It was a middle-aged, white woman wearing a hoodie. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle I carefully approached her and I said, Hi, and she said, Hi. She didnt seem nervous or anything she was very deadpan and expressionless, just focused on spray painting the rock, Smith said. Smith said he asked her why she kept covering the rock, and she said she lives in Bernal Heights and prefers the fun rock motifs, not the political ones. Its time for some pizza, something nonpolitical. ... I just want to go for a walk and have a nice day, Smith quoted her as saying. He said he didnt ask for her name and isnt trying to out her or put a target on her back. Thats surely a good thing since we dont need to counter her hate with more hate, as odious as her comments were. People have all sorts of names for her on social media, though, including Spraypaint Sally. She also told him she didnt know about the nearby memorial to Alex Nieto, the man killed by San Francisco police in the same park in 2014. As she left, Smith said, she told him, Put something fun on there. If its not fun, Ill paint it again. 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. Guess what? Fun doesnt exactly sum up 2020. The whole point of this dreadful year is to finally make us realize that taking a nothing-to-see-here attitude toward a range of social ills including racism, police brutality, homelessness and inequities in our health care system doesnt make them go away. It just makes them worse. But enough about Spraypaint Sally. Heroically, the artists were back Monday cheerfully painting the rock yet again. Makarova said she realized her initial shock over the repainting came from privilege, and that the racist response really wasnt shocking at all. She painted it again yellow with black lettering and it was quickly covered over in blue. Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle She posed a question on social media about whether she was making too big a deal about paint on a rock, but her friends and supporters of the project told her to keep going. She said its not about the rock anymore, but about using it as a vehicle to spread a larger message about racial justice. Shes even including QR codes on the rock so passersby can contribute to nonprofits focused on that work. We said wed put it back every single day if we have to, and we will, she said, adding shes glad Smith determined the spray-painter is from Bernal Heights. People think they cant have a racist next door, but it exists everywhere. Her friend and fellow artist, Micah Rivera, keeps helping her repaint the rock. He said he feels an innate duty to not leave the rock a blotted-out mess because he doesnt want people of color to feel covered over or erased. By Monday afternoon, the rock was finished for the fifth time, and Makarova posted a photo of it on Instagram with the artists raising their fists. It was more intricate than ever. The memorial on the back paid tribute to Tony McDade, a transgender man killed by police May 27 in Tallahassee. On the side is a portrait of the writer James Baldwin and his quote, Ignorance allied with power is the most ferocious enemy justice can have. Rivera said he never anticipated spending so many hours painting the same rock over and over, but he plans to be back at the rock before dawn on Tuesday to stand guard. He will not let the woman with the spray paint keep erasing his work. Shame on her. Thats a lot of covert racism and deep-seeded ignorance, he said. Shell have to paint over me before she gets to the rock again. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf About 3:20 a.m., the officer, who was not named and who is assigned to the Wentworth District, was preparing to enter his vehicle in the 3900 block of South Artesian Avenue, according to a preliminary statement on the shooting sent by the department. He was then approached by two men he didnt know, and one of them pulled a handgun and shot at the officer, officials said. An invasion of personal space is usually memorable, for reasons wed probably rather forget. Bumping knees with a stranger on a train, or a crotch in the face on the tube. An awkward hug, or non-reciprocal kiss; sometimes, a threat. The mundane, reliable invasions that particular nausea that only the breath of a colleague reading over your shoulder can induce, or a dirty lunchbox. For now, a thing of the past. Lockdown has redefined personal space in a plethora of ways. Change came fast and we adapted accordingly. Two metres has never been such a powerful ultimatum; the physical space we occupy at home is now more meaningful, and under moderation everywhere else. Were having to consider our proximity to others in an unnaturally mindful way and, as the weeks roll on and lockdown loosens its grip, our perception of personal space has evolved. Assertions that normal no longer exists are aplenty. Post-lockdown, friends and colleagues insist, will inevitably not only look different, but feel different. Choices are being considered: in cities, personal space has long been a commodity weve been conditioned to surrender in order to be successful, or at least in close proximity to success. We cram our bodies into tubes and lifts and offices, sit for hours in stuffy meeting rooms. Many of us share our (too small) homes with strangers, sacrificing living rooms for cheaper rent. During lockdown, the cost of that personal space and its unequal distribution in society has become clearer. Im going to move back up north, one friend tells a group on WhatsApp. Theres no space physically, mentally, financially for her in London anymore, she peruses. Other friends are considering similar moves, even further afield. Im going to find a long term rent in the middle of nowhere in Portugal, another says. Were learning, perhaps, to re-value personal space as a commodity and what that means to us. Our quality of life, the decisions we make about who to bring into our personal space; when to sacrifice it as a necessary statement, too. (Getty Images (Getty Images) Personal space is about control and choice, says Peter Kinderman, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Liverpool. There are a number of things to understand about this, our behaviour, during the pandemic. One is that members of the public on the whole have been really very collectivist very socially aware and compassionate. Theyve tried to cut through the corrupt distortion of our politicians and do the right thing. Weve adapted how we use our personal space quickly and effectively and while it has been difficult, for some more than others, weve adapted for the greater good. Since lockdown began, people have become more mindful of their health and the significance of safety from space." Kinderman says this heightened respect for space in the current context makes the Black Lives Matter protests in the UK and USA particularly poignant and significant. "That we are worried about our health in a very visible way, the number of people sacrificing their personal space to stand together tells us just how important these protests are. More personal space means that the decay rate on friendships is at an all time high... Individually, were all feeling the effects of the boundaries we now live in. The craving for togetherness, or just a simple touch through a difficult time, for some becomes louder as each week passes by. For others, says Kinderman, a hesitancy of going back to our previous lives now lingers. There are economic, environmental, personal benefits that come from this way of working, he explains. Time gained from not commuting, for example, and not compromising our personal space on public transport, either, or sitting in greying, cramped offices all day. For many, this could be an opportunity for us to build a society that includes many of the benefits of lockdown, and fewer of the negatives of before. The benefits of personal space vs office space havent gone unnoticed by many major companies who are also considering dramatic changes. As working from home proves to be not only effective, but cost-effective, businesses like Barclays, Facebook and Nationwide are among scores currently considering whether office spaces are not only distracting and intrusive, but also a hazard to our health. There are downsides though the toll of too much personal space could manifest within our friendships, so says Professor Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist, of the University of Oxford. Our whole evolutionary strategy is built upon communal sharing as a cost of survival and successful reproduction, essentially, Dunbar tells me. So everything we do is, in those terms, designed to create an efficient working community. Were still very dependent on that. And our social world is still very, very small. We depend on physical contact, he says, to maintain friendships and relationships. His prior widely reported research shows that we have a maximum of 150; a mix of friends and acquaintances. More personal space means that the decay rate on these friendships is at an all time high. Theres something about the importance of eye contact in these relationships that just cant be replicated, he says. But after months on end in isolation, our physical reactions and proximity to each other has taken a colossal hit. Were more used to being apart, perhaps, more wary and hyper-aware. Could this have a lasting effect? Recommended Why some people are hesitant to see friends as lockdown eases On the amount of friendships we have, probably. Definitely on the amount of acquaintances we have, which are already dropping like flies. If the lockdown was to continue for another six months, then maybe on the way we treat people in our personal space too, says Professor Dunbar. In the short term it will have an effect people will be more concerned about giving Italian-esque hugs, for example, he explains. The quantity of air kissing might drop. Because its a relatively recent cultural innovation and you do it with people you dont necessarily know, that might decrease at least for a while. But things like handshakes are so ingrained in us. This is why politicians keep getting themselves into trouble and breaching their own regulations. That will die harder. Briefly, well be less huggy. The last few months have, in multiple ways, forced us to reassess the space we take up in the world and the value of that... Might it mean that touch takes on a more meaningful presence in our lives, I wonder? Could things like first kisses or that first embrace more significant, or charged? Is this the end of hook-up culture? No, Dunbar says. But Id expect maybe wed be a little bit more cautious in courtship. Those who are already not very good at inhibiting their actions or able to factor in the long term consequences of their behaviour in the moment wont be so affected. Ultimately, while ways of working and our own perceptions of what personal space means to us could be significant, our changes to our physical conduct in personal space will be short lived, he says. Were very good at learning, he says. We learn very fast. And we vary enormously. These changes might feel big now, but they wont last. Perhaps so. But the last few months have, in multiple ways, forced us to reassess the space we take up in the world and the value of that. Our living arrangements, the quality of life personal space affords us, how we use or relinquish our personal space to protect ourselves and others have all taken on new, or elevated meanings. As we move forward, let's not forget this. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. A crowd of public defenders, lawyers and other community members filled the lawns on the four sides of a park monument at noon Monday for a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Portland. Attendees, many dressed in suits or slacks and largely appearing to follow social distancing protocols, stood together in solidarity. Gathered in Lownsdale Square Park, many had signs with various messages like Black Lives Matter to public defenders and Enough is Enough. The rally was organized by public defenders, lawyers appointed to those who cannot afford a private one, to draw attention to racism in the criminal justice system. It was one of many similar rallies held nationally Monday by public defenders. As public defenders we spend a lot of our professional lives witnessing and experiencing racism that is violent to our clients, said Jessica Greenlick Snyder, one of the organizers. Many people are gathered here today for a Black Lives Matter demonstration organized by public defenders. Madison Smalstig here reporting. Posted by The Oregonian on Monday, June 8, 2020 Greenlick Snyder, an Oregon federal public defender, said her colleagues and she started planning the event Saturday. She said they planned it quickly to coincide with others around the country. Attendee and law student Pauline Gonzales said she wasnt sure about attending because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but she said racism is also a pandemic. Gonzales said she wanted to come support public defenders who are trying to protect the rights of black Americans. Danielle DeCant, an attorney with Metropolitan Public Defender, said she attended the rally because its important to her to show support for her clients and the injustices they face. A lot of those injustices never make it to court, she said. Its important we become more aware of the mistreatment of people of color and people in poverty in our country. The organizers provided homemade signs and material to make them for those who didnt have one. All who participated were given a list of names of black people killed by police and a paper that provided suggested places to donate and shows to watch that support the movement. Black armbands that read Silence=Violence were given out and worn. Many of the speakers amplified that theme. This is a group who is not afraid to speak truth to power, to speak up for the voiceless and to throw ourselves in front of the moving train that is the criminal justice system to protect our clients, said Stacey Reding, public defense attorney with Multnomah Defense Inc., when she spoke to the group. Maurisa Gates, an attorney for over 25 years who works with Metropolitan Public Defender, led the group in reading the names on the list and in 8 minutes, 46 seconds of silence, which represented the amount of time a Minneapolis police officer knelt on George Floyds neck. The last person to speak was Neysa Bogar, a legal assistant with the federal public defenders office, who shared the 1978 poem A Litany for Survival. When we speak, we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed, but when we are silent we are still afraid, she read. So it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive. Bogar said she chose to share this poem because it might instill hope in the crowd. I hope that plants a seed in all of us to remember silence is violence, she said during the speech. We may be one individual voice by ourselves, but together we are a resounding cry that enough is enough. This story has been updated. --Alex Hardgrave | ahardgrave@oregonian.com | @a_hardgrave Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Unemployment rate growing rapidly in Ukraine, following in Europe's steps media 12:40, 09.06.20 1485 The actual number of unemployed in May stood at about 2.5-2.8 million. Oil fell more than 3% on Monday after OPEC+ nations agreed to extend output cuts, but Saudi Arabia and two other Gulf producers said they would not maintain supplemental reductions that amount to more than a million barrels of daily supply. Brent crude fell, breaking a seven-day streak of gains. Brent futures fell $1.50, or 3.6%, to settle at $40.80 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) , meanwhile, fell $1.36, or 3.4%, to $38.19. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers agreed in April to cut supply by 9.7 million barrels per ... Prosecutors said the man arrested for driving into protesters in Virginia on Sunday has been identified as a self-proclaimed Ku Klux Klan leader named Harry Rogers, CBS affiliate WTVR reports. Rogers has been charged with attempted malicious wounding, destruction of property, and assault and battery, police said. A hate crime investigation is now underway, Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor said, according to WTVR. In court on Monday, Taylor said during his arrest, Rogers told officers he was the president of the Ku Klux Klan in Virginia and the highest-ranking member not imprisoned. "The accused, by his own admission and by a cursory glance at social media, is an admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology," Taylor said in a statement released after court. "We are investigating whether hate crimes charges are appropriate." In a jailhouse interview with WTVR's Robert Hughes, Rogers admitted he had ties to the KKK, but denied that he told police he was the president. Rogers is due back in court in August. CORRECTION America Protests Virginia Arrest Harry Rogers Henrico County Sheriff's Office via AP Rogers first spoke to the station in 2013 as he prepared to raise a large Confederate flag outside of his home. "It makes me feel proud," Rogers said at the time. He and his girlfriend appeared in a subsequent WTVR report when they were evicted them from their home after their initial appearance. Rogers also made headlines in 2016, when he was seen in a KKK robe and holding a Confederate flag in front of the Colonial Heights War Memorial in Virginia. Local publication Progress-Index spoke to Rogers at the time. He told the paper he was the organizer of the National Association for Awakening Confederate Patriots and was there to exercise his first amendment right. Witnesses at Sunday's protest say Rogers revved his engine before driving through protesters at the Black Lives Matter march, WTVR reports. The protest was one of many that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month. Floyd's death sparked nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice. Story continues Between 200 and 300 people attended Sunday's demonstration, many of them bringing their children, according the organizer of the event, who did not want to be identified. "I witnessed [Rogers] cut around drivers who were waiting behind the protest as he drove on the median so he could get closer to the protesters," the organizer said in a statement to WTVR. Witness Eva Swanson also described the incident to WTVR. "[The driver] revved his engine and sped up and I thought for sure people were going to die. People were screaming," Swanson said. "I don't know if we were in range of him hitting us, but we were afraid for our lives and fled out of the way." screen-shot-2020-06-09-at-11-06-15-am.png Footage obtained by WTVR shows officers leading Rogers to a police car after he drove is car into protesters in Richmond on Sunday. No one was hurt. Obtained by WTVR No one was seriously injured, according to WTVR. Taylor called Rogers' actions "heinous and despicable," adding they will "prosecute to the fullest extent of the law." "We lived through this in Virginia in Charlottesville in 2017. I promise Henricoans that this egregious criminal act will not go unpunished. Hate has no place here under my watch," Taylor said. Video of the arrest was given to WTVR by the protest organizer. The footage shows protesters cheering as officers led Rogers to a police car in handcuffs. Military leaders slam Trump over protests as Barr defends clearing Lafayette Park Thousands rally worldwide for Black Lives Matter Santa Cruz resident pins down Air Force sergeant accused of killing Northern California deputy By Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO: As the coronavirus claims tens of thousands of lives in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro is focused on ensuring his political survival and mobilising his far-right supporters to do so. With less than one-third of Brazilians approving Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic, and protests against him increasing, analysts say he's shoring up his base to shield himself from possible impeachment and improve governability. "He's losing support and needs something to put in its place," Mauricio Santoro, a professor of political science at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. "Bolsonaro needs people on the street defending him." Casting doubt on COVID-19 statistics has been a mainstay in far-right circles and Bolsonaro has amplified that claim. ALSO READ | Brazil govt yanks coronavirus death toll as data befuddles experts So far COVID-19 has killed more than 36,000 Brazilians, but one wouldn't know it from the Health Ministry's website; it stopped publishing cumulative totals on Friday, the day after Brazil surpassed Italy to become third worldwide. After backlash, a top Health Ministry official told reporters Monday night that the body would restore the cumulative death toll to its website, as early as Tuesday, but with changes to the methodology for how daily deaths are tallied. Critics complained that the extraordinary move to squelch the death toll resembled tactics used by authoritarian regimes. It came after months of Bolsonaro downplaying COVID-19 and maintaining that economic meltdown would inflict worse hardship than allowing the virus to run its course. Pollster Datafolha found that roughly 30 per cent of Brazilians surveyed May 25-26 rated Bolsonaro as good or excellent and also approved of his handling of the pandemic. Bolsonaro foes, seeing weakness, have submitted more than 30 requests for impeachment to Congress, where so far they've been stalled by the lower house speaker. The president's allies hope energized supporters could make it costly to support such moves. The muted support for Bolsonaro was on display the past weekend, with protests against Bolsonaro's government held in 20 cities while pro-government demonstrations were significantly smaller than prior weekends. Bolsonaro still enjoys considerable support on the far right. Backers in April were quick to join his call to defy social isolation recommendations even as the outbreak started exploding. Then they echoed the president's call to treat COVID-19 with chloroquine, which many doctors refuse to prescribe for lack of evidence it can help and fear it may hurt some. Olavo de Carvalho, an influential far-right idealogue, said May 12 the "supposedly deadly virus" was nothing more than a scare tactic to cow the population into slavery. Bolsonaro has tried to energize his base by joining weekend rallies in the capital that feature banners denouncing the Supreme Court and Congress, sometimes in lurid terms, for undermining his administration. On May 31, he flew over the crowd in an Army helicopter and, after landing, rode into the plaza on horseback flanked by mounted military police. On Friday, he pledged to make it easier for police officers and servicemen to import guns for personal use, part of the far-right's longstanding demand to make guns more accessible. "What's making Bolsonaro get more radical is the pandemic; some processes that existed before were accelerated. And he is being seen as he is," said Adriana Dias, a researcher on far-right groups at University of Campinas. She noted that Bolsonaro never demonstrates empathy about the virus, for example replying, "So what?" when asked about Brazil's death toll surpassing China's. "That didn't ring well with average Brazilians. That makes him even more dependent on the radicals," she said. A fissure emerged Saturday night, however. De Carvalho made an apparently rhetorical threat to topple the government. Once among Bolsonaro's most strident supporters, he said repeatedly the president has only paid lip service to fighting political enemies without taking aggressive action -- a sign of weakness that strengthens opponents and "invites humiliation." "There is still time for Bolsonaro to stop following bad advice and correct course of his policy. How much time? Five minutes," Carvalho wrote on Facebook. In an effort to bring de Carvalho back into the fold, close Bolsonaro ally Luciano Hang, who owns a chain of department stores, posted a 38-minute video to Facebook. 'I'm on your side and Brazilians need to be, too," Hang said. "We need to be in the trenches fighting with you." Bolsonaro relies on such allies, as well as sons, ministers and advisors, to transmit signals that excite his base, according to Odilon Caldeira Neto, a history professor at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora who researches far-right ideology. "The far-right embraces the idea of anti-democratic ruptures, and Bolsonaro is giving more space to those voices," Caldeira said, particularly referring to showdowns with the Supreme Court and Congress, and alluding to the 1964-85 dictatorship that eventually closed Congress and sometimes overruled the Supreme Court. Bolsonaro denounced a Supreme Court-ordered federal police raid on May 28 against prominent allies suspected of conspiring to circulate false and defamatory social media posts about his foes. Algeria's president called Tuesday for international cooperation against "terrorism", in the country's first official response to French forces' killing of the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). French Defence Minister Florence Parly announced Friday that Algerian Abdelmalek Droukdel and several close associates had been killed by French forces in northwestern Mali, near the Algerian border. Reacting Tuesday, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said his country believes "terrorism has an international dimension and the fight against (it) is the responsibility of the international community". Droukdel's killing "is in this context", he said. Despite keeping a low profile, Droukdel was one of the Maghreb region's most powerful Islamist warlords, commanding several groups under the banner of AQIM. He was active for decades in Algeria, particularly during the country's 1992-2002 civil war between Islamists and the state, in which some 200,000 people died. AQIM emerged from a group founded in the late 1990s by radical Algerian Islamists, who in 2007 pledged allegiance to Osama Bin Laden's global jihadist network, Al-Qaeda. It calls for an Islamic revolution in the Maghreb and the Sahel, a vast band of territory along the south of the Sahara desert, where it has claimed numerous deadly attacks. The semi-desert region has been plagued by jihadists since militants seized control of Mali's north in 2012. Despite a French-led intervention and a long-running UN peace mission there, the conflict has spread to Niger and Burkina Faso and killed thousands of soldiers and civilians. AQIM is on a US list of "terrorist" organisations, and US Africa Command said it had provided intelligence that had helped track Droukdel down. Analyst Akram Kharief, head of the regional defence and security website menadefense.net, said Droukdel's death could accentuate rivalries among jihadist factions. "His disappearance is important because it marks the end of Algerian domination" of jihadist groups in the Sahel, Kharief said. Droukdel is likely to be replaced by a northern Algerian with "few ties and therefore little control" over groups in the south, he said. That could weaken AQMI's influence over the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), a Mali-based jihadist alliance, and "rekindle tensions between jihadi factions, especially in Mali," Kharief said. The Islamic State group also has a franchise in the region, set up by former AQIM member Adnan Abou Walid Sahraoui. W hile it looks like we won't be going on holiday anytime soon, once we can start travelling around the UK again it will only mean one thing: a road trip is in order. While we Brits tend to fly off to the warmer oceans of Europe as soon as we put our out of office on, this year consider staying closer to home with a classic British road trip. From the ever-beautiful Scottish Highlands to the famous tracks on the Isle of Man and the beach-dotted Cornish coastline, weve detailed our favourite road trip routes in the UK below. Heart 200, Scotland The Trossachs / Unsplash Youll drive through: Perth, Sterling, The Trossachs and Cairngorms National Park. Time needed: 2-3 days. The newest road trip on the block, Heart 200 launched in 2019 and covers 200 miles around the heart of Scotland. The round trip from Stirling takes you through Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, up to Cairgorms National Park and down through Perthshire. Easily done in a weekend, you can also access the road from Glasgow and Edinburgh. Along the way, expect to see castles, distilleries (of both the gin and whiskey variety), stunning nature and delicious pubs and eateries. If you need to work, the site can even point you to co-working spaces along the route. heart200.scot/ Atlantic Highway, England Newquay / Unsplash Youll drive through: Barnstaple, Bude, Exmoor National Park and Newquay. Time needed: 4-5 days. Otherwise known as the A39, the Atlantic Highway stretches from Barnstaple in Devon to Fraddon in Cornwall undoubtedly two of the more temperate areas in the UK. While the route is just 77 miles long, there are a number of detours and stops to make along the way. If driving from London, be sure to stop at Exmoor National Park en route to the highway, and there are also a number of lovely seaside Cornish villages to visit as well like Newquay, Padstow and Bude. atlantic-highway.co.uk/ The Cambrian Way, Wales Cardiff / Unsplash Youll drive through: Cardiff, Brecon Beacons National Park and Snowdonia National Park. Time needed: 5 days. Part of the newly-launched Wales Way a selection of three driving routes through Wales the 185-mile Cambrian Way takes you from coast to coast. The north-to-south journey takes you along the mountainous spine of Wales, weaving between the glorious Brecon Beacons before arriving at Snowdonia National Park and finally the Victorian seaside resort of Llandudno. visitwales.com/ Causeway Coastal Route, Northern Ireland Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge / Unsplash Youll drive through: Belfast, the Dark Hedges, Giants Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and Derry. Time needed: 2-3 days. Northern Irelands most popular drive, and Lonely Planets number one region to visit last year, the Coastal Causeway route is not to be missed. Starting in either Derry or Belfast, head to the coast where youll pass the Giants Causeway, the Dark Hedges (made famous by Game of Thrones) and Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge from where you can sometimes see across the sea to Scotland on a clear day. The white sands and azure waters of Whitepark Bay also makes for a lovely stop, as does the small fishing village of Ballintoy Harbour and Dunluce Castle on the North Antrim Coast. discovernorthernireland.com/ Oxford to the Wye Valley, England Cotswolds / Unsplash Youll drive through: Cotswolds, Cheltenham, Gloucester and Ross-on-Wye. Time needed: 4-5 days. Is there anything more quintessentially British than a weekend spent in the chocolate-box villages of the Costwolds? This self-guided tour will take you from the historic university town of Oxford, through the Cotswolds and over the border to Wales. One for nature lovers whose favourite pastime is a nice, long country walk, this route will wind you through picture-perfect British towns and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. North Coast 500, Scotland Sandwood Bay / Shutterstock Youll drive through: Inverness, Fairy Glen, Dunrobin Castle and Sandwood Bay. Time needed: 7 days. Dubbed as Scotlands answer to Route 66, the North Coast 500 will take you to the furthest reaches of the Highlands. Starting in Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, spend your first day looking for Nessie at nearby Loch Ness before spending the week discovering fairytale castles, idyllic beaches and charming villages. Highlights include spotting Highland cows, the stunning Torridon Mountains and the sea stacks at Duncansby Head. While 7 days will be just enough time, extend it if you can to fit everything in. northcoast500.com/ Tourist Trophy Route, Isle of Man Isle of Man / Unsplash Youll drive through: Braddan Bridge, Glen Helen, Ballaugh Bridge and Ramsey Hairpin. Time needed: 3 days (with other routes included). Sitting pretty between the UK and Ireland, the Isle of Man hosts the world-famous motorcycle race the Isle of Man TT each year. If you dont fancy racing, you can follow the 37.5-mile circuit in your own time. Expect to be in awe of the stunning landmarks along the way, from Braddan Bridge and Glen Hele to the famous restaurant, Creg-ny-Baa. There are a number of other routes to follow while on the island as well so, if you can, extend your trip to explore all the Isle of Man has to offer. visitisleofman.com/ Coastal Way, Wales Mwnt Beach / Shutterstock Youll drive through: St Davids, Mwnt Beach, Cardigan and Portmeirion. Time needed: 7 days. Another family member of the Wales Way, the Coastal Way leads you along the coast of Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Gwynedd counties. Starting at St Davids in the south, winding through to Aberdaron on the tip of the wild Llyn Peninsula in the north, expect a journey filled with sandy beaches, quaint harbour villages and hidden coves. During the drive youll also pass through two National Parks, a protected Heritage Coast and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. visitwales.com/ Glasgow to Isle of Skye, Scotland Isle of Skye / Unsplash Youll drive through: The Trossachs, Glencoe, Fort William and Eilean Donan Castle. Time needed: 5 days. A classic and popular self-guided road trip, the route begins in Glasgow and its worth spending a night or two there exploring the centre and the West End. Not long after you depart Glasgow, youll enter mountain territory, passing by Loch Lomond and The Trossachs before delving into the valleys of Glencoe. Spend a night or two in Fort William, discovering the Glenfinnan Viaduct (the bridge made famous by the Harry Potter films), and the road up to Mallaig where you can get the ferry to the Isle of Skye or double back and follow the A82, then A87 to pass the magnificent Eilean Donan Castle on your way to Skye. Once in Skye, expect dramatic landscapes, friendly locals and an abundance of fresh seafood. Give yourself at least three days here. Peak District to the Lake District, England Yorkshire Dales / Unsplash Youll drive through: Windermere, Yorkshire Dales and Manchester. Time needed: 4-5 days. Two of the UKs most beautiful National Parks, its well worth combining the Lake District and the Peak District for a singular road trip. With lovely lakes and lush hills, the Lake District is the perfect place to start this self-guided road trip. Check into one of the many spa hotels dotted around this quaint piece of countryside and treat yourself to some R&R before continuing through the Yorkshire Dales and on to Manchester. Here, youll discover the delights of the city that produced Liam Gallagher before carrying on to the Peak District. Be sure to visit Lyme Hall, the setting of what was Pemberley in the Colin Firth adaptation of Pride and Prejudice we just dont recommend going for a swim in the pond. If you have an extra day or two to kill, why not go east before heading down to the Peak District and tack on the North York Moors National Park too? The perfect way to complete your northern National Park quartet. WAILUKU, HI, June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Celebrated International Speaker and Dental Consultant Cindy Ishimoto is excited to announce that she has been invited to contribute multiple articles to the American Dental Association (ADA) Center for Professional Success Dental Practice Success Magazine. Cindy Ishimoto has over thirty-five years of experience in the dental industry as both a dental speaker and practice management consultant. Cindy's work focuses on establishing systems for dentists and their teams that balance serving patients, profitability and enjoyment of profession. The first article of Cindy's ADA Magazine series is featured in the Spring 2020 issue. In this article, entitled "Embracing Generational Diversity", Cindy highlights the need to recognize and address the different generations represented on dental teams. At least half (52%) of workers say they're less likely to get along with someone from another generation than their own. Problems generational differences can lead to include disengagement in the workplace, poor communication, decreased productivity, leadership miscues and more. According to Cindy, it's time to "think about what different generations can teach and learn from each other, and how those conversations can result in entirely new ways of solving problems together." Dental practices need to "make it a goal to create 'Generation Us' teams." The full copy of Cindy's Spring 2020 ADA Dental Practice Success Magazine article is featured on the articles page of the Cindy Ishimoto website . Cindy is also available to present her popular course "Gen-Blending: Creating Generation "US" to practice teams or at dental events. For additional insights from this in-demand International Dental Speaker and Dental Practice Management Advisor subscribe to the Cindy Ishimoto blog . About Cindy Ishimoto Cindy Ishimoto has over thirty-five years of experience in the dental industry, initially as an assistant and business auxiliary, then progressing to a management position, and now as an international dental consultant and speaker acknowledged by Dentistry Today as one of the leaders in dental consulting from 2006 through 2020. Her knowledge of all facets of dentistry, people skills, motivation and communication are reflected in her ability to teach and train. Cindy's love of people and dentistry enable her to share her enthusiasm to build successful, people-oriented businesses. SOURCE Cindy Ishimoto A U.S. appeals court has blocked Bayer AG from selling an agricultural weed killer in the United States, the latest setback for a business already fighting an expensive legal battle over another product. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency substantially understated the risks related to the use of dicamba, a chemical found in herbicides sold by Bayer and rivals that are sprayed on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton. The herbicides are known to drift away and damage other crops that are not resistant. The lawsuit was among those German-based Bayer inherited when it bought Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018. The company faces separate allegations that its glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup causes cancer. Environmental groups have sought cancellation of the EPAs approval of Monsantos dicamba-based XtendiMax herbicide, arguing it harms nearby plants and wildlife. Trump Administration Permits Use of Existing Supplies of Weed Killer Blocked by Court By Tom Polansek CHICAGO, June 8 (Reuters) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday that farmers can use existing supplies of an agricultural weed killer linked to crop damage, after a federal court blocked sales and use of the product last week. The EPA said farmers have until July 31 to use supplies of dicamba-based herbicides that they had on hand as of June 3. The products, sold by Bayer AG and rivals, are known to drift away and damage crops that are not resistant to the chemical. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 3 that the EPA had substantially understated the risks related to the use of the herbicides, which are sprayed on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton. The decision confused farmers who bought herbicides months ago as they wrap up planting in the U.S., the worlds No. 2 soybean exporter. Different responses to the decision from states subsequently created an uneven playing field for growers. EPAs order will mitigate some of the devastating economic consequences of the courts decision for growers, the EPA said in a statement. About 60% of the U.S. soybean crop this year is expected to be seeded with Bayers dicamba-resistant Xtend soybeans, according to Bayer. They need to be sprayed with the herbicide to ward off weeds that have developed a tolerance for another chemical, glyphosate. Several farm states said after the court decision that they would allow dicamba spraying as they waited for guidance from the EPA. Plaintiffs in the court case against the EPA, which include environmental and public-interest groups, had urged the agency to immediately tell states that it was illegal to use the dicamba herbicides. Todays disingenuous order from the EPA flies in the face of the court decision holding these pesticides unlawful, attorneys for the plaintiffs said in a statement. The court agreed, and its ruling, issued on Wednesday, also blocks sales of dicamba-based herbicides like BASFs Engenia and Corteva Agrisciences FeXapan. Bayer and BASF said they disagreed with the judgment. Corteva said it was reviewing the decision and believed dicamba could be used safely. Shares in Bayer fell 4%, while BASFs stock recovered after initial losses and Cortevas stock rose 3%. Bayer said the ruling related to the agencys 2018 registration decision that expires in December and that it was seeking new EPA registration for the herbicide for 2021 and beyond. The EPA said it was reviewing the courts decision and would move promptly to address its order. Depending upon actions by the EPA and whether the ruling is successfully challenged, we will work quickly to minimize any impact on our customers this season, Bayer said. RULING PRAISED, CRITICIZED U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue criticized the ruling and said it was unclear if farmers who had already purchased dicamba products for the current soy season could legally use them. Farmers across America have spent hard earned money on previously allowed crop protection tools. I encourage the EPA to use any available flexibilities to allow the continued use of already purchased dicamba products, Perdue said in a statement. The EPA added restrictions on the use of dicamba in 2018 and the companies adapted as a result. Bernstein analyst Gunther Zechmann said there would therefore be little effect on dicamba volumes for next years planting season. The company has already made label adjustments, which has therefore made the court opinion moot, he said in a note. The decision could cost Bayer 30 million euros ($34 million) in lost earnings, Zechmann said. Arkansas farmer Reed Storey said he was encouraged by the ruling, after his soybeans suffered damage from dicamba sprayed on neighboring fields from 2016 to 2018. Its a move in the right direction in getting the in-crop use of it stopped, he said. Some farmers and seed dealers said the ruling could drive a shift away from Bayers dicamba-resistant Xtend soybean seeds to Enlist E3 soybeans sold by Corteva. Xtend soybeans account for more than half of U.S. soy plantings. Farmers turned to the product to protect themselves from dicamba sprayed by neighbors and after some weeds developed resistance to glyphosate. The American Soybean Association trade group said in a statement it regrets that the future of dicamba a very effective weed management product when used responsibly is on the line. ($1 = 0.8820 euros) (Reporting by Sabahatjahan Contractor and Rama Venkat in Bengalurur, Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt and Tom Polansek in Chicago; Additional reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru and Patricia Weiss in Frankfurt; Editing by Keith Weir, David Gregorio and Peter Cooney) Both hotels, located in Cancuns Hotel Zone, are the first ones the chain is reopening in the Mexican Caribbean after closing its 99 establishments worldwide (20 of them in Mexico) in March of this year. With these openings, RIU is taking another step towards its goal of gradually resuming its operations all over the world, after having already opened urban hotels in Miami, Berlin and Guadalajara, and having announced the opening of another four vacation establishments in Bulgaria. The Riu Palace Peninsula is the second hotel that the chain is opening in Mexico, after the reopening on 25 May of the Riu Plaza Guadalajara, in Jalisco, to which the Riu Cancunwill soon be added. The chains goal is to gradually resume its activity in the multiple destinations in the country where it operates (Cancun, Costa Mujeres, Playa del Carmen, Los Cabos, Riviera Nayarit, Mazatlan and Guadalajara). As in the case of the Riu Plaza Guadalajara and in preparation for their imminent reopening, the Riu Palace Peninsula and Riu Cancun are ready to start applying the protocols contained in the RIU Post-COVID Manual for hotels, which provides the maximum safety guarantees for both guests and employees. To do so, RIU has established a specific training program to ensure that all employees are ready to apply the 17 protocols created by the chain in collaboration with the consulting firm Preverisk. The reopening of the Riu Palace Peninsula, located at kilometer 5.5 of Cancuns Hotel Zone, is very good news for the start of Cancuns recovery as a tourist destination, in the year in which the city is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its creation. Built in 2012, the Riu Palace Peninsula has become a favorite of RIUs customers, both for its beauty and impressive facade and for the sophistication of the 562 rooms and common areas. For its part, the Riu Cancun is a symbol for the families that visit RIU to experience the marvels of the Mexican Caribbean. Fully renovated in 2014, the hotel offers 569 rooms and is located on the beachfront. Like the Riu Palace Peninsula, it offers its guests RIUs recognized 24-hour All-Inclusive service. Update on RIU hotels that are currently open: The Riu Palace Peninsula is the fourth hotel that RIU is reopening after the crisis caused by COVID-19. The hotels that have opened their doors are: Riu Plaza Guadalajara and Riu Palace Peninsula (Mexico); Riu Plaza Berlin (Germany); Riu Plaza Miami Beach (United States). The reopening, in June, of four hotels in Bulgaria has also been announced. For further information please visit: www.riu.com Image Credit: Riu Hotels & Resorts Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about efforts to promote ethnic unity at Jinhuayuan community in Jinxing Township of Wuzhong City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 8, 2020. Xi inspected Ningxia on Monday. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) YINCHUAN, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Monday inspected northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. On Monday afternoon, Xi visited a village, a section of the Yellow River, and a residential community in the city of Wuzhong to learn about efforts to advance poverty alleviation, strengthen ecological protection of the Yellow River, and promote ethnic unity. The village of Hongde, which Xi visited, has a population of 7,013. It shook off poverty in 2019 through the development of farming and husbandry while providing training to locals to help them secure skilled jobs outside the village. A cardboard packaging workshop was also set up in the village to offer stable local jobs. Monday marked the fourth time Xi visited the Yellow River in less than a year. The 5,464-kilometer-long river is considered the cradle of the Chinese nation. The Jinhuayuan community Xi visited is a national model community of ethnic unity. About 45 percent of its 13,850 residents are ethnic minorities. Legislation calls for sanctions against those responsible for repression of Uighurs, other Muslims in Xinjiang province. US President Donald Trump plans to sign legislation calling for sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for oppressing Uighur Muslims, a source familiar with the matter has revealed, without offering a timeframe for the signing. The bill, which passed the US House of Representatives and Senate with bipartisan support last month, calls for sanctions against those responsible for the repression of Uighurs and other Muslim groups in Chinas Xinjiang province, where the United Nations estimates more than a million Muslims have been detained in camps. The Chinese embassy in Washington repeated a prior statement, noting that the bill blatantly smears Chinas counterterrorism and deradicalisation measures and seriously interferes in Chinas internal affairs, which China deplores and firmly opposes. We urge the US to immediately rectify its mistake, stop using Xinjiang-related issues to intervene in Chinas internal affairs and refrain from going even further down the wrong path, the embassy added. The bills progress comes amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the coronavirus pandemics origins and Chinas move to impose a new national security law on Hong Kong. China denies mishandling the outbreak and has said the US should stop interfering in Hong Kong and Chinese affairs. Trump said last week he was not considering imposing sanctions on Chinese President Xi Jinping personally over Beijings push to impose the legislation in Hong Kong. But the Republican president recently ordered his administration to begin eliminating special US treatment for Hong Kong to punish China, and said Washington would also impose sanctions on individuals seen as responsible for smothering absolutely smothering Hong Kongs freedom. The legislation, proposed by Republican Senator Marco Rubio, singles out Xinjiangs Communist Party secretary, Chen Quanguo, a member of Chinas powerful Politburo, as responsible for gross human rights violations against Uighurs. China denies mistreatment and says the camps provide vocational training. Uighur activists and human rights groups said many of those held are people with advanced degrees and business owners who are influential in their communities and have no need for special education. People who were in the camps described being subjected to forced political indoctrination, torture and denial of food and medicine, and say they have been prohibited from practising their religion or speaking their language. While China has denied these accounts, it has refused to allow independent inspections. CHESHUNT (dpa-AFX) - The Financial Reporting Council or FRC announced the closure of its investigation into accountants working within Tesco PLC. The investigation was related to the company's overstatement of profit of approximately 250 million pounds as announced in September 2014. FRC said the matter has now been closed without service of a Formal Complaint. The investigation commenced in December 2014 in relation to the preparation, approval and audit of the financial statements of Tesco for the financial years 2012, 2013 and 2014, as well as of the financial information relating to the 26 weeks ended August 23, 2014. During the course of the wider investigation, Tesco's many accountant employees were added as subjects. The investigation into these individuals was subsequently paused pending the Serious Fraud Office's or SFO trial of three non-accountant, senior Tesco employees on charges relating to the overstatement. The FRC previously closed the investigation into Tesco's former Chief Financial Officer in August 2016 and its former auditors in June 2017. The agency noted that the Executive Counsel has decided to discontinue the matters in relation to each of the remaining subjects following the conclusion of the SFO proceedings, and consideration of relevant material and information subsequently obtained from the SFO. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de At some point, history may show us that after years of aggression, after so much brutality that suggested so little fear of consequence, it took the looting of Chanel and the reversion of SoHo to a wasteland to disable a law that has made real police accountability so difficult in New York City. It required a political class moved by fear of disorder and desecration rather than compelled by the logic of justice, which had been obvious for so long. The law, known by its identification in the states civil code 50-a was originally intended to shield good cops from vigilantes. But in practice it has protected habitually delinquent police officers for decades. However unlikely it would have been just a month ago, 50-a now faces the overdue prospect of erasure. On Monday, high-ranking members of New Yorks state legislature committed to overturning it along with a spate of other bills that would signify a similarly radical change to what the law has tolerated from the police. For several years, there has been no work more vital to ending police brutality than abolishing laws and policies that weaken transparency and soften repercussion. Chief among them are the statutes, like 50-a, that enshrine police misconduct in secrecy, shielding the personnel and disciplinary records of police officers from public view so that there is often no way for a victim to know if an abusive officer has a history of dubious behavior unless someone has happened to sue him. Many officers dispatched to the recent protests have concealed their badge numbers with strips of elastic or electrical tape. The department said that these were mourning bands, worn to honor colleagues who have died from Covid-19, but a civil liberties group demanded they be removed so that bad actors could be easily identified. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 23:39:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JINAN, June 9 (Xinhua) -- East China's Shandong Province plans to launch two new China-Europe freight train routes within this year. This will raise the total number of its "Qilu" trains departing for Europe and Central Asia from 800 to 1,200 for 2020. The province will also increase the frequency and service quality of existing lines, according to Xu Chenggang of the China Railway Jinan Group. Shandong had resumed its China-Europe and China-Asia freight train services by the middle of February despite the COVID-19 epidemic. As of now, more than 500 freight trains have departed from the province, up 40 percent compared with the same period last year, Xu said. The province is now operating 33 international freight train routes, linking cities in Shandong with more than 40 cities in Europe and Central Asia. Enditem Tens of thousands of workers and young people joined protests across Canada over the weekend to oppose police violence and racism. The trigger for the demonstrations was the brutal police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But protesters in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and other cities emphasized that conditions in Canada are all too similar, with police wantonly killing and assaulting workers and youth, and harassing blacks, indigenous people and other visible minorities The large turnout in at least 25 cities across the country also gave expression to the deepening social crisis produced by decades of capitalist austerity and intensified by the ruling class criminally negligent response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of the demonstration in Toronto Tens of thousands marched in Montreal Sunday. In addition to commemorating the memory of Floyd and voicing support for the mass protests sweeping the US, protesters strongly denounced Quebec Premier Francois Legault, a right-wing Quebec nationalist who has built his political career on whipping up anti-immigrant xenophobia and Islamophobia. Last week, Legault rejected the suggestion that racism is a major problem in Quebec. Im so mad, Amina Diallo, a protester, told CBC. He talks like he knows it all, like he is one of us. He has no idea about our life experiences. Reflecting the reactionary political outlook of the organizers, the New Generation Black League, right-wing political figures were invited to address the Montreal demonstration. These included Quebec Liberal Party leader Dominique Anglade. The Liberals, who held office for all but 18 months between April 2003 and October 2018, imposed round after round of austerity, and in 2012 presided over months of violent police repression of a province-wide student strike. Montreal police confronted a small group of protesters and attacked them with pepper spray and tear gas after they refused to disperse at the end of the demonstration. Sizable protests also occurred outside the provincial legislature in Quebec City, in Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivieres, Rimouski, and the small north shore industrial city of Sept-Isles. Thousands of protesters joined two separate demonstrations in Toronto on Saturday, including one that started at Nathan Phillips Square before making its way to the American consulate. The other demonstration marched from Trinity Bell Park to Queens Park, the seat of the provincial legislature. One of those participating in the protest outside the US consulate was Sahar Bahadi, the mother of Sammy Yatim, who was shot to death by a Toronto police officer in an empty streetcar in 2013. I feel sorry for the people who lost their children, a member of their family without any reason by the police. Police should be protecting us, not killing us. My heart is with everybody here, she said (see: Toronto cop found guilty on lesser charge in killing of Sammy Yatim). Ten thousand people also marched in London, Ontario, while protests in Kingston and Guelph, among other cities, drew thousands more. In Calgary, Alberta at least 4,000 protesters gathered downtown Saturday. At Olympic Plaza, a candlelit vigil was attended by thousands of people, who chanted the names of those killed by the police in the United States and Canada. A protest was also held in Fort McMurray, the centre of northern Albertas tar sands oil industry. Last week, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations Chief Allan Adam revealed that he and his wife were assaulted by police in a Fort McMurray parking lot earlier this year. Thousands also participated in demonstrations Saturday in St Johns, Newfoundland; Victoria, British Columbia; and Whitehorse in the far north. On Friday, thousands more had gathered outside the Manitoba legislature in Winnipeg and at Jack Poole Plaza in Vancouver. As many as ten thousand joined the latter protest. The scale of the protests and the fact they encompassed dozens of cities in all parts of the country speak to the deep-seated popular outrage over police violence. They also underscore that Floyds brutal murder was a trigger event, unleashing pent-up anger over decades of austerity and unprecedented levels of social inequality (see: Mass protests erupt across Canada against police brutality and Trump). Part of the demonstration in Toronto The brutal reality of Canadian capitalism has been further exposed during the coronavirus pandemic. The ruling elite rewarded itself with hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts funds to indemnify itself against any losses, while placing the millions of workers and youth who have lost their jobs on ration-type relief benefits. Now it is mounting a back-to-work campaign, forcing workers to return to their jobs under unsafe conditions. The outrage expressed towards Legault at Sundays Montreal demonstration was significant in this regard. The hard-right former Air Transat CEO has been touted in the bourgeois media as a popular figure who has guided his province through the pandemic and is now successfully reopening the economy. In reality, Quebec has suffered the highest number of infections of any province in Canada, and its deaths per head of population are among the highest in the world. The economic and social crisis and the American ruling class looting of the Treasury and readiness to sacrifice workers lives in the pursuit of profit have also been the driving force behind the unprecedented wave of multi-racial, multi-ethnic protests that have engulfed all parts of the United States, including the Deep South, since Floyds brutal murder on May 25. The Trump administration, with the complicity of the Democrats, has responded by inciting military-police violence that has left a dozen protesters dead, wounded many more, and led to thousands of arrests. On June 1, Trump sought to deploy the US military across the country to suppress the protests in violation of the Constitution and initiated a White House-led coup aimed at establishing a presidential dictatorship. The mass protests have terrified Canadas ruling elite no less than its American counterpart. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has refused to condemn Trumps authoritarian power grab for fear that such criticism could damage Canadian imperialisms military-strategic partnership with Washington. Trudeaus 21-second pause after he was asked to comment on Trumps inciting of police violence last week and the praise he has since received from the corporate media for putting Canadas national interest first exemplify the absence of any constituency for democratic rights within ruling circles (see: Canadian establishment shrugs off Trumps authoritarian power grab, voices horror over mass protests). Seeking to repair the political damage done by his refusal to criticize Trump, Trudeau appeared with great public fanfare at a protest against police violence and racism on Parliament Hill in Ottawa last Friday. As the protesters remained silent for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time Floyd was choked to death by police officer Derek Chauvin, Trudeau took a knee. Trudeau was conspicuously absent, however, when the protest reached the US embassy. Trudeaus public appearance was also aimed at bolstering his tattered progressive credentials. Since coming to power in 2015, Trudeaus trade union-backed Liberal government has deployed racial and gender identity politics to conceal its pro-war, pro-austerity agenda. Trudeau and his supporters have touted his appointment of the first Sikh Defence Minister and the first indigenous Justice Minister, as well as the Liberals claim to be pursuing a feminist foreign policy. But even some bourgeois political representatives recognize that Trudeaus posturing is wearing thin, and fear that the growing protests will come into direct conflict with the entire political establishment. This was the significance of comments made by New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh in an interview with CTV News on Sunday. Trying to cast himself as an ally of the protesters, Singh denounced Trudeau for his silence when asked to condemn Trump, which he said showed cowardice. In his remarks, Singh, like the NDPs US Democratic Party allies, avoided any reference to Trumps attempted coup detat. Instead, he merely accused the President of inflaming an already tense situation and encouraging racism. Singh concluded by saying that risking economic retaliation from the White House for criticizing Trump would be a price worth paying, for speak(ing) up when something is so wrong. This posturing is thoroughly cynical. For one thing, Singh avoided reference to Ottawas intimate military-strategic cooperation with Washington, which has seen Canada participate in virtually every US-led war during the past quarter-century. This omission is not hard to explain since Canadian imperialisms involvement in US wars of aggression has invariably been endorsed by the NDP. In last years federal election, Singhs party fought on a program that called for tens of billions of dollars in additional military spending to enable the armed forces to meet growing strategic challenges around the world, above all from Russia and China. Secondly, the NDP and trade unions have responded to the greatest capitalist crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s by cementing their long-standing close ties to the big business Liberals. Singhs criticism of Trudeau came little more than a week after he concluded a parliamentary deal with the prime minister to shut down the House of Commons for four months. The agreement strengthens the hand of the Liberal minority government at a time when major companies are imposing tens of thousands of layoffs and other attacks on the working class, and when the makeshift financial aid programs put in place during the coronavirus pandemic are being cut back. Singhs deal with the big business Liberals to suspend parliament, based on a worthless commitment to provide 10 days of annual sick leave for workersa pledge that the provincial governments have already rejected out of handis enabling Andrew Scheers hard-right Conservatives to cynically posture as defenders of democracy. Union Home Minister on Monday urged people to use only indigenous products as far as possible as part of efforts to make the country self-reliant. "Narendra Modiji made a call for Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant), an India where 130 crore people use Indian products. I appeal to crores of BJP workers, people of Odisha and the country to take a pledge to use indigenous products as far as possible," said at Odisha Jan-Samvad virtual rally. Shah said party workers should continue to help those in need during the crisis created by the pandemic. He said the work done by the BJP government in the past one year cannot be seen in isolation. "Modiji became Prime Minister six years ago. Today the whole world sees India with pride, all this was started when Modiji was chosen to lead the nation," he said. Shah said many governments came with two-thirds majority but did not have the courage to remove Article 370 and 35A. "On August 5, 2019, Narendra Modiji brought the bill to parliament and abrogated Article 370 and 35A. This is a courageous decision which only PM Modi could take," he said. He referred to surgical strike and aerial strike carried out by Modi government after terror attacks and said it showed the world that India would not endure the encroachment of its borders. He said Pakistan was punished by airstrikes and surgical strikes. "We've also seen terrorist attacks like before, but PM Modi did not sit silently like previous PMs. He answered with airstrikes and surgical strikes and teaching them a lesson. This showed the world that India would not endure the encroachment of its borders," he said. ''Under PM Modi's leadership, any intrusion into the borders of India will be punished. Some used to say that US and Israel were the only countries which were willing and capable of avenging every drop of the blood of their soldiers. Modi Ji has added India to that list,'' he added. The Home Minister said BJP isn't in politics just for power, but for getting in touch with people, understanding their problems and take it to the government. "When we form the government, we take our report card to the people with our performances," he said. Referring to COVID-19, he said the norm was to follow social distancing but it can never be between the people and the party. He said the party was getting in touch with people through virtual rallies. He said people of Odisha "blessed" the party with over 38 per cent votes in the state in the Lok Sabha elections and eight seats that helped PM Modi continue leading India at the global level Referring to Ayushman Bharat, he said the scheme was started by the Prime Minister for 50 crore poor Indians. "When Modiji became prime minister in 2014, he said his government is for the poor, tribals, Dalits. He fulfils what he says," Shah said, adding that he has taken a lot of steps to improve living standard of the poor in the country. "When PM Modi came to power, seven crore families had no bank accounts. Under the Jan Dhan Yojana, 31 crore bank accounts were opened. During the lockdown, the Modi government sent Rs 53,000 crore to crores of Indians to help them," he said. Shah said 9.5 crore farmers have received Rs 72,000 crore so far under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. "It's not a one-time thing. Every farmer will receive Rs 6,000 every year by the Modi government. Congress waived off loans just once, but this yearly support will help our farmers even more," he said. Shah said PM Modi did not sign the RCEP agreement to ensure our small traders and manufacturers were safeguarded. "Several such decisions were taken to protect several people from various fields in the country," he said. He said in several states like Odisha, more than 42 per cent households don't have access to tap water. "PM Narendra Modi launched Jal Jeevan Mission to make available safe drinking water through pipeline to 25 crore people by 2022. It is such a big decision," he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi, June 9 : Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said that COVID-19 cases in the city are expected to shoot up to 5.5 lakh by July 31 while Central government officers have asserted that there is "no community spread in the national capital". "Till June 15, there will be 44,000 COVID-19 cases and we would need 6,600 beds. We would hit one lakh cases and would require 15,000 beds by June 30. Till July 15, the cases would mount to 2.5 lakh and we would require 33,000 beds and till July 31, there will be 5.5 lakh cases and we would need 80,000 beds," Sisodia told reporters. The remarks came a day after Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal issued an order striking down key announcements made by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government to reserve beds in private and Delhi government hospitals for city residents. The Lt Governor, who is also the Chairman of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, had in his order on Monday said that "treatment should not be denied to any patient on grounds of being a non-resident". A day later, the Deputy Chief Minister said that if the cases keep doubling in 12.6 days, there will be shortage of beds and Delhiites will face its brunt. "We asked the L-G to reconsider the order, but he refused. Now, who will take the responsibility if the cases keep on increasing and the beds are full?" he asked. Sisodia and State Health Minister Satyendar Jain spoke to the media after a meeting at Anil Baijal's residence ahead of an all-party meeting at 3 p.m. on Tuesday over the issue. Sisodia said that during the meeting, central government officials said that there is no community spread of COVID-19 in the national capital. "Officials from Centre say no community transmission of COVID-19 virus in Delhi," informed Sisodia. Meanwhile, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain also sounded a note of caution and said that of the new cases reported in the city, nearly 50 percent are those in which the source of infection is not known. Lt Governor Anil Baijal has called an all-party meeting later on Tuesday to discuss the COVID-19 outbreak and measures to contain its spread in the national capital. Delhi has recorded over 1,000 cases of the infection in the last 24 hours, taking its tally to more than 29,000. At least 874 people have died of COVID-19. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text KCK leaders form task force to gather community input on local law enforcement KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City, Kansas, Mayor David Alvey said he hopes a new task force will "create a community that values the life and dignity of every person." The mayor announced the newly-formed Task Force on Community and Police Relations at a Monday morning press conference. Best effort from The Dotte that hopes to answer rising discontent and/or keep activists busy doing something other than marching, protesting and breaking stuff . . . Read more: Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 19:27:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Iran reported 2,095 new cases over the past 24 hours, taking the total confirmed novel coronavirus cases to 175,927 on Tuesday, according to official IRNA news agency. Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said during his daily update on Tuesday that 72 people died overnight, taking the total fatalities over the virus to 8,425. So far, 138,457 have recovered and 2,639 remain in critical condition, said Lari. According to the health spokeswoman, 1,128,601 lab tests for COVID-19 have been carried out in Iran as of Tuesday. Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on Feb. 19. Iran and China have offered mutual help in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-February, at the early stage of the coronavirus outbreak in China, Iran lit up the Tehran Azadi (Liberty) Tower to show its solidarity with China, and donated 3 million masks to China. In return, China has delivered several shipments of medical supplies to Iran. On Feb. 29, a five-member Chinese medical team visited Iran for a month-long mission to help Iran fight the pandemic. Enditem (Natural News) Russian scientists have reportedly come up with a new way to treat the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) using ultraviolet (UV) light, the same technology that the mainstream media mocked President Trump for suggesting as a potential disinfectant remedy. Covered by none other than Newsweek, one of the media outlets that surely railed on Trump when he first mentioned it, the technology has been brought to bear by experts from the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE), which also develops treatments for many other viruses and pathogens besides the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). According to Andrei Goverdovsky, who works at Russias state nuclear agency in Rosatom, the project has been dubbed luminous gas and, believe it or not, really is a type of disinfectant which means that Trump was right once again in using the word disinfectant to describe one of the novel treatments being developed for this novel virus. So far, no one has managed to hold UV disinfection inside a person, Goverdovsky is quoted as saying. We figured out how to do this. We select molecules and gas components that when inhaled remain activated and emit ultraviolet light directly in the lungs. We hope that in addition to coronavirus, our method [can be used to] treat tuberculosis, oncology and other diseases, he added. As we reported back in April, researchers from Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles have also developed their own form of UV light therapy called healight that possesses similar functionality. This healight technology has already been exclusively licensed to a firm known as Aytu BioScience, Inc. that plans to release it commercially to hospitals across the country once it has been properly tested in humans. So Trump isnt an idiot after all Russias version is particularly noteworthy in that its developers used the word disinfectant to describe it, vindicating President Trump who was widely mocked by the leftist mob, assuming he was referring to bleach or some other chemical. As it turns out, the disinfectant that Trump was presumably talking about is this UV light treatment that can supposedly rid the body of not just the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) but also many other threatening viruses. It was April 23 when Trump first made these and other controversial remarks about treating the novel virus, asking publicly if something could be done using disinfectant to kill the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) by injection. Again, Trump was widely mocked for posing this, but it turns out that he was actually on to something. I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, Trump stated that day. And I think you said youre going to test that, too. So, well see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute thats pretty powerful. Though such technology is still in the infancy stages of development and release, experts say that UV light can, in fact, function like a natural disinfectant to eradicate various pathogens from the body, hopefully with minimal or no side effects. Aytu BioSciences version has yet to be tested on actual humans, but the research being conducted by both Aytu and the Russian scientists is already showing incredible promise. Our team has shown that administering a specific spectrum of UV-A light can eradicate viruses in infected human cells (including coronavirus) and bacteria in the area while preserving healthy cells, says Mark Pimental, the lead researcher at Cedars-Sinai who is working on the healight technology. To keep up with the latest news about treatments being developed for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), be sure to check out Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: Newsweek.com NaturalNews.com PHILADELPHIA, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The India Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IFN) (the "Fund"), a closed-end fund, today announced that it will pay on June 30, 2020, a distribution of US$0.42 per share to all shareholders of record as of June 19, 2020 (ex-dividend date June 18, 2020). The Fund's distribution policy (the "Distribution Policy") is to pay quarterly distributions at an annual rate, set once a year, that is a percentage of the average daily NAV for the previous three months as of the month-end prior to declaration. In February 2020, the Board determined the rolling distribution rate to continue to be 10% for the 12-month period commencing with the distribution payable in March 2020. The Distribution Policy is subject to regular review by the Board. The Distribution Policy seeks to provide investors with a stable quarterly distribution out of current income, supplemented by realized capital gains and, to the extent necessary, paid-in capital. Under U.S. tax rules applicable to the Fund, the amount and character of distributable income for each fiscal year can be finally determined only as of the end of the Fund's fiscal year. However, under Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the "1940 Act") and related Rules, the Fund may be required to indicate to shareholders the source of certain distributions to shareholders. The following table sets forth the estimated amounts of the sources of the distribution for purposes of Section 19 of the 1940 Act and the Rules adopted thereunder. The table has been computed based on generally accepted accounting principles. The table includes estimated amounts and percentages for the distribution to be paid on June 30, 2020 as well as the estimated cumulative distributions declared fiscal year to date (01/01/2020 - 05/31/2020), from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short-term capital gains; net realized long-term capital gains; and return of capital. The estimated composition of the distributions may vary from quarter to quarter because the estimated composition may be impacted by future income, expenses and realized gains and losses on securities and currencies. Estimated Amounts of Current Quarterly Distribution per share ($) Estimated Amounts of Current Quarterly Distribution per share (%) Estimated Amounts of Fiscal Year to Date Cumulative Distributions per share ($) Estimated Amounts of Fiscal Year to Date Cumulative Distributions per share (%) Net Investment Income - - - - Net Realized Short-Term Capital Gains* - - - - Net Realized Long-Term Capital Gains $0.2814 67% $0.6633 67% Return of Capital $0.1386 33% $0.3267 33% Total (per common share) $0.4200 100% $0.9900 100% *includes currency gains The Fund estimates that it has distributed more than its income and capital gains; therefore, a portion of your distribution may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur for example, when some or all of the money that you invested in the Fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Fund's investment performance and should not be confused with "yield" or "income." Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the amount of the Fund's current distributions or from the terms of the Distribution Policy. The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The final determination of the source of all distributions in 2020 will be made after year-end. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of the fiscal year and may be subject to change based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes. The following table provides the Fund's total return performance based on net asset value (NAV) over various time periods compared to the Fund's annualized and cumulative distribution rates. Average Annual Total Return on NAV for the 5 Year Period Ending 05/31/20201 1.20% Current Fiscal Period's Annualized Distribution Rate on NAV2 13.37% Fiscal Year to Date (01/01/2020 to 05/31/2020) Cumulative Total Return on NAV1 -21.32% Cumulative Distribution Rate on NAV2 3.34% 1 Return data is net of all fund expenses and fees and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions reinvested at prices obtained under the Fund's dividend reinvestment plan. 2 Based on the Fund's NAV as of May 31, 2020. While NAV performance may be indicative of the Fund's investment performance, it does not measure the value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund. The value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund is determined by the Fund's market price, which is based on the supply and demand for the Fund's shares in the open market. Pursuant to an exemptive order granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 30, 2010, the Fund may distribute any long-term capital gains more frequently than the limits provided in Section 19(b) under the 1940 Act and Rule 19b-1 thereunder. Therefore, distributions paid by the Fund during the year may include net income, short-term capital gains, long-term capital gains and/or a return of capital. Net income dividends and short-term capital gain dividends, while generally taxable at ordinary income rates, may be eligible, to the extent of qualified dividend income earned by the Fund, to be taxed at a lower rate not to exceed the maximum rate applicable to your long-term capital gains. Distributions made in any calendar year in excess of investment company taxable income and net capital gain are treated as taxable ordinary dividends to the extent of undistributed earnings and profits, and then as a return of capital that reduces the adjusted basis in the shares held. To the extent return of capital distributions exceed the adjusted basis in the shares held, capital gain is recognized with a holding period based on the period the shares have been held at the date such amount is received. Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the terms of the distribution policy. The final determination of the source of all distributions will be made after year-end. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the fiscal year and may be subject to change based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report distributions for federal income tax purposes. The payment of distributions in accordance with the Distribution Policy may result in a decrease in the Fund's net assets. A decrease in the Fund's net assets may cause an increase in the Fund's annual operating expense ratio and a decrease in the Fund's market price per share to the extent the market price correlates closely to the Fund's net asset value per share. The Distribution Policy may also negatively affect the Fund's investment activities to the extent that the Fund is required to hold larger cash positions than it typically would hold or to the extent that the Fund must liquidate securities that it would not have sold, for the purpose of paying the distribution. The Fund's Board of Directors has the right to amend, suspend or terminate the Distribution Policy at any time. The amendment, suspension or termination of the Distribution Policy may affect the Fund's market price per share. Investors should consult their tax advisor regarding federal, state and local tax considerations that may be applicable in their particular circumstances. Circular 230 disclosure : To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the U.S. Treasury, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. In the United States, Aberdeen Standard Investments is the marketing name for the following affiliated, registered investment advisers: Aberdeen Standard Investments Inc., Aberdeen Asset Managers Ltd., Aberdeen Standard Investments Australia Ltd., Aberdeen Standard Investments (Asia) Ltd., Aberdeen Capital Management, LLC, Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs Advisors LLC and Standard Life Investments (Corporate Funds) Ltd. Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. The Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the net asset value (NAV) of the fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. Past performance does not guarantee future results. If you wish to receive this information electronically, please contact [email protected] aberdeenifn.com SOURCE The India Fund, Inc. Related Links http://www.aberdeenifn.com 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) RICHMOND, Va. - A judge in Richmond has issued an injunction preventing Virginia Gov. Ralph Northams administration from removing an iconic statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee for 10 days. The temporary injunction order issued Monday says the state is a party to a deed recorded in March 1890 in which it accepted the statue, pedestal and ground they sit on and agreed to faithfully guard and affectionately protect them. It is in the public interest to await resolution of the case on the merits prior to removal of the statue, the order says. The lawsuit was filed by William C. Gregory, who is described in the complaint as a descendant of two signatories to the deed. Named as defendants are Northam and the director of the Department of General Services, the agency tasked with handling the removal. (Gregorys) family has taken pride for 130 years in this statue resting upon land belonging to his family and transferred to the Commonwealth in consideration of the Commonwealth contractually guaranteeing to perpetually care for and protect the Lee Monument, the lawsuit says. Northams spokeswoman, Alena Yarmosky, said in a statement that the governors administration is still reviewing the order. Governor Northam remains committed to removing this divisive symbol from Virginias capital city, and were confident in his authority to do so, she said. Northam last week ordered the statue of Lee taken down, citing the pain felt across the country over the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck. Motivated by a bystanders video of Floyds agony, demonstrators around the world have vowed to sustain a movement focused on addressing racial injustice and police brutality. In the American South, theyre also advocating for the swift removal of Confederate monuments, with or without the approval of authorities. Opponents of the monuments say they celebrate white supremacy and gloss over the nations history of slavery. Others who advocate for keeping them say they have historical or artistic value and their removal amounts to erasing history. Authorities have removed other symbols since protests erupted two weeks ago, including a massive obelisk in Birmingham, Alabama, and a bronze likeness of Admiral Raphael Semmes that had stood in a middle of a downtown street near the Mobile, Alabama, waterfront for 120 years. In Fredericksburg, Virginia, a 176-year-old slave auction block was removed from the citys downtown, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy removed its statue from Old Town, Alexandria. In other cases, protesters arent waiting: In Richmond over the weekend, protesters toppled a statue of Gen. Williams Carter Wickham in a park near downtown, and in Bristol, England, a statue of slave trader Edward Colston met a watery end. Northam has said the enormous Lee statue would be removed as soon as possible and his administration would seek public input about its future. Crews inspected the statue earlier Monday as part of the planning for its removal. The massive statue weighs approximately 12 tons, stands 21 feet tall, and has been on a 40-foot pedestal for 130 years. Meticulous planning is required to remove an aging monument of this size and scale safely, the Department of General Services said in a statement. Four other Confederate monuments dot Monument Avenue, a prestigious residential street in Richmond, which was also the capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Richmonds city council has affirmed unanimous support for removing the other four, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch. Together, they are among the nations most prominent collection of tributes to the Confederacy, and their planned removal has been widely praised by black leaders and activists. ___ Associated Press photographer Steve Helber contributed to this report. Tesla has dominated the electric vehicle market for years and a new breakthrough could ensure it reigns supreme. The firm's battery supplier, Contemporary Amperex Technology, told Bloomberg that it is ready to produce rechargeable battery that lasts for 16 years or 1.24 million miles before it would need to be replaced. The China-based company said orders are ready to be filled, but added that the battery will cost 10 percent more than those currently on the market. News about the secret 'million-mile battery first surfaced last month by sources that said Tesla would launch the new technology in China in a bid to reposition itself. Scroll down for video Contemporary Amperex Technology was given a two-year contract in February with Tesla, which will make batteries for the Model 3 sedan (pictured) that are being produced in Tesla's new factory outside of Shanghai Sources first revealed last month that Tesla was working on a one million mile battery that 'rely on innovations such as low-cobalt and cobalt-free battery chemistries, and the use of chemical additives, materials and coatings that will reduce internal stress and enable batteries to store more energy for longer periods.' Bloomberg spoke with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) Chairman Zeng Yuqun who said they are ready to start fulfill orders, but did not reveal if they had any customers as of yet. However, Ygun seemed to have a positive outlook on the industry, which was hit by the coronavirus pandemic. 'The pandemic may have a lasting effect throughout 2020, but won't be a major factor next year,' Zeng said. 'We have great confidence for the long run.' The firm's battery supplier, Contemporary Amperex Technology, told Bloomberg that it is ready to produce rechargeable battery that lasts for 16 years or 1.24 million miles before it would need to be replaced. Pictured are different batteries made by the firm Contemporary Amperex Technology was given a two-year contract in February with Tesla, which will make batteries for the Model 3 sedan that are being produced in Tesla's new factory outside of Shanghai. In May, Reuters was the first to report on the one million-mile battery, saying the variant would also go in the Model 3 Sedan later this year or early next. With a global fleet of more than 1 million electric vehicles that are capable of connecting to and sharing power with the grid, Tesla's goal is to achieve the status of a power company, competing with such traditional energy providers as Pacific Gas & Electric and Tokyo Electric Power sources told Reuters. News about the secret 'million-mile battery first surfaced last month by sources that said Tesla would launch the new technology in China in a bid to reposition itself The sources said CATL also plans to supply Tesla in China next year with an improved long-life nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery whose cathode is 50 percent nickel and only 20 percent cobalt. 'We've got to really make sure we get a very steep ramp in battery production and continue to improve the cost per kilowatt-hour of the batteries this is very fundamental and extremely difficult,' Musk told investors in January. 'We've got to scale battery production to crazy levels that people cannot even fathom today.' Union home minister Amit Shah addressed the West Bengal Jan Samvad Rally via video conferencing on Tuesday and lauded the selfless, tireless fight put up by corona warriors against Indias battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. Shah started his virtual address by emphasising the significance of West Bengal, describing it as a land of great leaders and intellectuals like Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose, among many others. Shah said he prays for the souls of all those who have lost their lives in the fight against Covid-19 and the destruction brought by cyclone Amphan in the state. He also remembered the many party workers who lost their lives amid the political battle in the state since 2014. Since 2014, over 100 BJP workers lost their lives in political battle here in West Bengal. I pay my respect to their families as they've contributed to development of Sonar Bangla: Union Home Minister & BJP leader Amit Shah at West Bengal Jan-Samvad Rally via video conference pic.twitter.com/KYqtfjh08P ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2020 I pay my respect to their families as theyve contributed to the development of Sonar Bangla (golden Bengal), he said. Shahs Tuesdays address comes a day after he addressed the Odisha Jansamvad virtual rally on Monday in a series of online events that started with him addressing the Bihar Jansamvad event on Sunday. In his Odisha virual rally on Monday, Shah said that Prime Minister Narendra Modis go gaz ki doori (a distance of two yards) mantra to fight against the coronavirus pandemic does not mean to distance the party and its people. Do gaz ki doori cannot create a distance between BJP and its people, said Shah at Odisha Jansamvad virtual rally. Shahs Sunday address during the Bihar virtual rally was wide-ranging which he said had nothing to do with the Assembly polls due in the state later this year. The Midland Center for the Arts is recovering from harsh flood damages and hopes to reopen some learning programs for the summer. The DOAN History Center, the HH Dow Museum and the Carriage House Hall/Bradley Home and the Center for the Arts main building all took in flood waters. Terri Trotter, Midland Center for the Arts president and CEO, said shes unsure of the total cost of damages, but estimates it will be between $8 to $10 million. While there is no set reopening date, Trotter expects there to be programming over the summer. Were dealing with two things here; were dealing with flood issues and how are we recovering from that, Trotter said. Then we have other side which is; what are we allowed to do (once we reopen)? Many artifacts from the History center were saved. Most are being stored in freezers at Saginaw Valley State University to preserve them until specialty restoration companies are hired to restore them. We do not yet have a spending plan for this. Were trying to figure everything out just like anyone else whos been effected by the flood, Trotter said. There will certainly be a variety of options for us. The Midland Center for the Arts has already submitted damage estimates to FEMA. Also, the Michigan Museum Association did a fundraising campaign for the center of the arts as well as the history museum in Sanford. Trotter commended the Midland community for making donations and volunteering. Regarding damages, flood waters knocked out the high-voltage electrical system in the Midland Center for the Arts. As of the start of this week, the center remains without full power and is relying on generator and emergency power supplies. Trotter said repair efforts are overseen by Jon Loos, vice president of operations and guest experience, with assistance from staff and volunteers. SERVPRO, a restoration company, was also hired. Around 160,000 people visit the Midland Center for the Arts per year, according to Trotter. Despite a long restoration process ahead, Trotter is confident the Center for the Arts will offer learning programs for the summer. We just learned last week that we would be able to open the museum, and we cant yet reopen the theaters. So, now were juggling what does all that mean in terms of getting ready to open the facilities as were also trying to repair damaged. Trotter said. DUBLIN, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "2020 Contract Research Organization Market Opportunity Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Contract research organizations (CROs) are essential partners in the drug development field. As companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries shift their development pipelines towards more targeted therapies, the cost of development has significantly increased while the patient pool for each drug is smaller. This has resulted in leaner R&D infrastructures and increasing reliance on outsourcing. CROs provide critical services and expertise for all stages of drug development, from target selection to clinical trial administration, and are important partners in regulatory compliance, validation, and gaining product approval. CROs also provide important resources for technologies that require significant capital investments and technical expertise. As demand for CRO services increases, the market opportunities for suppliers of analytical instrumentation used by CROs will see significant growth, even in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession. The "2020 Contract Research Organization Market Opportunity Report" evaluates the global analytical instrumentation market for the CRO industry, examining 53 techniques grouped into 8 technological categories. The goal of the report is to provide demand and growth projections by technique, region, and application, within the context of the current global health crisis and anticipated economic recession conditions. Report Overview CRO market background and current opportunities and threats Global trends for CROs by region Market demand and five-year forecasts, segmented by technology, region, function, and application Analysis of 53 technologies within the following eight categories: Life Science Instrumentation, Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry, Lab Automation & Software, Lab Equipment, Sample Preparation, Molecular Spectroscopy and Materials Characterization Competitive landscape and market share of vendors in each technology category. Participants include the following: Agilent, BD Biosciences, Beckman Coulter (Danaher), Bio-Rad, Bruker, GE Healthcare, Hamilton, Illumina, Mettler-Toledo, MilliporeSigma, Molecular Devices (Danaher), PerkinElmer, QIAGEN, Roche, Sartorius, SCIEX (Danaher), Shimadzu, Tecan, Thermo Fisher and Waters Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Market Insights CRO Industry Overview Market Opportunities & Threats Regional Trends 3. Market Demand Overall Demand Life Science Instrumentation Chromatography Mass Spectrometry Lab Automation & Informatics Lab Equipment Sample Preparation Molecular Spectroscopy Materials Characterization For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/5qqf34 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: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com CLEVELAND, Ohio An appellate court Tuesday overturned a judges order to transfer hundreds of inmates out of a federal prison near Youngstown, where nine inmates have died and more than 400 have become ill with the coronavirus. In a split decision, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, saying its standard of care did not violate the rights of inmates. The prison, the Federal Correctional Institution Elkton, houses more than 2,000 low-security inmates. It is located about 100 miles from Cleveland, and it is the only federal prison in the state. We conclude that [inmates counsel] have not provided sufficient evidence to show that the BOP was deliberately indifferent to the serious risk of harm presented by COVID-19 at Elkton, said the opinion by judges Julia Gibbons and Deborah Cook. In a dissent, U.S. Circuit Chief Judge R. Guy Cole said the prisons bureau did not do enough. It gave inmates 4 ounces of soap a week, two disposable masks and watered-down disinfectant, he said. Our case law is clear: We do not turn a blind eye to prison conditions when the treatment prison officials provide in response to a serious medical need is so woefully inadequate as to amount to no treatment at all, Cole wrote. The decision sets aside an April preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge James Gwin in Cleveland. He had ordered the prisons bureau to identify and assess inmates who were most vulnerable to the virus those who were 65 or older and most susceptible of becoming ill. The prison found that there were more than 800 inmates who made up that group. Those inmates could be placed on home confinement, furloughed or transferred to another facility. Gwin said in documents that it was the only way to protect inmates from the virus. In May, Gwin demanded that the process be fast-tracked. The first transfers of about 120 inmates were to begin last week, and the moves were to continue through August. The prisons bureau never transferred the inmates. Gibbons and Cook, the appeals judges, ruled that Gwin abused his discretion by granting the preliminary injunction. They said the inmates lacked the likelihood of winning their case based on claims that the prison officials violated their rights. They stressed that the prisons bureau had made changes to prevent the spread of the virus through a multi-phased plan of action that sought as much distancing as possible. In light of the BOPs other measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and given the limitations on the BOPs authority to release inmates, its failure to make robust use of transfer, home confinement or furlough to remove inmates in the medically vulnerable subclass from Elkton does not constitute deliberate indifference, Gibbons and Cook wrote. Cole disagreed. I am left with the inescapable conclusion that the BOPs failure to make use of its home confinement authority at Elkton, even as it stared down the escalating spread of the virus and a shortage of testing capacity, constitutes sufficient evidence for [Gwin] to have found that petitioners were likely to succeed on claims that their rights were violated. In court filings, federal attorneys in Cleveland who represented the prisons bureau called Gwins ruling impractical amid a pandemic. They said the prisons bureau had worked to keep inmates safe by providing cleaning supplies and separating them as much as possible. At one point, some inmates were moved to the chapel to keep them away from others. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio represented the inmates, saying the dormitory-style housing units and close contact of inmates made it impossible to prevent the spread of the virus. Were extremely disappointed with the decision, said David Carey, an attorney for the ACLU in Cincinnati. Its a major loss for incarcerated people across the country. He said he is uncertain whether his office would appeal. The issue has been appealed several times already, having gone twice to the U.S. Supreme Court involving attempts to block the transfers. The high courts rulings involved administrative issues, not issues of substance. The U.S. Attorneys office in Cleveland represented the prisons bureau. A spokesman declined to comment. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Two more people have been arraigned on a riot charge for causing damage during the May 30 Grand Rapids riot, including one who used a stop sign to damage a Wyoming police cruiser. Matthew Henning Hurth, 26, of Grand Rapids, and Olivia Marie Hull, 23, were arraigned Tuesday, June 9 in Grand Rapids District Court on charges of riot, a 10-year felony. Hurth also is charged with malicious destruction of police property and Hull also is charged with breaking and entering a building and malicious destruction of a building. They are among several people charged in connection with the rioting that happened late May 30 and early May 31 in downtown Grand Rapids. About 100 buildings were damaged. One damage estimate from the Grand Rapids assessors office put damage to buildings at about $450,000, not including looting losses and policing costs. According to court documents, Hurth was photographed and video-recorded using a portable stop sign to damage a Wyoming police cruiser. Police said he was wearing distinctive clothing. Hull is accused of causing property damage at various locations and police said they received numerous photos and videos of her causing the damage. Police say she also struck a window at the Sundance Grill using what appeared to be a black pipe. Surveillance video from Sundance shows she entered the business and destroyed a cash register, then stole liquor before leaving. She came back later to cause more damage to the business, police said. Matthew Hurth, 26, of Grand Rapids, is accused of damaging a police car during the May 30 riot in Grand Rapids Related 5 suspects in Grand Rapids riot accused of damaging police cars, Sundance Grill Teen faces felony rioting charge in Grand Rapids violent weekend Young woman incited riot on her own Facebook Live video, police say I normally do not like to write about current political events. Report on them, yes, but Im not being paid to give my opinion on certain matters. Its kind of why I hesitated on what to write about when I first started writing weekly columns. Writing about my life is easy of course, because there is little chance you can offend someone. But these nationwide protests against racial violence and police brutality have taken a turn close to home for me. Starting on Thursday, one of the newest images associated with these protests is some Buffalo police officers shoving a 75-year-old white protestor to the ground so hard, his head started bleeding. He is in stable condition. The two main officers caught were charged with assault, but after they were originally suspended from the police force, all 57 members of that departments emergency response team resigned. Even the most famous Italian restaurant in the city saw its reputation take a hit when it sided with the police officers. Naturally, all of my friends from back in that area, both real-life and on social media, shared a combination of their thoughts at length and demanded that those officers be fired. Since that is not the area I cover, I refrained from saying anything on it. But here are some things I want to say now. Even if you fall into the All Life Matter crowd on these protests, you have to admit that when something happens like the police shoving down a 75-year-old man, one who has been reportedly a longtime peaceful protestor, this is not just about race anymore. I have been raised to respect police officers. One of my uncles was part of Richmond, Virginias police department for many years. The area of the last newspaper I worked at had a community police officer whose job was seemingly just to visit all the businesses along the main street to talk to patrons and attend downtown events. I am perfectly aware that police officers can be a positive force for good. But they are like anyone else who works for the government. If someone messes up, they need to be held accountable. Demonstrations supporting these protests also took place this past Friday in front of the Huron County Building for a few hours. I was not able to observe in person due to working on a story about restaurants in the county reopening and preparing to take graduation pictures later. From what I was able to see on Facebook Live, the protestors appeared like they did not want to cause any trouble. There is little doubt these protests will continue further into the summer. Whether anything more happens in Huron County remains to be seen. The last thing I want to say about these before retreating back to writing columns about my life experiences is that how we respond to these shows not only how we feel, but what kind of country we want to live in. Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh said that Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were involved in the killing of Congress sarpanch Ajay Pandita alias Bharti in South Kashmir Anantnag district on Monday. Bharti was killed by unidentified gunmen in South Kashmir. No outfit has claimed responsibility for the murder. Yes Hizbul Mujahideen was involved in his killing, Jammu and Kashmirs Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said Police had said Bharti was attacked inside his orchard in the afternoon. He was cremated in Jammu on Tuesday. Bharti, 40, was the sarpanch of village Lukbawan, Larkipora. He was associated with the Congress party. Locals said Bhartis family had migrated from south Kashmir in the early 90s but he returned a couple of years ago and contested the panchayat polls. Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress president Ghulam Ahmad Mir said that sarpanch did not have any security. l The BJP has demanded security for sarpanchs and panchs in Kashmir. State spokesperson of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) Altaf Thakur asked the administration to provide security to all sarpanchs and panchs. We have been demanding security cover to our people for a long time. So far ,nothing has happened .We urge police to provide security to all sarpanchs and panchs, he said. Thakur said that militants are not happy with development, adding that culprits involved in Panditas killing will be brought to book soon. They dont want development.Ajay Pandita was active on the ground for a long time.He always stood for his people. They want to create a rift between communities. They will not succeed in their nefarious designs. The militants are under tremendous pressure as they have suffered huge losses in the recent past, Thakur said. Restaurants across Central New York may get the green light to reopen their dining rooms as soon as Friday. But the experience wont be the same. It might start with the way your server greets you. The servers will be wearing masks, so even though theyre very happy to see you, you wont be able to see their smile, said Sara Tong-Ngork, operations manager for three affiliated restaurants in Armory Square: Lemon Grass, Bistro Elephant and Citronelle. But trust me, theyll be thrilled to see you. I know I will. Central New York is poised to enter phase three of the states business reopening plan at the end of this week, and that includes the limited reopening of dining rooms. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to make that call by Friday. But there will be restrictions during the reopening period: Tables will be separated or partitioned; dining room capacity will be limited to 50 percent; and customers will need to wear masks until they are seated. (See full list of guidelines below). It will take some getting used to, both for the customers and the restaurant staff, Tong-Ngork said. Shes been looking at the guidelines and recommendations from others in the dining business. Last week, she shared some of that advice through a post she found on Facebook. The bottom line: Be patient, she said. Be kind. Were all trying to make the best of it. Sara Tong-Ngork, currently operations manager for Lemon Grass/Bistro Elelphant/Cintronelle in Armory Square. She plans to open a Thai street food stall in the downtown Salt City Market this fall.Provided photo/Black Cub Productions For customers, that means being aware of stresses on the servers and other staff. Its summer, it may be hot, (servers) may be running around, and wearing a mask or other protections in that situation will be uncomfortable, she said. Her advice is to do your best not to make extra work for the server. For example, have everyone at your table order drinks at once, instead of forcing the server to make multiple trips from the table to the bar. Its also important for customers to take the limited seating into consideration, she said. That means dont linger unnecessarily when there are other customers waiting. Its unfair to the other patrons, she said, and could keep the restaurant from maximizing its chance to make money. People should remember that the restaurants have been suffering economically for months, Tong-Ngork said. I saw something on Facebook that said, Dont order two salads and a glass of water and sit there for four hours.' Thats about right. On the flip side, she said, its important for the restaurant and its staff to make the customers feel welcome and reassure them that all safety precautions are being followed. I know well do everything we can to let people know what were doing and why, she said. Of course some people might be nervous about coming out. We want them to enjoy being back in the dining room with us so we dont want to scare them. The staff at the three Armory Square restaurants, all owned by Max and Pook Chutinthranond, have been meeting to go over all the protocols and procedures for the anticipated opening, Tong-Ngork said. One of the solutions for the immediate reopening period is that all three restaurant spaces will operate as one, with a combined menu. That combines the Pacific Rim/Thai cuisine of Lemon Grass with the steakhouse offerings of Bistro Elephant and varying culinary traditions of Citronelle. Food will come from the Lemon Grass kitchen and will be served at spaced out tables in all three venues (though Citronelle may have limited use at first). There is outdoor seating near Lemon Grass and Bistro Elephant. The Chutinthranonds wrote in a Facebook post that they put a lot of thought into their gradual reopening plan because most people in the restaurant business agree that to return to business as usual would be financial suicide. For Tong-Ngork, helping Lemon Grass, Bistro Elephant and Citronelle return to normal is a prelude to the next step in her career. Later this year, the veteran of several Syracuse-area restaurant kitchens will return to her love of cooking by opening one of the stalls in the downtown Salt City Market. Her stand is called Firecracker Thai Kitchen. I cant wait for all this to be over, she said. I miss the restaurants, the kitchens, the customers. I cant wait. State guidelines for restaurant reopening Limit indoor capacity to no more than 50 percent of maximum occupancy, exclusive of employees. Limit outdoor capacity to the number of tables that can be safely arranged six feet away from each other. Whenever distancing is not available, physical barriers must be enacted between tables. Employees must wear face coverings at all times. Patrons must wear face coverings, except while seated. Individuals at the same table must be members of the same party (but may be from different households) with a maximum of 10 people per table. Seating in bar areas and communal tables can only be allowed if six feet distance can be maintained. RELATED See guidelines for outdoor dining These CNY restaurants have closed. How many more will there be? Kelleys Restaurant closes after 37 years Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Robin Millard (Agence France-Presse) Geneva, Switzerland Tue, June 9, 2020 09:30 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd2c430 2 World WHO,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,global-crisis,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus,pandemic,health Free The World Health Organization said Monday that the coronavirus pandemic situation was worsening around the globe, as it warned against complacency. The WHO said it had recorded its highest daily tally of new infections, with COVID-19 raging in the Americas. And as mass protests for racial justice sweep across the United States and beyond, the United Nations' health agency urged anyone demonstrating to do so safely. The novel coronavirus has killed more than 403,000 people out of at least seven million infected since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP. After East Asia, Europe became the epicenter of the disease, but has now been overtaken by the Americas. "Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference in Geneva. "More than 100,000 cases have been reported on nine of the past 10 days. Yesterday, more than 136,000 cases were reported -- the most in a single day so far. He said that almost 75 percent of Sunday's cases came from 10 countries -- mostly in the Americas and South Asia. Protest 'safely' Tedros said that in countries where the situation was improving, "the biggest threat is now complacency", adding that "most people globally are still susceptible to infection". "More than six months into this pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal," he said. Turning to the wave of protests sparked by killing of George Floyd on May 25, Tedros encouraged active surveillance of the virus to ensure it does not rebound, especially in the context of mass gatherings. "WHO fully supports equality and the global movement against racism. We reject discrimination of all kinds," he said. "We encourage all those protesting around the world to do so safely. "As much as possible, keep at least one meter from others, clean your hands, cover your cough and wear a mask if you attend a protest." "Stay home if you are sick and contact a health care provider," he added. Quarantine protesters? The WHO has continually stressed the importance of tracing those who may have come into sustained, close contact with an infected person. The WHO's emergencies director Michael Ryan said someone who had been at a mass protest did not necessarily meet the technical definition of a contact. "It comes back down to local public health analysis and local risk management," he said. "There may be situations with mass gatherings where local public health officials, on the basis of an abundance of caution, could advise people either to quarantine or to get tested." Ryan added: "We would hope that in any mass gathering now... people who have had now four to five months to really internalize, that someone who is unwell... should really be at home and not engaged in any public activity. "But we would always defer to national and sub-national authorities if they wish and need to take necessary public health actions that are based on risk assessment, that are based on scientific evidence." Tedros meanwhile said that the WHO had so far shipped more than five million items of personal protective equipment to 110 countries. The global health body aims to ship more than 129 million items of PPE to 126 nations. CCN Launches Today in Colorado & Montana Expanding to 13 Western States by End of August Phoenix, AZ, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TriWest Healthcare Alliance today announced it is beginning health care delivery under the new Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Community Care Network (CCN) in the Region 4 territory, encompassing 13 western U.S. states. Health care delivery begins today in Montana and Eastern Colorado and will expand to 11 more western states by the end of August 2020. TriWest is humbled to be granted the opportunity to continue our six-year partnership with VA to provide high-quality health care for our nations Veterans, said David J. McIntyre, Jr., TriWest President and CEO. As VAs partner in administering community care for over 6 years, facilitating more than 29 million appointments for Veterans through our robust community based network, TriWest has an in-depth understanding of the unique health care needs of Veterans; we are honored to be afforded the privilege of continuing that vital work. The Community Care Network (CCN), created by the MISSION Act of 2018, is a network of credentialed community health care providers that work with VA medical professionals. The purpose of CNN is to help ensure Veterans are provided the care they need when they are unable to receive that care at a VA medical facility. CCN is designed to strengthen partnerships with community care providers, ensure robust care coordination, and improve Veterans access to health care they have earned through their service. TriWests non-profit health plan and university hospital system owners, and its employees, are proud to have built a solid network of community care providers who support Veterans community health care needs, helping ensure Veterans are receiving quality care closer to home. The privilege of serving those who served has not been without its challenges, but we have been honored and privileged to lean forward at VAs side through it all. We are impressed by the committed leadership we have witnessed at VA to implement CCN for Veterans, said McIntyre. VA deserves enormous credit for its collaboration and steadfast approach in staying focused on the tasks at hand in launching the new community care network despite the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Story continues CCN Region 4 includes the western U.S. states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Since being awarded the CCN Region 4 contract, TriWests primary responsibility has been to analyze and work aggressively to ensure the community care provider network will meet the full spectrum of VA and provider needs. We could not do this vital work without the network of dedicated community providers who have been there when VA and Veterans needed them most. We are especially grateful to the tens of thousands of network providers in Colorado and Montana for stepping up to again be there for our nations heroes, said McIntyre. We thank these providers for answering the call to support our nations Veterans. CCN is comprised of six regional networks covering all U.S. states and territories, with an established set of regional boundaries aligned to state borders, to provide local flexibility and increased access to care. CCN is being deployed in a phased approach by VA Medical Center (VAMC). Once fully implemented by late August 2020, CCN will replace the Patient-Centered Community Care (PC3) Program as the preferred national network VA uses to purchase care for Veterans in their community. TriWests current network serves as a critical bridge until CCN is fully deployed to ensure Veterans continue to receive the care they need. This new VA community care network is another important chapter in the journey Congress envisioned under the MISSION Act road map. Without strong bipartisan leadership in Congress and support from national Veterans Service Organizations, this day would not have arrived. In partnership with VA, we look forward to doubling down on our commitments to continue our strong support of our nations heroes through VAs Community Care Network, McIntyre concluded. For more information, please visit: www.va.gov/COMMUNITYCARE. About TriWest Healthcare Alliance TriWest Healthcare Alliance has the privilege of serving our nations heroes as the partner to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in administering community health care, such as the Patient-Centered Community Care Program (PC3) and Community Care Network (CCN) in Region 4. TriWest has been On a Mission to Serve Americas military families and Veterans since 1996, delivering award-winning customer service and providing access to high-quality health care. The companys official website is www.TriWest.com. ### Gordon James TriWest Healthcare Alliance 602-274-1988 gjames@gcjpr.com Elaine Labedz TriWest Healthcare Alliance 602-763-6452 ellabedz1@triwest.com Airlines are expected to lose a combined $84.3bn (75bn) this year and suffer a 50% fall in revenues in what is being described as the worst year in history for the air travel industry. Industry representative body the International Air Transport Association IATA said it expects airline revenues to fall from $838bn to $419bn this year, as the Covid-induced shut-down gives way to a gradual and partial resumption of services. Furthermore, it only sees a gradual recovery next year, with losses falling to just under $16bn, but with revenues rising to nearly $600bn. Financially, 2020 will go down as the worst year in the history of aviation. On average, every day of this year will add $230m to industry losses, said IATA chief executive Alexandre de Juniac. In total, thats a loss of $84.3bn. It means thatbased on an estimate of 2.2 billion passengers this yearairlines will lose $37.54 per passenger. Thats why government financial relief was and remains crucial as airlines burn through cash, he said. Passenger capacity will decline by over 40% this year and passenger numbers will halve to around 2.25 billion people, a level last seen in 2006. As a result, passenger revenues are expected to fall from $612bn to $241bn. All regions will be heavily hit. Regards Europe, IATA sees passenger demand falling by 56% this year and European airlines seeing a $21bn drop in net profits. However, the group said the removal of controversial national quarantine laws could boost European aviations situation. However, Mr Juniac said the worst of the collapse in business is probably over provided there is not a second and more damaging wave of Covid-19. "A key to the recovery is universal implementation of the re-start measures agreed through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to keep passengers and crew safe," he said. "And, with the help of effective contact tracing, these measures should give governments the confidence to open borders without quarantine measures. Thats an important part of the economic recovery because about 10% of the worlds GDP is from tourism and much of that depends on air travel. Getting people safely flying again will be a powerful economic boost, he said. Meanwhile, Cathay Pacific is the latest airline to tap a government bailout; Hong Kong leading a $5bn rescue. Around the world, states have been bailing out airlines and in some cases, such as Germanys Lufthansa, taking direct equity stakes to keep them flying. The alternative would have been a collapse of the company. Commercial debt markets are effectively closed to airlines today who do not have extensive government shareholder support, Cathay chairman Patrick Healy said. Cathay has grounded most of its planes, flying only cargo and a skeleton passenger network to major destinations such as Beijing, Los Angeles, Sydney and Tokyo. -additional reporting Reuters India's COVID-19 tally saw a record addition of nearly 10,000 cases on Tuesday to cross 2.6 lakh as hundreds more tested positive for the dreaded virus in several states and union territories. The Delhi government said the national capital itself may see 5.5 lakh cases by July-end at the current rate. The Union Health Ministry said central teams have been deployed in 15 states and UTs with districts or municipal bodies witnessing major spurt in cases to assist the local administrations in containment and management of the outbreak. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said India is better positioned in the COVID-19 fight in comparison to many countries but cautioned against any complacency. "Let us also not forget the 'social vaccine' against COVID-19 through strict adherence of norms of physical distancing, hand hygiene and mask/face covers," he said. While the single-day nationwide count of cases rose for the seventh consecutive day on Tuesday, the overall tally has risen by more than 75,000 since June 1, which marked the beginning of the exit from the over-two-month-long nationwide lockdown. Under the latest phase of unlocking, malls, religious places and restaurants also reopened on Monday in various states. Offices and several other establishments have also reopened, except in containment areas with high caseloads. While Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana figure among the states accounting for a bulk of new cases since June 1, even Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand have seen significant rise in their respective numbers. India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK, according to the Johns Hopkins University data. Globally, more than 71.5 lakh people have tested positive for the virus ever since its emergence in China last December, while more than 4 lakh have lost their lives. However, over 33 lakh people have recovered too worldwide, including nearly 1.3 lakh in India with a recovery rate of nearly 48.5 per cent. Close to 50 lakh people have been tested in India so far. In its morning update, the Union Health Ministry said the total number of cases has risen to 2,66,598 and the death toll has increased to 7,466, registering a jump of 9,987 new cases and 266 fatalities since 8am on Monday. However, a PTI tally of figures announced by different states and UTs, as of 9.30pm on Tuesday, showed the total number of cases across the country having risen to 2,65,498 and the death toll to 7,710. The multi-disciplinary central teams have been deployed in Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Assam, Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. These teams are helping the states and UTs address challenges like testing bottlenecks, low tests per million population, high confirmation rates, risk of capacity shortfall over the next two months, potential bed shortage, growing case fatality rate, high doubling rate and sudden spike in active cases, etc, the ministry said. In Delhi, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the national capital may see its own case count reach 5.5 lakh by July 31 at the current rate of doubling of cases of 12.6 days, from nearly 30,000 at present. He, however, said the central government officials have maintained there was no community transmission of the novel coronavirus virus in Delhi. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the source of infection is "not known" in nearly half of the fresh cases being reported. He also said that the Kejriwal government is making all the preparations to handle the huge rush of patients estimated by June end. New cases emerged from several other parts of the country as well, including in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Tripura, Nagaland, Assam and Ladakh. Odisha's COVID-19 tally crossed the 3,000-mark with 146 more people testing positive for the infection. These new cases include 49 NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) personnel and 12 ODRAF (Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force) personnel, who tested positive after returning to the state from West Bengal. They had gone to West Bengal for cyclone Amphan restoration work. The Meghalaya government withdrew its earlier order that allowed religious places to reopen doors to devotees from June 14, and said congregations of any kind would have to be avoided for the time being, given the unrelenting rise in COVID-19 cases. In Mizoram, a complete lockdown was clamped in capital Aizawl, 10 other district headquarter towns and containment areas in view of the rapidly rising novel coronavirus cases in the state, according to an official order. Andhra Pradesh saw its tally cross the 5,000-mark with 216 fresh cases, while its death toll rose to 77. Uttar Pradesh reported its highest single-day spike of 18 COVID-19 deaths, taking the toll past the 300-mark, while 388 new cases were detected to push the case count to 11,335. Kerala continued to reel under the impact of returnees testing positive for COVID-19 as 91 fresh cases were reported in the state on Tuesday, taking the total number of people under treatment to 1,231. Of the fresh cases, as many as 53 came from abroad while 27 from other states. Ten people contracted the disease through contact, the state government said. The total COVID-19 cases in the state rose to 2,095 and the death toll remained unchanged at 16. Tamil Nadu recorded a new single-day record increase of 1,685 cases, taking its tally to 34,914, while 21 more people died to take the toll to 307. Chennai's own tally rose to 24,545 with 1,242 new cases. Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, reported 2,259 new cases to take its tally to 90,787, while its death toll rose by 120 to 3,289. More than 1,000 new cases were reported in Mumbai alone, pushing its tally past 50,000, while the death toll rose by 58 to 1,758. Gujarat, another badly hit state, reported 470 new cases, including 331 in Ahmedabad. The state's tally has now risen to 21,044, while its death toll has mounted to 1,313. Ahmedabad alone now has 14,962 cases, while Surat has 2,207 and Vadodara 1,360. The air bridge follows a decision last week to scrap the system of placing returnees in hotels repurposed for quarantine in the Red Sea resort town of Marsa Alam, replacing it with home quarantine Egypt said it will operate 18 special flights starting next Saturday to repatriate 3,000 nationals stranded in Qatar through Muscat, informed sources at the civil aviation ministry said on Tuesday. The sources told State TVs official website that an air bridge will be operated by national flagship airliner EgyptAir and Air Cairo from Omans Muscat for the return of stranded Egyptians in Qatar. They added that the ministry has agreed with another airliner to transport stranded Egyptians in Qatar to Muscat, with Egyptian airliners flying the nationals later from Muscat to Cairo. There have been no direct flights between Qatar and Egypt since June 2017 when Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain cut most political, trade and transport ties with the Gulf state over charges it supports terrorism, which Doha has denied. This air bridge follows a decision last week to scrap the system of placing returnees in hotels repurposed for quarantine in the Red Sea resort town of Marsa Alam, replacing it with home quarantine. Instead of being quarantined in repurposed hotels, university dorms, or student hostels, returnees will instead be required to self-quarantine at home for two weeks as a precaution against the virus. Egypt suspended international flights at its airports in March, although cargo and domestic flights are continuing. Specially organised repatriation flights have brought home at least 24,000 Egyptians so far. Limited flights have also been operated to a few international destinations, with EgyptAir announcing special flights to a number off European destinations through June. Egypt is considering a gradual resumption of international flights in the second half of June or first half of July, cabinet spokesman Nader Saad said at the end of May. The cabinets coronavirus committee is set to hold a meeting this week in which they will discuss the resumption of flights. Search Keywords: Short link: Abu Dhabi-based Masdar said it has signed an agreement with the Uzbeg Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade and JSC National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan to design, finance, build and operate a 500-megawatt utility-scale wind farm project. The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and Investment Agreement was signed during a virtual ceremony by Masdar CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Uzbekistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov and Chairman of JSC National Electric Grid Dadajon Isakulov. Under the agreements, Masdar will develop, build and operate the wind farm project, which will be located in the Zarafshon district of the Navoi Region. Commercial operation is expected to be achieved in 2024. Speaking on the occasion, Umurzakov, said: "Masdar is our long-term trusted partner in expanding our renewable energy capacities and bringing their well-known international expertise to the country. This energy project with Masdar clearly illustrates the testimony to the strong commitment by Uzbekistan to increasing private sector participation in the country and support our ambitious clean energy goals." Al Ramahi said Masdar was proud to be collaborating with the Uzbek Government on its second utility-scale clean energy project in the country. The 500MW wind farm supports Uzbekistans long-term renewable energy ambitions and its strong commitment to not only modernise its power sector, but also invest in energy security, he noted. "As a global leader in the development of utility-scale wind power, Masdar is committed to advancing clean-tech innovation both regionally and internationally by deploying the latest technologies at scale and enhancing their commercial viability," he added. Todays announcement follows on Masdar's signing a similar PPA and Government Support Agreement with the Uzbek government in November last year. During that ceremony, Masdar was announced as the winning bidder for the solar project after tendering the lowest tariff of $2.679 cents per kilowatt hour in the programmes competitive auction to develop the 100MW utility-scale PV solar plant, which will be located in the Navoi region. The signing ceremony highlights Uzbekistans goal of developing 5 GW of renewable energy by 2030. The power generating capacity of the renewable energy projects in which Masdar is a partner is more than 5GW, representing a combined investment of approximately $14.3 billion and spanning more than 30 countries.-TradeArabia News Service New Delhi, June 9 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Delhi government to treat as representation the plea filed by a toddler against the decision of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government restraining asymptomatic patients from getting tested, claiming that he is at a considerable risk as he has working members in the family. The court has asked the Delhi government to treat the plea filed by the two-year-old through his father saying he is a resident of Delhi and lives in a joint family comprising working members who would be resuming work/regular office pursuant to the "unlockdown" as announced by the government with effect from June 8. He also said he is at considerable risk of contacting COVID-19 through these members due to lifting of restriction on movements. In his plea filed through advocate Arjun Syal and Vidisha Gupta, the petitioner said, "Moreover, the situation has been further aggravated due to discontinuation of testing of asymptomatic cases, shortage of requisite healthcare infrastructure such as hospital beds and ventilators etc." The petition also claimed that disallowing testing of asymptomatic cases is complete deviation of the testing criteria/guidelines issued by Indian Council of Medical Research from time to time. A bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek has asked the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government to consider as a representation, another petition filed by Vineet Kumar Wadhwa, through lawyer Praveen Chauhan. The plea sought capping of rates to be charged by private hospitals for treating patients suffering from COVID-19. The petitioner also sought court's directive to the government to install santisation tunnels at all entrances in main markets and shopping complexes in Delhi. Wadhwa also prayed before the court that the government should develop a mechanism whereby the hospitals in Delhi should display the availability of COVID beds in their hospital at a prominent place in the hospital and on their websites. Many epidemiologists are already comfortable going to the doctor, socialising with small groups outside or bringing in mail, despite the coronavirus. But unless theres an effective vaccine or treatment first, it will be more than a year before many say they will be willing to go to concerts, sporting events or religious services. And some may never greet people with hugs or handshakes again. These are the personal opinions of a group of 511 epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists who were asked by The New York Times when they expect to resume 20 activities of daily life, assuming that the pandemic and the public health response to it unfold as they expect. Their answers are not guidelines for the public and incorporate respondents individual life circumstances, risk tolerance and expectations about when there will be widespread testing, contact tracing, treatment and vaccination for Covid-19. They said its these things that will determine their actions, because the virus sets the timeline. The answers have nothing to do with calendar time, said Kristi McClamroch of the University at Albany. Still, as policymakers lift restrictions and protests break out nationwide over police brutality, epidemiologists must make their own decisions about what they will do, despite the uncertainty just like everyone else. They are more likely, though, to be immersed in the data about Covid-19 and have training on the dynamics of infectious disease and how to think about risk. They mostly agreed that outdoor activities and small groups were safer than being indoors or in a crowd, and that masks would be necessary for a long time. Fresh air, sun, socialization and a healthy activity will be just as important for my mental health as my physical well-being, said Anala Gossai, a scientist at Flatiron Health, a health technology firm, who said she would socialize outdoors this summer. Some said they would refrain from nearly all of the 20 activities until a vaccine for the virus had been widely distributed. Others said they would wait for a vaccine to do the indoor activities on the list. As much as I hate working at home, I think that working in a shared indoor space is the most dangerous thing we do, said Sally Picciotto of the University of California, Berkeley, one of the 18% of respondents who said they expected to wait at least a year before returning to the office. The responses were collected the last week of May, before the death of George Floyd in police custody spurred protests across the country. These mass gatherings are likely to cause a rise in cases, some epidemiologists said. Theres a risk, and its hitting the communities hit hardest by the pandemic, and its heartbreaking, said Andrew Rowland of the University of New Mexico. For some of the activities, there was significant disagreement. Some said hair salons were relatively safe they arent usually crowded and have hygiene requirements while others said a haircut had a high risk because of the face-to-face contact. Forty-one percent would go now or this summer, but 19% plan to wait at least a year. One-third said they would attend a dinner party at a friends home this summer (many specified outdoors with appropriate distancing), while one-fifth said they would wait more than a year, potentially until there was a vaccine. Epidemiologists say they are making decisions based on publicly available data for their region on things like infections and testing. Before choosing whether to do an activity, they might evaluate whether people are wearing masks, whether physical distancing is possible and whether there are alternative ways to do it. Because there is a chance of a second wave of infections, they say they may become less comfortable with certain activities over time, not more. Like everyone, they are also weighing practical considerations. Those who are required to go to an office or hospital every day are doing so, even if they think it would be safer to remain home. The need for child or elder care forces difficult choices. Activities that seem optional, like attending a concert, are easier to avoid. More than 70% of respondents said they or someone in their household was at high risk of serious illness or death from the disease. Melissa Sharp, who recently received her doctorate, will soon fly to Europe to begin a fellowship. But for now, while she is staying in Florida with family, including high-risk relatives, she has been extraordinarily careful, cocooning and avoiding activities that she considers less risky than flying. One of her quarantine hobbies, she said, has been epidemiology-inspired needlepoint: It says, Well, it depends, because thats really our slogan. The scientists are weighing coronavirus risks against the benefits of certain activities, including emotional well-being. While both funerals and weddings carry risk by bringing together large groups of people, several said they would prioritize attending a funeral. Some are choosing to socialize or send children to camp because of benefits like mental health, education or household harmony. Sharp said shed consider dating after a period of confinement. Im young and single, and a gal can only last so long in the modern world, she said. For Robert A. Smith of the American Cancer Society, a haircut might be worth the risk: It really is a trade-off between risky behavior and seeing yourself in the mirror with a mullet. Sometimes, their professional expertise and personal lives are colliding. Ayaz Hyder, of Ohio State University, said he was advising his mosque on how to reopen and to conduct Friday prayers. Balancing between public health practices and religious obligations has been very eye-opening and humbling for me as an academic, he said. Many epidemiologists said they may never greet people the same way again. Forty-two percent of the sample said they would not hug or shake hands for more than a year, and 6% said they would never do either again. The worst casualty of the epidemic, said Eduardo Franco of McGill University in Montreal, is the loss of human contact. Others lamented it less: Always hated those particular needless exchanges of pathogens and unwanted touching, said Carl V. Phillips, who runs Epiphi Consulting. About 6,000 epidemiologists were invited to participate in the survey, which was circulated to the membership of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and to individual scientists. Some said they were uncomfortable making predictions based on time because they didnt want to guess the timing of certain treatments or infection data. Our concern is that your multiple choice options are based only on calendar time, 301 epidemiologists wrote in a letter. This limits our ability to provide our expert opinions about when we will feel safe enough to stop social distancing ourselves. More than three-quarters of the panel said their daily work was connected with the COVID-19 pandemic in some way. Nearly three-quarters work in academia, 10% work in government and the remainder work for nonprofit groups, private companies or as health care providers. Surveys of ordinary Americans show that many people without epidemiology training also think it will be months or longer before many common activities can become routine again. A recent survey from Morning Consult found that more than a quarter of Americans would not visit a shopping mall for more than six months, and around a third would not go to a gym, movie or concert. One thing the epidemiologists seemed to agree on was that even when they return to normal activities, they will do them differently for a long time, like socializing with friends outside or attending worship services online. A majority said it would be more than a year before they stopped routinely wearing a mask outside their homes. People often ask when things will return to normal, said T. Christopher Bond, an associate director at Bristol Myers Squibb. At first I told them: The world has changed and will be different for a long time. This is the crisis of our lifetime and we need to embrace it, he said. But that depressed them. So now I say, Well, we know more every day. Additional comments from epidemiologists on life and social distancing: On school, camp and day care With a young child, I think the developmental risks outweigh the risk of getting sick with COVID. John C. Nelson, Precision for Medicine, Would do it this summer Ideally, Id wait until a vaccine were available, but the realities of working will probably mean that we will have to send them back when school reopens. Katherine Reeves, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Would wait until fall Willing to take more risks with this, even though its not a low-risk activity, as it is more necessary than other, lower-risk activities. Christina Mair, University of Pittsburgh, Would do it this summer This is a dreaded question. My kids desperately need their friends and a formal learning environment, but I dont necessarily want to send them! Alicia Zagel, Childrens Minnesota Research Institute, Would wait until fall We do not understand enough about the longer-term consequences of COVID-19 infection in children. Alicia Riley, University of California-San Francisco, Would wait more than a year On sporting events, concerts and plays To me, this is a luxury and I can wait a long time until people can safely come together to enjoy it. That said, I can and will continue to support arts programs as if I was attending with donations. Joseph Wagner, U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, Would wait more than a year These are some of the highest-risk activities and probably attract more risk-embracing people. The addition of alcohol or drugs makes these activities too risky for me to consider anytime soon. Vivian Towe, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, Would wait more than a year This is as much about feelings of social responsibility as about personal infection risk. Large-scale gatherings are a contact tracing nightmare and seem like they should be shut down until we have a really good sense of whats safe/how to screen people. Steve Mooney, University of Washington, Would wait more than a year I would do this IF social distancing was enforced and everyone attending was required to wear a mask. Tammie Nelson, Marion County Public Health Department, Would wait until fall On hugs and handshakes I would hug my friend today if she needed a hug. If my friend would benefit from a hug, I would hug her. Haley Holmer, World Health Organization, Would do it now Real epidemiologists dont shake hands. T. Christopher Bond, Bristol Myers Squibb, Said they would never do this again I think the handshake is dead. I would likely hug a few personal contacts in the distant future as a greeting where appropriate. Priyanka Gogna, Queens University, Said they would never do this again If we have a good vaccine, perhaps the first thing Id do is more hugs. Christina Ludema, Indiana University, Would wait more than a year I prefer to greet people with a traditional greeting either with hands in a namaskar or in the Lozi tribes traditional greeting of clapping hands together. Ramya Kumar, Zambart Project, Would do it now On weddings and funerals It makes no sense to risk peoples lives for a celebration. What a tragedy that would be. Claudia A. Salinas, Eli Lilly and Co., Would wait more than a year Weddings not until there is a vaccine. Funerals if it was someone very close to me and the service was small, I might consider going. Nicole Frascino, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Would wait more than a year Depends on whose funeral. I have missed because of COVID my dads funeral and in a way I still regret it. Raluca Ionescu-Ittu, Analysis Group Inc., Would wait more than a year Sharing such moments is how we get to keep our humanity. I wont refrain from being there for family and friends as long as we take extra preventive measures. Martine El Bejjani, American University of Beirut, Would do it this summer On airplanes Unless I have absolutely no choice, I wouldnt travel by the airplane anytime soon. Lilia Lukowsky, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Would wait more than a year A flying tube of germs. Chelsea Richard, South Carolina First Steps, Would wait until winter Planning all local vacations in the future. Ellen Chang, Exponent, Would wait more than a year Precautions appear adequate. Randall Reves, University of Colorado, Would do it now I would bring a blanket or sheet to sit on, my own food and water, multiple masks (in case one gets uncomfortable), gloves, hand sanitizer, and wipes. Michaela George, George Washington University, Would do it now On meetings with new people Life has to go on at some point. While I am not dating currently, I am a 35-year-old woman. I wouldnt want to put my personal life on hold for more than a few months when there is no end in sight for this pandemic. Tali Elfassy, University of Miami, Would do it this summer This pandemic, dissertation and the state of online dating have really put a damper on my love life. Kendra D. Sims, Oregon State University, Would do it this summer If Im able to send my kids back to school in the fall, then I should be able to send myself out in the world to meet other people if necessary! Marilyn Tseng, Cal Poly, Would wait until winter This is tough because dating seems less optional than, say, going to a play or the gym. There are biological clocks to worry about. So I could imagine this being safe now, ONLY IF you could be assured that the person has self-isolated for at least 2 weeks or more and both of you wore a mask and avoided physical contact, and the meet-up were outdoors. Alicia Riley, University of California-San Francisco, Would do it this summer On when to stop wearing masks When the coronavirus pandemic is over, and there arent any other virulent respiratory pathogens circulating, I will consider not wearing a mask in some situations. I will probably always wear a mask on a plane from now on. Jean Brender, Texas A&M University, Would wait more than a year Would love for it to be sooner. I freaking hate wearing masks. Steve Mooney, University of Washington, Would wait until winter Its hard to know when it will be the right time to stop face-covering, but given it is such a small inconvenience for notable gains, I find it hard to believe that anyone is in a hurry to end this practice. Amy Padula, University of California-San Francisco, Would wait more than a year On visiting the elderly Its a long time to go without hugging my mother. But she is probably at high risk. Sally Picciotto, University of California, Berkeley, Would wait more than a year This is the most difficult one. Clermont E. Dionne, Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada, Would wait more than a year While the elderly are at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19, we need to also be aware of the real risk of loneliness. Heather Limper, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Would do it this summer I feel most uncomfortable about this decision because it means I will have decided that the risk to them is worth it so that I can see them. Mercedes Carnethon, Northwestern University, Would wait until spring Quoctrung Bui, Claire Cain Miller and Margot Sanger-Katz c.2020 The New York Times Company O ne of the City's biggest investment companies has slammed Standard Chartered and HSBC over their support for the China's controversial new security laws on Hong Kong. Aviva, which owns shares worth nearly 800 million in the two companies, said it was "uneasy" at the two companies' public support for the clampdown that brings swingeing new powers to Beijing over the former British colony. The two London-based companies which are hugely reliant on both Hong Kong and China for profits, publically supported China's proposed new rules giving Beijing powers to impose security laws on the city for the first time. Aviva chief investment officer David Cumming said: "We are uneasy at the decisions of HSBC and Standard Chartered to publicly support the proposed new national security law in Hong Kong without knowing the details of the law of how it will operate in practice. "If companies make political statements, they must accept the corporate responsibilities that follow. "Consequently, we expect both companies to confirm that they will also speak out publicly if there are any future abuses of democratic freedoms connected to this law." Aviva's public statement will worry the companies' boards as it is one of the most powerful City institutions, with nearly 350 billion of assets under its management. Aviva is HSBC's 12th largest shareholder, with 134 million shares, worth 536 million. It is Standard Chartered's tenth largest, with 53 million shares worth 234 million. It comes as major fund managers have been becoming increasingly vocal about the ethical behaviour of companies they invest in. Standard Chartered and HSBC's support for Beijing's move was particularly powerful because they are tightly embedded in the fabric of Hong Kong society. They are two of only three organisations allowed to print Hong Kong banknotes. Their decision to support the proposed legal changes was particularly controversial as it came within hours of Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticising them, along with other global leaders such as US President Donald Trump. Some in the City have suggested the high risk strategy could have consequences for the banks' operations in the US - a crucial market for their Asian clients. Aviva is believed to be the first major City investor to criticise the two giant banks' actions over China's renewed aggression over Hong Kong. Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said last week it was a "grave error" on HSBC's part and said he would close his accounts with the bank if he were a customer, but most in the City had seemed to be quietly supportive of the realpolitik that, in Hong Kong and China, companies simply have to do what Beijing wants. Johnson has offered Hong Kongers UK citizenship if China imposes a national security law on the supposedly autonomous region. The US, UK, Australia and Canada issued a rare joint statement opposing Beijing's move, while other countries, from Japan to Taiwan, have voiced their condemnation. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 04:47:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close President of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Tijjani Muhammad-Bande speaks at a virtual press briefing at the UN headquarters in New York, June 8, 2020. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said Monday that some 100 diplomats are likely to attend the UN General Debate this September due to the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Xinhua/Xie E) UNITED NATIONS, June 8 (Xinhua) -- President of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said Monday that some 100 diplomats are likely to attend the UN General Debate this September due to the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. "We want to have the General Debate as scheduled...(but) the number of people that can be allowed into the hall (General Assembly Hall) maybe a hundred or so, but not a whole lot of people coming to the General Assembly," Muhammad-Bande said at a press briefing. The UNGA president said that the United Nations is currently discussing the mechanics of the General Debate, which is scheduled for Sept. 22 to 30, and expects to decide on how the high-level event will be held in the next two weeks. But Muhammad-Bande stressed that "in terms of the broad direction, we are not going to have heads of state and government come to New York" due to a lot of uncertainties including the number of hotels in New York and medical services, as world leaders do not travel as "simple individuals." The United Nations is considering to shift to video messages by the heads of state and government for the high-level session, as opposed to in-person presentations. New York City began the first phase of reopening on Monday, the United Nations is also gearing up for its return to normalcy in three phases. The UN headquarters, which has remained largely closed since mid-March due to the pandemic, is considering to reopen with new workplace measures being put in place for staff, diplomats and journalists that will include maximum two-person occupancy in elevators and wearing masks in public areas. The 75th session of the UNGA will open on Sept. 15. The first day of the high-level General Debate will be Sept. 22. A total of 143 heads of state and government spoke at the General Debate of the 74th session of the UNGA last year. This year coincides with the 75th anniversary of the founding of the world body, which is also considering ways of celebration. Enditem Citywide Photo: Teresa Hammerl/Hoodline On Tuesday, Mayor London Breed announced the next wave of reopenings in San Francisco, as the city begins to ease out of its shelter-in-place order to slow the spread of COVID-19. The most notable change involves restaurants, which are allowed to reopen for sit-down outdoor dining service beginning this Friday, June 12 provided they adhere to safety guidelines. The rules call for outdoor tables to be limited to six customers, unless they are members of the same household. People seated at the same table do not have to remain six feet apart, but they must wear a mask until they are seated and put it on any time they leave the table. Customers will be allowed to use indoor restrooms, order at an indoor counter or walk through a dining room to get to an outdoor area. But sitting down to eat indoors is still verboten. "The next step of outdoor dining will rely on both restaurants and customers doing their part to take proper precautions, practice social distancing and ensure safety measures for staff," said Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the SF Department of Public Health, in a statement. Since few businesses in the city already have outdoor spaces, restaurants and retailers are being encouraged to apply to San Francisco's newly created Shared Spaces Program. The program will expedite free permits for restaurants to use city sidewalks, parking lanes, streets, parks and plazas for outdoor dining (and pick-up). However, the permit will not allow restaurants to serve alcohol outdoors. The permits will be awarded on a case-by-case basis, based on the impact on Muni and other city services. Once granted, they'll be valid until December 31, though the city retains the power to revoke them earlier than that. Retailers will also be able to apply to the program. Breed also confirmed that retailers will be able to welcome customers indoors beginning Monday, June 15; more details will be released later this week. As of Tuesday, San Francisco has seen 2,793 people test positive for COVID-19, while 44 have lost their lives to the virus. Are you a cop so bad you managed to actually get disciplined or charged with crimes for your behavior? Florida needs you! The Brevard County Fraternal Order of Police called on such officers to head south, where they can enjoy "lower taxes, no spineless leadership, or dumb mayors rambling on at press conferences." Brevard County F.O.P. President Bert Gamin, who said he is a 28-year law enforcement veteran, with two years as a Melbourne Police Department reservist and 26 years with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office , claimed responsibility for the recruitment post. "Our citizens have a right to protest peacefully and legally. They do not have a right to block roadways, trespass on private property or disobey lawful commands from law enforcement officers," he wrote in response to emailed questions from FLORIDA TODAY. Gamin, a current Brevard County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant, specifically extended the offer to officers implicated in a felony assault in Buffalo and to six charged with a range of crimes in Atlanta. In Buffalo, two officers cracked open the head of a 75-year-old man by pushing him to the ground and dozens more cheered them after their arraignment on felony assault charges. In Atlanta, six officers were charged, four with felonies, after dragging black college students from a car and violently arresting them, inflicting serious injuries on two. [June 09, 2020] Reset Button Is Now Lexria, on a Mission to Make Financial Justice Accessible NEW YORK, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reset Button announced today that it has changed its name to Lexria. The new name reflects the companys mission to make financial justice accessible. There are many legal services out there for consumers with financial issues, but attorneys cant always make the business model work on their own, said Rob Hunter, the companys CEO. We use technology to make those legal serviceslike student loan discharge in bankruptcyfinancially accessible for consumers and feasible to offer for attorneys. Lexria helps borrowers in need attain student loan discharge via adversary proceeding during or after bankruptcy. For borrowers who match the historical profile of someone likely to receive student loan discharge, Lexria has a network of partner attorneys trained in adversary proceedings for student loans. Many people believe student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy, including some bankruptcy attorneys. Whil student loans are excluded from standard bankruptcy proceedings, they can be included if the borrower files an adversary proceeding - a type of lawsuit specific to bankruptcy. About half of borrowers who file adversary proceedings during or after their bankruptcies receive some form of relief, including partial or total discharge of their student loans. With $1.6T in outstanding student loans, 10% of which are already in default, there has never been a more critical time to tackle the student debt problem. Lexria has already received inquiries from thousands of student loan borrowers and built a network of partner attorneys across the U.S. The assistance that Lexria provides borrowers and their attorneys is critical for making student loan discharge accessible to more Americans, said Ed Boltz, a Lexria network attorney and former president of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys. It shows that bankruptcy type of relief is possible, and not just for the most extreme cases, giving hope to borrowers and confidence and support to their bankruptcy attorneys. ABOUT LEXRIA Lexria makes financial justice accessible. By combining technology and modern business methods, Lexria unlocks crucial legal services for consumers, allowing attorneys to feasibly service them. Lexrias initial focus is student loan discharge in bankruptcy. Lexria is a fully remote team and has partner attorneys across the country. MEDIA CONTACT: Rob Hunter Lexria [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] PSKOV, Russia -- A court in Russia's northwestern city of Pskov has sentenced a Jehovah's Witness, Gennady Shpakovsky, to 6 1/2 years in prison. Judge Galina Belik on June 9 found Shpakovsky guilty of being a leading member of a banned extremist religious group and sentenced him the same day. The 61-year-old Shpakovsky refused to accept any guilt, saying that he has the right to follow his religion and share his religious views with others. He came to the trial's last hearing with a bag filled with personal items, signalling he was ready to be taken into custody. "I consider myself not guilty.... I did not commit any crime against any person, the government, the country, or the existing system. The charging files against me do not have a defined damage or a victim. I am being persecuted for my faith," Shpakovsky told RFE/RL before the judge pronounced her ruling. Russia officially banned the religious group in April 2017 and deemed it an "extremist organization," a designation the U.S. State Department has characterized as "wrong." For decades the Jehovah's Witnesses have been viewed with suspicion in Russia, where the dominant Orthodox Church is championed by President Vladimir Putin. The Christian group is known for door-to-door preaching, Bible study, rejection of military service, and not celebrating national and religious holidays or birthdays. Since the faith was outlawed in Russia, several Jehovah's Witnesses have been imprisoned in Russia and the Russia-annexed Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. They include Danish citizen Dennis Christensen, who was sentenced in February 2019 to 6 years in prison in the western city of Oryol. The charges against Christensen have been condemned by rights groups in Russia and abroad. In September 2019, Washington banned two high-ranking regional officers from Russia's Investigative Committee from entering the United States over alleged torture of seven detainees who are Jehovah's Witnesses. The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center has recognized 29 Jehovahs Witnesses who've been charged with or convicted of extremism as political prisoners. On January 9, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Russian law enforcement authorities had dramatically escalated the nationwide persecution of Jehovahs Witnesses during the previous year. HRW said Russian authorities have carried out at least 780 raids of houses owned by Jehovah's Witnesses in dozens of Russian cities since 2017. More than half of those raids were conducted in 2019. CHESHIRE The Sherman man accused of killing his husband in a drunken rage last year is back in jail after spending two days in medical isolation. James C. Maharg has been held in state custody on $2 million bail since March 2019, after being arrested and charged with murdering his 63-year-old husband, Thomas Conley. The 66-year-old was transferred from the Cheshire Correctional Institution to the Northern Correctional Institutions Medical Isolation Unit in Somers on May 18, according to state Department of Correction public information officer Andrius Banevicius. Banevicius said it is the Department of Corrections policy to transfer offenders who test positive for the COVID-19 virus, and are symptomatic to the medical isolation unit but due to HIPAA, he could not say why Maharg spent two days there. Maharg is accused of killing his husband inside their Church Road home March 20, 2019. Authorities said the murder culminated after months of trouble for the couple, when Maharg called 911 and said, My husband is dead. Maharg told police he and his husband had stopped going into their Manhattan fashion retail supply business because it was failing, and as a result they were losing their 20-acre farmhouse to the bank and were dealing with it by drinking three bottles of tequila a day. First responders found empty tequila bottles in the couples house, as well as Conleys cold, naked body at the bottom of a staircase with two wounds to the top of his scalp. The victim walked into the kitchen and said something nasty to Maharg, and Maharg pushed the victims chest, causing him to fall backward into the kitchen cabinet shelf, according to a police affidavit. Maharg, who is also charged with tampering with physical evidence, has a pre-trial hearing scheduled for July 1, at state Superior Court in Danbury. Here are key events since a 2003 civil war erupted in Sudans western region of Darfur, a conflict the UN says killed at least 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million. Khartoum agreed Tuesday to hand ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir and others to the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in the conflict, a member of Sudans ruling sovereign council said. 2003: Rebels take up arms Tribal rebels in the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/SLA) take up arms against Khartoum, accusing it of marginalising the region. On February 26, 2003, rebels take the town of Gulu in northern Darfur. State-backed Arab militias called Janjaweed respond, leading to allegations of atrocities including murder, rape, looting and burning villages. 2007: International force A hybrid African Union-United Nations force called UNAMID takes over from an African force which has been in the region since 2004. In May 2008, more than 220 people are killed when JEM rebels thrust hundreds of kilometres (miles) from Darfur to Omdurman, just across the River Nile from the presidential palace in Khartoum. 2009: International warrants The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for then-president Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. It issues another warrant the next year for genocide. Late in 2010, after a lull in fighting which lasts several months, fighting resumes following the breakdown of an accord signed in 2006 with a faction of the SLM. More than 2,300 killed in 2010, according to the UN. 2011: Revolutionary Front In November 2011, Darfurs armed groups form an alliance the Sudanese Revolutionary Front committed to regime change in Sudan. Sudan accuses newly independent South Sudan of working with the JEM, a charge denied by Juba, which Khartoum also accuses of backing armed revolts in its South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions. 2014: Abuses In March 2014, the UN criticises restrictions imposed on humanitarian workers in Darfur and an increase in the number of displaced people. The UN Security Council urges UNAMID to better protect the Darfur population. In October the UN criticises it for playing down alleged abuses by Sudanese forces. In November, Bashir calls for a planned withdrawal of the force, with which Khartoums relations have deteriorated, after the peacekeepers probe accusations of gang rape by Sudanese soldiers. 2016: Ceasefire In a controversial April 2016 referendum the division of Darfur into five states is maintained. The government in June declares a unilateral ceasefire. In August, negotiations break down between Khartoum and rebels on a cessation of hostilities in Darfur, the Blue Nile and South Kordofan. In early September Bashir says that peace has returned to Darfur. That month rights group Amnesty International accuses Khartoum of carrying out several chemical attacks, killing civilians in the West of the country. Khartoum denies the charge. In June 2017, the UN vastly scales down its force under pressure from Washington to slash the budget. 2019: Bashir ousted, talks On April 11, 2019, Bashir is ousted by the military and detained, after four months of popular protests demanding he quit. In August, new Sudanese authorities entrusted with preparing the way for a civilian regime vow to restore peace to conflict-ridden regions including Darfur. 2019: Draft accord On December 22, Sudanese prosecutors open a probe into crimes committed in Darfur since 2003, targeting officials from Bashirs regime. In late December, nearly 50 people are killed over two days in tribal fighting at El Geneina, state capital of West Darfur. On January 24, 2020, a coalition of nine rebel groups from Blue Nile and Darfur, but not South Kordofan, sign a preliminary agreement with the government after weeks of talks. acm-jmy/par SLM CORPORATION A Moroccan diplomat at the centre of a diplomatic spat between Algiers and Rabat has left Algeria at the country's request, a spokesman for the presidency said on Tuesday. "The consul of Morocco has left the country at Algeria's request," spokesman Mohand Oussaid Belaid told a news conference, referring to the consul of Morocco in Algeria's second city Oran. Last month Algeria summoned Morocco's ambassador after a video on social media showed a man, presented as the consul, calling Algeria an "enemy" country. The man was addressing Moroccans complaining about being stranded in Algeria due to coronavirus travel restrictions. Belaid said the consul's "attitude was not surprising because he is an officer of the Moroccan intelligence services". According to the Algerian news website TSA, the consul returned home last Thursday on a Royal Air Maroc flight that was repatriating Moroccans stranded in Algeria. Last month Algeria's foreign ministry warned that a diplomat calling it an "enemy country" would constitute a serious violation, and urged Rabat to take "appropriate measures" to protect bilateral relations. But Belaid said the matter was now over and a new chapter had been turned. Relations between the North African countries have long been tense, particularly over the Western Sahara, a disputed former Spanish colony on Africa's Atlantic coast that is mostly under Morocco's control. Search Keywords: Short link: Was it curiosity? Or was it nostalgia for an iconic TV format re-booted? Whatever drove the audience, they answered the "open house" of Seven's new Big Brother with 1.22 million viewers tuning into the 90-minute broadcast. Big Brother won the ratings ahead of two other competing reality franchises on commercial television at 7.30pm, each with their own loyal audience: Nine's The Voice, which drew 1.19 million viewers, and Ten's MasterChef, with 1.13 million. (Nine is the owner of this masthead). Seven coded the audience measurement of the broadcast into three - the main program, the arrivals and the eviction - but the parts only had a spread of 117,000 viewers, an indication that outside of its core audience there were few channel-surfing interlopers. The 2020 housemates in Big Brother. Credit:Seven Network Seven's headline will be that Big Brother 2.0 is a hit. They're right. It is. But the other intriguing headline for TV's streaming-obsessed analysts is that there are, at 7.30pm, some 3.5 million people tuned into commercial television reality franchises. By Tom Sims and John O'Donnell FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's bank lobby is set to urge the government to drop some of the conditions attached to a trillion euro rescue scheme, arguing that companies are so reluctant to take the help that it threatens any recovery from the coronavirus outbreak. Martin Zielke, the head of the lobby and Commerzbank, will appeal this week to limit conditions - like pay caps and board seats - for government cash injections into companies, three people with knowledge of the matter said. Zielke argues that companies are taking on further debt, the chief means of government support, as prospects for revenue dim, and Berlin should offer capital injections with fewer strings, according to a paper outlining his position seen by Reuters. Companies will not otherwise accept help, the three people said, citing Zielke, whose Commerzbank caters to the Mittlestand companies that form the backbone of the German economy and was bailed out during the last financial crisis. The state still holds a 15% stake in Commerzbank and occupies two board seats. A spokeswoman for Germany's economy ministry, led by Peter Altmaier, said the high number of applications for state support from companies, and the payment of tens of billions of euros of credit and other assistance, was proof of the scheme's success. It conducted a survey in May of companies it thought particularly vulnerable to the virus outbreak and that found that more than three quarters of those firms had applied for at least one form of support. By contrast, a recent internal survey by Germany's influential BDI industry lobby showed that most of more than 150 small and medium Mittelstand companies are avoiding state help, choosing to slash investment and jobs or tap savings instead. "Industrial Mittelstand firms have so far been reluctant to accept financial help from the state," said Hans-Toni Junius, who chairs a BDI committee looking at the matter. "The goal remains financial independence." Story continues The criticism from the banks and companies highlights cracks in Europe's biggest economic support scheme, the envy of Germany's more indebted neighbours. There are two groups companies "really do not trust", said Peer-Robin Paulus, an executive of a German association representing family-owned business. "One is the government; the other is the big banks." Most aid comes in the form of loans. But schemes to tap government funds in return for an equity stake require limits on management pay, restrictions on use of funds and the government taking seats on corporate boards. So far, only Lufthansa is tapping Germany's 100 billion euro fund for recapitilizing companies although others are exploring it. Lufthansa clinched a deal for a 9 billion euro bailout in which the government will get a 20% stake and two board seats. Talks hit a snag at one point last month when some in government insisted on terms that Lufthansa favour orders from Europe's Airbus over Boeing of the U.S., but CEO Carsten Spohr said they were able to "negotiate those away". (Editing by Philippa Fletcher) Alaska Gasline Development receives FERC approval The Alaska Gasline Development Corp. said this morning that it has received authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to construct and operate the Alaska LNG project. "Today's federal authorization is a key step in determining if Alaska LNG is competitive and economically beneficial for Alaska," Gov. Mike Dunleavy said. "The ongoing project economic review and discussion with potential partners will determine the next steps for this project," he said. AGDC President Frank Richards said: "FERC's authorization validates that the Alaska LNG Project can be safely built and operated, delivering numerous potential benefits with manageable environmental impacts." "Obtaining FERC approval significantly de-risks the project execution with defined environmental stipulations," he said. "Our momentum continues as we complete our assessment of the project's economics and competitiveness, and engage with potential project partners to determine the best path forward for the Alaska LNG project." - KRISTEN NELSON Bringing ownership back to Alaska Majid Jourabchi, president of Thyssen Petroleum USA, addressed reports that he was part of a team attempting to buy majority ownership in the North Slope Mustang oil development from investors in Caracol Petroleum, as well as restart shut-in oil production later in the year. In mid-2014 Thyssen and two other firms acquired BRPC and a package of North Slope properties from Alaska Venture Capital Group and Ramshorn Investments Inc. for $450 million. "We're trying to bring ownership back to the North Slope," Jourabchi told Petroleum News in a May 21 email. "Anything else is not very accurate. As a start I am not a director of Alpha Energy, but we are trying to simplify the ownership and to refocus the operations." The Mustang development loan was once again the subject of an executive session at a board meeting of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority on May 20. As expected, no resolution to the delinquent status of the loan came from that meeting. Part of the problem was likely because Caracol, the field's majority owner, is owned by Singapore-based Alpha Energy Holdings Ltd., which under the latest agreement with AIDEA was to invest $60 million in Mustang in the first quarter of this year and advance at least $15 million to Caracol in the form of equity or a senior secured loan. Karsten Rodvik, AIDEA's external affairs officer, told Petroleum News May 15 that Alpha has not met those commitments. The field went online in November but went offline in December and has remained so. Some of the challenges at Mustang cannot be laid at the feet of its operator, such as the state oil tax credits veto several years ago (under the Walker administration). "Current volatility in the oil markets has created additional issues for the Mustang project," Rodvik said. "AIDEA is currently reviewing its alternatives as a creditor to the project." - KAY CASHMAN See full stories in May 24 issue, available online Friday, May 22 at www.PetroleumNews.com For information on PN's news bulletin service, call 907-522-9469. PO Box 231647, Anchorage AK 99523-1647 Advertisement The researchers amplified and sequenced DNA from the samples and used the sequence information to identify major groups of bacteria in the samples.They found that shoes and cell phones from the same person consistently had distinct communities of microbes. Cell phone microbes reflected those found on people, while shoes carried microbes characteristic of soil. This is consistent with earlier results.The shoe microbes were also more diverse than those found on a person's phone.Although samples were collected at events across the country, the researchers did not find any conclusive regional trends. In some cases, there were big differences between samples collected at different events in the same city. In others, samples from distant cities looked quite similar.Surprisingly, a substantial proportion of the bacteria came from groups that researchers call "microbial dark matter." These microbes are difficult to grow and study in a lab setting and thus have been compared to invisible "dark matter" that astronomers think makes up much of the universe.Since they are so difficult to grow in a lab, these dark matter groups have only been discovered as scientists have used genetic sequencing technology to look for microbes in the world around us. Although many of the dark microbial groups come from remote or extreme environments, such as boiling acid springs and nutrient poor underground aquifers, some have been found in more mundane habitats, such as soil."Perhaps we were naive, but we did not expect to see such a high relative abundance of bacteria from these microbial dark matter groups on these samples," Eisen said.A number of these dark microbe groups were found in more than 10 percent of samples, with two groups, Armatimonadetes and Patescibacteria, being found in almost 50 percent of swabs and somewhat more frequently in those from shoes than those from phones. Armatimonadetes is known to be widespread in soil."A remarkable fraction of people are traveling around with representatives from these uncultured groups on commonplace objects," Coil said.Source: Eurekalert BANGUI, Central African Republic - In a significant breakthrough in the pursuit of justice for crimes in Darfur, Sudanese militia leader Ali Kushayb, who is charged with 50 crimes against humanity and war crimes in the devastating conflict, has been arrested more than 13 years after a warrant was issued for him and transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, authorities said Tuesday. Kushayb surrendered to authorities in a remote corner of northern Central African Republic, near the countrys border with Sudan, International Criminal Court spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said. He later added that Kushayb arrived at the ICCs detention centre Tuesday evening. In the Darfur conflict, rebels from the territorys ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. The government responded with a scorched-earth assault of aerial bombings and unleashed militias known as the Janjaweed, who are accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes. The courts prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda said Kushaybs surrender and transfer into the courts custody nearly two decades after the Darfur conflict raged was a powerful and sombre reminder that the victims of atrocity crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan have waited too long to see justice done. The victims in the Darfur situation deserve to finally have their day in court. The ICC charged Sudans ousted former president Omar al-Bashir with genocide for allegedly masterminding the campaign of attacks. Al-Bashir has not been turned over to the court to face trial. Kushaybs detention sets the stage for the court to hold its first trial focused on the Darfur conflict. Brad Brooks-Rubin, managing director of The Sentry, a watchdog group co-founded by George Clooney, called Kushaybs detention a modest triumph for the cause of accountability for atrocity crimes in Africa. This represents a glimpse of hope for people in Darfur and around the world who desperately seek justice and security but are too often forgotten, he said. According to the ICCs arrest warrant, Kushayb is accused of commanding thousands of Janjaweed militia back in 2003-2004 and acting as a go-between for the militia and Sudanese government. The ICC says he personally participated in some of the attacks against civilians and allegedly enlisted fighters, armed, funded and provided food and other supplies to the Janjaweed militia under his command. Among offences listed on his arrest warrant are murder, rape, persecution and pillage. No immediate date was set for Kushayb to appear before the court. At his initial appearance, judges will seek to confirm his identity and that he has read and understood the charges against him and his rights. The next stage will be a preliminary hearing, likely to be months from now, at which prosecutors will attempt to convince judges that their evidence is strong enough to merit putting Kushayb on trial. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted. Central African Republic Attorney General Eric Didier Tambo confirmed to The Associated Press that Kushayb had been extradited to The Hague in the Netherlands on Tuesday after being brought to Bangui the day before. It was not immediately known how long he had been in Central African Republic. Kushayb and al-Bashir evaded arrest on war crimes charges for more than a decade amid reluctance by other African nations to carry out arrest warrants. Al-Bashir, who is accused of crimes including genocide, travelled abroad freely and it was not until after he was deposed last year that Sudanese authorities agreed to extradite him to The Hague. However, the ex-president has not yet been turned over to the ICC. Human Rights Watch welcomed Kushaybs detention. Today is a landmark day for justice for victims of atrocities committed across Darfur and their families, said Elise Keppler, associate director of the groups International Justice Program. The world watched in horror as Sudans government carried out brutal attacks on Darfur civilians, killing, raping, burning and looting villages, starting in 2003. But after 13 years, justice has finally caught up with one major fugitive of the crimes. Kushaybs arrest underscored the importance of the International Criminal Court, which has faced fierce criticism from the United States. Justice is not always immediately possible, making the ICCs role as a permanent court so critical, she said. ICC arrest warrants have no expiration date, but do rely on co-operation from states to be enforced. ___ Mike Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this story. It would come as a surprise to many film enthusiasts that there are many celebrities in the Bollywood industry who arent Indian citizens. Some of the most popular Indian actors werent even born here and hence, neither hold Indian passports nor have rights to vote. Well, that clearly explains why we don't see their pictures while casting votes when elections are around. Without further ado, let's check out the list: 1. Alia Bhatt We bet you didnt know about this one. Being touted as one of the highest-paid actresses in the country and becoming famous in such a short span of time, Alia wasnt even born in India. She was born in London to filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and British-born actor Soni Razdan and hence holds British citizenship. Twitter/Alia Bhatt 2. Nargis Fakhri The 39-year-old actor debuted with the 2011 romantic drama Rockstar which was directed by Imtiaz Ali. She was paired opposite Ranbir Kapoor in the film and not just that, she was also nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Since then, she has appeared in several films including Madras Cafe, and Housefull 3 among others. Whats interesting is that she was born in Queens, New York City. Her father is Pakistani, and her mother is Czech. She is an American citizen. BCCL 3. Akshay Kumar Even though the 52-year-old actor, who has immense fan following, was born in Amritsar, Punjab, he holds a Canadian passport and has in fact, given up his Indian citizenship for that. Well, that explains why we never see his picture of casting a vote during elections! He has many accolades to his name including National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in Rustom (2016). Twitter/Akshay Kumar 4. Jacqueline Fernandez The 34-year-old actor forayed into the Bollywood industry with Sujoy Ghosh directorial Aladin in 2009. However, not many know that she is not an Indian citizen. Jacqueline is a Sri Lankan actress, former model, and the winner of the Miss Universe Sri Lanka pageant of 2006 who was born into a multiracial family of Canadian, Sri Lankan, and Malaysian descent, and was raised in Bahrain. Twitter/Jacqueline Fernandez 5. Katrina Kaif Currently, one of the highest paid actresses in the country, Katrina Kaif has established herself in the Hindi film industry with box-office super hits in her kitty. She was born in Hong Kong and has British citizenship. Bet you didn't know that. Twitter/Katrina Kaif By Akbar Mammadov Head of Nagorno-Karabakhs Azerbaijani Community Tural Ganjaliyev has said that Baku will ensure peaceful co-existence of the Nagorno-Karabakhs both communities within Azerbaijans territorial integrity and that this will happen very soon. Ganjaliyev made the remarks in a Facebook post on June 9. Commenting on the statement by the head of the illegal regime set up in Azerbaijans occupied Karabakhs region recently, Ganjaliyev said: "It is not surprising to see a corrupt criminal who made his wealth by plundering the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, and by serving criminals such as Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan, has concerns. A puppet head of a puppet regime is well aware that the day is near when he and others like him will be brought to justice as enshrined in the laws of Azerbaijan. The head of the Azerbaijani community stressed that the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan is currently under the occupation, and the Armenian residents in Karabakh are forced to live in captivity by the occupant forces. "As the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated, the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan will soon be restored and the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan will be cleared of the criminal puppet-in-chiefs as Arayik [Harutunyan]. The Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan will soon be able to live together in peace within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan", Ganjaliyev concluded. Tural Ganjaliyev is also an elected MP from Khankendi district of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. --- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz DUBLIN, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Germany Gift Card and Incentive Card Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook) - Market Size and Forecast (2015-2024) - Covid-19 Update Q2 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The gift card market in Germany witnessed substantial growth during the review period. The growth was primarily supported by the growing demand for gift cards during the festivals and the rising adoption of gift cards by the corporate houses. Moreover, customized gift cards offering by the retailers is another key factor in expanding the gift card market. However, socio-economic challenges due to the Covid-19 outbreak are likely to restrict market growth in 2020. While near term challenges are expected to persist due to the pandemic, the medium term growth story of the gift card industry in Germany remains intact. In value terms, the gift card market in Germany has recorded a CAGR of 13.3% during 2015-2019.The gift card industry in Germany will continue to grow over the forecast period and is expected to record a CAGR of 10.1% during 2020-2024. The gift card market in the country will increase from US$ 9,496.2 million in 2019 to reach US$ 13,914.2 million by 2024. This report provides a detailed data centric analysis of gift cards and corporate incentive cards market along with consumer behaviour and retail spend dynamics in Germany. The report includes raw data along with structured dashboards, charts, and tables in an interactive Excel format. Below is a summary of country level trend analyses covered across the gift card segments: This report provides detailed view of overall spend on gifts, broken down by retail and consumer segments. It provides in-depth analysis of opportunities in both open loop and closed loop prepaid gift card categories. Assesses consumer behaviour by type of consumer, gifting occasion, digital gift card and market share by retail sectors. Details six essential KPIs: number of cards in circulation, load value, unused value, average purchase value, average value per transaction, and value of transactions. The report provides detailed market dynamics of corporate incentive cards, broadly segmented in three categories - consumer incentive card, employee incentive card, and sales/partner incentive card. It details market size and forecast at category level, by functional attribute and by corporate consumer segments. Provides market size and forecast for digital gift cards, broken down by retail and corporate buyers. It also includes gift card spend by occasion and digital gift card adoption by company size. Provides market estimates and forecasts to assess opportunities in open loop and closed loop gift and incentive card segments across consumer segments. The report identifies and interprets key KPIs related to gift card dynamics including spend by age, gender, and income level. Breaks down retail spend across retail sectors to provide detailed insights on consumer behaviour and changing dynamics of gift card spend. Provides market share of closed loop gift cards by key retailers in Germany . . Provides market share by distribution channel - online vs offline sales and 1st party vs 3rd party sales. Companies Mentioned Edeka Zentral AG & Co KG Schwarz Beteiligungs GmbH Aldi Group Rewe Group Amazon.com Inc dm-Drogerie Markt GmbH & Co KG Tengelmann Group, The Dirk Rossmann KG Globus Holding GmbH & Co Inter Ikea Systems BV H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB Otto Group Bauhaus GmbH & Co Kg Intersport International Corp Hudson's Bay Co Mller Ltd & Co KG Key Topics Covered: Germany Total Gift Spend Analyzer Germany Retail Consumer Gift Spend Analyzer Germany Corporate Consumer Gift Spend Analyzer Germany Gift Card Spend Analyzer Germany Digital Gift Card Spend Analyzer Germany Gift Card Spend Analysis by City Type Germany Gift Card Spend Share by Demographics and Purchase Behaviour Germany Retail Consumer Gift Card Spend Analyzer Germany Retail Consumer Gift Card Spend Analysis by Functional Attribute Germany Retail Consumer Gift Card Spend Analysis by Occasion Germany Corporate Consumer Gift Card Spend Analyzer Germany Corporate Consumer Gift Card Spend Analysis by Functional Attribute Germany Corporate Consumer Gift Card Spend Analysis by Occasion Germany Corporate Consumer Gift Card Spend Analysis by Company Size Germany Corporate Consumer Gift Card Spend Analysis by Company Size X Functional Attribute Germany Gift Card Spend Analysis by Distribution Channel Germany Gift Card Spend Analysis by Retail Sector Germany Retail Consumer Gift Card Spend Analysis by Retail Sector Germany Corporate Consumer Gift Card Spend Analysis by Retail Sector Germany Closed Loop Gift Card Market Share Analysis by Top Retailers For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9xk223 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: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Community clinic system Ibn Sina Foundation and CVS Health have partnered to offer free rapid COVID-19 testing starting Tuesday in southwest Houston. Licensed CVS Health physicians assistants, nurses and pharmacy staff will give patients a self-swab kit when they arrive, and test results will be provided on the spot, according to CVS Health. Patients must call the foundations Southwest Houston clinic for a same-day testing slot, and fall under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for testing. Federal guidelines prioritize people who show symptoms of infection, such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, sore throat, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea and/or recent loss of taste or smell, and those without symptoms who have been asked to be tested by local health departments or doctors. The medical professionals will use an Abbott Labs test designed to produce positive results within five minutes, and negative results within 13 minutes, said Monica Prinzing, a CVS Health spokeswoman. The process takes 30 mins upon arrival. Once the test result is available, Prinzing said, a health care professional will provide the patient their test results, which will enable patients to receive results on-site along with a treatment plan and direction on appropriate actions to take related to quarantine and exposure tracing. Unlike other test sites around the Greater Houston area, the new test site is not drive-thru and does not require patients to come in their own vehicles. This community clinic will eliminate one barrier to ending the pandemic that far too many people face: access, U.S. Congressman Al Green, who represents the district the clinic is located in, said in a statement. By locating the clinic in a vulnerable community, we make testing more accessible physically to those who need it most. THE JUMP: COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations spiking in Houston Ibn Sina serves patients at seven clinics across the Greater Houston and Port Arthur areas. Its Southwest Houston clinic is located at 11226 S. Wilcrest Drive, and patients can book COVID-19 testing appointments at 281-495-7462. The foundation is named after Ibn Sina, an 11th-century Persian Muslim physician known in English-language textbooks as Avicenna. It was founded in 2001 by a group of Muslim doctors and business leaders to serve poor and uninsured communities. CVS Health, based in Woonsocket, R.I., has opened dozens of test sites across the Greater Houston region and nationwide in recent weeks. It plans to operate 1,000 COVID-19 drive-thru testing locations. In recent years, the drugstore giant has made a foray into the consumer health care business, opening its MinuteClinics in stores in 2006 and purchasing insurer Aetna in 2018. This article has been updated with information about how patients are swabbed for the COVID-19 test. gwendolyn.wu@chron.com twitter.com/gwendolynawu The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] (Newser) Jerry Falwell Jr.'s attempt to make a face mask joke at the expense of his state's governor has backfiredand now it's even prompted what the New York Times calls a "rare apology" and deleted tweet from the Liberty University president. It all started when Falwell complained about Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's coronavirus mask mandate late last month, tweeting out a photo of the now-infamous blackface photo that got Northam into hot water. Falwell's accompanying comment: "If I am ordered to wear a mask, I will reluctantly comply, but only if this picture of Governor Blackface himself is on it!" Per WDBJ7, Falwell has now scrapped that tweet and is apologizing for it after heated reaction, including professors at his university resigning (or saying they would) and an open letter from dozens of African American Liberty alumni condemning his online post. story continues below Falwell's mea culpa came via three tweets on Monday. "After listening to African American LU leaders and alumni over the past week and hearing their concerns, I understand that by tweeting an image to remind all of the governor's racist past I actually refreshed the trauma that image had caused and offended some by using the image to make a political point," he posted. "I ... apologize for any hurt my effort caused, especially within the African American community." The apology and deleted tweet had been one of the demands in the alumni open letter, as well as a future meeting with Falwell, per WSLS. Liberty University put out its own statement echoing Falwell's apology. "This man saw the error in his ways," one of the co-authors of the alumni letter said on Facebook Live. "I still support the university, I want to support Jerry Falwell Jr." More on how the controversy is playing out here. (Read more Jerry Falwell Jr. stories.) (Photo : Pixabay) Research using satellite images and internet search results suggests COVID-19 was spreading in Wuhan as early as August. A new study from the Harvard Medical School suggested that the novel coronavirus might have been spreading in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the pandemic, as early as August of last year. This time, they based the results with the help of satellite images as well as internet search results. Studying Satellite Images and Internet Searches In a report by CNN, the researchers have found satellite images of Wuhan hospitals, capturing more cars parking in the lots around late summer to fall of 2019 compared to the same months of 2018. They have also found that there is a surge of internet search results linked to COVID-19 on China's Baidu search engine around that time. The team's paper hasn't yet been peer-reviewed at the time of writing and is posted on Harvard's DASH server. The team, led by John Brownstein, the chief innovation officer of the Boston Children's Hospital, wrote in the paper that they have found "a steep increase in volume starting in August 2019 and culminating with a peak in December 2019." Through the satellite images that were captured from October 2018, the team counted 171 cars parked in the parking lot of Tianyou Hospital, which is the biggest one in Wuhan. Nevertheless, a year later, satellite data has shown a total of 285 cars parked near the same hospital, seeing an increase of 67%, while there is a 90% increase of traffic in various other Wuhan hospitals at the same time period. Read Also: COVID-19: Asymptomatic Spread of Coronavirus 'Very Rare,' Health Expert Said Increase of People Searching for Symptoms Related to COVID-19 Besides the traffic in Wuhan hospitals, the team also acquired data from Baidu, the Chinese equivalent to the Google search engine. Through the data they acquired, the team saw the search results of many Chinese people coincided with the symptoms associated with COVID-19. "Individual hospitals have days of high relative volume in both fall and winter 2019. However, between September and October 2019, five of the six hospitals show their highest relative daily volume of the analyzed series, coinciding with elevated levels of Baidu search queries for the terms 'diarrhea' and 'cough,'" the team wrote. The Importance of the Study Brownstein explained the importance of their research to the news outlet, saying that it's all about "trying to piece together a complicated puzzle" that was happening at the time. The team's research would also help answer the question of where the virus came from and how it has evolved since the first time it appeared. The head researcher also believes that the data they acquired is compelling, especially as they have seen a massive surge of people searching for gastrointestinal problems like diarrhea that they haven't seen before. This is important as gastrointestinal problems, especially diarrhea, is a marker of COVID-19. Using "validated data streams" is not a new technique when it comes to respiratory disease surveillance. According to Brownstein, they had used the technique before. They discovered that Latin American hospitals would become busy during flu season and that they were able to predict when it would start by looking at the hospitals' parking lots. Read Also: [COVID-19 Update] Heartburn Drug Can Fight Moderately Severe Coronavirus Cases; Vaccine May Take 10-15 Years, Experts Say 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Nii Arde Nkpa family of Plerno-James Town has cut the sod for the construction of a GH1.8 million three-story ultra-modern edifices which will serve as the family house. The fully furnished 24 Bedroom apartment facility which will be constructed at Plerno-James Town, will also host offices and conference facilities for the family. The multi-million Ghana Cedis family House will be the first of its kind in the whole of James Town and will be adjudged the most fantastic family house, having been completed within a year and some months. The facility boasts of spacious parking spaces, Internet facilities, security outposts, a standby generator, and other features that make business convenient. Addressing the sod-cutting ceremony, the Head of the Nii Arde Nkpa Family, Daniel Nii Arde Tagoe said the Nii Arde Nkpa family; allodia owners of Kokrobite, Langma and Tuba lands in Accra saw the need to put up the edifice to serve many other purposes besides providing accommodation as a family house. He said the facility will be a permanent residence for the Chief and the Head of the family. Nii Arde Tagoe also noted that the main purpose of the construction of the facility is to give family members a place to sleep so as to help them save money they use in renting apartments. He also averred that family members and residents residing abroad will no more be housed at hotels but will have a permanent place to live whenever they visit Ghana. He urged the youth of James Town to be circumspect in all their actions in order to sustain the family name and maintain the respect it has gained over the years and reminded them of their positions as future leaders of the country who would be steering the affairs of Ghana in the near future for which reason they need to lead exemplary lives to make them worthy of that responsibility. He noted the Arde Nkpa family can boast of many professionals capable of changing the fortunes of their relatives and other members of society, therefore the future of the Arde Nkpa family is bright. We should make it a point to send our children to school to the highest levels since that is the only perfect gift and legacy we can leave for our children, he said. According to him, the facility which will also serve as an office will afford the youth and people of James Town the opportunity to walk in with their concerns for solutions. Later Daniel Nii Arde Tagoe, the head of family, led the elders and a section of the family to cut sod for the commencement of the project. In attendance were the Municipal Chief Executive for GA South, Mr. Joseph Nii Arde Nkpa Family To Construct GH1.8m Ultra-Modern Family House In James Town The Nii Arde Nkpa family of Plerno-James Town has cut sod for the construction of a GH1.8 million three-story ultra-modern edifice which will serve as the family house. The fully furnished 24 Bedroom apartment facility which will be constructed at Plerno-James Town, will also host offices and conference facilities for the family. The multi-million Ghana Cedis family House will be the first of its kind in the whole of James Town and will be adjudged the most fantastic family house, having been completed within a year and some months. The facility boasts of spacious parking spaces, Internet facilities, security outposts, a standby generator, and other features that make business convenient. Addressing the sod-cutting ceremony, the Head of the Nii Arde Nkpa Family, Daniel Nii Arde Tagoe said the Nii Arde Nkpa family; allodia owners of Kokrobite, Langma and Tuba lands in Accra saw the need to put up the edifice to serve many other purposes besides providing accommodation as a family house. He urged the youth of James Town to be circumspect in all their actions. ACTIVITY in the services sector collapsed in April as tough lockdowns were implemented across the State, according to data from the Central Statistics Office. The value of monthly services fell by 23pc in April compared with March and by more than 22pc from a year earlier, with accommodation and food registering the biggest decline with a 57pc drop. The least affected areas were professional, scientific and technical activities, which saw a 15pc drop in the value of their activities, and administrative and support services which saw a 13pc fall. The issue now is how quickly activity will return as shops across the country started reopening yesterday, with queues forming outside shops in city centres. Evidence from other countries now suggests that there may be a more rapid return than expected. "After a dire March and April, evidence pointing to a pick-up in global activity in May has continued to mount," said Ben May, of Oxford Economics. "Encouragingly, there are even signs of a rapid rebound in Germany and Australia's restaurant sectors - perhaps a good omen for sectors that are likely to be hit hard by voluntary social distancing once lockdown measures are reversed. Other indicators suggest that Germany and Australia, which now have looser lockdowns relative to other G20 economies, have seen relatively high levels of footfall in retail and recreation areas," Mr May said in a research report. Ireland had one of the toughest lockdowns in Europe as authorities here attempted to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The process of reopening has been accelerated. In separate data, industrial production also slowed in April from March, but the series is very volatile from month to month and it dropped by 7.4pc, although it recorded a 4.7pc rise on the year. "Although the extent of the collapse in activity during peak lockdown is of course important for firms, households and financial markets, in many senses the bigger issue now is the speed and timing of the recovery. "On that front, while recent data indicate we've passed the trough, it's too early to celebrate," the Oxford Economics report said, Many firms were closed in Ireland, while some of those that remained open have seen a dramatically reduced demand. The key issue now is to ensure their survival and ability to hire back hundreds of thousands of workers. SPRINGFIELD State officials are laying the groundwork to get students back in the classroom. The State Board of Education and the Department of Public Health have issued guidelines for limited in-classroom instruction this summer. Extensive social distancing, enhanced sanitation measures and other accommodations will be necessary, including limiting gatherings of 10 or less people, and the use of personal protective equipment. Barry Reilly, the superintendent of schools for District 87 in Bloomington, said he will get together with other school officials and go over the guidelines as soon as possible. I dont think we will be able to do summer school the way we have in the past, Reilly said. We might be able to bring in small groups of kids so I have a hunch thats what we will look at and consider. Jackie Matthews, director of communications for the State Board of Education, said decisions regarding whether to conduct allowable activities during the reopening will remain at the discretion of local school authorities in consultation with local health departments. Schools now have the opportunity to bring students back for in-person summer school, but that is up to the school district, Matthews said. Theres no state requirement that schools provide summer programming and there is certainly no requirement that the programming has to happen in person. Some of the activities allowed during the Phase 3 reopening of schools are behind-the-wheel instruction, summer camps, summer meal distribution and school registration. Russia declared a state of emergency last week after 21,000 tonnes of diesel leaked from a fuel reservoir that collapsed outside Norilsk Russia declared a state of emergency last week after 21,000 tonnes of diesel leaked from a fuel reservoir that collapsed outside Norilsk (AFP Photo/Irina YARINSKAYA) Moscow (AFP) - An oil spill that sparked a state of emergency has contaminated a freshwater lake in the Russian Arctic, the regional governor said Tuesday, a claim denied by Norilsk Nickel, the metals giant linked to the leak. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a state of emergency last week after 21,000 tonnes of diesel leaked from a fuel reservoir that collapsed May 29 outside the Arctic city of Norilsk. The spill has polluted the ground and waterways, triggering a major clean-up effort. Norilsk Nickel owns the power plant where the spill originated and its head Vladimir Potanin told Putin last week his company would pay for clean-up efforts estimated at $146 million. A spokeswoman for the taskforce in charge of the accident clean-up told AFP last week that the spill had been contained. But officials in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk this week said that high concentrations of polluted water had been discovered beyond floating barriers set in place to stop the fuel from spreading. "The fuel has got into Pyasino as well. This is a beautiful lake about 70 kilometres (45 miles) long. Naturally, it has both fish and a good biosphere," said Krasnoyarsk region governor Alexander Uss, according to Interfax news agency. He added that it was important to prevent spilled fuel from reaching the Pyasina River, a vital waterway for the region that flows from the lake into the Kara Sea. At a video conference on Tuesday, Norilsk Nickel denied that the diesel had polluted the lake or risked reaching the Kara Sea. "Our samples at the Pyasino Lake show 0.0 percent contamination results," said Sergei Dyachenko, the company's first vice-president and chief operating Officer. "The distance from Pyasino Lake to the Kara Sea is more than 5,000 kilometres," he added. Dyachenko said that "experts on the ground are confident that most of (the spill) can be cleaned," while this must be done before cold weather sets in. Story continues - Greenpeace criticises Russian authorities - Greenpeace director in Russia Vladimir Chuprov told AFP Tuesday that it would be a "disaster" if 10,000 tonnes or more of fuel had reached the lake, and criticised authorities for not giving more information about the extent of the spill. Chuprov also warned of "harmful consequences" if the pollution reaches the Kara Sea, which he said Greenpeace feared would happen. Its teams have been unable to access the site due to restrictions in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus, he said. Russian officials have said that the thawing of permafrost as a result of climate change is the likely cause of the fuel tank leak. Environmentalists and officials say the spill is the worst accident of its kind in the Arctic region, home to much of Russia's oil, gas and mining infrastructure and dogged by pollution since the Soviet era. Russian officials have ordered a review of at-risk structures built on permafrost. Norilsk Nickel officials acknowledged Tuesday that the company had not specifically monitored the permafrost up to now, saying it would carry out a complete audit of its buildings and infrastructure in the near future. The United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the emotions triggered by the death of African-American George Floyd could not be ignored. On June 9, Johnson in a Twitter statement said that Britain can not simply ignore those feelings and the government had to do more to fight prejudice towards people from back and minority ethnic group. While the death of Floyd triggered protests across the world, the UK PM said, "We who lead and who govern simply can't ignore those feelings because in too many cases, I am afraid, they will be founded on a cold reality". Johnsons statement comes after thousands of Britons accused the UK police of unfairly targeting black people and expressed anger and frustration at the increased use of stop and search during the lockdown in areas with large black, Asian and minority ethnic populations (BAME). However, the UK PM said that Britain had made huge strides in tackling racism but it must also frankly acknowledge that there is much more to do in eradicating prejudice and creating opportunity. READ: Police Escort George Floyd's Casket To Funeral Home Johnson warns protesters While Johnson said that he stands with the minority ethnic groups, he also warned that those who attack public property or the police would "face the full force of the law". According to an international media outlet, the demonstrators in the UK firstly defied the warnings not to gather in large groups due to the risk of spreading the deadly coronavirus. The peaceful protests in London also reportedly led to clashes with the police. While dozens of officers were injured, more than 100 people were also arrested. Furthermore, it was also reported that a statue of Winston Churchill on Parliament Square in London was sprayed with graffiti. In Bristol in western England, protesters reportedly also toppled a statue of 17th Century slave trader Edward Colston. With demonstrators turning violent, Johnson said that he will not support those who break the law and attack the police. The UK PM said, "I will not support those who flout the rules on social distancing ... I will not support or indulge those who break the law or attack the police or desecrate public monuments". He further added, "They are hijacking a peaceful protest and undermining it in the eyes of many who might otherwise be sympathetic. And as a society, we can and must do better." Let us work peacefully and lawfully to defeat racism and discrimination wherever we find it, and let us continue to work together as we put Britain back on its feet. pic.twitter.com/onUqXbcCGB Boris Johnson #StayAlert (@BorisJohnson) June 8, 2020 READ: George Floyd, Whose Death Energized A Movement, To Be Buried Floyds death triggered demonstrations not just in the United States, but protests took place in London, Cardiff, Manchester and Nottingham as well. The demonstrators in Britain reportedly said that they wanted to shine a spotlight on the impact of institutional racism in the UK. According to an international media report, the British demonstrations were called spontaneously by young black people who are not affiliated with any organisation. The protests in the UK also follow recent high-profile stop and searched in the capital, including on an ambulance driver waiting for his friends in south London. Jovan Nepaul, the chair of Lewisham Deptford constituency Labour party reportedly also wrote to the mayor of London, Said Khan, to express concern about the disproportionate policing of black people in the area. Jovan Nepaul, the chair of Lewisham Deptford constituency Labour party reportedly said that the attended the rally to show solidarity with victims of police violence in the US. READ: Urgent Meeting Of UN Rights Body Sought After Floyd Killing READ: George Floyd Death: Derek Chauvin's Bail Set At $1 Million, Prosecutor Cites 'flight Risk' A man poses for photos in front of a fire at an AutoZone store, while protesters hold a rally for George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 27, 2020. (Carlos Gonzalez/Star Tribune via AP) Company Burned During Minnesota Protests Plans to Leave the City A Minnesota business owner whose company was burned to the ground during last weeks violent riots said he is planning to leave the city, leaving behind dozens of jobs. Kris Wyrobek, a NASA scientist and the president of the manufacturing company, 7-SIGMA Inc., said about 50 jobs will be lost in Minneapolis after the companys relocation, the Star Tribune reported. No details have been provided about where the company will move to. They dont care about my business, Wyrobek told the outlet. They didnt protect our people. We were all on our own. The fire engine was just sitting there, Wyrobek said, but they wouldnt do anything. Over 570 buildings were damaged or set ablaze in the city where George Floyd died in police custody on Memorial Day, according to the Star Tribune, although the tally of property destruction is likely to rise. A destroyed building still smolders near the Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct the day after it was attacked and burned by rioters following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is expected to ask for state and federal aid to help repair the city after the wave of civil unrest, which has abated in recent days as the National Guard was brought in to support local law enforcement. We definitely need all the help we can get from the state, Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter told Fox9 in an interview during a tour around the hardest-hit areas of Minneapolis. Officials in Minneapolis said property damage due to looting and vandalism that followed protests over the death of Floyd has caused at least $55 million in destruction. Frey said he was unaware of 7-SIGMAs decision to relocate its business, and the Minneapolis mayor and city leaders are currently working to convince business owners to rebuild in the city, because many of them have been critical of the citys response to the protests. A check-cashing business burns in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (John Minchillo/AP Photo) Following last weeks protests Wyrobek was asked if he ever thought he would move out of Minneapolis. Not in my wildest nightmare, he said. He added that the company is optimistic about rebuilding, but he told the Tribune that they are certainly not able to do that in Minneapolis. 7-SIGMA was founded in 1973 and manufactures high-performance polymer and metal components for the printing, medical, aerospace, and industrial markets, according to the companys website. Tom Ozimek contributed to this report. NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The price of gold has continued to rally over the past several months, consistently breaching the $1,700 mark with stock markets behaving erratically. Gold stocks of all sizes have begun to garner investor interest, particularly those in prolific gold regions like the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. Abitibi is one of the most prospective geological terranes in the world for gold. Over the past century, more than 170 million ounces of gold have been produced from the Abitibi Greenstone Belt , which measures 500 kilometers (310 miles) by 350 kilometers (217 miles) and spans the Ontario/Quebec provincial border. The high mineral potential and stable jurisdiction make the Abitibi one of the premier places to explore and develop mines, not only in Canada but internationally as well. Major gold companies with operating mines in the Abitibi include Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO) (TSX:ELD), Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. (NYSE:KL) (TSX:KL), Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE:NEM) (TSX:NGT), IAMGOLD Corporation (NYSE:IAG) (TSX:IMG), and Agnico Eagle Mines Limited. Meanwhile, notable junior exploration companies who are advancing gold projects in Abitibi include Osisko Mining Corp, Wallbridge Mining Company Ltd., and Genesis Metals Corp. (TSX-V:GIS) (OTCQB:GGISF). Genesis Metals Corp. (GIS.V) (GGISF.QB) is actively exploring its flagship +290 square kilometer (~71,660 acres) Chevrier Gold Project in the eastern Abitibi Chibougamau-Chapais Mining Camp, where approximately 6.7 million ounces of gold have been produced historically. The Chevrier Project is situated in an area with excellent infrastructure, strong local support for resource development, and nearby major gold deposits and active exploration projects. The Chevrier gold project is contiguous with the high-grade Monster Lake gold project , a joint venture between IAMGOLD Corporation and Tomagold Corporation, and 20 kilometers northeast of IAMGOLD Corporation and Vanstar Mining Resources' new 3.1 million ounce Nelligan gold discovery . A current mineral resource estimate for the Chevrier Project was published on March 21, 2019, by Genesis Metals Corp. (GIS.V) (GGISF.QB). It includes 395,000 ounces of gold averaging 1.45 grams/tonne in the Indicated mineral resource category and 297,000 ounces of gold averaging 1.33 grams/tonne in the Inferred mineral resource category. On June 2, 2020, Genesis Metals Corp. announced initial assays from a 9-hole 2,502-meter Phase 1 drilling program 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. Results from 5 holes (1,596 metres) are pending from this program and plans for the second phase of drilling will be announced once all assays from the current program are received and evaluated. A surface exploration program will commence 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 large project area. The Company is fully funded for its planned work in 2020, which includes up to a total of 8,000 meters of drilling. Eldorado Gold Corporation (NYSE:EGO) (TSX:ELD) gained its stake in the Abitibi region when it acquired Integra Gold Corporation in 2017 and has continued to make new discoveries at the Lamaque underground gold mine in Quebec. Lamaque is expected to mine and process over 615,000 tons at an average grade of 7.0 grams/tonne gold. In January, the company announced the discovery of a new high-grade gold zone at Lamaque, which will be incorporated into an upcoming Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) update. Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. (NYSE:KL) (TSX:KL) also recently increased its footprint in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt through the acquisition of Detour Gold Corporation in an all-share deal valued at CDN$4.89 billion. The Detour Lake gold mine is expected to produce for over 20 years, with the ability to generate 600,000 ounces per year which is similar to the current output from Kirkland Lake's current largest producer, the Fosterville mine in Australia. Meanwhile, Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE:NEM) (TSX:NGT) mines and produces gold at its Porcupine operation near Timmins, Ontario. Newmont also previously owned properties in the Red Lake gold complex in Ontario, however, the company sold off the property package to Australia's Evolution Mining Ltd. at the end of 2019. Gold Stocks Performing in 2020 The global pandemic may have thrown major stock markets for a loop this year, but the chaos has created a serious buzz around the gold market and investors are moving into gold for its safe-haven status. Gold prices have continually breached the $US1,700 mark over the past several months. An increased interest in gold investments saw Canadian gold ETFs pull in $382-million in April, which represents the biggest monthly gain in four years, according to the National Bank's monthly ETF-flows report. Now, Canada's gold ETF market is worth almost $3 billion, double from a year ago. At the same time, gold ETFs worldwide has attracted $14.5 billion in under five months, topping the $11.7 billion that flowed into the funds in 2009. The current strong interest in the gold sector is focusing investor attention on gold miners like Eldorado Gold, Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd., Newmont Mining Corp., IAMGOLD Corporation, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited and junior exploration companies like Osisko Mining Corp., Wallbridge Mining Company Ltd. and Genesis Metals Corp. (GIS.V) (GGISF.QB). To learn more about Genesis Metals Corp. (TSXV:GIS) (OTCQB:GGISF), click here. Disclaimer: Micro smallcap.com (MSC) is the source of the Article and content set forth above. MSC owns and operates Streetsignalnews.com. References to any issuer other than the profiled issuer are intended solely to identify industry participants and do not constitute an endorsement of any issuer and do not constitute a comparison to the profiled issuer. FN Media Group (FNM) is a third-party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated with MSC or any company mentioned herein. The commentary, views and opinions expressed in this release by MSC are solely those of MSC and are not shared by and do not reflect in any manner the views or opinions of FNM. Readers of this Article and content agree that they cannot and will not seek to hold liable MSC and FNM for any investment decisions by their readers or subscribers. 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This Article and content are not, and should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular security or course of action; readers are strongly urged to speak with their own investment advisor and review all of the profiled issuer's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission before making any investment decisions and should understand the risks associated with an investment in the profiled issuer's securities, including, but not limited to, the complete loss of your investment. FNM was not compensated by any public company mentioned herein to disseminate this press release but was compensated twenty five hundred dollars by MSC, a non-affiliated third party to distribute this release on behalf of Genesis Metals Corp. FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE. 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You are cautioned that such statements 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, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and MSC and FNM undertake no obligation to update such statements. Media Contact: FN Media Group, LLC [email protected] +1(561)325-8757 SOURCE Microsmallcap.com Kuala Lumpur: A piece of aircraft wreckage found in June off Tanzania has been confirmed as coming from the doomed airliner MH370, Malaysia said on Thursday. The debris, found on Pemba Island off the Tanzanian coast, is the latest piece of wreckage to be linked to the Malaysia Airlines jet, whose disappearance remains a mystery. Malaysias transport ministry said the piece of debris, which had been taken to Australia for expert analysis, was found to have part numbers, date stamps and other identifiers confirming it came from the Malaysia Airlines jet. As such, the experts have concluded that the debris, an outboard flap, originated from the aircraft 9M-MRO, also known as MH370, a ministry statement said. Further examination of the debris will continue in hopes that evidence may be uncovered which may provide new insight into the circumstances surrounding flight MH370. Authorities had earlier said the piece of debris was highly likely to have come from MH370. However, the confirmation appears to have so far shed no fresh light on the planes fate. The Malaysia Airlines jet was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. It is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean, but an extensive deep-sea hunt off Australias west coast is drawing to a close with nothing found yet. However, several pieces of debris that apparently drifted thousands of kilometres toward the African coast have been identified as definitely or probably from the Boeing 777. Those finds have confirmed the plane went down but have so far shed no light on why and have fuelled questions over whether the official search is focused in the right area. The Australian-led operation is scouring the seafloor within a remote 120,000-square-kilometre belt of the Indian Ocean where authorities believe the passenger jet went down. The search is nearly finished, however, and families are bracing for it to be called off. An American amateur investigator, Blaine Gibson, handed other possible MH370 debris to Australian officials on Monday, saying several pieces were blackened by flames, raising the prospect of a flash fire onboard. Gibson, a lawyer, who has travelled the world trying to solve the MH370 mystery, told Australian reporters the debris had washed up in Madagascar. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. - Kathy Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, broke another record and became the first female diver to the deepest part of the sea - After due imaging, she launched into 35,810 feet of Challenger Deep, an ocean which is the lowest among seabeds in the globe - Kathy first walked in space after she joined astronauts in 1984 when women were allowed on space journey at NASA PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Legit.ng News on your Facebook News Feed The first American woman, Kathy Sullivan, 68, to walk in space has achieved another feat by being the first woman to reach the deepest spot in the ocean. Kathy came out from a 35,810-foot dive to the Challenger Deep as confirmed by EYOS Expeditions, a company that was in charge of logistics of the mission. With that, she has become the first woman to set both records. It should, however, be noted that the Challenger Deep is the lowest among the oceans across the globe, New York Times reports. Kathy and Victor L Vescovo, who is an explorer funding the project, spent one and a half hours at their destination. They started to descend into the seabed after they had captured images of the ocean. Kathy was part of the first set of astronauts that included women in 1984, making her the first American woman to walk in space. Kathy will, however, remain for a few more days. Photos sources: NYT/Robb Report Source: UGC Later on in life, she became the administrator of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. She had a deep interest in the ocean before becoming an astronaut. She will be at sea for the next few days even after she had set the new record and completed a major part of her mission. Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that a 60-year-old phar*macy worker, Mo OBrien, set a record as the first deaf person to row the ocean in a 3,000-mile journey across the Atlantic. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news The woman got to the Carribean island of Antigua with her team members 49 days after she left the Canary Island of La Gomera in December 2019. Their arrival on Thursday, January 30, will make them the fastest team of three females to ever complete the task. In commenting on the completion of the task, the woman said she feels relieved as the Ocean Rowling Society gave the confirmation that she is really the worlds first on such a challenge. The team is made up of Ms OBrien, her daughter, Bird Watt and their friend, Claire Allinson. On the voyage, the trio each takes a four-hour shift with a two-hour rest. NAF Officers make history as first female fighter, helicopter combat pilots | Legit TV Source: Legit.ng Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are the heartbeat of our economy. At Microsoft, we are committed to enabling them to survive and thrive through this challenging moment and beyond. In responding to the crisis, Microsoft is offering free six-month trials of Microsoft Teams and Windows Virtual Desktop. However, now is the time to recover and rebuild for the future by transforming productivity of every organization and every person. Devices are the productivity engines for SMBs and modern device experiences that support the new ways of working are in demand. Windows 10 Pro modern devices are built to empower the workforce, whether working remote or onsite. Designed to be the foundation of the modern workplace, modern devices are built to provide business-class tools equipped with remote management, comprehensive out-of-box security, and productivity capabilities. Farhana Haque, Group Director Devices, Microsoft India, said, As organizations reopen, we are helping enable their employees to stay connected and productive. Windows 10 Pro is built for business, so you get identity, security, and productivity all at once. Thats the reason a large number of SMBs in the country depend on Windows 10 Pro for not just business continuity but to sustainably scale their operations as well. Windows 10 Pro devices have several benefits, especially in remote working environments. Security: Windows 10 Pro comes with built-in security features, including firewall and other Internet protections to help safeguard against viruses, malware and ransomware. Windows Security continually scans for malware, viruses, and security threats. Updates are downloaded automatically to help keep devices safe and protect them from threats. Windows Information Protection protects enterprise data and can help protect against potential corporate data leakage. Windows Defender Antivirus uses the power of the cloud, wide optics, machine learning and behavior analysis to protect devices from any threats. All files are kept safe with BitLocker and the same security is also available on removable storage devices with BitLocker To Go. Using biometric facial recognition, Windows Hello logs into Windows devices three times faster than a password. Manageability: Windows 10 Pro offers simple and flexible resources to streamline identity, device and application management for organizations. Windows Virtual Desktop is a comprehensive desktop and app virtualization service running in the cloud that delivers simplified management, multi-session Windows 10, optimization for M365 Apps for Enterprise, and support for Remote Desktop Services (RDS) environments. Azure Active Directory helps manage user identities and create intelligence-driven access policies to secure the organizations resources. Its built to work for apps in the cloud, on mobile or on-premises to help protect users and businesses. With Microsoft Intune, businesses can manage multiple devices easily and define a mobile management strategy that fits their needs. Even in remote working scenarios, employees can work with the devices and apps they choose, while protecting their company information. Windows Autopilot transforms a brand-new device into a business-ready and cloud-managed state, without IT needing to touch the device. Productivity: Windows 10 Pro works seamlessly with the most trusted productivity and collaboration suites so teams can achieve more. As Windows PCs help people stay connected and productive, over 4 trillion minutes are being spent on Windows 10 a month, a 75% increase year on year. With Microsoft 365, you can pick up right where you left off, across any device. Whether it is using Design Ideas to create beautiful PowerPoint presentations, getting AI-powered writing and editing assistance in Word or translating text on the fly, the evolving capabilities of M365 can help make the most of the PC and time. Windows 10 Pro devices offer the familiarity of the Start menu, task bar and desktop while Live Tiles provide instant streaming updates. Windows 10 Pro runs all traditional, web-based and Universal Windows Platform apps and are compatible with all screen sizes. With productive multitasking, Windows 10 Pro allows multiple windows of a native app such as working within two or more Word documents on screen at the same time. Range of devices: Windows 10 Pro comes pre-installed on the worlds largest selection of business devices, from the worlds leading manufacturers like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, RDP and Coconics, among others. Windows 10 Pro devices combine speed, security, durability, great design and affordability. Factoring in elements like support, wide range of functionalities and high compatibility lower the long-term total cost of ownership of Windows 10 Pro devices. From premium 2-in-1s to powerful workstations, the Windows 10 Pro device ecosystem is second to none. Laptops range from lightweight ultrabooks to rugged mobile workhorses, as well as economical mobile PCs and tablets. And with 2-in-1s, employees can choose to work how they want with a laptop and tablet in one device. Features like high quality audio and video, touchscreen with pen support to light up Windows Ink, longer battery life and USB-C support for data, display and charging for accessories are among the priority features in remote work environments. Windows 10 Pro works with the widest range of peripherals, including printers, cameras, keyboards, mice and other accessories via USB or wireless connections. Windows 10 Pro devices also provide backward and forward compatibility across hardware, software, and services, thereby allowing existing productivity and LOB applications to continue running and optimizing IT investments in organizations. In addition to this, Windows 10 Pro offers a host of distinct functionalities and features like Timeline, Focus Assist, Start Menu, SSD and Windows Information Protection that can make the modern device experience truly seamless and effective. Innovation is accelerating each day to ensure that Windows 10 Pro devices are the best way to work. Single radio presenter Sami Lukis has been going on 'digital dates' during the coronavirus pandemic. But with restrictions easing in Australia, the 50-year-old is now hesitant to explore her romantic connections physically. In a blog post for 9Honey on Tuesday, she explained: 'COVID-19 has taken all the fun out of making out, and now I'm terrified of my first post-pandemic pash.' 'Surely kissing is high-risk?' Single radio presenter Sami Lukis, 50, is terrified of her 'first post-pandemic pash' after months of virtual dates during lockdown Sami, whose father tested positive for COVID-19 in late March, expressed concern about catching the virus on a date. 'I don't want to contribute to any unnecessary COVID fear-mongering, but surely kissing is a high-risk exercise?' she asked. She feels uneasy about kissing a potential partner for the first time given how easily coronavirus is spread through close physical contact. Cautious: Sami, whose father tested positive for COVID-19 in late March, expressed concern about catching the virus on a date 'When I finally do get the courage to snog someone new, I really hope my first post-pandemic-pash will be memorable - for all the right reasons,' she wrote. The Australian Government had cautioned singles against physical contact with strangers during the height of lockdown. In April, Sami revealed what it was like going on a 'digital date' during the pandemic. Contagious: She now feels uneasy about kissing potential partner for the first time given how easily coronavirus is spread through close physical contact The former Today show personality said she felt just as anxious before her Zoom date as she would before any ordinary first date. Following her first virtual date, however, she said it was 'much more enjoyable' than she had expected. Sami said the pair chatted non-stop for an hour while she 'downed' two glasses of wine from the comfort of her living room. Before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube made their entry in the media market, the PatnaDaily had already registered its presence in... NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES TORONTO, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Red White & Bloom Brands Inc . (CSE: RWB and OTC: TDRYD) (RWB or the Company) is pleased to advise on April 28, 2020, it completed its go public transaction by way of a reverse takeover of Tidal Royalty Corp. (Tidal), and on June 5, 2020 it commenced trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the CSE) under the symbol RWB and on the OTC under the symbol TDRYD (the Transaction). In connection with the Transaction, certain shareholders, including management and founders of the Company, entered into voluntary escrow and/or escrow and leak out agreements totaling 36,844,823 Common shares and 3,200,000 Options to purchase Common shares. Additionally, 108,726,349 Series II Preferred shares and Options to acquire 7,401,429 Series II Preferred shares are restricted for 7 months. Lastly, RWBs Michigan investee shareholders have agreed to participate in a voluntary share escrow agreement for the shares to be issued in connection with the closing of the acquisition. Collectively these agreements mean that over 70% of the fully diluted shares of the Company are in some form of escrow, lockup or subject to a trading restriction. Additional details of the Transaction can be found in the press release issued on April 28, 2020 and in the Listing Statement posted on the Companys disclosure hall with the CSE. RWBs U.S. footprint currently spans Illinois and Massachusetts through its investee, Michigan (see below). With a combined cultivation footprint of over 4,000,000 sf, 600 employees and 22 individual facilities, RWBs mandate is to operate at scale in select states that provide the greatest return for our partners and shareholders. Michigan: RWB has advanced in excess of US$75 million to its investee in Michigan. The Company does not report the financial performance of the investee in its financials, as it has not yet exercised its irrevocable option to acquire 100% ownership of the investee. The Company intends to exercise this option, subject to the successful completion of RWBs licensing to operate within the state of Michigan; which application is in process now. Story continues The Michigan investee currently holds numerous licenses within Michigan covering the entire cannabis value chain; they are strategically located throughout the state to service the majority of its 10 million residents. The investee currently owns the assets of 18 dispensaries (referred to as provisioning centers in Michigan), 10 of these operating dispensaries have achieved approximately US$70 million in trailing revenues1 over the last 12 months. The remaining 8 dispensaries are at various stages of development, are expected to open in calendar 2020 and be accretive to the current revenue run-rate. With the COVID-19 pandemic and state shelter in place orders taking effect, the investee was able to quickly pivot the business to include delivery and curb-side pick-up and within days saw an actual increase in revenue from the stores while providing a safe environment with appropriate social distancing and health and safety procedures in place for its employees and customers. RWBs Michigan Investee is vertically integrated with two operational indoor cultivation facilities, an outdoor cultivation facility, and various additional cultivation and manufacturing locations coming on stream to increase their margins and meet their demands for 2020 and beyond. In addition, RWB entered into a definitive agreement as announced on June 5, 2020, with High Times to acquire the rights to exclusively brand both medical and recreational dispensaries and cannabis products within the States of Michigan, Illinois and Florida. RWB plans to sub-license its rights to its investee in Michigan, subject to regulatory approval and closing of the High Times transaction. Illinois: RWBs Illinois subsidiaries own and operate Americas largest indoor CBD cultivation facility which is 3,600,000 sf and sits on 236 prime agricultural acres in Putnam County, IL. The facility is focused on producing high grade cannabinoids, complete with Certificate of Origin documentation, on a year-round, consistent basis. The facility was formerly a premier producer in the floricultural market for Americas big box national chains and has maintained the relationships and certifications to continue those business relationships for consideration of our national CBD product strategy. The facility has also secured various distributors, purchase orders and supply/off-take agreements for premium whole flower within the United States and CBD distillate internationally with an estimated value of over US$20 million. Massachusetts: RWBs Massachusetts assets were developed initially by Tidal and now form part of the assets of the Company as a result of closing the Transaction. These assets consist of 3 cannabis licenses; 2 of which are for cultivation and 1 is for processing, and 2.8 acres of development land. RWB is looking at a number of strategic options for these assets for 2020. About Red White & Bloom Brands Inc. The Company is positioning itself to be one of the top three multi-state cannabis operators active in the U.S. legal cannabis and hemp sector. RWB is predominately focusing its investments on major markets in the United States, including Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, and Florida in respect to cannabis and the entire US for legal hemp CBD based products. For more information about Red White & Bloom Brands Inc., please contact: Tyler Troup, Managing Director Circadian Group IR IR@RedWhiteBloom.com Visit us on the web: www.RedWhiteBloom.com Follow us on social media: Twitter: @rwbbrands Facebook: @redwhitebloombrands Instagram: @redwhitebloombrands Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Companys current expectations. When used in this press 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. The forward-looking statements and information in this press release includes information relating to the implementation of Red White & Blooms business plan. 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 our 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 the implementation of Red White & Blooms business plan and matters relating thereto, risks associated with the cannabis industry, competition, regulatory change, the need for additional financing, reliance on key personnel, the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers or directors, and the volatility of the Companys common share price and volume. Forward-looking statements are made based on managements beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the Companys actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to Red White & Blooms proposed business, such as failure of the business strategy and government regulation; risks related to Red White & Blooms operations, such as additional financing requirements and access to capital, reliance on key and qualified personnel, insurance, competition, intellectual property and reliable supply chains; risks related to Red White & Bloom and its business generally. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material factors is not exhaustive. When relying on the Companys forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company has assumed a certain progression, which may not be realized. It has also assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these 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. While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PRESS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS PRESS 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 LAWS. _____________ 1 Revenues are based on management prepared statements and have not been audited. The body of a 50-year-old man who went missing last week after falling out of a kayak while fishing in Monmouth County was found Monday on a bank of the Navesink River, authorities said. Nadim Aksoy, of Bordentown, was fishing about 11 p.m. Thursday with another man when both men fell off the vessel, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. One of the men swam to safety. The other man, who was not wearing a life jacket, disappeared under the water, officials said. The kayak later washed up on shore. State troopers recovered the victims body about 8 a.m. Monday in the area of Plum Island in Sandy Hook, officials said. The body was recovered yesterday at approximately 8am in the area of Plum Island in Sandy Hook. The accident occurred near the Oceanic Bridge in Rumson as strong thunderstorms passed through New Jersey, according to New Jersey State Police. State Police responded with a boat and helicopter about 2:40 a.m. Friday to assist the coast guard in the search, officials said. Editors note: This post has been updated to include the kayakers name and correct his age. *UPDATE* Tragically the missing kayaker was found deceased on the shore near the Navesink River #NJ by @NJSP. Please always check the weather conditions and always wear a life jacket before going on the water. You can find more boating safety info at: https://t.co/c6ZQrNCVrX USCG_Tri_State (@USCG_Tri_State) June 8, 2020 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. New York-based fintech startup Wahed (meaning "One" in Arabic) describes itself as a digital Islamic investment platform and as the worlds first "halal robo adviser." It has now closed a $25 million investment round led by Saudi Aramco Entrepreneurship Ventures (also known as Waed Ventures), a venture capital investment arm of oil giant Saudi Aramco. Existing investors BECO and CueBall Capital participated, as well as Dubai Cultiv8 and Rasameel. The funds will be used to expand internationally, including developing the companys subsidiary in Saudi Arabia. The platform is currently running in the U.S. and U.K., and has more than 100,000 clients globally. It plans to grow in the largest Muslim markets, including Indonesia, Nigeria, India and the CIS. The three-year-old company has already received a license to operate in Saudi Arabia, and aims to get regulatory approval in 20 countries. According to Crunchbase, Wahed has raised a total of $40 million in funding since its 2015 founding by Junaid Wahedna. Last October, Wahed launched in Malaysia after the Malaysian Securities Commission awarded the company the countrys first Islamic Robo Advisory license. The firm is also considering listing its Islamic ETF on the Saudi stock exchange. Ethical investment and Islamic finance is growing in popularity in Muslim countries so long as it is in line with Islamic ethics, so Wahed looks set to benefit. Commenting on the investment, Junaid Wahedna, CEO of Wahed, said: Were excited to have the support of Aramco Ventures as we foray into the Saudi market. We consider Aramco a strategic long-term partner in both the Kingdom and the rest of the world. Wassim Basrawi, managing director at Waed Ventures, said: We believe in Waheds mission to provide ethical investing. The company has taken the lead in delivering investment services to one of the worlds fastest-growing sectors -- Islamic Finance. Wahed is also, in the true spirit of fintech, helping to broaden the investment landscape. This latest funding round will enable Wahed to make Saudi their regional MENA hub and contribute towards a fast-growing fintech ecosystem. In brief: AMD and Nvidia have been tech rivals for a long time, so this might come as a surprise: Team Red has just revealed more specifications of Nvidias Ampere-based DGX A100 AI system. Nvidia revealed its Ampere GPU architecture last month in the form of its A100 GPUs. Based on the 7nm process and designed for cloud computing, AI, and scientific number crunching, it boasts 54 billion transistors, 6,912 CUDA cores, and 20 times the speed of the previous Volta solution. For the companys DGX A100 system, eight of the new GPUs -- which no longer use the Tesla name to avoid mix-ups with a certain carmaker -- were paired with two of AMDs Epyc 7742 processors. Those Zen 2 CPUs, running at up to 3.4 GHz, give the system a total of 128 cores and 256 threads. Because of the partnership, Nvidia has allowed AMD to share further details of the DGX A100 system. Only 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processors can provide up to 64 cores and 128 lanes of PCIe 4 interconnectivity in a single x86 data center processor, and were excited to see how the power of the Nvidia DGX A100 system enables the I/O bandwidth to be effectively doubled, said Raghu Nambiar, AMDs corporate vice president of data center ecosystems and application engineering. The DGX A100 uses 600 GB/s NVSwitch links to connect the eight A100 GPUs, helping deliver 5 petaflops of power. It also features 320 GB of GPU memory with 12.4 TB per second of bandwidth. The price for all that power? $199,000. The Nvidia DGX A100 delivers a tremendous leap in performance and capabilities, explained Nvidias Vice President and General Manager of DGX Systems, Charlie Boyle. The 2nd Gen AMD Epyc processors used in DGX A100 provide high performance and support for PCIe Gen4. Nvidia has put those features to work to create the worlds most powerful AI system while maintaining compatibility with the GPU-optimized software stack used across the entire DGX family. As to why Nvidia chose its rivals CPUs instead of Intels, whose Xeon chips were the preferred processors in the first DGX systems, the company said the extra features and performance offered by Epyc processors made it an easy choice. "To keep the GPUs in our system supplied with data, we needed a fast CPU with as many cores and PCI lanes as possible. The AMD CPUs we use have 64 cores each, lots of PCI lanes, and support PCIe Gen4, added Boyle. FP Trending There have been rumours around Samsungs upcoming smartwatch for quite some time. The company had disclosed support pages for the smartwatch on its South Korean website, but later withdrew them. Earlier, it was predicted that the upcoming smartwatch would be called Galaxy Watch 2, but a certification filing with Thailands NBTC revealed that it will be called Galaxy Watch 3. Galaxy Watch 3 was recently certified by the FCC in 4 different versions - two in a 41mm size and the other two in a 45mm size. The pages that Samsung uploaded contained the model number of the device - SM-R840NZKAKOO/SM-R840NZSAKOO for 41mm model and SM-R850NZDAKOO/SM-R850NZSAKOO for 45mm variant. From what the rumours suggest, the display of the smartwatch will reportedly be protected Gorilla Glass XD and will have 5ATM water-resistance. The case will cover some of the MIL-STD 810G certification for added durability. Both models of Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 are believed to come with LTE variants and GPS, and be equipped with a heart-rate monitor. The devices are also expected to come with blood pressure monitoring. As per a report by GSMArena, the South Korean tech giant may unveil Galaxy Watch 3 at an event for the Galaxy Note20 series and the Galaxy Fold 2 on 5 August. Samsung last year launched Galaxy Watch Active 2, a refined version of Galaxy Watch Active. It is available in two case options made of aluminium and stainless steel. Both the aluminum and stainless steel models come in a 40 mm and 44 mm case and in Bluetooth and LTE variants. The smartwatch is powered by an Exynos 9110 SoC clocked at 1.15 GHz and packs in 768 MB RAM along with 4 GB of internal storage. On the other hand, the LTE models feature 1.5 GB RAM and 4 GB of internal storage. Photo from Getty Images SINGAPORE Two men were charged on Tuesday (9 June) with operating drones without permits in the vicinity of protected bases. Neo Wei Ren, 35, and Lee Soon Tee, 66, are said to have separately operated drones on different occasions last year. Both are Singaporeans. Neo faces five charges under the Air Navigation Order for operating a drone in the immediate vicinity of the Ministry of Defences Gombak Base, which is a protected area. He is said to have operated the DJI Mavic Pro Drone from a private-property house along Cashew Crescent between May and October last year. He was also charged with four counts of taking a photograph of a protected area with the drone, which is a breach of the Air Navigation Act. These acts were said to have been done across four occasions on 11 and 25 August, as well as on 6 and 13 October. He was also handed seven charges of operating the drone for recreation purposes without a Class 2 activity permit. A police report was lodged on 13 October last year about Neos alleged drone sighted flying near Gombak Base. Neo was said to have taken aerial-view photos using the drone which was flown above Gombak Base. His identity was established through ground enquiries. Neo will return to court on 1 July. Retiree said he flew drone as hobby Lee, a retiree, was charged with operating an Emotion Mavic Drone DJ Pro drone weighing 734 grams without a valid Class 2 activity permit. He had flown the drone within five kilometres of an aerodrome at about 5pm on 22 September last year, from an open field along Tampines Industrial Avenue 2. The following day, police received a report on Lees drone, which was recovered from the roof of Tampines Wafer Substation. Through investigations, officers established Lees identity and arrested him. His charge constitutes a breach under the Air Navigation Order. Appearing in court in person, Lee told the court that he wanted to find a hobby upon retirement and bought the drone as a toy. Story continues He said, I have never operated a drone before. It was my first attempt in an open field. I operated it for about two minutes before the wind blew it away. He added that the height at which he operated the drone was at most 50 feet (15 metres) and not high enough to cause any interference with aircraft operation, nor was it my intention to do so. He contested the charge on the weight of the drone, claiming it was below 250 grams and hence did not need to be registered. He alleged that the drone was not a real Mavic, but a low-cost product bought for US$17.40 (S$24.20) from China. District Judge Adam Nakhoda then replied that Lee could put the drone on a weighing scale for its weight and added that ignorance of the law was not a defence. He adjourned the case to 30 June. The police said in a new release that operators of drones should refer to the OneMap.sg website or OneMap app to check the areas where flying of an unmanned aircraft (UA) is not allowed unless a permit has been obtained. Users are also reminded that recreational flying of UA outdoors during this safe re-opening phase is not allowed. Any UA with a total weight of above 250g must also be registered before it can be operated in Singapore, it added. Anyone convicted taking photos over a protected area using a drone, or of operating a drone over a protected area may be jailed up to two years or fined up to $50,000. For the offence of operating a drone without a permit, under paragraph 80(5) of the Air Navigation Order, a person may be fined up to $20,000. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Other Singapore stories: Permanent Secretaries empowered to invoke anti-fake news law during general election Singaporean man, 26, among 386 new COVID-19 cases in S'pore, total crosses 38,000 mark No plan currently for mandatory use of wearable devices for COVID-19 contact tracing: Balakrishnan Singapore will work with Malaysia to set up health protocols for cross-border travel Travellers returning from China after fast-lane travel to serve 14-day SHN June 08, 2020 News By Jim Garamone , DOD News Defense.gov Secretary General Launches 'NATO 2030' Effort to Strengthen Alliance NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg launched an initiative to peer into the future to see how the alliance should react in an increasingly competitive world. The secretary general unveiled his NATO 2030 initiative at a virtual Atlantic Council Front Page event this morning. Stoltenberg spoke from NATO headquarters in Brussels. The COVID-19 epidemic exemplifies the challenges the world can experience over the next decade, he said, changing life globally in ways few could predict. But there are some global trends that can be anticipated, Stoltenberg said, and the initiative will look at those and their implications for the western alliance. Russia under Vladimir Putin will probably continue or even intensify its intransigence and adventurism, and ISIS and other terror groups will continue their efforts to undermine the values the West holds dear, he said. China will be the largest economic power in the world in the foreseeable future and competition with that rising power will intensify, he added. "This is an opportunity to reflect on where we see our alliance 10 years from now, and how it will continue to keep us safe in a more uncertain world," Stoltenberg said. The effort aims at preserving the democracies' way of life and adapting to new realities, he said. "To do this, we must stay strong militarily, be more united politically and take a broader approach globally," he added. The secretary general engaged each requirement in turn. On the military side, he said, the alliance must remain strong to protect alliance democracies enabling them to compete in a more competitive world. "As we look to 2030, we must continue to invest in our armed forces and military capabilities," he said. "They have kept us safe for over 70 years as they continue to do today." NATO also must do more politically, the secretary general said. "This means bringing all the issues that affect our security to NATO's table, so that we can forge stronger consensus sooner, and more systematically," he said. This covers the gamut from the Middle East to global arms control to responding to climate change to how to respond to a pandemic, he said. "Using NATO more politically also means using a broader range of tools, military and nonmilitary, economic and diplomatic," he said. "This is especially important as we work together to strengthen the resilience of our societies and our economies, and to ensure that we do not import vulnerabilities into our critical infrastructure, industries and supply chains." NATO may not be the preferred option for action in many cases. It may be the United Nations or European Union or Organization of American States that may be preferred, depending on the situation, Stoltenberg said. "But [NATO] must always be the forum for frank discussion and genuine consultation," he added. "In fact, NATO is the only place that brings Europe and North America together every day: We have the structures and institutions in place. What we need is the political will to use NATO to decide and when necessary to act for our shared security." Finally, NATO needs a more global approach, the secretary general said. This does not mean installing NATO bases and forces around the world, he said, but rather is an appreciation of the worldwide interconnection of national interests and concerns. An example of this, he said, is how the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked protests against racism worldwide. "NATO brings together 30 allies on both sides of the Atlantic, almost 1 billion people; half of the world's military and economic might, and a network of global partners," the secretary general said. "As we look to 2030, we need to work even more closely with like-minded countries like Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, to defend the global rules and institutions that have kept us safe for decades, to set norms and standards, in space and in cyberspace, or new technologies, and global arms control, and ultimately, to stand up for the world built on freedom and democracy, not on bullying and coercion." The challenges are great and require a unified approach, he said. "The challenges that we face over the next decade are greater than any of us can tackle alone: neither Europe alone, nor America alone," he said. "We must resist the temptation of national solutions, and we must live up to our values: freedom, democracy and the rule of law." NATO has been a remarkably successful alliance, the secretary general said, and does not want to ruin a good thing with the new initiative. "It is about making our strong alliance even stronger strong militarily, stronger politically and more global," Stoltenberg said. The NATO 2030 effort will pursue new ideas and continually assess ways to make the alliance more effective, he said. "I will continue to consult actively with allies, and I will reach out to civil society, the private sector and young leaders," he said. "My recommendations will inform the direction NATO leaders set out when we meet next year." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Basic Principles of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence 8 June 202010:31 The President of the Russian Federation Executive Order On Basic Principles of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence With a view to provide for the implementation of the State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence I hereby resolve: 1. To approve the attached Basic Principles of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence. 2. This Executive Order shall enter into force upon its signing. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin Moscow, Kremlin June 2nd, 2020 No.355 APPROVED by Executive Order of the President of the Russian Federation of June 2, 2020 No.355 BASIC PRINCIPLES of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence I. General Provisions 1. These Basic Principles represent a strategic planning document in the area of ensuring defence and reflect the official view on the essence of nuclear deterrence, identify military risks and threats to be neutralized by implementation of nuclear deterrence, the principles of nuclear deterrence, as well as the conditions for the Russian Federation to proceed to the use of nuclear weapons. 2. The guaranteed deterrence of a potential adversary from aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies is one of the highest state priorities. Deterrence of aggression is ensured by the entire military strength of the Russian Federation, including its nuclear weapons. 3. The State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence (hereinafter "the State Policy on Nuclear Deterrence") is a set of political, military, military-technical, diplomatic, economic, information and other measures, coordinated and united by a common design, implemented through reliance on forces and means of nuclear deterrence to prevent aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies. 4. State policy on Nuclear Deterrence is defensive by nature, it is aimed at maintaining the nuclear forces potential at the level sufficient for nuclear deterrence, and guarantees protection of national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the State, and deterrence of a potential adversary from aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies. In the event of a military conflict, this Policy provides for the prevention of an escalation of military actions and their termination on conditions that are acceptable for the Russian Federation and/or its allies. 5. The Russian Federation considers nuclear weapons exclusively as a means of deterrence, their use being an extreme and compelled measure, and takes all necessary efforts to reduce nuclear threat and prevent aggravation of interstate relations, that could trigger military conflicts, including nuclear ones. 6. The normative and legal foundation of these Basic Principles is formed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, universally recognized principles and norms of international law, international treaties of the Russian Federation on defence and arms control, federal constitutional laws, federal laws and other normative and legal acts and documents that regulate defence and security issues. 7. The provisions of these Basic Principles are mandatory for implementation by all federal government bodies and other government bodies and organizations that are involved in ensuring nuclear deterrence. 8. These Basic Principles may be further specified depending on the external and internal factors that influence defence implementation. II. Essence of nuclear deterrence 9. Nuclear deterrence is aimed to provide comprehension by a potential adversary of the inevitability of retaliation in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies. 10. Nuclear deterrence is ensured by the presence in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation of the combat-ready forces and means that are capable to inflict guaranteed unacceptable damage on a potential adversary through employment of nuclear weapons in any circumstances, as well as by the readiness and resolve of the Russian Federation to use such weapons. 11. Nuclear deterrence is ensured continuously in peacetime, in periods of a direct threat of aggression and also in wartime, up until the actual use of nuclear weapons. 12. The main military risks that might evolve into military threats (threats of aggression) to the Russian Federation due to changes in the military-political and strategic situation, and that are to be neutralized by implementation of nuclear deterrence, are as follows: a) build-up by a potential adversary of the general purpose forces groupings that possess nuclear weapons delivery means in the territories of the states contiguous with the Russian Federation and its allies, as well as in adjacent waters; b) deployment by states which consider the Russian Federation as a potential adversary, of missile defence systems and means, medium- and shorter-range cruise and ballistic missiles, non-nuclear high-precision and hypersonic weapons, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, and directed energy weapons; c) development and deployment of missile defence assets and strike systems in outer space; d) possession by states of nuclear weapons and (or) other types of weapons of mass destruction that can be used against the Russian Federation and/or its allies, as well as means of delivery of such weapons; e) uncontrolled proliferation of nuclear weapons, their delivery means, technology and equipment for their manufacture; f) deployment of nuclear weapons and their delivery means in the territories of non-nuclear weapon states. 13. The Russian Federation implements its nuclear deterrence with regard to individual states and military coalitions (blocs, alliances) that consider the Russian Federation as a potential adversary and that possess nuclear weapons and/or other types of weapons of mass destruction, or significant combat potential of general purpose forces. 14. While implementing nuclear deterrence, the Russian Federation takes into account the deployment by a potential adversary, in the territories of other countries, of offensive weapons (cruise and ballistic missiles, hypersonic aerial vehicles, strike unmanned aerial vehicles), directed energy weapons, missile defence assets, early warning systems, nuclear weapons and/or other weapons of mass destruction that may be used against the Russian Federation and/or its allies. 15. The principles of nuclear deterrence are as follows: a) compliance with international arms control commitments; b) continuity of activities ensuring nuclear deterrence; c) adaptability of nuclear deterrence to military threats; d) unpredictability for a potential adversary in terms of scale, time and place for possible employment of forces and means of nuclear deterrence; e) centralization of governmental control over the activities of federal executive bodies and organizations involved in ensuring nuclear deterrence; f) rationality of structure and composition of nuclear deterrence forces and means and their maintaining at the minimal level sufficient for implementing the tasks assigned; g) maintaining permanent readiness of a designated fraction of nuclear deterrence forces and means for combat use. 16. The nuclear deterrence forces of the Russian Federation include land-, sea- and air-based nuclear forces. III. Conditions for the transition of the Russian Federation to the use of nuclear weapons 17. The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and/or its allies, as well as in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy. 18. The decision to use nuclear weapons is taken by the President of the Russian Federation. 19. The conditions specifying the possibility of nuclear weapons use by the Russian Federation are as follows: a) arrival of reliable data on a launch of ballistic missiles attacking the territory of the Russian Federation and/or its allies; b) use of nuclear weapons or other types of weapons of mass destruction by an adversary against the Russian Federation and/or its allies; c) attack by adversary against critical governmental or military sites of the Russian Federation, disruption of which would undermine nuclear forces response actions; d) aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy. 20. The President of the Russian Federation might, if necessary, inform the military-political leadership of other states and/or international organizations about the Russian Federation's readiness to use nuclear weapons or about the decision taken to use nuclear weapons, as well as about the fact that nuclear weapons have been used. IV. Tasks and functions of federal government authorities, other government bodies and organizations for implementing state policy on nuclear deterrence 21. Overall direction of state policy in the area of nuclear deterrence is carried out by the President of the Russian Federation. 22. The Government of the Russian Federation implements measures to carry out the economic policy aimed at maintaining and developing nuclear deterrence assets shapes and exercises the foreign and information policy in the area of nuclear deterrence. 23. The Security Council of the Russian Federation shapes the basic principles of military policy in the area of nuclear deterrence, coordinates the activities of federal executive bodies and organizations involved in implementation of the decisions adopted by the President of the Russian Federation and related to ensuring nuclear deterrence. 24. The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, acting through the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, directly plans and carries out organizational and military measures in the area of nuclear deterrence. 25. Other federal executive bodies and organizations participate in the implementation of decisions adopted by the President of the Russian Federation and related to ensuring nuclear deterrence in accordance with their authority. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Flipkart is rolling out a voice assistant feature to its platform to make it easier for consumers to shop as the Walmart-owned e-commerce giant looks to expand its reach in the nation. The AI-powered voice assistant currently supports the grocery category, called Supermart, but a company spokesperson told TechCrunch that Flipkart will soon be extending it to other verticals. The feature began rolling out to Android users on Tuesday, and the company says it is working on bringing it to its iOS app. The assistant, which supports Hindi and English, will also understand more languages in the future, said the company, which competes with Amazon in India. The feature allows users to explore deals and offers, filter results, add multiple items to carts, receive contextual suggestions and check out using conversational voice commands. Jeyandran Venugopal, chief product and technology officer at Flipkart, said the company traveled across the country to fine-tune its voice capability. The launch of voice assistant also aligns well with the growing adoption and comfort of consumers towards voice-based online commerce, he said in a statement. The addition of the voice assistant functionality comes months after Flipkart added an audio visual guided navigation feature that was aimed at simplifying the user experience for first-time internet users -- and existing customers who are not comfortable with making transactions online. Flipkart also introduced an on-demand video streaming service last year. Hundreds of millions of Indians have come online in the past decade. Many of them are less-educated and are uncomfortable with typing and navigating services in English. Voice search has become popular among many such demographics in recent years. Google said last year that voice searches were growing 270% year-on-year in India. Voice-led shopping is natural and we wanted to give our users a truly conversational experience, in the most natural way possible," said Manish Kumar, SVP Grocery and General Merchandise and Furniture at Flipkart. Story continues Amazon India added support for Hindi on its website in 2018, and extended this support to Alexa-enabled smart speakers and other devices last year. Both the companies have been deeply hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which promoted New Delhi to issue a nationwide lockdown in late March. But India has since eased restrictions, allowing e-commerce firms and ride-hailing giants to resume much of their services. Last month, Amazon launched its food delivery service in the suburbs of Bangalore. Flipkart, which had applied to enter the food retail market, reported earlier this month that its application was rejected and that it would re-apply soon. For Cadence Hulme, working from home while caring for her two children has been difficult the past three months amid the coronavirus outbreak. Although Gov. Phil Murphy announced daycares will reopen June 15 statewide, Hulme says she feels uneasy sending her 15-month old daughter and four-year-old son back to their Freehold facility. Germs are a given in child care centers, with kids putting dirty toys in their mouths and playing together in clusters. Since enrolling her kids, Hulme says theyve contracted a few common infections, like strep throat. She is nervous her children could get COVID-19 at daycare and pass it on to their older, more vulnerable grandparents. So her son and daughter wont be returning in mid-June, and will be placed on a waiting list for the fall. Right now, we dont feel comfortable... Is an almost 4-year-old going to wear a mask all day? Is he not going to hug his friends? No. Is he going to share toys? Yes. So theres a lot of concern there, she said. In our house, we can kind of control it. Theres not all this contact. Other parents are ready to send their kids back. Kathy Nowak-Leja has been working from home and said its been difficult to give her 5-year-old the attention he needs, so he will be heading to Little Footsteps in Wayne in a week, where she feels confident hell be safe. The state Department of Children and Families has a list of new requirements for New Jerseys daycare centers, including not permitting anyone with symptoms or a fever of more than 100.4 degrees from entering the facility and limiting class sizes to 10 kids with staff members not moving between groups. Workers must wear face coverings and children over the age of 2 will be encouraged to wear them, whenever feasible." Centers must also be cleaned and sanitized daily. The state posted a self-assessment checklist for operators online. At Lightbridge Academy, a daycare chain with nearly 40 locations in New Jersey, about 60% of the 7,000 families enrolled prior to the pandemic are returning this month, said Kayla Bodel, a spokeswoman for the company. The Lightbridge Academy in Westfield is enacting external drop-off and pick-up, additional cleaning, minimizing mixing groups of children or staff and limiting visitors, said owner Sue Romano. The facility also has a new air filtration system that continuously kills airborne pathogens, Romano said. The technology uses ultraviolet lamps, ionized hydrogen peroxide and a HEPA filter, she said. Anyone who is responsible for the wellbeing of children should be taking this seriously. However, I feel confident that with the support of our families and with procedures we have in place, we will be able to operate safely, said Romano. Still, Dr. Lawrence Kleinman of Rutgers University has concerns about the reopening of daycare. Since March, only children of essential workers have been permitted to attend daycare. He said the state would have benefitted from periodically testing those kids and their families to see which were positive for the virus, and how it spread among relatives. Such a practice would have created data officials could use when planning the reopening. You would see whos getting infected that you dont know. Without actively looking for it in a systematic fashion, youre not going to have interpretable data. Youll have anecdotes and stories, said Kleinman, director of the Division of Population Health, Quality, and Implementation Sciences in the Department of Pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. While children are less likely to get seriously ill from coronavirus, they can carry and spread it, Kleinman said. And some have developed a rare, multi-symptom inflammatory syndrome that can be deadly. In New Jersey, 32 kids have been infected by the disease, which appears to be a new illness that is an aggressive immune system response to the coronavirus, the state Department of Health said. With the high amount of interaction in daycares, he said parents should be cautious about sending their kids back. Babies need diapers changed, children spit and put objects in their mouths and convincing a young person to wear a mask for eight hours can be challenging, depending on their temperament. He recommends daycares limit groups to four children and one adult. The states requirements for group sizes allow for double that, though daycares can be more strict. Ten is still a sizeable group. Its better than 12 or 15, but its not insignificant, Kleinman said. The state requires workers to wear disposable gloves and wash their hands between each diaper change, but Kleinman said workers should also wear gowns and smocks for extra protection. He said the virus can be transmitted by stool. Overall, he says, people should look at their personal situation before deciding to send their kid to daycare, including whether the child interacts with someone at home who is immunocompromised and whether the parents need to return to their workplace and are unable to manage care. The childs age and temperament could also play a role, he said. Older children are more mobile and often have an independent streak, he said, making it harder to stop them from hugging, touching others and removing their mask. You have real people out of work with no money who are trying to provide safe environments at home and they need help," Kleinman said. I dont view this in isolation with a rigid notion that we should not open daycare. What Im saying is, I would do it very cautiously. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo. Recovery and resilience were the central themes as the members of the World Tourism Organizations Regional Commission for Africa (CAF) met for the 63rd time today. Reflecting the extraordinary circumstances, the meeting was held virtually, bringing together Ministers of Tourism from across the region with representatives of the African Union, the West African Monetary Union and from the private sector, to plot a united course towards a stronger and better tourism sector. Held as the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) leads the global restart of tourism, the meeting enjoyed the virtual presence of 140 participants from 30 countries, including 24 Ministers of Tourism. They were joined by representatives of 10 international organisations and by members of the UNWTO Affiliate Members network. Priorities to unlock Africas tourism potential As well as addressing the immediate challenge posed by Covid-19, discussions also focused on the key areas of UNWTOs Agenda for Africa, a roadmap designed to guide the sector in sustainable growth up to 2030. These priorities include enhancing Africas tourism Infrastructure, boost-ing air connectivity, easing visa facilitation, ensuring the safety and security of tourists, investing in the development of human capital development, and improving the image of Africa to the rest of the world. UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: Africas tourism potential is undeniable, as is the potential of tourism to drive inclusive development across the continent. The steady easing of travel restrictions, first within nations and then across international borders, will allow the many social and economic benefits of tourism to return. If tourisms restart is managed in a responsible and coordinated manner, harnessing the power of innovation and entrepreneurship, then it can transform millions of lives and help protect and preserve Africas rich cultural and natural heritage. Realigning the agenda for Africa Joining Pololikashvili for the 63rd meeting of the CAF was the groups current chairman Roland Chitotela, who also serves as Minister of Tourism and Arts, Zambia, and the African Union was represented by its Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid. All participants welcomed the latest initiatives designed at growing African tourism announced by the Secretary-General, including the Brand Africa marketing competition and a fresh emphasis on showcasing African gastronomy and using this as a new market for sustainable tourism and job creation. In the run-up to the meeting, UNWTOs Member States took part in an online survey through which they were invited to share their thoughts on how the UNWTO Agenda for Africa can be utilized to accelerate recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and build resilience for the future. Participants expressed a strong desire to see the top five key areas of the Agenda for Africa prioritised in order to support swift and sustainable recovery. These priorities are: unlocking growth through investment and through effective public-private partnerships; promoting innovation and technology; visa facilitation and enhanced connectivity; advocating for Brand Africa, and fostering greater resilience, including through enhanced safety and security for tourists. - TradeArabia News Service A Wallingford doctor was arrested Thursday after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided his office, according a 78-page affidavit filed by a special agent for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Federal officials arrested Dr. Anatoly Braylovsky, 49, and charged him with health care fraud, making false statements relating to health care matters and two charges related to distribution of controlled substances. His arrest culminates an investigation that first began after the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Wallingford Police Department started receiving complaints about Braylovskys prescribing practices in 2014. Investigators claim in the affidavit that Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries who were patients of Braylovsky were part of a scheme in which the two federal programs paid out fraudulent claims of nearly $1.6 million based on the doctors prescriptions and more than $590,000 for office visits. Those claims were paid out over a four-year-period that started in January 2016 and ended in April and May of this year. One of Braylovskys patients, Wallingford resident Jennifer Bousquet, 36, also was arrested and chargecd with possession with intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, according to the affidavit. Investigators seized computers and data storage devices from Braylovskys office, and seized his cellphone. Bousquets cell phone also was seized by investigators. Braylovskys office, Family Practice of Greater New Haven, was raided by agents from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Drug Enforcement Administration in addition to the FBI, according to the affidavit. Braylovsky is the only doctor in the practice, which is located at 850 N. Main St. Braylovsky had been prescribing Bousquet monthly supplies of 170 oxycodone tablets since January 2016, according to the affidavit. In addition, the doctor had been prescribing her 75 Adderall tablets a month and 30 alprazolam tablets monthly, it said. In addition to the federal agencies investigating Braylovsky, the Wallingford Police Department also has been looking into complaints about the doctors prescribing practices. A number of law enforcement sources told investigators that Braylovsky provided prescriptions for high quantities of oxycodone. alprazolam and Adderall to many of his patients, far beyond any medical need, according to the affidavit. The law enforcement sources also told investigators that the patients to whom Braylovsky was provding the drugs often would provide the doctor with some of their pills in return for his having written the prescription. According to the affidavit, some of the patients also would provide Braylovsky with money that they had received from selling some of the pills in their prescription. Investigators obtained a search and seizure warrant for the iCloud account of Bousquet and found messages from her to drug customers detailing transactions for oxycodone. alprazolam, Adderall and Suboxone. Investigators found that many of the patients for whom Braylovsky was writing prescriptions were either Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries, meaning the two federal programs were paying for the drugs the patients were receiving. Also, the majority of Braylovskys patients who were being prescribed the large volumes of oxycodone. alprazolam and Adderall had similar diagnoses to to the one given to Bousquet, which raised a red flag with investigators. Braylovsky had diagnosed Bousquet as having lower back pain, radiculopathy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to Medicaid claims data investigators uncovered. Braylovsky and Bousquet appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Spector via videoconference. Braylovsky was ordered detained is being held in the New Haven Correctional Center, according to the Connecticut Department of Corrections website. Bousquet was released on a $150,000 bond. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com Hong Kong: $4.3b disbursed for food sector The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department today announced that over $4.3 billion in subsidies has been disbursed to the food business sector through various schemes under the Anti-epidemic Fund. The Food Licence Holders Subsidy Scheme aims to provide financial subsidies to eight types of food business licence holders. A total of 28,540 applications were received under the scheme and payments were authorised for 28,507 applications, with subsidies totalling over $3.74 billion. For the Catering Business (Social Distancing) Subsidy Scheme to assist catering outlets including karaoke establishments, nightclubs and bars or pubs, over 9,000 applications had been received. Payments were authorised for more than 2,400 applications, with subsidies totalling over $580 million. In addition, 877 applications were received under the subsidy scheme for tenants of cooked food/light refreshment stalls at the departments markets. Payments were authorised for 868 applications, with subsidies totalling over $40 million. This story has been published on: 2020-06-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to ensure there is no violence and destruction of property in both states following its order on Cauvery water dispute. The apex court said: "It's duty of states to see that no agitation and damage take place." "There should be no violence when there is a court order and aggrieved parties can take legal recourse, the SC further said. "When there is a court order, it has to be complied with. People can't take law onto themselves; it's obligation of authorities of both states to take preventive action," said the court. ALSO READ: Puducherry bandh on Friday; BJP pledges its support The top court also asked both states' counsels to go through petition and file reply by September 20. Earlier on Wednesday, the top court had agreed to hear a plea seeking direction to the Centre, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to maintain law and order in these two states witnessing violent protests in the wake of a row over distribution of Cauvery water. Senior advocate Adish Aggarwala, appearing for P Shivakumar, had sought urgent hearing of the PIL saying that there is a state-wide bandh in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will have same kind of protest across that state. He said the states be directed to take prompt action against the protesters to maintain law and order and provide security to private and public properties and the citizens of both the states. Shivakumar, who claims to be a social activist, has also sought a direction that the leaders of the protest be held accountable for the damage caused to the properties and be asked to pay up for them. On September 12, the apex court modified its earlier order on sharing of Cauvery water and directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs instead of 15,000 cusecs per day till September 20 to Tamil Nadu. Rejecting Karnataka's plea seeking placing in abeyance for its earlier order, the court asked the executives to ensure compliance. The apex court bench was critical of the language used in the fresh plea of Karnataka seeking to keep in abeyance the September 5 order asking it to release 15,000 cusecs water per day to Tamil Nadu. (With inputs from PTI) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Reunited, my father and I went to Germany to look for others who survived, to look for Dora. We hopped a train that arrived in the Soviet side of Berlin, where I tossed my army jacket and got some civilian clothes. Then we made our way to Frankfurt, where there was a D.P. camp, and finally to another one in Lampertheim, where we heard that Dora was. But I had a longer-term plan: to move to America. Where else was there to go? In the camp, trading was survival, even though it wasnt permitted by the authorities. Earning money meant Id have a chance of starting over in the States. In those times, there were no universal prices, so my intuition was my business. One day, I saw a man driving a convertible on the street in Lampertheim, a BMW coupe. Oh, this was a good car. I made a deal I paid him 1,000 American dollars for it. I was told people with cars paid the police to look away, so I did. A German shoe factory owner who heard about the BMW approached me and offered me a truck full of leather shoes, maybe a thousand pairs, for the car. On a Saturday afternoon, he parked his truck on a side street, and I had buyers set up on site to take the merchandise, but one of the camp police a man named Ostrowiecki found out about the trade and tried to stop it. I had to wrestle him to the ground while the manufacturer unloaded the shoes. Ostrowiecki told the chief of police and wanted to arrest me, but the chief was friendly with me, so he said, You know what? Give him some shoes, and well forget about it. The police werent bad. Everyone just wanted to earn something because they had their own plans to start over. In our three years in Lampertheim, I had saved up enough cash to start a new life, a good life. In 1949, Dora, our toddler son, my father and I got papers and boarded a boat to America. At first, we settled in Kansas City, Mo., where we had relatives, and the first business I opened was a grocery store. Later, we moved to Forest Hills, Queens, and there, Ostrowiecki and I played cards together. Imagine my surprise when we became neighbors in another country. NEW DELHI: Union Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Tuesday said that the Centre is planning to reduce the syllabus and instructional hours for schools in the next academic year.'' In view of the current circumstances and after receiving a lot of requests from parents and teachers, we are contemplating the option of reduction in the syllabus and instructional hours for the coming academic year, Pokhriyal said in a tweet. In view of the current circumstances and after receiving a lot of requests from parents and teachers, we are contemplating the option of reduction in the syllabus and instructional hours for the coming academic year.@SanjayDhotreMP @HRDMinistry @PIB_India @MIB_India Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) June 9, 2020 The HRD Minister also invited suggestions from teachers and educationists in this regard and asked them to tag their posts with #SyllabusForStudents2020 on social media. The Union HRD Minister took to Twitter to make these announcements. I would like to appeal to all teachers, academicians, and educationists to share their point of view on this matter using #SyllabusForStudents2020 on MHRD's or my Twitter and Facebook page so that we can take them into consideration while making a decision.@DDNewslive Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) June 9, 2020 The tweets from the HRD Minister came following a meeting with the state education secretaries led by Anita Karwal, Secretary of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). During the meeting, topics like health and safety of students, hygiene measures and issues related to online or digital learning were discussed. The Union Minister further said, I would like to appeal to all teachers, academicians, and educationists to share their point of view on this matter using #SyllabusForStudents2020 on MHRD's or my Twitter and Facebook page so that we can take them into consideration while making a decision. It may be noted that the countrywide lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has derailed the academic schedule in all educational institutions. With the number of coronavirus patients increasing day by day, the Narendra Modi government had ordered the closure of all educational institutions on March 16 which was followed by a nationwide lockdown on March 25. States are still figuring out how to deal with the disruptions in the schedule. Many states have passed their school and even college students without conducting exams. Some universities have resorted to online classes and exams to keep the academic calendar running. As the lockdown further encroaches the academic schedule and with a decision yet to be made on reopening educational institutions, students and parents have been demanding a reduction in syllabus. The COVID-19 Economists Group, convened by Miriam Altman, has published a paper outlining four scenarios for the South African economy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper, titled Top COVID-19 policy priorities for protecting employment, said it is within South Africas power to limit the damage of the pandemic. Altman, the commissioner in the National Planning Commission of the presidency, told Business Day TV the pandemic has worsened South Africas already struggling economic landscape. South Africa entered the COVID-19 pandemic with 29% unemployment, over 40% living in poverty, and the highest rate of inequality in the world. This is all set to rise. Limiting the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown will require an enormous effort, Altman said. She said South Africa needs to get back to economic activity as soon as possible, adding that it has to be done responsibly. She said a balance must be found between containing the virus and other health, social, and economic imperatives in a way that is mutually reinforcing. The paper proposed moving from a centrally regulated approach that controls activity to enabling communities and businesses to adhere to the protocols required to contain the virus. It said the focus should now be on three top priorities to ensure that the return to work is sustained and employment is protected: Craft and implement risk-adjusted strategies that act like dynamic early warning systems and virus containment measures. Engage far more deeply with communities to identify strategies that can be sustained in a variety of living conditions. Widespread financial support to all affected business and workers to limit the extent of permanent damage. Neither a lockdown nor an economic opening will be successful without the first two priorities. The third priority is essential to the success of an economic rebound, the paper said. The best and worst-case scenarios for South Africa The COVID-19 Economists Group prepared four scenarios which consider the possible economic impacts of different COVID-19 policy response packages. The scenarios revolve around various issues, including: The extent of reliance on lockdown versus risk-adjusted strategies. The efficacy of township physical distancing strategies. The pace and extent of business and wage support that enable activity to survive. The meaningful steps to address significant pre-existing policy reforms that stimulate a new wave of economic activity. The COVID-19 Economists Group said there is only one correct choice in these four the final scenario. It pulls through to structural change and some hope of achieving the spirit of the NDPs Vision 2030 for employment and poverty reduction, they said. The other scenarios offer some thoughts on potential risk that are within South Africas power to avoid. Altman highlighted that the worst-case scenario listed in the table below is not the worst that can happen. There could be domestic reverberations into the banking sector, exacerbating a banking crisis, or more dramatic shifting to reduce labour ratios or political cleavages that deepen as resources become ever more scarce, she said. Four Scenarios Linked to Four Covid-19 Policy Responses Measure Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3 Scenario 4 GDP change in 2020 -20% -15% -10% -10% Employment change in 2020 -3.2 million -2.5 million -1.6 million -1.6 million Unemployment rate in 2020 43% 40% 36% 36% Change in real GDP in 2018/19 to 2022/23 -R341 billion -R206 billion -R9.8 billion +R158 billion Permanent job losses by 2023 -1.8 million -0,9 million -0,2 million +0,2 million Unemployment rate by 2023 37 % 33 % 30 % 28 % Tax revenue shortfall in 2020 R400 billion R350 billion R225 billion R225 billion 3-year tax revenue shortfall relative to 2020 Budget R1,562 billion R1,064 billion R686 billion R370 billion % of tax revenue accruing to interest payments by 2023 29% 23% 19% 17% Policy response element Risk-adjusted strategy effectively implemented Poor Partial Impactful Impactful Township community engagement in physical distancing Poor Poor Impactful Impactful Economic interventions create a bridge for firms and employees to the other side. Enables rebound Poor Partial Impactful Impactful Significant structural improvements lead to lifting potential growth rate Poor Poor Poor Impactful Miriam Altman interview Haltons political leaders are urging the province to reconsider its decision that shut the region out of the next stage of reopening businesses and services during the pandemic. Premier Doug Ford announced Monday that restrictions across the province are being eased in certain communities based on lower rates of COVID-19 transmission, increased capacity in hospitals and progress made in testing. However, Halton was not on the list of approved regions. In a response sent to Ford on Tuesday, the four Halton mayors and Regional Chair Gary Carr highlight the low number of COVID-19 cases locally and Haltons strong adherence to social distancing and public health measures as reasons to allow more businesses to open in the community. Haltons COVID-19 case numbers make up a small fraction of the total provincial cases. In addition, our hospitals are sustaining adequate capacity, and at least 90 per cent of new COVID-19 contacts are being reached by Halton Public Health officials within one day, the five politicians asserted in a letter to Ford. Given the high number of cases in other municipalities across the GTA and Greater Golden Horseshoe, we understand why they are not moving forward in this phased approach. Halton, however, does not have these same issues. We would urge you to reconsider allowing Halton Region to transition to phase two of the reopening. Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward said that residents across the four Halton municipalities have shown great diligence in adhering to physical distancing rules, wearing masks, staying home and implementing health and safety controls in public spaces and at local businesses. As a result, our COVID-19 cases have remained low and our hospital capacities have remained high, she said. We have the utmost confidence in the people and businesses of our region to continue to adhere to the guidelines that will keep our numbers low and our residents healthy. At Queens Park, the premier appealed for patience in regions that are not moving to the second stage of reopening this Friday. If we can get these numbers down, like hopefully in the next week or two weeks, said Ford, holding out hope Tuesday that more regions could open up. We review this every single week. Theres no one out there that wants to get this economy going more than I do. Its absolutely critical. (But) this is fluid. This thing is moving constantly. In addition to more businesses and services reopening in certain areas of Ontario, the Ford government is increasing the limit on social gatherings from five to 10 people effective June 12, regardless of whether the region has moved to stage two. All places of worship will also be permitted to open with physical distancing in place, and attendance limited to no more than 30 per cent of the building capacity. Child-care centres and day camps have now been added to the list of what can reopen June 12 as well. Both will face new restrictions. The province will make an announcement at the beginning of each week on whether more regions are ready to move into stage two of the business reopening plan. with files from Robert Benzie Read more about: Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal John Gozigian has plans for expanding his year-old brewery and hes got his eyes on five spaces in the parking lot. The co-founder of Albuquerques La Reforma Brewery has applied for permission to serve his beer and food in a place normally devoted to cars a way, he hopes, to help restore business activity after months of adversity. Gozigians plan is possible because the state, which regulates alcohol licensees, is giving restaurants such as his and eventually bars the chance to expand their service area with temporary, makeshift patios in areas including parking lots a way to alleviate the pain caused by ongoing capacity restrictions. The Regulation and Licensing Department has been sympathetic to the impact this has on our local businesses here in New Mexico, New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department spokeswoman Bernice Geiger said. We see this as an innovative way to support their return during this COVID-19 crisis. Hopefully, it will spur a renaissance of outdoor dining. The move comes after months of tight restrictions. The state only last week allowed restaurants to reopen to dine-in customers, but they can operate at only 50% capacity, must position tables at least 6 feet apart and cannot use counter or bar seating. From late March through late May, restaurants were barred from offering sit-down service at all but could offer takeout or delivery. Operating within those parameters meant significant downsizing at La Reforma; Gozigian said that he cut his staff from 25 to five over the spring and that revenue in April was down 70% compared with pre-pandemic levels. As of last week, La Reforma brought back everybody, but the rules against bar service mean it can seat only about 40% to 45% of its normal capacity, Gozigian said. Adding space with a tent in the parking lot will make a significant difference. It wont get us up to 100%, but it will get us up to 80, which is definitely helpful, Gozigian said. Approval is a multiagency process. The Albuquerque City Council last week passed legislation to enable a city-level OK. Councilor Brook Bassan, who co-sponsored the bill with Trudy Jones, said that expanding a restaurants footprint during the COVID-19 pandemic could make patrons feel safer in the age of social distancing. Theyre not going to want to be in tight quarters, she said. The bill is one of several recent city initiatives that give restaurants and other businesses ways to temporarily expand outdoors. But when alcohol is involved, the city does not have sole control. The state must be involved, and on May 28, New Mexico regulators notified alcohol licensees about the new application for the temporary floor plan changes. A spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the temporary patio option can help eateries adjust. The governor recognizes that occupancy restrictions are a heavy burden on the food service industry and this effort allows restaurants more flexibility in safely expanding their service, spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett said in an email. Bars remain closed under state order and there is no set date for their reopening but the Regulation and Licensing Department says they will have the temporary patio option, too. Owners seeking state approval must surround their new outdoor service area with a barrier at least 3 feet tall and show they have permission from the landowner if they are using space they do not already own or lease. The temporary changes are good only through Oct. 31, although those seeking permanent expansions can pursue them through a separate, existing process. Gozigian said Monday that he has city approval but is waiting on the state OK and hopes to have the tent in business by later this week. It will accommodate eight tables. La Reforma which opened last summer at 8900 San Mateo NE, Suite I has had no patio service before now, but Gozigian said hes happy to add that element if it means moving closer to full speed after months of hardship and uncertainty. You have to adapt to survive, he said. This is the new thing, and its definitely helpful for us. Reuters MELBOURNE (Reuters) -An Australian court said on Thursday it dismissed tennis superstar Novak Djokovic's challenge to his visa cancellation as the minister who revoked it reasonably believed Djokovic, who is not vaccinated against COVID-19, may be a risk to the community. The Federal Court also rejected the argument there was no evidence that Djokovic had ever urged anyone not to get vaccinated, saying it was open to infer that the public would perceive that he was opposed to vaccinations, since he said he had not been vaccinated. Djokovic's saga has fuelled global debate over the rights of people who opt not to get vaccinated as governments look to protect the community from the coronavirus pandemic. DENVER, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cologix, a network-neutral interconnection, ecosystem and hyperscale edge data center company, today announced that customers now have access to Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute with a new onramp at its interconnection hub in the Minneapolis primary location at 511 11th Avenue South. Minneapolis/St. Paul is a top Tier 2 data center market, offering state tax incentives, low utility costs, favorable infrastructure climate and a high-tech infrastructure. Cologix Minneapolis offers direct connectivity to Azure ExpressRoute from Cologix's three data centers located at the premier interconnection and peering spot with access to long haul and local fiber routes. With this new onramp, customers can access dedicated connections to Azure, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Azure ExpressRoute provides key benefits to enterprises looking to build hybrid cloud environments, including: Private connections that bypass the public Internet Predictability and optimized speed when using Azure ExpressRoute Scalable, densely connected and customizable colocation opportunities "We are happy to announce expanded, private connectivity with a new Microsoft onramp in Minneapolis," said Cologix's President & Chief Revenue Officer Laura Ortman. "Direct, dedicated connectivity to hyperscale providers like Microsoft is not only important to support digital transformations, it is critical to support significant growth in cloud services during the COVID-19 pandemic. With private access to Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute and Microsoft services, customers will enjoy faster, more reliable, and more secure access to build and provision services, and support disaster recovery along with lower network costs. Cologix customers can also use our new virtual, on-demand solution to access Azure ExpressRoute, Cologix Access Marketplace, with dynamic provisioning through a single connection and an easy-to-use portal." Ross Ortega, Partner PM Manager, Azure Networking at Microsoft Corp. said, "We continue to see enterprises needing private, direct, predictable latency access to Microsoft via Azure ExpressRoute. We're expanding Azure ExpressRoute in Minneapolis to support market demand for services at the digital edge alongside Cologix's local interconnection hubs, its dedicated ecosystem and its data center platform." Connectivity Leader in Minneapolis Cologix three data centers offer the region's top network density in the 511 Building. Cologix Minneapolis provides network neutral access to 75+ unique networks in the Meet-Me-Room (MMR), access to Cologix's robust ecosystem, the Midwest Internet Cooperative Exchange (MICE) and major cloud provider like Microsoft and AWS. With redundant utility feeds, N+1 chilled water, with redundant well backup on-site, the Cologix Minneapolis facility offers unparalleled resiliency, redundancy and security compliance including SOC 1, SOC 2, HIPAA and PCI compliance. Customers interested in accessing ExpressRoute services in Vancouver can contact [email protected] for more details. Additional resources For more information or to request a tour of any of our facilities, please contact [email protected]. About Cologix Inc. Cologix provides reliable, secure, scalable hyperscale edge data center solutions from 29 prime interconnection hubs and 4 hyperscale capacity facilities across 10 strategic North American markets. Over 1,600 leading network, managed services, cloud, media, content, financial services and enterprise customers trust Cologix to support their business critical infrastructure and connect them to customers, vendors and partners. Our dedicated, experienced local teams and scalable solutions enable us to provide industry-leading customer service and the ability to successfully support customers at the Internet's new edge. For a tour of one of our data centers in Ashburn, Columbus, Dallas, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Minneapolis, Montreal, New Jersey, Toronto or Vancouver visit www.cologix.com or email [email protected]. Follow Cologix on LinkedIn and Twitter. SOURCE Cologix Inc. Related Links http://www.cologix.com Past News Releases RSS Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order on Friday, June 5th, stating that necessary in-person special education instruction is allowed this summer. This news comes fast and furious, but Da Vincis team of New York State licensed staff is ready to assist Long Island school districts and their educators in supporting their special education students, while safely abiding by the state and federal guidelines. Da Vinci focuses on delivering high-quality instruction designed to ensure the students Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and overall educational goals are met. Using our methods, every student we work with has the greatest likelihood of receiving specialized instruction delivered by highly qualified teachers to target and work towards deficits. We utilize a variety of special education supports and programs to serve students with disabilities and promote meaningful access, participation and progress in the general curriculum, including constant teacher services, paraprofessional support, resource room service and integrated co-teaching. We understand that this executive order presents an enormous pressure on school districts as it must be managed in such a short amount of time, says Kerry Leo, founder and CEO of Da Vinci. We are prepared and ready to expedite services to your students and teachers. Our programs and alternative methods are used to modify the instructional approach and are customized to meet each of our students individual needs. We liaise with districts to provide an optimal learning environment for our students while supporting and instructing beyond their Individual Education Plan. We maintain and promote mindfulness to ensure that student, district, and familial concerns are acknowledged and addressed. We offer direct instruction in multi-sensory reading, writing, and math. Additionally, we offer resource room instruction in parochial, private, and public school settings, and our speech and language services provide additional support for students. The safety of the staff, students, parents and all clients is a top priority at Da Vinci Education. All CDC guidelines will be strictly implemented for the foreseeable future as we support school districts in transitioning back to business as usual in the coming months. For more information, to schedule an appointment, or to apply for a position at Da Vinci, visit their website http://www.davincicenter.net or contact kleo@davincicenter.net with any questions or concerns. ### About Da Vinci Education and Research The Long Island based professionals at Da Vinci Education and Research are dedicated to bringing diagnostic and prescriptive strategies to students, parents and school districts to help them support learning needs and maximize their unique academic potential. We pledge to identify and acknowledge the gold standard in education by gathering the latest in top quality, research-based and proven methodologies. Working with the Committee of Special Education, we make practical and proven recommendations so each team can find the best solution for every child. Our process acknowledges that every individual has a unique learning profile. Our goal is to build trusting relationships with parents and districts to facilitate the best possible outcomes. We offer ongoing monitoring to ensure team alignment so that educational goals for every child are met. This article, The new work-from-home policies at Facebook, Twitter, Apple and more, originally appeared on CNET.com. The coronavirus pandemic has upended daily life, changing how we interact with loved ones, colleagues and strangers at the grocery store. When the crisis subsides, it'll remake the workplace too. Tech giants including Facebook , Twitter and Amazon have begun sharing plans about how they'll adapt their work cultures to adapt to the post-coronavirus world. Offices will be the most visible examples of these changes, with many occupied far below capacity as some employees permanently transition to remote work. That may prompt Silicon Valley companies to rethink the amenities that have become synonymous with their sleek offices: cafes stocked with free food, valet parking and sleep pods. Employees don't seem to care that much about the lost amenities though. A May survey by the anonymous employee messaging app Blind found 66% of 2,800 respondents across Silicon Valley, New York City and Seattle said they'd be willing to work remotely, relocating outside those metro areas. Among respondents, 20% of San Francisco area respondents said they'd be willing to accept a pay cut up to 20%. And 75% of New Yorkers said they wanted to leave. Here's how big tech companies are handling the changes: Facebook James Martin/CNET The social networking giant, whose buses ferried thousands of employees from around the San Francisco Bay Area to its Menlo Park, California, headquarters and back, said it expects as much as half its staff to transition to working from home within the next five to 10 years. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the new changes to his company's 48,000 full-time employees in a livestream and blog post on May 21. He also acknowledged that there would be "a lot of nuances" in how the policies would work in practice. Employees will be eligible to work from home permanently if they're experienced and have strong job performance, he said. They also have to be part of a team that's allowing for remote work, and they have to get approval from one of their leaders. Facebook will also hire remote workers, though only people with experience. Entry-level employees need to work with their teams in the office in order to learn the ropes, Zuckerberg said. The company wants to keep a team atmosphere even though it's more remote, and so it's planning to build up hubs of work-from-home employees in Atlanta, Dallas and Denver. Facebook doesn't plan to reopen offices until July 6 at the earliest and will require employees to go through temperature checks, wear face masks and practice social distancing. The company, which seats employees close to one another in open office layouts, will also limit workplace capacity to 25%, Bloomberg reported. In the meantime, Facebook will allow most employees to work from home through the end of the year. Google James Martin/CNET Google plans to begin reopening its offices starting July 6. The company will keep building capacity low, starting at about 10% of staff, and gradually increase the number of people in its offices over time. The search giant will allow employees to expense $1,000 for equipment while telecommuting. The search giant hasn't shared much else of its remote-work plans, but it has said most of its 120,000 employees will be allowed to work from home through the end of the year. Apple The iPhone maker hasn't publicly discussed its post-coronavirus office plans, but internal communications reported on by Bloomberg indicate the company will begin bringing employees back to its headquarters this summer. In the meantime, Apple has also begun reopening its retail stores, albeit with new social distancing guidelines limiting the number of people who can be in the store and requiring masks. The company's also following local guidelines, which is part of why it's only opened about 100 out of its 271 US stores so far. Amazon Sarah Tew/CNET The retail giant said on April 30 that corporate employees can work from home until October, though that could be extended. The company will also spend at least $4 billion on COVID-19 related costs. That spending includes higher wages for workers and more safety gear like face masks. Also, Amazon's internal development of COVID-19 testing capabilities will cost $300 million in the second quarter and could cost $1 billion for 2020. The $4 billion in spending is a huge jump from the $600 million Amazon already spent in the first quarter on coronavirus-related costs. Amazon's moves come amid criticism over the way it's handled coronavirus outbreaks in its facilities and safety of employees. Among the complaints: Amazon hasn't disclosed how many coronavirus cases it's had in warehouses. Six employees were fired this year after publicly criticizing the company, leading nine US senators to raise concerns about Amazon's treatment of them. Microsoft The tech giant plans to let employees continue working from home through at least October, unless they're in an essential role. Twitter James Martin/CNET Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sent an email to the company's 4,900 employees on May 12 saying many of them would be allowed to work from home permanently, even after the coronavirus lockdown ends.The policy wouldn't apply to employees whose jobs require a physical presence, such as maintaining computer servers. "We were uniquely positioned to respond quickly and allow folks to work from home given our emphasis on decentralization and supporting a distributed workforce capable of working from anywhere," a Twitter spokesperson said. "The past few months have proven we can make that work." With few exceptions, Twitter offices won't open before September, the company added. Square Dorsey also runs Square, so it's not surprise the payments platform is following the same approach. Square, whose headquarters is a short walk from Twitter's in San Francisco, hasn't shared a timeline for when it will reopen its offices to its 3,835 full-time employees. Slack The business communications company, whose namesake app has become a verb in offices around the world, told The New York Times in May that it hasn't set a timetable for when it'll return to the office yet. "It's easier to manage a company that is 100% remote than one where employees are 50% remote and 50% in the office," Robby Kwok, Slack's senior vice president for people, told The Times. Box Box, the California-based online storage company, told employees in May that they can work remotely at least until 2021 and is preparing to allow many of them to work from home after the crisis subsides as well. "We know different employees have a preference for different approaches," CEO Aaron Levie wrote in May. "That is why our future is a hybrid one, capturing the best of both worlds, with a digital workplace stitching the physical office and virtual office all together." Dell The computer giant, already known for its flexible work rules, said it expects more than half its employees to permanently work remotely by the time the crisis ends. Zillow The Seattle-based online realty service said it will allow employees to work from home through the end of 2020 and possibly beyond. "My personal opinions about WFH have been turned upside down over the past 2 months," Zillow co-founder and CEO Rich Barton tweeted in April. "I expect this will have a lasting influence on the future of work ... and home." A Queensland home boasting 'Australia's best backyard' is now up for sale. The property at 505 Allambie Lane in Gumlow, on Townsville's southern fringe, has seven bedrooms, six bathrooms, and parking spaces for 15 vehicles. But the real value of the 10.44 hectare property is that it contains the Townsville Barra Fun Park, which includes 13 dams for fishing, a giant Slip'n'Slide, a large jumping pillow, tunnels, trampolines, catapults, a cable ski and paddle boats. The property, which has been listed at $2.5million and also includes it's own cafe, licensed bar and group barbecue facilities. The main house at 505 Allambie Lane in Gumlow in Queensland includes five bedrooms, three living areas and two large bathrooms. But the biggest draw for potential buyers is the 10.44 hectares called the Townsville Barra Fun Park, which is an inflatable waterpark with a 50m Slip N Slide, a large jumping pillow, tunnels, trampolines, catapults, a cable ski and paddle boats The main house includes five bedrooms, three living areas, two large bathrooms, a huge dining area and a theatre with raked ceilings and automated louvres. There is also a two-bedroom fully self-contained granny flat, male and female ablution blocks, a commercial kitchen and a large double story shed. The property is also home to the Barramuddy obstacle course which will be included as part of the overall package. For potential homebuyers, the listing states the property 'has massive growth potential with plenty of land available for future development, many dams and infrastructure already in place.' The main home also includes a huge dining area and an internal theatre room with raked ceilings and automated louvres There is also a two-bedroom fully self-contained granny flat, male and female ablution blocks, a commercial kitchen and a large double story shed The property is also home to the Barramuddy obstacle course which will be included as part of the overall package The waterpark's current owner, Brent Stevenson, had opened the park to the public for the past 20 summers but the coronavirus lockdown had forced him to close its doors. He decided the property was getting 'too big' for him to operate. 'We need a buyer with some fresh ideas and enthusiasm. Someone who can handle a bigger business than what I can do,' Mr Stevenson told Daily Mail Australia. 'But I also have five children and selling the park would mean I could spend some more time with them.' He said because all of the parks licensing has been approved, the buyer could build whatever they want without going through the usual red tape. Mr Stevenson believes the biggest draw to the property is the lifestyle that comes with having a waterpark in the backyard. The waterpark's current owner, Brent Stevenson (pictured), said he has been open to the public for 20 summers but had to close down due to the coronavirus pandemic He decided to put the property up for sale because it is getting 'too big' for him to operate He wants to make sure he sells the property to the right buyer as the waterpark has become such a beloved and popular place for families in the area to take their children He wants to make sure he sells the property to the right buyer as the waterpark has become such a beloved and popular place for families in the area to take their children. 'I've seen people that came here when they were kids who now come to the park with kids of their own. 'We've built up a good reputation because the locals know we are here to have a good time and provide a family-friendly environment.' But not everyone is happy with Mr Stevenson's decision to sell the park. 'My youngest told me: ''Daddy. I don't want you to sell the park.'' 'I said: ''If you don't want me to buddy, I won't''. 'My youngest child is seven and he has 10 years of school left to go, so if I don't sell I will keep going.' He said because all of the park's licensing has been approved, the buyer could build whatever they want without going through the usual red tape. Mr Stevenson believes the biggest draw to the property is the lifestyle that comes with having a waterpark in the backyard 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 coronavirus newsletter. To support our nonprofit public service journalism: Donate now. In April, when Governor Newsom announced Project Roomkey -- aimed at moving 15,000 homeless Californians into rented hotel rooms -- it was lauded as a "win-win." Homeless people would get to come indoors, and hotels would get to recoup lost income from the collapse of the tourism industry. Unprecedented in scale, it was seen as ambitious, even audacious, though some doubted if the state had the ability to accomplish such a vast undertaking in such a short timeframe. Two months later, according to the Governor's office, 9,400 rooms are now occupied, a third less than the 15,000 goal. About 5,000 more rooms have been acquired, but not yet filled. (Los Angeles County also set a goal of sheltering 15,000 people in hotels, which is, as Mayor Garcetti has admitted, "a stretch goal." As of June 5, there are about 3,600 people in 3,200 hotel rooms.) Should that be seen as a success? It depends how you view it. On the one hand, it means California has managed to shelter nearly 10,000 people in just eight weeks. That's a roughly 33% expansion of its emergency shelter system. Still, it represents a small fraction of the state's overall homeless population of at least 150,000 people. On the other hand, the program has fallen short of its goal. Advocates for the homeless have chastised state and local officials for not "commandeering" hotels and letting people move in at-will much more expediently. And there remains the question of what happens when the hotels want their rooms back. Where will people go once they are locked out? That question lies unanswered. But for those who have received help through the program, the room has provided a much-needed opportunity for respite. LA County is working with state, federal & local partners on Project Roomkey--an initiative to bring medically vulnerable people experiencing homelessness indoors during the #COVID19 pandemic. This weekend, @StJosephCtr & @LAHomeless moved people into a hotel in West LA. pic.twitter.com/6NfegFjsiB Los Angeles County (@CountyofLA) April 6, 2020 CHANCE TO RECOVER One of those being helped is Karen Bierman, 48, from Lakewood, who's been diagnosed with lupus. She suffers from chronic pain and a compromised immune system. Karen Bierman says she's "thankful" to have a hotel room. (Courtesy Karen Bierman) Bierman is grateful for her room, which she shares with her two black labrador retriever service dogs. Bierman feels safe, which she hasn't felt in many of the other places she's lived. "It's been a chance to recover and rest, and for that I'm thankful," Bierman said. "They have a nurse that comes in and gives you breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They take your temperature to make sure that you're not infected somehow. It's really good. I am totally amazed." Bierman has struggled on the edge of homelessness for the greater part of the past two years. For her, it was family conflict mixed with sudden medical bills that robbed her of stability. She's bounced from location to location in rented rooms and cheap motels, using her disability payment. Her only other alternative would be sleeping in her car. Because she's immunocompromised, she's just the kind of person Project Roomkey was designed to help. But though politicians have framed the program as helping the homeless, its genesis also has a less munificent twist. Karen Bierman and her two dogs, Shadow and Midnight. They're living in a hotel during the pandemic (Courtesy Karen Bierman) AN ALARMING PROJECTION Back in March, state officials produced an alarming model that predicted coronavirus could sweep through the state's homeless population, and quickly send up to 12,000 people to the hospital. That alone would have overwhelmed the state's hospital system, potentially with disastrous consequences. It moved state officials such as Governor Newsom to propose a massive sheltering effort. So, on April 3, Newsom announced the plan to rent hotel rooms to quickly shelter 15,000 of the oldest and most medically vulnerable people experiencing homelessness. "It's all around saving lives, and it's all around, as I suggest, decompressing our medical system, particularly our hospitals in the state of California," said Newsom when he announced the program. California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the new hotel initiative in front of a Motel 6 in Silicon Valley. (Screenshot from the livestream of Newsom's speech) In ordinary times, quickly sheltering 15,000 people would be virtually impossible. Building even a single 100-bed shelter can take more than a year, tied up in a glacial process of politics, community engagement, and inefficient government contracting. Though temporary motel vouchers have long been used to offer a few weeks of shelter to people on the street, Newsom's proposal was much more ambitious. Project Roomkey depends on a section of the Federal CARES Act that authorizes spending funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to protect homeless people from COVID-19. FEMA is where Project Roomkey is getting most of its money. According to state and local officials, FEMA is covering approximately 75% of the program's cost through reimbursement. The exact cost of the entire project is difficult to ascertain. The Governor's office told us that the cost is being borne by individual counties, not the state, and that those counties will then request reimbursement from the federal government. So it may take months for the total amount to be calculated. icon DON'T MISS ANY L.A. CORONAVIRUS NEWS Get our daily newsletters for the latest on COVID-19 and other top local headlines. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy A 'MASSIVE LIFT' Regardless of the cost, the reality is that there are thousands of homeless people now indoors, where just a few months ago they were on the street, or close to it. For those on the ground doing the work of standing up the infrastructure of Project Roomkey, the past two months have been increasingly organized chaos. In Los Angeles, that work has fallen largely to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), and dozens of other nonprofit agencies. "There's no question when this started that it was a massive lift, literally working around the clock seven days a week to get this infrastructure in place," said Heidi Marston, LAHSA's director. "But it's almost like a choreographed dance now, when we're opening a hotel. Everyone knows exactly what they're supposed to do." For example, before the hotels could be occupied, they had to be leased. That process is conducted at the county level, and involves negotiations between several parties. Meanwhile, reluctant insurance providers have backed out of several deals that could have yielded more rooms. Once the hotels are actually leased, they have to be prepared for full-time occupancy. That means physically modifying rooms, including the removal of minibars. But it's also organizing systems to deliver three prepared meals a day to clients' doors, and do laundry. Then there's the procurement of supplies, health equipment, and PPE. One of the biggest bottlenecks has been staffing. In most hotels, a nonprofit agency is contracted to provide on-site case management. But the program also adds health services through on-site nurse practitioners or doctors, as well as 'round-the-clock security. Nothing like this has been done before with homeless services in California, and Marston says it's tested the capacity of the system. "It's been a good learning opportunity for us to see not only what we can do as LAHSA, but also what our system can handle," Marston said. A hotel near downtown Los Angeles. (Matt Tinoco/LAist) BIG UNKNOWNS For all Project Roomkey has accomplished, it still hasn't ended homelessness for any of the people who have moved into a hotel room. Technically, they are all still homeless, without a permanent residence. Where they will go next remains a big fat question mark. Interviews with several officials have not yielded a clear answer for long-term plans. One communications director outright laughed when asked what was going to happen next. But there are several possibilities. Some of the hotels could be acquired by the government and turned into permanent housing, much like the older single-room-occupancy (SRO) residential hotels of an earlier era. In the May 26 meeting of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, officials said they were in talks to potentially acquire four Motel 6 properties being used by Project Roomkey in the county. More realistically, many of the initial three-month leases may just be extended -- so long as FEMA continues providing reimbursements. But besides that, the thousands moved into the hotels are reliant on the same case management and housing placement system that already existed before the pandemic. That system relies on rental subsidies, government assistance, and a myriad of other public and private resources to "place" individuals into "permanent housing." That was hard before the pandemic, and it's likely even harder now. For her part, Karen Bierman is staring down a deadline of June 30, the day she says the government lease on her room expires. She's not sure where she's going next, and she says her case manager keeps dodging her calls. "If I don't find housing by June 30, then what happens?" she said. "I'm scared to death, and I can't go anywhere." PUBLIC BLOWBACK As for the public response to Project Roomkey, some are worried about the potential for blowback in the coming months -- if the public wonders whether the resources spent on Project Roomkey will make a difference in the long term. Larry Haynes directs the nonprofit service agency, Mercy House, and points out that the program was initially conceived to minimize the spread of coronavirus among homeless people. "You really didn't spend money on homelessness, you spent money on a public health concern," Haynes said. "When we are talking about addressing homelessness, the answer is always forever going to be housing." Project Roomkey is not housing. Its official title in government documents is "Non Congregate Shelter." Any hotel purchased by the government could become permanent housing, but Haynes is acutely aware that there will come a day when the tourism industry will recover, and hotel owners will want their rooms back. "I would respectfully argue that, in terms of, Is it addressing homelessness? -- [that's] a whole other conversation," Haynes said. "And I think the most diplomatic answer I could give to that is, the jury's still out. Because what you would have to do is a cost benefit analysis." Of course to do that, you have to first know what the cost was. [June 09, 2020] Silverfin Raises Series B Investment Led by Hg to Accelerate International Growth Hg is a leading investor in tax and accounting software LONDON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Silverfin has announced a significant Series B investment led by Hg, Europe's leading software investor and expert in the tax and accounting sector. The investment will be used to support the company's expansion internationally as it responds to demand for its cloud service that consolidates real-time financial data, automates compliance reporting and improves financial planning. Silverfin was founded in 2013 in Ghent, Belgium and now has offices in London, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. The details and terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. Joris Van Der Gucht, co-founder at Silverfin commented: "Our platform is the central nervous system thousands of businesses, and their accounting firms, rely on for efficient and effective financial management and decision making. We consolidate multiple financial data sources into one central data hub. Then we use that data to improve the speed, accuracy and quality of compliance with automation; and financial planning with our data analytics and reporting tools." He added: "Technology has been driving considerable innovation and change in finance and accounting. The past few weeks have shown how important this digital transformation is. Obviously there's been a rapid move to remote working. There's also been a widespread acceptance that cloud technology is key in enabling finance teams to operate whatever the circumstances. Our technology helps with this and much more. Even before today's challenges, our customers told us Silverfin has made them more efficient and more successful. We've made the core reporting work they do easier but we've also made it easier to give the advice their businesses really need, particularly now, like financial modelling, risk monitoring, benchmarking and scenario planning." Silverfin has more than 650 customers in 11 countries from the leading accountancy firms in Europe and North America including all of the 'Big 4'. Tim Vandecasteele, co-founder added: "We want to bring the benefits of Silverfin to more customers and develop the platform to have an even greater impact on their business transformation. This investment from Hg will help us to accelerate our product development and provide us with invaluable insight into future developments in accounting we can capitalise on. Their considerable international experience in the accountancy sector, and understanding of technology, makes them the perfect partner for us as we begin the next phase in our international growth." Joris Van Gool, Partner at Hg, said: "After seeing Silverfin in action in our portfolio for a number of years, we were impressed with the technology and the potential it offers the accounting sector. We're delighted to be able to join and support the Silverfin team as the business continues to scale internationally." Hg has a long history of partnering with businesses in the tax and accounting software space. Silverfin is Hg's 14th investment in this sector over the last 15 years, with a total of around 1.8BN of invested capital in this sector alone. Hg has invested in a minority stake in Silverfin from its Mercury 2 Fund and joins the co-founders who remain majority owners, and existing investors, Index Ventures and SmartFin Ventures. About Silverfin Silverfin is the cloud platform that makes accountants successful. It improves the efficiency, competitiveness and profitability of compliance services, and powers the development and delivery of advisory services. Silverfin takes financial data directly from client systems and hosts it securely in a single cloud Structured Data Hub. Templates then standardise, and automate, accounting workflows and use the data hub to make compliance easy, fast, and accurate. But that's only half the story. Leading firms use Silverfin to power their advisory services too. Looking at data and trends, right across the client portfolio is easy and automatic alerts warn of risks or identify opportunities to give advice, or sell additional services. For further details, please visit the Silverfin website: www.silverfin.com. About Hg Hg is a leading European investor in software and services, focused on backing businesses that change how we all do business. Deep technology expertise, complemented by vertical application specialisation and dedicated operational support, provides a compelling proposition to management teams looking to scale their businesses. Hg has an investment team of over 140 professionals, plus a portfolio team of more than 30 operators, providing practical support to help our businesses to realise their growth ambitions. Based in London, Munich and New York, Hg has an aggregate portfolio enterprise value of c. 30 billion and serves some of the world's leading institutional and private investors. For further details, please visit the Hg website: https://hgcapital.com/. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1178119/Silverfin_co_founders.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1178118/Silverfin_Logo.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1178117/Hg_Logo.jpg For media enquiries: For Hg: Tom Eckersley. Email: [email protected] or +44 20 8396 0930. For Silverfin: Stuart Handley. Email: [email protected] or +44 2080 684 007. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Ramiza Shamoun Koya, who taught and advocated for writers in the Portland area, and was reveling in her own literary experience as a debut novelist this spring, died of breast cancer Friday, June 5. She was 49. Her mother, Paula Inwood, who was with her at her Portland home, called her feisty and vibrant and such an enthusiast. She just loved, loved life, and the last six years she fought so hard to stay with her daughter and to keep living. She was quite a bright, brilliant light, Inwood said. Koya was on leave from her job as director of youth programs at the Portland nonprofit Literary Arts, which posted this statement on its website: Literary Arts is honored to have known this gifted writer and we thank her for the permanent contributions she made to Literary Arts, both in her work leading Youth Programs, and also in our work to be a more equitable and inclusive organization. Koyas debut novel, The Royal Abduls, published by Portlands Forest Avenue Press earlier this year, is an elegantly multilayered and deeply moving story of a Muslim American family caught in the fissures of identity, immigration and race that were deepened by 9/11. She told The Oregonian/OregonLive that part of her motivation for writing the book was to be a part of that conversation of finding an acceptable identity for immigrants, refugees and people of color. Laura Stanfill, publisher of Forest Avenue Press, said that when she read the manuscript, I knew it was a voice I wanted to bring into the world. Koya signed a contract with Forest Avenue Press in 2018. The Royal Abduls was scheduled for publication in May 2020. But last December, Stanfill said, Koya was told she had six months left. Stanfill released the book to Portland bookstores this February, and a friend drove Koya around to see it on display. A Reviews for Ramiza campaign, coordinated by Forest Avenue Press and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, resulted in early reviews. We wanted to give Ramiza the experience of a new author that she might miss out on, Brian Juenemann, the associations executive director, told Publishers Weekly. In an interview on Pen Americas Pen Pod podcast, Koya said, So many people have reached out with little reviews or passing on love or sharing the book with people. A lot of book clubs are reading it. It felt like I had a lot of the experience I would have had. Thats just pretty amazing." Stanfill also organized a March 15 book launch at Powells City of Books. Then the coronavirus arrived in Oregon. Ramiza cared so much about everyone in her life and she cared about this community so much that she called me and said, I think we need to cancel for everyone elses health, Stanfill said. Her primary focus was her community. Ramiza Shamoun Koya was born in 1970 in Santa Rosa, California, to parents from Fiji and Texas. Her older brother, Riyad Koya, recalled a childhood filled with moves and change. Where she really found her voice was when she started attending the City College of San Francisco and they really acknowledged her brilliance then, he said. She went on to attend Sarah Lawrence College, where she earned a bachelors degree in literature and anthropology and a masters degree in creative writing, and New York University, where she earned a masters degree in cultural anthropology. She published fiction and nonfiction in literary journals and was a fellow at the prestigious MacDowell Colony artists retreat. She taught in New York state, Spain, the Czech Republic and Morocco before moving to Portland with her then-husband, John Barritt, who had accepted a position at Lewis & Clark College. She began teaching at Portland Community Colleges Southeast Center in 2010 and joined Literary Arts in 2016. She touched so many lives with her generosity as a teacher, her brother said, and wrote so beautifully and eloquently and gave no quarter with respect to her beliefs. She was a believer in tolerance and diversity and social justice. Carolyn Elges, who befriended Koya when they were 9-year-olds in Colorado, said, Even as children, I always learned so much from her, every time I was around her. I feel like she was a lifelong teacher to me and to a lot of other people. She had a very strong moral compass that she was able to articulate. Having a voice was very important to her. Winifred Tate met Koya in the cultural anthropology program at New York University in 1996 and described their relationship as best friends ever since. Her writing and thinking focused on belonging, identity and family, emerging from her experiences as a brown girl raised in a majority white family, and developed through her experiences learning, writing, traveling and living as a brown woman in the world, Tate, now an associate professor of anthropology at Colby College in Maine, said by email. Her insistence on enjoying life came because she had experienced difficulties and did not shy away from reflecting on her own experience and the structural obstacles facing women of color. Koyas younger sister, Jessica Ratigan, recalled fondly their travels together when Koya lived abroad, saying, It was so fun to explore with her because it felt like I was coming to her home even though it was her new home. Ratigan called Koya very inspiring and motivational, both as a sibling and in how she discussed her work and the importance of being able to speak your truth and be yourself. Koya said in a January appearance on Portland radio station KBOO, I think I write because I want a voice. I want people to hear my voice and I want to be part of the national conversation around the issues Im writing about. Survivors include her daughter, Ofelia Barritt; former husband, John Barritt; mother and stepfather, Paula and William Inwood; stepmother, Sandra Cooke; siblings, Riyad Koya, Jessica Ratigan, Nathan Inwood and Mikal Said Koya; and nephews, Nikolaj Koya, Wesley and Lewis Ratigan and Auggie Inwood. Her father, AbuBakr Sadiq Koya, died in 1983. A memorial service is to be scheduled. awang@oregonian.com; Twitter: @ORAmyW Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. As soon as Unlock 1 began after the nationwide lockdown spanning over two-and-a-half months, B-Towners have started stepping out of their homes for fresh air. Ekta Kapoor paid a visit to Sidhhivinayak temple in Mumbai, which is closed. Ekta offered prayers from outside along with her son Ravie on her birthday on Sunday. The producer shared photos of her temple visit on Instagram. She also shared two videos -- one of a television set outside the temple for devotees to stream the darshan. The other was that of the closed shrine. Darshan from outside, she wrote over the video, followed by heart and folded hand emojis. Earlier in the week, Kapoor's show Triple X, which is based on the lives of army personnel, was at the centre of controversies. Many on social media were not happy with the show's content. Former Bigg Boss contestant Hindustani Bhau has also lodged a complaint against the makers of the show at the Khar police station in Mumbai. Ekta Kapoor responded to the cyber threats she has been receiving since some days through a statement. She said, "As an individual and as an organisation we are deeply respectful towards Indian army. Their contribution to our well being and security is immense. Yes, we shall readily tender an unconditional apology if such a demand comes from any bonafide army institution. But we wont bow down to uncivilised cyber bullying and rape threats by random elements. Read: Ekta Kapoor Responds To 'Triple X' Controversy, Says 'Wont Bow Down To Bullying' Meanwhile, Kareena Kapoor Khan stepped out in Mumbai's Marine Drive on Sunday with husband Saif Ali Khan and Taimur. However, many social media users trolled the power couple for wearing breathing masks occasionally during the family outing. Read: Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan Trolled for Strolling at Marine Drive with Taimur without Masks Follow @News18Movies for more Police have made an arrest and seized 3D-printed firearm components in a case they say is the citys first, but wont be its last. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Police have made an arrest and seized 3D-printed firearm components in a case they say is the citys first, but wont be its last. After executing a search warrant at a home in the 100 block of West Avenue on May 20, the WPS Firearms Investigation Enforcement Unit located 28 firearms, including one prohibited. Police also found lower receivers on an AR-15 rifle and a Glock 19 handgun that had been produced by a 3D printer, with the rest of the Glock 19 having been made from bought components. The 3D printer was also on site and seized by police. At a media conference Tuesday, Insp. Max Waddell of the Winnipeg Police Service's organized crime division said this was the first time 3D-printed firearms had been seized by police in the city, and he was disappointed in what he called the latest trend of "ghost guns" or firearms manufactured with no identifiable markings to avoid tracking. Winnipeg police Insp. Max Waddell shows off the stash of weapons seized by police at a Westwood home. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) The idea that any person can obtain the materials needed to 3D-print firearm parts was "beyond concerning," he said. "If you cant obtain a firearm legally because youre a criminal, or now with COVID in place where its more difficult to obtain firearms from the largest manufacturer in the world, which is the United States of America, youre going to resort to the next step, and that is making your own." Police do not believe the weapons seized have any gang connection, but are investigating the possibility of the suspect collaborating online, and Waddell said further charges are not off the table. The 3D-printing process is relatively simple in theory. One of the most common ways, called fused-deposition modelling, takes a blueprint uploaded to the printer, where software splices out the objects dimensions, and wire, usually made of plastic, is laid down in the shape of the object in the blueprint. A common comparison is that of a glue gun but being tracked so meticulously it is capable of producing a specific three-dimensional object. While entirely 3D-printed guns do exist, police seized certain firearm components, with the rest of the weapon being made of legitimate parts. Winnipeg police found 28 firearms in the home, including 10 registered restricted handguns, one prohibited firearm and 17 other long guns. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) The idea that people will begin to more regularly produce 3D-printed weapons for criminal purposes, at least with current 3D printing technology available, is a "fantasy," according to local expert Kerry Stevenson. "Its quite problematic to make these things. It takes some level of skill and availability of this equipment to even attempt it, and it takes a lot of time, and the results you get is not very functional," he said. Stevenson, who runs the 3D-printing news site fabbaloo.com and holds a masters degree in computer science, said there are hundreds of 3D printers in the city. And while their capabilities are improving and cost is going down, that's the case with any developing technology, he said. The cost of 3D-printing weapons is high. While smaller, less-functional printers can go for as little as $300, printers with the capability to create firearm parts cost thousands of dollars," he said. "Why would you go through all the trouble of trying to do that, when you could probably go and buy a gun off the street that actually works for less money?" he said. Police recovered a Glock-sytle handgun lower receiver that had been manufactured in a 3D printer. The latter was fitted with a legitimate upper receiver, making it a functioning firearm. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) Waddell said he didnt consider the process to be highly sophisticated, noting that step-by-step instructions can be found online. A particular concern is that the guns are harder to detect because of their plastic components, he said, mentioning airport scanners as an example. Stevenson said he disagreed with both points, noting many experiments on 3D-printed firearms even by experienced printers end in failure and most still require some metal components. 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 truth is that maybe the gun is 3D printed, but the bullets are not, and you have to have both to be able (to take) the one shot or zero shots before the thing actually explodes in your hand," he said. Despite the hurdles, 3D-printed guns have become a point of concern for lawmakers in the U.S. and Canada. A U.S. ruling in 2018 allowed a man to attempt to distribute 3D-printed plastic gun schematics online, but a federal judge later placed a temporary restriction on the release of the plans. In Canada, while schematics are easily found online, it is illegal to manufacture firearms, even for personal use, without a licence. Corey James Boyd, 31, has been charged with weapons trafficking, knowingly possessing an unauthorized firearm and not reporting a lost firearm. malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: malakabas_ An inspector of police, Adekunle Ilesanmi, has been killed by a sergeant, Okema Azuquo, in the Oke-Odo area of Lagos State. PUNCH Metro gathered that Azuquo was quarreling with some tenants over the time to close the gate of their place of residence on Dosumu Street in the Agbelekale area of Oke-Odo when Ilesanmi intervened and attempted to subdue him. Out of annoyance, Azuquo was said to have pounced on the inspector and dealt him several machete blows on his leg and other parts of his body. A co-tenant, Ayodele Eyitayo, was said to have also sustained an injury on his face during the attack, which occurred last Thursday. Our correspondent learnt that some good Samaritans, including neighbours, rushed Ilesanmi and Eyitayo to a nearby hospital for treatment. While Eyitayo was treated and discharged, Ilesanmi was placed on admission due to the severity of the injuries he sustained. However, despite efforts by doctors to save his life, Ilesanmi died on Sunday. Confirming the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Bala Elkana, said the sergeant was quarreling with other tenants over the time to close the gate to the house, adding that the inspector, who was also a tenant in the house, intervened to stop the sergeant and was butchered in the process. For preventing the sergeant from killing his co-tenants, Elkana said the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, paid tribute to him for his courageous act, while commiserating with Ilesanmis family. He stated that the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba, had been assigned to take over the case, adding that Azuquo had been arrested and would be charged after an investigation into the incident had been completed. Elkana said, The CP, Hakeem Odumosu, pays tribute to the police inspector, who sustained deep cuts and died while preventing an unruly sergeant from killing his co-tenants. On Thursday, June 4, 2020, around 8:10pm, one Azeez Adebayo of No 8. Dosumu Street, Agbelekale Oke-Odo, reported at the Oke-Odo Police Station that one Sergeant Okema Azuquo, a tenant in the same house, returned home and engaged other tenants in a fight over gate closure and inflicted machete cuts on one Inspector Adekunle Ilesanmi, who was also a tenant in the house and was trying to stop the sergeant from harming other civilian tenants. Ayodele Eyitayo, a tenant in the house, sustained a minor injury in his face. A team of policemen led by the Divisional Police Officer was promptly deployed in the scene. The injured persons were taken to hospital for treatment, while the sergeant was arrested. While Ayodele Eyitayo was treated and discharged, the inspector was admitted due to the severity of the injuries he sustained. The inspector, however, died on Sunday, June 7, 2020, while on admission. The homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti, has taken over the investigation. The suspect will be charged as soon as investigation and disciplinary proceedings are concluded. Source: punchng.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 TOKYO, June 9, 2020 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engine & Turbocharger, Ltd. (MHIET), a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group, has concluded an agreement under which the domestic marine engine sales and parts servicing operations currently performed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engine Systems, Ltd. (MHIES), a wholly-owned subsidiary, will be transferred to Seika Corporation effective October 1. The operations concerned mainly target fishing vessels, and by forming a framework of collaboration with Seika, a trading firm with a solid reputation for mobility and stability in the fisheries and marine business areas as well as a dynamic strategy for further business expansion, MHIET, which is responsible for development and manufacturing, aims to enhance its competitive strength and expand its market share.The domestic marine engine sales and parts servicing operations performed by MHIES primarily focus on engines and auxiliary equipment for fishing vessels with gross tonnage under 20 tons. MHIES conducts its operations from 20 domestic bases, and under the newly concluded agreement all bases, except those engaging in export operations, will be transferred to Seika. Prior to the transfer, MHIES will spin off the affected operations under an absorption-type split arrangement. The resulting new company, to be located in Tokyo, will be transferred to Seika on October 1.The agreement between MHIET and Seika Corporation comes amid growing calls for marine engine operations serving domestic fishing vessels to be more finely attuned to the needs of local fishermen.Seika Corporation is a general trading company dealing in machinery. It has rich experience in areas including plants of all kinds, machinery systems and equipment, and environmental protection equipment, and through the years it has built a solid track record of collaboration with MHI Group. Seika is also the parent company of Sapporo-based Shikishimakiki Corporation, a leading sales agent of MHI Group engines in Hokkaido, and for some time Seika had been probing for a new strategy for expanding the subsidiary's business. The collaborative agreement thus meshes the respective aims of the two sides perfectly: MHIET and MHIES seeking to further cultivate the fishing vessel market, and Seika looking to use its meticulous marketing capability to aggressively expand operations targeted especially at shipbuilders and fisheries cooperatives.Going forward, through MHIET and MHIES, MHI Group will work closely with Seika Group in its continuing drive to boost its competitiveness and expand its share of the domestic marine engine market.Source: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.Copyright 2020 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. Phase 2 of Gov. Charlie Bakers plan to reopen Massachusetts began Monday, meaning daycares could technically restart operations, provided theyve put in place new coronavirus health and safety protocols. But the new health and safety standards, released one week ago, have already been scrutinized for being too draconian. Among the changes under fire is the reduction in the number of preschoolers allowed in a single classroom in half from a maximum of 20 to 10. The litany of regulations also requires programs to cancel all upcoming field trips, inter-group events and extracurricular activities. Additionally, staff assigned to classrooms or groups can no longer float between other classrooms or groups unless needed to provide supervision for specialized activities such as swimming, boating, archery, firearms, etc. The new classroom ratios for daycares, which determine how many children are allowed in a single room together, and how many teachers can be assigned to a given group, are posing constraints on daycare operators looking to accommodate both families once enrolled in their programs, and new families. Some say they may have to turn away new enrollees, or lay off staff, to meet the new requirements. And even then, many do not think they can make ends meet. Financially, it doesnt work, said Edward Madaus, executive director of the Guild of St. Agnes Early Education program, which is based in Worcester. Preschoolers went from 20 in a classroom to 10, with two teachers. Its just unsustainable to be able to do that. Madaus says the Guilds staff have been bolstered by the Payment Protection Program until the first week of July, which is their target date for reopening. But even with the help, Madaus says the company is losing roughly $6,000 every day an unsettling fact as providers work to prepare for a future with half as many preschoolers allowed in a single classroom. I think a lot of centers are going to close, said Christopher Vuk, owner of Cambridge-based Rock and Roll Daycare company. The worst case scenario is that the daycare industry gets piled under regulations, and families turn to non-regulated options." Vuk says he has been proactive in reaching out to families, holding virtual sessions during the pandemic, to maintain contact. Hes confident hell have the staff and the business to support his 10 different locations scattered throughout Greater Boston that were once in operation, or are under construction. We will likely have most of our families return, he said. Madaus suggested the states Department of Early Education and Care revisit the new regulations, and trust that providers will take the precautions necessary to prevent a re-emergence of coronavirus. Erika Houle, owner of the Houle School in Northamptom, has been running an emergency daycare since Baker ordered all non-essential businesses closed at the onset of the pandemic. But the new group ratios have put Houle in a position, based on staff numbers, to reconfigure her classroom count, and potentially turn away families. The problem is we can only have three children under the age of two, she said. I have to figure out who can I take back when we reopen. Right before the shutdown, Strawberries Early Learning Center in Worcester had just been given approval to open a new infant-toddler room. But the changes may force the program to raise its tuition, program director Darlene Roth said. Its almost like starting over, Roth said. Were hearing many centers are increasing their preschool rate. Were reevaluating what were personally going to do. Before childcare facilities can reopen, they must submit a safety plan in accordance with the new regulations. Related Content: She's been urging her social media followers to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic. But Kelly Osbourne clearly believes that there's little risk involved in going out for dinner now that Los Angeles has eased lockdown restrictions. The British TV personality, 35, arrived at celebrity hotspot Craig's on Monday night, dropping her mask to get her picture taken. Ready to mingle: Kelly Osbourne arrived at Craig's in West Hollywood for dinner on Monday night as Los Angeles eases lockdown restrictions amidst the coronavirus pandemic Kelly, who was accompanied by her sister Aimee, even paused to sign autographs for fans waiting outside the venue. She was then seen getting her temperature checked before entering the eatery. The former star of reality show the Osbournes continues to sport a purple hairdo. For her night out, she paired a black suede jacket with blue embellished jeans and black heels. Media savvy: The British TV personality, 35, who these days is sporting a purple hairdo, dropped her mask to get her picture taken as she entered the celebrity hotspot Precautions: Kelly, who was accompanied by her older sister Aimee, was seen getting her temperature checked before being allowed into the eatery Celebrity: For her night out, she paired a black suede jacket with blue embellished jeans and black heels, and paused to sign autographs for waiting fans on her way in Kelly is the younger daughter of heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his manager Sharon Osbourne. She found fame on the family's E! reality series that ran from 2002 to 2005 and also starred her brother Jack. Aimee, Sharon and Ozzy's oldest child, refused to participate in the show. Kelly has since translated reality show fame into a career as a media personality. Aimee Osbourne, 36, has remained out of the spotlight unlike her family members and refused to appear in reality series The Osbournes that made her parents and siblings famous in the US Furniture styles have been around from, at least, the beginning of recorded history. From stone chairs dating back to the Neolithic Period, early ancient civilizations like Egypt and Greece through modern times, differing materials, and different styles have reflected their respective eras. When appraising furniture, one of the significant challenges is determining the style and era to which the piece is attributed. Of course, that isnt the only factor. Styles borrow from one another throughout the history of furniture design, so the task of identifying where, when, and how much is a complex task requiring expertise in the many styles of furniture. Accurately determining these valuation factors can make the difference between a ready to assemble $200 item to a $28 million Art Deco Chair (a record set at auction in 2009). This issue of our Case Of series highlights the complexity. The Challenge Our team was called in to accurately identify and provide a replacement value for what was described as a Modern high grade 72-inches-by-45-inches lacquered extension dining table with water damage. The team was provided with an image only. The picture showed a modern oval pedestal base dining table with a high gloss finish. The table had a burl wood inlay top with ebony race track banding. No supporting documentation was available to establish the maker, manufacturer, date of production, or origin of the dining table. The policyholder listed the value of the dining table as $50,000. Cracking the Case Each member of our furniture team has extensive knowledge of the various styles and periods of furnishings. After sharing the image with our team, a value threshold was determined, and the item was triaged to one of our experts in high-end furniture. As is often the case when documentation is not available, critical examination of the photo, communication with the policyholder, and research into like kind and quality ensues. In this case, the furniture team member reached out to the public adjuster for further information. The response was, no additional details are available. The furniture expert then examined the public adjuster submitted images and discovered upholstered dining chairs as well. The brand name on the chairs was Bombay Company and not of high value. Notably, the Bombay Company brand is not customarily coordinated by interior designers with dining tables in the $50,000 range which gave us the first clue. The furniture expert also noted that the dining tables style was a modern transitional interpretation of Art Deco period furniture. Brands that were popular in the 1980s and 1990s often adopted this interim interpretive design integration to create new furniture fashion. The trend of design integration continues today. The challenge in appraisal presents itself when attempting to identify furniture with high claimed values via images and descriptions only. The description is frequently Art Deco, Mid Century Modern, Mission, and Eames, to name a few. Typically, we find that items described with these terms are likely modern interpretations of period furniture or reproductions made to look like the original. Generally, these pieces are considered in the style of or transitional. The Results The furniture team member researched the current upscale furniture marketplace as well as the vintage market. As these style tables are no longer in vogue, the vintage marketplace values were depressed. The furniture team member then located a new like kind and quality dining table from a high-end furniture vendor. The replacement reflected a transitional interpretive design as well as manufacturing quality. Without provenance or documentation of the insured table and no identifiable attributions to a brand, our expert provided the best current retail replacement value match. This dining table currently retails for $6,475. The $50,000 original stated value was without merit or support; therefore, a fair and reasonable replacement value, based on our expertise, was presented in our report and satisfied the policyholder. RTHK: EU's top diplomat: end naive approach to China The EU's diplomatic chief on Tuesday called for more resources to fight disinformation from China, warning that Europe needed to stop being naive in its dealings with Beijing. EU foreign affairs high representative Josep Borrell, speaking after video talks with the Chinese foreign minister, told European countries they needed to back up their preaching on disinformation with money. He said Foreing Minister Wang Yi had rebuffed his concerns about Beijing's clampdown on freedoms in Hong Kong, reiterating the communist government's lines about boosting security in the SAR. Coronavirus has fanned the flames of a geopolitical information war, with the West accusing Beijing and Moscow of promoting false or misleading narratives about the pandemic which began in China late last year. On Wednesday, Borrell and EU vice-president for values and transparency Vera Jourova are to issue a statement on a strategy to counter disinformation inspired by the coronavirus epidemic. "Foreign actors and certain third countries, in particular Russia and China, have engaged in targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns around Covid-19," it says. A copy of the statement accuses Moscow and Beijing of "seeking to undermine democratic debate and exacerbate social polarisation, and improve their own image in the Covid-19 context." The EU operates a small task force with a website analysing and debunking misleading stories, but it is primarily focused on disinformation emanating from Russia. "For sure we have to allocate more resources in the fight against disinformation," Borrell told reporters. Tuesday's talks with Wang were in part to prepare a video summit between EU Council President Charles Michel and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and Chinese leaders later this month. Borrell said he raised EU concerns about Beijing's plan to impose a national security law on Hong Kong, which Western governments say will curb the SAR's cherished freedoms. But he said there were no concessions from Wang, who restated Beijing's position that the law was needed to ensure security in Hong Kong. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2020-06-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. 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 coronavirus newsletter. To support our nonprofit public service journalism: Donate now. By Elly Yu and Yingjie Wang As Los Angeles County and the rest of the state started sheltering in place in March, Rina Chavarria, 52, knew she couldn't. "As Latinos, we have to work," she said in Spanish. "People have to risk their lives to put food on the table. I also support family in my country, so I have to work." Chavarria, an immigrant from Guatemala, has been helping others put food on the table, too. She works at a meat processing plant, Farmer John, near downtown Los Angeles where she trims pork loin. Chavarria was afraid of getting the virus. She works in close proximity to her colleagues. Even so, she tried her best to maintain her social distance. But on April 21, she started feeling sick. "Around noon, I began having chills, lots of chills, and I wanted to be in the sun... and later in the afternoon, I got home, and I started having a fever," she said. Chavarria went to the doctor the next day. Her test results showed that she had what she feared: COVID-19. A SPIKE IN INFECTIONS AMONG LA COUNTY LATINOS Chavarria is far from alone. As many Angelenos were under stay-at-home orders, disparities in how the virus was affecting people became clear. People of color and in low-income communities were becoming infected at higher rates in L.A. County. Starting around late April, L.A. County saw an especially big surge in infections among Latinos, according to an LAist analysis of data from the L.A. County Department of Public Health. Earlier in the pandemic, the infection rate among L.A. County's Latino population was lower than for other racial and ethnic groups. But in late April, that rate surpassed that of other groups and continues to climb, according to county data. As of last Friday, Latinos were known to make up 51% of the county's known coronavirus cases; they make up 49% of the county's population. Health experts say part of the late jump in Latino infections may be attributed to better testing -- but not all of it. That's because for people like Rina Chavarria, exposure is hard to avoid. David Hayes-Bautista, director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA's School of Medicine, projected this kind of spike would happen as those Angelenos who could self-isolate did so, while others -- particularly low-wage workers of color and those living in dense housing -- could not. "You have these people that were making it possible for the wealthier families to shelter in place," Hayes-Bautista said. "But in doing so, they had to expose themselves to the potential of coronavirus infection." In California, Latinos are overrepresented in the service, production, construction and maintenance industries. They are the group least likely to be able to work at home, followed by African Americans, according to a May survey from UC Berkeley. White workers are the group most likely to be able to work at home. Many essential workers, like grocery store workers and farmworkers, weren't immediately given the right protective equipment, Hayes-Bautista said. Also, among Latinos and in other communities of color, there are risk factors associated with housing: Families living in tight spaces, densely populated neighborhoods, and multi-generational households, where infected people can more easily pass the virus onto their family members. Hayes-Bautista said he'd also expected to see a delay in the reported infection numbers, as those who lacked health insurance or were otherwise reluctant to seek care fell ill. "That's basically what we're seeing is that now they're finally entering the data. So they've been exposed, they've developed COVID, finally, they're getting, seeking [medical] attention," Hayes-Bautista said. He said many working-class Angelenos in essential jobs are less likely to have access to health care, Latinos in particular, and this is a problem as people are exposed. "Even to this day, Latinos are twice as likely as anybody else not to have health insurance," he said. "So it's no wonder now we're starting to see this surge, although it's been building for a while." Community health clinics, like St. John's Well Child and Family Centers have been testing an increasing number of patients for COVID-19, and report seeing Latinos disproportionately sickened by the virus. "A lot of our patients and the community members that we're testing are domestic workers, grocery workers, factory workers, warehouse workers, truck drivers, and they're bearing the brunt of exposure," said Jim Mangia, CEO of St. John's, which has 18 sites around the county. Mangia said that in April, St. John's clinics were testing about 100 people a day. By the end of April, that number was up to 300. More recently, the centers have been testing about 500 people a day. Dr. Don Garcia, medical director of Clinica Romero, whose clinics in Pico-Union and Boyle Heights serve a predominantly Latino clientele, said the positive test rate for the patients his clinics are seeing is much higher than the county as whole. He said 34% of patients at Clinica Romero who have been tested for COVID-19 have tested positive. Countywide, according to health officials, only about 8% of people tested for coronavirus get a positive test result. "I believe that the reason for this is that we are seeing...a very vulnerable population in the sense of their immigration status, their food insecurity, their transportation insecurity," Garcia said. ISOLATING IN A 'PLASTIC BUBBLE' When Rina Chavarria found out she was infected with the coronavirus, her next focus was on how she could keep her family safe. It would not be easy to do: She lives with her husband, and two kids in a one-bedroom apartment in Huntington Park. They share two bunk beds in one room. "That's the worst fear anyone can have, to infect your children, and that something worse might happen to them. My son has bronchial problems, and I was afraid he could become infected," Chavarria said. She bought 25 yards of a clear vinyl plastic, the kind of material used to cover dining tables. She wrapped it around her lower bunk and secured it in place with tape, making sure air couldn't get in easily. She isolated herself there for two weeks. Rina Chavarria wrapped her bunk bed with clear vinyl plastic to protect her family members from becoming infected. (Courtesy Rina Chavarria/UFCW770) "These were very sad weeks, behind plastic, without being able to hug or kiss them - this was the hardest part - away from your family, as if you have some kind of pestilence," she said. Chavarria said her 12-year-old son -- the one she was most worried about -- would ask for "air hugs" while she was inside. She said thankfully, none of her family members got sick. But she's known people in her community -- like her neighbor just three doors down -- who've gotten the virus too. Jose Guzman, a coworker at the meat processing plant, also got sick with coronavirus. Guzman, 61, is still recovering. After getting sick on April 17, he was hospitalized for more than a week. Since being discharged, he's been staying put at home in San Bernardino, where he typically commutes from, and using an oxygen tank. "I still feel that I cannot catch my breath completely. And I feel weak," he said. When the pandemic hit, Guzman was worried about going in to work, too. By his estimate, between 80% to 90% of the people at his workplace are Latino. "Immigrant people and poor people, they have to work. They cannot afford to stay home," he said. "The worst thing is that if you are infected with the virus, you can go home and infect somebody else in your home, your wife, someone in your house," Guzman said. "It's really bad." Guzman's wife ended up getting the virus, too. She was not hospitalized, and is recovering. 'MULTIPLE EPIDEMICS OCCURRING SIMULTANEOUSLY' L.A. County health officials say early on, coronavirus cases were concentrated in more affluent populations, which may have reflected people traveling abroad. Then, as some mapping projects have illustrated, the brunt of the pandemic began shifting to less affluent neighborhoods. "The epidemic is not a single epidemic in Los Angeles County, it's really multiple epidemics that are occurring simultaneously," said Paul Simon, chief science officer at the L.A. County Department of Public Health. "It's multiple outbreaks occurring over different timeframes in different populations." There's also been an outbreak in nursing homes, where the demographics look different than in the general population. But, he said, the epidemic continues to evolve. While Latinos make up a majority of COVID-19 cases in L.A., as of last Friday, they made up 41% of the county's deaths -- a number that's below their 49% share of the population, but has been steadily rising. By contrast, some groups have all along been overrepresented in their share of the county's COVID-19 deaths, African Americans and Pacific Islanders in particular, many of whom share similar exposure risks. Simon said one reason why the overall coronavirus death rate for Latinos may be lower in L.A. county is that Latinos in the county skew on the younger side. "We know that the risk of mortality or death among someone with infection is very much influenced by age," he said. This doesn't mean that Latino youths are spared from infection: In fact, in an analysis of statewide data, the rate at which Latino children were contracting the virus was more than three times that of other groups. But so far, there have not been any known deaths among children and teens under 18 in the county. However, looking at state data broken down by age coupled with race and ethnicity, Latinos ages 18 and over throughout California are overrepresented among those who have died from the coronavirus. L.A. County does not report coronavirus data broken down by age with race and ethnicity, as the state does. But a recent LAist analysis of county data found that for Latinos, the gap between COVID-19 deaths and population share narrows when you count adults only. OVERALL LOOK AT LA COUNTY NUMBERS: Here's a look at longer-term trends in the county. To see more visit our California COVID-19 Tracker and choose L.A. County or any other California county that interests you. These numbers are current as of Monday, June 8: In L.A. County, about half of all COVID-19 deaths have happened in institutional settings, like nursing homes. Simon, with the county health department, said those facilities skew white and Asian, but when looking at coronavirus deaths in the community, Latinos make up the majority. "In fact, 60% of the deaths that occurred in people outside of skilled nursing facilities, you know, 60% of those deaths were Latino. So they're over-represented," he said. Simon said there could also be more deaths among Latinos ahead due to the infection spike, since deaths occur about four to six weeks after infections are reported. He said that while there's now better access to testing in communities around the county, obstacles to testing and medical care remain. Trust is one issue. "We've been told that some groups don't feel comfortable necessarily going to doctors' offices," he said. "In the Latino community, there may be lots of fear. If someone is an immigrant, and undocumented, they may be fearful about seeking testing. And so that's why I think we have to work with community groups to help build trust, and help people access the services that they need." BACK TO WORK For Rina Chavarria, she hopes the worst is now over after recovering from the virus. But she's still worried, because she still has to report to work every day. As with countless other essential workers, she can't work from home. "Unfortunately, we don't get much support and we have to live off of our work," she said," and our families also live from our work." After a month of being out sick, Chavarria went back to work at the meat processing plant two weeks ago. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 14:07:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MANILA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine economy is projected to contract 1.9 percent this year due to the economic fallout triggered by natural disasters and COVID-19, according to an updated World Bank report released Tuesday. However, the Washington-based multilateral lender said that "there are good chances that the country can bounce back in the next two years." The report, titled Braving the New Normal, says the eruption of Taal Volcano and the global outbreak of COVID-19 including the strict containment measures against the pandemic have led to severe disruptions in manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, construction, and trade. The cumulative impact of these events on the economy has been broad-based, steep, and deep, halting investment activity, and leading to the lowest consumption growth in three decades, the report says. "During these difficult times, strengthening the capacity of the health care system to control the outbreak while protecting poor and vulnerable households remains an urgent task for the country," Achim Fock, World Bank Acting Country Director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand, said in a statement. "Similarly, financial support to affected firms, especially small and medium enterprises, to prevent job losses and bankruptcy, can help ensure that the recent shocks do not cause permanent damage to the country's productive capacity and human capital," Fock added. The report says growth forecast for 2020 assumes that the containment measures will gradually ease in the second half of the year, and economic activities return in some sectors of the economy. Given income losses and heightened uncertainty, household consumption and private investment are expected to remain weak, adds the report. However, it says that economic growth prospects and poverty figures are expected to improve in succeeding years driven by a rebound in consumption, a stronger push in public investment, supportive fiscal and monetary policies, and the recovery of global growth. The Philippines' economic growth is projected to return to above 6 percent in 2021 and 7 percent in 2022, the report says. The report also says that the Philippines' strong fundamentals, built over decades of structural reforms, has helped the economy to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. "The Philippines has abundant external reserves and the lowest public external debt in East Asia and the Pacific Region. Also, the country has the highest reserve ratio in the region, indicating that monetary policy has plenty of room to inject liquidity into the economy and help boost growth," the report says. Rong Qian, World Bank senior economist, said the Philippines' digital infrastructure will play a critical role in its economic recovery. "Measures that restrict mobility, regulate physical contact, and limit business activity have forced more businesses and families to use the internet for transactions," Qian said. "This change in consumer behavior and firm operations is expected to continue even after quarantines end. To take full advantage of this situation and help the economy recovering from the losses it has suffered due to the lockdown, the country must ramp up its efforts to accelerate the digitalization of the economy," she added. Among the recommendations of the report are creating an enabling policy environment for a competitive broadband market and enhanced access to affordable internet services throughout the country. Enditem Kristen Doute from Vanderpump Rules is in the middle of a controversy after a former castmate called her out. Faith Stowers recalled the time that Doute, along with Stassi Schroeder, called the cops on her. After fans condemned the Bravo star for doing this, Doute has finally broken her silence. She claims to feel ashamed and embarrassed in her first public statement following the racism allegations. Faith Stowers and Kristen Doute | Desiree Stone/Getty Images / Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images What did Kristen Doute do to Faith Stowers? Stowers recently recalled her time on Vanderpump Rules, which turned out to be a nightmare for her. In an Instagram Live broadcast with Candace Rice from Floribama Shore, Stowers revealed what it was like to be on the Bravo show. The Ex on the Beach alum recounted that the girls were not so nice to her after finding out she was intimate with Jax Taylor. During that time, Taylor cheated on girlfriend Brittany Cartwright with Stowers. Most of the cast eventually forgave Taylor but attacked Stowers for being involved. However, there was another incident that has been the cause of the Schroeder and Doute fallout. Their disdain for Stowers made them call the cops on her thinking they were helping out the police. There was this article on Daily Mail where there was an African American lady, Stowers explained. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. They showcased her, and I guess this woman was robbing people. And they called the cops and said it was me. This is like, a true story. I heard this from actually Stassi during an interview. Doute even shared the article on Twitter back in April 2018 in an apparent attempt to discredit her after moving on to MTV. hey tweeties, doesnt this ex #pumprules thief look familiar? someone put her on mtv & gave her a platform for press. I didnt wanna go there but Im going there. https://t.co/4682a7jyzG kristen doute (@kristendoute) April 26, 2018 It was just funny, because they thought it was me because it was a black woman with a weave, Stowers added. So they just assumed it would be me, and they called the cops on me, she said. It didnt work, so they were upset about that. I get people being upset [about the affair], but I didnt understand why I was getting so much heat and the man wasnt. Kristen Doute reacts after backlash Even though there was a strong social media backlash that included Schroeder losing sponsors, Doute had not commented. After days of silence, the TV personality finally spoke on the incident and addressed the issue. I have been taking some time to really process what Ive been seeing, feeling, and learning, Doute said in a Statement on Instagram. And I need to address something specifically that happened a few years ago with my former castmate, Faith Stowers. Although, my actions were not racially drive, I am now completely aware of how my privilege blinded me from the reality of law enforcements treatment of the black community, and how dangerous my actions could have been to her, she added. It was never my intention to add to the injustice and imbalance. Im ashamed, embarrassed, and incredibly sorry. I will do better. I have to do better. There have been no reports if this will affect Doutes employment on Vanderpump Rules or if any sponsors have dropped her. RELATED: Faith Stowers Recalls Lisa Vanderpump Attack, Wanted Her to Act Like Nene Leakes on Vanderpump Rules As is the case with many of his non-credit courses, Fulton said the sessions are less for people looking to become experts in those subjects and more for passionate folks who want to satisfy their curiosities. He said his webinars typically start by going through central points related to a particular history, and then open the floor for questions and discussion. If you're looking to pick up a little wisdom on racial equality, Mozart Mimms is a good person to listen to. The grandson of a slave, he was born in Allensville, Kentucky, just before the end of the First World War. He went to an all-Black school just outside of Allensville, served four years with the U.S. Army and got a degree in geography from Tennessee State University. "I grew up in segregation," he said. "We had our own schools and our own churches." Alex Lamic/CBC A career with the railroad brought him to Vancouver in 1952, where the money was a little better and the climate was more to his liking, so he put down roots. Today, 68 years later, Mimms lives at Royal City Manor Long Term Care in New Westminster, where he spends much of his time watching the news. Peaceful protests in Vancouver, the United States and across the globe make him hopeful and anxious. They remind him of demonstrations he's seen in the past, some of which brought about reform and others that lost momentum and were forgotten before they could accomplish much. Through them all, racism has remained. He says it's time for that to change. "I'd like to see the Blacks and whites get together but you've always had this division and I think you'll always have it," he said. "You need these people to get together." Mozart Mimms Unity The death of George Floyd, who was killed last month by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minn., sparked daily protests in the United States and across the world. Mimms, who is no fan of the U.S. president, believes Donald Trump is intentionally using divisive language to keep races apart. He fears people may be too angry to unify. "I don't know what's going to happen now," Mimms said. "I hope it gets better, but I don't know. II seems to be getting worse." For this movement to bring about the change he'd like to see, Mimms believes all races need to embrace cultures they may not be familiar with, much like he did when he moved to Canada. Story continues "I've seen good times and I've seen bad times," he said."What can I do now? Just live the best life you can." Watch: Mozart Mimms gives his thoughts on racial equality, protests and life. CBC Vancouver's Impact Team investigates and reports on stories that impact people in their local community and strives to hold individuals, institutions and organizations to account. If you have a story for us, email impact@cbc.ca. If you have a COVID-19-related story we should pursue that affects British Columbians, please email us at impact@cbc.ca. A stunning fish with huge lips and intricately patterned scales has been caught on camera by a marine photographer. In the eye-catching snaps, the fishs impressive size and unique features are perfectly showcased against the rich blue of the Indonesian ocean. Adventurous photographer Gary Brennand, 54, photographed the Napoleon wrasse fish while diving near the coast of Bali, Indonesia. Napoleon wrasse, scientific name Cheilinus undulatus, is the largest member of the Labridae family of carnivorous fish. (Caters News) I think how lucky I am to be there, and how amazing these creatures are, Gary, from Perth in Western Australia, told Caters News. I then try and position myself to how I think the picture will show the best parts of the fish and also show the character of the animal, he continued, explaining his approach to underwater photography. Gary said that most things are safe underwater if one doesnt try to touch or startle them. A bit like how a stranger would be if you rushed into their house instead of ringing the doorbell, he said. Photographer Gary Brennand takes a picture of himself with the Napoleon wrasse while diving near the coast of Bali, Indonesia. (Caters News) The diver and marine photographer asserted that he has never been attacked by a marine animal, not even by a shark. The Napoleon wrasse fish, otherwise known as the humphead wrassescientific name Cheilinus undulatusis the largest member of the Labridae family of carnivorous fish. According to Dive the World, the exquisitely patterned Napoleon wrasse received its moniker because of the hump over its head that resembles the bicorne hat made popular by Napoleon Bonaparte. Male fish may develop a black stripe along the sides of the body in addition to their electric-blue-green pattern; females are red-orange in color. Allegedly, Napoleon wrasse fish in more protected areas actively seek out tactile interaction and have even been known to bond with individual scuba divers. The fishs prime habitat is the reefs of the Indo-Pacific, says the IUCN, but the species is sadly vulnerable to overfishing. The Napoleon wrasse, which can live up to 30 years and grow up to 6 feet in length, has long been exploited for the fish export trade in Southeast Asia for its coveted flavor, texture, and monetary value. Controversially, the hard-to-catch juvenile Napoleon wrasse are often caught using cyanide; this fishing method is heavily criticized among marine conservationists as it is known to kill living coral. The beautiful Napoleon wrasse is currently listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Its enduring survival relies upon marine conservation efforts. Marine photographer Gary Brennands amazing photographs of the hump-headed fish with the perfect pout are helping remind conscientious wildlife lovers of the importance of protecting the oceans most vulnerable creatures. Gary adores the process of scouting for subjects and setting up a shot; however, he admitted that underwater action shots can be challenging to get right. Capturing a photograph of a marine animal displaying its natural behavior, he said, involves undertaking preliminary research in order to understand the creature and how best to interact with it. To get behavior shots I would study the actions of the fish or turtle over quite a number of dives, Gary told Caters, this lets me predict when they would do a certain action and allows me to get into position to capture it. Garys favorite marine animal to photograph is the turtle. The photographer praised them for being so chilled out and very calming to be around. Gary even went viral for a series of amusing underwater selfies in 2014, telling the Daily Mail, Most think its pretty cool Im able to take pictures with such an array of animals. Beside the Napoleon wrasse, the diver has amassed photographs of himself with barracuda, whale sharks, lion fish, turtles, potato cod, and jellyfish. Ive even had my teeth cleaned by cleaner shrimp, Gary said. PHOENIX A young black man who claims he was hit with rubber bullets and wrestled to the ground in January by four white Phoenix police officers in a case of mistaken identity said Monday that the encounter did more than long-term physical damage. Dion Humphrey, 19, spoke with reporters after his lawyers announced had filed a notice of claim for a lawsuit that will seek $11.5 million in damages. The notice is a required precursor to a lawsuit involving a municipality and the claim names the city of Phoenix, its police department and officers. I feel towards the police that Im not safe, Humphrey said. Every single time I see them, my heart will start to race and I will start to feel like Im panicking. Humphrey was hit with the rubber bullets in his chest near his heart and in his groin after he dropped his sisters off at their school and was mistaken for a half-brother wanted by authorities, the claim said. He was hospitalized for more than 20 days and will need heart surgery, said the claim, which accuses the officers of excessive use of force, intentional infliction of emotional distress and gross negligence. I personally believe if he wasnt African American, this would not have happened to him, said Humphreys father, William. He has a staggered walk. They had to have seen hes not a threat. Humphrey on Jan. 10 was walking his sisters to school when he said he was frightened by a loud noise from a vehicle and took off running. The noise was a flash grenade fired by officers who identified him as the suspect they were looking for. Humphrey said officers hit him with the rubber bullets and wrestled him to the ground. He fell to the floor clutching his stomach. I told them that I couldnt breathe and I told them I needed help. But then they told me I had the right to remain silent, Humphrey said. He was taken in for questioning and then driven home, police said. The claim alleges Humphrey was held for at least four hours without receiving any medical care. Police at the time confirmed the officers used a flash grenade because they thought they were dealing with an armed suspect who had previously been violent. Humphrey also didnt comply with initial commands before running, a police spokesman said. The police mistook Humphrey for an older half-brother, one of four suspects in the robbery and shooting of a 66-year-old man, according to William Humphrey. William Humphrey has said that the two siblings look nothing alike. Dion Humphrey weighs 120 pounds (54 kilograms) and appears pre-pubescent, the claim said. The half-brother, Khalil Thornton, has facial hair and tattoos. Like many police departments across the U.S., Phoenix police have been the target of angry protests of police brutality, specifically toward unarmed black people. The department is already facing outrage over the May 25 death of Dion Johnson, a black man fatally shot by an Arizona state trooper after being found passed out in his car. Johnson died the same day as George Floyd, whose killing at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer ignited the ongoing protests. Attorneys said Humphrey is asking for a settlement of $10 million, along with $1.5 million for his father, to cover past and future medical expenses and mental anguish. Jarret Maupin, a local activist working with the family, said he wants a review of the case by county prosecutors and for the officers to be fired. Maupin also complained that no police report has been made public about the incident involving Humphrey, saying it is an example of how Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams should be more transparent about her departments actions. Williams, Maupin noted, is black and has talked about having two black sons. Well, heres a black son and hes completely vulnerable and innocent, Maupin said. Nickolas Valenzuela, a spokesman for Phoenixs city government, said the city does not comment on pending litigation. Its important to scale back strategically, if necessary, without getting cut off entirely. This helps the organization avoid losing its momentum with developing talent and staying prepared to meet its future needs. Holly Bowers, director of training and development at Willmeng Construction. Talent development functions have room to improve their strategic alignment to business goals, according to a new report by the Association for Talent Development. Strategic Alignment: Orchestrating Organizational Success, sponsored by MHS Talent Development, shows that only 42 percent of respondents indicated their organizations talent development and business strategies were aligned to a high or very high extent. Strategic alignment starts with defining what counts, Kimberly Currier, senior director for talent development for Americas at AECOM, said in the report. We focus on knowing what business strategies are priorities for the year and, from there, understanding what the business needs its people to do to carry out those strategies. The head of human resources is most frequently involved in determining talent development strategy, according to 72 percent of the reports respondents. Next are business unit leaders (60 percent), followed by the head of talent development (57 percent). Thirty-nine percent of organizations involve the chief executive officer in creating the talent development strategy. Some other key takeaways from the report include: Fifty-six percent of organizations report on talent developments performance to their boards of directors, and 78 percent do so during meetings of their senior leader or executive teams. Some best practices associated with having high levels of alignment between business and talent development include having talent development programs that reflect official organizational values, using a centralized reporting structure for talent development, having business leaders that vocalize their support for talent development, and enabling talent development leaders to influence business strategy. Some of the strategic goals of the organization and talent development have been scaled back during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Holly Bowers, director of training and development at Willmeng Construction, noted in the report that doing away with goals or strategies that surround those goals can be detrimental to the organization. During difficult times for an organization, Its important to scale back strategically, if necessary, without getting cut off entirely, Bowers explained in the report. This helps the organization avoid losing its momentum with developing talent and staying prepared to meet its future needs. Otherwise, you start over from square one. About ATD The Association for Talent Development (ATD) is the worlds largest professional membership organization supporting those who develop the knowledge and skills of employees, improve performance, and help to achieve results for the organizations they serve. Established in 1943, the association was previously known as the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). ATDs members come from more than 120 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD supports talent development professionals who gather locally in volunteer-led U.S. chapters and international member networks and with international strategic partners. For more information, visit td.org. Dhaka, June 9 (IANS) The Bangladesh government has decided to allow international flight operations from late June after over two months of suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic. Bangladesh's international air connectivity will resume in the third week of the month, Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary Md Mohibul Haque told bdnews24 on Monday. "We are ready to fly international routes. But the date of resumption will be announced later," Md Mofidur Rahman, the chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, said. The first flights will operate on London and Qatar routes. "Biman Bangladesh Airlines will fly to London. British Airways will be able to use the route if they want and Qatar Airways can do the same as well. "Biman Bangladesh Airlines will fly to London. British Airways will be able to use the route if they want and Qatar Airways can do the same as well," he told bdnews24. The coronavirus pandemic forced countries across the world to cut off international air connectivity. Bangladesh followed suit and barred incoming flights from all European countries, except the UK, on March 16 as the government enforced a shutdown to limit the spread of the infection. After stretching the prohibition several times since, Bangladesh resumed flights on domestic routes on Jun 1 and continued flights to and from China only as CAAB extended suspension on all other international flights until June 15. However, chartered flights, cargo flights, air ambulances and emergency landings were not affected by this ban. --IANS ksk/ The latest news on the protests over the death of George Floyd Tuesday. (This file will be updated throughout the day). 10:30 p.m. Cops is no longer. The Paramount Network confirmed Tuesday that it had removed the reality show from its schedule, as protests across the U.S. call for police reform. Late last month, the network had temporarily cut the show from its schedule. Cops is not on the Paramount Network, and we dont have any current or future plans for it to return, a spokeswoman for the network said. Spike TV, the predecessor to the Paramount Network, picked up Cops in 2013 after the show was cancelled by Fox, its network home for 25 years. The shows 33rd season was expected to premiere on Paramount on June 15. Read the full story here. 9:15 p.m. LOS ANGELES A Los Angeles police officer has been charged with assault for punching an unarmed trespassing suspect more than a dozen times in an encounter caught on video by a bystander, prosecutors said Tuesday. Officer Frank Hernandez was charged with assault under colour of authority. Video from a bystander and cameras worn by officers shows Hernandez pummeling the man on April 27 as he stood with his hands behind his back, as if he was going to be handcuffed. Read the full story here. 7:20 p.m. PEARLAND, Texas George Floyds body is on the final leg of a journey that has crossed the U.S., allowing mourners to pay tribute and share in his legacy. A horse-drawn carriage carried his body into a cemetery in the Houston suburb of Pearland on Tuesday. Two white horses pulled it, and the gold-colored casket could be seen inside the carriage. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo was among people at the head of the procession, leading it into the cemetery on foot. Cars and buses followed. Many of the vehicles honked their horns as they entered. Hundreds of people had been gathered near the cemetery for hours awaiting the arrival. A brass band played as the casket was taken inside a mausoleum where Floyd will be buried in a private service for family. FORT WORTH, Texas Officials in two North Texas counties have voted to remove Confederate monuments from courthouse grounds. Commissioners of Tarrant and Denton counties voted Tuesday to remove the monuments, which were erected last century by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Tarrant commissioners voted 4-0 with one abstention for removal. Commissioner Roy Brooks proposed the removal, saying he would argue that its not a memorial at all, rather that it was erected in 1953 as a reminder to the Black citizens of this county and of this state that the rules of Jim Crow were still in effect. Commissioners of both counties said their actions were taken to promote racial harmony amid protests of the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer. PORTLAND, Ore. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said Tuesday he will make policing changes that include ending the use of patrol officers on public transit and redirecting $7 million from the police budget to other areas. Wheeler said in a news conference he also plans to dissolve the police gun violence reduction unit, ban chokeholds and reform the use of consent searches in traffic stops. He said bold action is necessary in the wake of nationwide protests against the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. Wheeler said officers will be pulled from public transit by the end of the year and a more trusted police accountability panel will be created. The current Independent Police Review committee is under the city auditors office. 6:00 p.m. BRUSSELS, Belgium A 150-year-old statue of King Leopold II of Belgium, whose forces seized Congo in the late 19th century and ran an exploitative regime that led to the death of millions, was removed from a public square in Antwerp on Tuesday, as protests against racism continued around the world. It was a striking moment for a country that has struggled, at times, to reckon with one of the most sordid eras in the history of European colonialism. For decades, many Belgians were taught that the country had brought civilization to the African region, and some have defended Leopold as a foundational figure. Streets and parks are named after him, and statues of the king can be found throughout the country. Yet there has been growing pressure in recent years, particularly from younger Belgians, to confront the countrys legacy in central Africa a movement bolstered by worldwide protests prompted by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died in the custody of the Minneapolis police. Read the full story here. 5:15 p.m. HOUSTON The funeral of George Floyd has ended, and his casket is on its way to a Texas cemetery for burial. After emotional tributes from Floyds family, a song from Ne-Yo, a recorded message from Joe Biden and a eulogy from the Rev. Al Sharpton, Floyds golden casket was carried on the shoulders of pall bearers out of Fountain of Praise church in Houston. Many in the family section of the church held out their hands in the direction of the casket as it departed, as the hymn I Shall Wear a Crown rang through the church. 4:30 p.m. PEARLAND, TexasPeople are being allowed to walk up to the mausoleum in suburban Houston where George Floyds body is set to be entombed. Some people took photos Tuesday as they got a closer look at the site in the cemetery in Pearland, Texas. Floyds funeral was ongoing at a church in Houston, where he lived most of his life. A private service at the cemetery was set to be held for Floyds family after his casket arrives. Inside the mausoleum, a small podium was set up along with 24 chairs in three rows. Outside the mausoleum in the back, another 42 chairs were set up underneath a tent. 4 p.m. HOUSTONPastor Steve Wells told mourners at George Floyds funeral that they have awakened the conscience of a nation. Wells thanked the audience at the predominantly black Fountain of Praise church in Houston on Tuesday for inviting him, a white speaker, to address them. He drew laughs and shouts when he said they might have to be forgiven for leaving white people off the program and saying, youve been silent long enough, why not be silent one more day? Wells drew a standing ovation when he said that predominantly white churches like his must act now, that their conscience has been stirred, to end the racism he says killed Floyd. Another pastor, Ralph Douglas West Sr., compared Floyd to Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama, saying all three were born in obscurity but went on to change the world. ROMEDozens of young Catholics gathered at nightfall on a small island in the Tiber River in Rome to pray for peaceful coexistence in the United States. Then, clutching lit candles, participants knelt on one knee in the tiny cobblestone square outside St. Bartholomews Basilica during several minutes of silence Tuesday evening as George Floyds funeral was taking place in Houston. The brief commemoration, called to stress the need to combat all forms of racism, social discrimination and violence, was organized by Young People for Peace. The youth movement has ties to a Rome-based Catholic organization with close relations with the Vatican. 3:33 p.m. HOUSTONGeorge Floyd was lovingly remembered Tuesday as Big Floyd a gentle giant, a father and brother, athlete and mentor, and now a force for change at a funeral for the black man whose death has sparked a global reckoning over police brutality and racial prejudice. Hundreds of mourners wearing masks against the coronavirus packed a Houston church a little more than two weeks after Floyd was pinned to the pavement by a white Minneapolis police officer who put a knee on his neck for what prosecutors said was 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Cellphone video of the encounter, including Floyds pleas of I cant breathe, ignited protests and scattered violence across the U.S. and around the world, turning the 46-year-old Floyd a man who in life was little known beyond the public housing project where he was raised in Houstons Third Ward into a worldwide symbol of injustice. Third Ward, Cuney Homes, thats where he was born at, Floyds brother, Rodney, told mourners. But everybody is going to remember him around the world. He is going to change the world. The Rev. William Lawson, who once marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said of Floyd: Out of his death has come a movement, a worldwide movement. But that movement is not going to stop after two weeks, three weeks, a month. That movement is going to change the world. Following the funeral, Floyds body was to be taken by horse-drawn carriage to a cemetery in suburban Pearland, where he was to be laid to rest next to his mother. George Floyd was not expendable. This is why were here, Democratic Rep. Al Green of Houston told the crowd at the Fountain of Praise church. His crime was that he was born black. That was his only crime. George Floyd deserved the dignity and respect that we accord all people just because they are children of a common God. No child should have to ask questions that too many black children have had to ask for generations: Why? former Vice-President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, said in a video eulogy played at the service. Now is the time for racial justice. That is the answer we must give to our children when they ask why. 3:25 p.m. HOUSTONGrammy-winning singer Ne-Yo said George Floyds death was a sacrifice that changed the world before performing during his memorial service. Ne-Yo shed tears on Tuesday while singing a rendition of G.C. Camerons Its So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday. The singer paused on a few occasions to collect himself during his performance. Fifty states are protesting at the same time, he said. This man changed the world. He changed the world for the better. I would like to personally thank George Floyd for his sacrifice, so that my kids could be all right later on. I appreciate the sacrifice. I genuinely do. HOUSTONThe family of George Floyd gave him tearful tributes and made impassioned demands for justice at his funeral. The group of family members and close friends gathered around the podium at Fountain of Praise church in Houston and stepped up one at a time to talk about their lost loved one. Aunt Kathleen McGee laughed as she remembered the child family knew as Perry Jr., calling him a pesky little rascal, but we loved him. Sister LaTonya Floyd was almost too overwhelmed to talk, wiping away tears and lowering her face mask to say Im going to miss my brother a whole lot and I love you. And I thank God for giving me my own personal Superman. Brooke Williams, a niece of Floyd, called for change to what she called a corrupt and broken system. Two brothers and a close friend also spoke to mourn Floyd, whose death last month after a Minneapolis police officer put his knee on his neck for over eight minutes has inspired worldwide protests. 3:16 p.m. Three Democratic lawmakers are asking federal watchdogs to investigate whether U.S. Park Police broke any laws in routing demonstrators from the square in front of the White House last week. The request was made in a letter released Tuesday to the Interior Department inspector general, Mark Lee Greenblatt. Officials were in the early stages of reviewing the request, said IG spokeswoman Nancy DiPaolo. Park Police and other security forces lobbed chemical agents and punched and clubbed demonstrators and journalists in clearing Lafayette Square near the White House on June 1, as protests surged around the country following the killing of George Floyd in police custody. Trump administration officials have denied federal forces were making way for President Donald Trump to stage photos nearby. The request for an investigation was made by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raul Grijalva of Arizona, and Committee Vice Chair Rep. Debra Haaland of New Mexico. The First Amendment rights to free speech, peaceful assembly, and free press are the building blocks of all other rights, the three lawmakers said. Any actions by the Park Police to muzzle these rights is an affront to all Americans and should be swiftly addressed. The Park Police is a small force under Interiors National Park Service that is charged with law enforcement at Lafayette Square in front of the White House, at the Statue of Liberty in New York, and at a small number of other heavily visited federal sites. Spokespeople for the park service and the Interior Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told Grijalva in a letter last week that the Park Police had been in a state of siege from violent attacks in the square. Democratic lawmakers say witness and journalist accounts and photos and videos made public so far dont support allegations of that scale of protester violence. 3:15 p.m. BIRMINGHAM, Ala.A majority black county known as a birthplace of African American empowerment is covering up a Confederate memorial erected more than a century ago and looking for ways to remove it permanently, a government leader said Tuesday. Workers used a tarpaulin and ropes to cover up the square base of a 111-year-old statue because it was recently spray painted with obscenities, Macon County Commission Chairman Louis Maxwell said in an interview. Unable to do more because of high winds, crews will look at covering the statue itself later, he said. The east Alabama county, which is more than 80% black, also is researching what will be needed to remove the statue from its base and relocate it elsewhere, perhaps to a nearby heritage museum, Maxwell said. Its part of the history of the county whether you like it or not, and we want to preserve it, Maxwell said. Confederate monuments around the country have fallen in recent years amid contentious debate over whether they are proud monuments to Southern heritage or hated symbols of racism and past slavery. The debate has escalated anew in the nationwide protests over police misconduct and racism. Erected by an Old South heritage group, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the monument was dedicated in 1909 during the era of legally entrenched white supremacy in the South. It was tagged with anti-Ku Klux Klan graffiti over the weekend amid protests against the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. 3:12 p.m. WASHINGTONRepublican Sen. Tim Scott proposes a national database of police officer-involved shootings. Sen. Rand Paul wants to stop sending surplus U.S. military equipment to local law enforcement. And GOP Sen. Mitt Romney is trying to assemble a bipartisan package of bills in response to police violence. Despite President Donald Trumps law and order approach to demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, Republicans in Congress are quickly, if quietly, trying to craft legislation to change police practices and accountability following the deaths of black Americans at the hands of law enforcement. GOP senators, who risk losing control of the chamber in this falls election, are distancing themselves from the tone and substance of Trumps response as they step gingerly into a topic many have long avoided as the Black Lives Matter movement gains support. I think we should all be optimistic right now, Scott, the only black GOP senator, told reporters at the Capitol. We have no reason not to be. The burst of legislative activity in the Republican ranks GOP leadership named Scott to lead a working group is an abrupt turnaround after years of black deaths with law enforcement. It comes as Trump lashes out at activists who want to defund the police, and Democrats, powered by the Congressional Black Caucus, unveiled the most sweeping police overhaul in years, with House passage expected. Lawmakers are watching as demonstrations erupt in all corners of the country, from the biggest cities to the smallest towns, and acknowledging the arrival of a mass movement for law enforcement changes as politically impossible to ignore. 3:04 p.m. HOUSTONCongresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee says George Floyds death ignited a plethora of protests around the world involving people of different races. Lee said during Floyds memorial service on Tuesday that his death helped shine a light on police brutality against unarmed black men and women. I want to acknowledge those young marchers in the streets, she said. Many of them could not be in this place. They are black and brown, they are Asian. They are white. They are protesting and marching. And Im saying as a momma, I hear your cry. That is what George Floyd wanted us to know. Lee said she is unable to remove the Floyds last words I cant breathe from her head. But the congresswoman said his death served a purpose. His assignment turned into a purpose, she said. And that purpose was heard around the world. There are people rising up that will never sit down until you get justice. PEARLAND, TexasHundreds of people have lined up in the Texas heat along a road in suburban Houston that leads to the cemetery where George Floyd will be buried. Many arrived hours ahead of time in Pearland, Texas, to get a spot Tuesday as they waited for the procession to come by after Floyds funeral ends at a church in Houston. There was no shade along the procession route in Pearland and a heat advisory was issued for the area with temperatures in the 90s. Marcus Brooks and a group of friends and graduates of Jack Yates High School, where Floyd graduated, set up a tent by the grassy side of the road. The 47-year-old Brooks said he had the tent specially created in crimson and gold, the colours of Yates High School, where Floyd played tight end. Past and present members of the football team signed the tent. Were out here for a purpose, Brooks said. That purpose is because first of all hes our brother. Second, we want to see change. I dont want to see any black man, any man, but most definitely not a black man sitting on the ground in the hands of bad police. 2:56 p.m. SEATTLEA Black Lives Matter group sued the Seattle Police Department Tuesday to halt the violent tactics it has used to break up largely peaceful protests in recent days. Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County filed the emergency lawsuit in U.S. District Court. These daily demonstrations are fuelled by people from all over the city who demand that police stop using excessive force against Black people, and they demand that Seattle dismantle its racist systems of oppression, Livio De La Cruz, board member of Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County, said in a written statement. It is unacceptable that the Seattle Police Department would then respond to these demonstrations with more excessive force, including using tear gas and flashbang grenades. Officers have used tear gas, pepper spray and other less-lethal weapons against crowds that have demonstrated against racism and police brutality following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best have apologized to peaceful protesters who were subjected to chemical weapons, but even after they promised a 30-day ban on using CS gas, one type of tear gas, last Friday, officers used it again two nights later, saying unruly demonstrators were encroaching on their position. Under pressure from city councillors, protesters and dozens of other elected leaders who have demanded that officers dial back their tactics, the police department on Monday removed barricades near its East Precinct building in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood, where protesters and riot squads had faced off nightly. Protesters were allowed to march and demonstrate in front of the building, and the night remained peaceful. The lawsuit alleged that the use of chemical agents and less-lethal projectiles police violated the Fourth Amendments protections against excessive force as well as the First Amendments free speech protections. It also said the use of tear gas and pepper spray was especially reckless during a respiratory pandemic and could increase risks related to COVID-19. On an almost nightly basis, the SPD has indiscriminately used excessive force against protesters, legal observers, journalists, and medical personnel. the lawsuit states. 2:32 p.m. HOUSTONHouston Mayor Sylvester Turner has announced that he will sign an executive order that bans chokeholds in the city. Turners announcement Tuesday came during the funeral for George Floyd at a church in Houston, the city where he lived most of his life. In this city, you have to give a warning before you shoot, Turner said. In this city you have a duty to intervene. The sheriff of Harris County, which includes Houston, earlier in the day said his office will immediately implement a new duty to report policy for deputies and increase audits of use of tasers and body cameras. Sheriff Ed Gonzales announced the directives in a series of tweets. Gonzalez said his office already prohibits the use of chokeholds 2:14 p.m. HOUSTONJoe Biden called for racial justice in a message to mourners at the funeral of George Floyd. The former vice-president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee spoke via video at Floyds funeral on Tuesday, a day after he met privately with Floyds family. Biden said in his recorded remarks that when we get justice for George Floyd we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America, adding a message to Floyds daughter by saying, Then, Gianna, your daddy will have changed the world. More than 500 mourners gathered for the service at Fountain of Praise church in Houston, where Floyd was raised. PARISThousands of people gathered Tuesday on Republic Plaza in Paris to pay tribute to George Floyd and show solidarity toward American protesters. Demonstrators observed 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence in homage to Floyd, whose funeral was being held Tuesday in Houston. Most knelt in the black mans honour. French singer Camelia Jordana and others sang a poignant a cappella version of the classic civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome. Demonstrators denounced brutality and racism within the police force, waving a variety of banners and signs, including Black Lives Matter I cant breathe and Racism kills. French authorities allowed the event to take place despite a ban on public gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic. Similar gatherings were organized Tuesday in other French cities. 2:06 p.m. ATLANTATwo Atlanta police officers who were fired after video showed them using stun guns on two college students pulled from a car intraffic during a large protest against police brutality are looking to get their jobs back. Former Investigators Mark Gardner and Ivory Streeter sued Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Police Chief Erika Shields on Monday. The lawsuit alleges that the officers were fired in violation of the citys code, without investigation, proper notice or a pre-disciplinary hearing. Bottoms and Shields have said they reviewed body camera footage from the May 30 incident and decided to immediately fire the officers and place three others on desk duty. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard brought criminal charges on June 2 against Gardner, Streeter and four other officers involved in the incident. Gardner and Streeter are charged with aggravated assault Gardner for using a Taser against 20-year-old Taniyah Pilgrim and Streeter for using a Taser against 22-year-old Messiah Young according to warrants. Pilgrim and Young, who are dating, are students at different historically black colleges near downtown Atlanta. Pilgrim was released the night of the incident with no charges. Young was arrested and charged with eluding police, but the mayor has said she ordered the charges dropped. Shields has since questioned the timing and appropriateness of the charges against the officers. In their lawsuit, the fired officers seek reinstatement to their jobs, as well as back pay and benefits. The suit states that the officers were denied due process, and that the other officers who engaged in substantially similar conduct were not dismissed. 1:55 p.m. HOUSTONAs they gathered to lay George Floyd to rest Tuesday morning, his extended family from across the country said they hoped the movement that started in the wake of his death would continue. The Rev. Al Sharpton is expected to deliver the eulogy for Floyd, 46. Inside the sanctuary of the church on the southwest side of Houston where the choir was preparing for the service, seats were already reserved for celebrities, including politicians, singers, pro football players and Hollywood stars. Enormous flower hearts and roses lined the halls. This is the biggest civil rights movement of our time, said Floyds uncle, Selwyn Jones, as he prepared for the last of three services held over the last few days to honour his nephews life. We have to figure out a way to make a stand. Floyds brothers Rodney and Philonise P.J. Floyd appeared overnight with the familys attorney, Benjamin Crump, at a candlelight vigil on the football fields of Yates High School, where Floyd once played. We demand equal justice now for George Floyd! Crump shouted to applause and cheers from the crowd of several hundred, calling the nearly nine-minute bystander video of Floyd being restrained a documentary where he narrated his death. Were going to stop everybody from being afraid of police, P.J. Floyd said as Houston police officers, including Chief Art Acevedo, milled with the crowd, shaking hands. Whats his name? Floyd shouted, and the crowd roared back: George Floyd! Were coming together around the world to fight police brutality, Rodney Floyd told the gathering. Were tired of being treated like a third of a human being. Since his nephews death last month at the hands of Minneapolis police, Jones, 54, has been appearing at protests near his home in South Dakota. This month, he travelled to attend each of his nephews services: first in Minneapolis, then near where Floyd was born in Raeford, N.C., and now in Houston, where he was raised. Jones and other relatives said they plan to keep working after the funeral not only to prosecute the four police officers charged in Floyds death May 25, but also to address police brutality and racism nationwide. 1:54 p.m. ATLANTAU.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy are open to discussing renaming 10 military installations that honour Confederate figures, including Forts Benning and Gordon in Georgia, the U.S. army said Tuesday. The Army did not say what prompted their position, which was first reported by Politico. But the move follows days of protests that have rocked the nation since the violent deaths of ?unarmed black men in Minneapolis and southeast Georgia, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, ?as well as, Breonna Taylor, a black woman in Louisville, Kentucky, killed in her home by officers executing a no-knock warrant. The Armys statement also came just days after the U.S. Marine Corps announced a ban on public displays of Confederate battle flags at Marine installations, an order that also applies to mugs, posters and bumper stickers. In addition to Forts Benning and Gordon, eight other bases are named after Confederate officers: Fort Bragg in North Carolina; Forts Pickett, A.P. Hill and Lee in Virginia; Fort Polk and Camp Beauregard in Louisiana; Fort Hood in Texas; and Fort Rucker in Alabama. 1:53 p.m. UNITED NATIONSThe United Nations secretary-general is urging a global fight against racism and discrimination following the murderous act of police brutality against George Floyd that has led to widespread protests in the United States and cities around the world. Antonio Guterres said in a letter to staff the position of the United Nations on racism is crystal clear: this scourge violates the United Nations Charter and debases our core values. Guterres said the primacy of reason, tolerance, mutual respect in the world is now being called dramatically into question by nationalism, irrationality, populism, xenophobia, racism, white supremacism, and different forms of neo-Nazism. He said a central problem is not only police brutality but the difficulty of many authorities to deal with diversity, starting with so-called profiling. The secretary-general called for all police forces to be fully trained on human rights, adding that many times police brutality is the expression of the frustrations of the police officers themselves, as well as of the lack of adequate psychosocial support to them. MIAMIThe chief prosecutor in Miami-Dade County says curfew violation charges will not be pursued against most people involved in recent protests over police brutality against African Americans. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement Tuesday that she saw little value in prosecuting curfew violations. The charge is a misdemeanour that typically would not involve any jail sentence. There have been dozens of such arrests in protests that began after George Floyd, a black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis. Most Miami-area protests have been peaceful, but there were over 100 curfew violation arrests. NAIROBI, KenyaDozens of protesters gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Kenyas capital to protest the killing of George Floyd and police violence in the U.S. and Kenya. Others outside Parliament presented mock coffins to symbolize Kenyans killed by police. Kenyas Independent Policing Oversight Authority this month said 15 deaths have been directly linked to police actions during COVID-19 curfew enforcement and it is investigating another six. Hadija Hussein says her 13-year-old son was shot dead while standing on the familys balcony in March as police enforced the curfew. Police at first said he was hit by a stray bullet. Hussein says her sons death was very similar to Floyds. 1:26 p.m. Londons mayor announced Tuesday that more statues of imperialist figures could be removed from Britains streets after protesters knocked down the monument to a slave trader, as the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis continued to spark protests and drive change around the world. On the day Floyd was being buried in his hometown of Houston, Texas, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was setting up a commission to ensure the British capitals monuments reflected its diversity. It will review statues, murals, street art, street names and other memorials and consider which legacies should be celebrated, the mayors office said. It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been wilfully ignored, Khan said. International protests of racial injustice and police violence that Floyds May 25 death spurred show no sign of abating. A white police officer who pressed a knee on Floyds neck for more than eight minutes has been charged with murder. In Britain, where more than 200 demonstrations have been held so far, people gathered in Londons Parliament Square for a vigil timed to coincide with Floyds funeral. Elsewhere in England, demonstrators gathered to demand the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a Victorian imperialist in southern Africa who made a fortune from mines and endowed Oxford Universitys Rhodes scholarships. Several hundred supporters of the Rhodes Must Fall group chanted Take it down before holding a silent sit-down vigil in the street to memorialize Floyd. 1:23 p.m. NEW YORKA New York City police officer caught on video violently shoving a woman to the ground during a Brooklyn protest over George Floyds death was charged Tuesday with assault. Officer Vincent DAndraia, 28, was released on his own recognizance after a video arraignment and ordered to stay away from protester Dounya Zayer, who was hospitalized after hitting her head on the pavement in the May 29 altercation. She said she suffered a concussion and a seizure. DAndraia is also charged with criminal mischief, harassment and menacing. His lawyer pleaded not guilty on his behalf. DAndraia did not say anything as he appeared on video from behind bars in a suit and protective face mask because of the coronavirus pandemic. He is due back in court in October. District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement announcing the charges that he cannot tolerate the use of excessive force against anyone exercising their constitutional right to protest, adding he was deeply troubled by this unnecessary assault. The Police Department suspended DAndraia last week without pay. The officer, who had been assigned to Brooklyns 73rd Precinct, was also stripped of his weapons at that time, his lawyer, Stephen Worth said. DAndraia is the first New York City police officer to face criminal charges stemming from alleged misconduct exhibited during the days of unrest that have roiled the city in the wake of Floyds death in Minneapolis and police brutality against people of colour. 1:10 p.m. HOUSTONHundreds of mourners packed a Houston church Tuesday for the funeral of George Floyd. So much for social distancing today, the Rev. Remus Wright told mourners, gently but firmly instructing those attending to don face masks because of the coronavirus. Many people fanned themselves with paper fans bearing an image of Floyd. Dozens of Floyds family members, most dressed in white, were led into the sanctuary by the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist. They were joined by rapper Trae tha Truth, who helped organize a march last week in Houston attended by 60,000 people. Floyd often spoke about being world famous one day and he has managed to make that happen in his death, the funeral program said. The funeral came a day after about 6,000 people attended a public memorial, also in Houston, waiting for hours under a baking sun to pay their respects to Floyd, whose body lay in an open gold-coloured casket. 12:36 p.m. HOUSTON Dozens of George Floyds family members, most dressed in white, were led into the Fountain of Praise church by the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist for Floyds funeral. They were joined by rapper Trae tha Truth, who helped organize a march last week in Houston attended by 60,000 people. The mourners inside the church included Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green, both Democrats from the Houston area, and the citys police chief, Art Acevedo. Floyd, a bouncer who had lost his job because of the coronavirus outbreak, was seized by police after being accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. Four Minneapolis officers were arrested in his death: Derek Chauvin, 44, was charged with second-degree murder. J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were charged with aiding and abetting. All four could get up to 40 years in prison. Some of the mostly peaceful demonstrations that erupted after Floyds death were marked by bursts of arson, assaults, vandalism and smash-and-grab raids on businesses, with more than 10,000 people arrested. But protests in recent days have been overwhelmingly peaceful. 12:26 p.m. HOUSTONThe sheriff of Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, says his office will immediately implement increased audits on the use of tasers and body cameras. Sheriff Ed Gonzales announced the directives in a series of tweets as Houston prepared for the funeral of George Floyd. Gonzalez says his office already prohibits the use of chokeholds, but hed make it clearer in policy. Gonzales says he supports law enforcement reform, but disagrees with defunding, which calls for some police resources to be spent on social services. The sheriff says hed advocate for better pay for law enforcement to attract better candidates. Mr. Floyds death reminds us that much work remains to be done, Gonzalez tweeted. We must build momentum toward a more effective, equitable and thoughtful approach to law enforcement. 12 p.m. HOUSTONAt least 50 people gathered outside the Fountain of Praise church to pay their respects to George Floyd, ahead of the private funeral service that was set to begin at noon. Theres a real big change going on and everybody, especially Black, right now should be a part of that, said Kersey Biagase, who travelled more than three hours from Port Barre, Louisiana, with his girlfriend, Brandi Pickney. The couple wore matching T-shirts she designed, printed with Floyds name and I Cant Breathe, the words he uttered before his death. Several police officers from Texas Southern University stood guard at the sanctuary entrance, wearing face masks printed with Floyds dying words. The historically Black school is next to the Houston housing project where Floyd grew up. 11:50 a.m. JACKSONVILLE, Fla.A Confederate statue that had been in a northeast Florida park for more than a century was removed in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday ahead of a protest demanding racial equality. The statue of a Confederate soldier had sat atop a 62-foot (19-metre) monument memorializing Confederate soldiers in downtown Jacksonvilles Hemming Park next to City Hall until it was removed before dawn without any announcement from city officials. Mayor Lenny Curry had previously avoided taking a stance on the divisive issue of honouring the Confederacy on public property, according to the Florida Times-Union. Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette was leading a protest Tuesday outside of City Hall to call for racial justice following the death of George Floyd. At the start of the protest, Curry said other Confederate statues would be coming down. One such statue, Women of the Southland, in another Jacksonville park was splattered with red paint over the weekend. The confederate monument is gone, and the others in this city will be removed as well, Curry said. We hear your voices. We have heard your voices. 11:44 a.m. President Donald Trump took an unlikely pot shot Tuesday at the 75-year-old Buffalo anti-racism protester who was shoved to the ground by police in a viral video that led to criminal charges against the cops. Trump suggested the injured elderly demonstrator, Martin Gugino, could be a member of the radical antifa group and provoked the caught-on-tape confrontation. He fell harder than was pushed, Trump wrote on Twitter without offering any evidence of his claims. Could be a set-up? Gugino was left bloody and dazed by the confrontation last Thursday. He remains hospitalized in stable condition. Two Buffalo police officers are facing assault charges for knocking him to the pavement. Trump launched the improbable cheap shot at Gugino Tuesday after apparently watching a story about him on the far right-wing One America News Network. Gugino belongs to a peace organization in Buffalo and there is no evidence that he has any ties to antifa, the loose-knit group that takes credit for confronting white nationalists. He was protesting the killing of George Floyd in Niagara Square in Buffalo when a group of baton-wielding cops decided to clear the area. Two officers knocked Gugino to the ground. Dozens of fellow Buffalo police officers say they will quit the tactical unit involved in the incident after their two colleagues were charged with assault. 11:17 a.m. HOUSTONGeorge Floyds body arrived at a Houston church Tuesday for a private funeral, to be followed by burial, capping six days of mourning for the Black man whose death inspired a global reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice. Floyd, 46, was to be laid to rest next to his mother in the suburb of Pearland. He cried out for his mother as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck May 25. Floyds death touched off international protests and scattered violence and drew new attention to the treatment of African Americans in the U.S. by police and the criminal justice system. In the past two weeks, sweeping and previously unthinkable things have taken place: Confederate statues have been toppled, and many cities are debating overhauling, dismantling or cutting funding for police departments. Authorities in some places have barred police from using chokeholds or are otherwise rethinking policies on the use of force. Floyds death has also reshaped the presidential race. To be re-elected, President Donald Trump must rebound from one of the lowest points of his presidency, with recent polls showing that 8 in 10 Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and even spiralling out of control. Meanwhile, former Vice-President Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for president, met with Floyds family Monday, according to a photo posted on Twitter by the civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton. Biden planned to provide a video message for Floyds funeral. Over the past six days, memorials for Floyd were held in Minneapolis, where he lived in recent years, and Raeford, North Carolina, near where he was born. The memorials have drawn the families of other Black victims whose names have become part of the debate over race among them Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin. It just hurts, said Philonise Floyd, Floyds brother, sobbing as he ticked off some of their names outside the Fountain of Praise church in Houston. We will get justice. We will get it. We will not let this door close. 11:16 a.m. WASHINGTONA new poll suggests Americans are more convinced than Canadians are that a second, more powerful wave of COVID-19 is on its way. The online poll by Leger and the Association of Canadian Studies finds 44 per cent of U.S. respondents fear a stronger second wave, compared with 37 per cent of those surveyed in Canada. The poll also finds, however, 41 per cent of participants saying they believe that wave can still be avoided, compared with 37 per cent of Canadian respondents who felt the same way. Nearly half of those in Canada, 48 per cent, said they believe the opposite: that another spike in cases will be impossible to avoid, compared with 36 per cent of Americans. New data from Johns Hopkins University shows a number of U.S. states are already seeing spikes in new cases, including the border states of Michigan, North Dakota and Vermont. The poll, which was conducted May 29 to 31 among members of Legers online panel, does not carry a valid margin of error since online polls are not considered representative of the population at large. 11:11 a.m. INDIANAPOLISA driver of a minivan is co-operating with police after reportedly striking several people on Monument Circle in Indianapolis during a protest of the death of George Floyd. Indianapolis police officer Genae Cook tells The Indianapolis Star that no one was believed to be seriously injured in the collision on Monday night. Cook says the driver was located and other people were detained for questioning in the ongoing investigation. There was damage done to the vehicle and the vehicle attempted to leave the area, according to Cook. A witness told the newspaper the minivan pulled from behind a truck that was blocked by some protesters. The truck was attempting to back up. Bystander video shows what appears to be at least three people bouncing off the hood of the car as it drives away. 10:50 a.m. NEW YORKA New York City police officer surrendered to face criminal charges Tuesday, over a week after he was recorded on video shoving a woman to the ground and cursing at her during a protest against police brutality, the police commissioner and law enforcement officials said. The Brooklyn district attorneys office plans to charge the officer, Vincent DAndraia, with misdemeanour assault, harassment and menacing over the May 29 incident, one law enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open investigation. Cellphone video showed him knocking the victim, Dounya Zayer, 20, to the ground and calling her a bitch after she asked him why he told her to get out of the street. The expected arrest of DAndraia, who turned himself in at the 84th Precinct station house, on assault charges is highly unusual and seemed to reflect the growing political pressure on the police and prosecutors to hold officers accountable for misconduct. Mass protests against police brutality swept the nation after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a white officer knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes in Minneapolis. DAndraia, who has been suspended without pay, is the first city police officer in New York to face arrest over his conduct during the large protests that have sprung up every day since Floyd died May 25. 9:42 a.m. MILWAUKEE A state representative is calling for the disbarment of a lawyer who spat on a high school student during an anti-racism rally and march in a Milwaukee suburb. State Rep. David Bowen attended the protest Saturday and wants lawyer Stephanie Rapkin disbarred, the Journal Sentinel reported. Rapkin, who is white, arrived at the protest in Shorewood and parked her car in the street, blocking the march. When protesters approached to urge her to move her car, video shows Rapkin spitting on a Black teen, Eric Lucas, a junior at Shorewood High School. The 17-year-old helped organize and lead the march. I continue to be mentally and physically shaken. To be assaulted by an adult in my own community during a pandemic was traumatic, Lucas told the newspaper. Again and again, I am viewed not as a child but as a colour. 9:07 a.m. MINNEAPOLISLaw enforcement agencies have acknowledged police officers punctured the tires of numerous unoccupied vehicles parked during the height of recent unrest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Minnesota Department of Public Safety spokesman Bruce Gordon says troopers deflated tires to stop vehicles from driving dangerously and at high speeds in and around protesters and law enforcement. Troopers also targeted vehicles that contained items used to cause harm during violent protests such as rocks, concrete and sticks, Gordon said Monday, according to the Star Tribune. Deputies from Anoka County also deflated tires on vehicles during the protests connected to Floyds death, according to Anoka County Sheriffs Lt. Andy Knotz. Deputies were following orders from the state-led Multiagency Command Center, which was co-ordinating law enforcement during the protests, Knotz said. All four tires on the car of Star Tribune reporter were slashed in a Kmart parking lot while he was on foot covering the protests and unrest, the newspaper reported. 8:28 a.m. CHARLOTTE, N.C.The Charlotte City Council voted 9-2 to stop funding chemical agents for police use after officers boxed in and gassed demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd. After a demonstrator documented the use of gas last Tuesday in a widely shared video, the mayor condemned it and the police chief called it disturbing. The citys police department has spent $103,000 on chemical agents in 2020, City Budget Director Ryan Bergman said. Taking them away is one step toward defunding the entire police department, Tin Nguyen, an organizer and attorney, told the Charlotte Observer. Council member Ed Driggs, who voted against the ban, called it a gratuitous dig at police. The Mecklenburg County Sheriffs Office announced Monday its deputies would stop using tear gas in protests, citing tensions with the community. A local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police slammed the city councils decision as dangerous following the vote. 7:40 a.m. TOKYOJapanese public broadcaster NHK apologized Tuesday for an animated video it produced trying to explain the ongoing protests in the U.S. that instead sparked outrage that its depiction of Black Americans was offensive. The animated clip featured a Black man with large muscles wearing a white tank top and raising his fist on a street with fires burning and other Black men and women standing nearby. The man cited the wealth disparity between white and Black Americans and the impact from the coronavirus as reasons for the protests. The clip, which lasted less than 90 seconds and first aired on a Sunday evening news talk show, did not mention police brutality or George Floyd. Social media users condemned NHK on Tuesday for lacking understanding of the issues and spreading racial stereotypes. 6:30 a.m. LONDONMore statues of imperialist figures could be removed from Britains streets, following the unauthorized felling of a monument to slave trader Edward Colston in the city of Bristol, the mayor of London said Tuesday. Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was setting up a commission to ensure the citys monuments reflected its diversity. The Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm will review statues, murals, street art, street names and other memorials and consider which legacies should be celebrated, the mayors office said. It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been wilfully ignored, Khan said. Debate over who should be publicly commemorated has been reignited in Britain by the felling of a monument to Colston, a 17th-century slave trader and philanthropist. His bronze statue was pulled from its perch in Bristol, southwest England, during a Black Lives Matter protest on Sunday and dumped in the citys harbour. Many Bristolians welcomed the statues removal, but the British government called it an act of vandalism and urged police to prosecute the perpetrators. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged that it was a cold reality that people of colour in Britain experienced discrimination, and promised his government was committed to eradicating prejudice and creating opportunity. But he said those who attacked police or desecrated public monuments should face the full force of the law. 5:45 a.m. HOUSTONGeorge Floyd will be laid to rest next to his mother Tuesday. His funeral will be private. Some 6,000 people attended a public memorial service Monday in Houston, where he grew up. Under a blazing Texas sun, mourners wearing T-shirts with Floyds picture or the words I Cant Breathe one of the other things he cried out repeatedly while pinned down by the police officer waited for hours to pay their respects. Floyds body, dressed in a brown suit, lay in an open gold-colored casket. Shorty after the memorial ended, Floyds casket was placed in a hearse and escorted by police back to a funeral home. As the hearse drove away, 39-year-old Daniel Osarobo, a Houston resident who immigrated from Nigeria, could be heard saying, Rest in power. Rest In Peace. Ive been stopped by police. I understand the situation. I can only imagine, said Osarobo, who works as an engineer in the oil and gas industry. What if it was me? What if it was my brother? What if it was my sister? What if it was my son? Calls for defunding the police have cropped up in many communities, and people around the world have taken to the streets in solidarity, saying that reforms and dialogue must not stop with Floyds funeral. The memorials have drawn the families of Black victims in other high-profile killings whose names have become seared into Americas conversations on race among them Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin. It just hurts, said Philonise Floyd, George Floyds brother, sobbing as he ticked off some of their names outside The Fountain of Praise church. We will get justice. We will get it. We will not let this door close. For 14 nights, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in protest of police brutality and racial inequality. Cities imposed curfews as some of the demonstrations were later marred by spasms of arson, assaults and smash-and-grab raids on businesses. More than 10,000 people have been arrested around the country, according to reports tracked by The Associated Press. But protests in recent days have been overwhelmingly peaceful and over the weekend, several police departments appeared to retreat from aggressive tactics. Thousands of Los Angeles protesters arrested for violating curfew and other police orders will not be charged with a crime, prosecutors said Monday. Read the full story here. 5:30 a.m. ATLANTAIn the two weeks since George Floyd was killed, police departments have banned chokeholds, Confederate monuments have fallen and officers have been arrested and charged amid large global protests against violence by police and racism. The moves are far short of the overhaul of police, prosecutors offices, courts and other institutions that protesters seek. But some advocates and demonstrators say they are encouraged by the swiftness of the response to Floyds death incremental as it may be. Read the full story here. 5:14 a.m. ATLANTATwo police officers who were fired after video showed them using stun guns on a couple of college students during a large protest in Atlanta are looking to get their jobs back. Former Investigators Mark Gardner and Ivory Streeter filed a court order through their attorney Monday against Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Police Chief Erika Shields. The lawsuit alleges that the officers were fired in violation of the citys code; without investigation, proper notice or a pre-disciplinary hearing. Bottoms said that she and Shields reviewed body camera footage from the May 30 traffic stop and decided to immediately fire the officers and place three others on desk duty. Gardner and Streeter have been charged with aggravated assault Gardner for using a Taser against 20-year-old Taniyah Pilgrim and Streeter for using a Taser against 22-year-old Messiah Young according to a warrant. Shields has since questioned the timing and appropriateness of the charges. The fired officers want their jobs to be reinstated, as well as back pay and benefits, according to Mondays court order. It states they were denied due process, and that the other officers who engaged in substantially similar conduct, were not dismissed. Neither Bottoms nor the police department responded to a request for comment late Monday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Monday 9:30 p.m.: LOS ANGELESThousands of Los Angeles protesters arrested for violating curfew and other police orders will not be charged with a crime, prosecutors said Monday as hundreds took to the city streets carrying caskets to signify the death of George Floyd and others killed by police. City Attorney Mike Feuer said his office will develop a court alternative that carries no punishment for those cited for violating curfew or failing to obey orders to leave demonstrations over the death of Floyd, a Black man who died two weeks ago after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes. The city had the largest number of the 10,000 protest arrests in the U.S. tracked by The Associated Press. Demonstrations over police brutality and racial injustice have gripped the nation for nearly two weeks In the Los Angeles area, police and sheriffs deputies arrested more than 3,000 people over days of mostly peaceful protests. About 2,500 of those were in the city for violating curfew or dispersal orders, according to figures the Los Angeles Police Department provided June 2. Read the full story here. Multiple Star reporters and editors have contributed to this article, including Sabrina Melchiori, Tania Pereira, Justin Smirlies and more. With files from the Associated Press, the New York Times, Bloomberg and McClatchy wire services. Workers who are young, male, less educated, non-national, self-employed, or live outside Dublin are likely to shoulder any economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, researchers at University College Cork (UCC) have found. Researchers at the Spatial and Regional Economics Research Centre (SRERC) at Cork University Business School found that Covid-19 restrictions, requiring remote working and social distancing, are having a highly unequal impact across workers. Dr Frank Crowley, Dr Justin Doran and Dr Geraldine Ryan analysed anonymised 2011 census data for 150,000 Irish workers to determine who may be most exposed to Covid-19 restrictions and more likely to be negatively impacted by any economic fallout. The analysis found that younger, male, less educated, non-national, self-employed, and workers living outside Dublin are likely to be more impacted than workers who are older, female, better educated, employees, Irish nationals or lived in the capital. While the pandemic unemployment payment -PUP- and temporary wage subsidy scheme will provide a vital safety net in the short term, a range of targeted policies to reintegrate workers, provide digital and portable reskilling, promote entrepreneurship, and provide educational and job support, will be needed in the longer term, they said. Dr Frank Crowley, economist and co-director of SRERC, said the country is at a critical crossroads and more debate is needed on managing the economic fallout of the Covid-19 crisis: The overarching question of prioritising the health of the country over the economic health of the country is a debate that should be revisited. He added that the decisions taken in recent months will fuel considerable debate for years to come. Dr Crowley said the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis will be massive and that those most vulnerable, who were most impacted in the last financial crisis, are likely to be hardest hit again by any potential economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis but that reopening the economy could stave off some of the negative impacts. The young, male, less educated, non-national, self employed worker, he said, is more vulnerable to being let go, not being rehired, or working in businesses that will face more difficulty in the future. Individuals in receipt of the PUP or wage subsidy scheme, he added, are also more exposed or at greater risk of becoming unemployed once the schemes are phased out: The most vulnerable are going to be the hardest hit again. They are going to shoulder the burden of this. These are the people who are less than best placed to deal with that burden. Is that a cost worth bearing?" Night Curfew in Maharashtra: Check guidelines, rules; what is allowed, what is not allowed 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 BMC deputy municipal commissioner dies of COVID-19; ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh announced India oi-Madhuri Adnal Mumbai, June 09: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's Deputy Municipal Commissioner Shirish Dixit on Tuesday has died of the coronavirus. He passed away at his home today. The chief engineer in the water supply department was 55-years-old. "Shirish Dixit, engineer in BMC's water supply department, has died due to Covid-19. The 54-yar-old died on duty. He was asymptomatic, however, on Tuesday Morning, his family called the authorities to inform that he was not feeling well. When a team reached his home, he was pronounced dead," India Today reported. COVID-19 tests on dead unscientific, says Telangana health minister Coronavirus first detected in August 2019? Wuhan satellite images 'proof' | Oneindia News BMC also announced ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh for kin of employees who succumb on duty. If an employee of BMC unfortunately succumbs to Covid-19 while on duty, BMC will provide an ex-gratia assistance of 50,00,000 to their heirs. BMC is the first municipal corporation to implement this program and it will be applicable from 1.03.2020 till 30.09.2020. Mumbai, BMC (@mybmc) June 9, 2020 Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state in the country with 88,528 confirmed cases of COVID-19, followed by Tamil Nadu (33,229) and Delhi (29,943). 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: 9 June 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 37,320 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 1,992 pence 25.37 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 1,954 pence 24.89 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 1,980 pence 25.21 USD Ticker: PSHD Date of Purchase: 9 June 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 84 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 24.00 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 24.00 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 24.00 USD Trading Venue: Euronext Amsterdam Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 9 June 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 36,040 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 25.35 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 24.80 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 25.13 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 196,638,524 Public Shares outstanding, or 202,557,504 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 14,318,226 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/20200609005734/en/ Contacts: Media Camarco Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk Washington: The defacement of Mahatma Gandhi's statue here was a "disgrace, US President Donald Trump has said, days after it was vandalised by unknown miscreants with graffiti and spray painting during the nationwide protests against the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd. The statue, which is across the road from the Indian Embassy, was vandalised on the intervening night of June 2 and 3, prompting the Indian embassy to register a complaint with the local law enforcement agencies. The incident happened during the week of nationwide protests against the custodial killing of Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. It was a disgrace, Trump made the brief comment at the White House on Monday when asked about the incident. The Indian Embassy here has taken up the matter with the US Department of State for early investigation into the matter, as also with the Metropolitan Police and National Park Service. It is working with the US Department of State, Metropolitan Police and National Park Service for expeditious restoration of the statue at the park. The US president and First Lady Melania Trump, during their visit to India in February, had spent considerable time at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had personally given them a tour of the historic place. The First Lady and I have just had a pleasure of visiting Mahatma Gandhi's Ashram, a few miles from here, where he launched the famous Salt March, Trump had said during his address at the Namaste Trump rally at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad on February 24. A day later, Trump and the first lady also laid a wreath at Raj Ghat in New Delhi. Pictures of Trump and the first lady with Gandhi's spinning wheel during their visit to the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad are seen hanging on the walls of the White House. Last week, top US lawmakers and the Trump Campaign condemned the vandalisation of the statue. "Very disappointing, tweeted Kimberly Guilfoyle, advisor to Donald J Trump for President Inc. and National Chair of the Trump Victory Finance Committees. North Carolina Senator Tom Tillis said, "It's disgraceful to see the defacing of the Gandhi statue" in Washington DC. Gandhi was a pioneer of peaceful protesting, demonstrating the great change it can bring. Rioting, looting and vandalising do not bring us together, he said. Senator Marco Rubio said, more evidence that violent radicals and run of the mill crazies have hijacked legitimate protests to create anarchy or for their own purposes. Protests against the custodial killing of Floyd turned violent in the US and prestigious monuments were damaged. In Washington DC, protestors burnt a historic church and damaged monuments like the Lincoln Memorial. US Ambassador to India Ken Juster apologised for the incident. "So sorry to see the desecration of the Gandhi statue in Wash, DC. Please accept our sincere apologies, he said. Appalled as well by the horrific death of George Floyd and the awful violence and vandalism. We stand against prejudice & discrimination of any type. We will recover and be better," he said in a tweet last week. One of the few statues of a foreign leader on a federal land in Washington DC, the statue of Gandhi was dedicated by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the presence of the then US president Bill Clinton on September 16, 2000, during his state visit to the US. Officials in a western Michigan city are estimating $448,000 in damage was caused during protests over the death of George Floyd that turned violent last weekend. The estimate by Grand Rapids is preliminary and is for damage to public and private property, WOOD-TV reported. It does not include losses due to looting. More than 100 businesses in the city were damaged. Seven police vehicles also were set on fire. Information on the damage was provided by the city assessors office and not all the data has been verified, according to WOOD-TV. The estimate also does not include overtime costs for police and firefighters. Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss declared a civil emergency. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered the National Guard to be deployed to assist with curfew enforcement and property protection. Demonstrations and unrest spread to cities around the U.S. following Floyds May 25 death. A a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into the neck of the handcuffed black man who pleaded for air, even after he stopped moving. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. NEW HAVEN Board of Education members pushed forward a plan to allow school staff to determine which schools to use for summer camps, despite resistance from some members. With so much uncertainty about how the state and city will safely reopen from the current wave of the coronavirus pandemic, board members agreed that they dont know how to guarantee summer camps will be safe, but they split on whether they were prepared to give their consent to officials to execute a plan. We dont have a cleaning plan, said board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur. I think its premature. Jackson-McArthur said she wanted to wait a few more days before making a decision ideally with a special meeting called for later this week because she wasnt convinced there is enough information about how buildings can and will be kept clean, how children at summer camps will safely socially distance and how it wont jeopardize the start of school in the fall. After an hour of discussion, Jackson-McArthur still wasnt satisfied with what she saw as a lack of clarity, and said she felt Mayor Justin Elicker bullied the issue by making a motion. Its important for us to express confidence in (Superintendent of Schools) Dr. (Iline) Tracey, in Dr. Traceys staff and (Parks Department Deputy Director) Will Dixon, (Community Services Administrator) Dr. (Mehul) Dalal, Director (of Public Health Maritza) Bond to have really thought through these issues, Elicker said, before making his motion to allow schools and city officials the opportunity to develop a plan. For board member Darnell Goldson, the other board member to vote against the motion with Jackson-McArthur, it was also a question of dollars and cents. Everything has a price tag and were going to be the ones left with whatever the after effect is of opening schools for summer, he said. The district is facing a projected $9.8 million deficit for the coming fiscal year. Last week, a school board committee also learned that the districts school meals program has lost $2 million revenue during the pandemic-driven school shutdown. Tracey who received the boards approval to sign a three-year contract as the full-time superintendent later that evening said the district may not have much of a choice. We are being told that if we are not collaborative, the state could give an executive order that forces us to use the schools, she said. We want to avoid that. We want to make sure were collaborative. Jackson-McArthur said she doesnt appreciate the apparent threat. It is extremely disheartening for Hartford to tell New Haven Public Schools if we dont open up our buildings theyre going to make us, she said. Were just now coming out of the emergency of Covid hospitalizations, were trying to get our bearings to welcome students back which is very important and were knee-deep in planning for next school year on how were going to bring the students back. Dalal said managing the pandemic has been a balance of interests and 100 percent safety cannot be guaranteed with anything. We are very closely tracking the guidance both from the state and from the (Centers for Disease Control) and contending with how that will apply on a case by case basis, he said. Goldson countered that not opening the schools would guarantee no risk. Dixon said there would be a need to provide some recreational programs for youth over the summer, and his department is doing everything it can, including buying laser-operated thermometers to take temperatures. Bond said no summer camp would be allowed to operate in a school without meeting and adhering to every protocol, once standardized criteria are established. I take this very seriously, she said. Elicker said he did not believe the issue could wait any longer. He said he has operated summer programs before, which ordinarily begin planning in January. We need to post this so our families have some predictability, he said. By a 4-2 vote, the board agreed to allow city and school officials to begin planning for summer camp in schools. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com New Delhi, June 9 : Textile, engineering, leather and infrastructure clusters of Tirupur, Coimbatore, Kanpur and Durgapur have emerged as the torch bearers for government's initiative to improve investment climate in the country amidst COVID-19 pandemic. These industrial clusters have become first among others to promise revival of the economy by putting in additional investments into their respective businesses taking advantage of the Rs 3 lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) announced by the government for meeting the liquidity needs of the sector in the present crisis. Of the Rs 599.12 crore loans disbursed by public sector banks to MSMEs under the scheme, the four industrial clusters have taken the lions share of the money at about Rs 360 crore. Among the four, with Rs 143.76 crore sanctioned to 1,758 accounts, the engineering industrial cluster of Coimbatore had taken the maximum sanctions from banks. In a tweet, the office of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: "As of June 8 2020, #PSBs have sanctioned loans worth Rs 1,109.03 cr for #MSME hubs in 12 States under the 100% Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme, of which Rs 599.12 cr has already been disbursed to 17,904 accounts." In terms of sanctions, gems and jewellery cluster of Surat, and industrial clusters at Tumkur in Karnataka, Rajkot, Durg in Chhattisgarh, Medak in Telangana, Kanpur, Coimbatore, Tirupur have also emerged as destinations that hav e most accounts and amounts for getting bank money under ECLGS. Surprisingly, industrial cluster of Jalandhar has maximum 3,388 accounts that had got loan sanctions from banks but the amount is a meagre Rs 25 lakh. On the other hand with over 2,000 accounts, Durgapur has taken a lions share o f bank loan sanctions at over Rs 61 crore. The clusters in Nashik, Nagpur, Tumkur, Surat, Rajkot, Durg, Rourkela, Medak , Aligarh are other centres that have got major portion of bank loans under the scheme. As most of these are industrial clusters, the indications suggest that businesses here are looking to come out from the present crisis and grow. The ECLGS scheme is the biggest fiscal component of the Rs 20-lakh crore 'Aatm Nirbhar Bharat' package announced by The Finance Minister last month. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Egypt reported 1,385 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number to 36,829 since the beginning of the outbreak in February. The health ministrys daily bulletin also recorded 35 new fatalities, giving a total death toll from the virus of 1,306. The ministry said that 411 patients had been discharged, bringing the total number of recoveries to 9,876. Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said that the number of people who have re-tested negative, including the 9,876 recoveries, has now reached 11,071. He added that the governorates of Cairo, Giza, and Qalioubiya, the three governorates over which the city of Greater Cairo is spread, have recorded the highest rate of coronavirus cases, while the governorates of the Red Sea, Matrouh and South Sinai have recorded the lowest rates. Megahed appealed to all citizens to abide by the necessary preventive measures and observe social distancing, particularly in governorates with high rates of infection. The health ministry said last month that the governorate of Cairo had the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country, followed by Giza and Qalioubiya, with over 11,500 infections in total, or over 50 percent of the total cases thus far. Search Keywords: Short link: What You Need To Know About COVID-19 Before Purchasing Products In what feels like a never-ending time of uncertainty, there is a lot of information floating around. Actually, a lot is an incredible understatement. I cant get on any online platform without seeing an update about COVID-19, some popular story about a patient, or new insights about the virus. My feed is almost strictly coronavirus related (a term we will circle back to). Im getting emails from companies and brands I havent shopped at in years updating me on how theyre handling the pandemic. Saying its everywhere does not feel like a strong enough statement. The problem is that with media posts, we cant always prove their legitimacy and accuracy on the spot. Ive seen posts offering coronavirus tips pertaining to the virus and claiming theyre from a reputable source, later to be proven as false information. Amongst this media frenzy, weve seen a concerning amount of confusion about COVID-19 and how to protect yourself from it. With this much information floating around, it is unfortunately in the hands of the reader to be able to decipher between true and false, and that feels like the last thing most of us want to do. So, let Market America | SHOP. COM clear up a little of the air. First things first, the two words coronavirus and COVID-19 are NOT the same. Read that again. Youre probably thinking Well, why is everyone and their mother calling it coronavirus? Thats because coronavirus is not a new word. It actually came about in the 1960s when a new family of viruses was discovered. There is a lot of history but in short, the term coronavirus does not only pertain to COVID-19. So, when you read something on the back of a product that says it aids in protection against coronavirus that does NOT mean it will protect you from COVID-19; it is referring to the general family of viruses which has been around now for a long time. With this has come a lot of product promotion related to cleaning products and health supplements. To date, there are NO health supplements that can claim they protect against or cure COVID-19. As for cleaning products, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a list of cleaning products that can be used against SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19. Of the list of products is our Snap II Disinfectant* which means it is registered with the EPA to use against COVID-19. It can feel overwhelming to have to decipher through the heaps of information thrown at us on a daily basis and at a time like this. Thats why Market America | SHOP.COM is dedicated to providing you with the information you need. EPA-registered disinfectant* *EPA Reg. No. 1839-9568709; EPA Est No. 55948-NC-01 References about coronavirus versus COVID-19 in introduction: History and Recent Advances in Coronavirus Discovery : The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal Common Human Coronaviruses | CDC Coronaviruses | NIH This article is provided by Market America | SHOP.COM, a product brokerage and Internet marketing company that specializes in One-to-One-Marketing. Darfur leader Ali Kushayb, wanted by the International Criminal Court to face war crimes charges, was arrested in Central African Republic (CAR) and has been transferred to The Hague, a CAR government source said on Tuesday. A plane carrying Kushayb left CAR on Tuesday after he was arrested in the northern town of Birao, the source said. Search Keywords: Short link: HDI Global Specialty SE, the specialty lines insurer, has launched a Political and Credit Risk team in London with the hires of Nick Robinson and Anthony Vaughan. Both have joined HDI Global Specialty SEs London office from Neon Underwriting. (Neon was placed into run-off this year by its parent American Financial Group). HDIs new London team will work in collaboration with HDI Global Specialtys existing Political Risk team based in Stockholm. Robinson joins as head of Political Risk & Structured Credit in London, and has more than 20 years Political Risk Insurance experience including establishing and growing a successful PRI book at Marketform, latterly Neon Syndicate. This included PRI lines of confiscation, expropriation, nationalization and deprivation (CEND), contract frustration and structured credit insurance. He has also worked at AIG London, Wellington Underwriting and JLT. Anthony Vaughan joins HDI as senior analyst and underwriter. He is a CFA charterholder by training and started his career at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority in 2002. He then spent nine years with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. in various positions, including, most recently, as a credit analyst in London. In 2017, he joined Neon Underwriting and played a key role in setting up Neons Structured Credit business plan. Since the creation of the [HDI] business at the start of last year, we have said we will be looking for opportunities to expand our offering to the market which now extends to credit products including both public and private obligor default and lenders protection alongside existing political risk coverage, commented Richard Taylor, UK managing director of HDI Global Specialty SE. This is another example of the business delivering on its stated strategy of organic and inorganic growth, he added. Source: HDI Global Specialty Topics Excess Surplus New Markets London Tesla Model 3s on a delivery line in Shanghai. Reuters Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., the electric-vehicle-battery producer that supplies Tesla, says it has made a battery that can last 16 years and over 1 million miles. CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun told Bloomberg over the weekend that the battery was ready to produce and that it was about 10% more expensive than other batteries on the market. Reuters reported in May that Tesla was working on a million-mile battery with CATL. It's unclear whether this is the same battery. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Tesla's battery supplier says it's made a huge breakthrough in battery technology that could power electric-vehicle sales for years to come. Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., the Chinese car-battery giant that supplies Tesla and Volkswagen, is ready to produce a battery that can last 16 years and 2 million kilometers, or 1.24 million miles, the company's chairman, Zeng Yuqun, told Bloomberg over the weekend. Zeng said the company was ready to start fulfilling orders for the battery but didn't disclose whether anyone had bought any yet. He added that the battery cost about 10% more than average EV batteries. Battery life is one of the main areas holding back widespread EV adoption, and a long-lasting battery could be transformative for the industry. Batteries are the most expensive part of EVs, so if one with a longer life could be transferred into a new car, it could significantly lower the price. Bloomberg said warranties on EV batteries cover roughly 150,000 miles or eight years. Reuters reported in May that Tesla was making a million-mile battery with CATL. Sources told Reuters that Tesla planned to launch the new battery in China first as part of a wider strategy to reposition the company. Tesla did not immediately respond to Business Insider's question about whether the battery announced by CATL was developed jointly. In his interview with Bloomberg, Zeng seemed upbeat about the industry's prospects, which took a downturn with the coronavirus pandemic. "The pandemic may have a lasting effect throughout 2020," he said, "but won't be a major factor next year." Read the original article on Business Insider Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 21:08:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases across the African continent surpassed 195,875, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Tuesday. The death toll from the pandemic rose to 5,334 as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the Africa CDC. The continental disease control and prevention agency, which noted that the virus had spread into 54 African countries, also said that some 86,068 people who were infected with COVID-19 had recovered across the continent so far. Amid the rapid spread of COVID-19 across the African continent, the highly affected African countries include South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, and Ghana, it was noted. 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. Enditem New Jersey high schools can plan to have as many as 500 people at outdoor graduation ceremonies beginning July 6, bringing long-awaited clarity to districts waiting to honor their seniors. Gov. Phil Murphy announced the maximum capacity for outdoor graduation ceremonies Tuesday as he lifted the states stay-at-home order, which he installed shortly after the coronavirus emerged in March. Murphy said he is also gradually increasing the limit of people who can attend outdoor gatherings to 500 people by July 3, he said. However, the state could be forced to reduce capacity for graduation ceremonies if it sees a spike in new COVID-19 cases, Murphy said. It comes down to this social distancing must remain our practice and our priority, he said during his daily coronavirus briefing in Trenton. And thats because its worked. Murphys announcement gives school districts critical guidance they had been waiting for, but it may come too late for some seniors. The state is allowing only virtual and drive-thru ceremonies this month. Some districts already decided against holding ceremonies after July 6, the first date Murphy will allow outdoor graduations, in part because of uncertainty over how many people would be able to attend. Even with a capacity of 500, larger districts that scheduled July ceremonies will still be forced to limit attendance to students only or hold multiple ceremonies to allow for guests. State guidance to schools issued last month suggests everyone should wear a mask and have their temperature checked upon arrival. Murphy also announced Tuesday that churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship may reopen for indoor services with new capacity limits after months of restrictions. And he spelled out the new rules for public and private pools. Parents, students and politicians had made graduation ceremonies a major flash point in reopening the state, especially after watching milestones such as prom lost to Murphys near-lockdown measures to contain the virus. In April, the governor said he didnt envision schools having in-person graduation ceremonies. But his stance began to soften as the number of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations dropped. He announced last month that schools can have outdoor graduation ceremonies unlike any others beginning July 6, but said he was not yet ready to announce a maximum capacity. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. CONNECTICUT The state Department of Public Health issued an executive order on Tuesday meant to ensure that people with disabilities are not denied reasonable access to needed support persons. The order came in response to complaints made to the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Following the issuing of the order, the OCR announced it has reached an Early Case Resolution with the state. OCR also reached an ECR with Hartford HealthCare Corporation after it agreed to grant a 73-year old woman with aphasia access to support persons to help with her communication and comprehension in her treatment. In May 2020, OCR received complaints from Disability Rights Connecticut, CommunicationFIRST, the Arc of Connecticut, and Independence Northwest: Center for Independent Living of Northwest CT alleging that Connecticut guidance regarding hospital visitation for people with disabilities violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which are enforced by OCR. The complainants alleged that Connecticut guidance concerning hospital "no visitor" policies during the COVID-19 pandemic allowed only narrow exceptions for support persons for individuals with disabilities receiving certain services from the state Department of Developmental Services, leaving large groups of persons with disabilities unable to avail themselves of the exception. The complainants alleged that without support persons, specific patients with disabilities in Connecticut facilities were being denied equal access to medical treatment, effective communication, the ability to make informed decisions and provide consent, and that they were being unnecessarily subjected to physical and pharmacological restraints. The executive order makes clear that a "designated support person" a family member, personal care assistant, similar disability service provider, or other individual knowledgeable about the management of their care, to physically or emotionally assist them or to ensure effective communication during their stay in such a facility, provided proper precautions are taken to contain the spread of infection. Story continues Complainants also alleged that Hartford Hospital, a 937-bed facility in the state, unlawfully failed to provide a reasonable modification to the hospital's no-visitor policy to a 73-year-old patient with aphasia and severe short-term memory loss, who is mostly non-verbal, and was denied in-person access to support persons able to help with her communication and comprehension during care. The patient did not fall under the exception to no-visitor policies under Connecticut's guidance because she did not receive services from the state DDS. OCR has reviewed the complaints, communicated with, and provided assistance to Connecticut, the Connecticut Department of Public Health, and Hartford HealthCare Corporation, and mediated a resolution of the matters acceptable to all parties, according to a news release. As part of the resolution, Connecticut is issuing an executive order to ensure that people with disabilities have reasonable access to support personnel in hospital settings in a manner that is consistent with disability rights laws and the health and safety of patients, health care providers, and support persons. The order includes establishing a statewide policy requiring hospitals and other acute care settings to permit the entrance of a designated support person for a patient with a disability and permitting family members, service-providers or other individuals knowledgeable about the needs of the person with a disability to serve as a designated support person. Where patients with a disability are in such a setting for longer than one day, they may designate two support persons, provided only one is present at a time. OCR mediated an agreement between Hartford Hospital and the complainants that granted the 73-year-old patient access to a designated in-person support person. Based on Hartford Hospital's responsive actions, OCR is closing this complaint as satisfactorily resolved, according to the news release. "We cannot commend Connecticut enough for quickly updating its policies to protect the right of persons with disabilities to equal treatment especially during a crisis," said Roger Severino, director of OCR. "This resolution proves that states can keep people safe during this pandemic without sacrificing the right of persons with disabilities to the support they need to receive equal access to medical care and treatment," Severino said. Connecticut submitted the following statement to OCR for inclusion in this announcement: "As vulnerable populations around the state continue to be disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a priority for my office and the state to come to a resolution on allowing a support person to accompany and advocate for individuals with disabilities into our hospitals," Gov. Ned Lamont said. "The order issued by Commissioner Gifford implements vital safeguards for individuals with special needs to ensure proper and safe care is being provided and received in a hospital setting." "I am pleased to have worked with the Governors Office, the Department of Public Health, and the HHS Office for Civil Rights to issue the DPH order that protects the rights of individuals with disabilities and facilitates a process to allow every voice, even in a hospital setting, to be heard," said Jordan A. Scheff, commissioner of the Department of Developmental Services. This article originally appeared on the Across Connecticut Patch MINNEAPOLIS, MN A former Sheraton hotel in midtown Minneapolis that had been housing more than 200 of the citys homeless population during the coronavirus pandemic has been ordered emptied after a resident suffered a drug overdose. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, citing volunteers at the site near Lake St. and Chicago Ave., reported that residents were awakened by a fire alarm on just after 6 a.m. Tuesday morning following the overdose. The Star-Tribune reported that the hotels owner, Jay Patel, ordered the eviction of all of the guests. The homeless are among the most vulnerable during the pandemic. Tuesdays eviction marked the second time in recent weeks that large numbers of the homeless in Minneapolis have been forced to leave a temporary site. Chief among concerns of those who work with the homeless during the pandemic is coming up with a permanent housing solution while cities struggle with financial assistance to help local agencies charged with helping the homeless. The Star-Tribune reported that efforts had been in place to find housing for homeless residents that had been depending on local homeless camps for safe shelter. But since unrest began in the city following George Floyds death, volunteers reached out to Patel, who offered 136 rooms at the former Sheraton hotel. According to the report, all of the rooms at the four-story hotel were filled and other areas of the hotel were being used for sleeping spaces as more of the homeless residents were moved in from camps. As of Tuesday, there was a waiting list of 400 people awaiting shelter at the hotel. The newspaper reported that homeless residents were seen flooding out of the hotel with their belongings in shopping carts, which has left volunteers frustrated of where all of the homeless who had been relying on the hotel for shelter will go. We have reached out through every single possible channel and there is no alternative, volunteer Kat Eng, told the Star-Tribune. Residents are traumatized, scared and we need solutions." This article originally appeared on the Minneapolis Patch The Chase's Shaun Wallace revealed he's been stopped and searched twice by police near courts where he was acting as a barrister. The lawyer, 60, from Upminster, London, was stopped on his way to Liverpool Crown Court and while leaving Kingston Crown Court, on both occasions because he 'fit the profile' of a man who committed a robbery nearby. Appearing on Good Morning Britain today, he explained that he was 'astonished' by the searches - but insisted that he makes a point of remaining 'dignified', because he will 'never give a police officer an excuse to arrest him'. The Chase's Shaun Wallace, pictured on the ITV quiz show, revealed he's been stopped and searched twice by police nearby courts where he was acting as a barrister Appearing on Good Morning Britain today, he explained that he was 'astonished' by the searches He said: 'I was coming out of Kingston crown court with a solicitor who happened to be white, and I was approached by two plain clothes police officers. They said "You fit the profile of someone who just took place in a robbery". ' I was simply taken aback and startled, he said "Where were you?" and I said "Kingston Crown Court". He said, "What were you doing?". 'I said, "If you look in my bag you'll see my robes", and they were completely astonished.' He explained that on another occasion he was stopped leaving a train in Liverpool, once again by plain clothes officers who said he was stopped because he fitted the profile of a suspect. He told host Lorraine Kelly (pictured) he was stopped on his way to Liverpool Crown Court and while leaving Kingston Crown Court, on both occasions as he 'fit the profile' of a man who committed a robbery nearby Shaun insisted he makes a point of remaining 'dignified' during searches, as he will 'never give a police officer an excuse to arrest him' 'I was a bit startled, said Shaun, 'And again they said you fit the profile of someone who has committed a robbery, and again I had to show them my wig and gown. They weren't even apologetic in relation to their conduct and response' The quizzer, who is a part-time lecturer and visits schools, colleges and other institutions to educate students on law, explained that while advising young black men on unlawful searches, he reminds them to 'respond in a dignified manner'. 'What I like to say to young people', said Shaun, 'Is the way in which young black boys have been stopped and search totally disregards their human rights. 'I always say, if you are stopped and searched you have nothing to fear if you've done nothing wrong. So respond in a dignified manner The quizzer is a part-time lecturer and visits schools, colleges and other institutions to educate students on law 'As far as I'm concerned, I will never give them an excuse in terms of my conduct to arrest me. But I've been stopped countless times, one thing I will never do is give an officer an excuse to arrest me.' Shaun went on to speak about global protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, 46, who died in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25th after US police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck while he lay handcuffed on the ground. He said: 'The anger in relation to the death of George Floyd is totally understandable. The officers disregarded his dignity as a human being and his human rights, and I'm glad there's been a shift from anger to the dignified response.' Monday, five more families filed suit against a Southeast Portland nursing home for the deaths of their loved ones from COVID-19. Healthcare at Foster Creek now faces $12.6 million in lawsuits for the deaths of seven residents, ages 59 to 92. They died from April 3 to May 9. The nursing home is the site of the biggest outbreak of the novel coronavirus among long-term care facilities in the state. According to the Oregon Health Authority, 119 people associated with Foster Creek were infected with COVID-19 and 30 of them have died. The litigation claims that the nursing home -- which is run by St. Jude Operating Company and Benicia Senior Living -- used lax infection control and isolation procedures. No one from the companies immediately responded to a request for comment Monday. As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, defendants attempted to paint a positive picture of their response, reads a lawsuit filed on behalf of six of the seven estates of the deceased residents. ...Defendants tested residents for COVID-19 but did not timely or accurately inform residents or family members of results. Defendants downplayed the COVID-19 risk, lied about their safety practices, and failed to share crucial information about the dangerous conditions at Foster Creek and the spread of COVID-19. In early May, the state ordered the facility shut down, finding that its continued operation poses a serious danger to the public health and safety. The state, however, gave the nursing home 90 days to object to its order. The nursing home is at 6003 S.E. 136th Avenue. According to the estates lawyers, the five residents whose deaths were added to the wrongful death litigation Monday were: -- Kevin Fortune, 59. He had a mental health condition and difficulty communicating. He might have been exposed to COVID-19 when a female resident repeatedly attacked him before March 23, the day it was noted that he had a high fever, according to the lawyers for his estate. Three days later he tested positive for COVID-19. He died April 3 at the nursing home. Kevin Fortune, in an undated photo. (Submitted photo) -- Alan Kuzens, 74. He had been living at Foster Creek to gain weight and physically build strength after going through cancer treatment. He wasnt quarantined, despite his compromised immune system, according to the lawyers for his estate. He was hospitalized on April 11 and died April 21. Alan Kuzen, center, in an undated photo. (Submitted photo) -- Lorraine Conley, 92. She had Alzheimers disease. The facility stopped updating Conleys son about her status in early March, the lawyers for her estate said. On April 9, 2020, Mr. Conley was surprised and alarmed to receive a call from a doctor at Adventist Medical Center informing him that his mother was presumptively positive for COVID-19 and had only hours to live, according to the lawsuit. She died April 12. Lorraine Conley, in an undated photo. (Submitted photo) -- Gloria Clark, 92. She also had Alzheimers disease. On April 4, Foster Creek told her family that her roommate had tested positive for COVID-19 and four days later said Clark would be tested, but didnt provide the results, according to her estates lawyers. On April 12, the facility told the family Clark was being taken to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, where she died on April 16. Gloria Clark, in an undated photo. (Submitted photo) -- Christina Broadbent, 70. She tested positive on April 11. Foster Creek staff gave her son conflicting information about his mothers health status, when he could get someone to answer the phones, according to her estates lawyers. Broadbent was transferred to another facility on May 3, and she died May 9. The family of Judith Jones, 75, were the first to file suit in mid-May. Jones had dementia and lived in a locked unit. Jones family was told Foster Creek staff werent working between her unit and other units even though that wasnt true, according to her estates lawsuit. Jones died April 25 at a local hospital. Also in May, the family of David Parker filed suit, claiming that Foster Creeks treatment of the 83-year-old was deplorable. Parked died April 7 at a local hospital. According to the estates lawsuit, his daughter said she found out her father died from a Facebook post by the nursing home, stating RIP David. Beaverton attorneys Paul Janzen and Caroline Janzen at Janzen Legal Services are representing Parkers estate. Portland attorneys Bonnie Richardson, Joseph Franco and Simon Whang at Richardson Wright LLP are representing the other six estates. -- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Dozens of students returned to Waverley and Moriah colleges from self-quarantine on Tuesday after none of them developed COVID-19 from two classmates, whose source of infection remains a mystery. Waverley College has also scrapped its policy of keeping mobile phones in lockers during school time, and now allows students to carry them so they can use the COVIDSafe app if contact tracing is required again. Health authorities say none of the four cases identified in NSW school students this term have led to secondary infections, reinforcing their confidence that there is a low risk of transmission in schools. Waverley College students leaving school in May after a student was diagnosed with COVID-19. Credit:Louise Kennerley On a single day two weeks ago, students from the two eastern suburbs private schools, which are within walking distance of each other, were the only two people in the state to test positive to the novel coronavirus. The results - described as "a very big coincidence" by Premier Gladys Berejiklian - worried parents, who rushed their children to COVID-19 testing clinics. Though retail stores are opening up across the country, it will take a while for it to be business as usual. A consumer sentiment survey conducted by Retailers Association of India (RAI) and LitmusWorld says that over 62 per cent of Indian consumers plan to visit retail stores within the first three months of their opening. Around 32 per cent say that they would visit retail stores in the next 3-12 months, and only six per cent of consumers want to stay away from physical stores for more than 12 months. Over 75 per cent of consumers who plan to indulge in retail therapy in the next three months are residents of tier II and III cities, where the incidence of coronavirus pandemic is relatively lower than the metro cities. The not so good news, however, is that 41 per cent of consumers have said that their shopping budgets would contract extensively and only 6 per cent talked about higher shopping expenditure. More women are opting to shop online than men. Around 60 per cent of women, as per the RAI report, prefer shopping online, while 64 per cent men prefer visiting offline stores. In tier II and III cities, 75 per cent of consumers prefer shopping offline. Though shopping for food and grocery shopping is a given, the RAI-LitmusWorld report says that 52 per cent of consumers are keen to buy clothes post lockdown, while 31 per cent want to invest in consumer durables. However, not all shoppers want to shop for apparels in physical stores. Around 79.50 per cent prefer buying clothes online. In fact, Kavi Mishra, CEO, House of Anita Dongre, in a recent interview with Business Today, had said that a consumer in Hyderabad bought 22 pieces of garments through a link that was sent to her by WhatsApp. Though the appetite to shop for apparels is surely there, only 8.19 per cent said that they would shop with an increased budget. The demand, therefore, would be more for basic clothing rather than high-end fashion. In fact, with work from home becoming a way life, most fashion brands are focusing on causal wear, and many of them are coming up with work from home clothing collections. ALSO READ: Malls vs High Street: Who will win hearts of shoppers in post-covid world? Like apparel, 75.4 per cent consumers prefer buying appliances online. No wonder, from Godrej Appliances to Panasonic, all the leading consumer durable brands are stepping up their e-commerce offerings. They are also helping their traditional dealers to go digital. Amazon's recent initiative, Amazon Local, for instance, has a host of local consumer durable stores listed on the platform. So, when a consumer living in North Delhi searches for a washing machine or TV panel on Amazon, it will throw up details of not just the models available on the marketplace, but also details of local retailers in North Delhi. This will enable the consumer to browse the inventory at the local store, and if she wants she can go to that store and touch and feel the product before buying. The local store will also give her the advantage of delivering the product on the same day and installing it for her. Even in consumer durables, only 6 per cent consumers have indicated they would have an increased spend. So, Unlock 1.0 will surely see pent up demand, but consumers are certainly not going to splurge. They are going to buy only those products which they haven't been able to buy due to the lockdown. So, a consumer not having a washing machine or dishwasher, may invest in one, but those consumers who already possess these products will surely hesitate to upgrade. Many retailers actually fear that demand may eventually dry up a couple of months post the lockdown. ALSO READ: Unlock 1.0: No more discounts on apparels, fashion retailers decide in unison The Coronavirus pandemic is devastating global demand for commodities such as oil and gas. Chinas GDP fell by 6.8 percent during the first quarter, which is the first contraction since the cultural revolution. However, the Asian countrys economy has proven surprisingly resilient as the service sector expanded strongly in May despite exporting less for a fourth consecutive month. The consumption of oil and gas in mainland China is a rare bright spot in the global energy markets because demand has remained relatively high. In its effort to contain the novel Coronavirus, Beijing took draconian measures. Gas demand has been 8 to 10 bcm lower in Q1 while consumption stabilized in Q2. According to a think-tank connected to China National Petroleum Corporation, growth will be 8.6 percent higher this year bringing total consumption to 330 bcm. Although the market is expanding, it is at a far slower pace than the double-digit figures weve seen in the last couple of years. The impressive growth of the Chinese gas market can partly be explained by the relatively low share of gas in the overall energy mix. Due to abundant domestic coal reserves, natural gas has been of less importance. However, environmental concerns and a population that is becoming increasingly vocal concerning rampant air pollution, has led to a policy shift where cleaner gas is to replace coal over the years. Market reforms and policy preferences strengthen the medium to long-term outlook for the Chinese gas market. During the past six months, gas pricing rules have been liberalized, infrastructure ownership has been reorganized, and upstream exploration has been opened for third parties including foreign firms. Beijing is increasingly considering energy security due to import dependence and a growing sourcing problem. Related: Will Canadian Oil See Any Federal Help? Last year China Oil and Gas National Pipeline Corporation (COGNPC) was formed taking over all mid-stream assets from the three big national oil and gas companies: PetroChina, Sinopec, and Cnooc. These reforms ensure non-discriminatory access to smaller firms operating up- or downstream, which increases efficiency. Story continues Despite Beijings efforts to boost domestic production, the market share of imports will grow steadily. Several large infrastructure projects are in different stages of development. The massive Power of Siberia pipeline, for example, was finished last year and will satisfy the market in northeast China. According to Michael Mao, a senior analyst with Sublime China Information, fearing a supply shortage like the one in the 2017-2018 winter, China has implemented an ambitious expansion of import terminals. That capacity, after two years of construction, will enter use from 2020. According to Mao the cost of Russian gas has turned out to be lower than analysts were expecting with around $6/mn Btu. The competitiveness of Siberian gas and the growing political relations between Moscow and Beijing have led to renewed interest for a second pipeline. Despite the rumors, gas won't flow through another China-Russia pipeline until the end of this decade or the start of the next one. In the meantime, the existing Central Asian pipeline (CACGP) and the one from Myanmar (MCGP), will fill the import gap together with the recently finished Power of Siberia. Source: www.petroleum-economist.com Despite the relatively low costs of piped natural gas, the fixed nature of the infrastructure means Beijing wont bet solely on a limited number of exporters. Therefore, the share of LNG in the overall mix will grow even stronger. In November and December last year, China overtook Japan as the world's largest importer of the supercooled fuel on a monthly basis. Source: www.petroleum-economist.com It is becoming clear that Beijings next five-year plan running until 2025 will strengthen the role of natural gas in the Chinese economy. The main topics are energy efficiency, energy security, and self-sufficiency. Therefore, China is the biggest contributor to growth in the gas market so expect exporters to court Beijing for investments and long-term contracts. By Vanand Meliksetian for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Read this article on OilPrice.com Lewis, known in the Chicago drag scene as Jo MaMa, started organizing a Black Lives Matter march led by drag performers. The hope was to draw maybe 100 people, but as protests grew and spread, so did support for the Drag March for Change. Scheduled for Sunday in Boystown, it has drawn interest from 5,000 people on Facebook, with more than 1,000 saying they definitely plan to attend. File Photo New Delhi: After a long period of lockdown, while countries around the world are in the process of lifting sanctions and normalizing people's lives, the rising coronavirus cases in some places is calling into question these efforts. Meanwhile, a relief message has come from the World Health Organization. WHOIn recent days, scientists have revealed that a large number of corona patients do not show any symptoms.This posed a serious risk of spreading the corona. Now, World Health Organization experts claim that the risk of coronavirus among such patients is negligible, which is great relief. Advertisement Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the World Health Organization's corona technical team, claimed Monday night that the spread of corona from asymptomatic patients to other people is highly unlikely. CoronavirusAccording to Maria, studies conducted by the World Health Organization in countries around the world have shown that people who develop symptoms such as the corona virus or the flu are the only ones who have a higher risk of developing corona, while those without symptoms. Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research has claimed in its report that in the high-risk districts which is considered as containment zones, in which 15 to 30 per cent of the population suffers from Covid-19 has some relief as most of the people here are slowly recovering. This story is part of an ongoing series on U.S.-China relations, jointly produced by the South China Morning Post and POLITICO, with reporting from Asia and the United States. Using an app on your smartphone to track whether youve been in close contact with people who have contracted Covid-19 seems at first glance like a perfectly plausible way to use new technology to help tackle a global health crisis that has sickened millions and brought the world economy to its knees. Theres just one problem data privacy. Tracing the whereabouts of infected patients has become a central plank in government efforts around the world to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Traditionally, contact tracing was done through in-person interviews with medical professionals. Now smartphones have the power to streamline and automate that process. China has been quick to experiment with digital contact tracing, enlisting domestic tech giants to build QR code-based quarantine apps during the early stages of the outbreak. Collecting a vast swath of users' data including their location Chinas quarantine apps have empowered authorities to use big data to locate threats and take preventive action. But this approach has raised enormous privacy and surveillance concerns in the West concerns that may be intensifying in the U.S. now, as tens of thousands of people take to the streets in protests of police killings. To allay public fears, tech giants and many governments in the West have now trained their efforts on contact tracing solutions that do not collect location data and analyze only anonymized and decentralized data such as Bluetooth technology despite some health authorities fears that those restrictions will blunt their effectiveness. People wearing face masks to protect against the new coronavirus stand outside of an Apple store in Beijing, Saturday, June 6, 2020. China's capital is lowering its emergency response level to the second-lowest starting Saturday for the coronavirus pandemic. That will lift most restrictions on people traveling to Beijing from Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province, where the virus first appeared late last year. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Others, including some U.S. states, are pushing ahead with apps that track locations, though at the risk of spotty adoption by a public skittish about privacy. Indeed, fears over tracking in the West could spill over into public unwillingness to be tested for Covid-19 at all hampering containment efforts. Story continues The fears over surveillance could ultimately lead to a decrease in testing at precisely the time that we want people to trust public health authorities and go and get tested when the tests become widely available, said Jennifer Daskal, faculty director of the tech, law and security program at American University in Washington, D.C. As such, Daskal says that Chinas centralized way of collecting data could be counterproductive in the West. Last month, more than 300 scholars and researchers published an open letter warning of the huge negative effects that may come with the rollout of location data-based contact tracing chief among them being the potential for mass, intrusive surveillance by state and other non-state actors. Information might be reliable as a kind of a suggestion or a reminder, potentially for self-quarantine, Ashkan Soltani, former chief technologist of the Federal Trade Commission, told the South China Morning Post. But its not robust enough for making policy decisions, like who should be able to return to work, or who should be able to use public transport or even enter a grocery store. But what has been Chinas approach and has it really infringed liberty? After all, many would argue that a cautious approach where a person has to willingly download an app, then consent to sharing their data, may also not be feasible when trying to stem the spread of a killer disease. In China, the government collects the entire digital footprint of its citizens their location data as well as their self-reported medical history before labeling each citizen with a risk score and issuing them with a colored health code. The level of a persons health code then dictates whether or not they can access public facilities, public transit or even private businesses. Chinas first health code for contact tracing was rolled out as early as mid-February when tech giant Alibabas sister company Ant Financial helped the local government in the eastern city of Hangzhou to introduce the so-called Alipay Health Code. On Ant Financials popular payment app Alipay, users sign up under their real name ID and fill out relevant surveys to get assigned a colored code green, yellow, or red indicating their health status, from low to high risk. Local governments developed their own contact tracing services using different approaches. Some required the users to give access to phone GPS location data to the apps, which many experts believe is more accurate than carrier location data. Others require users to voluntarily input their current location, travel history and body temperature on a daily basis. However, there has not been consensus on which health code system to adopt on a national level, and when multiple bureaucracies collide, people have sometimes had to divulge their personal data to different versions of health apps developed by different parties for varied situations. In reality, Chinas health code program is a hodgepodge of disjointed efforts by city and provincial governments, as well as its technology giants. This has created further problems, such as lack of interconnectivity on data sharing and opaque algorithm development. For example, health codes developed by municipal and district-level governments can assign the same person totally different risk levels and assigned colors. As such, people have complained about their health codes flickering from one color to another even when they have not moved at all, seemingly without any explanation. Experts also point out that Chinas health code system runs the risk of missing asymptomatic infections, acknowledging there are loopholes and blind spots for screening. The health code can only tell you that they have done some preliminary screening. In fact, there is no way to screen for asymptomatic infections, said Zhang Wenhong, a pre-eminent doctor who oversees the treatment of Covid-19 in Shanghai, in an interview with China Central Television in April. But Zhang clarified that Chinas existing health code system is robust enough to detect most infected cases and their close contacts. For asymptomatic cases, Zhang said the gap will have to be filled by actual nucleic acid tests. And China is not the only country whose government has taken an interventionist approach to contact tracing. Israel, Kenya, and Turkey seized some mobile data to monitor the interactions of potential carriers while South Koreas government added powers to probe the data of suspected virus carriers. However, Israels Supreme Court later banned its intelligence agency from tracing the phone location of those infected with Covid-19, until new laws are passed. In contrast, the approach to contact tracing inside the U.S. has been fragmented and slow to launch, with no national program in place and every state left to decide whether, or how, to pursue the technology. That means that by default, the closest thing to a unified U.S. approach has been the initiative that Apple and Google announced in April and launched last month, which provides technical tools that health authorities can use to design apps that detect when people have come in close proximity to people who have tested positive with the virus. The two companies, whose operating systems power most of the worlds smart phones, also imposed a series of privacy restrictions on apps that work with their tools for example, banning the use of location tracking, requiring users consent to sharing their data, and mandating that information about suspected contacts be stored only in the person's phone, not in a central database. Instead of GPS, their system relies on the Bluetooth feature on phones, which can tell only when two devices have been near each other. Rather than depend on the two giants, at least a half-dozen states are building their own apps to pinpoint the spread of Covid-19. But those efforts have hit technical hurdles, such as spotty cellphone signals, and how to get people to self-report their test results rather than collect the data automatically. And with no way to require Americans to install the apps at all, it is an open question whether enough people will adopt them to help health officials keep tabs on the virus before new hot spots explode. Almost 60 percent of Americans said they could not or would not use the system Apple and Google are developing, according to a recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. Some health experts say the effort may be stuck between two unattractive alternatives. Either you have a system unlikely to help people navigate their world, to leave their house and feel safe, or you have privacy trade-offs, University of Washington Law School professor Ryan Calo told POLITICO. Calo recently co-authored a study that found widespread public discomfort with contact tracing technology. Other states have decided to throw in their lot with Apple and Google, despite acknowledging that that approach also raises worries among some residents. While theres no question weve gotten people who have voiced concerns, and there's always conspiracy theories out there, in the end its about risk and reward, said Vern Dosch, who heads North Dakotas contact tracing efforts, in a recent POLITICO story. We want to fall on the side of giving our citizens every protection we can give them, and if that involves aligning with Apple and Google, then thats what were going to do. And, truth be told, even less intrusive contact tracing technology has its opponents, as some experts warn that there are still many ways in which hackers can reconstruct anonymized, decentralized data. Even though [Apple and Googles contact tracing app] has a privacy preserving protocol, you can use it to identify who might be infected by recording, for example, additional information like video or audio signals from them, Soltani said, So I think initially people will be reluctant to use it. Privacy concerns aside, experts argue that there are also far too many ways in which such Bluetooth-powered contact tracing apps may simply fail to serve their purpose. Soltani said one of his chief concerns is the potential for false positives. For example, if you live in a densely populated flat, you are going to signal that you and your neighbor have been in contact even if you havent been. So thats going to generate a number of false positives, right? And you can never rule out pranksters, who could bring an extra element of farce to what is already a thorny public policy issue. For example, as University of Cambridge security expert Ross Anderson warned in a recent blog post, performance art people could tie a phone to a dog and let it run around the park. Honda Motor said a cyber-attack has disrupted its internal network and brought some factories around the world to a standstill. Production has been halted at car factories in Ohio and Turkey, as well as at motorcycle plants in India and South America, and the company is working to fix systems, spokesman Hidenori Takeyasu said. Japanese operations weren't affected and Honda's other plants in the U.S. have resumed manufacturing. The disruption comes as manufacturers have shut some offices and plants and let staff work from home due to the coronavirus pandemic. Japanese carmakers have slowly started to ramp up production around the world after countries gradually began lifting lockdown measures put in place to halt the spread of the pandemic. Honda resumed operations in the U.S. May 11, and had planned to reopen its U.K. plant this week. Production at the factory in Swindon, England will restart on Wednesday, two days later than planned, a person familiar with the situation said. Honda said in an updated statement that there's no indication of an information breach and the impact on business will be minimal. Other industries have seen rising cyber-attacks during the outbreak as well. On Sunday, Singapore Technologies Engineering said its unit, VT San Antonio Aerospace, recently discovered a cybersecurity incident where a group "gained unauthorised access to its IT network and deployed a ransomware attack." Last week, ship builder Fincantieri SpA confirmed that servers at its Norwegian unit were infected. The U.S. was hit by a record volume of ransomware attacks in 2019 and hackers have shown little sign of relenting in 2020, when users spent more time on less secure networks while working from home. In 2019, at least 966 government agencies, schools and health-care providers were attacked at a cost of more than $7.5 billion, according to the cyber research firm Emsisoft. Among those were almost 90 universities and school districts. Honda's car inspection system, used to check defects before shipping and registering car information, wasn't able to access computers at its plants. The company discovered the issue in the early hours of Monday. A Sharadhaa By Express News Service Searching for the best voice to dub his portions, abandoning songs, planning to use computer graphics for unfilmed portions... Directors of Chiranjeevi Sarjas under-production films look at keeping his memory alive. Sandalwood and fans bid goodbye to actor Chiranjeevi Sarja, who passed away on June 7 due to a massive cardiac arrest. The actor, who started his film career in 2009 with Vaayuputra, had 22 releases in one decade. Over the last few years, Chiru had become one of the busiest actors in the industry, and was simultaneously juggling two to three films. The hero of films like Chandralekha and Whistle had three back-to-back release in 2020, including Khaki, Aadya, and Shivarjuna. He had three more projects lined up for release, which are in different stages of post-production work. The actor was gearing up to start shooting for a handful of projects, including Satya Rayalas April, and a commercial entertainer with Iruvudellava Bittu director Kantharaj Kanalli. He had also given a green signal to a couple of more films. While the makers of Shivarjuna, directed by Shiva Tejas, which was released a day before the lockdown, plan a re-release, CE checks the status of the three projects that will be the last films in the actors career. A still from Rajamarthanda Ranam Ranam, which brings together actors Chetan and Chiranjeevi Sarja, has the latter playing role of an encounter specialist. The film, directed by Samudra and made under the banner of RS Productions, is ready for release. Producer R Srinivas is ready with the first copy and is planning to bring it on to the big screen when the theatres are allowed to open. The film is made in two languages -- Kannada and Telugu. It has music composed by Gurukiran and cinematography by Niranjan Babu. Rajamarthanda Almost the entire shooting of Rajamarthanda, which is directed by lyricist-turned-director Ram Narayan, is over and the team was left with the filming of a duet song sequence and dubbing. The lockdown did not let us complete the film in time, and Chiranjeevi had plans to start dubbing sometime this month. He had called me a few days ago to discuss about it. We had planned to shoot one duet song at a foreign location, but that could not take place, says Ram Narayan. The director is now planning to go without the song, while he is discussing with the producer about how to go about dubbing, and who can suit his voice. He was very keen to dub for this film, because a few scenes had him narrate lengthy dialogues, which would go up to two pages. This was unlike his two-line punchy dialogues. Secondly, the dialogues were in Halegannada (old Kannada) language. Since a few of these scenes were filmed in public, he used to rehearse the dialogues before taking the shots. We were ready to head to the recording studio, but he insisted upon resuming once the film industry gets back to normal, says Ram Narayan. According to the director, Rajamarthanda will probably be the last film to feature Chiranjeevi as a full-fledged hero. Ranam will have him share screen space with another actor, while only 70 percent of Kshatriya has been shot. So ours will be the film, which will show him in a full-fledged role, says the director, who added that he interacted with the actor about this project for three years. Since he had two shades for the film, he wanted to take time and do the role. I am glad that Chiru and his wife had watched the film, along with the producer and music director. We hope to release the film this year, he says. Rajamarthanda produced by Shivakumar features Deepti Sati as the female lead, and has Devaraj, Chikkanna, Bhajarangi Loki, Triveni and Megha Shree in the cast. Kshatriya Kshatriya, which marks the directorial debut of Anil Mandya, was complete except for shooting of four days of talkie portions, and a couple of songs. We are done with 70 per cent of the shoot, which will be processed and the rest will be planned when I sit with the producer in the coming days, says the director, who is looking to fill in the rest of the portions and songs with the help of computer graphics. If not for coronavirus outbreak, we would have completed the shoot, he says, adding that he will take a call after discussing the project with Chiranjeevi Sarjas brother, Dhruva Sarja. Kshatriya features Sanjana Anand as the heroine, along with Sudharani and Sadhu Kokila playing prominent roles. The coronavirus pandemic has been especially crushing for the meat supply chain. The industry could face losses of more than $20 billion in 2020. The pandemic has caused two major disruptions to the meat supply chain. The first was shifting consumer behaviors including restaurant and school closures that paralyzed an entire distribution channel. The second impacted the industry in an unimaginable way; more than 20,000 meat processing plant workers have gotten sick, 74 have died and dozens of plants have been forced to shut down. "I'm not sure anybody really understood sort of how to be prepared. These meatpacking plants, by their very nature, are extremely difficult to manage a human disease like this," said Derrell Peel, a livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University. The plant shutdowns caused wholesale prices to double and livestock prices to drop 20%-30%. More importantly, as demand declined, producers were left with unprecedented bottlenecks of live animals. Some producers resorted to euthanasia. On April 28, President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to try to help the industry. As a result, the plants were deemed essential and had to remain open. It also protected meat processing giants like JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill and Smithfield Foods from legal liability if workers got sick. By mid-May wholesale prices started dropping and livestock prices were inching back. But concerns over a long and costly recovery remain. "Is this a once in a century event? Should we respond accordingly? Or is this something that we need to adapt to going forward? If we think it's going to be with us then yes, it's a pretty fragile supply chain, mainly because we've focused on giving consumers what they want, high-quality food at the cheapest price possible," said Joe Parcell, director of applied social sciences and professor of agribusiness management at the University of Missouri. "If we were to back away from that and make it a little bit, maybe a more robust supply chain, maybe a little bit smaller processors, it's going to cost consumers a little bit more. So there's a trade-off there." Gatwick airport is preparing to re-open the North Terminal and double its opening hours. Until the coronavirus pandemic began, Gatwick was the busiest single-runway airport in the world and in the European top 10 by passenger numbers, regardless of the number of runways. But as traffic dwindled almost to nothing, the owners of the Sussex airport shut one of its two terminals and restricted opening hours to 2-10pm. In April, the main link from Gatwick was to and from Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on Belavia. But with the International Air Transport Association (Iata) now saying that April was the low point for aviation, the North Terminal is set to reopen on 15 June. The main tenant of that terminal is easyJet, which shut down its operations in late March. The airline is expected to resume a skeleton service of mainly domestic flights from 15 June, starting at 7am with a departure to Glasgow. From that date, the airport will now open at 6am, but still close at 10pm except in an emergency. The other airlines operating are Blue Islands, Ryanair, Vueling and Wizz Air. The airport says it has introduced a range of measures to protect the well-being and safety of both passengers and staff. Passengers will be required to wear a face covering within the airport. Face mask vending machines will be made available at the airport, says Gatwick. There will be social-distancing procedures in place at check in, security, gate rooms, seating in departure halls and in restaurants, bars and shops. Perspex screens are being installed at check-in desks and at departure gate areas. The chief executive, Stewart Wingate, said: We want people to understand that airports and air travel is a safe environment in this Covid-19 travelling world. But he strongly criticised the governments new quarantine policy, saying it is already having an impact on the start of air travel recovery. Mr Wingate said: We continue to push for regular, country-by-country reviews of quarantine regulations, based on medical evidence. Senior government sources have indicated that the rules will be relaxed from the end of June, with a series of air bridge agreements with the most popular destination countries. However, Virgin Atlantic has already said it will temporarily close operations at Gatwick and move services to Heathrow, while British Airways is considering abandoning the Sussex airport altogether. T he US attorney leading the probe into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has hit back at claims Prince Andrew offered to cooperate with the inquiry. Earlier on Monday, the Duke of Yorks legal team issued a strongly worded clarification statement in which they insisted the royal had made three offers of help since he was first approached in January. It came after American law enforcement officials investigating Epsteins offending made a formal request to interview the Prince over his links to the disgraced financier. In response to the statement, US attorney Geoffrey Berman said: Today, Prince Andrew yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate with an ongoing federal criminal investigation into sex trafficking and related offences committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, even though the prince has not given an interview to federal authorities, has repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview, and nearly four months ago informed us unequivocally through the very same counsel who issued todays release that he would not come in for such an interview. If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we should expect him. Andrew made three offers of help to US authorities over Epstein lawyers In January Mr Berman gave a press conference outside Epsteins former New York home in which he accused Prince Andrew of offering zero co-operation with the investigation. In their statement today, the Duke of Yorks lawyers at Blackfords LLP said: The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ. Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the duke has offered zero co-operation. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered. They added: As the public record indicates the DOJ has been actively investigating Mr Epstein and other targets for more than 16 years, yet the first time they requested the Dukes help was on 2nd January 2020. Importantly, the DOJ advised us that the duke is not and has never been a target of their criminal investigations into Epstein and that they sought his confidential, voluntary cooperation. In the course of these discussions, we asked the DOJ to confirm that our co-operation and any interview arrangements would remain confidential, in accordance with the ordinary rules that apply to voluntary co-operation with the DOJ. We were given an unequivocal assurance that our discussions and the interview process would remain confidential. Andrew has always categorically denied any wrongdoing over his relationship with billionaire paedophile Epstein. But the request from American officials means he could be forced to appear in a UK court as a witness in the case within months. Andrew stepped away from royal duties following his disastrous Newsnight interview in November about his relationship with Epstein, who killed himself in his jail cell while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. Four days after last years Newsnight interview, the duke said in a statement he was willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:59:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ZAGREB, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Austria has agreed to lift restrictions on travelers from Croatia as of mid-June, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced Tuesday via Twitter after speaking with his Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz. Travelers from Croatia who want to enter Austria will be able to do so by presenting a negative test for coronavirus that is no older than four days and written in German or English. Otherwise, they can also enter Austria but are required to spend 14 days in isolation. Tourists from Austria who want to spend a holiday in Croatia will be able to enter the country without a test, but must give the border service the address where they will stay. Austrian Airlines has announced the resumption of flights between Vienna and Zagreb by the end of June. Croatia has allowed citizens of Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany and Poland to enter the country. Foreign travelers can fill in their information on the website of the Croatian Interior Ministry in advance in order to cross the border faster. According to Croatia's eVisitor system, 44,984 foreign tourists arrivals were recorded in Croatia in May, a 96.8-percent drop compared to the same month last year. The number of domestic tourists in May fell 81.7 percent from last year. After numerous cancellations of reservations for June, many Croatian coastal cities are recording increased interest from foreign guests who are planning to visit Croatia in July and August. According to the Croatian Institute of Public Health, only one COVID-19 case has been recorded in the country since the beginning of June. Out of 2,247 confirmed cases since the beginning of the outbreak in Croatia in late February, 2,130 people have fully recovered. Only 11 cases of COVID-19 remain active with 106 deaths recorded as of Tuesday afternoon. Enditem France's government is pumping 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in rescue money into the pandemic-battered aerospace industry, in hopes of saving its hundreds of thousands of jobs and keeping plane maker Airbus and national airline Air France globally competitive. In exchange for aid, companies will be required to invest more and faster in electric, hydrogen or other lower-emission aircraft, as France aims to make its aviation industry the cleanest in the world. The deal was negotiated with unions, who said they would stay vigilant about job guarantees. Some environmental activists expressed skepticism about green ambitions for such a high-emission industry. We will do everything to support this French industry that is so critical for our sovereignty, our jobs and our economy, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said, unveiling the plan alongside the ministers of transport, defense and environment - a sign of how important the aeronautic sector is in France. As travel restrictions grounded most flights to keep the virus contained, the fallout cascaded across the industry, from airlines to airports to engine makers, maintenance contracts and spare parts suppliers. 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 Airlines around the world have filed for bankruptcy or sought bailouts to survive the near-shutdown in their activity, and officials predict the industry will take years to recover. The French aid money includes direct government investment, subsidies, loans and loan guarantees. It also includes a special fund jointly financed by the government, Airbus and other big manufacturers to support small suppliers. It includes 7 billion euros in loans and loan guarantees that the government had already promised to Air France, whose planes were almost entirely grounded by the virus. And like a similar multibillion-euro plan to save the French car industry announced last month, the aviation bailout requires more investment in clean energy - and puts pressure on manufacturers to avoid layoffs. It will aim at modernizing the production chain and preserving European aviation know-how, Le Maire said. We must save our aeronautical industry. We must avoid any decline in the coming months with regard to the American giant Boeing and the Chinese giant Comac," he said. "We won't let the world aeronautical market be shared between China and the United States, France and Europe will retain their position. The government will help Air France buy Airbus planes, and pledged to order 600 million euros worth of refueling tankers, drones and helicopters from Airbus' defense arm. In addition to dominating the global passenger aircraft market alongside Boeing, Airbus is also a major supplier of military aircraft to European governments. The rescue plan includes investment in developing the successor to Airbus' widely used mid-range A320, a new hybrid or hydrogen regional plane, and a new light helicopter. The government is also working with unions on a long-term, short-work scheme that would allow the industry to preserve jobs as it slowly ramps production back up. As a result of the virus lockdown, Airbus said it is cutting production by 35 percent to 40 percent, and Boeing announced that it would cut 10 percent of its 161,000-person work force through attrition, early-out offers and layoffs. "The recovery will be long, Le Maire warned. The government predicted it will be 2023 before the industry reaches pre-crisis levels. Among bailouts elsewhere, major US airlines reached agreements with the Treasury Department for billions of dollars in grants and loans, Lufthansa won a $10 billion German government rescue and Cathay Pacific announced Tuesday it's seeking $5 billion from the Hong Kong government to survive. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here A Southeast Texas man who says he was burned in an oil rig explosion in Jasper County last year is suing the rigs owner for $10 million in damages related to the explosion. While Brandon Fregia has been in treatment for severe burns from the waist up since the Aug. 9 blowout, explosion and subsequent fire and is suing to recover damages including medical expenses, lost wages and mental anguish, the lawsuit also puts the case in a broader context. It alleges the incident is another example showing why Texas leads the nation in serious workplace injuries and deaths. According to the lawsuit, which was filed in Tyler County District Court late last month, while Fregia and a crew were doing maintenance on the well, a water tank was delivered and placed in a dangerous area. The lawsuit says the placement was too close to the pump the crew was working on and, as a result, violated industry standards. An unidentified witness said that natural gas fumes apparently got into the engine that turns the pump, the lawsuit states. Despite the workers efforts to shut down the engine and pump to prevent the uncontrolled release of natural gas, it ran away uncontrolled and then exploded. Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox Fregia was flown to a hospital for his injuries. Beaumont Enterprise news partner KBMT-TV at the time reported two workers were flown to a hospital for treatment to their injuries. A third was taken to a hospital in Silsbee before being flown to another, and a fourth worker with injuries was not taken to the hospital. Lamar Jeffcoat, who owns the well site between Buna and Kirbyville, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. As a result of the explosion and belief that it could have been prevented, the lawsuit alleges Jeffcoat and other related agents, employees, servants and representatives were negligent, specifically for failing to inspect the work site, provide proper well supervision and conduct proper testing, among several other charges. The lawsuit also alleges Jeffcoat and others participated in negligent hiring and retention, negligent undertaking and premise liability. It then elevates those allegations, claiming actions by Jeffcoat and others constitute gross negligence because of a complete lack of concern for the health, safety and welfare of workers on this job site. The oil rig explosion was completely preventable had the defendants followed basic industry standards, Fregias lawyer Cody Dishon said in a news release. Instead of adhering to basic industry standards, defendants ignored those standards and chose profits over safety. Kaitlin Bain is the Government Reporter for the Beaumont Enterprise. Contact her at Kaitlin.Bain@BeaumontEnterprise.com or on Twitter by clicking here. Don't miss a thing: Sign up for our Daily Headlines newsletter. The HSE has secured High Court orders preventing an IT worker from distributing highly confidential and sensitive information about hospital patients. It is alleged that Neill Bradley from Cork had distributed confidential information he obtained from the HSE computer servers during the course of his now former employment with a third party contracted by the HSE to perform certain IT services. The information includes patient's personal data and medical databases allegedly sent by Mr Bradley to Wikileaks the non-profit organisation that publishes news leaks provided by anonymous sources. The orders were granted last week by Mr Justice Tony O'Connor, who said he was satisfied Mr Bradley had gained access to private and sensitive data through his former employment. The judge noted the defendant in one post on social media had referred to information he obtained, which Mr Bradley knew should be kept secure. The HSE launched proceedings against Mr Bradley following a probe it commenced after becoming aware of a potentially serious data breach from posts on social media of screenshots of the HSE's internal servers. The HSE claims the posts appeared on three Twitter accounts it says were set up and controlled by Mr Bradley. Through those accounts Mr Bradley allegedly sent messages to a senior official at the HSE, as well as posting to the social media accounts of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Ministers Simon Harris and Pascal Donohoe, media figures and Dr Tony Holohan. In his communications Mr Bradley made allegations of a cover up and a scam by the HSE and said he would make public data from over a dozen Irish hospitals, it is claimed. It is also claimed he used various hashtags on his posts including #covid19 #lockdown ireland #notmytaoiseach #MAGA and #mediascum. The HSE said during previous employment as a systems administrator Mr Bradley was given access to its servers and patient databases to carry out tasks his previous employer was contracted to do. That firm's role was to maintain and service a 'smart' automated system used to dispense, record and manage medication given to patients at various hospitals called Omnicell. The system is used in many hospitals throughout the state. Since becoming aware of the situation the HSE, in co-operation with Mr Bradley's previous employer, who terminated his employment after learning of the HSE's concerns, have taken steps to secure the servers and prevent the information from being published. These steps include having posts on the pastebin.com site and links to the confidential material removed. The HSE also sought and obtained court orders, including injunctions to prevent him from attempting to post more links to confidential information. The injunction is to remain In place pending the outcome of any full hearing of the matter. The application for the injunctions was initially heard in camera, meaning that the proceedings were in private. The Judge subsequently lifted the in camera ruling allowing the media to report on the case. In its action the HSE, represented by Eoin McCullough SC, Joe Jeffers Bl instructed by Philip Lee solicitors sought the orders against Mr Bradley with an address at Carrigeen Hill, Conna, Co Cork. Counsel said Mr Bradley had been informed of the application against him. However he did not attend, nor was he represented during, the court hearings. Mr Justice O'Connor in making the orders said Mr Bradley would be given the chance to advance a defence to the HSE's claims at a full hearing of the action. The injunction restrains Mr Bradley and any person to whom he has communicated or may communicate the confidential information from disseminating publishing, communicating by any means, or using any of said information through specific twitter handles and email addresses attributed to him. The order also restrains the defendant, and anyone who received the confidential information from him, from destroying or deleting the information. He must also deliver up all documents, records and devices containing the confidential information to the HSE's solicitors for forensic analysis. The court further restrained Mr Bradley from leaving Ireland until he has complied with the order to deliver up the confidential information, and hand over his passport to An Garda Siochana, who will retain it until further order. The HSE solicitors were given permission to notify the Department of Foreign affairs, An Garda Siochana, authorities at all points of exit from the State about the court's orders. Mr Justice O Connor said that Mr Bradley had said in another tweet that he had sold his house and was moving about Europe in a camper van to "ply my skills elsewhere." The judge also noted the HSE lawyers undertaking to give the Data Protection Commissioner, the Minister for Health and the Attorney General copies of the order and the documents put before the court during the application if requested by those parties. On 26 March, the Centre announced additional food supplies for two-thirds of the Indian population as part of its first lockdown package. The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) would support families until at least June, by tapping into the network of fair-price shops under the already-existing public distribution system. But two months into the scheme, data shows only a handful of states have met the distribution targets. The scheme was announced on the second day of the nationwide restrictions to stop the coronavirus. It entitles the 774 million beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to an additional 5 kg of foodgrains and 1 kg of pulses per month in April, May and June. Foodgrain allocation is done by the Centres Food Corporation of India, while states are responsible for the procurement and distribution. Government data for April and May shows the distribution of these additional foodgrains has been uneven across states, potentially risking food security at this time of crisis. Most states have struggled to meet targets, with Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat being prominent laggards. Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan are three states that have ensured close to complete and consistent distribution. The new scheme rides on the PDS, a targeted welfare scheme that reaches two kinds of households. The first comprises 204 million priority households, with each individual entitled to 5 kg subsidized wheat or rice at 3 per kg. The second is 23 million Antyodaya Anna Yojana households, who are the most vulnerable and get 35 kg foodgrains per month per family. The PMGKAY covers both categories. The Centres stated objective for PMGKAY was to double foodgrain distribution under the PDS between April and June. But this did not happen in April, the first full-lockdown month: 4.25 million metric tonnes (MT) was distributed under the regular PDS, but only 2.61 MT under PMGKAY. The doubling nearly happened in May, but this was when the regular PDS distribution was lower than usual. A further increase under PMGKAY is likely in June as states try to make up for the shortfalls of these two months. Under PMGKAY, all states have been allocated foodgrains for three months15 kg per beneficiary. By May-end, 16 states and Union territories had procured more than 90% of their respective three-month quota. The higher this number, the better it is, as it means the state has stock to distribute. But states have struggled on the distribution side. For timely food for each beneficiary, a state must distribute around 33.3% of its quota each month. Chhattisgarh happens to be the only state that met this optimal figure in both months. Ten states reported distribution of over 30% in both months. States are following different distribution approaches. If Chhattisgarh presents consistency, Karnataka and Jharkhand took a lump sum approach, distributing two months of stock in May. Worryingly, there are 16 states and UTs whose total distribution in these two months is below 60%, against the optimal 66.6%. The Centre, in a rebuttal to a news report, has attributed the PMGKAY distribution deficits to logistical and strategic reasons. The government said that while some states may distribute two to three months quota in one go, others are balancing PMGKAY distribution along with PDS stocks to manage the supply chain and respect physical-distancing norms. The numbers for June will show if that was indeed the case. Demand is not an issue. If anything, it would be more in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar following the massive reverse migration. However, many of these returnees might be outside the purview of the NFSA, which was formulated in 2013 using Census 2011 data. In a recent study, researchers Jean Dreze, Reetika Khera and Meghana Mungikar used 2020 population projections to estimate that still using Census 2011 population data excludes 108 million eligible Indians from the purview of NFSAand, by extension, PMGKAY. This exclusion was the highest in UP and Bihar, possibly due to the exclusion of some of those who migrated. Several states are seeing an increase in demand for new ration cards, which are essential to access PDS. Factoring in PMGKAY, a five-member household would spend 75 a month for 50 kg of foodgrains (25 kg at 3 per kg and 25 kg free), which would otherwise cost them upwards of 1,000 in the open market. With incomes likely to remain stressed for a significant period, subsidized foodgrains will be a lifeline for poor households. Continuing PMGKAY beyond June, with wider scope, and ensuring optimal distribution becomes an imperative. www.howindialives.com is a database and search engine for public data Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. By Express News Service PEDDAPALLI: In a shocking incident, a group of people wearing Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Raos masks pelted stones at Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) leader Ambati Nareshs house in Godavarikhani under Ramagiri Police Station limits on Monday. Naresh was not home when the attack occurred, but his seven-year-old daughter, who was a witness to the incident, received minor injuries. His vehicles window panes were also damaged. Nareshs daughter said that there were about 100 assailants. Wearing KCRs masks, they vandalised the house by pelting stones at it. She received an injury to her head.As they left the house, they raised the slogan Putta Madhu Zindabad, the girl added. When police arrived at the spot, the HMS leader alleged that TRS workers were behind the attack. He said he suspected Manthani MLA Putta Madhus hand in the incident and asked why the police were backing TRS leaders in the district. Recently, four contract coal workers were killed in a blast at OCP-1 in Ramagundam region. Since then, the HMS leader has been demanding compensation for the victims families. The HMS and TRS leaders had their differences over the matter. U.S. fencer Race Imboden takes a knee on the podium during a medal ceremony at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games. (Leonardo Fernandez / Getty Images) After hearing from hundreds of athletes, the head of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee has issued a public apology and vowed to reexamine her organizations rules and systems. USOPC Chief Executive Sarah Hirshland cited global protests over George Floyds death while in police custody in saying she will establish an athlete-led group to discuss change. Racism and the right to protest during medal ceremonies will be among numerous issues addressed. For decades you have spoken about equality and unity and sacrificed your moment on the podium to call for change, Hirshland wrote in an open letter. And we have failed to listen and tolerated racism and inequality. I am sorry. At the Pan American Games last summer, hammer thrower Gwen Berry and fencer Race Imboden protested social injustice she raised a fist, he knelt while receiving their medals. The USOPC placed both on probation and the International Olympic Committee issued stricter guidelines on acceptable podium behavior, prohibiting signs, armbands and gestures, among other things. But Hirshland is sounding a different tone after holding a town hall meeting last week. In her letter, she commended athletes for confronting racial injustice. It is time to match your courage, she wrote. To listen and understand. To do the work. Everyone knows Winston Churchill was a famous racist-- so when the statue in London's Parliament Square was defaced with "Churchill" crossed out with black marker pen and the words "is racist" underneath, many breathed a sigh of relief. Protesters also pinned a poster to the memorial with the words "Black Lives Matter." Soon after the defacement of the property, along with outrage, came justification. "But, he was racist," that's what Twitter said. Many Indians agreed with the thought. Winston Churchill, in India, is remembered as the man who caused the devastating Bengal Famine. In 2019, a study published in the journal, Geophysical Research Letters, suggested that the Bengal Famine of 1943 which led to the death of more than 3 million people, was not caused just by drought but also due to complete policy failure on part of then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The scientists analysed the level of soil moisture between 1870 to 2016 to find out what exactly happened. According to them, there were six notable famines during this time frame and the Bengal Famine was the only one that could not be traced to any crop failures or deficit of soil moisture. READ: 'Churchill Was Racist': Indians Remember Bengal Famine after Statue is Vandalized The same study also asserted that Bengal's problems in that year were exacerbated by other factors related to World War II which affected the state's economy. In fact, the researchers showed that the conditions of drought were the worst in 1941 while levels of rain were above average in 1943, when the famine was at its peak. Then was it indeed Churchill who was responsible for the famine? In 2017, Indian politician Shashi Tharoor ranked Chruchill as one of the "worst genocidal dictators" of the 20th century in his book, 'Inglorious Empire.' In the book, Tharoor argued that Chruchill's reputation as a champion of human rights and an inspiring wartime leader is misleading for he was behind the death of millions of people in Bengal. According to Tharoor, as the famine ravaged through Bengal, Churchill diverted food rations to Greece and other countries. Tharoor's claims were confirmed by journalist Madhushree Mukherjee in her book, 'Churchill's Secret War'. According to Mukherjee, Churchill was secretly sending food shipments to war-stricken Britain and other European countries and denying access to Bengal. British historian Diana Preston disagrees. Preston admits that Churchill did not really care about India, but he did not orchestrate the famine. The only thing he was guilty of was not responding to the famine crisis before it was too late. In an essay, writer Gideon Polya wrote an essay titled 'Media lying over Churchill's crimes' where he held the British leader responsible for Bengal's state in 1943. The official website dedicated to Winston Churchill, however, addressed these claims, debunking them. They spoke to historian Arthur Herman, who wrote 'Gandhi and Churchill' in 2008. Herman dismissed claims of Churchill causing the famine as absurd. According to him, the main cause of the famine was the fall of Burma which cut off India's chief supply of rice. Moreover, there was a massive cyclone in October 1942, which added to the woes. Churchill, according to Herman, tried to provide whatever aid he could to avoid the catastrophe, but it just was not enough. For the past few weeks, the protests over George Floyd's death has emerged into a full-blown movement of civil unrest against oppression, police brutality and anyone or any institution that abused its power to inflict torture upon the weaker sections of society. An example of this would be the petition started in Belgium to take down all statues of former King Leopold II who was responsible for a mass genocide in Congo, which used to be a Belgian colony. Darkest Hour, which won many accolades, where Winston Churchill is played exceptionally well by Gary Oldman, was not true to history though. "One realises the practical need to heroise fascists like Churchill and to construct a narrative of a glorious past for Britain, especially in these post-Brexit times. A country found on shameful violence needs a history to celebrate, when they really havent done much that needs celebration," Bedatri wrote on BuzzFeed. With the statue gone, maybe it is time to review history again, to smash rose-tinted glasses and view world leaders as what they really were. At, least that's what social media seems to think: Churchills genocide horrified his own cabinet. Its called the #BengalFamine Britain didnt stand alone as the empire provided resources inc cannon fodder. Our ancestors fought for freedoms they did not have. We also fought & won them from UK. Churchill was a war criminal https://t.co/ApYDzQSeea Sunny Singh (@ProfSunnySingh) June 7, 2020 Here are some pictures from 1943 #BengalFamine. India was is British rule. This was created by Winston Churchill's policy of transporting foods from Bengal during WWII. He was no less than Hitler. Equally evil. #WinstonChurchill #BlackLivesMattters pic.twitter.com/6QaohQY64T Santarpan Roy (@iams_roy) June 7, 2020 The #BengalFamine was not natural. It was created by the British empire, largely due to #Churchill, because he was a racist. If you are tweeting about #BlackLivesMatter n forget about this guy, then I doubt your intention. https://t.co/BOrpRPcmnZ Namrata Datta (@candinam) June 8, 2020 #WinstonChurchill was a colonialist and imperialist whos decisions and policies led to the 1943 #Bengalfamine and the deaths of 3 million Indians. There are countless accounts of his racism. I hate Indians [...] They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. 1/4 Phen Weston (@PhenWeston) June 8, 2020 New Delhi: Within only 6 weeks after launching the highly protective and affordable Make in India mask Kawach , the IIT Delhi startup ETEX has scaled up its production to ensure that the mask reaches the masses to protect them against COVID-19. So far, over a million masks have been served to the country across all states. Inventors of KAWACH, Prof. Bipin Kumar and his team from the Dept. of Textile and Fibre Engineering, IIT Delhi are of the view that India has the potential to reform textile industry all over the world through innovation. Kawach mask is a multi-layer textile innovation for optimum protection at an affordable rate (45/- only); 98% Filtration protection against 3 m (micron) and 90% against 0.3 m (micron). Ultra-soft fibrous lightweight material (<15 g) and advanced knitting technology have been used to give extra comfort to the wearer. 3D fit design, as par with N95, allows maximum face covering for protection. Mask is also tested and approved by the NABL accredited lab using international standards (ASTM F2299, ASTM F2101, IS 16289:2014, ASTM F1862/F1862M-13, 16 CFR Part-1610). Further, Kawach is primarily made from biodegradable materials to save the environment. While doing so ETEX has created over 2000 jobs in the textile industry in the country at a time when there is a tough employment scenario due to the pandemic. The startup has organized several training sessions for garment houses for the quality mask development. Moreover, the startup is empowering different sections of the society like Persons with Disabilities (PwD), underprivileged women, senior citizens, BPL, self-help groups through several NGOs including ECOTATV, ASSOCIATION FOR DISABLE PEOPLE, NEEV and UDBHAVA. Over 200 PwD community members are actively participating in technological skill development, manufacturing, distribution and marketing through Kawach. Popular international para-athlete and PwD activist, Ms. Suvarna Raj recently handed over a Kawach mask manufactured by the PwD community to IIT Delhi Director. Speaking on the occasion she said, The support of IIT Delhi startup ETEX is uplifting the PwD community, both financially and technically, creating many PwD warriors for the country in the fight against COVID-19. Speaking about the mission of IIT Delhis startup to empower various sections of the society, Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi said, It is indeed a proud moment for IIT Delhi to see their technologies impacting and creating job opportunities amidst this pandemic. The true purpose of any technological innovation must be inclusive in nature and should have strong social impact. Kawach has been acknowledged by different sectors like Education, sports, Khadi, NGO, Textile Industry, Environment, Medical, Defence and many other organizations, promoting the message of Make Ind India, Save The Environment, Be Indian, Bye Indian, Aatm Nirbharta, and Voice for Vocal. Kawach mask is now listed in Kendriya Police Kalyan Bhandar across the country. Prof Bipin Kumar said, While not resting on the laurels of merely developing mask technology, we are on our next mission to introduce the historic and popular Indian brand KAWACH on the international forum. We wish to see Indian brands getting equally acknowledged by the international community, similar to mask type, N95, FFP1, FFP2 or FFP3. Kawach mask is now available across all major online platforms like Flipkart, Amazon, TataQLiQ, ETEX.in, and other online platforms. Black Lives Matter protestors took to the streets of European cities again at the weekend in solidarity with demonstrations in the United States, which were triggered by the death of 46-year-old black man George Floyd two weeks ago in Minneapolis. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 10 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) AG successfully completed the 105 km long offshore section of the pipeline across the Adriatic Sea, Trend reports citing the TAP AG consortium. This milestone includes several deliverables, such as the offshore installation of 36-inch pipes by Castoro Sei, Saipems semi-submersible pipelaying vessel, the above-water-tie-in with the onshore infrastructure in Albanian waters, as well as hydrotesting the asset to ensure it is safe and ready for operations, reads the message. Activities to connect the Italian and Albanian coasts began in mid-January 2020, with pipes being welded and tested on board Castoro Sei and then laid onto the bottom of the Adriatic Sea in a continuous stretch, starting from the Italian shores towards Albania. Approximately 9,000 pipes of 36-inch diameter have been used for TAPs offshore section, weighing circa 100,000 tonnes in total. The pipes have been laid on the Adriatic seabed: 25 km in Italian territorial waters, 43 km in international waters and 37 km in Albanian territorial waters. The deepest point of the pipeline is approximately 810 metres beneath sea level. Saipems Castoro Sei laid an average of 1.2 km pipes per day, reaching a peak of 2.8 km in a single day. TAP project, worth 4.5 billion euros, is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union (EU). The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries. Connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP will cross Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network. The project is currently in its construction phase, which started in 2016. Once built, TAP will offer a direct and cost-effective transportation route opening up the vital Southern Gas Corridor, a 3,500-kilometer long gas value chain stretching from the Caspian Sea to Europe. TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent). --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn MILTON After two pride flags were stolen in a weeks time, Milton town officials on Tuesday raised a third during a ceremony at the town's veterans park. Supervisor Benny Zlotnick, who reported the theft to the Saratoga County Sheriffs Office, said the flags that were stripped from the pole overnight on June 1 and again June 3 were meant to honor LGBTQ community members who have served in the military. But instead, he said the flags caused not only two thefts but a hullaballoo on Facebook. People are entitled to their views, but we are living in the year 2020, Zlotnick said. We should be past that. With the third raising, Zlotnick hopes the flag will remain, flying alongside the American and state flags for the month of June to mark LGBTQ Pride month. Councilwoman Barbara Kerr, who attended Tuesdays ceremony, said she disagrees with those who complained that the pride flag was inappropriate to fly at the park. However, she takes issue with the towns Republican Party Chair Anna Stanko who categorized the flag, in a now deleted Facebook post, as an advertisement and political sign. But more upsetting to Kerr is that fact that Wayne Howe, a retired town employee and husband to the towns elected clerk, started the Facebook uproar against Zlotnick. Howe called the Republican supervisor, who ran on the Democratic last fall after losing the Republican primary, disgraceful. He also wrote that the flag raising as an (expletive) move by a libtard Democrat. He ended his comments: It would be a damn shame if it magically blew off the top of a tree a few miles into the woods some night. Robert J. Mink Jr. posted in response, Its down. Howe responded with, Thanks." Those posts, which have since been all been deleted, were preserved in screen shots shared with the Times Union. Howe and Mink did not respond to the Times Unions requests for comments. Stanko said that she is not against the Pride flag. She said her problem with the flag is asking "town employees to raise a non-military flag ... as a political favor." "I believe, as do many others, that the American flag represents all veterans regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation," she said. "The memorial is there to represent the sacrifice, valor and honor of all who served. When I stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance, it is to honor our flag and our country and all people who serve. I believe the American flag is one of unity....To twist my words for someone's political agenda is disheartening." She also said that the Pride flag that flies at Town Hall remains undisturbed and that no one is complaining about it being there. Zlotnick said if the flag swiper is found, he or she could be charged with a hate crime as the LGBTQ community is a protected class. He also said the flag was donated to the town, not costing taxpayers anything. Ballston Spa VFW Commander Denny LaQue attended the ceremony to support the flag's flying. However, he wanted the flag to fly below the state flag, not the American flag. Zlonick complied. "A veteran is a veteran is a veteran," VFW board member Jason Duke said. "We represent all veterans no matter their color, creed, race or sexuality. No way, shape or form do we agree with the theft of the (pride) flag or its descretion in any way." Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Keith Lewis, who is politically active in the community, has posted a $2,000 reward for information that can lead to the arrest and prosecution of the flag hijacker. I think it was wonderful that Benny hung the pride flag for the month of June in solidarity, Lewis said. Im most upset that vigilantes feel they can make decisions for the town, not through process, but through vandalism. And that they include the Republican Chair of Milton Anna Stanko - who created this mob mentality of individuals set upon by removing that flag. He said LGBTQ community members have always served in the military. And, in a time when the country is grappling with systemic discrimination and injustice, it should be standing with LGBTQ people. The community must stand up and say to the lawbreakers, you are not in charge and you are unpatriotic, Lewis said. We can do better. Kerr said she cant understand the hatred for the LGBTQ community. Our flag represents everyone, Kerr said. I represent everyone. I dont have an issue with the pride flag, I have an issue with it being stolen. The EU on Tuesday formally accused China and Russia of mounting targeted coronavirus disinformation campaigns to undermine European democracy, in documents seen by AFP. In a paper on what it called the 'flood' of misleading and inaccurate information proliferating around the pandemic, Brussels says Beijing and Moscow had set out to polarise debate and burnish their own images. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, also accuses major online platforms of doing too little to help fact-checkers tackle the 'infodemic' of false healthcare claims, conspiracy theories, fraud and hate speech. 'Foreign actors and certain third countries, in particular Russia and China, have engaged in targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns around COVID-19,' the paper, set to be published on Wednesday, says. The 17-page report, to be presented by EU vice-president for values and transparency Vera Jourova, accuses Moscow and Beijing of 'seeking to undermine democratic debate and exacerbate social polarisation, and improve their own image in the COVID-19 context.' EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, pictured on June 9 2020, held video talks with Chinese Foreign Minister on Tuesday, warning afterwards that Europe needed to devote more resources to tackling disinformation Already in April, the EU's anti-disinformation task force detailed 'a coordinated push by official Chinese sources' to deflect blame for the pandemic, which originated in China. But the assessment in the commission's official communication to member states and the European Parliament puts the charge on a more official footing - and in far less diplomatic terms. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell held video talks with a Chinese Foreign Minister on Tuesday, warning afterwards that Europe needed to devote more resources to tackling disinformation. The coronavirus has fed into a geopolitical information war, with the West accusing Beijing and Moscow of promoting false or misleading narratives about the pandemic which began in China late last year. The EU strategy paper says social media platforms had reported that they were trying to promote accurate virus information and limited content that was false or misleading. But it says they need to do more. 'Fact-checkers, researchers and civil society organisations have a crucial role to play, but platforms have not sufficiently empowered them during the current public health crisis,' the paper says. 'There is therefore a need for additional efforts and information-sharing by social media platforms, as well as increased transparency and greater accountability.' The EU task force analysing and debunking misleading stories online is small and currently mainly focuses on disinformation emanating from Russia. 'For sure we have to allocate more resources in the fight against disinformation,' Borrell told reporters. 'We have to work more on that and not only fighting disinformation, trying to counterattack the fakes but to present a positive narrative.' Pictured: A masked woman walks next to Europen Union flags at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, June 9 2020 The report sets the stage for a video summit later this month between EU Council President Charles Michel and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and Chinese leaders. EU-Chinese relations have hit a rocky patch as Brussels struggles to calibrate its response to Beijing's growing assertiveness under President Xi Jinping. The bloc has characterised Beijing as a 'systemic rival' - to the disgruntlement of Chinese officials - and sought to challenge it on human rights issues such as Tibet and Hong Kong. But the EU has struggled to maintain a united front as 27 national governments pursue their own interests, political and economic, with the Asian giant. Borrell, who in recent weeks has called for a 'more robust' EU stance on China and warned Beijing does not share European values, said governments needed to wise up. He said he raised EU concerns about Beijing's plan to impose a national security law on Hong Kong, which Western governments say will curb the city's cherished freedoms. Worldwide, there have been over seven million cases of the coronavirus, with over 400,000 related deaths according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Russia is the country with third highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases after the U.S. and Brazil, with 484,630 reported, but with 6,133 deaths. Its number of mortalities is relatively low for a country with that many cases. Pointing the finger: European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell gestures as he speaks during a video press conference on the 10th EU-China Strategic Dialogue, at the European Commission in Brussels on June 9, 2020, with a Chinese national flag on a screen behind him Meanwhile China, where the virus is said to have originated, has reported 84,195 cases and 4,638 deaths. Both countries have been accused of under-reporting the number of deaths, and both have denied the accusations. Speaking on Russia specifically, political analyst Anton Barbashin told CNBC on May 20 'that there are many questions' around the number of coronavirus deaths in the country. 'It is safe to assume it is considerably higher than the official statistics indicate. Presumably in many of Covid-related deaths, a different cause of death is being registered (heart failure or some chronic illness). 'Moreover there are a lot questions to numbers regions provide ... Thus numbers of Covid-positives and people dying from Covid could be much higher than reported,' he said. The trip to the bunker has become a major irritant to the president, who was infuriated at the notion that he would be seen as cowering in the face of protests even if the Secret Service was following protocols. Officials noted that a temporary barricade near the Treasury Department next door to the White House had been breached. The day after the Times report was published, Mr. Trump insisted on marching out of the White House to stage a photo opportunity at St. Johns Church a block away, a bit of political performance art that required the forcible removal of peaceful demonstrators from near Lafayette Square by the police deploying pepper spray, smoke grenades and mounted officers. White House officials have said that Mr. Barr gave the order and that Mr. Trump had no knowledge of the security arrangements for his walk. Since then, the president has been the target of mockery, with late-night comics ridiculing his trip to the underground refuge and protesters waving preprinted disparaging signs in front of the White House during a crowded demonstration on Saturday. His effort to brush off the trip as nothing more than an inspection only fueled his critics, who roasted him on Twitter and other social media. Mr. Barr cited Mr. Trumps move to the bunker as one of the reasons for pushing demonstrations farther from the White House. But he denied that he gave the order to move the protesters in order to clear the way for the presidents walk to St. Johns, calling that a canard and saying the photo op was not a factor in the plan to move the perimeter. But Mr. Barr said that he did not disagree with Mr. Trumps decision to go to the church, which he said he ought to be able to do. The president of the United States should be able to walk one block from the White House out to the Church of Presidents, the attorney general said. The Amazing Race 'influencer team' Sidney Pierucci and Ashley Ruscoe split in November last year, following an alleged domestic violence incident. And on Monday, six months after Sidney was slapped with an Apprehended Violence Order, the former couple appeared to share dinner together in Sydney. Hinting to a potential romantic reunion, the reality TV stars both uploaded photos from their joint outing to Chin Chin restaurant in Surry Hills. Scroll down for video Back together? Former Amazing Race 'influencer' couple Sidney Pierucci and Ashley Ruscoe reunite in Sydney after AVO drama While they didn't tag each other in their separate Instagram Story uploads, Ashley has confirmed the pair are back in touch. Ashley told Sydney Confidential that she was spending time with Sidney again, but the pair had not put a label on their relationship yet. 'We have been hanging out, but not back together officially,' she said. The former couple appeared to be on friendly terms back in April, when they were spotted heading out for a coffee together in Sydney. Ashley told Daily Mail Australia at the time that they were not back together, but were simply meeting to discuss a business idea. Dinner date? Hinting to a potential romantic reunion, the reality TV stars both uploaded photos from their Monday night outing to Chin Chin restaurant in Surry Hills 'We have been hanging out, but not back together officially': Ashley told Sydney Confidential that she was spending time with Sidney again, but the pair had not put a label on their relationship yet. Pictured on The Amazing Race Australia In November, Ashley told TV Week magazine that their split had occurred shortly after their round-the-world TV journey ended. She admitted while filming had caused tension between them, it wasn't the sole reason for their split. 'Sid and I have a great relationship; we just decided not to continue our romantic relationship,' she explained. Reflecting on their challenges, Ashley added: 'I knew we'd clash and we did. But we managed to bounce back most of the time.' Split: The couple separated last year after Sidney was slapped with an Apprehended Violence Order after an alleged domestic violence incident involving Ashley The announcement came one week after Sidney was slapped with an AVO after an alleged domestic violence incident involving Ashley. 'Police have charged a 27-year-old man following a domestic related incident at Bellevue Hill,' police said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia at the time. Sidney pleaded guilty to a minor charge in court in February and no conviction was recorded. Sidney and Ashley were billed as 'The Bondi Influencers' on The Amazing Race. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures, as well as the recent guidance by TEA for Texas Schools to consider alternative educational approaches for the fall 2020 semester, ECS has partnered with Magic Software to offer their market-leading STAAR MASTER work-texts and practice tests on e-books and e-readers for the first time. "It's no secret we are enduring an incredibly unique, challenging, and pivotal moment in education today as we are encouraged to stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19," said David Cumberbatch, President, and CEO of ECS Learning Systems. "In an effort to make learning and instruction easier for Texas teachers, schools, and educational programs in 2020, we have teamed up with an acclaimed technology platform to take our educational solutions to the next virtual level." All STAAR MASTER publications will be accessible to schools and students as e-books. These publications include Math, Reading, Writing, Social Studies, and Science for Grades 1-9, all 100% aligned to the current TEKS. Spanish language versions will also be available. Schools participating will be able to leverage the STAAR MASTER Student Practice Book, Companion Work Text, and Quick Review in e-book format to facilitate hybrid and blended classroom introduction. Notable benefits of the STAAR MASTER eBook learning platform include: the ability to note-take, two-way messaging and sharing of notes with teachers; integrated learner engagement analytics and usage reporting; cloud-based web browser access; mobile apps for Android and Apple iOS devices with offline usage for students without broadband at home; and finally, text to speech for enhanced accessibility and ESL students. Magic Software's MagicBox platform is considered a leader in the remote Learning and digital content publishing space, delivering state-of-the-art learning experiences to over three million students globally. ECS's new STAAR MASTER eBook learning platform, powered by MagicBox, provides single-sign-on (SSO), online-offline access to e-books, and detailed learning analytics with COPPA and FERPA compliance. Despite the interoperability challenges in the K12 fragmented technology landscape, MagicBox ensures seamless integration into several LMS using LTI, as well as supports Clever, Google Classrooms, ClassLink, and OneRoster. MagicBox recently won the 2020 Gold Award from IMS Global Learning Consortium under its Learning Impacts Program. "It was our intention to ensure that STAAR MASTER eBooks reach all students easily. Our synchronization features simplify the onboarding process and allow the e-reader app to easily pull roster information from student information systems and share learning data with existing learning management infrastructures," said Acky Kamdar, CEO of Magic Software. "We're on a mission to ensure education doesn't lag in the coming months, which is why digitizing all of these excellent assets is more important than ever." STAAR MASTER eBooks will also include interactive Practice Tests that are integrated with learner analytics for instant scoring and analysis. Teachers will be able to assign Form A or B of the Practice Tests to students. To learn more about the STAAR MASTER eBook Learning platform, call 855-500-1640 or visit staarmaster.com. For more information about ECS Learning Systems, visit ecslearn.com. To learn more about Magic Software or MagicBox, visit magicedtech.com or getmagicbox.com. About ECS Learning Systems ECS Learning Systems, headquartered near San Antonio Texas, pioneered the Integrated Standards Prep approach in its quality education solutions that build core knowledge, are fully-aligned to state standards, and work to ensure students complete tests with confidence. Founded in 1982 in San Antonio, Texas, ECS Learning Systems is the Integrated Standards Prep company that helps over half a million students annually with STAAR MASTER, TEST SMART, and PREPWORKS. Building on its strong presence in Texas with STAAR MASTER, the Company operates a line of Learning Centers under the TEST SMART brand and offers PREPWORKS software solutions and worktexts nationwide. The Company offers computer adaptive learning solutions on the award-wining Learning Positioning System (LPS). Press Contact: Sharon Cumberbatch 800-688-3224 [email protected] https://ecslearn.com SOURCE ECS Learning Systems Related Links https://ecslearn.com Tourism Destinations to Rely on Visitors' Compliance for Successful Reopening 1Berkshire's Ben Lamb, top left, moderatesa virtual town hall with, clockwise from top right: Canyon Ranch Managing Director Mindi Morin, Norman Rockwell Museum CEO Laurie Norton Moffat and Trustees of Reservations Southern Berkshires Director Brian Cruey. WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. Museum-goers are used to signs reminding them not to touch the exhibits. This summer, they may see reminders not to touch their own faces. If the commonwealth progress through the phased reopening announced by Gov. Charlie Baker last month, museums could be allowed to open as early as July. Recently, the director of Stockbridge's Norman Rockwell Museum and the Southern Berkshire director for the Trustees of Reservations participated in a virtual town hall hosted by 1Berkshire to talk about what summer in the region will look like. A big part of the summer scene will focus on the region's natural splendor and outdoor recreational opportunities. But at some point, those indoor displays at the Rockwell Museum or the Trustees' Gilded Age cottage at Naumkeag will be open to the public once again. When that day comes, the public will have to remember that the social distancing they practice in the rest of their daily lives applies to life inside the museum. "There are different levels of precautions that originate from different places," said Brian Cruey of the Trustees. "But I feel like at the end of the day and definitely at Naumkeag yesterday when we had our first day welcoming the public back, you really saw what was working. There may be a couple of points where we needed to do this or shift something differently. "I've been really pleasantly surprised how respectful people in the Berkshires have been helping us to move along the agenda of a safe and secure reopening. People have been really great about wearing masks and maintaining that social distancing." Cruey said institutions need that level of cooperation. "That is a really important part to this: as we welcome the public back just how much of a partner they are with us as we attempt to do this," he said. "Because if they're not going to help us by showing up and voluntarily meeting these guidelines that might force our hand in reconsidering how we open or being open at all. "I think the messaging around the public when we welcome them back and making sure they know what the expectations are when they're coming to us is one of the most important parts of a reopening process." Rockwell CEO Laurie Norton Moffat said that although the earliest the commonwealth's Phase 3 could occur is early July, her museum is being a little more cautious and targeting the middle of July. "It's possible that these phases, as was announced in New York [Friday], they were about to cycle into Phase 2 but they're waiting on data experts to analyze the healthcare results after Phase 1, so there's a slight delay," Moffat said. "So we're building that buffer in and spending that time on all of the program plans. Our heart quickens to think about getting back into the galleries and bringing art to the world. We have some humorous exhibitions that I think will be really great for healing and uplifting the community. "But of course, with all the safety precautions we're all being asked to create -- from timed ticketing to the cleansing methodology of our sites to one-way navigation to having policies in place. So we're taking the time to put all those policies in place and put our programming in place for a mid-July opening." "Social distancing" could have a silver-lining for visitors to those galleries. "Museum programming will shift this summer because we know there will be limitations on gathering," Moffat said. "The notion of docent-led guided tours with people packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a gallery will not be happening in that way this summer. "We will be deciding how many people can physically be in a space. It will be very thin. It will be a luxurious experience in many ways to have the privacy to look at art with only a handful of people in each space." Moffat and Cruey were joined in Friday's video conference by Mindi Moran, the managing director of Canyon Ranch. All agreed that there will be additional challenges for businesses that welcome the public. "We have some time, because we're going to be allowed to fully open at the third phase, to work on those standard operating procedures," Morin said. "To work on what it's going to look like with this new normal. "Guidelines [from the commonwealth] would be helpful in terms of what is the amount of people, what is that percentage? Guidelines in terms of, if it's a fitness class or it's a hike outside or it's a program that we do -- because we're very program heavy here at Canyon Ranch." Cruey raised another practical concern. "All of us are struggling, one, to identify what [personal protective equipment] and cleaning materials are the best to use, and, two, sourcing them is very, very challenging," Cruey said. "I think it would be great if there was some sort of consensus in supply, which I know is one everyone's wish list. That's really the thing we're struggling the most. "What I've been really struggling with is sourcing the amount of PPE we need to really open, clean regularly, supply people with masks if they come on the property without them. That's a big question. What do you do? I can barely find enough for my staff right now, how do I supply them for people coming in as well. That's a huge expense. It would be kind of nice if there was some sort of support for us to deal with this because adding that kind of maintenance on top of an already labor-intensive industry, which the tourism industry is, with reduced capacity on top of it, is really hard." On the procurement front, Morin recommended that people in the hospitality industry rely on local companies like Lenox's Zogics "That has really been great as a community that we're all helping each other out," she said. "It's frustrating when things are on back order and things are unknown and there are shipping costs and dealing with Amazon and all of that. "If we could really rely on our local partners as much as we can, because I know they've already stepped up, which has been amazing." Despite the challenges of educating visitors, creating new procedures and supplying their operations, the participants on Friday's call were optimistic about the opportunities for the summer of 2020. "I'm confident that people will return to the museum in safe ways and appreciate that we're all working so hard to be able to be able to both provide a season as well as keep our visitors, our employees and everyone who comes on the campus safe and able to enjoy an uplifting experience," Moffat said. H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media A plan to reduce traffic and improve pedestrian safety on a section of Route 37 is in the works. Two virtual workshops will be held in the coming days on a study of the Route 37 corridor between Exit 6 of Interstate-84 in Danbury to .2 miles north of Route 39 in New Fairfield. "This is a war that humanity has to fight and win. Facing this unknown, unexpected, and devastating disease, China launched a resolute battle to prevent and control its spread." The State Council Information Office of China on June 7 published a white paper on the country's battle against COVID-19. The white paper, titled "Fighting COVID-19: China in Action," consists of four parts: "China's Fight against the Epidemic: A Test of Fire," "Well-Coordinated Prevention, Control and Treatment," "Assembling a Powerful Force to Beat the Virus," and "Building a Global Community of Health for All." The white paper keeps a record of the country's efforts in its own fight against the virus, shares the country's experience with the rest of the world, and clarifies the country's ideas on the global battle. The document is an important and authentic record of China's arduous efforts to fight the disease, presenting the country's strength, spirit and efficiency in an objective manner and manifesting the magnificent and melting spirit of the Chinese people. It has struck a chord across the country and triggered wide attention from the international society. The Covid-19 global pandemic, the most extensive one to afflict humanity in a century, is a serious crisis for the entire world and a daunting challenge. Facing the sudden onslaught of a previously unknown virus, the Chinese people united as one, and adopted the most extensive, stringent, and thorough containment measures under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. They achieved a major strategic success in the nationwide control efforts at huge cost and sacrifices. The daunting challenge fully proved that the leadership of the CPC, the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the governance system of China are of strong vitality and advantages, and are able to tackle any challenge and obstacle and make major contribution to the progress of human civilization. "Nothing matters more than people and life. We will stop at nothing to protect our people's life and health." What Chinese President Xi Jinping noted is a core philosophy that guided China's battle against COVID-19, and a fundamental reason for the country to have contained the virus in a short period of time. He has emphasized at the very beginning of the epidemic that peoples lives and health must come first. China mobilized the best doctors using the most advanced equipment, and critical supplies were pooled to save lives at all costs. It has ensured that all those in need have been tested, quarantined, hospitalized or treated, from an infant to a centenarian, and the cost was all shouldered by the country. The country adhered to cross-region joint prevention and control and society-wide efforts to contain the virus. Relying on the people, it built tremendous power against the virus. After weathering the epidemic, the Chinese people have keenly realized that the CPC leadership is the most reliable shelter against storms. Their trust in and support for the Party have increased, along with their confidence in Chinas political system. Coronavirus is raging all over the world, and lives are being lost every day. Which route shall we take? Shall we uphold science and rationality, or shall we manufacture political disputes? Strengthen unity and cooperation, or seek isolation? Promote multilateral coordination, or pursue unilateralism? Every country has a choice to make. China has been carrying out exchanges and cooperation with the international community from the outset. It has strengthened high-level communication, shared information, and cooperated in scientific research with international organizations and other countries, and done all it can to provide assistance, contributing ingenuity and strength to the global fight against the coronavirus. Solidarity and cooperation are the most powerful weapons available to the international community in the war against the pandemic. What we do today determines how we will fare in the future. China believes that all countries should make the choice that is right for the interests of all humanity and the wellbeing of our future generations. Upholding the vision of a global community of shared future, we should support each other and join hands to contain the spread of the virus, and protect the health and wellbeing of people across the globe. The Chinese nation has never been driven down by adversity. The more daunting the challenge, the greater the courage it has mustered. Overcoming difficulties has helped China to grow stronger. Confronted by this virus, the Chinese people have joined together as one and united their efforts. They have succeeded in containing the spread of the virus. In this battle, China will always stand together with other countries. The sun will always shine again after a storm. As long as the people of the world can cherish hopes and dreams, can embrace the idea of a global community of shared future, and can unite in pursuit of a common goal, we will be able to overcome all our current difficulties and challenges, and build a better world for all. North Korea said Tuesday it will cut off all communication channels with South Korea as it escalates its pressure on the South for failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across their tense border. The North Korean warning came as relations between the Koreas have been strained amid a prolonged deadlock in broader nuclear diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington. Some experts say North Korea may be deliberately creating tensions to bolster internal unity or launch a bigger provocation in the face of persistent U.S.-led sanctions. The North's Korean Central News Agency said all cross-border communication lines will be cut off at noon. It said it will be "the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary things." It said the decision was made by Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, and Kim Yong Chol, a former hard-line military intelligence chief who Seoul believes was behind two 2010 attacks that killed 50 South Koreans. "The South Korean authorities connived at the hostile acts against (North Korea) by the riff-raff, while trying to dodge heavy responsibility with nasty excuses," KCNA said. "They should be forced to pay dearly for this." South Korean conservative activists and North Korean defectors in the South for years have floated huge balloons into North Korea that carry leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un over his nuclear ambitions and abysmal human rights record. The leafleting has long been a source of tensions between the Koreas since the country bristles at any attempt to undermine the Kim leadership. Last week, Kim Yo Jong called the defectors "human scum" and "mongrel dogs" in reaction to recent leafleting as the North also threatened to permanently shut down a liaison office and a jointly run factory park, as well as nullify a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement that had aimed to reduce tensions. North Korean citizens have also participated in a series of mass rallies opposing the Seoul government, activities the North typically organizes in times of tensions with the outside world. South Korea's liberal government had no immediate response to the North Korean announcement. It has recently said it would push for legal bans on launching leaflets, but the North has said the South Korean response lacks sincerity. South Korean conservatives have urged their government to get tougher on North Korea and uphold their constitutional rights to free speech. South Korea has typically let activists launch such balloons, but it has sometimes sent police officers to stop them when North Korean warnings appeared to be serious. In 2014, North Korean troops opened fire at propaganda balloons flying toward their territory, triggering an exchange of fire that caused no known causalities. North Korea has suspended virtually all cooperation with South Korea as its nuclear negotiations with the United States remains stalemated since the breakdown of a summit between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump in early 2019. A main sticking point in the U.S.-North Korea diplomacy is a U.S. refusal to lift much of the crippling sanctions on North Korea in return for limited denuclearization steps. North Korea has slammed South Korea for failing to break away from Washington and for not restoring massive joint economic projects held up by U.S.-led sanctions. Kim Jong Un has recently stressed the need to bolster his domestic strengths to withstand the sanctions. But many experts say North Korea's already weak economy must have deteriorated further when the coronavirus pandemic forced it to shut its border with China, the North's biggest trading partner and aid benefactor. Businesses in the United States are opening up after closures ordered by health and other officials because of the coronavirus crisis. Many employers and employees are thinking about ways to reduce the risks of infection. One common method to find out if people might be sick is the temperature check. It involves measuring a persons temperature as they enter a building. Will temperature checks make the workplace safer? Checks can reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections. However, the Associated Press recently reported that they should not be the only safety measure that employers take. Looking for fevers will not remove all of the risks. Even without a fever, people with the virus can still be contagious, or able to spread the virus to others. Increased space, cleaning, and hand washing are also important, the AP noted. Some employers are using infrared thermometers, devices that take temperature measurements from a distance. Workers could use the devices to take their own temperatures, if they use hand sanitizer before and after each use. However, the thermometers might take incorrect measurements sometimes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notes that some kinds of head coverings, like headbands or bandannas, can make a person too hot. Also, some kinds of face wipes can cool the skin. The American Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describes temperature checks as an optional strategy that employers may use. The agency adds that other protective steps, such as social distancing (maintaining a distance of about two meters from others), or physical barriers may be more protective. The FDA describes normal temperatures to be around 37 degrees Celsius. A statement on the FDAs website notes that some studies have shown that "normal" body temperature can be within a wide range, from 36.1C to 37.2C. Im John Russell. John Russell adapted this story based on Associated Press reports and information from the CDC and FDA. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story fever n. a body temperature that is higher than normal contagious adj. having a sickness that can be passed to someone else sanitizer n. a kind of cleaning product that makes something free from dirt, infection, disease, etc. optional adj. available as a choice but not required strategy n. a plan for reaching a goal that usually takes a long period of time We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. Bluestone Drills 15.0 meters grading 21.6 g/t Au and 52 g/t Ag at Cerro Blanco Posted by Publisher Internet Bluestone Resources Inc. (TSXV:BSR | OTCQB:BBSRF) (\Bluestone\ or the \Company\ https://www.commodity-tv.com/play/bluestone-resources-advancing-cerro-blanco-gold-project-towards-production/ ) is pleased to report additional high grade drill assays received from its infill drilling activities currently underway at the Cerro Blanco gold project. In addition, Bluestone announces that John Robins, Founder and Executive Chair has transitioned to the role of non-executive Chair; this change is part of the Company?s efforts to streamline reporting structures as the Company moves into the engineering and development phase of the project. Results from 14 underground and 4 surface holes are reported in this press release. Highlights include the following intercepts representing true widths of the veins: 6 g/t Au and 52 g/t Ag over 15.0 meters including 48.5 g/t Au and 97 g/t Ag over 3.8 meters (CB20-420) 7 g/t Au and 131 g/t Ag over 7.0 meters (CBUG19-157) 2 g/t Au and 18 g/t Ag over 1.0 meters (CBUG19-161) 2 g/t Au and 97 g/t Ag over 4.8 meters CBUG19-168) 6 g/t Au and 9 g/t Ag over 2.3 meters (CBUG19-162) Following the Guatemalan Government?s recommendations and guidelines, the Company is taking steps to gradually resume drilling activities. The Company will continue to follow measures that were implemented in March to protect and prioritize the well-being of employees, contractors, their families, and the communities in which it operates. A 9,000-meter drill program is ongoing focused on the South Zone of the deposit. Three drill rigs will continue drilling the South Zone from surface, and in the underground workings two additional rigs are expected to be added over the coming weeks. The drilling will build on the infill drill program completed in the North Zone of the deposit in 2019 which resulted in an updated resource estimate of 1.41 million ounces of gold averaging 10.3 g/t in Measured and Indicated categories (see Press Release dated November 6, 2019). Jack Lundin, CEO, commented, \Our drill program at Cerro Blanco for 2020 kicked off in earnest in January. Despite a temporary hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to successfully resume activities with additional health and safety protocols. Together with the cooperation of the Entre Mares team, the drilling contractor, and the local government agencies, we will look to ramp up drilling initiatives with two additional rigs when deemed appropriate. We are very encouraged with the results from the drilling achieved to date. The Cerro Blanco deposit continues to display upside potential as evidenced by the attractive intercepts contained within this news release.? The focus of the current drill program is infill drilling and improved definition of key veins in parallel to testing vein extensions outside of the current resource envelope. The drilling is expected to continue into Q4 2020. Hole coordinates and azimuth/dip information are included in Figure 1 in the link below. Intervals in bold are cited in the text of this press release. No assay top-cut was applied (maximum assay 107.7 g/t Au, CB20-420 181.9 to 183.7m). Plans and sections showing drill hole locations, core photos and a full table of assay results can be accessed by clicking HERE. Drilling Summary Drill holes UGCB19-156 to 162 were horizontal to sub-horizontal holes drilled at positive and negative angles from a single platform in the underground workings to improve definition of a wide zone of veining located in the hanging wall of the main South Zone resource (Figure 3). All holes intercepted multiple mineralized zones with three new veins delineated (VS_34, 35, 36) plus many new vein intercepts requiring further modelling and follow-up that could represent additional new structures. Hole CB20-420 is the first of several step-out holes to be drilled to test for extensions of Vein VS_10 and sub-parallel veins in the deeper levels of the South Zone (Figure 4). The hole was drilled at -63 degrees to the north-west. Vein VS_10 was successfully intercepted some 25 meters outside the current vein envelope and assayed 48.5 g/t Au and 97 g/t Ag over 3.84 meters (true width). This interval was part of a wider zone of converging veins and stockworks mineralization comprising veins VS_06, 07 ,08, and 10 that assayed 21.6 g/t Au and 52 g/t Ag over a true width of 15.0 meters. Holes UGCB19-163 to UGCB20-168, and CB20-417 to CB20-419 targeted the upper extension of vein VS-101, the principal footwall feeder vein. Five of seven holes drilled in the underground workings successfully intercepted the target vein, with a best intercept of 4.8 meters grading 18.2 g/t Au in UGCB20-168. CB20-417, drilled from surface, intersected the vein at 127.9 meters and assayed 1.4 meters grading 7.9 g. Au and 42.7 g/t Ag. CB20-418 and CB20-419 did not intercept the vein, instead intercepted clay fault gouge. Precious metal mineralization at Cerro Blanco is associated with classic low sulphidation adularia-sericite epithermal quartz veins and vein swarms hosted in altered sequence of volcanoclastic and sedimentary rocks. Higher grades (>20 g/t Au and >60 g/t Ag) are associated with visible gold and silver sulphides in ginguro-style colloform-banded veins. Quality Analysis and Quality Control Assay results listed within this release were performed by Inspectorate Laboratories (?Inspectorate?), a division of Bureau Veritas, which are ISO 17025 accredited laboratories. Logging and sampling are undertaken on site at Cerro Blanco by Company personnel under a QA/QC protocol developed by Bluestone. Samples are transported in security-sealed bags to Inspectorate, Guatemala City, Guatemala, for sample preparation.? Sample pulps are shipped to Inspectorate Laboratories in Vancouver, BC, Canada or Reno, NV, USA, and assayed using industry-standard assay techniques for gold and silver. Gold and silver were analyzed by a 30-gram charge with atomic absorption and/or gravimetric finish for values exceeding 5 g/t Au and 100 g/t Ag. Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored by the analysis of reagent blanks, reference material, and replicate samples. Quality control is further assured by Bluestone?s QA/QC program, which involves the insertion of blind certified reference materials (standards) and field duplicates into the sample stream to independently assess analytical precision and accuracy of each batch of samples as they are received from the laboratory.? A selection of samples is submitted to ALS Chemex Laboratories in Vancouver for check analysis and additional quality control. Qualified Person David Cass, P.Geo., Vice President Exploration, is the designated Qualified Person for this news release within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and verified that the scientific and technical information set out above in this news release is accurate and therefore approves this written disclosure of the technical information. About Bluestone Resources Bluestone Resources is a mineral exploration and development company that is focused on advancing its 100%-owned Cerro Blanco Gold and Mita Geothermal projects located in Guatemala. A Feasibility Study on Cerro Blanco returned robust economics with a quick pay back. The average annual production is projected to be 146,000 ounces per year over the first three years of production with all-in sustaining costs of $579/oz (as defined per World Gold Council guidelines, less corporate general and administration costs). The Company trades under the symbol ?BSR? on the TSX Venture Exchange and ?BBSRF? on the OTCQB. On Behalf of Bluestone Resources Inc. \Jack Lundin\ Jack Lundin | Chief Executive Officer & Director For further information, please contact: Bluestone Resources Inc. Stephen Williams | VP Corporate Development & Investor Relations Phone:? +1 604 646 4534 info@bluestoneresources.ca www.bluestoneresources.ca? In Europe: Swiss Resource Capital AG Jochen Staiger info@resource-capital.ch www.resource-capital.ch 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 press release contains ?forward-looking information? within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and ?forward-looking statements? within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, ?forward-looking statements?).? All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that Bluestone Resources Inc. (?Bluestone? or the ?Company?) believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including, without limitation: to the market for Bluestone?s common shares, preferred shares, debt securities, subscription receipts, units, warrants and share purchase contracts; the conversion of the inferred mineral resources; increasing the amount of measured mineral and indicated mineral resources; the proposed timeline and benefits of further drilling; the proposed timeline and benefits of the Feasibility Study; statements about the Company?s plans for its mineral properties; Bluestone?s business strategy, plans and outlook; the future financial or operating performance of Bluestone; capital expenditures, corporate general and administration expenses and exploration and development expenses; expected working capital requirements; the future financial estimates of the Cerro Blanco Project economics, including estimates of capital costs of constructing mine facilities and bringing a mine into production and of sustaining capital costs, estimates of operating costs and total costs, net present value and economic returns; proposed production timelines and rates; funding availability; resource estimates; and future exploration and operating plans are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to Bluestone and often use words such as ?expects?, ?plans?, ?anticipates?, ?estimates?, ?intends?, ?may? or variations thereof or the negative of any of these terms. All forward-looking statements are made based on Bluestone?s current beliefs as well as various assumptions made by Bluestone and information currently available to Bluestone.? Generally, these assumptions include, among others: the presence of and continuity of metals at the Cerro Blanco Project at estimated grades; the availability of personnel, machinery, and equipment at estimated prices and within estimated delivery times; currency exchange rates; metals sales prices and exchange rates assumed; appropriate discount rates applied to the cash flows in economic analyses; tax rates and royalty rates applicable to the proposed mining operations; the availability of acceptable financing; the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19); anticipated mining losses and dilution; success in realizing proposed operations; and anticipated timelines for community consultations and the impact of those consultations on the regulatory approval process. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of Bluestone to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and, even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, Bluestone. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: risks and uncertainties related to expected production rates; timing and amount of production and total costs of production; risks and uncertainties related to the ability to obtain, amend, or maintain necessary licenses, permits, or surface rights; risks associated with technical difficulties in connection with mining development activities; risks and uncertainties related to the accuracy of mineral resource estimates and estimates of future production, future cash flow, total costs of production, and diminishing quantities or grades of mineral resources; risks associated with geopolitical uncertainty and political and economic instability in Guatemala; risks related to global epidemics or pandemics and other health crises, including the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19); risks and uncertainties related to interruptions in production; the possibility that future exploration, development, or mining results will not be consistent with Bluestone?s expectations; uncertain political and economic environments and relationships with local communities and governmental authorities; risks relating to variations in the mineral content within the mineral identified as mineral resources from that predicted; variations in rates of recovery and extraction; developments in world metals markets; and risks related to fluctuations in currency exchange rates. For a further discussion of risks relevant to Bluestone, see ?Risk Factors? in the Company?s annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2019, available on the Company?s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was made, and except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Bluestone disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although Bluestone believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to their inherent uncertainty.? There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Non-IFRS Financial Performance Measures The Company has included certain non-International Financial Reporting Standards (?IFRS?) measures in this news release. The Company believes that these measures, in addition to measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, provide investors an improved ability to evaluate the underlying performance of the Company and to compare it to information reported by other companies. The non-IFRS measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. These measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS, and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. All-in sustaining costs The Company believes that all-in sustaining costs (?AISC?) more fully defines the total costs associated with producing gold. The Company calculates AISC as the sum of refining costs, third party royalties, site operating costs, sustaining capital costs and closure capital costs all divided by the gold ounces sold to arrive at a per ounce amount. Other companies may calculate this measure differently as a result of differences in underlying principles and policies applied. Differences may also arise due to a different definition of sustaining versus non-sustaining capital. AISC reconciliation AISC and costs are calculated based on the definitions published by the World Gold Council (?WGC?) (a market development organization for the gold industry comprised of and funded by 18 gold mining companies from around the world). The WGC is not a regulatory organization. With 50+ years of combined spine industry and clinical experience, Bird and Lange will drive development and commercialization of the company's next-generation cervical disc replacement system OREM, Utah, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Dymicron, a privately held medical device company developing the next-generation Triadyme-C artificial cervical disc, has strengthened its leadership team with the appointments of Ted Bird as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Strategy Officer, and Eric Lange as Vice President, Regulatory Strategy. Bird and Lange bring significant industry and clinical experience to Dymicron's top-level management just as the company prepares for next steps in the evolution of Triadyme-C. "We are excited to have Ted and Eric join our leadership team," said Dymicron Chairman and CEO Alan Layton. "Their backgrounds, achievements, deep experience, and relationships in the spine industry will be invaluable in guiding the company as we transition from the development stage to FDA clinical trials in the US and to commercialization in select countries outside the US." Ted Bird has over 35 years of global commercial experience in the medical device arena, including 30 years in the spine industry specifically. He led global marketing, medical education, and business development at Medtronic Sofamor Danek, and served as VP of Spine Arthroplasty Education at Depuy Spine/Johnson & Johnson, President of Orthofix Spinal Implants Division, and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board at Apifix. Additionally, he served as Chief Commercial Officer at Titan Spine and founded Bird Medical Group, a strategic consulting firm. Ted is currently on the Board of Bio2 Technologies, Inc. He graduated from Brown University with bachelor's degrees in International Relations and Political Science. Eric Lange joined Dymicron in May 2019 to spearhead the company's efforts to gain US approval for the Triadyme-C Cervical Disc. He has over 27 years of experience in the spinal device industry, including 20 years in product development leadership positions at Medtronic where he was a Technical Fellow, two-time Quest Award winner, and Technical Contributor of the Year. Eric has over 100 issued patents and 29 worldwide product launches. He earned a master's degree in Biomechanics and a bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. About Triadyme-C Triadyme-C is a motion-preserving artificial cervical disc that emulates the complex coupled motion of a natural spinal disc while providing stability throughout the range of motion. The device is unique in the market due to its innovative composition, which utilizes a proprietary polycrystalline diamond material, and its patented Tri-Lobe articulating design. The exceptional durability of polycrystalline diamond virtually eliminates the risks of disc wear and debris for the lifetime of the patient. At the same time, the Tri-Lobe design mimics the natural kinematics and motion of a normal disc. About Dymicron Dymicron, Inc. is a privately held, innovative medical technology company that is advancing a new generation of musculoskeletal implant devices made from polycrystalline diamond (PCD) - one of the strongest substances known to man, and a material for which Dymicron has exclusive patented use for all medical applications in the human body. To learn more about the company and its Triadyme-C total cervical disc replacement system, visit www.dymicron.com. CAUTION: Triadyme-C is not available in the US. Dymicron Contact: Ted Bird EVP, Corporate Development & Chief Strategy Officer +1-704-526-8708 tbird@dymicron.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/dymicron/?viewAsMember=true Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1177879/Triadyme_C.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1177881/DYMICRON_Logo.jpg Hyderabad: MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday said that the Modi government had utterly failed in tackling Covid-19 crisis. He asked people not to depend on the government and take precautionary measures on their own. Addressing the media, Owaisi said the Centre was least bothered about the miseries of the common people, who have been left in the lurch. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked people to clap and light a lamp to contain Coronavirus, but these unscientific stunts cannot control the pandemic. The government imposed the lockdown at a time when only 560 people had contacted the virus. Economic activities were allowed resumption after about one crore guest labourers had reached their states. He wanted to know who was responsible for the death of 85 of them in trains. The mortality rate in Gujarat, which has abysmal medical infrastructure, is higher than the national average, he said. Owaisi said that 120 million people have lost their jobs. Among them are contract labourers, guest labourers and domestic helps. Nothing has been done for them. A journalist succumbed to the virus in Hyderabad on Sunday. He questioned why the Centre was hiding details about its diplomatic dialogue with China over the border issues and the LAC situation. The MIM chief said The home minister and the defence minister can easily tell us what they are communicating to the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). Why are they maintaining silence on whether China has occupied Indian territory in Ladakh, and if so to what length? Targeting home minister Amit Shahs digital rally in Bihar, he said that while guest labourers were dying in trains, virtual rallies were being taken out by BJP and JD (U). He alleged that Bihar Chief Minister Bihar Nitish Kumar had tried to stop the labourers from entering the state. He also slammed Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, over his recent comments on reserving Delhi hospitals for only locals. Speaking on minister K.T. Rama Rao getting a notice from the Green Tribunal, Owaisi said he stood by the minister, who had earlier clarified that he has no link with the issue. On electricity bills, he said the officials have claimed that there was no fault in billing, which was a single bill that covered three months of power consumption. Representative image The Indian Council of Medical Research's (ICMR) first population-based serosurvey in India revealed that around 15-30 percent of people living in the containment zones in hotspot cities were infected by the novel coronavirus and unknowingly recovered, the New Indian Express reported. The preliminary findings of the ICMRs survey have been shared with the Union cabinet secretary and the Prime Minister's Office said the report citing government sources. A serosurvey involves testing of blood serum of a group of individuals to determine the presence of antibodies against that infection to know who has been infected in the past and has recovered. In this case, the blood samples collected from individuals under a testing protocol were tested for the presence of antibodies against SARS CoV 2, the virus that causes COVID 19. According to the report, the ICMR took help from the National Centre for Disease Control, the World Health Organisation's India office and the state governments to collect the blood samples. They had collected nearly 24,000 samples from 70 districts in the country from randomly picked individuals for the survey. Coronavirus LIVE updates 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 Samples were collected from Mumbai, Ahmadabad, Pune, Delhi, Kolkata, Indore, Thane, Jaipur, Chennai and Surat that contribute nearly 70 percent of total COVID-19 cases. As many as 500 samples each were collected from 10 randomly chosen containment areas in each of these cities, said the report. Also, 400 samples each from the other 60 districts across 21 states, categorized on the basis of the low, medium and high caseloads, were also collected. The results from all sites, except Surat and Kolkata, showed that infection size in many containment areas in the worst-hit districts is 100 times to 200 times higher than the cases reported at those sites, an official familiar to the survey report was quoted as saying. The sites where infection size is 100 to 200 times higher are mainly in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Indore, another official told the publication. Follow our full coverage on COVID-19 here The boarded up Herbology medical marijuana dispensary in South Philadelphia. The store was recently vandalized. Read more Medical marijuana dispensaries in Philadelphia are rushing to repair damage caused by looters so they can reopen quickly and serve patients. But some owners say the states Department of Health, which regulates the industry, is throwing up roadblocks as they try to enhance security measures at their dispensaries to prevent any further targeted attacks. Seven city cannabis dispensaries incurred serious damage when protests over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer were accompanied by a weekend of looting. Collectively, dispensary owners estimate they suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage. At least three of them will take weeks to reopen: Verilife in Manayunk, Beyond/Hello in Center City, and Herbology in South Philadelphia. In two of the cases, looters were able to breach the vault where the dispensaries hold marijuana. Thieves stole about $25,000 worth of cannabis products from the Verilife dispensary and wrecked the interior of the store. A small amount of cannabis was stolen from Beyond/Hello at 12th and Sansom Streets, but looters found $900 in cash and caused more than $100,000 of random damage to the facility, according to the owners. Store owners said they want to ensure that this cant happen again. However, putting in stronger doors and vaults with more reinforcement may be held up by state regulators. One dispensary executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal from regulators, said all repairs must be done to the original specifications of materials used when the shops were first approved. Bolstering security will require a formal modification request, a $250 fee, and a 30-day review period to approve, the executive said. "Theyre not making it easy. Its nuts. It has to be back to exactly the way it was or undergo a review period. A spokesman for the Department of Health acknowledged the cumbersome process but said staff would try to speed inspections. The reopening of operational sites is a top priority, spokesman Nate Wardle said. When a facility is prepared for our review it is given immediate attention. The Ethos dispensary on Locust Street was approved to reopen Monday after boarding up its windows and sweeping up broken glass left by two waves of looters. Liberty Dispensary in Northeast Philadelphia, where neighbors alerted police at the first hint of trouble, repaired broken windows and was operating as normal this week. Only the Keystone Shops dispensary in South Philadelphia avoided a break-in attempt. Owner Mike Badey had posted armed men outside the Packer Avenue store, a former bank branch. Guards were also dispatched to the TerraVida dispensaries in the suburbs. We had several groups scoping us out over the weekend, Badey said. When they saw our multiple armed guards, they walked away. Up until that Saturday I believe there had been zero break-ins of dispensaries in the entire state. It was a bad week. Another of Badeys stores, in King of Prussia, was temporarily closed when ferocious winds blew off its roof two days after the unrest. Security guards are now stationed at Herbology on East Passyunk Avenue and Verilife. It was violent and it was targeted. Ive reviewed the security video. It felt very personal, said Ellen Kaminsky, general manager for Herbology, where thieves destroyed windows, doors, the buildings facade, and the security system. We spend more time here than we do at home. Its frightening and scary, but were going to come back better in no time. Patients may need to travel outside the city to find a dispensary to accommodate them, as medical marijuana cant legally be sent through the mail, unlike traditional pharmaceuticals. Other than going out of town or trying to find a caregiver, I dont know what they can do, said Luke Shultz, a consumer advocate on the states medical marijuana advisory board. Theyre kind of stuck. Until the damage can be repaired it could take weeks or months to return to normal. The head of Ireland's Covid-19 modelling group says that people's behaviours will remain modified "for some time", but says that he "has no crystal ball" to say if the economy and society will return to full capacity by the end of the year. Speaking at the Dail special committee on Covid-19, Professor Philip Nolan said that there was "a lot of uncertainty about the future of us living with low levels of this virus somewhere in the EU". He said that it was impossible to say currently if the country would be able to return to normal before Christmas due to the changing understanding of the virus. However, he added that he predicts some modified behaviour for some time to come. I honestly dont have a crystal ball on this one. I dont know what were going to learn about this virus over the next six months. It is literally impossible for me to say precisely about the impact in six months' time. "But our behaviour will continue to be modified by this virus for some time to come." Professor Nolan said that he believed the NPHET road map, including its acceleration, was the right strategy for the country, but did not say that he disagreed with 1,000 scientists who yesterday called for the country to "crush" the virus before reopening shops and restaurants. He said that different scientists, working with incomplete information, would have differing opinions regularly. Professor Nolan said that a second wave of the virus was "probable" but the response to it would be more targeted and specific to areas of outbreaks. The second wave will be different from the management of the first wave. The wave is likely to be different and we know a lot more about how to manage this virus than we did the last time. So I imagine that there could be more targeted measures introduced to control future outbreaks."- Second wave of Covid-19 is probable in Ireland, says modelling expert By Press Association A second wave of Covid-19 is probable in Ireland but it would be managed differently to the first wave, a modelling expert has said. Professor Philip Nolan, who chairs the modelling advisory group on Covid-19, said if a second wave comes, there will be a more targeted approach. Speaking at the Covid-19 response committee, he said: The second wave will be different from the management of the first wave. The wave is likely to be different and we know a lot more about how to manage this virus than we did the last time. So I imagine that there could be more targeted measures introduced to control the future outbreaks before the sort of blanket measures that weve seen in this context. It would be arrogant of me to predict where we will be with the virus by the end of the year. There is lots we dont know. We need to plan as if a second wave is possible and try to have all of the contingency plans in place for that scenario if the virus comes back in the future. Professor Philip Nolan said he could not give a time to when the country will return to normality. I honestly dont have a crystal ball on this one. I dont know what were going to learn about this virus over the next six months, he said. It is literally impossible for me to say precisely about the impact but in six months time Im sure that lots of people are offering an opinion. My view having looked at this is theres a lot of uncertainty that still remains about the future of us living with low levels of this virus. When asked if society will return to full normality by the end of the year, he said: I think our behaviours will be modified for some time to come. A doctor in India has removed a two-foot charging lead from a man's bladder which was stuck there after the patient inserted it into his penis. Dr. Walliul Islam, the surgeon treating the man in Assam, northeastern India, said a 30-year-old patient visited the hospital last month, complaining of 'severe pain' in his abdomen. Dr. Islam told the Hindustan Times the man had a habit of inserting different objects in his penis for sexual pleasure, but that he repeatedly told staff he had swallowed a pair of earphones. Pictured: The X-Ray image from the hospital in Assam, northeastern India, last month shows the two-foot charging cable coiled up inside the 30-year-old man's bladder 'We never imagined an adult would lie about such a thing', Dr. Islam told the publication. Believing his story, Dr. Islam prescribed him a course of laxatives but the lead failed to appear despite the man passing several stools. He then performed an endoscopy and operated but couldn't find anything in the intestine. An X-Ray revealed the problem wasn't in the bowels but in the bladder. Islam said the examination revealed a two-foot-long charging cable coiled up inside. He made a small incision and pulled out the lead. 'I have been conducting surgeries for 25 years now but this is the first time such a case happened on the operation table,' Dr. Islam said. After extensive testing of the man's bowels last month, Dr Walliul Islam, a surgeon at the hospital in Assam, X-Rayed the man and discovered a coiled up lead in his bladder. Islam made a small incision and pulled the two-foot lead out (pictured) The surgeon said the man went to extremes to reach the urinary bladder with the lead. 'I have read that people used to get sexual gratification by inserting instruments through the penis. This is one such case, and the psychiatrist can help him beyond this point,' Dr. Islam told CNN. Islam said he would have been able to fix the problem sooner if the man had been honest. The patient has been discharged from hospital and is recovering. International crime drama DNA and French espionage drama The Bureau are on SBS on Demand with new episodes soon. DNA Thursday, 11 June 2020 on SBS On Demand. All eight episodes available to stream. In Danish, French, and English with English subtitles. Rolf Larsen (Anders W. Berthelsen) is an investigator at Vestegnens Police Department in Copenhagen. He is married to Maria (Johanne Louise Schmidt), who is returning to work as a stewardess, after giving birth to their daughter Andrea. Just as Rolf is looking forward to a few days alone with his daughter, work calls. A little girl, Minna, has been kidnapped from a kindergarten in Brndby. The search is distributed across Europe, and when Rolf receives a hint from Poland, he decides to travel down and talk to the witness, who claims to have seen Minna. But a storm is raging, and because of Maria being on a stewardess course in London, and the new nanny being trapped in Jutland due to the weather situation, Rolf has to take his little daughter with him on the trip to Poland. Rolfs colleague, Jarl Skaubo (Nicolas Bro), offers to join them and they reach the last ferry across the Baltic Sea from Gedser towards Rostock. Rolf struggles with seasickness and briefly parks the stroller while going to the bathroom. When he comes back, his daughter is gone. Did she fell overboard or was she kidnapped like Minna? Five years later, we meet Rolf, who after the loss of his daughter has been divorced and now works as a local police officer in Northern Jutland. He is introduced to the young police assistant Neel, who by coincidence, uncovers a flaw the Danish DNA registration system. The error goes back several years and includes hundreds of cases, including the Minna case. The case is reopened, and joined by the experienced French investigator, Claire Bobain, Rolf returns to Poland to find out what actually happened five years ago. But Rolf has a hidden agenda: the hope of finally finding out what happened to his own daughter. The Bureau (Season Five) Thursday, 18 June 2020 on SBS On Demand In French with English subtitles. JJA (Mathieu Amalric), Director of Internal Security, has taken over managing the office as Marie-Jeanne (Florence Loiret Caille) has opted to get out of the office and test her fieldwork skills on the ground in Egypt. The DGSE will be shaken up by rumours published about Malotrus fate is he dead or alive? What role did DGSE and the CIA play? The leaks bring back old demons for JJA, increasing his paranoia and worrying his closest collaborators, Sisteron and Ellenstein. His obsessions are joined by a new agent, Mille Sabords (Louis Garrel), who tries to approach the Saudi secret services while investigating the sacrificial victim Paul Lefebvre. Another collateral victim of Malotrus disappearance Cesar, the genius geek, who infiltrated the best cyber-attackers of the FSB who are now preparing a large-scale operation. Mt Stirling Gold Confirms Potential for Major Discovery Perth, June 9, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Torian Resources Limited ( ASX:TNR ) is pleased to advise outstanding initial results from its Phase 1 RC drilling program focused on discovering depth extensions to historical gold intercepts at the Mt Stirling Gold Deposit (Figure 1*).Highlights:- Step out drill results confirm depth extensions of the known deposit on the Mt Stirling Block at the Mt Stirling Gold Camp (Figure 1*)- Assays from MSRC-025, the first of the 8-hole program, returned grades of up to:o 4m @ 8.84 g/t (including 33.10 g/t over 1.0 m)o 24m @ 1.26 g/t (including 2.89 g/t over 7.0 m)- Results demonstrate that Mt Stirling Project is emerging as a potentially large gold system with ore grade Au now intercepted over 100m below prior drilling- Remaining seven holes (MSRC-026 to MSRC-032) all intercepted wide widths of quartz-carbonate veins hosting Pyrite and are open at depth at end of hole- Assay results from the remaining seven holes from the Phase 1, 2000+m RC program designed to test down dip / along strike extensions of historical intercepts are due shortly (Figure 2*)- Historical intersections being followed up by this program include 35m @ 2.99g/t Au (including 2m @ 48g/t Au) and 39m @ 0.71g/t Au (including 4m @ 2.09g/t Au) (Refer release 28/4/20)- Planning for a Phase 2 aggressive drilling campaign on the Stirling Block underway- The Mt Stirling Gold Camp sits adjacent to RED 5's ( ASX:RED ) 4moz King of the Hills mine and is located within the prolific Leonora Gold district in the Eastern Goldfields, host to St Barbara's ( ASX:SBM ) 4.8moz Gwalia Mine and Saracen's ( ASX:SAR ) 3.8moz Thunderbox Mine- Reconnaissance activities have commenced on the Diorite Block with the historic 73g/t Au [grade sourced from Mindat.org] Diorite King Mine and Diorite Queen mines among the high-quality targets to be followed up (Figure 3*)- The Mt Stirling project is one of Torian's four key projects.RC hole MSRC-025 contains over 240m of continuously mineralised rocks consisting of quartz-pyritecarbonate having anomalous gold values and ore grade intersections of up to 33 g/t Au. Within this run there were two high grade sections: 4.00m @ 8.84 g/t (including 33.10 g/t over 1.0m) and 24.0m @ 1.26 g/t (including 2.89 g/t over 7.0m). The first intersection is a continuation of the 48 g/t over 2m intercepted in hole MSRC-001 drilled in 2016, which until now had not been followed up (refer ASX release 28/4/20); whereas the second intercept correlates with the broader intercept, also observed in hole MSRC-001, that returned a value of 2.99 g/t over 35m (Figure 1*). See Table 1* for a full breakdown of all intercepts for MSRC-025.With gold now intercepted over an additional strike length 100m below the prior result of 35m @ 2.99g/t Au, this hole confirms Torian hypothesis that the mineralisation contained within the Stirling deposit does contain down-dip continuity. This bodes well for future drilling and for building resource tonnages, as there is now a high degree of confidence that there could be significant depth extensions to the deposit, similar to the way that mineralisation occurs down plunge at the Gwalia Mine (Figure 6*).The Company is delighted to report the remaining seven holes drilled (MSRC-026 to MSRC-032) intercepted quartz-carbonate veins hosting Pyrite and is open at depth at end of hole as shown in Table 2*. Based solely on visual inspection, Pyrite is known to host gold in the Leonora Goldfields, the Board and the Competent Person deems it appropriate to disclose the wide intercept in holes MSRC-026 to MSRC-032 outlined above and notes that there is not enough evidence to suggest that any gold or other minerals will be present at this stage. The company will update the market immediately upon assay results received and reviewed. The company will make results available as soon as they are received.Torian Chairman Mr Louie Simens said, "We are excited with the initial results received from the first drilling at depth on the Stirling Block at the Mt Stirling Gold project. With multiple hits from the first hole already proving our systematic exploration approach a success. The program has clearly confirmed that we are on the system. We have now gripped the 'tail of the elephant' potentially, and our highly experienced exploration and project development team is confident it will unlock what's turning out to be a major system. We look forward to receiving assays from the remaining seven holes and rapidly following up with an aggressive Phase 2 drill program.This eight-hole drill program was the first drilling the ground has seen in four years. Testing the down plunge of the significant historical intercept of 35m @ 2.99 g/t could be one of many discoveries property wide which we will follow up on in this and subsequent drill programs.A priority focus will also be placed on the Diorite Block, to the south of the Stirling Block, that contains the historical Diorite King and Diorite Queen mines as well as additional mapping to identify further drill targets on the block. The drill program and additional reconnaissance activity based on our new geological interpretations of the Mt Stirling Gold Camp could be a game changer for the Company and gives our shareholders more exposure to significant exploration upside throughout 2020 in an incredibly prolific gold province.With almost 13 Moz in gold endowment located across Red 5's King of the Hills, St Barbara's Gwalia and Saracen's Thunderbox mines, all in our immediate neighbourhood in the Leonora district, we are confident that this region is a great place to be looking for new major discoveries.We look forward to keeping the market updated on progress and further results as they come through."Historical Data ReviewAs announced on 28 April 2020, re-analysis of historical data revealed a number of deeper intersections in the Stirling system that were not followed up and remained open at depth. Furthermore, these intersections contained broad envelopes of halo gold mineralisation associated with higher-grade intersections. The best intersection was contained within RC hole MSRC001 which returned an intercept of 2.99 g/t over 35m, including 48.00 g/t over 2m (see section in Figure 1* and plan view in Figure 2*). A similar wide intersection was seen in MSRC002 which yielded an intercept of 0.71 g/t over 39m including 2.09 g/t over 4m.Importantly, it was observed that an additional open intersection is contained within hole MSRC024 located 350 m southeast of the main zone of mineralization. This intercept yielded 2.34 g/t over 10m including 5.10 g/t over 2m. This intersection also appears to be spatially associated with the higher-grade rock chip results.On the Diorite Block, mapping and prospecting has begun, focusing on the historic Diorite King Mine and Diorite Queen mines and to continue further target generation. The focus of this campaign is as follows (Figure 3*):- Explore, locate and sample the 15 known showings contained within the Diorite historic mining camp (red triangle*) with a focus on the historic 73g/t Au [grade sourced from Mindat.org] Diorite King Mine and Diorite Queen mines;- Explore a number of the high priority targets identified by Southern Geological Consultants (blue hatched boxes); and- Investigate the Iron Formation lithologies (red lines) within the Diorite Block to determine if these units have any potential to host Archean BIF gold mineralization. BIF gold deposits have been a historic major producer within the Archean of Canada (aka 5.0 Moz Au Musselwhite Mine in Northern Ontario).*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Torian Resources Limited Torian Resources Ltd (ASX:TNR) is a gold exploration and development company with an extensive and strategic land holding comprising eight projects and over 400km2 of tenure in the Goldfields Region of Western Australia. Torian's flagship project, Zuleika, is located along the world-class Zuleika Shear. The Zuleika Shear is the fourth largest gold producing region in Australia and consistently produces some of the country's highest grade and lowest cost gold mines. Torian's Zuleika project lies north and partly along strike of several major gold deposits including Northern Star's (ASX:NST) 7.0Moz East Kundana Joint Venture and Evolutions (ASX:EVN) 1.8Moz Frogs Legs and White Foil deposits. Torian's other projects include the strategically located Mt Stirling and Malcolm Projects in the Leonora region (near Red 5's King of the Hills Project), where it recently completed updated Mineral Resource Estimates and preliminary scoping studies, and a suite of other projects in the Kalgoorlie region including Credo Well JV Zuleika JV, Bonnie Vale, Gibraltar and Mount Monger/Wombola. [June 09, 2020] Trend Micro Named a Global Cybersecurity Channel "Champion" by Canalys Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, today announced it has been placed in the Champions quadrant of the Canalys Global Cybersecurity Leadership Matrix, in recognition of major investments and improvements in the channel over the past year. Canalys recognized Trend Micro's (News - Alert) significant investments in its channel program over the last year, particularly highlighting its partner portal improvements that include significant investments in deal registration, sales kits, promotions and training. The enhancement of the company's Managed Service Provider (MSP) program with a central licensing management platform; and the offering of SOCaaS to automate cross-customer and cross-product threat analysis received particular praise from Canalys. The closer alignment AWS's CPPO program was also highlighted as major step. "Trend Micro has always been 100% committed to the channel and we're delighted to be named a 'champion' by Canalys," said Louise McEvoy, vice president of U.S. channel, Trend Micro. "It is recognition of the hard work our teams around the globe have put in over the past year, and there's even more to come in 2020 as we continue to refresh our partner program, launch new platforms and services and pursue new growth opportunities." The latest Canalys matrix sees Trend Micro move up from a "growers" to "champions" position in 2020, with its highest-rated benchmark metrics in product availability and supply (79.3%) and ease of doing business (75.4%). Usefulness of portal and tools (72.6%) provided by Trend Micro was also ranked highly by partners. For 2020, Trend Micro will refresh its partner program with an adjusted discount structure to drive deeper engagement with enterprise partners, and plans to launch new Customer Success Services to provide business insight and assessment for partners to deliver to customers and prospects. Over the coming months, Trend Micro is also committed to recruiting and growing hundreds of MSPs by providing support services and increased profitability, and generating more leads with partners via solution campaigns, promotions, incentives, and its demand generation self-services platform. About Trend Micro Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. All our products work together to seamlessly share threat intelligence and provide a connected threat defense with centralized visibility and control, enabling better, faster protection. With more than 6,000 employees in over 50 countries and the world's most advanced global threat intelligence, Trend Micro secures your connected world. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005674/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A Sydney buyer snapped up a Woolworths-anchored shopping centre in Melbournes north on a passing yield of 6 per cent in a sign that investors are putting COVID-19 uncertainty behind them. Owned by APN Property Group, the Coburg Hill Mall sold to a joint venture between the Sydney investor and their overseas partner for $21.3 million in a deal struck through CBREs Justin Dowers and Kevin Tong. The Coburg Hill Shopping Centre sold with 14 years remaining on the Woolworths lease. Credit: The strata titled Coburg North building in Elizabeth Street has 10 privately owned apartments above it. The ground-level shopping centre component transacted at an $800,000 premium to the $20.5 million book value APN has marked against the property. Its the second shopping centre to change hands during the pandemic. Last month, the Woolworths-owned Keysborough South shopping centre fetched $33.13 million on a 5.4 per cent yield. Rome's mayor answers pontiff's call for funds to help those in Rome in financial difficulty due to the covid-19 crisis. Pope Francis has established a special support fund for Rome individuals and families struggling financially as a result of losing their jobs during the coronavirus emergency, with initial funding of 1 million. The pontiff set up the fund, known as the Fondo Gesu Divino Lavoratore, in his capacity as the bishop of Rome, the Vatican announced on 9 June. Pope Francis said his thoughts go to the great number of daily and occasional workers, to those with fixed-term contracts that have not been renewed, to those who are paid by the hour, to interns, domestic workers, small entrepreneurs, self-employed workers," reports Vatican News. Describing it as a chance for a "real alliance" with the city of Rome, the pope called on the "good heart of all Romans" to make a contribution to the fund, which will be managed by Catholic charity Caritas. Francis's call was quickly answered by the mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, who pledged 500,000 to the pope's fund. "We welcome the appeal of the Holy Father" - Raggi said - "it is essential that authorities collaborate to support, especially in this delicate moment, the weakest and most fragile groups." The pope said the fund was set up to "reaffirm the dignity of work" with a particular focus on "those who risk being excluded from institutional protection and who need support until they can walk again unaccompanied. I would like to see next-door-neighbour solidarity flourish in our city, concluded the pope, reports Vatican News. File photo by Vatican News North Korea announced Tuesday it was axing all communications with South Korea, a move analysts believe could be an attempt to manufacture a crisis and force concessions from its neighbor. The decision carried further significance because it was attributed in part to Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has risen in prominence in recent weeks. North Korea said it was suspending contact in anger at activist defectors who have fled to the South and routinely fly balloons back over the border carrying propaganda leaflets. Many experts suspect the underlying reason is an attempt to gain leverage in inter-Korean negotiations that have stalled since a series of high-profile summits in 2018. During a meeting, Kim Yo Jong and another senior North Korean official, Kim Yong Chol, described South Korea as "the enemy." Image: Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam (Jorge Silva / Reuters file) They said their neighbor had angered the North Korean people with its "treacherous and cunning behavior" and "driven the inter-Korean relations into a catastrophe," according to North Korea's state-run media. Cutting off communication lines between the countries' leaders and militaries was the first step before it "completely shut down all contact means with South Korea," it said. South Korea confirmed that Tuesday morning North Korea did not answer its military hotline for the first time since it was restored in 2018, according to a defense ministry spokeswoman. "The communications line between South and North Korea ... must be maintained as agreed," an official from South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a briefing. Although Kim Yo Jong has been in the public eye for a while, representing her brother at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, she gained new prominence following several statements this year: condemning South Korea's live-fire exercise in March and praising a letter from President Donald Trump to her brother. When there were rumors that Kim Jong Un was in ill health, his sister was one of those touted as a potential successor. Story continues "She appears to have long been trusted by her brother," said John Nilsson-Wright, a senior research fellow at the London think tank Chatham House. "Having been put in charge of propaganda and publicity for the regime, she necessarily is an important figure in the power structure." Last week, she called the North Korean defectors who have fled to South Korea "human scum" and "mongrel dogs" for flying propaganda leaflets back across the border. Communications lines between the Koreas have been cut and restored again during previous periods of tension. And some believe that North Korea is deploying a similar tactic now. The country's last summit with Trump broke down without an agreement, and subsequent negotiations have seen no progress toward North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, as Washington says it hopes it will. But the stalemate has also left North Korea no closer to ending the crippling Western sanctions that continue to throttle its economy. It has tried to pressure South Korea to take a softer line than the White House, but to no avail. "Can North Korea continue to raise tensions to get the concessions it wants any time soon?" tweeted Ramon Pacheco Pardo, an associate professor at King's College London. South Korea "isn't going to break the sanctions regime. Short and mid-range missile tests barely register these days. An ICBM test risks ending any hope of a deal with Trump," he added, referring to an intercontinental ballistic missile. He said North Korea "isn't in a good place." It's been reported that James Bond, played by Daniel Craig, will have a five-year-old daughter in the upcoming film, No Time To Die. And Former Bond Girl Britt Ekland claimed on Tuesday's edition of Good Morning Britain that she doesn't think 007 should be a father, as he should be 'a fantasy' and 'untouchable'. The actress, 77, appeared in The Man With The Golden Gun opposite Roger Moore's iteration of the iconic spy in 1974, and said she didn't agree with the decision as 'everyone wants to be' him. Unhappy: Former Bond Girl Britt Ekland SLAMMED the decision to make 007 a father as she claimed it 'ruins the fantasy' because the iconic spy should be 'untouchable' Britt explained: 'Well, I think that Bond should probably be a little more untouchable. He's a fantasy, Bond. Everyone wants to be Bond.' When asked if it ruined the fantasy, she added: 'I think so, I personally think so. Barbara [Broccoli, longtime producer of the Bond franchise] and Michael [G. Wilson, who is also a producer at EON Productions] know better than me. 'It would be wonderful if they turned back in time to the traditional, older bachelor.' Bond will be a doting dad to Mathilde, his daughter with love interest Dr Madeleine Swann, played by French actress Lea Seydoux. Thoughts: Of why she didn't like the new plot, Britt said: 'I think that Bond should probably be a little more untouchable. He's a fantasy. Everyone wants to be Bond' (pictured, Daniel Craig) Candid: When asked if it ruined the fantasy, she added: 'I think so, I personally think so. Barbara [Broccoli, longtime producer of Bond films] and Michael [G. Wilson] know better than me' The Mail on Sunday confirmed on Saturday rumours that the notorious womaniser spy is father to a five-year-old daughter in the forthcoming film No Time To Die. The rumours emerged last week when call sheets the daily schedules that tell actors where they are needed for filming for the 150 million film, the 25th in the 'official' Bond series, went up for sale on online auction site eBay. The schedule describes a scene shot in southern Italy last September, which featured Dr Swann alongside Lashana Lynch's Nomi who this newspaper previously revealed will be the first black female 00 agent and a child called Mathilde, played by five-year-old Lisa-Dorah Sonne. Starring role: The actress appeared in The Man With The Golden Gun opposite Roger Moore's iteration of the iconic spy in 1974 (pictured) Parents: Bond will be a doting dad to Mathilde, his daughter with love interest Dr Madeleine Swann, played by French actress Lea Seydoux (pictured) 'Scene #235', as the schedule calls it, details where 'Nomi pilots Madeleine and Mathilde to safety with the island in the background'. Paparazzi photographs taken during filming show a young girl wearing blue dungarees with the actors and crew on the set, but it is not known if she is Mathilde. A film insider last night said: 'Yes, it's true. Bond is a dad. Daniel wanted to make this Bond film the most surprising and entertaining yet. 'Daniel is older and his Bond is maturing and looking at life through the prism of fatherhood. But there's a lot more to it than that.' Making a change: A film insider last night said: 'Yes, it's true. Bond is a dad. Daniel wanted to make this Bond film the most surprising and entertaining yet More to come: Photographs taken during filming show a young girl wearing blue dungarees with Seydoux and other actors and crew on the set, but it is not known if she is Mathilde Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge was brought in to rewrite the script after original director Danny Boyle was replaced by Cary Joji Fukunaga. The film is now packed with 'woke' references and the insider said making Bond a dad had 'opened up a whole avenue of powerful moments and jokes', adding: 'It's the one thing fans would never expect. 'Bond has always managed to charm his way into the hearts and beds of hundreds of beautiful women, seemingly without any consequences. 'Making him a father opens up a whole new world in terms of drama and story development.' New role: Allegra Shettini, who 'stood in' for Lisa-Dorah Sonne during a sequence on the new Bond film Romance: No Time To Die is set five years after the last Bond film, Spectre, which saw the secret agent fall in love with Dr Swann, a French psychologist (pictured) In the new film, which was due to open in April but was pushed back to November because of the coronavirus pandemic, Bond is shown enjoying retirement in Jamaica, having hung up his Walther PPK pistol in favour of a quiet life. No Time To Die is set five years after the last Bond film, Spectre, which saw the secret agent fall in love with Dr Swann, a French psychologist. Spectre ends with Bond driving off with her into the sunset in his old Aston Martin DB5. The insider said: 'Without giving too much away, the new film is filled with twists. 'Bond appears to be happy in his new domestic life but then, of course, he gets dragged back in to save the world.' No Time To Die opens with new Bond villain, Safin, played by Oscar-winner Rami Malek, chasing a girl across an ice-covered lake in Norway. Plot: No Time To Die opens with new Bond villain, Safin, played by Rami Malek (pictured), chasing a girl across an ice-covered lake in Norway who is believed to be Dr Swann The scene is a 'flashback' of a young Madeleine Swann fleeing for her life. 'Daniel wants to tie up lots of loose ends in his final film. 'Everything is interwoven,' the insider said. 'Bond finding out he is a father is integral to the plot.' Pictures have emerged of an Italian child, Allegra Shettini, who 'stood in' for Lisa-Dorah Sonne during a sequence. She told a TV interviewer: 'I just had to sit on a rock and play with a stick.' The new movie involves Bond saving the world from a biological pandemic. 'It's not quite Covid-19, but it's similar', said the insider. 'It's very timely.' Taiwan Voters Recall Pro-China Mayor of Kaohsiung 2020-06-08 -- Residents of Taiwan's southern port city of Kaohsiung overwhelmingly voted to oust their pro-China mayor at the weekend, a first in the democratic island's history. More than 97 percent of those who voted on Saturday in the southern port city of Kaohsiung opted to recall its mayor Han Kuo-yu, who was elected on a pro-China, pro-business platform for the opposition Kuomintang (KMT). With turnout just over 42 percent, more than 939,000 votes were cast to recall Han, compared with the 892,545 votes that won him the job in the first place, the city's election commission said. A recall in Taiwan law requires turnout to be more than 25 percent, with a simple majority in favor, but this is the first time a major city leader has been unseated in this way. Aaron Yin, who founded the WeCare Kaohsiung group to campaign for Han's recall, welcomed the result. "Today, the residents of Kaohsiung created history," Yin said. "We initiated the movement, not for ourselves or out of hate for anyone, but because we refused to be constantly conned." "We rectified the problem. This is why the people of Kaohsiung are great," he said. KMT chairman Chiang Chi-chen vowed that his party would work to earn back voters' trust, in Kaohsiung, a traditional stronghold of President Tsai Ing-wen's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The recall came after Han lost the January 2020 presidential election to Tsai by a margin of two-and-a-half million votes after Tsai campaigned to lessen Chinese influence and attempts to undermine the island's democracy, citing Beijing's treatment of Hong Kong as an example. A stepping stone Many in Kaohsiung felt Han had used the city as a stepping stone to higher office, according to local media reports. Kaohsiung must now hold an election for Han's replacement within three months to serve out the remainder of his term, which runs through 2022. "More than 900,000 Kaohsiung residents made a collective decision and took Taiwan's democracy a step forward," Tsai said in a statement after the result was announced. "The result should be a warning to all politicians that the people can bestow power and can take it back." Han blamed a smear campaign by his political opponents. "It is regrettable that my team had to deal with constant mud-slinging," he said. "The criticisms were unfounded. I hope our good friends will judge us fairly." Victory for democracy Meanwhile, Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner Joshua Wong said the result was a victory for democracy. "Han Kuo-yu, who's aligned himself with authoritarian China's interest, has been booted as mayor of #Kaohsiung by democratic vote," Wong wrote on his Twitter account. "A great victory for #democracy and a clear message from Taiwanese saying "no" to Xi Jinping and Beijing's influence on #Taiwan." Tsai has been a vocal supporter of Hong Kong protesters' aspirations for full democracy, and against the use of police violence and political prosecutions to target protesters, and argued during a presidential election debate that China is the biggest threat to Taiwan's way of life. Taiwan was ruled as a Japanese colony in the 50 years prior to the end of World War II, but was occupied by the 1911 Republic of China under the Kuomintang (KMT) as part of Tokyo's post-war reparation deal with the allies. It has never been controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China, but Beijing insists it will reclaim the island, by force if necessary. Public opinion polls have shown that the violent suppression of Hong Kong's anti-government protest movement last year fueled fears for Taiwan's national security and democracy, and that only around 4.5 percent of Taiwan's 23 million people welcome the idea of Chinese rule. The island began a transition to democracy following the death of President Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of a president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996. Reported by Hsia Hsiao-hwa for RFA's Mandarin, and by Chung Kuang-cheng for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Copyright 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content June not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mumbai, June 9 : Exactly 90 days after Covid-19 sneaked into Maharashtra on March 9 through a Pune-based couple, coronavirus has infected a staggering 88,528 persons in the state -- with the current rate of daily infections surpassing that of the United Kingdom! With 266,598 cases, India has already overtaken Covid-19's alleged birthplace, China (around 83,040 patients), France (150,315), Turkey (170,132), Iran (171,789), Germany (184,193), Peru (191,758), Italy (234,998) and Spain (241,550) as on June 8. India is now just an arm's length behind the UK current tally (total 286,198 cases), with Russia way ahead (476,658), preceded by Brazil (672,846) and the current coronavirus global headquarters, USA (1,915,712). According to the Worldometer Covid-19 data for the past one week, the UK recorded 1,653 new cases (June 2) compared with Maharashtra's 2,287 on that day. Similarly, on June 3, UK notched 1,871 more patients (Maharashtra 2,560), on June 4, UK 1,805 (2,933), June 5 UK 1,650 (2,436), June 6 UK 1,557 (2,739), June 7 UK 1,326 (3,007) and June 8 UK 1,205 cases (Maharashtra 2,553 patients). Just nine days after the first confirmed cases in Maharashtra (March 9), Covid-19 claimed its first victim in Mumbai (March 17), In three months, the virus has devoured 3,169 people in the state, including 1,702 in the country's commercial capital, with a dubious distinction of being "India's corona capital". Since over the past fortnight, Maharashtra has been recording 75-plus fatalities, often shooting above 100, and new patients over 2K daily, with the previous single-day highest figure of 3,041 infections notched on May 24. Despite climbing onto Covid-19 bandwagon belatedly -- India's first case was recorded on January 30 in Kerala, Maharashtra's first case came only on the 38th day, on March 9 -- but thereafter, this state quickly broke all records to grab the top slot in the country now. In fact, for several days -- around April 10 -- the state had notched the highest "mortality rate" in the world, as per official figures, in terms of the number of the deaths per hundred infections, (IANS - April 14). Due to a series of stringent measures and interventions, the state successfully tamed the virus by bringing down the death rate to 3.57 per cent -- but it is still much higher than India's mortality rate of 2.80 -- while the global average stands at 5.78 per cent, today. What started innocuously in Pune on March 9, followed by Mumbai on March 10 and Nagpur the following day -- each city having an international airport -- the coronavirus pandemic has today spread to all 36 districts in the state. From just two cases on March 9, a month later (April 9), Maharashtra had shot up to 1,364 patients and 97 deaths, then (May 9) zooming to 20,228 cases and 779 fatalities. A month later today, the state's patient tally is 88,528 (overtaking China) and deaths are 3,169, presenting a grim scenario. As the number of patients and fatalities soar, hospitals, morgues, cemeteries or crematoria face a tough time coping with the Covid-19 rush. There are nightmarish videos of bodies kept on beds next to patients in Sion Hospital, 2-3 patients crammed on a single bed, others lying on floors, instances of overburdened doctors or nurses reportedly abandoning their duty posts, leaving the patients at the mercy of the virus, or patients fleeing isolation centres. Following an expose of one such incident by IANS (May 6), Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar rushed to the Sion Hospital and ordered a probe after which the Dean was shunted out. The state government also cracked the whip by transferring the then BMC Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi, and effected a big shakeup in the civic administrative setup to combat Covid-19. Mumbai Congress Vice-President V.P. Singh said that if India had acted in time by banning all international flights after the first positive case was detected in Kerala (January 30), the ongoing long lockdown could have been avoided. "In the shutdown, only the poor, middle-class or migrants are suffering with little or no help from the authorities. The affluent classes stay cosy even during the shutdown, but the rest stare at grim prospects of their very survival post-lockdown," Singh told IANS. The virus has spared none in the state -- commoners to Bollywood celebs and even two Cabinet Ministers -- as it gallops at full speed and the global scientific community trudges to develop basic vaccines or medicines. There have been some silver linings, too, with a whopping 40,975 patients fully cured and the state notching an impressive 46.28 per cent recovery rate, and over 75K beds available as on date. Simultaneously, a whopping 591,496 people are in home or institutional quarantine and there are 3,510 containment zones across the state, as the crucial monsoon challenge lurks round the corner. (Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text It is unfortunate that doctors are being blamed for not taking due precautions and thus becoming victims of the Covid-19, says Dr Mukul Kapoor, Director Anesthesia at Max Smart Hospital, Saket, Delhi. Spain has the unfortunate distinction of having the highest number of health care workers affected by COVID-19 infection and having an unacceptably high mortality rate among doctors. Approximately 50,000 health care workers (20% of all recorded cases) were infected, and 70 of them have died. Health care workers are the most valuable asset and the backbone in the fight to contain any pandemic. The focus of a state should be to preserve this resource and use it with extreme caution. In a conventional war, medical officers are never sent along with forwarding companies but instead stationed at the unit headquarters. The aim is to protect them from enemy fire and keep the resource safe. The safety of health care workers is the responsibility of the administration and state. It was most astounding to find that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated in the Supreme Court that the onus of doctors remaining Corona Negative is on the doctors themselves. It is bewildering to see the Dean of a Medical College passing an order that the internship of Medical Interns will be extended if they test positive or are quarantined. Instead of showing sympathy and gratitude to the COVID warriors, the administration is deterring and discouraging these young doctors. Similarly, the state government lodging FIR against a hospital for an inconsequential error is unthinkable, that too, when the nation is in the midst of a medical crisis. In a letter to the British Medical Journal, Professor Javier Crespo has cited five structural issues for the unusually high infection rate and mortality in Spain. The reasons are: 1. Health system fragmented into 17 health regions; 2. Inadequate government structure, due to this transfer; 3. Insufficient investment in health care; 4. No proactive strategy for tracing of potential cases; epidemiologists working advisers rather than in the field; 5. Inadequate response from the industry; insufficient investment in research; and limited innovation adaptation. Almost all these issues apply to us. Despite not having an optimal state health administration setup, every state of the country is deciding its own health policy. The investment of governments in the health care sector is abysmal. Budgetary allocations, both in the center and the states, are always on a downward trend. Policies are framed by eminent doctors, nominated by the politicians, and not by specialist Epidemiologists. The expert opinion is taken from Cardiac Surgeons, Nephrologists, Pediatricians, and many such specialists who have no experience in containing epidemics. The response of the government and the media is knee-jerk, and policy letters are regularly amended. Panels of doctors, who are neither involved in the treatment or the prevention of infectious diseases, influence the change. The availability of personal protective equipment for health care personnel remains restricted or sub-standard. The diagnostic kit availability is limited. Government diktat determines who can get tested, rather than professional doctors. The importance of surveillance screening for asymptomatic carriers is not permitted. Hospitals are hotbeds for transmission of infection. Almost every hospital is facing staff depletion due to staff picking up the virus from asymptomatic patients and their attendants. In Delhi alone, it is estimated that more than 1000 health care workers have been infected by the virus, despite taking precautions. More than 20 doctors have already succumbed to COVID-19 in the country. Unfortunately, doctors are being blamed for not taking due precautions and thus becoming victims of the virus. No sensible person would invite death on himself/herself. Doctors are also human and value their lives. The civic society, media, and the administration have, of late, started accusing the medical profession of the misery faced during these COVID times. It is time to stop doctors from being made a scapegoat and instead try to fight the menace together. Lets not make the mistake of placing political and economic interests before health and the nation. Lets learn from the Spanish debacle and prevent our country from going the same way. The writer is Director Anesthesia at Max Smart Hospital, Saket, Delhi. New Delhi: It appears that Health Minister of Delhi Mr Satyendra Jain, who has been criticised for making insensitive remarks on chikungunya outbreak in the national capital, relies of Google. He has once again come up with a bizarre statement saying one cannot die of chikungunya because Google says so. He said because Google has assured him that chikungunya cannot cause deaths, Delhiites need not panic. "People of Delhi have no need to panic. The state government is ready to provide help at all cost. But one should get admitted only if the doctor advises them to do so and not because they are scared," he said. "Chikungunya deaths are not happening across the world. Why is it only in a select few Delhi hospitals? And upon enquiry, I have discovered that most of the deaths are of people who were aged and already sick with other ailments," the minister added. 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. With Philadelphia politics lurching to the left in recent years, and City Council now more racially diverse than ever before, supporters of the protests that followed George Floyds death are hoping the city will follow the lead of Camden and Minneapolis in attempting to disband or defund the police department. For some people, its a scary conversation, but I want to stress that we need to be bold about how we change and how we restructure policing, and what we replace policing with, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said. I am inspired by Minneapolis, and I hope that our city, too, takes a hold of this moment and can be on the right side of history. There is no clear agreement on what is meant by defunding or dismantling the police, but activists have called for changes ranging from disbanding existing departments in order to build new ones from scratch to eliminating policing. Camden in 2013 shut down its police department in favor of a county-operated force that many say has led to reduced crime and improved community relations. A majority of the Minneapolis City Council on Sunday committed to disbanding the department, although they have not offered details on what public safety and law enforcement will look like if the plan becomes reality. Completely dismantling the department in Philadelphia, however, remains a long shot. Although some support the concept, no councilmember is known to be drafting legislation on it at the moment, and given Mayor Jim Kenneys opposition to the idea, any member who did move forward with a bill might need a supermajority to override a potential mayoral veto. Calls to decrease police funding also reverberated across the Delaware River on Tuesday, with Gov. Phil Murphy saying he did not support defunding police but believed budget priorities should include education, health care, and other things we do to lift our communities up. I recognize the passion around this right now, around the notion of defunding police, said Murphy, a Democrat. To me, its, 'Whats the ultimate end state? What are we trying to get to? I think we are trying to get to law enforcement and community relations that are defined by words like transparency and accountability and trust. Kenney on Tuesday released a plan to reform the Police Department and committed to working with Council to scrap an increase in the departments budget in the next fiscal year that he had proposed before the George Floyd protests. Kenneys comments indicate he now supports freezing city General Fund spending on the department at the current level of $748.6 million, rather than increasing it to $760.3 million as he proposed in May. Council originally appropriated $741.2 million for the department this year, but recent cost overruns have driven up its spending. READ MORE: Camden disbanded its police department and built a new one. Can others learn from it? I dont think defund the police means zero out the police budget and disband the force, Kenney said during a virtual news conference Tuesday. Some people do believe that, and are pushing that agenda. We think we can police better, and make sure that we put the resources into departments that can affect change and make the situations in our neighborhoods better. A more feasible path for the priorities local activists have pushed will likely involve redirecting some money from the departments budget to social programs, and adopting reforms in the way the city handles police misconduct. I wouldnt support abolishing the department because obviously we still have an issue when you talk about homicides here in the city of Philadelphia, we still have an issue when it comes to shootings, Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, vice chair of the Public Safety Committee, said. Can you defund it totally? No, you cant, but obviously you have to have a balance when you talk about public safety. Even as Kenney commits to reforms and budget changes, his administration is likely to face tough questions from councilmembers during a police budget hearing Wednesday morning. The makeup of Philadelphias Council, which took office in January, and the political climate created by the protests over Floyds killing by a Minneapolis police officer have opened the door for a more far-reaching police reform agenda than the city has ever seen. A bloc of consistently progressive members has emerged on the historically center-left Council, with others joining them on certain issues. Council has 13 nonwhite members, including 10 African Americans. READ MORE: After days of protests against police brutality, Mayor Jim Kenney pledges police reforms Gauthier and fellow progressive Councilmembers Helen Gym and Kendra Brooks would likely be on the front lines if there is a serious push to eliminate or defund the Police Department. We dont have to keep the same systems over and over, Gym posted on Twitter Sunday. Minneapolis Council showing how transformative change can happen. Brooks said she would also be supportive of disbanding the department, saying racism is so ingrained in the current system of policing that she doubts any amount of reform or training could eliminate it. You cant professional-develop people out of being racist, she said. We need to envision a system that is working to dismantle that, to dismantle anti-blackness, and find a way to create safety for everyone. Passing a bill to disband Philadelphias police force would require nine votes, and possibly 12 if Kenney were to veto the legislation. Council President Darrell L. Clarke has kept mum on the prospect of defunding or eliminating the department, saying through a spokesperson that he is closely watching the actions of other cities around the country on police reforms. Clarke was one of 14 members who on Monday sent Kenney a letter, authored by Johnson, laying out 15 specific reforms for how the department handles officer misconduct and use of force. Among them: an early warning system that tracks indicators of officers likely to engage in misconduct; a prohibition on police sitting or kneeling on subjects neck, face, or head; and a fully resourced, independent police oversight. READ MORE: City Council asks Mayor Kenney for 15 police reforms Councilmember Allan Domb, who signed the letter sent Monday, said he would not support an effort to eliminate or entirely defund the police. Domb said change is needed, but noted that Kenney in recent years has increased spending across the board and not just for police; the proposed budget for the next fiscal year includes $500 million more in spending than four years ago. The flavor of the day right now is to blame police, Domb said. I dont think police are perfect, but I think in general they do a very good job. Councilmember Isaiah Thomas said he commends Minneapolis for this bold experiment, and will be watching closely to see if it makes sense for Philly in the future, and fellow freshman Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson also indicated that she would be open to an approach similar to Camdens, saying that the time is now for much-needed reforms. Camden has been very successful in reducing violence, especially murder, violent crime, non-fatal shootings, assaults, and property crimes, she said in a statement Monday. Their focus on social services, employment, and education has been an important part of that work. A serial shoplifter who spent up to three years involved in "large-scale theft" has been jailed for five months. Andrea Lyons (24) had her latest sentence handed down by a judge who said the accused thought the law "somehow doesn't apply to her". Lyons, of Bunratty Road, Coolock, pleaded guilty to stealing 134 worth of cosmetics from McCabe's Pharmacy, Clarehall Shopping Centre, on January 17 last year. She selected goods from the shelves, left without paying and was later identified on CCTV. She also admitted the theft of 126 worth of goods from Mr Price, Coolock Retail Park, on June 26, 2018. Lyons had 57 previous convictions and was already serving a sentence. Clutches She had been living in England where she could have stayed "out of the clutches of our legal system", but she decided to come home and "put her hands up", her solicitor Leonard Leader said. Before leaving, there was a period of two to three years when she had a drug addiction and was "engaged in large-scale theft of one type or another". She was under the influence of her peers at the time, but was now "steering away from negative influences". "It's not appropriate for Ms Lyons to think she can walk in somewhere and take what does not belong to her. Why does she think the law somehow doesn't apply to her?" Judge Grainne Malone said. Mr Leader said Lyons knew it was wrong, but was "almost forced". She wanted to "put all this behind her", he added. The judge made the five months consecutive to the sentence Lyons is serving. Separately, Lyons was acquitted of shoplifting from McCabe's pharmacy on January 19 last year, which she had denied. The state's most senior public servant says NSW is in the prime position to leapfrog America and the United Kingdom as the first choice of international students because of its success in controlling the coronavirus pandemic. NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Tim Reardon said there was a "very strong will" within government to have international students return to universities as soon as possible. We certainly have strong ambitions to have international students back with us in a far larger sense, sooner than probably people wanted," he said on Tuesday. Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Tim Reardon says NSW has a "massive window of opportunity" to capitalise on its success in controlling the coronavirus pandemic. Credit:Jessica Hromas "A lot of that means some hard work with the federal government, because it means making sure where students are coming from are COVID safe locations as well." Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) Mauritian Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change minister, Mr Kavydass Ramano, has said the government will invest in the struggle against climate change that is affecting the island, PANA learnt from parliamentary sources [June 09, 2020] Axcient Now Offering x360Sync With Native Support for Microsoft Office 365 DENVER, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Axcient , a leader in business availability software for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), today announced that Axcient x360Syncthe companys file sync and share server solutionis now offering native support for Microsoft 365 the productivity cloud that brings together best-in-class Office apps with powerful cloud services, device management, and advanced security. Adding Microsoft 365 native support to x360Sync is a game-changer for our partners, said Matt Dugan, Senior Product Manager at Axcient. The offering is critical for MSPs as they are working harder than ever to ensure their clients are secure, protected, and productive. We are excited about the new collaboration and the peace of mind it provides our partners because they can trust that their clients data is always safeguarded. Axcient x360Sync is secure sync and share with always-on employee backup. It provides file server migration, hybrid on-premise and cloud file services, continuous backup, and compliance for regulated verticals. The combination of native editing and collaboration for Microsoft 35 online supports a secure cloud collaboration and productive distributed workforce. Axcients collaboration with Microsoft 365 demonstrates their commitment to helping MSPs ensure their clients data is always protected, said Ryan Burton, VP of Product Strategy at Pax8. Native Microsoft 365 document editing online is an important feature for our partners. Now combined with Axcient x360Sync, data will be recoverable whenever ransomware happens. To learn more about Axcient or start a free trial, please visit www.axcient.com . About Axcient Axcient is an award-winning leader in business availability software for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). The Axcient x360Recover platform empowers MSPs to protect everything by combining its best-in-class BCDR technology for MSPs and simplifying the partner experience. Trusted by MSPs worldwide, Axcient protects businesses data and continuity in the event of security breaches , human error, and natural disasters . For more information, visit www.axcient.com . Media Contact ARL Strategic Communications for Axcient PRAGUE (AP) The speaker of the Czech Republic's Senate announced Tuesday he will visit Taiwan despite warnings from China and a recommendation from his own government that he not take the trip. Milos Vystrcil said he would be accompanied by a business delegation on his visit, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Aug. 30. Vystrcil said he was also planning to meet Taiwans leaders, but didnt immediately give details. Vystrcils predecessor in the post, Jaroslav Kubera, was planning to travel to Taiwan before he died in January. His plans angered pro-China Czech President Milos Zeman. A letter to Kubera from the Chinese Embassy in Prague warned him against going on the trip, saying the visit would have negatives consequences for future economic relations between China and the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic has established informal relations with Taiwan but recognizes the one-China principle the notion that Taiwan belongs to Communist Party-ruled China. Vystrcil said China's pressure, including a warning from the Chinese Embassy against congratulating Taiwan's pro-independence President Tsai Ing-wen on her re-election, contributed to his decision to travel to the island. The People's Republic of China believes it has a right to tell us what to do, Vystrcil said. He said the Czech Republic will benefit from his trip. Taiwan is an important business partner for the Czech Republic and has invested more in the Czech economy than mainland China. In a separate development condemned by China, the Czech capital of Prague signed in January a partnership agreement with Taiwan's capital, Taipei, three months after canceling a similar deal with Beijing. Projects were presented in a global innovation challenge posed by the cosmetics brand to combat plastic waste generation and pollution. Three solutions are already being tested by the company SAO PAULO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2019, Natura launched its Natura Innovation Challenge - Zero Waste Packaging. The initiative was aimed at finding innovative global solutions to combat plastic waste generation and pollution. Now, the company is making some of the projects suggested during the challenge available to the market via the website https://innovationchallenge.natura/ The solutions shared on the platform include ones from suppliers of biodegradable packaging and new logistics solutions for the disposal of recyclable waste in partnership with a fintech and cooperatives. Promoted in partnership by the Natura Campus and Natura Startups programs, the Natura Innovation Challenge attracted different kinds of entrepreneurs, including start-ups, researchers, universities and companies from 35 countries. The challenge analyzed over 570 solutions offering the potential to rethink packaging, logistics and business models with a view to eliminating waste. Its global reach made this Natura's biggest open innovation call for proposals ever. Three projects were selected and are now at the test phase in the company. "Natura has worked with open innovation for over 20 years, based on the understanding that it is fundamental for our business. However, we adopt a very careful approach to this work: for us, it is only innovation if it provokes positive impact. By means of Natura Campus and Natura Startups we are going to continue to promote innovation with our network in pursuit of solutions for the major challenges in sustainability and business", says Roseli Mello, Global Head of R&D at Natura &Co. "It is essential to share solutions to boost the visibility of the proposals received because they have great potential to impact the chain positively, as well as the businesses of other companies and other industries", the executive explains. About Natura Established in 1969, Natura is a Brazilian multinational in the cosmetics and personal care segment. Market leader in direct sales in Brazil, with over 1.8 million Beauty Consultants, Natura is part of the Natura &Co group, a corporate brand that brings together Natura, Avon, Aesop and The Body Shop. Natura was the first publicly-traded company in the world to receive a B Corp certification in December 2014, underscoring its transparent and sustainable social, environmental and economic performance. SOURCE Natura &Co Related Links https://naturaeco.com COLUMBUS, Ohio - After state officials announced Bureau of Motor Vehicle Driving Tests will resume, Gov. Mike DeWine is updating the public on the states response to the coronavirus. Driving tests will begin Friday and next Tuesday, depending on location, but people need to make appointments online before going in for a test. Watch DeWines briefing below, broadcast by the Ohio Channel. Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted will not be present. As of Monday, at least 2,404 people have died with coronavirus in Ohio and at least 38,837 people have been infected. More coverage: At least 2,404 Ohioans have died with coronavirus, up 27: Monday update Ohio BMV will reopen driving test sites June 12 17 Ohio GOP senators sponsoring bill to prohibit state officials from making coronavirus school reopening plans Britain's record for being coal-free has now reached the two months mark. According to the National Grid, the last time a coal-powered generator was online was at midnight on Thursday April 9. Since then, with warm temperatures and surges in energy production from renewable sources, not a single watt of energy has come from burning coal. Scroll down for video Great Britain has extended its record for how long the country has gone without using a single watt of energy produced from coal. As of midnight on Tueday it marked 61 days since coal generators were taken offline The record has been made possible by a combination of several factors, including the nationwide coronavirus lockdown and warm weather. April was the sunniest April on record and the lockdown saw demand for energy drop by 20 per cent Midnight on Tuesday night marked exactly 61 days (or 1,464 hours) since the last coal generator was active. Before this unprecedented coal-free spell, the previous record was 18 days, 6 hours and 10 minutes. National Grid says it does not envision booting up coal plants in the foreseeable future, as long as the current reduced demand continues. Roisin Quinn, head of national control at National Grid ESO, said: 'The weather (and to a lesser extent the lower demand) is the leading factor in these records and trends, and although May's sunshine didn't power us to a record high, overall solar share was up from last month - with periods where solar was comfortably our top power source.' The COVID-19 pandemic has seen people staying at home and travelling less and this has led to a drop in energy demand, according to figures from the National Grid. During a record-breaking May, renewable sources accounted for 28 per cent of all energy production, on average. Solar and wind produced 11.45 and 15.87 per cent of Britain's energy last month, respectively, while hydro added a further 0.69 per cent. Eco-friendly biomass energy production contributed a further 8.75 per cent. Nuclear - which produces no greenhouse gases - churned out 22.96 per cent of all energy. However, the biggest single contributor was natural gas, with 30.06 per cent of total output from this source. Natural gas is a fossil fuel and does produce greenhouse gases, however it is less damaging to the environment than coal. The final chunk of British energy production (10.22 per cent) was imported from mainland Europe. During a record-breaking May, renewable sources accounted for 28 per cent of all energy production, on average. Solar and wind produced 11.45 and 15.87 per cent of Britain's energy last month, respectively Londoners use more electricity than others in lockdown Londoners are using a lot more extra energy during the lockdown than the rest of the country, according to new data. Households in the capital have seen an approximately 40 per cent spike in their energy use, against a 27 per cent jump nationally, energy supplier Bulb revealed. The figures suggest that Londoners are more prone to work from home, with extra computers and lightbulbs guzzling an additional 25 per cent more electricity in the capital during the hours formerly spent in the office. It compares to a 17 per cent jump nationally, Bulb said. Bulb co-founder Amit Gudka said: 'The jump in electricity use is more pronounced in London - almost 10 per cent higher than the UK average, and even more so at lunch - which we would put down to a higher percentage of the working population living in the capital, leading to greater variation pre and post-lockdown.' Advertisement This breakdown is vastly different to previous years. National grid says that eight years ago, coal accounted for more than 40 per cent of energy production over the course of the year. On April 28, when the previous record was broken, the National grid cited the reduced demand during lockdown as a major factor. In April 2020, power demand was down by almost a fifth compared to April 2019. Fintan Slye, director of ESO, said in April: '2020 is shaping up to be a record-breaking year for Great Britain's electricity system, and I've little doubt we'll see more exciting developments as the growth and performance of renewables continues to transform our grid at an astonishing rate. 'Within a matter of days we've seen a new solar generation record, and the longest period of coal-free operation in Britain.' Official figures reveal April and May were both the sunniest on record, allowing solar infrastructure to work at capacity, ensuring there was no need to turn on coal plants. Figures from the University of Reading reveal there was was 345 hours of sunshine in May. This is nearly double the average of 188 hours, and means Britain was bathed in pure sunshine for more than 11 hours a day. Not only was last month the sunniest May on record, it was also the sunniest month ever recorded. Only 1mm of rain fell in May, which was on May 1. May was also the greenest month ever recorded by the National Grid, with an average carbon intensity of 143 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt/hour of energy (143 gCO2/kWh). 'On the afternoon of Sunday 24 May we saw the grid at its all-time greenest, with a new record low carbon intensity of 46 gCO2kWh. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 9, 2020) - Sego Resources Inc. (TSXV: SGZ) ("Sego" or "the Company") is pleased to announce the start of the 2,000 metre drilling program at the Miner Mountain Porphyry Copper-Gold project near Princeton, BC. The company delayed commencement of the program due to the COVID-19 quarantine requirements but, having consulted with government, industry, contractors, local community and landowners, Sego Resources has deemed exploration safe to commence following strict hygiene and distancing protocols. CEO J Paul Stevenson comments, "We are excited to get our drilling program underway. Drilling has commenced on the Miner Mountain to test deeper targets below the Granby-Cuba zone of mineralization." Following a new interpretation, (See News Release November 28, 2019), the Company has completed a detailed re-logging program of 28 diamond drill holes at the Cuba, Granby and Southern Gold targets. This work indicates that a monzodiorite intrusion is central to the mineralized Cuba and Granby Zones and other features representing an upper expression of an alkalic porphyry Cu-Au that together warrant deep exploration beneath these features. Sego Resources Inc. is applying to the TSX-Venture Exchange to extend the warrants issued in the flow through financing in June 2018. The Company is applying to extend warrants expiring in June and August as follows: Tranche 1-from June 15, 2020 to June 15, 2021, Tranche 2-from August 15, 2020 to August 15, 2021 and Tranche 3-from August 31, 2020 to August 31, 2021. The non-flow through warrants currently expire in 2022. There is no material change about the issuer that has not been generally disclosed. This news release was reviewed and approved by Selina Tribe, Ph.D., P.Geo., a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. Sego is 100% owner of the Miner Mountain project, an alkalic copper-gold porphyry exploration project near Princeton, British Columbia. The property is 2,056 hectares in size and is located 15 kilometres north of the Copper Mountain Mine operated by Copper Mountain Mining Corporation and Mitsubishi Copper. Sego has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Upper Similkameen Indian Band on whose Traditional Territory the Miner Mountain project is situated. Sego has received an Award of Excellence for its reclamation work at Miner Mountain. For further information please contact: J. Paul Stevenson, CEO (604) 682-2933 For investor & shareholder information, please contact: MarketSmart Communications Inc. Ph: +1 +1 877 261-4466 Email: info@marketsmart.ca 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. No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained in this news release. This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statement of historical facts that address future production, reserve potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that the Company expects re forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and those actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57503 Govt Welcomes Positive Engagement with Officials of the Government of Spain Her Majesty's Government of Gibraltar says it welcomes the positive and cordial engagement today with officials of the Government of Spain in the context of an initial contact for exploratory discussions relating to the post-Brexit relationship between Gibraltar and Spain and the EU. The talks, which involved delegations from Spain, the United Kingdom and Gibraltar were held in Malaga. The Chief Minister, the Hon Fabian Picardo QC MP, headed the Gibraltar delegation which also included the Deputy Chief Minister, the Hon Dr Joseph Garcia MP, Attorney General Michael Llamas QC and Financial Secretary Albert Mena. The Chief Minister said: "I welcome that we have had a very positive engagement with Spanish Government officials. The discussions took place in a cordial and constructive atmosphere. "All key issues were discussed and there are clearly areas where some significant progress can be made. These include the issues of mobility, which has long been a point of unnecessary friction for citizens, and a wider agenda of engagement designed to continue to resolve matters which have long dogged our relationship. The discussions will resume before the end of this month." Tim Alberta of Politico wonders whether we are witnessing the last stand of law and order Republicans. Albertas piece is defective as a matter of logic and evidence. Its also intellectually dishonest. Alberta sees an emerging divide in the Republican party on the issue of policing. On the one hand, there are traditional Republicans who, he says, believe that police are heroes and protesters are criminals and the only tragic failure in America is a failure to respect authority. With this passage, which appears in his third paragraph, Alberta has already gone off the rails. No Republican I know believes that protesters who dont violate the law are criminals or that the only tragic failure in America is a failure to respect authority. There are other tragic failures in America. Alberta has created a straw man. He has forfeited any genuine claim to the seriousness of his article. In contrast to his cartoonish law and order wing of the GOP, Alberta presents us with his good guy Republicans figures like George W. Bush who recognize that obvious police brutality is a routine event and that its root cause is a broken institution with embedded racial inequalities, namely Americas police. Heres how Alberta summarizes the thinking of the two wings: On one side are the reformers who understand that the system is no longer broken only in the eyes of black and brown voters; on the other side are the traditionalists who will go to their political graves insisting that American exceptionalism guarantees American equality. American exceptionalism guarantees American equality? Ive never heard anyone say or suggest that. Im not even sure what it means. Alberta quotes Sen. Tom Cotton as a representative of the traditionalist side. Cotton told him: I do not think you can paint with a broad brush and say theres systemic racism in the criminal justice system in America. Can there be inequality? Can there be injustices in particular cases? Yes, there can be. But I do not think you can, nor should you, paint with such a broad brush. This doesnt sound like American exceptionalism guarantees American equality. It sounds like a plausible statement that should be tested against the evidence. This, Alberta does not do. He rejects Cottons position, but offers no evidence that it is factually incorrect. Instead, Alberta turns to polls. He notes that for the first time, [] a majority of Americans (57 percent) and a plurality of whites (49 percent) believe police are more likely to use excessive force against African Americans. After a week or more of strident, overwrought media insistence on the point, Im surprised that more people dont believe this. But heres where Albertas article hits rock bottom. He writes: To be clear, the traditionalists are winning the intraparty battleand they might continue to win well after Trump leaves office. But they cant win forever. As with gay marriage and marijuana legalization, the cultural current is now running plainly in one direction. Alberta has answered his own question: This is the last stand, albeit perhaps a prolonged one, of the law and order Republicans. But Alberta fails to consider the consequences of a sustained attack on traditional, proactive policing. What if that attack and the reforms pushed by the left produce a breakdown in law and order? What if most of our cities and some of our suburbs turn into Baltimore? The likely answer is that, in this scenario, law and order Republicans will carry the day. This is why its idiotic of Alberta to compare the issue of policing with gay marriage and marijuana legalization. No one is afraid to leave his or her house at night because gay marriage is legalized. No one fears for his or her life because marijuana use is legal. Weak policing is an entirely different matter. It carries with it the risk of a breakdown in public safety. Alberta should have asked himself what polls would look like in that event. The back end of Albertas piece presents a potted history of the law and order debate in modern American politics. That history undercuts the thesis of his article. As Alberta says, the term law and order made its way into political discourse during the bloody summer of 1968. Democrats eventually embraced the concept in the face of decades of rising crime rates. Their embrace included backing long prison sentences for criminals the tough on crime legislation that Democrats, some Republicans, and (it seems) Alberta find deeply misguided and maybe even racist. Yet, Alberta never considers the possibility that a return to the lawlessness of 1968 and the high crime rates of the following 25 years would cause the body politic to once again support tough on crime policies. There have been plenty of overwrought, nonsensical articles produced in the aftermath of the tragic killing of George Floyd and the ensuing protests and riots. Albertas effort among the worst. No matter how scruffy you look these days, dont get a black market haircut. If the underground economy increases by even 10 per cent, we will lose up to a billion dollars in tax revenue. A billion dollars may not stretch as far as it used to, but it could pay for almost 15,000 more nurses for our long-term care homes. Tax revenue is sorely needed now, as budget deficits reach record highs. Why is the black market thriving? Canadians have a new incentive to work under the table; the monthly CERB payments of $2,000 only stop when the recipients actually report their income. Money earned under the table doesnt count, and this extra money is even tax-free. Unfortunately, the black market hurts local businesses. Hair salons that provide their staff with masks, limit the number of customers inside and install Plexiglas barriers may have to raise their prices a bit to recoup these costs. Because black market competitors can charge less, businesses with integrity may struggle to keep their customers. The black market also endangers Canadians health. Contact tracing is a key part of our efforts to control the coronavirus spread. Everyone diagnosed with COVID-19 needs to honestly answer a public health nurses questions, so that others can be tested. But will everyone who gets a quarantine cut admit it? The black market barber is unlikely to keep a list of customers names and contact information. Employees at legitimate companies have the legal right to refuse unsafe work, even if they sometimes have a hard time doing so. If employees are working under the table, its even more difficult for them to complain about unsafe working conditions. Enforcing social distancing in your workplace is a lot harder to do when your activities are illegal. One could argue that people are only doing what they need to do to support their families. Of course, we need to be compassionate toward those who are struggling financially. However, there are broader economic and social costs that must be considered too. Tax revenue funds our hospitals and schools; the black market jeopardizes all our social services. However, the solution to the growing black market is not to rush into opening every business immediately. Physical distancing measures still need to be enforced. The Revenue Canada snitch line isnt a solution either. Anonymous tips wont catch all the rule breakers, and asking people to monitor their neighbours behaviours risks eroding our trust in each other. And if the penalties are too large, black market activity will go further underground. A haircut in your backyard is safer than one in someones basement. Statistics Canada estimates that the pre-pandemic black market was already at least $51.6 billion every year. Now its expanding. If the black market is not reined in, we are all at risk for far more than a bad haircut. NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Core Materials Market Research Report by Type (Balsa, Foam, and Honeycomb), by End User (Aerospace, Construction, Marine, Transportation, and Wind Energy) - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913973/?utm_source=PRN The Global Core Materials Market is expected to grow from USD 1,613.06 Million in 2019 to USD 2,396.39 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.81%. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Core Materials to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: On the basis of Type, the Core Materials Market is studied across Balsa, Foam, and Honeycomb. The Foam further studied across PET Foam, PVC Foam, Polyetherimide, Polymethacrylimide, Polystyrene, Polyurethane, and SAN Foam. The Honeycomb further studied across Aluminum, Aramid, and Thermoplastic. On the basis of End User, the Core Materials Market is studied across Aerospace, Construction, Marine, Transportation, and Wind Energy. On the basis of Geography, the Core Materials Market is studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region is studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region is studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region is studied across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Company Usability Profiles: The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Core Materials Market including 3A Composites, Armacell International Holding GmbH, BASF SE, Changzhou Tiansheng New Materials Co. Ltd, Core Composites, Diab Group, Euro-Composites S.A., Evonik Industries AG, Gurit Holding AG, Hexcel Corporation, I-Core Composites, LLC., Matrix Composite Materials Company Ltd., Plascore Incorporated, Sabic, and The Gill Corporation. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Core Materials Market on the basis of 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) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Competitive Strategic Window: 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 acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, so for and, the long-term effects projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlaying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report is delivering insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecast, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on sulfuric acid offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Core Materials Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Core Materials Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Core Materials Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Core Materials Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Core Materials Market? 6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Core Materials Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913973/?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 Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz Announces Investigation on Behalf of Fluor Corporation Investors (FLR) The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz is investigating potential claims against the board of directors of Fluor Corporation ("Fluor" or the "Company") (NYSE: FLR) concerning whether the board breached its fiduciary duties to shareholders. If you are a shareholder, click here to participate. If you own Fluor shares and wish to discuss this matter with us, or have any questions concerning your rights and interests with regards to this matter, please contact Frank R. Cruz, of The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz, 1999 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-914-5007, by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.frankcruzlaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number and number of shares purchased. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005833/en/ A World Health Organization (WHO) official said late on Monday that people with the Sars-Cov-2 may not be infectious if they are asymptomatic, a significant new claim about the understanding of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) that experts around the world said could be premature. WHO official epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove made the statement at a briefing in Geneva, where officials from the global health agency said that new coronavirus cases had their biggest daily increase ever and countries must continue with efforts to contain the virus. From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual, said Van Kerkhove, head of WHOs emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a news briefing from the United Nations agencys Geneva headquarters. Its very rare. These asymptomatic cases, she said, were identified through contact tracing of known patients and the lack of onward transmission by asymptomatic individuals was based on data from countries carrying out detailed contact tracing. Much of that has been published in the literature yet, she said, adding that the agency was reviewing such data to be sure. Also Watch | Covid situation worsening, says WHO as global cases cross 70 lakh-mark Also Read: Covid-19: Maharashtra inches closer to 90,000 cases, total tally touches 88,528 Van Kerkhove said such findings were published in a paper from Singapore, where contacts from long-term care facilities and households supported the theory. Last week, China announced results from its population-wide testing of residents in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, where they found 300 asymptomatic patients among the citys 9.98 million residents. Personal belongings of these asymptomatic carriers such as toothbrushes, mugs, masks and towels have shown negative for the virus in samples collected from the surfaces, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday. A total of 1,174 close contacts of the 300 cases have also been tested negative for coronavirus, the report added. Experts have sought to ask the WHO to make a distinction between whether the lack of transmission was true only in asymptomatic cases people with an infection that is so mild that they never have any symptoms compared to pre-symptomatic cases where people go on to later develop symptoms. In a study published in the journal Nature in mid-April, researchers from Chinas Guangzhou studied 94 patients and estimated that 44% of secondary cases were infected during the index patients presymptomatic stage, particularly in settings such as households. Disease control measures should be adjusted to account for probable substantial presymptomatic transmission, they added. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON UPDATE: According to the diocese, due to current capacity limitations in the cathedral, preferred seating for Thursdays Funeral Mass is reserved for family and close friends, as well as diocesan and visiting clergy. Limited overflow seating will be available in the Crowley Center. All attendees are asked to wear a mask inside the cathedral and practice social distancing. KALAMAZOO, MI A funeral mass and internment will be held Thursday, June 11, for the Most Rev. James A. Murray. Murray, who died June 5, would have celebrated the 62nd anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on Sunday, June 7. Related: Catholics mourning death of Kalamazoo Bishop Emeritus James A. Murray Born in Jackson, Michigan, Murray served as a priest in the Diocese of Lansing for nearly 40 years, until 1998 when he became the third bishop of Kalamazoo. Murray retired from full-time priesthood in 2009, and has been bishop emeritus for the Diocese of Kalamazoo for the past 11 years. During his career, Murray also served as assistant pastor of St. Joseph Church in St. Joseph and St. Mary Cathedral and the St. Therese and St. Gerard parishes in Lansing. He became rector of St. Mary Cathedral in 1978, served as chancellor of the Diocese of Lansing from 1968-97 and as chaplain of the Lansing Police Department from 1972-97. A reception of Murrays body will take place at 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 10, at St. Augustine Cathedral, 542 W. Michigan Ave. in Kalamazoo. Murray will lie in state from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. with Solemn Vespers, for diocesan and visiting clergy at 5 p.m. The praying of the Rosary, led by Msgr. Michael Hazard, will be at 7:30 p.m. Visitation will continue from 8:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 11 and Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 2 p.m. Internment, to be held at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, 2003 Mt. Olivet Rd., Kalamazoo, will immediately follow the funeral Mass. Also on MLive: Catholics mourning death of Kalamazoo Bishop Emeritus James A. Murray Departing bishop sees a more united diocese Murray is also happy about increase in number of priests here Longtime Grand Rapids police and fire chaplain dies LONDON, June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/-- On Friday, the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis held its general election resulting in another landslide victory for Team Unity. The three-party coalition secured nine out of eleven constituencies. On Sunday, Dr Timothy Harris was sworn in for his second and final term as Prime Minister. Running on a continued reform platform, PM Harris pledged to uphold the growth momentum the twin-island nation has registered over the past five years under his tenure. This includes regular fiscal surplus, a record reduction in debt-to-GDP ratio more than a decade before the deadline, and a drastic drop in criminality. The country also registered a rise in Citizenship by Investment applications after implementing stricter security checks and introducing the Sustainable Growth Fund as the fastest route to second citizenship. "The United States congratulates the people of St. Kitts and Nevis on their free and fair elections and looks forward to deepening our partnership with Prime Minister Timothy Harris and his government," reads the US Department of State press statement issued on June 8th. "We will continue to work together to promote security, economic prosperity, and democratic rights for the citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis and people throughout the Caribbean. St. Kitts and Nevis and the United States are friends and neighbors with a shared commitment to democratic values and the rule of law," continues the message signed by the Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus. During the swearing in ceremony this weekend, PM Harris expressed gratitude for the support from voters and partners around the world. "We are all honored and humbled by the faith and confidence which you have reposed in us," he said. "I only intend to serve two terms in the office of Prime Minister," he added, reiterating his promise from his 2015 campaign. "We shall make the modern history for St Kitts and Nevis by making it the best-managed island country," said PM Harris. Mark Brantley, Foreign Minister and Premier of Nevis in the outgoing cabinet, secured all three constituencies on the island. "My [Concerned Citizens Movement Party] won all the available seats in Nevis in a landslide victory. Huge thank you to the people of Nevis for their confidence in us," said Brantley on Saturday. Contact: [email protected], www.csglobalpartners.com SOURCE CS Global Partners Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Made Anthony Iswara (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 18:33 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd5fc33 1 National #mental-health,mental-health,COVID-19,#COVID19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,psychologist,mental-health-workers,#mental-health-workers Free Pita, a Jakarta resident who asked to use a pseudonym for this article, said anxiety had kept her from sleeping for several days at a time during the pandemic. Social distancing prevented her from gathering with her friends and going out, which had helped her cope with her stress before the outbreak. She said she felt bad for reaching out to her usual therapist, who was busier than usual during the pandemic. She could either make a video call or meet her therapist in person at Mintoharjo Naval Hospital (RSAL Mintoharjo), a COVID-19 referral hospital, to obtain her psychological test results. The latter was a riskier choice. She initially hesitated to do an online consultation because of the lack of privacy in her home, where she lived with her siblings, but she managed to obtain the results on Monday on a video call. The internet connection is slow and there are only a few psychiatrists. And even if it is online, it is also a matter of compatibility. Ive found one that I am comfortable with after talking to six others, Pita said. Its complicated." Pita is one of many who have felt the pinch of Indonesias longstanding shortage of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak despite patients need for regular access to mental health care. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), access to mental health treatment is critical. Failure to take peoples emotional well-being seriously during the pandemic, the organization says, will lead to long-term social and economic costs to society. There is no health without mental health, said Indonesian Clinical Psychology Association (IPK) chairwoman Indria Laksmi Gamayanti, quoting the WHO. When mental health is ignored, there will be a decline in productivity and peoples character development. Read also: Three stages of emotion on COVID-19 journey: Where are you now? Indria said Indonesia was already lacking clinical psychologists before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the current surge in virus-related inquiries had stretched mental health resources further. She said the deficit-stricken national health insurance (JKN) program had yet to include clinical psychological services in its scheme despite high demand for it. The 2018 Basic Health Survey (Riskesdas) shows that 7 in 1,000 households in Indonesia have members who experience psychosis or schizophrenia. In addition, about 6 in every 1,000 households have members below 15 years old who are enduring depression. No national data is currently available about the number of mental health workers and patients during the pandemic. However, past data shows that Indonesia lacks the mental health resources to cope with the countrys needs. With a population of about 250 million in 2016, the country had only about 773 psychiatrists approximately one for every 323,000 people, the Health Ministry told Tempo in 2016. The figure is a far cry from the WHOs recommendation of having one psychiatrist and psychologist for every 30,000 people. An article in The Conversation in 2018 argues that the country needs 7,500 mental health workers to provide sufficient psychiatric services for its population, basing the figure on the WHOs benchmark. They estimated that the country could only meet 16.3 percent of its needs. Read also: Less than 1,000 psychiatrists for 260 million Indonesians The WHO warned last month that the world could risk a massive increase in mental health issues in the coming months if nations neglected investment in such services. It is now crystal clear that mental health must be treated as a core element of our response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. To alleviate the burden, the Social Affairs Ministry, the Indonesian Professional Social Workers Association (IPSPI) and the Indonesian Social Work Consortium (KPSI) launched a set of psychosocial services on May 12. They include a 24/7 hotline for online consultation and regular webinars for mental health education. "The psychosocial service programs can reduce the emotional burden on individuals and society. The proper handling of the communitys emotional condition will also help the community's readiness and endurance in the current situation," Social Affairs Minister Juliari Batubara said. The government has introduced a psychological consultation service, called the Psychological Services for Mental Health (Sejiwa) program, to improve mental health during the coronavirus outbreak. Read also: Psychological consultation hotline launched in virus-stricken Indonesia Counseling and development center Personal Growth CEO and founder Ratih Ibrahim said services like Sejiwa would not be effective without a sufficient number of clinical psychologists. She encouraged universities to increase access to clinical psychology programs and to shorten the period of study needed to be a clinical psychologist. According to IPK chairwoman Indria, Indonesia only has 17 universities that offer psychology majors. Ratihs firm found that 33 percent of the 327 cases recorded on its free online counseling platform from March to May were related to COVID-19. Some 9 percent of the 23 complaints involving children aged 13 to 17 were COVID-19-related. Dont underestimate the figures. If we generalize it to a larger population, the trend will likely be the same, Ratih said. Teylor AG, a Zurich, Switzerland-based SME lending technology startup, closed a financing round of CHF 8m. Backers included Wenvest Capital, Steinbeis, Patrick Zbinden, as well as other angel investors, family offices, and institutional investors from Switzerland, Germany, and Israel. The company intends to use the funds to to further expand its operations in Germany and Europe, onboard more banking clients to its SaaS product (Teylor Lending Cloud), grow its market share and begin financing loans itself through its own debt vehicle. Founded in 2018 by CEO Patrick Stauble, Teylor develops fully digital credit solutions for small and medium-sized businesses and provides a licensed version of its technology to banks. Using Teylors Software-as-a-Service products allows banks to digitalize and automate every aspect of their SME lending business, from customer onboarding to anti-fraud to scoring. To support its expansion, the company plans to open an office in Berlin this year and to launch in two other European countries. Teylor currently employs 20 staff and is looking for additional credit-, sales- and IT-experts to join its growing team. FinSMEs 09/06/2020 USM STEM Majors Awarded NASA/Mississippi Space Grant Consortium Scholarships Tue, 06/09/2020 - 12:40pm | By: Ivonne Kawas The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) announced the scholarship recipients and the winners of the Innovative Design in Computing Competition (IDCC) awarded through the state-wide NASA/Mississippi Space Grant Consortium (MSSGC) program, which supports students in their pursuit of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) degrees. Ive served as the Southern Miss campus coordinator for the Mississippi Space Grant Consortium since 2018. During this time, Ive overseen the disbursement of $80,000 in Space Grant scholarships and IDCC prizes to undergraduate students majoring in STEM fields, said Dr. David Cochran, professor of geography in the School of Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences. This year, we are thrilled to award 16 Space Grant Scholarships of $1,500 each and monetary prizes of $2,000 each to the 3 members of the winning team of IDCC. The NASA Space Grant program is designed to encourage and motivate excellence in student performance and to raise awareness of NASA employment and research opportunities among students with NASA relevant majors in the Southern Miss College of Arts and Sciences. The NASA/Mississippi Space Grant scholarship recipients include: Steven Ates, ocean engineering major from Ocean Springs, Miss. Douglas Bradley, geology major from Kingwood, Texas Kardarius Felton, biological science major from Roxie, Miss. Ryan Guinta, ocean engineering major from Gulfport, Miss. Rachel Hamilton, ocean engineering major from Biloxi, Miss. Nathan Hammondkunke, ocean engineering major from Long Beach, Miss. Joshua Hernyak, geology major from Diamondhead, Miss. Tamary JoNay Ingram, chemistry major from Richland, Miss. Seth Kumming, geology major from Sumrall, Miss. Jonathon Osborne, environmental biology major from Philadelphia, Miss. Jacob Seal, geology major from Petal, Miss. Andrew Smith, ocean engineering major from Madison, Miss. Thomas Stillman, geology major from Argyle, Texas Julian Vannattan, geology major from Picayune, Miss. Kelly Wegmann, geography major from Dallas, Texas Mary Woodhall, biological science major from Petal, Miss. The IDCC provides undergraduate students in the School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering an experiential learning opportunity, as they put into practice what they have learned over the course of the academic year. In teams of two or more, they collaborate and design a computing project that focuses on specific applications, robotics, and other elements of computer science and engineering. As the semester culminates, they present their final project to a panel of judges. Dr. Amer Dawoud, associate professor in the School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering and coordinator of the annual IDCC, said the winning students were able come up with a great plan to integrate user-controlled and interactive LED lighting for a longboard. The IDCC winners include: Ashley Funkhouser, psychology and computer science major from Hattiesburg, Miss. Matieu Lagarde, computer engineering major from Picayune, Miss. Zachary Pulver, computer engineering tech major from Sumrall, Miss. MSSGC is a statewide non-profit organization supported by NASA whose membership includes 17 institutions of higher learning across the state. Headquartered at the University of Mississippi, MSSGC is led by Dr. Nathan Murray, director, and Dr. Earnest Stephens, assistant director. MSSGC provides opportunities for Mississippians who are interested in participating in NASAs aeronautics and space programs by supporting and enhancing STEM fields, research, and outreach programs. For more information about MSSGC visit msspacegrant.org. Its been nearly three months since Manitoba restaurants closed their doors to the public, marking the beginning of a turbulent new era. Even before the provincial government told them to, many local restaurateurs proactively closed their dining rooms, unsure when customers would return to the table. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Its been nearly three months since Manitoba restaurants closed their doors to the public, marking the beginning of a turbulent new era. Even before the provincial government told them to, many local restaurateurs proactively closed their dining rooms, unsure when customers would return to the table. New research released Tuesday by Dalhousie University and the Angus Reid Institute sheds some light on an answer and, apparently, Manitobans are among the most eager in the country to return to their favourite establishments. Twenty-one per cent of Manitoba respondents said they planned on going out to eat at a restaurant "as soon as possible" second only to Quebec (26 per cent) while 46 per cent said they were likely to do so over the summer, the highest proportion of any province. As well, fewer people in Manitoba (18 per cent) than anywhere else said they would wait until the second wave of COVID-19 has passed before dining out in person. "Canada is pretty split: half the people intend to go out this summer, and the other half plan to stay home," said Sylvain Charlebois, a professor of food distribution at Dalhousie who contributed to the study. Comparatively speaking, he said Manitoba and Saskatchewan residents seem less concerned with the health risks of dining out than people in the rest of the country. A national average of 48 per cent of respondents said they had no plans to avoid restaurants. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, about 60 per cent said so. While its difficult to accurately gauge why poll respondents in the two Prairie provinces are more confident, Charlebois suggested it might have to do with comparatively low case counts of COVID-19 and their governments respective reopening schedules. When the survey was conducted on June 2, both provinces were already entering their second months of reopening non-essential businesses, including restaurant patios; other provinces still havent allowed restaurants to reopen, even at limited capacity. 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. The bulk of respondents who said they planned to avoid restaurants said their feeling was based on the physical layout of the establishment. Nationally, a negligible but not insignificant three per cent of respondents said they didn't think they would ever go back to a restaurant again. Another question posed in the survey which had 1,505 respondents and which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20 asked what Canadians expected to see when they did finally return to restaurants. Nationally, four of five respondents expect to see personal protective equipment such as masks and visors worn by staff, and 36 per cent expect slower service. Charlebois said it's clear Canadians expect creative measures from restaurateurs to encourage a safe experience: 12 per cent expect dummies to be placed around dining rooms to ensure adequate distancing between customers. A bright spot of the survey was that Canadians seem especially eager to patronize independent establishments once theyre ready. About two-thirds of respondents said they plan to visit an independent restaurant during their first outing, as compared with 39 per cent who said they plan to visit a franchise. Those intentions, if they materialize, could help cushion the blow suffered by indie restaurants, which were impacted in unique and difficult ways by the pandemic. "That (result) was a pleasant surprise," said Charlebois. "There is a recognition that COVID-19 has been unfairly impactful on independent restaurant operators, unlike chains which rely on large resource networks." ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca San Francisco, June 9 : Apple which earns over $7 billion a year from Google for it to be default search engine for iOS and Siri can end its reliance on Google if it acquires privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo, top analysts have said. In a note to investors, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi argued that while Google is the world's dominant search engine player, Apple is in a relatively strong position to apply pressure to the Alphabet company, reports Barron's. While Google pays over $7 billion a year to be the default search engine for iOS and Siri, it is approximately 30 per cent of an estimated $25 billion in annual ad revenue Google generates from Apple devices. If Apple buys DuckDuckGo, it can stop that ad revenue from going to Google and welcome that money into its kitty. "Apple may be in a stronger position than at first glance, given it controls the keys to the kingdom on who can monetize iOS search. However, it remains uncomfortably dependent on Bing to act as a counterweight to Google - hence our suggestion that Apple acquire its own search engine," Sacconaghi wrote. Google also has an option to pull out of the Apple deal if it can capture 70 per cent of its current iOS search revenue by pushing users to Google.com. "However, we suspect the company's fear of rocking the boat - which could compromise $15 billion in profits it captures today from iOS - may ultimately limit its freedom of action with Apple," wrote Sacconaghi. Sacconaghi has floated the idea of a DuckDuckGo acquisition by Apple for under $1 billion. The idea makes sense at a time when the US federal and state authorities are probing Google for its anti-trust practices. Google is facing privacy lawsuits and legal actions, particularly in the European Union but also in the US where it's facing a $5 billion class-action lawsuit. Justice Department investigators have sought details about measures to increase competition in the online search market from Google rival DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo Founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg told CNN earlier this month that a solution like a search preference menu can enhance competition. On Android devices, Google search had been the default for years. However, a fine imposed by the European Union in 2018 led Google to offer other search options to users. While declined to comment on DuckDuckGo, which promotes itself as a privacy-protecting search engine, Google said it was continuing to cooperate with the state and federal investigations. Apple first built DuckDuckGo integration into mobile Safari in iOS 8, allowing users to select the search engine, as well as alternatives Yahoo and Bing, in the Settings app, reports Apple Insider. Bing was the default search engine for Siri until 2017, when Apple transitioned to Google for a more "consistent web search experience." Sacconaghi said that to be certain, "we doubt an Apple-owned DuckDuckGo could ever generate profits sufficient to make back the $7 billion to $8 billion a year currently paid by Google". "Nevertheless, Apple would still likely be better off than a worst-case scenario where it had no backup, and Google or Microsoft (one or the other) withdrew from the bidding process altogether". BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Cathay Pacific Airways (CPCAF.OB, CPCAY.PK) announced a three-part recapitalisation plan, to provide the company with sufficient funds to withstand the industry-wide downturn. Under Tranche A of the plan: Cathay Pacific will issue HK$19.5 billion in preference shares with detachable warrants to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. As per Tranche B: Cathay Pacific will launch a HK$11.7 billion rights issue of shares to existing shareholders. The HKSAR Government will provide a HK$7.8 billion bridge loan facility to Cathay Pacific, in Tranche C. Cathay Pacific Chairman Patrick Healy said: 'Despite all these measures, the collapse in passenger revenue to only around 1% of prior year levels has meant that we have been losing cash at a rate of approximately HK$2.5 billion to HK$3 billion per month since February, and the future remains highly uncertain. We must redouble our efforts to transform our business.' The company has announced a new round of executive pay cuts, and a second voluntary special leave scheme for its employees. 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. Bon Appetit magazine Editor in Chief Adam Rapoport resigned Monday evening after a 16-year-old photo of him and his wife resurfaced in brownface and magazine staff spoke out about the companys culture. The New York Times reports Rapoport took the editor-in-chief job in 2010 and had been with Conde Nast for 10 years prior to that. The outlet reported that multiple meetings were held with current staff to discuss the photo and what the next steps should be taken. Rapoport posted his resignation letter to Instagram, saying that he needed to do work as a human being and allow the magazine to become a better place. Though mostly someone behind the scenes, Rapoport could sometimes be seen in the magazines hugely popular YouTube videos from the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen that have exploded in popularity in recent years. These videos include a variety of editors, managers and contributors as hosts of the videos, and now some are speaking out about the treatment they have encountered at the company. In a series of Instagram stories, chef Sohla El-Waylly made allegations that when she was brought on staff, she was expected to assist with editors and was not a part of the videos. She said currently only the white editors are paid for their appearances in videos. Sohla El-Waylly is the best thing to happen to @bonappetit. pic.twitter.com/3qyynQKCKL Jason Carlos (@jaarlos) June 8, 2020 El Waylly also expressed outrage at Rapoports photo and called for his resignation, which he did hours later. Current Bon Appetit staff who are in the videos including Brad Leone, Claire Saffitz, Alex Delany, Molly Baz, Carla Music, Chris Morroco, and more have since said they will not appear in videos until their colleagues have been properly compensated for their work. Bon Appetite's video talent refuses to go back on camera until they know their colleagues of diverse backgrounds are properly compensated. Screenshots According to a report from Variety, Conde Nast has denied allegations. A Conde Nast representative told the outlet that it was untrue that Bon Appetits white editors are paid for appearing in videos while people of color are not; the rep declined to comment further, Variety reported. Former and current Bon Appetit employees have also taken to Twitter to condemn the photo and the culture at Bon Appetite and parent company Conde Nast. Haven't tweeted since before Trump was elected. But like so many at @bonappetit who can't be silent right now, I am disgusted and humiliated by my editor-in-chief's actions. It is a disgrace to my colleagues of color who have been doing the real, all-too-often invisible labor. https://t.co/poVXGz6pnh Christina Chaey (@christinachaey) June 8, 2020 yes, I left BA for multiple reasons, but one of the main reasons was that white leadership refused to make changes that my BIPOC coworkers and I constantly pushed for. Alex Lau (@iamnotalexlau) June 8, 2020 Some of you have asked about what happened with @bonappetit Nice of you to ask. I got a nice letter from #AdamRapoport this morning. Here is the series of IG DMs we shared moments ago. A montage... pic.twitter.com/ueRP5i91vx illyanna Maisonet (@eatgordaeat) June 6, 2020 Conde Nast has not issued any further statements on Rapaport or the allegations against the company. It is one of several companies operating under the Advance umbrella, including Advance Local, which runs nine digital media and marketing groups across the country including PennLive and the Patriot-News. Read more on PennLive: Members of a medical expert team sent by the Chinese government pose for a photo with delegates at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 8, 2020. A medical expert team sent by the Chinese government arrived here on Monday to support Bangladesh's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. (Xinhua/Liu Chuntao) DHAKA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A medical expert team sent by the Chinese government arrived here on Monday to support Bangladesh's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen welcomed the team at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Monday afternoon. Chinese Ambassador Li Jiming, among others, was also present at the airport. The 10-member team, organized by China's National Health Commission, consists of experts from Hainan, the southernmost island province of China. The Chinese medical experts will provide consultations of pandemic control, patients treatment and laboratory tests, and guide and train Bangladeshi medical professionals. The Chinese team will stay in Bangladesh for two weeks, Foreign Minister Momen said in a media briefing at the airport. He thanked the Chinese team for coming to Bangladesh to bolster the country's efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. "Our medical professionals will also be encouraged by them," he added. He expressed hope that the relations between Bangladesh and China will be further deepened for mutual benefits. In his speech, Ambassador Li said a pandemic such as COVID-19 shows that in today's world no country could stand alone in a global crisis, adding that all must work together to address the challenges. Mutual understanding and support between China and Bangladesh since the onset of the pandemic has shown the pragmatic cooperation of the two countries, he said. As a pair of true and time-honored friends, China and Bangladesh have been standing in strong solidarity in the fight against COVID-19, he said. Starting from February, China has provided Bangladesh with over 3 million surgical and N-95 masks, over 110,000 sets of personal protective equipment, and a large number of test kits, thermometers, ventilators, and sanitizers, to meet the most urgent needs of Bangladesh to contain COVID-19, he said. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased to 68,504 in Bangladesh on Monday, with the daily rise of 2,735 cases reported in the last 24 hours. Enditem Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Mardika Parama (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 15:31 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd4d504 1 Business Airport,pandemic,strategy,cargo-service,Angkasa-Pura-I,Angkasa-Pura-II,Angkasa-Pura-Logistics Free State-owned airport operators Angkasa Pura I and II are turning to cargo and warehousing services to shift their revenue source as the governments social restrictions continue to affect air passenger numbers. Operating in an archipelagic nation, where air transportation is essential to connect far-flung islands, Angkasa Pura (AP) II sees potential for growth in the air cargo industry in Indonesia, despite having recorded a decline in cargo volume at its airports during the pandemic. Air freight volume at its 19 airports fell 34 percent year-on-year (yoy) to 79,556 tons between April 1 and June 7, data from AP II cargo subsidiary Angkasa Pura Kargo (APK) show. However, the operator managed to record 34,000 tons of cargo traffic between May 7 and June 7 alone. The cargo volume is not as high as in normal conditions. But the shipment volume, which still stands at 34,000 tons, shows that business prospects in air shipment remain stable and have the potential to grow this year, AP II president director Muhammad Awaluddin said in a press statement on Sunday. Awaluddin also noted the absence of restrictions for air cargo amid the pandemic, as well as the decision by commercial airlines to modify their fleets with freighters to support the airport cargo business. To further capitalize its air cargo business, AP II through APK established a partnership with cargo agents while also employing cost-efficiency measures at its storage facilities. We are consolidating cargo loads from several sub-agents and bundling them together so they can be shipped using a chartered carrier. We already established charter cargo flights twice a week in June, and we aim to double it to four flights per week, APK operational director Riyanto Cahyono told The Jakarta Post via text message on Monday. The company also reduced its operational costs at storage facilities across the AP II airports by 40 percent compared to normal operations, Riyanto added. In addition, AP II provided warehouse facilities for airlines via its subsidiaries PT Angkasa Pura Kargo and PT Gapura Angkasa. For example, Gapura Angkasa, which owns a warehouse more than 8,900 square meters in size at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, provides access to facilities like cold storage and animal storage. Tapping into these aspects of the cargo business line, as opposed to relying on air passenger traffic, has allowed the airport operator to begin softening the impact COVID-19 has had on the industry. According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), domestic air passengers fell 85.18 percent yoy in April to around 840,000 people, while international air passengers fell 98.26 percent yoy. The drop in passenger traffic has hit airport revenues hard, as data from the 2019 Airports Economics Report, released by Airports Council International (ACI), shows that 54.6 percent of total airport income in the Asia-Pacific comes from passenger-related revenues. AP I cited revenue diversification through the establishment of an airport ecosystem that includes a cargo village as part of its survival strategy during the pandemic. It aims to create a new business stream that depends little on aircraft and passenger traffic, it stated. Angkasa Pura I has prepared a rebound strategy to anticipate the new normal and to prepare for a jump in the companys growth in 2021 through a multidimensional performance improvement program, AP I president director Faik Fahmi said on Saturday in a press release, adding that the current situation was challenging for airport operators. AP I logistics subsidiary Angkasa Pura Logistics (APL) launched its own air freight service on June 4. It aims to provide logistics services that can reach areas that are difficult for commercial planes to access due to short runways. For its operation, APL would focus on the delivery of marine and perishable goods, which require quick shipping times to ensure freshness. Transportation expert Djoko Setijowarno told the Post that the companies made the right decision by focusing their business on the cargo sector. Its a step that must be taken during the pandemic as passenger numbers are slumping. Logistics could serve as a source of income for the airports and there is also huge potential for domestic cargo in Indonesia, Djoko said in a phone interview on Monday. Presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Delaware State University in Dover on June 5, 2020. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images) The campaign for Joe Biden announced its opposition to defunding the police on Monday. Anti-racist protesters across the country have called for material resources to be directed away from police and toward other social services. The protests have mainstreamed that demand: Last week, the Minneapolis City Council announced it was looking to disband the city police department. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will not support defunding American police forces, his campaign announced Monday. Before the police killing of George Floyd, calls to "defund the police" were echoed primarily by left-leaning thinkers and organizers. Now, after two weeks of nationwide anti-racist protests, the demand has entered mainstream political discourse. The former vice president called for police reform measures but stopped short of supporting defunding. "As his criminal justice proposal made clear months ago, Vice President Biden does not believe that police should be defunded," Andrew Bates, a campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. "He hears and shares the deep grief and frustration of those calling out for change, and is driven to ensure that justice is done and that we put a stop to this terrible pain." According to the campaign, Biden supports police-community engagement, greater police department diversity, and the use of body-worn cameras. (Research shows that the use of body cameras does not reduce police brutality.) Biden's campaign also said he supports other measures that would change the way communities interact with police. "Biden supports the urgent need for reform including funding for public schools, summer programs, and mental health and substance abuse treatment separate from funding for policing so that officers can focus on the job of policing," Bates said. "That also means funding community policing programs that improve relationships between officers and residents." Story continues The Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black boy, in 2013, has seen a broad uptick in national support over the last seven years. Some movement organizers and allies have called for police and prison abolition; others call for stringent reforms. The Movement for Black Lives, or M4BL, created shortly after the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown, supports abolishing police and prisons, replacing them with "institutions that value and affirm the flourishing of Black lives." At the epicenter of the anti-racist protests, the Minneapolis City Council has affirmed its intention to disband the police department and "create a compassionate, non-violent future," Councilmember Steve Fletcher said last week. By Monday, the move garnered a veto-proof majority of support from councilmembers. The Biden campaign called its police-reform platform "transformative," saying that President Donald Trump was preventing the kinds of police reform that Biden supports police diversity, community engagement, and body cameras. "There are many police departments across the country who are seeking to realize these kinds of changes, but haven't had the resources to and the Trump administration has in fact made obtaining those resources more difficult," Bates said. "This is at the core of Joe Biden's plan to bring transformative change to our criminal justice system." Read the original article on Business Insider Chinese Propaganda Outlet Paid Millions to Washington Post, Wall Street Journal A Chinese propaganda outlet paid millions of dollars to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal to run advertisements that look to some like news reports. China Daily paid more than $4.6 million to the Post and nearly $6 million to the Journal since November 2016, new documents filed with the U.S. Department of Justice show. China Daily, an English-language newspaper, is overseen by the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) Publicity Department, the governmental agency in charge of disseminating propaganda. Over the past few years, it has spent millions running supplementscalled China Watchcontaining propaganda disguised as news, in major U.S. newspapers including the Journal, The New York Times, and the Post. Scholars researching Chinese influence activities in the United States said in a 2018 report (pdf) that its hard to tell that China Watchs material is an ad. While China Daily has in the past submitted financial information under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), the new filing (pdf) is the first to include a breakdown of how much the propaganda outlet is paying U.S. media outlets. In a statement to The Epoch Times, Washington Post Vice President of Communications Kristine Coratti Kelly said that the China Watch supplement was clearly labeled advertising. It is no longer running in The Postthe last advertising insert ran last year, she added. The Journal didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. A paid insert of China Daily inside the Jan. 17, 2017 edition of the Wall Street Journal. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times) The Washington Post headquarters is seen on K Street in Washington in a file photograph. (Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images) According to the FARA filing, China Daily also paid to insert propaganda into The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Des Moines Register, and CQ Roll Call. China Daily spent just over $11 million in total on advertising in newspapers in the United States. The newspaper registered as a foreign agent under FARA in 1983. That law requires registered foreign agents to provide the DOJ with copies of all propaganda circulated among two or more persons. It also requires registrants to submit to the department, twice a year, an itemized report of spending inside the United States. China Daily is part of the Chinese regimes global propaganda efforts, a campaign that the CCP has committed $6.6 billion to since 2009, according to a letter sent by dozens of U.S. lawmakers to the Department of Justice earlier this year. The regime has, according to FARA filings, spent $35 million on China Daily alone since 2017, not including the new filing. The articles that run in U.S. publications serve as a cover for Chinas atrocities, including its crimes against humanity in the Xinjiang region and its support for the crackdown in Hong Kong, the lawmakers wrote. Earlier this year, the State Department designated China Daily, along with four other Chinese state-run media operating in the United States, as foreign missions over their role as propaganda organs of the CCP. It also slashed the number of Chinese staff allowed to work at the outlets U.S. offices. Cathy He contributed to this report. Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund has suspended the e-voting process for winding up its six debt schemes after the Gujarat High Court declined to vacate the stay on the process. The e-voting process for winding up of six debt mutual fund schemes was scheduled between June 9-11. The company has taken this move after the Gujarat High Court rejected Franklin Templeton's application seeking vacation on its ad-interim stay order on the e-voting process. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for June 12. On Monday, a bench comprising Justice Gita Gopi dismissed the plea of Franklin Templeton MF, which sought the lifting of the stay that was granted by the court on June 3 after a group of investors filed a petition in the court. "Pursuant to the order dated 8th June 2020 issued by the Honourable High Court of Gujarat, the E-voting scheduled for 9 - 11 June 2020 and Unitholder's Meeting on 12 June 2020, related to the schemes under winding up, stands suspended till further communication," a Franklin Templeton spokesperson said. Franklin Templeton's e-vote was scheduled to be held from June 9 to June 11, while the unit holders' meet was slated to happen on June 12, 2020. Franklin had issued e-voting notices to 3 lakh investors who invested in the six debt schemes. In a shocking move, Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund on April 23 said it would wind up six schemes - Franklin India Low Duration Fund, Franklin India Dynamic Accrual Fund, Franklin India Credit Risk Fund, Franklin India Short Term Income Plan, Franklin India Ultra Short Bond Fund and Franklin India Income Opportunities Fund - in wake of liquidity crisis and redemption pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The move resulted in locking in investor wealth worth Rs 30,800 crore. The American fund house has appointed Kotak Mahindra Bank to monitor the winding up process of the 6 schemes it closed on April 23. On June 3, the Gujarat High Court had put a stay on the e-voting process while hearing a case filed by Rasna India's founder Areez Khambatta, his wife Persis Khambatta and a trust promoted by them. The petitioners had alleged that the liquidation of the debt schemes was illegal as it needed to first obtain consent of unit holders before winding up or prematurely redeeming units of a scheme. 83 year-old Khambatta, his wife Persis Khambatta and Khambatta family trust had collectively invested around Rs 6.5 crore in mutual fund schemes floated by the asset manager. Also Read: Coronavirus crisis: India sees biggest spike of 9,887 new cases, 331 deaths; tally rises to 2.66 lakh Also Read: One-third of people in hotspots may have infected, recovered from COVID-19: ICMR report Continue Reading Below Advertisement In 1919, Henry Ford sued the Chicago Tribune for calling him ignorant. Unfortunately, the Tribune's lawyers were quick to call their star witness: Henry Ford. They then spent fully eight days of the trial asking him "high school questions," which Ford was completely unable to answer, declaring that history was all bunk anyway. This was mocked in the press and the jury awarded Ford exactly six cents in damages. Ford responded to this mild humiliation with the grace and humor one expects from a megalomaniac tycoon. He swore to prove that history was bunk after all. And guess who was rolling from town-to-town with conveniently mummified proof? C. Wyatt Evans We came so close to this being Ford's corporate mascot. Think how fun the company picnics would be! Continue Reading Below Advertisement Ford decided that the corpse of John Wilkes Booth would be the perfect way to prove the history books wrong. At which point dollar signs shot out of Finis's eyes so hard he could have killed another president with them. He quickly agreed to sell his mummy. At this point, Henry Ford's subordinates, recognizing that their boss should maybe not be touring the country with a rotting carnival cadaver, intervened and unearthed several holes in the story. For starters, Finis boasted that the corpse had a healed leg fracture, matching Booth's injuries from jumping on the stage after killing Lincoln. Unfortunately, it was in the wrong leg. The disappointed Ford agreed to drop the idea and just blame all his problems on the Jews instead, while Finis's widow sold the mummy, which was last seen in 1963, being traded to a Philly landlady in lieu of unpaid rent. An 85-year-old man who defied the odds and survived Covid-19 despite battling other life-threatening issues for almost a year was given a hero's welcome when he returned to his home in Finglas yesterday. Kyran O'Brien was not expected to live long - even before he contracted the killer virus at the end of April. But to the delight of his wife of 52 years, Patricia (81) and their adult children Lisa (45), Kyran Jnr (48) and Debbie (51), Kyran Snr - whom medical staff nicknamed 'Lazarus' and 'The Miracle Man' - rocked up to the family home on Griffith Road in Dublin where he was cheered on by family and friends. Dozens of neighbours lined the street with balloons and 'welcome home' banners as he was wheeled into the family home by paramedics. Read More "The whole neighbourhood came out, everyone was clapping and crying," his daughter Lisa O'Brien told the Irish Independent. "Nobody could believe it, especially after he got Covid." But things were not looking so rosy just under a year ago when Mr O'Brien, who was diagnosed with cognitive dementia three years ago, was hospitalised for the first time in his life for pneumonia at the Mater Hospital. By the end of October he was diagnosed with acute kidney failure. His prognosis wasn't good and he was moved to the Mater Hospital's community unit in Fairview for "end-of-life" care on December 23, Ms O'Brien said. "He was never at death's door, but he was dying. He was a very sick man," she said, adding the family was told he only had weeks to live. He was then transferred to the Beneavin Manor nursing home in Finglas which specialises in dementia care. But when Covid-19 struck the nursing home, he tested positive for the virus at the end of April. "We thought, 'this is it'," Ms O'Brien said. "How could an 85-year-old man with kidney failure and dementia fight this?" Her father was then brought back to the Mater Hospital and the family had resigned themselves to the fact that he would not likely be coming out. He tested positive for the virus for the ensuing six weeks. Again, the family braced themselves for the heartbreaking prospect of having to bid farewell without being able to hold his hand due to Covid-19 restrictions. He continued to be tested for the virus every 72 hours and the readings kept coming back positive. But for the first time in almost a year, the family were given good news last week that he had twice tested negative for the virus and could go home. "We couldn't believe it," Ms O'Brien said, adding the medical staff lined the corridor to give him a well-deserved send-off. Ten million people could be stuck on NHS waiting lists by the end of the year due to coronavirus hold-ups, health bosses have warned. Last August there were a record 4.41million patients in England waiting for routine operations, a rise of 250,000 from the same month a year earlier. But that number is expected to more than double because of a backlog triggered by the Covid-19 crisis, according to NHS projections. When officials realised the virus was spreading out of control in the UK they urged hospitals to cancel operations and turf out patients to make way for a surge in virus cases. The move stopped hospitals from being overwhelmed but hundreds of thousands of non-virus patients have had treatment delayed as a result. The health service is also bracing for its worst winter on record, when it will have to battle an influx of patients with seasonal flu and Covid-19. Ten million people will be stuck on NHS waiting lists for surgeries by the end of the year because of coronavirus hold-ups, health bosses have warned (file image) A new report by the NHS Confederation, which represents represents health and care leaders, predicts 10million people on waiting lists by Christmas. Bosses behind the projection said a best case scenario could see 8million people waiting for treatment, if a vaccine or therapy comes along before then. Experts have warned it could take two years to clear the backlog, even if there is no second wave of coronavirus. 2.4 MILLION patients are caught in coronavirus cancer backlog Almost 2.5million patients have missed out on vital cancer tests and treatment because of the pandemic. The NHS faces the shocking backlog of cases as it tries to return to normal and also cope with new victims of the disease. Cancer Research UK says 2.1million patients are awaiting crucial screening for breast, cervical and bowel cancer. Another 290,000 have missed out on urgent referrals to confirm or rule out tumours. And at least 21,600 patients have had surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy postponed in the past nine weeks. Some of these procedures would have saved lives or extended them, granting precious extra time with loved ones. It is also thought patients with warning signs of cancer have avoided seeking help because they are worried about contracting coronavirus in a surgery or hospital. The numbers awaiting cancer treatment are extremely worrying, according to Sarah Woolnough, policy chief at Cancer Research UK. She added: Were going to have this huge backlog to clear. Its a massive backlog of services and treatment to deliver. Its absolutely huge, its thousands and thousands and thousands. Advertisement The report warned services will be operating at around 60 per cent capacity because of new NHS infection control and social distancing measures. NHS Confederation chief executive Niall Dickson has written to Boris Johnson to prepare the public for the huge waits they will have to face for months after the crisis is over. He has also called for assurances about personal protective equipment (PPE) and the effectiveness of the Government's Test and Trace programme. And the report also calls for an extension of the current deal with the independent sector until the end of the financial year 'to provide capacity to support the NHS to manage the backlog of treatment'. More than 8,000 private beds in England were bought up by ministers in March at an estimated cost of 2.4million a day. The beds have been under public control for 11 weeks, thought to have cost the taxpayer at least a staggering 150million already, with the figure rising every day. Private hospitals are now meant to be operating as 'Covid-free hubs' to get back up and running for vulnerable people, including cancer patients. Mr Dickson said: 'Political leaders have a vital role to play in reassuring the public that every step possible is being taken to manage the virus, while safely bringing back services that had to be paused. 'Retaining public confidence and trust in the NHS will be vital over the next few months. 'The NHS wants to get back to providing these vital services - the virus has inflicted pain and suffering throughout the UK, but we also know the measures to combat it have come at a terrible cost to those who have not been able to access the care, treatment and support they need and to many whose conditions have gone undiagnosed. 'There is a real determination to rise to this challenge, but it will need extra funding and capacity, not least in rehabilitation and recovery services in the community where so much of the coming demand will be felt.' It comes after the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) warned earlier this week that the NHS must prepare for a 'winter like no other' as it copes both with seasonal flu and coronavirus. Birmingham University researchers estimate that the surgery backlog could cost the NHS 4billion due to surgeons - who get paid in blocks of work - having to put in more hours. Private hospitals commandeered for Britain's Covid-19 crisis at a cost of 150million are STILL empty - despite huge backlog of NHS patients needing routine surgery and vital cancer treatment Private hospitals taken over by the NHS to fight coronavirus at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds to the taxpayer remain almost completely empty - despite a huge backlog of patients needing cancer treatment and routine surgery, medics say. More than 8,000 private beds in England were bought up by ministers in March at an estimated cost of 2.4million a day, in anticipation of NHS hospitals being overwhelmed by the Covid-19 outbreak. The beds have been under public control for 11 weeks, thought to have cost the taxpayer at least a staggering 150million already, with the figure rising every day. But the health service's intensive care wards were not overrun during the peak of the pandemic and the majority of the private beds went unused. Up to a fifth of routine operations on the NHS were also postponed to make way for a surge in virus patients, resulting in tens of thousands of patients enduring delays to treatment. Private hospitals are now meant to be operating as 'Covid-free hubs' to get back up and running for vulnerable people, including cancer patients. But a senior consultant said today 'very few' of these patients were being referred to the private hospitals, leaving them almost completely empty. It has meant 'tens of thousands' of cancer patients - who need urgent treatment to boost their survival rates - are missing out on vital treatment every month. Private hospitals taken over by NHS at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds to fight the coronavirus pandemic are sinfully empty, claim medics. Pictured: The ICU wards at the hastily built Nightingale Hospital have barely been used throughout the crisis Professor Karol Sikora (pictured) is consultant oncologist and professor of medicine, University of Buckingham Medical School The 8,000 beds are said to be costing the NHS 2.4million per day, according to the Mirror. They have been under public control since March 21, which was 10 weeks and 5 days, or simply 75 days, ago. Rough estimates suggest taxpayers have already forked out 180million for the beds. Karol Sikora, a consultant oncologist and professor of medicine at the University of Buckingham Medical School, told MailOnline: 'Once it became clear the private beds would not be needed for Covid patients, the idea was to use private hospitals as Covid-free zones. But that has only partly materialised. 'Because the NHS is not doing surgeries, thousands of cancers are going undiagnosed. Surgery is needed in some cases to diagnose someone with the disease and get them started on their treatment. 'Because the patients are not being diagnosed, they are not coming through the system. FROM 2.5MILLION BRITS MISSING OUT ON CANCER TESTS TO 1.3MILLION PEOPLE NOT GETTING ROUTINE SURGERY: HOW THE REDUCED NHS SERVICE HAS AFFECTED BRITAIN SURGERIES CANCELLED More than 8million people will be stuck on NHS surgery waiting lists by autumn because treatment delays due to Covid-19, experts fear. Last August there were a record-high 4.41million patients in England on waiting lists for routine operations. But that number is expected to more than double because of a backlog triggered by the Covid-19 crisis, according to the Nuffield Trust. Nigel Edwards, its chief executive, last month told MPs hospitals have only been able to carry out around '15 to 20 per cent' of elective procedures. His claim came on the back of a separate study by health analysts, which predicted 7.2million people would be on waiting lists by autumn. SCRAPPED CANCER TREATMENTS Almost 2.5million patients have missed out on vital cancer tests and treatment because of the pandemic. The NHS faces the shocking backlog of cases as it tries to return to normal and also cope with new victims of the disease. Cancer Research UK says 2.1million patients are awaiting crucial screening for breast, cervical and bowel cancer. Another 290,000 have missed out on urgent referrals to confirm or rule out tumours. Advertisement 'We know there should be 30,000 new cancer patients every month - but this month there have been less than 5,000 that have come for treatment. 'It's not that there are less people with cancer, it's that they are not being diagnosed because of a bottleneck in the NHS. 'The whole thing has set us back a year, no other country has struggled this much to open healthcare back up. I don't know what's behind the bottleneck, maybe it's a staffing issue.' Senior clinicians at private hospitals claim hundreds of the country's best doctors have been left 'twiddling their thumbs' during the outbreak putting people's health at risk from other illnesses and postponed operations. It has left private patients with no option but to join huge NHS waiting lists triggered by the pandemic. Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust think-tank, said hospitals have only been able to carry out around '15 to 20 per cent' of surgeries, meaning up to 1.3million patients are missing out every month. In one case, a 78-year-old woman with breast cancer was denied surgery at a private clinic by the local NHS manager even though the hospital was empty, according to The Times. The patient was instead referred back to the NHS. Cancer Research says almost 2.5million patients have missed out on vital cancer tests and treatment due to shocking backlogs during the crisis. Medical bodies said the biggest threat to the nations health was the lack of healthcare rather than coronavirus itself. FATHER WITH TERMINAL CANCER IS STILL WAITING FOR SURGERY - TWO MONTHS AFTER IT WAS CANCELLED A father with terminal cancer is still waiting for surgery two months after it was cancelled the day before it was due to take place. Glynne Pugh, 68, has bowel cancer and was given 12 months to live last November. He was due to have an operation at St Jamess University Hospital in Leeds on March 23. His family were told the postponement was due to the closure of the operating theatre for coronavirus training. Mr Pughs son Bradley, 32, said at the time: It was just devastating mum and dad were completely in shock and obviously tearful. As a family we understand how much pressure the NHS is under, but we feel that, as dads operation is life or death, the cancer might spread. There is only about six months left, thats the problem. Glynne Pugh, 68, pictured above with his son Brad, has bowel cancer and was given 12 months to live last November. He was due to have an operation at St Jamess University Hospital in Leeds on March 23 His father has survived cancer twice before and his family insist he is strong enough to endure treatment again, but the operation remains vital. There was hope there for the whole family, which was everyone was holding out for, said Bradley, of Stroud, Gloucestershire. Advertisement Richard Packard, chairman of the Federation of Independent Practitioner Organisations, which represents private consultants, told The Times: 'The money being poured into the private sector is a total waste. 'The NHS cannot afford to subsidise private hospitals and nor should it have to. Likewise, the UK simply cannot afford to allow medical and surgical capacity to sit idle whilst pathology and waiting lists build and patients suffer.' One London-based private consultant orthopaedic surgeon said last month there was a 'sinful' and 'shocking' mass of empty private hospitals and empty beds. 'Most of them are gathering dust, with a whole load of doctors twiddling their thumbs. And it's costing the NHS millions.' The surgeon said only 'emergency' and 'time-critical' operations were being allowed at his hospital. A second medic said his hospital was 'fairly empty and under used' while another said he was 'pretty bored'. 'I am unsure if the hospitals are being used in the most efficient way,' he admitted. A fourth doctor said private hospitals in north London were 'largely empty' despite repeated offers to help out with patients from overrun NHS wards. In March it appeared the NHS might need every ventilator and intensive care bed, with some scientists warning that tens of thousands would be dying every day. 'It was the right thing to do at the time as we had to look at what was happening in Italy and Spain and react accordingly,' said one medic. Another doctor added: 'Preparing for an epidemic is a very difficult balance. If you get it right, it's by pure luck.' However, he warned that more people could end up dying early of illnesses like cancer and heart disease: 'At what point does the cost of this 'medical lockdown' to people's health outweigh the benefits?' Some private hospitals are reportedly in talks to extend their NHS contracts that put them under public control - as a safety net in case of a resurgence in Covid admissions. One consultant told The Times this arrangement suited private hospitals because it meant the taxpayer was covering the salaries of senior staff. Private hospitals' ability to make profit will be severely hampered when these deals end. Social distancing measures, a lack of PPE and new cleaning regimes will mean they will have to operate at greatly reduced capacity. By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 08, 2020 | 03:46 PM | PRINCETON On June 2, a man reportedly left Walmart with over $500.00 worth of merchandise without paying for it. Both of the pictured individuals were in the vehicle that left the scene. Anyone with information on either of these individuals is asked to contact the Princeton Police Department at 270-365-4657, or Central Dispatch at 270-365-2041. The Princeton Police Department is asking for the public's assistance with identifying two people. Protesters congregate in the Hollywood area of LA, California. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people marched to protest peacefully against racism and police violence. (David McNew/Getty Images) Worldwide demonstrations took place over the weekend as hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets for Black Lives Matter rallies. The anti-racism protests began in America following the death of George Floyd, a black man, after a white police officer held him down by pressing a knee into his neck for nine minutes. Floyds death has become a symbol of police brutality against black Americans. Peaceful protests began in the US before quickly spreading worldwide, but some have been marred by violence. London, UK Tens of thousands of people descended upon the streets of central London on Saturday and Sunday. The rallies was mainly peaceful but some protesters defaced monuments including a statue of Winston Churchill and the Cenotaph war memorial, and on Sunday evening there were clashes between police and a small crowd of protesters throwing objects including bottles and traffic cones. Saturday evening saw police horses being attacked by rebels. On Sunday, Boris Johnson tweeted: People have a right to protest peacefully & while observing social distancing but they have no right to attack the police. These demonstrations have been subverted by thuggery and they are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve. Those responsible will be held to account. Protesters march down Vauxhall Bridge Road as thousands joined a second day of Black Lives Matter protest on 7 June, 2020. (Guy Smallman/Getty Images) Protesters fill Whitehall in central London for the Black Lives Matter protest. (Kate Green/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Demonstrators congregate on Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square. (Guy Smallman/Getty Images) Protesters during the demonstrations in London. (Rahman Hassani/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Read more: 'Brave' BLM protesters stand in front of crowd to stop them attacking police Berlin, Germany At least 15,000 people gathered in Berlins Alexanderplatz on Saturday for a Nein zu Rassismus (No to racism) rally held in solidarity with other demonstrations around the globe. The rally provoked criticism for defying social distancing rules but passed peacefully until the evening, when police tweeted that they had been attacked with bottles and stones. Berlin's Alexanderplatz filled with thousands of peaceful demonstrators. (Reuters) Berlin's silent demonstration turned sour as protestors clashed with police. (Twitter/@HelenaDaZeus) Paris, France More than 20,000 people filled the streets of Paris for anti-racist protests last week, but Parisian police used tear gas against marchers when the peaceful rally descended into violence. Further demonstrations were banned by the government, but several thousand still took to the streets on Saturday in a show of solidarity with Black Lives Matter protests across the globe. Story continues There were also demonstrations in other major French cities, including Marseille, Lyon and Lille, with many descending into violent clashes between protesters and police. The Place de la Concorde in front of the US embassy in Paris on Saturday. (Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Protesters on the Champ de Mars in Paris. (Adnan Farzat/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Protesters march on the Champ de Mars on Saturday. (Geoffroy Van der Hasselt/AFP) New York, USA Campaigners held a peaceful protest in New Yorks Times Square on Sunday. More than 2,000 people filled the square, and many more marched along the citys streets. People protest in Times Square. (Ira L Black/Corbis via Getty Images) Protesters in Times Square. (Ira L Black/Corbis via Getty Images) Protesters at McCarren Park in Brooklyn, New York City. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images) A peaceful demonstration in Chicago on Saturday. (EPA/Tannen Maury) Sydney, Australia A peaceful protest attended by more than 20,000 people took place in Sydney on Saturday. Police attempted to ban one demonstration through the courts and prime minister Scott Morrison pleaded for people to stay home. Mask-clad protesters also gathered in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and smaller cities and towns across Australia, drawing attention to racial profiling, police brutality and more than 400 Indigenous people who have died in police custody since 1991. Protesters in Sydney. (James D Morgan/Getty Images) The Sydney protests passed off peacefully. (Speed Media/Icon Sportswire) A huge crowd in Sydney learned just as they were gathering that their rally was lawful, after having been banned by police the day before. (James D Morgan/Getty Images) Seoul, South Korea Several thousand protesters joined forces on the streets of Seoul to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter. Protesters kneel in Seoul. (Simon Shin/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Protesters in Seoul. (Simon Shin/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Tokyo, Japan Hundreds joined a march on Saturday, increasing to thousands by Sunday, in protest against both the killing of George Floyd and the alleged brutal police treatment of a Kurdish man in Tokyo. The man says he was stopped while driving on 22 May, dragged from his car and shoved to the ground, leaving him with bruises. Both demonstrations were reported as peaceful. Demonstrators in Tokyo on Saturday. (Reuters/Issei Kato) Protestors in Toyko. (Reuters/Issei Kato) Toronto, Canada Tens of thousands of people gathered in cities across Canada over the weekend for a succession of peaceful protests. Prime minister Justin Trudeau joined a march in the capital, Ottowa, and many more marched peacefully through streets as part of the worldwide event. Protesters in downtown Toronto on Saturday. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images) Protesters in Toronto. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images) LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) 2020 Conference, a virtual event taking place next week from 14 19 June, explores the commercial trends igniting explosive investment and growth in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. As the largest conference covering every aspect of computer vision and pattern recognition, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, CVPR features more than 1,500 presentations from industry leaders, including Amazon Web Services, Alibaba Group, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Waymo and many others. In exclusive "fireside chat" interview sessions with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (Tuesday, 16 June, 09:00 Pacific) and Amazon Web Services Senior Vice President Charlie Bell (Thursday, 18 June, 14:00 Pacific), CVPR attendees will hear first-hand how the tech giants continue to fuel advancements in AI technologies and upcoming developments. "CVPR draws together the leading technologists exploring AI and machine learning, and presents foundational research driving new opportunities," remarked Ramin Zabih, Cornell Professor of Computer Science and Co-Chair of the CVPR 2020 Organizing Committees. "The dialogue at CVPR between researchers and industry leaders helps spur the next round of scientific innovation." With the global artificial intelligence market valued at upwards of USD 24.9 billion, significant investments continue to fuel innovation.1 Microsoft unveiled its commitment last July when it announced it would invest USD 1 billion in company OpenAI, to "jointly build new Azure AI supercomputing technologies."2 And in Q1 2020, Amazon Web Services announced the availability of Amazon Augmented Artificial Intelligence (Amazon A2I), a "fully managed service that makes it easy to add human review to machine learning predictions to enhance model and application accuracy by continuously identifying and improving low confidence predictions."3 Similarly, advancements in machine learning have led to growth in autonomous driving. Data shows that the global market for self-driving cars is expected to continue climbing steadily at a CAGR of 14 percent from 2018 to 2024,4 and by 2030 autonomous cars will account for 12 percent of global car registrations.5 "Self-driving technology has made enormous progress over the past few years, and I see machine learning as a crucial ingredient in building a truly scalable driver that can handle the diversity of areas and conditions in the real world," remarks Drago Anguelov, principal scientist at Waymo. "We have invested significantly in the Waymo Open Dataset and have been running a set of exciting challenges, the results of which will be shared at this year's Scalability in Autonomous Driving workshop. CVPR is where the world's leading experts come together, and we enjoy being part of those conversations." These commercial trends only scratch the surface of the content to be featured at CVPR. The event will also feature both oral and poster presentations, live Q&A, workshops and tutorials on topics ranging from social analytics to facial recognition. "The trends we see in the market today are driven by the work of CVPR attendees," said IEEE Computer Society Executive Director Melissa Russell, co-sponsor of CVPR. "It's an exciting time to be in this industry, and we look forward to seeing the new developments to be unveiled at the conference." Details on the full virtual CVPR 2020 program can be found on the conference website at cvpr2020.thecvf.com/program . Accredited members of the media can register for the CVPR virtual conference by emailing [email protected] . For more information about CVPR 2020, the program, and how to participate virtually, visit cvpr2020.thecvf.com . About CVPR 2020 CVPR is the premier annual computer vision and pattern recognition conference. With first-in-class technical content, a main program, tutorials, workshops, a leading-edge expo, and attended by more than 9,000 people annually, CVPR creates a one-of-a-kind opportunity for networking, recruiting, inspiration, and motivation. CVPR 2020, originally scheduled to take place 14-19 June 2020 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle Washington, will now be a fully virtual event. Authors and presenters will virtually deliver presentations and engage in live Q&A with attendees. For more information about CVPR 2020, the program, and how to participate virtually, visit cvpr2020.thecvf.com . About the Computer Vision Foundation The Computer Vision Foundation is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to foster and support research on all aspects of computer vision. Together with the IEEE Computer Society, it co-sponsors the two largest computer vision conferences, CVPR and the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV). About the IEEE Computer Society The IEEE Computer Society is the world's home for computer science, engineering, and technology. A global leader in providing access to computer science research, analysis, and information, the IEEE Computer Society offers a comprehensive array of unmatched products, services, and opportunities for individuals at all stages of their professional career. Known as the premier organization that empowers the people who drive technology, the IEEE Computer Society offers international conferences, peer-reviewed publications, a unique digital library, and training programs. Visit computer.org for more information. 1 https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/artificial-intelligence-ai-market 2 https://news.microsoft.com/2019/07/22/openai-forms-exclusive-computing-partnership-with-microsoft-to-build-new-azure-ai-supercomputing-technologies/ 3 https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-release/news-release-details/2020/Amazoncom-Announces-First-Quarter/ 4 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/autonomous-car-market 5 https://www.statista.com/statistics/875080/av-market-penetration-worldwide-forecast/ SOURCE IEEE Computer Society Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 14:56:26|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Troops of India and Pakistan exchanged heavy fire and targeted each other's positions on Tuesday on the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir, officials said. The two sides exchanged fire in Mankote sector of frontier Poonch district, about 180 km southwest of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. "This morning Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing targeting our forward posts with small arms and shelling in Mankote sector of Poonch," an army official said. "Our side also gave a befitting reply to the other side in response and the firing continued for some time." So far no loss of life was reported in the skirmishes on the Indian or Pakistani side. According to officials the firing started at around 6:30 a.m. (local time) and was going on until last reports poured in. The troops of India and Pakistan intermittently exchange fire on LoC and International Border (IB) in Kashmir, despite an agreement in 2003 to observe a cease-fire. However, the cease-fire remains in effect. New Delhi and Islamabad accuse each other of resorting to unprovoked firings and violating cease-fire agreements. And both sides maintain their troops gave a befitting reply to the other side. LoC is a de facto border that divides Kashmir into India and Pakistan controlled parts. India and Pakistan are at loggerheads with each other. There has been no considerable improvement in relations of the two countries or resumption of bilateral relations ever since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India in 2014 for the first time. Enditem BERLIN Germanys highest court ruled in favor of the far-right Alternative for Germany party in its case against the countrys sitting interior minister on Tuesday, a symbolic victory for the populist party that has been steadily losing support in recent months as the countrys response to the coronavirus has dulled the appetite for criticism of the government. Alternative for Germany, known by its German initials AfD, is the countrys largest opposition party, and took legal action against the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, over a 2018 interview in which he warned that the party endangered the German state. In its decision, the court focused on the fact that the interview, conducted by the German news agency D.P.A., was also posted on Mr. Seehofers ministerial website. The court defended Mr. Seehofers right to make the comments, but it took issue with the use of government resources to promote political speech. Hotels in Canada's North are pleading with the federal government for financial help amid a sharp hit to business from the COVID-19 pandemic, CBC News has learned. In a letter sent to Canada's Economic Development Minister Melanie Joly, the hotels are asking for a boost to the Northern Business Relief Fund (NBRF) announced in April, warning "the viability and future survival of the accommodation industry north of the 60th [parallel] depends upon it." "It's a big bonfire of money for quite some time" - Ed Romanowski, president of Nunastar properties The NBRF is a $15 million pot to help small and medium-sized northern businesses. The funding is geared toward businesses with fewer than 100 employees, and who are operating at a loss, among other criteria. But the hotels say many of them are ineligible for the NBRF they either have too many staff, or have a diversified business which generates revenue from other sources. "Am I supposed to tell the 101st person that they're not that important? And as a result of that, the entire business is going to suffer because we can't employ 101 people?" said Ed Romanowski, the president of Nunastar Properties, which owns the Frobisher Inn in Iqaluit, and the Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife. "That doesn't make much sense. Why are 100 jobs in one business not as important as 100 jobs in five businesses?" Romanowski says Nunastar is losing "several hundreds of thousands of dollars" a month between the two hotels. During the pandemic, the Frobisher Inn is averaging between 10 and 20 per cent occupancy, while the Explorer Hotel is even less. Romanowski says they need to be between 50 to 60 per cent to break even. "It's a big bonfire of money for quite some time. I know we'll make it through, but what makes us different than any other industry?" he said, pointing to the millions of dollars being used to support northern airlines through the pandemic a point also iterated in the letter. Story continues 'Staycations' a false hope The biggest hit to the hotels hasn't been the loss of visitors to the territory, but rather the loss of government and business travel. But even if hotels were eligible for the NBRF, it pays a maximum of $100,000 per month for four months. The letter to Joly proposes that "the program would fund the lesser of $1,500/month/unit, or to bring the operation to break-even after operating costs." "The program would end the earlier of six months, or three months after unfettered air travel is reinstated into the Territories by travelers of all types, but in any case, never exceeds break-even cash flows." One of the solutions to help the industry, pitched by officials in both Nunavut and the N.W.T., is to promote "staycations" within the territories. Northwest Territories' chief public health officer Dr. Kami Kandola encouraged such ideas last month, as did Nunavut finance minister George Hickes during the government's COVID-19 updates last Thursday. "Promoting 'staycations' within the territories in hope that this will be enough to keep the businesses afloat is a false hope," the letter reads. "Yes, staycations along with government, health, personal and business travel will help. But the population of 125,000 residents in the territories is just not enough to bring most of the businesses to break-even. Very few travel-dependent businesses will survive with only staycation travelers." 'A key piece of community infrastructure' Arctic Co-Operatives, of which its member Co-Ops have properties and affiliates in 20 communities, has been able to retain staff by reassigning them to other jobs within the company like the grocery store. Yet while the hotels have taken a financial hit, the individual community Co-Ops aren't eligible for the NBRF because of revenue generated from their other businesses in communities like the grocery store. The federal government doesn't count the hotel as its own entity, but rather as one part of the Co-Ops' business as a whole. Arctic Co-Operatives Ltd. "The thing with the hotels is they're a key piece of community infrastructure," said Duane Wilson, a vice president at Arctic Co-Operatives. "Look at COVID[-19] as an example. If there weren't a hotel in Pond Inlet, what would the government of Nunavut's rapid response have been able to look like? I can virtually guarantee you they couldn't be in there for a week on a few hours' notice." In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for Joly's office said they're working closely with the hotels. "We're aware that hotels and other larger anchor businesses across the North may have liquidity needs that go beyond what's currently on offer through existing small business programs," the spokesperson said. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser recently renamed a street near the White House "Black Lives Matter Plaza." Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, DC, recently ordered the protest slogan "Black Lives Matter" be painted on a street in front of the White House. It's a bold statement to President Donald Trump, who's encouraged increased use of police and military force against peaceful protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Here's a closer look at Bowser's political career, and what's led her to become one of the more prominent faces of the resistance movement. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, DC, recently renamed a street in front of the White House "Black Lives Matter Plaza" and had the protest slogan painted on the street in massive yellow letters. Muriel Bowser Black Lives Matter.JPG Reuters Source: Business Insider The move comes after President Donald Trump had peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park tear-gassed to disperse them so he could take photos in front of a nearby church. Muriel Bowser walking Eric Thayer/Reuters There was a dispute this week about whose street it is, and Mayor Bowser wanted to make it abundantly clear whose street it is and honor the peaceful demonstrators who assembled Monday night, said John Falcicchio, the mayors chief of staff. Muriel Bowser protest Reuters Source: Houston Chronicle In recent weeks, Trump and Bowser have exchanged heated tweets after Trump falsely accused Bowser of "always looking for money & help," and saying she "wouldn't let the DC police get involved" in controlling recent protests. Bowser replied by calling Trump "a scared man." District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks during a news conference, Wednesday, May 27, 2020, in Washington. Bowser announced the start of the Phase 1 response to the coronavirus in Washington is to begin Friday, May 29. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Associated Press Source: The Washington Post While this is arguably the most media attention the DC mayor has received in recent years, Bowser, 47, has been busy behind the scenes leading a number of initiatives in the nation's capital. Most recently, this included the fight against the coronavirus outbreak. Muriel Bowser 3 Muriel Bowser Over the years, she's advocated for raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, more public support for prison inmates once released, affordable child care, and boosting funding for public education. Story continues Muriel Bowser Brian Snyder/Reuters Source: The Washington Post Bowser was born in DC, and she was elected mayor in 2007. She is the second female mayor of the nation's capital after Sharon Pratt, who was mayor from 1991 to 1995. Muriel Bowser running for office Jim Bourg/Reuters Before being elected to oversee the nation's capital, Bowser was a local politician who served as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia and the Commissioner of the District of Columbia for district 4B09. Muriel Bowser 2014 Gary Cameron/Reuters Mayor Bowser earned a bachelor's degree in history from Chatham University and a master's degree in public policy from American University. She's also received honorary doctorates from Chatham University and Trinity University. Muriel Bowser speaking J. Lawler Duggan/For The Washington Post via Getty Images In her first term in office, Bowser worked to address a dramatic rise in homicides in the nation's capital, as well as reform policy around homelessness. Muriel Bowser with constituent Al Drago/Reuters Sources: ABC 7 and DC Mayor's website. She continues to advocate for more affordable housing. In 2019, Bowser set a goal of creating 36,000 new housing units (12,000 of them affordable) by 2025. Muriel Bowser Al Drago/Reuters Source: DC Mayor's website She was re-elected in 2017, becoming the first mayor to win a re-election in DC since 2002. Muriel Bowser 7 Muriel Bowser The mayor has traveled internationally to places including El Salvador, Cuba, and China to promote education, tourism, and economic partnerships. Muriel Bowser El Salvadore Jose Cabezas/Reuters Source: Reuters Bowser is a single mother to 2-year-old daughter Miranda, whom she adopted in May of 2018. Muriel Bowser and daughter Al Drago/Reuters Source: Business Insider Since adopting Miranda, the mayor has been open about her personal life, admitting that it's hard work being a single mom. Muriel Bowser and Miranda Al Drago/Reuters Source: Washington D.C's Fox 5. While her schedule has undoubtedly become much busier since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the rise of the Black Lives Matter protests, the mayor always tries to schedule in quality time with her daughter. Often, they'll have quiet time together in the mornings. Muriel Bowser 4 Muriel Bowser Source: American University radio WAMU. She says a major goal of hers is to make her daughter proud of her work. Muriel Bowser 2 Muriel Bowser Source: Washington D.C's Fox 5. Read the original article on Business Insider The ex-commander of Russian mercenaries in Donbas admitted certain responsibility for the disaster and didn't rule out he could stand before trial for this crime Journalist Dmytro Gordon and DPR militant Igor Girkin Screenshot from video The Dutch court that looks into the MH17 catastrophe intends to add Igor Girkin's interview with Ukrainian reporter Dmytro Gordon to the case materials. Deutsche Welle reported that on June 9. "Chief Judge Hendrik Stinheys said Girkin's recent high-profile interview will be added to the case materials", reads the message. The interview with the ex-leader of Russian mercenaries was released by Gordon on May 18. In the three-hours-long conversation, Girkin mentioned a number of already known episodes, and also revealed some new details. Specifically, the ex-commander of Russian mercenaries in Donbas admitted "certain responsibility" for the disaster and didn't rule out he could stand before trial for this crime. At the same time, he claimed that the militant gangs that he controlled did not shoot down the aircraft; he himself was sure it was Ukraine's fault in the tragedy. That generally reflects the official stance of the Russian government. Bengaluru, June 9 : Karnataka's Bandipur Tiger Reserve officials have detained three Portuguese citizens for trespassing into the range without permission amid lockdown, an official said. "They have not been arrested but kept for interrogation. They said they wrongly entered the park," T. Balachandra, Conservator of Forests and Field Director, Project Tiger, Bandipur, told IANS on Monday. An official from the tiger reserve photographed the Portuguese trespassing. "The foreigners were returned to the forest department for interrogation by the police," said Balachandra. The Europeans entered the park on three bullets, wearing shorts and sunglasses. Incidentally, they entered the park on Sunday when it was shutdown adhering to the Covid lockdown. The three Portuguese have been identified as Nuno Ricardo Bernardes Miranda Paciencia, Angelo Miguel Garrido and Tomas Pinho Marquez. Financial Position Remains Solid MARKHAM, ON / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / iFabric Corp. ("iFabric" or the "Company") (TSX:IFA), today announced its financial results for its second quarter and six months ended March 31, 2020. "Whilst the current COVID-19 pandemic affected iFabric in both its divisions, I am pleased to report that we acted quickly to contain any major damage to our operations and to preserve our operating assets", said Hylton Karon, President and CEO of iFabric. "With our recent positive testing of the efficacy of our flagship technology, PROTX2, in deactivating the COVID-19 causing virus, we are in the fortunate position of having a great opportunity to grow our business and at the same time to provide a much needed additional level of protection for frontline healthcare workers as well as communities at large", concluded Hylton Karon. EFFECT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON OPERATIONS - QUARTER ENDED MARCH 31, 2020 During the second quarter of 2020, the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) had an impact on the Company's operations at different time points during the quarter. At the beginning of the quarter, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Intelligent Fabrics division saw an impact not only to its revenues, but to its supply chains as well, particularly in China, which was the first country to initiate a lockdown. Large finished performance apparel programs which had been planned for launch during the spring have been delayed and rescheduled to the summer and fall seasons. This decrease in sales was partially offset by the roll out of a new finished apparel program in Canada in January, for which product had already been received. Towards the end of the quarter in March, restrictions in Asia had been lifted and sales in the region commenced returning to normal, however this was partially offset by a decrease in sales in North America as the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns took effect in this region. Whilst the revenues of the Intelligent Fabrics division showed a year over year increase, this increase was not as large as anticipated due to the global effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Intimate Apparel division, a negative impact on revenues was seen in March, towards the end of the quarter, as North America moved into a lockdown phase. The bulk of the revenues for this division are to North American retail customers. As mandated by their respective governments, many retailers have been forced to close their stores, which is expected to continue for a number of months. It is anticipated that the larger impact to the revenues of the Intimate Apparel Division will be seen in the third quarter, until such time as retailers are allowed to commence reopening their stores. In response to these events, the Company has developed a number of comprehensive and evolving operational and risk management strategies to support the business for a future rebound in sales, particularly in its Intelligent Fabrics division. The management of iFabric is of the opinion that it has made adequate provision in the Interim Financial Statements for the quarter and six months ended March 31, 2020, for all potential impairment to the Company's assets as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These adjustments did not have a material impact on the financial position of IFabric as at March 31, 2020. Q2 2020 HIGHLIGHTS: Revenues of $2,252,090 compared $2,503,793 in Q2 2019, representing a decrease of $251,703 or 10%. Revenues in the Intimate Apparel division decreased by 27% or $356,495 to $983,302 from $1,339,797 in Q2 2019, whilst revenues in the Intelligent Fabrics division, increased by 12% or $135,924 to $1,236,707 from $1,100,783 in 2019. Net loss before tax of $534,517 in Q2 2020 compared to a net loss of $514,732 in 2019. Reduced operating expenses were offset by an increase in the bad debt provision due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adjusted negative EBITDA of $482,353 compared to adjusted negative EBITDA of $456,076 in Q2 2019. Gross profit as a percentage of revenue was 37% in both Q2 2020 and 2019. Gross profit in dollars decreased by 10% or $93,188 as a result of the decrease in revenue in Q1 2020 compared to 2019 Net loss after tax attributable to shareholders was $481,746 ($0.018 per share basic and diluted) compared to a net after tax loss of $386,487in Q2 2019 ($0.015 per share basic and diluted). Other comprehensive earnings, being unrealized currency gains on the translation of foreign operations, amounted to $401,858 in Q2 2020, compared to other comprehensive losses of $8,649 in Q2 2019 resulting in an increase of $410,507 due to the weak Canadian dollar at the end of the quarter. Total comprehensive losses amounted $77,578 in Q2 2019 compared to $395,593 in 2019. Working capital decreased by $86,156 to $6,663,977 compared to $6,750,133 at the end of the previous quarter ended December 31, 2019. The calculation of working capital excludes a term loan of $1,224,593, which is shown as a current liability as required under International Financial Reporting Standards, as management intends renewing this loan on maturity. Cash decreased by $856,897 to $2,086,451 compared to $2,943,348 at the end of the previous quarter ended December 31, 2019, mainly as a result of deposits paid to suppliers in respect of new performance apparel programs for a major retail customer. The Company's credit line was unutilized at the end of the current and previous quarters, leaving the full amount of $3,750,000 available to fund future business. Shareholder Equity attributable to common shareholders was $9,027,131 compared to $9,095,407 at the end of the previous financial quarter representing a decrease of $68,276. SIX MONTH HIGHLIGHTS: Revenues decreased by $126,743 to $4,848,931 compared to $4,975,674 for the corresponding six months in 2019, representing a decrease of 3%. With respect to the reportable operating segments of the Company, revenue decreased by 20% or $531,110 in its Intimate Apparel division from $2,644,118 in 2019 to $2,113,008 in 2020. The decrease in sales was as mainly as a result of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of the second quarter. In the Intelligent Fabrics division revenue increased 19% or $429,016 from $2,242,742 in 2019 to $2,671,758 in 2020. Increased chemical sales and new performance apparel programs accounted for the increase. Gross profit as a percentage of revenue increased to 40% for the six months ended March 31, 2020 from 37% in the same period of 2019. The increase in gross profit percentage is mainly attributable increased chemical margins in the Intelligent Fabrics division. Gross profit dollars increased by 6% or $117,423 to $1,933,842 for the year to date in 2020 from $1,816,419 in the same period of 2019. Net loss attributable to iFabric's shareholders during the six months ended March 31, 2020 was $427,935 ($0.016 per share, basic and diluted), compared to a net loss attributable to shareholders of $943,609 ($0.036 per share, basic and diluted). The reduction in losses of $515,674 for the first two quarters of 2020 compared to 2019, is largely attributable to an increase in gross margin contribution, a reduction in selling, general and administrative costs as well as increased foreign exchange gains. Other comprehensive earnings, being unrealized gains on the translation of foreign operations, amounted to $175,077 for the first six months of 2020 compared to $116,436 for the first six months of 2019. The total comprehensive loss amounted to $248,135 for the current six months compared to $827,371 in 2019. Complete Financial Statements are available on www.sedar.com FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS Quarter Ended March 31 Six Months Ended March 31 2020 2019 2020 2019 $ $ $ $ Revenue 2,252,090 2,503,793 4,848,931 4,975,674 Earnings (loss) from operations (486,101 ) (518,922 ) (647,197 ) (1,081,466 ) Share based compensation (11,611 ) (18,820 ) (23,350 ) (92,198 ) Adjusted EBITDA *(Note) (482,353 ) (456,076 ) (357,933 ) (969,311 ) Net earnings (loss) after tax (479,436 ) (386,944 ) (423,212 ) (943,807 ) Net earnings (loss) after tax attributable to shareholders (481,746 ) (386,487 ) (427,935 ) (943,609 ) Other comprehensive earnings (loss) 401,858 (8,649 ) 175,077 116,436 Total comprehensive earnings (loss) (77,578 ) (395,593 ) (248,135 ) (827,371 ) Net earnings (loss) per share Basic (0.018 ) (0.015 ) (0.016 ) (0.036 ) Diluted (0.018 ) (0.015 ) (0.016 ) (0.036 ) *Note: Adjusted EBITDA represents earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and share based compensation. ABOUT iFABRIC CORP: Headquartered in Markham, Ontario, iFabric Corp www.ifabriccorp.com currently has 26.3 million shares issued and outstanding. Through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Intelligent Fabric Technologies (North America) Inc. ("IFTNA") and Coconut Grove Pads Inc. ("Coconut Grove"), the Company offers a variety of products and services in both of its strategic divisions: IFTNA is focused on finished performance apparel as well as proprietary chemical formulations that render fabrics, foams, plastics and numerous other surfaces intelligent, thereby improving the safety and well-being of the consumer. Coconut Grove, operating as Coconut Grove Intimates, is a designer, manufacturer, distributor, licensor and licensee of ladies intimate apparel products and accessories. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: Forward-looking statements provide an opinion as to the effect of certain events and trends on the business. Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward looking statements. The use of any words such as "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the development potential of the Company's products. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements as the Company's actual results, performance, or achievements may differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements if known or unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors affect the Company's business, or if the Company's estimates or assumptions prove inaccurate. Therefore, the Company cannot provide any assurance that forward-looking statements will materialize. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or any other reason except as required by applicable securities laws. Any financial outlook or future oriented financial information in this news release, as defined by applicable securities legislation, has been approved by management of iFabric. Such financial outlook or future oriented financial information is provided for the purpose of providing information about management's reasonable expectations as to the anticipated results of its proposed business activities. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, please contact: Hilton Price, CFO Tel: 647.465.6161 Email: hilton.price@rogers.com Gary Perkins - Investor Relations Tel: 416.882.0020 Email: garyperkins@rogers.com Jean-Francois Dube (Quebec) - Investor Relations Tel: 514.233.9551 Email: jfdube@mac.com SOURCE: iFabric Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/593172/iFabric-Corp-Reports-Results-for-its-Second-Quarter-Ended-March-31-2020 I have spent quite a bit of time in the Twin Cities and always found the place lovely wonderful restaurants, cultural events too numerous to mention, beautiful in summer, smartly plowed streets in seriously frozen winters. These are, generally, very kind, gentle people "Minnesota Nice" is the term and are reeling after seeing the carnage across their cities. The incredibly pivotal moment when we all watched, in horror, as George Floyd died, had the whole country in shock and, appropriately, more than willing to look at ways that this could never happen again. I know of nobody, and I mean nobody, who thought what happened to Floyd should not be investigated to the fullest extent of the law. I'll bet that even those few miscreants who generally don't get on with other races understood that this tragedy should not befall anyone, no matter what their ethnicity. But that all went by the wayside when justified peaceful protests devolved into mass thuggery and mayhem. We've all seen the result. Minneapolis looks like Somalia maybe Ilhan Omar feels more at home now. Here's a few things the people of the Twin Cities might want to consider: First, they should understand that Antifa and a whole bleeding chunk of BLM are not interested in police reform. They're interested in hurting people and breaking things while deceiving all who will swallow their line that they are "peaceful protesters." They're not. Never will be. They want to silence, intimidate, hurt, and maim people who don't agree with them. Please remember this when you see the bobble-headed media mouths insisting that there are really only two thugs in every "peaceful protest" of several thousand people. Second, police reform is a byproduct of what is really going on here: a power-grab to fulfill many protesters' ultimate dream of an America completely destroyed and replaced by warring militias in a dog-eat-dog world, where major cities will come to emulate the horror of the Purge movies. Third, it's useless to engage with people who want to hurt you or break things. They're not interested. Think trying to get to know a great white shark in the middle of a feeding frenzy. They're not, for example, interested in knowing anything beyond pulling down statues and burning flags (as if they know enough about history to inform their actions) or stealing, looting, and providing completely unintelligible arguments for what they are doing. Fourth, the Twin Cities' politicians have made their plans clear. Remember: when these far-left activists say they want to dismantle the police department, they really mean it. This is no trial balloon, nor is it even up for public discussion. The decision has been made. And they will do so. Their primitive enthusiasm to get rid of the police is matched only by their unbridled cluelessness about what that will mean and the disastrous consequences it will bring. Fifth, the people of the Twin Cities should take a moment to think through, for themselves, their families, and their loved ones to say nothing of the lovely houses and properties they have worked half their lives for what it will actually mean if the police departments are disbanded. I hope their thoughts will be tempered by what Lisa Bender, a Minneapolis city counselor said: that calling the police and having them respond is a (white) privilege and she has a veto-proof city council behind her. Were I a decent, law-abiding citizen of the Twin Cities, I'd be betting that more carnage and insanity are on the way. Just my take, but I think their lives could be significantly endangered both by no police availability and by the probable roving mobs with their insatiable thirst for violence and chaos. Property values will drop like a stone, and people will end up having to do one of two things: be prepared to defend themselves and your families in the new Mogadishu on the Mississippi or get out yesterday. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has accepted the nomination of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as one of the candidates for the office of the dir... The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has accepted the nomination of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as one of the candidates for the office of the director-general of the organisation. Nigeria, on 9 June 2020, nominated Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the post of WTO Director-General to succeed the current Director-General, Mr Roberto Azevedo, who has announced he will step down on 31 August 2020, the organisation said on its website. When President Muhammadu Buhari endorsed Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) top job, Egypt went on the offensive. Egypt argued that the executive decision of the African Union (AU) which had set a deadline of November 30, 2019 for African countries to nominate candidates had been violated. They claimed Iwealas nomination was late and should not be recognised. The WTO however said on Tuesday that nominations are still open till July 8, 2020. More to follow (CNN) The US Department of Justice has requested an interview with Prince Andrew as part of its criminal investigation into the alleged sex trafficking ring once operated by Jeffrey Epstein, according to a person familiar with the matter. The request, initiated by federal prosecutors in the Manhattan US Attorney's office, is part of a mutual legal assistance treaty request a form of cooperation between countries for assistance in the investigation or prosecution of criminal offenses submitted to the UK's Home Office, according to the source. A spokesman for the US Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, Nick Biase, said: "I cannot publicly comment on communications with foreign governments on investigative matters, including confirming or denying the very existence of such communications." In a statement Monday, Prince Andrew's legal team said that "any pursuit of an application for mutual legal assistance would be disappointing." They said the Justice Department had told them "that the Duke is not and has never been a 'target' of their criminal investigations into Epstein" and that Prince Andrew "has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ" adding that he "recently repeated his willingness to provide a witness statement." Criticizing what they described as a breach of confidentiality on the part of the Justice Department, they said that in claiming Prince Andrew hasn't been cooperative, "they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered." Hours later, Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, refuted those claims, saying the prince "has repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview, and nearly four months ago informed us unequivocally through the very same counsel who issued today's release that he would not come in for such an interview." Berman added: "If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we should expect him." Buckingham Palace and the UK Home Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Though Epstein died in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges that he sexually abused underage girls and ran a sex-trafficking ring, prosecutors have continued to pursue investigations of people who they believe helped Epstein carry out an alleged multi-year sex trafficking operation. Prince Andrew has come under public pressure to explain his relationship with Epstein and allegations by one of his accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre. She has alleged that she was forced into sexual encounters with the prince while she was underage. In a 2015 federal court filing, Giuffre alleged Epstein forced her to perform sex acts with several prominent men, including Prince Andrew in 2001. All of them have denied the allegations. In a November BBC interview, Prince Andrew said he had never met Giuffre and suggested that a photo of the two of them may have been doctored. "I can tell you categorically I don't remember meeting her at all. I do not remember a photograph being taken and I've said consistently and frequently that we never had any sort of sexual contact whatever," he said. He also said after he appeared on BBC that he was "willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required." The prince said he would be willing to testify or give a statement under oath about the case, but he would "have to take all the legal advice that there was... But if push came to shove and the legal advice was to do so, then I would be duty bound to do so." The FBI and federal prosecutors subsequently contacted Prince Andrew's lawyer to interview the prince about Epstein, but Prince Andrew's team provided "zero" cooperation, according to Berman, the US Attorney in Manhattan, who took the rare step of publicly announcing his frustrations with the situation. "It's fair for people to know whether Prince Andrew has followed through with that public commitment," Berman said at a news conference in January outside Epstein's Manhattan mansion. "To date Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation." Almost two months later, Berman said Prince Andrew had "completely shut the door" on voluntarily cooperating with his investigation and said his office was "considering its options." But Prince Andrew's legal team responded Monday that "these statements were inaccurate, and they should not have been made." Asked about the matter in an interview on Fox News on Monday night, US Attorney General Bill Barr said prosecutors' interest in the prince stems from "evidence" he could provide in the ongoing Epstein investigation, and does not amount to a request for his extradition. "I don't think it's a question of handing him over, I think it's just a question of having him provide some evidence," Barr said. This story was first published on CNN.com, "US prosecutors seek interview with Prince Andrew over Epstein link." YORKTON, SASK.A Saskatchewan man has been awarded more than $6.7 million in damages nearly 14 years after an assault during a camping trip left him with a life-changing brain injury. Court documents say Robert Mus was 17 years old when he and some friends visited Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba in July 2006. A 2008 trial heard a camper in another group struck Mus on the right side of his head with a piece of fire wood. Tyler Kozakowski was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for aggravated assault. Mus sued Kozakowski for damages in 2008, but the defendant did not show up for the civil trial last year and presented no defence. A decision last month by Queens Bench Justice Michael Tochor noted Mus suffered numerous strokes, was in a vegetative state for a time and had to undergo intensive rehabilitation. Mus had to relearn how to control his bodily functions, hold his head up and speak, the judge said. The injured teen remained at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre for six months after the attack. He then returned to live at home with his mother, where he remains. Tochor noted Kozakowskis criminal sentence is now well behind him. However, from the moment of the assault, the life of Mr. Mus forever changed in almost unimaginable ways. A 2014 medical report said Mus got easily tired while walking, remained somewhat childlike and that there were concerns in regards to his social vulnerability. During the civil trial, the plaintiffs mother elaborated on the assaults lasting effects. She pointed out Mr. Mus reached his maximum level of recovery and she relayed her concerns his condition will deteriorate, Tochor said in his May 27 decision on damages. She testified his mobility has declined over time and his speech is becoming less distinguishable. The amount awarded includes more than $1 million for past loss of income and nearly $4.5 million for future lost income, as well as the cost of care, housekeeping and other items. Mus lawyer, David Rusnak, said there were several reasons why it took the case so long to get to trial. For instance, he said medical witnesses in cases like these need to observe plaintiffs long enough that they can determine whether they will recover, and to what extent. Lawsuits that have an injury component as substantial as Mr. Mus often take a considerable period of time, Rusnak said. He said Monday that his client had not authorized him to provide a statement on his behalf. Read more about: Due to the covid-19 pandemic, schools across the US have cancelled their in-person commencement exercises. To celebrate the graduates whose final years of school have been upended, former first lady Michelle Obama took part in a YouTube special. This is an edited version of her address to the Class of 2020. Hey, everybody. It is an honour to be here with you to help celebrate this amazing milestone in your lives. Graduation from college or high school is a culmination of years of hard work. So please enjoy this moment. You deserve this celebration. Congratulations! This is an important time of transition. In light of the current state of our country, I struggled to find the right words of wisdom for you today. So, I am here to talk to you not as the former first lady, but as a real live person: a mother; a mentor; a citizen concerned about your future and the future of our country. Because right now, all that superficial stuff of titles and positions, all of that has been stripped away, and a lot of us are reckoning with the most basic essence of who we are. Over these past couple of months our foundation has been shaken - not just by a pandemic that stole too many of our loved ones, upended our daily lives, and sent tens of millions into unemployment, but also by the rumbling of the age-old fault lines that our country was built on: the lines of race and power that are now, once again, so nakedly exposed for all of us to grapple with. So, if any of you are scared, or confused, or angry, or just plain overwhelmed by it all, you are not alone. I am feeling all of that, too. I think we all are. So, I want you to know that it's OK to be confused. It's OK if you don't understand exactly what you're feeling. We're all sorting through this in real time. But here's the thing: while this period is certainly unprecedented, it is not a complete anomaly. No, what's happening right now is the direct result of decades of unaddressed prejudice and inequality. The truth is, when it comes to all those tidy stories of hard work and self-determination that we like to tell ourselves about America, well, the reality is a lot more complicated than that. Because for too many people in this country, no matter how hard they work, there are structural barriers working against them that just make the road longer and rockier. Because if you're required to work during a pandemic, but don't have enough protective equipment or health insurance from your employer, or paid sick leave, what is more essential: your work or your life? If you don't feel safe driving your own car in your own neighbourhood, or going for a jog - if you can't even approach the police without fearing for your life - well, how do you begin to chart your own course? These are uncomfortable questions, questions that have dogged this country for generations but are now staring us in the face every time we look at our phones or hear helicopters circling our neighbourhoods. And the tough part is, nobody has all the answers. So, the question is: how will we respond? Like I said before, I don't have any easy answers for you. But I do have some lessons I want to share. The first is this: life will always be uncertain. It is a lesson that most of us get the chance to learn over the course of years and years, even decades, but one that you're learning right now. This is a time in your life when it feels like everything is turned upside down, and perhaps you're wishing that things could just go back to the way they were. Look, I've been there many times in my life. I felt it most profoundly when my father and my best friend died within a year of each other. I was in my late 20s, and it felt like my whole world was collapsing in on itself. I would have given anything to bring them back. But that experience gave me a kind of clarity. So, graduates, I hope that what you're going through right now can be your wake-up call, that it pushes you not just to think about what kind of career you want to build, but what kind of person you want to be. And here's the thing: you have the opportunity to learn these valuable lessons faster than the generations before you. And that leads me to my second lesson: in an uncertain world, time-tested values like honesty and integrity, empathy and compassion - that's the only real currency in life. Treating people right will never, ever fail you. For those of you who feel invisible: Please know that your story matters. Your ideas matter. Your experiences matter. Your vision for what our world can and should be matters. So, don't ever, ever let anyone tell you that you're too angry, or that you "should keep your mouth shut". There will always be those who want to keep you silent, to have you be seen but not heard, or maybe they don't even want to see you at all. It's up to you to couple every protest with plans and policies. And that's my final piece of advice. Graduates, anger is a powerful force. It can be a useful force. But left on its own, it will only corrode, and destroy, and sow chaos - on the inside and out. But when anger is focused, when it's channelled into something more - that is the stuff that changes history. Dr King was angry. Sojourner Truth was angry. Lucretia Mott, Cesar Chavez, the folks at Stonewall - they were all angry. But those folks were also driven by compassion, by principle - by hope. And so they took advantage of whatever resources they had in their own time - thundering from the pulpit and the convention floor, penning letters from a jail cell, standing up for their rights in the face of police violence. They built coalitions with folks like them and different from them. They got fluent in the language of power. They sat down with leaders they disagreed with. Because they knew that if they wanted their vision to be made real, it needed to be made law. It needed to be voiced not just on the streets but in the halls of power. ( Washington Post) A Lagos Division of the Lagos State High Court in Igbosere on Tuesday discharged and acquitted a man, Jelili Dimeji, of a four-count armed robbery charge brought against him five years ago. The Lagos State Government had accused Mr Dimeji of robbing some valuables from an apartment in Ikotun in 2015. In her judgment during virtual proceedings, Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye held that the prosecution did not prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. The alleged confessional statement was never placed before the court as an exhibit. I must hold that the prosecutions failure to place the confessional statement before the court is fatal to its case. The mere fact that the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) testified that the defendant confessed cannot be taken as the gospel truth without some other hard evidence before the court, Mrs Ipaye said. The judge said that there was no cogent identification evidence before the court as Desmond Usman, the alleged victim of the October 7, 2015 robbery, failed to come to court to testify and identify Mr Dimeji as one of the perpetuators of the crime. She also noted that James Irom, a police sergeant, the IPO as well as the first prosecution witness, also failed to tender allegedly recovered weapons while testifying before the court. As an 18th Century English jurist stated, it is better that 10 guilty persons escape than one innocent suffers. Accordingly, I find and hold that the prosecution has failed to establish beyond reasonable doubt, that the defendant, Jelili Dimeji, was one of those who carried out the robbery which took place at about 3a.m. on Oct. 7, 2015, at No. 28, Dele Ara St., Ikotun, Lagos. I so hold. Having failed to establish the substantive charge of armed robbery against the defendant beyond reasonable doubt, I find and hold that the prosecution has also not sustained the ancillary charge of conspiracy. I, therefore, find you Jelili Dimeji not guilty of the charges as contained in counts one to four of the information dated March 3, 2017. You are hereby discharged and acquitted, Mrs Ipaye held. Following Mr Dimejis acquittal, defence counsel, Pamela Okoroigwe, thanked the court for the judgment. Reacting to the judgment, the lead prosecution counsel, Akin George, said: I salute the wonderful wisdom of my lord, we have been robbed of vital witnesses as a result of delay in investigations. My lord will note that this crime occurred in 2015, we did not start prosecuting in the high court until two years after, in 2017, and many of our vital witnesses were unavailable. NAN reports that Mr Dimeji was charged with conspiracy and armed robbery contrary to Sections 297 and 299 of the Criminal Law of Lagos, 2015. He was alleged to have committed the offences alongside four others at large. The defendant and his accomplices at about 3am on Oct. 7, 2015, at No. 28, Dele Ara St., Ikotun, Lagos, while armed with dangerous weapons, robbed one Oladipo Adu of a cash sum of N300,000 and jewellery. They also robbed one Desmond Usman of his laptop and mobile phones, the prosecution said. During the trial, two witnesses the IPO and Chidiogo Michael, the landlord of the property where the alleged theft occurred testified for the prosecution while the defendant and his father testified for the defence. Mr Dimeji while testifying on February 26, 2019, said that he was on his way to a motor park to head to Ifo in Ogun to see his wife, who had just been delivered of a baby, when he was accosted by a vigilante group who claimed he was a member of a gang of robbers which robbed a nearby residential premises. According to him, he did not partake in the armed robbery but was arrested, taken into custody and was remanded at the Kirikiri Maximum Correctional Centre. (NAN) WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY The Hudson Valley entered phase 2 of New York's economic reopening Tuesday as Gov. Andrew Cuomo celebrated the dramatic turnaround in the local pandemic. "Westchester, Rockland, Hudson Valley, enter Phase 2 today," he said during his daily news briefing. "Congratulations, long time coming but you did it, the numbers are down, because you brought the numbers down. This is not government action. It's not an act of God. It's an act of the people. They got disciplined, they got smart, they did what they had to do, they brought the numbers down. And the numbers are dramatically down. And this is a national, if not international, success story." However, with 600,000 people coming back to work in the metropolitan region, health officials are watching closely for a spike in positive tests for new coronavirus, he said, speaking from New York Medical College in Valhalla. The Hudson Valley has dramatically lowered the number of residents hospitalized with COVID-19. There were no deaths reported from COVID-19 in the region's hospitals on Monday. Some states and some countries that opened their economies rapidly have seen spikes in the number of new cases, Cuomo said. But New York is being smart, he said, and keeping a close eye on the situation. State officials have designed a new dashboard to let the public and local officials track new positive coronavirus tests easily. (Last time, he said, he had asked one that looked like a 1967 Corvette, "the best dashboard ever designed" and this time he said he wanted something like 1968 GTO dashboard, the "second-best" ever designed.) Here's what the new dashboard actually looks like for the Hudson Valley: Source: New York State Health Department "If you see the numbers start to move you want to know why and how," Cuomo said. That's what the contact tracers do, to find any clusters of cases and to notify people who may have been exposed. State and local officials will watch the daily test results and Cuomo invited residents to do so as well. He said not to be alarmed by day-to-day fluctuations but focus on trends. Story continues Meanwhile, people can finally get a haircut and eat at a restaurant that has outdoor seating. Hair salons and barbershops are reopening with certain restrictions, as are professional offices. Retailers are allowing in-store shopping, and real estate offices may reopen their doors. Furthermore, car dealerships are open for sales and leases, and film work will be allowed to resume, which creates millions of dollars in economic activity and hundreds of jobs. But even as the industries are allowed to resume operations, customers and workers should get used to a new normal. Businesses in each industry must remain at or below 50 percent capacity and individuals must social distance. Restaurants that offer outdoor dining must have tables spaced 6 feet apart, and all staff must wear masks. Patrons will also be required to wear face coverings when not seated. Retail stores must give workers face coverings for free, and employees must wear them at checkout registers. Retail stores also have to install physical barriers such as plastic shield walls in certain areas. At barbershops and hair salons, people must keep 6 feet apart inside when not receiving or giving hair services. Waiting rooms must remain closed, masks will be required, lines will be prohibited and nonessential amenities including product samples, magazine areas and water fountains are banned. And men can forget about beard trims masks have to stay on. Office workers will also have to remain 6 feet apart, and wear face coverings when they come close to others. In-person gatherings will be limited, while tele- and video-conferencing are encouraged. Moreover, employees will have to stagger their arrival and departure times to reduce congestion in lobbies and elevators. Click here to see more details about how each industry is reopening. As the Hudson Valley entered phase 2 and New York City started phase 1 Tuesday, the MTA added trains on the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven lines. West of Hudson is still operating a weekend schedule. Remember to wear a mask or face covering. Theyre required. Off-peak fares remain in effect. No ticket counters are open. Use the MTA eTix app on your phone. This article originally appeared on the Pleasantville-Briarcliff Manor Patch A cell phone video captured footage of a Philadelphia bike officer authorities say was hit by a car after violence and looting broke out during a protest May 30. Police have now arrested the woman accused of hitting and severely injuring the officer. Angela Hall, 41, was arrested Monday and faces charges that include attempted murder and aggravated assault, NBC 10 is reporting. And the police officer, Antonio Nieves, has recently had surgery to repair his broken arm and shattered shoulder, Action News 6 ABC is reporting. Hes had other surgeries, as well, to reconstruct 12 broken ribs and a shattered sternum. "He's in very bad shape right now, FOP Lodge 5 President John McNesby told 6 ABC. He's basically crushed from the waist up. According to reports, the incident occurred when violence and looting drowned out the peaceful protest over the death of George Floyd in police custody. Investigators say Hall was involved in looting a business at 7th and Chestnut streets, and when the Nieves tried to stop her, she drove into him and escaped, reports indicate. More than a week later, Hall has been taken into custody, and Nieves has a long road to recovery ahead of him. Hes a great cop. Hes a pillar in Center City and again, out there doing his job that night as well as all our cops, McNesby told 6 ABC. 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 government has announced plans of training 26,000 entrepreneurs in Ghana - 5000 of them would be supported with funding to expand their businesses - This comes under Window 3 of the Presidential Business Support Program being implemented by the NEIP Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in The Ministry of Business Development has announced plans of training 26,000 entrepreneurs in Ghana. Out of the number, 5000 of them would be supported with funding in order to grow their businesses. This was announced by the Minister of Business Development, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, on the sidelines of a press launch. READ ALSO: Bank of Ghana reveals how 8 banks in Ghana inconvenience customers YEN.com.gh understands that the launch was for Window 3 of the Presidential Business Support Program (PBSP) being implemented by the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (NEIP). Dr. Awal noted that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo is committed to supporting the youth in Ghana. We will build their capacities and train them in the next two months in various areas including marketing and how to run your business successfully. Out of the 26,000, the President directed us to support 5,000 with funding of Gh40m so that they can create jobs, he explained. He added that the objective is to build their resilience, create jobs and make our young people job owners instead of job seekers. YEN.com.gh earlier reported that the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) has set aside GHC50 million for 5000 startups in Ghana. According to NEIPs Chief Executive Officer, John Ampontuah Kumah, it forms part of the presidential business support program aimed at providing integrated national support for start-ups and small businesses. He added that there are plans to grow new businesses with financial and business development services. READ ALSO: Over GHC200 million was spent on video games in Ghana in 2019 - Report Enjoyed reading our story? Download YEN's news app on Google Playstore now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news! Ghanaian female accounting graduate and mushroom farmer recounts her experience | #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 Mike Tyson never fails to be entertaining. Whether hes biting off ears or starring in an animated Scooby-Doo parody, The Baddest Man on the Planet is a character so strange and so controversial that its hard to believe he actually exists. In recent years, he appears to have returned to a career in professional wrestling a domain for which his larger-than-life persona (and reputation) provide ideal cannon fodder. Many boxers have had stints in pro wrestling, some with mixed success. Tysons a notable exception hell, hes a member of the WWE Hall of Fame and his antics never fail to disappoint. Case in point: View this post on Instagram A post shared by True Sports (@truesportstv) on Jun 8, 2020 at 8:53am PDT If we just ignore Tysons peacocking for a second What the f**k is that shirt made out of? Kevlar? Im no world champion boxer but even I could rip out of most of my t-shirts if I was tugging on them like that. This crazy moment was sparked by MC Chris Jericho demanding an apology from Tyson for his brutal knockout in 2010. The confrontation escalated into a brawl, with both Tysons posse as well as AEW staff climbing into the ring to join the fray. But back to the more important issue: I want to know where Tysons getting his merch printed. Thats gotta be some Fruit of the Loom or American Apparel joint. Clearly hes not skimping on any cheap Chinese t-shirt blanks. Kudos to Tyson for wearing quality t-shirts Although next time, maybe choose a cheaper brand if youre looking to pull off theatrics like that. Read Next SHERMAN Amid nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism, some residents decided to place signs supporting the Black Lives Matter movement near the entrance to the Sherman School But that show of support was short-lived. First Selectman Don Lowe announced Saturday the unauthorized signs would be removed and prohibition of such signs on state and local right-of-way properties will be enforced. In light of the recent high volume of signs that are being placed on the state right-of-way property located across from the intersection of Route 39N and Route 37E ... the town asks all citizens to cease placing ad-hoc signs in that location or on any town or state right of way, Lowe said. Tuesday evening, Lowe said the signs have been removed. People may think placing signs in this area is legal as this location has been used to advertise tag sales and events for years, Lowe said, but no sign other than what is specified in Sherman zoning regulations may be placed on town property, and no signs can be placed on state property without a permit from the Connecticut DOT. Although he decided to have the unauthorized signs removed, Lowe expressed understanding of the message behind those placed in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The horrifying death of George Floyd has, once again, re-awakened America to the racial discrimination that continues to haunt our country. I abhor racism and only the most hardened heart does not recognize that changes need to be made, he said. Lowe said he encourages those who feel threatened by Black Lives Matter posters to research that movement and open up your hearts and minds as to what this movement means, why this type of awareness is necessary, and why so many people of all races and socioeconomic strata support this movement. But in the meantime, he said, Im not going to allow aggression over signs to tear this town apart, and Im not going to allow the threat of car accidents while people fight over sign placement. The first selectman cited grave safety concerns over the increase in signs in the area for his decision to enforce the ban. Lowe said he fears the placing and removal of signs, as well as slowing and sometimes stopping of traffic for photos, discussion and arguments, will lead to regrettable actions or traffic accidents. The sign ban has two exceptions Sherman Volunteer Fire Department signs and signs for Sherman School and local high school graduates during graduation week, which runs through June 15. Any other signs placed on state or town rights-of-way will be removed by the town and kept intact, Lowe said. Anyone whose sign is removed can request to have it returned by contacting the first selectmans office. Lowe said he knows people will not be pleased with the sign ban enforcement, but he believes its for the best. Please be patient. Please be kind with one another, he said. Delhi, Karnataka, Bihar: What is allowed and what is not Those from containment zones to stay back at home says Govt in guidelines DARPG staff India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 09: The government has issued a set of guidelines to be followed by its employees in the Department for Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. The guidelines say that only asymptomatic staff shall be allowed to attend offices. Anyone with mild cough or fever need to stay at home. Further officers and staff residing in containment zones shall not come to office. They shall work from home till the containment zone is de-notified. Fake: Central Govt employees not to face pay cut of 30 per cent Not more than 20 staff or officers shall attend office in a day. While the roster will be re-worked accordingly, remaining staff shall continue to work from home. To enforce social distancing, those under secretaries and deputy secretaries sharing a cabin shall come to work on every alternative day. Staggering office hours shall be followed to enforce social distancing. The guidelines also say that as much as possible, the windows in the office shall be kept open to ensure proper ventilation. WHO says coronavirus situation is worsening globally, disease raging in Americas| Oneindia News Face masks and face shields shall be worn at all times inside the office. If this is not followed, disciplinary action shall be initiated. Hand washing every half an hour is a must to prevent the spread of the virus. Hand sanitising dispensers shall be installed at prominent places in the corridors. Frequently touched places such as electric switches, door knobs, elevator buttons, hand rails, washroom fixtures etc shall be cleaned every one hour with 1 per cent sodium hypochlorite. Officials and staff have been advised to clean their personal equipment like keyboards, mouse, phones etc. Distance of 1 meter shall be maintained while sitting or walking. Visitors' chairs on the cabins of the offices shall be accordingly placed keeping in mind social distancing norms. NYPD Police officers listen as Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York President Pat Lynch and representatives from other NYPD and law enforcement unions holds a news conference at the Icahn Stadium parking lot to address the "current anti-law enforcement environment" in New York City on June 9, 2020. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images) NYPD Union Leader Rebukes Criticism of Officers, Reckless Legislation NYPD union leader Pat Lynch, in a press conference, slammed the rampant criticism of police officers in New York City during Black Lives Matter protests, arson incidents, riots, and vandalism in the wake of George Floyds death. What were seeing now, in a rush to push packages of bills, in the dark of night without even reading them, he said. Theyre following the crowd, he added. Defund the police is a slogan on a sign that means different things to different people, Lynch remarked, noting that some have used the slogan to call for abolishing the police. Meanwhile, some will say that they need to shift funds around. Lynch criticized moves from district attorneys across the state to not prosecute looters and rioters, while noting that a district attorney prosecuted a police officer who was put in a bad situation. They are refusing to do their job but asking the NYPD to pull back and walk away. Theyre asking us to abandon our communities, Lynch said, saying that the citys leadership under Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying to appease rioters and criminals. If [officers] put your hands on a criminal, youre going to jail, he added. NYPD Police officers listen as Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York President Pat Lynch and representatives from other NYPD and law enforcement unions holds a news conference at the Icahn Stadium parking lot to address the current anti-law enforcement environment in New York City on June 9, 2020. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images) But Lynch said that he will defend our citizens, adding that crimes have happened because NYPD officers have been pulled back for doing our job. It came as seven people were shot within 10 minutes in separate incidents in Brooklyn. Several days ago, Captains Endowment Association (CEA) President Chris Monahan wrote a letter complaining that due to a lack of state and city leadership, police cannot crack down on violent protesters. They do not have your back and will use you as a political pawn! he wrote, according to the New York Post. My assessment is Hands off the protester/looter you will be assaulted by them. Hands on the protester/looter you will be assaulted by our elected officials. BE CAREFUL! it warned. It ended with a hopeful message and a prayer: Rest assured if the wheel of misfortune falls on any of you, the CEA will be there to defend and protect you. Religious or not, at this time Saint Michael must pray for us because our leaders have abandoned us. Across the United States, police departments have banned chokeholds, Confederate monuments have fallen, and officers have been arrested and charged amid large global protests against violence by police and racism in the wake of Floyds death. President Donald Trump and Republicans have used the defund the police call from activists and leftists to tie top Democrats like Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to the movement. LAW & ORDER, NOT DEFUND AND ABOLISH THE POLICE. The Radical Left Democrats have gone Crazy! the president wrote on Twitter. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler pledged the city will divert $12 million from the police bureau and other city departments to directly support communities of color, defund three police units including the gun violence reduction team and ban officers from using chokeholds as part of plans to reform the Portland Police Bureau. During a news conference Tuesday, Wheeler said details of these plans and others are in the works and that Portlands black community has demanded the changes for years. The mayor acknowledged that he should have acted sooner. My privilege as a white man, my privilege as the mayor and the leader of the institutions of power in this community I believe shielded me from time to time from the many difficult and uncomfortable truths about our history and about our society, he said. Wheeler is also the police commissioner. The news comes after 12 nights of protests throughout the city in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Over that time, community members, from protesters to Portland Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly, have publicly called for reforms such as removing funding from Portland polices gun violence reduction team and its school resource officers unit as well as the bureaus stake in the multi-agency transit police division. Theyve all cited all three units historically disproportionally impacting residents of color. Portland Public Schools Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero announced last week that city police officers would no longer be assigned to the districts nine high schools or the two other school districts inside Portland city limits. Wheeler on Tuesday agreed that the city would move toward disbanding its school resource officer and gun violence reduction units and by January, pull its officers from the transit police division, a unit made of staff from 14 law agencies in the metro area that TriMet contracts to patrol its public transit system. On Monday, then-Police Chief Jami Resch announced that she was accepting a demotion as a step toward renewing public trust in the police agency. Then-Lt. Chuck Lovell, who has been a Portland police officer since 2002, was named chief. Its unclear where the officers from all three units will be moved. Of the $12 million that Wheeler vowed would be invested in communities of color, $7 million would come from the police bureau and another $5 million from other not yet identified city funds, he said. The $7 million is less than 3% of the money currently slated to be budgeted for the police bureau. Wheeler also said the city plans to make the Portland Committee on Community-Engaged Policing a permanent community oversight body, make cases of intentional discrimination by police officers subject to some type of formal action, and support the Oregon Legislatures People of Color Caucus to advocate for statewide reforms and work toward banning qualified immunity, a legal doctrine which grants police and other government officials broad protection from lawsuits. The mayor said police reform alone will not get rid of systemic institutional racism and white supremacy in the city, but said it was a start that he believes will help lift the city and make everyone safer. Wheeler acknowledged he cant end police units and redirect city money unilaterally. But he said he thinks he has support from his City Council colleagues to make the changes. It takes three votes on the current four-member council to enact budget changes. Chief Lovell said officers are currently banned from using chokeholds unless in the midst of a life-saving situation. He said the maneuver is considered a deadly use of force by the police bureau, which requires incidents where they are used on a person to be documented and reviewed. He and Wheeler also said its also not immediately clear which police unit or units would first respond to and investigate shootings in the city. The police bureau reported more than 400 shootings in 2019. In recent days, Hardesty and Eudaly have also expressed interest in no longer sending cannabis tax proceeds to the police bureaus traffic division. Wheeler on Tuesday named cannabis taxes as one of the sources of the $12 million in investments he hopes to make. Commissioner Amanda Fritz has not publicly stated any specific police changes she favors and her office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The Portland City Council is scheduled to make amendments and vote Wednesday to adopt its annual budget, which was approved last month at $5.6 billion. The fiscal year begins July 1. In the current draft of the citys budget, the police bureau is slated to receive $244.6 million. The police bureaus current budget is $241.5 million and the agency requested around $248.3 million for the upcoming year, mostly from increased general fund and recreational marijuana tax fund dollars, city records show. As currently written, next years police budget calls for nearly $6.6 million for the gun violence reduction team, close to $4.4 million for transit police and almost $4 million for school resource officers. During a city hearing on the budget Tuesday, Hardesty and Eudaly said they were excited at the collective urgency shown by the city council to get reforms in motion sooner than later. Hardesty said she assumed some of the amendments she plans to be propose Wednesday would take her about a decade as city commissioner to accomplish. Hardesty said she believes the phrase defund the police, which has become the anthem among protesters nationwide in response to Floyds death, has commonly been misunderstood to mean shutting law agencies down and getting rid of officers altogether. She assured people that wouldnt happen in Portland. None of these programs have actually worked in creating trust among communities of color, she said of the three police units planned to be disbanded. Based on the conversations Ive had so far, there is a lot of interest in reimagining what public safety looks like. On Monday, Hardesty announced on Twitter that she specifically plans to propose diverting $4.8 million budgeted for the gun violence reduction team to Portland Street Response, a program designed to decrease police interactions with homeless people by having an emergency medical technician and mental health worker respond to 911 calls. That program has been delayed indefinitely during the coronavirus pandemic. Next years budget as currently written calls for a pilot of the program receiving around $633,244. Wheeler on Tuesday did not commit to funding the program at the level Hardesty proposed but he said he supports the program. The pilot, with a single two-person team of first responders, was supposed to start in the spring and focus on responding to non-emergency calls within 5 square miles of Southeast Portlands Lents neighborhood. The program would operate out of the Portland Fire Bureau. Hardesty on Tuesday said she plans to propose using the diverted funds to expand the pilot to have six Portland Street Response teams work in six areas around the city. She said she envisions the program starting sometime after the pandemic subsides and having teams active on one side of Portland during the day and on another side of the city overnight to test which approach works best. She said city data on 911 calls should be used to determine the five areas of the city in addition to Lents where the teams will work. It is a direct response to both the unrest and what the community has been telling us for years, Hardesty said. The community doesnt want people that are armed coming to engage with them when they are suffering from a mental health crisis. Eudaly said she believes diverting significant funding from the police bureau is part of a process to expand public safety beyond policing. This is reallocating money away from the police and simultaneously taking work off of their plates, she said. We dont want them responding to people in mental health crisis. We dont want them interacting with people experiencing homelessness unnecessarily. We want to minimize as many community contacts with police as possible. After Wheelers news conference, Police union president Officer Daryl Turner called getting rid of the gun violence reduction team a big mistake that would threaten the safety of residents by removing officers and detectives dedicated to reducing gun violence. He said he was concerned the voices of gun violence victims werent being accounted for. This is unimaginable, Turner said. The mayor said during the news conference that he expects to have difficult conversations with the citys police union going forward, but he said some officers who hes talked to have said theyre up for the challenge. Wheeler said morale among the citys police officers was low but he was asking for them to be as open-minded as possible about the reforms being proposed and the pace that they are coming. He said he didnt want officers to take the changes personally as an indictment on all of their work. This is the first time our generation has had the opportunity to throw everything on the wall and ask honestly, with integrity Have we gotten this right? Wheeler said. And what the community is telling us overwhelmingly is: no, we havent gotten it right. Lovell said these are difficult times for police officers in Portland and around the country, but city officials are trying to better align officers and the communitys vision for what policing in Portland looks like. I am asking the community to support our officers as we move forward, he said. Maxine Bernstein of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report. -- Everton Bailey Jr; ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 | @EvertonBailey Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. martin-dm Just as many U.S. businesses were thrown off their guard by the coronavirus pandemic, so were financial advisory practices. Close to 1.8 million Americans have contracted Covid-19, and more than 100,000 people have perished from the disease, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Lockdowns to minimize spread of the disease have also battered the economy, with more than 40 million people filing for unemployment benefits in the last 10 weeks. Financial advisors many of whom are small business owners found themselves trying to keep their businesses running smoothly, while supporting their clients and their employees. Here's how three practices managed during these unprecedented times. "Hope is not a plan." Chris Pollard, CFP, principal of Great Path Planning in Monroe, New York. Courtesy of the Veterans Portrait Project It may come as no surprise that, as a U.S. Army veteran, certified financial planner Chris Pollard, principal at Great Path Planning, had a business continuity plan before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. "We hope that disasters are infrequent, but, as we would say in the Army, 'Hope is not a plan,'" said the West Point graduate. Situations Pollard had prepared for include a winter storm that resulted in Internet and power outages, or his own death or disability as principal of the firm, which has offices in Goshen and Montebello, New York. Pollard's continuity plan called for working from home or a public spot with web access, or using his cellphone for wi-fi tethering. Since many places have been closed during the pandemic, the advisor is looking into satellite-based Internet and power generators. Pollard moved client interactions to phone and video, even though as an "essential business" he could have kept offices open. "Many of our clients are over the age of 60 and are in a higher risk category." The move online has meant hand-holding for less tech-savvy clients, "but clients need to know that we're going to take good care of them whatever the circumstances," Pollard said. "We didn't wait for clients to call." Dennis Stearns, CFP, founder and president of Stearns Financial Group in Greensboro, North Carolina. Stearns Financial Group Talk about foresight. Stearns Financial Group in Greensboro, North Carolina, developed a pandemic protocol during the SARS outbreak in 2003. The plan went into effect when the current pandemic began. "We didn't wait for clients to call," said CFP Dennis Stearns, founder of the firm. "We've increased client communications by a factor of three, and provided special resources via our pandemic task force, which includes infectious disease experts and scenario economists," he said. Nine out of 10 of the firm's 600 clients now interact with advisors via GoToMeeting, up from 10% pre-pandemic. The rest are using the phone. "Remote [meetings] will be more common post Covid-19 but at least half our clients are hoping we can get back to face-to-face in 2021," said Stearns. The firm is willing to wait until a vaccine is developed to protect clients from infection, he added. While Stearns' employees may return to the office if necessary, albeit under stringent safety guidelines, most are working remotely until North Carolina's infection rate starts to subside. Colleagues with health issues or who reside with family members who suffer from them are encouraged to keep working from home, said Stearns, who expects office life to return to "semi-normal" by August or September. "For both clients and employees, we are being realistic and forward-looking at the same time." An advantage by meeting virtually Hannah Moore, CFP, owner of Guiding Wealth in Dallas. Guiding Wealth Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 16:16:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A cleaning service member wearing protective suit sprays disinfectant at Senayan City Shopping Mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, June 9, 2020. Indonesia has been gradually easing restrictions applied to curb the virus spread and is gearing up for reopening the economy under a new normal scenario. (Xinhua/Agung Kuncahya B.) JAKARTA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's Lion Air and its units of Batik Air and Wing Air have decided to restart flights for domestic routes on Wednesday as the country's economic activities have gradually been picked up, the airline said on Tuesday. The upcoming flights would comply with the health protocols to avert the transmission of COVID-19 during air travels, the airline said in a statement. Under the health protocols, travelers flying with the airlines have to show documents on the result of rapid COVID-19 tests or health certificates. Should the certificates not be available in the country of origin, the travelers can use other health certificates issued by a doctor or a health clinic declaring they are free from COVID-19. Lion Air and two of its units Batik Air and Wing Air serve flights across Indonesia and other countries in the Southeast Asian region including Malaysia and Vietnam. Indonesia has been gradually easing restrictions applied to curb the virus spread and is gearing up for reopening the economy under a new normal scenario. The COVID-19 pandemic has dashed the aviation sector as the number of foreign holiday makers visiting Indonesia plunged by 87.44 percent in April, data from the National Agency of Statistics showed. American history as its usually taught likes to focus on rivalries, and there are many involving big personalities and major historical stakes. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. These figures are set up to represent the both sides we expect of every political question. While the issues are oversimplified (there are always more than two sides and politics isnt a sport) the figures in question genuinely represented very different perspectives on power and progress. When it comes to the history of the Civil Rights movement, we are given another such rivalry, between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Their ideas and influence are pitted against each other as though they had shared a debate stage. In fact, the two leaders met only once, during Senate debates on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. King was stepping out of a news conference, writes DeNeen L. Brown at The Washington Post, when Malcolm X, dressed in an elegant black overcoat and wearing his signature horn-rimmed glasses, greeted him. Well, Malcolm, good to see you, King said. Good to see you, Malcolm X replied. Cameras clicked as the two men walked down the Senate hall together. Im throwing myself into the heart of the civil rights struggle, Malcolm X told King. Later, King would express his disagreement with Malcolms political and philosophical viewsat least insofar as I understand where he now stands. The comment allowed for an evolution in Xs thought that would, in fact, occur that year, while later events would push King in a far more radical direction. As Brown writes: Although the two men held what appeared to be diametrically opposing views on the struggle for equal rights, scholars say by the end of their lives their ideologies were evolving. King was becoming more militant in his views of economic justice for black people and more vocal in his criticism of the Vietnam War. Malcolm X, who had broken with the Nation of Islam, had dramatically changed his views on race during his 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca. Much of America did not know the radical Kingand too few know today, writes Cornell West in his introduction to The Radical King, a collection of lesser-known speeches and writings. But the FBI and US government did. They called him the most dangerous man in America. Malcolm Xs extremely harsh criticism of King as a 20th-century or modern Uncle Tom is even more unfair and unwarranted against this background, especially given the title of Kings final, undelivered, sermon: Why America May Go to Hell. In the years after Xs death, King fought for labor rights and advocated for a better distribution of wealth, writing in 1966, America must move toward democratic socialism. His anti-imperialist, anti-colonial stance alienated many former supporters and enraged the government, but he refused to silence his voice in his quest for unarmed truth and unconditional love, West writes. Maybe Malcolms unrelenting criticisms played a part in Kings radicalization. The video debate aboveactually a 9-minute edit of their interview discussions of each otherbegins with one of Malcolm Xs withering statements about Kings nonviolent resistance, which he characterizes as defenselessness. One can see, given the ad hominem attacks, why King refused requests for a debate. Had it happened, however, it might have gone something like this, with questions focused solely on violence vs. nonviolence as effective and/or morally justifiable tactics for the Civil Rights struggle. The nuances and sickening historical ironies of the question get lost when disagreement is staged as a zero-sum prizefight, as the Rocky theme in the intro not-so-subtly suggests it is. King, X, and virtually every other civil rights leader throughout history, understood the practical importance of self-defense in a violently racist state. Even the pacifist King was a firm advocate of black gun ownership, writes John Merfield at Wisconsin Public Radio, although he, like others, drew a sharp distinction between self-defense, which he saw as legitimate, and political violence, which he called folly. King also staunchly refused to address the question of violence outside the larger question of justice, without which, he said, there could be no peace. Movement leaders like Angela Davis who carried forward the radical, anti-imperialist analysis of both the later King and X would continue to push against the simplistic question of whether violence is justified as a response to brutal oppression. In a famous interview clip above, she demonstrates the absurdity of the idea that people subjected to racial terrorism by the authorities and groups protected by them should have to answer charges of committing political violence. The history of racist killings is a long unbroken line, said Davis more recently during the Ferguson uprising. While Civil Rights leaders of the 20th century may have disagreed about the right response, all of them agreed it had to end immediately if the country is to survive and the promise of true freedom to be realized. Related Content: Watch Malcolm X Debate at Oxford, Quoting Lines from Shakespeares Hamlet (1964) Martin Luther King Jr. Explains the Importance of Jazz: Hear the Speech He Gave at the First Berlin Jazz Festival (1964) Ava DuVernays Selma Is Now Free to Stream Online: Watch the Award-Winning Directors Film About Martin Luther Kings 1965 Voting-Rights March Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness Air Canada (TSX:AC) is expected to resume daily flights from Vancouver to Kamloops by mid-June. The decision is still contingent on demand, which Air Canada is assessing. If the demand isnt consistent enough, Air Canada might pull back on the number of flights. British Colombias third phase of reopening is based upon the transmission rates. If they remain consistently low, the third phase will start in June. Air Canadas daily flights in and out of the province are among the breaths of fresh air residents will get to take in this phase. Though this may not make up for millions that the airline is bleeding out daily because of low international traffic, its still better for the airline than operating at a mere 7% of its total capacity. Even if its just one step back to normalcy, can it mean a permanent shift in the stocks movement? Air Canadas stock is beginning to show some upside since the start of this month. If it really has begun to rally, is it too late to buy? Is there still time? If the stock isnt coming down at all in the near future, then it might be too late to benefit from the lowest valuation that Air Canada offered in this crash. But that doesnt seem likely. The company itself predicted a timeline for the expected recovery: three years. So, the stock will most likely recover in batches. As it did in the previous month, the stock fluctuated around $16. It might dip again in the coming weeks, though not as much as before. And thats if nothing goes amiss in Canadas and international air travels road to recovery. A second wave of the pandemic is the most anticipated villain in this scenario, which can revert the countrys reopening, putting Air Canada back on snooze mode. If that happens, you may see an even lower valuation and a better chance to buy it. Should you buy it? Again, that depends upon your projections of Air Canadas recovery as a company and the airline sectors recovery. But keep in mind that even if Air Canada does recover, it might not show the explosive growth that it did in the three years before the crash. Also, Air Canadas move with issuing bonds and shares means that it has effectively diluted the power of each outstanding share of the company. Story continues This move will have even longer-standing repercussions for Air Canada investors. If you are willing to wait for three to five years, you may buy into Air Canada while its still below $20. Foolish takeaway Air Canada seems better prepared for the long road ahead compared to many other global airlines. But investors will have to bear a heavy toll on this long road to recovery. Even if it cant be said with certainty, its highly likely that if you can bear to wait it out, you may get paid handsomely for sticking with the company. Even if it takes four years to reach $50 a share again, that will result in a 250% growth for investors who buy it at $20 per share now. The post Air Canada (TSX:AC) Flights Restarting: Is it Too Late to Buy? appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada. More reading Fool contributor Adam Othman 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 VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), a Palo Alto, CA-based provider of compute, cloud, mobility, networking and security solutions, is to acquire Lastline, a San Mateo, California-based provider of anti-malware research and AI-powered network detection and response solutions. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Upon close, Lastline will bring threat research from a renowned group of academic cybersecurity researchers. It will enable VMware to further increase the capabilities provided by the VMware Carbon Black Threat Analysis Unit (TAU) with network-centric threat research and behavioral analysis. VMware will add new tools to make security intrinsic across highly distributed, multi-cloud environments connected by a virtual cloud network, enabling any app on any cloud on any device. Founded in 2011, Lastline provides a Network Detection and Response platform, powered by AI, which protects on-premises networks, email, and public cloud workloads from cyber threats, minimizing the risk of a damaging and costly breach that results in the loss of data, customers, and reputation. The companys technology, used by Global 5000 enterprises, was offered directly and through resellers and security service providers, and was integrated into third-party security technologies worldwide. FinSMEs 09/06/2020 Preparations for making protective face masks are underway at household equipment maker Iris Ohyama Inc.'s factory in Kakuda, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan By Naomi Tajitsu, Makiko Yamazaki and Ritsuko Shimizu TOKYO (Reuters) - When Japanese firm Iris Ohyama agreed in April to begin producing much-needed face masks in Japan, it marked a win for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who wants to bring manufacturing back from China. Spooked by coronavirus-induced factory shutdowns in China, Abe's government has earmarked $2 billion to help companies shift production home. The policy, part of a massive stimulus package to cope with the pandemic, has even been termed by some bureaucrats as a matter of national security. "We have become dependent on China," Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters last week. "We need to make supply chains more robust and diverse, broadening our supply sources and increasing domestic production." Japanese production of masks, for which domestic demand has skyrocketed, makes sense. But Iris Ohyama, which until this month had only made face masks in China, is so far the only large firm known to be taking advantage of the subsidies. Many other Japanese firms say shifting output back home is simply impractical and uneconomical. They need to be physically present in China because much of what they are making is ultimately for the Chinese consumer, and to meet the demands of 'just-in-time' production which prioritises short delivery times for efficient manufacturing. "The parts we make are so big that we need to be near our customers to control our costs," said Chikara Haruta, a spokesman at Yorozu Corp <7294.T>, which makes suspension and other auto components. Its plant in Wuhan, China is located just seven kilometres from a Honda Motor Co Ltd <7267.T> assembly factory. For Japan's car makers, reliance on Chinese suppliers in the world's biggest auto market is also just good business. "Even if we wanted to, it would be difficult to lower our exposure to China-made parts," an executive at a Japanese automaker told Reuters, declining to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media. Story continues He added that over the past decade, Chinese suppliers had upped their game and now provide a vast range of quality, low-cost parts. Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T>, Nissan Motor Co Ltd <7201.T> and Honda also have at least three R&D centres each in China, and their suppliers are following suit. "Where the software is developed dictates where the hardware is developed and made," said an official at a Japanese parts supplier, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The new government incentive is misguided if it only focuses on bringing manufacturing back, while overlooking R&D functions." OVERLY DEPENDENT? Japanese politicians have increasingly fretted over Japan's dependence on China as a production hub. Since the early 2000s as Chinese labour costs rose, there has been talk of a "China Plus One" strategy a policy of managing risk by locating plants and facilities in China and one other Asian nation. It gained more traction in 2012 when bilateral tensions flared and many Japanese firms have sought to diversify with operations in Southeast Asia. The near total shutdown of China's factories in February as the world's No. 2 economy sought to stamp out the coronavirus has, however, rammed Japan's China dependence home. The government's 220 billion yen ($2 billion) allocation is the first time it has offered subsidies for bringing back manufacturing. It is also offering 23.5 billion yen to Japanese firms to strengthen and diversify supply chains in Southeast Asia. Japanese firms had at least 7,400 affiliates in China as of March 2018, according to a trade ministry survey, up 60% from 2008. In the same year, Japanese manufacturing affiliates in China sold $252 billion in goods, with 73% of that sold in China and 17% exported back home, a separate survey by the ministry shows. For a graphic on Japanese companies in China, please click https://tmsnrt.rs/2Ubu7aP CHOOSING CHINA Electronics makers too say they would struggle to sever ties with China's supply chains. Nidec Corp <6594.T>, which produces motors for electronic goods, even said in April it needed to improve its supply chain in China. It was unable to procure supplies of a basic part this year which it had believed was sourced locally but was in fact being shipped from Europe. "We need to strengthen sourcing capabilities at our Chinese plants. We should be producing these sorts of parts in-house," CEO Shigenobu Nagamori told reporters. Japan Display Inc <6740.T> and chipmaker Rohm Co Ltd <6963.T> say potential shifts to full automation for labour-intensive back-end processes done overseas could lead to new assembly lines being built at home where more advanced manufacturing takes place. But for many others, China remains the cheaper option. Display panel and television maker Sharp Corp <6753.T> produces ultra-thin panel cells in Japan, which are shipped to China where backlights, connectors and other parts are added - a process that requires constant manual testing and machinery adjustments. "The back-end process has long been done in China because it's labour intensive," said a spokesman at Sharp, which was acquired by Taiwan's Foxconn <2317.TW> in 2016. "It would be expensive to bring it back home." (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu, Ritsuko Shimizu and Makiko Yamazaki; Additional reporting by Maki Shiraki, Tetsushi Kajimoto and Linda Sieg; Editing by David Dolan and Edwina Gibbs) When people hear the word theme park one of the first images and associations that comes up is Disneyland. This set of corporate parks is the largest in the world and with attractions that feature beloved films, it's no surprise that kids and adults alike are excited for a chance to visit the various Disney-themed parks located around the world. There are, however, other theme and amusement parks outside of the Mickey Mouse umbrella, some of which are much more affordable, and many of which offer their own impressive set of rides and attractions. This list will run down 10 amusement parks to visit besides Disney. 10. Fun Spot America Fun Spot America. Image credit: Pat McGinley/Shutterstock.com Starting off the list is the eminently affordable Fun Spot America, a group with two parks in Florida's cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. This family-owned business has a long history in the industry and unlike many other parks offers free admission and a pay as you ride system. 9. Dollywood Park Dollywood theme park in the city of Pigeon Forge. Image credit: Michael Gordon/Shutterstock.com Another choice for Disney-adverse theme park goers is the Dollywood Park, owned by country music legend Dolly Parton. In addition to its assortment of rides it offers the natural beauty of its Smoky Mountains and an array of delicious recipes and memorable performances. 8. Knoebels Amusement Resort Visitors ride the giant Ferris wheel at Knoebels Amusement Resort on a hot summer afternoon. Image credit: John M. Chase/Shutterstock.com Knoebels Amusement Resort is similar to Fun Spot insofar as it has a free admission pay to ride model. Where it differs is that it boasts a larger selection of rides and is located in Central Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River Valley. 7. Adventureland Image credit: Martin Lewison/Flickr.com Another affordable amusement park option is the New York situated Adventureland. Located specifically in East Farmingdale, Adventureland has been Long Island's main theme park since 1962. It offers a total of thirty rides, only two of which are roller coasters. 6. Land of Make Believe Land of Make Believe. Image credit: mommypoppins.com This park is more geared towards families and children under 13 of ages, with many rides designed specifically to allow parents to participate with their kids. It opened in 1954 in the Hope Township of New Jersey. Very few of its rides are extreme, so thrillseekers best steer clear. 5. Story Land Cinderella's Castle, Story Land theme park in Glen. Image credit: Wikimedia.org Story Land is like the Land of Make Believe both in naming convention and in its focus on preteen and below aged children. It is located in Glen, New Hampshire, and opened in 1954 and offers events like the Nostalgia night where guests are encouraged to recreate childhood memories in the park. 4. Adventuredome Adventure dome amusement park. It has The world's largest indoor double-loop, double-corkscrew roller coaster. Image credit: Maria Maarbes/Shutterstock.com The Nevada, Las Vegas-located Adventuredome is an entirely indoors amusement park found in the Circus Circus hotel. It's connected to this building via a large glass dome and offers 25 different rides and attractions. As an advantage of being located indoors, it can run all year long. 3. Six Flags St. Louis Six Flags St. Louis. Image credit: Jeremy Thompson/Flickr.com Six Flags St. Louis, is the Missouri branch of the well known Six Flags chain of parks. In lieu of Disney characters, it features characters from Looney Tunes, DC Comics, and more. It's also a rather large park with eight distinct themed areas. 2. Nickelodeon Universe Visitors explore Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America. Image credit: Megan M. Weber/Shutterstock.com Nickelodeon Universe is the name of two indoor amusement parks, one located the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the other in East Rutherford, New Jersey. As the name suggests the parks feature attractions based on Nickelodeon's popular franchises. 1. Silverwood Theme Park Silverwood Theme Park. Image credit: Greg Salter/Wikimedia.org The last park on our list is Silverwood Theme Park, located in Athol, Idaho, America. Originally opened in 1988, the park has since its inception grown from a small local park to a regional theme park destination that boasts over 70 rides, slides, shows, and attractions. This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy. Left completely to his own devices, President Donald Trump apparently sees no problem with deploying U.S. military forces to American streets even when theres no need for such intervention. The president reportedly wanted to deploy 10,000 troops just last week in the face of nationwide protests over racial injustice even though no state requested such assistance. But thats not the only scenario worrying many close observers. Other potential situations include the presidents invoking emergency powers to put boots on the ground to suppress voting in the November election or to quell mass protests if he disputes the outcome. Advertisement Indeed, many of the former senior officials who have recently spoken out against misuse of the military for political purposes are keenly aware of these looming threats to the country. Some of them accordingly directed their criticisms toward Defense Secretary Mark Esper as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whats not so keenly or widely understood is if the president were to deploy the U.S. military in the name of quelling civil disturbances, the Cabinet member who would have lead responsibility for those military operations would not be the secretary of defense. It would be the attorney general. Thats according to internal government policies that long predate the Trump administration. Ordinarily, the subordination of the military to the attorney general serves a valuable purpose. It reflects the constitutional commitment to civilian oversight of the military, which is especially important when it comes to use of military force against Americans on domestic soil. And it recognizes that, when the military is exercising a law enforcement function, its activities are better coordinated by the countrys top law enforcement officer than by its top soldiers. That said, formal institutional arrangements are by no means failsafe. A lot turns on the character of the particular individuals who lead those institutions. In this hypothetical case, a lot would turn on the character of William Barrthe same attorney general who mobilized and centralized an unprecedented amount of federal law enforcement personnel to respond to protests in Washington, and who has repeatedly changed his story about what happened in Lafayette Square and has sought to minimize the actions taken against those protesters Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the balance of this brief essay, we describe the current institutional arrangements that imbue the attorney general with such untold power and the window of opportunity for altering this setup. Some of the most relevant executive branch documents on this topic are publicly available but not widely read. The basic architecture is that the president would need to formally invoke the Insurrection Act by issuing a formal proclamation authorizing military operations to address a civil disturbance. The Department of Defense has for years developed implementing regulations for such contingencies. The set of rules expressly commits the military not to supplant but to support civilian authorities, which, in turn, means serving the Justice Department. The Pentagons governing Instruction 3025.21 states that the attorney general will have responsibility for the management and coordination of the federal response: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Any employment of Federal military forces in support of law enforcement operations shall maintain the primacy of civilian authority and unless otherwise directed by the President, responsibility for the management of the Federal response to civil disturbances rests with the Attorney General. The Attorney General is responsible for receiving State requests for Federal military assistance, coordinating such requests with the Secretary of Defense and other appropriate Federal officials, and presenting such requests to the President who will determine what Federal action will be taken. Advertisement Advertisement A complete account of how the executive branch contemplates the role of the attorney general is not publicly available. U.S. Northern Commands CONPLAN 3502 for civil disturbance operations is a potentially key document, but the Obama administration denied a Freedom of Information Act request to release it in 2015. A 1978 U.S. Army document, released to the public in 2009, describes in more detail the authorities that the attorney general could exercise over civil disturbance operations: Advertisement Advertisement Department of Justice (DOJ) (a) The Attorney General is the chief civilian official in charge of coordinating all Federal Government activities relating to civil disturbances. (b) The Attorney General: 1. Provides all early warning and all threat information to support civil disturbance planning. 2. Receives and coordinates preliminary requests from States for commitment of Federal military forces in cases of civil disturbance 3. Provides advice and support as required to carry out the provisions of Executive Orders. 4. Designates a senior civilian representative to be located in each city where Federal forces are committed. 5. Obtains informal approval of the President for the prepositioning of more than a battalion sized unit (approximately 500 men) in anticipation of commitment to civil disturbance operations. (After informal approval, actual prepositioning will be on order of the Secretary of Defense.) Advertisement Advertisement More recent U.S. Army documents similarly state: The DOJ coordinates the federal response to domestic civil disturbances. DOD supports DOJ in these efforts when requested and in accordance with Rules of the Use of Force (RUF) approved by the DOD General Counsel and the Attorney General. This subordination is also reflected in Pentagon plans to establish a joint task force headquarters near wherever the attorney generals local representative is based, and the JTF commander then coordinates all DOD support to the DOJ with the Senior Civilian Representative of the Attorney General. According to the U.S. Army Field Manual on Civil Disturbance Operations, Requests for specific military missions are typically passed through a single state or federal law enforcement coordinating officer, as approved by the SCRAG. Validated requests are transmitted to the JTF commander (see also U.S. Army Military Police School training tools). Advertisement Advertisement Important historical examples show the primary role that the attorney general may exercise in such domestic military operations. Professor Mark Nevitt told us, The attorney general has broad authorities to manage the federal law enforcement responseto include coordinating the use of federal military forcesunder the militarys implementation of the Insurrection Act. Robert F. Kennedy, for example, played a critical role when he was the attorney general in managing the federal response under the Insurrection Act during his brothers presidency. Advertisement Advertisement The most recent invocation of the Insurrection Act is also instructive. In 1992, President George H.W. Bushs executive order deploying troops to quell rioting in Los Angeles assigned a lead role to the attorney general (who at the time was none other than William Barr). One can safely assume Barr would seek at a minimum the same, if not greater, authorities for himself were the act to be invoked on his (second) watch. The 1992 executive order stipulated: Advertisement Section 2 In carrying out the provisions of this order, the Secretary of Defense shall observe such law enforcement policies as the Attorney General may determine. Sec. 3. Until such time as the Armed Forces shall have been withdrawn pursuant to section 4 of this order, the Attorney General is further authorized (1) to coordinate the activities of all Federal agencies assisting in the suppression of violence and in the administration of justice in and about the City and County of Los Angeles, and other districts of California, and (2) to coordinate the activities of all such agencies with those of State and local agencies similarly engaged. That said, the 1992 order also gave the defense secretary the authority to determine when federal military forces shall be withdrawn from the disturbance area (after taking into account any recommendation by the attorney general concerning the capabilities of state and local authorities). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One lesson is clear: Under current law, the decision over the allocation of these authorities ultimately rests with the president. There is good reason to be concerned about how Barr would personally exercise the power that could be handed to him in the name of quelling domestic disturbances. The infamous operation to forcibly clear protesters in Lafayette Square to achieve a photo-op for Trump was ordered by the attorney general (who keeps changing his story about the details). That does not bode well for our future. More generally, although there is good reason to give primary authority to the attorney general over the secretary of defense in such circumstances, there is the more general concern about giving so much authority to a single political appointee, whatever their title. Advertisement So what then would be a more advisable distribution of authorities? One could of course advocate for stripping the office of the attorney general of the assigned authorities in civil disturbance operations carried out by the military. But that approach runs up against the principles served by the current arrangement: civilian oversight of the military supplemented by a layer of civilian authorities control when using force domestically. A far better approach, it seems to us, is to diffuse the responsibilities of civilian authorities vertically and horizontally. Vertical diffusion could come through assigning a role to specific units within the Justice Department that empower career professionals. Horizontal diffusion could come through the involvement of additional departments and agenciessuch as FEMAin these kinds of crisis response scenarios. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Who could effectuate these kinds of reforms? The secretary of defense could adopt superseding instructions for the military. For its part, the White House could draft the language of any executive order appropriately. As an example, President George H.W. Bush invoked the Insurrection Act to address civil unrest in the Virgin Islands after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. That executive order put the secretary of defense in the lead without the language Bush used three years later in giving the attorney general stewardship over the L.A. riots. And, as part of the emerging discussions in Congress over reforms to the Insurrection Act itself, Congress could take more of a role in setting out by statute the relevant responsibilities of different actors when the act is properly invoked. Trump may have backed down, for now, from deploying troops to police the protests that sprung up in response to the killing of George Floyd. But his deescalation may have a lot to do with wanting to avoid taking full responsibility for management of the situation in case it went badly. When it comes to invoking the Insurrection Act in other circumstances, that disincentive may not apply. On the contrary, the underlying motiveTrump looking out for Trumpmay rush the White House once again toward a misuse of the military for political purposes, with a willing attorney general at the presidents side. The more people who care about the rule of law and democratic freedoms understand the threats involved in the current structure of authority for handling domestic disturbances, the more likely we are to avoid a disastrous outcome. More From Just Security: Yes, Congress, There Is Something You Can Do About Reckless Arms Sales Four Remarkable Arguments in DOJs Latest Brief in the Michael Flynn Case A Circuit Court in Kumasi has sentenced a 26-year old man who inflicted deep wounds on his three-year-old son to 24 months imprisonment. The court also asked the convict to sign a bond of good behaviour for four years. The court, presided over by Her Honour Patricia Amponsah while reading out the ruling said the accused person, Ebenezer Osei Bonsu showed remorse. She said the court considered his age and also his responsibility in bringing up his son. Lawyer for the convict, Amofa Kodua, speaking to journalists after the ruling said he was grateful that his client received such a lenient punishment. We can only be grateful because the facts were against us, so we were only praying that the judge will have pity on us and also take into consideration the fact that he still needs to cater for the child. So we are grateful to the court for dealing, supposedly, lenient with us. We would have wanted that he be cautioned and bonded to be of good behaviour, but causing harm, you know the repercussions so if the Lady Judge has dealt leniently with us like this, we can only be grateful to God that he answered our prayers. Meanwhile the Mother of the three-year-old, Barbara Obeng says even though the family expected him to get more years, they are satisfied with the ruling. Whatever the court said is okay for me and I will take it. My only desire now is to go back to school so that I can take very good care of myself and my son. That is my only desire and it will make me very happy, so I need help. The wounds have healed so, for now, he [three-year-old son] is fine. I thought the years would have been more than what he got but it is okay. Ebenezer Osei Bonsu, Father of three-year-old The convict, Ebenezer Nana Bonsu, who had a truncated relationship with the boy's mother, claims the victim damaged his phone and urinated on his bed. The boy lived with his mum until in April when she took him to spend time with his father and also celebrate his 3rd birthday. The constant abuse the boy suffered in the hands of his father pushed a neighbour to alert his mother who came immediately to pick up her child. She and other neighbours were shocked to see what the man had done to the little boy. The man was arrested while the little boy was taken to the Manhyia Hospital in Kumasi where he is currently receiving treatment. He was arraigned before a court in Kumasi on Thursday, May 14, 2020, and subsequently granted bail by the presiding judge , Patricia Amponsah, to the tune of GH50,000 with three sureties to be justified on the grounds of COVID-19. However, he failed to meet the terms of the bail. The family of the convict later pleaded for an out of court settlement, but the offer was rejected by the Mother of the three-year-old boy and her family. Barbara Obeng speaking to Citi News after the baby was discharged from the hospital insisted she will not accept the request for an out of court settlement on the matter. For his family, they wanted us to settle it in the house, but my Mom, my Dad and I personally don't want it settled that way so I want the court to deliver justice. He (Baby) cannot lay down on his back and he can't even walk well but he is ok for now. He can talk and move around a little bit but every night he cries that his back hurts and that he can't sleep. ---citinewsroom (Newser) Chicago has logged its deadliest day in modern history, with 18 murders on May 31. "A hardworking father killed just before 1am. A West Side high school student murdered two hours later. A man killed amid South Side looting at a cellphone store at 12:30pm," begins a report from the Chicago Sun-Times. Also killed was Keishanay Bolden, an 18-year-old student at Western Illinois University who was studying law enforcement and justice in the hope of becoming a correctional officer, per Fox News. "We've never seen anything like it, at all," Max Kapustin, the senior research director at the University of Chicago Crime Lab, tells the Sun-Times. It was a brutal weekend, with 25 people killed from 7pm on May 29 to 11pm on May 31. Another 85 people were injured by gunfire in that time. story continues below The Crime Lab, with data stretching back to 1961, found the next highest single-day murder total came on Aug. 4, 1991, when 13 people were killed. Rev. Michael Pfleger, a social activist, suggested a lack of police during protests over the death of George Floyd allowed violence to escalate, per the Sun-Times. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said 65,000 911 calls, or about 50,000 more than normal, were logged on May 31. An 18-year-old who was shot as she waited in line outside a store said "nobody answered" her call, per the Sun-Times. Police spokesman Thomas Ahern described an "unprecedented" level of activity. However, he said the department was "actively working to seek justice for all the residents impacted," per the New York Post. (Another 10 people were killed in Chicago on Memorial Day weekend.) In an attempt to improve business sentiment in India, the central government has initiated a process for decriminalising several acts that are currently listed as economic offences punishable with a jail term, fine, or both. The Centre has sought opinions from stakeholders like state government and public on proposals to amend 19 acts of Parliament which if legislated may, for example, make bouncing of bank cheque a non-criminal act. The move will speed up the economic revival process and encourage businesses, the government said. There are growing concerns in the government that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic distress there might be a surge in financial failures, which under current rules can get treated as frauds. These proposals include amending the Negotiable Instrument Act which covers the dishonouring of a cheque or in simple terms cheque bouncing. The Finance Ministry on Monday issued a "Statement of Reasons" for proposing a change even to the offences (as per current law) committed by any individual under various sections of Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act and beside others. The acts which are set to witness changes if there is a consensus include the RBI Act, NABARD Act, SARFAESI Act, Insurance Act, PFRDA Act, and Payments and Settlements Systems Act. To get the opinion of all stakeholders, Finance Ministry's Department of Financial Services, or Banking Department, has asked state governments, UT administrations, civil society, non-government organisations, academicians, public and private sector organisations, multilateral institutions, and members of the public to send their views and comments by June 23. The central government will study the opinions and finalise the rules. Also Read: Coronavirus lockdown: EPFO settles 36 lakh withdrawal claims worth Rs 11,540 crore in April-May As per the current law, anyone accused of issuing a cheque that's dishonoured or runs an unregulated deposit scheme that goes insolvent has to face imprisonment or fine or both. The government proposes to decriminalise such offences. The government proposes to bring in a method of compounding in which an accused person would have to pay a penalty and matter will end there. The suggestion is that the element of criminality needs to be decided by a court while a compounding penalty can be determined by an adjudicating office with quasi-judicial powers. The Ministry of Finance says, "Decriminalisation of minor offences is one of the thrust areas of the Government. The risk of imprisonment for actions or omissions that aren't necessarily fraudulent or the outcome of mala fide intent is a big hurdle in attracting investments. The ensuing uncertainty in legal processes and the time taken for resolution in the courts hurt ease of doing business." Also Read: India Inc. set to spend entire CSR budget on coronavirus; no space for other causes Speaking to India Today TV, a senior Finance Ministry official said, "Criminal penalties, including imprisonment for minor offences act as deterrents, and this is perceived as one of the major reasons impacting business sentiment and hindering investments, both from domestic and foreign investors. This becomes even more pertinent in the post COVID-19 response strategy to help revive economic growth and improve the justice system." The government assessment is that such offences entail a long legal journey choking up various tiers of the judicial system with little financial gains. The government, however, doesn't want to make things easier for those with mala fide intent. This is why the finance ministry proposal pushes for a balance under which mala fide intent may face punishment and less serious offences would be merely compounded. The legal framework proposed by the government plans to create sufficient penalties which may act as a deterrent. The Finance Ministry has suggested five main principles for reclassification of criminal offences to compoundable offences, which include decrease in the burden on businesses, inspire confidence among investors, and evaluate nature of non-compliance, i.e. fraud as compared to negligence or inadvertent omission, and the habitual nature of non-compliance before fixing criminal liability. Key offences for decriminalisation include cheque bounce in case of insufficient funds. The Section 138 of Negotiable Instrument Act identifies this is an offence and prescribes imprisonment for a term which may be extended to 2 years, or fine which may extend to twice the amount of the cheque, or both. Under the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019, six sections - 21(1), 21(2), 21(3), 22, 23 and 24 - prescribe punishment for contravention of provisions dealing with Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes, Fraudulent default in Regulated Deposit Schemes and Wrongful inducement in relation to Unregulated Deposit Schemes. Once any of the charges under these provisions are proved, terms of imprisonment ranges between 1-10 years and fine between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 50 crore. Under the Chit Fund Act, 3 sections list the violations and prescribe a jail term up to 2 years with or without fine up to Rs 5,000. Violation of sections of RBI Act in seeking deposits without authorisation or avoiding registration invites an imprisonment between 1-5 years with fine as high as Rs 25 lakh. Through the statement of reasons the government is looking to create a legal matrix where a penalty is the deterrent. In other terms, incarceration may get rare and penalty common. The VAs 2-month-long precautionary pause in burial ceremonies to prevent transmission of coronavirus will end Tuesday morning with a single service at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. Fort Sam began deferring so called committal services and military funeral honors March 23, but the Department of Veterans Affairs said the ceremonies now can resume with restrictions. The VA said cemetery staff across the country will reach out to families that could not hold a committal service to let them schedule the ceremonies starting in July. Services that had been scheduled for this month will proceed as planned. Tuesdays service, for the spouse of a veteran, Effie Brown, 87, will begin at 9 a.m. She will be laid to rest at Shelter No. 3. Other services are expected to follow later in the week. During the last 10 weeks VA national cemeteries have continued performing our essential mission to inter veterans and eligible family members, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said in a prepared statement. We believe we have a robust set of measures in place that will allow us to conduct committal and memorial services while protecting the health and safety of Veterans, their families and our team members who serve them. On ExpressNews.com: Coronavirus threat to end military burial honors at San Antonios Fort Sam The last burials with military honors at Fort Sam as the pandemic swiftly upended civic routines was March 20. Direct burials, in which deceased veterans and their spouses were laid to raise without a ceremony, with family in attendance limited to 10 people, began the following week. The decision applied only to the 142 VA cemeteries across the United States and in Puerto Rico, and not to burials in private cemeteries. We are pleased to resume committal services and military funeral honors at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, the cemeterys director, Aubrey David, said Monday. We will also soon be contacting families who chose direct interments to schedule memorial services and military funeral honors, if desired. The committal services will not be quite like the ones prior to coronavirus. VA cemeteries will continue to adhere to CDC guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by limiting the number of people attending services to 10. Cemetery employees, funeral home personnel and military honor guards will not count toward the limit. The cemeteries also will impose physical distancing between individuals not from the same household, and require that their workers and those attending wear masks. Those at the services will be encouraged to use hand sanitizer frequently and anyone who is sick is asked to stay home. Families can still request direct burials and have a memorial service later, when restrictions have been lifted. Final honors for veterans include the firing of three rifle volleys and the playing of Taps, with a service detail folding the flag that draped the casket and presenting it to the family of the deceased. Those services have been integral part of the rhythm of life at Fort Sam, where rifle volleys shake the air every hour on the weekdays. The only time I can remember a cemetery being closed was when we had a hurricane in Houston, and that was only a day, David, the cemetery director, recalled after the pause was announced. On ExpressNews.com: Funerals in coronavirus era are quiet and quick at San Antonios Fort Sam National Cemetery Typically, an average of 16 veterans or family members a day are buried at Fort Sam, one of the nations busiest veterans cemeteries. Its the ninth-largest with more than 160,000 people buried there. Family members were allowed to witness interments at direct burials after committal services ended, but in many cases veterans were buried alone, with no one on hand other than cemetery workers. In one case a little more than a month ago, a handful of family members drove up the road, parked and rolled down their windows as a casket containing the remains of Robert Brent Flournoy was lowered into the concrete-lined Grave No. 30, Section No. 125. There was no priest to say a prayer. Villarreals widow, Josefa Zatarain-Flournoy, sat in the back seat of a car sobbing as she shot video of the casket being slowly lowered into the grave. He was my best friend, she said, he was my soulmate. 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 The Police in Enugu State have arrested 22 suspects involved in offences ranging from conspiracy, armed robbery, unlawful possession of firearms, stealing and cultism within the month of May. The command also recovered one berretta pistol, eight locally-made firearms, nine rounds of live ammunition, one live cartridge, one motorcycle, 12 handsets, two axes, one dagger, three knives, one laptop, N6,000 and other miscellaneous items. The Commands Public Relations Officer, Daniel Ndukwe, said on Tuesday in Enugu that the Commissioner of Police commended the efforts of police operatives and supports received from security stakeholders that made the breakthroughs possible. Mr Ndukwe, an assistant superintendent of police, said that a report was made at Igbo-Eze North Police Station on May 15, at about 11a.m. that unknown hoodlums burgled a house at Enugu-Ezike in Nsukka axis and carted away a motorcycle and other unconfirmed valuables. The police spokesman said that police operatives of the station on May 25, at about 2.30p.m. arrested Ejike Ali, 26; Ogili Sunday, 25; and Ukaonu Odoh, 32, said to have received the stolen motorcycle. One locally-made single barrel gun, one axe and the motorcycle were recovered. Preliminary investigation shows that the suspects confessed to the crime, while further investigation is being conducted by a combined team of Operatives attached to Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The further investigation led to the arrest of Festus Onu, 19; Ogbu Onyeka, 25 and Aji Ikechukwu, alleged to have received another stolen motorcycle. Further investigation is ongoing at SARS, Enugu, he said. More arrests Mr Ndukwe noted that following complaint received on May 29 at about 12.30 a.m. from a victim who alleged he was robbed of N6,000 by some armed men at Obollo-Afor, operatives assisted by Neighbourhood Watch Group, arrested Agboeze Chukwuebuka, 25, while others escaped. Two locally-made pistols and the sum of N6,000 were recovered from him. Preliminary investigation reveals that the suspect confessed to the crime and is assisting the Police in ongoing investigation at SARS, Enugu, he said. He said that on May 31, at about 7.22 a.m., Eze Ifeanyi and Emeka Okafor, both of Ebonyi State, were arrested by police operatives attached to Amechi-Idodo Police Station while on COVID-19 enforcement duty at Enugu/Ebonyi States border security post. Preliminary investigation shows that the suspects were intercepted en-route Ebonyi State from Enugu on a Suzuki Jaguar motorcycle with Registration number AFK 865 QU. Following a search conducted on them, one locally-made revolver pistol with five rounds of live ammunition and two mobile phones were recovered. Discreet investigation is ongoing at the State CID, he said. The police spokesman said that on May 10, at about 9.30 a.m., Isiala Salifu, 20; Agbo Gerald, 29; Oneze Chinecherem, 20 and Onah Chinedu were arrested by operatives of the Commands Anti-Cultism Unit. He said the arrests were done with the assistance of the Neighbourhood Watch Group of Umuakashi Nsukka in a bush in the area. He said the arrest of the suspects followed intelligence gathered that a group of cultists were planning to carry out cult initiation. Preliminary investigation shows that the suspects confessed to being members of Black Axe Confraternity and that they contributed money to procure arms and other weapons used in executing cult activities. One locally-made single barrel pistol with one live cartridge and one axe were recovered from them. Discreet investigation is ongoing at the Unit, he said. The police spokesman said the commissioner of police had charged Tactical/Operational officers and men of the command not to rest on their oars in ridding the state of crimes and criminality, especially in these times of COVID-19. Residents have been enjoined to remain law-abiding, vigilant and promptly report suspected criminals and acts of criminality to the nearest police station. Residents can call the commands emergency hotlines on: 08032003702, 08086671202, 08075390883 or 08098880172, he said. (NAN) Advertisements The likely purchase of Israeli operator Golan Telecom by Cellcom has come a step closer with news that the countrys Ministry of Finance sees no reason to oppose Cellcoms acquisition of its rival. Both Reuters and regional media suggest that this development, confirmed in a letter from the ministrys budget department, means that the acquisition can go ahead, subject to approval from the Israel Competition Authority. The Ministry of Communications (MoC) and the Israel Competition Authority were the recipients of the letter in which the finance ministry concluded that the mergers impact on the level of competition, prices and the amount of investments in the market did not raise enough concerns for the ministry to oppose the request. The letter also remarked on the multiplicity and variety of players in the mobile telephony market. That certainly seems like a reasonable assertion. There is a highly competitive mobile sector in Israel, with six mobile operators, four of which claim over a million mobile connections, and a number of MVNOs. The country now boasts over 100 per cent mobile penetration (Israels population is about 9.2 million). Golan Telecom is the fifth-largest operator with about 849,000 connections, behind Altices Hot Mobile, Bezeqs Pelephone, Partner and Cellcom. Cellcom will take a commanding lead in the market if it absorbs all of Golans customers, though there has been much speculation that more consolidation is on the way in Israels mobile market. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-10 03:03:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close VILNIUS, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's parliament approved on Tuesday President Gitanas Nauseda's proposal on one-off benefits to children to reduce the impacts of the COVID-19. The proposal was supported by 101 MPs, while three MPs voted against and four MPs abstained. According to the press release by the parliament, low-income and large families and those raising children with disabilities will get a one-off payment of 200 euros per child, while all the other ones with children will be paid 120 euros per child. Total of 507,000 children or 330,000 families can get a one-off payment of 120 euros, whereas 134,000 children or 60,000 families could claim 200 euros. The money is to be transferred by July 31. Simonas Krepsta, the chief adviser to the president, estimated that 72 million euros will be needed to implement the proposal, which will be covered by borrowed funds. According to Krepsta, the bill will improve the financial situation of families with children and increase the positive expectations of the population, thus promoting domestic consumption and having a positive impact on the country's economy during the emergency. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars) Enditem The body of a 20-year-old woman allegedly murdered by her brother had been lying inside the home they shared for several days. Gabby Delaney, 20, was found dead inside the home on Barlow Street, at Cambridge Park in western Sydney, on Monday, but police say she was last seen alive on June 3. Officers had been called to check on her welfare by her parents, who live in Western Australia and had made a number of failed attempts to contact her. Ms Delaney's brother Lucas, 30, was arrested at Westmead Hospital on Tuesday and is currently being interviewed by police. Police are yet to establish a cause of death, with that operation made difficult by the length of time Ms Delaney's body lay inside the home. Detective Inspector Jason Pietruszka admitted it was a 'confronting' crime scene for those police who attended. Gabby Delaney, 20, was found dead inside her home at Cambridge Park, in Sydney's west, on Monday night. Her brother has been arrested over her death Gabby's brother Lucas, 30, has arrested over her death and is being questioned at Parramatta Police Station Detective Inspector Jason Pietruszka admitted it was a 'confronting' crime scene for those police who attended. Shocked neighbours in the quiet residential street said they had no idea something horrible had happened until noticing a number of police cars parked outside. It is believed the alleged murder was domestic-violence related. 'Domestic violence is a horrendous crime that is a scourge on our community,' Detective Inspector Pietruszka said. 'It's tragic a 20-year-old girl who's life was before her, cut short.' Forensic detectives and the homicide squad spent the morning at the 'confronting' scene assisting local officers in their investigations. A couch - believed to have been stained with blood - was removed from the home and taken away with other evidence. Ms Delaney studied art at Western Sydney university and documented the process of making her artworks on YouTube. Nextdoor neighbour Brittney Hotchkiss, who is the same age as Ms Delaney, said she was shocked to find out the news about what allegedly happened to her friend. 'She was really nice and she was just so young. She was my age and I just couldn't imagine what her family's going through,' Ms Hotchkiss said. 'I'm pretty freaked out. It was right nextdoor so that's a bit scary.' Neighbour Paris Stammers, 22, described Ms Delaney as a 'friendly, nice girl'. 'It's so close to home, she's so young,' she said. Other neighbours in the quiet residential street said they had no idea something horrible had happened until police cars parked outside. Gabby Delaney's parents, who live in Western Australia, asked police to conduct a welfare check after making several failed attempts to contact her Gabby Delaney may been dead for several days before he body was found. Police have taken a a couch away with other evidence Nextdoor neighbour Brittney Hotchkiss (left), who is the same age as Ms Delaney, said she was shocked to find out the news about what allegedly happened to her friend. Neighbour Paris Stammers described Gabby Delaney (pictured) as a 'friendly, nice girl' Police remove evidence bags from the home - at the end of a cul-de-sac - on Tuesday morning 'You kind of say hello to people in passing, but there's a lot of coming and going so it's a bit hard to tell who lives there and who is just visiting,' one man said. 'The only thing my daughter said over the weekend was that it was a bit quiet, they normally have a few parties or that kind of thing. 'We didn't realise anything was up until my wife walked out to put the bins out and saw the police cars. 'Next minute there was police everywhere, an ambulance, it was all happening.' Homicide detectives were on the scene assisting local officers and will continue to help in the investigation. The small cul-de-sac in which the home is located was taped off by police. Police carry out forensic work on cars outside the home shared by the brother and sister New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who complained of fever and cough, has been tested for coronavirus on Tuesday. His test reports are expected to come by Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had on Monday said, "Kejriwal is unwell. He is suffering from fever, cough, and sore throat. He has isolated himself at home and is not taking part in any meeting." After Kejriwal gave his sample, it was sent for testing on Tuesday morning. Kejriwal did not take part in any meeting or did not meet anyone on Monday. He was last seen in a video conference on Sunday where he announced that the Delhi government hospitals would be reserved only for the residents of the national capital. Before this, CM Kejriwal had chaired a cabinet meeting on Sunday, which was attended by Manish Sisodia, Gopal Rai, Satyendar Jain among others. Chief Secretary Vijay Dev had also participated in the meet. After Kejriwal fell sick, he cancelled all his programs and did not meet anyone. On Tuesday, a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management committee was held, which was not attended by CM Kejriwal. The meeting was called to discuss further course of action to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in Delhi. The meeting also deliberated if there is a community transmission of the virus. Delhi has a total of 29,943 corona cases out of which 11,357 patients have been cured and discharged. A total of 17,712 patients are currently undergoing treatment for coronavirus in the national capital. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 19:19:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- China-developed BeiDou navigation technology has made agricultural production smarter and more precise. Nanjing Agricultural University has developed the BeiDou-tech-supported unmanned wheat seeding and harvesting technology, empowering agricultural production with advanced navigation technology, according to the university. The new wheat production technology is a significant part of smart wheat production technology, according to Tian Yongchao, deputy director with the smart agriculture institute of Nanjing Agricultural University. The smart wheat production technology integrates BeiDou navigation technology, information technology and agricultural engineering into the whole process of wheat production. BeiDou navigation technology, multi-dimensional sensing technology, unmanned vehicles and Internet of Things contribute comprehensive data to the production, said Tian. The services provided by the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) have been used in various fields including transportation, agriculture, fishing, disaster reduction and relief. Enditem At a time when apocalyptic news has overtaken our lives our tradition, heritage and roots in the form of our classical art and craft could have acted as an elixir but unfortunately its the one sector which is most neglected during this pandemic. While India has started unlocking and the government is helping most ailing sectors financially, the art and craft sector and its needs seem to have sunk in oblivion. Many like Sanjoy Roy , MD, teamwork arts well-known for organising the Jaipur Lit fest says that More 400 million Indians receive primary or secondary source of income from the art and cultural sector and because everything is shut down this sector is bleeding as you know for art related daily wage earners if they do not sell their art they do not eat. They do not come under any existing scheme. This sector contributes to the diversity of the country. Jaya Jaitley another well known name in the art and craft sector though says that artists should look at this as an opportunity and try to go online to get as many buyers as possible. Ever since the lockdown has started my whole team was dedicated and we have been calling up 400 artisans across the country and asking feedback. All were well and were proud to be able to live through during this period also by helping other artisans too. I found a lot of positivity in their voices. We did teach them how to go digital and use zoom. They learnt and were also very excited to have known something new. Many in the private sector like Jonathan Kennedy, director arts India British Council says that his organisation is doing all they can to help out the artists especially women artisans in these difficult times. The current situation is really concerning. British Council has together is trying to promote education and growth. We are looking towards the role of British Council with other organisations such as our partnership with craft village at this absolute time of uncertainty. We are also focusing on marketing of arts, artisans and let them reach the global level. British Council is aiming at women empowerment as 50% of the people in this sector are women. Another well- renowned organisation called Craftvillage which works for the promotion of endangered Indian arts, also organised a week long digital dialogue to reach our to as many craftsmen as possible and ensure that their voice reaches the public. Iti Tyagi, the founder of CraftVillage says, I have been doing events for last 3-4 years as the British Council has being encouraging artists to come forward and share creativity. I wondered as to how to bring millions of artists on the forefront during this lockdown. There seemed no ray of hope due to the uncertainty of the situation, hence it became very important for me to think of bringing artists forward and making them comfortable with digital medium. My digital initiative was a test to bring forward people who are not trained to understand technology, people who were not well versed with the digital world Its not just these organisations, the artists themselves are trying to adapt to the new digital medium. Padmashri Shakir Ali, known for Mughal miniature paintings says that During this period going online is the only option to keep ourselves going. At least for a year we will not see any events, exhibitions, tourist visits and hence digital medium will play a vital role in putting forward our creations. But the intricacies of paintings that could have been seen and felt from in person will be affecting while we go online. The clarity of work will be hampered. While some are trying to adapt for others its been a lost opportunity like another miniature artist Nisha Jaiswal who lost an opportunity to exhibit abroad. I had an exhibition in the United States but due to coronavirus it has been cancelled. Though its disappointing, I am keeping myself busy by creating as much art work as I can these days National Awardee Manisha Jha though feels government intervention is the need of the hour. I feel that govt intervention is very important because till now the craft sector has sustained because of govt backing hence I feel our govt needs to really think about hundreds and millions of artisans who are working in this sector. Only govt programme will help taking care of the interest of artists. While many young artists like Bahar Rohatgi have taken to new medium of online sales like Instagram to reach our to a large number of people. Being a fine artist with limited audience took to Instagram directly. Fine arts may not be peoples necessity but i wanted to generate interest in the minds of people. I collaborated with various brands and promoted them as well as my art. It is for sure difficult transition to make since art traditionally needs physical networking and connecting with each other but we need to bring art to a wider zone by digitisation. The coronavirus induced lockdown and the resulting reverse migration of labourers has left several industries in Rajasthan facing a severe manpower crunch, forcing them to lure workers back with a promise of higher wages and better working conditions. The state government has also offered to help in bringing workers back from their home states, provided the industry bears the transportation cost. Labour secretary Niraj K Pawan said, If the industry provides us details of districts from which they want labourers back, we will coordinate with those states and facilitate their transport, he said. Despite the permission to resume operations from May 3, most industries in the state including construction, autos, real estate, MSMEs, textiles and garments are struggling due to the shortage of labourers, who had left for their hometowns in absence of work, income and shelter during the lockdown while gripped by Covid scare. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 NK Jain, FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry), Rajasthan chairman on the subcommittee on MSMEs said there is a 40 per cent shortage of labourers. Only about 70 per cent of industry is functioning and they are completing old orders as there is no new demand. Those industries that have demand are getting labourers back but others are making do with what they have, he said. Sunil Jain president, CREDAI, Rajasthan said the real estate and the construction sector is facing up to 40 per cent shortage of workers. Most of the labourers in the construction industry in Rajasthan come mainly from the five states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Bengal. But now, most have returned, so we have to either get them back or employ new labour. Also Read: Covid-19 death toll in Rajasthan rises to 251; cases cross 11,000-mark Jain said some firms are making efforts to bring back workers from their home states. I know of some real estate firms that are trying to get workers back through contractors. Contractors are in touch with the labourers and are convincing them to return by offering assurance of full work and wages. A few have even sent vehicles to ferry labourers back, he said. Aseem Kumar, general secretary of Rajasthans garment exporters association says the industry is facing up to 70 per cent labour shortage. Factories are offering higher wages, accommodation and even promising work for the whole year, but the workers are not ready to return, said Kumar. A majority of garment exports from Rajasthan go to Japan but also to the US, Europe and South America. Kumar said the export season for the northern hemisphere is ending but was starting for the southern hemisphere where summer will be setting in. Those firms who have orders for South America need more labour force at this time and are making efforts to bring them back, he said. Kumar said the crunch has led to labour wages rising by 15-20 per cent. The labour in the garment industry is paid per piece rate. A worker can earn 500-600 per day, depending on the style of the garment and the skill required, he said. Jain, too, acknowledged that wages have increased by 20-25 per cent. The daily wage rate ranges from Rs 400 to Rs 1000 depending on the skill set required for the job. Kumar said the garment industry needs a skilled work force and therefore cant be replaced with anyone. Our workers have been with us since a long time and are trained as per our needs. New labour will have to be trained from the start and that will take time. Jain said the construction sector hopes to train the available migrants to overcome the shortage. We have sought permission from the government to let us open skill training centres on project sites to train labour, he said. At least 49 NDRF personnel, who had gone from Odisha to West Bengal for relief work post-Cyclone Amphan, have tested positive for Covid-19, NDRF sources said on Monday. The personnel are from the National Disaster Response Force's (NDRF) Mundali Battalion at Cuttack. Earlier, one NDRF jawan was detected positive for coronavirus after the unit returned from the cyclone-affected areas in West Bengal. As many as 173 NDRF personnel of 3rd Battalion had recently come back from Kolkata and were tested for Covid-19 on their return to Cuttack. All the team members were quarantined on the NDRF campus. About 500 personnel of the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and Odisha Fire Service had also gone to West Bengal for restoration work. (Newser) An armed black business owner who called to report a robbery in his store in Alabama was punched in the face by a responding police officer who mistook him for a suspect, police said, per the AP. After the March 15 altercation, Kevin Penn, owner of Star Spirits & Beverages in Decatur, suffered a broken jaw, his teeth were knocked out and he needed to get his mouth wired shut, his lawyer, Carl Cole, told AL.com. Surveillance video of the interaction started circulating on social media over the weekend. Decatur Police Chief Nate Allen held a news conference Monday to show footage of the altercation and to be transparent with the public, news outlets reported. story continues below The body camera video shows responding officers coming into the store and the suspect, later identified to be a person involved in an alleged shoplifting at Penns store, lying on the ground. An officer walks past the suspect and tells Penn to put down his weapon. Penn refuses saying, I have a right to have my gun." Allen said thats when Penn moved his hand over a gun lying on a counter next to him. We do know there was a gun there, we do know that the magazines were there, we do know that he was reloading the magazine, Allen said at the news conference. Penn's lawyer said his client previously told police he was holding the suspect at gunpoint and had showed his gun to let them know he was armed. Penn had also removed the clip and ejected the bullets from the weapon, Cole added. The video shows Penn telling officers hes going to file a complaint as they came close to him. The body camera footage doesnt clearly show what happens next, but surveillance video from the store shows an officer punching Penn and being joined by two other officers to wrestle him to the ground. He was arrested on a charge of obstructing a robbery investigation, according to court records. The name of the officer who punched Penn has not been released. He has been placed on desk duty while the department investigates the altercation, the police chief said. (Read more Alabama stories.) Since the US is the second-largest energy consumer after China, it makes sense to wonder where all of its electricity comes from. The truth is that the United States gets its electricity from a variety of sources. A vast array of technologies produces it. These sources and technologies have changed tremendously over history, and nowadays, the largest energy sources for electricity in the US are fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and renewable energy sources. The majority of electricity is generated through the usage of steam turbines. These turbines are powered by fossil fuels and nuclear, geothermal, and solar energy. Besides steam turbines, other technologies that are used most often are hydro turbines, wind turbines, gas turbines, and solar photovoltaics. With all that being said, fossil fuels such as petroleum, natural gas, and coal are the source of almost two-thirds of the electricity generated in the US. Natural Gas In the past several decades, natural gas has convincingly solidified itself as the biggest source of energy in the United States. In the past several decades, natural gas has convincingly solidified itself as the biggest source of energy in the United States. In 2016 it was the source of 33% of the entire amount of energy that was produced in the country. Since 2015, natural gas is also the biggest source of electricity in the US. Since 2009, the country has been the largest producer of natural gas in the world. Previously, that title belonged to Russia. IN the past decade, the production of natural gas in the United States reached an all-time high, increasing production by more than 50% when compared to 2005. Since the country creates such large supplies of natural gas, its prices are much lower than in the rest of the world. When we combine this with the fact that natural gas leaves a smaller carbon footprint than coal, it makes sense that the amount of electricity generated from this source has been growing swiftly. However, while the United States produces the largest amounts of natural gas, it does not have the largest reserves of the energy source. The countries with higher reserves of it are Russia, Qatar, Turkmenistan, and Iran, meaning the US is in fifth place. Coal and Petroleum As a source of energy, coal is mostly used for electricity. As a source of energy, coal is mostly used for electricity. However, its usage has seen a tremendous decline in recent years. For comparisons sake, in 2005, more than 50% of electricity was provided by coal, but in 2019, that number dropped to 23.5%. The United States is an exporter of coal, selling the majority of it to Europe. Throughout the history of the country, coal has been used to provide electricity to the country. This started in 1882 when an Edison plant was placed in New York City. According to multiple recent surveys, oil is considered to be one of the biggest sources of energy in the US. Throughout its rich history, the country was a large global influence on the oil market and oil reserves. In the 20th century, petroleum became one of the most important sources for heating and electricity. This is mostly for the industrial and commercial sectors. While petroleum is an extremely important source of energy, it is responsible for only 0.5% of produced electricity. Other Sources Of Electricity Among other sources of electricity, nuclear power is the most dominant. It is responsible for almost 20% of the electricity produced in the country. Renewable sources of energy amounted to 17.5% of the electricity that was produced in 2019. The majority of that percentage was divided between hydropower and wind. However, other renewable energy sources that should be mentioned are biomass, such as wood and solar energy. The Johor Bahru side of the Causeway seen bereft of traffic on 18 March 2020, the first day of Malaysia's two-week border lockdown. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) SINGAPORE Singapore welcomes Malaysias proposal to resume cross-border travel, and is prepared to work together to address the needs of cross-border travellers. In a media statement released on Monday (8 June), Singapores Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) responded to Malaysia's Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakobs announcement that Malaysians working in Singapore can travel and resume work once both governments reach a resolution on the matter. Such cross-border travellers include short-term business and official travellers, as well as Malaysian workers who were previously commuting between Singapore and Malaysia, MFA said in its statement. Such proposed arrangements would have to include mutually agreed public health protocols to allow the safe resumption of cross-border movement, it added. Both countries will require some time to work out the details and this will also depend on the COVID-19 situation in Malaysia and Singapore. In the meantime, Singapore will continue with practical measures to enable Malaysians to continue working in Singapore. No more large numbers of commuters crossing borders Singapores Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong said that, while Singapore would welcome a resumption of travel between the two countries, safety will be priority in deciding when and how Malaysians will be allowed to come into Singapore to work. Wong, who is also the co-chairman of the multi-ministry taskforce to combat COVID-19 in Singapore, added during a media conference on Monday that it is clear that the two countries will not return to the pre-pandemic situation of large numbers of commuters freely crossing the borders each day. We are not talking about large volumes, daily commuters coming in and out freely... We are talking about resumption of travel but in a controlled manner and in a safe manner for both sides, and that is in our mutual interest, he said. If not every traveller can be tested, then a combination of strategies may need to be deployed, including requiring some groups to serve out a quarantine period upon arrival, said Wong. Story continues Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Other Singapore stories: Permanent Secretaries empowered to invoke anti-fake news law during general election Jinjja Chicken outlet among 7 more places visited by COVID-19 cases Singaporean man, 26, among 386 new COVID-19 cases in S'pore, total crosses 38,000 mark No plan currently for mandatory use of wearable devices for COVID-19 contact tracing: Balakrishnan HPB to set up more regional screening centres for COVID-19 testing: MOH After a weekend of drug-gang killings left almost three dozen people dead in the industrial state of Guanajuato, Mexicos president cited it Monday as an example of neoliberal polices that have been a resounding failure. A group of men attacked a drug rehabilitation center in Irapuato, Guanajuato on Saturday and killed 10 people there, but those were just part of 34 murders committed in the state over the weekend. The state is home to a growing industrial sector, including a half-dozen foreign auto manufacturers. But the state is the scene of a bloody turf battle between the Jalisco Cartel and the home-grown Santa Rosa de Lima gang. During the whole neoliberal period Guanajuato has grown by 5 percent per year and has seen investment and new auto plants opening, but it is in first place for homicides," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday. Lopez Obrador has rejected direct confrontation with drug cartels and bet on long-term social programs, like job-training and scholarships, to reduce the number of young people recruited by drug gangs. But he thinks government-run programs not the kind of private-sector job creation that is happening in Guanajuato is needed. It's all part of Lopez Obrador's proposals for a new economy, where progress and well-being is not just measured by economic growth. So are we are just going to measure Gross Domestic Product? Shouldn't peace be measured? People's welfare, their tranquility?" said Lopez Obrador, who has proposed a new Well-being Index to measure progress, instead of relying on GDP. The Mexican Employer's Federation quickly retorted that People's well being is achieved with a sound economy and jobs, not with a new Well-being Index. The federation, which has been critical of Lopez Obrador for not implementing economic stimulus programs during the coronavirus pandemic, said if the economy collapses, the well-being of Mexicans also collapses. Projecting ideological differences onto the continued violence in Guanajuato which is governed by the conservative National Action Party is nothing new. Guanajuato leads Mexico in homicides, though state officials blame out-of-state killers from the Jalisco Cartel, based in a neighboring state. Guanajuato, with just 5% of Mexico's population, accounts for about 13% of the country's murders. Lopez Obrador said the state accounted for 20% of the country's homicides last week. The approach to handling the violence has also differed; while Lopez Obrador's federal National Guard has been posted to Guanajuato, those officers largely perform guide duty and routine patrols. But Guanajuato's state police has more directly gone after the gangs, with the result that, on June 1, four police officers were gunned down by gangs in the city of Celaya. Lopez Obrador has said "you cannot fight violence with more violence," and has practiced a more hands-off approach toward fighting the cartels. But the limits of that policy were on display over the weekend in the northern border state of Tamaulipas, where the burned-out wreckage of a handful of home-made tanks used by warring drug cartels littered a road just a few miles from the U.S. border. The cartels weld metal plates onto trucks to create the tank-like vehicles, known as monsters. The remnants of the old Gulf and Zetas cartels have been fighting bloody turf battles over that stretch of the border for about a decade. Mexican marines once patrolled the area and tried to keep the cartels in check, but they have since pulled off land duty and the National Guard and army have struggled with the problem. New Delhi, June 9 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday singled out the Maharashtra government, citing huge lapses in its position on the issues of migrant workers, and asked it to be more vigilant and make concentrated efforts in identifying migrant workers still stranded in the state and are willing to return to their native places. A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.R. Shah said: "The state Supervisory Committee, District Supervisory Committee and its officials should ensure that all migrant labourers, who are willing to go to their native place, should be identified... provide them food and shelter and that no complaint is received of not providing facility of journey or food from the stranded migrant labourers." The observation from the apex court came in the judgement it delivered on the plight of migrant workers during the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus outbreak. "The government should publicise and announce the places i.e police stations or any other suitable place for identifying/registering the workers, who have not yet been provided any train or bus journey," said the bench. The state government counsel had told the apex court that about 37,000 people are still waiting to return. He submitted that Maharashtra has requested for only one train from the railways, the registration of migrant workers is being done and a list prepared by the state and most of the labourers have been shifted to relief shelters where they are waiting for their turn to board the buses and trains. However, the court said: "We may notice, at this stage, that although in the affidavit, the state claims that it is providing food and shelter to migrant workers and list of entire workers is prepared, such claim has been refuted in different affidavits and materials brought on the record by intervenors and various individuals." The bench observed that it has been claimed that there is no proper arrangement of food to the migrant labourers nor there is any simple manner of registration of the workers. "There are huge lapses on the part of the state authorities in implementing state policies and decisions and most of the claims are only on paper causing great miseries and hardship to the migrant workers," it noted. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) SPRINGFIELD As he organized the silk ties and straightened the suit jackets in his shop, Audrin Desardouin talked about the impact of three months of closure on his downtown Springfield business. It has been very difficult. I run the business on my own and so when I applied for stimulus money I was denied because I dont have employees. I must have filled out 10 applications, he said. Like many business owners desperately awaiting Gov. Charlie Bakers details for Phase 2 which would allow the re-opening of restaurants and stores Desardouin is concerned about the long-term impact of the closure on his business L&A Fine Mens Shop, which sells high-end Jack Victor tailored suits and accessories. I have very loyal customers, and a lot of them have said they will come back, but I wonder if people will want to wear suits anymore, he said noting the social distancing protocols for public events like weddings and parties. On Monday, a few customers stopped in to pick up custom made suits they had ordered before the closure on March 13, but other than that the store remained empty most of the day. I will be open every day except Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and we will see how it goes," he said. Hannoush Jewelers reopened its Springfield store at the Eastfield Mall on Monday. Our customers health is among our top priorities, as is their peace of mind, said Eastfield Mall store manager Said Harmouche. We want shoppers to take comfort in the fact that we are doing our part to keep them safe. All our employees will be donning face masks, and our already stringent cleaning regimens have been heightened. The opening comes after a state mandated closure of all nonessential retail establishments throughout Massachusetts. During this time, online and telephone ordering systems were instituted, conveniences that will remain available. Weve missed our customers and welcome the chance to see familiar and new faces, Harmouche said. Still, we understand that some may be apprehensive about shopping in-person. We are happy to answer questions and take orders over the phone. Well also continue our online ordering system. In Holyoke, the mall remains closed except for Target and Best Buy, which is using curbside pick-up or entry by appointment only. Lisa Wray, director of marketing, for the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside, said Macys is expected to re-open on June 15. At the Riverdale Shops in West Springfield, Kohls, Five Below and Raymour & Flanigan opened their doors to customers today, but the parking lots remained mostly empty with one or two people entering the stores with masks on. I think it will be different for business owners, but for customers too. It will take a while for people to get used to going to stores, Desardouin said. Nancy Creed, president of the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce, said businesses have found and will continue to find new ways to serve their customers. While this has been and continues to be an incredibly challenging time for our business community, I am encouraged by how our businesses have innovated and adapted, Creed said. They have shown true resiliency in the face of adversity. Todays reopening is a significant step in our economy moving forward. Related content: SAN DIEGO, June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With a total raise of over $12 Million Dollars, FLX Bike ended funding for The Babymaker electric road bike last night. FLX, led by vegan founders Rob Rast and Pete Leaviss, launched the Babymaker on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo on March 17th. The goal was to raise $20,000 to bring a stealthy electric road bike named "The Babymaker" to market. The campaign exceeded all expectations, raising over $1 Million in the first 24 hours alone. With a final funding amount of $12,197,282 US Dollars, the team raised 61000% of their initial goal. This amount surpassed Indiegogo's previous funding record of $11.828M by a small margin. https://youtu.be/x1h7cmY8V_8 The money raised will go towards producing FLX Bike's newest model, The Babymaker. It's a sleek lightweight electric road bike with hidden lithium battery and optional belt drive. By utilizing crowdfunding, FLX was able to serve more riders - bringing the cost of each bike down and making electric bikes more accessible to riders around the world. While FLX is keen to celebrate the record breaking success, the founders Rast and Leaviss are determined to march forward. Co-Founder Pete Leaviss has stated: "collecting these orders is only the beginning. Now the real work of building thousands of bikes and coordinating logistics efforts across the globe begins. We will not rest until every Babymaker is delivered." Pete leads the design and manufacturing department at FLX and no doubt has his work cut out for him. It's not the first time Rast and Leaviss have seen success crowdfunding. When they launched the company, the duo released their first 3 bike models on Indiegogo - raising over $2 Million and providing the capital required to bring their fresh line of electric bikes to market. When asked what's next, co-founder Rob Rast said "this is just one more step for us. We set out to get people out of their polluting cars and onto fast, easy and fun alternatives. Together with Babymaker backers around the world, we're making the world a little less gray and a little more green." With success after success for the team at FLX, it's safe to say the ride has just begun. Photos: https://www.prlog.org/12825479 Press release distributed by PRLog SOURCE FLX Bike As other provinces implement temporary bans on some commercial evictions, local business groups are urging Manitobas provincial government to do the same. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. As other provinces implement temporary bans on some commercial evictions, local business groups are urging Manitobas provincial government to do the same. Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Monday that small businesses eligible for the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program wont face eviction until at least Aug. 31. Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C., Quebec and Nova Scotia have implemented similar plans. Supplied We cannot continue to deliberate and wait for relief to come in two months down the road (from the provincial government), said Shaun Jeffrey. "We cannot continue to deliberate and wait for relief to come in two months down the road (from the provincial government)," said Shaun Jeffrey, the executive director of the Manitoba Restaurants & Foodservices Association. "We need the provinces help now." On May 27, a letter was sent to Premier Brian Pallister from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), the Retail Council of Canada, Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association, and Restaurants Canada calling for a moratorium on commercial evictions through September. A similar letter was sent to Albertas and Saskatchewans premiers, and those governments announced moratoriums last week. "Thus far in Manitoba, we have only received confirmation that the letter has been received, and they are actively working on the issue," said John Graham, the retail councils director of government relations for the Prairie region. "Its been discouragingly slow, however, we hope to finally hear something in the next few days regarding what actions the government is considering to support Manitoba retailers, restaurants and other tenants facing threat of eviction to COVID-19-related reasons." The CECRA program was launched last month by the federal government as a means of additional rent relief for tenants whod seen revenues drop by 70 per cent or more owing to the pandemic. Successful applicants are then required to pay 25 per cent of their rent for the three-month period of April through June, with landlords receiving 50 per cent of the rent through loans. However, the programs application process is designed for landlords to apply rather than tenants, and the uptake has been slow, said Jonathan Alward, the prairie director for the CFIB. The Globe and Mail reported that only 16,000 applications were filed during the programs first week, and Alward said many landlords and tenants have been confused by its terms and conditions, including whether they qualify at all. Plus, he said the 70 per cent figure was proscriptive, and some tenants worry their landlords wont apply. Although provinces including Manitoba are moving forward with reopening efforts, Alward said many businesses are still operating at a loss, and CFIB estimates as many as 12 per cent of businesses nationally and 10 per cent in Manitoba are considering declaring bankruptcy or closing down. In Manitoba, some small businesses and restaurants have already announced permanent closures, and Jeffrey said its an open secret that many more could see a similar fate without further protections. Alward said the CECRA program has imperfections for both tenants and landlords, which makes the provinces filling in the gaps all the more important. 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. Karl Littler, the senior vice-president of public affairs for the retail council, said hes "cautiously optimistic" that the Manitoba government will follow other provinces leads. He said there are examples of landlords whove worked with their tenants to apply for CECRA relief, but some others have treated the situation like "ostriches with their heads in the sand." Littler said theres been a tendency for some landlords to look at short-term economic gains as opposed to those that come with keeping current tenants in their buildings, even while eating some costs on a short-term basis. "The supposition that theres another tenant waiting to knock on their door is unreasonable at this stage," he said. While CECRA still hasnt had much time to take effect, Littler said its fair to say many provinces are moving forward with commercial eviction bans because theyve noticed the programs shortfalls and heard the concerns of the business community. "Two weeks in, I think the provincial governments are getting the picture," he said. Jeffrey said he hopes similar protections are announced in Manitoba soon. "To not have any relief (like that) is extremely disheartening," he said. "Our provincial government has to step up and fill in these gaps." ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca British universities have slipped down the global league table, with three in four falling in the last year. Experts blamed consistent decreases in teaching capacity and the impact of the universities research. Oxford continues to be the top rated British institution but has fallen from fourth to fifth place in the QS World University Rankings. Oxford (St John's College pictured) continues to be the top rated British institution but has fallen from fourth to fifth place in the QS World University Rankings Cambridge remains in seventh position, with Imperial College London in eighth up one place from last year. Meanwhile, University College London is tenth a drop of two places. Of the top ten UK universities, four have dropped in rank. Overall, 63 of the 84 British universities in the global table have fallen. The data was collected before the pandemic and there are fears that UK universities could fall further in the rankings next year as social distancing rules which will differ worldwide alter teaching. Cambridge (Trinity Hall pictured) remains in seventh position, with Imperial College London in eighth up one place from last year Researchers said the drop in rankings by British universities was driven by increased student numbers that have not been matched by sufficient rises in staff levels. As a result, students will struggle to receive personalised attention from faculty. The rankings, published by consultancy QS Quacquarelli Symonds, rate the worlds top 1,000 universities. The positions are based on data including staff-to-student ratios and numbers of international students. These are combined with the views of academics and employers. The league table published today shows rankings for the year ahead. A QS spokesman said: A record 541,240 students were accepted on to UK undergraduate courses in 2019 ensuring that each of these students receives a personalised educational experience requires generous investment in teaching. Of the 84 UK institutions in the table, 67 have seen their faculty/student ratio score decline over the last year. The UK still retains 18 institutions in the global top 100 unchanged since 2017. The US dominates the top of the rankings with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at number one. n Universities must tell students the extent to which courses will be delivered online in 2020/21 and whether this will impact fees, the Office for Students has warned. French breeders hold a banner reading "no to wolves" as they demonstrate with their animals in Lyon France's wild wolf population rose again last year, with officials counting 580 adults at winter's end compared with an average of 530 a year ago, France's OFB biodiversity agency said Tuesday. The government has been allowing grey wolves to multiply despite fierce resistance from livestock owners, who say they are suffering from increased attacks on their flocks. But this winter's increase was slower than the 23 percent jump seen the previous year, and "survival rates declined," the OFB said, adding that the causes remained unknown. Wolves were hunted to extinction in France by the 1930s, but gradually started reappearing in the 1990s as populations spread across the Alps from Italy. Their numbers have grown rapidly in recent years, prompting authorities to allow annual culls to keep their numbers in check, though the predator remains a protected species. Under a "Wolf Plan" adopted in 2018, the "viability threshold" of 500 animals, the level at which the population is likely to avoid becoming at risk of extinction over a 100-year period, was not expected to be reached until 2023. Wolves are increasingly spotted across French territory, from the Pyrenees mountains as far north as the Atlantic coastal regions near Dieppe. But "there are still no packs formed outside the Alps and Jura," the heavily forested region near the Swiss border, the agency said. The numbers are far below those found in Italy, Romania or Poland, but they have nonetheless infuriated French farmers who say the wolves are decimating their flocks. Last year, authorities registered 3,741 wolf attacks that led to the deaths of nearly 12,500 animals, mainly sheep. The government offers compensation for the losses and has set up a range of measures to protect flocks, including patrols by "wolf brigades" in areas where traditional anti-wolf measures, such as dogs, fenced-off areas and additional shepherding, have failed. That has not been enough to assuage the powerful FNSEA agriculture lobby and other groups, which say they have to wait too long for compensation payments in the face of repeated attacks on their livelihood. Explore further France to step up wolf culls as population surges 2020 AFP A lawsuit has been filed against the Collings Foundation by survivors and the families of those killed in the B-17 bomber crash at Bradley International Airport last fall. A vintage Boeing B-17 bomber took off from Bradley on the morning of Oct. 2 and crashed at the end of a runway into a building five minutes later. The plane erupted into a fiery scene with plumes of smoke filling the airspace above it. Smoke could be seen across the Massachusetts state line from downtown Springfield. Multiple passengers were seated on the floor of the plane while another was seated in an office type swivel seat, the lawsuit alleges. Passengers were never instructed on how to fasten the military-style seat buckles, which one of the crew warned not to tighten because they would be too difficult to readjust after the flight, according to the suit. The buckle of another passengers seatbelt was broken leaving him completely unrestrained at the time of the crash, the lawsuit alleges. The flights departure was delayed by 48 minutes as the crew struggled to start the engines, the lawsuit states. Shortly after takeoff that morning, the pilot of the vintage WWII-era plane signaled to air traffic control at Bradley that he sought to land. The pilot said he had a rough mag on the No. 4 engine, which indicates an issue with one of the bombers four engines. Unbeknownst to the passengers, the lawsuit states, the two engines on the right hand of the plan experienced roughness the day prior to the crash. Immediately following takeoff, the crew told the passengers they could get up and explore the aircraft, according to the lawsuit. The passengers were told to return to their seats moments later. The crash and subsequent collision were violent, the lawsuit states. It ejected many of the passengers from where they were sitting and turned unsecured cargo into dangerous projectiles. Multiple passengers were ejected from their seats, the lawsuit states. There were 13 people on board at the time of the crash, including 10 passengers. Seven people, including two pilots, were killed in the crash. The flight mechanic and four passengers were seriously injured, while one passenger and one person on the ground incurred minor injuries. The lawsuit details injuries sustained by surviving passengers. One man was ejected from his seatbelt and briefly knocked unconscious before being able to pull himself through the debris and exit the rear hatch. A couple on board were able to pull themselves out of the wreckage through a shattered window in the rear of the cockpit. They fell onto the deicing tank below the plane and sustained serious and permanent injuries, according to the lawsuit. The plane belonged to the Collings Foundation, a non-profit based in Stow that maintains a large collection of airplanes, automobiles and tanks. In order to obtain technical experience and expertise, the National Transportation Safety Board made The Collings Foundation a party to the pending accident investigation," the organization said in a statement to MassLive Tuesday. "In that role, the Foundation is prohibited, both by the Certification of Party Representative and by federal regulations, from commenting on this matter and disseminating information that is the subject of this investigation. The B-17 Flying Fortress first saw combat in 1941, flown by the British Royal Air Force, and its numbers grew as World War II intensified. It would become a major workhorse of the U.S. Army Air Corps, flying missions from bases in England to strike deep into the heart of Nazi Germany. As it evolved, its ability to carry more and more armaments grew, according to a history of the aircraft on the Boeing website. The aircraft was at Bradley as part of the Wings of Freedom tour, among three bombers and two World War II fighter planes on display with flights available to the public. The passengers were customers who had paid for a chance to fly in the vintage aircraft. Boeing built close to 7,000 B-17s, while another 5,700 were built by Douglas and Lockheed. Today, it is reported that fewer than 15 can still take to the air. And, as recently as earlier this year, nine of those were said to be in the U.S., including the one which crashed at Bradley. The B-17 was the first aircraft assigned to Westover when the airbase was built in the early 1940s. In 1946, a B-17 crash on Mount Tom killed 25 people, including Coast Guard and Air Corps servicemen returning home from duty in World War II. The crash occurred at about 10:20 p.m. on July 9, 1946, as the B-17, en route from Goosebay, Labrador, was circling in preparation to land at Westover. It slammed into the southeastern slope of the mountain at about 900 feet elevation, just above the Mountain Park amusement park. The bomber burst into flames and began breaking apart as it slid along a boulder field before dropping into the ravine of the abandoned summit railway which had taken tourists up the mountain in the 19th century. Heartbroken family and friends are mourning the weekend hit-and-run death of a 17-year-old who had just been accepted to study at Carleton University and was weeks away from graduating Loretto Abbey. Olivia Sarracini died when she was struck by an SUV driver at 12:15 a.m. Sunday at Keele Street and Calvington Drive in North York. The driver fled after hitting the teen and her 19-year-old sister Julia as they were crossing the intersection. She was taken to hospital with minor injuries, police said. Late Tuesday night, police announced that they arrested Shawn Ramsey, 46, of Toronto, and charged him with failing to stop at the scene of an accident causing death, and failing to stop at the scene of an accident causing bodily harm. On Thursday morning, police announced that he was also charged under the Highway Traffic Act with two counts of careless driving causing bodily harm or death and driving while under suspension. Maria Rizzo, the areas Toronto Catholic District School Board trustee, said shes received numerous messages of sorrow from community members, some mirroring her own. The community wont forget, Rizzo said. There is a mixture of anger and sadness, she was an angel who departed too early. Friends, family, neighbours and teachers have been a constant presence at the site of her death, according to a friend who asked to remain anonymous. Sarracini was a kind, soft-spoken and brilliant person who had just accepted an offer to study at Carleton University in Ottawa, days before her death, the friend said. Sarracini leaves her parents, her sister, a 21-year-old brother and a community that loved her deeply. Olivias death comes as a huge shock to the family and community, and the limitations imposed under COVID-19 procedures make this whole situation even more difficult and strange to deal with, the friend said. Not being able to hold a wake or proper funeral means a very tough grieving process, but the family has a great deal of love surrounding them. Their supportive community will be there to help them through this tragic loss. Val DiGregorio said her 17-year-old son Eugenio was among those who paid his respects at the collision site. He never anticipated his first time leaving the house since COVID-19 restrictions in March, would be to bid farewell to his childhood friend. He put on a mask, left the house, and went straight to the memorial with all his friends, DiGregorio said. DiGregorio describes her son as being in shock after hearing his childhood friend, who had gone to school with him from kindergarten through Grade 8, was killed. The two went their separate ways when he went to an all-boys high school. Their paths crossed one last time under tragic circumstances as he placed flowers and laid their Grade 8 graduation T-shirt on the ground to honour her, his mother said. Arjana Vrapi, Sarracinis teacher for two years at St. Conrad Catholic elementary school where she taught math, art and science, described her as a sweet loving girl who enjoyed art and had many friends. We hear so many sad stories, but when it happens to people that you know, it is different, Vrapi said. She was just 17, graduating from high school. It is not fair. Rizzo said students left devastated by the news will have access to a team of counselling professionals. I dont know how to make it better for these young people seeing death around them, and with COVID-19 we cant gather as a Catholic community which makes it more difficult, Rizzo said. June 11, 2020 Update: This story has been changed from a previously published version with more charges laid against the accused driver. Osobe Waberi is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @OsobeWaberi The Hindi film industry has undergone a change ever since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. The new dynamics of business will continue for the foreseeable future, until the pandemic lasts. The most obvious change is producers choosing to release their films on OTT platforms instead of the big screens. Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar shared his opinion on producers choosing digital over traditional theatres, and asked why producers should lose out on a good deal in these uncertain times. In an interview with Hindustan Times, Madhur said, "All these movies that have been officially announced to come on the web, were made for theatres. OTT is the second option for producers. Amid this coronavirus situation, everything is in a limbo. There are films that are ready for release, but theatres aren't open. The producers have to take a call now." He asked, "So, why should the producers be deprived of a good deal," and continued, "There is so much of uncertainty and producers don't want their film to get stale. We also don't know when theatres will open, what percentage of occupancy will be allowed, whether people will be comfortable going to theatres or will have the same purchasing power as before." Madhur further reasoned that the financial strain on producers is enormous, and therefore their decision to opt for one platform over another is justified. He said that we have to consider how much capacity a producer has, to hold the film. After calculating the risks, if they are getting a reasonable price, he thinks it's fine to opt for web. At the same time, he understands theatre owners' point of view. He said, "They're bleeding as well, though there are those big films that are being held. But, some producers don't have holding power, so you've to look at holistic manner." The Ayushmann Khurrana and Amitabh Bachchan starrer, Gulabo Sitabo, and the Vidya Balan starrer, Shakuntala Devi, were sold to Amazon Prime Video recently. ALSO READ: INOX Theatres Slams Gulabo Sitabo OTT Release Announcement: Read Full Statement ALSO READ: Exclusive: Akshay Kumar's Laxmmi Bomb Sold For Rs 145 Crore To Disney Plus Hotstar! A kickboxer extradited from Denmark will deny that he murdered the brother of a Real Housewives of Cheshire star, a court heard today. Flamur 'Alex' Beqiri, 36, who was the brother of former Real Housewives Of Cheshire star Misse Beqiri, was shot multiple times in Battersea, south-west London, at around 9pm as he returned home with his wife and young child. Kickboxer Anis Fouad Hemissi, 22, from Malmo, Sweden, was arrested at Copenhagen Airport on January 20 and returned to the UK yesterday. Hemissi appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court via video link from a police station at Heathrow Airport charged with murder and possession of a handgun. Shaven-headed and bearded Hemissi was wearing a light blue Adidas jacket with a black t-shirt for the hearing, speaking to confirm his name and nationality. District Judge Nicholas Rimmer said: 'It's a case involving a charge of murder and possession of a firearm, it's indictable only.' Hemissi has been remanded in custody and will appear at the Old Bailey on Thursday. Flamur Beqiri, pictured with his sister, Real Housewives of Cheshire reality star Misse Beqiri, was shot multiple times in Battersea, south-west London, at around 9pm as he returned home with his wife and young child Neighbours said they heard 'between eight to ten' loud bangs at about 9pm on Christmas Eve as Mr Beqiri was gunned down. He was peppered with bullets in front of his screaming wife Debora Krasniqi, and his child, outside their 1.5million home in Battersea Alex Beqiri (Flamur) and wife Debora Krasniqi. The 36-year-old was shot multiple times in Battersea, south-west London , at around 9pm as he returned home with his wife and young child Mr Beqiri, a Swedish national who had Albanian heritage, had been living in London for four or five years at the time he was shot by a lone attacker. He was peppered with bullets in front of his screaming wife Debora Krasniqi, and his child, outside their 1.5million home in Battersea. In a statement released through Scotland Yard shortly after his death, Mr Beqiri's family said: 'Our family are in a state of shock and are grieving. To have so much sadness at this time of the year is heartbreaking.' Mr Beqiri, a Swedish national who had Albanian heritage, had been living in London for four or five years at the time he was shot by a lone attacker, who is thought to have fled on foot Mr Beqiri, who was also known as Alex, was the brother of Real Housewives of Cheshire star Misse Beqiri (pictured) The father-of-one is pictured with his wife. He was shot in Battersea on Christmas Eve He married his wife, Debora in Cernobbio, by Lake Como in Italy, in October 2018. An article in Grace Ormonde Wedding Style magazine, which published photos of the occasion, said that the couple met through Facebook. Ms Krasniqi told the magazine that the pair, initially just friends, 'fell deeply in love' at his sister's wedding after speaking for 'endless hours over the phone'. 'There was always something special about our connection and bond,' she said. He was said to have proposed after flying their families to a chalet in Kitzbuhel, Austria, where he covered the floor in a 1,000 red rose petals. Arvind Kejriwal New Delhi: The situation in Delhi is deteriorating due to the coronavirus. The impact has reached Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Corona-like traits have been found in Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, after which he has isolated himself. He had a corona test today and now waiting for the report. In fact, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has developed a fever and sore throat, after which he has isolated himself at his official residence. Advertisement Chief Minister Arvind KejriwalAam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh had told the media that the Chief Minister's health had deteriorated since noon on Sunday, June 7 and he was suffering from fever and sore throat. He is also a diabetic, so doctors have advised him not to hold meetings and to rest completely. After which he had isolated himself at home. In his absence, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia will hold meetings to deal with Corona. CoronavirusCoronavirus is increasing day by day in Delhi. About 29,000 patients have been infected in the capital so far, while the death toll has crossed 800. In such a scenario, the Delhi government has claimed that the number of beds will be doubled in the next 15 days. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rizmy Otlani Novastria (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 Digital products in Indonesia will be subject to tax as of July 1 of this year. Utilization of digital products in the form of intangible goods and services by domestic consumers is subject to a value-added tax (VAT) of 10 percent. Overseas businesses selling digital products to Indonesian customers in excess of an established threshold or whose traffic surpasses an established limit must register as VAT collectors with the Directorate General of Taxes under the Finance Ministry. Such businesses will have to charge a 10 percent VAT on their sales of digital goods to customers in Indonesia. These provisions are regulated in Finance Ministry Regulation No. 48/2020, which reflects the governments seriousness in following up on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developments (OECD) Secretary General Tax Report to the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. The first steps of the digital tax measures have been accommodated in the new law on COVID-19 pandemic response. Digital transactions in Indonesia have undeniably increased. The e-Conomy SEA 2019 report reveals that the average digital economic growth rate has been between 20 and 30 percent since 2015. In fact, Indonesia and Vietnam have the largest digital economic valuations in the report. The value of the digital economy in Indonesia is estimated to reach US$ 21 billion in 2020 and $82 billion by 2025. 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 Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. While Indias Covid-19 contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu, has faced plenty of flak for being detrimental towards user privacy, a new investigation by French ethical hacker Robert Baptiste has revealed that the Covid-19 contact tracing app offered by the Pakistani government, named Covid-19 Gov PK, ironically does not even offer contact tracing as a feature on the app. Calling the app out for its hard-coded passwords, insecure connections and privacy issues, Baptiste, who goes by the alias Elliot Alderson on Twitter, has revealed numerous shortcomings of the app to the public. 1/ Yesterday night, I analysed "COVID-19 Gov PK", the official #Covid19 mobile app made by the Pakistani government. Hardcoded passwords, insecure connections, privacy issues, ... nothing is ok with this app.Want to see this horror? Follow me pic.twitter.com/cpdf5ezoFM Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) June 9, 2020 According to his posts, the Covid-19 Gov PK app gives access to state and province-wise dashboards that list down the total number of confirmed cases in these regions, as well as the total number of recovered Covid-19 patients, total number of critical Covid-19 patients and the total number of death, in both these regions and across the country. It also states the total number of cases disclosed in the past 24 hours, and has other sections such as radius alerts, a Covid-19 self assessment and more. However, while the information that this app seems to offer may be legitimate, it is difficult to understand why it would ask for sensitive user data such as passwords, location and other such information, in order to simply offer updates that may be read from news portals. Baptiste has further revealed that the connection that the Pakistani Covid-19 Gov PK app makes with its server is insecure as well. As a result, any potential attacker will be able to access usernames and passwords. To make matters worse, the radius alert app is also managed without proper security bearings. As a result, anyone with such intentions will be able to find the exact locations of all identified Covid-19 patients in Pakistan. All of this summed up for Baptiste to call Covid-19 Gov PK the worst Covid-19 app that he has analysed so far. Baptiste came under keen scrutiny of Indian users after he reported a number of privacy gaffes in the Indian governments Aarogya Setu contact tracing app. With his latest report on the Pakistan governments attempt at a contact tracing app, cyber security watchers will be alarmed at the lackadaisical approach that certain governments have taken, without formulating proper privacy guidelines, operational strategies and other such points. That the Covid-19 Gov PK app has already been downloaded over half a million times on the Google Play Store alone also speaks volumes about the privacy, data and cyber security threat that it represents for many in Pakistan. Photo credit: Black is Beautiful/KD Designs/Kevin Dyer From Delish Protests about the racial inequality in America have reached areas of the world far beyond the United States, and the movement has reached the craft beer community. Brewers worldwide are joining an initiative called Black is Beautiful by selling stout beer with the same label to raise awareness around the injustices Black people and people of color face daily and to help raise funds for organizations that support them. Marcus Baskerville, the founder and head brewer of Weathered Souls Brewing Company in San Antonio, TX, started this initiative. As a father and Black business owner, I wanted to figure out a way to give back, Baskerville told Delish. I didnt participate in the protests, and so I kind of felt disappointed in myself that I wasn't able to get out there and be there for the cause. So Baskerville decided he wanted to brew a beer and release it to support those who were protesting. He took the drink to Jeff Stuffings of Jester King Brewery to talk about the label, and Stuffings then challenged him to turn the beer into a collaboration. Within 24 hours, Baskerville developed the initiative, enlisted designer Kevin Dyer of KD Designs to create the label, and released the campaign into the world. On the campaigns website , Weathered Souls offers a recipe for a 10 percent ABV stout that any brewery can use and make their own. The labels for the beer, called "Black is Beautiful," are available to download on the website in various can and bottle sizes. The logo on the label was inspired by protestor signs that feature black letters on white and vice versa, but Baskerville also wanted a label that was entirely representative of the black community. Dyer took that idea, combined with an image he had in his head of the paint swatches you find at stores like Home Depot, and created an interlocking gradient with hard lines. I thought the idea of locking pieces showed that they are all different but onethe solidarity of it, Dyer told Delish. Story continues Brewers can add their logo and other information to the right corner of the label to make it brand-specific. Any brewer who prints the labels through the digital agency The Creative Mango will get a discount. Recognizing that not all breweries have the funding to print labels, Dyer created stickers in three different sizesall downloadable on the websiteso people can use those to spread the campaign via anywhere, whether on a wall, bike, bottle, or car. The campaign asks breweries that want to participate to donate all of the proceeds to local organizations that support police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wrongfully incarcerated. They also ask that brewers commit to the longterm work of equality and choose their own organization to donate to as well. Weathered Souls is donating part of its proceeds to the Know Your Rights Campaign and is still deciding where to donate the rest locally, Baskerville said. The initiative is inspired by the brewing industrys recent All Together beer campaign to support the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 crisis and the Sierra Nevada beer campaign that developed after the devastating California wildfires of 2018. Stout Collective, a branding, marketing, and design studio, helped build the All Together campaign website and reached out to the "Black is Beautiful" founders to do the same for them. I didn't plan for it to turn into all of this, but the response has obviously been amazing as far as the support we've gotten from everybody, Baskerville said. So far, 249 breweries have signed on in 35 different states and across seven countriesthe U.S., Canada, Ireland, Germany, Japan, Rwanda, the Netherlands, and Brazil. The only backlash the campaign saw in the beginning is when they had the word Black in quotes on the logo, which became confusing to viewers, so they removed the quotes . The word was in quotes to emphasize Black culture. Some online retailers have already reached out to the campaign, but for now, Baskerville is focusing on local distribution. Im thinking at this point, we're going to do a release of Black is Beautiful probably once a year around the same time, and we'll also be starting a barrel aged program, Baskerville said. From here, Baskerville hopes that the craft beer community can be at the forefront of change. The whole entire initiative is about supporting equality and inclusion and having a common respect for everybody, Baskerville said. It would be awesome if the craft beer community put their best foot forward to show the rest of the word that if we can do it, anybody can do it. You Might Also Like Mahira Sharma and Paras Chhabra's relationship has been hitting the headlines ever since they did Bigg Boss 13. As the viewers are aware, Paras was too close to Mahira and the actor broke-up with his then girlfriend Akanksha Puri. Post Bigg Boss, Mahira and Paras shared a few pictures together on their social media handles. They also did a music video, Baarish, which was loved by PaHira fans. Recently, Paras had opened up about his equation with Mahira. He said in an interview that he doesn't want to go the usual route of proposing to Mahira and wants things to happen organically. When the Kundali Bhagya actress was asked about the same, she had a surprising reply! Mahira said that she and Paras are best friends and colleagues. She further said that this is the time to focus on work and she is doing the same. She also added that she is a workaholic and want right opportunities to entertain people with good work. Mahira was quoted by TOI as saying, "Paras and I are busy with our respective work. We are best of friends, great colleagues and understand each other really well. This is the time to focus on work, and that's exactly what I am doing. I am a workaholic; I want to explore the right kind of opportunities, and entertain people with good work." Regarding the upcoming music video, the actress said, "The first song, Baarish, was all things fun, romance and rains, and we had a great time working on it. The new track, 'Hashtag Love', is around the lockdown - an unusual experience that we will never be able to forget. I hope and pray that we overcome this crisis and things return to normalcy soon. The world is going through tough times and the least we can do is spread positivity and happiness around. That's how we thought of this video." She concluded by saying that she and Paras will be shooting for the music video from their respective homes. Also Read: Paras Chhabra On Shehnaaz Fans Claiming He & Mahira Circulated News To Defame Sana Also Read: Here's How Naagin 4 Will End; Not Asim Riaz, But Paras Chhabra Approached For Naagin 5! (CNN) An Indian man who went to hospital with abdominal pain had inserted a mobile phone charger cable into his penis, a doctor who treated him told CNN on Monday. The man visited a hospital in northeastern India last month, claiming he had ingested some earphones, said Dr. Walliul Islam, a general surgeon at the hospital. But when the cord didn't appear despite the patient being prescribed laxatives, doctors resorted to surgery. "He came to us after five days, (and) despite passing stool several times the cable did not come out. We then conducted an endoscopy but still couldn't find anything. As the patient complained of severe pain, we decided to perform surgery and found that there was nothing in his intestine," Islam told CNN. It was at that point that an x-ray revealed the man to have a two-foot-long charging cable in his bladder -- inserted via his urethra, the tube that leads from the penis to the bladder. "Then I made an incision there and took out the cord, which was actually a charging cable over 2 feet long," Islam said. "If he had been honest then it would have saved us the trouble and we could have treated him sooner." The patient has been discharged and is fine, according to Islam. "I have read that people used to get sexual gratification by inserting instruments through the penis. This is one such case, and the psychiatrist can help him beyond this point," Islam added. PHILIPSBURG:--- On Wednesday, May 5, 2020, the Secretariat of the Committee of Civil Servants Unions (CCSU) and its members received an invite from the Council of Ministers to hold an urgent virtual meeting with all unions representing Civil Servants. This meeting was held outside of the legal platform as prescribed by the Legislation that governs Civil Servant labor rights (the LMA). This virtual meeting was held on Thursday, May 6, 2020. During this virtual meeting, the unions present were verbally informed of specific cuts the Council of Ministers had approved and intended to implement based on the current Covid-19 reality on Sint Maarten. The Minister of Finance indicated to the unions that based on the urgency of the matter he hoped that an agreement could be reached during this meeting. The measures proposed were: A 2% cut in salaries for all Civil Servants based on a freeze to the 2019 increment; An 8% cut to all Civil Servants earning between Naf. 4000,- and 8.000,- based on a freeze to the 2019 increment and a 100% cut of the 2020 vacation allowance; An 18% cut to all Civil Servants earning more than 8.000,- based on a freeze to the 2019 increment, a 100% cut of the 2020 vacation allowance and a 10% salary cut until then end of 2020; The unions were also informed that a freeze would be implemented on all bonuses, one-time monetary grants with the exception of jubilees and that the Pension Reform Legislation would be approved as is. On receiving these measures verbally during the virtual meeting, the unions requested to receive the proposed measures in writing to be able to discuss these with its membership. The unions also informed the Council of Ministers that they would only be willing to continue discussions if the meetings would be held in an official CCSU platform based on the LMA, which the Council of Ministers agreed to. The Council of Ministers submitted the cost-cutting measures on Friday, May 8 at 10:30 p.m. and requested to receive the counter-proposal of the unions over the weekend before the tentatively scheduled virtual meeting on Monday, May 11, 2020. The measures provided to the unions verbally during the virtual meeting on May 6, 2020, were not the same as the measures received digitally. The unions received a discussion paper containing 21 measures. The measures that directly affected the Civil Servants were the following: 1. Freeze (Postpone payment) bonuses for 2020 and 2021 2. Freeze Postpone payment) gratification payments, with exception of jubilees 3. Freeze (Postpone payment) one-time financial awards 4. Apply existing exit policy as it relates to personnel (No extensions for pensioners) 5. Stop/reduce payment of vacation days not taken up 7. Implement possibilities to work part-time 8. Postpone periodic salary increments for 1 year 9. Reduce time-back for overtime 11. Fast-track increase the retirement age for civil servants from 62-65 and calculate over the average salary 13. Expedite placement of Civil Servants that are boven formatief (redundant) 14. Reduce vacation pay by 100% for 2020 and reduce vacation pay by 75% in 2021 The unions indicated that they were not able to meet the deadline requested by the Council of Ministers to submit a counterproposal by the timeline given of Monday, May 11, 2020. The unions also informed the Council of Ministers that they were unable to meet on such short notice and requested a meeting date that was feasible for both parties. An official meeting between both parties was held on Wednesday, May 13, 2020. The unions did not submit a counter-proposal prior to the meeting. During the meeting, the unions sought clarification as to the discrepancies between the original measures and the discussion paper submitted. During the virtual meeting between the Council of Ministers and the unions, the unions were made aware of the incompleteness of the measures taken up in the discussion paper submitted on Friday, May 8, 2020. The following measures were also to be taken up in the discussion paper: Public servants over NAf 8000: 10% cut on salary for the remainder of 2020 + no payment of vacation pay for 2020 and 25% payment in 2021 (vacation pay is included in the overview); Public servants between NAf 4000 NAf 8000: no vacation pay for 2020 and 25% payment in 2021 (vacation pay is included in the overview); Public Servants under NAf 4000: vacation pay will still be paid. The unions asked to adjourn the meeting based on the new information provided in order to caucus with its membership. Prior to adjourning the meeting, a dialogue took place between one of the unions and the Minister of Finance in which the union representative asked the Minister if it would be possible to pay 100% vacation allowance for 2020 and start the negotiations for possible cuts to the vacation allowance of 2021. The Minister then informed the unions that this was the type of dialogue he was looking for and it is a pity that only at the end of the meeting this type of dialogue is being initiated. He is looking forward to debating proposals such as these and can look into the feasibility of proposals such as 50% vacation allowances, etc. On Thursday, May 14 at 11:40 p.m. the unions submitted a counter-proposal to the Council of Ministers. This proposal focused primarily on cost-cutting measures that do not affect the salaries and benefits of Civil Servants with the exception of the following measures: Cut allowances for Civil Servants who earn more than Naf. 8000,- until the end of 2020; Reduce all gas vouchers of (or park all government vehicles after working hours that are driven by) department heads and Secretary Generals for 2020 & 2021. On Friday, May 22, 2020, another meeting was held between both parties. During the meeting, the Minister of Finance had asked the unions to disregard the proposals submitted so far by both parties, as it was imperative to make new calculations and proposals based on the agreements made between the Kingdom Government and the Council of Ministers of Sint Maarten. The unions urged the Minister of Finance to consider all possible cuts on the personnel package before touching salaries and vacation allowances of Civil Servants. The Minister of Finance agreed to look into all other personnel costs prior to touching salaries and vacation allowances and requested until 12:00 p.m. on Monday, May 25, 2020, to submit a new proposal to the unions. On Monday, May 25 at 3:00 p.m. the new proposal was submitted to the unions to be discussed with their members. The submitted cost-cutting measures were as follows: No travel for the remainder of 2020 (Reis en Verblijf Kosten/Travel Expenses NAF 1.261.115 that has not been spent as yet); Cut in all uniforms budget (NAF 950.000 that has not been spent as yet); Vacation Allowance to be paid 50% in 2020 and 50% in 2021 across the board (Savings of NAF 7.700.000); A cut in Overwerk/Over-time that is not applicable to Front-Liners (NAF 1.121.398 has not been spent as yet). Frontliners were identified as: the Fire Department, the Police Department, the Immigration and Border patrol, Customs, the House of Detention, the National detectives. The Minister of General Affairs granted the unions permission to discuss the new proposal with its members on Monday, May 25, 2020, during working hours from 3:00- 5:00 p.m. On Thursday May 28, 2020, the unions submitted a counter-proposal to the proposal received on May 25th, 2020, from the Minister of Finance at 2:36 p.m. This proposal contained the following: 100% payout for 2020 of the vacation pay, to be paid no later than June 30th, 2020. Unions are willing to negotiate 50% of the Cost of living Adjustment from 2012 to 2019 pending the outcome of St. Maartens economic performance and Governments financial position during said period 2021-2022. Initiate a poverty line study in collaboration with USM and the Consumers coalition by July 1st, 2020 to establish the actual poverty level on St. Maarten; Implement a new/broadened Basket of Goods decree by July 1st 2020 that consists at least of maximum prices for basic goods such as: Lower the cost of basic needs by at least 12.5% by July 1 st 2020 until further notice (food, internet, water, rent, electricity, phone bill, etc); 2020 until further notice (food, internet, water, rent, electricity, phone bill, etc); Accelerate the placement process of the Police before July 1 st 2020; 2020; Initiate implementation of an Economic stimulus plan by July 1 st 2020; 2020; Increase the fees for directors from Naf 500 to Naf1000 See counter-proposal submitted on May 14, 2020, for further details. During a meeting held on Thursday, May 28, 2020, after much deliberations the Council of Ministers and the unions agreed in principle (yet to be ratified) to the following: No travel for the remainder of 2020 (Reis en Verblijf Kosten/Travel Expenses NAF 1.261.115 that has not been spent as yet); Cut in all uniforms budget (NAF 950.000 that has not been spent as yet); A cut in Overwerk/Over-time that is not applicable to Front-Liners (NAF 1.121.398 has not been spent as yet). Initiate a poverty line study in collaboration with relevant stakeholders to establish the actual poverty level on Sint Maarten. Implement a new / broadened basket of goods and look into the cost of living in discussion with relevant stakeholders. Accelerate the process for placement of Police. The proposed counter proposals mentioned in the letter dated May 14, 2020, will be further reviewed to determine whether the proposals are feasible and realistic for the future. However, the Minister of Finance indicated that cuts still had to be made to the vacation allowance to meet the 12.5% condition of the Kingdom Government. At that point, an observer suggested via the unions that are officially represented in the CCSU if it would be possible for the Government to still pay the vacation allowances in full through an I owe you structure. The Minister of Finance at that point requested a day to submit revised proposals that would contain such structure, under the condition that liquidity would allow such after 2022. On Friday, May 29, 2020, at 1.46 p.m. the following proposal was submitted: Vacation Allowance to be paid 50% in 2020 and 50% in 2021 across the board (Savings of NAF 7.700.000. Our original proposal to payout 50% of the vacation allowance for the years 2020 and 2021 is supplemented by introducing an annual compensation as of the calendar year 2022. The amount of the annual compensation does not exceed 25% of the total of the vacation allowances that were not paid out in 2020 and 2021. These payments will take place until the total amount of the vacation allowances, which were not paid in 2020 and 2021, are fully compensated and is subject to the future financial developments and liquidity position of the government). The unions in a letter submitted on June 1, 2020, at 2:52 p.m. submitted a counterproposal requesting the following: A deferral of 50% of the vacation allowance in 2020 and 2021; Repayment of the deferred vacation allowance by means of payment of vacation allowance at the rate of 125% in 2020 until 2025; Said proposal is ratified via decree (LBham) by June 30, 2020. The unions requested on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, via the Secretariat of the CCSU a response from the Council of Ministers regarding their position on the counter-proposal that was submitted on June 1st, 2020, as no response was received. The Secretariat of the CCSU sent a reminder on June 5, 2020, to date, June 9, 2020, no response has been given by the Council of Ministers to the unions regarding their position on the counter-proposal submitted on June 1, 2020. It is important to note that the Secretariat of the CCSU functions as a neutral unbiased body that aims to bring the unions represented in the CCSU and the Council of Ministers together in an effort to reach mutual agreements that benefit both parties. However, based on the different inaccuracies in press briefings, press releases and interviews stating that agreements have been made between both parties, the Secretariat felt it necessary to inform the general public and more importantly, the Civil Servants as to the current state of affairs on the critical matter of cost-cutting measures to personnel costs by 12.5 percent. Annual FCCA PAMAC Conference Goes Virtual, Gathers Cruise Executives and Destination Stakeholders Miramar, FL (June 9, 2020) - Cruise line executives and destination stakeholders from the Caribbean, Central and South American, and Mexico gathered in a different way this year, with the annual land-based event of Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) launching online. Its regular scheduled programming of meetings and networking functions planned to be hosted in Jamaica, while also offering opportunities to experience new destination developments and initiatives, instead took place via Zoom on Friday, June 5, with more than 40 executives from FCCA Member Lines, which represent about 95 percent of the global ocean cruising capacity, and over 35 destination partners. "While social distancing certainly is not normally a feature of our events, this may have served as one of the most important in our history," said Michele Paige, President, FCCA. "Our partners are planning for the restart of cruise tourism and its vital economic contribution that will help restore normalcy to people's lives, so there is a clear purpose to everything we do during these trying times, and we know things can be even better as long as we work together. " "I would like to thank the Platinum Members for your continuous support of the FCCA," said Michael Bayley, President & CEO, Royal Caribbean International, during the event. "I can assure you the cruise companies are fully supportive of the FCCA, and I think it is really important to talk about the partnership and the collaboration we are all going to need as we prepare for fundamentally the rebirth of the entire cruise industry and cruise tourism around the world and, of course, particularly within the Caribbean, which is the heartbeat of the entire cruise industry." The event launched with a welcoming address by Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism of Jamaica, sharing hope and progress that could prove for Jamaica and the Caribbean possibly benefitting from the global pandemic through the proactive actions taken by so many. Steps the cruise lines have made, along with the significance of partnerships between cruise lines and destination stakeholders, were also on display through addresses including Bayley's, along with Richard Sasso, Chairman of MSC Cruises USA, praising Platinum Members and the overall industry for handling the adversity. "The sign of great companies, or individuals or associations is not what they do day to day, is not what they have to do in normal business or their normal personal life; it's how they behave when there is an adversity," he said. "And I think I could proudly say that the FCCA, our stakeholder partners, particularly our Platinum Members, and certainly all of us individually have really come up to the task." Cruise executives also led the traditional PAMAC Meeting's 'head table' in a less orthodox way, with e-chairs taken by Michele M. Paige, President, FCCA; Carlos Estrada, Director, Commercial Home Port Operations, Carnival Cruise Line; Richard Sasso; Steve Moeller, Sr. Vice President, Commercial Development, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings; Russell Benford, Vice President, Government Relations, Royal Caribbean Cruises; and Juan Trescastro, Senior Director Itineraries, Destinations, Government Relations and Shore Excursions, Virgin Voyages. Destination updates also continued as normally, with presentations given by Joe Boschulte, Commissioner of Tourism, U.S. Virgin Islands; Lela Simmonds, Port St. Maarten; Alejandro Caicedo, Puerto Rico Tourism Company; Lisa Cummins, Barbados Ports; and Joy Roberts, Jamaica Vacations Ltd. Other updates included Beth Kelly Hatt, Principal of Aquila Center for Cruise Excellence, sharing a new virtual training program for members, along with a new partnership poised to make this year's FCCA Cruise Conference & Trade Show, taking place in San Juan from October 19-22, one of the best ever. State officials said they received no notice of Mondays hearing on the injunction and did not know about it until calls started coming in from the news media. Governors counsel Rita Davis said the court was not required to give the administration a chance to respond but added that in most cases such as recent suits filed against Northams pandemic-related shutdown of businesses we have been afforded that opportunity. But we were not this time. An Irish company transferred more than 74,000 US dollars (65,000 euro) into a fraudulent account in China to buy a machine to manufacture PPE for the HSE, gardai have said. Gardai in Waterford, with assistance from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB), are investigating the fraud after the company reported the invoice redirect fraud happened last month. Gardai said the Irish firm had negotiated the purchase of a machine from a company based in China, and following due diligence had confirmed it was a valid business. A portion of the price was agreed to be transferred as a deposit, and at this point the Irish company received fraudulent emails purporting to be from the Chinese firm, containing bank account details for the payment of the deposit. A total of 74,600 dollars was transferred to the fraudulent account on May 27. The Irish company was notified of the fraudulent transaction by its financial institution on Monday. After liaising with local gardai and the GNECB, the misdirected payment was returned to the Irish companys bank account. A Garda spokeswoman said: An Garda Siochana are asking all businesses to report any incidents of invoice redirect fraud to their local Garda station and financial institution immediately, as fraudulent transactions of this nature can move very quickly and it is important that immediate efforts are made to stop the transactions being completed. Even if the fraud has not been successful, it is possible that the bogus account is being used for other incidents of this nature and reporting it may prevent further incidents of fraud. Reuters A key measure of carbon dioxide emissions in the Earths atmosphere hit a record in May even as a global pandemic brought the worlds economies to a virtual standstill this year, according to U.S. government data published on Thursday. Carbon dioxide recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii reached 417 parts per million (ppm) in May, higher than the record of 414.8 ppm set last year, according to the announcement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. The drop in worldwide emissions due to the coronavirus outbreak estimated to be as much as 26 percent in some countries during the peak of government confinement orders fails to cancel out the large natural variations in carbon emissions caused by how plants and soils react to temperature, humidity and other factors, scientists said. It would take carbon dioxide reductions of 20 percent to 30 percent for six to 12 months to slow the rate of increase in the measurements at Mauna Loa, Scripps said in a statement. Last month, research published here in the journal Nature Climate Change predicted that global emissions could fall by up to seven percent this year. It will decrease the rate of increase of CO2 by a little bit, but it will still be increasing, Pieter Tans, chief scientist at NOAAs greenhouse gas monitoring lab, said in an interview. So a 10 percent change its even hard for us to measure. May is the annual peak for the worlds carbon dioxide emissions, which are at levels not experienced by the atmosphere in several million years. Carbon dioxide concentrations at Mauna Loa are documented in a graph known as the Keeling Curve, named for Charles Keeling, who began measurements there in 1958. Lysaker, 8 June 2020 After taking the initial steps in a close partnership with SKAGEN via a distribution agreement, Storebrand Asset Management AS is now ready to launch their own branch in Copenhagen, headed by Kim T. Andreassen. The Storebrand branch will share office space with SKAGEN at their current location. Storebrand Asset Management has been in close dialogue with professional Danish clients since the beginning of 2018. To strengthen their dedication to the Danish market, Storebrand Asset Management is launching an independent office in Copenhagen, focusing on distributors and the institutional segment. "The sustainable products that Storebrand Asset Management specializes in are gaining a remarkable momentum right now and play an important role in future growth. We have a strong assumption that the interest in sustainable investment will only increase in the future, as we noticed this tendency even before COVID-19. We expect sustainability to play a central role in a green recovery after the pandemic. Danish investors have welcomed our product suite, and our sustainable offering is gaining remarkable momentum. The sustainable solutions that Storebrand Asset Management specialize in play an important role in future growth," says CEO of Storebrand Asset Management Jan Erik Saugestad. After Storebrand bought SKAGEN Funds in 2018, five of Storebrand's funds have been available to Danish clients via a distribution agreement with SKAGEN since April 2019. The ambition is that the new Danish office will offer the entire Storebrand multi-boutique range to the professional segment, while retail clients will continue to be serviced via the SKAGEN distribution agreement. "With a strong presence in our Norwegian and Swedish home market, it's a natural next step to open up a Danish branch as part of our Nordic and International expansion," Jan-Erik Saugestad continues. Kim T. Andreassen is appointed Director of the new Danish Storebrand Asset Management branch. Kim has been servicing professional Danish clients for both Storebrand and SKAGEN for the past five years as Senior Relationship Manager in SKAGEN. Story continues SKAGEN CEO Tim Warrington welcomes Storebrand's commitment to the Danish market: "There are exciting opportunities in Denmark for a sustainability leader such as Storebrand. We in SKAGEN are pleased that our hard-won lessons in exporting to this sophisticated market can be brought to bear for the benefit of the wider group. The talented and committed SKAGEN team in Copenhagen look forward to continuing the journey together with their Storebrand colleagues," he says. The new Storebrand Asset Management office will open its doors on 8 June 2020 at the same address as SKAGEN in Denmark: Bredgade 25A, 1st floor, DK-1260 Copenhagen K. Queries can be directed to the Storebrand representative, Kim Toftegaard Andreassen on phone +45 33 41 76 53 or email kim.toftegaard.andreassen@storebrand.com . Fund name and share class Symbol ISIN Storebrand Indeks Alle Markeder A5 STIIAM NO0010841588 Storebrand Indeks Nye Markeder A5 STIINM NO0010841570 Storebrand Global ESG Plus A5 STIGEP NO0010841604 Storebrand Global Solutions A5 STIGS NO0010841612 Storebrand Global Multifactor A5 STIGM NO0010841596 Storebrand is Norway's largest private asset manager with an AuM of around DKK 650 billions, and also a leading Nordic provider of sustainable pensions and savings. The company has been a global pioneer in ESG investing for over 20 years, offering broad and scalable solutions for both institutional and private investors in the Nordic region and other European countries. Storebrand delivers sustainable investment solutions and client value through a multi-boutique platform, with the brands Storebrand Funds, SKAGEN Funds and Delphi Funds, in addition to SPP Funds in Sweden. Click here to contact the firm and participate in the action. LOS ANGELES, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Portnoy Law Firm advises Casper Sleep Inc. (NYSE: CSPR) 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 eligibility for appointment as a class representative. Investors can submit their transaction and contact information here to participate in the case. The investigation concerns whether the Company misled investors regarding the strength of Caspers global operations. Casper went public in February 2020, selling over 8 million shares at $12 a share. Just a few weeks later, in April 2020, the Company announced that Casper would decrease its global operations, including a dramatic 21% reduction to its global operations and sales team, and close its European operations. Casper also disclosed that Gregory Macfarlane had resigned from his positions as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. The Portnoy Law Firm represents investors from around the world and specializes in securities class actions and shareholder rights litigation. 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 OTTAWA, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The National Police Federation is calling on the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia to ensure the recently announced joint federal-provincial inquiry has sufficient scope to look at all issues relevant to Canadas largest-ever, tragic mass shooting in Nova Scotia. NPF President Brian Sauve is providing the two governments a list of questions that should be included in the currently undefined scope of any review to ensure its findings are meaningful and create real change. When a tragedy like this occurs, its short-sighted and insufficient to only look at the hours requiring an urgent police response, said Sauve. If the goal of the review is to identify and understand all contributing factors and prevent future mass tragedies, the review must take a broader approach and look at all timelines and impacts that led to the culminating horrific act. Questions that NPF asserts must be part of the scope of any such review include: What other interactions did the shooter have with provincial or federal agencies during their lifespan, and what were the nature of those interactions? Did the shooter undergo any previous psychiatric assessment, and if so, what was the result or follow-up? How did the shooter gain access to illegal weapons, their origin and what increased measures need to be put in place to stop illegal weapons from coming into Canada? Has the shooter ever been charged with any other offenses, been subject to any probation ordered by the courts, and was it completed? Did the shooter have a history of domestic abuse, and how was this addressed by the courts or government agencies? Were there any services that could have prevented this tragedy which were unavailable due to COVID-19 restrictions? Has the funding model of the RCMP been reviewed and appropriate budget requests for manpower, training and equipment been implemented? Is there adequate funding to provide the level of service that Nova Scotians want? Did the shooter have sufficient access to mental health supports and programs throughout his life and what improvements to adequate health supports are needed to improve reach and use? Given the above, were existing laws and policies under which police operate sufficient to protect the public? Front-line RCMP Members bravely and professionally intervened during an on-going mass shooting that could otherwise have resulted in even more deaths, added Sauve. If there are lessons to be learned about preventing or responding to situations like this in the future, the NPF supports a review to identify those improvements. But it is woefully inadequate to tell the brave men and women who are asked to respond to an active shooter situation that all that matters is the short period of time during which they are actively pursing the shooter and protecting the public. This approach ignores the factors that lead to a high-risk and volatile individual slipping through the cracks of our often chronically under-funded and under-resourced social support system for years. About the National Police Federation: The National Police Federation (NPF) was certified to represent ~20,000 RCMP members serving across Canada and internationally in the summer of 2019. The NPF is the largest police labour relations organization in Canada, the second largest in North America, and is the first independent national association to represent RCMP Members. The NPF will focus on improving public safety in Canada by negotiating the first-ever Collective Agreement for RCMP officers, and on increasing resources, equipment, training and supports for our Members who have been under-funded for far too long. Better resourcing and support for the RCMP will enhance community safety and livability in the communities we serve, large and small, across Canada. For more information: https://npf-fpn.com/ . Media contact: Brian Sauve President National Police Federation media@npf-fpn.com T: 604-861-2684 AHMEDABAD, India, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Studio45 the best SEO company in India has stepped ahead to cater to Dubai businesses. Times are tough, not only for humans but for the economy too. It has affected many sectors of the economy worldwide, indicating a staggering recession. Studio45 IT Services PTY LTD Studio45 has taken initiative to help businesses with SEO services in India as well as Dubai during this tough time. "After getting featured in TIMES OF INDIA, Studio45 is going to become a backbone to the businesses that have lost hope. With a staff of more than 100 employees, the company is all set to serve businesses with social media marketing, website development, website design, content marketing, and digital marketing services," said Pinku Ranpura, the director of Studio45. The alliance between Studio45 and Dubai companies can work as a ray of hope to many businesses that expect to shut down in the near future. With expert social media marketing services, companies can work actively for consumers and stabilize their business. Shielding businesses with Studio45 affordable SEO services It becomes necessary to pivot strategies and focus on SEO services to stay constant in this period. Here are a few reasons to rely on SEO services: Finding the business via search engine becomes easy People search for products and services online more often SEO takes the business a level up in a cost-effective manner For more information, read the newly-shared article https://clutch.co/seo-firms/resources/why-business-use-seo-covid-19-pandemic and rebuild your business with SEO services. About Studio45 After 10 years of continuous devotion to clients, Studio45 has gained a reputation as a Top SEO Agency in India with 4.9-star ratings on Google and 4.9-star ratings on Clutch. The company supports different business niches to achieve desired results. The company serves various businesses with social media marketing services like cleaning websites, pest-control, fashion & beauty products, furniture business, and many more. In addition, Studio45 ensures that businesses are helped with their needs, whether it's web design, development, SEO, or content writing the company has proficient teams to understand and handle the client's needs. Now, the company is going to open doors for Dubai to rebuild its businesses with SEO opportunities. To gain an in-depth understanding about Studio45, visit the website https://studio45.in. Related Images image1.jpg Related Links SEO India SEO Dubai SOURCE Studio45 IT Services PTY LTD Related Links https://studio45.in Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-10 05:57:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Siddiq Tawer (4th R), a member of Sudan's Sovereign Council and chairman of the Higher Committee for Health Emergencies, poses for a photo with members of the Chinese medical expert team in Khartoum, Sudan, June 9, 2020. The Sudanese government on Tuesday expressed gratitude for China's support to its efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The remarks were made by Tawer when he received the visiting Chinese medical expert team at the Presidential Palace in the capital Khartoum. (Xinhua/Ma Yichong) KHARTOUM, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese government on Tuesday expressed gratitude for China's support to its efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The remarks were made by Siddiq Tawer, a member of Sudan's Sovereign Council and chairman of the Higher Committee for Health Emergencies, when he received the visiting Chinese medical expert team at the Presidential Palace in the capital Khartoum. "We are very happy with this visit from which we have certainly greatly benefited," said Tawer in a statement. "The visit was also accompanied by great medical support related to the coronavirus pandemic, including laboratory equipment, protective clothes, and relevant necessary medical supplies," he noted. Zhou Lin, head of the Chinese medical team, said the team's visit to Sudan is evidence of the strong standing friendly ties between China and Sudan. "During the past two weeks, we have felt the concern of both the Sudanese government and the Sudanese Federal Ministry of Health to implement the precautionary measures to defeat the coronavirus," Zhou told reporters. Chinese Ambassador to Sudan Ma Xinmin said that the visit of the Chinese medical team to Sudan "demonstrates the deeper friendship between our two peoples and also the closer cooperation between the two countries as well as the firm commitment to fight the virus." The Chinese envoy added that, in the next phase, the Chinese side would work to strengthen the bilateral cooperation in the field of public health such as medical capacity building, disease prevention control, medical infrastructure and also medical facilities. The Chinese team of medical experts arrived in Khartoum on May 28 to support Sudan's efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic. China has already provided help to Sudan in its anti-coronavirus fight. In late March, the Chinese embassy in Sudan donated over 400,000 surgical masks to the Sudanese government. On April 23, Chinese medical experts held a video conference with Sudanese counterparts to share China's experiences in fighting COVID-19. Sudan has so far reported a total of 6,242 COVID-19 cases, including 372 deaths and 2,059 recoveries. Viewers have been divided by the behaviour of Joanne Lees following the murder of her boyfriend British backpacker Peter Falconio 19 years ago after police interviews resurfaced in a new Channel 4 series last night. Murder in the Outback: The Falconio and Lees Mystery looks back at the Australian police case, after Peter went missing on a Northern Territory roadside in 2001 while on holiday with his girlfriend Joanne. The backpacker disappeared and was never seen again after travelling on the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek in the outback, where he was shot and Joanne escaped abduction when rescued by a lorry driver. During the documentary, viewers discovered that Joanne admitted to having an affair during her 'once in a lifetime' trip when her initial witness statement was questioned by police. Taking to Twitter, people were quick to slam Joanne as emotionless - while others claimed it was 'sexist' to insist she should've been more emotional and defended her over her reaction to 'irrelevant' questioning. Bradley John Murdoch, 62, was convicted of the execution-style murder of Peter and sentenced to life behind bars in 2005, following a DNA match found on Joanne's T-shirt. Viewers have been left divided over Joanne Lees behaviour following the murder of her boyfriend British backpacker Peter Falconio (pictured together) 19 years ago after police interviews resurfaced in a new Channel 4 series last night Murder in the Outback: The Falconio and Lees Mystery looks back at the Australian's police case after Peter went missing on a Northern Territory roadside in 2001 while on holiday with his girlfriend Joanne (pictured during a police interview) During the documentary, viewers discover that the girlfriend admitted to having an affair during her 'once in a lifetime' trip when her initial witness statement was questioned by police. It left viewers (above) criticising Joanne's attitude. Investigators have ruled out any suggestion she was involved in the murder During the second episode of the four-part documentary, social media users were left shocked when Joanne said that she didn't initially tell police about her affair, and the 'secret emails' the lovers exchanged, because she didn't feel it was 'relevant' to the case. One viewer said: 'Wow, Joanne Lees' body language in police interview absolutely stinks. Arrogant, bored, bad tempered, stroppy as f***.' Another added: 'Is there a particular reason why Joanne Lees has the most stinking attitude while giving evidence in her boyfriend's murder case?' A third wrote: 'It's not sexist to wonder why she is showing no emotion. I would expect any person, male or female to show some emotion and not look bored as f***, if their partner was missing, most likely dead.' Other viewers questioned why Joanne didn't think her affair was relevant in the first place, with one person writing: 'Not really for Ms Lees to decide what was relevant or not. Pretty arrogant telling the coppers how to do their job.' Reaction: Taking to Twitter, social media users were quick to slam Joanne as emotionless During the second episode of the four-part documentary, social media users (above) were left shocked when Joanne said that she didn't initially tell police about her affair Speaking to police in an interview, Joanne explained: 'I had an affair with someone called Nick and it lasted a month. Pete didn't know about it.' When asked if the two lovers had made any plans, Joanne said: 'We just said, if like, if we felt anything after, in the six months or whatever when we got back from England, we'd review it.' In the pre-trial hearing, there was an unmistakable gasp in the courtroom when this sudden piece of surprise evidence emerged. It was a real bombshell, no one expected it, a journalist explained in the documentary. But while some critics were shocked by the news and slammed Joanne's stoney expressions during the police interviews - others insisted it was 'sexist' to accuse the girlfriend of being emotionless and didn't prove anything. One person wrote on Twitter: 'Just because someone doesn't cry and wail in public, it doesn't mean they're "dodgy". Yet other social media users (above) claimed it was 'sexist' to accuse the girlfriend of being emotionless and didn't prove anything Bradley John Murdoch, 62, was convicted of the execution-style murder of Peter and sentenced to life behind bars in 2005 following a DNA match found on Joanne's T-shirt. Pictured: Joanne and Peter together 'People react to things in different ways. Hating the sexist undertones here - how dare she not conform to what some people expect a grieving girlfriend to behave like.' Another said: 'Cheating on your boyfriend and maybe falling out of love with him is very different to murdering him.' A third added: 'Joanne Lees is not typically soft and she distrusts the press. She comes across as p***** off at answering the same s*** and having to defend herself constantly when she's been through hell.' Murdoch, 62, was convicted of the execution-style murder of Peter and also found guilty of assaulting Joanne in 2005. Murdoch pleaded not guilty to the murder and has maintained his innocence ever since. A body was never discovered but Murdoch was found guilty largely due to a DNA match on Joanne's T-shirt. Australia's infamous 'backpacker killer' Bradley John Murdoch, 62, is surrounded by police as he arrives at Darwin airport following his arrest in 2003 Last year, he was diagnosed with cancer, triggering a last-ditch attempt from police to elicit a confession in exchange for moving him to a prison closer to his family. The murderer is being held in the Darwin Correctional Centre where he spends his days in the kitchen as a pastry chef and has become known for his desserts. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2019, according to the NT News. Police hope the 'backpacker killer' will reveal where he buried the body in exchange for being transferred from his Northern Territory jail to a Western Australian prison to be closer to his family as he battles cancer. Murdoch can apply for parole from 2033 but unless he reveals the location of Mr Falconio's body, the application will be denied. BJP leaders in Karnataka say the nomination of Eranna Bhimappa Kadadi and Ashok Jasti as party candidates for the upper house, bypassing the recommendation of the state unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel and Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, as well as the core committee of the state, is calculated to diminish the stature of the CM and create conditions for him to be eased out. IMAGE: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa. Photograph: PTI Photo. Karnataka threw up two surprises as the state finalised its candidates for the upper house: former prime minister HD Deve Gowda threw his hat in the ring although he had earlier said he was going to retire from politics; and the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was left stunned by the nomination of two candidates from the state for the Rajya Sabha who never figured in the recommendations sent by the unit. Deve Gowda can win the seat only if he gets the support of the Congress from which his party, the Janata Dal-Secular has been estranged after the Congress-JDS alliance unravelled earlier installing the BJP led by BS Yediyurappa in power in the state. But the BJP had its share of shocks. Eranna Bhimappa Kadadi and Ashok Jasti -- one Lingayat and one from the OBC -- were named as the BJP's candidates for the upper house, bypassing the recommendation of the state unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel and Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, as well as the core committee of the state. This is humiliation. Why make the state party president, the core committee and the chief minister look small by not accommodating even one of the names they had sent? If these were the two names they (the centre) had wanted, why didnt they tell the state unit to add them to the list? asked an irate BJP source in Delhi. Party leaders in Karnataka say the move is calculated to diminish the stature of the CM and create conditions for him to be eased out. They lay the blame at the door of party president JP Nadda and national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh. This is not the first time Santhosh has weighed in on decisions in Karnataka. He started out as a pracharak, much like Narendra Modi, a 'loan' from the RSS to the BJP. When Modi became Gujarat chief minister, he broke a glass ceiling: and many pracharaks believed that they too could aspire to political positions. This was reinforced by the appointment of ML Khattar, another pracharak, as chief minister of Haryana. Santhosh's area of work was Karnataka where he was organisation secretary. But with his influence and over local leaders and strong views on how the BJP should be nurtured and built in Karnataka, a clash with the party's seniormost leader, Yediyurappa, was inevitable. Santhosh was thought to be behind the rebellion of several BJP leaders, including KS Eshwarappa, something Yediyurappa claimed publicly. Eshwarappa virtually walked out of the BJP for a spell to launch his own outfit which caused extensive instability in the BJP ahead of the 2018 assembly elections. Interestingly, Ashok Jasti, one of the nominees, went along with Eshwarappa at the time. Yediyurappa loyalists believe this is clinching evidence that Santhosh convinced the central leadership to accommodate his nominees in the upper house -- and this in turn is a way of empire building with the eventual target of becoming chief minister of Karnataka. Santhosh has brought many new faces and given them positions of prominence: like Janardhan Swamy, a techie who returned from the US to his district in Chitradurga to become an MP in 2009; Pratap Simha, the journalist-turned MP from Mysore; and most recently, Tejasvi Surya, the surprise Lok Sabha candidate from the Bangalore South seat after it was decided that Union Minister Ananth Kumar's widow Tejaswini will not be fielded, 48 hours after she had opened her election office, inaugurated by the state BJP chief. The image was taken by a photojournalist during a protest that started Thursday in Lincoln Park and was posted on social media and on Block Club Chicago. In a Friday news conference, Lightfoot said she wanted the officer to be fired, although the decision rested with police Superintendent David Brown. Brown chose to relieve the officer of his police powers for conduct unbecoming of a sworn department employee, according to a police statement. Primary school reopening plan expected to be dropped Primary schools are no longer expected to reopen to all year groups a month before the summer holidays under eased coronavirus measures in the UK. Boris Johnson will speak with his Cabinet this morning before Education Secretary Gavin Williamson delivers a statement to Parliament on the wider reopening of schools. The Department of Education said it remained the "ambition" for all primary school children to return before the summer holidays. But when asked it did not deny reports that Mr Williamson will accept that this desire may not be fulfilled. Democrats unveil police reform bill after weeks of protests Democrats in Congress have unveiled sweeping legislation aimed at reforming police in the US, following weeks of protests against racism and police brutality. The bill will make it easier to prosecute officers for misconduct. Chock holds would also be banned under the proposals. It comes after death of George Floyd at the hands of a white officer in the US city of Minneapolis sparked demonstrations that spread all over the nation and the across of the world. It was not immediately clear if Republicans, who control the US Senate, would support the proposals outlined by Democrats late on Monday. Post-Brexit trade talks between UK and Japan to begin today Talks on a post-Brexit free trade deal between the UK and Japan will start today, the Department for International Trade has said. Ministers said the negotiations will expand on the current EU-Japan arrangement and secure extra benefits in areas such as digital trade. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and the Japanese minister for foreign affairs, Motegi Toshimitsu, are launching talks by video call later. North Korea cutting communication with South amid leaflet row North Korea is cutting all communication channels with South Korea as it escalates pressure on Seoul for failing to stop activists floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border. The North's Korean Central News Agency said it would be "the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with south Korea and get rid of unnecessary things". KNCA said all cross-border communication lines would be cut off from today. London jumps four places in study of world's most expensive cities to live London has jumped up four places in a global study of the worlds most expensive cities to live. The UK capital made this year's top 20 in Mercer's 2020 Cost of Living Survey, which covers 209 cities across the globe. All UK cities included in the annual survey climbed in this year's ranking, mainly due to the strength of sterling against the US dollar, according to the research. The survey is carried out to help companies understand how expensive cities will be to live in for their expatriate employees, so that pay can be set accordingly. New York is used as a base city. For the 2020 survey, London is up four places, moving from 23 to 19. On this day.... AD 68: Rome's Emperor Nero took his own life aged 32, after the Senate had declared him a public enemy. 1549: The Church of England adopted The Book of Common Prayer compiled by Thomas Cranmer. 1898: Hong Kong was leased to Britain from China for 99 years. 1904: The London Symphony Orchestra was formed by musicians who had left Henry Wood's orchestra after a disagreement. 1959: America launched the first ballistic missile submarine, the George Washington. 1975: Live radio broadcasting from the House of Commons began. 1991: The 100 million, two-mile, four-lane Dartford Bridge in east London was completed. [June 09, 2020] Air Lease Corporation Announces Lease Placement of Airbus A320-200 Aircraft with HiSky Moldova Air Lease Corporation (NYSE: AL) ("ALC") announced today a long-term lease placement for one used Airbus A320-200 aircraft with HiSky Moldova, scheduled to deliver this July. This will be the first aircraft in the fleet of the Moldovan startup airline. "ALC is pleased to announce this lease placement of our A320-200 with HiSky Moldova. We have worked closely with the HiSky Moldova executive team at previous airlines for many years and are honored to participate in the launch of the airline by providing them with their first aircraft," said David Beker, Vice President and Head of Aircraft Sales and Trading at Air Lease Corporation. "We are thrilled to work with one of the largest aircraft leasing companies in the world to assist with the launch of our airline," said Iulian Scorpan, Chief Executive Officer of HiSky Moldova. "This A320-200 is scheduled to deliver in July and will be the first aircraft in the HiSky Moldova fleet, providing the best standards of safety and premier comfort to our passengers." Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, incuding expected delivery dates. Such statements are based on current expectations and projections about our future results, prospects and opportunities and are not guarantees of future performance. Such statements will not be updated unless required by law. Actual results and performance may differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including those discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. About Air Lease Corporation (NYSE: AL) ALC is a leading aircraft leasing company based in Los Angeles, California that has airline customers throughout the world. ALC and its team of dedicated and experienced professionals are principally engaged in purchasing commercial aircraft and leasing them to its airline customers worldwide through customized aircraft leasing and financing solutions. ALC routinely posts information that may be important to investors in the "Investors" section of ALC's website at www.airleasecorp.com. Investors and potential investors are encouraged to consult the ALC website regularly for important information about ALC. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, ALC's website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this press release. About HiSky Moldova HiSky Moldova was established by a team of enthusiasts that combines hundreds of years of experience in aviation. The Company will launch regular flights in July 2020 from its hub Chisinau International Airport to six European destinations: London (Great Britain), Dublin (Ireland), Lisbon (Portugal), Paris (France), Bologne (Italy), and Dusseldorf (Germany). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005728/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] ANN ARBOR The familiar sounds of clinking glasses and silverware are returning to Ann Arbors downtown sidewalks and restaurants. With the governors order allowing restaurants across Michigan to reopen, many of Ann Arbors usual lunch spots sported bustling outdoor patios Monday. Familiar dine-in restaurants like Cafe Zola, Shalimar and Knights Steakhouse all offered indoor seating as well, with tables marked and rearranged to keep a six feet of distance between parties. All three restaurants have applied for permission to expand their patios further as the city plans to close sections of eight downtown streets to weekend traffic to allow for al fresco dining. At Shalimar, owner Samir Patel has introduced Thali, a traditional Indian dish served on a silver platter, to replace the restaurants buffet service. Knights Steakhouse general manager Suzie Sutter says the restaurant hopes to add 10 tables of outdoor seating on Maynard Street, which will remain closed to traffic all summer. Carolyn Lepard, a regular at Knights Steakhouse, said she was to once again have the opportunity to dine outdoors with her dog, Charlie. Lepard said shes made a habit of ordering carryout from the Dexter location over the past few months, but was happy to be able to dine downtown and chat with the restaurants employees while maintaining social distancing. Everybody who works here knows me, Lepard said. This is my spot." Not all downtown restaurants were open for lunch, but workers could be seen dusting off patio furniture along Main and Liberty streets. (CNN) After a week of large demonstrations against racism and police brutality, at home and abroad, the French government announced Monday that police will no longer be able to use chokeholds when arresting people. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the use of chokeholds -- which he described as applying pressure on an individual's neck or throat while holding them on the ground -- was a "dangerous method" and will no longer be taught in police training. "I hear the criticism, I hear a powerful cry against hatred," said Castaner, referring to large Black Lives Matter protests that took place in several major French cities last week. He added "racism has no place in our society, not in our Republic." While motivated by the outrage over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the French protesters also demanded justice for Adama Traore, a 24-year-old black man who died in police custody after fleeing an identity check outside Paris four years ago. His sister, Assa Traore, said police told her that his final words were "I can't breathe," echoing Floyd's final words. Castaner referred to the Traore case in his remarks, saying French President Emmanuel Macron had asked the country's Justice Minister for information about it. "We want total transparency. In the face of excitement, of comments, of certainties, only truth and transparency count. This is what the President is encouraging us to strive toward," he said. But Traore's family has already rejected an offer to meet with Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet, according to the family's campaign group 'Truth for Adama.' "Our lawyer was contacted today by the office of Mrs. Nicole Belloubet, Minister of Justice... He was asked to organize a meeting between [Belloubet] and the family of Adama Traore," the group said in a press release on Twitter Monday. "The Traore family refused to meet with the [Minister of Justice] to discuss the case." The group said that the family has been waiting for legal progress for four years, "not an invitation to the discussion which would have no procedural purpose," and called for another national rally this Saturday. This comes after huge crowds filled the streets around the High Court in Paris last Tuesday, for a protest against the alleged case of racist police brutality. In his speech, Castaner denied that French police "targeted violence" against people of color. "The French police are not the American police," he added. Castaner also called on police to enforce the use of body cameras, especially during arrests, and stressed the obligation for officers to display their ID numbers. He announced further measures including obligatory annual training. "Every substantiated suspicion of racism" in the police force will result in suspension, he added. "I want zero tolerance for racism in our Republic." According to a report released on Monday by the internal watchdog of the police (IGPN) there has been an increase of 41% of police internal investigations for police violence between 2019 and 2018. Injecting Covid-19 patients with the blood of survivors speeds up their recovery and reduces their symptoms, researchers claim. A scientific review claimed convalescent plasma therapy cleared the disease in less than a week in adults under the age of 60. But the antibody-rich plasma took between 10 to 30 days to fend off the disease in elderly patients, who are prone to severe illness from Covid-19. Scientists in Sweden and Finland, behind the study, said global research indicated the unproven therapy 'is safe and effective'. But none of the studies included in the review compared patients receiving plasma to a control group considered the gold standard of scientific research. Early results from the first randomised control study in China actually suggested the treatment makes no difference. Hundreds of NHS patients are currently being treated with convalescent plasma as part of a trial at London's Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital. And Health Secretary Matt Hancock donated his blood after recovering from coronavirus in March. It's thought that antibodies in recovered patients' blood can bolster the struggling immune system of infected people. Health Secretary Matt Hancock donated his blood after recovering from coronavirus in March The treatment works using the liquid part of the blood, known as convalescent plasma (pictured, at the Amulfo Arias Madrid Hospital in Panama City) The treatment used for around a century for other infections works using the liquid part of the blood, known as convalescent plasma. This antibody-rich plasma is injected into Covid-19 patients struggling to produce their own antibodies, with hopes it can help clear the virus. Donating takes around 45 minutes and medics filter the blood through a machine to remove the plasma, in a process known as plasmapheresis. The treatment - used for around a century for other infections - works using the liquid part of the blood, known as convalescent plasma. The yellowy liquid is removed from former patients' blood. Pictured, Dr Zhou Min shows his plasma after donating in Wuhan, China A clinical trial of convalescent plasma on coronavirus patients is being conducted at St Thomas' hospital. Pictured, Matt Hancock donating Covid-19 antibodies in London WHAT IS CONVALESCENT PLASMA AND WHERE HAS IT BEEN USED? Convalescent plasma has been used to treat infections for at least a century, dating back to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. It was also trialed during the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza virus pandemic, 2003 SARS epidemic, and the 2012 MERS epidemic. Convalescent plasma was used as a last resort to improve the survival rate of patients with SARS whose condition continued to deteriorate. It has been proven 'effective and life-saving' against other infections, such as rabies and diphtheria, said Dr Mike Ryan, of the World Health Organization. 'It is a very important area to pursue,' Dr Ryan said. Although promising, convalescent plasma has not been shown to be effective in every disease studied, the FDA say. Is it already being used for COVID-19 patients? Before it can be routinely given to patients with COVID-19, it is important to determine whether it is safe and effective through clinical trials. The FDA said it was 'facilitating access' for the treatment to be used on patients with serious or immediately life-threatening COVID-19 infections'. It came after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that plasma would be tested there to treat the sickest of the state's coronavirus patients. COVID-19 patients in Beijing, Wuhan and Shanghai are being treated with this method, authorities report. Lu Hongzhou, professor and co-director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre, said in February the hospital had set up a special clinic to administer plasma therapy and was selecting patients who were willing to donate. 'We are positive that this method can be very effective in our patients,' he said. Meanwhile, the head of a Wuhan hospital said plasma infusions from recovered patients had shown some encouraging preliminary results. The MHRA has approved the use of the therapy in the UK, but it has not been revealed which hospitals have already tried it. How does it work? Blood banks take plasma donations much like they take donations of whole blood; regular plasma is used in hospitals and emergency rooms every day. If someone's donating only plasma, their blood is drawn through a tube, the plasma is separated and the rest infused back into the donor's body. Then that plasma is tested and purified to be sure it doesn't harbor any blood-borne viruses and is safe to use. For COVID-19 research, people who have recovered from the coronavirus would be donating. Scientists would measure how many antibodies are in a unit of donated plasma - tests just now being developed that aren't available to the general public - as they figure out what's a good dose, and how often a survivor could donate. There is also the possibility that asymptomatic patients - those who never showed symptoms or became unwell - would be able to donate. But these 'silent carriers' would need to be found via testing first. Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda is working on a drug that contains recovered patients antibodies in a pill form, Stat News reported. Could it work as a vaccine? While scientists race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, blood plasma therapy could provide temporary protection for the most vulnerable in a similar fashion. A vaccine trains people's immune systems to make their own antibodies against a target germ. The plasma infusion approach would give people a temporary shot of someone else's antibodies that are short-lived and require repeated doses. If US regulator the FDA agrees, a second study would give antibody-rich plasma infusions to certain people at high risk from repeated exposures to COVID-19, such as hospital workers or first responders, said Dr Liise-anne Pirofski of New York's Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. That also might include nursing homes when a resident becomes ill, in hopes of giving the other people in the home some protection, she said. Advertisement Donors must have tested positive for the illness either at home or in hospital but they should be three to four weeks into their recovery. The promising treatment was used a century ago in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which is estimated to have killed up to 50million people. In the latest study, researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland reviewed 10 studies looking into CP therapy. There were a total of 61 coronavirus patients involved in the trials, which took place in China, South Korea and the US. They were aged between 19 and 100. Exactly half of the patients recovered within the first week and 40 per cent cleared the disease between eight and 29 days after CP transfusion. For the remaining patients, recovery data was unavailable. The analysis not yet published in a journal or scrutinised by other scientists showed patients over the age of sixty took twice as long to recover than younger volunteers. There were no noticeable differences in recovery time between genders, despite men being more likely to fall severely ill with the disease or patients with and without underlying chronic diseases. Writing in the study, the academics, led by Ville Pimenoff, of the Karolinska Institutet, said: 'The results reviewed here suggest that CP therapy for COVID-19 is safe and effective.... and created an immediate recovery response in about half of the patients reviewed. 'This signal of shorter time to recovery was significantly associated to patients under the age of sixty.' The scientists acknowledged early results from China have indicated the therapy has no effect on coronavirus patients. They added: 'First randomized clinical trial results, however, revealed no improvements in recovery time for elderly patients with severe COVID-19 between standard treatment alone and added with convalescent plasma. 'Accordingly, we argue that older patients may need a significantly longer time for recovery. Further randomized clinical trial data for COVID-19 with rigorous ethical standards is urgently needed.' There is no cure for the killer coronavirus and thousands of patients worldwide are involved in trials of promising medicines. A key advantage to the blood based therapy is that its available immediately and relies only drawing blood from a former patient. It is also significantly cheaper than developing a new drug, which costs millions to take through trials and regulation before mass production. Infusing patients with blood plasma has also been used to tackle SARS and MERS, two similar coronaviruses, as well as the deadly infection Ebola. Plasma makes up around 55 per cent of all blood volume and provides the liquid for red and white blood cells to be carried around the body in. By injecting this into patients it can provide their bodies with a vital dose of crucial substances called antibodies. When someone contracts coronavirus, their immune system produces antibodies which attack the virus. The antibodies build up over a month and are stored in the plasma, ready to be released if the virus enters their body again. It is not clear how long antibodies last for, providing some form of protection, in people who have had SARS-CoV-2. CP therapy may be the best hope for COVID-19 patients while scientists work to develop new, specific treatments for the disease. A clinical trial of convalescent plasma on coronavirus patients is being conducted at St Thomas' hospital. The hospital says if the trials prove the treatment to be effective, NHS Blood and Transplant will begin a national programme to deliver up to 10,000 units of plasma per week to the NHS, enough to treat 5,000 patients each week. The results are expected in a matter of weeks. A Chinese study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found CP therapy failed to make a difference in Covid-19 patients. In a randomized trial involving 103 COVID-19 patients, convalescent plasma made no difference in the time it took to show signs of improvement or in rates of death at 28 days versus a placebo. There were some potentially encouraging results among patients who were 'severely ill' but not sick enough to be in the intensive care unit. They recovered roughly five days faster if they got the plasma treatment, and more of them improved within 28 days of starting treatment. The study was somewhat hampered as researchers were not able to enroll as many patients as they had hoped because the epidemic started to come under control in their region, and it was stopped early. Had they been able to enroll as many patients as originally planned, the results might have been different, they noted. Genworth MI Canada Inc, which runs the largest Canadian private residential mortgage insurer, said on Monday it has no plans to change its underwriting policy for debt service ratio limits, minimum credit score and downpayment requirements. Government-backed Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC) said last week it would tighten rules for offering mortgage insurance from July 1, after forecasting declines of between 9% and 18% in home prices over the next 12 months. The move would make it harder for riskier borrowers, who offer downpayments of less than 20%, to access CMHCs default mortgage insurance. Genworth Canada Chief Executive Officer Stuart Levings said the company, which provides mortgage default insurance to Canadian residential mortgage lenders, was able to manage its mortgage insurance exposure, including to borrowers with lower credit scores or higher debt service ratios. Credit ratings agency DBRS Morningstar added CMHCs changes to its underwriting requirements may make buying a home more challenging for insured borrowers, primarily first-time homebuyers. Despite evaporating activity in the housing market due to the COVID-19 pandemic, prices have continued to rise as listings have fallen off alongside demand. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri) Topics Canada India has asked China to reduce the build-up of its troops at the LAC. New Delhi: Defence minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday that talks between top India-China military commanders have been very positive and both countries have agreed that further talks will be held to resolve the current tussle at the line of actual control (LAC). On the Opposition demand for a clarification on the India-China standoff, Singh said that whatever statement needs to be made on the standoff, he will make it in the Parliament and will not mislead the people of this country. As defence minister of the country I want to say that whatever has to be said I will stand and say it in the Parliament and will not mislead the people of this country, said Singh. He said that the border dispute between India and China has been going on from a long time and we want that this border dispute should be resolved as soon as possible. Meanwhile, defence minister on Monday held an hour long meeting with Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and chiefs of army, navy and air-force to review the outcome of the high level India-China military commanders meeting on Saturday and strategize future plans. According to sources talks will be held at the local commanders level -- Brigade and Commanding officers level- in the coming days to try to resolve the stand-off. Indian armys 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh and Peoples Liberation Armys South Xinjiang Military Region, commander Maj Gen Liu Lin had held over 5 hours long meeting on Saturday in Moldo on Chinese side to try to resolve the month long stand-off between the two armies at the line of actual control in Ladakh. India has asked China to reduce the build-up of its troops at the LAC and revert back to the status quo of April in Pangong Tso, Hot Springs and Galwan Valley. Silver Airways' return to the Lowcountry is being delayed once again. The Fort Lauderdale-based carrier is postponing flights between Charleston and three Florida cities indefinitely after it was announced last month the airline planned to return in late June. Flights originally were to begin on May 21 to Orlando, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, with the Orlando route traveling on to Key West, but the coronavirus outbreak interrupted those plans. Last month, Charleston airport liaison Gary Edwards said they would return in late June, but that schedule, too, has now been scuttled. "They have sidelined their new markets," Edwards said recently. "We hope to have them back by sometime at the end of the year." The carrier, he said, is trying to work through the falloff in travel demand like other airlines that saw passenger levels plummet to a trickle during the height of the coronavirus lockdown in the spring. "They are breaking their schedule back down to their core strengths," Edwards said. "They will add a bit each month." He emphasized the carrier is suspending service and not cancelling it. "Hopefully, by the end of 2020 they will be in a place to have a conversation again," Edwards said. Silver Airways did not respond to a request for further comment. The airline announced in February it would bring back year-round service to Charleston International Airport after a five-year hiatus. The carrier served Charleston in 2015 with daily flights to Orlando and Tampa that continued on to its home base in Fort Lauderdale, but it discontinued service after nine months, citing weak bookings. Silvers arrival five years ago came shortly before JetBlue Airways added nonstop flights to Fort Lauderdale from Charleston, cutting into Silver's service. Kolkata, Jun 09 (UNI) Launching a scathing attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for "playing political games" over the rights of the poor, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said, " West Bengal is the only state where political violence is propagated. " Addressing the virtual rally, histhird event in the past three days, Mr Shah said, " While democracy has strengthened its roots and been consolidated in the entire country, West Bengal remains the only state where political violence is propagated. " " BJP will never forget the sacrifice of workers, " he said and promised to return the pristine glory of the state. "Bengal is the only state where communal violence is still ongoing. It should stop. I assure you that BJP isn't here just to bring a revolution or do politics, but also build a cultural and traditional Bengal again. We want to create 'Sonar Bangla' again," he said. He accused the Chief Minister of insulting migrant workers. " Youve rubbed salt into their wounds and they will not forget it. Mamata ji, you referred to Shramik Special Trains as Corona Express. The name that you have given, Corona Express will become an exit express for the TMC in the state, " Mr Shah averred. Dwelling on the measures taken by the Narendra Modi government for the welfare of the poor, Mr Shah blasted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for not allowing the implementation of Ayushman Bharat scheme. Do the poor people of Bengal have no right to receive free and quality treatment? Why then you won't allow the Ayushman Bharat scheme here. Mamata ji, stop doing politics on the rights of poor people. You can do politics on a lot of other issues, but not on poors health, he averred. On Ms Banerjees opposition to the Citizensip Act, Mr Shah said the Chief Minister should come clean why she is opposing the law. It will cost you dearly. What is your problem if Namshudras and other such communities live respectfully in the country? People of Bengal are asking you this question as well. You will have to answer, the former BJP president said. Mr Shah Charged Ms Banerjee with blocking the Central schemes for farmers in Bengal. He also accused Ms Banerjee of not providing the Centre with the list of West Bengal farmers to deposit Rs 6,000 into their bank accounts. "I am requesting Mamata Ji again - if you send us the list of farmers, we will send them Rs 6,000 each. Why are you stopping your farmers from receiving help from the government?" he questioned. Stating that the Modi Government has deposited Rs 72,000 Cr into the bank accounts of 9.5 cr farmers, Mr Shah said, "Every year the government is providing them with Rs 6000. " Speaking on Covid-19, Mr Shah said, " The Government is fighting COVID with support of 130 crore Indians. " Speaking about the popularity of Mr Modi, he said, "After Shashtri Ji, I've witnessed a PM for the first time with such effect that saw 130 crore Indians stay indoors while exercising self-discipline at his behest." He said, " Mr Modi has prepared the nation in such a way that today, against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the Government is fighting and ably supported by 130 crore Indians. " Stating that opposing CAA will cost Ms Banerjee dearly, Mr Shah said, " Mamata Banerjee needs to come clean on why she is opposing the CAA. Mr Shah said, " Ms Banerjee keeps asking for the account of the Modi Government's work. I have come here with all the detais. " " She (Mamata) should address a press conference and present the account of her government's ten years works, " he said. On Article 370 abrogation, Mr Shah said, " It's a matter of pride for us that the first President of our party Dr Shyama Prasad Mookherji was from Bengal and gave his life for the unification of the country. Today, Article 370 stands abrogated and Jammu-Kashmir have been mainstreamed with the rest of the country. " Ed's: Pls Pick Up Suitably From Earlier Series. UNI SJC-PC-BM The Opposition parties are attacking the government over the border standoff with China. Leading the charge is Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who has accused the government of hiding the truth. Everyone knows the reality of the borders, but the thought is good to keep ones heart happy, he said in a tweet in Hindi, improvising on Ghalibs couplet to attack home minister Amit Shah on Monday. On Tuesday, he responded to defence minister Rajnath Singh, who had earlier attacked Gandhi and the Congress party. Once RM is done commenting on the hand symbol, can he answer: Have the Chinese occupied Indian territory in Ladakh? Gandhi tweeted. Once RM is done commenting on the hand symbol, can he answer: Have the Chinese occupied Indian territory in Ladakh? Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 9, 2020 Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also asked the defence minister to answer the question, saying denigrating party symbols of opposition is not defending India. Denigrating Party Symbols of Opposition isnt same as Defending India. Will Rajnath Singh ji answer the simple question posed by Sh Rahul Gandhi, Surjewala asked on Twitter. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) too joined the Congress in attacking the Centre on the issue. Respected @AmitShah Ji, Bengal has not heard you speak during these times of crisis, but we hope today you would take a minute to answer this: Are the Chinese occupying our territory or not? the TMCs youth wing president Abhishek Banerjee said ahead of home minister Amit Shahs virtual rally for the people of West Bengal. Respected @AmitShah Ji, Bengal has not heard you speak during these times of crisis, but we hope today you would take a minute to answer this: "Are the Chinese occupying our territory or not?" " ?" Abhishek Banerjee (@abhishekaitc) June 9, 2020 In the rally, Shah accused the TMC government of indulging in violence and sought a change in the state. The latest to join the Opposition chorus is PDP president Mehbooba Muftis daughter Iltija Mufti. Iltija handles her mothers Twitter account where she tweeted: When Pulwama happened, GOI retaliated with surgical air strikes. Here China is on the cusp of altering territorial status quo & oddly enough its become the elephant(read dragon)in the room. Obsequious surrender? When Pulwama happened, GOI retaliated with surgical air strikes. Here China is on the cusp of altering territorial status quo & oddly enough its become the elephant(read dragon)in the room. Obsequious surrender? Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) June 9, 2020 The standoff has been continuing in the Ladakh area for more than a month. A meeting between top military officers of both India and China was held on Saturday. Though the meeting ended without a breakthrough, Chinas foreign ministry later said that there was consensus that the differences should not turn into disputes. India has boosted its troop presence in the northern area, matching China in numbers and resources. Home minister Amit Shah, while addressing a virtual rally for the people of Bihar, said that Indias defence policy has gained global acceptance. He said that the whole world agrees that after USA and Israel if there is any other country that is able to protect its borders, it is India. Nirav Modi Mumbai: A special court has dealt a major blow to Nirav Modi, who fled abroad after allegedly defrauding the Punjab National Bank of India of Rs 13,000 crore. In it, a PMLA court has now ordered the government to seize all of Nirav Modi's assets in a money laundering case. The order was issued under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act. Advertisement Nirav ModiAccording to the information provided by the Enforcement Directorate about Nirav Modi's assets in the court, Nirav Modi has assets in Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Alibag, Surat. The Government of India will now own about Rs 1,400 crore in assets. Nirav Modi has six apartments in a building called Samudra Mahal in Worli, Mumbai. Each apartment is worth about Rs 100 crore. Nirav Modi lived in this apartment with his family before fleeing. Apart from this, Nirav Modi had crores of rupees, worth of jewellery and a large amount which would be confiscated. Advertisement Nirav ModiAccording to the information given by the Enforcement Directorate in the court about Nirav Modi's assets, there is a distributed music store in the name of Nirav Modi's 3500 square feet Rhythm House in Kalaghoda area near Mumbai's Sessions Court. There is a flat in a high-rise property building on Peddar Road in South Mumbai near Breach Candy Road, which will be confiscated. There are also three flats in the Mumbai Opera House. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come out openly in support of the US against China over Hong Kong. He announced that Britain will open its doors to any of the 2.9 million Hong Kong citizens eligible for a British National Overseas passport if China imposes its national security law. Writing for the Murdoch press Times newspaper June 3, Johnson said that his offer, which would require a change in Britains immigration rules, would allow anyone holding or eligible to hold these passports to come to the UK for a renewable period of 12 months, be allowed to work or study and thus potentially be eligible for citizenship. He described his offerriddled with all sorts of loopholesas extending the hand of friendship to the people in Britains former colony. He forgot to say that this former colony, seized from China, has never benefited from Britains friendship. It was wrested from China in 1841 during Britains first two-year-long opium war, served as Britains commercial gateway to the country and became a byword for colonial domination, oppression and social misery. In 1997, after the expiry of its 99 year leasea term that denotes its feudal and exploitative relationship with the territorythe UK handed Hong Kong back to China under a 50-year form of semi-autonomy known as one country, two systems that perpetuated its citizens lack of democratic rights under British rule. Johnsons offercoming from a man whose career has been built on fostering xenophobia and who made limiting immigration into Britain the centrepiece of his Brexit strategy, even increasing the visa fee for vital staff for a National Health Service which has more than 100,000 vacanciesis disgusting. It is a cynical and hypocritical public relations stunt aimed at demonstrating his craven support for US President Donald Trump, even though it means threatening the City of Londons profit base, the last prop of the British economy. Johnson made this offer amid the Trump administrations escalating anti-China campaign. This has included blaming Beijing for the global COVID-19 pandemic and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeos declaration that the facts on the ground showed that Hong Kong no longer had a high degree of autonomy from China. The US is preparing to impose a raft of economic and trade sanctions that would damage Hong Kongs position as a global financial hub, the third most important in the world, and its role as a springboard into mainland China due to its looser export controls and agreements on technology transfers, academic exchanges, taxation, currency exchange and sanctions. This economic assault on Hong Kong forms part of Washingtons broader efforts over the last 10 years to undermine Chinas economic and strategic position and prepare for a possible war. Pompeos announcement came in response to Chinas declaration last month that its annual National Peoples Congress (NPC) would pass a new national security law covering subversion, terrorism and foreign influence in Hong Kong. The legislation, if enacted, would override Hong Kongs legislature, which had to abandon a similar law in 2003 in the face of mass demonstrations against its reactionary measures, led by pro-imperialist forces. Trump upped the ante, saying in a bellicose speech that the US would respond very powerfully if the NPC passed the proposed legislation, while Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell confirmed that the State Department was discussing what punitive action to take. Washingtons assault on Hong Kongs special economic status threatens to undermine Britains banking, financial services, fintech and commercial corporations, on whose speculative and parasitic activities the British economy has become ever more dependent and which are in turn heavily reliant on the Far East for the majority of their profits, not to say their viability. More than 300 UK-based companies have regional headquarters or offices serving Hong Kongs domestic market and the region, while the UK is the prime destination for Chinese foreign investment, which in the last five years has equalled the total in the previous 30 years. Last week, Britains largest bank HSBC, which had once threatened to move its headquarters to Hong Kong and generates the bulk of its profits in Asia, announced that first-quarter profits had nearly halved as it set aside $3 billion in bad loan provisions due to the coronavirus pandemic. This comes just two months after it announced that it would shed 35,000 jobs worldwide to cut costs. Johnsons very public support for Washington has prompted a furious response from Chinas foreign ministry, which warned Britain to step back from the brink and abandon its cold war mentality. It said, Interfering in Hong Kongs affairs will definitely backfire. Both HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank have now distanced themselves from Johnson and declared their support for Chinas national security legislation for Hong Kong, thereby driving a wedge between the City and the government and intensifying its political crisis. Johnsons Get Brexit Done game plan involved straddling two horses: seeking an ever-closer alignment with Washingtons economic and military agenda while at the same time pursuing bilateral trade deals with countries around the world, including China. He thought that a Global Britain approach would either compensate for the loss of trade with the European Union (EU), that accounts for nearly 50 percent of British exports, or enable him to force a trade deal with the EU on the strength of his alliance with Washington. He had therefore been reluctant initially to alienate China and join the Trump administrations economic war. However, Washington made it clear abstentionism was unacceptable. Johnson then came under heavy pressure from right-wing forces in both the Conservative and Labour parties opposed to Chinas growing economic power. The Henry Jackson Society, a British foreign policy think tank closely aligned with neo-conservatives in the US, argued in a recent report, endorsed by former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove, that the Five Eyes countries (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK) should reduce their dependence on China for strategic goods that service critical national infrastructure. It called for Huawei, the Chinese telecoms manufacturer, to be designated as a high-risk vendor and barred from playing any part in the development of Britains 5G network. Johnson has been forced to review the decisionmade in Januaryto allow Huawei equipment a limited role in the project. A similar controversy has erupted over the plan to build the Sizewell C nuclear plant with China Nuclear Energy (CGN). Sizewell is the second of three nuclear plants that the Chinese government agreed to build in the UK under a 2015 deal signed with the Cameron government. Pro-imperialist NGO Hong Kong Watchs chief executive Johnny Patterson described Britains response as limp, inane and could have been copied and pasted directly from their previous statements and called for the government to coordinate a joint response of like-minded countries to Chinas move. Adding to the pressure on Johnson, seven former foreign secretaries, both Labour and Conservative, appealed to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab for Britain to be more assertive over Hong Kong. Concerned that the response to China should not be left to Trump, and unwilling for Britain to sever its ties with the European powers from whom it is becoming increasingly isolated, they appealed to him to coordinate a European response to China. While Trump has proposed a meeting in September of the G7 nations plus Australia, Korea, India and Russia, the European Union is at odds with the Trump administration over its handling of the conflict with China, which it views as contrary to its commercial and geostrategic interests. At an EU meeting last week, only Sweden supported Washingtons proposed sanctions. In throwing in his lot with Washington, however reluctantly, over sanctions against Hong Kong and China, Johnson has intensified his governments political crisis and isolation. His delusional fantasy of Global Britain has been exposed as a chimera. It has proved impossible for Britain to pursue its own international commercial interests without jeopardising its strategic relationship with the US, the worlds dominant military power that has, since the end of World War II, enabled London to punch above its weight on the world arena. " " Protesters in Denver run from tear gas fired by police on May 29, 2020. Public health experts worry about the effects tear gas will have on accelerating the spread of coronavirus. Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images By now we've all seen the pictures: enormous crowds of protesters in the U.S. met with, in some cases, ominous clouds of tear gas. But the use of tear gas to disperse protesters in cities in the United States and around the world could have unintended consequences when it comes to the spread of the coronavirus. The large crowds that have gathered to demonstrate for racial justice and against police brutality in the weeks after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May were already worrisome to public health officials. Although many demonstrators wore masks, most crowds grew much too large to maintain social distancing guidelines. Also, the protests typically involved crowds of people shouting and chanting, activities that could potentially send infected droplets far and wide. Advertisement Tear Gas and Coronavirus The sight alarmed Amber Schmidtke, Ph.D., an assistant professor of microbiology in the department of biomedical sciences at Mercer University's School of Medicine in Macon, Georgia. "Tear gas components are mainly there to hit the pain receptors in your body to get you to move," she says. "It's like you're poked with a stick. You want to get away from the pain. The other thing [tear gas] does is trigger your parasympathetic response, a neurologic series of activities that are outside of your control, but because there's a chemical irritant in place your body is going to do everything it can to flush it out." A person will feel the symptoms of chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS), chloroacetophenone (CN) and dibenzoxazepine (CR) the chemicals most commonly used in tear gas within 20 to 30 seconds after being exposed. "It's going to increase mucous production along the sites where you've had exposure and that's mainly your respiratory mucosa linings," Schmidtke says. "In your nose that means you'll have a runny nose. You're going to have mucus production in the lungs, along the trachea, your windpipe. You're going to want to cough that out. You're also going to want to salivate more than you ordinarily would; you're going to produce more tears." How much a person is affected depends on many variables, such as whether there's a breeze or how close they are to the agent. A person's eyes will sting, they may sneeze or retch. "But the most dangerous thing is the coughing that will happen in response to the tear gas," Schmidtke says. "It's a deep cough because you are trying so hard to get this out of your body. And it has the potential to spread viral particles rather far. It's your body's natural response to get rid of a chemical irritant but it's the same mechanism that we're concerned about with virus spread. It's the perfect storm of things you don't want to happen in a pandemic." And it's not just Schmidtke who is concerned. Other public health officials are too, including Centers for Disease Control director Dr. Robert Redfield who said during a June 4, 2020, House Appropriations hearing on the coronavirus response that the use of tear gas by police may help the virus spread. " " Police officers in riot gear push back demonstrators next to St. John's Episcopal Church outside of the White House by shooting tear gas on June 1, 2020 in Washington D.C. JOSE LUIS MAGANA/AFP via Getty Images Advertisement What Tear Gas Feels Like Forrest Brown lives in downtown Atlanta just two blocks from CNN and Centennial Olympic Park, close to the site of many Atlanta protests. The first weekend of demonstrations, he stood outside his building with neighbors attempting to protect their property when he got a whiff of a pungent odor: tear gas. "We could smell it and it stung our eyes," Brown says. "We would go inside, wait it out, but it wasn't a strong hit. You could feel it but then it dissipated." That was Saturday, May 30, 2020. Sunday night was a different story. "I was actually in the interior courtyard of our building," Brown says. "I didn't see the [cloud] but it was a bad dose compared to Saturday night. My symptoms were much worse stinging and watering eyes; it also made my lips feel like they were tingling and burning. I felt like I wanted to throw up. It made me feel very weak, almost jittery like I might pass out." Brown says the worst of it was over in about 30 minutes, though he felt nauseous for several hours and even had blurred vision Monday. Though he was wearing a mask (following standard protocols) and a full block away from where the tear gas was actually released, he was exposed to it and he believes possibly coronavirus, something he says he is definitely concerned about. "Because I was wearing a mask and was outdoors, and some of the protesters wore masks plus it was warm and no one lingered for long I'm hoping all that together means I'm OK," Brown says. "[Before this] I was very closely following coronavirus protocols and that has been totally thrown out the window with this." Advertisement Risks for Coronavirus Skyrocket for Protesters The use of tear gas at demonstrations during the pandemic is of concern to Schmidtke, not only because it potentially increases the spread of the coronavirus, but also because the same people who were at risk for a COVID-19 infection are also at risk for side effects from a tear gas exposure: those people with underlying conditions. "COVID-19 sort of blurs the lines between being a respiratory disease and a cardiovascular disease," she says. "The similarities aren't uniform but if you have asthma, you're going to be at higher risk of complications from something like a tear gas exposure. People who have COPD or any of those sorts of ailments could have more severe outcomes." Schmidtke concedes it's a difficult situation because a person can make plans to participate in a peaceful protest and find themselves in a situation they aren't prepared for. "The biggest bottom line is that if you're a protester and you're exposed to tear gas even if you weren't you need to make a plan to be tested for COVID-19 because we know you were in a setting with a lot of people," Schmidtke says. But, she says, there's no real incentive to get tested immediately after protesting. When the virus gets into the body it goes into what's called the eclipse period, hiding out in the cells while it makes copies of itself. Then it starts to leave the cells and spread to other cells. "While it's in the cells it's undetectable," she says. Schmidtke suggests everyone who has been at a protest rally should get tested within three to seven days of participating, even if they're not showing symptoms, because of the high rate of asymptomatic carriers. CDC director Redfield issued a similar warning at the June 4 Senate Appropriations hearing. "I do think there is a potential, unfortunately, for this to be a seeding event," he testified. He went on to advise anyone who has attended protests to be tested within three to seven days, and to caution anyone they come in contact with that they may have been exposed to the virus. Protesters do have some things going for them," Schmidtke says. "They're outside, they have the benefit of ventilation. They have sunlight. We know UV light is not advantageous for the virus. Protesters are typically young. But I wouldn't count on those things being some sort of anti-COVID security blanket at all." " " Massive crowds of peaceful protesters, like this one on Constitution Avenue in D.C., have been occurring all across the U.S. Social distancing in these large crowds is impossible, which is of grave concern to many health experts. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Amnesty International says gas masks are the best protection against tear gas if they are properly fitted and sealed. Don't have a gas mask? Wear goggles, a respirator or a wet bandana over the nose and mouth. If you're exposed, stay calm and breathe slowly. Blow your nose. Rinse your mouth with water, cough and spit. Try not to swallow. By Express News Service KOCHI: With five chartered international and one Vande Bharat repatriation flight confirming their arrival, the Kochi airport has made all arrangements to handle the 1,500 passengers who would reach on Wednesday, the airport said in a statement. More chartered flights are scheduled to land this week. Wednesdays arrivals include the Qatar Airways chartered flight from London which will reach Kochi via Doha at 1.45am with 280 passengers; the IndiGo special flight from Sharjah which touches down at 3pm with 180 passengers; Emirates flight from Dubai which reaches at 5pm with 350 passengers; Air India flight from Jeddah which will land at 6.50pm with 350 passengers and Gulf Air flight from Dammam which will arrive at 10.50pm with 162 passengers. Besides, the Vande Bharat flight of Air India Express from Salalah will also land at 7.45pm with 177 passengers. On Tuesday, the airport received 178 passengers who came from Abu Dhabi on an Air India Express flight at 5.40pm. The domestic traffic at the airport is gaining momentum with 1,381 passengers arriving and 1,061 leaving on Monday. A round trip in Delhi sector was cancelled, said the statement. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Yunindita Prasidya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 13:37 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd4520b 1 Business bank-mandiri,profit,banking-industry,digital-banking,mobile-banking,loan-restructure Free State-owned Bank Mandiri has secured net profit growth in the first quarter as it strives to strengthen its digital channels amid the outbreak. The bank saw its net profit grow 9.44 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 7.92 trillion (US$5.65 million) in the first three months, with a growth rate that was much higher than its peers. State-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) saw its net profit contract 0.3 percent in the first quarter to Rp 8.17 trillion, while Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) recorded a 36.79 percent contraction, while Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) booked 4.3 percent growth. The notable growth in Bank Mandiris net profit was supported by nearly 24 percent growth in its fee-based income to Rp 7.74 trillion and 9.05 percent increase in its net interest income to Rp 16.16 trillion. We are committed to maintaining business growth that is sustainable and consistent in giving better added value to our shareholders, Bank Mandiri president director Royke Tumilaar said in a written statement published on Monday. Read also: Banks face uphill battle against pandemic following slow Q1 performance At present, we continue to maintain the quality of our assets and business because this pandemic might have [adverse] impacts on business, Royke added. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses and offices to close to contain the coronavirus spread, weakening peoples purchasing power and loan repayment capacity, as well as disrupting business activity. Financial Services Authority (OJK) data show bad loan ratio or non-performing loans (NPL) stood at 2.77 percent in March, higher than 2.51 percent in the same period last year. At the same time, loan growth reached 7.95 percent yoy in the first quarter, higher than the 6.08 percent recorded at the end of last year, but no new loan demand was recorded in the period. Bank Mandiri reported 14.20 percent growth in loan disbursement to a total of Rp 902.7 trillion as of March. Meanwhile, its NPL hovered at 2.36 percent, a 0.32 percentage point decrease from March last year. At the same time, the banks third-party funds grew 13.72 percent to Rp 941.3 trillion. Read also: Indonesia remains favorable for global investors: Deutsche Bank Bank Mandiris digital channels experienced exponential growth along with the changing of customers behavior in using those channels amid the pandemic, the banks risk management director, Ahmad Siddik Badruddin, said during a livestreamed press conference on Monday. The bank reported active users of its internet banking and mobile banking app, Mandiri Online, reached 3.6 million in the first quarter of the year, an increase of 62 percent from 2.2 million in the same period last year, with total transactions worth Rp 229.5 trillion, constituting a growth of 60 percent. Bank Mandiri will continue to focus on the development of digital banking initiatives as customers shift to digital-based services, corporate banking director Alexandra Askandar said in the press conference. Among several digital initiatives the bank has rolled out include Mandiri Online, an onboarding web service to facilitate the opening of bank accounts, and an open banking feature that enables third-party developers, such as e-wallet app Dana and e-commerce platform Tokopedia, to build services around the banks channels, Alexandra explained. Shares of Bank Mandiri, traded on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) under the code BMRI, increased 0.48 percent as of 11:33 a.m. on Tuesday. The stocks had fallen 32 percent so far this year, versus a 19 percent drop recorded by the IDXs main gauge, the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI). Bank Mandiri also reported on Monday that it had restructured loans taken out by 323,000 borrowers worth around Rp 60.8 trillion as of May 29, following the OJKs regulation to relax debt quality assessment and loan restructuring requirements for customers hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Read also: Value of restructured loans in state banks reaches $15 billion Approximately 72 percent of the borrowers looking for the debt relief were micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), with total restructured loans reaching Rp 25.6 trillion. The management expects potential restructured loans amounting to more than Rp 200 trillion but Bank Mandiri might avoid the worst-case scenario if the government can limit the negative impacts of COVID-19, Mirae Asset Sekuritas Indonesia analyst Lee Young-jun wrote in a research note on Tuesday. Provided the impact of COVID-19, the management has revised loan guidance from 8 to 10 percent to a slight contraction in 2020, Lee said, adding that Mirae expected it to stand at 3.9 percent yoy. Despite solid and better-than-expected first quarter results, we remain cautious and downgrade our recommendation from hold to sell, he added. The novel coronavirus pandemic, without any doubt, has come to stay and may likely be with human beings for some time, if not forever. Probably unlike other very fatal pandemics such as the Black Death, also known as The Plague, which killed an estimated 75200 million people in the 14th century and others including the 1918 influenza pandemic, the Spanish flu, the SARS-CoV-2, also known as Covid-19, has come to live with us forever like HIV, Cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, Typhoid, Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Anthrax, Pertussis, Tetanus, Chicken Pox, Yellow Fever, Measles, infectious Hepatitis, Trachoma, malaria among others. This means its attendant challenges and precautionary measures, including physical distancing, avoiding large gatherings, using nose masks, among others, will also be with us for a very long time. Election 2020 Ghana will go to the polls to elect a president and MPs in December. In the light of unanticipated pressures put on the global community by the impact and effects of COVID-19, Ghana, like any other country, is under pressure to confront the constitutional mandate and underlying challenges. A change in the date of the election, at this time, is an unthinkable option because the country cannot afford to gamble with its peace by going through the tumultuous hurdle of postponing its election. Interestingly, in the heat of debate, and amidst threat on the elections management body from different quarters regarding the processes leading to the December polls in an era of COVID-19, all the elections stakeholders agree on one thing: that there should be an election at all cost. As the political and media landscape become complex, with the ban on large public gathering likely to hang around for a very long while, political parties and candidates in Ghana will have to explore new ways and ideas to effectively market their ideas to the electorate. Politics and social media This is where the use of social media in political campaigns, which is now a global trend, comes in as a relevant option. Ndavula, J. O., & Mueni, J. (2014) in their publication New Media and Political Marketing in Kenya: The Case of 2013 General Elections, stated that the presidential campaigns of Obama during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections of the United States demonstrated the use of social media as powerful tools for governments and political parties to mobilise their supporters. Prof Rachel K. Gibson, a professor of Politics at University of Manchester, in her work New media and the revitalisation of politics, said the Obama presidential campaign sought to create a whole new political constituency online, raising about half a billion dollars through online platforms such as Facebook. It is reported that the campaign, which was run on fifteen social media sites (Effing et al., 2011), produced 2,000 official videos, which were viewed 80 million times on YouTube alone and generated about 244,000 unofficial video responses. While American first ladies have long used media to craft their image, Michelle Obama is said to be the first contemporary First Lady to use social media to promote her public persona. Michelle Obama, who joined Twitter during the 2012 election campaign, used the Twitter handle @Flotus (an acronym for First Lady of the United States) and had 5.06 million followers (in 2016). She also had accounts on Facebook, Flickr, and Instagram. Michelle Obamas Twitter images are strategic in that they reflect the visual themes that the media traditionally use in their coverage of first ladies. Specifically, Michelle Obamas social media messaging portrayed her as an activist mother who espouses noncontroversial causes such as education and childrens health and a nonpartisan figure, with deep familial ties. President Donald Trump, even before declaring his candidacy to contest for the Republican flag bearership, was an avid Twitter user, with a following that dwarfed all other candidates, except Hillary Clinton, whom he later eclipsed. The constant use of twitter meant that something about Trump was regularly trending and offering countless hooks for journalists trolling for stories. Thus, despite increasingly negative coverage which he generated from the traditional media, the media still kept following his tweets and using as news items in the mainstream media. This illustrates Trumps strength in the hybrid media system. His constant unleashing of tweetstorms made sure that he was always also in the news in the traditional media. Other radical revolutions such as the Arab Spring, also known as Facebook Revolution, was mobilised by using social media. All over the world, social media usage in politics has rapidly grown in popularity over the past few years and, thus, has become a competitive alternative to the print media. Social media in Ghana politics Both the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the biggest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), during the 2016 elections, used social media advertisement extensively. The parties stepped up their campaign on Twitter and Facebook, with the personal profiles of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and former President John Dramani Mahama facilitating the sharing of information about their respective campaigns. Mr Mahamas @JDMahama handle and others such as @Flagstaff Ghana and @TransformingGhana combined to keep the public updated on his campaign. Nana Addos handle, @NAkufoAddo and @thehope, also used similar posturing on Twitter. Active social media engagement and advertising continued on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. A video posted on the official Facebook page of Mr Mahama in April 2016, showing him spending time with one of his Facebook friends within the first four days of the post, was viewed 155,000 times and shared 1127 times. The NPPs I am for Nana app and the Meet JM app enabled people to sign up to have intimate information about their political parties and candidates. Penplusbytes reported that civil society groups such as Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) used social media to educate the public on the 2016 limited voters registration and other related issues. Ghana Decides, a Blogging Ghana Election Project, launched the online #iRegistered campaign to get eligible Ghanaians to register in 2016 limited registration exercise between April 28 and May 8 2016. 2020 and social media According to political science professor at the University of Ghana, Ransford Edward Van Gyampo, in his paper Political Parties and Social Media in Ghana, the most distinctive feature of political parties, when comparing them to any other political interest groups, is that they are the only entity whose primary goal is that of contesting and capturing state power through peaceful means. With this in view, political parties have the onerous duty to brighten their chances with the use of social media. Fortunately for the political parties, the social media market place keeps expanding by the day. New innovations have brought about platforms such as Zoom, google meet, among others. Already known platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, YouTube etc give political parties the opportunities to meet the electorate with ease. According to Internet World Statistics, in 2013, Africa had 16 per cent internet penetration and 67 million smartphones in use. In 2014, internet penetration in Africa increased to 26.5 per cent. Indeed, there are indications that internet penetration in Africa will reach 50 per cent by 2025 and that the continent will be home to 360 million smartphones. Ghana, as at 2016, had more than five million (5,171,993) Internet users, representing 19.6 per cent of the population, while Ghanas Facebook user base was about 1,211,760. This number is expected to have increased exponentially, due to the rapid growth in internet users in the country. Fortunately, the leadership of the main political parties knows the relevance of social media and is expected that same will be used to their advantage. As stated by General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, If the youth constitute the majority of Ghanas voting population and are also the dominant users of social media, then it makes sense for us to target them on social media and get them to our side. In similar breath, the General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu states: Our core supporters are always with us. We find a lot of undecided voters on social media and seek to draw on their support there They are expected to utilise the resources (social media) at their disposal more effectively at great speed and to a larger audience at lower cost. This is intended at altering the rigid internal party systems, by allowing a bottom-up decision-making process to facilitate membership mobilisation. Additionally, this enhances the image of the respective political parties in the current traditional media landscape. The author is the General Secretary of the Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG National) and a Masters of Arts (Communication Studies) student of the Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana. SINGAPORE, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Appnext, the largest on-device and in-app mobile discovery platform, today announced it had entered into definitive agreements to be acquired by Affle (India) Limited through its subsidiaries ("Affle"). Appnext's app discovery and recommendation platform enables top mobile handset manufacturers (OEMs) and apps developers to deliver personalized app recommendations to mobile users globally. Appnext blends app recommendations as a service that integrates seamlessly with the users' daily mobile journey. Utilizing its proprietary 'Timeline' technology, Appnext predicts which apps the users are likely to use next. With 300 million daily active users, 20+ on-device daily interactions through strategic OEM partnerships and 60,000+ apps, Appnext is the leading independent app recommendation platform delivering over 4 billion app recommendations per day. Commenting on this development, Anuj Khanna Sohum, the Chairman, MD and CEO at Affle said "We are excited to welcome the Appnext team on-board as we strengthen our foundation for Affle's next phase of growth journey. Affle2.0 will focus on building sustainable market leadership in India as well as enhancing our competitive advantage globally through our technology innovations. The Appnext platform transforms ads into app recommendations as a service for consumers and thus strengthens our CPCU business model by enabling greater ROI for advertisers. We value the platforms and the ecosystem enabled by Appnext, and look forward to growing that together now!" Talking about it, Elad Natanson, the Founder of Appnext commented "We are thrilled to join forces with Affle in this exciting journey. Over the years, Appnext has built a robust platform that is deployed by leading global OEMs, on-device partners and thousands of apps. India and SEA are our biggest business markets and we are proud to have been recently ranked amongst the leading discovery platforms in these incredible regions. This deal would allow us to further strengthen our position and provide us a greater platform for global growth. I would like to thank our team, customers and partners for their continued support, and looking forward to our long-term collaboration together with Affle." About Appnext Appnext is the largest app discovery platform, offering the only recommendation engine on the market, which encompasses both in-app and on-device discovery. Appnext discovery platform powers 4B daily app recommendations via over 20 interactions along users' daily mobile journey. Through its direct partnerships with top OEMs, operators and app developers, Appnext creates a discovery experience in over 10,000 mobile touchpoints. Powered by proprietary AI technology, Appnext 'Timeline' predicts the type of apps users are likely to utilize next and recommends which ones to install. Appnext's recommendations are helping app marketers reach more engaged users and get their apps discovered, used and re-used. About Affle Affle is a global technology company with a proprietary consumer intelligence platform that delivers consumer engagements, acquisitions and transactions through relevant Mobile Advertising. The platform aims to enhance returns on marketing investment through contextual mobile ads and also by reducing digital ad fraud. While Affle's Consumer platform is used by online & offline companies for measurable mobile advertising, its Enterprise platform helps offline companies to go online through platform-based app development, enablement of O2O commerce and through its customer data platform. Affle (India) Limited successfully completed its IPO in India and now trades on the stock exchanges (BSE: 542752 & NSE: AFFLE). Affle Holdings is the Singapore based promoter for Affle (India) Limited, and its investors include Microsoft, D2C (An NTT DoCoMo, Dentsu & NTT Advertising JV), Itochu, Bennett Coleman & Company (BCCL) amongst others. For more information visit www.affle.com For further queries, you may contact - [email protected] Media Contact Orit Sharon Director of Marketing [email protected] SOURCE Appnext THE ASOKWA District Court One presided over by Akua Adu Boahen, has remanded into prison custody five persons for allegedly murdering their colleague, Mohammed Ramzi, at Sepe Timpom in the Asokore Mampong Municipality of the Ashanti Region. The suspects are Salmuna Saeed, alias Streetwise; Issah Mohammed, alias Paa Kojo Waale; Yassir Arafat Mohammed; Adnan Mustapha and Ahmed Salim Musah. They were charged with murder, contrary to Section 48 of the Criminal Offence Act 1960 (29), but their pleas were not taken. They are to reappear in court on June 30, 2020. Presenting the facts of the case to the court, Inspector Benjamin Moore Ankrah said the suspects and the deceased were friends. On May 5, 2020 at about 12:30am, they were all in a classroom of Light International School located at Sepe Timpom, smoking Indian hemp/wee. Saeed, who allegedly had concealed a locally-made pistol on him, dozed off and when he woke up he could not find his pistol and so began searching for it. According to the prosecutor, Saeed approached the deceased and accused him of stealing his pistol after Mohammed had told Saeed that he saw the deceased removing the said pistol while he was asleep. The deceased vehemently denied the allegation leveled against him, denial which infuriated Mohammed; he pulled a jack knife and threatened the deceased as he asked him to show him where he had kept the pistol but to no avail. This, Inspector Ankrah said, got Saeed also enraged as he collected the knife from Mohammed and allegedly stabbed the deceased on his right thigh, making him bleed profusely. Sensing danger, the suspects rushed the deceased to a nearby clinic, but were referred to the Manhyia Government Hospital for medical attention. However, they dumped the deceased in a parked Bajoj tricycle with registration number M-17- As 4170, belonging to the complainant in the case, Saliu Abdellah, at Sawaba. At about 6:15am, when the complainant went to take his tricycle, he found the lifeless body of the deceased at its back seat. He quickly lodged a complaint with the Asokore Mampong Police and on the same day, Mohammed was arrested. Mohammed admitted to the offence in his caution statement to the police and later led the police to arrest the other accomplices from their respective hideouts. ---Daily Guide Julia Bradbury has revealed she had a 'meltdown' when she received the all-clear after a cancer scare, coupled with the pressure of lockdown. The former Countryfile presenter, 49, found a sore lump in her left breast during a work trip to Costa Rica in March. Julia decided to delay visiting her GP until she returned to the UK, but when the country went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic along with being 'distracted' by her hectic family life, she had to wait to seek medical advice. Tough time: Julia Bradbury has revealed she had a 'meltdown' when she received the all-clear after a cancer scare, coupled with the pressure of lockdown (pictured 2019) She told Closer magazine: 'It was so scary. As I was going to see the breast specialist, the feelings and thought were swirling. I kept thinking, "I hope this is all right.' It was my first mammogram. 'I've got tiny boobs and it was more an issue of finding enough to flatten in the machine!' Julia who has son Zephyr, eight, and twin daughters Zena and Xanthe, five with her partner Gerard Cunningham - was given the all-clear after the lump was found to be benign. She said the stress of her mammogram mixed with the anxiety of lockdown led to a 'complete wobble'. Heartbreak: The former Countryfile presenter, 49, found a sore lump while checking her breasts during a work trip to Costa Rica in March (pictured January 2020) She said: 'I like to think I'm mentally strong, but I had a complete wobble and couldn't stop crying - and that's fine. You have to admit when you feel emotional or stressed and let your emotions out. Keeping them trapped inside is bad for you.' Julia - who turns 50 next month - said the experience had made her appreciate her life in lockdown with her family. She also credited sticking to a timetable and exercising five times a week with helping reduce her anxiety during the coronavirus lockdown. In 2018, Julia credited her children for saving her parents' lives after sharing her parents' health issues in an interview with the Daily Mail. My mother was diagnosed with bowel cancer when I was pregnant with Zeph and I think that made a big difference. Devoted: Julia who has son Zephyr, eight, and twin daughters Zena and Xanthe, five with her partner Gerard Cunningham said lockdown had made her appreciate her family more I kept saying to her: You cant go, you cant go, you have to stay to meet your grandchild." Gerard and I didnt want to know the babys sex but Mum did. Recalling her first pregnancy, she went on: She felt it would make the baby feel more real, more tangible if she knew. So we gave the doctors permission to tell her she was thrilled. I remember afternoons sitting holding hands on the sofa. Shed put her hand on my tummy and Id put my hand on hers. It was so peaceful and happy. When Zeph was born, Mum and Dad were so excited. Mum pulled through and, later, Dad did too.' Julia's father Michael was later diagnosed with cancer of the prostate gland when Zephyrus was still small. We reckon the children saved both my parents lives by giving them something to look forward to. LONDON Two months ago, when there were roughly one million confirmed coronavirus cases and the primal politics of survival was sweeping the world, shutting down was the order of the day. This week, the number of cases soared past seven million, with 136,000 new infections detected on Sunday alone, the highest single-day total since the pandemic began. The order of the day? Reopening. Terrified after watching economies built over the course of decades hollow out in a matter of weeks, countries seem to be saying, in effect: Enough. For health officials who have been watching the virus with alarm as it began claiming a foothold in continent after continent, it is a dizzying moment. Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, on Monday, re-allocated over 100 unoccupied properties in Bama town for the use of internally displaced persons. Governor Zulum said all the houses should immediately be occupied by the internally displaced persons who have no decent spaces at the IDP camp in Bama town. About a year ago, the state government allocated a hundred housing units built in Bama town by a Borno-born billionaire, Mohammed Ndimi, to IDPs. The houses, just like many others, were given out freely to persons who had lost their homes in the ongoing Boko Haram conflict. Over a year after the houses were built and allocated to the supposed needy IDPs, most of them remain unoccupied and locked up. Sensing a defeat in the primary aim of building and allocating the two bedroom apartments, Governor Zulum ordered an immediate re-allocation to returnees who are willing to start in the abandoned community. Mr Zulum was in Bama town on Monday to share food relief to a 2,500 IDPs. Speaking at the palace of the new Shehu of Bama, Mr Zulum said it was obvious that those given the houses do not need them. Borno State government has revoked all allocations of houses at Indimi Estate, we cannot tolerate a situation where people claim ownership of those houses while they are living in Maiduguri, he said. Your highness, kindly compile the list of IDPs from Jaudari village, all the houses should be allocated to them, Mr Zulum, a professor of irrigation engineering, told the Shehu of Bama, Umar Ibn Kyari Elkanemi. READ ALSO: Mr Zulum also notified the Shehu of Bama of his plan to return the IDPs to Nguro Soye and Banki towns. We shall, Insha Allah, resettle Nguro Soye and Banki towns. Our people in Menawo and Kirawa all in Cameroon will soon return back to Banki, he said. Food for IDPs The governor later supervised the distribution of food to over 25,000 IDPs who were sacked by Boko Haram from Banki, Gulumba, and Nguro Soye, other towns and villages of Bama Local Government Area. He noted that the food items being distributed to the IDPs were jointly provided by the Borno State Government and the Federal Government. Schools to reopen Mr Zulum has also announced that schools, that have been shut down for over five years since Boko Haram sacked all communities in Bama local government, would be reopened immediately after the COVID-19 lockdown is lifted. I will soon come back to Bama, and I will personally supervise the enrollment of pupils and students in schools, he said. We have to reopen Government Day Secondary School. The Mega School will also be converted to a Secondary School, while a Girls Secondary School will be sited in Shettimari Primary School temporarily, Mr Zulum added. AMRITSAR/LUDHIANA/Faridkot There is no let up in the surge in Covid-19 cases as 59 fresh infections were reported from across Punjab on Tuesday. Most cases, 17 each, were reported from Amritsar and Ludhiana districts, majority of them, officials say, community transmission infections. With this, Punjabs patient tally has gone up to 2,795 and the virus has claimed 56 lives in the state. Seventeen people13 from Amritsar, three from Pathankot and one from Tarn Taranwere tested positive for Covid-19 in Majha region on Tuesday, health officials said. Amritsar civil surgeon Dr Jugal Kishore said, The district reported 13 Covid-19 cases on Tuesday. Out of 13, six are fresh cases of community transmission and five are close contacts of those already infected. Two asymptomatic people, whose samples were taken during random sampling, also tested positive. In Ludhiana, 17 people tested positive of Covid-19 on Tuesday, including three patients from Jalandhar and two from Malerkotla. Among the patients is a two-year-old girl whose had travelled to Gurugram in the recent past. As many as 13 members of an extended family of Kotkapura town in Faridkot also tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday. Civil surgeon Dr Rajinder Kumar said they all are contacts of a patient. They were admitted to the isolation ward of Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital in Faridkot, he said. The local transmission has begun in the Kotkapura sub-division and we suspect more cases in the coming days, said a health official. Sangrur reported five cases, while four people tested positive for the virus in Patiala. From the Doaba region, three cases were reported, one on Jalandhar and two in SBS Nagar districts. 3 judges, 5 court staffers quarantined in Jalandhar Three judges, five court staff members of district and sessions court, Jalandhar, and an advocate will be home quarantined for 14 days after an undertrial who was produced in the court on June 5 and June 7 tested positive for Covid-19. Patient gives birth A 23-year-old Covid-19 patient gave birth to a boy at Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday. A resident of Salempur village in Mohali district, the patient was admitted to the isolation centre on June 1. Medical superintendent Dr SPS Goraya said, A caesarean surgery was performed. The boy is healthy and his nasal swab has been sent for test, he said. Italian woman prepares olive ascolane during operation to remove brain tumour. A 60-year-old Italian woman prepared stuffed olives while having an operation to remove a brain tumour at an Ancona hospital on 9 June, reports Italian news agency ANSA. The woman, from the Abruzzo region of Italy, made 90 Ascoli-style stuffed olives in less than an hour, according to ANSA. The tumour was removed successfully from the woman's left temporal lobe, with neurosurgeon Roberto Trignani telling ANSA that the 2.5-hour procedure went "very well." Over the last five years Trignani has carried out around 60 operations with patients conscious and engaged in other activities, including one patient who played the violin. The neurosurgeon told ANSA that the method enables doctors to "monitor the patient while we are intervening on brain functions and to calibrate our action." Photo ANSA Results from prospective trials show a "clear prognostic value" for CTC counts BOLOGNA, Italy and HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pennsylvania, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Menarini Silicon Biosystems, the pioneer of liquid biopsy and single cell technologies, announced today that results from a new study presented at the virtual 2020 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) suggest that circulating tumor cell (CTC) counts may be useful in determining long-term prognosis and guiding treatment selection in patients with metastatic castrate sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC). A second study showed predictive value of CTC counts in metastatic breast cancer. Researchers used Menarini's CELLSEARCH Circulating Tumor Cell test,* considered the gold standard in liquid biopsy technology, to detect and count CTCs. A current challenge in treating mCSPC is the lack of accurate biomarkers that indicate which patients will do well with particular therapies, or how long patients will live, according to lead researcher, Amir Goldkorn, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. With this study, researchers determined CTC counts are a non-invasive way to obtain valuable prognostic information at the start of treatment. "These findings have important clinical implications, suggesting that patients with high initial CTC counts are less likely to respond and more likely to progress on hormonal therapy," said Dr. Goldkorn. "Though additional analysis is required, these results indicate that CTCs could become a valuable biomarker that can tell us about a patient's long-term prognosis and help guide therapy." The study (Abstract #5506) investigated mCSPC patients early in the disease, when participants were first being treated with hormone therapy. Researchers enumerated CTCs in 1200 men at the start of the study, and then looked at two endpoints: the level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) after seven months, and progression-free survival (PFS) after two years. The results showed clear prognostic value for the CTC count. The 63% of men who had no circulating tumor cells when the study began were more than six times more likely at seven months to have PSA values below 0.2, which has been shown to be highly correlated with longer survival times than higher PSA values. The men also were 3.7 times more likely to survive, with no cancer progression, after two years. In addition to Dr. Goldkorn's oral presentation on the study, the research was included in a live discussion among a panel of experts on the ASCO meeting site on Sunday, May 31. The second study, presented as a poster at ASCO (Abstract #1028), examined the role of CTC counts and mutations in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in predicting prognosis, treatment response and disease spread in metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Led by Massimo Cristofanilli, M.D., F.A.C.P., Associate Director for Translational Research at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, the researchers looked at 36 Stage III and 203 Stage IV breast cancer patients. They found that CTC counts were much higher in the Stage IV patients-an average of 62.2 cells per 7.5 mL of blood compared to 14.5 cells in Stage III patients -- and that within each group, high CTC counts predict worse outcomes. In addition, they discovered that mutations in one particular gene in ctDNA -- known as PI3KCA -- dramatically increased in Stage IV patients compared to Stage III patients, and were also highly predictive of worse prognosis and treatment outcomes. "These new studies demonstrate the important role our rare cell technologies play in advancing precision medicine research, which could one day translate to better, more personalized treatment options for patients with prostate and breast cancer," said Fabio Piazzalunga, President and CEO of Menarini Silicon Biosystems, Inc. CELLSEARCH is the first and only clinically validated blood test cleared by the FDA for detecting and counting CTCs to aid physicians in managing patients with metastatic breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers when used in conjunction with other clinical methods of monitoring. The test is also approved by the China Food & Drug Administration for use in monitoring patients with MBC. The CELLSEARCH System is the most extensively studied CTC technology, with research published in more than 650 peer-reviewed publications. About Menarini Silicon Biosystems Menarini Silicon Biosystems offers unique rare cell technologies and solutions that provide clinical researchers with access to unparalleled resolution in the study of cells and their molecular characterization. The company's CELLSEARCH and DEPArray technologies together provide an end-to-end solution** for enumeration and sorting of rare cells with single-cell precision. Menarini Silicon Biosystems , based in Bologna, Italy, and Huntingdon Valley, Pa., U.S., is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Menarini Group, a multinational pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostics company headquartered in Florence, Italy, with 17,640 employees in 136 countries. *For more information on the full intended use and limitations of CELLSEARCH system, please refer to the Instructions for Use on http://documents.cellsearchctc.com/. **The workflow described is for research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. The performance characteristics, safety, and effectiveness of the workflow have not been established and are not cleared or approved by the FDA. Contact: Liz Dowling, (415) 388-2794 Dowling & Dennis PR Liz@dowlingdennis.net Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) The Department of Education is looking to tap volunteers and education graduates to support the delivery of quality education amid the coronavirus pandemic. Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said Tuesday that while they believe there are many parents who will play a larger role in the education of their children under the new normal, many others have said they are willing to help. "Gagamit tayo ng mga volunteers, mga education graduates or teacher applicants, or licensed teachers na wala pang trabaho na willing maging bahagi sa pagpapatuto sa mga bata habang sila ay nag-aaral sa mga bahay," San Antonio said in an interview. [Translation: We will use volunteers, education graduates or teacher applicants, or licensed teachers who are still looking for work and are willing to help educate children as they study at home.] "May mga local governments, siempre hindi naman lahat, na nagsabi na okay silang magbigay ng honorarium para kaunting financial na benepisyo rin sa mga tutulong doon sa mga pamilya na ang magulang ay nagtatrabaho o walang kakayahang magbigay ng gabay sa pag-aaral ng kanilang mga anak." [Translation: There are local governments, of course not all of them, who say they are okay to provide an honorarium, so there is some financial benefit for those helping families wherein the parents are working or unable to provide guidance for their children's education.] San Antonio later clarified that schools division offices in coordination with the local government units will be in charge of recruiting volunteers in areas where they are needed. "Schools are expected to coordinate with LGUs in recruiting volunteer home learning facilitators who are preferably college or education graduates, and willing to undertake an orientation," San Antonio said in a text message. "When they visit homes, they are expected to observe the health protocols on social distancing and wearing of masks." The Department of Education on Monday complied with President Rodrigo Duterte's directive to postpone face-to-face classes until a vaccine for COVID-19 becomes available. Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the department is ready to take on the challenges of offering alternatives to physical classes, such as online and "blended" learning. San Antonio said that school principals will have to determine which modality best suits each teacher, adding that not all teachers will be asked to teach online. Supervisors, specialists and master teachers will be in charge of making the self-learning modules, which will be delivered to students without access to online classes, San Antonio added. The Department of Education and Presidential Communications Group are also planning the use of government radio and TV stations to deliver distance learning to far flung areas. "Pero alam natin na limited 'yung reach so makikipag coordinate din po tayo sa ibang private commercial stations," San Antonio said. [Translation: But we know the reach is limited so we are also coordinating with private commercial stations.] "Meron ding proposal ang ibang mga paaralan na pwede silang mag-operate ng sariling radio stations, ang hinihingi sila sa DepEd ay suporta para mapabilis ang proseso na magkaroon sila ng permisyo sa mga angkop na ahensiya ng pamahalaan." [Translation: There is also a proposal from some schools to operate their own radio stations, and they are asking for support from the Department of Eduation to hasten the process, so they can secure the permits needed from government agencies.] DepEd earlier released the calendar for the next school year, with classes slated to begin this August 24, and expected to end in April 2021. San Antonio said as of Tuesday morning, about 7.28 million students have enrolled in public and private schools for the 2020-2021 school year, with most of them coming from Metro Manila, Region 4-A or CALABARZON, and Central Luzon. The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases previously recommended moving the opening of classes to September to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. The bill seeking to give the President the power to move the school year opening beyond August during a state of emergency is now up for Duterte's signature. The video appears to show an Emirati officer directing Haftar forces in a Russian-made air defence system. A local Libyan channel allied to the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) has aired a video showing the United Arab Emirates (UAE) alleged involvement in military operations in the country. The Free Libya channel broadcast the short video, which appears to show an Emirati officer, instructing forces from the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) led by renegade commander Khalifa Haftar to bomb a GNA target. The recording also shows the Emirati officer inside the Russian-made Pantsir S1 air-defence system in eastern Libya. Al Jazeera has reached out to UAE authorities for comment but has yet to receive a reply. Haftar is supported by the UAE, Egypt and Russia, while the Tripoli-based administration of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj has secured the backing of Turkey. Ankaras support for the GNA seems to have turned the tide against Haftars forces, which have been forced to retreat further to the east. In the past several weeks, the forces loyal to the GNA have registered a string of military victories in the countrys west and around Tripoli, aborting Haftars year-long military campaign to capture the capital. Hundreds of people have been killed and another 200,000 driven from their homes since Haftar launched the assault last April. But the military setbacks he suffered over the past week including the loss of the strategic city of Tarhuna and Tripolis southern suburbs have resulted in a revamping of diplomatic efforts. On Saturday, Egypts President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in the presence of Haftar and Aguila Saleh, leader of the rival administration based in the eastern city of Tobruk that supports Haftar, announced a new initiative for Libya that included a ceasefire starting on Monday. The initiative also proposed an elected leadership council to govern the divided country of six million people. El-Sisi said the initiative, dubbed the Cairo Declaration, included a call for negotiations in Geneva and the exit of all foreign fighters from Libya. But the GNA has rejected the ceasefire and has pledged to move on with its offensive to enter the city of Sirte in central Libya, which marks the gateway to the countrys oilfields in the east and the south. The country descended into chaos following the killing of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi during the 2011 uprising. In recent years, Libya has become the site of a proxy war between regional players. WHO said on Monday that it's "rare" for an asymptomatic person who shows no tell-tale signs of coronavirus infection like a fever, dry cough, or trouble breathing to spread the disease to others. Other public-health experts were quick to point out that studies so far have shown pre-symptomatic people and asymptomatic people can spread the virus. That's the reason people are being urged to wear masks in public. WHO did not dismiss the idea of asymptomatic spread entirely but said "from the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The World Health Organization said Monday that the threat of coronavirus spread from people who look and feel healthy is very low. "It still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward," epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for the coronavirus, told reporters on a call. The comment falls in line with what experts at WHO have been stressing for months: Most coronavirus spread happens through sustained close contact between people indoors in homes, offices, churches, hospitals, and other settings where people come together for hours at a time and airflow is restricted. The notion that perhaps healthy, or seemingly healthy, people are not a threat during the pandemic has huge implications. If asymptomatic carriers are not a big threat, then face coverings in public become much less important because only sick people displaying symptoms should need to wear them. In its recent updated guidance on mask wearing, WHO said studies of asymptomatic transmission to date are small but that virus spread via fomites (objects and surfaces) in those cases cannot be ruled out. Furthermore, Van Kerkhove said, many cases that are labeled asymptomatic may not truly be that, but instead are mild but detectable illnesses. Story continues This is why it may still be important for seemingly healthy people to wear face coverings in public. Some people may feel a little bit ill or tired but not enough to know they have the virus. "When we actually go back and say, 'How many of them were truly asymptomatic?' we find out that many have really mild disease, very mild disease," Van Kerkhove said. While WHO recognizes that some people infected with COVID-19 will never develop symptoms, and evidence suggests they can shed virus too, Van Kerkhove said this is not how most people are getting sick. Other public-health experts say it's possible people may spread illness to others before they show symptoms San Francisco police cadets distribute face masks at Dolores Park on May 22. JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images Other public-health experts, however, aren't as dismissive of asymptomatic spread, especially because of the possibility of pre-symptomatic spread that can happen early on in an illness, before people feel unwell. "There's significant transmission by people not showing symptoms," Stephen Morse, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, previously told Business Insider. Even some of WHO's own research suggests many coronavirus patients who are initially asymptomatic eventually fall ill. "Some modeling studies suggest 40-60% of spread is from people when they didn't have symptoms," Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said on Twitter. "It may be there isn't a lot of asymptomatic spread but plenty of pre-symptomatic spread. Would be helpful to get the full report they are referencing." WHO said that kind of robust data just isn't available yet. "We are constantly looking at this data, and we're trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question," Van Kerkhove said on the call. "We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing. They're following asymptomatic cases, they're following contacts, and they're not finding secondary transmission onward. It's very rare. And much of that is not published in the literature." Either way, Van Kerkhove seemed confident that by strictly isolating the people who are feeling sick, the world would do much better at stopping the spread of COVID-19. "I would love to be able to give a proportion of how much transmission we would actually stop, but it would be a drastic reduction in transmission," she said. "From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual." Read the original article on Business Insider [June 09, 2020] DIGITAL BOOST - Founders4Schools and BCG Digital Ventures Launch UK-Based Digital Boost, A Free Volunteering Platform Uniting Digital Experts With Leaders of Small Businesses and Charities - Founded by Founders4Schools and BCG Digital Ventures, supported by the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport, Digital Boost aims to support the six million British small businesses and charities impacted by COVID-19, on their digitalisation journey - The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the gap between digitally high and low-tech organisations by forcing 67% of UK SMEs to temporarily close business, according to Simply Business - Digital Boost is on a mission to close this gap by providing a community of digital expert volunteers to support charities and small businesses through 1:1 "Boost Calls", interactive "Boost Workshops" and "Boost Skills" resources LONDON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A new free-of-charge online platform that brings together leaders of small businesses and charities with a community of digital expert volunteers launched in the UK today. Digitalboost.org.uk is on a mission to help small businesses and charities get the essential digital skills they need and by extension more customers and revenue streams through online channels. A 2019 study by the European Commission shows that less than a third of small businesses in the EC have a high degree of digitalisation, implying a large majority of small businesses lack the basic prerequisites for moving their business online. At this critical time, Digital Boost not only wants to help small businesses and charities survive the COVID-19 crisis, but also contribute to their long-term competitiveness in today's digital world. Digital Boost has three service offerings to help equip small businesses and charities with essential digital skills. "Boost Calls", one-to-one mentoring sessions with digital volunteers from top technology, agency, consulting and finance firms, "Boost Workshops", interactive group masterclasses, run by digital experts on all digitalisation topics, as well as "Boost Skills", useful online content on digitalisation. Digital Boost has successfully recruited digital expert volunteers from top organisations such as BCG Digital Ventures, Google, Oxford University, McCann and Global Tech Advocates, all ready to mentor small businesses and charities. The COVID-19 crisis has cast a painful spotlight on the lack of digitalisation of many small organisations. Being forced to shut physical locations, many small businesses and charities have no online revenue streams to fall back on. As consumers are expected to remain online post COVID-19, small businesses with a limited online presence will miss out on an ever-growing portion of business. Digital Boost has been founded to counteract this trend. It is owned by Founders4Schools and has been built with the pro bono support of BCG Digital Ventures, a subsidiary of Boston Consulting Group. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is pleased to support Digital Boost to provide digital assistance for small businesses and charities in the UK that have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Commenting on the launch, Caroline Dinenage, Minister for Digital and Culture at DCMS said: "It is vital small businesses and charities are able to seize the benefits of modern technology. The new Digital Boost platform will help thes organisations develop the skills they need. We look forward to helping build a community of digital experts, who are able to offer guidance and support to these organisations free of charge at this challenging time." Commenting on the launch of Digital Boost, Sherry Coutu CBE, Chair of Founders4Schools, comments: "In the past, many leaders of small businesses and charities have struggled with building up a significant online presence. COVID-19 has exposed this lag in digitalisation in dramatic ways. We want to help those who work in and lead small businesses and charities to survive the COVID-19 crisis and be more competitive in the long-run in today's increasingly digital and online world." Ajay Chowdhury, Managing Director and Partner at BCG Digital Ventures, London adds: "There are some services out there supporting small businesses on various fronts through the COVID-19 crisis, yet our research has shown that none of them really serve the specific needs of the UK's small businesses and charities that need quick and pragmatic help to digitalise in order to survive. That is why we founded Digital Boost. We respond to the individual needs of small businesses and charities and allocate volunteers to help them in pragmatic and quick ways." Matthew Fell, Chief UK Policy Director at the CBI, comments: "Adopting digital technologies can help firms grow, find opportunity and be more resilient, so the potential impact of Digital Boost is enormous. Digital Boost promises to help businesses and charities find opportunity amid this crisis by embracing the digitalisation of their industries to support a stronger, more productive recovery." Digital Boost has already supported a number of small businesses and charities, including Teens in AI, a UK-based charity, and Astrum Wine Cellars, a UK-based wine and spirit business. In the past, Astrum's revenues were driven primarily through the hospitality industry. Faced with the COVID-19 crisis, the company was quick to shift its focus to selling directly to consumers through online channels. Digital Boost growth experts helped Astrum launch their first digital advertisements, enabling the company to stay open for business throughout COVID-19. Speaking on the impact of Digital Boost, Astrum's Head of Growth Tom White says: "Time speaking to the Digital Boost volunteers has given us the confidence to step further into the digital world, a world that we were barely involved in 8 weeks ago. They helped us understand how to build a digital ad and gave us the tools to continue building and refining these ads for better customer acquisition." Teens in AI, a charitable organisation focused on serving students with an interest in technology, also benefited from Digital Boost's help by learning how to design their web-presence. Digital Boost is ready to support hundreds of thousands more leaders on their journey towards mastering the digital tools demanded by customers in this new reality we are entering. We expect this volunteer effort from the digital community will ensure small charities and businesses help boost our economy. Digital Boost is accepting volunteer applications and requests from small businesses and charitable organisations at www.digitalboost.org.uk and invites other like-minded organisations from the digital community to get in touch at [email protected]. For more information please contact: The Digital Boost PR team at [email protected] For partnership enquiries please contact: The Digital Boost team at [email protected] Follow Digital Boost on LinkedIn Follow Digital Boost on Twitter Follow Digital Boost on Instagram Like Digital Boost on Facebook About Digital Boost Digital Boost is a new free-of-charge online platform that brings together leaders of small businesses and charities with a community of digital expert volunteers. Founded by Founders4Schools and BCG Digital Ventures, and supported by the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport, Digital Boost aims to support the six million British small businesses and charities impacted by COVID-19. Many small businesses have been forced to shut their physical locations due to COVID-19 and have struggled to move online to build up new revenue streams. As a result, two-thirds of UK SMEs temporarily closed business entirely. Digital Boost wants to help these small businesses & charities move online not only to get through the COVID-19 crisis, but also to stay competitive in the long-term in today's digital world. Digital Boost offers free 1:1 "Boost Calls", interactive "Boost Workshops" and "Boost Skills" resources for small businesses & charities. About BCG Digital Ventures BCG Digital Ventures is a corporate innovation, incubation, and investment firm. They invent, launch, scale, and invest in industry-changing new businesses with the world's most influential companies. Their diverse, multidisciplinary team of entrepreneurs, operators, and investors work cross-functionally, rapidly moving from paper to product to business in less than 12 months. Founded in 2014 as a subsidiary of Boston Consulting Group, they have Innovation Centers and satellite locations in four continents and continue to expand their footprint across the globe. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1177949/Digital_Boost_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A roundup of campaign news items of interest for Monday, June 8: SAND ENDORSES GREENFIELD: Iowa auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, endorsed Theresa Greenfield, the partys nominee for U.S. Senate. Greenfield faces Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst. Elections experts expect the race to be competitive and figure in the national race for political control of the U.S. Senate. For too long, Iowans have paid the price for corruption and a lack of accountability in Washington, Sand said in a news release provided by the Greenfield campaign. Im endorsing Theresa Greenfield in this critical race because we can trust Theresa to be a good steward of our taxpayer dollars and make sure that Congress is answering to people. SIERRA CLUB ENDORSES AXNE: The Des Moines chapter of the Sierra Club endorsed Democratic U.S. Rep. Cindy Axnes re-election bid in Iowas 3rd Congressional District. Axne faces former Republican Congressman David Young in a rematch of their 2018 campaign. We are confident that (Axne) will continue to work to protect Iowa families health, soil, air and water, and to build a resilient, clean energy economy that works for Iowans now and for future generations, Charlie Winterwood, chairman of the Sierra Clubs Iowa political committee, said in a news release. Melanie Mergen is Digital Editor for the Globe Gazette. You can reach her at melanie.mergen@globegazette.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Move comes as London mayor says he is setting up commission to ensure UK capitals monuments reflected its diversity. A statue of 18th-century slave trader Robert Milligan has been removed from its plinth outside a museum in the British capital after officials decided it was no longer acceptable to the local community. The statue in front of the Museum of London Docklands came into focus after demonstrators taking part in a global anti-racism protest movement on Sunday tore down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, southwest England, and dumped it into the river. The pulling down of Milligans statue on Tuesday came as Londons Mayor Sadiq Khan said more statues of imperialist figures could be removed from the United Kingdoms streets as the May 25 killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of white police in the US city of Minneapolis continued to spark protests and drive change around the world. On the day Floyd was being buried in his hometown of Houston, Texas, Khan said he was setting up a commission to ensure the UK capitals monuments reflected its diversity. It will review statues, murals, street art, street names and other memorials and consider which legacies should be celebrated, the mayors office said. It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been willfully ignored, Khan said. Who was Edward Colston and why was his statue toppled? https://t.co/a7hmrcmgJI Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 8, 2020 International protests against racial injustice and police violence sparked by Floyds killing show no sign of abating. In Britain, where more than 200 demonstrations have been held so far, people gathered in Londons Parliament Square for a vigil timed to coincide with Floyds funeral. 200609133037080 Elsewhere in the UK, demonstrators gathered to demand the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a Victorian imperialist in southern Africa who made a fortune from mines and endowed the University of Oxfords Rhodes scholarships. Several hundred supporters of the Rhodes Must Fall group chanted Take it down before holding a silent sit-down vigil in the street to memorialise Floyd. A large statue of Rhodes that had stood since 1934 was removed from South Africas University of Cape Town in April 2015, after a student-led campaign that also urged the university to increase its numbers of Black lecturers and to make the curriculum less Eurocentric. In Edinburgh, Scotland, there are calls to tear down a statue of Henry Dundas, an 18th-century politician who delayed Britains abolition of slavery by 15 years. The leader of Edinburgh City Council, Adam McVey, said he would have absolutely no sense of loss if the Dundas statue was removed and replaced with something else or left as a plinth. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged that it was a cold reality that people of colour in Britain experienced discrimination, but said those who attacked police or desecrated public monuments should face the full force of the law. Protests in France, Belgium Statues, as long-lasting symbols of a societys values, have become a focus of protest around the world. In Antwerp, authorities used a crane on Tuesday to remove a statue of Belgiums former King Leopold II that had been splattered with red paint by protesters, taking it away for repairs. It was unclear whether it would be re-erected. Leopold took control of Congo in 1885 and enslaved many of its people to collect rubber, reigning over a brutal regime under which some 10 million Congolese died. France has seen nationwide protests calling for greater law enforcement accountability, and more demonstrations were being held on Tuesday evening. Protesters marching in solidarity with United States demonstrations over Floyds death have also called for justice for Adama Traore, a young man of Malian origin whose death in French police custody in 2016 is still under investigation. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has met police and citizens groups as part of efforts to calm tensions. He said on Tuesday that the code of police ethics would be reviewed. The French government has also announced that the chokehold would no longer be taught in police training. On Sunday, Justice Now: A BET Town Hall featured several activists discussing the current civil unrest with host Marc Lamont Hill. Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was a guest and she did not hold back while discussing President Trumps handling of the national crisis. This is a coward and a bully who uses strongman language and whose response to every crisis is to use dog whistle politics that have now gone beyond dog whistle to just direct invocation of violence against communities that he considers subhuman, said Abrams. In response to national protests over systemic racism and police brutality, Trump declared, We will dominate the streets. He dispatched the military to assist in the policing of protests and has repeatedly urged the use of force to quell protesters. While Abrams believes Trump is wrong for trying to silence the millions of voices calling for justice reform and an end to racism, she is also concerned with the whole Republican party. We have a Republican party that has dehumanized, devalued, and put into the courts the blocking of progress, said Abrams. Which is why she urged viewers to vote for Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election. We have to vote for someone who has openly said he's willing to profess change and create change, said Abrams. I support Joe Biden in whatever decision he makes because I know that he is the best solution to the moral rot that is currently inside the White House. To learn more about Justice Now: A BET Town Hall please visit BET.com. Watch as Daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. says her father's famous 'Dream' speech is misunderstood: Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Kylie Mar, on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. (Newser) South Korea's missed phone call with North Korea on Monday wasn't just a one-time hiccup. Though officials in the North did answer a later call, North Korea now says it has cut all communication with its "enemy" to the south, including through the North-South joint liaison office, which has allowed for two daily phone calls between the nations since 2018. North Korea "will completely cut off and shut down the liaison line between the authorities of the North and the South" beginning Tuesday, the Korean Central News Agency reported, per the BBC. It also indicated military communications would end. "There is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay," KCNA reported. story continues below Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, threatened retaliation last week while commenting on leaflets sent into North Korea by defector groups in the South. But BBC correspondent Laura Bicker suggests this move is "part of a grander plan by Pyongyang" to distract from hardships at home. She notes Kim "is failing to deliver the economic prosperity he keeps promising" amid reports that COVID-19 is taking a toll. "North Korea is in a much more dire situation than we think," Choo Jaewoo of Kyung Hee University tells Reuters. "I think they are trying to squeeze something out of the South." The two countries have technically been at war for 70 years. (Read more North Korea stories.) Advertisement A statue of King Leopold II of Belgium was taken down in Antwerp today after it was vandalised by protesters because of his brutal colonial rule in the Congo. Leopold owned the Belgian Congo as his personal property from 1885 to 1908 and subjected its people to forced labour while he exploited the country's rubber reserves - leading to millions of deaths in what some regard as a genocide. The Antwerp statue is the latest symbol of racism to be targeted amid global Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd in the United States. The mayor's office said the statue was taken down to be 'restored' after it was daubed with paint, but said it was unlikely to return to its public pedestal. Removed: A statue of Belgium's King Leopold II - responsible for colonial atrocities in the Congo from 1885 to 1908 - lies on its side as it is taken away in Antwerp today The Leopold statue is seen standing in Antwerp last week after it was vandalised by demonstrators during the anti-racism protests which have spread across the world A chipped and vandalised statue of former Belgian King Leopold II is seen being removed for possible renovation in Ekeren, Antwerp, Belgium today Workmen can be seen loading the statue on to pallets to remove it for possible restoration in Antwerp, Belgium today Several Leopold statues have been defaced around Belgium in recent days as the global anti-racism movement sweeps Europe. A spokesman for Antwerp mayor Bart de Wever said the city's statue was 'seriously vandalised last week' and 'needs to be restored' by a sculpture museum. 'Because of the renovation work planned for 2023 in the square in which it was placed, the statue will not be replaced. It will probably become part of the museum collection,' he said. A spokeswoman for the Middelheim Museum confirmed they had received the statue and said they would restore it before deciding what to do with it. There are separate calls to take down Leopold monuments in Brussels, where one of his busts was covered in red paint last week. Leopold is honoured with several monuments after ruling Belgium from 1865 to 1909, the longest reign in the kingdom's history. But his exploitation of the Congo Free State is seen as brutal even by the standards of the time, with millions thought to have died under Leopold's personal rule. The Leopold statue was defaced at the weekend - with protesters calling for monuments to the former monarch to be taken down around Belgium The mayor's office said the statue was taken down today (pictured) to be 'restored' after it was daubed with paint, but said it was unlikely to return to its public pedestal The statue can be seen daubed by graffiti after it was vandalised by protesters last week in Antwerp, Belgium A view of a defaced statue of King Leopold II of Belgium, after it was set on fire and smeared with red paint, in Ekeren, Antwerp, Belgium, 05 June 2020. At least two petitions were launched to remove all statues in honour of the colonial-era monarch due to historical atrocities committed in his name in his former colony Congo, reports say Leopold amassed a huge personal fortune while the Congolese were killed or savagely maimed working on his rubber plantations. Locals who failed to produce enough rubber would have their hands chopped off or their women taken hostage until the target was met. Others were shot dead. The plunder of resources also included ivory, copper and diamonds, while Leopold even imported some Congolese people to be put on show at a 'human zoo' in Belgium. Other looted treasures were put on display at the Africa Museum in Brussels, which Leopold used as a 'propaganda tool' for his colonial project. American writer Adam Hochschild claimed in his 1998 book King Leopold's Ghost that the death toll from Leopold's policies was as high as 10million Congolese. In fiction, the Belgian Congo provided the backdrop for Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad's classic novel on colonial exploitation. The exploitation made Belgium a successful trading economy, but sparked an outcry which has been described as one of the world's first major human rights campaigns. Another statue of former Belgian King Leopold II, this time in Tervuren near Brussels, is seen sprayed with a graffiti in the park of the Africa Museum, in a photograph taken today Another Leopold statue, this one in Brussels, was targeted by protesters waving the flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday A protester holds a portrait of Belgian King Leopold II during a protest, organised by Black Lives Matter Belgium, against racial inequality in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in central Brussels, Belgium on Saturday A sculpture of former Belgian King Leopold II is seen covered by a blanket after it was damaged in the park of the Africa Museum in Tervuren, near Brussels, Belgium last week After the atrocities came to light, Leopold was eventually stripped of personal ownership of the Congo in 1908. However, Congo did not become independent until 1960 and many Belgians remain uninformed about their country's colonial past. While the former king and some of his most notorious lieutenants are still honoured in street names and statues, protests have been growing over his legacy. More than 64,000 people have signed a petition demanding that Brussels take down its Leopold II statues. There have been numerous calls to strike down symbols of colonialism around the world as the Floyd protests enter their third week. In Britain, a crowd of protesters tore down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston and threw it into a Bristol harbour on Sunday. Statues of Confederate leaders who fought in defence of slavery have also been removed in the US, where they have long been a subject of controversy. Fifteen million Iranians may have been infected with coronavirus since Iran's outbreak started in February, one of the country's top health officials admitted today. 'About 15 million Iranians may have experienced being infected with this virus since the outbreak began,' said Ehsan Mostafavi, a member of the task force set up to combat COVID-19. This meant the virus was 'much less lethal than we or the world had anticipated', the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted him as saying. The admission comes a week after the Islamic Republic became the first country in the world to report a second wave of infections after easing its lockdown. Mostafavi said the data was collected from serology tests, which are performed on a sample group to detect how many people have antibodies in their blood. Officials found that 18.75 per cent of the sample group tested had antibodies, suggesting they'd already been infected with the virus and recovered. When scaled up, the results suggest that 18.75 per cent of the Iranian population have been infected with the novel coronavirus, which is around one in every five people. Figures from last week show Iran reaching a second peak of coronavirus infections, beating its previous highest day of recorded cases from the end of March An Iranian health ministry spokesperson said 74 new coronavirus fatalities in the past 12 hours had raised the overall death toll to 8,425 What is an antibody blood test and what is it used for? Antibody tests are ones which look for signs of past infection in someone's blood. Antibodies are substances produced by the immune system which store memories of how to fight off a specific virus. They can only be created if the body is exposed to the virus by getting infected for real, or through a vaccine or other type of specialist immune therapy. Generally speaking, antibodies produce immunity to a virus because they are redeployed if it enters the body for a second time, defeating the bug faster than it can take hold and cause an illness. An antibody test, which involves analysis of someone's blood sample, has two purposes: to reveal whether an individual has been infected in the past and may therefore be protected against the virus, and to count those people. Knowing you are immune to a virus - although whether people actually develop immunity to Covid-19 is still unknown - can affect how you act in the future. Someone may need to protect themselves less if they know they have been infected, for example, or medical staff may be able to return to work in the knowledge they are not at risk. Counting the numbers of people who have antibodies is the most accurate way of calculating how many people in a population have had the virus already. This can be done on a small sample of the population and the figures scaled up to give a picture of the country as a whole. In turn, this can inform scientists and politicians how devastating a second outbreak might be, and how close the country is to herd immunity - a situation in which so many people have had the virus already that it would not be able to spread quickly a second time. Experts believe that around 60 per cent exposure would be required for herd immunity from Covid-19, but the UK does not appear to be anywhere close to that. Early estimates suggest 17 per cent of Londoners have had the virus, along with five per cent of the rest of the country about 4.83million people. This means the virus might spread slightly slower in future but the risk of second outbreak and hundreds or thousands more deaths remains very real. Advertisement These serology (blood) tests differ from polymerise chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are used to detect whether an individual has the coronavirus antigen. Iran says it has carried out more than one million PCR tests to 'confirm' infections and report them. Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said 74 new coronavirus fatalities in the past 12 hours had raised the overall death toll to 8,425. Cases of infection rose by 2,095 over the same period to total 175,927, she added. The Middle Eastern nation was the first country in the world to report a second wave of infections on Wednesday last week, logging 3,574 cases, beating its previous worst day of 3,186 cases logged over two months earlier. Since Wednesday, while the infection rate appears to be decreasing, deaths seem to be hovering around 70 fatalities per day. Iran began easing lockdown restrictions - which were imposed in February as the virus ran rampant - in mid-April as the disease declined. Cases began picking up again in early May and have now been above 3,000 for three days running, even as gyms and public offices were reopened at the weekend. Iranian health officials have argued that the 'second wave' is actually the result of better testing and data-logging, after serious doubts were raised over the accuracy of its data when the virus first hit. That is partially confirmed by the fact that the country's daily death figures have not been rising along with the infection total. If the true number of infections including those not picked up in tests had been rising, then the number of deaths would be expected to follow suit. Still, the figures have been enough to worry Hassan Rouhani, Iran's President, who rebuked people for failing to take the virus seriously . Speaking last Wednesday as the record case total was reported, Rouhani said: 'If in any part of the country these warnings are not taken seriously and, God forbid, the outbreak of illness peaks again, the authorities will have to re-impose restrictions. 'This will create problems for the ordinary lives of citizens and also will bring serious economic damage to society.' Health Minister Saeed Namaki added: People seem to think the coronavirus is over. 'The outbreak is not over yet and at any moment it may come back stronger than before.' 'If our people fail to respect the health protocols... we must prepare ourselves for the worst situation.' He spoke after a health ministry poll showed just 40 per cent of Iranians now believe in obeying social distancing rules, down from 90 per cent earlier in the outbreak. The number of people who believed in self-isolating stood at 32 per cent, down from 86 per cent. While several countries have reported second outbreaks of the disease, Iran is the only one to have reported a consistent and sustained rise in cases after an initial fall. South Korea has suffered several outbreaks since easing its social distancing measures, but has used test and tracing systems to stamp them out. Iran imposed lockdown measures in February as the disease ran rampant, but began easing measures in mid-April after cases went into steady decline President Hassan Rouhani warned on Wednesday that lockdown will have to be reimposed unless people 'take the virus seriously' Outbreaks in China and Germany have been treated in a similar fashion. Other countries such as Brazil, Peru, and South Africa are consistently reporting record numbers of cases - but have not yet defeated their first wave. Iran was one of the hardest-hit countries outside of mainland China early on in the pandemic, and still has one of the highest overall case totals in the world. Iran was among the hardest-hit countries outside China early on during the pandemic, and has so far reported 164,270 cases and 8,071 deaths Iran's death figure is remarkably low for the number of cases, but doubts have been raised over whether all deaths are being logged. Some countries only include deaths in hospital where a positive coronavirus test came back before the patient died. This largely excludes deaths in care homes, which in some countries make up a significant proportion of those who have died Where countries have included suspected coronavirus cases and deaths outside hospitals in their tally, the total has increased significantly. Globally, there are more than 6.6million cases and 391,000 deaths. South America has now emerged as the worst-affected continent. For the benefit of Nairobians, an agreement has been reached between the two Nairobi city bosses Governor Mike Sonko and Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) Director-General Mohammed Badi. The deal which will see the two work together harmoniously was struck at State House last Friday during a meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and the pair. Governor Sonkos spokesman Ben Mulwa confirmed the agreement and noted that there is a misconception that Sonko and Badi are fighting each other as a result of officials from either the NMS or within the county government doing things outside the Deed of Transfer of functions. It was agreed that it is better when the two are walking in the same direction as they need to complement each other because there are roles that the governor will be able to play well and likewise those that NMS will be able to play well. At the end of the day, if they work very well it will be to the benefit of Nairobians, said Mulwa. The governors spokesman added that Uhuru was clear that he will ensure that people implementing the Deed do it within the confines of the law while Sonko assured that everyone from his administration will also do the same. The danger that we face here is that if the implementation of the Deed collapses, it will be an embarrassment to the President and an indictment to the governor, Mulwa said as quoted by Nation. Philippine Maj. Gen. Corleto Vinluan (right) talks to rescued British national Allan Hyrons and his Filipino wife, Wilma, inside a military camp in Jolo, southern Philippines, Nov. 25, 2019. Police in the southern Philippines announced Tuesday that they had killed the suspected leader of a Filipino kidnap-for-ransom gang responsible for abductions of a retired Australian serviceman in 2011 and a British resort owner last year. The suspect, identified as Maulana Aburi Akil and also known as Mamay, was a sub-leader of a Muslim gang with ties to militants from the Abu Sayyaf Group operating in Zambaonga del Sur province, regional police chief Brig. Gen. Jesus Cambay Jr. said. Members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and a task force made up of police and military intelligence units carried out a raid targeting Akils hideout in the province but the suspect initially escaped, Cambay said. However, pursuing forces tracked down the suspect and engaged in another shootout at about 7:35 a.m. Monday that resulted in his death, the regional police chief said. Mamay Aburi is the sub-leader of LLE-KFRG operating in Zamboanga del Sur and linked with the Sulu-based ASG, Cambay said, using an abbreviation for the lawless element-kidnap for ransom group. Mondays raid that led to Akils death took place in Poblacion Muslim, a barangay or district of Titay, a municipality in Zamboanga Sibugay province. Akil was involved in the December 2011 kidnapping of Australian traveler Warren Rodwell in Ipil town, Zamboanga Sibugay, and the October 2019 kidnapping of British resort owner Allan Arthur Hyrons and his Filipina wife, Wilma, in Zamboanga del Sur province, police said. The Hyrons were rescued after a month in captivity while Rodwell was held for 15 months before being freed after his family paid a small board and lodging fee a euphemism for ransom. Aburi was also named in a list of 21 suspected militants who appeared in a wanted poster released by the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM), a state in nearby Malaysian Borneo. The poster called for coordination with the Philippine authorities in the arrest of the suspects, Cambay said. Small militant groups and kidnap-for-ransom gangs operate outside the command structure of the Abu Sayyaf, the Philippine souths most notorious Muslim gang that specializes in abductions, bombings and beheadings. A faction of the Abu Sayyaf on Jolo Island is commanded by Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, the de facto leader of the Islamic State extremist group in the Philippines. He is wanted for planning a spate of deadly attacks in the southern Philippines since last year, including a twin suicide bombing that killed 23 people at a church in Jolo in January 2019. Sawadjaan took over from Isnilon Hapilon, himself an Abu Sayyaf commander who led pro-Islamic State militants during a five-month siege of the southern city of Marawi in 2017. Hapilon was killed toward the end of the battle of Marawi in October that year. Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times. Tablighi Jamaat chief yet to submit his Covid-19 test report to police Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad, who has been booked for holding a weeks-long gathering in March, ignoring guidelines prohibiting meetings of more than a certain number of people, resulting in a jump in coronavirus infections, is yet to submit his Covid-19 test report from a government lab despite being asked to, the Delhi police on Monday. Read more Canadian PM Trudeau defends decision to attend protest amid Covid-19 curbs Amid criticism from opposition leaders, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has defended his presence at a Black Lives Matter protest despite warning Canadians to avoid large gatherings and supporting restrictions on mass events across the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more Google Maps update now shows how crowded is public transport, medical checkpoints and more on Android, iOS Google is taking some major steps in improving its Maps app with more Covid-19 information, letting travelers know about checkpoints, how crowded public transportation will be, testing center alerts and more. These features are available on both Android and iOS versions of Google Maps but for select countries around the world. Read more Happy birthday Sonam Kapoor: See her 10 best family pics with Anand Ahuja, Anil Kapoor and others Actor Sonam Kapoor turns 35 years old on Tuesday and to get the celebrations started, we bring you the 10 best pictures from her family album. After spending almost two months away from her parents in Delhi due to the coronavirus lockdown, Sonam returned to Mumbai on Sunday and is ready to ring in her birthday with her family. Read more Dry fasting: Health benefits, how to do it and why its better than wet fasting As more and more people are becoming health conscious, fasting has become a common method of keeping the bodys fitness up. Fasting has been in practice for centuries and it is only recently that the health benefits of it are being discussed. Read more On The Record: Delhi doctor calls govts moves Kafkaesque In the latest episode of On The Record, Hindustan Times Sunetra Choudhury talks to Dr Ambarish Satwik, a surgeon at Delhis Sir Ganga Ram hospital, about the infrastructure of hospitals ito combat covid-19. Satwik also calls Delhi governments decision to station senior nursing officer in hospitals a Kafkaesquemove. Watch to know more Long road to regaining training peak With the Windies Cricket Board announcing the squad for a three-Test series in England starting July 8, the wheels have been set in motion. Halted since March 13 due to the pandemic, international cricket will resume with the series, subject to UK government approval. Read more A billboard bearing the picture of President Muhammadu Buhari and the logo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been burnt by pr... A billboard bearing the picture of President Muhammadu Buhari and the logo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been burnt by protesters in Yantumaki town, Danmusa local government area of Katsina state. Buhari is a native of Katsina. On Tuesday morning, residents of the town protested against the attacks and killings by bandits. This development is coming a week after Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina, announced that his administration had pulled out of the peace deal with bandits. The state government had entered a peace agreement with the gunmen. But despite the accord, communities in Katsina are still being attacked and residents killed. On June 1, bandits shot dead 60-year-old Abu Atiku, district head of Yantumaki. The gunmen also attacked some communities in Batsari LGA of the state, and killed the councils APC chairman. The protesters reportedly barricaded the Katsina/Kankara major highway and blocked the road leading to the town. They were said to have been enraged by the kidnap of one Mansir Yusuf and his daughter by bandits around 1 am on Tuesday. When contacted, Isah Gambo, spokesman of the state police command, refused to react to the incident. A text message sent to him is also yet to be replied to as of the time of filing this report. (Bloomberg) -- At 23, Shunji Sugaya had what he calls a life-changing episode. It was March 2000, and Sugaya had just won an award at a business contest where Masayoshi Son, the founder of what was then called SoftBank Corp., was a judge. He sent Son an email to thank him, the two met up, and before long SoftBank offered to buy Sugayas idea for $2.8 million or for Sugaya to join the company and receive stock options. Sugaya turned it down. It gave me a big boost in confidence as I was a student -- I was so happy I could dance, he said in a video interview. We were very grateful for the offer but we politely declined and decided to do it ourselves. So Sugaya started his own company, Optim Corp., which now provides business-management platforms using artificial-intelligence and internet-of-things technologies. The bet has paid off, with Sugaya moving ever closer to joining the ranks of billionaires in Japan alongside Son. Optims shares have gained 79% this year after rising as much as 7.9% Wednesday, as doing business remotely became a necessity during the coronavirus pandemic. Sugayas net worth, derived mainly from his roughly 64% stake in the company, has surged to about $990 million, according to a calculation by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index that excludes shares pledged as collateral. The virus has accelerated a shift from analog to digital business practices at companies in Japan, according to Sugaya, who is Optims president. Digitalization has progressed at great speed during the past three months, he said. It feels like quite a tailwind. Sugaya, now 43, was a computer programmer as far back as elementary school, when he created games and sold them to his friends for a few hundred yen. Optim, which he founded in 2000, started out providing internet video-advertising services. It got into AI and IoT as it worked with telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. to create an internet-connection service. Optim came up with software so that subscribers could set up the connection themselves and later developed remote support services. Story continues Optim has since expanded its remote-control technologies. Its Optimal Biz line, a management platform for multiple devices including smartphones and tablets, helps companies control and secure employees mobile equipment, with functions such as remote locking and the ability to wipe lost or stolen devices to prevent data leakage. The product accounts for about 40% of Japans mobile device management market, according to the company. Remote Support This is a technology that can be applied in a wide range of fields, said Kaname Fujita, an analyst at Ichiyoshi Research Institute Inc. The company also develops remote support tools that allow sharing of screens with devices at different locations and remote operation. With the Japanese government handing out 100,000 yen ($928) to all residents as part of its virus relief efforts, Optim decided to provide free use of its Optimal Remote product, which connects PCs to smartphones by screen sharing. That will help people avoid unnecessary trips to local government offices in the process of claiming the money, company spokesman Keiichi Yokoyama said. Optims technologies are now used in industries including construction, health care, retail and finance. Major business partners include SoftBank, KDDI Corp., and Komatsu Ltd., according to the companys website. Optim has ventured into Southeast Asia, starting with Vietnam, and its starting to expand into North America and Europe, according to Sugaya. Optim also offers agricultural drones equipped with AI-based image-analysis capabilities. They can recognize insects and pest damage and spray agricultural chemicals only on the affected areas, reducing labor and the amount of chemicals used. To be sure, while the companys stock has surged, so has its valuation. Optim trades at about 57 times book value, and about 172 times estimated earnings. The company posted revenue of $62.5 million last fiscal year, and made $1.1 million in profit. It has a market value of about $1.6 billion. I really dont care about the money, Sugaya said. Some two decades after he turned down Sons offer, he says that if the company continues to create new things, revenue and profit will follow. In 20 years, I want us to be a company that people would point to and say, Optim changed all kinds of industries with AI and IoT, he said. (Updates numbers throughout) 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. An appellate court in Cambodia Monday denied the bail request of 10 officials of the banned opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party who were jailed in January on charges of being complicit in treason. The chief of the appellate council, Sous Sam Arth, said the continued detention of the 10 is necessary for the investigation. An attorney representing the CNRP officials condemned the decision. For my clients, the courts judgment this afternoon is unacceptable and unfair, Sam Sok Kong, who represents several of the defendants, told RFAs Khmer Service. They are all ordinary people who have no influence [over anyone] that could obstruct [justice] or create obstacles to their investigation. In September 2017 CNRP President Kem Sokha was arrested over an alleged plot to overthrow the government and the party was dissolved by the Supreme Court in November that year for its supposed role in the scheme. The move to ban the CNRP was part of a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for his ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in parliament in the countrys July 2018 general election. A few among the ten-opposition officials are Sok Chantha, Nhem Vien, Chun Chan, Khut Chreb, Keo Thai and Khem Pheana. Along with the treason charge, they are accused of inciting the army to disobey orders from superiors and other crimes. They all are in Phnom Penhs Prey Sar prison. Sam Sok Kong said that he will visit his 10 clients in the prison to discuss their legal options to file an appeal. Sam Chenda, the wife of Keo Thai, told RFA her family was disappointed with the courts decision. My husband did nothing wrong, but the court committed injustice to him. It is really painful to my family, she said. Seoung Sen Karona of the local rights organization ADHOC said the 10 detainees have legitimate rights and reasons to be on bail. He said the courts rejection will backfire because it will convince the public that the 10 are political prisoners. If the political situation continues like this, the [opposition] political activists will be endlessly persecuted. So political persecution will only subside only when the political heat cools down, he said. Eng Chhai Eang, Deputy President of CNRP condemned the decision. No Cambodian is surprised at all by Hun Sens aggressive and tyrannical behavior. There is nothing new about it. He used to be a senior cadre of the Khmer Rouge so he is used to persecuting and terrifying people. It is in his nature. Period, said the deputy president. More people are speaking up against his dictatorship. As Hun Sen gets more paranoid he continues to round up more innocent and desperate people. However, no tyrant can rule eternally. His regime will collapse. It is just a matter of time when people rise up to hold Hun Sen accountable for abusing human rights and undermining democracy, he told RFAs Khmer Service. Since the beginning of the year nearly 20 CNRP opposition officials or activists were arrested and thrown in prison, most without arrest warrants. During the same period, 17 former and active CNRP officials and supporters were beaten or otherwise attacked from behind by unidentified men, who have yet to be identified by the police. Prime Minister Hun Sen last week publicly threatened that the arrests will continue as long as exiled active-CNRP President Sam Rainsy continues to incite people inside Cambodia by encouraging them not to pay off their debts to the banks and microfinance institutions. Sam Rainsy recently said that poor people with debts, who are unable to pay their debts because of the economic impact of COVID-19, should not sell their land or home to get money to pay back their debtors. Reproted by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Written in English by Eugene Whong. After almost 30 years of living in Dubai, I left. So begins a blog post written in 2017 by an Indian citizen who grew up in the city and witnessed her father being laid off after he had contributed to the success of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), working "like a mad dog." I would never make the same mistake, never stay in a place for too long without having the opportunity to be its citizen, the author said. Three years later, the Gulf is unrecognizable: rentier models of governance are being shaken under the weight of the financial and health crises, as is the Gulf Cooperation Council, and Saudi Arabia allows women to drive as well as international singers to perform concerts. One thing has remained immutable, however: Citizenship acquisition is largely out of reach for migrant workers who are the driving force of Gulf economies. The coronavirus pandemic has further highlighted the challenges facing migrant workers in the Gulf states with this segment of the population facing the greatest economic challenges as well as the highest infection rates. Economic interests Giving citizenship to foreigners would open a Pandora's box, policymakers fear. In the Gulf, citizenship has a financial value, said Ali Altarah, sociologist and a former ambassador of Kuwait to UNESCO. In other words, citizenship is a gateway to generous wide-reaching social welfare systems that an influx of new citizens would likely make "unsustainable," Altarah told Al-Monitor. Moreover, restrictive ownership laws have long curtailed foreign investments and requested businesses to be owned by a local partner, allowing Gulf citizens to collect a slice of any profit generated within the country. Although free zones offer a viable alternative, especially in the UAE, they only circumvent a model of governance that access to citizenship would nullify. Would Gulf regimes give up on their cash cows? a lawyer, who is specialized in citizenship and taxation advice and who has considerable experience in Middle East matters, told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. Long-term residency schemes launched in recent years allow foreigners to reside in the country for extended periods of time while subtly avoiding the substantive issue of granting various social, economic and political rights that are intrinsically linked to citizenship. According to international laws, "countries have sovereignty over who can access citizenship, as long as it is not discriminatory against a race, gender or ethnicity," said Hiba Zayadin, Gulf researcher for the US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW). While hurdles to citizenship are not unique to the Gulf many countries throughout the world require long and arduous processes to gain citizenship in several Gulf countries there is no path unless one has parents who are citizens. Disposable workforce What we have criticized are systemic discriminatory frameworks in place in the Gulf, which this lack of path toward citizenship is obviously part of, Zayadin told Al-Monitor. She refers to an exploitative migration sponsorship system known as kafala that ties workers to their employer and facilitate trafficking, exploitation as well as forced labor. Unable to access citizenship or long-term residency, migrant workers are labeled "temporary guests," a disposable workforce seen as the first variable for adjusting economic contractions. Hit by the twin crisis of the coronavirus pandemic and falling oil prices, more than 3.5 million migrant workers are expected to lose their employment and leave the Gulf as stimulus packages designed to shield local economies from the pandemic-induced recession largely exclude them. Saudi Arabia said it will pay 60% of the private sector wages for its citizens only. When the dust settles, they will take a few knocks and bring in plane-loads of workers from ever more desperate countries, wrote Vani Saraswathi, associate editor for the advocacy organization Migrant-Rights. Globally, the trend toward temporary employment prevails irrespective of geography, the International Labour Organization reported as early as 1997. "Dubai is the best city in India" In recent decades, migrant workers, predominantly from South Asia, have outnumbered Gulf citizens, raising concern over demographic imbalance. Qataris account for 12% of the countrys population and less than one inhabitant out of 10 in Dubai is an Emirati citizen. As it is often quipped, Dubai is the best city in India. A large and diverse Indian diaspora is central to the economic, cultural and social life of the Middle Easts business and trade hub. I feel the core reason why Gulf governments do strictly restrict the right to access citizenship is that they want to preserve their Arab and Muslim identity, Maha, a 26-year-old Indian citizen who was born and raised in Qatar, told Al-Monitor. Gulf leaders are so afraid to lose control over the social fabric of the societies they rule, Altarah added. Indeed, migrant laborers bring along with their working capacity a wide range of cultural, religious and political identities that differ from the native tribal dynamics of the Gulf. Maybe for Westerners it is shocking because they view citizenship as a right attached to migration, but should it be? Maha questioned. Francis Owtram, a Gulf history specialist at the University of Exeter, told Al-Monitor that the Gulf has one of the highest proportions of second and third generations born in the region who are officially classed as foreigners.` Some argue vibrant and long-standing Gulf-South Asia business and political ties could serve as a base for a state-to-state trade-off to grant Asian elites exclusive access to citizenship. I do not see India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed to grant citizenship to Indian businessmen. In fact, he would say, 'Please do not give it to them because I want to tax them,'" commented the lawyer specialized in citizenship, alluding to a budget proposal to tax Indians based in no tax jurisdictions, such as the Gulf. Moreover, Zayadin recalls advocacy group HRW would criticize any selective paths to citizenship acquisition on grounds of national origin, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or social origin as it would constitute a clear discrimination." Transient cities Increasingly concern by the necessity to generate nonhydrocarbon revenues, Gulf governments also view migrant workers as a "taxable resource." In Saudi Arabia, foreigners who wish to live with their nonworking family members to escape the feeling of temporariness created by the contract-based migration are requested to pay a monthly fee. Finally, transient populations are the central element of several cosmopolitan cities under construction across the Arabian Peninsula, such as Saudi Arabias proposed futuristic city NEOM. As evoked during a conference held by the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, Gulf cities tend to be transient by nature and any sense of permanence is only "an illusion." For Maha, Doha is home, but not a place where she can imagine to be a citizen. I have been raised knowing that we are not gonna be here forever, she said In some instances, however, foreigners are granted citizenship. During the Arab Spring, demonstrators in Bahrain protested against what opposition activists see as political naturalization to change the fabric of the society and favor Sunni over Shiite communities. In 2019, Saudi Arabia announced it will start granting citizenship to talent in a bid to attract scientists, intellectuals and innovators from around the world, The National reported. The question, the international lawyer said, is really why one would want to be "so indebted to the ruler," while the Gulfs authoritarian regimes use threats to revoke citizenship as a tool for political repression. "What is given can be taken away next year," the source said. The coronavirus pandemic might trigger changes in the labor market, yet a transient low-income workforce remains the cornerstone of the Gulfs development model. As the International Monetary Fund forecasts the world to "move away from oil," the hydrocarbon-rich region cant afford to grant citizenship to millions of workers who are the backbone of its economy. Channel Seven's new Big Brother compound was built just metres away from where 240 victims of deadly epidemics were buried from 1881 to 1935. The bushland surrounding the clifftop set at Manly's North Head Sanctuary in Sydney is home to the heritage-listed Third Quarantine Cemetery. It was established in 1881 for victims of the smallpox epidemic, and was also used to bury people who died from influenza, the bubonic plague and scarlet fever. Chilling: Channel Seven's new Big Brother compound was built just metres away from where 240 victims of deadly epidemics were buried between 1881 and 1935 It is likely the Big Brother housemates had no idea of the dark history of the location as they soaked up the sun and played games in the house. In an eerie coincidence, filming was halted in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, after a crew member was exposed to the virus. Production stopped for two days until the staffer tested negative. Producers then went to great lengths to keep the house a safe and sanitised environment. Historical: The bushland surrounding the clifftop set at Manly's North Head Sanctuary in Sydney is home to the heritage-listed Third Quarantine Cemetery Dark past: It was established in 1881 for victims of the smallpox epidemic, and was also used to bury people who died from influenza, the bubonic plague and scarlet fever All of the housemates were informed of the COVID-19 crisis in March. They were told off-camera by a producer, and their initial reactions will not air on TV. 'They couldn't believe what they were being told. It was the consequential things that had them fascinated,' host Sonia Kruger recently told Watch magazine. 'I remember telling them about the brawl that occurred over the toilet paper and they thought I was winding them up.' Haunting: It is likely the Big Brother housemates had no idea of the dark history of the location as they soaked up the sun and played games in the house Scary: In an eerie coincidence, filming was halted in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, after a crew member was exposed to the virus Filming took place for the Big Brother reboot from late February to early April. At the start of production, there had been regular Third Quarantine Cemetery walking tours going on, but these stopped when social distancing was enforced. The historical site is regularly visited by locals and tourists. Safety precaution: Production stopped for two days until the staffer tested negative. Producers then went to great lengths to keep the house a safe and sanitised environment Released Iranian-American Doctor Rejects 'Unfair' Charges of Violating US Sanctions Sputnik News 10:13 GMT 08.06.2020 TEHRAN (Sputnik) - Iranian doctor Majid Taheri, who has been recently released by the United States, arrived home on Monday, rejecting charges of violating American sanctions. "I was helping a group [of scientists] from the University of Tehran with a vaccine against a virus causing cancer, especially in women. We wanted to work on this issue for the sake of the health of Iranians and the progress of medical science, but unfortunately, I was unfairly and unreasonably accused," Taheri said, as quoted by the IRIB broadcaster. Taheri's release is a part of a deal, as part of which Tehran has released US Navy veteran Michael White, who was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to several years in prison for insulting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. US prosecutors say that the Iranian-American doctor exported a filter to Iran that could be used for chemical and biological warfare. The dual national, who had been detained in the US for 16 months, was freed last week on bond pending his sentence in light of COVID-19 fears and was allowed to visit his family in Iran. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Australian Immunology Expert: COVID-19 Virus Shows Unexpected Affinity for Human Cells Honest News Straight to Your Home. Try the Epoch Times yourself, and get a free gift. The CCP virus originally broke out in Wuhan and has caused dramatic changes in the world over the past six months. Many countries have closed their borders, cities, schools, and shops, and applied social distancing. However, scientists have discovered that this virus is very unusual. The latest research has found that the CCP virus has a much higher affinity to human cells than other animal cells being studied, including many common host animals, such as bats and pangolins, which makes the origins of the virus more mysterious. The research team of Nikolai Petrovsky, a professor at the Flinders University School of Medicine in Australia, used structural homology modeling methods to compare the affinity of the CCP virus between human cells and 13 common hosts. The results show that the spike protein of the CCP virus has the highest binding affinity to the human ACE2 receptor, surpassing all other tested species, including bats, confusing researchers. Many people considered a bat to be the source of the virus. So where did this virus originate from? Professor Petrovsky told NTD that their research implied that the COVID-19 virus had in some way been exposed to human cells or humans in the past to have evolved such a high affinity. Petrovsky said that the viruss high affinity to human cells is unusual for newly emerging viruses that are jumping across species. Professor Petrovsky said: And then over time, it increases its affinity to the new host, which is but in this case it already has a very high affinity for the human receptor, so that was the surprising part of the findings. Professor Petrovsky is an immunology expert. For the past 25 years, he has been engaged in plague vaccine research and participated in developing more than 20 vaccines, including SARS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), CCP virus, swine flu, Avian influenza, and Ebola virus vaccines. Professor Petovysky explained that when a virus has existed in an animal for tens of thousands of years, or hundreds of thousands of years, people call it a natural host. Professor Petrovsky said: So in that situation, the virus has made itself so optimally, designed itself to be perfect for that particular host species, because its evolved over time with that host. And so thats why you always expect the virus to bind highest to its natural host. And then it will bind less strongly to a different host, so, so yes the expectation is that it should be highest for the natural host. If we didnt know anything about this virus, and we just studied with no information, we would assume from data that humans were the natural host. Thats what the data looks like. Professor Petrovsky said that in human history, human beings have never been the natural host of any virus. Almost all plagues spread from animals to humans. If there are exceptions, it is a plague caused by leaking pathogens from some laboratories. Even though the research data suggests that the CCP virus has had prior contact with humans, it is hard for scholars to believe it since it was not until last November that people were found to be infected with the virus. It has been approximately 6 months since the CCP virus was discovered, but it shows a strong affinity for human cells. How did it appear out of thin air, where did the CCP virus originate from? A special article from The Epoch Times may give people some ideas. The article said that in history, the end of most dynasties was accompanied by plagues and natural disasters, which end regimes. Taking history as a mirror and overviewing the spread of Wuhan plague in countries around the world today, it could be said that the virus is aimed at the CCP. Distant countries, such as Iran, Italy, France, and Germany, or close neighbors such as South Korea and Japan, have suffered heavy losses in this plague because of their close relationship with the CCP. However, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mongolia, which share borders with mainland China, have experienced only mild outbreaks because they oppose or alienate the CCP. The spread of the CCP virus outside of China clearly shows the selective spread of targeting the CCP. Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the last name of the professor. The correct spelling is Petrovsky. The Epoch Times regrets the error. SEARCH A minimum of 3 characters are required to be typed in the search bar in order to perform a search. Thousands are demanding the removal of an Odessa school board member after a newspaper article from the Odessa American put the spotlight on his racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic sentiments shared on Facebook. Ector County ISD School Board member Doyle Woodall spoke to the American in depth Friday, offering no remorse for his comments and instead doubling down on some sentiments, such as calling Islam not a religion but a "geopolitical hate group." He also claimed the noose was a pleasant thought to him, saying he would not cow to the politically correct. Mike Atkins, the attorney for the district, told the American Woodall was exercising his right to free speech and could not be censured or removed from the board, unless voted off. A petition to remove Doyle from the board had more than 4,000 supporters as of early Tuesday afternoon. The American reported that a group of Odessans also planned to express their feelings about the posts in person at a board workshop set to take place 6 p.m. Tuesday at the ECISD administration building at 802 N. Sam Houston Ave. On Saturday, the ECISD superintendent and school board president issued a letter calling Woodall's Facebook posts offensive and demeaning. Superintendent Scott Muri and board President Donna Smith said Woodall's views do not represent the views of the district. Woodalls comments, according to the American, included: If we want to make America great again we will have to make evil people fear punishment again. The comments appeared with an image of a hangmans noose, according to the newspaper. Its not murder" and Jews arent actually people with a picture of Nazi officers. Spill a few gallons of bacon grease on that street and it would clear out fast. The caption was followed by three American flags with a picture of large groups of Muslims in prayer. A comment below, according to the newspaper, also said, This is not Saudi Arabia This is Sweet Home Birmingham, Alabama! Nervous yet? "We embrace and serve a diverse staff and student body as well as a diverse community," Muri and Smith said in their letter. "Mr. Woodalls posts cut across many of those diverse groups. We cannot tolerate this kind of insensitivity. Images and words that hurt our kids and families, hurt us, too. We have spoken with Mr. Woodall about this. We understand his perspective, and his right to express his opinions through his personal platforms. But, we cannot accept messages that offend or marginalize members of our community or distract from the work we do to educate the communitys children. On Tuesday, Woodall issued an apology in the Midland Reporter-Telegram for the posts, calling them offensive and a result of his personal "blinders." "I am truly sorry for my offensive Facebook posts," Woodall wrote. "I am committed to earning back your trust. I have blinders. There are things I dont see and understand because of my culture and personal experiences." Woodall's apology goes on to explain that after his interview with the American, reporter Ruth Campbell spoke to him about how his posts made her feel as a Jewish woman. Woodall claims the conversation rid him of a blinder, and goes on to speak about a similar experience with A.J. Crabill, the former deputy commissioner for education in Texas, who is a black man. "Today, I understand why my posts were offensive," Woodall wrote. "I will remove them from my page. I have a lot to learn about cultural differences and I will dedicate a great deal of time learning by attending cultural awareness and sensitivity training." Numerous community posts on the ECISD Facebook page call for Woodall's removal from the board, with some showcasing his Facebook posts in screenshots. Click here to read the full article. U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi used a traditional African textile to take a stance on racial injustice a move that has since sparked debate. On Monday in Washington, D.C., she joined Congressional Democrats in taking a knee on the floor of the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, in honor of George Floyd, before a press conference announcing the proposed Justice in Policing Act. More from Footwear News Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, was killed on May 25 in Minneapolis by white police officer Derek Chauvin. After taking Floyd into custody, Chauvin knelt on Floyds neck for over 8 minutes. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, while three other officers have been charged with lower counts. Since then, the world has erupted with Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests, bringing the conversation of race relations to the forefront. At the Capitol, Pelosi, who dressed in a red pantsuit and matching red pumps, also wore the cultural African textile called Kente cloth, in order to make a silent statement of solidarity with black people. Kente is a woven fabric produced by the Asante and Ewe people of Ghana and dates back to the 17th century. Critics, however, have called the move virtue signaling and accused the politicians of cultural appropriation, with activist Charles Preston tweeting, We pay elected officials to politically represent and execute a vision. That hollow symbolism is disrespectful when you think about state violence against Black people. April Reign, though, the creator of the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, encouraged critics to look beyond the moment with her tweet: Not a huge fan of the Kente cloth, but it was a show of solidarity from more seasoned folks, so I get it. I just hope we dont miss what happened after the performative part, which is that legislation is being introduced. Story continues This is not the first time Pelosi has used fashion to convey a stance on a social or political matter. At President Donald Trumps State of the Union address in Washington, D.C., in February, for instance, Pelosi and other Congresswomen wore all-white to mark the 100-year anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. And last year, Pelosi also wore the Kente cloth sash while commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first-recorded forced arrival of enslaved African people to the United States. Rep. Karen Bass, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, defended the clothing choice to reporters on Monday, explaining: The significance of the Kente cloth is our African heritage, and for those of you without that heritage who are acting in solidarity. That is the significance of the Kente cloth. Our origins and respecting our past. Pelosis Justice in Policing Act proposes a sweeping overhaul of current laws governing police, including banning chokeholds and making it easier to sue officers who unjustly injure or kill citizens. Democrats also are seeking to create a National Police Misconduct Registry and bar the use of no-knock arrest warrants, which led to the death of Breonna Taylor in March. Sign up for FN's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. NSW Police gave the green light to the Sydney Black Lives Matter rally in an email sent two days before the event, the state's top court has ruled, and their steps to reverse that authorisation failed. In a judgment on Tuesday setting out its reasons for declaring Saturday's protest an authorised public assembly, the NSW Court of Appeal said police signalled they did not oppose the march in an email to organiser Raul Bassi on Thursday, June 4. The authorisation not only protected protesters from being charged with offences relating to obstructing roads and cars but was expected to provide a "reasonable excuse" for breaching current restrictions on public gatherings aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19. Protesters at the Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney on Saturday. Credit:James Brickwood But NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Tuesday that "I think we need to draw a line in the sand in what happened on the weekend". She urged people to find other ways to voice concerns about issues than mass protests during the pandemic. As protests continue across the nation in the wake of the death of Houston-native George Floyd, a common rallying cry of marchers is to defund the police. While no specific plans have been unveiled by groups and the issue is still being debated, the cause has garnered support from some state and national elected officials who propose redirecting law enforcement expenses to other areas such as social work, community outreach and youth services. In The Woodlands, the idea of defunding police is not shared by elected officials on the townships Board of Directors. The community has a relatively low crime rate across several categories and is heavily patrolled by a mixture of personnel from both Montgomery and Harris counties. Entering the 2021 budget planning season, township officials have made it clear there will be no changes to funding for policing. MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR: Woodlands hybrid policing model choice a mix of approaches Township board Chairman Gordy Bunch said law enforcement issues will be the topic on the agenda for a June 18 meeting of the seven-member board, although he did not specify the exact nature of the discussion. I dont support defunding law enforcement. The board will have an agenda item during our meeting to discuss, Bunch stated in an email to The Villager. Director Ann Snyder said she requested a discussion about use of force policies, but she noted the community policing model employed in The Woodlands has led to good relations between residents and law enforcement. Good law enforcement and safety are an important part of our community, county, and country, Snyder said. Our community-oriented policing model is helpful to reducing citizen and police divisions. I fully support continued funding of The Woodlands law enforcement programs. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Turner to launch task force on police reform amid George Floyd protests Board Vice Chairman Bruce Rieser, who is leading a special COVID-19 budget task force for the township, said he does not support defunding any law enforcement services and advocates maintaining current expenditures. I certainly have no plans to call for defunding law enforcement in our community, Rieser said. I havent seen any workable model that would maintain public order in the absence of law enforcement. Other board members shared Riesers views, with some noting the township actually pays for more policing personnel than needed to ensure the safest community for residents and visitors. The issue has also been the subject of two years of analysis and studies during the incorporation planning process. If the township becomes a city in the future, leaders would choose a future policing model that could include a theoretical City of The Woodlands police force of some sort. MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR: Homeland security cameras to be installed in The Woodlands Director John Anthony Brown said he does not, foresee our community defunding our law enforcement personnel. Related: Homeland security cameras expected to be installed in The Woodlands by April The Woodlands Township is one of the safest communities in the state of Texas and our residents pay a premium to keep it that way, which is why we actually contract more law enforcement than the county provides, Brown said. In my opinion, our residents and law enforcement officers in both Montgomery/Harris Counties have mutual respect and a great working relationship in assisting one another. Policing The Woodlands The Woodlands Township is unique in regard to policing issues because the community is not a city or municipality, but rather a special purpose district. The township has no authority to operate or manage any level of law enforcement duties unless the community approves incorporation. In the 2020 township budget, more than $14.1 million was set aside to fund the various law enforcement services the community receives from several organizations. The Woodlands is patrolled by several outside law enforcement agencies, primarily the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office, which provides 88 total staff, including patrol deputies in The Woodlands Division, and the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Office, which provides 11 patrol officers and one sergeant. The Montgomery County Precinct 3 Constable Office also patrols in The Woodlands and receives funding. Other entities that do law enforcement duties for the township on a contracted-out basis include the Alpha and Omega unarmed mounted horse patrol and the Montgomery County Precinct 3 Internet Crimes Investigator. MORNING REPORT: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox In addition to those sworn personnel funded by the township, officers and other police officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Shenandoah Police Department, the Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security and Texas Department of Fish and Game also patrol but do not receive any financial aid from The Woodlands. The community is also under surveillance from a large network of security camera systems, including DEA-funded automated license plate readers and Homeland Security surveillance network that was installed in the Town Center area in early 2019. The result of the plethora of police personnel is a relatively safe community where the majority of offenses are traffic-related, classified as family assault-domestic violence or consist of burglaries of homes, businesses or motor vehicles. There are a few robberies recorded each year and there have been a total of four homicides from 2017 through 2019. Most of the burglaries and thefts occur in heavily-visited commercial areas such as The Woodlands Mall, Market Street and other shopping areas along regional corridors that criss-cross the community. Community policing is a key tenet of the duties law enforcement personnel takepart in in The Woodlands. Deputies and specialists from the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office regularly attend meetings of the nine different village associations in the township, providing statistics on crimes in each village and explaining other patrol issues or incidents. The township board also receives regular updates from various law enforcement admininstrators during monthly board meetings. The most frequent service calls are vacation checks of empty homes for residents out of town. Snyder said the integrity, compassion and empathy, of local officials helps maintain good relations in The Woodlands. We are fortunate in The Woodlands to have the leadership of Sheriff Rand Henderson and Capt. Tim Holifield, as well as Constable Ryan Gable and Corporal John Ryan with Harris County Constables office. Each values integrity, compassion and empathy which is demonstrated to all citizens regardless of race, ethnicity, faith, or socio-economic level, Snyder said. Their commitment to helping people at the same time enforcing laws is evident. I feel that our communities have thrived because of their ethics and sensitive training. Our community oriented policing model is helpful to reducing citizen and police divisions. I fully support continued funding of The Woodlands law enforcement programs. jeff.forward@chron.com Area: 114 sq. km Population:1,500,000 (2001) Language: Punjabi, Hindi, English Religion:Sikhism, Hinduism Temperature: -3 to 47.7 degree Celsius Average Rainfall: 500 mm Harimandir Sahib: Also known as the Golden Temple, is the most significant shrine in Sikhism. It is considered holy because Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the 11th Guru of Sikhs, is believed to be present inside the shrine. Akal Takht: It is located in the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar and is the seat of supreme religious clergy of the Sikhs. It was built by Guru Har Gobind, 6th Guru of Sikhs, as a symbol of political sovereignty of Sikhs. Tarn Taran Sahib: It is a city situated near Amritsar in Punjab, India. The city has many Gurudwaras, which include, Gurudwara Sri Tarn Taran Sahib, Gurudwara Guru Ka Khuh, and Gurudwara Bibi Bhani Da Khuh. Maha Kali Mandir: It is situated at national highway Near Majitha bypass on Jalandhar-Rajashanshi airport road. This Mandir has the temples of Maha Kali, Shri Ram, Maa Durga, Shri Radha Krishan, Sindoori Hanuman, Maa Sarawati, Lakhsmi Narayan , Shiv Parivar. Mandir also has a Great Statue of God Hanuman on the top of Mandir. Saragarhi Gurudwara: Guru Nanak Dev University Govt Polytechnic DAV College for Women Khalsa College DAV College Government Medical College Amritsar City Information Country India State Punjab District Amritsar Established Year 1577 Founded by Guru Ram Das Area 5,056 km Population 966862 as Census January 2011 Population Density 928 km2 as Census January 2011 Language Punjabi,Hindi,English & Urdu Official Languages Punjabi,Hindi,English & Urdu Literacy Rate 76.27 as Census January 2011 Sex Ratio 889/1000 Time zone IST (UTC+5:30) Pin code 143001 Area code 183 Lat Long 31.6400 N, 74.8600 E Religion Sikh, Hinduism Festivals Baisakhi, Basant Panchami at Chheharta Sahib, Guru Purab, Hola Mohalla, Ram Tirath Fair University Guru Nanak Dev University Sister Cities Birmingham (UK), London (UK) Sports Gandhi Sports Complex Ground , Airport Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport Railway Station Amritsar Jn (ASR), Amritsar Railway Station Tourist Attractions Golden Temple Amritsar, Maharaja Ranjit Singh's Ram Bagh Gardens Amritsar, Wagah Border, Jallianwala Bagh, Ram Tirath, Faridkot Fort Nearby Tourist Attractions Faridkot Fort, Dharamsala, Mcleodganj, Kasauli, Jammu, Chandigarh Popular Things Golden Temple, Wagah Border, Tarn Taran Sahib, Punjabi jutti Notable People Guru Tegh Bahadur, Manmohan Singh, Sam Manekshaw, Madan Lal Dhingra, Krishan Kant, Bhisham Sahni, Hans Raj Khanna, Dara Singh, Rajesh Khanna National Highway Grand Trunk Road, National Highway 1 Last Updated on: December 18, 2019 Amritsar is situated, in the northwest region of India, in Punjab , 32 miles east of Lahore, Pakistan. Amritsar is also the administrative headquarter of the Amritsar District in Punjab, India.Amritsar is located 31.63 degree N 74.87 degree E, at an average elevation of 219 meters above the mean sea level. Climate:In Amritsar, Winter starts from November and remains till March, during which, the temperatures ranges from 18 C to about -3 C. Summer commences from April and remains till June, during which, temperature reaches up to 47.7 C. Monsoon Starts from July and remains till September, and post-monsoon season is from September to November.Amritsar and its vicinity houses many religious shrines which are major attractions for pilgrims. Some of these places are:Amritsar has various notable universities and institutes for higher learning such as: 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. Click here to read the full article. The Estee Lauder Cos. Inc. has sent an internal memo to staff qualifying commitments to black employees and outlining specific goals. Among them are reaching U.S. population parity around 13 percent for black employees for all levels in the next five years; doubling sourcing from black-owned businesses over the next three years, and upping the companys financial commitment to the black community from $1 million to $10 million. The note came after employees called for the removal of Ronald Lauder, one of founder Estee Lauders sons, from the companys board after he donated more than $1.75 million to support President Trump. The employee petition says Lauders donations stand in contrast to the companys then-commitment to donate $1 million in the interests of the black community. This total does not match, or exceed Ronald Lauders personal donations in support of state-sanctioned violence, the petition said. In a follow-up letter, employees deemed Lauders statement published by WWD not acceptable. The petition has been signed more than 5,600 times. The memo to Lauder employees that was sent Monday night from William Lauder, executive chairman and nephew of Ronald, and Lauder president and chief executive officer Fabrizio Freda did not address the petition, but did reiterate support for the Black Lives Matter movement. We stand in solidarity with our black employees, black consumers and black communities and firmly believe black lives matter. We are committed to doing more as allies at our company, in our communities and throughout this country, the memo read. As promised, we are following up with the next steps we will be taking in the U.S. that have been informed by your invaluable feedback. Some of these actions will be immediate, others will take some time, but all will be impactful. A few of these actions are accelerations of programs that are already in place, while others are completely new and reflect our history of constant improvement. Story continues The plan is multipronged. Lauder plans to host a conversation series through town halls and one-on-one talks and ask for feedback through surveys, make unconscious bias training mandatory for all full-time U.S. employees, provide training around microaggressions, train point-of-sale employees to provide service to diverse consumers, and incorporate training about all hair types into Aveda and Bumble and bumble. The business also plans to work more closely with its black employee resource group Noble and organize a company-wide day of solidarity that focuses on learning, action and service. The business also plans to provide semiannual updates on progress. Lauder will also increase training initiatives for black employees, hold managers accountable for employees growth and career mapping, and make sure black candidates are identified on the succession list for all senior executive leadership level positions. The organization said it would reach U.S. population parity of black employees in all levels in the next five years, and require that diverse candidates are considered in all executive director and above positions before a hiring decision is made. Lauder also intends to establish stronger partnerships with black organizations like the National Black MBA Association for recruiting, double diverse recruits in the next two years, make sure brand creative teams have black members, and make sure brands deliver products with broad shade ranges. On the supplier end, Lauder said it will double the amount it spends on sourcing ingredients, packaging and supplies from black-owned businesses over the next three years. Lauder also said it will increase financial donations to $10 million over the next three years to support racial and social justice and support access to education through the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Equal Justice Initiative and the Young Womens Leadership Schools. Of the $10 million, $5 million will be donated over the next few weeks, and the other $5 million will be donated over the next two years. For more from WWD.com, see: Petition to Oust Ronald Lauder From Estee Lauder Board Picks Up Traction Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The battle around the nation over voting rights continues. In South Carolina there is no unanimity of opinion, but there is at least a measure of stability after a long battle over the states laws pertaining to voter identification. South Carolina is a model for other states in that it requires a photo ID but provides that no voter is to be denied the right to vote, with or without a photo ID. A South Carolina voter at the polls must show a drivers license, an ID card issued by the S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles in lieu of a drivers license, a South Carolina voter registration card that includes a photo, a federal military ID or a U.S. passport. Free photo IDs are available from the DMV or county voter registration offices. If a voter does not have one of these IDs, he or she may vote a provisional ballot that will count only if the person shows a photo ID to the election commission prior to certification of the election (usually Thursday or Friday after the election). If a person cannot get a photo ID in time for the election, he or she may bring a non-photo voter registration card to the polling place and vote a provisional ballot after signing an affidavit stating he or she has a reasonable impediment to obtaining a photo ID. A reasonable impediment is considered any valid reason, beyond a persons control, creating an obstacle to obtaining photo identification: A disability or illness. A conflict with a work schedule. A lack of transportation. Lack of a birth certificate. Family responsibilities. A religious objection to being photographed. The ballot will count unless someone proves to the election commission that a person is lying about his or her identity or having the listed impediment. South Carolina is protecting the right of those without a state-issued photo ID but at the same time is moving toward the ideal, which is every voter having such identification. To further that objective nationally, its time for a concept put forth by Andrew Young, former U.N. ambassador, congressman and mayor of Atlanta, and Martin Luther King III to gain traction. The concept of the Freedom Card was developed by Young and Norm Ornstein. They have proposed that the Social Security Administration by mail or at each of its roughly 1,300 offices be authorized and equipped to issue at a citizens request a Social Security card bearing the persons photo. A Social Security photo ID would be acceptable as voter ID in any state. Young and proponents of the program say it would greatly alleviate concerns that voter ID laws disenfranchise otherwise eligible voters simply because they lack photo identification. It would also ensure uninterrupted voting rights if a citizen moves. The concept makes sense since the Social Security card is the only form of ID to which every American citizen is already entitled. SSA employees are trained to assist citizens in establishing proof of identity and the agency even offers a hotline. As an added benefit, photo-bearing Social Security cards would, according to law enforcement, significantly improve the integrity of the I-9 employee-verification process. It would be much harder for workers to use another persons card. In a broader societal context, the lack of photo ID is a serious burden on many citizens, especially low-income Americans. This would address that problem. Andrew Youngs words from 2014 are still on target today: Without a photo ID in todays world, you are a second-class citizen You cant easily check into a hotel, get on an airplane or enter a voting booth, so what the Social Security card with a photo should be called is a Freedom Card. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 An hour before the gates opened, dozens of uniformed students wearing face masks stood silently in single file outside their schools in the dusty South African township of Tembisa. Have you seen how many are waiting to come in? said Eddie Kekana, the headmaster of Winnie Mandela Secondary School, just north of Johannesburg. They have been longing to come to school, he said. Students across South Africa returned to classes on Monday after two and a half months of home-schooling to limit the spread of coronavirus. The education department last week postponed the reopening, originally slated for June 1, to better prepare facilities and train staff. Schools had been shut since March 19, two weeks after Africas most industrialised economy recorded its first coronavirus case and days before President Cyril Ramaphosa imposed one of the worlds strictest lockdowns. As restrictions have been gradually eased, with more movement allowed and economic activity resuming, exam-year students were welcomed back to classes. I am very happy but at the same time I am very scared to come back to school, said 21-year-old Lefa Ramoroka, dressed in the school uniform of grey trousers and an azure blue blazer. I thought I would not see my friends again, he said. But he expressed concern about maintaining basic hygiene protocols expected in the fight against COVID-19. Often there is no water at school, he said. Maths via WhatsApp The pipes are working, however, according to the headmaster Kekana, and two large tanks were available in case of water cuts. At the entrance to the school, teachers took the temperature of each student, who answered a quick health questionnaire. For nearly three months, the teachers have been giving lessons remotely, though doing so by videoconference was out of the question. Videos take too much space and too much data, said Steve Shaku, who taught maths via WhatsApp, audio messages and downloadable documents. But some students did not have the technology to access the lessons. I could not see everything, Eliza Manasse, who lives with her single mother and siblings. I have only a small phone. It was challenging to follow the classes, she said. Other students borrowed phones from neighbours whenever possible. We are finally teaching at satisfactory standards, said Shaku, installing a protective visor over his mask. We have to catch up, warned one of his colleagues, Noko Matloa. Our clock is ticking. For the students return, Winnie Mandela Secondary School was divided into 14 classes, compared to the usual six. No hugging By 9:30 am, all of the students were finally in class. A total 234 students out of 263 enrolled attended on Monday. Only two students were sent home: the first had a cold and the second was 38 weeks pregnant. Classes began with hygiene instructions. Today youre going to learn a new way of life, the headmaster told the students. No hugging, no shaking hands, no kissing, said one teacher. As schoolchildren, we are not good at social distancing. We like touching each other, said Delin Walend. In one classroom, students lowered their masks to chat. One student, Mandla Masinga, asked about the logic behind reopening schools when the pandemic is expected to peak in South Africa in a few weeks time. The country has the continents highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with 48,285 infections and at least 998 deaths recorded to date. Its confusing, he said. When the infections were low, nobody was expecting to be out of school. But now that the number of infections are higher, we are back at school. SOURCE: AFP If it was a normal graduation, Indira Islas may have been speaking from a podium. Shed probably feel her parents watching her, but their faces would blur in the crowd. But the world is not normal. So Islas sits on her living room couch on a Saturday afternoon in Gainesville, Georgia, and practices her speech. Her family is in the next room because she doesnt want to feel them watching her, get nervous and mess up. Shes about to give the commencement speech shes practiced for weeks, including the part where she always gets stuck. Islas is a 2020 graduate of Delaware State University. Shes one of seven children. She sneaks past campus security to study in the lab after hours, and shell go out and get fast food with her friends at 2 a.m. Shes a "Dreamer." Islas is one of more than 600 students graduating from universities who received help from TheDream.US, the nations biggest college scholarship provider for immigrants brought to the USA illegally as children. She was chosen to speak at their virtual commencement. TheDream.US students have faced more hardship than the average graduate. Theyre graduating into what might be the worst economy since the Depression, just like everyone else. But they also have to worry about their lives being ripped away at any moment. Indira Islas, a Dreamer whose parents fled violence in Mexico, graduated from Delaware State University. Across the country, nearly 650,000 people wait for the Supreme Court to decide whether they will continue to receive temporary protection from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or risk losing their jobs or even deportation. A decision is likely by the end of June. Islas wants to attend medical school to become a doctor like her parents. Before her family fled violence in Mexico, her parents were the only doctors in town. Their house doubled as a clinic, so any time a patient came in, Islas got a front row seat. One of her favorite photos is from when she was only a few years old: Shes sitting on a folding table with her dads white coat lying on a chair next to her. Shes fiddling with his stethoscope, curious to figure out how it works. Story continues Ever since, shes wanted to be like them. I want to continue the dream that my parents couldnt continue, she said. Islas has spent most of her life in Georgia, a state that doesnt allow in-state college tuition for DACA recipients, commonly referred to as "Dreamers." Before she learned about TheDream.US, she had gathered just enough scholarship money to attend community college for a year. That first walk through the DSU campus was the first time she felt like she belonged. She met Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, who said the state was thrilled to have her. She met other DACA recipients attending DSU sitting with them in the lounge was the first time she felt comfortable enough to tell a group of strangers her life story. On Nov. 8, 2016, she cried in that same lounge with her friends after learning the country had elected a president who wanted to deport them. She said she remembers trying to study her algebra textbook through the tears. When she was a sophomore, Islas dad was threatened with deportation. She still thinks about sitting on a courtroom bench with her siblings hearing the news. She remembers returning to school and how her calculus professor hugged her until she stopped crying. Her family fought for her dad to stay in the USA, but his fate could change at any time. For now, he sits in the living room in Georgia, watching his daughter, beaming. Islas reads over her speech one last time before the real thing. She makes sure she has the Zoom link ready so shes on time. She knows that within a few days, her life could be upended. But she feels OK. Better than that she feels proud that shes made it this far. She takes a deep breath. Good afternoon, friends, family and class of 2020, she begins. We finally made it. Support journalism: Stories like this are possible because of our subscribers This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Graduation: DACA Dreamers face Supreme Court ruling, plus coronavirus The probe agency found irregularities in loans amounting Rs 3,642 crore sanctioned by Yes Bank to the travel firm. Widening its probe in the Yes Bank fraud case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday searched five premises of the promoters, directors and auditors of outbound travel firm Cox & Kings (CKL). This is in connection with the tour operators financial dealings with Rana Kapoor, the co-founder of private Yes Bank, who is under judicial custody for alleged money laundering. According to the central agency, a total outstanding loans aggregating Rs 3,642 crore sanctioned to the travel firms showed 'irregularties'. During investigation, irregularities were noticed in relation to the loan sanctioned to Cox & Kings group. Group had created multiple layer of onshore and offshore subsidiary across the globe through which the monies were siphoned off, ED said. The search operation followed a formal complaint filed by Yes Bank on March 18 against the travel firm. We have so far searched the offices and residences of promoter Ajay Ajit Peter, director Pesi Patel, cheif financial officers Abhishek Goenka and Anil Khandelwal and auditor Naresh Jain, said an ED official. Sources say that this action is part of EDs probe in a case involving half a dozen Yes Bank borrowers with total loan claims of about Rs 30,000 crore. ED is investigating how the bank sanctioned the loans and whether the travel firms promoters siphoned off the money. It is also examining illegal quid pro quo and suspected kickbacks in credit extended during Kapoors tenure at the bank. Sources indicated that investigation will reach out to all borrowers summoned by the agency but their questioning was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The agency is preparing a second or supplementary chargesheet that will include its findings about the bank's borrowers. Explaining the break-up of the outstanding loans, ED said Cox & Kings borrowed Rs 563 crore; its group firms Ezeego and Cox & Kings Financial Services Ltd had borrowed Rs 1,012 crore and Rs 422 crore respectively. While its two UK-based entities--Prometheon Enterprise and Malvern Travel owe dues of Rs 1,152 crore and Rs 493 crore, respectively. ED action triggered after it came into possession of crucial documents and audit reports highlighting the roles of CKL promoter, executives and its entities. Findings says that Malvern Travel, having an outstanding of Rs 493 crore, had submitted a forged bank statement and certificates of BDO LLP (statutory auditor) to avail the loans from Yes Bank. This forgery was pointed out by KPMG which is the administrator of this UK-based entity. In relation to Cox & Kings Limited (CKL), the company forged its consolidated financials by forging the balance sheets of the overseas subsidiaries. Even the Prometheon Enterprise uses the fictitious domain name impersonating the current officials of Raffingers UK LLP, ( statutory auditor) For this, Raffingers UK LLP filed a criminal complaint to National Crime Agency, UK. After default by CKL, the lenders appointed PwC for forensic audit but the management did not cooperate. However, based on the limited data available with them, audit confirmed falsification of accounts, overstating the sales figures and understating the debt figures, fictitious transactions and so on. Audit highlighted that between FY15 and FY19, sales of Rs 3,908 crore were made to 15 non-existent/fictious customers. Most of the collections shown in ledgers from Ezeego (another group entity) were not found in the bank statements. Another 147 sets of customers are also suspicious and not existent. Audit further say that Anil Khandelwal, diverted Rs 1100 crore to Alok Industries without any approval of board. CKG sold Holiday Break Education, another subsidiary for Rs 4387 crores and instead of discharging the liability of bank, they siphoned off majority of the money. From this siphoning, USD15.34 million was transferred to Kuber Investment Mauritius Pvt Ltd which was controlled by Peter Kerker. From Ezeego, Rs 150 crore were diverted to Redkite Capital Private which was promoted by Anil Khandelwal and Naresh Jain (internal auditor of CKL). This fund diverted to Redkite was used to buy controlling stake in Tourism Finance Corporation Of India Ltd, a listed NBFC. Photograph: ANI Photo Rochester, N.Y. A Rochester-area man admitted Monday to leaving voicemails with U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff in which he threatened to kill them in response to the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Salvatore Lippa II, 57, of Greece, pleaded guilty in federal court in Rochester to two counts of threatening a United States official. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. Lippa admitted that he called Schiffs Washington D.C. office on Jan. 23 at 8:20 p.m. and left the following message: Schiff, Shifty Schiff, youre the biggest [expletive] scumbag [expletive] who ever lived. I dare you to come, I dare you to come to New York, because I will put a bullet in your [expletive] forehead. You [expletive] scumbag piece of [expletive]. You got that? And you can look up my phone number. And you think Im [expletive] joking? Ill come to Washington and kill you, you [expletive]" Lippa said he made the call because he was upset about the impeachment proceedings against Trump. Lippa also admitted to leaving this voicemail at Schumers Albany office on Feb. 4: Hey Schumer, you and Nancy Pelosi are two [expletive] biggest scumbags who ever lived. And let me tell you something, somebody wants to assassinate you, Im going to be the driver. And hell shoot you from 200 yards away. I [expletive] promise you, you [expletive] totally little [expletive] Democrats scumbag [expletive]. The Senate was set to vote on Articles of Impeachment against Trump the following day. The Senate voted to acquit Trump. Free speech protection under the First Amendment ends where true threats begin, U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy said in a statement announcing Lippas guilty plea. This Office will not hesitate to prosecute those who make such threats. Lippa is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 1 in federal court in Rochester. The Indian economy was being discussed to become a global giant until it has been hit badly due to Pandemic and political uncertainties. The governance issues remain a hindrance to the growth at large. This has been quite a problematic situation for the economic think tank and one way out seems towards technological adoption. Powerful technologies are evolving and digital economies are becoming a new norm in the global village. Reserve Bank Of India has been instructed to launch its own digital currency after cryptocurrencies are now making a new case in the minds of investors after the collapse of traditional financial systems. With Bitcoin becoming a digital currency giant and Facebook trying to get clearance for its Libra digital currency, it has become inevitable to adopt towards this large section of online currency exchange. For instance, Bitcoin Pro official site allows users to multiply their digital assets by implementing smart trading strategies with the help of artificial intelligence algorithms. For India to make most out of this situation, they need to make a policy makeshift and get things done for themselves sooner. Blockchain-based networks present immense opportunities for scalability and provide centralized databases that can handle huge amounts of transactions without presenting any problems. Scalability Is Possible Only With Technology With current global economic fiasco due to COVID-19 and other internal problems of India, it is immensely important for authorities to increase their abilities in data analysis and maintaining a centralized database. A vastly populated country needs to get hands-on technology as soon as possible to be able to perform better analyses and predict future demands and supply curves. With artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, the software can optimize itself on the basis of human interactions. Identifying patterns of data and extracting some useful insights becomes super easy with the help of this. The authorities would be self-aware about the needs of the masses and will help them remarkably to avert a crisis situation with minimum dependence on individuals. Earlier this year, ANITI AYAG, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National Blockchain Strategy which has defined a roadmap for India to make a technological makeshift. The businesses in India also need to have an open-mindedness and invest to make a move towards these new technological trends. Make-In-India policy would be more viable when the technology trained labor force can be provided. Also, the governance issues should present a minimum of a hindrance to foreign investments by large corporations. The challenges initially are not that easy to overcome. It would require a focused implementation strategy for a few years before any benefits can be reaped out. The survival without technological adoption would become a mammoth of tasks if these evolving technologies do not integrate in the economy. For India to truly become a global giant and lead its way all over then it has to present a much better proposition other than just a cheap labor force. Policies are devised at this stage and await a rigorous implementation period. It is the need of an hour and opting out of it would close the doors of immense potential unlocking opportunities. A social justice nonprofit in northwest Alabama says it will protest every Monday at 5 p.m. until Lauderdale County officials take down a Confederate monument. Project Say Something, a Florence organization that has been fighting to add more context to a Confederate monument at the Lauderdale County courthouse, made the Facebook post following a Lauderdale County Commission meeting on Monday. The group says they will protest at the courthouse. After two days of rallies and marches in Florence, organizers with Project Say Something were hoping commissioners would follow the lead of other cities where Confederate statues have been removed. A 52-foot obelisk that loomed over the predominantly-black city of Birmingham for 115 years was dismantled on June 1. That same night, a statue of Robert E Lee was taken down in front of a Montgomery high school. A Confederate statue of Admiral Raphael Semmes was taken down in Mobile on Friday. However, commissioners decided not to add a discussion about the Confederate monuments removal to their agenda. The denial prompted Project Say Somethings board members, as well as other protesters, to march outside the courthouse to chant Black Lives Matter, People over property, and Take it down. Camille Bennett, founder of Project Say Something, told supporters of the removal not to be disheartened by the commissioners decision. We must be vigilant. Do no give up. We still have momentum, Bennett said. Three years ago, we didnt get this far. No one would talk to us. No one would listen to us. The city would not back us, but they do now. Since 2017, Project Say Something has been trying to get county and city support to build a monument of Dred and Harriett Scott beside the Confederate monument. Bennett said elected officials stalled on the decision to move forward with their installation after the group presented its proposal. Now the nonprofit wants the monument to be removed and relocated, Bennett told Al.com on Monday morning. Our first attempt was to push the narrative that the (Confederate) statue itself is problematic and racists and at the very least it needs to be contextualized to acknowledge our ancestry, Bennett said. Then the lynchings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd happened. Everything changed. We saw the Birmingham monument come down and we were no longer interested in contextualizing the Confederate monument at this point. In February, Arbery was chased and fatally shot by two white men while jogging in a Georgia neighborhood. Less than a month later, Taylor was shot at least eight times at her Louisville home as police initiated a no-knock warrant. More than two months after Taylors death, Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyds neck for almost nine minutes in May. The loss of black lives has triggered a grief in Florence, Bennett said. Because of that, she said the nonprofit is witnessing a surge in support from white people to take down the monument in a city thats about 20 percent black. We had to hear, I cant breathe over and over again like we did with Eric Garner, Bennett said. "That was a trigger in the black community, and I think that was so for white people as well. When you get white support with issues like this, thats a lot of pressure in a community with our demographic. Bennett said seeing that shift in support summoned mixed emotions at first. I was hurt and angry because it took another murder for people to understand what many social justice organizations have been saying, she said. It took them to see the most horrific thing I have ever seen to bring this. Project Say Something is raising money to pay for the statues removal and relocation to the Soldiers Rest section of the Florence City Cemetery. Bennett believes relocating the Confederate monument will help move the community forward from protests to changes in policies in areas such as policing and education. Its a minuscule ask to remove and relocate the monument, she told Al.com. To me, at this point, it shouldnt be an ask. It should be a knowing that it must be removed. We are not touching policy reform yet, or all the structural issues that exist in this community, but we want something to show that there is support for the community. Major (Rtd) Derrick Oduro, Deputy Minister of Defence, has commended Zoomlion Ghana Limited for using the World Health Organisation (WHO) approved standards, and state-of-the-art equipment in its disinfection and dis-infestation exercises. He said the use of such high quality equipment has enabled Zoomlion to cover enough grounds in its dis-infestation and disinfection exercises. Major (Rtd) Oduro made the commendation when he launched the nationwide disinfection and dis-infestation of military facilities and garrisons at Burma Camp, Accra, on Monday. He urged the company to do a thorough work in all the military facilities and their schools to help contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Major (Rtd) Oduro said the health and general well-being of members of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) was paramount to government. This, he said, was the reason the government engaged Zoomlion to undertake such an exercise in all military facilities across the country. "Just like the disinfection exercise of both public and private schools in the country, this exercise is to be replicated in the country, it is crucial to reduce and control the community spread of COVID-19," he explained. The Deputy Minister of Defence, however, cautioned that the exercise alone was not a panacea to the spread of the virus "if we do not play our part to stop it." He said the Armed Forces has put in place teams to ensure the strict compliance of the Presidents directives on COVID-19. "Let us all continue to maintain these protocols by wearing our nose masks, keeping social distancing, regular washing of our hands and use of hand sanitisers". Major (Rtd) Oduro also used the opportunity to applaud the GAF for their professionalism and sense of urgency to duty. "I want to commend all ranks for standing up to your call and for the support you continue to offer the Commander-in-Chief and the Ministry. There is no doubt that the efforts you are making to provide the all-round security and support, including logistics in this period, has contributed to the success that we have chalked as a country," he said. Lt. General Boamah Acquah, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), reiterated the GAF's commitment to continue to support the government in the fight against COVID-19. He said the GAF will continue to utilise the Level II Hospital at El Wak Stadium and put at the disposal of the Ghana Health Service its logistics chain management expertise and use of all assets, by land, sea and air, to tackle the menace, until the fight is won. Lt. General Acquah said personnel of GAF have been deployed to enforce adherence to the COVID-19 preventive protocols directed by the President. As our contribution, we have deployed across the length and breadth of our country the GAF to enforce the measures. We helped to enforce the three-week lockdown in providing security at Isolation Centres, providing escorts to fumigation teams and the exercise will ensure that personnel and their families are safe to carry out their duties". Mrs Florence Larbi, the Chief Operations Officer and Managing Director of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, said throughout its disinfection we have been using disinfectants that are chlorine-based containing sodium hypochlorite. She said the disinfectants were effective within 1060 minutes of contact time and widely available and recommended by the WHO for surface disinfection as part of infection prevention. "Chlorine-based solutions are safe and used for water treatment, for example in swimming pools. This Chlorine based disinfectant is most effective in killing bacteria, fungi and viruses, including influenza virus. Mrs Larbi, took the opportunity to assure the entire country that the company's state-of-the-art vector control assemblage of equipment is second to none in the waste management sector in the country, adding, "we have in readiness thousands of Motorised Spraying Machines that can be deployed to a wide coverage area within the shortest time possible." "We also have Phoenix Fogger Machines (both hand operated and car mounted), Knapsack spraying machines, Boom Spraying Vehicles and Drones". Mrs Larbi said the company has added a Modern Atomizing Boom Machine to its growing technological inventory which is capable of spraying up to 50 meters high, "we are outdooring that today. 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 Political parties, unions and citizens groups will rally in Paris and other cities across France on Tuesday evening to pay tribute to George Floyd, whose death at the hands of a police officer ignited worldwide protests. The anger has spread to France where there are calls for the government to crackdown on racism and violence in the police force. Demonstrations in France are not currently permitted due to the Covid-19 measures which prevent more than ten people gathering in a public place, to stop the spread of the virus. But Interior Minister Christophe Castaner on Tuesday said he would make an exception for the gatherings planned for the evening to pay homage to George Floyd, a black American man who died when a white police officer knelt on his neck, on 25 May in Minneapolis. Rallies across France Earlier on Monday evening local time, in Houston, thousands of mourners turned out to view the casket at the Fountain of Praise church. A private burial was to take place on Tuesday local time. As the public viewing unfolded in Houston, Derek Chauvin, the police officer charged with second-degree murder in the case, made his first court appearance by video link, with a judge ordering his bail raised from 1 million to 1.25 million dollars. Organisers in France say Tuesday's rally is an occasion to protest against all forms of police brutality and racism, at home and abroad. In Paris, the association SOS Racisme called for a "solemn gathering" on Tuesday at 6pm local time, at the Place de la Republique. "It is a sign of our determination to fight, here, racism in the police and all sectors," said a statement on social media. Several workers' and students unions have also joined the fray alongside members of political parties such as the Greens (EEVL), the Socialists, France Unbowed and the Communist party. And some human rights organisations will also be present, such as the League of Human rights. Zero tolerance for racism "The emotions around the world on this subject, which are well-founded, go beyond any jurisdiction currently in place," Castaner told BFMTV on Tuesday, adding that no sanctions would apply to those who attended the rallies. "I would encourage everyone to practice social distancing," he said, "but we're not looking to ban the participation in this protest." Castaner gave a press conference on Monday evening stating that he had "zero tolerance" for racism, and that the chokehold technique used by police officers would be formally scrapped. He also said all forms of racism would be dealt with severely in the justice system. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Castaner visited a southern suburb of Paris on Tuesday morning to discuss respecting the code of ethics with police officers and citizens groups. Several protests and rallies have been organised across France in Floyd's honour ; Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Dijon, Amiens, Bourges, Poitiers and Angers. This comes on the back of a major protest in Paris on Saturday where some 23,000 people turned out to chant "Black Lives Matter" and just days after a protest organised on behalf of the family of Adama Traore, a young black man killed at the hands of police in 2016. Local worker Muhammad Subeih Haider, who was laid off amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), by private British security firm operating in West Qurna 1 oilfield, developed by Exxon Mobil, plays with his children at his home in Basra, Iraq, May 29, 2020. Picture taken May 29, 2020. (Mohammed Aty/Reuters)) In Iraqs Fields of Black Gold, Thousands Lose Livelihoods BASRA, IraqMohammed Haider, a security worker in Iraqs southern oilfields, thought he was safe after signing a new one-year contract to guard oil facilities. Three days later, he was out of a job. I got laid off. They threw us out on the pavement, the 38-year-old said, speaking as he protested outside the Basra Oil Company headquarters, the national partner for foreign companies. Haider had been hired to drive vehicles for a British security firm around the giant West Qurna 1 oilfield that produces hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude each daypart of OPEC member Iraqs principal source of wealth. He now spends his days at home or searching in vain online for jobs that are hard to come by in a crisis-hit economy. I cant even fall back on taxi-driving work. The curfew because of coronavirus means Id get arrested for driving around illegally, he said later at his home. Haider is one of the thousands of workers in Iraqs oil sector who were laid off this year after a fall in oil prices caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and who struggle to find any other source of income. Iraq in March asked international oil companies to cut their budgets by 30 percent because of plummeting oil prices. Energy companies in the south responded by cutting costs. Subcontractors, including security, construction, and transport firms, let thousands of workers go, according to local authorities. Of about 80,000 Iraqis working in the oilfields, some 10,000 to 15,000 are now out of work, said Mohammed Ibadi, a local government official in Basra province, where most of the southern fields are located. Iraqi workers had been forced to take unpaid leave or had been laid off completely, mostly by subcontractors, he said. The British security company that employed Haider declined to comment. TD Take Half My Wages Ibadis office received dozens of complaints from workers who asked Iraqi authorities to sanction companies that dont comply with contractual termination terms. The local authorities negotiated 50 percent and 25 percent salaries for four months for some 2,000 workers who had been laid off, he said. Khalid Hamza, associate director of the Basra Oil Company, said the government body wouldnt accept the arbitrary termination of local staff. We particularly need to protect the jobs of the local population, he said. Iraq has pledged to cut nearly a million barrels of oil production per day (bpd) in line with OPEC cuts. Its exports stood at 3.2 million bpd in May. The cuts have slashed state revenue, of which it makes up more than 90 percent. The government faces making cuts to public sector paya move that would further anger impatient Iraqis who staged protests in 2019 against alleged government corruption and lack of jobs. Ibadi fears the economic and social crisis will worsen as the COVID-19 pandemic hits Iraq harder. With most jobs in Basra linked to the energy industry, it is near impossible for workers like Haider to find an alternative source of income. The father of three, who worked for five years as a driver for the British company, subcontracted by an American oil corporation, is ready to take on any job to provide for his family. Haider fears he might no longer be able to cover school or medical costs. I wish the company would take me back, even for half my wages, he said. By Mohammed Aty Christianity Today asked a group of contributors how, if at all, the Bible should inform what a nation expects of immigrants. This is one of five essays in the series. I havent seen Gabriela lately, but I used to see her every week. On Saturday mornings, she came to the church food bank where I volunteer as a translator. Visibly pregnant, she would greet me in Spanish with a soft voice and a timid smile. Gabriela was born in Guatemala and came to the United States years ago, but she still speaks no English. Along with her mother and sister, Gabriela cobbles together food stamps and donations from the church food bank to feed her children. As far as I know, the father is out of the picture. When we think of good immigrantsthose highly educated, motivated individuals we often want to cherry-pick to make our country betterGabriela is not who comes to mind. Recent policy changes that restrict participants in public programs like Medicaid or SNAP from applying for green cards suggest that Gabriela drains our resources without contributing anything in return. Many feel America is better off without people like her, no matter the violence she fled or the circumstances of her departure from Guatemala. Her worth is dependent on her economic capacity. But this logic reflects the economy of this world, not the economy of Gods kingdom. It reduces the give and take of the social fabric to transactional exchanges. That mindset is death not only to our immigrant neighbors, but to all of us. If we accept that economic contribution is the primary prerequisite for living among us, why apply it only to immigrants? Much has been written about the way Scripture frames the plight of poor immigrants and refugees. The writers of the Hebrew Scriptures consistently advocate for the welfare of the foreigner, admonishing the Hebrew people to remember their former status as alien migrants. But these verses are not simply proof texts; considered in context, they are far more potent than that. When Jesus asserts the Golden Rule in Luke 10, he is quoting Leviticus 19, a passage of the Law that outlines proper treatment of the foreign-born. It should not come as a surprise that the neighbor to whom Jesus refers in the parable of the Good Samaritan is an outsider. After all, the Levitical dictum to love your neighbor as yourself is enshrined within the set of commands to treat the economically destitute migrant as oneself. Leviticus 19 begins with the words of the Lord: Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. He is not vague or mysterious about what holiness entails. Levitical law is as concerned with justice as it is with ritual purity codes, particularly justice that shows no favoritism toward the rich or the established: Do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God. (19:910) Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. (19:15) When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. (19:3334) As Jesus illustrates in his parable, the command to love your neighbor as yourself is nestled among a litany of codes for how the people of Israel ought to treat both the native-born and the foreign-born, the economically comfortable and the economically destitutenamely, that they ought to treat them exactly the same. The United States is not the kingdom of God. But we still have a choice between advocating for policy that increases our personal prosperity at the expense of others, or advocating for policy that furthers the ideas and priorities of Scripture. As a descendant of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, I am close enough to feel the steep price of the partiality that God decries in Leviticus. Fleeing Russian pogroms and Nazi Germany, several of my cousins sought refuge in America aboard the St. Louis. Though they had a well-founded fear of persecution, they were turned away from US soil. They were poor, they were Jews, they were reviled and discriminated against throughout all of Europe. I have records of one cousin who died in the Holocaust, but of course there were more whose records are lost. My ancestors were not ideal immigrants. They were desperatepoor in spirit, mourning the countries that had disowned them, meek, and afraidin other words, the exact kind of person Jesus calls blessed. Its been said so many times before but is worth saying again: Like the Hebrew people, most of us are descended from refugees and migrantseconomic, religious, or otherwise. Like the Hebrew people, in our prosperity we forget the vulnerability and fear our ancestors experienced during their journey. We forget that they were at the receiving end of a welcome that we are now in a position to extend. Jesus knew that it is easy to love ourselves and those who contribute to our personal prosperity. He didnt need to waste his words telling us to be self-interested. He spent his words educating us about a different system and telling us how to live within it. As Christians, we may disagree on immigration policy. But we must resist the temptation to sort complex human beings, all of whom carry lifes difficulties, into economic categories of good and bad. After each commandment to honor the foreigner in Leviticus 19, God declares, I am the Lord your God, as if to say, These foreigners, they are not yours to judge. If we fail to hear this, we just might find that God has already invited them to his table, while we were busy adjudicating their worth. Abigail Storch is a graduate of Eastern University and Yale Divinity School. Originally from Greensboro, North Carolina, she now lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut. By Nam Hyun-woo Samsung Display's OLED smartphone panels with 90 hertz and 120 hertz refresh rates were certified by Swiss-based agency SGS as "seamless" displays, according to the panel maker, Tuesday. This means the displays possessed the lowest level of blur length and the fastest level of moving picture response time (MPRT) optimal for watching video clips and smartphone games. According to SGS data presented by Samsung Display, its 90-hertz and 120-hertz smartphone OLEDs each logged image drag length less than 0.9 millimeters or 0.7 millimeters, and MPRT speed of less than 14 milliseconds and 11 milliseconds. These results gave the 90-hertz panel a "Seamless" certification and 120 hertz panel a "Seamless Pro" certification. SGS, or Societe Generale de Surveillance, is a global inspection, verification, testing and certification company. Samsung Display said SGS also compared the tested panels with competing panels, with the 90-hertz version demonstrating 1.2 times improved performance in terms of blur length. The company also said the 120 hertz version showed 1.5 times smoother motion than competing panels during its own test, indicating the OLEDs excelled in expressing high-speed moving pictures. Refresh rate refers to how many times per second a panel reloads image data. At a 120-hertz refresh rate a display can show 120 changes in one second. The higher the number, the clearer and more naturally images can be displayed. Along with refresh rate, a display's quality hinges on its response time. Since OLED has a faster electron transfer rate and does not require liquid crystal, it can exhibit a faster response time as well as expressing smoother images. "Due to the fast penetration of 5G, the traffic on video streaming services and game contents is showing exponential growth, and pushes up the demand for smartphone panels with high refresh rates," Samsung Display Senior Vice President Baek Ji-ho said. "Based on its fast response time, OLED can display blur-less, clean and smoother images which will provide a differentiated user experience." Along with OLED, Samsung Display has been making a series of investments for its leadership in the display market. In October last year, the company said it will invest 13.1 trillion won for quantum dot display technology by 2025, and is building facilities in Asan, South Chungcheong Province. Ghost ships appear to be sailing in large circles off the coast of San Francisco, giving off GPS signals without the boats actually being anywhere near the area. The mysterious phenomenon was first noticed by Bjorn Bergman, who works for the environmental watchdog groups SkyTruth and Global Fishing Watch, which track the movements of commercial ships across the world's oceans. Bergman identified signals from nine ships, all of which seemed to be moving in circular tracks in the waters off Point Reyes, just north of San Francisco--and some tracks even showed the ships crossing onto dry land. Bjorn Bergman, who works for SkyTruth and Global Fishing Watch, observed strange GPS signals showing ships off the coast of San Francisco traveling in circular patterns, despite other data saying the ships were actually located halfway around the world Strangely, none of the ships emitting signals from the area were anywhere close to the California coastline, according to other recent data on their journeys. According to a report in Newsweek, the signals came from ships that had recently been tracked in Norway, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Sea of Azov (between Russia and Ukraine), and the Suez Canal. Almost all ships are legally required to use an automatic identification systems (AIS) to track their location to help avoid collisions with other ships and ensure international laws are observed. According to Bergman, there are a number of possible explanations, but no clear answer as to what's causing the strange phenomenon. Bergman suggested it could be related to a US Coast Guard site on Point Reyes, tha that been operational until 2015. 'One thing that could be plausible is that it's acting as a zero location because of the importance of this spot in developing maritime navigation systems,' Bergman told Newsweek. 'So if [a ship's] reception is blocked for whatever reason they're appearing there.' Experts still debate the cause of the strange circular patterns. The University of Texas at Austin's Todd Humphreys says it's likely the signals were a result of GPS spoofing devices used specifically to mask the real location of the vessels Other data about the ships sending out the GPS signals showed there was no way for any of them to have been near San Francisco, with some having been in Nigeria, Malaysia, the Suez Cana, and Norway A likelier explanation, according to Todd Humphreys, an associate professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, is that the ships are using GPS spoofing devices to trick the AIS system and mask their real location. Humphreys told Newsweek, that the circular patterns are similar to those produced by 'off-the-shelf spoofing devices' that are commonly used to trick GPS systems. 'We know it's GPS spoofing because we also see it in the data from exercise apps,' Humphreys told Newsweek. 'Usually the false location is near the true one, but in other cases it's half a world away, like Point Reyes for a ship off the coast of Africa.' U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis mandated that the facility improve its practices after she found subpar procedures at the jail during the height of the pandemic, specifically referencing the low total of tests during the outbreak. The judge found an outbreak at the end of March, which began in a dining room for correctional officers and spread to at least four housing units. In late May, the jail had reported 18 inmates who had tested positive for the virus, which is the same total going back to April 23, an indication that the spread had been halted. A man watches a TV screen showing a news program with a file image of Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. Read more SEOUL, South Korea North Korea said Tuesday itll cut off all communication channels with South Korea as it escalates its pressure on the South for failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border. The Norths Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday it will be the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary things. KNCA says all cross-border communication lines will be cut off at Tuesday noon. The South Korean authorities connived at the hostile acts against (North Korea) by the riff-raff, while trying to dodge heavy responsibility with nasty excuses," KCNA said. In recent days, North Korea has increasingly expressed its anger over the leafleting by threatening to permanently shut down a liaison office with South Korea and a jointly run factory park, as well as nullify a 2018 inter-Korean tension-reduction agreement. The North Korean threats came amid a prolonged deadlock in its broader nuclear diplomacy with the United States, which has subsequently led to the straining of inter-Korean ties. South Korea has no immediate response to the North Korean announcement. But it has recently said it would push for new legal steps to ban activists from launching leaflets in an attempt to save faltering ties with North Korea. But the North has countered the South Korean response lacks sincerity. The leafleting has been a long-running source of tensions between the two Koreas. In recent years, North Korean defectors and conservative activists have floated huge balloons carrying leaflets criticizing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over his nuclear ambitions and abysmal human rights record. The North, which bristles at any outside attempt to undermine the Kim leadership, has often made a furious response to the South Korean government. South Korea has typically let activists launch such balloons, citing their rights to exercise freedom of speech, but it sometimes sent police officers to stop them from floating leaflets in times of tensions with North Korea. Trump orders withdrawal of National Guard from Washington, D.C. People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:37, June 08, 2020 Less than a week ago, Trump threatened the use of active-duty military forces to quell the protests, a decision that drew harsh condemnation from both current and former officials. WASHINGTON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he has ordered the National Guard recently deployed in Washington, D.C. to deal with the protests to begin withdrawing from the nation's capital. "I have just given an order for our National Guard to start the process of withdrawing from Washington, D.C., now that everything is under perfect control," the president tweeted in the morning. "They will be going home, but can quickly return, if needed. Far fewer protesters showed up last night than anticipated!" A group of uniformed military personnel were seen in front of the White House on Saturday, as thousands of protesters swelled into D.C. to stage what has been the largest demonstration in the capital since the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis black man, at the hands of white police. Demanding change in police practices and paying homage to Floyd, Saturday's protest remained peaceful. Music blared from a truck, impromptu dance parties appeared, and people used chalk to write messages on the streets. Less than a week ago, however, as the protests escalated and reached the doorsteps of the presidential residence, Trump threatened the use of active-duty military forces to quell the protests, a decision that drew harsh condemnation from both current and former officials. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote Trump a letter Friday, urging him to "withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence" in her city citing the peaceful nature of the demonstrations. The D.C. National Guard confirmed Saturday it was investigating whether it was appropriate to use one of its helicopters during Monday's protests. The helicopter flew low above the White House area as law enforcement on the ground reportedly used non-lethal weapons to clear the way for Trump to walk to a church near the White House for a photo op, which caused tremendous controversy. "The completion of a thorough and transparent investigation is of the highest priority to me and to the investigative team," Major General William Walker, the D.C. National Guard's commander, said in a statement. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address By PTI HYDERABAD: In a suspected case of honour killing in Telangana, a 20-year old woman was allegedly smothered to death by her parents for being in love with a man from another caste, becoming pregnant and refusing to undergo abortion, police said on Tuesday. The parents killed their daughter using a pillow while she was asleep in the early hours of June 7 in their house in Kalukuntla in Jogulamba-Gadwal district and sought to project it as natural death, claiming she died of heart attack. However, following specific information and suspicion raised by the village secretary over the death of the woman, a college student, a probe was launched and the couple arrested on charges of murder under Indian Penal Code section 302 after post-mortem, police said. The parents decided to kill the woman, the youngest of their three daughters, a day after she was found pregnant and refused to undergo abortion, police said. The woman had fallen in love with the man while pursuing her degree course in Kurnool district in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and informed her parents about it after she was found pregnant during an examination by a doctor. Her parents feared that their daughter may elope with her lover and brought pressure on her to go for abortion. Though initially she agreed, later she declined, following which they killed her and told everyone that their daughter died of heart attack, the police official said. When a police team went to their house and insisted on a post-mortem after noticing some marks on her body indicating a struggle, the parents tried to stop it, saying there was no need. Later, police shifted the body to a hospital where a post-mortem revealed the woman was "throttled to death". Her parents during interrogation confessed to killing their daughter, the official said, adding they were arrested. How much does it cost US taxpayers for one of Donald Trump's sons to hunt an endangered sheep in Asia and stop for a secretive meeting with the president of Mongolia? Sixty-thousand dollars more than initially disclosed, according to a government watchdog group. Donald Trump Jr, the president's oldest son, visited the country last year on a hunting vacation organised by a company owned by a member of the Mongolian president's political party. It was that company that helped Don Jr obtain a hunting permit for the argali sheep -- after he already had killed one of the animal. US Secret Service documents initially put the cost of the trip at around $17,000. But Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), a Washington-based government watchdog organisation, obtained additional documents that put the actual costs of the trip for US taxpayers at over $75,000. The initial documents did not cover his stop in Ulaanbaatar to meet with Khaltmaagiin Battulga, Mongolia's president, or his flight costs, CREW found. The White House, Trump campaign and the Trump family business each have never released details of his meeting with the Mongolian leader, even though taxpayers funded at least part of the stop. Family members of all presidents receive US government protection, especially on foreign travel. One reason why is a sitting president could be forced into certain actions that may be counter to US interests in order to retrieve or keep a family member safe. "As a son of the president, Donald Trump Jr is entitled to Secret Service protection and should be protected," CREW wrote in a statement. "But taxpayers deserve to know how much they are paying to facilitate his trophy hunting and interactions with major political donors and foreign leaders." The watchdog group found the Trump family is outpacing the Obamas on protected trips by an order of 12. "While we know that many of those trips have been to promote or support Trump Organisation business, there are thousands of trips that remain a mystery," CREW said. "With tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money spent protecting the Trump family, the Secret Service has run out of money and Congress has had to dramatically increase the agency's budget." Don Jr has solidified himself as a big presence in the movement that put his father in the White House, and is a regular speaker at his father's political rallies. He typically delivers a slightly toned-down, and more organised, version of the president's wide-ranging hybrid speech-monologue of ad libs. But his spiel, which typically comes shortly before his father hits the stage, gets the crowd revved up as Don Jr bashes Democrats, warns about "socialism" and touts his father's record The US conversation on immigration has largely disappeared from the news as Americans have shifted their focus in 2020 to COVID-19 and, later, to widespread protests following a police killing in Minnesota. But the White House has continued enacting aggressive policies in the name of public safety, including effectively ending asylum at the US border and further restricting who can apply for a green card. Southwest border crossings have fallen dramatically from the beginning of the year. Debate around immigration will surely heat up again as the November election nears. When it does, much of the rhetoric will revolve around various offshoots of the deeper questions: How does immigration benefit America? How do we ensure those who enter our country will contribute to it? Advocates on all sides will showcase exceptionally shining or delinquent examples and attempt to portray them as representative of the foreign-born as a whole. Christianity Today asked a group of contributors how, if at all, the Bible should inform what a nation expects of immigrants. The answers mattered before COVID-19, and they matter now, when anti-immigrant sentiment is rising even though immigrants make up a large portion of the workers most exposed to the virus, such as cleaners and food industry employees. The Editors Chennai: The DMK and its allies have jointly decided to hold an agitation on June 10 to protest against the governments decision to hold the examinations for Class ten students from June 15 onwards. Leaders of 11 political parties, led by the DMK, appealed to members of all the parties, the common people, youth, teachers and parents to take part in the agitation when slogans like Do not play the lives of children would be raised. They said that the government should reschedule the examination to a later date with due consultation with teachers and other stakeholders after the Coronavirus crisis was over. Earlier, DMK President M K Stalin and MDMK general Secretary Vaiko urged the government to cancel the tenth standard public examination in view of the threat posed by the Coronavirus pandemic. In separate statements, the leaders argued that the by conducting the tenth examination, scheduled to begin on June 15, the government would be endangering the lives of students, parents, teachers and many other connected with the them. Rulers, for their secret gains, should not play with students lives, said Stalin, while Vaiko claimed that parents were not prepared to play with childrens lives. Both leaders pointed to the growing number of cases in the State. There was no sign of the rapid spread of Coronavirus abating and the way the number of infections was growing there was even a fear that social spread could have started, Stalin said. He said that now that there were reports of the Covid-19 virus taking a more menacing form and added that of late children and youth are also getting infected in large numbers. The CPM State general secretary K Balakrishnan urged the government to put off the examinations till the situation became normal. Due to the increase in number of positive cases and the number of deaths, the students were not in a proper frame of mind to take the examinations, he said, adding it would not be right to hold the examinations from June 15. The parties that are taking part in the agitation on June 10 are: DMK, DK, Congress, MDMK, CPM, CPI, IUML, VCK, MNK, Kongu Peoples National party and IJK. 3 1 of 3 Bexar County Sheriff's Office Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Bexar County Sheriff's Office Show More Show Less 3 of 3 San Antonio police arrested two men in unrelated cases in connection with the online solicitation of a minor, according to their respective arrest affidavits. Michael David Hernandez, 29, sent multiple messages between March and May to an undercover detective posing as a 16-year-old girl on the social networking site mocospace.com and asked for sexual intercourse even after he was reminded the girl he thought he was interacting with was a minor, the affidavit said. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. The Labour party was divided. Four voted with the Government and others, including the Deputy Leader, Mr Calwell, and Mr C.A. Morgan, abstained. Editorial: The gaoling of Browne and Fitzpatrick In Canberra yesterday two men were ordered to be imprisoned for three months. They were convicted and sentenced without a trial in the ordinary sense of the word, without being allowed representation by counsel, and finally, so far as the House of Representatives was concerned, without right of appeal. This is an event without precedent in the history of Federation. Never before has the Commonwealth Parliament thus arbitrarily exercised its powers to breach of privilege or contempt. It had not, in 55 years, even troubled to declare or define those powers, but had merely accepted them as a vague heritage from the House of Commons, transmitted through the Constitution. This lack of definition had two extraordinary results in the case of Fitzpatrick and Browne. First, the House was uncertain whether, while possessing the right to inflict the major penalty of imprisonment, it was legally entitled to impose the lesser penalty of a fine. Then, and more importantly, it meant that the two men were arraigned for an offence, hazy in itself, for which no penalty had previously been prescribed. In ordinary criminal cases the offender knows in advance, or should know, the punishment to which he will become liable. Even for contempt of Court the nature of the penalty usually a fine, though imprisonment may be ordered is well understood. But here, not only were the perpetrators of contempt of Parliament unaware because no precedent or precise rules existed of the penalties they might be incurring: Parliament itself was in doubt and divided upon the degree of punishment it could or should impose. Two men say they were switched at birth at a West Virginia hospital nearly 80 years ago and sent home with each other's parents - a mistake that was only discovered recently thanks to DNA testing. John William Carr III and Jackie Lee Spencer are now suing the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, alleging negligence and breach of duty by the hospital where they were born. Both Carr and Spencer were welcomed into the world on August 29, 1942, at St. Joseph Hospital in Buckhannon. Their joint lawsuit filed on Friday in Monongalia County Circuit Court says staffers at the diocese-run hospital sent them home with the wrong families, The Dominion Post first reported. Switched at birth: John Carr is pictured right and Jackie Lee Spencer is seen left The switch came to light last year when DNA tests showed Carr and Spencer had no genetic matches with the families that raised them but did match the other's family, the men contend in their complaint. Carr, Spencer and their families have suffered a 'lifetime of consequences' from the switch and are seeking unspecified damages, they say in the lawsuit. The diocese does not comment on pending litigation, spokesman Tim Bishop said. In a phone interview with DailyMail.com on Tuesday, the plaintiffs' attorney, Charles Crooks, said that Spencer spent decades searching for the man listed on his birth certificate as his biological father, Shirley Spencer. He had been told the man abandoned his mother prior to his birth. At age 11, Spencer's mother handed him an old photo of the man she believed to be his biological father, and shared with him a few biographical details. After finding relatives of the man on an ancestry website, Spencer took a DNA test to see if he was related and discovered he was not. An additional DNA test also showed he wasn't related to any of the people he had grown up thinking of as blood family. John William Carr III and Jackie Lee Spencer, 77, are suing the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia, claiming they were switched at birth by staff at St Joseph's Hospital in Buckhannon (pictured) in August 1942 It turned out, tests showed, he was really related to Carr's family - and further digging found that Carr had been born the same day at St. Joseph. Spencer and his wife, Phyllis, contacted Carr, who agreed to take a DNA test that showed he was related to the people Spencer had believed were relatives. 'The discovery was the resolution of a puzzle that Jack and Phyllis had worked on for decades,' Crooks said. 'They never dreamed that this was gonna be the answer.' Spencer, now in his late 70s, never got to know many of his family members, he says in the lawsuit. 'Many of the people Jack should have known his entire life are gone,' according to the lawsuit. 'He feels as though most of his family died all at once. He grieves for the loss of the life he was supposed to have, while reconciling those feeling with the love and gratitude he feels for the family he has known his whole life.' Carr, who has blue eyes like most of the Spencers, said he looks different from the family that raised him and always felt out of place. 'Well, I never felt like I fit in here because my mother and dad had brown hair and brown eyes, and so do my brother and sister,' Carr said in the lawsuit. His attorney said that Carr's father 'frequently commented that John didnt look like his son, and he wasnt very kind about it.' Carr left home at age 17 to join the Marine Corps, where he served for four years. He currently lives in West Virginia with his ailing wife, Bonnie, and their special-needs stepson. Crooks told DailyMail.com that until August 14, 2019, when Carr and Spencer got the life-altering DNA results, their families had never crossed paths, having lived on farms in different counties. The attorney said both his clients were shocked by the revelation concerning their respective identities. 'It was a strong mixture of emotions,' Crooks said, adding that Carr was surprised at the impact this has had on him. On their shared birthday last year, Spencer and Carr finally met face-to-face for the first time. 'Theyre glad to know each other and they are glad to know the truth,' Crooks said. In Equatorial Guinea, a country ruled with an iron fist for four decades, the strain of living under one of Africa's toughest coronavirus confinements is starting to tell. Nearly two months ago, 78-year-old President Teodoro Obiang Nguema imposed lockdowns on the two largest cities -- Bata and the capital Malabo. Restaurants and bars are closed and only food stores and pharmacies are open, from 7am until 3pm. Leaving one's home is only permissible to buy food or for medical reasons, and requires prior authorisation from the neighbourhood leader, who is a member of the ruling party. The precious document can be requested at any moment by police or the military. Pinto, a once-bustling trading district of Malabo, has become a ghost town with multi-coloured facades. Most of its hawkers are West Africans and Cameroonians who sell or repair mobile phones. Today, their lives have been reduced to a game of cat and mouse. Storeholders have a lookout who keeps an eye out for police patrols, and doors are whisked open and swiftly shut when a client comes along. Getting caught can lead to a beating or a demand for a kickback -- or both. Videos alleging police or military violence during the lockdown have spread quickly on social media. In one of them, a woman in Bata is brutally thrown into a vehicle by five police officers, one of whom gives a heavy slap. Another shows truncheon-wielding soldiers violently beating a man behind the knees. Several people, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that they had been assaulted. "Policemen slapped me three times because I was out of my home at midnight and I wasn't wearing a mask," said Susan, a 30-year-old chamber maid. "I received six strokes to the buttocks with nightsticks because I didn't have the authorisation to go out, but all I had done was to go out to buy food at the grocer's shop," said Fulgencio, 50. The country's only significant opposition party, the Convergence for Social Democracy, has urged those responsible for police brutality to be "brought to justice". Pressure on poor Equatorial Guinea is awash in oil, but more than half of its population live below the threshold of poverty. In other African countries, curfews, travel restrictions and other measures are starting to be eased, partly to help people who depend on day-to-day jobs to survive. But in this central African state, the lockdown is grinding on and in the absence of government aid some say the harsh policies are no long justified. Equatorial Guinea. By AFP (AFP) "I am only earning 20,000 CFA francs ($34 / 30 euros) a day compared with 50,000 francs before," said Jony, a taxi driver. In its defence, the government says the lockdown is a crucial weapon. "The government cannot do any easing at the moment as long as the level of the infection curve is not known for sure," President Obiang said on May 15, as he ordered a one-month extension. According to official figures, there have been just over 2,000 cases of coronavirus in a population of 1.3 million. But this figure is no longer updated on a daily basis, and the national tally of deaths -- 12 -- has remained unchanged since May 25. "If the toll is no longer issued each day as the health ministry used to do, that's because an order has come from higher up," a member of the technical committee to fight coronavirus told AFP. "By hiding the infection figures, the government runs the risk of a boomerang effect -- it's not a political problem, it's a question of health and human lives," said sociologist Pablo Odeng. The tightly controlled national media have rarely questioned the government's measures. Empty: A freeway in Malabo last Friday. By Samuel OBIANG (AFP) In contrast, the issue of police violence was aired in an opinion programme on Television Asonga, the country's only privately run channel, which belongs to the president's son, Teodorin Obiang. The following day, on May 1, the programme and the seven journalists on it were suspended without explanation. "Not even coronavirus escapes Equatorial Guinea's extreme censorship," said Reporters Without Borders (RSF), whose annual index for press freedom rated the country 165th out of 179 states. Out-of-work tourist guides protest outside the Pantheon in Rome. "Without tourism Italy dies, tourism is not here but tour guides are." With this slogan, Rome tour guides staged a flash mob protest in front of the Pantheon - which reopened today after three months - to call on the government to help the industry which has been devastated by the covid-19 pandemic. The demonstration - whose participants were masked and maintained social distancing - was organised by AGTA, the Association of Licensed Tourist Guides. Their specific measures for those employed in the tour guide sector included economic support until the resumption of work and the possibility of suspending payments of taxes in 2020 and of paying them in installments. "We are all registered for IVA" - a guide present told Italian state broadcaster RAI - "and in addition to the 600 in March and April we have no support. We will not work until March 2021 if tourism does not recover. But we still have to pay taxes. We are asking for support from the government, because we never hear the tour guide sector being spoken about." Government will on Thursday, June 11, 2020 hold a forum on the COVID-19 Pandemic and the importance of President Akufo-Addos vision of Ghana Beyond Aid. A statement issued in Accra on Tuesday 9th June 2020 and signed by Deputy Information Minister Pius Enam- Hadzide said the themed COVID-19 and our march towards Ghana Beyond Aid; Turning Adversity into Opportunity forms part of governments broader strategy to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the COVID-19 to boost local capacity. The statement said the forum aims at stepping up public education about the virus and at the same time mobilizing the vast majority of Ghanaians towards achieving the Presidents Ghana Beyond Aid agenda The Forum will be under the chairmanship of the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo and will be addressed by the Archbishop of Cape Coast, Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle, Mr. Kwame Pianim, a renowned economist, the President of Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Dr. Yaw Adu Gyamfi, the Chief Executive Officer of EXIM Ghana, Mr Lawrence Agyinsam and the President of the National Union of Ghana Students, Isaac Jay Hyde. The forum will be televised live on all major television,radio and online platforms in Ghana. 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 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 15:12:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BISHKEK, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyzstan added 23 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, raising the total number of infections to 2,055. Deputy Health Minister Nurbolot Usenbaev told a news briefing that one more virus-related death was registered in the country last night, raising the nationwide death toll to 24. Among the newly infected three are medical workers. The total number of infected medical staff is 403, including 293 recoveries, Usenbaev added. The official said 38 people recovered from the disease and were discharged from hospitals in the past day, raising the tally of recoveries to 1,483. Currently, 548 people remain hospitalized and two are in intensive care. In total, 2,009 people who contacted infected patients are under medical observation and another 8,592 are in home quarantine under the supervision of doctors. Kyrgyzstan conducted 2,431 tests in the past 24 hours. Enditem On the day of George Floyd's funeral, President Donald Trump on Tuesday touted a conspiracy theory in a high-profile case of alleged police misconduct caught on video -- involving an elderly protester pushed to the ground and seriously injured. On Twitter Tuesday morning, Trump suggested that 75-year-old Martin Gugino, who remains hospitalized in serious condition after being shoved to the ground by two Buffalo, New York, police officers, may be an "ANTIFA provocateur" and that the whole incident could be part of a "set up." Gugino's lawyer has since called the president's accusations "dark, dangerous, and untrue." "No one from law enforcement has even suggested anything otherwise so we are at a loss to understand why the President of the United States would make such dark dangerous, and untrue accusations against him," Kelly Zarcone said in a statement of the president's accusation against her client, who she said has been released from the ICU but remains hospitalized. MORE: Buffalo police officers arrested after shoving 75-year-old protester PHOTO: An elderly man falls after appearing to be shoved by riot police during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Buffalo, New York, U.S. June 4, 2020 in this still image taken from video. WBFO/via (Wbfo/VIA Reuters TV) Tagging the conservative news outlet OANN (One America News Network), the president said in his tweet "I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?" Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020 In response, former Vice president Joe Biden on Tuesday afternoon called both the officers' actions and Trump's comments an "abuse of power," adding the president's suggestion is "a conspiracy theory he saw on TV." Story continues "My Dad used to say there's no greater sin than the abuse of power. Whether it's an officer bloodying a peaceful protester or a President defending him with a conspiracy theory he saw on TV. I'm a Catholic just like Martin. Our faith says that we can't accept either," Biden tweeted, around the same time his video message for Floyd's funeral was played. My Dad used to say there's no greater sin than the abuse of power. Whether it's an officer bloodying a peaceful protester or a President defending him with a conspiracy theory he saw on TV. I'm a Catholic just like Martin. Our faith says that we can't accept either. Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 9, 2020 Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who said last week she has struggled with whether she could back Trump, prompting the president to threaten to campaign against her in a tweet, when asked for her reaction to Trump's tweet, said, "This is not good." "I just saw that this second. It just makes no sense that we're fanning the flames right at this time," she told reporters on Capitol Hill. "This is not good." New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, responding to the president's tweet at a news conference Tuesday, said, "How reckless, how irresponsible, how mean, how crude." "There's no fact to any of it." Cuomo said. "What do you think, it was staged? You think that the blood coming out of his head was staged? Is that what you are saying? You saw his head hit the pavement, and you see blood on the pavement." New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addresses Pres. Trump's conspiracy theory about an incident in Buffalo, NY, in which police are seen on video shoving a 75-year-old to the ground. "At this moment of anguish and anger, what does he do? He pours gasoline on the fire." pic.twitter.com/HZSOxUH6Zg ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 9, 2020 Video of the incident shows Gugino walking in the direction of a crowd of uniformed officers when two officers appear to shove him. He then falls onto his back and the back of his head hits the concrete. The sound of the Gugino's head hitting the ground silenced the crowd, the video shows. Blood can be seen seeping from Gugino's head as he laid motionless as several officers walk by him, before another officer, possibly a National Guard member, came to his aid. The two Buffalo police officers seen pushing Gugino in the video are now facing criminal charges in connection with the incident, prosecutors said over the weekend, after a spokesperson for the city and police department, Mike DeGeorge, initially said in a statement that the man "tripped and fell." Officers Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe were charged with second-degree assault during their video arraignments on Saturday and were released on their own recognizance. They both entered not guilty pleas and are expected back in court on July 20. MORE: Video: Graphic video shows Buffalo police pushing man during protest Cuomo said at a news conference on Saturday that the video was "horrendous, disgusting" and said he believed it to be illegal. "A bad police officer is an enemy of every good police officer," Cuomo said. No officials have suggested what the president alleges, that Gugino was acting as anything other than a peaceful demonstrator or that he was acting as part of a "set up." The president's own chief of staff, Mark Meadows, declined to comment on Trump's tweet when reporters asked him about it Tuesday afternoon. Earlier, the White House had also declined to comment and said it had no information to offer beyond what Trump shared on Twitter. "I learned a long time ago not to comment on tweets and I'm not going break that right now," Meadows said. All 57 members of the Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response Team resigned Friday from the unit in an apparent show of support for two officers who were suspended after the incident was filmed Thursday night. PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion with law enforcement officials, June 8, 2020, in the State Dining Room of the White House. (Patrick Semansky/AP) The president's tweet comes on the heels of a roundtable meeting with law enforcement representatives on Monday in which Trump said the panel would discuss policing and "talk about ideas how we can do it better and how we can do it, if possible, in a much more gentle fashion." "Sometimes, you'll see some horrible things like we witnessed recently, but 99 -- I say 99.9, but let's go with 99% of them are great, great people, and they've done jobs that are record setting -- record setting," Trump said, referring to Floyd's death. ABC News' Ben Gittleson and Molly Nagle contributed to this report. Trump tweets conspiracy theory about Buffalo protester police officers knocked to ground originally appeared on abcnews.go.com The universal lockdown of the country following the COVID-19 outbreak raised tensions through every segment of American society. The social and economic disruptions sparked protests all over the country, most famously in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. These protests were quickly denounced by media personalities, medical experts, and politicians who claimed that the risk of spreading the virus made it foolish to gather in such ways. Consider Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, who said that those protests were risking the health of the people of her state, that they make it likelier that we are going to have to stay in a stay-at-home posture, and that anyone with a platform should encourage others to do the right thing and remain home. Or consider Deborah Birx, the lead doctor on President Trumps coronavirus task force, who said: Its devastatingly worrisome to me personally because if they go home and infect their grandmother or their grandfather who has a co-morbid condition and they have a serious or a very or an unfortunate outcome, they will feel guilty for the rest of our lives. Such concerns were completely reasonable. The nation had just passed the peak of the virus surge in hot spots such as New York and Michigan, and fear of further spread was legitimate. The entire scientific logic for the lockdowns, after all, was to suppress the peak of the surge of the disease, in hopes that our health-care system would have time to learn and adapt. However, everything changed on May 25, 2020, when Minneapolis resident George Floyd was killed. The outrage over this cruel killing by an officer of the state inflamed the passions of the country, sparking protests, violence, and looting, in the Twin Cities and across the United States. People surged onto the streets, primarily peacefully, to display their full displeasure, fear, anguish, and sorrow. This time, the response from national pundits and experts to the protest movement was starkly different. Dan Diamonds excellent article in Politico provides a full accounting of how the medical community has responded to these protests. Jeffrey Flier, the former dean of Harvard Medical School, admitted that physicians were grappling with conflict between the science, and their emotions: Story continues It makes it clear that all along there were trade-offs between details of lockdowns and social distancing and other factors that the experts previously discounted and have now decided to reconsider and rebalance. . . . Flier pointed out that the protesters were also engaging in behaviors, like loud singing in close proximity, which CDC has repeatedly suggested could be linked to spreading the virus. . . . At least for me, the sudden change in views of the danger of mass gatherings has been disorienting, and I suspect it has been for many Americans. Disorienting is a very kind way to paint the shift from outright disgust and hatred that many Americans faced when they challenged the logic of the lockdowns to the ongoing celebration of the current protests. Dont forget just how vitriolic the earlier outrage was: On social media, people were outright called murderers and terrorists; numerous governors, including New Yorks Andrew Cuomo and New Jerseys Phil Murphy, literally said people would die because of those protests; and media personalities behaved even worse, with Julia Ioffe of GQ calling the protesters selfish and demanding they stay home originally, and Soledad OBrien calling Ricochet editor Bethany Mandel a Grandma Killer. Suddenly, with the eruption of protests in the name of the murder of George Floyd, those concerns conveniently disappeared. Some former critics, such as Ioffe, have reversed their positions on mass gatherings and openly support them. Others remain silent, demonstrating their cowardice by barely mentioning the threat of the coronavirus to the public at large as thousands of people congregate in protest. Consider, again, Governor Whitmer of Michigan. Whitmer has been very slow to reduce restrictions on the lockdowns. She and her attorney general, Dana Nessel, famously pursued a barber in the city of Owosso, Mich., who refused to close during the pandemic; the barber has since won his case in court. Whitmer has continued demanding strict masking and social-distancing rules for everyone in the state well into June. Yet when the BLM protests arrived in metropolitan Detroit on June 4, Whitmer was there to greet them. She wore a mask but rejected all social-distancing regulations, marching side-by-side with protesters. Whitmer was more than happy to violate her own executive orders. Such hypocrisy is not unusual from journalists, or even politicians. However, a much more serious ethical and professional issue arises when doctors and scientists show such blatant hypocritical bias. As scientists, we have sworn to the public that our recommendations would depend on the science and the data, and reject the whims of emotion and personal opinion. Sadly, this has not been the case. Former head of the Centers for Disease Control Tom Frieden tweeted that he was concerned about losing the community trust by having physicians voice the risks of the virus to protesters. However, back on May 3, he stated, without any fear, Were not just staying home in the magical belief that the virus is going to go away. It wont. Staying home gives us the opportunity to strengthen our health-care and public-health systems. Did the virus change in the last month in ways that staying home now doesnt weaken our system? Frieden is now making the same arguments that lockdown opponents were making a month earlier! In a tweet on June 2, Frieden stated: The threat to Covid control from protesting outside is tiny compared to the threat to Covid control created when governments act in ways that lose community trust. People can protest peacefully AND work together to stop Covid. Violence harms public health. The facts and reality are that the science and data have not substantially changed. We dont have a good quantification of the risk of viral spread outdoors: the common consensus is the risk is low, but that consensus existed a month earlier as well, and no conclusive, landmark studies have emerged. Nothing about our fundamental understanding of the disease has changed, but Frieden has done a 180-degree reversal of his position regardless. Many physicians and scientists have likewise let their partisan leanings overshadow the science. An epidemiologist on Twitter stated: In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus. What absurd scientific standards were used to make that remarkable statement? The short answer is: none. Between 2013 and 2019, police in the United States killed a total of 7,666 people, according to Mapping Police Violence, a research and advocacy group. That data shows that relative to their share of the general population, blacks are 2.5 times as likely as whites to be killed by police; since 2015, 1,252 African Americans have been shot and killed by police, using the Washington Posts database. These are obviously horrific numbers, and we should stipulate that no citizen of the United States should be complacent about these obvious abuses. But science shouldnt deal with emotion or fundamentals. It deals with facts and data. And the facts are these: As of May 26, 2020 (the last date for which race-based data is fully available), the APM Research Lab documented a total of approximately 88,000 deaths as a result of COVID-19. Of those, 21,878 were African-American. African Americans were shown to die of the coronavirus 2.4 times as often as whites, and 2.2 times as often as Hispanics and Asians. To put that into better perspective, 1 in 1850 black Americans in the entire country perished, versus 1 in 4400 white Americans. African Americans represent 13 percent of all Americans, but have suffered 25 percent of all viral deaths. These are incredible, and tragic, numbers. And medical science can give us some clues as to the reason for the disproportionate effect. African Americans are less likely to have family physicians, are more likely to have co-morbidities that lead to high risk of complications with coronavirus, and are more likely to use mass-transit systems. Additionally, more African Americans live in multi-generational homes, with possibility of infection from their children and grandchildren. All of these factors likely made them far more susceptible to the disease than the average American. But ultimately what this shows is that the coronavirus is somewhere in the range of 200 to 300 times more deadly than all of the police in the entire country as a conservative estimate. To be sure, reducing this complex issue to basic numbers fails to capture the complexities of dealing with racism in our society. These are emotional issues that cannot be distilled scientifically. It is perfectly reasonable for the public to deal with these issues by contemplating the larger context of society, racism, and historical connotations. But scientists and physicians are supposed to be immune to political or emotional whims. Too many are showing themselves not to be. And the dangers extend beyond hypocrisy. Distrust between the public and the medical community makes it harder for the public to make sacrifices in the name of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Physicians fundamentally rely on trust; the doctorpatient relationship is one of the fundamental philosophical cornerstones in medicine. So, too, do public-health officials, whose recommendations can be disruptive to ordinary peoples lives. It took a Herculean effort to institute the lockdowns. But many experts have totally refused to speak up about the risk of these protests to cause future surges of the disease, while they were violently opposing similar, smaller protests a few weeks ago. The narrative is clear: They are willing to stand up for the science, as long as it is politically and emotionally convenient. Not all experts have stayed silent about the risks that persist to this day. Anthony Fauci has remained consistent in warning about the likely consequences of mass gatherings. But, from the beginning, plenty of people in the public-health and medical communities have expected ordinary Americans to listen to their recommendations while failing to admit their own scientific and knowledge limitations. In a piece in April, I stated that we would need sympathy and empathy nationwide to get through this crisis. We should now add humility to the list as well. More from National Review H ealth and social care minister Helen Whately has sparked fury by appearing to say the Government could shift blame for the UKs coronavirus crisis in care homes from politicians to scientists. In a heated exchange with Sky News anchor Kay Burley, Ms Whately said well, I can in response to the presenters accusations that the Government could not hold scientific advice responsible for the failure to adequately protect care homes from Covid-19. The Government has faced criticism for its handling of Covid-19 in care homes, especially around the failure to test elderly residents discharged from hospitals potentially carrying the virus during the peak of the UK outbreak, and the failure to lock down care homes early. But on Tuesday Ms Whately defended the testing decision, taken during a bid to free up beds in NHS hospitals in March and early April. She said: The steps that are taken is a clinical judgement about what would be in the clinical interests of people. Ms Burley replied: It was policy. It wasnt clinical judgement, it was policy. The minister hurriedly backtracked in the heated exchange / Sky News Ms Whately responded: As I said at all points in this, we followed the scientific guidance as to what was the right thing to do. But the presenter pressed the issue, saying: And then you make the policy you take (scientists) advice and then you make the policy you cant stick this on the scientists. The MP responded: But I can, because Ms Burley said: You can stick it on the scientists? As soon as the minister made the comment, she immediately backtracked, adding: Well Im not trying to say that, sorry. What I mean to say, to be clear, that is your words. Ms Burley continued, saying: I said You cant stick this on the scientists and you said you can I didnt put those words in your mouth. Ms Whately then returned to the Government line, saying: I immediately said, what I mean to say is that we have taken the scientific advice at every stage of this process, we have taken the scientific advice and then a judgement is made about what is the right decision to take. She added: At every point we have been trying to do everything we can for people in care homes because we know they are at greater risk. Sky News political correspondent Beth Rigby labelled the segment awkward, while social media users reacted in anger. Many called for the politician to resign, and Piers Morgan Tweeted questioning how the minister has her job if she "still can't answer simple questions". Twitter user Matthew Payne wrote: "Helen Whateley yet again! Every television appearance shows someone so far out of their depth it's embarrassing. Not even sixth form prefect material... You should resign because you know you're not fit to do the job. People are dying." Another added: "How in hell's name does Helen Whateley keep her job?", while one commentator summarised: "It has been obvious from the beginning of the crisis that the Tories intended to blame the 'science'." Others praised the presenter's tough interview style. One fan wrote: "Kay Burley is doing very well lately . Soon ministers will only be prepared to appear on Cbeebies for a tough grilling by Mr Tumble." Ian Taylor, the trader who helped shape the modern oil market by transforming a small Dutch fuel merchant called Vitol Group into one of the world's biggest commodity houses, has died. "It is with great sadness that Vitol today announces the death of its Chairman and former CEO, Ian Taylor, from pneumonia, following a long battle with illness," the company said in a statement. He was 64. An Oxford-educated Briton with Scottish family roots, Taylor joined Vitol from Royal Dutch Shell Plc in 1985 and took over as chief executive officer a decade later. Despite the occasional brush with scandal, Vitol grew at a rate few in Silicon Valley could match under his watch, increasing net income from $22.9 million in 1995 to a record $2.28 billion in 2009. Mixing an easy charm with a relentless business mind, Taylor struck lucrative deals with governments, national oil companies, refiners and producers to transform Vitol into a global player. Today, operations range from trading floors in London, Singapore and Houston, through storage tanks in the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates, to filling stations in Australia. "You need to have relationships," Taylor told Bloomberg News in 2016. Vitol plays a crucial role in energy markets, buying, selling, blending and transporting crude oil and fuel around the world. In more than half a century, the company has never suffered an annual loss. It earned $1.5 billion in 2017, the last full-year Taylor served as CEO. Battling cancer, he moved to the role of chairman in 2018, when one of his longtime lieutenants Russell Hardy took over. "Ian was an exceptional man. He combined energy and a determination to succeed with humility, humor and humanity," Hardy said in the statement. "He challenged all of us to be the best we could be. We owe him a great deal." Success brought rewards for Taylor and Vitol's other employees, who are also the firm's shareholders. Over the last decade during his tenure as CEO its 350 top employees received a total of more than $10 billion in payouts, according to corporate fillings. Along with Glencore Plc's CEO Ivan Glasenberg and Trafigura's late co-founder and former chairman and CEO Claude Dauphin, Taylor is widely regarded as a pioneer of global commodities trading. He started at Shell in 1978, where he learned oil trading through stints in Singapore and Caracas. "Ian was one of the last of the pioneers that helped transform the oil trading industry. He will be missed." Glasenberg, said. Taylor refused to follow Glencore's path and become a public company, keeping the firm private despite numerous conversations over the years about an initial public offering, or selling the business to others -- at one point a buyout by now-defunct trader Enron was discussed. Amid Vitol's soaring growth and profits, Taylor remained at the front line of the firm's day to day operations. In the midst of Libya's civil war, Taylor and another top executive, Chris Bake, flew into Benghazi in 2011 to personally negotiate a deal to supply fuel to rebels fighting against the 42-year dictatorship of Colonel Moammar Gadhafi. Vitol would be paid in crude oil. The agreed Libya deal went awry within days as Gadhafi's forces blew up a key pipeline. Still, Vitol and Taylor kept up their end of the bargain and were eventually repaid in full. "It was a deal which, to be honest, got much larger than it should have," Taylor said. The head of Trafigura Group, Jeremy Weir, said Taylor was a formidable figure in the modern commodities trading industry, and central to the establishment of Vitol as a success. "He was also widely liked and admired as a human being, and will be sorely missed by those who knew him and worked alongside him," Weir said. As CEO, Taylor suffered the most damaging hit to his reputation in 2007 after allegations Vitol paid about $13 million in "surcharges" to the regime of Saddam Hussein to secure oil shipments. An investigation led by Paul Volcker, the former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, exposed a world of illicit payments, secret bank accounts, and diplomats for hire. Vitol pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. "We did a settlement to protect our own staff," Taylor said, suggesting that without the deal, U.S. prosecutors could have charged individual traders. Beyond his role in global commodities trading, Taylor is credited with saving and rejuvenating the industry that produces the fabric tweed on the remote Scottish island of Harris. He was well known in the U.K. as a philanthropist to the arts -- opera and ballet were a particular passion -- and had been a major donor to the ruling Conservative party. As a pro-European, he was firmly on the remain side of the Brexit debate. "He was an iconic figure and a man not afraid to go where others wouldn't, following a long British tradition," said Jorge Montepeque, a veteran oil market executive. Dust could represent a major clue to whether other planets are inhabitable by alien life, scientists have found. Airborne dust on those planets appears to be a key factor in deciding the conditions on such a planet, and whether they would be right to support life. But it could also cover up signs of life from other planets, meaning that we miss just how habitable they could be as we look around the universe in search of other worlds. Those planets that have large amounts of such airborne dust would be habitable even when they are further from their star, the new research suggests. That in turn would mean those planets would theoretically be better as a home for life elsewhere in the universe. The dust changes the climates of the planets so that they would be better able to deal with the extreme and critical conditions that are found throughout the universe. The discovery suggests that planets that might have been written off as homes for life, because of their conditions, might in fact be better at supporting it than scientists had previously thought. And the researchers behind the new paper, published in Nature Communications, urged those scouring the universe for such planets to ensure that they look for dust as a potentially key marker of whether a planet is habitable. Many of the planets that are found as possible homes for alien life orbit stars smaller and cooler than our sun, known as M-dwarfs, and do so in "synchronised rotation-orbit states", so that it is always day on one side of the planet and night on the other. That poses a major issue for any life, since it means that each side of the planet is likely to have more extreme conditions. However, researchers found that large amounts of airborne dust could cool the hotter side, where it is always day, as well as warming the colder night side. That means that the planet's could be more easily inhabited, since there is a wider range of distance from the star where water could exist, which is thought to be one of the key tests for life. Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Mystic Mountain, a pillar of gas and dust standing at three-light-years tall, bursting with jets of gas from fledgling stars buried within, was captured by Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope in February 2010 Nasa/ESA/STScI Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures The first ever selfie taken on an alien planet, captured by Nasa's Curiosity Rover in the early days of its mission to explore Mars in 2012 Nasa/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Death of a star: This image from Nasa's Chandra X-ray telescope shows the supernova of Tycho, a star in our Milky Way galaxy Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Arrokoth, the most distant object ever explored, pictured here on 1 January 2019 by a camera on Nasa's New Horizons spaceraft at a distance of 4.1 billion miles from Earth Getty Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory in January 2012. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures The first ever image of a black hole, captured by the Event Horizon telescope, as part of a global collaboration involving Nasa, and released on 10 April 2019. The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides about 54 million light-years from Earth Getty Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Pluto, as pictured by Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft as it flew over the dwarf planet for the first time ever in July 2015 Nasa/APL/SwRI Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures A coronal mass ejection as seen by the Chandra Observatory in 2019. This is the first time that Chandra has detected this phenomenon from a star other than the Sun Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks running downhill on the surface Mars were believed to be evidence of contemporary flowing water. It has since been suggested that they may instead be formed by flowing sand Nasa/JPL/University of Arizona Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Morning Aurora: Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station in October 2015 Nasa/Scott Kelly "On Earth and Mars, dust storms have both cooling and warming effects on the surface, with the cooling effect typically winning out. But these 'synchronised orbit' planets are very different," said Ian Boutle, lead author of the study and jointly from the Met Office and the University of Exeter. "Here, the dark sides of these planets are in perpetual night, and the warming effect wins out, whereas on the dayside, the cooling effect wins out. The effect is to moderate the temperature extremes, thus making the planet more habitable." Even on planets that have orbits like those on Earth, airborne dust could help cool any worlds that are at the inner edge of the habitable zone, where any extra heat could mean that the surface water is lost and they become uninhabitable. The scientists, from the University of Exeter, the Met Office and the University of East Anglia, urged researchers to look for the presence of dust in the same way they search for other biomarkers that could indicate life. They also warned that the same thing keeping those worlds habitable could also stop us seeing them properly. "Airborne dust is something that might keep planets habitable, but also obscures our ability to find signs of life on these planets," said Manoj Joshi from UEA. "These effects need to be considered in future research." Scientists found the results by simulating Earth-sized exoplanets, using climate models that allowed them to see how naturally occuring dust would change the conditions on those worlds. BEIJING - As the coronavirus spread, the worlds richest communist dug into his deep pockets. Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and a member of the ruling Communist Party, helped to pay for 1,000 ventilators delivered to New York in April. Mas foundation also is giving ventilators, masks and other supplies in Africa, Latin America and Asia. The pandemic marks the debut of Chinas business elite as global humanitarian donors alongside their American, European and Japanese counterparts. Ma, Alibaba and other Chinese companies and tycoons are donating hundreds of millions of dollars of medical supplies, food and cash in dozens of countries. Video service TikTok has promised $250 million to pay health workers and help others hurt by the outbreak. Tencent, operator of the popular WeChat messaging service, pledged $100 million and says it has sent masks and protective gear to 15 countries including the United States. Other companies including computer maker Lenovo and electric automaker BYD Auto have given masks and other supplies. Haier Smart Home, a global appliance maker, says its factory in Pakistan is distributing food to neighbours. That gives donors a chance to repair Chinas image and gain credit with President Xi Jinpings government, which faces criticism its secrecy and delay in responding to the virus that emerged in central China in December made the outbreak worse. No single country can handle this crisis independently, Ma said during an online seminar organized by his foundation for African doctors to speak with Chinese experts who fought the outbreak. This wave of Chinese donations is notable for giving internationally, which is usually quite limited in scope, said Edward Cunningham, who researches Chinese philanthropy at the Ash Center of Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government, in an email. Philanthropy in China has grown as its economy flourished but has been focused at home or on foreign universities with family connections to donors, said Cunningham. American companies including Walmart Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have given medical supplies and money in Africa, India and Latin America. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey promised $1 billion and has announced donations in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the United States. Cisco Systems Inc. donated to the World Health Organization and the United Nations. Mas foundation is helping the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expand virus testing to 1 million people across the continent, according to John Nkengasong, director of the agency. Africa, where experts fear health systems with limited resources will face a spike in infections, is a longtime diplomatic priority for Beijing. Chinese companies see the continent as a source of resources and its 1.3 billion people as an important market. We are extremely pleased and proud of the partnership with the Jack Ma Foundation, said Nkengasong during the April 28 online seminar. He said some 1,600 medical workers from across Africa participated. Giving can be politically fraught at a time when Beijing is mired in conflicts with the United States, Europe and its Asian neighbours over trade, technology, spying allegations and territorial claims. The European Unions foreign minister, Josep Borrell, wrote in March there was a struggle for influence under way through the politics of generosity. Huawei Technologies Ltd., the biggest global maker of telecom switching equipment and the No. 2 smartphone brand, says it has given medical and communications technology, masks and other protective gear in more than 20 countries including Spain, Ireland, Zambia and South Africa. U.S. officials say Huawei is is a security risk, which the company denies. Washington wants European and other allies to shun Huawei technology as they upgrade to next-generation telecoms networks. Huawei didnt directly answer a question about whether it was trying to influence official decisions but said in a written statement donations will be guided by actual needs on the ground. Jack Mas foundation has promised supplies to all 54 African countries including 500 ventilators, 200,000 protective suits and 500,000 gloves. There is a sentimental impact among the populations who can see in China a country which values their health, said Mame Goor Ngom, a political analyst and editor for Africa Check, an organization in Senegal that checks the accuracy of public claims. African governments including Senegal, Rwanda and Ethiopia publicly thanked Chinese donors. Chinese donations in Ghana cannot be compared with what the Americans gave out, but they got more publicity, said Manasseh Awuni Azure, a Ghanaian commentator. China faces complaints after Africans in the southern city of Guangzhou reported they were evicted from their homes, forcibly tested for the virus or suffered discrimination. The stigma of this violence cannot disappear so easily, said Ngom. Other companies have sent donations to the United States and other developed countries where they have few commercial interests. JD.com, Chinas biggest online retailer, said its founder, Richard Liu, and his wife, Nancy Zhang, have given 50 ventilators, 5 million masks, surgical gloves and other supplies to British hospitals. The company provides free online medical and psychological counselling services worldwide. Virus test kits paid for by Jack Mas foundation that arrived in Rwanda in March were a much needed contribution, said the countrys president, Paul Kagame, on Twitter. I know the people of Rwanda join me in gratitude. Jack Ma, who retired as Alibaba chairman in 2019, is Chinas richest entrepreneur, with a net worth of 275 billion yuan ($39 billion), according to the Hurun Report, which tracks the countrys wealthy. Tencent founder Ma Huateng, who is no relation, was No. 2 last year at 260 billion yuan ($37 billion). The delivery of ventilators in New York, paid for by the family foundation of Mas former deputy, Joseph Tsai, and his wife, Clara, came as its governor, Andrew Cuomo, was complaining the 400 his state received from the federal government were inadequate. Global technology and risk control are the strongest in history, Ma said in the online seminar. It is up to us to decide whether we want to use this capacity to create division and isolation or use them to enhance co-operation and collaboration. ___ AP video producer Amer Cohadzic in Sarajevo; Associated Press Writers Babacar Dione in Dakar, Senegal, and Francis Kokutse in Accra, Ghana, and AP Business Writers Michael Liedtke in San Francisco and Barbara Ortutay and Joe Pisani in New York City contributed. KYODO NEWS - Jun 9, 2020 - 15:01 | World, All Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told his British counterpart that outside interference in Hong Kong's affairs will not be allowed, his ministry said Tuesday, amid mounting criticism of Beijing's move to impose a national security law in the former British colony. "China has not interfered in the internal affairs of Britain," Wang told British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab during telephone talks on Monday, emphasizing that Beijing will maintain its "one country, two systems" principle. Under the policy, Hong Kong was promised it would enjoy the rights and freedoms of a semiautonomous region for 50 years following its return to Chinese rule in 1997. Late last month, China's parliament passed a resolution to introduce a national security law to crack down on what Beijing views as subversive activity in Hong Kong, further antagonizing pro-democracy protesters in the territory and drawing international condemnation. "Hong Kong's national security legislation should punish the very few acts of 'Hong Kong independence' and terrorists that seriously endanger national security," Wang was quoted by the Chinese Foreign Ministry as telling Raab. Last year, large-scale protests erupted in Hong Kong following the local government's bid to pass a controversial extradition bill. In the wake of the shelving of the bill, Beijing moved to craft a security law for the territory. "The national security legislation will only make Hong Kong's legal system more complete and its social order more stable as well as improve the business environment" in the territory, Wang added. Britain, along with Australia, Canada and the United States, has released a joint statement calling on China to work with the Hong Kong government and people to reach "a mutually acceptable accommodation that will honor China's international obligations." Earlier this month, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also referred to changing the nation's immigration rules for some 2.9 million Hong Kong people who are entitled to the British National (Overseas) passports. The passports, issued to those born prior to the territory's handover to China on July 1, 1997, do not grant the right of abode in Britain. Raab was quoted by the Chinese ministry as telling Wang, "Under the framework of a mature Britain-China relationship, the two sides can exchange candid views on any topics." "Britain is willing to think carefully about the contents of today's in-depth exchanges and communicate with China in the spirit of mutual respect," Raab said, according to the ministry. - Two rescue practitioners in South Africa have been paid over R36 million in six months - Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana were tasked with developing plans to revive the country's airline industry - Matuson & Associates had been paid R22.2 million, while Dongwana's Adamantem had been paid just over R14 million Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Business rescue practitioners in South Africa have earned more than R36 million for the provision of a rescue strategy for the national airline. YEN.com.gh understands that Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana raked in the amount in months after their appointment. The minister of public enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, gave the details in a written reply to a parliamentary question from the EFF's deputy president Floyd Shivambu on Monday, June 8, 2020. READ ALSO: Africa losing out on air transport business despite economic recovery - Report The revelation comes at a time when the practitioners have placed a request for a fifth extension to release their business plan. Per a report by Sunday Times, the request follows a petition by two of the biggest trade unions at the company. As a result, creditors gave them up till Monday, June 15, 2020, to publish their final plan. Information available shows that as of May 26, 2020, Matuson & Associates had been paid R22.2 million, while Dongwana's Adamantem had been paid just over R14 million. According to Gordhan, the practitioners have been paid in accordance with the hours worked and the rate set down for them. Meanwhile, South Africa has lifted its lockdown and is implementing measures to revive its economy. Information available shows that its citizens have now returned to work, religious activities and work at mines and factories have all started. President Cyril Ramaphosa was reportedly praised for COVID-19-related decisions but the countrys economy remains in a dire state and was reportedly close to recession before the outbreak of the virus. READ ALSO: Ghana signs its biggest railway contract deal worth $560 million 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 China's Communist Party newspaper bizarrely praised former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd for attacking Donald Trump. The Global Times propaganda website has endorsed Mr Rudd as an 'astute' observer on US politics. The praise of the Mandarin-speaking ex-PM follows months of negative editorials by the English-language Global Times, which is seen as Beijing's mouthpiece on foreign policy to the world. The Communist Party publication has run a campaign of intimidation against Australia over its calls for a COVID-19 inquiry, in recent days warning Chinese tourists would stop visiting. Mr Rudd - a vocal critic of China's human rights record and handling of the COVID-19 crisis - claimed the Global Times was clearly trying to divide Australians (full statement below). Scroll down for video China's Communist Party newspaper has praised former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd (pictured left with wife Therese Rein) for attacking Donald Trump The Global Times last month threatened Australia 'may feel more pain' than the US if it sided with the United States, warning of more economic sanctions. China, Australia's biggest trading partner, has already slapped 80 per cent tariffs on barley and banned beef from four abattoirs. As Labor leader in 2008, Mr Rudd was a vocal critic of China's human rights abuses in Tibet and in a leaked video in 2013 suggested Australia's biggest trading partner was out to 'rat f*** us'. However, more than a decade later, the Chinese government controlled Global Times newspaper this week had nothing but praise for Mr Rudd, who is now the president of the New York-based Asia Society Policy Institute. 'As the head of a world-renowned think tank, the Asia Society Policy Institute based in New York, Rudd has been making dynamic and astute observations on the dramatic events that have been unfolding in the US,' it said. The Chinese government controlled Global Times newspaper this week had nothing but praise for Mr Rudd, who is now the president of the New York-based Asia Society Policy Institute The man who served two stints as prime minister earned praise from China's propaganda newspaper for telling the ABC in April US President Donald Trump had displayed an 'appalling lack of domestic preparedness' in handling coronavirus, adding he had engaged in a 'political strategy' to 'distract attention'. Australia's biggest exports to China Iron ore: $63.1billion Natural gas: $16.6billion Coal: $14.2billion Education: $12.1billion Travel: $4.3billion TOTAL: $134.7BILLION Source: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade China export data for 2018-19 Advertisement 'Kevin Rudd, Australia's former prime minister, recently dubbed Donald Trump as the 'most destructive president in history',' the Global Times editorial said. 'Rudd was right in pointing out that Trump had been maximising the politics of division when American society is desperate to grapple out of the present quagmire of the intensifying racial tension and the exacerbating public health crisis.' The Global Times editorial had attacked Prime Minister Scott Morrison for advocating an inquiry into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the World Health Assembly later endorsed. He was compared unfavorably with Mr Rudd. 'What has posed as a sharp contrast is Australia's current prime minister, Scott Morrison, who has been unstintingly pandering to Trump's oftentimes irrational tactics,' it said. 'Morrison's recent series of diplomatic acts have reflected his keenness to collude with the White House's fanatic anti-China policies as a US dutiful deputy sheriff in the Asia-Pacific region.' China's so-called Wolf Warrior diplomacy intensified in late April when its Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye threatened the Chinese would boycott Australian wine, beef, university education and tourism. The Global Times editorial had attacked Prime Minister Scott Morrison for advocating an inquiry into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the World Health Assembly later endorsed. He was compared unfavorably with Mr Rudd The Communist Party publication has run a campaign of intimidation against Australia over its calls for a COVID-19 inquiry, in recent days warning Chinese tourists would stop visiting Tens of solar power projects have been bought by foreign investors through M&A deals. The high electricity selling price and the possibility of recovering capital early are attracting investors to the Vietnamese clean energy market, according to an analyst. The FIT (feed in tariffs) electricity price of VND2,100 per kwh, or 9.35 cent, applied to power projects operational prior to July 2019 for 20 years is an attractive feature. Foreign investors can seek capital in dollars with low costs and with this electricity price, they will be able to recover the investment capital and make a profit, the analyst said, adding that the stable price for 20 years is a strong point worth considering. He estimates that with a 50 MW solar power project in areas with high sunshine levels such as Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan, investors can earn VND500 million a day from electricity sale, and VND150 billion a year. If noting that a 50 MW project costs about VND1 trillion, investors would be able to take back investment capital after 6-7 years. While experts agree that foreign investors are acquiring more licensed projects to jump into the renewable power sector in Vietnam, they have different opinions about whether the movement will affect Vietnams power security. While experts agree that foreign investors are acquiring more licensed projects to jump into the renewable power sector in Vietnam, they have different opinions about whether the movement will affect Vietnams power security. A high ranking official affirmed that the foreign ownership of a series of solar power projects will not have any effects on the national electricity system. The state doesnt set limitation on foreign ownership ratios in power plants. The massive foreign investment shows the high profitability of the Vietnamese market. Also according to the official, solar power output accounts for less than 3 percent of total output, 10 billion kwh of the total 250 billion kwh. The 3 percent is created by both Vietnamese and foreign invested projects. Ha Dang Son, director of the Center for Energy Research and Green Growth, said the ownership transfer transactions must be considered normal activities in a market economy. The projects which promise good financial indexes will attract buyers. However, Son said because of the special importance of the projects in the energy sector, there must be supervision by appropriate state agencies. It is necessary to clarify if the transfer deals have latent risks for power energy security. He warned that when the proportion of renewable energy projects increases to a certain high level, accidents that occur at the same time at the projects may have serious impact on the national grid. Luong Bang VN rooftop solar power to see boom thanks to new decision The Prime Ministers Decision 13 on solar power projects in Vietnam, which took effect on May 22, will give a push to the development of this kind of clean energy. A campus police officer in whom a college student confided that she feared for her life after a recent breakup shared nude photographs that she had given him with officers not involved in the matter just weeks before she was murdered, her parents contend in a new lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed Monday in state court in Salt Lake County by the parents of Lauren McCluskey against the University of Utah, where McCluskey was a college senior when she was killed in October 2018 by a man she had dated for just a few weeks. The suit came a year after McCluskeys family sued the university in federal court, where settlement negotiations have reached an impasse. The man, Melvin Rowland, shot McCluskey seven times on October 22, 2018, after kidnapping her. He later took his own life. McCluskeys parents, Jill and Matthew McCluskey, contend in the state lawsuit that the university and the campus Police Department failed to take action when their daughter, a track standout from Pullman, Washington, repeatedly reached out to the authorities for help in the weeks leading up to her death. Their daughter had sounded the alarm about being stalked, threatened and blackmailed by Rowland, whom McCluskey had broken up with when she learned that he had lied about his name and was a convicted sex offender on parole, the lawsuit said. McCluskey, 21, turned over photographs to Miguel Deras, a campus police officer at the time, telling him that Rowland had threatened to release them unless she paid him $1,000, according to the lawsuit. Deras kept the images on his personal cellphone and shared them with friends, the suit contends. One of the things that shows a certain cavalierness and inappropriateness, at best, is this Officer Deras showing compromising photos to other officers who were not involved in the case that were used to blackmail Lauren, James W. McConkie, a lawyer for the McCluskeys, said in an interview Monday. The alleged breach of privacy was first reported last month by The Salt Lake Tribune, which said that the Police Department in Logan, Utah, where Deras is now employed, had begun an internal affairs investigation into the matter. A spokesman for the University of Utah said the school would not be commenting on the lawsuit until its lawyers and the state attorney generals office, which is also representing the university and campus police officials, had a chance to review it. A report commissioned by the university identified dozens of ways that it could have responded better. This year, the university created a new position devoted to handling allegations of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. A lawyer for Deras did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night, but told KSL NewsRadio last month that the allegations were absolutely untrue. The internal affairs investigation and an independent inquiry are continuing, Chief Gary Jensen of the Logan City Police Department said in an email Monday. Both lawsuits are seeking $56 million in damages for the Lauren McCluskey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving campus safety. The federal suit contends that McCluskeys civil rights under Title IX, the 1972 federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in programs that receive federal funding, were violated. McCluskeys parents are challenging past interpretations of a state law in Utah that McConkie said had given all state institutions, including the University of Utah and its Police Department, immunity from wrongful-death claims. He said that the university was negligent in its handling of McCluskeys repeated requests for help and violated an equal protection provision in the state constitution. There was a culture of misogyny in the Police Department that the university controls and that caused them to take Laurens complaint less seriously than a mans, McConkie said. McConkie said that campus police failed to do its due diligence in looking into Rowlands criminal background. They never investigated to see who he really was, he said. He was on parole. He would have picked up in an instant. Neil Vigdor c.2020 The New York Times Company Advertisement Prince Andrew is at loggerheads with US prosecutors because they want a face-to-face interview about Jeffrey Epstein whereas the Duke wants to provide evidence in writing, royal experts believe. Andrew is embroiled in an extraordinary public spat with US investigators who claim he has failed to co-operate with the Epstein probe - despite Andrew's insistence that he has made three offers to help. The BBC's royal editor Nicholas Witchell said today that the discrepancy may lie in the nature of Andrew's offer, with the Duke proposing to give written evidence but unwilling to face 'unlimited' verbal questions. The prince's lawyers said yesterday that Andrew was offering to provide a 'witness statement' while US attorney Geoffrey Berman made it clear he was seeking an 'interview'. Andrew's last verbal interview on the subject - his BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis - was widely seen as a disaster and led to his resignation from public life just days later. The US Department of Justice has submitted a formal request to interview Andrew, although Donald Trump's Attorney General William Barr said last night that extradition was not on the table. Andrew denies wrongdoing and says he never witnessed or suspected Epstein's sex crimes, and the prince's camp says he is not a 'target' of the US probe. Prince Andrew spoke to the BBC's Emily Maitlis for a Newsnight interview in November last year - an appearance which was widely labelled a disaster Andrew is pictured waving from the door of Epstein's mansion in footage which emerged last year. The prince denies having known about or suspected Epstein's crimes Full statement by Andrew's legal firm Blackfords In January 2020, Blackfords LLP and instructed counsel, Clare Montgomery QC and Stephen Ferguson, were commissioned to support HRH The Duke of York in his desire to provide co-operation to the US authorities regarding the victims of the late Jeffrey Epstein, should those authorities request his assistance. The working group is supported by Riverside Advisory on media relations. To date, we have chosen not to make any public statement regarding our discussions with the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Our commitment to confidentiality is not only regarded as best practice in the UK but is also intended to respect the DOJ's commitment to confidentiality, as set out in its own rules as they apply to discussions with potential witnesses. However, in view of misleading media briefings, we owe it to our client to issue this clarifying statement. As the public record indicates the DOJ has been actively investigating Mr Epstein and other targets for more than 16 years, yet the first time they requested the Duke's help was on 2nd January 2020. Importantly, the DOJ advised us that the Duke is not and has never been a 'target' of their criminal investigations into Epstein and that they sought his confidential, voluntary co-operation. In the course of these discussions, we asked the DOJ to confirm that our co-operation and any interview arrangements would remain confidential, in accordance with the ordinary rules that apply to voluntary co-operation with the DOJ. We were given an unequivocal assurance that our discussions and the interview process would remain confidential. The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ. Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the Duke has offered zero co-operation. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered. On 27th January 2020, Mr Geoffrey S Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, chose to make a public statement about the Duke. This led to worldwide media reports that there had been 'a wall of silence' and that there had been 'zero co-operation' by the Duke. These statements were inaccurate, and they should not have been made. On 9th March 2020, Mr Berman made further public statements saying that the Duke had 'completely shut the door' on co-operating with the US investigation and that they are now 'considering' further options. Again, the first statement was inaccurate and should not have been made. It is a matter of regret that the DOJ has seen fit to breach its own rules of confidentiality, not least as they are designed to encourage witness co-operation. Far from our client acting above the law, as has been implied by press briefings in the US, he is being treated by a lower standard than might reasonably be expected for any other citizen. Further, those same breaches of confidentiality by the DOJ have given the global media - and, therefore, the worldwide audience - an entirely misleading account of our discussions with them. Any pursuit of an application for mutual legal assistance would be disappointing, since the Duke of York is not a target of the DOJ investigation and has recently repeated his willingness to provide a witness statement. It is hoped that this third offer has not been the cause of the most recent leak about the Duke of York. We do not intend to make any further public statement at this time as we wish to respect the rules of confidentiality under both English law and the US guidelines. Advertisement Full statement from U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman in response to lawyers representing Prince Andrew Geoffrey S Berman, said Andrew has 'repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview' Today, Prince Andrew yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate with an ongoing federal criminal investigation into sex trafficking and related offenses committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, even though the Prince has not given an interview to federal authorities, has repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview, and nearly four months ago informed us unequivocally through the very same counsel who issued today's release that he would not come in for such an interview. If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we should expect him. Advertisement Speaking this morning, Witchell told BBC Breakfast that Andrew's 'specialist' lawyers would be 'attempting to control the process' by 'limiting the scope' of the US investigation. 'I think we may reasonably assume that the US attorney wants a face to face meeting with Andrew here in the UK, in which he could ask him face to face an unlimited array of questions,' he said. 'Well now, we only have to think back to the Newsnight interview to see what happens when Andrew faces unlimited, untrammelled questions. 'So I think it is reasonable to suppose that his specialist British lawyers are attempting to control the process. They may also be insisting - please send your questions in writing and we will respond.' Andrew resigned from 'public duties' in the wake of the Newsnight interview last November, in which he denied any wrongdoing but defended his friendship with Epstein as 'seriously beneficial'. The prince was criticised for failing to show any empathy towards Epstein's victims, and many of his explanations attracted ridicule. In a subsequent statement he said he 'regretted my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein' and 'deeply sympathised with everyone who has been affected'. 'Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required,' he said. Russell Myers, the royal editor of the Daily Mirror, told Sky News this morning US authorities wanted Andrew to give an 'interview under oath' in which he could be questioned further. 'If you were Prince Andrew's advisers, you would be keeping him away from that because we've all see the cataclysmic interview he gave on BBC Newsnight,' he said. Today a lawyer for Epstein's victims said Andrew had 'very little credibility' and urged him to 'take the oath and just tell the truth' about his relationship with the late paedophile, who killed himself last August. The transatlantic row erupted into the open yesterday when the Duke's lawyers hit back at claims that Andrew had offered 'zero co-operation' to the US probe. In an explosive letter issued around 3.30pm on Monday, Andrew's legal team claimed that the Duke had 'offered his assistance as a witness' on 'at least three occasions this year' - accusing the US investigators of 'seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered'. Andrew's lawyers at legal firm Blackfords had said he is 'being treated by a lower standard than might reasonably be expected for any other citizen'. The 60-year-old royal's team also said that 'breaches of confidentiality' by the DoJ have given the world an 'entirely misleading account of our discussions with them'. Among the allegations raised in the document by the Duke's lawyers were that: The Department of Justice had been 'breaching their own confidentiality rules' by making two previous public statements about Andrew; The DoJ had falsely claimed that the Duke has 'offered zero co-operation'; The DoJ were more interested in 'seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered'; An attempt by the DOJ to seek mutual legal assistance from the Home Office would be 'disappointing'. They said the DoJ has been 'investigating Mr Epstein and other targets for more than 16 years, yet the first time they requested the Duke's help was on January 2, 2020'. The statement said: 'Importantly, the DoJ advised us that the duke is not and has never been a 'target' of their criminal investigations into Epstein and that they sought his confidential, voluntary co-operation. Andrew's lawyers added that an attempt by the DOJ to seek mutual legal assistance from the Home Office would be 'disappointing'. They said: 'The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ. Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the Duke has offered zero co-operation. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered. 'It is hoped that this third offer has not been the cause of the most recent leak about the Duke of York.' But prosecutors in New York retorted with their own statement at around 8pm, claiming that Andrew has 'repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview' and casting doubt on whether the Duke is 'serious' about offering help. U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said the prince 'through the very same counsel who issued today's release' told officials 'he would not come in for such an interview'. Manhattan-based prosecutor Berman said that Andrew had 'yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to co-operate'. 'If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we should expect him,' he said. Berman previously said in January that Andrew had provided 'zero co-operation' and in March that the prince had 'completely shut the door' to US investigators. Those were the two previous statements which Andrew's lawyers complained about yesterday. U.S. Attorney General William Barr said on Monday there were no plans to extradite Prince Andrew to the United States for questioning. Asked during a Fox News interview whether the United States has officially asked Britain to hand over Prince Andrew, Barr said: 'I don't think it's a question of handing him over. I think it's just a question of having him provide some evidence. Asked if Prince Andrew would be extradited, Barr said, 'no.' Reacting to the release of the prince's letter, royal expert Phil Dampier tweeted: 'US officials say Prince Andrew has offered 'zero co-operation.' Andrew's people say he has offered three times this year to be a witness. Who's telling the truth?' Andrew is photographed with the disgraced Epstein in New York's Central Park in 2010 The public spat follows the DoJ filing a 'mutual legal assistance' (MLA) request for help to the Home Office, something used only in criminal cases under a legal treaty with the UK. Andrew has always categorically denied any wrongdoing over his relationship with billionaire pedophile Epstein. But the request from US officials means he could be forced to appear in a UK court as a witness in the case within months. US officials have already previously claimed that Andrew has refused to co-operate with their requests to be questioned over Epstein and their investigation into his sex trafficking network. Submitting an MLA is an audacious move to try to force him to answer questions. On Sunday, the Mail was told that the duke's legal team was 'at the end of its tether' and had 'tried to play a straight bat' with US officials, only to be greeted by leaks and innuendo. A source close to the duke's legal team told the Mail yesterday: 'Legal discussions with the Department of Justice are subject to strict confidentiality rules, as set out in their own guidelines. 'We have chosen to abide by both the letter and the spirit of these rules, which is why we have made no comment about anything related to the Department of Justice during the course of this year. We believe in playing a straight bat.' Andrew is yet to speak to prosecutors in the US despite pledging in his disastrous Newsnight interview in November last year that he would co-operate. The Department of Justice's request for 'mutual legal assistance' from the Home Office effectively bypasses a request to Buckingham Palace. The U.S. has no plans to have Prince Andrew extradited to force him to co-operate with the Jeffrey Epstein probe, Attorney General William Barr (pictured) said last night One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, alleges she had sex with the Duke of York three times when she was 17 at the behest of Epstein Andrew and Virginia Roberts, aged 17, at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London in 2001 Lawyer for Epstein's victims says Andrew has 'very little credibility' A lawyer who represents some of Jeffrey Epstein's victims, said today that the Duke of York has 'very little credibility' and urged him to 'take the oath and just tell the truth'. Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Gloria Allred said: 'I think that Prince Andrew at this point has very little credibility. 'And I have a lot of suspicion about what he is saying, through his representatives. 'I don't have that same suspicion about the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,' Geoffrey Berman. 'I think he is sincere that he wants to be able to interview and ask questions of Prince Andrew and this has been dragging on.' She added: 'There shouldn't be conditions, there shouldn't be delay, there should be transparency, and the victims deserve the truth. This is very painful for them.' Allred said Epstein's victims have been caught in the 'crossfire' and are 'in pain'. 'They just want to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about who may have conspired with Prince Andrew to sex traffic them and other underage girls,' she said. 'That's all they're asking.''Let him step up to the bar of justice, take the oath and just tell the truth. 'It's just as simple as that. Trying to delay, trying to deny, trying to evade the questions and attack the questioners is really not helpful at all. 'You know, we have an expression in the law - justice delayed is justice denied. That's never more true than it has been with Prince Andrew.' Advertisement Andrew has previously admitted to becoming friends with Epstein - a billionaire tycoon who was accused of using his wealth to prey on underage girls - in 1999, after being introduced to the financier through Ghislaine Maxwell. His relationship with Epstein came under intense public scrutiny in 2010 when photos emerged of them together in New York when Epstein was already a registered sex offender. It later emerged that Andrew had stayed at Epstein's 57million mansion for four days. However, the Prince said he was visiting Epstein at the time to end their friendship. One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts, alleges she had sex with the Duke three times when she was 17 at the behest of the paedophile. The prince emphatically denies the allegation. The disgraced financier killed himself last August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. But his victims want justice against his alleged conspirators, including British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, 58 the daughter of shamed media tycoon Robert Maxwell. Lawyers for Miss Maxwell have previously said she denies any wrongdoing. Andrew has categorically denied having any knowledge that Epstein was sexually abusing teenage girls. Miss Roberts alleges she first had sex with Andrew in 2001 when she was 17 after being trafficked by Epstein. She said she was flown on Epstein's private jet to London to meet the duke and the pair were photographed together in Miss Maxwell's Belgravia home. During his Newsnight interview, Andrew said he did not recall ever meeting Miss Roberts. It was claimed last night that the MLA request, reported by The Sun, was formally lodged by the DoJ last month under the terms of a 1994 treaty. If granted, US prosecutors could either ask the duke to voluntarily attend an interview or give a signed statement. They could also ask Andrew to attend a magistrates' court to provide oral or written evidence on oath. If he refused, the duke could be forced to attend in person. But Andrew would have the right to 'plead the 5th Amendment' under the US Constitution and stay silent in order to not incriminate himself. The MLA request is not the same as requesting Andrew's extradition. That process could be launched only if he was considered a formal suspect and the FBI believed there was enough evidence to charge him. Home Office sources have confirmed the request had been made. No decision has yet been made by UK officials. Meanwhile, Harry Dunn's father said a deal involving Andrew and his son's alleged killer is a 'no brainer'. Tim Dunn said his family need US suspect Anne Sacoolas back in the UK 'so that we can get justice and closure for the loss of our son'. Epstein is pictured with Ghislaine Maxwell in New York in 2005. Lawyers for Miss Maxwell have previously said she denies any wrongdoing The teenager's father also claimed that during a meeting with the Foreign Secretary in January, Dominic Raab said 'if we threaten the US, look at the size of them compared to the size of us', while discussing the response to the US's refusal to extradite Sacoolas. The Dunn family joined forces with alleged victims of Epstein earlier this year to put pressure on Sacoolas and the Duke of York to 'co-operate with law enforcement'. In a joint press conference in New York in February, Lisa Bloom, the lawyer representing six of Epstein's alleged victims, said the 'parallels between the two cases are eerie' and involved 'everyday teenagers' who were 'victimized'. Sacoolas 42, allegedly killed 19-year-old Harry when his motorbike crashed into a car outside a US military base in Northamptonshire in August last year. Andrew (second left) has said he became friends with Jeffrey Epstein (right) in 1999, after being introduced to him through Ghislaine Maxwell. Pictured: Melania Trump, Andrew, Epstein's friend Gwendolyn Beck and Epstein at a party at the Mar-a-Lago in Florida in 2000 She claimed diplomatic immunity following the crash and was able to return to the US, sparking an international controversy. She was charged with causing death by dangerous driving in December, but an extradition request submitted by the Home Office was refused the following month - a decision described by the US State Department as 'final'. Commenting on the reported MLA request, Tim Dunn said: 'This is a no brainer to me. No one is above the law no matter who you are. 'Andrew is clearly wanted over in the US to help achieve justice for the victims of Epstein. We need Mrs Sacoolas back here so that we can get justice and closure for the loss of our son.' How Duke of York's annual meetings with Epstein including after he was sent to jail caused Prince Andrew decades of trouble Here is a timeline of the Duke of York's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein - 1999 Prince Andrew first meets Jeffrey Epstein, reportedly introduced through his friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell. Andrew welcomes Epstein to the Queen's private Scottish retreat in Aberdeenshire. Andrew later says he sees Epstein 'infrequently', adding 'probably no more than only once or twice a year'. - 2000 Andrew and Ms Maxwell are seen on holiday with Epstein at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Epstein and Ms Maxwell attend a party at Windsor Castle hosted by the Queen to mark Andrew's 40th birthday, the Princess Royal's 50th, the Queen Mother's 100th and Princess Margaret's 70th. - 2001 Virginia Roberts claims to have had sex with Andrew 'three times, including one orgy', with the first encounter allegedly taking place in Ms Maxwell's London townhouse. Ms Roberts claims to have had sex with Andrew on two more occasions, at Epstein's New York home and at an 'orgy' on his private island in the Caribbean. - 2008 Epstein admits prostituting minors and is sentenced to 18 months in prison. - 2010 Epstein is released from jail. Andrew is photographed with the disgraced Epstein in New York's Central Park. Footage emerges years later, reportedly shot on December 6 2010, showing him inside Epstein's Manhattan mansion, from where he is seen looking out from a large door of the property waving a woman goodbye after Epstein leaves to get into a chauffeur-driven car. - 2011 The duke quits his role as UK trade envoy after the fallout from the Central Park photos. - 2015 Buckingham Palace denies Andrew has committed any impropriety after he is named in US court documents related to Epstein. A woman, later named in reports as Ms Roberts, alleges in papers filed in Florida that she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, which is under the age of consent in the state. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Andrew, in his first public engagement since he was embroiled in the allegations, responds, saying: 'Firstly I think I must, and want, for the record, to refer to the events that have taken place in the last few weeks. 'I just wish to reiterate, and to reaffirm, the statements that have already been made on my behalf by Buckingham Palace.' In April the claims against Andrew are struck from US civil court records following a federal judge's ruling. - 2019 Newly released legal documents show that Johanna Sjoberg, another alleged Epstein victim, claimed Andrew touched her breast while sitting on a couch inside the US billionaire's Manhattan apartment in 2001. Buckingham Palace said the allegations are 'categorically untrue'. Epstein is found dead in his jail cell on August 10, having killed himself after being charged with sex trafficking. Later that month a pilot on Epstein's private jet claims Andrew was a passenger on past flights with the financier and Ms Roberts. The Sun newspaper reported that David Rodgers said in a testimony released in August that Epstein, Andrew and the-then 17-year-old travelled to the US Virgin Islands on April 11 2001. Buckingham Palace describes the evidence statement as having 'a number of inconsistencies' and said that Andrew was on a different continent in some cases. Following Epstein's death, a statement from the palace says that Andrew is 'appalled by the recent reports of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged crimes'. Breaking his silence on the issue for the first time since 2015, Andrew then releases a statement on August 24 saying: 'At no stage during the limited time I spent with him (Epstein) did I see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction.' On November 16, the prince gave a 'disastrous' BBC interview in which he spoke about his friendship with Epstein and addressed allegations of his own sexual conduct. He faced a barrage of criticism following his television appearance, with the royal accused of a lack of empathy with Epstein's victims. During the interview, Andrew, questioned by Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, twice stated his relationship with Epstein, who died in jail while facing sex trafficking charges, had some 'seriously beneficial outcomes', giving him the opportunity to meet people and prepare for a future role as a trade envoy. The duke denied he slept with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's victims, on three separate occasions, twice while she was underage, saying one encounter in 2001 did not happen as he spent the day with his daughter Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party. The same alleged sexual liaison, which the American said began with the royal sweating heavily as they danced at London nightclub Tramp, was factually wrong as the duke said he had a medical condition at the time which meant he did not sweat. He cast doubt on the authenticity of a picture that appears to show Andrew with his arm around the waist of Mrs Giuffre, when a teenager. Advertisement Now Prince Andrew is fighting fire with fire... but at what price to the monarchy? Amid an unprecedented war of words between the Duke of York and prosecutors in the US, RICHARD KAY gives his discomfiting verdict No one has ever doubted his bravery. As a helicopter decoy pilot in the Falklands War, he put his life on the line luring Argentine missiles away from British ships. So Prince Andrew's problem was never about courage but rather his foolishness. And amid the barrage of allegations over his involvement with the billionaire American paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the critical question has been whether he is criminally stupid or stupidly criminal. For the first time since that ill-judged Newsnight interview that destroyed his reputation and did such damage to the Royal Family, the Duke of York has rediscovered the boldness he displayed as a young man in the South Atlantic almost 40 years ago. The prince (pictured visiting the final day of the 161st Great Yorkshire Show in 2019) denied claims he had sex with Virginia Roberts In challenging the veracity of America's Department of Justice, which has accused him of refusing to cooperate with its investigation into Epstein's sex-trafficking network, he is taking on the most powerful law agency in the world. And in a further twist last night, U.S. authorities responded to the Prince's intervention. In a statement, the Justice Department said Andrew had sought to 'falsely portray' himself as a willing participant in their inquiry and said he had 'repeatedly declined' to be interviewed. Both sides are effectively accusing the other of lying. Never before has a senior member of the Royal Family adopted such a robust, and potentially perilous, position. The unedifying spectacle of the Queen's second son being branded a liar is unprecedented. But then, never before has a royal been mired in such a lurid and repugnant case, including the claim which Andrew denies that he had sex with one of Epstein's underage victims. Behind the polite legal etiquette of his lawyers' statement is one blunt message to American prosecutors: you are lying. For almost seven months Andrew has said virtually nothing, even while it became clear that his hopes of ever returning to public life were over as claim followed shocking claim. But yesterday a leaked report revealed that the U.S. authorities had invoked the terms of a legal treaty with Britain in an attempt to question the Prince as a witness. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. For Andrew's supporters and there are some his decision to get on the front foot has been widely welcomed. His team took the view that the leak was the equivalent of 'third strike and you're out'. They believe the U.S. Department of Justice has been playing fast and loose with the Prince for months. In their hard-hitting statement, Blackfords, the Prince's lawyers, flatly denied claims made in January by Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, that there had been 'zero cooperation' by the Duke. Prince Andrew used the 'no-sweat' suggestion to dismiss the idea that it was him dancing in Tramp nightclub with the then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts (pictured right), whose claim they had sex three times he unequivocally denies Six weeks later, Berman made a further public statement claiming Andrew had 'completely shut the door'. This, too, was denied in the strongest possible terms as 'inaccurate'. Then came the disclosure that the Department had filed a 'mutual legal assistance' application to the Home Office the third strike. In a powerful denunciation of the U.S. tactics, Blackfords shrugged off traditional British legal reserve to accuse the Department of Justice of breaching 'its own rules of confidentiality'. It pointed out that the Department had been 'actively investigating' Epstein for more than 16 years, yet the first time it asked for the Duke of York's cooperation was on January 2 this year. Crucially, it added one more vital detail, stating that: 'The DOJ advised us that the Duke is not and never has been a 'target' of their criminal investigation into Epstein and that they sought his confidential, voluntary cooperation'. I understand that following the first contact from the Americans in January, Andrew's team immediately prepared a response. This was delivered some 12 to 14 days later and indicated that the Duke was 'absolutely prepared to cooperate' with the investigators. Right from the outset, I am told, Andrew's attitude was not to shrink from the challenge but to make it clear he would be available. Instead of Geoffrey Berman responding, his interventions later that month and again in March were 'a bolt from the blue'. Many around the Prince believe the sudden focus on him after his disastrous Newsnight interview last November in which he illustrated a singular lack of remorse over his friendship with Epstein or concern for his victims was a means of distracting from the original failings of the investigation. Andrew, they believe, effectively became a lightning-rod. In all, his team offered his assistance to the Department of Justice on three separate occasions. It is understood that the mechanics of how he would help was the subject of the most recent communication. Among the options was the Prince submitting a formal statement detailing what he knew of Epstein and what he may or may not have witnessed. Another possibility was that he would submit to questions, possibly by email. It is the paper trail concerning these details which Andrew's backers insist will prove that the claims of 'zero cooperation' are a demonstrable lie. 'For too long it has been open season on the Duke of York. That is now over,' says a supporter. It may all be too late for Andrew's royal reputation, his image for ever tarnished by the folie de grandeur of that Emily Maitlis interview. He has lost his role as a working royal, but is perhaps hoping that this aggressive new stance may just bring dividends. While this has been a hellish time for Prince Andrew, it has probably been even worse for his mother. Andrew is the Queen's favourite son and she has been deeply upset at the opprobrium he has faced. Usually when the royal going gets tough, it is Andrew whom the Queen likes to have around her. But such has been the fallout from this unsavoury episode that she has reluctantly had to acknowledge there may be no way back. His failure to demonstrate proper sympathy for the victims and his frankly idiotic explanations about being 'unable to sweat' exposed him to ridicule. He used the 'no-sweat' suggestion to dismiss the idea that it was him dancing in Tramp nightclub with the then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts, whose claim they had sex three times he unequivocally denies. In this legal battle he has now clearly decided to fight fire with fire. But the response from America shows that the trouble with fire is, it can explode in your face. Adam Rapoport, the long-time editor in chief of Bon Appetit magazine, resigned on Monday hours after a photograph showing him in brownface surfaced online. The image in question was originally posted on Instagram by Rapoports wife Simone Shubuck in 2013, and shows the couple dressed up as derogatory Puerto Rican stereotypes at an apparent Halloween costume party in 2004. Me and my papi, Shubuck had captioned the image, followed by the hashtag boricua, a term often used by Puerto Ricans to identify themselves. The photo prompted widespread backlash and led to dozens of current and former Bon Appetit staffers calling for Rapoport to step down. In a statement posted to his Instagram page on Monday evening, Rapoport confirmed he would indeed resign from his post, saying he will now take time to 'reflect on the work that I need to do as a human being and to allow Bon Appetit to get to a better place. Adam Rapoport, the long-time editor in chief of Bon Appetit magazine, resigned on Monday hours after a photograph surfaced online showing him in brownface The image in question was originally posted on Instagram by Rapoports wife Simone Shubuck in 2013, and shows the couple dressed up as derogatory Puerto Rican stereotypes at an apparent Halloween costume party Rapoport also conceded that he hadnt championed an inclusive vision during his 10 years in charge at the magazine, which has come at the expense of Bon Appetit and its staff, as well as our readers. They all deserve better, Rapoport continued. The staff has been working hard to evolve the brand in a positive, more diverse direction. I will do all I can to support that work, but I am not the one to lead the work. I am deeply sorry for my failings and to the position in which I put the editors of BA. Thank you. Conde Nast appointed Rapoport as editor in chief of Bon Appetit in 2010. He was previously style editor at GQ and had been working at the magazine conglomerate since 2000. A screengrab of the photo of Rapoport in brownface was first posted to Twitter on Monday by freelance writer for the Conde Nast-owned publication, Tammie Teclemariam. Teclemariam also included grabs from the comments on the photo, which Shubuck had removed from her page by noon. Christina Muhlke, Bon Appetit's current editor-at-large, commented on the image at the time, saying: Beyond. Did Rapo know you were gramming this!? Yes that is do rag under his hat if that is what you meant, Shubuck responded. In a statement posted to his Instagram page on Monday evening, Rapoport confirmed he would indeed resign from his post, saying he will take time to reflect on the work that I need to do as a human being and to allow Bon Appetit to get to a better place. This was so dead on, I was so afraid of you two that night!!!!! current Beauty editor-at-large of The Cut, Jane Larkworthy, also responded. Larkworthy replied to Teclemariams tweets on Monday, calling her comment on the post shameful. My comment on this post, with its implication that I'm afraid of people of color in particular, Puerto Rican people is shameful, Larkworthy wrote. Whats even more shameful is that I didn't approach the people in the photograph at the time and tell them why this was racist. The grievances against the magazine and Rapoport first gathered momentum over the weekend on social media, when a would-be freelance reporter for the magazine posted a chain of direct messages she exchanged with him about a story she had pitched about Puerto Rican rice fritters. In the exchange, Rapoport replies to writer Illyanna Maisonet saying that Bon Appetit readers expected stories to reflect whats happening right now in the food world. The post elicited a number of responses accusing Rapoport for failing to include diverse voices in the magazine and for adopting a condescending tone when addressing Maisonet's pitch. Teclemariam published the photo of Rapoport hours later, writing 'I don't know why Adam Rapoport doesn't write about Puerto Rican food for [Bon Appetit] himself'. The grievances against the magazine and Rapoport first gathered momentum over the weekend on social media, when a would-be freelance reporter for the magazine posted a chain of direct messages she exchanged with him about a story she had pitched about Puerto Rican rice fritters Sohla El-Waylly, an assistant editor and a presenter on the magazines YouTube channel, called on Rapoport to step down and accused the magazine of paying only white editors for their video appearances on the publications Test Kitchen series Ive been pushed in front of video as a display of diversity, she wrote on Instagram, but said she has made $50,000 during her 10-month stint at the magazine, less than many co-workers despite her 15 years of food industry experience. Earlier Monday, Sohla El-Waylly, an assistant editor and a presenter on the magazines YouTube channel, called on Rapoport to step down and accused the magazine of paying only white editors for their video appearances on the publications Test Kitchen series. Ive been pushed in front of video as a display of diversity, she wrote on Instagram, adding that she has made $50,000 during her 10-month stint at the magazine, less than many of her co-workers despite her 15 years of food industry experience. Currently only white editors are paid for video appearances. None of the people of color have been compensated, she continued. Lets use this opportunity to clean house and make real change. Molly Baz, a senior food editor at the publication, and Carla Lalli Music, the food editor at large, pledged to no longer be in Bon Appetit videos until El-Waylly and other people of color who appear on video were fairly compensated. Conde Nast has denied the claim that it only pays white editors for videos. This was so dead on, I was so afraid of you two that night!!!!! current Beauty editor-at-large of The Cut, Jane Larkworthy, commented on the original post In another race-related issue, former staff photographer at the magazine Alex Lau took to social media on Monday to voice his own concerns about the workplace culture engendered by Rapoport. Lau said he left the magazine for multiple reasons, but one of the main reasons was that white leadership refused to make changes that my BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, People of Color] co-workers and I constantly pushed for. He continued: When I asked why have we shot food all around the world, but havent touched the entire continent of Africa?, their response: oh you know, the recipes get tricky, and readers probably wouldnt want to make the food. Reporters, editors and other staff members, particularly people of color, are speaking up about their own experiences with racisim at their respective publications. New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet resigned Sunday over publication of an opinion piece by Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, that advocated for using military force to subdue protests. That followed a revolt by many Times employees, some of whom argued that publication of Cotton's argument endangered the lives of black staff. The Philadelphia Inquirer's top editor resigned Saturday after the paper's staffers pushed back against a 'Buildings Matter, Too,' headline on a column about buildings damaged in the protests. The headline was a play on the Black Lives Matter movement that the paper acknowledged was 'offensive and inappropriate.' Colleagues of a black reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are supporting her after the paper told her she could not cover the police brutality protests because she was biased. Also on Monday, Christene Barberich, the founder and top editor of Refinery29, a website owned by Vice and aimed at women, said she was stepping down after seeing 'the raw and personal accounts of Black women and women of color regarding their experiences' at the company. Several former staffers had posted on social media about racism they experienced, including pay disparities. In a memo to staff, Vice CEO Nancy Dubuc said the company will begin a company-wide and systematic overhaul of 'how we hire, develop and retain a globally diverse workforce.' Barberich will remain in her position through a 'transition period,' Dubuc said. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) Upon arriving at the Philippines-occupied Pag-asa Island with top defense officials, some reporters received a text message welcoming them to China. CNN Philippines and ABS-CBNs news teams both received the text messages prompting them to subscribe to a roaming data plan during their stay on the island, which is also claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana also received a text greeting which said, Welcome to Vietnam! Lorenzana only found the text messages amusing and largely ignored them, but suggested that the Philippines should also set up its own powerful cell sites on the island that will greet mobile users with Welcome to the Philippines! SMART Communications spokesperson Ramon Isberto explained to CNN Philippines that their cell site on the island is down, which is one of the reasons why some reporters and defense officials who paid a visit there on Tuesday got the welcome message. Ang hirap kasi mag-maintain ng cell site doon (Its difficult to maintain a cell site there) because transport is very difficult. You cant just get a boat and go there. You have to get military clearance. And sometimes, if theres a security issue, theres no travel around, Isberto said. He added that even if their cell site were operational, some users could still get the welcome messages from Chinese and Vietnamese telecommunications companies as their signals still reach the island. Its a question of the positioning of your cell phone kung nasaan ka relative to the different cell sites. Kasi kung mas malakas 'yung signal ng isa, mas malapit ka kasi doon, your phone would pick up that signal, he said. [Translation: Its a question of the positioning of your cell phone as to where you are relative to the different cell sites. Because if the one of the operators signal is stronger and youre closer there, your phone would pick up that signal.] New beaching ramp Lorenzana and other top defense officials headed to the Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea on Tuesday to formally open the Navys beaching ramp on the island. Sea transport can be tough at Pag-asa primarily due to the absence of a decent pier. Previously, vessels had to drop their anchors about half a kilometer from the island and passengers and their cargo would need to be transferred to smaller boats that will bring them to the shore. Now, bigger vessels, especially Navy ships ferrying crucial supplies like food and other provisions, can dock at the island. Engineering equipment and construction supplies needed for the repair of Pag-asa Islands dilapidated airstrip can also now be hauled in. The construction for the beaching ramp started in 2017 and was targeted to be finished in a year, but bad weather and rough sea conditions delayed its completion. A sheltered seaport built on another part of the island will also be inaugurated this week. Here, fishermen and their fishing vessels can seek protection during stormy weather. Dadayuhin na kami ng mga turista dito magkakaron ng kami ng income ang munisipyo. Wala kaming source of income eh, Kalayaan town Mayor Roberto del Mundo said. [Translation: Tourists would come to us now and well have a source of income. We dont have a source of income now.] Pag-asa is one of the biggest islands in the disputed Spratlys in the South China Sea and is the seat of the Kalayaan municipal government under the province of Palawan. The Philippines calls the areas in the South China Sea that it claims and occupies as the West Philippine Sea. China has built artificial islands, prohibited Filipino fishermen from fishing and interfered in petroleum exploration in some of these areas. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague recognized the Philippines' sovereign rights in some sea features within its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone that are being claimed by China, and called out Beijing's violations. China rejects the tribunal's decision and insists on its claim to practically the entire South China Sea, supposedly based on historic rights. CNN Philippines Xave Gregorio contributed to this report. The first of the major relaxations as part of Indias three-phase unlocking plan following Covid-19 lockdown came into force on Monday. Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat spoke to Chetan Chauhan and Neeraj Santoshi about the plan, the pandemic, return of migrants, and revival of the economy. Edited excerpts: What steps have you taken to check the Covid-19 spread? Uttarakhand reported its first case on March 15 when an IFS [Indian Forest Service] trainee officer returned from Spain and tested positive. We Immediately announced school holidays and issued an order regarding work from home in case of government employees. Even before the [national] lockdown was announced from March 25, we had imposed lockdown here on March 23. We identified all the jamaatis [who attended a congregation in Delhi that led to a spike in Covid-19 cases in March] and their contacts, numbering over 1,400, and sent them for quarantine and treatment. We intensified our vigil on borders and started sanitisation drives on Saturdays and Sundays. How are you dealing with the return of migrants, who may have been infected? By May 15, we were moving towards freeing the state from Covid, but then the cases again spiked with the return of the migrants. We expected that cases will spike with migrants returning from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi. But it was important to bring these people back, as the industries and the service sectors they were working in had shut down. In the last two days, comparatively, the Covid-19 cases have come down. Watch | Covid War Room: Uttarakhand CMs medical & economic plan as India unlocks What are your plans for the migrants who have returned? As per our survey, the people, who had returned, wanted to return. Now, most of the returnees do not want to go back. We have launched an online portal HOPE through which skilled people of Uttarakhand working or living in any part of the country can upload details regarding their expertise based on which authorities and employers here can take a decision on where and how they can be employed in the state. I have been told that around 6,000 people have uploaded their details. How does the state plan to revive its economy as the country unlocks? Except in Dehradun, we have opened all religious places, hotels, and restaurants. We allowed industries to start operating even before the unlock began. Farming had not stopped. We have started focussing more on agriculture and the allied sectors. The demand for Himalayan products will increase, be it the immunity-boosting herbs, vegetables, fruits, honey, or ayurvedic products. How long will it take to revive the economy? ...we have incurred a loss of over Rs 8,000 crore. Our economy is primarily dependent on tourism. And the way the situation is emerging, despite unlock, people are still apprehensive. Our main tourism season is from April to June. During monsoons and after, tourists hardly come here. I do not see many tourists coming here this year. Does Uttarakhand have any plans to promote Ayurvedic and Himalayan products? The demand for herbs and medicinal plants has soared. Take the example of herb Giloy, which was available earlier for Rs 10 per kg. Now, it is available at Rs 50. Likewise, the demand for fruits and vegetables has increased. Products like honey and golden trout, most of which are unseasonal, are in great demand. We have especially focussed on herbs. Under Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana, we have identified 150 employment avenues. People who opt for this scheme will get subsidised loans to start their own ventures for producing Himalayan products. We are focussing on hilly areas, where we have started rural growth centres, where local people will be facilitated to start their own ventures using local resources without harming the environment. So overall, we will be focussing on branding, grading and value addition of our Himalayan products. We are also developing a cluster approach for developing and promoting local Himalayan products. So far, we have identified 10,000 clusters in the state related to agriculture, horticulture, aromatic plants, fisheries, medicinal plants. What are apprehensions related to tourism and pilgrimage to Char Dham? We have opened all religious places except for Char Dham and the ones in Dehradun as the priests are apprehensive. I have told officials and public representatives to talk to them. We want to start Char Dham yatra in a limited way... People are apprehensive about tourists and we need to tell people that they need to learn to live with the virus. We are working on this. "In this expanded role, Mikes proven leadership skills will be exactly what we need to fuel Ranker and Watchworthys continued growth." -Clark Benson, CEO and founder of Ranker. Ranker, known as the worlds leading publisher for fan-powered rankings on just about everything, today announced that Mike Filliben has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Filliben was the first analytics hire at Ranker in 2014, and most recently served as Senior Vice President of Audience Development and Analytics leading the inception and development of several initiatives that have driven consistent growth and gone on to become core competencies of the company. With almost 15 years of experience in technology and digital media, Filliben has been fortunate to experience the business from many different angles, holding roles in sales, customer success, product, marketing, operations and analytics. "Mike is a trusted professional that has been committed to the development of Rankers strategic initiatives and business goals for several years," said Clark Benson, CEO and founder of Ranker. "What were seeing in this pandemic is that most digital media publishers are moving to subscription paywalls in a panic, whereas we are fearlessly adapting to the changes with innovations and employee growth. In this expanded role, Mikes proven leadership skills will be exactly what we need to fuel Ranker and Watchworthys continued growth." As COO of Ranker, Filliben will oversee publisher and business operations, working with his team to lead the data driven improvement of tactics, processes, and technology in pursuit of consistently superior execution. Those efforts will support the further advancement and evolution of Ranker and Watchworthy, a free personalized TV recommendation app launched in March 2020. "I'm excited for the opportunity to lead Ranker to the next level of growth and operational inventiveness," Filliben said. These are unstable times for the digital media space, but we feel good about the opportunities in front of us and about our ability to execute on them. Weve got a passionate team that is invested in the future of the company - I'm looking forward to the challenge and what we can accomplish together." Prior to his career at Ranker, he was the head of analytics at Military.com, the nation's largest online Military and Veteran membership organization. He has a B.S. in Business Economics from the University of Arizona and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. More information about Ranker and its leadership can be found here. About Ranker Ranker, a Quantcast Top 50 site in the US, attracts more than 20 million monthly unique visitors worldwide and is the leader in fan-powered rankings on just about everything. Whatever the topic - TV, movies, video games, sports, brands, food, lifestyle - Ranker puts the vote into the hands of millions rather than a few critics to answer the questions we are most passionate about. Over 1 billion votes now power Ranker Insights, a treasure trove of psychographic correlation data that delivers personalized consumer recommendations (if you like X, youll also like Y, Z), and also audience insights to marketers, studios, and platforms seeking a deeper understanding of consumer tastes and preferences. Launched in 2020 and powered by Ranker Insights, Watchworthy is the only statistically relevant, crowd-sourced TV recommendation app available to consumers. Ranker made #187 on Deloittes 2019 Technology Fast 500 featuring the fastest growing companies in North America and Built In LAs Top 50 Mid-Sized Companies To Work For in 2020. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Ranker also has offices in Chicago and NYC. Heres a scene that may sound familiar. A crowd surges through the streets, chanting and shouting, eyes blazing with moralistic fervour. While the police stand limply by, the mob turns its fury on a statue. They rock it on its plinth, their excitement reaching hysteria, before at last it comes crashing down. But theyre not finished yet. There are other statues to topple, other images to destroy. I dont want to live in a country where the police stand idly by while crowds hurl statues into the river. I dont want to live in a country where vandalism and violence are perfectly justifiable, as long as theyre in the service of the latest fashionable cause Theres the statue of the old war leader in the capital, the statues outside the ancient universities. Everywhere you turn, there are relics of the past, symbols of the ancient wickedness. All must be brought down, if society is to be re-made. So began the Cultural Revolution, the terrible, blood-stained period in the late 1960s, when mobs of self-appointed Red Guards rampaged across China. For ten years, Chairman Maos followers burned books, tore down statues and murdered millions loyal to the Four Olds old ideas, culture, customs and habits. They will say that by striking a blow against racism, they were doing the 21st-century equivalent of Gods work, and that only a hardened sinner would dare to question them. But I dont want to live in a country where mobs rampage through the streets, tearing down anything that offends them It was so traumatic that even now Chinese news outlets are banned from discussing it. The thought of such scenes erupting here in Britain would have seemed utterly fantastical until this weekend. But this is what happened in Bristol on Sunday, when a screaming mob toppled a statue of the slave trader and philanthropist Edward Colston. Vandalism That was merely the beginning. Over the weekend, statues of Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln were vandalised in London. A Black Lives Matter protester tried to burn the Union Flag at the Cenotaph, monument to the fallen world war heroes. For ten years, Chairman Maos followers burned books, tore down statues and murdered millions loyal to the Four Olds old ideas, culture, customs and habits And in Oxford, the Rhodes Must Fall movement has crawled back out of the woodwork, demanding the removal of the statue of the Victorian empire-builder Cecil Rhodes. Amid the hysteria, its easy to forget this all began with the dreadful killing of a black American man by a white policeman some 4,000 miles away. But it is one of the tragic ironies of the past few days that, amid the orgy of vandalism, poor George Floyds fate has been almost forgotten. The battle for our history has been raging for several years. As a historian, I have always been opposed to the campaigns to tear down our statues, which stand as everyday reminders of the layered complexity of our national past. I have written on these pages about Cecil Rhodes, and how none of the men and women memorialised in stone was morally perfect. And in any case, moral perfection is an ideal, not a reality. It is true Edward Colston, who lived from 1636 to 1721, made much of his money from the slave trade as did many Britons in his day. We also know that he was a great philanthropist, endowing numerous schools, churches, hospitals and alms-houses in his native Bristol. We inherited our statues from our predecessors. And one of the reasons to study history, to me, is to understand that people in the past were different from us. Not better. Not worse. Just different, with attitudes and values that often challenge our lovingly polished principles. So instead of arrogantly smashing our historical inheritance, we could perhaps show a bit of humility, and use it as an opportunity to learn. Over the weekend, statues of Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln were vandalised in London. A Black Lives Matter protester tried to burn the Union Flag at the Cenotaph, monument to the fallen world war heroes I realise, of course, in todays climate of feverish intolerance, any talk of learning from the past is tantamount to pulling on a Ku Klux Klan hood and venturing out to burn crosses. Yesterday, for example, the high priest of self-satisfied sanctimony, the LBC radio presenter James OBrien, issued a stern ruling. How you feel about that [Colston] statue is how you feel about slavery, he declared on Twitter. Dont let anyone pretend otherwise. This is just not true. Like any other decent person, I find slavery abhorrent. But I loathe the idea of the likes of OBrien roaming our town centres to tear down images of people whose views they consider inappropriate, to use one of the cant words of our age. Who are they to decide what statues can and cant remain? Is every mob with a grievance allowed to tear down images it finds objectionable? Would it be all right for a crowd to demolish the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, on the grounds that he once said the typical African was only one degree removed from the animal? Of course not as repellent as those words are. We live in a democracy and as both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Keir Starmer argued yesterday, that isnt how British democracy works. Frenzy If you find a statue offensive because of the words or actions of the individual it represents, you campaign for its removal. Work hard to recruit supporters and win the argument. But you dont whip thousands of people into a frenzy of self-righteous anger and tear it down yourself. For what then makes you different from Maos Red Guards? At the root of this campaign is a colossal fantasy about human nature, an infantile belief in pristine moral innocence. Most sane adults know that all great men and women had flaws, just as all nations have their guilty secrets. Yet these hard-Left campaigners believe that by tearing down the relics of the past, they can wipe the slate clean and start again. They are like medieval fanatics who thought if they banished every trace of worldly sin, they would be able to build heaven on earth. A Red Guard member chops off the hair of a governor during Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution in China in 1966 In this respect, the activists stand in a long, strident, blood-soaked tradition. They are heirs to the Jacobins in the French Revolution, who tore down all symbols of their monarchy, renamed their months, introduced decimal weeks and rebooted the entire calendar, with 1792 becoming Year I. We all know how that experiment ended: with the guillotine, the Reign of Terror, the rise of Napoleon and slaughter of millions. Yet the urge to smash and burn, to demolish the corrupt past so a perfect future can rise from the ruins, has never gone away. This was the rationale behind the cruelties of the Russian Revolution and the hysteria of Chinas Cultural Revolution. And in its most extreme example in the 1970s, it was the justification for the horrors of Cambodias Khmer Rouge. Noble Under the aegis of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge believed if they purged every trace of Western imperialism, from speaking foreign languages to wearing glasses, they could restart the clock at Year Zero, and build a purified nation. In their own minds, they began with noble intentions. They ended by killing almost two million people, a quarter of their entire population. No doubt the weekends protesters will find such a comparison deeply offensive. They will say that by striking a blow against racism, they were doing the 21st-century equivalent of Gods work, and that only a hardened sinner would dare to question them. But I dont want to live in a country where mobs rampage through the streets, tearing down anything that offends them. I dont want to live in a country where the police stand idly by while crowds hurl statues into the river. I dont want to live in a country where vandalism and violence are perfectly justifiable, as long as theyre in the service of the latest fashionable cause. And I dont want to live in a country that treats its history as an opportunity for juvenile, narcissistic posturing, and turns its ancestors into caricatured villains. And Im prepared to bet that you dont, either. By PTI NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday said the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) may consider framing guidelines for protection and rehabilitation of bonded labourers, especially during the prevailing situation of COVID-19 pandemic. A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Krishna Murari was hearing through video-conferencing a plea which has alleged that authorities concerned in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have failed to take prompt action to help 187 victims of bonded labour who are working in brick kilns in these states. The bench, which disposed of the plea, observed that NHRC had already passed directions on the issue and asked the petitioner to approach the commission for further directions. "The NHRC may consider issuing guidelines for protection and rehabilitation of bonded labourers," the bench observed. The apex court had on June 3 issued notices to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar seeking their responses on the plea, filed by social worker Zahid Hussain, seeking urgent release and rehabilitation of victims of bonded labour, including pregnant women and children, who are being allegedly held at three different brick kilns in these states. The plea, filed through advocate Srishti Agnihotri, had said that on May 11 this year, the NHRC had taken cognisance on the complaints filed on this issue and directed the district administration of Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh and Rohtas in Bihar to depute a team of officers for conducting spot inquiry and file an action taken report (ATR) within 15 days. During the hearing on Tuesday, the advocates appearing for both the states apprised the bench about the action taken by them in the matter. Advocate Gopal Singh, appearing for Bihar government, told the bench that authority has taken steps in the matter. Singh told the bench that Bihar is dealing with the issue of migrant workers, who are returning to the state, and the authority has taken appropriate steps in the matter as per the available resources. The top court had earlier asked the district magistrates of Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh and Rohtas in Bihar to submit a report regarding action taken by them in "liberating 187 bonded labour victims working in brick kilns whose details are given in the order passed by the National Human Rights Commission". The plea had also sought a direction to the authorities to frame "specific guidelines to release, protect, rehabilitate and repatriate bonded labourers during the COVID-19 pandemic taking into account measures to ensure access to shelter, food supplies, compensation and healthcare" during the pandemic. It had alleged that despite NHRC's direction, the administration has not taken appropriate steps as a result of which these bonded labours are working in "perilous and inhuman working conditions". Click here to read the full article. Neiman Marcus is considering pulling out of Hudson Yards or downsizing the site, among other potential closings by the luxury retailer around the country. The Dallas-based Neiman Marcus Group filed for bankruptcy reorganization on May 7 and is formulating a plan of restructuring involving streamlining the business. Sources said the list of locations being eyed for possible closures includes downtown Dallas; St. Louis; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Natick, Mass., and Westchester, N.Y. Bankruptcy law enables retailers to get out of leases without penalty. No decisions on Neiman Marcus store closings or downsizings have been revealed and would depend on Neimans outlook on the stores, bankruptcy proceedings and negotiations with landlords. However, The Related Companies, owner of the massive Hudson Yards mixed-used development on the west side of Manhattan, has begun marketing Neimans three-level, 188,000-square-foot space, two sources said. Related has been conducting initial studies of alternatives should Neiman Marcus vacate some or all of its premises at Hudson Yards. Our restructuring plan is focused on alleviating our debt load, not mass store closures, said Amber Seikaly, vice president of corporate communications for the Neiman Marcus Group, when asked about plans for Hudson Yards. We are confident in the performance of our overall store footprint. In fact, stores that have been open for more than a year prior to COVID-19 are four-wall EBITDA positive. That said, we always assess our stores based on our footprint to ensure it is optimal to enhance revenues and overall profitability, as well as how each store can best support our omnichannel strategy. Any related discussions with landlords are confidential. Currently, we have 13 stores open and intend to open seven more this week, and more in the coming weeks as local and state mandates allow and as we feel it is safe to do so. Story continues Related declined to comment on the Neimans report. Since Neimans opened as the anchor retailer of The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards in March 2019, there have been mixed reviews over the performance of the store. Prior to the bankruptcy and the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Neimans executives indicated that the store was on or above plan. Some market sources have said its mostly the Chanel and Louis Vuitton shops, the Zodiac Room restaurant, the Mr. Stanley bar, and epicure area that are carrying the business. Neimans decision to open a big store in Hudson Yards was controversial, raising questions about whether a city already filled with luxury stores needed another one, and whether tourists and people living and working in the city would shop at the new Neimans and other stores in the mall, considering its situated on the far west side of Manhattan, in an area that was devoid of retailing. Neimans executives, long before opening in Manhattan, knew Hudson Yards would be a gamble. Before Neimans agreed to open at Hudson Yards, Bloomingdales and Saks Fifth Avenue rejected overtures from Related, and Nordstrom came close to taking the site but backed out in favor of opening separate womens and mens stores on 57th Street near Columbus Circle. To convince Neimans to open at Hudson Yards, on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors, Related is said to have provided very attractive lease terms, including low rent, as well as unobstructed floor plates, high ceilings, and windows, a concierge and express elevators on the Tenth Avenue side of the mall. Neimans was originally planned at 220,000 square feet but eventually downsized to 188,000, sparking speculation that sales projections for the store had been revised. However, Neimans told WWD that there was no reduction in the selling space and that 30,000 square feet of space was taken out of back office operations and storage that was made more efficient, thereby saving some operating costs. Prior to the opening, Neimans billed the store as a testing ground for services and experiences the retailer hadnt provided before, and creating a next-generation store for the future. While elegantly designed with Italian stone columns and works of art from such artists as Frank Stella and Roy Lichtenstein, much of the innovation centered on food, with the epicure concept called Cooks & Merchants, Bar Stanley, and the Zodiac Room. There are also high-tech fitting rooms, a styling lounge, many special services and a more open, fluid floor plan with fewer hard shops than other Neimans stores. Its not clear whether a Neimans departure from Hudson Yards would trigger co-tenancy lease clauses enabling other retailers to depart. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. HARRISON TWP, MI Residents in southeastern Michigan will celebrate President Donald Trumps 74th birthday with a boat parade. The Michigan Conservative Coalition and Michigan Trump Republicans 2020 are hosting the "Make American Great Again" parade Saturday afternoon. The boat parade will start at MacRay Harbor marina in Macomb County's Harrison Township and end near the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, the Associated Press reports. Trump's birthday is June 14. Matt Seely, spokesman for the coalition, said organizers are anticipating that nearly 1,000 people will attend. "Truthfully, with everything we've been through (with) the COVID-19 crisis, I think that people are really just excited that Michigan is opening back up on Monday, and that it's summer in Michigan," Seely said. "The Great Lakes are beautiful and everyone wants to get on their boat. They expect that about three seaplanes, one helicopter and several drones are to join the parade, Seely said. A car parade will also be taking place at the same time. Senate Republicans are studying proposals to improve police practices in response to massive protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, including racial bias training, increased use of body cameras and finally enacting the first federal anti-lynching law. The task force that will write the GOP proposal will be led by South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the only black member of the Senate's majority party. "Absolutely I think it's important to have a response," Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday. Except for Scott, "none of us have the experience of being an African-American in this country and dealing with discrimination," McConnell said. "We're still wrestling with America's original sin," McConnell said. He and other Republicans spoke a day after Senate and House Democrats unveiled a broad proposal Monday that would could make it easier to prosecute and sue officers. It also would ban federal officers from using chokeholds, create a national registry for police violations, and require local police departments that get federal funds to conduct bias training and use de-escalation tactics. Massive demonstrations -- which spread across the U.S. and abroad since the unarmed Floyd's March 25 death at the hands of Minneapolis police -- are putting pressure on Congress and local governments to rein in police brutality, especially against African Americans. A memorial service is being held for Floyd in Houston on Tuesday. Yet with party leaders in both chambers moving ahead with different plans, and election-year politics coming into play, some warn that no accord may be reached. "I think there's going to be a Republican proposal and a Democratic proposal," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said, adding that that usually means "an impasse or nothing." Scott said another provision under consideration would require all law enforcement agencies to report uses of force that lead to death and serious bodily injury. He said Republicans want the number of police departments using body cameras to "grow significantly" and set penalties for not using them. He said the GOP wouldn't seek to ban chokeholds but instead may provide resources for training. Another GOP task force member, John Cornyn of Texas, questioned whether Democrats are serious about reaching an agreement, contending their proposal is "more a political statement and grandstanding than it is a serious effort to solve the problem." Still, Cornyn said he supports a ban on chokeholds. The Senate Judiciary Committee plans a June 16 hearing on police practices. Second-ranking Senate Republican John Thune said Republicans want to take advantage of ways to influence what state and local governments do, including by using reporting requirements and conditions on receiving federal funds. "I'm hoping we can find some things that we can do that suggest we hear what people are saying," said Thune of South Dakota. "We want to do better at this, realizing that a lot of this is state and local jurisdiction." Cornyn questioned Democrats' proposal to lower the legal threshold for charging officers with misconduct, saying that could create unintended consequences. House Republicans may unveil their own proposal by Friday in an effort led by Jim Jordan, the top GOP member of the Judiciary Committee. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Democrats are open to looking at Jordan's ideas and voting on them in committee next week as part of the consideration of the Justice in Policing Act. Thune also said he has seen no evidence to support President Donald Trump's accusation on Twitter that a 75-year-old protester who was shoved to the ground and seriously injured by police in Buffalo, N.Y., could be a "provocateur" for Antifa who exaggerated his fall. Antifa is a loose alliance of militant left-wing activists. "It's a serious accusation that should only be made with facts and evidence. And I haven't seen any yet," Thune said. Asked if the president should stop making such claims, Thune said, "I think that's a given. Most of us up here would rather not be political commentators on the president's tweets because that's a daily exercise. Saw the tweet, saw the video. Serious accusation." Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the only Republican who voted to convict Trump during his impeachment trial, said, "It was a shocking thing to say and I won't dignify it with any further comment." Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:09:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a rural ecotourism park to learn about the development of local signature agriculture in Helan County, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 9, 2020. Xi on Tuesday inspected the city of Yinchuan during his trip to Ningxia. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) YINCHUAN, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Tuesday inspected the city of Yinchuan during his trip to northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Xi visited a rural ecotourism park and a vineyard near the Helan Mountains to learn about the development of local signature agriculture and the efforts on strengthening the ecological conservation of the mountains. Enditem It's primary day in five states and while things seem to be going relatively smoothly in Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and West Virginia, voters and election workers in Georgia are reporting problems with new voting machines. Workers at some polling places are having difficulty operating the machines, according to the New York Times. Democratic Party of Georgia chairwoman Nikema Williams told the NYT that machines aren't working and that they didn't show up at all in at least one voting location. Reports suggest that some polling locations are understaffed, which has caused further delays. Sanitization efforts to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 have also slowed things down. Heres a glimpse of the scene at Cross Keys, where technical issues have ground voting to a standstill and officials have run out of provisional ballots. #gapol pic.twitter.com/XtezH1Qyrm Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) June 9, 2020 The issues have led to many people facing long waits in lines to cast their votes. But even the provisional ballot system isnt sufficient, as some locations quickly ran out of them. If you are in line, PLEASE do not allow your vote to be suppressed, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms wrote on Twitter. PLEASE stay in line. They should offer you a provisional ballot if the machines are not working. Engadget has contacted the Georgia secretary of state office, which oversees local elections, for comment. Georgia's election security has faced intense scrutiny in recent years. Governor Brian Kemp came under fire over how he handled elections during his time as secretary of state, including accusations that he engaged in voter suppression and abused his power to steal the 2018 gubernatorial election. Last year, a federal judge ordered Georgia to update its outdated machines for the 2020 election cycle. Both of the state's Senate seats are on the line this year. A number of states have faced serious technical issues during this primary season. On Super Tuesday in early March, many people ran into problems with new voting machines in Los Angeles. In Iowa, an app designed to report caucus results was a complete failure. An HBO documentary that premiered in March highlighted just some of the many critical problems with America's voting machines and fragile election system. From Riot Squad to Social Worker: Police Pulled in Too Many Directions Commentary There is a growing movement following the killing of George Floyd to defund the police. It would be easy to mock people like the president of Minneapolis City Council who said expecting the cops to protect you from a home invasion in the middle of the night was privilege. But given the urgent need for civil discourse in the face of this turmoil let me say that as terrible ideas go, this one has surprising merit. The point here is not to get rid of the police. Well, OK, for some it is. There are those who really want to get rid of law enforcement because they are too daft to realize there is evil in the human heart or too wicked to want it constrained. And it would be as foolish to ignore the infiltration of these ideas into the protest movement as to ignore the legitimate concerns of the protest movement. One of these is racism. Which of course is evil. I say of course because nowadays its so rare that we evidently have an epidemic of racism with few actual racists. When my local school board eagerly assures me it is guilty of systemic racism I flatly dont believe it. I have met the teachers and whatever their failings, you could not find less bigoted people. (Plus if they really think it is true they should certainly have warned me, before accepting responsibility for the instruction of my children, that they were radically unfit for the task.) Racism is so rare today that you can get fired for saying it is rare. But those who think abolishing racism would abolish crime, often with a sanctimonious air of thinking if only theyd been around in 1850 slavery would have been abolished on the spot, are fools. When Minneapolis councillors speak blithely of abolishing their police department and adopting a new model of public safety they cant describe, they are gibbering. There will be stern people in uniform with guns to respond to serious breaches of the peace, and whether you call them the Minneapolis Police Department, a county police force, or Santas Elves, if you resist arrest they will subdue you and drag you away. I promise. As for those who claim getting rid of law enforcement will benefit the poor and minorities, like the Minneapolis activist who sneered Were safer without armed, unaccountable patrols supported by the state hunting black people, they are irrational, malevolent or both. As a few voices have warned, drastically defunding the police risks leaving the poor and non-white unprotected while sanctimonious liberals hire private security for their gated communities. But to deplore the vacuity or worse of those who really want to get rid of law enforcement is not to deny or excuse abuses of police power, some of which stem from a broken model of policing. On that basis, reasonable defund proponents seem to me to have two things in mind beyond the obvious one that the police should not be brutal racists. One is that the police should not be paramilitary and the other is that they should not be social workers. The claim is not that we do not need social workers. On the contrary, it is that many things that currently involve police who look like the totalitarian riot squad from some dystopian film could be defused with a kinder, gentler approach. I have seen cops directing traffic on the University of Ottawa campus wearing flak jackets and sidearms, whereas when I was a boy in Toronto one of our anti-American boasts was that our police didnt even carry guns. And what really bothered me is that I was the only person who seemed to find the spectacle odd. (Gun controllers like former Justice Minister Allan Rock, later president of that same University of Ottawa, always said openly that only agents of the state should be armed. I wonder if he now sees the pitfalls.) But I also found it odd, some years back, to drive past a bedroom community north of Toronto on the 400 and see a local police car with the slogan Meeting the changing needs of society. Oh great, I thought. A social worker with a gun. Just what a person in crisis needs. Or a serious crime in progress. I am the last to deny that a drastic threat to public safety can arise anywhere including a campus, from murder to terrorism, requiring an armed response. And in leaving distressed or delusional people to social workers we cannot forget that many forms of delusion come with the potential for harm to themselves or others. But social workers can decide when a situation needs a police response. And the idea of needing a firearm and body armour to get Canadians not to jaywalk is absurd and offensive. So what does a real defund proposal look like? Well, when two Toronto city councillors proposed to defund the Toronto police force, they meant cut its budget by 10 percent, diverting the savings to programs to enhance resiliency in marginalized communities, including anti-racism education. And however you rate the probable effectiveness of such initiatives, Id hope we can all agree that they should not be delivered armed and armoured, and that the Toronto Police Service could operate on 90 percent of what it now gets. Thus the idea of defunding also arises from an important insight in public choice theory, possibly from people who never heard of it and dont want to. Those familiar with how government operates will not be surprised to learn that when a police department faces calls for reform, it typically says it needs more money to retrain and reassign officers, then spends the money without improving its operations. (Hence Joe Biden, an old-time big-government guy, is edging away from those who want to cut police budgets, let alone abolish policing; you dont have to love Trump to suspect Biden is not a dream candidate either.) Since bureaucratic agencies do not voluntarily relinquish power, a.k.a. responsibilities and the raises and promotions they bring, the idea is that cutting funding will force the police to focus on doing their core job and doing it better. Let me stress that I consider police officers underappreciated. They make split-second decisions in frightening situations where action or inaction can have terrible consequences, for themselves and others. But they are also, like most of the public sector, overpaid, over-pensioned, and overprotected from job discipline including dismissal. It is no disrespect to law enforcement to say so. Or to say that police forces are pulled in far too many directions; the Mounties for instance give far too little attention to core responsibilities like terrorism, money laundering, and cybercrime, and among other things every province should establish its own police force. If we could have a better world, not a perfect one, police would be less riot squad and less social worker. And in our current troubled world it is certainly an idea worth discussing without shouting or cancelling. John Robson is a documentary filmmaker, National Post columnist, contributing editor to the Dorchester Review, and executive director of the Climate Discussion Nexus. His most recent documentary is The Environment: A True Story. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. (Newser) Monday may have presented voters with what could become a major theme of the 2020 race between President Trump and Joe Biden. The president met with and praised police, while the former vice president met with the family of George Floyd. As the Los Angeles Times sees it, Trump looks intent on pushing a law-and-order message while portraying Biden and Democrats as "radicals" who would abolish police departments. "We wont be defunding our police," Trump said, per the Guardian, referring to the push to redirect money from police departments. "There wont be dismantling of our police." Biden, meanwhile, met for an hour in private with members of the Floyd family in Houston. "He listened, heard their pain and shared in their woe, said family attorney Benjamin Crump. "That compassion meant the world to this grieving family." story continues below However, the contrast isn't so simple. Biden also pushed back against the idea of "defunding the police," a phrase with multiple meanings. He did, though, call for reform. "No, I dont support defunding the police," he told CBS News. "I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness." A spokesman said that Biden not only opposes cuts in police funding, he thinks increases might be necessary for improvements. In short, he has begun walking "a cautious line" between the moderate and more drastic demands for overhauling police departments, per the New York Times. The story adds that this is familiar ground for Biden: All throughout his long political career, he "has carefully balanced the passions of activists with the sensibilities of the political center." (Read more President Trump 2020 stories.) Kingsley Njoka Twitter Lawyers finally discovered missing Anglophone journalist Kingsley Fomonyuy Njoka at the National Gendarmerie Headquarters, SED, in Yaounde Monday, June 8, 2020. Viban Jude, National President of the Cameroon Association of English-Speaking Journalists, CAMASEJ said the freelance journalist had been found at the Secretariat of State for Defence, SED, but did not give further details. Njoka was seen 24 days after he had been taken into custody on May 15 by plainclothes security men in Douala. His lawyers, Barristers Akuwidze Joseph, Pekum Emmanuel, and Amungwa Tanyi, say he was first held at the military research service in Bonanjo, Douala before he was later transferred to SED in Yaounde. He is frail and pale for he drinks mostly water because he is traumatized psychologically to have been kept for twenty-four days incommunicado till this morning when we met him, lawyers are quoted as saying. Legal Counsels for the detained freelance journalist say he is accused of sponsoring separatist fighters in the countrys North West and South West regions and for being very critical, on social media, of governments handling of the Anglophone Crisis since 2017. According to the legal team, He is alleged to also belong to several social media platforms wherein information about the ongoing crisis in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon is sharedthree laptops seized alongside his android phone are currently being searched by the investigator at the Centre des Recherches Judiciare at SED to ascertain the veracity of allegations brought against him. The death of journalist Samuel Wazizi in military custody and the attention the case has received locally and internationally made it possible for lawyers to be granted access to freelance journalist Njoka who had been held incommunicado. The detained journalists wife, Vebatia Fai Vivian is quoted as saying that the plainclothes security men on the day of Njokas arrest took along with them an HP laptop, the keys to his office where they went, searched and equally took two laptops with marks, Lenovo and DELL with a sum of over FCFA 50,000. Open sources say Njoka earned a BSc. in Journalism and Mass Communication in 1990 from Ahmadu Bello University, a federal government research university in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. The native of Kumbo, Bui Division of Cameroons North West region returned home and worked at Magic FM in Yaounde and as well as LEffort Camerounais, the Roman Catholic Newspaper of the national Episcopal Conference of Cameroon. Guwahati/Agartala, June 9 : Covid-19 cases kept on the upward path in all the eight northeastern states, while two more people - one each in Assam and Tripura - succumbed to the disease taking the region's toll to seven, officials said on Tuesday. According to health officials in Guwahati, a 58-year-old man died in Assam due to Covid-19, taking the state's death toll to five. The patient, who tested positive after returning from Chennai, died at Diphu Medical College and Hospital in southeastern Assam. Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb also announced said that a 42-year-old male from West Tripura also died on Tuesday afternoon. "Doctors gave their best but failed to save his precious life. On May 1, he suffered a stroke and was a patient of hypertension," Deb, who also holds the Health Department, said in a tweet. Tripura's Law and Education Minister Ratan Lal told the media that the state government would provide Rs 10 lakh to the family of the victim, who tested positive on June 3. Earlier, a 50-year-old woman Covid-19 patient allegedly committed suicide at the Tripura government-run Govind Ballabh Pant Medical College and Hospital here on June 2. The woman was also suffering from kidney-related ailments. Her death was termed as "unnatural death" by the government. "After the death, her swab sample, which was collected before her death, tested positive for Covid-19," said Nath. The eight northeastern states so far recorded 4,426 positive cases, out of which 3,049 are active cases. Assam tops the list with 2,937 (1,844 active) cases, followed by Tripura with 866 cases (670 active), Manipur with 304 cases (243 active), 127 cases (119 active) in Nagaland, 88 cases (87 active) in Mizoram, 57 cases (56 active) in Arunachal Pradesh, 34 cases (20 active) in Meghalaya and 13 cases (10 active) in Sikkim. According to the state governments, the cases have gone up with the return of around four lakh natives from around India, and health officials predicted the number would go more as the testing of samples of the returnees continues. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Reuters) Hanoi, Vietnam Tue, June 9, 2020 14:11 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd47d37 2 News Vietnam,Airlines,travel,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free Vietnam plans to allow a resumption of flights to and from countries that have had no cases of coronavirus for 30 days, state media cited the prime minister as saying on Tuesday, with priority destinations including Japan, South Korea and Cambodia. In the comments broadcast by Vietnam Television (VTV), Nguyen Xuan Phuc did not specify whether inbound travelers from these places would be subject to a quarantine program in place since mid March. Vietnam has contained its tally of infections from COVID-19 to a relatively low 332 and reported no deaths. Tens of thousands of incoming travelers have been put in quarantine. "Vietnam is looking to resume international flights with countries that have registered no new COVID-19 cases in 30 days but the resumption needs to be extremely cautious considering the complexity of the pandemic," VTV quoted Prime Minister Phuc as saying. The National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control had been asked to draft a list of "safe" countries, the prime minister said. He did not say whether countries or airlines had been consulted, but said destinations such as Guangzhou in China, Tokyo, Seoul, Taiwan, Laos and Cambodia were among the priority routes to reopen. Read also: Tourists back in Vietnam's Ha Long Bay as domestic travel opens Vietnam on Monday reported three new coronavirus infections, all of which were imported cases. The Southeast Asian country has gone 54 days without a domestically transmitted infection. Vietnam has suspended international flights since March 25 with some exceptions and banned the entry of foreign nationals since March 22 in an effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Washington: US President Donald Trump has advanced an unfounded conspiracy theory about a 75-year-old protester in Buffalo, New York, who was pushed down by police officers, tweeting without evidence that the confrontation may have been a "set up". Trump, who has called himself "your President of law and order," was once again siding firmly with police over the protesters who have taken to the streets across the country. A Buffalo police officer appears to shove a man who walked up to police in Buffalo, New York. Credit:Mike Desmond With his tweet, Trump attempted to cast doubt on video showing Buffalo police shoving the man, who fell backward and hit his head on the footpath. He was seen bleeding from his head as officers walk away. Two Buffalo police officers have been charged with second-degree assault over the incident and could face prison sentences of up to seven years if convicted. They have pleaded not guilty. Activist shareholders have increasingly focused on ousting top bosses since the coronavirus pandemic took hold of the global economy, according to a new report from investment bank Lazard. In the second quarter, so far, 50% of all campaigns by shareholder activists have involved attacks against boards or management teams, compared to a consistent 33% in the first quarter of 2020 and the whole of 2019. The removal or replacement of top executives at European companies has become a more prominent demand since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the report. Lazard Head of European Shareholder Advisory, Rich Thomas, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday that leadership is "never more important" for activist investors than in times of crisis. "That is why we are seeing leadership of companies firmly in the crosshairs of many activists and activist campaigns," Thomas explained, adding that the coronavirus crisis has taken away some of the traditional tools available to shareholder activists. "During the Covid crisis, the shareholder base was less interested in cost reductions, job cuts and return on capital. When the question has been about leadership, and how the board and management is steering the company through this crisis, they have been more receptive," Thomas added. The state government of Western Australia has announced another round of stimulus for the housing market in a bid to support the construction sector and the economy. The $444m housing stimulus package aims to support around 4,300 jobs across Western Australia. A huge chunk of the package will be intended for social housing projects, which will help refurbish 1,500 homes, build 250 new dwellings, and deliver maintenance to 3,800 regional homes. The stimulus package allots $117m for the Building Bonus grant, which will provide $20,000 cash aid to homebuyers who build new houses or purchase a property in a single-tier development such as townhouses. Interested homebuyers should sign up before the year ends. The state will also allocate $8.2m to expand the existing 75% off-the-plan transfer duty rebate, which is capped at $25,000. Multi-tiered developments already under construction will be eligible for the rebate. The state government unveiled a separate $150m housing investment package last month to help the residential building sector. The state government has, so far, committed $2.3bn to COVID-19 stimulus and relief measures, said Treasurer Ben Wyatt. "The package will recharge our housing industry by bringing forward a pipeline of work, providing a boost to our economy and supporting jobs," he said. Housing Minister Peter Tinley said the elements of the package are designed to provide a pipeline of work for the building sector to support it as it faces the impacts of COVID-19. "An estimated 66,000 workers are directly employed in the residential construction sector, and many thousands more rely on the industry for their livelihoods," he said. "Protecting and supporting those jobs during this very difficult stage in the state's history is a responsibility we take very seriously." Cath Hart, executive director for WA at the Housing Industry Association, said this stimulus package will help weather the challenges the state would likely face in the next 12 to 18 months. "The low pipeline of construction work here means WA's residential building sector will be first hit by the impact of the national COVID-19 downturn, so the timing of today's announcement is critical," she said. WA has already reported a 50% reduction in its construction pipeline due to the impacts of the pandemic on the sector. "We now have a powerful kick-starter for recovery with the state's BuildingBonus and social housing packages, the federal HomeBuilder program plus efforts to slash red tape with the planning reforms announced last month," she said. The image below shows the elements of WA's latest housing stimulus package: Missed opportunity for critical reforms Damian Collins, president of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, said the government's recent support schemes fail to address the biggest concern: stamp duty. "While the scheme will create short-term jobs and help people get into homes in WA, the remaining 99% of West Australians who won't get to utilise the scheme, are still potentially lumbered with stamp duty if they want to buy a property," he said. Colling argued that removing stamp duty could provide significant economic activity in the state and could help realise gains of as much as $1bn per annum. "With Victoria and New South Wales focused on getting rid of stamp duty, there has never been a better time for WA to also consider its removal to help boost jobs and the economy," he said. ValidCare to Conduct Industry Leading Study on CBD and Human Health BOULDER, Colo., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - (TSX: CWEB) (OTCQX: CWBHF) Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. ("Charlotte's Web" or the "Company"), the company behind the world's most trusted hemp extract and the CBD industry market leader, announced its sponsorship, with six other CBD brands, of ValidCare's scientific study, to address the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) prior public questions about CBD products. ValidCare will be conducting a human trial study to ascertain if daily use of full spectrum hemp-derived CBD or CBD isolate has any impact on the human liver. In its report to Congress dated March 5, 2020, the FDA requested additional science-based data from the CBD industry. The ValidCare study will provide third-party scientific data intended to directly address some of the FDA specific requests. "As the market share leader, anchored in science, sponsoring ValidCare's study made strategic sense for us," said Deanie Elsner, Chief Executive Officer for Charlotte's Web. "This research will provide important clinical data to guide our entire industry while also showing the FDA we've heard their requests and are answering their questions with precise data." Charlotte's Web is one of only seven companies that agreed to participate in and fund this important research, out of more than 100 that were invited to take part. "This is a particularly important time for research on the science behind hemp-derived CBD as we advocate for FDA regulation of our category," said Tim Orr, Vice President of Innovation for Charlotte's Web. "Charlotte's Web invests in scientific research, including internal and external independent studies such as ValidCare's. Prioritizing the science is essential to ensuring product safety, effectiveness and consumer trust." About ValidCare ValidCare, LLC provides clinical research outsourcing (CRO) and consumer intelligence solutions for the hemp and healthcare industries. ValidCare's proprietary platform supports virtual research powered by real world evidence (RWE) including self-reported consumer data to deliver insights that help improve research, regulations, product development and consumer health. For more information, visit www.validcare.com or call 844-825-4322. About Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. Founded by the seven Stanley Brothers in Colorado to unleash the healing power of botanicals through care, compassion and science, Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. is the market leader in the growing, production and distribution of innovative hemp-derived cannabidiol ("CBD") wellness products. The Company's exceptional quality products, tested more than 20 times, start with proprietary hemp-derived CBD extracts naturally containing a full spectrum of phytocannabinoids, including CBD, terpenes, flavonoids and other beneficial hemp compounds. Industrial hemp products are non-intoxicating. Charlotte's Web product categories include CBD Oil tinctures (liquid products), CBD capsules, CBD topicals, as well as CBD pet products. Charlotte's Web hemp-derived products are sold in more than 11,000 brick and mortar stores, and online at www.CharlottesWeb.com. The rate the Company pays for agricultural products reflects a fair and sustainable rate driving higher quality yield, encouraging regenerative farming practices, and supporting U.S. farming communities. Charlotte's Web is a socially conscious company and is committed to using business as a force for good and a catalyst for innovation. The Company weighs sound business decisions with consideration for how its efforts affect its employees, customers, the environment, and the communities where its employees live and where it does business, while maximizing profits and strengthening its brands. The Company's management believes that socially- and environmentally-conscious actions have a positive impact on the Company, its employees, its shareholders and society. Charlotte's Web donates a portion of its pre-tax earnings to charitable organizations. Shares of Charlotte's Web trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol "CWEB" and are quoted in U.S. Dollars in the United States on the OTCQX under the symbol "CWBHF". As of May 13, 2020, Charlotte's Web had 71,945,914 Common Shares outstanding and 92,455.575 Proportional Voting Shares convertible at 400:1 into Common Shares, for an effective equivalent of 108,928,144 Common Shares outstanding. Subscribe to Charlotte's Web news Forward-Looking Information Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "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. This news release contains forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements and information 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 state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements or information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Charlotte's Web to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the results and efficacy of the ValidCare study, and the ability of the study to address certain FDA-specific questions. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including assumptions as to the efficacy and results of the study; the FDA's consideration of the study; and such risks contained in Charlotte's Web's annual information form dated March 27, 2020 and filed with Canadian securities regulators available on Charlotte's Web's issuer profiles on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. SOURCE Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. Related Links https://www.charlottesweb.com/ This past week was interesting to say the least! For those who experienced hail and/or wind damage, the following site provides guidance via information and videos for early-season hail damage: https://go.unl.edu/u5ns . We do say to be patient and wait 4-7 days to determine recovery because warm temps can help. For home owners, there was also a great deal of tree and plant damage. Make clean pruning cuts and dont treat/paint over cuts, dont add fertilizer, and leave as much leaf area as possible. Most of this weeks questions centered around soybeans. The past two weeks, the majority of my soybean questions have been around emergence problems. Two common things Im finding: many were planted around May 18-19 and they have a great deal of PPO-inhibitor injury to hypocotyls. In touching base regarding what we were seeing, John Mick with Pioneer shared that some soybean varieties are more sensitive to PPO-inhibitor injury. Sensitive varieties means later on plants appear stunted and chlorotic in appearance. These plants also tend to have wavy leaves with some leaf cupping, which may have been mis-diagnosed as off-target growth regulator injury in the past. Ive seen those symptoms for several years but just told people the plant was working to metabolize the pre-emergence herbicide and it was most likely taking longer due to the environmental conditions at the time. So, in a way, it was correct, but now we can all be more aware there are sensitive varieties to PPO-inhibitors. Thus, its important to talk with your seed dealer/agronomist about their variety ratings (if they exist). If planting a sensitive variety, its better to apply your pre-emergence application a week or so before planting to reduce the herbicide load on that germinating seedling. Ive put a lot more explanation and pictures in this CropWatch article and the pics also on my blog. For Belltown hotel-condo tower plan, it's out with co-working, in with co-living Real Estate Editor By BRIAN MILLER Real Estate Editor Rendering by Ankrom Moisan [enlarge] Co-living apartments are now planned for the fifth and sixth floors. Above that would be 216 hotel rooms and 200 condo units. Co-work space originally programmed on the lower floors has been dropped. The landmarked Terminal Sales Annex, at 1931 Second Ave. in Belltown, has been vacant for many years. The current owner's plan for a 42-story hotel/condominium tower has been in design review for nearly two years. Last summer's design review meeting proved successful, and city of Seattle records now contain some fresh hints of activity. Ankrom Moisan is the architect of record for the tower, which will preserve and incorporate the facade of the landmarked, century-old building. (Two other small tear-down buildings will be removed from the corner, at Virginia Street.) The design architect is Kengo Kuma of Tokyo. Berger Partnership is the landscape architect. Local firm Schwartz Co. is an owner's rep, as is international consultant Peak, part of Great Eagle Group an arm of which, Pacific Eagle, acquired the corner in 2016 for $18 million. Also new to the team are Rushing, MEP engineer; Coughlin Portner Lundeen, structural engineer; Navix, civil engineer; Edgett Williams Consulting Group, elevators; RDH Building Science, envelope; and Bush, Roed & Hitchings, surveyor. No general contractor is indicated yet, and no application has been made for a demolition permit. The project is pursuing phased construction permits. Peak's website calls the project Eaton, one of the hospitality brands associated with Hong Kong billionaire Lo Ka Shui. Daughter Katherine Lo runs the Eaton flag, with hotels in Hong Kong and Washington, D.C. Peak says the tower will have 173 hotel rooms, 200 condos, a wedding chapel and many amenities. Ankrom Moisan's more recent numbers say there will be around 216 hotel rooms on floors seven through 15, apartments on the fifth and sixth floors (also labeled as co-living), and about 200 condos on floors 16 through 41. All those numbers are subject to change. Automated, stacked parking for about 160 vehicles will go on three of five underground levels, to be accessed from the alley to the west. (Pacific Eagle also owns a 42-stall parking garage nearby.) The other two underground levels will mostly be for back-of-house operations, plus around 350 bike stalls. A speakeasy with bar and small stage is also planned on the first level below grade. The co-work space originally programmed on the lower floors has been dropped. (The coronavirus pandemic and social distancing have now cast that WeWork-style business model into doubt.) Levels two through four now house a gym, various amenities, a banquet hall, another bar, screening room, maker space and event space. Ankrom Moisan now says there will be 13,295 square feet of commercial space on the lower floors. The residential lobby will be on Virginia. Hotel guests will enter from Second to the lobby and adjoining bar/cafe. The 42nd-floor amenity areas will be for residents only, including a west-facing 2,700-square-foot terrace. The four penthouse units on the 41st floor run up to 2,381 square feet. One-bedroom condos start at around 730 square feet. The co-living units on the fifth and sixth floors average around 250 square feet, with a communal kitchen on the fifth floor. The bar on the sixth floor will include a terrace on top of the protruding Terminal Sales Annex, overlooking Second. Total project size, including levels below grade, is listed at 568,500 square feet. Brian Miller can be reached by email at brian.miller@djc.com or by phone at (206) 219-6517. New Zealand had withdrawn all of its coronavirus restrictions after no coronavirus case was recorded for the last two weeks. At midnight local time, the country moved to alert level one, which is the lowest of a four-tier system. The reduced restrictions include no social distancing and no limiting of social gatherings but still places foreigners out of the borders. Dancing for joy According to BBC, the country's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, told reporters that when she was told the nation was coronavirus free, she did "a little dance." Ardern also stated that while New Zealand is currently in a safer and more stable position, a path back to pre-COVID life is still challenging to achieve. She added that the resolution of the whole nation placed in health response will now be utilized to start rebuilding the economy. The prime minister also said that while not a complete achievement, the news comes as a milestone in the fight against the global pandemic. Ardern had no other words to her citizen other than a simple, "Thank you, New Zealand." New Zealand pledged to an elimination strategy on March 23, a month after its reported first case. After a few days, Ardern announced the strick lockdown that the government had planned when the nation only had 102 positive cases and no deaths. The swift response has garnered the prime minister international praise, including that of the World Health Organization. Also Read: Coronavirus: Americans Are Drinking Bleach and Using Them on Food to Kill COVID-19 The coronavirus response that the country implemented was vastly different to its usual pandemic plans, which is based on mitigating the spread and focuses on delaying the arrival of the virus into the country and followed by several measures to reduce the cases and deaths, as reported by The Lancet. Strict implementation A professor of the department of public health at the University of Otago, Michael Baker, has been acting as an adviser to the New Zealand Government on its coronavirus response plan. Baker said that the strict lockdown which includes the closing of schools and non-essential workplaces, banning of social gatherings, and immense travel restrictions had all contributed to the decision of elimination. The professor said he believes that it was the right decision to be determined and take strict measures in fighting the coronavirus. Baker added that the crucial factors in considering an elimination strategy are having few cases and few deaths, as well as being able to reopen establishment much faster. He said that the alternative to that is trying to mitigate the spread of the infection and suppression, which he called grim. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has recorded 1,154 confirmed cases and 22 deaths, which many have celebrated, as reported by Reuters. Ardern, however, said that they expect to see cases again and that elimination is not one point in time, but rather, a sustained effort to control the coronavirus infection. A lorry-driver based in Auckland, Patrick Weston said that every citizen is happy to have finally gone through the lockdown but noted that they are still nervous. Weston added that the biggest thing that people will be worried about is the economy, and how many people will be looking for jobs at the same time. Related Article: Japan Fights Coronavirus Using This Not So Secret Weapon @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) declared force majeure on exports from its Sharara oilfield on Tuesday, after production was briefly halted by an armed group just days after output had resumed following a blockade that had lasted months. An oilfield engineer told Reuters that production at Sharara had resumed again but at less than 80,000 barrels per day (bpd). Before a five-month blockade began in January, the field had produced 300,000 bpd, equivalent to about a third of Libya's output at the time. Almost all Libyan oil exports were stopped in January by forces based in the east of the North African nation. But military gains in recent weeks by the internationally recognised government, based in Tripoli, allowed production to resume in recent days at the major Sharara and El Feel fields. The resumption of production was then disrupted again on Monday when a local armed group, affiliated with the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA), stormed the field and ordered output to stop, NOC said in a statement. The engineer, who asked not be named, said the commander of the local armed group, Mohamed Khalifa, had allowed Sharara to reopen on Tuesday. NOC declared force majeure on Tuesday but did not immediately comment on whether production subsequently resumed. Oil facilities have increasingly become targets in the struggle for power in Libya since an uprising in 2011 plunged the nation into chaos and violence, pitting eastern forces against those loyal to the Tripoli government. The LNA, which has been battling to seize control of the capital and other cities from the Government of National Accord (GNA), has retreated from many areas in the past week. Sharara field, one of Libya's largest production areas, has been a frequent target. It had been resuming production gradually since Saturday after an almost five-month blockade of a vital pipeline to the field began in January. During the months of blockade, NOC said an armed militia had prevented maintenance on a 16,000-barrel tank, which collapsed as a result. NOC runs Sharara in a joint venture with Spain's Repsol, France's Total, Austria's OMV and Norway's Equinor. A naked and masturbating man attempted to crawl into a woman's cubicle at a public toilet block for ritzy restaurants. The woman, 49, was dining at a restaurant on Main Beach, on the Gold Coast, when she used the bathroom around 3pm on June 2. She had been eating lunch with her husband and friends when she decided to use the shared block of toilets in a carpark on Tedder Avenue, The Courier Mail reported. A naked and masturbating man tried to crawl into a 49-year-old woman's cubicle when she was using a public toilet block on Tedder Avenue (pictured), in the Gold Coast, on June 2 The woman said she was in the toilet's centre stall when she heard shuffling noises and someone come in on her right. 'The shuffling kept going and I leaned forward and all I could see was a pair of naked, hairy man's legs facing my way,' the woman explained. She then texted her husband for help after the man began to move towards her. 'As I did that the man kept coming under and into my stall. He was masturbating, and he just kept coming more and more in,' the woman said. The 49-year-old said she began banging on the wall and yelling at the man to get out as a woman entered the bathroom's other stall. The two women then waited for the man to slowly crawl out of the cubicle and leave the toilet block. She said her husband came to the bathroom after the naked man had left and noted down a suspicious licence plate. 'I'm now having counselling because I keep reliving it. I had to see my doctor because I wasn't sleeping. I'm afraid he's out there somewhere,' the 49-year old said. She noted the incident left her 'traumatised' and prompted her to cancel her 50th birthday party at a Tedder Ave restaurant next to the carpark. Queensland Police told Daily Mail Australia the woman reported the incident on the evening of June 2. Police confirmed they were investigating the event and working towards identifying the man. FORT WORTH, Texas, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercy Clinic today announced it has launched rapid COVID-19 testing, together with CVS Health at its South Fort Worth clinic. Licensed health care providers from MinuteClinic, the retail medical clinic of CVS Health, and CVS Pharmacy colleagues will staff the testing operation. "The heart of the mission of Mercy Clinic is to provide compassionate medical care to those in need," said Peggy Leitch, Executive Director, Mercy Clinic. "This partnership with CVS Health allows our organization to make a significant contribution during a time when our community is facing great need." Testing at Mercy Clinic, located at 775 West Bowie Street in Fort Worth, will be open to the public by appointment at no cost. Patients will need to pre-register in advance by calling 817-840-3501 to schedule a same-day time slot for testing. A personal vehicle is not required and results will be provided on-the-spot. To be eligible for testing, patients will need to meet criteria established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in addition to age guidelines. "Working with partners like Mercy Clinic is an important part of our comprehensive strategy to increase access to COVID-19 testing," said Dr. Garth Graham, Vice President, Community Health and Impact, CVS Health. "This joint effort allows us to tap into the network of a trusted organization with strong community ties to further expand testing in areas of greatest need." The CVS Health Foundation, a charitable entity associated with CVS Health, has a longstanding relationship with the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics, providing more than $9 million over the last six years to help clinics nationwide, like Mercy Clinic, to increase access to care for underserved populations. "Ramping up efficient testing operations and making them available in vulnerable communities is key to protecting the health of my constituents and ensuring a safe reopening of our economy," said Congressman Marc Veasey (TX-33). "I applaud the efforts of Mercy Clinic and CVS Health who are stepping up by establishing these drive-thru testing sites that will help us mitigate the further spread of COVID-19 and save the lives of our fellow Texans." Mercy Clinic of Fort Worth is a community based medical and dental clinic, caring for uninsured individuals in the Fort Worth area since 2011. This service is staffed by volunteer medical providers, dentists, and a large group of health care professionals and community volunteers. All services are provided free of charge and funded by the donations of individuals and foundations. In addition to offering testing together with several community partners across the country, CVS Health is offering drive-thru testing at 1,000 CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide. More than half of these CVS Pharmacy test sites serve communities with the greatest need for support, as measured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index. Since first offering COVID-19 testing at a pilot site in mid-March, the company has performed nearly 200,000 tests nationwide. Beginning in June, CVS Health has a goal of processing up to 1.5 million tests per month subject to availability of supplies and lab capacity. About CVS Health CVS Health employees are united around a common goal of becoming the most consumer-centric health company in the world. We're evolving based on changing consumer needs and meeting people where they are, whether that's in the community at one of our nearly 10,000 local touchpoints, in the home, or in the palm of their hand. Our newest offerings from HealthHUB locations that are redefining what a pharmacy can be, to innovative programs that help manage chronic conditions are designed to create a higher-quality, simpler and more affordable experience. Learn more about how we're transforming health at https://www.cvshealth.com. Media Contact: Monica Prinzing, CVS Health [email protected] (831) 241-8294 SOURCE CVS Health Related Links https://www.cvshealth.com Former pupil Seyilogo Braithwaite says she has no regrets about coming forward over racism at St Columbas College as it has forced the school to acknowledge the issue A young Nigerian woman who spoke out about alleged racial abuse at her former south Dublin school said she experienced more discrimination in Ireland than in any other country. Seyilogo Braithwaite (20) came forward with allegations of racial discrimination at St Columba's College after being spurred on by the international Black Lives Matter movement. She has now inspired other black former pupils at the school to speak about their experiences. The allegations have prompted an inquiry at the fee-paying school, which described them as a "wake-up call". Ms Braithwaite attended St Columba's College from 2015 to 2017. She said she endured being called the "n-word" and other racist slurs. Hair Ms Braithwaite said she reported many incidents at the time, but said there needs to be a culture change at the school. St Columba's has around 300 students, and many are from abroad. "I was constantly called the n-word, over and over again," Ms Braithwaite said. There were also incidents where she was targeted because of her natural hair. She said that often after she reported incidents, the perpetrator would be given a "warning" but they would to do it again. Ms Braithwaite said she was "ostracised" for making the reports, and alleged there were instances where she heard staff pass racist comments. In one case, a presentation following a class trip to Zambia had suggested disease was rampant in Africa. Ms Braithwaite, now based in Malaysia, has lived in four countries over the course of her life. "My experience at the college definitely changed my opinion of Ireland," she said. "It made me very wary of making friends with white people when I left the college and went to university. "That's not to say all white people are racist or anything like that. "But the experience definitely gave me a bad impression, so I tried to stick with making friends with minority or black people instead, because they could understand having similar experiences. "I've lived in four countries, and Ireland is the one where I felt the most racism. "It really is the most racist country I've lived in." She added that her experience at St Columba's had an impact on her mental health. She first made the claims against her former school on social media. Since then, she has been inundated with messages from other former students who have also decided to come forward. Eventually, she wrote directly to the school. In her email, she said: "Ireland has a race problem and it's crystal clear that its most prestigious school is not exempt from that problem." She also included a document with the stories from other students that had been sent to her. "I didn't want to go on the media, I didn't want to make this a huge story, but now that it's forcing them to acknowledge that there is a problem at that school, I do not regret coming forward one bit," she told the Herald. Ms Braithwaite said there are many black former students who also want to see changes, and added that none of them ever saw a member of staff who was a person of colour. Courage Boarders at St Columba's pay fees of almost 30,000 a year. Day students pay between 8,600 and 11,500 at the Church of Ireland school. In a statement to RTE, the school said Ms Braithwaite had "bravely shared with us her experiences of racism while attending the school", which had prompted other students to share theirs. "We can only imagine how difficult it was for the young people involved to write down those experiences," it said. "We thank them for having the courage to bring these matters to our attention." The school said it was taking the allegations very seriously. Principal Mark Boobbyer said they had been a "wake-up call", and the school "would not shy away from making any changes". A statue of Belgian king Leopold II has been removed by local authorities in Antwerp in a move which a city guide says councils across the world must learn from. Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd have prompted numerous calls for sculptures of Leopold II to be removed in sentiments similar to those which resulted in a statue of slave trader Edward Colston to be felled in Bristol over the weekend. During his reign in the late 19th century, the Belgian monarch became the personal ruler of the Congo in an exploitative regime estimated to have cost the lives of millions from the African nation. His 1873 monument in the Ekeren district of Antwerp was removed on Tuesday. It had been set on fire and smeared with red paint in recent days, despite local authorities adding a plaque explaining Leopolds colonial rule. The statue in Antwerp was removed on Tuesday (Ilse de Schutter) Good riddance, Niel Staes, a city tour guide from Antwerp told the PA news agency. The message to city councils should be that the time for plaques is over. If you really want to preserve these obsolete elements of history, you either have to change the context dramatically within the public space or move it to a museum. If you dont, Im afraid the choice of their fate will be made by others. And you might not like the result. The 39-year-old added the statue had been set to be removed in the coming years, but this was brought forward amid the protests, and it will now be restored before likely ending up in a museum. June 30 marks the 60th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of the Congos independence from Belgium. A local said debate about Leopold II is still divisive (Ilse de Schutter) I think youll see a lot of effects of todays movement by then not only in Antwerp, but also in Brussels for example, said Mr Staes. But, and I think that the most important part the debate is still divisive. Even when were talking about people made from bronze or stone, emotions run high. I think that says a lot about the way we still have to go when it comes to people made from flesh and blood. Arrested Kansas City protesters could have municipal charges wiped if council approves KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Council could get rid of municipal charges handed down to dozens of protesters. But there's mixed reaction to that plan. When protests first started 11 days ago, you could be arrested for simply stepping off a sidewalk and cited for "failure to obey a lawful order." An effort pushed forth by Mayor Quinton Lucas is now likely to meet with approval following widespread protest and violence in Kansas City.Checkit: DGAP-News: Logmore / Key word(s): Miscellaneous The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. QR Data-Logging Startup Logmore Targets Expansion after Securing 4.5M Funding HELSINKI, FINLAND / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2020 / Condition monitoring startup Logmore announced its successful Series A funding round, securing 4.5M from NordicNinja VC and partners Icebreaker VC, Trind Ventures, Tekton Ventures, and Jaakkoo-Taara. The investment will be used primarily for the company's global expansion with a focus on growing its market in North America, Asia, and Europe. "When we started researching this three years ago, we wondered how no one else had come up with using dynamic QR codes for data logging. Combined with optimal timing in regards to efficient, available technology, this became a real once in a lifetime opportunity" Logmore CEO Janne Juhala said. Many industries rely on cold chain systems to transport their products to consumers. However, monitoring shipments can be difficult. For example, perishable goods like fresh meats have a short shelf life and have strict requirements to remain edible. Incorrect handling of dairy and frozen goods can lead to spoilage. Flawed supply chains cause up to forty percent of global food waste Likewise, pharmaceutical products can also lose efficacy if exposed to unacceptable temperatures. They must also be transported in protected containers to avoid undue exposure and contamination. Failing to keep variables in check can lead to significant financial losses. The biopharma industry alone loses around $35 billion a year due to failures in temperature-controlled logistics. In addition, such problems also exist in transporting other products like expensive electrical components. Electronic devices can be very fragile and can be easily damaged by shock or changes in humidity and temperature. These can be costly for all: manufacturers, retailers, and buyers alike. Big data and analytics should be able to help industries improve their supply chains. Yet, many such efforts fall short as companies fail to make sense of their data in a timely and actionable manner. "Many logistics companies struggle with last mile deliveries and the data they collect. In recent years it is important to follow the full journey of a delivery, including order receivings," Logmore COO Niko Polvinen shared. "Different companies have a lot of data but don't use it because they feel analytics takes too much time. Either way, they don't even know their real weak spots without collecting and using data." Logmore addresses these issues through its data-logging solution, which leverages QR codes and sensors to track shipments until they reach their intended users. The platform uses QR tags to collect condition data such as temperature, shocks, humidity, tilt, and ambient light for insights regarding the quality of shipped goods. The QR code is updated after every new measurement to embed data on it. Companies can access the data by simply scanning the QR code using a barcode reader or a smartphone's camera. The information is then automatically uploaded to Logmore's cloud platform. This allows companies to transparently and efficiently monitor their supply chains. They can easily detect flaws in the handling of shipment and storage. They are alerted whenever Logmore sensors transmit an unacceptable measurement. Companies can also track down and verify when damage has occurred to identify the responsible party. The service essentially helps translate the data that companies collect into concrete actions, resulting in tangible benefits. This can drastically improve their logistics and their ability to quickly resolve found issues, effectively minimizing the risk of having wasted products and incurring financial losses. "In 5 to 10 years' time, we envision tags like this becoming an inseparable part of supply chains. They will be used in nearly all mainstream deliveries, with data being used to build better services by the entire ecosystem. All in the name of reduced risk, reduced waste, and reliability-values that are future-proof," Rainer Sternfeld, managing partner at NordicNinja wrote on Medium. Since its launch in 2019, Logmore has been used by more than 150 quality management teams. The company previously secured 1.3 million to fund the development of its cloud-based service. Now it aims to scale its operations worldwide by expanding its team in Finland and setting up offices in North America and Asia. The recent support it received from NordicNinja VC affirms how the company can bring value and ease of use to today's supply chain quality management. Other venture capital firms investing in Logmore should drive its growth and help it reach more supply chain operators. About the Company Logmore is a Finnish company offering QR data loggers for logistics quality control. Founded in 2017 by Antti Tapio, Janne Juhala, and Niko Polvinen, the company has helped supply chain operators monitor shipments across industries including healthcare, food, and electronics. For more information, visit https://www.logmore.com Press contact: Dan Edelstein pr@inboundjunction.com +972-545-464-238 SOURCE: Logmore 08.06.2020 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de A convicted rapist bashed his Melbourne housemate to death in the grip of bizarre conspiracy theories, including tales of poison and human trafficking. Daniel Hounslow, 42, admitted murdering Micah Kalawek by repeatedly bashing him in the back garden of their shared Wyndham Vale home, after trying to strangle the 49-year-old with a dressing gown cord. Daniel Hounslow appeared before the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Credit:Vince Caligiuri Hounslow appeared in the Supreme Court on Tuesday as his victim's widow told him how the hours-long beating to death of her husband was just demonic. Julie Kalawek, who married the victim in 2001, wept as the court heard how Hounslow had taken about two hours to kick and beat Mr Kalawek to death on March 24, 2019. People in opposition held areas are decrying their living conditions and the corruption an incompetence of the ruling authorities reports Smart News. On Monday, hundreds of people demonstrated in the villages of the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor, an area controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), protesting the poor living conditions and corruption in the Kurdish Autonomous Administrations institutions. Activists in the area reported to Smart News that people demonstrated in the villages of al-Ezba, al-Sabha, Suwaidan, Jazira and Jadeed Ekedat, protesting the poor living conditions and administrative corruption in the local councils of the Autonomous Administration. The sources stated that the demonstrators blocked roads and burned rubber tires, while the Asayish forces of the Autonomous Administration removed military checkpoints in the area. On Jun. 7, 2020, people demonstrated in the town of al-Suwar, 50 kilometers east of Deir ez-Zor, protesting poor living conditions and condemning administrative corruption and poor services. The demonstrators also chanted slogans against the SDF. In northwest Syria, dozens of people demonstrated in the city of Idleb, Sunday, against the Salvation Government after prices increased in the governorate. Demonstrators reported to Smart News that dozens demonstrated in the city of Idleb, and chanted slogans demanding the dissolution of the Salvation Government and the expulsion of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its commander, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani from the Idleb governorate. The demonstrators expressed solidarity with the people of Suweida, southern Syria. The people of Suweida demonstrated yesterday in the streets of the city, demanding the overthrow of the Syrian regime, considering it responsible for declining living conditions. On Sunday, the Salvation Government operating in Tahrir al-Sham-controlled areas, northern Syria, justified its decision to raise the price of bread by citing the decline of the Syrian pound against the US dollar. On May 1, 2020, dozens of people demonstrated in the city of Idleb, demanding the expulsion of the Tahrir al-Sham and its commander, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani from the Idleb governorate, describing Jolani as a secret agent for the Syrian government. Earlier, Tahrir al-Sham sent military reinforcements to the vicinity of Mizanaz, western Aleppo, as they prepare to open a trade crossing with the Syrian government in the area. Eight off-road vehicles carrying Tahrir al-Sham fighters with their weapons arrived at the trade crossing area, which is located between the villages of Maaret al-Naasan and Miznaz, west of Aleppo. 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. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican government reported 2,999 new coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing total confirmed infections to 120,102, according to data from the health ministry. The country's official coronavirus death toll rose to 14,053, up from 13,699 on Sunday. The government has said the actual number of infections and deaths caused by COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the virus, is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases. (Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Kim Coghill and Tom Hogue) BRUSSELS A 150-year-old statue of King Leopold II of Belgium, whose forces seized Congo in the late 19th century and ran an exploitative regime that led to the deaths of millions, was removed from a public square in Antwerp on Tuesday, as protests against racism continued around the world. It was a striking moment for a country that has struggled, at times, to reckon with one of the most sordid eras in the history of European colonialism. For decades, many Belgians were taught that the country had brought civilization to the African region, and some have defended Leopold as a foundational figure. Streets and parks are named after him, and statues of the king can be found throughout the country. Yet there has been growing pressure in recent years, particularly from younger Belgians, to confront the countrys legacy in central Africa a movement bolstered by worldwide protests prompted by the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in the custody of the Minneapolis police. Last week, the statue in Antwerp was set on fire. This week, another statue of Leopold in the city of Ghent was covered in red paint. During a protest in Brussels on Sunday that drew more than 10,000 people, some climbed on another statue of Leopold and flew a giant flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo, chanting murderer and reparations. File image Elections to 18 Rajya Sabha seats, which were postponed due to the novel coronavirus outbreak earlier this year, are set to be held on June 19. Of these 18 seats, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh have four vacant seats to be filled. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have three seats each. While Jharkhand has two seats up for polls, Manipur and Meghalaya have one seat each for which elections would be held. The political context While Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoys a strong majority in the Lok Sabha, it lacks numbers in the Rajya Sabha. This has made it difficult for the party to pass contentious bills in the Upper House. To pass key legislations in the House, the BJP has so far depended on support from parties beyond the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Yet, it has simultaneously worked to increase its tally as it won more states. The BJPs numbers in the Rajya Sabha have steadily risen from the 2014-level. As the number moves towards the majority mark in the House, holding on to each seat has become crucial for Opposition parties. A Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP)s term lasts for six years. As a result, elections for one-third of all seats in the House take place every two years. Last such election happened in 2018. There is already a formula in place to determine how many votes (seats) a person has to win in a state assembly, in order to get elected to Rajya Sabha. Among the larger states, the BJP does not have enough Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in Andhra Pradesh. Further, it does not command majority in the legislative assemblies of Rajasthan and Jharkhand where the party is not in power. Thus, Gujarat is a key state for the saffron party when it comes to bagging additional Rajya Sabha seats. How things stand Hectic political parleys are now underway in Gujarat as the date of Rajya Sabha polls nears. Three Congress MLAs resigned from the Assembly last week. This adds to similar resignations seen from their party colleagues in March. While the Congress had won 77 seats in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly election, it is now reduced to 65 MLAs in the 182-member House. This reduction in the number of Congress MLAs in the Assembly is likely to help the BJP get an additional candidate elected to the Rajya Sabha. Thus, Congress has started moving its Gujarat MLAs to resorts to avoid more legislators from resigning. How the numbers are currently stacked The Gujarat Assembly has a total strength of 182 members. However, due to resignations and vacancies, it only has 172 MLAs right now. This tally does not include the Speaker. Of these 182, as many as 103 members belong to the BJP, 65 to the Congress, 1 to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), two from the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP). Then there is Jignesh Mevani as an Independent member. A Rajya Sabha candidate in Gujarat needs 35 votes to get elected. Thus, the BJP currently needs two more votes to clinch three seats. The Congress is four votes short of winning a second seat. Both sides are eyeing four votes that can go either way two BTP MLAs, Mevani and one MLA from the NCP. Candidates The BJP has nominated Abhay Bhardwaj, an eminent lawyer from Rajkot, and Ramilaben Bara, a former government official and tribal from Sabarkantha. The party's additional candidate is Narhari Amin, a former Congress veteran. The Congress has nominated its National Spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil and former union minister Bharatsinh Solanki. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) The long-delayed distribution of the second tranche of cash assistance to poor families may finally happen by next week, Malacanang said Tuesday. The Department of Social Welfare and Development earlier said it was hoping to start the distribution last week, but it was still validating the list of beneficiaries. According to a May 22 memorandum from the Palace, five million households will receive the subsidy, for a total of 17 million beneficiaries. "Kasama ko po kanina lang si [DSWD Secretary Ronaldo Bautista], ang sabi niya sa akin by next week ay ready na sila magdistribute," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in an online media briefing. [Translation: I was with DSWD Secretary Ronaldo Bautista earlier, he told me that they are ready to distribute by next week.] "It will take them two days to distribute electronically and the rest with the assistance of the Armed Forces," he added. In a separate media briefing, DSWD Undersecretary Rene Glen Paje explained that they have to complete the validation first to ensure the eligibility of the beneficiaries and avoid duplication. "Inaasahan po natin na sa linggong ito ay masisimulan na ang pagbibigay ng pangalawang tranche ng SAP (Social Amelioration Program) o ng ating mga ayuda," Paje said. [Translation: We expect that by this week, we can start giving the second tranche of SAP or subsidy.] The government will be using an online cash relief system called ReliefAgad, where beneficiaries can choose their preferred mode of payment cash, PayMaya, GCash, or through their bank accounts. In cases wherein electronic transmission is not available, police and military personnel will assist in the distribution of money. Roque stressed that the second wave of emergency subsidy will push through despite the non-passage of the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act. The law could have extended until September the additional powers granted to President Rodrigo Duterte for the fight against the coronavirus disease. The first measure, the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act is in effect only until June. READ: Cash aid tops government's 353-B expenses for COVID-19 response This law authorized Duterte to provide an emergency subsidy of 5,000 to 8,000 each to 18 million low income families once a month for two months. Some 98 percent of the beneficiaries were able to receive the first tranche of cash aid, but implementation was marked with delays and corruption allegations. READ: 301 barangay officials sued for alleged COVID-19 cash aid distribution anomalies 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 While the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly delivered both short and long-term change to the Australian banking landscape, the domestic market is expected to fare better than many others around the world, according to data and analytics company GlobalData. As the response to the virus gained momentum on a global scale, GlobalData initially predicted that not only would the profits of Australian banks be significantly down over the quarter, but the squeeze on smaller lenders could result in significant consolidation of the market. Government support particularly the cheap funding will help, but it can only mitigate the impact, said Resham Karira, retail banking analyst at GlobalData. The recent upswing in ADIs driven by the launch of neobanks, appears set to reverse. The exit five years could see up to a quarter of ADIs exit the market via sales or mergers. While there are no doubts it will take some time for business as ususal to recommence, GlobalData has revised its initial predictions down to a "very slight decline" to total consumer loans. Spending will decline and businesses will be hesitant to take on even attractive loans when they have no income. Retail customers and small businesses are more vulnerable," explained Karira. Banks could see a rise in the delinquency rate, resulting in higher non-performing assets. However, GlobalDatas updated post-COVID-19 forecasts for the domestic market are not as bleak in Australia as in other countries. Mortgage balances are still expected to post growth in 2020, even with expectations having been revised down across lending and mortgage categories. Consumer loans are only predicted to decline by 0.2%, with credit card balances expected to drop by 5.5% over the year the same figure provided in pre-COVID-19 forecasts. U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) is offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information in the murder of a Fort Bragg, North Carolina, soldier who had been missing since before Memorial Day. The partial remains of Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez, a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, were discovered after they washed ashore near North Carolina's Cape Lookout National Seashore on May 29. They were positively identified using dental records, according to a recent news release from Army CID. Read Next: The Army Will Consider Renaming Bases that Honor Confederate Leaders The reward is being offered to anyone with information leading to the apprehension and conviction of any individual "responsible for the homicide" of Roman-Martinez, according to the CID release. The 21-year-old native of Chino, California, was last seen May 22 at a campsite near Mile Marker 46 on South Core Banks, one of the islands that make up Cape Lookout shore, the release states. Roman- Martinez's friends reported him missing the evening of May 23. His phone and wallet were found at the campsite; he had last been seen wearing blue shorts and no shirt. Roman-Martinez was a human resource specialist assigned to Headquarters Company, 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, according to an 82nd Airborne news release. "We are deeply saddened by Spc. Roman-Martinez's untimely passing," Lt. Col. Scotty Autin, commander of the 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion, said in the release. "He was well-liked by those who served alongside him. Spc. Roman-Martinez had a great attitude, and the tragedy of his loss is felt by all of us. Our sympathies are with his family, friends and fellow paratroopers -- especially his mother and sister who flew from California to be here." Volunteer paratroopers from the unit were allowed to assist early on in the search-and-rescue efforts, which also involved park rangers, the Carteret County Sheriff's Office, Wayne County Sheriff's Office and Pine Knoll Shores Police Department, the 82nd's release states. "We worked closely with the family, CID and local authorities throughout the process," Autin said. "Our priority now is to support them through the tragedy and ensure Spc. Roman-Martinez is recovered and honored in a dignified way." Roman-Martinez entered the Army in September 2016; attended Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia; and was assigned as a paratrooper to Bragg in March 2017, according to the release. His awards and decorations include the Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon and the Parachutist Badge, it adds. Anyone with information about the case should contact Army CID special agents at 910-396-8777, the military police desk at 910-396-1179 or submit information through https://www.p3tips.com. Persons wishing to remain anonymous will be honored to the degree allowable under the law, and information will be held in the strictest confidence allowable, according to the CID release. The payout of cash rewards to military and federal employees for information leading to a conviction in the case is contingent upon the accuracy and value of information provided, and the actions taken based upon that information. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Related: Fort Bragg Soldiers Assist in Search for Missing Soldier at Off-Post Site Adidas, under fire from Portland employees over the treatment of African-American workers, pledged Tuesday that at least 30% of new employees hired in the U.S. will be black or Latinx. The company said it will spend $20 million over the next four years for programs that support the African-American community, the latest effort by a prominent brand to respond to the global civil rights movement ignited by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police last month. The events of the past two weeks have caused all of us to reflect on what we can do to confront the cultural and systemic forces that sustain racism, Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted said in a statement posted on the German companys website. We have had to look inward to ourselves as individuals and our organization and reflect on systems that disadvantage and silence Black individuals and communities. Tuesdays pledge missed the mark for Portland clothing designer Julia Bond, who has helped lead protests at Adidas North American headquarters in Portland every day since last Friday. She said the companys message appears tailored for an external audience, not for creating real change within the business. Its frustrating to see images of black women around the brand, wearing the clothing and wearing the shoes but theres nobody that looks like me that is there designing the products, said Bond, 25. She said she is the only black, female apparel designer working at Adidas corporate office in Portland. I see the potential this brand has to do the right thing and be a leader, Bond said. I see the potential to do very good work but it starts with Adidas apologizing. The New York Times reported last year that fewer than 4.5% of Adidas corporate employees in Portland are African American, even though Adidas marketing efforts prominently feature black athletes and performers. Footwear News reported last week that 150 employees, split between the companys Portland office and German headquarters, had demanded the company commit to its black employees, the black community and fight for racial justice. The employees had called on the company to have 31% of workers at all levels of the organization be black or Latinx by the end of next year, according to Footwear News. Employees have held daily, noontime demonstrations at Adidas Portland office since Friday. Adidas statement Tuesday follows a similar initiative rival Nike announced last week "While we strive to help shape a better society, our most important priority is to get our own house in order," Nike CEO John Donahoe wrote in a note to employees Friday. He pledged $40 million over four years to support social justice, education and racial inequality. Adidas acknowledged Tuesday that it, too, has much work to do. But Rorsted, the CEO, did not apologize as Bond and her colleagues had demanded. We recognize the immense contribution of the Black community to our success and that of others. We promise to improve our company culture to ensure equity, diversity and opportunity, Rorsted wrote. We understand that the fight against racism is one that must be fought continually and actively. We must and will do better. Originally from Ohio, Bond has worked at Adidas for a little more than a year after a pair of five-month internships. I joined Adidas because I really believed in the team I was going to be working with and the work we were going to be doing for the brand. A lot of people where Im from dont get jobs like this, Bond said. She said family back home worries about her outspoken activism. Theyre like: What are you doing? Just sit down, be quiet, be grateful that you have a job, Bond said. But she said she sees an opportunity to create real change at Adidas. My hope, Bond said, is with these protests it will hold a public mirror to the brand. -- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. After being battered for most part of this year owing to the coronavirus-induced crisis, silver prices gained 19.3% in May its best month since 2011. Silver prices are currently at $17.63 major recovery from the 10-year low of $12.12 in March. This turnaround has been triggered by expectations of an economic recovery that is expected to revive demand for the white metal given its many industrial applications. Silver, like gold, is considered a safe-haven asset in times of uncertainty. This year has been rife with uncertainty starting with the U.S-Iran tensions, the coronavirus outbreak in China that soon took the shape of a pandemic, strained U.S.-China relations, and the ongoing civil unrest in the Unites States. However, while gold yielded a year-to-date return of 11.8%, silver witnessed a decline of 0.5% primarily because industrial applications account for 60% of the global silver consumption. The slowdown in industrial activity amid the pandemic impacted demand for the metal. Pickup in Industrial Activity Bodes Well for Silver The Institute for Supply Managements Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) came in at 43.1% in May, an improvement from 41.5% for April as businesses are resuming operations in most states. Although the reading remains below 50 (which denotes contraction), the sequential improvement offers a ray of hope. Considering that the manufacturing sector accounts for 11% of the U.S. economy, a pick up in the sector raises hope that the economy is beginning to recover. Stronger-than-expected US non-farm payroll data in May has also added to the optimism. Per the Labor department, the U.S economy added 2.5 million jobs in May faring better than the anticipated decline of 7.5 million and the record decline of 20.7 million in April. Unemployment rate was at 13.3% in May, an improvement from the record 14.7% in April. Meanwhile in China, the Official NBS Manufacturing PMI was 50.6 in May 2020 the third straight month of increase in factory activity, as companies resumed operations. This indicates a major recovery from the all-time low PMI reading of 35.7 in February, which was weighed down by the coronavirus-induced lockdown. This indicates that China is gradually moving out of the crisis and is working toward full normalization of economic activities. Silver plays a vital role in the production of solar cells that produce electricity. China is the largest photovoltaic (PV) silver market globally. The country is also the world's largest auto market. With more than 36 million ounces of silver utilized annually in motor vehicles, a pick-up in manufacturing activity will translate to silver demand. Miners Back on Track Mexico, which is the worlds largest silver producer, churns out nearly 23% of world production of the white metal. About 80% of Mexicos mining sector has been restarted, and the country continues to ease restrictions on miners. Peru, which trails Mexico in silver production, is also allowing miners to resume production. Story continues The Silver Institute anticipates global silver mine production to decline 4.6% in 2020 primarily due to the disruption of operations and mine closures on account of the pandemic in the beginning of the year. Overall demand is expected to decline 3%, as strong investment buying on macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions is likely to somewhat mitigate the impact of the weakness in the industrial sector in the first half of the year. The Institute expects silver prices to attain the $19 level by the end of this year. However, the full-year average price is projected at $15.70, indicating a year-over-year decline of 3%. The concerns over the riots in the United States, rising animosity between the United States and China, and the coronavirus pandemic will continue to fuel the safe-haven demand for gold and silver. Global efforts to restart and revive economies following the coronavirus pandemic-induced lockdowns are anticipated to boost silver demand, leading to a rebound in the white metals prices. Demand from the electrical and electronics sector should account for the bulk of gains. Silver utilization in the automotive industry is likely to register impressive growth aided by vehicles rising sophistication and electrification. Silver use in 5G-infrastructure and upcoming intelligent electronics is also likely to fuel demand. The ongoing revolution in green technologies, driven by the exponential growth of new energy vehicles and investment in solar photovoltaic energy, will act as a key catalyst. Industry Performance & Rank In the past month, the Mining - Silver industry has rallied 22.3%, outperforming the S&P 500s growth of 8.7%. The industry falls under the broader Basic Material sector, which slid 10.2%. The industry currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #140, which places it at the bottom 40% of more than 250 Zacks industries. The group's Zacks Industry Rank, which is the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates gloomy prospects for the near term. 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. Investors keen on the industry may consider Pan American Silver Corp. PAAS and Alexco Resource Corp AXU, which currently carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Vancouver, Canada-based Pan American Silver Corp has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 2.4%. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 32.2%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2020 earnings for Alexco Resource, which is based in Vancouver, indicates a year-over-year improvement of 166.7%. The estimates have also been revised upward from an expectation of a loss of 5 cents to earnings of 4 cents per share in the past 60 days. Investors might consider keeping an eye on stocks like Endeavour Silver Corporation EXK and Hecla Mining Company HL. Both these companies currently have a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and positive earnings estimates for 2020. Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside? Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana. Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look. See the pot trades we're targeting>> 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 Hecla Mining Company (HL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alexco Resource Corp (AXU) : Free Stock Analysis Report Endeavour Silver Corporation (EXK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Pan American Silver Corp. (PAAS) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Disgraced former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping has landed in the city after serving his jail term in New York for a multimillion-dollar bribery plot involving top African leaders. Ho, 70, flew first from New York to Zurich, where he then boarded Swiss International Air Lines flight 138 to Hong Kong, crossing the citys immigration checkpoint at about 8am on Wednesday. As with all arrivals, he was required to undergo a mandatory test for the coronavirus, a measure put in place months ago by the Hong Kong government to screen out imported Covid-19 cases. The ophthalmologist turned politician, who was jailed for 36 months and fined US$400,000 (HK$3.1 million) last year, was deported from the United States after his release because his passport had expired. The former secretary for home affairs who claimed he was the first of the sacrificial lambs caught up in the US-China trade war was freed early after counting the 16 months he had spent behind bars before his conviction. His legal team previously said Ho could get a further reduction of five months for good behaviour. Ho was Hong Kongs home affairs chief from 2002 to 2007. After his civil service career, he became the deputy secretary general of a think tank funded by the Shanghai-based oil conglomerate CEFC China Energy. In November 2017, he was arrested at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York. He was subsequently put on trial, accused of offering US$2.9 million in bribes to Chadian President Idriss Deby, Senegalese diplomat Cheikh Gadio and Ugandan foreign minister Sam Kutesa. In December 2018, a federal jury found him guilty on seven of eight counts of bribery and money-laundering charges over oil rights for CEFC in Chad and Uganda. During the trial, defendant-turned-witness Gadio, the middleman in talks on oil rights between CEFC and Deby, testified that Ho offered US$2 million wrapped in gift boxes to the president during a visit to Chad in December 2014. Story continues Ho initially remained defiant in the face of the charges. Soon after his arrest, he said he was being used to get to the big tiger, and asked a friend to seek help from the Chinese Communist Partys Central Committee. After being found guilty, he said he was the first of the sacrificial lambs of such hostility. After being found guilty, he said he was the first of the sacrificial lambs of such hostility. Later, he would weep in the courtroom at his sentencing hearing, apologising and saying he accepted complete responsibility. Apart from Chinas strategic expansion into Africa through private companies such as CEFC, the case also raised eyebrows over UN governance, with three officials linked to the incident. This article Disgraced former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho returns to city after serving jail term in New York for African bribery plot first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020. Such was the animosity between director Peter Hunt and actor George Lazenby on the sets of On Her Majestys Secret Service -- Lazenbys only film as James Bond -- that when a stunt director told Hunt that Lazenby could have hurt himself while filming a difficult sequence, Hunts response, according to the actor, was, No ones seen him yet. If we kill him, we could do it all over again. Producer Albert Broccoli, in a Los Angeles Times interview, would call casting the Australian actor the biggest mistake in 16 years. He just couldnt deal with success. He was so arrogant. There was the stature and looks of a Bond, but Lazenby couldnt get along with the other performers and technicians. But Lazenby didnt want to be stuck playing Bond. Inspired by the counterculture movement of the 60s, he wanted to be like Clint Eastwood. In an interview to the Guardian in 2017, he said, I had advice that James Bond was over anyway. It was Sean Connerys gig and, being in the 60s, it was love, not war. You know, hippy time. And I bought into that. They also said theres a guy called Clint Eastwood doing movies in Italy, getting 500 grand for a month, for doing a western. They said, you could do that. So I didnt feel like I was losing the million dollars. They offered me millions of dollars under the table to do another one, Lazenby told the Los Angeles Times in 2013. There was talk of a seven-film contract. They made me feel like I was mindless, Lazenby recalled to the Guardian. They disregarded everything I suggested, simply because I hadnt been in the film business like them for about a thousand years. What Im going to do is look for a great director first, a good screenplay second. Meanwhile, no more Bond. I make better money doing commercials. But Lazenby had difficulty finding work after his lone outing as Bond. He was reduced to taking out an ad in Variety in 1978, asking to be hired, while working in obscure Hong Kong movies and small projects back in Australia. He later admitted that quitting Bond was a mistake. According to fellow Bond actor Roger Moore, George took some bad advice. I knew George then and have met him many times since. He admits he made a mistake. Lazenbys co-star, Diana Rigg, said in a 2011 interview to the BBC, Poor old George. I dont know what hes doing now, but he was definitely the architect of his own demise as a film star. I think he needed help, not in the acting he was really quite good, wasnt he? And attractive and sexy. He was just difficult offstage. He kind of thought he was a film star immediately and started throwing his weight around. Also read: The real reason Pierce Brosnan was fired as James Bond, kicked to the kerb by producers in favour of Daniel Craig Lazenby said in 2017 that he hasnt seen On Her Majestys Secret Service in three decades, and is focussing on his family. When I wouldnt sign the contract, they put out the word that I was difficult to handle and no film company wants to know about that, so I couldnt get a job for years. So, I gave up looking, Lazenby told the Sydney Morning Herald. Theres an element of me that thinks I should have done two Bond films to prove that they didnt get rid of me. On the other hand, I wouldnt have the life Ive had. I have beautiful kids, which I may not have had if I continued with Bond. Instead, I was Bond-ing with my children. The producers asked original Bond actor Sean Connery to return to play the character one more time after Lazenbys unexpected departure. The series was then rebooted with Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Stassi Schroeder from Vanderpump Rules is in full damage control mode. The Bravo star was savagely dragged by fans after audio from the past resurfaced where she made racially insensitive remarks. It all came back to haunt her after Faith Stowers recently revealed Schroeder called the cops on her. Following the backlash, sponsors announced they were dropping their support, and Schroeder took a step back to reflect. Stassi Schroeder and Faith Stowers | Roy Rochlin/Getty Images / Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic Stassi Schroeders comments from the past resurface Schroeder released a statement on social media acknowledging her mistakes from the past. A snippet of one of her podcast episodes went viral where she shuts down the black community for protesting award shows. Im like really sick of everyone making everything about race, she said. Like, Im kind of over it and I know I am the one person thats not allowed to say that because I am a white, privileged, blonde, 28-year-old. The comments were made years ago and were discussed during an episode of Vanderpump Rules, which she apologized for back then as well. However, with the Black Lives Matter movement making huge strides in protesting police brutality, the comments sound completely tone-deaf. Everyone giving their impassioned speeches about race and all that stuff, why is it always just about African Americans? she continued. Why arent the Asians being like, Were not represented. Why arent Native Americans and Latinos being like, Were not represented. And whenever they get upset everyone has to go above and beyond to then make them happy. Wow. So I guess we wont be seeing Stassi Schroeder get married on #PumpRules. This is disgusting. If @Andy @BravoTV @lisavanderpump bring her back they can kiss their show goodbye. pic.twitter.com/UcccKsu8gT LoveHousewives (@lovehousewives2) June 5, 2020 Following the clip going viral, Schroeder apologized for her comments from the past in her apology today. Racially insensitive comments from my past have resurfaced, the TV personality said. It is important that I continue to take accountability for what I have said and done, while pushing myself to do better. I have grown significantly from the person I was then, and I am still filled with remorse and regret for the hurt I caused. I am grateful for the people in my life that continue to check me and push me to evolve into a more educated person. Faith Stowers accuses Stassi Schroeder of calling the cops After Stowers talked about her short stint on Vanderpump Rules, she made a revelation that shocked many people. Stowers hooked up with Jax Taylor, who was dating Brittany Cartwright. This made many of Taylors friends turn on Stowers and give her a hard time on the show. There was this article on Daily Mail where there was an African American lady, Stowers explained during an Instagram Live interview. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. They showcased her, and I guess this woman was robbing people. And they called the cops and said it was me. This is like, a true story. I heard this from actually Stassi during an interview. It was just funny, because they thought it was me because it was a black woman with a weave, Stowers added. So they just assumed it would be me, and they called the cops on me, she said. It didnt work, so they were upset about that. I get people being upset [about the affair], but I didnt understand why I was getting so much heat and the man wasnt. Stassi Schroeder apologizes Following public outcry and after taking a couple of days off social media, Schroeder addressed the incident. My emotions over something that happened between out friends outweighed my logic, and there is no excuse for that, she said of calling the police on Stowers. I did not recognize then the serious ramifications that could have transpired because of my actions. What I did to Faith was wrong. I apologize and I do not expect forgiveness, she added. I am also sorry to anyone else that feels disappointed in me. I am going to continue to look closer at myself and my actions to take the time to listen, to learn, and to take accountability for my own privilege. RELATED: Faith Stowers Recalls Lisa Vanderpump Attack, Wanted Her to Act Like Nene Leakes on Vanderpump Rules The Bombay high court (HC) has come to the rescue of a 70-year-old widow who was being mentally and physically tortured by her daughter and threatened to evict the younger woman if she caused any further harm to her parent. If children cannot take care of their parents and allow them to live in peace, they at least ought not to make their life a living hell, said the bench of justice SJ Kathawalla and justice Surendra Tavade, while issuing a stern warning to the daughter of the septuagenarian. The bench stopped short of evicting the daughter, a divorcee, and her son, from the petitioner womans flat at Lokhandwala Complex, because of the Covid-19 lockdown. The court, however, warned the daughter and her son that they would be evicted forthwith if either of them caused any harassment to the elderly woman or tried to stop any of her relatives from contacting her or from entering the flat. The judges said that after talking to the petitioner, they had gathered the impression that the petitioner could suffer physical and mental harassment and consequently, a threat to her life at the hands of her daughter if she continued to reside with her daughter. However, in view of the pandemic and the consequent problems that individuals are facing, we are today not passing an order directing the daughter to make alternate arrangements, said the bench. The elderly woman moved the HC seeking eviction of her abusive daughter and her son, as the tribunal constituted under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 could not take up her plea for urgent reliefs due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The petitioner said that her daughter had eloped with her boyfriend, a person having a criminal background, in 1998. They spent two years in constant fights and in July 2000, he abandoned her and their toddler son. The daughter then returned to her parents home at Lokhandwala, as a temporary shelter for a few months. However, since then she and her son have been forcibly residing in the flat. The 70-year-old added that a few months after returning home, the daughter started harassing both, the petitioner and her husband and had threatened to level false accusations of molestation against her father. The elderly womans petition stated that she was mentally and physically tortured by her daughter, especially after her husband died in January 2011, and her finances were taken over by the younger woman. She alleged that she was forced to remain naked, to compel her not to step out of the house, and was served food only once a day. On August 3, 2018, the petitioner got an opportunity to step out of the flat, but was hit by an autorickshaw while crossing the road, and had to be hospitalised. Thereafter, the 70-year-old was bedridden for a long time. During this period, her daughter did not allow any of her relatives to enter the flat and also broke the womans mobile phone to ensure that she could not contact anyone. In February this year, the elder womans other daughter visited from the US and took her to Bombay Hospital, where a series of tests revealed that she had a shoulder fracture and several nerves around her neck had been badly damaged. The liftoff from high school into the great Whats Next is normally full of tradition: the pomp-and-circumstance processions, the weighty ceremonies in cramped gymnasiums, the crush of graduates and proud families in the throng. And the speeches. And more speeches. And more. These days, of course, everythings different. Although the governor recently OK'd scaled-back, outdoor commencement ceremonies with no more 150 people starting June 26, thats not much of a consolation for students from big urban districts. Most will have to make do with virtual celebrations. Maybe some posters will line the streets. Maybe therell be digital accolades and drive-by parades. But everythings different for another reason, too: the protests against police brutality in the wake of George Floyds death. This is a monumental chapter in history were living through, something future scholars will spend eons unpacking, and it is no less monumental for young people. Because theyre a part of it. On Saturday, several hundred teenagers turned out in Albany for a peaceful, diverse speakout and march organized by Youth FX. Then on Sunday, an estimated 11,000 people of all ages and races gathered in Troy, also to protest police brutality, also peacefully. Young people were there, too. Young people are out there across the country, making their voices heard. Young people are seizing this page in history and helping to write it. Between COVID-19 and the widespread protests, this isnt anything like anything that ever happened in the lives of anyone currently breathing, not this way, not with the advent of smartphones and social media, not with social distancing and testing-pop-ups and masks. So I understand the strangeness of it all, and the disappointment in having a Not Normal Graduation. No whoops of pride and joy as our young ones cross the stage, their tassels bobbling behind them. No arm-in-arm photos of graduates smooshed together with families and friends. At the same time, I have a message for all the 2020 graduates out there: You will remember this. For the rest of your lives, you will reflect on this period with an overflowing cache of vivid, specific, powerfully relevant, deeply personal memories that recall who you were and what you did and thought and strived for in an era of astonishing and critical change. And let me tell you, thats not nothing. I say this as one who graduated high school in 1981. After the civil rights and anti-war activism of the 1960s and the bell-bottomed cultural shifts of the 1970s, the country was in a post-Watergate, post-oil-crisis, questionable-hairdos, Cold War limbo. True, we were all worried about nuclear annihilation (oh, that), but somehow it wasnt at the top of our young peoples to-do list as we readied our launch into adulthood. Do you know what I remember of my own high school ceremony? Almost nothing. It was sunny, I think. Also: people gave speeches I can't recall. My college graduation I recall a little more vividly, only because it was rainy and we had to sit inside the field house, and also because we wore tiny cloth patches on our gowns protesting apartheid and calling for more diverse faculty. Also: people gave speeches I can't recall. And that was about it. That isnt now. This isnt you. Your voices are louder. Your hope and your outrage are rooted closer to home, and youre expressing it the way the young have always expressed it: With a passion undiluted by age and its deference to pragmatism. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. It may take years, even decades, for you to process all thats happening. It may take the rest of your lives. But even if you live to be 100, you wont ever look back on the events of 2020 and shrug. Your great-great-grandchildren will ask you what you did, where you were, what you saw. And youll have so many stories to tell them, so many memories of the pandemic, the great pause, the hours you spent studying and sheltering at home -- and then, just as your life as a high schooler came to a close, the Black Lives Matter marches that erupted in a heartbeat after George Floyds stopped. There is no forgetting this chapter in history. There is no erasing its trauma and its truths, and you are witnesses to both. You are agents and actors of both. You are the bearers of its memories for Americans to come. Every age belongs to its younger generations, who envision the world that they want and then work to make it happen. Youre doing that right now. We need you to do it. This is your time. So, no, this isnt your standard-issue commencement season. You wont sit with your classmates in your caps and gowns, listening to speakers expound on life in profundities youll quickly forget. Instead youll be saying and hearing the words that need to be said right now, in this moment, and will echo for centuries to come. No justice, no peace. Black lives matter. I cant breathe. Thats it. Thats your commencement speech. Youll clutch it, claim it, carry it forward and do what you can to bring its message to life. Youll act on it and learn from it forever. And you'll remember. Plans for cutting greenhouse gases, using carbon tax receipts and the age for qualifying for the State pension are among the remaining outstanding issues in government formation talks. The full negotiating teams from the three parties are set to meet again today as they race against time to agree a programme for government that can be ratified by their memberships by the end of the month. The three leaders - Taoiseach Leo Varadkar of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail's Micheal Martin and Eamon Ryan of the Green Party - may also meet again today as they seek to thrash out a deal. However, there are a number of key areas yet to be agreed on by the three parties. There is agreement in principle on a Green Party demand that carbon emissions should be reduced by 7pc-a-year, but the detail of how to do this is still being discussed. A Green Party source was optimistic this can be resolved, despite issues on how agriculture and transport will contribute. Climate Action Minister Richard Bruton last night said 7pc was an "ambitious target" and "we will have to be very imaginative, not just today in framing a programme for government, but over the decades in developing policies that can deliver this". Challenging "It's challenging in these talks and will be challenging as we go along, but it's really important that we get a good understanding between all parties as to how we are going to set about delivering this, and I think these negotiations will set those signposts very clearly," he said. On the carbon tax, the Green Party has been pushing for a so-called "fee and dividend" approach that would see refunds to households. Mr Ryan signalled a rowing back from this position in a newspaper interview, in which he proposed ring-fencing of the funds to ensure a "just transition" away from fossil fuels. A Green Party source said this could involve measures to help alleviate fuel poverty, like retrofitting social housing units rather than refunding the carbon tax directly. Sources in all three parties said work remained on the pension age. Fianna Fail wants the rise in the pension age to 67, due to happen next year, to be delayed. This has been resisted by Fine Gael, which has been insisting on it being increased in line with a long-running strategy aimed at reducing State pension costs - albeit with a transitional payment for people until they reach 67. Mr Bruton, one of Fine Gael's negotiators, said of the prospect of reaching a deal on government formation this week: "There's been an immense amount of work done. "I think we have got to the point where we have a good understanding of the different parties' positions and I think it is workable to find solutions." The government has started the process to train 26,000 young entrepreneurs across the country under the third phase of the Presidential Business Support Programme (PBSP). The Minister of Business Development, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, who made this known in Accra yesterday, said up to 5,000 of the beneficiaries would receive soft loans from a GH50 million fund that had been set up for the programme to start or boost their businesses. We are going to build the capacity of 26,000 Ghanaian start-ups and small businesses, out of which we will select 5,000 of them to receive funding of about GH50 million to boost their businesses so that they can create jobs, he told the Daily Graphic at the launch of the programme. PBSP focus He said the PBSP, which is the brainchild of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was a necessary intervention to create the right ecosystem for entrepreneurship in the country. About 60 per cent of Ghanaians are below the age of 30, and although most of them have good ideas, they dont have money or the collateral to go to banks for loans, so the President decided to launch this programme to train them and give them funding to start their businesses or scale them up, he said. Dr Awal explained that the loans would be given at a 10 per cent interest to beneficiaries who successfully completed the training programme. Beneficiaries would receive a minimum of GH5,000 in soft loans and a maximum of GH50,000, unlike in the first and second phases of the programme when the beneficiaries received GH10,000. Selection The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP), Mr John Kumah, who outlined the modalities for selecting the beneficiaries, indicated that 100 would be selected from each of the 260 districts in the country. He urged the youth to take advantage of the programme to develop their ideas into profit-making ventures, adding that the process had been made more flexible to enable everyone, irrespective of his or her location in the country, to apply. Every young person with a business plan can apply for the support because now we are moving it from online to every district, so that those in the rural areas can also apply, he said. He said the growth of small businesses was pivotal to the vision of the government. Asked if previous beneficiaries were qualified to apply for support under the current phase, he said only beneficiaries who had successfully repaid their loans would be considered. However, Mr Kumah explained that beneficiaries who went through the previous phase of the programme but did not receive loans could reapply. If you received training but not funding, then you can reapply all over again, he said. Previous success Touching on the success of the previous phase of the programme, Mr Kumah said about 19,000 business owners had already been trained, with the number of trained beneficiaries having collectively created more than 90,000 jobs across the country. He said most of the beneficiaries were well-grounded in their businesses due to the mentorship training that was offered to them as part of the PBSP. Once you are selected for the programme, you are given a mandatory three-year mentorship, and because of that we get about 70 per cent recovery rate. So although the recovery rate has been slow this year because of the COVID-19, most of them are doing very well, Mr Kumah 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 Most new arrivals are now required to put themselves in quarantine for two weeks. In the UK, new measures will require most inbound travellers to self-isolate for 14 days, with a fine of nearly $1,300 for violators. But the move has drawn criticism over timing, how it will work, and what impact it could have on the economy. Al Jazeeras Jonah Hull reports from London, UK. Friends gather on a cold and windy day at the beach May 24, 2020 in Wildwood, New Jersey. Gov. Phil Murphy designated the state beaches open with restrictions during the Memorial Day weekend due to the coronavirus pandemic. Mark Makela/Getty Images Pennsylvania's Bucks County Department of Health said on Saturday that at least 12 new COVID-19 cases in the state can be tied to a New Jersey resident who attended "multiple house gatherings" on the Jersey Shore. The New Jersey Department of Health told CNN that the house gatherings, most of which happened over Memorial Day weekend, featured college-aged attendees. The 12 COVID-19 patients who were tied to the New Jersey resident are experiencing mild symptoms from the virus. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Officials in Pennsylvania say at least 12 new COVID-19 cases in the state can be traced back to gatherings at beach houses on New Jersey's Jersey Shore. Pennsylvania's Bucks County Department of Health said on Saturday that there were 33 new cases in the state, 11 of which were traced back to a resident in New Jersey "who attended multiple house gatherings at the shore during the past two weeks," NJ.com reported. A 12th COVID-19 patient in Pennsylvania was previously tied to the New Jersey resident, Bucks County health officials said in a news release. The New Jersey Department of Health told CNN that most of the attendees at house gatherings were college-aged, and many of the parties happened over Memorial Day weekend. "This is exactly why we can't let our guard down now, even if it feels 'safe' to be at the beach," David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Health Department, said in a statement to NJ.com. "One unlucky exposure can lead to a large cascade of cases down the line. We want everyone to enjoy the warmer weather and have fun, but let's keep in mind that COVID is still circulating in the community at baseline levels." Bucks County is not yet allowing gatherings of over 25 people in an attempt to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, though New Jersey's beaches opened in time for Memorial Day weekend, with strict social distancing guidelines in place. Story continues Damsker said he expects cases to continue to spread through patients' family members. Bucks County spokesman Larry King told CNN that the 12 individuals who tested positive are experiencing mild symptoms and are self-isolating at home. New Jersey State epidemiologist Dr. Tina Tan told CNN that her team is investigating the incident. Read the original article on Insider The substance allegedly found on Prophet Kwabena Owusu Agyei 09.06.2020 LISTEN The National Security has reportedly found substance suspected to be Marijuana on self-styled Prophet, Kwabena Owusu Agyei, who was arrested by the team for threatening President Akufo-Addo and the electoral commission chairperson Jean Mensa. Viral videos circulating on Social Media minutes after his arrest revealed that the 56-year-old man of God had in his possession, quantities of Indian Hemp (weed) when he was picked up at his residence near the Greda Estates on the Spintex Road in Accra Tuesday. The preacher was reportedly arrested by plain cloth security men during a live interview with Accra-based Hot FM Tuesday morning. The preacher in the said video which went viral on social media on Monday was heard raining curses on the EC chair over plans to compile a new voters register. He is currently being processed for court. Watch video below: NDC's Kwabena Owusu Agyei threatens to k!ll Jean Mensa, Electoral Commissioner New Delhi, June 9 : The spread of Covid-19 by an asymptomatic or someone who is not showing any symptoms appears to be less likely, said WHO in the recently published summary of transmission of Covid-19 including symptomatic, pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. The study acquires special importance as India enters the second week of Unlock1.0, with restaurants, religious places, malls opening up, added to a vast population straying out for morning and evening walks. According to the WHO's report, "Comprehensive studies on transmission from asymptomatic individuals are difficult to conduct, but the available evidence from contact tracing reported by Member States suggests that asymptomatically-infected individuals are much less likely to transmit the virus than those who develop symptoms." Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical lead for Covid-19 response in a tweet said "In these data, it is important to breakdown truly asymptomatic vs pre-symptomatic vs mildly symptomatic. additional points: In these data, it is impt to breakdown truly asymptomatic vs pre-symptomatic vs mildly symptomatic also to note that the % reported or estimated to be "asymptomatic" is not the same as the % that are asymptomatic that actually transmit Maria Van Kerkhove (@mvankerkhove) June 8, 2020 "Also to note that the per cent reported or estimated to be "asymptomatic" is not the same as the percent that are asymptomatic that actually transmits." The WHO said among the available published studies, some have described occurrences of transmission from people who did not have symptoms. For example, among 63 asymptomatically-infected individuals studied in China, there was evidence that 9 (14 percent) infected another person. Furthermore, among two studies that carefully investigated secondary transmission from cases to contacts, one found no secondary transmission among 91 contacts of 9 asymptomatic cases, while the other reported that 6.4 percent of cases were attributable to pre-symptomatic transmission. "The available data, to date, on onward infection from cases without symptoms comes from a limited number of studies with small samples that are subject to possible recall bias and for which fomite transmission cannot be ruled out," said the WHO. Some people infected with the COVID-19 virus do not ever develop any symptoms, although they can shed virus which may then be transmitted to others. The WHO said one recent systematic review found that the proportion of asymptomatic cases ranged from 6 to 41 percent, with a pooled estimate of 16 percent (12-20), although most studies included in this review have important limitations of poor reporting of symptoms, or did not properly define which symptoms they were investigating. Viable virus has been isolated from specimens of pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, suggesting, therefore, that people who do not have symptoms may be able to transmit the virus to others, added the WHO. Van Kerkhove in a media briefing reportedly said that from the data examined by WHO, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual. The WHO said that according to the current evidence, COVID-19 virus is primarily transmitted between people via respiratory droplets and contact routes. "Droplet transmission occurs when a person is in close contact (within 1 metre) with an infected person and exposure to potentially infective respiratory droplets occurs, for example, through coughing, sneezing or very close personal contact resulting in the inoculation of entry portals such as the mouth, nose or conjunctivae.... Therefore, transmission of the COVID-19 virus can occur directly by contact with infected people, or indirectly by contact with surfaces in the immediate environment or with objects used on or by the infected person (e.g., stethoscope or thermometer)", added the transmission study. (Sumit Saxena can be contacted at sumit.s@ians.in) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- Syndicated from IANS Most bosses rise to the top because they have excelled in an area such as marketing, production, engineering, administration or, sometimes, institutional politics Once they become CEOs, they face new responsibilities. They now must make capital allocation decisions, a critical job that they may have never tackled and that is not easily mastered. To stretch the point, its as if the final step for a highly-talented musician was not to perform at Carnegie Hall but instead, to be named Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Warren Buffett, 1987 letter to shareholders Top analysts and investors such as Warren Buffett and Michael Mauboussin say capital allocation - the deployment of company time, money, ideas, and people - is the key to building moat-like quality and profitability characteristics. Unfortunately, CEOs are not generally promoted based on their ability to allocate capital, even though this is what they then go on to spend their time doing. This means if youre only looking at sales and earnings growth, there is a vital question not being considered: how is this growth being funded? GET MORE DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS INTO NMQ:EBMT Screening for upwardly mobile, high-quality companies Thats where ratios like return on equity (ROE) come in. ROE measures how efficiently a company uses Shareholders Equity to generate profits. It is calculated by dividing net income by book value of equity. Its no coincidence that Buffett is a fan of the measure - companies with high ROEs tend to exhibit the high-quality, moat-like business traits that he is so fond of gaining exposure to. To find high ROE stocks whose fantastic business models are being rewarded by the market, you can create a stock screen that selects only stocks with both positive one-year relative strength and upgraded current year broker forecasts. The former ensures these shares have been outperforming the market and the latter suggests outperformance can continue. Story continues One of the stocks that currently qualify for this simple screen is Eagle Bancorp Montana Inc. The group has: A trailing twelve month return on equity of 11.1% An average current year EPS forecast upgrade of 4.93% from brokers, and A one-year relative strength of 1.37% Stocks exhibiting these traits are typically a solid mix of quality and momentum. Eagle Bancorp Montana Inc has a Quality Rank of 65 and a Momentum Rank of 81. Studies indicate that combining factors such as Value, Quality and Momentum is a more effective way of outperforming the market over longer time frames. That's why we have constructed our StockReports to give an instant impression of how well exposed Eagle Bancorp Montana Inc (NMQ:EBMT) is to these three factors. We go into greater detail on factor investing in this video. Stockopedia helps you to identify return-enhancing factors such as Quality, Value and Momentum by analysing thousands of data points every day. To find out more about you find investment opportunities and analyse your portfolios then take one of our two-week free trials and have a look around. ANN ARBOR, MI Leaders at the University of Michigan say they will strongly oppose any restrictions targeting Chinese students and faculty in the UM community. A letter addressed to the UM community and signed by UM President Mark Schlissel, Interim Provost Susan Collins, Vice President for Research Rebecca Cunningham and Rackham Graduate School Dean Mike Solomon responds to proposed federal legislation and a recent presidential proclamation aimed at limiting the ability of Chinese students and researchers to study and work at colleges in the U.S. UM leaders said many in the community have reached out to them with questions and concerns regarding support for Chinese students and faculty, and UMs leaders said their core values have not changed. While we take seriously threats to national security and have worked to implement practices aimed at addressing foreign government interference, we oppose arbitrary restrictions on Chinese students who have been and continue to be valuable members of the UM community, the leaders wrote. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation May 29 that restricts entry to the United States by Chinese graduate students with ties to military-influenced organizations and universities, according to a release from the university. UMs leaders and the American Association of Universities are working with the FBI and the state department to get more details on the proclamation, specifically about how it might impact graduate students holding F-1 and J-1 visas, the letter said. A bill introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas would prohibit any Chinese nationals from receiving visas for graduate or postgraduate studies in STEM fields in the U.S. UMs leaders believe the bill wont gain traction in the senate, according to the letter. Offering proposals, even for the purpose of taking a political stance, can have an adverse impact on our ability to create a welcoming community that attracts global talent to our university, the leaders wrote. UM issued travel restrictions to China in late January due to the coronavirus outbreak, and the university has since increased travel restrictions to all countries outside the United States. To mitigate losses from the coronavirus pandemic, which could be between $400 million and $1 billion, UM previously announced the elimination of non-essential expenditures, including travel. University of Michigan imposes hiring, salary freezes to face anticipated losses of $400M to $1B Please know that the university considers these issues top priorities and will continue to monitor them, strategically engage when opportunities arise and strongly oppose efforts to place inappropriate limits on our international students, faculty and visitors, the leaders wrote. The full message from UMs leaders can be viewed here. President of Burundi Pierre Nkurunziza has died after a heart attack at the age of 55, the government said today, 10 days after his wife was taken to hospital with Covid-19. The African country announced Nkurunziza's 'unexpected' death with 'great sadness' today, declaring a national week of mourning. Nkurunziza had felt unwell on Saturday and 'to very great surprise' his health worsened yesterday, leading to a cardiac arrest from which he died in hospital, officials said. His wife Denise was airlifted for coronavirus treatment in Kenya on May 30, prompting some suspicion about the President's true cause of death. Nkurunziza was due to leave office in August after a controversial 15-year term marked by claims of repression and human rights abuses. The President of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza (pictured raising his fist during an election rally last month), has died of a heart attack aged 55 Nkurunziza took office in 2005 under a power-sharing deal following a 12-year civil war which left 300,000 people dead. His decision to run for a disputed third term in 2015 plunged the country into violence, leading to hundreds more deaths. Facing allegations of widespread abuses, his government became the first country to leave the International Criminal Court in 2017. Human Rights Watch says the police and ruling party are known to carry out 'widespread human rights abuses' including killings and arbitrary arrests. Nkurunziza's party was confirmed as the winner of May's election last week, paving the way for the first peaceful transfer of power since independence in 1962. The outgoing president had backed retired army general Evariste Ndayishimiye as his successor and saw him win nearly 70 per cent of the vote. The opposition National Freedom Council (CNL), headed by Agathon Rwasa, had alleged the May 20 election was riddled with fraud and irregularities. However, a panel of judges ruled last week that the results were valid and that opposition complaints were 'null and void'. It is not clear what happens now. In addition, a WHO official was expelled from the country during the campaign after the agency raised concerns about crowded rallies spreading coronavirus. The government has downplayed the threat from the virus, saying it has only 83 cases of the disease. Despite the government's statement that Nkurunziza died of a heart attack, some in Burundi wondered whether Covid-19 was the real cause of death. 'When Nkurunziza's wife was flown to Kenya suffering from COVID-19, many in Burundi suspected the president himself was sick,' said Justin Nyabenda, a resident in Bujumbura. Nkurunziza (pictured) had felt unwell on Saturday and 'to very great surprise' his health worsened yesterday, leading to a cardiac arrest from which he died in hospital According to an official profile, Nkurunziza was born in 1964 and lost his father during a wave of ethnic violence in the 1970s. Nkurunziza himself is said to have narrowly escaped assassination in 1995 before subsequently joining a rebel group during the civil war. His government profile claims he was a 'talented sportsman' who also owned plantations of bananas, pineapples and vegetables. He won a second term in office in 2010 and claimed he was entitled to a third in 2015 because he had come to power under different arrangements in 2005. The deadly turmoil that followed badly damaged ties with the international community, with the UN reporting more than 300 extrajudicial killings. Nkurunziza survived a coup attempt shortly after the 2015 vote while travelling in Tanzania and had left Burundi only once since then. The police airwing has been searching dense bushland on Mount Disappointment. Credit:Police Media William is extremely active and loves being outside, his support worker says. Damian Beasley, an autism practitioner who has known the teen for years, said he was concerned the 14-year-old may not respond to calls other than from people he knows. William disappeared about 2.20pm on Monday when he ran ahead of his father as they trekked to the Mount Disappointment summit, 10 kilometres east of Wallan. More than 450 people, including hundreds of volunteers, spent Tuesday looking for him in dense bushland and the search continued overnight. SES volunteers searching thick bushland for William Callaghan. Credit:Chris Hopkins SES Deputy Controller Gerry Connell said volunteers were still feeling positive, though no clues had emerged overnight. "We need to find him as soon as possible ... it is urgent," he said. Acting Inspector Christine Lalor said William's family believed he would respond to searchers but "if there were really loud noises or crowds that may deter him". Mr Beasley said William is "very calm, just a really calm sort of soul". "He loves Thomas the Tank Engine ... he loves food. He's really mobile, I've always called him a jungle boy. He loved being outside and running around," he said. "He just would have got immersed in being out here and forgotten where he was. As a young fella, you can't take your eyes off him for long at all. He's always been fast." William was due to return to school in Geelong on Tuesday. He lives mostly with his mother. Mr Beasley said he was praying for good news on Tuesday and was hoping William had found his way to a home or shelter. "I can't even think the other way," he said. William was wearing blue trackpants and a hoodie when he disappeared. Searchers planned to use thermal imaging equipment overnight, Senior Sergeant Greg Paul said. SES searching in dense scrub for William Callaghan on Tuesday morning. Credit:Chris Hopkins "This is very dangerous weather, it can get down to zero, perhaps sub-zero, up here in the hills and it is life-threatening weather but we have had people survive several nights in these conditions as well so we are quite serious about trying to find Will as quickly as possible and there is every likelihood we could succeed," he said. He said similar searches in the past, such as that for Luke Shambrook five years ago in which the 11-year-old with autism was found alive after five days near Lake Eildon, gave police hope that William would be found. Thankfully, no rain is expected until the weekend and frost is less likely for Wednesday morning because of milder conditions. "We'll also get a bit of cloud moving over [on Tuesday night] which does tend to restrict the development of frost a little bit," Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Tom Delamotte said. Mostly sunny skies are expected on Wednesday, with light northerly winds and a maximum temperature of about 10 degrees at the summit. Nearby valleys could be closer to 13 or 14 degrees. "That's probably a touch warmer than what we saw [on Tuesday] through that area," Mr Delamotte said. Locals join the search on Tuesday. Credit:Chris Hopkins Acting Inspector Lalor urged anyone who had not yet checked their homes, out-houses or sheds - even if they live further afield - to do so as soon as possible, as the teen may be hiding. "He is quite active so looking at the time now, he could have travelled quite a distance," she said There were no reported sightings of William on Tuesday. "The longer it goes on, the more concerned we are," she said. Acting Inspector Lalor said William's family, who were at the search site on Tuesday, were "quite distraught". "It's pretty devastating for anyone missing a child, but they are holding up as well as they can," she said. Searchers on Tuesday entered the bush on foot, motorbikes and on horseback, calling out "Will" as they made their way through the thick undergrowth. Police dog Ollie also scoured the trails for the teen. Local man Mark, who did not want his surname published, decided to join the search after hearing the news overnight. The police search base near Blair's Hut. Credit:Chris Hopkins "I used to work in forestry and helped to build the walking tracks to the summit," he said. "I know all these tracks quite well so I thought I could be of some use." It would be "very, very easy" to get lost in the dense bush, he said. "It's as rugged bushland as anywhere in Victoria. Fortunately, its not huge, but its thick and hard to see because its fire regrowth." William taps his chest and makes noises to communicate. He understands verbal communication, but does not like loud noises or to be touched. Police are advising anyone who approaches him to do so calmly and quietly and call triple zero. Much of Tuesday's search was concentrated around the summit of the mountain. A Lagos Division of the Lagos State High Court has discharged and acquitted a cobbler, Niyi Akanbi, of a charge of defiling a 13-year-old student. Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye also berated the prosecution for the manner it handled cases of sexual offence involving minors. Delivering judgment on Tuesday during virtual court proceedings, the judge said that prosecution of cases involving minors should be handled meticulously. I cannot but observe and recommend that the prosecution of sexual offences against minors must be handled with utmost dispatch in recognition of their vulnerable status in society. The minor in this instant case was allegedly sexually molested on Feb. 28, 2014, yet the state was only able to present the defendant for arraignment on March 6, 2018, more than four years after the occurrence of the alleged incident. This ought not to be so; cases involving minors deserve priority, meticulous investigation and diligent efforts in ensuring that vital witnesses are presented to court in a timely and expeditious manner. This was regrettably absent in the prosecution of this case, she said. Mrs Ipaye said that no evidence was presented to the court to independently establish that the complainant was involved in sexual activity of any kind with Akanbi. She also said the defendant consistently did not admit to committing the offence in his statements to the police and evidence in court, adding that medical evidence was not presented in court by the prosecution. There is no evidence stronger than a mans confession. In this case, the only surviving documentary evidence before the court are exhibits nine and 10 being statements made by the defendant. I have perused the two statements and by no stretch of imagination can they be classified as admissions of having committed the alleged offence. His statements were consistent with his testimony in open court. I find no reason not to accept his assertion. The prosecution, not having established the fact of penile penetration of the complaint and having not corroborated her testimony, failed to discharge the burden of proof beyond reasonable doubt. The defendant, Niyi Akanbi, is hereby discharged and acquitted of all the charges contained in count one and two of the information, she said. NAN reports that prosecution led by Akin George had alleged that Mr Akanbi committed the offences on Feb, 28, 2014, behind his shop located at No.1, Jagunro St., Ojota, Lagos. According to the prosecution, Mr Akanbi defiled the student behind his shop when she took her schoolbag to him for repair. Mr Akanbi was arraigned at the High Court on March 6, 2018, on a two-count-charge of defilement and sexual assault by penetration. The trial began on June 14, 2018. The prosecution presented three witnesses the complainant, her mother and the investigating police officer, Matthew Ibe. After his evidence, Mr Ibe, an assistant superintendent of police, did not come to court for cross-examination on the adjourned dates. The judge consequently removed his evidence-in-chief from the courts record. Defence opened its case on June 17, 2019, with a neighbour and pastor, Temitope Akindejoye, and the defendant testifying. It closed its case on November 20, 2019. The alleged offences contravene Sections 137 and 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos 2011. Advertisements (NAN) (TNS) The federal government has done little over the past 20 years to prevent telecommunications carriers owned by the Chinese government from from peeking at sensitive data they transmit from the United States, according to a new report from the U.S. Senates Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chaired by Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman.The report released Tuesday by Portman and the committees top Democrat, Tom Carper of Delaware, also found that China forces U.S. telecommunications companies to enter joint ventures with Chinese companies if they want to do business in China, which has the most subscribers of any market in the world. U.S. companies that operate in China are often forced to transfer both technology and know-how to their Chinese counterparts, the report said.The probe was spurred by Federal Communications Commissions May 2019 denial of China Mobile USAs application to provide international telecommunications services in the United States on national security grounds. It found that three Chinese government owned telecommunications companies that were previously authorized to operate in the United States - China Telecom Americas, China Unicom Americas, and ComNet USA - operated with little U.S. government oversight until recently, even though the Chinese government could also force them to assist in cyber and economic espionage activities targeted at the United States.The report said the Chinese companies have established relationships with major U.S. carriers, including AT&T, Verizon, and Centurylinkall of which serve government entities, as well as private customers. The Chinese companies have been accused of routing their data through China, where they could monitor whats being transmitted without end users realizing it.The Chinese Communist Party uses its state-owned enterprises to further its cyber and economic espionage efforts against the United States, and theyve been exploiting our telecommunications networks for nearly two decades while the federal government historically put in little effort to stop it," said a statement from Portman.Portman said that after his committee began to examine the issue, the federal government began to do more, including a presidential executive order to ensure the proper review and monitoring of foreign-owned carriers. In April, the Trump administration recommended revocation of China Telecom Americas license to operate in the United States after concluding the companys operations provide opportunities for the Chinese government to engage in malicious cyber activity enabling economic espionage and disruption and misrouting of U.S. communications."Portman said hes encouraged by the new efforts, and will work with Carper on legislation "to ensure federal agencies have the oversight and enforcement tools necessary to protect our telecommunications networks going forward.A statement from Carper noted that their committee has previously investigated how the Chinese government has launched cyber-attacks against U.S. businesses and government agencies and worked to get ahead militarily and economically with stolen American research and intellectual property.Last year, it released a report on a Chinese program called the Thousand Talents Plan that recruits U.S. scientists to transfer taxpayer funded intellectual property to China in exchange for incentives that include money, research funding and lab space. Last month, a former Cleveland Clinic researcher was charged with fraud for failing to disclose his ties to that program.The report urges the FCC to promptly review the three other companies to ensure U.S. communications networks arent unnecessarily put at risk, to establish a clear standard for revoking foreign companys licenses, and for Congress to require the periodic review and renewal of foreign companies authorizations to provide international telecommunications service in the United States. It also says Congress and the administration should take steps to ensure that U.S. companies get reciprocal access to Chinas telecommunications market.Especially when dealing with state-owned telecommunications carriers, greater controls are needed, and the Administration and Congress must work together to ensure sufficient safeguards and oversight mechanisms are in place, the report concludes. South Africa: COVID-19 deaths surpass the 1000 mark as cases rise South Africa recorded its deadliest 24 hours with 82 new COVID-19 deaths reported on Monday. The Western Cape, which has the highest infection rate, reported 55 deaths, followed by the Eastern Cape with 26 and one death in KwaZulu-Natal. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases has reached the 50 000 mark, with 2 594 new cases reported, while the number of deaths surpassed 1 000. The cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is 50 879, the total number of deaths is 1 080 and the recoveries to date are 26 099, Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize said. The Eastern Cape has overtaken Gauteng and now has the second-highest infection rate sitting at 6 341 and 6 258 respectively. Meanwhile, KwaZulu-Natal has 3 175 cases, North West 580, Free State 373, Limpopo 244, Mpumalanga 183, Northern Cape 118 while 39 cases are unknown. The Minister has extended his condolences to the families of the deceased and thanked the health professionals for taking care of the departed. In addition, the country has tested 953 059 people with 22 995 tests conducted since the last report. South Africas recovery rate stands at 26 099 people. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-06-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: A massive fire broke out at the site of blowout or uncontrolled emission of natural gas in Assams Tinsukia district on Tuesday. Soon after the incident at Baghjan Oil Well No 5 of Oil India Limited (OIL) at around 1:40 pm, plumes of smoke and flames enveloped the sky in the area. The OIL said a firefighter from the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) sustained minor injuries. While the clearing operations were on at the well site, the well caught fire. There is no casualty reported. Fire tenders are at the site controlling the spread of fire. Once the situation is normal, the experts will move to the site, the oil exploration major tweeted. After the inferno, the locals staged a violent protest which made the OIL to request the authorities on the maintenance of law and order so that the experts could enter the site and begin the well control operations. All officials of OIL and ONGC were being evacuated from nearby areas. The OIL on Sunday had flown in three experts from Singapore-based firm, M/s Alert Disaster Control, to cap the blowout. After being briefed by OILs senior officials, the trio had left for the site on Monday. The OIL said emergency meetings were underway with the experts from Singapore. They have expressed that it is now a safe environment for working and are confident that the situation can be controlled and the well can be capped safely. The situation demands arrangement of large quantities of water, installation of high discharge pumps and removal of debris. All the operations, as per ALERT, will take about 4 weeks. Efforts will be made to reduce this timeframe as much as possible, the OIL said. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal called up Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and apprised him of the incident. Sonowal instructed the Tinsukia district administration to take adequate measures to ensure safety to the lives and property of people living in nearby villages. The CM appealed to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to deploy the Indian Air Force in dousing the fire at the blowout site. He said apart from OIL, ONGC, and state government, personnel from Army, NDRF and paramilitary forces were taking steps to secure the lives of the locals. The blowout had occurred on May 27. An incident like this is rare. During a similar blowout in 2005 at Dikom in Dibrugarh district, experts had to be flown in from abroad to control a blaze at an abandoned oil well. The situation could be brought under control 45 days later. Environmentalist lodges FIR Meanwhile, an environmentalist filed an FIR with the police in connection with the blowout. Apurba Ballav Goswami, who is also a journalist, cited in his FIR that during drilling on May 27 by M/s John Energy Pvt Limited, a Gujarat-based company to which the OIL had outsourced operations, there was an explosion in the oil well resulting in the region getting polluted by the emission of toxic gas and oily substances. He claimed the incident had occurred as drilling was done in the absence of experts from OIL and blowout preventive arrangements. He said the OIL itself had mentioned in a press statement that drilling was done without using blowout preventive arrangements. Goswami held OIL Chairman and Managing Director Sushil Chandra Mishra and the officers from OIL on duty and M/s John Energy Pvt Limited responsible for the incident. Due to their act vis-a-vis the blowout, flora and fauna, ponds and livestock in the area have suffered massive damage. The incident displaced 2,500 people from 650 families who are taking shelter in relief camps, Goswami said. He claimed several endangered animals, including river dolphins and fish, died. He also made mention of media reports about the deaths of five people and the sufferings of locals from diseases such as fever, cough etc in the toxic environment. The Tinsukia district administration had on Sunday said a preliminary investigation revealed one of the deceased was suffering from tuberculosis since 2019, another from a liver disease and the third was a patient of epilepsy who had drowned. The fourth was a woman from a village in the vicinity who died in Dibrugarh and had not visited the village in recent times. The district administration ordered a magisterial probe into the deaths following a request by the OIL. (Natural News) No one wants to think about losing a job, especially if youre supporting a family. But interesting research has revealed what people think about their coworkers getting replaced or losing their own jobs to robots. In a paper published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, scientists from the Technical University of Munich in Germany and Erasmus University Rotterdam found that most employees dont mind losing their own jobs to a robot compared to another human. Self-reflection and robots in the workforce The findings shed light on the psychological severity of this scenario, which may vary depending on who will hypothetically take over the volunteers job: Another human being or a robot. For the first study, scientists interviewed 300 participants who were asked if they preferred losing their own job or having co-workers replaced by either robots or other people. When asked what they thought about having a colleague replaced, 62 percent said they would prefer to see another person take their co-workers place. However, when asked about their own replacement, 37 percent said that they would rather have a robot take over their own jobs. For the second study, 251 volunteers were asked to rate how much negativity they felt about losing a job to a robot compared to another human. The scientists found that respondents tend to feel more negatively when robots replaced a co-workers job than if they were to lose their own. The discrepancy could be due to how the volunteers self-reflected during the imaginary scenario. Volunteers viewed being replaced by another person as a slight on their own competence, but they didnt take it personally if they were to be replaced with robots. According to the researchers, the participants may feel devalued and doubtful of their own abilities when replaced with other humans. If robots entered the picture, people might simply feel that their workplace is only adopting more advanced ways of getting the job done. With robots, humans dont feel the need to be competitive, unlike with another person. For the third study, the scientists asked 296 volunteers who worked in manufacturing if they thought they might lose their jobs one day because of some form of technology. Findings showed that at least one-third of the respondents felt like they could be replaced by robots. Should workers fear a robot takeover? While a robot uprising does not seem to be an immediate concern, the paper suggests that most workers fear a robot takeover in the workplace. According to an employment outlook from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an association made up of 36 countries across the world, within the next two decades 50 percent of all jobs will be substantially transformed by technology. (Related: In two decades half of all jobs predicted to be lost to automation.) This means workers will lose their jobs outright. The OECD notes that at least 14 percent of jobs will be completely automated within 20 years. On the other hand, 32 percent of jobs may drastically change compared to what they look like now. Offer support to workers to assuage their fears, suggest researchers The researchers said that the most negative emotions came from participants after they were asked about the prospect of having their colleagues replaced with robots. Negative emotions like anger and sadness were more intense when the respondents were discussing the replacement of other peoples jobs with robots over their own. They concluded that replacing human labor with robots or other forms of advanced technology may have unique psychological consequences that can be addressed if lawmakers offer counseling programs and support for future workers. Wondering if robots would really take over your job in the future? Read up on which jobs have now been automated at Robots.news. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk TechXplore.com New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday he was "disgusted" by US President Donald Trump's claim that a 75-year-old man seen in video being pushed by a Buffalo police officer during a protest "fell harder than (he) was pushed." "President Trump did a tweet today that surprises me even after all the tweets he has done," Cuomo said at his daily news briefing. "You read his tweets, you get to a point where you say, 'Well, nothing could surprise me - I've seen it all,'" Cuomo added. "And then you get surprised again. You get shocked again. You get disgusted again." Trump on Tuesday advanced an unfounded conspiracy theory about the 75-year-old protester, tweeting without evidence that the confrontation may have been a "set up". Trump, who has called himself "your president of law and order", was once again siding firmly with police over the protesters who have taken to the streets across the country. With his tweet, Trump attempted to cast doubt on video showing Buffalo police shoving the man, who fell backward and hit his head on the sidewalk. He was seen bleeding from his head as officers walk away. Two Buffalo police officers have been charged with second-degree assault for the incident and could face prison sentences of up to seven years if convicted. They have pleaded not guilty. The video is one of several that have emerged in recent weeks showing police using seemingly excessive force against protesters who are demanding justice and racial equality following the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck. "Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur,"Trump wrote. "75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?" There is no evidence to suggest that anything of the sort took place. Trump was referencing a report on One America News Network, a far-right news channel that he often praises. As he has tried to malign violent protesters as "radical-left, bad people" engaging in domestic terrorism, Trump has repeatedly invoked the label "antifa", an umbrella term for leftist militants bound more by belief than organizational structure. There have been violent acts, including property destruction and theft. Police officers and protesters have been seriously injured and killed. But federal law enforcement officials have offered little evidence that antifa-aligned protesters could be behind a movement that has appeared nearly simultaneously in hundreds of cities and towns in all 50 states since Floyd's death. Gugino, who is out of the intensive care unit but remains hospitalized, has been described by friends as a retiree and veteran peace activist driven by his faith and a desire for social justice. He is involved with the Western New York Peace Center and Latin American Solidarity Committee, said Vicki Ross, the center's executive director. Ross said Gugino has also been undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Gugino's attorney, Kelly Zarcone, told The Associated Press that Trump's accusations "are utterly baseless and ridiculous". Gugino, she said, "has always been a peaceful protester because he cares about today's society." "No one from law enforcement has even suggested anything otherwise, so we are at a loss to understand why the president of the United States would make such dark, dangerous, and untrue accusations about him. We can confirm that those accusations are utterly baseless and ridiculous," she said. The No. 2 Republican in the Senate, John Thune of South Dakota, also criticized Trump's tweet. "It's a serious accusation, which should only be made with facts and evidence. And I haven't seen any yet," Thune told reporters at the Capitol. Asked if the president should not be making it, Thune said: "Well, I think that's a given." Maria Van Kerkhove, head of a COVID-19 task force at the World Health Organization, is drawing pushback for her statement Monday that the virus is rarely spread by asymptomatic people. Read more Thirty minutes into an otherwise routine World Health Organization briefing on Monday, agency epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said asymptomatic spread of the coronavirus is very rare. That remark appeared to contradict numerous studies finding that the virus is often spread by those with no symptoms the very reason it has been so hard to contain. Her statement drew immediate pushback from other public health experts, who warned that it would lead to complacency and relaxed precautions just as the world should be guarding against a second wave of COVID-19. Andy Slavitt, who ran the Medicare system for part of the Obama administration, tweeted that Van Kerkhoves remark was an irresponsible statement even though it was based on legitimate observations. Part of the confusion appeared to stem from the definitions of asymptomatic, meaning those who test positive for the virus but never develop symptoms, and presymptomatic, or those who eventually develop symptoms. Van Kerkhove, who leads a WHO task force on COVID-19, said the never symptomatic are less able to spread the virus than those who have not yet developed symptoms. She cited reports, some unpublished, from countries with robust programs in contact tracing tracking people who are exposed to those who test positive. But there is no way to tell which is which when you are standing in line at the grocery store. Overwhelmingly, public health experts urge that when in public, people should remain at least six feet apart, wear masks, and wash hands after returning home. READ MORE: As Jersey Shore coronavirus cases prove value of contact tracing, post-protest testing in Philly could be scarce There is clear evidence that the virus can be spread by people without symptoms, a trio of physicians from the University of California, San Francisco, wrote in a May editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. That fact represents the Achilles heel of efforts to contain its spread, the authors wrote. If the virus were spread only by people with coughs and fevers, they could be easily identified and told to stay home. At a follow-up briefing on Tuesday, Van Kerkhove sought to clarify her remarks, saying there had been misunderstanding. I was responding to a question at the press conference, she said. I wasnt stating a policy of WHO or anything like that. I was just trying to articulate what we know. I used the phrase very rare, she added. I think thats a misunderstanding, to state that asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare. What I was referring to was a subset of studies. FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted rioters as 'f**ing lawless' in a meeting with panicked officials who described gang members walking around with AK-47s and said the city is 'worse than it was in 1968' after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 'I don't know about you, I haven't seen s**t like this before, not in Chicago,' Lightfoot said during an online conference call on May 31 to brief all 50 aldermen about the civil unrest which has broken out following the slaying of black man George Floyd by a white cop in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. In the audio, obtained by WTTW News, some alderman are heard breaking down in tears while others voiced outrage as they described how their communities have become 'the wild, wild west' and demanded action from the mayor's office. Officials gave a chilling warning that they have not seen such chaos in the city since the Chicago riots of 1968, which were sparked by the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. and left 11 dead and more than 2,000 arrested. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (pictured) has blasted rioters as 'f**ing lawless' in a meeting with panicked officials who described gang members walking around with AK-47s 'This is far worse than it was in 1968,' said Alderman Ed Burke, who was elected to the City Council in 1969, as he warned that vigilantes could take matters into their own hands. Alderman Mike Rodriguez also told how Little Village residents were forming their own vigilante groups to protect businesses in the shopping district of 26th Street. 'I'm talking about all segments of our community, including some on this call would prefer to be incarcerated,' Rodriguez said. 'I think there are people of all stripes coming together, and I pray that holds tonight.' Alderman Susan Sadlowski-Garza is heard breaking down in tears as she told how her ward had become a 's**t show.' 'They are shooting at the police,' she said of the rioters. She told how a group of about 40 looters with no connection to protests over Floyd's death broke into a marijuana dispensary at around 11 a.m. last Sunday. 'I have never seen the likes of this,' Sadlowski-Garza said. 'I'm scared.' Lightfoot admitted there was a 'massive, massive problem' and that 'people are just f**ing lawless right now.' A Best Buy store is targeted by in Chicago. Lightfoot addressed all 50 aldermen on an online conference call on May 31 about the civil unrest which has broken out following the slaying of black man George Floyd by a white cop in Minneapolis on Memorial Day Workers clean graffiti off a bank in Chicago as the unrest continues. Some alderman described how their communities have become 'the wild, wild west' Other officials issued grave warnings that the most vulnerable and elderly members of their communities will be hardest-hit by the unrest, as they risk losing access to much-needed food and medicine when local businesses are destroyed. Alderman Michelle Harris said she would struggle to convince retailers like Walmart and CVS to rebuild in her community after stores are targeted and ransacked by looters. 'It's like, what are we going to have left in our community?' Harris is heard saying, before answering: 'Nothing.' Harris added: 'I feel like I am at ground zero. My major business district is shattered. Why would Walmart or CVS come back to our communities?' Alderman Pat Dowell agreed, saying she felt helpless to ensuring the most vulnerable have access to essential supplies. 'I've worked really hard over the last seven years and now I feel like I am five feet back,' Dowell said. She pleaded with Lightfoot to send in the National Guard to protect grocery stores and pharmacies, but the mayor responded saying the Guard 'are not a magic tool' and that sending them in has made the situation worse in some areas. The call descended into a spat between Lightfoot and Alderman Raymond Lopez, with the mayor telling the alderman he is '100% full of s**t' and him responding she needs to 'check your f**ing attitude'. A Starbucks store smashed in downtown Chicago. Officials gave a chilling warning that they have not seen such chaos in the city since the Chicago riots of 1968, which were sparked by the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. and left 11 people dead and more than 2,000 arrested. 1968: Fires in the streets of Chicago following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. One official said the city is 'worse than it was in 1968' This came after Lopez lamented that his Southwest Side ward had become 'a virtual war zone' where gang members were walking around armed with AK-47's and threatening to shoot black people. He demanded Lightfoot put in place a plan to stabilize Chicago's neighborhoods for five days. The mayor ended the meeting on a note of concern as she asked the aldermen to 'pray for us all.' The fraught call came on the same day that Chicago witnessed its deadliest day in 60 years, with 18 people fatally shot on May 31. The University of Chicago Crime Lab said the 18 people killed in the single 24-hour period was the most violent day in the city since 1961, when the lab first started keeping track of the data. Six people were also fatally shot on May 30. Previously, the record was August 4, 1991, when 13 people were killed in Chicago, the lab said. American technology giant, Amazon, has been in talks with Bharati Airtel to buy a 5% stake in the latter's business for $2 billion. If this deal were to fructify, Amazon will surely be able to give Reliance a run for its money in the platform business. While the Jio platform has 388 million consumers, Amazon will also have access to Airtel's 300-odd million consumer base. With its marketplace as well as other services such as Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Pay and voice offerings such as Alexa, the American tech giant will be able to give the platform business a new dimension in India. Experts are especially curious to see how Alexa would shape future buying habits of Indians. "With Alexa's voice feature, Amazon is taking retail to the next level in the US. Consumers can simply place their orders on Alexa and it would be delivered to their homes. It will be interesting to see how Amazon localises Alexa in local languages once their deal with Bharti comes through," says the former MD of a leading retail company. "The only thing that is now missing in Amazon's kitty in India is voice, once that comes through and with the kind of digital assets they have, be it Amazon Prime Video, Kindle or Alexa, Amazon will be a force to reckon with in every aspect," he further adds. However, one of the major reasons Amazon wants to pick up stake in Airtel, according to experts, is to fight Facebook in the advertising battle. Facebook recently bought close to 10 per cent stake in Jio for Rs 43,500 crore. "A bulk of Facebook's ad revenue world over comes from small businesses. In India, though they do have lot of small businesses advertising on them, a partnership with Jio will help them increase their reach to more and more local businesses. Jio has customer data which will enrich Facebook's audience data," explains a senior digital advertising professional. Amazon too would be looking at Airtel to enrich its audience data and reach in India. "For instance, if I have an Airtel connection, it has a lot of data about me about what I am buying, who I am talking to, which bank or which shop I am calling. All that data would feed into Amazon's customer audience data which they will monetise through advertising. Amazon would want to do this deal to compete with Facebook on the advertising side, and with Reliance on the retail side," the digital advertising expert further explains. It's well known that over 90 per cent of the world's internet advertising revenue is pocketed by Google and Facebook and Amazon is soon catching up. Amazon's annual advertising revenue is expected to be in excess of $40 billion by 2023. A report by Juniper Research says the ecommerce major's ad revenue is all set to outpace the ad growth rates of Google and Facebook. Amazon is known to be making huge investments in machine learning and data mining, in order to find its customer's buying tendencies so that it is able to serve them targeted ads. In India, Amazon has the Amazon Accelerator programme through which it has partnered with local manufacturers and has helped them launch their own brands on Amazon. While the ecommerce giant claims to hand-hold challenger brands by promoting them heavily, a senior retail expert says it eventually acquires them at a mutually agreed price. "To get on to the platform these brands also need to invest in marketing and advertising on the platform," he says. Amazon Accelerator has brands such as Skrubble in dishwash, Syclone in laundry and Divine India in beauty products. The ecommerce giant also has the 'Local Shops On Amazon' initiative which enables local shops and retailers to list themselves on the Amazon platform. So, if a consumer living in the western suburbs of Mumbai searches for a mobile phone or a TV panel on Amazon, the search will also throw up a list of local consumer durable retailers, enabling the consumer either to buy directly from the marketplace or from a local retailer where she can touch and feel the product and then close the deal. The local retailer may also offer her same-day delivery. "Listing local shops on its platform and promoting them could also become a lucrative source of advertising revenue for Amazon in the long run," explains the retail industry expert. So, apart from leveraging multiple benefits of being part of a large consumer ecosystem, the Amazon-Airtel deal will also fuel its advertising business in a big way. An access to over 300-million consumers would certainly help the ecommerce giant to attract advertisers. Also read: 'Adopt a start-up mindset': Anand Mahindra shares 'Sanjivani solutions' as economy unlocks Following the directives of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo-Dankwah Akufo-Addo on the measures needed to be put in place for academic work to resume as well as other aspects such as work in this COVID-19 times, the need to disinfect all public facilities is paramount. There shall be a disinfection exercise, scheduled to start on Wednesday 10th June 2020, and end on Tuesday 30th June 2020. Waste Management Experts Zoomlion has begun the Disinfection of Military Barracks and schools in the above-mentioned Regions. Hon. Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, Volta Regional Minister addressing the press before the commencement of the program commended JOSPONG Group Of Companies for their selfless efforts in making sure the COVID-19 pandemic is defeated. He mentioned that earlier disinfection of market centers had already been carried out effectively by Zoomlion Ghana Ltd in all the Eighteen Municipal and District Assemblies on April 04, 2020. One Hundred (100) Senior High Schools, Two thousand Six Hundred and Fifty Four (2,654) Basic schools both public and private and Twenty (20) Tertiary schools are expected to be disinfected. He mentioned that the Volta Barracks Ho, Naval Training Command Sogakope, MOC Dambai, Operation SAFE camp, Hohoe, Operation GONGONG, Kete-Krachi amongst others will be disinfected". According to Ms Enyonam Afi Amafuga, Volta Regional Director, Ghana Education Service (GES), "the resuming of schools will take a different format than it used to be. Every student will be provided with 3 washable and reusable face masks. Their sitting arrangements will be done in a way to observe social distancing, 15 minutes break in teaching intervals and students are basic school students are expected to report to school by 9am. The measure is to make sure pupils eat at home in the morning before reporting to school". Hon. Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa also applauded the media for responding to their call to be a part of this exercise on short notice. This is a step in a good direction to care for the lives of our able Military forces in the Volta and Oti Regions as well as protect the lives of our future leaders who are in school to acquire knowledge. This is a commendable initiative by the President of Ghana, Ministry of Education, Military High Command, and the Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC). Every Region must follow suit to protect the lives of its indigenes. We have just one life to live, so let's protect it. WESTFIELD - The 104th Fighter Wing at the Barnes Air National Guard base hosted a ceremony Tuesday to mark the promotion of Col. Peter T. Green III as its new commander and brigadier general. The ceremony was as scaled-down affair limited to family and key staff due social distancing protocols amid the pandemic. Green transitioned from wing commander of the fighter wing to assistant adjutant general for the Massachusetts Air National Guard. He had served as wing commander beginning in June 2018 and held various other positions at the base prior to that. During his tenure, he provided critical support to more than 1,000 Airmen and their families, a spokeswoman for the base said. Donald Trump once famously boasted he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, and not lose supporters. For years that seemed true. Related: Trump reaches for Nixon playbook after protests that have rocked America But his latest actions including the deployment of an ad hoc paramilitary force against protesters on avenues around the country may have been too much. New polls show Trumps support is slipping among key groups, some showing him at a double-digit disadvantage to Democratic rival Joe Biden. Last Monday night, police and soldiers violently cleared protesters so Trump could walk from the White House to St Johns church for a photo opportunity. At that moment, Nolan Fuzzell had seen enough. Fuzzell is a table server at a restaurant in Lawrence, Kansas, and previously supported Trump. But after the photo stunt he tweeted: Beginning to regret wearing all Trump gear on Election Day 2016. This is not right, on any level. So how did Trump lose supporters like Fuzzell, and are they gone for good? Its helpful to remember, first, what the president has asked of Republicans. He has treated the party like Theseuss ancient ship, replacing one plank at a time until it becomes unrecognizable as itself. From a party whose elites sought to reject Trump in 2016, it has now become almost unerringly loyal and much changed. Under Trumps leadership, Republicans have gone to war against their traditional allies, the FBI. They have cozied up to their old opponents, in Russia. Republican leaders have signed off on federal deficits so gargantuan this year it will top a trillion dollars they would make Franklin D Roosevelt blush. Trump adherents have had to boycott the reddest of American sports, professional football. Towering Republican heroes political like Mitt Romney, military like John Kelly, both like John McCain have come under Trumps withering attack. Trumps own former defense secretary, James Mattis, felt compelled to speak out against the treatment of American citizens during protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. Comparing the president to Nazi propagandists, Mattis wrote: We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our constitution. Story continues Among other things Trump has asked evangelical Christians, his staunchest allies, to overlook lurid descriptions of his sexual escapades, hush money paid to a porn actor and with difficulty the abandonment of vulnerable Christian communities in northern Syria. Donald Trump walks past police in Lafayette Park after the visit to St Johns Church across from the White House. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP But the most difficult demand of Trumps followers is unfolding now. For years, activists on the right railed against the possibility of US military deployment within the countrys borders. A conspiracy theory about such a program called Jade Helm 15 grew so adamant that in 2015 Texas senator Ted Cruz requested an explanation from the Pentagon. It was a figment of the fevered rightwing imagination. But now, under Trump, the American self-invasion is coming true: squads of troops from agencies that normally oversee prisons, borders and drug enforcement have taken to the streets, often with no identifying insignia, to tamp down protests and riots. This week, active-duty troops mustered outside Washington, awaiting Trumps command. The troop build-up alarmed Mattis, a retired marine general. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington DC, sets up a conflict a false conflict between the military and civilian society, he wrote. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. All these circumstances have converged to chip away at Trumps previously granite-hard base. Fuzzell, the regretful waiter in Kansas, is not alone. If I were a Republican operative, Id be concerned about some of these numbers, said Natalie Jackson, director of research at the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). PRRIs latest poll shows Trump with an 11-point deficit to Biden. And underneath that margin, Jackson said, there are some previously unseen trends. For example, 47% of white voters with no college degree saw Trump favorably. Thats an all-time low, Jackson said. In 2019 that rating had averaged 52%. Its statistically significant. Much of the drop may be because those non-degreed white voters Trumps hard core have suffered mightily during the coronavirus outbreak. They are more likely to work in the service industry, and are losing jobs at a higher rate, or going to work at a significant risk to their health, Jackson said. Its difficult to know, yet, how the current civil unrest may affect Trumps support. But the initial signs are not in his favor. PRRI researchers collected their information around the country between May 26 and 31. Midway through that span, protests reached an inflection point when rioters burned down the Minneapolis polices third precinct building. So the researchers, curious about the protests effect, divided their polling into pre- and post-precinct-burning samples. Among all Republicans, Jackson said, Trumps favorability dropped a whopping 9% after the precinct fire, from 88% to 79%. Republican leaders have not turned against Trump, largely, but they have fallen silent. After Trumps photo with a Bible outside St Johns, senators Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Rob Portman of Ohio told NBC, separately, they couldnt comment because they were late for lunch. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, said he didnt want to critique other peoples performances. Cruz did offer criticism, of a sort. He leveled charges of abuse of power: By the protesters, yes. But other Republican leaders, those who have less to fear from Trump, have begun to denounce him. The last Republican president, George W Bush, sided with the protesters with a clear reference to Trump. He wrote: 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. Related: 'Trump is tearing apart America': how the world sees the US protests Senator Mitt Romney, of Utah, said in a statement: From the news clips I have seen, the protesters across from the White House were orderly and nonviolent. They should not have been removed by force and without warning, particularly when the apparent purpose was to stage a photo op. One voter, who requested anonymity due to threats, wrote in a message: Considering how far right the Trumpublican party has moved, Im now considered left. So he started a Facebook page, directly titled I Regret Voting for Donald Trump in 2016. Many are afraid of posting in public due to fears of being attacked by unforgiving people on the left, the voter said. But his page has 8,600 followers now. Xtalks Life Science Webinars The objective of Scientific Functional Outsourcing is to focus on customizing teams of professionals with the expertise required to meet the specific needs of the client while integrating with the client teams as a trusted partner. In todays increasingly complex world of clinical research, there are more samples collected and more specialized laboratory requirements than ever before. Clinical and pre-clinical studies have become more complicated and require focused support. As a result, dedicated biospecimen management and oversight of outsourced assays and laboratories have become critical roles. For the past ten years, LabConnects Scientific Functional Outsourcing has supported clients in these areas by providing experienced personnel to handle biospecimen management, scientific project management and vendor management. The objective of Scientific Functional Outsourcing is to focus on customizing teams of professionals with the expertise required to meet the specific needs of the client while integrating with the client teams as a trusted partner. Further benefits include greater efficacy and cost savings. Join us for this informative presentation featuring live testimonials from LaBConnect experts. Join Elizabeth Koury, MS, Vice President, Scientific Affairs, LabConnect in a live webinar on Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 11am EDT (4pm BST/UK). For more information or to register for this event, visit Scientific Project Management Support to Optimize Clinical Outsourcing Strategies. 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/ GRAND LEDGE, MI The Grand Ledge school board voted to fire its superintendent Friday after he partly blamed George Floyd for his fatal encounter with police. Brian Metcalf will be placed on paid leave until his dismissal is finalized. Metcalf had said on Facebook that Floyd's death in Minneapolis was "wrong." But he also said "it all starts with being a law abiding citizen," and that Floyd was suspected of using counterfeit money. Metcalf, who is white, had apologized and said he would undergo diversity training. The school board appeared to accept it earlier this week, but opposition in the community grew. The board heard hours of public comment during a special meeting, the Associated Press reported. As the leader of our school system, Dr. Metcalfs ignorance has left our school district and community tarnished by making tone-deaf remarks about a socially charged topic, said Greg Almy, leader of the teachers union. READ MORE: White people: do something, Ann Arbor protest organizer says during march through neighborhoods Michigan leaders react to protests with plans for police reform Majority of arrests during Detroit protests were people who lived elsewhere, police say Detroit George Floyd police brutality protest turns violent as police fire tear gas, rubber bullets Flint-area police join protesters marching to seek justice for George Floyd Peaceful protest in Grand Rapids devolves into riot, looting and fires MLive photographer among journalists fired upon with pellets by Detroit police officer during protest coverage Man shot and killed, dozens arrested as 1,500-strong Detroit protest over George Floyd death turns violent 90 Day Fiance is an American reality TV series that airs on TLC. The show revolves around couples who have applied for or have received a K-1 visa, which is available only to foreign fiances of United States Citizens. Therefore the couples have ninety days to marry each other. A 90 Day Fiance tell-all was conducted on June 7, 2020. But this seasons stars Geoffrey Paschel and Varya Malina were missing. Find out what kept the reality stars away from the tell-all. ALSO READ | 'What Are The Odds' Star Yashaswini On 40-yr-old Dating Teen; Says 'Love Has No Age' Why are Geoffrey and Varya not on the tell-all? The TLC network decided, that it would be inappropriate for the 41-year-old actor, Geoffrey Paschel, to be apart of the 90 Day Fiance tell-all. This was because the Tennessee native had provided the channel, with misleading information about his criminal background. However, TLC invited his partner Varya. But Varya Malina made the decision to not attend the 90 Day Fiance's 'tell all' task. The television network reported to a media portal, that Varya felt it would be disrespectful to show up without Geoffrey. Varya, who is a 30-year-old Russian DJ, believed she entered the reality show as a team alongside Geoffrey. Hence it would be wrong to appear without him by her side. ALSO READ | Tiger Shroff Drops Hilarious Comment On Sister Krishna's Post With Her Boyfriend What does Geoffrey feel about TLCs decision? Geoffrey conducted an Instagram live with his co-star Lisa Hammes representative - Rocco Straz. Geoffrey admitted during life, that he was not sad about channels decision. The 41-year-old Tennessee native, reportedly said to a media portal, that he felt as though the network caved to the pressure of a few thousand people calling for his removal from 90 Day Fiance. Geoffrey also mentioned that the #MeToo movement, along with the current climate had caused the network to cower to the minority. Geoffrey Paschel has decided to release his own tell-all on his personal YouTube channel. Varya Malina will likely to appear on this tell-all as well. ALSO READ | Irrfan Khan's Son Babil Khan Shares Unseen Picture Of Late Actor Reportedly, the actor thought that it was unfair that TLC didnt give him an opportunity to clear his name. He is also upset about the fact that his fans are left on a cliff-hanger like that about the state of his relationship with Varya and Mary, a former friend, whom he started seeing after the break-up with Varya. Fans can expect, that the former couple Geoffrey and Varya will have a lot to say together. Recently on his Instagram Geoffrey posted a picture of him with Varya. The caption read Cheers to going in as [a] team and going out as one,. He added #Respect for each other regardless of the outcome. Take notes; thats how it should be done. ALSO READ | Stars Ask If 'Cyclone Nisarga Hitting Us Today' After Rain, Storm; Post Tree-fall Videos 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. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 11:27:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, June 8 (Xinhua) -- In tackling the global challenges posed by COVID-19, the world must not ignore the perils of endemic hatred and division, a senior UN judge told the Security Council on Monday. Carmel Agius, president of the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, briefed the Council by webcast on the mechanism's caseload developments. "We see every day that these destructive forces are becoming more virulent, and that the purveyors of hate feel emboldened," Agius said. "We must combat their version of events and offer our solidarity and support to all those who have suffered." Against that backdrop, remarkable headway has been made on fugitive-tracking, he said, praising member states for providing assistance. "Let us use this momentum to keep advancing the cause of international justice," he said. More broadly, he said that as COVID-19 has affected in-court proceedings, cases that were on track to conclude by the end of 2020 are now expected to wind down in 2021. Serge Brammertz, prosecutor for the residual mechanism, said the arrest by French authorities of Felicien Kabuga -- among the most wanted fugitives and alleged leaders of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda -- was the culmination of his office's revised tracking strategy and intensified efforts since 2016. "The most significant development since my last report is that we have now accounted for two of the three major fugitives indicted by the ICTR," Brammertz said. The office has shifted from reacting to leads from unreliable human sources to a more proactive, analysis-driven investigation, he said. Stressing the need to redouble efforts to locate and arrest the remaining fugitives, Brammertz said that the denial of crimes and glorification of convicted war criminals remain immense challenges. Particularly among Rwandan diaspora communities, there are still concerted efforts to deny the Rwandan genocide, he added. "Our first thoughts must be with the victims and survivors of the genocide," he said. "Their demand for justice is our raison d'etre." Enditem ROCHESTER, Pa., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lincoln Learning Solutions today announced it will partner with the Arkansas Department of Education to provide the foundation for its Arkansas Ready for Learning initiative, a statewide digital learning plan intended to meet the state's goal to reopen schools for the 2020-2021 school year. "This is a natural partnership and we are ready to get their schools access to the digital content they need to be back open in August under as normal of circumstances as possible, which is one of their governor's goals," Bob Clements, Lincoln Learning Solutions CEO, said. In presenting the details of the initiative to its 1,054 public schools, Commissioner of Education, Johnny Key, told teachers and administrators that, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Arkansas made a seamless transition, even though it may not have felt that way. "Arkansas was definitely ahead of the pack. We know we've missed some thingsbut I think it's also important that we focus on what we've learned that will help us do better and be better prepared, and more nimble in meeting the needs of all students in the future," Keys said. During the presentation, Division of Secondary and Elementary Education officials said they expect all districts to move to some type of blended-learning system, which would include a learning management system, digital content aligned to grade-level standards, access to devices, and connectivity to support synchronous or asynchronous learning. Officials said schools that already had a blended-learning system in place were able to adapt much faster than schools that didn't. Because flexibility is a Lincoln Learning Solutions hallmark, Clements said his organization will be able to help Arkansas' educators develop a blended-learning program that allows them to smoothly pivot back and forth between being on site and learning online, in addition to allowing teachers to tailor lessons to meet the individual needs of their students. "When schools reopen, they're going to have a lot on their plates, including guidance from their state health departments, so it's up to us to make this an easy transition for them. We've been doing this for 15 years, so we're confident we have the library of products, the support and service, the expertise, as well as the flexibility to guide their teachers in developing an educational experience they believe is high quality and best suited to their students." According to DESE, the pilot program will be funded through the federal CARES Act and provided at no cost to schools, which will be able to enroll their K-12 students in Lincoln Learning Solutions' courses, access its learning management system or upload its own. Teachers also will be given access to Lincoln Learning Solutions' vast digital library, which will serve as a resource for searchable content and learning objects. LLS is teaming up with Arkansas Public School Resource Center staff to provide training. Information about Lincoln Learning, including course catalogs, sample course schedules, and teacher training materials and videos can be found here. Clements said, "We believe that all students can learn anytime, anywhere if given the right supports and we're eager to be a part of that support system for Arkansas' 480,000 students." contact: Christina Zarek [email protected] (717)805-2337 SOURCE Lincoln Learning Solutions Related Links https://lincolnlearningsolutions.org Photo: The Canadian Press IBM says it is getting out of the facial recognition business over concern about how it can be used for mass surveillance and racial profiling. A letter to U.S. lawmakers Monday from new IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the tech giant has sunset its general purpose facial recognition and analysis software products. Krishna was addressing Democrats who have been working on police reform legislation in Congress in response to the death of George Floyd and others in law enforcement interactions that have sparked a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice. The sweeping reform package could include restrictions on police use of facial recognition. IBM had previously tested its facial recognition software with the New York Police Department but it's not clear if it has existing contracts with other governments. Police use of facial recognition has come under heightened scrutiny after researchers found racial and gender disparities in systems built by companies including IBM, Microsoft and Amazon. That led IBM and Microsoft to improve their accuracy but Krishna said now is the time to debate whether facial recognition technology should be used at all by domestic law enforcement agencies. Krishna's letter called for police reforms and said IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling and human rights violations. It comes as civil liberties advocates have raised broader concerns in recent weeks about the use of surveillance technology to monitor protesters or enforce rules set to curb the coronavirus pandemic. Even before the protests, U.S. senators this year had been scrutinizing New York facial recognition startup Clearview AI over privacy concerns following investigative reports about its practice of harvesting billions of photos from social media and other internet services to identify people. The air defense system deployment process was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Turkish NTV television channel on Monday has reported that Ankara and Moscow have agreed on the delivery of the second batch of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. "As we have always said, if some system is purchased, this is done for its operation [according to its designation]. That's it. As for putting the systems into operation, the world has passed a certain stage and the pace of work has slowed and trips have been limited. All this has affected the deployment of S-400s," Head of Turkeys Defense Industry Ismail Demir told NTV, Defence-Blog reports. The statement came as Demir commented on the ongoing debate on whether the S-400 may be activated and put on combat duty. Ankara and Moscow continue negotiations on further implementing the contract on the delivery of S-400 air defense missile systems, he said. Read alsoU.S. accuses Russia of sending jets to Libya As the Turkish defense industry head said, the parties reached a principled agreement on the delivery of the second set, while the roadmap of the deal includes the issues of "the transfer of technologies and joint production." The official also said the defense system deployment process was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Demir added that talks with the United States for the procurement of the Patriot air defense system have not matured, while Turkey remains "open to the offers of Patriot and Eurosam. "We would like to continue to work on these projects if there are concrete proposals," the official said. Advertisement Twenty two states are seeing an increase in new COVID-19 cases as states continue to slowly reopen and George Floyd protests are held across the country - as a top forecast model increased the predicted death toll in the United States to 145,000 fatalities by August. Arizona has seen infections increase by more than 90 percent in a week, while Arkansas and Utah have gone up more than 60 percent. Massachusetts, Florida and New Mexico's cases have increased by more than 40 percent compared to the week prior. Michigan's cases soared more than 150 percent last week due to the state including nearly 5,000 probable infections. The increases comes after all 50 states at least partially lifted coronavirus lockdown measures last month. Infectious disease experts have also warned that large protests held in major US cities after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis two weeks ago could touch off a new outbreak of the disease. They say it is too early to tell if the protests have had an impact on the increase in cases. It comes as the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation revised its projected death toll upwards on Tuesday by 5,000 fatalities. The latest forecast predicts 145,728 people will die in the US by August 4, which is up from the 140,496 fatalities projected on June 5. Five days earlier, the model had been predicting 135,109 deaths. Researchers did not give a reason for the abrupt revision. More than 110,000 Americans have now died from COVID-19 in the last three months and over 1.9 million people have been infected. Twenty two states are seeing an increase in new COVID-19 cases with Arizona seeing infections increase by more than 90 percent in a week. Arkansas and Utah have gone up more than 60 percent. Michigan's cases soared more than 150 percent last week due to the state including nearly 5,000 probable infections The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation revised its projected death toll upwards on Monday by 5,000 fatalities, bringing the total number of deaths by August 4 to 145,728 Arizona recorded an increase of more than 90 percent in new cases in the week ending June 7 compared with the previous seven days, according to a Reuters analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project. Michigan saw a 158 percent increase in new cases last week due mainly to the state reporting 5,000 probably cases on June 5. Arkansas, Utah, New Mexico and Massachusetts all saw weekly increases of more than 40 percent and new cases in Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina and North Carolina all rose by more than 30 percent in the past week. In New Mexico, about half of the new cases were from one prison in Otero County, state health officials said. Utah said at least 287 of the state's 2,269 new cases were tied to an outbreak at a meat processing plant in Cache County. Florida attributed its increase to more testing, while the other states have not commented on the increase in cases. New cases in Texas were up 19 percent in a week, according to the analysis. Data from the Texas Department of State Health Services showed that the state had recorded a record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations on Monday with 1,935 people admitted to hospitals. It tops the previous record of 1,888 hospitalizations on May 5. The national number of new infections in the first week of June increased by 3 percent - the first increase after five weeks of declines, according to an analysis. Despite all states having at least partially reopened, only 16 states and the District of Columbia met the CDC's criteria for 14 days of declining new cases in the last week. Pennsylvania and New York lead with eight straight weeks of declines. Twenty one US states reported weekly increases in new cases of COVID-19 with Arizona, Utah and New Mexico all posting rises of 40 percent or higher for the week ended June 7 compared with the prior seven days, according to an analysis that shows data as of Sunday each week between March 1 to June 7 STATES WHERE COVID-19 CASES INCREASED IN THE LAST WEEK STATE TOTAL CASES NEW CASES WEEKLY CHANGE Michigan* 64,413 7,016 +158.1% Arizona 26,889 6,953 +93.3% Arkansas 9,426 2,173 +63.3% Utah 12,066 2,269 +61.5% Massachusetts 103,436 6,471 +50.8% Florida 63,938 7,775 +46.8% New Mexico 8,800 1,176 +41.9% Kentucky 11,287 1,583 +39.7% South Carolina 14,286 2,425 +37.4% Oklahoma 7,150 644 +37.3% North Carolina 35,546 6,957 +29.6% Nevada 9,649 1,056 +28.3% Missouri 14,553 1,406 +21.3% Texas 74,978 10,691 +19.6% Georgia 51,898 4,912 +18.4% Tennessee 26,381 3,375 +18.0% Louisiana 42,816 2,900 +5.6% New Hampshire 5,019 474 +3.9% South Dakota 5,438 445 +3.5% California 128,812 18,229 +2.0% Connecticut 43,968 1,767 +2.0% *Michigan added nearly 5,000 probable cases on June 5 The national number of new infections in the first week of June increased by 3 percent - the first increase after five weeks of declines, according to an analysis Texas sets record-breaking high for coronavirus hospitalizations with 1,935 patients admitted, one month after the state reopened early Texas reported a record-breaking number of COVID-19 hospitalizations on Monday as the governor ushered in Phase III to reopen the state's economy. The Texas Department of State Health Services revealed that 1,935 people were admitted to hospitals for coronavirus-related treatment on Monday. It compares to the previous record set on May 5 when 1,888 hospitalizations were recorded. As of Monday evening, Texas has recorded 75,616 case of COVID-19 and reached a death toll of 1,836. New infections in Texas have increased by 71 per cent over the past two weeks, according to the 14-day trend line provided by health officials. Although hospitalizations are on the rise, Texas has more than 1,600 a intensive-care beds and 5,8000 ventilators available for ill residents. The department's latest figures come after Texas Gov. Greg Abbot began the next phase of the state's reopening plan after ending lockdown orders in May. Advertisement Many states have ramped up COVID-19 testing in recent weeks and a record 545,000 tests were reported in a single day last week across the US. Nationally, the rate of positive tests has hovered between 4 percent and 7 percent for several weeks. At least 28 states are currently not following CDC recommendations to include probable cases in their infection totals. Probable infections are when a person display symptoms of COVID-19 but a lab test has not confirmed it. California, Florida, New York and Texas are among the states not including probable cases. The CDC's reporting guidelines for COVID-19 are only voluntary. The increase in cases comes after all 50 US states reopened - some before meeting the White House and CDC's guidelines, including a 14-day downward trajectory of new infections. Top health officials have said they are monitoring the potential spread of COVID-19 as widespread protests continue across the US in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis on May 25. Thousands of Americans have jammed the nation's streets over the past week in defiance of social distancing guidelines from governors and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The White House coronavirus task force, which has dramatically scaled back its operations as states reopen their economies, is scrambling to track the potential impact on infection rates. Public health officials have been warning that the widespread protests could fuel new transmissions of coronavirus due to the close proximity of protesters and given that some are not wearing masks. The CDC said on Sunday it was closely monitoring the nationwide protests for any potential COVID-19 outbreaks. 'It is too early to know what, if any, effect these events will have on the federal COVID-19 response,' CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said. 'Every local situation is different. State and local officials will make decisions to protect public health and safety based on circumstances on the ground.' It could take weeks to judge the impact of the nationwide protests on the spread of COVID-19, which had been dramatically ebbing across most of the country before the killing of Floyd. Those infected with the virus sometimes take several days to display symptoms, creating a lag in the data. Many protesters were also masked and skewed younger - a population that is less affected by the virus but may also have greater numbers of asymptomatic spreaders - complicating predictions. Deaths in Michigan, Louisiana and Arizona have increased by more than 30 percent in the last week. Michigan's increase was due, in part, to the state reporting 240 probable deaths on June 5 THE STATES WHERE COVID-19 DEATHS INCREASED IN THE LAST WEEK State Total deaths New deaths Weekly increase Michigan* 5,895 404 +53.6% Louisiana 2,936 145 +43.6% Arizona 1,044 138 +30.2% Ohio 2,377 222 +19.4% Florida 2,786 252 +15.6% Indiana 2,303 169 +7.0% * Michigan added 240 probable deaths on June 5. Deaths are declining across the US, according to an analysis that shows data as of Sunday each week between March 1 to June 7. Currently, the US death toll from COVID-19 is at more than 110,000 Dr Deborah Birx, the administration's coronavirus coordinator, has been monitoring the protests since they began, looking for indicators of potential resurgence in cases, a White House official has said. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Birx was expected to present the task force with early impressions this week but the fuller picture likely won't be known for some time. White House officials are warily watching metropolitan areas where the protests have ignited, hoping the outdoor settings reduce the risk. Washington DC, Cleveland and Houston see spikes in number of people out walking, cellphone data shows - as health officials monitor potential spread of COVID-19 as George Floyd protests continue Cellphone data from Apple's COVID-19 mobility trends report showed that the number of people out walking in Washington DC, Cleveland and Houston at the weekend spiked above pre-pandemic levels. The data shows that the number of people out walking in Washington DC on Saturday was up 40 percent compared to the baseline from January. The data shows the number of people leaving their homes, which coincided with huge protests held near the White House, increased to levels not seen mid-March when stay-at-home orders were put in place across most of the country. ARIZONA: While the number of cases increased by 93 percent in a week, daily hospitalizations have been decreasing, according to the state's health department ARKANSAS: Cases in the state have increased more than 60 percent in a week. The number of patients currently in hospital continues to rise, according to local health data UTAH: Cases in Utah have increased more than 60 percent in a week but hospitalizations appear to be declining, according to state health data MASSACHUSETTS: Infections are up 50 percent in a week in the state but daily hospitalizations are decreasing, state health data shows NORTH CAROLINA: Infections are up about 29 percent across the state and hospitalizations continue to increase NEVADA: Infections in Nevada have increased more than 26 percent in a week as daily hospitalizations appear to leveling out MISSOURI: Cases in Missouri have increased more than 20 percent in a week. Hospitalizations appear to be leveling out across the state, according to state health data A huge spike was recorded in Cleveland, Ohio on Saturday where the number of people out walking increased by 110 percent. Walking was up 45 percent in Houston - the city where Floyd lived prior to Minneapolis - and more than 70 percent in Baltimore. In Minneapolis - the city where Floyd was killed at the hands of police on May 25 - walking levels were up more than 60 percent on Saturday, the data shows. Detroit saw a spike of more than 90 percent on Saturday, while Atlanta and Louisville both saw walking levels up more than 50 percent. The number of people out walking in cities like New York City, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are still down considerably compared to pre-coronavirus levels. But those cities - all of which have seen huge protests - did see an increase in the number of people out walking at the weekend. Cellphone data from Apple's COVID-19 mobility trends report shows that the number of people out walking in Washington DC on Saturday was up 40 percent as huge protests were held near the White House WASHINGTON DC: Thousands of protesters line the streets in front of the White House during a march against police brutality and racism on Saturday A huge spike was recorded in Cleveland, Ohio on Saturday where the number of people out walking increased by 110 percent CLEVELAND: Thousands of protesters are pictured walking towards the city's Justice Center Walking levels were up more than 70 percent in Baltimore on Saturday, according to the Apple mobility data BALTIMORE: Hundreds of people rally during a protest in front of the Baltimore City Correctional Center in Maryland In Minneapolis - the city where Floyd was killed at the hands of police on May 25 - walking levels were up more than 60 percent on Saturday, the data shows MINNEAPOLIS: A sculpture of a raised fist stands in a memorial for George Floyd at the place in Minneapolis where he died on May 25 Walking was up 45 percent in Houston, which is the city where Floyd lived prior to moving to Minneapolis five years ago. A public viewing of Floyd's body will be held in the city on Monday - Heart Evangelista vowed to give away tablets to poor students amid the COVID-19 pandemic - She immediately earned praises online because of her good deed for other people - Just recently, the actress revealed where she got the money that she used to buy tablets - The post of the said celebrity about her newest charitable act went viral PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Heart Evangelista willingly disclosed on social media the source of the money that she used to buy tablets for poor Filipino students. KAMI learned that the gorgeous actress vowed to give away as many tablets as she can so that students can easily adapt to the so-called blended learning amid pandemic. PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! Through a recent Twitter post, the My Korean Jagiya star stated that she sold her own painting just to buy gadgets for students. She mentioned that she dedicated a lot of time, effort, and love in making the artwork that she decided to sell for her newest charitable deed. My struggles in life are unknown to many but art, fashion and expressing myself has always helped me cope with my not so fairytale life, she wrote. The time, hardwork and love that I put out in this artwork was well worth it as the proceeds have allowed me to purchase 550 tablets for angels, she added. PAY ATTENTION: Shop with KAMI! The best offers and discounts on the market, product reviews and feedback In a previous article by , Heart responded to a netizen who advised her to do something relevant amid pandemic. Heart Evangelista is one of the most popular showbiz personalities in the Philippines. She is currently married to former Senator and now Sorsogon Governor Chiz Escudero. POPULAR: Read more news about Heart Evangelista! Please like and share our Facebook posts to support KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinion about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts! Source: KAMI.com.gh T housands of protesters gathered outside Oriel College, University of Oxford, demanding the removal of a statue of the imperialist Cecil Rhodes. The protest has been organised by the Rhodes Must Fall Oxford campaign group as one of several anti-racism demonstrations across the UK sparked by the death of George Floyd in US police custody on May 25. Taking up a large amount of Oxford high street outside the college, demonstrators on Tuesday evening chanted take it down below the statue, before holding up their fists and remaining silent for eight minutes, 46 seconds, in memory of Mr Floyd. Organisers placed chalk crosses on the floors in either side of the street outside the entrance to the college, to enforce social distancing. Oxford protest over Cecil Rhodes statue - In pictures 1 /18 Oxford protest over Cecil Rhodes statue - In pictures AFP via Getty Images Getty Images PA REUTERS PA REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS AP AP REUTERS Getty Images PA Ndjodi Ndeunyema, a law student and one of the organisers of Tuesdays demonstration, said: This is to express solidarity with Black Lives Matter around the world, particularly in the US and the recent happenings there. He added the protest was a response to a global conversation about problematic symbolism, particularly statues that celebrate people who are not worthy of celebration. Thousands of people have signed two new petitions calling for the statue to be taken down. Several police officers oversaw the demonstration, including two officers on the steps of the college. Mr Ndeunyema, one of the protest organisers, told the crowd they were showing solidarity with humanity. He said: We are here to shame the college that seeks to venerate and glorify someone who is not worthy of glorification or veneration. A statue of Cecil Rhodes, the controversial Victorian imperialist who support apartheid-style measures in southern Africa / AP We demand an official and public acknowledgement of the colonial violence on which Oriel is built. We demand the immediate removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes. Mr Ndeunyema added: People will constantly remind you of your shameful history that you refuse to confront. A council leader has invited the college to make a planning request to remove the statue, which has been at the centre of a long-running row. Susan Brown, leader of Oxford City Council, has expressed her support for the Black Lives Matter movement, stating she has a great deal of sympathy for the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. Ms Brown said she has written to the college suggesting it applied for planning permission to remove the controversial figure She suggested the statue should be placed in the Ashmolean or the Museum of Oxford. Organisers speak during the protest / AP In a statement published on Tuesday, she said: Im clear in my support for the Black Lives Matter movement and I have a great deal of sympathy with the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. The question of statues and their historical context is not a simple matter, but sometimes acts of symbolism are important. I know my views are shared by a majority of my fellow councillors. She continued: I have today written to Oriel College to invite them to apply for planning permission to remove the statue, as it is a Grade II-listed building. Typically such actions are only allowed in the most exceptional of circumstances. But these are exceptional circumstances, and as a city council we are keen to work with Oriel to help them find the right balance between the laws that protect our historic buildings and the moral obligation to reflect on the malign symbolism of this statue. The councils stance was supported by the vice president of the Oxford Student Union for graduates, Neil Misra, who is also a member of Oriel College. He said: It is the student unions position that such a racist and imperialist symbol has no place on the front facade of Oriel College. The statue is an affront to our students of colour and our university community. Mounted police pictured outside Oriel College as protesters gather / Getty Images He said he has put forward a motion to the graduate study body which endorses the removal of the statue. It is essential that we as students make it explicitly clear to the college that we find the continued displaying of the statue on the colleges facade inappropriate and repugnant, he added. Moreover, it is our duty to push the college to accept the councils invitation at the earliest possible juncture. In the statement earlier, the college said it supported the right to peaceful protest. It said: We will continue to examine our practices and strive to improve them to ensure that Oriel is open to students and staff of all backgrounds, and we are determined to build a more equal and inclusive community and society. Loading.... It comes after a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Bristol on Sunday, which saw a statue of slave trader Edward Colston pulled down and thrown into Bristol Harbour by protesters. Nearly 100 protestors gathered at the Bexar County Courthouse Tuesday, the day after District Attorney Joe Gonzales said there is no new evidence to warrant reopening the cases of three black men killed by San Antonio police officers, residents will take to the street. The second week of protests against police brutality falls in line with the private funeral of George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25. Follow below for live updates throughout the event. 6:30 p.m. | The crowd lined the fence and faced the line of law enforcement officers after a march downtown, past Travis Park, The Alamo and along the Riverwalk. There were chants for justice as the protesters shouted at the unmoving police officers. Several minutes later, the protest ended with the crowd shouting, Whos streets? The crowd answered, Our streets! 5:49 p.m. | Iliana Arizpe, 35, attended her fourth protest in support of reopening cases involving black men who died in police custody. She stood on the curb of Nueva Street, at the edge of the crowd, watching as they shouted they would not be silenced. Arizpe said the loss of a human life moved her to join the protest. I feel there are a lot of good cops she said, but a lot need psychological training to use a weapon. 5:12 p.m. | Jackson Mosqueda sat away from the crowd, holding a flag bearing the words, "Disarm, Defund and Dismantle," in solidarity with Pride Month and the Black Lives Matter movement. Mosqueda, 20, and his brother, Griffin, 18, said Tuesdays protest was the seventh rally theyve attended. Both fans of history, the brothers said theyve been reading books about social unrest by black activists who fought on the frontline for decades. They said the call for change and reform keeps them coming to the protests. However Mosqueda said the system isnt broken, it never worked. You have to abolish it and start over, Mosqueda said. I cannot continue to live in this system that does not value me as a person. 5:08 p.m. | The demonstrators spent around one hour at the Bexar County Courthouse speaking and chanting. They then began marching downtown before making their way to Travis Park. Along the way, the demonstrators played songs by Michael Jackson including Man In The Mirror and We Are The World. Some chanted. Others held their fists in the air. At Travis Park, the group took a quick break before indicating that they planned to march along Broadway. 4:30 p.m. | Throughout the afternoon, several of the speakers emphasized the need for demonstrators to register to vote. Valerie Reiffert, a local activist, set up a cardboard table outside the courthouse. On it was a sign: Vote All Racists Out of Office. I dont care how you vote, one woman told the crowd. I just want you to vote. 3:15 p.m. | Around 60 people gathered at the Bexar County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon, one day after District Attorney Joe Gonzales said he had no plans to reopen the cases of three Black men killed by San Antonio police officers. The demonstrators some holding signs that said Defund the Police and Smash Cop Unions started the demonstration with chants of Black Lives Matter and Police are Violent. We will not be silent. Kimiya Factory, a local community activist, said she helped organize the protest to demand justice for the families of Marquise Jones, Antronie Scott and Charles Roundtree, all Black men killed by SAPD officers. Others echoed the same sentiment. Everyone here will make sure you, the San Antonio Police Department, are held accountable, Oliv Ryan, a local demonstrator, told the crowd over a loudspeaker. (Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp.s Vision Fund is preparing to cut staff by about 15% after reporting record losses for the last fiscal year, according to people familiar with the matter. Rajeev Misra, head of the London-based Vision Fund, expanded the number of planned cuts in recent days to as many as 80 employees out of roughly 500, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel decisions. The fund had planned to trim about 10% of its workforce as of last month, Bloomberg News has reported. The cuts may be announced as soon as Wednesday, the person said. SoftBank Group International, an arm led by Marcelo Claure, reduced its staff by about 26 out of 230, said another person familiar with the matter. Bloomberg News reported last month that the groups cuts were expected to be about 10%. SoftBank, led by billionaire founder Masayoshi Son, reported a record operating loss of about $13 billion last month as it wrote down the valuations of companies like WeWork and Uber Technologies Inc. In just one year, the Vision Fund went from the main source of booked profits at SoftBank to the biggest contributor to that loss. Son originally said he hoped to raise a new Vision Fund every two to three years, but he has conceded he cant attract money now because of the poor performance. SoftBank is good at controlling when to step on the gas pedal and when to pump the brakes, said Shinji Moriyuki, an analyst at SBI Securities. Many Japanese companies are both cautious to advance and very reluctant to retreat. It makes sense now for the Vision Fund to cut back. Spokespeople for the Vision Fund and SoftBank Group declined to comment. SoftBanks businesses were battered early this year with the coronavirus outbreak and its stock tumbled. Son then unveiled plans to buy back stock and pay down debt by selling off about $42 billion in assets, including part of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. SoftBank shares have doubled since their low in March. They were little changed on Wednesday. Story continues Separately, Arm Ltd., a chip technology company owned by SoftBank Group, said the chief executive officer of its China joint venture has been replaced. A majority of directors on the board of Arm China voted to remove Allen Wu, the company said. At the Vision Fund, Misra is looking to slice as much as 20% of its costs, the first person familiar with the matter said. The cuts may disproportionately affect staff responsible for supporting portfolio companies, known internally as the operating group, the person said. As many as 18 people in the group will lose their jobs, out of a total of about 50. The focus of the cuts on the operating group raises the question of why it is letting go of staff with the expertise needed to help portfolio companies through the crisis. More than 85% of the funds capital has already been spent and the remainder is reserved for follow-on investments, which suggests startup operators will be needed more than dealmakers. Most of the operating groups members were hired by Claure, SoftBanks chief operating officer, in 2018 with the goal of helping startups fine-tune their strategies to improve execution and speed their path to profitability. Claures mandate put him on a collision path with Misra, who ended up absorbing the team into the Vision Fund in early 2019. Gerry Lopez, a former executive at Starbucks Corp. and PepsiCo Inc., heads the group. SoftBanks Masa-Misra Partnership Strained by Losses, Infighting Some of the Vision Funds staff may transition to positions at SoftBank, the person said. Two of its managing partners are already planning to move into new roles at the Japanese company. Akshay Naheta will become senior vice president, assisting Son in investments and providing strategic advice. Kentaro Matsui will transition to a senior advisory role at SoftBank. The staff cuts come just a week after SoftBank revealed that Misra received a substantial increase in compensation, despite massive losses in the business. The former Deutsche Bank AG trader earned 1.61 billion yen ($15 million) in the year ended March 31, more than double his pay a year earlier. Misra was SoftBanks second-highest-paid executive in the period, after Claure. SoftBank Group may also see staff departures. About 30 of the 192-person workforce at the Tokyo-based business have submitted resumes seeking jobs to one of Japans recruitment agencies, according to another person familiar with the matter. (Updates with analyst comment in fifth 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. Students participate in an activity near Royce Hall on the campus of the University of CaliforniaLos Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles, Calif., on March 11, 2020. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images) UCLA Professor Placed on Leave After Rejecting Special Treatment for Black Students A professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) is reportedly on leave after he refused to give black students special treatment in their final exams. Over the past week, nearly 20,000 members of the UCLA community have called on the university to fire Gordon Klein, an accounting professor at the Anderson School of Management. The petition to remove Klein from his position started shortly after an email was shared on social media, in which he rejected a students request of special accommodations for black peers, in light of the protests over the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Do you know the names of the classmates that are black? How can I identify them since weve been having online classes only? Klein wrote in the email, according to the petition, which deemed his responses insensitive, dismissive, and woefully racist. Are there any students that may be of mixed parentage, such as half black-half Asian? Klein continued. What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half? Asking if any students in the class were from Minneapolis, Klein said he assumed that they probably are especially devastated as well, especially if theyre white, because some might think that theyre racist even if they are not. One last thing strikes me: Remember that MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the color of their skin,' he continued, citing the monumental I Have a Dream speech. Do you think that your request would run afoul of MLKs admonition? Kelin is now under investigation and his courses will be handled by other professors for the remainder of the semester, reported student newspaper Daily Burin, citing a statement from Anderson School of Management. Respect and equality for all are core principles at UCLA Anderson, read the statement. We apologize to the student who received it and to all those who have been as upset and offended by it as we are ourselves. Earlier this month, the University of Washington (UW) has agreed to students demands, encouraging professors to relax final exam policies for black students who are too busy fighting for their rights to sit down and study. At UW, instructors have been asked to be especially responsive to the needs of students, particularly those from the black community, and provide them with accommodations such as extra time to finish assignments or a final examination optional approach. We are asking you to consider that while we are together as a community, some are being affected more than others, the UW officials wrote in a message to faculties. EDWARDSVILLE Two Granite City teens are being held in lieu of $1 million bail each after they were charged Monday with first-degree murder in the June 4 shooting death of Sean D. Williams, 18. Deandre J. Richardson, 17, and Nicholas Rickman II, 16, are both charged with three counts each of first degree murder and armed robbery. Under Illinois law a suspect their age can be charged as an adult. Richardson is also charged with possession of a stolen .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun. If convicted of one count of first degree murder, the sentencing range is 20-60 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. If convicted of armed robbery, the sentencing range is six to 30 years in prison. Additional enhancements due to the use of a firearm may also apply. The armed robbery charges claim Richardson and Rickman took a .40-caliber firearm and marijuana from Williams by force. On June 4, Granite City Police responded to the 2500 block of Madison Avenue for a report of shots fired. When officers arrived, they located an unconscious man at the scene with multiple gunshot wounds. The victim was transported to Gateway Regional Hospital in Granite City where he was pronounced dead. While the loss of any life is heartbreaking, it is even more so in cases like this which involve such a young victim and young defendants. The circumstances surrounding this case can only be described as tragic, First Assistant Madison States Attorney Crystal Uhe said. However, once again the men and women of the Major Case Squad have risen to the call of duty and have again proven that they are the finest example of law enforcement officers. Maj. Mike Nordstrom, Granite City Assistant Police Chief, expressed his sympathies for Williams family and his appreciation to Uhe, the members of the Major Case Squad, Illinois State Police, the Madison County Coroners Office and Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons. These are true professionals and should be commended for the work that was done to bring this investigation to a successful conclusion, said Nordstrom. Lt. Ken Wojtowicz with the St. Louis Major Case Squad also extended his condolences to the Williams family. He said 23 investigators from 17 different agencies assisted Granite City Police with the investigation. Through their hard work and long hours, investigators were able to identify two suspects in this case, Wojtowicz said. While this does not replace the life that was lost, it is my hope that this provides some form of justice to the family of Sean Williams. Gibbons also acknowledged the work by Granite City Police Department, Illinois State Police, and the Major Case Squad. He also commended Uhe, Head of the Violent Crimes Unit, for the swift collaboration with law enforcement on this senseless, violent case. It feels like a way for younger people to get engaged, Gu said. I hope people remember protests like this have occurred many times in the past and nothing super concrete has happened. But with each protest I guess theres always a hope it will reach more of a visible platform, which I think has happened with this. OPECs second-largest producer, Iraq, which also happens to be the least compliant member of OPEC+ since the group started managing supply to the market in 2017, may have finally started taking its obligations seriously. Iraqs State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) has asked some of the Asian buyers of its Basrah crude grades if they could give up delivery of some already contracted cargoes for loading this month and next, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News on Tuesday. The request for buyers to forgo some cargoes for those months suggests that this time, Iraq may be earnest in its attempt to play ball in the OPEC+ production cuts, after being the biggest cheater in all previous pacts. Iraqs (as well as Nigerias) non-compliance with the record OPEC+ cuts in May nearly wrecked last weeks meeting of the pact, ahead of which the two leaders of the group, Saudi Arabia and Russia, had insisted that there would be an extension by one month to the current level of cuts only if laggards in compliance ensured over-compliance going forward to compensate for flouting their quotas so far. OPEC+ agreed on Saturday to extend the record production cuts of 9.7 million bpd by one month through the end of July, contingent on all countries in the pact complying 100 percent with their quotas and compensating for lack of compliance by overachieving in the cuts in July, August, and September. Before the meeting, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister and then-acting Oil Minister, Ali Allawi, vowed that his country would further reduce production as it remains committed to the OPEC+ pact. At the video news conference following the OPEC+ meeting, Saudi Arabias Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, emphatically said on Monday that We have no room whatsoever for lack of conformity. Today, Iraqs new Oil Minister, Ihsan Abdul Jabbar Ismaael, confirmed in a phone call with his Saudi counterpart Iraqs full commitment to the cuts, OPEC said in a press release on Tuesday. Iraq confirms its commitment to the voluntary oil production adjustments of June and July 2020, as well as the voluntary adjustments for the period following the end of July, despite the economic and financial challenges, Ismaael told the Saudi energy minister. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: [June 09, 2020] MicroTech CEO Named Alumni of the Year at Webster University TYSONS, Va., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Anthony (Tony) Jimenez was named the George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology's Outstanding Alumni for 2020. Jimenez, who graduated in 2000 with a Master's in Information Systems Management from the Walker School, is the CEO and founder of MicroTech, one of the most successful Hispanic-owned technology companies in the United States. "Tony is an amazing community leader, mentor and entrepreneur," said Simone Cummings, dean of the Walker School. "After spending more than two decades in the military, serving in active combat zones, and then retiring due to a disability, he didn't want his story to end. So he started his company at his kitchen table more than 15 years ago and has built it into a multimillion-dollar business with contracts supporting government agencies and Fortune 500 companies. He is the epitome of the Walker School spirit." Jimenez spent 24 years on active duty and served in multiple combat operations during his time in the U.S. Army, including tours in the Middle East, Central America, and Africa. He was a highly decorated officer when he retired as a Service-Disabled Veteran in 2003. While in the service, he earned his degree from Webster with a 4.0 grade-point average. He also holds a bachelor's degree in Business Management from St. Mary's University, a Master's of Science in Acquisition Management from the Florida Institute of Technology, and certificates from Defense Acquisition University, The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University, and the United States Army Command and General Staff College. Since founding MicroTech, Jimenez has been honored by numerous organizations and media outlets, including Inc Magazine, Digital Software Magazine, Deloitte, Washington Technology, SmartCE, Washington Business Journal, and the National Veteran-Owned Business Association. He was named "Entrepreneur of the Year," "Small Business Person of the Year," "Executive of the Year," and "CEO of the Year" by numerous national organizations. He was also named as one of the "Most Influential Hispanics in the Nation" by the Hispanic Business Magazine, "50 Most Influential Virginians" by Virginia Business and "Veteran of the Year" by Vetrepreneur Magazine. In 2016, Tony was Honored with a Heritage Award alongside Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and reggaeton artist J. Balvin in a ceremony that was broadcast nationally on PBS. Jimenez has received numerous letters of appreciation and commendation from senators, congressmen, governors, government officials, community leaders, and two presidents of the United States. Jimenez is a community activist. He has served on the Board of Directors for the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; the National Advisory Council on Minority Business Enterprises with the U.S. Department of Commerce; the George Mason University Board of Visitors; the Executive Advisory Board for the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy; the Board of Trustees for William James College; the Advisory Board for Latin Business Today; the Board of Directors for National Capital Area Council - BSA; the University of Richmond Customer Experience Board; and the National Small Business Association Leadership Council. He also serves as vice chair for the American Film Institute Corporate Council. Jimenez will be honored with the "Alumni of the Year Award" during a ceremony held later this fall during Webster University's annual Alumni Homecoming Weekend on September 25 and 26. Visit alumni.webster.edu for more information. About MicroTech: MicroTech, a Certified and Verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) certified by the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), has had noteworthy success since its inception in 2004. Under Tony Jimenez's leadership, the privately-owned company has experienced exponential growth over the years and is repeatedly recognized as a small business success story. Described as the "hottest Hispanic business in the nation," MicroTech was ranked as the #1 Fastest Growing Hispanic Company in the Nation for three consecutive years by Hispanic Business Magazine. MicroTech was also named one of the Top 10 Fastest Growing Hispanic-Owned Companies in the Nation for five consecutive years and has been repeatedly listed on Washington Technology's annual list of the Top 100 Government Contractors. CONTACT: Jennifer Berman, [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microtech-ceo-named-alumni-of-the-year-at-webster-university-301072780.html SOURCE MicroTech [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] In 2019, the Staff of the President of Armenia managed to save AMD 55,000,000. Moreover, most of the funds were saved by cutting the number of business trips. This is what Chief of Staff of the President of Armenia Emil Tarasyan said during a discussion on the report on the performance of the 2019 State Budget held as part of the joint session of parliamentary standing committees today. According to him, besides this, the President signed 313 laws adopted by the National Assembly and 28 international treaties proposed by the government and granted Armenian citizenship to 12,525 people by presidential decrees. He also stated that the President carried out 21 charity programs for 13,630 beneficiaries and gave interviews to dozens of foreign media outlets, and the Staff presented its activities on social networks. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 18:28:46|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BANGKOK, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The Thai government on Tuesday endorsed a fresh campaign for people nationwide to wear clothing made of domestically hand-woven fabrics at least twice a week. The cabinet of ministers approved the campaign, launched by the Department of Community Development, with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha recommending government personnel and other people to put on clothing made of domestically hand-woven fabrics at least twice a week to help preserve and promote such household culture and indigenous wisdoms. The prime minister said the fabric weaving industry could boost incomes for villagers and communities as well as steer and strengthen the grassroots economy. Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda said hand-woven fabric manufacturers throughout the country might earn up to 105 billion baht (about 3.35 billion U.S. dollars) in sales revenue yearly if such domestic industry was effectually promoted. Samples of clothing made of domestically hand-woven fabrics were put on display for the cabinet members at Government House on Tuesday. Enditem (CNN) - A UN human rights expert says that some people in North Korea are "starving," according to a press statement that was acquired by CNN. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN Special Rapporteur, explains that due to COVID-19 response, North Korea has shut its borders with China and this has "exacerbated the food crisis, devastating cross-border trade and sapping income from merchants." Quintana encourages the UN Security Council to "reconsider sanctions" on North Korea due to the food crisis occurring in the communist country. Quintana urges government and international action to ensure food supplies in North Korea to prevent starvation. "A UN independent expert is alarmed that widespread food shortages and malnutrition in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) have been exacerbated by COVID-19 measures and has called for urgent Government and international action to ensure food supplies," the statement said.CNN This story was first published on CNN.com, "UN warns people in North Korea are starving during pandemic" Fifth generation (5G) wireless technology has the potential to transform how the U.S. government achieves its many critical missions. With superior bandwidth, agencies will be able to connect more mission-supporting devices than ever. 5G also promises to increase functionality of these devices through reduced latency and speeds that are up to 100 times faster than the current fourth generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. This can translate into improved performance, security, safety and efficiency for federal missions. Congress and the White House both recognize how important it is that the U.S. fully harness the power of 5G in meeting government missions. The need for effective and efficient COVID-19 response and recovery has only highlighted this. The U.S. military -- the most logistically complex organization in the world is likely to emerge as a leading 5G adopter and innovator. In the fiscal 2020 defense spending bill, Congress prioritized 5G research and development by providing $275 million to the Department of Defense for next generation information communications technology, including 5G. The DOD is currently demonstrating the benefits of 5G in government in a few interesting projects, including at the U.S. Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center San Diego, the concept of a "smart warehouse" is being tested. This project will leverage 5G to manage inventory and process orders with optimal efficiency and accuracy. As the DOD contemplates the wide range of possible use cases for 5G technology, its spending will align to these desired uses. To allow the DOD and other federal agencies to realize 5G's full potential, however, the government must address concerns about 5G and cyber risks. One of the widely discussed risks associated with 5G is the problem of potentially compromised hardware being incorporated into our national telecommunications infrastructure. Congress and the White House have both taken steps to address this issue -- calling for the incorporation of a microelectronic trusted supply chain and operational security standards into 5G equipment. The government has also prohibited telecommunications providers that receive federal funding from utilizing Huawei and ZTE equipment, two telecommunications equipment manufacturers the U.S. government believes have ties to the Chinese Communist Party and therefore could potentially be compelled to install unauthorized remote access capabilities (so-called "backdoors") into their products. The concern that such backdoors could be exploited by the Chinese government for espionage, sabotage or even acts of war is shared by many U.S. policymakers and experts, on a bipartisan basis. While much of the security discussion surrounding 5G has thus far focused on certain Chinese equipment manufacturers, there is another major security concern that must be addressed: the security risk posed by the addition of millions of additional devices, including Internet of Things (IoT) devices, accessing government network resources. In the past, such devices have connected to network resources utilizing U.S. government-managed wired or wireless access points on government-controlled campuses. The 5G vision instead entails millions of devices accessing network resources remotely via cellular connections, likely provided through a blend of government and carrier-owned networks. Whose job is it to determine which of these devices are legitimate and do not pose a threat to either the carrier or the agency IT infrastructure they access? Who is responsible for monitoring devices while connected to ensure they don't change their state in other words, present themselves as legitimate, secure devices, but once admitted to the network proceed to engage in hacking or espionage activities? And ultimately, how should this diverse landscape of devices and connectivity be prioritized and segmented according to roles and criticality, so that the most sensitive and mission-critical functions are identified and protected? In a 5G future, government network security teams risk losing visibility and control of devices accessing their federal networks through carriers' 5G towers. Fortunately, most agencies have laid down an important foundation enabling them to overcome some of the challenges of securing their networks as 5G adoption increases. Two government-wide cybersecurity programs -- the civilian agency-focused Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program and the DOD's Comply to Connect (C2C) program -- are examples of dynamic frameworks and integrated capabilities designed to ensure all devices are detected and classified as they connect to the network, and are inspected continuously for cybersecurity risks, including patch and configuration status, banned hardware and software, behavioral anomalies and a host of other attributes. Agencies that have mature instantiations of either the CDM or C2C programs will have the same level of insight into devices connecting via carrier-owned 5G networks as they do for those connecting within a campus, cloud or data center network, and will be able to enforce the same security and network access policies. Not insignificantly, the remote working trend that has become necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic has provided federal agencies some lessons in applying their CDM and C2C tools to devices that are connecting through Internet Service Provider networks in employees' homes in some rare cases on devices that are not owned or managed by the federal government. While telework architectures are still in need of improvement, a productive outcome of the COVID-19 crisis is that it has afforded federal agencies, in particular the DOD, an opportunity to apply "zero trust" strategies even as the concept of the network "perimeter" has been completely shattered. We are still in the early days of 5G and the full benefits for federal agencies have yet to be realized. The operationalization of 5G will mean many millions more devices connecting to government systems. These devices support services vastly improving citizens' security and safety and allowing government services to be delivered more effectively. However, allowing all of these devices to connect to government systems without a robust capability for finding, profiling and monitoring them would jeopardize not only agencies' existing networks, but the very missions 5G equipment is deployed to support. Agencies' existing network and cybersecurity investments will help navigate the 5G future, but discussions about how to adapt these investments, and reorient them where necessary, must happen now. Knowing what devices are connecting to your networks, what their cyber posture is and how they behave will remain the first and most critical component of effective cyber risk mitigation. The C2C and CDM programs are good examples of how this visibility-first approach enables more effective security and ensured agencies' mission-readiness. Securing 5G-enabled networks through this foundation reduces national security risk and enhances government agencies' ability to continue serving missions. I once gave a talk in New Zealand in which I said that, thanks to the inefficiency of the police and the leniency of the courts in Britain, a burglar spent on average three days in prison; in which case the question was not why there were so many burglars, but why there were so few. To this question a clever lawyer in the audience immediately said, "They're not very good at arithmetic." Neither, I suppose, are the rioters in the United States. It is true, of course, that the death of George Floyd at the hands, or rather the knee, of the policeman called Chauvin was horrible, and perhaps even worse (for it implied something more than mere individual psychopathy) was the fact that three of Chauvin's colleagues were watching. The picture of the policeman with his knee on the victim's neck, his hand in his pocket and the look of a triumphant big-game hunter on his face, is not easily forgotten. Chauvin's defense attorney, I imagine, will not find it easy to say much in extenuation. But proportion is necessary in all things, especially in anger and outrage. It is easy to indulge in these emotions for their own sake, because they are pleasurable and soon cease to be sincere. To the citizens of most Western countries, the numbers of people killed by the American police are rather surprising, to say the least, but so are the numbers of police killed. Roughly speaking, a policeman in the United States is about fifty times more likely to be killed than to kill, and this is without taking into consideration that the majority of the killings by the police are at least prima facie justified by self-defense or the interruption or prevention of a serious crime. Let us exclude only half of those killings on these grounds (probably a gross underestimate): This means that a policeman is 100 times more likely to be killed than to kill. Let us also suppose that the police are killed by black and white in the same proportion as blacks and whites commit homicide in general (again, a generous, that is to say a conservative, assumption). This means that a policeman is about fifteen times more likely to be killed by a black man than to kill a black man, and again this is not to take into account the fact that many of the police killings would be at least prima facie justified. A black man is about thirty times more likely to be killed by another black man than to be killed by a policeman (and some of the police are themselves black, of course). A white man is only fifteen times more likely to be killed by someone of any race than to be killed by a policeman. Are the police biased against whites? They have over and over again proved themselves indifferent to killings by the thousands, simply because they were of no political value to them. These figures should not be taken as being accurate to the seventeenth decimal point. They are worked out from official figures but taken from somewhat different dates, varying by a year or two; but this would not alter their rough or fundamental accuracy. Of course, most people do not bother to look up the statistics, but in some inchoate way they know them to be true. This is shown by the Rev. Jesse Jackson's famous (or infamous) but honest remark, which he may now regret having made, that when walking down a dark street at night he felt relief that the man walking behind him was white and not black. None of this alters the individual responsibility of the policeman who must surely have caused the death of George Floyd. (Would the latter have died anyway, even if not under arrest and treated in the way he was treated?) Nor does it alter the responsibility of the accessories before the fact. But it does cast a strange light on the rioters, and even on the peaceful demonstrators, most of whom seem to have expressed little concern, much less moral outrage, at the much more frequent murder of blacks by other blacks, or at the comparatively high rate of the murder of policemen. (The general homicide rate in the U.S. is about five per 100,000, that of policemen fifteen per 100,000.) Now, it might be argued that an unjustified killing by an agent of the state is far worse than any other kind of killing, so raw statistics do not apply. I can see that this argument has a certain force. On the other hand, the killing of an agent of law and order also has a special seriousness, for it undermines law and order itself. And egalitarians who uphold the sanctity of (or at least the inalienable right to) human life are ill-placed to claim that one killing is worse than another. I do not think that the rioters were or are much interested in philosophical subtleties, however. But, for the sake of argument, let us exclude those who riot for pleasure and profit, those who merely like the tinkling sound of smashed plate glass and the cheery crackling of flames in department stores while also indulging in a little light looting. Let us, rather, take those who demonstrated peacefully within the law; surely they were acting in bad faith while preening themselves on their own moral grandeur? They demand "justice" but pronounce guilt before it has been established by a court of law. They have over and over again proved themselves indifferent to killings by the thousands, simply because they were of no political value to them. Their indifference to facts that they must know, at least in outline, is a symptom, I would suggest, of a guilty conscience. They want at all costs to preserve their Manichaean world outlook we good, they bad rather than face ambiguous, disconcerting, and intractable reality. Of course, we all have this desire or tendency, but it is one that we should seek to control rather than indulge. I could not help but recall the famous words written by Alphonse Karr in 1849, Abolissons la peine de mort, mais que messieurs les assassins commencent "Let us abolish the death penalty, but let Messrs. the murderers begin" that is to say to go, and kill no more. San Francisco, June 9 : Amazon has filed a lawsuit against a former employee of its cloud computing business after he joined Google Cloud, alleging that his new appointment violates the terms of his non-compete agreement with Amazon Web Services. In his LinkedIn profile, Brian Hall who served as Vice President of Product Marketing at AWS, describes his current designation as "waiting to work as a VP, at Google". According to a report in GeekWire, lawyers for Hall filed a response to the lawsuit on Monday in King County Superior Court in Seattle. The response said that Amazon executives repeatedly led Hall to believe the company would not enforce the non-competition provision of its "boilerplate" confidentiality agreement, in discussions before and after he signed the contract in June 2018. In the lawsuit that Amazon filed last month, the company alleged that Hall was entrusted with an unusual broad view into Amazon's Cloud product plans, its priorities and its competitive strategy. Hall's knowledge about Amazon plans would be "invaluable" to Google if he is allowed to take that parallel position at Google, Amazon alleged in the lawsuit. Hall "helped develop and knows the entire confidential Amazon cloud product roadmap for 2020-21," Amazon said in its lawsuit, filed on May 18. Amazon alleged that Hall and Google refused Amazon's request to modify his role at Google and added that Hall's proposed position at Google threatens "immediate and irreparable harm to Amazon". This is not the first time Amazon filed a lawsuit in Washington state to enforce non-compete clauses in employment contracts. Another former AWS sales executive, Philip Moyer was sued by Amazon after he accepted a position with Google Cloud last year. A judge agreed to limit certain aspects of Moyer's role at Google for the term of the agreement, said the report. The Cedar Valley wasnt without turmoil during overwhelmingly peaceful protests prompted by African Americans slain by police officers and vigilantes. But it was far from the fatalities in Davenport or widespread property damage in Des Moines. The exception was early Wednesday morning when Waterloo police used tear gas and flash-bang grenades to break up a downtown protest after urging a crowd to disperse. Isolated instances of vandalism also occurred. New Waterloo Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald, an African American, said a small group of people was agitating for violence. In my opinion, theres a group of kids that live downtown, he said, who pushed for violence. We encourage peoples right to protest, but we are not going to allow people to tear down the city, Fitzgerald added. Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart, also African American, praised community partners police, sheriff and fire rescue on the scene. With the pandemic lockdown having ended, Fitzgerald said patrons and owners at downtown establishments helped to deter vandalism, although that couldnt be a 24/7 proposition. Credit goes to those protesters united in purpose last week, recognizing disruptions detracted from their message. Local law enforcement also needs to be recognized for a sense of humanity not always evident elsewhere. Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson took a knee with demonstrators in front of Waterloo City Hall. Cedar Falls Public Safety Director Jeff Olson and other public safety officers greeted protesters for a question-and-answer session. We are just as upset by this as anyone, he said. Fitzgerald said police will continue to be at protests, walking with crowds. Its a matter of us maintaining a position, he noted. If someone is throwing rocks, if someone is doing things to damage the image of this city, well be there to make an arrest. He provided reason to believe policing changes will be forthcoming. Were going to do the right thing, he said, and implement reforms being demanded. Fitzgerald said officers will receive training in techniques such as de-escalation and how to counter implicit bias that may color how they view people they encounter. That would separate Waterloo police from Minneapolis, where the police union has battled reform efforts by community leaders that could have averted chaos. The Third Precinct, which was torched by rioters, was called a playground for renegade cops in a Minneapolis Star-Tribune headline. It was home to the officers responsible for the death of George Floyd, who pleaded I cant breathe while bystanders begged them to stop kneeling on the mans neck. The Third Precincts recent history, the Star-Tribune reported, included an officer who kicked a handcuffed suspect in the face, leaving his jaw in pieces. Officers beat and pistol-whipped a suspect in a parking lot on suspicion of low-level drug charges. Others harassed residents of a south Minneapolis housing project as they headed to work, and allowed prostitution suspects to touch their genitals for several minutes before arresting them in vice stings. It added other cops described the Thirds style of policing as theres the way that the Minneapolis Police Department does things, and then theres the way they do it in Threes. The city had paid $2.1 million to settle misconduct lawsuits involving Third Precinct officers from 2007-17; judges threw out cases because of outrageous conduct by officers, and prosecutors dropped charges because of illegal searches. Mayor Jacob Frey was elected on a platform of police reforms, but when he tried to end warrior-style training of police, which views all encounters with residents as inherently dangerous, Lt. Bob Kroll, the union leader, made it available free to any officer.(Kroll has racked up 29 citizen complaints.) 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. But Frey has bucked protesters demands to dismantle the department. He prefers to work with Police Chief Medaria Arradondo. He was one of five black officers who filed a 2007 discrimination lawsuit against the department, citing a history of tolerating racist and discriminatory remarks by its white police officers. In 1992 every African-American officer got a hate letter, threatening their lives, signed KKK. Kroll figured in that case, which was settled for $740,000. A veto-proof nine of the 13 members of the Minneapolis City Council stated Sunday theyve had enough and will dismantle the department, although the form it takes remains to be seen. The outlines are domestic violence cases will go to social workers, mental health to professionals in the field and low-level drug matters to community organizations. Expect other large cities frustrated by other unions thwarting reforms to follow suit in varying degrees, if only to gain more control in light of the ongoing protests. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 PRESS RELEASE Rueil Malmaison, 8 June 2020 VINCI Airports prepared for reopening of Portugals tourism Passenger traffic resumes on June 15 New sanitary measures VINCI Airports, concession holder of Portugals 10 airports, celebrated the reopening of the countrys tourism and airport business today at an event held at Lisbon airport in the presence of Antonio Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal, Pedro Siza Vieira, Minister of Economy, Pedro Nuno Santos, Minister of Infrastructure, and Nicolas Notebaert, Chief Executive Officer of VINCI Concessions and Chairman of VINCI Airports. With lockdown ended on 4 May thanks to a safe, stable public health situation, there is growing demand on airlines rapidly as the summer season nears. Air travel is set to increase starting June 15 with air connexions resuming in Europe, notably with France: flights between Lisbon, Porto and Faro and Lyon-Saint Exupery and Nantes Atlantique airports, all members of the VINCI Airports network, will resume on 15 June. Flights into and out of Paris, which continued throughout lockdown, will also expand. Public health safety, friendliness and innovations for the return of passengers VINCI Airports has rolled out new health measures in compliance with national and European regulations. These measures focus mainly on passenger flow management and social distancing, providing individual personal protection equipment and cleaning/disinfecting passenger areas. These measures, which complement airline companies new safety protocols, effectively ensure the safety of passengers throughout their journey. An extensive information campaign has also been launched in all airports operated by VINCI Airports in Portugal and the rest of the world to facilitate passenger handling and explain the new measures. In addition, Lisbon airport, a VINCI Airports Centre for Innovation Excellence, has developed new public health solutions over recent weeks. An autonomous robot that uses UV rays to disinfect surfaces has been deployed in the airport. Story continues Lastly, the works at Lisbon Airport's rapid exit taxiways and Terminal 2 have been stepped up in recent weeks, to the benefit of airlines and passenger comfort. Nicolas Notebaert, Chief Executive Officer of VINCI Concessions and Chairman of VINCI Airports, said: The partnership between Portugal and VINCI Airports is both solid and resilient. The Portuguese airport network already demonstrated in 2012 its fantastic capacity to bounce back. We are happy today to participate in the resumption of air travel and we are going to accelerate the growth dynamic in the future by continuing to invest in the countrys airports. About VINCI Airports VINCI Airports, as the worlds leading private operator of airports, manages the development and operation of 45 airports located in Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, France, Japan, Portugal, Serbia, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. Served by more than 250 airlines, VINCI Airports' network handled 255 million passengers in 2019. Through its expertise as a comprehensive integrator, VINCI Airports develops, finances, builds and operates airports, leveraging its investment capability, international network and know-how to optimise the management and performance of existing airport infrastructure, facility extensions and new-build construction projects. In 2019, its annual revenue for managed activities amounted to 4.9 billion, for consolidated revenue of 2.6 billion. www.vinci-airports.com PRESS CONTACT VINCI Airports Press Department Tel: +33 (0)1 47 16 48 82 communication@vinci-airports.com Attachment The first graduation ceremony to be hosted amid the coronavirus pandemic took place at Laredo's Shirley Field, with Hector J. Garcia Early College High School students taking the final steps as high school seniors Monday night. The proceedings looked quite different than the usual graduation ceremony, with social distancing efforts enforced for both the audience and students in attendance. A majority of students and attendees were also seen wearing facemasks, some emblazoned with the high school's seal, as an additional measure to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], June 9 (ANI/NewsVoir): As the global pandemic Coronavirus, known as COVID-19, has already triggered scores of layoffs across the country, Bilsir, a job search engine is proving to be a boon to a number of jobless in various sectors at a time when the job market is witnessing churning. It has been witnessed that despite the hit, many sectors such as IT, BPO/ITES, BFSI, accounting/finance, etc keep hiring people for remote work. Meanwhile, a number of job seekers turned up on com for the same. Talking about the Bilsir, Pratik Singh, one of the founders and partner of Green Arrowhead LLP said, "It is an indigenous vertical search engine focused on job search and provide listings for all categories of corporate and non-corporate job positions. It indexes web pages based on the quality/relevance of page content and page source. This approach is more relevant, in the context of job search, in comparison to the indexing approaches of most of the prominent generic search engines." Pratik Singh further said that Green Arrowhead LLP, the owner of Bilsir, is focused on indigenous technological innovations for solving problems currently being served by foreign technology companies. To hasten the development process, Green Arrowhead uses a combination of open source and close source technologies. The ultimate aim of Green Arrowhead is to provide more localised and more innovative alternates to Indian consumers. Established in 2010, Green Arrowhead LLP was created to develop indigenous software solutions, long before terms like 'Make in India', 'Technology Independence', 'Indigenous Technologies' became popular. At the time of establishment, founders were in the US. However, they soon realize that for the idea of indigenous technology to materialize their presence was required in India. So, the founders shifted back to India in 2013. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NEW YORKBestselling author Emily Giffin is apologizing for recent negative comments she made about Meghan Markle. The Something Borrowed author frequently posts about the British royal family on her social media. When Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, released a video last month for her son Archies first birthday. Giffin posted a screenshot of a text message exchange where she commented that Markle seemed unmaternal, calling the video uncomfortable to watch, adding, what a joke. The posts quickly received backlash from people calling the post distasteful, while others called the remarks racist. Markle is biracial. The author said in a later Instagram post that her comments were not racist, and she was thrilled when a biracial American woman had married into the royal family. I need to be more careful about the impact of my words, Giffin told The Associated Press in a recent interview. Its one thing to have legitimate criticism about someone, she said, but her comments were not legitimate, adding they were just mean. ... Im going to do better. Giffin often shares her opinions about topical subjects, politics and pop culture with her online followers. Being unfiltered, which is what Ive chosen to be and the person I am in real life, and the person that you see on social media, definitely means that Im going to make mistakes, too. Giffins The Lies that Bind is her 10th novel. Its about a journalist named Cecily who re-evaluates her life choices and relationships in the wake of 9/11. She says she is inspired by the philosophical side of major events. Its the power of those moments, 9/11 and now, again, with this pandemic, to cause us to sort of pause and step back, reflect and consider what we really want for our lives, from our lives (and) what really matters to us. Giffin said she likes to write about people learning to be truthful about who they are because you really have to find your authentic self before you can be happy and fulfilled in a relationship. Her characters arent perfect, but redemption is another common theme. My characters mess up, but I like to think that they all have within them this resiliency and this grit to do better and to get it right. Read more about: Longtime fugitive militiaman Ali Kushayb has turned himself in to the International Criminal Court where he faces war crimes charges for his role in Sudans brutal Darfur conflict, the ICC said Tuesday. Kushayb, also known as Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, is wanted on 50 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between 2003-2004 in the western Darfur region. Ali Kushayb is in the custody of the ICC after surrendering himself voluntarily in the Central African Republic on account of an ICC arrest warrant issued on 27 April 2007, the Hague court said in a statement. ICC prosecutors say Kushayb, believed to be around 63 years old, was a senior commander in the notorious Janjaweed militia during the fighting, which erupted in 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against Khartoums then Arab-dominated government, led by the now-ousted Omar al-Bashir. The rebels say they suffered racial discrimination, marginalisation and exclusion in one of the countrys poorest regions. But Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, a group of mostly Arab raiding nomads, recruited and armed to create a militia of gunmen who often mounted horses or camels. They have been accused of applying a scorched earth policy against ethnic groups suspected of supporting the rebels, raping, killing, looting and burning villages. Terror campaign Their terror campaign saw the ICC issue arrest warrants against Kushayb in 2007 and Bashir in 2009 and 2010. Ali Kushayb is alleged to have personally participated in some of the attacks against civilians between August 2003 and March 2004, where the killing of civilians, rape, torture and other cruel treatments occurred, the ICC said. A senior Sudanese official told AFP he had been transferred following surrender. We have been officially notified of Kushaybs arrival to the ICC headquarters in The Hague, he said. ICC spokesman Fadi El-Abdallah confirmed that Kushayb arrived at the ICCs high security detention facility in a Hague suburb around 1700 GMT. An initial appearance would take place in due course, the ICC said. Landmark for justice Bashir, who ruled Sudan with an iron fist for three decades, was deposed in April last year following months of protests in Sudan. Kushayb fled to the Central African Republic in February when the new Sudanese government announced its intention to cooperate with the ICCs investigation, a researcher at the Washington-based war crimes and corruption-busting organisation The Sentry said. Kushayb and around 100 militiamen fled Sudan hoping he could find a haven amidst the conflict and chaos of the Central African Republic, Nathalia Dukhan said in a statement. Wanted on charges including genocide, Bashir still remains on the run from the Hague-based court, having thumbed his nose at the institution while travelling with impunity across Africa, including to some ICC member states. Arrest warrants had also been issued for others including Ahmad Harun, Sudans former interior minister who was charged with coordinating counter-insurgency forces including the Janjaweed in operations against the rebels. Human rights groups hailed Kushaybs surrender to the court as extremely significant and a landmark for justice for Darfurs victims. For too long those responsible for the large-scale international crimes committed in the western Sudanese region of Darfur have escaped prosecution, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet said. The world watched in horror as Sudans government carried out brutal attacks on Darfur civilians, killing, raping, burning and looting villages, starting in 2003, Human Rights Watch associate director Elise Keppler added. But after 13 years justice has finally caught up with one major fugitive of the crimes, she said. Genocide About 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in the conflict, the United Nations says. Thousands of peacekeeping troops from a joint UN-African Union mission were deployed in 2007 to curb the conflict, but their numbers have been gradually reduced since mid-2018 as the conflict has subsided. An independent tribunal, the ICC was set up in 2002 to deal with the worlds worst crimes including genocide. burs-jhe/pvh After about an hour of speeches and a brief diversion where the majority of the crowd marched down the street chanting after a pair of disruptive bikers who had blasted music and revved their engines at the group, the demonstrators walked north on Pulaski for an approximately 2-mile march that circled back to the police station and concluded with a group kneel in front of it, organizer Katie Hayes said. Talented three-year-old pacers found themselves in the spotlight Monday evening at Woodbine Mohawk Park, and a pair of Pepsi North America Cup eligibles proved to be the stars of the show. From a speed perspective, Beaumond Hanover won the prize thanks to his 1:49.4 score in a $17,000 conditioned event for the tandem of driver Jody Jamieson and trainer Jack Darling. The son of Sportswriter-Bittorsweet Terror got away third before quarter pole-moving his way to the lead as the field entered the backstretch. He whacked out middle splits of :55.3 and 1:22.3 before using a :27.1 closing quarter to stop the clock in 1:49.4. Team Best, another Pepsi North America Cup eligible, was next best. Captivate Hanover was third. Jack Darling Stables Ltd of Cambridge, Ont. owns the sophomore who went 4-for-5 in last years rookie season. It was the fourth consecutive win for the pacer who has banked more than $60,000 to date. Indictable Hanover looked sharp in his pari-mutuel debut for trainer Casie Coleman, who turned the lines over to teamster Bob McClure. The son of Bettors Delight-Im Sassy got away fifth and held that position through first half fractions of :27.3 and :56.4. McClure picked up cover for his charge on the way to the three-quarter pole in 1:25.2, and they launched off that cover turning for home. Indictable Hanover blasted home in :25.3 to win by a pair of lengths in 1:51.3. Unraced as a rookie following an injury he sustained on the morning of what was to be his first qualifier, Indictable Hanover lived up to the hype in winning his debut for West Wins Stable, Mac Nichol and John Fielding. The tandem of driver Sylvain Filion and trainer Ben Baillargeon had a profitable night at the office, as well, thanks to four- and three-win performances on the 10-race card. They joined forces to win with Stravinsky (1:56), Run Director (1:53.1) and HP Napoleon (1:51.1). Filion tacked on a catch-driving score with Rockin N Talkin (1:51). To view results for Monday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Monday Results Woodbine Mohawk Park. The new design allows fixation screws to be placed through the truss implant and into the adjacent vertebral bodies creating a zero-profile stand-alone construct that removes the need for supplemental fixation. Additionally, the device features single-step locking mechanisms that provide surgeon users confidence in the performance of the stand-alone construct. The anterior lumbar stand-alone product line will be available in multiple footprints, lordotic angles, and heights. The product line will be delivered in sterile packaging for hospital efficiency and patient safety. "We are excited to add another spine interbody implant to our Truss Implant Technology portfolio," said Jim Bruty, Sr. Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "The addition of the Stand-Alone Anterior Spine Truss System not only broadens our current offering, but we anticipate this launch to provide significant growth to the organization for the remainder of 2020. 4WEB will continue to stay focused on investments in product development, clinical research, and procedural-based solutions as a means to achieving our long-term growth strategy." Consistent with 4WEB's existing product portfolio, ASTS-SA has an Advanced Structural Design that incorporates the company's proprietary Truss Implant Technology. Under normal loading conditions, the struts in the truss implant transfer strain to adjacent cellular material which stimulates a mechanobiologic response. This is the second 510(k) clearance 4WEB Medical has received in 2020. The company has additional plans to launch a stand-alone lateral lumbar implant later this year. About 4WEB Medical 4WEB Medical, founded in 2008 in Dallas, TX, is an implant device company. Thirty years of research in topological dimension theory led to the discovery of a novel geometry, the 4WEB, that can be used as a building block to create high-strength, lightweight web structures. The company leveraged this breakthrough, along with cutting-edge 3D printing technology, to develop 4WEB Medical's proprietary truss implant platform. The 4WEB Medical product portfolio includes the Cervical Spine Truss System, the Anterior Spine Truss System, the Posterior Spine Truss System, the Lateral Spine Truss System, and the Osteotomy Truss System. 4WEB is actively developing truss implant designs for tumor, trauma, and patient-specific orthopedic procedures. SOURCE 4WEB Medical Related Links http://www.4webmedical.com Revisiting William McKinleys Victory Through the Lens of 2020 Commentary NILES, OhioTruth be told, neither the home William McKinley was born in nor the front porch 55 miles west of his birthplace from which he conducted his presidential campaign exist anymore. The small, wood-plank-sided home here on state Route 46 is a replica of where the 25th president of the United States was born. The original home was moved twice before it burned to the ground. The front porch of his home in Canton has been long gone, the lumber used for park benches during the Great Depression. Down the street from his birthplace is the McKinley Memorial Library. Constructed in 1917, just 16 years after he was assassinated, it takes up an entire city block. The rain and the dark midmorning skies make the white marble monument and its columns seem all the more grand. A towering McKinley stands in the center. He is surrounded by bronze busts of the people who served with him, and on either side of his likeness are the wings of the library. Its always been a mystery as to why this man and the race he won in 1896 have received scant attention in modern popular culture; his opponent, William Jennings Bryan, was a congressman from Nebraska who was running as a populist at the tail end of Americas flirtation with populism. The movement emerged on a number of fronts: Industrialization and the radical societal changes it forced on Main Street were changing America at a rapid pace, and the depression of 1893 was still a searing memory for the working class. One of the major elements of that depression was the false impression of economic prosperity the rapid expansion of the railroads gave; people wrongly believed the industry was stable when, in fact, it was floating on a bubble. The railroads began failing, which led to the failure of the businesses that indirectly supported them, such as construction, steel mills and urban factory workers. The cost of freight skyrocketed, which threatened farmers ability to transport their crops; they all blamed the bankers and railroads for their misery and formed a political alignment. Three million people were unemployed, and the homeless and hungry lined the streets of major cities as civil unrest exploded across the country. Suddenly, the little guy was building to become a political force, and their guy was populist Bryan, the fiery Democrat who drew large crowds everywhere he went. In contrast, McKinley stayed home, literally, and ran his campaign from his front porch in Canton. He had the moneyed elites behind him, bankrolling his campaign; he was also the candidate for the intellectuals and the wealthy. And he won. The similarities between the dynamics of that era and our current one are at least compelling enough to wonder if they mean anything. There is societal unrest, distrust, uncertain economic conditions and a technological revolution all fought between a man supported by the intellectual elite (this time, it is Joe Biden) and the forgotten mans hero (President Donald Trump). Michael Genovese, professor of political science and president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University in California, said there are parallels but cautioned not to take them too far. After all, it was Mark Twain who reminded us that history may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes, he said. The huge difference is that voters came to McKinley to pay respects and listen to him pontificate, while Biden is a prisoner in his basement, Genovese said of the former vice presidents confinement during the coronavirus. One clear parallel is that the United States was and is reeling from dramatic economic and international changes: industrialization and, today, globalization, he said. Both radically upturned old relationships and placed the workers in a vulnerable position. Average citizens were observers, as they are today, of the excess manifestations of position and wealth. Industrialization made huge fortunes, and globalization/the tech revolution did the same. Both were dynamic periods during which innovation made for deep structural and social changes; both left a lot of people behind. Populism, even angry populism, was on the rise, just like today. Resentment against someone or anyone proved a powerful force, explained Genovese. Back then, it was the bankers; today, it is those tech innovators who have all our money. The idea is it is their fault, not ours. Back then, we were determined to take our government back. The result: the populist and progressive movements of the turn of the 20th century. Back then, explained Genovese, the political systems really were in the hands of a corrupt few; the old boss system still ruled. Politics was a club and not a movement. If past is prelude, the center will hold, he explained. The forces in the center are just too ingrained to be easily defeated. The forces against the system, be it the Trump corrupt carnage swamp or the greedy rich elites, burn out or get distracted. Genovese said Biden is fighting a basement campaign because he has no other choice. Trump misses his rallies, but he has a huge tech lead over Biden (a 30 million to 6 million Twitter advantage is one example). Trump can fight a campaign in the clouds. Biden cant. Genovese said 2020 will be all about (and almost only about) a referendum on Trump. He and only he will win or lose. There is not much Biden can do to make a dent. McKinley ran from his porch by design and choice; Biden is stuck, he said. He cant go out kissing babies and shaking hands. He does not have the charisma to attract those who respond to star power. His best bet is that, in the end, Trump fatigue or Trump opposition will drive voters into Bidens camp. He will not draw them in. 2020 is all about Trump. Salena Zito has held a long, successful career as a national political reporter. Since 1992, she has interviewed every U.S. president and vice president, as well as top leaders in Washington, D.C., including secretaries of state, speakers of the House and U.S. Central Command generals. Her passion, though, is interviewing thousands of people across the country. She reaches the Everyman and Everywoman through the lost art of shoe-leather journalism, having traveled along the back roads of 49 states. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A new report has highlighted the negative impact of small abattoir closures on the rural economy and the need for greater government support. The report comes as figures show that a third of small abattoirs have closed in the last ten years alone - with only 62 now left in the UK. The most recent closure was only two weeks ago and many more are thought to be on the brink, struggling for survival. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW) report has urged the government to support the sector with an emergency fund to avoid further closures. It also raised concerns over the pressures on medium-sized abattoirs which have seen a 49% reduction, largely due to the growth of a small number of large abattoirs. APGAW heard evidence from farmers about the importance of small abattoirs to the rural community and why action was needed to help prevent any further decline. Farmers stressed concerns that if numbers continued to fall, competition would be further eroded in the market and producers options for emergency slaughter reduced. NFU livestock board chairman Richard Findlay said farmers needed small abattoirs to 'maintain competition' and 'help support the rural economy'. "We have seen a massive reduction in recent years, which has reduced the options for many livestock farmers and those who sell their produce privately," he said. During the recent Covid pandemic we have seen increasing numbers of consumers buying local with butchers shops seeing trade increase by 43% over the last 4 weeks. "We do not want to lose many more of these small abattoirs, the service they provide to local farmers is vital." The Sustainable Food Trust and Campaign for Local Abattoirs said numerous small abattoirs were currently on the brink of closure as a result of one-size-fits-all regulation, rising costs and the collapse in value of hides and skins. Both groups said farmers were concerned by these losses and many faced long waiting lists and uneconomical distances to slaughter, putting businesses at risk and raising concerns for animal welfare. The governments own commitment to shortened journey times was not possible without a network of small abattoirs, they added. Patrick Holden, CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, said that the Covid-19 crisis had taught the public that a resilient local food supply was 'paramount' for UK food security. "More than ever we need a well distributed network of small abattoirs that offer private kill services for farmers who wish to add value by marketing and selling their meat direct to consumers. "Small abattoirs are an essential part of the local food and farming infrastructure that makes this possible, Mr Holden said. The APGAW report reiterated the Campaign for Local Abattoirs' recommendations to address this problem, such as financial support to modernise the sector. As a step to achieving this, the report recommended that abattoirs are recognised in the Agriculture Bill, which has its second reading in the House of Lords this week. Other recommendations include a regulatory framework that is appropriate to the size of the business, a Competition Inquiry into the waste collection market, support for apprenticeships and training, a local food label to showcase provenance and support for mobile abattoirs. COLUMBUS, OhioAttorney General Dave Yost said Tuesday he will ask state lawmakers to change Ohio law regarding how investigations of police-caused deaths are conducted, as well as require every police department in the state to have a use-of-force policy. Yost, a Columbus Republican, said in an interview that he also intends to announce new training for law-enforcement later this week. Following a record year for watch sales at Phillips Asia in 2019, and 100% sell- through rates for watches offered in the recent REFRESH:RELOAD online auction, Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo is pleased to unveil highlights from The Hong Kong Watch Auction: X. Taking place on Friday, 10 July, the auction is comprised of over 260 lots, including vintage and modern collectors timepieces from the most prestigious manufacturers. The Hong Kong Watch Auction: X represents an important milestone as we celebrate Phillips fifth year anniversary in Asia and the tenth watch auction in Hong Kong, said Thomas Perazzi, Head of Watches, Phillips Asia. In the past five years, we have introduced many new discoveries to the market, achieved an extraordinary number of world auction records, and a white glove sale. The passion that Phillips Hong Kong watch department has for unearthing the worlds rarest and most collectible watches never ceases, as well as an uncompromised focus on quality, rarity and freshness-to-the-market. We are delighted to bring forward on 10 July an incredible selection of collectible timepieces, including some of the most important modern and vintage Patek Philippe wristwatches, led by a well preserved reference 2499/100 fourth series in yellow gold, and a possibly unique reference 3448/14 in 18k white gold, offered by the family of the original owner. In addition, we are excited to present three sections of the sale dedicated to the World Time by Patek Philippe, the finest examples from Patek Philippe and Rolex retailed by Tiffany &Co., and an extravagant selection of salmon dials from the 20th and 21st century. Highlights from The Hong Kong Watch Auction: X Patek Philippe Reference 3979 from 1996 & Reference 5013R from 2000 The Hong Kong Watch Auction This seasons sale is led by an extraordinary selection of Patek Philippe timepieces, with highlights including: A Reference 2499/100, the fourth and last generation of Patek Philippes most iconic perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch originally launched in 1950. The present watch (illustrated page 1) in yellow gold from 1982 is a phenomenal sight to see. Offered in excellent overall condition, the case is very well-preserved with crisp edges and bevels, defined fluted lugs with sharp and unrubbed hallmarks stamped behind, a very attractive and original dial, which is rare in its own respect. It features the last three digits of the case number hand-engraved on the inner rim of the bezel as well as the caseback, which is unusual and rare to come across. Reference 3448 was the first self-winding perpetual calendar wristwatch made by Patek Philippe and was introduced to the market in 1962. According to literature, there were 586 examples manufactured, 130 were cased in white gold with only 14 examples known to be fitted with an integrated bracelet. The present example (illustrated page 1) with an integrated bracelet without the usual pointed lugs belongs to a possibly unique variant of the much- appreciated reference. Furthermore, it is double-signed by Swiss retailer Gubelin, which takes its rarity to a whole new level and is stamped with -14 is the first example to ever surface on the market. Reference 3979 was one of the complicated watches launched in 1989 to celebrate Patek Philippes 150th anniversary. It was the first ever automatic minute repeater produced by the brand, and was sold with an enamel dial reminiscent of its traditional past and pocket watches. Produced from 1989 until 2002, only 100 examples of this reference were made, with the majority in yellow gold and approximately a dozen in platinum. The present watch is one of five known to the market and is in excellent overall condition. While Patek Philippes reference 5013 spanned two centuries, first released in 1992 and discontinued in 2010, it has the classic charm and iconic style of early 20th-century watches with a tonneau-shaped case and grand complication movement featuring repeat function combined with perpetual calendar and moon phase. With a long production span and with only 101 examples believed to be produced across four materials: yellow gold, pink gold, white gold and platinum, the reference 5013 is certainly a highly complicated timepiece to manufacture and is incredibly rare. Richard Mille Reference RM11-03 J.Todt from 2018 & A. Lange & Sohne Reference 712.050 from 2010 Hong Kong Watch Auction Regarded as one of the grail limited edition pieces with extreme interest in the market, The RM11-03 Jean Todt was Richard Milles first wristwatch to be encased in blue Quartz TPT and forged carbon. It was launched as a limited edition of 150 pieces to commemorate 50 years of the lauded former rally driver and CEO of Scuderia Ferrari, Mr. Jean Todt. Never before offered at auction, the present example numbered 46 is presented in excellent overall condition and is further charmed by the full set of accessories. Introduced as a limited edition of 50 pieces in 2010, the A. Lange & Sohne Tourbograph Pour le Merite in 18K honey gold belongs to an important collection of highly complicated wristwatches paying homage to F.A. Lange. Regarded as one of the most complicated wristwatches manufactured by the firm, the first Tourbillon Pour le Merite wristwatch was introduced in 1994. As a modern iteration of the highly complicated timepiece, the reference 712.050 is further enhanced by combining all elements together, and it is the first timepiece to incorporate a tourbillon, rattrapante chronograph and fusee-and-chain transmission by any manufacturer. World Time This season Phillips is pleased to offer a fine selection of one of the most versatile and practical timepieces on the market today, Patek Philippes World Time wristwatch. Sophisticated in mechanical design with a classic aesthetic, each of the seven examples demonstrates the wide appeal the World Time wristwatch has amongst collectors today, as well as Patek Philippes genius in creating a diverse collection of wristwatches. Produced in 300 examples, the Patek Philippe 5230G New York Special Edition was one of the most sublime and charming timepieces released by the brand in conjunction with its The Art of Watches Grand Exhibition in New York in 2017. Based on the traditional reference 5230G World Time with the caliber 240 HU, automatic movement with micro-rotor, the watch has an opaline blue dial with an Art Deco metal relief of the Manhattan skyline. In 2019, Patek Philippe introduced a new World Time reference 5231J-001, the first model of its reference to feature its covetable cloisonne enamel dial. Fitted with a cloisonne enamel dial, Patek Philippe executes the delicate craft to the highest level. To achieve the perfect cloisonne enamel dial, a thin gold wiring known as cloison are carefully sculpted to create the outline of the desired motif then applied on the surface of the dial. The present watch is in excellent overall condition and is the first example of the reference to be offered at auction. Patek Philippe Reference 5230G-010 from 2017 & Reference 5231J-001 from 2019 Hong Kong Watch Auction Tiffany & Co. Over the past century, Tiffany & Co. has risen to be one of the most respected and renowned luxury names in the world. In the section dedicated to Tiffany & Co., Phillips presents the finest examples from Patek Philippe and Rolex. Tiffany & Co. and Patek Philippe have been working together for over one and a half centuries. Tiffany & Co. sold their first Patek Philippe timepiece in 1851, and on December 22, 1854 Antoine Norbert de Patek met Charles Lewis Tiffany in New York, shaking hands over a partnership that is as strong today as it was back then. The relationship between Rolex and Tiffany & Co. began in the late 1950s, with Tiffany &Co. stamping Rolex dials with their name at their US service center. Subsequently, stamping was increasingly done in Geneva by Rolex. For decades, co- branded Rolex pieces could be serviced either at Rolex or at , but in the early 1990s, Rolex decided to no longer supply co-branded watches. As Rolex pieces co-signed by are no longer in production, the few examples made between the 1950s and the 1990s are rare and outstanding treasures. Rolex Reference 1680 from 1977 & Patek Philippe Reference 5496P-001 from 2015 Hong Kong Watch Auction Salmon Dials The dial is undisputedly the face of a watch: most of the first impression a watch gives to beholders is indeed entrusted to this component. Pink, rose, salmon dials have been employed for decades without any measurable loss of appeal. And pink dial variations of some vintage models are among the scarcest and most collectible examples of the reference, contributing to the ongoing mythical appeal of this color. Furthermore, the fact that one can find rose dials in the 1940s as well as in the 1990s and in contemporary timepieces undeniably suggests an objective aesthetic appeal of this soothing hue. This season, Phillips has dedicated a section of the sale to salmon dials, offering examples ranging from the early 20th century to current production models, allowing for a birds eye view of the evolution of this timeless and supremely attractive dial color. Reference 5270 was first launched in 2011, which replaced 5970. The present watch, reference 5270P, was the brands latest iteration that launched in 2018 and for the first time available in platinum for this reference. Being offered at auction for the first time, the present watch is in mint and unworn condition, representing an opportunity to own one of the most striking timepieces in Patek Philippes current collection. Introduced in 1963, the Rolex Day-Date reference 1802 with a polished bezel is most certainly rarer than its latter reference 1803 with a fluted bezel. The present example in 18K white gold features a much desired and attractive Salmon dial which contrasts beautifully against the white gold case with matching silvered hands and baton indexes. Spain's cabinet on Tuesday approved a decree designed to protect children from violence, making it mandatory to report abuse for anyone who detects it and extending the time period in which victims can report abuse they suffered as children. Nearly 38,000 minors were victims of violence in Spain in 2018 - but the government estimates that only one in five crimes committed against children is reported, meaning the number could be five times higher. "It is a landmark step for current and future generations of children and teenagers to grow up free of violence," said vice-president Pablo Iglesias, who is responsible for social rights, after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Under existing legislation, once a victim turns 18 they have a limited time window in which to report the abuse they endured, ranging from five to 20 years depending on the crime's severity. The new law would delay the start of this countdown until victims turn 30 for the most serious crimes, effectively giving victims more time to report severe abuse. The decree, which now has to be approved by parliament, is named "Rhodes Law" after the British concert pianist James Rhodes, who was raped as a child and wrote his testimony in an autobiography with harrowing details. Rhodes now lives in Spain and has advised the Spanish government on the legislation. Twitter on Tuesday launched a new test feature called Fleets in India, on the lines of stories on Instagram or Facebook, to allow users post messages that would disappear after 24 hours. Fleets do not have features, such as likes, retweets, or public replies. India is the third test market for this feature, after Brazil and Italy. India is important for Twitter since it is one of our largest and fastest-growing audience markets. We are excited to bring the fleets experiment to India and make it one of the first three countries to ... A company partnered with Uber wants to bring e-scooters to Hamilton even as the ride-hailing giant bails on running the citys popular bike-share network. But Lime says it is a separate company from its partner and investor, Uber, and that its e-scooter interest in Hamilton predates the threatened shutdown of SoBi bike share. Uber recently announced it would stop running Hamiltons bike share program June 1 despite a contract with the city through early 2021. Council is mulling legal options, but only last-minute community donations kept the network alive at least temporarily for 26,500 SoBi riders. Days after Ubers announcement, Lime registered to lobby the citys top planning official about the development and deployment of a micromobility system in Hamilton. Kick-style electric scooters are now allowed under a pilot program in Ontario but only in cities that sanction and regulate their use. E-scooters are billed as eco-friendly and affordable, but disability advocates warn the speedy, silent devices can be dangerous to blind and deaf residents on the sidewalk. Hamilton council likely wont vote on whether to allow e-scooters until the fall. Uber and Lime started out as competitors in the micromobility rental industry which includes traditional bicycles, e-bikes and scooters but the two are now linked as business partners and via repeated multimillion-dollar investments. That includes an $85-million Uber investment May 7. As part of the deal, Uber also transferred most of its bike-share operations to Lime but not Hamiltons network, which it decided to shut down. You can use the Uber app to rent bikes and e-scooters run by Lime. Industry media reported the deal also gives the ride-hailing giant the option of buying Lime outright in 2022. Lime government relations director Sam Sadle signed on to Hamiltons lobbyist registry May 22 with the intention of talking to the top city planner about starting a local e-scooter business. Sadle said he could not comment publicly about Limes plans in advance of speaking to the city. But a Lime spokesperson said Uber is an investor in the company, not an owner. Lime also registered a year ago to lobby Hamilton councillors about the potential of e-scooters once it became apparent Ontario was preparing to allow the technology. The Spectator asked if Limes business proposal would require city funding or other support and whether the fate of the bike share network is linked to the companys e-scooter plans. The company did not answer those questions. General manager of planning Jason Thorne said he has not met with Lime and city staff are focused on finding a new long-term bike-share operator via an planned request for proposals. Councillors reached by The Spectator said they would be wary of any request to partner again with Uber or an affiliated company, but they did not rule out the prospect of allowing legal e-scooters in Hamilton. Coun. Chad Collins said he would want to know more about the relationship between Lime and its investor if the company is seeking exclusivity or a contract with the city. Would it mean were essentially welcoming back Uber after they left us holding the bag on SoBi? Coun. Jason Farr also said he would be leery about proposals from an Uber-affiliated company, but added he is not familiar with Limes ownership or plans. The downtown councillor said he is generally supportive of the idea of legal e-scooters and added he would be interested in seeing one company offer both bike-sharing and e-scooter options. Read more about: India Inc committed Rs 4,316 crore, accounting for over half of its total commitments for coronavirus relief, to the PM-CARES Fund, a report by rating agency Crisil said on Tuesday. Photograph: Press Information Bureau The commitments made to the newly-created Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund by 113 top corporates are more than the Rs 3,221 crore allocated to other COVID-19 related relief work, Crisil Foundation said in a report on CSR during the pandemic. Since its launch in late March after India went into a lockdown, concerns about transparency have been expressed about the PM-CARES Fund and questions raised about the need for such a platform when mechanisms to render relief with people's help already exist and also meet transparency norms. The Supreme Court had rejected a plea against the fund. Last month, the government announced that the PM-CARES Fund is allocating Rs 3,100 crore for various measures including Rs 2,000 crore for purchase of ventilators, Rs 1,000 crore for helping migrants returning to their villages from cities and Rs 100 crore to support a vaccine development. Crisil said it analysed social sector spends by 130 companies, of which 113 have pledged support either in cash or kind, it said, adding that 84 of them contributed Rs 7,537 crore which can be classified as CSR spends. Of the remaining companies, 29 contributed Rs 373 crore to other funds, facilitated voluntary donations of Rs 84 crore which will not be classified as CSR spends, it said. It can be noted that there were reports of contributions done to chief ministers' relief funds not being accounted under the CSR spends. The Crisil report said a bulk 67 per cent or 56 of the 84 entities which have spent money are from the private sector and account for two-thirds of the contributions of Rs 7,537 crore, while 24 are public sector ones which contributed 30 per cent and seven were foreign ones. Of the 84 corporates that pledged support in cash, 36 companies from Maharashtra spent Rs 4,728 crore (63 per cent), followed by National Capital Territory of Delhi with 13 companies spending 17 per cent, while nine companies from Gujarat chipped in with 7 per cent of the Rs 7,537 crore of spends. In this set of 84 companies, 48 have spent on the COVID-19 cause at a corporate level and not at the group level, with 28 of them spending more than half of their total CSR spend of FY19 and 16 companies having spent at par with FY19 or even exceeded it, the report said. Other causes may take a back seat in FY21 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report rued. "The 'C' in CSR, the acronym for corporate social responsibility, can very well refer to COVID-19, it said. It also said that the overall CSR spending rose 14 per cent to Rs 11,392 crore in FY19, five years after it was made mandatory for companies of a certain size to allocate money for social good. Of the 4,817 listed companies, 1,976 met the criteria for mandatory CSR spending of which 1,276 actually spent, it said, adding 129 gave reasons like difficulty in identifying projects for not spending, 102 did not have any mentions in the annual reports and 150 said they were not required to spend. by Vladimir Rozanskij The parish priest of the Dormition church in the center of Moscow has died. One of the most controversial starets, the 93-year-old Archimandrite Petr (Kucher), from the Bogoljubovo monastery also died: he exalted Stalin and Ivan the Terrible. On the advice of the doctors, Patriarch Kirill renounces public celebration of Pentecost Mass. Pilgrims in Velikoretsk rejected by the population for fear of infections. Moscow (AsiaNews) - Despite the optimism with which Russia also opens up to Phase 2 of the quarantine for Covid-19, the pandemic does not seem to lose strength, showing further peaks of infection: in the last 24 hours almost 9 thousand people have tested positive. Deaths are also growing, on which official information is clearly in short supply. In the Orthodox Church there are further cases of death from the coronavirus. One of these concerns another Muscovite parish priest, the 65-year-old protoierej Mikhail Vasilev (photo 1), of the Church of the Dormition in the Sloboda of the Cossacks, in the center of the capital. The church, like other Russian churches, had been reopened for faithful since June 6, albeit with masks and distances. Father Mikhail was a spiritual assistant to the Army General Chief of Staff, and was in charge of the military base outside Moscow for the strategic artillery regiments. On June 6, one of the oldest and most controversial starets of Russia, the 93-year-old archimandrite Petr (Kucher, photo 2), also died He was the spiritual father of the historic Bogoljubovo monastery in Vladimir, where the palace of Andrej Bogoljubskij, one of the most important princes of Kievan Rus in the 12th century, still stands. Petr was one of the most symbolic leaders of "patriotic orthodoxy", openly supporting monarchical and anti-globalist theses, exalting the "spiritual conquests of the Soviet era" and the greatness of Josif Stalin, "a guide given by God". In his church he regularly displayed the icon of Ivan the Terrible, whose canonization he sought. In the diocese of Cherkasy in Ukraine, one of the youngest clerics of the patriarchate of Moscow died on June 5, the protoierej Dionisij Grunin (photo 3) only 34 years, after a few days of hospitalization in intensive care. At first the diocese had spoken of oncological disease, but in reality the young priest was victim of a virulent form of the coronavirus. Father Dionisij was pastor of the Church of the Mother of God "Joy of all the afflicted", at the clinic for the disabled in the city of Cherkasy. 18 of the 22 resident nuns have also become infected in the Alatyr monastery in the Chuvashja region, and thus also a substantial part of the male monastery in the same city. A few days ago the elderly metropolitan of Chuvashja Varnava (Kedrov) died of the virus. The Chief Rabbi of Russia, Berl Lazar, also fell ill with coronavirus, and was hospitalized. The same patriarch of Moscow Kirill (Gundjaev) has renounced the celebration of the solemnity of Pentecost last Sunday 7 June, on the advice of the doctors, and "not to compromise the solemn consecration of the church of Victory on 22 June", as stated in the statement of patriarchy. Until then the patriarch will celebrate only privately; on social media, several people are starting to propose appointing a "patriarchal lieutenant", given the prolonged absence of the head of the Russian Church from pastoral service. The great pilgrimage of the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas ended in Velikoretsk, in which several thousand pilgrims from all over Russia participated, despite formal prohibitions for the danger of infection. Many villagers along the way refused to welcome them, quench their thirst and feed them, as would be the tradition, by hanging the notice "Quarantine - Entry forbidden to pilgrims" on the gates and gates (photo 4). The doctors from the town of Velikoretsk, the final destination of the procession, also refused to assist the pilgrims, and the grocery stores remained closed, leaving the faithful without food. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:26:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close PHNOM PENH, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has required foreigners to pay for COVID-19 lab test, quarantine and treatment services, Economy and Finance Minister Aun Pornmoniroth said in a letter dated Monday and released to the media on Tuesday. The move was made at the request of the Ministry of Health, the letter said. Under the kingdom's health measures, all travelers, both Cambodians and foreigners, who travel to Cambodia will be transferred from airports to waiting centers for COVID-19 lab tests and they are required to wait for the test results at those centers. The letter said a foreigner must pay five U.S. dollars for a single trip between airport and waiting center, 100 dollars for a COVID-19 test, 30 dollars a day for staying at a hotel or at a waiting center to wait for the test result, and 30 dollars a day for three meals. It added that if anyone of the passengers is tested positive for the COVID-19, the rest of the passengers in the same group will be quarantined for 14 days, and each of them will be required to pay 100 dollars for one test and 84 dollars a day for hotel or quarantine facility, meals, laundry and sanitary services, doctors and security service. According to the letter, for COVID-19 positive patients, each of them will be required to pay 100 dollars for one test (maximum four tests) and 225 dollars a day for hospital room, medical treatment service, meals, and laundry and sanitary services. It added that the cremation service charge for a dead body is 1,500 dollars. For the issuance of a health certificate on COVID-19, a foreigner is required to pay 100 dollars for a lab test and 30 dollars for the certificate, the letter said. The Southeast Asian country has so far confirmed a total of 126 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 124 patients cured and two remained hospitalized, according to a Ministry of Health statement. Enditem Jean Mensa 09.06.2020 LISTEN A group calling itself the Concerned University Lecturers of Ghana has kicked against the decision of the Electoral Commission to compile a new voters register. In an Open Letter, signed by over 100 lecturers from various universities in the country, the EC boss entrenched position to exclude the current Voters ID card from the list of documents needed to secure a new ID card during the compilation of the new register could end up disenfranchising over 9 million Ghanaians. The letter also stated that the posture of the EC boss has poisoned the electoral environment and has the potential to completely erode the trust and confidence of the Commission. Below is the full letter to the EC Chairperson Dear Madam, AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION OF GHANA: ERR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION We the undersigned lecturers and staff from the various Universities in Ghana bring you fraternal greetings, and wish you and your team well in the performance of your duties in anticipation of a free, fair and transparent Presidential and Parliamentary elections in December 2020. This letter is necessitated by our concern for free, fair, and transparent elections and the need to ensure that events leading to, during, and after the elections conform to best and widely accepted practices in electoral management. In the last several months, we have observed with utmost concern that public conversations on matters relating to the impending 2020 elections have been characterized by a series of controversies that have the potential to completely erode the trust and confidence the Electoral Commission has jealously guarded over more than a quarter of a century since ushering in our new political dispensation. Experience has shown that our countrys success at previous elections was driven by the Commissions ability to nurture an environment of constructive deliberations that provide a voice for political parties and other stakeholders to discuss, work through compromises, and build consensus on accepted rules of engagement. It is our considered view that the Commission under your leadership seem to have thrown away the principle of constructive deliberation and consensus-building, and that to a very large extent has accounted for the current controversy. We are mindful of your constitutionally guaranteed independence but, we are also aware that the exercise of that independence over the years has been cognizant of the Commissions inter-dependent relationship with the political parties, other stakeholders and the citizenry at large. Your current unilateral departure from the previous approach to decision making by the Commission has poisoned the electoral environment and has the potential to undermine the credibility of the 2020 elections. We are particularly worried about the decision to compile completely new voters register given that our countrys constitutionally scheduled Presidential and Parliamentary elections are about six months away. The decision is puzzling for a number of reasons. 1. The existing register has been used by your office to conduct the following: i. 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections ii. 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections iii. A Referendum to create six (6) new administrative Regions in 2018 iv. A By-election at the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency, and v. District Assembly Elections in 2019 So far, we have not seen any evidence to suggest that an updated version of the existing register cannot perform same role in 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, as the outcomes of these elections have been described by your office and other stakeholders as some of the most credible elections in our countrys history. 2. We are worried about the international image of our country and wish to draw your attention to the negative effects of your decision to compile a new voters register, as that conduct will violate Section II Article 2 (1) of Protocol A/SP1/12/01 on Democracy and Good Governance Supplementary to the Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security, which forbids ECOWAS member nations from making any extensive changes to electoral regimes in the last six (6) months before elections. 3. In the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19, there is the likelihood that any process of voter registration will defeat the principles of social distancing and compromise the health of many citizens. Our nation is already compelled to shoulder unexpected financial burdens arising from the outbreak of the pandemic, and it will be an act of wisdom not engage in activities that will exacerbate that burden. Nothing should take precedence over healthy human lives, and so it is our considered view that existing voters register is updated as was done prior to both the recent referendum and District Assembly elections to pave the way for first-time voters to exercise their rights to participate in the electoral processes. 4. While we are happy to support the Electoral Commission in coming up with solutions to clearly defined problems, we are still unclear as to the specific problems and challenges the decision to compile new voters register is intended to solve. Although a new register as your plan cannot be possible given the proximity to our scheduled elections, we implore your office to provide evidence of the specific challenges it seeks to address with the register and we are happy to participate in constructive deliberations to assist your office with alternative policy options that will enhance our electoral credibility. In addition to our concerns about the compilation of a new voters register, we are even more worried about your decision to limit registration eligibility requirements to passports and Ghanacards. We are unable to understand why you seem to have lost confidence in voters identity cards issued by your office and rather gained confidence in uncompleted Ghanacard operations being undertaken by the National Identification Authority (NIA). Given that the NIA has itself admitted that its work cannot be completed till September 2020, we fear that your insistence on using the Ghanacard card will disenfranchise millions of Ghanaians. We are aware that the NIA currently registers persons fifteen (15) years and above and that can introduce underage persons into the register. Passports are a privilege in Ghana and only about two million Ghanaians (6.7% of the population) possess them, and it is possible that most holders of passports are also holders of Ghanacards. Taken together, holders of passports and Ghanacards will be approximately nine million citizens. If the registration requirement is limited to these two documents, you risk denying about nine million Ghanaians the right to vote in December 2020. Similarly, we are deeply concerned that if you proceed with your decision to exclude the existing voters identity card from the primary documents required for the registration, you will open the Commission up to avoidable multiple legal challenges especially from holders of the existing voters identity card who may feel their citizenship rights are threatened by your decision. It is important to keep in mind that millions of Ghanaians have never bothered to acquire passports because its acquisition has never been made mandatory for citizens, and often, it is perceived as a document that is necessary only when one has plans to travel abroad. It is therefore essential that the Commission acts in a manner that does not penalize some of our fellow citizens for their inability to possess documents for which until now, they have no reason to acquire. It is our considered view that although the Commission is mandated to register citizens for election purposes, the determination of who qualifies as a citizen of Ghana with voting rights falls outside its domain, hence the need to exercise extreme caution so as not to violate important constitutional provisions. We have taken note of the window you provided for those without the passports and Ghanacards to register if they are able to obtain guarantees from two registered voters. We are worried that this window is a recipe for disaster, as it will provide an entry point for several foreign nationals and underage persons to register. Respectfully, that window is also absurd as it makes a mockery of the sacred principles of citizenship itself, especially because it will give rise in some instances to people having to vouch for the citizenship of their biological parents simply on accounts of the latter not having the prescribed documents. It is important to note that a persons citizenship and the rights inherent are alienable and cannot be taken away simply because he or she does not possess a specific piece of paper. Given that your new eligibility requirements will make millions of Ghanaians ineligible to register and vote, we are worried about the adverse implications of that for the the legitimacy of recently elected Assembly Members, the President of Ghana, and the Members of the Legislature whose mandate is held on accounts of some of the persons likely to be disenfranchised by your decision. We wish to urge you to revisit the processes involved in the compilation of the existing Biometric Voters Register leading to the 2012 elections. In that process, all the political parties and other stakeholders were actively involved in decisions leading to the compilation, and everyone had adequate opportunity to make inputs. Entrenched positions were relaxed and compromise evolved. The process was free from political manipulation or intimidation and therefore provided all eligible persons the necessary and required environment to be captured in the biometric voters register. The biometric process itself was designed to ensure that only eligible voters whose bio-data was captured could be on the voters register. Overall, the high integrity of the process of registration makes the current register, without doubt, one of the fairest, most credible, and fit for purpose. Please be reminded that current President Nana Akufo Addo and the Members of Parliament were elected into office with the existing biometric register. Finally, we wish to urge you to act as a referee without any sign or acts of partiality. It is necessary for all stakeholders especially the political parties to go into the election without harbouring suspicion about your neutrality as the referee primarily because such a feeling is dangerous to the integrity and acceptability of the outcome, and the stability of our country. We are aware, that beautiful games have been marred by poor officiating, a domain you should avoid. It is our belief that a return to constructive deliberation is the surest way for developing a consensus and collective position in the interest of our country. Electoral disputes have resulted in the loss of millions of lives in other countries in the sub-region, and the lesson therein for us is to avoid belligerent decisions and intransigent and bellicose positions. Please feel free to contact Professor Kodzo Gavua on 020-813-0581; Professor Anthony M. Sallar on 054-315-4128; Dr. Nana Ama Brown-Klutse 024-498-3637 or via the following email address [email protected] if you need further clarification. Yours Sincerely, ______signed_____ 1. Professor Stephen Kendie, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 2. Professor Kodzo Gavua, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 3. Professor Ohene Adjei, (rtd) Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 4. Professor Fred Binka, Fmr. Vice-Chancellor, University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Ho 5. Professor Joshua Alabi Fmr. Vice-Chancellor, University of Professional Studies (UPSA), Accra 6. Professor Anthony M. Sallar, Ghana Institute of Management & Public Administration, (GIMPA), Accra 7. Professor Martin Oteng-Ababio, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 8. Professor Avea Nsoh, College of Languages Education, Ajumako, University of Education, Winneba 9. Professor Parpah Senanu Kwawukume, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 10.Professor Clement Opoku-Okrah, Radford University College, Accra 11.Professor Raymond Atuguba, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 12.Professor Emeritus Kwame Ninsin, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 13.Professor George Oduro, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 14.Professor Awuah-Nyamekye, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 15.Professor Emeritus Kwame Ninsin, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 16.Professor Victor Yankah, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 17.Professor Smile Dzisi, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua 6 18.Dr. Nana Ama Brown-Klutse, University of Ghana, Legon, Accea 19.Dr. Mchael Kpessa-Whyte, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 20.Dr. James Dzisah, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 21.Dr. Abukari Salifu, University for Development Studies, Tamale Campus 22.Dr. Vida N. Yakong, University for Development Studies, Tamale Campus 23.Dr. Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 24.Dr. Elijah Yendaw, Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Wa 25.Dr. Vincent Adzahlie-Mensah, University of Education, Winneba 26.Dr. Gameli Kwame Nordge (rtd) , University of Health and Allied Services, Ho. 27.Dr. Abdul Nashirudeen Mumuni, University for Development Studies, Tamale 28.Dr. Kwamina Mintah Nyarko, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 29.Dr. Vincent Assanful, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 30.Dr. Hussein Inusah, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 31.Dr. Kolawole Ojo, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 32.Dr. Alexis Akanson, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 33.Dr. Alexander Y. Segbefia, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 34.Dr. Sam Agblorti, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 35.Dr. Kaderi Bukari, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 36.Dr. Haruna Rufai Kilu, University of Professional Studies, Accra 37.Dr. Quaidoo Christopher, University of Professional Studies, Accra 38.Dr. Agbanyo Richard, University of Professional Studies, Accra 39.Dr. Chris Phares, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 40.Mr. Reindof Kesempkor, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 41.Mr. Martin Koomson, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 42.Dr. Benedicta Yayra Fosu-Mensah, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 43.Mr. John Linscell Yen, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 44.Mr. Ebenezer Domey, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 45.Dr. Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 46.Dr. Musah Dankwah, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 47.Mr. Selorm Klogo, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 48.Dr. Samson Obed Appiah, University of Ghana, Legon Accra 49.Dr. Kodzovi Akpabli Honu, University of Ghana, Legon Accra 50.Dr. Kwaku Agbanu, University of Ghana, Legon Accra 51.Dr. Francis Adzei, University of Ghana, Legon Accra 52.Mr. Fortune Adika- Bessah, University of Ghana, Legon Accra 53.Dr. Godfred Seidu Jasaw, University for Development Studies, Tamale 7 54.Dr. Edward Brenya, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 55.Dr. Salifu Seidu-Larry, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 56.Dr. Michael Mensah, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 57.Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Gedel, Accra Technical University, Accra 58.Dr. Yusuf Hadrat, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 59.Dr Sameul Azinga, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 60.Mr. David Wowui Brown, Accra Technical University, Accra 61.Mr . Azumah Bright Kojo, Accra Technical University, Accra 62.Dr. Issahaku Shriaz- University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 63.Mr. John Tumaku, Ho Technical University, Ho 64.Dr. Francis Atsu, Ghana Institute of Management & Public Administration, (GIMPA), Accra 65.Dr. William Darbi, Ghana Institute of Management & Public Administration, (GIMPA), Accra 66.Dr. Nene-Lomotey Kuditchar. University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 67.Dr. Abdallah Mumuni, University of Professional Studies, Accra 68.Mr. Mattthew Monyo, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua 69.Dr. Butakor K. Paul, University of Professional Studies, Accra 70.Mr. Timothy Avordeh, University of Professional Studies, Accra 71.Mr. Michael Kubi, University of Professional Studies, Accra 72.Dr. Zubairu Ibrahim, Accra Technical University, Accra 73.Dr. Edem Bani, Accra Technical University, Accra 74.Mr. Martin Out Offei, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua 75.Dr. Gideon Adotey, Accra Technical University, Accra 76.Dr. Pius Siakwah, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 77.Dr. Abu Mumuni, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 78.Dr. John Kanyiri Yambah, University of Education, Winneba 79.Dr. Abass Kabila, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 80.Reuben Glover Esq, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 81.Mr. Bismark Agbelengor, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua 82.Dr. Collins Nunyonameh, Ho Technical University, Ho 83.Dr. Aminu Dramani, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 8 84.Mr. Mawutorwu Doe, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua 85. Mr. Jonny Osei, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 86.Dr. Evans Agalega, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua 87.Dr. Paulina Ampomah, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 88.Dr.Shaibu Akansiseh, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 89.Mr. Ebenezer Annan, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua 90.Mr. Seth E. K. Gati, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 91.Dr. S. K. Kuwor, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra. 92.Mr. Kofi Anthonio, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 93.Mr. Mustapha, Mohamed, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua 94.Dr. Yao Elikem, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 95.Mr. Christopher Alatarige, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 96.Dr. Deodat E. Adenutsi, Ho Technical University, Ho 97.Dr. Emmanuel Osei Sarpong. University of Education, Winneba 98.Ms. Vivian Akpalu, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua 99.Dr. Ben Kwofie, Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua 100. Mr. Stephen Adingo, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra 101. Dr. Adam Salifu, University of Professional Studies, Accra Those who issued illegal orders, including military and political leaders of Russian Federation, could be added to the list of suspects in the case on downing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 along with the actual perpetrators of the crime, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yevhen Yenin has said. "As far as I know, the international investigation group of investigators and prosecutors from the Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Belgium, Ukraine continue a pre-trial investigation. I do not rule out that the list of suspects may be enlarged. It may include not only the actual perpetrators of this crime, but also those who issued relevant illegal orders, including military and political leaders of the Russian Federation," he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine. Since Memorial Day Texas has seen a 36-percent increase in hospitalizations due to COVID-19, new data released Tuesday by the Department of State Health Services show. On Tuesday, the state reported 2,056 hospitalizations the highest number since the pandemic first reached Texas in March. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told KSAT viewers in San Antonio that he is watching the data carefully to guide how much more the state can continue to reopen businesses. We are still evaluating whether or not there was any increase because of Memorial Day and now whether or not there could be an increase in the aftermath of these very large protests that have taken place, said Abbott, a Republican. Eric Gay /Associated Press DATA GLITCH: In easing coronavirus restrictions, Gov. Abbott touted low hospitalizations. The numbers were way off. While hospitalizations are up, Texas is still reporting more than 15,000 hospital beds available and almost 6,000 ventilators available. Every Texan who needs access to a hospital bed will have access to a hospital bed, said John Wittman, Abbotts director of communications. The 2,056 hospitalizations reported on Tuesday were 121 more than Monday and up 545 from Memorial Day. Over the last seven days, Texas has averaged 1,877 hospitalizations per day, up from the previous week when the state averaged 1,715 per day. The Houston region was already showing its own spike in hospitalizations. COVID-19 patients have occupied hospital intensive-care units in the nine-county Houston area at higher levels the first three days in June than they did on any single day in May, according to date compiled by the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council, a state group that coordinates the regions emergency response to disasters. In Harris County, hospital admissions have increased at statistically significant levels the past two weeks. GETTING TESTED: Where can I get tested for COVID-19 in San Antonio? Abbott has been allowing businesses to reopen since May 1, when he first announced retail stores, restaurants, malls and movie theaters could reopen to 25 percent capacity. He later allowed those types of businesses to go to 50 percent. And last week, Abbott announced that essentially all businesses in Texas can now operate at 50 percent of their maximum occupancy, including bars, amusement parks and carnivals where there have been less than 1,000 cases of COVID-19. On Friday, under Abbotts reopening plan, all restaurants will be allowed to move to 75 percent capacity. And starting next Friday carnivals and amusement parks in all counties can reopen to 50 percent capacity. COVID-19 data compiled by the Hearst Newspapers data team shows statewide, Texas saw its number of positive cases of the virus climb from 75,582 to 76,779 on Monday an increase of 1,197 cases. More than 1,840 people in Texas have died from COVID-19, but Wittman noted that the toll in Texas remains far less than in other states. In New York, more than 24,000 people have died. In California, more than 4,600 people have died. Josie Norris / Staff photographer FROM THE FRONTLINES: San Antonio nurse returns from COVID-19 hot zone On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, pointed to the rising hospitalizations and COVID-19 cases in Texas as a warning to New Yorkers as that state begins to reopen its economy. Cuomo said New Yorkers have to continue to be smart with social distancing to avoid spikes like those in Arizona, Texas and Florida. New York has reported fewer new COVID-19 cases over the last seven days than Texas. New York had 6,442 new cases over the last 7 days. Texas has had 10,736. While Abbott has pushed aggressively to reopen the Texas economy, he has warned that the pandemic hasnt ended. COVID-19 hasnt suddenly left the state of Texas or the United States, Abbott said last week. We need to continue these self-distancing practices as we await the arrival of medications that will treat people who test positive for COVID-19. On Monday, Abbott announced he was expanding testing in underserved and minority communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the virus. "We must address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underserved and minority communities and ensure that anyone who needs a test can have one, Abbott said. As many Texans continue to gather for protests, the state is also taking steps to address potential surges in COVID-19 cases. Mumbai, June 9 : Ditching traditional theatrical release amid the COVID-19 crisis, the Janhvi Kapoor-starrer "Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl" will be getting a direct-to-OTT release. The news was officially confirmed by the makers and the streaming platform Netflix on Tuesday. No release date has been announced yet. "Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl" is inspired by the life of Indian Air Force combat pilot Gunjan Saxena, and stars Janhvi in the titular role. Saxena entered the war zone during the 1999 Kargil War. The makers have shared a short video showcasing the journey of the real-life Gunjan Saxena with an introduction by Janhvi to her character in the film. "'Gunjan Saxena' is a defining film based on a true story about a woman who showed unparalleled courage, and inspiration to many in the coming years. We are excited to share this fearless story about following your heart and your dreams with millions around the world," said Karan Johar, who has backed the film through his production house, Dharma Productions. Directed by Sharan Sharma, the cast also features Pankaj Tripathi, Angad Bedi, Viineet Kumar, Manav Vij and Ayesha Raza. "'Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl' is a story of pure courage and determination and we can't wait to premiere it," said Monika Shergill, VP-Content at Netflix. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text What happens when a local police department has no policies, no training and no oversight? I found out firsthand 11 years ago, and I was the mayor of East Haven. On a Friday evening in September 2009, I found myself in the back room of an Ecuadorian market on Main Street. This was not the usual time for a campaign meet and greet but this was different and for serious reasons. I was invited by the owner who wanted me to hear firsthand and unfiltered the stories and experiences of primarily Latino residents at the hands of our local police. The tiny room was filled with roughly 30 people, including many children interpreting for their parents. I was told that many were undocumented. Most of the attendees appeared to be exhausted. It was late in the evening and clear that a long and arduous workday was behind them. They came to share story after story of how specific members of the East Haven Police Department had been terrorizing them for years and how appeals to the chief had fallen on deaf ears, almost as if his rogue officers and their misconduct had his blessing. These individuals told gut-wrenching stories of being pulled over for driving while Latino, threatened and roughed up in front of their young children. Several stated they had been dragged out of their houses, followed to work, arrested and held for no apparent reason. These were stories that I knew all too well as I had been contacted by the FBI earlier in the year to assist them and the U.S. Department of Justice with their investigation of our local police. Their stated objective was to determine whether constitutional rights of residents were being violated in a systematic manner. In other words, was this a direct result of a culture that evolved over many years within the EHPD. At that moment an older man in the room spoke up for the first time. In broken English he said, We know you believe us. We know that you know we are telling the truth. Look at what they did to you. If they can do that to you what do you think they will do to us? He was referring to my own arrest at the hands of the East Haven police. Several weeks earlier an officer assigned to the East Haven town beach parking lot on a sunny summer weekend had ordered numerous cars to be towed without any warning to the crowd on the beach. When people objected he was heard to have said Thank your mayor for this. As luck would have it, I arrived at the beach moments later. Several townspeople observed their cars being removed and asked me to do something about it. As mayor, I told the tow truck drivers to return the cars. That, apparently, was my crime. It is also worth noting that the officer involved had been a Republican candidate on the slate running against me in the previous election. Of course, the charges against me were dropped once the matter went before a judge. I was asked to make a halfhearted statement regretting the entire incident. To this day, however, I am concerned how some police officials use their power to intimidate citizens, let alone elected officials. The story of the East Haven Police Department does have a happy ending. The FBI and Department of Justice delivered on their promise. The town agreed to adopt national best practices in training, policies and oversight. New police leadership was recruited and a diverse group of officers hired. Today, under the leadership of Chief Lennon, crime in East Haven is at a historic low and morale among officers is at an all-time high. Most importantly, members of the community have renewed confidence and trust in local law enforcement. The rebuild was not without pain and great cost to the community however; four officers who took a solemn oath of service and to protect the community were sent to federal prison for violating that oath and public trust. Additionally, taxpayers were forced to underwrite the cost of defending lawsuits and settling legal claims. This didnt have to happen in East Haven and it doesnt have to happen anywhere else. We can give communities the tools that keep police departments safe from politics while also holding them accountable for protecting the civil rights of everyone who resides in our country. Proper police training, ongoing reviews of protocol and increased community policing are just some of the ways we can work towards ending police abuse and providing all with equal dignity and justice. Former President Obamas 2015 Task Force on 21st Century Policing report provides a blueprint for addressing the problems that have sent millions of Americans into the streets in recent weeks. East Havens experience of implementing most of those recommendations proves they work. The Connecticut General Assembly can, and should, take this issue up in a special session and do something now to address the unrest and uncertainty going on around all of us. If I am fortunate to be elected in November, I pledge to continue this work. April Capone is a former mayor of East Haven and a candidate for the 34th District state Senate seat. S Lalitha By Express News Service BENGALURU: The first of 35 flights to Kempegowda International Airport scheduled under the Vande Bharat Mission Phase-3 landed on Monday morning. The flights will land in Bengaluru between June 8 and July 1. Twenty of these will be from the US alone, with one each from Chicago (which arrived on Monday) and Los Angeles, and the rest from San Francisco. Airport sources said the first flight from San Francisco will reach Bengaluru on June 13, followed by daily flights from June 16 to July 1. Only on June 28, two flights will operate on that route. The flight from Los Angeles will arrive in the state capital on June 19.The government will run at least one flight each from France, Japan, Maldives, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Netherlands, Nepal, New Zealand and Russia. But these are tentative and could change depending on demand, an airport source said. Twitteratti bombarded Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Suri with complaints of high ticket fares and blocking of tickets by agents. Suri conceded that fares were higher than usual, but pointed out they were reasonable compared to those paid by people heading back to other countries on the same routes. He tweeted that travellers to Tel Aviv paid `82,500 while Indian citizens pay `51,938 to fly to India from there. Flyers from India to Toronto paid `1.62 lakh and Rs 1.84 lakh to Vancouver while Indian citizens pay `1.07 lakh to return from Canadian cities. The first flight of VBM was launched on May 6. A statement by Air India read, AI has in Phase I operated 64 flights and evacuated 12,708 Indians. In Phase-2, till date 52,113 Indians have been brought home. Small crowds are set to be allowed to attend AFL games in South Australia and New South Wales this weekend. But the AFL appears resigned to the fact that both the Queensland and Victorian governments will hold their ground and fans in those states will have to wait. The AFL was left somewhat perplexed by South Australia's decision to allow fans back in the stands in Adelaide, having only heard the news after it was made public. Port Adelaide have welcomed the move SA Premier Steven Marshall announced on Tuesday and ahead of Saturday night's Showdown, which is technically a home game for the Power. Two thousand people will be allowed into the general admission area of Adelaide Oval when Port Adelaide and Adelaide meet in the local derby, with an additional 240 people in private rooms across the complex. To ensure that most vulnerable Latino populations receive vital public health advisories about COVID-19, d exposito & Partners developed a Spanish-language Public Service Announcement or PSA that is currently running on CNN en Espanol, Telemundo and Univision via its campaign dubbed, "Lucha vs. El Virus." ADWEEK has reported that the video's accentuated English version "just got picked up by CNN and NBC." The videos feature superhero-like wrestlers, also called "luchadores," that perform professional wrestling in Mexico known as "Lucha Libre." The audience see the luchadores, in the video, wearing masks as they perform. Double Meaning of 'Lucha' In Mexican professional wrestling, betting is sometimes done over the fighters' masks. If a wrestler is unmasked, it typically means what ADWEEK has described as his "retirement from the sport." d exposito & Partners COO, Paco Olavarrieta said, they were "playing the Spanish word lucha's double meaning." One of which means to struggle or fight. It is also symbolically used as an expression of one that is working hard or carrying on in the fight. The other meaning is that, embedded in the Spanish term, "lucha libre," where performers or luchadores are wearing masks to conceal their real identity. This is an opportunity Olavarrieta said, they saw, to influence the cultural vision "to remind Hispanics" to stay in the fight." He also said that as in this kind of Mexican sport, the wrestler who loses his mask loses his fight, as well. Inspired by What's Missing This spring season, d exposito & Partners founder and CEO Exposito-Ulla watched while the COVID-19 pandemic prompted public health PSAs, as well as the concerned advertisements that offer reassurance for their brand. However, she noticed, one thing was missing: not much information about COVID-19 was translated in Spanish. "On the Hispanic Side," she said, the viewing public is not getting much. Essentially, Latinos have been greatly affected by COVID-19. Based on the latest data, as of this writing from COVID Racial Data Tracker, Latinos seem to have excessively higher rates of COVID-19 than projected across Washington D.C. and 42 states. In several states, the same data showed that the figure is "as much as four times" more significant. Exposito-Ulla also explained that, in general, communities of color, as well as the Latino community, have turned out to be essential workers. She also noted that "Hispanics overrepresent in farm work, the service industry and other low-income works that are unlikely to provide an opportunity for the employees to work safely from home. Be a Luchador for a Day Also featured in the campaign is an amusing AR filter that can be accessed through Facebook and Instagram. It allows an individual to be a "luchador" for a day. The agency posted a short video on Instagram o Thursday featuring an employee explaining that "masks should be worn," whether one is going to the grocery store or a walk, off to work or out to join the protests. Also, in early April, d exposito & Partners collaborated with the Ad Council to assist in the translation of its PSA dubbed, as #AloneTogether or "Quedate en Casa" in Spanish. The said translation was shared on social media to extend the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC to Americans who are Spanish-speaking. Check these out! YEREVAN. The United Nations in Armenia has mobilized 1 million USD from the UN Secretary-Generals global COVID-19 Recover Better Fund to tackle the immediate and short-term socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in Armenia, leveraging the ongoing multi-sector response. Titled COVID-19 and Resilience in Armenia: Mitigating the Socio-Economic Impact on Vulnerable People and Communities, the Joint Programme combines the work of seven UN Agencies, UNDP, UNICEF, IOM, UNFPA, UNIDO, FAO and UNHCR. Under the guidance of the UN Resident Coordinator, the Joint Programme seeks to support the Government and people of Armenia by addressing specifically the needs of the most vulnerable populations in Armenia, including families of children with disabilities, single mothers, elderly people, survivors of domestic violence, frontline workers, displaced persons and labor migrants, as well as stressed small businesses. The UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia, Shombi Sharp announced the new initiative yesterday during a joint discussion on the broader COVID-19 response between the UN Country Team and the Government of Armenia, with Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and key Ministry representatives. We at UN Armenia have worked hard to develop a new partnership that will help strengthen Government capacities and initiatives to directly support people and communities most vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19, helping ensure no one is left behind, Mr. Sharp said during the discussion. On behalf of the Government, I would like to thank the United Nations for being by Armenia's side at this difficult time, and I also appreciate the constructive cooperation established with the United Nations in Armenia. The goal of all of us is to effectively fight the pandemic and to mitigate its socio-economic consequences as much as possible," the Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia, Mher Grigoryan emphasized. Priority outcomes of the Joint Programme include: 1) rights and evidence-based social protection measures - particularly cash transfer and primary services - to enhance and expand the coverage for minimizing exposure and vulnerability of disadvantaged groups to socio-economic impacts of COVID-19; and 2) support and promotion of employment and entrepreneurship efforts for disadvantaged persons and micro, small and medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) including through improved access to financial and technical assistance, as well as digital innovation. The support from the Recover Better fund became possible thanks to the first contributions of Governments of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark enabling the UN to launch the COVID-19 response fund. Organizations and individuals who wish to support this initiative may do so via the specialized website by directly earmarking their contribution to Armenia, or contacting the UN Armenia Resident Coordinator Office for further information. *The Recover Better Fund is a UN inter-agency finance mechanism launched by UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres in April 2020 in support of low- and middle- income countries to overcome the health and development crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fund, administered by the Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF), targets those most vulnerable to economic hardship and social disruption. For more information on the MPTF, please refer to here. Bahrain Aluminium Extrusion Company (Balexco), the Bahrain-based aluminium extrusion company, today announced the appointment of Jassim Mohamed Seyadi as its Board Chairman. He brings to this role more than 41 years of experience including 27 in the insurance sector and 14 years in manufacturing industry management. With an academic background in insurance and corporate law, Seyadi started his career with Balexco as General Manager and has gone on to serve as the companys CEO, Managing Director and board member prior to assuming the chairmanship of the board , which has been successfully restructured under his guidance and direction. Balexco, under his management, has continued to be profitable and make operational progress including the successful revamp of three presses, in addition to the establishment of a new press line 4, electrical stabilizer, new anodizing plant and new vertical powder coating and gas station, which all add value to the company in terms of assets and production, said a statement. Seyadi has also held other significant board roles including having served as a member of the board of directors of Technal Middle East for several years, where he was appointed as chairman of the board of directors. He is also known for his charitable contributions to the community serving as Chairman for The Bahraini Union for Disabled, Bahrain Association for Parents & Friends of Disabled, and as a member for the High Committee for the Disabled in Bahrain. - TradeArabia News Service The Mexican government recently froze the bank accounts of nearly two thousand people and businesses after authorities found they had ties to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) through a money-laundering network. According to a report by Mexico News Daily, the nation's Financial Intelligence Unit (U.I.F.) has frozen the bank accounts of over 1,770 individuals, 167 businesses, and two trust funds, citing connections to the CJNG cartel group as the reason. The parties were allegedly involved in a money-laundering network of companies using the tequila business as a front. Operation: Blue Agave The operation, which was dubbed Blue Agave-the main ingredient in tequila-was carried out by the collaborative effort of the U.I.F. and the United States D.E.A. The amounts frozen in the operation reportedly totaled to over U.S.D. $1.1 billion-$666 million came from suspect domestic transactions, $330 million in international transfers, and $137 million in USD transactions. According to the U.I.F., main leaders, financial operators, lawyers, and public servants were involved in the crime. They also benefited from the illegal activities of the CJNG. The cartel is recognized as one of the most brutal organized crime groups in Mexico. The U.S. D.E.A. says the cartel is responsible for surging levels of violence in the country. They were also described as one of the most prolific producers of methamphetamine in the world. The United States is offering a $10 million reward for information that would lead to the arrest of the infamous Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes. Tequila and the Underworld Criminal groups had links to the tequila industry since 2006 when the D.E.A. first discovered a connection between tequila and drug trafficking schemes in Mexico. At the time, the tequila industry was found to have ties to the Tijuana Cartel. A report published by the U.S. Department of Treasury in September 2006 claimed 4 Reyes, a tequila company, was involved in laundering drug money for the cartel, which operated across Mexico and the United States. Nearly seven years later, the American drug agency uncovered bottles of tequila that were used to transport cocaine. Two tequila companies-the Casa Tequila El Viejo Luis and Tequila El Aventon-were later identified to be front companies for the Los Gueros cartel. The tequila distribution companies served allowed the cartel to introduce the drugs to Northern America. Authorities identified four brothers as the operators of the cartel-two of whom were arrested and extradited to the United States. They were charged for trafficking drugs and laundering money. In 2015, U.S. officials discovered that the Onze Black tequila company had been set up by the Los Cuinis-a drug gang known to have affiliations to the Jalisco drug cartel. Earlier this year, officials arrested the daughter of the Jalisco cartel's leader for associating with businesses that were blacklisted in the United States. Read the latest news here: North Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 9, 2020) - Aurora Solar Technologies Inc. (TSXV: ACU) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has received an order to supply a major China-based manufacturer of high-efficiency PERC solar cells with nine DM-110h measurements systems. "We are excited to have been awarded this initial business from another one of the top ten global solar cell manufacturers. With this new customer in Aurora's most important market, Aurora has now sold products to six of these ten dominant manufacturers," said Gordon Deans, Aurora's Chief Executive Officer. "This order demonstrates expansion of our market in China, and we continue to appreciate the confidence that our customers - both existing and new - have placed in Aurora's solutions," he continued. Aurora expects to ship these DM measurement systems during the current and next fiscal quarter. About Aurora Solar Technologies: Aurora Solar Technologies is a leader in the development and delivery of inline process measurement, analysis and control systems for solar cell manufacturers. We believe that solar power will dominate the renewable energy field, and our mission is to bring quality and profitability to every customer through superior control of critical processes during solar cell manufacturing. Aurora's products are used by some of the world's most advanced and respected solar cell manufacturers. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, Aurora has operations in Shanghai, China and partners in all major solar manufacturing markets. Aurora is a public company, traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (ACU) and is a two-time TSX-V Top 50 winner. Aurora's website is located at www.aurorasolartech.com . For further information contact: Jake Bouma Corporate Development Phone: +1 (604) 317-3936 corpcom@aurorasolartech.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. Story continues Not for distribution to United States Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57278 An Afghan commando who fatally shot a Utah mayor serving in the National Guard in 2018 had planned the killing for weeks, according to an army investigative report. U.S. Intelligence screeners failed to act swiftly enough on signs of the radicalization of the commando who was being trained by Maj. Brent Taylor, according to the report that was obtained through a public records request by the Standard-Examiner newspaper in Ogden, Utah. Taylor, 39, had taken a yearlong leave of absence as mayor of North Ogden for his deployment to Afghanistan. Gen. Austin Scott Miller, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in the report's summary that officials identified numerous missed opportunities to prevent Taylor's death on November 3, 2018, the Standard-Examiner reported on June 8. A person who had interviewed the shooter failed to act on several signs of potential radicalization, including his expressed disdain for Americans, the report said. We could and should have done better. We will learn from this tragedy," Miller said. Miller agreed with most of the investigation's findings but disagreed with the conclusion that camp leadership had been lax on security. Jennie Taylor, the majors wife, said she and other family members received a briefing about the investigation last fall. She told the newspaper that she is not bitter about missteps that may have played a part in her husbands death. People are not perfect and there were errors in the system, she said. All of us can look at it as individuals and find room for improvement and find fault but not have bitterness. Theres just not time in life for that bitterness. The killing occurred while Brent Taylor and the trainees were on a weekly training hike, the report said. They were making a final turn back to camp when Sgt. Asfar Khan of the Afghan special forces Taylor was helping train fired two to three shots, hitting Taylor in the back of the head, officials said. A fellow U.S. Army member on the hike was shot in the back but fired back at Khan. Afghan commandos shot Khan as he tried to escape, killing him. After the killing, investigators discovered a nine-minute video on Khan's phone outlining his plans to kill Taylor. The report said the 20-year-old from Kabul and other commandos thought a police chief had been killed by Americans with the help of Afghan forces. Khan said in the recording found on his phone that he had planned to kill Taylor as part of a plan to show he could be a leader of a movement to combat what they perceived as people trying to kill all Muslims, the report said. 'This group will not accept defeat until the Americans are defeated ... and we will never surrender alive, the report said, citing the recording. Insider attacks against U.S. troops by member of the Afghan security forces have been a recurring problem since 2012, prompting U.S. commanders to take stronger protective measures. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will in the coming days restore the licenses of some fund management companies whose licenses were revoked in 2019. The Chief Executive Officer of the SEC, Rev. Daniel Ogbamey Tetteh made this known in a radio interview on Accra based Citi FM Tuesday morning. In the radio interview with Citi FM's Bernard Avle, Rev Tetteh said eight of the firms appealed to the Administrative Hearing Committee of the SEC and some of them have been successful, hence the decision to restore their licenses. There were eight firms that appealed and this was soon after the revocation. They appealed against the revocation. So, the administrative hearings committee, which excludes myself and the executives have within this period also been meeting the various firms and hearing their cases. And I can confirm that they have recently completed hearing these cases and some of them were successful, others were not. If you are successful, it means that, your appeal to have the revocation lifted has been successful, he said. We will be publishing the list in the coming days because when we did the revocation exercise, we published it. We will be publishing in the coming days, the list of those who have been successful and those who were not successful. It will be clear so that everyone will know where these companies stand, he added. Regarding the firms that went to court, Rev. Ogbamey Tetteh said such cases are at various stages. There were four companies that went directly to court to ask for a judicial review for them regarding the revocation decision. It hasnt been fully determined. They are at various stages, he added. The SEC CEO explained that there is a provision in the Securities Industries Act for anyone who has an issue to do with any decision of the commission or any issue within the industry to make an appeal to the Administrative Hearing Committee of SEC or the courts. Affected fund management companies that resorted to the Administrative Hearing Committee according to Rev. Ogbamey included Monarch, Intermarket also known CDH, Black Shield formally known as GoldCoast Securities, Kripa Capital, Kron Capital and Frontline Capital. Those who went to court include APEX Capital, Ideal Finance, Omega Capital and First Bank. Background The financial sector clean-up was commenced by the Akufo-Addo administration in August 2017. It led to the collapse of nine universal banks, 347 microfinance companies, 39 microcredit companies or money lenders, 15 savings and loans companies, eight finance house companies, and two non-bank financial institutions. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November 2019 also revoked the licenses of 53 Fund Management Companies. SEC, in a statement explained that the revocation follows the companies failure to return client funds which remain locked up and in a number of cases, have even folded up their operations. The action was taken pursuant to Section 122 (2) (b) of the Securities Industry Act, 2019 (Act 929) which authorizes SEC to revoke the license of a market operator under some circumstances. Included in the list of the defunct companies was Black Shield Fund Management, a subsidiary of Groupe Nduom. SEC selected branches of Consolidated Bank of Ghana Limited (CBG) to receive claims from clients who have their funds locked up at the affected companies. The banks were tasked to accept relevant documents for the validation of the investment claims. According to SEC, the said branches serving as agents were authorized to ascertain and validate details of investors and their investments with these institutions at the time of the revocation to facilitate the administration of the Government pay-out of a capped amount to affected investors. 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 South Africa needs to adopt a more localised and differentiated approach in the next phase of its management of the Covid-19 pandemic. South Africa moved into level three of a five-tier lockdown on June 1, 2020. Michele Spatari / AFP via Getty Images Five key ingredients Way forward This might not be as difficult as it seems at first glance. Firstly, some of groundwork has already been done. The minister of health outlined a classification of districts in terms of three categories . These were: areas of vigilance (fewer than five cases per 100,000 people); emerging hotspots (fewer than five cases per 100,000 people, but rapid rise in infections); and hotspots (more than five cases per 100,000 people), with periodic reviews of area classifications. It seems that hotspots will be the focus for increased attention as the country progressively eases up on restrictions.Another reason South Africas localised response will be made a little easier is that the country has extensive lessons to draw from three decades of managing HIV/AIDS. As with HIV, Covid-19 infections are currently clustered within certain geographical areas and pose greater risk for particular populations For a localised approach to work, however, five crucial steps need to be taken. These range from intensified screening and testing in hotspot areas to focused attention on high risk transmission sites and adjusting to local cycles of restrictions.In addition, this risk-adjusted approach to Covid-19 will require local participation and a multi-sectoral response.This strategy is not a magic bullet solution to managing ovid-19. But its potential effectiveness lies in promoting greater social and political solidarity that is grounded in the realities of peoples lives, where people will find it easier to collectively develop workable solutions.Key activities are required for an effective localised Covid-19 management response, based on the following interventions.The first is intensified screening and testing in hotspot areas. Spreading limited Covid-19 screening and testing nationally will place strain on the health workforce. This therefore requires intensifying screening and testing in the hardest hit districts. This was a key component of managing the HIV pandemic.Covid-19 testing could be scaled up using the GeneXpert platform currently used to diagnose tuberculosis (TB). South Africa was the first country to roll out the platform. This method has the advantage of being rolled out in mobile laboratories. For the moment, however, theres a shortage of cartridges.Secondly, urgent steps need to be taken to locate and screen high risk and vulnerable people.Epidemiologists predict that Covid-19 cases will peak in July or August. Vulnerable populations include people older than 55 years, those with existing co-morbidities and poor and marginalised people. For the latter, living arrangements and lack of water and sanitation make it difficult for them to practise physical distancing and wash their hands.Here, the services built for HIV and TB could be mobilised. These include surveillance systems to trace and screen people.Thirdly, focused attention is needed on high risk transmission sites. These include provincial borders, main transport routes, country borders, taxi ranks, truck stops, shopping centres, work places, retail services and schools.And rapid testing is recommended for people moving between high and low infection areas.As has already begun to happen, infection levels should inform decisions on opening of businesses, health services and schools. Schools or workplaces may have to be assessed as a community within a community with a differentiated approach depending on Covid-19 prevalence and local health system capacity to respond.Fourthly, there needs to be a scaling up of serological testing. The current polymerase chain reaction based testing is reliable for diagnosing active cases. But it must be paired with reliable antibody based serological testing.Antibody tests could identify individuals who have been infected as well as those who have recovered from infection, therefore indicating better estimates of Covid-19 prevalence. Equally important, serological testing would provide demographic profiles and recovery rates It would geo-locate the areas where a high proportion of individuals with antibodies are.These tests can be done by nurses at a clinic or hospital. They are usually much cheaper than lab tests and give results in less than 20 minutes. But they have a shortcoming; they test for antibodies, not the virus directly, so a person who has been infected and recovered will test positive.The science of antibody based serological testing is still evolving. There are still unanswered questions. For example: how long after exposure and infection do antibodies develop? Are antibodies likely to be protective from repeated exposures? Is the sensitivity and specificity of antibody tests effective enough to minimise misclassification of Covid-19 infection?The phased application of these tests with repeat large scale surveys, as we have seen with HIV surveillance surveys, would provide a better picture of the evolving epidemic. It would help improve decision-making about infection control in communities and afford greater protection in areas where there is a concentration of vulnerable people.Finally, the country needs to adjust to local cycles of restrictions and release. With no vaccine or effective treatment yet for Covid-19, communities in different parts of the country are likely to move between levels of lockdowns, either escalated or de-escalated, informed by Covid-19 infection rates.The shifting and revolving approach to restrictions and release will no doubt cause disruptions to the economy, straining health and social care systems and creating major social anxieties within communities. Therefore, clear messaging from government is required on the rationale for restrictions being implemented at the district level.The lived realities of Covid-19 will differ according to place and context. This will entail multiple and different trade-offs for South Africans.A localised response therefore should facilitate conversations between different constituencies. Here too the country can draw on lessons in managing the HIV/Aids pandemic. This provided examples of community based strategies to manage a pandemic by promoting social capital, trust and local leadership to enable behaviour changes that protected health.There is no exit strategy for Covid19 in the foreseeable future. A localised response that builds on social forms of agency should be the way forward.Cherie Cawood, CEO Epicentre Aids Risk Management, contributed to this article.This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article EDWARDSVILLE With the SIUE campus closed for nearly three months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SIUE Police Department has had to adjust to the new normal. But one thing hasnt changed, whether its on the main campus in Edwardsville, or in East St. Louis or Alton. Our main mission, as always, is to keep the campus safe, SIUE Police Chief Kevin Schmoll said. When this all went down in March, everybody went home, but we were still here and kept every campus staffed with officers. We have one officer 24-7 at the Dental School in Alton and two officers 24-7 in East St. Louis. What changed is wearing masks, whether its N95, KN95 or cloth. We had to scramble to get PPE (personal protective equipment), but the faculty and students from our engineering department manufactured some face shields for us. Madison County Emergency Management got us a lot of PPE, including more gloves, face shields and masks, so were well covered on that now. With not many people on campus, the duties of the police department shifted. When the students moved out of the housing units, we had approximately 350 students living in housing, and with the summer, that number has gone done to about 100, Schmoll said. With online learning, there was no on-ground teaching going and our volume of calls really went down. The buildings were locked up because we didnt want people roaming around in them, so we had to let faculty and staff into the buildings to get their things so they could do online learning. Getting the IT staff in was the big thing so they could get everything set up for the faculty to work remotely from their desktops at home. With the campus officially opening on Monday, more employees are starting to return to their offices, which means the duties for the SIUE police officers will change once again. Its not back to business as usual, but for Schmoll, its a step in the right direction. The buildings are now open, so hopefully we wont have to be unlocking doors anymore, Schmoll said. Were going to see more people coming back throughout the summer, so I think our activity will pick up slightly. With no on-ground instruction for summer school, SIUE has not had any protests over the past two weeks as a result of the death of George Floyd allegedly at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25. We havent had anything on campus and everything in this area (involving SIUE students) has been in downtown Edwardsville at the (Madison County) courthouse, Schmoll said. Once we get students back (in August), I think our students are going to want to have some sort of demonstration, probably in the quad area. Thats absolutely fine and well be there to make sure that everything is peaceful, and the students can exercise their right to free speech. Many of the summer activities that the SIUE Police would normally be involved with have been canceled due to the pandemic, including active shooter training, the Illinois State Police Youth Camp, the Police and Children Together Camp and the Law Enforcement Torch Run. A primary focus for the department is planning for the fall semester, when students are expected to be back on campus for on-ground learning. Fall classes are scheduled to begin on Aug. 24, but there will be some changes due to the pandemic. Were told that move-in for the students is going to be a little bit different and its going to be spread out over about five days, Schmoll said. Were going to be out there helping with that and were going to have our masks on. As far as social distancing, hopefully, were in Phase 4 (of the Restore Illinois plan) by then, which will make it a little easier. Its going to be different this fall, but were ready for the students to get back here. We just dont know how its going to look yet. We normally do a lot of information booths in August and we wont be able to do that because youre in proximity to people, so thats one of the things we may have to push onto social media, our Facebook page or campus-wide emails. The coronavirus has also affected the training schedule for the current and future police officers at SIUE. A lot of the training were doing is online to meet our mandates from the state and federal government, Schmoll said. Our next training session is in November, but before the pandemic started, we completed the physical portion of the test. Now we need to do the written portion and the oral board portion, so were in the process of training new officers to hire. Police officers are still doing traffic stops at SIUE, but the low numbers of students and faculty on campus have reduced that number as well. You need to have your mask available to put it on when you do have a traffic stop, Schmoll said. You have to be cognizant of your distance when youre talking to somebody, but it helps if you can talk to them from their passenger side of the car, which puts a little more room between you and the driver. The department normally has 43 sworn police officers, plus eight civilian employees. We had one officer retire, so were down to 41 right now, Schmoll said. Well wait until August to see how the budget is looking and well make a decision then as to whether well get back up to 43. With the campus being nearly deserted over the past three months, wildlife sightings have been even more frequent than usual. For Schmoll, its also a reminder that a campus without students just isnt the same. We see a lot of deer and geese and turkeys, but we have surveillance cameras around the campus, around various buildings and on the quad, and you dont see anybody out there walking around, which is kind of strange, Schmoll said. The (SIUE) Rock (on the Stratton Quadrangle) has only been painted twice (since the school was closed) and its usually painted several times a day. Its just another sign that things havent been normal. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 11:29:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LOS ANGELES, June 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's star on Hollywood Boulevard was vandalized with black spray paint during weekend protests over the death of George Floyd, an African American man, in police custody in Minneapolis, U.S. media reported Monday. Citing multiple social media posts, The Hollywood Reporter said that the president's marker first had messages written on it before being completely spray-painted black with "BLM" -- Black Lives Matter -- inscribed below. Los Angeles police told The Hollywood Reporter that they were unaware of the vandalism and there had been zero complaints reported. Hollywood area continued to see protests over racism and police brutality in recent days. Around 20,000 protesters took to the streets of Hollywood on Sunday in a largely peaceful protest, which is one of the largest demonstrations in Los Angeles in nearly two weeks. Trump's star on Hollywood Boulevard has been vandalized several times since the beginning of his 2016 presidential run. Trump was honored with the star in 2007 for his work producing the Miss Universe pageant and for his hit NBC reality television show The Apprentice. Enditem US President Donald Trump has ruled out defunding or dismantling the police departments in the American cities, saying members of the force risk their own lives to protect others. Trump's remark came on Monday amidst the growing demand from a section of the Americans to defund the police in the aftermath of the custodial death of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. "We won't be defunding our police, we won't be dismantling our police. We won't be disbanding our police, we won't be ending our police force in a city. I guess you might have some cities that want to try but it's going to be a very sad situation if they did because people are going to be protected," Trump said during a White House round table with the law enforcement officials from across the country. Floyd, the 46-year-old victim from Houston, was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by the white police officer who kneeled on his neck as he gasped for breath on May 25 in Minneapolis. Floyd's death triggered nationwide violent protests with a section of the protesters resorting to looting and rioting across the country, leaving behind a trail of destruction. In Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin, the police officer charged with the second-degree murder without intent, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, made his first court appearance. The court set him a bail of USD 1 million. The Democrats, opponents of President Trump and rights bodies have started demanding that the police be defunded in the wake of series of killings of African-Americans in the country. Trump outrightly rejected any such move. "These people do a tremendous job of protecting citizens of our country. ..But whether they were paid or not, that's what they do. .They protect people, risk their own lives for people they've never seen before, people in many cases they don't know, he said. Referring to the decline in crime rates as shown in the latest statistics, Trump said that the Police has done a fantastic job. "We have among the best numbers we've ever had in terms of recorded history certainly, but this has been a very strong year for less crime-let's put it that way-less crime; and there's a reason for less crime, that's because we have great law enforcement," Trump said, as he rejected the demands being made by his political opponents and rights bodies. I am very proud of them. There won't be defunding, there won't be dismantling of our police and there are not going to be in the disbanding of our police. Our police have been letting us live in peace and we want to make sure we don't have any bad actors in there, Trump said. Earlier, the White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the President is appalled by the "Defund the Police" movement. "The fact that you have sitting congresswomen wanting to defund the police -- notably Rashida Tlaib; notably Biden advisor AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; former Clinton and Eric Holder spokesperson Brian Fallon wanting to defund our police across this country -- it is extraordinary, she said in response to a question. Also read: Steel industry prioritises exports amid low domestic demand - but it comes at a cost Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: Canadian alternative money manager InstarAGF Asset Management closed its flagship infrastructure fund InstarAGF Essential Infrastructure II at $1.2 billion. The private capital management firm said its second North America infrastructure investment - InstarAGF Essential Infrastructure Fund II - received capital commitments from new and existing institutional and high net worth investors across Canada, Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia. Investors include Texas Municipal Retirement System, Austin. InstarAGF said 80 percent of the capital came from existing investors. The predecessor InstarAGF Essential Infrastructure Fund I closed in 2017 with C$740m ($537 million) in commitments. "InstarAGF was formed to capture the distinctive value proposition of the middle market, which is where a majority of the infrastructure investment need exists in North America," said Gregory Smith, president, and CEO of InstarAGF. "We are well-positioned to capitalize on diverse opportunities in our targeted sectors, where macro trends support considerable long-term demand for infrastructure investment and expansion to ensure the provision of high-quality essential services." Fund II focuses on high-quality civil, utilities, and energy infrastructure assets that exhibit sustainable downside protection, typically as a result of long-term contracts, concession agreements, or a regulatory regime, according to InstarAGF. The fund invests in critic...................... To view our full article Click here China on Sunday issued a white paper on the country's battle against COVID-19. The white paper, titled "Fighting COVID-19: China in Action," was issued by the State Council Information Office. As the Left spirals out of control, some now want to abolish police. Remember they tried to abolish ICE. Consider what defunding really means. If current funds are shifted to social engineering, would librarians and social workers will be contending with violent criminals? Should you call a sanitation worker for a traffic accident or a garbage truck for transport to the ER? Progressives live in Alternate Reality. NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio tweeted just looked at Union Square, limited protests there, while rage filled looters were burning his city. De Blasio has now replaced Nero in history as a giddy buffoon in a nightshirt idly tweeting while his city burned. Equally irrational is Governor Gretchen Whitmer whose quarantine was the harshest in the nation. So was her contempt for demonstrators pleading for her to reopen the state. She said lack of social distancing would kill many people. Then a photo showed her marching shoulder to shoulder with Floyd protesters. Did the coronavirus suddenly go away? A Michigan barber who opened during the quarantine still faces criminal charges. Will Whitmer intervene on his behalf? As Whitmer and De Blasio are two faces of crazy progressivism, others are their lunatic mind. Brian Fallon, a Hillary flunky, was the author of the tweet to defund the police. That shifted the focus from the tragedy of George Floyd to a goal of the terrorists of Antifa. We should ask all Democrats running for office here if they favor defunding police. Joe Biden says he doesnt support this scheme. Will he remember that next week? Biden has been Mr. Magooing his way through the campaign avoiding confrontations. What happens if an angry Defund crowd confronts Joe like they did the pathetic mayor of Minneapolis? That would be a really bad photo op, especially if police have to protect him. In that case he may never do another public rally. Consider that, a presidential candidate unable to do a public rally. Progressivism at work. With all the restrictions many Americans were told they could not attend in- person church services for weeks. Then Nancy Pelosi led a weird Druid-like ritual which was obviously a photo op. Didnt she attack the president for holding a Bible in front of a church building which was saved from terrorists? Projection again. Now were told tear gas spreads coronavirus. Werent we told protests of quarantine regulations would cause thousands to die? Didnt we hear spring break and opening beaches would kill? President Trump is planning in-person campaign appearances, while Biden hides in the cellar, so expect to hear again repeatedly how rallies will kill people. Weve been told a lot by progressives only to see them do the opposite. We need a no confidence vote in November for the dangerous schemes of the progressives. Abolish progressivism! Ralph Miller PHILADELPHIA, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Studying bacteria in a petri dish or test tube has yielded insights into how they function and, in some cases, contribute to disease. But this approach leaves out crucial details about how bacteria act in the real world. Taking a translational approach, researchers at Penn Dental Medicine and the Georgia Institute of Technology imaged the bacteria that cause tooth decay in humans in three dimensions. The work, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , found that Streptococcus mutans, a bacterial species associated with tooth decay, is encased in a protective multilayered community of other bacteria and polymers forming a unique spatial organization associated with the location of the disease onset. "We started with these clinical samples, extracted teeth from children with severe tooth decay," says Dr. Michel Koo of Penn Dental Medicine, a co-senior author on the work. "The question that popped in our minds was, how these bacteria are organized and whether their specific architecture can tell us about the disease they cause?" To address this question, the researchers, including lead author Dongyeop Kim of Penn Dental Medicine, used a combination of confocal and scanning electron microscopy with computational analysis to dissect the arrangement of S. mutans and other microbes of the intact biofilm on the teeth. The researchers discovered that S. mutans in dental plaque most often appeared in a particular fashion: arranged in a mound against the tooth's surface. But it wasn't alone. Other commensal bacteria, such as S. oralis, formed additional outer layers precisely arranged in a crown-like structure. Supporting and separating these layers was an extracellular scaffold made of sugars produced by S. mutans, effectively encasing and protecting the disease-causing bacteria. "What was exciting for us is that the rotund areas perfectly matched with the demineralized and high acid levels on the enamel surface," says Koo. "This mirrors what clinicians see when they find dental caries: punctuated areas of decalcification known as 'white spots.' The crown-like structure could explain how cavities get their start." The study's findings may help researchers more effectively target the pathogenic core of dental biofilms but also have implications for other fields. "It demonstrates that the spatial structure of the microbiome may mediate function and the disease outcome, which could be applicable to other medical fields dealing with polymicrobial infections," says Koo. CONTACT: Beth Adams, [email protected] SOURCE Penn Dental Medicine Related Links http://www.dental.upenn.edu GRAND ISLE, La. - Tropical Storm Cristobal dumped several inches of rain here in southeastern Louisiana late Sunday, temporarily flooding the only highway in and out of town and destroying more than a mile stretch of sand dunes the federal government built to protect the vulnerable community of about 1,400 people that sits precariously on the Gulf of Mexico. Though the majority of homes and businesses were spared significant damage from a weakened storm, Police Chief Laine Landry said it is a troubling sign not only for Grand Isle, a barrier island located 108 miles south of New Orleans, but for all of the people across the region. "We are the first line of defense when it comes to storm surge," Landry said. "If the state loses our line of barrier islands, your next beachfront is going to be just south of New Orleans. It's scary." The third named storm of the new hurricane season shifted inland on Monday, where Cristobal could cause serious flooding as its tropical remnants swirl up the Mississippi River Valley. Heavy rainfall and pockets of flooding probably will accompany the storm all the way to Canada. Flash flood watches stretch more than 1,000 miles, from the Florida Panhandle to central Wisconsin. The unusual system has the potential to become the nation's farthest north and west tropical depression in more than two centuries of record-keeping. The onslaught of hazardous weather comes barely a week into hurricane season in a year already teeming with activity. Cristobal was the earliest third-named storm on record, achieving that status on June 2. Weather experts predict it could be a particularly rough season for the United States, meaning places like Grand Isle could see more threats in coming months. Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle said he has been in contact with the state's congressional delegation, pleading for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to not only fix the damaged sand dunes but also make them stronger by fortifying them with rocks. Before Cristobal, the dunes were 160 feet wide. By Monday morning, they had lost nearly 100 feet, exposing an interior, sand-filled tube that is supposed to stabilize the entire structure. "I'm not a sand man, I'm a rock man," Camardelle said. "Anybody that's got a beautiful place on Grand Isle facing the Gulf of Mexico, they all want rocks so they can sleep at night. If another tropical depression comes, it will wash the tube into the Gulf. This is an emergency." As is sometimes the case with significant storms, the storm surge was more of a threat than the winds. The National Hurricane Center warned that hazardous storm surge was ongoing across the Gulf Coast on Monday, with onshore flow as the system draws north maintaining that threat. On Sunday, winds gusted to 57 mph in Bayou Bienvenue, Louisiana, while Gulfport, Mississippi, saw a gust of 60 mph. Ship Island, located offshore, measured a wind gust of 64 mph. A storm surge of 6.2 feet was observed in Shell Beach, Louisiana - a greater surge than experienced in Miami during the passage of Hurricane Irma in 2017. Because the storm slowed as it approached the coast, and the peak surge coincided with high tide, the surge was significantly higher than anticipated. Grand Isle is accustomed to being battered by storms, surviving Hurricane Betsy in 1965, Katrina in 2005 and Gustav in 2008, among others. As Cristobal churned in the Gulf of Mexico early Saturday morning, Camardelle ordered a mandatory evacuation, though he knew most locals would choose to shelter in place. "They know what they're doing. They're used to every type of storm," he said, adding that the coronavirus didn't impact their storm plans. Grand Isle has experienced only one confirmed positive case, he said. "Like my grandpa told me when I was a little boy, 'We live on a barrier island. The gulf breeze is always blowing. You always got fresh air. There's not too many germs out there.' " By Monday afternoon, most of the water had receded from Grand Isle, though large pools still sat under many of the island's colorful, elevated homes. Highway 1 had reopened and life was largely returning to normal. Dena King, 67, and Carolyn Angelette, 72, were back at work. Blue tarps still covered several computers at their Island Realty office, but it was business as usual otherwise. Neither woman evacuated. "I knew it wasn't going to be that big," King said. King - who lost her home here during Hurricane Katrina - said she had three or four feet of water in her yard yesterday, but her home stayed dry. Angelette's home also was spared damage, though the 20 feet of sandy beach behind it appeared to have been washed away. "We deal with this all the time," King said of the island's propensity for flooding. "It's frustrating, because you don't know what the storms are going to do. But you lift things up in your house, you move your car to higher ground and you let the water rise. There's not much more you can do." Angelette agreed. "The wonderful thing about Grand Isle is all the flooding is forgotten really soon," she said. "And we forget it soon because of what we get here before the floods and in between. The way of living here is really awesome. That's what makes you forget." Dean Blanchard, owner of Dean Blanchard Seafood Inc., wasn't as lucky. His seafood distribution company is located outside of Grand Isle's levee protection system. By 10 a.m. Sunday, despite clear skies, he watched helplessly as the waters began to rise all around him. "You could have had lawn chairs and been outside suntanning and the whole time the water is coming up," said Blanchard, who estimates he sustained several hundred thousand dollars' worth of damage to his equipment. But he said he has no intention of leaving his home. "We live in paradise," he said. "Everybody wants waterfront property. Well, we got waterfront, waterside and waterback. Water everywhere." - - - Webster reported from New Orleans and Cappucci reported from Washington. Absa Group, one of Africas largest financial services providers, is celebrating substantial completion of its separation programme from Barclays PLC, three years after the start. The separation, one of the largest and most complex corporate programmes of its kind, followed Barclays PLCs 2016 decision to reduce its shareholding in the African group to a minority position. Barclays became the majority shareholder in Absa in 2005 and the two groups subsequently integrated systems, processes and policies over time. We are closing an important chapter in the more-than-100-year history of the Absa Group as we wind up the last few elements of separation, said Absa Group Chief Executive Daniel Mminele. We emerge from this chapter as a proudly independent African bank, strengthened and enriched by our experience as part of the UK group. We have a great foundation to build on and full control to make the decisions that are in the best interest of our customers and other stakeholders across all the African markets we operate in. Barclays PLC contributed R12.6 billion (approximately $1 billion at the time) in 2017 towards the three-year separation programme, which comprised mainly IT and brand projects, and which commenced on 6 June 2017. A total of 270 projects have been delivered as part of the separation programme, and all technical solutions have been built. Six projects will be concluded in the next few months, including three minor mop-up activity projects. The separation required the replacement or rebranding of millions of assets in 12 countries, including technology solutions. The programme involved, among others, the largest single data and system migration in Africa as customers in nine countries were switched to a new online banking platform, improving customer experience through greater stability and upgraded user interfaces in several countries. More than 1,000 branches, 10,000 ATMs, close to 16,000 email addresses, several million customer cards, as well as thousands of uniforms, signage, forms, buildings and stationery were rebranded. At its peak, nearly 1,300 employees and contractors were dedicated to the separation programme. The initiatives undertaken have fundamentally improved Absas resilience, systems and capabilities, benefitting both employees and customers alike, said Mminele. I have been extremely impressed with how diligently and disciplined the colleagues have carried out this mammoth of a project, unparalleled on the continent in terms of size and complexity. We take great pride in having substantially completed the separation from Barclays PLC within budget and inside agreed time lines. The programme carried material risks, including potential large-scale banking system failures and customer attrition, said Absa Engineering Services CE Paul OFlaherty, who leads the separation programme We worked closely with stakeholders including regulators across our presence markets to mitigate risk. We are proud to say that separation has been substantially completed in a safe and successful way. 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 Ector County reported 19 more cases of coronavirus on Monday, making the total 206. Ector County reported 19 probable cases at this time, according to the ECHD website. ECHD reported that 144 people have recovered. There have been 2,746 tests taken with 2,452 negative results and 88 pending results. ECHD has contacted 2,002 people during contact tracing. Ector County commissioner Eddy Shelton said Focused Care of Odessa had one employee test positive with 42 employees testing negative over the weekend. The positive employee had last worked at the facility on May 30. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Tuesday offered his condolences over the demise of Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza. Nkurunziza, who ruled the East African nation for 15 years, passed away today after suffering a cardiac arrest at hospital. Sisi extended his sincere condolences to the Burundian people over the death of President Pierre Nkurunziza, the national leader that made great efforts to serve African issues and push forward joint African action in the face of various challenges. Search Keywords: Short link: In the last few weeks, the Government has revealed it is looking to find a way for Britons to be able to travel to a select number of other European countries via travel bridges. The countries selected will ensure that visitors would not need to self-isolate for 14 days after arriving in the UK reportedly Portugal, France and Spain are in talks to make this happen in the near future. Many are keen to travel again with seven in 10 Britons saying they are keen to take a holiday sooner rather than later, or as soon as officially confirmed as safe to do so, according to research by insurer Allianz. However, although airlines are now adding more and more flights to schedules, Britain is still in lockdown and the Foreign Commenwealth Office advises people to only travel if absolutely necessary, drawing criticism that airlines should not be encouraging travel before it is safe. The Government is looking to find a way for Britons to be able to travel to other countries Currently, the CAA states that if travel is cancelled, travellers should receive a refund, credit note or voucher in most circumstances. However, carriers have already faced backlash after being slow to give cash refunds to customers who requested them after flights were cancelled. Holidaygoers are now wondering what protection they will be given if they now book a European holiday only for it to be cancelled before they are due to leave if there is a spike in coronavirus cases again. To ensure customers feel safe and comfortable enough to travel with them, airlines are making changes to their booking rules. This is Money spoke to major airlines and travel industry experts to find out whether it is safe for holidaymakers to book a European trip now and what protection is in place to ensure that they won't be out of pocket. Four steps before booking Before booking a trip, it is worth bearing these factors in mind first: 1. Is the trip protected? 2. Can you get insurance? 3. Could it be worth paying by credit card? 4. Can you cancel for free? Read more about this in depth here. EasyJet is one of the first airlines to vow to help its customers with their 'Europe with Confidence Pledge' promising it will be easy for travellers to change flights if they need to. Under the new pledge, the airline says that customers whose flights are cancelled will be notified at least 14 days in advance and informed of their options. This includes transferring to an alternative flight free of charge, receiving a voucher or applying for a refund via a form on its website. For those who want to change their flights within the 14 days they are due to travel, the fee for changing dates has been reduced to the standard off-peak charge as opposed to the higher, on peak charge. EasyJet will soon resume many of its flights - but with improved safety features put in place Customers on future flights that are scheduled to operate as planned but who are looking to cancel due to the ongoing situation are still bound by EasyJet's cancellation and refund terms and conditions. EasyJet added it has brought forward its schedule so that customers have more choice to move their flights further out and from now on, flights will also be on sale up until the end of May 2021. Flights for summer 2021 will continue to be put on sale throughout the coming months to provide passengers with more opportunity to change their flights. British Airways have introduced a similar policy to EasyJet's called 'Book with Confidence'. It promises that if a customer's flight has been cancelled they can contact BA to get a refund, re-book or get a voucher for future travel. The updated policy also means that anyone with a booking due to travel up until July 31 or any bookings made from March 3 for travel before the end of the year, are eligible for a range of flexible rebooking options, including taking a voucher. All vouchers, regardless of when they were claimed, can now be used on new bookings up until April 2022. This voucher option is available on flights that are still operating or flights that are cancelled. If BA cancels a customer's flight and they want a refund they can call the airline to process the money. Ryanair said that as of 10 June it will also waive its flight change fee for all customers who book to travel in July and August in case they have to cancel due to coronavirus. However, this flight date change will only apply to the route customers have already booked and trips must be completed before the 2020 year end. British Airways have introduced a similar policy to EasyJet's called 'Book with Confidence' What should holidaymakers do before booking? As it stands, from 8 June, anyone arriving into the UK, whether a national or not, will have to quarantine for 14 days, creating problems for those looking to head abroad - although, how strictly this is being implemented is another question. Another current danger for holidaymakers is if they decide to cancel a flight themselves as they will then lose their money. However, if they are prevented from travelling due to the FCO advice still being in place and they've booked a package holiday, the Package Travel Regulations ensure they will be legally entitled a full refund within 14 days of the holiday being cancelled. They will also likely to be offered incentives to rebook again at a later date. For those who do decide to book, they are encouraged to get travel insurance to cover them for any incidents that could occur including flight or accommodation cancellation. Whilst this is proving tricky at the moment as many insurers have removed travel policies from their sites, there are still some available and tourists are advised to use price comparison sites to find the policy that is right for them. Customers should also read through their policy carefully to see what exclusions do and don't apply. Some countries might not have measures in place to ensure you can return quickly if needs be Before booking a trip, it is advisable to check any consular and repatriation agreements between your home country and the country you want to visit. In some cases, countries might not have official measures in place to ensure you can return quickly from your place of travel if there is an emergency. If you decide to book, customers are urged to use their credit card so if anything goes wrong, they can claim money back via Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. Read more here about how you can protect yourself when booking a holiday. What do the experts say? Travel experts are also urging customers to use caution when booking any holidays as there is still no guarantee they can go ahead as planned - especially if there is a second coronavirus outbreak. Jon Thorne, director of user satisfaction at Skyscanner, said: 'It is important to stress that the FCO currently advises British people against all non-essential travel. 'Although we are hearing news of other nations relaxing their travel and tourism restrictions, we must stay aware that as long as this advice is in place, we cannot be sure when it will be possible to travel abroad, and where will be the first place to open to UK tourists. 'This status will also affect travel insurance and travel providers' liability. Many providers have introduced flexible booking policies for future travel.' Emma Coulthurst, of TravelSupermarket, added: 'As it stands, if you book a European flight for July, August or September, there is no guarantee as to whether you can travel or not. 'There is a glimmer of hope that some air corridors may be put in place with some countries with low levels of infection from July. 'Portugal has said that UK holidaymakers will not face quarantine if they go there, for example, and the Foreign Minister says it is speaking with the UK government about putting a quarantine free arrangement in place. 'When it comes to other countries, they are watching the UK's R rate before deciding whether to let us visit without any quarantine restrictions.' On the back of news announcements around potential air corridors in July or August, there have been 40 per cent more price comparison searches for package holidays via TravelSupermarket for July, August and September 2020 holidays in the last fortnight. Greece and Spain and Portugal are three of the most popular destinations to search for holidays to, which aligns with announcements by those three countries of their desire to welcome back tourists from July. However, travellers will have to wait and see whether the FCO will let Britons travel, and whether air corridors will be in place with countries such as Portugal and Greece and Spain so that they can travel quarantine-free. A holiday is not possible if holidaymakers have to isolate on arrival. Two one-year-old spotted deer, which had got separated from their herd and wandered off to a residential area in Thane, near Mumbai, were rescued in the wee hours on Tuesday. One of the spotted deer was found injured at the gate of a housing society and was admitted to an adjoining animal hospital. The second spotted deer has been handed over to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park authorities. A watchman of Grand Square Society near Anandnagar in Thane spotted one of the spotted deer within the building complex around midnight on Tuesday. Santosh Kadam, chief, Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC), Thane Municipal Corporation, said: We got a call around 12.35am on Tuesday about a spotted deer has been found in a housing society. The deer had suffered minor injuries. Initially, the animal was handed over to the Yeoor forest department officials in Thane, and later they gave it to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park authorities. We received a second call at around 6 am on Tuesday about one more spotted deer has been found at the gate of Rutu Enclave. The RDMC authorities and Thane Fire Brigade personnel reached the spot and found the deer was stuck at the gate, as it had suffered severe injuries in one of its legs and other parts of the body. A local resident saw the injured deer in the morning and called us. It was extricated from the gate and has been admitted to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals (SPCA), Thane. The animal will be handed over to the forest department authorities after its injuries heal, Kadam added. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Megha Pol I am a special correspondent with Hindustan Times and also the chief of bureau for Thane. I have worked in Thane for over a decade, covering social, civic, infrastructural, political and cultural issues. ...view detail (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Everyone has seen the map by now. The one of the United States, overlaid with cases of Covid-19 or deaths because of it. Clearly, New York City is the epicenter of the outbreak, accounting for at least 21,000 of the more than 100,000 coronavirus deaths across the country. The high concentration in one small part of the East Coast creates the temptation to label the coronavirus as a distinctly New York problem, especially as the City That Never Sleeps remained shut down while the rest of the state and country started the gradual process of reopening. Last week, its residents were also subjected to a curfew as protesters marched across boroughs to speak out against systemic racism and police brutality after the killings of George Floyd and other black Americans. Calling it a New York issue would be a mistake. The most difficult question confronting the nations elected leaders is how to balance the health and safety of the citizenry on one hand and preventing unnecessary damage to the worlds largest economy on the other. The New York City metropolitan area looms large in that calculation. Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis put in stark relief just how much New York powered the U.S. economy during its longest expansion in history and provide a crucial starting point to understanding how a lasting bite to the Big Apple could hinder hopes for a swift nationwide recovery. As New York City embarks on its reopening today, these figures and others indicate that whats good for getting New York healthy and bustling again is to the benefit of the rest of the country as well. The New York City metropolitan area, which encompasses Newark, Jersey City and surrounding areas in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, does a lot of heavy lifting for the U.S. economy as a whole. The nominal gross domestic product of the area is $1.8 trillion, or 9.62% of the overall output of Americas metropolises. Thats slightly higher than it was in 2009, even though smaller metro areas like Charlotte, Denver, Portland and Seattle grew faster during the expansion. Its next closest competitors are Los Angeles, which makes up 5.7% of all metro area GDP, and Chicago at 3.74%. Story continues On its own, the New York City economy would be the 10th largest in the world, bigger than the likes of Canada, Russia, South Korea, Australia and Spain. The metro area has a population of more than 20 million people, bigger than any other region in the U.S., but much smaller than any of those aforementioned countries. New York is nicknamed the Finance Capital of the World for a reason. The industry accounted for almost $500 billion of the areas GDP in 2018, far and away the biggest share. That might be a problem as the region looks to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic: An analysis by software firm LaborIQ by ThinkWhy, which ranks U.S. employment markets, found last month that New Yorks finance industry wont fully recover until 2026. Jobs were already down about 8% this year, and the lockdown seems destined to cause a domino effect for industries like real estate and insurance. The good news for New Yorks economy: Its more diversified than it was during the last recession. Because the 2008 crisis was so heavily concentrated within the finance industry, the city has learned to live with a lower share of bankers and traders. In their place, jobs tied to professional and business services, information, and education and health have boomed in New York. To complement demand from this professional class, jobs in leisure and hospitality surged more than any other over the past decade, as did employment in construction and other services. If the often-cited strength of the U.S. consumer is what will drive Americas recovery, the residents of New York and its surrounding states are critical. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York rank second, third, fourth and fifth in per capita personal consumption expenditures, respectively. Moreover, when looking at the percent change in per capita PCE from 2009 to 2018, New York ranks second only to North Dakota and its shale boom. New York City is far more diverse than the U.S. as a whole, no matter how you slice it. Still, job losses since mid-March have been heavily concentrated among the areas black and Latino residents, which is a similar trend across other large metropolitan areas. New Yorks Latino population has been hit particularly hard relative to the rest of the country, with more than 70% reporting loss of employment income, a greater share than any city except Detroit, Los Angeles and Riverside, California. Separate data from Homebase shows hours worked by hourly employees is down in New York City more than any other metro area. New York City constantly vies with Orlando for the top spot among most-visited U.S. cities, making tourism and related jobs a crucial component of the regions economy. The coronavirus pandemic has decimated travel across the board. Hotel occupancy, which usually ramps up to about 85% in March, instead tumbled to 30.6% this year. Preliminary estimates suggest hotel room nights sold fell in March about 63% from a year earlier. And New Yorks lockdown wasnt even in effect for that entire month, suggesting Aprils figures will most likely be even worse. The regions airports have also experienced a huge drop in traffic. Only 2.33 million passengers went through John F. Kennedy International Airport in March, down from 5.15 million 12 months earlier. At Newark International Airport, passengers fell to 1.86 million from 3.95 million, while LaGuardia Airports passenger total tumbled to 1.05 million from 2.59 million. Again, the latest data run only through March, before the regions lockdown started in earnest. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey runs the three aforementioned airports and is considering a loan from the Federal Reserve to make up the loss in revenue. So, too, is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs New York Citys subways, as well as other train systems that connect commuters in towns surrounding the city. The MTA faces a severe $8.5 billion potential deficit this year, and its not hard to see why it projects just a fraction of the ridership for the rest of 2020, which would cost the system $3.8 billion in just a moderate scenario. The beleaguered subway system already had to contend with years of insufficient revenue and deferred maintenance, which has led to frequent delays, system malfunctions and general rider frustration. If New York City is to return to its former glory after more than two months of lockdowns, it will need residents to feel safe and comfortable getting around as they did before. In 2019, more people took MTA transportation than the next 11 largest U.S. transit agencies combined. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Brian Chappatta is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering debt markets. He previously covered bonds for Bloomberg News. He is also a CFA charterholder. Elaine He is Bloomberg Opinion's data visualization columnist in Europe, focusing on business and markets coverage. Before joining Bloomberg, she was a graphics editor at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. MIAMI, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One (SOBEWFF) announced today that it has launched Sip with #SOBEWFF, a 20-part virtual, live mixology and educational series to celebrate 20 years of the Festival. The series will bring South Florida's top bartenders, mixologists, and spirit experts into consumers' kitchens for a hands-on cocktail-making experience. Powered by Zoom and co-hosted by Giovanni Gutierrez aka Chat Chow a longtime Festival supporter, spirit expert, and host of ChatChowTV the 60-minute Sip with #SOBEWFF series will air weekly on Fridays and launch on Friday, June 12 at 7PM EST. For the first installment, James MacInnes, resident bartending expert at KYU, the award-winning wood-fired Asian-inspired hotspot in the heart of Miami's eclectic Wynwood Arts District, will teach viewers how to prepare a variety of Asian-inspired cocktails. MacInnes' global adventures have allowed him to discover international cocktail trends, new ingredients and innovative techniques that are now brought to life through KYU's inventive cocktail menu. Sip with #SOBEWFF builds off the success of NYCWFF at Home, a virtual celebrity-hosted cooking series launched by the Food Network & Cooking Channel New York City Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One to benefit the NYCWFF Restaurant Employee Relief Fund established to support the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation's Restaurant Employee Relief Fund. The initial Sip with #SOBEWFF lineup includes a slew of fun themes and an all-star cast such as: Asian-Inspired Cocktails with James MacInnes of KYU Miami ( June 12 ); of KYU Miami ( ); Classic Cuban Cocktails with Julio Cabrera of Cafe La Trova ( June 19 ); of Cafe La Trova ( ); The Art of Pour, Professional Bartending Skills and Impressive Cocktails with Ben Potts of Beaker & Gray ( June 26 ); of Beaker & Gray ( ); Classic Italian Cocktails with Valentino Longo of the Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club ( July 3 ); of the Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club ( ); Tiki Cocktails with Daniele Dalla Pola of Esotico Miami ( July 10 ); of Esotico Miami ( ); Miami Cocktails with Bob Gilardi Jr. of Ariete/Nave/Taurus ( July 17 ); of Ariete/Nave/Taurus ( ); Modern Tropical Drinks with Will Thompson of Jaguar Sun ( July 24 ); and of Jaguar Sun ( ); and More details and dates to come. Hosts will broadcast the series live from SGWS Wynwood, Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits' state-of-the-art multi-purpose hospitality and education center and will feature interactive cocktail demonstrations and question and answer sessions. Proceeds from these ticketed online events, priced at $20 per person, will support the SOBEWFF & FIU Chaplin School Hospitality Industry Relief Fund. For more information on tickets, upcoming air dates and guest hosts, please visit sobewff.org/sip-with-sobewff. "After seeing the incredible response to our recent neighborhood bake sales and our sister Festival's NYCWFF at Home series, Sip with #SOBEWFF is a natural progression for the Festival," said Lee Brian Schrager, Founder and Director, SOBEWFF. "We want to be sure that we continue to support the hospitality community during the recovery and reopening phase and are excited to highlight our incredibly talented local bartenders, mixologists, and spirit experts who will bring consumers an entertaining and educational experience right in their own home." The SOBEWFF & FIU Chaplin School Hospitality Industry Relief Fund provides immediate financial support to independently owned and operated restaurants and bars impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. To date, the Fund has raised more than $1.6 million and has already granted over $1.5 million to more than 500 local restaurants in South Florida. For more information about the Fund, to donate, or to apply for a relief grant, please visit www.sobewff.org/industry-relief. About the Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One EAT. DRINK. EDUCATE. All proceeds from the Festival benefit the students of the Florida International University Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management who also assist Festival organizers with sponsorship fulfillment, restaurant and exhibitor recruitment, logistics, and inventory as well as working alongside some of the world's greatest celebrity chefs and winemakers. To date, SOBEWFF has raised more than $32 million for the School. In September 2018, BizBash named the Festival the #1 Food & Restaurant Industry event in the United States for the sixth year in a row. The Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One is produced by Florida International University and Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, with the support of the Miami Beach Visitors & Convention Authority and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs. For more information about the Festival, visit sobewff.org or call 877-762-3933. For more information about Florida International University visit fiu.edu, for the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management visit hospitality.fiu.edu and for more information about Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits visit southernglazers.com. Press Contacts: Festival Public Relations Andrea Moreno [email protected] SOURCE South Beach Wine & Food Festival Related Links http://www.sobewineandfoodfest.com VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Waterhound Futures Ltd. (https://waterhoundfutures.com/) recently announced it will enter into an agency agreement with Total Development & Management, Inc. (TDM) to provide its predictive software diagnostics, collectively known as "The Waterhound Solution," to the U.K. industrial wastewater treatment system marketplace. Waterhound Futures provides software, simulators and predictive diagnostics, while TDM is a well-established engineering services provider that will handle sales, marketing, system audits and installation issues. Waterhound Futures will work with TDM liaison, Doug Broughton, an industry expert with three decades of experience in designing, building and retrofitting food and beverage plants in the UK, South East Asia and Africa. Industrial effluent into river Sewage into the ocean "We are excited to announce this engagement with TDM, a prominent engineering firm," said Julie King, Waterhound Futures Managing Director, International. "This is a great opportunity to both introduce and further beta-test our award-winning Waterhound Solution in a thriving industrial marketplace with a constant need for up-to-date, accurate monitoring of all water treatment processes. The Waterhound Solution provides innovative predictive maintenance, not just routine or reactive maintenance. Our software accurately predicts problems before they begin, saving companies time and money." "We are very much look forward working with Waterhound Futures to bring the cost savings and environmental benefits of this software to our customers in the UK," said Doug Broughton of TDM. TDM has the engineering talent to introduce the Waterhound Solution and explore clients' needs to optimise performance of their wastewater treatment assets. TDM's principal, Doug Broughton has three decades of experience in designing, building and retrofitting food and beverage plants. About Waterhound Futures, Ltd. Founded in 2019, Waterhound Futures develops software that enables engineers and managers to optimize performance and reduce costs for water and wastewater treatment systems. Guided by the vision of founders Julie King and Michael Levey, Waterhound Futures seeks to eliminate contamination of freshwater resources by untreated wastewater, using proven calculations and predictive models collectively called The Waterhound Solution. The company has already been acknowledged for its contributions, with awards like The Water Council's AI Tech Challenge in January 2020. Waterhound Futures has designed and built systems in use by Ford, IVECO, Caterpillar, Fiat, Nestle, Halliburton, ExxonMobil and Baker Hughes. Learn more at: www.WaterHoundFutures.com. About Total Development & Management, Inc. (TDM) TDM offers expertise and innovative systems of sustainable design, while providing efficiency in cost and operation. Specializing in the food, brewing, spirits and dairy industry, TDM brings 40+ year of experience covering a broad range of project management and design issues to its process systems. Learn more at: http://www.tdmeng.uk/. Media Contacts: Dr. Tony Jones, Waterhound Futures, Ltd. +1 916 990 3699 [email protected] Douglas Broughton, TDM UK Ltd +44 (0)124465123 / +44 (Mark 0)7397983982 [email protected] SOURCE Waterhound Futures Shares of Chesapeake Energy, a pioneer in extracting natural gas from shale rock that came to be known for an illegal scheme to suppress the price of oil and gas leases, went on a wild ride on Tuesday amid reports that it was preparing a bankruptcy filing. Trading was halted for more than three hours in the morning. Then when buying and selling resumed, the trading was quickly interrupted again by circuit breakers. The companys shares closed just below $24 for a loss of about 66 percent for the day. Chesapeakes successes at using hydraulic fracturing to produce gas helped convert the United States from a natural gas importer into a major global exporter. But the company overextended itself by amassing a large debt and has been struggling to survive over the last decade. It is the latest of more than a dozen heavily indebted oil and gas businesses to seek bankruptcy protection since the coronavirus pandemic took hold and Saudi Arabia and Russia flooded the global market with oil this spring. The company hired advisers to explore bankruptcy in recent months after reporting a loss of $8.3 billion in the first quarter, and said it had just $82 million in cash at the end of March. Chesapeake was forced to write down the value of oil and gas assets by roughly $8.5 billion this year. With $9.5 billion in debts at the end of last year, it has bond payments of $192 millions that are due in August. Undeniably Anirudh Ravichander is Tamil cinema's most sought after music composer, thanks to all his chartbuster songs and impressive track record. Recently, Anirudh posted a stylish picture of him on Instagram. More than the image, his good friend Sivakarthikeyan's comment grabbed everyone's attention. Yes, Sivakarthikeyan said whenever Anirudh wishes, the actor's own production house will bankroll the composer's debut heroic film. Immediately, Kolamavu Kokila and Doctor's director Nelson said that he would like to direct the film. For those who don't know, Vignesh ShivN wanted Anirudh to play the lead in Naanum Rowdy Dhaan but for various reasons, the composer opted out of the film. On the film front, Anirudh Ravichander is composing all the big-ticket films in Tamil including Kamal Haasan's Indian 2, Vijay's Master, and Vikram's new film with Karthik Subbaraj. Probably no one caught the Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee meeting on Wednesday, June 3rd. Who would? They're generally pretty boring. Wednesday though, your council representatives showed their true colors. The agenda clearly stated that testimony would be taken either emailed to the clerk (who would then read it in such a monotone that anyone... John Boyega has thanked his supports for 'love' they have sent since his speech at a London protest and said the black community needs 'everyone' to fight for change. The actor, 28, recently gave an impassioned speech at a Black Lives Matter protest in Hyde Park following the killing of George Floyd. Taking to Instagram, John shared several photos of himself visiting schools in Southwark, London and said it's important to 'maintain momentum'. Looking ahead: John Boyega, 28, has thanked his supports for 'love' they have sent since his speech at a London protest and said the black community needs 'everyone' to fight for change He wrote: 'I want to thank you all for the love and support you have shared over the last few days, although nothing I have done is for praise, or is truly even enough, in the grand scheme of things. 'This is an intense time for our community, and the most important thing is for us to maintain momentum and not lose sight of how critical it is to pursue long term solutions and commitments, for the sake of our generation, and the next. 'Our individual pursuits of success and belonging remain, but now more than ever, its important to use this movement as fuel to inspire new ways of thinking, building, and growing, together. 'I believe any great movement starts with a renewal of the mind. I know youre all thinking, whats next? Where do we go from here? Because Im thinking the same s**t! Post: Taking to Instagram, John shared several photos of himself visiting schools in Southwark, London and said it's important to 'maintain momentum' 'Conversations about black businesses, ownership and support are happening, and I will continue to have these conversations with the full intention of birthing ideas that are sustainable and tangible.' The Star Wars actor added that he would continue to use his platform to fight 'injustices and inequalities'. He wrote: 'Lets increase our knowledge! Im excited to see an awakening happening in all of us! Ill continue to use my platform to fight against the injustices and inequalities in our community, no matter what. 'Nonetheless, one man cant do it alone - I need you, and we need each other! We need everyone, across industries, socioeconomic backgrounds, countries, to unite with a shared goal of REAL change. [sic] John said: 'Our individual pursuits of success and belonging remain, but now more than ever, its important to use this movement as fuel to inspire new ways of thinking' 'Before the pandemic hit, I visited a few schools in Southwark, to share my journey and to truly understand the minds and needs of our next generation. It was eye opening and inspiring to say the least, and I look forward to continuing this work, and contributing more, once it is safe to do so. John emphasised that connecting with children and 'motivating them' for the future is necessary. He said: 'I urge the black men of our community, my peers, to do the same. Connecting with our kids and motivating them towards a future that is stronger and brighter, is urgent, and necessary. 'In the meantime, lets work on clearing the runway for them, so they can take off, and fly. Love everyone, and stay safe x'. It comes after John joined a Black Lives Matter demonstration in London last Wednesday. Platform: The Star Wars actor added that he would continue to use his platform to fight 'injustices and inequalities' John told protestors: 'We are a physical representation of our support for George Floyd. We are a physical representation of our support for Sandra Bland. We are a physical representation of our support for Trayvon Martin. We are a physical representation of our support for Stephen Lawrence. 'I'm speaking to you from my heart. Look, I don't know if I'm going to have a career after this, but f*** that.' He went on: 'Today is about innocent people who were halfway through their process, we don't know what George Floyd could have achieved, we don't know what Sandra Bland could have achieved, but today we're going to make sure that won't be an alien thought to our young ones. 'I need you to understand how painful this s**t is. I need you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing and that isn't the case any more, that was never the case any more.' Future: John emphasised that connecting with children and 'motivating them' for the future is necessary He urged protesters to remain peaceful as they demonstrated over the death of Mr Floyd. 'It is very, very important that we keep control of this moment. That we make this as peaceful and as organised as possible,' he said. 'Because they want us to mess up, they want us to be disorganised, but not today. 'This message is specifically for black men, black men we need to take care of our black women. They're ours. They are our future. 'We cannot demonise our own. We are the pillars of the family. 'Imagine this, a nation that is set up with individual families that are thriving, that are healthy, that communicate, that raise their children in love have a better rate of becoming better human beings. Demonstration: It comes after John joined a Black Lives Matter demonstration in London last Wednesday 'Black men, it starts with you. It's done man, we can't be trash no more. We have to be better. 'You lot came today, you left your kids, and when you see your kids they're aimlessly playing, they don't understand what's going on. 'Today's the day that we remind them that we are dedicated and this is a lifelong dedication. 'Some of you are artists, some of you are bankers, some of you are lawyers, some of you own shop stores. 'You are important, your individual power, your individual right is very, very important, we can all join together to make this a better world.' It comes after George Floyd, 46, an African-American man, died on May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His death has sparked days of demonstrations across the nation over police brutality against African-Americans. The Minneapolis policeman accused of killing Floyd, Derek Chauvin, was taken into custody Friday and charged with third-degree murder, later changed to third-degree murder. Ken Will has a best friend who comforts him when he's sad, distracts him if he's angry and brings water when he's poorly. That best friend is Kaspa, a nine-year-old golden labrador. Kaspa is a dementia assistance dog, one of just ten in the UK trained to provide practical and emotional support to people with Alzheimer's and other forms of the neurodegenerative condition, which affects about 850,000 people nationwide. This support can include bringing a (bite-proof) medicine pouch at set times and using their mouths to gently help with undressing. A canine companion can also ease anxiety, provide the impetus to exercise by unrolling exercise mats for physio or going on daily walks, and perhaps most importantly bring laughter and joy back into people's lives. 'Kaspa is my very best friend. I'd be lost without him,' says Ken, 85, a retired factory worker from Arbroath, Angus. In the first scheme of its type in the world, the dogs, mainly labradors and golden retrievers, undergo two years of training before being placed with someone in the early stages of dementia. Ken Will has a best friend who comforts him when he's sad, distracts him if he's angry and brings water when he's poorly. That best friend is Kaspa, a nine-year-old golden labrador The new owner must live with a carer, usually their spouse, who is free of the condition and will have ultimate responsibility for the animal's welfare. While care workers provide valuable support, it is usually for just an hour or two a day. Canine helpers, by contrast, are on duty 24/7, says Fiona Corner, of the charity Dementia Dog Project. A spouse may feel they are nagging their loved one when reminding them to take their medication. But a dog can do it and receive a smile. Fiona adds: 'The pouch is put in the same place at home, the carer sets an alarm and when it sounds, the dog goes to the pouch and brings it to the person with dementia. 'You may say that the carer could do that but the difference is emotional. In 99 per cent of instances, when we start working with a family, the dynamic has shifted towards carer and patient rather than husband and wife. 'When a dog takes over the medication, it shifts a lot of the strain from the carer. It gives couples a chance to enjoy being wife and husband again.' Training is tailored to the owner's needs. The pair are matched towards the end of the dog's training and the dog can be taught new skills over the years if its owner's condition changes. 'Kaspa is my very best friend. I'd be lost without him,' says Ken, 85, a retired factory worker from Arbroath, Angus Kaspa's duties include taking a bottle of water upstairs to Ken when he is poorly in bed (as instructed by Glenys, his wife), fetching his shoes and picking up the newspaper from the doormat. If he senses something is wrong with Ken, he will go to Glenys and jump up to alert her. Glenys, 73, says Ken, her husband of 56 years, felt he had been handed a death sentence when vascular dementia was diagnosed ten years ago, after he had become anxious and forgetful and began having mood swings. The second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia affects roughly 150,000 people in Britain. Symptoms such as difficulty in planning and concentrating develop after a reduction in blood flow to the brain (due to stroke, high blood pressure or ageing) leads to brain cell death. Those with vascular dementia may also start to suffer from apathy, depression or anxiety, and become more emotional and prone to mood swings generally. When Ken's condition was first diagnosed 'he shut himself away in his bedroom for a couple of months', says Glenys. 'It was getting unbearable.' Kaspa's arrival, three years after the diagnosis, changed everything. Glenys heard about the scheme at a carers' group. Ken is becoming more forgetful, less mobile and is easily frightened. He is also increasingly emotional and tearful, but Kaspa can defuse this. Jon, 76, (left) a retired lecturer, had Alzheimer's diagnosed three-and-a-half years ago and has clinical depression. Yet Lenny, a four-year-old black labrador, is the 'one thing guaranteed to make Jon smile', says Jeannette (right) 'If Ken is getting angry, Kaspa brings him a toy and will nudge Ken until he plays with him,' says Glenys. 'Or if Ken is sitting in the chair and gets teary, Kaspa will put his head in his lap and Ken will hug him.' Results of an evaluation of the Dementia Dog Project, running since 2012, are due later this year. But a small study of the first three couples given a dog and of a sister scheme in Australia suggest a range of benefits. These include better emotional wellbeing among carers and boosts to quality of life and confidence in those with dementia. The research also found that a dog's support can allow those with dementia to live at home for longer, which means big savings. About 25,000 is needed to train a dementia assistance dog and update its skills over time. Nursing home fees, in contrast, can cost 75,000 a year. Research body the Cochrane group reviewed canine and other animal helpers last year and concluded that 'animal-assisted therapy may slightly reduce depressive symptoms', adding that there is no clear evidence yet of other benefits. Kaspa's duties include taking a bottle of water upstairs to Ken (right) when he is poorly in bed (as instructed by Glenys, his wife (left)), fetching his shoes and picking up the newspaper from the doormat. But Dr Amanda Thompsell, a consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and chair of the faculty of old age psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the company of a dog, even if just for a visit, can be 'incredibly good for people with dementia'. Dogs accept people as they are, trigger conversations, provide a reason for exercise. And if the dementia sufferer is able to, feeding the dog can create a sense of being valued, she says. 'When dogs come in, patients with dementia who don't want to smile or talk will light up.' HOME REMEDIES The kitchen cupboard 'cures' that really work. This week: Vinegar for bruising. Bruising is the result of tiny blood vessels under the skin called capillaries leaking blood. So why might applying vinegar help? The theory is it helps encourage blood flow to the skin's surface, which helps dissipate blood causing the bruising. 'Vinegar has a long history of use in medicine,' says Dr Rob Hicks, a London-based sexual health doctor and author of Old-Fashioned Remedies: From Arsenic To Gin. 'Apply a dressing soaked in vinegar to the bruised area for between ten and 20 minutes. Repeat throughout the day.' Advertisement All ten dementia assistance dogs are based in Scotland but the charities Alzheimer Scotland and Dogs for Good, which run the Dementia Dog Project, would like to expand it nationwide. Not everyone is delighted at first about a dog joining the family. Jeannette King, 73, whose husband Jon has dementia, says: 'I'd never had a dog, never wanted a dog and never really liked them. 'But, I thought that if it would help Jon, I would consider it.' Jon, 76, a retired lecturer, had Alzheimer's diagnosed three-and-a-half years ago and has clinical depression. Yet Lenny, a four-year-old black labrador, is the 'one thing guaranteed to make Jon smile', says Jeannette. 'There are practical things Lenny does, such as reminding Jon to take his medicine, and that's lovely. But I could be doing that,' says Jeannette, also a retired lecturer, who lives in Aberdeen. 'Getting Jon out for a walk, on the other hand, is something I've never been able to do. But he will walk with Lenny, which has made a big difference to his physical and mental health. 'We might no longer have conversations about French novelists but we both care for this animal. It's difficult to imagine life without him now.' And taking Lenny for a walk on her own gives Jeannette precious me-time: 'For one of us to be able to get away is a pleasure. Having Lenny will make it easier for me to cope with whatever comes.' Mumbai, June 9 : Maharashtra recorded 120 Covid-19 fatalities as the state crossed the 90K cases mark, overtaking China, 90 days after the first case was detected here on March 9, officials said here on Tuesday. The state on Tuesday recorded 120 deaths, marking an increase of 11 over Monday's 109, besides 2,259 new Covid-19 cases. The previous three-digit highs recorded in the state include -- 103 deaths (June 2), 122 (June 3), 123 (June 4), 139 (June 5), 120 (June 6), 109 (June 8) and 120 (Tuesday). This comes to roughly one death every 12 minutes, and an average 94 new cases notched every hour, in the state. Maharashtra has been recording 75-plus fatalities and new patients over 2K daily for the past 14 days, with the previous single-day highest figure of 3,041 infections notched on May 24. In fact, the state has been notching new cases at a rate higher than the United Kingdom. With 120 fatalities, the state's death toll has touched 3,289 while the total number of Coronavirus patients increased from Monday's 88,528 to zoom past the 90K mark and touch 90,787 on Tuesday. The health department said that of the total number of cases declared till date, 44,849 were active cases as on Tuesday, increasing by 475 over Monday's 44,374. The state has recorded a handsome recovery rate of 46.96 per cent and a mortality (death) rate of 3.60 per cent. Of the total 120 fatalities on Tuesday, 58 were recorded in Mumbai alone -- taking the city's death toll up from Monday's 1,702 to 1,760 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here went up by 1,015 cases to touch 51,100 now. Besides Mumbai's 58 deaths, there were 20 fatalities in Thane (Mira-Bhayander, Thane, Navi Mumbai), 16 in Pune, 10 in Aurangabad, 3 each in Nashik and Raigad, 2 each in Palghar, Solapur, Akola and Nagpur, and one each in Ratnagiri and Amravati. The victims comprised 80 men and 40 women and nearly 76 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma. On the positive side, a total of 1,663 fully cured patients returned home on Tuesday, taking the number of those discharged to 42,638. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday inaugurated a Covid-19 testing lab built at a cost of Rs 1.07 crore at the Ratnagiri Civil Hospital, taking the number of such testing facilities to 85 in the state. Meanwhile, Mumbai Mayor Kishor Pednekar has ordered a probe into a bizarre case of an 80-year Covid-19 man, who went 'missing' from the BMC's Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Shatabdi Hospital, Kandivali, and a couple of days later his body was found in Borivali. Pune Police Commissioner K. Venkatesham launched an educational short-film 'Covid ki bimaari se ladhiye, Bimaar se nahi' along with ABIL Managing Director Amit Bhonsale. The MMR (Thane Division) continued to cause grave concerns with 83 new Covid-19 deaths, pulling up the toll to 2,216, and taking the number of positive cases to 68,299 on Tuesday, the highest in the country. Though trailing a distant third after MMR, Pune Division's fatalities touched 568, besides 12,199 patients. Since June 1, Thane district, with 14,063 cases and 355 fatalities, has zoomed past Pune district. The next major region of concern is Nashik Division with 248 deaths and 3,349 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 118 fatalities and 2,586 cases, and Akola Division with 64 deaths and 1,424 cases. There's Latur Division with 16 deaths and 498 cases, Kolhapur Division with 26 deaths and 1,358 patients, and finally Nagpur Division with 14 deaths (including one from Madhya Pradesh) and 996 cases. Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased from Monday's 564,736 to 568,073 on Tuesday, while those in institutional quarantine went down by 290 to 26,470 now. In a relieving news for the patients, there are as many as 75,930 beds currently available for Covid-19 quarantine in the state. The state's containment zones increased from 3,510 to 3,750 on Tuesday while 18,994 health teams have fanned out around the state to survey a population of around 69.16 lakh till date. (Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) EmiratesGBC, an independent forum aimed at conserving the environment by strengthening and promoting green building practices, has opened entries for the ninth edition of its flagship Mena Green Building Awards to coincide with the week of World Environment Day. The 9th Mena Green Building Awards will strengthen the green building movement in the region by honouring the outstanding work of private and public sector entities, associations, consultants as well as green building and sustainability practitioners, said a statement from EmiratesGBC. The awards are being given in 17 categories. These include: Net Zero Building Project of the Year; Green Building Project; Sustainable Design Project; Facility Management Organisation; Contractor; Developer; Consultancy; Green Building Product Indoor Air Quality, Energy Management, Water Management, Green Building Material Construction Material; Green Building Research Award; Training Initiative of the Year; Retrofit Project of the Year; Best Operations & Maintenance (existing building); Healthy Space Project of the Year and SME of the Year. The deadline for submiting the entries has been set at August 22 and thew awards will be announced at the Annual EmiratesGBC Congress in Dubai in November, it stated. Chairman Ali Al Jassim said: "At EmiratesGBC, our aim is to support the UAE government to achieve Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment by 2050 in accordance with the Paris Agreement. These awards underpins our commitment to strengthening sustainability in the Mena region and help achieve the net zero emission goals." The Awards to be announced at our Annual EmiratesGBC Congress aims to encourage associations, consultants and practitioners to demonstrate innovation and high levels of sustainability in their work. KPMG has been selected as the official auditor of the awards to support a fair and transparent process of determining the short-listed and winning organisations, said the EmiratesGBC statement. To encourage academia engagement, the event also includes the Dr. Owainati Student Excellence Award sponsored by Dr. Sadek Owainati, the Co-Founder of EmiratesGBC. A student who showcases outstanding work in sustainability will be given this award, it added.-TradeArabia News Service Graduating with an MBA from some Texas business schools is likely to land you a six-figure salary, according to U.S. News & World Report. But exactly how much will depend on the school. We used the outlet's data to compile a roster of standout MBA programs with the best "return on investment," ROI. Below are the Texas programs that rank the highest for ROI in the nation. It's a short list of just four schools, and you may be surprised by some of the findings. LOCAL: Pearland ISD weighs options for next school year Interestingly not on the list: Southern Methodist University, which is home to Cox School of Business. While it's a highly ranked MBA, it's no longer among the national ranking for best ROI programs. Using U.S. News' data, we've included only those Texas schools that yields the best return on your investment, that is, the tuition you paid. We looked at how much high-ranked Texas programs cost, and what their diplomas will likely earn you within three months of graduation. These Lone Star State business schools have at least a 140% average return, the data shows: In the midst of unprecedented global protests against anti-Black racism, Premier Doug Fords denial of systemic racism in Ontario did not surprise me. Those who benefit from structural privilege will never acknowledge its existence. I know this first hand because the legal world where I work as a lawyer of colour is a perfect microcosm of systemic racism as an open secret. Last fall, the Law Society of Ontario voted to ditch a provision in its Statement of Principles that required lawyers to acknowledge that they have a responsibility to promote equality and diversity in the legal profession. It was clear that any explicit declaration for equality made a lot of established professionals uncomfortable a classic example showing how my profession views issues of racial diversity. When I got into law school, the first thing I did was talk to an uncle, a respected member of Ottawas Muslim and South Asian community. He was very happy for me but then said something that took me aback. Son, he said, you have what it takes to be a great lawyer, but youre only gonna go so far. Why? I asked, a little insulted. He pointed his fingers to his skin and said, this. I instantly got what he meant, but decided to brush him off as a bitter old timer. Gradually, I began to see a different reality when my countless applications for articling positions elicited zero replies. My classmates, most of whom were white, got offers left and right. I almost went into depression but was still reluctant to make any connection to my race. I finally managed and did part of my training under a successful Black lawyer. He argued a landmark case, Baker v. Canada, before the Supreme Court and had decades of experience. Sometimes hed shared stories of battling racism in his storied career, but even he couldnt get through to me I didnt want to whine. It wasnt until I became a full-fledged lawyer when my rose-coloured glasses began to fade. As a novice, I took endless abuse from older, white, senior lawyers. I remember overhearing one of them in court tell his client: Dont worry, this little brown kid doesnt know what hes doing. I proved him wrong by defeating him at the Court of Appeal. Another time, a client started panicking when I showed up in family court without my white colleague. She told her partner that they wanted a white woman at the hearing. She apologized after I won the motion. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. But then I started my own family and refugee law practice. Immediately, potential clients began to ask me: Do you work with any white lawyers? They didnt question my competency, but were clear that they wanted me to be accompanied by a white lawyer at hearings. These were often people from my own Bangladeshi community. The majority of refugee lawyers are white males. As a result, a lot of people of colour feel that only white lawyers can win them a positive decision from Canadas powerful refugee board. And who doesnt want to maximize their chances to win? The same goes for family law. I had clients come to me saying that theyre worried because their counterpart hired a white lawyer and some wanted my help to find a white lawyer. I have had many clients who explicitly left me because I refused to work with their white lawyer. They hold a false perception that a white lawyer can get you a result that no lawyer of colour can. There are even agents in many own Bangladeshi community and many communities of colour who take advantage of refugee claimants and get paid for taking them to a white lawyer. Finally, I had to accept the existence of white privilege. Racism exists in Canada, it exists in the legal profession and it affects everyone. The protests that have rocked Donald Trumps America have reignited the conversation around race. And Canadians cant be bystanders. The very profession that engages our countrys legal system is beset with discrimination and racist bullying. Its about time we all recognize that. Washim Ahmed is a lawyer and co-founder of OWS Law. He holds a Masters from Osgoode Hall Law School and practises family and immigration/refugee law in Toronto. Read more about: There is no community spread of coronavirus in Delhi, which has seen an exponential increase in the number of cases over the past week, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said quoting officials from the Centre after a meeting with State Disaster Management Authority on Tuesday. Officials from Centre say no community transmission of Covid-19 virus in Delhi, said Sisodia. The meeting was chaired by Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal, who is also chairperson of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority. Sisodia, who attended the meeting as CM Arvind Kejriwal was unwell and in self-isolation, said the city-state will see 5.5 lakh Covid-19 cases by July-end and said the government will need 80,000 bed by that time to cater to the patients. The deputy CM, however, provided no explanation as to how he arrived at the said numbers. The lieutenant governor has refused to reconsider his decision to overrule the Delhi governments order reserving state-run and private hospitals for Delhiites, the deputy chief minister said. Sounding a note of caution, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain, before the meeting, said of the new cases being reported in the city, nearly 50 per cent are those in which the source of infection is not known. When asked if Delhi has reached community transmission level as far as coronavirus infection is concerned, Jain said declaration on this is made by the Centre. Epidemiologically, community transmission is third stage of the infection... In Delhi, of the new cases being reported, nearly half of the cases, the source of infection is not known, he said. Delhis L-G Anil Baijal has called for an all-party meeting at 3 pm today to discuss the present situation of Covid-19 in Delhi and measures to contain the spread of the same. The national capital recorded 1,007 fresh coronavirus cases on Monday, taking the Covid-19 cases in the city to over 29,000-mark, and the death toll due to the disease mounted to 874, authorities said. The Florida attorney who dressed as the Grim Reaper to warn beachgoers of the dangers of the spread of coronavirus has been spotted at crowded Black Lives Matter protests. Daniel Uhlfelder, 47, posted to Twitter that he had been attending protests and handing out water to demonstrators throughout the Florida Panhandle on Saturday and Sunday. He previously went viral after dressing as the Grim Reaper to protest the reopening of Florida's beaches in late April. Uhlfelder appeared to be defying his own social distancing advice as he attended the crowded George Floyd protests over the weekend. Attorney Daniel Uhlfelder, 47, posted pictures and videos from a Black Lives Matter protest in Florida on Saturday and Sunday. He had previously dressed as the Grim Reaper to protest the reopening of the state's beaches and to warn that social distancing was still needed 'Defuniak springs, Florida. Huge crowd. Stay hopeful and stay strong,' he wrote, posting a picture of himself to Twitter wearing a black face mask and a black t-shirt reading 'I Can't Breathe, Black Lives Matter'. He also posted several videos from the protests, where hundreds had gathered to demonstrate peacefully for an end to police brutality and racial injustice. 'We are here in Florida panhandle in Deep South where hundreds have turned out for peaceful protest. No peace. No justice,' Uhlfelder wrote. '500 folks showed up today in small North Florida country to protest for social justice,' he added. 'Even with pouring rain. This was one of the best counties for trump in 2016. Keep up the fight. Don't stop. Keep your foot on the pedal. We can do this!!' His videos showed demonstrators marching along a highway carrying signs after gathering in a nearby park. He was joined by his family all wearing t-shirts reading 'All Lives Can't Matter Until Black Lives Matter'. The Santa Rosa Beach-based attorney was also involved in fundraising efforts to provide water to protesters including a group who gathered outside of President Donald Trump's Doral Miami Hotel. The attorney said there were huge crowds at the Florida protest as he seemingly defied his own advice on social distancing to attend the Black Lives Matter demonstrations Uglfelder posted several video showing the crowds at the weekend protests Uhlfelder also tweeted words of encouragement for protesters in Florida Uhlfelder first went viral in early May after he was seen on Panama City ABC affiliate WMBB speaking about coronavirus spread on Florida beaches while dressed as the Grim Reaper. 'I am here today to try to make a point that I think it's premature to reopen our beaches,' Uhlfelder said. 'I'm a huge proponent of public beaches, and I've been fighting for that for years, but I think that the danger of bringing all the people here to our area and spreading the virus. I think it's going to prolong the recovery we have,' he added. The lawyer in March had sued Governor Ron DeSantis for failing to issue a statewide closure of beaches and announced he would launch a so-called 'Grim Reaper Tour' starting May 1 in an April 21 Twitter post. Though his suit was denied, DeSantis did eventually bow to pressure and close Florida's beaches on April 2 - far later than most states. Daniel Uhlfelder went viral after he dressed as the Grim Reaper to protest the reopening of Florida's beaches in late April and warn off beachgoers, as pictured above Just over two weeks later, however, DeSantis began relaxing lockdown rules and gave the all- clear for some beaches and parks to reopen from April 17. Uhlfelder's Grim Reaper protest came after the state relaxed its stay-at-home order, triggering a mass of sunbathers flocking to the sands. 'Many of you have asked if I am willing to travel around Florida wearing Grim Reaper attire to the beaches and other areas of the state opening up prematurely. The answer is absolutely yes,' Uhlfelder said in a tweet. 'Beginning May 1, we will hit the road here in state. Please retweet and spread the word.' He posted a photo of a Grim Reaper, complete with cloak and scythe, sitting on a lifeguard stand on a beach as people walk past. On a 'Make my day' donation page set up for the 'Florida grim Reaper Tour', Uhlfelder wrote that the campaign would also raise donations for Democrats running for office. Uhlfelder said in an April 21 tweet (pictured) that he was to travel to reopened Florida beaches dressed as the Grim Reaper to stop people breaking social distancing rules Uhlfelder, a Santa Rosa Beach-based attorney, said that his Grim Reaper tour to warn of social distancing on Florida beaches would also raise donations for Democrats running for office While attending the weekend's Black Lives Matter protests, Uhlfelder continued to keep an eye on the coronavirus cases in the state, however. 'Yesterday marked the most Florida COVID-19 cases reported in a single calendar day, with 1,433 confirmed new cases,' he posted Sunday. According to Reuters, Florida was among twenty-one U.S. states which reported weekly increases in new cases of COVID-19 for the week ending June 7. Arizona, Utah and New Mexico all posted rises of 40 percent or higher for the week compared with the prior seven days. In the South, new cases of COVID-19 in Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina and North Carolina all rose by more than 30 percent in the past week. Florida attributed the increase to more testing, while South Carolina was investigating outbreaks in three counties. The other states had no immediate comment. Positive test rates held steady in these states over the past four weeks, the analysis showed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended states wait for new COVID-19 cases to fall for 14 days before easing social distancing restrictions. Florida reported 966 news cases of the coronavirus on Sunday and continues to register some of its highest daily diagnosis numbers since the onset of the pandemic. Last week, the state had more than 1,100 new cases of COVID-19 each day for five straight days. The state also had 252 coronavirus deaths in the past week. But the state's Department of Health argues that the higher numbers are all down to testing. The positive test rate in the state has remained lower than it was at the pandemic's peak. On Sunday, the rate was about 3.9 percent, compared to 10 percent in mid-April. 'The increase in the number of positive cases is a result of Florida's greatly expanded efforts in testing for COVID-19. The state continues to expand its testing capacity and accessibility, to ensure that anyone who needs a COVID-19 test, gets a test,' a representative told Newsweek. 'As more testing is done, there will be an increase of positive cases of COVID-19. However, it's important to note that while testing has increased, the overall positivity rate remains low,' the DOH spokesperson continued. It comes three days after Gov. DeSantis announced that 60 Florida counties would be entering phase two of reopening. This will permit them to reopen bars, movie theaters and amusement parks with added safety and social distancing procedures in place while retail establishments located in those areas can also operate at full capacity, while adhering to 'responsible social distancing and sanitation protocols'. As of Tuesday morning, there are 64,904 confirmed coronavirus cases in Florida and the death toll in the state stands at 2,712. Motorbikes are seen in HCMC in November 2019. Vehicle emissions are often blamed as a major source of air pollution in the city. Photo by VnExpress/Ha An. A global environmental performance ranking places Vietnam in 141st place out of 180 economies, citing its air pollution and modest biodiversity protection. Vietnam scored 33.4 points out of 100 in the biennial Environmental Performance Index compiled by scientists at American universities Yale and Columbia. The report ranked 180 countries and territories around the world on 32 performance indicators across 11 categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality. The categories are air quality, sanitation and drinking water, heavy metal, waste management, biodiversity, ecosystem services, fisheries, climate change, pollution emissions, agriculture, and water resources. Vietnams low ranking resulted also from its struggles with climate change, according to the report. It stood at 115th in air quality that measured household solid fuel use and PM2.5 average exposure. PM2.5, super fine particles, measures a fraction of the width of a human hair, and is emitted by vehicles and industry. The World Health Organization Air Quality Guideline recommends an annual PM2.5 mean exposure threshold of 10 g/m3 to minimize health risks. According to the report, Vietnams air quality was worse than that of many other Southeast Asian countries like Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. In the Asia-Pacific region, it was in 18th place out of 25 economies. In biodiversity and habitat, Vietnam placed at 150th due to failure to maximize the conservation potential of its protected areas, especially marine ecosystems. It ranked 155th in climate change mitigation, which measured progress in combating global climate change, which exacerbates all other environmental threats and imperils human health and safety. Vietnam, one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases in Southeast Asia, seeks to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent between 2020 and 2030. It was identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2014 as one of the countries likely to be most affected by climate change due to its extensive coastline, vast deltas and flood plains and location on the path of typhoons, and warned that 25 percent of its land mass might not be in use by 2100 due to sea level rise. Rising temperatures and sea levels, and the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events combined with population growth and urbanization are increasing the risk of coastal erosion, urban flooding and drought. Denmark topped the ranking with the world's cleanest air, followed by Luxembourg and Switzerland. The 10 most environmentally friendly countries in the world were European. The U.S. was 24th while China, which is plagued by worsening air pollution, was in 120th place. Worsening air pollution in Hanoi and HCMC, Vietnam's two biggest metropolises, has become a major concern and repeatedly made headlines in 2019. Officials have said the low quality of air in the cities is caused by construction, a growing number of cars and motorcycles, industries like steel works and cement factories, and coal-fired plants. Research indicates the country suffers $10.8-13.2 billion worth of economic losses associated with ambient air pollution each year, equivalent to about 5 percent of its GDP. UNODC supports Senegal to get street children home during the COVID-19 pandemic Photo: UNODC Dakar (Senegal), 9 June 2020 - More than 500 children have been taken off the streets in Senegal and returned to their families as a safeguarding measure against the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to coordinated efforts between the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), USAID and the Senegalese Ministry of Family and Child Protection. UNODC is working closely with the government of Senegal to protect the countrys street children from the impact of the deadly coronavirus in line with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres call for urgent action to support the worlds children amid the universal crisis. The authorities, national stakeholders, UNODC and international partners launched an identification process to locate children in need in Dakar through foot patrols organized by NGOs, to facilitate either family reunification or the placement of children in transit shelters or alternative families within the community. So far around 500 children have been removed from the streets and placed in child services housing centres for 14 days. They were also tested for Covid-19 before their return to their families. Medical equipment has also been handed over to the ministry to assist the return of the children. Further information UNODC Regional Office for West and Central Africa Sudanese Foreign Minister Asmaa Abdalla has said that Sudan believes Ethiopia would think twice about filling the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) before an agreement is reached if it is met by a strong stance from Sudan and Egypt. In an interview with Sudan's State TV on Saturday, Abdallah explained that Sudan sent a letter to the UN Security Council to stipulate that it is not merely a mediator between Egypt and Ethiopia, but rather an essential partner in the dam issue and its negotiations. She asserted that since the dam is nearly 20 km away from the Sudanese border, and that it holds both pros and cons for the country, Sudan thinks it is quite important to reach a tripartite agreement on the next steps regarding the dam. Abdullah said Ethiopia has the right to build dams within its territory and to benefit from its water resources; however, it should adhere to international conventions and the declaration of principles signed by Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia. She stressed that negotiations are the only way to resolve the crisis, and that the three countries should sit together and negotiate. The Sudanese foreign minister asserted that it would not be harmful if observers like the United States and the World Bank were present in the negotiations until the end. During the same interview, Sudanese Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Yasser Abbas said that in order to preserve its national interest, Sudan insists that an agreement should be signed before Ethiopia starts filling the GERD. They both stressed on the necessity of reaching a tripartite agreement between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, as well as a commitment to international agreements, prior to the filling of the dam. Abbas asserted that Sudan is a key party in the tripartite negotiations as it is the most affected by the GERD due to its proximity to the Roseires dam in southern Sudan. He explained that the GERD will have an effect on the operation of the Roseires dam and the reservoirs of both the Roseires and Sanar dams, and this is why Sudan is keen on reaching an agreement before the filling of the GERD. The Sudanese irrigation minister stated that Ethiopia has the right to development but without causing any harm to the other parties, stressing that with international cooperation, all parties can benefit from the GERD. Abbas denied that Sudan is biased towards either Egypt or Ethiopia, stressing that his country is only keen on its own national interests, which can sometimes be in line with one party or the other. Abbas noted that the three countries have agreed on nearly 90 percent of the main points, and it is therefore necessary that they reach an agreement on the filling of the dam as well. Deputy Chairman of the National Umma Party (NUP) Ibrahim El-Amin said during the interview that Sudan is capable of leading an initiative to reach a consensus between the three countries based on principles of regional cooperation and the exchange of benefits, SUNA reported. El-Amin asserted that the construction of the GERD is inevitable and no longer an issue, what matters now is working towards avoiding harm and maximising the common benefits for the three countries. Last week, Sudan sent a letter urging the United Nations Security Council to encourage all parties to refrain from any unilateral measures in the GERD issue that could affect regional and international peace and security. Sudan asked the Security Council to support its efforts to resume talks in good faith to reach a comprehensive agreement between all parties. Khartoums letter comes a 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: Advertisement Attorney General William Barr said Monday that 'demonizing' cops is 'wrong' as thousands call for the defunding of police departments across the United States following the death of George Floyd. Barr expressed his concerns during an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier. 'I think defunding the police - holding the entire police structure responsible - for the actions of certain officers is wrong and I think it's dangerous to demonize police,' Barr said. The attorney general, who said there are approximately 900,000 police officers in the nation, backed up his statement by saying departments 'understand the need for change and there has been great change' in the last 60 years. Barr then told the network that if police were to be defunded: 'You would have increases in vigilantism and increases in chaos in the city'. He said that it has 'been shown' that an increase in vigilantism would result in more killings. Scroll down for video Attorney General William Barr (pictured) said Monday that 'demonizing' cops is 'wrong' as thousands call for the defunding of police departments across the United States following the death of George Floyd Barr's remarks come as Black Lives Matter activists pushing to defund the police proposed plans to replace officers with social workers, mental health advocates and homeless charities. Police are seen in Minneapolis on May 30 Barr's remarks come as Black Lives Matter activists pushing to defund the police proposed plans to replace officers with social workers, mental health advocates and homeless charities. Their chants called for widespread disbanding of US police departments after Minneapolis councilors voted to abolish the city's police force in an historic move following days of protests over Floyd's death during an arrest on May 25. However supporters of 'defund the police' say their demands are not necessarily about eliminating police departments or stripping agencies of all of their money. They say it is time for the country to address systemic problems in policing in America and spend more on what communities across the US need, like housing and education. On Sunday, officials including Ilhan Omar and the son of the Attorney General prosecuting the four cops responsible for Floyd's death - signed a pledge vowing to take it apart. They spoke to protesters at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis and revealed their 'reimagining' of the police force. People walk down 16th street after 'Defund The Police' was painted on the street near the White House on Monday President Donald Trump tweeted Monday morning that: 'LAW & ORDER, NOT DEFUND AND ABOLISH THE POLICE. The Radical Left Democrats have gone Crazy!' He later added: 'This year has seen the lowest crime numbers in our Countrys recorded history, and now the Radical Left Democrats want to Defund and Abandon our Police. Sorry, I want LAW & ORDER!' On Monday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey balked at claims made by city council members. Frey appeared on Good Morning America to say he would not support the plan to disband the department and that he wanted to know exactly what the council had in mind. Officials at the rally Sunday said they had enough votes on the council though to secure a majority. By law, Minneapolis must maintain a police force of at least 723 police officers. It currently has some 800. To completely get rid of the department, the city charter would have to be amended - which would require a public vote or the full approval of all 13 council members, including the mayor. During an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on Monday night, Frey said he was 'honest' with demonstrators over the weekend when he said defunding police 'is not where I am'. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (left) and Minneapolis Council President Lisa Bender (right) were both interviewed Sunday night by CNN's Chris Cuomo. Both gave their thoughts about defunding the police A police vehicle burns during protests in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis, Minnesota, police, on May 30 in Brooklyn Police were captured on video shoving an elderly man to the ground before he starts bleeding in front of City Hall in Buffalo, New York Frey, who was booed by protesters at a demonstration, said: 'If we're talking about massive cultural shift in the way our police department does business, I'm on board. If we're talking about major structural reform that pushes back on the horrid nature of how our police departments have treated brown and black communities, I am fully on board. 'But if we're talking about abolishing the entire police department, I was honest, that's not where I am.' Cuomo also interviewed Minneapolis Council President Lisa Bender Monday night. During the interview, Bender told the host that when she talks about a 'police-free' future, it's an 'aspirational' goal. 'I'm willing to stand with community members who are asking us to think of that as the goal,' she said. 'I just stood with total of nine members of Minneapolis city council and we committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe.' She said the city, with a billion dollar annual budget, had analyzed 911 calls to determine what help people in Minneapolis were calling for, they found most people needed mental health services, health services, EMTs or fire services - not an armed police officer. Bender added: 'Housing, health care, education, all of it together that helps keep our communities safe, and to really work with our community over the next year so imagine what that looks like to build that system, including everyone.' The vision of Black Lives Matter activists for how to defund and replace traditional police Following the death of George Floyd, thousands have taken to the streets across the US to demand justice. Activists are even calling for police to be defunded, while acknowledging this is a gradual process. The group MPD150, which says it is 'working towards a police-free Minneapolis,' argues that such action would be more about 'strategically reallocating resources, funding, and responsibility away from police and toward community-based models of safety, support, and prevention'. The group states on its website: 'The people who respond to crises in our community should be the people who are best-equipped to deal with those crises. Rather than strangers armed with guns, who very likely do not live in the neighborhoods they're patrolling, we want to create space for more mental health service providers, social workers, victim/survivor advocates, religious leaders, neighbors and friends all of the people who really make up the fabric of a community to look out for one another'. Following the death of George Floyd, thousands have taken to the streets across the US to demand justice. Activists are even calling for police to be defunded, while acknowledging this is a gradual process Adding that those who commit crime often only do so when their basic needs are not filled by other means. Retired Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza told the group: 'The idea of police as crime preventers is rubbish. By the time the cop appears the criminal has been formed and the crime has been committed .' Speaking at a BLM protest today Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said: 'I will never stop saying, not only do we need to dis-invest in police, but we need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis police department, it is rotten to the root. And so when we dismantle we allow for something beautiful to arise. And that re-imagining allows us to figure out what public safety looks like for us.' Among plans put forward by Black Lives Matter, MPD150 and other activists to replace police are: Mental health responders to attend mental health crisis in place of armed police Street outreach teams, more shelters and affordable housing to help solve homelessness and stop the homeless from being criminalized Traffic stops to be eliminated entirely, with traffic violations dealt with via mail Community members to attend domestic violence calls, to help intervene and establish long-term safety for the individuals Specialized physical and emotional support for victims of sexual violence Investing in prevention of sex trafficking to end economic and social conditions that lead to deeply rooted vulnerabilities The legalization of marijuana to stop incarceration for the 'harmless' drug Better handling of drug offences to stop 'criminalizing of communities of color' Decriminalization of sex work and formation of an independent union to ensure individuals have insurance, child care and safety precautions Restorative justice (meetings between victim and offender) to be used to deal with property crimes such as theft and burglary Advertisement Democrats, led by a group of black lawmakers and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, unveiled sweeping legislation on Monday to combat police violence and racial injustice. The 134-page bill would take numerous steps including allowing victims of misconduct to sue for police damages, ban chokeholds and require the use of body cameras by federal law enforcement officers, restrict the use of lethal force, and facilitate independent investigations of police departments with patterns of misconduct. The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 does not call for funding of police departments to be cut or abolished, as some protesters and activists have increasingly sought. But lawmakers called for funding priorities to change. 'A profession where you have the power to kill should be a profession that requires highly trained officers who are accountable to the public,' Representative Karen Bass, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) said. Democrats hope to bring the legislation to the floor of the House of Representatives before the end of June. But its reception in the Republican-controlled Senate is unclear, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell noncommittal on the need for legislation. One member of the caucus, Representative Val Demings of Florida, a former police chief in the city of Orlando, told ABC that 'systemic racism is always the ghost in the room.' 'What we have to do as a nation is hold police accountable,' said Demings, who has been mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. How will the COVID-19 pandemic be remembered? Will it fade into history like the Spanish Flu? The 1918 catastrophe disappeared from memory, bracketed as it was by two world wars, allegedly more interesting. British historian Laura Spinney disagrees and her alternate view is fascinating. In her 2017 study, Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World, she says it hasnt been forgotten at all. Meaning comes with distance, she writes. Our collective memory of it is simply a work in progress. If so, the coronavirus with us now will remain deep in our souls for as long as were on this heating planet. The Spanish Flu killed 50 to 100 million people worldwide, including 55,000 in Canada, hitting First Nations reserves particularly hard. The Black Death in the mid-14th century killed at least 40 million but it didnt even have that name until the 16th century, and didnt earn intense study until the 20th century, she writes. Then, a few years ago, academic interest in the Spanish Flu suddenly flared. We commemorate both world wars with energy and devotion. But Spinney points out that wars and plagues are remembered differently. World wars begin and end. They remain raw in our minds, we are reminded of them constantly and believe we will never forget them. But with new wars, old wars fade, unlike more amorphous pandemics the Great Depression seems strangely pandemic-like which lurk unmentioned for generations in the collective unconscious. Its startling to see how familiar we are with pandemics and their accoutrements. Pale Rider was written pre-coronavirus but recounts aspects of coping with Spanish Flu that didnt shock us this time. Did we remember them? Spinney mentions immune memory, genetic susceptibility, and post-viral fatigue, containment facilities, face masks especially layered ones, distancing, throat and lung symptoms like coughing, blocked borders, ships refused landing, women bearing the brunt of nursing and cleaning, the public blocked from crucial information, a surge in attacks on women, the link to birds, pigs and other animals, cities suffering the worst, and so on. That was a century ago. This is us. A pandemic leaves deep trauma in varying ways. There is massive economic damage but people are also individually affected by the flus game of musical chairs. People die and their wills distribute money differently. Spinney mentions one ironic tale. In 1918, a German immigrant to America died of flu, his wife and son invested his money in property and look at that, the immigrants grandson is Donald Trump. Many children are orphaned by flu, babies born to women with the flu are physically affected, more women are raped or killed by men in lockdown, people break down mentally, social courtesies suffer or improve (we dont yet know), and nations make renewed demands for health care and safe housing. And yes, good and powerful people die just when society needed them most. As the terms of post-world war peace were being negotiated, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, among other officials, was ill. Forces for moderation were damaged and the resultant deal may have helped birth the Second World War. These are the flus butterfly wings but they mattered then and matter now. There is a terrible undertone to the splendid Black Lives Matter protests on American streets: demonstrators are more vulnerable to COVID-19. American slavery was like a pandemic in that its suffering lived on in the American soul for centuries. Now those fighting for justice might die either way, by cop or by virus. What a choice. Countries with authoritarian leaders worldwide are seeing, in some cases, many more deaths. Its a question of luck. Imagine having elected a monster just as COVID-19 was beginning to cook. The U.S. has Trump with all that entails. We elected a sane prime minister who works on economic safety nets and huge efforts at health care, his general aim being peace, order and good government. Margaret Atwood says Canadas theme has always been survival. How did we get this central idea into our collective bloodstream? Was it the Spanish Flu? Disease brought by settlers? Killingly cold winters? The coronavirus era enters in the same way. It will live on in our unconscious, our souls. Heather Mallick is a Toronto-based columnist covering current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: is a Toronto-based columnist covering current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @HeatherMallick Ahead of Tuesday nights Worcester City Council Meeting, a group is organizing online, asking for residents to call in and urge the council to decrease the police budget. The council meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. and is virtual, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts called Defund WPD have asked residents to call in to the meeting and have started sharing information about the citys proposed 2021 budget. The Fiscal 2021 budget has $163.2 million in city operations, 32% of which go to the Worcester Police Department. The Fire Department is slated to receive 25% of the budget, the DPW at 14%, the public library at 4% and Health and Human Services at 3%, among other departments. The police department budget is slated to receive a 0.5% or $254,320 increase, for a total of $52,766,614. Worcesters City Council must not increase the WPDs budget by $254,320, reads a Defund WPD Facebook event page for the council meeting. They must reallocate these funds to critical community services that help keep Worcester safe and healthy. They must also continue to defund the Worcester Police. For Fiscal 2021, the citys Health and Human Services budget is $4,219,437, an increase of 0.2%, or $6,942, over the last fiscal year. The proposed Fiscal 2021 budget for the Worcester Public Schools is $388,455,204. The schools are projected to receive $293,503,420 in state Chapter 70 aid, which is nearly $19 million more than last fiscal year. The Worcester Public Library is recommended to be funded at $6,201,170, a decrease of $9,442 from the Fiscal 2020 funding of $6,210,612. The decrease is a net result of step increases for employees that are not at maximum pay which is offset by Fiscal 2021 having 52.2 weeks whereas in fiscal 2020 there were 52.4 weeks, and increase Library Page salaries to meet Massachusetts State Minimum wage, the budget document reads. We must not only show how strongly we oppose this absurd budget increase for the WPD, but we must also show our support for decreasing the WPDs budget and redistributing their funds into other more critical and important public programming such as the schools and healthcare, wrote Defund WPD on Facebook. Eliana Stanislawski, who is organizing with Defund WPD but said they are speaking on behalf of themself and not the group as a whole, said Defund WPD formed spontaneously in the aftermath of the horrific police brutality that we saw in Main South on Monday night. On June 1, there was a chaotic incident in Main South following a peaceful protest downtown, where thousands attended a rally to demand justice in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Protests have spread across the country after a now-former police officer kneeled on Floyds neck for more than eight minutes while being recorded on camera in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Floyd can be heard on video repeatedly saying that he cant breathe. That former officer, Derek Chauvin, and three others are now facing charges. After the protest ended downtown, a smaller group continued marching in the citys Main South neighborhood. There, police showed up in riot gear, telling the crowd to disperse. There were a few small fires, fireworks and other destruction. Nineteen people were arrested, including four Clark University students. Clark University has hired a Worcester law firm to conduct an independent review of the incident. That budget increase just felt like such a slap in the face after what had happened and people didnt know what was going on in terms of supporting the police and city council, Stanislawski said. Im organizing with this group because were just a bunch of people in the city who care about public safety for everyone, not for the few, and we are trying to find ways to unite and push this agenda forward. Dozens are expected to speak during the council meeting. Kaitlyn Selman, who has a Ph.D. in criminology and criminal justice from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, said she got involved with Defund WPD because she felt it was a chance to work directly on an issue that relates to her research, which has been focused on abolition and keeping people safe in ways different than traditional forms of punishment like prisons and police. Selman said shed like to see those police funds redirected to support resources in the community. Obviously this is not something that can happen overnight, thats definitely not the goal, this is something that could take decades, Selman said. I would definitely like to see the funds that we currently use, which includes that budget increase, devoted to things like Worcester Public Schools, like the library, like public health initiatives, things like mobile crisis units, mobile health clinics, helping streamline and better our public transit system. Selman said these conversations hinge around a failure of the society to address social problems at their root. Yes, we have violence that takes place in this world, we have people who are struggling with particular issues, we have people who cause harm. We also have institutions that cause harm, Selman said. What has become really common is for us to rely on the police and also prisons to mask those problems or just to kind of put a bandaid over them instead of really addressing the roots of those issues, things like poverty and homelessness and a lack of funding for our schools, a lack of investment in mental health services and physical health services. There are bigger issues at play that prisons and police cannot address, Selman said. I think what comes with this defunding and divesting is also addressing social problems at the root, Selman said. And that is something that police and prisons are just not equipped to do and theyve failed to do over and over and over again while also engaging in some really violent, really harmful behavior. On the agenda for the council meeting is also a petition from resident Douglas Arbetter to immediately cease the allocation of money used to purchase future Military-grade weapons and gear for the Worcester Police Department and immediately prohibit the use of already purchased military-grade equipment. Further, request police officers be prohibited from covering their badge numbers at any time, in any way. Anyone who wants to call in to the meeting is directed to dial 415-655-0001 and access code 730323290. "We are spending a lot of money on this police to address crime in our community on the back end instead of really focusing on keeping our community safe, Stanislawski said. Its pretty obvious that the police arent actually designed to keep us safe and yet were spending all this money for them to respond to crime and patrol neighborhoods that they designate as crime neighborhoods and they just patrol those neighborhoods looking for trouble. The safest communities as the movement for black lives has said are the communities with the most resources. At last weeks city council meeting, Stanislawski said people made recommendations like funding the schools, especially in light of the coronavirus pandemic, as schools will need more personal protective equipment and other items to reopen. Related Content: Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States Tue, June 9, 2020 12:01 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd40363 2 People Prince-Andrew,Jeffrey-Epstein,scandal,sexual-abuse Free American prosecutors accused Britain's Prince Andrew on Monday of falsely claiming he has made repeated offers to help their investigation into late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The royal's lawyers said their client had offered assistance at least three times this year in the case, which centers on lurid sex trafficking claims against the multi-millionaire financier. Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, which is investigating whether Epstein had any accomplices in his alleged crimes, hit back at the statement from Blackford's. "Today, Prince Andrew yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate with an ongoing federal investigation into sex trafficking and related offences committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates," Berman said. He added in the statement that Queen Elizabeth II's second son had "repeatedly declined our request to schedule" an interview. Berman said that nearly four months ago Blackford's had "informed us unequivocally" that Andrew would not "come in for such an interview." He added: "If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we should expect him." Andrew, 60, publicly defended his friendship with Epstein in a BBC television interview last year, prompting outrage from his victims, and leading him to quit frontline royal duties. Blackfords' statement said claims he had stonewalled investigators were untrue, and accused the US Department of Justice (DoJ) of chasing headlines. "The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DoJ," the statement said. "Unfortunately, the DoJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the Duke has offered zero co-operation. "In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered." Andrew, a former Royal Navy helicopter pilot who as a younger man had a reputation as a playboy prince, is accused of having sexual relations with one woman when she was 17 -- an allegation he has vehemently denied. The woman, Virginia Giuffre, alleges she was trafficked under-age to have sex with friends of Epstein, who was 66 when he killed himself in a New York jail in August last year. The hedge fund manager, who befriended countless celebrities over the years, including US President Donald Trump, was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Read also: Prince Andrew accuser slams 'ridiculous excuses' 'Disappointing' Andrew's lawyers said they had upheld their commitment to confidentiality but said they were forced to go public "in view of misleading media briefings" from the United States. US investigators had been looking into Epstein's affairs for more than 16 years but only requested the prince's help on January 2 this year, they said. "Importantly, the DoJ advised us that the duke is not and has never been a 'target' of their criminal investigations into Epstein and that they sought his confidential, voluntary cooperation," the statement said. "In the course of these discussions, we asked the DoJ to confirm that our co-operation and any interview arrangements would remain confidential, in accordance with the ordinary rules that apply to voluntary co-operation with the DoJ. "We were given an unequivocal assurance that our discussions and the interview process would remain confidential." The lawyers pointed to two claims from Berman on January 27 and March 9 that the duke was refusing to cooperate, leading to "misleading" media reports. "These statements were inaccurate, and they should not have been made," Andrew's lawyers added, accusing the DoJ of treating their client "by a lower standard" than anyone else. The Sun newspaper on Monday reported that the DoJ had submitted a mutual legal assistance request to Britain's interior ministry to force the prince to give a statement. His lawyers said that would be "disappointing" given his willingness to provide a written statement voluntarily. US Attorney General Bill Barr told Fox News Monday that Andrew would not be extradited to the United States. With theatres locked down, streaming platforms like BroadwayHD, Digital Theatre or Marquee.TV have come into their own offering audiences a chance to witness old productions with high quality streams and excellent back catalogues. And if you want to do a hardcore theatre binge, there're are also free trials BroadwayHD offers a week (tip: a calendar notification can mean you don't forget to cancel after seven days) while Marquee TV has a 30-day option. There are oodles more than just simply musicals on BroadwayHD (we've rounded up some of our favourite Shakespeare productions here) but below are some of our favourite showtune-laden productions. Thankfully, all of the shows are also captioned. While it's great to watch shows, also think about ways to help the community during the pandemic. Les Miserables The 2010 concert show, staged at the O2 arena, was truly a historic moment for musical theatre. Relive the glory days back when you could fill a stadium safely. 42nd Street Clare Halse in 42nd Street Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage The iconic show was the last to be staged at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane before its refurbishment and it is a magnificent watch a huge cast serenading audiences with exquisite number after exquisite number. Clare Halse and Bonnie Langford star in this dance masterclass of a meta-musical. Miss Saigon The award-winning revival (which at the time broke WhatsOnStage Award records when it was on at the Prince Edward Theatre, is now available on BroadwayHD. Love Never Dies The epic Australian production with Ben Lewis and Anna O'Byrne picks up where the original left off to describe what happens to the Phantom after Phantom. Some rather lush tunes. Fame The current UK tour production of Fame Tristram Kenton They were on stage at the Peacock Theatre in 2019, but they're gonna live forever online the hit production (which wrapped up its run recently) was captured for streaming during its London run. A chance to revel in some pumping tunes and energetic choreography. Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill The legend that is Audra McDonald brings Billie Holiday to life in this special production that wowed West End audiences when it first ran. Kinky Boots Matt Henry (Lola) and Killian Donnelly (Charlie) Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage What else can we say about Kinky Boots the beloved cult classic won our hearts when it was at the Adelphi, and seeing two leads Matt Henry and Killian Donnelly back for the recorded production is a nice touch. Shoe manufacture has never been the same since this show landed. From Here To Eternity Tim Rice's wartime musical ran in the West End for half a year and amassed a large following during that time you can catch it here on BroadwayHD. The King and I Ken Watanabe and Kelli O'Hara in The King and I Matthew Murphy Bartlett Sher's enormous, vibrant production was a sell-out hit at The London Palladium, with leads Ken Watanabe, Kelli O'Hara and Ruthie Ann Miles receiving heaps of praise for their performances. The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall The epic spectacular with Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess is now available to watch online Phantom as you've never seen it before! An American in Paris The cast of An American in Paris Johan Persson Another dance-tacular show that lived on one of London's biggest stages, An American in Paris had a brilliant run at the Dominion Theatre, wowing with its 20-minute ballet sequence. Now that it's been recorded, they can't take that away from us! Cats The stage production of the show, with Elaine Paige, John Partridge and more, has made its way online. Hetty Feather Matt Costain as Jem and Phoebe Thomas as Hetty in Hetty Feather Donald Cooper Jacqueline Wilson's novel was adapted for the stage by Emma Reeves and Sally Cookson, and went on a massive tour after its original run at the Rose Theatre Kingston. One to keep the whole family entertained, the show features acrobatics, aerial skills and whimsical tales. Oklahoma! Hugh Jackman David Gordon We're going to rewind back to 1999 for this one the Hugh Jackman, Josefina Gabrielle-led Oklahoma! is presented in all its glory on BroadwayHD. A chance to see Jackman just before he shot to stardom as Wolverine. Ruthless the Musical Tracie Bennett and Kim Maresca in Ruthless Alastair Muir The new musical was a rip-roaring fun fest at the Arts Theatre, with a cast including the award-winning great Tracie Bennett, Harriet Thorpe and Jason Gardiner. Bennett and Thorpe would go on to repeat the same trick in Mame on tour last year. The Toxic Avenger The Toxic Avenger Claire Bilyard The B-movie bonanza is borderline batty but also oodles of fun it ran at the Arts Theatre after a UK premiere at Southwark Playhouse. A great show for kicking back and wallowing in stupendous fun, featuring a great big slime hero monster. Into the Woods The award-winning Open Air Theatre revival was recently added to the platform for anyone who's missed it, with Jenna Russell, Hannah Waddingham and more bringing Sondheim's extravagant show to life. Funny Girl Sheridan Smith leads the rollicking revival of the iconic musical in what is a side-splitting ride for all involved. You'll rarely find a show this fun! (Not available in the UK) Billy Elliot Live The Ruthie-Henshall-starring stage production has been immortalised in digital format you only need a bit of Electricity (and a Wi-Fi connection) to watch it. The Wind in the WIllows Rufus Hound in The Wind in the Willows Helen Maybanks The London Palladium production was being streamed for free earlier in the lockdown and while it's now pay-to-play, you can still catch the wonderful version of Kenneth Grahame's whimsical tales on BroadwayHD. Jesus Christ Superstar The epic 2012 stadium production, which veritably launched the career of Ben Forster, is now available to stream online. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Maria Friedman guides us through the glorious panoply of colours in Andrew Lloyd Webber's first real hit, which is still a firm family favourite. The show of solidarity from 57 police officers in Buffalo who reportedly resigned their assignments in a show of solidarity when two of their colleagues were suspended for allegedly brutalising a 75-year-old protester may have been a fabrication by the departments police union. A pair of Buffalo police officers, speaking on condition of anonymity over fears of retaliation, told 7 Eyewitness News that the claims from their union the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association were untrue. On 5 June, local news reported that 57 officers were resigning their assignments in solidarity with two colleagues who were punished for shoving an elderly man to the ground during the George Floyd protests. When the man hit the ground, his head split open, and he began to bleed out onto the pavement. The police began marching over his incapacitated body. One of the officers attempted to stop to check on the man, but another one stopped him and forced him to keep marching. A protester attempted to reach the injured man, but the police stopped him. Officers Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe were suspended following the incident, and have since been charged with felony assault. Recommended Buffalo cops who shoved elderly protester charged with assault While the officers did resign their assignments, they claimed the act was not one of solidarity, but rather of self concern. I dont understand why the union said its a thing of solidarity. I think it sends the wrong message that were backing our own and thats not the case, one of the officers said. According to the officers, the resignations occurred because the officers were no longer confident the city would protect them. We quit because our union said [they] arent legally backing us anymore, another officer said. So why should we stand on a line for the city with no legal backing if something [were to] happen? Has nothing to do with us supporting. The officers conceded that some of those who resigned may have done so to support their suspended colleagues, but by and large, their actions were not a show of solidarity. The officers provided 7 Eyewitness News with an email the officers received from union president John Evans explaining its position following the suspension of Mr Torgalski and Mr McCabe. I know it has been said that the Admin wont back you when something happens. After witnessing first hand how these 2 officers were treated, I can tell you, they tried to f*** over these guys like I have never seen in my 54 years, Mr Evans reportedly wrote. He said the treatment that the officers received from the city and the district attorneys office was despicable. In the email, Mr Evans says the union will not pay for the legal defence for officers on ERT or SWAT assignments out of fear that mounting legal fees would cripple the unions funds. This Admin in conjunction with DA John Flynn and or JP Kennedy could put a serious dent in the PBAs funds, Mr Evans wrote. OVER BULLS****! These officers did nothing wrong but execute an order from the DPC to clear the Square. Mr Evans said Mr Torgalski and Mr McCabe dont deserve to be vilified and treated like criminals for simply following orders. New Delhi, June 9 : Amid the Sino-India military standoff on the LAC in eastern Ladakh, the barbs between the government and opposition started with poetic verses along with tough questions from the principal opposition party. Amid news of talks, Congress' Manish Tewari said, "Talks are fine. Question is how many kilometres of Indian territory has been occupied by the Chinese? Who is responsible for this failure at the tactical, strategic or intelligence levels?" He took potshots saying "Is it the case that no one killed Jessica?" The war of words between the Congress and the BJP intensified after Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at Home Minister Amit Shah after he claimed that India is the only country after the US and Israel to protect its borders. The Congress leader said "everyone knows the reality of the borders". "Everyone knows the reality of the borders, but 'Shah-yad' (maybe) it's a good idea to keep one's heart happy," Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi, where 'Shah' meant Amit Shah. A day after Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh responded to former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's jibe at Amit Shah, "Haath me dard ho to dawa kije, haath hi jab dard ho to kya kije (You apply medicine to the hand when it pains, but what to do when the hand itself is the cause of pain)," Rajnath Singh said in tweet in reply to the Congress leader, where the defence minister replaced 'Dil' (heart) with 'Haath' (hand) from the original couplet. The Defence Minister made the reference in relation to the Congress' election symbol. Rahul Gandhi responded on Tuesday "Once RM (Defence Minister) is done commenting on the hand symbol, can he answer: Have the Chinese occupied Indian territory in Ladakh?" Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a tweet "Denigrating Party Symbols of Opposition isn't same as Defending India. Will Rajnath Singh ji answer the simple question posed by Rahul Gandhi?" Rahul Gandhi on June 3 had questioned the central government over the military standoff with China in Ladakh. He had tweeted: "Can the government of India please confirm that no Chinese soldiers have entered India?" HM Shah seeks suggestions of MPs, other stakeholders on move to amend IPC, CrPC, Evidence Act Congress has forgotten: Shah on decision by Modi sarkar to install Netaji Bose statue UP Polls: Amit Shah to conduct door-to-door campaign in Kairana on Saturday West Bengal is the only state where political violence is propagated: Amit Shah India oi-Briti Roy Barman New Delhi, June 09: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that West Bengal at this time is the only state where political violence is propagated at 'West Bengal Jan Samvad Rally' via video conferencing. Shah questioned at the conference about the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Yojana in West Bengal. "People across the country are availing benefits of Ayushman Bharat Yojana, even Arvind Kejriwal accepted it in the end but Mamata didi, why are you not letting this scheme be implemented in West Bengal. I & the people of Bengal want to ask you this," said the minister. Intrusion into Indian border will not be tolerated: Amit Shah The Home Minister accused West Bengal Chief Minister of doing politics over the poor people of the state. WHO says coronavirus situation is worsening globally, disease raging in Americas| Oneindia News "Mamata ji, do poor ppl of Bengal have no right to receive free&quality medical aid? Why then, Ayushman Bharat scheme is not allowed here? Mamata Ji, stop doing politics on rights of the poor. You can do politics on a lot of other issues, but why on poors' health". Shah lauded country's selfless, tireless fight put up by corona-warriors in the Covid-19 pandemic. Shah started his virtual address by describing West Bengal as a land of great leaders and intellectuals like Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose, among many others. The minister paid his condolences to the souls of all those who have lost their lives due to the coronavirus and the destruction brought by cyclone Amphan in the state and also remembered the party workers who lost their lives in the political battle in the state since 2014. "I pay my respect to their families as they've contributed to the development of Sonar Bangla (golden Bengal)," he said. Shah's address for West Bengal comes a day after addressing the 'Odisha Jansamvad' virtual rally. In the Bihar virtual rally on Sunday Amit Shah said that the rallies had nothing to do with the assembly polls in the state later this year. Hanoi authorities inspect a footwear business owned by Thanh Duyen in Cau Giay District, June 8, 2020. Photo courtesy of Hanoi Market Management Department Authorities have confiscated over 5,000 of fake Adidas and Nike products sold online following a local business clampdown. Officials from the Department of Market Surveillance and other agencies on Monday raided a footwear business owned by Thanh Duyen on Tran Cung Street in Cau Giay District. They found footwear, socks and shoes lining in plastic bags or pasteboard boxes with the Adidas or Nike label on top. Duyen admitted to buying footwear made in Vietnam and other countries without invoices or documents proving their origin, and sold them only on Zalo, the popular Vietnamese chat and e-commerce application. She was selling fake Adidas Stan Smith shoes for VND150,000 ($6.5) while an original pair costs VND2.3 million ($99.1) for a real pair. She does not have a business registration for her shop either. The Hanoi Market Management Department said business activities on Zalo and multi-channel e-commerce sites are growing, and some people take advantage to sell fakes of branded products. Although California still has a stay-at-home order in place for its residents, Kylie Jenner isnt letting that stop her from having some fun outside of lockdown. The 22-year-old makeup mogul was recently spotted walking into a famous Los Angeles hotspot with one her close pals. And get this, neither of them were wearing a face mask. Of course, fans had a few things to say about Jenners night out calling her a hypocrite and thoughtless on social media. Kylie Jenner | Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic Kylie Jenner was spotted out on the town with pal Fai Khadra It appears Jenner needed a change of scenery after spending months quarantined inside her lavish mansion. On June 7, the Kylie Cosmetics founder was spotted out and about without a mask as she headed to famed West Hollywood hot spot, Bootsy Bellows. Jenner was photographed with her and Kendall Jenners close pal, Kai Khadra, as they made their way inside the nightclub owned by actor David Arquette which according to Daily Mail, was opened up just for them. RELATED: Kylie Jenner Shows Off Short Rainbow Nails and Fans Are Conflicted The report suggests that the pair were ignoring social distancing guidelines. They linked arms while making their way inside the vaudeville-inspired venue and stayed until about 1:30 in the morning on Monday. Of course, fans had a major problem with Jenner enjoying a night out amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. WOW!! Thoughtless @KylieJenner disregarded social distancing for NIGHT CLUB instead of protesting for BLACKLIVESMATTER where she should be after all her child STORMI is black & COVID-19 still exists, one Twitter user wrote. Some are even calling the makeup mogul a hypocrite for breaking quarantine rules after urging fans to take social distancing seriously and self-quarantine to stop the spread of the virus. There is so much hypocrisy nowadays that it has multiple flavors, another user tweeted. Kylie Jenner has been criticized for breaking social distancing rules Of course, this is far from the first time Jenner has gone against social distancing orders to hang out with friends. Sure, shes been following self-isolation guidelines by quarantining inside her Holmby Hills home with her ex Travis Scott and their adorable toddler Stormi Webster. Shes also a known homebody and has been loving staying at home with family. RELATED: Kylie Jenner Says Pregnancy Prepared Her For Quarantine But back in April, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star took some major heat when she invited BFF Stassie Karanikolaou over to her mansion, seemingly breaking social distancing rules. After posting a series of videos of her and Karanikolaou laying out by the pool and making TikToks together on her Instagram story, fans took to social media to criticize the makeup mogul for not practicing her own advice of self-quarantining. Why is nobody talking about Kylie Jenner ignoring stay at home orders and social distancing to go visit her friend? Meanwhile shes telling people on social media they need to stay home. Its just another example of how rich people think theyre above the rules, someone tweeted at the time. Before then, Jenner broke social distancing rules to do Kim Kardashian Wests makeup for her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which didnt go over too well with fans either. Though California has begun to consider re-opening businesses again, the state still requires residents to wear masks while in public and to continue practicing social distancing. However, it appears Jenner is over the rules and is ready to get back to a normal lifestyle. Kazakh Capital Renamed After Nazarbaev Changes Airport Code To NQZ June 08, 2020 The airport in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, has changed its three-letter code to NQZ from TSE, a year after the city's name was changed from Astana to Nur-Sultan following the sudden resignation of the country's first president, Nursultan Nazarbaev. The Kazakh Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development said on June 8 that effective immediately, the new code will be used on all tickets, baggage tags, and information boards. The airport in the Kazakh capital, Nursultan Nazarbaev International Airport, received its name in 2017, but preserved the old three-letter code. The previous code, TSE, was based on the Soviet-era name of the city -- Tselinograd, which translates to "the city of virgin lands." The name was given to the city in 1961 during Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign in Kazakhstan. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakh authorities returned the city to its historic name, Aqmola. Five years later, the capital was moved from the southeastern city of Almaty. In 1998, Aqmola was renamed Astana, which means "the capital" in Kazakh. In March 2019, the day after Nazarbaev's sudden resignation, his successor, then-acting President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, signed a decree renaming the capital Nur-Sultan to honor Nazarbaev, who ruled the oil-rich country for almost 30 years. The decision to rename the city sparked protests in the capital and other cities of the tightly controlled former Soviet republic that were violently dispersed by police. Based on reporting by Kazinform and Tengrinews Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakh-capital- renamed-after-nazarbaev-changes-airport -code-to-nqz/30658764.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 SEATTLE - Political leaders made moves Monday toward defunding the city's police department in the aftermath of violence here over the weekend, following in the steps of other cities after nearly two weeks of protests over police brutality that have swept the nation. The police department tear gassed protesters Sunday night, despite the mayor trying to previously limit its use. Earlier Sunday evening, a 27-year-old was shot by an armed driver barreling into a crowd of protesters. Sunday marked the 10th consecutive day of protests in Seattle over police brutality, sparked by George Floyd's death after a Minneapolis police officer dug his knee into his neck. Seattle police have come under fire for their tactics at the protests, leading Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat, and Police Chief Carmen Best to say Sunday night that police have been too quick to use force rather than de-escalating conflicts. They ordered police to turn on body cameras during protests, which they were to start doing Monday. Sunday night's unrest, which also included police using tear gas even though Durkan called for a temporary ban on it in most circumstances, led the Seattle City Council to consider cutting funding for the city's police department. Council member Teresa Mosqueda, who leads the council's budget committee, called for an inquiry into halving the $400 million police budget and redirecting the funds toward "communities in which we've failed," she said during a council briefing Monday. Representatives for the mayor and the police department did not respond to a request for comment. In her call for defunding the police, Mosqueda cited a new effort by nine members of the Minneapolis City Council, who announced plans Sunday to dismantle that city's police department. Those councilmembers didn't provide details of their plan, but called for a new public-safety system to be developed with community members. Mosqueda's calls follow a demand from Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County to decrease funding for police, and to spend more on health and social services. Defunding calls are gaining momentum as proponents argue that past police reform efforts have failed. Rather than abandoning public-safety programs altogether, defunding advocates are often calling for policy changes that reduce reliance on law-enforcement officers, as well as a reallocation of policing budgets toward services such as health care and housing for black communities. "This doesn't mean there will not be police," Mosqueda said in an interview after the briefing. But she believes reallocating funds to programs that provide affordable housing, child care and job training while "demilitarizing" police will ultimately lead to a safer community. Mosqueda also cited a "vacuum of leadership" in Seattle, suggesting that Durkan reassess whether she should remain mayor. Regardless, Mosqueda said the city council is moving to assert greater authority as it looks into the police department's budget. Meanwhile, as the city rebounded from protests Sunday, the man who was shot, Daniel Gregory, was in "satisfactory" condition, said Tina Mankowski, a spokeswoman for Harborview Medical Center. He underwent surgery Monday morning for a fracture to his right arm from a gunshot wound. The chaotic scene of the shooting unfolded just before 8:30 p.m. Sunday during what had been a peaceful protest near the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct. Videos showed protesters appearing to chase after a black Honda Civic as it sped down the street toward a larger crowd, slowing just as it crashed into a metal barrier near an intersection. Gregory caught up to the vehicle, video by the Seattle Times shows, and appeared to try to reach inside the driver-side window, when a shot was fired. Gregory jolted backward, falling onto the pavement. Bystanders and medics rushed to his aid. The driver, who has not been identified by police, then exited the vehicle as the people who had just surrounded his car fled in all directions. "He's got a gun!" people screamed in video taken by a Seattle Times reporter. The driver then headed toward the heart of the protest, where hundreds were gathered in the street. With nowhere to go, some raised their hands in the air. Some lay on the ground. The man ran through the crowd toward the police line on the other side of the protesters. Once he emerged from the crowd, he walked toward police with his hands in the air. He walked nearly all the way up to the police line before officers took him away, video of the arrest shows. Video footage showed Gregory walking down the street with medics while raising his fist in the air. In one video by photojournalist Alex Garland, Gregory explained what happened while a medic applied pressure to his bleeding arm. "I see a car run down [the street]. . . . I catch him. I punch him in the face. I hear the gunshot go off in my arm - and I move right in time," he said. "My whole thing was to protect those people." Protesters cheered for Gregory as he passed them in the street on his way to meet paramedics. City leaders on Friday had banned the use of tear gas for 30 days except in life-threatening situations. That ban didn't last. Early Monday, police again deployed a combination of tear gas, stun grenades and pepper spray, which they said were in response to people throwing projectiles. Police also said they saw someone with a gun, in a tweet justifying the use of tear gas. The department did not respond to a request for more details. Plumes of smoke sent dozens of people running and screaming, rubbing their eyes, live-streamed video footage by activist Joey Wieser showed. Many remained despite dispersal orders from police, standing their ground from a distance as police fired tear gas and stun grenades, or flash-bangs, at them. A band even played in the street, creating a jovial, discordant soundtrack contrasting with the scene. Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, who was on the front lines Monday morning, said police fired tear gas without provocation. "Just got maced and gassed with hundreds others by Seattle police on 11th & Pine. With no provocation," Sawant, who has called for Durkan's resignation, wrote on Twitter. "All the movement was demanding was: Let us march! Shameful violence under Mayor Durkan. And the 30-day tear gas pause is totally meaningless." Before the attempts by police to clear the protests after midnight, some critics juxtaposed the police response to protesters with the officers' seemingly calm reaction toward the suspect in the shooting who walked straight toward them. "The person trying to commit vehicular homicide and who just moments earlier shot the man who stopped him is able to walk causally to the police line with a gun and gets politely escorted away," Washington state Sen. Joe Nguyen (D) wrote on Twitter. "Yesterday people were flash bomber and pepper sprayed for touching the fence!" London mayor Sadiq Khan on Tuesday ordered a review of statues in London linked to slave trade as the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement provided a spark for anti-racism protests and the removal of imperialist Cecil Rhodes statue in the University of Oxford. Rhodes was a controversial colonialist who donated large funds for education, including the Rhodes Scholarship, which has been awarded to several Indians over the decades. The 2016 Rhodes Must Fall campaign called for removing his statue in Oriel College in Oxford, but campaigners plan to take to the streets again on Tuesday. Britains long history of colonialism and involvement in slave trade has been a subject of much debate, but protests in Bristol as part of the BLM movement led to the statue of a prominent 17th century slave trader, Edward Colston, being pulled down on Sunday. The slave trade from the 16th to 19th centuries was carried through several ports, including London, Liverpool and Bristol. The focus has also moved to East India Company colonialists such as Robert Clive, whose statue in Shropshire is now sought to be removed. Setting up a Commission for Diversity in the Public realm, Khan said: Our capitals diversity is our greatest strength, yet our statues, road names and public spaces reflect a bygone era. It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been wilfully ignored. This cannot continue. We must ensure that we celebrate the achievements and diversity of all in our city, and that we commemorate those who have made London what it is that includes questioning which legacies are being celebrated. The Black Lives Matter protests have rightly brought this to the publics attention, but its important that we take the right steps to work together to bring change and ensure that we can all be proud of our public landscape, he added. Oxford vice-chancellor Louise Richardson, had opposed to the campaign to remove Rhodes statue in 2016, saying: I dont think we can take down every statue or memorial of somebody who has done something that is objectionable today. The American declaration of independence was written by slave owners who were still extraordinary men. The world is a complex place, history is complex; we should be aware of it, she said. Anti-colonial, anti-racist campaigns have spread in other campuses and countries, including South Africa. In 2017, students at the School of Oriental and African Studies wanted the curriculum revised to drop white figures such as Plato and Socrates, and replace them with Indian and non-western philosophers. Three years after bursting onto the political scene and becoming a Democratic cause celebre, Jon Ossoff is back on Georgia ballots hoping for a different result. Ossoff became a national figure in the most expensive House race in history, narrowly losing a special election for a seat in the Atlanta suburbs six months after President Donald Trump took office in 2017. Though he lost, Democrats flipped the district a year later as part of their 2018 midterm wave. Now, Ossoff is the frontrunner in Tuesday's Democratic Senate primary in Georgia, a state with both Senate seats on the ballot that is also an emerging battleground for Democrats at the presidential level. He's counting both on the small-donor base he built in the 2017 race and Georgia's shifting political orientation to produce a different result against first-term GOP Sen. David Perdue. But first, he faces a crowded field of primary rivals. There's no doubt that having run and narrowly lost the biggest congressional race of all time has given me perspective that's valuable, Ossoff said in an interview. A fight well fought can be worth what you build in the process, even if you lose that battle, he added. And with two Senate seats, with the presidential tangibly investing here this is Georgia's year." In contrast to Ossoff's 2017 defeat, Tuesday's primary has received little national attention or outside spending compared with races in North Carolina, Maine, Iowa and elsewhere. Its the only major primary where national Democrats have decided not to throw their weight behind a candidate despite heavy party involvement in other nominating contests. Ossoff is the clear favorite to finish first Tuesday, holding a lead in public and private polling and a massive financial advantage. The biggest question is whether he can cross the 50 percent threshold to win outright, or whether the race will go to an August runoff. Former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and businesswoman Sarah Riggs Amico are the two other best-known and best-funded candidates competing for support among the seven-candidate field. Story continues Public polling has shown Ossoff below the 50 percent mark, and Democrats are divided on his chances to win outright Tuesday, according to conversations with more than a half-dozen Democrats in Georgia and Washington following the race. A runoff could mean less time for the eventual nominee to raise money and build a campaign to challenge the well-funded Perdue. In this Aug. 6, 2019 photo, Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., speaks during a Kiwanis Club of Atlanta luncheon. Former congressional candidate Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., will challenge Perdue in 2020, the Democrat tweeted Monday night, Sept. 9. (AP Photo/Andrea Smith, File) Georgia has not been atop Democrats' targeted races, but it could boost the party's chances to retake the chamber. If Joe Biden wins the presidency, Democrats need to gain three seats in order to capture the Senate and with a potential loss looming in Alabama, the party has worked to expand the map of targets to include burgeoning battleground states. The primary was originally scheduled for May but was moved and consolidated with the presidential primary because of Covid-19. And while massive turnout is expected largely through mail-in ballots, a large number of voters never received their requested absentee ballots. It has also been overshadowed by the special election for the states other Senate seat, given the GOP infighting between Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Rep. Doug Collins. But that race won't appear on the ballot until November, with all candidates regardless of party running together. Unlike in other states, where national Democrats have successfully helped shepherd their chosen candidates through nomination fights, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hasnt endorsed in Georgia. Stacey Abrams, the partys 2018 gubernatorial nominee who has become a potential vice presidential pick, has endorsed Senate candidates in other races but has not taken a side ahead of Tuesday in her home state. Ossoff, who is CEO of an investigative journalism company, has run on an anti-corruption message and also leaned on his support from prominent Democrats in the state, including Reps. John Lewis and Hank Johnson. Lewis, the civil rights icon, is featured heavily in Ossoffs TV ads, and the campaign's closing spot focuses on the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a young black man shot in Georgia earlier this year, with a radio version also featuring Lewis touting his endorsement. Most Democrats expect Tomlinson to finish second in the race and challenge Ossoff in the potential runoff, though polling has shown Amico in contention. Tomlinson, who was mayor of Columbus for two terms, has run on her government experience in a state she described as "politically transitioning." She also hasnt shied away from attacking Ossoff, calling him inexperienced and knocking his previous election loss, arguing the party should nominate a candidate who has won before. At some point, we have to come to the realization that he has all the name recognition a man can have, but for whatever reason he just can't garner that 50-plus-one, she said. There's no way we can go into the general election in this pitched political battle to transform the state of Georgia to a purple state at least with a candidate that weak. Amico, who was the partys lieutenant governor candidate in 2018 running alongside Abrams, has leftover name identification from that race and has strong support from labor groups in the state that could boost her in the closing stretch. She has mostly self-funded her campaign and has run on her experience as a businesswoman, arguing that perspective would be a benefit in the current economic downturn. Were proud of the campaign weve run to stand up for access to affordable health care and justice for marginalized communities, Amico said in a statement provided for this report. Ossoff's campaign has spent more than $2 million on TV, compared with just over $670,000 for Tomlinson and nearly $530,000 for Amico, according to data from Advertising Analytics. He outraised Perdue in the previous seven weeks, according to recent Federal Election Commission filings, though the incumbent maintains a substantial cash advantage over the Democratic field. Perdue's campaign is eager to set expectations high for their most likely opponent. "With his massive advantage in ad spending while public polls show him leading his primary opponents by wide margins, it would be a surprise if Jon Ossoff doesn't win his party's nomination outright on Tuesday, said John Burke, a spokesperson for Perdue. Helen Kalla, a spokeswoman for the DSCC, did not address the committees lack of endorsement in the race, but said in a statement that Perdue is a weak incumbent, and Republicans are losing ground across the Senate map, and Georgia is no exception. The runoff would be in August, and while most Democrats downplayed that it could jeopardize their ability to be competitive in the fall, some expressed concern. One Georgia Democrat, who requested anonymity to speak frankly, said the trouble would come if the runoff candidates focus on tearing each other down versus keeping their eye on the prize. If I'm Perdue, I keep my head down and let them go after each other and not do or say anything. Just keep raising money, this Democrat said. Republicans, who are in a precarious position to hold their Senate majority, are confident about facing Ossoff and argue anything other than an outright primary win shows weakness. Hes been propped up by special interests and his own ego for years, and he still thinks he has a future in elected politics, said Matt Gorman, a GOP strategist who was communications director for House Republicans' campaign arm during Ossoffs prior race. Ossoff, for his part, ignores those attacks. After facing tens of millions of dollars in negative spending during his House run, he thinks theyll have little impact now. They can talk all the smack they want," Ossoff said. "Bring it on." Four persons have been arrested by the police in the Sissala East Municipality for allegedly killing an elephant. DSP Gbelle Kumpe, the Municipal Police Commander, told the GNA that the four would be arraigned before court for allegedly killing the elephant at the Gbele Game Reserve. There was a report from the Forestry Commission that an elephant was killed and on the 20th of May 2020, after an investigation, we carried out a raid and 12 persons were arrested and a search conducted revealed the tail of the elephant and other body parts as well as the retrieval of three guns from them. He said the four were alleged to have participated in the killing of the elephant and that the tusk of the elephant was later dumped behind the Bugubelle Police Station. DSP Kumpe said the four who were currently on police enquiry bail would be sent to Wa for prosecution if their dockets were ready. "There is an attack on the forest and its resources and my advice for all, is to stop depleting the forest or else if you get caught you would not be spared," he said. DSP Kumpe said the lack of cooperation from the public was disturbing saying, There is low cooperation from the public and that is the lifestyle of some of the people here, they have the habit of harbouring criminals and urged all to support the Police. There was no arrest of any child or any member of the family except hunters who killed the elephant. The Park Manager of the Gbele Reserve, Dr Owusu Ansah in an interview said, It was in connection with the killing of a ten-year-old elephant whose ivory market value could cost $10,000.00, which motivated the poachers to kill the young elephant. He said a kilo of the ivory is about 2,000 dollars and the ivory recovered is about 20 kilos and that the elephant was about ten years old. For anybody to kill an elephant the motivation will be to get the ivory sold, which is very valuable, he added. Dr. Owusu also revealed that Elephant hunting had been banned since 1989 and in the past, Ghana had more elephants than Burkina Faso according to the literature, but we have made the place inhabitable for them due to attacks and we have chased them all away. Sissala area still remains their route into the Nazinga Forest Reserve in Burkina Faso and every year they come around for visit, which hunters take advantage of to kill them. ---GNA Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kylie MacLellan (Reuters) London Tue, June 9, 2020 10:02 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd31bdf 2 Business UK,Japan,free-trade,deal,negotiation,post-Brexit Free Britain will begin negotiating a post-Brexit trade agreement with Japan on Tuesday which the government said both sides hoped would enter into force by the end of this year. After decades outsourcing its trade policy to the European Union, Britain is embarking on negotiating free trade deals with countries around the world, and last month launched formal negotiations with the United States. Trade deals typically take years to complete. Britain is also hoping to reach a trade agreement with the EU by the end of the year. Talks will be held via video conference and will be kicked off by British trade minister Liz Truss and Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi on Tuesday. This deal will provide more opportunities for businesses and individuals across every region and nation of the UK and help boost our economies following the unprecedented economic challenges posed by coronavirus, Truss said in a statement. Britain said it aimed to reach a deal which builds on Japans existing agreement with the EU, going further by including areas such as digital trade. Japan was Britains fourth-biggest non-EU trading partner in 2019, with total trade between the two countries of 31.4 billion pounds, according to government statistics. Britain hopes ultimately to join the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and sees trade talks with Japan as a step towards that end. Britain said around 100 negotiators would be involved on its side, with talks led by Graham Zebedee, a former British ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and overseen by Britains Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser Crawford Falconer. More Oregonians have been identified with coronavirus in the past week than at any point since the pandemic began. At the same time, residents in the hospital with the virus spiked by 40 percent. The two statistics present sobering reminders that the coronavirus is far from contained as summer looms. The Oregon Health Authority reported 620 confirmed or presumed COVID-19 infections in the past week, including the states largest and second-largest daily case totals of 146 Sunday and 114 Monday. That pushed the moving average for the past week to almost 89 infections identified a day, or 10 more a day than Oregons previous high. The number of infections reported daily bottomed out two weeks ago but has since doubled. State public health officials said Monday the rising case counts are not necessarily a sign of alarm, however. They pointed to record levels of testing and a large workplace outbreak, both of which they said have helped tip the tally upward. Health officials would not quantify how many daily infections, or what percentage of positive tests, would trigger broader concerns, saying they want more data and to look at the picture holistically. Its hard to say anything definitive about a few days worth of data, said Dr. Paul Cieslak, Oregons medical director for communicable diseases. Were really going to have to watch the trends and, you know, draw conclusions with the benefit of at least a little bit of hindsight. But Cieslak acknowledged some concern over a recent increase in active hospitalizations, which suggests people are seeking care at a faster pace and the sickest are not quickly leaving. The number of Oregonians in the hospital as of June 2 with a confirmed case of COVID-19 stood at 46, the lowest since the state began releasing figures. But the number climbed to 65 people by Monday. This is one of the factors that is concerning and that were going to have to keep an eye on, Cieslak said. The number of Oregonians in the hospital with a confirmed case of COVID-19 on any given day bottomed out June 2. It's been on the rise ever since. Oregon throughout the pandemic has recorded one of the countrys lowest death rates and infection rates among residents who are tested. But the state also has one of the lowest testing rates in the country, meaning its not surprising that increased testing has identified more infections particularly at places with known outbreaks. An outbreak at Pacific Seafood in Newport infected at least 124 people, or roughly one out of every five Oregonians identified within the past week. Nearly all of those infections are among people who were tested without symptoms, officials said. We think that these increasing case numbers, theres reason for optimism, said Dr. Thomas Jeanne, the deputy state health officer and deputy epidemiologist. Because they mean that our strategy of increasing testing and contact tracing related to outbreaks is working. State officials in the past week also reported workplace outbreaks in Washington, Clackamas, Marion and Hood River counites. Those initial reports totaled only 37 infections, although its possible they have since climbed. Cieslak said he had not looked at the data closely enough to know whether Oregon is experiencing an upward trend in identified infection cases after accounting for and removing workplace outbreaks. Jeanne suggested that is not the case. I wouldnt say were seeing a clear upward trend at this point outside of the workplace outbreaks, Jeanne said. Meanwhile, the Oregon Health Authority said test results for the past three days show that one out of every 20 people tested for coronavirus has been infected. Thats also an increase from under 3% for much of last week but one that officials say should be attributed to testing people at workplaces with known infections. To a large degree, the number that we detect on any given day is going to be how aggressively we tested and whom we test, Cieslak said. State officials are also watching hospital admissions for warning signs. Officials said hospitalizations had plateaued but will be monitoring for changes. The health authority last week reported an overall downtrend from mid-May to the end of the month. Statewide statistics now show a weekly increase from 26 new hospital admissions to 33 for the week ending Saturday, although thats generally in line with numbers over the month. Officials cautioned examining the numbers too closely without the benefit of a background in public health investigations. Theres lots of different ways that you can look at these numbers, and theyre not always going to lead to valid or useful interpretations, Jeanne said, noting that the state has a big team of epidemiologists who review the numbers daily. We dont necessarily jump on every little peak or valley because, just from experience and from looking at trends, we know whats the most important things to look at, he said. Most Oregon counties reopened May 15 and Gov. Kate Brown last week approved 29 to move into a second phase. Only Multnomah County has yet to enter Phase 1. Officials asked for Browns approval effective this Friday. Multnomah County has been the site of more than a weeks worth of demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, drawing thousands to downtown Portland each night as part of the national movement. Oregon health officials said they will monitor new infections for any indication of sickness among protest participants, and that information will be shared publicly. Charles Boyle, a spokesman for Gov. Kate Brown, said in a statement that Brown always expected to see an increase in coronavirus infections upon reopening statewide. Oregons case counts as of Monday stood at 4,922 confirmed or presumed infections out of nearly 150,000 people tested. The death toll is 164. For now, local and state public health officials have sufficient capacity to trace and isolate new infections and the hospital system is not unduly burdened, Boyle said. If infection counts climb significantly over the course of the week, he said, it will be cause for concern in those communities. We will test each step of reopening as we move forward, Boyle added, and take a step back if it becomes necessary. Mark Friesen and David Cansler contributed to this report. -- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Over the past 10 days, thousands of health care workers have joined the growing protest movement against police violence and racism in the US and internationally. Many have joined protests, including to provide medical care for demonstrators who have been violently attacked by police, while thousands more have staged demonstrations of support at their hospitals under the slogan WhiteCoatsforBlackLives. No information has been released by the media about the total number of workers participating in these protests, and there has been only very limited national coverage. However, based on social media, it is clear that workers at hundreds, if not thousands, of facilities have been involved, spanning virtually all states in both rural and urban areas. While the protests have focused on police violence and racism, underlying them is much broader social and political anger about social inequality, the criminal response by the government to the coronavirus pandemic, and opposition to the threat of dictatorship and both big business parties. Hospital workers at Elmhurst, New York City Health care workers have been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 for months. However, their lives and health have been endangered by the criminally callous response of the government, which has left them without adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). At least 586 US health care workers have died from COVID-19, according to the latest count by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News, and over 62,000 have been infected. Meanwhile, almost 1.5 million workers in the health care sector have been laid off and tens of thousands have been furloughed, even as leading hospital chains received $1.5 billion as part of the bailout of major corporations and Wall Street. The WSWS spoke to several medical workers in Illinois and Kentucky who have joined the protests or are working on organizing protests themselves. Their first names have been changed to protect their identities. Kelly is an ICU [intensive care unit] nurse from Kentucky, who has been treating COVID-19 patients for the past several months. Now, on top of her intensive work schedule, she is organizing protests against police violence among medical workers in Louisville. Explaining her motivation to do so, Kelly highlighted not only her opposition to racism, but also the enormous amounts of money spent by the US on the military: In 2015, military expenditures accounted for about 54 percent of our discretionary spending, according to the National Priorities Project. In contrast, education accounted for only 6 percent of the budget. To see our nation underprepared for a pandemic of this proportion was not surprising. It took many countries down. However, the perspective is changed vastly when we see the ability to mobilize police and military with such ease in just days. It is now months after our first case of COVID-19 and Im still wearing the same N95 Ive had for weeks. Only because the strap broke on my previous one that I have had since the beginning, I was able to get an additional one. These obvious inequalities are right in front of us, we are living them in real time. Kellys sentiments were echoed by Linda, a paramedic from Kentucky, who has joined protests in her city and has been providing medical care for protesters. She told the WSWS: My motivations for participating are obviously that there is a deeply rooted problem with racism in the US, but also a larger problem with the militarization of our police. I work on the street level. I go into peoples homes and transfer patients between facilities. I see that our police are well-equipped for war with civilians, but I was only issued one N95 mask. I read the statistics and know that black people are dying at higher numbers in my state, disproportionate to the population, because they lack resources and health care. I know that people are poor, desperate and sick, and our government is brutalizing them in the street, and billionaires in my country have profited from this outbreak while ignoring our suffering. The role of the police as a force deployed against workers is being broadly discussed by health care workers and among other sections of the working class on social media. One nurse from Kentucky described on Facebook how the police attacked teachers and students demonstrating for more funding on a picket line: I once walked a picket line with elementary school teachers on strike. PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS. There were also adorable little kids on the picket line. Obviously, it was peaceful... We were chanting about needing increased funding for little kids. Then the police showed up to help keep it peaceful. They were there in full force, guns prominently displayed for all the eight-year-olds to see, being threatening, taking surreptitious photos of picketers, following people back to their cars. Every time a scab showed up, theyd push us roughly out of the way so the scabs could cross the picket line. A picketer got too close to the car of a scab trying to drive through the line of teachers. A cop grabbed him by the back of the shirt, spun him around, and slammed him face first into the wall while putting him in handcuffs. Disorderly conduct. Just a few hours later, a scab rammed through the picketers with her car. The cops turned their backs and pretended not to see. Health care worker at a demonstration in New York City As the military and police have been mobilized to violently crack down and intimidate demonstrators, the international extension of the mass demonstrations has been encouraging for many workers and youth in the US. This weekend, millions of protesters in the US were joined by hundreds of thousands of workers and youth who protested in Germany, the UK, Australia, Austria and many other countries. Videos from these protests have been watched by millions on social media. A nurse from Illinois who joined a demonstration at her hospital pointed to these protests and said, I have heard about the protests in London and other places. The word is finally getting out. This is not just a problem in the United States. It is a worldwide problem. History shows us that it is a problem that is long overdue to be eradicated. I believe when we come to the other side, we will be stronger and united. Asked about the move by Trump toward dictatorship and the response by the Democrats, she said, Trumps move absolutely terrifies me. I am very concerned that he is going to take the opportunity and try to postpone the election. Kelly and Linda expressed strong opposition not only to the moves toward dictatorship, but to the entire political system. Kelly stated: From the first day Trump took office he has been moving us toward a dictatorship, thats how he operates. You look at the top 1 percent, there is no trickle-down effect, the money and power stay at the top. He wants desperately for our country to run that way while he is the one in power I think our two-party system is overwhelmingly flawed and to see any real advancements it needs to be disassembled. The entire political ring is a circus full of corporate sponsorships and overpriced goods for us to consume while we watch the show. Linda said: Democrats have enacted another wave of the Patriot Act that would give Trump more police power. They are ineffective and the opposite side of the same coin, owned by the corporate elite. Our system is so broken, I dont see a way forward while working within its parameters. It needs to be broken down and rebuilt. - Kirinyaga MCAs accused Governor Waiguru of abuse of office, corruption among other accusations - The motion sponsor, MCA Kinyua, also claimed the Kirinyaga leader deliberately failed to submit the county plans and policies to the county assembly for approval - The governor said she moved to court and successfully got a court order barring ward representatives from proceeding with the motion - Waiguru claimed that the planned removal had nothing to do with her conduct, integrity or performance as the county chief Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru is a woman walking a tight political rope following an impending impeachment motion by county MCAs. Over 20 ward representatives had to spend the cold night on the county assembly floor to avoid any distractions and dissuasion that would come from the Jubilee Party leadership. READ ALSO: You can take all William Ruto's assets but please spare his life - MP Sudi tells Uhuru Anne Waiguru addressing a past function. She blamed her competitors for her planned removal. Photo: Governor Anne Waiguru. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: ODM is plotting Musalia Mudavadi's ouster from ANC - Lugari MP Ayub Savula The motion was itemised for debate according to the June 9 order paper, a move that Waiguru said was ill-timed and a waste of time when MCAs should discuss health issues. The embattled governor claimed she had obtained a court order barring the assembly from proceeding with the matter until the issues raised in court were determined. READ ALSO: CJ Maraga directs all courts to prepare for reopening on June 15 READ ALSO: Kiongozi wa upinzani Tanzania, Freeman Mbowe avamiwa na watu wasiojulikana She claimed that the planned removal had nothing to do with her conduct, integrity or performance but had the blessings of certain forces looking to finish her politically. "For some inexplicable reason, the members pushing this motion believe or have been led to believe they are above the law. They believe they are not bound by court orders. Their allegiance seems to be to a master pulling and pushing the levers from outside the assembly," she said. In what could turn out to be a tough legal battle, the county boss threatened she would seek another court order should her accusers continue with the motion saying she would not be cowed. READ ALSO: Nairobi man loses over KSh 614 K to GSU officer in fake gold business deal Kirinyaga MCAs holding sessions inside a makeshift assembly to keep physical distance in view of coronavirus. The MCAs accused Waiguru of abuse of office. Photo: Kirinyaga County Assembly. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: LSK chairman Nelson Havi to petition parliament to impeach Uhuru for disobeying court orders "In the meantime, I reiterate once again, I shall not be bullied. My single and unceasing interest is to serve the people who elected me," she insisted. Led by Mutira MCA Kinyua Wangui, the politicians accused Waiguru of alleged abuse of office, gross misconduct and violation of the constitution. Kinyua accused the Kirinyaga leader of deliberately failing to submit the county plans and policies to the county assembly for approval. "The County assembly now resolves to remove Hon. Anne Mumbi (herein referred to as the County Governor) from the office of the county governor of Kirinyaga, pursuant to Article 181 (1) (a) & (c) of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, Section 33 of the county governments Act, 2012 and the county assembly Standing Order. No 58, he stated in the motion. Barely a fortnight ago, Waiguru hosted a section of the politicians at his Kirinyaga home in a bid to find a middle ground and dissuade them drop the accusations. At least seven MCAs walked out of the meeting hurriedly claiming that they were being coerced to re-think their decision on impeaching the governor. 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. I married a man every woman wanted - Pastor Joan Chege | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke Private planes in Colombia are helping the government ferry COVID-19 test samples from isolated rural areas in the country after President Ivan Duque requested for help from owners. According to reports, President Ivan Duque had called for help from private aircraft owners to help authorities transport doctors and medical care workers to the poorly connected villages in Colombia. Around 100 aircraft owners have reportedly responded to the government's call so far. Read: Colombia Could Take Stakes In Businesses Struggling Due To COVID-19 Outbreak Colombia's rural areas are not connected with urban cities by roads, and those that are connected have been damaged or are not safe to transport test samples because of the ongoing rainy season in the country. After President Ivan called for help from private aircraft owners, many of them came forward to support the government amid pandemic. President Ivan has called the pilots of those planes 'silent heroes' for their thankless service in time of the crisis. Read: Venezuelan Migrants Face Crime, Conflict And Coronavirus At Colombias Closed Border COVID-19 in Colombia Colombia is one of the worst affected countries in South America in terms of coronavirus infections. According to figures by Johns Hopkins University, the country has recorded over 40,800 confirmed coronavirus cases so far, of which 1,373 people have lost their lives. Colombia is facing a looming economic crisis due to the lockdown as a large number of people in the country continue to work in the unorganised sector. Even though Colombia has allowed some sectors to resume work, there are still many who are struggling to put food on the table. Read: Stranded Venezuelans Build Dirt Camps In Colombia Amid Virus The lockdown was imposed in Colombia on March 25 and was later extended on three different occasions by the authorities. As per reports, the majority of schools, universities will remain closed throughout June and July. The online classes for students will continue until July 31. Domestic and international travel in the country will remain suspended until June 31, according to reports. Read: Colombia Extends Lockdown Until May 31, Sanitary Measures To Remain Till August A petition has been filed in the Bombay high court (HC) by a parent, challenging the decision of the Council for the Indian School Certification Examination (CISCE), which stated that the pending Class 10 exam for Indian School Certificate Examination (ICSE) students and Class 12 exam for Indian School Certificate students will be held in July. The plea seeks urgent directions for protecting the life and health of the students who are to appear for the exams that were postponed since March, owing to the Covid-19 outbreak and rescheduled for July. The exams for Class 10 students were rescheduled from July 2 to 12, while those for Class 12 were rescheduled from July 1 to 14. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the plea moved by advocate Arvind Raghunath on behalf of the ICSE students parent sought directions to the authorities to cancel the rescheduled exam time table and declare results on the basis of gradation and assessment of past performances. The plea also sought directions from the court to CISCE for issuing results of Class 10 students on time to enable them to seek admissions to first-year junior colleges (FYJCs) through an online admission process initiated by the state education department. The plea also prayed for restraint on the state authorities from starting online admissions for FYJC till all the boards declare results for Class 10. Pointing to the compromise on the health and safety of students if exams were to be conducted in July, the petition says, In present situation conducting examinations is very difficult. Decision of the respondents severely violates fundamental rights provided under the constitution. While all students had to endure the trauma of lockdown measures and potent threat to health and life, the students of respective state boards and universities were protected by the authorities from exams and students of ICSE board are facing strong discrimination and have been exposed to the threat and fear of getting probably infected by moving out for exams. The petition further states that as students, teachers and school staff would be required to travel to the school for the exams, if any of them were to be infected by the virus who would be held responsible for it. In present pandemic situation, if anything happens to students, teachers and staff or police personnel, then who shall take responsibility, said the plea. On Tuesday, a bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice S S Shinde was to hear the petition however due to paucity of time, it is likely to be heard on Friday, June 12. A former guard at the Bucks County Correctional Facility allegedly smuggled in strips of Suboxone at the request of inmates, according to court filings. Read more A former correctional officer at the Bucks County prison was released on bail Monday after being arraigned on drug charges and other offenses for allegedly helping to smuggle synthetic opioids to inmates. Over a year, Joseph Jennings helped smuggle strips of Suboxone, a powerful synthetic opioid, into the Bucks County Correctional Facility, coordinating with inmates through coded conversations, according to an affidavit filed last week. The inmates knew Jennings as Leonidas, the affidavit says. In a letter that prosecutors say was intercepted by investigators, his co-conspirators said Jennings allegedly bragged that he earned enough in drug sales to afford a trip to Walt Disney World with his wife and two children. Jennings, 31, was fired after being confronted with the allegations last July. He had worked at the jail for five years. The Warminster resident was arraigned Monday on felony charges of contraband, operating a corrupt organization, and related drug offenses. He was released after posting $50,000 bail. He has been charged alongside seven former and current inmates who investigators say received the drugs he smuggled: Joseph Robert Wilson Jr., 40; Vincent McCandless Sr., 35; Joseph Korhan, 47; Richard Dzielinski, 40; Robert Monacelli, 28; Travis Davies, 32; and Jonathan King, 30. Jennings attorney, Louis Busico, said he denies the charges and has led a completely law-abiding life. By all accounts, Joseph did a very good job when he was employed by the Department of Corrections, Busico said. The source of these allegations is somewhat dubious and circumspect, and we intend to vigorously challenge it in court. County detectives had been investigating the case since October 2018, when an inmate told them a guard was smuggling Suboxone into the jail every week, sometimes as many as 100 strips at a time, the affidavit says. For one transaction, Jennings arranged to meet with the opioid supplier at a pub near his house, and ultimately agreed to bring the contraband into the jail for $3,000, the affidavit says. In an interview with county detectives last summer, Jennings allegedly admitted that he smuggled the drugs into the prison only once by hiding them in a balloon tucked into his sock. Detectives uncovered evidence, however, that Jennings was involved in multiple transactions between October 2018 and July 2019, according to court records. The inmates who allegedly worked with Jennings tested positive for the synthetic opioid during searches in 2018, and unused strips were found hidden in their cells. OP Soni The Punjab Governments response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequent health crisis has been quick yet strategic and well planned, said O.P. Soni Minister for Medical Education and Research Punjab and informed that in order to disseminate the plethora of the information about Covid-19 in a structured manner, a strategy was evolved by the State Government with the guidance of Professor K.K. Talwar, the Advisor to the State Government on Health and Medical Education. O.P. SoniWorking on the strategy, 19 online sessions were organized by the State Government during the lockdown period falling between 27th of March to 4th of June. Advertisement The sessions were held with 1914 medical professionals involved in Covid care services including medical specialists and anesthetists looking after mild to moderately sick Covid-19 patients; and with faculty of Medical Colleges and other critical career experts looking after critical Covid-19 patients. Punjab governmentDoctors and faculty from various Medical Colleges of Punjab were brought together on an e-platform, including specialists from AIIMS, PGI,USA, UK and Italy with significant experience on the matter. Administrators from the Department of Health and medical education were also made a part of this group to ensure that operational challenges were directly communicated to and resolved by the decision makers. Research projects such as the use of plasma and steroids have also been initiated on this platform. Advertisement Mission Fateh Protocols for management of systemic comorbidities were also discussed and framed using this platform. It is to be noted that the medical colleges of Punjab have been working together as a unified cohesive force to tackle the pandemic and teamwork has proved to be effective in ensuring quality care to these patients and has saved the lives of many in Punjab, asserted Soni. THE IRRIGATION ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan had their first online tripartite technical talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on Tuesday more than three months after the failure of the last round of talks that were supposed to see the signing of the final agreement in Washington. The meeting is a continuation of the previous negotiating rounds on the Renaissance Dam in order to reach a comprehensive and satisfactory agreement that meets the interests of the three countries and fulfils the aspirations of their peoples, the Sudanese Irrigation Ministry said in a statement on Monday in which it invited the Egyptian and Ethiopian irrigation ministers to the meeting The Arab Republic of Egypt is willing to negotiate for a fair and balanced agreement that serves the interests of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, but it stresses on the neccessity of setting a tight time frame for the negotiations to be concluded and finalized, in order to prevent it from becoming a new tool for reneging on the commitments included in the declaration of principles signed by the three states in 2015, according to a statement issued by the national security council following a meeting headed by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi on Tuesday. The statement highlighted the fact that the Sudanese invitation was issued on the same day that the Ethiopian authorities reaffirmed their intention to proceed with the filling of the Renaissance Dam reservoir without reaching an agreement, which is contrary to Ethiopia's legal obligations in declaration of principles and cast doubts on the negotiating process as well as the results that may be reached. Despite the above, the statement added ,Egypt will participate in this meeting in order to explore the political will to reach an agreement, and to confirm Egypt's continued good will in this regard. The tripartite talks resumed after months of procrastination from the Ethiopian side and just one month before Addis Ababa was to start filling the dam, said an anonymous diplomat. If you ask me whether I am optimistic, the answer will be a very cautious yes. Whether the talks will reap its fruits or not is yet unclear. The tripartite meeting was scheduled to discuss procedural issues related to the role of observers and outstanding negotiating issues. Three observers from the United States, South Africa and the European Union Commission attended the meeting. The tripartite negotiations came to a halt in late February after Ethiopia skipped the final round of talks in Washington. Egypt initialed the resulting draft agreement but Sudan declined to sign until Ethiopia does as well. However, Sudan has recently shown a more supportive stand towards Egypt. In addition to pushing for the resumption of negotiations, Sudanese Foreign Minister Asma Abdalla said in an interview this week that Khartoum believes Ethiopia would think twice about filling the controversial dam before an agreement is reached if it is met by a strong stance from Sudan and Egypt. Abdalla said Ethiopia has the right to build dams within its territory and to benefit from its water resources, however, it should adhere to international conventions and the Declaration of Principles. *A version of this article appears in print in the 11 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: A Texas man who died in police custody after he was tased four times told deputies that he had heart issues and could not breathe. Javier Ambler, who was black, died on March 28, 2019, following a 22-minute police chase that began in Williamson County around 1:30 a.m. and ended in north Austin, according to NBC affiliate KXAN in Austin. NBC News has not independently verified this report. Williamson County deputies began chasing Ambler because he failed to dim his headlights for oncoming traffic, the outlet reported. The Austin Police Department also responded to the scene. The A&E reality television show "Live PD" was filming sheriff's deputies when the pursuit began. Body-camera video from an Austin police officer shows Ambler on the ground with several officers. "Give me your hands or I'm going to tase you again," an officer is heard saying in the video obtained by KXAN. Ambler says, "I have congestive heart failure" and repeatedly says to the officers, "I can't breathe." A death report said that Ambler died of congestive heart failure and hypertensive cardiovascular disease associated with morbid obesity, in combination with forcible restraint. The manner of death was ruled a homicide and the report stated that Ambler did not appear intoxicated, according to KXAN. NBC News has not independently verified the report that KXAN cites. More than a year later, the death remains under investigation as the district attorney's office accuses the Williamson County Sheriffs Office of not cooperating. In a series of tweets on Monday, Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore said what should have been a routine traffic stop ended in Ambler's death. She also accused the sheriff's office of stonewalling the investigation. Javier Ambler (via Facebook) "Over the last year, the District Attorneys Office has been fighting with Williamson County Sheriffs Office to have Live PD video footage related to Javier Amblers death released," Moore tweeted. Story continues The district attorney said initial findings show that Ambler told deputies of his heart defect and was not resisting arrest. "Regardless, Williamson County deputies tased him four times before his death," she wrote. "For the last year, Wilco has stonewalled our investigation. We planned to take this case before a grand jury in April, but bc of COVID-19 well be empaneling this summer. Were taking this case seriously & working to seek justice for Javier & his family." Austin Mayor Steve Adler said Monday that "somebody that is guilty of not dimming their headlights just shouldnt end up getting a death sentence." The Austin Police Department could not immediately be reached on Tuesday, and a spokesperson for "Live PD" did not have a comment. The Williamson County Sheriff's Office said it could not comment on Ambler's death and denied the attorney general's claims that it is delaying the investigation. "The Williamson County Sheriffs Department remains ready and willing to participate in the investigation being conducted by the Travis County D.A.s office," a statement read. "However, the Travis County D.A. has not contacted us for any reason related to this investigation. Any attempt to say we have slowed or otherwise impeded the investigation is absolutely false." The sheriff's office said Ambler hit several objects during the pursuit and crashed his car in Austin. Authorities said after exiting his vehicle Ambler did not comply with verbal commands, KXAN reported. The Austin Statesman, citing an investigative report, said one of the sheriff's deputies used his Taser after Ambler appeared to turn toward his car door. NBC News has not seen the report. After Ambler fell to the ground, another deputy deployed his Taser, according to the outlet. Ambler was tased two more times during the arrest before becoming unresponsive. In the body-camera video, he appears to be unresponsive for more than five minutes before help arrives. An officer tried to perform CPR before emergency medical services arrived. Ambler was pronounced dead at a hospital. Jeff Edwards, an attorney for the family, said the incident did not have to end in Ambler's death and the actions by the sheriff's office "sickens me." "We can no longer tolerate this in our society," he told KXAN. Their conclusion was theres nothing to see here, thats reasonable." Interior Ministry asks for some US$97.7 mln in additional financing from COVID-19 fund StateWatch 16:20, 09.06.20 1161 The ministry also requested US$6.4 million for bonuses to medics and other staff in its clinics. Music: Pau Dones, leader of Jarabe de Palo, dies 53-year-old artist had cancer. La Flaca, Depende among hits (ANSAmed) - ROME, JUNE 9 - Pau Dones, leader of the band Jarabe de Palo, has died, Spanish media reported on Tuesday, quoting a family post on social media. He was 53. Dones was diagnosed with cancer in August 2015. His family thanked ''the medical team and all personnel'' of the hospitals that have treated Dones during his illness ''for the work and dedication they have devoted to him during this period'' and asked for their ''privacy to be respected at this difficult time''. Born in Montanuy, in Aragona, Dones tied his career to Jarabe de Palo starting in1995. In 1996 their debut album, La flaca, the title of one of the songs in the album, became a worldwide hit in the summer of 1997. The success continued with Depende (1998), De Vuelta y Vuelta (2001) o Bonito (2003). The latest album, Traga o escupe, dates back to the end of May. Pau Dones had been fighting colon cancer since 2015. His condition worsened a few days ago. After taking a break, he had announced a few weeks ago the intention of returning to music as a soloist. Last summer, he had visited Nepal with a humanitarian mission. Pau was extremely loved in Italy and not only for his songs. He had many friends in the country and close relationships with colleagues with whom he had collaborated, including Jovanotti, Niccolo Fabi, Kekko Silvestre dei Moda, Fabrizio Moro and Ermal Meta. Jovanotti and Ermal Meta remembered him with warm messages. ''I will miss you very much, friend and maestro'', Jovanotti wrote on social media. ''Nothing will cancel the beautiful moments we experienced together, the beautiful music, the meals and drinks, endless conversations, the strength we gave each other. Getting to know you and being your friend was a great gift. Where are you now? It's hard to believe it''. ''Nooooooo Pau nooooooo. You cut me in half'', wrote Ermal Meta. Dones had founded the Jarabedepalo (this is the correct spelling their name) at the beginning of the 1990s, with the idea of creating a band that played original latino music - a mixture of Catalan tradition, rock, raggae, Cuban music and flamenco, with words inspired by tolerance, sense of humanity, happiness and the joy of those who live without thinking about barriers and differences. Success arrived in 1996 with ''La Flaca'', a song that talks about an adventure with a Cuban girl met by accident in the Havana and who became the protagonist of a video. It was an incredible success and the song is still popular. During the lockdown due to the COVID pandemic - El Pais recalled - Pau Dones had recorded with his guitar on the balcony of his home Vuelvo, a song that said ''I am doing the new things I always wanted to do''. His most recent concerts include one in Barcelona at the end of 2019 to raise funds for the oncological institute Vall d'Hebron. During the epidemic, he donated 2,500 facemasks to another public hospital, the Moises Broggi.(ANSAmed). BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 Trend: Andrea Hagmann holds a Masters degree in commercial science from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and has extensive experience in financial services for more than twenty-five years. She currently serves as Member of the Board of Directors and the Investment Committee of the European Fund for Southeast Europe (since 2019), Member of the Board of Directors of SANAD Fund (Middle East and North Africa) for Micro and SMEs (since 2017) and Member of the Board of Directors of Microfinance Enhancement Facility (since 2009). Ms. Hagmann has been appointed member of the Supervisory Board of AccessBank Azerbaijan in December 2019. -Many years ago, government of Azerbaijan decided to go towards diversification and develop non-oil sector of economy. Particularly, government paid attention to the development of small and medium entrepreneurships in the country. How do you see the role of AccessBank, which serves the SME sector? The main source of economic growth in Azerbaijan still is the oil and gas sector. Although the government has already focused on diversifying its economy in the recent years, the pandemic in combination with the oil price crash showed how fragile the economy still is. Coming from a country like Austria, where the micro- and SMEs are the driving force of the economy, I know about the benefits that especially the small enterprises can bring to an economy. They contribute to employment creation, income generation and in the end they can alleviate poverty. And they help to make the economy more resilient in crises situations. But certainly they are also not immune to a pandemic like COVID-19 nobody is. The banking sector plays a crucial role to support the development of a healthy and stable MSME sector by providing the companies with specialized financial products. And thats where I also see AccessBanks role. AccessBank has a vast knowledge and a longstanding experience in serving small enterprises that need tailor made services and financial support. I have known AccessBank already for about 10 years, starting when I was Member of the Board of the Development Bank of Austria. After stepping down from this position in 2017 I was invited to join the Supervisory Board of AccessBank, which I did with great pleasure. I appreciate the expertise of the people who work for the Bank and the important services they provide to small enterprises. I am sure that this expertise is equally important for the employees, customers and investors. I am convinced that AccessBank will make it through the crises well and will continue to play an important role in the current situation and will strengthen its position as the most reliable partner for the MSMEs in Azerbaijan. -How do you see your next years in a position of member of Supervisory Board of AccessBank? Banking business is peoples business. Thats why it is most important for me to get known well to the people who work in the bank, support them with my knowledge but also learn from them. I have set up the Development Bank of Austria and managed it for 10 years. During this period, we have provided financing for a lot of banks specializing in MSME financing all over the world. As we started the business in 2008, when the big financial crises emerged, I can also contribute by sharing crises management experience. At the moment I am member of different Boards of MSME Funds which also gives me a good overview on the MSME sector globally. I am very proud that currently I am the only woman on AccessBanks Supervisory Board. This strengthens the balanced gender diversification the bank already has with excellent women in key management positions. It is my strong belief, that we need a good mixture of different opinions, capacities, experience and gender to be resilient. And in times of crises this diversification is even more important to be able to weather the storms. -AccessBank is the only bank in Azerbaijan, which has Social and Environmental Responsibility among its core values. How do you see the role of the bank in promoting responsible financing and green economy? Responsible finance and green economy are important elements of a sustainable financing sector. For AccessBank responsible financing is part of its business. A good and trustful cooperation between banks and customers includes being transparent and clear on terms and conditions. This is the basis of a stable and long lasting partnership. Today AccessBank is seen as a reliable partner which is crucial in crises times like now. We have also seen in the last years how fragile the global environmental situation is. Working for a green economy and supporting environmental improvement is already at the core of AccessBank. I am looking forward to support the bank with enthusiasm in its mission to be a front runner in promoting a green economy in Azerbaijan. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Corvus Gold Inc. (Corvus or the Company) - (TSX: KOR, OTCQX: CORVF) announces an update on its ongoing detailed mining studies in the Bullfrog Gold District, Nevada where Corvus controls two adjacent, 100% owned projects, Mother Lode and North Bullfrog. Corvus envisions a phased mining plan that will differ from the 2018 initial Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) that saw the development of both projects at the same time. At the North Bullfrog project, the Company is evaluating an initial, lower capex, mining option (Phase-1) that could have the potential to generate cash flow to fund the development and expansion of all of its other projects throughout the District. Preliminary metallurgical, mining and processing data for this Phase-1 option are outlining a project that could jump-start near-term production in this re-emerging Nevada gold District (Figure 1). Final detailed data for the Phase-1 starter project will be incorporated into an updated PEA scheduled for release this fall and will also include information on the North Bullfrog Phase-2 expansion and the Mother Lode deposit. In addition, the updated PEA will also incorporate an updated mineral resource estimation for all projects from Corvus multiple drill programs that have occurred since 2018. Exploration drilling at Mother Lode is ongoing and will continue well into 2021. This drilling program will primarily focus on expanding the new Central Intrusive Zone (CIZ) discovery at Mother Lode as well as new discovery and resource expansion targets in both the Mother Lode and North Bullfrog gold belts. Phase-1 Process and Mining Concept Processing The currently envisioned processing flow sheet for the higher-grade YellowJacket portion of the North Bullfrog deposit will include a gravity gold circuit followed by final gold recovery on the leach pad. Test work shows high gravity gold liberation at a 48-mesh grind (0.3mm or sand size material) followed by heap leaching of the tails which has a projected overall recovery of ~84%. In addition, the simple two-stage crush and rod mill grinding circuit for gravity gold recovery results in a tailings product that can go directly to the leach pad for final gold recovery with no agglomeration. The surrounding Run of Mine (no crushing), low-grade mineralization has had extensive column leach testing with an overall recovery of 74%. Story continues Mining The current mine plan outlines a conventional open-pit surface mine utilizing an owner fleet. The project has a relatively low strip ratio and logistically favorable facility locations for overburden storage and the heap-leach pad. As reported in the 2018 PEA, effective as of September 18, 2018, the North Bullfrog Phase-1 project has a measured mineral resource estimate at $1,250/oz gold price of 10.4Mt @ 1.08 g/t Au & 7.59 g/t Ag containing 362Kozs gold & 2.54Mozs silver and an indicated mineral resource of 24.5Mt @ 0.69 g/t Au & 3.70 g/t Ag containing 542Kozs gold & 5.46Mozs silver (Table 1-2 North Bullfrog Project pit Phase 1 Mineral Resource Estimate from the Sept 2018 NBP/ML PEA and see technical report amended on November 8, 2018, with an effective date of September 18, 2018 on the Companys profile at www.sedar.com). Infrastructure The North Bullfrog project site has well-established infrastructure that includes adequate power and water within two kilometres of the site. The project site is approximately 20 kilometres by road from the city of Beatty, NV which has essential workforce support services and a strong mining culture. The project site has moderate, low rolling topography favorable for mining and an optimal location for the leach pad facility. Permitting Corvus Gold has an extensive, well-established environmental baseline database that it has maintained for over 24 months and an existing Plan of Operation permit from the Bureau of Land Management. Following the positive completion of the ongoing mining studies, Corvus will look to advance the permitting of the Phase-1 project later this year. Jeffrey Pontius, President and CEO of Corvus, said, The North Bullfrog, Phase-1 project offers Corvus Gold an opportunity to advance the Company either on our own or with a producer partner. We see potential for further development based on this relatively simple, open pit, heap leach project with its projected low capex and low operating costs. It is an exciting time for Corvus and its shareholders to expand the Companys participation in the current bull gold market where project and equity valuations are rapidly changing. Qualified Person and Quality Control/Quality Assurance Jeffrey A. Pontius (CPG 11044), a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101), has supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release and has approved the disclosure herein. Mr. Pontius is not independent of Corvus, as he is the CEO & President and holds common shares and incentive stock options. Carl E. Brechtel, (Nevada PE 008744 and Registered Member 353000 of SME), a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, has coordinated execution of the work outlined in this news release and has approved the disclosure herein. Mr. Brechtel is not independent of Corvus, as he is the COO and holds common shares and incentive stock options. The work program at Mother Lode was designed and supervised by Mark Reischman, Corvus Nevada Exploration Manager, who is responsible for all aspects of the work, including the quality control/quality assurance program. On-site personnel at the project log and track all samples prior to sealing and shipping. Quality control is monitored by the insertion of blind certified standard reference materials and blanks into each sample shipment. All mineral resource sample shipments are sealed and shipped to American Assay Laboratories (AAL) in Reno, Nevada, for preparation and assaying. AAL is independent of the Company. AALs quality system complies with the requirements for the International Standards ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 17025:1999. Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored by the analysis of reagent blanks, reference material and replicate samples. Finally, representative blind duplicate samples are forwarded to AAL and an ISO compliant third-party laboratory for additional quality control. Mr. Pontius, a qualified person, has verified the data underlying the information disclosed herein, including sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information by reviewing the reports of AAL, methodologies, results and all procedures undertaken for quality assurance and quality control in a manner consistent with industry practice, and all matters were consistent and accurate according to his professional judgement. There were no limitations on the verification process. Mr. Scott E. Wilson, CPG (10965), Registered Member of SME (4025107) and President of Resource Development Associates Inc., is an independent consulting geologist specializing in Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource calculation reporting, mining project analysis and due diligence evaluations. He is acting as the Qualified Person, as defined in NI 43-101, and is the primary author of the Technical Report for the Mineral Resource estimate and has reviewed and approved the Mineral Resource estimate and the Preliminary Economic Assessment summarized in this news release. Mr. Wilson has over 29 years of experience in surface mining, mineral resource estimation and strategic mine planning. Mr. Wilson is President of Resource Development Associates Inc. and is independent of the Company under NI 43-101. Mr. Wilson, a qualified person, has verified the data underlying the information disclosed herein, including sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information by reviewing the reports of AAL, methodologies, results and all procedures undertaken for quality assurance and quality control in a manner consistent with industry practice, and all matters were consistent and accurate according to his professional judgement. There were no limitations on the verification process. Metallurgical testing on North Bullfrog and Mother Lode samples has been performed by McClelland Analytical Services Laboratories Inc. of Sparks Nevada (McClelland), McClelland is an ISO 17025 accredited facility that supplies quantitative chemical analysis in support of metallurgical, exploration and environmental testing using classic methods and modern analytical instrumentation. McClelland has met the requirements of the IAS Accreditations Criteria for Testing Laboratories (AC89), has demonstrated compliance with ANS/ISO/IEC Standard 17025:2005, General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, and has been accredited, since November 12, 2012. Hazen Research Inc. (Hazen), an independent laboratory, has performed flotation, AAO testing and cyanide leach testing on samples of sulphide mineralization from the YellowJacket zone and Swale area of Sierra Blanca, and roasting tests on Mother Lode flotation concentrate. Hazen holds analytical certificates from state regulatory agencies and the US Environmental Protection Agency (the EPA). Hazen participates in performance evaluation studies to demonstrate competence and maintains a large stock of standard reference materials from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Canadian Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET), the EPA and other sources. Hazens QA program has been developed for conformance to the applicable requirements and standards referenced in 10 CFR 830.120 subpart A, quality assurance requirements, January 1, 2002. Pressure oxidation test work on Mother Lode concentrate samples was performed by Resource Development Inc. of Wheatridge, CO. For additional details, see technical report entitled Technical Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Integrated Mother Lode and North Bullfrog Projects, Bullfrog Mining District, Nye County, Nevada, dated November 1, 2018 and amended on November 8, 2018, with an effective date of September 18, 2018 on the Companys profile at www.sedar.com. About the North Bullfrog & Mother Lode Projects, Nevada Corvus controls 100% of its North Bullfrog Project, which covers approximately 90.5 km2 in southern Nevada. The property package is made up of a number of private mineral leases of patented federal mining claims and 1,134 federal unpatented mining claims. The project has excellent infrastructure, being adjacent to a major highway and power corridor as well as a large water right. The Company also controls 445 federal unpatented mining claims on the Mother Lode project which totals approximately 36.5 km2 which it owns 100%. The total Corvus 100% land ownership now covers over 127 km2, hosting two major new Nevada gold discoveries. Effective as of September 18, 2018, the combined Mother Lode and North Bullfrog Projects contains a Measured Mineral Resource for the mill of 9.3 Mt at an average grade of 1.59 g/t gold, containing 475 k ounces of gold and Indicated Mineral Resources for the mill of 18.2 Mt at an average grade of 1.68 g/t gold containing 988 k ounces of gold and an Inferred Mineral Resource for the mill of 2.3 Mt at an average grade of 1.61 g/t gold containing 118 k ounces of gold. In addition, effective as of September 18, 2018, the project contains a Measured Mineral Resource for oxide, run of mine, heap leach of 34.6 Mt at an average grade of 0.27 g/t gold containing 305 k ounces of gold and an Indicated Mineral Resource for, oxide, run of mine, heap leach of 149.4 Mt at an average grade of 0.24 g/t gold containing 1,150 k ounces of gold and an Inferred, oxide, run of mine, heap leach Mineral Resource of 78.7 Mt at an average grade of 0.26 g/t gold containing 549 k ounces of gold. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The preliminary economic assessment is preliminary in nature, that it includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. About Corvus Gold Inc. Corvus Gold Inc. is a North American gold exploration and development company, focused on its near-term gold-silver mining project at the North Bullfrog and Mother Lode Districts in Nevada. Corvus is committed to building shareholder value through new discoveries and the expansion of its projects to maximize share price leverage in an advancing gold and silver market. On behalf of Corvus Gold Inc. (signed) Jeffrey A. Pontius Jeffrey A. Pontius, President & Chief Executive Officer Contact Information: Ryan Ko Investor Relations Email: info@corvusgold.com Phone: 1-844-638-3246 (toll free) or (604) 638-3246 Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable Canadian and US securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding the timing of the updated preliminary economic assessment, advancement and development of our projects and the expansion of our drill program; plans for drilling; expectations of and potential for additional resources or mineralization; expectations regarding the potential for future open-pit and underground mining; expectations for types of mineralization; updates on the development progress at the North Bullfrog and Mother Lode projects; the potential for new deposits and discoveries and expected increases in a systems potential; expectations regarding the potential expansion of the mining district; anticipated content, commencement and cost of exploration programs, anticipated exploration program results, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, variations in the market price of any mineral products the Company may produce or plan to produce, the Company's inability to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required for its activities, the Company's inability to produce minerals from its properties successfully or profitably, to continue its projected growth, to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2019 filed with certain securities commissions in Canada and the Companys most recent filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). All of the Companys Canadian public disclosure filings in Canada may be accessed via www.sedar.com and filings with the SEC may be accessed via www.sec.gov and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Companys mineral properties. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c0d2eb02-7e2a-4827-89ee-78a13829645e Amid this COVID-19 pandemic, its advised to keep a safe distance from other people so as to stop the further spread of coronavirus. All the brands are including social distancing guidelines in their apps and services, including Apple and Google. Google has announced an updated version of Google Maps that provides critical social distancing information for safer travel of people. The updated version of Google Maps for Android and iOS displays information about how crowded public transport systems like buses and trains are. Having this information beforehand would help people in deciding if it is the right time to head out or if its safe to stay indoors when it is likely to be crowded. When you look for transit information in areas that are affected by COVID-19 restrictions, Google Maps will now show relevant alerts from local authorities and agencies if its required that you wear a mask while traveling and if there are COVID-19 checkpoints in your travel route. If youre traveling to medical facilities or COVID-19 test centers, Google Maps will notify if you are required to verify your eligibility and facility guidelines so that you dont get turned away. This would also reduce strain on the local health system. Transit alerts are now being displayed through the updated Google Maps app in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, France, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, and the U.S. COVID-19 related alerts for medical facilities is now available in Indonesia, Israel, South Korea, the Philippines, and the U.S. Google is working with health authorities and governments around the world to receive authoritative and credible information regarding local COVID-19 guidelines and including it in Google Maps in respective areas. Last year, Google had announced the crowdedness prediction feature for various public transit systems around the world. Now, the company is making it easier for people to crowdsource crowd information and their experiences during travel so that it helps other travelers and people who use transit systems. The company had also announced additional information such as dedicated women seating places, security, temperature, and wheelchair accessibility for places and transit systems in February. Now, the company has started rolling out the feature globally. It is also making it easier for people to rate and report their experiences through the updated version of Google Maps. [Source: Google Iran said Tuesday it will execute a man whose conviction for spying for the US and Israel by helping target a top Iranian general has been upheld by the supreme court. Mahmoud Mousavi Majd was convicted of spying on Iran's armed forces "especially the Quds Force and on the whereabouts and movements of martyr General Qasem Soleimani" for large sums of money from both Israel's Mossad and the US Central Intelligence Agency, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told a televised news conference. Majd's death sentence has been upheld by the supreme court and "will be carried out soon", he added. Soleimani, who headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was killed in January in a US drone strike in Baghdad Iran in February handed down a similar sentence for Amir Rahimpour, another man convicted of spying for the US and conspiring to sell information on Iran's nuclear programme. Tehran announced in December it had arrested eight people "linked to the CIA" and involved in nationwide street protests that erupted the previous month over a surprise petrol price hike. It also said in July 2019 that it had dismantled a CIA spy ring, arresting 17 suspects between March 2018 and March 2019 and sentencing some of them to death. US President Donald Trump at the time dismissed the claim as "totally false". Hundreds of thousands of Iranians joined the funeral procession for storied military commander Qasem Soleimani whose assassination in a US drone strike in January prompted retaliatory Iranian strikes on US targets in Iraq The parents of murdered University of Utah track star Lauren McCluskey have filed a second lawsuit, accusing school officials of discriminating against her based on her gender by ignoring her pleas for protection from her abusive and manipulative ex-boyfriend. McCluskey was 21 years old when she was shot dead outside her dorm in October 2018 by Melvin Rowland, a 37-year-old registered sex offender on parole who she briefly dated. The gunman died by suicide hours after the killing. The new family lawsuit alleges that university officials ignored Lauren's repeated requests for help and reports of abuse and harassment, including Rowland's threats to release explicit photos of the female student after she broke up with him on October 9. It also alleges that a campus cop kept the private images on his personal phone. Matthew and Jill McCluskey, Lauren's parents, had first sued the university in federal court in June 2019, alleging that officials could have done more to protect their daughter after claiming she contacted campus police multiple times in the weeks leading up to her death saying her ex-boyfriend was harassing her. The parents of Lauren McCluskey, 21 (left), who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, 37-year-old Melvin Rowland (right), have filed a new lawsuit accusing University of Utah officials of ignoring the student's repeated pleas for protection The civil lawsuit alleges the university violated state Constitution and denied Lauren equal protection under the law because she was a woman Jill and Matthew McCluskey (pictured in June 2019) last year filed a federal lawsuit against the university On Monday, the family filed a separate lawsuit against University of Utah, University Department of Housing and Residential Education, and University Department of Public Safety, claiming that the school violated the state Constitution and denied Lauren equal protection under the law because she was a woman, reported Salt Lake Tribune. 'If the University had taken Lauren more seriously, her murder could have been avoided,' the lawsuit argues. According to the court filing shared by KUTV, Lauren's concerns for her own safety, as well as her friends' pleas, were 'treated dismissively because of the Universitys practice and policy of ignoring and disbelieving women, deliberate indifference to domestic violence that disproportionately affects women, its failure to competently investigate her complaints and those of others and its failure to protect her based on outdated, dangerous, and misogynistic attitudes toward women.' The new complaint alleges that Lauren, a track star (left), repeatedly raised concerns about her ex-boyfriend, who was a registered sex offender, but nothing was done The 58-page lawsuit filed in 3rd District Court further argues that the university was negligent because it failed to respond in a timely fashion to Lauren's requests for help and did not look into Rowland's parole status, or banned him from campus. The lawsuit lays out in detail Lauren and her friends' repeated interactions with campus officials and university police leading up to October 22, 2018, when she was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend and shot seven times. According to the lawsuit, some of Lauren's closest friends sounded the alarm about her boyfriend in late September 2018, saying that he was possessive, controlling, manipulative and prone to jealous rages and stalking behavior, and raising concerns that the senior was in 'an unhealthy and potentially harmful relationship.' A friend told a gradate assistant on campus that since she began dating Rowland, who presented himself as a 28-year-old community college student named Shawn, Lauren seemed depressed and exhausted, was not eating well or taking care of herself, and that she had unexplained marks and bruises on her body suggesting physical abuse. Students from the University of Utah look in the direction of a parking lot where on October 22, 2018, McCluskey was shot seven times and killed Although the graduate assistant forwarded the report to her supervisors, the lawsuit claims that no action was taken because officials decided that it would be best to 'respect Lauren's privacy' and wait until she personally sought help. 'This proposed course of action was clearly unreasonable in the light of the known circumstances as it in no way addressed the dating violence, domestic violence, sexual harassment, stalking and other abuses by Melvin Rowland, who was a non-student continuing to freely access campus to commit these crimes and abuse against Lauren without any efforts by the University to stop him,' according to the complaint. Lauren ended her relationship with Rowland after discovering his true identify and learning about his criminal conviction. The lawsuit contends that when Lauren went to the campus police, she told officer Miguel Deras that Rowland had threatened to release compromising photos of herself, unless she paid him $1,000. According to the complaint, Deras kept the private images on his personal phone and later bragged about them to his friends. A lawyer for Deras, who now serves as a police officer in Logan, Utah, previously dismissed the allegations against him, which first came to light last month, as 'absolutely untrue.' 'No evidence. No physical evidence. Not a single picture was downloaded to his personal cell phone,' Jensen told KSL TV. 'I want the public to step back and read the article and realize there are flaws in the article.' The family's civil suit contends that despite the fact that Lauren made as many as 20 police reports about her ex-boyfriend, her concerns were never taken seriously and no action was taken to investigate Rowland, until it was too late. The plaintiffs in the state lawsuit are seeking $56million in damages, which they say will go to the Lauren McCluskey Foundation, a non-profit group dedicated to improving campus safety. University of Utah previously asked a judge to throw up the McClusky family's federal lawsuit, arguing that the school was not liable for Lauren's death because her attacker was not affiliated with campus. The McCluseky family are seeking $56million in damages, which will go to a non-profit bearing their murdered daughter's name Last month, the family's attorney announced that University of Utah did not reach a settlement with Lauren's parents after two days of mediation, which involved 'frank but unsuccessful' talks between the two sides. An independent review was commissioned by the university and found that the school indeed missed warning signs of abuse before McCluskey was found shot in a car after returning from a night class. However, university president Ruth Watkins said there's no reason to believe Rowland could've been stopped. In response last year's federal lawsuit, UofU has pledged to run more frequent checks to identify ex-convicts and investigate on-campus complaints more thoroughly. They've also hired more officers, increased training, and streamlined communications between housing officials and police. iTeos Therapeutics Strengthens Leadership Team Matthew Gall joins as Chief Financial Officer Dr. Yvonne McGrath joins as Vice President of R&D Philippe Brantegem joins as Vice President of Human Resources Cambridge, MA and Gosselies, Belgium - June 9, 2020 - iTeos Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the discovery and development of a new generation of highly differentiated immuno-oncology therapeutics for patients, announced today the appointments of Matthew Gall as Chief Financial Officer, Dr. Yvonne McGrath as Vice President of R&D and Philippe Brantegem as Vice President of Human Resources. "Matthew, Yvonne and Philippe are important additions to the growing iTeos Therapeutics leadership team and their unique skills and breadth and depth of experience will undoubtedly help to progress our pipeline, including our adenosine A 2A receptor antagonist (EOS-850) and our anti-TIGIT antibody (EOS-448) programs, and position the company well for accelerated growth in the years to come," said Michel Detheux, Chief Executive Officer of iTeos Therapeutics. "I am excited to join the iTeos team at this important time in the company's growth. The talented personnel, highly differentiated immuno-oncology therapeutics and strong investors position the company well as we pursue new treatments for people living with cancer," said the new Chief Financial Officer of iTeos Therapeutics, Matthew Gall. Matthew Gall joins iTeos Therapeutics from Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. where he was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Treasurer. At Sarepta, Matthew led the Company's recent multibillion partnership deal with Roche, and during his tenure, he oversaw the Company's financial strategy and helped raise over $2 billion in capital. During his 15-year career in biotech, Matthew also worked at Celgene Corporation and Gilead Sciences in various roles including financial management and business development. Matthew holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Dr. Yvonne McGrath joins iTeos Therapeutics from Complix N.V. where she served as the Chief Scientific Officer. Yvonne has worked in the biotech industry for over 20 years, including a position as Head of Development at Immunocore, in addition to R&D management positions at Medigene and Biovex. Yvonne holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wales, College of Medicine, UK. Philippe Brantegem has delivered human resources support to biopharmaceutical companies such as Merck Sharp & Dohme, Besins Healthcare, Sanofi Pasteur MSD and Korn Ferry for over 20 years. Philippe holds master's degrees in human resource management from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles and in public administration from the Solvay Business School. About iTeos Therapeutics iTeos Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the discovery and development of a new generation of highly differentiated immuno-oncology therapeutics for patients. iTeos Therapeutics leverages its deep understanding of the tumor microenvironment and immunosuppressive pathways to design novel product candidates with an aim to improve the clinical benefit of oncology therapies. The innovative pipeline includes two clinical-stage programs targeting novel, validated immuno-oncology pathways designed to build on prior learnings in the field to have differentiated pharmacological and clinical profiles. The most advanced product candidate, EOS-850, is designed as a highly selective small molecule antagonist of the adenosine A2a receptor, in the adenosine triphosphate adenosine pathway, a key driver of immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment across a broad range of tumors. EOS-850 is investigated in an open-label Phase 1/2a clinical trial in adult patients with advanced solid tumors and encouraging preliminary single-agent activity were observed in the dose escalation portion of the trial. The lead antibody product candidate, EOS-448, is an antagonist of TIGIT, or T-cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains, a checkpoint that has a role in both inhibitory and stimulatory pathways in the immune system. EOS-448 was also designed to engage the Fc gamma receptor, or FcgR, to promote antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, or ADCC, activity, including the elimination of tumor-infiltrating regulatory T cells, or Tregs. An open-label Phase 1/2a clinical trial of EOS-448 was recently initiated in adult patients with advanced solid tumors. In April 2020, the Company closed a $125 million Series B-2 financing from leading biotech investors including RA Capital, Boxer Capital, MPM Capital, Janus Henderson Advisors, RTW Investments, Invus, HBM Partners, Fund+, Vives II, SRIW and SFPI. iTeos Therapeutics is headquartered in Cambridge, MA with a research center in Gosselies, Belgium. For more information, please visit www.iteostherapeutics.com . For further information, please contact: Michel Detheux, CEO iTeos Therapeutics, Inc. info@iteostherapeutics.com Amber Fennell, Paul Kidwell Consilium Strategic Communications +44 203 709 5700 iteos@consilium-comms.com Royal Mail has launched a collection of eight new picture stamps to celebrate the Romans in Britain, including famous landmarks such as Hadrian's Wall and Dover Lighthouse. Eight stamp designs showing Roman artefacts and architecture across the country will be available on general sale from next Thursday. The stamps also show Bignor mosaic, Caerleon Amphitheatre, Ribchester helmet, Bridgeness distance slab, a Warrior god in Cambridgeshire and Gorgon's head in Bath. Royal Mail released eight new stamps celebrating Roman legacy in Britain with Hadrian's Wall Caerleon Amphitheatre is also among the famous locations chosen for the celebration Royal Mail worked with the British Museum to design the stamps, and the full set of eight can be purchased for 10.35. For almost 400 years, from 43 to 410 AD, much of mainland Britain was a province of the Roman empire. This period helped mould British laws, language, art, architecture, culture and beliefs, and the Roman army established early road networks which facilitated the first public post system. Bridgeness distance slab, a key piece of history, is also among the new collection of stamps The new series hopes to illustrate the lasting impact the Romans had on life in Britain Royal Mail spokesperson Philip Parker said: 'What did the Romans do for us? 'They gave us important new towns, a network of roads to link them, vast building works in stone, a new language and our calendar - they even named the country, 'Britain'. 'These new stamps feature some of the most complete and striking Roman sites and objects which show their character and sophistication.' Dover Lighthouse remains to this day the UK's tallest standing Roman building The Royal Mail's stamp programme commemorates parts of the UK's history and culture The Weston Curator of Roman Britain and the British Museum Richard Hobbs said he hopes the eight sites and objects will 'give a taste of life in Roman Britain' and encourage people to explore the period. Mr Hobbs said: 'The Ribchester helmet is not only one of the British Museum's iconic items, but also one of our earliest acquisitions - it's been in the national collection since 1796, when a hoard of Roman military equipment was discovered in Ribchester, Lancashire. 'The helmet, decorated with a scene of a battle between infantry and cavalry, was the most spectacular piece.' There are an estimated 2.5 million stamp collectors and gift givers in the UK Another ancient artefact, Gorgon's head in Bath, is sited at the spring sacred to Sulis Minerva For more than 50 years, Royal Mail's Special Stamp programme has commemorated anniversaries and celebrated events relevant to UK heritage and life. Today, there are an estimated 2.5 million stamp collectors and gift givers in the UK and millions worldwide. Minnesota authorities have admitted that state patrol troopers and Minneapolis police officers slashed the tires of dozens of parked cars late last month during protests over the killing of George Floyd, leaving demonstrators, medics, and journalists stranded. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety confirmed that the tactic was used after videos posted to social media showed officers dressed in military uniforms using knives to puncture the tires of idle vehicles as protests against police brutality and racial injustice erupted across Minneapolis. Bruce Gordon, spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, said in a statement that "state patrol troopers strategically deflated tires" in an effort to "stop behaviors such as vehicles driving dangerously and at high speeds in and around protesters and law enforcement." Gordon said state patrol officers targeted cars that were carrying "items used to cause harm during violent protests," without providing any evidence that the cars contained such items. Anoka County Sheriff's Lt. Andy Knotz acknowledged that Minneapolis police officers joined the state patrol troopers in slashing the tires of parked cars. Knotz said the officers were following orders from the state Multi-Agency Command Center. As Common Dreams reported Sunday, a veto-proof majority of Minneapolis City Council members have committed to disband the Minneapolis Police Department over its conduct in recent years, including the killing of Floyd on May 25. Pull Quote New York reporter Luke Mogelson, whose rental car tires were slashed as he covered a May 31 protest in Minneapolis, told Mother Jones that officers "were laughing" and "had grins on their faces" as they told him his tires were punctured. New York reporter Luke Mogelson, whose rental car tires were slashed as he covered a May 31 protest in Minneapolis, told Mother Jones that officers "were laughing" and "had grins on their faces" as they told him his tires were punctured. Documentary producer Andrew Kimmel returned to a K-Mart parking lot in Minneapolis on May 31 to find that police had slashed all four of the tires of his rental car as he covered protests in the city. "They've also slashed every other car," Kimmel said in a video posted on Twitter. "Every car that's parked here has their tires slashed. Every single car. Unbelievable." In an interview in the K-Mart parking lot later that same morning, a tow truck driver told Kimmel that he was "so busy" towing cars that had their tires slashed. "Medics over there. News crews. Random people that were just here to protest and tires slashed," the driver said. "It's unbelievable." The Advertising Club over the years has been driving the advertising and media industrys growth agenda through various initiatives that celebrate the success stories, facilitate ideas exchange and inspire innovation in the category. The club has been instrumental in giving some of the most pre-eminent experiences to the Industry like ABBYs at Goafest, EFFIEs, EMVIEs, MARQUEES, D-Code: Digital Review amongst others. Under the prevailing and hitherto unprecedented challenging circumstances life, the Club has again decided to rise to the occasion and develop an exciting and clutter bursting engagement platform for all in the Industry at large with an immersive and engaging digital debate series VICE & VERSA - A tri part novel series of exciting Debates on subjects where the jury is still divided on the answer. Moderated by industry thought leader Agnello Dias, Creative Chairman - Dentsu Aegis Network & Founder, Taproot Dentsu, the debate will see media industry veterans Santosh Desai, CEO, Future Brands and Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer, BBDO India. The first debate under the said series is set to be held on Saturday, 20th June, 2020 at 6.15 pm. The Live streaming will be done on ZOOM, YOUTUBE and FACEBOOK. The series of three online debates on some burning issues and marketing conundrum of "NOW" named VICE & VERSA: THE POWER OF OPEN DEBATE will first debate: BRAND PURPOSE RESPONSIBLE OR OPPORTUNISTIC. The left of the centre advocates postulate that its about time brands pay their dues to the society that has been a succour to them. The brands ought to stand for something that the society would value and can engender positivity in the consumers altered circumstances of life and not just increase the sales turnover of the organisation. The advocates of right of the centre spectrum aver that brand purpose must form a part of its super ordinate goal. They pick an emotively engaging cause, create a product variant or hashtag and pick up their trophy. Its creativity without real meaning-- Communication that gets liked, and not deliver an outcome. Heart strings or purse strings? Conscience pricking or sales tracking? Affinity or behaviour? Are you for or against? Audience have a choice: stand for something enduring or sit on the fence. Indifference would not be an option. At the end of it-- there are no winners or Losers - Only Gainers! Speaking about the debates Partho Dasgupta, President, The Advertising Club said said These are unprecedented times requiring all brands and organizations to adapt and reinvent their media and brand strategies. The digital debate series has been curated to provide insights and guidance on how to empower brands to thrive in the new normal. We are sure that Agnello along with Josy and Santosh will make this an interesting session full of breakthrough ideas and insights. The Advertising Club, incorporated in the year 1954, is now a 66-year-old Association. Its endeavour is to Help raise the professional standards of the Indian Advertising Industry, and the Club attempts to do this through Awards, Seminars, Evening meetings that are addressed by the most reputed International and National speakers and thorough Up skilling workshops that enhance the quality of discourse amongst its stakeholders. Over the years, Ad Club has become a catalyst in developing the industry practices in which it operates. Over the years, the Club has become a dynamic platform for professionals from different fields to interact and gain from each others expertise. This is a Club that facilitates high octane and recency-based engagements that concern the Industry. As India slowly and steadily goes back to business, brands and marketeers must find novel and groundbreaking ways to engage their consumers and deliver on their brand promise. Knowledge sessions like these curated by the Ad Club is sure to provide necessary insights and ideas required to allow brands to tide the current dynamic scenario and emerge victorious. Members of the Mississippi Poor People's Campaign burn a Confederate battle flag at the Governor's Mansion in Jackson, Miss., Monday, June 18, 2018. The protesters also burned a Mississippi state flag. The campaign, held the last of its weekly protests in Jackson, joining a nationwide effort that called for lawmakers and statewide elected officials to address the need for union rights, living wages, fully funded anti-poverty programs and properly fund public education. AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis US Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy will consider removing Confederate names from military installations, multiple sources reported on Monday. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper also signaled his support, according to CNN's Barbara Starr. "The Secretary of the Army is open to a bipartisan discussion on the topic," Army spokesperson Col. Sunset Belinsky told Politico. The move is a reversal, coming after two weeks of nationwide protests against police killings and systemic racism. In February, Army officials insisted they had "no plans to rename any street or installation, including those named for Confederate generals," the Army Times reported. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The US Army will consider renaming bases that honor Confederate leaders, a spokesperson said Monday. "The Secretary of the Army is open to a bipartisan discussion on the topic," Army spokesperson Col. Sunset Belinsky told Politico. According to CNN's Barbara Starr, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is also open to dialogue about changing the names, and the initial statement was updated. "The Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Army are open to a bi-partisan discussion on the topic," Lt. Col. Emanuel L. Ortiz, Army spokesman told The Dallas Morning News. Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy was appointed to his position by US President Donald Trump and confirmed by the US Senate in September 2019. He previously worked at Lockheed Martin. The willingness to at least discuss renaming bases is a significant reversal for the military, coming after two weeks of nationwide protests over police killings and systemic racism. In February, Army officials insisted they had "no plans to rename any street or installation, including those named for Confederate generals," the Army Times reported. At the time, those officials defended the use of Confederate names, telling the Army Times it was "done in a spirit of reconciliation, not to demonstrate support for any particular cause or ideology." Story continues On Monday, an Army official made a similar argument to CNN, saying "each Army installation is named for a soldier who holds a significant place in our military history." Therefore, the official maintained, "the historic names represent individuals, not causes." The US Army's Fort Bragg in North Carolina, for example, is named after Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general and advisor to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Earlier this year, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger ordered all "Confederate-related paraphernalia" removed from Marine bases. Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com Read the original article on Business Insider By Josh Smith and Sangmi Cha SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Tuesday it would sever hotlines with South Korea as the first step toward shutting down all contact. The decision, announced by the KCNA state news agency, marks a new setback amid stalled efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. For several days, North Korea has lashed out at South Korea, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and other projects if Seoul does not stop defectors from sending leaflets and other material into the North. Top North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, and Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, determined "that the work towards the South should thoroughly turn into the one against an enemy," KCNA said. As a first step, at noon on Tuesday, North Korea will close lines of communication at an inter-Korean liaison office, and hotlines between the two militaries and presidential offices, it said. On Tuesday morning, North Korean officials did not answer a routine daily call to the liaison office, nor calls on military hotlines, South Korea's defence ministry said. A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department said Washington was "disappointed" by North Korea's recent actions. "We urge (North Korea) to return to diplomacy and cooperation," she said, adding that Washington and Seoul were coordinating closely on the issue. On Monday morning, North Korea did not answer the liaison phone call for the first time since 2018, though it later answered an afternoon call. South Korea's unification ministry, which is responsible for inter-Korean dialogue, said routine South-North calls should be maintained as they are a basic means of communication. The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Shares of South Korea's defence firms surged after North Korea announced it would sever the hotlines. Story continues Analysts said the move was likely about more than the defectors, Pyongyang is under increasing economic pressure due to the coronavirus crisis and international sanctions. "North Korea is in a much more dire situation than we think," said Choo Jae-woo, a professor at Kyung Hee University "I think they are trying to squeeze something out of the South." Cutting communications is "a well-worn play for Pyongyang," but one that can be dangerous, Daniel Wertz, of the U.S.-based National Committee on North Korea, wrote on Twitter. "Regular communication channels are needed most during a crisis, and for that reason North Korea cuts them off to create an atmosphere of heightened risk," he said. KCNA accused South Korean authorities of irresponsibly allowing defectors to hurt the dignity of North Korea's supreme leadership. The people of North Korea have "been angered by the treacherous and cunning behaviour of the South Korean authorities, with whom we still have lots of accounts to settle," it said. "We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay," KCNA said. (Reporting by Josh Smith and Sangmi Cha in Seoul and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese, Grant McCool, Lincoln Feast, Gerry Doyle and Jonathan Oatis) New Delhi : Global internet and technology conglomerate, LeEco has strategically partnered with Reliance Jio for its 'Jio Welcome Offer'. This tie up shall help customers to get unparalled offer of free unlimited voice and data services opens up a world of possibilities and grants them unlimited freedom to access content and information anytime anywhere. This is in line with LeEco's global credo of empowering and enhancing users' lifestyles. So LeEco users now have a double bonanza! With the current offer, users can watch all the premium content on their Superphones without their data bills till December 31, 2016. Post which, there is an option to choose a suitable plan by visiting the Reliance Jio website. Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Atul Jain, COO, Smart Electronics, LeEco India, said, "With the vision and roadmap to provide integrated services leveraging the mobile as a platform, LeEco has successfully created the hardware, software and services ecosystem for enabling a seamless digital upgrade for our consumers. LeEco has been offering a great content bouquet to the Indian consumers and now with this association with Jio, we believe that our users will be able to fully unlock the potential of our Superphone and experience 4G like never before." MOSCOW, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev participated in the launch of a regional network of soil laboratories in the Middle East and North Africa (RESOLAN NENA) as part of a joint project with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). RESOLAN NENA will be part of a global network of 368 soil laboratories launched in November 2017 in order to facilitate the exchange of experience between laboratories from all around the world and to implement a programme to develop soil science. At the regional level, the network will facilitate interaction between new and existing laboratories created within the project with the aim of providing support to farmers on sustainable agriculture, as well as collecting information for the development of global standards in this field. The regional network will include 53 laboratories from 19 countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Other states in the region will join the network in the future. Eduardo Mansur, Director of the FAO's Land and Water Division, noted that the creation of RESOLAN NENA is a very important step that will help coordinate actions to ensure sustainable land use at the regional and global levels. "Given the environmental problems associated with global warming, as well as the socioeconomic problems stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, now is the best time for all of us to come together and take part in this global sustainable agriculture initiative," said Mr Mansur in thanking Mr Guryev and PhosAgro for their assistance in implementing initiatives related to the creation of RESOLAN. PhosAgro's CEO, in turn, thanked the FAO for the honour of being the first Russian company selected to implement a global soil protection initiative. "The goals of PhosAgro and of the FAO are in complete accord: to guarantee populations access to safe, high-quality food; to give farmers the opportunity to make effective use of their land by growing environmentally friendly products; and to protect the soil from degradation and destruction," said Mr Guryev in his opening remarks to the heads of regional laboratories. He noted that, guided by the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, PhosAgro helps ensure food security in Russia and around the world: PhosAgro's high-performance, environmentally friendly fertilizers are in high demand in more than 100 countries spanning all of the world's inhabited continents. "Given the project's potential, PhosAgro will continue to support the FAO in creating a single global mechanism to promote technology and knowledge in the area of sustainable agriculture. "We will make every effort to ensure that the project continues to make headway, thereby helping farmers grow clean crops efficiently and without accumulating pollutants in soils," said Mr Guryev. About PhosAgro PhosAgro (www.phosagro.com) is one of the world's leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers in terms of production volumes of phosphate-based fertilizers and high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content of 39% and higher. PhosAgro's environmentally friendly fertilizers stand out for their high efficiency, and they do not lead to the contamination of soils with heavy metals. The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe (by total combined capacity for DAP/MAP/NP/NPK/NPS), the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content of 39% and one of the leading producers of MAP/DAP globally, one of the leading producers of feed phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia, and Russia's only producer of nepheline concentrate (according to the RAFP). PhosAgro's main products include phosphate rock, 39 grades of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in 100 countries spanning all of the world's inhabited continents. The Company's priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin America, Europe and Asia. PhosAgro's shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and global depositary receipts (GDRs) for shares trade on the London Stock Exchange (under the ticker PHOR). Since 1 June 2016, the Company's GDRs have been included in the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes. More information about PhosAgro can be found on the website: www.phosagro.com. *By total volumes of fertilizers supplied and by the simultaneous fertilizer storage capacity. SOURCE PhosAgro Related Links http://www.phosagro.com/ The extension of the OPEC+ production cut agreement did little to move oil prices as it had already been baked into oil prices Chart of the Week - Canada is the largest source of U.S. energy imports, and second-largest destination for U.S. energy exports. - Energy imported into the U.S. from Canada accounted for $85 billion of value, or about 27 percent of all Canada-to-U.S. trade. - Roughly 56 percent of oil imported into the U.S. came from Canada. Market Movers - Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) surged 33 percent on Friday, reaching a three-month high. It was the largest percentage increase in OXYs history. - Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL) fell by more than 30 percent on Tuesday, ending a brief surge in the companys share price. The company declared bankruptcy on April 1. - Chesapeake Energys (NYSE: CHK) shares were halted on reports that the company was preparing to file for bankruptcy. The company was once worth $37.5 billion at its peak. Tuesday, June 9, 2020 OPEC+ agreed to extend the production cuts for another month, but with the extension mostly baked into market expectations, it has done little for oil prices at the start of the week. Meanwhile, the U.S. officially entered an economic recession in February. Saudi ends extra cuts. Even as OPEC+ agreed to extend the production cuts for another month, Saudi Arabia said that it would end the extra supply cuts that it had imposed in the second quarter. The voluntary cuts served their purpose and we are moving on, Prince Abdulaziz said in a press briefing on Monday. Revenues from Saudi oil exports plunged by nearly 22 percent in the second quarter, a decline of $11 billion. Saudi Arabia hikes oil prices. Saudi Arabia increased the official selling price for its oil by the most in two decades, with Saudi Aramco raising prices of Arab Light to Asia by $6.10 per barrel. The move is a sign that Saudi Arabia wants to continue to boost the oil market by erasing all the discounts it offered at the start of the price war several months ago. Related: Global Oil Demand To Fall To Levels Not Seen Since 2014 Refining margins could kill oil recovery. Weak refining margins could kill the oil price recovery, according to a new report from Goldman Sachs. If refiners pull back on processing, crude will pile up, pushing down prices. Other analysts see the same trend. One word of caution is if we look at the rally weve seen in crude oil prices, its been amazing, but the big uncertainty is if you look at refinery margins, they are very weak across the board across all regions, Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING, told CNBC. Libya to return 300,000 bpd, maybe. The retreat of the Libyan National Army from the siege on Tripoli could pave the way for more Libyan oil to hit the global market. On Saturday, Libya restarted production at its largest oil field, the Sharara, which could bring 300,000 bpd back online. But a day later, the field shutdown after an armed group stormed the facility. A third of offshore oil production shut in. Tropical Depression Cristobal forced 34 percent of U.S. offshore oil production to be temporarily taken offline. Enbridge plans shift to renewable energy. Enbridge (NYSE: ENB), North Americas largest pipeline company, plans to shift its asset mix towards natural gas and renewable energy over time. Germany to require EV recharging stations. Germany said that it will require all petrol refueling stations to install electric car recharging infrastructure. We know that 97% of the reason why theyre not buying electric cars is range anxiety. The German move is a way to try and fix this range anxiety since it means you know a petrol station is always open, Diego Biasi, chairman and co-founder in Quercus Real Assets, told Reuters. As part of the 130-billion-euro economic recovery plan, the initiative will also subsidize the purchase of EVs by about 6,000 euros. Massachusetts AG probes natural gas phase out. The attorney general of Massachusetts asked the states public utilities regulator to investigate the potential phase out of natural gas from the state. That would make it the third state to explore the transition, after California and New York. BP to cut 10,000 jobs. BP (NYSE: BP) plans on slashing 10,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its workforce. The move follows similar-sized cuts at Chevron (NYSE: CVX). Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) is doing voluntary layoffs. We are spending much, much more than we make -- I am talking millions of dollars, every day, BPs CEO Bernard Looney wrote. Shale output rebounding. U.S. shale drillers continue to bring shuttered production back online. Were seeing production coming back in pretty much all of the basins, Kelcy Warren, chief executive of pipeline giant Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET), told the WSJ. Its been a steady recovery since the first week of May. But U.S. production is still expected to continue to decline, perhaps closing out the year around 10 mb/d, according to IHS Markit. U.S. shale revival unlikely. The oil market has tightened and prices have rebounded, but the frenzied pace of drilling in U.S. shale wont come back for the foreseeable future. Producers broadly characterized teens production growth as more an upside case than a base case, Goldman analysts wrote in a note. Related: Saudi Arabia And Russia Agree To Extend Production Cuts Massive diesel spill in Russia due to climate change. The leak of 150,000 barrels of diesel in Russias Far North was due to melting permafrost. Gulf Coast petrochemicals at immediate risk from climate change. Three large petrochemical facilities in Houston are highly vulnerable to extreme flooding caused by climate change, according to a new report from Jupiter Intelligence. The entire Gulf Coast petrochemical sector faces an imminent challenge from climate risks. California Resources to file for bankruptcy. California Resources (NYSE: CRC) skipped an interest payment and could file for bankruptcy next week, according to the WSJ. CRC is primarily a conventional oil driller based in Los Angeles. Trumps emergency pipeline order to face legal challenges. President Trump signed an executive order that waives bedrock environmental protections from the permitting process for new pipelines. But the order likely faces a series of legal obstacles. By Josh Owens for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: STAMFORD Furniture-seller Lovesac maintained its trajectory of significant growth during the first months of the coronavirus crisis, according to its latest quarterly earnings report released Tuesday. In the quarter ended May 3, Stamford-based Lovesacs sales jumped 33 percent year over year, to about $54 million. The uptick was powered by a 255 percent surge in e-commerce sales, which helped the company offset the temporary shutdown of all 91 of its showrooms that started in mid-March. Amid the global dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Lovesacs first quarter results affirm the resilience and compassion of our team, the benefit of our diversified channel mix and the fundamental appeal of the Lovesac brand, Lovesac founder and CEO Shawn Nelson said in a statement. In the same period, the firm recorded a loss of $8.3 million, compared with $9.1 million a year ago. Nelson said that the company was pleased about the reduction in its loss amid all the showrooms being closed for half the past quarter. Investors were encouraged by the results, with company shares jumping about 14 percent Tuesday to a closing-day total of around $22. The total still trailed a 52-week high of about $40, with Lovesac having grappled in the past year with investor doubts about its ability to produce profits. In April, Lovesac announced that it was responding to the coronavirus pandemic with major cost-cutting. The changes included a reduction in workforce of about 445 part-time employees, who represented 57 percent of the companys total headcount. In addition, Lovesac cut the cash compensation by 20 percent for Nelson, Chief Operating Officer Jack Krause and Chief Financial Officer Donna Dellomo. At that point, about 330 employees remained with the company, with less than half located in the greater Stamford area, Lovesac officials said. Now, Lovesac is rolling out a store reopening plan that is starting with virtual appointments and then expanding to in-person appointments and walk-in business. In virtual appointments, associates can demonstrate products, answer questions and help with purchases. In Connecticut, that option is available at the showrooms in Westport, Danbury and West Hartford. The store in Greenwich is still closed. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott Kent Davidson, senior project manager with HOK in Chicago, said the hospital will sit in the center of the development, on a high point of the property to help with drainage. The main entrance on the west side will have "enhanced visibility" from I-65, Davidson said. Currently, developers are proposing a roundabout near the hospital to help prevent traffic stacking, a plan which the Indiana Department of Transportation appears to be in favor of, Davidson added. There will be a ring road surrounding the hospital and surrounding development, which will include multiple exits, as well as additional entries as development in the area progresses, he said. Though "very early" in the design process, a bike path is in the works to run along the outside edge of the ring road, which would ideally tie into a county bike path along U.S. 231 in the future, Davidson said. Years in the making Sara Connor is set to leave Kerobokan jail this month where she has been described as a model prisoner and accomplished painter. The Byron Bay mother-of-two has spent the last four years in the notorious Bali prison after the fatal bashing of police officer Wayan Sudarsa in Kuta in 2016. The 49-year-old will be released from prison in July and deported back to her sons in Australia, having spent her time inside honing her craft as an artist and undertaking hair-dressing, crochet and make-up courses. She will leave her ex-boyfriend David Taylor, who is serving a six-year sentence in Kerobokan's male prison for his part in the officer's death. Ms Connor painted a large safari mural with other prisoners inside the jail after being taught by a Thai prisoner, who learned to paint in classes organised by Bali Nine drug trafficker Myuran Sukumaran. Byron Bay mother Sara Connor (pictured) will be released from Bali's Kerobokan jail in July Ms Connor has spent her time inside painting with other prisoners, including this large safari mural Kerobokan women's prison governor Lili told 7News Ms Connor has applied herself to her painting. 'She has become more confident day by day,' Lili said. 'I myself was also surprised when I learned that she actually can paint.' As her release date draws closer, Mr Sudarsa's widow Ketut Arsini said she had no hard feeling toward Ms Connor. 'Human beings should forgive,' she said. In 2017, Ms Connor was found guilty of fatal assault in company and will be released following good behaviour after serving four years of her five year sentence. Ms Connor during a re-enactment of Balinese police officer Wayan Sudarsa in Kuta in August 2016 Ms Connor previously said the 'nightmare' was supposed to be a relaxing holiday, resulting in her spending four years apart from her now teenage children. An Indonesian court found that Taylor had beat Mr Sudarsa, a police officer of 35 years, with multiple objects. This included a mobile phone, the officer's own binoculars and a Bintang beer bottle. Ms Connor was found to have put her arm around the policeman's neck and sat on his stomach. The tragedy began when she touched down in Denpasar airport, and met up with her boyfriend Taylor to have drinks before going to Kuta Beach and cuddling at the water's edge. Ms Connor's ex-partner David Taylor is serving a six-year sentence for his part in the officer's death Ms Connor soon noticed she had lost her purse, and a suspicious Taylor confronted the police officer and began frisking him - but the situation violently escalated. The mother claimed she was bitten by Mr Sudarsa when trying to separate the pair, and ran away, ending her involvement. Taylor, 'in fear of his life', struck Mr Sudarsa over the head with a beer bottle, he claimed. When Mr Sudarsa was motionless, Taylor took the officer's identification cards. At Ms Connor's trial, the judges said she cut up Mr Sudarsa's ID cards not to protect his identity and stop them from being stolen, but because she panicked and felt guilty. Taylor later told Ms Connor the police officer was 'passed out' on the beach. They had no idea, they claimed, of the seriousness of Mr Sudarsa's injuries. Dr Dudut Rustyadi, who performed the autopsy on Mr Sudarsa, told their trials it would have taken him at least two hours to die and had someone intervened he might have been saved. Instead, Ms Connor and Taylor returned to their hotel, cut up Mr Sudarsa's cards and left for nearby Jimbaran later that morning. Two days later, Ms Connor turned on her mobile phone and learned of his death. She has since offered $2,500 in compensation offered to the policeman's widow, and has always maintained her innocence. Sympathising with migrant workers who endured days of hardship to return home amid the lockdown, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said he has urged the Centre to replace the four-decade-old interstate law with a new one to ensure their social security. IMAGE: A migrant worker's child drinks water while the infant's mother waits in a queue in Ahmedabad for transport. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters The senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader also said that the troubles of the hapless workers grew manifold, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, as their employers did not implement the provisions of the existing Inter State Migrant Labour Act, 1979. The Act, moreover, covers only labourers hired by registered contractors, leaving out a vast majority recruited through agents, the deputy chief minister said. The legislation was enacted to ensure decent living conditions, payment of railway fare and medical expenses, if and when needed, he said. Besides, a labour inspector might visit work places in other states to see if the lawful facilities were being extended to the migrant workers, the BJP leader said. In addition, the Act entails that migrants should be covered under the Employees Provident Fund, Employees' State Insurance Corporation and other welfare schemes, he stated. Modi mooted the idea of giving unique identity number to every migrant labourer for compilation of a national database of such workers to provide them benefits of all social security schemes on the lines of 'one nation, one ration card'. "If these provisions were applied, lakhs of migrant workers would have benefited in times of crisis, like the one happening due to the coronavirus outbreak," Modi told PTI. Nearly 30 lakh migrants have returned to Bihar since the imposition of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Taking lessons from the episode, which had left many migrants in distress, there was a need to frame a new law, which would shield the workforce from such agony, he said. The deputy CM said he has requested the Centre to this effect, and the state Labour department has also taken up the issue with the Union government, stressing the need to repeal the 1979 Act and replace it with a new all-encompassing law. Of the 30 lakh labourers that returned to Bihar, many came by Shramik Special trains, some travelled in buses, while a few unfortunate ones had to ride bicycles for days or walk back home, he said. Rajesh Kumar, the chief public relations officer of Hajipur-based East Central Railway zone, said approximately 19,92,300 passengers have returned home in Bihar in around 1,089 Shramik Special trains from different states. Giving details, he said 229 Shramik trains reached Bihar from Gujarat, 168 from Maharashtra, 143 from Punjab and 100 from Delhi. Shramik special trains have brought workers to Bihar from 21 states, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Puducherry and Goa among others. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has promised to find the returnees work at home so that they are not forced to migrate outside in 'majboori' (compulsion). He has instructed various departments to create job opportunities under MGNREGA, Jal Jeevan Hariyali Abhiyan (environment projection schemes) and construction projects. Modi said the government was also contacting the employers of migrant labourers in other states, requesting them to consider the option of opening a new unit in Bihar, where the existing workforce could be accommodated. According to reports, many migrant workers were moving back to their places of work, with their employers luring them with incentives. The ECR CPRO said so far three outbound trains have taken people to other states from Bihar. The first one was from Khagaria to Hyderabad in the first week of May, carrying 222 workers. Another train travelled to Raipur in Chhattisgarh from Darbhanga, and a third one from Patna to Sangli in Maharashtra, Kumar said. Media reports have also highlighted that migrant labourers were travelling back to workplaces in Punjab in luxury buses sent for by their employers, promising higher wages. ELIPS, a leading manufacturer of pre-insulated pipes and provider of innovative solutions in fittings, has achieved a milestone of completing 10 years of operations in the manufacturing of pre-insulated pipes. The UAE-Dutch project is a joint venture between Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the UAEs leading district cooling company and Danish company, Logstor, the world's largest manufacturer of pre-insulated pipes. Since its inception, the company has generated over AED 812 million of sales and produced over 500 km of pre-insulated pipes as well as served more than 150 projects in the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the company said in a statement. The company has today become a key player in the industry across the GCC countries and Egypt by executing projects in all industrial domains, specifically the district cooling industry. Headquartered in the Jebel Ali industrial area across an area of about 100 million sq ft, ELIPS has the UAE's largest plant that leverages the latest robotics-driven manufacturing technologies in the production of thermal insulation materials that meet the highest energy efficiency standards. The companys products are in great demand by oil, gas, solar and marine sectors and other industrial projects. ELIPS is commencing its second decade with bigger ambitions and more valuable goals, and is determined to become the first and largest supplier for the region's district cooling companies and firms operating in the oil and gas fields, said Ahmad bin Shafar, Chairman of ELIPS. "Our partnership with Logstor yielded outstanding environmental gains and economic successes, as it is the only company in the Middle East that uses zero-emission materials in its manufacturing processes, which qualified it to receive international certification in OH&S management systems, and conforming to specifications and standards of the European International Network for District Cooling, as well as several certificates from ISO. Therefore, Empower has adopted ELIPS products in its operations in Dubai to contribute to environmental protection, achieve the highest levels of sustainability and energy efficiency in providing services to its customers," he added. Bin Shafar pointed out that Empower made the right investment decision ten years ago when it partnered with Danish Logstor to establish ELIPS, which has so far succeeded in supplying approximately 500 km of pre-insulated piping systems and providing integrated solutions for various industries, specifically district cooling projects, in the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf countries, and Egypt.TradeArabia News Service Oil India Limited said on Tuesday that it could take at least four more weeks to control the fire and plug the blowout at a natural gas well that ignited earlier in the day in Baghjan in Assams Tinsukia district. The gas well had been spewing gas and condensate since the blowout began on May 27. The fire broke out at the well a day after three experts from Singapore had reached the area to attempt plugging the well. Emergency meetings are underway with the expert team. They have expressed it is now a safe environment for working and are confident that the situation can be controlled and the well capped safely, OIL said in a statement. The situation demands arrangement of large quantities of water, installation of high discharge pumps and removal of debris. All the operations as per the experts will take about four weeks. Efforts will be made to reduce this time frame as much as possible, it added. Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal directed industries minister Chandra Mohan Patowary to rush to the site and take stock of the situation. He also suggested use of IAF aircraft to douse the fire. Instructions have been issued to district officials to ensure safety of local residents. Police, military, para-military forces and NDRF are present at the spot, Sonowal told journalists. I have apprised Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan about the incident and asked him to take steps to contain the fire and the blowout. Indian Air Force (IAF) can also play a role in controlling the fire and I have asked defence minister Rajnath Singh about it, he added. Sonowal asked residents of the area and Tinsukia town, which is 9 km away from the site not to panic and assured all help from the state government. Smoke could be seen billowing from the well several kilometers away from the site close to Dibru Saikhowa National Park and the eco-sensitive Maguri Mottapung wetland. The fire broke out at 1:40 pm at the site. The reason for the outbreak is not ascertained yet. Apart from a fireman of Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) who sustained minor injury, no one else has been injured, said Jayant Bormudoi, senior manager (corporate communication) of OIL. The experts were not present at the site when the fire broke out. They were at meetings in OIL office in Duliajan. There is no immediate threat to residents of the area who have already been shifted beyond a radius of 1.5 km from the well, Bormudoi added. Following the blowout nearly 2,000 people residing near the well had been shifted to four relief camps. Meanwhile, local residents have started protesting close to the blowout site blaming OIL for failing to control the disaster for two weeks. OIL has asked the state government to control the situation so that experts and officials can reach the site to control the fire and blowout. The Baghjan well suffered the blowout on May 27 while work was underway to produce gas from a new oil and gas bearing reservoir at a depth of 3,729 metres. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A German prosecutor has said there is some evidence that Madeleine McCann was killed by the new suspect but not enough to bring him to trial. Hans Christian Wolters said police do not have enough hard evidence that Christian Bruckner abducted Madeleine. He appealed for anyone with information about properties where the suspect previously lived to contact police to allow them to search for Madeleines body. He told Sky News: "All indication we have got that I can't tell you points in the direction that Madeleine is dead. "We got things we cannot communicate that speak for the theory that Madeleine is dead, even if I have to admit that we don't have the body." Mr Wolters continued: "We expect that she is dead, but we don't have enough evidence that we can get a warrant for our suspect in Germany for the murder of Madeleine McCann. Madeleine McCann, who has been missing since May 2007. - PA "At the moment we also don't have enough proof for a trial at court, but we have some evidence that the suspect has done the deed. "That's why we need more information from people, especially places he has lived so we can target these places especially and search there for Madeleine." On Monday night it was reported that British and German police are looking to speak to a former girlfriend of Bruckner, who they think may hold important information about the Madeleine case. The German woman, who is believed to have dated the 43-year-old suspect for several years, is reportedly being sought by detectives over what she may know about Bruckners past. It was also claimed on Monday night that the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was investigated over the case four years ago and ruled out by Portuguese police. A senior Portuguese police chief, speaking to a Spanish newspaper on condition of anonymity said of Christian Bruckner: We never found strong enough reasons to charge him. The revelation coincided with news from Germany that authorities were distancing Bruckner from two cold cases he had been linked to, including the disappearance of a six-year-old boy from a beach in Portugal. Story continues The Telegraph can also reveal that forensic evidence from Portugal 2007 may have been destroyed or contaminated because the van owned by the German paedophile was used as a party bus for four years after he last used it and before it was seized by police. An undated photograph of 43-year-old German convict Christian Bruckner, whom investigators are treating as the main suspect in the as-yet-unsolved case of the 2007 disappearance of British child Madeleine McCann in Portugal. - Carabinieri Handout/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Detectives in France, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Belgium are sifting through cold case files involving youngsters, but there have been no major breakthroughs that link them to Bruckner. Speaking to Spanish daily newspaper ABC, the unnamed Portuguese official, who claims to still be a serving officer, but is not working on the case said: People talk about surprises in the Madeleine McCann case with the capture of this German man, but for me it's no surprise. This individual was already investigated around four years ago. There's no evidence Christian Bruckner is involved in her disappearance. German officials are still looking for a forensic breakthrough that could implicate Bruckner in the disappearance, but hopes of finding anything in his old white and yellow VW T3 Westfalia campervan appeared to be dashed last night as the Telegraph discovered that more than 50 people have been in the vehicle since he last used it. The son of a scrapyard owner, who bought the van off Bruckner, used it to ferry his friends and family around the Algarve, hosting parties, drinking, smoking and sleeping in the top of the range vehicle. Officers only seized it in 2019, some 12 years after it was seen around Praia da Luz when Madeleine went missing. A photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of a VW T3 Westfalia campervan that has been linked to the suspect. - PA Dr James Barker, lecturer in forensic science at Kingston University said the sheer number of people who had been in the van makes things a lot more complicated. It makes things harder, and the longer time goes by the harder things get. If the van was in hot or wet conditions, DNA can degrade and wash away. Linda Brownlow, principal forensic science lecturer at the University of Greenwich added: "DNA from those 50 people could itself be left behind over the top of Madeleines - thereby confusing her original profile. In Germany, the father of Rene Hasee, a six-year-old boy, who went missing in 1996 while on holiday in the Algarve, said he had been told by the Federal Criminal Police Office in Germany that they were reopening the investigation. At that time, Bruckner, just 20, was living in the region. But on Monday (June 8), officials said they "see no new evidence or connections" between Rene's disappearance and Madeleines. Police said they were "sorry" they could not find a connection and understood that Rene's father "clings to every straw" about his son's death. In Hanover, a senior prosecutor from the public prosecutor's office was also forced to publicly state that there is no connection with Bruckner and the murder of a prostitute in the city in 2010. According to the Daily Mail, Bruckner was a suspect into the death of Monika Pawlak, who was found dismembered ten years ago. Bruckner was required to take a DNA test in relation to the murder, the German newspaper Bild reported, but the sample came back negative. Hanovers senior prosecutor Thomas Klinge said: This has been thoroughly investigated. No connection could be established." But the allegations of wrongdoing against the career criminal with 17 convictions continue to pile up. A former friend of Bruckner, Lenta Johlitz claimed that he had a very small 17-year-old girlfriend when he was 37-year-old who she alleges he physically assaulted while he was living in Braunschweig AIMIM Chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has accused PM Modi failing to control Covid-19 pandemic. He said a lockdown was announced when there were 500 cases in India and now when there are three lakh cases, it is being lifted. After a gap of two and half months, the chief of AIMIM and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday held a press conference in his office with a pack of his supporters and media personnel. He spent a lot of time accusing PM Narendra Modi and Congress. He said that Narendra Modi is successful in managing the media and newspaper front page headlines but has failed miserably in containing coronavirus and his Taali Bajaos are just gimmicks, nothing more than that. He once again questioned why the PM announced lockdown in 4 hours and took 8 days to lift it. Asaduddin Owaisi said Narendra Modi has taken the country for a ride. The migrants lives dont have any value. When lakhs of migrant labour have gone back to their homes, PM is lifting lock down. A lockdown was announced when there were 500 cases in India and now when there are three lakh cases, it is being lifted. What knowledge does the Prime Minister has? The prime minister can manage newspaper headlines. A young journalist died in Telangana. Who is responsible for this?. He sarcastically added, What is the great visionary Narendra Modi doing to contain coronavirus? He reminded that the fatality rate in Gujarat is higher than the national average. Also Read: Delhi LG Anil Baijal overules CM Arvind Kejriwals order on reservation of hospitals Also Read: Amit Shah at Odisha Jan Samvad rally: BJP workers provided food to over 11 crore people during Covid-19 pandemic Owaisi expressed that the Chinese are doing psychological warfare. He is concerned about what the PM is doing. He further asked the PM to tell the country what is happening at Indo China border? You dont want to tell because your approval ratings will take a hit. The Home and Defence minister can easily tell us what are they speaking to the PLA, Chinese govt. Why are they embarrassed? Why are they silent? Can they tell us if Chinese have occupied our territory? Please enlighten us on what is it that they are talking to Chinese? How many Chinese soldiers have occupied our territory? Why these selective leaks?, said AIMM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi also requested people above the age of 65 and children to not go to Masjid. He advised that they should pray in their homes instead. Owaisi also distributed sanitiser-dispensing machines to all religious places in Hyderabad as it opened for devotees on Monday. He reminded everyone of the fatwas issued to maintain sanitisers in all places of religious worship. Fatwa upholds use of sanitisers before offering namaz. In other circumstances, covering the face while praying is strongly discouraged. However, given current scenario, the Nizamia upheld the use of face masks while praying. Also Read: Film, TV shootings permitted in Telangana For all the latest National News, download NewsX App The battle over access to medically assisted death at the Delta Hospice Society is now in the courts after three former directors of the society filed a petition asking that a June 15 vote on a proposed faith-based constitution be cancelled or postponed. In B.C. Supreme Court Documents, former society president Christopher Pettypiece, Sharon Farrish and James Levin allege the current society board has stacked the members list by rejecting hundreds of membership applications from people in the community, while accepting only those who support Christian views. "Once this manipulation was competed, the Society has now given the bare minimum notice of an extraordinary meeting," reads the court documents. "It is intended to change what was always an open, secular community organization into a closed, religious organization." The petition also claims the DHS is acting in ways that contravene the B.C. Societies Act and its existing bylaws. The Delta Hospice Society has not filed a response. The new constitution was distributed to members in late May and proposes to turn the society into "a Christian community that furthers biblical principles governed by the Triune God." The proposed constitution also expressly prohibits MAiD, short for medical assistance in dying, which it calls euthanasia. In earlier statements to CBC, DHS president Angelina Ireland said details about membership decisions were confidential. A number of people have spoken out after having their membership applications denied without explanation, including former Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington, former Delta mayor Beth Johnson and retired Delta police chief Jim Cessford. A rally for "community membrs who want to see our Hospice returned to the service of all Delta citizens" is planned for Saturday in Ladner. In December of last year, a new board of directors led by Ireland set off a storm of controversy when it voted to stop allowing MAiD at the 10-bed Irene Thomas Hospice. Story continues MAiD was passed into federal law in 2016 and gives an individual the right to ask a doctor or nurse practitioner to administer a drug that causes death, within strict parameters. Earlier this year, Health Minister Adrian Dix announced the province was pulling $1.5 million in annual funding from the Delta Hospice Society and cancelling its contracts with Fraser Health, effective Feb. 25, 2021, in response to the hospice's stance on MAiD. Last week Ireland issued an apology for comparing MAiD to the Holocaust in a speech she gave in the U.S. By Ayya Lmahamad Turkish state oil and gas company BOTAS has announced a tender for construction of gas pipeline in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Turkish media reported on June 9. According to the statement, bids for participation in the tender will be accepted until June 30, 2020. Gas pipeline will be 82 kilometers in length, and 12 inches in diameter. Moreover, it is stated that the winner of the tender should complete the construction within 270 days. It should be noted that currently gas supply in Nakhchivan is carried out on the basis of swap operations with Iran. Nakhchivan, whose gas needs are met at the expense of Iranian gas, will receive an alternative source of gas from Turkey after the implementation of this project, the Turkish President noted earlier. The Agreement on gas transportation from Turkey to Nakhchivan and gas pipeline construction was signed in July 2010. The Agreement stipulates transportation of 500 million cubic meters of gas through Turkey to the Autonomous Republic on a free basis. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Last night, 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way premiered and this season is already shaping up to be pretty insane. The thing that sets The Other Way apart from all of the other shows in the franchise is that it shows the American cast members attempting to permanently move to their partners country, whereas most 90 Day shows follow the couples as they prepare to apply for the K-1 visa so that they can live in America together. Brittany and Yazan | TLC One of the most interesting couples on this season so far is Brittany and Yazan. The two couldnt be more different. Brittany is a bit of a wild child and Yazan is a conservative Muslim. Despite their differences, they decided to get married. But there is one huge secret that Brittany has been keeping from Yazan. How did Brittany and Yazan meet? Brittany and Yazan had only known each other for five months when the 90 Day Fiance cameras came into the picture. They met by accident. Yazans sister actually lived in the same apartment as Brittanys sister and Brittany just happened to walk in the room when Yazan was FaceTiming his sister. As soon as they saw one another, they had instant chemistry. Four weeks later, Yazan sent Brittany money so that she could visit him in Jordan. Yazan proposed after only a week of being with Brittany in person. Brittanys lifestyle Though Brittany has been to Jordan before, it doesnt seem like she understands how big of a change this move will be. She didnt even tell her father about the move until a week before she was set to leave. RELATED: 90 Day Fiance: Big Ed Is Trying to Shut Online Trolls Up by Donating to Charity No, no, that doesnt fly with me, Im sorry, her dad said when she told him of her plans. Youve been to Jordan but you still dont know Jordan. Have you thought about that? Brittany is currently a rapper in Florida who likes flashy things and showing a lot of skin. Jordan is a much more conservative area where women are not supposed to show skin. Brittany also said that she doesnt like to be told what to do and will always do whatever she wants. She did admit that this might cause a problem in Jordan because the women arent listened to there. Yazan wants Brittany to convert to Islam, but whenever they talk about it, she quickly changes the subject. Im such an independent person, she told the cameras. I have my own thoughts and feelings, and I dont want to go by any book telling me what to do. What secret is Brittany hiding? Yazan has made it clear that his family expects him and Brittany to get married within days of her arrival in Jordan, but that may not legally be able to happen because Brittany is already married. I married my ex five years ago and it didnt work out how I thought it would, she said in a confessional. Three months after she and her husband broke up, he was taken by ICE and deported to Haiti. RELATED: 90 Day Fiance: Will Babygirl Lisa Hamme be on The Other Way? And right now hes not playing nice at all. Hes giving me a really hard time, she continued. Brittany has not mentioned any of this to Yazan. To be honest with you, I forgot I was married, she told an attorney who she sought legal advice from. Unfortunately for Brittany, if her ex does not cooperate with the divorce, the process could take almost a year to be finalized. FMCG major Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) on Tuesday announced that Nisaba Godrej, currently the Executive Chairperson of the company, will take over the role of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company with effect from July 1, 2020. The announcement follows the resignation of Vivek Gambhir, GCPL's current Managing Director and CEO, who stepped down citing personal reasons. "Vivek Gambhir, GCPL's current Managing Director and CEO, has resigned for personal reasons and will step down as Managing Director and CEO on June 30, 2020," GCPL said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Nisaba Godrej has been appointed as Managing Director for a period till September 30, 2022, subject to the approval of the shareholders in the ensuing Annual General Meeting. She will also continue to be the Chairperson of the Board till March 31, 2022, Mumbai-based consumer goods company said in its statement. Nisaba is also the Chairperson of Teach for India and sits on the board of Godrej Agrovet and VIP Industries. She is the daughter of Adi Godrej, Chairman Emeritus of Godrej Group, and non-executive directors sister of Tanya Dubash and Pirojsha Godrej. Commenting on leadership change, Nisaba Godrej said: "I would like to thank the board for reposing their confidence in me. Humanity is going through difficult times right now and GCPL is committed to doing whatever is necessary to serve its stakeholders and community. I look forward to working closely with our talented team to drive our company ahead with clarity, hard work, kindness and a strong sense of purpose, to emerge stronger on the other side." "I also want to take this opportunity to thank Vivek for his many contributions to Godrej over the past 11 years. Vivek and I have had a strong partnership for over a decade. He is someone who has not only created a lot of value for Godrej, but has also been a wonderful friend and mentor to me. We wish him much success, health and happiness for the future," she added. Vivek Gambhir said, "After 11 fulfilling and wonderful years with Godrej, it is time for me to move on to chart the next phase of my journey. For the past many years, I have been living away from my family and seeing them only on weekends. Recently, I had some health problems that made me think more deeply about my lifestyle. Thankfully, I have fully recovered. I would now like to be able to spend more time with my family." Ahead of the announcement, shares of Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) ended Tuesday's trade at Rs 659.35 apiece against previous close of Rs 658.10 on the BSE. By Chitranjan Kumar Also Read: Coronavirus effect: Maruti Suzuki's production plummets 97.5% in May Also Read: India Inc. set to spend entire CSR budget on coronavirus; no space for other causes Make a spa day at home with tips from the professionals, writes Rachel Marie Walsh Surely the grimmest thing about cancelling your stay at one of Ireland's spa hotels is missing the treatments. We may have lost their services to lockdown rules for now but three managers have kindly shared with me how to approximate the spa experience at home. There will always be equipment and peels you cannot secure for your bathroom but everyone can elevate their self-care sessions beyond bubble bath and cucumber slices. Here are eight ways the experts do it: Spa Vibes A spa starts with the room. Warm towels, a Sade-stacked Spotify playlist and a locked door are all key to zoning out in peace. Elaine Armstrong, Spa Manager at The Ice House Hotel, Ballina, Co. Mayo, recommends lighting candles and playing a sound bath, produced by Sligo native Rachel Mulrooney and the Salt & Soul yoga studio in Strandhill and available for download at voya.ie. Through the healing frequencies of sound therapy our bodies can be brought back in tune, and we can begin to feel healthy and balanced once again. Find olfactory escape with an exotic candle like Max Benjamins Amalfi, Tahiti or Maldives candles, which have scents inspired by the local fruits and flowers of the islands. I especially like Amalfi Dolce Sole Candle, 24.95 at maxbenjamin.ie, a natural wax fragranced with notes of grapefruit, bergamot and tangerine, a heart of rosemary and jasmine and a base of vetiver and musk. Amalfi Dolce Sole Candle, 24.95 at maxbenjamin.ie Tackle Peau DOrange "Treat cellulite with a DIY coffee scrub," says Eva Byrne, Spa Manager at Killashee Hotel, Naas, Co. Kildare. "Caffeine has exfoliating and anti-inflammatory properties and can temporarily reduce the appearance of cellulite while smoothing skin." She uses her own recipe at home. DIY coffee scrub Mix a half-cup of fresh ground coffee with the same amount of brown sugar. Add one half-cup of coconut oil and a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the coffee mixture. Stir well and gently rub the mixture over your body. Leave for several minutes before rinsing thoroughly under a warm shower. and Prevent It The Ice Houses Elaine Armstrong also recommends regular dry body-brushing to stimulate lymphatic flow and boost circulation. I suggest brushing at least twice a week before a shower or bath. Work from the toes upwards onto the legs and back of thighs and backside. Work anti-clockwise in gentle strokes on the stomach to aid digestion. Continue up the arms towards the heart. After showering she uses Voya Angelicus Serratus Nourishing Body Oil, 39 at voya.ie. This seaweed-infused oil is super hydrating and packed with antioxidants. Rosehip slows signs of ageing and evening primrose helps to strengthen your cell structure and elasticity. Voya Angelicus Serratus Nourishing Body Oil, 39 at voya.ie. Customise Your Bath Killashee Spas Eva Byrne unwinds by adding Epsom salt to a hot bath. When Epsom salt is dissolved in water, it releases magnesium which is essential for sleep and stress management. Magnesium helps your brain produce neurotransmitters that induce sleep and reduce stress. Add a cupful of Epsom salt to a hot bath and relax for twenty minutes. She soothes dry and irritated skin by adding a cupful of ground oatmeal to a warm bath. Oatmeal has anti-inflammatory and moisturising qualities and is used in many skincare products. It is also excellent to treat eczema. Grind roll oats into a fine powder in a blender and add to warm water. This water should turn milky when ready. Get a Perfect Pedicure Eva also suggests home-making a sugar scrub for pedicures. Create your scrub by combining three parts sugar with 1-part oil coconut oil, almond oil or grapeseed oil. Soak your feet in warm water, apply sugar scrub to your feet concentrating on areas of dry skin such a heel and ball of the foot. Rinse using warm water and follow with plenty of moisturiser. A coat of Chanel Le Vernis in Cruise, 25 at boots.ie, includes a bioceramic-based active ingredient phycocoral that delivers calcium, iron, zinc and magnesium to the nails to strengthen them. Cruise is a new-season coral shade with pearlescent pigments for an intense, lacquered finish. Chanel Le Vernis in Cruise, 25 at boots.ie Mix Your Own Masks Alicja Spychala, Spa Manager at Aghadoe Heights Hotel & Spa, Killarney, Co. Kerry, steams her face before applying a homemade mask. A facial steam not only helps you unwind and leave stress behind, but opens your pores so that the mask you apply is even more effective. Pour hot water a large bowl and add the fresh herbs or essential oil of your choice. Put your face over the bowl and drape the towel over your head so that it covers the bowl as well, trapping the steam. Put your face near the water and breathe deeply for at least ten minutes. She then prepares a fresh mask to suit her skins needs. A soothing oat and honey mask is Alicjas go-to remedy for dryness and fine lines. Blend a quarter-cup of oats with hot water in a blender or food processor until well blended. Mix in one tablespoon of honey and another of coconut or almond oil. Apply the mixture to your face while its still warm and leave on for at least fifteen minutes. Rinse well with warm water. Avocados are full of healthy fats, vitamins and it will do work magic on your skin, particularly when its dehydrated. Alicja mashes half an avocado well and adds a teaspoon of honey. She brushes it onto clean face and leaves for 15-20 minutes, then rinses well with warm water. Soothe Sun Damage Medi-spa fans who are missing their Botox and filler top-ups should remember to avoid saunas and the sun, as both excessive heat and UV rays make injectables dissolve faster. Hyaluronic acid serum is helpful in maintaining their effects between jabs, according to German aesthetic scientist (and face-firmer to the stars) Dr. Barbara Sturm. If you've already felt the burn, you might slather on Clarins After Sun 48hr SOS Sun Soother Face and Body Mask, 25 at clarins.ie. This cream-gel mask has a comforting cooling effect and minimises burning sensations with sunflower extract. It moisturises intensely for up to two days with organic aloe vera extract and shea oil. It also helps skin to fend off free radicals with mimosa tenuiflora extract. Clarins After Sun 48hr SOS Sun Soother Face and Body Mask, 25 at clarins.ie. Tender-Loving Your Hair It is only when you put you hair on hiatus from the heat styling that keeps it in check during a typical work week that you see how stressed it's been. Even those who don't bleach or colour their hair can spot where heat-damaged hair needs more moisture and protein. Many spas offer hair services and a hair treatment session at home can also be very helpful. Shea Moisture Superfruit Complex Multi-Benefit Hair Masque, 16.99 at boots.ie For an intensive, antioxidant-rich treatment, try Shea Moisture Superfruit Complex Multi-Benefit Hair Masque, 16.99 at boots.ie. Biotin, marula oil and an exotic fruit complex of goji, acai and guava help to strengthen strands while preserving colour and providing intense moisture. Additional Installs Started and Expected to be Completed Over Next Month TOCCOA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / Galaxy Next Generation, Inc. (OTCQB:GAXY) ("Galaxy" or the "Company), a provider of interactive learning technology solutions, is pleased to announce it has completed the install of its Bell & Intercom system at Walt Clark Middle School in Thompson County School District, Colorado. Additionally, Galaxy has initiated installs at three other schools in the district, allowing for progress billing as the installs progress. Galaxy has been working with Thompson County School District since late-2019 and these additional contracts were awarded earlier in 2020. Gary LeCroy, Galaxy's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "While in-school in-classroom education across our nation has taken a pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue on our install schedule. With students not physically in the buildings, our teams have had more access to be able to complete installations of our Bell & Intercom systems. Thompson County School District has been an ideal partner and customer of ours as they share in our vision of a total district, school and classroom technology solution." The Thompson R2-J School District is located in Loveland, Colorado and covers territory in Loveland, Berthoud, a southern section of Fort Collins and portions of Windsor, Johnstown and unincorporated parts of Larimer, Weld and Boulder counties. It is the 17th largest school district in Colorado, serving more than 16,000 students within 33 schools (20 elementary, 5 middle, 5 high, 1 K-8 and 2 charter). For additional information on Thompson School District, please visit: https://www.thompsonschools.org About Galaxy Next Generation, Inc. Galaxy Next Generation (OTCQB:GAXY) is a provider of interactive learning technology solutions that allows the presenter and participant to engage in a fully collaborative instructional environment. Galaxy's products include Galaxy's own private-label interactive touch screen panel as well as numerous other national and international branded peripheral and communication devices. Galaxy's distribution channel consists of 22+ resellers across the U.S. who primarily sell the Company's products within the commercial and educational market. Galaxy does not control where resellers focus their resell efforts, although generally, the K-12 education market is the largest customer base for Galaxy products - comprising nearly 90% of Galaxy's sales. Story continues For additional information, please visit our website at: www.galaxynext.us Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. A more extensive listing of risks and factors that may affect the company's business prospects and cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the reports and other documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Investors Contact: IR@GalaxyNext.us P:888-859-1274 SOURCE: Galaxy Next Generation, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/593194/Galaxy-Next-Generation-Completes-Initial-Install-of-Bell-Intercom-System-at-Thompson-County-School-District-Colorado Bengaluru, June 9 : Acer on Tuesday announced that the Asia Pacific Predator League 2020 has been postponed to Spring 2021 in the Philippines due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The same qualifying teams from the local preliminary competitions will attend the finale in Spring 2021, and the event has been renamed as Predator League 2020/2021 with a prize pool of $400,000. "With the ongoing Covid-19 situation, we made the decision to move the competition to Spring 2021 for the safety and best interests of the tournament's competitors, fans, spectators and staff," Andrew Hou, President of Acer Pan Asia Pacific Regional Operations said in a statement. Almost 20,000 tickets wer sold for the tournament that was originally scheduled to take place in Manila in February this year. A total of 17 regions entered the local qualifier competitions held from October 2019. The inaugural Asia Pacific Predator League was held in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2018 to reinforce the Predator brand's commitment to supporting the gaming industry in the region. The second edition in 2019 was held at Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, watched by over 10,000 fans in real-time. It garnered 4.3 million views online and the peak concurrent viewership reached 1,23,000. Present at the sitting were Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Vietnam Ambassador Bruno Angelet and ambassadors of the EU countries to the Southeast Asian nation. The resolution stipulates the direct enforcement of the entire content of the Convention. The Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (Convention 105) was adopted by the ILO in Geneva, Switzerland on June 25, 1957. It is one of the two ILO conventions against forced labour, along with Convention 29 which Vietnam joined in 2007. Convention 105 has ten articles. The content of the Convention focuses on Article 1 and Article 2; Articles 3 to 10 are procedural rules. New Braunfels may have a new senior year tradition: shooting out of a river chute in full graduation gear. New Braunfels resident and photographer Mikie Farias organized the photo shoot on the Comal River with more than a dozen recent New Braunfels High School graduates on Saturday. He said the Texas State University tradition of jumping in the San Marcos River after graduation inspired him, and he has been brainstorming a spin on the fun for a while. After the coronavirus pandemic altered end-of-year events for seniors, he knew he had to finally put his plan in action Farias said the teens already had a senior float day planned for Saturday, the day after their graduation. The photographer contacted students he photographed for their formal senior portraits and let them know he'd be taking photos at the chute, if they wanted to show up wearing their graduation regalia for a fun picture opportunity. He said about 15 showed up wearing their blue New Braunfels High School caps and gowns over their swimsuits. Texas Tubes gifted the seniors a complimentary tube rental, shuttle access and provided space for Farias to snap photos as the grads blasted through the notorious chute, holding on tight to their caps. Farias said he warned students who are not strong swimmers to wear a life jacket, since the surge is known to flip some tubers. He said the last senior was the only one who flipped and lifeguards were on hand to get her back in her tube quickly. Farias said some of the online conversation surrounding the photos mention doing the shoots on the chute for years to come to cement it in New Braunfels tradition. Farias said he's "really proud" of possibly creating a new graduation rite for the area. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 17:46:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Around 520,000 students in the first, second and third grades of primary schools in Beijing will resume classes on June 15, local education authority said Tuesday. "Students and teachers in primary and middle school are required to wear masks during class," said Li Yi, a spokesperson for the Beijing Municipal Education Commission. Off-campus training institutions can apply in writing for resuming offline courses and collective activities after students in the aforementioned three grades resume class. So far, about 840,000 students in more than 1,400 primary and middle schools in Beijing have returned to school. Students in grade three in Beijing's high schools resumed class on April 27, and students in grades one and two in high schools returned to campus on June 1. The current semester will end on July 10 and summer vacation will begin on July 11. On Saturday, Beijing lowered its emergency response to the COVID-19 epidemic to the third level, the second-lowest. Enditem Photo credit: Mark Cuthbert - Getty Images From Town & Country A rare interview with Sophie, Countess of Wessex this week focused primarily on the royal's recent trip to South Sudan, and her campaign against sexual violence. But the profile, published in the Times, also offered a window into her family's home life, and their position in the larger structure of the modern monarchy. While both Sophie and her husband, Queen Elizabeth's youngest child Prince Edward, support and represent the monarchy as working royals, the Countess maintains that their children, Lady Louise and James, Viscount Severn, have at least a somewhat normal life. Whats normal? They go to a regular school," Sophie told interviewer Christina Lamb, who clarified that both Louise and James "attend top independent schools." "They go to friends for sleepovers and parties. At weekends we do lots of dog walking and stay with friends. I guess not everyones grandparents live in a castle, but where you are going is not the important part, or who they are. When they are with the Queen, she is their grandmother." But unlike their cousin Prince William, Louise and James are unlikely to join the family business. Photo credit: Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images The path Lady Louise will take appears clear to the Countess: [Lady Louise is] working hard and will do A-levels. I hope she goes to university. I wouldnt force her, but if she wants to. Shes quite clever, so I think probably," Sophie said, but she's less sure about what her son will do. "Whereas James I dont know, she said. Regardless of James's future career, it won't come as a complete surprise that he won't be following in his father's footsteps. "We try to bring them up with the understanding they are very likely to have to work for a living," Sophie said. "Hence we made the decision not to use HRH titles. They have them and can decide to use them from 18, but I think its highly unlikely." Read the full interview, in which Sophie also talks about the Sussexes, and Prince Andrew, here. You Might Also Like The total value of awarded contracts across Saudi Arabia for the first quarter reached SR45.2 billion ($12 billion), down 8 per cent when compared to the same period last year. However, the value grew by 28 per cent quarter-on-quarter, according to a report by US Saudi Business Council (USSBC). While the pace of awarded contracts during the first quarter exhibited the continued rebound in both the value and volume of awarded contracts that was witnessed in 2019, it was spared what is expected to be a downturn in the number of projects for the remainder of 2020 resulting from Covid-19 and the reduction in global oil prices. The Saudi governments 5 per cent budget cut move to combat the effects of Covid-19 in March did not materially impact project awards during the first quarter but is likely to affect the execution timeline of those contracts moving forward, said the statement from USSBC. According to experts, the implementation of budgetary cuts in March as well as the more recent additional budget cut announced in May of SR100 billion ($26 billion) are likely to dampen the kingdoms capital expenditures in 2020. The awarded contracts in Saudi Arabia contained numerous mega-projects across several sectors. According to USSBC, the lion's share of the contract value was garnered by military sector with SR15 billion ($4 billion) deals followed by oil and gas (SR11.2 billion) and petrochemicals (SR8.3 billion). These three sectors accounted for 76 per cent of all awarded contracts alone, while the other contributing sectors included water, power, and real estate. The military sector was led by two mega-projects associated with the construction of the King Salman airbase as well as the King Faisal air academy, each valued at SR7.5 billion. This marks the highest value of awarded contracts in a quarter and year in the military sector on record. The oil and gas sector continued its momentum from 2019 as it accounted for SR11.2 billion or 25 percent of awarded contracts led by state oil giant Saudi Aramco. Contracts were awarded for the development of the Marjan oil field as well as Safaniya and South Ghawar in the Eastern Province. Saudi Aramco said it would continue to award mega-projects in the oil and gas sector despite the impact of Covid-19 on the economy. The petrochemicals sector rose this quarter after a relatively slow year in 2019. The value of awarded contracts surged to SR8.3 billion ($2.2 billion) from two contracts, accounting for 18 percent of total projects. This reflects a significant jump as the total value of awarded contracts in 2019 was SAR2.5 billion ($662 million) for the petrochemicals sector. Regionwise, the Eastern Province dominated the list with the highest share of awarded contracts worth SR21.8 billion ($5.8 billion) or 48 per cent of the total. All of the oil & gas and petrochemicals sector contracts were awarded in the Eastern Province, accounting for SR19.5 billion ($5.2 billion) or 89 percent. Saudi Aramco awarded all the oil and gas contracts while several companies awarded petrochemical projects, with Advanced Petrochemicals Company awarding a significant contract in the amount of SR6.8 billion ($1.8 billion). The power, real estate, and transportation sectors also contributed to the Eastern Provinces awarded contracts. Riyadh came second in the list with 37 per cent of the awarded contracts worth SR16.6 billion ($4.4 billion). The Riyadh region was dominated by the military sector as a result of the King Salman and King Faisal airbase projects, which accounted for SR15 billion ($4 billion) or 90 percent. Other contributing sectors in the Riyadh region included real estate, healthcare, and transportation. The Madinah region registered a distant third with SR2.8 billion ($752 million) or 6 per cent of awarded contracts. Madinah registered two notable contracts of which the largest was a SAR2.6 billion ($700 million) water project. The Makkah region contributed SR2 billion ($533 million) or 5 percent and was led by the education and power sectors. The USSBCs Contract Awards Index climbed to 216.6 points by the end of the first quarter. The index briefly dipped below the 200 point mark in January for the first time since May 2019, it added.-TradeArabia News Service New Delhi: In a stern message to Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on Wednesday called for an end to all support, sponsorship and safe havens to terrorists and decided to strengthen security and defence cooperation. During their talks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani also expressed grave concern at continued use of terrorism for achieving political objectives in the region as the two leaders had extensive discussions on the regional and bilateral issues. Reiterating Indias abiding support for a unified, sovereign, democratic, peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan, Modi conveyed the countrys readiness to consider further requirements for capacity and capability building in spheres such as education, health, agriculture, skill development, empowerment of women, energy, infrastructure and strengthening of democratic institutions. To this end, the Prime Minister offered that, as a close neighbour and friend of Afghanistan and its people, India would allocate a sum of USD 1 billion, a joint statement said. After the talks, the two sides inked three agreements - Extradition Treaty, cooperation in civil and commercial matters and the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Briefing the reporters, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said, The two leaders discussed the regional situation and expressed grave concern at continued use of terrorism and violence in the region for achieving political objectives. They agreed that this phenomenon presented the single biggest threat to peace, stability and progress in the region and beyond. Stressing that elimination of all forms of terrorism, without any discrimination, is essential, the leaders called upon the concerned to put an end to all sponsorship, support, safe havens and sanctuaries to terrorists, including for those who target Afghanistan and India. However, they did not name Pakistan. Asked if India conceded to long-pending demand of Afghanistan for stepped up defence supply, Jaishankar said, Both leaders reaffirmed their resolve to counter terrorism and strengthen security and defence cooperation as envisaged in the India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement. However, the Foreign Secretary did not give any further details and only noted that this was discussed during the recent visit of the Afghanistans Chief of Army Staff to India. The Prime Minister also proposed to supply world class and easily affordable medicines from India and cooperation in solar energy through mutually agreed instruments. Jaishankar also talked about Indias offer of supplying 1.75 lakh tonne of wheat to Afghanistan, which was suffering shortage. India wanted to supply the wheat and it made a request months back to Pakistan for the transit, he said, adding we have not received any response. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Next CDS of India: Rajnath Singh to receive list of probables soon India tells France, have the political will, ability to counter misadventure by China Want to manufacture BrahMos so that no country has audacity to cast evil eye on us: Rajnath Singh IAF chopper crash: Rajnath Singh likely to be apprised of probe team's findings in next couple of days Stand united, advises Rajnath Singh amidst row with China India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 09: The high-level dialogue between Chinese and Indian militaries was "positive", and both sides vowed to continue the talks to end the "tussle", Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday on the eastern Ladakh standoff, asserting that the government will not allow India's pride and self-respect to be hurt at any cost. His comments indicating India's resolve to deal with the row with a firm approach came even as the two armies remained engaged in a bitter confrontation in several areas in eastern Ladakh including Galwan Valley and Pangong Tso. Issues remain, but India-China keep things cordial The defence minister, addressing a virtual rally for the people in Maharashtra, also came down hard on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his remarks that the government should "come clean" and tell the country what is happening on the border with China. WHO says coronavirus situation is worsening globally, disease raging in Americas| Oneindia News "The talks held on June 6 were quite positive. India and China have agreed to continue the talks to resolve the border issue including the current tussle. I want to assure people that leadership of the country is in strong hands and we will not compromise on India's pride and self-respect at any cost," the defence minister said. Talking about decades-old border row with China, Singh said India wants its resolution as soon as possible, adding the military and diplomatic engagement between the two sides to end the current row continues. "India's policy has been to not hurt anyone's dignity and honour. At the same time, we do not allow the country's honour and self-respect to be hurt. On Gandhi's comments, Singh said the whole country should be united on such an issue and have faith in the capability of the armed forces. "I cannot even imagine that any political leader will make such comments on an issue of the country's security. As the defence minister, I will say whatever I have to say in Parliament," he said. "Do not try to tell us (about our responsibility). There is a dispute between the two countries and the whole country should stand united," he added Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a month-long confrontation since May 5 following a violent clash in Pangong Tso which is turning out to be biggest military standoff after the 2017 Doklam episode. In their first serious efforts to end the row, Lt General Harinder Singh, the general officer commanding of Leh-based 14 Corps, and Commander of the Tibet Military District Maj Gen Liu Lin held an extensive meeting on Saturday. However, it could not produce any tangible results. China boasts of its capabilities of quickly reinforcing border defence In a statement, the external affairs ministry on Sunday said the meeting took place in a "cordial and positive atmosphere" and that both sides agreed that an "early resolution" of the issue would contribute to the further development of the relationship between the two countries. In its comments, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said both the countries have agreed to work to maintain peace along the Line of Actual Control and resolve the standoff through talks. Saturday's talks also came a day after the two countries held diplomatic talks during which both sides agreed to handle their "differences" through peaceful discussions while respecting each other's sensitivities and concerns. After the standoff began in early last month, Indian military leadership decided that Indian troops will adopt a firm approach in dealing with the aggressive posturing by the Chinese troops in all disputed areas of Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie. The Chinese Army has been gradually ramping up its strategic reserves in its rear bases near the LAC by rushing in artillery guns, infantry combat vehicles and heavy military equipment, the sources said. 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 Lake besides construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley. The road in the Finger area in Pangong Tso is considered crucial for India to carry out patrol. India has already decided not to stall any border infrastructure projects in eastern Ladakh in view of Chinese protests. The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on May 5 and 6. The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in north Sikkim on May 9. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. 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 tranquillity in the border areas. As Floyds memorial service in Houston began Monday, the impact of his death continued to reverberate around the country. The debate shifted from the widely condemned arrest tactic that Chauvin used to the hotly debated issue of whether American policing requires a top-to-bottom overhaul. While Black Lives Matter protesters have called on lawmakers to defund the police and decried systemic racism in law enforcement, others led by President Trump have sought to brand the movement as extreme and argued that policing does not need broad reform. ICE Asia Digital Interview with Annie Siara of 86 Connects London, United Kingdom ICE Asia Digital 2020 Day 2 kicks off today at 9am London / 5pm Macau time. In advance of todays sessions, Clarion Gaming sat down with Annie Siara of 86 Connects to discuss the future of Chinese tourism and consumerism in the new post-COVID19 world. Clarion Gaming: Hi Annie thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. Wed like to provide some insight into our audience on the current state of the China travel market. While we are all well aware of the macro impacts of COVID19 on international travel, what is currently happening in China across both the domestic and overseas travel scope? Annie Siara: Thank you for having me. Domestic travel in China is recovering slowly. The Chinese people are choosing to drive or take high-speed trains rather than flying. Staycation is amongst the popular choices for a getaway. The confidence is coming back for travelling, but still cautious and prefer to stay closer to home for the time being. International flights are capped at one a week per airline and per country from China. Only diplomatic, C-visas or visas issued by the Chinese embassies are granted to travel in and out of China. International leisure travel is still restricted. Hong Kong announced last week that the 14-days quarantine would be extended until July 7 for travellers coming from Macau, China and Taiwan. Clarion Gaming: With regards to land-based gaming, what are the behavioural differences that operators can expect to see from Chinese citizens when they do begin to travel again? How will the needs of Chinese who travel overseas to gamble be different than those of other countries? Annie Siara: First, I think we need to understand the different player segment and their purpose of travel. There are Mass, Premium Mass and VIP player segments. Each of these player segments and their intention of travelling to a casino is different. Take the mass market; this player segment like to crowd around the table and socialize with other players. With social distancing measures, this atmosphere on the casino floor will not be there. Therefore, I think we will see a reduction in the mass market, more so than the others. We are seeing changes to the traveller demographic from China compared to pre-COVID-19. Chinese travellers are opting in for scenic, outdoor, health and wellness travel products. That said, casino operators can tailor its gaming and non-gaming offerings to meet the current demands of this traveller profile. Clarion Gaming: Do you think there is any low hanging fruit in the short term? What should gaming operators be looking at and doing to prepare for the future with regards to Chinese players? Annie Siara: Health and safety measures will be critical. We are seeing Macao operators leading the way of these measures such as facemasks for both dealers and players, disinfecting areas regularly and hand sanitisers available. Understanding the change in the Chinese tourism market, as mentioned in my previous question, the main drivers for outbound tourism from China will be changing in the Post COVID-19 era, and this consumer group is essential in the tourism market. I believe diversifying non-gaming offering and leverage the current trends of technology to engage with these players remotely. Clarion Gaming: Considering the current situation, what weight should operators be placing on the targeting of players from across the spectrum mass, premium mass and VIP. Where should operators be focused on when planning their post-COVID19 recovery and Chinese players? Annie Siara: At least for the first wave of travellers from Mainland China, the VIP and Premium Mass player segment should be the focus for gaming operators. These travellers will be travelling in smaller groups, playing in a more private environment, and baccarat will still be a main revenue drive in the Asia casino landscape. Clarion Gaming: In your experience, have you seen significant interest from operators in the European land-based markets in targeting Chinese players or investing more into the China outbound market? Annie Siara: Before Covid-19 situation, our company were engaging with European casinos to help them better understand this consumer segment. I believe the China outbound tourism market for European land-based casino is untapped. There is a domestic player segment of Chinese nationals in the European casinos, but, it is widely not understood by gaming operators on how to tap into this market. Registration to ICE Asia Digital is free of charge, including the full training session on Day 3. For more information, including the full agenda, speakers, advanced registration and sponsorship opportunities, visit www.ice-asia.com. Dubai state-owned airline, Emirates has fired 600 pilots including a few Indians. The company on June 9 proceeded with what is being seen as one of the largest layoffs in the aviation industry. The latest round of firing brings the total number to 792 from one of the worlds largest long-haul airlines. In its earlier round of firing, the company said Emirates airline said on Sunday it had made some staff redundant due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, with two company sources saying trainee pilots and cabin crew had been affected, as reported by Moneycontrol. "We reviewed all possible scenarios in order to sustain our business operations, but have come to the conclusion that we, unfortunately, have to say goodbye to a few of the wonderful people that worked with us," a spokeswoman said. "The company is doing everything possible to protect the workforce wherever we can," she added. The state-owned airline, which has around 60,000 employees and is part of the Emirates Group, did not say how many staff had been affected by the job cuts. Emirates said on May 10 that a Dubai government commitment to provide it with "equity injections" would allow it to preserve its skilled workforce. Emirates Group's airport services subsidiary dnata has also laid off some staff and placed thousands of others on unpaid leave. Also Watch: Credit: CC0 Public Domain The arrival of the novel coronavirus and subsequent shutdowns of economies across the globe have caused hardships not seen in generations. But for business professors, it's also a once-in-a-generation research opportunity. USC Marshall Assistant Professor of Marketing and Kenneth King Stonier Assistant Professor of Business Administration Davide Proserpio was one of the first academics to study the sharing economy as he completed his Ph.D. Today he is considered a leading expert in the so-called "gig" economy. We asked him five questions about how the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant shutdown are affecting the sector. Q: Describe your expertise with researching the "gig" economy? How did you get interested? Can you point to interesting findings from your research? I started working on the topic of the sharing economy during my second year as a Ph.D. student (2012). At the time, Airbnb was still a small and not very popular startup, and I started using it both as a traveler (a guest) and a host (I was a host for almost three years in Cambridge, Massachusetts). Noticing the fast pace at which it was growing, we (my advisor and another Ph.D. student) decided to start collecting data from the platform, because it represented a new business model, and we thought we could find an interesting research question to study. After a few months of data collection and some analyses that ended up with nothing concrete, we decided to study whether Airbnb had an impact on the hotel industry. It seemed such a natural question to study, and we were surprised (and happy) to find no research on the topic. We started analyzing Airbnb and hotel data at the beginning of 2013, and we had a draft of our first paper on the sharing economy by the end of 2013. In it, we analyze Airbnb's entry into the state of Texas. We estimated that in Austin, where Airbnb supply was the highest, the causal impact on hotel revenue was in the 8 to 10% range; moreover, we showed that the impact of Airbnb was non-uniform, with lower-priced hotels and those hotels not catering to business travelers being the most affected. We were among the first academics studying the sharing economy, and today this paper is my most cited work. Q: Uber, Airbnb, all are taking ugly hits. What will these businesses have to do to survive the pandemic...and future ones? Companies like Uber and Airbnb had to react very quickly to the changes imposed by the current pandemic. They all tried to implement changes aimed at ensuring user safety so that people would continue to use their services. However, despite these changes, the lockdown imposed in many cities around the world made some of these services very hard, if not impossible, to use. One of the industries most affected by the pandemic is the travel industry, which directly affected short-term rental companies like Airbnb. Improving safety measures did not help in this case because most people on lockdown are not allowed to travel these days, so many Airbnb hosts converted their properties to long-term rentals, where risks associated with infections are considered much lower and where there is still demand (despite the pandemic, people need a place to live). However, there is a problem with this switch: the long-term rental market is likely to be less profitable than the short-term. This means the move to the long-term rental market might be just a short-term effect of the pandemic, because many hosts may have the capital to survive a couple of months earning less revenue. However, if conditions don't improve soon, many hostsespecially those that are financially constrainedmay be forced to sell their properties, and this could put Airbnb in a difficult position. Q: If such companies are forced to change their business models to to be more employee-friendly (sick leave, health care, higher wages, etc.), what changes then ripple out into the larger economy? This is an interesting question. I think more and more people might decide to participate in this economy so we might see an increase in substitution between traditional 9-to-5 jobs and gig work. In turn, this might lead to the disappearance of certain types of jobs that require low to no skills. Competition between the sharing economy and incumbents might also become stronger, so whether incumbents will survey this type of change is hard to predict; for example, if Uber drivers get the same benefits of a traditional taxi driver, the motivations to participate in the traditional economy may decrease substantially. Q: What's the silver lining here? For investors? Employees? Employees might end up getting better working conditions and benefits. This is because sharing economy companies need to step up and guarantee their workers safer conditions and likely better benefits if they want to survive and, hopefully, recover fast once the pandemic is over (these companies need people willing to work for them once the pandemic is over). The pandemic exposed the weaknesses of the sharing economy, and investors have seen how fragile many of these companies are, so they probably are wondering whether their investments are going to end up being a bad decision. Q: Does this pandemic portend the end for the gig economy? If not, what does a gig economy look like, circa 2025, in your thinking? Some platforms that are not very popular may disappear, but the whole concept of the sharing economy will survive along with the best players, such as Uber and Airbnb. The pandemic reminded these companies that without their users, they are not worth a penny. So I hope that this will fundamentally change the way they are treating their workers. Explore further Airbnb to offer housing to 100,000 crisis responders Iran has re-emerged as the hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East region, as the country is witnessing a respike of the pandemic with its confirmed cases going beyond 173,000. Iran reported a total of 173,832 coronavirus cases on Monday after an overnight registration of 2,043 new ones, Xinhua news agency reported. The pandemic has so far claimed the lives of 8,351 Iranians, up by 70 in the past 24 hours. Besides, 136,360 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals while 2,619 remain in critical condition. Iran's health officials have urged the people to wear face masks in public places, particularly in the public transport vehicles as the country has started to restart businesses and social activities. In Turkey, now the second hardest-hit country in the Middle East, the COVID-19 cases increased by 989 on Monday to 171,121, according to Health Minister Fahrettin Koca. Meanwhile, 19 people died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 4,711, and the total recoveries grew to 141,380, Koca said. Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines on Monday announced that it would offer a 40-percent discount on tickets for healthcare workers across the globe. "The Turkish Airlines started a new campaign for the healthcare workers who are working selflessly to combat the COVID-19 pandemic," the airline said. With no significant signs of slowdown in the pandemic, Saudi Arabia registered 3,369 new coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing the accumulated infections in the kingdom to 105,283. The death toll from the virus increased to 746 with 34 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, while the number of recoveries reached 74,524 after 1,707 more have recovered. Egypt on Monday registered 1,365 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 35,444, said the health ministry. The death toll from the disease in the North African country rose to 1,271 after 34 fatalities were added, while a total of 9,375 recoveries have been registered. The Israeli Ministry of Health reported 169 new coronavirus cases, raising the total number to 18,032. while the death toll remained at 298. Israel has decided to stop all steps to ease restrictions that were planned for the coming days given an increase in COVID-19 morbidity, the prime minister's office said. Train services in Israel did not resume as scheduled to reoperate on Monday, while the reopening of theaters and cinemas, scheduled for June 14 under restrictions, will be postponed for at least one week. Iraq's Health Ministry confirmed on Monday 1,115 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 13,481 in the country. Meanwhile, 24 more people died from the coronavirus during the day, raising the death toll to 370, while 5,572 patients have recovered. Qatar's health ministry announced 1,368 new infections of COVID-19, increasing the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 70,158. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday announced 568 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 39,376. Meanwhile, 469 more patients have fully recovered from the virus, taking the tally of the UAE's recoveries to 22,275. Kuwait reported 662 new cases of COVID-19 and five more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 32,510 and the death toll to 269, the health ministry said The Omani Ministry of Health announced 604 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 17,486. In Morocco, a total of 78 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed, bringing the total number in the North African country to 8,302. The number of people cured increased to 7,408 with 44 new recoveries, said Mouad Mrabet, coordinator of the Moroccan Center for Public Health, at a press briefing. Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased by 19 cases to 1,350, while the death toll remained at 30. Tunisian President Kais Saied decided to lift the anti-coronavirus curfew across the country starting Monday. In Washington, where authorities ordered people off streets at 7 p.m., thousands demonstrated near the White House on Tuesday evening, after a crackdown a day earlier when officers forced peaceful protesters to leave Lafayette Square to clear the way for President Trump to pose for photos at St. Johns Episcopal Church. A black chain-link fence was put up to block access to the park. For Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller, nothing says summer quite like fresh vegetables. Thats why Miller and other local officials are excited to see the return of farmers markets cropping up throughout the Valley this month. My wife swings by every week to pick something up to have for dinner that night, Miller said. Seymour welcomed back its annual farmers market last Tuesday, which set up shop at the Community Center at the corner of Pine Street and Derby Avenue. The market is open from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, and will run through fall. Gazy Brothers Farm in neighboring Oxford has been bringing plump tomatoes, lettuce, fresh cut basil and bushels of fresh fruits and vegetables to Seymour since 1995, when the market made its debut downtown near the train station. In addition to the fresh crops, the market also features hanging baskets and a new vendor this year, Beldottis Bakery of Stamford, selling artisan breads and pastry. Of course, with the coronavirus pandemic, social distancing among marketgoers will be in place, and residents are encouraged to take advantage of online purchasing for minimal contact pickup. More information can be found online at https://gazybrothersfarm.square.site/#TmPlaH. In nearby Ansonia, Gazy Brothers is bringing back the farmers market for a second year, with an expanded market set to open June 19 across from the train station on Main Street. The market will be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays through late October. According to Mayor David Cassetti, some new vendors will be featured, including Beldottis and Saint X Specialty Foods of Norwalk, which will bring gourmet pesto and fresh mozzarella in addition to the freshest herbs, tomatoes, strawberries and more courtesy of Gazys. Delivering a quality weekly farmers market to our city has been a priority of mine for years, said Cassetti. For the first time last summer, this vision was delivered consistently to our doorsteps by Gazy Bros. The market will accept WIC and senior farmers market vouchers, cash, checks and credit cards. Ansonia Director of Constituent Services Greg Martin was looking forward to sampling the freshest crops summer has to offer. The mayor and I made it a Friday ritual for tomatoes last year, Martin said. This year, with pesto, artisan bread and fresh made mozzarella now into the mix, this is Italian heaven. Martin said with the local Big Y relocating to Derby, the farmers market will be a welcome attraction. Farmers markets represent everything thats good about summer with fresh, locally grown produce and more, he said. I know last year, many restaurants in downtown also made weekly visits to the market, and many are looking forward to it again this year. Gazy Brothers also can be found at other locations in the Valley and nearby towns, including: Mondays: Stratford, Main Street, Paradise Green, 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays: Shelton, Perkin Elmer Pop-up Stand, 710 Bridgeport Ave., 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays: Shelton, Scinto Towers Pop-up Stand, 1 Corporate Dr. (off of Old Stratford Road), 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Trumbull, Nichols Improvement Association, 1773 Huntington Turnpike, 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.; Milford, Walnut Beach Pavilion, 85 Viscount Drive, 4 to 7 p.m.; Oxford, Tommy Ks Plaza Pop-up Stand, Route 67, noon to 6 p.m. Fridays: Oxford, Tommy Ks Plaza Pop-up Stand, Route 67, noon to 6 p.m. Saturdays: Oxford, Oxford Town Hall, 486 Oxford Road (Route 67), 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. jean.sos@snet.net Ben185/iStockBy AARON KATERSKY, EMILY SHAPIRO and IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News (NEW YORK) -- A New York Police Department officer who allegedly shoved a protester to the ground, turned himself in Tuesday morning to face criminal charges. Officer Vincent D'Andraia, 28, was charged in a criminal complaint with assault, criminal mischief, harassment and menacing, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. The portions of the alleged incident, caught on video, took place on May 29 while D'Andraia was assigned to monitor a large crowd of protesters by Brooklyn's Barclays Center, prosecutors said. D'Andraia allegedly told Dounya Zayer, 20, to move, and when she asked why, he "smacked her cellphone out of her hand, and violently shoved her to the ground," prosecutors said. The officer allegedly called the victim, a "stupid f------ b----," according to the criminal complaint. Zayer suffered head and back pain, a seizure and a concussion, and was hospitalized, according to the criminal complaint. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said he's "deeply troubled by this unnecessary assault," and vowed to "seek to hold this defendant accountable." D'Andraia, a five-year veteran who is currently suspended without pay, was released on his own recognizance after he was arraigned. The judge approved an order of protection for the victim, barring D'Andraia from contacting her. He is due back in court Oct. 15. D'Andraia faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted. Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch blasted Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD brass for "sacrificing cops to save their own skin." "They created the failed strategy for managing these demonstrations. They sent police officers out to do the job with no support and no clear plan," he said in a statement. Zayer's attorney, Tahanie A. Aboushi said she is disappointed the officer was charged with a misdemeanor and not a felony, given the severity of the injuries. "Dounya was assaulted for the very reason she was protesting -- police brutality. The NYPD has been allowed to engaged in this type of conduct with impunity for too long," Aboushi, who is running for the Manhattan district attorney's office, said in a statement. Later in the morning, NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea announced that an unnamed officer was placed on modified duty following an investigation into their actions during a May 29 protest in Brooklyn. The incident which was also caught on video, allegedly showed the officer open the door of their unmarked vehicle as they passed by a protester, striking the protester on their side. Shea said the officer's case has been referred to the NYPD's Department Advocate office for disciplinary action. "While the investigation is still ongoing, there is no doubt in my mind that based on the seriousness of what we've seen in recent days, transparency is critical," Shea said in a statement. On Friday, Shea suspended D'Andraia and another officer, who was filmed removing a face covering of a black protester and spraying him in the face with pepper spray during a May 30 protest. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. The Cambodian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it had received a diplomatic note from Thailand asking the former to verify news reports documenting the disappearance of a Thai pro-democracy activist. It was unclear if this was a request for a criminal investigation. VOA Khmer reported on Friday eyewitness accounts from Phnom Penhs Chroy Changvar district of popular Thai activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit being dragged into a black SUV by three unidentified men. The abduction was reported by Human Rights Watch in a statement released Friday morning. Cambodian and Thai officials for more than four days ignored calls for an investigation into the incident, with the former requiring an official complaint from Thailand or Wanchalearm Satsaksits family. Koy Kuong, a spokesperson at the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told VOA Khmer on Tuesday that the ministry had received on Monday a diplomatic note from the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh. He said the note was dated June 05 and that the Thai Embassy had asked for verification of news reports about the missing activist. In the diplomatic note, the Thai embassy asked us to verify news of the missing Wanchalearm Satsaksit, he said. We will verify the news first... because information can be falsified easily, Koh Kuong said. Koy Kuong said the ministry has informed the relevant authorities, including the Ministry of Interior and police officials, to look into the matter. It was not immediately clear if this meant the police would open a criminal investigation into the missing activist. Chhay Kimkhoeun, a spokesperson for the National Police, told government-affiliated Fresh News on Tuesday that the authorities will verify the news reports, especially CCTV video camera clips of the incident. A staffer at the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh answered the phone Tuesday morning, but said the embassy will not comment on the case, directing the queries to the Thai Foreign Ministrys Department of Information in Bangkok. The department did not respond to an email request for comment on Tuesday. Eyewitness accounts conveyed to VOA Khmer reveal that Wanchalearm Satsaksit was abducted outside his apartment in the late afternoon of June 4. A black Toyota Highlander SUV pulled up next to the Thai activist, according to sources, who requested anonymity. The witnesses said one unidentified man, dressed in black and wearing a mask, then punched Wanchalearm Satsaksit in the neck and dragged him to the car. Two other unidentified men were also part of the abduction, they said. Chuoy pong. Chuoy pong. Chuoy pong. Chuoy pong, were the last words bystanders heard Wanchalearm shouting, which translates to please help. On Tuesday, residents living near the apartment building where Wanchaleam Satsaksit lived said the police had come to the area to question some people. A security guard near the building said people were aware of the incident, and that some wanted to help Wanchalearm Satsaksit but were scared because the abductors were armed. He said the CCTV cameras in the area would have captured the incident and the direction the SUV went after Wanchalearm Satsaksit was put in the car. Only the police can check the CCTV camera, said the security guard. Wanchalearm Satsaksit fled the Thai junta after the 2014 coup and is a prominent activist affiliated with the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), also known as the Red Shirts, according to a Human Rights Watch statement. He is wanted for alleged online crimes, the rights group said, and the Thai media report he is also charged with purportedly violating Thailands strict lese-majeste provision. The activist is politically active on social media and has continued to publicly criticize Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-chas government, posting a video criticizing him on June 3, a day before he went missing. The Bangkok Post reported on Friday that Krissana Pattanacharoen, the deputy national police spokesman in Thailand, said Thai police had contacted their Cambodian counterparts regarding the extradition of Wanchalearm Satsaksit and other exiled activists. New Delhi/Atlanta, GA, June 9 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Limited, a global skills and talent development company and leading provider of managed training services, announced today that it has extended its partnership with Rio Tinto, the leading global mining group for another five years. began its relationship with Rio Tinto in 2014 and will continue to provide a full range of managed learning services, covering event management, learning administration, consultancy, on-site support, content design and development and technology services, to support Rio Tinto's learning and business imperatives across its global sites and offices. Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO, LON: RIO) is a leading global mining and refining group, operating in 36 countries with 47,000 employees and sales of USD 43 billion, producing materials essential to human progress. "We truly value our partnership with Rio Tinto and are very excited that our partnership has been extended for another five years. We look forward to providing increased value and innovation over the coming years," said Sailesh Lalla, Executive Vice President, Business Development at NIIT's Corporate Learning Group. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 09:01:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The final dance drama competition for the 12th Lotus Awards, China's top awards for professional dance, will be held in Shanghai in September, according to the China Dancers Association (CDA). A total of five works will be awarded in the final competition, said a CDA statement, adding that the entries are required to reflect real life as well as the aesthetic pursuit of Chinese people, while particularly focusing on the originality of the art of dance. The Lotus Awards were initiated in 1998 and remain the only national awards for dancing in China. Enditem The state of Ohio has awarded a provisional processing license to cannabis grower and retailer Cresco Labs (OTC:CRLBF). With the new permit, the company will be able to make and sell a wider range of offerings such as cannabis edibles and oils. At present, it only sells marijuana flower products in the state. As Cresco explained in the press release trumpeting the new license, "our operations are now fully vertically integrated in Ohio. The expansion of our cultivation and production facility, along with the closing of four additional operating dispensaries, sets up an exciting year for Cresco Labs in Ohio in 2021." The 25,000-square feet cultivation and production complex is located between the cities of Columbus and Dayton. These days, Cresco is its tenant, having sold the facility in a sale-leaseback deal to marijuana industry real estate investment trust Innovative Industrial Properties. Cresco considers Ohio -- the seventh-most-populous state in the U.S. -- to be a "strategic state" for the growth of its operations. The company is already active in Illinois (the location of its headquarters) and Pennsylvania, which are No. 5 and No. 6, respectively, in terms of population. Last month, Cresco reached a deal to purchase four dispensaries in Ohio from privately held Verdant Creations. That arrangement, which is subject to approval by the state, has not yet closed. Dispensary operators are allowed to own a maximum of five stores in Ohio. Investors seem pleased by Cresco's latest news. On Monday, the company's shares rose by 3.7%, exceeding the gains of the wider stock market. With a great deal of rhetoric accompanied by a political stunt, the Democratic congressional leadership on Monday released its Justice in Policing 2020 bill. Prior to the press conference to present the measure, more than 20 Democratic lawmakers, all wearing African kente cloths, knelt in the Capitols Emancipation Hall for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on the neck of George Floyd, killing the 46-year-old African American worker. The group of Democrats included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Karen Bass and senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris. At the press conference, Bass, Pelosi, Schumer and other sponsors of the bill repeatedly cited the nationwide mass demonstrations against the murder of Floyd and touted their bill as a transformational and bold attack on police violence and systemic racism. But their statements and the token character of the reforms included in the bill make clear that the measure is nothing of the kind. Rather, it is a political maneuver designed to provide cover for Democratic governors and mayors who have overseen brutal police attacks on protesters, not to mention the pro-police record of the Obama administration. It is also aimed at containing and dissipating social protests by workers and youth against not only racism and the fascistic Trump administration, but also the social inequality, repression and poverty that are embedded in the capitalist system and magnified by the coronavirus pandemic. The Democrats are well aware that even their collection of mild reforms has no chance of being passed by the Republican-controlled Senate or signed into law by President Trump. Just minutes after the Democrats press conference, Trump, who later met behind closed doors with law enforcement officials, tweeted: This year has seen the lowest crime numbers in our Countrys recorded history, and now the Radical Left Democrats want to Defund and Abandon our Police. Sorry, I want LAW & ORDER! The major provisions of the bill include: * Changes in the wording of statutes dealing with police abuse that somewhat lower the legal threshold for obtaining a conviction. The bill alters the federal standard for criminal police behavior from willfully violating the constitutional rights of a victim to doing so knowingly or with reckless disregard. It also changes the standard for determining whether the use of force is justified from whether it is reasonable to whether it is necessary. * It somewhat limits, but does not eliminate, the application of qualified immunity to police offenders. For the past 15 years, the Supreme Court has interpreted the qualified immunity doctrine, which applies to public officials pursuing their official duties, to vacate civil suits and throw out criminal cases against police who break the law or use unwarranted force. Legal researchers Amir H. Ali and Emily Clark argued in 2019 that qualified immunity permits law enforcement and other government officials to violate peoples constitutional rights with virtual impunity. The Obama administration repeatedly intervened in Supreme Court cases to uphold the blanket use of qualified immunity to shield cops from civil suits or criminal prosecution. * The bill limits, but does not eliminate, the transfer of military equipment to the police. Obama continued the practice of militarizing police departments with billions of dollars worth of military-grade weapons, armored vehicles, attack helicopters, drones and other tactical weapons. * It bans no-knock warrants, but only for drug-related investigations. Otherwise, police are allowed to continue crashing into people's homes without announcing themselves or even identifying themselves as police. * The bill creates a national register of police misconduct. * It bans chokeholds. * It establishes a grant program allowingbut not requiringstate attorneys general to create an independent process to investigate misconduct or excessive force. * It requires body cameras for federal uniformed police officers and dashboard cameras for marked federal police vehicles. These federal forces comprise only a small fraction of the 687,000 full-time law enforcement officers in the US. The bill also mandates that state and local agencies use federal funds to ensure the use of body and dashboard cameras. * The bill bans racial profiling. * It grants subpoena powers to the civil rights division of the Justice Department for pattern and practice investigations of police departments. * It makes lynching a federal hate crime. At the press conference, Bass, who represents parts of South Los Angeles, went out of her way to profess her support for the police. I am certain that police officers, professionals who risk their lives every day, are deeply concerned about their profession and do not want to work in an environment that requires their silence when they know a fellow officer is abusing the public, she said. She went on to present police officers as the unwitting victims of poor training and policing practices and a lack of transparency. Pelosi called the bill a transformational and structural change, ran through its main provisions, and concluded by saying, Police brutality is a heartbreaking reflection of an entrenched system of racial injustice in America. She called the bill a first step, promising more to come. New York Senator Schumer, known as the senator from Wall Street, referred nervously to the massive demonstrations that have continued in New York City and in cities and towns across the US for nearly two weeks, noting in particular their multi-racial and multi-ethnic diversity. He then proceeded to define the issue of police violence exclusively in racial terms, saying, The poison of racism affects more than just our criminal justice system. It runs much deeper than that. There are racial disparities in housing and health care, education, the economy, jobs, income and wealth and COVID has only placed a magnifying glass on them. This is a continuation of the narrative that has been employed by the ruling class, and particularly that faction represented by the Democratic Party, for more than 50 years, ever since the massive urban rebellions of the 1960s. Beginning with the Kerner Commission Report of 1968, there has been a concerted effort to portray the essential social category in America as race, rather than class. This was designed from the outset to divert attention from the class exploitation upon which capitalism is based and within which racism serves as a weapon to divide the working class. All of the African-American lawmakers at the Democrats press conference are wealthy beneficiaries of policies that have elevated a thin layer of blacks into the upper-middle class and the bourgeoisie, while leaving black workers, and the working class as a whole, in far worse circumstances than in the 1960s. A reporter asked if the sponsors of the Justice in Policing Act supported calls for defunding the police that have been embraced by some local Democratic officials, who have generally defined it as diverting a small portion of the police budget to social services. Bass had previously made clear she did not support such calls and the campaign of Joe Biden released a statement Monday disavowing the demand. Responding to the question, Pelosi said, We want to work with our police departments. There are many who take pride in their work, and we want to be able to make sure the focus is on them. She went on to warn against getting into these questions that may come by the small minds of some. As Marxists have long explained, the police are not guardians of public safety or protectors of the people. They are the shock troops of the capitalist state, which, as Lenin and Engels explained, is composed of special bodies of armed men having prisons, etc. at their command. Citing Engels, Lenin noted that the state is fundamentally a product and a manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms, and that the power and violence of the state grows stronger in proportion as class antagonisms within the state become more acute. The police cannot be reformed. The institution must be dismantled through the revolutionary mobilization of the working class to overthrow the capitalist state and establish a truly democratic workers state, based on socialist policies. Close Trump ad trails new rallies despite coronavirus pandemic Donald Trump attended the US Military Academy's graduation for West Point in New York on Saturday, where he gave a commencement speech warning against "passion and prejudice" during moments of that are "turbulent" and "rough". The comments came nearly two weeks after the president threatened to deploy the military to cities across the United States to control Black Lives Matter protests, which out of anger towards police brutality displayed against African Americans. Mr Trump also mentioned the coronavirus during his speech, declaring how the US will "vanquish" the "invisible enemy", just a few days after cases in the country topped 2 million people and the CDC warned the death toll could reach 130,000 by 4 July. Following the graduation ceremony, the president returned to his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey where he is staying for the weekend. The Trump campaign faced backlash this week for scheduling Mr Trump's first campaign rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic on Juneteenth in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In a move not often seen by the president, he bowed to pressure and moved the date of the rally to prevent further backlash. Now the rally would take place on 20 June. Conversations surrounding the president's controversial walk from the White House to St John's Episcopal Church last week only continue, as the Secret Service amends its initial statement about the event. The agency previously said no pepper spray was used on protesters in Lafayette Park as a means to disperse the crowd so Mr Trump could make his walk. But now the agency has said one employee used the pepper spray "in response to an assaultive individual". Kolkata, June 9 : West Bengal's Trinamool Congress MP in the Lok Sabha Abhishek Banerjee will hold a virtual meeting with the party's youth arm leaders from across the state on Tuesday. The meeting is slated to be held at 12 noon. With an eye on 2021 assembly polls, chief minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew decided to connect with the party workers through the social media platform, in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic that has changed the social gathering norms worldwide. "The technology has changed our lives especially at the time of Covid crisis but our ideology still remains the same. In this time of Corona crisis, technology is the best way to reach out to all party workers and abide by the social-distancing norms. Today's meeting of Abhishek Banerjee is just a step towards that," state forest minister Rajib Banerjee said. Abhishek Banerjee's meeting with party activists via social media came at a time when Union home minister Amit Shah is scheduled to address a virtual rally for West Bengal on Tuesday. According to sources, Shah's June 9 virtual rally is expected to launch a scathing attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress government in the state over its failure to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and the migrants issue. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text I am the only black male news columnist at The Inquirer, and I am not on staff. I am technically a freelancer. Thats a problem, but in my view, its not a problem that exists in a vacuum. Rather, it is a byproduct of the blinding whiteness that characterizes the culture of The Inquirer in particular, and major media outlets in general. It is whiteness the structures and social phenomena that produce white privilege that causes outlets like The Inquirer to publish racially offensive material. And I truly believe it is not always intentional. However, when your editors are overwhelmingly white, when you are self-congratulatory in your white liberalism, and when you routinely ignore the input of black people, you end up with headlines like Buildings Matter, Too. READ MORE: Live coverage of Tuesday's protests: Mayor Kenney promises police reform That headline, featured on a column about damage to buildings from the ongoing uprising against police brutality, was offensive not just because it equated buildings with human lives. It was offensive because it misappropriated the Black Lives Matter mantra during a time when African Americans and our allies are in the streets protesting the killing of black people by police. For white people, such a headline is a mistake that can be repaired with a heartfelt apology and the removal of a sacrificial lamb. But the resignation of Executive Editor and Vice President Stan Wischnowski following an insensitive headline does not fix the structural race problems that exist at The Inquirer. Even when Wischnowski leaves, there are very few black news editors in the pipeline, none in a position to replace him. That is not a function of the moment. It is the result of years of failing to hire and groom black reporters for leadership. With few black reporters, there are few black editors. And while the paper does have a black deputy news editor, most black editors exist in spaces like food and sports. Therefore, they are not in a position to shape coverage of issues like black people dying at the hands of police. And before I go on, let me say this: Im not talking about hiring and promoting journalists of color, or journalists from marginalized communities. Im talking about hiring and promoting black people. Black people who see African Americans as human beings with stories to be told rather than characters with drama to be exploited. To be sure, The Inquirer has tried to be sensitive to racial issues. In fact, I write about race because a white editor realized a black voice was needed on the issue and asked me to be that voice. The paper has also partnered with black media entities like WURD Radio to amplify black issues. At my request, The Inquirer has served as a media sponsor for an annual community event that takes place in mostly black West Oak Lane. These steps are well-meaning, but they are clearly not enough. For too long, Ive watched my white media colleagues at numerous outlets pat themselves on the back for telling black stories from white points of view. Ive watched them confuse their denunciation of racist statements with a true understanding of structural racism. Ive seen them condescendingly dismiss the experiences of black people who lived through the crack era in Philadelphia when it comes to the issue of safe injection sites. Ive watched The Inquirer change the papers language on addiction when statistics showed that those suffering drug overdoses were mostly white. The reality is this: When major media outlets like The Inquirer hire mostly white journalists and editors while talking ad nauseam about newsroom diversity, they not only fail black readers. They perpetuate the belief that whites are more qualified than blacks to document what happens in our society. This is not just about The Inquirer, however. Its about the stifling of black voices throughout media. At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, for example, one of the papers few black reporters was barred from covering protests connected to the killing of George Floyd after she posted a tweet pointing out the hypocrisy around coverage of looters. Later, a black photographer was taken off protest coverage, according to that reporter and the papers union. To be sure, American media has made some strides over the decades. But when I go home to the black Philadelphia community where I live, people tell me that they see the media as a tool of propaganda and an enemy of black people. In many ways, theyre right. Through stories it tells, American media is one of the institutions that teaches racism to the populace. So while apologies are nice, true change will require a simple but radical solution. Hire black people, promote black people, and give them the power to change the narrative. A dispute between a co-founder and the managing director of the well-known Listoke Distillery and the company is to go to mediation, the High Court has heard. Business woman Bronagh Conlon has brought High Court proceedings against Co Louth-based Listoke Distillery Limited challenging her purported suspension from her position as the firm's managing director. Ms Conlon, represented by Padraic Lyons Bl, had sought orders including an injunction lifting her suspension from duty on May 22 last. She also sought orders including a declaration the her suspension, pending an investigation into the provenance of a shareholders agreement entered into in 2018, is invalid and not necessary. Ms Conlon strongly denies any wrong-doing. Her application for an injunction, which is opposed by the company represented by Marcus Dowling Bl came before Mr Justice Garrett Simons today. Suspension lifted Following discussions between the parties, Mr Lyons told the court his client's application for an injunction could be adjourned as the parties had agreed to enter mediation. Retired Court of Appeal judge Mr Justice Michael Peart had been identified as the person to conduct the mediation, counsel said. In addition counsel said that both sides were agreeable to his client's suspension being lifted. Counsel added if the mediation does not resolve matter the parties will return to court later this month counsel said. Mr Dowling said his client was consenting to those steps. Mr Justice Simons, after adjourning the matter, wished the parties every success in the mediation. Listoke Distillery, located at Tenure, Dunleer, Co Louth, produces the Listoke 1777 brand of Irish gin as well as operates a gin school. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic the business has stopped its regular activities and has been manufacturing hand sanitiser. Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Monday (local time) termed the desecration of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi as "crime against humanity". "Gandhi's statue is an iconic monument here. This is a federal piece of land, and this particular Park is controlled by the National Park Police. This was in fact, inaugurated in September 2000 by the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the then US President Bill Clinton," Sandhu told ANI. "And ever since that time we have seen many people come and sit here. They pay their respects. On the ... [June 09, 2020] Bind Data Illustrates the Impact of Better Health Insurance Design Bind Benefits, Inc., released data that illustrates the impact better health insurance design is having on consumers and their employers. This press release features multimedia. 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About Bind Bind health plans create compelling savings opportunities for employees and their employer-without compromising coverage or quality. Learn more at yourbind.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005188/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A day after Pacific Seafood disclosed that 124 employees and contractors at its Newport facilities had tested positive for COVID-19, the Lincoln County Health Department said it was beginning the process of reaching out to employees who tested positive and obtaining information about close contacts who may have been exposed. But Paul Cieslak, the medical director for communicable diseases at the Oregon Health Authority, said that officials consider the outbreak to be contained to Lincoln County. The Oregon Health Authority said Sunday that the risk to the public stemming from the outbreak is low. The virus is definitely present within Lincoln County, Cieslak said. I think theres going to be some risk to Lincoln County residents, as far as we know. Of course, we havent done a lot of testing outside of this area, but as far as we know, it seems as if its relatively contained within this community. With our contact tracing and follow up, we hope to keep it contained." Rebecca Austen, director of the county health department, said that her department would soon begin reaching out to Pacific Seafood employees who tested positive, as well as their close contacts. Pacific Seafood provided the county health department with the contact information for employees who tested positive Monday. But the process of reaching out to those employees and their close contacts could take time. Austen said the department currently has 12 case investigators looking into the outbreak and will be training roughly 20 contact tracers Tuesday. The county will also be asking the Oregon Health Authority and Samaritan Health Services for help with contact tracing as it works to better understand the scope of the outbreak. The county may not ask close contacts to be tested if they are not exhibiting symptoms. All of the people that tested positive have been informed by the company that they need to isolate, Austen said. Now, were asking that everybody who is part of their families or who has regular contact with those people, that they also isolate. We are going to get to them and get more information to them but its going to take us a few days. Pacific Seafood said Sunday that it had paid to have 376 workers at its five Newport facilities tested for the virus. Nearly a third of those workers -- 53 employees and 71 local contractors -- tested positive for COVID-19, marking the second-largest workplace outbreak of the coronavirus in Oregon to date. The company said 95% of those who tested positive did not report any symptoms and that none have been hospitalized. The positive tests are concentrated at Pacific Seafoods shrimp processing facility, but the company has suspended operations at all five of its Newport locations and is having the facilities professionally cleaned and sanitized. Pacific Seafood declined to participate in a conference call with reporters and government officials Monday, citing the need to focus on its response to the outbreak. But a spokesman for Pacific Seafood said late Monday that the company took numerous steps to protect the safety of its employees, prior to the outbreak, including implementing enhanced cleaning measures, providing workers with face masks and face shields, instituting daily temperature checks and installing barriers between workstations to ensure social distancing. Austen said her department met with the company prior to the outbreak to advise it on specific steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19. She said she did not know whether Pacific Seafood effectively implemented those measures. Rusty Rock, field operations manager for the Food Safety Division of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, said Monday that the department met with Pacific Seafood on June 3, after the outbreak began, to discuss the safety measures that the company was putting into place. They did not spend time discussing the companys past practices. Prior to the outbreak, the Lincoln County Health Department also approached Pacific Seafood with a proposal to proactively test employees since the company hires seasonal workers. But the two sides were unable to put together a plan to move forward. We did try to get something going with doing some active surveillance and some testing just to get a baseline because we knew more people were coming in, but we were unable to carry that out, Austen said. While Pacific Seafood brings in seasonal workers from other states or abroad, Austen said that the county believes that most of the workers who tested positive are residents of Lincoln County. Pacific Seafood had hired workers from Ukraine and Serbia, but those employees arrived this week and had not yet started work when the outbreak was reported. Those workers were tested when they arrived. The countys public health department does not expect the outbreak to have an impact on Lincoln Countys reopening status. Lincoln County is currently in Phase 1 of Gov. Kate Browns reopening plan. The county has yet to apply to enter Phase 2. Food processing plants have been the sites of large coronavirus outbreaks throughout the United States and within the Pacific Northwest. Prior to the outbreak at Pacific Seafood, nearly 300 COVID-19 cases had been linked to agricultural or food processing workplaces in Oregon or Southwest Washington since late April, according to a tally of publicly disclosed cases. This story has been updated to include comments from Pacific Seafood. -- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com | @jamiebgoldberg Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. 281 Shares Share I am a female surgical resident. I signed up for this. I chose four years of medical school, five years of residency, two years of research, a year of fellowship, and finally attending surgeon life. Id choose it again. And I want this road to be hard. I want my training so tough that I dont wonder while a patients on the table if Im good enough. I want to know it. To make us resilient, strong, capable surgeons, the American Board of Surgeons (ABS) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) instituted rigorous requirements dictating the number and specific varieties of surgeries we must perform, hours we must work, and limitations on our non-clinical time. Were told these are essential to become a good surgeon. Female residents know these requirements will place more pressure on us than our male counterparts, but one thought prevails: I want to be a damn good surgeon. So we rise up and meet them. And yet. The coronavirus pandemic has done more than shatter our economy and kill tens of thousands of Americans. The ingredients we were previously told make a good surgeon are disappearing as resources are redeployed to fight this virus. Non-emergent cases are canceled. Efforts to distance residents from one another and to safeguard the workforce mandate we minimize who comes into the hospital each day. Teaching conferences on Zoom stand in for hands-on patient care. The ABS and ACGME recognize that these training opportunities are disappearing. Rather than insisting we all continue to meet prior requirements, theyve relaxed them. Instead of 48 clinical weeks, 44 will do. A 10% reduction in case volume will be accepted, no questions asked. Apparently, well still be good surgeons. Huh. Now that coronavirus is straining hospitals and training programs, weve quickly made allowances, but we continue to resist making these same allowances for female residents requiring maternity leave. Weeks into canceled cases and didactic-driven learning, its becoming more apparent that Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)-compliant maternity leave policies wont make us sub-standard surgeons. The current residency maternity leave model is far from ideal. Despite the FMLA mandating employers offer eligible employees 12 weeks of parental leave, residency programs, on average, offer 6, which includes a residents four weeks of annual vacation time. Thats two weeks of dedicated leave. Who would find this policy reasonable? The ABS, which is responsible for certifying surgeons, specifically stipulates that trainees must work for 48 weeks per year, with the option of an additional two weeks of leave for extenuating circumstances. Any extra time needed regardless of why extends training past the standard graduation date, which can delay eligibility to sit for board certification exams or to start fellowship training. Unless we want to risk disrupting our careers, we just plan to return to work, hoping we dont need those precious few weeks of leave prior to birth or endure complications that cause delays. Beyond compromising career trajectories, archaic maternity leave policies compromise the health of residents and their children. Pregnant residents have higher rates of preeclampsia, preterm labor, and fetal growth restriction. Limiting leave further compromises infant health and development: A JAMA study reported that over half of female surgical residents sampled stopped breastfeeding because they didnt have access to private pumping spaces or couldnt leave the operating room to do so. During my five years in a residency program, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by strong female peers who have acquiesced to these rules-that-could-not-be-changed. These rock stars who could operate for hours on end, round on patients, and teach in between struggled to return to work 4 to 6 weeks after the birth of their children. I saw them discreetly try to pump in open cubicles in public workspaces. Pagers screamed at them to return to work, to show that they were unaffected by their new-mommy status, to be resilient, strong, and capable surgeons. Was this lack of consideration offered to post-partum residents unnecessary? It looks that way. Critics of liberalizing policies point to questions of patient care and equity. Beyond undergoing training to become future surgeons, residents provide crucial patient care services. These critics argue that policies allowing longer leave could compromise the ability of departments particularly small departments to meet patient care needs. Extended leave might also create inequity within programs since other residents who do not have children would not be afforded the same leave or may need to cover the gaps in patient care. True enough. But we ought to seek other solutions to these challenges rather than use them as a weak rationale for ongoing unnecessary resident abuse. Moving forward, the ACGME and ABS should amend its policies by clearly articulating allowances for medical and parental leave. These policies must protect trainees from punishment for having a family by specifically permitting them to graduate on time, take board exams, and start fellowships without delay. We need a new normal for residents, a normal that respects the drive, grit, and ambition of doctors-in-training while recognizing our shared humanity. We all signed up to be great surgeons; we dont need to return to work four weeks after a Caesarian to show it. Michelle N. Fakler is a surgery resident. Image credit: Shutterstock.com BANGKOK, June 8 (Reuters) - Thailand confirmed seven new coronavirus infections and no new deaths on Monday, with the new cases found in quarantine, taking the country to two weeks without a local transmission. Thailand has reported 77 cases in the past 14 days and all were contained after being imported from overseas, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government's Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration. The total number of confirmed cases stands at 3,119, with 58 deaths. (Reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Martin Petty) Dispute began after Indias inauguration of a Himalayan road that lies at a three-way junction with Tibet and China. Nepals foreign minister says his country was still waiting for a response from India on holding talks to resolve a border dispute that has strained relations between the South Asian neighbours. Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday that requests to talk were made in November and December last year, and again in May. We have expressed time and again that Nepal wants to sit at the table to resolve this problem, Gyawali said. We are waiting for formal negotiations so that these two countries with a very unique type of partnership can develop a more inspiring relationship that reflects the requirements of the 21st century. The latest border dispute between the countries began over Indias inauguration last month of a Himalayan link road built in a disputed region that lies at a strategic three-way junction with Tibet and China. The 80-km (50-mile) road, inaugurated by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, cuts through the Lipulekh Himalayan pass, considered one of the shortest and most feasible trade routes between India and China. Nepal fiercely contested the inauguration of the road and viewed the alleged incursion as a stark example of bullying by its much larger neighbour, triggering a fresh dispute over the strategically important territory. The government of Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli issued a new political map of Nepal that showed the disputed territory within its borders. A view of Nepals updated map released by Minister for Land Management Padma Aryal last month [File: Prabin Ranabhat/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images] Bill to update map in Nepal Parliament A report in Nepals The Kathmandu Post newspaper on Tuesday said the Oli government had introduced a constitutional amendment bill in Parliament to secure approval for the new map. The report said the bill was welcomed by opposition legislators too, who said the map incorporated land that belongs to Nepal. Nepal, which was never under colonial rule, has long claimed the areas of Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulekh in accordance with the 1816 Sugauli treaty with the British Raj, although these areas have remained under the control of Indian troops since India fought a war with China in 1962. There have been reports that India does not want to hold negotiations with Nepal until its coronavirus outbreak is brought under control. Nepal, however, wants the talks soon. If the coronavirus is an obstacle for not being able to hold diplomatic dialogue soon, it should have been an obstacle for the inauguration of the link road as well, Gyawali said. But if the coronavirus did not create any problem to the inauguration, that means there are some controversies, there are some paradoxes. The dispute over the territory drove a new wedge between the two nations, leading to an exchange of strong-worded statements and remarks from both sides. There is no any alternative to dialogue and friendly talk, and talk not just for formality, but with commitment to solve the problem and to develop such an environment where both countries can prosper together, where both countries can journey together towards a prosperous region of South Asia, Gyawali said. Vincent D'Andraia, of the 73rd Precinct, turned himself in on Tuesday and was charged with misdemeanor assault, harassment and menacing, by the Brooklyn district attorney's office The NYPD officer who was filmed violently throwing a female protester to the ground during a George Floyd demonstration in Brooklyn has been charged with assault, among other offenses. Vincent D'Andraia, of the 73rd Precinct, pleaded not guilty to assault, criminal mischief, harassment and menacing, during his arraignment on Tuesday. The 28-year-old officer did not say anything as he appeared on video from behind bars in a suit and protective coronavirus face mask. He was later released on his own recognizance and ordered to stay away from protester Dounya Zayer, who was hospitalized after hitting her head on the pavement in the May 29 altercation. D'Andraia is the first New York City police officer to face criminal charges stemming from alleged misconduct exhibited during the early days of protests in the city over the death of George Floyd and police brutality. Scroll down for video D'Andraia appeared in a Brooklyn court via video conference on Tuesday where his lawyer pleaded not guilty on his behalf. He was seen wearing a suit and a protective mask The officer, who was identified as Vincent D'Andraia, was caught on camera shoving 20-year-old Dounya Zayer during a George Floyd protest near Brooklyn's Barclays Center back on May 29 On Tuesday, Pat Lynch (pictured) president of the Police Benevolent Association slammed Mayor Bill de Blasio and police leaders for 'sacrificing cops to save their own skin' The charges come days after he was suspended without pay and stripped of his weapons after bystander video was widely shared online showing him forcefully shoving Zayer, 20, during a protest near Barclay's Center. On Tuesday, Pat Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association slammed Mayor Bill de Blasio and police leaders for 'sacrificing cops to save their own skin' by sending officers out to protests with 'no support and no clear plan.' 'They should be the ones facing this mob-rule justice,' he said in a statement. 'We will say it again: New York City police officers have been abandoned by our leadership. We are utterly alone in our efforts to protect our city.' In a statement announcing the charges, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said he 'cannot tolerate the use of excessive force' against anyone exercising their constitutional right to protest, adding he was 'deeply troubled by this unnecessary assault.' Zayer's attorney, Tahanie Aboushi, last week called for the D'Andraia's arrest, saying the woman had suffered a seizure, a concussion, bruising and lacerations as a result of the incident. Footage filmed by a witness showed the officer pushing Zayer so hard she was thrown back onto the street. She could be seen cradling her head immediately after as the officer walked off Video showed the cop had called Zayer 'a stupid f***ing b***h' and shoved her with such force that she flew out of her shoes and slammed her head on to the pavement. The woman shown been violently flung to the ground by an NYPD officer was identified by those at the scene as Dounya Zayer, who later posted about the attack from hospital She could be seen cradling her head immediately after as the officer walked off. She later shared videos from her hospital bed saying she required treatment after the attack. In a separate video taken from her own perspective, D'Andraia was seen taking a swipe at her phone, which she says knocked it out of her hands. She claimed the officers asked her to get out of the way and she was moving backwards and asking why when the officer lunged at her. 'I am in pain. My head hurts. I haven't slept in three days... and I cannot stop throwing up,' Zayer told NBC soon after the incident. 'Them acting the way they acted today isn't helping the cause. It isn't proving to us that they care about us. 'He did this in front of his lieutenant and multiple other officers who watched me hit the ground. One even looked back to make sure I was still on the ground and they continued walking. 'Not one officer tried to help me and not one officer tried to stop the officer who assaulted me.' The officer's supervisor, who could be seen walking nearby but failed to intervene, is also facing disciplinary action. Law enforcement officials told the New York Times prosecutors are considering criminally charging at least 40 other officers over other incidents involving use of force. It comes amid mounting criticism of the NYPD and city officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who have been accused of overlooking police officers' heavy-handed tactics. Last week, however, De Blasio warned that officers would face investigation for misconduct after videos emerged showing cops mistreating essential workers during curfew, despite them being exempt from the rule. The NYPD officer who was caught pulling a protester's mask down to pepper spray him last week (pictured) has been suspended without pay, Police Commissioner Shea announced on Friday D'Andraia is one of two NYPD officers who have been suspended without pay over incidents relating to misconduct at protests last week. A second cop, whose name has not been released, was filmed the following day pulling a man's mask down to pepper spray him. The man had been among a massive crowd of demonstrators in Brooklyn and had been holding his hands up at the time. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced the suspensions of both officers last Friday, saying both cases had been referred for disciplinary action. 'The actions by these officers stand apart from the restrained work of the thousands of other officers who have worked tirelessly to protect those who are peacefully protesting and keep all New Yorkers safe,' Shea said. 'While the investigations have to play out, based on the severity of what we saw, it is appropriate and necessary to assure the public that there will be transparency during the disciplinary process.' Prison Creative Arts Project , Author provided Over the past few months, most of us have found ourselves in unfamiliar territory trying to shape the formlessness of our days while contending with physical separation. Many incarcerated people, however, have spent years figuring out what to do with their time in isolation. Some discover faith, while others read and educate themselves. Then there are those who become artists. For the past 25 years, Ive worked as senior curator and co-founder of the Annual Exhibitions of Art by Michigan Prisoners at the University of Michigan. Each year these exhibitions draw thousands of people who view and buy the work. For the artists, these shows are a source of validation and support. They get to keep the money from sales. Getting to know many of these artists confirmed my belief that art making is a basic human activity that gives shape to meaning. In conditions of extreme confinement, finding meaning becomes all the more urgent. Most prison artists dont consider making art until they become incarcerated. For many, it is a choice of growth over deterioration. For others, like Wynn Satterlee, a former inmate in a maximum-security prison, it was a matter of life or death. In prison, he was told he would die of cancer. With the help of friends, he took up painting. I painted to escape the suffering and the pain, he told me after he was released from prison. Ten hours a day, seven days a week, for over seven years. And I overcame cancer. Prison Creative Arts Project , Author provided Oliger Merko, who was born in Albania, is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole. It really shakes you up to get that sentence, he told me during an interview at Ionia Maximum Facility in Michigan. I was totally hopeless, drifting, with no direction. I started thinking more deeply, and when I discovered art, everything opened up. Now I paint for three or four hours a day and dont want to stop, even if its chow time. Its a real second life more than an escape. Story continues To make this kind of leap into artistic expression requires some basic human capacities that we often ignore but can be summoned under extreme circumstances. One involves finding the extraordinary in the ordinary a requirement for many prison artists, who lack money for expensive art supplies. Some eventually learn that almost anything that can be picked up and held can be made into a beautiful three-dimensional art object. They use toilet paper and glue, soap, cardboard, paper, stones from the yard, plastic lids and bottles. Robert Sarbers sculpture Buck/Deer was made from toilet paper and glue and then painted with acrylic. Kenneth Mariner makes dioramas out of cardboard, old folders, thread, glue, tissue, acrylic paint and twist ties. Many prison artists cultivate the ability to focus for extended periods of time. This discipline is a way to resist the monotony and violence of prison life. John Bone learned to draw by doing hundreds of drawings of his cell, sometimes working 16 hours a day, observing every detail of his environment. His scrutiny of something with no intrinsic beauty coupled with close attention to the tonal values and spatial structures of his drawing resulted in remarkable works. Prison Creative Arts Project , Author provided While learning to draw, Billy Brown was getting frustrated. Then, one day, he prayed for a vision and came up with an extraordinary technique for colored pencil drawings on black paper. At the beginning of each stroke, he lightly presses on the paper; as he moves the pencil, he increases the pressure, which makes the color more saturated. What enables a person to focus with such attention for so long in such isolation? The prison artists I know are motivated by a powerful need to assert their identity and explore unmet needs for love, beauty, nature and animals, a sense of accomplishment, and the ability to communicate intense feelings. This desire is so strong that people start making art without the self-doubt that most non-artists in the world would feel. Karmyn Valentine, a carpenter by trade, had never made art before coming to prison. In her first painting, My Pain, she was able to find form for her suffering. I was abused and betrayed and so that is why the arrow is coming from the back, she said. I am touching the arrow because the pain is my constant companion. I lived with it before I came into prison and I live with it now. Theres a freedom these artists can access in the choices they make about content, materials, marks, texture, colors, shapes and surfaces. The very act of making these choices is a way to reclaim their agency. This is significant in a system that treats people as objects to be moved about, counted, chained, searched and assigned a number. Time and the future change when prisoners become creators rather than objects. Once artists imbue their day-to-day lives with purpose and meaning, waking up no longer becomes something to dread. As Merko explained: Before I became an artist, every day was routine, and now, even though in prison you want the days to pass quickly, I sometimes wish the day was longer when Im painting. Its like I dont belong in time anymore. Prison artists develop a practice in which one work of art leads to another, pointing them toward a path of endlessly unfolding possibilities and a feeling of being grounded. To those of us living with stress and frustration during COVID-19 restrictions, these artists demonstrate how to develop an inner space of freedom and how to live imaginatively and purposefully in a strange new world. [Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversations newsletter.] This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Read more: Janie Paul does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. The OSCE SMM again spotted trucks in two locations in the occupied areas of Donbas near Russia, where there are no official border crossing points. On the evening of 5 June, in a forested area about 2.6km east of Hlynka (60km south-east of Donetsk), an SMM long-range UAV spotted at least six trailers and trucks, and two utility vehicles, all stationary about 400m north of the international border with the Russian Federation and in an area where no official border crossing points exist, reads the OSCE SMM daily report 135/2020 issued on 8 June 2020. In addition, about 2km south-east of Stepne (72km south-east of Donetsk), the same UAV spotted about seven vehicles, including trucks, trailers and light utility vehicles (one truck with a running engine), all stationary near a tree line about 200m north-east of a dirt road leading out of Ukraine where no official border crossing points exist. The OSCE SMM also informs that militants of Russian armed formations banned the Mission from monitoring at a border crossing point near Voznesenivka village. On 7 June, at a border crossing point near Voznesenivka (formerly Chervonopartyzansk, 65km south-east of Luhansk), the SMM observed no cross-border traffic. After about five minutes, a member of the armed formations told the SMM to leave the area. As reported, in the previous report, the OSCE SMM to Ukraine informed about the movement of military-type trucks across the uncontrolled sections of border in the occupied areas of Luhansk region. In particular, on 45 June, between 20:40 and 00:24, an SMM long-range UAV spotted a convoy of trucks entering Ukraine and another convoy exiting Ukraine on a dirt road near Cheremshyne (non-government-controlled, 59km south-east of Luhansk), near the border with the Russian Federation where there are no border crossing facilities. ol (Photo : Pixabay) Cox Communications Slows Internet Speeds to Punish Heavy Users: 10Mbps Upload Limit Imposed to Gigabit Plan (Photo : Pixabay) Cox Communications Slows Internet Speeds to Punish Heavy Users: 10Mbps Upload Limit Imposed to Gigabit Plan Cox Internet will punish heavy users with slow internet speeds, warning its customers that as much as 10mpbs upload speeds will be imposed on gigabit plans. According to Ars Technica's latest report, Cox Communications made a decision to stop what it considers "excessive usage" by lowering internet upload speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish both heavy users and their neighbors. Cox has been sending notices to some heavy internet users to warn them not to exceed their data usage and also to informing them about the neighborhood-wide speed downgrades. The cable company is one of the largest internet providers in the United States, with about 5.2 million broadband customers. Cox Communications to slow down internet speed to punish heavy users; 10Mbps upload limit imposed to gigabit plans According to the report, Cox Internet flagged a gigabit customer, who was paying 59$ extra per month for unlimited data, because he was using 8TB to 12TB a month. The cable company addressed the issue by lowering upload speeds on the gigabit-download plan from 35mbps to 10mpbs for the whole neighborhood of the customer. It was stated that the robustly built broadband network should be able to handle the large traffic since most of the households' data usage decreases significantly around 1:00 a.m to 8:00 a.m. A Cox customer named Mike complained by sending an email to Ars Technica, stating that he couldn't use more than 35mbps for uploads at any given time of the day, although he pays $150 a month including $100 for 1gbps download speeds and 35mpbs upload speeds and an additional $50 for "unlimited data." According to Ars Technica, Mike received three calls from Cox Communications including a voicemail. "We need to speak with you regarding your Internet usage. Your home is using an extraordinarily high amount of Internet data and adjustments need to be made immediately," said Cox Communications in the voicemail. Mike said that the cable company warned him that his internet will be scheduled for termination unless he reduced his data consumption within five days. Cox Communications said on the report that its network is performing very well overall during the pandemic, saying that 98% to 99% of the company's 28,000 neighborhood nodes across the United States are performing with adequate capacity even with the tremendous level of increased data usage. The report claimed that if the cable company's 5.2 million paying broadband customers are spread equally across the nodes, each of the company's nodes can accommodate about 185 households. Cox responded that it is keeping a close eye at the individual node level to make sure that any congestion thresholds won't be approached, avoiding the need for any adjustments. "Similar to our normal process, if we see the network reach or exceed utilization thresholds we will accelerate network upgrade plans in the impacted areas," said Cox Communications. "This could include splitting nodes, pulling additional fiber, equipment swaps, and/or core network changes, all of which add capacity to the area," Also Read: Facebook Employees Reportedly Feel the Company's Leadership Has Failed - Report 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. (ST. JOSEPH, Mo.) Summers are spent sitting pool-side while watching the younger crowd splash into the pool. But with the pandemic lingering into the summer, some pools are to remain closed. For St. Joseph, Parks and Recreation decided to keep the local pools closed for the summer. The decision was made based on the effects of Covid-19 and budget cuts. These pools include St. Joseph Aquatic Center and Krug park , along with the Missouri Western indoor lap-pool which is closed at the time being. In Savannah, Mo., the Aquatic center is set to open on June 15. It is up to Parks and Rec for the decision on local pools, following CDC guidelines, doctors, and listening to the National Parks and Rec along with how other surrounding cities are taking action. Dr. Dana Hawkinson from KU Medical Center offers advice on how to safely go to the pool this summer. "So we think that the pools themselves and swimming is going to be safe, the real danger comes when youre in such close proximity to others," said Hawkinson. Doctors are recommending to social distance and avoid sharing food, pool toys, etc. while sitting by the pool. Doctors are also saying you can wear a mask, but do not recommend wearing the mask while swimming. People are starving for physical touch as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage on, and it's beginning to take a real toll on physical and mental health. With lockdowns, school closures and stay-at-home orders, many of us have not shaken hands or hugged another person in weeks, sometimes months. Earlier this year, a survey found that more than three in five Americans are lonely, reporting feelings of being left out and and lacking companionship. And while social media and socially distanced get-togethers can help people feel more connected, scientists say there is no replacement for touch. Scientists say people are starving for physical touch after not seeing family or friends for weeks or months. Pictured: A medical worker hugs a COVID-19 survivor outside NYU Langone Health hospital in New York City, May 29 Loneliness has been linked to many health issues including heart disease and high blood pressure as well as raising levels of stress hormones. Pictured: Nelson Maldonado, of Central Islip, New York, receives a hug from his daughter Cinia and grandson Anderson, after being the 500th COVID-19 patient discharged from Huntington Hospital on Long Island, April 21 Humans are known to be social creatures. We crave togetherness - to be surrounded by friends and share our personal experiences with others. In fact, it's been a key to our survival. 'Because of things like Zoom and Skype, we have the ability to see somebody else as well as converse and get a lot of the same signals as we would in a face-to-face conversation,' Dr Kory Floyd, a professor at the University of Arizona who studies the communication of affection and its effects on stress, told DailyMail.com. 'What is missing is what we refer to as a sense of immediacy, a sense of presence you have with someone else when you can feel them in your space and touch.' Loneliness has been associated with a number of health problems. It can affect mood disorders and trigger depression, but it has also been linked to heart disease, higher blood pressure, immunity function, and nervous system disorders. A 2015 review study showed that both actual and perceived social isolation increased our chances of dying early by 26 percent. In the UK and the US, approximately one in three people older than 65 live alone and, in America, half of those older than 85 live alone. In both countries, studies show that loneliness in people older than 60 can reach as high as 46 percent. Because the 'baby boomer' population is larger than any other, by the year 2030, the majority of Americans will be 70 and older. Skin-to-contact is important from the time we're born. It doesn't just aid mothers and babies in bonding, but it helps calm infants so they sleep more and don't cry as much. Some studies have shown that being calmer and sleeping better enables their brain development and helps the Immune system develop at a normal rate. This means that there is a trade-off for humans being social creatures. If companionship is necessary for survival, its opposite - seclusion - can be toxic. 'The health effects of deprived of that touch in day-to-day life are primarily driven by a sense of threat or vulnerability that you experience when you lack that sort of connection,' Floyd said. 'The brain interprets that deprivation as a threat. Our brains are telling us that we're not safe, so we become hyper-vigilant of that environment.' He said this leads to increased amounts of stress, which can manifest physically including headaches, elevated blood pressure, and chest pain. These can all raise the risk of - or worsen - diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and arthritis. Additionally, the increase of cortisol, known as the stress hormone, can increase the amount of fat tissue your body and cause you to gain weight. Floyd says there are a few 'imperfect' things you can do if you are missing physical touch but don't yet feel safe enough to do so. He says that petting animals, be it your own cats and dogs, a neighbor's or from a pet shelter, can help lower levels of stress hormones. Additionally, hugging something like a pillow with pressure can trick your brain ito thinking that you are hugging a person. 'There has been research that shows when you embrace the pillow, the pressure and warmth against skin that even that has some stress relieving benefits,' Floyd said. 'It's truly engrained in our DNA to be connected and even more so engrained in our DNA to touch. These things can tide us over so we don't feel so touch-deprived.' Members of the New York City Police Department look on as protesters demonstrate in Times Square on June 7, 2020, following the death of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in New York. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images) Top Democrats, Republicans Unite in Opposing Calls to Defund Police Top Republicans and Democrats expressed bipartisan opposition in recent days to the idea of defunding local and state police forces across the nation. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump oppose the idea, which has been promoted by far-left Democrats including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) Trump said: There wont be defunding. There wont be dismantling of our police. Theres not going to be any disbanding of our police. Biden said in an interview with CBS: No, I dont support defunding the police. I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness. Republicans, including Trump, were quick to call out the Democrats after far-left progressives promoted defunding the police. The issue, which is opposed by most voters, was already distracting from and could eventually overshadow the police reform package introduced by Democrats on June 8. Sleepy Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats want to DEFUND THE POLICE. I want great and well paid LAW ENFORCEMENT. I want LAW & ORDER! Trump wrote in a tweet on June 7. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) likewise rejected the idea, which appears to have broad support by both violent extremists and the peaceful protesters involved in the nationwide demonstrations following the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The funding of police is a local matter, as you know. From the standpoint of our legislation, were not going to that place. What were doing is talking about how we change policy to make our policing more just, Pelosi said in an interview with MSNBC. If peaceful protesters rightly do not want to be lumped in with a subset of looters and rioters who seek destruction, then the vast majority of police officers cannot be lumped in with the very worst examples of heinous behavior, McConnell said on June 8. But instead were already seeing outlandish calls to defund the police or abolish the police take root within the left-wing leadership class. Other Democrats and Republicans also oppose the idea. Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) told CNN that she doesnt believe that you should disband police departments. But I do think that in cities and states, we need to look at how we are spending the resources and invest more in our communities, Bass said, before pivoting to the substance of the police reform bill. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wrote on Twitter, Democrats calls to defund or disband the police are asinine and would end up killing many Americans if enacted. Protesters in Washington painted the sidewalk not far from the White House with the words Defund the Police, next to the words Black Lives Matter, which was a mural authorized by Mayor Muriel Bowser. The official website for the Black Lives Matter organization issued a call on May 30 for a national defunding of police. In Minneapolis, the movement to defund the police is gaining traction. Nine of the Minneapolis City Councils 13 members have pledged to dismantle the citys police department. Councilmember Jeremiah Ellison promised that the council would dismantle the department; the citys mayor was recently jeered for opposing the idea. Rep. Omar, whose district covers all of Minneapolis, said the citys police department should be scrapped because it is rotten to the root. I will never stop saying not only do we need to disinvest in police, but we need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, Omar said. The movement to defund the police started in the wake of Floyds death in police custody. The officer who pinned Floyd to the ground with a knee on his neck faces second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. Three of the other officers involved were indicted on lesser charges. The ideology behind the movement alleges that police departments across the nation are systematically racist. In a question-and-answer session on Reddit on June 8, Kailee Scales, the managing director for Black Lives Matter, said that the call for defunding the police force is based in simple facts. She then claimed that modern-day policing institutions have their roots in slave-catching. These systems were created to hunt, maim, and kill Black peopleand are the result of centuries-old anti-Black attitudes codified into law. Roughly a quarter of the people killed in confrontations with police in 2019 were black. The number is much less than would be predicted by the crime rate among blacks. African Americans, who account for 13 percent of the population of the United States, made up more than half of known homicide offenders and committed about 60 percent of burglaries during the same year, according to Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of The War on Cops. Attorney General William Barr disagreed with the idea that police departments are systemically racist. I think theres racism in the United States still, but I dont think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist, Barr said in an interview with CBS. The push to defund the police is a hot-button topic, especially in the wake of mass riots, looting, and arson in major cities across the nation. Meanwhile, police attempts to restore order have also generated images of potentially excessive force, which have further fueled the calls to defund law enforcement. In announcing their police-reform legislation, Democrats steered clear of the police defunding movement. The wide-ranging bill, if enacted, would place a ban on chokeholds, scrap a legal doctrine that shields police from civil lawsuits, make body cameras mandatory nationwide, limit the transfer of military weapons to police departments, and set up a national registry for complaints about police misconduct. Charlotte Cuthbertson and Bowen Xiao contributed to this report. Correction: an earlier version of the article incorrectly stated the city in which George Floyd was buried. Floyd was buried in Houston, Texas. The Epoch Times regrets the error. Although to many it may seem an impossible task in light of the continuing negative publicity, the British lawyer's statement earlier on Monday marks the start of a meticulously planned campaign that began in January when Blackfords, Andrew's lawyers, instructed Clare Montgomery, QC, a leading extradition lawyer. Described as "the most formidable member of the bar", her previous clients have included former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The statement also confirmed the hiring of specialist defence barrister Stephen Ferguson, described as a "fearless cross examiner" adept at "demolishing prosecution cases". A new Netflix documentary exposes the scale of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. Credit:AP Both are being briefed by Gary Bloxsome, a criminal defence solicitor who has defended British troops against war crime allegations and is understood to have been appointed directly by Andrew. In March, the London Telegraph revealed that Mark Gallagher, a former director of corporate affairs and chief of staff at ITV, had been brought onside to handle the PR through his private client business, Riverside Advisory. Nicknamed "the backroom fixer", Gallagher is one of Britain's most highly respected spin doctors, having sat on the main board of Camelot Group after being public affairs director at ITN. His private clients over the last six years have included those falsely accused of child abuse by Carl Beech. "This is a case where the presumption of innocence has been turned on its head, and the duke has been presumed guilty until proven innocent," one source said. "The US Department of Justice said early on that the duke was only ever being treated as a witness and yet the implication of criminal activity has continued unchallenged. "It's quite clear the DoJ has comprehensively mishandled the Epstein investigation from the very beginning and have been trying to use the duke as a lightning conductor." They accuse US lawyers pursuing civil claims on behalf of Epstein's victims against his multimillion-dollar estate of using Andrew as a "high profile battering ram". Yet one victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has proved impossible to ignore. Giuffre, who now lives in Queensland and heads an organisation called Victims Refuse Silence, said last year the prince "knows what he's done" after claiming Epstein forced her to have sex with Andrew three times when she was 17. Andrew vehemently denies the claims. Prince Andrew denies having had sex with Virginia Giuffre when she was 17. Giuffre says she was forced by Jeffrey Epstein to sleep with the duke. Credit:AP, BBC Although they have never sought to bad-mouth Giuffre who insiders say "there is no doubt" was a victim of Epstein's crimes Berman, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, is another matter. Monday's first salvo was fired in response to the front page of The Sun, headlined "Yanks: Hand Over Andy", revealing the Department of Justice had submitted a "mutual legal assistance" request to question the prince. It came after Berman claimed in March Andrew had "completely shut the door" on cooperating, following briefings that there had been a "wall of silence" and "zero cooperation". One insider described the leaking of the legal request as "the third time the duke has been stitched up as a kipper", amid accusations the department has repeatedly broken its own confidentiality rules for witnesses. A source close to Berman's team openly admitted in March the prince had been "made an example of" because he publicly said in his November statement: "I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required." Loading Yet while his team seems to understand "assistance" to mean supplying a witness statement, US prosecutors think cooperation should amount to a sit-down interview. His lawyers have said they do not want to make any further public statements on the possible next stages. Yet it is thought the timing of the statement runs deeper than simply a rebuttal of Berman's very public protestations about Andrew. Having taken a step back after admitting "Epstein has become a major disruption to my family's work and the valuable work going on in the many organisations and charities that I am proud to support", there is certainly a sense Andrew believes he can one day resume royal duties - despite recent reports suggesting he is a "busted flush" and "toxic". Loading While the Royal family is said to have "no plans to review" his position after his car-crash Newsnight interview last year, with the Queen understood to be "resigned" to the demise of her favourite son, he appears to have other ideas. Having been photographed with former wife Sarah, Duchess of York, packing cupcakes at their shared Royal Lodge home in Windsor and delivering care parcels to the Thames Hospice in April, he is secretly pinning his hope on a "complete exoneration", insiders say. Although he has already given up most of his charity commitments, with many of his patronages severing links with him, he retains his military commands, including his role as colonel of the Grenadier Guards. One of the Kentucky cops in the raid in which Breonna Taylor was shot dead has been accused of sexual assault by two separate women. Officer Brett Hankison is said to have offered his alleged victims a ride home in his police car before molesting them. Two women - law graduate Margo Borders and medic Emily Terry - each shared their story on social media this week. They spoke out amid protests citing the death of Taylor in Louisville in the fight against police brutality. Police spokesman Dwight Mitchell told People Louisville Metro Police has reached out the women to 'initiate and conduct an investigation'. Taylor, a 26-year-old black emergency medical tech, was shot eight times on March 13 after officers including Hankison and his two colleagues Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, knocked down the front door of the home she shared with boyfriend Kenneth Walker in a drugs raid. No drugs were found in the home. It is unclear which officer fired the shots which killed Taylor but a lawsuit filed by her family said the officers 'spray(ed) gunfire into the residence with a total disregard for the value of human life.' Taylor had no criminal record and worked for two local hospitals. The lawsuit alleges that the three police officers, who are now on administrative leave, fired at least 20 rounds into the home. Officer Brett Hankison, pictured, has been accused of having a 'vendetta' against Kendrick Wilson and of being 'a dirty cop' in an October lawsuit; he denied all the claims The search warrant used to justify the police raid which left Breonna Taylor, pictured, 26, dead on March 13 claimed that Taylor's home was used by a suspected drug dealer, Jamarcus Glover to receive suspicious packages. The family says this claim is false and is suing police Accusing Hankison Borders, who studied law at the University of Louisville, said: 'In April of 2018 I went out to a bar with some friends. I went to call an uber home and a police officer who I had interacted with on many occasions at bars in St. Matthews offered me a ride home. 'He drove me home in uniform, in his marked car, invited himself into my apartment and sexually assaulted me while I was unconscious. 'I never reported him out of fear of retaliation. I had no proof of what happened and he had the upper hand because he was a police officer. Who do you call when the person who assaulted you is a police officer? Who were they going to believe?' In a second online accusation Terry, who appears to have recently graduated as a physician assistant from Sullivan University, wrote: 'This is Brett Hankison. In early fall, I began walking home from a bar intoxicated. A police officer pulled up next to me and offered me a ride home. I thought to myself, Wow. That is so nice of him. And willingly got in. 'He began making sexual advances towards me; rubbing my thigh, kissing my forehead, and calling me baby. Mortified, I did not move. I continued to talk about my grad school experiences and ignored him. 'As soon as he pulled up to my apartment building, I got out of the car and ran to the back. My friend reported this the next day, and of course nothing came from it.' Two women - Margo Borders, pictured, and Emily Terry - each shared their story on social media this week Emily Terry, pictured, spoke out amid protests citing the death of Taylor in Louisville in the fight against police brutality Terry, who appears to have recently graduated as a physician assistant from Sullivan University, wrote: 'He began making sexual advances towards me; rubbing my thigh, kissing my forehead, and calling me baby' Accusing Hankison Borders said: He drove me home in uniform, in his marked car, invited himself into my apartment and sexually assaulted me while I was unconscious' Breonna's boyfriend Kenneth can be heard on the call crying and calling Taylor's name in the 911 call made shortly after her death. 'Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend,' Walker tells a dispatcher. He says Taylor is on the ground and that she was shot in the stomach. Prosecutors dropped an attempted murder charge against Walker for shooting an officer who entered the apartment. Also last week, Louisville's police chief announced his retirement and the mayor changed police warrant search policies. Officer Hankison has already been accused of having a 'vendetta' against another man, Kendrick Wilson and of being 'a dirty cop' in an October lawsuit; he denied all the claims. Wilson's ongoing federal lawsuit - unrelated to the shooting incident in March - accuses Hankison of targeting him and planting drugs, The Courier Journal reported. It says Hankison arrested Wilson three times over a two year period at bars where he worked as off duty security. The charges against Wilson stemming from these incidents were dropped on two of these occasions. One case is still pending. The suit says Hankison and Wilson were also involved in 'a relationship with the same woman'. It says the officer was 'unfairly targeting' Wilson. Taylor's family says that Louisville cops obtained the warrant used to raid her home based on false information that investigators gave to the judge. Breonna Taylor, 26, died in the early hours of March 13 after law enforcement raided the home she shared with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker in Louisville, Kentucky Protesters march holding placards and a portrait of Breonna Taylor during a demonstration against racism and police brutality, in Hollywood, California on June 7 Balloons and a drawing for Breonna Taylor who would have turned 27, but was killed by police officers, hangs at the fence of Lafayette Square near the White House, to protest police brutality and racism, on June 7 Attorneys for the family of 26-year-old Breonna filed a lawsuit against Louisville Metro Police Department alleging that a detective falsely claimed that a drug suspect was receiving postal packages at her house. In the early morning hours of March 13, Louisville police executed a 'no-knock' raid on her home as part of an investigation centered on two men suspected of selling drugs in the Russell section of the city. Taylor's apartment in southwest Jefferson County was more than 10 miles away from the Russell neighborhood, according to the Louisville Courier Journal. Police suspected Taylor's home was used to receive drugs, and a judge signed off on a 'no-knock' warrant allowing law enforcement officials to raid her home. Just before 1am, Louisville police said they identified themselves before using a battering ram to enter Taylor's home, where she and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were in bed. Taylor's neighbors and her family dispute this. They said police never identified themselves, and that Walker, who was legally allowed to carry a firearm, shot at the cops thinking that he was being robbed. Prosecutors dropped an attempted murder charge against Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker for shooting an officer who entered the apartment The suit claims that LMPD Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, left, and officers Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove, right, entered their apartment without announcing themselves Police responded with gunfire, killing Taylor, who suffered eight gunshot wounds. Walker had been arrested and charged with first-degree assault and attempted murder of a police officer after Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly was shot in the leg during the raid. Mattingly, Officer Brett Hankison, and Officer Myles Cosgrove were the three detectives who raided Taylor's home. All three officers are named as defendants in the lawsuit filed by Taylor's family. The warrant which was approved by a judge the day before Taylor died was based on a detective's belief that one of the drug suspects in Russell, Jamarcus Glover, used Taylor's residence to receive mail, keep drugs, or stash money from the sale of drugs. Glover was arrested in a separate raid that same night more than 10 miles away from Taylor's home. More than 10,000 people have been arrested in the U.S. at protests against police brutality and racism after a Minneapolis officer killed George Floyd on May 25. As a result, donors have contributed millions of dollars in recent weeks to bail funds, which help post bail for people whove been arrested so they dont have to wait in jail until they face trial. The Minnesota Freedom Fund, for instance, received $20 million within five days of Floyds death. Local and national funds have raised similarly stunning sums in a short amount of time, a trend fueled by informal social media drives and celebrity endorsements. Thousands of people have donated to bail funds for the first time, includingfull disclosureme. Advertisement thanks so much to everyone who pitched in this week to help make a donation in support of the protests, the funds have gone to the National Bail Fund Networks rapid response fund if you are interested in making furthur donations check them out here https://t.co/0LefJ6Lebh pic.twitter.com/9SNtD4zXLL lottie clown fucker (@trashcanprince) June 5, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I received an overwhelming response in donations. Since my warrant was rescinded and I didnt need bail, I have decided to donate $1,000 to the Nashville Community Bail Fund, @NashBailFund In addition Ive made donations to 5 local and grassroots organizations in Nashville.. pic.twitter.com/PxH4kdQhvo Jeneisha Harris (@JeneishaCHarris) June 8, 2020 Advertisement Advertisement Thank you everyone who commissioned -- over $400 (100% of your donations) has gone to the Houston bail fund !! pic.twitter.com/XpJr61vNAe gearlic (@thegearlic) June 3, 2020 Advertisement Cash bail disproportionately affects low-income and minority populations, since they are more likely to face aggressive policing and higher bail amounts. Protesters, however, are facing vastly different bail conditions across the country due to varying local laws and the whims of judges and district attorneys. In some cities, like Washington, most protesters have been released without having to make any sort of payment due to local bans on cash bail. District attorneys in Los Angeles and New York have also said they will not prosecute low-level offenses. In other cases, protesters have been facing bails ranging anywhere from $100 to $250,000, according to Pilar Weiss, director of the Community Justice Exchange, which hosts the National Bail Fund Network, a coalition of more than 60 bail and bond funds. Its all over the map. Ive seen high bills across the country, said Weiss. Weve seen a lot of high bills in the South and Southeast, but I also heard of very high bills in Iowa today as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the challenges that bail funds are currently facing is that donations arent always going to places that need it most. Funds in some cities have been overwhelmed with contributions and are actively encouraging people to send their money elsewhere. The Minnesota Freedom Fund briefly ceased taking donations, noting that it had enough resources to bail out protesters, and then announced on Friday that any further proceeds will go toward immigration bonds and efforts to end cash bail in the state. The Philadelphia Bail Fund also said on Sunday that it was well funded to ensure protesters return home. So far, the fund has posted bail for around 80 protesters and is now directing potential donors to a list of other organizations in the city that could use the money. Donating to bail funds is important, but even more important is challenging the very system that makes a bail fund necessary, said Malik Neal, director of the Philadelphia Bail Fund. I would ask folks to join in that fight as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Brooklyn Community Bail Fund in New York currently has a notice up on its website stating that it is no longer accepting funds to pay bail for protesters. Weve been in touch with public defenders and understand that most people are being released, said Zoe Adel, BCBFs advocacy and communications manager. It became clear that the need for demonstration bail, at least for our organization, had been met. The hope was that by not taking more donations, people would donate to bail and bond funds elsewhere. (Despite the fact that many are eventually released, public defenders in New York are accusing the city of keeping protesters in cramped jails for unreasonable periods of time due to arraignment delaysa particularly troubling problem during a pandemic.) Advertisement Advertisement While larger bail funds in major cities have been seeing a flood of contributions, many less visible ones are still in need of money. Organizations that dont have 503(c)(3) nonprofit status often have a more difficult time collecting donations from joint fundraisers and online platforms like ActBlue. While national organizations like the Community Justice Exchange work to distribute money where its needed, Weiss recommends that people donate straight to their local community funds since theyll be able to more quickly marshal those resources. And though bail funds are receiving a lot of attention at the moment, people can also support the protest movement by donating to volunteer medics and lawyers. Advertisement Weiss cautions that while a bail fund might seem to have a surplus of cash at a particular moment, it doesnt mean that it wont need to use that money to free people in the near future. The current civil unrest is still ongoing, and police have been arresting people days after theyve left protests based on surveillance footage and accusations. It might be the case that a handful of people suddenly have to each pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in bail, at which point the local bail fund would have to resume fundraising or get assistance from another organization. We anticipate that the protests and the arrests arent necessarily going to end today, Weiss said. You can spend millions of dollars on bail very quickly, unfortunately. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra may have staved off a constitutional crisis by ensuring Chief Minister Uddhav Thackerays nomination to the state legislative council. But, appointments to the state legislative council from the Governors quota may turn out to be yet another flashpoint between the MVA government and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. The term of 10 legislators nominated to the upper house from the Governors quota expires this month. Congress Janardhan Chandurkar, Husnabanu Khalife, Ramhari Rupanvar and Anandrao Patil, and NCPs Vidya Chavan, Prakash Gajbhiye, Khwaja Beg and Jagannath Shinde retired on June 6, while Anant Gadgil from the Congress and Peoples Republican Partys Jogendra Kawade will retire on June 14. NCPs Rahul Narvekar and Ramrao Wadkhute have quit to join the BJP, and Narvekar is now MLA from Colaba in Mumbai. A senior NCP minister said the three allies would divide the 12 seats equally among themselves. The Shiv Sena initially wanted to corner five seats, leaving four and three each for the NCP and Congress, respectively. But, the Congress may get an extra seat from the Shiv Sena quota as it had to withdraw its second nominee to ensure that the legislative council polls took place unopposed. The government is likely to make a formal recommendation about these nominees to the Governor soon. However, leaders from the ruling coalition doubt if the eventual nominations will take place smoothly. The ties between the MVA and the Governor had hit an air-pocket over the cabinets recommendation that Uddhav Thackeray be nominated to the upper house from the Governors quota to prevent a crisis for the government. Uddhav Thackeray, who became the first from the Thackeray clan to hold a constitutional position when he was sworn in as the chief minister of Maharashtra on November 28, was not a member of the legislature. Hence, he had to be elected to either House by May 27, failing which he would be compelled to resign. By implication, this would have led to the entire council of ministers stepping down. Though Thackeray was expected to contest the elections for one of the nine seats which were due in April, the coronavirus epidemic led to the polls being postponed. With a crisis looming large, the state cabinet had on April 9 recommended that Thackeray be nominated to the 78-member upper house from one of the two vacant seats in the Governors quota. After Koshyari did not act on this, the recommendation was repeated by the cabinet, but in vain. However, after much back and forth, the Election Commission finally declared that the polls would be held on May 21. The elections took place unopposed, but not before the Congress gave the MVA tense moments with its short-lived decision to field a second candidate, which would have required a contest. Article 171 (5) of the Constitution lays down that the members to be nominated by the Governor shall consist of those having special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art, cooperative movement and social service. However, though poets and writers like Ga.Di.Madgulkar, Shantaram Nandgaonkar, Na.Do Mahanor and Ramdas Phutane, and journalists like MG Vaidya have been members of the state legislative council through this quota, it is usually used for accommodating political nominees. A Congress leader admitted that considering the friction between the government and the MVA, some tensions were also likely over the names to be nominated for these positions. Shiv Sena ministers charge in private that the Governor is gradually emerging as a parallel power centre. As the occupant of the verdant, colonial era Raj Bhawan located on a 50-acre estate at Malabar Hill, Koshyari, a veteran RSS hand and former CM of Uttarakhand, is asserting himself as the constitutional head of state. The Shiv Sena is upset over Koshyaris role in the early morning swearing-in of incumbent leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis as the chief minister for a second term with Ajit Pawar as his deputy. Though the experiment was short-lived and Pawar returned to the NCP like a prodigal son to become the deputy CM in the Uddhav Thackeray-led government, some bitterness still lingers. The latest confrontation between the government and the Governor has been over holding final year university examinations. The Governor, who is the ex-officio chancellor of universities, has come out against the States move to cancel final year exams in light of the Covid-19 epidemic and grant aggregate marks based on performance in previous semesters. So, as the MVA leaders put their heads together to shortlist nominees for the Governors quota, the prospect of yet another standoff hangs in the air, much like Mumbais ubiquitous humidity. The Food and Drug Administration had to walk back testimony by an official at a Senate hearing last week after he downplayed the scale of Chinas dominance of the drug supply chain in the U.S. The issue has come to the fore as the pandemic has prompted some in Congress and the Trump administration to question Chinas role as the global supplier of key ingredients. The FDA says its able to police the safety of the U.S. drug supply regardless where it comes from, even as its had to suspend on-site inspections due to the virus. In answering a question from Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, on how much of the active pharmaceutical ingredients, or API, in drugs in the U.S. are made in China, Douglas Throckmorton, deputy director for regulatory programs in the FDAs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said for active pharmaceutical ingredients, the U.S provides about 28 per cent, China about 13 per cent and India 18 per cent. The problem with his response was that those percentages are for the number of API facilities in China and India that export ingredients to the U.S., not the volume they ship, the FDA clarified to Bloomberg following his testimony. Drugs often pass through multiple companies as raw ingredients become active ingredients and then are turned into pills or injections. Pharmaceutical companies typically protect where they buy supplies as a trade secret, making it impossible to know precisely where a drug or its key components originated from in most cases. It doesnt reflect the actual production levels, Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow on global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in an interview. China compared to the U.S. is a larger producer of APIs in terms of the output. China also dominates production of active ingredients for many low-cost generic drugs, including antibiotics and common painkillers, according to Huang. Last year, China accounted for 95 per cent of imported ibuprofen and 74 per cent of imported acetaminophen, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Jeremy Kahn, an FDA spokesman, said that in fact, the agency doesnt know how much API is coming from China. Data available to FDA do not enable us to calculate the volume of API being used for U.S.-marketed drugs from China or India, and what percentage of U.S. drug consumption this represents, he said in an email Thursday. Kahn also corrected the percentages for API facilities in each country, saying the U.S. figure is 26 per cent, not 28 per cent, and India is 19 per cent not 18 per cent. Kahn didnt address why Throckmorton shared incorrect numbers or the facilities data instead of the actual volume. Throckmorton and Cornyn didnt respond to requests for comment on the erroneous testimony. India supplies a large quantity of finished medicine to the U.S. using Chinese active ingredients companies in India recently accounted for about 40 per cent of all new generic drugs approvals in the U.S. About 90 per cent of the drugs Americans take are generics. However, Huang noted that India is Chinas top buyer of active pharmaceutical ingredients with 70 per cent of its API coming from China, meaning many of the finished treatments Indian firms sell in the U.S. are made using Chinese ingredients. Why the U.S. Cant Easily Break Chinas Grip on Supply Chains The U.S. is the second-largest buyer of API made in China, Huang said. By Huangs calculations, in 2019 China exported 808,000 tons of active ingredients to India and 665,000 tons to the U.S. Cornyn and others supports shifting more production to the U.S. to reduce the pharmaceutical supply chains exposure to China. Its a concern Sanofi shares: the French drugmaker announced in February plans to create a European API maker by combining six of its production sites in a stand-alone company to help reduce the industrys reliance on Asia. China and India account for an estimated 60 per cent of active pharmaceutical ingredient production volume globally, Sanofi said, citing industry data. Concerns about relying so heavily on China and India for treatments predated the coronavirus. Almost two years ago, millions of blood-pressure pills made in China and India started being recalled because they were contaminated with a chemical that can cause cancer. A Pentagon official called the U.S. reliance on the Chinese supply chain a national security risk at a hearing last year of a Congressional advisory panel on China and the U.S. And since the virus began spreading, some experts have questioned whether Chinese manufacturing quality is suffering, fearing corners are being cut to make up for lost productivity as the countrys manufacturing capacity was curbed by the outbreak. The FDA said in March that it had identified 20 drugs solely made in China or that were made with API exclusively made in China that it was monitoring in case supplies ran short given production had slowed. When asked about that at the hearing last week, Throckmorton emphasized the importance of ensuring drug supplies over concerns about their origin. Whether a product comes from a specific country or not is important, Im not minimizing that, but its more important for me as a U.S. federal drug official to make sure the drug is available from somewhere to meet the needs of the American public, he said. The FDA has also contacted more than 180 drug manufacturers that rely on China even though they may be able to find the ingredients or finished medication they need elsewhere to verify whether they anticipated any supply impact, Kahn said. There have been shortages of many medicines, particularly ones used to help patients on ventilators, and most recently of the antidepressant Zoloft and its generic versions. While the supply interruptions have been linked to the pandemic, its unclear what role China played, given its nearly impossible to know where a drug or its active ingredients is made. Read more about: T he coronavirus lockdown will trigger a very big surge in unemployment that could take seven years to subside to levels seen before the epidemic, MPs were warned today. Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think-tank told members of the Treasury Select Committee that there had been way too much talk of a V-shaped recession with a swift bounce-back from a sharp downturn, dashing the hopes of Chancellor Rishi Sunak. He described the nine per cent forecast of peak unemployment from the Office for Budget Responsibility as relatively optimistic. If the rate hits 10 per cent, the lessons from past recessions suggested it will be seven years before dole queues shrink to levels seen early this year, he added. He said that the sectors that hired jobless workers most quickly after the financial crisis hospitality and retail were likely to be among the worst hit by the pandemic slump. There was also less likely to be a sustained fall in real wages a factor that helped keep a lid on unemployment after the banking crash. 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 Paul Johnson, director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told the committee that there are a lot of gaps in the states financial support package. He said: There are possibly as many as two million company owner-managers, 650,000 or so self-employed people who set up since April 2019, 200,000 self-employed people earning over 50,000 and others working outside the scheme. The Anambra State Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Andrew Kumapayi, on Tuesday confirmed the death of six people as a container fell on vehicles and tricycles along Awka-Onitsha expressway. Mr Kumapayi, who confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka, said the brakes of a trailer carrying a 20ft container failed, and the driver lost control of the vehicle, which fell on six others. The commander said the accident occurred at about 10.46 a.m. at TRACAS bus stop. The fatal multiple road traffic crash involved a Mack Trailer with registration number UMA259XB, a Toyota Previa with registration number ENU849XE, another Toyota Precis with registration number ENU575ZU and a Toyota Sienna with registration number JJT434ZF. Two tricycles with registration numbers AAH705UW and AGU482QE and another without registration number were also involved in the crash. A total of 10 people (eight male adults and two female adults) were involved in the crash. The victims were rushed to Toronto Hospital, Onitsha by the FRSC rescue team from Upper Iweka Outpost. Out of the 10 people involved, six, (five male and one female) were confirmed dead at the hospital, while four males were critically injured, but are responding to treatment. The corpses were deposited at the morgue in the same hospital, the sector commander said. Mr Kumapayi said the obstruction created by the crash was cleared by Julius Berger Construction Company and the vehicles towed to Central Police Station, Onitsha. While consoling the families of the victims, he warned motorists, especially articulated vehicle operators, against plying the highway with faulty vehicles. They should ensure that their vehicles are checked and serviced regularly, with particular interest on the brake systems to avoid unnecessary road mishaps and death, he said. (NAN) PHILADELPHIA, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Independence Blue Cross (Independence) and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have signed a new long-term agreement. The agreement, which will be effective July 1, 2020, represents a shared goal of improving community health care for children and collaborating on quality of care in ways that will benefit children living in the Greater Philadelphia region. "We are extremely pleased that Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a long-time partner of ours and home to countless breakthroughs in pediatric medicine, shares our commitment to improving health care for our members and their patients," said Daniel J. Hilferty, Independence Blue Cross CEO. "Above all else, this agreement gives our members continued access to an institution that is a world leader in children's health and pediatric research." As part of the new agreement, Independence and CHOP will be exploring ways to expand the health care system's existing value-based program beyond primary care practices. The expanded programs would promote a team-based approach and be designed to engage both organizations to improve quality of care and reduce health care costs for members and patients through better care coordination. "This agreement provides reassurance to families that count on having world-class pediatric care for their children," said Madeline Bell, President and CEO at CHOP. "Independence Blue Cross has always made access to CHOP a priority for their members, and we look forward to innovating with them in ways that will ensure their children receive the best pediatric care available." About Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 564-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu. About Independence Blue Cross Independence Blue Cross is the leading health insurance organization in southeastern Pennsylvania. With our affiliates, we serve nearly 7 million people nationwide. For more than 80 years, we have been enhancing the health and well-being of the people and communities we serve. We deliver innovative and competitively priced health care products and services; pioneer new ways to reward doctors, hospitals, and other health care professionals for coordinated, quality care; and support programs and events that promote wellness. To learn more, visit www.ibx.com. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/ibx and on Twitter at @ibx. Independence Blue Cross is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Contacts: Diana Quattrone Ashley Moore Independence Blue Cross Children's Hospital of Philadelphia 215-815-7828 (c) 215-630-4683 (c) [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Related Links http://www.chop.edu WASHINGTON Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy signaled their willingness to discuss scrapping Confederate names on forts across the country, Army Col. Sunset Belinsky said Monday evening. They are open to having a bipartisan dialogue on renaming the bases, according to Belinsky. The Army has 10 posts named after Confederate generals across the South, including major installations at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Benning in Georgia and Fort Hood in Texas. McCarthy, a former Army Ranger, indicated his willingness to discuss the change after weeks of protests across the country in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis who pleaded for his life as a white police officer knelt on his neck. Defense Secretary Mark Esper The Army has resisted calls to change names on installations named after officers who rebelled and fought against the U.S. government in the Civil War. Times and attitudes are swiftly evolving as the nation heads into its second week of protests after Floyd's death, calls for police reforms grow and locations across the country announce plans to take down or remove Confederate memorials. On Tuesday, the Navy announced that that Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, plans to ban display of the Confederate battle flag from public work spaces on bases, ships, aircraft and submarines, said Commander Nate Christensen, Gilday's spokesman. "The order is meant to ensure unit cohesion, preserve good order and discipline, and uphold the Navys core values of honor, courage and commitment," Christensen said in a statement. McCarthy and the military as a whole became embroiled in controversy surrounding the response by police and National Guard troops to protesters last week in Washington. McCarthy oversees National Guard units in D.C. because it does not have a governor. Troops in DC: National Guard troops surge into DC for George Floyd protests, but who's in charge? Story continues McCarthy acknowledged Sunday that National Guard soldiers were involved in the eviction of mostly peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square before President Donald Trump's appearance at a nearby church. Esper and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accompanied Trump. No guardsmen used force on the protesters, McCarthy said. Another incident involving National Guard helicopters buzzing protesters in another part of Washington is under investigation, he said. The Pentagon came close to ordering federal troops to confront protesters, according to McCarthy. Lafayette Square: How police pushed aside protesters before Trump's controversial church photo The incident prompted several former high-ranking Pentagon officials to warn that the military was being drawn into politics, risking a constitutional crisis. Former Defense Secretary James Mattis blasted Trump, saying he sought to divide, not unite Americans. Within days, senior military officials acknowledged racial inequities in the military. Before the Lafayette Square incident, USA TODAY reported that young black airmen were twice as likely to face punishment as their white counterparts. Several retired generals, many of whom trained and commanded at the posts in question, said they supported name changes. Retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, one of the brightest military stars of his generation and a former director of the CIA, wrote in The Atlantic that the names should be changed. "These bases are, after all, federal installations, home to soldiers who swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States," Petraeus wrote. "The irony of training at bases named for those who took up arms against the United States, and for the right to enslave others, is inescapable to anyone paying attention." Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday the Army is right to revisit changing the names of the forts. "Changes are warranted," Reed said. "Nobody can rewrite history, but its our duty to be honest about it and learn from it, and build a better future. Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said the Army should deal with the issue and leave politics out of it. I welcome Secretary McCarthy and the Army looking at this issue," Thornberry said in a statement. "When it comes to the question of renaming installations or other assets, I believe that is something best left to the services and kept out of the political process. McCarthy acknowledged the racial division in a letter to soldiers and civilians June 3. "Our ability to defend this country from all enemies, foreign and domestic, is founded upon a sacred trust with the American people," McCarthy said. "Racial division erodes that trust." Last week, the Marine Corps banned the display of the Confederate battle flag. The Navy operates a guided-missile cruiser, the USS Chancellorsville, named after a battle the Confederates won. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Army: Confederate names on bases may change in wake of Floyd death Xiaoqing Liu selected to become dean of SIUs College of Engineering by Pete Rosenbery CARBONDALE, Ill. Xiaoqing Frank Liu will become the dean of Southern Illinois University Carbondales College of Engineering next month pending approval by the SIU Board of Trustees. Liu is professor and department head of the computer science and computer engineering Department at the University of Arkansas and holds the colleges Rodger S. Kline Leadership Chair. The department is within the universitys College of Engineering. Liu is scheduled to begin his duties at SIU on July 10 pending board approval. Meera Komarraju, SIUs provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said Liu brings several strengths to the position. "Dr. Liu brings teaching, research, and administrative expertise spanning two universities that would benefit our students, staff, and faculty, she said. He has a strong track record in promoting student enrollment, engagement and success as well faculty development and research productivity. Extensive experience Liu also served as chair of the University of Arkansas Computer Activities Council, playing a leadership role in the governance of information technologies for the university. Prior to joining the university in 2015, Liu had served as interim department chair and associate department chair in the computer science department at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Liu is an established scholar in service computing, software engineering, cyber argumentation, cyber manufacturing and applied artificial intelligence. He has participated in 29 sponsored research projects with $8.8 million in funding as principal or co-principal investigator or faculty participant. He has published 156 referred journal and conference papers and book chapters. Liu received his Ph.D. in computer science from the Texas A&M University in 1995. Excited for the opportunity Liu said he is excited for the opportunity to serve as dean. The College is in a time of significant transformation. I appreciate the confidence given by Chancellor Dunn and Provost Komarraju and the trust given by the faculty, staff and students in my ability for leading this transformation. he said. I am looking forward to working with campus leadership, faculty, staff and students in the college and related disciplines to move this college to its next level of excellence. Leadership vision Liu noted that enrollment and funded research enterprises grew significantly during his tenure as department head at the University of Arkansas. His vision for SIUs proposed College of Science, Technology, Transportation, Engineering and Math is to develop a larger, stronger and higher-ranked college that is recognized for student success, excellent academic programs, strong research and a diverse and inclusive learning and working environment. Bengaluru, June 9 : Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda said on Tuesday that he filed his nomination for the June 19 Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka in response to a collective call from national leaders to be back in the Parliament. "Though I was not personally interested to contest, national leaders from Congress President Sonia Gandhi, National Conference President Farooq Abdullah, TMC and Left parties want me back in Parliament," he told reporters here. Gowda, 87, filed his nomination in the Vidhana Soudha, submitting the papers to Assembly Secretary and Returning Officer M.K. Vishalakshi, a party official told IANS. Gowda's second son and former minister H.D. Revanna and third son and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy were present on the occasion. "Our party's all 34 legislators also urged me to contest as my presence is necessary in Parliament at a time when the country was grappling with multiple crises in the aftermath of coronavirus," said Gowda. Claiming that there was no pressure from his two sons as they are more concerned with his health, Gowda said he was touched by the requests of the national leaders, especially Gandhi who personally called him and asked him to contest as the country needed his presence in Parliament. Gowda agreed to contest in the bypoll as his party's candidate after the Congress state unit assured him of its support with its surplus votes, as the JD-S with 34 legislators is short of 10 votes of the required 44 votes. It will be second time Gowda will enter the Rajya Sabha, 24 years after he was its member as the Prime Minster from June 1996 to April 1997 of the United Front government. "Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal informed Kumaraswamy on June 6 that the party was fielding only its senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge from Karnataka and had surplus votes to ensure my victory as our party is 10 votes short of the required 44 votes to win," Gowda said. Kharge filed his nomination on Monday. Party's outgoing member Kupendra Reddy, whose 6-year term ends on June 25, told Gowda that he was not interested for a second term as he did not get enough time in the upper house to raise issues. "As our party does not have numbers in Parliament to get more time allotted to raise issues and participate in debates, Reddy wanted me to be in the Rajya Sabha in his place so that I could serve the nation better," Gowda said. Gowda lost in the May 2019 general elections from Tumkur to G.S. Basvaraj of the BJP. With the term of the four members -- Congress' B.K. Hariprasad and Rajeev Gowda, BJP's Prabhakar Kore and JD-S's Reddy ending on June 25, the Election Commission notified the poll on June 1. According to the poll panel, the nominations will be scrutinised on Wednesday and last date for withdrawal by candidates is June 12. Polling and vote count is on June 19. From the ruling BJP, its grassroot cadres Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti filed their nominations after Gowda. By fielding Gowda for the fourth seat, the Congress and JD-S, who had post-poll and pre-poll alliances for the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections in May 2019 and May 2018, queered the pitch for the BJP, denying it the chance to win a third seat. By Steve Siebold The video of George Floyd being slowly suffocated by a police officer on the streets of Minneapolis while three fellow officers looked on is sickening. It represents a disgusting abuse of power, and all four cops should go to jail for murder. I think its safe to say that most of the world agrees. People are marching in in the streets across the country and around the world in the name of Floyd. The outrage and anger is understandable, but blaming all police officers is not. The overwhelming majority of cops are good people doing a dangerous job. They became police officers to serve and protect, and 99.9% honor their duty. The Police Officers oath states: On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. Cops take this oath very seriously, and even risk their lives defending it. Think of it this way: when someone breaks into your home, whom do you call? When youre involved in a car accident, who shows up to help? When any crime occurs, who is the first one on the scene to offer assistance? The police, thats who. And were darn lucky they do. I dont know about you, but I dont want to chase bad guys with guns, break up domestic disputes and risk my life for a living. Its a thankless job, and I sleep well at night knowing that theyre out there keeping watch. Police officers say goodbye to their families every morning not knowing if theyll ever return. Day in and day out, theyre placed in harms way. They are true heroes among us, people we should be thanking, not attacking. Growing up in Chicago during the Vietnam War, I have vivid memories of people spitting on soldiers at OHare Airport as they returned home. Protesters held up signs at the gates calling them Baby killers and Murders. They screamed vulgarities at the soldiers as they deplaned. Today, we treat soldiers like the heroes they always were. We insist they board before first class and we applaud them. Over the past 45 years our nation has grown up and evolved, yet we are now at risk of slipping back into the cultural ignorance of the past. I saw the video of Floyds death and it made me sick. Its yet another example of abuse of power, racism and inhumanity. Not just from four crooked cops, but from our countries checkered past. Black people are enraged for a reason, and it didnt begin with the murder of Floyd. White men enslaved blacks for the first 90 years of our republic, which is the ultimate abuse of power, racism and inhumanity. And for the next 100 years we lynched them, denied them every human right possible, segregated them in everything from schools to drinking fountains and treated them as though they were less than human. This isnt my opinion; this is our history. So instead of pinning the blame on 800,000 police officers, open a history book and youll see where the bad cops learned to be bad. They had a good teacher named America. 99.9% of police officers are heroes. To judge the majority by the behavior of the minority is a classic, anti-critical thinking mistake, and as a nation, we must direct our anger where it belongs. This means rooting out the bad cops and the systemic racism that simmers in the underbelly of the United States. Contrary to what some people believe, police officers are on our side. In fact, in cities across the country where protests broke out, cops have been marching in solidarity, and praying, hugging and kneeling with protestors. They want equality and justice as much as everyone else. In any group of 800,000 people, there is always going to be a tiny percentage of racists and abusers. A minuscule fraction of any profession has liars, cheaters and thieves. There will always be dishonest thugs who tarnish the good work of others, yet that doesnt give anyone the right to lump the majority in with the corrupt few. George Floyds death is a tragedy, and hopefully justice will be served. While peaceful protests can lead to meaningful change, lets protest the abuse of power and racism not only of bad cops, but also of any American citizen or institution that practices it. Like many Police officers across the country, let us literally and figuratively lock arms with the good cops, good people and all of those that support human rights for all. Steve Siebold is author of the book Sex, Politics, Religion: How Delusional Thinking is Destroying America. www.MentalToughnessBlog.com AP A Florida man has been arrested after he allegedly allowed a 12-year-old girl to drive his SUV and encouraged her to speed because he wanted to be a cool father, despite not being related to the girl. Shaun Michaelsen, 41, is facing felony charges after an officer said he pulled over his speeding vehicle to find a 12-year-old girl in the driver's seat, according to an arrest report. The police report said that Mr Michaelsen claimed the girl had asked earlier in the day if she could drive his Jeep, and he thought it would be cool. Mr Michaelsen said he was friends with the girl's mother and that the 12-year-old and her friend were staying with him for a few days, according to court records. He also said that he was trying to be a cool father, the police report said, despite not being related to the child. The incident allegedly unfolded around 12.10am on Monday when an officer noticed the SUV make an illegal U-turn and then speed away, the arrest report said. While pursuing the vehicle, Jupiter police officer Craig Yochum said the vehicle reached speeds of 85 mph (135 kph) in a 45 mph (70 kph) zone before he was able to pull it over. Mr Yochum said that when he asked the 12-year-old why she was driving so fast, she said Mr Michaelsen told her to. Mr Michaelsen reportedly also told officers he had been drinking. The 41-year-old has been charged with child neglect and allowing an unauthorised person to drive. He was also charged with causing a minor to become a delinquent after being accused of buying the girls vape pens. Mr Michaelsen is being held without bond on Tuesday at the Palm Beach County Jail. Court records do not indicate if he has an attorney. Additional reporting by Associated Press. Read more Joe Biden gives powerful address at George Floyd's funeral Don't just defund the police. Defund the military Police apologise after encouraging fired cops to get jobs in Florida US prison guards sent to control crowds in DC, Miami and Florida 'Learn to live with it' also includes learning how to suffer from it and all that idea includes right from being denied a hospital bed to dying in isolation, to dying in anxiety that you have possibly spread the virus to your family. Long ago, a discordant set of people who claimed their own individual rights and liberty, sometimes even to the violation of anothers, came together to form modern society. Acting on their own accord without common responsibility meant that they were intrinsically Darwinian the strongest survive and the weak perish in a place where fear was continual and commerce or leisure was unknown. As Rousseau put it, the only way to proceed was for each individual to put into the community his person and all his powers under the supreme direction of the general will. This gave form to the concept of organised government -- an intangible entity to act on the general will of the people. This, they believed, will provide the greatest protection from natures perils. A social contract is now formed, whereby members reap the benefits of society and enjoy a greater degree of protection by foregoing certain freedoms, enforced via a formed government. This quid pro quo we all make each day to live under the protection of the government. These ideas have long defined what society looks like, even the earliest documented instructions by Greek Sophists in 5th century BCE. They also define how society operates today, in 2020, as the world is facing an overt threat. The novel coronavirus has now claimed over 4 lakh lives worldwide and is set to take many more. The official narrative Governments world over have been investing heavily in testing exhaustively to isolate cases, preparing hospitals to treat, and fixing the gaping hole in the world economy. In India, the government had done all of these, starting as early as 8 January The country also imposed a strict lockdown starting 25 March itself, however, the unlocking commenced from 8 June, at a time when cases have neither peaked nor has the curve flattened. As per the terms of the invisible contract, the government is entrusted with the responsibility to protect life and dignity of its citizenry from this pandemic, otherwise, it has no basis to exist. It is for this reason that the narrative accompanying the unlocking is irksome. In a meeting with chief ministers on 11 May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said "we will have to learn to live with corona" for the first time. On 12 May in his address to the nation, he further stated that the virus is going to be a part of our lives. This was coupled with a plea to go back to work to revive the economy. Earlier on 8 May, the health ministry had also asserted the idea of living with the virus, one that was then echoed by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. 'Learn to live with it' also includes learning how to suffer from it and all that idea includes right from being denied a hospital bed to dying in isolation, to dying in anxiety that you have possibly spread the virus to your family. This casts the government as a passive player who told you to figure it out yourself. Passive culpability of the establishment This passiveness hasnt been the response of countries that have won the fight against coronavirus. For instance, New Zealand is now virus-free. The administration tracked, isolated and treated each case and now they dont live in an existential threat. Population size comparatives have been used to distinguish New Zealand and our (clearly not so) Aatmanirbhar Bharat. However, that doesnt account for the fact that India shouldve learnt how to manage its large population size in the 72 years of independence. The density of population comes with an increased density of responsibilities, reactions, accountability, and answers. Public health strategists will tell you that ramping up testing and nearing universal testing is the only way to contain the virus before the vaccine comes out. However, it was only in mid-May that India actually was able to administer more than 1 lakh tests in a day. Today, India is testing ~3 persons per 1,000 population, much behind Denmark (95.45), Italy (66.98) and even South Africa (18.34). The reason provided for the two-month-long lockdown was to build hospital preparedness in the meantime as well as to flatten the curve. While the latter was far from being fulfilled when India unlock-ed as the curve still rises steeply each day, the former is a big question mark. Rising graphs are only indicative of people falling prey to the virus even with the wear a mask, sanitise and maintain social distance diktat. There is a documented and recorded shortage of beds in both metro cities, Mumbai and Delhi. What happens to you and me now? Going by reports, the average Indian, if infected, will shuttle from ER to ER trying to get admitted causing more infections in the process. If admitted, she will be treated by doctors who dont get adequate supplies of PPE but only two moments of nationwide (non-monetisable) applause, since doctors too are responsible for their own safety as per the government. Soon, well be a nation of those who could brave the virus while others perished; it took a pandemic to realise these faultlines. Abhinav Verma is a lawyer and policy consultant working on health systems strengthening. Shiralie Chaturvedi is a writer and journalist. Views expressed here are their own. Conspiracy theorists are thought to be hiding razor blades and needles behind anti-5G posters put up on phone masts in a bid to stop the authorities taking them down. Councils and engineering firms warned conspiracy theorists have concealed needles and sharp pieces of metal in their propaganda to stop them being removed. Previous incidents have been recorded in Derby and Kent, but now East Sussex authorities are warning residents and telecoms workers of a similar danger. East Sussex Highways issued the stark warning urging anyone who sees the banners not to touch them and to report it to the police. Conspiracy theorists are thought to be hiding razor blades and needles behind anti-5G posters put up on phone masts in a bid to stop the authorities taking them down. Pictured: a 5G phone mast The warning about razor blades comes after some 5G masts were set on fire, including this one in Derby A spokesman for East Sussex County Council said it was made aware of posters being placed on various street furniture including telephone infrastructure, electricity cabinets and lamp posts. Watchdog decides not to fine London Live over David Icke interview Watchdog Ofcom will not fine London Live over its David Icke interview. The regulator was considering whether of not the talk with the conspiracy theorist was 'potentially harmful' under its rules for broadcasters. But Ofcom said that freedom of expression must be allowed and to punish London Live would interfere with this principle. The episode the watchdog was investigating featured Icke claiming that social distancing advice intended to undermine the world economy and create a new social order headed by a cult. Ofcom said: 'The imposition of any form of sanction on a broadcaster is a serious matter as it interferes with the broadcasters fundamental right to freedom of expression.' Advertisement The authority said some of these posters had blades placed behind them 'in a deliberate attempt to injure anyone who attempts to remove them'. A spokesman added: 'If you see any posters or stickers with 'anti-5G' messages do not attempt to remove them. Please report this to the police instead. Thank you.' East Sussex Highways said it was sharing the information from the Highway Electrical Association to make people aware of the dangers. Openreach said employees have also seen posters booby-trapped with needles and razors. A spokesman said: 'We've received reports from other telecommunications companies that anti-5G posters have started to appear on street equipment. 'On closer inspection, the posters have had razor blades and needles stuck on the back. 'Fortunately, none of our engineers have encountered these dangerous items but we've given them guidance about what to do if they do find any.' Last month Openreach called for abuse directed at its workers over unsubstantiated online rumours that government coronavirus restrictions are part of a ploy to rollout 5G masts to stop. The company said one of its engineers in Kent was verbally abused and a van attacked by a passer-by who accused them of being a 'cancer spreader' and a 'coronavirus spreader'. Openreach, which is used by customers of BT, Sky, Plusnet and TalkTalk, says it has seen an increase in its engineers being subjected to verbal abuse and intimidation by people taken in by the social media conspiracy theory that 5G is harmful. Mobile phone masts across the country have also been targeted in arson attacks as conspiracists claim the electromagnetic waves of the 5G network have somehow induced the pandemic. Government officials will meet with the companies after mobile masts in Birmingham, Merseyside and Belfast were set on fire Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies are being urged by the government to deal with a spate of conspiracy theories linking 5G to coronavirus. WHAT DO 5G CONSPIRACY THEORISTS BELIEVE? One theory claims that the coronavirus originated in Wuhan because the city had been rolling out 5G. It suggests it has been spread to other cities that are also using 5G. Other theories suggest that the radiation emitted by 5G masts lowers the immune system of people nearby. One version of this theory suggests the radiation sucks the oxygen out of the atmosphere and disrupts the regular functioning of the human body. Scientists have described the claims as baseless and a biological 'impossibility'. Advertisement Ministers will meet with the companies after mobile masts in Birmingham, Merseyside and Belfast were set on fire following theories being posted online. Mobile companies described the fears 5G caused coronavirus as 'baseless', with the government describing the theories as harmful to public health. A spokesman for the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson said that the idea of 5G masts being responsible for coronavirus is a 'crazed conspiracy theory'. There is no scientific evidence that 5G technology poses any threat to human health and it was confirmed as safe by the radiation watchdog last month. As well as mast burning, engineers have been facing physical and verbal threats from those who believe the 'baseless' theories being spread on social media. One of the prominent fears being spread by people, including some celebrities, includes the idea that radiation from 5G masts lowers people's immune system. Culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, will meet with Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Twitter 'to hammer the message home' that the claims are 'utter rubbish'. A spokesperson for the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport told the BBC they had several reports of criminal damage to phone masts and abuse of telecom engineers 'inspired by crackpot conspiracy theories'. 'Those responsible for criminal acts will face the full force of the law. We must also see social media companies acting responsibly and taking much swifter action to stop nonsense spreading on their platforms which encourages such acts.' CHILLICOTHE, Ohio, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Petland and Petland Charities are pleased to announce the results of its May fundraising campaign, which raised more than $7,500 for Heartland Canines for Veterans, a 501c3 organization that provides service and therapy dogs for disabled veterans. Veteran Tim Steeves with his K9 Hannibal. In 2015, Petland, Inc. committed to supporting the cost of one dog per year for five years. The average cost to raise and train each service dog is $7,200. This May, in addition to the yearly commitment, Petland company stores initiated a 'Round Up at the Register' campaign for Heartland and raised more than $7,000. Petland locations in Dunwoody (GA), Rome (GA), Dalton (GA), Iowa City (IA) and Hillsboro (OH) also contributed. "Approximately 17 U.S. veterans die by suicide every day, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. For some, a four-legged companion is the difference between life and death," said Steve Huggins, Executive Director of Petland Charities. "We are so grateful to have been able to raise these funds during such challenging times." "During an unprecedented time in our Country, we are so amazed at the generosity of Petland Charities, Petland stores, and Petland customers," said Kevin Pruitt, Executive Director of Heartland Canines. "Often these dogs are the first step in the healing process for some veterans. We are made up of veterans, military families, and dedicated military and veteran supporters supporting our motto 'So They Never Walk Alone.' Our relationship with Petland not only allows us to place purpose-bred service dogs with veterans in need, but also to continue to spread awareness of veteran suicides." Since Heartland Canine's inception and with the current effort, Petland and Petland Charities have contributed more than $73,000. The mission of Heartland Canines for Veterans is to provide purpose-bred, professionally-trained service dogs to veterans in need. These service dogs are provided to the veteran at NO COST to them; Heartland bears all costs relating to procurement, general and veterinary care, training and equipment during the training and pairing process. The organization was established as an active 501c3 non-profit organization in 2015 and is led by a team of veterans, mental health professionals, veterinary staff and professional pet breeders. Heartland's Service Dog candidates are donated by members of the Missouri Pet Breeders Association, and must undergo rigorous evaluation trials and screenings before being accepted into the training program. A typical service dog training program lasts about 12-14 months, sometimes longer for specialized individual tasks; the ultimate goal is to assist veterans who suffer from illnesses/injuries such as depressive disorders, anxiety, mobility issues and/or Post-Traumatic Stress. Each veteran candidate also completes a thorough application and selection process, designed to identify individual needs, and our board members work with several affiliate veteran organizations to ensure timely and accurate submissions. Veterans can go to the www.heartlandk9s.org website for more information and to fill out an initial application. Petland's and Petland Charities' national Community Service outreach includes offering support to local police, sheriff and fire departments as well as support for military veteran service dogs. The assistance for protective K9 units is most often a feeding program, supplies or fundraising for specific items, such as bite-suits or training gear. Petland stores currently support more than 200 K-9 units across the country. Support for veteran service dogs often goes towards the costs associated with raising, training and on-going care. Petland and Petland Charities are also supporters of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife Law Enforcement Program K-9 units and the Ohio Rescue Dog Association. Additionally, Petland supports service and therapy dogs for children through Safari Stan's Children's Charities which supports St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Petland Charities is a 501c3 organization, that partners with the communities Petland corporate stores call home to raise funds for local shelters, K9 units, service dogs and dogs for veterans. Petland, Inc. is a franchise operation with quality, full service retail pet centers across the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, El Salvador and Saudi Arabia. For more than 50 years, Petland Pet Counselors have been dedicated to matching the right pet with the right person and meeting the needs of both. To its customers who already have pets, Petland is dedicated to enhancing their knowledge and enjoyment of the human-animal bond. Petland was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in south central Ohio. For more information on Petland, visit www.petland.com. Contact: Elizabeth Kunzelman 740-775-2464 [email protected] SOURCE Petland 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 Syria: protests against cost of life grow, media Demos in many government, opposition, Kurdish areas (ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, JUNE 9 - Anti-government protests against the rising cost of life and corruption are intensifying in several regions of Syria in the midst of deteriorating economic conditions in a country torn by a nine-year-long war, local media report. Local sources and Syrian media outlets spoke about protests that were also organized on Tuesday morning in eastern Syria, in the region of Dayr az Zor and Hasake, in territories controlled by Kurdish-Syrian forces backed by the United States. Other protests are ongoing in Suwayda, the main city of the south-western region under government control and where Russian forces are present. Demonstrations were also held over the past few hours in the region of Idlib, an opposition stronghold and an area that has been under Turkish influence for years. Protests, with explicit anti-government slogans hostile to President Bashar al Assad were registered on the outskirts of Damascus, in the district of Jaramana. (ANSAmed) This work reflects the advantages we gain by working together as a system. Whereas most curricular improvements are often pursued by institutions working within their institutional boundaries, Math Pathways has been collaborative from the start. This work reflects our ongoing commitment to improve student success and support equitable access to education. When our work is complete, students from across the state will benefit from more responsive math curriculum and improved transferability and applicability of credits across North Carolina's higher education institutions. Math 1314: College Algebra Brief review of elementary algebra Linear, quadratic, exponential, and logarithmic functions Polynomials Systems of linear equations Applications Math 1332: Introduction to Mathematics (for liberal arts students) Number theory and probability Additional topics are chosen by the instructor When it comes to math performance, the United States has a pitiful record. Each year, about 1 million students enroll in college algebra and about 50 percent of those students fail to earn a "C" or better.And according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the U.S. considerably underperforms in high school math on an international level. In the OECD's 2018 Program for International Student Assessment, the United States was outperformed by 36 countries , including China, Russia, Italy, France, Finland, Poland, and Canada.In North Carolina, 26 percent of UNC system students earned a "D," "F," or "W" (a withdrawal) in mathematics and statistics courses between fall 2015 and spring 2018.But instead of investigating ways to improve math education, North Carolina university leaders have decided to create alternate "pathways" for students who are less math-minded. According to UNC administrators, gateway and entry-level math courses-like college algebra-are "stumbling blocks" for too many students.To get more students through entry-level math classes, in early 2018, the UNC system established the UNC System Math Pathways Task Force , a system-wide initiative to change general education math requirements to make them more "applicable and equitable."But, like so many of the initiatives the academic staff in the system office push forward, the Math Pathways task force's recommendations are a de facto lowering of standards.Of course, UNC's academic staff don't see the proposed changes as a lowering of standards. They argue that classes like college algebra simply don't "align" with many students' career goals. Why, for example, should drama or history students have to grapple with something as "irrelevant" as algebra?According to the UNC system's website, the Math Pathways projectOn April 30, the UNC system announced that each of its 17 schools signed a formal letter committing to the core recommendations laid out by the task force.In a UNC system news release , UNC system senior vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer Kimberly van Noort said:She continued:But taking a close look at the task force's source of inspiration raises a serious question: Will academic rigor be sacrificed for the sake of implementing a more "responsive curriculum?"The UNC system is modeling its approach on the University of Texas at Austin Dana Center's Mathematics Pathways initiative. The Dana Center recommends that students' courses of study be organized in "clusters" according to similarity. For example, the liberal arts, fine arts, and humanities are all in one cluster. Science, technology, engineering, and math share another cluster. In total, there are six degree clusters that have their own math pathway.Policymakers at UT-Austin determined that "contemporary math" is more relevant to liberal arts students than college algebra. A cursory glance between the two courses' assigned textbooks and course descriptions, however, suggests that they are not equal in rigor.Unlike the college algebra course, the "quantitative" reasoning course has fewer clearly defined learning objectives and the content is largely determined by the instructor. Below is a side by side comparison of the courses, as described in UT-Austin's Undergraduate Course Catalog College Algebra " by John DurbinCovered subjects include:With chapter names such as "Fun and Games," "Geometric Gems," and "Taming Uncertainty," most students likely would be thrilled to opt for a course based on the "Heart of Mathematics" instead of a tedious and confounding college algebra class.In short, UT's math course for liberal arts students seems geared toward giving students a taste of engaging-but superficial-pop-math concepts without making them endure unimaginative formulas and equations.And given the fact that much of the course content is determined by individual instructors, there is likely a widespread lack of uniformity in what students learn. Nevertheless, the UNC system is following in UT's footsteps.According to the new UNC math policy, all constituent institutions are free to create their own quantitative literacy courses, basing them on the "needs" of their student population and on what each institution "values."the report states.It shouldn't be hard, however, to see why leaving the content and learning objectives of a math course up to the "needs" of a given student population or on the "values" of each institution is extremely imprudent. What if a given student population, on average, "needs" easier math classes in order to not dropout? What if an institution "values" churning out degrees more than it values rigorously forming students' minds?Indeed, there is reason to question administrators' motives for changing math requirements. For one, it's suspicious that the same academic staff that supported lowering UNC system admission standards are anxious to make it easier for underprepared students to satisfy entry-level mathematics requirements. Since the lower standards will open the door to an influx of underprepared students, many of the institutions-especially the ones that already have dismally low graduation rates -will be desperate to make sure that students "succeed" in their math courses.There is also reason to question administrators' rationale for instituting different math pathways. For some reason, the academic staff at UNC are loath to attribute any failing in "student success" to students' own shortcomings.As a result, instead of looking at poor grades and high fail rates as evidence that a student might not be ready for college-level work, administrators conclude that the fault lies in the classes themselves, not in students' academic ability. But such a premise is absurd. The administrators are clearly refusing to admit that students are likely failing college algebra because they are unable to do university-level math, not because it doesn't "fit" with their career goals.Even if it were true that students are primarily failing college math simply because it doesn't "align" with their interests, that is still not a valid reason for changing math requirements. That's because a true liberal arts education should provide students with a broad base of knowledge, and expose them to subjects outside of their major course of study. A shallow and impressionistic sampling of math and science is no replacement for familiarity with the real thing.While it's natural for students to succumb to utilitarian impulses and want to study material that is directly related to their career interests, a liberal arts education is not just about skills training. Liberal arts students don't just study things because they are "useful," they study because it is intrinsically good to pursue the truth and to gain knowledge.If students are not interested in this kind of education and seek only to gain skills for the job market, perhaps they would be better suited to attend a community college or a trade school.While it's understandable how students' urgency to pass the finishing line sometimes blinds them to the less-tangible goods of higher education, UNC's academic staff has no excuse and should know better. During which time the legendary Nana Adinkrah invented the famous Adinkrah symbols, at the time we had not a united republic of Ghana, but kingdoms, a yeoman show of fidelity by a Count from Goka gave birth to Ghana's magical *Freedom And Justice* Coat of Arms, at the dawn of independence. It came to pass as recorded in the Royal Archives of the Goka palace, that, the iconic Count, the nephew, and an heir apparent to the Gokahene (overlord of Goka), had sacrificed his life to save that of the Nana Adinkrah at a gathering of royals at the International House of Chiefs. No one knows exactly from which kingdom an assassin surged forward attempting to pin to the wall with a spear, the seer Nana Adinkrah who sat on the Sumahenkuro throne at the meeting to claim ownership of the Symbols, the Gye Nyame Symbols it is otherwise known. What everyone gathered knew of was that the Count, who when crowned to mount a vacant Goka Royal Stool would double as the Adontenghene (Chief Warrior) of the Suma Crown, for the Nana Adinkrah, precisely; threw himself as a shield to the parried spear, receiving a mortal wound in his chest. When Royal Guards held down the assassin, and the Palace Physicians tried their magic to revive the dying Count, they spotted a boldly embossed Owuo Atwede (The Ladder Of Death) at the very place that welcomed the piercing messenger of death. Right there, the penitent assassin repented of his fiendishnes, though he failed to mention which of the kingdoms hired him to kill the wise Nana Adinkrah and register the marketable symbols in their crown's name as he claimed in a confession. But, seeing the Owuo Atwede, learning its literal meaning as: death is a ladder that every soul born of woman would climb, he knew that neither blood money, nor unfought for fame would immortalise an usurper like himself and his paymasters. The assassin gave himself up as a scapegoat to bury for ever, envy driven killing. And the royals gathered learning they could be victimised also one day for dreaming big as the targeted Nana Adinkrah was, swore an unbreakable oath to associate themselves with the Adinkrah Symbols instead of killing its inventor. Adding, if the sky is too vast to accommodate all flying birds, none would be the first to behave like the infamous king who trained lions that only fed on human flesh, and when the last man in sight was devoured, the insatiable canivores never accepted an appeasing animal flesh, but the meat of their guardian, the King. Today, when a white police supremacist pinned his knee on a Blackman, George Floyd's neck, he cried to the hearing of his mother to come to his rescue. His Mother is Mother Africa. The African that laboured and built modern day America which makes the White American rich today. Like the royals who saw the Goka Count died cruelly, across the racial divide, including the American royalty, the Senate, are kneeling in solidarity with the Black/African Americans who are shouting: Enough is Enough, and Black Lives Matter. Worn on their clothes is the symbolic Ghanaian Kente Cloth. The Kente Cloth symbolises Africa and her heritage. It's the representation of the coming to fruition the prophecies of old, that: the world would pilgrim to Africa and learn our ways of hospitality and harmony. George Floyd, a warrior who succumbed to the brutality of the supremacist, may your gentle soul rest in perfect peace. Like our good old Count of Goka, you've brought to the fore a symbol that unites all mankind, as the world seeks a perfect law that would undergird the *New World Order*, a Free World. Long live Africa! Long live our world! Long live mankind! Written by Charles Yeboah (Sir Lord) The Founder Of One Ghana Movement (#1GhM) Contact/WhatsApp: +233249542111 Email: [email protected] The Jammu and Kashmir Police claimed to have recovered large quantity of arms and ammunition near the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmirs Keran sector. The police said that based on a reliable input a joint search operation was launched by Kupwara Police and the Armys 6 Rashtriya Rifles in Keran village and forest areas along the LoC. Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar confirmed that during the combing operation large quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered from a weapons dump. The recoveries included five AK-47 rifles, 15 AK magazines, 443 rounds, two under barrel grenade launcher or UBGL, 57 UBGL grenades, six 9mm pistols, 12 9mm pistol magazine, 77 9mm pistol rounds, 15 hand grenades and two AK slings. With this joint operation security forces deployed in Kupwara have successfully foiled the nefarious designs of Pakistan based terror operatives to smuggle illegal weapons into the Valley and spread terrorism, Kumar said. The police have registered a case and launched further investigation. Meanwhile, an Over Ground Worker of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), identified as Irfan Ahmad Wani of Shatlu Rafiabad in Baramulla, was arrested by joint party of SOG Baramulla, 52 RR and 53 CRPF at Kralhar. A Chinese pistol, one magazine, four rounds and a mobile phone were recovered from him. A driver is facing speeding and other charges Tuesday morning (June 9) after Halton Regional Police clocked a vehicle going nearly 100 km/h in a designated "community safety zone" in Burlington. The incident occurred around 8 a.m. on Maple Avenue near Hammond Street. The car, police said, was clocked at 94 km/h in a posted 50 km/h zone that was also designated a "community safety zone," meaning public safety in the area is of "special concern" because it's near schools, daycare centres, playgrounds, parks, hospitals and senior citizen residences, according to the City of Burlington. Community Safety Zones let motorists know they are within a zone where fines have been increased through a special designation under the Highway Traffic Act. "Police want to remind motorists that even if traffic volume is light they still need to drive appropriately and safely for everyones well being," Halton police said in a tweet after pulling the driver over and laying charges. Read more about: On Tuesday, June 9, the Quebec Jockey Club Board of Directors announced that Hippodrome Trois-Rivieres (H3R) has received the green light to host spectator-free live racing in 2020. The QJC's letter to participants on the matter appears below in both English and French. Important notice - Spectator-free races After months of forced shutdown, we are pleased to announce the return of the races at Hippodrome 3R for the 2020 season. We have worked with the Department of Health and Safety to provide a safe place for all workers of the industry. A strict control system has been put in place to properly meet government requirements and we are asking your full cooperation and comply with it. To this end, a code of conduct and certification have been created. They must be read, signed and adhered to at all times when you are on the racetrack grounds. A schedule of appointment-only training will be established with the concept of first-come, first-served. More details will be emailed today regarding the code of conduct and making an appointment to train your horses. Qualifying, regular and stakes race schedules will be redone in the coming days. We will notify you as soon as possible of the opening date. Important reminder: You must have, renewed your licenses with the RACJ and Standardbred Canada, paid your eligibility fees (SC) and your insurance (SC or ATAQ), otherwise your horses will not be able to race. Please also make sure you have the Coggins test done on your horses before you show up at the racetrack. Thank you and welcome back, Board of Directors of the Quebec Jockey Club June 9, 2020 Avis important Courses a huis clos Apres des mois en arret force, nous sommes heureux de vous annoncer le retour des courses a lhippodrome de Trois-Rivieres pour la saison 2020. Nous avons travaille en collaboration avec le ministere de la sante et la CNESST pour offrir un endroit securitaire a tous les travailleurs(ses) de lindustrie. Un systeme de controle stricte a ete mis en place pour bien satisfaire les exigences gouvernementales et nous vous demanderons de bien vouloir le respecter. A cet effet, un code de conduite et attestation ont ete cree. Ils devront etre lu, signe et adhere en tout temps lorsque vous vous trouverez sur le site de lhippodrome. Un horaire dentrainement sur rendez-vous seulement sera etablis avec la notion de premier arrive, premier servi. Plus amples details vous seront envoyes par courriel aujourdhui concernant le code de conduite et la prise de rendez-vous pour venir entrainer vos chevaux. Les horaires de qualifications, de courses regulieres et de courses stakes, seront refait dans les prochains jours. Nous vous aviserons aussitot que possible de la date douverture. Rappel important : Vous devez avoir, renouvele vos licences avec la RACJ et Standardbred Canada , paye vos papiers de courses (SC) et vos assurances (SC ou ATAQ), sans quoi vos chevaux ne pourront prendre le depart. Veuillez-vous assurez aussi davoir le test Coggins fait sur vos chevaux avant de vous presenter a lhippodrome. Merci de votre comprehension, Conseil dadministration du Club Jockey du Quebec 9 juin 2020 BLOOMINGTON Police and some leaders of the African-American community in Bloomington-Normal stood side by side on Monday afternoon to jointly condemn police brutality, racism and police actions that resulted in the death of George Floyd. "We stand together because we believe we are entitled to a better community," said Linda Foster, president of the Bloomington-Normal branch of the NAACP. She and other Bloomington-Normal black leaders stood on the steps of the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts with representatives of the Bloomington, Normal and Illinois State University police departments; the McLean County sheriff's department; and representatives of Not In Our Town, the Bloomington-Normal anti-hate group. A diverse group of more than 100 people and police attended the noon rally in front of the BCPA, 600 N. East St. "We too condemn the actions of the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd, including those officers who stood by and failed to act," said ISU Police Chief Aaron Woodruff, speaking on behalf of himself, the police chiefs of the Bloomington and Normal police departments and McLean County Sheriff Jon Sandage. Floyd is the African-American man who died May 25 in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The incident has resulted in protests, rallies and vandalism nationwide, including in Bloomington-Normal. Bloomington Police Chief Dan Donath spoke at an NAACP/NIOT rally on May 31 but he was not able to get beyond the first couple minutes of his talk when some of the 1,000 people who attended the rally drowned out his remarks by chanting "I can't breathe," words Floyd used before he died. Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner and Woodruff had intended to speak on May 31 but organizers suggested they step back after Donath's remarks were drowned out. On Monday, Woodruff spoke on behalf of all three chiefs and Sandage. "We wanted it to be a unified message," Bleichner explained to The Pantagraph. "We want to show that we stand unified and we condemn what happened in Minnesota," Sandage said. Woodruff said, "We in law enforcement must be willing to publicly speak out on the recent events which have inflicted our nation, our community and our profession. Pursuant to that unity, I am speaking on behalf of all our agencies here today to make it clear that: "1. We too condemn the actions of the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd, including those officers who stood by and failed to act. "2. We too are against police brutality and excessive use of force and don't condone it in our community. "3. We are committed to accountability, transparency and building a community of tolerance and mutual trust. "4. We are peace officers. As such we will not abuse our authority as we fulfill our solemn oaths to you. "5. We have ratified these commitments, having previously adopted the ideals in the 10 shared principles of the NAACP and Illinois Chiefs Association..." The 10 principles call for treating everyone with respect, rejecting discrimination, advocating fairness in community policing, developing strong relations between police and the African-American community, supporting diversity in law enforcement and de-escalation training, Foster said. Donath, Bleichner and Woodruff said their departments have signed the principles. Sandage said "we firmly believe in them." Asked by The Pantagraph about the relationship between Bloomington police and the African-American community, Donath said, "It's good, it's not perfect ... There are ways to improve it and we are open to any ideas and suggestions that people have." Willie Holton Halbert, NAACP branch second vice president, said "it's a relationship we're working on." She said local police "are open to dialogue." "We don't condone rioting and looting but we also condemn the action of those officers against George Floyd," Donath said. "We want to sit down and listen and have difficult conversations," Bleichner told The Pantagraph. Bleichner said many reforms being called for nationally an outside review if someone dies in police custody, barring choke-holds and a review of police force beyond hand-cuffing already are in place in Normal. "We are in this thing together," Foster said. "It's going to take all of us to sit down together and do something that we can be proud of." "This, in my opinion, is a positive step forward because we have all the chiefs and the sheriff here who agree that what happened in Minnesota is a travesty ... Coming to terms with that is a part of the healing process," said Carla Campbell-Jackson, NAACP branch first vice president. But during the rally, which included 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence to honor Floyd, the Rev. Mollie Ward, co-chair of the NIOT faith and outreach committee, asked police to face her and, quoting Rev. Dr. Yolanda Pierce, warned "Let us not rush to the language of healing before understanding the fullness of the injury and the depth of the wound." PHOTOS: Joint rally outside the BCPA Contact Paul Swiech at 309-820-3275. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_swiech. Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 1 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 European Union Delegation to Ukraine is ready to support the country's reform in the coal industry. According to the press service of the Energy and Environmental Protection Ministry of Ukraine, this issue was discussed during the first meeting between Acting Energy and Environmental Protection Minister of Ukraine Olha Buslavets and Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Matti Maasikas. Buslavets said that apart from resolving current issues in the coal industry the ministry has started developing a concept of reform for it. "We have a strategic global task to transform and reform the coal industry, decide on the further fate of the state coal mining enterprises. The most painful question is reform of coalmines in single-industry towns, in which the population fully depends on their operation. We have to prioritize the interests of people and ensure energy security of the country. We want to use experience of European and other countries which have managed to successfully resolve the same problems," the acting minister said, adding that talks on support in this sphere are being held with Germany, the World Bank and other international partners. Maasikas assured representatives of the ministry that the EU Delegation is ready to hold meetings, discuss issues and provide Ukraine with assistance for successful reform implementation. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 13:26 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd43b04 1 National surabaya,PSBB,coronavirus,COVID-19,coronavirus-restrictions,PSBB-Masa-Transisi,SARS-CoV-2,novel-coronavirus,virus-corona,pandemic Free Greater Surabaya in East Java officially ended its large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), a partial lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19, on Monday. Surabaya and its satellite cities, Gresik and Sidoarjo, will implement a transition phase for the next two weeks. The decision was made on Sunday evening after a PSBB evaluation meeting, which was also attended by East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa. In the meeting, leaders of Greater Surabaya agreed not to extend PSBB in the region for the fourth time. Greater Surabaya started implementing PSBB on April 28. Despite the partial lockdown measures, on June 3 Surabaya became a black zone as confirmed COVID-19 cases skyrocketed, with the region recording nearly 3,000, the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country. Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini said it was better to end PSBB so the city could resume its economic activities. "I am concerned because many people have complained that they cannot earn a living during PSBB. We hope [by ending PSBB] we can resume economic activities while still following health protocols," Risma said on Sunday as reported by kompas.com. Read also: COVID-19: Surabaya mayor feuds with East Java governor over mobile PCR labs Risma also explained that the city administration was preparing a mayoral regulation containing strict health protocols for residents to follow. The protocols, she claimed, would be very effective in curbing the spread of COVID-19. "We have prepared health protocols for markets, malls, factories, coffee shops and minimarkets," Risma said. Although the city administrations could not impose sanctions for violators, Risma said she would coordinate with the National Police and the Indonesian military to make sure that residents follow the health protocols. She reminded residents that the pandemic was not over yet and they had to remain disciplined in following the health protocols. "There are still many residents in hospitals [for COVID-19] right now, don't add to the number [of patients] just because we are not disciplined [in following health protocols]," she said. On Sunday, East Java recorded 365 new COVID-19 cases bringing the total number of infected patients in the province to 6,313 with 502 fatalities. (nal) The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has directed private distribution companies to issue provisional bills to non-domestic consumers only on the fixed charges and taxes, following complaints of inflated electricity bills. This means that industrial, commercial and other non-domestic connections will not be charged on the basis of their consumption or energy units. This, however, will be applicable only on those who are issued provisional bills. Before this order, these bills were based on the readings of the corresponding period of 2019. It means even if, say a store was shut during the lockdown and had no electricity consumption, it was to be billed on the basis of the power consumed during the same period last year. According to directives issued by the power regulator last month, provisional billing now is to be done only in those cases where the meter could not be read or recorded by the discom during the billing cycle owing to the lockdown. Consumers who send the meter readings on their own get a rebate of Rs 20 and actual bills. The distribution licensee (discom) shall raise such provisional bill for the fixed charges and associated applicable charges only, considering the energy consumption as nil, the DERCs order stated. Explaining the reason for the decision, the power regulator said consumers in the industrial and non-domestic tariff category had reported they were facing difficulty as the provisional bills issued by the discoms were on a much higher side since they were based on last years usage. Whereas, because of closure of units due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic and a direction of the government in this regard, the actual consumption of such units/ establishments is almost nil/negligible, the order read. Gauging revenue losses from the DERCs order and with the lockdown rules relaxed, the discoms have now called their meter reading officials to re-start work. In support of the governments measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, some BSES services including meter reading and bill distribution, had been curtailed. But now, adhering to all the necessary safety precautions, we have restarted meter reading for a certain section of our consumers. The exercise will be ramped up in the coming days so consumers can be given actual bills based on their consumption. Bills raised prior to DERCs order have been reversed, so these complaints have already been addressed, said a BSES spokesperson. Discom Tata Power-DDL said it had issued provisional bills to around 1.25 lakh non-domestic consumers in north and northwest Delhi areas since April. Out of 1.25 lakh, we have already revised the bills of around 90,000 consumers. Fortunately, the rest of our non-domestic consumers have smart meters or AMR systems because of which the actual bills got automatically generated even during the lockdown, said a TPDDL spokesperson. For the traders and factory owners, the DERCs order was a welcome step, but it was not enough as some demanded a moratorium on power bill payments till June 30. This (DERCs order) just partially resolves our problem. Industries have just started to open up. The industries have been closed for over two months. It is wrong to expect people to pay the electricity bills right away. The power regulator should issue a moratorium on payment of bill till June 30 for non-domestic connections, said Raghuvansh Arora, vice-president of Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI). Arora added, When neighbouring states such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab can waive off fixed charges during the lockdown period and provide relief, why cant it be done in Delhi? DERC, on the other hand, did just the opposite by imposing fixed charges and excusing us from paying the energy charges. A large number of industrial units in Narela and Bawana industrial areas, which has nearly 25,000 small and big industries, have been issued provisional bills by the discoms since April. Rajesh Garg, secretary of Indian Council for Trade and Industries and a factory owner in Narela, said, As business is at an all-time low now and with migrant labours going back home, it is becoming difficult to restart our units. The government should support the industrial and traders for the economy to get back to normal. The centre has provided financial assistance to discoms. As work will take time to pick up, we request the government to charge for actual consumption of electricity. Kolkata, June 9 : Hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah's virtual 'Jan Samvad Rally' addressing the voters in West Bengal, leaders of the state's ruling Trinamool Congress lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying Shah's speech was all full of rhetoric and no substance. Reacting to the Union Home Minister's virtual rally via video conferencing, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew and the party's Lok Sabha MP from Diamond Harbour Abhishek Banerjee tweeted: "As usual the speech of Amit Shah Ji was all rhetoric and no substance. Nonetheless, since he has talked about his dream of seeing 'exit' of TMC, I would like to ask him one more time - 'When are the Chinese exiting our territory'." Trinamool Congress General Secretary Partha Chatterjee said that BJP's Bengal leadership had made no contribution towards improving the lives of people in Bengal, but has definitely started preparing for the 2021 Bengal elections. "Priorities are clear, while Mamata Banerjee continues to stand by her people and protect them from every danger," Chatterjee said in his tweet. State Forest Minister Rajib Banerjee also echoed the same, saying that as usual the BJP's Bengal unit had set their priorities only on votes and the upcoming Bengal elections. "After pushing the entire country into the dark ages, they are busy conducting party campaigns. Shameful to say the least," he added. Shah addressed his third virtual rally for West Bengal on Tuesday, attacking the ruling state government for its alleged failure to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and the migrant labourers' crisis. Earlier, he had addressed two rallies for Bihar and Odisha via video conferencing. The BJP's West Bengal unit and the central office in New Delhi coordinated the rally which was aired live on social media. TEL AVIV - If Israel will continue to pursue annexation plans in the West Bank, the Palestinians will declare the birth of the state of Palestine within the borders of 1967 with Jerusalem as capital, said Palestinian Premier Mohammed Shtayyeh, proposing a sort of counterplan to the one launched by US President Donald Trump. ''From interim institution, the PNA will become a manifestation of the state on the ground with a Council of foundation, a constitutional declaration. Palestine will extend beyond the borders of 1967 with Jerusalem as capital. We will seek international recognition: the world must choose between international law and annexation''. Palestinians - continued Shtayyeh - have presented days ago a sort of 'counter-proposal' to the Trump plan at the request of three members of the 'Quartet' (Russia, EU and UN). ''In four pages and a half'' it sums up their official proposal on four main themes: ''borders, refugees, Jerusalem and an independent Palestinian State able to support itself''. ''We have proposed - he added - the demilitarization of the independent and sovereign State''. The Palestinians, he added, also accept minor ajustments of borders with Israel ''with exchanges of territories that are exactly the same in their dimension, volume and worth''. Shtayyeh then criticized Israel which, he said, prevented a visit to Ramallah ''for health reasons'' of German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass, who will be in Jerusalem tomorrow with Israeli leaders. Talking about aid recently sent to the Palestinian National Authority by China he said ''it was not requested. The aid was ''a surprise'' and ''nevertheless extremely appreciated''. Qatar also rejected the Israeli annexation plan of the West Bank, starting in July: ''This initiative is the equivalent of planting the last nail on the coffin of the peace process'', said the foreign minister of Qatar, Muhammad ben Abdel Rahman Al Thani, in an interview to Le Monde, which was quoted on Tuesday by pan Arab media. Qatar has been supporting for years the Palestinian political movement in the Gaza Strip. According to the diplomacy chief in Doha, ''the annexation (by Israel) of these territories will bury any possibility of solving the conflict in future. The security, economic and social implications will be catastrophic for the entire region''. SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Grammarly , the company behind the AI-powered digital writing assistant used by more than 20 million people daily, today introduced custom style guides for Grammarly Business users. The new style guide feature helps organizations enhance their brand and customer experiences by creating team-wide consistency in written communication. Businesses can easily customize brand-specific, real-time writing suggestions, and scale them across the organization to help eliminate customer pain points caused by disjointed brand interactions. Inconsistent communications from businesses can lead to frustrated customers taking their business elsewhere. Disconnected messaging can also create a negative long-term impact on the brand as well as internal confusion among employees. Training to ensure communication consistency is difficult when workforces are dispersed, and manually reviewing written work for compliance across multiple writing platforms is challenging and not scalable. With style guides for Grammarly Business, business leaders can: Unify their brand voice in writing at scale : Grammarly Business gives organizations peace of mind that all employees are communicating in a uniform, brand-approved style, from marketing to customer support teamsand beyond. : Grammarly Business gives organizations peace of mind that all employees are communicating in a uniform, brand-approved style, from marketing to customer support teamsand beyond. Customize style guide suggestions: Companies have full control over what goes in and out of their style guides so they can add, edit, and remove as necessary to ensure their teams' writing suggestions are up to date with brand guidelines. Companies have full control over what goes in and out of their style guides so they can add, edit, and remove as necessary to ensure their teams' writing suggestions are up to date with brand guidelines. Enhance the brand and customer experience: Brand-specific writing suggestions promote uniformity in communication across teams internally and externally, reducing customer frustrations, deepening brand affinity and trust, and strengthening collaboration among employees. Brand-specific writing suggestions promote uniformity in communication across teams internally and externally, reducing customer frustrations, deepening brand affinity and trust, and strengthening collaboration among employees. Save valuable time and resources: With style guides, Grammarly Business users can save costly time and company resources required to manually review written work for compliance and to train teams on using proper brand communication guidelines. "Grammarly is committed to helping organizations of all sizes accelerate business results through better communication, and we believe that style guides will prove to be an impactful tool for business customers," said Dorian Stone, general manager, Grammarly Business. "Consistency in business communications is table stakes for gaining brand credibility and trust among key stakeholders. But it's difficult to maintain with a distributed and diverse workforce using a variety of writing platformseven more challenging for businesses now working remotely without established processes in place. Style guides offer a solution." Style guides for Grammarly Business can include team- or company-specific writing suggestions based on brand guidelines, such as the spelling of names, use of specific company terms, and stylistic choices that reflect a brand's style. Grammarly Business administrators have full control over their company's style guide so they can easily maintain brand-approved writing suggestions. Atlassian, a leading provider of team collaboration and productivity software, and Zapier, a leader in workplace automation, have had early access to style guides and provided ongoing feedback as Grammarly developed this feature. Each company has used its style guide to improve brand consistency in written communications. Zapier uses Grammarly Business to deliver real-time writing suggestions for branded terms, partner names, and other key words its employees regularly communicate in writing. The company has already seen efficiencies emerge as a result of significantly reducing the time teams spend editing communications. "Grammarly Business helped us consolidate all of our existing guides into one place, which included suggestions on how to spell and use our branded terms, and partner names," said Janine Anderson, managing editor, Zapier. "It's easy to customize the suggestions our team receives with the words and styles that are important to us. The style guide ensures that our message is always on brand and coming across the right way, no matter the channel we use to communicate." Style guides are available at no additional cost for Grammarly Business customers. Learn more about Grammarly Business and style guides here . About Grammarly Grammarly's mission is to improve lives by improving communication. Its digital writing assistant helps more than 20 million people write more clearly and effectively every day, providing feedback on correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery. Grammarly works to empower users whenever and wherever they writevia a web editor, native desktop apps, browser extensions, mobile keyboards, and a Microsoft Office add-in. Grammarly's business-focused offering, Grammarly Business, helps more than 10,000 teams improve their communication at work. Grammarly was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, with additional offices in Kyiv, New York, and Vancouver. Learn more at grammarly.com/about SOURCE Grammarly On this weeks episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick spoke with Angela Onwuachi-Willig, the dean of Boston University School of Law, who is a renowned legal scholar and an expert in critical race theory, employment discrimination, and family law. Last week, she posted a remarkable open letter to her students talking about this moment in America. In their conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, Lithwick and Onwuachi-Willig spoke about that letter, not being silent, and courts efforts to begin grappling with the injustices theyve perpetuated. Advertisement Dahlia Lithwick: One of the things that really struck me about your letter is that Im the mother of two teenage boys who swan around Crown Heights in Brooklyn and Manhattan as though they own the place. And the conversations Ive had with them are utterly different from the conversations that you have with your kids. And more pointedly, I am really struck by the silences. You flag our silences, and you also flag your own silence and how hard you had to struggle to even write this. And you are the dean of this unbelievably prestigious law school. I wondered if you could reflect for a minute on that struggle to not be silent and to speak knowing that there could be repercussions. What was the thinking around that, and how do you feel now that youve said what you needed to say? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Angela Onwuachi-Willig: There were a million things going through my mind. As the dean of the law school, I represent everyone in the law school when I represent the institution and thats a body of people who have a wide variety of views. Even as I look at what I perceive as the murder of George Floyd and see no other way to view that tape, there might be other people in my community, including my alumni community, that would look at that tape and see it differently. So Im expected to resist those kinds of broader statements. Then there are also the myths that we tell ourselves in law that were supposed to be these completely neutral beings and that the law itself is completely neutral, without recognizing the actors that wrote the laws, without recognizing who was left out of the creation of those laws, without recognizing how precedent reifies the exclusion of certain voices from the creation of case law. And how it reifies the continuing exclusion of particular perspectives because of people viewing their experiences as normative. Advertisement I was struggling with that and yet thinking about all those, including my own students, who were feeling voiceless, who were asking themselves the same question that I was asking: Whats the point of my being in this position if I cant speak? And ultimately that was what pushed me to speak. Whats the point of my being in this position and being a black woman and having people laud it if Im going to be silent in the same way that perhaps a white man would be silent in this position. It didnt make sense. Whatever the repercussions were, I was fully open to them and would be fine with them, absolutely welcome them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So it was more important to speak and it was more important to acknowledge not only that this was something that affected all African Americans but that this has effectively affected all people, that this was something that they should be upset about and that it happens all the time. I think one of the things that you worry about when youre in these positions is that you get used as sort of an example of why racism doesnt exist anymore. You see, we have a black dean, things arent as bad as they used to be. Theres no more racism or theres a lot less racism. And I didnt want to be used in that way either. Advertisement For all those reasons, it was important not to be silent. Its important to speak for my students, and particularly my black students, who I knew were in a lot of pain. It was important to speak so that people who were not aware that people in my position were feeling the way I was feeling knew how I was feeling. That people knew that I feared for my own children, that people knew that people with my education and standing also suffer harassment from the police. All those things are really important for everyone to understand. Advertisement Advertisement One of the things that really struck me about the letter was the intimacy of it, that you talked about your kids and you talked about your fear. I went through three years of law school without ever hearing anybody talk about their children. Certainly, I never heard a woman on the faculty talk intimately about being a mother. Its one of the things I think I hated about law schoolthis oracular, Langdellian world where professors are perfect and theyre brains in vats. I wondered with that vulnerability on your part, what you wanted to hear back and what you have heard back. Have people been vulnerable to you in responding to this? Advertisement Advertisement My first and foremost hope was that my students of color would feel seen, that they would feel like someone acknowledged and recognized their experience, that students who were angry would feel like someone said what they were thinking and that people who wanted to be pushed to look inward felt like they were pushed to look inward. And Ive gotten nothing but really, really positive reception. One of the things that people like to say in law school is that youll learn, thinking like a lawyer, not to say I feel anymore and to be only about what you think, and one of the things that one of the students responded was that it was refreshing to see someone talk about their feelings and that that was important to be reminded that that was part of being a lawyer: having a feeling. Advertisement Advertisement Part of being an effective lawyer is having the ability to feel, and Ive gotten nothing but positive reception from students of color feeling seen, white students who are allies feeling seen and feeling good about being pushed to look inward, people appreciating the fact that I was willing to be vulnerable. I think people appreciate when people who are in positions of power make themselves vulnerable as well. I think that one of the themes here is imagination and failures of imagination. I could never have imagined a law school dean modeling pain and compassion and suffering like you did. Im really struck by this letter that the Washington Supreme Court published that is also beyond anything I could have imagined. Its signed by the entire state Supreme Court and is a recognition as judges of the role theyve played in devaluing black lives, talking about what the court has done with its precedent, talking about systemic inequality and a lack of financial resources. In my lifetime, I couldnt imagine courts acting to take responsibility like that. And I wonder if really thats all your letter was asking for? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That letter is incredible. It is powerful and it gives me hope in a way that was hard to imagine even just a few days ago. So many of us for so long have been talking about the ways in which law facilitates injustice. And to have a Supreme Court of a state basically acknowledge that and to say that there is work that has to be done by the court to undo that is really unbelievable. Advertisement Advertisement Its part of what I and so many people have been saying in our scholarship for so long and its unbelievable. The Massachusetts Supreme Court Judicial Court also wrote a very powerful letter too. And if we can have more courts acknowledging that and we see more changes in a case law, that could create real change. I hope that this results in real change. You almost dont want to believe it because so often you think maybe this will result in a change, and then things go back to the same situation. But Im hopeful that this moment might be different. Listen to this episode, in which Dahlia also talks with former DOJ lawyer Vanita Gupta about overpolicing and what we can do about it, below, or subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bombay High Court has come to the rescue of a 70-year-old widow, who was being mentally and physically tortured by her daughter. The daughter allegedly kept the elderly woman under house arrest for months with a fractured shoulder and broken nerves without any support or proper medical care. If children cannot take care of their parents and allow them to live in peace, they at least ought not to make their life a living hell, said the bench of Justice SJ Kathawalla and Justice Surendra Tavade while issuing a stern warning to the daughter. The bench stopped short of evicting the daughter, a divorcee, and her son, from the petitioner womans flat at Mumbais Lokhandwala Complex in view of the Covid-19 lockdown. The bench, however, warned the daughter and her son that they will be evicted forthwith if either of them caused any harassment to the elderly woman or tried to stop any of her relatives contacting her or from entering the flat. Also read: Mumbai Polices order for action against fake news is legal - Maharashtra govt The judges said that after talking to the petitioner, they had gathered an impression that the petitioner apprehended serious physical and mental harassment and consequently threat to her life at the hands of her daughter if she went to reside at her own flat with the daughter. However, in view of the pandemic and the consequent problems that individuals are facing, we are today not passing an order directing the daughter to make alternate arrangements, said the bench. The elderly woman moved the High Court seeking eviction of her abusive daughter and her son after the tribunal constituted under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 could not take up her plea for urgent reliefs due to the coronavirus pandemic. She said her abusive daughter had been in a wrong company all along. In 1998, she eloped with her boyfriend, a person having a criminal background. They spent two years in constant fights and in July 2000, he abandoned her and their toddler son, With an intervention of relatives, the daughter temporarily returned to her parents place at Lokhandwala but started living there forcibly. She added that a few months after returning to the parents place the daughter started harassing the petitioner and her husband. Both of them had become helpless as the daughter had threatened to level false accusations of molestation against her father, she added. The elderly womans petition stated that she was mentally and physically tortured by her daughter, especially after her husband died in January 2011, and her finances were taken over by her. She was forced to remain naked so as to compel her not to step out of the house and was served food only once a day. On August 3, 2018, she got an opportunity to step out of the flat but was hit by an auto-rickshaw while crossing a road. She had to be hospitalised. Thereafter, the 70-year-old could not move and was almost bedridden for a long time. During that time, her daughter did not allow any of her relatives to enter the flat and also broke the womans cell phone to ensure that she could not contact anybody else. In February 2020, her other daughter came from the US and took her to Bombay Hospital where a series of tests revealed that she had a shoulder fracture and several of her nerves around the neck had been severely damaged. Investor Webinar Friday 12th June 10:15AM AEST Brisbane, June 9, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - NOVONIX Limited ( ASX:NVX ) ( FRA:GC3 ) wishes to advise it will host an investor webinar on Friday 12th June, 2020 at 10.15am AEST to discuss the recent announcement regarding its ability to manufacture single crystal NMC cathode material (Single Crystal Cathode) using its proprietary Dry Particle Microgranulation (DPMG) technique.During the webinar, Managing Director, Philip St Baker and NOVONIX Battery Testing Services CEO, Dr Chris Burns, will discuss the significance of being able to manufacture Single Crystal Cathodes, the breakthrough DPMG technique and related patent applications and the recent successful $58 million capital raising.Investors are invited to send questions prior to the webinar to simon@nwrcommunications.com.au.Investors are advised to register prior to the NOVONIX Investor Webinar at the link below:After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.A recording of the webinar will be made available shortly after the conclusion at the same link.About NOVONIX Limited NOVONIX Limited (ASX:NVX) (FRA:GC3) (OTCMKTS:NVNXF) is an integrated developer and supplier of high-performance materials, equipment and services for the global lithium-ion battery industry with operations in the USA and Canada and sales in more than 14 countries. NOVONIX's mission is to support the global deployment of lithium-ion battery technologies for a cleaner energy future. The first direct container train from China has arrived in Ukraine, the press service of Ukraine's state rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia has reported. "Today is a historic moment - the first container train from China arrived in Ukraine. Given the strengthening of trade and economic relations between our countries, it is important to build quality transport logistics. Rail container transportation is a really reliable, cheap and convenient type of transportation that can become competitive on the China-Ukraine route," the company's acting head, Ivan Yuryk, said. He added that the train covered the distance of 9,000 kilometers through four countries in 15 days. The train consists of 31 fitting platforms loaded with 41 forty-foot containers. The train delivered drill pipes, medical equipment, gasoline trimmers, and consumer goods to Ukraine. op Nine of 10 parents did not pay their childrens fees for the months of April in around 48% of 170 private schools in Delhi due to the economic slowdown triggered by a nationwide lockdown to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, shows data collected by a committee of at least 400 unaided schools in the city. The proportion worsened in May, to 64 % of the schools. The data, from Action Aided Committee of Private Recognised and Unaided Schools, said that 82 of the 170 schools received the monthly fees ranging from 1,100 to 5,500 from 5-10% of the students in April, with the number going up to 108 schools in May. The enrolment in these schools ranges from 1,000-3,000 students. There are 1,175 private schools in the city. The situation in April in the other 47% of the schools wasnt much better -- in 25% of the schools, only between 10% and 25% of children paid fees; and in 15% of the schools, between 25% and 50% of children; and 10% of schools , from between 50% and 75% of the children. Only 5 schools, around 3%, received fees from 75% to 100% of students. (The total exceeds 100% marginally because of rounding of) The fee collection dipped further in May, with not a single school receiving the fees from 75-100% students 64% schools received fees from 5-10 % of the enrolled students, 20% from 10-25% students, 11% from 25-50% of the students and 6% schools receiving fees from 50-75% students. The majority of the schools said the parents cited dwindling savings, loss in business, salary cuts and an expectation that the government might waive off the fees as reasons for not paying the fees. On April 18, the Delhi government directed private schools to charge fees only under the tuition head during the Covid-19 lockdown. The schools were asked not to demand money under any other component and were warned of action under the Disaster Management Act if they failed to comply. Although schools were shut on March 19 in view of the lockdown, they continued virtual classes and sending online study material to their students till May 30, before announcing summer vacations. Officials said that if the government doesnt allow physical reopening of schools, online classes will resume from the first week of July. Among the components the schools have not been charging amid the lockdown are the annual fee, which varies between 2,000 and 10,000 (charged yearly, half-yearly or quarterly), a monthly development fund, which ranges from 5-10% of the tuition fee, the monthly charges for smart classes (200 to 500) and transportation (600 to 2,000, depending on the location) . Schools said it will be difficult for them to pay their staff in June if more parents do not pay up. Sanjay Yadav, the principal of Ahlcon International School, said many parents have requested the administration for a fee relaxation during the lockdown. Many parents sought some time for the payment of fees over the last two months, citing financial difficulties they are facing during the lockdown. Our fee collection was better in April. It reduced in May and we are now really sceptical about June. We have to pay our staff regularly, besides the payments to vendors and support staff. The school has already taken a loan and its expected that we will have to take additional loans if the collection remains the same in June, he said. Tania Joshi, principal of the Indian School, said that some parents have promised to pay fees after the lockdown is lifted. Parents will have to understand that the schools will have to pay the salaries of their staff as well. They are constantly working and teaching students online, she said. Hari Prakash Sharma, the general secretary of Unaided RecognisedPrivate Schools Welfare Association, an umbrella body of 100 private schools in rural areas of Delhi, said many students had left for their home states. Families of many of our students left for their villages and towns after losing jobs, which is why they have not paid the fees. A large section of students studying in these schools have parents working in factories, small-scale industries and wholesale markets across the city, he said. Majority of the parents said they could not pay fees due to the financial crises triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Vishal Gupta, who runs a garment shop in Karol Bagh, said he has not earned anything in the last two months. Guptas daughter studies in class 5. Abhishek Singh, whose children are studying in classes 6 and 8 of a private school in west Delhi, said he has not been paid by his employer a factory owner in Peeragarhi industrial area since April. AK Bhattacharya, the president of Action Aided Committee of Private Recognised and Unaided Schools, said many schools have not been able to pay full salaries to their teachers amid the lockdown due to non-payment of fees by parents. Many parents have genuine reasons and we are not forcing them to pay fees. But there are many who are taking advantage of the Delhi governments April 18 order that had prohibited the schools from taking any action against students over non-payment of fees amid the lockdown. But now, we do not know for how long the lockdown will continue. How will the schools survive? Bharat Arora, general secretary of the committee, said Its not just these 170 schools; the trend is the same in other schools as well. Its going to be really difficult for the schools to pay salaries to the teachers for the month of June. Many parents have this misunderstanding that the government might waive the fee for the lockdown period. Binay Bhushan, director, Directorate of Education (DoE), said the government cannot waive school fees. There is no provision (for this). SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Social Business Intelligence Market is anticipated to achieve significant revenue share by 2028. Social BI is the management technique that assimilates group sharing to enhance ongoing processes, projects, and products. It is generally managed by third-party analytical software and requests consumer response and contribution at initial points in the process. Drivers Rising adoption of cloud-based technologies and increasing use of social media across the globe will show a positive impact on overall industry growth in the forecast period. Social media websites such as Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have gained enormous popularity among the populace creating their own data. Thus, rising number of potential consumers interacting with each other using such media will boost industrial development. In addition, these are cost-efficient and require low analytical and technical skills will escalate business outlook in the coming years. Restraints, Opportunities, and Challenges Factors such as data privacy and security issues will hamper overall industry growth. Rising adoption by SMEs and growing need to generate insights from unused data will create new opportunities to expand industrial global presence. Maintenance and data management quality and lack of skilled personnel are major challenges faced by the industry. Social business intelligence industry is categorized based on type, application, sales channel, and regions. Based on type, the industry is categorized into the cloud and on-premises. Cloud-based segment is expected to account for the largest revenue share and continue its dominance over the forecast period. This solution come with a regular minimum fee, eradicates the necessity for a huge one-time investment, and eliminates periodic expenses for updates and maintenance. These features of cloud-based solutions will show a positive impact on overall industry growth. Please click here to download the sample pdf and find more details on "Global Social Business Intelligence Market" Report 2028. Based on applications, the industry is categorized into government organizations, SMEs, and large enterprises. The large enterprise's segment is expected to remain dominant over the forecast period. This segment comprises several businesses such as telecommunication, retail, healthcare, IT, and BFSI. These industries use business intelligence for prognostic analysis as it helps them segmenting market-based on consumer preference. SMEs segment is anticipated to witness the fastest growth rate over the projected period. The segment is expected to gain momentum owing to favorable regulatory policies in the BFSI and healthcare sectors and a rise in several online retail consumers will propel segment growth. Based on the sales channel, the industry is categorized into a distribution channel and a direct channel. Geographically, the industry is categorized into Middle East & Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Globally, North America is expected to account for the largest revenue share and continue its dominance over the forecast period. The high growth is attributable to rising demand for wearable devices such as Fitbit that monitors bodily data from sleep to health patterns. In addition, presence of major manufacturers such as IBM Corporation, Qlik Technologies, and Oracle Corporation will enhance product demand in the region. The U.S. is a major consumer in this region as health monitoring is gaining traction among the populace. Access 115 page research report with TOC on "Global Social Business Intelligence Market" available with Radiant Insights, Inc. @: https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/2013-2028-report-on-global-social-business-intelligence-market Competitive Players Prominent players of the market include Cision, IBM, Sysomos, Oracle, Radian6/Salesforce, SAP, NetBase Solutions, SAS Institute, Lithium Technologies, Adobe Systems, Kapow Software/Kofax, Attensity Group, HP, Beevolve, Google, Clarabridge, Evolve24, and Crimson Hexagon. These players are concentrating on R&D activities to introduce novel products and technologies in the industry. Thus, rising popularity of social media platforms encourages enterprises to shift towards social business intelligence services. This report provides detailed historical analysis of global market for Social Business Intelligence from 2013-2018, and provides extensive market forecasts from 2019-2028 by region/country and subsectors. It covers the sales volume, price, revenue, gross margin, historical growth and future perspectives in the Social Business Intelligence market. Market Segmentation: Leading players of Social Business Intelligence including: IBM Oracle SAP SAS Institute Adobe Systems Attensity Group Beevolve Clarabridge Crimson Hexagon Evolve24 Google HP Kapow Software/ Kofax Lithium Technologies NetBase Solutions Radian6/Salesforce Sysomos Cision Market split by Type, can be divided into: On-premises Cloud Market split by Application, can be divided into: SMEs Large Enterprises Government Organizations Market split by Sales Channel, can be divided into: Direct Channel Distribution Channel Market segment by Region/Country including: North America ( United States , Canada and Mexico ) ( , and ) Europe ( Germany , UK, France , Italy , Russia and Spain etc.) ( , UK, , , and etc.) Asia-Pacific ( China , Japan , Korea, India , Australia and Southeast Asia etc.) ( , , Korea, , and etc.) South America Brazil , Argentina , Colombia and Chile etc.) , , and etc.) Middle East & Africa ( South Africa , Egypt , Nigeria and Saudi Arabia etc.) Browse latest market research reports available with Radiant Insights, Inc.: RTA (Ready-to-assemble) Furniture Market 4G Phones Market Emergency Exit Signs Market Internet Of Things Microcontroller Market About Radiant Insights, Inc.: At Radiant Insights, we work with the aim to reach the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Our representatives strive to understand diverse client requirements and cater to the same with the most innovative and functional solutions. Contact: Michelle Thoras. Corporate Sales Specialist Radiant Insights, Inc. Phone: +1-415-349-0054 Toll Free: 1-888-928-9744 Email: sales@radiantinsights.com Web: https://www.radiantinsights.com Blog: https://radiantinsightsinc.blogspot.com/ Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has tested negative for COVID-19, officials told news agency PTI. Earlier today, he had undergone a COVID-19 test after developing sore throat and fever. An official said the 51-year-old chief minister's fever has come down. Asked whether he would undergo a test again after some days, the official said, "There is no need for it." The chief minister had gone into self-quarantine after developing mild fever and sore throat. Kejriwal has not been attending any meeting since Sunday afternoon. It's been a month since the family of Loujain al-Hathloul has heard from the imprisoned womens rights activist, raising further concerns about her safety in Saudi Arabia's notorious maximum security prison. Hathlouls family, which has been unable to visit the prison since March, is supposed to speak with her by phone once a week. On Sunday, Hathlouls sister Lina al-Hathloul said they hadnt heard from her in over 30 days. My sister @LoujainHathloul has not called for a month now. Where is Loujain? Lina asked on Twitter. Hathloul has spent more than two years inside the al-Hair prison complex near Riyadh. Her arrest in May 2018 came as part of a sweeping crackdown on female activists campaigning for womens driving rights and the end of restrictive male guardianship laws. A month after Hathloul's arrest, Saudi Arabia lifted the worlds only ban on women driving. Since then, her family says Hathloul has been tortured with waterboarding, electric shocks and sexual harassment and at times held in solitary confinement. In a 2019 New York Times op-ed, her sister Alia Hathloul wrote that during a family visit, Loujain was shaking uncontrollably, unable to hold her grip, to walk or sit normally. Her court date was scheduled for March but has been postponed indefinitely amid the coronavirus pandemic. "It is totally unacceptable for the Saudi government to use the pandemic as an excuse to further violate Loujains human rights, and we call on the state to immediately and unconditionally release her," Suad Abu-Dayyeh, Equality Now's MENA consultant, told Al-Monitor in emailed comments. The continued detention of Hathloul comes as Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) aims to polish his countrys image abroad while at the same time silencing his critics. The CIA concluded he personally ordered the October 2018 operation to kill Washington Post columnist and MBS critic Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The young prince has reportedly orchestrated the arrest of a number of members of the royal family, including Princess Basmah bint Saud. In March, two senior Saudi princes were detained for allegedly planning a coup. The crown princes crackdown on critics comes as the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country and amid reports that Saudi authorities are denying medical treatment to prisoners. According to Amnesty International, detained human rights activist Abdullah al-Hamid died in April after being denied treatment for a heart condition. Equality Now called on Saudi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Hathloul along with other jailed activists including Nassima al-Sada, Samar Badawi, Maya Al-Zahrani and Nouf Abdelaziz. Last week the entire world witnessed a murder by police officers in Minneapolis, without shame, in broad daylight. We all had front row seats to observe murder at the hands, or knee, of the police. This week at least one police union, The Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, through its president, David Kennedy, denounced Governor Wolfs proposals for changing certain police-related procedures to reduce chances of such abuses happening in Pennsylvania. Kennedy claimed that Wolfs proposals implied that law enforcement in Pennsylvania are no better than those charged with Mr. Floyds death. He also criticized the governor for participating in a protest march. All this makes me wonder what Kennedy and other police personnel may not be absorbing about this moment. I am sorry if individual police officers feel that members of the public are painting the situation with too broad a brush, accusing all police of being part of a problem that seems to repeat itself again and again. To them I say: There is very little transparency when it comes to police departments. Few of us in the public can peer inside. You ask us to respect your authority because you are wearing the uniform and a badge. So when you put on that uniform and badge, that represents who you are. We are not in a position to distinguish between individual officers. When one for your comrades uses that badge and uniform to commit murder, they do so in your name, with your authority. When some of your comrades are involved in needless killings again, and again, and again, and over again in different parts of the country, it really begins to reflect badly on your badge, on your uniform and yes, unfortunately, eventually on you. This may be a dilemma for you, but it is an even greater dilemma for the rest of us members of the public. I, for example, was raised being told that when the police are doing their job in our midst we should not interfere with their work while they are doing it. None of us can know the larger picture of what has been going on. We are simply going to increase the danger to everyone if we interfere. The repeated instances of unexplained and unwarranted deaths in police custody have brought that assumption more and more into question, and last weeks clear and blatant murder blew it out of the water. It is now clear to me that all members of the public hold a responsibility to watch, monitor, observe and in some ways supervise the police working in our midst. At times we may even have the moral obligation to intervene in the work of the police at the very moment while they are doing their job in our midst. This is a dangerous conclusion, for the public and for the police. But we can see that not to intervene can be dangerous too. So what are we supposed to do? I am sorry if you do not like the situation that some of your colleagues have put you in. But it is not the fault of the public. We gave you our trust. That trust has been abused. Ultimately this is a dilemma that only you can solve. You have to be the ones to remove from us any need to be suspicious of you. And then you have to earn our trust again. In a word you have to police yourselves. And you have to take a look with an open mind at the various reforms being proposed to help you do that. After the murder of George Floyd, members of the police force should have been among the first groups protesting the act that had been committed in their name. After all, this death in particular, which we all witnessed, was clearly executed using the same authority the police need the public to respect and acknowledge every moment they are on the job. But how can we acknowledge that authority now? Rather than criticizing the governor for becoming part of a protest march, maybe the police union president should join a march to acknowledge how the police, too, are wounded when such crimes are committed by their own. Only this will redeem for the police the honor that comes with the motivation held by so many officers truly to serve the community. Rabbi Carl Choper is a member of the Interfaith Alliance of Pennsylvania Burundi's government says President Pierre Nkurunziza, 55, has died of a heart attack though his death follows reports that he and his wife may have contracted COVID-19. Why it matters: Burundi has reported few cases of coronavirus and done little to mitigate the spread. It expelled World Health Organization officials last month, accusing them of "interference," and went ahead with elections on May 20 that were widely viewed as rigged but saw Nkurunziza's chosen successor declared the winner. Where things stand: The government says Nkurunziza was hospitalized on Saturday after feeling unwell, and that he went into cardiac arrest on Monday. But observers noted that Nkurunziza's wife had reportedly been taken to Kenya days earlier for medical treatment, likely for coronavirus. Between the lines: Nkurunziza would be the first sitting world leader to die of coronavirus, if that was determined to be the cause. The big picture: Nkurunziza was due to step down as president in August and be named supreme guide to patriotism," per the Economist. Burundi, a country of 11 million which borders Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, has seen significant democratic backsliding on Nkurunziza's watch, according to Freedom House. He defied constitutional term limits in seeking a third term in 2015, but surprised some by stepping aside this time around. Like in Tanzania, the government has refused to implement many restrictions, and a government spokesman said the country would be protected by God. The ruling party held large rallies ahead of the elections. What to watch: "The big question here is whether [Nkurunziza] died from Covid-19 (and whether authorities will admit it if he did)," says Simon Allison, Africa editor for the Mail and Guardian. The Oregon Health Authority on Monday reported no new deaths from the novel coronavirus as known cases climbed to 4,922. In the last 24 hours, the state recorded 114 new confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases more than half of them linked to an outbreak among employees and contractors at Pacific Seafood in Newport. They were in 10 of Oregons 36 counties: Clackamas (13), Hood River (3), Jefferson (1), Klamath (1), Lane (1), Lincoln (61), Marion (8), Multnomah (16), Umatilla (8), Washington (2). The latest figures mark the fourth consecutive day where reported new cases topped 90, including 146 on Sunday the largest daily tally since the emergence of the pandemic in Oregon. Dr. Paul Cieslak, the states medical director for communicable diseases, told reporters Monday afternoon that he attributed the recent upticks to increased testing around workplace outbreaks as well as those considered to be close contacts of previously reported cases. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter County case totals: Two counties -- Multnomah and Marion -- have more than 1,000 coronavirus cases each. Seven counties -- Washington, Clackamas, Deschutes, Lincoln, Linn, Umatilla and Polk -- have reported 100 coronavirus cases or more. Gilliam and Wheeler have reported none. Heres the overall count -- confirmed and presumptive cases -- by county: Baker (1), Benton (62), Clackamas (377), Clatsop (45), Columbia (16), Coos (32), Crook (6), Curry (7), Deschutes (135), Douglas (29), Grant (1), Harney (1), Hood River, (59), Jackson (71), Jefferson (58), Josephine (23), Klamath (46), Lake (2), Lane (81), Lincoln (155), Linn (125), Malheur (34), Marion (1,058), Morrow (13), Multnomah (1,302), Polk (103), Sherman (1), Tillamook (6), Umatilla (144), Union (6), Wallowa (3), Wasco (35), Washington (800) and Yamhill (85). Death toll: At least 164 people have died from the virus. They are from 13 counties -- 65 people from Multnomah, 27 from Marion, 18 from Washington, 12 from Polk, 12 from Clackamas, nine from Linn, seven from Yamhill, five from Benton, three from Umatilla, three from Lane, one each from Josephine, Malheur and Wasco. Their ages ranged from 36 to 100.Among them, 94 men have died and 70 women have died. All but three had underlying medical conditions. The breakdown of deaths by age: ages 30-39 (1), ages 40-49 (3), ages 50-59 (8), ages 60-69 (34), ages 70-79 (46), ages 80-plus (72). [Read about Oregon coronavirus deaths. Help us learn more.] Senior care homes: More than half of all coronavirus deaths in Oregon 90 are associated with a care center, a newsroom analysis of state data shows. Nearly 600 senior care home residents, staff and close contacts from at least 69 nursing, assisted and retirement homes have contracted COVID-19. Testing: Another 6,614 people received coronavirus test results in the 72 hours since Friday, according to figures published on the Oregon Health Authoritys website. For the first time, the health authority did not publicly disclose daily testing data over the weekend. So far, 149,732 Oregonians have been tested for the illness since the state confirmed its first case on Feb. 28. Ages: Cases are so far spread evenly among people in their 20s (17%), people in their 30s (17%), people in their 40s (17%) and people in their 50s (16%). The breakdown: 0-9 (90), ages 10-19 (222), ages 20-29 (854), ages 30-39 (850), ages 40-49 (849), ages 50-59 (806), ages 60-69 (595), ages 70-79 (378), ages 80-plus (272). Gender: 2,534 cases are among women, or 52%, and 2,382, or 48%, are among men. Hospitalizations: At least 843 of the states COVID-19 patients, or 17%, have been hospitalized at some point during their illness, according to the health authority. Most -- at least 627 -- have been 50 or older. The hospitalizations breakdown by age: 0-9 (7), ages 10-19 (4), ages 20-29 (41), ages 30-39 (61), ages 40-49 (102), ages 50-59 (147), ages 60-69 (184), ages 70-79 (172), ages 80-plus (124). Currently, 65 people with confirmed coronavirus cases are hospitalized, including 24 in intensive care and 14 on ventilators. Recoveries: At least 2,199 COVID-19 patients have recovered from the illness, or 47%, the health authority said. Nationwide: Confirmed coronavirus cases stood at nearly 2 million. The death toll climbed past 110,000. -- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632 Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed students worldwide from his backyard during webinar hosted by YouTube. In his speech, the Google CEO recalled his humble roots, highlighting the importance of staying positive in the face of difficulties. The 47-year-old recounted the challenges he faced when he left India to pursue his studies at Stanford University in US. "My father spent the equivalent of a year's salary on my plane ticket to the US so I could attend Stanford. 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 Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) More than 300 repatriated Filipino seafarers were allowed to return home to their respective provinces on Tuesday, three days after arriving in the country. A total of 345 seafarers from Barbados came home last Saturday via a chartered Philippine Airlines flight from the Royal Carribean cruise line, COVID-19 response deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon told reporters in a media briefing with other Cabinet officials in Clark, Pampanga. Of this number, at least four had tested positive for the virus and were isolated in quarantine facilities, National Action Plan on COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said. The seafarers who were allowed to go home are part of the 600 overseas Filipino workers who returned to the country last week. A total of 262 OFWs on board an Emirates commercial flight from Dubai arrived last Friday and were already sent home on Monday. All the OFWs who arrived at the Clark International Airport were immediately subjected to mandatory reverse transmission-polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR testing, and then brought to a hotel assigned by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and their manning agency as their holding areas prior the release of their testing results. With the assistance accomplished in only three days, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the Inter-Agency for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases is striving to make it as their standard processing period for other returning OFWs. "Ngayon lang po mangyayari na sa loob ng tatlong araw ay makakauwi na po ang ating OFWs. Sana po ito ay maging standard para sa ating mga darating na OFWs pa," Duque said. [Translation: This is the first time that it only took three days before OFWs are allowed to get home. We hope this will be our new standard for other returning OFWS.] "Kami po sa IATF ay nagpupursigi na ang prosesong kanilang dinadaanan ay mapapaigi pa katulad nitong tatlong araw, mabilis ang testing results, in 72 hours, pati paglabas ng certificate ng Bureau of Quarantine," he added. [Translation: We at the IATF are striving to improve the process and shorten it into three days, with a fast release of the testing results, in 72 hours, including the issuance of the certification from the Bureau of Quarantine.] Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said that seafarers may be deployed back to their work in the future, with authorization from the task force. Meanwhile, other OFWs who cannot return to work will receive a cash assistance, livelihood, and education assistance from the government. More repatriation flights from the United Arab Emirates and the United States are expected to arrive in the coming weeks, he added. CNN Philippines' Gerg Cahiles contributed to this report. The Dunamaise Arts Centre in Portlaoise to lobby Laois Offaly TDs as part of a national campaign to help arts centres which have been decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Laois theatres and arts centre has joined with other centres across the country to show support for the National Arts Recovery Plan published last week by the NCFA (National Campaign for the Arts). The Dunamaise Arts Centre says it stands together with the NCFA venues around Ireland, artists and arts workers at this difficult time to ensure the survival of our sector. The Dunamaise Arts Centre's management, which hosts numerous events including the Portlaoise panto and Portlaoise Musical Society Shows, is asking its customers and the general public to help give the arts a voice with these 3 actions: 1. Tell your TD how important the arts are to you. Local TDs in Laois Offaly include: Minister Charlie Flanagan, Sean Fleming, Brian Stanley, Barry Cowen, Carol Nolan T.D. 2. Are you an arts fan? We need your voice to help us survive! Add your voice to the campaign by sharing the #SAVETHEARTS video on social media. 3. Tell your friends and family about how important the arts are to you and ask them to do points one and two above. Michelle de Forge is Director of Dunamaise Arts Centre. Were keeping seats warm and working in the wings and very much look forward to welcoming our customers back into Dunamaise to enjoy all the arts have to offer. We are working hard to make our venue safe in order to be able to do so and will take every measure to ensure the safety of our staff, artists and audiences, she said. The campaign says that before and during this pandemic, the arts that have kept us company, been an escape, a voice, a release, a hope. "As the country emerges from the pandemic and businesses attempt to return to trading or pivot to alternative offerings in a physically limited new world, the arts and culture sector will be the very last to recover in any meaningful way. "Venues, artists, arts workers and arts organisations need the support of the public now. We must keep the arts on the national agenda while we move towards Government formation and Programme for Government," said a statement. Dunamaise Arts Centre is currently closed but has a virtual programme of events online and is supporting two artist workshops for Cruinniu na nOg on Saturday 13 June. Full details of all events can be seen on www.dunamaise.ie/at-home . THEATRES AND ARTS CENTRES STATEMENT MAY 2020 Theatres and Arts Centres across the country have come together to show support for the National Arts Recovery Plan published last week by the NCFA and the #savethearts campaign. We stand together with the NCFA and our artists and arts workers at this difficult time to ensure the survival of our sector. How we will address the severe challenges posed by social distancing and huge losses in revenue will require close collaboration with our artists, arts workers and audiences as well as The Arts Council, Local Authorities and Government partners. Venues are more than walls we are teams of professional, experienced people dedicated to supporting artists and audiences and we are working hard right now to create plans for a reimagined future in which we can support our artists to the best of our ability and enrich our communities creatively. With investment from the Government and Arts Council, as outlined in the National Arts Recovery Plan: We can put in place the vast measures required to reopen our theatres and arts centres as safe workplaces for staff teams, artists and arts workers and ultimately as safe places to visit for our audiences. We can develop and deliver alternative programmes to continue our engagement with artists, arts workers and audiences. We can introduce opportunities to work with artists in new ways, making our spaces available for creativity and development. The Covid-19 crisis has affected everyone. The financial impact is devastating. It is crucial that we protect our arts sector and ensure the years of investment, experience, and artist support infrastructure are not lost. Theatres and Arts Centres are a key infrastructure for communities and artists; we are an important touchstone for arts engagement and provide vital pathways connecting artists and audiences. We value all our sectoral partners and will continue to prioritise artists and arts workers as we navigate through this difficult and uncertain time together. The National Arts Recovery Plan outlines comprehensively the challenges facing our sector and presents a plan for the survival and recovery of the sector to ensure that the Arts & Culture Sector can contribute to Irelands economic and societal recovery and can continue to enrich all of our lives. This document has been devised, reviewed and approved by: Backstage Theatre, Longford Hawks Well Theatre, Sligo Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny Town Hall Theatre, Galway Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise Siamsa Tire, Tralee glor, Ennis Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire Roscommon Arts Centre Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda Mullingar Arts Centre Project Arts Centre Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray Axis, Ballymun Draiocht, Blanchardstown Everyman Theatre, Cork Theatre Royal, Waterford An Tain Arts Centre, Dundalk Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny The Source Arts Centre, Thurles Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh Belltable, Limerick Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton Ballina Arts Centre Wexford Arts Centre Solstice Arts Centre, Navan Birr Arts Centre VISUAL, Carlow Thousands of people called on Tuesday for a statue of 19th century British imperialist Cecil Rhodes to be removed from an Oxford University college, as debate raged over the removal of other monuments to the nation's colonial past. Protesters chanted "Take it down" and "Decolonise", and held placards urging "Rhodes Must Fall" and "Black Lives Matter" beneath the statue at Oriel College. The "Rhodes Must Fall" movement, which began in South Africa, failed in a previous attempt to have the statue removed but has been revived by a wave of anti-racism protests. Protesters sat with raised fists for nearly nine minutes in tribute to unarmed black man George Floyd, whose death in US police custody triggered outrage and condemnation worldwide. Sylvanus Leigh, 44, said the limestone statue of the Victorian-era tycoon, who founded the De Beers diamond company in what is now Zimbabwe, represented "a colonial mindset". The care worker told AFP he could think of more deserving candidates for a statue. "Better to have Mother Teresa or Desmond Tutu," he said. The leader of Oxford City Council, Susan Brown, said it would be a "good thing" if Oriel, which was founded in 1326, applied for permission to remove the statue. The college had to "find the right balance between the laws that protect our historic buildings and the moral obligation to reflect on the malign symbolism of this statue", she added. Local MP Layla Moran called Rhodes a "white supremacist who does not represent the values of Oxford in 2020". - 'Uncomfortable truth' - The protest comes after activists toppled a statue to Edward Colton, a 17th century merchant who helped build the city of Bristol and played a leading role in slavery. Years of local debate over what to do with the statue came to an end on Sunday when it was thrown in the harbour. Campaigners in Wales are now demanding the removal of memorials to Napoleonic war hero Thomas Picton, who was accused of cruelty while serving as a governor in Trinidad. In Scotland, activists have called for changes to the streets named after the 18th and 19th century tobacco and sugar traders who made their fortunes through slavery. A central London statue of Winston Churchill was defaced, with protesters blaming his policies for the death of millions during famine in the Indian state of Bengal in 1943. Mayor Sadiq Khan launched a review of city landmarks and street names, saying many reflected "a bygone era", and could better reflect the capital's diversity. "It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade," he said. The Canal and River Trust announced it would "remove as soon as possible" a statue of Robert Milligan, whose family owned sugar plantations in Jamaica, from London's Docklands. - 'Cold reality' - Despite widespread support, some warned of an attempt to erase the past. "If you change the street names it's easier to forget but it's better to have signs underneath to talk about what these men did," said student Kieran Weatherill, 24, in Glasgow. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he understood the "depth of emotion" triggered by Floyd's death and the anger from black and ethnic minority groups about discrimination. "We who lead and who govern simply can't ignore those feelings because in too many cases, I am afraid, they will be founded on a cold reality," he said in a video message Monday. But he warned he would not tolerate vandalism or violence, after clashes near his Downing Street office left 35 police officers injured. Johnson's Conservatives have been embroiled in a number of scandals over their treatment of immigrants, and he has been accused of using racist language in his journalism. However, he expressed pride in having what he claimed was the most diverse cabinet in British history, including interior minister Priti Patel, who on Monday told MPs how she had faced racial abuse as a child. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci attends the daily coronavirus briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 09, 2020 in Washington, DC. U.S. unemployment claims have approached 17 million over the past three weeks amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus, which emerged in Wuhan, China, in late December, has infected more than 7 million people worldwide and killed at least 408,244, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. "That's millions and millions of infections worldwide. And it isn't over yet. And it's condensed in a very, very small time frame," he said. "You know, first notice at the end of December, hit China in January, hit the rest of the world in February, March, April, May, early June." The virus is "something that's highly transmissible. ... In a period if you just think about it in a period of four months, it has devastated the world," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with the BIO Digital virtual health-care conference that aired Tuesday. White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Covid-19 turned out to be his "worst nightmare" come to life as the coronavirus continues to rapidly spread across the globe. Fauci said the virus is "very different" from other outbreaks such as Ebola and HIV. The virus jumped from an animal host and has a high degree of transmissibility and mortality, he said. It is historically one of the worst pandemics the world has ever experienced, he said, adding people have compared it to the 1918 flu. "I mean, Ebola was scary. But Ebola would never be easily transmitted in a global way," he said. "HIV, as important as it is, was drawn out over an extended period of time. I mean, I think the ultimate impact of AIDS almost certainly will be greater than anything we're talking about now." The coronavirus just "took over the planet," he said. "It's a testimony to not only the extraordinary capability of transmission but of the extraordinary travel capability we have," he said. "I mean, it started in a very well-defined place in a city in China called Wuhan. And China is a big country. A lot of people travel all over the world. They travel to the United States. They travel to Europe." Fauci said he is "very heartened" by the pharmaceutical industry, which he said, "stepped up to the plate" more than what the public saw with SARS, another disease caused by a coronavirus that emerged in the early 2000s. There are more than 124 Covid-19 vaccines under development as of June 2, according to the World Health Organization. The National Institutes of Health has been fast-tracking work with biotech firm Moderna on a potential vaccine to prevent Covid-19. The biotech company expects to enroll about 30,000 people when it begins a phase three trial in July. "The industry is not stupid. They figured it out," Fauci said. "There's going to be more than one winner in the vaccine field because we're going to need vaccines for the entire world. Billions and billions of doses. So I'm almost certain that we're going to have multiple candidates that make it to the goal line get approved and get widely used." He expressed optimism for therapeutics as well, saying he thinks there will be "multiple." The industry "has been stellar in this and that they've done it so rapidly, in fact, even outpaced the public health response, in some respect," he said. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 Trend: The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry at the bilateral level is actively discussing the restoration of flights with countries, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Trend reports. Presently, there are positive signals stipulating the restoration of flights with Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey and Cyprus, the deputy foreign minister added. Ukraine is considering restoring the flights with those countries in which, besides a controlled pandemic situation, there are regular flights and there are no restrictions on the entry of Ukrainian citizens, Yenin added. We are actively continuing to work on relevant issues at the bilateral level, the deputy foreign minister said. Our diplomats are actively holding the negotiations with several countries. In case of the progress, we will inform the public." Yenin stressed that the Foreign Ministry is actively learning from the foreign experience and is consulting with foreign partners on the gradual restoration of flights. "Of course, we expect the countries that have canceled regular flights to gradually restore them, starting primarily from the domestic flights, the deputy foreign minister said. The countries will gradually remove restrictions for the categories of citizens who are allowed to enter the country. In the EU, this will concern, first of all, citizens of the EU countries." Moreover, the deputy foreign minister stressed that as of today, in almost all cases, countries resort to the restrictions of one level or another, either by determining the categories of citizens who are allowed to fly (now this applies only to the citizens of the country or the citizens with the right to permanent residence) or restrictions on the regions from which the flights are prohibited to be made due to the outbreak of a pandemic there. "For example, the vast majority of countries monitor the symptoms, Yenin added. At the same time, some countries, such as Austria, China, Japan also conduct mandatory coronavirus tests upon arrival. Such countries as Cyprus, Singapore or the United Arab Emirates carry out quick tests, the deputy foreign minister added. "There is a duty of self-isolation in almost all countries. It is possible to enter Austria, the Czech Republic and Serbia with a certificate about COVID-19 negative test results made during the last 2-4 days." As "Defund the Police" becomes a battle cry for some of the demonstrators protesting the killing of George Floyd and police brutality in the United States, there is a lack of consensus over what the term actually means. In Minneapolis, a veto-proof majority of the city council announced its intent to disband the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a yet-to-be-determined new system of public safety, but in Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti plans to decrease the LAPD's budget and divert funds to education, health care, and job training African American communities. During a Monday appearance on ABC's "The View," California Sen. Kamala Harris took questions from conservative co-host Meghan McCain on if she supports the "Defund the Police" slogan. "So Meghan, I think that a big part of this conversation really is about re-imagining how we do public safety in America, which I support, Harris said. We have confused the idea that to achieve safety, you put more cops on the street instead of understanding to achieve safe and healthy communities, you put more resources into the public education system of those communities, into affordable housing, into home ownership, into access to capital for small businesses, access to health care regardless of how much money people have. That's how you achieve safe and healthy communities." Harris continued by noting that in some American cities, the police force makes up a third of the total city budget, and law enforcement officials themselves do not want to respond to certain calls. "When I talk to law enforcement, they know that they don't want to be the ones who are responding to someone with mental illness or substance abuse or the homeless population," she said. "But in many cities, that's what's happening because we are not directing those resources to where they need to go which is addressing mental health, homeless and substance abuse so that way we don't need a police response because we're smarter." McCain was not satisfied with the senator's answer. "There was a video that went viral over the weekend of the mayor of Minneapolis being yelled at after a yes or no question: 'Are you for defunding the police?' So I'm going to ask the same question the protesters asked him: Are you for defunding the police?" she asked. "How are you defining 'defund the police?'" Harris responded. McCain stated that she interprets "defund the police" as "removing the police" entirely, and Harris did not give a definitive answer on if she supports that interpretation of the slogan. "So again, we need to re-imagine how we are achieving public safety in America," Harris said. "And to have cities where one-third of their entire budget is going to policing but yet there's a dire need in those same cities for mental health resources, for resources going into public schools, for resources going into job training and job creation. Come on. We have to be honest about this that there isn't a consensus around this because if there were we would actually see a smarter distribution of resources in our country to address the issues that need to be addressed." The White House has also taken "defund the police" to mean "abolish the police" and is working to tie former Vice President Joe Biden to those hoping to dismantle the police even after a campaign spokesperson stated "Vice President Biden does not believe that police should be defunded." Harris has been widely discussed as a potential running mate for Biden. Eric Ting is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com | Twitter:@_ericting Police officers and protesters in Philadelphia on June 1. AP Photo/Matt Slocum A Washington Post tally found that police officers in the US had fatally shot nearly 1,000 people a year since 2015. The Post says this year seems to be on a similar pace, with 463 people killed in police shootings so far. Most of the people were armed, and about half were white, but The Post did find that Black people had been killed at disproportionate rates. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. US police officers have fatally shot roughly 1,000 people a year for the past half a decade despite promises for reform, The Washington Post said Monday, citing a tally it had been keeping since 2015. The Post said it began keeping track of fatal police shootings in 2015 amid a wave of protests against police brutality that year. Its final count was 994, a number it said was "twice as many as ever documented in one year by the federal government." But similar numbers were repeated year after year. Here are The Post's numbers: In 2015, the police fatally shot 994 people In 2016, the police fatally shot 962 people In 2017, the police fatally shot 986 people In 2018, the police fatally shot 991 people In 2019, the police fatally shot 1,004 people So far in 2020, the police have fatally shot 463 people The Post noted the consistency of the numbers, with this year's pace perhaps surprising considering that the coronavirus pandemic had prompted stay-at-home orders for much of the country for months. The Post reported that 49 more people were killed in 2020 compared with the same period last year. May was the deadliest month, with 110 killings. Protests in 2015 responded to several high-profile cases of police officers killing Black men. Michael Brown, 18, was fatally shot in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014. In December of that year, a video emerged that showed the death of Eric Garner, who pleaded for air when a police officer had an arm around his neck. In April 2015, Freddie Gray suffered a spinal injury while being transported in a police van. A video recorded a police officer shooting Walter Scott in the back in North Charleston, South Carolina, the same month. Story continues The Post noted that the vast majority of those shot to death by the police were armed, and about half were white. It did find, however, that Black people had been killed at disproportionate rates. "The number of black and unarmed people fatally shot by police has declined since 2015, but whether armed or not, black people are still shot and killed at a disproportionately higher rate than white people," The Post wrote. After the 2015 protests, some officials vowed to change the way the police used force. Some reform ideas included pushing for the use of body cameras and implementing bias training. Protests have now erupted demanding the end of police violence and racial injustice after the video surfaced of George Floyd becoming unresponsive as a white police officer kept a knee on his neck for several minutes in Minneapolis. All four officers involved in the arrest were fired and now face criminal charges. Derek Chauvin, the officer seen in the video kneeling on Floyd's neck, has been charged with second-degree murder. Protests have taken place in all 50 states and internationally, with many chanting for "defunding" the police. On NBC's "Meet the Press," a Black Lives Matter cofounder, Alicia Garza, said defunding the police meant a realignment of society's priorities by way of funding and responsibilities in the community. "When we talk about defunding the police, what we're saying is 'invest in the resources that our communities need,'" she said. "Are we willing to live in fear that our lives will be taken by police officers who are literally using their power in the wrong way?" she asked. "Or are we willing to adopt and absorb the fear of what it might mean to change our practices, which will ultimately lead to a better quality of life for everyone." Additionally, nine members of the Minneapolis City Council announced plans to disband the city's police force, Business Insider previously reported. The announcement came almost two weeks after Floyd's death. Read the original article on Insider The painful history of brutality and betrayal began over 400 years ago when our ancestors were forcefully brought to these shores, the caucus said in a statement. It was important to put the death of George Floyd and all those who have tragically lost their lives to police brutality in a fuller context, from the period of enslavement to Jim Crow to today. That old conventional wisdom about Georgia is entirely wrong Georgia will be the most competitive state in the country this year, Ossoff said in an interview Tuesday, noting that statewide general elections have gotten progressively closer over the past six years. Georgia is daily becoming younger and more diverse. The massive defection from Donald Trumps GOP in the suburbs continues. And all of these monumental efforts of the last several years . . . have all built enduring infrastructure. According to a new study, people with small airways relative to the size of their lungs may have a lower breathing capacity and, consequently, an increased risk for COPD--even if they don't smoke or have any other risk factors. The study, funded in part by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, will publish in the June 9 issue of JAMA. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a debilitating lung condition, often develops as a result of smoking, but researchers have long puzzled over why nearly a third of cases occur in people who never smoked. Now they may finally have an answer--and it may be linked to how lungs develop in certain people. Lung development may explain why some non-smokers get COPD and some heavy smokers do not According to a new study, people with small airways relative to the size of their lungs may have a lower breathing capacity and, consequently, an increased risk for COPD--even if they don't smoke or have any other risk factors. The study, funded in part by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, will publish in the June 9 issue of JAMA. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a debilitating lung condition, often develops as a result of smoking, but researchers have long puzzled over why nearly a third of cases occur in people who never smoked. Now they may finally have an answer--and it may be linked to how lungs develop in certain people. "This work, stemming from the careful analysis of lung images of COPD patients, shows that an abnormal lung development may account for a large proportion of COPD risk among older adults," said James Kiley, Ph.D., director of NHLBI's Division of Lung Diseases. "More research is needed to understand what drives this occurrence and to devise possible interventions." COPD, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, causes airflow blockage and breathing-related problems that can severely limit a person's day-to-day activities. Smoking, asthma, or air pollution account for many COPD cases, but up to 30% of cases occur in people who never smoked, and only a minority of heavy smokers develop the disease, suggesting that there are other risk factors at play. Previous research offered a clue about a possible cause, finding that about half of older adults with COPD appeared to have low lung function early in life. Benjamin Smith, M.D., a pulmonary physician in the Department of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York City, who was involved in the new study, explained the phenomenon. When people breathe, they move air through their airways, beginning with the windpipe or trachea, which branches out to smaller airways called bronchi and bronchioles. As people grow, their airways are thought to develop in proportion to their lungs, but in some people, the airways grow smaller or larger than expected--a condition called dysanapsis-- for reasons that are not clear. To find out if small airways might be the culprit for COPD in people who did not smoke or have other risk factors, a team led by Smith looked at records for more than 6,500 older adults participating in three studies that included smokers and nonsmokers with and without COPD. Each study--the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Lung Study, the Subpopulations and Intermediate Outcome Measures in COPD Study (SPIROMICS), and the Canadian Cohort of Obstructive Lung Disease (CanCOLD) study--assessed dysanapsis using computed tomography (CT) scans of the lungs. The MESA Lung study, based in six U.S. cities, included white, African American, Hispanic, and Chinese American people who were age 69 on average. The participants from the CanCOLD study were age 67 on average and came from nine Canadian cities. SPIROMICS, based at 12 U.S. medical centers, included people who were age 63 on average and reported 20 or more pack-years of smoking. In the MESA Lung and CanCOLD studies, participants with smaller airways relative to lung size were much more likely to develop COPD compared with those with the larger airways relative to lung size. The association remained after considering standard COPD risk factors, including smoking, pollutants, and asthma. The researchers then focused on participants from the CanCOLD study who never smoked and heavy smokers from the SPIROMICS study. Never smokers with COPD had much smaller airways relative to lung size, whereas the heavy smokers who did not have COPD had larger than normal airways. "These results show that small airways relative to lung size are a very strong risk factor for COPD," said Smith, the lead study author. "This helps us to understand why 30% of COPD can occur in people who never smoked." With normal aging, lung function declines, so people who already have low lung function to begin with may develop COPD later in life, even if they don't smoke, he explained. Smith added that the findings may also help explain why some lifelong heavy smokers do not develop COPD. People with larger airways relative to lung size may be able to withstand lung damage from smoking and still have enough breathing reserve to prevent them from developing COPD. Still, given the multiple health problems caused by tobacco, Smith emphasized that smokers should do their best to quit. ### The MESA Lung Study was funded by NIH/NHLBI grants R01-HL130506, R01-HL077612, RC1-HL100543, R01-HL093081, and R01-HL121270. MESA was supported by contracts 75N92020D00001, HHSN268201500003I, N01-HC-95159, 75N92020D00005, N01-HC-95160, 75N92020D00002, N01-HC-95161, 75N92020D00003, N01-HC-95162, 75N92020D00006, N01-HC-95163, 75N92020D00004, N01-HC-95164, 75N92020D00007, N01-HC-95165, N01-HC-95166, N01-HC-95167, N01-HC-95168 and N01-HC-95169 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. SPIROMICS was supported by contracts from the NIH/NHLBI (HHSN268200900013C, HHSN268200900014C, HHSN268200900015C, HHSN268200900016C, HHSN268200900017C, HHSN268200900018C, HHSN268200900019C, HHSN268200900020C), grants from the NIH/NHLBI (U01 HL137880 and U24 HL141762). Additionally, co-authors Norrina B. Allen, M.D., David J. Couper, Ph.D., Mark T. Dransfield, M.D., Ani Manichaikul, Ph.D., Fernando J. Martinez, M.D., Elizabeth C. Oelsner, M.D., and Robert Paine III, M.D., report receiving grants from NHLBI. Additional institutions outside of NIH also provided funding for research or co-authors involved in this study. For a more complete funding disclosure, please see the full research article. Study: Association of dysanapsis with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among older adults DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.6918 About the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI): NHLBI is the global leader in conducting and supporting research in heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders that advances scientific knowledge, improves public health, and saves lives. For more information, visit http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov. About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov. In Germany, police officers discovered what they believe to be a child sex ring built in an allotment house located on the northern side of the country. Authorities said that a group of men took their young relatives captive inside the property, which is found near the city of Munster. The young children were then abused continuously while the suspects recorded them on film, as reported by the Daily Mail. Child abuse Officers expected the sophisticated child pornography ring to have spread images of young victims over the internet. Authorities arrested 11 individuals involved in the crime in suspicion of abusing three boys and selling the footage online. Close family relatives of the boys aged five, ten, and 12, along with a pair of parents and one uncle, were included with those that police arrested. Investigators used the videos of the victims to identify them, which they retrieved from encrypted hard drives that they recovered. Experts are continuously working to unlock the hard drives, said authorities. According to The New York Times, the German government had conducted a decade-long campaign to fight the sexual abuse of young children. However, more than 20,000 reports of child abuse or pornography are still recorded each year. On Saturday, authorities announced the arrests and said that they were among the latest in a string of high-profile cases. Also Read: Military-Tied Family in Apparent Murder-Suicide Die of Poisoning; Bodies Found Inside Garage The house that the suspects used to house the children and record the illegal activities were fitted with cameras and gadgets. Police officers refused to reveal images of the insides of the building, as reported by Deutsche Welle. Perpetrators of the crime used sophisticated technology to encrypt the evidence that they sold online on the darknet, only accessible to those with access to specific software. The platform is used by criminals to talk with each other without being detected by authorities. Brutal mastermind A 27-year-old information technology technician from Munster is the main suspect of the case and has allegedly encrypted more than 500 terabytes of child pornography, said the head of the investigation Joachim Poll to reporters on Monday. Poll said that all of the storage devices were professionally encrypted and that they were so well-done that their team has not been able to crack them all yet. The unidentified suspect had allegedly built a cooled room in his basement that had servers equipped to hold the images that they placed in encrypted hard drives, said authorities. The officials also believe that the criminals recorded the videos in a cabin that they equipped with surveillance cameras inside and out located on a countryside property. Authorities found video footage of two of the victims being "brutally" raped by the primary suspect and three other men, said Poll. He added that he had reason to believe the suspects sedated the children. After the arrests, police placed the children in the care of social workers who will work on giving them psychological assistance and support, said Martin Botzenhardt, a prosecutor in Munster's western city. Local police expect that they will be making more arrests and apprehensions when they unlock more of the hard drives and find more evidence. Related Article: Florida Couple Bite, Beat, Kick and Punch 6-Year-Old Boy For Years, Leaving Permanent Scars @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Flash Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed hope that Britain will respect China's legitimate right to safeguard national security in Hong Kong during a phone conversation on Monday with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. China and Britain, as two major countries with global influence, share the common responsibility of safeguarding world peace and development, Wang said, adding that strengthening mutually-beneficial cooperation in a wide range of fields between the two sides is in the fundamental and long-term interests of the two peoples. Noting that international peace and strategic stability are disrupted and damaged by unilateralism, Wang said the two countries shoulder the responsibility of upholding multilateralism and jointly safeguarding the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law. Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs and no outside interference is allowed, Wang said, pointing out that maintaining national security in Hong Kong concerns China's core interests, thereby a major issue of principle that must be adhered to. The central government is responsible for upholding national security in China, as is the case in any other country, Wang said. While the central government authorizes the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to enact laws on its own to safeguard national security through Article 23 of the Basic Law, it does not change the fact that safeguarding national security is within the purview of the central authorities, Wang said. Faced with the actual harm and serious threat to the national security in Hong Kong, the National People's Congress (NPC) has decisively introduced new national security legislation for application in Hong Kong, which will help fill the obvious loopholes and long-term deficiencies in such area for Hong Kong as soon as possible, he added, adding that such a move is reasonable, legal and imperative. Wang stressed that the national security legislation for Hong Kong aims to better implement "one country, two systems," adding that Article 1 of the decision passed by the NPC makes clearly that the principles of "one country, two systems," "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy will be fully and faithfully honored. This is another solemn commitment made by China's highest organ of state power to uphold the principle of "one country, two systems" in the highest legal form of NPC legislation, Wang said, adding that China will never accept the groundless accusation that the national security legislation will change "one country, two systems." Wang said the national security legislation for Hong Kong targets a very small number of "Hong Kong independence" separatists and violent elements, adding that the legislation will better ensure various rights and freedom of Hong Kong citizens, and also make all law-abiding foreigners feel more at ease working and living in Hong Kong. The current capitalist system in Hong Kong will not change, nor will its rights to a high degree of autonomy enjoyed under the Basic Law, or the way of life of the Hong Kong citizens, Wang said, adding that the national security legislation will only improve Hong Kong's legal system, social order and business environment. Calling the national security legislation a litmus test, Wang said, if one expects lasting peace and stability in Hong Kong, they should support rather than worrying about the legislation; If one wants "one country, two systems" to go a long way, they should support rather than opposing the legislation. Both as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Wang said, China and Britain should set an example in abiding by the basic norms of international relations and not interfering in other countries' internal affairs. Looking back on the history of China-Britain relations, China has never interfered in Britain's internal affairs and has never pointed a finger at Britain's domestic affairs, Wang said. China hopes that Britain will respect the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Basic Law enacted in accordance with the Constitution, respect China's legitimate right to safeguard national security on its territory, and respect the Chinese central government's administration of Hong Kong under the principle of "one country, two systems," Wang said, adding that the British side must adopt a cautious attitude on this affair. For his part, Raab said Britain is committed to developing a strong bilateral relationship with China, expressing belief that after the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides will further strengthen cooperation on major international and regional issues including climate change and Iran's nuclear issue. Within the framework of a mature Britain-China relationship, the two sides can have a candid exchange of views on any topics, Raab said, adding that Britain is willing to deliberate on the contents of today's in-depth exchanges, and continue to communicate with China in the spirit of mutual respect. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 01:14:07|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KIGALI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The European Union Monday signed a financing agreement with Rwanda for a grant of 52.87 million euros to support the country's social protection coverage and agriculture in response to the COVID-19 crisis, according to a statement. The funding is to support Rwanda to expand social protection and promote agriculture supply chains in the context of the government`s COVID-19 economic recovery plan through increased cash transfers and food assistance to citizens in Rwanda, the statement by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said. According to the statement, in total, the program will help protect food security and livelihoods of at least 630, 000 households most in need. "The impact of COVID-19 on our economy and livelihoods in particular has called for enhanced social protection measures by ensuring that we maintain sustainable food security, reduce poverty and promote inclusive growth," Uzziel Ndagijimana, Rwandan Minister of Finance and Economic Planning said in the statement. EU Ambassador Nicola Bellomo said the funding came as part of the broader European Union team response support to partner countries. The money is part of the 460 million euro package of support to Rwanda signed in September, 2014 with European Commission. The disbursements will be provided in two fixed tranches of 36 million euro and 15.5 million euro respectively during the fiscal year 2019-20 and 2020-21 based on satisfactory progress on the implementation of the economic recovery plan, in particular the social protection and agriculture part, according to the statement. Enditem An inspection crew from the Virginia Department of General Services inspect the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., on June 8, 2020. (Steve Helber/AP Photo) Judge Issues Order Halting Lee Statue Removal for 10 Days RICHMOND, Va.A judge in Richmond has issued an injunction preventing Virginia Gov. Ralph Northams administration from removing an iconic statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee for 10 days. The temporary injunction order issued on Monday says the state is a party to a deed recorded in March 1890 in which it accepted the statue, pedestal, and ground they sit on and agreed to faithfully guard and affectionately protect them. It is in the public interest to await resolution of the case on the merits prior to removal of the statue, the order says. The lawsuit was filed by William C. Gregory, who is described in the complaint as a descendant of two signatories to the deed. Named as defendants are Northam and the director of the Department of General Services, the agency tasked with handling the removal. An inspection crew from the Virginia Department of General Services inspect the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., on June 8, 2020. (Steve Helber/AP Photo) [Gregorys] family has taken pride for 130 years in this statue resting upon land belonging to his family and transferred to the Commonwealth in consideration of the Commonwealth contractually guaranteeing to perpetually care for and protect the Lee Monument, the lawsuit says. Northams spokeswoman, Alena Yarmosky, said in a statement that the governors administration is still reviewing the order. Governor Northam remains committed to removing this divisive symbol from Virginias capital city, and were confident in his authority to do so, she said. Northam last week ordered the statue of Lee taken down, citing the pain felt across the country over the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck. Motivated by a bystanders video of Floyds agony, demonstrators around the world have vowed to sustain a movement focused on addressing racial injustice and police brutality. In the American South, theyre also advocating for the swift removal of Confederate monuments, with or without the approval of authorities. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam gestures during a news conference at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., on April 8, 2020. (Steve Helber/AP Photo) Authorities have removed other symbols since protests erupted two weeks ago, including a massive obelisk in Birmingham, Alabama, and a bronze likeness of Admiral Raphael Semmes that had stood in a middle of a downtown street near the Mobile, Alabama, waterfront for 120 years. In Fredericksburg, Virginia, a 176-year-old slave auction block was removed from the citys downtown, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy removed its statue from Old Town, Alexandria. In other cases, protesters arent waiting. In Richmond over the weekend, protesters toppled a statue of Gen. Williams Carter Wickham in a park near downtown, and in Bristol, England, a statue of slave trader Edward Colston met a watery end. Northam has said the enormous Lee statue would be removed as soon as possible and his administration would seek public input about its future. An inspection crew from the Virginia Department of General Services inspect the graffitied statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., on June 8, 2020. (Steve Helber/AP Photo) Crews inspected the statue earlier Monday as part of the planning for its removal. The massive statue weighs approximately 12 tons, stands 21 feet tall, and has been on a 40-foot pedestal for 130 years. Meticulous planning is required to remove an aging monument of this size and scale safely, the Department of General Services said in a statement. Four other Confederate monuments dot Monument Avenue, a prestigious residential street in Richmond, which was also the capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Richmonds city council has affirmed unanimous support for removing the other four, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch. Together, they are among the nations most prominent collection of tributes to the Confederacy, and their planned removal has been widely praised by black leaders and activists. By Sarah Rankin Owners of gun shops in West Palm Beach in Florida recently said the State of Local Emergency in the city had forced them to reject customers. Guns and alcohol have also been prohibited. According to reports, West Palm Beach declared the emergency on Sunday amid mass gatherings in protest after the death of George Floyd. Until now, demonstrations continue across the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast in reaction to the black man's killing. As the emergency states, stores are not allowed to display guns or ammunition intentionally. During the state of emergency, it is also unlawful to own and bring a firearm while in a public area. Adrienne Ellis, the Chief Assistant State Attorney at West Palm Beach, said through the Palm Beach Post, "Basically, the State of Emergency is urging participants not to bring a gun or weapon to a peaceful demonstration. Other Stores can Sell Guns and Range Training Center owner, Alex Shkop explained to the news agency that those who want to purchase a firearm could go to other shops in other municipalities of the Palm Beach County "that have not declared a State of Local Emergency. In an article posted on Fox News, Shkop said, the directive does not shield anybody since, if a person wants to get something, he can just go to other stores less than two miles for a distance. According to Baba Boom Guns managing partner Adam Golden, via an interview with the paper, he rejects customers looking for guns to buy to protect both their homes and themselves. Golden added gun buyers are looking to buy firearms because they are worried the Police Department in West Palm Beach is "stretched thin." The declaration of State of Emergency, Golden shared, is crippling. "How can you go for a week without pay?" He continued. The gun store managing partner also shared he is unsure if he is allowed to hold firearms during training sessions, with the declaration of the emergency. Spike in Sales West Palm Beach's first enactment of the state of emergency was on Sunday Evening, after confrontations between police and agitators. In addition, the gun store owners in the city said, the law has the opposite impact. They added, they saw an increase in sales in the middle of the uncertainty of this global health crisis, specifically among those who never had guns in their possession. As earlier mentioned, since they are prohibited from selling firearms, Golden said he has been directing customers to businesses outside the city limits. Meanwhile, for Shkop, who does training for a business, the city directive led him to consult an attorney. Its lack of transparency and precision, he elaborated, means that he is not sure if he can even conduct training sessions. "We sell guns," he said, adding they do background checks. More so, the trainer said, they are not selling guns off the trucks. Lastly, Shkop also remarked, he calls the declaration "the irony of the law." Check these out! Florida Professor's Mention of 'Black Privilege' on Twitter Prompts Calls on Social Media to Fire Him Good News to Oregon Farmworkers: A Coalition is Rolling Out Fund for Support Black-Owned Restaurants in Arizona: Essential Venues for Community Conversations amid Division in America The Belgian port city of Antwerp took down a statue of late King Leopold II on Tuesday, days after it was daubed with paint by anti-racism protesters. Statues of Leopold have long been a target of activists because of his record of brutal colonial rule in Belgium's former central African colonies. The movement has gained momentum in recent days after the latest US police killing of an unarmed black suspect triggered a global wave of protest. Johan Vermant, a spokesman for Antwerp's mayor Bart de Wever, said: "The statue was seriously vandalised last week and needs to be restored by the Middelheim sculpture museum." But he added that it probably would not be returned to its public pedestal next to a church in the Antwerp district of Ekeren. "Because of the renovation work planned for 2023 in the square in which it was placed, the statue will not be replaced. It will probably become part of the museum collection." A spokeswoman for the Middelheim Museum confirmed they had received the statue and said they would give it the once over before confirming what steps to take. The removal of the Antwerp statue comes as US cities dismantle several monuments to Civil War leaders associated with the Confederacy's defence of slavery. The orderly removal of Leopold also comes after a crowd of protesters in the British city of Bristol tore down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston and threw it into the harbour. Leopold II was King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, the longest reign in the young kingdom's short independent history, and is honoured with several monuments. His record in Belgium's African colonies, where he ran and exploited the then "Congo Free State" as a personal domain is much more controversial. Historians record that Belgian rule of what is now the independent Democratic Republic of Congo was brutal even by the standards of European empires of the era. Millions of Congolese were killed or maimed working in rubber plantations and in military expeditions while Leopold amassed a huge personal fortune. While the former king and some of his most notorious lieutenants are still honoured in street names and statues, protests have been growing over his legacy. More than 64,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the Belgium's capital Brussels take down its Leopold II statues. And last week "Black Lives matter" protests erupted in Antwerp, Brussels and Liege. A statue of Belgium's King Leopold II has been taken down in Antwerp as protests grow over his brutal colonial legacy Local authorities rescued a British man who was trapped inside a well in Bali for six consecutive days. Krisna Maharta, the public relations officer for the search and rescue agency of the region, Basarnas Bali, said on Saturday that Jacob Matthew Roberts, 29 years old, was pulled out of the well located in Pecatu Village. Steep drop According to CNN, Roberts had suffered a fractured leg upon falling down into the 13-foot-deep well and was not able to escape due to his injury even though the water inside was shallow, said Maharta. After falling, Roberts remained conscious and repeatedly called out for help and locals heard his calls after six days. The resident quickly called for local authorities on Saturday. The resident who heard the victim's cries was searching for cattle feed in the nearby area before he heard Roberts. The rescue team that pulled Roberts out deployed on the same day that they received the reports. Three of the rescuers went down a ladder to reach the victim and placed him on a stretcher to pull him out safely. Maharta announced that the rescue operations happened just before 2:00 p.m. Roberts told officials that a dog was chasing him through the village before he fell down the reservoir. The rescue agency said that Roberts was immediately taken to the BIMC Nusa Dua hospital after he was pulled out, as reported by BBC. The Guardian reports that Yusak Agustinus Sooai, the police chief of South Kuta, said that Roberts looked thin and was injured after the rescue. Also Read: Man Uses Ice Pick to Murder and Cannibalize 90-Year-Old Grandma Coronavirus situation The province of Bali had reported an increased number of coronavirus cases recently and more specifically in Badung, Denpasar, Klungkung, and Tabanan. One of the critical factors that aided the spread was the lack of awareness of the residents in practising social health protocols said I Wayan Koster, the governor of Bali. The governor said that there were 25 new cases that they recorded on Sunday, 24 of which were local infections and the other one was the only imported case, as reported by The Jakarta Post. Koster also said on Monday that they have to be more cautious and alert of the situation moving forward to keep the coronavirus infection in check. The Bali government's official count reports 12 new coronavirus cases on Monday which brought the total tally to 594 cases while the death toll remained at five. The governor had banned large gatherings which included traditional and religious activities, in response to the increasing number of infections while also ordering tourist sites to stay closed amid the outbreak. The Badung Tourism Agency gave foreign surfers access to two beaches in the region; the Canggu Beach and Labuan Sait Beach. But Koster quickly revoked the decision the next day. Crowds of local and foreign surfers, despite the official closure, gathered on the short of Canggu last week. People could be seen surfing and playing in the water while not wearing face masks or practising social distancing, as reported by TribunNews. Bali officials stated that they had faced difficulties in keeping residents out of the beach as there were many access points into the area. Related Article: Military-Tied Family in Apparent Murder-Suicide Die of Poisoning; Bodies Found Inside Garage @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. LONDON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts, released the seventeenth edition of the QS World University Rankings - the world's most-consulted, most-covered source of comparative information about university performance.[1] 26 Asian universities place among the global top-100 the highest number ever. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is named the world's best university for a record-breaking ninth consecutive year; is named the world's best university for a record-breaking ninth consecutive year; The top three institutions remain American: MIT is followed by Stanford University (2nd) and Harvard University (3rd); is followed by (2nd) and (3rd); Britain's top institution is the University of Oxford , which falls to fifth. Its compatriot competitor, the University of Cambridge , remains 7 th ; top institution is the , which falls to fifth. Its compatriot competitor, the , remains 7 ; 112 of America's 153 ranked universities fall, with only 34 recording improvements. This is primarily due to collective relative decline in QS's measures of academic standing and research impact; Continental Europe's best university is ETH Zurich (6 th no-change); best university is ETH Zurich (6 no-change); Asia's top university is the National University of Singapore (11 th ); top university is the (11 ); China's Tsinghua University reaches a new all-time high (15 th ); Tsinghua University reaches a new all-time high (15 ); Latin America's leader is the Universidad de Buenos Aires (66 th , up 8 places). Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (100 th ) becomes the first Mexican university ever to achieve a top-100 place; leader is the Universidad de (66 , up 8 places). Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (100 ) becomes the first Mexican university ever to achieve a top-100 place; Universities in Russia and Malaysia continue to rise: Lomonosov Moscow State University (74th) and Universiti Malaya (59th) reach record highs. Ben Sowter, QS Director of Research, said: "The American higher education hegemony continues to diminish in the face of increasing competitiveness across the world: a competitiveness driven by strategic funding, internationalization efforts, and strong links between education and industry." QS World University Rankings 2021: Global Top 20 2021 2020 1 1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA 2 2 Stanford University USA 3 3 Harvard University USA 4 5 California Institute of Technology USA 5 4 University of Oxford UK 6 6 ETH Zurich Switzerland 7 7 University of Cambridge UK 8 9 Imperial College London UK 9 10 University of Chicago USA 10 8 University College London UK 11 11= National University of Singapore Singapore 12 13 Princeton University USA 13 11= Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore 14 18= Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) Switzerland 15 16 Tsinghua University China (Mainland) 16 15 University of Pennsylvania USA 17 17 Yale University USA 18 14 Cornell University USA 19 18= Columbia University USA 20 20 University of Edinburgh UK QS Quacquarelli Symonds www.TopUniversities.com Methodological details can be found here . To view the full rankings: www.TopUniversities.com [1] 'Most-consulted according to data from independent monitoring platforms, including Google Analytics, SimilarWeb, Meltwater, and Alexa. SOURCE QS Quacquarelli Symonds Related Links http://www.qs.com/ Lawmakers Group Seeks Global Response to 'Defining Challenge' of China 2020-06-08 -- Lawmakers from 18 countries have allied to create collective responses to Chinese trade, security and human rights policies, a project the politicians called the "defining challenge for the world's democratic states" The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) consists of 18 China-skeptic lawmakers from the United States, the European Union, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Japan. The group was formed amid widespread concerns about China's decision to impose a national security law in Hong Kong, its lack of transparency in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, its assertive behavior in the South China Sea and Chinese influence in domestic politics of democratic countries. "Developing a coherent response to the rise of the People's Republic of China as led by the Chinese Communist Party is a defining challenge for the world's democratic states," said the group, which launched on June 5. Leading figures in the group include U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez and Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Conservative Party in Britain. "The assumptions that once underpinned our engagement with Beijing no longer correspond to the reality. The Chinese Communist Party repeatedly and explicitly states its intention to expand its global influence. As a direct result, democratic values and practices have come under increasing pressure," IPAC said in a statement. Rubio and Menendez have pushed legislative efforts in Congress to confront China on issues including the treatment of Tibetan and Uyghurs to erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy. Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020, the first legislation by any government to target China for its persecution of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), awaits the signature of President Donald Trump. The bill would sanction Chinese government officials responsible for arbitrary incarceration, forced labor and other abuses in the XUAR, home to internment camps holding as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslims. Rubio and Menendez were also backers of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which calls for Washington to reevaluate the city's special status as a separate legal jurisdiction and trading entity. The Trump administration announced on May 29 it would begin the process of taking away the special trade and investment status it grants Hong Kong, in response to China's decision to impose a national security law that ends the city's status as a separate legal jurisdiction. Rubio--co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, an influential panel on rights and rule of lawtold RFA "the Chinese Government and the Chinese Communist Party pose serious threats to the international rules-based system and human rights and these challenges demand a global response." The Uyghur Human Rights Project, a Washington-based advocacy group, called the alliance "exactly the kind of cooperation and joint action that the response to the crimes against humanity by the Chinese government against Uyghurs and to the human rights situation in China more broadly has lacked." "The Chinese government has sought to divide and silence states and government officials, using its power and influence to stifle criticism and concrete action on the issue," it said in a statement. Ngodup Tsering, Representative of the Dalai Lama in Washington told RFA's Tibetan Service the alliance was "a great development" that he hoped would make a "forceful global impact." Greater focus on Beijing's policies by democracies is "very positive for Tibet as China has constantly abused and deprived Tibetans of all forms of human rights," he said. Writing in The Diplomat, Benedict Rogers, an IPAC advisor and activist at the international human rights organization CSW said politicians across the spectrum had united to address "the question of how to deal with Xi Jinping's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime" and would have different approaches. "Some may choose to focus on human rights or economic "decoupling"; others might pursue climate change or security," Rogers wrote. "Some might call for targeted Magnitsky-style sanctions or a "life boat" rescue package to offer sanctuary for pro-democracy activists in grave danger in Hong Kong, while others may prefer to pursue constructive engagement with China on the issues where we have no choice but to try to work with the CCP, such as climate change," he added, In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the alliance represented "cold war" thinking. "We urge a small number of politicians to respect the facts, the basic norms of international relations, abandon the cold war mentality and ideological prejudice, stop using various issues to interfere in China's internal affair and stop engaging in political manipulation for their own interests," he told a press conference. Reported by RFA's Tibetan and Uyghur Services. Written in English by Paul Eckert. Copyright 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content June not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:06:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WINDHOEK, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Namibia will for the first time in history auction off government fishing quotas to generate revenue for the state, Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Albert Kawana said Tuesday. According to Kawana, government will auction off the quota to fund social projects and rural development plans such as aquaculture. "The auction will ensure government collects enough revenue and enhances transparency in the allocation of government quotas as opposed to the old approach," he said. The quotas were formerly allocated to the National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor) which was at the center of the Fishrot scandal, which saw politicians and businessmen accused of receiving huge bribes from foreign firms. Enditem WASHINGTON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Explore! Children's Museum , the forthcoming museum inspiring children to be curious thinkers, creators, communicators and collaborators, announces the launch of Explore! Sandbox , an online resource for parents that compiles the best activities and experiences from top children's museums, art and science museums, and more across the country. In a time when more families are home together, the Sandbox aims to inspire creativity, play and connectivity while catering to children's individual interests. Curated for children ages zero to nine, the Explore! Sandbox has aggregated more than 100 activities for the website's launch including art videos, science experiments and even cooking how-tos featuring young chefs. The Sandbox will continue to be updated to be a resource for families who are looking to further engage their children while playing at home. "Today, kitchens and living rooms are being turned into play spaces and art studios, and the need to provide valuable and trusted resources that inspire creative exploration is more important than ever," said Jane Lipton Cafritz, Founder and Chair of the Board for Explore! Children's Museum. "Our kids live in a connected world, and we want to ensure that that connection isn't lost, but rather enhanced, while museums, playgrounds and camps are closed." Activities featured on The Sandbox aim to help visitors reimagine what meaningful, at-home experiences look like and guide parents to connect with their children in new ways. Experiences are divided into seven different categories - Arts, Food, Movement, Performance, Science & Nature, Storytime, and Explore! More - and range from interactive activities and play to hands-on projects. In line with the museum's mission to inspire children to be curious thinkers and communicators, and challenge children to ask questions about the world around them, the Sandbox also includes resources for parents to talk about difficult topics, such as racism and COVID-19, at home. While a brick-and-mortar museum is being built out, the vision of Explore! continues to exist via a digital community before a physical museum. In 2015, Explore! launched Mission Mobile, a traveling simulator for schools in D.C., Maryland and Virginia that teaches students problem-solving, collaboration and critical-thinking skills through various themed "missions." Two years later, Explore! with the National Portrait Gallery launched in downtown Washington, D.C. The Explore! Sandbox aims to fill the void of these live experiences while the exhibit and Mission Mobile remain closed in the wake of COVID-19. For more information on the Explore! Sandbox, Explore! Children's Museum, and more visit www.exploremuseum.org ABOUT EXPLORE! CHILDREN'S MUSEUM Explore! Children's Museum, a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is dedicated to serving children birth through age 10 in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland. The mission of Explore! is to inspire children to be curious thinkers, creators, communicators, and collaborators. In early 2017 Explore! and the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery opened an interactive children's museum experience inside the Portrait Gallery. For more information, visit exploremuseum.org. SOURCE Explore! Children's Museum Related Links http://www.exploremuseum.org Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) A lawmaker is proposing the use of internet boosters to facilitate online learning for about 32 million students nationwide. Iligan City Representative Frederick Siao, who also serves as Vice Chairman for the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology, said the equipment used for automated elections may be used to boost internet connectivity, especially in the far flung areas. "These are equipments used to transmit or to connect with areas na walang signal, na walang internet signal (without internet signal)," Siao said in an interview. "I think this might be possible in providing online internet access to our students all over the Philippines." Siao said the Department of Education should check if the equipment used by the Commission on Elections back in 2016 and 2019 can be used again, given the short amount of time left before the opening of classes. "There's a plan of going online, eh ang daming students lalo na from far flug barangays without internet, telecommunications signal ang maleleft out nito," Siao said. "These equipments might be useful in putting kids online or the teachers from far flung areas online to access their daily modules na galing sa schools nila." DepEd earlier released the calendar for the next school year, with classes slated to begin this August 24, and expected to end in April 2021. Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the department is ready to take on the challenges of offering alternatives to physical classes, such as online and "blended" learning. Siao pointed out that the ICT situation in the country today is still lacking, with many barangays including about ten in his lone district of Iligan City without access to internet or cellphone signals. "'Yung mga telecommunication antennas or 'yung mga cell sites ay wala pa rin," Siao said. "It means it's very difficult for the students to have access to what they need to learn from the schools." But Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez admitted the proposal may be hard to carry out, since the machines used for automated elections do not belong to them. "'Yung ginamit natin nung 2019 (what we used in 2019) yung mga BGAN, mga VSAT, lahat yan naka lease lamang, we only leased those devices," Jimenez said in an interview. "So we don't actually have BGAN devices or VSATs in our possession." The Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) is a global satellite network, which allows BGAN terminals to connect with any one of the satellites regardless of location, resulting in high-speed internet connection. Jimenez said the BGAN machines that Comelec previously owned have been turned over to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), who now has about 100 units. "We did have BGANs before but we turned them over to the DOST and they used them for several projects, particularly 'yung Project NOAH," Jimenez said. "If we ever need the BGAN from DOST, papahiram nila sa atin (they will lend it to us), but other than that we don't have any devices." Internet speeds must be fast and cheap or else it may hinder the revival of the Philippine economy, the World Bank said Tuesday, as the "new normal" will see more Filipinos relying on digital platforms for work, school, and day-to-day needs. A five-star Margaret River hotel expected to open in 2023 has been hailed by the state government as evidence of long-term confidence in the state's tourism sector in the face of pandemic travel restrictions which have devastated the industry. The 120-bed Westin Margaret River Resort and Spa would be built on the southern headland of Gnarabup Beach to take advantage of Indian Ocean views, and will include restaurants, events facilities and access to the Cape to Cape Track. An artist's impression of Westin Margaret River Resort Hotel, which has been designed by the Christou Design Group. A proposal to develop the site was first approved in 2004 on appeal, after the local shire knocked back permission to develop amid community protest. Since then a number of proposals had been mooted. In an unusual and bizarre incident, a donkey was arrested in Pakistan for participating in gambling. Journalist Naila Inayat tweeted a video of the animal along with the other accused. In her post, she also shared a link of Samaa TV, a news organisation in Pakistan, detailing the entire incident. Turns out, during a raid in Raheem Yaar Khan, a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan, police arrested eight people along with the donkey. The authorities seized over Rs 1 lakh from the perpetrators. According to the police, a case was filed against the accused and the animals name was also included. The SHO of the police station said that since the donkeys name is also in the FIR, it cannot be released. Take a look at the video: Donkey arrested for participating in a gambling racing in Rahim Yar Khan. Eight humans also rounded up, Rs 120,000 recovered. https://t.co/RIULiecduw pic.twitter.com/1FipntTR60 Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) June 7, 2020 Since being shared, the video has sparked varied comment on Twitter. While some wondered how this could happen, others couldnt stop laughing. One Twitter user used a GIF to express their feeling. The GIF used shows a character named Donkey from the animated film series Shrek. Donkey arrested and 8 humans also rounded up? As if donkey was the kingpin gambler, joked another. But what did the donkey do? questioned a third. There were several who simply shared the laughing out loud emojis to express themselves. What do you think of the video? SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Lip-reading is vital for many deaf or hearing-impaired people to communicate. To combat the disadvantage of mouth coverings, sellers have produced masks with clear vinyl panels so the mouth can still be seen while the wearer is protected. The Red & Black has compiled a list of four places to purchase a clear or see-through face mask. We have reports of poll workers not understanding setup or how to operate voting equipment, said Jordan Fuchs, the deputy secretary of state. While these are unfortunate, they are not issues of the equipment but a function of counties engaging in poor planning, limited training and failures of leadership. Less than three hours later, Mr. Raffensperger called the situation in DeKalb and Fulton counties, which cover Atlanta, unacceptable, but he said the rest of the state was doing fine. Some voters who had shown up early in the morning on Tuesday expressed frustration over the long wait times, and many said on Twitter that voting machines were down at their polling locations. The polls were scheduled to close at 7 p.m. Clarice Kimp, who arrived at her poling place in DeKalb County on Tuesday morning before 7, waited until 9:15 a.m. to vote, she said in an interview, describing a chaotic scene. There were supposed to be 12 people working there and there were only four, Ms. Kimp said. They could not get the voting machines to register voting cards and they said they could not reach the technicians. Finally, the poll workers handed out provisional ballots, but they were also in short supply, Ms. Kimp said. More than one million Georgia voters had already cast ballots before Tuesday, most of them by mail, after Mr. Raffensperger sent absentee ballot applications to all active voters. But those who had voted in person before Tuesday at early-voting sites had already reported long waits in some cases up to seven hours. New rules for social distancing and disinfecting voting machines had caused many of those delays. Maria Menounos celebrated her 42nd birthday this week. The famed television journalist was spotted in high spirits while riding around in her customized Jeep with her husband Keven Undergaro during a Starbucks run on Monday. The birthday girl kept thing casual and adhered to regulations with a mask while out and about Los Angeles. Birthday girl: Maria Menounos was seen stepping out for a coffee run on her 42nd birthday on Monday Maria showed off her svelte physique in a grey singlet top that was tucked into a pair of white trousers. She teamed the look with nude colored sandals and accessorized with tortoise framed sunglasses The Greek-American television personality styled her brunette tresses out and appeared to be wearing a natural amount of makeup. One of a kind! The TV star was all smiles during the car trip in her blue wrapped custom Jeep Letting him drive: The brunette beauty sat shotgun while Keven drove their modified vehicle Maria sat shotgun while Keven drove their modified vehicle. The pair began dating in April 1998 before the director and producer proposed to her during a live taping of The Howard Stern Show in 2016. The pair shocked fans around the world when they married on December 31, 2017, in Times Square on television via the New Year's festivities. The ceremony was officiated by Steve Harvey. On October 6, 2018, the couple had a traditional Orthodox wedding in Greece. Gorgeous: The looker has continued to flash her toned physique while at home in lockdown The past few years have been tough for the couple with Maria diagnosed with brain tumor in 2017, shortly after it was revealed her mom was fighting brain cancer. Litsa suffers from glioblastoma, an aggressive malignant tumor. Maria recently expressed how thankful she was she was able to spend another Mother's Day with her mom. 'We are so grateful we get to spend another one with my mom,' she penned.' 'We spent breakfast honoring her, and all of our moms. Kevs mom kathie who is in Boston and my parents who lost their beautiful moms years ago. We shared stories of each of them and honored them. Lots of tears, lots. We all love our moms and if they arent with us.' The COVID-19 pandemic has upended lives, families, business routines, and the economy. Today, despite an uptick in May, 21 million people are unemployed in the United States, and the workforce has dropped to 137 million. Labor force participation has dipped to the lowest rate since the recession of 19731975. The grim realities of the pandemic and the recession have created a unique set of challenges for the workers compensation system. We are being tested as never before. We also know that the system is strong and resilient, with more than 100 years of experience in dealing with change and uncertainty. I am confident in our ability to respond effectively. As NCCIs Chief Actuary Donna Glenn outlined in the 2020 State of the Line Report, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a shock to the economy and the workers compensation system. Almost overnight, healthcare workers, delivery people, and grocery store staffers were moved to the front lines of a fast-moving crisis. Millions of other workers began telecommuting, and millions of businesses temporarily shuttered. Given the novel nature of this coronavirus, statistics change daily on infection and death rates, hospital capacity, and our understanding of best practices in care. Lawmakers, policymakers, and regulators have pushed to consider a wide range of responses to this unique workers compensation exposure, and it has sparked intense debates. Five states have already enacted legislation and at least 10 states are considering or implementing significant rule changes in compensability and presumption. It is clear that this pandemic and recession will affect every aspect of workers compensation. Rebounding From the Shock People facing a massive crisis often become immobilized. But within the workers compensation industry, the initial fear and uncertainty are giving way to a clarity of purpose. Together we must deliver for injured workers and their families and maintain a strong, healthy workers compensation system. For our part, NCCI has initiated a series of steps to help the industry rebound from the shock of the pandemic. Specifically, NCCI has: Created a financial modeling tool to evaluate the potential cost impact of various infection levels and changes in presumption laws. This tool helps policymakers, regulators, and others make well-informed decisions. Generated weekly updates on our COVID-19 and Workers Compensation: What You Need to KnowFrequently Asked Questions page on ncci.com, which address rule changes, the reclassification of payroll, and other important issues. Focused our latest Quarterly Economics Briefing on COVID-19 economic issues. We will continue to update these reports and provide fresh insights as data becomes available. NCCI is committed to delivering data-driven analysis to promote constructive dialogue and education. At a time when were seeing widespread speculation, taking a data-driven approach sets this work apart. Confidence for the Future The rebuilding process from the pandemic is only just beginning, and we still have many more questions than answers. From a workers compensation perspective, we know that: Workers compensation premiums will fall significantly in the near term as unemployment rises. Small businesses have been hit particularly hard. Since they often choose first-dollar coverage, workers compensation premium will fall even faster than overall employment. Some COVID-19 claims will be complex, even resulting in lifelong medical conditions or mental health issues. There are changing rules and the potential for expanded compensability for this disease. Those changes could drive up workers compensation costs significantly. We enter this moment from a position of financial strength. I speak regularly with dozens of leaders across the industry, and they are dedicated to the mission of the system: to create and maintain safe workplaces and to respond to injured workers, their families, and the employers who rely on them. In addition, the people on the front lines of the workers compensation systemcase managers, underwriters, nurse advocates, and claims stafferscare deeply about our mission as well. They want to help injured workers recover. Their passion, combined with the workers compensation systems long history of resilience and responsiveness, bolsters my confidence about the future. We will meet our commitments, and we will help injured workers and the economy rebuild and recover in the months and years ahead. Topics COVID-19 Workers' Compensation Talent STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- On the same day Staten Island reported zero coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths and 17 new infections in the past 24 hours a dramatic decrease from the April 9 high of 1,196 new infections a study reported that shutdown regulations in various countries prevented about 60 million infections in the United States and 285 million in China. The study, published in Nature, a scientific journal, showed that anti-contagion policies have significantly and substantially slowed the growth of the coronavirus, which at one point was doubling every two days in countries where it had a foothold. Researchers at the Global Policy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley, who conducted the study, estimated that not enacting any policies to disrupt the virus would have also caused 11.5 million more confirmed cases in South Korea, 2.1 million more confirmed cases in Italy, 5 million more confirmed cases in Iran and 1.4 million more confirmed cases in France. Because the majority of individuals infected with the coronavirus do not get tested or diagnosed, the actual number of avoided infections is much higher, the researchers said. The Berkeley study analyzed 1,717 interventions, such as travel bans, stay-at-home orders and other preventative measures aimed at derailing the spread of the virus. Researchers observed infection rates before and after these policies were put in place to ascertain their effectiveness, and confirming previous studies the analysis showed seemingly small delays in policy deployment likely produced dramatically different health outcomes. A significant factor in the spread of the virus falls on the percentage of the population who could contract it, the researchers said, explaining that in the early stages of an epidemic, a large proportion of the population remains susceptible to the virus, and if the spread of the virus is left uninhibited by policy or behavioral change, exponential growth continues until the fraction of the susceptible population declines meaningfully. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** A separate study released in the same journal on Monday, conducted by epidemiologists at the Imperial College London, showed that shutdowns in 11 European countries since the beginning of the pandemic averted approximately 3 million deaths. The Imperial College study, which consisted of data through May 4 when some countries began to relax regulations showed that the lockdowns resulted in infection rates dropping a stark 82%. However, the researchers indicated that only 3.2% to 4% of the observed population had been infected with the coronavirus through early May, leaving a significant number of individuals still immediately vulnerable to being infected. Additionally, questions still remain regarding the short and long-term immunity of those who have recovered from the virus. As New York City stepped into the first day of Phase 1 on Monday, the Imperial College researchers said, continued intervention should be considered to keep transmission of SARS-CoV-2 under control. This is just the beginning of the epidemic: Were very far from herd immunity, Samir Bhatt, the senior author of the Imperial College London study, told the Washington Post. The risk of a second wave happening if all interventions and precautions are abandoned is very real. I cant breathe. Those words from George Floyd as he gasped for his mother with a knee on his neck have haunted me. Just like the video of two white men chasing down and shooting Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia while he was running. Its unfathomable that these things are happening in our country in 2020. As weve witnessed the response play out in cities across our nation, including my own, it makes it clear that white Christians are in need of a wake-up call. Several weeks ago, we had a tornado warning at our house close to midnight. We had to quickly get our kids up out of bed and go to a safe place in our house. My 6-year-old son is a hard sleeper. Waking him up in the middle of the night is next to impossible. You can pull him out of bed, and he may even open his eyes to look at you, but he's not awake. He can stumble around his room, but hes not awake. It wasnt until my wife started clapping in his face that he seemed to snap out of it and become coherent. To my white Christian brothers and sisters, its time to snap out of it. Weve been asleep. Over the past few years, some of us have opened our eyes. Even stumbled around like we are trying to appear awake. But, we are not all there. What we are witnessing in our country should be our jolt--our clap in front of our face--to stand for whats right and denounce what is evil. As a white Christian, I admit, it's hard to even know where to start. Its easy to post a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote on social media and let the world (or at least our small little slice of it) know where we stand on racial issues. Its much harder to know how to represent Christ and follow the prophet Micahs urging to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8) in real life. Advocacy is important, and I think our African-American brothers and sisters need to see us posting these types of messages. But, its simply not enough. In my own personal soul-searching, I feel there are a few things that I, as a white Christian, can and should be doing during our current racial crisis. Photo Credit: GettyImages/Rawpixel The need for security and compliance for federal agency solutions has never been more important. Opus Interactive, a leading provider of complex hybrid cloud hosting services, announces a partnership with ScienceLogic, leading provider of AI-driven monitoring solutions for multi-cloud management, to deliver highly secure hybrid and multi-cloud monitoring and management. The joint solution offers federal agencies the ability to acquire the DISA-approved ScienceLogic SL1 hosted inside of the OpusGov FedRAMP Moderate Ready environment that resides in FISMA High rated datacenters. Similar to the commercial sector, hybrid cloud is the new norm for federal agencies who are moving forward with modernization efforts while mobilizing staff and resources in the COVID response. Survey results published in MeriTalks Juggling the Clouds: What Are Agencies Learning report 81% of Federal IT decision makers say their agency uses multiple cloud platforms (private cloud - 77%, public cloud - 57%, and edge -20%). Reasons listed include increased performance, reliability, compliance/security, and flexibility at reduced/predictable cost. Challenges they were anticipating pre-COVID included security, governance, interoperability, regulatory compliance, and budget overruns. Post-COVID adoptions facing federal agencies include the 80% of agency staff and contractors now working remote, as well as added security and compliance needs of telework, healthcare, and communications. The need for security and compliance for federal agency solutions has never been more important, says Shannon Hulbert, Opus Interactive CEO. Weve spent over 24 years building resilient solutions in the commercial sector and are excited to partner with ScienceLogic to offer that to federal agencies. The joint Opus and ScienceLogic offering delivers real-time visibility and control across complex IT environments to provide reliability and high security by integrating the DISA approved ScienceLogic SL1 platform with FedRAMP Moderate Ready infrastructure housed inside of FISMA High-Rated facilities backed up in redundant geographies on separate energy grids. As the first end-to-end IT infrastructure monitoring company ever to conform to the rigorous security and interoperability standards of DoD UC APL, combined with our close partnership with Opus to meet the standards of FedRAMP, ScienceLogic is fully committed to securing agencies digital transformation journey, said Dave Link, CEO of ScienceLogic. Whether improving the digital experience or minimizing the costs and risks of adopting the cloud, cross-agency teams need real-time insight into mission-critical services, and we are excited to fuel these initiatives. FedRAMP is a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. Through this framework, FedRAMP enables efficiencies in cost and time by enabling rapid procurement of information systems and services, streamlining assessment and ensuring consistent application of information security standards across government organizations. For more information on how Opus and ScienceLogic enable agency high security high compliance solutions to see, contextualize, and act on IT operational data in real-time, please visit: https://sciencelogic.com/industries/government-public-sector About Opus Interactive Founded in 1996, Opus Interactive has earned a reputation for custom IT solutions that fit unique requirements for security, scalability, cost, and future growth needs of its customers. An accredited member of the International Managed Services Provider Alliance, the Company operates from Tier III+ data centers located in Hillsboro, Portland, Dallas, and Northern Virginia. Through close partnerships with industry-leaders and a commitment to customer satisfaction, Opus delivers custom solutions for Cloud Hosting & IaaS, Colocation, DRaaS & Backup, Object Storage, VDI, and Public Cloud Monitoring & Management. Opus Interactive is a woman and minority-owned enterprise that has worked closely with VMware and HPE partnership programs since 2005. With past performance that includes more than 20 years of proven results and current compliance with PCI-DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP Moderate and SSAE 18 SOC 2, Opus helps customers reduce cost and optimize resources using efficient operations. For more information please visit opusinteractive.com. About ScienceLogic ScienceLogic is a leader in IT Operations Management, providing modern IT operations with actionable insights to predict and resolve problems faster in a digital, ephemeral world. Its solution sees everything across multi-clouds and distributed architectures, contextualizes data through relationship mapping, and acts on this insight through integration and automation. Trusted by thousands of organizations across the globe, ScienceLogics technology was designed for the rigorous security requirements of United States Department of Defense, proven for scale by the worlds largest service providers, and optimized for the needs of large enterprises. https://sciencelogic.com/ Oregonians continued to protest police brutality and systemic racism for the 11th night at different locations across the state. The protests began following the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed May 25 by a Minneapolis police officer. Corvallis - More than 4,000 protesters attended a Black Lives Matter march on Sunday night in Corvallis. The group initially met in Central Park before marching to the Benton County Courthouse, reported the Corvallis Gazette-Times. We cant let it stop here, so lets keep it going, said Aaron Olmos, an Oregon State University wrestler, to the crowd at the rally. Eugene - About 1,500 people marched in a Black Lives Matter protest Sunday night that was led through downtown Eugene, Oregon and eventually stopped at Deady Hall on the University of Oregons campus. Some protesters continued to march to the Eugene Police Department to listen to speeches and protest police brutality, according to KTVL CBS News 10, Medford. Salem - About 10 protestors gathered and held up signs Sunday night on the steps of the Oregon State Capital for the ninth night of Black Lives Matter protests in Salem. About 2,000 people had participated in a protest there Saturday night, the Statesman Journal reported. While Im disappointed at the numbers, the few people that came out means that we still want to have this conversation, protester Jesse Baughman said. "While I'm disappointed at the numbers, the few people that came out means that we still want to have this conversation," protester Jesse Baughman said. Posted by Statesman Journal on Sunday, June 7, 2020 Coos Bay - About 400 people protested police brutality on Sunday in Coos Bay. At one point, the group unfurled a banner listing the names of black individuals killed by police officers, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. At about 3 p.m. the group lay down on the boardwalk to honor Floyd, The World Newspaper reported. I wish we didnt have to do this, but Im glad people are, protester Benjamin Ramirez said. A mostly peaceful Black Lives Matter protest occurred along U.S. Highway 101 at the Steve Prefontaine Memorial plaza and up and down both sides of the street that grew to more than 300-400 people Saturday afternoon. Many passers-by honked in support or held up their own signs, though some were clearly not in support, including a motorist who brandished a pistol. There were also about 30 people with BLM signs gathered in front of the Coos Bay Boardwalk but those people eventually joined the larger crowd a street over. The crowd ranged from children and young adults to the elderly, holding signs with various messages and chants decrying racism and George Floyds death at the hands of an officer in Minneapolis. Some Marshfield High School seniors even missed their graduation parade, also being held nearby, to be at the protest, which organizers said was to last until 5 p.m. Another BLM protest, possibly larger than Saturdays, is scheduled for Sunday at noon on the Coos Bay Boardwalk. Read the full story and view photos here: https://theworldlink.com/news/local/gun-drawn-on-protesters-in-coos-bay/article_43e9eb32-a83e-11ea-99c1-6395257f990a.html#utm_campaign=blox&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social Posted by The World Newspaper on Saturday, June 6, 2020 Portland - Demonstrations once again took place at locations across the city of Portland. One of the events called Standing at the Gate" was led by the Portland Interfaith Clergy Resistance. Protesters took to the streets of Portland, Ore., for the 11th consecutive day of demonstrations on Sunday, June 7, 2020. The calls for change started after the May 25 death of George Floyd. Dave Killen/Staff - Madison Smalstig l msmalstig@oregonian.com l @madi_smals l Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories WASHINGTON - Members of the D.C. National Guard have tested positive for COVID-19 in the wake of the mass protests across the nations capital last week, according to Lt. Col. Brooke Davis, Guard spokeswoman. She said the Guard will not release the exact total, but U.S. officials said they believe it is not a large number, at least so far. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information publicly. The positive tests were first reported by McClatchy. While some Guard troops responding to the protests wore protective equipment, most were not wearing masks and it was largely impossible to maintain any social distancing. In a statement, Davis said unit commanders were responsible for ensuring their troops adhered to guidelines calling for Guard members to wear protective equipment and maintain social distancing where practical. She said personnel were medically screened for the coronavirus prior to their arrival, and will be screened before they leave. According to officials, about 5,000 Guard members were in D.C. for the civil unrest, including as many as 1,200 from the D.C. Guard. The remainder came from 11 states: Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. According to officials, Guard members returning to their home states may remain on duty status and continue to be paid for two additional weeks so that they can be in quarantine if they were at risk for coronavirus infections. The federal Bureau of Prisons, which dispatched dozens of officers from its riot teams to the streets of Washington, is now offering coronavirus tests for those officers in Washington, an agency spokesman said Tuesday. The agency has also been making arrangements for officers to be tested when they return to the community where they regularly work, if they dont want to be tested in Washington, the spokesman, Justin Long, said. The agency cant compel its employees to be tested. A spokeswoman for the FBI which has had agents questioning people arrested at protests across the U.S. and also deployed its elite Hostage Rescue Team in Washington would not answer questions about whether the agents would be tested or whether they were instructed to wear masks while working in the field. The agency would only say it was working with other officials to continue to ensure measures are in place to protect the FBI workforce, but did not provide any specific information. ___ Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report. PARIS, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HSBC (contact: 'synd manager'; telephone: +44 207 992 8066) hereby gives notice, as Stabilisation Coordinator, that the Stabilisation Manager(s) named below may stabilise the offer of the following securities The securities: Issuer: VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT SA Guarantor (if any): na Aggregate nominal amount: EUR 500,000,000 Description: Fixed due 15th Jan 2032 Offer price: TBC Other offer terms: Stabilisation: Stabilising Manager(s): Barclays/HSBC/Natwest/Santander/Standard Chartered Bank Stabilisation period expected to start on: 8th June 2020 Stabilisation period expected to end no later than: 15th July 2020 Existence, maximum size & conditions of use of over-allotment facility[1]: 5% of the aggregate nominal amount Stabilisation Venue(s) Over the counter (OTC) In connection with the offer of the above securities, the Stabilisation Manager(s) may over-allot the securities or effect transactions with a view to supporting the market price of the securities at a level higher than that which might otherwise prevail. However, there is no assurance that the Stabilisation Manager(s) will take any stabilisation action and any stabilisation action, if begun, may be ended at any time. Any stabilisation action or over-allotment shall be conducted in accordance with all applicable laws and rules. This announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation or offer to underwrite, subscribe for or otherwise acquire or dispose of any securities of the Issuer in any jurisdiction. In addition, if and to the extent that this announcement is communicated in, or the offer of the securities to which it relates is made in, any EEA Member State that has implemented Directive 2003/71/EC, as amended (together with any applicable implementing measures in any Member State, the "Prospectus Directive") before the publication of a prospectus in relation to the securities which has been approved by the competent authority in that Member State in accordance with the Prospectus Directive (or which has been approved by a competent authority in another Member State and notified to the competent authority in that Member State in accordance with the Prospectus Directive), this announcement and the offer are only addressed to and directed at persons in that Member State who are qualified investors within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive (or who are other persons to whom the offer may lawfully be addressed) and must not be acted on or relied on by other persons in that Member State. Story continues This announcement and the offer of the securities to which it relates are only addressed to and directed at persons outside the United Kingdom and persons in the United Kingdom who have professional experience in matters related to investments or who are high net worth persons within article 12(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 and must not be acted on or relied on by other persons in the United Kingdom. [1] Please note that the existence and the maximum size of any greenshoe option, the exercise period of the greenshoe option and any conditions for exercise of the greenshoe option must also be disclosed, if such option exists. In addition, the exercise of the greenshoe option must be disclosed to the public promptly, together with all appropriate details, including in particular the date of exercise and the number and nature of securities involved CRANBURY, NJ and SHANGHAI, June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi Biologics ("WuXi Bio") (2269.HK), a global company with leading open-access biologics technology platforms, announced that it has signed a 10-year lease for a clinical manufacturing facility (MFG18) in Cranbury, New Jersey. The new clinical manufacturing facility will install total 6000 L bioreactors, Process Development (PD), Quality Control (QC) labs, along with supporting functions. The 66,000-square-foot facility is expected to become operational in late 2020 and will bring in up to 100 jobs to the region. This news follows WuXi Biologics' recent purchase of land to build a new 107,000-square-foot clinical and commercial manufacturing facility in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the lease of a 33,000-square-foot site to establish a process development lab in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. "We are excited to announce our third site in the United States and proud to become a member of the New Jersey community. Cranbury is a growing hub for the biotech and biopharma industries, and we look forward to working with and serving our partners in the area to benefit patients worldwide," said Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of WuXi Biologics. About WuXi Biologics WuXi Biologics (stock code: 2269.HK), a Hong Kong-listed company, is a leading global open-access biologics technology platform offering end-to-end solutions to empower organizations to discover, develop and manufacture biologics from concept to commercial manufacturing. Our company history and achievements demonstrate our commitment to providing a truly ONE-stop service offering and strong value proposition to our global clients. As of December 31, 2019, there were a total of 250 integrated projects, including 121 projects in pre-clinical development stage, 112 projects in early-phase (phase I and II) clinical development, 16 projects in late-phase (phase III) development and one project in commercial manufacturing. With total estimated capacity for biopharmaceutical production planned in China, Ireland, the U.S., Germany and Singapore exceeding 280,000 liters by 2022, we will provide our biomanufacturing partners with a robust and premier-quality global supply chain network. For more information on WuXi Biologics, please visit www.wuxibiologics.com SOURCE WuXi Biologics [June 09, 2020] Wave Money Leads Digital Payments for COVID-19 Action in Myanmar YANGON, Myanmar, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Government, humanitarian agencies and corporates have teamed up with Wave Money, the leading mobile financial services provider in Myanmar, to digitally deliver aid to individuals and communities hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the duration of the COVID-19 crisis, Wave Money has committed to waiving all service fees for the disbursement of funds to at-risk and affected sectors. Wave Money's digital platform is the trusted channel for social security payments, loans for farmers, emergency funds for garment workers, and cash relief for street vendors. The Social Security Board under the Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population, the Myanmar Agricultural Development Bank (MADB), the Myan Ku Fund project of the European Union which is financed through the EU's Humanitarian Development Peace Nexus Response Mechanism (NRM) managed by UNOPS, "I Do Nation", a multi-sector fund-raising campaign for street vendors initiated by Doh Eain and MultiVerse Advertising and Free Cash Program For The Needy (FCPN) project which is initiated by Myanmar famous actor Zenn Kyi and Central Base Production, are among those leveraging Wave Money's platform free-of-charge. As part of Wave Money's community kindness initiative "WavePay it Forward", Wave Money is also raising funds through the WavePay app's PCNC COVID Donation platform for the National Level Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment of COVID-19. The fund raising is running for two months, with all proceeds going into efforts to prevent and contain COVID-19, monitor quarantined patients and suspected cases, provide educational awareness, disseminate news, and supervise the importation of medical equipment. "Digitally-delivered financial assistance is an efficient crisis response. It saves time, saves resources, and savs lives. Wave Money's support for a number of COVID-19 humanitarian programmes and our very own 'WavePay It Forward' fund-raising is in line with our mission to create a fairer future for Myanmar through financial inclusion. More importantly, it is in line with what every one of us believes -- that technology is a force for good. Stay strong, Myanmar," said Brad Jones, CEO of Wave Money. Accelerating Digital Payments The adoption of digital payments has skyrocketed in recent weeks as societies implement strict public health measures and minimize cash handling to prevent the spread of COVID-19. "Millions of people are now embracing mobile financial services, conveniently transferring money or buying products and services in the comfort and safety of their homes. Digital has also made it easier for people to make a difference whenever and wherever they are," Brad Jones added. Wave Money's significant digital payments milestones in COVID-19 period also brings a transformative impact to agriculture sector. With the partnership with Myanmar Agricultural Development Bank (MADB), farmers are enabled to access digital loans disbursement program through WavePay. Supporting the most vulnerable In April, Wave Money launched the campaign #StayStrongMyanmar which consolidates all active programmes and community support for sectors adversely affected by COVID-19. Through the WavePay application, donations are currently being mobilized and disbursed safely and efficiently to beneficiaries, minimizing the need for physical contact. Direct donation to those affected by COVID-19 through services and organization such as the Free Funeral Services Society Yangon, Dhamma Young Chi, Hnin Si Gone and so on. In addition, Wave Money has donated more than 68 million MMK to health and humanitarian groups; Medical Action Myanmar and Population Services International Myanmar that have been actively initiating movements against COVID-19 since its inception in Myanmar, to fulfill the needs of the organization while they are implementing the COVID-19 response activities. About Wave Money Wave Money is the leading mobile financial services provider operating with over 57,000 Wave shops across Myanmar. Wave Money is a joint venture between Telenor, Yoma Bank and Singapore Exchange listed Yoma Strategic Holdings and provides easy, fast and reliable mobile financial services through a nationwide agent network. Wave Money introduced a unique way of transferring money, bringing millions of people in Myanmar access to formal financial services. Through Wave Money, thousands of people a day are sending money anywhere and at any time. The Wave Money call center operates 24/7 and is always available to respond to any customer queries. For more information, please visit: http://www.wavemoney.com.mm. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200609/2824781-1 SOURCE Wave Money [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] SOUTHAMPTON The body of a Northampton firefighter was founded in a wooded area following a search on Sunday, authorities said. The Northwestern District Attorneys office told The Daily Hampshire Gazette the unattended death is not considered suspicious. The mans body was found Sunday night in a wooded area off Lead Mine and Cold Spring roads. Northampton Fire Chief Jon Davine told the Gazette that members of the department were heavily involved in the search for their fellow firefighter. For breaking news in Western Massachusetts, download MassLives app and subscribe to Springfield push alerts The federal government has stopped offering free repatriation flights for Australian citizens trapped abroad due to the coronavirus. There will no longer be any international flights operated by Qantas or Virgin Australia until international travel restrictions are eased. Qantas and Virgin Australia regrounded their remaining international aircraft on Tuesday, marking an official end of the taxpayer-funded recovery process. There will no longer be any international flights operated by Qantas or Virgin Australia until international travel restrictions have eased The federal government started offering a number of repatriation routes on April 3, covering the airline's losses of running the services without filling the aircraft. Over the past month Qantas was running two weekly flights between London-Perth-Melbourne and a weekly service between Los Angeles and Melbourne. The last flight landed on Monday. Virgin Australia was operating a weekly service between Los Angeles and Brisbane with the final flight landing on Tuesday. The two carriers will no longer be operating international services, with Qantas shifting efforts to an increased domestic offering as restrictions ease nation-wide. Virgin Australia is still seeking a new buyer after going into voluntary administration on April 21. Qantas and Virgin Australia regrounded their remaining international aircraft today, marking an official end of the taxpayer funded recovery process However Qantas will continue operating some international freight flights due to high levels of demand. A spokesperson for the Qantas Group told Daily Mail Australia they'll have the capacity to run additional repatriation flights if the government gives them the green light. 'We were proud to have helped thousands of Australians return home as well as taking foreign nationals back in the other direction,' the spokesperson said. Meanwhile the federal government is yet to confirm whether more repatriation flights will be added. A spokesperson for the Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Michael McCormack told the Sydney Morning Herald they're investigating demand. Virgin Australia is still seeking a buyer after going into voluntary administration on April 21 'The government is reviewing the program noting there are now alternative commercial flight options available from London and Los Angeles,' she said. The federal government banned international travel on March 25, stopping Australians from leaving the country for non essential services. Restrictions were also imposed around the same time to limit travellers arriving on Australian soil, with only citizens, residents and immediate family members allowed. Anyone who touches down in Australia will also be forced into a mandatory 14 day quarantine. The grounding of flights comes after Qantas announced it was tripling its domestic flights. More than 300 return flights will be added by Qantas and low-cost carrier Jetstar at the end of the month. By the end of July the airlines hope to return to 40 per cent of their pre-coronavirus flight frequency. There are currently five Qantas flights per week between the two capital cities but by the end of July there will be 47. The Oakland County Board of Commissioners are requesting that all county-owned dams undergo more frequent in-depth inspections, rather than once every three years as required by the State. County Commissioner Eileen Kowall (R-White Lake) introduced a resolution at the June 4 board meeting that would require the Water Resources Commissioners Office (WRC) to submit condition reports, annually, for 36 lake level dams and eight control structures in Oakland County and make those reports publicly accessible online. The reports would include information on condition and rating, date of last inspection and annual maintenance and repair budget. The WRC maintains normal levels for 54 lakes and employs one lake level engineer, one lake level supervisor, and three lake level control technicians to operate and maintain dams and other lake level control structures under Part 307 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act of 1994. There are approximately 150 dams in Oakland County under various ownership. Jim Nash, county water resources commissioner, told The Oakland Press that the dams owned and operated by his office are 40-50 years old and are in very good shape, more modern, and operated every day. Although in-depth inspections are completed once every three years, Nash said the dams are visited on a regular basis by WRC staff performing day-to-day activities to include visual observations related to structural condition and integrity. Costs to operate, maintain, repairs, and replaces these lake level dams are paid for by property owners located in special assessment districts. In 2019, the total assessment for lake levels was $819,000. The assessment fees vary from year-to-year based on the need for dam-related projects. Every one of these 36 lake levels dams underwent an in-depth inspection in 2019, according to Nash. The next round of inspections are scheduled for 2022. About a week ago, the county completed the replacement of the Upper Straits Lake Dam at a cost of around $1 million. Other recent projects include: Replacing an augmentation well on Duck Lake, replacing a dam at Belvins Lake, and replacing a remote lake level monitoring system in partnership with students at The University of Michigan using ultrasonic level sensors, solar power, cellular transmission of data, and cloud-based reporting. Last month, the Edenville and Sanford Dams, located in mid-Michigan and privately owned by Boyce Hydro LLC., breached due to heavy rainfall combined with years of neglect and lack of investment. The breaching caused historic flooding and widespread damage with over 10,000 Michiganders having to be evacuated from their homes. Several lawsuits have been filed against Boyce Hydro by area businesses and residents. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has created an interactive map providing the location of each of the 1,059 dams regulated by the state, of which around 730 are privately-owned. The map does not list the 99 Michigan dams regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, nor smaller, unregulated dam structures. The map also provides ownership information, the body of water it regulates, date of its last reported inspection, hazard potential, and an assessment of its condition. You can view the map by visiting https://mdeq.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=f8c0637f34864bcbabb9c794fd8e452b. State and local resources converge as thousands of Michiganders flee homes after historic flooding Truly devastating: Michigan officials assess Midland flood damage 2nd lawsuit filed against operator of failed Michigan dams Gretchen Whitmer orders probe of failed dams that caused Midland flooding Historical society raising funds for flood-damaged museums Dam had repeated safety violations before flooding Nepals Parliament on Tuesday discussed a constitutional amendment to give legal backing to a new political map that shows Kalapani and Lipulekh as part of Nepalese territory amid widespread backing for the move from lawmakers. The move is expected to aggravate a diplomatic row between Nepal and India, which erupted after Kathmandu protested against the opening of an 80-km road to Lipulekh on the Chinese border by New Delhi last month. Nepal claims Lipulekh but the Indian side has said the road is completely within its territory. The amendment, which requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of Nepals Parliament, is certain to be passed as all key parties, including the opposition Nepali Congress and Madhes-based parties, have backed it. Also read: The costs of anti-Indian nationalism in Nepal | HT Editorial The move in Parliament followed after several efforts by Kathmandu to hold talks with New Delhi on the border row. People familiar with developments said Nepal last formally contacted India early in May for talks to resolve the issue. There was no formal word from Indian officials on Tuesdays development in Nepal. Nepals foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali told Parliament that the new road to Lipulekh had undermined the countrys sovereignty. Nepals border begins at Limpiyadhura, the origin of the river Kali, and the border with India is determined by the Treaty of Sugauli of 1816, he said. India, he added, had acknowledged in 1997 that the borders at Kalapani and Susta were unresolved. Gyawali also said Nepal was still awaiting a response from India on holding talks to resolve the border row that has strained bilateral relations. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday that requests for talks were made last November and December, and again in May. Also read: Decoding the India-Nepal dispute | Opinion We have expressed time and again that Nepal wants to sit at the table to resolve this problem, he said. We are waiting for formal negotiations so that these two countries with...a very unique type of partnership can develop a more inspiring relationship that reflects the requirements of the 21st century. In Parliament, Janata Samajbadi Party leader Rajendra Shrestha said there should be no compromise on an issue involving national sovereignty and integrity. Nepali Congress chief whip Bal Krishna Khand said his party had already decided to back the amendment. However, Khand also said the government should expedite efforts for a diplomatic dialogue with India. After the issue flared up, the government of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli issued a new political map on May 20 that showed Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani as Nepalese territory. Nepals parliamentarians now have three days to register changes to the amendment, following which it will be presented for a vote in the two houses. Nothing gets the blood running in the investment community like the prospect of a mega-merger. So the possibility of Astrazeneca and America's Gilead, two big players in combating Covid-19, coming together to create a transatlantic behemoth has the pharma analysts in overdrive. The thinking behind such an alliance is that Astrazeneca, the UK's most valuable company, is in a good position to effect a merger because of its strong share price which might allow an all-paper transaction. Gilead is attractive not just because of its expertise in treatments for retroviruses, which target the DNA, but because it also has a strong balance sheet. In charge: Pharmaceutical giant Astrazeneca's chief executive is Pascal Soriot (pictured) In the first quarter, it was cash rich with 18.9billion sitting there waiting to be spent. In contrast, AZ is seen as less well-endowed for a group with at least five of the best big drugs in the pipeline of any pharma company in the world. Chief executive Pascal Soriot has also shown his willingness to divert the company's resources and reputation into linking up with Oxford University to gear up production of a coronavirus vaccine in record time. Cynics suggest that a merger could also potentially be a way of satisfying Soriot's ambitions to put a Bunsen burner under his personal rewards. A pandemic may not be the best moment for that. As always, it is possible to construct a golden scenario of cost savings from such a merger, with most cuts falling on Gilead because it lacks an equivalent pipeline to AZ. But as with any explored mega-merger, one should never underestimate the time scale and management effort in making it work. Former Glaxo boss Jean-Pierre Garnier regarded having to manage the merger with Smith Kline Beecham two decades ago as a big distraction from core work on discovering new compounds. It was as a consequence of that transaction that GSK emerged as a global vaccine champion with treatments such as Cervarix for cervical cancer and current blockbuster Shingrix for shingles. The regulatory obstacles to any deal at present would likely kill it anyway. The Trump White House would seek to repulse efforts to take out drugs champion Gilead in the midst of a pandemic. That may be why early approaches ground to a halt. Nevertheless, closer co-operation and ties among big pharma companies are not unusual. It is possible that something less than a full merger perhaps an alliance, backed up by an exchange of equity stakes could be a way forward. Green shoot Among the big advantages the UK economy has over most other advanced economies is the flexibility of its labour market. The tide can turn for jobs at speed when hiring and firing is relatively simple. This was demonstrated in the United States last week when Covid-19 jobless claims, which had been running at up to 6m a week, tumbled to 2m. Latest data from Manpower Group shows the outlook for jobs in the third quarter is the worst since it began surveying in 1992. It is not all gloom, though, as 57 per cent of employers expect a return to normal hiring levels in 2021. Managing director Mark Cahill notes that lockdown has shown how adaptable the UK workforce is and how using online training tools can quickly re-equip people for new jobs, whether it be tracing and tracking Covid-19 contacts or logistics. Among the biggest concerns is that the virus will leave behind a layer of 18 to 24- year-old entrants to the jobs market without necessary skills. A reformed apprentice system, which focuses on in-house and online training, rather than a statutory one day out at a technology college, could make a difference. It is critical to get on with reforms now so the system is fit for purpose when recovery arrives. Oil blowout Bernard Looney's decision to slash the BP workforce by 10,000 (including around 3,000 in Britain) by the end of the year shows how deep the scarring of Covid-19 will be despite Manpower's optimism. Looney and BP's senior staff will not be getting any bonuses this year. But there rightly will be squeals from the workforce about the decision to keep paying dividends while dispensing with layers of management. Photo credit: SOPA Images - Getty Images From Delish As the Disney World resort prepares to welcome back guests starting on July 11, they've released a ton of information on what park-goers can expect when visiting, but now, they've also shed some light on what staying at the resort's hotels will look like. Disney announced that it will begin to re-open select Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts and Disneys Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground starting on June 22, ahead of the parks' official openings. Once the parks re-open, some of the remaining resort hotels are expected to open for existing reservations but are subject to closures, limited capacity, and other terms. If and when you visit the hotels any time soon, Disney assured guests there will be enhanced safety protocols in place, like mask requirements for guests ages two and above, increased cleaning in high-traffic areas and high-touch surfaces, and double-cased pillows. Some services will also be unavailable, such as dressing rooms, in-room celebrations, and special classes and programsincluding culinary, cultural, and animal programs. They also recommend that you bring cashless payment and to use online check-in when you can. You should also read up on certain Disney-centric activities that will also look a bit different, such as pin-trading with cast members via pin boards rather than in person. As USA TODAY pointed out, those visiting Florida from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are currently required to quarantine for 14 days so guests coming from those areas should take this into account as well. You can learn more about the reopening of the Disney World resort here. You Might Also Like Hainan, the southern island province of China, has been attracting people from around the globe with its sandy beaches, coconut trees, and year-round sunshine. The island is becoming a hotspot this year due to China's plans to build a free trade port with the highest level of openness. With a plan aiming at further consolidating the foundation of the real economy and enhancing economic competitiveness, a free trade port system will be "basically established" in Hainan by 2025, becoming "more mature" by 2035, with a focus on the liberalization and facilitation of trade, investment, transport and the flow of talent, capital and data. Injecting new vitality into enterprises Market entities will enjoy a batch of benefits in investment, tax and market access when doing business in the Hainan free trade port, said Shen Xiaoming, governor of Hainan, at a press conference Monday. Streamlined procedures will be available to companies, with license application and government approval not required for industries that are not prohibited by law or mandatory standards. Foreign investment will be subject to a management system combining pre-establishment national treatment and a negative list designated for the free trade port, further reducing restrictions and prohibitions on the basis of free trade zones, Shen said. Domestic firms registered in the free trade port will be encouraged to raise funds by issuing shares abroad. The free trade port will also offer tax benefits for firms operating in sectors such as tourism, modern services, and new and high technology by exempting enterprise income tax for the income from their direct investment overseas. The southern island province will further open the tertiary industry by significantly reducing restrictions on market access. Efforts will be made to deepen opening up in the sectors such as shipping, telecommunication, business services, finance, medical care, education, culture and sports, said Shen. Enhancing trade liberalization, facilitation China will support free trade of commodities by granting zero-tariff treatment in an orderly manner and remove non-tariff barriers such as permits and quotas, Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen told a press conference on Monday. In the first stage, before 2025, certain goods will be exempt from import duties, import value-added tax and consumption tax, while after 2025, import duty exemptions will apply on all imported goods other than those listed in the catalog of imported taxable commodities, said Vice Finance Minister Zou Jiayi. A pioneering negative list will be formed this year for cross-border service trade at the port to facilitate cross-border delivery, overseas consumption and the flow of people. Cross-border service trade not on the list will be granted free entry into the port. To bolster consumption in the area, the port will further relax the annual tax-free shopping quota for travelers by raising the limit of purchase from 30,000 yuan (about 4,230 U.S. dollars) to 100,000 yuan per person each year and expanding the categories of duty-free goods, Zou said. Expanding financial opening-up The Hainan free trade port will take the lead in expanding the opening-up of the financial service sector, which entails support for setting up trading venues for financial products related to energy, shipping and commodities, said Pan Gongsheng, vice governor of the People's Bank of China. China will also strengthen financial support to promote the scale of industrial agglomeration and enhance the industrial competitiveness of major industries in Hainan, as well as innovating and developing trade finance, consumer finance, green finance and technology finance. Financial policies will serve cross-border trade, Pan said, adding that the capital exchange for trade in goods and services should be highly facilitated, and the policies regulating new trade patterns, such as offshore trade and entrepot trade, should be improved. Supplementing rather than replacing Hong Kong Concerns that the Hainan free trade port will undermine Hong Kong's status as a global financial, trading and shipping center were dismissed Monday by Lin Nianxiu, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission. With different orientations and priority industries, Hainan and Hong Kong are more complementary than competitive, Lin said at a press conference. The country will work to promote the joint development of Hainan and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and ensure Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability, Lin noted. Sticking to environmentally-friendly development The free trade port greatly stresses environmental protection in the process of its development, strictly restricting real estate expansion, said Liu Cigui, Party chief of Hainan, citing the importance of building a diversified modern industrial system with limited land resources. The province has also made efforts to achieve the air-quality goal for 2030, such as using clean energy. Sales of oil-fueled automobiles will be banned starting 2030, and the use of non-biodegradable plastic products will be prohibited from the end of 2020, Liu said, adding that the Hainan free trade port welcomes investors and talents all over the world to share the opportunity of China's development and the fruits of China's reform and opening-up. SAN FRANCISCO - Tesla workers in California tested positive last month for the novel coronavirus following chief executive Elon Musk's defiant reopening of the company's main production facility in Fremont, according to employees with knowledge of the situation. Two workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation, told The Washington Post that supervisors held meetings with their teams to disclose the company had reported several cases of the coronavirus, and the employees affected were told to stay home. One of the workers said a supervisor confirmed two positive cases to a group at the Fremont-based seat assembly facility, which is at 901 Page Ave., a short drive from the main production plant. Tesla and Alameda County came to an agreement in May allowing the company to restart production if it adhered to strict social distancing and took extra precautions to avoid exposing workers to the illness. The plant employs about 10,000 workers, who are spread out among multiple shifts and are now required to wear masks and limit contact with others in break rooms, for example, while keeping ample space between one another as they work with heavy machinery to produce electric cars. As part of the agreement struck allowing Tesla to reopen on May 18, Tesla would have to report all positive cases to the Alameda County Public Health Department. But because Tesla restarted production a week earlier, there could have been cases that were never reported to the county because Tesla was "not required to directly report known cases" before the agreement, county officials said. There were no known workplace-related infections of county residents associated with Tesla, said county spokeswoman Neetu Balram in an email. During the prior week "if a person tested positive and they were not a resident of Alameda County, it's possible we would not have that case reported to us," she added. The reopening, and subsequent coronavirus cases, follow weeks of tension over the public health order. Musk first defied the rules in March by keeping the plant open before local officials declared Tesla's vehicle production was not essential and must come to a halt. Musk tweeted "FREE AMERICA NOW" in April before launching into a profane rant on the company's quarterly earnings call, calling quarantine measures "fascist" just after he expressed concern over the production halt's impact on the company's finances. In early May, Tesla sued the county over the order, and Musk threatened to pick up and move the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company to Texas or Nevada. He followed that up by publicly defying the order and opening the plant, daring officials to arrest him and eventually winning the support of President Trump. The worker, in the separate building from Tesla's main plant, said those affected included one from Tesla's morning shift and another from its evening shift. The worker expressed concern over a perceived lack of caution on the production line. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A message for Laurie Shelby, vice president of environment, health and safety at Tesla, went unreturned. Reached by phone, Tesla corporate physician James Craner declined to comment for this story. Some workers described an environment of uncertainty and fear around the restart of production, noting how some on their production lines might disappear for two weeks without explanation - a likely effect of extreme precautions being taken for anyone who develops symptoms. "No social distancing at all when clocking in/out [because] people are ... in a hurry to go home or get back to their work station," the individual in the seat assembly plant said in a text message. As far as social distancing, the worker said, management "don't say anything to the associates [because] they're not doing it either." As for the changes: "It's like nothing but with a mask on," the worker said. The worker said three people who had been quarantined because of potential exposure had returned to work, but those who tested positive haven't returned to the line. In court documents, Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood said he believes Chad Daybell either concealed or helped hide the remains knowing that they were about to be used as evidence in court. Wood said the first body was hidden or destroyed sometime on or after Sept. 8 the last known day that Tylee was seen and the second on or after Sept. 22, the last known day that JJ was seen. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 10 2020 The National Police have apprehended two alleged masterminds, identified as TA and AS, behind a recent terror attack on a police station in South Daha district, South Kalimantan. The two were captured by the National Polices Densus 88 counterterrorism squad on Friday. According to the police, they were members of the South Kalimantan branch of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an Islamic State-linked terror group responsible for a string of attacks, including suicide bombings at churches in Surabaya, East Java, in 2018, which killed a dozen people. 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 GSEB Gujarat Board 10th Result 2020 declared: The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB) announced the results of Secondary School Certificate of Class 10 today (9 June) GSEB Gujarat Board 10th Result 2020 declared: The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB) announced the results of Secondary School Certificate of Class 10 today (9 June), according to media reports. Students can visit the official website www.gseb.org to check their results. However, due to many students trying to check their results, the the official website is likely to become slow or unreachable due to heavy traffic. Websites such as examresults.net, results.nic.in and indiaresults.com will also display the GSEB SSC results. The board also said marksheets would be distributed at a later date and an announcement would be made on the website, as per NDTV. The board is also going to declare results of Gujarat Sanskrit Prathma today at 8 am, as per JagranJosh. How to check Gujarat Class 10 result 2019 on examresults.net: Step 1: Log onto examresults.net website Step 2: Click on Gujarat in the list of the states or access the link directly here. Step 3: Look for the link which says Gujarat Board SSC Exam. Step 4: Click on the link and fill in all the details to get your Gujarat Board SSC Examination 2019 result Steps to check Gujarat madhyamik (SSC) result on indiaresults.com: Step 1: Visit the website indiaresults.com Step 2: Click on Gujarat in the list of the states or type the URL gujarat.indiaresults.com on your browser and press enter. Step 3: Look for the link which says "Gujarat State Secondary and Higher Sec Education Board" with "SSC Examination Result 2019" written under it. Step 4: Click on the link. It will take you to a new page. Fill in all the details to get your matric result. To check live results of GSEB Class 10 2020 exam, students may enter their log-in details in our widget given below. How to check result via SMS If the internet is down or all above websites unresponsive, there is no need to fret. Students can check their scores via SMS. To receive GSEB SSC exam results on your mobile phone, send an SMS in the format SSC SEAT NUMBER to 56263. About Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB): GSEB is a board of school education in the state of Gujarat. It was formed on the basis of The Gujarat Secondary Education Act 1972. The primary function of the board is to prepare academic programmes and organise examination for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC). (Natural News) Major cities in England were rocked over the weekend by protests that turned violent. In London, 27 police officers were hurt during protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, according to the Metropolitan Police. In a statement, Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick condemned the attacks, calling these as shocking and completely unacceptable. Rioters attacks are indiscriminate The protests coincided with the U.K.s 76th D-Day anniversary, the beach landings that served as an important turning point during World War II for the Allied forces. As the protests in support of the Black Lives Matter escalated into violence, vandals attacked the statue of Winston Churchill, the wartime prime minister who fought both Nazis and Fascists, daubing his plinth with the words [Churchill] was a racist. Police officers are keeping a tight watch around the statue of Winston Churchill on Parliament Square after it was graffitied. @LBC pic.twitter.com/8X8JTjzNk8 Rachael Venables (@rachaelvenables) June 6, 2020 On Monday, five members of Parliament helped remove the graffiti. Lee Anderson, a conservative MP who was part of the clean-up, chided the protests, saying that it is unacceptable for thugs and yobbos turn around and try to disrupt public order. Its thanks to [Churchill] that weve not got a different statue there it could have been a fascist dictator stood there today and there could be swastikas flying, Anderson added. In Londons Whitehall district, around 22 officers were injured after they were pelted with bottles, fireworks and smoke bombs; footage posted on Twitter revealed a mob chasing officers down the streets. Its starting to lose control here on Whitehall as police are attacked with bottles, traffic cones and other objects. Some protestors appealing for calm. @LBCNews @LBC pic.twitter.com/rUU4ZGY9pY Matthew Thompson (@mattuthompson) June 7, 2020 Even the Cenotaph the U.K.s official national war memorial was not spared from vandalism. In addition, one demonstrator climbed onto the Cenotaph and tried to set the Union Jack on fire. The moment a protester tried to set fire to a Union Jack on the Centotaph during yesterday's anti-racism protests.#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/rF1vvQjz6Y LBC (@LBC) June 8, 2020 In addition, demonstrations at Downing Street, where the office of the prime minister is located, also turned chaotic as protesters acted violently toward officers. In a statement, the Met said that it had made arrests for disruption to public order and criminal damage in relation to last weekends riots. In response to the violence-marred protests, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: People have a right to protest peacefully and while observing social distancing but they have no right to attack the police. These demonstrations have been subverted by thuggery and they are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve. Those responsible will be held to account. London Mayor Sadiq Khan echoed the prime ministers statements, calling the so-called pockets of violence unacceptable. I stand with you and share your anger and pain. George Floyds brutal killing must lead to immediate and lasting change in countries, cities, police services and institutions everywhere. But this vital cause was badly let down by a tiny minority who turned violent and threw glass bottles and lit flares, endangering other protestors and injuring police officers, he added. (Related: PSYOP? George Floyd death was faked by crisis actors to engineer revolutionary riots, video authors say.) Farage: Iconoclasm akin to Taliban For his part, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage also accused the Black Lives Matter movement of unpicking history, comparing their actions last weekend to that of the Taliban. BLM protesters tore down the statue of 17th-century philanthropist Edward Colston in Bristol on Sunday over his ties to slavery. The mob used ropes to bring down the statue from its plinth, sprayed it with red paint, dragged it through the city streets to the harbor, where they threw it into the water. The police, who looked on as the protesters toppled the statue and rolled it into the harbor, said that holding their ground was a tactical decision and that trying to intervene and prevent the crime would have escalated the situation. In response to protests that upended England, the Brexit Party leader said the riots ushered in a new form of the Taliban. A new form of the Taliban was born in the UK today. Unless we get moral leadership quickly our cities won't be worth living in. Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) June 7, 2020 The Taliban, or students in the Pashto language, is a hardline Islamic group that took over Afganistan in 1996. Under their law, the country was placed under a strict Islamic fundamentalist culture, which saw the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001. The group also blew up important statues in Palmyra, Syria in 2015 and 2017. Its also worth noting that during Londons riots, some demonstrators vandalized statues of historically respected figures of political movement, including Abraham Lincoln and Mahatma Gandhi. Sources include: BBC.com NottinghamPost.com Metro.co.uk Twitter.com 1 TheSun.co.uk Twitter.com 2 Breitbart.com Twitter.com 3 A flight carrying 55 migrant workers reached Ranchi from Leh on Monday morning, with Jharkhand ministers Mithilesh Thakur and Badal Patralekh greeting the returnees on their arrival at the airport. An official statement by the Chief Ministers Office (CMO) had on Sunday said 208 migrant workers of Jharkhand would be airlifted from Leh in four batches this week. Doosra jatha hawai marg se Ranchi pahunch gaya, un sab ko Johar (the second batch has reached Ranchi by air, salutations to them), a CMO release quoted Soren as having said. According to the state government norms, all 55 migrant workers will have to undergo home quarantine for 14 days. The first batch of 60 migrant workers reached Ranchi from Leh via Delhi on May 29. The returnees, all residents of the states Santhal Pargana region, were sent home in sanitised buses. Soren had earlier thanked Ladakh Deputy Commissioner, officials of the Border Road Organisation, low-cost carriers Spice Jet, Indigo, Air Asia, and some local non-governmental organisations for their collective effort in sending the migrant workers home to Jharkhand from Leh. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Most developed nations are ranked as the happiest due to the comfortable life their citizens enjoy and easy access to human needs and amenities. The saddest countries in the world struggle to acquire basic amenities and are often destroyed with either natural disasters, human conflict, or unfair distribution of resources. The decline of an economy, government negligence, and abuse of human rights are factors that make citizens unhappy. Image: unsplash.com (modified by author) Source: UGC World Happiness Report (WHR) is released yearly, ranking countries on how happy or sad they are. WHR bases its ranking on six variables. These are income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support, and generosity. The first time the report was made public was in 2012. Most of the saddest countries are from Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia. Saddest countries in the world The following are the top 10 unhappiest countries: 1. South Sudan Why is South Sudan a sad country? The landlocked East-Central African country has been marred by civil wars for years. South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July 2011 after the majority came to vote for the referendum supporting the split. This was after decades of conflict and loss of lives. More than 2 million people lost their lives in the civil war. South Sudan became the newest independent country after the cessation in 2011. The split marked a new beginning for many south Sudanese people with some of the population that had fled the war getting back to the country. Their joy and hope were, however, shortlived as the country is still suffering from political instability. 2. Central African Republic (CAR) The Central African Republic is one of the many African countries with large amounts of minerals and other natural resources. The Francophone country has numerous mineral deposits, including uranium reserves, crude oil, gold, and diamonds. The country is also known for producing cobalt, lumber, and hydropower. Despite the many resources, the Central African Republic is still classified as a struggling economy. The gross domestic product stands at $2.2 billion, with a population heading to 5 million. CAR has also experienced internal battles involving the government, rebels, and militias. The conflicts were fueled by the demand for power and sometimes religious intolerance. READ ALSO: Top 15 oldest cities in the USA ranked by age 3. Afghanistan The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has a population of 37 million people. The landlocked country in South and Central Asia is known for producing natural gas and oil, although agriculture is the primary source of income. Afghanistan is known for producing the best pomegranates in Asia. Before Islam came into the country, Buddhism and Zionism were the dominant religions. The first democratically elected head of state was Hamid Karzai, elected in December 2004. Afghanistan has experienced both internal and external conflicts over the years and is the saddest country in Asia. The security situation is volatile making it unsafe to travel without properly taking safety measures into concern 4. Tanzania Image: wikimedia.com Source: UGC Tanzania is a beautiful and peaceful East African country. It is home to Africas highest mountain, Mt Kilimanjaro, and exotic wildlife. The country is also known to have some of the most beautiful tourist destinations in Africa. They include the famous Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Pemba island, and Zanzibar beaches. Unfortunately, the country still grapples from poverty, diseases, and poor government policies. 5. Rwanda Rwanda is one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa. The small nation has witnessed massive progress since the 1994 genocide. Scars of the genocide continue to be felt by many Rwandese people today. The war resulted in the death of 1 million Rwandese people. The mass killings of Tutsis, Twas, and a few Hutus are among the ugliest sides of the countrys history. America and the French government are reported to have also fueled the war. Rwanda however, rose after the unfortunate killings and continues to build a powerhouse image in Africa. The countrys tourism industry is growing thanks to the well-maintained conservancies, national parks, and wildlife. READ ALSO: 10 best African countries to live and work in 2020 6. Yemen The Republic of Yemen is located at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. The country has a population of 28 million with a gross domestic product of $26.91 billion. Yemen does well in the agricultural sector. The country also has reserves of oil crude and gas. Even with the resources, the country has not progressed over the years due to mismanagement of the economy and civil wars. The conflict can be traced back to 2011 when the country sank into political instability due to a failure of a smooth transition of government during the Arab Spring. The Yemeni Civil War started in 2015 between two factions, the Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi-led Yemeni government, and the Houthi armed movement. READ ALSO: Top 10 most powerful African countries ranked 2020 7. Malawi Image: wikimedia.com Source: UGC Malawi has a population of 18 million. The landlocked southeastern African country has beautiful landscapes, and a distinct topography with the Great Rift valley cut through it. Malawi is popularly known for Lake Malawi, wildlife, and rich culture. Lake Malawi is a source of income for many citizens thanks to the fishing that happens and touring around the lake. Many Malawians however, suffer from hardships due to government neglect, diseases, and corruption. The agriculture sector has had problems for the longest time, with the country experiencing low crop outputs and continuous drought in many parts of the country. 8. Syria Syria has a growing population of 16 million people. The country has been destroyed with domestic and international disputes that have led to the loss of lives and property in the country. Due to the conflict, the countrys name is now almost synonymous with war. The Syrian Uprising has been an ongoing conflict in the Western Asia country for about a decade now. Syria is led by Bashar Al-Assad, a brutal dictator known to oppress Syrians, especially those that go against his barbaric laws. Even with the ongoing war, Syria continues to become a country of interest for many western powers thanks to the oil and gas in the country. Other natural resources in Syria include phosphate, iron, chrome, and manganese ores, marble, gypsum, asphalt, and salt. READ ALSO: Top 10 longest rivers in the US 9. Botswana Botswana is a small Southern African country with a stable economy. The landlocked country has a huge wealth of natural resources and astounding safari destinations. Some of the most popular tourist spots in Botswana include the Okavango Delta, the Kalahari Desert, and the Chobe National Park. Botswana also has large deposits of minerals. This includes diamonds, silver, copper, nickel, coal soda ash, potash, and iron ore. Botswana is in the same league as Syria and the Republic of Haiti, which has continued to face significant humanitarian, political, and development challenges. 75% of citizens live on less than $2 per day, and half of the population earns less than $1 per day 10. Haiti Haiti is a Caribbean country that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic to its east. The country has a population of 11 million people with a gross domestic product of $9 billion. Haiti is famous for its long sandy beaches and amazing views of the Caribbean Sea. The countrys economy is sustained by tourism, the export of natural resources that include minerals like Bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, and marble. However, the economic curve does not rise as fast due to factors like low income, natural disasters, and weak policies. The saddest countries in the world rankings are not meant to prejudice nationals but to encourage governments and citizens to improve where they have failed. The angriest countries in the world may not have everything happy countries have, but the citizens are still loving and patriotic. READ ALSO: 15 most humid states in the US ranked Source: TUKO.co.ke Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has announced the relaxation of restrictions on business activities and intra-state travels. Places of worships are also allowed to open for worshipers only for Fridays, for Jumaat prayers and Sundays for Church services. According to Mr El-Rufai, schools and markets are not included, they shall remain closed until further review. In a state-wide broadcast on Tuesday, the governor said from tomorrow, Wednesday, 10 June 2020, the Quarantine Order is amended to permit a significant reopening of the state. The restriction of intra-state movement is lifted, subject to a night-time curfew of 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Kaduna State government has done its best to ensure that COVID-19 has not resulted in mass sickness and deaths. We again apologise for the inconvenience suffered by all during the 75 days of partial lockdown. Next steps The next step of staying safe while pursuing socio-economic activities is strictly in the hands of each individual. Subject to compliance with safe reopening protocols, businesses can reopen, with the provision of thermometers for temperature checks, sanitisers or handwashing equipment and physical distancing measures within all facilities. Working hours will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Church services are allowed only on Sundays and Mosques are allowed to conduct only Friday Jumaat services, for the time being, subject to compliance with the safety stipulations in the guidelines. Supermarkets and providers of personal services such as hair dressing and barbing salons can reopen, he said. READ ALSO: Hotels can fully open, but with their restaurants and bars offering only room service. Restaurants may all reopen after decontamination, but are still restricted to takeaways At this stage of COVID-19 containment, it is still considered unsafe for markets and schools to reopen, and we will keep engaging with the relevant stakeholders on the matter, to determine the appropriate timing and conditions precedent. Public servants will be summoned back to work in phases to be announced by the Head of Service, he added. The state has so far recorded 363 cases of COVID-19. The state has also tested 2485, discharged 210, while 11 have died from the virus as of Tuesday. Evets Ornum, a Massachusetts native who enjoyed childhood summers with his family and learning to fish in Kingston Bay, has published his new book Sperm Soldier: an entertaining and fast-paced novel that keeps the pages turning until the stunning conclusion. Ornum writes, After the first great war, three men in America, concerned the millions of fatherless children would be raised feminine, bred a supersoldier. Believing there is a hero gene, these men, after the conception of artificial insemination, built a complex breeding system. With the unknowing help of the government, they devised a plan to grow their hero soldiers. Extracting sperm from combat veterans who served above and beyond and tricking any widow of a soldier to have their dead husbands child. When sperm banks began opening in the mid-fifties, the three men infiltrated their supply with their hero sperm and increased their herd. All went undetected for fifty years, until an IED explosion in Iraq blew the lid off a program that began in 1942. DNA, used to identify body parts, exposed the Sperm Soldier program. Two of its founders, still alive, went to face the music, while military leaders struggled to figure out how this could be possible. Published by Page Publishing, Evets Ornums engrossing book is an entertaining choice for avid military and dramatic fiction readers. Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase Sperm Soldier at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. (Photo : Laurent Lombard/Facebook ) How about swimming with COVID 19 this summer ...? Knowing that more than 2 billion disposable masks have been ordered, soon there may be more masks than jellyfish in Mediterranean waters ...! It is everyone's responsibility to avoid this new pollution, but also our elected representatives, deputies and public authorities. Indeed for several years some municipalities have been trying to fight against all these incivilities which destroy our environment and our health in the long term, so it might be time to unite all the right initiatives in order to resolve this new pollution as quickly and as firmly as possible . The health crisis has allowed us to see the best and the worst in us, if we do nothing it is the worst that will happen when it is simply a matter of common sense to avoid all this. I would simply say to finish that a disposable mask is thrown in the trash like any other waste elsewhere. Single-use face masks and gloves are washing up on shorelines and on the ocean floor. Ocean conservationists have warned that the coronavirus pandemic has polluted the ocean as these small personal protective equipment (PPE) are adding to the piles of plastic waste that have long been threatening the world's marine life. In a video by Laurent Lombard for Operation Mer Propre, disposable masks can be seen floating like jellyfish, and latex gloves are scattered on the seabed near Antibes. Ocean conservationists warn about having 'More masks than jellyfish' as COVID-19 waste piles Up The French non-profit's activities include regularly picking up litter along the Cote d'Azur. They began warning people about the status of the seabed after publishing the video late last month. One of the members, Joffrey Peltier, described the pile of junk as "COVID waste," which includes gloves, masks, and bottles of hand sanitizer beneath the waves of the Mediterranean, joining the usual disposable cups and aluminum cans scattered on the seabed. While the quantities of masks and gloves were still relatively small, Peltier is concerned that this is the start of a new kind of pollution. "Pollution promises to come if nothing is done," said Peltier as millions worldwide switched to single-use plastics to combat the coronavirus. Lombard of Operation Mer Propre wrote on Facebook that French authorities have ordered two billion disposable masks and "soon we'll run the risk of having more masks than jellyfish in the Mediterranean." The group hopes the video will urge people to switch to reusable masks and frequent handwashing and other alternatives that offer protection against the virus. "With all the alternatives, plastic isn't the solution to protect us from COVID," said Peltier. For years, environmentalists had warned of the threat posed to oceans and marine life as about 13 million tonnes of plastic goes into the ocean every year as estimated by the UN Environment in 2018. The Mediterranean Sea receives about 570,000 tonnes of plastic a year, which is like dumping 33,800 plastic bottles per minute into the sea. These figures have significantly grown as the world continues to battle against the coronavirus pandemic. Eric Pauget, a French politician in the Cote d'Azur, said that masks contain plastics such as polypropylene. "With a lifespan of 450 years, these masks are an ecological timebomb given their lasting environmental consequences for our planet," Pauget wrote in a letter to President Emmanuel Macron last month. He called on the French president to address the environmental costs of disposable masks more assertively. Disposable masks found in uninhabited islands in Hong Kong OceansAsia, a Hong Kong-based non-profit, aired a similar concern after dozens of disposable masks were seen in marine debris in Soko Islands, "an uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere." "On a beach about 100 meters long, we found about 70," said Gary Stokes of OceansAsia adding that another 30 masks were found after a week. The groups then checked other nearby beaches. "We're finding them everywhere," Stokes said. "Ever since society started wearing masks, the cause and effects are being seen on the beaches," he added. Although some of the junk is due to carelessness, Stokes thought these lightweight masks were also being carried by the wind and ending as "another item of marine debris." Unfortunately, marine life like porpoises and dolphins could mistake a mask for food. "We're constantly getting them washing up dead and we're just waiting for necropsy when we find a mask inside," said Stokes adding that "it's inevitable." Read also: Shark vs. Deep Sea Giant Squid! At Least One of Them Lived to Tell the Tale via Photo 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Related EgyptAir seeks EGP 3 bln loan from Banque Misr and National Bank of Egypt During a meeting between Egypts Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Enany and Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Manar, a number of incentives were discussed to encourage inbound tourism upon the resumption of international flights, the date of which is yet to be determined by the cabinet. The aviation ministry is offering a 50 percent discount on landing and parking fees and a 20 percent discount on ground services in South Sinai, Hurghada and Matrouh airports. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Petroleum is offering airplane fuel at 10 cents per gallon. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is also offering passengers on EgyptAir international flights a 20 percent discount on entrance tickets to museums and archeological sites all over Egypt. Before the coronavirus crisis, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities adopted a new policy to connect cultural tourism along the Nile Valley with coastal tourism on the Red Sea through providing, for the first time, a flight from Sharm El-Sheikh to Luxor. The flight started its first trip in February 2020. Search Keywords: Short link: Flames shooting from a Los Angeles Police Department kiosk. Kneeling protesters having their stinging eyes flushed. Police in riot gear standing outside the White House. These are just some of the moments captured as demonstrators took to the streets from Boston to San Francisco over the weekend to protest killings of black people by police. The Congress in Gujarat on Tuesday postponed the plan to get all its MLAs to neighbouring Rajasthan amid resignations from its camp ahead of the June 19 Rajya Sabha polls for four seats, party leaders said. They claimed that some legislators had not reached resorts where they were supposed to assemble while others remained stuck in their constituencies. Some MLAs had gathered in Rajkot in Saurashtra, and a few in Abu Road in Rajasthan, they said. Congress sources had earlier said the plan was to shift all 65 MLAs to Rajasthan to guard the flock from "poaching" attempts by the BJP. After a meeting was held in a farmhouse in Umeta in Anand on Saturday, five Congress MLAs from central Gujarat left the venue, with two of them, Rajendrasinh Parmar from Borsad and Kanti Sodha Parmar of Anand, saying they were in their constituencies. Balasinor MLA Ajitsinh Chauhan said he was leaving for his home in Mahisagar district and would be back after completing some work. Out of four Congress MLAs from south Gujarat, only two have come together at the designated place in Valsad, while two others remained caught up in work in their constituencies, and are likely to join later, said Gaurav Pandya, senior Congress leader from Valsad. "About 19 MLAs from Saurashtra region are together in Rajkot, while MLAs from north Gujarat have gone to Abu Road near Ambaji in Rajasthan as the area is closer to their constituencies," said Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani. He said party MLAs have gathered at various places near their constituencies on their own, and several more will join later. After the police on Saturday lodged an FIR against the owner and manager of Neel City Resort for allowing MLAs entry in violation of lockdown norms, Dhanani said, "We are staying as guests at a private property and this is not a resort." "MLAs are joining each other in separate groups as per their convenience to discuss how to win the two seats for which we have declared candidates. Members remain scattered. There is no plan to bring them together right now. We still have 10 days to get together and draw a strategy for the RS polls," said AICC Gujarat in-charge Rajeev Satav. Twenty-one MLAs are in a resort on Abu Road. The Congress has fielded senior leaders Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki on two of four vacant RS seats, but now finds itself short of numbers to win both seats, as eight MLAs have resigned, five in March and three over the past few days. The party's now has 65 legislators, while the BJP has 103 MLAs in the Gujarat Assembly, whose current strength is 172. The ruling BJP has fielded Abhay Bharadwaj, Ramilaben Bara and Narhari Amin. While Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani will support the Congress, votes of one Nationalist Congress Party MLA and two Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) MLAs remain important. Israeli model Bar Refaeli has agreed to pay $4.8million and do community service as part of a plea bargain which ends a long-running tax evasion case against her. The 35-year-old, who previously dated Leonardo DiCaprio, agreed to do nine months of community service, and pay a $750,000 fine along with $2.8million in back taxes. Meanwhile mother Tzipi Refaeli - who acts as her agent - was also fined $750,000 and will go to jail for 16 months. Bar Refaeli, 35 (left), has agreed to pay $4.8million in fines and back taxes and do nine months of community service as part of a plea deal to end a tax evasion case, while mother Tzipi (together right) will go to jail for 16 months The pair had been accused of lying about Bar's country of residence between 2009 and 2012 in order to avoid paying taxes on some $7.2million in income, plus gifts and discounts she received. The case dates back to 2016 when Tzipi was arrested and accused of failing to report her daughter's full income during the years in question and obscuring evidence of where she was living from tax collections. Lawyers for the pair had argued that, during the years in question, Bar had been in a romantic relationship with DiCaprio - meaning her 'life centre', a term used in Israeli tax law referring to where a person spends most of their time - was in the US. But the state argued that she was actually resident in Tel Aviv during much of this time, in apartments rented under the names of her relatives. Bar told a previous court hearing that her relationship with DiCaprio was close enough to be considered a 'family unit', meaning she could pay taxes overseas. But the court overruled her, saying their romance did not count. Prosecutors also uncovered medical records that showed Bar had been prescribed medication and received treatment in Israel paid for out of the national health fund during that period. A previous ruling stated Bar had lived in Israel for 185 days in 2009 and 135 days the following year. She also told US tax authorities she was a resident of Israel. Bar had attempted to block the release of her earnings, but the court revealed she had earned 1.8 million in 2009 and 1.7 million in 2010. Bar and her mother were accused of under-reporting her income and falsely claiming that she lived in the US while dating Leonardo DiCaprio (together in 2010) to avoid paying tax in Israel Her lawyers have consistently argued that she was unaware of arrangements made to avoid tax, and said the plea agreement further reinforces that claim. 'In the relevant time period, Bar was in her early 20s, was working as an international model and was not involved in financial matters. Today she is taking responsibility for mistakes that were made,' they said in a statement. Bar's mother was charged with failure to report income, avoiding paying taxes and aiding someone else in evading tax payments. The indictment said she signed leases for her daughter under the names of other family members to blur Refaeli's actual residency status and refrained from declaring her own income as her daughter's agent. Bar is one of Israel's best-known models, and is a constant feature on billboards around the country. Last year she hosted the Eurovision song contest when it was held in Tel Aviv. The long-running scandal has tarnished her image, though she remains a sought-after figure. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused layoffs, furloughs, and financial uncertainty for millions of Americans. The result: Many tenants are struggling to pay their rent, and landlords are unsure how to cover their own expenses while helping tenants. Nearly 60% of landlords said their tenants are unable to pay rent because of the coronavirus, and 80% said theyre willing to work with these renters, according to an American Apartment Owners Association (AAOA) survey of more than 1,100 landlords in May. Some tenants are really having a difficult time, says Alexandra Alvarado, director of marketing and education at AAOA. Several states have implemented emergency policies to help renters, including eviction freezes, late-fee waivers, and payment grace periods. But, often, landlords are still required to make their mortgage payments and cover other expenses, like taxes and insurance. If youre a landlord and your tenant stops paying rent, here are a few things you can do. Start a dialogue with the renter Your tenants will probably let you know if they cant make their rent payments. With the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, landlords should check in with their tenants as soon as possible, before an issue arises. Even starting back in mid-March, as people were getting laid off and businesses were closing down, we encouraged landlords to just reach out, communicate, open up a dialogue, and figure out who may have trouble, says Charles Tassell, chief operating officer at the National Real Estate Investors Association and owner of 118 rental units in Cincinnati. Nonpaying tenants are a problem landlords deal with from time to time. With the pandemic, though, Tassell urges them to be especially understanding when renters are in a tough spot financially. He suggests that both parties come up with a payment solution that will work for everyone. Work out a rent payment plan Renters have different financial situations, so any arrangement that you make for paying rent cant be one size fits all. Somebody may have reduced hours, somebody else may have been laid off entirely, and weve had [landlords] who said they've got nurses who just drop a check when they get a chance, because they're working 80 hours a week, Tassell says. Tassell urges landlords to come up with a plan thats realistic. It has to be something thats workable and manageable," he says, otherwise the terms might not be met. For example, perhaps the renters could pay half of their $1,000-per-month rent for three months (or $500), then attempt to pay back what they owe by the end of that period. Whatever the payment plan, put it in writing, with clear details of the amounts and time frames, Alvarado urges. This creates a paper trail, in case you or your tenant tail to follow through on any of the terms you have agreed upon. Reach out to mortgage lenders about your options If you're a landlord with a mortgage, having tenants who don't pay rent could mean that you can't make your mortgage payments. If this is your situation, the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) helps borrowers (landlords and homeowners alike) by waiving late fees on mortgage payments and suspending foreclosures. If you're worried you might come up short on your mortgage payment, contact your lender to see what relief it can offer. This will vary by location, lender, and type of mortgage. For example, Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans is offering mortgage forbearance, or a temporary pause in payments. Mortgage companies will generally create new payment plans with landlords, Alvarado says. But keep in mind they'll want proof that your tenants aren't paying, in the form of documentation showing rental income losses. Tax bills are likely still due Beyond making mortgage payments, landlords may have other expenses to cover, too. For instance: Property taxes, which cost a national average of $3,500 a year, according to ATTOM Data Solutions. Because of the pandemic, a few municipalities are letting homeowners and landlords defer tax payments or set up payment plans, according to the Tax Foundation. For example, Wisconsin is allowing municipalities to waive interest and penalties on late property taxes that are paid by Oct. 1. Revisit your insurance policy Home insurance is another expense that landlords need to keep paying, without falling behind. The cost could be sizable: According to the Insurance Information Institute, landlord insurance policies typically cost about 25% more than standard homeowner policies. Luckily, some states have directed insurers to work with homeowners by creating payment plans, waiving late fees, and not canceling policies for nonpayment. Some insurers, including Farmers and Liberty Mutual, are extending grace periods and not charging late fees. Revising your policy now could also help you save money. It's really important that landlords re-look at their insurance policy to find out exactly what's in it, exactly what's covered, and then also maybe shop around and get a better quote. Alvarado says. "They may be paying more on their insurance rates than they need to, and they could save some money there." Just dont cut your liability coverage, since Alvarado expects that the coronavirus could add some extra risks for landlords. For instance, tenants might sue because they caught coronavirus within the building, arguing that their landlord did not implement sufficient safety precautions for cleaning and maintenance. Such lawsuits probably won't get far in court, but they could still be costly if filed, so having good liability insurance will help you sleep better at night. Check out new small business resources The CARES Act also includes programs through the Small Business Administration (SBA) for helping small businessesand yes, landlords do qualify! You must own your rental properties under an LLC, and should apply for relief as a "business with not more than 500 employees." If you do have one or a few employees, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a potentially forgivable loan for employers who maintain their payroll during the COVID-19 crisis. The Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) offers emergency grants up to $10,000 to small businesses harmed because of the coronavirus. One of the benefits of SBA funds and the additional funds being pushed out through the federal government is that these banks have capital to loan, Tassell says. It's not like we're in the capital crunch that we were in the previous recession. So that is a real benefit to property owners if they have an asset with equity available. Avoid evicting renters now, if you can Across the country, cities and states, including New York and Washington, have issued emergency bans on evictions because of COVID-19, and many courts have been closed. As courts reopen and bans expire, landlords should still try to hold off on evictions, Alvarado says. However, situations where tenants are damaging the property, involved in criminal activity, or not following social distancing rules may be cause for eviction. A lot of tenants are being affected by things outside of their control, and I think landlords should realize that even where it is possible to have an eviction hearing and trial, that process is pretty costly, and it's time-consuming, she says. Even if you get a judgment against a tenant for the rent owed, theres no guarantee it will be paid. Quite apart from that, its simply not an ethical thing to do at a time when people are struggling. Working with the tenant may be better for both parties, Alvarado says. Its a situation-by-situation thing, where landlords will have to look at their financials and what they can afford, see if theyve worked out anything with their mortgage provider, and see if it makes sense to work with the tenant in that way. The post Got a Tenant Who Can't Pay Rent? A COVID-19 Guide for Landlords appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. A custodial correctional officer has been injured after three prisoners damaged property in a secured unit at the Borallon Training Correctional Centre. Officers were forced to deploy chemical agents when the prisoners failed to respond to directions, before escorting the three prisoners to the Detention Unit. The cause of the unrest at Borallon Training and Correctional Centre is unknown. Credit:Felicity Caldwell One officer received a shoulder injury relocating a prisoner during the decontamination process and has been taken to hospital for assessment and treatment. The cause of the unrest is unclear at this time. Years ago, the Santanas had a small restaurant near a Greyhound bus station in Phoenix. But once U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began conducting raids in the neighborhood, Lisa Santana said, much of their clientele began to avoid the area, and they were forced to move their business. They came to Nebraska to be near Eli's family in Grand Island, and they opened Pancho Villa in 2010. Things were good until the pandemic, which closed dining rooms for weeks. "I feel like we've had one setback after another," she said. Being away from the restaurant as it struggles has been hard, Lisa Santana said, especially since Pancho Villa is a core part of what being a family means to them. "When you own your family business, you just literally put your blood, sweat and tears into it," she said. Takeout orders are helping the family stay afloat, Lisa Santana said, but their income is less than half of normal. She said she's thankful to Pancho Villa's regulars, who have been supportive of the business throughout the pandemic. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump ignited fresh controversy over his hard-line law and order push Tuesday by peddling yet another unfounded conspiracy theory, this time trying to raise suspicions about a 75-year-old protester who was hospitalized after being shoved by police and falling. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. In this image from video provided by WBFO, a Buffalo police officer appears to shove a man who walked up to police Thursday, June 4, 2020, in Buffalo, N.Y. Video from WBFO shows the man appearing to hit his head on the pavement, with blood leaking out as officers walk past to clear Niagara Square. Buffalo police initially said in a statement that a person Auwas injured when he tripped & fell,Au WIVB-TV reported, but Capt. Jeff Rinaldo later told the TV station that an internal affairs investigation was opened. Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood suspended two officers late Thursday, the mayorAos statement said. (Mike Desmond/WBFO via AP) WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump ignited fresh controversy over his hard-line law and order push Tuesday by peddling yet another unfounded conspiracy theory, this time trying to raise suspicions about a 75-year-old protester who was hospitalized after being shoved by police and falling. Trump tweeted without evidence that the confrontation in Buffalo, New York, may have been a set up as he once again sided with police officers over protesters and demonstrated anew his willingness to spread and amplify bogus charges cooked up by far-right outlets. The move comes as Trump, who has labeled himself your president of law and order, has taken a tough line against the protesters who have been demonstrating across the nation following the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck. Aides have been urging Trump to strike a more unifying tone, worried that his divisive response to the protests is animating parts of the Democratic base and benefiting his rival, Democrat Joe Biden, months before November's election. Two Buffalo police officers have been charged with second-degree assault after video captured protester Martin Gugino falling to the ground after being pushed by police. He was seen bleeding from his head as officers walk away. The officers, who could face prison sentences of up to seven years if convicted, have pleaded not guilty. The video is one of several that have emerged in recent weeks showing police using seemingly excessive force against protesters as Trump has demanded that governors and mayors across the nation take control of their streets using all means necessary. He has repeatedly urged local leaders to call up the national guard and threatened to deploy active-duty military to American cities if he deems local efforts insufficient. Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur, Trump wrote in his tweet. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? There is no evidence to suggest that anything of the sort took place. Trump was referencing a report on One America News Network, a far-right news channel that he often praises. President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion with law enforcement officials, Monday, June 8, 2020, at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Trump's tweet was criticized by both Republicans and Democrats. Its a serious accusation, which should only be made with facts and evidence. And I havent seen any yet, said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate. Asked by reporters if the president should not be making it, Thune said: Well, I think thats a given. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who last week said shes struggling with whether to support Trump in November, reacted to the tweet in the Capitol after a reporter handed her a printout. Oh lord. Ugh, she said. Again, why would you fan the flames? Thats all Im going to say. New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on Trump to apologize for a wholly unacceptable tweet. How reckless, how irresponsible, how mean, how crude. I mean if there was ever a reprehensible, dumb comment, and from the president of the United States, Cuomo said at his daily press conference. At this moment of anguish and anger, what does he do? Pour gasoline on the fire, he added. Show some decency. Show some humanity. Show some fairness. Youre the president of the United States. As for the substance of the tweet, the presidents claim is so technically incomprehensible, Im not even sure where to start, said Matt Blaze, a professor of computer science and law at Georgetown University. It is possible to disrupt police radio an illegal action often called jamming but hackers can only do that by attacking receiving stations, not with handheld devices that target an individual police officers radio, Blaze said. Any radio system is subject to interference, but it doesnt work by pointing some sort of ray gun and interfering, Blaze said. As he has tried to malign protesters as radical-left, bad people engaging in domestic terrorism, Trump has frequently invoked the label antifa," an umbrella term for leftist militants bound more by belief than organizational structure. Trump has blamed antifa for the violence that has erupted during some of the protests. But federal law enforcement officials have offered little evidence that antifa-aligned protesters are behind the efforts seen in hundreds of cities and towns in all 50 states since Floyds death. Trump's campaign has run ads calling on Facebook users to applaud the president for saying he would declare antifa a terrorist organization. Gugino, who is out of the intensive care unit but remains hospitalized, has been described by friends as a retiree and veteran peace activist driven by his faith and a desire for social justice. He is involved with the Western New York Peace Center and Latin American Solidarity Committee, the centres executive director has 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. Gugino's attorney, Kelly Zarcone, told The Associated Press that Trump's accusations are utterly baseless and ridiculous. Gugino, she said, has always been a peaceful protester because he cares about todays society." No one from law enforcement has even suggested anything otherwise, so we are at a loss to understand why the president of the United States would make such dark, dangerous, and untrue accusations about him," she said. Erie County District Attorney John Flynn declined to comment Tuesday on the presidents tweet and said he would have no further comment on the Gugino case because it remains under investigation. ___ Thompson reported from Buffalo. Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Chicago contributed to this report. Syria has laid the blame for the high prices of basic goods and the falling value of the Syrian pound at the feet of the US, citing their coercive economic measures imposed on Syria writes SANA. US administration officials are not ashamed to acknowledge that the goal of unilateral coercive economic measures imposed on Syria is to undermine and influence the livelihoods of the Syrian people. James Jeffrey, appointed as the US Special Envoy for Syria, admitted on Sunday that the high prices of basic products in Syria and the devaluation of the Syrian pound are due to illegal measures approved by his administration, which constitute a flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law. The collapse of the Syrian currency is due to our measures, said Jeffery, despite an overwhelming majority of countries in the world considering those measures inhumane and immoral and a violation of international law, especially the so-called Caesar Act that imposes a criminal siege on the Syrian people and threatens sanctions on whoever deals with Syria. Jeffreys confession comes a few days after the International Business Times online newspaper, released a report confirming that President of the United States Donald Trump, personally ordered the burning of agricultural crops in Syria to deprive the Syrian people of their resources and signed an executive order for his forces in Syria to loot oil, in cooperation with the terrorists from the Islamic State. The US administration and the European Union, ignore repeated international calls and demands to lift these measures, which violate the UN Charter and all international norms, especially with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which represents a major challenge for all countries. 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. The partial shutdown at Tucsons federal court began to lift in recent weeks, but key functions remain canceled. The pandemic led Chief U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow to shut down jury trials in March, as well as the grand jury that hands up indictments and a fast-track prosecution program for illegal-border-crossing cases in Tucson. The pandemic remains a national public health emergency, Snow wrote in a May 28 order, but the current guidance of public health officials allows for a modification in court operations to permit the resumption of limited in-court proceedings. Snow ordered the partial lifting of the moratorium on hearings and jury trials starting June 1, although they must be conducted according to federal health guidelines. Anyone who attends hearings or trials must wear a mask and observe social-distancing rules, Snow wrote. A maximum of 10 people can sit in the public areas of the courtroom and they must sit in areas marked with an X. No one with symptoms such as a fever or cough is allowed to enter the courthouse. All court activities not related to cases remain canceled, including naturalization ceremonies and educational events, Snow ordered. Customer service counters at the clerks office will remain closed to the public until June 12, Snow ordered. In late March and early April, court filings plummeted as drug smuggling and illegal border crossings slowed. Federal agencies also delayed some prosecutions and Customs and Border Protection started quickly expelling migrants at the border instead of sending them to court. The Pioneer Press is not naming the Haven employee because he has not been charged with a crime, nor is it naming the girls father, who has filed the lawsuit, to protect her identity. Sons & Daughters just started taking reservations for next month and between a new menu, significant redesign and business restructuring, it might feel like an entirely new restaurant. Chef-owner Teague Moriarty has been using the past few months of shelter-in-place to rethink everything at his Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurant. While he paid more than minimum wage when Sons & Daughters first opened during the Great Recession, pay hasnt kept up with the cost of living, he said. How can we make this more the restaurant we want it to be? he said. Im sick of hearing people complain about the state of the industry and still pay people minimum wage. This is a time of change. Moving forward, Sons & Daughters employees will earn at least $65,000 per year, with salaries topping out at $90,000. Benefits will include two weeks paid vacations, unlimited sick pay and fully paid health insurance, and staff will evenly split 50% of the profits. Tipping is out in favor of an 18% service charge, which will go toward salaries and benefits. These are significant changes. Before shelter-in-place, Sons & Daughters started cooks at $19 per hour the equivalent of roughly $54,000 per year with overtime didnt fully cover health insurance and certainly did not share profits. About half of the 14-member staff worked part-time, but now everyone on the team of nine will be full-time and salaried. It increasingly felt like not enough, Moriarty said. The success of the restaurant is so dependent on the team, and I think as an owner, I have a moral obligation to value them financially. Peter Prato / Special to The Chronicle 2017 There have long been inequities inside restaurants, with front of house staff typically earning far more than cooks because of tips. But more restaurants might look at structural changes as the coronavirus exposed the fragile state of the Bay Area restaurant industry Reem Assil, who owns Reems California in Oakland and San Francisco, predicts a rise in worker-centered restaurants emerging from the pandemic. At Sons & Daughters, Moriarty admitted that restructuring is financially risky but the restaurant can be profitable if it fills every seat every day. With social distancing in mind, the dining room will go from 11 to six tables so to make the numbers work, each table is going to need to spend more money. The tasting menu price will go up from $145 to $175 and wine pairings from $95 to $115. Thats another gamble at a time when many other fine dining restaurant operators are considering shrinking menus and dropping prices, but Moriarty said its the only way to pay all staff a living wage. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. The hope is that the added space and higher prices also allows for Sons & Daughters smaller team to provide a more intimate and luxurious experience. Chefs are testing recipes for an elevated coastal tasting menu that lasts about two and a half hours. Front of house staff will focus more on wine and hospitality instead of hustling food out. The restaurant just completed a major kitchen remodel and the dining room is seeing new floors, paint, tables, banquettes, wine storage and wares. Moriarty hopes Sons & Daughters can earn a second Michelin star with the refreshed experience and a more committed staff. It feels like were opening a new restaurant, he said. Were all excited and pumped. Sons & Daughters. Scheduled to reopen July 15, though subject to change pending San Francisco guidelines. 5-9 p.m Wednesday-Sunday. 708 Bush St., San Francisco. Reserve at https://www.exploretock.com/sonsanddaughters/ Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker Brazil Congratulates President Tsai of Taiwan on Her Inauguration Honest News Straight to Your Home. Try the Epoch Times yourself, and get a free gift. A letter sent by the Chinese Communist Embassy in Brazil demanding Brasilian legislators not congratulate Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen on her reelection was posted on Twitter, causing dissatisfaction among the Brasilians who congratulated President Tsai on Twitter and even echoed the slogan VivaTaiwan. President Tsai was sworn in for reelection on May 20, 2020, and Brazilian Federal Representative Paulo Eduardo Martins posted on Twitter on May 25th a letter he received from the Chinese Embassy in Brazil instructing him to remain silent on the inauguration of President Tsais second presidential term. The letter was dated on May 13th. Paulo Eduardo Martins said: In this letter, the authoritarian CCP embassy advised Brazilian parliamentarians not to speak about the inauguration of the President of Taiwan. This is an offense. So, even if I am late, I would like to congratulate President Tsai Ing-Wen on her inauguration. Zhang Jian, a Chinese researcher, commented: The CCPs Wolf Diplomacy has escalated and it has portrayed itself as the leader of other countries in some states of Europe and of the United States. Now, it has arrived in Brazil with many ways to interfere with the internal affairs of Brazil. These ways include: demands, issuing official documents, and using the red-header in documents to order parliament members in Brazil, and also asking the Brazilian government to manage members of Parliament so that they could not say anything nor make any positive comments on Taiwans President Tsai Ing-Wen. Paulo Eduardo Martins Twitter post resonated with many Brazilian netizens. They congratulated President Tsai Ing-Wen on Twitter for her inauguration, and even added the #VivaTaiwan slogan, which became the number one search term on Brazilian Twitter. Zhang Jian continued: The CCP misjudged the situation and used such a method that resulted in a collective rebound from the Brazilian people. Brazil has a large population and in the middle of this difficult time caused by the severe pandemic in Brazil, the CCP still used strong-arm diplomacy and this red-header document to order Brazil. It is without a doubt that the Brasilian people exploded in silence because they did not want to perish in silence, and they are using this anger to say Long Live Taiwan. They want to fiercely praise the democratic system to slap the CCP in the face. On May 26th, President Tsai Ing-Wen thanked Brazilian netizens via Twitter and wished them safety and health. She said: Thank you to all our friends in #Brazil for your kind congratulations. I hope you are all staying safe and healthy.#VivaTaiwan, #VivaBrazil. Lan Shu, a U.S.-based commentator on current affairs, said: Of course, the meaning behind Long Live Taiwan is Long Live Freedom and Long Live Democracy. The international community, including these government officials and citizens, is furious at the CCPs coverup of the virus. These legislators of Brazil are elected by its people and the CCP has nothing to do with this. It is simply stupidity that the Chinese Communist Party is telling them what to do and what not to do. Lan Shu indicated that holding the CCP accountable and supporting Taiwan has become a domino effect on the global scale. He continued saying: Taiwan has a very clear understanding of the Chinese Communist Party, a political party that lies and governs the country violently, because Taiwan lives under the shadow of the CCPs bullying and the entire Taiwanese society faces this problem every day. One of the most important issues during the presidential election was the relationship between the two countries. It is precisely because of this that Taiwanese society has a clearer understanding of the CCP than other countries in the world. Brazils People s Daily News Network published a commentary article written by political and economic columnist, Rodrigo Constantino, on the 26th of May. The article accused the CCP of taking an aggressive position that has been condemned in various countries around the world, and because of the pandemic, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States have all made remarks against the CCPs abuse of power. Rodrigo Constantino said that the world is now facing a New Cold War, but the main enemy of freedom is not the Soviet Union, but the CCP. He believes that, like the first Cold War, there must be a clear code of ethics and basic moral values, and threats from dictatorships that ignore human rights should not be ignored. Imams and Muslim community leaders call for more Islamic cemeteries, or additional space in Italys existing graveyards. Italys Muslim community, like others, suffered many deaths as the coronavirus pandemic hit the Mediterranean country hard. Compounding the pain for the religious minority has been the grim reality of a lack of space to bury their dead. Imams and Muslim community leaders are calling for more Islamic cemeteries, or additional space in the countrys existing graveyards, as the faithful increasingly want to be buried in Italy, their home. We have experienced the pain (of the pandemic), but it has sometimes been deepened when some families could not find a place to bury their dead because there were no Muslim sections in the town cemeteries, Abdullah Tchina, imam of the Milan Sesto mosque, told AFP news agency. About 34,000 people have died from the virus in Italy, mostly in the industrial north, and for months, global air travel has been at a near-standstill. As a result, a number of Muslims who died during the outbreak in Italy who would have requested to be buried in their or their families countries of origin could not be repatriated. That led to a spike in requests for burials and the realisation that Italy lacks the space. Italys Muslims number about 2.6 million, or 4.3 percent of the population. No official statistics are available on the number of Muslims, whether Italians or foreign nationals, who died during the outbreak. A rectangle of pebbles In the cemetery of Bruzzano, on the outskirts of Milan, Mustapha Moulay gazes at a simple, bare grave in the Muslim section of an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic cemetery. It was Gods will, he said of the death on April 7 of his 55-year-old wife from COVID-19. She contracted the virus in a Milan hospital where she had been admitted a month earlier for a minor leg operation, said Moulay, who was born in Morocco and has lived in Italy for 32 years. The grave has no tombstone, and is simply marked out with a rectangle of pebbles. The freshest graves are strikingly desolate. The graves of those who died pre-coronavirus have cement borders and sometimes a marble slab engraved with the crescent moon. Many Italian Muslims were forced to travel long distances to bury their dead, or to leave bodies for days in morgues, or even keep them at home while seeking a space to lay them to rest. A dignified burial Under Islamic tradition, the dead must be buried as quickly as possible, preferably within 24 hours, but that is not always possible. One of the most extreme cases was what Hira Ibrahim, a Macedonian woman in Pisogne whose mother died from coronavirus, went through. Ibrahim had to keep her mothers body at home for more than 10 days for lack of a Muslim cemetery in her community, according to the newspaper La Repubblica. Countless Muslim families faced similar predicaments during the crisis, the paper said. Tchina, the imam, said the problem persists even after the biggest waves of deaths have subsided. The Union of Islamic Communities of Italy lists just 76 Islamic cemeteries in the country [Miguel Medina/AFP] The body of a Muslim who died in Milan last week was transported about 50km (30 miles) away for burial, he said. Tchina thanked mayors who opened their (Catholic) cemeteries during this crisis to ensure a dignified burial for the Muslim dead. The president of Milans Islamic Centre, Gueddouda Boubakeur, said some families in Brescia and Bergamo two of the areas hit hardest by the coronavirus had to wait a very long time. Thanks to the combined efforts of municipalities and central government authorities, solutions were ultimately found most of the time, he said. We didnt consider the distance. We went to the first town that accepted the bodies. Our concern was above all to find space, Boubakeur said. Handful of cemeteries The Union of Islamic Communities of Italy lists just 76 Islamic cemeteries in the country, which counts nearly 8,000 municipalities. The oldest was built in 1856, in the northeastern city of Trieste, while Romes date back only to 1974. Under Italian law, cemeteries may provide for special and separate sections for non-Catholics, but they are not required to do so. 200304160256140 Boubakeur acknowledged the governments cooperation, but urged more political will to create additional Muslim burial spaces. After this pandemic, 150 municipalities responded positively to our requests to provide a Muslim section in their cemeteries, Boubakeur said a fraction of the nearly 8,000 municipalities. Going forward, the need for Muslim burial plots will only increase as immigrants and their offspring prefer to be interred in Italy. We used to have a kitty to pay for sending back bodies to their country of origin, but no longer, Boubakeur said. Some old people still want to be buried in their country of origin. But many have children, grandchildren in Italy and now prefer to be buried here. Younger Muslims want to be buried in Italy because theyre Italian, Boubakeur said. BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Croatia's producer prices declined for the third straight month in May, figures from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics showed on Tuesday. The producer price index fell 6.6 percent year-on-year in May, following a 5.9 percent decrease in April. Prices in domestic market decreased 4.7 percent annually in May and that in foreign market were down 8.8 percent. On a month-on-month basis, producer prices declined 0.8 percent in May following 2.5 percent fall in the previous month. Prices have decreased for the fourth month in a row. Separate data from the statistical office showed that the trade deficit decreased to EUR 795.29 million in March from EUR 940.75 million in the same month last year. In February, the trade deficit was EUR 833.51 million. 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 Frost Radar benchmarks the top 16 companies in the market excelling at growth and innovation SANTA CLARA, California, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan's Artificial Intelligence for Drug Discovery in the Pharmaceutical Industry Radar has identified that organizations' need to minimize research and development (R&D) costs for drug discovery is pushing the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) in the pharmaceutical sector. Further, this can significantly reduce the drug discovery timeline, improve productivity, and help companies address challenges related to R&D outcomes and a shrinking new molecule entity (NME) pipeline. Pharmaceutical companies have been leveraging AI for drug discovery processes, including the invention of a coronavirus vaccine and potential drugs, driving huge growth in this market. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic uncertainty, the global AI and big data analytics market for the pharmaceutical industry is expected to accelerate further. To learn more about Artificial Intelligence for Drug Discovery in the Pharmaceutical Industry, 2020 Frost Radar, please visit: http://frost.ly/45s. For over five decades, Frost & Sullivan has provided research and analyses in the pharmaceutical industry to help investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, and new business models. This recently released Radar provides a benchmark of more than 50 companies within the AI for drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry market to determine the top 16 industry leaders excelling at innovation, poised for partnerships, and ripe for investment. The companies are recognized in the Frost Radar with insight into their innovative offerings, projected increase rates, strengths, and insight on how companies can be more effective in the future. The following companies were identified for demonstrated excellence in both growth and innovation with the ability to translate these qualities into proven solutions that benefit their clients: AcuraStem Inc., AI Therapeutics, Atomwise, BenevolentAI, BERG, Biovista Inc., Cotinga Pharmaceuticals Inc., Evaxion Biotech, Exscientia Ltd., Gritstone Oncology Inc., Healx Ltd, Insilico Medicine, Lantern Pharma Inc., Pharnext, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, and TwoXAR. Key takeaways: Better understand the growth environment from the perspective of industry experts. Gain insight into organizations recognized for leveraging best practices to shape the future of the industry. Benefit from a comprehensive analysis of the companies plotted on the Radar. Receive best practices on how the intelligence in the Radar can be leveraged by boards of directors, the CEO's growth team, customers, and more. About Frost & Sullivan For over five decades, Frost & Sullivan has become world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion. Contact: Mariana Fernandez Corporate Communications P: +1 210 348 10 12 E: Mariana.Fernandez@frost.com http://ww2.frost.com A holiday rep who was raped by a stranger in her Algarve apartment has asked detectives to review her unsolved case after noticing stark similarities with Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner's vicious attack on an American tourist in 2005. Hazel Behan says a stranger entered her flat in Praia da Rocha, Portugal, set up a video camera, tied her up with ropes and raped her in 2004 when she was 20 yeas old. The now married mother-of-two was working as a holiday rep at the time and living in the resort town, which is around 20 miles away from Praia da Luz - where Madeleine was abducted in 2007. Mrs Behan, who now lives in Ireland, believes the attack on her bears the hallmarks of Christian Brueckner's rape of a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in September 2005, the Guardian reports. The victim in that case was tortured and raped by Brueckner, who filmed the savage attack. Hazel Behan says a stranger entered her apartment in Praia da Rocha, Portugal, set up a video camera, tied her with ropes and raped her in 2004 Christian Brueckner (picutred left) left Portugal after Madeline McCann (pictured right) disappeared on May 3, 2007 Ms Behan was working as a holiday rep and was living in the resort town of Praia da Rocha, which is around 20 miles away from Praia da Luz - where Madeleine was abducted in 2007 The 43-year-old was sentenced in 2019 to seven years in prison by a German court after DNA evidence linked him to the assault. But Behan's assailant was never caught. She claims Portuguese police made no attempt to examine her wounds for evidence and she says she is 'not confident' that officers examined her room closely. But following the announcement that Brueckner had been made a suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine, and media reports of his brutal attack on a woman in Praia da Luz, she has since given a statement to the Metropolitan Police. Ms Behan has also waved her right to anonymity while revealing details of the attack on her in an interview with The Guardian. She told the paper: 'My mind was blown when I read how he had attacked a woman in 2005, both the tactics and the methods he used, the tools he had with him, how well he had planned it out.' 'I had little hope over the last 16 years that they would find the man who did this. I was told at the time that I should just be quiet. 'Then I read about the poor American woman who was raped who I would love to talk to and the possible link that was being made between her attack and the person who abducted Madeleine McCann, and I was so full of anger, I knew in my gut it was the right thing to do to speak out.' Ms Behan says the attack took place just weeks before her 21st birthday. Christian Brueckner, pictured with a friend in 2011, was adopted as a baby after being given up by his birth mother and began abusing children as a teenager She says she woken by someone calling her name and opened her eyes to see a masked man dressed in tights and a '12in machete in his hand'. Ms Behan says her attack, who she told police was around 6ft1in in height and had 'blond eyebrows and piecing blue eyes', set up a video camera in the room and told her not to scream. She said he later tied her to a counter-top of a breakfast bar and used scissors to remove her clothes before gagging her with cloth. Ms Behan said he then repeatedly beat and raped her. The attacker's method is similar to one for which Brueckner was identified and jailed. In 2005, Brueckner's American victim was in her house alone when the patio door was opened and she was grabbed from behind and dragged by her hair to her bedroom. The 72-year-old was also beaten with a metal, flexible object. 'I felt that he enjoyed torturing me,' she told the investigators. He carried a sabre, she claimed, 11in long. Christian Brueckner broke into the secluded home (pictured) two years before the three-year-old went missing from her family's apartment in he resort of Praia da Luz Casa Jacaranda (pictured) is in a secluded position detached from a small block of apartments and a cluster of other smaller villas The victim remembered 'a long and planned procedure by the perpetrator,' an investigator said in court. After pushing her into the bedroom, he gagged her, tied her up and blindfolded her. After the physical and sexual abuse of his victim, the perpetrator is said to have claimed money. She went to the kitchen with him and gave him between 80 and 100 euros from her wallet. Then he led her to the bathroom and told her to stay calm for ten minutes. After a few minutes, she went to her office to call a neighbour and the police. There she noticed that the perpetrator had also stolen her computer. It seemed to her that this 'methodical procedure' by the masked person took at least 15 minutes. Ms Behan too described her attacker as 'very deliberate'. She told the Guardian: 'It seemed to me he had worked everything out, he had a plan and was very deliberate. 'He consistently cleaned his hands, and repeatedly changed condoms. 'This went on, I guess, for around four or five hours.' She said the man left after putting a sheet over her head, making her fear she was going to be killed, before putting his shoes on and running down the street. Ms Behan believes her attacker had been in her room and had been 'stalking' her prior to the incident - having noticed that things had been moved around her room and money stolen. She added: 'I now wish I had followed my instinct and told someone in a position of responsibility.' After the attack, Ms Behan said around 30 police officers arrived and she was examined by a specialist doctor. She claims police did not examine her wounds for evidence and she later found a nail of hers on the bed which she believes came from the initial attack. Ms Behan said: 'I am not very confident that they examined the room closely.' 'I think if the police had done their job investigating what happened to me, if this is indeed the same man that attacked the American and abducted Madeleine McCann, they might have prevented the attack on her, and Madeleine would now be at home with her parents.' Last week Brueckner was made the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine, who went missing from the ground floor holiday apartment where her family were staying in Praia da Luz in 2007. The 43-year-old came under the spotlight of detectives after reportedly telling a friend in a bar he had information of what happened to Madeleine. Christian Brueckner (left), 43, is now the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann (right), who vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal on May 3, 2007 The Ocean Club in Praia Da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared during a family holiday in 2007 The last photograph taken of Madeleine shows her smiling next to her little sister Amelie and their father Gerry at 1.30pm on May 3, 2007 in Portugal, the day she went missing Brueckner has a string of convictions for sex crimes against children, burglary and drugs. In total his charge sheet listed 17 offences which began as a teenager. His life of crime had triggered the interest of police in the Algarve years before. But the drifter, who travelled frequently between Germany and Portugal, somehow evaded becoming the prime suspect until after the 10th anniversary of Maddies disappearance. A TV report marking the decade since she vanished came onto the bars TV and his statement stayed with his friend who at the time was curious but not yet thinking of informing police. But later when Brueckner showed him a video of him raping an his 72-year-old American victim, the friend decided to talk to the police. Another friend said he had seen a video of Brueckner attacking the woman and that he had pulled off his mask to reveal his face. The connection was made. But his claims about his connection to the disappearance of Maddie put a three country police operation into full swing. Officers from Britain, Germany and Portugal linked their investigations and interviewed informants and those who might have come across the German without revealing the nature of the investigation. Six months after Brueckner being put behind bars over the rape of his American victim, however, police appear to have seen their investigation in need of a re-boot and thus the joint press conference appealing for information by Scotland Yard and Germanys Federal police. Brueckner had lived in this remote villa overlooking Praia da Luz from 1999 to 2006. Neighbours described him as unfriendly When Brueckner lived in the farmhouse above Praia da Luz (pictured) on the Algarve in Portugal, he seldom mixed with his neighbours and allowed the property to fall into disrepair This map shows where 43-year-old Brueckner lived on the Algarve in relation to Praia da Luz Brueckner has since been linked to a number of other cases involving missing children including missing 16-year-old Carola Titze, who disappeared while on holiday in De Haan in 1996. Today it was revealed prosecutors are now re-examining the case of nine-year-old Peggy Knobloch, who was killed after vanishing near her home in Lichtenberg, Bavaria, in 2001. Her remains were only found in July 2016, when mushroom pickers stumbled upon human bones in a forest near her home. It was also revealed today how police investigating the disappearance believe they have established how she died but do not know her final resting place. Today the editor-in-chief of German tabloid Bild, Julian Reichelt, told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'They have an idea of how Madeleine McCann died and how the killing was actually done. But they do not know where the body may have been buried'. According to the Guardian, the Metropolitan Police would not comment on Behan's case, but asked anyone with information to come forward, while Portuguese police have not responded to a request for comment. LITTLE ROCK, Ark., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As Arkansans continue to cope with the threat of the novel coronavirus, Arkansas Health & Wellness, together with Arkansas Total Care, continues to support our community through a donation of $15,000 to the City of Little Rock's 'Little Rocks Cares COVID-19 Community Relief Fund'. The Little Rock Cares Fund helps provide food relief to Arkansas residents and personal protective equipment to health care professionals and first responders in Little Rock. "We are extremely grateful for this donation to the Little Rock Cares Emergency Relief Fund," Mayor Scott said. "The COVID-19 crisis, unfortunately, is not behind us. These funds will assist us in continuing to ensure our first responders and healthcare workers receive the necessary equipment to continue meeting the needs of Little Rock residents and patients who need health services in our city." The Little Rock Cares Fund is committed to helping feed Little Rock residents. Arkansas Health & Wellness and Arkansas Total Care share that commitment, which is why we recently partnered with Jimmy John's to provide lunches to the workers of the City of Little Rock Solid Waste Department. These outreach efforts and our recent contribution of $100,000 to the Arkansas Foodbank reaffirms the company's continued commitment to serving Little Rock and the state of Arkansas. "We are proud to continue our support of the Little Rock Cares Fund and all Arkansans with this donation during the COVID-19 crisis. It is critical that we continue to care for those who are most vulnerable during this time. Together we can Help Arkansas Live Better." John Ryan, President and CEO, Arkansas Health & Wellness, Arkansas Total Care. About Arkansas Health & Wellness and Arkansas Total Care Founded in 2014, Arkansas Health & Wellness and Arkansas Total Care are health care companies that arrange for the delivery of quality health care throughout Arkansas. Committed to helping Arkansas live better, Arkansas Health & Wellness and Arkansas Total Care support active local community involvement in all 75 Arkansas counties, with approximately 1000 employees statewide. Centene offers affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation, including Medicaid and Medicare members (including Medicare Prescription Drug Plans) as well as individuals and families served by the Health Insurance Marketplace, the TRICARE program, and individuals in correctional facilities. The Company also serves several international markets, and contracts with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide a variety of specialty services focused on treating the whole person. More information on Arkansas Health & Wellness and Arkansas Total Care can be found at www.arhealthwellness.com and www.arkansastotalcare.com. SOURCE Arkansas Total Care; Arkansas Health & Wellness Related Links http://www.arhealthwellness.com Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson sent pizzas and boxes of dates to a charity helping victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation amid the ongoing row with the FBI over the royal's co-operation with the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Royal editor Omid Scobie revealed the charitable act by the Duke, 61, and Duchess of York, 60, yesterday, tweeting: 'The couple recently sent pizza, dates and meals to an organisation helping those who have been trafficked or trapped in sexual exploitation.' He went on to retweet a collage of images from Azalea charity, which describes itself as 'reaching out to those trapped in sexual exploitation, supporting them to build new lives away from violence and poverty', including a pile of Domino's pizza boxes and a box of dates with Prince Andrew's name and address on it. The news emerges as Prince Andrew remains embroiled in an extraordinary public spat with US investigators who claim he has failed to co-operate with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein probe - despite Andrew's insistence that he has made three offers to help. Prince Andrew, 62, and Sarah Ferguson, 60, organised for 'pizzas and meals' to be donated to a charity for sexual exploitation victims, it has been revealed The charity Azalea tweeted: 'Thank you so very much to @Dominos_UK, @TopsPizza, @SarahTheDuchess and The Ivy Collection in collaboration with The Caring Foundation, for your kind donations and support. 'They went down a treat, for all who received them!' Hashtagging the post 'gratitude', the charity also shared a snap of various donations, including a box of dates which featured a return address for Prince Andrew at the Royal Lodge in Windsor. The organisation, which is a Christian charity, works with exploited women, sex buyers and the community in an effort to help 'see an end to commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking.' The charity thanked the Duke and Duchess of York, who are currently in lockdown together at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, for their 'kind donations and support' Royal biographer and editor Omid Scobie revealed the news online, sharing details of Prince Andrew's volunteering efforts The Duke and Duchess are in lockdown together at their home, with daughter Princess Eugenie, 30, and her husband Jack Brooksbank also opting to stay with them during the pandemic. The Duke and Duchess of York's charitable endevour has come to light as Prince Andrew remains at loggerheads with US prosecutors about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew is embroiled in an extraordinary public spat with US investigators who claim he has failed to co-operate with the Epstein probe - despite Andrew's insistence that he has made three offers to help. The prince's lawyers said yesterday that Andrew was offering to provide a 'witness statement' while US attorney Geoffrey Berman made it clear he was seeking an 'interview'. The charity shared a series of photographs of the donations, including one box of dates which featured Prince Andrew's name and address The organisation describes online how it aims to 'see an end to commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking' Andrew's last verbal interview on the subject - his BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis - was widely seen as a disaster and led to his resignation from public life just days later. During the interview last November, Prince Andrew denied any wrongdoing but defended his friendship with Epstein as 'seriously beneficial'. The prince was criticised for failing to show any sympathy towards Epstein's victims, and many of his explanations attracted ridicule. The Duke of York stepped back from life as a working royal after he was interviewed for Newsnight in November last year - an appearance which was widely labelled a disaster Prince Andrew has admitted being friends with Epstein, who was accused of using his wealth to prey on underage girls Andrew has previously admitted to becoming friends with Epstein - a billionaire tycoon who was accused of using his wealth to prey on underage girls - in 1999, after being introduced to the financier through Ghislaine Maxwell. His relationship with Epstein came under intense public scrutiny in 2010 when photos emerged of them together in New York when Epstein was already a registered sex offender. One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts, alleges she had sex with the Duke three times when she was 17 at the behest of the paedophile. The prince emphatically denies the allegation. A federal high court in Edo state has fixed June 11 for hearing the substantive suit challenging the mode of direct primary to be used... A federal high court in Edo state has fixed June 11 for hearing the substantive suit challenging the mode of direct primary to be used by the All Progressive Congress (APC) in it governorship primary election. The national working committee headed by Adams Oshiomhole had reached settled for direct primary but the faction of Edo APC loyal to Godwin Obaseki, the governor, had insisted on indirect primary. Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, a governorship aspirant of the party, had approached the court seeking an order restraining the party from proceeding with the direct primary. According to the plaintiff, the APC constitution provides that states are at liberty to suggest the mode of primaries to the national working committee of the party and that they have suggested indirect primaries. Joined as defendants in the suit were Oshiomhole, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the inspector general of police (IGP). All parties in the suit had legal representation at the court session on Monday. At the resumed session on Monday, G. Umar, the presiding judge, ordered all parties in the suit to maintain status quo, that is, withhold from taking further action regarding the primary election, pending the hearing of the suit on Thursday. It usually takes 14 days for the court to hear a matter of this nature but the judge fixed Thursday for hearing. Mark Wahlberg is beloved for his convicting acting roles and for being a member of the popular Wahlberg family dynasty. But the actor is coming under scrutiny for past legal trouble. Wahlberg is on the receiving end of backlash after his tweet in support of the Black Lives Matter movement hit a nerve for some who are aware of the hate crimes he previously committed. Mark Wahlberg 2020 | Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images Mark Wahlberg was arrested for racially motivated attacks Before making it big as a musician and eventually an actor, he got himself into legal trouble while growing up in Boston. In 1986, when Wahlberg was 15-years-old, he and three friends were charged for chasing three black children and pelting them with rocks while yelling obscenities, including Kill the n*****s. They did not stop until an ambulance driver intervened in the chase. Related: Mark Wahlberg Net Worth and His Dark Criminal Past Before Fame The following day, Wahlberg harassed another group of children, most of them were Black, as they gathered at the beach. Once again, he yelled racial terms toward them and threw rocks at them. For the first attack, he was found guilty of violating the civil rights of his victims, and the case settled within a month. Two years later, Wahlberg attacked two Vietnamese men while he was high on drugs. He called one man a Vietnam f***ing s*** and beat him unconscious with a wooden stick. He also punched another man in the eye later in the same day while using racial slurs. He was charged with attempted murder. He plead guilty to felony assault, citing that he was intoxicated. He was sentenced to two years in prison as a result of violating the terms of his initial case two years prior. Wahlberg served 45 days in total. Mark Wahlberg receives backlash on social media after tweeting supporting of Black Lives Matter movement Wahlberg tweeted his support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd, writing, The murder of George Floyd is heartbreaking. We must all work together to fix this problem. Im praying for all of us. God bless. He also shared a photo of Floyd. The murder of George Floyd is heartbreaking. We must all work together to fix this problem. I'm praying for all of us. God bless. #blacklivesmatter pic.twitter.com/F3UyhT7itQ Mark Wahlberg (@markwahlberg) June 4, 2020 Source: Twitter Not everyone was appreciative of Wahlbergs post and was quick to point out his past hate crimes. @markwahlberg when did you realize all black lives Matters before or after you shouted the N-word at little black kids, now you are the great white pretender, wrote one Twitter user. @markwahlberg when did you you realize all black lives Matters before or after you shouted the N word at little black kids, now you are the great white pretender, Mayla (@cat396june) June 9, 2020 Source: Twitter So @markwahlberg tweeted about #BLM and #GeorgeFloyd and someone dug yo some info about him and his past hate crimes. And now I cant ever look at him the same, wrote another. So @markwahlberg tweeted about #BLM and #GeorgeFloyd and someone dug yo some info about him and his past hate crimes. And now I cant ever look at him the same. Camilla Tequila (@bthedopest1) June 9, 2020 Source: Twitter Others came to Wahlbergs defense, explaining that he has had years to grow from his past mistakes. If you cant support #MarkWahlberg for wanting to change and forgive his past, how can you support a movement that incites change, one asked. If you cant support #MarkWahlberg for wanting to change and forgive his past, how can you support a movement that incites change?#thoughts Jason BLM (@Blackledge_JJ) June 9, 2020 Source: Twitter Ive seen all of the stuff about @markwahlberg and his past and honestly man, as a black man, Im saying yall gotta chill! Even if he was a bit or a racist dick in the past, the times were different and thats what they LEARNED! As he got older Im sure he changed, wrote another. He continued with a follow-up tweet to talk about his own shortcomings in his youth. Hes had several decades to learn from those bad decisions and change who he is. Hell, I tied one of my classmates up and threw him in a locker when I was a kid but I didnt become a serial kidnapper or have a torture chamber in my basement. Yall be reaching, he concluded. He's had several decades to learn from those bad decisions and change who he is. Hell, I tied one of my classmates up and threw him in a locker when i was a kid but i didn't become a serial kidnapper or have a torture chamber in my basement. Y'all be reaching! #MarkWahlberg Bobby JaGGerJacK (@jaggerjack216) June 9, 2020 Source: Twitter Wahlberg has not responded to the backlash. The Latino community in the state of Nevada is disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The Nevada assemblyman is doing his best to secure aid for the Latino community, according to a report. Latinos are the Most Affected in Nevada The Latino community is the most affected minority group in the state of Nevada. This is partly because of the nature of their jobs where most of them are in the essential industries like construction, food production, agriculture, and more. In Washoe County, there are 1,719 cases as of Saturday and 42 percent of this or about 730 is comprised by Latinos. This is the highest infection rate in the county from a minority group. According to the Census Bureau, Latinos are about 25 percent of the county's total population. The same as well in Clark County. Officials reported on Saturday that 34 percent of the COVID-19 patients in Southern Nevada are coming from the minority group. Latinos are about 31 percent of the county's total population. Nevada Assemblyman To Secure Aid for the Latino Community The figure is very clear that in the two counties alone, the Latino community is heavily impacted by COVID-19. It is the reason why Democratic Assemblyman Edgar Flores, a member of The Nevada Hispanic Legislative Caucus, is working to stretch the resources and help the Latino community living across the state. The Latino COVID-19 task force listed recommendations to state Gov. Steve Sisolak on how to help and support the Latino community amid the global pandemic. The recommendations also included the undocumented Latinos. Specifically, the task force wants to ensure that every Latino regardless of his or her status should have an access to healthcare, message and information about the unemployment, food banks, health insurance exchange, and how to receive health care that is translated in Spanish for better understanding. Progress of the Task Force, Local Government, and Non-profit Organization Hispanic Legislative Caucus' task force itself, local governments, or nonprofit organizations have made efforts in achieving some of these. The task force, for example, has successfully donated food from 60 to 80 families weekly in cooperation with La Bonita Supermarkets. They also made some efforts in giving information about the pandemic using the Spanish language. The Hispanic Legislative Caucus has created a bilingual information website called Ayuda Nevada while the Reno City Council has established online support with information using the Spanish language. Edgar Flores told a news outlet: "It is a very concerted effort between a coalition of folks to start spreading the message that it's our families that are getting real sick out there - our immigrant Latino families." He added: "So what we've done is we've started a very specific campaign here solely at our Northern Nevada family and explaining the resources that we have in Elko and Washoe all the other jurisdictions as opposed to just focusing heavily on Clark County." Moreover, other recommendations of the task force include food donations and supplies to rural communities, COVID-19 testing kit, and personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, employment, rehabilitation, and more. Read a related article: Sweden's coronavirus response has been a 'miserable failure' and state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell should resign, opposition politicians have said. Jimmie Akkeson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, led calls for Tegnell's head this week - saying it is time for him to 'accept responsibility' for Sweden's high case and death tolls and step down. He was joined by other politicians who attacked the government over its handling of the crisis, saying the 'herd immunity' strategy had led to too many deaths. Sweden has suffered 45,133 cases of coronavirus so far - the highest total by far of Nordic countries - after avoiding full lockdown (pictured, daily case totals which spiked over the weekend after old cases were added to the system, causing an apparent spike) Sweden has also suffered 4,694 deaths, many of them in care homes which has led to strong criticism of the government's approach (pictured, daily death totals) Akkeson let rip at Tegnell, whose advice led the government to shun full lockdown in favour of relaxed social distancing, in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper. He accused Sweden's public health body of making 'grossly inaccurate' predictions about the spread of the pandemic early on and of failing to correct those mistakes. He said: 'The government and the Public Health Authority have been given chance after chance to correct their mistakes. 'Despite this, the delays and the hand-wringing remain. 'Those responsible for the wrong decisions should therefore leave their positions with immediate effect.' Zeroing in on the crisis in Swedish care homes - which have been particularly hard-hit by the virus - he added that elderly people 'have obviously not received the protection and support they can rightly expect'. He also accused the government of trying to hide behind the decisions of public health experts, and of showing 'weak political leadership' during the crisis. Opposition politicians are now calling for the resignation of Anders Tegnell, Sweden's state epidemiologist whose advice led the country to shun full lockdown Akkeson was joined in his attacks by Ebba Busch, leader of the Christian Democrat party, who blamed the government's strategy for causing too many deaths. 'What we can say about Sweden is that the greater part of those who are now mourning over those they have lost this spring are doing so because Sweden quite knowingly allowed a large spread of the infection,' she said. Sweden has logged 45,133 cases of coronavirus so far along with 4,694 deaths - far higher than its Nordic neighbours, even when population size is taken into account. Social Minister Lena Hallangren hit back at the criticism, saying that all decisions were made using the best-available information at the time. 'We will be overwhelmed by the wisdom and lessons learned as we go through this pandemic,' she said. 'It will be very important. 'Until then, the government will continue to make decisions based on the knowledge we have when each decision is made. Jimmie Akesson, leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats, led calls for Tegnell to go - saying it is time he 'took responsibility' for his failures 'We will not let the fear of being criticized paralyze our decision-making in this crisis and we will, without pride, correct our strategy if necessary. Tegnell admitted for the first time last week that he got Sweden's strategy wrong, saying that too many had died under his strategy. Asked to fight coronavirus again with the benefit of hindsight, he said he would land somewhere between Sweden's rules and the full lockdowns used in most of Europe. Sweden has allowed schools, bars, restaurants and cafes to remain open throughout the pandemic - only banning gatherings of more than 50 people and banning visits to elderly care homes. Faced with increasing pressure over his strategy, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has said that a planned inquiry into lockdown will be launched sooner than anticipated. Lofven had previously said an inquiry would begin once the pandemic is over, but last week said it will begin before the summer. The UAE which is planning to launch the first Arab mission to Mars next month sent its first astronaut into space last year The first Arab space mission to Mars, armed with probes to study the Red Planet's atmosphere, is designed to inspire the region's youth and pave the way for scientific breakthroughs, officials said Tuesday. The unmanned probe Al-AmalHope in Arabicis to blast off from a Japanese space centre on July 15, with preparations now in their final stages. The project is the next giant step for the United Arab Emirates, whose colossal skyscrapers and mega-projects have put it on the world map. The UAE sent its first astronaut into space last year and is also planning to build a "Science City" to replicate conditions on Mars, where it hopes to build a human settlement by 2117. Omran Sharaf, the mission's project manager, said that apart from the ambitious scientific goals, the mission was designed to hark back to the region's golden age of cultural and scientific achievements. "The UAE wanted to send a strong message to the Arab youth and to remind them of the past, that we used to be generators of knowledge," he told AFP. "People of different backgrounds and religion coexisted and shared a similar identity," he said of the Arab world, where many countries are today wracked by sectarian conflicts and economic crises. "Put your differences aside, focus on building the region, you have a rich history and you can do much more." Narrow window Sarah al-Amiri, the mission's deputy project manager, said it was imperative that the project have a long-term scientific impact. "It is not a short-lived mission, but rather one that continues throughout the years and produces valuable scientific findingsbe it by researchers in the UAE or globally," she told AFP. In photo taken on September 25, 2019 a man takes a picture of an illustration depicting an astronaut with the Emirati national flag outside Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai She said that the probe will provide a comprehensive image of the weather dynamics in Mars' atmosphere with the use of three scientific instruments. The first is an infrared spectrometer to measure the planet's lower atmosphere and analyse the temperature structure. The second, a high-resolution imager that will provide information about the ozone; and a third, an ultraviolet spectrometer to measure oxygen and hydrogen levels from a distance of up to 43,000 kilometres from the surface. The three tools will allow researchers to observe the Red Planet "at all times of the day and observe all of Mars during those different times", Amiri said. "Something we want to better understand, and that's important for planetary dynamics overall, is the reasons for the loss of the atmosphere and if the weather system on Mars actually has an impact on loss of hydrogen and oxygen," she said, referring to the two components that make up water. Sharaf said that fuelling of the probe is to begin next week. It is scheduled to launch on July 15 from Japan's Tanegashima Space Centre and return to Earth in February 2021, depending on many variables including the weather. "If we miss the launch opportunity, which is between mid-July and early August, then we'd have to wait for two years for another window," Sharaf said. But hopes are high that the mission will take place as scheduled, and not be derailed by the coronavirus pandemic. In a new sign of warming ties between Israel and Gulf Arab nations, the Jewish state Tuesday wished the UAE success with the mission. We "hope this step will contribute towards deeper cooperation between all countries in the region," its foreign ministry's "Israel in the Gulf" Twitter account wrote in Arabic. Explore further China space programme targets July launch for Mars mission 2020 AFP NASA SUITS challenge Media are invited to attend virtual student presentations for the NASA Spacesuit User Interface Technology for Students (NASA SUITS) challenge at 1 p.m. EDT Thursday, June 11. NASA engineers conducting a design evaluation with user interface heads up display software designed by participants of the NASA SUITS challenge. Credits: NASA NASA SUITS, one of NASAs Artemis Student Challenges, tasks teams of college and university students to design and create spacesuit information displays within augmented reality environments. The challenge provides students with an authentic engineering design experience that will engage them in the innovative science critical to NASAs Artemis program, which will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024.The students work with the challenge may improve how astronauts communicate with mission control on the ground as they perform moonwalks. These human-autonomy enabling technologies are necessary for the increased demands of lunar surface exploration. Media will be able to view the presentations using Microsoft Teams collaborations software and will have the opportunity to ask questions following the presentations. Student teams participating in the 2020 challenge include: Boise State University in Boise, Idaho Chapman University in Orange, California Columbia University in New York City Duquesne University in Pittsburgh Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Kent University in Ohio Norco College in Norco, California North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina . Riverside City College in Riverside, California Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas University of Akron in Akron, Ohio University of Baltimore University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida University of Colorado, Boulder University of Massachusetts Boston University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan University of North Texas in Denton, Texas Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia Artemis Student Challenges are managed by the NASAs Office of STEM Engagement. The program helps support the agency education policy of using NASAs unique missions and programs to engage and encourage students to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math careers. To learn more about NASA SUITS, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/artemis.html For more information about NASAs STEM Engagement programs, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/ A black business owner armed with a gun was mistaken for a robbery suspect when a police officer punched him in the face, Decatur police Chief Nate Allen said today. The situation happened nearly three months ago on March 15 but has become public now because of a surveillance video clip released on social media over the weekend. The video shows a police officer walk into Star Spirits & Beverages, a liquor store on Sixth Avenue in Decatur in north Alabama, and immediately punch the owner, 47-year-old Kevin Penn. Penn says he called police that day to report his store had been robbed and that he was holding the suspect at gunpoint. Hear the story behind a Decatur business owner being punched by a police officer Why was a black business owner in Decatur punched by a police officer when he called the cops to report a robbery? AL.com's Ashley Remkus talks about the latest developments in the case. Posted by al.com on Tuesday, June 9, 2020 Allen said because police were called to investigate a robbery and Penn was armed, they believed he might have been the suspect. At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Decatur police played body camera video, in which an officer can be heard telling Penn to put down his gun and Penn refusing to do so. Police did not release copies of the footage but let news reporters watch and record a screen on which the footage was aired. The footage, which was edited with captions and delayed at some points, doesnt appear to clearly show what happened. Penn moved his hand over a gun lying on a counter next to him, said Allen. The chief said the man was holding a magazine in his other hand, which police at the time may have believed to be a gun. As Penn appears to be refusing to put down a gun, an officer walks in and immediately punches him in the face, the body camera video shows. The officers name hasnt been released, but the chief said he is on desk duty pending an internal investigation. The police department has been investigating the incident since the day after it happened, nearly three months ago. Asked today whether the punch amounted to excessive force, Allen said officers should use the least amount of force necessary to get the job done. Many cases involving an armed suspect end with police shooting the person, he said. I would much rather have a punch than an officer-involved shooting, the chief said. As a result of the punch, Penn suffered a broken jaw and some of his teeth were knocked out, his lawyer, Carl Cole, told AL.com. Penn underwent several weeks of treatment, including having his mouth wired shut, his lawyer said. Penn was taken to the ground, handcuffed and arrested on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing governmental operations. Police accused him of obstructing their investigation of the robbery, according to court records. But police today said rather than a robbery, a simple shoplifting had taken place at Penns store. Body camera video appeared to show the suspected shoplifter lying on the ground inside the store. Police say a shoplifting suspect was arrested that day, but they havent released the persons name or charges. Penn himself called police that day, according to his lawyer, and had already solved the case, as he was armed and holding the suspect for police. In the surveillance video posted on social media, Penn is seen carrying a gun and later appears to motion toward the officers just before they enter the store. The surveillance video posted online doesnt include any audio. Cole said Penn showed the gun to the officers to make sure they knew he was armed, then took out the clip and ejected the bullet from the chamber. In court records obtained by AL.com, Decatur police Officer J. Rippen wrote that Penn refused to obey lawful commands to put down and back away from a firearm while officers were attempting to investigate a robbery. When AL.com spoke with Penn by phone this morning, he referred questions to his lawyer, citing the ongoing criminal case. Cole said Penn will make a public statement in the coming days. Penn has filed an internal affairs complaint with the police department and handed over surveillance video from his store, Cole said, but the city hasnt responded to his request for information about the status of the investigation. Allen said today that he doesnt know when the ongoing investigation will be finished. AL.com has requested police reports and other records related to the case, including the personnel files of the officer who punched Penn and all unedited body camera video of the incident. The chief said he chose to show a portion of body camera footage today in an effort to be transparent with the public. We wanted to show that because one thing I strive to do is build relationships with this community, Allen said. We need to be very transparent; we need to be very open. But most of all, we need our citizens to respect the police department and we need the police department to respect the citizens. Photo credit: Met Police From Cosmopolitan Police have launched a murder investigation after the bodies of two half-sisters, Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were found in a Fryent Country Park, Wembley, on Sunday. It's reported that the sisters were among a group of 10 people who met in the park around 7pm on Friday 5 June to celebrate Henry's 46th birthday. It's believed that the group gradually peeled off one by one until only Smallman, a photographer, and Henry, a social worker, remained. They were both reported missing late the following day and were discovered unresponsive by police on the Sunday. Detective Chief Inspector Simon Harding, senior investigating officer for the case, said his team are "working hard to find out what led to these two women losing their lives." In a longer statement he also urged anybody who was in Fryent Country Park on 5 or 6 June who may have helpful information to come forward: "Their families have been devastated by their loss and they need answers. They have asked that their privacy is respected at this time as they come to terms with this horrific incident. UPDATE: We've launched a murder investigation following the deaths of two sisters in #Wembley. Were you in #Fryent Country Park on the evening of Friday, 5 June, or early into Saturday, 6 June? You could assist detectives. Read more: https://t.co/hIvzTya9zk Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 8, 2020 He also added that anybody who could have "stumbled upon items of property" should reach out to police urgently. The area the group were in would be a well-known spot to sit and look over London. If you were in that area of the park from the evening of June 5 through to Sunday lunchtime, noticed the group, or saw anything else suspicious, please contact us immediately. Story continues You may have stumbled upon items of property, but not realised the significance of them. If you did, you may well have information that could assist us hugely. No matter how insignificant it may seem, please contact us via the incident room on 0208 721 4205, or via 101." Post-mortem examinations are yet to be carried out and at present no arrests have been made. You Might Also Like Before any Black Lives Matter plaza, they already screwed us over on money, she said. And we already had to fight them off on riders. [Trump] already said that he doesnt support statehood for Washington, D.C., for partisan reasons. Theyve already done all of those things to us. If youre suggesting that if lying down and letting them move the Army into the city would get us money, we dont have any reason to think that would be the case. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 18:42:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close YANGON, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar authorities seized 8.14 kg of heroin and 142,500 stimulants in Kachin state, according to a release from the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC) on Tuesday. Acting on a tip-off, a police force stopped and searched a car in Shwe Ku township late Sunday. Heroin worth 651.2 million kyats (465,142 U.S. dollars) and stimulants worth 427.5 million kyats (305,357 U.S. dollars) were seized from the car and three suspects were arrested. The township police filed a case against the suspects and further investigation is underway, the release said. According to a latest release issued by the President's Office on Monday, a total of 1,169 drug-related cases have been registered across Myanmar while 1,811 have been charged in connection with the cases as of June 6 this year, since the formation of the Drug Activity Special Complaint Department in June 2018. Enditem Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has injected funds into four fintech startups, with its fintech fund. The ventures include FlexxPay, a cloud-based B2B FinTech employee benefits platform allowing instant access to earned income; and Go Rise, a start-up building a holistic and seamless financial services platform for 250 million global migrants, helping them get access to the full suite of financial products in domicile as well as home country. Another benefiting startup is NOW Money, which provides payroll services to Gulf-based companies, and app-based accounts with physical debit card and remittance options for each of their lower-income worker. Sarwa, a robo-advisory wealth management firm is among the fintech startups funded by DIFC. Launched in 2009, the DIFC earmarked $100 million to establish, grow and upscale start-up and growth stage FinTech companies seeking access to the Middle East, Africa and South Asia markets. A former police dog carrying too much weight had to be rescued by a group of half a dozen people after getting himself stuck in a park bench in this hilarious clip. Three-year-old labrador Wang Xiaozhuang, also known as Zhuang Zhuang, is a former police dog with the police in Changping District of Beijing. However, since his service days Zhuang Zhuang has put on quite a bit of weight which got him in trouble in footage recently shared on social media. Three-year-old labrador Wang Xiaozhuang, also known as Zhuang Zhuang had to be rescued by a group of half a dozen people after getting himself stuck in a park bench in the Changping district of Beijing Zhuang Zhuang's entire lower half was stuck between the seat and backrest of a park bench after he took a break from a photoshoot with other dogs The video from June 6 shows the labrador stuck in the gap between he seat and backrest of a park bench. A group of six people stand around the bench trying to help the dog out of his embarrassing situation. His owner Ms Wang said: 'We'd actually arranged for our dog to have a photo session in the park on 6th June, but because he's too fat, he became tired. 'We looked for somewhere for him to rest and he jumped on the bench when he saw two girls sitting there. 'Then he somehow slipped out and got stuck there because he has a big bum. 'All the other dog owners nearby rushed over to help him. We tried so many ways and finally dragged him out of the bench. It took 10 minutes!' Zhuang Zhuang is a former police dog with the police in Changping District of Beijing but has put on weight since leaving the force Zhuang Zhuang (pictured) during his police dog days. The lack of exercise and training that formed part of his job meant he put on serious weight in retirement His owners have had Zhuang Zhuang since he was one-month-old and they say that he eats far too much because his stomach is like a bottomless pit Since retiring from service with the police, Zhuang Zhuang has ballooned, reaching 100lb at his heaviest. Ms Wang says this is down to his enormous appetite and the sudden lack of exercise and training. She and her husband, who is a police dog trainer, are told on a yearly basis that Zhuang Zhuang is overweight. Ms Wang said: 'We've had Zhuang Zhuang since he was a one-month-old puppy. 'He used to limp when walking and I thought he had arthritis. Then we learned it was because he was too fat and his joints were strained. 'He eats far too much, like his stomach is a bottomless pit, but we're feeding him less to help him lose weight.' Zhuang Zhuang's owner was hesitant to post the video of him stuck in the bench but said she did it for fans of the dog who can't get enough. It has since been viewed more than 13 million times. The Ireland Reddit page is shutting down between midnight and 8am every day to try to stem the flow of extreme racist content, which may be coming from American sock puppet accounts. Moderators of the page, which has over 280,000 members, said they have reached a breaking point for abusive and racist material in recent days. It comes as far-right groups have started an orchestrated attempt to hijack online discussions about an attack in Carrigaline with racist commentary. Reddit is one of the most popular discussion websites in the world, and describes itself as the front page of the internet. Reddit is made up of subreddits on different topics, including a dedicated site for Ireland. The Ireland subreddit is monitored by voluntary moderators who either set up or help run the online community. In a post on Monday night, the moderators announced that they had taken the difficult decision to shut down the Ireland page between midnight and 8am in order to stem the flow of racist/extremist content which is being posted at these times. Moderators blamed a multitude of sock puppet accounts which are typically posting in American hours between midnight and 8am Irish time. This has resulted in the current [moderator] team having to spend several nights constantly watching every thread and comment submitted, along with banning dozens of accounts within the space of a short few hours. This has reached breaking point over the last few days, the post said. It said that it was often confirmed by Reddit administrators that racist abuse had often come from individuals running multiple accounts. The moderators said they were at a lost cause trying to clean up hate-filled messes that were caused by inaction on the part of Reddits administrators. Many of the worst posts were also put up while moderators were asleep. The Reddit page is now going to try to hire moderators based in different time zones, and set up an automated system which will flag racist and discriminatory language. While the vast majority of hateful comments submitted over the past while have been solely directed towards someone's skin colour, we are noting now that this automod filter list will include common phrases used against Traveller communities, and any other minority groups which we have found to have been of target by these accounts in the past, the post said. There has been anecdotal evidence of an increase in racist abuse and commentary online since a number of Black Lives Matter protests were held in Ireland. (Natural News) Today the WHO declared that COVID-19 almost never spreads through asymptomatic carriers, all at once wiping out the entire justification for mandatory vaccines and contact tracing. As CNBC.com reported: From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHOs emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a news briefing from the United Nations agencys Geneva headquarters. Its very rare. Asymptomatic spread was the entire reason why world authorities demanded lockdowns, social distancing and masks, too. It was also the underlying justification for demanding mandatory vaccinations and contact tracing. After all, if the spread of coronavirus were limited to only those who obviously showed symptoms and could therefore be easily identified and avoided there would be no logical need for lockdowns, social distancing, masks, contact tracing or mandatory vaccines, since spreaders of the pandemic could be easily identified and avoided (or isolated with selective stay-at-home orders only for the symptomatic). All at once, the WHO has just exploded all these narratives that were so aggressively pushed by the CDC, Democrat governors, Dr. Fauci at the White House and even the WHO itself. Now, based on the WHOs new admission, not only should every lockdown be immediately ended; any government effort to initiate new lockdowns should be vehemently rejected as being utterly groundless and anti-science. Mandatory vaccines are no longer needed when asymptomatic carriers present near-zero risk Now that the WHO is claiming theres virtually no risk of catching the coronavirus from someone who isnt showing any symptoms, mandatory vaccines are impossible to medically justify since symptomatic carriers can be easily identified and isolated from others. Simultaneously, the argument that the lockdowns need to continue until theres a vaccine have just been decimated, too. In reality, the WHO just admitted that lockdowns arent necessary at all, except among those who are actively showing symptoms (which is a very tiny percentage of the population, probably far less than 1% on any given day). It also means that everybody can safely go back to work with nothing more than a low-cost handheld thermometer checking temperatures of workers as they enter the workplace. No symptoms means no risk of spread, according to the WHO, so checking for symptoms is now synonymous with achieving a safe workplace for all. It also means the occupancy limits at workplaces should be immediately lifted, allowing all gyms, bars, restaurants and movie theaters to operate at full capacity. The only required rule is that people who sneeze or show fevers must be asked to leave, and thats it. No more justification for contact tracing either This WHO declaration also obliterates any argument for so-called contact tracing. If theres no such thing as an asymptomatic carrier, why would we need contact tracing at all? The whole point of contact tracing is to find people who dont know they have the infection because they were supposedly infected by an asymptomatic carrier. But if the only people who spread the virus are those who show obvious symptoms, then everybody already knows to steer clear of that individual, and contact tracing becomes moot. Thus, the WHO has just obliterated any argument for contact tracing, too. Will Apple and Google now remove their contact tracing apps from their mobile devices? Of course not. Those apps were never really about contact tracing in the first place the entire sham was always a pretext for total surveillance and spying on users. Plus, the CDC says the virus cant be spread on surfaces All this is on top of the CDC recently announcing that the coronavirus cant be spread via surfaces, either. So theres no more justification for people wearing gloves or sanitizing packages or grocery bags. In fact, according to the CDCs newest admissions, theres no more reason to avoid shaking hands, either. So if the coronavirus only spreads through people who are actively showing symptoms, then the entire argument behind everybody wearing masks which was that we all needed to wear them because none of us knew whether we, ourselves, were spreading the virus instantly collapses. The WHO just made mask mandates a complete joke, which makes us wonder why the government continues to hoard them, of course. In fact, unless the WHO is lying to us now, the entirety of every single argument for lockdowns, masks, social distancing and all the rest has just been blasted to smithereens. And if the WHO is lying to us now, then whats to say they havent been lying all along on other issues? Either way, my mask wearing days are over. Like many Americans, I deliberately worked to protect the elderly and the vulnerable out of an abundant sense of caution and public duty. I wore a mask in public places, and I practiced social distancing, too. I stayed home for well over a month and did my part to reduce any chance, however low, that I might become an asymptomatic carrier who might inadvertently spread the pandemic to other people who were immunocompromised or medically vulnerable. Now, it turns out none of that was necessary. This entire pandemic appears to be conquerable with nothing more than vitamin C, vitamin D and zinc. Not even hand washing is necessary, according to the new CDC results, and the very idea of waiting around under house arrest for a new experimental vaccine to be produced now seems insanely stupid. Is the WHO running a whole new psyop to explode a second wave of infections? The other possibility with all this is that the WHO is now running a new psyop to try to convince people that the coronavirus is no longer any risk, hoping that people will drop their guard and unleash a second wave of infections in the Fall, thereby damaging the Trump administration and immediately thrusting the WHO right back into the position of issuing demands to the world regarding a new wave of infections. After all, when theres no pandemic running loose, who listens to the WHO anyway? But if the WHO has the kind of malicious ethics that would allow it to deliberately lie to the world in order to spread a second wave of infections, wouldnt we all be fools to listen to that organization in the first place? Shouldnt we actually demand their arrest and prosecution for crimes against humanity if they were deliberately trying to spread a global pandemic just to remain relevant? So there are really just two possibilities in all this: #1) The WHO has been lying to us all along, and the real risk of coronavirus spread is practically zero. Or #2) The WHO is lying to us now, trying to make sure we all get infected so that a second wave explodes across the globe. Either way, it looks like the WHO cant be trusted at all, which makes their recent announcement highly questionable. If the coronavirus cant be spread by asymptomatic carriers, how did it explode across the Diamond Princess? How did it sneak into the USA and other countries, even as symptom checkers manned the airport arrival terminals? How did the coronavirus explode across nursing homes in New York and other areas, killing a shockingly high number of residents there? (Or, alternatively, perhaps they all really died from death-by-ventilator episodes) We cant really know what to believe from the authorities anymore not the WHO, the CDC, the FDA or of course the lying lamestream media. So the only thing we can really count on is our own immune systems, and those can be readily enhanced with simple nutritional supplements, along with healthy lifestyle choices such as avoiding inflammatory junk foods and getting plenty of sleep each night. For the WHO, that disgusting organization is a discredited junk science gaggle of incompetent communists pretending to be epidemiologists. They couldnt shove their own heads up each others asses any farther if they were surgical proctologists. Their horribly dishonest, inaccurate and often deliberately misleading information has brought incalculable suffering and death to our world, which is why their new name should be the World HELL Organization. Thats what they delivered to us all: HELL on Earth. All by design. And now, after months of global economic devastation and mass death, they tell you there was nothing to worry about all along probably just to mess with your head while they work with China to release a second bioweapon, see? We should all be really reluctant to believe a single thing the WHO ever says again, and if we ever get a chance to meet the people who run the WHO in person, we should place our hands around their necks and squeeze tighter and tighter until they puke back up all the bulls##t theyve been shoveling this entire time. For my part, Im going to keep taking high-quality nutritional supplements and consider that sufficient for doing my part. Staying healthy, after all, is the most responsible thing you can do in a pandemic, whether its real or fake. Mexico City Pays 10,700 for Each Doctor Contracted Via the Cuban Government DIARIO DE CUBA reveals details of the agreement between the Mexican Institute of Health for Well-Being, Mexico City and authorities on the island. A total of $6,255,792 have been disbursed by the Health Institute for Wellbeing (INSABI) and the Government of Mexico City for the work of 585 Cuban doctors and nurses sent by Havana to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. DIARIO DE CUBA obtained details on the contract, signed by the Cuban government, INSABI, and authorities of the Mexican capital for the hiring of Cuban health professionals to tackle the emergency caused by the pandemic at various Mexico City hospitals. Cuban doctors and nurses began arriving in the Mexican capital in April. On average, local authorities and INSABI have paid Havana $10,693 for each of them, a source from the Mexico City government revealed to DDC. The Cuban professionals include specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine (family doctors), biomedical practitioners, critical medicine, internal medicine specialists, as well as epidemiologists and nurses. According to the source consulted, the contract with Havana states that the Cuban medical personnel are to carry out activities in Mexico City, such as direct care for Covid-19 patients and epidemiological monitoring. According to the authorities in the Mexican capital, however, the contract also covers activities such as training, specialization, consulting and joint research. They also affirm that the Cubans are not paying for their accommodations, as local hotel businesspeople take care of it. "Training" and "specialization" are elements previously cited by the Cuban government in its agreement with the former President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff for the massive participation of professionals from the island in the South American country's "More Doctors" program. In that case, the inclusion of "training" in contracts served to elude further oversight by the Brazilian Congress. That agreement was undone upon Jair Bolsonaro's rise to power and Havana's decision to withdraw its doctors from Brazil. The export of professional services, mainly medical, is one of the Cuban government's main sources of revenue, with it keeping at least 75% of what the destination countries pay the doctors in wages. In 2018 this activity generated some 6.4 billion dollars for Havana, far more than Tourism. In addition to having to hand over most of their wages, the Cuban health professionals sent to missions abroad are subjected to draconian vigilance and the restriction of fundamental freedoms. These conditions have been condemned by human rights organizations, and the UN has noted that they could constitute forms of "forced labor" and "modern slavery". This weekend DIARIO DE CUBA was able to confirm that at least one woman doctor, a resident of Mayari, Holguin, has escaped from the mission in Mexico City. In addition to those sent to the Mexican capital, another 108 health professionals from the island have been in Veracruz, Mexico since May 21, under a different contract. Offering local governments contracts seems to be the Cuban government's new strategy to sell its doctors' services. It has already done so in Peru, and the Italian region of Lombardy, and tried to with the Spanish autonomous communities of Valencia and Catalonia. Cuba's official press widely touted the work of doctors in Lombardy and the Principality of Andorra. Despite the size of the brigade sent to Mexico (almost 700 professionals between the capital and Veracruz), coverage in this case has been scant. C Shivakumar By Express News Service CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government's move to constitute a Special Investment Promotion Task Force to attract investors from countries planning to relocate their manufacturing bases post COVID-19 is paying dividends as businesses from Taiwan are showing keenness in investing in the state. In an interaction with The New Indian Express, Ben Wang, Director General of Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in Chennai and Sumit Bothra, honorary advisor to Taiwan Consul General and CEO of Inspiredge, said that Tamil Nadu is strategically placed as it provides access to Australia, Africa, South and South East Asia. As a result, businesses in Taiwan are keen to invest in the state. Wang, who earlier met Industries Minister MC Sampath to discuss investments in the state, said Taiwanese majors have already made Tamil Nadu their home including Feng Tay Enterprise, Foxconn, Delta Electronics and more than 20 companies, creating 100,000 job opportunities. However, a clearer picture on Taiwan investments will emerge once the lockdown is eased and COVID-19 cases come down paving the way for Taiwanese businesses to firm up their investment plans in the state. Wang said that India is among the 18 nations with whom Taiwan wants to strengthen its ties under the New South Bound Policy. India's Act East Policy is also keen on strengthening ties with East Asan nations. As a result, Taiwan wants to strengthen its existing trade with India. Bothra, who is also representing Taiwan in the special task force, says that many businesses in Taiwan want to expand businesses in the state and some are keen to invest in automobile components, rubber, plastics, electronic goods etc. Besides, many medical equipment makers are showing keeness to invest in the state. These include surgical equipments, bandages, surgical tapes, PPEs and masks which could supplement the knitwear and handloom industry in Tiruppur. Interestingly, the state is planning a special relocation package for investors from Taiwan. It is also learnt that the state is keen on establishing a Taiwanese cluster or industrial township in the state which is akin to the One-hub Chennai Integrated Township project developed for Japan. This will have plug and play facilities, social and support infrastructure centred around the concept of live, work and play. Similarly, the state is offering a dedicated green channel for Taiwanese companies looking to make Tamil Nadu their manufacturing base. The Jawaharlal Nehru University on Monday advised students still remaining on campus to return to their hometowns, days after a pharmacist at its health centre tested positive for the disease. Although the university is taking all precautions as per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Delhi government from time to time, there is no safer place other than ones own home, the varsity said. In the present scenario, the timing of re-opening of the academic institutions is uncertain and may get delayed till August 15. Therefore, given the fact that the number of COVID-19 positive cases in Delhi is increasing rapidly, all students who are stranded in the hostels are, hereby, strongly advised to return to their home at the earliest, a circular by Dean of Students Professor Sudheer Pratap Singh said. The hostel residents who have already left the university campus should not come back until the university is re-opened, it said. Last month also, JNU had asked students stranded in its hostels to return to their native places. Wayne Wilkerson is facing a sentencing range of 235-293 months for his role in the "Cream Scheme" in which prosecutors said private and U.S. military insurance programs were bilked out of millions of dollars. His Gainesville, Fla., attorneys are asking instead that he get home confinement and then probation. Wilkerson and four others who were found guilty by Judge Sandy Mattice were set to have been sentenced on Monday. The sentencing has been delayed and it now will be held in Winchester, Tn. The recommended sentencing range from the federal probation office for Wilkerson is based on a loss over $25 million, a scheme with 10 or more victims, a loss to a government agency in excess of $7 million, and his leadership role in the offense. Attorneys Mark Thomas and Seth Schwartz said when Wilkerson and Brian Kurtz were setting up the operation they consulted multiple healthcare attorneys. They also relied on agreements with four different pharmacies, it was stated. The scheme operated for nine months before insurors began halting payments for compounded medications after many had been billed at exorbitant rates. The request for a downward sentencing variance for Wilkerson says, "The fast-expanding operation eventually outgrew compliance controls." The attorneys said Wilkerson has lost both Karma Medical Spa and Top Tier Medical and was forced to sell his house and liquidate his assets in order to pay for his defense. Prosecutors said earlier that Wilkerson made over $14 million from the scheme. Wilkerson has no savings and is living "paycheck to paycheck," it was stated. The attorneys said he is considering filing for bankruptcy protection. They said he has "endured having family and close friends testify against him. He lives with the guilt of pulling his soon-to-be-wife and close friends into legal jeopardy and he feels responsible for their current circumstances." The attorneys said the crime could not be replicated because the compounded medications are no longer reimbursed. It says Wilkerson now works for a real estate developer, who said taking him from his business would be "devastating" to the firm. Other defendants, Kasey Nicholson, Michael Chatfield, Billy Hindmon and Jayson Montgomery, also are seeking home confinement or probation. Attorney Brian O'Shaugnessy said Ms. Nicholson has been "financially devastated." He said she liquidated the last of her IRA to pay prior counsel. Ms. Nicholsons commissions were $938,740, of which she paid $204,000 to Matthew Perkins. Montgomery is facing 63-73 months and Hindmon 37-46 months. The judge is able to deviate from the sentencing range. Chatfield raked in $5.4 million. Hindmons commissions were $1,031,296, and Montgomerys commissions were $337,068. Prosecutor Perry Piper said earlier that the government would be asking for forfeitures of illicit earnings from the defendants in the case in which individuals were recruited to order creams that were billed to insurance at rates up to $15,000 a jar. Prosecutors Piper and Franklin Clark said Wilkerson made over $14 million from the scheme and Chatfield raked in $5.4 million. They said Chatfield also got $1.5 million for passing on his "book of business" to Jimmy Collins. Collins and his wife, Ashley, formerly lived at Birchwood, but moved to San Diego. They were also arrested in the healthcare fraud and are awaiting trial. Ashley Collins asked to be tried separately, but that motion was denied. They said insurance companies and Tricare paid a total of roughly $35 million for the compounded medications in the locally-based scheme. Private insurance paid roughly $22 million for prescriptions written by Candace Michele Craven, Toni Dobson, and Suzy Vergot. SINGAPORE, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WorkJoys announces the global launch of the world's first virtual team building software to help companies around the world and their employees cope with the emotional impact of COVID-19. WorkJoys helps teams and individuals build bonds with each other by playing simple and fun team-building games. By playing WorkJoys games asynchronously and only during pockets of downtimes, employees do not compromise their productivity and yet able to improve relationships with their colleagues and team over games while working from home. WorkJoys is a free software to enable both large organisations and small enterprises around the world to benefit from virtual team building because in-person team building is no longer possible or advisable during and post COVID-19 pandemic. More than 100 companies and organizations and more than 5,000 employees are using WorkJoys since beta release on 17th April 2020. A Human Resource Manager for a technology company based in Singapore shared, "WorkJoys has quite literally brought joy into my work life, especially during this work-from-home period! It created many opportunities for me and my colleagues to connect over what we have been voted over, and all the topics that were included in the fun quiz. We enjoyed using WorkJoys, and would like to recommend it to other companies looking to add some fun into their daily work." On the mission behind WorkJoys, Founder Joshua Koh said, "The COVID-19 pandemic has caused business disruption to businesses and require both personal and organizational adjustments, increasing stress and anxieties among employees. As a result, the bonds between employees, teams and managers are put under more pressure than before. Hence I founded WorkJoys as a community project to help employees and managers build better relationship while coping with the pandemic. WorkJoys offer companies simple virtual team building games for their employees and teams to play with. They can share quirks and trivia about themselves, play positive polling questions, discover more about each other and have a good laugh through the chat functions. What's more, its free!" WorkJoys currently has 3 social games for any companies and employees. The first game is a Positive Polling game where users get polled with only positive questions about their colleagues and the chosen colleagues will receive notification (and points) and then both users can connect through WorkJoys chat and find out who has chosen who and why. The second game is a Trivia game where users are posed quirks about their colleagues and they have to choose the right colleague. If the correct colleague is chosen, they will receive notification and connect through WorkJoys chat. The third game is True or False Story Game where each user provide a true and a false story about themselves for rest of their colleagues to guess. WorkJoys is planning to rollout a total of 10 games by September. A security technology company has also created a list of prizes internally for their employees who topped the leaderboard in WorkJoys as scores are accrued to users who know their colleagues best through correct guesses and more engagements. About WorkJoys: WorkJoys is a community project founded to use technology to help companies and employees cope with effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. WorkJoys helps individuals and teams build bonds by playing simple social games asynchronously to have fun without compromising productivity. For interested companies, please visit www.workjoys.com SOURCE WorkJoys Related Links http://www.workjoys.com Washington: Hillary Clinton has released new information about her health as she recuperated from a diagnosis of mild, non-contagious pneumonia, with her doctor stressing she remains healthy overall and fit to serve as president. Pressure had mounted for the campaign to release information about the Democratic White House nominees medical status after she fell ill at a 9/11 memorial event Sunday, and it was disclosed that she had pneumonia. The former secretary of state, 68, continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as president of the United States, her personal physician Lisa Bardack wrote in a detailed, two-page summary update on Clintons health. Bardack released Clintons laboratory results that showed normal readings for cholesterol, triglycerides and other key readings. The remainder of her complete physical exam was normal and she is in excellent mental condition, she said. Bardack also said Clinton has been taking the anti-coagulant Coumadin, and that her blood levels have been relatively stable. Clinton is recovering well with antibiotics and rest from her bout with pneumonia, she added. Clinton had released a detailed statement about her medical history in July 2015. Her campaign had been pressed to be more transparent about Clintons health, particularly after it failed to reveal her Friday pneumonia diagnosis until Sunday, when she nearly collapsed as she left the Ground Zero site in New York. Her rival Donald Trump is also being called on to reveal his own medical records, something he has not done save for a brief letter released last year by Harold Bornstein, the Republican nominees doctor for 35 years, who wrote that Trumps health was excellent and that a recent examination showed only positive results. Trump had another physical in recent days, and he went on the television set of celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz on Wednesday to disclose his new health records. In a statement, the show said Dr Oz took Mr Trump through a full review of systems. The show airs Thursday. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. In Pics: PM Modi to inaugurate new campus of Classical Tamil institute in Chennai today India has everything needed to be hub for medical tourism: PM Modi Class 10 public exams cancelled in Tamil Nadu; all pass India oi-Deepika S Chennai, June 09: In a big relief for students, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy announced that the public exams for class 10 students stand fully cancelled. He also said that class 11 board exams will also not be conducted. "Considering the representation of parents and the present trend of virus spread, the board examinations scheduled to be held from June 15 for class 10 and for subjects that could not be conducted for class 11 are fully cancelled and students are declared promoted," the chief minister said. He also said that for class 10 students, 80% of marks will be awarded based on their performance in the quarterly and half-yearly exams and 20% marks will be based on their attendance. Delhi Health Minister claims 50% have no contact, Centre says no community spread | Oneindia News Recently, the Madras High Court pulled up the Tamil Nadu government on plans of conducting Class 10 board exams from June 15. Coronavirus crisis: Health Ministry offers list of dos and dont's during relaxation of lockdown "When the state government has not decided to open schools and colleges until Covid-19 situation subsides, how can 9 lakh students, 2 lakh teachers and thousands of non-teaching staff be forced to risk their lives attending class 10 board exams from June 15," the court said. The state's COVID-19 count has now reached 33,229. Of these cases, Chennai recorded 1,149 fresh Covid-19 cases. The death toll also rose to 286 after 17 more fatalities were reported in the state in last 24 hours. Of the new cases reported, 11 patients (9 from Qatar, 3 from Kuwait) who arrived in Tamil Nadu tested positive in the state. There are currently 15,413 active cases. A total of 17,527 patients have been discharged or cured of the highly contagious disease. Of these, 20,575 patients are males, 12,637 are females and 17 are transgender patients. China has said that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready within months -- as early as autumn -- amid the global race to find a vaccine and cure for the deadly virus. One of the country's top respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan has said that a COVID-19 vaccine could be ready for use in emergencies as early as this autumn. Nanshan's prediction was also voiced by the head of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Gau Fu last month. Fu had said that they are drafting guidelines to determine who would be eligible to receive the vaccine first as well as what would constitute emergency use. "Herd immunity still depends on the development of vaccines. Large-scale vaccination will take one to two years. The new vaccine can be used in an emergency as early as this autumn or the end of the year," said Nanshan, as mentioned in the South China Morning Post. Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: Sun Pharma starts Phase 2 of trials; PM Modi pledges $15 million to GAVI Meanwhile, Singapore has said that a coronavirus vaccine would take at least one year to become widely available. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that people would have to learn to live with the virus. "It will take at least a year, probably longer, before vaccines become widely available. We will have to learn to live with COVID-19 for the long term, as we have done in the past with other dangerous infectious diseases, like tuberculosis," Lee said. Brazil, on the other hand, has signed up for clinical trials of the potential coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. The Oxford vaccine is among the first to move to Phase 2. "This is a randomised controlled phase III study to determine the safety, efficacy of the non-replicating ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine. Initial non-clinical studies in animals and phase I clinical studies in humans to evaluate the safety of the vaccine were carried out in England and the results demonstrated that its safety profile was acceptable," said Brazil health regulator Anvisa said. Also read: Coronavirus vaccine update: AstraZeneca 'on track' to roll out vaccine in September Japan has said that it expects a corona vaccine to come into use by June 2021. The Japanese government has earmarked $1.34 billion for vaccine production and distribution. In the US, cancer researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have harnessed tools for the development of a coronavirus vaccine. "In many ways, cancer behaves like a virus, so our team decided to use the tools we developed to identify unique aspects of childhood cancers that can be targeted with immunotherapies and apply those same tools to identify the right protein sequences to target in SARS-CoV-2," said John M. Maris, MD, at CHOP. Moreover, Serum Institute of India joins forces with AstraZeneca to produce 1 billion doses of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine. India also pledged $15 million to COVID-19 vaccine alliance GAVI at the Global Vaccine Summit hosted by the UK. Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: US says 2 million doses 'ready to go'; AstraZeneca aims to release vaccine in Sept (Corrects headline to ex-Nissan boss, text unchanged) By Nate Raymond BOSTON, June 8 (Reuters) - Lawyers for the former Green Beret and son wanted by Japan for helping former Nissan Motor Co boss Carlos Ghosn flee the country on Monday argued U.S. authorities wrongly arrested them for aiding a crime that they say does not exist in Japan: bail jumping. Lawyers for Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, in a motion asked a federal judge in Boston to quash the U.S. warrants issued last month for their arrests or release them on bail while their extradition case proceeds. U.S. authorities arrested the Taylors in May at Japan's request for allegedly smuggling Ghosn out of the country in a box while he was out on bail awaiting trial on financial charges. Their lawyers on Monday argued that neither bail jumping nor helping someone do so are crimes in Japan. The defense attorneys said that fact is "so far beyond dispute that the Japanese government has begun considering whether it should amend the law to make such conduct a crime." While Japan has issued arrest warrants for the Taylors, their lawyers said the crime stated in the Japanese warrants is an immigration offense, a non-extraditable misdemeanor. The lawyers added that neither Taylor, including Michael, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran who founded a private security company, pose a flight risk requiring them to be held without bail. The Justice Department and Japanese embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. U.S. authorities arrested the Taylors in Harvard, Massachusetts, on May 20 at the request of Japan, which in January issued arrest warrants for both men in connection with facilitating the Dec. 29, 2019 escape. Ghosn fled to Lebanon, his childhood home, while he was awaiting trial on charges that he engaged in financial wrongdoing, including by understating his compensation in Nissan's financial statements. He denies wrongdoing. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis) MI5 set its emergency pandemic plan into motion in early February, six weeks before lockdown, after being warned that coronavirus was going to have a significant impact on the UK, its former director general has said. Sir Andrew Parker, who resigned from the security organisation last month, is believed to have sat in on an emergency Cobra meeting about covid-19 and immediately requested stocks of hand sanitiser. After hearing warnings from Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, and Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, Sir Andrew acted fast. His actions came six weeks before Prime Minister Boris Johnson enforced a nation-wide lockdown. MI5's former director general set its pandemic plan in motion six weeks before lockdown Sir Andrew Parker was warned of the threat of the coronavirus in early February after a Cobra meeting with Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance and immediately implemented its strategy 'I'm inclined to listen to scientists so having been told this is coming, pretty much that day I instructed the implementation of our contingency plan for pandemic flu,' he told a Royal Society of Medicine webinar via The Times. 'When this was being discussed as a prospective pandemic early in February . . . the professional advice from the chief scientific adviser and chief medical officer was pretty clear that the prospects were high and strong that this was going to happen. 'In MI5 we had a contingency plan for that and so we started implementing that as soon as it looked like there was a prospect of the pandemic coming. 'A lot of this revolves around how in an organisation like MI5, which is essential for the country through any circumstance, you can sustain an MI5 through periods when there might be large-scale staff absence. There are contingency plans for every different sort of national security risk and that's the reason for having a national security risk assessment, so there can be some preparation.' Sir Andrew's revelation that MI5 acted fast after learning of the huge dangers posed by the deadly virus has lead to further questions of the government's response, with some quarters feeling that the Prime Minister acted too slowly in locking down the country. Public health expert Gabriel Scally, a former civil servant in the health department, said: 'Why did the rest of government not respond in the same way? 'The fact Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and Chris Whitty all contracted the virus shows they were not heeding the warnings that MI5 did pay heed to. The former security chief ordered stocks of hand sanitiser and planned for the pandemic Boris Johnson has come under fire for what some feel was a slow response to the threat 'Sir Andrew realised this risk had risen up the ranks and he had better respond to it, he did the right thing. Keeping his organisation functioning was an absolute priority.' While the Government has come under fire for their initial response, Sir Andrew warned against searching for recriminations. 'When people ask, "Wouldn't it have been better if three months ago you had done X, Y and Z?": I don't know how that helps. Those are the things you ask afterwards when you look back at how the whole system could be made stronger,' he added. Mr Scally responded: 'I disagree when he says now is not the time to ask questions. The discussions about testing and quarantine have to be seen in the context of decisions two and a half months ago not to do these things. 'You have to understand why we are in this position now to make the right decisions this time.' The Government has insisted that it had 'taken the right steps at the right time to combat it, guided by the best scientific advice. We started to act . . . significantly before the WHO declared a global pandemic on 11 March.' Zimra spokesperson Francis Chimanda said: A number of border stakeholders operate at our border posts and each has a specific mandate to fulfil. At times, these roles and mandates may overlap during the clearance process. However, to mitigate against such occurrences, all border stakeholders are part of the border management team and regular stakeholder collaborative meetings are held to ensure that a co-ordinated border management approach is adopted and maintained in the clearance of cargo through the border post. [June 08, 2020] Opthea to Host Investor Teleconference MELBOURNE, Australia, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Opthea Limited (ASX:OPT) will host a conference call to discuss the results of the Companys Phase 2a clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of OPT-302 administered in combination with Eylea (aflibercept) for treatment of persistent diabetic macular edema (DME). We welcome participation from interested parties. To access the call pre-register (preferred option) or dial-in direct (delays possible): Investor Teleconference Wednesday 10 June 2020, 9:00am (AEST) Tuesday 9 June 2020, 7:00pm (EST, USA) Led by CEO & Managing Director Megan Baldwin Conference ID 10007552 1. Pre-registration Participants can pre-register by navigating to: https://s1.c-conf.com/DiamondPass/10007552-invite.html Registered participants will receive their dial in number upon registration to enter the call automatically on the day. 2. Dial-in directly (toll free) Australia: 1800 455 963 Japan: 0066 3386 8000 Sydney: 02 9007 8048 Malaysia: 1800 816 441 New Zealand: 0800 452 795 Singapore: 800 101 2702 China: 10800 140 1776 South Africa: 0800 984 013 France: 0800 913 734 Spain: 900 823 322 Germany: 0800 183 0918 Switzerland: 0800 802 498 Hong Kong: 800 968 273 Taiwan: 0080 112 7377 India: 0008 0010 08070 UAE: 8000 3570 2706 Indonesia: 007 803 321 8057 UK: 0800 051 1453 Ireland: 1800 948 607 USA/Canada 1 855 624 0077 Other International (metered): +61 7 3145 4005 Company & Media Enquiries: Join our email database to receive program updates: Megan Baldwin, PhD CEO & Managing Director Opthea Limited Tel: +61 (0) 447 788 674 [email protected] Tel: +61 (0) 3 9826 0399 [email protected] www.opthea.com Australia: Rudi Michelson Monsoon Communications Tel: +61 (0) 3 9620 3333 U.S.A. & International: Jason Wong Blueprint Life Science Group Tel: +1 415 375 3340, Ext 4 [email protected] About Opthea Limited Opthea (ASX:OPT) is a biologics drug developer focusing on ophthalmic disease therapies. It controls exclusive worldwide rights to a significant intellectual property portfolio around VEGF-C, VEGF-D and VEGFR-3. Optheas intellectual property is held within its wholly-owned subsidiary Vegenics Pty Ltd. Optheas product development programs are focused on developing OPT-302 for wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME). OPT-302 is a soluble form of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3 (VEGFR-3) or trap molecule that blocks the activity of two proteins (VEGF-C and VEGF-D) that cause blood vessels to grow and leak, processes which contribute to the pathophysiology of retinal diseases. Opthea is developing OPT-302 for use in combination with inhibitors of VEGF-A. The Companys Phase 2a DME trial is a randomized, dose expansion study designed to enrol at least 108 evaluable patients diagnosed with persistent centre-involved DME despite regular administration of prior anti-VEGF-A monotherapy. Participants were allocated in a 2:1 ratio to either aflibercept (2 mg) + OPT-302 (2 mg) or aflibercept monotherapy. Treatments were administered by intravitreal (ocular) injection once every 4 weeks (total of 3 doses). The primary efficacy analysis endpoint is the clinical response rate, defined as the proportion of patients receiving combination OPT-302 and aflibercept achieving a =5 letter gain in visual acuity at week 12 compared to baseline. Secondary efficacy measures include mean visual acuity, macular thickness, improvement in diabetic retinopathy severity score and durability of response. Opthea has also reported outcomes from an international, multi-centre, prospective, sham-controlled, double-masked, superiority study that enrolled 366 treatment-naive patients with wet AMD. Participants in the study were randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive one of the following treatment regimens administered every 4 weeks for 24 weeks: OPT-302 (0.5 mg) in combination with ranibizumab (Lucentis) (0.5 mg); OPT-302 (2.0 mg) in combination with ranibizumab (0.5 mg); or sham in combination with ranibizumab (0.5 mg). The study met the primary endpoint demonstrating superior vision gains in participants who received OPT-302 (2.0 mg) in combination with ranibizumab on a monthly basis over 6 months. Opthea is also investigating OPT-302 in a Phase 2a clinical trial in patients with persistent, centre-involved DME. Further details on the Companys clinical trials can be found at: www.clinicaltrials.gov, Clinical trial identifiers: NCT02543229, NCT03345082 and NCT03397264. Inherent risks of Investment in Biotechnology Companies There are a number of inherent risks associated with the development of pharmaceutical products to a marketable stage. The lengthy clinical trial process is designed to assess the safety and efficacy of a drug prior to commercialisation and a significant proportion of drugs fail one or both of these criteria. Other risks include uncertainty of patent protection and proprietary rights, whether patent applications and issued patents will offer adequate protection to enable product development, the obtaining of necessary drug regulatory authority approvals and difficulties caused by the rapid advancements in technology. Companies such as Opthea are dependent on the success of their research and development projects and on the ability to attract funding to support these activities. Investment in research and development projects cannot be assessed on the same fundamentals as trading and manufacturing enterprises. Therefore investment in companies specialising in drug development must be regarded as highly speculative. Opthea strongly recommends that professional investment advice be sought prior to such investments. Forward-looking statements Certain statements in this ASX announcement may contain forward-looking statements regarding Company business and the therapeutic and commercial potential of its technologies and products in development. Any statement describing Company goals, expectations, intentions or beliefs is a forward-looking statement and should be considered an at-risk statement. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, particularly those risks or uncertainties inherent in the process of developing technology and in the process of discovering, developing and commercialising drugs that can be proven to be safe and effective for use as human therapeutics, and in the endeavour of building a business around such products and services. Opthea undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this ASX announcement. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The novel coronavirus in India may have originated from Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and South Asia regions, according to a study by the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. IMAGE: A vendor stands next to a mannequin wearing gloves and masks at Kalbadevi in Mumbai. Photograph: PTI Photo The observation is a part of the findings of the IISc team comprising Kumar Somasundaram, Mainak Mondal and Ankita Lawarde after analysing 294 Indian viral genomes. The objective of the study was to determine the genetic diversity among Indian SARS-CoV-2 viral isolates in comparison to the strains that are occurring worldwide. "The potential origin appears to be countries mainly from Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and South Asia regions, which strongly implies the spread of virus through the most travelled countries," the team noted. "Among different strains of the virus as identified by Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, Indian SARS-CoV-2 viruses are enriched with G (50 per cent) and I (6.7 per cent) clades in addition to 40 per cent samples with unknown genetic variants," it stated further. The team is also finding the functional impact of high occurrence non-synonymous mutations on the viral protein functions and use this information toward understanding immune escape mechanisms and also developing mutant specific therapies. The team noted that while the novel coronavirus increased to more than five million worldwide, it has just crossed over one lakh in India. The low infection rate in India, according to the team, could be due to long lockdown with effective social distancing, active identification of COVID-19 patients and quarantining them with proper treatment, presumed cross-immune protection and possibly variation in the viral strains that are introduced or prevalent in India. "Comparison of viral genome sequences from different regions/countries allows us to identify the genetic diversity among viruses which would help in ascertaining virulence, disease pathogenicity, as well as origin and spread of SARS-CoV-2, between countries," the team added. Haiti - Security : Fire at the GHESKIO center of the Bicentenaire Renan Hedouville, Citizen Protector deplores the fire that occurred on the evening of June 7, 2020 at the GHESKIO Center located at the Bicentenaire. A center which plays an important role in the fight against HIV/AIDS and which today is leading a front line fight with the health authorities against the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr. Jean William Pape, Founder of the GHESKIO Center and member of the Covid-19 scientific crisis management cell https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30384-haiti-politic-creation-of-a-scientific-cell-to-manage-the-covid-19-crisis.html speaking on a radio of the Capital, explained that the fire had started in the area of the generators, but that fortunately none victim is to be deplored. The firefighters were unable to quickly reach the scene of the incident due to insecurity in the area which requested support from the National Police of Haiti (PNH). At least one generator from the Center was destroyed by flames as well as the entire internal electrical circuit according to the first observations. As for the cause of the incident, Dr. Pape said "At the moment, the origin of the fire is not known. It's very difficult at the moment to determine a track [...] I don't want to speculate." For his part, Renan Hedouville takes the opportunity to ask the population to avoid all forms of stigmatization against people suffering from symptoms linked to the Covid-19 coronavirus and recommends to the authorities concerned to reinforce security measures at hospital level and medical centers in the country. PI/ HaitiLibre Shares of cloud services company Cloudera jumped as much as 22% Tuesday on a Bloomberg report that the company received takeover interest from private equity firms. The stock was briefly halted after the news was reported. Shares closed up 18.58%. A Cloudera spokesperson declined to comment on the report. The company last year merged with rival Hortonworks in a stock swap that valued the combined companies at $5.2 billion. Today, even as it has achieved cost synergies stemming from the merger, Cloudera's market capitalization is below $4 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise recently acquired the assets of another company in the category, MapR, though Cloudera CEO Rob Bearden said it was able to acquire worried MapR customers. "We've had a number of the MapR customers reaching out to us, and as they learn more about CDP [the Cloudera Data Platform], they're very aggressively embracing us," said Bearden, who was named chief executive in January. Cloudera shares fell about 13% on Thursday after the company issued full-year revenue guidance of $825 million to $845 million, which fell short of the $858.4 million Refinitiv consensus. --Ari Levy contributed to this report. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/08/2020 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. : The Other Way star Deavan Clegg says Season 2 of the TLC series will feature some of the lowest moments she's ever had with her husband Jihoon Lee Deavan, a 23-year-old from Salt Lake City, UT, and Jihoon, a 29-year-old from South Korea, first appeared on Season 1 of : The Other Way after meeting on a dating app, and they'll be starring on Season 2 premiering Monday, June 8 at 9PM ET/PT on TLC."It's very exciting. I'm so excited to continue my journey and share my journey. I'm really, really excited that people get to see me and Jihoon and more of that aspect, because I think on Season 1 people didn't get to see too much of us, Deavan told Access in a recent interview."But this time, everyone will get to see that and this beautiful journey. You guys are going to see definitely some of our lowest points and some of our highest points, so it's going to be worth the watch."Deavan -- who is mom to a three-year-old girl named Drascilla from a previous relationship -- was shown welcoming a son , Taeyang, with Jihoon and then marrying him on : The Other Way's debut season.Deavan was excited about being a family, but she learned Jihoon had lost his job, had zero savings, was in credit-card debt, and had a criminal record for illegally buying and selling used phones.Taeyang was born in April 2019, and then Deavan announced in October she had suffered a pregnancy miscarriage After a brief stay in the United States because living in the home of Jihoon's parents was too cramped for her family, Deavan ultimately returned to South Korea about 10 days after : The Other Way's Tell-All special was filmed.(The Tell-All special aired in October)."Jihoon can realistically move to America at anytime. But we decided to move to Korea so I could be a stay at home mom and raise the children. This wasn't an option in America until Jihoon could learn English," Deavan wrote on Instagram in October.Deavan said it's been "absolutely amazing" to receive positive feedback from supportive and encouraging fans online."I never thought that would come out on this show," she acknowledged.Deavan brought Taeyang to South Korea when he was only seven weeks old. She assured Access that Jihoon "loves [being a father].""It's definitely a life-changing thing for him and I think he's very happy with it, even though it was a surprise to both of us. But he absolutely loves both kids," Deavan said.But Deavan said being a mother of two kids is "way harder" than she ever could have anticipated."My kids are so different. They like to eat different things and so I'm always cooking two different meals," Deavan shared."I never thought a baby and a three-year-old could fight with each other, so it's really cute to see them arguing. But it's definitely harder. I do not get alone time... I either have one on my hip or one at my feet.""Drascilla is a great big sister," Devan continued. "She always helps mommy. She's not jealous at all... Her brother on the other hand is very jealous and he does not like sharing mommy... It's very cute."Despite the ups and downs in her relationship with Jihoon, Deavan called starring on the with him "a great experience" that was "life-changing."According to TLC, Season 2 of : The Other Way will show Deavan, her mother, and Deavan's two children moving to South Korea once and for all so that Deavan and Jihoon can finally start their life together."Upon arrival however, it is very evident that Jihoon and Deavan have several cultural obstacles that they need to overcome, in addition to their language barrier," TLC teased.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! As Democrats and civil rights groups sue to expand mail-in voting during the pandemic, a recent decision by the Texas Supreme Court has left it up to voters to decide for themselves whether they qualify for vote-by-mail. In its decision in late May, the highest civil court in the state ruled that lack of immunity to COVID-19 alone does not constitute a disability that would allow those under 65 years old to vote by mail rather than at the polls, under the Texas election codes. But it added which legal experts say is crucial that a voter can take the possibility of being infected into consideration along with his or her health and health history to determine whether he or she needs to vote by mail under the disability provisions in the law. I think really the story here is that its going to be up to individual voters to decide whether they fit this definition or not, said Joseph Fishkin, a University of Texas professor who studies election law and has closely followed the cases. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox So while the court battle continues with Democrats on one side, and on the other side Republican state leaders who argue that an expansion of mail-in voting would encourage more voter fraud, it will be up to elections officials across the state to set the tone for mail-in voting. Early voting in congressional and statewide runoffs begins June 29. Election Day is July 14. The law allows those with a sickness or physical condition that prevents the voter from appearing at the polling place to use mail-in ballots, in addition to people over 65, people traveling outside the county during the election and people confined to jail. In the 2018 elections, fewer than 7 percent of Texans voted by mail. Texas counties have taken different approaches to explaining the decision to voters. Harris County has encouraged mail-in voting whenever possible. The county in April put $12 million toward sending mail ballots to any voter who requests one for the July or November elections. It also took the unusual step of sending a mail ballot applications to every voter age 65 and up. Assistant County Attorney Douglas Ray has said Harris is relying on the Supreme Court decision to bolster its recommendation that voters request a ballot if they believe they are eligible. If its checked disabled, well just send the ballot, Ray said. We dont question that. We dont have the authority or ability to investigate that. In Bexar County, the commissioners court last month passed a resolution supporting access to mail-in ballots for voters afraid of contracting COVID-19 at polling place, but the county has not made any recommendations to voters since. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said Monday that such a public notice is on the way. The Bexar commissioners last week directed the county attorney to help craft language for voter guidance, citing the Texas Supreme Court decision, and requesting for the election administrator, Jacque Callanen, to consider publishing it. Callanen did not respond to a request for comment. Weve asked her to make it clear to voters that its up to them to determine whether they have a health condition or a physical condition that qualifies them to vote by mail, Wolff said. Its their decision, not the states decision. Commissioners last month also approved setting aside about $2.1 million in federal coronavirus stimulus package money for election health and safety improvements at polling sites, such as personal protective equipment for election workers and hand sanitizer. Wolff said the county is likely set for the July election but could potentially use some of that money to cover increased costs associated with more mail-in voting in November. The Texas Democratic Party filed two lawsuits, one in federal court and one in state court, and the state Supreme Court decision will likely be the final word in the state case. The federal case is still in front of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Last week, a decision by a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court, known as one of the most conservative in the nation, foreshadowed a likely loss for Democrats at the federal level. The panel stayed a temporary injunction by a federal judge that had allowed all Texans at risk of contracting the new coronavirus to vote by mail instead of in-person. Similar decisions are likely to follow, judging by the courts the case has yet to face, legal experts and attorneys said. Another panel of the Fifth Circuit still has to hear the appeal and make a ruling. The Texas Democratic Party, which brought the suit, will likely then take the case to the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court. This preliminary ruling from the panel could be the end of it for the July primary, or if theres a final Fifth Circuit opinion, its likely to sound similar, Fishkin said. Any additional levels of review, thats not that likely to happen before the July primary. The November general, expected to draw record turnout, is when the effects of the suits will be most consequential. In a 47-page order, Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, wrote that it is the role of state lawmakers, not federal judges, to decide how to hold elections and who can vote by mail. Smith bashed San Antonio District Court Judge Fred Biery for writing an order that will be remembered more for audacity than legal reasoning. The spread of the virus has not given unelected federal jud[ges] a roving commission to rewrite state election codes, Smith wrote. Smith took issue with Biery siding with the Democratic Party in arguing that the states law only allowing voters age 65 and up to vote by mail without an excuse was discriminatory and unconstitutional, saying the Legislature had asserted interests in giving older citizens special protection and in guarding against election fraud. (The risk of voter fraud is also one the Texas Attorney General has made against the expansion of mail-in voting, though academic studies have found little evidence of that.) If anything, the Viruss existence proves the reasonableness of Texass approach, given that older persons have a greater risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from it, Smith wrote. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Harris County sent mail ballots to voters ages 65 and up. The county sent out mail ballot applications to that population. LOS ANGELES June 8, 2020 Lisa Kennedy August 2020 Italy New York $1 trillion Los Angeles $150 million Helen Branswell 18 May 2020 19 May 2020 14 May 2020 5 May 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The development of a vaccine to counteract the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 is still in preliminary stages, but already there's hope. Early data from drug maker Moderna suggests their newest candidate vaccine prompts an immune response by stimulating the body to produce neutralizing antibodies.(1) In the past, this type of antibody was shown to protect against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), another coronavirus similar to the virus causing COVID-19.(2) "Currently, there is a lot of pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to accelerate vaccines and treatments that will not only improve hospital capacity but save lives and prevent the virus altogether," says Dr., the chief health economist of Innopiphany. "We're seeing history being made with the development of innovative solutions for COVID-19 virus -these will have wide-reaching and long-term impact, changing how drugs and vaccines are developed."The good news is that we're seeing an unprecedented acceleration of treatments and vaccines exactly when we most need it. Generally, vaccine development takes an average of five years, but current efforts could produce a historical first compressing this time to 12-18 months.(6) This accelerated pace is thanks to the persistent efforts of people working in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medicine.It is anticipated that an effective vaccine could arrive on the market as early as September 2020.(3) For drug makers, it's a race against timecurrent estimates place the number of deaths related to COVID-19 at more than 100,000.(4) By early, that number could reach as high as 135,000.(8) While some states are experiencing declines in COVID-19 cases, other areas that have already been hard hit by the pandemic could expect to see considerable increases in diagnoses in the coming months.(4) Many health experts anticipate a "Round 2" of the pandemic later this year that could be even worse than the initial outbreak."COVID-19 has been devastating in hot spots likeand, and this could be much more infectious than we think," Dr. Kennedy says. "Often compared to flu, we are rapidly seeing that COVID-19 is like a year's worth of flu cases in one week that continues every week."Part of preparing for this possible resurgence in cases is the development of a vaccinehowever, this process takes time. Vaccine development differs slightly from company to company, but all drug makers must follow the same regulatory process set forth by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Preclinical research lays the groundwork for candidate vaccines, and any promising compounds may be tested using animal models. If the candidate vaccine passes this phase, the company developing the product moves on to clinical trials, which are completed over five distinct phases.(7)A Phase 1 study using Moderna's candidate vaccine has already been completed, with eight patients developing neutralizing antibodies at 100 micrograms of vaccine or less. Because of these results, the FDA has already authorized a Phase 2 clinical trial for the same product.(1)Other pharmaceutical giants, like Pfizer, Sanofi, and GlaxoSmithKline, are also collaborating with biotechnology companies in the hunt for a vaccine. However, these products may not be widely available until 2021.(3)Drug makers must also determine the standard effective dose at which a new vaccine will work without causing any harm to the person receiving it. This is especially important for vulnerable patient populations, such as senior citizens, since their immune systems may not respond well to vaccination.Another consideration to note with the development of a COVID-19 vaccine is the impact it will make on society beyond the aspect of healthcare. Dr. Kennedy notes that this economic impact on GDP in Q2 ranges from -20-40%, with some indicating a growth of around 10% in Q3 and Q4 of 2020. The problem, according to Dr. Kennedy, is that there really won't be a clear view of the economic damage this has had until around July with the effects of stimulus wearing off and greater opening of the economy."These estimates may not account for knock effects on consumer spending and more sustained impacts on employment. Some estimate more thanin economic impact per month from the virus," Dr. Kennedy says.Taking all of this into account, she says the societal value of a viable vaccine in opening the economy "is worth trillions". Efforts to price this should consider this value while equally balancing this with appropriate patient access. And while there is so much still unknown about the upcoming COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Kennedy says one thing is for certain: "What we can say is that the value of a vaccine is almost incalculable."About Innopiphany: Headquartered in, Innopiphany is a Life Sciences consulting firm which specializes in Market Strategy, Forecasting, Market Access, Health Economics Outcomes Research (HEOR), and Healthcare Policy. All services are supported by advanced analytics, including data mining, data blending, natural language processing, predictive analytics, and data visualizations. The company has generatedin new healthcare business in 30 countries for its clients. Innopiphany has achieved 100 percent repeat business from its clients through its rapid, on-time project delivery. For more information, visit http://www.innopiphany.com.1. @HelenBranswell,, et al. "Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine Generates Immune Response, Early Data Show." STAT,, statnews.com/2020/05/18/early-data-show-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-generates-immune-response/. 2. "COVID-19, MERS & SARS." National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/covid-19. 3. "5 Biotech Stocks in Focus as Race for Coronavirus Vaccine Heats Up." Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo!,, finance.yahoo.com/news/5-biotech-stocks-focus-race-120312524.html. 4. "COVID-19 Forecasts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,, cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/forecasting-us.html. 5. Gates, Bill. "What You Need to Know about the COVID-19 Vaccine." Gatesnotes.com, gatesnotes.com/Health/What-you-need-to-know-about-the-COVID-19-vaccine. 6. "National Comprehensive Cancer Network." Phases of Clinical Trials, nccn.org/patients/resources/clinical_trials/phases.aspx. 7. Pattidomm. "Projection Estimates 135,000 US Deaths by August; Testing Expanded for Fujifilm Flu Drug." CNBC, CNBC,, cnbc.com/2020/05/04/coronavirus-latest-updates.html. 8. "Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Create Distrust of Vaccinations." PNHP, pnhp.org/news/pharmaceutical-manufacturers-create-distrust-of-vaccinations/.###SOURCE Innopiphany India Inc. will use entire or most of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) kitty for the year on combating coronavirus pandemic, according to a research report by rating agency CRISIL. Indian corporates have already used their CSR funds to donate to the PM CARES Fund, other relief funds, distribution of food, masks, personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers, or relief material to the needy, CRISIL said in its CSR Yearbook. The agency said that as companies are set to empty their CSR funds to support fight against COVID-19 pandemic, there is little or almost no scope for the other causes the companies have been supporting. ALSO READ: PM CARES now eligible to receive contribution under CSR; govt amends Act Maya Vengurlekar, chief operating officer at CRISIL Foundation says, "Interestingly, the 130 companies analysed by CRISIL accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the total CSR spend by all listed companies in fiscal 2019. Assuming other companies would have followed a similar path, India Inc has already allocated over 80 per cent of the annual CSR budget to address the pandemic. This could impact spending on other areas this fiscal." Since March 15, 2020, 84 companies out of the 113 companies studied by CRISIL, contributed about Rs 7,537 crore that can be classified as CSR spend. Of this, 57 per cent was contributed to the PM CARES Fund and the balance spent on other relief funds, food or ration donation, masks, sanitisers and PPE kits - where a monetary value was attached. The PM-CARES Fund has been set up to provide relief to those affected by any kind of emergency or distress situation. ALSO READ: Maharashtra govt opens PM-CARES like fund for CSR donations According to the agency, the remaining 29 companies either contributed to other funds (Rs 373 crore), and/or facilitated voluntary employee donations (Rs 84 crore) that cannot be classified as CSR spend, or donated solely in kind (food and masks), for which assigning a monetary value was difficult. Region-wise, 36 companies in Maharashtra, worst COVID-19 affected state, account for 63 per cent of the total spent. Meanwhile, private sector companies, public sector undertakings and foreign companies have contributed proportionately to their share in the sample, it added. Earlier in March, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that funds spent by the corporates to fight coronavirus will qualify as CSR activity. Under the Companies Act, 2013, certain classes of profitable companies are required to spend 2 per cent of its average net profit of the preceding three years on CSR. ALSO READ: Govt to bring ordinance to amend companies law; better ease of doing business The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 design and color options surfaced in a new poster. If you take a look at the image above, youll see the image in question. As you can see, there are four different variants of the companys fitness tracker here. The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 will arrive in at least four color options All of them include a black-colored tracker, with a silicone band in a different color. You can see dark green, red, yellow, and black variants here. Every single option, except the dark green one, is combined with a black color. The dark green band is covered in that color completely, it seems. Advertisement You can also see that the display is powered on here. This image proves that the Mi Band 5 will have a color display, just like its predecessor. It also seems to be an OLED panel, as expected. This poster also shows off some of the functionality that the Mi Band 5 will bring to the table. You can see the period tracking functionality, and also the wallet functionality. Advertisement An NFC variant of this fitness tracker will arrive to China, though were hoping it will land in other markets as well. The Mi Band 4 with NFC support landed in Russia quite recently, it was not available outside of China from the get-go. The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 will come with SpO2 tracking, PAI, and Alexa integration. All of those are completely new functions for the companys fitness tracker, as the Mi Band 4 did not offer them. The SpO2 tracking will surely come in handy for a number of people. PAI was included in some Amazfit products, and its finally making its way to the Mi Band series. Advertisement Many of you probably have an Alexa device laying around. Well, thanks to Alexa integration, you will finally be able to control such devices using the Mi Band 5. The device will also ship with a magnetic charger Thats not all, though. It seems like the Mi Band 5 will arrive with a completely new charger. A recent leak suggested that the charger will be similar to the one from the Mi Band 4, but it wont. If you take a look at the GIF provided below, youll see a new magnetic charger that will come with the Mi Band 5. This is a much better choice than the previous one, which required you to take out the Mi Band capsule from the band, and then slide it into the charger. Advertisement The Xiaomi Mi Band fitness trackers are amongst the most popular fitness trackers out there. One of the main reasons for that is their price. These trackers also offer great battery life. The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 will probably be just as affordable as its predecessors. The device will launch on June 11 in China, while the global launch will follow soon after. Bryces tastes run local as well, saying that any visit to Tulsa demands a stop by Brownies for a cheeseburger and a slice of coconut cream pie. But hes made his name beyond Oklahoma as the author of six books on energy, and his latest A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations was released earlier this year. Hes also published more than 1,000 articles, and as a public speaker, Bryce has delivered lectures and keynote speeches numbering close to 300 in the past decade. But he came to a conclusion when it came to his storytelling about electricity: We live in a video age. I knew that I could write another book, Bryce said. But if I wanted my reporting to have a broader reach, and to make the story about electricity more human, more relatable, I needed to make a film. He found a filmmaking partner in Tyson Culver, who directed Juice, and who said he was hooked by the idea: How could so many people live that way in the 21st century? What did their lives look like? Would they be willing to talk to us? Dillon Passage wrote that he hadn't abandoned his husband Joe Exotic in an Instagram post on Monday. The Tiger King fixture pushed back on a letter from Joe claiming he hadn't heard from his husband and had only heard from others about his partying while he has been rotting in jail. Dillon claimed that his Instagram gave a misleading portrait of his life, because his fans couldn't see him 'at home, missing my husband and my friend.' Standing by his man: Dillon Passage claimed that he was still committed to his husband Joe Exotic, 57, in an Instagram post from Monday 'My heart is breaking after reading Joe's letter,' Dillon began his post. 'He is living in hell right now and I'm outraged by the way he is being treated. I can't even begin to imagine how that is breaking his spirit. I love Joe and I'm standing by him. 'The photos that I post on here are a highlight reel of my life' he continued. 'What you don't see are the hours that I'm alone at home, missing my husband and my friend.' Dillon claimed he had been steadily writing to Joe and suggested the prison might have been holding back their correspondence. Letter delay? Dillon claimed he had been steadily writing to Joe and suggested the prison might have been holding back their correspondence 'I've been writing letters and it is a shame to hear that he isn't receiving them I know they limit the amount he can read in a week and I only hope they eventually get to him.' He concluded the post, which showed him playing with an adorable puppy, with a loving message for his husband. 'Joe, I hope that this reaches you too. Know that I love you and I'm fighting for you everyday .' Appeal: Tiger King's Joe Exotic claimed he'll 'be dead in 2-3 months' in an impassioned letter obtained by TMZ on Monday, as he said he is not receiving medical treatment in prison Claim: Asking for a 'miracle' from President Donald Trump, he wrote that while he needs blood infusions 'every four weeks' for his CVID condition he has 'not had one since end of January' Joe previously claimed in a letter that he would be dead in two to three months if he didn't get help from President Donald Trump. The Tiger King star, 57, also said his 'soul is dead' as he explained that he has been unable to remain hopeful while incarcerated '24/7' without access to a phone, email, or commissary, according to the letter obtained by TMZ on Monday. Asking for a 'miracle' from the President by being released, he wrote that although he requires blood infusions 'every four weeks' for common variable immune deficiency (CVID) he has 'not had one since end of January.' In his letter to 'supporters, fans, loves ones', he said: 'I'm loosing weight, sores wont heal, I'll be dead in 2-3 months, it's like I have been sent to death row, they stopped all of my medication expect one, this place is hell on earth [sic].' Joe went on to ask those who have seen his husband Dillon Passage enjoying himself to not send pictures of what he is doing, as he hadn't received a letter or a phone call from him since being imprisoned. He wrote: 'I don't even know if I'm married anymore, seems everyone is so busy making money and being famous. 'I don't get even a letter from Dillon, everyone sends pictures of him having fun and all but as a person screaming for help I am asking you to stop.' Cut off: Joe asked those who had seen Dillon enjoying himself to not send pictures of what he was doing, as he hadn't received a letter or a phone call from him since being imprisoned Feeling forgotten: 'I don't get even a letter from Dillon, everyone sends pictures of him having fun and all but as a person screaming for help I am asking you to stop,' wrote Joe Joe compared his incarceration to being on death row, and said he felt those who had worked with him had taken advantage before stabbing him in the back. In another part of his letter he made some questionable comments on race, as he claimed he would be treated better if he was not a white man. Maintaining his innocence, Joe concluded the letter by pleading to famous names like Cardi B and Kim Kardashian to help him get out of prison. On Thursday, Tiger King star Joe Exotic was removed from precautionary coronavirus isolation and transferred to a prison medical center. The 57-year-old former zookeeper then received care at the Federal Bureau of Prisons-operated Federal Medical Center Forth Worth in Texas, according to inmate records obtained by the New York Post. According to Joe's fourth husband Dillon Passage, 24, Exotic was being held in isolation at the Grady County Jail in Chickasha, Oklahoma due to his previous jail having had COVID-19 cases. 'My soul is dead': Joe also said he has been unable to remain hopeful while incarcerated '24/7' without access to a phone, email, or commissary Joe, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is currently serving a 22 year jail sentence after being convicted of two counts of murder-for-hire. He was found guilty of plotting to kill his rival - animal rights activist Carole Baskin, 58. The 'Tiger King' was convinced she wanted to destroy his zoo, Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma. Joe was also found guilty of 17 counts of animal abuse. Convicted of arson attack that killed three members of Dawabsheh family, Amiram Ben-Uliel will be sentenced next month. The lawyer for relatives of a murdered Palestinian family who were firebombed inside their house by a Jewish settler has requested the maximum sentencing, as the years-long case nears its end. Saad and Riham Dawabsheh, along with their 18-month old son Ali, died in the arson attack carried out by Amiram Ben-Uliel while they slept in their home in the occupied West Bank village of Duma in July 2015. The familys sole survivor in the attack was Ahmed Dawabsheh, who was four years old at the time and suffered second- and third-degree burns on more than 60 percent of his body. We demand three life sentences, in addition to an extra 40 years in prison for the settler, as well as a financial compensation of 260,000 shekels ($75,400) for each of the three victims, family lawyer Omar Khamayseh told Al Jazeera on Tuesday after a court session in which family members gave their last testimony in the case. Ben-Uliel was convicted last month of three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of arson and conspiracy to commit a racially motivated crime. According to Israeli prosecutors, Ben-Uliel chose the Dawabsheh family home on the assumption it was inhabited, and threw a Molotov cocktail in one of the windows. Prior to that, he had spray-painted Revenge and Long Live King Messiah on the walls of the house. His sentencing, Khamayseh said, will take place on July 12 at 6am (03:00 GMT) at the Lod (Lydda) District Court. Tuesdays court session was attended by Nasr Dawabsheh, Saads brother and Ahmeds uncle. Weve suffered so much in the last five years with the court proceedings, Nasr Dawabsheh told Al Jazeera. We had to apply for permits to be present at the court, which has had some 70 sessions. It was our resolve and determination that got the case to reach sentencing the criminal. Nasr Dawabsheh said the sentencing should act a deterrent for other settlers to think twice before attacking Palestinians, but added: On a personal level, the sentencing will not mean much to us, the Dawabsheh family. It will not bring back Saad, or Riham or Ali. But we also dont want another Dawabsheh case, and we dont want another Palestinian child to go through the trauma that Ahmed is still suffering from. Ahmed Dawabsheh, who is now 10 years old, did not attend Tuesdays court session. He refused to come, his uncle said. He does not want to see any settlers. He told me: Even if I do attend, will you guarantee that I will stop having nightmares about him? As long as there are settlers around, I will never feel safe. According to Israeli rights organisation Yesh Din, there is a very low percentage of indictments that result from ideological crimes committed by Israeli citizens and settlers against Palestinians or their property in the West Bank. The organisation monitored 1,293 cases between 2005 and 2019 in the West Bank and found that a sweeping majority of these cases 1,144, or 91 percent were closed without any indictments. Only 8 percent of these cases (100) resulted in indictments, and the remaining eight were lost by the Israeli police and never investigated. The failure to investigate crimes against Palestinians and the increase in the number of offenses committed indicate that the State of Israel fails to protect Palestinians and their property from harm, as it is required to do under international law, and that its attempts to investigate crimes committed in areas under its jurisdiction are futile, Yesh Din said. HIGHLAND PARK, IL The following information comes from the Highland Park and Highwood police departments and public records as a record of incidents reported to the police and of those arrested by police. Criminal charges represent accusations by the state that are often dropped or reduced. Updated information may be available from the Lake County Clerk of the Circuit Court. Everyone arrested is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt. INCIDENTS THEFTS Someone stole a piece of construction equipment valued at $6,300 prior to 4:30 p.m. on May 26. from a work site in the first block of Lakewood Place. Someone stole a bicycle from the 2000 block of St. John's Avenue between June 1 and the afternoon of June 3. SHOPLIFTING Someone stole $60 worth of baked goods from Honey's Hot Chick, 1791 St. Johns Ave., prior to 10:30 a.m. on May 29. Around 7 p.m. on June 7, two unidentified shoplifters stole various items from the CVS Pharmacy, 2000 Skokie Valley Road. BURGLARIES Thieves stole three leaf blowers, worth more than $700 combined, from two work trucks and a trailer in the 100 block of Maple Avenue prior to 9:45 a.m. on May 29. Someone stole multiple pieces of construction equipment from a work truck in the 1700 block of Lake Cook Road on the night of May 28 or morning of May 29. COMMERCIAL BURGLARY Two unidentified thieves cut the locks to multiple self-storage lockers at Simply Self Storage, 1500 Old Deerfield Road, during the night of May 26 or morning of May 27. It was not known what was stolen at the time of the report. ATTEMPTED COMMERCIAL BURGLARY Someone tried to break into the medical cannabis dispensary Elevele, 1460 Old Skokie Valley Road, around 2:30 a.m. on June 2. The front door was damaged but there was no sign anyone managed to make it inside. AGGRAVATED VEHICULAR HIJACKING At 7:40 p.m. on June 5, a person sitting alone in the back seat of a car parked at the Mobil gas station at 2580 Skokie Valley Road reported a man wearing a white shirt and jeans and armed with a handgun walked up to the car. The passenger got out of the car, police reported, and the gunman got in and drove the car away. Police said neither the car nor the thief had been found as of Monday. Story continues A carjacker stole a car parked at the Mobil gas station at the southwest corner of Route 41 and Half Day Road at 7:40 p.m. on June 6, police reported. (Street View) ARRESTS/CITATIONS Gustavo Mendoza, 36, of the 4000 block of Kedvale Avenue, Chicago, was arrested around 10 p.m. on May 30 and and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of a controlled substance following a traffic stop at the intersection of Route 41 and Deerpath Road. Officers called to a complaint about a motorist also issued Mendoza citations for operating an uninsured motor vehicle, failure to signal when required, illegal transportation of an open container of alcohol, failure to signal when required and speeding. Al Preus, 50, of the 2000 block of St. Johns Avenue, Highland Park, was arrested around 10 p.m. on May 31 and charged with felony criminal damage to property after officers dispatched to a report of a smashed window on a building in the 1800 block of Green Bay Road determined he was responsible. Jorge Velasquez, 57, of the 800 block of Corona Court, Highland Park, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol following a traffic stop at the intersection of Winthrop Road and Heather Lane. He was also issued a citation for improper lane usage. Earlier: Drunken Driver With Warrant And No License Crashes In HP; Shoplifters Target Health and Beauty Items; Highland Park Woman Charged with Violating Court Order: Highland Park Police Blotter, May 18 to May 24 Stay Patched In! This article originally appeared on the Highland Park Patch Matthew Rose (L) and Michael Carr, of Santa Cruz County hold posters of slain Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, as they join others outside the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner's Office to pay their respects in Santa Cruz, Calif., on June 7, 2020. (Martha Mendoza/AP Photo) FBI Looks for Link Between 2 Ambush Killings of Officers SANTA CRUZ, Calif.The FBI and local investigators are trying to determine a possible link between the ambush-style killing of a Northern California sheriffs deputy at night on June 6 and that of a federal officer who was fatally shot outside the U.S. courthouse in Oakland more than a week ago. The FBI office in San Francisco confirmed Sunday its investigators were working with the Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Department to determine a possible motive and links to other crimes committed in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the attack that killed a Federal Protective Service officer and critically wounded another officer on May 29. Both involved shooters in a van. An active-duty U.S. Air Force sergeant has been arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting Santa Cruz Sheriffs Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, 38, and wounding two other officers Saturday. Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller. (Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Office via AP) Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart said Gutzwiller was a beloved 14-year veteran of the force. Theres a hole in all of our hearts now. he said at a vigil Sunday that drew more than a thousand mourners. Jeff Dunworth and Erin Johnson of Santa Cruz joins more than a thousand people gather outside the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroners Office to pay their respects to fallen sheriff officer in Santa Cruz, Calif., on June 7, 2020. (Martha Mendoza/AP Photo) On Saturday, deputies responded to a 911 call around 1:30 p.m. about a suspicious van in Ben Lomond, an unincorporated area near Santa Cruz. The caller said there were guns and bomb-making devices inside, Hart said. When deputies arrived, the van pulled away and the deputies followed. The van went down a driveway at a home, and the deputies were ambushed by gunfire and explosives after getting out of their vehicle. Gutzwiller was wounded and later died at a hospital. Another deputy was wounded by gunfire or shrapnel and struck by a vehicle as the suspect fled. A third officer from the California Highway Patrol was shot in his hand, Hart said. The suspect, 32-year-old Steven Carrillo, attempted a carjacking and was shot during his arrest, Hart said. He was being treated at the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. The injured deputy was listed in stable condition on Sunday. Carrillo will be charged with first-degree murder, Hart said. Carrillo had arrived at Travis Air Force Base, 50 miles northeast of San Francisco, in June 2018 and was a member of the 60th Security Forces Squadron, a base spokesman said. 32-year-old suspect Steven Carrillo, on June 7, 2020. (Santa Cruz Sheriffs Office via AP) Carrillos wife, Monika Leigh Scott Carrillo, who was also in the Air Force, was found dead in an off-base hotel in May 2018 while she was stationed in South Carolina. She was 30. Her death was investigated by the Sumter County Sheriffs Office, in coordination with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and ruled a suicide, according to the Air Force. The FBI has been trying to identify a suspect and motive in the drive-by shooting outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building that killed Dave Patrick Underwood, 53, and critically injured a fellow officer. They had been monitoring a nearby protest over the death of George Floyd. Surveillance cameras captured a white Ford van believed to be driven by the shooter or shooters. The FBI said the vehicle did not appear to have license plates. Gov. Gavin Newsom extended condolences to Gutzwillers family and ordered flags at the Capitol to be flown at half-staff in honor of the slain deputy. He will be remembered as a hero who devoted his life to protecting the community and as a loving husband and father, Newsom said in a statement. The shooting shocked Ben Lomond, a town of about 6,000 people tucked up in the Santa Cruz mountains. Gutzwiller was married with a young son and a second on the way. At the vigil, Hart stood with Gutzwillers widow and son as he praised the sergeants community approach to policing. He was kind, patient, caring, empathetic. He can take enforcement action when he needed to, but he would rather communicate his way through any problem that was in front of him, Hart said. Santa Cruz Sheriff Jim Hart stands next to Harts wife and child and a photo of fallen Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, as more than a thousand people gather outside the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroners Office to pay their respects in Santa Cruz, Calif., on June 7, 2020. (Martha Mendoza/AP Photo) Coworkers said Gutzwiller was a gentle man who genuinely cared about the community he was raised in and lived in. Hes just everything you want the police to be, said Amy Christey, a former lieutenant with the sheriffs office. By Martha Mendoza It goes without saying that globalisation and social media have changed the world as we known it. The world has become a marketplace and every day we are bombarded with advertisements and promotions. It seems as if everything revolves around making the next buck. We have more choices and more options than any other time in human history. If there is something we want, chances are some company, somewhere in the world can provide it for us. More than that, if a companys product does not completely satisfy our needs, we wont hesitate to find an alternative. In this consumerist culture, getting what we want, when we want it and how we want it is no longer a hope, but an expectation. An expectation that breeds selfishness and entitlement. Social media is no help either. Algorithms are designed that you only see the content youre interested in. Your opinion, your interests are elevated and everything else is but an echo chamber. Slowly but surely, a world bounded only by your interests is formed and we start to believe that the rest of the world should revolve around our happiness and satisfaction too. A counterfeit love I worry that consumerism, self-centeredness, and entitlement has degraded our relationships, and contaminated the way we view love itself. Our view of love has become transactional. If we like a person, if a person conjures up that emotion of love within us, we respond with loving actions. If someone doesnt evoke this feeling, we simply look for other alternatives. Love has been reduced to a response, a reaction to a feeling. More relationships have failed because too many view love selfishly. []. Love isnt self-serving. Nor is it an emotion. The choice to act and respond through love will, at times, go directly against what youre feeling (Restored Prodigal). To love without liking I dont know about you, but for a long time the commandment love your enemies (Matthew chapter 5, verse 44) frustrated and discouraged me. I couldnt work out how I was supposed to love my enemy if I didnt like them. I thought that it wasnt really love if the characteristic emotional wasnt felt with it. But surely the truest form of love is when we choose to show it, even when we dont feel or desire it? There are things that people may do that are evil, sinful, or even just annoying. But when these act as a barrier to loving people, we prevent the incredible transformation that can occur. In every human heart, I think there is a longing to be fully known and fully loved. A desire to know that, despite what has been done in the past, or will be done in the future, that there is something in that person that is cherished and deserving of love. The Greek word for love in Matthew chapter 5, verse 44 is defined as a discriminating affection that involves choice and selection. So, when we see the sin, the evil, the annoyance and choose to act as if we love them anyway, we really are loving our neighbour. Arguable, we are showing love in its most beautiful form. Love in this second sense isnt merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by will and deliberately strengthen by habit (Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis). Choosing an unreactive love I think Kingdom love is more than just feelings. It is rooted in choice and is deeper and far more encompassing than the reactive love we are sold in this world. To love your neighbour is to see your neighbour. To see somebody, really to see somebody, you have to love somebody (The Remarkable Ordinary, Frederick Buechner). It is the type of love that unburdens shame and pretence. When people no longer feel that they have to perform to receive our love, they are truly free to find themselves, to discover all He has made them to be. It cultivates unity, breeds commitment, and has the potential to bring heaven that much closer to earth. And it will change us too: The worldy man treats certain people kindly because he likes them: the Christian, trying to treat everyone kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning (Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis). Lets show love to others inspite of their actions towards us and, most importantly, inspite of our feelings towards them unconditionally in the truest sense. Lets love, even when we dont like and lets love by choice, not by response. A historical photograph of the Ku Klux Klan riding down the streets of Auckland has been used to caution New Zealanders against being too judgmental about racism they perceive in America. That image and others have been circulated online to remind New Zealanders that their country was not always as 'woke' as they like to think. 'Don't get on too high a horse New Zealand, we have work to do,' the post is captioned. It comes amid protests by the Black Lives Matter movement in response to last month's death of George Floyd, an African American, soon after an officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes while making an arrest. A group of students on horseback dressed as the KKK are seen riding down an Auckland street in 1923 as part of the University of Auckland's Capping Parade. The first image in the montage is of a group of students on horseback dressed in the white robes and hoods of the KKK. The students rode down an Auckland street in 1923 as part of the University of Auckland's Capping Parade. Months later, four shops in nearby Mt Eden were burnt down, with the Klan taking responsibility. In another parade in the town of Gisborne, one person is seen strolling down the street dressed as a member of the Klan during the 1950s. The man was carrying a noose, and had the letters K.K.K. across his gown. Students from the Auckland University feature again in a photo taken in the late 1970s showing some dressed up in blackface, mocking a Maori tribe. The university's engineering students had been dressing up in grass skirts, drawing penises on themselves and mimicking the Maori people for years in what many found offensive. The online meme features the moment a Maori activist, Hilda Halkyard, confronts the students who were in the midst of performing an offensive parody of the haka. The last photo in the meme shows members from the Hawera Mt View Lions Club riding on a float in a parade while wearing blackface during November, 2018 The last photo in the montage showed members of the Hawera Mt View Lions Club in black face while riding on a parade float in November, 2018. Six people including one child were seen with face paint on and were even awarded second place in the parade, and gifted $600 by the mayor. At the time the club's chair defended the decision and denied any accusations of racism. 'For goodness sake, we're a Lions club, we put a float in every year, we didn't have a theme this year, so we decided to go black and white, and they had face paint because they were painting kids faces and the rest of it, so we painted our faces,' Jo Babington told Stuff. 'What's wrong with that? Some small-minded, bigoted person has called us racist, threatened to bash us up; it's not worth replying to.' The club later issued an apology after facing backlash online. The post comes amid a global Black Lives Matter movement after the death of unarmed African American, George Floyd (pictured: protestors in Sydney) 'It was never our intention to offend anyone. We got this wrong. We were naive. We are really disappointed in ourselves. We are a voluntary organisation that is involved in many projects that help people make our community better,' the club said. Several other incidents of New Zealanders wearing blackface have surfaced in recent years. The former Bachelor star Art Green, attended a Bollywood themed party in blackface in 2015. A bar in Hamilton was condemned after hosting a jungle university party where some women dressed as Aboriginals. In 2013, an Auckland Burgerfuel staff member painted his face black while handing out fliers to promote the restaurant's new Jamaican burger. The head office later apologised for the PR stunt. The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted temporary bail of three months to Jagdish Mookhey, an accused in the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank fraud case. A sessions court had rejected 75-year-old Mookhey's bail plea last month after the prosecution argued that it had established a prima facie case against him and his co-accused. Mookhey then moved the HC seeking bail on health grounds. His lawyer, Yusuf Iqbal Yusuf, told the HC the accused needs to undergo an "epigastric hernia surgery" and submitted his medical reports following which Justice Bharati Dangre granted bail to Mookhey for three months. "He has various medical complications, including the said surgery, and a spinal refiguration. The court granted him temporary medical bail for three months after which he will need to surrender again," advocate Yusuf said. "The Mulund police will keep a watch on him for the period that he stays out," he said. Mookhey, a former director of PMC Bank, was arrested by the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing in December last year for his alleged involvement in the Rs 6,600-crore scam involving illegal credit facilities to the Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd and its group companies. South Africa: Murder spike noted in level 3 The lifting of the ban on the sale of alcohol since the beginning of lockdown level 3 in June has ushered an unwanted surge in reported deaths after a lull between March and May. This was revealed by Police Minister Bheki Cele during a press briefing at the Jabulani Hostel in Soweto on Tuesday. The Minister was in the area after six men were shot and killed on Monday evening. Police are now searching for three men believed to be linked to the crime. During the briefing, Cele spoke about two women who were this week brutally murdered in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Naledi Phangindawo, 25, was allegedly heinously hacked to death by a man close to her. The suspect has since been arrested. In Soweto, Tshegofatso Pule, 28, was on Monday found hanging from a tree in Roodepoort where she went missing on Thursday. Nationally wed sit back and complain about 30 people that have died, said the Minister. This was until last Monday, when the ban on alcohol during the lockdown was lifted. Until Monday - the 1st of June - which is not an entirely dangerous day, for the first time since the lockdown, we got reports of 40 people killed. The next day there were 51 [murders] and there were 69 this past Sunday, he said. During this period police were averaging between 20 and 30 murder cases a day. That has now just gone up, including attempting murder, including the abuse of women and violence against women, he said. The Minister described the murder of the two women as brutal. Its an issue that we raise as police and law enforce that [perpetrators] of crime are well known to the victims. By the look of things, both these ladies were killed by people known to them. Im not confirming that, the investigations are ongoing, he said. He emphasised that it was difficult for law enforcement to curb domestic violence. This, he said, was because police could not monitor peoples behavior in their homes. Unfortunately, in those situations, we react. But its a question, we agree, we need to take up. We [need] to work very closely with all other structures and monitor closely gender-based violence, as [cases] can be brutal as we have seen with the two ladies, Cele said. He pleaded with men, communities and families to report suspiciously abusive relationships. He said this would ensure the police were proactive in responding in their action. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-06-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Connecticuts top health official on Tuesday ordered hospitals that were barring visitors because of the coronavirus to make exceptions for patients with disabilities, after a complaint that the policy violated the civil rights of people who were unable to obtain adequate care for themselves. A family member or care provider, the order says, may now accompany a patient who has a mental, intellectual or physical impairment and requires special assistance. The change came after disability groups filed a complaint with the federal Office for Civil Rights, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, saying that the lack of visitation rights deprived some patients of their right to make informed decisions and provide informed consent, and subjected others to the unnecessary use of physical and chemical restraints. Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut, a Democrat, said in a statement that the new policy, which requires that hospitals provide protective equipment to those accompanying the patient, implements vital safeguards for individuals with special needs to ensure proper and safe care is being provided and received in a hospital setting. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 19:14:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KABUL, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Four scenic areas have been declared as protected sites and national parks in Afghanistan, according to the Afghan Presidential Palace. The palace said in a statement reaching Xinhua on Tuesday that a meeting, chaired by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, announced forests of eastern Nuristan province, standing waters of eastern Ghazni, Darqad District of northern Takhar province and Imam Sahib District of northern Kunduz province, as protected areas and national parks of Afghanistan. First Vice-President Amrullah Saleh and several provincial governors also attended the meeting, in which Head of National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) Shah Zaman Maiwandi signed the documents of the newly four protected areas and national parks, according to the statement. In order to have a sound environment in the next four years, the NEPA was instructed to coordinate with local religious scholars, provincial governors and districts' chiefs in this respect, the statement added. The country previously had three national parks. Band-e-Amir in central province of Bamyan, Wakhan in northern Badakhshan province, Kol-e-Hashmat Khan wetland in Kabul were announced national parks in 2009, 2014 and 2015 respectively. Enditem While most countries wait for the number of COVID-19 cases to go down before they ease their lockdown restrictions, South Africa is going in the opposite direction. The country has lifted most lockdown restrictions while the number of coronavirus cases is increasing. Professor Salim Abdool Karim, chairperson of the Health Ministers COVID-19 advisory group, said this places South Africa in a unique position. Instead of increasing restrictions during the growth phase of the virus to reduce its spread like in other countries South Africa is allowing more movement and congregations of people. This will fuel the spread of the virus across the country as the number of COVID-19 infections is nowhere close to reaching its peak. There is, however, some good news. The fortunate thing is that the entire country is not being impacted at the same time, said Karim. The latest statistics show that 33,568 of the total number of COVID-19 cases in South Africa are in the Western Cape. The majority of deaths 829 of the total 1,080 also occurred in the Western Cape. The Eastern Cape is in a distant second on 127. The chart below, courtesy of Hydra, shows how the lockdown restrictions were eased while the number of cases increased. Schools unlikely to have a big impact One of the big concerns is that the recent opening of schools in South Africa will result in the rapid spread of the virus. Karim dismissed this concern, saying they anticipate going back to school will have minimal effect on the overall COVID-19 transmission. We expect a few cases in schools which will occur people will bring it from their homes or wherever they have been to. But we are not expecting it will cause any major concerns, said Karim. This is in line with recent comments from the World Health Organizations Dr Maria Van Kerkhove that the asymptomatic spread of coronavirus is rare. From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual, she said. Many young and healthy people who are infected with the coronavirus are asymptomatic or only develop very mild symptoms. This means these individuals are far less likely to spread the virus than people who develop severe symptoms. Do not be alarmed President Cyril Ramaphosa has recently urged the public not to be alarmed by the rapid increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa. As we watch the number of infections rise further probably far faster than most of us imagined we should be concerned, but not alarmed, he said. That is because we have the ability, as individuals, communities and as a country, to limit the impact of the disease on our people. He said over the coming weeks, as infections continue to rise, the country should remember that we are not helpless. We should remember one simple but fundamental message: Dont be alarmed. Be prepared, he said. He said the country could draw comfort from the fact that the nationwide lockdown was achieving its objective in delaying the spread of the virus. It gave us time to prepare our health facilities and interventions for the expected spike in infections, Ramaphosa said. The lockdown was not only necessary, but it has also given us all time to adjust to living with the virus. British American Tobacco (BAT), the owner of the cigarette brands Dunhill and Rothmans, says it expects to reach its 5billion annual revenue target in its new categories business two years later than expected due to a slackening in sales. The company had initially aimed to reach the target in 2023/4 but has now pushed it back to 2025 due to the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdown measures impacting revenues in developing economies such as Mexico and South Africa. In updated guidance, the 'Big Tobacco' giant estimates that its revenues will grow by between one per cent and three per cent this financial year rather than its previous guidance of three per cent to five per cent. British American Tobacco is the parent company of Dunhill (pictured) and Lucky Strike Despite this, BAT remarked that it 'is performing well against a backdrop of a very challenging and volatile trading environment,' with a good performance in its developed markets, which count for around three-quarters of its revenues. It said its American market did well 'with volume ahead of expectations, good pricing and continued value share growth' although it predicts total US industry volume to fall by about 4 per cent. The Lucky Strike owner wrote: 'We continue to see good pricing and strong volume and value share growth across our combustibles business, together with good share growth across all three of the new categories - vapour, tobacco heating and modern oral.' However, the Covid-19 virus has damaged sales in its new categories business and seen the launches of some new products delayed or scaled back. The London-listed business's results come at a turbulent time for the tobacco and vaping industry. The pandemic has negatively affected demand for the sector's products while vapes have increasingly become subject to stricter legal restrictions. E-cigarettes have been blamed for causing heart and lung problems, and some governments, like the Indian and Mexican governments, have banned their sale. US regulators also recently outlawed flavoured vapes. The coronavirus pandemic has negatively affected demand for the tobacco sector's products, but vapes have also increasingly become the focus of stricter legal restrictions But according to Public Health England (PHE), e-cigarettes are 95 per cent less harmful than smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes. Though there has been a backlash against vapes, BAT's Vuse and Vype products have grown in popularity in Europe and North America since the start of the year, with higher value shares in major markets like the UK, France and Canada. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'All things considered British American Tobacco has been doing relatively well against a very difficult backdrop. Russ Mould, AJ Bell investment director: 'Longer-term, British American Tobacco still needs to deal with the fact that an increasing number of investors around the world are no longer interested in backing businesses that are harmful to society' 'Its sales have generally held up, and dividends continue to be paid, while its biotech subsidiary is working on a potential vaccine for Covid-19. 'There aren't many companies which can lay claim to such stability during one of the most testing times for business in decades. He warned, however that 'its operations aren't bulletproof as evident by conditions in emerging markets being worse than expected. 'It is also suffering from reduced sales in travel retail outlets, although this only represents less than 1 per cent of group revenue. 'Longer-term, British American Tobacco still needs to deal with the fact that an increasing number of investors around the world are no longer interested in backing businesses that are harmful to society.' The UK's biggest retirement sector fund, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), recently announced that it would divest from tobacco businesses, calling them 'financially unsuitable.' Shares in BAT were down 3.8 per cent soon after midday at 3,003p. Industrial Curing Conveyor Oven Choosing an oven that maximizes production and minimizes costs is achieved during the initial planning and design phase between the manufacturer and the customer, said John Kubacki, Southwest Sales Manager. International Thermal Systems (ITS), a global manufacturer of industrial ovens and furnaces, announced today that it has released a comprehensive guide for selecting an Industrial Heat Processing Oven. The guide will provide companies with a checklist to select a batch or continuous processing oven for their application. Choosing an oven that maximizes production and minimizes costs is achieved during the initial planning and design phase between the manufacturer and the customer, said John Kubacki, Southwest Sales Manager. Our guide was created to provide customers with a starting point of considerations for the oven to help make the best purchasing decision. The industrial oven guide contains 8 sections and includes topics such as heat processing requirements, materials of construction and air flow design. By answering a few questions, the guide can help determine if a batch or continuous process oven is best for the application and if a standard or a custom engineered machine is needed, explains Mike Stamm, Northwest Sales Manager. International Thermal Systems manufactures industrial ovens for all heat processing applications including composite curing and annealing. ITS specializes in air flow design and quality construction. ITS works with customers in all industries including automotive, aerospace, foundry, and metal stamping. For more information about International Thermal Systems and the new Industrial Oven Guide, visit internationalthermalsystems.com. About International Thermal Systems International Thermal Systems, LLC (ITS) is a global manufacturer of thermal processing and washer systems. ITS manufactures quality ovens, furnaces and parts washers that deliver innovative solutions. ITS is committed to providing the best engineering, manufacturing, and customer support in the industry. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ITS has manufacturing facilities in both Milwaukee and Shanghai, China. A couple of days from now, Prince Philip will celebrate a significant milestone as he reaches 99 years of age. Being Queen Elizabeth II's consort for more than a century, the Duke of Edinburgh also had his fun times in the spotlight. Although his image may appear that he is a "man of few words," Prince Philip always made royal news more exciting because of his witty remarks worth quoting for. One of the most controversial remarks that the Duke made has recently resurfaced on the internet due to the ongoing coronavirus global pandemic. At the height of the health crisis in the United Kingdom, Prince Philip became a victim of a Twitter hoax about his life. In March 2020, Prince Philip became a trending social media topic after it was reported that he allegedly passed away due to COVID-19. While the Buckingham Palace did not release any statement concerning his "death," the Twitter hoax led internet users to dig into a previous account Philip made about the pandemic. Internet trolls were able to unearth Prince Philip's 1988 statement saying that he wishes to be reincarnated as a pandemic. The statement was made during his interview with German news agency Deutsche Presse Agentur 32 years ago. He spoke candidly about his wish to be reborn as a deadly virus as if such a thing exist back then. Prince Philip explained that he wishes to be a pandemic to contribute to solving the world's overpopulation problems. "In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation," Prince Philip said. Not Just A Joke While the quote appears to be a joke to some people, it looks like the Duke of Edinburgh's wish is pretty serious, as a similar idea also appeared on the foreword that he wrote for the book "If I Were an Animal." Fleur Cowles wrote the said book published in 1986. The said book featured over a hundred responses from world-famous celebrities and icons when Cowles asked the question, "What would you choose to be if you could be reincarnated as an animal?" "I just wonder what it would be like to be reincarnated in an animal whose species had been so reduced in numbers than it was in danger of extinction," Prince Philip's foreword read. "What would be its feelings toward the human species whose population explosion had denied it somewhere to exist... I must confess that I am tempted to ask for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus," he added. Overpopulation Issue It is not the only time that Prince Philip has spoken his concerns about overpopulation. In an interview for "BBC: the Duke at 90" in 2012, he said that the growing human population is the biggest concern in the world at that time. When asked for his opinion on what the world should do to address the problem, Prince Philip said: "Well, I think it would think about as voluntary family and limitation." Before March, the Trump campaign hoped that a strong economy would bolster the Presidents reelection prospects. Then the coronavirus pandemic caused the sharpest recession in history. Many attributed the economic fallout to the White Houses lackluster public-health response, and the presidents poll numbers hit a trough. Prediction markets now show a 50 percent likelihood that Democrats will win both the Senate and the presidency in November. Yet the numbers belie the fact that Trump still has an advantage on economic policy. Last weeks jobs report, which showed that the economy added 2.5 million new jobs, cut against predictions of a protracted depression. Stock-market investors, chided by financial commentators as irrationally bullish in April and May, have been vindicated as the market nears its February peak. Even in the midst of a recession, voters still prefer Trump to Joe Biden on economic issues. While CEOs have gone to great lengths to demonstrate support for progressive causes (here a photo of Jamie Dimon kneeling in front of a Chase branch, there a billion-dollar donation from Bank of America), they are finding it difficult to get behind progressive economic policies. In a research note Monday, the Goldman Sachs Portfolio Strategy team said that investors have shifted their attention from the pandemic to politics, voicing concerns about the consequences of a Democratic victory in November. Although the coronavirus has caused the sharpest decline in economic activity on record, in some ways tax policy represents a larger risk, the analysts noted, because a tax hike would impose a long-term drag on the economy as opposed to a temporary shock. The report estimates that Joe Bidens tax plan would reduce earnings by 12 percent for companies in the S&P 500 Index, largely due to a proposed increase in the corporate-tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent. As the economy begins to reopen, the most important equity market implication for many investors is the potential for higher corporate tax rates, say the Goldman analysts. As the likelihood of a Democratic Senate victory grew in March, the most tax-sensitive sectors, such as financials and consumer discretionary, began to underperform the market. While those stocks have since performed well, they likely will decline as investors begin to price in the possibility of tax reform. Story continues In addition to the corporate-tax increase, the Biden plan would double the rate on Global Intangible Low Tax Income earned by foreign subsidiaries of U.S. businesses and impose a minimum tax on book income, which excludes certain deductions. High-income individuals would see their tax rates revert to pre-TCJA levels and would pay a new 12.4 percent social-security tax. According to the Tax Foundation, Bidens plan would reduce U.S. GDP growth by 1.51 percent in the long term, decrease overall wages by close to 1 percent, and kill 585,000 jobs. Meanwhile, the coronavirus recession may paradoxically strengthen the GOPs credibility on economic issues. While congressional Republicans were seen as obstructing the stimulus bills passed in 2009, they pushed through the $2 trillion coronavirus spending package with little opposition. Thanks in large part to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchins negotiations, the legislation provided swift relief to consumers and businesses, staving off the worst-case recession scenarios. Bidens tax reform would come at a time when lawmakers are attempting to bolster the competitiveness of U.S. businesses. Congress is reportedly considering tax breaks and subsidies to firms that relocate foreign operations to the U.S. in order to decrease the countrys reliance on China. An increased corporate-tax rate would hamper those efforts just as tensions with Beijing hit an inflection point. Indeed, the pre-2017 corporate-tax rate of 39 percent, which ranked highest among OECD countries, contributed in large part to offshoring in the first place. While the economy may not be a rocket ship, as Trump said in his Friday press conference, recent economic weakness will likely have a muted effect on the Presidents reelection prospects. The GOPs perennial advantage on economic questions has survived the pandemic. More from National Review Amsterdam, June 9 (IANS) Defense attorneys for a Russian suspect who is one of four people accused of downing Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine on July 14, 2014 have requested more time to prepare their case as the trial in absentia resumed after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawyers said on Monday that the pandemic had hampered their ability to prepare the case and travel to meet the defendants, who remain at large, reports Efe news. The hearing on Monday, the third since the trial started and the first since the pandemic, was held with social distancing measures in place inside the high security courtroom at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. The four suspects - Russians Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko - are accused of shooting down flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, which was struck by a Russian-made missile that was fired from eastern Ukraine, which is controlled by pro-Russia separatists. All of the 298 passengers and crew on board were killed. Victims included 193 Dutch, 43 Malaysians and 38 Australians. None of the suspects, all of whom held high-ranking positions in the separatist militias, are attending the trial. Pulatov is the only defendant who has sent lawyers to represent him in the trial. The last hearing, on March 23, was adjourned to allow the defense more time to prepare. The Joint Investigation Team accuses Girkin, a former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) colonel of being the chief military leader of a pro-Russian separatist militia in eastern Ukraine. Leonid Kharchenko led a platoon in the area, according to prosecutors, while Dubinsky and Pulatvos had ties to the Russian Military Intelligence Service (GRU). Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the incident, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. --IANS ksk/ RUN!GEEK!RUN! 5K Logo "Our RUN! GEEK! RUN! 5k has always been a blend of health and wellness, technology, and giving back to the community, and this year we couldn't be more proud than to center our support around CFNC." Registration is now open for the 13th annual RUN! GEEK! RUN! 5K. The race will take off in Alexandria, Virginia, on September 27, 2020 at 8:30 a.m. The 5K event has fast become a community tradition, with all proceeds benefiting select Alexandria-based charities. This year, RUN! GEEK! RUN! will support The Child and Family Network Centers (CFNC), established in 1984 by mothers in public housing when 17 of their children failed kindergarten. The founders were so successful, CFNCs first class went from failing to advance a grade level, to being recognized as gifted by their public school. From there, theyve grown to serve 139 kids across eight different classrooms in Alexandrias poorest neighborhoods. To date, they have helped more than 4,000 families. Co-sponsors for this 5K run are, once again,Ironistic and Hudson Studio. Ironistic and Hudson Studio are Alexandria-based firms that have long been involved with RUN! GEEK! RUN! and share a deep commitment to supporting their community whenever and wherever they can. Race director and Ironistic CEO, Rita Foss commented, "Our RUN! GEEK! RUN! 5k has always been a blend of health and wellness, technology, and giving back to the community, and this year we couldn't be more proud than to center our support around CFNC. Their impact on Alexandria families has been nothing short of life-saving, and we're happy to contribute to their success." The 5K race is a USATF-certified course, beginning and ending at the south end of Alexandrias Main Line Boulevard. Awards are handed out to the top three male and female finishers as well as the top three male and female finishers in 5-year age group categories. The top three Corporate and Community Teams also receive awards. Participants can join the official RUN! GEEK! RUN! mascot team, Team Eugene; create their own team; or run/walk solo! Visit RunGeekRun.com for race details, course information, and online registration today! We are actively seeking local businesses that want to be part of something bigger in their community. Show community support with a RUN! GEEK! RUN! sponsorship, or form a team and get employees involved. Race sponsors can choose from four levels of participation and promotion. For local firms, this is a chance to give back, pay it forward, and have a little fun. About RUN! GEEK! RUN! RUN! GEEK! RUN! is an annual 5K that has taken place in Alexandria, Virginia, for the past 12 years. This event is open to individuals and teams and welcomes sponsors all in support of a great cause. Every year RUN! GEEK! RUN! selects a local charity to which all proceeds from the race are donated. This years recipient is The Child and Family Network Centers(CFNC), an organization instrumental in helping underprivileged young families with preschool education. Past beneficiaries of RUN! GEEK! RUN! include the National Industries for the Blind and the Alexandria Firefighters Helping Hands Relief Foundation. Contact RUN! GEEK! RUN! via our website: https://rungeekrun.com/contact-us/. About Ironistic Ironistic is a full-service, digital agency. With decades of industry experience under its belt, Ironistic delivers innovative website development services and effective marketing solutions to companies of all sizes and across all industries. From small brochure websites to custom portals, Ironistic services include strategy and consulting, website/app design and development, online marketing and search engine optimization, and web hosting and maintenance. Contact Ironistic via our website or by calling (703) 829-0809. About Hudson Studio Hudson Studio is an award-winning design and visual communications firm based in Alexandria, Virginia. With over two decades of design experience, they specialize in delivering something unique and effective for every client. Their goal is not only a great, finished product but a great experience and great results. Clients include Alaska Airlines, Burson-Marsteller, Capital Caring Health, Dentons, Energizer, Fontaine, Scramble, Tall Ship Providence, and Toyota North America. Contact Hudson Studio via our website or by calling (703) 837-9094. Media Release Basel, June 09, 2020 Dufry's new Global Executive Committee structure, effective September 1, 2020, integrates HQ and divisions, while simplifying top management functions Dufry is adapting its organization to the new business environment to accelerate growth and support profitability during the recovery phase of the economic crisis and beyond. The new organizational structure, which will become effective as ofSeptember 1, 2020,aims at further strengthening the airport travel retail business and other channels, thus driving the company's profitability and preparing growth acceleration. Main changes: Integration of headquarters and divisions as well as grouping countries into a reduced number of 7 clusters plus North America as compared to the 23 clusters so far Simplifying the first management level by grouping related functions Introducing a new, reduced Global Executive Committee to reflect organizational changes Julian Diaz, CEO of Dufry commented: "Dufry's new simplified organization will allow us to adapt the company to the new business environment, by adding flexibility, agility and by accelerating the decision making process. The new organization reduces costs by defining new responsibilities and directly managing operations from the headquarters. Combined with the successful strengthening of the financial structure achieved in April as well as the tight cost control and cash management initiatives implemented, Dufry is well prepared for the recovery phase of the tourism and travel industry." Integration of headquarters and divisions The integration of headquarters and divisions will simplify the current divisional layer by directly connecting headquarters to the country clusters. This integration will result in all clusters reporting to Eugenio Andrades as new CEO Operations, with exception of the current division North America, which will continue to report to Roger Fordyce, CEO North America. The countries will be grouped into 7 clusters plus North America, allowing smaller countries to be served from local shared service centres. Simplification of first management level The further simplification of the first management level focusses on three main areas. Consolidation of all finance related functions, including controlling, accounting, treasury and financial shared services, under the responsibility of the CFO, Yves Gerster. Integration of all commercial activities, such as shop design, trade and digital marketing, category management and supply chain, within the scope of Andrea Belardini, Chief Commercial Officer. The consolidation of all corporate functions including HR, IT, strategy and M&A as well as control business development within the responsibility of the Chief Corporate Officer, Luis Marin, to develop further synergies. Jose Antonio Gea, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer, will report to the Group CEO and be responsible for the company restructuring and special projects. New composition of Global Executive Committee With the implementation of the new organization effective as of September 1, 2020, Dufry's Global Executive Committee will consist of 8 members (previously 10 members): Julian Diaz, Group Chief Executive Officer Jose Antonio Gea, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer Yves Gerster, Chief Financial Officer Eugenio Andrades, Chief Executive Officer Operations Roger Fordyce Chief Executive Officer North America Andrea Belardini, Chief Commercial Officer Luis Marin, Chief Corporate Officer Pascal Duclos, Group General Counsel The previous members of the Global Executive Committee Rene Riedi, Chief Executive Officer Central and South America, as well as Javier Gonzalez, Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer, will continue to support the company with their wealth of experience. For further information please contact: Renzo Radice Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Phone: +41 61 266 44 19 renzo.radice@dufry.com Sara Lizi Karen Sharpes Investor Relations Americas & Communications Div. 4 Global Media & Events Phone: +55 21 2157 9901 Phone: +44 0 208 624 4326 sara.lizi@br.dufry.com karen.sharpes@dufry.com Dufry Group - A leading global travel retailer Dufry AG (SIX: DUFN) is a leading global travel retailer operating over 2,400 duty-free and duty-paid shops in airports, cruise lines, seaports, railway stations and downtown tourist areas. The Company, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, operates in 65 countries in all six continents. Social Responsibility Dufry cares for children and supports social projects from SOS Kinderdorf in Brazil, Cambodia, Mexico, Morocco and Ivory Coast. SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-political and non-demonstrational organization established for orphaned and destitute children all over the world. GUATEMALA CITY - The United States resumed deportation flights to Guatemala Tuesday, nearly a month after the Central American country refused to accept them. A flight from Alexandria, Louisiana landed in the Guatemalan capital Tuesday afternoon. The plane carried 40 adults and 10 children. At least 186 Guatemalan deportees had tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in the country even after U.S. assurances that they were healthy. The flights scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday this week will carry fewer deportees, about 50, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Patricia Letona. She did not provide details on any new procedures to guarantee the health of the deportees. We have already requested specific information with respect to the co-ordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and what health protocols they will follow, she said. Alejandra Mena, spokeswoman for the National Immigration Institute, said all deportees who arrived Tuesday came with medical certificates from the U.S. saying they were free of the virus. But she said the Health Ministry would test them all anyway. The Foreign Ministry says about 5,500 Guatemalans are in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. More than 2,500 of those have a final deportation order and the remainder still have a pending process. Two more flights are scheduled for next week. The presidential commission in charge of the governments response to the health crisis made the decision to resume the flights, Letona said. Guatemala suspended the flights after nearly all of the 65 passengers aboard a May 13 flight tested positive. Some humanitarian flights carrying unaccompanied children and families detained at the U.S. southwest border had been allowed to continue. Since the epidemic began in Guatemala in mid-March, the country has received 2,160 deportees from the U.S., including adults and children. By Lee Hyo-jin, Park Si-soo An Indonesian man faces deportation for violating mandatory two-week self-quarantine, which the South Korean government has imposed on international arrivals to contain the spread of coronavirus. The Indonesian, in his 20s, is being held at Daegu Police Station and the immigration office will soon decide on the next step. The justice ministry, which controls immigration affairs, has deported more than 60 rule-breaking foreign nationals since the coronavirus outbreak here. According to police, the Indonesian arrived at Incheon International Airport from Indonesia on May 30. He cleared immigration on the promise that he would stay for two weeks at a state-designated quarantine facility in Gimpo. But instead he took a taxi heading for Daegu, his final destination. Airport police confirmed his violation through surveillance camera footage and called the taxi's driver, telling him to bring the man back to the airport. Realizing that he was being traced, the man fled from the taxi on the way back. Police launched a large-scale manhunt in the area where he disappeared and caught him in northern Daegu. South Korea has imposed 14-day self-isolation on international arrivals since April 1. Violators can face up to a year in jail term or a 10 million won ($8,343) fine and deportation or visa invalidation. The Trump administration has cracked down on Chinese telecommunications companies that operate in the United States, arguing that the Chinese government could use their equipment to hear and read American communications on their networks. Huawei, a Chinese manufacturer of telecom networking gear, has been one of the administrations top targets, and has pushed back against the accusations. Last year, the Federal Communications Commission turned down the application of China Mobile, a wireless carrier, to operate in the United States. But other Chinese companies with ties to the countrys government are still licensed to operate on American networks, and the Senate report said the Team Telecom agencies had failed to keep an adequate watch on three of them: China Unicom Americas, China Telecom Americas and ComNet (USA). All three are part of Chinese state-controlled companies. The report said that while the agencies had established security agreements with China Telecom and ComNet in 2007 and 2009, they had visited the companies only twice each to ensure they were complying. It said the agencies had never entered into a similar agreement with China Unicom, meaning Team Telecom has no oversight authority to assess the companys operations in the United States. The agencies have already taken steps to respond to critics of the system for reviewing foreign entrants into domestic networks. This year, Team Telecom recommended that the Federal Communications Commission revoke China Telecoms and China Unicoms licenses to operate in the United States. The White House also issued an executive order to replace the process with a more formal one. Esmaili on Tuesday did not directly link the intelligence allegedly gathered by Majd to Soleimanis killing and a statement later by the judiciary said the conviction was not linked to the assassination and in fact his arrest was in October 2018, according to Reuters. Amaravati, June 9 : Telugu film star and former Union minister Chiranjeevi has expressed confidence that film shoots will resume in Andhra Pradesh soon after June 15. A delegation of leading Tollywood actors, producers and directors called on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy at his Tadepally camp office here on Tuesday. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Chiranjeevi said that the Chief Minister has agreed to their request for allowing film shootings in the state. "He gave us a patient hearing and responded positively to our request to allow shooting in the state soon. He said the government will devise the guidelines for shootings in the state," the Tollywood star said, adding that film shooting could resume after June 15. Following large-scale relaxations in the Covid-19 lockdown since Monday, the delegation consisting of leading Tollywood actors, directors and producers arrived here from Hyderabad on Tuesday, to discuss various issues pertaining to the Telugu film industry. They also thanked Jagan Mohan Reddy for the pro-cinema initiatives announced recently. Apart from Chiranjeevi, the Tollywood delegation included actor Nagarjuna, film director Rajamouli of 'Bahubali' fame, and producers Dil Raju and D. Suresh. The delegation also requested that the state's film Nandi awards be revived from this year. They also requested the government to facilitate film shooting infrastructure in Visakhapatnam. Andhra Pradesh minister Perni Nani said that the Chief Minister had responded positively to the issues discussed in Tuesday's meeting. The minister said that the Andhra government would provide all necessary help for the film industry's growth in the state. Tuesday's meeting came in the wake of a similar meeting with Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao in Hyderabad last week. On Monday, Telangana cleared film shootings in the state as per the protocols put in place by the state government. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany holds a press briefing at the White House in Washington, on June 8, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) No Regrets Over Trumps Walk to Church, White House Says The White House has no regrets regarding President Donald Trumps trip to St. Johns Church on June 1, after police employed law enforcement measures to clear the area of protesters ahead of a curfew in nearby Lafayette Park. Theres no regrets on the part of this White House, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on Monday. Id note that many of those decisions were not made here within the White House. It was [Attorney General William] Barr who made the decision to move the perimeter, she added. Monday night Park Police had also made that decision independently when they saw all the violence in Lafayette Square. She noted that some protesters had started hurling objects and condemned their actions as unacceptable. Park Police acted as they felt they needed to at that time in response, she continued. We stand by those actions. The church had been set on fire the night prior to when Trump decided to visit it, McEnany noted, pointing out that violent activities were occurring alongside peaceful demonstrations. The violence factored into the decision to expand the perimeter around the White House, she said. McEnanys message is consistent with that of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway who told reporters on June 2 that there was a plan to expand the perimeter from H Street to I Street based on the events as they had unfolded the night before. Barr told CBS on Sunday that the decision to expand the perimeter around the park was made independently to Trumps decision to walk to the church, and that he personally witnessed projectiles being hurled at the police by a non-compliant crowd on June 1. U.S. Park Police evacuated protesters at Lafayette Square on June 1, ahead of a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew imposed by Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser. Around 7 p.m. Trump made his way across the square from the White House to St. Johns Churchaccompanied by a number of top aidesand held up a bible. President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. Johns Church across Lafayette Park from the White House in Washington, on June 1, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo) We have the greatest country in the world, Trump said at the church, where many past presidents have attended services. Were going to keep it safe. President Donald Trump walks in Lafayette Park to visit outside St. Johns Church across from the White House in Washington on June 1, 2020. Part of the church was set on fire during riots on Sunday night. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo) Trump was accompanied by a number of others, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Attorney General William Barr, National Security Adviser Robert OBrien, and McEnany. McEnany said that the U.S. Park Police had issued three loud warnings before moving to clear protesters, a remark in agreement with a U.S. Park Police statement issued on June 2. According to the statement, police officers issued three warnings over a loudspeaker telling the demonstrators on H Street to leave the area. Officers later used smoke canisters and pepper balls to help in dispersing the crowd, after a number of protesters became more combative, attempted to grab officers weapons, and continued to throw projectiles that included bricks, frozen water bottles, and caustic liquids. Police officers wearing riot gear push back demonstrators by deploying crowd control devices next to St. Johns Church outside the White House in Washington, on June 1, 2020. (Jose Luis Magana/AFP via Getty Images) George Floyd, a black man, died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes during an arrest. Nationwide protests following Floyds death on May 25 have been, in many instances, subverted by acts of violence, arson, and looting. Attorney General William Barr speaks during a roundtable with law enforcement officials in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, on June, 8, 2020. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images) Federal officials, including Barr, say such violent activities have been spurred and coordinated by outside agitators and radicals. We have evidence that Antifa and other similar extremist groups, as well as actors of a variety of different political persuasions, have been involved in instigating and participating in the violent activity, Barr told reporters on June 4. We are also seeing foreign actors playing all sides to exacerbate the violence. McEnany on Monday told reporters that Trump is sorry about the fact that Antifa wreaks havoc in our streets. Trump on May 31 announced that his administration will designate Antifa as a terrorist organization. - Lawyer Abdikadir Mohamed said the Senate and National Assembly, which would both be critical in the impeachment of President Uhuru Kenyatta, are long asleep - Mohamed said despite the LSK's substantial grounds in its petition, it would not go anywhere since the Executive is in full control of the Legislature - LSK president Nelson Havi had vowed to petition parliament to impeach the head of state for violation of the Constitution - Chief Justice David Maraga gave the president a dressing-down over his refusal to appoint judges and accused him of disobeying court orders Lawyer Abdikadir Mohamed has poured cold water on the Law Society of Kenya's petition to impeach President Uhuru Kenyatta. Mohamed said parliament, which is was critical in the process of impeachment of the head of state, is long gone since it is now being controlled by the Executive. READ ALSO: President John Magufuli declares Tanzania COVID-19 free Lawyer Mohamed said the Legislature was long asleep and was controlled by Executive. Photo: Daily Nation. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Still funny: Dagoretti North MP John Kiarie perfectly imitates Mutahi Kagwe's accent Speaking to Citizen TV on Monday, June 8, the lawyer stated it is unfortunate that the motion would not go anywhere since the arms of government had foregone their checks and balances role to each other. "The legislature, in this case, is absent. They should not even earn any money because they do zero work except to rubber stamp anything the Executive says. In this sense, in spite of the merits of LSK's position, because the Legislature has abdicate, that will not go anywhere," the lawyer said. READ ALSO: Kenyan newspapers review for June 9: 16 leaders who catalysed messy divorce between Uhuru and William Ruto Nelson Havi had said he would petition Parliament to oust Uhuru from the presidency. Photo: Nelson Havi. Source: Facebook He, however, stated the president must abide by the Constitution and that failure to do so is a substantial ground to remove him from power. Mohammed added though there were firm reasons to pursue the motion and the Chief Justice of Kenya, David Maraga, had said Uhuru was not abiding by the rule of the law, there is no chance it would succeed because the Senate and National Assembly are long asleep. "They have abdicated their role as a check to the Executive. For the Constitution to work, you require the Legislature to check the president," Mohammed said. READ ALSO: Buff Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho breaks internet with breathtaking body transformation He said the Executive was expecting Kenyans to obey the law while it was conspicuously absconding the rule of the law. This came after Maraga gave the first in command a dressing-down over his refusal to appoint 41 judges despite court orders directing him to appoint them without raising questions. Maraga came out to address the press over the matter saying the president was violating the Constitution by failing to comply with the court orders. READ ALSO: Aliyekuwa MCA wa Magadi aaga dunia Maraga said Uhuru had disobeyed court orders. Photo: State House. Source: Facebook "The president's disregard of court orders doesn't board well for our constitutional democracy and is potentially a recipe for anarchy," he said. LSK president Nelson Havi vowed to petition parliament to eject Uhuru over his disregard of the law. We will petition the National Assembly and Senate to initiate proceedings for the impeachment of the president of the Republic of Kenya for failing to perform his duties under the constitution, said Havi on Monday, June 8. 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. I married a man every woman wanted - Pastor Joan Chege | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke The Samsung Galaxy Note20 will have a flat display, says reliable leakster Ice Universe. This will be a first in 5 years as the Galaxy Note5 was the last in the series proper to use a flat screen. Aristotle said: The earth is round. Icecat said: Samsung Galaxy Note20 is flat. Ice universe (@UniverseIce) June 9, 2020 All Notes after the Note5 have had curved screens. Soon after Galaxy S series also switched to all curved screens, something that was previously reserved for the edge models. Samsung has started to reconsider this strategy recently, the Galaxy S10e and S10 Lite have flat screens, for example, as does the Note10 Lite. Samsung Galaxy Note20 renders Anyway, what the cat left unspoken is that the Galaxy Note20+ will have a curved screen. As we mentioned, its typically the lite models of the premium series that get a flat screen. We saw just that in Note20 cases that leaked recently as well as renders of both devices. The Note20 duo will be unveiled in early August and will be joined by the Galaxy Fold 2, which is expected to grow some Note-like features. Pearson, the FTSE100-listed education company, has teamed up with Harrow to enable British and overseas students to attend the top public school from their own homes. Due to coronavirus, Harrow has decided to open up its online sixth form which is due to launch in September to UK candidates as well as to wealthy pupils from abroad. Until the pandemic struck, the plan had been to offer online education to overseas students only, but the crisis has prompted Pearson and Harrow to open up online to British teenagers several years sooner than they initially envisaged. As well as being cheaper, the online option might appeal to parents worried about social distancing. Hats off to Harrow: The public school is opening online to pupils at home and abroad At 15,000 a year, the online fees are much lower than the cost of just under 42,000 to attend the physical school in north-west London, whose former pupils include Sir Winston Churchill and Benedict Cumberbatch. Pearson is providing funds for up to one in three pupils through bursaries covering 100 per cent of tuition fees and academic scholarships that pay half the costs. The project with Harrow is part of a wholesale corporate transformation at Pearson, led by chief executive John Fallon. Since he took over in 2013, the 57-year-old has sold a string of assets, including the Financial Times and stakes in publisher Penguin and The Economist, to concentrate on education. Pearson had been a hotch-potch of businesses with holdings in seemingly random companies, including investment bank Lazard, Waterford Wedgwood and Madame Tussauds. In good company: Harrow's former pupils include Sir Winston Churchill Not all investors have been convinced by the change in direction, however, and there has been a string of profit warnings on Fallon's watch. Although the Covid-19 crisis may boost online learning in the longer run, shares have fallen by 20 per cent since the start of this year. The Harrow partnership could prove a feather in Pearson's cap. Would-be students have to sit an entrance exam and undergo an interview online. At first, five A-level subjects will be offered for pupils entering the lower sixth in September: maths, further maths, physics, chemistry and economics. Students can opt to take individual A-levels at a cost of 4,500 a year or maths and further maths combined for 6,000. Unlike the bricks-and-mortar school, which is boys only, girls are eligible to apply online. Students, who will be taught in groups of around ten per teacher, will also have the opportunity for individual time with staff. Heather Rhodes, the principal of Harrow School Online, said she will instil the traditions of the school, founded in the 16th century, into its virtual equivalent. 'There will be a house system, similar to the actual school and lots of clubs and societies.' Public schools have been under pressure to increase the diversity of their pupils and online education could help them to achieve that goal. Eton College is offering free online courses to UK teenagers during the pandemic. Hanoi aims to become a smart city with Al and Big Data as the core technologies. Vietnamese information technology (IT) and telecommunications businesses have pledged to boost the development of Hanois smart city, e-government, data base of land. This is the commitment made by the tech firms at a meeting with Hanoi's leaders and representatives from the Ministry of Information and Communications. Hanoi focuses on developing smart city, e-government data base of land if required. At the meeting, Viettel, VNPT, CMC and FPT introduced their services which meet the orientations of the citys authorities on IT and telecommunications development. Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of CMC Nguyen Trung Chinh hailed Hanois adoption of science and technology and IT as the driving force for development. Chinh added that building Hanoi into a smart city with Al and Big Data as the core technologies is also an appropriate direction. Domestic enterprises and large foreign tech groups such as Samsung fully endorse this policy, Chinh stressed. With its advantages of building smart surveillance camera systems, CMC is committed to making the citys video surveillance system smarter for the efficient operation of the whole transport system of the capital city. A representative from FPT said the business has piloted a smart traffic control center in Ho Chi Minh City by connecting 200 stoplights into a smart network and is implementing this model in Hanoi on trial basis. It would be more effective connecting all traffic control centers at district level into one city-level centralized system. However, Hanoi has not been able to allocate funding for this purpose, said FPT representative. Viettel military group has considered Hanoi as its main client in the construction of telecommunications infrastructure and in the provision of solutions for its application in the fields of IT, health, education and electronic government. Viettel hoped that a smart control center model successfully implemented by the company in the central city of Hue would be replicated in Hanoi. Support for Hanois infrastructure As the citys digital infrastructure for smart city building has only been in its infancy, Hanoi needs to improve its essential infrastructure, such as a data storage hub, connection and a digital network for city government transactions, CMC's Chinh said. FPT has also implemented a smart transport center for Hanoi on small scale due to lack of funding. With enough financial resources, the group would be able to implement the model citywide. In addition, it can also help Hanoi build smart hospitals and solve security issues, said FPT at the meeting. For its part, VNPT, another giant tech firm, said IT development for social insurance is another field in need of digitization by Hanoi and that VNPT is able to support the city in social insurance digital conversion. The Hanoi-based group also expressed hope to cooperate with the city in building a general architecture of IT applications from the city-level to that of district and ward on social insurance. Hanoitimes Nhat Minh HCM City moves closer to smart city model HCM City is moving toward becoming a smart city, the citys chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong told Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper on the sidelines of a meeting on May 5. ITASCA, Ill., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- At least 30 states are reporting spikes in fatal opioid overdoses and ongoing concern about mental illness or substance use disorders, all in connection with COVID-19.i To help employers address these interconnected issues, the National Safety Council (NSC) is calling on employers to prioritize employee stress, emotional and mental health both now and as they return employees to traditional work environments. Additionally, NSC warns employers that they must prepare for an increase in substance misuse one that could be a serious threat to worker safety, and cost tens of thousands in productivity losses, absenteeism and presenteeism, and worker's compensation claims if employees do not plan ahead. The Council is sounding the alarm during National Safety Month, observed each June to raise awareness about the leading causes of preventable death and injury. Through its SAFER initiative, NSC is providing employers with resources and tools to address mental health concerns as part of the reopening process and assist employees through what has undoubtedly been a stressful period. "Every single employee is facing an incredible amount of stress right now. Employees need mental health resources and support both in the immediate future and down the line," said Lorraine M. Martin, president and CEO, National Safety Council. "Employees would benefit from having employer support through these difficult times. It can make a significant difference for their mental and physical health." In general, trauma, economic distress and unemployment increase risk for mental health issues and substance use disorders. The COVID-19 pandemic intensifies the threat of mental health distress in several ways, including stress caused by financial, employment, child/family care instabilities, as well as fear of themselves or loved ones being exposed to or infected by COVID-19. Extended social isolation can lead to the development of substance use disorders. Those with previous substance use disorders are even more vulnerable due to decreased accessibility to treatment, recovery supports and harm reduction services, all a result of the pandemic. NSC lays out recommendations for employers in its Stress, Emotional and Mental Health Considerations Playbook. NSC also has created a how-to guide for addressing employee stress and anxiety regarding returning to work. The resources are part of a suite of tools developed as part of the NSC-led SAFER: Safe Actions for Employee Returns initiative and its task force. Each person will experience the stress and trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic differently. Some may not show signs of or experience mental health distress for weeks or months. In the Stress, Emotional and Mental Health Considerations Playbook, NSC recommends employers build both short- and long-term responses to these mental health considerations and ensure mental health continues to be prioritized. The playbook also offers guidance to secure buy-in and engagement from leadership, management, human resources, communications and employees, which is critical for success. Employers are in a unique position to spot signs and symptoms of misuse early, including impairment. NSC encourages employers to implement opioid policies and procedures as part of their return-to-operations strategy. Policy guidance is available in the NSC Opioids at Work Employer Toolkit. Drug overdose primarily from opioids is the leading cause of preventable death for American adults. In fact, a person is more likely to die from an accidental opioid overdose than a car crash. Stress, emotional and mental health is one of six areas on which the SAFER task force has provided guidance to employers, including physical environments, medical issues, communication needs, external considerations and employment and human resources. For more information about NSC and the SAFER initiative, please visit nsc.org/safer. About the National Safety Council The National Safety Council is America's leading nonprofit safety advocate and has been for over 100 years. As a mission-based organization, we work to eliminate the leading causes of preventable death and injury, focusing our efforts on the workplace, roadway and impairment. We create a culture of safety to not only keep people safer at work, but also beyond the workplace so they can live their fullest lives. Connect with NSC: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube iAccording to the AMA: https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2020-06/issue-brief-increases-in-opioid-related-overdose.pdf SOURCE National Safety Council Related Links http://www.nsc.org Flash U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea said on Monday that Washington and Moscow had set the date and venue for nuclear arms negotiations this month. "Today agreed with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov on time and place for nuclear arms negotiations in June," Billingslea said on his Twitter account, without providing detailed information. China is also invited for the talks, according to Billingslea's tweet. China, however, has repeatedly reiterated that it has no intention of participating in the so-called trilateral arms control negotiations with the United States and Russia. Citing a U.S. Department of State official, Bloomberg reported the same day that a new round of arms control talks between the two nuclear superpowers would be held in Vienna on June 22. The upcoming meeting will be the first arms control talks between Billingslea and his Russian counterpart, said Bloomberg, suggesting that "the Trump administration has softened its stance on extending New START (New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty)." In 2010, Washington and Moscow signed the New START, which stipulates the limits to the numbers of deployed nuclear warheads and strategic delivery systems by both. The New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty in force between the two nuclear superpowers, will expire on Feb. 5, 2021. The agreement can be extended for at most five years with the consent of the two countries. Russia has expressed willingness to extend the treaty, while the Trump administration has yet to officially reply. By Pedro Fonseca and Eduardo Simoes RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil drew further criticism for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Monday after it published contradictory figures on fatalities and infections, deepening a scandal over the country's COVID-19 data. The discrepancy prompted criticism from across the political spectrum as a senator called for a congressional inquiry. Initial health ministry data released on Sunday on Brazil's number of cases and death toll was contradicted by numbers uploaded to the ministry's online data portal. By Pedro Fonseca and Eduardo Simoes RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil drew further criticism for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Monday after it published contradictory figures on fatalities and infections, deepening a scandal over the country's COVID-19 data. The discrepancy prompted criticism from across the political spectrum as a senator called for a congressional inquiry. Initial health ministry data released on Sunday on Brazil's number of cases and death toll was contradicted by numbers uploaded to the ministry's online data portal. On Monday, the ministry said in a statement the discrepancy was predominantly due to mistakes in the numbers from two states that were later corrected. It explained that the later, lower daily death toll of 525 was the correct one. The discrepancy followed recent decisions to remove from a national website a trove of data about the country's outbreak, and to push back the daily release of new numbers late into the evening and after the country's main television news program. "By changing the numbers, the Ministry of Health covers the sun with a sieve," Rodrigo Maia, speaker of the lower house, said on Twitter. "The credibility of the statistics needs to be urgently recovered. A ministry that manipulates numbers creates a parallel world in order not to face the reality of the facts," he added. Senator Eliziane Gama, leader of centrist party Citizenship, asked the Senate to open an inquiry into the numbers, while the World Health Organization (WHO)stressed the importance of "consistent and transparent" communication from Brazil. It ranks second in confirmed cases, behind the United States, and its death toll last week surpassed Italy's. Brazil could see COVID-19 deaths rise to 165,960 by August, above the forecast for the United States which has 100 million more people, according to a new projection by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The updated forecast suggests Brazil's epidemic could become the most lethal globally. For Carlos Machado, head of research at the National School of Public Health, part of the respected public institute Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, the lack of dependable data in Brazil is dangerous. "Not having updated and reliable data during a pandemic of this proportion is like driving in the dark," he said. "While we do not have a vaccine, information is the best weapon we have," he added. Confusion over the figures has led a group of Brazil's largest media outlets to launch their own data tracking system, according to a report in newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The National Council of Health Secretaries (Conass), which brings together the heads of Brazil's state health departments and is separate from the health ministry, has also created its own platform. According to the council, Brazil had recorded 680,456 cases of COVID-19 and 36,151 deaths from the disease by the end of Sunday afternoon. (Reporting by Pedro Fonseca and Eduardo Simoes; additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva, writing by Jamie McGeever and Stephen Eisenhammer; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Rosalba O'Brien and Richard Chang) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Village of Hope Our companys mission to Bridge the Digital Divide feels more critical than ever before. The more access we can provide to these children, the more opportunities they have to learn. -Terry Koosed, founder and President of Bel Air Internet. Bel Air Internet, a Southern California based Internet provider, announced that it is donating high-speed Internet service to Orange County Rescue Missions Village of Hope, a 262-bed transitional housing facility for homeless men, women and children, to help bridge the digital divide. The over sixty children living in the facility will now be able to utilize the Internet to access their remote-learning school work and engage with virtual tutors provided through School on Wheels, an organization that provides free tutoring and mentoring to children living in shelters. With all California schools transitioned to distance learning for the rest of the academic year, Internet access is now essential to participating in lessons and completing assignments. Children who do not have Internet, especially those in underserved communities or experiencing homelessness have been left at a disadvantage. Orange County Rescue Mission is one of our larger sites with a lot of students and families in need of reliable and high-speed connectivity, especially during this crisis, says Ian Chan, Program Administrator for School on Wheels. Our team is looking forward to connecting every child with our online tutoring and digital learning and literacy programs to ensure that our students keep up with their learning and don't fall further behind. Bel Air Internet already donates Internet to several other shelters in Southern California including the School on Wheels digital learning facility on Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles. Our companys mission to Bridge the Digital Divide feels more critical than ever before, said Terry Koosed, founder and President of Bel Air Internet. The more access we can provide to these children, the more opportunities they have to learn. Bel Air Internet and School on Wheels have both been extremely instrumental in ensuring that each and every child at the Village of Hope has the opportunity of a quality education, says Jim Palmer, President of the Orange County Rescue Mission. We are so thankful for these community partnerships, which allow us to connect kids at the Rescue Mission with the online resources they need to be successful. About School On Wheels School on Wheels, Inc. is a nonprofit organization founded in 1993 by Agnes Stevens, a retired teacher. Today, hundreds of volunteers work one-on-one with children whose homelessness prevents them from receiving the academic stability and help they desperately need. The mission of School on Wheels is to enhance educational opportunities for homeless children from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The goal is to shrink the gaps in their education and provide them with the highest level of education possible. The program spans six counties in Southern California, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura, as well as a learning center in Skid Row. PRESS CONTACT School on Wheels, Inc. Sinead Chilton 805.641.1678 About Orange County Rescue Mission Orange County Rescue Mission's goal is to minister the love of Jesus Christ to the Least, the Last, and the Lost of our community through the provision of assistance in the areas of guidance, counseling, education, job training, shelter, food, clothing, health care and independent living communities. The Rescue Mission was formed as a faith-based organization in 1963. Since that time, the Rescue Mission has shared hope through Jesus Christ to those without hope in Orange County. Our programs are designed to give comprehensive services that move homeless men, women, veterans, and children to self-sufficiency. Its programs and dedication to going above and beyond have earned the organization numerous recognitions including Charity Navigators highest rating of 4 stars. To make a donation or inquire about volunteer opportunities with Orange County Rescue Mission, please contact (714) 247-4320 or visit http://www.rescuemission.org. About Bel Air Internet Bel Air Internet is a boutique Internet and communications firm delivering services to over 70,000 daily users throughout Southern California and Las Vegas. With full control over its private state-of-the-art fiber/wireless network, they provide Internet, Wi-Fi, television and voice services to customers across residential buildings, commercial properties, student housing developments, film studios, hotels and temporary events. Bel Air Internets philanthropic mission is to help Bridge the Digital Divide and ensure all children have equal access to broadband Internet. Deptford Township police cars are not equipped with dashcams. The town challenged a state law requiring dashcams and a panel struck down the mandate in 2016. Read more The family of a suspected shoplifter who was fatally shot by a Deptford Township police officer in 2018 while allegedly trying to flee a South Jersey strip mall has filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit, contending the deadly police action was unreasonable and unjustifiable. The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Camden, charges that Sgt. Kevin A. Clements acted improperly when he shot and killed LaShanda Anderson, 36, of Philadelphia, at the Deptford Crossing Center on June 9, 2018. Clements fired three shots as Anderson and a passenger tried to flee, authorities said. She was struck in the left side of her head and in an elbow. She died at the scene. The shooting sparked national headlines and protests at the scene. Andersons family called it another senseless killing of an unarmed African American woman. Clements is white. It was the first fatal shooting by police in Deptford. It was an unreasonable and unjustifiable use of deadly force, said Woodbury civil rights attorney Stanley King, who represents the Anderson family. No reasonable officer would have acted in a similar fashion under these circumstances. READ MORE: NAACP calls for state probe of deadly Deptford strip mall shooting King believes the shooting had racial overtones and bears a striking resemblance to recent allegations of police brutality that have sparked protests around the country. I dont believe LaShanda Anderson would be dead but for the fact for her race, he said Monday. I dont believe he would have shot recklessly if it were two white women. In the lawsuit, King contends police created a false narrative that the officers life was in danger. He also renewed questions about the grand jury probe and the prosecutors failure to present testimony from two eyewitnesses who said Anderson was trying to flee, not run over Clements. Theres no way it could have happened the way they said it did, said Aedan Bell, 24, of Clementon, one of the witnesses. Police allowed other eyewitnesses in the store to leave without getting statements or names, he said. The incident was in the Marshalls parking lot across from Deptford Mall on a Saturday afternoon. Clements and Capt. William Bittner were dispatched to the scene after a report of a shoplifting in progress, authorities have said. Anderson, Raoul Gadson, and Chanel Barnes, all of Philadelphia, left Marshalls with merchandise valued at $3,433.41, authorities said. READ MORE: Witnesses provide new account in fatal Deptford police shooting of alleged After a scuffle with a store employee, Gadson ran off, and Anderson and Barnes got into an SUV, authorities said. Clements stood in front of the vehicle with his weapon drawn and ordered Anderson to stop, but she accelerated toward him. According to King, the shots were fired into the SUV after it passed Clements. Shooting toward a fleeing vehicle violates police training, he said. Barnes was arrested and charged with shoplifting, and released to await trial. Gadson was captured several days later and charged with assault and robbery. The 15-page lawsuit contends the police department failed to adequately train and supervise its officers. In addition to Clements, the lawsuit names Bittner and former Police Chief William Hanstein. All three have retired and could not be reached for comment. Clements, a 20-year veteran, was accused of roughing up two women during previous encounters. A 70-year-old female driver said Clements slammed her to the ground after he stopped her in August 2015 for allegedly making an illegal lane change; her case settled for $20,000. Another woman said she suffered a broken nose when Clements punched her in the face while he was attempting to disperse a rowdy crowd at a Deptford bar in 2018. READ MORE: Officer in fatal Deptford strip mall shooting is praised as a role model. Hes also accused of assaulting two women. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Andersons three children and seeks unspecified punitive damages. Family members have said Anderson was trying to get her life together after several brushes with the law. She had been arrested more than 15 times over the last 18 years for shoplifting but also for more serious charges, including firearms violations and attempted murder. Lebanon is aiming to allow international firms to bid for management over either of its state-owned mobile networks by September, according to the countrys telecoms minister. According to local news outlet The Daily Star, Minister Talal Hawat said that once the necessary documents were complete, he would present it to Cabinet and the tender department to take the necessary measures in order to launch the tender. In May this year, Lebanons Cabinet granted the Ministry of Telecommunications (MoT) temporary authority over two of the countrys mobile network operators, Alfa and Touch. At the time, Hawat suggested that the contract tender was on track to begin in August. Egypts Orascom Investment Holding (OIH) and Kuwaits Zain Group were the respective managing companies of Alfa and Touch. At the end of last year, both conglomerates were told that their short-term rolling contracts would come to an end; however, both are likely to bid on contracts in the upcoming tender. University hosting drive-thru flour distribution Tuesday, June 9, 2020 Kansas State University President Richard Myers assists with the flour production on June 4 at the Hal Ross Flour Mill. The university will distribute 1,500 10-pound bags flour to those in need from 3-7 p.m. June 18. | Download this photo. MANHATTAN Three months after Kansas State University implemented limited operations and moved to remote instruction, the Department of Grain Science and Industry has brought the Hal Ross Flour Mill back online to manufacture flour for those in need in the local community. The university will host a drive-thru flour distribution from 3-7 p.m. Thursday, June 18, at the Hal Ross Flour Mill, 1980 Kimball Ave., Manhattan. There is no charge for the flour, which will be limited to one 10-pound bag per vehicle and is not for resale. As safer at home orders began, faculty noticed the absence of flour at local supermarkets and wondered if the university's milling facilities could be used to aid the local community. This idea received unanimous support from college and university leadership and moved into the planning stages several weeks ago. "We know people are struggling with basic food supplies, including flour. It's something K-State and the department could do," said Gordon Smith, professor and head of the grain science and industry department. "We have a mill, we have highly skilled faculty to run the mill, and continued support from the Kansas Wheat Commission and Kansas wheat farmers. It is a locally sourced, farm-to-table, philanthropic endeavor by K-State." Recently, 20,000 pounds of wheat was milled by departmental faculty with special help from K-State President Richard Myers. Ten hours of milling yielded 15,000 pounds of all-purpose white flour. The remaining parts of the wheat berry not used in the flour will be used for animal feed. "The Kansas Wheat Commission and the K-State Department of Grain Science and Industry have a long history of working together on projects for the wheat industry, combining stakeholder input with the department's flour milling expertise," stated Justin Gilpin, chief executive officer for the Kansas Wheat Commission and Kansas Association of Wheat Growers. "Kansas wheat farmers were glad to help support this project. Wheat is a staple food for many Americans and this project by K-State will help put it in the hands of people in need." The university plans to donate any flour not distributed on June 18 to the Flint Hills Breadbasket in Manhattan and Harvesters in Topeka. K-State is the only higher education institution in the world that offers bachelor's degrees milling, bakery and feed science and management, which are available through the Department of Grain Science and Industry in the College of Agriculture. LAPD Police Chief Michel Moore speaks with a protester in the Fairfax District. The LAPD on Monday instructed officers not to use carotid restraints, chokeholds that restrict or block blood flow through the carotid arteries, pending a review by the city's Police Commission. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) The Los Angeles Police Department on Monday instructed officers not to use carotid restraints, chokeholds that restrict or block blood flow to the brain, pending a review by the citys Police Commission. The restraint can render people unconscious or, as in the case of George Floyd, who was pinned to the ground by his neck for nearly nine minutes, it can prove fatal. Floyd, who was black, pleaded that he couldnt breathe as Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis policeman, pressed his knee into the mans neck. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter; three more officers have been charged with aiding and abetting those crimes. LAPD Chief Michel Moore and Eileen Decker, president of the Police Commission, agreed to a moratorium on both the use and the training of carotid restraints until the commission has finished a detailed review of department policy regarding the holds, the LAPD said in a statement Monday evening. The same day, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said it had restricted use of carotid restraints to when a suspects actions threatened someones life or serious bodily injury. Deputies were previously allowed to use the restraint when someones actions were assaultive or high risk. Lt. John Satterfield called the change the right thing to do. The community's made it clear that this isn't a force option that they want where it's currently at, Satterfield said. We hear the community, and were going to react. Sheriffs Department personnel have used the move 193 times since 2010, he said. When we use it, we use it very effectively no ones ever died as a result, Satterfield said. We dont apply it with a knee or a leg. That would never have occurred in any of our training. New Delhi: The symbolic disengagement of Indian and Chinese armies from few areas in eastern Ladakh has shown their intent to resolve the border standoff peacefully ahead of another round of military talks on Wednesday. The gesture explains that the dialogue between the two countries was successful and China too understood that bullying tactics will not work against India. China recently released propaganda videos to show its military preparations and the strategy perhaps was to build a psychological pressure on India but disengagement of its troops in eastern Ladakh today simply showed the hollowness of the Chinese Army in front of India's global diplomatic might. Chinese troops had advanced on four positions on the Line of Actual Control; three in the Galvan Valley and one in Pangong Lake, where the troops of both the nation were face to face. Now, from three places in the Galvan Valley, Chinese troops have gone back nearly two and a half kilometers. The Chinese troops had earlier reached Finger 4 of Pangong Lake in Ladakh and confronted the Indian soldiers. Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged since May 5 following a violent clash in Pangong Tso. Even as the disengagement of Chinese troops is being considered a moral victory of India, some people in the country tried to undermine the spirit of nation just to nourish their political career. Of these, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's statements can be rightly referred to. Rahul Gandhi should peep into the pages of history to know the blunders committed by his great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, who happend to be the first Prime Minister of India. During the Nehruian rule, China occupied 43,000 square kilometers of land in Aksai Chin and Ladakh after the 1962 war. Of this, China had seized 38,000 square kilometers in the 1962 war, and about 5000 square kilometers of land was handed over to it by Pakistan. The 43,000 square kilometers of land can house country like Denmark, Netherlands, or Switzerland. Because of Prime Minister of Jawaharlal Nehru's folly, Pakistan managed to occupy over 85,000 square kilometers of land in Kashmir. This includes the territory of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. These facts show that more than 1.28 lakh square kilometers of land had gone to China and Pakistan when Pandit Nehru was the Prime Minister. The area is almost equal to the size of Bangladesh and there are about 90 countries in the world which are smaller than this tract. The failure of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to asses China is the reason behind Sino-India border dispute. China first occupied Tibet and then strategised to take the possession of Aksai Chin. Nehru is alleged to have committed several other mistakes while China continued to strengthen its military might. In 1952, the Kulwant Singh Committee had warned the then Indian government about the Chinese build up but this went unheard. Nehru's biggest mistake is stated to be that he did not allow Indian Air Force to participate in the 1962 war, otherwise the consequence of the faceoff would have been different. China's psychological warfare, however, has now failed in front of India. Chinese Army fought a war 41 years ago in 1979, and had suffered defeat at the hands of Vietnam. Currently, there is hardly any officer in the Chinese army who would have the experience of the war. On the contrary, Indian Army had defeated Pakistan badly in Kargil war nearly 21 years ago. The Indian Army also has the experience of penetrating into the enemy's territory. The examples can be seen in the surgical strikes and air strikes against Pakistan. Notably, India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India opposes it. IKEA Australia has launched a new money-saving household range that can slash a family of four's electricity bills by as much as $1,500 per year. Customers living in Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria will be able to shop for solar panels through the retailer's website from Wednesday, June 10. The new SOLSTRALE system, which costs from $3,500 to $7,000, was created by Solargain, who has more than 20 years experience in developing tailored solar offerings for shoppers. Unique to the Australian market, the renewable energy range comes with a guarantee for the system to produce at least 80 per cent of what's quoted in a customer's initial estimate for a period of five years. A family of four in New South Wales with a 6.6kW system could save over $1,500 a year, while a household in Victoria could expect a saving of up to $1,742. IKEA has launched a new range of solar panels that can slash a family of four's electricity bills by as much as $1,500 per year Customers living in Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria will be able to shop for solar panels through the retailer's website from Wednesday, June 10 (file image) How much money can a family of four save from each state? A family of four in New South Wales with a 6.6kW system could save over $1,500 per year, with the same household makeup in: Victoria saving up to $1742 per year South Australia saving up to $1950 per year Western Australia saving up to $1337 per year Queensland saving up to $1584 per year ACT saving up to $1498 per year Advertisement CEO and chief sustainability officer, Jan Gardberg, said he's proud that IKEA could invite consumers to join them in their commitment to become climate positive. 'Today's launch marks an important day in the IKEA Australia organisation,' he said. 'We are proud have developed this offer in collaboration with our partner, and we hope that this will encourage our customers to live a more sustainable everyday life by removing the barriers to investing in renewable energy.' Unique to the Australian market, the renewable energy range comes with a guarantee for the system to produce at least 80 per cent of what's quoted in a customer's initial estimate for a period of five years Keera Single, CEO of Solargain, said they were looking forward to working alongside IKEA to bring an exclusive offering to the Australian market. 'We wanted to work with a partner that shared our vision to help more Australians experience the benefits of renewable energy,' Mr Single said. 'In working with a retailer like IKEA, we believe we can reach more households that are able to make the switch to solar, which is an exciting opportunity for us to be involved in.' A SOLSTRALE system can cost from $3,500 to $7,000. A couple living in a standalone home in New South Wales could expect to pay $3,500 for a 3kW system and expect that to be paid off in approximately four years. A family of four could expect to pay up to $6,000 in South Australia, which could be paid off in as little as three years. Journalists Denys Kazansky and Sergiy Garmash have joined the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group for the Peaceful Settlement of the Situation in Donetsk and Luhansk Regions. The journalists wrote this on Facebook. "An important announcement. As of today, I am participating in the meetings of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas. Let me remind you that it is called a trilateral one because Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE are considered parties to the talks ('LPR/DPR' are not parties to the conflict). This is not about a consultative council that was to be created earlier and that was opposed by the society. The idea of creating such a council was abandoned," Kazansky said. Garmash also announced the offer to join the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG. "I was invited to join the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk. Today I will take part in the work of the political subgroup as a representative of ORDLO [certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions]. It sounds scary. In fact, I have been saying on all channels for five years that if you find the Minsk agreements so important - and they contain Ukraine's obligation to 'consult' and 'agree on' some bills with 'representatives of 'certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions' - then I am also from Donetsk, negotiate with me!" Garmash wrote. On May 5, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed the composition of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group. It will continue to be headed by Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine's president in 1994-2005. The delegation also includes Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov (first deputy head of the delegation), Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation, MP Oleksandr Merezhko (deputy head of the delegation), Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Yulia Svyrydenko (Ukraine's representative in the working subgroup on socio-economic issues), Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy, MP Andriy Kostin (Ukraine's representative in the working subgroup on political issues), Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Polishchuk (Ukraine's representative in the working subgroup on security issues), Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans' Rights, and MP Halyna Tretiakova (Ukraine's representative in the working subgroup on humanitarian issues). op Nepals lower house on Tuesday evening made a strong pitch in favour of the constitution amendment bill to redraw Nepals political map that could lead to a freeze in relations between Kathmandu and New Delhi. The new political map pushed hard by the KP Sharma Oli government is set to clear the first legislative hurdle in the lower house. The constitution amendment bill will next go to the 59-member National Assembly where the ruling Communist Party of Nepal has an overwhelming majority. The map, cleared by the Oli Cabinet last month, counts Indian territories of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura as its own. Its passage by the cabinet on May 18 had angered India that asked Nepal to refrain from such unjustified cartographic assertion for an artificial enlargement of territorial claims. That message from New Delhi appeared to have gone unheard in Kathmandu. The new map was Prime Minister Olis effort to whip up ultra-nationalistic sentiments at Indias cost and consolidate his weakening hold on the government and the ruling Communist Party of Nepal. It appeared to have bought PM Oli time. Also Read: The costs of anti-Indian nationalism in Nepal | HT Editorial Opposition parties that have been attacking the Oli government for his handling of the economy and Covid-19 found themselves coming around to back PM Oli in the lower house on Tuesday. PM Oli needs a two-third majority in both houses of Nepals Parliament. It was supported by political parties across the spectrum - 83 MPs spoke at Tuesdays meeting - but the formal approval could take some time as the proposal for consideration of the bill was adopted with lawmakers given 72 hours to file an amendment to the bill. It would be passed once the chief whips of political parties agree that no amendment is required. There has been no formal response from New Delhi to Tuesdays development. There may be one later to set the record straight, a senior government official told Hindustan Times. Also Read: Decoding the India-Nepal dispute | Opinion New Delhi is furious at Nepals political leaders creating a boundary dispute with India to serve their respective domestic political interests and is expected to cold shoulder requests for a dialogue. Once Nepal cabinet and then parliament backed changes to its map to incorporate Indian territory, there isnt a lot to talk about, a senior government official said hours after Nepals foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali spoke of his countrys desire to talk to New Delhi to resolve the boundary issue. We have expressed time and again that Nepal wants to sit at the table to resolve this problem, Pradeep Gyawali had told news agency Associated Press on Tuesday. The foreign ministers boss PM Oli had ignited the row after India reissued its map to incorporate changes in Jammu and Kashmir that had been carved into two union territories. Like in all previous maps, this one too continued to count Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as part of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Also Read: The past, present and future of the Nepal-India stand-off | Analysis The two countries planned to hold a round of discussions at the foreign secretarys level to address Nepals concerns but the meetings couldt be scheduled for one reason or the other. PM Olis government, however, renewed the attacks after India inaugurated an 80-km road in Uttarakhand that almost goes up till Lipulekh Pass at the India-China border. This project essentially involved building a metalled road connecting Dharchula town in Uttarakhand to the Lipulekh pass. New Delhi was surprised when Kathmandu protested over the road that had been built in indian territory. This area, spread over 330 sq km near Nepals western tri-junction with India and China, had always been part of India in every map that had been issued for more than a century and in terms of the ground situation, a senior official said. This claim was also accepted by the Chinese when it inked a pact with India to trade via Lipulekh pass back in 1954. When the two sides mentioned LipuLekh as a bilateral trade route in a 2015 joint statement sixty years later, Nepal registered its protest. Behind the sharp rhetoric from Kathmandu over the road and Covid-19 in recent weeks, Indian officials said PM Oli appeared to be aiming to immortalize himself in Nepals history as the prime minister who stood up to its big neighbour. Quite like Prime Minister Kirtinidhi Bista who persuaded Indira Gandhi in 1969 to wind up Indian military posts along the Nepal frontier. When former foreign secretary Shyam Saran was Indias ambassador to Kathmandu, Bista told him that he counted his conversation with Gandhi as his lifes greatest moment. In recent years, Indian officials said Nepal politicians had found themselves unable to take a stand on India and found it politically expedient to lay the blame at Indias doors. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in contrast, had gone an extra mile to accommodate the himalayan nation. Like when the two countries were looking at a new pact to replace the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the two countries, PM Modi had messaged early in his first stint as prime minister that Kathmandu could put together the first draft of the new treaty which the two sides could discuss. When Nepal had reservations over the 50:50 funding format proposed for the Pancheshwar dam project, PM Modi had again asked Nepal to contribute what it could and promised to pool in the rest. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A Breakdown of Internet Access in Seattle Adapting to a Pandemic Who Has Internet Access? Outside the City Navigating a Digital World Barriers to Access (TNS) When Daria Smith moved to South Seattle, Wash., she wasnt planning to get the internet any time soon. Its expensive, and she had other, more pressing bills to pay.But her priorities shifted after the Auburn School District sent her son and daughter, ages 14 and 13, home in the middle of March because of the coronavirus pandemic.She tried to sign up for a free or reduced-cost internet plan through CenturyLink, a special she thought her family qualified for. Smith waited for hours on hold to ask about their deals, but never received a clear answer. After more than a month without internet and worried her kids would fall behind in school, she caved and signed up for a $70 a month plan in early April.I would have waited, Smith said. I was trying to bring down bills and stuff.She signed up for the service after she received her first paycheck from Amazon. To support her family, she has become a front-line worker, grocery shopping for other people at the Whole Foods in North Seattles Roosevelt neighborhood. On a 10-hour shift, she gets two 10-minute breaks to check in with her kids via text: Did you log on to school today?As people are encouraged to shelter in place, it has placed a greater reliance on technology in the home. But working, learning and connecting with friends remotely requires households to meet a digital threshold. For many low-income families, seniors and immigrants, such connection is a luxury that comes at too high a cost.School and library closures in mid-March eliminated access to free computers and the internet many people relied on, bringing to light digital inequities that have always existed. The pandemic has spurred organizations, major tech companies and school districts to contribute some computers and tech support to people in need. Some transit systems are even using buses to create drive-in, public Wi-Fi hotspots.But closing the long-held digital gap isnt as simple as handing out computers: It requires reliable internet, adequate devices and digital literacy skills in order to take advantage of the technology, researchers say. And to do that now, during a global pandemic, would be an incredibly large feat.It seems simple at first, said Laura Robinson, an associate professor at Santa Clara University whose research examines digital inequities. Lets just get everybody what they need and lets just go. But its horrifically complicated.Even in the greater Seattle region one of the countrys leading technology hubs a significant digital divide persists, particularly for low-income families. Households earning $25,000 or lower in Seattle have the lowest internet access rates, with 21 percent of households reporting a lack of internet access, according to a 2018 technology study by the city.For Seattle, income level is the greatest determining factor when it comes to internet in the home.The divide is even more pronounced across the state: In Washington, 15 of households lacked internet subscriptions, according to U.S. Census data from 2013-2017, the most recent available. But for families in Washington earning $20,000 or less a year, the percentage of those without access was almost 40 percent.This isnt about cat videos on YouTube anymore, said Lloyd Levine, senior policy fellow at the University of California-Riverside, who studies the digital divide. The internet is an essential, integral part of civic life in America in 2020. People who dont have access to the internet at home suffer demonstrable educational and economic harms.Meanwhile, 24,041 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Washington, according to a Monday update from the Washington State Department of Health, and 1,161 people have died from the disease. The states newest numbers represent an additional two deaths and 312 cases compared to the day before.After the coronavirus pandemic shut down the Seattle Public Library classroom used by Asian Counseling and Referral Service, the organization knew it had to get computers into students homes if there was any hope of continuing their English as a Second Language classes.Volunteers got to work, dropping off loaner computers and even helping to sign up students through Seattle Public Library for free Wi-Fi hotspots. But the new equipment brought a host of accompanying hurdles for families, like connecting to the internet.For most of them, this is the first time getting the internet, said Getu Hunde, program coordinator at ACRS.Hunde helped one student over an hourlong WhatsApp video call get connected to Wi-Fi and then on Zoom, so she could attend classes. Another case manager drove to students homes and stood on their porches to talk them through connecting to the internet from a safe distance.Even speaking the same language, its still a problem, Hunde said.English as a second language speakers are more likely to lack internet than native English speakers, according to city data. Living without computers or the internet is a reality for many Beacon Hill International Elementary School students from immigrant families.When the school closed due to the novel coronavirus, first-grade teacher Nisha Daniel found about half of her 51 students lacked the resources they needed to do school work remotely.Their families are struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads; the internet and a computer is the last thing on the list, she said.As the economic ramifications from the pandemic worsen, more families could be out of work and with less expendable income to pay for devices or cover internet costs. Washingtons unemployment rate rose from 5.1 percent in March to 15.4 percent in April, according to Washingtons Employment Security Department.Across Washington, large disparities in broadband access still exist.Using laptops provided by Amazon and secondhand computer donations, Daniel was able to find computers for her students. The PTAs are working with internet companies and lobbying landlords to get the students Wi-Fi.In the meantime, Daniel calls her students without internet access through their parents phones to ensure they received the weekly lesson plan, and helps them practice their English pronunciation by reading stories over WhatsApp video chat.Its so unfair, because the kids who need intervention and help are the ones who dont have the internet, Daniel said.Locally, Amazon donated 8,200 Chromebook laptops to elementary-age Seattle Public School students throughout April and early May. As of May 27, an additional 5,313 devices and 367 Wi-Fi hotspots have been distributed to SPS students, according to SPS spokesperson Tim Robinson.In May, a free, tech-support phone line was created to support SPS families with their new devices. So far, the call center has answered 309 tickets and is being staffed by more than 100 volunteers, many of whom work in the tech industry, said Nick Merriam, whose organization sea.citi is overseeing the service.Still, there remains a lot of ground to cover to ensure every Seattle Public Schools student has access to reliable internet and adequate devices in the home.For kids, lets just say they fall behind in math or in STEM, said Robinson, this period where they are losing out on their education could be a stumbling block that has lifelong implications for their educational trajectories and life chances.Many of the private sectors efforts have focused on closing the urban divide, but there are still rural areas of Washington, including in King County, that lack access to reliable, high-speed internet.Alex Audretsch bought his house outside of Redmond because he wanted to live somewhere quiet.But he didnt know moving to a less dense place would mean sacrificing his connectivity. In order to do his software developer job from home, Audretsch had to purchase a second phone plan from Verizon. The family plan consists of five Wi-Fi hotspots, totaling 75 gigabytes of data a month, which he said he always maxes out.Im grateful I can afford enough hotspots to have the internet I need to do my job, Audretsch said. This event reveals how tenuous our connection with infrastructure can be.Over 21 million Americans, most of whom live in rural areas, lack access to reliable broadband internet, according to a 2019 Federal Communications Commission report. Washington state ranks 16th in the nation when it comes to broadband access, which covers nearly 95 percent of the state, according to data by BroadbandNow, a national policy organization focused on broadband expansion.In recent months, public-private partnerships have emerged to address the digital gap during the pandemic. For instance, Microsoft and the Avista Foundation are funding a recently launched effort between the state and tech organizations, to create more than 300 new drive-in Wi-Fi hotspots throughout Washington. The free parking-lot hotspots are mostly located at Washington State University Extension campuses and at libraries.But Devin Glaser, broadband advocate and executive director of Upgrade Seattle, said expecting families and students to work from their cars is a failure of the system.He described the cruelty of a world where we say, You cant go outside because youll get sick and you cant go to a library because youll get sick, but you also need internet and we cant provide it to you.Auburn resident Diane Knutson, 61, never needed the internet until she found an eviction notice taped to her front door in February. New management took over her building in November and planned to raise the rent by $600, Knutson said. She needs to find a new home by the end of June, but I dont have the internet to find a place, Knutson said over her landline phone.Seven years ago, Knutson and her husband drove around Auburn looking for rent signs until they found the place where she currently lives. Knutson is no longer able to drive due to mobility issues, and she doesnt have a co-pilot after her husband died a few years ago.Now, Knutson lives alone without a computer or internet. She has a cellphone that she reserves for emergencies, although she prefers her landline.If I had someone to teach me how to use [the internet], I absolutely would use it, Knutson said. Without it, shes uncertain how shell find a new home.Knutson isnt alone. The states shelter-in-place order has inspired more people to set up internet connection in their homes, said low-income housing providers.I think theres also some populations that are being missed when it comes to accessibility with devices, said Joanna Endo, who works in a low-income housing unit run by Bellwether Housing in Seattle.Here are the most common reasons Seattle residents cited for not having or using the internet.Mercy Housing, a low-income housing provider, saw more than 300 new requests from residents wishing to get laptops or tablets in their home for the first time. Many senior residents would access their email from the library, or visit their buildings community rooms to use computers, providers said. But those places have been closed for several months now. Some of her senior residents have started walking to libraries so that they can sit outside and log on to the internet, Endo said.Low-income housing providers also find themselves helping their clients navigate internet costs. Many of Endos residents lack a credit card or debit card to set up an internet contract.Some residents have old bill delinquencies following them, like Melodie Clarke who lives in a senior community in Sea-Tac. Living on a fixed income, Clarke struggled to pay off a $296 debt she owed to Comcast. Recently, the $1,200 CARES stimulus check finally helped her pay the bill and get low-cost internet, so she can continue attending her art classes from home.In March, Comcast announced new customers of the Internet Essentials program a less than $10 a month broadband internet service for low-income households would receive the first two months free when signing up through June 30. Launched in 2011, the program has connected more than 340,000 Washington residents, including more than 132,000 people in King County, said the companys Regional Senior Vice President of Washington, Rodrigo Lopez.But some critics say private internet companies limit access for the poor, by throttling internet speeds, requiring yearlong contracts, and limiting the number of devices online at one time.They dont really have an equity lens, Glaser said.Since 2015, Glasers organization, Upgrade Seattle, has advocated that Seattle join the more than 300 cities around the country that have switched to municipal broadband, in which cities pay for the expansion of broadband infrastructure in order to provide it to every residents home. The service is then operated by the city, costs are controlled, just like electricity or water. Seattle City Councilmember Alex Pedersen announced a new resolution in May to encourage the city to start charting the course for universal internet access in Seattle.Levine, the senior policy fellow at UC-Riverside, hopes the pandemics revelation of digital inequities shows broadband internet can no longer be treated as a luxury in our society, but rather as a public utility.The reason were concerned about the digital divide is not because of the digital divide in and of itself, but because it fosters other divides, Levine said. It fosters educational divides and economic divides and health outcome divides. The UK's Test and Trace programme which is aimed at breaking the chain of transmission as quickly as possible is 'not fit for purpose', an independent group of scientists have claimed. The group of 12 experts, led by former Government chief scientific adviser Sir David King, who now leads the independent SAGE group, have argued that the system is 'severely constrained by 'lack of co-ordination, lack of trust' and a 'lack of evidence of utility'. The scientists say that Covid-19 will only be contained if 80 per cent of the contacts of infected people are traced and contacted but they think this is 'impossible' under the current centralised system using 25,000 contact tracers. The independent Sage group have now urged ministers to overhaul the system designed to help the country out of the coronavirus lockdown. An independent group of scientists have said the UK's Test and Trace programme is 'not fit for purpose'. Pictured: Commuters wear masks as they travel on the Tube Sir David King, who now leads the independent SAGE group, has urged ministers to overhaul the system Sir David said this is the 'critical moment for the Government to act now or risk further spikes' and the group believe a tracing and isolating system led by local health bodies would be more effective. In their report into test and trace, released today, the experts say the approach is 'severely constrained by lack of co-ordination, lack of trust, lack of evidence of utility', and contacts being found and isolating for 14 days 'is clearly not happening'. The group, known as Independent Sage, was set up after the official Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had faced criticism over not being transparent. Sir David added: 'The Government has placed huge emphasis on their test, track and trace system in recent weeks, even labelling it ''world beating''. 'It is clear from our research that this simply isn't the case, indeed the system as it stands is not fit for purpose.' He continued: 'We are calling on the Government to urgently rethink their course to ensure that we have a system in place that will help and not hinder the country's recovery.' Under the Track and Trace scheme, Britons who have been in close contact with infected patients are being told to self-isolate for 14 days, even if they are asymptomatic. The scheme will require anyone who develops symptoms associated with the coronavirus to get tested by ordering a test online or by calling 119. The Test and Trace scheme requires anyone who has been in close contact with an infected person to self-isolate for 14 days The new NHSX app uses Bluetooth technology to alert people when they've been close to a Covid-19 patient If a patient tests positive they must remain in isolation and will be asked to share phone numbers and email addresses for close contacts. Those who are listed will then receive a text message or email asking them to self-isolate for 14 days depending on the point at which they came in contact with the infected person. The system is designed to break the chain of transmission as quickly as possible in order to squash potential outbreaks and stop them from escalating. Earlier today Sage scientist Professor Susan Michie, a psychologist at University College London, criticised the Government's decision to leave out the word 'isolate' from its coronavirus Test and Trace programme, claiming it would lead to less compliance. Professor Michie, who is also director of UCL's Centre for Behaviour Change, said isolating cases was the most vital part of the system and not including it in the title of the UK's flagship scheme was 'puzzling'. She told the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee today: 'The other thing that is very puzzling to me is why the government has called it Test and Trace, when the World Health Organization (WHO) and many other countries call it Test, Trace and Isolate. 'Because without isolation all of the rest of it is for nothing. We absolutely need the isolation. And if one doesn't have it in the label of the system, it's not communicating that this is a vital part of it. 'We already know there are going to be really big difficulties with isolation if people are being asked to stay home for 14 days and not go to work, this is a big financial penalty.' Today figures from the Department of Health showed that Britain's coronavirus death toll today jumped by 286, with 277 of the Covid-19 victims from England and nine from Wales. The school system, which had about 71,000 students enrolled this year, announced March 13 it was closing because of the coronavirus and switching to online instruction. Most Catholic schools in the archdiocese, which covers Cook and Lake counties, already have finished their school year, having never resumed in-person classes. BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed hope that Britain will respect China's legitimate right to safeguard national security in Hong Kong during a phone conversation on Monday with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. China and Britain, as two major countries with global influence, share the common responsibility of safeguarding world peace and development, Wang said, adding that strengthening mutually-beneficial cooperation in a wide range of fields between the two sides is in the fundamental and long-term interests of the two peoples. Noting that international peace and strategic stability are disrupted and damaged by unilateralism, Wang said the two countries shoulder the responsibility of upholding multilateralism and jointly safeguarding the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law. Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs and no outside interference is allowed, Wang said, pointing out that maintaining national security in Hong Kong concerns China's core interests, thereby a major issue of principle that must be adhered to. The central government is responsible for upholding national security in China, as is the case in any other country, Wang said. While the central government authorizes the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to enact laws on its own to safeguard national security through Article 23 of the Basic Law, it does not change the fact that safeguarding national security is within the purview of the central authorities, Wang said. Faced with the actual harm and serious threat to the national security in Hong Kong, the National People's Congress (NPC) has decisively introduced new national security legislation for application in Hong Kong, which will help fill the obvious loopholes and long-term deficiencies in such area for Hong Kong as soon as possible, he added, adding that such a move is reasonable, legal and imperative. Wang stressed that the national security legislation for Hong Kong aims to better implement "one country, two systems," adding that Article 1 of the decision passed by the NPC makes clearly that the principles of "one country, two systems," "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy will be fully and faithfully honored. This is another solemn commitment made by China's highest organ of state power to uphold the principle of "one country, two systems" in the highest legal form of NPC legislation, Wang said, adding that China will never accept the groundless accusation that the national security legislation will change "one country, two systems." Wang said the national security legislation for Hong Kong targets a very small number of "Hong Kong independence" separatists and violent elements, adding that the legislation will better ensure various rights and freedom of Hong Kong citizens, and also make all law-abiding foreigners feel more at ease working and living in Hong Kong. The current capitalist system in Hong Kong will not change, nor will its rights to a high degree of autonomy enjoyed under the Basic Law, or the way of life of the Hong Kong citizens, Wang said, adding that the national security legislation will only improve Hong Kong's legal system, social order and business environment. Calling the national security legislation a litmus test, Wang said, if one expects lasting peace and stability in Hong Kong, they should support rather than worrying about the legislation; If one wants "one country, two systems" to go a long way, they should support rather than opposing the legislation. Both as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Wang said, China and Britain should set an example in abiding by the basic norms of international relations and not interfering in other countries' internal affairs. Looking back on the history of China-Britain relations, China has never interfered in Britain's internal affairs and has never pointed a finger at Britain's domestic affairs, Wang said. China hopes that Britain will respect the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Basic Law enacted in accordance with the Constitution, respect China's legitimate right to safeguard national security on its territory, and respect the Chinese central government's administration of Hong Kong under the principle of "one country, two systems," Wang said, adding that the British side must adopt a cautious attitude on this affair. For his part, Raab said Britain is committed to developing a strong bilateral relationship with China, expressing belief that after the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides will further strengthen cooperation on major international and regional issues including climate change and Iran's nuclear issue. Within the framework of a mature Britain-China relationship, the two sides can have a candid exchange of views on any topics, Raab said, adding that Britain is willing to deliberate on the contents of today's in-depth exchanges, and continue to communicate with China in the spirit of mutual respect. The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has formally applied for early release from prison after becoming eligible for parole. Christian Brueckner, 43, has served two thirds of his 15-month drug dealing sentence in jail in Kiel, northern Germany, and is believed to have lodged papers seeking release last Friday. There will be an official hearing in Flensburg District Court on a date yet to be fixed where he is expected to be interviewed. But his application is expected to be rejected as he is still on remand after being found guilty last year of raping a 72-year-old in a horrific attack in Portugal in 2005. And his bid for freedom came as newly unearthed satellite imagery appeared to show Brueckner's campervan at the site of his former house in Praia da Luz just hours after Madeleine vanished in 2007. The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has formally applied for early release from prison after becoming eligible for parole (Christian Brueckner, left, and Madeleine on the day she vanished, right) Newly unearthed satellite imagery appeared to show Brueckner's campervan at the site of his former house in Praia da Luz around the time after Madeleine vanished in 2007 It appears to show the roof of a campervan parked in the scrubland surrounding Brueckner's former home, where he lived between 1999 and 2006 (pictured) Detectives believe Christian Brueckner, the main suspect in the McCann case, was living out of a German campervan in 2007 Brueckner is appealing the rape, which took place in the same Algarve resort where Madeleine disappeared, arguing that his extradition from Italy to Germany in 2018 was illegal. As he being held under a European Arrest Warrant, the German appeal court has asked the European Court of Justice to make a ruling. Until the appeal process is exhausted, the seven-years he received for the rape cannot yet start. Brueckner, who spent 18 years on and off in Portugal, came to global attention last week when he was identified as the main suspect in the abduction of Madeleine in 2007. German prosecutors say they believe the girl, who was three when she vanished from her family's holiday apartment, is dead. He is also being investigated in connection with the disappearance of two other children and is considered a serious flight risk. Although Brueckner is still refusing to co-operate with police, there is also still the possibility for the public prosecutor's office to apply for an arrest warrant for the Maddie case. Christian Brueckner, 43, has served two thirds of his 15-month drug dealing sentence in jail (pictured) in Kiel, northern Germany, and is believed to have lodged papers seeking release last Friday German criminal lawyer Christian Krausse said: 'In Germany, after serving two thirds of a sentence for a drug related crime prisoners are usually released on probation. However, on this occasion there is also a rape conviction for which he has been sentenced to seven-years in jail. 'Until Christian B's appeal against the rape conviction is decided, he is in custody on a European arrest warrant. The German Federal Court of Justice has asked the European Court of Justice to decide on the legality of the European arrest warrant. 'Due to the seriousness of the rape, and now other crimes he is a suspect in, including the Madeline McCann investigation, means it is highly unlikely he will be released. He is likely to remain in custody pending the appeal.' Last night, unearthed satellite imagery from 2007 shows a vehicle which looks strikingly similar to the VW Westfalia T3 owned by prime suspect Christian Brueckner. Detectives have touted the vehicle as a critical clue in the 13-year-old unsolved mystery, because the sex offender was living in the vehicle at the time of the toddler's disappearance. A Spanish investigator has trawled through aerial photographs from May 2007 - when Madeleine disappeared from her Portuguese hotel bedroom - to find this image. It shows the roof of a campervan parked in the scrubland surrounding Brueckner's former home, where he lived between 1999 and 2006. German police and Scotland Yard are now probing the possibility Brueckner ditched the vehicle at the familiar site after kidnapping the British infant. 'If that is the van in that spot the image could be extremely significant,' a Portuguese investigation source told the Sun. Brueckner lived in the house until 2006 with his German girlfriend, with whom locals recall he would regularly row. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The Report Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product, By End Use (Hospitals, Nursing Homes), By Region (North America, MEA, APAC, Europe), And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2026 The global durable medical equipment (DME) market size is expected to reach USD 271.0 billion by 2026 registering a CAGR of 6.1%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is primarily driven by rise in chronic diseases, such as kidney failures and cancer. Moreover, technological advancements along with strong reimbursement scenario will boost the DME market further. For instance, in January 2019, WHILL, Inc., a U.S.-based personal electric vehicle, introduced new technology WHILL autonomous drive at the Consumer Electronic Sow held at the Las Vegas. In the past, Medicare has taken steps to bring reimbursement of DME products in line with other payers. In this direction, in December 2015, the Center for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) issued a new rule of prior authorization process for DME, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS). The DMEPOS includes the master list of 135 items, which require prior authorization before beneficiary receives an item. In addition, growing geriatric population across the globe is likely to contribute to the industry expansion. People aged 60 years or above are more prone to health issues, such as diabetes, mobility issues, Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs), and other lifestyle problems. This creates demand for DME products. However, stringent regulatory guidelines in developed economies and lack of skilled professionals may limit the durable medical equipment market growth. Access Research Report of Durable Medical Equipment Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/durable-medical-equipment-dme-market Further key findings from the study suggest: Personal mobility devices emerged as the largest segment owing to the launch of technologically advanced products with more comfort and portability Nursing homes is anticipated to be the fastest-growing segment over the study period as these facilities offer custodial care like skilled care, such as bathing and dressing Europe led the market with the largest share in 2018 and will witness a steady growth in future on account of the presence of major companies in the region Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR from 2019 to 2026 owing to the presence of a large target population base and improving healthcare facilities Some of the key companies in the global DME market are Invacare Corporation; ArjoHuntleigh; Stryker Corporation; Hill Rom, Inc.; Drive Medical; GF Health Products, Inc.; Sunrise Medical; Medline Industries, Inc.; and Carex Health Brands, Inc. Grand View Research has segmented the global Durable Medical Equipment (DME) market on the basis of product, end use, and region: DME Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2026) Personal Mobility Devices Bathroom Safety Devices and Medical Furniture Monitoring and Therapeutic Devices DME End Use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2026) Hospital Nursing Homes Home Healthcare Other DME Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2026) North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America Middle East & Africa 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. T he Duke of Westminsters family property business, Grosvenor, has submitted fresh plans for a 520 million Belgravia regeneration, after a high-profile row with residents forced a major rethink. The companys original proposals last year, for the demolition of four Cundy Street blocks of private flats and Westminster council-managed Walden House near Victoria, were criticised for allegedly putting profits before people. Of particular concern was that families in Walden House would have to move twice once to temporary housing 12 miles away, and only then into their new homes in what Grosvenor has called the Cundy Street Quarter. However, under the latest proposals they have been promised they will only have to move once, a decision that has been warmly welcomed by campaigners, whose petition attracted 200,000 signatures. Grosvenor project director, Fergus Evans, said: From the outset we wanted to design a new part of the neighbourhood that would deliver more opportunity in Belgravia better homes, more open space, new facilities and a much greener environment. There were challenges raised and we know we didnt get everything right. But that challenge has turned into conversation, which not only improved these proposals but also helped transform how we engage with communities across our business. Were grateful to all the residents and neighbours who contributed. The apartments in the distinctive seven-storey Cundy Street blocks were known as the aristo-flats because of their well-heeled occupants, including the young Camilla Shand, now Duchess of Cornwall. In 1972, 25-year-old Camilla Shand invited Charles back for coffee to her two-bedroom flat at Cundy Streets Stack House in the early hours after an evening at Annabels night club in Mayfair. Under the new scheme, designed by architects DSDHA, the five existing buildings will be replaced with new housing, with 93 affordable homes including 44 for social rent, specialist senior living accommodation for up to 170 people and 70 open market homes. There will also be a community hub, food store and cinema as well as new green spaces. Mr Evans added: Today, the value of open green space and the need to respond to the climate emergency is clearer than ever. With larger, more energy-efficient homes, set in new green space open to all, these designs will help make Belgravia fit for the future. In a jailhouse letter that was published in the New York Times a few months after he was detained in 2016, Rajab wrote that the experience of prison is not new to me: I have been here before, from 2012 to 2014, in 2015, and now again, all because of my work as a human rights defender. The last-minute introduction of fines against peaceful Black Lives Matter protests in Northern Ireland over the weekend is unacceptable, Amnesty International UK and the Committee on the Administration of Justice said today. The human rights organisations have raised concerns that enforcement powers used by the PSNI as the legal basis for penalties only came into force at 11pm on Friday night, just hours ahead of Saturdays Black Lives Matter protests which resulted in scores of participants receiving fines and organisers facing prosecution. Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International UK, said: The last-minute amendment of regulations to allow fines against peaceful Black Lives Matter protests is unacceptable. As human rights organisations, we recognise the complexities of the current situation, balancing the right to protest and the need to protect public health. But even in times of emergency, law enforcement officials may only use means that is necessary and proportionate to achieve a legitimate objective. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tweeted that People have a right to protest peacefully and while observing social distancing, yet people in Northern Ireland are being fined and face prosecution for doing just that. The fines should be voided and allegations of racial profiling in the issue of such fines must be examined. Brian Gormally, Director of CAJ, said: We have serious concerns both about the confused and unsatisfactory nature of emergency legislation in Northern Ireland and the policing operations over the past weekend in response to the Black Lives Matter protests. The regulations here do not address the right to protest and instead the PSNI is relying on powers designed to restrict social gatherings that only became enforceable the night before the protest. The enforcement powers themselves are so vaguely drafted that they are reminiscent of the notorious Special Powers Acts. We urgently require clarity from the Executive and PSNI to ensure that the regulations expressly uphold the right to protest in an effective and safe manner. Right to protest The right to protest is a fundamental human right, which may be limited in a public health emergency, but limitations must be proportionate, meet the test of legal certainty this is, the rules must be clear - and not be enforced in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner. Last-minute powers The The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 have now been amended five times but neither the exemptions to the Stay at home regulation 5 or the restrictions on gatherings regulations (6-6A) expressly consider protests. The PSNI have relied on Regulation 6A designed to restrict outdoor social gatherings to up to six persons. Notably this came into force on the 19th of May but there were no enforcement powers attached to it. That changed as an amendment was put before the NI Assembly at 5pm last Friday and came into force at 11pm on Friday night, the night before the anti-racism protests [1]. By Trend Germany seeks to further expand its relations with Azerbaijan, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) told Trend. "Germany seeks to further expand its relations with Azerbaijan on the principles of trustful cooperation and the rule of law not limited to certain business areas. The German government supports the activities of German industry in Azerbaijan by deploying its foreign trade and investment instruments, which notably include export guarantees and investment guarantees available for German direct investment abroad," said the ministry. The ministry said the German-Azerbaijani intergovernmental group has also been actively promoting German-Azerbaijani economic relations, working to intensify the bilateral economic cooperation as well as improving the framework for this while supporting specific projects. "Azerbaijan is one of Germany's most important economic partners in the Southern Caucasus and an important partner country in our endeavour to boost our energy security. It also is a reliable trading partner. Regrettably, it is not possible for us to estimate the exact consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on individual trading partners. The current main goal for all of us is to emerge from the crisis as quickly and unscathed as possible," said the Federal Ministry. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz OTTAWAThe Trudeau government wants the power to fine and imprison people who fraudulently claim the Canada Emergency Response Benefit that was created to help people who lost work during the pandemic crisis, according to a draft bill obtained by the Star. The draft legislation says people who knowingly apply for and/or receive the $2,000-per-month benefit by withholding or using false information could be fined and imprisoned for up to six months. Fines would be set for no more than $5,000, plus an amount that is no more than double the payouts a person received, the draft bill says. The draft bill would also create stricter conditions for the $2,000-per-month benefit by barring people who dont return to work when it is reasonable to do so or decline a reasonable job offer. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that the government needs to bring in measures that will punish a small number of fraudsters that are trying to take advantage of the emergency benefit. And he said the government is not looking to punish people who made honest mistakes by applying for the support when they didnt qualify. We will make sure that we are punishing people who will try to take advantage of this situation, he said during his regular press conference outside Rideau Cottage. As of June 4, the federal government had paid out more than $43.5 billion in emergency response benefits to more than 8.4 million people, according to statistics published online. In an email to the Star on Tuesday, Canada Revenue Agency spokesperson Christopher Doody said there were 600 reports of alleged misuse of the emergency benefit as of June 1. Doody said the agency has also seen a number of different scams, all seeking to exploit the anxieties of Canadians during this time of crisis. The draft bill also introduces the promised benefits for people with disabilities, and changes some eligibility criteria for the wage subsidy that Trudeau said Tuesday would ensure it is more widely available. The bill also lifts time limits for court hearings in areas like bankruptcy, which Trudeau said could help during the pandemic. Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh charged the bill criminalizes people who need help during the COVID-19 crisis. He also accused Trudeau of hypocrisy for attending an anti-racism march in Ottawa last week, and then drafting legislation that Singh argued will disproportionately penalize racialized Canadians. The prime minister took a knee, did a symbolic gesture. At the same time, the same governmentwas drafting a bill to punish people who need help, who are desperate, who are struggling, and to threaten to put them in jail, and to give these people who need help massive penalties, Singh said. This is wholly irresponsible, its wrong-headed, its the exact opposite of what needs to happen. The House of Commons is slated to return for a special session on Wednesday, which is the earliest opportunity for the Liberal minority government to table this draft legislation. Singh said the NDP will not support the bill because of the penalties it introduces, and called instead on the government to extend the 16-week eligibility period for the emergency response benefit by at least another 16 weeks. Asked about Singhs criticism, Trudeau said the bill is designed to help more people get through the crisis including by creating payments of up to $600 for people with disabilities and that the new penalties will be targeted at fraudsters, not those who mistakenly applied. He also said the government is open to working with other parties and potentially modifying the bill so they are comfortable with it. On Monday, Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said he also wants to see the benefit remain, pointing to seasonal industries like tourism that have been especially hard hit by the COVID-19 lockdown. The Bloc leader said his party will push the government to issue a fiscal update by July 1 and hold a summit with premiers on health transfers before September. He also called on the government to change the emergency wage subsidy program in which Ottawa pays up to 75 per cent of worker wages for eligible entities so that political parties are not eligible. The party organizations of the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Greens have all applied for the program. Read more about: Faith and community leaders and other protesters take a knee in honor of the memory of George Floyd at the Octavius V. Catto Memorial outside of City Hall on June 4. Read more We are in a historic moment, where thousands of people are clear on the rallying cry. When there is no justice, there is no peace. State violence and systemic underfunding for black people are the heart of this crisis. People have lost faith in the institution of government because our government has given us little to believe in, except symbolism sold as progress. Weve seen symbols topple this week in our city, and steps to hold individual police officers accountable. But the uprisings have made it very clear: People hold power. And the people have clear demands: Defund the police and invest in black communities. We saw that power in action when Minneapolis city councilmembers announced their intention to disband the police department and reallocate funding into a new system of community care and protection. Our city faces its own challenges from the 10-year tax abatement that has accelerated gentrification of black neighborhoods, to privatization schemes for a majority-black school district, to the lack of accountability for the murder of Brandon Tate-Brown, which have all led us to this moment. People are not expendable. When communities are in crisis, you invest in them. READ MORE: How Philadelphia finally changed the loved and loathed 10-year tax abatement It is time for real action. How the city spends its money is a moral choice, and tens of thousands of Philadelphians have called, emailed, and tweeted as a reminder to all elected officials of what our priorities should be. I will not vote for any budget that increases funding to the police but does nothing to support communities. If we want a recovery that leaves no one behind, we need a real conversation about redistributing resources from the police budget into community-led programs that can keep us safe and cut down on gun violence. We must reject a budget that decreases critical funds for housing, libraries, recreation centers, art programs, and immigration services while increasing money for the police by tens of millions. We need a police advisory board that has real power and funding. This includes more accountability in any city-bargained collective agreement moving forward. We need communities who have been most affected by police brutality actively leading and centered in these fights, and we need police-free schools. We need to ensure that amidst the pandemic, working-class people black people have stable housing. This starts with passing the Emergency Housing Protection Act this month so we can ensure no evictions, no late fees, diversion, and rent repayment programs for those behind on rent. READ MORE: Philadelphia needs a Housing Recovery Act | Opinion We need to protect our low-wage workers by expanding paid sick leave, and culturally redefine how we view essential work. We need to ensure that the rich pay their fair share of taxes. We must call out the systemic barriers intentionally placed on Philadelphia like preemption laws and the uniformity clause in our tax code that keep us poor. Black people need a stimulus. Our government needs to provide the ability for black and working-class Philadelphians to thrive. A black stimulus means investing resources back into communities that have been systematically starved of wealth. It means funding the basic necessities that have been withheld from black communities for generations: affordable housing, quality public education, fair and dignified work, and a livable environment with clean water and air. And it means taking inventory of who in this city is paying their fair share, and then pursuing policy changes that address that disparity. The people are showing up. The time for change is now. We need to keep organizing, marching, caring for each other in solidarity, and mutual aid. There can be no letting up when we are so close to real justice. As a mom, grandma, black woman, and city councilmember at-large, I know my actions will be measured for years to come. This is our moment. Kendra Brooks is a city councilmember at-large. By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 09, 2020 | 05:59 AM | MCCRACKEN COUNTY A call about a suspicious person led to a man's arrest Sunday night on methamphetamine and other charges. The McCracken County Sheriff's Office says deputies were dispatched late Sunday night to 120 Louis Lane for a man that was reportedly walking around outside and thought to be under the influence of drugs. Deputies said the caller also stated that the man could have outstanding warrants. Deputies responded and made contact with Charles David Anderson. Deputies learned that Anderson had failure to appear warrants in McCracken and Lyon counties and also had a warrant from Fulton County Circuit Court. While placing Anderson under arrest, deputies reportedly found a container in his pocket that contained a substance suspected of being methamphetamine. Anderson was arrested and transported to the McCracken County Regional Jail. He's charged with possession of methamphetamine, two counts of failure to appear and one count of failure to pay. Republic General Manager John Barbacci explained, "Our research shows that people like having additional phones around the house and also being able to have a 'digital detox' from their cell phone screen. As more people join the wave of cord-cutting their landline phone service, we wanted to develop a product that would help ease that transition and maintain the benefits of having a home phone. Now, more than ever, people are looking for ways to save money. Only Republic bundles Extend Home at no additional cost for an easy way to cut the budget quickly." Currently, under 40% of US households still have home phone service, and most service costs between $15 and $30 per month. Therefore, Extend Home could save customers up to $360 per year. In addition to a cost savings, Republic Wireless anticipates the benefits of Extended Home will appeal to: Cord Cutters - People who already cut their home phone, but miss the convenience of having phones in rooms around the house Frugal Shoppers - Anyone looking for ways to cut everyday expenses however they can Remote Workers - More of us working from home and wanting a better quality connection Small Businesses - Your office number can be your cell phone number so you never miss a call Parents - Families who want their children to be able to dial 911 in case of an emergency Seniors - Family members who want to stay in touch prefer the better sound quality and speaker on the home phone, especially if they are hearing impaired Other - Some people just find it more comfortable to hold and talk on the contoured home phone handset than on a flat cell phone "Making and receiving calls from any phone becomes seamless. If you are charging your cell phone, lose it, or leave it in the car, no worries," added Extend Home product engineer Jesse Stimpson. "You can make and receive calls on your home phone, and your cell number will still appear on the other person's phone. You can even call your own number when you are away from home, and your kids can answer on the home phone. Plus Republic has exclusive spam-blocking that extends to your home phone." The Extend Home service requires a simple kit with adapter device, cords, and a SIM card for Republic Wireless cell phone service. Republic Wireless cell phone customers only need to attach the adapter to their home broadband, plug a home phone into the adapter, and it will network with any other home phones in the set. Non-members can use the included SIM card to activate Republic cell phone service. The kit is available at republicwireless.com (and soon on Amazon) for a one-time cost of $49, and there is a promotional price of $29 until June 30th. If you join Republic's cell phone service before June 30th, you can take advantage of another promotion with your first three months of service for only $30 ($10 per month). This includes 1 gigabyte 4G LTE data per month, unlimited calls and texts, and, of course, the Extend Home phone service is included at no extra cost. About Republic Wireless Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, Republic Wireless is run by a team of innovators who live to provide families with remarkably simple, affordable, and safe ways to stay in touch. Most well-known for pioneering WiFi calling for smartphones and saving customers over $500 million off their cell phone bills, their industry-leading plans start at just $15 for unlimited talk and text, and cellular data is available for only $5 per GB. The company has been recognized as a top carrier choice by Consumer Reports, for the best basic plan by Money magazine, for excellence in customer service by PC Magazine and has some of the top ratings for a mobile phone service on TrustPilot. SOURCE Republic Wireless (HedgeCo.Net) The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued an order filing and settling charges against Gain Capital UK Limited (Gain UK) of London, England for failing to register as a retail foreign exchange dealer (RFED) and for supervision violations related to the handling of a customer account managed by an unregistered commodity trading advisor (CTA). The order requires Gain UK to pay a $250,000 civil monetary penalty, to disgorge $241,671, and to cease and desist from any further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) or CFTC regulations, as charged. The order finds that from at least February 6, 2014 to March 8, 2019, Gain UK acted as a counterparty to retail foreign exchange (forex) customers who were located in the United States, without registering as an RFED as required by the CEA and CFTC regulations. Gain UK accepted customers who used U.S. mailing addresses in account applications and provided documents such as lease agreements, utility bills, and health-insurance enrollment letters suggesting that they were located in the United States. Furthermore, one customer informed a Gain UK employee that she was a student at a U.S. university when questioned about her account application and U.S. mailing address. Nevertheless, Gain UK failed to register as an RFED as required. The order also finds that Gain UK failed to diligently supervise the handling of the account of a retail forex customer who was located in the United States. Specifically, Gain UK failed to detect warning signs of the underlying fraudulent conduct by an unregistered CTA who solicited the retail forex customer to open an account with Gain UK. For example, a Gain UK employee had extensive communications with the unregistered CTA and was aware that the CTA had been rejected from managing accounts with Gain UK and its affiliates because the CTA may have been soliciting managed accounts through social media and a website without registering with the CFTC. Despite the unregistered CTA not being named on any of the account documents, the CTA had extensive communications with Gain UKs employee about creating the account, directed the trading in it, and refunded commissions to the customer to reimburse significant trading losses. Due to the unregistered CTAs fraudulent conduct, the customer suffered approximately $280,000 in losses while Gain UK earned $241,671. The CFTC thanks and acknowledges the assistance of the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority. The Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this case are Nicholas Sloey, Rachel Hayes, Elsie Robinson, Christopher Reed, Charles Marvine, and former staff member Peter Riggs. * * * * * * CFTCs Foreign Currency (Forex) Fraud Advisory The CFTC has issued several customer protection Fraud Advisories that provide the warning signs of fraud, including the Foreign Currency (Forex) Trading Fraud Advisory, to help customers identify this sort of scam. The CFTC also strongly urges the public to verify a companys registration with the Commission before committing funds. If unregistered, a customer should be wary of providing funds to that entity. A companys registration status can be found using NFA BASIC. Geopolitical observers have noticed a new air about Beijing, one of confidence, the kind betrayed by a player of Go advancing into the endgame of this board game with victory mapped out. China has been flexing muscle even as other large countries grapple with no-go issues. It may finally seem ready to resolve its Line of Actual Control (LAC) dispute with India, with both sides reportedly agreeing on Tuesday to a troop draw-down in some parts of Ladakh, thanks to military-level talks. But the stand-off still seems loaded in Chinas favour. It is unclear if the status of Pangong Lake, for example, has been resolved to Indias satisfaction. Satellite images had raised concerns that Chinese troops may have ventured into Indian territory, pitching tents along its banks. Our political opposition has demanded clarity on whether that is indeed the case. Defence minister Rajnath Singh has said he would make a statement on the matter in Parliament, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not let the countrys self-respect" be hurt. Perhaps we need high-level diplomacy for a real return to amicable relations. Our worry is that Chinas disposition vis-a-vis its neighbours may have shifted after it sensed it had got the better of covid-19, which continues to throttle much of the world even as it restarts its own economy. China was acting as a regional hegemon even earlier, recklessly trying to reshape the ground rules in Asia and running roughshod over smaller countries. Peace overtures by Indonesia and the Philippines, for instance, have not defused tensions in a maritime theatre full of shipping lanes that Beijing views as its littoral. Its use of force to integrate Hong Kong with its one-party political system, in violation of a 1997 treaty, has caused alarm worldwide. Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a rebel province", is reported to have grown nervous. Chinas overland Belt and Road Initiative may have stumbled, of late, but its signals of assertion across the continent suggest it foresees itself as a post-covid superpower, an eastern empire" whose dominance even the West will not be able to challenge. The global coronavirus outbreak only seems to have catalysed that quest. Consider the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the deadly virus first emerged. As reported, it recently tested all its 10 million odd residents over a span of just 10 days, and found only 300 positive cases, that too asymptomatic. Factory production has resumed in China, very few global companies so far have packed up to leave, and its $14 trillion economywhich shrunk sharply in the first quarter of 2020could end this year with an expansion. In contrast, Indias gross domestic product, which is less than a fifth of Chinas, seems set to contract. We are thus at risk of slipping further behind. Militarily, this gap may not matter all that much today, as our defence establishment assures us, but it increasingly will as this decade progresses. Weaponry alone would not be able to deter Chinese designs for long. It will take a wide array of resources, with advancements in science and technology playing key roles. This implies that the only real insurance against Beijings hegemonic ambitions would be the rapid emergence of our economy from its current crisis, followed by a return to a high-growth trajectory for the rest of the 2020s. At the very least, we need to regain our pre- demonetization momentum. The geo-strategic successes of this century, like the last, will be countries that win at value generation Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. By Gina Lee Investing.com Asian stocks were mostly up on Tuesday morning, boosted by a rally overnight in the U.S. shares that saw the S&P 500 benchmark erase its losses and enter positive territory. Down Under, the ASX 200 was up 2.28% by 10:29 PM ET (3:29 AM GMT) after soaring past the 3% mark earlier in the session Japans Nikkei 225 was down 0.68 % and South Koreas KOSPI slid 0.21%, reversing its earlier gains. Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index was up by 1.12%. Chinas Shanghai Composite was up 0.18% while the Shenzhen Componentwas up 0.33%. Investors were also cheered by the news that global equities regained levels last seen in February, before the COVID-19 virus started to spread outside China. But the World Bank warned that the global economy could see its biggest contraction since World War 2 this year, as the number of global cases and deaths continue to tick upwards and some countries such as South Korea struggle to contain outbreaks of second-wave cases. Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking (NYSE:WBK) Corporation, told Bloomberg that we are still going to have to absorb a great deal of negative economic data and corporate earnings reports in the coming months. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to expand the Main Street Lending Program to lend to more companies and lessen the pressure on banks. The Fed will meet on Wednesday for its monthly meeting. Related Articles Online used car seller Vroom raises $467.5 million in upsized U.S. IPO Asia stocks extend rally as economic recovery hopes boost confidence China's troubled Baoshang rescue exposes fault lines in bank reform drive The Duchess of Cambridge has showcased her eco-friendly credentials by donning a 350 pair of earrings by a sustainable British jewellery brand for a video tour of an addiction centre during lockdown. Kate Middleton, 38, who donned a bold red shirt, made a virtual visit to Clouds House, a rehab centre in Wiltshire last week, to see how they have continued their life-saving work throughout the lockdown period. The mother-of-three, who is currently isolating with her husband Prince William, 37, and their children, George, six, Charlotte, five, and Louis, two, in Anmer Hall in Norfolk, selected British designer Daniella Draper's Gold Maxi Cupid hoop earrings for the call. The royal has worn the brand, which is beloved by celebrities including Kate Moss and Ellie Goulding, on several occasions over the last year, including a set of shamrock hoops during her tour of Ireland in February. Kate Middleton, 38, showcased her eco-friendly credentials during a virtual visit to an addiction centre as she donned gold hoop earrings from celebrity-loved brand Daniella Draper The mother-of-three is currently isolating with her husband Prince William, 37, and their children, Prince George, six, Princess Charlotte, five, and Prince Louis, two, in Anmer Hall in Norfolk. In a video of the visit which was released yesterday, the royal talked to staff about how they have adapted their services, taking them online and reconfiguring the entire centre to allow 10 residential clients to be able to isolate for two weeks. She sported glamorous makeup with a touch of sparkling eyeshadow and a sweep of bronze, and pulled her hair into an trendy half-updo to reveal the earrings. Online, the elegant earrings are described as a 'definite must-have' and 'the perfect finishing touch for any occasion'. The 350 earrings are described online as a 'definite must-have' and 'the perfect finishing touch for any occasion' Kate has previously worn the brand, opting for a the 1,070 'Personalised Gold Midnight Moon Necklace' during a visit to a women's prison in January. The royal also donned a set of hoops from the designer during a visit to Ireland in March, when she sported a pair of shamrock charms as a nod to her host-country. The brand, which was launched by British female designer Daniella Draper, is eco-friendly, made from recycled metals. Daniella previously told FEMAIL: 'We're trying to make responsible decisions. I want the brand to be as sustainable as possible. The Duchess of Cambridge selected the sparkling hoops as she took a virtual tour around an addiction centre last week It's not the first time that the royal has worn pieces by the British female designer, opting to wear the 1,070 'Personalised Gold Midnight Moon Necklace' for a visit to a female prison in January (left) and shamrock hoop earrings during her trip to Ireland in March (right) 'All our gold and silver is recycled and everything is made in the UK which is pretty rare for jewellery brands because 95 per cent of jewellery sold in the UK is made abroad.' The Duchess has been wearing a mix of high street and designer pieces for virtual visits during lockdown. Last week, she wore a set of 5 earrings from bargain store Accessorize as she joined Prince William to speak with volunteers from the mental health service Shout. Meanwhile she has also been spotted designer Patrick Mavros' 800 Ocean Tides Milky Quartz Earrings with 18ct Gold in Silver on a series of occasions. Throughout her virtual visits during lockdown, the royal has opted for a series of different jewels, including a set of 5 Accessorize earrings Meanwhile the royal has also worn glittering 800 jewels from designer brand Patrick Marvos for virtual engagements During the virtual visit last week, Kate urged people struggling with addiction to seek help, as new research revealed a quarter of UK adults are drinking more in lockdown. The centre is run by The Duchess's patronage, Action on Addiction, and has been able to stay open during lockdown thanks to its team of dedicated staff who have been practicing rigorous infection control and following PHE and Government guidelines. Speaking of her fears that more people will need treatment as the lockdown eases, Kate said: 'The worrying thing is, it is all those people who aren't necessarily reaching out who are struggling, who perhaps don't feel they can reach out. 'Or the fact that maybe they haven't realised that addictive behaviours have sort of established, particularly if it's the first time - and it's those people who aren't necessarily being vocal about it. Sales of $311.2 million; Net loss of $(49.1) million; Adjusted EBITDA of $(17.6) million Q1 sales of $311.2 million compared to $376.6 million in Q4 2019, and $447.4 million in Q1 2019 Q1 net loss of $(49.1) million compared to $(73.3) million in Q4 2019, and $(28.6) million in Q1 2019 Adjusted EBITDA of $(17.6) million compared to $(30.4) million in Q4 2019 and $3.3 million in Q1 2019 Gross debt of $443 million at the end of Q1 2020, compared to $481 million at the end of Q4 2019 European accounts receivable securitization program amended on February 6, 2020, providing an increase in the available funding Continued improvement in working capital during the quarter by $126 million, with inventory levels decreasing by $67 million due to operational changes to the global production platform LONDON, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ferroglobe PLC (GSM) (Ferroglobe, the Company, or the Parent), a leading producer globally of silicon metal, silicon-based and manganese-based specialty alloys and other ferroalloys, today announced results for the first quarter of 2020. Q1 2020 Earnings Highlights In Q1 2020, Ferroglobe posted a net loss of $(49.1) million, or $(0.28) per share on a fully diluted basis. On an adjusted basis, the Q1 2020 net loss was $(37.7) million, or $(0.22) per share on a fully diluted basis. Q1 2020 reported EBITDA was $(20.2) million, up from $(48.5) million in the prior quarter. On an adjusted basis, Q1 2020 EBITDA was $(17.6) million, up from Q4 2019 adjusted EBITDA of $(30.4) million. The Company reported an adjusted EBITDA margin of -5.7% for Q1 2020, compared to an adjusted EBITDA margin of -8.1% for Q4 2019. Improved margins due to strong drive in reducing the cost of raw materials. Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Year Ended $,000 (unaudited) March 31, 2020 December 31, 2019 March 31, 2019* December 31, 2019 Sales $ 311,223 $ 376,607 $ 447,391 $ 1,615,222 Net (loss) profit $ (49,057 ) $ (73,290 ) $ (28,554 ) $ (285,640 ) Diluted EPS $ (0.28 ) $ (0.43 ) $ (0.16 ) $ (1.66 ) Adjusted net (loss) income attributable to the parent $ (37,714 ) $ (45,613 ) $ (21,894 ) $ (105,811 ) Adjusted diluted EPS $ (0.22 ) $ (0.27 ) $ (0.13 ) $ (0.64 ) Adjusted EBITDA $ (17,616 ) $ (30,389 ) $ 3,327 $ (29,236 ) Adjusted EBITDA margin -5.7% -8.1% 0.7% -1.8% *Results for prior periods have been restated to reflect the impact of the profit(loss) from discontinued operations associated with the sale of former subsidiary FerroAtlantica S.A.U., the owner of hydroelectric assets in Spain and one ferroalloys manufacturing plant. Story continues Marco Levi, Ferroglobes Chief Executive Officer, commented, I am pleased with the teams execution given the challenges across our organization resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. First and foremost, we took extreme measures to ensure the health and safety of our employees globally, and I am proud to report that the quick decisions and actions of the team have resulted in healthy worksites and enabled us to operate with minimal disruption, Dr. Levi added, The improvement in our quarterly results shows the effectiveness of the decisive actions we have taken to manage the business operationally and financially. These efforts will be on-going as we seek to adapt to the lingering uncertainties created by the pandemic across our value chain. In addition to near term actions, we continue to make progress in identifying a broader set of strategic initiatives which will drive value creation for our stakeholders. Cash Flow and Balance Sheet Cash generated from operations during Q1 2020 was $89.6 million, with working capital positively impacted by a decrease in inventories and trade receivables, offset by a decrease in payables. Working capital decreased from $474 million as of December 31, 2019 to $348 million at March 31, 2020. Gross debt was $443 million as of March 31, 2020, down from $481 million as of December 31, 2019, primarily as a result of repayments of principal amounts related to the asset-based revolving credit facility amounting $20.4 million, the reduction of the senior loan in the securization program amounting $24.5 million and payment of the interest on the senior unsecured notes on March 1, 2020. Beatriz Garcia-Cos, Ferroglobes Chief Financial Officer, commented, The operational adjustments at year end were in anticipation of continued demand weakness into 2020. During the first quarter our sales declined 17% compared to the prior quarter, reflecting the impact of the industry downturn. However, even in this difficult operating environment, we were able to improve our cost structure, generate cash from operations, and reduce our debt. These results were driven by the successful execution of cost cutting initiatives at the plant and corporate overhead levels, and emphasis on right-sizing the business in order to optimize our global footprint. While many uncertainties remain as a result of both the cyclical downturn and the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue our effort to find additional areas of cost reduction to improve our financial performance, all with an eye towards returning to profitability. Recent developments On February 6, 2020, the Company entered into an amended and restated accounts receivables securitization program via which trade receivables generated by certain of the Companys subsidiaries in Spain and France are financed both directly through the existing Irish special purpose vehicle (SPV) and indirectly through a French fonds commun de titrisation (FCT). The incorporation of the FCT into the program has allowed for the sale of certain Euro-denominated receivables that were not eligible under the previous structure and increased the available funding. Subsequent to entering into the amended program, the Company has repaid $24.5 million of senior loans in order to optimise the level of borrowings of the SPV relative to the value of receivables in the securitization. The Company may request additional senior loans up to the maximum commitment when needed. COVID-19 Since January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread to various jurisdictions where the Company does business. The Company has been monitoring the evolving situation, and consequent emerging risk. Among other steps, the Company has implemented a coronavirus crisis management team, which has been meeting regularly to ensure the Company and its subsidiaries take appropriate action to protect all employees and ensure business continuity. While it is difficult to forecast the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, at the present time the Companys day-to-day operations continue without being materially affected. The Company has evaluated, and will continue to evaluate, how evolving demand from its customer base and sales price evolution stand to affect the Companys business and results in the next twelve months. Subsequent events On June 8, 2020, the Company announced the appointment of Marta Amusategui as a Non-Executive Director, effective June 12, 2020. Discussion of First Quarter 2020 Results Sales Sales for Q1 2020 were $311.2 million, a decrease of 17.4% compared to $376.6 million in Q4 2019. For Q1 2020, total shipments were down 15.6% and the average selling price was up 0.8% compared with Q4 2019. Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Year Ended March 31, 2020 December 31, 2019 Change March 31, 2019 Change December 31, 2019 Shipments in metric tons: Silicon Metal 53,321 63,113 -15.5 % 62,269 -14.4 % 239,692 Silicon-based Alloys 60,932 64,485 -5.5 % 81,801 -25.5 % 295,429 Manganese-based Alloys 73,724 95,235 -22.6 % 103,669 -28.9 % 392,456 Total shipments* 187,977 222,833 -15.6 % 247,739 -24.1 % 927,577 Average selling price ($/MT): Silicon Metal $ 2,212 $ 2,164 2.2 % $ 2,358 -6.2 % $ 2,252 Silicon-based Alloys $ 1,474 $ 1,424 3.5 % $ 1,669 -11.7 % $ 1,547 Manganese-based Alloys $ 973 $ 1,054 -7.7 % $ 1,172 -17.0 % $ 1,140 Total* $ 1,487 $ 1,475 0.8 % $ 1,634 -9.0 % $ 1,557 Average selling price ($/lb.): Silicon Metal $ 1.00 $ 0.98 2.2 % $ 1.07 -6.2 % $ 1.02 Silicon-based Alloys $ 0.67 $ 0.65 3.5 % $ 0.76 -11.7 % $ 0.70 Manganese-based Alloys $ 0.44 $ 0.48 -7.7 % $ 0.53 -17.0 % $ 0.52 Total* $ 0.67 $ 0.67 0.8 % $ 0.74 -9.0 % $ 0.71 * Excludes by-products and other Sales Prices & Volumes By Product During Q1 2020, total product average selling prices increased by 0.8% versus Q4 2019. Q1 average selling prices of silicon metal increased 2.2%, silicon-based alloys prices increased 3.5%, and manganese-based alloys prices decreased 7.7%. Sales volumes in Q1 declined by 15.6% versus the prior quarter. Q1 sales volumes of silicon metal decreased 15.5%, silicon-based alloys decreased 5.5%, and manganese-based alloys decreased 22.6% versus Q4 2019. Reduced activity due to the temporary shutdown of some plants in France, Norway and Spain. Cost of Sales Cost of sales was $243.4 million in Q1 2020, a decrease from $314.9 million in the prior quarter. Cost of sales as a percentage of sales decreased to 78.2% in Q1 2020 versus 83,6% for Q4 2019, linked primarily to product mix, decrease in costs associated with implementing the temporary curtailments to our operations, reduction in inventory write downs across our product portfolio and savings related to raw materials. Other Operating Expenses Other operating expenses was $40.1 million in Q1 2020, a decrease from $58.8 million in the prior quarter. This decrease is primarily attributable to a decrease in commercial expenses linked to less sales volume. Additionally, Q4 2019 was negatively impacted by non recurrent costs associated with the energy contracts at plants in Europe temporarily idled. Net Loss Attributable to the Parent In Q1 2020, net loss attributable to the Parent was $47.9 million, or $(0,28) per diluted share, compared to a net loss attributable to the Parent of $72,4 million, or $(0,43) per diluted share in Q4 2019. Adjusted EBITDA In Q1 2020, adjusted EBITDA was $(17.6) million, or -5.7% of sales, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $(30.4) million, or -8.1% of sales in Q4 2019, primarily due to higher pricing and less costs incurred in Q1 2020. Conference Call Ferroglobe management will review the first quarter during a conference call at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on June 9, 2020. The dial-in number for participants in the United States is 8772935491 (conference ID 7299897). International callers should dial +1 9144958526 (conference ID 7299897). Please dial in at least five minutes prior to the call to register. The call may also be accessed via an audio webcast available at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/tvypsrbz. About Ferroglobe Ferroglobe is one of the worlds leading suppliers of silicon metal, silicon-based and manganese-based specialty alloys and other ferroalloys, serving a customer base across the globe in dynamic and fast-growing end markets, such as solar, automotive, consumer products, construction and energy. The Company is based in London. For more information, visit http://investor.ferroglobe.com. Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. securities laws. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts but are based on certain assumptions of management and describe the Companys future plans, strategies and expectations. Forward-looking statements often use forward-looking terminology, including words such as anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, forecast, guidance, intends, likely, may, plan, potential, predicts, seek, target, will and words of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on information currently available to the Company and assumptions that management believe to be reasonable, but are inherently uncertain. As a result, Ferroglobes actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, which are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond the Companys control. Forward-looking financial information and other metrics presented herein represent the Companys goals and are not intended as guidance or projections for the periods referenced herein or any future periods. All information in this press release is as of the date of its release. Ferroglobe does not undertake any obligation to update publicly any of the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect new information, events or circumstances arising after the date of this press release. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are made only as of the date of this press release. Non-IFRS Measures Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net profit, adjusted profit per share, working capital and net debt, are non-IFRS financial metrics that, we believe, are pertinent measures of Ferroglobes success. Ferroglobe has included these financial metrics to provide supplemental measures of its performance. The Company believes these metrics are important because they eliminate items that have less bearing on the Companys current and future operating performance and highlight trends in its core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS financial measures. INVESTOR CONTACT: Gaurav Mehta EVP Investor Relations Email: investor.relations@ferroglobe.com Louie Toma Managing Director Hayden IR Tel: 1-774-291-6000 Email: louie@haydenir.com Ferroglobe PLC and Subsidiaries Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Income Statement (in thousands of U.S. dollars, except per share amounts) Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Year Ended March 31, 2020 December 31, 2019 March 31, 2019* December 31, 2019 Sales $ 311,223 $ 376,607 $ 447,391 $ 1,615,222 Cost of sales (243,360 ) (314,905 ) (329,368 ) (1,214,397 ) Other operating income 7,768 12,446 14,021 54,213 Staff costs (55,097 ) (63,378 ) (74,263 ) (285,029 ) Other operating expense (40,067 ) (58,804 ) (53,917 ) (225,705 ) Depreciation and amortization charges, operating allowances and write-downs (28,668 ) (30,029 ) (30,370 ) (120,194 ) Impairment losses (547 ) (140 ) (175,899 ) Bargain purchase gain Other gain (loss) (671 ) 100 (397 ) (3,797 ) Operating (loss) profit (48,872 ) (78,510 ) (27,043 ) (355,586 ) Net finance expense (16,484 ) (16,484 ) (13,823 ) (61,845 ) Financial derivatives (loss) gain 3,168 (1,153 ) 1,264 2,729 Exchange differences 2,436 4,366 (1,479 ) 2,884 (Loss) profit before tax (59,753 ) (91,781 ) (41,081 ) (411,818 ) Income tax benefit (expense) 10,696 14,119 8,210 41,541 (Loss) profit for the period from continuing operations (49,057 ) (77,662 ) (32,871 ) (370,277 ) Profit for the period from discontinued operations 4,372 4,317 84,637 (Loss) profit for the period (49,057 ) (73,290 ) (28,554 ) (285,640 ) Loss (profit) attributable to non-controlling interest 1,159 866 1,724 5,039 (Loss) profit attributable to the parent $ (47,898 ) $ (72,424 ) $ (26,830 ) $ (280,601 ) EBITDA $ (20,204 ) $ (48,481 ) $ 3,327 $ (235,392 ) Adjusted EBITDA $ (17,617 ) $ (30,390 ) $ 3,327 $ (29,236 ) Weighted average shares outstanding Basic 169,249 169,182 169,123 169,153 Diluted 169,249 169,182 169,123 169,153 (Loss) profit per ordinary share Basic $ (0.28 ) $ (0.43 ) $ (0.16 ) $ (1.66 ) Diluted $ (0.28 ) $ (0.43 ) $ (0.16 ) $ (1.66 ) *Throughout the results, the amounts for prior periods have been restated to reflect the impact of the profit/(loss) from discontinued operations associated with the sale of FerroAtlantica S.A.U., owner of hydroelectric assets in Spain and one ferroalloys manufacturing plant. Ferroglobe PLC and Subsidiaries Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statement of Financial Position (in thousands of U.S. dollars) March 31, December 31, March 31, 2020 2019 2019 ASSETS Non-current assets Goodwill $ 29,702 $ 29,702 $ 203,472 Other intangible assets 50,373 51,267 69,399 Property, plant and equipment 689,383 740,906 890,436 Other non-current financial assets 5,683 2,618 54,979 Deferred tax assets 65,360 59,551 7,135 Non-current receivables from related parties 2,191 2,247 2,247 Other non-current assets 1,520 1,597 10,435 Non-current restricted cash and cash equivalents 28,173 28,323 Total non-current assets 872,385 916,211 1,238,103 Current assets Inventories 287,258 354,121 451,753 Trade and other receivables 216,970 309,064 127,992 Current receivables from related parties 2,895 2,955 6,556 Current income tax assets 16,298 27,930 26,855 Other current financial assets 5,062 5,544 2,191 Other current assets 16,113 23,676 13,721 Cash and cash equivalents * 116,316 94,852 216,627 Total current assets 660,912 818,142 845,695 Total assets $ 1,533,297 $ 1,734,353 $ 2,083,798 EQUITY AND LIABILITIES Equity $ 525,117 $ 602,297 $ 855,099 Non-current liabilities Deferred income 9,081 1,253 11,676 Provisions 79,135 84,852 76,613 Bank borrowings 111,583 144,388 131,366 Lease liabilities 14,642 16,972 66,992 Debt instruments 344,639 344,014 342,222 Other financial liabilities 32,702 43,157 27,109 Other non-current liabilities 26,817 25,906 25,080 Deferred tax liabilities 69,084 74,057 61,887 Total non-current liabilities 687,683 734,599 742,945 Current liabilities Provisions 34,853 46,091 47,619 Bank borrowings 1,369 14,611 19,100 Lease liabilities 8,932 8,900 20,616 Debt instruments 2,820 10,937 2,734 Other financial liabilities 23,101 23,382 51,618 Payables to related parties 4,572 4,830 12,199 Trade and other payables 156,634 189,229 228,649 Current income tax liabilities 1,485 3,048 4,369 Other current liabilities 86,731 96,429 98,850 Liabilities associated with assets classified as held for sale Total current liabilities 320,497 397,457 485,754 Total equity and liabilities $ 1,533,297 $ 1,734,353 $ 2,083,798 *Cash and cash equivalents at March 31, 2020 includes the cash balance of the A/R securitization program of $38,745 ($38,778 and $nil at December 31, 2019 and March 31, 2019, respectively) Ferroglobe PLC and Subsidiaries Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows (in thousands of U.S. dollars) Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Year Ended March 31, 2020 December 31, 2019* March 31, 2019* December 31, 2019* Cash flows from operating activities: (Loss) profit for the period $ (49,057 ) $ (73,289 ) $ (28,554 ) $ (285,640 ) Adjustments to reconcile net (loss) profit to net cash used by operating activities: Income tax (benefit) expense (10,696 ) (14,120 ) (6,704 ) (40,528 ) Depreciation and amortization charges, operating allowances and write-downs 28,668 30,029 32,077 123,024 Net finance expense 16,484 16,485 14,756 68,279 Financial derivatives loss (gain) (3,168 ) 1,153 (1,264 ) (2,729 ) Exchange differences (2,436 ) (4,366 ) 1,479 (2,884 ) Impairment losses 546 140 175,899 Bargain purchase gain Gain on disposal of discontinued operation (4,372 ) (85,101 ) Share-based compensation 722 1,599 1,332 4,879 Other adjustments 671 (99 ) 397 3,797 Changes in operating assets and liabilities (Increase) decrease in inventories 51,577 132,493 35 91,531 (Increase) decrease in trade receivables 83,832 29,310 28,371 30,933 Increase (decrease) in trade payables (25,504 ) (51,152 ) (22,967 ) (63,187 ) Other (11,598 ) (24,448 ) 9,787 (45,878 ) Income taxes paid 10,119 (523 ) (1,680 ) (3,589 ) Net cash provided (used) by operating activities 89,614 39,246 27,205 (31,194 ) Cash flows from investing activities: Interest and finance income received 254 171 390 1,673 Payments due to investments: Acquisition of subsidiary 9,088 Other intangible assets (134 ) (184 ) Property, plant and equipment (4,606 ) (5,600 ) (13,448 ) (32,445 ) Other (621 ) (1,248 ) Disposals: Disposal of subsidiaries 5,532 176,590 Other non-current assets 8,668 8,668 Other 352 1,759 3,768 Net cash (used) provided by investing activities (4,352 ) 8,502 (11,433 ) 165,910 Cash flows from financing activities: Dividends paid Payment for debt issuance costs (1,576 ) (12,319 ) (705 ) (15,117 ) Repayment of hydro leases (55,352 ) Repayment of other financial liabilities Increase/(decrease) in bank borrowings: Borrowings 174,130 31,850 245,629 Payments (44,880 ) (269,400 ) (20,811 ) (329,501 ) Proceeds from stock option exercises Other amounts paid due to financing activities 1,147 (4,363 ) (5,708 ) (26,631 ) Payments to acquire or redeem own shares Interest paid (18,824 ) (2,471 ) (18,508 ) (43,033 ) Net cash (used) provided by financing activities (64,133 ) (114,423 ) (13,882 ) (224,005 ) Total net cash flows for the period 21,129 (66,675 ) 1,890 (89,289 ) Beginning balance of cash and cash equivalents 123,175 188,043 216,647 216,647 Exchange differences on cash and cash equivalents in foreign currencies 185 1,807 (1,910 ) (4,183 ) Ending balance of cash and cash equivalents $ 144,489 $ 123,175 $ 216,627 $ 123,175 Cash from continuing operations 116,316 94,852 216,627 94,852 Non-current restricted cash and cash equivalents 28,173 28,323 28,323 Cash and restricted cash in the statement of financial position $ 144,489 $ 123,175 $ 216,627 $ 123,175 * While in previous periods Ferroglobe presented interest paid as cash flows from operating activities, management deems interest paid as among activities that alter the borrowing structure of the Company and therefore most appropriately presented as among financing activities. This change allows for a more fair presentation of cash flow to users of the financial statements. Previous periods have been restated in order to show interest paid as net cash used in financing activities. Adjusted EBITDA ($,000): Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Year Ended March 31, 2020 December 31, 2019 March 31, 2019 * December 31, 2019 (Loss) profit attributable to the parent $ (47,898 ) $ (72,424 ) $ (26,830 ) $ (280,601 ) (Loss) profit for the period from discontinued operations (4,372 ) (4,317 ) (84,637 ) Loss (profit) attributable to non-controlling interest (1,159 ) (866 ) (1,724 ) (5,039 ) Income tax (benefit) expense (10,696 ) (14,119 ) (8,210 ) (41,541 ) Net finance expense 16,484 16,484 13,823 61,845 Financial derivatives loss (gain) (3,168 ) 1,153 (1,264 ) (2,729 ) Exchange differences (2,436 ) (4,366 ) 1,479 (2,884 ) Depreciation and amortization charges, operating allowances and write-downs 28,668 30,029 30,370 120,194 EBITDA (20,205 ) (48,481 ) 3,327 (235,392 ) Impairment 456 174,464 Revaluation of biological assets (550 ) 530 Contract termination costs 9,260 Restructuring and termination costs 3,000 5,894 Energy: France 125 9,682 9,682 Energy: South Africa 3,645 3,645 Staff Costs: South Africa 155 327 327 Other Idling Costs 2,308 1,532 1,532 (Loss)profit on disposal of non-core businesses 822 Bargain purchase gain Share-based compensation Adjusted EBITDA $ (17,617 ) $ (30,389 ) $ 3,327 $ (29,236 ) *Throughout the results, amounts for prior periods have been restated to reflect the impact of the profit/ (loss) from discontinued operations associated with the sale of FerroAtlantica S.A.U., owner of hydroelectric assets in Spain and one ferroalloys manufacturing plant. Adjusted profit attributable to Ferroglobe ($,000): Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Quarter Ended Year Ended March 31, 2020 December 31, 2019 March 31, 2019 December 31, 2019 (Loss) profit attributable to the parent $ (47,898 ) $ (72,424 ) $ (26,830 ) $ (280,601 ) Tax rate adjustment 8,425 15,251 4,936 90,241 Impairment 310 118,636 Revaluation of biological assets (374 ) 360 Contract termination costs 6,297 Restructuring and termination costs 2,040 4,008 Energy: France 85 6,584 6,584 Energy: South Africa 2,479 2,479 Staff Costs: South Africa 105 222 222 Other Idling Costs 1,569 1,042 1,042 (Loss) profit on disposal of non-core businesses (743 ) (55,079 ) Bargain purchase gain Share-based compensation Adjusted (loss) profit attributable to the parent $ (37,714 ) $ (45,613 ) $ (21,894 ) $ (105,811 ) Adjusted diluted profit per share: Forward-looking: Many countries hit hard by Covid-19 are starting to ease their lockdowns, but life will look very different from the pre-pandemic world. Shops, bars, restaurants, all will have social distancing and safety measures in place for the foreseeable future, as will offices, some of which could adopt a pod system for workers. As US employees start returning to the office, many businesses have social distancing policies that allow only 50 percent of staff in a building at one time. Its likely to have a negative impact on many firms, but a system called Q.worknite could let more people occupy an office safely. The concept comes from Egyptian architect Mohamed Radwan, and its already won an award in the Responsible Design category at the DNA Paris Design Awards. The work area looks like the kind of cubicle youll find in any office, except its enclosed in an air-tight hexagonal body. The structure is made of a non-porous material thats can be easily cleaned/disinfected and is sealed by a handless, acrylic door. It opens using facial recognition, meaning theres no need to touch anything on entry. There are ventilation fans with built-in air purifiers on the roof, along with a skylight to make occupants feel less claustrophobic. The shape of the pods allows them to be arranged in hives that can be placed in any office space. They come in different sizes, with some able to fit in 90-degree angles and larger management pods available for executives. With the world under lockdown for an extended period of time, some essential businesses still has [sic] to keep at least the bare minimum of its workforce, working physically on site to provide necessary and vital supplies for the health supply chain, reads the Q.worknite website. And the longer the quarantine continues, more companies may be forced to do the same, as shortages will hit the global market. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that offices keep desks six feet apart or, if not possible, use plexiglass shields. The pods could be a safer solution while allowing maximum capacity in a building, but users could feel isolated and trapped inside them, even with the large skylight. For decades, remittances from hundreds of thousands of expatriate workers in the Gulf have proved a lifeline for Pakistans fledgling economy. But politicians in Pakistan and activists among the stranded community now complain of receiving little or no help from the authorities as the coronavirus pandemic spreads among expatriate Pakistani laborers in the Arab Gulf countries. Many have contracted the coronavirus in their crowded living quarters while also losing their jobs and livelihoods amid the pandemic. Survivors also worry about what to do with relatives and friends who have died and whose bodies are now piling up in mortuaries. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistani expats await Islamabads help in evacuating them from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Gulf countries. For those who have managed to return home, their needs require a monumental government response. I appeal to the government to seriously think about helping the overseas Pakistanis, lawmaker Ali Wazir told the National Assembly or lower house of the Pakistani Parliament on June 8. They are in great difficulty. Many are sick while others have died, and there seems to be no way to bring their bodies back. Wazir, a leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, a civil rights movement, reminded the government that the stranded Pakistani laborers are breadwinners for their families who have contributed to the countrys economy and now need urgent assistance. Many are queuing outside the [Pakistani] embassies while also constantly appealing to us and their families to somehow resolve their problems, he told lawmakers. Younas Habib, a Pakistani worker in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, has survived the coronavirus. Like a majority of Pakistani laborers in Saudi Arabia, Habib is an ethnic Pashtun. He says their community has been hit hard by the pandemic because most live in shared lodgings locally called Dera, where up to a dozen people share one room. He told Radio Mashaal that most of them have already contracted the virus. All 15 of us living together got it, he said of his roommates. Some became seriously ill while others recovered quickly. Muzamil Shah also lives in Riyadh and actively participates in helping members of his expatriate Pashtun labor community from Pakistan. He says the most difficult challenge for his community currently is how to deal with the dead. Sometimes we have to wait for hours or even a day after someone dies just to get an empty box in the mortuary, he told Radio Mashaal. Lawmaker Haider Ali, a leader of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf political party, is a member of the parliamentary committee on Pakistanis abroad. He told Radio Mashaal that the government is already helping stranded Pakistanis to return based on priority lists of the most vulnerable sent to embassies in Gulf countries. The issue of dealing with dead bodies in Saudi Arabia is a serious one, he acknowledged. Our people live in congested housing, so when someone among them dies it creates a major problem. On June 7, a Pakistan International Airline flight repatriated the remains of 21 Pakistanis from Saudi Arabia to Peshawar, capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, where most residents are Pashtun. The information available suggests that there are many more bodies still in the Gulf countries, waiting to be brought home, Noor-ul Wahid Jadoon, a spokesman for Al-Khidmat Foundation, an Islamist charity, told the daily Dawn. His organizations ambulances returned the bodies to remote districts across the province. In Riyadh, Shah says the pandemic has obliterated his communitys livelihoods, confidence, and future prospects. Many have not had any income for more than three months, he said. "This whole thing has terrified many of the workers here who just want to go home. Shah wants Islamabad to offer robust economic aid and incentives to expatriate laborers in Saudi Arabia. He also says hed like to see a more proactive diplomatic effort to help his mostly poor and illiterate compatriots in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Gulf. Shah Baaz Stouryani, a Dubai-based businessman, says the price of airline tickets has skyrocketed amid the pandemic as most carriers have grounded their aircraft because of lockdowns or flight bans. Testing and mandatory quarantine requirements pose additional challenges. But in Islamabad, senior government officials say they are eager to help their compatriots. I have repeatedly said that we need to be grateful to our overseas citizens for dealing with the situation and waiting for their turn to return so patiently, Moeed Yousuf, a special assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan, wrote on Twitter on June 7. We will soon have a comprehensive new policy that will bring good news in terms of their ability to return immediately. Pakistanis in the Gulf countries contribute a bulk of an estimated $20 billion in remittances to their country every year. Radio Mashaal correspondents Farkhunda Asad and Ghulam Ghaus also contributed reporting to this story. He hadn't given too much thought to the genders of his characters until he was well into the writing, but it was the characters' resilience that made him think of them as women. Credit: "They were exhibiting this calm methodical kind of resilience where they're not that fussed as opposed to a more performative gung-ho getting on with it which is a bit more a male thing in our culture. The way they behaved, it made more sense to me that they were women." The violence of The Rain Heron is central to Arnott's purpose. "I wanted to write about how the violence we enact on each other bleeds out into violence against the natural world. And as we know, violence begets violence. And I wanted to show that reflected not just in the way we treat each other, but the way we treat the world around us. That really drove me while I was writing. I kept thinking is this too much' but I kept returning to that what I was writing about is nowhere near as bad as what's happening in the real world." But it would be a mistake to see The Rain Heron as a didactic novel. Yes, there's a powerful message about our dealings with the world around us, but Arnott is no preacher, he is exploring ideas rather than prescribing them. Violence, he points out, is a natural part of the world. Loading "The difference being that it's violence without cruelty, it's violence with purpose. You very rarely see an animal do something based on emotions." The message is about the degradation of nature and our relationship with it. "I'm not saying this is what we need to do differently," he says. "I think if things like that are presented imaginatively it gives us a new way of looking at it. Rather than with horrible headlines and the picture of a burnt forest." When it came to bringing the Rain Heron to life, Arnott faced the problem of making it fantastical but also tangible and real. "What I had in mind was a creature that embodied both the beauty and savagery of nature. I wanted it to be captivating and astonishing, but also harsh and unforgiving. And I also wanted it to be completely uncaring of humanity. It was really important to me that this mythical creature was as interested in humanity as you or I would be in a button rolling down a street." Arnott says that is how animals react to people they don't care about us at all. "I don't like those stories where nature sides with good people over the bad people. That's not how nature works." In trying to capture the constituent parts of his creation, he realised he had the idea of a storm in his head and as a result the sort of animal it could be. "It made sense that it would be a bird and it made sense that it would be rain. And from there I built it." Arnott grew up in Launceston. He spent summers in a little town called Greens Beach at the mouth of the Tamar River with his extended family: "My mother, grandmother and my aunt all figure very prominently as quite matriarchal figures in our family." These days he works as a copywriter with an advertising agency in Hobart. The nature of that work has helped him develop a strong work ethic and a thick skin when it comes to criticism. "Advertising can be very intense, no one's looking after your feelings, no one cares if everyone hates what you've done and you've had your day ruined. You just get on with it and do it." Loading But when he turns to his fiction it's liberating: "I get to dive into my imagination again and make things up, because despite what they say about advertising, you're not allowed to make things up." It's not all made up, though. His nature writing draws extensively from his observations walking in the Tasmanian bush or on Mount Cook. Mind you, it could be a frustrating experience walking with him. He's not a bloke for a cursory glance. He likes to stop and look at things, look closely. And then, perhaps, get everyone else to look even if they're not quite sure what they are supposed to be looking at. Colours and textures are an important part of his writing, so he wants to remember them, to get them right. Prosecutions of police officers for homicides are rare. Convictions are even rarer. Even when the killings are captured on video. No charges were filed against Daniel Pantaleo, the New York officer who put 43-year-old Eric Garner in a choke hold in 2014, after arresting him for selling untaxed cigarettes, and held him down with other officers as Garner gasped I cant breathe with his final breaths, later seen by viewers nationwide. There was equal outrage, though no video, when prosecutors declined to ask a grand jury to charge Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo., officer who fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man, in 2014. Likewise when prosecutors filed no charges against two Sacramento officers who shot and killed another African American, Stephon Clark, 22, in his grandmothers backyard in March 2018, saying they thought he was holding a gun. It turned out to be a cell phone. There are no known prosecutions of murder or manslaughter against San Francisco police. By contrast, the videotaped events in Minneapolis on May 25 when a police officer knelt on George Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes, as two other officers held Floyd down and a third stood nearby led swiftly to charges of murder and manslaughter against Derek Chauvin and charges of aiding and abetting against the other three, while igniting global protests against police misconduct. But legal analysts said it may still be a long road to any guilty verdicts, because the officers will probably be judged by a group of civilians far different from those who have taken to the streets. Many jurors are quite sympathetic to police officers because theyre reluctant to second-guess decisions made by somebody in a high-stress job, facing often significant danger, said David Sklansky, a Stanford law professor, former federal prosecutor and co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center. Aaron Lavinsky / Minneapolis Star Tribune 2017 These weeks of protest and police violence may shift that to some degree, but I think there is long-standing belief and trust in law enforcement, in the police, in the military, said Joanna Schwartz, a UCLA law professor who teaches courses on police accountability. Thats something thats baked into our society. In the 15 years before Floyds death, 110 officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter for on-duty fatal shootings, according to records compiled by Philip Stinson, a law professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Just five have been convicted of murder, while 37 have been found guilty of lesser crimes. Of the 42 victims, 25 were black. One recent conviction was in Minneapolis, where Officer Mohamed Noor was found guilty of third-degree murder last year for fatally shooting Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a white woman who called police in July 2017 to report a possible sexual assault in an alley and was standing at the scene, raising her hand, when police drove up. Noor was sentenced to 12 years in prison, the standard sentence for the crime in Minnesota, though far shorter than typical terms for murder convictions in California and other states. The average term for the five officers convicted of murder was 12 years, according to Stinsons data. They included Jason Van Dyke, sentenced to 6 years for the second-degree murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in Chicago in 2014. As Laquan, who was black, walked away from police carrying a knife that he had used to damage a police car, Van Dyke shot him 16 times, mostly while he lay on the ground. Van Dyke was not prosecuted until a video was released by court order more than a year later. Videos dont guarantee convictions, as illustrated by the case of Rodney King, the black motorist whose 1991 beating by Los Angeles police was shown in excruciating detail to jurors and the public. A suburban jury acquitted four officers in 1992 of criminally assaulting King, a verdict that ignited riots, although a federal jury later convicted two of the officers of violating Kings civil rights. In San Francisco, police have not been prosecuted for murder or manslaughter. The most controversial recent case, captured on video, dates from December 2015, when officers were called to the Bayview neighborhood on the report of a stabbing and encountered Mario Woods with a knife in his hand. As Woods walked along a wall and refused to drop the weapon, five officers pelted him with beanbag rounds and pepper spray, then opened fire. Then-District Attorney George Gascon declined to file charges, finding insufficient evidence that the officers had acted unreasonably in defending themselves and others. That standard was set by California law, and lawmakers have tightened it somewhat in response to criticism by Gascon and others. Sonoma County prosecutors used similar reasoning in declining to charge a sheriffs deputy who fatally shot 13-year-old Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa in 2013 after the boy, who was walking away from a patrol car, turned around while holding a toy gun that resembled a rifle. The county later paid his family $3 million to settle a lawsuit. Such cases have prompted calls to take police prosecutions away from district attorneys, who rely on police for investigations, testimony and often electoral support, and reassign them to the state attorney general or an independent prosecutor. Charges in Floyds killing were expanded after Minnesotas governor called in state Attorney General Keith Ellison to prosecute the case. But when a similar change was proposed in California in 2014, Kamala Harris, then the states attorney general, opposed it and said the decision should remain up to locally elected district attorneys. Probably the most notorious Bay Area police homicide in recent years was the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant, 22, by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle as Grant lay face down on the platform at Fruitvale Station in Oakland on Jan. 1, 2009, after a disturbance on a train. Mehserle was charged with murder but convicted of involuntary manslaughter after testifying that he thought he was firing his taser rather than his handgun. He was sentenced to two years in prison, the minimum under the law, and released after 11 months. As in many such cases, Mehserles fellow officers testified in support of his version of events. While police testify for the prosecution in most cases against civilians, its traditionally difficult to get police officers to testify against each other, Sklansky said. Its also difficult to prosecute officers for fatally assaulting someone who was armed, or appeared to be armed. Leila Navidi / Associated Press If a civilian has a weapon, in almost every case the prosecution is not going to bring charges, said Kate Levine, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York who has researched police prosecutions. In many states, she said, the law allows them to use deadly force if they see a weapon, or if an officer can credibly claim that they feared for their life. That may not be an ironclad defense in California. Partly in response to the fatal shooting of Stephon Clark, California legislators passed a law effective this year requiring police to show that they reasonably believed their use of deadly force was necessary in defense of human life to justify their actions. Under the previous standard, officers were required only to show that their actions were reasonable. Still, if a police department manual appears to authorize a specific use of force kneeling on a prone suspect, for example a conviction may be difficult or even impossible, said Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor in Los Angeles and a former federal prosecutor. A similar rationale was apparently behind the decisions by a New York grand jury and federal prosecutors not to charge the officer who fatally choked Eric Garner. Suing police for damages is equally challenging. A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling grants officers qualified immunity a shield from liability with few exceptions. Even if police actions were obviously wrong, they cannot be sued successfully unless the courts had expressly condemned that conduct in the past. Harris, now a Democratic U.S. senator from California, is co-sponsoring a resolution calling on Congress to abolish qualified immunity, and a bill to that effect has been introduced in the House. Harris is also co-sponsoring legislation, introduced Monday, that would prohibit federal law enforcement officers from using choke holds, require them to use body cameras and dashboard cameras, and broaden the definition of federal police misconduct. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered local police to stop training officers in the carotid restraint, a type of choke hold in which police press veins on each side of the neck to render someone unconscious. San Francisco and Los Angeles already prohibit their police from using choke holds. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 08:09:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, June 8 (Xinhua) -- New analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes from a small number of California-based patients suggested the virus arrived in northern California through a complex series of introductions, including state-to-state transmission and international travel, according to a study published on Science magazine on Monday. The research team led by Xianding Deng, researcher at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, used a method to assemble viral genomes directly from clinical samples, to better understand the nature of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in northern California through mid-March. They analyzed positive viral samples recovered from 36 California-based patients spanning 9 counties and who had traveled on the Grand Princess cruise ship during its voyages associated with outbreaks. Sequencing the viral genomes and placing them, along with other publicly available genomes, on a phylogenetic tree, revealed that the genomes from northern California were dispersed across the evolutionary tree of SARS-CoV-2, including lineages circulating in Europe and New York and related to early lineages from China, according to the study. Based on their full results, researchers believed no one virus lineage was predominant in northern California, which suggests that transmission between communities was limited. Virus introductions to the state were likely from people traveling from outside the studied counties and the state, according to the study. These results emphasized the need for social distancing and travel restrictions to contain SARS-CoV-2 spread in California and in other states, said the researchers. Enditem [June 09, 2020] HULFT and Parent Company Saison Information Systems to Donate 1% of Operating Income to Charity The impact of COVID-19 has been felt acutely across the world, within workplaces, and among individuals. In response, HULFT, a comprehensive data logistics platform, is proud to announce its first corporate giving program which will be managed through its parent company Saison Information Systems, Inc. (TYO: 9640). Regional offices will structure donations based on local communities that are at greatest risk. Under the new program, the company will commit at least one percent of its annual operating profits to organizations that are fighting poverty, famine, and disease. Saison Information Systems, as well as its subsidiaries, will partner with global causes that are creating a positive change in the human condition. "Our decision to establish this important initiative aligns with our mission statement to 'contribute to the near future society by accelerating innovation'" said Kazuhiro Uchida, president of Saison Information Systems. "We believe that part of our evolution as a 50-year-old global leader involves increasing our corporate giving. This pandemic has uncovered and magnified many structural and systemic problems and iniquities across all areas of society. Our board members and I agreed that it was time for Saison Information Systems to turn our values into action." During this fiscal year beginning April, Saison Information Systems is honored to partner through donatons with medical institutions and humanitarian aid organizations that are responding to COVID-19: Doctors Without Borders, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Japanese Red Cross Society, Masks for Heroes, United Way Bay Area (UWBA), and Bethlehem House of Detroit. These donations will support local communities in three cities in Japan (Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka), the United Kingdom, Singapore, Thailand, China (Shanghai and Beijing) and the United States (San Francisco/Bay Area, and Detroit). "Workers at our community nonprofits like food banks and family resource centers are on the front lines of mitigating the economic crisis caused by COVID-19," said Kelly Batson, senior vice president of Community Impact at UWBA. "We appreciate HULFT's contribution, which will support our local nonprofits that are working to help large numbers of newly vulnerable households receive critical services." "For 17 years, Bethlehem House has relied upon the generosity of our supporters to provide safe and affordable housing to employed-homeless women in Detroit," said Deborah Foster, Bethlehem House of Detroit founder and executive director. "We are overwhelmed by HULFT's donation, which is the largest to date. These funds will provide much-needed laptops and other resources to help our residents look for better paying jobs, complete online classes, and search for affordable housing upon exiting Bethlehem House." About HULFT Inc. Today's enterprise works hard for data. IT spends time and money manually connecting far-flung silos of data, which are often insecure. A division of Saison Information Systems (TYO: 9640), which is celebrating its 50th Anniversary, HULFT has helped more than 10,000 global customers automate, orchestrate, and accelerate the secure flow of information at scale. HULFT provides a single global platform that helps IT quickly find, secure, organize, transform, and move the right information - automating the entire business processes of data flow, and unlocking value in a sea of information. HULFT is the engine that makes data work. For more information, please visit www.hulftinc.com. About Saison Information Systems Co. Head Office: Akasaka Intercity AIR 19F, 1-8-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052, Japan Date of establishment: September 1, 1970 Representative: Kazuhiro Uchida (President and Representative Director) Capital: 1,367 million yen Business activities: Financial IT Services, Distribution IT Services, Linkage, HULFT business Securities Code: 9640 (Tokyo Stock Exchange, JASDAQ Standard Market) URL: https://home.saison.co.jp/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005170/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 18:19:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ANKARA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Turkish security forces killed four members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in eastern Turkey, the Turkish Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. The PKK fighters were "neutralized" in the provinces of Sirnak and Tunceli, the ministry said in a statement. The operations continue, the ministry added. Turkish authorities often use the word "neutralized" in statements to imply terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured. Turkey has long been conducting operations against the PKK group in southeastern Turkey and in northern Iraq where the group has hideouts. These operations are intensified in the past few months. The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for over 30 years, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people. Enditem Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Minneapolis, United States Tue, June 9, 2020 09:40 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd2d419 2 World Derek-Chauvin,police-brutality,George-Floyd,murder,anti-racism-protests,racial-discrimination,racial-violence,racial-tension,racial-issues Free A Minneapolis judge set a $1 million bail for police officer Derek Chauvin Monday as he made his first court appearance charged with the murder of George Floyd, the 46-year-old African-American man whose death sparked nationwide protests. Chauvin, who was filmed on May 25 pressing his knee on handcuffed Floyd's neck until he expired, appeared by video from Minnesota state prison to face charges of one count of second degree murder, one count of third degree murder, and one count of manslaughter. Dressed in an orange prison suit, Chauvin, 44, answered questions matter-of-factly in the procedural hearing, which did not require him to submit a plea. Hennepin County District Court Jeannice Reding set his bail at $1 million with conditions, and $1.25 million without conditions. Meeting the conditions would require him to surrender his firearms, not work in law enforcement or security in any capacity, agree not to leave the state and have no contact with the family of Floyd. State prosecutor Matthew Frank had asked for a high bail, calling Chauvin a flight risk due to both the severity of the charges and the strong public reaction to the case. Reding sat a June 29 date for the next hearing in the case. Three other Minneapolis officers who were with Chauvin when Floyd was arrested have been charged with aiding and abetting the murder and are still being held in a local jail. All four were fired the day after Floyd's death. [June 09, 2020] CIGNEX Datamatics Named as an Official UiPath Gold Partner Upgrade to Gold Partner status represents CIGNEX Datamatics expertise in terms of advanced-level certified professionals & excellence in delivering end-to-end Enterprise Intelligent Automation Solutions using the UiPath Platform AHMEDABAD, India, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CIGNEX Datamatics, a leading provider of Digital Transformation through Open Source, Cloud, and Automation technology solutions was recently named an official Gold Partner by UiPath. The Gold Partner recognition is granted by UiPath to partners having Automation Center of Excellence (COE), strong RPA business practice, a certified pool of UiPath experts, and a proven track record of delivering high-quality automation solutions. The Gold Partner Status implies that UiPath has recognized CIGNEX Datamatics' skills and capabilities as a leading RPA vendor in delivering cutting-edge services and solutions across industries. CIGNEX Datamatics RPA Practice Center of Excellence (CoE) consists of 60+ certified RPA professionals having key hyper-automation skills (Strategic Consulting, Business Process Discovery Analysis, Robust Solutions Architecture Design, Intelligent Automation Development, Infrastructure Management, Bots Orchestration & Security and Bots Analytics) and 150+ UiPath Certifications. With over 3000 bots in production, CIGNEX Datamatics has helped customers from Banking, Financial Services, Insurance (BFSI), Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, E-Commerce, Media & Telecom sectors achieve their automation goals with quality implementations of customized Robotic Enterprise Automation framework and solutions. "As a UiPath Partner, till now we have automated over 500 processes for our customers. We believe that our UiPath Gold Partner status is going to strengthen our business partnership with UiPath and will further enable us to deliver the highest standard of end-to-end Robtic Process Automation solutions and services to organizations across industries," said Harish Ramachandran, CEO, CIGNEX Datamatics. "Automation has become a C-suite priority now more than ever. During this time, we are working with CIGNEX Datamatics to help customers navigate through their automation journey, as they turn towards RPA to build future strategies and ensure business continuity," said Manish Bharti, President, UiPath India, and SAARC. RPA is one of the fastest-growing segments of the global enterprise software market. Having invested in RPA since 2016, CIGNEX Datamatics has a proven track record of delivering best-in-line RPA solutions and services to industry-wide enterprises across the globe. More information on CIGNEX Datamatics' UiPath Expertise can be found here. About CIGNEX Datamatics (www.cignex.com) CIGNEX Datamatics, a subsidiary of Datamatics Global Services Ltd., is a Michigan based global consulting company offering solutions & services on Open Source, Cloud and Automation. Since 2000, CIGNEX Datamatics has been delivering enterprise-class solutions built using leading platforms & tools, which can be integrated with existing systems to achieve unparalleled results. About UiPath (www.uipath.com) UiPath is leading the "automation first" era - championing a robot for every person and enabling robots to learn new skills through AI and machine learning. Through free and open training, UiPath is led by a commitment to bring digital era skills to millions of people around the world, thereby improving business productivity and efficiency, employee engagement, and customer experience. The company's?hyper-automation?platform combines the #1 Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution with a full suite of capabilities that enable every organization to scale digital business operations at unprecedented speed. The company has already automated millions of repetitive, mind-numbing tasks for businesses and government organizations all over the world including approximately 50% of the Fortune 500. UiPath?was recently recognized as the top company on Deloitte's 2019 Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the fastest public and private technology companies in North America, and #3 on the 2019 Forbes Cloud 100.? Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/682196/CIGNEX_Datamatics_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] As New York Citys first day of cautious reopening came to a close, I did what Gov. Andrew Cuomo is urging all residents to do: I got a test for the novel coronavirus. Getting a test for the virus once felt like a fantasy. Back in March, as the pandemic was rapidly becoming an emergency in the U.S. after government officials botched the window of opportunity to identify cases and contain the spread, Id edited a piece by Janet Freeman-Daily, a lung cancer patient living in the Seattle area who couldnt get a test despite extensive efforts, high-risk status, and a bout of nasty pneumonialike symptoms. In those weeks, many people like Freeman-Daily rode out presumable cases of COVID-19 in their homes, without in-person care from doctors, or even concrete knowledge of exactly what they were weathering. We were all asked to basically assume we had the virus; I remember spending a frenetic Monday in late March smelling candles after early data suggested the virus made people unable to taste and smell. Actual tests seemed to be reserved for the lucky ill and famous people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So it felt a bit bizarre to me when on Monday, I popped into a CityMD and managed to get a test with approximately no more time and effort than it takes to grocery shop. There was no line. I spent about 10 minutes in the waiting room, and about 10 minutes in an exam room before a doctor clad in a face shield and gloves came in, told me to lower my mask, and stuck an elongated Q-tip deep into my head, up one nostril, then the other. It felt less pleasant than twisting a Q-tip around in my ears but still viscerally satisfying. I left tearing slightly and sneezingas the doctor said might happenand with a tingly sensation up my nose. I expected it to hurt badly, so I was excited about the ease of it. As a person living in the national epicenter of the pandemic and with a cabal of roommates and a too-fuzzy-for-comfort quarantine bubble, I finally had a sense of control. Maybe this is how I live now, getting regular tests for the coronavirus. Maybe this is what could finally make me feel safe. Advertisement Advertisement The notion that the test could allow anyone to make perfect choices is a fantasy. For one thing, it could be a week before I get a result, the doctor told me. This is a woefully long time to go without information, especially considering the directive to wait a few days between a potential exposure and getting a test. False negatives are another big issue; if my test comes back negative, I will continue to live in the ill-defined space of sort of assuming I have the virus. But there are still reasons to be optimistic about the uptick in testing availability. Should the swab test come back positive, I could quarantine completely to avoid spreading the virus to others, and alert others in my network to get tested and take precautions themselves. This is much better than nothing. The more people who are able to confirm they are positive, the better off well all be. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Luckily, my experience in New York, where testing is free at CityMD even for the uninsured, isnt unique. Across the country, pop-up testing sites are opening to test protesters (health experts and officials are recommending that protesters assume theyve been exposed to the virus). In more and more places, you can get a test if you dont have symptoms. Arika Thames, a recent college grad in D.C. who attended protests, told me all it took to get a next-day appointment was a five-minute screening call. It was a surprisingly super simple process that gave me some peace of mind, she told me in an email. When I asked on Twitter, I heard about similar experiences from Philly to Minnesota to L.A. Its not universally easy to get a test; friends in other placesSeattle, the Bay Areareported wait times of a week or more (ease or difficulty in getting a test probably comes down to a combination of regional regulations, and what happens to be available near you; my survey was extremely unscientific). Getting a test, especially getting one just to make sure, still costs time thats easier to take if you have paid sick days. And when I walked past CityMD on Tuesday, I found a line that spanned the block; the people at the front told me theyd been waiting for 45 minutes. Maybe its just because we started off so miserably that this, now, feels like such a relief. Nonetheless, it does. WASHINGTON, D.C. - The federal government has done little over the past 20 years to prevent telecommunications carriers owned by the Chinese government from from peeking at sensitive data they transmit from the United States, according to a new report from the U.S. Senates Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chaired by Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman. The report released Tuesday by Portman and the committees top Democrat, Tom Carper of Delaware, also found that China forces U.S. telecommunications companies to enter joint ventures with Chinese companies if they want to do business in China, which has the most subscribers of any market in the world. U.S. companies that operate in China are often forced to transfer both technology and know-how to their Chinese counterparts, the report said. The probe was spurred by Federal Communications Commissions May 2019 denial of China Mobile USAs application to provide international telecommunications services in the United States on national security grounds. It found that three Chinese government owned telecommunications companies that were previously authorized to operate in the United States - China Telecom Americas, China Unicom Americas, and ComNet USA - operated with little U.S. government oversight until recently, even though the Chinese government could also force them to assist in cyber and economic espionage activities targeted at the United States. The report said the Chinese companies have established relationships with major U.S. carriers, including AT&T, Verizon, and Centurylinkall of which serve government entities, as well as private customers. The Chinese companies have been accused of routing their data through China, where they could monitor whats being transmitted without end users realizing it. The Chinese Communist Party uses its state-owned enterprises to further its cyber and economic espionage efforts against the United States, and theyve been exploiting our telecommunications networks for nearly two decades while the federal government historically put in little effort to stop it," said a statement from Portman. Portman said that after his committee began to examine the issue, the federal government began to do more, including a presidential executive order to ensure the proper review and monitoring of foreign-owned carriers. In April, the Trump administration recommended revocation of China Telecom Americas license to operate in the United States after concluding the companys operations provide opportunities for the Chinese government to engage in malicious cyber activity enabling economic espionage and disruption and misrouting of U.S. communications." Portman said hes encouraged by the new efforts, and will work with Carper on legislation "to ensure federal agencies have the oversight and enforcement tools necessary to protect our telecommunications networks going forward. A statement from Carper noted that their committee has previously investigated how the Chinese government has launched cyber-attacks against U.S. businesses and government agencies and worked to get ahead militarily and economically with stolen American research and intellectual property. Last year, it released a report on a Chinese program called the Thousand Talents Plan that recruits U.S. scientists to transfer taxpayer funded intellectual property to China in exchange for incentives that include money, research funding and lab space. Last month, a former Cleveland Clinic researcher was charged with fraud for failing to disclose his ties to that program. The report urges the FCC to promptly review the three other companies to ensure U.S. communications networks arent unnecessarily put at risk, to establish a clear standard for revoking foreign companys licenses, and for Congress to require the periodic review and renewal of foreign companies authorizations to provide international telecommunications service in the United States. It also says Congress and the administration should take steps to ensure that U.S. companies get reciprocal access to Chinas telecommunications market. Especially when dealing with state-owned telecommunications carriers, greater controls are needed, and the Administration and Congress must work together to ensure sufficient safeguards and oversight mechanisms are in place, the report concludes. More coverage: Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur questions Trump administration proposal to resume nuclear tests Ohio housing advocates warn of impending COVID-19 related eviction crisis and urge Congress to act Child and domestic abuse reports rose during the COVID-19 crisis, legislators are told SNAP benefits can now be used online in Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown wants Senate to declare racism a public health emergency Sen. Sherrod Brown denounces President Trumps handling of protests, Sen. Rob Portman calls for a national commission on race Battle over protecting businesses from COVID-19 lawsuits likely when Senate considers its next relief package Ohio shoppers can use SNAP benefits for online grocery purchases starting this summer, USDA decides Ohio congressman seeks impeachment inquiry of judge in Michael Flynn case Sen. Sherrod Brown clashes with Trump officials over COVID-19 response Annie Glenn, widow of former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn, dies at age 100 Canadian border with U.S. likely to remain closed until June 21 Mismarked COVID-19 testing swabs from Clevelands U.S. Cotton confused state officials House passes coronavirus package along party lines; Senate Republicans say they wont consider it House approves proxy voting during coronavirus over objections from Ohio Republicans including Rep. Jim Jordan Former Cleveland Clinic researcher charged with fraud for failing to disclose China ties American policing has once again revealed itself in a public execution of a black man, and if past is prologue, the only reaction will be to wait out the outrage. The outcry for change has been deafening and global since the murder of George Floyd, but progress in Washington is expected to be glacial. Here in New Jersey, however, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal is implementing a sweeping set of reforms designed to promote accountability and transparency. And a former Attorney General, John Farmer Jr., continues the work he began decades ago, when he helped spearhead the first waves of reforms of our State Police force. Farmer, the director of the Eagleton Institute at Rutgers, also serves as the executive director of the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience, which seeks to break down barriers between vulnerable communities and law enforcement. He discussed potential police reforms with Dave DAlessandro of the Star-Ledger Editorial Board on Monday: Q. Were you surprised by what the murder of George Floyd did to the body politic? Farmer: I cant really say that. These issues have been simmering for a long time in many parts of the country, and combining the brutality of that act with the impact of the pandemic on communities of color, that video was the spark that lit the powder keg. The issue is not new, but the heightened sensitivities and tension contributed to the feeling among many of us that weve had enough of this. Q. You advanced reforms in our State Police, working to eliminate profiling and increase diversity. How difficult was it to bring reform to an institution that is impervious to it? Farmer: Its always difficult to change the culture of any organization. The key to accomplishing reform and rebuilding trust always comes down to accountability. Our goal was, any time there was a fraught encounter, we wanted a reliable record of what happened that we can point to either to discipline the officer or determine that the plaintiff was mistaken. The problem we had which many departments still have is that there is often no such record. Without that record, you cant be accountable. Q. Is that the most realistic structural change we can pursue now? What should the first steps toward national reform look like? Farmer: I would say imposing an aggressive outreach to get community input comes first. Remember, we govern by consent of the people, and we police by consent. People do want law and order. They want to live in safe communities. But they should have input on how that should be accomplished. And when police see the community as something outside of themselves not something where they are an integral part of a community thats where divisions grow. Remember, police are sworn to defend the Constitution, but the aggressiveness of their actions define the boundaries of our freedoms. So there has to be dialogue about what proper methods are. When policing is imposed on communities without consent, thats when resentment builds and tragedies like Minneapolis happen. Q. There seems to be growing support on local government levels for defunding police departments were hearing it from Los Angeles to New York City. How realistic is that? Farmer: People will realize soon enough that there are people who do bad things, and in the absence of law enforcement they wont feel safe in their own homes. I dont think its a realistic option or even a desired one, if you think about it. We have to focus on building accountability and getting community input. Thats the way forward. I understand the impulse, especially now, but thats not the way forward. Q. But conceptually: From your experience, was there a lot of fat in the typical police budget that could stand a trim, and at the same time send a message? Farmer: Well, 20 years ago, record keeping was inadequate, it wasnt computerized, there was no way to audit stops or measure discriminatory enforcement. So we increased the budget to develop accountability measures with the State Police. Still, one thing we noticed at the Miller Center: The rhetoric is there to enact reforms and do training and conduct important testing -- but try to find the funding. A lot of departments know they need to improve community policing, train in de-escalation, all of those measures, but they dont have the funding to do it. The mayor of Minneapolis says he wants to reform the police. The citys activists say thats not enough. https://t.co/sdloViSsdP Vox (@voxdotcom) June 7, 2020 Q. In New Jersey, one of Attorney General Grewals key reforms is a licensing component a history of misconduct can lead to a license getting pulled, and the cop cant practice anywhere else. How should that be standardized? Farmer: I think its a good idea. The issue is going to be how you set it up in a way to pay for it. Governments priorities become transparent when it comes to budgets. Are there resources there to do effective licensing? I would think that upon academy training youd be licensed, and presumably theyd require continued education like other professions; and if you misbehave, a board can yank your license. I dont know the statistics behind guys being fired in one department and hired in another. But licensing can assure the maintenance of high standards, so in that respect its a good idea. As our nation grapples with the tragic death of George Floyd, its a good time to review some of the steps we've taken during @GovMurphy's administration to strengthen trust between law enforcement and the broader NJ community. A THREAD: AG Gurbir Grewal (@NewJerseyOAG) May 29, 2020 Q. He also emphasizes use-of-force data. Why has it taken so long to make that data more accessible? Farmer: When I was in office, we required data to be collected, but nobody did anything with it. I think it was budgetary restraints. And then the Star-Ledger (via NJ Advance Media) took a hard look at the data a few years ago, which was game-changing. Its a good determination to look at the data regularly to see whether you have to re-evaluate the Use of Force doctrine, and I just hope the resources are there to make it a serious effort. Q. On the federal level, Sen. Bookers Justice In Policing package includes things that youd expect to be employed widely - banning chokeholds, limiting qualified immunity for cops that are protected from civil suits, creating a national misconduct registry, ending no-knock warrants in drug cases. Farmer: Those seem like sound ideas, but Im not sure about the no-knock warrants the tragedy in Louisville was the result of one, and there are circumstances where they may be appropriate if police have anticipation that a knock on the door would precipitate a violent encounter. And as a federal matter, (eliminating) qualified immunity wouldnt have much reach it could be different on a state level. You dont want policemen to be afraid to be policemen. But if it is being abused, take a hard look at it, especially in cases of outrageous conduct. Q. You know the counter-narrative to your community policing model: Zero tolerance works. Look at New York a big safe city, where they fixed all the broken windows and enforced the small stuff. Isnt that attitude holding back reform? Farmer: The idea that if you address the small things, you can prevent the more serious things has a sound basis. But I also think its been abused, too. And it accounts for the disparities in arrests and other statistics that we have seen. It all comes back to what the community wants to have happen. When there is no communication, you have situations like you had a few summers ago in Chicago, where there were a thousand shootings between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Thats a situation that is completely broken: They cant be happy with people getting shot at random, but if their trust in police is so low that no one comes forward to help, you have to start over. I think most places in the country and in New Jersey (the trust void) hasnt reached that point yet. But we need to act now, because were close. Much too close. Nobody is tracking police use of force in NJ. Every baton blow, every kick, every shot is reported, but those reports are gathering dust in file cabinets all over the state. So, we analyzed the data and heres what we found. 1/4 https://t.co/brhiBU0zPQ pic.twitter.com/glKTFfhcQ0 njdotcom (@njdotcom) November 29, 2018 Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. 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. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter. By Trend The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Uzbekistan increased by 96 to 4,448, Trend reports on June 9 with reference to the Ministry of Health. To date, 3,357 patients have fully recovered in the country, 18 have died. 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. Uzbekistan has divided the country into certain "red", "yellow" and "green" zones, with regards to the level of COVID-19 pandemic spread level. On June 4, The Special Republican Commission updated the list of "red", "yellow" and "green" zones. By decision of the Special Republican Commission from June 15 in "green" and "yellow" regions will resume the activities of catering, kindergarten and clothing markets. The "red" zones include Kungrad District of Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic; Shafirkan district of Bukhara region; Zarafshan city, Kanimekh and Khatirchin districts of Navoi region; Namangan city, Turakurgan and Uychin districts of Namangan region, Sardoba district of Syrdarya region; Samarkand city, Akdarya, Paiaryk, Pastdargom, Urgut, Samarkand and Taylak districts of Samarkand region; Sariasi district of Surkhandarya region; Tashkent city, Bekabad, Zangiota, Kibray, Yangiyul and Yukori Chirchiq districts of Tashkent region. The "yellow" zones include Nukus city of Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic; Gijduvan, Karakul districts and Bukhara city of Bukhara region; Norin District of Namangan region; Jomboy and Ishtikhan of Samarkand region; Angren, Chirchik, Nurafshan, Akkurgan, Bukin, Chinaz, Urta Chirchik and Kuyichirchik districts of Tashkent region. The "green" zones include Jizzakh, Fergana and Kashkadarya regions and other non-mentioned districts. 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 us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz New Delhi, June 9 : Shahrukh Pathan, who was seen aiming a gun at a policeman during the riots in Delhi in February, along with four others has been found to be a part of a deep-rooted conspiracy which triggered the communal riot at Maujpur Chowk. The investigating agency will be submitting chargesheets before the courts on Tuesday, including the one which pertains to the alleged role of Pathan and others in the riots. On Tuesday, the investigating agency will file three chargesheets in three different cases before various courts. The three cases are: Maujpur Chowk riot case, Kardampuri Pulia riot case and the Kardampuri government dispensary riot case. In the Maujpur Chowk riot case, the police found that on February 24 at about 11 a.m., two groups clashed at the chowk. One group was supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens and the other group was opposing it. Initially the protest was peaceful but soon it became violent and led to incidents of stone pelting, brick-batting, arson, firing and sabotage from both sides. This led to injuries to several policemen as well as other people and created an atmosphere of fear among the public. On that day, one person Vinod Singh lost his life in a related incident and a separate case of murder was registered against his killers. Five accused, including Shahrukh Pathan, were arrested in this case. "During probe it was found that Pathan is the main accused in another case in which he had brandished his gun and shot at Head Constable Deepak Dahiya in full public view," the police said. His illegal firearm, a 7.65 mm pistol along with two live rounds, was recovered from him. Several shots had been fired by him and three empty shells were recovered from the spot, the police said. The Kardampuri Pulia riot case is about the murder of Mohammad Furkan, gunshot injuries to four other people and injuries to 17 policemen because of the heavy stone pelting on February 24. During the probe, the police found that the closed-circuit television in the area was damaged by the rioters on February 23. They, however, managed to get some video footage. Based upon the statements of the eyewitnesses, video evidence and other technical evidence, four people were arrested. "Today chargesheet is being filed against all the four accused persons and further investigation is being carried out to identify and arrest more accused," the police said. The Kardampuri government dispensary case pertains to the communal riots on February 25 behind Ambedkar College on the service road where the rioters set fire to two parking lots and stabbed 32-year-old Deepak. The deceased Deepak was a e- rickshaw driver. Based upon statements, video evidence and other technical evidence, so far four accused persons have been arrested in this case. "Today chargesheet is being filed against all the accused persons. Further investigation is continuing to identify and arrest more accused," the Delhi Police said. Addis Ababa (AFP) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Monday ruled out forming a transitional government once his mandate expires in early October, brushing aside accusations that he was misusing the coronavirus epidemic and delayed polls to artificially extend his rule. Africa's second most populous country was due to hold national elections in August that Abiy hoped would give him a mandate for wide-ranging political and economic reforms. But the election board announced in late March that it would be impossible to organise the polls on time because of the new coronavirus pandemic. That means elections will not happen before the lawmakers' mandates expire in October -- a dilemma for which the constitution does not have a clear answer. "People can raise the issue of caretaker and transitional government but it's unconstitutional when put into practice," Abiy, the winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, said Monday during a question-and-answer session with lawmakers. He also said his political party, the Prosperity Party, was eager to face voters. "We want the elections to be held. The Prosperity Party isn't a party that is scared of elections," he said. Last month, Ethiopia's Council of Constitutional Inquiry held public hearings on the possible next steps, and the House of Federation, the upper house of parliament, is expected to respond to its recommendations soon. Abiy said Monday the election delay could last "a few months," although the election board told the council it would need at least 10 more months to prepare. - Opposition lashes out - Opposition leaders have accused Abiy of seizing on the coronavirus pandemic to artifically prolong his mandate. On Monday afternoon, state-run media reported that upper house speaker Keria Ibrahim had resigned from her position, saying she was "not willing to work with a group that violates the constitution and exercises dictatorship". Story continues Keria is a member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which dominated the ruling coalition before Abiy came to power in 2018 but has since been sidelined and officially parted ways with him last year. Other opposition politicians have demanded a more prominent role in resolving the impasse, arguing that consulting parliament is insufficient because most lawmakers support the ruling party. During a press briefing in late May, Dawud Ibsa, chairman of the opposition Oromo Liberation Front, said "some of the powers of the government should be under the control" of the opposition until elections can be held. Abiy, for his part, has accused opposition politicians of trying to exploit uncertainty created by the pandemic to claim power for themselves. Ethiopia announced its first case of COVID-19 in mid-March and has so far tallied 2,156 cases and 27 deaths. About half of those cases have been recorded in the past 10 days, and the health ministry said Monday it "would like to extend our call for more collective action than ever before" to fight the pandemic. FP Trending In a remarkable first, astronomers have observed visible light from the two enormous outflows of high-energy gas, known as the Fermi bubbles, in our Milky Way galaxy. The research was carried out by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW-Whitewater and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. They announced their findings on 3 June at the 236th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, which was held virtually for the first time since 1899 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Scientists measured the emission of light by hydrogen and nitrogen gasses in the Fermi bubbles at the same location as a recent ultraviolet absorption calculation made by the Hubble Space Telescope. "We combined those two measurements of emission and absorption to estimate the density, pressure and temperature of the ionized gas, and that lets us better understand where this gas is coming from," Dhanesh Krishnarao, lead author of the new study, told University of Wisconsin-Madison press. The Fermi bubbles, which were first spotted in 2010, spew out light in the form of a highly-energetic radiation called gamma rays. The towering structures each of which is around 25,000 light-years tall are considered to be relics of an ancient outburst of gas from the galaxys center. While these structures have captured the imagination and attention of many scientists and astrophysicists, the source of these bubbles is still unknown. Scientists have theorized that the outflow could have been the result of the black hole at the center of the galaxy, or emissions caused by high-energy explosions during stars formation. "The other significant thing is that we now have the possibility of measuring the density and pressure and the velocity structure in many locations," with the all-sky WHAM telescope, says Bob Benjamin, a professor of astronomy at UW-Whitewater and co-author of the study. The study revealed that within the bubbles, gas is expanding outward, its motion altering the apparent wavelength of its light. Material that is closer to our solar system is moving toward it, appearing bluer in the image, while more distant gas is moving away, appearing redder. The American space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has stated that a supermassive black hole at the center of Milky Way galaxy unleashed an enormous burst of energy about 3.5 million years ago. The black hole explosion is said to have been caused by a large hydrogen cloud up to 1,00,000 times the Sun's mass. The explosion set cones of blistering ultraviolet radiation above and below the plane of the galaxy stretching far and wide into space. Could this stunning relic be related to this extraordinary event? There's an open question begging for an answer. Cailyn Tegel, a senior at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, has joined the Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau as its 2020 summer intern. Every semester the Tourism Bureau provides internship opportunities for students who want to gain knowledge and experience in destination marketing, advertising, public relations, and economics. The on-going COVID-19 crisis has prompted the bureau and Tegel to become creative with the internship and in the early days, Tegel will work with staff online. I think it is great to experience the online platform of an internship. It is hard, but after all is done, I will gain a more in-depth experience, Tegel says. Tegel will graduate in May 2021 with a bachelors degree in public relations and a minor in business administration. After graduation, she plans to pursue a career in travel or public relations. This summer Tegel will get real-world experience with a destination marketing organization, the Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau. She will focus on social media projects, press releases, blogs and gaining experiences in other related areas. Tegel is a native of Alton which is one of the main cities in the bureaus six-county region. I understand what makes this area so great and I hope to help others see that as well, Tegel notes. Tegel has been a server at Bluff City Grill in Alton for over three years. Tegel is the community outreach director for SIUEs Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). She hopes to continue to succeed through her senior year and end school with a strong portfolio of experiences. When Tegel is not working she likes to hang out with friends and family. She enjoys traveling, and has visited a large number of states. Tegel wants to visit all 50 in the next few years. She is planning a trip to Greece next spring and expects that will blossom into other worldwide adventures. By Express News Service Screenwriter Juhi Chaturvedi has denied the plagiarism claims against Shoojit Sircars 'Gulabo Sitabo'. The film, which stars Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khuranna, tells the story of a 78-year-old landlord and his tenant in Lucknow. Recently, Akira Agarwal, the son of late writer Rajeev Agarwal, had accused Juhi of plagiarising her fathers story. Akiras lawyer claimed that he had submitted the story for the Cinestaan Indias Storyteller Script Contest promoted by The Screenwriters Association (SWA) in 2018. Juhi was a jury member of the contest along with two others. Responding to the allegations, Juhi said she had pitched the idea of a crooked old man with Amitabh Bachchan in 2017, who had liked the idea and asked her to develop it. My conscience is clear and so are the facts in this matter, Juhi said. Gulabo Sitabo is my original work and I am proud of it. I shared the idea with the director and lead actor of the film in early 2017. I subsequently registered the concept note for the film in May 2018. Ukrainian president says he would never resort to offensive rhetoric while speaking with another country's leader. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that in addressing the issue of peace in Donbas, it's people's lives that are at stake rather than his popular ratings, also mentioning in the context Russian leader Vladimir Putin. "[Putin's] human qualities are not of much interest to me in terms of resolving the [Donbas and Crimea] issue. I believe no one is able to know such people fully. It's probably only he who fully knows himself," Zelensky told reporters during his visit to Khmelnytskyi region, Ukrainian Pravda reports. At the same time, the Ukrainian leader that "not a single president can betray a country by telling another president offensive things about personal stuff." Read alsoZelensky explains why one-on-one meeting with Putin needed "Sometimes, offensive things cause thousands of deaths," Zelensky reflected, adding that in addressing the issue of peace in Donbas, it's people's lives that are at stake rather than his popular ratings. As UNIAN reported earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky introduced a new head of the country's SZR Foreign Intelligence Service, Valeriy Kondratiuk. The Department of Homeland Security is warning Windows 10 users of potential cyberattacks after exploit code for a 'wormable' bug was published online last week. The agency announced the code allows malicious cyber actors to target systems that did not download Microsoft's March update, which patched a flaw that allowed hackers to remotely run malicious code on vulnerable computers. The 'wormable' bug is capable entering a system undetected, spread to millions of computers and cause billions of dollars in damage. Users are urged to activate a firewall to block SMB ports, the component that lets Windows communicate with other devices, 'from the internet and to apply patches to critical- and high-severity vulnerabilities as soon as possible.' Scroll down for videos Homeland Security is warning Windows 10 users of potential cyberattacks after exploit code for a 'wormable' bug was published online last week The warning was shared by the Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which shared in a statement that they are 'ware of publicly available and functional proof-of-concept (PoC) code that exploits CVE-2020-0796 in unpatched systems.' 'Although Microsoft disclosed and provided updates for this vulnerability in March 2020, malicious cyber actors are targeting unpatched systems with the new PoC, according to recent open-source reports.' 'CISA strongly recommends using a firewall to block SMB ports from the internet and to apply patches to critical- and high-severity vulnerabilities as soon as possible.' A researcher shared the code on Github which said: 'It was written quickly and needs some work to be more reliable.' Using this for any purpose other than self education is an extremely bad idea,' according to TechXplore. 'Your computer will burst in flames. Puppies will die.' The agency announced the code allows malicious cyber actors to target systems that did not download Microsoft's March update, which patched a flaw that allowed hackers to remotely run malicious code on vulnerable computers Users are urged to activate a firewall to block SMB ports, the component that lets Windows communicate with other devices, 'from the internet and to apply patches to critical- and high-severity vulnerabilities as soon as possible' Even though Microsoft published a patch months ago, tens of thousands of internet-facing computers are still vulnerable. The 'wormable' bug is similar to the infamous WannaCry that wreaked havoc across the globe in 2017. Cybercriminals stole the hacking tools from the NSA, launching massive ransomware campaigns. This major extortion scheme hit 150 countries including the US, Britain, Russia, China, Germany and France, and affected 200,000 different companies. Russia Prime Minister Vladamir Putin spoke out against the intelligence services for the 'ransomware' attack in 2017. He said the NSA should beware of creating software that can later be used for malicious means. 'As regards the source of these threats, I believe that the leadership of Microsoft have announced this plainly, that the initial source of the virus is the intelligence services of the United States,' Putin said. 'Once they're let out of the lamp, genies of this kind, especially those created by intelligence services, can later do damage to their authors and creators,' he told reporters in Beijing. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 13:19:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Yosley Carrero HAVANA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The 52-member medical brigade on a mission to help Italy's Lombardy region combat the COVID-19 pandemic returned to Cuba on Monday. The Cuban health workers were received as heroes. State TV Cubavision streamed live their flight status before landing, and thousands of locals waved to the health workers from balconies and portals. During the welcome ceremony, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel noted the importance of international cooperation and solidarity, while denouncing the intensified U.S. blockade against the island in the context of the pandemic. "We are winning the battle against the pandemic at a moment when another terrible pandemic of the U.S. blockade and the economic war against the island have been tightened without mercy of the current U.S. administration," he said. The first batch of Cuban health professionals made up of 36 doctors, 15 nurses, and a logistics specialist arrived in Milan on March 22, when Italy reported 53,578 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 4,825 related deaths. Carlos Perez, head of the medical brigade, said they all focused on saving lives. "Abiding by all security measures and health protocols, we fulfilled our commitment of returning safe and sound, and with the mission accomplished," he said. All the 52 members will stay isolated for two weeks at Las Praderas medical center located on the outskirts of Havana. So far, 3,337 Cuban doctors and nurses from the Henry Reeve Medical Contingent have joined the fight against the coronavirus across the globe, of whom more than 2,000 are females. Cuba has sent 34 emergency response teams to 27 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and for the first time to Europe, where two Cuban medical teams are still providing health assistance in Italy and Andorra. Enditem Hong Kong: Avoid unlawful assemblies: Police Police today urged the public not to participate in unauthorised assemblies and prohibited group gatherings. Police issued the statement after noticing that some netizens have been calling on the public to take part in unauthorised assemblies on Hong Kong Island tonight. The force reiterated that anyone participating in such events may be found guilty of taking part in an unauthorised assembly in accordance with the Public Order Ordinance and liable to a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment. They emphasised that engaging in public gatherings will also increase the risk of transmission of the virus in the community and may commit certain offences under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering) Regulation. Police believe that such unauthorised assemblies and prohibited group gatherings will likely cause serious obstruction to traffic on Hong Kong Island, potentially leading to delays in emergency services. They will take into consideration different traffic conditions and implement temporary route diversion as well as traffic control measures accordingly. Road users should watch out for any incidents that may occur in different districts and avoid affected areas, while drivers should follow instructions given by police officers and steer clear of dangerous areas. Police will conduct risk assessments and cordon off the Legislative Council Road, Lung Wui Road, Tamar Park, the footbridge connecting the Admiralty Centre and the Central Government Offices, as well as the footbridge connecting CITIC Tower, when necessary. The force also noted that some rioters have been inciting others on the Internet to attack police officers using petrol bombs in an attempt to force Police to deploy tear gas. Police strongly condemn such malicious and irresponsible messages that encourage the use of violence, adding that they do not condone any violent acts. Police stressed that they will deploy adequate manpower in relevant locations and take resolute action to enforce the law, including making arrests. This story has been published on: 2020-06-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. PORTAGE, MI -- Portage schools could lose more than $5 million this year because of the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Portage Public Schools is facing a possible deficit of $5,817,515 for the current school year if the state of Michigan cuts the remaining revenue of per pupil foundation allowance, according to budget documents presented to the Board of Education during a meeting Monday, June 8. Portage, like all other schools across Michigan, was forced to close its doors in March and provide education remotely to students. As income tax revenue plummeted in Michigan during the pandemic, the source of funding for public education is in trouble. The State Senate Fiscal Agencys economic outlook and budget review released May 14 showed a $1.2 billion deficit in school aid funding for the 2019-20 school year along with a $1.1 billion decrease in School Aid Fund revenue anticipated for 2020-21. The district could lose funds for the current year and is facing uncertainty about the health of the budget for next year, Superintendent Mark Bielang said during the meeting. They say budgets are living and breathing documents. I hate to say it but this particular one is gasping for air even before we bring it to you," Bielang said of the 2020-21 budget. Related: Federal funding only real hope for Kalamazoo, school board says in call for financial help The districts budget is typically amended each year in February and June. Prior to the pandemic, the district predicted a deficit of $333,095 in its first amendment of the 2019-20 budget in February. In a second amendment, school administrators presented to the board the worst-case scenario where the district loses a per pupil foundation allowance of $650 per pupil in the current fiscal year. At the time of writing this memo we do not know if this cut will happen in the school year and to what extent," the district said. Paula Johnson, director of finance, said the district is taking a conservative approach by planning for the possible cuts. Everything is up in the air right now, Johnson said during the board meeting. The state has prorated final payments to local districts in the past but its typically done earlier in the school year and administrators can plan ahead, Bielang said in an interview with MLive. Because of the timing, the district has no choice but to make up the difference in revenue using its fund balance. Prior to the pandemic and resulting cuts in revenue, the district was in pretty good shape for the upcoming school year, Bielang said. The districts fund balance could drop from about $9.3 million to $3.5 million if the cuts happen. A portion of those funds are assigned and non-spendable, which leaves $2.9 million in the unassigned fund balance, or 2.95% of the total expenditures, budget documents showed. The balance must remain above 5% of the districts total expenditures in order to avoid state oversight, Bielang said. Kalamazoo Public Schools is projecting similar devastating cuts to its budget if the state aid is reduced. The district could lost $10.8 million in funding for the current year, administrators said. The Portage board also reviewed preliminary 2020-21 budget numbers for the building and site sinking fund, debt retirement funds, food service fund, bookstore fund and school activities fund. Significant uncertainties exist that could dramatically change our recommendations throughout the course of this budget cycle, the district said. The district must approve its general fund budget before June 30, Bielang said. This year, the district doesnt have state school aid budgets from the government and cant easily predict their funding for next year. District administrators are building the 2020-21 budget assuming that the fund balance is reduced and funding is decreased by $650 per pupil. We have a lot of difficult decisions ahead of us to bring that budget in, Bielang said. The board will hold a public hearing for the 2020-21 budget at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 29. Like KPS, Portage also approved a resolution calling for federal action to preserve education funding for districts across Michigan at the virtual meeting. There is tremendous uncertainty amid the pandemic and districts face new expenses and challenges for the upcoming year including providing personal protective equipment, creating new health screening procedures, increased cleaning costs, reorganization of learning spaces to accommodate social distancing and expanded access to school-based mental health services, the recommendation states. Possible budget cuts to the district make providing high-quality education, access to technology and safety for students and staff more difficult, the district said. With approval of the resolution, the board voiced its support for proposed legislation by Congress appropriating additional funds for states and local districts to fill budget gaps during the state of emergency. I personally have a hard time asking the federal government to borrow money so we can pay our current bills, Board member Kurt Droppers said. I will vote yes but with regret that our state cant get our act together to pay our own bills. Also on MLive: Some Kalamazoo bars, restaurants reopen dining rooms while others wait Founding dean of WMU medical school set to retire Several hundred march in student-led protest against police brutality in Kalamazoo Kalamazoo artists bring color to boarded up downtown businesses Superannuation funds say the $3 trillion sector needs policy stability to take up Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's call for more retirement money to be invested in major infrastructure projects. In a bid to encourage an economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government is looking at ways to boost job creation through major national projects including infrastructure development. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg: "I don't care if they are industry funds or retail funds, I would like to see them both put to work on domestic infrastructure assets more than they have been." Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Frydenberg told The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday superannuation was a "massive pool in savings that should be harnessed more for domestic investment". "I don't care if they are industry funds or retail funds, I would like to see them both put to work on domestic infrastructure assets more than they have been," he said. Wipro Lighting in association with Mapiq, a Netherlands based company, has launched Office Shifts, smart office technology software. This software is designed to enable flexibility and maximize the utilization of office space for employees in a post-COVID-19 world. The software can be scaled and upgraded depending on the policy changes organizations need to make due to local government directives. Anuj Dhir, Vice President & Business Head, Wipro Lighting, said, Fundamental changes to the way Organizations function and large office complexes operate has necessitated a complete rethink. Everyone has the safety and security of people as their top priority. Social distancing, sanitizing, and restrictions on meetings & gatherings necessitate a newer and efficient manner of functioning. This is where Mapiqs Office Shifts technology is useful. It ensures both employee safety and productivity. Due to the new norm of social distancing, in most offices, desks and workspaces availability will decrease by an average of 43%. This means only half the employees can be in office. Organizations need to align schedules and working patterns of employees and their teams. Besides the social distancing norm, going back to office raises concerns about safety and productivity among employees. Can they work safely and which spaces in the office can they access, how will they conduct their meeting will play on their mind. Keeping employees informed real-time and ensuring they are evenly spread in the office is essential. Mr. Ramakrishna Puranam, Senior General Manager Sales, Wipro Lighting, said, with this technology organizing teams together, anticipating and updating office capacity quickly, is simply hassle-free. The software is available as a subscription-based model built on SaaS (Software as a Service) model. Customers can pay either as per building, per month or per building, per year model. This makes it less capital intensive and easy to afford. With a deranged narcissist in the Oval Office and his lackey controlling the Department of Justice, there is no point in looking to the federal government to curb police violence. Instead, President Donald J. Trump will do everything in his power to encourage it. In the wake of protests over the murder of George Floyd, he has demanded that governors crack down on protestors: "You have to dominate. ... If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time," he told them. Moreover, most local police authorities are under local control mayors, city councils, district attorneys, police chiefs, sheriffs. That's where the accountability for police misconduct begins. But Congress could take a significant step toward reining in that misconduct by passing a bill to end the practice of allowing the Pentagon to give surplus war equipment to local police departments. There is simply no good reason for police in any city from Washington to Wichita to roll down the streets in armored personnel carriers, armed with battering rams and grenade launchers. They are not going to war. American citizens are not enemy combatants. Several Democrats have already announced their intention to introduce legislation to end the practice. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, has said he would introduce such a measure as an amendment to the all-important annual defense policy bill which would give it a decent shot at passing since Republicans are deeply invested in the defense bill. After protests broke out in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer, local law enforcement authorities took to the streets in armored carriers, further inflaming tensions. They showed little inclination toward restraint or de-escalation. The same thing is occurring in cities around the country right now. Offloading surplus military hardware to local police departments was never a good idea. The practice started back during the 1990s as violent crime peaked and local and federal authorities were feverishly devoted to winning the so-called war on drugs. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the program ramped up, doling out battlefield gear even to small towns no self-respecting terrorist ever heard of. Law enforcement agents became enamored of images of themselves decked out like soldiers on special-ops missions. According to The New York Times, the website of a South Carolina sheriff's department featured its SWAT team "dressed in black with guns drawn, flanking an armored vehicle that looks like a tank and has a mounted .50-caliber gun." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Poor neighborhoods are subjected to the military-style hardware much more often than affluent ones. And the consequence of that sort of policing is often less safety, not more. When the police behave like an occupying force, the residents return the favor treating them with suspicion and contempt. That hardly makes it more likely that police will get the information they need to solve crimes. The administration of President Barack Obama understood that and curbed the Pentagon program after Ferguson. In the final years of the Obama administration, the Pentagon reported that local law enforcement agencies had returned 126 tracked armored vehicles, 138 grenade launchers and 1,623 bayonets, the Times said. Pause for a moment just to consider that. Why would any police department even New York City's army of 36,000 officers need bayonets and grenade launchers? Once you implant in the heads of police officers the notion that they need battlefield gear, their use of violence against unarmed citizens escalates as a natural consequence. But guess what happened when Trump took office? He removed Obama's restraints on the Pentagon program, once again allowing local law enforcement agents to go to battle against the citizens they are sworn to protect. No surprise there. In 2017, Trump gave a speech in which he urged police officers not to worry about injuring a suspect during an arrest. Police violence against black people is a problem as old as the nation itself. It didn't start with Trump's presidency and won't end when it's over. Rather, the racist culture that is embedded among so many law enforcement agencies showed itself clearly when major police unions enthusiastically backed Trump's election. When Trump is finally gone, the campaign to eradicate that culture can begin in earnest. Cynthia Tucker can be reached at cynthia@cynthiatucker.com. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Denise Richards ran errands in Los Angeles on Monday with her daughter Eloise Joni and her second husband Aaron Phypers. The 49-year-old mother-of-three munched on chips while clad in a T-shirt and jeans with her highlighted locks twisted into a top bun. The Canadian 47-year-old serves as CEO of the holistic clinic The Q360 Club claiming to make people and animals 'look younger,' 'heal disease,' and 'repair DNA' with 'light and sound therapy.' Out and about: The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Denise Richards ran errands in Los Angeles on Monday with her daughter Eloise Joni and her second husband Aaron Phypers None of the Richards-Phypers clan wore cloth masks, which LA Mayor Eric Garcetti made mandatory for all outdoor activity back on May 13. Garcetti extended the stay-at home order indefinitely due to the 64K confirmed COVID-19 cases in LA County, which has led to 2,656 deaths as of Monday - according to Johns Hopkins University. Last year, Aaron officially adopted Eloise, and the married couple celebrated her ninth birthday on May 24. Meanwhile, Denise's eldest daughter Sami and three gal pals held a roadside Black Lives Matter protest in Malibu last Wednesday after posting about her 'white privilege.' Salty snack: The 49-year-old mother-of-three munched on chips while clad in a T-shirt and jeans with her highlighted locks twisted into a top bun Sinewy: The Canadian 47-year-old - who serves as CEO of the holistic clinic The Q360 Club - matched Denise in a black T-shirt and clingy jeans Happy birthday sweet angel. We love you so much!' Last year, Aaron officially adopted Eloise, and the married couple celebrated her ninth birthday on May 24 'I have white privilege. I have never feared being pulled over by the cops. I have never been judged, harmed, discriminated, or murdered because of my skin color,' the 16-year-old activist wrote on Instagram last week. 'If you have white privilege, acknowledge [and] recognize it. Racism isn't getting worse, it's just being recorded. Enough is enough. It makes me sick that people are still staying silent! How can you continue to watch thousands of black lives being taken by brutal police officers and not be angry, or sad?' Sami continued: 'Makes me question if you even have a soul at this point. Please use your voice, donate, raise awareness, [and] sign petitions! If you are not angry, you are not paying attention. Please educate yourself on racism. 'We need to put an end to it. People can't even protest without getting pepper sprayed, shot with rubber bullets, or tear gassed. I pray that the world doesn't stay evil forever, and I will always, always do my best to be the voice of the unheard.' 'I have white privilege': Denise's 16-year-old daughter Sami (L) and three gal pals held a roadside Black Lives Matter protest in Malibu last Wednesday '#classof2020': The Bold and the Beautiful actress is also mother to daughter Lola, who turned 15 on June 1 following her eighth grade graduation via Zoom three days prior 'The Sheens take on London': Sami (L) and Lola are Denise's children from her four-year marriage to Golden Globe winner Charlie Sheen (R), which ended in 2006 (pictured July 28) The Bold and the Beautiful actress is also mother to daughter Lola, who turned 15 on June 1 following her eighth grade graduation via Zoom three days prior. Sami and Lola are Denise's children from her four-year marriage to Golden Globe winner Charlie Sheen, which ended in 2006. 'The kids are happy to not be in school, but it's also caused a lot of anxiety,' Richards told Extra in March. Richards told Extra in March: 'The kids are happy to not be in school, but it's also caused a lot of anxiety. I tell them this will pass. It will' (pictured in 2019) 'There's a f***ing line. I'm done': Catch more of the Illinois-born beauty in the 10th season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which airs Wednesdays on Bravo 'I tell them this will pass. It will. We all just can't panic. It's something that the entire world is going through This is something none of us have experienced before.' The Illinois-born beauty added: 'The silver lining is the reconnecting with everyone and also resetting and finding all the things we used to do in the olden days when we were kids.' Catch more of Denise in the 10th season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which airs Wednesdays on Bravo. Mumbai, June 9 : The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has ordered a probe into the mystery death of a Covid-19 patient -- who went missing from a suburban civic hospital and later his body was found a few km away -- here on Tuesday. Taking a serious view of the alleged incident, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar visited the Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivali for an assessment and ordered the inquiry. Accompanied by BMC Health Committee Chairman Ameya Ghole, Pednekar termed the incident as "unfortunate", which happened despite a professional private security agency being deployed at the hospital along with CCTVs. "It was an unfortunate incident. First, a Covid-19 patient goes missing from the hospital and then his body is found. We will probe the incident to know the exact facts in the matter. We shall also seek police help in the matter," Pednekar told mediapersons. According to information, the 80-year old man was admitted to the hospital on Saturday after he tested Covid-19 positive, while his family was shunted to quarantine on Sunday. On Monday, the man was reported to be 'missing' from the Covid-19 ward and subsequently his body was found near the Borivali station and brought back to the same hospital as an 'unidentified' person. The relatives of the family identified him as their missing kin. The Mayor's move came even as state BJP Vice-President Kirit Somaiya made a shocking allegation that in the past few days, at least half-a-dozen such incidents of bodies missing from hospitals or morgues have taken place in the city. In a related incident, the Rajawadi Hospital ordered a separate probe into the missing body of a 23-year man -- an accident victim -- from its morgue, five days after the body was shifted there on June 3, and was awaiting clearance after getting the Covid-19 test report. SEATTLE, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GMAT Club is proud to host the MBA Spotlight Virtual Business School Fair event and invites all MBA Applicants and everyone looking to further their career to attend. With over 6,500 registered attendees and 24 top business schools from around the world directly participating, this event is on track to be the biggest and most attended MBA Fair in history. The event is taking place June 15-20 and at this time is free for all who register at GMAT Club. Join us for the GMAT Club MBA Spotlight Virtual Fair from June 15-20. Register at gmatclub.com The MBA Spotlight Virtual Fair will be six days of Q&A sessions with Admissions Directors enabling applicants to ask questions live during 45-minute sessions. With daily Profile Review and Evaluation chats led by top admissions consultants, anyone can have their profile evaluated and have their questions answered absolutely free by MBA admissions experts. Each day will end with a special student panel where participants will spend about an hour discussing topics such as recruiting, COVID-19 impact on the MBA life, opportunities for international students, and any other questions that are brought to the session. The event will include live Q&A and, even more exciting, GMAT Club and business schools will be providing prizes to the attendees of each session. Participants can win over $20,000 worth of prizes such as application fee waivers, GMAT Club Tests and admissions consulting services. Participants will also be eligible to take advantage of the marketplace on GMAT Club, which provides discounts for top GMAT Prep courses as well as Admission Consulting services. MBA programs confirmed to attend and participate in the MBA Spotlight Virtual Fair include: Anderson, Booth, Columbia, Darden, Foster, Fuqua, Haas, Harvard, HEC, IESE, ISB, Johnson, Kellogg, Marshall, McCombs, NUS, Ross, Sloan, Stanford, Stern, Tepper, Tuck, Wharton, Yale. There are a number of exciting events as part of the fair and a detailed schedule can be found at GMAT Club. Contact Kirsti Kinkle GMAT Club, Director of Partnerships and Marketing [email protected] Related Images gmat-club-mba-spotlight-virtual.png GMAT Club MBA Spotlight Virtual Fair Join us for the GMAT Club MBA Spotlight Virtual Fair from June 15-20. Register at gmatclub.com Related Links GMAT Club SOURCE GMAT Club Related Links https://gmatclub.com The Commander-in-Chief of the Economic Fighters League, Ernesto Yeboah who was arrested by security operatives during a watch at the Black Star Square on 5th July 2019 has revealed that his destiny on Earth is determined to get Africa to unite under his watch stressing that agenda 2063 set to make Africa unite is meaningless for he believes Africa can only unite when it become a botherless continent He lamented that the agenda set up between leadership of African states to unite is influenced by the Whites alleging that "The Whites won't agree Africa unity unless all the natural resources they have in abundance is embezzled by them" Advising that Africa must take its destiny in its own hand to make the promise made by the creator become fulfilled Speaking in an interview in KB on agoo morning show in Techiman the Bono East Regional Capital Techiman Ernesto Yeboah indicated that he wants Africa to gain economic freedom which will enhance its own peace and development Ernesto Yeboah was arrested again for organising a vigil for the late George Floyd, who was killed by a white police officer who knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. He made an utterance that he will make sure Africa become unite without borders between them He said Ghanaians , Togolese must break their borders, Nigerians must do same , Ugandan, Libyan, Cote D'voire and all the 54 countries in Africa must break all its borders to embrace unity and development Dr Mohsan Anwar, pictured outside Caernarfon Magistrates Court, pleaded guilty to possessing offensive material including an indecent image of a nine-year-old boy A junior doctor could face jail after admitting possessing offensive images on his phone including bestiality and an indecent picture of a nine-year-old boy. Dr Mohsan Anwar of Llandegfan in Anglesey, north Wales, also pleaded guilty to having three extreme images involving men when he appeared in court in Caernarfon yesterday. Prosecutor Diane Williams told magistrates that police probing the distribution of indecent images spoke to the doctor who handed over his mobile phone. Mrs Williams said Dr Anwar told police he was in a WhatsApp group but didn't always view messages. He maintained he would have deleted any disgusting material. But the prosecutor said he had participated in chat about videos. At one stage the doctor had queried whether it was suitable for him to view a video on the ward, she said. Mrs Williams said the 28-year-old had accepted some blame but not complete culpability for the content which he possessed between October 2018 and January 28 last year, and the Crown Prosecution Service decided the case should go to court. She explained that his lawyers had been in contact with the CPS about whether the public interest in bringing the case was satisfied. The CPS decided there wasn't a full admission and no other suitable disposal. The December 2018 indecent image of a child was in the highest category of seriousness and potentially a crown court matter. The 28-year-old's case was heard at Caernarfon Magistrates Court in Wales, pictured Mrs Williams said the prosecution accepted that Dr Anwar didn't distribute the material. Defence counsel Thomas Welshman sought a pre-sentence report and maintained the case could be dealt with by the magistrates. He said there were no previous convictions. 'He's made efforts before today to seek counselling in respect of these offences which demonstrates significant insight into what has happened,' the lawyer said. 'Dr Anwar is a junior doctor. No doubt this conviction will have a highly significant impact on his ability to practise.' Magistrates' chairman Alwyn Lloyd Ellis bailed the doctor until next month for a report from the probation service. He warned him: 'We are keeping all our sentencing options open including committal to the crown court.' Dr Anwar was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register. Announces Return Of Its Signature White Lights NEW YORK, June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Empire State Building today announced the return of its signature white lights to the New York City skyline to celebrate the first day of New York City's reopen. Since March 30, the Empire State Building's signature white lights were replaced nightly with the Building's 'Pandemic Siren' and 'Heartbeat of New York.' There have also been hourly lightings to honor and inspire New York City's first responders, the #HeroesShineBright campaign, music-to-light shows with Alicia Keys and The Beatles in partnership with iHeartRadio, and a special YouTube music video fundraiser in partnership with the Robin Hood Foundation that features Billy Joel with an introduction by Governor Cuomo. With media coverage across the globe, the Empire State Building's lightings have become a beacon to remind us that we are all in this together. "In the United States, India, Australia, and China alone, the Empire State Building's lights during the battle of the pandemic generated more than 33 billion impressions," said Anthony E. Malkin, CEO, and Chairman of Empire State Realty Trust. "The Empire State Building is the authentic representation of New York City and New York State to the world." He continued, "We celebrate with New Yorkers the personal commitments of all first responders and the battlefield leadership of New York State and New York City officials who have brought us to the point that our City can get back to work. We look forward to share New York with New Yorkers, the nation, and the world when we reopen our world-famous Observatory." The Building shines in its signature white lights on nights when a lighting for an organization or holiday is not scheduled. Until the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the Empire State Building's hourly five-minute sparkling tribute to the first responders still on the front lines, and the five minutes of darkness in memory of those who have lost their lives that follow the 9 p.m. sparkle, will continue. For more information on the building's tower lights, visit the lighting calendar on the Empire State Building's website for our full schedule. About the Empire State Building Soaring 1,454 feet above Midtown Manhattan (from base to antenna top), the Empire State Building, owned by Empire State Realty Trust, Inc., is the "World's Most Famous Building." With new investments in energy efficiency, infrastructure, public areas and amenities, the Empire State Building has attracted first-rate tenants in a diverse array of industries from around the world. The Empire State Building was named the world's most popular travel destination in a study conducted by Uber and was named America's favorite building in a poll conducted by the American Institute of Architects. For more information on the Empire State Building, please visit www.empirestatebuilding.com, www.facebook.com/empirestatebuilding, https://twitter.com/empirestatebldg, www.instagram.com/empirestatebldg, http://weibo.com/empirestatebuilding, www.youtube.com/esbnyc, https://www.tiktok.com/@empirestatebldg or www.pinterest.com/empirestatebldg. About Empire State Realty Trust Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: ESRT), a leading real estate investment trust (REIT), owns, manages, operates, acquires and repositions office and retail properties in Manhattan and the greater New York metropolitan area, including the Empire State Building, the "World's Most Famous Building." Headquartered in New York, New York, the Company's office and retail portfolio covers 10.1 million rentable square feet, as of March 31, 2020 consisting of 9.4 million rentable square feet in 14 office properties, including nine in Manhattan, three in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and two in Westchester County, New York; and approximately 700,000 rentable square feet in the retail portfolio. Related Links http://www.esbnyc.com SOURCE Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. Advertisement Gavin Williamson today announced the Government has scrapped its target of getting all primary school pupils back in the classroom before the summer holidays amid warnings the two metre social distancing rule will make a full return impossible. The Government's long-stated 'ambition' was to see all primary children return for at least a month before the end of the academic year but unions and councils have said school buildings would have to double in size to make that happen. Smaller classes and social distancing requirements have forced the Education Secretary into a rethink as he conceded this afternoon 'we are not able to welcome all primary children back for a full month before the summer'. He said large schools which do have space to bring back more pupils should do so in the coming weeks as he promised all children will be back in the classroom in England in September. However, anxious parents warned an entire generation of children could be irrevocably damaged by the delayed return to learning as they asked Mr Williamson 'what is going to be different' in September which will allow more pupils to return. Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure from his Cabinet to slash the two metre rule in order to make it easier for schools, shops and the hospitality sector to return. Numerous countries have a one metre or 1.5 metre rule. Hopes of the two metre restriction being reduced were given a boost after the World Health Organisation said it is 'very rare' for asymptomatic coronavirus patients to pass on the disease. Primary schools started their phased reopening to pupils in reception, year one and year six on June 1 but official Government statistics showed only 52 per cent of primary schools were actually open by June 4. By that point some 659,000 children were back in the classroom - just seven per cent of all pupils who would normally be attending school. The next step in the Government's reopening plan will see some year 10 and 12 students allowed to meet with their teachers from June 15 as they prepare for an exam year. Ministers want secondary schools to fully reopen in September but there are growing doubts over whether that will be possible with Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying that is the 'earliest' they could return to something approaching normal. Anne Longfield, the Children's Commissioner for England, today said she was 'incredibly concerned' about the long-term impact on children's education and wellbeing and warned youngsters could remain 'isolated', with many living in 'fragile' family environments. The government's plans to reopen schools being thrown into disarray came as: Furious parents demanded to know how they can be expected to go back to work if their children cannot return to school; Education leaders and unions warned there is not enough space to reopen safely if the two metre rule remains in place; A coronavirus testing programme will be rolled out to 100 schools across England by the end of the summer term with around 200 staff and children tested in each ; Senior Tory MP Robert Halfon called on Mr Johnson to set up a 'national education army' of volunteers to set up temporary classrooms in school gyms and public libraries; Mr Williamson resisted calls for schools to sit over the summer but said some sort of longer term 'catch up scheme' is being considered amid fears it could take disadvantaged pupils more than a year to recover; The Education Secretary said a Public Health England restriction on class sizes and social distancing measures are 'limitations' to getting more children back to school; Critics demanded to know why other European nations have managed to fully reopen their schools but the UK is struggling to follow suit; Gavin Williamson told MPs in the House of Commons this afternoon that not all primary schools will be able to welcome back all of their pupils before the summer holidays Young pupils at L'Ecole des Petits school in London are trying to get used to life under social distancing measures Reception pupils from Landywood Primary School in Staffordshire take part in a socially-distanced outdoor exercise Teacher Dawn Burrows teaches a maths class to Year 6 pupils from Landywood Primary School in a socially distanced classroom in Staffordshire Children use hoops for social distancing at L'Ecole des Petits, an independent French bilingual school in Fulham, west London Social distancing measures in place at L'Ecole des Petits in Fulham today Furious parents demand pupils are allowed back to school NOW amid fears for their childrens wellbeing if Government continues to delay return Anxious parents say their children could be irrevocably damaged by the Government's U-turn today, accusing Boris Johnson of prioritising the reopening of pubs and shops over schools. These parents have all contacted MailOnline to share their frustration as they face around 24 weeks of home schooling. Gary Murray has two daughters aged 15 and eight. He said his teenage daughter had been invited to an end-of-year picnic despite having no lessons while the school remains closed. He added: 'My [other] daughter has had no contact and very little school homework and no interaction with children her own age. We feel this will have a long term affect on her and we are still non the wiser to when she can go back to school. 'The question I feel a lot of parents want answering is; what is going to be different if they go back in September to what is different to them going back to school now? 'Covid 19 is not going anywhere anytime soon and people are now going out to shops and beaches - including teachers - so why cant the schools come back and try and get our kids - the future generation - back to school. 'The government are giving mixed messages and dont really know what they are doing. With safety measures in place why can't schools start to get back to normal? We are just writing off the next year or so with kids education; this will have a far worse affect on people than Covid-19 has.' Company director Samantha Jones has a five-year-old and a nine-month-old baby and is juggling childcare and home schooling with working from home. She told MailOnline: 'It's unfair on our five-year-old as he is desperate to see his friends. 'Our school was due to open on Monday and I am an advocate of the mental well being of my child and promote him going back to school as soon as possible to be with friends, teachers and have normality and burn off energy! 'We received a letter yesterday stating that Cheshire East council were considering not opening due to the north west R rate increasing, despite our area being low risk. We await a decision but yet again my son is upset and we are frustrated as trying to plan for the 15th for school, has potentially now been put in jeopardy, meaning clients have been moved around again as the goalposts keep changing. 'Coupled with the fact school is going back just for 5 weeks anyway (if indeed it opens next week!) we face the added problem like many, that the summer holidays will continue regardless of the time the children have had away from school already and no holiday clubs or assistance. 'So I want the Government to ideally open schools as soon as possible and also summer childcare. Failing that can we not just push through this summer for the children and not have summer holidays, instead why not close during December for 4 weeks when flu season is in full swing? 'What do we do for help in the summer holidays when we have to work at full capacity and cannot afford to keep my husband from working any longer? 'What will happen is that people will break rules and pull in help from family and friends (none of whom are nearby) and break rules that may still exist. 'Surely if bars may open by mid Jun /early July; why can't schools and our children restore their mental health and education? They are the lowest risk groups! 'Clearly safety is the first importance and we would never put our child at risk if we didn't feel comfortable in what the school were doing in all of this, but surely some common sense can be applied and specifically to low risk areas / groups.' Mother-of-three Lindsay Astle, from Nottingham, told MailOnline her eight-year-old son has been 'massively affected' and suffered nightmares as a result of his school being closed. She said: 'Hes generally a happy well rounded kid but isolation has done so much damage to him already. 'Hes started having nightmares, hes very emotional over everything, lacks focus and drive. School work is very difficult because I also have two four-year-olds who want to be involved with everything and its hard for my son to focus. 'Plus we haven't had an awful lot of school work direction from his school. 'I am very worried about him and what this is doing to him. My fear of coronavirus has been completely overshadowed by fear of what this whole situation is doing to him, not seeing his friends, socialising, being a normal kid. 'I cant believe what a mess it all is when the chances of anything serious happening to the school children if they catch coronavirus is extremely low! I would send him back to school tomorrow if I could and he would happily skip in desperate to see his friends and have some sort of normality.' Jeanne Hyslop-Hall added: 'My year 7-year-old is really suffering emotionally. She Facetimes her friends every day and we have a school structure in place during the week so she is working each day. 'Luckily I am not working but I also have a 1-year-old so looking after him whilst trying to home school is a challenge. My daughter is dyslexic so I am continuing to be as structured as possible because I am so worried she will fall behind. 'However the guidance from the school has been loose at best. Google classroom has only just been implemented and we have had two measly conversations with the class teacher in the last 11 weeks. 'Now some years have gone back we received a letter from the school saying there will be reduced contact and reduced work due to the teachers having to deal with the years that have returned. Therefore my daughter and her mates have become secondary and will miss out even more. Its incredibly frustrating. 'My daughter deserves more than me as her teacher and as a parent the stress of it has caused sleepless nights, tears, frustration and guilt. 'I know not every parents feels the same and this is just my opinion but if everyone else is getting on with it on public transport and going into offices then the teachers and kids just need to get on with it and get back to some semblance of normality. The kids need to go back to school!' Daniella and Anthony Nevill, who are parents to toddlers, told MailOnline they are 'deeply concerned about the effect of any form of social distancing on children.' Mrs Nevill added: 'The debate has failed to focus on the mental health problems that will arise from social distancing. To expect children under 10 to not touc /play naturally, be controlled rigidly and using fear measures signs, PPE ) will end up traumatising a generation of children. 'It is inhumane and tantamount to child abuse. No one is speaking for the children; the economy, the unions.' Advertisement Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Williamson conceded the Government had no choice but to drop its 'ambition' for all primary school pupils to return before the summer holidays. He said: We continue to follow the best scientific advice and believe that this cautious, phased return is the most sensible course of action to take. While we are not able to welcome all primary children back for a full month before the summer we continue to work with the sector on the next steps where we would like to see schools who have the capacity to bring back more children in those smaller class sizes. To do so, if they are able to, before the summer holidays. We will be working to bring all children back to school in September. I know students who are due to take exams in 2021 will have experienced considerable disruption to their education this year and we are committed to doing all we can to minimise the effects of this. Exams will take place next year and we are working with Ofqual and the exam boards on our approach to these. Currently children are placed in 'protective bubbles' of no more than 15 per class at primary schools to help prevent the spread of the disease. But this often requires using additional classrooms or different areas of the school, with some not able to find enough space to fit all their pupils in. Mr Williamson said the class size restriction imposed by Public Health England is a 'limitation' to getting more children back to school. 'That obviously does limit the amount of ability to have as many year groups in school as we'd like,' he said. 'But as this is changed and as this is modified this will give us the ability to slowly and cautiously move forward in terms of welcoming more children back to school when that is the right time.' Mr Williamson was asked by MPs if he would consider setting up 'catch-up schemes over the summer' and he replied: 'This is certainly what we are looking at but we are looking at something much more wide and much more long term because we don't believe that actually just purely looking at the summer period is enough in order to be able to assist children to get the catch-up that they truly need.' Tory MP Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons Education Committee, has urged the Government to set up a 'national education army' of volunteers who could set up temporary classrooms in school gyms and public libraries. Earlier he had urged the Government not to ditch its primary schools 'ambition'. He said the UK was a 'strange country' for seemingly prioritising reopening pubs over schools. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, former minister Mr Halfon said: 'I think we're a strange country in which we turn a blind eye to mass demonstrations all over in every city, we campaign for pubs and cafes to open and yet we say to open schools before September is too risky when all the evidence - from the World Health Organisation, from many other European countries, from the chief medical officer in the UK - suggests otherwise. 'I think the Government should definitely think again on this and continue with a phased reopening of schools because I think too many disadvantaged children are not getting an education. 'We could have an epidemic of educational poverty and be damaging the life chances of hundreds of thousands of young people.' Department for Education guidance states that school classes should be capped at 15 pupils in order to follow coronavirus-related social distancing measures and keep children two metres apart at all times. Some headteachers have complained that, after opening up to reception, year one and year six last week, they do not have the 'physical space' to take more children. Addressing the issue of space constraints, Mr Halfon said: 'I appreciate that not all schools can open because they may have old buildings, it may be very difficult. 'But just because you can't do it everywhere, it doesn't mean you shouldn't open schools anywhere.' Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: 'It has taken the Government some time to recognise what was obvious to most. 'The Government's social distancing rules made it impossible for primary schools to admit all pupils before the summer holidays. 'Primary schools and secondary schools will not reopen to all pupils until September at the earliest. But even that date cannot, as Matt Hancock has recognised, be taken for granted.' She said a 'national plan for education' was needed in England, covering 'all possible scenarios' with a focus on 'blended learning' at home and in school. There should be free internet access and public buildings such as libraries and community centres could be requisitioned to provide extra space for lessons, she suggested. GCSEs and A-levels should be redesigned to be fair to all pupils - including those without access to computers at home - the union chief added. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union the NAHT, had said before Mr Williamson's announcement: 'Returning all pupils before the end of this term will present unsolvable practical barriers if the hierarchies of control are to be maintained. 'If confirmed in the House of Commons later, we're pleased to see the Government will not force the impossible. 'Schools will continue to use their flexibilities intelligently to deliver the very best for all the pupils in their school.' Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said it has been 'abundantly clear' that the Government's dates for reopening schools were 'ill-considered, premature and unworkable'. Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), welcomed the news that the 'ambition' for a full return to primary schools before the summer had been dropped. But he added: 'The Government needs to have a plan to support disadvantaged children during the summer holidays. 'There needs to be a plan for what happens during the next school year. Education will be disrupted during the autumn term at least.' The difficulty in reopening schools while also sticking to the two metre social distancing rule has increased pressure on ministers to rethink the restriction. But Ian Robinson, chief executive of the Oak Partnership Trust which has schools in Taunton, Somerset, said he did not think reducing the social distancing restrictions from two metres to one would help matters in schools. 'We've worked on the principle of no more than 15 children per classroom, so one of our schools, when we've got all three of our year groups in and over 50 key worker and vulnerable children in, have 250 children on site - they have got 12 classrooms,' he said. 'If you divide those children into groups of 15, you don't have any more classrooms, you don't have any more teachers to be able to bring any more year groups back in.' There is growing fury on Mumsnet today about the government u-turn The cordoned off play area and equipment of a primary school in London today Boris Johnson urged to form 'national education army' Senior Tory MP Robert Halfon has urged Boris Johnson to set up a 'national education army' to help pupils catch up with their learning in the coming months. Mr Halfon, the chairman of the Education Select Committee, said retired teachers, graduates and Ofsted inspectors should be asked to help open libraries and school gyms to create temporary classrooms. He said such an effort would help mitigate the damage already done by the coronavirus crisis to the education prospects of 'left behind' pupils. He told The Telegraph: 'We could start it now. Boris went on about this wonderful health service volunteering thing - which is great - but why on earth aren't we doing it for education?' Advertisement Mr Robinson said it was not a 'silver bullet' to bring disadvantaged children in before the end of term and said there were 'broader' issues to resolve, including making laptops more available and continuing free school meals during the summer holidays. He added: 'I'm not sure there is much of a gain to bringing children back for four weeks, to be honest.' Mr Hancock last night appeared to concede that the Government could struggle to reopen secondary schools by the start of the new academic year. Students in year 10 and 12 will be allowed to meet teachers from June 15 as they prepare for exam years but the goal of a total reopening in September looks unlikely. Mr Hancock said it was still 'our current working plan' that secondary schools in England would not reopen until September 'at the earliest'. The row over reopening came as Mr Hancock announced plans to roll out coronavirus tests to teachers and pupils. The testing programme will be implemented in 100 schools across England by the end of the summer term with around 200 staff and children tested in each. With approval from parents and guardians, children will be tested to see whether they have Covid-19 (pictured: Deep cleaning the classrooms at St Alphege Church of England Junior School, Solihull) Children sit at individual desks during a lesson at the Harris Academy's Shortland's school last week in London WHO says it is 'very rare' for asymptomatic coronavirus patients to pass on the disease The World Health Organisation has said it is 'very rare' for asymptomatic coronavirus patients to pass on the disease. Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO's emerging diseases unit, said people without symptoms are not believed to be driving outbreaks. She said the focus should therefore be on identifying people with symptoms in comments which are likely to accelerate calls for lockdown to be eased in the UK. She said: 'We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing, they are following asymptomatic cases, they are following contacts and they are not finding secondary transmission onwards - it is very rare. 'Much of that is not published in the literature. From the papers that are published, there is one that came out from Singapore looking at a long term care facility, there are some household transmission studies where you follow individuals over time and you look at the proportion of those that transmit onwards. 'We are constantly looking at this data and we are trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question. 'It still appears to be rare that an asymptomatic individual actually transmits onward. 'What we really want to be focused on is following the symptomatic cases.' Advertisement The programme will be entirely voluntary and will be a mix of swab tests to see if people currently have coronavirus and antibody blood tests to see if people have previously had the disease. 'This study will help us better understand how common asymptomatic and mild cases of Covid-19 are so that we can support parents, pupils and teachers and support staff, and inform our ongoing response to this new virus,' Mr Hancock said. The move may allay some concerns that the lockdown has been eased too quickly, as well as those from teaching unions over staff safety. With children less likely to show coronavirus symptoms, swab tests would be used to better understand the spread of the disease throughout schools. Antibody tests on blood samples would also be available for a small proportion of schools to see if pupils and staff have had Covid-19 and recovered. The Department of Health and Social Care stressed the scheme would be voluntary, with parents and guardians being asked to provide informed consent before testing is carried out. Dr Shamez Ladhani, a paediatric infectious diseases consultant at Public Health England, said: 'The results of this study will play an important role in informing wider surveillance planned for educational settings in the autumn term. 'Through active surveillance, contact tracing and the close monitoring of any clusters of cases, we are committed to ensuring the safety of students and staff returning to school in the coming weeks and months.' The Liberal Democrats' education spokeswoman Layla Moran said the measure would be 'too little, too late' as she called for the Government to get the test and trace system up to speed to prevent a second wave of Covid-19. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 9, 2020) - Northstar Gold Corp. (CSE: NSG) ("Northstar" or the "Company"), announces a multi-faceted, $350,000 ground geophysics program has commenced on the Company's 100%-owned Miller Gold Property, situated 18 kilometres southeast of Kirkland Lake, Ontario. Saskatchewan-based Dias Geophysical has commenced a Property-wide 3D IP survey utilizing a DIAS32 distributed array CVR technology which provides enhanced resolution and greater depth of investigation than conventional IP. It also provides full 3D resistivity and induced polarization models of the subsurface, cable-free networking and real time quality control, with integrated safety systems and complete flexibility and scalability. "Dias Geophysical is pleased to be partnering with Northstar Gold to carry out the DIAS32 survey at their Miller Gold project. The 3D IP survey is designed to address the complexity of the mineralized veins and structures on the property and to map the syenite intrusions and potential associated mineralization to depth. The survey will provide a rich data set from which accurate interpretation and drill targeting can be derived." Jonathan Rudd, President, Dias Geophysical. The Miller geophysics surveys are expected to be complete in early July, and as reported previously survey data will be collected and processed by GoldSpot Discoveries Corp. (TSXV: SPOT) utilizing proprietary software and A.I. algorithms. Results will be integrated with the Company's 3D geological model to provide targeting basis for a Phase II exploration drill program, scheduled to commence in late August. Phase I Diamond Drilling to Resume in Mid-June Northstar is positioning to resume Phase I diamond drilling (1,900 metres in 10 holes) at the Miller Gold Property on or about June 15th to follow-up previously reported gold discoveries (Allied Zone and Vein No. 2) and drill test the Planet Syenite Exploration Target. The Company elected to temporarily suspend Phase I drilling on April 4th, 2020 after completing 2,211 metres in 13 holes due to COVID-19 complications and concerns. Northstar and drill contractor Major Drilling have established comprehensive Health and Safety Protocols to ensure Company employees and contractors are protected from COVID-19 during the drill program. Surface Stripping and Exploration to Commence Mid-July Northstar is fully permitted and will conduct surface stripping in multiple areas of the Property where visible gold and gold tellurides have been observed, to provide for geological mapping and additional sampling. Surface stripping has proven to be highly effective in defining new mineralized zones on the Property as overburden is generally thin. This work will commence in mid-July upon completion of the Phase I drill program. Northstar Webinar Featuring Special Advisor Mike Sutton - June 12, 2020 Investors are invited to attend a Northstar webinar on Thursday, June 11th at 11:00 AM EDT, featuring Mike Sutton, Northstar's Special Advisor to the Board discussing Northstar's recent Allied Zone and No. 2 Vein discoveries and exploration implications. Please click here to register. About the Miller Gold Property The Miller Gold Property and the Kirkland Lake Gold camp share many important geological features such as similar rock types, gold telluride mineralogy, timing of mineralization and large-scale hydrothermal gold systems featuring multi-stage and long-lived alkalic magmatic gold deposition. This strongly suggests the gold mineralization in both regions is derived from a common gold enriched alkaline magmatic-hydrothermal reservoir at depth and channelled to surface by deep seated, interconnected structures such as the first order Catharine Fault zone. An important difference is the Miller Property, in addition to high-grade gold-telluride mineralization, has several near-surface broad, low-grade bulk-tonnage drill zones (Planet and Allied Syenites) and remains un-explored at depth. About Northstar Gold Corp. Prior to going public on the CSE on January 2, 2020 by way of a recently completed $3 million Initial Public Offering, Northstar operated for the past 11 years as a private company focused primarily on gold exploration in the prolific Kirkland Lake District in northeastern Ontario (>24.5 million ounces gold produced from 7 mines since 1915). During this time, the Company raised nearly $7 million to acquire and advance 3-100% owned gold and base-metal properties in the Kirkland Lake region. Northstar has an accomplished Board, Special Advisor and Management Group comprised of professionals highly experienced in exploration, mining, finance and investment banking on a global basis. On March 31st, 2020 the Company announced it had closed a $989,509 non-brokered flow through financing to provide for continued exploration at the Miller Gold Property. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Mr. Brian P. Fowler, P.Geo. President, CEO and Director (604) 617-8191 bfowler@northstargoldcorp.com For further information, please contact: Derek Wood Conduit IR (403) 200-3569 dwood@conduitir.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain forward looking statements which involve known and unknown risks, delays, and uncertainties not under the control of Northstar Goldcorp. which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Northstar Gold Corp to be materially different from the results, performance or expectation implied by these forward looking statements. By their nature, forward looking statements involve risk and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on factors that will or may occur in the future. Actual results may vary depending upon exploration activities, industry production, commodity demand and pricing, currency exchange rates, and, but not limited to, general economic factors. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57493 Post-Brexit trade deals could be catastrophic for British farmers by forcing them to choose between domestic and EU markets if they lead to a lowering of standards on pesticides, a new report has warned. Trade deals with the US, Australia and India that allow imports with higher pesticide use would force farmers to choose between lowering their own standards or risk losing trade to the European Union, which has much more stringent controls, says the report from Pesticide Action Network UK, charity Sustain and trade expert Dr Emily Lydgate It comes alongside polling by YouGov that shows 71 per cent of the British public are concerned that a US trade deal could lead to more pesticide in their food, and want the Government to push back on attempts to overturn bans, even if that means sacrificing the best trade deal. The US has previously challenged the EUs standards on pesticides, arguing in a statement to the World Trade Organisation last July that the regulations were unnecessarily and inappropriately restricting trade. The statement was backed by 15 other countries, including Australia, Brazil and Canada. In an already uncertain economic climate, the lowering of pesticide standards could be catastrophic for UK farming as well as the environment, Vicki Hird, Farm Campaign Coordinator at Sustain said. Sixty per cent of UK agricultural exports currently go to the EU so this could finish off many farming businesses. The report highlights several pesticides that are currently banned in the UK under laws from the EU which have been transferred. They include chlorpyrifos, which has been shown to negatively affect the cognitive development of foetuses and young children and which is used by farmers in the US and India. Both farming and environmental groups have raised concerns that trade deals could lead to a lowering of welfare standards. More than 800,000 people have signed a petition calling for legal changes to ensure uniform standards on domestic production and imports. The government has repeatedly said it will not undermine environmental protection, animal welfare and food safety standards in any trade deal with the US. But it is ready to allow the import of chlorinated chicken and other food produced to lower standards, with higher tariffs to keep British produce competitive. NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cord Blood Banking Services Market Research Report by Storage (Private Cord Blood Bank and Public Cord Blood Bank) - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913972/?utm_source=PRN The Global Cord Blood Banking Services Market is expected to grow from USD 20,619.46 Million in 2019 to USD 40,440.11 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.88%. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Cord Blood Banking Services to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: On the basis of Storage, the Cord Blood Banking Services Market is studied across Private Cord Blood Bank and Public Cord Blood Bank. On the basis of Geography, the Cord Blood Banking Services Market is studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region is studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region is studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region is studied across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Company Usability Profiles: The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Cord Blood Banking Services Market including AMAG PHARMACEUTICALS, INC., AMERICORD REGISTRY LLC, CHINA CORD BLOOD CORPORATION, CORD BLOOD AMERICA, INC, CORDLIFE GROUP LIMITED, CORDVIDA, CRYO-CELL INTERNATIONAL, INC., CRYO-CELL INTERNATIONAL, INC., CRYOHOLDCO DE LATINOAMERICA, S.A.P.I. DE C.V., and ESPERITE N.V.. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Cord Blood Banking Services Market on the basis of 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) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Competitive Strategic Window: 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 acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, so for and, the long-term effects projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlaying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report is delivering insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecast, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on sulfuric acid offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Cord Blood Banking Services Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Cord Blood Banking Services Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Cord Blood Banking Services Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Cord Blood Banking Services Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Cord Blood Banking Services Market? 6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Cord Blood Banking Services Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913972/?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 Even as India attempts to reduce its dependence on Chinese imports by promoting self reliance across manufacturing sectors, it may be providing China an opportunity to dominate the global generic pesticide market by deciding to ban the production of 27 pesticides, a domestic industry lobby group alleges. The ban will shrink India's pesticide export capability by more than 50 per cent and hand over a market worth Rs 12,000 crore to our Chinese competitors. It will defeat the very purpose of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for Atmanirbhar Bharat," says K N Singh, Vice President Registration, Gharda Chemicals. The Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), has meanwhile clarified on the matter, saying a committee was formed under Anupam Varma to review 66 pesticides, which have been banned. It said these pesticides had been severely restricted in other countries of the world too. The department said while registering a pesticide in India, data generated in other countries and accepted globally was also considered. The Agriculture Ministry had on May 14 issued a draft notification announcing the government's intention to ban 27 pesticides that were found to be harmful for humans and animals by an official committee. There is a 45-day window for the stakeholders to present their views on the draft notification before it gets finalised. Pesticides Manufacturers & Formulators Association of India (PMFAI), the body that is opposing the ministry move, said the committee that recommended the ban had not considered their views and wanted an enquiry by a high-powered government-appointed scientific committee to look at its conclusions. ALSO READ: Steel industry prioritises exports amid low domestic demand - but it comes at a cost "All the 27 molecules have been registered in India by regulatory authority CIB&RC, meeting all scientific evaluations for safety and efficacy, backed up by scientific data. These generic pesticides are used in India since 1970 without any risk or adverse impact to humans, animals and environment, and includes Malathion that was extensively used by the government during the recent locust attack," says Pradip Dave, President PMFAI and Chairman Aimco Pesticides Ltd. The Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare said that of these 66 pesticides, the recommendations were made by the expert committee in December 2015 to submit certain data on efficacy and/or safety of 27 pesticides within the stipulated time frame by the pesticide industry. The report was also deliberated by the Registration Committee (Statutory body for registration of Insecticides) and sought certain more studies to judge the safety and efficacy of the 27 pesticides. The MoA&FW said the pesticide industry had been provided sufficient time for submission of the required scientific studies and data but due to non submission of complete requisite scientific studies and data for the 27 pesticides, the concerns on safety and efficacy could not be judged, the department clarified. According to Dave, the review process of Dr. Anupam Varma Committee (which recommended the ban) was arbitrary. "The committee, formed in July 2013, was initially mandated to examine continued use of three neon icotinoids but within a month, the mandate was expanded to 66 generic insecticides that are banned, restricted or withdrawn in some other countries, but are used in India. This disregards FAO's advice that climate, crop grown, pests and diseases must guide the choice of pesticides for every country. In its final report, submitted to the Government of India in December 2015, the committee recommended a ban on 18 pesticides and suggested review of 27 generic insecticides after completion of studies. We conducted recommended studies suggested by the Registration Committee and submitted the report in 2019, explicitly stating that we are ready to conduct further studies, if directed. However, on May 14, 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare issued a draft ban on these 27 pesticides," Dave adds. ALSO READ: Coronavirus pandemic impact: Saudi Arabia's oil exports plunge $11 billion in first quarter The association also complains that implementing the ban will increase the input cost of farmers and force India to stop supplying to the global market. It will also break the backbone of Indian generic pesticide industry, including several MSMEs. "The pesticides under the ambit of the proposed ban produce more than 130 formulations used by the farmers for crop protection. This ban will increase farm input cost of farmers who are affected by lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 and locust, apart from various other threats to their crops. These pesticides account for 40 per cent of the domestic market and the alternative available to the farmers will be branded, readymade and expensive ones produced by the MNCs," industry veteran Singh of Gharda Chemicals says. The generic pesticide formulations, proposed to be banned, cost between Rs 350-450 per litre, while the alternatives imported will cost in the range of Rs 1,200-2,000 per litre, the industry points out. The Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare said the government had published the draft notification to seek objections and suggestions from all the stakeholders, and that they were giving feedbacks via videoconference. "Moreover, the manufacturing for export purpose only has also been allowed," it clarified. ALSO READ: Coronavirus impact: Cargo volumes drop 22% to 93 million tonnes in April-May Students protested against the "human scum" in South Korea at the weekend - GETTY IMAGES North Korea will cut all lines of communication with South Korea from noon on Tuesday, state media has reported, as Pyongyang ratchets up the pressure on Seoul to stop defectors and human rights activists from sending balloons carrying propaganda leaflets into the North. South Korea announced on Friday that it would pass new legislation to stop the releases, just hours after North Korea had initially protested, but Pyongyang has continued to press its demands. State media has released images of clenched-fist students and workers protesting against human scum for slandering the supreme leadership of North Korea, insisting that it is necessary to mercilessly punish the defectors to the last man. At a student demonstration over the weekend, thousands of young protesters declared that they would prepare themselves to be human bombs for the party. On Monday, Pyongyang warned that it would shut down the inter-Korean liaison office on the border and halt other programmes designed to promote cross-border exchanges and reduce military tensions. Reports from the Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday stepped up Pyongyangs demands, accusing the disgusting riff-raff of hostile acts against the North by taking advantage of the South Korean authorities irresponsible stance. Kim's regime is angry at defectors in the South sending propaganda leaflets over the border - KCNA As a result, the North has reached the conclusion that there is no need to sit face-to-face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them. All lines of communication with the South would be shut down at noon, it said, including the hotline between the headquarters of the Norths ruling Workers Party and the presidential Blue House in Seoul, as well as military communications lines that were first installed to avoid clashes on the border. The decision to cut all links with the South was reached at a meeting attended by Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, while efforts by Seoul to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Park and have tourists return to the Mount Kumgang tourist zone in the North are also being firmly rebuffed. Story continues Pyongyang has also dismissed Seouls plans for new laws to halt the release of more balloons carrying propaganda leaflets, dollar bills, small amounts of food and memory sticks containing South Korean news programmes as little more than advanced excuses. The South Korean governments proposal to ban the releases has been widely criticised, however, with an editorial in the Chosun Ilbo newspaper describing the administration of President Moon Jae-in as North Koreas puppet and a cowering poodle. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, has also defended the rights of activists and defectors to express freedom of speech and to try to assist people in the North. Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha University in Seoul, says the increasingly aggressive positions that Kim Yo-jong is adopting against the South are serious and worrying. This demonstrates a pattern of Kim Yo-jong acting as a hardline spokesperson for her brother on relations with Seoul, he said. It also indicates how fragile inter-Korean relations are, not only because North Korea has cut off so much cooperation and communication already, but also because it is willing to threaten the foundations of long-term cooperation for its short-term concerns about domestic political legitimacy. The Kim regime also aims to stoke division in the South and may be working to rhetorically justify something bigger than a short-range missile test, he added. A ground crew at the Los Angeles International Airport unloads pallets of supplies of medical personal protective equipment, or PPE, from a China Southern Cargo plane upon arrival on April 10. (Richard Vogel / Associated Press) California will begin receiving shipments of much-needed N95 masks from Chinese automaker BYD in the coming days after federal regulators approved the company's respirators, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday. The masks are part of a $1-billion deal Newsom struck with BYD in April, which had been delayed after the carmaker had difficulty certifying the effectiveness of their masks. After BYD missed a second deadline to obtain the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health certification, state officials granted the company an extension on Friday. With the certification approval announced Monday, Newsom said the deal with BYD will ensure California has a reliable pipeline of masks to protect essential workers during the pandemic. Providing Californias front-line health care workers and responders the protective equipment they need is a critical part of our response to COVID-19," Newsom said in a statement Monday. "This new supply of N95 masks, as well as the surgical masks this contract has already provided, are game-changing and play a crucial role in our states public safety and reopening strategy." California had originally planned to order 300 million of the highly protective respirators for $990 million, with state officials paying the company $495 million upfront. After BYD, which has a U.S. subsidiary headquartered in Los Angeles County, failed to meet a contractual deadline on April 30 for its N95 masks to be certified, the company was forced to refund half of Californias down payment. BYD missed a revised deadline of May 31 for the masks to be approved by federal regulators before the deadline was pushed back again, this time to June 12. The state's contract with BYD says 150 million masks will be delivered to California this month and next. California is paying $3.30 for each N95 mask . That price is higher than N95 masks would cost in nonpandemic times, but there is a worldwide shortage of the respirators, which filter 95% of particles and provide crucial protection to nurses and other essential workers. Story continues California's deal with BYD has been met with skepticism since Newsom announced its existence on MSNBCs The Rachel Maddow Show in April. The contract was then kept under seal for a month. The governors office at first refused to disclose the public document or much of its details to lawmakers and journalists citing concerns that the masks might be seized if the information was released. In addition to the N95 masks, the state agreed to pay BYD $54.9 million to purchase 100 million surgical masks. Those masks have already been delivered to the state. Over the next two months, BYDs contract with California also gives the state the option of buying an additional 250 million N95 respirators for $825 million and 112.5 million surgical masks for $61.8 million. Newsom's office said the contract with BYD will ensure California has a sufficient supply of masks now and in the future. California's contract with BYD required that the N95 masks meet federal health and safety standards by obtaining a NIOSH certification. It's unclear what led to the delay for BYD to have its masks certified until Monday's announcement. In a statement last month to The Times, NIOSH said it notified BYD on May 4 that on-site visits to the companys manufacturing and production facilities in China had resulted in a rating of not acceptable. The agency also said its review of documentation provided to NIOSH for the design, manufacturing and quality inspection of the device was concerning. NIOSH declined to elaborate on the specific reasons for its denial, saying such information is confidential under federal rules, but added in a statement that the decision was based on a number of factors. BYD submitted a total of four applications for N95 respirators, according to a letter from the regulatory agency. Three of the applications were denied and a fourth was withdrawn, a NIOSH official told The Times. BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams, announced in March that its Shenzhen vehicle facility would produce masks and hand sanitizer. The company is known for building electric vehicles, including battery-powered buses, and operates a vehicle manufacturing facility in Lancaster. OTTAWA Winnipeg police and councillors on their oversight board are supporting a new push by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to get officers wearing body cameras. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA Winnipeg police and councillors on their oversight board are supporting a new push by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to get officers wearing body cameras. But a local criminologist argues the $8-million to $10-million cost would be better spent diverting people from crime in the first place. Trudeau told reporters Monday that he had asked the head of the RCMP about the feasibility of requiring officers to wear body cameras, and will push the premiers to have city police do the same. His comments come in the wake of widespread unrest over allegations of police brutality in Canada and the United States. In Winnipeg, police killed three Indigenous people in a 10-day period in April. "Body cameras are a significant step towards transparency," Trudeau said Monday. "It is something that is, in my opinion, what we need to move forward with." City council approved a body-camera pilot project in 2015, but scrapped it ahead of its 2017 start in a last-minute budget crunch, Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth noted Monday. "I think we're well beyond pilot projects," he told reporters. Smyth estimated it would cost $8 million to $10 million to roll out body cameras. He said some companies provide cameras for free, but the city would have to pay for data storage and processing. "That's an expensive undertaking, but that's not an excuse not to do it," Smyth said. Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth says the expense of the body cameras isn't an excuse to not use them. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press) Councillor Kevin Klein, chairman of the police board, said he wants to see body cameras implemented quickly. "We can't wait; you can't play politics with this," said Klein, who pledged to put forward a motion at the next meeting of the Assiniboia community committee to get the public service to report back on the cost and logistics. However, Mayor Brian Bowman is against increasing this years police budget. "The Winnipeg Police Board is tasked with aligning police service investments with community needs and should work with the Winnipeg Police Service within its existing resources to consider the use of body cams," wrote Bowman spokesman Jeremy Davis. The city could reduce its own vehicle fleet or forfeit property taxes from the WPS in order to pay for body cams, Klein said. "We need to put our money where our mouth is to stop passing the buck," he said. Yet the chairwoman of the University of Winnipegs criminal-justice department said that money would be better spent on social supports. "In the Winnipeg context I dont think it makes any sense at all," said Kelly Gorkoff. "The research is all over the map." The professor said there is no evidence body cameras actually reduce police brutality or mistreatment of visible minorities. Some research suggests cameras actually escalate tense situations. Gorkoff said she couldnt understand why Trudeau would call for a measure that puts even more money into policing, during protests calling for diverting those budgets to mental health, addictions and community-safety programs like Bear Clan Patrol. A Los Angeles Police officer demonstrates a body camera the LAPD started using in 2015. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times files) "Research does consistently show that if you put money into youth programs, crime rates go down," she said. Gorkoff added that paramedics and social workers dont wear body cameras, and argued that prescribing them to police puts them further away from front-line support and closer to a soldier-type role. "That direction in my mind is a further militarization," Gorkoff said. "It just seems like another toy or tool in the arsenal." Yet Winnipegs first black city councillor, Markus Chambers, said the move would be mutually beneficial. "Whether its a false accusation or whether it's a true instance of brutality; it protects both sides," said Chambers, the deputy mayor who sits on the WPS board. 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. "It provides better transparency and greater accountability." Premier Brian Pallister was noncommittal. "Decisions about compulsory equipment for police would require consultations including with the law enforcement agencies," wrote spokeswoman Olivia Billson. "We welcome the dialogue on the use of body cameras." The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs called for body cameras in April after Winnipeg police shot and killed three Indigenous people, while the Independent Investigation Unit says it could use recordings as evidence when assessing whether police have acted appropriately. with files from Joyanne Pursaga dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca Xiaomi India will be hosting yet another sale of the 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 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. Amazon India is offering no-cost EMI as well as standard EMI options, while Prime members can avail flat 5 percent off using the Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit card. Airtel prepaid customers get double data benefits with Rs 298 and Rs 398 unlimited packs when they buy the phone Xiaomi India's website. The number of articles published in international publications by Vietnams higher education establishments has increased by three times compared with seven years ago. The quality of research teams and PhD training has improved significantly. According to Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Van Phuc, the increase in number of international publications shows the universities high awareness of international integration and their research capability. Phuc said PhD training establishments have to ensure the high quality of their education products. It is the responsibility of schools to heighten training quality and build up research teams in the schools, and, thereby, their reputations. The Miistry of Education and Training (MOET) is compiling a regulation on doctoral training and draft decree on scientific and technological activities in higher education establishments. MOET will propose tuition and scholarship mechanisms for domestic PhD students to be sure that PhD students do not have to worry about earning a living and can devote time to research. Phuc said that the ministry will propose tuition and scholarship mechanisms for domestic PhD students to be sure that PhD students do not have to worry about earning a living and can devote time to research. Nguyen Thu Thuy, acting director of the University Education Department, reported that the number of registrations for training PhDs from schools has been increasing. Though the number of training majors decreased in 2020, the number of learners registering to study for a doctorate was higher than 2019. The ministry will continue to accelerate the implementation of the plan on improving the capacity of lecturers and managerial officers to meet the requirements on comprehensive radical innovation in education and training in 2019-2030. According to Prof Dr Nguyen Dinh Duc from the Hanoi National University, the lecturers/PhD students joining research teams have the number of international publications higher by 4.6 times than the lecturers/PhD students who dont join research teams. The finding shows that the participation in research team can help PhD students articles in scientific publications. The members of research teams not only can receive support from instructors, but also from other members in terms of building ideas, writing articles and submitting their works. The survey also found that having research teams and academic environment is one of the two most important factors for PhD training. The other factor was the quality of the instructors. Duc proposed amending the regulation on enrolling and training PhDs by setting high requirements on learners and instructors and setting up reasonable policies to encourage PhD students to carry out research. Meanwhile, Tran Thi Thanh Tu from the University of Economics and Business put emphasis on two factors that she believes are the major factors to produce PhDs meeting international standards attracting foreign professors and full-time PhD students, and building research teams. Le Huyen Training costs at state-owned schools no longer low Low training costs are one of the reasons for many students to enroll in state-owned universities, but the tuition of the schools is increasing. WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown scolded Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Tuesday, charging that his department refuses to do its job of promoting economic inclusion and isnt addressing deep inequities in the housing system. He also accused Carson of trying to systematically dismantle basic civil rights protections that previous generations marched for and endured beatings for and laid down their lives for. Before this pandemic, President Trump and his wealthy cabinet members either didnt realize or didnt care that behind the rosy stock market data, this economy was already broken for millions of workers, and for black and brown workers it never worked for many of them to begin with," said Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. "And now the Trump administration either doesnt realize or doesnt care that the bottom is falling out for these families, people in this country, in every one of our states. Carson and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark A. Calabria appeared before Browns committee to highlight their efforts to provide housing assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Carson noted that the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act adopted in March provided more than $12 billion to HUD programs including $3 billion in Community Development Block Grant funds and more than $1 billion for rental assistance programs. Before the CARES Act was adopted, the Federal Housing Administration acted quickly to help protect single-family homeowners who lost their jobs or were experiencing economic hardship as a result of COVID-19 by implementing a 60-day moratorium on foreclosures and evictions, which was subsequently extended through June 30, said Carson. He noted the CARES Act also provided a 120-day eviction moratorium for tenants in certain federally supported rental properties, including properties with FHA-insured single-family or multifamily mortgages. But Brown told Carson and Calabria their agencies are making things worse, whether its through budget cuts to affordable housing or trying to make mortgages more expensive or hard to get or dismantling fair housing protections," and warned of mass evictions when the moratoriums expire. WATCH: @SenSherrodBrown admonishes Trump administration housing officials for undoing civil rights protections. pic.twitter.com/T6WSkELEba Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) June 9, 2020 He criticized Carson for claiming in his testimony that the economy was going up like a rocket before the COVID-19 slowdown when many people who are working in jobs like custodians, food service, home health care and security dont get paid enough to afford rental of a modest one-bedroom apartment, even when theyre getting a paycheck. Brown said a HUD proposal to alter how the agency identifies and remedies housing discrimination would be devastating for equality in this country." Carson said he abhors anything that even smacks of unfairness for people, but his agency is trying to change policies that dont work. The real reason that theres segregation is not because theres a bunch of George Wallaces standing in the doorway, its because people can only afford to live in certain places, said Carson. And therefore, we are moving toward a model where we encourage the development of affordable and decent housing, not just in one area, but throughout lots of different areas. Were very interested in programs where people can be able to save some money, so that they can actually make a down payment on a home, Carson continued. Because thats the principal mechanism for wealth accumulation in this country. Were not interested in continuing a bunch of old programs that kept people impoverished for generations. Brown closed by citing comments Carson made over the weekend that suggested President Donald Trump is preparing to deliver a speech about healing the nations racial differences amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis last month. I hope youre right about that, said Brown. Its going to be pretty hard when ... this President has spent his entire career dividing people, from the Central Park Five, to birtherism, to calling Mexicans rapists to immigrant children ripped from their parents to dominating protesters ... He does it to distract from the administrations record ... of betraying workers and treating black and brown Americans as expendable. More coverage: Federal oversight of Chinese telecom companies is lacking, says report from Ohio U.S. Sen. Rob Portman Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur questions Trump administration proposal to resume nuclear tests Ohio housing advocates warn of impending COVID-19 related eviction crisis and urge Congress to act Child and domestic abuse reports rose during the COVID-19 crisis, legislators are told SNAP benefits can now be used online in Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown wants Senate to declare racism a public health emergency Sen. Sherrod Brown denounces President Trumps handling of protests, Sen. Rob Portman calls for a national commission on race Battle over protecting businesses from COVID-19 lawsuits likely when Senate considers its next relief package Ohio shoppers can use SNAP benefits for online grocery purchases starting this summer, USDA decides Ohio congressman seeks impeachment inquiry of judge in Michael Flynn case Sen. Sherrod Brown clashes with Trump officials over COVID-19 response Annie Glenn, widow of former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn, dies at age 100 Canadian border with U.S. likely to remain closed until June 21 Mismarked COVID-19 testing swabs from Clevelands U.S. Cotton confused state officials House passes coronavirus package along party lines; Senate Republicans say they wont consider it House approves proxy voting during coronavirus over objections from Ohio Republicans including Rep. Jim Jordan The Health Secretary last night conceded that secondary schools in England may not fully reopen in September - with ministers also expected to row back on their pledge to give primary children a month in classes before summer break. Matt Hancock said at the Downing Street briefing yesterday that it was still 'our current working plan' that secondary schools in England will not open until September 'at the earliest'. But he admitted the government still need to 'work out' how this could be achieved 'safely' and that it was going to require 'ingenuity'. Children in England began returning in a phased process last week, with Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils heading back first. Asked at the evening press conference whether the Government thought schools would be reopen in September, Mr Hancock said: 'Our current working plan is secondary schools won't open until September at the earliest.' The headteachers' union leader Geoff Barton welcomed the change, saying the Government had promised something that was undeliverable, BBC Radio 4's Today programme reported. Children sit at individual desks during a lesson at the Harris Academy's Shortland's school last week in London Matt Hancock said at the Downing Street briefing yesterday that it was still 'our current working plan' that secondary schools in England will not open until September 'at the earliest' Mr Hancock had said: 'I very much hope that they can because the impact on children's education is so significant. 'But what we have to do - not only in schools, but right across the board - is work out how we can get the other things that matter going. 'Like schools, like hospitality, like retail. And get them going safely and carefully, in a way that doesn't lead to the spread of the virus, and that is going to require ingenuity.' Mr Hancock has also said pupils and teachers across England will receive coronavirus testing to monitor the spread of the disease as schools reopen. With approval from parents and guardians, children will be tested to see whether they have Covid-19 or have had an infection in the past under the surveillance programme. Mr Hancock is aiming to have up to 100 schools tested across England by the end of the summer term, with around 200 staff and children involved at each of those schools. 'This study will help us better understand how common asymptomatic and mild cases of Covid-19 are so that we can support parents, pupils and teachers and support staff, and inform our ongoing response to this new virus,' he said. The move may allay some concerns that the lockdown has been eased too quickly, as well as those from teaching unions over staff safety. With children less likely to show coronavirus symptoms, swab tests would be used to better understand the spread of the disease throughout schools. Antibody tests on blood samples would also be available for a small proportion of schools to see if pupils and staff have had Covid-19 and recovered. Streets outside Eton College buildings last week remain very quiet during the coronavirus lockdown The Department of Health and Social Care stressed the scheme would be voluntary, with parents and guardians being asked to provide informed consent before testing is carried out. Dr Shamez Ladhani, a paediatric infectious diseases consultant at Public Health England, said: 'The results of this study will play an important role in informing wider surveillance planned for educational settings in the autumn term. 'Through active surveillance, contact tracing and the close monitoring of any clusters of cases, we are committed to ensuring the safety of students and staff returning to school in the coming weeks and months.' The Liberal Democrats' education spokeswoman Layla Moran said the measure would be 'too little, too late' as she called for the Government to get the test and trace system up to speed to prevent a second wave of Covid-19. Children in England began returning in a phased process last week, with Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils heading back first. Under Government plans, secondary schools will start to reopen to a wider selection of students from June 15. Boris Johnson will speak with his Cabinet on Tuesday morning before Education Secretary Gavin Williamson delivers a statement to Parliament on the wider reopening of schools. The Department of Education said it remained the 'ambition' for all primary school children to return before the summer holidays. But last night there were indications the government was moving away from its pledge to have all primary schools open by the end of June so children can get at least one month's education before summer break. A senior source at the Department for Education told The Sun: 'Some schools don't have enough space - we have always said we will listen to schools so we are likely to step back a bit on that. 'Some schools are bigger so are able to split kids up. But we understand not all will be able to do this.' With the number of new deaths falling to the lowest reported since lockdown began, Mr Hancock said plans to further ease restrictions including the reopening of non-essential shops from Monday could go ahead. In a reception classroom, children sit apart from each other on a carpet where crosses have been marked out for them to sit on, in a teaching environment safe from Coronavirus for pupils and teachers at Brambles Primary Academy in Huddersfield, northern England last week 'When you look across the board, it is clear that coronavirus is in retreat across the country,' he said, as deaths linked to Covid-19 reached nearly 51,000. But with the phased reopening of England's schools having begun last week, he acknowledged older pupils could still face months without attending class. Currently children are placed in 'protective bubbles' of no more than 15 children per class at primary school to help prevent the spread of this disease. But this often requires using additional classrooms or different areas of the school, with some facilities not able to find enough space to fit all their pupils in. Mr Hancock has also unveiled plans for pupils and teachers across England to receive coronavirus testing to monitor the spread of the disease as classes resume. With approval from parents and guardians, children will be tested to see whether they have Covid-19 or have had an infection in the past under the surveillance programme. Mr Hancock is aiming to have up to 100 schools tested across England by the end of the summer term, with around 200 staff and children involved at each of those schools. Robert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the Education select committee told the Telegraph he was very concerned about the lack of teaching for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. He said: 'Eighty-five per cent of disadvantaged children are not learning. A survey of 900 headteachers said that possibly 700,000 children are possibly not doing schoolwork. 'This will mean [they have missed] half the school year, and it could set these children back by many many months. This is going to have a massive impact on children. 'It is incredibly tough for parents who may need to go back to work and will have real difficulties in terms of child care.' Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth warned many fear Mr Johnson 'is starting to throw caution to the wind', with worries that the economy is being crippled. Mr Hancock said that the R rate of transmission for Covid-19 remains below the crucial level of one, above which it would spread rapidly again, in every region of the country. Second Major Australian Union Stands Against Beijing, Tells Victorian Premier History Will Judge All of Us A leading member of Australias second-largest workers union has pleaded with the Victorian state premier to withdraw from its Belt and Road agreement with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), saying history will judge all of us if it remains tied to Beijing. Michael Donovan, head of the Victorian branch of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) wrote a letter to Daniel Andrews, the state premier saying, We reject the notion that somehow the Chinese people need and want an authoritarian government because they are too immature to govern themselves, and are not deserving the same rights we have. The letter, obtained by The Herald Sun on May 31, alluded to the SDAs connection with Solidarity in Poland, a workers union which played a major role in the countrys transition to democracy and the eventual collapse of the communist regime. Border guard forces at a former fortified border crossing between East and West Germany during celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 2019 in Moedlareuth, Germany. (Jens Schlueter/Getty Images) We played our part in bringing down the Iron Curtain and giving human rights to the people of eastern Europe and Russia, wrote Donovan. History will judge all of us. We want history to judge that we stood side-by-side with the Chinese people. According to Donovan, the SDAs national leadership body adopted a motion supporting the civic, labour and religious rights of the Chinese people. SDA is the second-largest union in Australia by membership with over 200,000 members. It is the largest private-sector union, representing mainly retail, fast food, and warehouse workers. The SDA is known for its collaborative approach to workplace negotiations which has been found to achieve for employees outcomes that exceed retail employment conditions in other countries. The unions stance complicates the Victorian Labor governments support of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as it is a major donor to the party and is linked to Deputy Premier James Merlino. Victorias Daniel Andrews government has faced long-running pressure on his commitment to the Belt and Road Initiative, with state, national, and international political figures questioning the agreement. SDAs letter comes less than a month after one of Australias oldest unions, the Australian Workers Union (AWU) began a nationwide campaign calling for the prime minister to continue to stand up to Chinas bullying. Related Coverage Australias Oldest Workers Union Leads a Call to Stand Up to Chinese Regime The AWU campaign targeted the Chinese regimes threats to impose major tariffs on Australian barley and beef at the time. The union believed the threats were in response to Australias investigations into illegal dumping of Chinese steel and aluminium in the Australian market. Both the AWU and SDA form part of the Labor Partys right faction considered to be more moderate and conservative than other factions. Previous Labor leader Bill Shorten was the national secretary of the AWU in the 2000s. SDAs Anti-Communist Stance The SDA (or the Shoppers) is known for its historical involvement in the Great Labor Split of 1955 which saw the Australian Labor Party (ALP) split into two. The events leading to the split centered on concerns over the increased influence and control by the Communist Party of Australia on the ALP. The SDA was involved in a concerted effort to win back control of the ALP, however, along with three other unions, it eventually splintered off to form a new party, which would become the Democratic Labor Party. The split weakened the ALP and consigned it to opposition for 23 years. The SDAs stance and support of anti-communist efforts saw its long-standing National Secretary Joe de Bruyn receive an award from Polands president in 2015. Even today its constitution states that the union opposes any person or group which advocates, assists or encourages the overthrow by force or violence of an established government, or opposes the growth of doctrines which could encourage the overthrow of the government. SDA has faced challenges in recent times in the form of the alternative Retail and Fast Food Workers Union established in 2016. The union calls itself the genuine fighting union and argues SDAs close relationship with major Australian businesses including Coles and McDonalds, has undermined the benefits received by workers. Related Coverage How Marxists Took Over the American Labor Movement Fairfax Media reports have also been critical of these relationships. SDA however has refuted these claims each time saying, It is deeply disappointing that Fairfax has allowed itself to become a mouthpiece for the vested interests of an illegitimate organisation. Currently, the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union is not registered under the Fair Work Act. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 01:58:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RABAT, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A total of 78 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Morocco on Monday, bringing the total number of cases to 8,302. The number of people cured has increased to 7,408 with 44 new recoveries, Mouad Mrabet, coordinator of the Moroccan Center for Public Health, said at a press briefing. Mrabet said that the country's COVID-19 death toll stood at 208, as no new fatality was recorded in the last 24 hours. In addition, 686 people who have had contact with the patients are still under medical surveillance. He also underlined the stability of the fatality rate, which stands at 2.5 percent, adding that the recovery rate is at 89.2 percent. Morocco has extended the state of health emergency across the country until June 10. China has been helping Morocco fight the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 14, China Development Bank sent a batch of donation, including respirators and medical protective masks, to Morocco. China's Guizhou Province also donated 15,000 surgical gloves, 20,000 medical masks and 2,000 protective suits to help protect Moroccan medical workers. Enditem - Nelson Havi said the president had failed to perform his duties in tandem with the Constitution - The LSK chairman said he will petition parliament to have the president impeached from office - Havi's sentiments came after Chief Justice David Maraga accused Uhuru of disobeying the law by refusing to appoint judges despite court orders to that effect Law Society of Kenya (LSK) chairman Nelson Havi has vowed to petition parliament to impeach President Uhuru Kenyatta over his continuous violation of the Constitution and court orders. According to Havi, it was not in order to have the head of state who took an oath to protect and govern in tandem with Constitution to be the one mutilating the same laws he should be protecting. READ ALSO: ODM is plotting Musalia Mudavadi's ouster from ANC - Lugari MP Ayub Savula Chairman of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Nelson Hvai wants President Uhuru Kenyatta impeached. Photo: Nelson Havi Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Still funny: Dagoretti North MP John Kiarie perfectly imitates Mutahi Kagwe's accent We will petition the National Assembly and Senate to initiate proceedings for the impeachment of the president of the republic of Kenya for failing to perform his duties under the constitution, said Havi on Monday, June 8. Havis sentiments came after Chief Justice David Maraga addressed the president through the media protesting Uhurus refusal to appoint 41 judges submitted to him by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). The head of state had refused to appoint the judges saying some of them had questionable integrity but failed to submit evidence to defend his claims and the court ruled his only role was to appoint the judges. President Uhuru Kenyatta has often been accused of disobeying the Constitution in his style of leadership. Photo: State House Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Mama ajifungua mtoto katika seli ya polisi na kuachiliwa kwa dhamana na korti Maraga accused the president of failing to honour court orders in a number of cases where the state had lost a case or taking an action despite having been served with a court order. "The president's disregard of court orders doesn't board well for our constitutional democracy and is potentially a recipe for anarchy. I must remind you that you swore to defend the constitution and the laws of Kenya. The laws include court orders. Demonstrate that faith and respect the rule of law and comply with court orders," said Maraga. Maraga urged the president to respect the rule of law by complying with court orders that directed him to appoint the judges within a period of 14 days saying his refusal to appoint them was crippling service delivery to citizens. 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 The monsoon is expected to arrive in Mumbai by end of this week, reports said, as conditions become favourable for the advancement of the southwest monsoon The monsoon is expected to arrive in Mumbai by the end of this week, reports said, as conditions become favourable for the advancement of the Southwest Monsoon. According to the district forecast and warnings (till 13 June) issued Tuesday by the IMD's Regional Meteorological Centre in Mumbai, rain and thunder showers are very likely in Palghar, Thane and Mumbai districts on 11 June and a likely probability on 12 June. The forecast issued at 1300 hours on Tuesday also predicted a likely probability of light to moderate rain on 13 June (Saturday). On Tuesday, a report in The Times of India has quoted the IMD as saying that Southwest Monsoon will arrive in Mumbai by this week as favourable conditions are expected to form in parts of Konkan in the next 48 hours. Mumbai falls into the norther part of the Konkan region. Though Cyclone Nisarga brought pre-monsoon showers in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, according to skymetweather.com, the Southwest Monsoon is currently "marginally behind schedule over Peninsular India". The Southwest Monsoon, the report says, "has been limited to parts of South Peninsula below 15deg N along the west coast and about 13deg N on the east coast" and is yet to make appearance over the North East and East India. Last week, a report in Hindustan Times had quoted the weather bureau as saying that "the arrival of the Southwest Monsoon can be expected over the city next week close to its new normal onset date of 11 June". Conditions becoming favourable: IMD The Southwest Monsoon is likely to arrive in Kolkata on 12 June, reports said, whereas it is likely to hit Odisha in next three days. "In all probability, the monsoon is expected to hit Odisha within three days. It is likely to enter into parts of Odisha on 11 or 12 June," HR Biswas, director of the Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar told PTI, adding that monsoon rains are likely to lash southern and eastern parts of the state initially before advancing to other regions. Moreover, a low-pressure area has already formed over east-central Bay of Bengal which is linked to the movement of Southwest Monsoon in the region, he said. The IMD in its All-India Weather Forecast Bulletin on Tuesday said that conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of Southwest Monsoon into more parts of the country. It also said that "Southwest Monsoon has further advanced into some more parts of west central and north Bay of Bengal, today". "Conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of Southwest Monsoon into some more parts of central Arabian Sea, Goa, some parts of Maharashtra, some more parts of Karnataka and Rayalaseema, remaining parts of Tamil Nadu, some parts of Telangana and coastal Andhra Pradesh..." during the next 48 hours, it said. The IMD also said conditions are likely to become favourable subsequently for further advance of Southwest Monsoon into some more parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana remaining parts of Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra Pradesh, remaining parts of Bay of Bengal and northeastern states during the subsequent 48 hours. Temperatures soar in north India Meanwhile, temperatures in several places in north India, including Delhi, increased by a few notches on Tuesday. The mercury in the national capital was above the 40 degrees Celsius-mark. The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative figures for the city, recorded a maximum of 40.6 degrees Celsius. On Monday, it recorded a high of 37.6 degrees Celsius. The weather stations at Palam and Lodhi Road recorded their respective maximum temperatures at 42 and 39.9 degrees Celsius. Humidity levels oscillated between 38 and 86 per cent in Delhi. The maximum temperatures in Haryana and Punjab rose by a few notches but the mercury settled near or below the normal limits at most places. Chandigarh, the common capital of the two states, recorded a high of 37.6 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal, according to the Meteorological (MeT) department here. In Haryana, Ambala's maximum settled at 39.3 degrees Celsius, which was within the normal limits, while Karnal recorded a high of 37.4 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal. Hisar had a hot day at 42 degrees Celsius but it was within the normal limits. Narnaul, which received light rainfall during the day, registered a high of 33.5 degrees Celsius, nine notches below normal. Ludhiana in Punjab registered a maximum of 38.2 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal, while Patiala recorded a high of 38.7 degrees Celsius, also a notch below normal limits. Amritsar recorded a maximum temperature of 35.2 degrees Celsius, five notches below normal limits. The mercury continued to remain above the 40 degrees Celsius-mark in several parts of Uttar Pradesh, the MeT office said. Jhansi registered the highest temperature in the state with 42.5 degrees Celsius, it said. The maximum temperature in Lucknow was 39.9 degrees Celsius and the minimum was 27.4 degrees, the department said The mercury rose to 42 degrees Celsius in Allahabad, followed by 41.6 degrees in Agra, 41.5 degrees in Kanpur and 41.2 degrees Hamirpur. Aligarh registered a maximum temperature of 40.8 degrees Celsius, while it was 40.3 degrees in Fursatganj and 40.1 degrees in Varanasi. Orai in Jalaun district and Sultanpur recorded a maximum of 40 degrees Celsius. The weather will most likely remain dry over the state, it added. Several places in Rajasthan witnessed a rise in maximum temperature on Tuesday, and Sriganganagar turned out to be the hottest place in the state recording 43.3 degrees Celsius, a MeT department official said. Bikaner recorded 43.2 degree Celsius, followed by Churu (43), Jaisalmer (42.8), Barmer (41.7), Kota (41.3), Jaipur (41), and Jodhpur (40.7). Ajmer recorded a high of 39.6 degrees Celsius. Dabok received 0.55 mm rainfall on Tuesday and recorded a maximum of 38 degrees Celsius. The Met department has forecast thunderstorm/ lightning accompanied with gusty winds (with 30-40 kmph speed) to occur at isolated places in east Rajasthan. Another locust attack likely in a few weeks: Officials In a related news, the Locust Warning Organisation has warned of locust swarm attacks in late June and early July that may enter India along with monsoon winds from the Arabian Sea to destroy kharif crops. "The locust swarms may attack in late June and early July. There is every possibility that locust swarms will come towards India from African countries along with monsoon winds rising from the Arabian Sea," KL Gurjar, deputy director of the Faridabad-based Locust Warning Organisation (LWO), told PTI. He said the summer and rainy weather is favourable for locusts and they move from one place to another during this time, travelling 150 km in a day. India faced a locust attack last month and the swarms reached Jaipur for the first time. Swarms of locusts travelled through several areas of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh amid their worst invasion in years. The swarms entered Rajasthan in April from Pakistan and then spread to areas across the western states, helped by strong winds. Gurjar said the LWO is making full preparations at its level. For the first time, a team of 25 drones is being prepared to fight the locust swarm, which will be ready in a day or two. It will be used for spraying insecticides. Apart from this, the organisation will get 60 more vehicle-mounted sprayers by the end of this month. With inputs from PTI ConocoPhillips is considering increasing its oil and gas production as economies around the world are reopening and prices appear to have rebounded. The Houston oil major which in May and June shut down a third of its production, about 400,000 barrels of oil per day said energy companies are starting to think about lifting self-imposed production caps as crude prices have climbed back to near $40 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, was trading Tuesday morning around $38 per barrel. Were thinking of slowly coming back into the market over the next few months and reducing the amount weve got curtailed because were seeing some strengthening in the price, CEO Ryan Lance said in an interview published Tuesday by industry research firm IHS Markit. ConocoPhillips joins several energy companies looking to restart wells and increase production as coronavirus-related restrictions ease around the globe. Concho Energy and Parsley Energy are reopening existing wells while EOG resources said it plans to increase production capacity in the third quarter. Lance, in a wide-ranging interview with IHS Markit vice chairman Daniel Yergin, said hes worried that oil prices could take a double dip if OPEC and Russia decide to suspend agreements on production cuts that have been extended through July. In addition, Lance said oil-field service companies, which ConocoPhillips contracts to drill wells and extract oil, will take time to recover from the latest oil bust having laid off thousands of workers. Lance, however, said he is not worried about bringing wells back into operation despite some industry concern that wells could be damaged if they are closed, or shut-in, for several months or longer. Pressure is equilibrating around the wellbore so when you open it back up, you do see flush production come back, Lance said. It takes time to produce all those deferred barrels, but presumably, youre producing them in a much higher commodity price environment. RELATED: ConocoPhillips cuts production as it posts loss, falling revenues The energy industry, Lance said, had never before experienced the sudden drop in demand for petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The subsequent oil crash has forced energy companies, including ConocoPhillips, to shut in thousands of wells, and raised questions about the future of shale drilling, which propelled the U.S. into the worlds top oil producer and ushered in a decade of growth in Houston. Lance said he still believes in the viability of shale oil production, but acknowledged energy companies must focus more on delivering a higher return on investment for shareholders, many of whom have soured on the energy sector. Shale's not broke, shales not gone, shale will come back, Lance said. But I do think it comes back slower because there is going to be pressure on companies to confine their capital program and maybe not grow as dramatically as before, because I dont think the access to capital and investor community is going to be as robust as it was over the past decade. Oil and gas producers must live within their means, and offer more dividend and shareholder-friendly decisions to woo investors back into the energy sector, Lance said. The CEO acknowledged that Wall Street has lost money investing in energy over the past decade, and that energy companies will have to focus less on growth and more on returning capital to shareholders. ConocoPhillips lost $1.7 billion in the first quarter compared with a $1.8 billion profit during the same period a year ago. Revenue fell by more than half to $4.8 billion from $10.1 billion in the first quarter of 2019. Ultimately, Lance said its difficult to say whether U.S. oil production will recover to the record levels seen before the coronavirus-driven oil crash. U.S. crude production hit a record 13 million barrels per day in February, before the virus wiped away 2 million barrels of day of production. It would be pretty difficult for us to return to 13 million barrels a day, Lance said. Well get back above 10 million, above 11 million, maybe encroaching on 12 million, but a lot of that depends on the shape of the recovery. Does having coronavirus make you immune to future infection? Experts say finding the answer to this question is one of the keys to ending the lockdown. And now scientists believe they will have that answer in as little as three months, thanks to a major UK trial. Some 20,000 antibody testing kits are being sent to homes across the country 5,000 tests have already gone out and 15,000 more will be distributed in the coming days. World-renowned epidemiologist Professor Sir Rory Collins, who was asked by chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance to lead the trial, said that within two weeks the team will start to form an accurate picture of the virus's spread across the country. A few months later they hope to have the data to determine whether antibodies are retained and immunity conferred after infection. The testing programme will see volunteers tested once a month to see how immunity levels change unlike the NHS worker antibody testing programme announced earlier this month, which sees staff tested only once. Does having coronavirus make you immune to future infection? Experts say finding the answer to this question is one of the keys to ending the lockdown Sir Rory, speaking in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, said: 'In three to six months, I think we will have pretty good information about the persistence of this antibody. That would be very, very, rapidly informative.' The answer is key to informing the route out of lockdown. Ministers are keen to develop a system of 'immunity certificates' to people who have tested positive for coronavirus, to allow them to return to work without fear. But that plan has been shelved because scientists are uncertain how long the human body retains the antibodies it produces to fight off an attack of the virus. And if a test does detect antibodies, does that guarantee immunity, or only suggest someone has a lower risk of reinfection? Do young people hold antibodies better than the elderly? And how long will a vaccine which triggers the production of antibodies provide protection for? The programme hopes to answer these questions giving ministers a much better idea how safe it is to allow people to return to workplaces if they have been infected. Sir Rory said: 'When people become infected do antibody levels go up? Do those levels remain up, or do they fall off over time?' The programme implemented through the long-running UK Biobank scheme has been inundated with support. Some 100,000 people signed up after a call was sent to existing volunteers and their families a fortnight ago. Some 20,000 antibody testing kits are being sent to homes across the country 5,000 tests have already gone out and 15,000 more will be distributed in the coming days The huge response means the researchers can carefully select 20,000 participants to reflect the UK's demography. Each participant will be sent a home fingerprick test that will be returned via courier to the UK Biobank labs. These differ from commercial fingerprick antibody tests sold by private companies, which health authorities recently suspended over accuracy concerns. The Biobank tests use a highly accurate process called ELISA, developed for research purposes by the University of Oxford. Each participant will do one test monthly for at least six months. The researchers will also have access to their health records as well as records from the national coronavirus swab testing programme to see whether people with antibodies are protected, and they will be able to see how those antibodies drop off over time. 'In addition to taking the samples, we're also asking people about symptoms each month,' Sir Rory said. 'We're able to look to see whether people who've had a positive test in the past, get a positive test in the future.' The participants have agreed to let their blood plasma samples be stored, so scientists will be able to re-examine them in future. 'We're going to be initially testing one antibody,' Sir Rory said. 'But as evidence emerges it may be that antibodies to other parts of the virus are important, so we will have stored samples.' Participants will receive feedback on the progress of the study and the overall findings, but they will not receive their individual results, which will remain anonymous. Health Secretary Matt Hancock, announcing the trial, said: 'Our response to this pandemic is rightly guided by the science and based on the best available evidence, so I'm determined to do everything we can to learn more about coronavirus. 'The results of this study will assist our virus modelling and inform future plans for managing the pandemic.' COVID MYTH BUSTER We debunk the coronavirus hoaxes circulating on social media. This week: Vaccines against pneumonia can help to protect me against the coronavirus Traditional vaccines against pneumonia, such as pneumococcal vaccine and Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib), which we are routinely given, do not provide protection against the coronavirus, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The pneumococcal vaccine which protects against bacteria that can cause pneumonia will not prevent or offer any protection against pneumonia caused by the virus. Covid-19 disease is so new that it needs its own vaccine; researchers are currently working to develop one, but it could take many months before it is available. Lending support to the long pending demands of developers for one time loan restructuring and financial assistance, former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the issues raised by the builders were genuine and need to be addressed immediately. The comments came at a time when Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal asked developers to sell their properties at realistic prices and not look to the government for more concessions. In a virtual meeting with representatives of over 15 associations of developers operating in the Mumbai metropolitan region, Fadnavis assured that he will, as a representative of the builders, raise their concerns and demands to the government. "Banks, NBFCs and HFCs have made large investments in the real estate sectors and if these assets are stressed then the money will come in trouble. So, I feel the demand for one time restructuring of loans is logical and definitely I will talk to the government to request and indicate that they should consider this demand," Fadnavis said. Recently, in a virtual closed-door meeting held with the Naredco members Goyal had said, "...if any of you here feel that the government will be able to finance you in such a way that you can hold longer and wait for the market to improve, the market is not improving in a hurry. Things are seriously stressed and your best bet is to sell". Mentioning that the government is trying if some concessions can be allowed in ready reckoner rates, Goyal noted that if they are not allowed, builders will have to sell their unsold inventories. It may be noted that veteran bankers, including HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh and Kotak Mahindra Bank executive vice-chairman and MD Uday Kotak, had also pointed out that developers should sell off inventories by lowering property prices. "I recommend that every real estate player move inventory and clear the stock they have. They should not be looking at the rear-view mirror while driving a car, but looking in front," Kotak had said. Fadnavis also criticised banks, NBFCs and HFCs for not passing on the benefit of repo rate cuts to customers. "The intention of the Centre and RBI is to revive the sector, However, if banks only think about their profits and margins of 23-25 per cent and do not pass on the benefit then it is wrong as it defeats the intention of the government and RBI. "All financial institutions should pass on the repo rate cut to all the consumers. This will help to improve the liquidity position. We will do the necessary follow up with the Centre," Fadnavis added. In its recent revision, the RBI reduced the repo rates by 40 basis points to four per cent and extended moratorium period by another three months to August in the wake of the liquidity crisis due to the COVID-19. The developers' associations have come together to form a Credai MCHI MMR Action Committee, which has submitted a list of demands of developers in an online petition signed by over 35,000 builders. Fadnavis informed the developers that he has already briefed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman about the concerns. Speaking at the event, Credai MCHI President Nayan Shah said the real estate has been hit hard after the COVID crisis. "We are going to try to get relief from central government and RBI and the finance ministry, but we are not seeing that happening as yet. The 20 lakh crore package does not have anything specific for the sector," he said. On the demand for facilitating GST input credit for new projects, Fadnavis said the matter has been flagged to the GST Council and a decision in this regard is expected soon. Fadnavis, however, said India being a diverse country, it is practically impossible to cater to all the needs of each and every sector, but the intention of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government is to encourage and give impetus to the employment generating industries as well as MSMEs. "Follow the science" - these are reassuring words in a pandemic like covid-19, when widespread fear of a deadly virus can be exploited by unscrupulous politicians, snake-oil salesmen and cranks. Public trust in scientists has risen recently. But we may be hitting the limits of this trust, just as many countries enter the crucial phase of reopening their economies with a raft of new social-distancing measures meant to ward off a second wave of infections. We've seen several confusing U-turns and unresolved debates on issues such as the effectiveness of cloth masks or the risks of reopening schools. Faith in authority is ebbing globally, even in high-trust countries like Sweden, where a famously hands-off approach to lockdown is spreading ripples of doubt. And now the messy rush to find a treatment that works - even if it means throwing long-standing scientific standards out of the window - is veering from farce to tragedy. Tuesday, June 9, 2020 Kevin Jae, a member of our Emerging Fellows program inspects the facilitating role of international organizations in migration through his sixth blog post. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the APF or its other members. International migration is facilitated by pre-existing institutional structures, which guide migratory desires to end destinations. Even illegal migrations are defined as such because they are transgressions against the formal institutional structure. Institutional structures run the gamut from national policy to large political unions like the European Union that enable movement of people and labour. International organizations serve various roles in this structure. There are organizations like the European Union that serve as a legal and governing framework to manage the flow of migration. There are organizations like the International Organization for Migrants (IOM) that provide services and counselling for governments and migrants, helping potential migrants navigate through dense bureaucratic structures. Other organizations from all different political persuasions try to change the system: an example is the Migrant Rights Network, which advocates for migrant rights and protections. All these international organizations form a relatively stable equilibrium of competing interests that result in small changes and reforms to the structures in place. However, there are Events in history that overwhelm the status quo. These require a rewriting of the global playbook and a reconstruction of established institutional structures. One such Event that occurred was World War II, which led to a displaced population of over 60 million people. Most of the affected were on the European continent. It is important to note thataccording to the UNHCRour contemporary displacements have only recently overshadowed this number in 2015. (This is only the displaced population of refugees, and does not include the general population of migrants worldwide.) Confronted with the daunting prospect of accommodating these displaced peoples, international organizations managed migrations through laws like the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which granted the right to asylum and the right to other protections for displaced peoples fleeing from a well-founded fear of being persecuted. Moreover, new international institutions were founded, like the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in 1943. This institution is the origin of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that manages international refugees today. These international structures still inform the processes for the current international response to our current migrations. While the current international structures might seem rigid and slow to change, large-scale crises have created international organizations to radically transform global and national institutional structures to meet migratory exigencies. Our current historical moment provides a cogent example of rapid structural change. In a matter of a few months, the coronavirus pandemic has overwhelmed the previous international logics of globalization. Nation-states are repatriating both citizens and supply chains from abroad, and closing down borders, restricting entry to foreign nationals. While there are hopes for a rapid return to the normal, such dreams are yet uncertain: will international flows of people return to levels seen in the past? Similar crises in the future may prompt a response that is similar in kind. One large question mark looms in the horizon. While we previously critiqued climate change for obscuring the multi-factored nature of international migrations, climate change will create a crisis in one possible future. The mediascape reminds us of this possibility almost daily. For example, a recent The Guardian article title reads One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years. Where will these people go if their homes become uninhabitable? How will the world respond to a scenario like this? A quick read into the past suggests that a response is not confined to limitations of current international structures. If such a crisis does arise, then completely new international organizations and a new institutional structure could emerge to replace the structures of the past. Of course, this does not promise to be a frictionless and conflict-free process. Kevin Jae 2020 Samsung Group heir Jay Y. Lee arrives for a court hearing to review a detention warrant request against him at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul By Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean court on Tuesday denied an arrest warrant request for Samsung Group heir Jay Y. Lee after prosecutors accused him of accounting fraud and stock manipulation. The ruling provided temporary relief for the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics. But he may face further pressure from the case at a time when the world's top maker of smartphones and memory chips contends with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on demand. Shares in Samsung Group affiliates rose broadly in early Tuesday trade, with Samsung Electronics rising 2%, Samsung BioLogics up 2.4%, and Samsung C&T climbing 2.2% compared to a 1.2% rise in the benchmark KOSPI. Prosecutors last week asked the court to issue an arrest warrant for the 51-year-old Lee, as part of a probe into alleged accounting fraud involving a Samsung drugs affiliate and a 2015 merger of two other affiliates. They said the fraudulent accounting, and alleged stock manipulation, helped facilitate Lee's plan to assume greater control of the group. "It appears that prosecutors have secured considerable amount of evidence through their investigation, but they fell short of explaining the validity to detain Lee," the Seoul Central District Court said in a statement. "Considering the significance of the case, it is appropriate to determine whether the suspects are responsible and the degree (of their involvement) through sufficient trials and debates," the court said. Prosecutors called the decision regrettable, saying their investigation would proceed nonetheless. They may decide to reapply for the arrest warrant request for Lee, after further investigation, or bring Lee to trial without arrest. Lee's attorneys said in a statement they hoped the case would get a thorough review from an outside panel that would decide whether or not an indictment of Lee was justified. The allegations against Lee center on illegal transactions and stock manipulation that furthered the $8 billion merger of affiliates Samsung C&T Corp and Cheil Industries in 2015, according to prosecutors. Story continues The merger was seen as key to Lee increasing control of the sprawling group but critics say it rode roughshod over the interests of minority investors. Prosecutors also allege he had a role in inflating the value of Samsung Biologics Co Ltd, which counted Cheil Industries as a major shareholder. Samsung has denied the allegations. Lee was previously jailed for about a year, until his release in February 2018, for his role in a bribery scandal. He was accused of giving horses to the daughter of a confidante of former President Park Geun-hye to win government support for the merger of the two affiliates. South Koreas Supreme Court has since overturned an appeals court decision to suspend Lee's sentence in that case, but a court ruling over whether he should serve further jail time is still pending. (Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee and Joori Roh; Editing by Tom Brown) A fighter from the Islamic States claims to have been recruited by the British intelligence services and told to spy on Syrian and Russian defences writes Al-Masdar. An ex-Islamic State (ISIS) fighter alleged that the British intelligence services recruited him to collect information about Russian military installations in Syria, the Tass News Agency reported. In an interview with Russian journalists, he indicated that he was recruited after he decided to return to Palmyra. The British learned about this through intermediaries and said: You will work as a spy. We will help you. Go to Palmyra, we will give you money and phones and provide you with everything you need. The task is to photograph important sites of the Syrian intelligence and the Russian and Syrian armies there. I had to send these pictures over the Internet, he claimed. The former ISIS fighter admitted that he had met British intelligence officers in the al-Tanf area on the Syrian border with Jordan, where the US military base is located. He stated that he had fled there from Palmyra, pointing out that he was in the ranks of the Islamic State at that time. He said that the British indicated their need for information on important Russian sites in Syria, specifically on how they protect them, so that it would later be possible to carry out terrorist operations against them. According to him, the British assigned a former tour guide from Palmyra, who knows several languages, to take over the leadership of the espionage group. The British authorities have not commented on these allegations from the ISIS fighter. 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. Tuesday, June 2 0654 A woman asked police to check on her friend who has a heart condition. 1012 Non-injury accident in a Main Street parking lot. 1810 A caller reported there were protesters at Meily Park. She wanted to let the police know because she was nervous about it becoming a riot. An officer patrolled the area, and the demonstration remained peaceful. 2004 There were some protesters at Vintage Hall. 2014 An officer hung out with two kids who were riding their bikes near Charter Oak/Main. 2040 A caller asked about whether St. Helena was doing OK. He was also wondering if a Nixle alert mentioning a curfew applied to St. Helena. It did not. 2143 Report of a suspicious truck near Charter Oak Avenue. 2221 A car was broken into near Main Street. A wallet was stolen, and then someone tried to use a stolen credit card in Napa. Wednesday, June 30032 A large group of people were gathering at Safeway. An officer made sure everything was OK. 1955 Following a widespread power outage, Cal Fire said there was a transformer fire near a PG&E substation. 2100 Report of a problem between neighbors involving a generator on Sylvaner Avenue. It was a civil matter. Thursday, June 4No logs available Friday, June 5No logs available Saturday, June 61224 Police assisted with a youth community project. 1355 Police picked up a male Westie wandering Elmhurst Avenue. Its owner arranged to pick him up. 1815 Police responded to a physical altercation on College Avenue and arrested a 34-year-old Napa man on suspicion of domestic battery. 1830 Police were notified of a child custody matter. 1901 Report of a woman screaming and a man sounding aggressive near Highway 29 and Ehlers Lane. 2033 A caller asked whether there was a fire in St. Helena. Cal Fire said there was a vegetation fire near Sage Canyon Road, but not in St. Helena. 2055 Report of a reckless driver tailgating and passing over double yellows on Highway 29 near Rutherford Road. 2206 A set of keys was found in a crosswalk at Main/Spring. 2220 St. Helena police provided cover for Calistoga police on a traffic stop for possible hit-and-run/DUI. Sunday, June 71048 Report of a loud power-washing-type noise near Main Street. 1149 Police received a 911 call from Hunt Avenue, with male and female voices arguing in the background. Police checked the area. 1329 Report of a white Porsche speeding and driving recklessly on Adams Street. 1608 Report of a dog barking nonstop every day near Crane Avenue. 1916 A wire was hanging from the banner across Main Street. Monday, June 80831 Police helped St. Helena Primary School distribute certificates to students around town. 1027 A set of keys was found on Adams Street near the trail. 1112 Report of a parking problem on Meadowcreek Circle. 1141 Police assisted with high school graduation at Vintage Hall. 1352 Non-injury accident at Silverado/Pope. 1435 Keys were found near the skatepark. 1642 A caller asked how to contact the Walnut Creek Police Department so that she could report a break-in at her home in Walnut Creek. 1835 Report of a possible drunk driver parked at a Main Street gas station and throwing up. 2319 A Silverado Trail resident was locked out of her house and needed help getting in. She was referred to Cal Fire. Tuesday, June 90125 A Mitchell Drive resident heard a mountain lion behind their house, maybe in the creek. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 18:53:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close COLOMBO, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka has extended the visas of all foreigners in the country till July 11 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic which has stranded many foreigners in the island country, a statement from the Immigration and Emigration Department said on Tuesday. "Considering the aforementioned circumstances, it is decided to extend the validity period of all types of Visas for another period of 30 days with effect from June 11," the statement said. Sri Lanka's Tourism Ministry in March said over 11,000 tourists were stranded in the country due to the closure of airports globally following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The government said that as of May 4, a total of 11,389 tourists were currently in Sri Lanka, and the government had requested them to register with the recently launched "Tourist & Expatriate Support Center" website. Enditem Collecting guide: Japanese woodblock prints Learn more about the landscapes, courtesans, actors, warriors and monsters depicted in ukiyo-e, and why, according to specialist Anastasia von Seibold, Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige belong in the pantheon of all-time great artists Edo and a new wave in Japanese art The year 1600 was a momentous one for Japan. It was then that Tokugawa Ieyasu seized power, unifying the country after years of conflict among rival warlords. As shogun, he named Edo (modern-day Tokyo) as his seat of government, transforming the provincial backwater into a showcase for the nations new dawn. By the mid-18th century, Edo was the largest city on Earth, with a population of one million. The Tokugawa dynasty would rule until 1868, and the era became known as the Edo period. It was a time of peace and prosperity, and the arts flourished. Particularly splendid were the ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) works known for their unusual viewpoints, abrupt cropping, exquisite stylisation, and patches of vivid, unshaded colour. Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) belong in the pantheon of all-time great artists, says Anastasia von Seibold, senior specialist in Japanese Art at Christies. In 2017, Hokusais In the Well of the Great Wave off Kanagawa (aka The Great Wave) set a new auction record for a Japanese woodblock print, fetching $943,500 at Christies in New York. In black and white: sumizuri-e Japanese woodblock printing dates back to the 8th century, when it was used to reproduce texts, especially Buddhist scriptures. It wasnt until the early 1500s that books were printed with illustrations, which in turn paved the way for standalone images. Initial images were black-and-white sumizuri-e prints made with black ink. An artists drawing would be transferred from paper to a cherry-wood block, which was carved and then inked, before blank sheets of paper were laid on top. Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694) was an acknowledged master, best known for his quasi-calligraphic line. The introduction of colour: nishiki-e Printing in more than one colour was tricky: it wasnt until the 1740s that green and pink were tentatively introduced. A huge breakthrough came in 1765, when Suzuki Harunobu (1724-1770) mastered a process that accommodated an array of colours. The resulting prints were called nishiki-e (brocade pictures). They were created by making a set of woodblocks, starting with the key-block which has the outline fully carved in relief. The key-block was then printed, and the resulting proofs used to then make additional woodblocks, one for each area of colour. Each colour woodblock would then be printed in turn, using a registration system that would allow careful alignment of each block. When we think of Japanese prints today, it tends to be the glorious, full-colour examples made after Harunobu that we have in mind. By the 19th century, artists were producing remarkably subtle effects such as the shifting tones of Hiroshiges outstanding sunsets and expanses of water. The pursuit of pleasure: courtesans and kabuki actors The subject matter of ukiyo-e also evolved over the period. To show their loyalty to the shogun, feudal lords were required to spend one year in Edo for every year they devoted to their family domains outside. They arrived in Edo with a retinue of samurai and other attendants, creating a large itinerant community. To entertain them, an official pleasure district, the Yoshiwara, was created. Its restaurants, teahouses, theatres and brothels proved equally popular with Edos new merchant class and turned its courtesans and kabuki actors into stars. There was a market for pictures of these early celebrities, and woodblock prints many being produced in larger and larger numbers at lower costs were the ideal way to reach it. It seems that in the early 19th century each print cost roughly the same as a bowl of noodles. The literal translation of ukiyo-e is pictures of the floating world, a reference to the philosophy of living in the moment and enjoying transient pleasures of the sort on offer in the Yoshiwara. Among the leading artists of this time was Utamaro, who is renowned for his sensuous depictions of sumptuously dressed women. In 2016, his Deeply Hidden Love fetched 745,800 at a French auction house sale in association with Christies the second-highest price ever paid for a Japanese print at auction. The shift to landscapes In the 19th century, ukiyo-e artists shifted their focus to landscapes in part, due to an increase in travel made possible by five major new highways that connected Edo with the rest of the country. The two greatest landscape artists were Hiroshige and Hokusai. In his famous series, Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, Hiroshige captured sites and scenes along the 300-mile highway to Kyoto. For his monumental series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, meanwhile, Hokusai focused on the sacred mountain, Mount Fuji, visible from that highway, depicting it from different viewpoints in different seasons. The Great Wave was one of these. Warriors and other Japanese heroes The other big subject for 19th-century ukiyo-e artists was warriors. Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) illustrated the exploits of legendary Japanese and Chinese heroes, revelling in fantastical tales of their battles with killer carp, malignant giant toads, and octopuses taller than buildings. He brought drama, dynamism and imagination to the medium and proved hugely popular. The influence of ukiyo-e on Western artists In foreign policy, the Edo period was marked by isolationism. In fact, Japan all but abandoned trade with other nations, as well as banning travel in and out of the country. When the final Tokugawa shogun was ousted in 1868, however, the situation changed. As Japan opened its borders, ukiyo-e prints began to be exported to the West. As they started appearing in Europe and the United States in large numbers, artists including Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Whistler and Toulouse-Lautrec were captivated by them. The market for ukiyo-e today According to von Seibold, the market for ukiyo-e has markedly strengthened since around 2013. Theres a sense that they were relatively undervalued before that, she says. Major exhibitions, such as Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave at the British Museum in 2017, have played their part in this re-evaluation: following the Kuniyoshi exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2009, the record for his prints at auction has been broken twice, first with Miyamoto no Musashi Attacking the Giant Whale in 2018. Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), Miyamoto no Musashi Attacking the Giant Whale. Oban triptych: 36 x 24.5 cm (14 x 9 in) (3). Sold for HK$1,875,000 on 25 November 2018 at Christies in Hong Kong Hokusai is still the biggest name internationally, thanks to the ubiquity of images such as The Great Wave and Red Fuji. In 2019, two years after the former set a new world record, a print of Red Fuji sold for 507,000 at Christies in New York. The wonderful thing about ukiyo-e, says von Seibold, is that there truly is something for everyone. After all, the golden age of ukiyo-e spanned three centuries and included many different artists working in different genres. For those entering the market, Hiroshige tends to be popular, as his visions of nature and landscape are so beautiful, she says. Although very popular designs in good condition can fetch high prices, it is possible to purchase good Hiroshige prints for under 5,000. Broadly speaking, the more eminent the artist, the pricier the work. But other factors influence price, too: an early impression of a print is superior to a later one, for instance, as woodblocks became worn after repeated use. Condition is also important, adds the specialist. Issues such as fading, wormholes, tears and restoration will greatly affect the value of a print. Sign up today The Online Magazine delivers the best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe The MOU confirms the CIB will collaborate with Alberta Transportation to review the project's estimated costs and revenues, explore financing options and assess environmental, social and economic benefits prior to any potential investment decision by the CIB. This phase of work is consistent with the CIB's role to provide advisory services to governments. The Minister of Transportation for Alberta, Ric McIver, emphasized the potential benefits of this project. "Our government is creating an environment where investors and job creators can succeed in Alberta. We're pleased to be partnering with the CIB to complete a feasibility study for the Calgary-Banff Rail project. The CIB brings expertise and experience needed for a project of this scale. We look forward to learning more about this exciting project and hearing from our community partners about how this opportunity can support our tourism industry and get our economy back on track." "We are pleased to be building a strong partnership with the Government of Alberta. An important part of the CIB's role is to work closely with governments across Canada to advance new infrastructure opportunities. The Calgary-Banff Rail project is the first of many potential projects for the CIB in Alberta," said Michael Sabia, Chair of the Board, Canada Infrastructure Bank. Infrastructure and Communities Minister, Catherine McKenna, highlighted the importance of the CIB's collaboration with Alberta. "It's great to see the partnership between the Canada Infrastructure Bank and the Government of Alberta on a train between Calgary and Banff. A train to Banff National Park would reduce congestion, lower emissions, protect the pristine environment while creating jobs and economic opportunity. This initiative is an example of how the CIB is moving to a new phase focused on accelerating investment in projects that will grow our economy and make Canada more competitive." "The Calgary-Banff Rail project would create a new transportation option from Calgary International Airport to one of our national treasures. A sustainable and commuter-centric transport system is essential to serve the growing travel demands of both tourists and Albertans alike. The new rail service would take cars off the road and increase the mobility of visitors and commuters to the park in a stress-free way," said the Minister of Transport, Marc Garneau. Project Vision The Calgary-Banff Rail project is a new, 130-kilometre sustainable passenger rail service that would potentially include six stops (Calgary International Airport, Downtown Calgary, Cochrane, Morley, Canmore and Banff) along a dedicated line built within the existing Canadian Pacific Railway's corridor. The service could have up to eight departures per day from the airport to Banff and the capability of running an express service from Calgary International Airport to downtown Calgary every 20 minutes. The project would create an innovative, environmentally friendly public transit option and help the Town of Banff become more pedestrian friendly. Residents of First Nations communities would see increased employment opportunities with easier access into Calgary, Banff, Canmore and Cochrane. Visitors to tourism, cultural and recreational areas in Calgary and in the communities along the line would also benefit from more convenient and efficient travel from the airport and nearby communities. Benefits of the CIB's Involvement The CIB engages and builds relationships with all levels of government, Indigenous communities and private and institutional investors. It is uniquely positioned to conduct market analysis and provide specialized commercial and investment expertise, including innovative financial modelling, creative project structuring and procurement options to support project sponsors. The CIB's Advisory and Investment team has specialized infrastructure insights in all the CIB's priority sectors (green infrastructure, trade and transportation, transit and broadband). Quick Facts: The Government of Alberta intends to structure the project as a public-private partnership (P3) to attract investment, transfer risks and drive performance. intends to structure the project as a public-private partnership (P3) to attract investment, transfer risks and drive performance. The CIB is a Crown corporation mandated to invest $35 billion in federal funding and attract private sector investment into new revenue-generating infrastructure projects. The CIB is focused on transformational projects that are in the public interest. The CIB works to advance a new model of partnerships to help more projects get built. Learn More: Province of Alberta Canada Infrastructure Bank SOURCE Canada Infrastructure Bank By Andrea Germanos, senior editor and staff writer. Originally published at Common Dreams After two weeks of nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd, a group of congressional Democrats on Monday introduced bicameral legislation to overhaul the nations policing practices, including ending racial profiling, banning chokeholds, and curbing the transfer of military grade equipment in law enforcement. The bill would also make lynching a federal crime. The Justice in Policing Act establishes a bold, transformative vision of policing in America, said Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass (D-Calif.) as she announced the legislation. Never again should the world be subjected to witnessing what we saw on the streets in Minneapolisthe slow murder of an individual by a uniformed police officer. The new measure is led by Bass along with Sens. Corey Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). Its supported thus far by 166 representatives and 35 senators as well as civil rights organizations including the Lawyers Committee For Civil Rights Under Law, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the National Urban League. The time for change is NOW. Led by @TheBlackCaucus, House and Senate Democrats have been working tirelessly to develop bold, historic legislation to: Hold police accountable End police brutality Improve transparency Enact structural changes Protect our communities pic.twitter.com/BLK45PbDRY The Black Caucus (@TheBlackCaucus) June 8, 2020 Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), one of the co-sponsors of the House version of the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, called the legislation a bold step towards justice and accountability that arrives as a result of those rising up and speaking out, marching and protesting, demanding accountability and fighting for justice. A statement from the lawmakers details a number of the provisions in the legislative package: Prohibits federal, state, and local law enforcement from racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling, and mandates trainingon racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling for all law enforcement. Bans chokeholds, carotid holds, and no-knock warrants at the federal level and limits the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement. Mandates the use of dashboard cameras and body cameras for federal offices and requires state and local law enforcement to use existing federal funds to ensure the use of police body cameras. Establishes a National Police Misconduct Registry to prevent problematic officers who are fired or leave on agency from moving to another jurisdiction without any accountability. Amends federal criminal statute from willfulness to a recklessness standard to successfully identify and prosecute police misconduct. Reforms qualified immunity so that individuals are not barred from recovering damages when police violate their constitutional rights. Establishes public safety innovation grants for community-based organizations to create local commissions and task forces to help communities to re-imagine and develop concrete, just, and equitable public safety approaches. Creates law enforcement development and training programs to develop best practices and requires the creation of law enforcement accreditation standard recommendations based on President Obamas Taskforce on 21st Century policing. Requires state and local law enforcement agencies to report use of force data, disaggregated by race, sex, disability, religion, age. Improves the use of pattern and practice investigations at the federal level by granting the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division subpoena power and creates a grant program for state attorneys general to develop authority to conduct independent investigations into problematic police departments. Establishes a Department of Justice task force to coordinate the investigation, prosecution, and enforcement efforts of federal, state, and local governments in cases related to law enforcement misconduct. Booker, in a Monday statement, said the legislation takes a comprehensive approach to ending police brutality. On the back-end, the bill fixes our federal laws so law enforcement officers are held accountable for egregious misconduct and police abuses are better tracked and reported, he said. And on the front-end, the bill improves police practices and training to prevent these injustices from happening in the first place. Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, called the legislation historic and long overdue and responsive to many of the urgent demands being pressed for by our communities and by the people protesting for racial justice and equity across our nation. But, she added on Twitter, This bill is but one step. There is no question that police reform will not solve the problem of police violence alone, she tweeted. We need to shrink the footprint of police and criminalization in Black and brown communities incl shifting resources funding this model to positive supports and systems. Given that qualified support, Clarke said that her and other civil rights groups would still push for real change that shrinks the footprint of the criminal legal system, including police, in Black and Brown peoples lives and makes all communities safer and more prosperous. The Justice in Policing act does not address a key demand of protestersto defund police. Writer Jack Mirkinson described the new legislation as an example of wholly inadequate attempts to harness the energy of the protests and redirect them onto more politically comfortable paths when its clear police reform is not enough. Human rights lawyer and Guardian columnist Derecka Purnell was blunt in her assessment of the proposal, calling it not a step in the right direction. It reaffirms that policing can be a just institution, she tweeted. The last six years have shown that consent decrees does not stop and cannot stop police from surveilling, arresting, and jailing Black people. It is their job. Bio-engineered analog of CBD (CBDVHS) exhibited highly significant potency when compared to CBD in lowering biomarkers associated with inflammation and fibrosis in a validated human tissue model of ocular disease Contrary to historical studies of CBD, CBDVHS was not associated with an elevation in intraocular pressure Long Beach, Calif., June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- -- Emerald Bioscience, Inc. (OTCQB: EMBI), focused on the development of cannabinoid-based therapeutics to address global medical indications, especially those of unmet medical need, today announced that biomarker data assessing the companys proprietary analog of cannabidiol, cannabidiol-valine-hemisuccinate (CBDVHS) will be presented at the June, 2020 virtual ARVO ophthalmology conference. Details of the virtual presentation are as follows: Title: Distinct pharmacological activity between cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabidiol analog (CBDVHS) in a 3D human trabecular meshwork model Presenter: Dr. Andrea Unser, Senior Research Scientist, Glauconix Biosciences, Inc. Date: June 12, 2020 Virtual access: The presentation can be accessed through the ARVO portal, ARVOLearn at www.arvo.org/education/online-education The studies were performed by Glauconix Biosciences, Inc. and sponsored by EMBI. CBDVHS is licensed by EMBI from the University of Mississippi and was developed by the faculty of the University and Eli Labs, Inc. of Oxford, Mississippi. Further details on these presentations will be provided in upcoming Company communications. For more information about this conference, please visit: https://www.arvo.org/ . About Glauconix Biosciences Glauconix Biosciences is a leading developer of ophthalmic ex-vivo dynamic 3D human tissue models for accelerating therapeutic innovation and drug discovery. Their 3D tissue models can de-risk ophthalmic assets and expedite drug development. Glauconix adds value to their clients and partners by expediting early identification and validation of effective compounds or biologics in the preclinical phase and those entering clinical trials. To learn more about Glauconix Biosciences, visit www.glauconix-biosciences.com About the University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi, the state's flagship institution, is among the elite group of R-1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity in the Carnegie Classification. The university has a long history of producing leaders in public service, academics, research and business. Its 15 academic divisions include a major medical school, nationally recognized schools of accountancy, law and pharmacy, and an Honors College acclaimed for a blend of academic rigor, experiential learning and opportunities for community action. About Eli Labs Eli Labs is a privately held corporation located in Oxford, MS that performs analytical validation testing as well as research involving drug discovery. The company President is Mahmoud Elsohly, PhD, who is Research Professor in the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi. About Emerald Bioscience, Inc. Emerald Bioscience is a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Long Beach, California, focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of bioengineered cannabinoid-based therapeutics for significant unmet medical needs in global markets. With proprietary technology licensed from the University of Mississippi, Emerald is developing novel ways to deliver cannabinoid-based drugs for specific indications with the aim of optimizing the clinical effects of such drugs while limiting potential adverse events. Emerald's strategy is to clinically develop a number of proprietary biosynthetic compounds, alone or in combination with corporate partners. For more information, visit www.emeraldbio.life CONTACT Ella Traistaru Primary Financial Officer Email: ella@emeraldbio.life Phone: 949-336-3437 FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our product development, potential applications of CBDVHS, future patent filings, business strategy, timing of clinical trials and commercialization of cannabinoid-based therapeutics. Such statements and other statements in this press release that are not descriptions of historical facts are forward-looking statements that are based on managements current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, our business, operating results, financial condition and stock price could be materially negatively affected. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology including anticipated, contemplates, goal, focus, aims, intends, believes, can, could, challenge, predictable, will, would, may or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. We operate in a rapidly changing environment and new risks emerge from time to time. As a result, it is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements the Emerald may make. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, our capital resources, uncertainty regarding the results of future testing and development efforts and other risks that are described in the Risk Factors section of Emerald most recent annual or quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as expressly required by law, Emerald disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. One year ago on Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Hong Kong gathered for a march that became the start of the semiautonomous Chinese citys biggest political crisis and the broadest expression of public anger with Beijing in decades. In the months that followed, protesters filled the citys streets, broke into the local legislature and vandalized it, staged sit-ins at the airport, and turned a university campus into a fiery battleground. Earlier this year, the demonstrations quieted amid the coronavirus pandemic. But Beijings push to impose national security laws over the territory has prompted some protesters to return to the streets. Their presence is a reminder that many thorny issues including the demonstrators demands for greater official accountability remain unresolved. GREENWICH The sun shined brightly on the Class of 2020 at Greenwich High School, as hundreds of graduates and their families enjoyed a unique drive-through commencement ceremony under cloudless skies on Tuesday. Mother Nature blessed the 701 graduates, who had experienced a wealth of adversity this spring, with a picture-perfect day and the new-look ceremony put smiles on their faces. In order to follow social distancing protocols due to the COVID-19 pandemic, GHS shifted to a daylong, drive-through graduation ceremony outside on the campus instead of drawing a crowd to Cardinal Stadium. Each student got a special walk-on-the-stage moment with their name announced and their picture taken. We are so grateful to Karen Foster (head of GHS student services), who helped us orchestrate this entire event for the students, Greenwich Schools Superintendent Toni Jones said. The stages are beautiful, its going smoothly and its going beautifully. Graduation began at 9 a.m., with Cantor House students receiving their diplomas near the circle at the high schools front entrance and Bella House students getting their diplomas in front of the Performing Arts Center in back of the school. Ceremonies continued at noon and 3 p.m., with students from Folsom, Clark and Sheldon Houses receiving their diplomas at the two outdoor locations. Cars streamed in and out of the campus throughout the day many decorated with balloons and in the schools colors. The mood was festive at the well-organized event, which brought the students back to campus after a nearly three-month closure due to the coronavirus outbreak. We are trying to make it special for the students, said Greenwich Board of Education Chair Peter Bernstein. They spent four years with us and really deserve to be recognized for their hard work and efforts. The graduates were driven by a family member to the stage. Each student exited their vehicle and after their name was announced, they walked up on to the stage, got their diploma and posed for a quick picture for their family. They then walked down a short path, where they have their official graduation picture by a photographer on site in front of a red and white background, celebrating the Cardinals school colors. These students have such strength, Jones said. As difficult as it has been this spring, I think theyre learning so much too. I think they are wise beyond their years now and have learned so many lessons. Bernstein admired the positive attitude and perseverance exhibited by the Class of 2020. They have shown resilience in getting to today and being really flexible, while understanding that were making the best of a tough situation, he said. A virtual ceremony was streamed at 7 p.m. Tuesday, featuring speeches by valedictorians Melissa Woo and Zachary Wang as well as salutatorians Justin Speaker and Anne-Emilie Rouffiac, along with class president Lucas Gazianis and Headmaster Ralph Mayo. Former New York Yankees All-Star Mark Teixeria was the commencement speaker. In her speech, Woo implored her classmates to make a difference in the world. We are the next generation and we have learned how to make our voices heard, said Woo, who will attend Princeton. As we face new beginnings in college and a post-COVID world, together, we have the power to shape where we go from here, not only on a personal level, but on a societal scale as well. Together, we can figure out what kind of people we want to be in the world and what kind of world we want to live in. Rouffiac, who is headed to Brown, encouraged her fellow graduates to embrace challenges that come their way. Just like we did at GHS, lets keep supporting, listening, and connecting to others, she said. Lets keep engaging in our communities and tackling current, or future challenges proactively. Never forget the power of your actions, your voice, your love. I hope that we will all remember the power we have to change the world and stand up for whatever we may believe in. Whle this is a bittersweet moment, we must remember the beautiful friendships we made at GHS and help to forge new connections in the world. Said the Yale-bound Wang, High school is a time of discovery and growth. Im excited and I hope you are, too, because its time to discover whats out there in the world. Mayo paid tribute to Assistant Headmaster Richard Piotrzkowski, who is retiring after working for the school district for 36 years. I do not have enough words to discuss his contributions to our school, Mayo said of Piotrzkowski. He works day and night to make GHS an excellent place to both teach and learn. Mayo also spoke of how proud he is of the Class of 2020. The connections you have made over the last four years have been game-changers for other students and for members of our community, he said. My wish for you is to continue this work once you graduate. Get out there and make your new community a better place than when you found it. Speaker recalled the bonds he formed with so many classmates during his journey at Greenwich High. This day is the culmination of four years of transformation, said Speaker, who will attend Northwestern University. Ill remember the conversations I had at lunch and the friends I made. The people around us are the key to happiness and our greatest resource. Teixeira, a three-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove Award winner, emphasized the words trust and believe in his speech to the GHS graduates. This is where the real challenge starts, you are going out into the real world, Teixeira said in the Zoom event. Continue to believe in yourself, trust in yourself. When I went to Georgia Tech after high school, I thought everyone on the baseball team was better than me. And when you go to college, you make think, everyone in this class I am in is smarter than me. But thats not true trust in your ability. The first few months of college is tough. You may miss your friends, family and being home. However, once you get through those first few months, you will do great things. Continue to trust an believe in yourselves and good things will happen, he said. Matthew Tamis, senior class treasurer, announced that the Class of 2020 had donated funds to two nonprofit organizations Operation Hope and Neighbor To Neighbor. Gazianis, class president, said he knew that he and his classmates enjoyed the options they had at GHS. Greenwich High School allowed us to explore new passions, gave us opportunities to play any sport and join any club, he said. We had boundless opportunities. dfierro@greenwichtime.com What happened Shares of blue chip aerospace stock Boeing (NYSE:BA) dropped more than 7% in early trading Tuesday, before recovering to about a 2% loss by noon. Shares of Boeing's suppliers of airplane engines and large airplane parts such as fuselages and wings -- General Electric (NYSE:GE) and Spirit AeroSystems (NYSE:SPR) in particular -- fell even harder, and are remaining down longer. In noonday trading, GE stock is off 3.5%. Spirit stock that was down more than 11% this morning has recovered to about a 7% loss. But it all started with Boeing. So what This morning, Boeing revealed that between ceaseless delays getting its 737 MAX airplane recertified to fly by the FAA, and an almost entire lack of interest in acquiring new airplanes by airlines that have seen their passenger rolls evaporate in the face of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Boeing managed to deliver just four new aircraft in the entire month of May. "Four airplanes in a month," by the way, is the lowest delivery rate that Boeing has notched in the past 60 years. It's two planes fewer than Boeing delivered in April and ... down 87% from a year ago. Now what Meanwhile, Boeing's customers canceled orders for 18 more planes in May (including 14 MAXes), which won't help Boeing improve its deliveries much. And to top it all off, Reuters just reported that the airline industry as a whole is heading for an $84 billion annual loss this year, making 2020 "the worst year in the history of aviation," according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Even with air travel starting to pick up, IATA estimates that when 2020 is over, air traffic will end up 29% below its 2019 peak. And if you think 2021 might be better, well ... it will, but only relative to an abysmal 2020. According to IATA, the airline industry will probably lose nearly $16 billion more next year. All of which adds up to: Less money for airlines to spend on Boeing airplanes, or for Boeing to spend buying airplane parts from GE and Spirit AeroSystems. She has been keeping fit in recent weeks by going mountain bike riding. And on Monday, Australian actress Isla Fisher once again enjoyed her daily exercise session as she went for a spin in Los Angeles. The 44-year-old wore an 'alpha female' T-shirt and a face mask on the outing. What the T-shirt says! Australian actress Isla Fisher wore a face mask and an 'alpha female' top on her daily bike ride in Los Angeles on Monday The redhead also ensured she put her safety first by wearing a white helmet. The Wedding Crashers star also wore cropped black leggings and sneakers, and accessorised with a pair of dark sunglasses. Isla styled her long locks in a neat plait and listened to music on headphones. Keeping fit: Isla previously told Fitness Magazine that she prefers to exercise outdoors, rather than in a gym Hollywood life: Isla is based in Los Angeles with her husband, British actor Sacha Baron Cohen (pictured), and their three children Isla is based in Los Angeles with her husband, British actor Sacha Baron Cohen, and their three children. Isla previously told Fitness Magazine that she prefers to exercise outdoors, rather than in a gym. 'I'm an outdoor girl,' Isla said. 'I'm always moving. I do yoga, and I love to hike. And I swim every day with my kids.' Projects: Before California went into lockdown in March, Isla was in the middle of shooting the Disney+ comedy Godmothered in Boston Before California went into lockdown in March, Isla was in the middle of shooting the Disney+ comedy Godmothered in Boston. The film follows an unskilled fairy godmother, played by Jillian Bell, who sets out to help a woman, played by Isla, whose wish was ignored as a child. Isla also wrapped production on a new big screen adaptation of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit with Dan Stevens, Judie Dench and Leslie Mann. It's scheduled for release in September, but that may change due to the COVID-19 crisis. Orders from MarketFresh, a group of wet market stall owners, sit ready for delivery at the Tiong Bahru Market during the "circuit breaker" lockdown in Singapore, on Wednesday, May 20, 2020. Southeast Asian shoppers will likely continue buying groceries and other essential items online even after the coronavirus pandemic ends, according to research from consultancy Bain & Company and Facebook. A new report from the two firms said e-commerce and other digital trends across the region were accelerated by the Covid-19 outbreak the disease that has infected more than 7 million people worldwide. "Some of these trends are here to stay," Praneeth Yendamuri, a partner with Bain & Company based in Singapore. "One of the trends we identified was essential online shopping, and that's here to stay," he told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Tuesday. He explained that online groceries is a massive category that is relatively underpenetrated due to logistics and other reasons. But the sector grew nearly three times during the outbreak in Southeast Asia, and one in three users who were surveyed said they planned to continue buying their groceries over the internet in future, according to the report. Total grocery spend in Southeast Asia is roughly around $350 billion, and online grocery accounts for a fraction of that overall value, but it is gaining traction, according to industry experts. Alibaba-backed Lazada, which operates across the region, recently told CNBC its online grocery sales in Singapore jumped four times from early April since the city-state introduced movement restrictions as the number of coronavirus cases intensified. Famous Russian actor faces up to 12 years in jail for vehiculary manslaughter Moskva city news agency, Igor Ivanko 10:54 09/06/2020 MOSCOW, June 9 (RAPSI) Famous Russian actor Mikhail Efremov was charged with a traffic offense committed in a drunken state and led to a victims death, RAPSI was told in the press service of the Interior Ministrys Main Directorate. Under these charges Efremov could face from 5 to 12 years in a penal colony if convicted. Initially, the actor was accused of committing a traffic offense under the influence of alcohol, but the charges were toughened after the victim died in a hospital early in the morning on Tuesday, the statement reads. On the previous evening, Efremov driving his car crossed into the oncoming lane in central Moscow and collided with a delivery service vehicle. He was arrested on the scene. According to the police, he is being checked for the presence of alcohol in his blood. National Forklift Safety Day serves as an opportunity for forklift manufacturers to highlight the safe use of forklifts, the value of operator training, and the need for daily equipment checks. Collectively we dedicate a tremendous amount of time and effort to ensure the safety of our products. From an industry perspective the collaboration, through the ITA, has been instrumental in keeping our industry at the forefront of the latest developments in codes and standards. The Industrial Truck Association (ITA) held its seventh annual National Forklift Safety Day today as a virtual event. The event serves as an opportunity for forklift manufacturers to highlight the safe use of forklifts, the value of operator training, and the need for daily equipment checks. Safety has been and will continue to be paramount to our industry, said Jay Gusler, Executive Vice President of Operations for Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Inc. (MCFA), and ITA Chairman of the Board. Collectively we dedicate a tremendous amount of time and effort to ensure the safety of our products. From an industry perspective the collaboration, through the ITA, has been instrumental in keeping our industry at the forefront of the latest developments in codes and standards. Safety requires dedication, time and perseverance. We must take the time to ensure proper safety training is adhered to and make it a priority. Government officials, safety experts, and industry representatives discussed a variety of subjects including pedestrian safety and temporary employee safety that emphasized the need for operator training across all aspects of the industry. National Forklift Safety Day raises awareness on the value of safety to those who produce, operate, and work on or around forklifts. Industrial truck manufacturers have long supported the necessity of operator training and safe work practices, said Brian Feehan, ITA president. We are sponsoring this event to focus on the importance of safety and training. Safety is paramount to our industry and operator training has been proven to prevent accidents. In addition to the ITA virtual event, many ITA members and their dealers, through social media and other safe practices, sponsor local forklift safety activities for their customers to enhance awareness of safe practices in warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing plants, and other environments where forklifts are in use. An archive video of the event is available for viewing by visiting DC Velocity's website. About ITA: For more than 65 years, the Industrial Truck Association has been the leading organization of industrial truck manufacturers and suppliers of component parts and accessories that conduct business in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Based in Washington, D.C., ITA maintains an influential voice in international standards development for the industry. The organization also advances engineering practices to promote safe products, disseminates statistical marketplace information, and provides industry forums for learning and networking. Visit http://www.indtrk.org. Systematic mistreatment of black people by law enforcement underscores the need to desegregate schools. Thats the argument right now from Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., one of the foremost champions of school desegregation in Congress. Murphys legislationthe Strength in Diversity Act , which he introduced in 2019 along with Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, and in previous yearswould support local, voluntary efforts to increase diversity in schools. Murphy has also highlighted the issue amid ongoing protests over the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police, and why he thinks that real progress demands more than voicing support for the Black Lives Matter movement and protesting racial injustice. On Monday, we discussed those and other issues in an interview with Murphy; some of his responses to our questions have been lightly edited for clarity. Many people might not see a clear link between the current activism in response to how the police treat black people and the movement to desegregate schools. Can you explain why people should connect them? At the foundation of the crisis were in today is an inability of white people to understand the lives of people of color. Its largely inconceivable for most white people to think about fearing for your life when you have an interaction with law enforcement. Thats something that likely never happens to a white person in their entire life. The best way to grow empathy and understanding is to have exposure to those whose lives are different from you, who are of a different race or a different religion or a different income bracket. We live separate lives. We are more racially and economically segregated than ever before in many parts of the country. And unless we start living with each other and sharing experiences, then I dont know that any laws that we pass can be truly effective in changing attitudes. For instance, the number of segregated schools in this country has doubled in the last 15 years. [A federal watchdogs 2016 report on racial and economic isolation in schools included this finding.] When a white kid grows up without a single black friend, it becomes really hard for them to care about changing the laws around criminal justice system, or policing practices, if theyve never heard the firsthand perspective of a young black person and how they intersect with the criminal justice system and law enforcement. Theres a concern you and others have expressed that many people say they support Black Lives Matter and racial equity, only to turn around and resist the formal adoption of substantive and relevant policy changes, such as integrating schools, in their own communities. If thats such a significant problem, are federal or other mandates the primary solution? How can you make such efforts voluntary but also popular? The first step is making people realize that to be an ally of these protests, it means stepping out of your comfort zone. Whats important at the outset is to create an expectation that if you are a white ally of the Black Lives Matter movement, that likely will involve supporting some change that impacts your life, not just one that impacts the lives of people of color. Thats why Ive tried to raise this issue early on, to make sure that people coming to these protests realize the issues that are coming. When youre talking about changes to housing policy or education policy ... that is much better enacted at the local level. My state, which is a pretty progressive state, could take a leadership role and enact real, fundamental, systemic reforms, at the state and local levels. If that were to happen, you wouldnt need intervention from the federal government. Some in the school choice movement believes that giving black families more agency over where their children go to school, rather than focusing on a broader policy of desegregation, is what will help empower those families in their communities. Whats your response to that argument? I think empowering parents is a part of this solution. But if you just give parents in Bridgeport the choice of where to go to school in Bridgeport [a high-poverty city in Connecticut], youre not solving the problem. The schools in Bridgeport are so underfunded because of our broken school finance system, and so burdened by the trauma that exists in Bridgeport but not in neighboring Fairfield [an affluent suburb], that school choice is insufficient. If youre talking about a school choice system where kids in Bridgeport might be able to go to a neighboring school system, that might work. But that involves a massive change to the way that schools are run and financed. ... Until you fix the economic ceiling that exists in communities of color, you are never going to be able to fix our educational system. As long as poor people are clustered together in small neighborhoods, the education system can only be a partial remedy. One of the discussions thats come up in the last week-plus is whether police should be in schools. Whats your position on that? How concerned are you that a police presence in schools can ultimately be detrimental to students of color and black students in particular? Police should not be in schools. It is very tempting to put police officers inside schools. But it ends up speeding up the school-to-prison pipeline . It ends up with typical school misbehaviors being criminalized. And it creates an atmosphere inside the school that makes kids feel often that they are in a courthouse rather than a learning environment. There are some instances where you might need police officers in close proximity to a school. But there is no reason for police officers to be inside schools. I think this is an experiment that has largely failed. Police officers are generally in the schools with large black and Hispanic populations. And so its not a coincidence that you have kids being expelled and suspended, that students of color are being expelled and suspended for behaviors that a white kid would just get detention for. What did you make of the disagreement between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris last year in the Democratic debate over busing and integration? [Biden defended his opposition to certain busing policies in the 1970s, and Sen. Harris of California criticized him for it.] Do you think that was a helpful way to highlight issues addressed in your Strength in Diversity Act? I dont remember all the details of that exchange. ... The first step is to make sure the resources exist so that states and municipalities that want to participate in school desegregation plans can do so. The one in Connecticut works, but there arent eonugh slots. [Earlier this year, officials agreed to add 1,000 seats to a magnet school program in the Hartford, Conn., area, as part of the long-running Sheff v. ONeill court case over racially isolated schools. However, even with this expansion, demand outstrips the number of seats in the program.] Its not the total solution. I dont prefer mandatory federal intervention here. I think our first job is to try to create a movement thats focused on local and state reforms, so that conversations about economically and racially integrating our schools happens first at the local level. Photo: Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., on Capitol Hill in Washington. Murphy is one of the foremost champions for school desegregation in Congress. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa . Air Force Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown is officially the next leader of the U.S. Air Force and the first African American officer to ever serve as the top uniformed officer of any of the military branches. The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Brown, currently the head of Pacific Air Forces, in a unanimous 98-0 vote to be the service's 22nd chief of staff. Read Next: Marine V-22 Osprey Damaged After Being Hit by Civilian Plane on Runway "The U.S. Air Force, Space Force and I congratulate Gen. Brown & his wife, Sharene, on his confirmation as #CSAF!" Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett tweeted after the vote. "Gen. Brown's unrivaled leadership, operational experience & global perspective will prove crucial to modernizing the #USAF to meet tomorrow's national security challenges." Though the vote had yet to take place, President Donald Trump tweeted, "My decision to appoint @usairforce General Charles Brown as the USA's first-ever African American military service chief has now been approved by the Senate. "A historic day for America!" he added. "Excited to work even more closely with Gen. Brown, who is a Patriot and Great Leader!" Last week, Brown spoke out about a life in which he has tried to fit in as an African American man in everyday life, as well as in uniform. "I'm thinking about how full I am with emotion, not just for George Floyd, but the many African Americans that have suffered the same fate as George Floyd," he said in a passionate video posted on social media. Brown, an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot, described his military experience as "living in two worlds," with some questioning whether he even belonged in the ranks. "I'm thinking about having to represent by working twice as hard to prove [that my supervisors'] perceptions and expectations of African Americans were invalid," he said in the video. "I'm thinking about the airmen who don't have a life similar to mine, and don't have to navigate through two worlds. I'm thinking about how these airmen see racism, where they don't see it as a problem because it doesn't happen to them, or whether they're empathetic." While leaders across the branches have spoken out since the May 25 death of Floyd, a black man, at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, the Air Force has stood out on the issue. The White House in March put forth Brown's nomination. He follows Gen. David Goldfein, who is set to retire this summer after four years in the position. Brown will also be the first black officer to sit on the Joint Chiefs of Staff since Army Gen. Colin Powell, now retired, served as chairman between 1989 and 1993. Before his post at PACAF, Brown was the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. He also served as the head of Air Forces Central Command between 2015 and 2016, during the height of the air campaign against Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria. The highly decorated commander commissioned in 1984 and has accumulated more than 2,900 flight hours, including 130 combat hours in various aircraft, according to his biography. Prior to his historic confirmation, Brown last week called airmen's attention to openly discussing disparities in the ranks. "I want to know what you're thinking about," he said. "I want to hear what you're thinking about, and how together, we can make a difference." Here are other Air Force generals nominated for top positions across the force: Lt. Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach was nominated for his fourth star and to replace Brown as the next Pacific Air Forces commander. Wilsbach is currently commander of the 7th Air Force and deputy commander of U.S. Forces Korea. Lt. Gen. Mark Kelly, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for operations at the Pentagon, has been nominated to pin on his fourth star and become head of Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, replacing Gen. Mike Holmes, who's set to retire. Lt. Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, also submitted to pin on her fourth star, has been nominated to become commander of Air Mobility Command. Van Ovost is currently AMC's deputy commander at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. She would replace Gen. Maryanne Miller, who assumed the position in 2018. The head of U.S. Air Forces Central Command, Lt. Gen. Joseph Guastella Jr., was confirmed to be the next deputy chief of staff for operations at the Pentagon by a voice vote in the Senate in May. Maj. Gen. Gregory Guillot, director of operations for U.S. Northern Command, would receive his third star and, if confirmed, will replace Guastella, according to an officer promotion announcement made in May. The Defense Department also announced in May that Maj. Gen. Michael Loh, Colorado's adjutant general, has been nominated for a third star and to become the director of the Air National Guard, taking over for Lt. Gen. L. Scott Rice. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Related: 'Only African American in the Room:' Next Air Force Chief of Staff Speaks Out on Racism in Ranks FAIRFIELD State Rep. Brian Farnen and Fairfield resident Alexis Harrison have started a fundraiser to generate support for local businesses and donations for the towns COVID-19 relief fund, according to a release. The release said the two have begun printing signs that encourage people to support local businesses. If residents wish to purchase a sign, it said the suggested donations are $20 with proceeds going to the Town of Fairfields COVID-19 fund. Small businesses are the backbone of our community, Farnen said. From Stratfield Road to Post Road, and everywhere in between, its my hope that individuals in our community will remember our small business owners and prioritize local stores, restaurants and businesses. As a State Representative, Farnen said he has talked to many small business owners during the last several weeks, and will continue to advocate for their unique needs and be a resource. He said mall business owners invest in the community, and residents have to invest in them, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. /Alexis Harrison The release said estimates say 100,000 businesses have closed permanently because of the pandemic. As a Fairfield native and a person who has a deep love for our town, I want our local businesses to thrive once again, Harrison said. Its been a difficult period for the last couple of months for Main Street, and I hope through these lawn signs, people will remember to buy locally and to support our small businesses. Harrison said residents must continue to look out for each other during these challenging times and offer encouragement and support whenever we can. Beverly Balaz, the president of the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce, said the way the community has come together during the pandemic has been heartwarming. She said the effort continues and people have not stopped helping. Joshua LaBella/Hearst CT Media State Representative Brian Farnen and resident Alexis Harrison have come together with an idea designed to create awareness to support our local business community through lawn signs and also help build Fairfields Covid-19 Recovery Fund, she said. The chamber of commerce president said their mission is an important reminder for residents to shop local. She said the local business community is the backbone of Fairfields economy. Small companies, restaurants, and family-owned businesses have felt the severe negative economic impact over the past few months, and they still need our support and help, Balaz said. This is a perfect way to do so. Farnen said that small businesses in Connecticut that are negatively impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak can apply for Economic Injury Disaster Loans of up to $2 million. He said the Paycheck Protection Program through the U.S. Small Business Administration is also available to business owners. To purchase a sign, contact Harrison at alexisharrisonrtm@gmail.com . PUNE, India, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Research Dive presents a new research report on the COVID-19 Impact on Global Fraud Detection & Prevention Market which explains the effect of coronavirus pandemic on the present as well as upcoming growth of the market. This report is a complete research drafted by analysts by analyzing all the significant factors such as regional market conditions, opportunities, market boomers and decliners, and size & scope of the market. Key Statistics of the Market: The emergence of COVID-19 crisis has given a significant boost to the growth of the global market for fraud detection & prevention market. As per the report, the global fraud detection & prevention market was valued at $18.8 billion in 2018 and is projected to gather a revenue of $145.7 billion by rising at a striking CAGR of 29.6% by 2026. In the current circumstances, the size of the market has reached almost $31.5 billion due to the rising cases of cybercrimes and frauds. INQUIRE FOR COVID-19 IMPACT ANALYSIS REPORT https://www.researchdive.com/covid-19-insights/233/global-fraud-detection-and-prevention-market#myQueryForm Boomers of the Market during COVID-19: As per the report, the global fraud detection & prevention market is predicted to witness significant growth due to increasing incidences of cyber-attacks, financial frauds or crimes, and data breaching events during the crisis period. Furthermore, growing advances in fraud detection & prevention software such as pre-defined setups for historical and real-time alerts and flexible browser-based interfaces are boosting the market growth. Current Face of the Market due to COVID-19: Some of the leading companies in this sector are investing in the development of more advanced fraud detection and prevention software for helping businesses in identifying and responding to unusual behavior of online traffic and avert data breaching activities. For example, Software AG, a leading fraud detection & prevention software company has developed fraud detection and prevention apps that are built using the Complex Event Processing (CEP) engine. In the course of this pandemic, industry professionals have detected a substantial growth in the number of cybercrimes, fraud-attacks, data breaching cases, etc. Moreover, credit and debit card fraud attacks are growing every passing day due to the turmoil created during COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, there is a noticeable surge in the demand for fraud detection & prevention solutions amidst this catastrophic situation. Future Scope of the Market: The global fraud detection & prevention market is projected to experience constant growth after the end of COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the top players in this market including Equifax Inc., ACI Worldwide Inc., Total System Services Inc., Orcale Ltd., Fiserv Inc., SAS Institute Inc., Experian plc., SAP SE, INM Limited., Dell Inc., and others are estimated to unlock lucrative opportunities for the market growth in the near future. Access Varied Market Reports Bearing Extensive Analysis of the Market Situation, Updated with the Impact of COVID-19: https://www.researchdive.com/covid-19-insights About Research Dive Research Dive is a market research firm based in Pune, India. Maintaining the integrity and authenticity of the services, the firm provides the services that are solely based on its exclusive data model, compelled by the 360-degree research methodology, which guarantees comprehensive and accurate analysis. With an unprecedented access to several paid data resources, team of expert researchers, and strict work ethic, the firm offers insights that are extremely precise and reliable. Scrutinizing relevant news releases, government publications, decades of trade data, and technical & white papers, Research dive deliver the required services to its clients well within the required timeframe. Its expertise is focused on examining niche markets, targeting its major driving factors, and spotting threatening hindrances. Complementarily, it also has a seamless collaboration with the major industry aficionado that further offers its research an edge. Contact: Mr. Abhishek Paliwal Research Dive 30 Wall St. 8th Floor, New York NY 10005 (P) +91-(788)-802-9103 (India) +1-(917)-444-1262 (US) Toll Free: 1-888-961-4454 E-mail: [email protected] Website: https://www.researchdive.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/research-dive/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ResearchDive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Research-Dive-1385542314927521 SOURCE Research Dive Surge in crude oil production and exploration activities drive the growth of the Kuwait & Iraq oilfield chemicals market. Iraq contributed the highest share in 2019, and will maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The demand for oilfield chemicals is likely to decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic as oil exploration and production activities have been reduced due to decreased demand. Portland, OR, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the Kuwait & Iraq oilfield chemicals market generated $552.2 million in 2019, and is estimated to reach $706.1 million by 2027, registering a CAGR of 3.8% from 2020 to 2027. The report offers an extensive analysis of changing market dynamics, key winning strategies, business performance, major segments, and competitive scenarios. Surge in crude oil production and exploration activities and increase in demand for advanced drilling fluids drive the growth of the Kuwait & Iraq oilfield chemicals market. However, frequent fluctuations in crude oil pricing hinder the market growth. On the other hand, development and surge in adoption of eco-friendly oilfield chemicals create new opportunities for the market player in the coming years. Request Report Sample at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/6679 Covid-19 scenario: The demand for oilfield chemicals is likely to decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic as oil exploration and production activities have been reduced across Kuwait and Iraq due to decreased demand for it. Large scale travel bans and isolation measures taken by governments due to the COVID-19 pandemic across the Iraq and Kuwait is expected to delay several oil and gas projects and refinery expansions. Get Detailed COVID-19 Impact Analysis on the Kuwait & Iraq Oilfield Chemicals Market @: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/6679?reqfor=covid The report offers a detailed segmentation of the Kuwait & Iraq oilfield chemicals market based on application and country. Story continues Based on application, the drilling segment accounted for the largest share in 2019, holding more than two-thirds of the total share, and is expected to maintain the largest share throughout the forecast period. However, the production segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of 4.4% from 2020 to 2027. Based on country, Iraq contributed the highest share, accounting for nearly three-fifths of the total market share in 2019, and will maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. In addition, Iraq is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 3.9% from 2020 to 2027. Leading market players analyzed in the research include BASF SE, Solvay SA, Schlumberger Limited, Baker Hughes Company, Catalyst LLC, Croda International Plc, Al Sanea Chemical Products, Jereh Global Development LLC, Petroleum Equipment Technology Corporation, Chevron Corporation, and Halliburton. For Purchase Enquiry at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/6679 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 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 Toll Free (USA/Canada): +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 British holidaymakers' plans for a summer holiday in Spain were thrown into confusion today as the country said it was not discussion the creation of an 'air bridge' for tourists with Britain. The UK Government is expected to drop its 14-day quarantine policy by the end of the month in favour of bespoke deals to allow two-way travel to low-risk countries, it was claimed today. Travel company bosses in Britain say they have been assured that the plans will be altered within weeks, with two legal challenges already filed against ministers. But Madrid today said it was only speaking to other EU states about a bloc-wide agreement for travel from external nations. A source told the Reuters news agency it would only introduce its own rules if no such agreement could be reached. This raises questions about the possibility of opening up the Costas to UK tourists in a matter of weeks. Passengers arrive at London Heathrow Airport yesterday as new quarantine measures come in Home Secretary Priti Patel speaks in the House of Commons in London yesterday as she comes under pressure over the Government's new quarantine scheme for UK arrivals Spain, severely affected by the pandemic but which now seems to have it under control, has taken a stricter approach than other countries and only plans to start opening its borders to foreign visitors on July 1. British Airways to resume London-Belfast flights from July 1 British Airways will restart its flights from Belfast City Airport on July 1 with two daily services to London Heathrow. The move comes after Civil Aviation Authority figures revealed only 2,669 passengers flew in or out of Northern Ireland on commercial flights during the whole of April. Some 2,503 people passed through Belfast City in April, while 166 used City of Derry Airport and no one used Belfast International Airport which had zero commercial flights in the month. Advertisement Britain, whose coronavirus death toll is the highest in Europe, introduced a 14-day quarantine for international arrivals on Monday. Portugal has said it is discussing a travel corridor that would exempt British visitors returning from Portugal from that quarantine period, facilitating tourism. But Spain has no plans to do the same, the foreign ministry source said. 'Spain has called for a common (European Union-wide) approach to opening the borders. If this is not done, it will establish its own criteria,' the source said. 'The UK is in a period of transition. This means that they will receive the same treatment as EU and Schengen countries for the opening (of borders to tourists), unless they stay out of it because of the epidemiological situation.' Meanwhile, Spain will allow about 6,000 tourists from Germany, where the pandemic is largely under control, to fly to the Balearic Islands from June 15, two weeks before the country reopens its borders, to test how to restart tourism The Foreign Office is also thought to be close to dropping its advice against all non-essential travel around the world for Britons - and could do so by the end of June. It comes as budget airline Ryanair revealed bookings for flights to Mediterranean destinations had doubled compared to a week ago, reported The Times. All UK arrivals including Britons must now fill in an online 'contact locator' form setting out where they will live for a fortnight. Refusal to do so risks a 1,000 fine. British travellers could receive Covid-19 'immunity passports' to fly around the world British travellers could receive Covid-19 'immunity passports' to fly around the world without having to go into quarantine. Home Secretary Priti Patel told MPs the idea was being looked at the end the 14-day isolation period. Similar documents are already held by those who have had a Yellow Fever vaccine. A Whitehall source told The Sun: 'Immunity passports are just one of the policies we are looking at.' Scientists are still working to provide a definitive answer as to whether recovering from Covid-19 makes you immune to catching it again. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has previously said that the Government was weighing up the introduction of immunity certificates in the UK. Advertisement But Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary has labelled it 'worse than useless' amid claims police will take 'no immediate action' even if a passenger gives a false address. One legal challenge has already been launched by British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair in a joint action which plans to ask the High Court for a judicial review. A second has also been put forward in a pre-action letter by lawyers on behalf of Simon Dolan, owner of Southend-based charter airline Jota Aviation. His team have written to Home Secretary Priti Patel and pointed out that even the Government's own scientific experts had not supported the quarantine plans. And a third challenge is now being considered by the new group Quash Quarantine which represents more than 500 hotels, travel and hospitality firms. Its spokesman Paul Charles, who is also chief executive of the travel consultancy The PC Agency, told MailOnline: 'The Quash Quarantine group, consisting of over 500 travel and hospitality companies seeking to overturn the recently-introduced quarantine measures, has received private assurances from senior Government sources that travel corridors will be in place from June 29. 'We urge the government to signal to the travel industry publicly and urgently that this is the case, as well as amend FCO advice on non-essential travel. Passengers gather near passport control at Heathrow's Terminal 5 arrivals hall yesterday Passengers abide by the social distancing measures as they queue at the Eurostar terminal at London St Pancras yesterday 'We are still considering our options regarding legal action, including whether to join BA's claim or launch our own action, but would prefer that June 29 is confirmed as soon as possible for the start of travel corridors. The strict new quarantine rules people face when entering Britain from yesterday What happen when you arrive in the UK? 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 does 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. 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. What if I don't have a suitable address to go to for 14 days? The Government will provide isolation accommodation possibly at similar venues to those used by travellers coming back from China earlier this year. The traveller will have to pay for this. Advertisement 'The industry needs urgent visibility on a timetable for travel to begin again.' But the plans do not appear to be putting off British travellers, with Ryanair reporting a large increase in bookings among UK families. Mr O'Leary said: 'Our bookings doubled this weekend compared with the previous weekend; mainly with UK families booking holidays to go to the Canaries, the Algarve, the Balearics, Malaga and Italy. 'Most people in the UK know that the quarantine is completely bonkers and useless. 'Most are gambling, in my view correctly, that the quarantine has so little credibility that it will be removed before the end of June anyway.' One border source said yesterday: 'It's been a complete farce. The vast majority of passengers have not filled in forms in advance. 'Those who have filled it in are given an online reference number, but immigration officers can't log in to check whether that form has been filled in properly. 'It's been impossible to socially distance in the Heathrow arrivals halls because so many people have been milling around. 'There's been trouble at Heathrow and at Calais and Coquelles, where the UK border checks take place for the Channel Tunnel. It's a mess.' The scheme was further undermined last night as the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) issued guidance which revealed the light touch forces will adopt when checking up on travellers during quarantine. Even if a false address appears to have been given, police should take 'no immediate further action', the guidelines say, and the case simply referred to the UK Border Force. If police visit an address where someone is supposed to be self-isolating and there is no answer, the NPCC says further visits are 'suggested' but there should again be 'no immediate further action by police'. That case should be referred to Public Health England. And if police discover someone at a different address to the one they gave on their form, they should only remove the person to their given address 'as a last resort'. An NPCC spokesman said most of the responsibility fell to Public Health England, adding: 'Police have a limited role in quarantine regulations.' In the event of a case being referred by PHE to the police for action, he added: 'We will seek to establish the circumstances and we will continue our approach of engaging, explaining, encouraging and, only as a last resort, enforcing.' Passengers arriving at Stansted on a flight from Eindhoven in the Netherlands criticised the measures yesterday. Ali Gurlek, 30, a software developer from London who spent the weekend visiting friends in the Netherlands, criticised the quarantine rule as lacking in 'common sense'. He said he had to take public transport from the airport to his home where he will self-isolate, adding: 'If we have it then it's going to spread that.' Holidaymakers can now get Welcome Cottages and Hoseasons refund Thousands of holidaymakers can now get a refund on Welcome Cottages and Hoseasons that were cancelled due to Covid after a watchdog probe in parent firm VacationRentals.com. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Vacation Rentals had changed its policy after originally refusing to give money back to customers whose stays had been cancelled. Vacation Rentals - which runs a raft of brands such as Welcome Cottages and Blue Chip Holidays - has now been forced to make a formal commitment to the CMA that it will give customers affected by lockdown the option of a full refund. Advertisement 'It doesn't look very common sense,' he added. At the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras, Sylvain Preumont, 50, a business manager who makes a weekly trip from Paris, said as a frequent traveller he was exempt but that he was no fan of the policy. 'It makes no sense,' he said. 'This was invented to reassure people... then we realise that it's not feasible.' Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said border measures were needed but quarantine was a 'blunt instrument'. 'We have got the situation where weeks ago other countries put quarantine in and we didn't,' he told LBC Radio. 'Now as everybody's lifting it we're putting it in. I would much prefer to see some sort of testing regime at the airport.' A Government spokesman said: 'The most efficient way to get through the border is to fill out the form before travelling here. A sign outlining 'temperature check trial' measures at Heathrow Airport yesterday 'to aid detection of elevated body temperatures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic' 'There are also devices at ports for passengers to fill in the form on arrival, to make sure that people who may not be aware are still able to comply.' How holidaymakers are staying in the UK this year so they can splash out in 2021 Many holidaymakers are planning staycations this year because they see foreign trips as 'too risky' and want to splash out in 2021, according to a travel firm. Kuoni has reported a 'clear upturn' in demand for holidays next year, with more than half of customers heading to the white sand beaches of the Maldives. The company has also seen strong sales for Mauritius, Thailand, Spain and India. Saturday was Kuoni's best day for bookings since the coronavirus lockdown began in March. Kuoni chief executive Derek Jones said: 'Bookings for the Maldives are outperforming every other destination we sell around the world, currently accounting for 56 per cent of bookings for 2021. 'The Maldives has always been our best seller but it's soaring even further ahead right now. 'Whilst there is still so much uncertainty around plans to open borders, the 14-day quarantine and social distancing, people are telling us that they'd rather plan ahead for next year and save to make the trip an extra special one, upgrading what they'd normally do. 'It's clear from the conversations we're having with customers and booking patterns that many people will opt to stay closer to home within the UK this year, as they see overseas travel in the near future as being too risky.' Advertisement Meanwhile, a leaked Home Office document seen by The Daily Telegraph reportedly said there was no method for officials to ensure a person's details are 'genuine'. Shadow Home Office minister Conor McGinn told the Commons that 'scientists say the quarantine introduced (yesterday) has come too late'. He added: 'The police say it's unenforceable. The tourism and aviation industry say it will ruin them and the Home Secretary's own department has said it is very hard to imagine how it will practically work.' Ms Patel stood by the policy, reiterating that the approach to border measures was consistent and appropriate. Lucy Moreton, of the Immigration Services Union, said: 'The staff are really angry that this does appear to be very shambolic and they don't want to be blamed for that.' She told BBC Radio Four's Today programme there was no way for border staff to check the address given by travellers and that the system was built on 'trust'. Meanwhile one travel firm said many holidaymakers are planning staycations this year because they see foreign trips as 'too risky' and want to splash out in 2021. Kuoni has reported a 'clear upturn' in demand for holidays next year, with more than half of customers heading to the white sand beaches of the Maldives. The company has also seen strong sales for Mauritius, Thailand, Spain and India. Saturday was Kuoni's best day for bookings since the coronavirus lockdown began in March. UK campsites are experiencing a surge in bookings, while Auto Trader recently said interest in online adverts for caravans was up nearly a fifth compared with the same time last year. What are the cheapest post-Covid holiday deals? Cut-price beach breaks flood online amid hopes quarantine will be axed LANZAROTE, SPAIN - 688 for two people for seven nights You can go on a seven-night stay at the three-star Cinco Plazas Apartments in Lanzarote for just 688 for two people via Tui - a deal which is 41 per cent off. The self-catering hotel at Puerto del Carmen has two swimming pools and a four-star TripAdvisor average rating. It is a ten-minute walk to the beach. The price includes return flights from London Gatwick, leaving on Monday, June 6. Cinco Plazas Apartments at Puerto del Carmen in Lanzarote, Spain CORFU, GREECE - 732 for two people for seven nights Britons can head to the Lagoon Studios and Apartments in Corfu in a seven-night deal via Tui for 732 for two people, which is 23 per cent off. The self-catering hotel is only two star but does have a 4.5-star TripAdvisor average, and is located a five-minute walk from a sandy beach. The price includes return flights from London Stanstead, leaving on Monday, July 6. Lagoon Studios and Apartments in Corfu, Greece BOURGAS, BULGARIA - 917 for two people for seven nights A double room with pool view and balcony at the four-star Best Western Plus Premium Inn Hotel and Casino at Sunny Beach in Bourgas for 917 via Tui. Bed and breakfast is included for two people for seven nights along with return flights from London Gatwick, leaving on Monday, July 6. The hotel has a 4.5-star TripAdvisor average and is a five-minute walk from the beach. Best Western Plus Premium Inn Hotel and Casino at Sunny Beach in Bourgas, Bulgaria SOUSSE, TUNISIA - 940 for two people for seven nights A couple can head to the all-inclusive Marhaba Salem Hotel in Tunisia for 940, including return flights from London Stansted leaving on Friday, July 3. The three-star hotel in the resort of Sousse has an average TripAdvisor rating of four stars and has a sandy beach in front of its gardens, and guests can enjoy the use of three pools and castle-themed waterslides. Marhaba Salem Hotel in Sousse, Tunisia GRAN CANARIA, SPAIN - 958 for two people for seven nights A seven-night stay at the four-star Playa Feliz in Gran Canaria - described as a 'peaceful seafront spot' - is available via Tui for 958 for two people. The price includes return flights from London Gatwick, leaving on Monday, July 6. The 168-room hotel in Bahia Feliz is self-catering but features a pool and is located a five-minute walk from the sand and shingle beach. Playa Feliz in Gran Canaria, Spain Advertisement Christian Brueckner has been linked to the murder of a German schoolgirl who disappeared nearly 20 years ago. Peggy Knobloch was nine when she vanished on her way home from school in 2001. Part of her skeleton was discovered 15 years later by a mushroom picker in a Bavarian forest, around 60 miles from her home in Lichtenberg, Upper Franconia. The town is roughly 100 miles from Brueckner's home town of Wurzburg. Investigators have revealed the historic cold case is now being reopened in relation to the 43-year-old Madeleine McCann suspect, who is a convicted paedophile. Christian Brueckner has been linked to the murder of a German schoolgirl who disappeared nearly 20 years ago who bears a striking resemblance to Madeleine McCann. Peggy Knobloch was nine when she vanished on her way home from school in 2001 Chief public prosecutor Martin Dippold told German newspaper Bild that, while there is currently no evidence linking the suspect to Peggy's disappearance, 'he is now being re-examined in the case'. It means Brueckner is now being investigated in connection with the disappearance of five children including Madeleine, three, who went missing in the Algarve in 2007. Detectives are also re-examining the cases of Rene Hasee, six, who went missing while on holiday in Aljezur 25 miles away from Praia da Luz, where Brueckner was living at the time. The German is also a suspect in the disappearances of Carola Titze, 16, who went missing in Belgium in 1996 and Inga Gehricke, five, who vanished in Germany in 2015. The Mail also revealed he has been linked to the 2010 killing of Monika Pawlak, a 24-year-old prostitute, in Hanover. Investigators have revealed the historic cold case is now being reopened in relation to the 43-year-old Madeleine McCann suspect, who is a convicted paedophile. Brueckner is now being investigated in connection with the disappearance of five children Peggy, who has blonde hair and light eyes, bears a striking similarity to both Madeleine and Inga, dubbed the 'German Maddie'. The schoolgirl vanished without a trace on her way home from class on May 7, 2001, at around 1.15pm. Around the same period Brueckner, who had recently served jail time for child abuse, was known to frequently drive the 1,600 miles between Bavaria and the Algarve. Brueckner was released from prison in Bavaria at the end of 2000 just months before Peggy went missing. He had been jailed on child sex abuse charges after being extradited back to Germany from Portugal the previous year. Part of Peggy Knobloch's skeleton was discovered in 2016 by a mushroom picker in a Bavarian forest, around 60 miles from her home in Lichtenberg, Upper Franconia. Pictured: Police officers carry a box at the site at the time of the skeleton's discovery The disappearance of Peggy sparked an international missing person's search which was extended from Bavaria to the Czech Republic and Turkey. It was not until July 2, 2016, that parts of her skeleton were discovered in the Thuringian Forest mountain range in central Germany. A paedophile confessed to taking the body from 'another man' but later retracted his statement. While there have been several suspects, it remains one of Germany's most shocking unsolved cases. Peggy's mother Susanne Knobloch told German news: 'The Maddie case takes me back to this time, everything comes up again.' Mrs Knobloch, a nurse, said she has lived without closure since her daughter's disappearance, adding: 'I have had to live with it for 19 years, not having any clarity about what happened to my child.' The Braunschweig Public Prosecutor's Office, which is leading the investigation into Bruecker, is combing through historic cases of missing children across Europe for possible parallels. The Defence Headquarters says the Air Component of Operation Hadarin Daji has destroyed another bandits camp and killed several of the criminals at Kwayanbana Forest in Zamfara. The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, John Enenche, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, said the airstrike was carried out on June 7, in continuation of air operations being conducted under Operation Accord. The major-general said the feat was achieved after intelligence reports and series of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions established that some makeshift structures were hidden under the dense forest vegetation. He said intelligence report also revealed that the caves in the surrounding high grounds served as hideout for the bandits and their notorious kingpin, Dogo Gede. According to him, the air component dispatched a force package of attack aircraft and helicopter gunships to engage the location, leading to the destruction of the makeshift structures as well as killing of several bandits. READ ALSO: The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshall Sadiq Abubakar, commended the Air Component of Operation Hadarin Daji for their professionalism. He urges them to remain resolute in the conduct of air strikes whilst continuing to provide close air support for ongoing ground operations in order to eradicate all bandits. This is aimed at accomplishing the directives of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin, to restore normalcy in the North West and North Central zones of the country, he said. (NAN) The head of $47 billion retailing giant Wesfarmers has dismissed calls to extend the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme beyond September, urging governments to scrap payroll taxes and stamp duty instead to help the economy recover. Rob Scott, who oversees big chains such as Bunnings, Kmart and Officeworks, argued that while JobKeeper was crucial in helping businesses survive the virus downturn, its extension would not help Australia pull out of its recession. "It is a very expensive program for taxpayers, so longer-term we need to look at what we can do to encourage job growth and stimulate investment," he said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age after the retail conglomerate surprised investors with record sales growth at its Bunnings and Officeworks chains during the coronavirus lockdown. Wesfarmers chief executive Rob Scott has called for an end to major levies such as payroll tax and stamp duty. Credit:Trevor Collens Reforming taxes at a state and federal level should be a higher priority, Mr Scott said and suggested that apart from payroll tax and stamp duty, personal income tax rates could also be reviewed. New regional surges in coronavirus cases forced the Environmental Protection Agency to put on hold some of the earliest planned returns of federal employees to their offices, while the first volunteers at a few other federal agencies are quietly going back to their desks. The Trump administrations guidance, called Opening up America Again, lays out specific conditions for calling workers back, like 14 straight days of downward-trending cases in an area. But there have been complaints that the administration is moving too quickly. On Monday, small numbers of Energy Department headquarters staff returned to offices in Washington, D.C., and Germantown, Tennessee, spokeswoman Jessica Szymanski said. Less than 4% of the agencys 7,000 federal and contractor workers were expected to return to work in this first phase of the administrations plans, Szymanski said. This initial phase allows for voluntary returns of staffers. The State Department said Monday that it expects to start its in-office restaffing on June 15, also with voluntary returns of employees. The Agriculture Department brought back all political appointees in the Washington area at large on June 1. Many federal workers, like Americans in general and people around the world, have worked from home since mid- to late March, as the coronavirus spread. Essential federal employees stayed in the field, and the IRS early on become one of the first agencies to ask some workers to come back to offices, to handle taxes and taxpayers. President Donald Trump earlier publicly urged reopening of some federal sites, including national parks, as a sign of our significant progress against the invisible enemy of coronavirus. That was in late April, as U.S. coronavirus deaths were climbing on their way past 100,000. The EPA had some regional offices on track for the start of the phased return of federal employees. Agency officials put that on abrupt hold for Boston and Dallas regional offices Friday, citing increases in coronavirus infections in those cities, according to agency documents obtained by The Associated Press. Sixteen other office sites, labs and other spaces in Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Montana, Idaho and Washington are in an early phase of the agencys restaffing plans, spokeswoman Angela Hackel said. Union officials said that could mean mandatory return of workers in some parts of the country Seattle, Atlanta, Denver and suburban Kansas City by early July. Hackel said the agency was taking a measured and deliberate approach, reviewing each sites status weekly using case data and state and local reopening plans. But a government watchdog group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, accuses the agency of moving forward with reopening offices in some cities even though all the set conditions, such as the availability of testing for the coronavirus, hadnt been met. In Chicago, an EPA union official wrote the agency Monday to ask bosses to put reopening planning on hold. For many federal workers there, reopening would require getting back on subways and buses, noted Nicole Cantello, president of the local American Federation of Government Employees chapter. We want to know why the agencys plan will require EPA workers to take that risk, when by all reports the virus still is ravaging the country and no cure is in sight, Cantello wrote. ___ Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. (Natural News) Three members of the radical leftist group Antifa have been charged with looting a Target store in Austin, Texas on May 31. The district attorney for Travis County, Margaret Moore, has charged the individuals following a joint investigation by the Austin Police Department (APD) and the FBI. Both the damage to Target and the merchandise stolen reportedly cost a total of around $20,000 dollars. The three people arrested were Lisa Hogan, 27; Samuel Miller, 21; and Skye Elder, 23. All three suspects are natives of Austin and members of Antifa. The individuals were arrested on charges of burglary of a building. Hogan has an additional charge of rioting because officials believe that she was behind a Facebook livestream that encouraged people to join them in looting the store. APD said they were monitoring her livestream and matched the images being broadcast with what officers witnessed on the ground. Miller, on the other hand, has an additional charge of criminal mischief as authorities believe he was responsible for destroying surveillance cameras outside Target. Hogan, Miller and Elder have their bonds set at $25,000 for each charge. NEW: Mugshots of the three suspects in custody. Lisa Hogan, 27 Samuel Miller, 21 Skye Elder, 23 Courtesy of @Austin_Police pic.twitter.com/XpISw2iPGu Bryce Newberry (@Bryce_Newberry) June 7, 2020 The incident occurred at Target located in Capitol Plaza, Austin. On the day of the looting, APD officers were conducting surveillance of the building after they received information that one or several Target stores could be possible sites of looting and property destruction, similar to how the Minneapolis branch was ravaged by Antifa on the first day of the rioting. While Target had the foresight to shut down 175 of its stores nationwide, the Austin branch was not one of them. At around 5:45 p.m., police witnessed 20 to 30 people gathering right outside the Target store. Officers recounted that certain members of the group proceeded to rip off the pieces of plywood that store employees had placed on the doors to prevent illegal entry into the premises, while the other members held up sheets in an attempt to conceal their illegal activities. After a few moments, the glass in the Targets front door was shattered and the looters poured in. Shortly afterward, members of the APD Special Response Team arrived. Their arrival made Hogan, Miller and three other unidentified looters walked away briskly from the front of the store. Four of the five members of the group got into a black sedan driven by Elder. Hogan, Miller and Elder were arrested shortly after. (Related: Illinois man charged with attempting to INCITE RIOTING; Antifa hijacking peaceful protests to start riots and cause violence.) While I fully support the rights of freedom of speech and assembly, I cannot tolerate the subversion of peaceful protest by engaging in wanton destruction and theft. These arrests are important to protecting not only the property owners, but, even more importantly, the peaceful protesters whose message should be heard, said DA Moore. These acts of vandalism and looting will not be tolerated, said APD chief of police Brian Manley. Listen to the Health Ranger Report by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about how Democrats in places like Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York City and many others across the United States are folding to Antifa by pledging to defund and abolish their police departments. Antifa arrives at Austin with petition to defund APD The calls to defund police departments have picked up a lot of steam thanks in no small part to the engineered riots, and Austin is no stranger to this. A group known as the Austin Justice Coalition have launched a petition for the APD to be defunded. The Austin City Council, which is composed of 11 Democrats, including Mayor Steve Adler, is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss possible police reforms. The Austin Justice Coalition has demanded that the councilmen commit to several action items, including: The resignation of APD Chief Manley and Chief of Staff Tom Gay, the APD chief of police and chief of staff, as well as the APDs civilian management lead, Assistant City Manager Rey Arellano. To slash the APDs $400 million budget by $100 million and to continue slashing the budget for the next few years while the city tries out alternatives to policing. To expand spending on non-police-based public health and safety programs and in other alternative community security programs. To compel the APD to stop enacting violence on people, including actual criminals like Antifa, in Austin. Q: Will city council pledge support @AtxJustice to reduce police budget by $100 million and support other changes proposed by AJC? A from @DGarzaforD2: I will pledge to support that. Let's divert & reinvest $$. *note: not all city councilmembers are on this video conference* Mike Marut (@MikeMarutKVUE) June 8, 2020 Worryingly, several members of the city council have already folded to Antifa. Four members of the council have stated that they have lost faith in Chief of Police Manley, with some openly considering defunding or even disbanding the APD. For more up-to-date news about the terrorist organization Antifa, read up on the latest articles at Antifa.news. Sources include: Breitbart.com Fox7Austin.com KVUE.com 1 BusinessInsider.com FoxBusiness.com KVUE.com 2 TexasTribune.org Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Reuters) Tehran, Iran Tue, June 9, 2020 15:15 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd4b58c 2 World Iran,CIA,US,drone-attack Free An Iranian citizen who provided information to US and Israeli intelligence services about whereabouts of Iran's slain top commander Qassem Soleiman will be executed soon, Iran's judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday. "Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, one of the spies for CIA and Mossad has been sentenced to death. He gave the whereabouts of martyr Soleimani to our enemies," said Gholamhossein Esmaili in a televised news conference. On Jan. 3, a US drone strike in Iraq killed Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force. The Pentagon said US President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Soleimani, who died in Baghdad "in a decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad." The strike, which occurred at Baghdad's international airport also killed the deputy chief of Iraq's powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force. Magnesium hydroxide manufacturers are investing in expanding their production capacities and collaborations with regional players to circumvent tariffs and trade restrictions during the pandemic. DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / Despite the extremely disruptive nature of the pandemic, prospects of the magnesium hydroxide market look positive, primarily driven by pharmaceutical, industrial and water treatment applications. The pandemic is likely to cause disruptions in supply chains in the short term. However, applications as a food additive or medical and personal care product ingredient aids in the development of the industry. The worldwide magnesium hydroxide market is expected to reach US$ 1.5 Bn valuation during the projection period 2020 - 2030. Also, niche applications as a fire retardant or waste water purification applications will help in creating profitable opportunities according to estimates from a FMI study. These trends will enable manufacturers to sustain operations and growth during the outbreak. Easy access to raw materials from brine or seawater will aid growth in the foreseeable future. "The magnesium hydroxide industry was impacted by the effects of the tariff war between China and the United States. Now, with China being a major magnesium hydroxide producer, the high impact of the pandemic on the country, will substantially affect supply chains. On the other hand, the wide-ranging applications of magnesium hydroxide will result in the development of alternative sources in the coming years," says the FMI analyst. For more insights into the Market, request a sample of this report@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1585 Magnesium Hydroxide Market- Critical Takeaways Food and pharmaceutical grade magnesium hydroxide will remain a primary revenue generator, while industrial variants gain traction. Pharmaceutical and personal care applications of magnesium hydroxide is anticipated to surge, driven by steady demand for anti-perspirants, laxatives, and antacids. The incorporation of magnesium hydroxide as a building material is gaining ground at a fast rate. In terms of revenue, North America is a prominent market, closely followed by Europe. Building and construction applications will provide major impetus in Asia Pacific. Magnesium Hydroxide Market- Drivers Extensive application of magnesium hydroxide in healthcare and pharmaceutical products is a primary growth factor. Novel applications of magnesium hydroxide for desulfurization in fossil-fuel based power plants are generating lucrative opportunities. Rising use of magnesium hydroxide by municipal bodies and industrial facilities in water treatment plants is also bolstering market performance. Low, corrosiveness and toxicity, along with superior flame-retardant properties are supporting adoption. Magnesium Hydroxide Market- Restraints Strict government regulations on the use of magnesium hydroxide in the food and beverage industry is hampering growth. Potential side effects such as loss of appetite, itching, and skin rashes, are also hindering the magnesium hydroxide market. COVID-19 Impact on Magnesium Hydroxide Market As most magnesium hydroxide stocks are used in healthcare and food applications, the demand for the material is likely to remain strong through the pandemic. However, the gap between demand and supply is likely to go up owing to supply chain disruptions and the overdependence of consumers on Chinese manufacturers. However, the designation of medical and food production operations as essential by government bodies will help to mitigate losses during the crisis period, through optimization of supply chains. Also, magnesium hydroxide manufacturers seek to diversify their sources out of China, which will help in safeguarding operations in the long term. We offer tailor-made solutions to fit your requirements, request customization@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/customization-available/rep-gb-1585 Competitive Landscape Players in the fragmented magnesium hydroxide market investing in research & development activities, expansion of production capacity, and investing in the launch of new products. Israel Chemicals, Nedmag Industries Mining & Manufacturing B.V., Cyter Industries, Nabaltec AG, China Minmetals Nonferrous metals, Huber Engineering Materials, Chemtura Corporation, Konoshima Chemical Company Ltd., Baymag Inc., and Albemarle Corporation are some top magnesium hydroxide producers. About the Study The study offers readers an exhaustive forecast of the magnesium hydroxide market. Global, regional and national-level analysis of the latest trends influencing the magnesium hydroxide market is covered in this FMI report. 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Contact: Mr. Abhishek Budholiya Unit No: AU-01-H Gold Tower (AU), Plot No: JLT-PH1-I3A, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates MARKET ACCESS DMCC Initiative For Sales Enquiries: sales@futuremarketinsights.com For Media Enquiries: press@futuremarketinsights.com Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/magnesium-hydroxide-market Press Release Source: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/press-release/magnesium-hydroxide-market SOURCE: Future Market Insights View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/593263/Analyzing-the-COVID-19-Effect-Demand-for-Magnesium-Hydroxide-to-Remain-Strong-Driven-by-Food-and-Medical-Applications-during-the-Outbreak--Future-Market-Insights Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 16:48:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GUANGZHOU, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The imports and exports of Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, exceeded over 1 trillion yuan (about 141.42 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019, according to local authorities. The city's imports reached 474.08 billion yuan in 2019, up 12.8 percent year-on-year, and its foreign trade with the European Union (EU) and Japan maintained double-digit growth. In 2019, The city's foreign trade with countries and regions along the Belt and Road reached 240.93 billion yuan, accounting for 24.1 percent of the total. Its scale of imports and exports via cross-border e-commerce ranked first among Chinese cities. The data from the Guangzhou Municipal Commerce Bureau showed the city's imports via cross-border e-commerce maintained a growth rate of more than 25 percent for four consecutive months from January to April this year. Guangzhou will expand imports, promote the opening up of service industries, and introduce a number of large and leading projects with strong driving forces in 2020, said Wen Guohui, mayor of the city. Enditem That is to say, 670,000 households out of the 773,000 that are expected to receive such grant in the context of the health emergency. However, the MTPE warned that more than 40,000 households in Lima Metropolitan Area and Callao have not collected their subsidy yet. The districts with the most beneficiaries are San Juan de Lurigancho, San Martin de Porres, Santiago de Surco, Callao, Comas Lima, Ate, Los Olivos, Chorrillos, San Juan de Miraflores, Villa El Salvador, and Villa Maria del Triunfo. To verify if a household has been selected to receive the Independent Bonus, its members shall visit the website ( bonoindependiente.pe ), type their ID number and date of birth. (END) RGP/JJN/RMB/MVB Moscow: Russian restaurant owners stripped of their income by the coronavirus lockdown are campaigning for their businesses to be allowed to reopen by posting pictures of themselves naked on social media. Hundreds of bar, restaurant and cafe employees have posted photographs of themselves naked with carefully positioned plates, cups, saucepans, bottles, bar stools and napkin holders. Their demand is for authorities to allow them to start serving clients as the country gradually eases measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus. "We are naked because we are left with nothing," said Arthur Galaychyuk, owner of the Relab Family bar chain in the city of Kazan, whose 20 employees took part in the campaign. Restaurants in Kazan will be allowed to open their summer terraces on June 11 after more than two months of lockdown. "We don't want to stage a strip show or to fool around, we only want one thing - to work!" said Pavel, a chef from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, in a post with a group picture of his colleagues wearing only masks and holding kitchenware. "We don't pose more of a risk then supermarkets, shopping malls, hair salons or public transport," the post said. Authorities in Novosibirsk have not announced when local restaurants can open. President Vladimir Putin ordered strict lockdown measures at the end of March shutting all businesses except food stores and pharmacies. The country's regions were allowed to adjust the measures depending on the situation on the ground. Moscow is in the process of lifting the lockdown and many businesses, including shopping malls, book stores and beauty salons have reopened. The Russian capital plans to allow cafes and restaurants to open their outside terraces later in June before reopening fully from June 23. Indoor restaurants and bars remain closed in other parts of Russia. TSMC appears to be unphased by the loss of business from Huawei following US sanctions against the Chinese tech giant. Specifically, US sanctions dont permit TSMC to work with Huawei without special licensing. And it hasnt been granted that. Huawei has historically been one of the manufacturers biggest customers. The Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer has reportedly picked out a site for its $12 billion Arizona plant, formalizing plans to work more closely with the US. That plant is intended to address concerns regarding national security by moving a significant amount of production for US-used components to the country. But it will also garner TSMC new customers, which the company is counting on to reduce its losses. Simultaneously, it is looking to work with federal and state governments on incentives to offset any losses incurred since it will not be supplying Huaweis chipsets. Advertisement Both measures should, in theory, help to reduce the negative impacts of losing Huaweis business. TSMC Chairman Mark Liu also notes that it is setting aside additional land next to its primary plot. The company hopes to convince its own suppliers to set up new operations in the allocated space. That longer-term goal, if fulfilled, could help reduce the negative impacts further. Why cant TSMC work with Huawei and why is it setting up shop in the US? As noted above, TSMC is headquartered in Taiwan. The company was, according to Chairman Liu, convinced to move some production stateside after subsidies were suggested. But the US government offered those subsidies as part of a larger plan to end reliance on technologies that arent produced within the country. The new plant puts its operations more in line with others in the US and gives US companies more options. For Huawei, the impact of this move by the US is less helpful. In fact, it has forced the company to turn inward, looking for manufacturers in China for processor components for its Kirin chipsets. Advertisement Sanctions have been leveled against Huawei for several years with increasing intensity. Those have centered around concerns that the company could act as a spy agency for the Chinese government. Huawei has denied such claims outright and has called into question the validity of arguments against it. The veracity of the conflict has further led to speculation and rumors across the industry too. MediaTek, for example, was recently forced to step forward and quell rumors that it would illegally supply TSMC chips to Huawei. The latter company has done well amid the sanctions and even experienced growth. But challenges remain as tensions between the US and China continue to mount. TSMC could stand to make serious gains here Now, setting aside the possibilities provided by an increase in its customer portfolio in the US, TSMC could still stand to gain business from Huawei as well. As already indicated, the company has not currently been granted a pass to deal with Huawei. But that isnt out of the question either. Advertisement If TSMC manages to gain permission to continue supplying Huawei with chips, it could stand to make sizable gains. Specifically, it may be able to pick up extra customers in the US while also keeping some of its business with Huawei going. At the very least, that will help it maintain its position in the industry. About 200 million Americans, nearly two-thirds of the population, drink water containing fluoride to fight tooth decay. That could be changed by a case now on trial in a San Francisco federal court. Consumer groups including Food and Water Watch, the Fluoride Action Network and Moms Against Fluoridation contend recent studies show that when pregnant women drink fluoridated water, their children are significantly more likely than others to suffer neurological damage, including reduced IQs and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Fluoridated toothpaste, the groups maintain, provides all of the benefits and none of the risks. The trial could lead to a historic shift in how we go about using and regulating fluoride, attorney Michael Connett said Monday after the first day of testimony before U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, who is hearing the case without a jury. He said the evidence was comparable to discoveries in the 1970s that led the Environmental Protection Agency to phase out the use of leaded gasoline. The EPA, whose approval of fluoride in drinking water is challenged in the case, says there is no evidence the chemical has harmed children or their mothers. The agency notes that most health agencies around the world agree with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that fluoridated water is safe and healthful. The U.S. first allowed fluoride to be added to drinking water in the mid-1940s, and it is now used in most water systems that serve substantial populations. Connett said hundreds of communities have banned it notably Portland, Ore., whose voters have refused to authorize fluoridation in four separate votes between 1956 and 2013. But it is required by California law for water systems serving 10,000 or more customers. The suit was filed under a 1976 federal law, the Toxic Substances Control Act, which allows citizen groups to petition the EPA to reconsider its previous approval of a chemical. The consumer groups presented their petition to the EPA in November 2016 and went to court after the agency turned them down in February 2017. Connett said it is apparently the first such case to go to trial since 1976. Chen has refused to dismiss the suit, finding factual disputes over the benefits and risks of fluoride, and also denied the EPAs request to limit evidence to the administrative record before the agency. 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. That has allowed the plaintiffs to introduce additional evidence, including recent studies funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health on conditions of children in Canada and Mexico. Connett said the studies found significant associations between early-life exposure to fluoridated water and reduced intelligence or ADHD behavior. The judge also rejected the EPAs attempt to introduce evidence at the first phase of the trial to show that the benefits of fluoride outweigh any health risks. After the first phase, scheduled through next week, Chen will decide whether fluoride poses an unreasonable risk in drinking water. If so, he would order the EPA to begin rule-making proceedings to eliminate that risk, proceedings that would be debated in a second phase of the trial. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko by Fady Noun June 6 demonstration in Beirut underline the profound political and religious rifts of the country. The President of the Republic recalls the civil war. Only the presence of the army averted the escalation. Adyan Foundation: "The weakening of state power increases the chances" of reigniting conflict. Beirut (AsiaNews) - What happened on Saturday 6 June in Lebanon is a stark warning, says the President of the Republic Michel Aoun. "Attacking a religious symbol, whatever the Lebanese community it belongs to, means attacking the Lebanese family as a whole," he said, addressing at the same time an appeal to the "wise men who lived through the events of 1975-76". And the head of state always launches the warning, with a view to national unity. It is certainly not through insults, much less aggression that we will be able to live in a dignified way. Nobody can do it to the detriment of others, neither through the use of force, nor with violence. Our strength lies in our national unity." But what happened on June 6th? Originally, the call for demonstrations launched by various civil society associations had been registered, to revive the protest movement that had emerged in October 2019 and that had led to the fall of the Saad Hariri government. Due to the joint effects of inertia, the new coronavirus pandemic and following the formation of a new government made up of technocrats, this revolt stopped spontaneously on its own. However, far from the unitary slogans of October 17 on the day of demonstrations of June 6, a wind of internal discord seems to have blown, combined with conflicts of a confessional nature, first of all between Christians and Shiite Muslims, then between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, confirming that the hostilities and reciprocal spites that brooded in the undergrowth of consciences still remain unchanged and unresolved. Without the presence of the army, stationed in significant numbers in various sectors of Beirut since the early hours of the morning, the inter-confessional conflict could have led to an enormous bloodshed. It was mainly military reinforcements and the arrival of armored vehicles that prevented direct contact between the armed civilians of the two neighborhoods of Barbour and Tarik Jadide, in the Muslim majority sector of the capital. In any case, the clashes that followed have caused dozens of injuries, both among the ranks of Muslims and among the army troops. The head of state signaled in his appeal for calm that the attacks on "religious symbols" exacerbated the passions of the crowd. In fact, a series of insulting slogans launched by Shiite protesters against Aisha, the bride of the prophet of Islam, considered the "mother of believers" and revered by the Sunni community, have trended on social networks. In addition, it should be noted here the appearance of a new slogan launched by some activists: that of the application of United Nations Resolution 1559 of 2004, which calls for the dissolution of all Lebanese militias, and which has contributed to exacerbating the political climate, becoming the detonator of violence. In fact, demanding the application of resolution 1559 means demanding the dismantling of the armed faction of Hezbollah, whose military power and decision-making autonomy has created a state within the state. Its presence, and its multifaceted action, has over time weakened the central government on a political, economic and diplomatic level. Was it appropriate to leave this theme of vindication among many others to avoid dividing the protest from the outset? Some contest this stance, while others rejoice, claim to have broken a "taboo". Whatever the cause, this theme served - and was foreseeable - to show the deep fractures that continue to connature not only the political life of the country, but its own social fabric. A fracture that can be considered as one of the particular cases of the division between Sunnis and Shiites that has healed throughout the Arab world, from Syria to Yemen. We have narrowly avoided catastrophe" assures Massoud Achkar, one of the "wise men who lived the events of the years 1975-76" indicated by the President of the Republic. And it is this politician who comes to add, at the end of the alarmist comments that characterized the day of June 6: "What is missing is a true reconciliation between the Lebanese, at the end of the civil war (1975-1990). Or, in other words, that this fundamental memory work did not take place. In its place there was an amnesty full of doubts, a sort of voluntary amnesia, and in the end the various leaders of the war of the various communities in government of the country emerged. " Surrounded by an oligarchy just as colorful as they are from a confessional point of view, these war leaders continue to govern and plunder the country, always refractory to the needs of a profound reform that would end up depriving them of their privileges and their profits. All this despite the enormous efforts made by the new government led by Hassane Diab. Did they understand the "warning signal" the head of state is talking about? To the appeals for calm launched from all sides, Fr. Fadi Daou of the Adyan foundation yesterday added "recommendations for the preservation of civil liberties and peace". In a note, he began by denouncing "the accumulation of political and financial corruption for which the entire political class is responsible" together with the "degradation of the living conditions of the Lebanese, who every day are getting closer to poverty, hunger, unemployment, with numerous institutions and companies that falter and close their doors ". And he also speaks of the excruciating temptation of young people to abandon their country. Addressing the population, the army and other constituent bodies of the state from time to time, Fr. Daou has highlighted some of the links in the causal chain that prevents the emergence of a strong and civilian Lebanese state. Actively engaged in civil society, Fr. Fadi Daou perspicaciously notes that "the weakening of state power increases the chances of a civil war". The founder of Adyan, whose audience continues to grow in Lebanon, asked the media at the same time "not to transmit false news and not to foment sectarian distinctions or to promote speeches that encourage hatred, because all mistakes can contribute to trigger a devastating war. Finally, he asked religious leaders "to openly delegitimize those who exploit religion or faiths to offend the religious symbols of others, invoke discrimination and appear to be the seeds of discord between people" and "not to cover any person involved in corruption ". While waiting for these recommendations to be followed, one thing is certain: in some fringes of the population and in certain neighborhoods of Beirut, the civil war is still smoldering today and even the slightest spark could set fire to dust. This is even more true in a historical moment in which the country falters under the weight of the economic crisis and the new coronavirus pandemic. Right now Lebanon is advancing on a path bordered by cliffs. * In the photo, the city center in Beirut on 6 June, surrounded by a cloud of tear gas. Once again. Credit: Joao Sousa Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 16:51 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd577f5 1 Business Indonesia,trade-remedies,foreign-exchange-earning,COVID-19 Free Indonesia has been hit by trade remedies involving nine trading partners that launched an investigation into alleged unfair practices by the country, resulting in potential foreign exchange losses of up to Rp 26.5 trillion (US$1.9 billion), according to the Trade Ministry. The World Trade Organization defines trade remedies as trade defense measures against imports to protect their domestic industries from unfair practices such as dumping and subsidies, or to cope with a sudden surge of foreign goods. The three tools accepted by the WTO are antidumping, countervailing and safeguard measures. Indonesia is currently facing 10 antidumping and six safeguard investigations that involve main trading partners like India and the United States, as well as the European Union, Vietnam, Australia and the Philippines. Its quite a big loss and we also need to find a source of foreign exchange earnings for our country, the Trade Ministrys acting director general of foreign trade, Srie Agustina, said in a virtual discussion on Monday. The investigations came after Indonesias trade balance had swung back to a trade deficit of $350 million in April on the back of falling commodity prices and plummeting global demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS). India, the fifth-largest trade partner for Indonesias non-oil and gas exports, accused the latter of unfair trade practices on five products, including polyester fiber, a key material in making clothes. Meanwhile, the United States, the second-largest destination for Indonesias non-oil and gas exports, complained about Indonesian trade practices on the threaded bolts, bed mattresses and aluminum sheets. Their complaints also came as Indonesias foreign exchange (forex) reserves rose to US$130.5 billion, an increase of $2.6 billion from April, Bank Indonesia (BI) announced on Monday. The WTO projected a decline of between 13 percent and 32 percent in the volume of international trade this year as a result of the pandemic and subsequent trade disruptions. In Indonesia, exports fell by 7.02 percent year-on-year (yoy) to $12.19 billion in April, the sharpest fall in eight months. Indonesia played a part in weighing down global trade since its safeguard actions between 2004 and 2019 were second only to India, according to data from the Geneva-based trade body. Mardjoko, the chairman of Indonesian Trade Safeguard Committee (KPPI), said on Monday that his office also received between January and May safeguard investigation requests by local players for seven products, namely carpets, tarps, cigarette paper, flat glass, solar panels, garments and kitchen and eating utensils. The domestic industries wanted the government to protect them against increasing imports. Imports of solar panels, for example, rose by 50 percent, mostly from China. Amid this pandemic, it appears that there will be more investigations this year, Mardjoko said in the same discussion. Safeguard investigations picked up quite significantly since the trade war between the United States and China. Indonesias overall imports fell by 18.58 percent to $12.54 billion in April from a year earlier. Padnyawati, the director of trade safeguarding at the ministry, said Monday that negotiating a deal to eliminate restrictive trade policies against Indonesian products required a good orchestrated effort. At home, we involve the Indonesian Antidumping Committee [KADI], the Trade Safeguard Committee, law consultants, business associations and ministries. Abroad, we work with embassies and trade attaches. German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer disinfects her hands as she arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin By Andreas Rinke and Paul Carrel BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. plans to withdraw troops from Germany "shake the pillars of the transatlantic relationship", Peter Beyer, the German coordinator for transatlantic ties, told Reuters on Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. military to remove 9,500 troops from Germany, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. The move would reduce the U.S. contingent to 25,000. But Germany said it has not received confirmation. "I don't want to speculate on something for which I have no confirmation," Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told a news conference on Monday. "The fact is, the presence of U.S. troops in Germany serves the entire security of the NATO alliance - so American security too. That is the basis on which we work together." Sources in Germany's governing coalition said Berlin had not received a reply from the U.S. government despite inquiries through various diplomatic channels as to whether the reports were accurate. "This indicates a controversial discussion within the U.S. government," one government source said. Despite misgivings about nuclear weapons that the United States is believed to have stationed at a base in Buechel in western Germany, Germans have generally welcomed U.S. troops since World War Two. The reported U.S. decision, even if not yet confirmed, has shocked policymakers in Berlin. Beyer told Reuters: "We're not yet at divorce. But we're already at a much lower level of cohabitation than before. It's saddening because what's happened is not in the German, European or American interest." "We are in a systemic competition with China. But the West is weakening itself," he said, adding that Chancellor Angela Merkel had not rejected Trump's invitation to a - now postponed - June G7 summit but rather not yet accepted it due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions. Story continues The troop move is the latest twist in relations between Berlin and Washington that have often been strained during Trump's presidency. Trump has pressed Germany to raise defence spending and accused Berlin of being a "captive" of Russia due to its partial? reliance on Russian energy. Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, Vice President at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, which promotes U.S.-European ties, said the decision "does smack a bit like revenge". (Additional reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Mark Heinrich) To have a more sustainable world, people need to put a dollar value on nature's contributions. In this week's interdisciplinary journal -- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international group of scholars show that gross domestic product (GDP) fails to fully capture nature's contributions to economic activity and human well-being. In addition to the D -- domestic, there needs to be an E for ecosystem. Gross ecosystem product (GEP) summarizes the economic value of nature's contributions to humans. Valuing nature's contribution globally is a critical step to affording the world's forests, grasslands, fertile soils, wetlands and biodiversity the protections and respect given to traditional economic powerhouses. "We must bring ecosystem services to the business table for a sustainable future," said Jianguo "Jack" Liu, director of Michigan State University's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability. "The world is losing a tremendous amount of its natural capital -- clean water, biodiversity, sequestering greenhouse gases. It's time we give people a way to understand what they stand to lose economically." Both GEP and GDP use accounting measures to estimate the economic value of goods and services. The group assigned GEP to western China's Qinghai Province, which is known as the water tower of east and southeast Asia as it is the source of three major rivers. Qinghai also is a biodiversity hotspot that has suffered from population increases and overgrazing. By applying new accounting to Qinghai's natural capital, the group was able to not only put Qinghai's ecosystems on a balance sheet, but also show only a third of the economic value generated in the province's ecosystems was provided to its residents. The rest were exported to other provinces of China and other countries of the world. This demonstrates the importance of human-nature interactions not only within a place but also across adjacent and distant places on this metacoupled planet. National Oil Corporation says production restarted at Al-Fil oilfield, which has been closed since January. Libyas National Oil Corporation (NOC) has announced it has restarted production at the Al-Fil oilfield with initial output of 12,000 barrels per day (bpd) and will return to full capacity of 70,000 bpd within 14 days. We announce the resumption of production at the Al-Fil field and the lifting of force majeure over crude exports from Al-Sharara and Al-Fil, the NOC said in a statement on Monday. A force majeure is a legal provision that exempts companies from meeting contractual obligations because of events beyond their control. Libyas NOC has used the instrument repeatedly in recent years due to fighting over oilfields and export terminals. The NOCs announcement came a day after output resumed at the countrys largest oil field, Al-Sharara, following a string of victories against renegade General Khalifa Haftar by forces backing Libyas Tripoli-based unity government. Haftars forces seized the fields during an offensive early last year in which he seized much of the countrys south followed by a push on the capital. But in recent weeks, the United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord has pushed Haftars forces away from Tripoli and advanced eastwards. The NOC will begin crude exports as soon as possible, said NOC chairman Mustafa Sanallah in the statement on the organisations website. I can confirm that crude oil has arrived at the Zawiya refinery [45km or 28 miles west of Tripoli] to begin petrol production for the local market and relieve the state of the cost of importing hydrocarbons, he said. 200216014833467 Libya, which has Africas richest proven crude reserves and relies on oil exports for almost all of its state revenues, plunged into violence with the toppling and killing of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The countrys oilfields, pipelines and terminals have frequently been damaged in fighting. Libya had been producing some 1.25 million bpd before January, but this fell drastically as armed groups allied with Haftar blocked key oil infrastructure. Al-Fil, located some 750km (466 miles) southwest of Tripoli, is jointly managed by the NOC and Italian energy giant Eni. It is estimated to hold over 1.2 billion barrels, with production capacity of 70,000 bpd. Interruptions to oil exports have cost the Libyan treasury billions of dollars. 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days star Geoffrey Paschel has found another person who is standing in his corner. Geoffrey is currently facing charges of domestic abuse from an ex-girlfriend, yet one of his more current flings, Mary, is adamant that he never laid a finger on his ex. Heres a look at all the charges against Geoffrey and why Mary believes he is innocent. 90 Day Fiance star Geoffrey Paschel | Geoffrey Paschel via Instagram Inside Geoffreys abuse charges Last February, Geoffrey had a court appearance in Tennessee to plea against charges of domestic assault, aggravated kidnapping, vandalism, and interference with emergency response. The reality star pleaded not guilty. The charges stem from a complaint in June of 2019 in which the 90 Day Fiance stars ex-girlfriend says that he physically assaulted her inside their shared home. According to Reality TV World, the former girlfriend, who chose to remain anonymous, claims that Geoffrey repeatedly bashed/slammed my head into the hardwood floors of my home. He dragged me through the house by my hair and continued throwing my body into walls and furniture. I know this because of blood on my walls, furniture, etc, she added. The police report noted that Geoffrey prevented his former girlfriend from calling the police, forcing her to use a neighbors phone. Officers arrested Geoffrey that night and his ex was treated at a hospital for her injuries (which included a concussion). This is not the first time Geoffrey has been accused of physical abuse. Geoffreys second wife revealed in their 2005 divorce filing that he repeatedly raped her. She also received an order of protection against Geoffrey after he attempted to assault her and choke [her] to death. Geoffreys history of domestic abuse was not discovered by TLC until after he appeared on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days. In light of the allegations, the network did not invite him to the tell-all. What does the 90 Day Fiance star have to say about the abuse charges? Despite all of the allegations, Geoffrey has maintained his innocence. Taking to Instagram last month, Geoffrey assured 90 Day Fiance fans that he is actively working to clear his name and stated that none of the charges are true. These claims are the main reason Ive been lambasted with such vitriol. I can assure you, if any of these fables were true, I would bow out and accept responsibility. Not all is as it seems, he shared. Geoffrey went on to say that his former girlfriend is making the allegations against him in a bid to hurt his custody battle with another woman. Geoffreys fourth wife is currently in a legal battle over the custody of their children. It is unclear how Geoffreys estranged wife and his former girlfriend are connected, but he is clearly doing everything in his power to clear his name. Unfortunately, his case has been delayed once again due to the coronavirus pandemic. 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days fans, of course, are not buying Geoffreys excuses. Not only did they successfully demand that TLC remove Geoffrey from the show, but they also heavily criticized the network for letting his criminal history slip through the cracks. While most fans are against Geoffrey, his on-again-off-again girlfriend Mary is completely in his corner and she isnt afraid to talk about it. Mary comes to Geoffreys defense During an interview on The Domenick Nati Show, Mary opened up about the drama she faced on the current season of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days. As fans are well aware, Mary found herself in the middle of a heated love triangle after Varya traveled to America to win Geoffreys heart back. At the time, Mary had rekindled her romance with Geoffrey. After butting heads with Varya on multiple occasions, Geoffrey once again left Mary behind and proposed to Varya a second time. In the interview, Mary refused to say if she and Geoffrey are still together. She also did not say whether she and Geoffrey slept together the night before Varya showed up at his door, but she did admit that she still has love for Geoffrey. RELATED: 90 Day Fiance Fans Think Geoffrey Ghosting Varya Is Just Another Form of Abuse Mary would not go into any detail regarding Geoffreys assault charges. That said, she revealed that Geoffrey has never laid hands on her, even though he has had ample opportunities to do so. To add further credibility to Geoffreys claims, Mary assured listeners that all of the women who have leveled charges against him are not good people. She also blasted his ex-girlfriend, saying that shes not a good human. Geoffrey has not responded to the reports surrounding his legal woes. Although he is not taking part in the 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days tell-all, Geoffrey has promised to give fans an update in the coming weeks. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and his mother, Madhavi Raje Scindia, have been admitted to Max Super Specialty hospital in Delhi's Saket after they complained of COVID-19 symptoms, news agency IANS has reported. Both Scindia and his mother have tested positive for COVID-19, reports now suggest. Scindia and his mother complained of sore throat and fever, according to the report. The report states that they were admitted to the hospital on June 8. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, too, had complained of COVID-19 symptoms on June 8 after which he had gone into quarantine. His COVID-19 test will be conducted today, according to reports. - Amos Ssubi had failed to pay his May rent as a result of the economic downturn caused by COVID-19 - His landlord, an army reservist, threatened to burn down the house if the debt remained unsettled - The landlord later came and made good his threats as Ssubi took a nap in his room - He sustained burns on both arms and his mouth as he scampered to safety and was admitted to Masaka Regional Referral Hospital - Most landlords have been unleashing horror on tenants who have defaulted on rent while kind ones have waived the charges A 23-year-old man is nursing burns he sustained after his landlord set on fire a house he was staying in over rent arrears. Amos Ssubi, a resident of Ssenyange in Masaka Municipality, Uganda, sustained the injuries as he tried to escape from the house that has since been reduced to ashes; escaping death by a whisker. READ ALSO: CJ Maraga directs all courts to prepare for reopening on June 15 Amos Ssubi when he spoke from his hospital bed on Monday, June 8. Photo: Daily Monitor. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Coronavirus update: Kenya records highest number of recoveries as 97 are discharged According to Ssubi, his landlord who is an army reservist threatened to burn down his room after he failed to clear rent. "He is demanding rent fees for the month of May. I explained to him that I have not been working due to COVID-19 induced lockdown,. He did not listen and angrily told me that his house was not built by President Museveni and therefore his directive to landlords not to demand rent fees didn't apply to his property, Ssubi was quoted by Daily Monitor. READ ALSO: Hoja ya kutimuliwa kwa Gavana Anne Waiguru yageuka na kuwa vurugu Speaking from his hospital bed On Monday, June 8, the tenant said he had explained to the reservist he was unable to pay rent as a result of the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ssubi added he had also reported the threats to the village chairperson days before the landlord descended on the house as he took a nap. I tried to run out for safety and in the process, I suffered burns on my hands and the mouth, he explained. A Kenyan landlord removed a roof from a tenant's house over unpaid rent. Photo: The Standard. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Public attacks by CJ Maraga are now personal, we shall respond directly - AG Kihara Confirming the incident, southern region police spokesperson Muhammad Nsubuga, said the reservist had been arrested and was helping police investigate the case. Ssubi's case brings to the fore the plight of many other families who have thrown out by landlords after failing to pay rent as a result of the pandemic. In separate stories, TUKO.co.ke reported of cases where landlords removed doors, roofs while others welded doors of tenants' houses after they defaulted on rent. READ ALSO: Pastor Ng'ang'a's daughters narrate struggling through life after losing mom at tender age Kind Kenyan landlord told his tenants not to pay rent. He also gave them relief food. Photo: Nyandarua Tribune. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Mudavadi staring at possible removal from ANC party leadership as MP Osotsi calls for elections Some kind landlords have, however, shown humanity and waived rent for tenants while others chose to forfeit collecting rent. Both Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta had urged landlords to be accommodative of tenants who could not afford rent during the pandemic. As of Monday, June 8, Kenya had recorded 2,862 cases of the disease out of which 849 were recoveries and 85 deaths. Uganda had 657 confirmed cases out of which 118 were recoveries with no deaths. 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. I married a man every woman wanted - Pastor Joan Chege | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke The first of almost a dozen Cuban medical teams deployed around the world to assist with the coronavirus pandemic returned to the island Monday, to cheers and applause from health authorities who lauded their efforts and pledged to continue sending medical aid abroad. Some 36 doctors, 15 nurses and one administrator returned from the hard-hit Lombardy region of Italy, where they had been sent in March to help with one of the worst outbreaks of the virus in the world. A country where more than 30,000 people have died and tens of thousands more hospitalized. Italy says the rate of infection has leveled off since the pandemic hit the country in March, and reports lowering numbers of patients afflicted with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and also that hospitalizations are also down. The improving numbers prompted the return of the Cuban medical team home, where the pandemic is also registering lowering numbers and fewer infections, although the island remains in lockdown, with no international flights or internal travel permitted. More than 8,500 active-duty airmen have volunteered to transfer into the U.S. Space Force. Officials announced Tuesday that thousands of airmen across 13 eligible officer and enlisted career fields have signed up to move permanently into the newest military branch. Read Next: The Army Will Consider Renaming Bases that Honor Confederate Leaders "I am incredibly proud of the men and women who made the bold decision to volunteer to join the U.S. Space Force and defend the ultimate high ground," Gen. Jay Raymond, Space Force's chief of space operations, said in a release. "It is a critical time for space, and those Airmen will build the Space Force necessary to compete, deter, and win as required to meet the needs of the National Defense Strategy." The sixth military service, which was signed into existence by President Donald Trump on Dec. 20, 2019, is currently operating with the aid of 16,000 airmen detailed temporarily from what was formerly known as Air Force Space Command. Officials have said that about 6,000 of those temporary personnel will be offered the opportunity to formally transfer into the Space Force by year's end. "Volunteers represent officers and enlisted members in the organic space Air Force Specialty Codes [AFSCs] of space operations (13S) and space systems operations (1C6), and officers and enlisted members in several career fields common to both the Air Force and Space Force, including intelligence (14N), cyberspace operations (17X), developmental engineer (62E), acquisition manager (63A), operations intelligence (1N0), geospatial intelligence (1N1), signals intelligence (1N2), fusion analyst (1N4), targeting analyst (1N8), cyberspace support (3D0), and client systems (3D1)," the release states. The service will begin notifying applicants from these career fields in July to explain the next steps in the transfer process. Jobs including space operations (13S) and space systems operations (1C6) are considered "organic space career fields" eligible for transfer. Those first transfers are set to begin Sept. 1, officials said. "For volunteers in common career fields, transfer boards will be scheduled by AFSCs as needed between July and November, and the results will be announced about 30 days after each board is completed," the release states. "Since the boarding and selection process will take additional time, transfers for personnel with common AFSCs are expected to begin Feb. 1, 2021," it adds. Should airmen in the organic space fields change their minds or decline a transfer, the Air Force will work with them to apply to transfer into a new career field, move into the Reserve, or apply for separation or retirement. For now, "those service members will remain in the Air Force and may be assigned duties in the Space Force," the release states. "At the end of the transition period, expected to be sometime in 2022, organic space AFSCs will be removed from Air Force inventory, and assignments in those mission areas will no longer be an option for Air Force members." Guardsmen and reservists who are already executing space missions and currently aligned with the Space Force will continue supporting it; officials are weighing how best to incorporate them. A Space Force Reserve component is still being considered. The Air Force's application program closed May 31, but there will be windows for the other services. For example, the Space Force anticipates moving some Army and Navy space jobs between fiscal 2022 and 2023. But those services will likely limit how many space professionals will transfer over -- roughly 100 from each branch, according to media reports. Space Force officials will release more details on the interservice transfer program in fiscal 2021, according to the release. Last month, the official Space Force flag was unveiled at the White House. The flag bears the image of the Space Force seal, which was unveiled by Trump in a tweet in January. Other pending Space Force decisions include uniform updates, insignia and a logo design. Officials are also deciding what to call its members. "We will not delay those announcements, [and] we will continue to make those announcements when they're ready," Raymond said in February. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Related: Challenged by Netflix Show, US Space Force Rushes to Trademark Name Since the rollout, there has been debate in the District and across the country about who gets to see videos from the cameras. Proponents of public release argued that it was hypocritical to adopt a program to increase transparency and at the same time block or make it difficult for the public to obtain the videos. Police said that they need to protect investigations and that the video does not always provide a full picture of events. A woman has gone viral on Instagram showing how brands are failing to provide real plus size items that fit. Katie Sturino, 35, from New York, has been calling out major retail brands including Zara and Club Monaco as part of her #MakeMySize campaign - slamming the labels for making supposedly plus-size items that are actually too small to fit curvier bodies. Sharing pictures of herself trying on clothes supposedly made to fit a size XL or bigger, which have been collated by Bored Panda, she revealed the items actually barely fit her body due to vanity sizing. From size 14 shirts too small to fit her chest to pairs of jeans not going over her thighs, Sturino highlights the fact that the brands are doing the bare minimum when it comes to their plus size offerings. Fashion blogger Katie Sturino calls out brands who offer size 14 and plus that are too small on Instagram. In jeans from Paige Denim. Katie admitted that she applauded the work of the female-founded company, they could have done better to offer more sizes The influencer called out the brand Ganni for only catering to small sizes, and showed their items barely fit her bust In some pictures, she showed that the issue impacts men also, depending on the brand, calling out Abercrombie and Fitch for advertising an 'inclusive' initiative, while failing to make items available in bigger sizes. She inspired other people to do the same, and has even gathered the attention of some brand, who promised to do better to answer the needs of their clientele. After growing frustrated with sending most of the clothes she ordered online back because none of the sizes fit, Katie decided to document how difficult it was to navigate sizing while shopping. She particularly criticized vanity sizing, a retail strategy that sees size 6 items being labelled as a size 2 to stroke customer egos, saying it promotes a mentality of 'thin only.' Katie called out Tory Burch for this floral dress. She admitted the brand had done a lot to be inclusive, but needed to push their efforts further Other women have been encouraged to share their experience. A woman showed that this Cotton On dress, which she picked in a size she thought would fit her body, did not have enough room for her breasts In this snap the influencer shows these size 14 jeans by Frame do not go past her thighs In this picture, Katie called out Club Monaco's size 14, which did not fit neither her cleavage for her frame Snapping herself in the fitting room of a Ganni store, Katie revealed her frustration at the fact she could not move in their clothes Katie remarked that the issue also happened in the UK, where brands like LK Bennett also offered size 14 that did not fit Katie also said that some sportswear brands, like Helly Hansen and Marmot offered size XL and XXL that were more adapted to the bodies of size 10 In her posts, Katie calls on brands to do better and offer bigger sizes that are actually adapted to the measurements of size 14 and bigger. Pictured in a dress from Diane von Furstenberg In some instance, the dress sizes are so small that Katie is unable to move in the garments she tried on. Pictured in a Sandra dress The influencer showed that the issue affected men as well. She called out Abercrombie and Fitch for advertising 'inclusive' sizes but not following through with items that did fit size 14 and more Some 'plus size' items Katie tried on were so small, they could not even fit both her arms and bust Katie called out Canadian brand Aritzia for only carrying up to size 12, adding that plus-size stock was very limited in store - however the brand says it now offers some designs in a size 16 Pictured here with fellow body positivity campaigner Hunter McGrady in items from Joie, showing the store's biggest items would not fit them Thousands of holidaymakers can now get a refund on Welcome Cottages and Hoseasons that were cancelled due to Covid after a watchdog probe in parent firm VacationRentals.com. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Vacation Rentals had changed its policy after originally refusing to give money back to customers whose stays had been cancelled. Vacation Rentals - which runs a raft of brands such as Welcome Cottages and Blue Chip Holidays - has now been forced to make a formal commitment to the CMA that it will give customers affected by lockdown the option of a full refund. Pictured: The Vacation Rentals website, which is now refunding customers thanks to an investigation from the CMA Vacation Rentals also runs the website Blue Chip Holidays, which is pictured, above Pictured: The Welcome Cottages website, which is owned by the company Vacation Rentals Pictured: The statement from Vacation Rentals acknowledging that they must now pay out to customers affected by the coronavirus measures The CMA said its Covid-19 taskforce had received around 4,500 reports about UK holiday rental companies, with complaints about Vacation Rentals making up a 'significant proportion'. Common complaints include companies refusing to provide full refunds at all or offering only vouchers instead of cash refunds, according to the watchdog. But it said it is continuing to investigate the sector, with other holiday companies still refusing to offer customers their money back. Have you been refused a refund? Email s.murphy-bates@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement The CMA warned it could take court action against firms that refuse to treat customers fairly amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Chief executive Andrea Coscelli said: 'We welcome this step and other holiday lets firms must now follow suit. 'We know the pandemic is presenting businesses with challenges too, but it's not right that people are being left hundreds or even thousands of pounds out of pocket - on top of having to sacrifice their holidays. 'Consumer protection law exists for a reason; businesses must observe the law or face the possibility of enforcement action.' Mark Grenfell, the executive director of enforcement at CMA told BBC Radio 4 today: 'We've this morning secured a formal undertaking to ensure people who've booked holidays with them [VacationRentals.Com] and they've been cancelled because of lockdown restrictions get the option of getting their money back. What are your rights on airline refunds? Under the Denied Boarding Regulations, if you're due to fly with an airline based in the UK or EU, or are flying from an airport in the UK or EU, you're protected if your flight is cancelled, and should be refunded within seven days. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced last month that it will be reviewing airlines' handling of refunds during this crisis. It came after consumer watchdog Which? found that airlines and travel operators were flouting the law by delaying refunds for cancelled holidays. Advertisement 'We at the CMA right at the beginning of this pandemic were worried people's consumer rights would be harmed. 'One of the very very big concerns is when people had paid a large amount of money for a holiday or an event and had that cancelled some were finding, to add insult to injury, they weren't getting their money back.' He added that the 'law is absolutely clear' and that the company never should have refused refund. And he said the next focus of CMA investigations would focus on people who've lost out to package holidays. Mr Grenfell said: 'We hope that in the coming days and weeks we'll have more good new to announce. If not we'll have the right to take them to court.' The CMA probe's outcome following the VacationRentals.com investigation means that customers are entitled to be contacted within one month of their cancelled let and be informed of the right to recouperate the money. A spokesman for Vacation Rentals said: 'We believe we have acted fairly and responsibly at all times. We responded and adapted to the evolving issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic whenever new guidelines from the government were made available. 'Following the CMA's statement on 30 April clarifying its view on the law on cancellations of consumer contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic, we acted immediately and expanded the options available to any customers who were due to travel during the government imposed lockdown period to include a full cash refund. 'We did so because we felt it was the right thing to do. By the time the CMA's investigation into our business commenced, we were already acting in line with the CMA's guidance. The investigation concluded swiftly and resulted in voluntary undertakings on our part.' SEATTLE - Political leaders made moves Monday toward defunding the city's police department in the aftermath of violence here over the weekend, following in the steps of other cities after nearly two weeks of protests over police brutality that have swept the nation. The police department tear gassed protesters Sunday night, despite the mayor trying to previously limit its use. Earlier Sunday evening, a 27-year-old was shot by an armed driver barreling into a crowd of protesters. Sunday marked the 10th consecutive day of protests in Seattle over police brutality, sparked by George Floyd's death after a Minneapolis police officer dug his knee into his neck. Seattle police have come under fire for their tactics at the protests, leading Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat, and Police Chief Carmen Best to say Sunday night that police have been too quick to use force rather than de-escalating conflicts. They ordered police to turn on body cameras during protests, which they were to start doing Monday. HATE CRIMES: Self-identified Ku Klux Klan leader arrested after driving through protesters in Va. Sunday night's unrest, which also included police using tear gas even though Durkan called for a temporary ban on it in most circumstances, led the Seattle City Council to consider cutting funding for the city's police department. Council member Teresa Mosqueda, who leads the council's budget committee, called for an inquiry into halving the $400 million police budget and redirecting the funds toward "communities in which we've failed," she said during a council briefing Monday. Representatives for the mayor and the police department did not respond to a request for comment. In her call for defunding the police, Mosqueda cited a new effort by nine members of the Minneapolis City Council, who announced plans Sunday to dismantle that city's police department. Those councilmembers didn't provide details of their plan, but called for a new public-safety system to be developed with community members. Mosqueda's calls follow a demand from Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County to decrease funding for police, and to spend more on health and social services. Defunding calls are gaining momentum as proponents argue that past police reform efforts have failed. Rather than abandoning public-safety programs altogether, defunding advocates are often calling for policy changes that reduce reliance on law-enforcement officers, as well as a reallocation of policing budgets toward services such as health care and housing for black communities. "This doesn't mean there will not be police," Mosqueda said in an interview after the briefing. But she believes reallocating funds to programs that provide affordable housing, child care and job training while "demilitarizing" police will ultimately lead to a safer community. Mosqueda also cited a "vacuum of leadership" in Seattle, suggesting that Durkan reassess whether she should remain mayor. Regardless, Mosqueda said the city council is moving to assert greater authority as it looks into the police department's budget. Meanwhile, as the city rebounded from protests Sunday, the man who was shot, Daniel Gregory, was in "satisfactory" condition, said Tina Mankowski, a spokeswoman for Harborview Medical Center. He underwent surgery Monday morning for a fracture to his right arm from a gunshot wound. The chaotic scene of the shooting unfolded just before 8:30 p.m. Sunday during what had been a peaceful protest near the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct. Videos showed protesters appearing to chase after a black Honda Civic as it sped down the street toward a larger crowd, slowing just as it crashed into a metal barrier near an intersection. VEHICLE ATTACKS: Teen charged with driving into Memphis protest, hitting four Gregory caught up to the vehicle, video by the Seattle Times shows, and appeared to try to reach inside the driver-side window, when a shot was fired. Gregory jolted backward, falling onto the pavement. Bystanders and medics rushed to his aid. The driver, who has not been identified by police, then exited the vehicle as the people who had just surrounded his car fled in all directions. "He's got a gun!" people screamed in video taken by a Seattle Times reporter. The driver then headed toward the heart of the protest, where hundreds were gathered in the street. With nowhere to go, some raised their hands in the air. Some lay on the ground. The man ran through the crowd toward the police line on the other side of the protesters. Once he emerged from the crowd, he walked toward police with his hands in the air. He walked nearly all the way up to the police line before officers took him away, video of the arrest shows. Video footage showed Gregory walking down the street with medics while raising his fist in the air. In one video by photojournalist Alex Garland, Gregory explained what happened while a medic applied pressure to his bleeding arm. "I see a car run down [the street]. . . . I catch him. I punch him in the face. I hear the gunshot go off in my arm - and I move right in time," he said. "My whole thing was to protect those people." Protesters cheered for Gregory as he passed them in the street on his way to meet paramedics. City leaders on Friday had banned the use of tear gas for 30 days except in life-threatening situations. That ban didn't last. Early Monday, police again deployed a combination of tear gas, stun grenades and pepper spray, which they said were in response to people throwing projectiles. Police also said they saw someone with a gun, in a tweet justifying the use of tear gas. The department did not respond to a request for more details. Plumes of smoke sent dozens of people running and screaming, rubbing their eyes, live-streamed video footage by activist Joey Wieser showed. Many remained despite dispersal orders from police, standing their ground from a distance as police fired tear gas and stun grenades, or flash-bangs, at them. A band even played in the street, creating a jovial, discordant soundtrack contrasting with the scene. Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, who was on the front lines Monday morning, said police fired tear gas without provocation. "Just got maced and gassed with hundreds others by Seattle police on 11th & Pine. With no provocation," Sawant, who has called for Durkan's resignation, wrote on Twitter. "All the movement was demanding was: Let us march! Shameful violence under Mayor Durkan. And the 30-day tear gas pause is totally meaningless." Before the attempts by police to clear the protests after midnight, some critics juxtaposed the police response to protesters with the officers' seemingly calm reaction toward the suspect in the shooting who walked straight toward them. "The person trying to commit vehicular homicide and who just moments earlier shot the man who stopped him is able to walk causally to the police line with a gun and gets politely escorted away," Washington state Sen. Joe Nguyen (D) wrote on Twitter. "Yesterday people were flash bomber and pepper sprayed for touching the fence!" By PTI MUMBAI: Actor Sonu Sood, who has been arranging transport for migrant workers stranded in Mumbai and has faced criticism from the Shiv Sena for "enacting a political script written by BJP", was stopped outside the Bandra Terminus here by police from meeting labourers. A Mumbai Police official said the actor was stopped by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) when he reached the station on Monday night to meet some labourers, and added that they have not received any complaint so far in this connection. The migrant labourers were supposed to take the Shramik Special train from Bandra Terminus to Uttar Pradesh. Nirmal Nagar police station's senior inspector Shashikant Bhandare said, "The actor were stopped by the RPF, not by us. He wanted to meet labourers who were going to their native place. We have not received any complaint regarding this till now." Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday wondered whether the BJP propped up Sood to "offer help" to migrant workers from north India stranded in Maharashtra amidst the lockdown, with the political motive to show the Uddhav Thackeray government in poor light. ALSO READ | Bouquet after brickbat as Sonu Sood meets Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray In his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', Raut questioned the sudden rise of "Mahatma" Sood on the social scene of Maharashtra during the lockdown. Raut also referred to a "sting operation" against Sood ahead of the 2019 general elections, saying he had agreed to promote the BJP-led government at various platforms through his official social media accounts. However, later that day Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray lauded Sood's initiative to arrange buses for stranded migrant workers. The actor met Thackeray at the latter's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra on Sunday night. On Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh backed Sood for his work for stranded migrant workers, and questioned the Maharashtra government's criticism of the actor. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sausan Atika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 10 2020 This article is part of The Jakarta Posts "Forging the New Norm" special coverage series on how people are forging their lives anew to adjust to the new realities of COVID-19 in Indonesia. As the Jakarta administration gradually eases COVID-19 social restrictions and reopens certain business sectors, people are preparing themselves for a safe commute on public transit. Triastuti boarded a commuter line train to her office in Jakarta for the first time last Thursday after two months working remotely from her house in Tigaraksa, Banten. 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 The Health Department of the Aam Aadmi Party government informed Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal during the DDMA meet on Tuesday that it is extending Covid hospitals by linking big hospitals with nearby 5/4 star hotels with an upper price cap of Rs 10,000 per day per bed. The hotels would provide beds, housekeeping, fooding as well as medical services. A press statement from the LG office said, "Eight hotels-hospitals have been linked to act as extended Covid Hospitals, approx." The information was shared by Principal Secretary (health) in the DDMA meet headed by Baijal. The District Magistrates are carrying out the exercise of linking 19 more hospitals with hotels which would tentatively increase the capacity by another 2,000 beds (approx.) by June 15. The Delhi government apprised the LG that the CATS ambulance fleet has been augmented to 450 from earlier 160 with reduced response time of less than 30 minutes. All 42 testing labs have been made functional in the national capital. A committee under the chairmanship of the Divisional Commissioner has been constituted to explore the possibility of creation of additional bed capacity. It has suggested using Pragati Maidan, Talkatora Indoor stadium, Thyagaraj Indoor stadium, Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, Dhyanchand National Stadium etc. as make-shift hospitals, said the statement. It was also informed that at present, 11,259 cases are in home isolation and specialised healthcare companies have been engaged exclusively for such cases. A total of 2,000 pulse oxymeters have been reserved for patients under home isolation. Also, extensive TV and print media activities have been initiated to make people understand how to conduct themselves under home isolation. Baijal has directed all the stakeholders for containment zone strategies as per the ICMR guidelines and has instructed the field officials to delineate the containment zones properly to ensure their effective management to contain the spread of the infection. The LG also advised the officials to take lessons from the best practices of other cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru for better management of Covid-19 cases in Delhi. Nissan Sunderland plant this week resumed vehicle production after almost three months, with a new Juke the first car off the line on Monday evening. The vehicle factory in the North East - the biggest in the country with more than 7,000 staff - is one of the last major car manufacturing sites to restart outputs following the coronavirus lockdown. The resumption of production comes as the factory's future remains up in the air, with Nissan bosses refusing to guarantee its future unless a trade-free Brexit agreement can be arranged between Britain and Europe. Back to business: This is the first new Nissan to come off the Sunderland production line on Monday since the plant was closed on 17 March Hundreds of hours of preparation has been carried out to ensure the safe return of employees on Monday 8 June, having enforced a shutdown of the UK's biggest single car-making facility on 17 March due to the industry disruption caused by the pandemic. Nissan says that 'every operation across the plant has been rigorously risk assessed to make sure it's safe', with more than 5,000 processes reviewed to ensure safety at all times for staff on site. Having restarted outputs, the assembly line for the new Juke produced the first model as demand is high for the compact SUV - priced from 17,395 - that only went on sale earlier this year. Alan Johnson, Nissan vice president for manufacturing in the UK said: 'It's great to see cars rolling off the line at the plant again, including the new Nissan Juke. 'It's a testament to the skill and dedication of the team here that we have been able to get back up and running again, with a full set of safety measures in place.' Improved safety measures include new separation between operators, such as screens, barriers and dividers, as well as one way systems across the site. Rest areas have also been redesigned and break times rescheduled to support social distancing and remove common touchpoints. Staff will be provided with PPE, with the factory remaining partly operational during the crisis to produce face masks for the NHS and other front-line workers. Nissan says that hundreds of hours have gone into ensuring the well-being of employees at the car plant following the pandemic and that 'every operation across the plant has been rigorously risk assessed to make sure it's safe' The Nissan factory in the North East is the biggest single car production site in the UK, though faces an uncertain future if a Brexit trade agreement can't be struck with Europe, bosses said The recommencement of production comes just a week after Nissan bosses warned that the Sunderland plant will be 'unsustainable' if the UK fails to strike a Brexit trade deal with Europe - days after saying it would survive a global restructuring. Thousands of workers in the North East thought their jobs were secure at the end of May, after the car giant announced the factory would survive a string of series of cost-cutting measures that close the Japanese firm's Barcelona facility. A Nissan spokesman said at the time that 'Sunderland [remained] an important part of our plans for the European business.' But in an interview with the BBC, Nissan's global chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta warned the company would not be able to stand by its commitment to the Sunderland plant if the UK left the European Union without a trade deal that enabled tariff-free EU access. Mr Gupta said: 'You know we are the number one carmaker in the UK and we want to continue. We are committed. 'Having said that, if we are not getting the current tariffs, it's not our intention but the business will not be sustainable. 'That's what everybody has to understand.' The first new model off the Sunderland assembly line on Monday 8 June was a new-for-2020 Nissan Juke, which costs from 17,395 housands of workers in the North East thought there jobs were secure at the end of May, after the car giant announced the factory would survive a string of series of cost-cutting measures that close the Japanese firm's Barcelona facility. Pictured: Nissan's Sunderland factory Last month, the Department for International Trade announced its post-Brexit tariff regime, which will see cars built in EU countries subject to the same 10 per cent levy as those arriving from other nations. This would make cars imported to the UK 1,500 more expensive on average, but also increase costs for UK manufacturers exporting vehicles to Europe. On Tuesday, The UK and Japan are set to begin talks aimed at reaching agreement on a post-Brexit trade deal. Without a new deal by 1 January 2021, the two countries will default to World Trade Organization trading terms. In a joint statement from the UK trade body, Society of Motor Manufacturers, and Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, the two parties said: 'SMMT and JAMA welcome the start of these historic free-trade agreement negotiations between the British and Japanese governments. 'Our two automotive industries have had a deep and mutually beneficial trade, technology and investment relationship for nearly forty years, thanks to continuous support from both governments. 'In order to further enhance this long-term partnership, SMMT and JAMA believe that the conclusion of a new Japan-UK FTA based on the terms of the Japan-EU EPA and its immediate implementation after the end of the transition period would greatly benefit economic prosperity both in the UK and Japan.' Last month, the UK also launched formal talks with the US. Police departments in Connecticut will have to resume fingerprint collection services by June 15, a judge has ruled, marking the first time an executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont has been struck down in court. Lamont issued an order on March 17 suspending indefinitely fingerprint collection in response to the COVID-19 global health pandemic. The Connecticut Citizens Defense League and several of its members filed a lawsuit in response to the order, claiming the indefinite suspension of fingerprinting violates their Second Amendment rights because, in the state of Connecticut, a fingerprint must be collected by local police for a background check in order to secure a handgun permit. Federal District Court Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer issued a preliminary injunction Monday requiring the state to resume fingerprinting activities no later than June 15. Its a victory for gun owners in the state of Connecticut to be recognized that our constitutional rights dont just go away because the governor says so, said CCDL President Holly Sullivan. The constitution stands the test of the time and its much stronger than that. Sullivan said she knew of at least 70 CCDL members who had tried to obtain a handgun permit since March 17 but were unable to because of the fingerprinting suspension. In his 26 page decision, Meyer wrote that the executive order, All in all, I can well understand why the Governors order and Commissioners actions were justified at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But with the passage of time it is clear that a categorical ban on the collection of fingerprints no longer bears a substantial relation to protecting public health consistent with respecting plaintiffs constitutional rights. Lamont said during his daily news briefing Tuesday that he had planned to end the suspension on fingerprinting in the near future anyway. Every executive order I did was in the name of public health, Lamont said. At one point I thought people going in, fingerprinting was not something we wanted people to do. Lamont spokesman Max Reiss said later that the administration informed the court last week of Lamont intention to repeal the executive order as the state proceeds into the second phase of reopening the week of June 17. kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt MANZINI About 1 400 workers of Giant Clothing have been ordered to stay home, after one of their colleagues tested positive for the coronavirus. The employees claimed that on Sunday evening, they received information stating that they should stay put at their places of abode until further notice. Following the directive from the management of the company, the workers are said to have engaged each other through the use of social media and other means of communication, to establish what was the cause of the spur-of-the-moment announcement. Results According to one textile employee, they gathered that their colleague, who tested positive for COVID-19, received the results on Friday. The employee said after they had gathered who the employee was, they realised that despite that the company had ordered them to stay at home, some of them had been in contact with the same individual. As you know, the results dont come back immediately. While waiting for the results, the employee was coming to work and we now fear more of us were infected, said a concerned worker. The textile factory worker wondered why this particular employee was not placed in isolation in order to minimise the risk of infecting colleagues with the virus. Another worker said they had gathered that while they were being informed to stay at home, the management of the factory fumigated the premises. The employee claimed that the issue had brought anxiety upon them as they were not aware what the employee touched while at work and if that particular object was sanitised. Meanwhile, Giant Clothings Hay Hall said he had nothing to say as the workers had shared the information with the media. To this, the Director of Health Services, Dr Vusi Magagula, said he could not confirm whether a factory worker had his or her results confirmed positive as this was sensitive information. Instead, he said in a factory set-up and any other workplace, every individual should be treated as a suspect such that they adhered to all the precautionary measures set by the ministry. Continue The ministry would like to emphasise to the public to continue with the practice of good hand hygiene, cough etiquette, physical distancing, wearing of masks and self-isolation, he said. Also, in a previous interview, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Simon Zwane, said there needed to be an upscale on educational information circulated to the public. He said what he knew was that once a sample was taken, an individual had to immediately isolate until they were certain of their status through being given results from the laboratory. Before that, the PS said one was regarded as a suspect. Meanwhile, this is not the first time a person who had been tested returned to work before receiving their results. In the past months, this publication reported that employees of two supermarkets returned to work while someone they worked with had tested positive for COVID -19. This resulted in more employees testing positive for the virus. [June 09, 2020] Annovis Bio to Present at the June 2020 Virtual Summer Investor Summit BERWYN, Pa., June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Annovis Bio Inc. (NYSE American: ANVS), a clinical-stage drug platform company addressing Alzheimers disease (AD), Parkinsons disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative diseases, today announced that CEO Maria Maccecchini, Ph.D. and CFO Jeff McGroarty, MBA, CPA, will give a virtual corporate presentation at the June 2020 Virtual Summer Investor Summit taking place online from June 9 to 12, 2020. Annovis Bios presentation will be held on Wednesday, June 10, 2020 at 10:55 a.m. ET, followed by a live Q&A session. Investors can register for and access the live webcast at: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2038/35035 . Dr. Maccecchini and Mr. McGroarty will also be available for one-on-one meetings online. To register for the Virtual Investor Summit, visit: https://virtual-summer-summit.events.issuerdirect.com/signup About Annovis Bio Headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, Annovis Bio, Inc. (Annovis) is a clinical-stage, drug platform company addressing neurodegeneration, such as Alzheimers disease (AD), Parkinsons disease (PD) and Alzheimers in Down Syndrome (AD-DS). We believe that we are the only company developing a drug for AD, PD and AD-DS that inhibits more than one neurotoxic protein and, thereby, improves the information highway of the nerve cell, known as axonal transport. When this information flow is impaired, the nerve cell gets sick and dies. We expect our treatment to improve memory loss and dementia associated with AD and AD-DS, as well as body and brain function in PD. We have an ongoing Phase 2a study in AD patients and plan to commence a second Phase 2a study in PD and AD patients. For more information on Annovis, please visit the companys website: www.annovisbio.com . Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release contain forward-looking statements that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as anticipate, expect, believe, will, may, should, estimate, project, outlook, forecast or other similar words, and include, without limitation, statements regarding the timing, effectiveness and anticipated results of ANVS401 clinical trials and the approval of any allowances or additional patents. Forward-looking statements are based on Annovis Bio, Inc.s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled Risk Factors in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and Annovis Bio, Inc. undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law. Investor Relations: Dave Gentry, CEO RedChip Companies Inc. 407-491-4498 [email protected] SOURCE: Annovis Bio Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Readout from the Governors Briefing on COVID-19 Response & Re-Opening Efforts June 8, 2020 Today, Vice President Mike Pence led a discussion with the chief executives of approximately 50 States, territories, and the city of Washington, DC, and the White House Coronavirus Task Force to update our Nation's governors on local, State, and Federal COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, with a focus on re-opening schools, camps, and universities. Vice President Pence led a discussion of best practices from our Nation's governors on re-opening their States and communities, including schools, camps, and universities. Federal leaders continue to support State leaders as they expand testing, protect long-term care residents and healthcare workers, and increase healthcare capacity. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos provided an update on schools and school-related activities re-opening safely. Governors discussed best practices and highlighted their efforts to reopen schools, camps, and universities. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia provided an update on the most recent jobs report and progress on Americans getting back to work, and efforts to improve the unemployment insurance benefits system. White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Ambassador Deborah Birx provided an update on data coordination and testing. The Vice President reiterated his call for governors redouble their efforts to prioritize the protection of Americans in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Since January 2020, the Trump Administration has led nearly 300 briefings including 23 governors' briefings with over 125,000 State, local, and Tribal participants. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address [June 09, 2020] Pennexx's Your Social Offers (YSO) Enters Into an Agreement with Optical Outlets to Reach Over 200,000 Users to Grow YSOs User Base and Provide Substantial Savings to Optical Outlets Patients Philadelphia, PA, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Pennexx Foods (OTC: PNNX) Your Social Offers (YSO), a wholly owned subsidiary, has entered into an agreement with Optical Outlets to potentially reach over 200,000 users. This is an opportunity to introduce YSO to over 200,000 people and offer them a free set of glasses when they register and purchase one set using insurance. Additionally, it includes an incentive discount for lens options when the user shares the offer on social media such as Facebook. This agreement gives YSO a boost of users and likewise Optical Outlets is provided a great opportunity to receive return patients and realize additional new patients. This represents a great opportunity for Optical Outlets to use YSOs innovative social media marketing to offer current patients a discount as well as to help attract new patients. This alliance with Optical Outlets will help YSO grow its membership base because those users who utilize the offer register with YSO, thereby increasing the number of users in YSOs database. This is significant for YSO, as they can now employ techniques such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, geographic mapping as well as other techniques to share additional offers those users may be interested in. It is great for merchants on YSO as it gives them an opportunity to reach customers that would otherwise not have been available to them. https://yoursocialoffers.com About Optical Outlets Optical Outlets is a chain of more than fifty optical retailers located in the Florida area. They specialize in providing quality products at a discount to their clientele. Optical Outlets arguably accepts the greatest number of insurance plans from most companies, providing their consumers with savings on their eyewear needs. Optical Outlets accepts vision insurance for all of their products including contact lenses, frames, eyeglasses and more. Having their own top-notch lens manufacturing lab that creates a quality product enables them to pass a discount onto their customers. You can visit their website at https://opticaloutlets.com/. About Pennexx Foods Inc. About Pennexx Foods Inc. (PNNX: OTCMKTS US). Pennexx, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is a holding company within the Software/Internet Industry that is focused on social media, prepaid debit cards, BitGift, artificial intelligence, targeted marketing and consumer rewards. Safe Harbor Act: This release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made 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." You are cautioned that such statements 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, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report. For additional information, visit our website at http://www.pennexx.net/ or call 866-928-6409. Please follow us on Twitter @Pennexx. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Conor Susi, center, takes orders from a dine-in group at Faith & Flower restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) With businesses reopening and people beginning to get back to old routines, Los Angeles County is entering a perilous phase of the fight against the coronavirus: Trying to boost the battered economy without sparking new outbreaks. One concerning sign is that the coronavirus transmission rate in Los Angeles County the California epicenter of COVID-19, with more than 2,600 deaths appears to be climbing again. The increase was reported after the county allowed many retail stores, restaurants and churches to reopen with social distancing rules and as more people left their homes for parks, beaches and hiking trails. Officials said it will take a few weeks to see if the calculated rate of disease transmission has actually increased, causing hospitals to see more coronavirus patients. But authorities also say it is still possible to strike the right balance between reopening society and strict safety rules. This is not an impossible task, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Monday. This is entirely possible: To be able to reopen and do it in a manner that continues to slow the spread. ... Its essential that we make progress on our reopening. At its worst, the countys effective transmission rate of the coronavirus was quite high 3 to 3 meaning one infected person on average transmitted the virus to an average of 3 or 3 other people. That high point came in early March before Gov. Gavin Newsom implemented Californias stay-at-home order March 19. Eventually, the stay-at-home order worked, and the effective transmission rate fell to 1 , and then even a bit below 1 . That means that, on average, each infected person was transmitting the virus to less than one other person. But on Friday, Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of health services for L.A. County, said the effective transmission rate had now risen above 1 and was gaining ground. If transmission has indeed increased, she added, then the model predicts that we will have a continued increase in hospital patient volume over the next two to four weeks, and we would anticipate beginning to see that change happen over the coming one to two weeks. Story continues Weekly coronavirus deaths in L.A. County rose for the first time since mid-April. There were 284 deaths reported for the seven-day period that ended Sunday, up 12% from the previous week's tally, 254. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 in Los Angeles County did not significantly decline last week compared to the previous week. That's the first time that has happened since hospitalizations were at their peak on the last week of April. There were an average of 2,010 hospitalized patients daily last week with confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections, down 0.1% from the previous week's daily average of 2,012. The number of new weekly confirmed cases is down, with 8,849 reported in the seven-day period that ended Sunday compared with 9,967 the week before. Ghaly said it was possible the number of intensive care beds could become inadequate in the next two to four weeks based on the number of currently available beds in daily surveys among the countys public and private hospitals. We must all do everything we can to keep the [transmission rate] from continuing to increase, Ghaly said. Los Angeles County has seen a disproportionate share of both coronavirus deaths and cases, which now top 64,000. That represents nearly half of the more than 134,000 cases in California, even though L.A. County is home to just one-quarter of the state's population. The coronavirus toll has hit minority communities particularly hard. Black, Latino and Pacific Islander residents of Los Angeles County are now twice as likely to have died from infection by the coronavirus than white residents, officials said. While officials say the rising death toll is troubling, there are some other optimistic signs about the COVID-19 fight. Nursing home residents have made up almost half of the coronavirus deaths in Los Angeles County. But the number of new daily deaths among nursing home residents, while still high, has dramatically come down in the last two weeks, Ferrer said Monday. Ferrer credited the reduction with two changes: ramping up testing of residents and staff, regardless of if they have symptoms, and having everyone in the facility wear appropriate protective personal equipment, like a surgical mask or an N95 respirator, depending on whats appropriate. That was a big change but it also introduced an extra layer of protection, and it has taken a while for us to see the impact of these changes, Ferrer said. Last month, The Times reported that L.A. County was struggling to get everyone tested at nursing homes in the county. L.A. County had instructed nursing homes with no cases that they could skip testing staffers and test only 10% of residents weekly. California health officials subsequently issued new instructions to all skilled nursing facilities to test everyone, a move that overruled the more lax testing policy allowed by Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has voted to appoint an independent inspector general to look into the countys oversight of nursing homes, including the county health departments slow testing. L.A. Countys case rates are high because there has been a lot of testing in the nations most populous county, Ferrer said. She also said the overall rate of positive tests is shrinking in the county slightly fewer than 8% of people tested for the coronavirus have tested positive, but in the last seven to 14 days, that rate has declined to about 5.5%, she said. Los Angeles County officials have so far defended their reopening strategy, which has been generally speedier than that of the San Francisco Bay Area. Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger noted at Mondays news conference that L.A. County has been a week behind its nearby counties San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura in managing its reopening. Make no mistake: we are doing this in a very deliberate and cautious way, and actually had been one step behind the surrounding counties, Barger said. Barger said if the county can reopen in a responsible way with social distancing and universal wearing of face coverings in public "we should." We need to get back to work and get the economy back working and we can do both. Its not an either/or, Barger said. There are businesses that, if they do not open soon, they will not open ever again. More openings could come soon. State officials have paved the way for most California counties outside of the Bay Area, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura, to decide to reopen movie theaters and gyms as early as this Friday. The latest rise in cases cannot be linked to the thousands who have taken to the streets in the last week to protest the police killing of George Floyd and racial inequality. The incubation period for the virus can be up to 14 days, so numbers currently reported generally reflect actions from previous weeks, officials have said. Thats not to say that activities at the protests wont affect the case count in the coming days. Officials have continued to commend peaceful protesters for exercising their 1st Amendment rights while also reminding them to remain cautious. Ferrer on Monday said the risk of exposure at protests is the same as other crowded settings where there may be people not wearing masks, including indoor malls, restaurants and the beach. In such instances, government disease investigators won't know that people were in such an environment, which raises the risk of exposure to the highly contagious virus. Nobody knows you were there, she said. No one will call you. Ferrer encouraged protesters Monday to be proactive and get tested in certain circumstances, especially those with underlying medical conditions and those in close contact with a person who later tests positive. She pointed out, however, that it can take up to two weeks for the virus to cause symptoms. Taking the test too early after exposure could result in a negative result, in which there simply are not enough viral particles in the body to show up, experts say. A negative test result doesnt mean you cant become infected during the 14-day incubation period," Ferrer said. Those who came into contact with someone who was not wearing a face mask or had a known case of exposure should self-quarantine during the 14-day incubation period. People should assume that other people in public are infected as they return to work, the beach and the mall, Ferrer said. Federal officials estimate 20% to 50% of people infected with the coronavirus will never show significant symptoms, but may be just as contagious as those who are visibly sick, and that's why wearing face coverings and keeping six feet away from others in public is so important. The risk is still there. Even though it may not be a huge risk, its enough of a risk for everyone to take these universal precautions, she said. Times staff writer Jack Dolan contributed to this report. San Francisco, June 9 : Facebook has filed a lawsuit against 12 domain names registered by India-based proxy service Compsys Domain Solutions Private Ltd, to prevent fraud and stop the malicious use of the company and product names. The proxy domain names were designed to deceive people by impersonating its family of apps, like: facebook-verify-inc.com, instagramhjack.com and videocall-whatsapp.com. The lawsuit against the Mumbai-based company has been filed in Virginia, Facebook said in a statement late Monday. "We regularly scan the internet for domain names and apps that infringe on our trademarks and today's lawsuit is part of this ongoing effort to protect people from phishing, credential theft and other methods of online fraud," said Facebook. The social networking giant filed suit after reaching out to Compsys about these domain names and did not receive any response. In March this year, Facebook filed a lawsuit in Arizona against a domain registrar company Namecheap and its proxy service, Whoisguard over domain name fraud. This is not the first time Facebook has sued for this kind of practice. In October last year, the company filed a lawsuit against domain name registrar OnlineNIC for registering domain names or web addresses that pretended to be affiliated with the social networking giant. The domain names like www-facebook-login.com and facebook-mails.com were designed to mislead and confuse the users who believe they're interacting with Facebook. "Registrars and proxy services have a responsibility to take down deceptive and malicious websites," said Facebook. Assaults on Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) staff soared to 44 incidents last month after dropping significantly during the March and April lockdown. (Cpl Anil Gurung/MoD/PA) Assaults on Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) staff soared to 44 incidents last month after dropping significantly during the March and April lockdown. Five of these assaults happened on May 30 alone. As a result of the Covid-19 restrictions on movement, ambulance crews had been at a lesser risk of assault in public places - but since the easing of the regulations, physical and verbal attacks have surged. It was revealed by the NIAS last night that 44 assaults were carried out on its staff in May - with almost half of these occurring in the final week of the month. Some of the incidents involved patients spitting at NIAS crews, urinating over equipment and telling staff that they had coronavirus and intended to pass it on to them. In the period between May 29 and June 7, 35 incidents of verbal or physical assaults were reported and involved 42 members of NIAS staff. Health Minister Robin Swann said he was "appalled" by the assaults and that his thoughts were with the victims. "Ambulance staff have put themselves on the line for the rest of us time and time again during the Covid-19 pandemic," he stated. "We owe a massive debt of gratitude to them and to all their colleagues across the health and social care frontline. "It is beyond belief that they should be on the receiving of this kind of thuggery." Meanwhile, the chief executive of the NIAS, Michael Bloomfield, stated that he was "greatly concerned" at the rise in the number of physical and verbal assaults on his staff. "These attacks occur too frequently and they are totally unacceptable to our staff, us and society in general," said Mr Bloomfield. "Ambulance Service staff provide an essential service to the whole community. "This is a difficult role at all times, but particularly so during the past few months dealing with the challenges and risks associated with Covid-19. "For our staff to face the added fear of assault - physical and verbal - when they are trying to provide the best possible care and treatment is disgraceful and I call on all those with influence to condemn it." He added that he has no hesitation in calling for those responsible for the attacks to face the courts and be punished for their actions. "These attacks can have a lasting emotional and psychological impact on our staff when physical wounds may have healed much quicker," continued Mr Bloomfield. "Our staff deserve better and we will continue to support them through measures available to us, including immediate management and peer support which will continue for as long as necessary. "The impact of these attacks go far beyond the staff directly affected. They often result in our levels of cover being reduced as staff are unable to continue with their duties. "Affected areas may be left vulnerable due to longer response times as crews attend from neighbouring stations. "This could have potentially fatal consequences for those who urgently need of our service. "Our message is quite simply that these attacks must stop and that those who continue to assault our staff must become accountable to the full rigour of the law." The 360 shows you diverse perspectives on the days top stories and debates. Whats happening The extraordinary response to the killing of George Floyd has completely dominated the national conversation over the past two weeks. Protests that started in Minneapolis and spread to cities across the country show no signs of letting up. Even if they do, the issues of police violence and civil unrest are likely to be at the center of the upcoming presidential election, which is less than five months away. The two candidates have taken drastically different approaches in their responses to the protests. President Trump has repeatedly called on authorities to dominate demonstrators, going so far as to suggest invoking his authority to deploy the U.S. military in American cities. I am your president of law and order, Trump said in an address last week before leaving the White House to walk to a nearby church in an area that had recently been cleared of peaceful protesters by police and the National Guard. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has attempted to strike a more unifying tone, while speaking out about the need to address systemic racism in the country. He has visited protests in several cities and met privately with Floyds family in Houston on Monday. I wont traffic in fear and division. I wont fan the flames of hate, Biden said during a speech last week. Why theres debate The last time the country experienced such widespread unrest was in 1968. That years presidential election took place during one of the most chaotic periods in American history, marked by the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy and deadly riots in several cities. Republican Richard Nixon emphasized a return to law and order en route to a decisive win over Democrat Hubert Humphrey. By echoing Nixons message, Trump could appeal to voters who crave a return to stability. The intense focus on police violence also draws attention away from the administrations response to the coronavirus, which voters largely see as a failure, according to polls. The coming months may also provide the president with an opportunity to capitalize on divisions within the various wings of the Democratic Party, such as the debate over defunding the police. Story continues Skeptics argue that an election 52 years ago shouldnt be treated as indicative of what might happen today. Besides, Nixon in 1968 was running to replace a Democrat in the White House. Its much more difficult for a sitting president to make the case that hell bring a return to normalcy when hes been in charge the whole time, some pundits argue. Even if a law and order message could be effective, Trump is the wrong candidate to capitalize on that opportunity given the upheaval hes brought to Washington during his presidency, political analysts argue. Whats next Its too early to know how the ongoing unrest will affect voters come November, but early polling suggests that Trumps response is hurting, rather than helping. Perspectives Advantage for Trump Trumps appeal to order could be convincing for some voters Trump has a new front to fight on. ... Its appeal is understandable. To the progressive minded, law and order are code words for racial intolerance. But others hear in them an echo of their desire for a life of peace and quiet. Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune Bidens history makes him a poor messenger for police reform Biden is a Democratic Party war horse with a record of past support for causes that have become anathema to new generations in his case, punitive criminal justice measures such as the 1994 bill he shepherded through the Senate. Charles Lane, Washington Post The focus on race relations turns attention away from the coronavirus The Presidents play is clear. He is betting that suburban voters disgusted that he ignored the coronavirus pandemic until it was too late, will swing right as he invokes the specter of lawlessness and race riots and social turmoil. Stephen Collinson, CNN Trump can blame Democratic leaders for issues in their cities Not unhappily for Trump, Minneapolis is a largely Democratic city in a reliably blue state. He will campaign now on the failure of Democratic state leaders to answer the needs of black voters. Timothy J. Lynch, Conversation The unrest presents a huge opportunity for Trump That a wave of race riots has broken out as Trump is in the throes of an existential fight to stay in power has to be looked on as a gift from heaven by many in his camp. Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine Trump will have the chance to reverse opinion about his response once the protests peter out There are already signs that Trumps response to this viral violence will mirror his response to COVID-19. That is, hell seek to exploit the tragedy for political gain, wait for the peak to pass, then claim victory. Steve Almond, WBUR Advantage for Biden The law and order message doesnt work for an incumbent I dont buy the political analysis that any of this is going to help Trump. When Nixon ran in 68, he wasnt president. Trump is president, and people can see the way he contributes to chaos and discord. Vox editor Ezra Klein Biden is in a better position to win on a message of stability The presidents struggles are providing Mr. Biden with an opportunity to show an anxious nation how he might lead during these twin crises of civil unrest and a health emergency. Adam Nagourney, New York Times A focus on race cast Trump in a bad light The more that the protests highlight the need to improve the countrys ruptured race relations ... the more it is likely to harm the presidents odds of reelection. Michael Tesler, Washington Post Trump lacks the discipline to maintain a focused message In the end no strategy, regardless of how carefully they had worked it up or invested money in, could survive such a direct conflict with Trumps instincts as that which was provoked by the demonstrations. Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine Trump is too inflammatory to appeal to moderate voters Unlike any Republican president before him, Trump is risking the consequences of being openly racist. Nixon and even, in his 1968 and 1972 presidential runs, George Wallace at least paid lip service to the goal of racial justice. Thats because even white people who regularly said and did things harmful to Black Americans didnt want to believe that association with a particular candidate marked them as racist. Rick Perlstein, Mother Jones Is there a topic youd like to see covered in The 360? Send your suggestions to the360@yahoonews.com. Read more 360s Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images The day before Jami Resch told Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler that she wanted to step aside and have an African American lieutenant replace her as police chief, she received a caustic letter from black leaders who took her to task for her all-white command staff. The letter from three African American groups -- Black Male Achievement, Word is Bond and the Coalition of Black Men -- blasted the citys commitment to diversity in the Police Bureaus leadership. They charged that any stated commitment by Resch and Wheeler rings loud, hollow and tone deaf, considering the all-white leadership team under Resch. The letter obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive provides insight into the pressure facing Resch before she took the drastic step of relinquishing the chiefs job and asking Lt. Chuck Lovell, an 18-year bureau member, to fill it in a surprise meeting Sunday. Wheeler, who serves as police commissioner, agreed with the move and approved it. Black Male Achievement, described on the citys website as a program intended to help Portland leaders improve the life outcomes of black men and boys, is staffed by C.J. Robbins in the Office of Equity and Human Rights. Word is Bond is a nonprofit that works to improve the relationships between young black men and law enforcement through leadership development, dialogue, and education. The Coalition of Black Men is a social organization geared to black community building and youth mentoring. Resch said the letter "wasnt a deciding factor,'' that she hadnt read it before reaching her decision to step aside. "What was a deciding factor were the meetings I had just listening to our community and watching Lovells interactions with them,'' she said in an interview Tuesday. The letter came five days after Resch announced on June 1 that she had appointed Central Precinct Cmdr. Mike Krantz to replace Assistant Chief Ryan Lee, who is leaving to serve as police chief in Boise. Lee is Asian American. The groups were outraged that Krantz was appointed without community input and that his selection made the bureaus command staff Reschs deputy chief and three assistant chiefs -- all white men. Hopeful of forward movement, our community is at a standstill while our city Police Bureau monotonously moves its monotone rank and file into leadership, lacking transparency and diversity at its highest decision-making levels, the letter said. To be more direct, we've seen Assistant Chief Lees exit and the intentional appointment of his successor can only be painted as a blatant 'whitewashing' attempt in the Bureau's upper ranks. The letter accused Resch of lacking understanding in how to build trust with the black residents, calling her appointments a direct affront and reflective of white supremacy that drives the current protests. Resch, a 20-year Portland officer and supervisor who became chief in January, said the bureaus command staff ranges from lieutenants up to the chiefs rank, which includes women and officers of color. She stands by her leadership picks, and said the bureau was preparing to make promotions to captain soon. "I think you have to look at the command as a whole,'' she said. "I wish I was able to have a conversation with those folks so they knew,'' what they were alleging "wasnt the case,'' Resch said. Of the letter, Resch said, "It was an understandable reaction. I think it came from a hurt.'' But she said she hasnt talked to the letter writers yet. In her remarks at a news conference Monday, she said she was responding to community calls for significant change. "Ive listened and I hear you,'' Resch said, as she announced her decision. "Im asking the community to please trust that this comes from my heart.'' Wheeler also acknowledged during the news conference that the bureau hasnt done enough to support people of color for promotions and succession to leadership positions. The letter writers didnt seek Reschs resignation, however. The groups called on her to post the job of assistant chief of the bureaus services branch -- overseeing the financial, records and training divisions -- to internal and outside candidates and say Krantzs appointment was an interim selection. We need to have a very public conversation and remedy to, not only this action, but also the systemic intentional decision making that helps perpetuate a White supremacist culture that puts our most vulnerable in its crosshairs, the letter said. The letter was attached to an email the three groups sent on Saturday afternoon to Resch, the mayor, City Council members and the police union president. Black Male Achievement, Word is Bond, and Coalition of Black Men are deeply disturbed and concerned by the recent leadership changes within PPB, the email said. The lack of any community involved process in the appointment of a new Assistant Chief does not champion representative leadership or transparency. We will not stand by idly with zero access to a process for a public leadership position in an institution that has failed to keep our people safe for generations. Three African American groups sent this email with a letter attached to Police Chief Jami Resch and Mayor Ted Wheeler, decrying the all-white command staff at the Police Bureau. Emails obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive also suggested that some behind the letter had discussed submitting it to the media, though they didnt after Resch stepped aside. Many of the black leaders who were present in City Hall as Lovell was introduced as the citys next police chief are active in the organizations that signed off on the letter to Resch. Tony Hopson Sr., president of Self Enhancement Inc., and Joe McFerrin II, president of Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, both spoke at the news conference applauding Lovells appointment and both are on the steering committee of Black Male Achievement. Kevin Modica, a retired assistant police chief who also is on the Black Male Achievements steering committee, said Lovells appointment isnt sufficient and argued that he hopes Lovell surrounds himself with a more diverse command staff. "Im hopeful as many others are that the movement of leadership positions does not just stop with Chuck Lovell,'' Modica said. -- 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 The mayor of South Africa's biggest city, Johannesburg, has gone into self-isolation after a member of his staff tested positive for Coronavirus. A statement from Mayor Geoffrey Makhubo's office said he was taking the precautionary measure until the results of his test are known. He had previously returned a negative test. All staff at his office have also undergone tests after the latest case. "The mayor will continue to monitor and provide guidance on work currently being carried out to contain and manage the spread of Covid-19 in the city whilst in self-isolation," the statement by his spokesperson said. South Africa has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the continent. President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday urged South Africans not to be scared by the rising numbers after the country recorded more than half of the current total number of cases in the last two weeks. Schools in South Africa have begun gradually reopening with grade 7 and 12 learners returning to classes on Monday. Places of worship have re-opened but with strict guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus. 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 Neptune is a top-secret Ukrainian project that any NATO country could be proud of. It's a cruise anti-ship missile able to deter the Russian fleet in the Black or Azov Seas. Flying at the fighter jet speed at ultra-low altitudes, just a few meters above the sea surface, it's invisible to enemy radars. Detailed test information is naturally classified. We only know that in May, two Neptunes hit the target exactly 85 km and 110 km off Ukraine coast. But it seems that Russia's intelligence services already know more about Neptune than we think. In early May, a Russian agent in Ukraine acquired from the Ukrainian military, who attended the Neptune tests part of the documentation on the new missile project. The FSB is interested in the real engineering gem of the project the cruise missile's homing head. Ukrainian officers convinced the Russian agent they were ready to sell more documents to get more money. The bait worked. In fact, we witnessed a Ukrainian counterintelligence undercover sting raid. The military carried candid cameras on them. As soon as the agent receives from them part of the documentation, security operatives nab him red-handed. His name is Oleksandr Rushchak. He has long got used to prison, having spent half of his life behind bars that's over 20 years with short breaks of freedom. "I preach prisoner lifestyle. I'm neither for Ukraine nor for Russia," he says. He doesn't look like a spy. He claims he was only a courier. He contacted the FSB handlers only by phone, he says, and sent them photos of documents. He would then get the money from caches set up for him. "I got a call from a man named Valeriy who said he was with the FSB. I was supposed to hand over the materials to that guy Valery," says Oleksandr Rushchak. The Russian side seems to have known in advance the servicemen who have access to classified information about the Neptune project. But how did they know? The Russians are doing everything possible and impossible to ensure that Neptune never deploys on combat duty. They are looking for the weak point of a unique rocket. But, as it turned out, it was Ukrainians who created the weakest spot of the Neptune project and the entire missile program. The remnants of Soviet SS-24 intercontinental ballistic missiles are stored at the Pavlohrad Chemical Plant. It's almost four dozen giant cylinders, each carrying 50 tonnes of fuel mixture. Boogeyman stories from time to time emerge on social networks, trying to frighten Pavlohrad residents with these missiles, saying that because of them the city's ecology is under constant threat. But the first thing that TSN.Tyzhden saw at the plant premises was wild animals. And they are just fine here. A short trip to see former nuclear missiles is like an exotic safari, reporters say. "But what's the connection between bison and missiles? These giants were not put here for fun. They are part of environmental monitoring. With the help of these animals, experts monitor pollution levels at the chemical plant," said TSN.Tyzhden's special correspondent Andriy Tsaplienko. It turns out that the old SS-24s are not some toxic waste, but a strategic resource. Pavlohrad Chemical Plant is the only facility in the world where new rocket fuel is created from the old one for new Ukrainian rockets and missiles. And this isn't just fuel. Neptune's warhead is also an upgrade of the old ones. Therefore, these metal cigars are the only source of fuel and warheads for the entire Ukrainian missile program. If this resource is gone, Ukraine will be left without Neptune. "It's not only about Neptune We would be left with nothing without munitions, Vilkha, Neptune, and Typhoon," says CEO of SE Pavlohrad Chemical Plant, Leonid Shiman. "Vilkha-M" is an MLR system that's been converted into high-precision weaponry. "Typhoon" is a new rocket to replace the obsolete "Grad". "Hrim-2" is an analog of the Russian "Iskander", being able to fly 280 km, while changing velocity and trajectory. At the same time, without own-made fuel, all these projects would die out. But the missile program suffered a high-precision blow from those who were supposed to protect it Ukrainian legislators. In the fall of 2019, the parliament, having approved the state budget, unexpectedly cut funding for the upgrade of the SS-24s. These intercontinental nuclear missiles had been based in Ukraine in Soviet times before being pulled out of 46 launch mines. There was no longer enough money even to maintain the Scalpels (that's their NATO codename). Ukraine had to put on the back shelf the idea of upgrading them and, therefore, producing strategic fuel. The Russians were about to pop champagne bottles as the entire Ukrainian missile program was on the verge of failure. "I don't know if Russia could have meddled in this, but it would be truly beneficial for them. I think they were very happy because the weaker we are in military prowess and armaments, the easier it is to talk to us not only in Donbas or Minsk but also worldwide, "says Leonid Szyman. When TSN.Tyzhden was setting off to Pavlograd, the team hadn't known yet that the national program in question has been rescued. The government urgently found a way to finance it, vowing readiness to inject more than UAH 130 million. So the missile program is back on track. The company says Ukraine is now able to manufacture an intermediate range missile, precisely the type the Soviets used to keep the U.S. anxious during the Cold War. The Pavlograd Chemical Plant is convinced it will take 12 to 14 months to complete the project. If the government has enough political courage to take such a step, Ukraine will, if necessary, be able to hit military targets 5,000 km beyond its borders. That's even beyond the Ural ridge in Russia, which is a great deterrent to keep a raging adversary off. And Moscow's attempts to stop this sudden U-turn only confirm that Ukraine's strategy is legit. "Small and intermediate-range missiles are more like weapons of strategic political influence. These weapons may never be used, but their availability allows our political leaders to gain more space in decision-making and discussing certain issues at summits with other countries. Ukraine will not be sitting somewhere in the backyard it will sit at the same table with leaders," said Yevhen Ustymenko, technical director at the Pavlograd Chemical Plant. In other words, it is easier to persuade the occupier to cease fire with a kind word and a high-precision missile than with just a kind word. Such a path to peace is much shorter, global practice shows. Andriy Tsaplienko, Serhiy Shchekochykhin, Vitaliy Tkachuk India is better positioned in the fight against Covid-19 compared to other countries but there is no space for complacency, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Tuesday as the death toll due to coronavirus infection rose to 7,466 and the cases mounted to 2,66,598 in the country. Vardhan chaired the 16th meeting of the high-level group of ministers on Covid-19 which reviewed the containment strategies pertaining to the pandemic via video-conferencing here, the heath ministry said. The GOM was briefed about the latest status, response and management of Covid-19 in the country. A brief snapshot was presented to the GOM highlighting the comparative position of India vis-a-vis other countries in similar stage of easing lockdown, underscoring the benefits that have accrued from the lockdown and how this can be leveraged in management of disease, the ministry said. As the country entered the Unlock 1.0 phase when restrictions have been eased and curbs lifted, Vardhan stressed that people need to be more disciplined and adopt appropriate behaviour to ensure norms of physical distancing, use of face covers, hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette are followed. India is better positioned in fight against Covid-19 compared to other nations, but there is no space for complacency, Vardhan strongly reiterated. He also reminded everybody to download Aarogya Setu app which will help in self risk assessment and in protection against Covid-19. More than 12.55 crore people in the country have downloaded the app, as on date, the ministry said in its statement. In the wake of all government offices opening now, Vardhan appealed to the heads of departments, Let us also not forget the social vaccine against Covid-19 through strict adherence of norms of physical distancing, hand hygiene and mask/face covers. The GoM was informed that as on June 9, Covid-related health infrastructure in the country has been strengthened with the availability of 958 dedicated Covid hospitals with 1,67,883 isolation beds, 21,614 ICU and 73,469 oxygen supported beds. Also, 2,313 dedicated Covid health centres with 1,33,037 isolation beds, 10,748 ICU beds and 46,635 oxygen supported beds have also been operationalised. Moreover, 7,525 Covid care centres with 7,10,642 beds are now available to combat COVID-19 in the country. The ventilators available for Covid beds are 21,494, the ministry said. The Centre has further placed an order of 60,848 ventilators, it added. The Centre has also provided 128.48 lakh N95 masks and 104.74 lakh personal protective equipment (PPEs) to the states, union territories and central institutions. ICMRs testing capacity has increased through 553 government and 231 private laboratories (total of 784 labs). More than 49 lakh cumulative tests have been conducted in the country so far with 1,41,682 samples been tested in the last 24 hours till 9 AM. Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityananda Rai, Minister of State for Shipping and Chemical and Fertilizers Mansukh Lal Mandaviya and Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey along with other senior officials took part in the meeting which was held following norms of physical distancing, the ministry said. Parameswaran Iyer, Chairman of Empowered Group-5, presented the critical strategies adopted by the EG to ease the burden of lockdown while enabling supply of critical items for the country to fight the pandemic. Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at ICMR, Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar presented details on the status of testing labs, augmented capacities for testing across the country, and also enlightened the GoM on various issues related to hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, and sero-surveillance studies. The number of active novel coronavirus cases stands at 1,29,917 till Tuesday 8 AM. So far, a total of 1,29,214 people have recovered with 4,785 patients having been cured in the last 24 hours. This takes the total recovery rate to 48.47 per cent, the ministry said. Minneapolis The white police officer charged with murder in the killing two weeks ago of George Floyd, a black man whose death in custody led to nationwide protests, was given a bail of as much as $1.25 million Monday. Derek Chauvin, a 19-year veteran, participated in his initial hearing at the heavily fortified Hennepin County courthouse on a video feed from jail. Chauvin, who has been behind bars since he was arrested May 29, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and second-degree murder, a more serious count than he had originally faced. He could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison. Chauvin, who placed his knee on the neck of Floyd for nearly nine minutes in a video that prompted anguish and outrage across the nation, has been a focus of anger, referred to as the most hated man in the world. Arguing for a bail of $1.25 million, prosecutor Matthew Frank said Floyd's death had created "a strong reaction in the community, to put it mildly." He said that created two factors in deciding bail. "One is the likelihood to flee from the jurisdiction because of not only the severity of the charges, but the strength of the community's opinion," he said. "And secondly, because of the severity of those charges, a significant amount of bail is warranted." During the hearing, Chauvin wore an orange jumpsuit and a blue mask that muffled his responses of "Yes, your honor" to a few procedural questions. Eric Nelson, Chauvin's lawyer, said he did not object to the state's bail request at this time. Judge Jeannice M. Reding granted it. Chauvin's bail would be $1 million if he agrees to certain conditions, including surrendering any of his firearms, remaining in the state until trial, not working in law enforcement and avoiding any contact with the Floyd family. His next court appearance is scheduled for June 29, when he will enter a plea and some of the state's evidence could be laid out. Chauvin's bail is higher than the bail of at least $750,000 given last week to the other three officers accused of aiding and abetting in Floyd's death. Lawyers for two of those men, both rookies who had just days on the job, blamed Chauvin, who was a training officer for both of them. The third former officer has cooperated with authorities. Those are all indications that the police officers will not be presenting a united front, unusual in cases in which the police are charged in a death. All four men were fired the day after Floyd died. On that evening of May 25, an employee of a corner store in south Minneapolis called police, reporting that a counterfeit $20 bill had been used to buy cigarettes. The two rookie officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane who between them had seven days on the job responded first. Floyd, sitting in a nearby car, stiffened when the officers tried to put him in the back of their police car and fell to the ground, according to an arrest affidavit. Floyd told the officers that he was not resisting arrest but was claustrophobic and did not want to get in the back seat of the car. Then Chauvin and his partner, Tou Thao, arrived. Floyd struggled and began saying he could not breathe, the affidavit says. Chauvin pulled Floyd out of the passenger side of the squad car at 8:19 p.m. Still handcuffed, Floyd went to the ground. The rookie officers held Floyd's back and legs. As Chauvin held his left knee on Floyd's neck over almost nine minutes, Floyd said "I can't breathe" and "Mama" and then, after a time, nothing at all. The protests started the next day in Minneapolis before spreading to the world. Although some have turned into violent clashes with police, and arsons and looting were reported in the early days in some protests, demonstrations were largely calm in recent days. It is a temporary peace, activists cautioned, if Chauvin is not convicted. "There is a real significant discrepancy between what happens when a policeman does something and a black man does something," said one protester, Sara Semi, who just got ".icantbreathe" tattooed on her neck. "Chauvin needs to get life in prison if we want to see justice." Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Nelson, Chauvin's lawyer, declined to comment when contacted by The New York Times. Since the protests, Minneapolis has made changes. The University of Minnesota, the city school board and the parks department have cut ties with police. On Sunday, a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged to dismantle the city's Police Department and create a new system of public safety in a city where police have long been accused of racism. In addition, Chauvin's wife of almost 10 years has filed for divorce. They separated three days after Floyd's killing. (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.) Chauvin, 44, did not always want to be a police officer. He studied food preparation at a technical college, taking classes like "pantry food preparation," "job seeking skills" and "stocks, sauces and soups," according to his personnel file with the Minneapolis Police Department. He worked as a cook at McDonald's and made ribs and chicken at Tinucci's Restaurant. Then he switched paths, becoming a military police officer in the U.S. Army, serving in Germany. At the Police Department, his record was mixed. Chauvin appears to have been reprimanded and possibly suspended after a woman complained in 2007 that he needlessly removed her from her car, his personnel file showed. She told authorities that he searched her and put her in the back of a squad car for driving 10 mph over the speed limit. Chauvin was also the subject of at least 16 other misconduct complaints over two decades. His personnel file, heavily redacted, included no details on these. But he was also given at least two medals of valor. One was for his role in fatally shooting someone who was pointing a sawed-off shotgun at officers in 2006, the records said. The second was for a domestic-violence call in 2008. Chauvin broke down a bathroom door; after a struggle, he twice shot the person being sought, his file said. Chauvin was awarded two medals of commendation. In 2008 he was recognized for apprehending a man accused of pointing a gun at a man and woman Chauvin and his partner followed the man with a gun, eventually tackling the man, who dropped a loaded .357. His second was for working off-duty as security in November 2008 outside El Nuevo Rodeo. After he saw a man in an altercation fire off two rounds, Chauvin arrested him, the records showed. He also arrested some of the man's friends, the records said, all of whom were accused of being part of a street gang. That club may have been Chauvin's only earlier connection to Floyd, who had also worked security at El Nuevo Rodeo for much of the year before their fatal encounter. It was uncertain whether they knew one another. TAT unveils three-part strategy for new normal tourism recovery BANGKOK: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has announced the outline to its strategy, admittedly still in the draft stages, to support the Royal Thai governments easing business activities and restrictions. COVID-19tourismeconomicshealth By The Phuket News Tuesday 9 June 2020, 10:00AM BEST practices for tourism workers and visitors includes digital technology to help track and trace. BEST practices for tourism workers and visitors includes digital technology to help track and trace. The relaxation of the COVID-19 restrictions helps some tourism-related businesses while other venue operators must wait and continue to follow guidelines issued by the Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health, the TAT noted in a relaase. Moreover, all international flights to Thailand are still banned until 30 June, 2020, due to the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT)s announcement, the release added. TAT GovernorYuthasak Supasorn said, TAT is working actively with our tourism partners and other industry partners to monitor and identify opportunities. TAT has formulated a strategy to support domestic tourism first and learn from experience, so that Thai tourists feel confident about their first travel choices around the Kingdom after the situation of the COVID-19 eases. The TAT strategy so far has been outlined as follows: PHASE ONE To begin with TAT has identified basic truths of the new reality moving forward: To restart, the tourism industry must be under disease control measures until a vaccine is developed to prevent this disease. This will affect and change all behaviour and patterns of traditional travel and tourism activities starting from the aviation experience. The Thai tourism industry has proved incredibly resilient over the years surviving countless negative experiences, but this time is the different because it is not only a domestic event, it is worldwide affecting valuable inbound international tourist markets. Everything has to change to survive, and that is contingent on highly effective and adaptable disease control measures. Tourists must be provided every assistance, so they can protect themselves and also help protect others by preventing the spread of the virus to others. Only the strongest will travel as tourists focus more on their health and safety. This means Gen Y or Millennials are expected to be the first to come back during any recovery period. Services must be adjusted to serve this group; who are self-assured, have high standards, expect new innovations to combat the health situation, and are concerned for family and friends once back home. The so-called new normal for Thai tourism focuses on less travelling, smaller gatherings, avoiding crowds and touching during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. New changes in Thai tourism are as follows: All markets, both mainstream and niche markets, will be evaluated for opportunities. However, Thailands tourism industry is highly dependent on international arrivals and ultimately it will be consumers who decide if and when they feel comfortable enough to travel overseas. On the operational level, products and services will all be adapted and with the number of potential clients greatly reduced. PHASES TWO AND THREE This begins once operational level products are functioning and a proper reduced carrying capacity is established so phase two can commence after international flights are allowed again. The new normal of tourism will be promoted on the basis of safety and hygiene by: International tourists coming to Thailand should not travel from or have lived in ongoing local transmission areas. They should not have a history of being in close contact with any probable or confirmed cases. A medical certificate is also required to be presented. There are restrictions on travelling abroad for Thai people due to the inbound and outbound limitation measures of Thailand and other countries around the world Promoting tourism in each province and to neighbouring provinces or provinces with no reported cases in the form of neighbour tourism. Promoting a revisiting campaign with cultural activities, activities for health, and the beauty of natural attractions. The number of tourists has to be limited to avoid congestion. Once arriving in Thailand, tourists are required to undergo the COVID-19 rapid test screening process for reconfirmation, and then depart for a sealed area without making any stops. While staying in Thailand, tourists are required to install and use a tracking application on their smartphone for the safety and protection of travelling in and out of sealed areas. Open the cities and country for sustainability by first stimulating domestic tourism that is safe for health and with continuous quality services. Focus on high-end international tourists with the image of Thailand as a world-class health tourism destination. The TAT Governor said, Encouraging international tourists to travel to Thailand must be affordable by subsidising hotels and tour operators, so that they in turn can reduce the price of tickets for transportation and accommodation for international tourists and fuel a sustainable, long-term recovery. Other measures include but are not limited to buying COVID-19 insurance to boost confidence among international tourists. Support the provision of money incentives to airlines and tour operators to use in public relations or conducting tourism marketing. The incentives can be also used with influencers to promote tourism traffic into and in Thailand. Collect tax from outbound Thai tourists to enhance domestic tourism while also exempting the visa application fee at embassies or consulates, including visa-on-arrival application fee, and set a compensation budget for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Immigration Bureau. Extend the night-time curfew in areas with international tourists to stimulate the night-time economy. Through marketing communications and creating positive feelings among the tourism industry while reducing xenophobia after reopening the country, spread goodwill with projects like Welcome Superheroes to Thailand for medical personnel around the world and avoid activities, which might lead to the recurrence of the COVID-19 transmission. THE BEST: The New Normal of Thai Tourism Tourism Driven under the Supervision of Public Health. Booking (in advance): Best practices would mean advanced bookings will be required. Travel plans will become a necessity, including the number of people, date, time, and expenses, which will need to be calculated beforehand under the restriction of numbers and social distancing conditions. Environmental (enthusiasts): Participate in promoting responsible tourism for society and the environment to help manage the quality of the environment and solve problems caused by tourism; such as, waste and pollution, so as to conserve and heal the recovering environment. Safety (comes first): Tourists will pay more attention to safety in order to protect themselves and prevent the spread of the virus to others. Technology (enhanced tourist experiences): Digital technology will include Mobile Track and Trace: a tracking system, which verifies and tracks each individual and/or devices in real time, whereby digital technology becomes a tourism necessity. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) Retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Tuesday warned China may "very soon put up" air and naval bases on Scarborough Shoal. He said this is the next step in the East Asian giant's reported plan for an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the contested South China Sea. "When China hinted it will establish an ADIZ over South China Sea, it only meant one thing: China will very soon put up an air and naval base on Scarborough Shoal," he said in a virtual roundtable discussion led by the Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institution. Carpio said that without an air and naval base, ADIZ cannot be enforced over the South China Sea because of a "hole in China's radar, missile, and jet fighter coverage" in the vicinity of Scarborough Shoal. ADIZ is defined by the United States government as a designated "area of airspace within which the ready identification, the location, and the control of aircraft are required in the interest of national security." The Philippines lost Scarborough Shoal to China after a controversial standoff in 2012. China blocked Filipino fishermen from Scarborough, also known as Panatag Shoal,which lies 120 nautical miles from Zambales. This prompted Manila to file a case for international arbitration, which it largely won. The Hague-based international trabunal's landmark ruling in July 2016 recognized the Philippines' sovereign rights in areas its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone that are being claimed by China. Although it did not rule on which country has sovereignty over Scarborough, it called out China for violating Filipinos' traditional fishing rights there. One year into the Reed Bank incident where 22 Filipino fishermen were abandoned at sea after a Chinese vessel rammed their boat Carpio said nothing has changed as China continues to bully and intimidate the country into accepting the so-called nine-dash line as its national boundary. Carpio criticized the Duterte administration's response, questioning why the government is shy in using its own arbitral victory to protest China's creeping encroachment on the country's economic exclusive zone. He said the government is prioritizing exploring its possible economic gains from China, which is not bearing fruit. "The strategy of Philippines under President Duterte is also clear. The Philippines will never offend China. The Philippines will always appease China. We have set aside the arbitral ruling but the expected amount of loans have not materialized. Our strategy to defend the West Philippine Sea is in total disarray," the former justice said. Former Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Laura del Rosario said Philippines should not be afraid to show some teeth against China, saying history shows China "respects" nations who push back. MORENCI, Ariz. A 39-mile stretch of a scenic highway in a sparsely populated part of eastern Arizona is closed due to a lightning-sparked wildfire burning in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests. Travelers can get around the closure of U.S. 191 between Morenci and Hannagan Meadow by detouring on U.S. 180 and State Route 78 in western New Mexico, the Arizona Department of Transportation said. The closure is expected to be prolonged and the highway is open only to local traffic. the department said. The fire started Saturday about 22 (35 kilometers) miles north of Morenci and as of Tuesday had burned 800 acres of timber and brush with approximately 155 firefighters and other personnel assigned to it, according to a post on the Inciweb multi-agency website. The post said fire managers expect to have the fire contained by June 20. A young Chinese woman has been left horrified after seeing a shoddy silicone implant oozing out between her nostrils due to botched plastic surgery. The lump had slipped from her nose bridge to her nose tip before poking out through the skin, the devastated woman told reporters. She had to walk around with the eyesore for days before doctors agreed to remove the implant from her. An image released by local media shows Ms Xie's deformed nose with the white silicone stick poking through her skin due to the failed operation she paid 7,000 yuan (780) for A young Chinese woman, Ms Xie (pictured), has been left horrified after botched plastic surgery gave her a misshaped nose with a silicone implant sticking out between her nostrils The beauty-conscious woman, known by her surname Xie, recently made the shocking discovery after noticing a small wound on the tip of her nose. An image released by local media shows Ms Xie's nose with the white silicone stick poking through her skin due to the failed operation she paid 7,000 yuan (780) for. Ms Xie had gone for a nose-shaping procedure in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, three years earlier to make her nose more prominent. Such operations are extremely popular in east Asian countries. The beauty lover said that she was initially happy with the result, but she started noticing the tip of her nose turning red in the winter last year. 'Because the weather was quite cold and I thought it was normal,' Ms Xie told Zhejiang Television. 'I didn't really think much about it.' The Chinese woman soon realised that her plastic surgery had gone wrong after she spotted the broken skin on her nose. 'I could see something white coming out,' she added. Ms Xie returned to the beauty centre for a consultation in late May. The plastic surgeon removed the silicone stick from her nose. The picture shows her nose without the implant Ms Wang (pictured right), director of the beauty centre in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, claimed that Ms Xie's deformed nose was caused by the normal deterioration of silicone implants She returned to the beauty centre for a consultation in late May. The plastic surgeon removed the silicone stick from her nose. Footage shows Ms Xie's nose with stitches following the removal procedure. The devastated woman has demanded the local clinic to pay for a repair procedure for her nose. Ms Wang, director of the beauty centre, claimed that Ms Xie's deformed nose was caused by the normal deterioration of silicone implants. 'After a while, silicone materials would slowly move down and stretch the skin,' she told the local press. The clinic owner added that such implants usually last about ten years. But Ms Xie had undergone the surgery only three years ago. When asked if the operation was botched, Ms Wang avoided answering directly and suggested the beauty lover receive a professional analysis for her nose. The clinic said that they would claim the full responsibility if the analysis indicated that it was their fault. Ms Xie said that she planned to receive nose reconstruction surgery at a different hospital. But she required the clinic to pay for the procedure. The local media said that the two parties continued with their negotiation. Tropical Storm Cristobal weakened into a depression early on June 8 after inundating coastal Louisiana and ginning up dangerous weather along most of the U.S. Gulf Coast, sending waves crashing over Mississippi beaches, swamping parts of an Alabama island town and spawning a tornado in Florida. Heavy rainfall and a storm surge continued posing a threat across a wide area of the coast after Cristobal made landfall Sunday afternoon packing 50-mph (85-kph) winds between the mouth of the Mississippi River and the since-evacuated barrier island resort community of Grand Isle. At 10 a.m. CDT on June 8, the storm was centered about 15 miles (30 kilometers) east of Monroe, Louisiana, with top winds of 35 mph (55 kmh). It was moving northwest at 15 mph (24 kmh). Cristobals remnants could be a rainmaker for days. Its forecast path takes it into Arkansas and Missouri today, then through Illinois and Wisconsin to the Great Lakes. Remnants of the storm are expected to whip up fierce winds in parts of the Midwest. Wind gusts of up to 45 mph (72 kph) are expected in Chicago by Tuesday night, the National Weather Service said. Boaters were being warned of gale-force winds on nearby Lake Michigan on Tuesday and Wednesday. Its very efficient, very tropical rainfall, National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said in a Facebook video. It rains a whole bunch real quick. In their last update on Cristobal from the hurricane center, forecasters said up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain could fall in some areas, and could cause significant river flooding across the mid and upper Mississippi Valley. Coastal Mississippi news outlets reported stalled cars and trucks as flood waters inundated beaches and crashed over highways. On the City of Biloxi Facebook page, officials said emergency workers helped dozens of motorists through flood waters, mostly on U.S. 90 running along the coast. In Alabama, the bridge linking the mainland to Dauphin Island was closed much of Sunday but was being reopened Monday. Police and state transportation department vehicles led convoys of motorists to and from the island when breaks in the weather permitted. In Louisiana, rising water on Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans pushed about two feet of water into the first floor of Rudy Horvaths residence a boathouse that sits on pilings over the brackish lake. Horvath said he and his family have lived there a year and have learned to take the occasional flood in stride. Theyve put tables on the lower floor to stack belongings above the high water. We thought it would be pretty cool to live out here, and it has been, Horvath said. The sunsets are great. The U.S. Coast Guard said it was searching for two people who went out in a 20-foot yellow boat near Slidell, Louisiana on Sunday afternoon and hadnt returned. A helicopter and local officials were assisting in the search for Ted Roach and Jennifer Lingoni, the Coast Guard said in a statement. Elsewhere in south Louisiana, water covered the only road to Grand Isle and low-lying parts of Plaquemines Parish at the states southeastern tip. You cant go down there by car, shrimper Acy Cooper said Sunday of one marina in the area. You have to go by boat. Rain fell intermittently in New Orleans famed French Quarter in the afternoon on June 7, but the streets were nearly deserted, with many businesses already boarded up due to the coronavirus. Daniel Priestman said people may be overwhelmed by the coronavirus and recent police violence and protests. They seemed resigned to whatever happens happens, he said. At one New Orleans intersection, a handmade Black Lives Matter sign, wired to a lamp post, rattled in a stiff wind as the crew of a massive vacuum truck worked to unclog a storm drain. President Donald Trump agreed to issue an emergency declaration for Louisiana, officials said. In Florida, a tornado the second in two days in the state as the storm approached uprooted trees and downed power lines Sunday afternoon south of Lake City near Interstate 75, the weather service and authorities said. There were no reports of injuries. The storm also forced a waterlogged stretch of Interstate 10 in north Florida to close for a time Sunday. Associated Press reporters Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida; and Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Florida USA Louisiana Flood Mississippi Alabama From Delish During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals have turned to grocery delivery services like Instacart more than ever before. While keeping up with demand, Instacart has updated their policies accordingly, and most recently adjusted their tipping system to eliminate tip-baiting. Tip-baiting is a practice that happens when a customer promises large tips for their grocery shoppers, and then after the delivery changes the tip to a lesser amount or down to zero. Big tips entice shoppers to fulfill orders and be more efficient when shopping. This is especially problematic because during the coronavirus crisis, some shoppers depend on Instacart for their main income and are putting their health on the line by leaving their homes to fill orders. Photo credit: Michael Loccisano - Getty Images The issue of tip-baiting has gotten recent attention from members of the senate, led by Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii. He sent a letter to the founder and CEO of Instacart about this concern. "Shoppers risk their health and safety in order to deliver groceries and other goods to people who are sheltering in placethey should be able to count on reasonable compensation for that risk," he wrote: "Shoppers choose which orders to take based on the expected compensation, which is largely driven by the estimated tip. By permitting customers to 'bait' shoppers with high tips that are then revoked, your companys compensation policy enables this deception." In the letter, Senator Schatz also called for a potential investigation of Instacart's tipping system by the Federal Trade Commission. The grocery delivery service has since made changes to their tipping system. Now, instead of having three days to adjust a tip amount, customers will only have 24 hours to do so, according to The Verge. Instacart will also ban customers who consistently use tip-baiting. Additionally, if a tip is altered after the fact, customers will be required to leave feedback and explain why they changed the tip amount. You Might Also Like As the coronavirus was spreading from China to Europe and eventually to the U.S., Americans borrowed a record amount of money to pay for new and used cars, according to a new report. Experian, which tracks millions of auto loans, said U.S. consumers agreed to record monthly auto loan payments in the first quarter, when vehicle sales were surging before a dramatic slowdown in the second half of March. "What I've noticed that seemed to change is leasing has come down. It dropped more significantly in April. So more loans (to buy) and less leasing," said Melinda Zabritski, senior director of automotive financial solutions at Experian. Leasing, which typically comes with a lower monthly payment, likely became less appealing because many consumers opted for an even lower monthly payment with a used vehicle, she said. In addition, in March and April, automakers started offering lucrative incentives to buy a new vehicle, which attracted more customers. Before the coronavirus pandemic slammed the brakes on the economy, those buying new vehicles in the first quarter agreed to an average monthly loan payment of $569 an all-time high with the average amount borrowed hitting a record high of $33,739. The numbers for used vehicle prices also climbed to all-time highs, with the average monthly payment hitting $397, and the average amount for an auto loan rising to $20,723. The larger loans and the higher monthly payments reflect a market where new vehicle prices have increased, especially for pickups and SUVs, which sell at higher price points. "Consumers have become comfortable with it," said Zabritski. "If they weren't, we would see consumers go back to smaller, less expensive vehicles." New vehicle prices have steadily risen over the last decade, in large part because the economy was expanding, jobs were being created and consumer confidence rarely dipped. It's been a far different story in the last two months. Unemployment has skyrocketed to 13.3%, with millions losing their jobs since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March as the country slid into a recession. In 2008 and 2009, during the last recession, the number of delinquent auto loans soared as consumers failed to make their monthly car payments. Although it is unclear whether that will happen again, Wells Fargo has stopped making auto loans to most independent dealers in the country because it is worried about loan defaults. The move follows Wells Fargo's retrenchment from parts of the mortgage market as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the U.S. When Douglas Public Health Network began its drive-thru testing clinics for COVID-19 in March, it had some hurdles to overcome. One of the biggest was a shortage of the equipment it needed to collect samples from patients for testing. COVID-19 samples are taken using a unique swab that looks like a very long Q-tip. One of the primary manufacturers of the swabs in question was a company in Italy one of the countries slammed the earliest and hardest by the disease. Because of that, the supply dwindled to testing sites across America, including here in Douglas County. So in that first month or so, not everyone who wanted a test could get one. The tests were only offered to those who were showing symptoms. But Douglas Public Health Network spokeswoman Vanessa Becker said county health officials came up with a novel solution to the problem. They figured out that tests for venereal disease chlamydia used the same type of swabs. So they asked local clinics if they had sampling kits for chlamydia they could share, and they did. Another challenge early on was a shortage of the correct type of fluid to hold the samples collected by the swabs. Douglas Public Health reached out to the FDA to gain approval to use a saline solution more readily available, and they received it, Becker said. By mid-April, the drive-thru testing clinics were well supplied with everything they needed and testing was opened up to those who were asymptomatic or possibly presymptomatic. One thing Public Health had going for it was that it had created a drive-thru flu shot clinic system that was easily adaptable to the pandemic sampling. Its one of the few public health systems in Oregon thats operating its own drive-thru clinic a role filled by hospitals in some counties. One reason the countys drive-thru format was chosen was the personal protective equipment shortage at the time. The drive-thru allowed a single doctor to wear the same PPE throughout the day rather than changing for each patient. The re-purposing of chlamydia testing kits offered up by private health clinics was an example of the kind of public-private cooperation that has helped solve challenges with testing for COVID-19. Another followed from Public Healths requirement that doctors refer patients for the drive-thru clinic. People without primary care providers who wanted tests now needed a doctor. Evergreen Urgent Care stepped up, and then Aviva Health to provide that assistance. Spokesman Mark Tsuchiya said Aviva, formerly known as Umpqua Community Health Center, opened the first of its eight clinics in 1992 with the express purpose of aiding the underserved. More than half its patients are on Oregon Health Plan, while some are uninsured. When Aviva learned that many people calling for tests had no doctor, it created a team to assist them. We decided to step in to help because providing access to high-quality health care is part of our mission, especially in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, Tsuchiya said. In all, Aviva has referred 100 people to be tested. Its providers have also helped collect samples at the drive-thru clinic and the companys CEO KC Bolton was named incident commander for the Douglas County COVID-19 Response Team. Over time, more testing became available at clinics around the county. In May, CHI Mercy Medical Center obtained a new Abbott ID NOW testing machine that increased its ability to test its own patients. Quest Diagnostics in Roseburg began providing lab services to test the samples more quickly than the state lab that was the countys only option in the beginning. To date, 2,956 people have been tested in Douglas County. Of those, 576 have been tested at the drive-thru clinic. As of Friday, 29 county residents had tested positive for the disease, including 14 tested at the drive-thru. Despite a slight uptick in post-Phase 1 infections a nearly two-week streak of zero cases was broken with the countys 26th case on May 28 county health officials feel fairly confident that were on the downside of the bell curve. Becker said thats because the percentage of those being tested who are positive for the disease here is very low, about 1.2%. In places hard hit by the pandemic, positive test rates are much, much higher, Becker said. In New York during its peak, for example, between 40 and 50% of the tests were coming back positive. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter Demand for tests here has also decreased. When we first started we were having 40 to 50 in the drive-thru clinic and I think our lowest numbers have been five lately, Becker said. If the numbers start ramping up again, Public Health is ready. It could now handle several hundred tests a week if necessary, she said. Either way, we shouldnt expect the virus to disappear any time soon. This virus is not safe. Its not going away. Were just more prepared to manage it and deal with it, Becker said. This article was originally published by the News-Review in Roseburg, 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. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday jumped on revelations that the reporter who filed a report on a conspiracy theory retweeted by President Donald Trump was born in Russia and reported for Kremlin-backed Sputnik news. Clinton retweeted a post noting the broadcaster behind the report Trump seized on worked for both the right wing OANN network that Trump likes to promote as an alternative to fox and Sputnik. It is the OAN report that apparently caught Trump's attention. OAN had picked up the report from the Conservative Treehouse website, which has been behind other conspiracy theories. 'You don't say,' Clinton wrote, retweeting a post that referenced a July 2019 Daily Beast report that dug into OAN correspondent Kristian Rouz, who filed the report on activist Martin Gugino, who got pushed to the ground by a pair of Buffalo police officers at a protest last week. 'You don't say,' Clinton wrote Tuesday, retweeting a post noting that the OAN correspondent who produced a report on a conspiracy retweeted by the president has previously been revealed to be working for Kremlin-backed Sputnik news Rouz was born in Siberia, graduated from Novosibirsk State University, and moved to the U.S. in 2017. Sputik formally registered as a foreign agent in 2017, having been accused by U.S. intelligence of spreading Russian misinformation during the 2016 campaign. The Daily Beast article noted that Rouz had previously been working for both outlets simultaneously. A search on the Sputnik site Tuesday turned up articles by Rouz dating to 2018. Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016 in an election that featured hacking that U.S. intelligence says the Kremlin backed to hurt her campaign, made no further comment on the matter besides her brief tweet. Clinton retweeted a post referencing some backstory to the conspiracy theory Clinton raised the issue after the Trump tweet became a prominent story in the Capitol On Tuesday morning, President Trump blasted out a conspiracy theory claiming Gugino, a 75-year-old cancer sufferer seen on video getting shoved to the ground by police, fell 'harder than he was pushed' and had connections to Antifa. The America News Network report featured close-up, slowed footage of the incident while voice-over from a correspondent touts possible connections to Antifa, a group Trump has said wants to label as domestic terrorist organization. The report claims that the incident 'could be the result of a false flag provocation by far left group Antifa' but doesn't provide evidence. It cites information that appeared on the Conservative Treehouse blog which identifies Gugino as a 'well-known activist.' Trump tweeted Tuesday morning: 'Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN.' The president added that he agreed with at least part of what was put forward by the broadcast on a network he regularly touts. 'I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?' Trump asked. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ripped the president Tuesday for issuing a 'reckless, irresponsible, mean, crude if there was ever a reprehensible, dumb comment.' 'And from the president of the United States at this moment of anguish and anger. He pours gasoline on the fire. If there was ever, if he ever feels a moment of decency, he should apologize fr that tweet,' Cuomo added. Kristian Rouz, who was previously revealed to have been working for Kremlin-backed Sputnik, produced the segment that Trump retweeted An elderly man was seen approaching Buffalo police officers in riot gear outside of City Hall on Thursday President Trump tweeted that 75-year old Martin Gugino 'fell harder than was pushed' Martin Gugino, a longtime peace activist from Amherst, had been at a protest at Niagara Square near Buffalo City Hall when he was pushed. He hit his head on the ground causing it to bleed Gugino remains hospitalized in Buffalo. He texted USA Today after being asked about Trump's tweet. 'No comment other than Black lives matter. Just out of the ICU. Should recover eventually. Thx,' he wrote. His attorney blasted the 'dangerous' and 'untrue' accusations. against him. Before Clinton weighed in, Trump rival former Vice President Joe Biden pounced on the Trump tweet in more detail. 'My Dad used to say there's no greater sin than the abuse of power. Whether it's an officer bloodying a peaceful protester or a President defending him with a conspiracy theory he saw on TV. I'm a Catholic just like Martin,' Biden said. 'Our faith says that we can't accept either,' he added. Two police officers who shoved him last week in an incident captured on dramatic video have pleaded not guilty to assault. Video of the incident shows Gugino bleeding on the pavement as a group of officers walk by. Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe were charged with assault in the second degree Saturday morning. Aaron Torgalski (left) and Robert McCabe (right) pictured in their mugs. They were each charged with one count of assault in the second degree in a court hearing Saturday morning over the shocking incident that left peaceful protester Martin Gugino in a 'serious condition' in hospital Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said Gugino was an 'agitator' In this image from video provided by WBFO, a Buffalo police officer appears to shove a man who walked up to police Thursday, June 4, 2020, in Buffalo, N.Y. Video from WBFO shows the man appearing to hit his head on the pavement, with blood leaking out as officers walk past to clear Niagara Square. Buffalo police initially said in a statement that a person 'was injured when he tripped & fell,' WIVB-TV reported, but Capt. Jeff Rinaldo later told the TV station that an internal affairs investigation was opened Former White House press secretary for George W. Bush Ari Fliescher Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said Gugino was an 'agitator' who tried to work up the crowd and had been asked to leave the area 'numerous' times. The OANN report zeroed in on footage of the man waving his phone while coming in close contact with members of a Buffalo police unit during the protest. All 57 officers on the Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response Team resigned from the squad on Friday in support of their colleagues who were suspended over the incident. The report Trump tweeted says video 'appear to show Gugino using a police tracker on his phone trying to scan police communications during the protest.' It describes it as an 'old trick used by Antifa' to locate police officers and plan violent activities' and was 'supposedly using the communication to black out police technologies.' The report says mainstream media continued to 'push the narrative of so-called police brutality.' There are multiple holes in the conspiracy theory the OAN report cited. There have been multiple actual instances of police using force to subdue protesters, which limits the utility of Gugino deliberately falling backward onto his head, putting himself in a situation which could cause brain damage or death. It cites newly released videos but merely captures days-old videos that have already been published, the Washington Post noted. The video itself contains no evidence Gugino was somehow capturing information with his cell phone. It also fails to substantiate the claim that antifa makes use of the tactic or otherwise connect Gugino to antifa, a favorite target of Trump's. Gugino has been undergoing chemo treatments for cancer, Vicki Ross of the Western New York Peace Center and Latin American Solidarity Committee told the Associated Press. Ross said Gugino has also been undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Martin Gugino's history of peaceful activism Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old man who got pushed to the ground by Buffalo police and who Trump accused of possibly being in on a 'set up' has a long history of activism for a range of causes. The resident of Amherst in upstate New York outside Buffalo has been involved with the Western New York Peace Center. 'He's a gentle person who really believes that he must stand up for what he thinks is right,' his friend Terrence Bisson told the Buffalo News. He has advocated for closing the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, climate change, and other issues. He has protested the treatment of child immigrants at the southern border. Martin Gugino pictured with actor Ed Asner Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown called him an 'agitator' and President Donald Trump claimed after watching a video where Buffalo police shoved him that Gugino 'fell harder than was pushed.' Trump tweeted that Gugino 'could be an ANTIFA provocateur' but did not provide evidence of a connection to the loosely-defined left-wing group. 'He's the last person you would want to push down. He's the kind of person who you would want to speak up,' said Bisson. 'He'd never shout or oppose someone. He would ask questions if he thought something was not right,' Bisson told WKBW. The day before he got pushed by police, he posted a tweet that said 'F*** the police.' On June 4, he tweeted: 'Protests are exempt from curfews because Congress (and mayors) may make no laws that abridge the right of the people peaceably to assemble and complain to the government. The government should receive the complaint with thanks, not arrest the people or beat them.' He has been photographed holding signs dealing with detention of immigrants and Guantanamo. Advertisement Tauranga City Councils Urban Form and Transport Development Committee today agreed in principle to the delivery of the Eastern Corridor Wastewater Programme, subject to budget being available through the 2021-31 Long Term Plan. This will enable construction to proceed on a rising main and pump station at 45 Opal Drive. This site is currently used for transitional housing. Read more here. In 2017, Council entered into an agreement with Housing New Zealand to lease the balance of the 45 Opal Drive site for a transitional housing project. This recognised that a new pump station was required to be built on the site, but that the physical works were not in a position to begin at that time and allowed for the land to be used in the interim. Although the transitional houses were planned to be temporary, it's accepted that the eventual construction of the pump station in July 2022 will impact upon the tenants and transitional housing availability, particularly given the ongoing demand for these services. General Manager of Community Services, Gareth Wallis says, council recognises the importance of transitional housing and the success of the 45 Opal Drive partnership with Tauranga Community Housing Trust. A key action within the sub-regional homelessness strategy, Kainga Tupu, is looking for ways we can mitigate the impact of losing these sites. Council asked that the Community Development team continue to work with Kainga Ora and the Tauranga Community Housing Trust, who have a sub-lease to manage the transitional housing complex, and endeavour to minimise the impact on residents prior to the eventual removal of the transitional housing. Over the years, Samsungs Galaxy M series has had some interesting offerings in the budget smartphone segment in India. One of the newest phones in the M series, the Samsung Galaxy M21, was announced back in March, touting improvements in the battery life, screen and camera. However, does it justify the price increase? Can it stand on its own in this extremely competitive price segment in India. Read on in our review of the Galaxy M21 and let us know in the comments about your opinion on the device. Box Contents Samsung Galaxy M21 (4GB + 64GB) in Raven Black colour 2-pin 15W Fast Charger (9.0v-1.67A) USB Type-C cable SIM ejector tool Quick Start Guide and Warranty information Display, Hardware and Design The Samsung Galaxy M21 has a 6.4-inch (2340 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ Infinity-U Super AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 420nits. Samsung knows how to make their panels and it shows, even for their budget devices. The screen was plenty bright with good sunlight visibility, and Samsung has upgraded the panel to OLED this time (compared to the LCD Screen found on the M20), which means much better colour reproduction and contrast. Coming to phone hardware, the front screen is protected by Cornings Gorilla Glass 3, which is great. Power button and volume rocker are on the right edge of the device, and the bottom edge, there is a 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type-C port and a single speaker grill. On the left edge is the slot of Dual SIM cards and a dedicated Micro SD card, which is always better than having a hybrid SD/SIM card slot. The design of the phone itself, it looks pretty much like any standard Galaxy M series device. The bezels are not huge, but certainly visible, which is understandable considering the price point of this device. The real complaint for this device is in the material choices that Samsung made for this device, and it clearly shows where they made some cost-cutting measures. The back of the device is made out of a soft-type plastic that can scratch easily. Users will need to use this device with a case and it is important to note that Samsung does not include a case in the box, which is something that many Chinese smartphone manufacturers do these days. Camera On the back of the device we can see a triple camera setup, with the 48MP f/2.0 main shooter, 8MP f/2.2 123 ultra-wide camera and finally a 5MP depth sensor with f/2.2 lens. When using the main 48MP sensor, by default, Samsung will quad-bin pixels and create 12MP photos as the final result. The camera app on the Galaxy M21 opened a little slow for my preference but the shutter lag was surprisingly extremely short. Coming to the quality of photos taken by Galaxy M21, it felt a little inconsistent. Some photos looked natural and true-to-life, while other times, the phone would post-process the photo heavily, with extremely saturated colours or over-sharpening. These inconsistencies were present between the wide and ultra-wide lens too. Photos coming from the ultra wide were often quite a bit more saturated, and the details were just too soft. Zooming in on the photos, you can see how much details were lost in the ultra wide photos. The selfie camera on the Galaxy M21 has a 20MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture, housed in the notch in the front display. It produced fairly good images, with good white balance and colours, although it may look a tad bit washed out. There is even an ultra wide mode in the selfie camera, where Samsung just punches out the image a bit to include more. In my opinion, there should just be one mode, that is the ultra-wide mode, by default. But hey, more choices for the user. For video recording, the Galaxy M21 can shoot up to 4K 30fps, which is impressive for a phone in this price range, and can also shoot slow-motion up to 240fps @ 720p. There is no OIS, instead Samsung offers a software based Super Steady feature, but it produced an extremely strong jelly-motion effect, so I switched it off. Check out the camera samples below: Software, UI and Apps The Galaxy M21 is running Samsungs One UI 2.0 thats based on Android 10, and currently has the February Android Security patch. Over the past year, Samsung has been doing a good job of releasing updates for nearly all their smartphones and I expect it to continue with the M21 too. Overall, the software experience was acceptable. Over the time period of using the device, I did not face any serious bugs nor any app crashes, but there was the occasional hiccup and sometimes the UI felt sluggish, especially when switching between multiple apps. The Exynos 9611 might be a little under powered to be handling Samsungs One UI 2.0 easily. The setup process, however, was a real pain. Samsung will prompt you to install a ton of bloatware, and for some apps, they wont even give you the option to deny the installation. You just have to uninstall it later. Once the phone is set up, I found quite unwanted apps like Candy Crush Saga, Helo, Likee, and even some mainstream apps like Netflix, Outlook, YouTube Music, etc. Thankfully, Samsung does give you the option to uninstall them. Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock The phone offers two biometric methods of authentication, a rear mounted captive fingerprint sensor and face unlock using the front facing camera. Since the fingerprint sensor is a physical capacitive sensor and not under the screen (like many budget smartphone these days) the unlocking is fast and accurate. Getting the placement of my finger took a bit of time to get used to, but after that it felt natural. Face unlock on this phone uses the RGB sensor of the front facing camera to authenticate the users face. While the detection was quite accurate and fairly quick, I would not recommend using it, as it does not use a dot projector or depth sensing sensors, which make the authentication process very insecure. Music Player and Multimedia Thanks to the FullHD Super AMOLED screen, watching content on the Galaxy M21 is really nice. There is Widevine L1 support and content on Netflix and Amazon Prime will playback in FullHD. There is no preloaded music player, however these most of us use some streaming service anyways. There is however a Radio app, which can be useful for some users. There is support for Dolby Atmos in this smartphone and it gave a nice boost in audio quality when I have earphones plugged in via the 3.5mm audio jack. I would recommend using earphones at all times, either wired or wireless, as the single mono speaker at the bottom edge of the device does not perform well. It can easily be covered by your hand, muffling the sound and it gets quite distorted when you crack up the volume. Dual SIM and Connectivity In terms of connectivity, the Galaxy M21 does not fall short. There are dual 4G SIM slots that support dual VoLTE standby, along with support for VoWiFi. There is dual band WiFi 802.11 ac support (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS and GLONASS. There is no NFC support however, so that may be a deal breaker for some of you. During the review, call quality was satisfactory and I did not experience any call drops either. Head SAR value was recorded at 0.468W/Kg. Performance and Benchmarks At the core of the Galaxy M21 is its Samsungs Exynos 9611 Octa-core CPU thats paired with a Mali-G72MP3 GPU. The Exynos 9611 features a quad core ARM Cortex A73 that clocks up to 2.3GHz and a quad core ARM Cortex-A53 that clocks up to 1.7GHz. This is the same processor that appeared in their mid-range Galaxy A51 smartphone and it is impressive to see that processor being brought down to a budget device. However, in the Galaxy A51 review, we noted that the Exynos 9611 could perform day-to day tasks pretty well, but became sluggish when using graphics intensive apps. The same holds true for the Galaxy M21, maybe even slightly worse. While navigating through the UI the phone was smooth for the most part, when switching between apps, especially RAM-intensive or graphic intensive apps, I would notice slowdowns and stutters throughout the UI. The base model of the Galaxy M21 has 4GB of RAM, which sometimes means apps in the background would more often require a complete restart. Talking about gaming performance, the phone is not bad at all. With light games, I noticed good frame rates and nearly no slowdowns. However, with heavier titles like Asphalt 8, PUBG, Call of Duty: Mobile, the phone would struggle to keep frame rates high, but I never felt like it was unplayable. As long you dont expect peak 60fps performance at all times, you would be perfectly satisfied with the Galaxy M21 when gaming. With regard to heating, the device got slightly warm under extended sessions, but was never uncomfortable. The Exynos 9611 certainly maintained its thermals well under control. Also, the long battery life means long gaming sessions before needing to plug in, which is a bonus. Check out some synthetic benchmarks below: Battery life This is an area where the Samsung Galaxy M21 shines. A typical smartphone that claims to have a big battery will have a capacity of around 4500 mAh, but the Galaxy M21 on the other hand has a massive 6000 mAh battery. That extra capacity makes a big difference. This phone can comfortably last two days with casual use, with the only real battery drainer being gaming. Samsungs One UI doesnt do a very good job of showing battery information, but in my testing I believe I was able to get well above 7 hours of screen on-time. In our One Charge rating, the Samsung Galaxy M21 scored 18 hours 46 minutes, which is almost same as M31. The downside to having such a huge battery however, is its charging time. It does support fast charging and Samsung includes a 15W fast charger in the box, but it is still simply too slow. Going from 0%-50% took about 1hr 20mins and all the way to 100% took about 3 hours. This is quite disappointing considering the fact that some of its competition, especially the Chinese brands, can charge their entire devices in about an hour. Conclusion When you compare the improvements that Samsung has made to the Galaxy M21 from its predecessor, the Galaxy M20, it is easy to justify the price increase. The screen is wonderful and bright, the battery life is outstanding and the performance has been relatively improved. However, when you look at the smartphone by itself in the current market, it doesnt look as impressive anymore. Samsung is facing tough competition from the major Chinese brands, who often smartphones with much better specs. Samsungs insistence to stick with their in-house Exynos processor is hampering the phones capabilities and this is causing companies like Xiaomi and Realme to pull ahead. If you really prefer Samsungs OneUI, want a camera that performs as expected and you cannot spend more than Rs. 14000 for a smartphone, then maybe the Galaxy M21 should be on your radar. However, if you do not mind switching to Xiaomis MiUI or Realme OS, I think you can have a better overall experience with their smartphone offerings. Competition The realme 6 that lies in the price range is a good option if you want better gaming performance and high refresh rate LCD screen. Redmi Note 9 Pro is another option with good battery life, glass body and smooth performance. Availability Priced at Rs. 13,999 for the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version and Rs. 15999 for the 6RAM with 128GB storage version is available from Amazon.in and Samsung India website. Pros Great battery life Bright and colourful sAMOLED screen Decent camera performance Fast rear fingerprint sensor Cons Despite being pursued by Marvel Studios, actor Jason Statham has a particular dislike for their movies. In an interview, Statham said that even his grandma could perform in them, and that they posed no challenge. In 2015, the actor told Italian website I 400 Calci that Marvel movies reliance on special effects and green screen means that actors dont really have to perform stunts. He said, I could take my grandma and put her in a cape, and theyll put her on a green screen, and theyll have stunt doubles come in and do all the action. Anybody could do it. He said that these types of films dont fell authentic to him, and that he is inspired by old, real-star [actors] guys that can really do their thing. Also read: When Robert Downey Jr almost quit MCU in 2013, and Marvel hinted at replacement Actor Paul Bettany, who voiced Jarvis in the Marvel films before playing Vision, had a befitting reply to Statham's comments. In an appearance on Conan OBriens show, Bettany said, I would never talk sh*t about somebody elses work, but Im just saying, you know, I read the contract, they employed me as an actor. Theres obviously stuntmen in the world youve met them, youve seen them. They are very good at what they do, so let them do it. But if theres a really, really tricky scene with some very tricky dialogue, one might consider bringing in an acting double for Jason Statham. Statham, who was rumoured to be in the running to play Bullseye in Netflixs Daredevil series, has often voiced his disapproval of superhero movies. Its all about money, kids pay money to go and see them, Statham told DigitalSpy in 2013. The fascination is superheroes, its what people want to go and see but you wouldnt get me rushing to the cinema to see those. I like the old-fashioned type of film. Theyve never offered me a part in one of those and I dont think the shoes would fit. Or the cape wouldnt fit! Also read: When Chris Hemsworth called Thor 2 meh, Idris Elba said working on it ripped my heart out But Marvel president Kevin Feige confirmed that they did, indeed, want Statham to join the MCU. I was in another meeting a few days later, and my cellphone rang. I didnt recognise the number, but I answered it. And it was Jason Statham. He was saying, Sorry it didnt work out, maybe next time. He couldnt have been nicer! Feige told Den of Geek. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Michele Buzon, professor of anthropology at Purdue University, is a bioarchaeologist who has excavated in the Nubian region of modern-day Sudan, to better understand interactions between Egyptians and Nubians. She and her research team excavated the site of Tombos in northern Sudan in January and February. This was her 10th field season at the site. (Photo provided by Michele Buzon) WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Like a fingerprint, teeth are unique to each individual. Dental records are useful in identifying human remains, but what can tooth enamel tell us about an individual or an entire civilization of 3,000 years ago in the Nile River Valley? One way we can identity whether an individual is from a particular area is from elements that are in the ground; plants and animals that we consume are incorporated into our skeletal and dental tissues, said Michele Buzon, professor of anthropology at Purdue University. Buzon is a bioarchaeologist who has excavated in the Nubian region of modern-day Sudan, to better understand interactions between Egyptians and Nubians. I have been using the element strontium in tooth enamel in order to see if the individuals buried at the sites I am excavating were born and raised in the local area or if they are immigrants that were raised somewhere else, she said. Buzon, who also is known in the archaeology world for excavating the burial of an ancient horse and uncovering evidence of Egyptians and Nubians creating new communities together, spent January and February excavating at the site of Tombos in northern Sudan with her research team, aided by a grant from the College of Liberal Arts Exploratory Research in the Social Sciences grant. A photo gallery featuring nearly two dozen images from Buzons recent excavation are featured online. Shes excavated this site for ten seasons, and this recent trip focused on studying the alkaline-earth metal called strontium. The element has similar physical and chemical properties to calcium. Buzon is looking into how the element varies depending on geographical location. Since 2004, she and her team have been collecting samples of strontium from soil, plants and animal remains to determine the elements local signature. They then compare the strontium isotope values in dental enamel from the tombs they excavate to the local range to see if the individual grew up in the area. Part of this project is to understand variability in different places in the Nile Valley because we would like to be able to see if we can identify where somebody might have come from, if their strontium doesnt match the local area, Buzon said. We are using these plant samples from various places in the Nile Valley to get a better sense of the local signature and see how much they might vary from place to place. To measure the element in humans, the surface of the tooth is cleaned and between 10 and 20 milligrams of enamel is extracted. The enamel is then ground up, dissolved and cleaned chemically before it is processed to measure the elements isotope ratio. Buzon has been working with Antonio Simonetti, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Buzons current strontium project, which started in 2019 and will last through 2022, is funded by the National Science Foundation, one of the largest federal agencies that provides money for archaeology and anthropology. She was first funded by the NSF as a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The initial grant was from 2003-2004 and was awarded as an aid for her dissertation. Other grants she received from the NSF were for a 2009-2012 study to examine the identities of individuals during the development of the Napatan State and for 2014-2018 research to look at the impact of the Egyptian New Kingdom Empire in Nubia. She also was funded by the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration in 2009. Her work with the isotopes variability can aid in understanding migration and how climate change may have affected strontium over time. There are many challenges that come with studying ancient civilizations, but now researchers have to look into how climate change may impact how they study societies in the past. There have been some changes in climate, temperature and humidity and also how much dust is coming from the Sahara and moving across the desert, Buzon said. Some researchers have hypothesized that when sediments are coming in from another area, it could change the strontium isotope signature. This project is one way we can see if there is a change in the strontium isotope signature of a particular area because of factors that may have been affecting climate. While Buzon has spent 20 years excavating in the Nile Valley, she is partnering with a new team of scientists to tell a more complete story with the help of plants. Maha Kordofani, Sudanese botanist and professor at the University of Khartoum, is assisting the team in identifying the types of plants collected. Working with local scientists is just one of the ways Buzon and her team are engaging with the community. As anthropologists its important to think about other cultures coming in and documenting the history that is not their own and what that means for telling someone elses story, so I think its very important to involve the local community - the descendants of people were researching in telling the story together, Buzon said. The research team involves the local community by providing information on its recent findings. The team has hosted end-of-the-season and womens talks, and engaged with the community to see what topics they would be interested in learning more about. Buzon and her team also have worked with the local schools to provide teaching materials and informational posters for the students. This past season, the team hosted a tour for a fifth grade class to allow the students to see the process of archaeology first hand. For us we want to try to provide for the community in terms of education and what their interests are and really make this feel like a partnership. We want this to be a joint project in terms of what were learning about the past in Sudan and how to protect these sites and cultural heritage so that more people can learn from this information, Buzon said. Buzon is the recipient of Purdues 2017 Research and Scholarship Distinction Award, the most prestigious award the university bestows in the humanities and social sciences. The Department of Anthropology is in the College of Liberal Arts. 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: Madison Sanneman, msannema@purdue.edu Media contact: Amy Patterson Neubert, apatterson@purdue.edu (working remotely but will provide immediate response) Source: Michele Buzon, mbuzon@purdue.edu After 11 years of stalling, Iran passed a measure on Sunday making it a crime to emotionally or physically abuse or abandon a child, expanding significantly the legal protections offered to children and juveniles. The new law materialized largely in response to nationwide outrage over the killing of a teenage girl last month. Romina Ashrafi, 14, was beheaded by her father with a farming sickle because she had run off with a boyfriend. Some Iranian media, including the official news agency IRNA, referred to the new legislation as Rominas law and said if it had passed a few weeks earlier, she might still be alive. Romina died, but thousands of children are at the brink of life and death every day. This case clearly revealed the lack of laws protecting children, said Reza Shafahkhah, a lawyer and childrens rights activist, who spoke to the Iranian media on Monday. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 10 2020 State-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina signed on Friday a head of agreement with Taiwanese counterpart CPC to develop a petrochemical facility in Balongan, West Java. The US$8 billion petrochemical facility, slated for commercial operation in 2026, represents the third phase expansion of Pertaminas Balongan oil refinery. This project is an important step in strengthening Pertaminas petrochemical business such that, in the next 10 years, Pertamina can become a major petrochemical business player in the Asia- Pacific, said Pertamina president director Nicke Widyawati in a statement that day. 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 FORT EDWARD The lawsuit served by Easton Supervisor Dan Shaw after being ousted as county budget officer claims he cannot be removed from his two-year term without written charges and the opportunity to be heard. The Article 78 complaint argues the resolution appointing Hebron Supervisor Brian Campbell as budget officer should be annulled. The resolution was passed May 29 during a special meeting of the Washington County Board of Supervisors, replacing Shaw with Campbell. After the meeting, a lawyer for Shaw served County Attorney Roger Wickes with the Article 78 lawsuit. Shaw had served two years and five months as budget officer and was reappointed to the position in January. Some supervisors have said he has not been mentally focused or mentally engaged in the budget process. Campbell, who has been a supervisor for 12 years, previously served as budget officer for eight years. He was on the board during the 2008 housing market crash, when the county faced similar financial difficulties as it does now with the coronavirus pandemic. Shaw referred questions to his lawyer, Steven Greenblatt, who would not speak about the matter. Wickes said an Article 78 is not like a standard lawsuit. It claims the board did not follow proper procedures. He has not yet responded to the complaint. Its usually a very short proceeding, Wickes said. Either you did it right or you didnt. If you did it right, then you did it right and game over. Wickes also said the complaint concentrates on the procedure, so there is rarely testimony or witnesses. The complaint will be heard before a state Supreme Court judge. Campbell said he doesnt think the lawsuit will change anything. I guess it was a way to figure out if he could get the job back, Campbell said. Washington County supervisors are paid a salary of $19,138. The budget officer is paid a salary of $36,383. Gretta Hochsprung writes hometown news and covers Washington County. You can reach her at ghochsprung@poststar.com or 518-742-3206. Follow her on Twitter @GrettaHoch or at her blog on www.poststar.com. Love 1 Funny 3 Wow 2 Sad 1 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. Express News Service MANGALURU: Lockdown might have hit many farmers across the country, but it has benefited arecanut growers like never before. The price of new stocks of white arecanut has touched a record Rs 300 per kg in the domestic market for the very first time and it is set to further go up if restrictions on its imports continue for some more time. India gets 40% of its arecanut through imports mainly from Indonesia and Myanmar, which is routed through Nepal. These imports had seen a steady decline from last one year due to policy measures. Moreover, the lockdown which sealed the Indo-Nepal border has fully stopped its import. Suresh Bhandary, MD of Campco, said the prices of fresh arecanut went up from Rs 250 to Rs 300, those of the commodity harvested a year ago went up from Rs 270 to Rs 320. Also, the prices have remained stable for a week now. For the very first time, the trading price of the new harvest has touched Rs 300 mark. It might go up further if the Maharashtra market opens up, jacking up the demand, he said. Meanwhile, the growers who were holding on to their produce as the prices were steadily going up from last two months have started bringing it to the market in huge quantities. CAMPCO procurement centres in Dakshina Kannada and Kasaragod districts have seen arrivals of more than 2,000 quintals every day in the last few days. Presidential bill No. 3612 "On Democracy through an All-Ukrainian Referendum" has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada. According to the parliament's website, the bill was received on June 9 and submitted for consideration by the parliament's leadership. The president described the bill as urgent. The text of the bill and accompanying documents have not yet been made public. Earlier reports said that the Servant of the People party was preparing five bills envisaging the introduction of democracy in Ukraine. These are bills on all-Ukrainian and local referendums, on the introduction of legislative initiatives of the people, on the people's veto. On February 28, the parliament's working group drafting bills in the field of democracy approved the final wording of the bill "On an All-Ukrainian Referendum." The text of the document was published on the parliament's website on March 4 and its public discussion began. Earlier, Deputy Head of the Servant of the People Party Yevhenia Kravchuk and First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk suggested that the Verkhovna Rada would pass the bill at first reading before the end of the third session that will last until July 17. op UN Provides $40 Million in Response to New Ebola Outbreak, Other Emergencies in DR Congo By Lisa Schlein June 08, 2020 The U.N. has released $40 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to help tackle a new outbreak of Ebola and other health and humanitarian crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The re-emergence of Ebola in Mbandaka, in DRC's Equateur province, a week ago has dashed hopes of finally bringing this deadly disease to a timely end. More than 2,200 people have died since the epidemic started in eastern Ituri, North and South Kivu provinces in August 2018. Meanwhile, international support for humanitarian operations in Congo has fallen off a cliff. The U.N. hopes its injection of $40 million to tackle Ebola and other health and humanitarian crises in the country will kickstart a more generous response from donors. To date, the United Nations has received only 13 percent of this year's $2 billion appeal. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs notes the DRC is battling a dangerous mix of health and humanitarian crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic. OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke acknowledges the fight against the pandemic is putting economies around the world under enormous financial strain. But he tells VOA the fight against the coronavirus cannot be won unless it is won in all countries. He adds the fight against COVID-19 must not be waged at the expense of other critical humanitarian needs. "The fight against other diseases measles, Ebola; other issues, such as hunger, child malnutrition and so on will continue unless we also continue to direct funding to those issues. So, we are asking the donors not to make a choice either or, but to do both," he said. The DRC is struggling under a plethora of humanitarian needs, besides Ebola, including the world's largest measles outbreak, as well as conflict and massive displacement in the eastern part of the country. Laerke warns failure to provide the means to tackle these problems will have widespread repercussions. "People will only survive, if we fight all of this at the same time because if we take our eyes off the ball of one disease, another one will pop up and they will die from that instead," he said. Money from the emergency fund with strengthen the DRC's health services for Ebola survivors and get community-based surveillance and rapid response systems running. The fund also will provide food, shelter, water and sanitation, and a myriad of other essential services, including containment measures for COVID-19. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Many adults desire a smaller, maintenance-free home as they get older, but dont want to give up their freedom and active lifestyle. Avenida Naperville is perfect for this group and a great alternative to traditional senior living communities." McShane Construction Company recently completed the construction of Avenida Naperville, an active senior living community in Naperville, Illinois, for adults 62 and older. McShane is a premier builder of senior/active living communities in the United States with over 30 years of experience and more than 4,500 units constructed. Avenida Naperville marks the firms 14th senior/active living assignment in the past five years. Many adults desire a smaller, maintenance-free home as they get older, but dont want to give up their freedom and active lifestyle, noted Jeffrey A. Raday, President of McShane. Avenida Naperville is perfect for this group and a great alternative to traditional senior living communities as it offers resort-style amenities and extensive programming that promotes healthy living. Designed by Meeks + Partners, the property incorporates a total of 146 apartment homes across six two- and three-story, wood-frame buildings. Intended to be representative of local historic neighborhoods, the buildings feature an attractive mix of brick and stone veneer with Hardie lap and panel siding. Residents can choose from nine different floor plans featuring one or two bedrooms. Each unit offers a private balcony or patio, spacious master bedrooms, stainless steel appliances, quartz countertops and luxury flooring. Residents also have access to 13,000 square feet of amenity space, including a clubhouse with a bistro, fitness and yoga studios, a theater, library, private dining room and creative arts studio. Outside, residents can enjoy spacious courtyards that feature a swimming pool and spa, barbeque and dining areas, a game lawn and a yoga lawn. For leasing information, visit Avenida Napervilles website at http://www.avenidanaperville.com or contact their team at 331.305.5304. MANISTEE Barb Swiatlowski has gone above and beyond to help others during the COVID-19 pandemic by creating face masks. Like others who have put the community first, the Eastlake resident has created more than 500 masks sewing out of her living room that she has given out for groups and individuals throughout the county in a real display of generosity and thinking of others. What makes her efforts even more impressive is she has been doing it for months and often comes home after working all day as a city carrier assistant at the local U.S. Postal Service branch office. However, Swiatlowski said she does it for no other reason than to help others in this time of crisis. She pointed out that she hasn't forgotten her fellow workers as well. "I made 30 masks each for Ludington post office and Manistee post office workers and actually donated a bunch to the hospital, Dr. Shrink, the M-22 Grill, City2Shore and other places, and individuals," said Swiatlowski. "I have just been kind of donating to anyone who is asking for them, and they have been coming to pick them up as needed." Swiatlowski said she tries to make some every day after she gets done with work at the post office. "My mom has been helping me cut the fabric, so while I am at work she will cut the fabric and when I get home I sew up as many as possible," she said. What inspired her to start making masks early on in the pandemic was she heard about people's difficulty in being able to purchase them. That along with an interest in creating things through sewing inspired by her grandmother made her realize this was an area she could make a difference. "I have always been into crafts and things from my grandma teaching me, so I thought there is a high demand as everyone was asking around and no one had them or they were out," said Swiatlowski. "It's really pretty simple and doesn't take me very long to make them. It takes about three hours to make 20 masks. For a long time we couldn't go outside, and I had a little free time. I thought what better way to help out the community than by making face masks." When she started making the masks it was for local individuals, but over time she has heard some stories about how her handiwork has traveled to various areas around the state and world as well including some countries that have been hit the hardest by COVID-19. She said the design she creates is with the simple, standard elastic around the ears, which is a 9-inch by 6-inch design. "I found out that a couple of the girls sent them to family members downstate," said Swiatlowski. "A girl also asked me to make some for her and then said she had friends and family in Spain and Italy and sent them over there." Swiatlowski thought it was a good idea to help out and said she started with the thought process of doing as many as she could and giving them out to people who needed them. She said some people have tried to pay her for the masks, but she hasn't accepted money because she is just glad to help out. "Some people don't have as many resources as others and I thought this was just a good way to give back to my community and help other people," said Swiatlowski. "There is only so much we can do, but I know everyone I have made masks for are so appreciative. I had some fabric and elastic in the basement and just felt is was something I had to do." She also added with a laugh that it wouldn't be possible without the fantastic support she gets at home from her husband. "I would also like to say how supportive my husband Austin is with this whole thing because I definitely had a lot of fabric thrown all over the house at times," she laughed. LaTonya Floyd speaks during the funeral for her brother, George Floyd, at the Fountain of Praise church in Houston. Read more HOUSTON George Floyd was fondly remembered Tuesday as Big Floyd a father and brother, athlete and neighborhood mentor, and now a catalyst for change at a funeral for the black man whose death has sparked a global reckoning over police brutality and racial prejudice. More than 500 mourners wearing masks against the coronavirus packed a Houston church a little more than two weeks after Floyd was pinned to the pavement by a white Minneapolis police officer who put a knee on his neck for what prosecutors said was 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Cellphone video of the encounter, including Floyd's pleas of I can't breathe, ignited protests and scattered violence across the U.S. and around the world, turning the 46-year-old Floyd a man who in life was little known beyond the public housing project where he was raised in Houstons Third Ward into a worldwide symbol of injustice. Third Ward, Cuney Homes, that's where he was born at," Floyd's brother, Rodney, told mourners at the Fountain of Praise church. But everybody is going to remember him around the world. He is going to change the world. The funeral capped six days of mourning for Floyd in three cities: Raeford, North Carolina, near where he was born; Houston, where he grew up; and Minneapolis, where he died. The memorials have drawn the families of other black victims whose names have become familiar in the debate over race and justice among them, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin. After the service, Floyds golden casket was taken by hearse to the cemetery in the Houston suburb of Pearland to be entombed next to his mother, for whom he cried out as he lay dying. A mile from the graveyard, the casket was transferred to a glass-sided carriage drawn by a pair of white horses. A brass band played as his casket was taken inside the mausoleum. Hundreds of people, some chanting, Say his name, George Floyd, gathered along the procession route and outside the cemetery entrance in the mid-90s heat. I dont want to see any black man, any man, but most definitely not a black man sitting on the ground in the hands of bad police," said Marcus Brooks, 47, who set up a tent with other graduates of Jack Yates High School, Floyds alma mater. In the past two weeks, amid the furor over Floyds death, sweeping and previously unthinkable things have taken place: Confederate statues have been toppled, and many cities are debating overhauling, dismantling or cutting funding for police departments. Authorities in some places have barred police from using chokeholds or are otherwise rethinking policies on the use of force. Dozens of Floyds family members, most dressed in white, took part in the four-hour service. Grammy-winning singer Ne-Yo was among those who sang. The mourners included actors Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum, J.J. Watt of the NFLs Houston Texans, rapper Trae tha Truth, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who brought the crowd to its feet when he announced he will sign an executive order banning chokeholds in the city. "I know you have a lot of questions that no child should have to ask, questions that too many black children have had to ask for generations: Why? Why is Daddy gone? former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, said, addressing Floyd's 6-year-old daughter in a video eulogy played at the service. Now is the time for racial justice. That's the answer we must give to our children when they ask why. Biden made no mention of his opponent in November. But other speakers took swipes at President Donald Trump, who has ignored demands to address racial bias and has called on authorities to crack down hard on lawlessness. The president talks about bringing in the military, but he did not say one word about 8 minutes and 46 seconds of police murder of George Floyd," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist. "He challenged China on human rights. But what about the human right of George Floyd? READ MORE: Bail set at $1 million for Derek Chauvin, officer charged in George Floyds death Most of the pews were full, with relatively little space between people. So much for social distancing today, the Rev. Remus Wright told mourners, gently but firmly instructing those attending to wear face masks. Texas has no limit on how many people can gather in places of worship during the pandemic, though Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has encouraged churches to follow federal health guidelines. Although the church service was private, at least 50 people gathered outside to pay their respects. Theres a real big change going on, and everybody, especially black, right now should be a part of that, said Kersey Biagase, who traveled more than three hours from Port Barre, Louisiana, with his girlfriend, Brandy Pickney. They wore T-shirts printed with Floyds name and I Cant Breathe. Floyd served nearly five years in prison for robbery with a deadly weapon before becoming a mentor and a church outreach volunteer in Houston. He moved to Minnesota several years ago through a program that tried to change mens lives by helping them find work in new settings. At the time of his death, Floyd was out of work as a bouncer at a Minneapolis club that had closed because of the coronavirus outbreak. He was seized by police after being accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. Four Minneapolis officers were arrested in his death: Derek Chauvin, 44, was charged with second-degree murder. J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were charged with aiding and abetting. All four could get up to 40 years in prison. Some of the mostly peaceful demonstrations that erupted after Floyds death were marked by bursts of arson, assaults, vandalism and smash-and-grab raids on businesses, with more than 10,000 people arrested. But protests in recent days have been overwhelmingly peaceful. The spelling of Brandy Pickneys first name has been corrected. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Law enforcement union leaders representing 200,000 officers across New York are speaking out firmly against a push by government leaders to make officers disciplinary records more transparent, place a stricter ban on neck restraints and shift funds away from the department. We, as professionals, are under assault, said Police Benevolent Association (PBA) President Pat Lynch, who spoke alongside other union leaders Tuesday at a press conference in Manhattan. I dont want the neighborhood that I worked in, that I brought back, that we brought back -- I dont want it to slide back." Lynch cited seven shootings in under 10 minutes Monday night, which he attributed to the citys soft touch mandate for officers during protests, and the fact cops have been pulled from their regular assignments to protect demonstrators. State lawmakers passed legislation Monday that allows prosecutors to bring a felony charge against police officers found to have used a chokehold. Multiple other bills aimed at reforming police departments remained unsigned, as of Tuesday afternoon. Over the past few days, Gov. Andrew Cuomo -- who at one time had a favorable relationship with the PBA -- has championed reforms to police departments laid out by members of the state Legislatures Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus. On Saturday, he spoke to prior incidents of police officers mistreating black men in America, including several deadly encounters involving the NYPD dating back to the late 20th Century. He mentioned Eric Garner, who died after former officer Daniel Pantaleo applied a banned chokehold after the Tompkinsville man resisted arrest for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. "What the people want is very simple they want an America as good as its promise, Cuomo said over the weekend, following several days of protests around the world after the alleged murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Theyre saying enough is enough. Mr. Floyds death, Eric Garners death, Abner Louima, Amadou Diallos death... when does it end?" Cuomo said. "I think theyre right. This is a national moment for change. New York is going to lead the way on this change. (The Abner Louima incident was not fatal.) Lynch on Tuesday spoke to Floyds alleged murder, saying he believes there isnt one cop in the city who would agree with the tactics used by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. The officer has since been charged, along with three colleagues who responded that day. And while the Minneapolis Police Department could be facing a complete overhaul by a majority of city leaders citing irreparable corruption, Lynch claimed the NYPD is different, based in part on what he said are the most restrained" enforcement tactics used in the U.S. 22 NYC's Justice for George Floyd protest NEW LEGISLATION The plan by lawmakers in Albany -- deemed the Say their name agenda -- would include the repeal of at least a portion of a state law known as 50-a, which places restrictions on the disclosure of disciplinary records for police and other first responders. At the press conference Tuesday, Lynch called for more transparency from lawmakers in the way theyre drafting and voting on bills that directly impact law enforcement officers and their families. Why arent you asking the question of professional law enforcement?" Lynch shouted. Why arent you seeking our advice? Is it that maybe wed be reasonable? Maybe we could see where the problems would be? Members of the City Council and Cuomo also are pushing for a more strict ban on neck restraints by law enforcement officers; criminalizing false, race-based 911 reports, and designating state Attorney General Letitia James as an independent prosecutor for matters relating to the deaths of unarmed civilians at the hands of law enforcement. During the protests throughout NYC this past week, we've seen serious evidence of disturbing conduct from the NYPD. The @NYCCouncil will be adding three more bills to the hearing announced earlier this week to better hold officers accountable. NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson (@NYCSpeakerCoJo) June 5, 2020 NYPD OFFICER PROSECUTED An NYPD officer was criminally charged Tuesday after he was seen on a viral video shoving a female protester to the street while cursing at her during a May 29 protest, one of the first held in Brooklyn after the alleged murder of Floyd. The Brooklyn district attorneys office charged Vincent DAndraia with misdemeanor assault, criminal mischief, harassment and menacing, according to multiple reports. Multiple officers also have been suspended from the department without pay, pending further investigation in connection with several other incidents seen on video, including an officer seen pulling down a protesters mask and injuring them with pepper spray. Lynch criticized Brooklyn D.A. Eric Gonzalez for prosecuting the officer, while falling in line with other district attorneys who have declined to prosecute alleged looters and rioters. He accused legislators of making decisions based on signs held up at protests, some of which have included the slogan Defund the police." Said Lynch: ...for our legislators to then demonize police officers, as if were the problem, as if we broke the window, as if we caused the violence. That is absolutely outrageous. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The global Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) market was valued at USD 1,356.5 million in 2017 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of than 11.3% during the forecast period. The worldwide automated guided vehicle market is anticipated to reach USD 3,977.8 million by 2026 according to a new study published by Polaris Market Research. In 2017, the automotive sector dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. Europe is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue during the forecast period. Growing need for automation and increasing labor costs fuel the market for adoption of AGV. Use of these automated vehicles increases productivity, and efficiency, while saving time and costs. The increasing demand from industries including healthcare, defense, aerospace, agriculture, and food and beverage is expected to provide growth opportunities in the coming years. Emerging and untapped markets of developing economies further provide growing opportunities to key players in the market. Increasing investments, research and development further boosts the growth of the market. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/automated-guided-vehicle-market/request-for-sample There has been a high demand for automation in the global market. Companies are automating processes to reduce cost, save time and deliver better quality products. With stiff competition existing in the global market, companies are automating their processes for better quality and increased productivity. These vehicles automate internal processes and reduce the workload of employees, by working in collaboration with workers for better efficiency. Due to stringent safety regulations, companies are forced to employ Automated Guided Vehicles for dangerous and hazardous environment conditions. Automation of manufacturing processes was earlier restricted to only automotive sector. Now, industries such as healthcare, aerospace, food and beverage are also adopting the automated vehicles solutions. Increasing need of automation in various industries is a key factor driving the growth of the market. With ever-increasing labor costs existing in most of the countries, companies are turning towards AGVs to save costs and time. Their usage increases efficiency while reducing wastage. They also eliminate chances of faults occurring due to human errors. These vehicles can be operated with the help of software, thereby saving the expense spent in training and management of labor. Unavailability of skilled labor to manage the processes along with high labor costs pushes companies towards automation and supplements the growth of this market. Europe generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Rapid industrialization and increasing automation in the region drives the market growth. Introduction of new advanced technologies and increasing applications in automotive, aerospace, electronics and healthcare sectors is expected to support market growth. Growing demand from automotive industry for high quality products, along with increasing labor costs encourages companies to invest in automation, thereby augmenting growth. Complete Summary with TOC Available @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/automated-guided-vehicle-market The various end-users of AGVs include automotive, aerospace, healthcare, food and beverage, and others. In 2017, automotive accounted for the largest share in the global market, and is estimated to grow at a substantial rate during the forecast period. Companies use these vehicles in the automotive sector to save cost and increase their production. The key factors driving this market include increasing labor costs, new safety regulations, and need for increased efficiency. Use of AGVs in the automotive industry enables manufacturers to achieve high quality, reliability, economic efficiency and less product life cycle cost. The well-known companies profiled in the report include Toyota Industries Corporation, KUKA AG, Daifuku Co. Ltd., Bastian Solutions, Inc., JBT Corporation, Swisslog Holding AG, Seegrid Corporation, Baylo, Inc., EK Automation GmbH, Kion Group AG among others. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers. Automated Guided Vehicle Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Product Pallet Trucks Forklift Trucks Unit Load Carriers Tow Vehicles Assembly Line Vehicles Others Automated Guided Vehicle Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Guidance Technology Vision Guidance Inductive Guidance Laser Guidance Magnetic Guidance Laser Guidance Automated Guided Vehicle Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Industry Automotive Aerospace Healthcare Food and Beverage Others Automated Guided Vehicle Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Application Assembly Storage Distribution Transportation Packaging Others Automated Guided Vehicle 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/automated-guided-vehicle-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 Here are todays leading news stories: Society -- An 18-year-old man has become Vietnams novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient No. 332 after returning to the country from Cambodia via a waterway border gate in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap on May 25. -- A British pilot who is Vietnams most seriously ill COVID-19 patient has been able to sit up, write on a board, and adjust the height of his bed as the muscle strength of his hands continues to improve, the Ministry of Health said on Monday. -- The heatwave that has been scorching northern Vietnam since June 1 is expected to linger until June 13, with the highest temperature reaching 37-39 degrees Celsius. This could be the longest heatwave to have hit the region since 1993, according to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting. -- Police in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City confirmed on Monday they had arrested the leader of a gang of nearly 200 men who attacked a local eatery last Friday night. -- More than 340 Vietnamese citizens who were stranded in the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic were repatriated on Monday and have been quarantined following their arrival at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi. -- Officers in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa are investigating a case where a 50-year-old man and his 17-year-old son were found dead inside a well at their house on Monday afternoon. Business -- The Ministry of Finance is seeking feedback from relevant agencies regarding its plan to cut environmental protection tax on aircraft fuel by 30 percent to support the recovery of the aviation sector following the COVID-19 epidemic. -- Vietnam exported nearly 2.9 million metric tons of rice valued at US$1.41 billion in January-May, up by 5.1 percent in quantity and 18.9 percent in value year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. World news -- Over 7.18 million people have caught COVID-19 around the world, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health. More than 408,200 have died of the disease globally while almost 3.53 million have recovered. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Photo: Contributed Case #1 (Police File # 2004-26596 / Coroner File # 2004-0255-0676) The Richmond RCMP and the BC Coroners Service are asking for the public's help to identify the remains of two males discovered in Richmond in the early 2000's. In both cases, the skulls of the men were recreated using 3D printing by technicians from the National Research Council of Canada. Following that, facial reconstruction was done by New York Academy of the Arts students studying forensic sculpture, in the hopes the images would bring new tips or information to light. Case one involves the remains of a Caucasian male between the ages of 30 and 50 at the time of death. His remains were discovered on July 8, 2004, on the shores of the Fraser River. It is estimated he may have died in 2003 or early 2004. Case two involves the remains of an Indigenous male of medium build, aged between 45 and 55 at the time of his death. His remains were discovered on June 8, 2008, floating in the Fraser River near the eastern end of Dyke Road. Further information on each case can be found on the BC Coroners Service's Unidentified Human Remains Viewer. Anyone with information on these incidents is asked to contact either the Richmond RCMP at 604-278-1212, or the BC Coroners Services Special Investigations Unit at 1-877-660-5077 or by email. To report information anonymously, call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Tillage farmers are facing an "impending disaster" due to the continuing drought, Teagasc has warned. Dairy farms are also struggling in the savagely dry conditions. Slower grass growth in the midlands, east and southeast has forced many milk suppliers to buffer feed cows with baled silage and straights. Michael Hennessy of Teagasc described the situation for cereal growers in Leinster and much of east Munster as "very serious", with the absence of rain leaving many farmers "in despair". He said crops from Bunclody to Louth "had all but stopped growing", and that it will be "lights out" for much of the spring and winter barley on the east coast if the region fails to get significant rainfall this week. Although good spring barley crops are reported in Cork, south Wexford and Donegal - where the drought has not been as severe - Mr Hennessy estimated that 75pc of the area sown will be "moderate to very poor". He said spring barley crops are "prematurely heading out" and "unlikely to yield". Winter barley crops on light soils were under real stress and beginning to go yellow, he added. It may not be too late for wheat and oats crops in the worst-affected areas, but he said rain was urgently needed. Although some rain fell along the east over the weekend and more is forecast for this week, growers maintained it has been too little too late for many crops. Drummonds agronomist Brian Reilly claimed that the harm has already been done and that this week's rain will only hold the yield. He predicted that spring barley yields could be as low as 1-2t/ac in some areas, with losses on owned land of 80-100/ac. Losses on rented ground could hit 200-250/ac, he said. There was a massive switch from winter barley to spring barley this year as a result of the wet autumn weather and the disastrous sowing conditions. Spring barley sowings increased from 95,000ha in 2019 to around 140,000ha for this year's harvest, while the area of winter barley fell from 80,000ha to 45,000ha. Some growers who ploughed up winter barley that had failed as a result of the poor sowing conditions and heavy winter rains are now facing the loss of a second crop on the same land as the spring barley that replaced the winter variety is withering from drought. One Kildare cereal grower said there was a "feeling of panic" building among tillage farmers over the extent of the losses that the sector was potentially facing. Straw output this year will also be slashed, due to a combination of the expected poor yields and the stunted growth of crops, and the switch from winter barley to spring barley. The equivalent of six million 4x4 bales of straw are traditionally saved each harvest. However, Mr Hennessy predicted that this figure could be halved this year. Feed sales Meanwhile, feed merchants report increased sales of compound feed and straights as more milk suppliers are forced to buffer feed dairy herds as grass supplies tighten. Tony Bell from Balbriggan in Dublin said sales of baled maize had increased six-fold over the last month, with farmers from right around the country ordering supplies. Teagasc advisors said dairy farmers in the worst affected areas of the east and southeast were feeding up to 6kg/cow/day of compound feed, in addition to baled silage at night and straights. With soil moisture deficits approaching 80mm in some parts of the country, grass growth has all but stopped. Pasturebase put grass growth rates in Carlow, Kildare and Dublin this week at just 29-37kg/ha/day. Theres no denying that Sonam Kapoor has already done enough to prove that shes a star by managing to showcase her swag on and off the screen. The actress has always been vocal about issues that bother her and is certainly one whos not afraid to speak her mind. For the uninitiated, Sonam assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Black back in 2005, which went on to become a highly critically acclaimed film. The national award winning actress has proved that shes more than just a Khoobsurat face and can deliver when required. Even though many of her films did not impress the audience thanks to a lackluster screenplay or a weak storyline, Sonam managed to make her presence felt on the big screen. So, on the occasion of her birthday, we decided to list Sonam Kapoor's best movies. 1. Sonam Kapoor Movie - Neerja Cast: Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Shabana Azmi and Jim Sarbh Director: Ram Madhvani Release Date: 19 February 2016 Neerja without a doubt is one of the most powerful on-screen performances by Sonam Kapoor till date. The film revolves around Neerja Bhanot, who was an attendant on the flight Pan Am 73. The plane takes off from Mumbai and when the New York-bound flight lands in Karachi, theyre hijacked by the Abu Nidal organization, a Libyan-sponsored Palestinian terrorist group. The Pakistani government tried to buy some time from the terrorists during negotiations however when the power of the plane got cut off after 17 hours into the hijack, they assumed that it was a strategy by the government to raid the plane. This got them panicked and they started killing hostages. Neeja Bhanot, the head purser on her very first flight, took charge of the situation and opens the emergency exit door directing passengers out of the plane. She chooses to let the passengers exit the plane before her and is shot while shielding three children by a terrorist. Neerja is the kind of project where many Bollywood filmmakers would be tempted to over-dramatize with the help of dialogues and music, in turn, making the protagonist seem stronger. But, Neerja stayed true to the events that occurred on the Pan Am 73 flight that night. They havent tried to present Neerja as a superwoman. They show her vulnerability of opening up after a failed marriage and abusive marriage and her struggle to get over it. Neerja is presented as an ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances who somehow finds the courage to oppose men with guns. 1. Sonam Kapoor Movie - Raanjhanaa Cast: Dhanush, Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol and Swara Bhasker Director: Aanand L Rai Release Date: 21 June 2013 without a doubt is one of the most powerful on-screen performances by Sonam Kapoor till date. The film revolves around Neerja Bhanot, who was an attendant on the flight Pan Am 73. The plane takes off from Mumbai and when the New York-bound flight lands in Karachi, theyre hijacked by the Abu Nidal organization, a Libyan-sponsored Palestinian terrorist group. The Pakistani government tried to buy some time from the terrorists during negotiations however when the power of the plane got cut off after 17 hours into the hijack, they assumed that it was a strategy by the government to raid the plane. This got them panicked and they started killing hostages.Neeja Bhanot, the head purser on her very first flight, took charge of the situation and opens the emergency exit door directing passengers out of the plane. She chooses to let the passengers exit the plane before her and is shot while shielding three children by a terrorist. Neerja is the kind of project where many Bollywood filmmakers would be tempted to over-dramatize with the help of dialogues and music, in turn, making the protagonist seem stronger. But, Neerja stayed true to the events that occurred on the Pan Am 73 flight that night. They havent tried to present Neerja as a superwoman. They show her vulnerability of opening up after a failed marriage and abusive marriage and her struggle to get over it. Neerja is presented as an ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances who somehow finds the courage to oppose men with guns.Cast: Dhanush, Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol and Swara BhaskerDirector: Aanand L RaiRelease Date: 21 June 2013 In Aanand L Rais Raanjhanaa, Dhanush plays a boy named Kundan Shankar, who falls for the tinsel town girl Zoya (Sonam Kapoor) despite their cultural differences. However, the villain in the film here is not the class divide but in fact the intellectual divide between the youth of modern India. After spending time in the city, Zoya feels that she just cannot get married to any villager like Kundan (Dhanush), her childhood sweetheart because she was now too educated to relate to small-town ideals. Aanad L Rais story is complex because India is complex as a nation. However, the film does not take anyones side but shows their vulnerabilities and flaws in their own way. 3. Sonam Kapoor Movie -Khoobsurat Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Fawad Khan and Ratna Patak Shah Director: Shashanka Ghosh Release Date: 19 September 2014 In Aanand L Rais Raanjhanaa,plays a boy named Kundan Shankar, who falls for the tinsel town girl Zoya (Sonam Kapoor) despite their cultural differences. However, the villain in the film here is not the class divide but in fact the intellectual divide between the youth of modern India. After spending time in the city, Zoya feels that she just cannot get married to any villager like Kundan (Dhanush), her childhood sweetheart because she was now too educated to relate to small-town ideals. Aanad L Rais story is complex because India is complex as a nation. However, the film does not take anyones side but shows their vulnerabilities and flaws in their own way.Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Fawad Khan and Ratna Patak ShahDirector: Shashanka GhoshRelease Date: 19 September 2014 The film is the official remake of Hrishikesh Mukherjee s 1980 hit about an effervescent girl who enters a strict household and teaches everyone how to laugh and live life to the fullest. In the film, Sonam Kapoor played a physiotherapist named Milli Chakrabarty and Fawad Khan was shown to belong to a royal family. Khoobsurat is a film that is very predictable but you still watch it since you enjoy the journey to the ending. Sonam Kapoor delivers an almost flawless performance in the film as she fits the role of the carefree Mili perfectly. 4. Sonam Kapoor Movie - Aisha Cast: Sonam Kapoor and Abhay Deol Director: Rajshree Ojha Release Date: 6 August 2010 Based on Jane Austens timeless classic Emma, Aisha is set in the midst of a bunch of posh Delhi girls and the events that occur in their life. The film mainly revolves around the life of the extremely sophisticated and suave Aisha Kapoor (Sonam Kapoor), who believes shes mastered the art of matchmaking. It seems all smooth sailing until Randhir, who is supposed to get married to Shefali (Amrita Puri), falls for Aisha. Aisha, on the other hand, develops feelings for her childhood buddy Arjun (Abhay Deol). Sonam Kapoor's portrayal of the super snob and spoilt brattish Aisha is actually quite adorable and was a major factor behind the film coming together so well. 5. Sonam Kapoor Movie - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor and Divya Dutta Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Release Date: 11 July 2013 With Bhaag Milkha Bhaag , Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra took a slightly different route as he tried his hands on a biopic. The film revolves around the life of Jeev Milkha Singh aka Indias Flying Sikh. Played by Farhan Akhtar , this film talks gives us a glimpse of his journey of turning into the Flying Sikh. The film shows us the turmoil that was faced by many after Indias partition in 1947 and Milkhas ladder to success along with his popular rivalry with the Pakistani athlete who was touted to be Asias fastest. Sonam Kapoor played the role of Milkhas love interest in the film. While she did have a shorter role in the film, she added a lot of value and her chemistry with Farhan was something that left us wanting for more. A lesser known fact about the film is that Sonam only charged a total of Rs. 11 for her work in the film. Yes, you heard that right. When she was asked about the reason behind her decision during promotions, the actress said, They had a budget and they told me they can't give money and that's why I said give Rs 11 and I will do the film. For me the reason I did Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was that it was an outstanding script, I wanted to work with Farhan Akhtar and I wanted to again work with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. My role is a pivotal role, and it was an honor to play the part. 6. Sonam Kapoor Movie - With Bhaag Milkha Bhaag , Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra took a slightly different route as he tried his hands on a biopic. The film revolves around the life of Jeev Milkha Singh aka Indias Flying Sikh. Played by Farhan Akhtar , this film talks gives us a glimpse of his journey of turning into the Flying Sikh. The film shows us the turmoil that was faced by many after Indias partition in 1947 and Milkhas ladder to success along with his popular rivalry with the Pakistani athlete who was touted to be Asias fastest.interest in the film. While she did have a shorter role in the film, she added a lot of value and her chemistry with Farhan was something that left us wanting for more. A lesser known fact about the film is that Sonam only charged a total of Rs. 11 for her work in the film.Yes, you heard that right. When she was asked about the reason behind her decision during promotions, the actress said, They had a budget and they told me they can't give money and that's why I said give Rs 11 and I will do the film. For me the reason I didwas that it was an outstanding script, I wanted to work with Farhan Akhtar and I wanted to again work with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. My role is a pivotal role, and it was an honor to play the part. Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao and Juhi Chawla Director: Shelly Chopra Dhar The NRMA has issued a warning to drivers who eat at the wheel. Australia's largest insurance company explained how eating and drinking can result in prosecution even though there is no specific rule against it. In NSW, driver distraction is broadly covered under Road Rule 297(1) which states 'a driver must not drive a vehicle unless the driver has proper control of the vehicle'. Australia's largest insurance company explained how eating and drinking can result in prosecution even though there is no specific rule against it (stock image) If eating while driving interferes with a driver's control of the vehicle, the driver may be committing an offence depending on the circumstances, the NRMA said. These types of offences are assessed on a case by case basis, with different penalties in different states. In New South Wales in school zones, the penalty is $541 with 4 demerit points. In WA the fine in $600 and in the Northern Territory it is $500. It is not only eating that can land drivers in trouble under driving without control rules. Drivers who are caught doing their make up fall under the category of driving a vehicle without control, with the most expensive fines being handed out in Western Australia, where motorists will have to cough up $600. New South Wales and Queensland drivers will incur three demerit points on top of their fines. The lowest penalty for the offence is in Tasmania at $163. Honking your horn to say goodbye could be costly for motorists if considered unnecessary, with New South Wales drivers risking a $344 fine, Tasmanian motorists $126 and Victorian drivers $282 for improper use. Flashing your lights to warn drivers of speed cameras or police presence in Victoria risks a $165 fine, and in New South Wales can incur a $110 fine and one demerit point for 'dazzling' incoming drivers. Four persons are reported dead in a gory motor accident. The accident occurred on the Akatsi-Tadzewu road in the Volta Region on Monday. Three of them, two males and a female died on the spot with the fourth person, another male, confirmed dead whiles receiving treatment at the Akatsi District Hospital, same day. The road crash occurred around Adetsewui Junction near Nyorgbortey in the Akatsi South District. Chief Superintendent of Police, Joseph Atsu Dzineku, Commander of Police in Akatsi South told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that on June 07, 2020, around 2200 hours, he received an alert from a community member that two motor riders were involved in an accident along the Akatsi- Tadzewu road. Mr. Dzineku said he quickly informed the patrol team to rush to the scene of the accident. "Upon arrival, my men saw three lifeless bodies, two males and a female with another male who was in critical condition," the Police said. He said the fourth person was rushed to the Akatsi District Hospital and the motorbikes, which were badly damaged, cleared from the road for safety. Mr Dzineku believed both riders had a severe head-on collision resulting in the loss of lives and said the police would soon identify the deceased with the help from the public. Meanwhile, the bodies have been deposited at the St Paul's Hospital morgue in the District for autopsy. ---GNA As Ireland enters Phase 2 of the exit from the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, the Irish Hospice Foundation, in conjunction with the HSE have launched a national bereavement support line, the first of its kind in Ireland. The support line aims to provide a confidential space for people to speak about their experience or ask questions relating to bereavement. Callers will be listened to with compassion and be provided with emotional support and information on any practical issues that may be helpful. Sharon Foley, CEO of the Irish Hospice Foundation said: While we may be seeing reductions in the number of deaths connected to COVID-19, we know that peoples pain and grief does not diminish as quickly. These truly are exceptional times and the Irish Hospice Foundation wanted to develop a service to provide connection, comfort and support as we know that people can experience grief as isolating. The COVID-19 restrictions have changed the ways people have died and the ways we grieve and offer condolences. With many people facing bereavement in isolation we wanted to establish a service that could comfort and support these people. A recent survey by B&A for the Irish Hospice Foundation found that over half of Irish people admitted they struggle to know what to say to people about bereavement. In turn over half of people who had experienced a bereavement felt that others avoided some conversations out of fear of upsetting them. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Irish Hospice Foundation established a new Care & Inform hub on its website to provide a series of resources on grief and loss and to offer supports during the death and bereavement process. The Foundation has also produced a new policy paper on dying, death and bereavement which it has sent to all political parties, the government formation negotiators and the Dails special Covid-19 committee. Mr Paul Reid, CEO of the HSE said: This has been a very difficult time for families and friends of people who have died in recent times. We want to support people during this time and I welcome the establishment of this support line that has been developed in association with the HSE. We would encourage people to seek support and information as they grieve and this support line can help families with very practical ways to cope. The bereavement support line is being supported by a national advertising campaign. Former Taoiseach Enda Kenny voiced a broadcast ad for the service. He said The Irish Hospice Foundation have unrivalled experience of dealing with grief. This new bereavement contact line will be of critical support to those most in need. I fully support this new initiative. The national freephone service (1800 80 70 77) will be available Monday to Friday from 10am to 1pm. Disgraced former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping was released from a New York prison on Monday, after serving a jail term over a multimillion-dollar scheme to bribe top African leaders. The 70-year-old, who was jailed for 36 months and fined US$400,000 last year, was also expected to be deported because his passport had expired. The former secretary for home affairs " who claimed he was "the first of the sacrificial lambs" caught up in the US-China trade war " was given credit for the 16 months he had spent behind bars before his conviction. His legal team said earlier that Ho could get a further reduction of five months for good behaviour and be out in June. The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Ho was no longer in their custody. It was not immediately clear if Ho has been deported. A court sketch from February 2018 shows Patrick Ho at a bail hearing in New York. Photo: AP alt=A court sketch from February 2018 shows Patrick Ho at a bail hearing in New York. Photo: AP Ho was home affairs chief from 2002 to 2007. He was arrested at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York in November 2017. He became the deputy secretary general of a think tank funded by the Shanghai-based oil conglomerate CEFC China Energy following his stint in the Hong Kong government. In December 2018, a federal jury found him guilty on seven of eight counts of bribery and money laundering over oil rights for CEFC in Chad and Uganda. Ho was found to have offered US$2.9 million in bribes to Chadian President Idriss Deby, Senegalese diplomat Cheikh Gadio and Ugandan foreign minister Sam Kutesa. During the trial, defendant-turned-witness Gadio, the middleman in talks on oil rights between CEFC and Deby, testified that Ho offered US$2 million wrapped in gift boxes to the president during a visit to Chad in December 2014. Ho remained defiant in the face of the charges. Shortly after his arrest, he said he was being used to "get to the big tiger", and asked a friend to seek help from the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee. Story continues After being found guilty, he said he was "the first of the sacrificial lambs of such hostility". Apart from China's strategic expansion into Africa through private companies such as CEFC, the case also raised eyebrows over UN governance, with three officials linked. A US prosecutor points at Patrick Ho (seated far left) during opening statements in November 2018. Photo: AP alt=A US prosecutor points at Patrick Ho (seated far left) during opening statements in November 2018. Photo: AP Two former UN General Assembly presidents were suspected to have received bribes in the case. One has since died after being sued while the other was never prosecuted. Vuk Jeremic, another former General Assembly president, testified at Ho's trial, saying that after his UN term, he received funding from CEFC to set up a think tank. Ho filed an appeal last year against his conviction, saying the prosecution had presented a "legally insufficient" case. The US Court of Appeals has yet to hand down its ruling. The appeal document showed that Ho used CEFC to build networks at the UN to advance China's Belt and Road Initiative, a global trade strategy. He apparently told Kutesa, shortly after the Ugandan assumed the General Assembly presidency, that CEFC could provide support to the United Nations in exchange for the UN giving more consideration to China's voice when the body formulated its programmes, according to a report cited. He also lobbied for Kutesa to visit China to meet President Xi Jinping in 2015. Kutesa went to Beijing in August 2015, but met then-Vice-President Li Yuanchao, state councillor Yang Jiechi and foreign minister Wang Yi, instead of Xi. The documents also showed that Kutesa invited the head of CEFC China Energy to be special adviser to the General Assembly president, while the UN included one activity by CEFC on the Belt and Road Initiative in a high-profile forum series, and co-hosted another with CEFC on global development. Additional reporting by Robert Delaney 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. The idea that nothing happened about the Black movement between the end of the Civil Rights Era and Black Lives Matter is a product of an educational and media environment that tends to center on what the White majority is doing and only notices Black organizations when they cause a lot of disruption, quickly forgetting them once the disruption goes away, Oliver said in her post. For his part, Hardman said he supports any Americans right to protest, citing that he swore a Constitutional oath that he considers a core tenet of his job. But he said he will not condone actions taken beyond peaceful protest. I have sworn a Constitutional oath, Im a big believer in the Constitution, Hardman said. People should be allowed to protest you should be able to peacefully protest and express your concerns. But the looting, and other criminal acts, is inexcusable and does nothing for the cause. And I will not tolerate it. Jones did not define the protests as riots. While he did say that he would not defend the looting of private businesses, he said that the nationwide movement had not reached a point where it can be classified as dangerous or criminal. June 9, 2020 1:30 p.m. UPDATE: Giovanni Franchesko Fernandez, 38, has been identified by Miami police Tuesday as the man responsible for setting a Miami police cruiser on fire during last months protest against police brutality in downtown Miami. Fernandez experienced an unrelated medical emergency Thursday and was taken by fire rescue to a hospital for treatment, Miami police said. Someone who recognized Fernandez (whose photos were broadcast on news outlets) then contacted authorities with his location. Police say Fernandez will be facing state charges for arson, criminal mischief, and inciting a riot, along with other federal charges once he is discharged from the hospital. Read original article below: The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for any information that can help agents identify, arrest and convict the man they believe set a Miami police cruiser on fire during last months protest against police brutality in downtown Miami. Photos released by the federal agency Monday shows the man, who has tattoos visible on his arm, next to a police car that appears to have a damaged window. The FBI says the man pictured above set a Miami police car on fire during last months protest against police brutality in downtown Miami. There is a reward of up to $25,000 for information that can help identify, arrest and convict him. Agents say the police car he set ablaze May 30 was under Interstate 95 on the corner of Northwest Third Avenue and Northwest Fourth Street. No one was injured. The FBI holds sacred the rights of individuals to peacefully exercise their First Amendment freedoms. Unfortunately, we are seeing individuals who are taking advantage of these peaceful assemblies to pursue violence and in doing so are threatening the rights and safety of all citizens, FBI Miami Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro said in a statement. The incident happened on the first Saturday of protests in Miami, May 30, following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, the 46-year-old unarmed black man who died after a Minneapolis cop knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has since been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter; three other cops who were with him have also been charged criminally. Story continues If convicted, Chauvin, 44, could face up to 40 years in prison. Although we support the right to free speech and the right to assemble, we will not tolerate flagrant violations of the law. If someone decides that they want to destroy property and or harm our residents, they will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, Miami Chief of Police Jorge Colina said in a statement. Miami police say a total of 17 squad cars were damaged during the protests on May 30, ranging from punctured tires, broken windows and burning vehicles. Colina told the Miami Herald last month that the department would be pursuing people who defaced police cars, vandalized walls and highways or were throwing objects during the protests that began on May 30. A total of 17 squad cars were damaged that night, ranging from punctured tires, broken windows and burned vehicles, Miami police previously told the Miami Herald. The FBI, Miami police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives say they are investigating the incident relating to the police car. Anyone with information that can help agents identify the pictured man is asked to call the FBI at (754) 703-2000 or go to fbi.gov/violence. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for burning a City of Miami Police Department patrol car on 5/30/2020. Call (754)703-2000. pic.twitter.com/smpcnS7i7h FBI Miami (@FBIMiamiFL) June 8, 2020 Southern Slaves member charged with vandalizing Miami cruisers during protests, cops say The US is going through a pretty dark time. Rising COVID-19 cases wreaking havoc on peoples lives wasnt enough, people in the nation are fighting against what happened with George Floyd. This has turned to a mass movement with not just people and celebrities, but several tech companies and their CEOs speaking up about it. Reuters Some companies are also taking a drastic step in their functioning to help not contribute/eliminate promoting racism through its products or services. The most recent one was with tech giant IBM. In a letter addressed to the Congress, (including US Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris). IBMs CEO Arvind Krishna spoke about the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others and stated that the company will work with officials to combat racism. Krishna suggested a major change in the policies is needed in the form of responsible use of technology, police reforms etc. And to contribute to this, he revealed that IBM will no longer offer general-purpose facial recognition technology that is often used for mass surveillance. We've already seen how facial recognition was being misused in China and Hong Kong and how protestors were trying to dodge it, so this news must be welcoming for privacy watchdogs. IBM Krishna said in the letter, IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency. We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies. In case you didnt know, Krishna recently got the reigns of the organization after the exit of Ginni Rometty in April this year. He was the brains behind the massive $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat last year. This definitely is huge. Recently, Bezos too voiced his opinions on #BlackLivesMatter and how he is ready to lose customers who support racism. Whats also interesting is the fact that he owns Rekognition -- a surveillance tool that has come in the news for wrong reasons last year. Will Bezos too join IBM in not allowing Rekognition to be used by law enforcement for surveillance? Only time will tell. As Nepal government presents the constitutional amendment bill for the new map in the Parliament, the country's Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali addressed the Lower House on Tuesday. The Foreign Minister, in his address, has stated that the government would like to 'diplomatically' resolve border row with India. Gyawali also recalled the Treaty of Sugauli and elaborated on the current border row with India. In his introductory address to the Lower House of the Nepalese Parliament, Gyawali said, "We are the land of Buddha, and should maintain peace while talking about the border row with India." READ | Nepal To Table Constitutional Amendment For New Map On Tuesday With Opposition Support The Foreign Minister also highlighted that Nepal is seeking to hold discussions with its neighbouring country and that there is 'no other option' than that. Furthermore, he stated, "Nepal border begins at the Limpiyadhura origin of river Kali. Our border is determined by Sugauli treaty. India has acknowledged Kalapani and Susta borders as unresolved in 1997." Meanwhile, at the moment of publishing, the constitutional amendment bill to change Nepal's Map to include Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulekh is up for deliberation and passage in Lower House of the Parliament. READ | Nepali Congress To Table Separate Constitution Amendment Bill In Parliament Nepali Congress backs new map Earlier on May 31, the country's main Opposition - Nepali Congress will table a separate Constitution amendment bill in Parliament to address some of the demands of the Madhes-based parties. In addition, the Opposition also backs the other bill brought out by the main ruling party - Nepal Communist Party. The new political and administrative map of Nepal unveiled by the country's Land Reforms Minister Padma Aryal featured the Indian territories of Kalapani, Lipulekh, and Limpiyadhura. READ | Nepal's PM Blames India For Spreading COVID, Says 'Indian Virus More Lethal Than Chinese' India protests against the move Reacting to Nepal incorporating parts of Indian territory in its official map on May 20, the Ministry of External Affairs slammed this "unilateral act". Maintaining that this move was not based on historical facts and evidence, MEA official spokesperson Anurag Srivastava observed that this was contrary to the understanding between the two countries to resolve boundary disputes through dialogue. He made it clear that India shall not accept such an "artificial enlargement" of territory. READ | MEA Disapproves Of Nepal's New Map, Urges India's Territorial Integrity To Be Respected WASHINGTON Testing employees for the coronavirus as they come into work will be an important step in safely getting Americans back on the job. But employers have been left to their own devices as they navigate the public health and legal minefield of creating testing plans for the workplace. Its the Wild West out there when it comes to testing, said Scott Oswald, managing principal of the Employment Law Group, which specializes in workplace issues. There really is no standard at all, and employers are left to come up with decisions about testing on their own. Public health experts agree the lack of guidance has left business owners in a difficult situation. Because we do not have a federal response, it undermines the ability of businesses to predict how and when and where to do (testing), said Dr. Ingrid Katz, an infectious disease specialist at the Harvard Global Health Institute. As businesses try to reopen, there will be increasing shortages of the testing that is available, she said. If not the federal government, at least states need to create a unified plan for procuring testing and really prioritizing high-risk places like nursing homes. Oswald and Katz say theyve seen little direction from states when it comes to workplace testing. As a result, employers have had to decide whether to test their workers, how often to conduct the tests, where to procure the supplies and how to act on the results. Each step of the process comes with substantial liability, along with the obvious health implications. In April, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission told businesses they could test employees for COVID-19, an exemption from the Americans with Disabilities Act. Many companies, such as Amazon and Ford Motor Co., already are providing some testing for some workers. But given the lack of a coordinated system, that may only exacerbate the problem. Employers are now competing with hospitals, theyre competing with states, competing with the federal government for tests, Oswald said. Employers are willing to pay more, so youve got suppliers that say, Amazons willing to pay me X amount, either you meet that price or Im not going to be able to supply it to you. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has called for regular workplace testing across all industries, but Amazon did not respond to Stateline questions about its testing strategy. Many small businesses are playing a waiting game as uncertainty lingers around workplace testing, said officials at Paycor, a nationwide human resources payroll and software company. Larger, better-connected employers may have more resources to set up a testing plan, the company said. The governors offices in Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Virginia and Wisconsin did not respond to questions about their states guidance for workplace testing. Public health officials in Pennsylvania and California said they have not issued any directions for employers that wish to test their workers. Pennsylvania has mandated that businesses conduct temperature checks of all essential workers, which Oswald said is more detailed than the guidance most states have offered. Nate Wardle, press secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Health, noted that the state has overseen testing at private food processing and distribution facilities with outbreaks. We do not have a clear guidance from our federal authorities on how to do this, and its being left to the states, with employers left holding the bag, Oswald said. Its employees whose health and safety is being compromised. Despite the uncertainty, employers still face pressure to test. In Nevada, the Culinary Workers Union called on casino resorts to implement regular testing for all employees. Detroit has threatened to shut down grocery stores that dont get their employees tested. Many large employers have offered few details about their testing plans. Walmart responded to a Stateline inquiry by providing a transcript of a May earnings call in which CEO Doug McMillon said a team was working to sort out the companys testing strategy. Ford replied to a request for comment with a mid-May press release announcing testing for symptomatic employees in some locations. U.S. Steel, which said early last month that it was considering a testing plan, told Stateline it had nothing new to disclose. Last week, Walmart received a warning from 12 state attorneys general asserting that the company had failed to sanitize stores and alert employees after workers tested positive for COVID-19. Smaller companies also are struggling. Pegasus Building Services, a janitorial company in San Diego, told the San Diego Union Tribune that its offering tests to its 400 employees in partnership with a local laboratory. However, the company is still uncertain about how often it will be able to test and how much it will cost. I dont think testing one time is the answer, company President Jeff Becker told the newspaper. I could drive away tomorrow, head to the office, stop to get gas and get contaminated on the gas pump. Employers that want to test face a myriad of considerations. According to Katz, about 40% to 45% of COVID-19 carriers are asymptomatic or presymptomatic, so requiring tests only for employees who fail a temperature check or symptom screening is an ineffective strategy. You cannot just screen on symptoms alone, she said. You have to have some kind of universal plan in terms of who to test and when to test them. Meanwhile, the invasive nasal swab procedure that produces the most accurate test results could be an issue for some employees. Oswald, the attorney, said companies may need to consider accommodations for employees who may suffer an anxiety attack from the procedure. Katz added that an effective workplace testing regime may not be possible until researchers produce an accurate saliva test that can produce results in minutes. Once companies decide to conduct testing, Oswald said, they are opening themselves to liability on several fronts. An employers going to be on firm (legal) ground if they choose not to test but they meet the other CDC guidelines, he said. Thats why this is so difficult, because once they step into the realm of testing, the employers creating liability for itself. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructs employers to require masks for their workers, procure any personal protective equipment necessary to maintain safety, separate sick employees, offer flexible sick leave, promote frequent handwashing and regularly clean workplaces. The agency has not outlined workplace testing practices. If a business chooses to provide testing that produces an inaccurate result, it will be on the hook for the consequences, experts said. If an employer tests, its going to own the results, and its going to own any errors, Oswald said. Companies also could be liable if they create a testing program but are unable to procure supplies to keep it operating weeks or months later. Once an employer has established that testing is necessary to keep its workers safe, it must meet its own standard, Oswald said. And if an employee tests positive, its unclear whether the company may call in a local health department to conduct contact tracing and instruct other exposed employees to quarantine, or whether it must take those steps on its own in the interest of speed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and some other Republicans, bolstered by groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have called for more liability protections for businesses as they try to navigate staying afloat while keeping employees safe during a pandemic. Its still unclear what immunity would be given to businesses related to testing, and Democrats say theyre more focused on worker protections. Employers also must take care to protect workers medical privacy. While businesses must act if employees test positive, they cant disclose the names of employees who are infected. Katz noted that in small workplaces it may be impossible to shield the identity of a worker who tests positive, as their absence in the wake of testing will create obvious implications. As conditions vary widely across states and industries, theres no set standard for the frequency of testing, either. Some people would say daily tests, some people would say weekly tests, but it has to be very regular, and it cant be based on symptoms, Katz said. She added that many companies may not be able to afford the massive amounts of testing that reopening will require. That means government might have to provide a testing structure. If youre a nursing home or some other facility that doesnt have the resources or ability to make your own tests, youre going to need the state to step in and supply it, she said. States need to take over, establish clear priorities of which businesses need to open first and stock those places with the testing needed. This is why its so critical that the government take control of this. Otherwise each business is left to fend for themselves at every level. Alex Brown of Stateline.org wrote this story. 2020 Stateline.org Visit Stateline.org at www.stateline.org Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Indian Navy Commences evacuation of citizens from Islamic Republic of Iran - "SAMUDRA SETU" India - Press Information Bureau Ministry of Defence Posted On: 08 JUN 2020 10:10AM by PIB Delhi Indian Navy had launched Operation Samudra Setu to repatriate Indian citizens commencing 08 May 2020. Indian Naval ships Jalashwa and Magar have already evacuated 2874 personnel from Maldives and Sri Lanka to ports of Kochi and Tuticorin. In the next phase of Samudra Setu, Indian Naval Ship Shardul will evacuate Indian citizens on 08 June 2020 from the port of Bandar Abbas, Islamic Republic of Iran, to Porbandar, Gujarat. The Indian Mission in Islamic Republic of Iran is preparing a list of Indian citizens to be evacuated and will facilitate their embarkation after requisite medical screening. COVID-related social distancing norms have been catered onboard INS Shardul and the ship has been specially provisioned for the evacuation operation, including embarkation of additional medical staff, doctors, hygienists, nutritionists, medical stores, rations, personal protective equipment, face-masks, lifesaving gear etc. In addition to authorised medical outfit, medical equipment specific to dealing with COVID-19 including innovative products developed by the Indian Navy during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis is also being carried onboard. The evacuated personnel would be provided the basic amenities and medical facilities whilst undertaking the sea-passage to Porbandar. Special isolation compartments have also been earmarked for any contingencies. In view of the unique challenges associated with COVID-19 including asymptomatic carriers, stringent protocols are being stipulated during the passage. After disembarkation at Porbandar, the evacuated personnel will be entrusted to the care of State authorities. ************ VM/ MS (Release ID: 1630162) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address During a week when it feels more timely than ever, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is preparing to install "Soul of A Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power in record time. The landmark exhibition, which explores what it meant to be an African American artist during the 1960s and 70s, will be on view in Houston June 27-Aug. 30. Originally scheduled to open in April as the last stop on a three-year national tour, Soul of a Nation was stranded at San Franciscos de Young Museum during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organized by the Tate Modern in London, the show features work created by more than 60 Black artists during the revolutionary decades of American history that began with the Civil Rights movement and extended to the emergence of identity politics in the early 1980s. NAIROBI, Kenya - Burundis President Pierre Nkurunziza has died of a heart attack at age 56, the government announced Tuesday, ending a 15-year-rule marked by deadly political violence and a historic withdrawal from the International Criminal Court. The statement posted on social media said the president was admitted to a hospital overnight Saturday after not feeling well. He appeared better Sunday but to very great surprise his health abruptly worsened Monday morning, and several hours of effort failed to revive him. Burundis government has declared a week of mourning. Nkurunzizas death comes weeks before president-elect ruling party candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye was expected to be sworn in after winning the May election. It was not immediately clear what the governments steps will be and a spokesman was not available for comment. According to Burundis constitution, when a president dies in office before handing over power, the speaker of parliament takes over and organises a fresh election. But I think the leadership will ignore this requirement and go with Evariste Ndayishimiye, said David Gakunzi, a Burundian author. Despite the governments statement, some in Burundi wondered whether Nkurunziza died of COVOD-19 instead. When Nkurunzizas wife was flown to Kenya suffering from COVID-19, many in Burundi suspected the president himself was sick, said Justin Nyabenda, a resident in Bujumbura. He was referring to reports in Kenyan media that Nkurunzizas wife, Denise, was hospitalized in Nairobi for COVID-19 in late May. Burundis government has downplayed the virus and held the election and large campaign rallies in spite of the threat. Authorities kicked out the World Health Organizations top official in the country just days before the election after the WHO raised concerns about crowded rallies. The country has reported 83 virus cases. Nkurunziza took office in 2005, chosen by lawmakers to lead the East African nation after the 1993-2005 civil war killed about 300,000 people. He and Ndayishimiye fought alongside each other as rebels in the conflict. The peace process known as the Arusha Accords specified that a presidents term can be renewed only once. But Nkurunziza, who won a second term in 2010, announced he was eligible for a third term in 2015 because he had not been chosen the first time by universal suffrage. The deadly turmoil that followed badly damaged ties with the international community, and Burundi became the first country to leave the ICC after it started investigating allegations of state-sponsored crimes including murder, rape and torture. The United Nations human rights office reported more than 300 extrajudicial killings and was later kicked out of the country after outgoing U.N. rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein called Burundi one of the most prolific slaughterhouses of humans in recent times. Burundis government has denied allegations it targets its people, calling them malicious propaganda by dissidents. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent condolences to the government and people of Burundi and to the presidents family. The scretary-general reaffirms the willingness of the United Nations to support the government and people of Burundi as they face the COVID-19 pandemic and in their continuing efforts to create a stable, prosperous and peaceful future for all the countrys citizens, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Nkurunziza survived a coup attempt shortly after the 2015 vote. International donors cut support, leaving the government struggling. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the country. Many Burundians will remember Nkurunziza as a president who left behind a divided country, said author Gakunzi. When he came into power after the Arusha agreement, citizens expected peace and prosperity. However, his greed for power in 2015 divided the country and sent many to live in exile. Many Burundians were surprised when the president announced in 2018 that he was serving his last term. Many thought he would continue to wield power behind the scenes. The opposition leader who lost the May election, Agathon Rwasa, said his supporters were harassed ahead of the vote and arrested by the scores on election day. His court challenge to the vote alleging fraud was rejected. The government had approved legislation meant to bestow upon Nkurunziza the title of paramount leader once he stepped down. Nkurunziza leaves behind a legacy of ruthless repression, said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. He ruled through fear to erect a system synonymous with the worst human rights abuses: extrajudicial killings, torture, disappearances and the systematic crushing of dissent. Burundi must investigate the crimes, Mudge said. As long as these abuses go unpunished, this dark legacy will hang over Burundi for many years to come. ___ Associated Press writer Eloge Willy Kaneza reported this story in Nairobi and AP writer Ignatius Ssuuna reported from Kigali, Rwanda. Taiwan's national flag flutters beside Taipei 101 at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei on Oct. 7, 2012. (Mandy Cheng/AFP/Getty Images) Newspaper Insert Introduces Made in Taiwan Labels to Product Catalogues Retailer Machinery House has published a catalogue of its products that now include labels to indicate which products were made in Taiwan, which has been praised by the international community for containing the spread of the CCP virus. The catalogue displays items for purchase and beside some of them is the Taiwanese flag with the text Made in Taiwan printed beneath it. There appear to be no flags from other countries. A member of the community from the Gold Coast spotted the catalogue in her paper on the weekend before uploading it to Facebook on June 7. The photo received comments of approval from some social media users. Australia has faith in Taiwanese manufacturing, one woman wrote in Chinese. Another person commented that she had seen more Taiwanese food being sold in Woolworths and Coles, and posted a photo of a popular Taiwanese shallot sauce she recently found in Coles. This is what would actually sell, another man wrote in Chinese. Machinery Houses move to publish the Taiwan flag in its catalogue comes after a YouGov poll revealed that 88 percent of Australians want to buy Australian made, and also comes as Australia looks to diversify its trading partners. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, has revealed just how deeply Australia has relied on China. The government has recently announced new trade agreements are in the works with India, Indonesia, and the UK. Earlier in May, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells spoke of the need for Australia not to put all its eggs in the China basket. We need to rely less on China for our economic development and wellbeing and turn to our regional democratic neighbours to build our trading relations and prosperity, Fierravanti-Wells told The Epoch Times on May 11. Related Coverage Minister Envisions Australian-Made Future as Businesses Reassess China Risk Chinas aggressive wolf warrior diplomatic response to Australias call for an investigation into the origins of the CCP virusimplementing tariffs and trade banshas likely added to the already dim views that 70 percent of Australians have developed towards Chinas ruling communist regime in the wake of the pandemic. China-Taiwan-Australia Relations Relations between China and Taiwan are fraught, as the Chinese regime considers Taiwan a renegade province, even as the island is a de facto independent country with its own elected officials, military, and constitution. Beijings agenda in Taiwan includes persuading Taiwanese citizens to accept unification with the mainland. Australias one-China policy currently recognises Taiwan as part of China, however, Australia has supported Taiwan to be an observer at the World Health Assembly after Beijing banned the island nation in 2017. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australias two-way trade with Taiwan is worth $17.6 billion. Taiwan supplies Australia with telecom equipment, tourism, and computers. Australia exports coal, iron ore, natural gas, and tourism, and education. Taiwan aims to increase bilateral and regional trade agreements and its New Southbound Policy will see the nation diversify its trade to encourage investment, education, and research links with Australia, New Zealand, South Asia, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Australia is Taiwans largest energy supplier and Taiwan is Australias fifth-largest resources and energy market. In 2018, Australias total investment in Taiwan was $10.2 billion, an increase of 23 percent year-on-year. Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the name of the company. The Epoch Times regrets the error. The coronavirus pandemic has led more Aussies to use cashless payment options. Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University, Steve Worthington told Business Insider Australia why it wouldn't be ideal for Australia to become a fully cashless society as it would be "unfair" to certain groups like the elderly or disabled. Worthington also mentioned these groups would be "financially excluded" if this happened. Visit Business Insider Australias homepage for more stories. Is it wise for Australia to become a fully cashless society? The coronavirus pandemic has led many Aussies to use contactless payment systems instead of physical cash, whether it's using their card or their phone (think Apple Pay). According to a survey by Mastercard, 44& of Australians said they're using cash less often since the pandemic began. It's not hard to imagine why, in the middle of a global respiratory pandemic. 80% of respondents in the Asia Pacific said they saw contactless payments as a cleaner payment option. In the future, 75% of Aussies in the survey said they'd keep using contactless payments once the pandemic is over. "Consumer behaviour around payments has seen a shift since COVID-19, which has transformed the daily lives of Australians," Richard Wormald, Mastarcard Division President Australasia, said in a statement in April. "Australians are looking for a safe, clean and secure way to pay, which has seen contactless card and device transactions surge. It is clear that this is the preferred way to pay, now, and for the future." But Australia going completely cashless as in, totally ditching cash and cheque payments isn't necessarily the best option, according to some experts. Steve Worthington, Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University of Technology, told Business Insider Australia that it wouldn't be ideal to for Australia to become a fully cashless society as there are still groups of people who rely on cash. Story continues "The elderly, people who are disabled [and] people who live in rural areas who still use cash and find it hard to acquire cash," he said, Worthington specialises in issues related to how financial services are distributed, particularly through electronic channels. He mentioned research from the Australian Bureau of Statistics which found 2.5 million Australians don't have an internet connection, mainly due to lack of affordability or being digitally illiterate. If Australia were to move to a completely cashless system, Worthington said there would be a group of people who are "in a sense financially excluded" as they can't get hold of cash or would find it hard to use the cash they have. On top of that, banks have been cutting down on their available ATMs. According to the Australian Payments Network, there were 29,348 ATMs in Australia in March 2019. That has dropped to 27,870 by March 2020. "The cashless element is a self-fulfilling prophecy," Worthington said. "It's becoming harder and harder to access cash through ATMs or bank branches. Therefore people have less opportunity to spend cash because then merchants don't accept cash any more." The disadvantages of contactless payment options While it may be more convenient to use contactless payments, issues can arise if there are system failures. Worthington explains that digital systems depend on two essential factors: telecoms infrastructure, which the payments go over, and a bank's IT system, which facilitates the use of services like contactless cards. "There have been in the past, in recent times ... where things have fallen over it can be the IT systems at the bank, it can be the telecoms provider like Telstra," he said. "[If] you've paid to go into an underground carpark with your card and something falls over with the technology and you've only got your card to get out of the carpark then you really are stuck. And that's why I think people carry cash as a fallback position." Not only that, Worthington said it would be "unfair" on particular groups of people if Australia were to go completely cashless. He pointed to Sweden, which is often credited as being the world's most cashless country according to the ABC. "Their central bank has had to enforce [a rule] that the banks still offer cash," he said. A "less cash society" In the future, Worthington doesn't see a cashless society, instead, what he sees is a "less cash society". But he also warned of the interruption to the cash infrastructure system if Australia lessens its reliance on physical cash. This system involves everything from the trucks that transport money into ATMs to security to people who clean and maintain ATMs. There may come a point where some people decide not to be in that business any more. "Cash, it has to be delivered to the ATMs, has to be collected from the ATM, has to be cleaned, washed and stored," he said. "Once we're using less and less cash, that infrastructure might start to wither away so much so that it becomes unsustainable." However, it may not be the end for ATMs just yet. Worthington mentioned a system in the UK name Link which links all ATMs together so regardless of which ATM, you can use your card, often without a cost. And something like this could be an option for Aussie banks, allowing them to operate from a collective pool of ATMs instead of their own. "They would then need probably less ATMs, but nevertheless, it could still be sustainable," Worthington said. A central Pennsylvania defense attorney best known for high-profile homicide and political corruption cases has failed to convince a state court that he shouldnt have to pay more than $9,000 in restitution after his dog mauled someone elses cat. Joshua Lock of Wormleysburg readily admitted his dog was the culprit in the case and that he had allowed the canine to run loose. He insisted, however, that the $9,331 he was ordered to pay the cats owner for veterinary bills is more than the law allows. District Judge Elizabeth Beckley and Cumberland County Senior Judge Kevin A. Hess disagreed. This week, a state Superior Court panel backed them up. The case began in 2016. Lock pleaded guilty to a violation of the state dog law for not having his canine under control during the cat incident, Judge Judith Ference Olson noted in the state courts opinion. I permitted one of our dogs to get loose, while the dog was running off the leash, it attacked the cat and caused considerable harm to the cat, Lock testified during a hearing before Hess after he appealed Beckleys restitution order. He acknowledged that the $9,331 represented the cost of the veterinary care the cat required, Olson wrote. Still, Lock claimed that restitution was illegal because dog law doesnt permit restitution for veterinary bills for the treatment of the injured cat. Instead, he insisted, that law limits the amount of available restitution to the amount by which the value of the pet has been substantially decreased. Hess disagreed, re-imposed the restitution and ordered lock to pay a $300 fine. Olson deemed Locks challenge to that decision unavailing and found that the restitution order is legal and must stand. Since (Locks) dog injured -and did not kill- the victims cat, the victim was statutorily entitled to restitution in the amount necessary to repair the damage to his cat, the state judge wrote. Lock, who represented himself throughout the case, could appeal the Superior Court ruling to the state Supreme Court. Some neighbors near the residence where seven people and a dog were fatally shot late Thursday night said they are taking a few more precautions, while at least one neighbor feels the area is safer since the slayings. I feel safer now that the crack house is shut down, Allen Smith, who has lived in the area most of his life, said Monday. It was not uncommon for cops to be over there. Smith said he wasnt necessarily surprised that somebody was killed at the house at 522 Talucah Road in Valhermoso Springs. However, the number of people killed there was alarming, he added. I dont want anybody to be killed. Authorities received calls about 11:30 p.m. Thursday and found the victims dead in the house and a small fire near the bodies in a possible attempt to destroy some of the evidence. Six of the victims were 31 or younger. Retired lawman Tim Spangler, 65, lives a few houses north of the crime scene. He said he and other neighbors are more cautious since the slayings. It was definitely a cold-blooded situation, said Spangler, retired from the Bay County (Florida) Sheriffs Office. Now we are all a little more aware of things in the neighborhood. Im watching out for others a little more than I was. But gunfire is not uncommon in the area because of people hunting, but nothing like this." However, he said he is a member of the Cotaco Volunteer Fire Department, and the department has had a number of calls in recent years to the residence. Morgan County Sheriffs Office Spokesman Mike Swafford said deputies have responded to six calls at the location during 2020, including three drug overdoses. He said in past years, calls to the residence have involved drugs, robbery, trespassing and disturbances. Investigators released no new details on the investigation Monday. Last week, Swafford said, Our theory right now is whoever did this, came in here for a reason, did it and left. Spangler said he is not so worried about his familys safety. A sign on his front door depicts two handguns and the words I dont call 911. We all have protection, he said. If I ever call 911, I will tell them to bring the coroner. Spangler said he has no reason to doubt the Morgan County Sheriffs Office, which said there is no danger to the public. I believe the killers have left the area, he said. Spanger also said he is not convinced the killings were drug-related. We need to let the investigators do their job. I dont think it was a drug deal that went bad that caused these killings. It might have been an anger issue. I dont want to say too much. Let the authorities do their investigation. Swafford said Friday "pieces of evidence" at the scene have authorities believing the shooter or shooters "are no longer in the area and it is an isolated incident" and local residents are not in danger. Brutal incident Another neighbor, Sue Worley, 75, said she didnt hear the commotion Thursday night and is trying not to dwell on the killings. Ive lived here all my life, she said. Its hard to believe this kind of thing happened on this road. It was just so brutal. I try to put it out of my mind. The killers had to be really angry to kill that dog, too. I dont feel scared though. Morgan County Coroner Jeff Chunn identified the seven slain as James Wayne Benford, 22, of Decatur; Tammy England Muzzey, 45, of Valhermoso Springs; Emily Brooke Payne, 21, of Valhermoso Springs; Roger Lee Jones Jr., 20, of Decatur; Jeramy Wade Roberts, 31, of Athens; and William Zane Hodgin, 18, of Somerville. The name of the seventh victim, a female, 17, has not been released to the public because she was a juvenile, he said. Reynolds Funeral Home in Decatur is handling arrangements for Jones and Benford. Peck Funeral Home will announce arrangements for Muzzey. Chunn said the victims died of multiple gunshot wounds. Multiple shooters? On Saturday, Swafford said the department is taking information from the public through tiplink at bit.ly/2N3tluo. Authorities have not ruled out more than one killer was involved in the shootings. Smith agreed. Logic is showing there was more than one gunman who did this, he said. He believes there would have been survivors or someone would have been able to escape the house before being shot if there was a lone gunman. All seven bodies were discovered in the house, Swafford said. He did not return calls Monday for comment. Morgan County Commission Chairman Ray Long said he is concerned about the recent shooting deaths in the county. On May 24, three people in Danville were fatally shot and Carson Ray Peters of Danville is facing capital murder charges in the incident deemed domestic. Ten dead in the past month or so, thats not a trend were proud of, Long said. Something like this is always sad. It is never justified to kill somebody. I feel sorry for the families involved. 2020 The Decatur Daily (Decatur, Ala.) Visit The Decatur Daily (Decatur, Ala.) at www.decaturdaily.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Senate Republicans are crafting a package of police reforms that would make lynching a federal crime and threaten to cut federal grants if states don't force their police departments to report significantly more detail on officers' use of force, according to two sources familiar with the internal conversations. Why this matters: Republicans have recognized that it's politically unsustainable to simply hammer a "law-and-order" message, and that they need to propose measures to respond to the national outcry for police reform after the killing of George Floyd. To lead this effort, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) turned to Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the only African-American in the Republican conference and a senator with a substantial history of proposing criminal justice and police reform legislation. The big picture: "We don't have the data we need to understand when, where, why and how these tragic incidents are happening in totality," said Sean Smith, communications director for Scott, who is leading the Republican working group on police reform. Behind the scenes: Other members of the group are Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), and James Lankford (R-Okla.). Scott met this afternoon with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner and senior official Ja'Ron Smith to share details of the Senate proposal and to discuss where they might find common ground. Details: Two sources familiar with the Senate working group discussions said the Republican police reform proposal will likely include the following measures: A federal requirement for states who receive federal grants for law enforcement to report uses of force that cause death or serious injury. If states fail to comply, they could lose 10% of their federal grant money. (This would expand the Walter Scott Notification Act a bill Scott has been introducing since 2015 and is viewed as a direct response to the violent act that killed George Floyd. The officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on Floyd's neck.) Require states to provide data on the use of "no knock" search warrants. (This is also an expansion of the Walter Scott Notification Act, and is a direct response to the killing of Breonna Taylor after Louisville police officers used a battering ram to crash into her apartment.) Expand federal grants to recruit police officers who have similar backgrounds to the communities they serve. Increase funding for body cameras. This idea is also based on legislation Scott been introducing since 2015 (the Safer Officers and Safer Communities Act). The working group has also been discussing cutting federal grants to states whose police officers fail to to use those body cameras. Wrap in the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act, which would make lynching a federal crime. Create a "National Criminal Justice Commission" to do a "comprehensive review of the system and make recommendations for reform." Other ideas they're discussing include tying federal grants to training on alternatives to using force and incentivizing "use of force review boards" (review boards where communities work with police departments in reviewing use of force incidents). What's next: Senate Republicans are hoping to release the package by the end of this week. NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorney Advertising--Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC reminds investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Wells Fargo & Company ("Wells Fargo" or "the Company") (NYSE: WFC) on behalf of shareholders who purchased Wells Fargo securities between April 5, 2020, and May 5, 2020, inclusive (the ''Class Period''). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: www.bgandg.com/wfc. This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Wells Fargo planned to, and did, improperly allocate government-backed loans under the PPP, and/or had inadequate controls in place to prevent such misallocation; (2) the foregoing foreseeably increased the Company's litigation risk with respect to PPP allocation, as well as increased regulatory scrutiny and/or potential enforcement actions; and (3) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On April 5, 2020, Wells Fargo announced that it had received strong interest in the Paycheck Protection Program ("PPP"), a program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, and was targeting to distribute a total of $10 billion to small business customers under the requirements of the PPP. On April 8, 2020, the Federal Reserve announced that it would allow Wells Fargo to exceed the asset cap that it had imposed on Wells Fargo in 2018 after revelations that the Company had opened millions of accounts in customers' names without their permission, a change would allow Wells Fargo to make additional small business loans as part of the PPP. On April 8, Wells Fargo also issued a press release stating that "beginning immediately, in response to the actions by the Federal Reserve, [Wells Fargo] will expand its participation in the Paycheck Protection Program and offer loans to a broader set of its small business and nonprofit customers subject to the terms of the program." Then, on April 20, 2020, after at least two lawsuits were filed against Wells Fargo, reports emerged that Wells Fargo may have unfairly allocated government-backed loans under the PPP. Following this news, Wells Fargo's stock price fell more than 5% over two trading days to close at $26.84 per share on April 21, 2020. Finally, on May 5, 2020, Wells Fargo disclosed in an SEC filing that "it has . . . received formal and informal inquiries from federal and state governmental agencies regarding its offering of PPP loans." Following this news, Wells Fargo's stock price fell by more than 6% over two trading days to close at $25.61 per share on May 6, 2020. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint you can visit the firm's site: www.bgandg.com/wfc or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Investor Relations Analyst, Yael Hurwitz of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 212-697-6484. If you suffered a loss in Wells Fargo you have until August 3, 2020 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff. Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a corporate litigation boutique. Our primary expertise is the aggressive pursuit of litigation claims on behalf of our clients. In addition to representing institutions and other investor plaintiffs in class action security litigation, the firm's expertise includes general corporate and commercial litigation, as well as securities arbitration. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Contact: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC Peretz Bronstein or Yael Hurwitz 212-697-6484 | [email protected] SOURCE Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC Related Links https://www.bgandg.com/ Environment Canada has issued a heat warning for Toronto, saying the city can expect extreme heat on Tuesday through to Wednesday. The federal weather agency says a hot air mass will push temperatures into the low 30s during the day on both days. On Tuesday night, lows between 20 C and 22 C are expected, but the extreme heat will be back on Wednesday, when humidity is expected to increase. Humidex values could creep into the mid to high 30s. Environment Canada says relief, however, is in sight. Temperatures are forecast to cool on Wednesday night as the remnants of Tropical Storm Cristobal nears Ontario. "Extreme heat affects everyone," Environment Canada says in the warning. Risks of extreme heat are greater for young children, pregnant women, older adults, people with chronic illnesses and people working or exercising outdoors. Toronto residents are reminded never to leave children or pets inside a parked vehicle on hot days. As well, outdoor workers should take regular breaks in cool places. City to open 14 emergency cooling centres In a news release on Monday, the city said it will open 14 emergency cooling centres whenever Environment Canada issues a heat warning for Toronto this summer. The city said it had to modify its plan for heat relief this year because several facilities that were part of its network of cooling spaces last year are now closed due to the pandemic. The centres will provide air-conditioned places for residents to rest indoors and receive a cool drink. Staff who are trained to help residents affected by the extreme heat will be on hand. Infection prevention and control measures will be in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The centres will operate during heat warnings only from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., except the one at Metro Hall, which will run 24 hours during heat warnings. Toronto residents who want to use the emergency cooling centres are urged, when they are heading to one, to wear a face mask, avoid using public transit, taxis and ride-sharing services, practise hand hygiene and physical distancing. A list of emergency cooling centres can be found here. Modi also pitches for unique identity number to every guest worker. Patna: Sympathising with guest workers who endured days of hardship to return home amid the lockdown, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said he has urged the Centre to replace the four-decade-old interstate law with a new one to ensure their social security. The senior BJP leader also said that the troubles of the hapless workers grew manifold, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, as their employers did not implement the provisions of the existing Inter State Migrant Labour Act, 1979. The Act, moreover, covers only labourers hired by registered contractors, leaving out a vast majority recruited through agents, the deputy chief minister said. The legislation was enacted to ensure decent living conditions, payment of railway fare and medical expenses, if and when needed, he said. Besides, a labour inspector might visit work places in other states to see if the lawful facilities were being extended to the guest workers, the BJP leader said. In addition, the Act entails that migrants should be covered under the Employees Provident Fund, Employees' State Insurance Corporation and other welfare schemes, he stated. Modi mooted the idea of giving unique identity number to every guest worker for compilation of a national database of such workers to provide them benefits of all social security schemes on the lines of "one nation, one ration card". "If these provisions were applied, lakhs of migrant workers would have benefited in times of crisis, like the one happening due to the coronavirus outbreak," Modi told PTI. Nearly 30 lakh migrants have returned to Bihar since the imposition of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Taking lessons from the episode, which had left many migrants in distress, there was a need to frame a new law, which would shield the workforce from such agony, he said. The deputy CM said he has requested the Centre to this effect, and the state Labour department has also taken up the issue with the Union government, stressing the need to repeal the 1979 Act and replace it with a new all-encompassing law. Of the 30 lakh guest workers that returned to Bihar, many came by Shramik Special trains, some travelled in buses, while a few unfortunate ones had to ride bicycles for days or walk back home, he said. Rajesh Kumar, the chief public relations officer of Hajipur-based East Central Railway zone, said approximately 19,92,300 passengers have returned home in Bihar in around 1,089 Shramik Special trains from different states. Giving details, he said 229 Shramik trains reached Bihar from Gujarat, 168 from Maharashtra, 143 from Punjab and 100 from Delhi. Shramik special trains have brought workers to Bihar from 21 states, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Puducherry and Goa among others. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has promised to find the returnees work at home so that they are not forced to migrate outside in "majboori" (compulsion). He has instructed various departments to create job opportunities under MGNREGA, Jal Jeevan Hariyali Abhiyan (environment projection schemes) and construction projects. Modi said the government was also contacting the employers of guest workers in other states, requesting them to consider the option of opening a new unit in Bihar, where the existing workforce could be accommodated. According to reports, many guest workers were moving back to their places of work, with their employers luring them with incentives. The ECR CPRO said so far three outbound trains have taken people to other states from Bihar. The first one was from Khagaria to Hyderabad in the first week of May, carrying 222 workers. Another train travelled to Raipur in Chhattisgarh from Darbhanga, and a third one from Patna to Sangli in Maharashtra, Kumar said. Media reports have also highlighted that guest labourers were travelling back to workplaces in Punjab in luxury buses sent for by their employers, promising higher wages. A new student-run magazine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania called apenndx. Apenndx was formed by a diverse group of first year medical students with backgrounds in writing, editing, graphic design, publishing, and website design with the mission of capturing interdisciplinary works in both the humanities and sciences at Penn Med. Read more In the beginning of this past school year, a bunch of first-year University of Pennsylvania medical students gathered to discuss creating a new student magazine. A diverse group of young people with eclectic talents, backgrounds, and interests, they decided their new publication would welcome a broad range of work the humanities as well as the sciences. But as they met at campus coffee tables and on cushioned benches outside classrooms to plan their new magazine, which they christened apenndx, they had no inkling of the viral tsunami that was about to rock their world, not to mention their future profession. That tsunami was, of course, COVID-19. Just two months into their second semester, the students courses went online and much of their class dispersed across America to quarantine with their families. But the 12-member team didnt give up on its plans for apenndx as the magazine marched toward its first publication. In fact, they expanded it, seeking additional pieces that captured students personal experiences from the pandemic. Late last month, the all-digital maiden issue of apenndx went online. We believe that apenndx embodies the best of our community and lessons learned within it, especially during these trying times, said Andrew Ahn, 26, apenndx publisher. Executing the magazine took a wide array of talents: literary, journalistic, graphic design, financial know-how, and more. The team brought those skills and experiences from their prior work on undergraduate publications. And they came together in a commitment to their project, despite or maybe even because of the adversity they faced in pulling it off. The thing that really shocked me in a good way was how invested the team was in spite of the distance, said Catherine Yang, 23, one of apenndxs three editors in chief. Born in Philadelphia, she quarantined with family in Minnesota. I dont know if I would have realized that level of dedication if we hadnt been split up by the pandemic. Compassion, clarity, and openness were the magazines content goals certain qualities that seem to be in high demand these days, said Ahn, who grew up in Massachusetts. Horace DeLisser, one of apenndxs faculty advisers and the medical schools associate dean for diversity and inclusion, said the project earned support for a number of reasons. In addition to it building community, , encouraging participation in the arts and humanities early in medical training helps to encourage self-care and promote well-being, he said. Beyond that, there are aspects of medicine that transcend knowing biology and physiology, DeLisser said. There is this profound relational component to being a physician learning how to listen, to empathize, to do reflection, to dwell with ambiguity. These are also critical physician skills, and the arts and humanities help to promote that. READ MORE: English was not their first language, but these graduating Northeast High seniors write like American poets True to its mission, the first edition of apenndx is a mix of humanities and science in essays, art, articles, and photography. There is journalism about women in medicine, commentary about health care and class, and photojournalism of womens global health. There are also many personal pieces, such as one students essay about her sister with Down syndrome, scenes from life under quarantine, anti-Asian racism during the pandemic, a virtual happy hour, and one students experience of running from rona. These are stories that bind a lot of people together, even if theyre separated by miles and miles, said Sonia Wang, 22, another editor in chief, from California. The works in apenndx gave students a voice, and the aim will be to do so biannually, and hopefully sooner than later back on the Penn campus. The magazines founding team and their colleagues will soon resume preparing to become doctors who will be trying to combat the deadly virus. Its a very different time, said Wang. Its both exciting to know we are the ones who will be fighting the pandemic, but its also a little bit intimidating, when things are unknown right now in terms of our curriculum and how health care will change. Ahn conceded that all of the unknown is a bit daunting, but it stirs other emotions, too. To be honest, its that privilege of being there for other people, especially in dire times, that drew me to medicine, he said. Seeing COVID, feeling like a bystander, not being able to do much as a first-year medical student, has fueled those emotions of wanting to go into the front lines and help other people. BOSTON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cobalt Software Inc ("Cobalt"), a leading portfolio monitoring solutions provider for the private capital industry, today announced the appointment of iLevel co-founder Hank Boggio to the newly created position of Chief Commercial Officer. In this role, Boggio will draw on his deep industry expertise to lead Cobalt's commercial activities, including driving further critical client acquisition efforts for the company. "Hank brings to Cobalt valuable depth of knowledge in sales, marketing, and business development in the private capital portfolio monitoring space, a fundamental part of the industry's technology stack. We are thrilled to have an executive of his caliber join our team as we strive to meet high demand in a growing sector," said Cobalt CEO Jason Weinstein. "Our clients are working overtime to respond to an increasingly urgent call from investors and management alike for reliable reporting at the click of a button. I am energized to scale the Cobalt solution through the rest of 2020 and beyond." The announcement comes as Cobalt has achieved significant growth through client signings and critical product enhancements in the first half of 2020. Clients Cobalt has signed during that period, the majority focused on portfolio monitoring, include: American Family Insurance (AmFam) , the private insurance firm with direct investing , the private insurance firm with direct investing Heritage Group , the healthcare venture capital firm , the healthcare venture capital firm Hastings Equity Partners , the energy sector buyout firm , the energy sector buyout firm Kainos Capital , the food and consumer sector-focused private equity firm , the food and consumer sector-focused private equity firm Liberty Hall Capital Partners , the global aerospace and defense-focused private equity firm , the global aerospace and defense-focused private equity firm Underscore.vc , the venture capital firm , the venture capital firm Valor Ventures, the venture capital firm During the same period, Cobalt has also launched the following additions to its portfolio monitoring platform: Critical integration tools , including an Excel plug-in and open API, to allow users to integrate more deeply with existing workflows, and more easily connect Cobalt with other systems. , including an Excel plug-in and open API, to allow users to integrate more deeply with existing workflows, and more easily connect Cobalt with other systems. Data enhancements , including calculated metrics, which allow users to create custom calculations from portfolio metrics (e.g. leverage ratios, such as net debt/EBITDA). , including calculated metrics, which allow users to create custom calculations from portfolio metrics (e.g. leverage ratios, such as net debt/EBITDA). Security and user management tools , including single sign-on, which simplifies user access and platform use. , including single sign-on, which simplifies user access and platform use. Governance-enablement tools, including audit trails to track changes across reports and databases in a central location, ensuring data quality and accuracy. "Under Jason's leadership, the transformation the Cobalt team has achieved in the last year is remarkable," said Boggio. "The team has done it by prioritizing ease-of-use in a complex and growing segment of the financial technology space. I'm excited to help Cobalt achieve the next phase in its growth trajectory and make an immediate impact." Hank Boggio brings more than 30 years of experience driving rapid growth and profitability for companies in the private capital market and technology industries. Notably, Boggio was a co-founder of iLevel, where he served as the company's Head of Sales and Chief Marketing Officer. In that role, he was responsible for strategic market development along with building and growing the company's international ecosystem of alliances and partnerships. Most recently, Boggio served as Chief Revenue Officer for fund administrator PEF Services LLC. Prior to PEF, Boggio was Managing Director, Head of Business Development at Ipreo Private Capital Markets, a provider of solutions for portfolio assessment, valuations, and investment performance for the private capital industry, after it acquired iLevel. Boggio's career also includes prior roles as President of ASPEO, a global software development and IT outsourcing company, and SVP of Sales and Marketing for Archive Systems. He has also held executive leadership positions at Magellan Software and Minolta Information Systems, and is a frequent speaker at industry events. ABOUT COBALT Cobalt is private capital's key to collecting, analyzing, and reporting on fund and portfolio company financial metrics. Private equity and venture capital funds use Cobalt's intuitive technology platform to gain critical operational efficiencies, address increasingly complex LP and management demands, and, ultimately, competitively position their firm. Cobalt tailors its portfolio monitoring, investor relations, and benchmarking analysis tools according to our clients' size and investment style to match their needs. We also place a premium on client service: our team is available to our clients to troubleshoot or identify a smart solution the way they need it. To learn more, please visit: https://www.cobalt.pe SOURCE Cobalt Software, Inc. Related Links https://www.cobaltgp.com/ An accused getaway driver was arrested while two suspected attackers were at-large Monday in a beating and fatal shooting outside a Paterson hospital last month, authorities said. John Delacruz, 22, of Paterson, was jailed on murder, attempted murder, weapons offenses and conspiracy to commit murder charges, according to police and prosecutors. Meanwhile, authorities were searching for Wilfredo Garcia, 20, and Modino Garcia, 42, also city residents, who both face the same charges. Delacruz was driving when the two other men got out of the black sedan and assaulted Brian Olivio and another man, both 20, on Hospital Plaza, about a block from the entrance to St. Josephs University Medical Center, around 5:30 p.m. May 27, authorities said. During the attack the suspects opened fire striking both of the victims. Immediately after the shooting, Wilfredo Garcia and Modino Garcia got back into the vehicle being driven by Delacruz and they all fled from the scene, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes and Paterson Police Chief Ibrahim Baycora said in a joint statement. Olivio died at the nearby medical center while the second man survived his wounds. Authorities did not comment on a possible motive for the attack. The killing came amid a spasm of violence over three days in the city last month. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the accused assailants can contact county investigators at 1-877-370-PCPO or tips@passaiccountynj.org or Paterson police at 973-321-1120. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Over 300 medical workers at Delhis Sir Ganga Ram Hospital were tested positive for coronavirus between 7 April and 2 June, News18 reported. Over 300 medical workers at Delhis Sir Ganga Ram Hospital tested positive for coronavirus between 7 April and 2 June, News18 reported. Additionally, around 100 family members of these workers contracted the infection which has claimed 874 lives in the National Capital so far. The hospitals chairman DS Rana said that very few of those tested positive were posted in the COVID-19 ward. 313 employees have tested positive since April. We have maintained since the beginning the staff is at great risk and even asymptomatic persons are to be screened, he told CNN-News18. An FIR was registered against the hospital on 6 June, a day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal responded to widespread complaints about hospitals refusing testing and admission of COVID-19 patients. In the complaint filed by a senior official of the Delhi health department, allegations of violating COVID-19 regulation norms issued under Epidemic Disease COVID-19, Regulation 2020 were levelled against Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. According to the complaint, the hospital was allegedly not using RT-PCR app while collecting COVID-19 samples. As per the guidelines, it is mandatory for labs to collect samples through RT-PCR app, it said. The hospital, which was testing around 300 samples daily, was also asked to not conduct any tests amid allegations of not following protocols, PTI reported. Kejriwal in a virtual press conference on Saturday said: Action has been taken against six of the 42 testing labs in the city for violating ICMR norms. The FIR invited sharp reactions from the Delhi Medical Association (DMA), which said that the action is highly condemnable and demoralising for the whole medical fraternity. The DMA also said that doctors who have been risking their lives amid the COVID-19 pandemic to save lives feel insulted by the way they are being treated. Ganga Ram hospital and its doctors who have saved lakhs of lives in the last decades are being penalised and threatened, the released noted. Delhi Medical Association strongly condemns the way Delhi CM is warning the doctors & threatening hospitals about #COVID19 patients' admissions&tests. FIR on Sir Ganga Ram Hospital is highly condemnable and demoralizing for the whole medical fraternity: Delhi Medical Association pic.twitter.com/SsirANUdVC ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2020 The Association of Physicians Haryana chapter too condemned the intimidation faced by healthcare workers despite serving the people of Delhi since three months. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, which has 675 beds, was declared a COVID-19 facility on 4 June and asked to reserve 80 percent of its beds for coronavirus patients. As of Tuesday, Delhi has reported 29,843 confirmed coronavirus cases and remains one of the worst-affected cities in the country. With inputs from PTI WILLIAMSPORT A Sunbury man is facing at least 15 years in prison after admitting he took pictures of a naked 6-year-old girl and sharing them on the Internet. Christopher Suarez, 33, on Monday pleaded guilty in U.S. Middle District Court to a charge of production of child pornography. The charge carries a 15-year-mandatory minimum sentence. Suarez, who is facing related charges in Northumberland County, admitted he was wrong in viewing and sharing child pornography, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan V. Martin said. He claims after the girl was asleep he pulled down her pants, took a picture of her genitals and shared the photo with another individual, she said. Three photos of young children were found on a cellphone that the government seeks to have forfeited, the prosecutor said. Suarez also took a self-video with underage children, Martin said without divulging the details. Suarez, a New York City native, has been in jail since his arrest March 6, 2019, on charges in Northumberland County. The affidavit in that case states he admitted possessing child pornography and recording videos of him touching the girls genitals. He told investigators he had four encounters with the victim, the first two of which involved taking videos of her while she was naked, that document states. He touched her private parts the other two times and videoed him doing so on one occasion, the affidavit alleges. He admitted sending the video to adult males via the Internet, the charges state. The state charges that include aggravated indecent assault, corruption of minors and assault of a child indicate the activity began Sept. 1, 2018, while the federal count is based on incidents Oct. 8 and 9, 2018. 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. By PTI LONDON: Hollywood star Keanu Reeves says it was director-writer Lana Wachowski's "beautiful script" for "Matrix 4" that compelled him to come back to the world of cyberpunk. The actor, who will reprise his role as Neo in the upcoming fourth installment of the cult sci-fi franchise, said the new film has some "meaningful things" to convey and he didn't want to let go of the opportunity. "Lana Wachowski wrote a beautiful script and a wonderful story that resonated with me. That's the only reason to do it. "To work with her again is just amazing. It's been really special, and the story has, I think, some meaningful things to say, and that we can take some nourishment from," Reeves told Empire magazine. According to reports, the film is hoping to resume production in July and Warner Bros Pictures, the studio behind the film, had signed eight-week extensions to keep the star cast on hold. The film was in production since February, and moved from San Francisco to Berlin mid-March for shooting, which never began due to the coronavirus-led shutdown. Besides Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Jada Pinkett Smith will be reprising their roles as Trinity and Niobe, respectively in the fourth chapter. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Brian J Smith, Toby Onwumere and Jonathan Groff are new additions to the series. Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell have co-written the script with Wachowski. "Matrix 4" is scheduled for a 2021 release. Brookfield Volunteer Fire Department BROOKFIELD Oak Grove Road was shut down for some time Monday evening after a vehicle crashed into a telephone pole. First responders were called to the area of 22 Oak Grove Road for a report of a vehicle into a telephone pole shortly before 8 p.m. An investigation is being called for into Georgia's election Tuesday as reports of long lines and malfunctioning voting machines caused massive delays during the state's twice-delayed primary election. Voters waited in line for hours without being able to cast a ballot as a shortage of poll workers and social-distancing precautions caused by the coronavirus contributed to the problem. Some precincts were closed due to lack of election officials available to work and official limited the number of people allowed into the ones open to prevent the virus from spreading. Voters took to Twitter to post photos of the long lines and point out the polling places that hadn't opened as scheduled at 7 a.m. Technical issues with the new voting system - which combines touchscreens with scanned paper ballots in races for president, Senate and dozens of other contests - brought voting to a stand still. Voters wait in line in Fulton County in Georgia's primary election on Tuesday Voters took to Twitter to point out voting problems in the state's election Voters observe social distancing measures, which contributed to the long voting lines in Georgia Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms encouraged voters to remain in line and let their vote be counted A voter reads a book while waiting in line to vote in a line stretched around the Metropolitan Library in Atlanta Officials ran out of provisional ballots to give to voters. One polling place in Atlanta only had 20 provisional ballots to distribute. Some voters waited in line over three hours and still hadn't been able to cast their vote. Others had to leave without voting or obtaining a provision ballot. Some voters said they joined the lines after requesting mail-in ballots that never arrived. One state lawmaker, Rep. William Boddie of Atlanta, said there was 'a complete meltdown' in the state's biggest city. The reports out of the state don't bode well for November, when the state will be in play during the presidential election between President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms encouraged voters to remain in line and let their vote be counted. 'If you are in line, PLEASE do not allow your vote to be suppressed. PLEASE stay in line. They should offer you a provisional ballot if the machines are not working,' Bottoms, who is on the short list for Biden's vice presidential nominee, wrote on Twitter. Nikema Williams, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, told The New York Times she had 84 text messages reporting voting problems within 10 minutes of the polls opening at 7 a.m. Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, a Republican, called for an investigation into the voting problems. 'The legislative branch of government has an obligation to go beyond the mutual finger-pointing and get to the truth and the real reasons underlying these frustrations and concerns,' he said. Some candidates running in Tuesday's primary called for extended voting hours and charged officials with voter disenfranchisement. Polls are scheduled to close at 7 p.m. ET. 'In light of the outrageous, unconstitutional, and unforgivable conditions at polling places this morning I reiterate that voting hours must be extended tonight. Mass disenfranchisement CANNOT be tolerated!,' Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff tweeted. Georgia's Secretary of State office blamed poorly trained poll workers on the delays. 'We have reports of poll workers not understanding setup or how to operate voting equipment. While these are unfortunate, they are not issues of the equipment but a function of counties engaging in poor planning, limited training and failure of leadership,' Statewide Voting Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling said in a statement. But some precinct workers said the voter check-in tablets used to scan voter identifications weren't working. Additionally, many poll workers were hired and trained at the last minute due to a shortage of workers because of the coronavirus. 'This was supposed to be seamless, and today nothing is working,' Marilyn McGuire, a precinct manager at an Atlanta voting station, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 'Today's been a disaster. People are mad. They've been waiting for hours. It's hard to talk about it's so frustrating. But at least people are staying they're not going anywhere.' Steve Bradhsaw, a presiding officer in DeKalb county which is east of Atlanta, called voting issues 'a disgrace' and slammed the secretary of state's office for blaming counties. 'It's astounding to me what an abdication of leadership that is, to push the ownership down to the counties. I was raised that if you mess up, fess up,' he told The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Americans were also voting Tuesday in primaries in West Virginia, Nevada and South Carolina following months of social restrictions to guard against the spread of COVID-19 and a week of massive protests against police brutality that energized the African American community and its white allies. Even before Georgia voters ran into problems Tuesday, the state's chief election officer warned that results may be slow to come in as poll closures and virus restrictions complicate in-person voting and counties work to process a huge increase in ballots received by mail. The state's new $104 million voting system got its first statewide test run on Tuesday. It uses touchscreens attached to printers that create paper ballots. Voters wait to cast their ballot at Dekalb County's Barack H. Obama Elementary School People vote at voting booths in the Georgia's primary election at Park Tavern in Atlanta Long lines, malfunctioning voting machines and shortage of provisional ballots are causing chaos in Georgia Voters took to twitter to share how long the vote lines were in Georgia on Tuesday Some voters reported waiting in line for more than three hours and still not being able to cast a ballot Some candidates - like Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff - called for extended voting hours in Georgia's election Layla Cantlebary waited more than an hour to vote at an elementary school in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, where she arrived to find a long line a few minutes before polling sites opened at 7 a.m. She had planned to vote by mail but said her absentee ballot never arrived. 'I always vote in primaries, but the political times that were having right now, or the moment that we're having, is scary,' Cantlebary, 39, said as she stood with about 60 others waiting to vote. 'With all the civil unrest, it just underscores the importance of coming out and voting for somebody who you feel is going to lead the country to a better place than we are in currently.' Outside a recreation center being used as a polling site in Atlanta, some voters said they had been waiting for nearly four hours in a line that wrapped around the block. At another site off Atlanta's Piedmont Park, several people walked up, looked at the line wrapped around the parking lot and then left, shaking their heads in frustration. The problems weren't just limited to the Atlanta area. In Savannah, Mayor Van Johnson said he was 'inundated' with phone calls Tuesday morning from voters reporting 'extensive delays.' Election officials in surrounding Chatham County were requesting an extension of voting hours. Since the pandemic began, states have been scrambling to address concerns of voting in person. The nation's elections rely on an army of poll workers, many of them older, and the use of neighborhood locations such as schools, recreation centers and senior living communities for polling places. With the coronavirus, however, poll workers dropped out and the number of available voting sites has shrunk, resulting in a significant consolidation of polling places and long lines. Experts have warned that election officials must take additional steps to ensure voting is easier in November. Many states, including Georgia, have pushed to expand the use of absentee ballots in the hopes of reducing the number of people voting in person. For the first time, Georgia sent absentee ballot applications to all active registered voters. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said Tuesday he wasn't surprised that Georgia had voting problems given that the state's elections chief is a Republican. He noted that GOP Gov. Brian Kemp faced allegations of suppressing votes when he oversaw the 2018 elections as secretary of state. 'Anytime you have an election in Georgia with the governors infamous history, and now the current secretary of state following Gov. Kemps infamous history, there is reason for concern,' Perez said in an interview. 'Republicans want to ensure that it is as hard as possible for people to vote.' Georgia has emerged as a battleground state in the fall contest between Trump and Biden. Biden in particular hoped to emerge as the prime beneficiary of energy from the African American community and its white allies who have held massive protests for more than a week. The former vice president's path to the presidency was already focused on maximizing black turnout and expanding his alliance with white suburbanites and city dwellers, young voters, Asian Americans and Latinos. Trump, meanwhile, hopes to demonstrate strength among his base of white voters in small towns while holding his own in metro areas. While there was no real competition for each of the presidential candidates on Tuesday, Georgia is a must-win for the Republican president in November. The state offers a wide swath of rural and small-town counties where Trump remains immensely popular among white majorities. His margins there four years ago helped overcome his deficits in metropolitan areas, including losses in key suburban Atlanta counties that hadnt been won by Democrats in a presidential election in four decades. Georgia used a new voting system on Tuesday and its delays could predict problems in November's election Presidential campaigns are watching Georgia's voting for problems as the state is seen as competitive between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden in November One Georgia Republican has already called for an investigation into Tuesday's voting problems The state has a history of disenfranchising black voters. The 2018 gubernatorial election, which saw then-Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp compete against Democrat Stacey Abrams, was fraught with accusations of voter suppression. Ahead of the vote, Kemps office purged more than 500,000 voters from the rolls. Abrams, now listed among Biden's potential running mates, narrowly lost the contest by 1.4 percentage points and accused Kemp of suppressing African American voters in his role as secretary of state. Biden's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, mentions Georgia along with Arizona and Texas as the next three states that Democrats can flip. Still, O'Malley Dillon holds up Arizona as the best opportunity for Democrats, implicitly tamping down expectations in Georgia. Early voting trends offer both parties talking points. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgias Republican secretary of state sent applications for absentee ballots to every registered voter. By Monday, at least 1.27 million people had already voted, according to Ryan Anderson, an Atlanta data analyst who examines state elections records for his independent website, GeorgiaVotes.com. That figure dwarfs the early vote in the 2016 primary. Photo: Zach Savinar/Unsplash Read on for the most recent top news you may have missed in Portland. Portland police chief resigns amid George Floyd protests Portland's police chief resigned on Monday, just six months into her job, amid criticism of her department's handling of protests in Oregon's largest city. An African American lieutenant on the force replaced her. Read the full story on PBS NewsHour. More than 200 people have been arrested since large protests began in Portland While many demonstrations and marches across Portland were nonviolent, the Portland Justice Center has been the site of clashes between demonstrators and police. Read the full story on KGW. City employees can take a week off to mourn George Floyd, others, Portland mayor says City employees in Portland, Oregon, will be allowed to take 40 hours of bereavement leave to mourn the recent deaths of black Americans and reflect on a collective grief and trauma coming from a culmination of oppression that is over 400 years old, Mayor Ted Wheeler said, according to news outlets. Read the full story on The Modesto Bee. Lewis River campsites reopen Pacific Power has reopened campsites on its property along the Lewis River, allowing for small camping parties to recreate beginning this weekend. Read the full story on www.thereflector.com. 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. PHOENIX The number of Maricopa County jail inmates who have tested positive for the coronavirus has increased sharply over the last five days, leading officials to consider mass testing at county correctional facilities. Officials on Monday evening reported that 203 of the countys approximately 4,500 inmates have tested positive, compared to 30 cases as of Thursday. Nineteen Maricopa County detention officers also have tested positive. The number of cases in Maricopa Countys jails is approaching the total in state prisons, where 237 of Arizonas 40,000 prisoners have tested positive. The increase in Maricopa County jails came as more inmates were tested and the county conducts contact tracing inside detention facilities. Some inmates who previously tested negative have since been confirmed to have contracted the virus. Inmates who tested positive are isolated and being treated. Fields Moseley, a spokesman for the county agency that specializes in providing health care to inmates, said mass testing is one of several options being considered by officials as they manage the risks of COVID-19 behind bars. Moseley said mass testing would be undertaken only if health officials conclude its needed. Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union called for all inmates in Maricopa County jails to be tested, saying the virus can spread quickly once an outbreak occurs in a detention facility. Moseley said the countys consideration of large scale testing isnt a response to the ACLU. There have been positive tests among inmates at four of the countys five jails, though the county wont reveal which jails have had an outbreak. Sheriff Paul Penzones office, which operates the countys jails, said in a statement Tuesday that it will continue to work with the countys correctional health operation on testing inmates. The sheriffs office emphasized that a jail pod will be put under quarantine and all inmates will be tested if one inmate tests positive for the virus. Penzones office has said it has undertaken a series of preventative steps, such as screening all suspects during booking, suspending visitation, providing face masks to inmates and employees and limiting the movement of inmates. The sheriffs office is working to identify staff members who may have had contact with inmates who contracted the virus. In anticipation of outbreaks within its jails, the countys jail population has been reduced 37% from 7,100 in December to more than 4,400 on Tuesday. The reductions were made through a series of measures, such as the courts temporarily suspending the sentences of inmates who were allowed to leave jail to go to work and police agencies citing and releasing nonviolent suspects rather than taking them into custody. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some especially older adults and people with existing health problems it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death. In other developments: Across Arizona, officials reported 618 additional COIVD-19 cases and 23 additional deaths, increasing the states totals as of Tuesday to 28,296 cases and 1,070 deaths. There were 1,243 hospitalized COVID-19 patients as of Monday. Extensions of unemployment benefits for up to 13 weeks are now available to people who remain without work after exhausting their unemployment insurance, the Arizona Department of Economic Security announced Tuesday. The additional coverage called Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation was launched Sunday and is available until Dec. 26, the department said. ____ Associated Press reporter Paul Davenport in Phoenix contributed. Burundis President Pierre Nkurunziza has died after suffering a cardiac arrest, the government announced Tuesday. He was 55. The Government of the Republic of Burundi announces with great sadness the unexpected death of His Excellency Pierre Nkurunziza, President of the Republic of Burundi following heart failure on June 8, 2020, it said in a post on its official Twitter account. The statement said Mr Nkurunziza was admitted to hospital on Saturday after feeling ill. His condition improved but on Monday he had a cardiac arrest and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, the BBC reported. The government said the east African country would observe seven days of mourning beginning Tuesday. Mr Nkurunziza, a controversial figure widely criticised for his heavy-handed rule, came to power in 2005. In 2015, his decision to run for a third term, amidst widespread rejection, plunged the country into chaos. The violence that followed left at least 1,200 people dead, displaced thousands as the authorities clamped down on critics and media. His government later engineered a change in the constitution, and he was able to run for a further term in the latest election in May. He, however, decided to retire. His hand-picked candidate, Evariste Ndayishimiye, won a seven-year term as president and was due to be sworn in in August. Mr Nkurunziza believed he was chosen by God to rule, and he was to be known as the supreme guide to patriotism after leaving office. Organizers of the PHL COVID-19 Fund will re-open the window for new grant applications for three days, starting Wednesday. The fund, a collaboration between the City of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Foundation, and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, has awarded more than $15 million since March to Philly-area nonprofits to help them through the pandemic. Nonprofits with specific needs pertaining to their transitions to recovery including past grantees and nonprofits whose previous applications were denied can apply for a PHL COVID-19 Fund Community Reopening Grant beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday at phlcovid19fund.org. The application period will close at 5 p.m. Friday. The PHL COVID-19 Fund has helped nonprofits persevere through an unprecedented 12 weeks, said Pedro A. Ramos, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Foundation, in a statement. There is another unprecedented challenge ahead of us as the region attempts to reopen safely and find its new normal. We cannot forget how essential the nonprofits and their services remain as we transition to the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund has awarded $15.3 million in grants to 468 nonprofits. There is about $2 million remaining in the fund, with the next set of grants expected to be announced by June 30. Esperanza Health Center, which has three locations in Philadelphia, is among the previous grant recipients, getting $100,000 from the fund. Were committed to being here for our patients and for our North Philadelphia community and we want to provide the best care and support possible, as long as the pandemic continues, said Susan Post, executive director of Esperanza Health Center, in an email. This PHL COVID-19 Fund grant has helped us to do just that, by providing the flexibility to respond quickly to address many needs. Funding has enabled us to establish safe isolation testing [and] evaluation areas for our patients, and purchase test kits and protective masks and gowns for our clinical staff. "We also want to make sure that our community has access to testing, so weve started a new free community testing site in Kensington in partnership with another nonprofit, Rock Ministries of Philadelphia, and a drive-up testing site at our Hunting Park location. Post said the grant has been a big help in addressing food insecurity. Many seniors and vulnerable individuals struggle with food insecurity, which has only worsened during this crisis," she said. "The grant supports our community food distribution initiative, bringing groceries and making a personal visit with the seniors in our community who find it difficult to make trips to grocery stores. They need another person to check in with them, to see that they are okay as they isolate during these challenging times. The Inquirer is owned by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, which operated under the auspices of Philadelphia Foundation. To contribute to the fund, visit phlcovid19fund.org. For questions about the grant-application process, email covid-19@philafound.org. By Ayya Lmahamad Based on the results of May, it is possible to say that economys recovery under the COVID-19 conditions is already underway due to the rising oil prices, expert Ilham Shaban said in an interview with Azernews on June 9. He stated that from the first calendar day of summer, oil prices have started to rise, which was followed by the announcement of the Wall Street Journal that Saudi Arabia, OPEC and OPEC+ countries want to continue reduction of oil production from May 1 till September 1. Shaban stated that in April 2020, OPEC and OPEC+ countries forecasted oil prices of $40-$45, which, taking into account the current growth rate of the world economy as well as the impact of the COVID-19, can be considered as a fair price corridor for crude oil. But there is still volatility, i.e. oil prices fluctuate by $1-$2 between morning and evening sessions. On the other hand, I would say that this OPEC+ deal is the first large-scale market stabilization solidarity among oil-producing countries, stated the expert. He stressed that as a results of May, it is possible to say that recovery process is already underway. I would say that the price corridor of $40-$45 will stabilize by the 4th quarter. Although pricing will also be influenced by the fact that soon there will be reports on countries indicating trends of economic growth, as well as at what level the economy is recovering in the post- pandemic period, after the easing of the regime, he emphasized. Shaban highlighted the importance of oil for Azerbaijan as a regulatory link in the economic stability and the overall welfare of all citizens, and that oil prices are highly important for the economy. It plays a big role in the country's income, as 75 percent of total exports are crude oil, and if we take into account oil products and gas, then it accounts for 91- 92 percent. Therefore, oil prices set on the London Stock Exchange are of great importance for Azerbaijan. Although the price of Azerbaijani oil is not set on this exchange, but the price of our oil between the seller and the buyer at the sales terminals is set in relation to Brent, he said. Furthermore, he stated that this year country applied its obligations under OPEC+ deal administratively right, i.e. physically closing wells and reduced production. In his opinion, it is reasonable to expect production of 34.5-35 million barrels this year, taking into account last years production of 37.5 million barrels and the 3 million barrel reduction. At the moment, if the post-pandemic period goes well and oil prices are set at $50+ for crude oil, this is a very good vision for countrys economy for the next year. Since the Oil Fund is established as an economic safety belt in such situations, it is normal for us to lose for example $5 billion this year, as next year we will be able to restore them under the conditions that I have announced, stated the expert. Touching upon an issue of the impact of COVID-19 on the countrys economy, Shaban mentioned that capital investments in the oil and gas sector will be less this year compared to last year. At present, the State Oil Company and BP are reducing their revenues. This is normal practice, as all over the world oil companies are moving all projects to the next year when everything will be restored and they will be able to finish their financial year not with losses but at least with minimal profit, he said. On the other hand he mentioned that there are still some profitable projects that are still ongoing this year in current conditions. For example, last year in September the construction of a new platform for Azeri Central East project was started and they are continuing this project this year but with minimal costs, and large-scale work will be done next year, he stated. Regarding the perspectives of the development of energy and oil sectors, he emphasized that Azerbaijan is already turning to the oil-importing country, as we export crude oil but import oil products such as gasoline and even jet fuel. Good points in the development of these sectors are that Azerbaijan built an oil refinery in Turkey, as well as last year purchased 10 percent in the Russian oil refinery, and now it was announced that a project is considered on joint processing of Azerbaijani oil in Belarus. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Everett D. Wair Sr. is a retired Amtrak employee and father of three currently residing with his wife, Rosemarie, in California, where he enjoys movies, acting, and writing. He has published his new book Playing a Dangerous Game: a riveting work of fiction that keeps the pages turning until the stunning conclusion. Playing a Dangerous Game is a story about a Chicago City employee who is falsely accused of sexual harassment. At his sexual harassment hearing, another city employee befriends him, and they team up to make their accusers confess to falsely accusing them, but things go terribly wrong when bodies began to turn up. Published by Page Publishing, Everett D. Wair Sr.s engrossing book is a steamy and graphic tale of sex, greed, and vengeance for mature readers. Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase Playing a Dangerous Game at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. French economist/futurologist Jacques Attali spoke about the post-pandemic era. Capture from YouTube account of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Korea By Dong Sun-hwa Altruism is the sole solution to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) sweeping the planet, according to French economist/futurologist Jacques Attali. "The only way to fight against the pandemic is to act altruistically. By protecting others, you can protect yourself," Attali said during a video interview released on the YouTube channel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Monday. Professor Choi Jung-wha, of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and president of the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI), was the interviewer. The talk was part of the ministry's online interview series, which aims to discuss the post-pandemic era with high-profile intellectuals from around the globe. Attali elaborated on his point, saying, "Many people thought isolating and closing doors were the solutions to protect themselves, but this is not appropriate because the world today is very interdependent. Practicing altruism is beneficial because once you protect others, they will eventually protect you." The economist cited wearing a face mask as an example. "If I wear a mask, I protect the others and those wearing masks also protect me," he said. "I call this 'self-interested altruism' because it's in my own interest to be altruistic. When we reach this point, we move towards 'disinterested altruism.'" Saying there would be more pandemics, Attali also shared his perspective on how to cope with them. "As Korea has done, preparations should be done based on the lessons learned from past experiences," he said. "It is a good idea to secure enough masks and test kits and have tracking methods. Speeding up the analysis of viruses and genomes and preparing medications are also good plans." But he warned that avoiding the cause of the problem and hiding could lead to a catastrophe. Attali also pointed out all means should be used to develop the health industry, adding that medical companies should boast the greatest sales in the world. He underscored the significance of education too. "Health and education are key sectors for the future," he said. "But the automobile, aviation, and tourism industries need to go through great change if they wish to become industries of the future." The Minneapolis ex-policeman accused of killing unarmed black man George Floyd has made his first court appearance, where his bail was set at $1.25m. Prosecutors cited the "severity of the charges" and public outrage as the reason for upping his bail from $1m, the BBC reported. Derek Chauvin faces charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter. Three other arresting officers are charged with aiding and abetting murder. Floyd's death in May led to global protests and calls for police reform. Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes while he was being arrested in Minneapolis on 25 May. He and the three other police officers have since been fired. Meanwhile, mourners in Houston, Texas, where Floyd lived before moving to Minneapolis, have been viewing his body, publicly on display for six hours at The Fountain of Praise church. On Tuesday, a private funeral service will be held in Houston. Memorial services have already been held in Minneapolis and North Carolina, where Floyd was born. It is believed a family member escorted Floyd's body on a flight to Texas late on Saturday. Democratic US presidential candidate Joe Biden met privately with Floyd's relatives in Houston to offer his sympathies on Monday. "He listened, heard their pain, and shared in their woe," said Floyd family spokesman Benjamin Crump, who tweeted a photo of the meeting. "That compassion meant the world to this grieving family." Aides to the former vice-president said he would also record a video message for Tuesday's service. Chauvin, a 19-year police veteran, did not enter a plea as he appeared via teleconference on Monday. He did not speak during the 15-minute hearing, and was handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit as he sat a small table. Judge Jeannice M Reding set a bail of $1.25m with no preconditions, or $1m with conditions that include Chauvin not contacting Mr Floyd's family, surrendering his firearms and not working in law enforcement or security as he awaits trial. His lawyer did not object to the bail price. Chauvin, 44, is currently being held at the Minnesota state prison in Oak Park Heights, after being transferred several times. His next court appearance is set for 29 June. A day after sarpanch and Congress leader Ajay Pandita alias Bharti was shot dead by terrorists in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, his kin and many political leaders raised demands of protection for Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley. The slain leader was cremated in Jammu earlier on Tuesday. Bharti was the sarpanch of Lukbawan village in the Larkipora area. We wont leave Kashmir but I urge the government to create a regiment of the Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, said Vijay Pandita, brother of the deceased. He loved his roots and always extended a helping hand to the needy. After becoming a sarpanch he had decided to work for the welfare of Muslims, he added. Bhartis father Dwarika Nath Pandita said, We came to Kashmir in 1996. At that time, Ajay was around 21-year-old. He used to say that Kashmir is our home. Some anti-nationals are behind his killing. Calling it a cowardly act, Lieutenant-Governor Girish Chandra Murmu condemned the killing and said that those behind the killing are enemies of humanity. Attack on any public representative is an attack on democracy, he said. In December last year, Bharti had told the media that there was a threat to his life and had repeatedly asked for security. Dr Mahesh Kaul, a prominent writer on Kashmir and a community leader, said, The killing of Ajay is another example of this jihadi paramilitary society to continue the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits and the Indian state keeps on buying the half separatist theory of secularism via Kashmiriyat (Cash-miriyat). All Parties Migrant Coordination Committee (APMCC) leader Vinod Pandit said, We condemn the killing of Ajay Pandita. He was always under threat for being a Kashmiri Pandit sarpanch. A probe is needed in the matter. Meanwhile, Congress questioned lapses to provide security to the slain leader. Senior leaders of the JKPCC have questioned the governments failure to provide adequate security to Bharti, despite him being an elected representative and leader of a minority community residing in one of the most vulnerable areas in Kashmir. All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) also condemned the killing and said that such cowardly attacks will not deter them from strengthening the democracy at the grassroots level in the UT. The AJKPC reiterated its demand for security to its members and advocated adequate compensation to family of the deceased. Pandita was the vice-president of the AJKPC and played a great role in strengthening the organisation. His killing is an attack on democracy and a direct fallout of the frustration among terror ranks due to back-to-back successful operations which resulted in killing of nine militants in the past two days in Shopian, said AJKPC president Anil Sharma. Meanwhile, the AJKPC has demanded adequate security for the elected sarpanches and panches. In last panchyat elections held in December 2018, a total of 22,214 panches and 3,459 sarpanches were elected of total 33,592 panch and 4,290 sarpanch constituencies. Hizbul Mujahideen involved in killing of sarpanch: Cops Police have claimed that militants of Hizbul Mujahideen were involved in the killing of Congress sarpanch Ajay Pandita alias Bharti in Anantnag. J&K DGP Dilbag Singh said the sarpanch was killed by Hizbul Mujahideen militants. Police said unidentified gunmen had attacked Bharti at his orchard on Monday afternoon. Locals said Bhartis family had migrated from south Kashmir in early 90s but he had returned a couple of years back and contested the panchayat polls. State BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur asked the L-G administration to provide security to all sarpanches and panches. We have been demanding security since long. So far, nothing has been done. We urge police to provide security to the leaders, he said. Thakur said militants are not happy with development, adding that culprits involved in Panditas killing will be taken to task soon. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Download Image: Web The American Philosophical Societys The David Center for the American Revolution has named Christopher Pearl, Ph.D., associate professor of history and co-coordinator of American studies at Lycoming College, its inaugural resident research fellow, enabling him to conduct research for his upcoming book about the creation of executive power during the American Revolutionary War. The David Center for the American Revolution supports scholarship on the American Revolution, and champions the active engagement of scholars, educators, and the general public. As a David Center Fellow, Pearl joins an esteemed group of scholars who have gone on to write hundreds of dissertations, academic articles, papers, and books about the American Revolution and Founding Era. Pearl will receive financial support to help defray the costs of living and working in Philadelphia, where he will reside for one month during the spring of 2021, while he continues the research for his book, tentatively titled, The War Executives: Debating and Creating Executive Power during the American Revolutionary War. This fellowship acknowledges the importance of understanding and documenting American executive power, and Im honored to be one of the inaugural research fellows and contributing to this important component of American history, said Pearl. Pearl joined Lycoming College in 2013. His teaching interests center on the political, religious, social, and legal history of America to 1877, and his research addresses salient questions related to local governance, British imperial politics, and state formation during the American Revolution. Pearls previous book project, Conceived in Crisis: The Revolutionary Creation of an American State, was recently published by the University of Virginia Press. Bless their hearts, but the congressional Democrats made a mess of things when they announced their new police reform legislation Monday. Officially, it was called the Justice in Policing Act of 2020 and includes banning chokeholds of the sort that resulted in the death of George Floyd (in whose memory they knelt), as well as establishing a national database that tracks police misconduct. More likely it will be known as the Kente Cloth Bill. The legislators draped themselves kente cloth stoles for the public spectacle of presenting their reform handiwork to their constituents - and to the cameras. The sight of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., along with Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.; Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.; Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and others draped in African regalia was a wee bit of a distraction from the subject at hand. Fashion has the ability to speak volumes about one's intent. And in this case, the message was both self-conscious and artless. In their eagerness to display dazzling empathy and solidarity, they only muddied the current conversation about race. A brief history of kente cloth would emphasize that it is the pride of Ghana, where it originated, and it is typically worn on special occasions, in part because the fabric, which is woven, is both time-consuming and expensive to make. The multicolored strips have been embraced by many African Americans as an expression of their culture, regardless of whether their roots lie in Ghana or elsewhere on the African continent. Black graduates, for example, often accessorize their academic robes with kente cloth stoles in honor of their heritage. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus regularly make use of kente cloth stoles. They've worn them at the State of the Union to display solidarity and as a silent rebuke to President Donald Trump for his racial and xenophobic antagonism, notably when he leveled a vulgar broadside against African nations in general. They wore kente cloth when they paid their respects to their colleague Rep. Elijah Cummings when he laid in state at the Capitol. Even with the best of intentions, a lot of Americans have trouble keeping their African countries and their unique histories straight. But Ghana, in West Africa, stands out, most recently for its Year of Return tourism campaign, which marked the 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia. The initiative encouraged African Americans to visit and invest in the country. Ghana and its kente cloth loom large in the African American imagination, far more so than the traditional textiles or crafts of other African countries. The brightly-colored, woven fabric has become shorthand for black cultural awareness; it symbolizes history and of being connected to a past that has been stolen. And, to some degree, kente cloth acknowledges the African diaspora - that blackness is global and that black struggle is not limited to the United States. That's an important block of knowledge but it was off-message for Monday's moment, which was about introducing specific legislation aimed at curtailing police violence and misconduct. It wasn't "black" legislation. No one, whatever their race or ethnicity, should want inhumane cops roaming through their city. The legislation wasn't a gift to black people; it was a debt this country owes itself. The kente stoles emphasized cultural history. But the protests have been focused on forcing people to reckon with the political, societal backstory that's responsible for a policing system that's racially biased and imbued with outsize power and responsibility. Those things are connected to cultural literacy, but they aren't the same. The stoles read as a vague and confused declaration by legislators that they stood together out of respect for the African-ness of their fellow citizens. What they needed to emphasize with their stagecraft is that this is a particularly American issue - a defect woven into our own country's fabric. The Argentine Justice revealed an espionage structure which worked within the Federal Intelligence Agency, but outside this entity's law. During the G20 Summit, in December 2018, the organization tracked correspondents from EFE, ANSA, DPA, Xinhua, Reuters, AP and major international outlets. The Federal Court N11 of Buenos Aires investigates an illegal espionage structure that was organized during the administration of former President Mauricio Macri, operated within the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) of Argentina, contacted drug traffickers as "agents" and reported directly to the president's office. The former president, his former minister of security and current political reference, Patricia Bullrich, the then AFI directors, Gustavo Arribas and Silvia Majdalani and several "agents" are being investigated by judge Marcelo Martinez De Georgi for "illegal intelligence production" . The complaint was filed by current AFI controller, Cristina Caamano, after the new AFI authorities audit the agency and found that the digital files of the espionage had not been properly erased before the current government started its management on December 10th, 2019. The scandal, unprecedented for the young Argentine democracy recovered in 1983, does not only includes VP Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as a victim but also the Buenos Aires City mayor, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta and who was Buenos Aires Province governor until 2019, Maria Eugenia Vidal, both partners of Macri during the general elections in October. In addition, the judicial investigation exposed how during the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires in December 2018, this network of political and social espiojane spied on more than 400 journalists, among whom are the correspondents of EFE, ANSA, DPA, Xinhua, Associated Press and Reuters. The organization also tracked journalists from international outlets such as Bloomberg, The Bubble, CNN, Argentinisches Tagblatt, Al Jazeera, Getty Images, ARD, The BA Times and Forbes. As for the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), we condemn this undemocratic action and violation of the privacy of hundreds of journalists and their families. The IFJ demands the new Argentine authorities fully support the judicial investigation and demands exemplary sentences for those who allowed and encouraged this organization to operate outside the rule of law. HOUSTON - George Floyd was fondly remembered Tuesday as Big Floyd a father and brother, athlete and neighbourhood mentor, and now a catalyst for change at a funeral for the black man whose death has sparked a global reckoning over police brutality and racial prejudice. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - An image of George Floyd is projected on the base of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue, Monday, June 8, 2020, in Richmond, Va. The statue has been the focal point of protester over the death of George Floyd. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has ordered the removal of the statue. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) HOUSTON - George Floyd was fondly remembered Tuesday as "Big Floyd" a father and brother, athlete and neighbourhood mentor, and now a catalyst for change at a funeral for the black man whose death has sparked a global reckoning over police brutality and racial prejudice. More than 500 mourners wearing masks against the coronavirus packed a Houston church a little more than two weeks after Floyd was pinned to the pavement by a white Minneapolis police officer who put a knee on his neck for what prosecutors said was 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Cellphone video of the encounter, including Floyd's pleas of "I can't breathe," ignited protests and scattered violence across the U.S. and around the world, turning the 46-year-old Floyd a man who in life was little known beyond the public housing project where he was raised in Houstons Third Ward into a worldwide symbol of injustice. "Third Ward, Cuney Homes, that's where he was born at," Floyd's brother, Rodney, told mourners at the Fountain of Praise church. "But everybody is going to remember him around the world. He is going to change the world." The funeral capped six days of mourning for Floyd in three cities: Raeford, North Carolina, near where he was born; Houston, where he grew up; and Minneapolis, where he died. The memorials have drawn the families of other black victims whose names have become familiar in the debate over race and justice among them, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin. The casket of George Floyd is removed after a public visitation for Floyd at the Fountain of Praise church, Monday, June 8, 2020, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, Pool) After the service, Floyds golden casket was taken by hearse to the cemetery in the Houston suburb of Pearland to be entombed next to his mother, for whom he cried out as he lay dying. A mile from the graveyard, the casket was transferred to a glass-sided carriage drawn by a pair of white horses. A brass band played as his casket was taken inside the mausoleum. Hundreds of people, some chanting, "Say his name, George Floyd," gathered along the procession route and outside the cemetery entrance in the mid-90s heat. "I dont want to see any black man, any man, but most definitely not a black man sitting on the ground in the hands of bad police," said Marcus Brooks, 47, who set up a tent with other graduates of Jack Yates High School, Floyds alma mater. The casket of George Floyd is placed in the chapel during a funeral service for Floyd at the Fountain of Praise church, Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, Pool) In the past two weeks, amid the furor over Floyds death, sweeping and previously unthinkable things have taken place: Confederate statues have been toppled, and many cities are debating overhauling, dismantling or cutting funding for police departments. Authorities in some places have barred police from using chokeholds or are otherwise rethinking policies on the use of force. Dozens of Floyds family members, most dressed in white, took part in the four-hour service. Grammy-winning singer Ne-Yo was among those who sang. The mourners included actors Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum, J.J. Watt of the NFLs Houston Texans, rapper Trae tha Truth, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who brought the crowd to its feet when he announced he will sign an executive order banning chokeholds in the city. Mourners pause by the casket of George Floyd during a funeral service for Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, Pool) "I know you have a lot of questions that no child should have to ask, questions that too many black children have had to ask for generations: Why? Why is Daddy gone?" former Vice-President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, said, addressing Floyd's 6-year-old daughter in a video eulogy played at the service. "Now is the time for racial justice. That's the answer we must give to our children when they ask why." Biden made no mention of his opponent in November. But other speakers took swipes at President Donald Trump, who has ignored demands to address racial bias and has called on authorities to crack down hard on lawlessness. "The president talks about bringing in the military, but he did not say one word about 8 minutes and 46 seconds of police murder of George Floyd," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist. "He challenged China on human rights. But what about the human right of George Floyd?" The casket is polished before the funeral for George Floyd on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis Police officers on May 25. (Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle via AP, Pool) Most of the pews were full, with relatively little space between people. "So much for social distancing today," the Rev. Remus Wright told mourners, gently but firmly instructing those attending to wear face masks. Texas has no limit on how many people can gather in places of worship during the pandemic, though Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has encouraged churches to follow federal health guidelines. Rodney Floyd attends the funeral service for his brother George Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, Pool) Although the church service was private, at least 50 people gathered outside to pay their respects. "Theres a real big change going on, and everybody, especially black, right now should be a part of that," said Kersey Biagase, who travelled more than three hours from Port Barre, Louisiana, with his girlfriend, Brandy Pickney. They wore T-shirts printed with Floyds name and "I Cant Breathe." 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. Floyd served nearly five years in prison for robbery with a deadly weapon before becoming a mentor and a church outreach volunteer in Houston. He moved to Minnesota several years ago through a program that tried to change mens lives by helping them find work in new settings. Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd attends the funeral service for Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, Pool) At the time of his death, Floyd was out of work as a bouncer at a Minneapolis club that had closed because of the coronavirus outbreak. He was seized by police after being accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. Four Minneapolis officers were arrested in his death: Derek Chauvin, 44, was charged with second-degree murder. J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were charged with aiding and abetting. All four could get up to 40 years in prison. Some of the mostly peaceful demonstrations that erupted after Floyds death were marked by bursts of arson, assaults, vandalism and smash-and-grab raids on businesses, with more than 10,000 people arrested. But protests in recent days have been overwhelmingly peaceful. ___ The spelling of Brandy Pickneys first name has been corrected. Although social distancing is crucial in thwarting the spread of COVID-19, isolation and the ensuing loneliness may be severely detrimental for older adults. A new study conducted by researchers at Bar-Ilan University and the University of Haifa has linked COVID-19-based loneliness in older adults with elevated psychiatric symptoms of anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms that immediately follow exposure to trauma. The findings were recently published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. The study focused on older adults, a sector of the population at greater risk for COVID-19 health complications that likely remained in stricter self-isolation than other age groups due to this risk. Notably, the researchers found that the effect of loneliness on psychiatric symptoms was most pronounced among participants who felt subjectively older than their chronological age. On the other hand, participants who felt subjectively younger than their chronological age exhibited no psychiatric symptoms related to loneliness. The way older adults perceive old age and their own aging may be more important to their coping and wellbeing than their chronological age." Prof. Amit Shrira, from the Gerontology Program at the Interdisciplinary Department of Social Sciences at Bar-Ilan University Prof. Amit Shrira conducted the study with Prof. Ehud Bodner and Dr. Yaakov Hoffman, of Bar-Ilan, and Prof. Yuval Palgi from the University of Haifa. The findings may assist in identifying older adults at high risk for developing psychiatric symptoms due to COVID-19-related loneliness. In addition, they can guide the development of suitable interventions aimed at lowering perception of age in order to mitigate the negative impact of such loneliness and create a protective factor to prevent such a link. The data should also be helpful in advancing preparatory measures for a future pandemic. What can be done to relieve the emotional burden of isolation among the elderly? Shrira, a clinical psychologist by training, recommends providing ongoing assistance and communication while adhering to relevant health guidelines. Regular conversations with family members, volunteers and even strangers can prevent the onset of deeper loneliness and the sense that no one is willing to hear their pain. Allowing them to share their experience and wisdom helps them feel more valuable. For those coping with feelings of boredom and emptiness during isolation, Shrira suggests that reading, listening to music, solving puzzles, cooking and baking, physical exercise (even the most minimal) and other leisure activities can refresh the normal, monotonous routine. PHOTOS: Governor Whitmer Volunteers in Midland Area Relief Efforts PHOTOS: Governor Whitmer Volunteers in Midland Area Relief Efforts FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 8, 2020 Contact: Press@Michigan.gov PHOTOS: Governor Whitmer Volunteers in Midland Area Relief Efforts STANFORD, Mich. -- Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer volunteered at Meridian Elementary School to help distribute supplies for Michigan families impacted by the historic and devastating flooding in the area. The governor also announced that she intends to apply for a major disaster declaration to get the necessary funding and help from the federal government to repair the damage. On May 19, failures of the Edenville and Sanford Dams in Midland County forced over 10,000 residents to evacuate their homes. Since then, the governor has worked in partnership with local, state and federal officials to help families and business owners recover. The governor has declared a state of emergency in Midland, Saginaw, Arenac, Gladwin, and Iosco counties. On May 21, FEMA approved the governors request for a federal emergency declaration to provide additional resources to impacted areas to respond to the extreme flooding. The governor has also directed the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to investigate what caused the dams to fail, and asked EGLE to review the larger issue of dam safety in Michigan and provide recommendations on policy, legislative, budgetary, and enforcement reforms that can prevent these harms from repeating elsewhere. ### Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 18:00:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KIEV, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine reported 394 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 27,856, the country's health ministry said on Tuesday. Since the beginning of the epidemic, 2,003 children and 5,135 health workers have been diagnosed with COVID-19. A total of 12,412 patients have recovered, including 897 children and 2,896 health workers, and 810 died so far in the country. Ukraine entered the third stage of lifting quarantine restrictions on June 1. The stage allows citizens to visit gyms, fitness centers and swimming pools in groups of under 10 people, and use interregional public transportation, including trains and buses provided that a seat is available for every passenger. On May 20, the Ukrainian government introduced adaptive quarantine until June 22. Enditem Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) attends the confirmation hearing of Attorney General nominee William Barr at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 15, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Sen. Hawley Tells Attorney General States Are Violating Religious Freedom, Calls for Civil Rights Investigation Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wants Attorney General William Barr to investigate alleged violations by state and local officials of religious worshipers First Amendment right to assemble while allowing demonstrators protesting George Floyds death to gather without regard to public health measures imposed to curb the CCP virus. State officials have violated the free speech and free exercise rights of religious Americans by treating religious gatherings and speech differently than the speech and mass gatherings of protests, Hawley told Barr in a June 9 letter. I urge you to launch a full civil rights investigation. As our Constitution allows, Americans have the right to peaceably protest. Millions of people are rightly angry about the death of George Floyd, and they should be able to protest peacefully. At the same time, state officials must not use their support for this protest to infringe the free exercise and free speech rights of religious Americans. Yet that is happening across the nation. Hawleys request to Barr follows a controversial 54 Supreme Court decision on May 29 in which the majority upheld Californias restrictions on church gatherings as long as they were equally applied to other non-essential entities. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority in defending broad state authority in public health matters. Where those broad limits are not exceeded, they should not be subject to second-guessing by an unelected federal judiciary, which lacks the background, competence, and expertise to assess public health and is not accountable to the people. Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented, saying, What California needs is a compelling justification for distinguishing between (i) religious worship services and (ii) the litany of other secular businesses that are not subject to an occupancy cap. California has not shown such a justification. Kavanaugh also said: Assuming all of the same precautions are taken, why can someone safely walk down a grocery store aisle but not a pew? And why can someone safely interact with a brave deliverywoman but not with a stoic minister? Hawley took note of the high courts decision in his letter to Barr. The decision tilted in favor of the state, the Chief Justice wrote, because of uncertainty about whether the church was being treated worse than comparable secular organizations, Hawley wrote. Now, after two weeks of nationwide protests, no uncertainty remains. Many jurisdictions across the nation are imposing extraordinarily strict caps on religious gatherings such as restricting religious gatherings to 10 or fewer people even as those jurisdictions allow thousands of people to gather closely in protests. States cannot allow one but prohibit the other. These actions also violate free speech. The First Amendment prohibits state officials from banning meetings based on the ideas that will be expressed. State officials have determined that the message behind the current protests is worth saying. But state officials cannot block religious speech while allowing protests simply because the states think the protest speech is more valuable. During a June 8 interview on Fox News, Barr said, Why should some people who are enjoying their First Amendment rights by going out and protesting have broader rights than other people who may want to exercise, for example, their religious First Amendment rights and go to church, as long as social distancing rules and things like that are complied with? The Department of Justice warned California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a May 19 letter that his states CCP virus regulation on church gatherings facially discriminates against religious exercise. Significant Differences A June 8 survey by The Epoch Times of the 20 most populous U.S. cities and their states found some significant differences in how religious gatherings are treated. Arizona, Florida, Ohio, and Texas appear to have the most liberal approach on the issue. Arizona has protected places of worship throughout COVID-19, Patrick Ptak, a spokesman for Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, told The Epoch Times. Phoenix is the fifth-largest U.S. city. They are constitutionally protected under the First Amendment and were never required to close, though many did out of an abundance of caution. Many are now opening back up, and our office has worked with public health officials to provide guidance, he said. Similarly, Texas allows religious gathering both inside and outside and without limitation on the number of participants. The Texas Governors guidelines for houses of worship were last updated May 26 and do not limit how many may worship; however, because we have continued to see record-setting new cases and deaths from COVID-19 in Dallas this month, people (especially those with high-risk members of their household) are still safest at home, said Catherine Cuellar, a spokesman for Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. Dallas is the ninth most-populous U.S. city. By contrast, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has banned religious gatherings inside or outside, while suggesting the George Floyd protests are more important. When you see a nation, an entire nation simultaneously grappling with an extraordinary crisis seeded in 400 years of American racism, Im sorry, that is not the same question as the understandably aggrieved store owner or the devout religious person who wants to go back to services, he said June 3. Jeremy Dys, special counsel for First Liberty Institute, said, We hope Attorney General Barr asks mayors like Bill de Blasio, Jacob Frey [Minneapolis], and Muriel Bowser [Washington, D.C.] why they would join thousands in protests on their streets but prevent even the 12 disciples from meeting anywhere in their cities. Contact Mark Tapscott at Mark.Tapscott@epochtimes.nyc If removed, the Leopold statues would join others that have been relegated to the scrap heap during this moment of upheaval. In just the past week, Confederate statues have come down removed by local officials or protesters in Philadelphia; Birmingham, Mobile and Montgomery, Ala.; Alexandria and Richmond; and Jacksonville, Fla. In the English city of Bristol on Sunday, a crowd tore down a statue of a 17th century slave trader, Edward Colston, and tossed it into the harbor, and there is now a debate about statues of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a wartime hero whom protesters say was also racist. In April, China put the PCL-181, a new truck-mounted 155mm artillery vehicle into service. With this, they follow the example of France, Sweden, South Africa and Israel. These other nations have been using similar systems. PCL-181 is a 25 ton 6x6 truck carrying a gun crew of eight and a truck bed mounted 155mm howitzer. PCL-181 will replace current towed howitzers. PCL-181 can be carried in heavy transport aircraft China recently introduced and builds on the experience of similar systems built by other nations since the 1990s. China plans to offer an export version and these will compete with the earlier and very similar, SH-1 system that was developed just for the export market and introduced in 2006. In the 1990s, a French firm developed its truck-mounted 155mm Caesar, which entered service in 2003. In 2009 France sent eight Caesar howitzers to Afghanistan. The roads in Afghanistan are pretty bad, and wheeled combat vehicles have a hard time of it. But Caesar was built to handle cross country operations. Afghanistan was the first time Caesar has served in combat and was successful. The French Army has ordered about a hundred and another hundred have been exported. Caesar is the lightest of the truck-mounted 155mm howitzers, weighing 18 tons. Other nations have built heavier (20-30 ton) systems, usually on a 6x6 heavy truck chassis. This French experience with Caesar in Afghanistan encouraged Sweden about the ability of its Archer system to operate in the vast rural areas of Scandanavia. Some parts of rural Sweden are similar to Afghanistan, but worse (more swamps). Sweden had had some Archer systems in service 2013 and 24 by 2017 and eventually 48. There have been no export customers. South Africa introduced a similar T5-52 in 2002 but was unable to find any export customers. Israel introduced the ATMOS 2000 in 2001 and, until the Israeli Army agreed to buy some, the only users have been seven export customers who purchased fifty systems. None of these systems can be considered an exotic piece of technology. For example, Archer is an FH77 155mm/L52 howitzer mounted on a modified Volvo 6x6 dump truck. The vehicle, with the howitzer on board, weighs 30 tons. L52 means the barrel is 52 times the caliber (8 meters/25 feet). When the vehicle halts, the four-man crew can extend the metal braces in the rear, raise the barrel, and be firing within minutes. After firing, the vehicle can be moving in less than a minute. Archer can use the Excalibur GPS guided round, which means Archer and an ammo vehicle can supply lots of effective firepower without the need for constant resupply. Each Archer vehicle costs about $5 million. Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times. To legally support new map, Nepals lawmakers discuss amendment Nepals Parliament on Tuesday discussed a constitutional amendment to give legal backing to a new political map that shows Kalapani and Lipulekh as part of Nepalese territory amid widespread backing for the move from lawmakers. Read more. We wont leave Kashmir, says family of slain Pandit sarpanch The mortal remains of sarpanch Ajay Pandita alias Bharti who was shot dead by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmirs Anantnag on Monday, were cremated at Jammus Shakti Nagar crematorium on Tuesday. Read more. Hungry only for votes: TMC attacks BJP after Amit Shahs virtual rally Hours after union home minister Amit Shahs call on Tuesday to end the Mamata Banerjee regime in the Bengal Assembly elections next year, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of focusing on politics instead of Covid-19, the border stand-off with China and, for Bengal in particular, dealing with the post-cyclone relief and reconstruction. Read more. Covid-19 latest: Andhra joins the list of states with more than 5,000 positive patients Andhra Pradesh joined the list of Indian states to have registered more than 5,000 positive coronavirus cases on Tuesday with the addition of 216 new Covid-19 patients taking the tally to 5,029 infections in the state, according to news agency PTI. Read more. India has largest, most experienced mountain army in the world, says Chinese military expert India has the worlds largest and most experienced troops trained for high-altitude battles, a military expert affiliated to Chinas leading maker of equipment for the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has said, adding that mountaineering is an essential skill for each Indian soldier deployed in the mountains. Read more. Varun Sharma mourns death of ex-manager Disha Salian, says hes speechless, numb Actor Varun Sharma has condoled the death of his former manager, who died of a suspected suicide on Monday. The Chhicchore actor wrote that he is at a loss for words. Read more. The Ramon Magsaysay awards, Asias version of Nobel Prize awards cancelled The Ramon Magsaysay awards, regarded as Asias version of the Nobel Prize, have been cancelled this year due to the global pandemic, the only third time the annual awards were disrupted in six decades. Read more. Fear mongering: BJP slams Manish Sisodias 5.5 lakh cases by July remark Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta slammed the AAP government over 5.5 lakh cases remark. Gupta called Delhi governments remark fear-mongering. Delhi government is trying to instill fear in public as they have not done the groundwork, Gupta said. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said 5.5 lakh cases are expecting in Delhi by July end. Watch here. By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans. Nearly six years after a NY cop killed Eric Garner, the New York State Assembly has effectively outlawed the use of chokeholds, making use of them felony charges. Some victory. At least they named the legislation after him, the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act. Ive chosen to post today on the New York action, and left you, dear readers, to rely on a Common Dreams crosspost I also put up, to discuss the broader national police legislation, proposed yesterday by the Congressional Black Caucus. among other mainstream Democrats, for reasons I will dispose of here. I expect there will be ample opportunity to discuss this national policing legislation anon. Why no discussion now of the national bill? First, the odious Kamala Harris is front and centre in promoting the national bill, and I dont trust her at all on policing reform matters nor for that matter on any criminal justice issues, frankly. She is aided and abetted by Cory Booker to whom, rightly or wrongly,I give the benefit of the doubt. This may be partly because as a fellow rhodent, I understand the incredible pressures to which he is subject, Some of the NC commentariat might pillory me for that statement. Bring it on! Seriously, although I dont myself know Booker, someone whose opinion I trust, does, And so I would give him benefit of the doubt in proposing this bill, which certainly forwards some worthwhile objectives. But it merely lays them on the table. So that leads me to a second reason to laud the NY state action, compared to the national Congressional Black Caucus proposals. Republicans do not appear to be on board in support, and so I fear this entire exercise in Democrat-driven reform may at the end of the day reduce to nothing more than mere virtue signalling. Away from DC machinations and back to New York. The action NY state legislators undertook, defied police unions to put forward a countervailing reform measure. Which changes the law on the ground in the state of New York (where I happen to be a resident) which is much more significant than signalling a mere intent to change anything (as the national legislation does). The New York measure creates a new crime called aggravated strangulation, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years, and occurs when a police or peace officer, using a chokehold or similar restraint, applies pressure to the throat or windpipe of a person, according to Assembly Speaker Carl Heasties office. The offense adheres if the officer restricts breathing or otherwise impedes intake of air, and the action causes serious physical injury or death, according to Syacuse.com, NY lawmakers pass law named after Eric Garner that criminalizes police cdhokeholds Well. Pity similar measures werent in effect at the relevant time, in either New York to help Eric Garner, or in Minneapolis, to stop what Derek Chauvin allegedly did to George Floyd. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has indicated he will sign the bill into law as if he could do anything else, given the current political climate. But I shant minimise the potential impact of this bill. Per a statement released by the New York State Assembly, 996 people have reported being put in chokeholds by NYPD officers since Garners death, according to a CBS News account, New York lawmakers pass anti-chokehold bill named for Eric Garner. The New York law change doesnt do squat for either Eric Garner or George Floyd. May each of them rest in peace. But it will perhaps make New York cops think twice about using chokeholds going forward. New SBS documentary Who Gets To Stay in Australia? airs over four weeks in July. The series, produced by ITV Australia, profiles 13 migrants and their families who want to settle in Australia but face a tough Immigration system for better or worse. It is narrated by Brooke Satchwell (SeaChange, Mr Inbetween). SBS Director of TV and Online Content, Marshall Heald, said: Away from the noisy headlines and politics lie the deeply moving stories of people who want to call Australia home and make a life in this country. Who Gets To Stay in Australia? puts a human face to the Australian immigration process. The stories are raw, heartbreaking, triumphant and full of hope, in equal measure. We hope it will encourage a deeper understanding of the thousands of people who go through this journey. Every three minutes someone gains permanent residency in Australia but every year more than 40,000 are rejected. For the first time, a documentary series captures the life changing moments when men, women and families are told whether they can call Australia home, or whether they will be asked to leave. Premiering at 8.30pm on Wednesday 1 July, Who Gets to Stay in Australia? follows the lives of 13 migrants and their families who want to settle in Australia. Theyve come here for love, family, work or for safety. The road to permanent residency is long, complex and challenging. This series follows people whose applications have previously been rejected and are in their final appeal to stay in the country. In an Australian television first, SBS cameras were granted privileged access inside the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, where applicants and their lawyers make their case directly to a single judge. The series captures the key moments as applicants prepare their cases, subject themselves to the scrutiny of the system and ultimately receive the news that will change their lives forever. For some of the applicants, these are life or death decisions. We meet Australian woman Stephanie who is fighting to keep her French husband Fares in Australia after he overstayed his original visa by 10 years. Australian man Harry and his Indonesian wife Viona face being split up and their children forced to leave due to a paperwork error. Peruvian man Luciano may be made to move back to Peru, without his partner Drew or the HIV medication he depends on, and the Irish Hyde family may all have to leave as their son has cystic fibrosis. Applicants who may cost the health system more than $49,000 over 10 years are rejected. To provide explanation and further discussion on the immigration process based on their experiences in the sector, the series features interviews with Amanda Vanstone (former Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs, 20032007), Abul Rizvi, (who worked for the Department of Immigration for 17 years and left as the Deputy Secretary, 19902007), Jan Redfern (Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal) and Dr Shanthi Robertson (Migration Sociologist from Western Sydney University). Who Gets To Stay in Australia? will be subtitled in Simplified Chinese and Arabic and will be added to the subtitled collection on SBS On Demand, available immediately after its premiere. Who Gets To Stay in Australia? is an ITV Studios Australia production for SBS. Principal production investment from SBS in association with Screen Australia. 8.30pm Wednesday 1 July on SBS. After taking the country by storm with rapper Mejja on Utawezana, high flying femcee Femi One is back with a new release dubbed Form Today. This time around, the Kake Empire signed rapstress has enlisted fellow Kenyan musical heavyweight Kagwe Mungai for this celebratory song. Speaking on the collaboration, Femi One said: It was a great experience working with Kagwe, I have always been a fan. It was more like a learning process for me, he is an excellent artist/producer and I learned a few skills. Form today is a celebratory song. Appreciating our fans, friends, family who have been there from day one, through the struggles and now that we are chasing our dreams and making it happen. On his part, Kagwe Mungai said working with Femi one was a blast. She is an incredible artist. When she called me to do a track together it was a no brainer. Form Today was produced by Bern Mziki while the video was directed by Trey Juelz. Watch below. Rating 7/10. LOBAMBA Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza says it will be a parental choice to take children back to school or to keep them at home. This follows the imminent opening of schools, with Form Vs scheduled to be the first on July 1, followed by Form IIIs and Grade VIIs on July 15. However, the minister has warned that parents will need to be cautioned not to unnecessarily deprive their children of an education. However, if a particular parent feels strongly about a child not attending (school), that parent has to ensure that the child does get an education, reads a report which was tabled by the minister in the House of Assembly yesterday. Stakeholders The tabled report was in response to a Motion Without Notice No.3/2020 which had been raised by Shiselweni II MP Strydom Mpanza, calling upon the minister to consult relevant departments and stakeholders with the view of developing a comprehensive syllabus or system of educating pupils while at home. The minister, when asked to clarify what the parental choice was, said those parents who wanted their children to continue with home-learning would have to follow several strict guidelines to achieve that. She said the parent would have to convince the ministry that the home- learning would be followed to the letter and that the child would be able to sit for the class exam like all the other pupils. However, in the report, the minister then responded to questions which deserved answers just in case government decided to reopen schools. It should be noted that the Prime Minister, Ambrose Dlamini, last week announced that on July 1, 2020, Form Vs would go back to school and two weeks later, Form IIIs and Grade VIIs would also return. The question which had been asked was if parents would be forced to release their children to school? The minister stated that all primary school pupils benefiting from the free primary education (FPE) would be expected to attend and adhere to the FPE Act. It is important not to lose sight of the fact that despite this pandemic, the ministrys mandate has not changed, reads the report. The minister stated that the ministry would continue to provide high quality education and all related services. She said although the FPE Act explicitly laid it in the open, the ministry would take a more human right approach on the current pandemic. She said parents who decided to keep children at home would have to ensure that the child got an education and would be assessed through the normal laid down conditions with no compromises. Another question which was asked was whether parents could sue government if their child was infected with the coronavirus. In response, the report states that a parent was free to seek legal recourse as it was within their right to do so. However, this is something to be tried in court, the fact is that a child can show symptoms in schools whereas the child could have been infected at home, along the way to school, in school or anywhere, reads the report. Ambiguous It was stated that the case would be very ambiguous and, legally speaking, the parent might have to prove beyond an element of doubt that the infection took place in school and also provide evidence to that effect. The minister further reported that all schools would be thoroughly cleaned and sanitised before pupils returned. It was stated that this would need to be done daily as the virus was spread largely through contact and touch. Government will ensure that all its citizens, especially pupils and teachers, are protected for learning to take place, reads the report. The minister further stated that this was not a planned occurrence and government trusted that everyone would be a team player. We all need to be flexible and adaptable. Kuyaphalalwa, it was reported. It was reported that teachers and learners should stick to sanitisation, which was cleaning of surfaces, including hands. It was further reported that government and schools would provide materials for this purpose and this was contained in the Guidebook to be developed. The ministry further said it would ensure that all schools were places of support, care and safety and it would do all in its means to ensure that all teaching and or learning rooms were sanitised before lessons. Funding concerns and competition among the challenges ahead for LEO satellites championed as a solution for bridging the digital divide DENVER, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites are being positioned as a solution to bridge the digital divide, as they will be able to reach remote parts of the country, promising fiber-like data speeds. Amazon and SpaceX, two of the leading LEO satellite operators, are among the key proponents. A new report from CoBanks Knowledge Exchange division examines the feasibility of LEO satellite broadband networks and what business model is best positioned for success. The report identifies significant headwinds the industry will contend with before its full potential might be realized. Globally, theres a very large market thats gone untapped as nearly 4 billion people dont use the internet, with lack of access being the biggest factor, said Jeff Johnston, lead communications economist with CoBank. Theres reason for optimism that LEO satellites can deliver on their broadband promise, but the path to commercial viability is littered with uncertainty and challenges. Satellite research and analytics firm Quilty Analytics has a bearish view on venture capital-backed satellite companies in light of COVID-19. Out of the six space sectors the firm believes are most vulnerable, it cited the LEO segment as having the highest risk. Access to private funding is critical to develop the technology and network ecosystem. The space industry is concerned about the theoretical scenario, called the Kessler syndrome, whereby the density of LEO satellites is high enough that collisions between them generate space debris that increase the likelihood of further collisions. Competition in the broadband market represents another challenge. Being able to penetrate the urban and suburban markets is probably an important consideration for the LEO satellite broadband business case, but this will not be easy. Incumbent broadband networks are highly motivated to maintain their market share. Story continues The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has displayed skepticism and plans to limit satellite operators to lower speed and higher latency tiers in the upcoming Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) reverse auction. This is a setback for the industry as it suggests the FCC is unconvinced that LEO satellite operators will deliver on their speed and latency claims. Amazon has yet to share much detail regarding its LEO satellite ambitions. But Johnston said if there is a market for LEO satellite broadband networks, Amazon is currently in the best position to succeed. Unlike firms that rely on venture capital for funding, access to capital is not an issue for Amazon, he said. As Amazon branches out beyond its core internet business, bundling satellite internet with other services could offer value and be a differentiator. In the enterprise market, satellite broadband could be bundled with Amazon Web Services. A connectivity and cloud offering would be an attractive bundle, especially in rural markets where cloud adoption is low. On the consumer side, Amazon has several services it could bundle. Cable operators have demonstrated that bundling can help new entrants take market share, added Johnston. We believe the market could have a similar response to an Amazon bundle that includes satellite broadband. But a market for LEO satellite broadband network would need to develop first. The full report, LEO Satellite Broadband Expectations Need to Come Back to Earth, is available on cobank.com. About CoBank CoBank is a $158 billion cooperative bank serving vital industries across rural America. The bank provides loans, leases, export financing and other financial services to agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers in all 50 states. The bank also provides wholesale loans and other financial services to affiliated Farm Credit associations serving more than 70,000 farmers, ranchers and other rural borrowers in 23 states around the country. CoBank is a member of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of banks and retail lending associations chartered to support the borrowing needs of U.S. agriculture, rural infrastructure and rural communities. Headquartered outside Denver, Colorado, CoBank serves customers from regional banking centers across the U.S. and also maintains an international representative office in Singapore. Corporate Communications CoBank 800-542-8072 news@cobank.com Dave Harding Knowledge Exchange Media Relations 262-825-7926 david.h.harding@outlook.com Michelle Mone has revealed she gets mistaken for her daughter's sister after losing eight stone and slimming from a size 22 to a size 10. The Ultimo boss, 48, made the proud profession during an appearance on Loose Women on Tuesday as she discussed her youthful looks, her well-documented weight loss and her postponed wedding to fiance Doug Barrowman. The businesswoman - who shares kids Rebecca, Bethany and Declan with her ex-husband Michael Mone - revealed: 'I get mistaken for my daughter's sister which was amazing when I went out in London before lockdown.' Alright for some! Michelle Mone has revealed she gets mistaken for her daughter's sister after losing eight stone and slimming from a size 22 to a size 10 Michelle has lost an eye-popping eight stone and she revealed the exciting mistake that made her day before lockdown. She said: 'I get mistaken for my daughter's sister. It was amazing when I went out in London before lockdown. 'I could so easily go back to the old Michelle but I will never ever do that because it's a dark, lonely horrible space.' On her weight battle, she went on: 'It's been 8st and one pound now. I was a size 22 and now I'm a size 10. We were getting married on May 2nd, that's now postponed, and I was determined to fit in my dress... Happy days: While weighing in on her appearance, the star - who shares kids Rebecca, Bethany (pictured) and Declan with her ex Michael Mone - revealed: 'I get mistaken for my daughter's sister which was amazing when I went out in London before lockdown' Posing up a storm: Michelle admits she feels much better in her new skin 'When I was overweight, I was in a very uncomfortable horrible marriage and my way of coping with that was to eat, eat, eat. I was a bit like an alcoholic... 'It's about getting your mind sorted. It's easy for me to say but it was very difficult. The rest is easy, it's baby steps. 'When I was on the beach with Rachel Hunter, she said, why don't you treat your body like a business?.. 'I've taken on a full time nutritionist, a full time trainer. The reason I've done this is to help others. I was interested in the body and wellness and mental health.' On what she has been doing in lockdown, Michelle revealed: 'We're in our home in the Isle of Man. Sadly the kids and my mum and dad are not with us... Chatting away: The Ultimo boss, 48, made the proud profession during an appearance on Loose Women on Tuesday as she discussed her youthful looks Evolving: On her weight battle, she went on: 'It's been 8st and one pound now. I was a size 22 and now I'm a size 10' 'Thank goodness for FaceTime. It's just been myself and Doug and the people that live around here. 'The first few nights we were on the sofa watching movies, drinking wine and eating bad stuff. Then we were like, now we need to stop this... 'Now, we train three times a day. We're always on a plane or a train anyway so now we thought, we'll go for a walk, we will use this time... 'We've been doing a lot outside because of the weather. We've been going for a 90min walk, a bit in the gym. Luckily, it's been good for us apart from missing our family and friends.' She's changed: 'When I was overweight, I was in a very uncomfortable horrible marriage and my way of coping with that was to eat, eat, eat. I was a bit like an alcoholic' Last month, Michelle revealed she would eat two McDonald's a day at the height of her battle with weight and her food addiction. She said: 'I would eat everything I could get my hands on. I would eat two McDonalds a day and still have my evening meal.' Speaking to the Daily Express, as well as revealing her fast food addiction she also discussed how she treats her body 'like a business', after shedding 11lbs in 11 months ahead of her wedding in the Maldives later this year. Michelle, who is engaged to businessman Doug, 54, said: 'I know how to manage myself so I've been running my body like a business.' In this episode, senior journalist Jacqueline Maley and chief political correspondent David Crowe discuss the controversial Queen's birthday honours awarded over the weekend. 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. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 11:00:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about efforts to promote ethnic unity at Jinhuayuan community in Jinxing Township of Wuzhong City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 8, 2020. Xi inspected Ningxia on Monday. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) YINCHUAN, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, hailed community volunteers' work while visiting the Jinhuayuan community of Litong District in Wuzhong City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Monday. He was pleased to learn that an increasing number of local people had been participating in volunteer service. Wang Lanhua, a 70-year-old volunteer of Hui ethnic group and a CPC member, said that a local volunteer service team was formed in 2005, with the number of its volunteers increasing from seven in the beginning to the current more than 60,000. Enditem Health scares in the US have led to a crackdown on vaping products (Yui Mok/PA) Cigarette giant British American Tobacco has warned that it could take two years longer than expected to reach a major milestone in the business unit which includes its vape pens. It also warned that revenue from its overall business is likely to miss expectations. Covid-19 has slowed the growth of vaping products, which are touted as the big saviour in western countries for under-pressure tobacco companies. BAT said that it could now take until 2025 before it starts making 5 billion in revenue from its new categories business unit, which includes vape pen Vype. Covid-19 has disrupted consumer activation plans, reducing overall industry growth rates in new categories, BAT told shareholders on Tuesday. It has also led to the scaling back or postponement of some launches, as well as causing supply disruption and out-of-stocks earlier in the year. While the vapour category continues to recover following the global slowdown in the second half last year, the US market remains below historical levels. Looking further ahead, we are confident about the future opportunities for BAT. Our continued commitment to our dividend policy reflects this confidence Jack Bowles, BAT chief executive BAT had originally hoped the segment could reach revenue of 5 billion in the 2023-24 financial year. The new categories products include oral tobacco, and heated tobacco products, including Glo. It follows a turbulent time for the vaping industry. Not only have the tobacco giants who are betting on it had to deal with the pandemic, they are also being increasingly scrutinised by regulators. Vapes had been riding high until reports started linking them to lung damage, and even death, among young people. It led to a ban on many flavours of the devices in several US states. The last three years have been difficult ones for big tobacco. Hit by regulatory crackdowns, and advertising bans on its traditional tobacco products, the industry switched focus onto the e-cigarettes and vaping products, said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets. British American Tobacco has been no different, its share price sliding sharply in the wake of the global crackdown on cigarette advertising as well as the recent lockdowns. Meanwhile, BAT warned it was set to miss guidance, as South Africa sticks to a ban on selling tobacco during the pandemic, and sales have taken a significant hit in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Vietnam. It now expects revenue to grow between 1% and 3%, down from previous expectations of between 3% and 5%. Chief executive Jack Bowles said: We have made a good start to the year, with strong volume and value share growth in combustibles underpinning the sustainability of the business. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our teams around the world, I am pleased to say that we continue to perform well and expect a good performance in 2020, in the context of very challenging circumstances. Looking further ahead, we are confident about the future opportunities for BAT. Our continued commitment to our dividend policy reflects this confidence. Pyongyang says all hotlines between unification representatives, two militaries will be cut off from Tuesday noon. North Korea has announced that it will sever hotlines with South Korea as the first step towards shutting down all contact with Seoul, in retaliation for actions taken by defectors who have been sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border. State news agency KCNA made the announcement on Tuesday as Seoul also confirmed that Pyongyang had refused to receive calls from its liaison office after making the threat, Yonhap news agency reported quoting South Koreas unification ministry. The liaison office attempted to call North Korea this morning, but the North did not answer, the unification ministry said on Tuesday. Yonhap also quoted South Koreas defence ministry as saying North Korea also did not answer calls via military hotlines. For several days, North Korea has lashed out at South Korea, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and other projects if South Korea did not stop defectors from sending leaflets and other material into North Korea. Top government officials in North Korea, including leader Kim Jong Uns sister, Kim Yo Jong, and Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers Party of Korea, determined that the work towards the South should thoroughly turn into the one against an enemy, KCNA said. As a first step, at noon on Tuesday (03:00 GMT), North Korea will close lines of communication at an inter-Korean liaison office, and hotlines between the two militaries and presidential offices, the report said. Dire situation On Monday morning, North Korea did not answer the liaison phone call for the first time since 2018, though it later answered an afternoon call. The decision to cut communications marks a setback in relations amid efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for relief on tough international sanctions. The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. South Korea has promised to take legislative action to ban activities of the defectors, but analysts said North Koreas move is probably about more than the defectors with the country facing increasing economic pressure from the coronavirus crisis and international sanctions. North Korea is in a much more dire situation than we think, Choo Jae-woo, a professor at Kyung Hee University, told Reuters News Agency. I think they are trying to squeeze something out of the South. Cutting communications is a well-worn play for Pyongyang, but one that can be dangerous, Daniel Wertz, of the US-based National Committee on North Korea, said on Twitter. Regular communication channels are needed most during a crisis, and for that reason, North Korea cuts them off to create an atmosphere of heightened risk, he said. The people of North Korea have been angered by the treacherous and cunning behaviour of the South Korean authorities, with whom we still have lots of accounts to settle, KCNA said. The report accused South Korean authorities of irresponsibly allowing defectors to hurt the dignity of North Koreas supreme leadership. We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay, the state news agency reported. I always get nervous when celebrities demand sweeping social change that does not affect them. Take the #defundthepolice movement that is gaining a foothold across the continent in the wake of the George Floyd murder and global protests. The argument, to oversimplify, goes something like this: we need less policing. Departments now have too many bad apples and/or too much systemic barrel rot that is leading to racial injustice. So what if we sliced and diced budgets, diverting funds to other realms? What if we reimagined law and order? I dont know. If criminals are breaking into my house at 3 a.m. as once happened to me I take real comfort in knowing a squad car with armed cops is only a 911 call away. Whats the alternative? Go downstairs in my jammies and kindly ask the home invaders to get on the blower with a community psychologist to figure out why they have just removed steak knives from a kitchen drawer and are frantically rifling through my wifes purse for car keys, which they are about to use to steal our Jetta before terrorizing my cats? True story! But maybe Im not grasping the nuances of #defundthepolice the way Natalie Portman does. This week, the actress was the latest celebrity to post her support of the movement on Instagram. When I first heard #defundthepolice, I have to admit my first reaction was fear, Portman wrote. My whole life, police have made me feel safe. But thats exactly the center of my white privilege: the police make me as a white woman feel safe, while my black friends, family and neighbors feel the opposite: police make them feel terror. Now, obviously, I dont know squat about white privilege, although it does sound awesome. All I can bring to the table today is brown ennui and a side order of brown skepticism. Portman now believes reforms have not worked, so its time to invest in nourishing people, in their education, healthcare, environment, shelter. Fair enough. But as she writes: Ive gotten to the age in my life, where if my gut feels uncomfortable, I take the situation as wrong. But this concept initially made me uncomfortable because I was wrong. Because the system that makes me feel comfortable is wrong. Its great prose. And I take her at her word. But here are some questions for Portman and the other celebrities now preaching #defundthepolice: Do you live in a gated community? Do you have access to a private security detail? Do you have lawyers and bodyguards on retainer? Do you live in a Hollywood bubble? If so, congrats and God bless. But please understand how your views on policing may now be tainted by class privilege. The people who need law enforcement the most live in poor neighbourhoods, where crime and violence are a far greater daily threat than any wayward and homicidal officers. Portman says the sixth leading cause of death for Black males in America is the police. Id respectfully encourage her to take a closer look at the Top 5. Obviously, the George Floyd case is a wake-up call, the likes of which I have not seen since Rodney King. And society is right to analyze it under an electron microscope and look for disease. That video was horrific. Just thinking about it will always leave me queasy and enraged and heartbroken. That wasnt an arrest it was a snuff film. But is less policing really the best way to deal with bad policing? If a surgeon is charged with malpractice, we dont shun medicine. If an accountant flubs a return, you still have to file your taxes the next year. I had a few moronic teachers in grade school. Abolishing the education system never once dawned on me. You dont throw out the baby with the bath water, however filthy it may seem in a flashbulb moment. If anything, Id argue the protests prove we need more policing but with better police. For the most part, the protests have been peaceful and, often, beautifully inspirational. But theyve also been marred by others who capitalized on this moment in history to loot and destroy property while inflicting chaos. With respect to Portman, if I owned a small business and helplessly watched cable news as a mob of thugs smashed through storefront glass and dashed off with my inventory, my first, second or third reaction would not be to defund the police. Is this moment a reckoning for law enforcement? Absolutely. Is defunding the police the solution? Absolutely not. The police are like a fire extinguisher under your sink. You never think about them until flames are shooting out of a saucepan. But the reality is, that forgotten extinguisher could prevent your house from burning to the ground. So the celebrities who will never have to worry about personal security or property damage should now at least think all of this through before hurling thunderbolts from the virtue-signalling clouds of social media. By all means, ruthlessly purge the bad cops. Get rid of them and good riddance. But lets not choke reality: you never know how much you need the police until you do. WASHINGTON, June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Media are invited to attend virtual student presentations for the NASA Spacesuit User Interface Technology for Students (NASA SUITS) challenge at 1 p.m. EDT Thursday, June 11. NASA SUITS, one of NASA's Artemis Student Challenges, tasks teams of college and university students to design and create spacesuit information displays within augmented reality environments. The challenge provides students with an authentic engineering design experience that will engage them in the innovative science critical to NASA's Artemis program, which will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024.The students' work with the challenge may improve how astronauts communicate with mission control on the ground as they perform moonwalks. These human-autonomy enabling technologies are necessary for the increased demands of lunar surface exploration. Media will be able to view the presentations using Microsoft Teams collaborations software and will have the opportunity to ask questions following the presentations. Media who wish to attend virtually must contact Wendy Avedisian in the newsroom at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston by 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 10, either by phone at 281-483-5111 or e-mail at [email protected] for instructions on how to join. Student teams participating in the 2020 challenge include: Boise State University in Boise, Idaho in Chapman University in Orange, California in Columbia University in New York City in Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in Kent University in Ohio University in Norco College in Norco, California College in North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina in Riverside City College in Riverside, California City College in Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico in Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey in Texas A&M University in College Station , Texas , University of Akron in Akron, Ohio in University of Baltimore University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida in University of Colorado, Boulder University of Massachusetts Boston University of Michigan in Ann Arbor , Michigan , University of North Texas in Denton, Texas in Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia Artemis Student Challenges are managed by the NASA's Office of STEM Engagement. The program helps support the agency education policy of using NASA's unique missions and programs to engage and encourage students to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math careers. To learn more about NASA SUITS, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/artemis.html For more information about NASA's STEM Engagement programs, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/ SOURCE NASA There's a new sight on Apple Maps, and is also viewable from space: it's the "Black Lives Matter" mural painted on one of the streets to the White House. In a report on Business Insider, Apple has updated its satellite image in Maps to feature the huge yellow letters, the symbol of solidarity with racial justice after the killing of African-American George Floyd. Even the mayor is sharing it on Twitter. The mural to the White House It is located along 16th Street and is viewable in the app. Artists painted this work after the go-signal from Mayor Bowser. He also renamed this area of the street Black Lives Matter Plaza. Even Google Maps, Bing, and Waze have updated their platforms to feature the paintings on Black Lives Matter Plaza. However, according to the reports, Google and Bing's satellite maps have yet to add the mural. If you have an iOS device or Mac with you, the image can now be viewable. Thousands of people are marching outside the streets, relentlessly despite the threat from COVID-19 to protest the death of Floyd under police custody on May 25. Right now, the protests have gone beyond the United States and are now being staged in London, United Kingdom, and Berlin, Germany. Tech giants Apple and Google have already pledged millions of dollars in a donation to help civil rights groups end racial injustice. Part of the donations is going to black communities. Apple's CEO Tim Cook, also issued an open letter speaking about racism. The letter is viewable on Apple's official website. Part of the letter read, "I have heard from so many that you feel afraid - afraid in your communities, afraid in your daily lives, and, most cruelly of all, afraid in your own skin. We can have no society worth celebrating unless we can guarantee freedom from fear for every person who gives this country their love, labor, and life." Maxar collected this high-res image of todays protests in Wash, D.C., calling attention to the long history of racial injustice in our nation. Were guided by our values & driven by a core belief that Earth Intelligence brings transparency for a better world. D. Jablonsky, CEO pic.twitter.com/LefEQlNPKC Maxar Technologies (@Maxar) June 6, 2020 Seen from space This new mural in Washington, D.C., can also be seen from space. Planet Labs posted the satellite image on their Twitter page on Friday. The image is shared by Mayor Bowser. Maxar Technologies also shared these satellite images. It featured both the mural and the protesters. The strong yellow letters reading "Black Lives Matter" are covering two blocks of 16th Street, one of the streets leading to the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It filled the width of the street in two lanes. In the image on Planet Labs, the mural looked beautiful along with puffy clouds. Many people are gathering to see and take photos of the mural, as seen in the photograph by Maxar Technologies. "We're guided by our values and driven by a core belief that Earth Intelligence brings transparency for a better world," D. Jablonsky, Maxar Technologies CEO stated on Saturday, June 6. Bowser, who commissioned the mural, expressed on social media, "It has been a long time coming, but I know. I know -- change will come." The protests are on-going. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Medical experts are still learning about the significant physical toll the coronavirus takes on the body, even as our state thankfully flattens the infection curve and slows the rate of deaths. But another, less-visible health crisis stemming from the virus looms: the widespread toll exacted on our mental health by the pandemic and its attendant isolation, financial fallout, fear and death. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, nearly half the U.S. population believes this unprecedented crisis is harming their mental health. At the same time, experts warn that the nation's already underfunded and overextended mental health system is woefully unprepared to handle the coming wave of people desperate for help. While a complete overhaul of the system would take years, New York officials can help provide quick relief to many by granting physicians more discretion in prescribing medical cannabis to their patients, including, but not limited to, mental health conditions. Research has shown that cannabis, when used in lower doses, can be effective in treating anxiety. In one national survey, nearly half of U.S. adults who use cannabis said they did so to relieve symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression. And trusting doctors who know their patients far better than policymakers to make treatment decisions is not only smart and humane, but also a recommendation New York's own Department of Health has made. In a 2018 report, the DOH listed several recommendations for expanding and improving the state's medical cannabis program, which is among the most restrictive of its kind in the nation. The very first recommendation called for "affording practitioners more clinical discretion in determining whether or not to certify patients for medical marijuana, based on an evaluation of the patient's condition, past treatment, and the overall risks versus benefits for each patient." More Information Dr. Andrew Rizzo is an emergency room physician in Brooklyn. See More Collapse Two years later, that recommendation has not been implemented, though the governor and state Legislature did add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of qualifying conditions for the medical cannabis program in 2017. PTSD is the only mental health condition on the list. However, New York has made modest advancements in expanding access to medical cannabis by giving prescribing privileges to more health care professionals. In 2017, the DOH adopted regulations allowing physician assistants to register with the medical cannabis program if they met certain criteria. Since then, according to DOH statistics, nurse practitioners and physician assistants have contributed to a 33.2 percent increase in available practitioners statewide. And as of June 2018, nurse practitioners and physician assistants comprised 21.5 percent of all practitioners in the program statewide. In light of the public health crisis, state officials now must consider similarly expanding the medical cannabis program to help more people in need of care. In 2018, the DOH recognized the need to expand New York's medical cannabis program to "reach patients who may be self-medicating with marijuana from sources that are not regulated or held to the same high-quality standards as the medical marijuana products manufactured by registered organizations in New York state." Now is the time to act. This need is greater now than ever before, as thousands of New Yorkers are suffering as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and unable to legally purchase a safe and regulated product that could help them feel better. The state should continue its efforts to expand its medical cannabis program, particularly as so many New Yorkers face unprecedented levels of uncertainty and stress due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis and the significant economic fallout it has caused. At a time when we are hailing our health care professionals as heroes for their frontline roles in the fight against this virus, we should afford them the trust and ability to make the best treatment decisions on behalf of, and in close consultation with, their patients. Taiwan faces increased "grey zone conflict" threat: scholar ROC Central News Agency 06/08/2020 05:34 PM Taipei, June 8 (CNA) Taiwan faces increased threats from Beijing through the expanded deployment of "gray zone conflict" tactics, a Taiwanese security analyst has said. Using this approach, Beijing wants to apply "extreme pressure" on Taiwan through non-peaceful means that are short of a conventional war, said William Chung () of the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR). Beijing is also attempting to unilaterally change the cross-Taiwan Strait status quo as part of its preparations for "reunification," he argued. Chung made the observation in a paper titled "The Cross-Strait Grey Zone Conflict and Taiwan's Security," published on June 5 in the latest issue of the INDSR's Defense Situation. Chinese fishing boats intentionally ramming a Taiwanese Coast Guard vessel in waters near Taiwan's Kinmen Islands on March 16 and missions by Chinese warships and aircraft near Taiwan's air space and waters in recent years are instances in which Beijing has used grey-zone conflict against Taiwan, Chung suggested. Other examples include China's two-and-a-half month military exercise in the Bohai Gulf, which started six days before President Tsai Ing-wen's () inauguration on May 20 and China's reported plan to conduct an amphibious landing exercise near the Taiwan-controlled Dongsha Islands (Pratas Islands) in August, he said. "China's grey zone conflict approach has become a new challenge to Taiwan's national security," Chung warned. Such tactics came as Chinese President Xi Jinping () has shifted Beijing's approach to dealing with cross-strait issues and international affairs from the low-key strategy of late Chinese communist leader Deng Xiaoping () to a more aggressive posture, according to Chung. In response, Taiwan needs to build credible "hard power" to deter such threats, devise ways to avoid escalating grey-zone conflicts into military conflicts, and overcome social divisions caused by differences in national identity among Taiwan's citizens, he said. At a practical level, Taiwan should focus on drawing a red line and making clear what actions it will take when that line is crossed, Chung suggested. Taiwan should prioritize non-military responses, establish whole-of-government response mechanisms, seek international cooperation, and gain more support in terms of public opinion, Chung said. (By Emerson Lim) Enditem/AW NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address By Rabbi Carl Choper Last week the entire world witnessed a murder by police officers in Minneapolis, without shame, in broad daylight. We all had front row seats to observe murder at the hands, or knee, of the police. This week at least one police union, the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, through its president, David Kennedy, denounced Gov. Tom Wolfs proposals for changing certain police-related procedures to reduce chances of such abuses happening in Pennsylvania. Kennedy claimed that Wolfs proposals implied that law enforcement in Pennsylvania are no better than those charged with Mr. Floyds death. He also criticized the governor for participating in a protest march. All this makes me wonder what Kennedy and other police personnel may not be absorbing about this moment. I am sorry if individual police officers feel that members of the public are painting the situation with too broad a brush, accusing all police of being part of a problem that seems to repeat itself again and again. To them I say: There is very little transparency when it comes to police departments. Few of us in the public can peer inside. You ask us to respect your authority because you are wearing the uniform and a badge. So when you put on that uniform and badge, that represents who you are. We are not in a position to distinguish between individual officers. When one for your comrades uses that badge and uniform to commit murder, they do so in your name, with your authority. When some of your comrades are involved in needless killings again, and again, and again, and over again in different parts of the country, it really begins to reflect badly on your badge, on your uniform and yes, unfortunately, eventually on you. This may be a dilemma for you, but it is an even greater dilemma for the rest of us members of the public. I, for example, was raised being told that when the police are doing their job in our midst we should not interfere with their work while they are doing it. None of us can know the larger picture of what has been going on. We are simply going to increase the danger to everyone if we interfere. The repeated instances of unexplained and unwarranted deaths in police custody have brought that assumption more and more into question, and last weeks clear and blatant murder blew it out of the water. It is now clear to me that all members of the public hold a responsibility to watch, monitor, observe and in some ways supervise the police working in our midst. At times we may even have the moral obligation to intervene in the work of the police at the very moment while they are doing their job in our midst. This is a dangerous conclusion, for the public and for the police. But we can see that not to intervene can be dangerous too. So what are we supposed to do? I am sorry if you do not like the situation that some of your colleagues have put you in. But it is not the fault of the public. We gave you our trust. That trust has been abused. Ultimately this is a dilemma that only you can solve. You have to be the ones to remove from us any need to be suspicious of you. And then you have to earn our trust again. In a word you have to police yourselves. And you have to take a look with an open mind at the various reforms being proposed to help you do that. After the murder of George Floyd, members of the police force should have been among the first groups protesting the act that had been committed in their name. After all, this death in particular, which we all witnessed, was clearly executed using the same authority the police need the public to respect and acknowledge every moment they are on the job. But how can we acknowledge that authority now? Rather than criticizing the governor for becoming part of a protest march, maybe the police union president should join a march to acknowledge how the police, too, are wounded when such crimes are committed by their own. Only this will redeem for the police the honor that comes with the motivation held by so many officers truly to serve the community. Rabbi Carl Choper is a member of the Interfaith Alliance of Pennsylvania. Strategy Analytics: Germany: 5G Adoption Intention Positive but 1 in 3 Among 18-34 Age Group at Risk of Churn Strategy Analytics German Smartphone owners are optimistic of quick return to normalcy after COVID-19 spelling good news for operators like Telekom, Vodafone and O2 (News - Alert) as well as Apple, Samsung and Huawei which that control 80% of sales. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005139/en/ SA Germany 5G Survey re: COVID-19 Impact (Graphic: Business Wire) Strategy Analytics (News - Alert) today released two reports on the German mobile market analyzing consumer survey research. First, the Service Provider Strategies (SPS) service report, "Germany: COVID-19 Impact on Mobile Churn and 5G Adoption" finds that 20% of customers may consider switching mobile operator to benefit from lower priced service plans due to the COVID-19 impact. Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, a Director at Strategy Analytics comments, "The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges for mobile operators right as they are aiming to grow 5G subscriptions. On the positive side, 26% of Germans are likely to adopt 5G as planned or sooner than planned despite COVID-19. On the negative side, like other countries, German consumers in the 18-24 and 25-34 age groups are least committed to their current operator, with over a third of the Gen Z and Millennials likely to switch operator to get lower prices. Risk of churn is especially high among subscribers that are most likely to upgrade to 5G: nearly half of likely churners are actively planning 5G upgrade, whereas nearly three quarters of more loyal subscribers have no current intentions to move to 5G." A second report from the Smartphone Country Share program "Germany: Smartphone Purchase Delays due to COVID-19" tracks changing consumer brand preferences and purchase intentions. David Kerr SVP Wireless and Broadband noted: "In Germany, 37% will buy a new smartphone as planned or sooner than planned despite the impact of COVID-19. However, it is concerning that almost 25% of Apple and Huawei and 15% of Samsung (News - Alert) owners expect to pay less for their next smartphone. While Samsung and Apple enjoy 80%+ loyalty, the uncertainty over Huawei creates a window of opportunity for emerging vendors especially among the 55+ group where about one third has not decided on their next smartphone vendor." Source (News - Alert): Strategy Analytics, Inc. #SA_ServiceProviders About Strategy Analytics Strategy Analytics, Inc. is a global leader in supporting companies across their planning lifecycle through a range of customized market research solutions. Our multi-discipline capabilities include: industry research advisory services, customer insights, user experience design and innovation expertise, mobile consumer on-device tracking and business-to-business consulting competencies. With domain expertise in: smart devices, connected cars, intelligent home, service providers, IoT, strategic components and media, Strategy Analytics can develop a solution to meet your specific planning need. For more information, visit us at www.strategyanalytics.com. For more information about Strategy Analytics Service Provider Strategies: Click Here Smartphone Country Share: Click Here View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005139/en/ Cambodian police said Tuesday they will investigate the alleged disappearance of a self-exiled Thai activist, denying any involvement in what a rights group claimed was an abduction. Pro-democracy activist Wanchalearm Satsksit, a sharp critic of the Thai government, was dragged into a car in broad daylight last week in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, according to Human Rights Watch, which cited witnesses and security camera footage. "I would like to confirm that Cambodian authorities and police did not arrest that individual," National Police spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun told AFP, as fears mounted about the activist's safety. "We are launching an investigation into it... it's not clear yet at what level this information (about his disappearance) is true." The announcement came after Cambodia's interior ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said last week that the HRW report could be "fake news". He told AFP on Tuesday that Wanchalearm's two-year visa had expired at the end of 2017, and authorities have no evidence if he left the country. "If our authorities find him, they would arrest him because he was living here with an expired visa... he could not just simply leave," Sopheak said. Bangkok has denied any knowledge of Wanchalearm's whereabouts. Since a May 2014 coup, Thailand has vowed to track down pro-democracy critics, especially those accused of attacking the kingdom's unassailable monarchy. Junta head Prayut Chan-O-Cha was voted in as civilian premier in 2019 elections, but his administration bears the legacy of the coup, with a cabinet stacked with ex-generals and military allies. "We will cooperate however we can," Prayut Chan-O-Cha told reporters on Tuesday, referring to the alleged disappearance. Wanchalearm's family issued a public plea on Sunday begging for his "release", and other pro-democracy activists in Thailand have staged small protests demanding an investigation. The activist is wanted by Thai authorities for allegedly breaching the Computer Crimes Act and Article 116 in the Thai penal code, which criminalises writing that incites unrest. He ran an acerbic anti-government Facebook page, where he had cryptically written "Compromise Mode" a few hours before his alleged disappearance. According to HRW, at least eight prominent Thai activists who fled after the last coup to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam have subsequently disappeared. If allowed by Southeast Asian governments, such alleged actions risked turning the region into an "autocrats' heaven", warned Charles Santiago, chairperson of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR). burs-dhc/rbu Fears are mounting about the safety of self-exiled pro-democracy Thai activist Wanchalearm Satskit, who was allegedly kidnapped in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh A state trooper from Georgia refused to kneel during a Black Lives Matter protest in Georgia, telling demonstrators he does that only for God. Video footage has emerged of O'Neal Saddler, who cancelled his weekend plans to help keep protesters safe, at the rally in Hartwell on Sunday. He was reportedly asked by a member of the crowd to kneel as a sign of solidarity in the wake of George Floyd's death, which he refused. Defending his decision, Saddler said he has 'much respect' but only kneels 'for one person'. Addressing a group of demonstrators, Saddler says: 'I'm supposed to be out of town this weekend with my wife. 'I took off this weekend, today, but I'm out here to make sure you are all safe. 'Don't go there with respect. 'I have much respect, but I only kneel for one person.' Someone in the crowd interrupts: 'And that's God'. The trooper nods and confirms, 'God'. The officer, dressed in blue uniform with his state trooper patrol badge clearly visible on his shirt cuff, turns and strides away from the demonstrators. Law enforcement officers and officials have been videoed across the globe kneeling in solidarity with demonstrators demanding justice for 46-year-old George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed in Minneapolis two weeks ago. Mr Saddler is pictured left in his blue uniform with his Georgia state patrol badge clearly visible as he talks with protesters. To the right of that photo is a banner that appears to show the word 'silence'. The Georgia state trooper is pictured right in his ordinary clothes in a photo posted on Facebook In many instances, the protesters have been the ones asking the officers to kneel with them and the gesture has elicited cheers. Yet not everyone is on board with the action, and some protesters have taken issue with officers kneeling, condemning it as a PR stunt that doesn't contribute to the movement. Taking the knee is a widely recognised symbol of protest against police brutality and racism which is traced back to American football quarterback Colin Kaepernick's peaceful protest of kneeling during the national anthem. Derek Chauvin, who has since been fired from the department and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, was filmed kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for nine minutes as he begged for his mother and gasped 'I can't breathe'. Mr Saddler smiles while wearing his state trooper uniform in a photo shared on his Facebook profile Mr Saddler made a public plea on his Facebook page for people to 'remember the actions of bad officers don't make me or other good officers bad' Three other officers involved have been fired and charged with aiding and abetting murder. Mr Floyd's death sparked outrage and global demonstration that have raged for more than two weeks. The clip of Mr Saddler's refusal to kneel was shared online by Ryan Fournier, founder and co-chairman of Students for Trump. Some social media users slammed Mr Saddler's refusal to kneel, prompting the trooper to post a message on Facebook. He shared one such criticism and said: 'Please stop, racism has to start somewhere. 'I haven't done any more or less than anyone.' In apparent reference to Derek Chauvin, Saddler said: 'the actions of bad officers don't make me or other good officers bad'. The first trailer for a new documentary about notorious political fixer and Donald Trump mentor Roy Cohn reveals why the current president fell in love with the infamous attorney's bully boy tactics. 'Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn' was created for HBO by Ivy Meeropol and outlines how President Trump was entranced by Cohn's ability to push forward and never admit if you are wrong. 'The whole point was to resist. Never admit that you're wrong. Trump fell in love with that,' the trailer explains. The trailer even includes the voice of Cohn speaking about his mentee Trump in which he says: 'Donald Trump... He said, "You stand up to the establishment, can I come see you?"' A new HBO documentary looks into the friendship between President Donald Trump and notorious political fixer Roy Cohn and how Trump was entranced by Cohn's bully-boy tactics. Pictured Roy Cohn and Donald Trump attend the Trump Tower opening in October 1983 Meeropol created the documentary inspired by her grandparents Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were executed after being prosecuted by Cohn and charged with being Russian spies. Cohn had strongly argued for their deaths. Meeropol's new documentary will be released on June 19, the 67th anniversary of their 1953 execution, and delves into how a closeted gay man became a 'rabid anti-homosexuality activist' and a Trump mentor. 'Roy Cohn made his name prosecuting and pushing for the execution of my grandparents Ethel and Julius Rosenberg,' Meeropol told Deadline. 'Many years later he became Donald Trump's lawyer, mentor and close friend. If there was ever a time to reflect on how we got here it is now. I am so grateful for the opportunity to share the film with HBO audiences.' Despite more than three decades passing since his death, Cohn's reputation for his aggressive and reputation-destroying tactics has become commonplace in politics. In fact, President Trump, in the crucible of his own legal difficulties, was reported by the New York Times to have pleaded to his White House staff: 'Where's My Roy Cohn?' The first trailer for the feature documentary was released on Tuesday and opens with Merropol's father Michael explaining: 'Roy Cohn was the reason my parents were convicted and executed'. 'The last place I saw your grandparents was Sing Sing,' he says. 'Going to Sing Sing is a way of connecting to that ten-year-old,' Meeropol continues as images are shown of their family before the execution at Sing Sing in 1953. A young Cohn pictured with his former boss Senator Joseph McCarthy's during the 'Red Scare' when he aided in the prosecution of alleged Soviet spies working within the United States G. David Schine and Roy Cohn (right) on a visit London during their tour of Europe in search of Communist activities in 1953. As a young attorney, Cohn worked as Senator Joseph McCarthy's grand inquisitor in the purging of America during the 'red scare' of the 1950s 'I read the judgement of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and there was a reference to Roy Cohn and I had already heard about him because of McCarthy.' The trailer includes many of the famous faces that have contributed to the documentary including John Waters, Cindy Adams, Alan Dershowitz, Nathan Lane and Tony Kushner. The film follows Cohn's life from the prominent role he played in Senator Joseph McCarthy's 'Red Scare' and his prosecution of alleged Soviet spies to embedding himself in the Reagan White House. Drawing on unearthed archival material and audiotapes, along with the new interviews, it paints a portrait of Cohn's life from the late 1950s through to his death of AIDS in 1986. Cohn's life was filled with contradictions. He was a vicious gay-baiting homophobe who was a deeply closeted homosexual; he was a Jewish anti-Semite; and in politics, he was a life-long registered Democrat who aligned himself almost exclusively with the elites of the Republican party. Filmmaker Ivy Meeropol created the documentary inspired by her grandparents who were executed in Sing Sing prison after being prosecuted by Cohn who pushed for their death The documentary features old clips of the family at Sing Sing prison Ivy Meeropol opens the new trailer explaining about his parent's death after Cohn's vendetta 'One thing I didn't know until 1988 was that Cohn was gay and had succumbed to AIDS,' Meeropol said to Deadline. 'Learning this about him made me want to know more about this man and the secret life he led. 'This clash of feelings, hating a man and believing he was evil while simultaneously feeling empathy for that same man who no doubt suffered in the closet, drove my approach in making this film.' The documentary speaks to a range of voices about Cohn's hidden sexuality and how in his later life, he would appear in Provincetown, which the trailer describes as 'probably the world's leading summertime gay community'. 'On talk shows, he's nerdy and creepy but very sort of lawyerly, polite. He came from a certain generation where you obviously couldn't be openly gay,' says Nathan Lane, who appeared as Cohn in the play Angels In America. 'The only place I ever saw him was in Front Street. People that owned it. They'd say, "Well, I just always spit in his food every time I serve him." I would've done more than spit', adds John Waters. The trailer also features celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who says of Cohn: 'Every era has an opportunist. Somebody who will stretch the law and ethics to make the ends justify the means.' John Waters, pictured, is also interviewed in the new documentary 'Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn' as the film delves into the infamous attorney's hidden sexuality Roy Cohn enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle despite his legal difficulties. He's pictured here with Steve Rubell who thew Cohn an extravagant birthday party in 1972. Revelers included Barbara Walters, Bianca Jagger, Halston, Margaret Trudeau, and Donald Trump As a young attorney, Cohn worked as Senator Joseph McCarthy's grand inquisitor in the purging of America during the 'red scare' of the 1950s. He won many of his high-profile cases with tactics he honed during his years as McCarthy's right-hand-man - a slash and burn approach in which his strategy was to deny, lie, and counter-punch with slanderous, ruinous attacks, destroying reputations rather than winning on the merits of the law. It made Cohn a rich man and something else he coveted - a celebrity, earning him the loyalty of powerful friends and wealthy clients. Cohn successfully blended his personal life with business. Clients were friends, friends were clients, and everybody benefited from swapping favors brokered through Cohn's 'favor bank'. A few of his most powerful friendships were forged in childhood at his elite private school in the Bronx: the late Si Newhouse, owner of the Conde Nast Empire; Richard Berlin, CEO of Hearst Magazine; and Generoso Pope Jr, proprietor of the National Enquirer. But undeniably, one of Cohn's most famous friends was the future president Trump. 'Donald calls me 15 to 20 times a day. He's always asking, 'What is the status of thisand that?' said Roy Cohn in a 1980 interview with Vanity Fair. They met seven years earlier in 1973 when the budding real-estate developer and his father, Fred were in hot water with the Justice Department for alleged housing discrimination against African-Americans. Trump approached Cohn for advice during a chance encounter at a private midtown dinner club known as 'Le Club.' Cohn's advice? 'Tell them to go to hell and fight the thing in court and let them prove you discriminated.' According to Vanity Fair, gossip columnist Liz Smith noted: 'Donald lost his moral compass when he made an alliance with Roy Cohn.' Roy Cohn was a mentor for current President Donald Trump who admired his never-die approach and refusal to back down. Pictured are Roy Cohn, Ed Kosner and Donald Trump Roy Cohn and Donald Trump, pictured here together, were firm friends Cohn's first big favor to Trump happened in 1976 when he secured a 42-year long tax abatement from the City of New York (during a time when the city was practically bankrupt) for Trump's Grand Hayatt Hotel on 42nd Street. The $400million tax abatement was orchestrated by Cohn and his favor-banking associate, Stanley Friedman, who signed off the deal on his last day as Deputy Mayor of NYC. This would become the longest ever tax abatement granted by the city and to return the favor, Cohn made Friedman a partner in his law firm. Roy Cohn was born to an affluent Jewish family in the Bronx in 1927, heir to the Lionel toy train corporation. He cut his teeth as Senator McCarthy's top lieutenant during his crusade against communism and became a household name in the sensationally televised 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings. While 'commie hunting', McCarthy and Cohn also ran a ruthless parallel campaign against homosexuals working in government. Five thousand federal employees deemed 'sexual perverts' were laid off in what became known as 'the Lavender Scare.' When it came to Cohn, 'you were in the presence of pure evil,' said his long time associate, Victor Kovner, to Vanity Fair's Marie Brenner in 2017. Roy Cohn on the cover of Esquire Magazine, 1968. The attorney had a notorious reputation as a ruthless fixer in politics as well as a long legal rap sheet included charges of extortion, blackmail, bribery, securities fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice Cohn was the heir to multiple fortunes on his mother's side, he grew up as the only child in an affluent Jewish family in the Bronx but was an anti-Semite Cohn ended his short-lived career in government as a pariah in Washington D.C. after the Army-McCarthy hearings effectively destroyed his credibility overnight. With his tail between his legs, the 27-year-old lawyer returned to New York City in pursuit of a lucrative career in the private sector. By the time Cohn opened his private practice in the early 1960s; his notorious reputation as a ruthless fixer in politics had already been well established. 'It wasn't what he knew; it was who he knew. He knew everybody. He knew every judge; he knew every justice. He knew everybody who had any influence on the judiciary, and you hired him to get access,' said Dershowitz in an interview with Frontline's Jim Gilmore in 2018. 'Don't tell me the law. Tell me the judge' became the hallmark of Cohn's career that was pockmarked by endless personal controversies. His long legal rap sheet included charges of extortion, blackmail, bribery, securities fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. He was audited by the IRS 19 years in a row for tax evasion and was peripherally caught up in an insurance scam that involved the death of a young man when Cohn's yacht mysteriously sank off the coast of Florida. In 1976, Cohn was implicated in a scheme to swindle the family of Lewis Rosenstiel out of their $75million inheritance when Cohn appointed himself as the trustee of the estate while his mentally incapacitated client was on his deathbed. Cohn stiffed smaller guys too. At one point he had 28 different judgments filed against him from various creditors that included a Manhattan button company, Dunhill Tailors, a locksmith, a mechanic, travel agencies, a stationery company and temporary office workers. In what would normally level a person's professional career, Cohn embraced it. He reveled in bad publicity and used it to cultivate his own celebrity. Roy M. Cohn receiving experimental HIV treatment in a hospital on November 15, 1985. Till his dying day on August 2, 1986 at the age of 55, Cohn insisted that he had liver cancer 'I'd be a liar if I denied it. It's given me a reputation for being tough, a reputation for being a winner,' said Cohn to Esquire Magazine's Ken Auletta. Cohn's health began to fail when he was diagnosed with HIV in early 1984. But as a deeply closeted homosexual, he insisted to his dying day that he was suffering from liver cancer. During this time, Cohn and Trump's friendship began to take a back seat. Some speculate that Trump was trying to distance himself from the 'tar of illness', while others think he wanted to remove himself from Cohn's professional controversy. Three weeks before his death on August 2, 1986, Roy Cohn was officially disbarred from practicing law in the State of New York. He succumbed to AIDS related complications at the age of 55. According to Roger Stone in The New Yorker: 'Cohn's 'absolute goal was to die completely broke and owing millions to the IRS. He succeeded in that.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 00:49:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, presides over a meeting held by the Chairperson's Council of the CPPCC National Committee, in Beijing, capital of China, June 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee will hold a meeting from June 22 to 24 in Beijing. The decision was made on Monday at a meeting held by the Chairperson's Council of the CPPCC National Committee, which was presided over by Wang Yang, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee. Wang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stressed that the practice of formalities for formalities' sake should be done away with in future meetings and research trips. In addition, he called for furthering the role of a mobile platform for political advisors to perform their duties, facilitating the implementation of their suggestions. Monday's meeting also heard reports on the third session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee and approved the draft agenda and schedule for the upcoming standing committee meeting. Enditem Optimism, tempered by a degree of caution, greeted the re-opening of retail businesses across Laois on Monday morning. There was a palpable sigh of relief as shutters were finally lifted after more than a two month hiatus. Bernie Everard, CEO of Laois Chamber who is heading up the Business Recovery Group in conjunction with the Local Enterprise Office and Laois County Council, said that businesses were trying to find all the positives they could. "People are worried, there is huge uncertainty. Will there be an uptake for the first week or month - buyer's revenge - but will that change. What happens when the temporary wage subsidy scheme ends?" Bernie Everard stressed the importance of getting a government in place. "Everybody wants financial support. I believe the Government will come with other supports. The restart grant, which is being administered through the local authorities, is there for any business that paid rates. "I believe there will also be help for those that did not pay rates. The Government will have to figure out the logistics of a scheme. "Once we have a government in place there will be other schemes which will, hopefully, help as many as possible." Heading up the Business Recovery Group, Bernie is in "a process of engagement" with businesses, groups and organisations across the county, on a town by town basis. "We started last week with Mountmellick and Mountrath. We are looking at things like a re-determination of some areas, for example, outdoor areas for coffee shops. "Laois County Council are keen to make it work, once everything is in compliance with health and safety and Covid guidelines. "Ideas previously shelved before might be resurrected. After this first stage hopefully things might evolve. We will have to see how it works." As regards Laois Chamber Bernie notes that the group is now part of the Chambers Ireland lobbying group which has become even more galvanised during the Covid crisis. "Laois Chamber is obviously not on a big membership drive at the moment. Our aim is to keep as many members as we can and we have had some new businesses joining during Covid." Bernie has hosted a series of webinars, open to all businesses, and this Wednesday it's the turn of Supermac's and Killeshin Hotel owner, Pat McDonagh. In one blast, 46,000 years of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples cultural legacy was lost last month. The news that the Juukan rock shelters were destroyed by Rio Tinto brought the plight of Aboriginal people wanting to see their important sites preserved for future generations to the mainstream. But this was not an isolated incident. This is happening right across the north-west, with other ancient and significant sites destroyed in recent years and more hanging in the balance as we speak. Eastern Guruma traditional owner Nathan Hicks within the footprint of FMG's planned Queens project expansion. Credit:WGAC The Pilbara is one of the most minerally prospective regions of Australia and most Aboriginal groups in it feel the pressure and loss from the mining industry. It is a battle of attrition across the Pilbara. Sites are being lost at a rapid rate. At a Tuesday press conference, President Armengol said that the foreign tourist pilot plan that will start this coming Monday will show that the Balearics is the "first safe destination" in the whole of Spain following the coronavirus pandemic. The president explained that a maximum of 10,900 German tourists are expected. They will not be subject to the foreign traveller quarantine and will spend five nights in hotels, apartments and other types of establishment. Included among this number will be German citizens with second homes in the Balearics. Germany had been chosen, Armengol added, because it is the largest foreign tourism market and because epidemiological data are very similar to those in the Balearics. Germany has had 6.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants with a daily increase in new cases of 0.012, while in the Balearics there have been five cases per 100,000. The daily increase rate in the Balearics is 0.09. Tourism minister Iago Negueruela said that the tourist arrivals will be staggered and that the visitors will be subject to specific health protocols and safety measures. There will be a register of people arriving and a call control system for rapid response if there is any case of possible coronavirus. The national ministry of health had given the go-ahead for the scheme, Armengol stressed, because the controls in the Balearics will "guarantee the safety of the tourist experience on our islands". The first 1,000 tourists will be arriving on Monday, Negueruela noted. A heavily armed active-duty Air Force staff sergeant who was arrested in the "ambush" killing of a sheriff's deputy in California was detained by a resident who batted away his guns and a pipe bomb, holding the suspect until neighbors and police arrived, authorities said Monday. Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart said the suspect, identified as Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, was dramatically apprehended Saturday after he shot and killed Santa Cruz County sheriff's Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, 38. IMAGE: Damon Gutzwiller (Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office) Another deputy was shot and struck by shrapnel from a bomb before Carrillo ran over him while fleeing the scene, Hart said. A third law enforcement officer, a member of the California Highway Patrol, was shot in the hand, he said. The second deputy suffered "significant internal trauma" from a bullet that struck his tactical vest and a possible leg injury, but he is stable, Hart said. The FBI is investigating a possible link between Saturday's incident and the killing of a federal officer in Oakland on May 29. Authorities have said the man who fired at that officer was in a white van. The victim was identified as Dave Patrick Underwood. Carrillo is accused of opening fire on officers Saturday after someone called 911 about a suspicious white van in the Santa Cruz Mountains with guns and bomb-making equipment inside. When officers found the van, the driver took off. Authorities followed it to a driveway in the remote community of Ben Lomond, in unincorporated Santa Cruz County. There, Hart said, Carrillo ambushed the officers before fleeing. As deputies searched the area, Carrillo escaped to the backyard of a home with an AR-15-style rifle slung over his shoulder, authorities said. When a resident confronted him, asking why he was there, Carrillo demanded his car keys, authorities said. IMAGE: Steven Carrillo (Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office) Hart said the resident, who asked not to be identified, gave his keys to Carrillo and tackled him as he began to leave. When the rifle "fell away," Carrillo tried to ignite a pipe bomb in his pocket while the man restrained him, Hart said. Story continues "He was able to knock it out of his hand," Hart said. Authorities said Carrillo then reached into his waistband for a pistol, which the resident also knocked away. By then, other neighbors had arrived and were able to hold the suspect until authorities arrived, Hart said. Video from the scene showed two men holding him on the ground. An assault rifle could be seen nearby. The woman who shot the video, Clara Ricabal, can be heard shouting at officers that the men had the suspect detained. She said the half-minute delay "felt like an eternity." "It was a remarkable, remarkable, heroic thing that resident did," Hart said, adding that he would award him a commendation. Referring to Carrillo, he said, "This guy could have done a lot more damage." Download the NBC News app for breaking news and alerts Carrillo is the team leader of a specialized Air Force unit of the 60th Security Forces Squadron. He was stationed at Travis Air Force Base, northeast of the San Francisco Bay Area, in June 2018. Carrillo's wife, who was also in the Air Force, died by suicide in South Carolina in 2018. John Bennett, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Francisco office, said Carrillo was not a suspect in her death, which he said was investigated by the Air Force. Santa Cruz County District Attorney Jeffrey Rosell said Carrillo will be arraigned Friday. Hart has said he will face murder charges. CORRECTION (June 9, 2020, 10:07 a.m.): An earlier version of this article misstated who David Patrick Underwood was. He was a federal officer killed on May 29 in Oakland; he was not a suspect in the shooting. The company, RMST, won control over the wreckage two decades ago, by bringing artifacts from the site of the Titanic to a federal court in Norfolk. For many years, the United States has operated in the case as a friend of the court able to make arguments but with no standing to appeal a ruling. When RMST presented its plan to recover the Marconi, the government argued that the wreck should be left undisturbed as a gravesite for the 1,500 who drowned there. THAT WASNT HARD Susie is obviously a Trump supporter because she cant think for herself. Susie says that they people with the polling place couldnt explain what to do. Its self-explanatory. They give you a piece of paper. The paper has the instructions on it. All you do is read the instructions. But as youre a Trump suppoeter you dont like to read. DIVIDED WE FALL Does Donald Trump understand that the United States of America does not have a king? We broke away from that system over 250 years ago. I mean the man is doing his best to create social unrest and I think perhaps even a civil war down the line. And really, this guys just out of control. Hes off the rails. I cant understand it. His firing up his base. I thought he said he was a great uniter. Ive never seen the country more polarized or divided and I remember the Vietnam War. SOPHOMORE HERE ON STRATFORD YOULL GET YOURS I hope the Democrats get what they deserve. Theyre nothing good now, they dont want cops. Well, people have guns and if we have to protect ourselves, we will and since there are no cops no one can arrest us. So we will eliminate people if we have to. LOVE THOSE COLUMNISTS Welcome back, Jodine Mayberry, as a guest columnist. Wish Gordon Glantz and our retired editor Phil Heron would do the same. We miss you. Where is Gil Spencer these days? He has never returned even as a guest columnist ever since he resigned from the Delco Times many years ago. I enjoy reading the work of all columnists. Please write in from time to time. ENJOY READING THE DELCO TIMES THANKS, GOP Everyone knows that anti-pipeline candidates say they were targeted with dark money and who do we have to fight for that? The corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court which gave us the Citizens United case. It paved the way for all this money floating around. Nobody knows where its coming. Its another example of just how corrupt Republicans are and for those corrupt Republican Supreme Court justices to actually classify corporations as people is absolutely ludicrous. NOT IN THIS WORLD How crazy can it get? You have these crazy people saying to defund the police. Are they kidding me? Police are a wall between the good people and the bad people. If you have one or two bad bricks in that wall, you take them out you replace them. You dont tear the whole wall down. These people have got to be out of their minds. SHRINKING FLOWERS Christine Flowers needs to grow up. When you cant tell a photo op when you see one, you are either really dense or a hardcore Kool-Aid drinking Trump junkie. Even the bishops and archbishops told us what it was. Did you notice Draft Dodger Donnie didnt say it was his Bible, but it was a Bible? He probably lifted it from some hotel room. How does this so-called columnist get a whole page in any newspaper? Get some therapy, Christine, you need it. BLAME THE KARDASIANS Id like to sound off about the situation that we have right now in this country, and I wont use the term United States of America because we are not united. Ive never seen this country so polarized and divided. When I was a kid, Im talking over 60 years ago, a child could think that he would do a little bit better than his parents. That was just a given. Now today its a pipe dream. And that is not the America that I grew up in. I just hope people just get back to basics, no frills and just forget the Kardashians and all the crap and pray to God and thank God at night. BABY BOOMER IN BOOTHWYN WHAT ABOUT THE STIMULUS? Looking for information We are all concerned about the riots. But could you please print something about the stimulus? A whole lot of people can use some extra money at this time. ONE WHO KNOWS Mass nucleic acid testing on more than 7.84 lakh residents in a city in northeastern China close to the Russian and North Korean borders has revealed 19 asymptomatic carriers, local officials have said. The tests were carried out in a week between June 1 and June 8. The city of Mudanjiang in the Heilongjiang province, home to more than 2.5 million people, is the second city after the central Chinese city of Wuhan to carry out large-scale testing of residents to find silent spreaders and the incidence of Covid-19 disease in the population. More tests on the remaining population are likely to be carried out in the coming days. Thousands of medical workers have been deployed across the city to carry out the tests. Like in Wuhan, it is likely that medics in Mudanjiang are pooling swab samples to complete the tests in quick time. The large-scale testing in Mudanjiang was ordered after local health authorities found 15 carriers with no outward signs of the disease in the city. In Wuhan, 300 asymptomatic patients were found after more than 9.8 million residents were tested; the expenditure involved was around 900 million yuan ($126 million), which was borne by the Wuhan government. With the coronavirus outbreak now under control in China, health authorities are now focusing on wide testing to find out and isolate asymptomatic carriers and those who could have been exposed to the disease. The national health commission (NHC) said eight categories of people would have to be mandatorily tested for the disease to prevent a resurgence of the disease, which have infected more than 83000 and killed 4634 people in the country. The list comprises overseas returnees, medical workers, patients admitted in fever clinics, new patients admitted to hospitals and their contacts, close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 patients, personnel deployed at epidemic control clinics at the border, prison staff and employees at facilities for senior citizens. The categorisation of vulnerable groups is aimed at preventing a rebound of the outbreak in China. It will help authorities to remain on guard against imported cases and have a monitoring system focussed on healthcare workers. Meanwhile, the large-scale nucleic acid testing in Wuhan revealed 300 asymptomatic carriers but none of the related throat swabs and sputum samples have cultivated coronavirus, the municipal health commission has said. Experts believe that the concentrations of coronavirus in the samples are extremely low or no pathogenic virus exists. Personal belongings of the asymptomatic carriers such as toothbrushes, mugs, masks and towels have shown negative Covid-19 testing results in samples collected from the surfaces, official news agency, Xinhua reported. A total of 1,174 close contacts of the 300 cases have also been tested negative for coronavirus, it said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 23:10:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Egypt will take part in the virtual meeting with Ethiopia and Sudan on Tuesday to resume technical talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. The meeting was scheduled upon invitation of the Sudanese irrigation ministry on Monday. Khartoum and Addis Ababa announced on May 21 that Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have agreed to resume technical discussions on the GERD. "Though the invitation for the meeting came late, three weeks after its launch, Egypt will resume the talks to stress good intentions for reaching a deal," the statement noted. The statement came following a meeting headed by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi with the country's national security council to discuss the recent developments in Libya and the GERD dispute. "Egypt is ready for negotiations to reach a fair and balanced deal for the interests of the people of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan," said Bassam Radi, spokesman of the presidency. "A fixed timeframe for running and concluding the negotiations is necessary to avoid procrastination or repudiation of the obligations," Radi added. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said earlier that his country was determined to complete its dam project despite the repeated objections from Egypt and Sudan. "Filling the dam without reaching a deal violates the legal obligations Ethiopia signed in 2015," the Egyptian spokesman noted. The tripartite negotiations stalled in February after Ethiopia skipped the final round of talks held in Washington. Of the three countries, only Egypt initialled the resulting draft agreement. The Sudanese irrigation ministry said on Monday that this round of negotiations should end with a "comprehensive agreement that meets the interests of the three countries and fulfills the aspirations of their peoples." The Egyptian foreign ministry said the upcoming meeting between the ministers of irrigation should be "serious and constructive" to contribute to a fair, balanced, and comprehensive agreement that would preserve Egypt's water rights and the interests of both Sudan and Ethiopia. Egypt and Sudan rejected an Ethiopian proposal released on April 10 for a "partial agreement" that would only cover the first stage of the filling. On May 1, Egypt sent a memo to the UN Security Council, blaming Ethiopia for trying to establish a deal without taking into consideration the interests of the downstream countries Egypt and Sudan. Enditem Government responses should focus on detecting and isolating infected people with symptoms, the World Health Organization said. Coronavirus patients without symptoms arent driving the spread of the virus, World Health Organization officials said Monday, casting doubt on concerns by some researchers that the disease could be difficult to contain due to asymptomatic infections. Some people, particularly young and otherwise healthy individuals, who are infected by the coronavirus never develop symptoms or only develop mild symptoms. Others might not develop symptoms until days after they were actually infected, CNBC reported. Preliminary evidence from the earliest outbreaks indicated that the virus could spread from person-to-person contact, even if the carrier didn't have symptoms. But WHO officials now say that while asymptomatic spread can occur, it is not the main way it's being transmitted. "From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual," Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a news briefing from the United Nations agencys Geneva headquarters. "It's very rare." Read alsoReuters: WHO head urges world not to let up on COVID battle Government responses should focus on detecting and isolating infected people with symptoms, and tracking anyone who might have come into contact with them, Van Kerkhove said. She acknowledged that some studies have indicated asymptomatic or presymptomatic spread in nursing homes and in household settings. More research and data are needed to "truly answer" the question of whether the coronavirus can spread widely through asymptomatic carriers, Van Kerkhove added. If asymptomatic spread proves to not be a main driver of coronavirus transmission, the policy implications could be tremendous. A report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on April 1 cited the "potential for presymptomatic transmission" as a reason for the importance of social distancing. "These findings also suggest that to control the pandemic, it might not be enough for only persons with symptoms to limit their contact with others because persons without symptoms might transmit infection," the CDC study said. To be sure, asymptomatic and presymptomatic spread of the virus appears to still be happening, Van Kerkhove said but remains rare. That finding has important implications for how to screen for the virus and limit its spread. Chief Digital Strategy Officer to drive innovation By Lee Min-hyung The Bank of Korea (BOK) said Tuesday it would take full advantage of emerging digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data when devising monetary policies, as part of a crucial task for its drive for mid- to long-term growth. Under the BOK 2030 initiative, the central bank said it plans to speed up adoption of digital innovation by enhancing research into related technologies and utilizing them when devising policies and managing market risk factors. The initiative is expected to pick up steam by the end of the year when the BOK will establish a digital innovation division. The central bank also plans to name a deputy governor-level official as head of the unit by creating the new position of chief digital strategy officer. "We will carry out in-depth research on AI, big data and blockchain to be in line with the rapidly-changing digital innovation here and abroad, which will help the central bank deliver more sophisticated economic forecasts and statistical data," an official from the central bank said. The BOK expects such technologies to help it produce more accurate and precise GDP growth forecasts on an annual and quarterly basis with the help of massive big data sets from a number of economic indices. The bank also said it will set up a state-of-the-art digital infrastructure with a view to improving productivity of overall work processes. "The central bank plans to build a smart work environment by introducing digital co-work spaces and online research platforms," the official said. Tightening research on CBDC The central bank also noted that it would make thorough preparations for the possible issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Central banks across the world are paying attention to the emerging digital currency. It has been less than a year since the notion of a central bank-issued digital currency started making headlines here and abroad. The BOK did not confirm whether it would issue the currency, but underlined that it will continue mapping out detailed action plans to potentially issue one should it become necessary. "To proactively deal with any changes in the payment market in the future, we will keep researching CBDC and review any technological and legal requirements in advance," the official said. The central bank began a 22-month pilot test on developing its own CBDC in March 2020. The decision was part of the BOK's efforts not to fall behind in the looming digital payment world, as some central banks, including those of China and some European countries, are accelerating moves to issue their own digital currencies. "Some central banks are pushing for the use of a CBDC, and in the private sector, use of digital currency and fintech is rising rapidly," the BOK said in a statement. "Against this shift in the external market environment, the BOK has also felt the need to actively deal with a possible payment paradigm shift." To back up the digital vision, the central bank plans to recruit more doctoral-level researchers for its IT sector, it said. "The public expects the BOK to come up with more realistic and effective monetary policies after carrying out thorough research on not just the traditional monetary sector, but even social phenomena such as the low birthrate, aging population, climate change and rapid digital innovation all of which have to do with society and economy," the central bank noted. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-08 23:00:49|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Some foreign politicians' efforts to sue China for causing global damages in the COVID-19 pandemic are totally absurd, experts and observers have said. Commenting on China's performance in its fight against the pandemic, experts said Chinese physicians and scientists were "wise enough and responsible enough" to publish information, which helped the world save lives and it's stupid and absurd to ask for compensation from China. A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged on Sunday to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, promising to create a new system of public safety in a city where law enforcement has long been accused of racism Minneapolis: Across the US, calls are mounting from some activists and elected officials to defund, downsize or abolish police departments. A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged on Sunday to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, promising to create a new system of public safety in a city where law enforcement has long been accused of racism. The calls for change have left people uncertain of what those changes would really mean and how cities would contend with crime. Much remains uncertain and the proposals vary from city to city, but here are answers to some questions about the issue. What does defunding the police mean? Calls to defund police departments are generally seeking spending cuts to police forces that have consumed ever larger shares of city budgets in many cities and towns. Minneapolis, for instance, is looking to cut $200 million from its $1.3 billion overall annual budget, city council president Lisa Bender said. The police budget in 2020 was $189 million. She hopes to shift money from policing to other areas of need in the city. If the money doesnt go to policing, where would it be spent? Many activists want money now spent on police overtime or on buying expensive equipment for police departments to be shifted to programs related to mental health, housing and education areas that the activists say could bring about systemic societal change and cut down on crime and violence with sufficient money. What are calls for abolishing the police seeking? Leaders in different cities have advocated various specific plans, but generally speaking, the calls aim to re-imagine public safety tactics in ways that are different from traditional police forces. Activists say their intent is to ensure safety and justice but to wind up with a different system. Years of consent decrees and investigations into human rights violations by police departments have yielded little change, they say, so a more fundamental shift is needed. What are some of the ideas for rethinking policing? Some proposals call for ending no-knock warrants and military-style raids. Others seek to restrict the flow of military-style gear to police departments and change police tactics used against protesters. One group described an idea for policing in which attendees look out for one another but emergency workers are standing by in the background, handing out water and ready to step in if needed. Has this been done anywhere? Some cities have already made changes to policing. In the city of Austin, Texas, 911 calls are answered by operators who inquire whether the caller needs police, fire or mental health services part of a major revamping of public safety that took place last year when the city budget added millions of dollars for mental health issues. In Eugene, Oregon, a team called CAHOOTS Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets deploys a medic and a crisis worker with mental health training to emergency calls. Camden, New Jersey, revamped its policing in 2017 with officers handing out more warnings than tickets and undergoing training that places emphasis on officers holding their fire. What is Minneapolis doing? Nine members of the Minneapolis City Council pledged at a rally to dismantle the police department. The promised to create a new system of public safety, saying that the citys current policing system could not be reformed. Council members say they arent certain exactly what policing will look like once theyre finished, and they caution plans will take a long time to execute. Dionne Searcey c.2020 The New York Times Company Flash and fully loaded, the motorcycle pulled up, receiving admiring looks from the gang of youths hanging out by the mall. Its arrival broke the tedium of a Nowra afternoon. Patrick* was returning from leave and heading back to base at HMAS Albatross. Always happy to talk about the bike, he decided to chat to the teens. He took off his helmet. A disconcerted look passed over their faces before the shout rang out: Ching Chong Chinaman, f--- off, back where you came from. For Patrick, this was nothing new. A Chinese Australian, this same sad ritual had followed him through school and the military. He survived school with sporting prowess, and the military with safe-effacing humility. This was life before I knew him. I am caucasian. I met Patrick through a mutual love of aviation. I was only vaguely aware of the odd look we received from passersby as we picnicked or walked hand in hand in the glow of early dating. It didnt seem to matter then. But, as our lives moved on, I began to see a paradox in how indiscriminate discrimination can be. Patrick and I married, and shortly after found we had a baby on the way. We were elated. Days after the positive test, Patrick was transferred interstate. But the devastating loss of our unborn child brought him home to hold and comfort me as I wept for days. Ten days after our loss, Patrick was travelling to base when he witnessed a catastrophic accident. He crawled into a crushed vehicle and gave first aid to the young serviceman trapped inside and held his hand. For the last two hours of the young mans life, he received only kindness and compassion. John Krasinski is a popular actor, who rose to fame for his abilities as a comedian. These days, he has earned acclaim for his versatility and has appeared in everything from dramatic films to light, romantic comedies. Krasinskis fans love his reliability and honesty, but theres no doubt that his popularity has been boosted due to his marriage to English actress Emily Blunt. Not only are Blunt and Krasinski the true definition of couple goals, but their love story mirrors Krasinskis onscreen romance with Jenna Fischer on The Office in one major way. John Krasinski is best known for The Office RELATED: The Office: John Krasinski Broke Character As Jim Halpert in Season 4 But Fans Missed It Born in 1979, Krasinski became involved in acting while in high school, going on to appear in a variety of school productions. After his graduation from Brown University, Krasinski moved to New York in order to get his acting career underway. His early years in the business included some appearances in television commercials, but he didnt get his big break until 2004 when he was cast in the brand-new TV series, The Office. As Jim Halpert, Krasinski was appealing, charming, and an immediate fan-favorite. The primary focus of his characters arc was the ongoing relationship with Pam Beasley, played by Jenna Fischer. They might have begun as friends, but over the years, viewers followed along with Jim and Pams gradual progression into boyfriend and girlfriend. Shy Pam had a difficult time opening up to Jim, and he had to pursue her actively, assuaging her fears about entering into a workplace relationship but in the end, they found their happily ever after. Their romance remains one of televisions most popular pairings. How did John Krasinski meet Emily Blunt? Not only did Krasinskis fictional romance with Pam Beasley place him in the category of the pursuer, but his real-life one with Emily Blunt did, as well. In 2008, when Krasinski was still starring on The Office, he met Blunt through a mutual friend. Not only was Krasinski very aware of Blunts status as an A-list actress, but he was a huge fan of her work. In fact, Krasinski had seen Blunts biggest film, The Devil Wears Prada, 75 times and he considered himself to be Blunts stalker. Fortunately, Blunt reciprocated his affections right out of the gate, without Krasinski having to convince her of the seriousness of his feelings, and the two started dating not long after their initial meeting. They got engaged in August 2009, less than a year after they first started going out. How long have John Krasinski and Emily Blunt been married? John Krasinski and Emily Blunt | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Krasinski and Blunts fairy tale romance turned a corner in the summer of 2010 when they tied the knot in a beautiful, private ceremony in Lake Como, Italy. For a couple that started their relationship in such a perfect way, it was undoubtedly an ideal way to begin the next chapter of their life together. Blunt and Krasinski expanded their family in 2014 when they welcomed their daughter, Hazel. In 2016, they had another baby girl, named Violet. Krasinski and Blunt are still happily married and are now one of Hollywoods true power couples. They have worked together on several occasions, including on the critically acclaimed horror film A Quiet Place. Fans love them together, and especially how much they rave about each other in interviews. For Krasinski, being married to Blunt is undoubtedly a dream come true, considering how long he admired Blunt from afar before they finally got together much like his fictional romance with The Offices Pam Beasley. Three employees represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center who sued poultry company Wayne Farms for violating disability law settled the case for $300,000 total and a two-year agreement to change its attendance policy. The companys attendance policy said employees with more than nine absences in a 12-month period would be terminated, regardless of the reason. All three workers at Wayne Farms in Decatur missed work for medical treatment and lost their jobs as a result. Senior staff attorney Sarah Rich said such policies discriminate against workers with disabilities and encourage all employees to work while sick. Attendance policies similar to Wayne Farms are common in the poultry and meatpacking industries, which have been hit hard by coronavirus. At least 80 cases of the virus have been confirmed at a Wayne Farms plant in Albertville. Thats the sort of incentive structure for employees who are dealing with illness, Rich said. If you call in sick, youre going to get yourself closer to pointing out, or being terminated. The SPLC represented three women who worked at the plant. One of them, Salvadora Roman, developed carpal tunnel syndrome after almost 17 years at the plant spent deboning and cutting chicken. She went to the doctor for treatment of pain and numbness in her wrists and hands and brought notes to her supervisors. Romans supervisors terminated her for missing too much work, despite the documentation, according to the lawsuit. Its a vicious cycle, Rich said. The work causes the disability. The disability causes absences, and the absences cause you to lose the job that made you disabled. It can be a handy way to work people until they are no longer useful to the company and then have an easy way to get rid of them. Another plaintiff, Latonya Hodges, worked at the plant for seven months in 2010 and 2011. Hodges suffers from asthma and asked her employers to move her to areas in the plant that wouldnt aggravate her condition. Hodges missed several days of work due to asthma attacks. On June 21, 2011, she suffered an attack at work and had to leave to seek medical treatment. Her supervisors told her she would be fired if she left and terminated her, according to the lawsuit. Alma Allen joined the lawsuit after missing work for treatment of diabetes caused her to lose her job. The condition caused chronic foot problems that made it difficult for Allen to stand all day. She informed her employers about her diagnosis. but also lost her job after missing work for medical care, according to the lawsuit. Allen got her job at Wayne Farms back as part of the settlement and still works at the plant, Rich said. The SPLC reached its settlement with Wayne Farms in May 2019, before the pandemic, but did not announce the results until the conclusion of a related case by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. That lawsuit resulted in a payment of $175,000 to the terminated workers under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The workers will split the payments from both lawsuits. As a result of the case, Wayne Farms must change its attendance policy for two years so workers with disabilities are not penalized for missing work for medical treatment. A spokesman for Wayne Farms, based in Oakwood, Ga., could not be reached for comment. The company owns 11 facilities throughout the Southeast, including five in Alabama. Federal laws protect employees who have conditions that meet the ADAs definition of disability, said Bradley Anderson, district director of the EEOCs Birmingham District Office. The EEOC will continue to vigorously enforce all aspects of the ADAs employment provisions, including its prohibition against policies that screen out employees with disabilities. Malaika Arora reveals she worked and travelled through her pregnancy, says marriage was never a hindrance The Washington Post "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. - - - Kathy Sullivan, Americas first female spacewalker, also became the first woman to reach the deepest known point of the ocean. Sullivan dove to the bottom of the Challenger Deep and safely returned in her submersible vessel on Monday, according to EYOS Expeditions, the company that operated her expedition. She is now the eighth person to reach the depth, the lowest point in the Marianas Trench, which is about 35,853 feet under the Western Pacific Ocean surface. A call was made between Sullivans vessel at the bottom of the ocean and astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The call was an homage to Sullivans other historic adventure, when she became the first American woman to walk in space in 1984. Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, 41-G mission specialist, uses binoculars for a magnified viewing of Earth through Challenger's forward cabin windows on Oct. 6, 1984. (Johnson Space Center / NASA) Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan checks the latch of the SIR-B antenna in the space shuttle Challenger's open cargo bay during her historic extravehicular activity (EVA) on Oct. 11, 1984. (NASA) As a hybrid oceanographer and astronaut this was an extraordinary day, a once in a lifetime day, seeing the moonscape of the Challenger Deep and then comparing notes with my colleagues on the ISS about our remarkable reusable inner-space outer-spacecraft, Sullivan said in a press release. Expedition leader Rob McCallum said it was amazing to set up the call between the two spacecrafts. Two groups of humans using cutting edge technology to explore the outer edges of our world, McCallum said. It highlighted the vast span of human endeavor while at the same time linking us close together as fellow explorers. The first two people to reach the Challenger Deep, located in the south end of the Mariana Trench about 190 miles southwest of Guam, were Don Walsh and Jacques Picard in 1960. Dr. Kathy Sullivan and Victor Vescovo reviewing the plans before their dive to Challenger Deep. (Enrique Alvarez / EYOS Expeditions) Kathy Sullivan just completed her historic dive to become the first woman to reach the deepest point in the ocean and the first human to have been in space and at full ocean depth. (EYOS Expeditions) Victor Vescovo reached the bottom last year as part of an expedition team that made five dives in the Mariana Trench over the course of a week. Vescovo described the trench as very peaceful in an interview with Live Science last year. Honestly, toward the end, I simply turned the thrusters off, leaned back in the cockpit and enjoyed a tuna fish sandwich while I very slowly drifted just above the bottom of the deepest place on Earth, enjoying the view and appreciating what the team had done technically, Vescovo said. "Avatar" and "Titanic" filmmaker James Cameron broke the record for deepest solo dive in 2012 when he became the first person to reach the Challenger Deep alone. George Andah 09.06.2020 LISTEN The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary candidate for Awutu Senya West Constituency in the Central Region, Mrs. Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui has described as abysmal the performance of the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, George Andah, saying the constituency the past 3 years has rather sadly witnessed a retrogression under his watch. She said the current MP has failed woefully to continue from where his predecessor, Madam Hannah Tetteh left off. Mrs. Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui cited the deplorable Adeiso - Bawjiase - Swedru road which has consistently been mentioned in the 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 budget statements presented to Parliament but yet to see any significant improvement as an example of the abysmal performance. "It so regrettable, we are not seeing the accelerated growth he (George Andah) promised us. What he sort to do was to touch a few kilometres of the stretch from the Adeiso side of the Swedru - Bawjiase - Adeiso stretch, ostensibly to deceive us because it is an election year. What we are seeing is lesser in length (km) than what was in the budget. We need to be observant, this is my field so I will see certain differences in scope", she said. Mrs. Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui, who was speaking on Pan African TV in Accra scored the incumbent MP 20% for a shambolic performance, basing her ratings on two recent but separate surveys conducted by credible institutions; the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana (UG) and Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) who scored him 12% and 38.22% respectively. According to Mrs. Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui, she is the right person to take it from where Hon. Hanna Serwaa Tetteh left off and to rescue the good people of the constituency from the disappointing hands of the NPP and to provide the leadership that brings prosperity and development. She asked the constituents to ignore the propaganda claim that the Awutu Senya West Parliamentary seat is not a family one, urging the people to vote for her as she and her elder Sister, Madam Hannah Tetteh stand for development and progress and not the negativity and retrogression of the incumbent, George Andah. Mrs. Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui is a professional Architect with impeccable track record in construction, aviation, management and spacial planning. She is married with two children. Source: The Catalyst Newspaper A driver of a retired military officer has been charged with allegedly stealing cheque leaflets and forging his boss signature to withdraw money from the officers bank accounts. Joshua Essiabra is said to have withdrawn a sum of GH39,000 from the said bank account. The accused pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of forgery of documents and stealing, when he appeared before an Accra Circuit Court yesterday. The court, presided over by Ms Afia Owusu Appiah, granted him bail in the sum of GH40,000 with two sureties, one of which must be a public servant. Hearing continues on July 9, 2020. Prosecutions facts Presenting the facts of the case, Chief Inspector William Boateng said the complainant, Alexander Bediako Donkor, the retired military officer in the case, had been sending the accused person to withdraw money on his behalf at the Spintex Road branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) Limited for years. He added that on January 8 and January 14, 2019, the complainant received text messages from the bank on his account balance, which was lower than he expected. As a result, the complainant drew the attention of the bankers to it. Chief Inspector Boateng said the accused person was mentioned as the person who withdrew money on the aforementioned dates. According to the prosecution, the complainant became worried as he denied sending the accused person to withdraw money on the said dates and subsequently reported the case to the Sakumono Police for investigation, leading to the accused persons arrest. Investigations The prosecution added that during investigations, it was detected that nine GCB Bank cheque leaflets with their counterfoils were missing from the complainants cheque book. Chief Inspector Boateng stated: The accused person forged the complainants signature, wrote his name and an amount on the cheque leaflets on different occasions, took advantage of his familiarity with the bank officials, presented the cheques and succeeded in withdrawing a sum of GH39,000 from the complaints GCB account. The accused person in his caution statement admitted the offence and told the police that he spent part of the money in acquiring a one and a half plot of land, sand and cement blocks at his village, Amosima in the Central Region. 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 In a new political reform, the Deputies of the Mazhilis, the lower house of the Kazakh parliament adopted a bill titled On the procedure for organizing and holding peaceful assemblies in Kazakhstan to liberate Kazakhstan socio-politically, as per local reports. Additionally, the House passed a draft law on the organization and holding of peaceful assemblies. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the law towards the democratization of Kazakhstan in consultation with the Ministry of Information and Social Development Restoring the citizens democratic rights and faith in the political leadership, President Tokayev, late May, signed socio-political laws such as "on introducing amendments to the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan", "on elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan", and "on introducing amendments and additions to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "on Political Parties" as a part of the National Council of Public Trust to introduce political reform in the system. Read: Police Escort George Floyd's Casket To Funeral Home Read: DC Protesters Weigh-in On 'Defund The Police' Idea "We are shaping a new political culture. Pluralism of opinions and alternative views are coming to the fore. The authorities do not believe that disagreement is destructive", the Kazak president said. It is time for society and the state to treat correctly public expression of views. And it is better to come to this independently, consciously, and not forcedly," he added. Last year, after President Nazarbayev stepped down, Tokayev made state and government reform a priority which he cited as integral for the social stability of the Central Asian nation, as per reports. According to domestic experts and international observers, Kazakhstans 25 years old constitution required a conceptual review, and the new law fabrics introduced, adhered to the international standards, the principles of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. As per local reports, democratic rights such as the right to freedom of expression and the introduction of an obligatory 30 percent quota for women and young people under the age of 29 years was introduced in the laws. Citizens demand more reforms Further, on June 7, reports of protests in the capital of Nur-Sultan and several other states emerged. Citizens demanded to free of political prisoners, a ban on selling land to foreigners, and removing the designation of opposition movement Democratic Choice as an extremist organization, according to local news reports. Read: Anger, Activism Grow Over Police Abuse Amid French Lockdown Read: Florida Police Organisation Offers To Re-hire Cops Suspended Over Misconduct (Image Credit: AP) (With Input from Agency) MINSK -- Syarhey Tsikhanouski, a jailed Belarusian vlogger who is seeking to take part in an August presidential election, may face up to 3 years in prison for organizing pro-democracy rallies. The Belarusian Investigative Committee said on June 9 on Telegram that Tsikhanouski and seven other persons had been charged "with the organization and preparation of actions that severely violated public order" in the western city of Hrodna, on May 29, a reference to rallies held to collect signatures for potential independent presidential candidates, including himself. According to the statement, all of the suspects have been placed in pretrial detention, in accordance with a prosecutor's arrest warrant. If convicted, Tsikhanouski and the other detainees face up to 3 years in prison. One of the individuals is also charged with assaulting two law enforcement officers and may face up to 6 years in prison if convicted. Tsikhanouski was supposed to be released from jail on June 8 after finishing his 10-day incarceration for taking part in the unsanctioned rally on May 29. He was not released and city authorities have said they will explain later why he remained in custody. Tsikhanouski is the owner of a popular YouTube channel called "The Country for Life," which challenges Belarusian authorities. Before his 10-day incarceration, Tsikhanouski was jailed in May for several days for organizing and taking part in other rallies. On May 15, the Central Election Commission rejected Tsikhanouski's registration documents for his candidacy for the presidential election scheduled for August 9. Since Tsikhanouskis candidacy was rejected, his wife Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has been trying to get registered as a candidate herself, collecting the necessary 100,000 signatures to qualify. Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned last 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. On May 24, more than 1,000 demonstrators joined together in Minsk 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, who has been in power in Belarus for more than 25 years, say his government has shown little tolerance for dissent and independent media. 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 Russias influence in the country. "New transit alerts show you when your trip is likely to be affected by COVID-19 restrictions" "Safely avoid crowds on public transit" "In our latest release of Google Maps on Android and iOS, we're introducing features to help you easily find important information if you need to venture out, whether it's by car or public transportation," says Google Maps Product Management Director Ramesh Nagarajan in a blog post announcing some new COVID-19 features for the navigation app. Excerpt: When you look up public transit directions for a trip that is likely to be affected by COVID-19 restrictions, we'll show relevant alerts from local transit agencies. These alerts can help you prepare accordingly if government mandates impact transit services or require you to wear a mask on public transportation. Transit alerts are rolling out in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, France, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom and the U.S. where we have information from local transit agencies, with more coming soon. We're also introducing driving alerts to notify you about COVID-19 checkpoints and restrictions along your route, like when crossing national borders (starting first in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.). You'll see an alert on the directions screen and after starting navigation if your route is impacted by these restrictions. () To ensure proper social distancing, commuters are paying attention to how crowded or comfortable their ride and transit station will be. Starting today, you can easily see the times when a transit station is historically more or less busy to plan your trip accordingly or you can look at live data showing how busy it is right now compared to its usual level of activity. Simply search for a station in Google Maps or tap on the station on the map to see the departure board and busyness data, where available. Rolling out over the next several weeks, these capabilities are powered by aggregated and anonymized data from users who have opted in to Google Location History, a Google account-level setting that is off by default. To protect privacy, these insights are only surfaced when we have sufficient data to meet privacy thresholds. Affle India announced the signing of definitive agreements to acquire full control of Appnext, Singapore and 100% IP of Appnext app discovery and recommendation platform with immediate effect. Affle will initially acquire 66.67% equity ownership in Appnext Singapore, with a clear path to acquire 100% equity ownership upon attainment of mutually agreed growth targets. Appnext's app discovery and recommendation platform enables top mobile handset manufacturers (OEMs) and apps developers to deliver personalized app recommendations to mobile users globally. Appnext blends app recommendations as a service that integrates seamlessly with the users' daily mobile journey. Utilizing its proprietary 'Timeline' technology, Appnext predicts which apps the users are likely to use next. With 300 million daily active users, 20+ on-device daily interactions through strategic OEM partnerships and 60,000+ apps, Appnext is the leading independent app recommendation platform delivering over 4 billion app recommendations per day. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Advertisement A high-flying London couple have spent lockdown living in a treehouse in the Somerset countryside - and say they're happier than ever. Rebecca Harper, 31, and Sam Harper, 32, from Fulham, London escaped to the woodland treehouse in the grounds of Sam's father's and step-mother's house in East Harptree, Somerset in mid-March, just over a week before lockdown was announced. The couple, who have lived in London for a decade and work as chartered surveyors, initially planned to stay at the treehouse for a couple of weeks but are still there 13 weeks later after lockdown lasted longer than they expected. A couple from Fulham, London have spent lockdown in a luxury treehouse and say they're happier than ever Rebecca Harper, 31 (pictured outside the treehouse) and Sam Harper, 32, from escaped to the woodland treehouse in the grounds of Sam's father's and step-mother's house in East Harptree, Somerset in mid-March Sam Harper (left), 32, and Rebecca Harper (right), 31, left London a week before lockdown to East Harptree, Somerset Sam's father and step-mother own a luxury treehouse near their property which they typically rent out to holidaymakers And they admit friends have been astounded by their sudden change of lifestyle, with Rebecca, who now passes the days tending to their vegetable patch, confessing she struggled to keep a houseplant alive back in London. She said: 'Our life here is the complete opposite of what it was like back in London. 'I wake up to natural light and spend my days tending to the vegetable patch then fill any spare time doing watercolour paintings and calligraphy. 'It's idyllic here and I'm happier than ever. 'In London, we led such busy lives. We were at workout classes or the gym first thing in the morning, then it was a 45-minute commute into central London and out for dinner with friends until 10pm or 11pm at night. The couple from Fulham, west London, have taken up residence in the luxury treehouse for the duration of lockdown Mrs Harper said that she has taken to the idyllic surroundings and says she does not miss her life in the capital The 331 sq ft woodland retreat is fitted with a log burner, dishwasher, copper bathtub and a comfy double bed The treehouse also has a large screen that allows guests to watch films in the relaxing and peaceful surroundings 'I've always been creative, but there's much more time to pursue my hobbies now. I finally have time to do painting and I've taken up knitting. 'Around dinner, we'll go for walks in the surrounding countryside - it's so beautiful.' Rebecca and Sam made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from their home in Fulham to the treehouse on 12th March, just over a week before lockdown began on 23rd March. Sam has been working from the treehouse, which is fitted with electric sockets and wifi, while Rebecca has been furloughed, and is spending her spare time painting and growing plants. The 12ft high tree house is usually rented out as a luxury holiday home by Sam's dad, Alan Harper, and step-mum Angela Harper, but coronavirus has forced them to temporarily cease letting the property to holidaymakers. Instead, Rebecca and Sam have been enjoying relaxing in the 331 sq ft woodland retreat, which is fitted-out with a log burner, dishwasher and William Holland copper bathtub and have been sharing their enviable lockdown life on their Instagram page @TreeHouseDiaries. And since moving to their treehouse retreat, the couple have been joined by a third member of the family, 9-week-old Labrador puppy, Duke, who will accompany them when they return to London. Sam Harper says he enjoys the simplicity of life in the countryside and is able to switch off easier than in London The couple say they have been brought closer together and their fans are surprised that they don't feel lonely Sam said: 'My favourite thing about being here is the simplicity of life and being able to switch off and relax. 'There's a sense of freedom here that you don't get in London. 'It has made us appreciate the things that we would pass every day in London, but not notice because we were too busy or distracted by something else going on. Rebecca added: 'It hasn't been lonely. Lots of my friends can't comprehend that we haven't felt lonely or isolated, but it has brought us closer together. 'We've been growing cucumber, radish and strawberries among other vegetables. We had our first harvest in the last week. 'Back in London I can't even keep a house plant alive. It has been such a transformation.' They have added a third member to their small family, with nine-week old Labrador puppy Duke, who will return to London Rebecca says she has been able to find time to pursue her hobbies away from the hustle and bustle of London Sam has been working from the treehouse since lockdown while Rebecca has been furloughed during that time With lockdown now easing the couple plan on remaining living in the treehouse until the end of June, before returning to the hustle and bustle of the capital. The treehouse will then open to visitors again provided lockdown restrictions remain eased and will soon be available to book through Canopy & Stars - a travel agency specialising in luxury camping. However, they say their time in the countryside has made them reassess their priorities and for Rebecca, their three months in the woods has brought back fond memories of growing up in the Warwickshire countryside. She said: 'It's a bit like returning to my childhood being here. 'The last time I grew a runner bean was with my dad when I was young. 'Staying here has made us question what we have in London. We'll probably stay living in London, but we definitely want more nature around us in the future. Sam added: When we get back to London, we're going to spend more time in the countryside. 'Being here for 13 weeks has taught us that we didn't need to be doing all the things we used to do before. 'I'm still looking forward to getting a metropolitan lifestyle back though. 'I miss hanging out with friends and going to restaurants. 'I even miss the sound of passing sirens. It's the comfort of knowing there's people around you.' Hyderabad: Over 450 patients were sent home from Hyderabad's Gandhi Hospital on Monday. Only 60 of them had tested negative for the coronavirus. The rest, 390, are COVID-19 positive albeit pre-symptomatic cases with mild/very mild symptoms. Some 310 of the discharged COVID-19 positive cases were told to home quarantine for 14 days. The others were sent to Nature Cure Hospital at Ameerpet. Coming as it does at a time when Telangana is witnessing a steep increase in the number of COVID-19 positive cases, this is the highest number of positive patients who were discharged in a single day. Hospital sources told Deccan Chronicle that these 450 patients had been admitted to hospital more than 10 days ago from Hyderabad and other parts of the state. As per guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, mild, very mild and pre-symptomatic cases can be discharged by the 10th day without doing the virus swab test. Doctors argue that patients can test swab positive on the 14th or 15th day, and some up to 25 or even 30th day, and discharging them could lead to further spread of virus. However, sources said the Telangana state government has instructed the Gandhi Hospital administration to strictly adhere to the guidelines. At least five RTC buses and about 10 ambulances were pressed into service to drop the patients back home. Sources said that the influx of COVID-19 positive patients and suspected cases has been increasing at an alarming rate at Gandhi Hospital and the authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to accommodate them. Over the past one week, several COVID patients were being discharged everyday but today the number was huge. ''It is up to these patients whether they strictly follow home quarantine. If they take it easy as they have been discharged, they could end up spreading the virus,'' sources said. As per the guidelines, mild, very mild and pre-symptomatic cases will undergo regular temperature and pulse oximetry monitoring and can be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset and no fever for three days. Gandhi Hospital superintendent Dr M Rajarao said that the patients were aged below 50 and had no symptoms like fever, cough or cold. He added that 310 of the patients had their own rooms at home. Those who did not have their own rooms to quarantine in were sent to the Nature Cure Hospital in Ameerpet. Microphone and US Flag View Photo During the Democratic Weekly Address, Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) touted Senate legislation that would deal with police violence. Jones was Tuesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words: Hello, Im Doug Jones, and I represent Alabama in the United States Senate. I am talking to you today during what is an incredibly difficult time for America. As a whole, the events of the past few months and days have opened old wounds and laid bare the disparities in our society, from access to health care and education to economic opportunities and equal justice under the law. The fact that we are facing so many at one time is both overwhelming and clarifying. I spoke Sunday afternoon at a rally for justice at Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham where 57 years ago, in the shadow of the 16th Street Baptist Church, the Birmingham Police turned fire hoses and vicious dogs on peaceful demonstrators many of them schoolchildren who were making a stand for equal rights and importantly a stand for dignity. The scenes from Birmingham at that time and around the world made it clear that the inequity in our society could no longer be ignored. Sadly, the legislative changes that came from that movement have been eroded over the years in far too many ways. There is a clear and direct path from the shadow of the 16th Street Baptist Church where four little girls died in a bomb blast to the death of George Floyd, just a week or so ago and centuries of injustice that preceded both. To make matters worse, the current protests are set against the backdrop of a deadly pandemic that has disproportionately taken the lives of African Americans. It has taken more of their jobs and livelihoods than others. It has demanded much of those who work in front-line jobs in our hospitals, grocery stores, and delivery trucks. We are painfully aware that this disparity is a multi-generational failure to achieve the ideals of America. It is only when we are all equal, that we can truly be indivisible and a nation with justice for all. But I do have hope. There was a marked difference between the people in Kelly Ingram Park six decades ago and the crowd I witnessed on Sunday: young and old, people of every race and every walk of life. Ive seen this in other cities around our country, as well. This is very important because the test we all face today is not only in changing our laws. We must commit ourselves to personal and systemic change. Can we see the dignity and the humanity of those who in some way are not like us? Can we have hope for others and work for their success? We must pass this test together. And we must maintain as a sense of urgency at reforming the laws and institutions that have perpetuated inequality and injustice. The question before us now is simply: where do we go from here? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked that question in his last book with the same title: Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Thats the question every American regardless of race, religion, political party or past differences must ask themselves now. In our hearts, we know that a belief in the dignity of all people is how we begin to not to get back to normal but to move toward a better tomorrow. And while I cant legislate whats in peoples hearts, we can all work to break down the systems that produce the discriminatory outcomes and put peoples lives at risk. In the Senate, there are all manner of legislative actions we can take to address police violence, from bills that would incentivize states to pass laws requiring independent investigations and prosecution of the use of deadly force by police officers, to creating fair and impartial police training. We also need to pass bills that Ive been working on since I got into the Senate to help break down the structural inequalities that have led to dramatic economic and health care disparities between white and black Americans. We need to strengthen and protect access to the ballot box, which is where so many of these local reforms will come from. Ill be the first to tell you folks that I just dont have all the answers, I wish I did, but were going to continue to work to find areas of common ground where we can get meaningful reforms passed. And I hope youll join me in continuing to listen and learn, because its clear that so many of us need to be doing so much more of that these days. I truly believe that we have an opportunity to come out of this period as a stronger and more just society but it will take all of us, individually and collectively, doing the hard work. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML. (Natural News) Why is it that rioters and looters are allowed to coordinate and plot criminal activity on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but presenting other points of view about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is a banworthy offense? Former Representative Allen West, a black conservative man, brought this up during a recent interview on SiriusXMs Breitbart News Tonight, highlighting the hypocrisy that governs allowable speech on social media. As radical extremists from Antifa and Black Lives Matter continue to rally their troops in burning down businesses and blocking traffic with not so much as a slap on the wrist from either Jack Dorsey or Mark Zuckerberg, pandemic skeptics are being systematically silenced from sharing their viewpoints online. Facebook and Twitter have also been silencing all sorts of protest efforts against the continued lockdowns and other draconian measures still in place as part of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic response. Somehow these types of protests are not allowed, but pushing for total anarchy is not only sanctioned but encouraged by these platforms. What infuriates me more than anything else is that these social media platforms are being used by groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter to organize, to get out their orders and instructions, but when we had everyday Americans that wanted to have rallies about the unconstitutionality of these stay-at-home orders and the lockdowns and shutdowns I call it illegal martial law and house arrest Facebook and Twitter threatened to censor them, West stated. Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey need to stop making decisions based upon their ideological agendas. Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, issues an urgent plea to all black Americans to know their real enemy: West says Antifa, Black Lives Matter are domestic terrorists While West does not endorse police brutality in any way, he made a point of clarifying that the violent response to this particular incident involving George Floyd is disingenuous at best. I see people cherry-picking and using the theme of racism and being a racist to fit an ideological agenda, and we have got to have strong voices stand up and push back against this, he stated. If we cannot maintain law and order in our streets, then were going to see the undermining of our constitutional republic. West went on to call out Antifa as a domestic terrorist group, warning that the time is ripe to peel the onion back and find the leadership behind these violent riots, which are systematically destroying one city after another across America. He also named Black Lives Matter as being no better than Antifa, a sentiment that is also shared by Dinesh DSouza. Both groups are hypocritical in how they pick and choose which things to be outraged over while ignoring all sorts of other things. Black Lives Matter does not show up in Chicago or any of the other major urban population centers across the country run by Democrats when you see black-on-black crime, West noted. They say nothing about the atrocious fact that 20 million black babies have been murdered in the womb thanks to Planned Parenthood, which was founded by a white supremacist and a racist. West says that strong voices need to stand up and push back against this wave of deception that is undermining the foundations of our country. He warns that Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and other extremist groups have an entirely different system of government in mind, mainly communism, that they are working hard to see implemented as a replacement for our constitutional republic. For more related news about social media censorship and the selective silencing of conservative voices online, be sure to check out Censorship.news. Sources for this article include: Breitbart.com NaturalNews.com ISTANBUL Turkey and the United States may embark on a new era in their relationship over the conflict in Libya, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after a telephone call with his US counterpart Donald Trump, adding that rebel commander Khalifa Hifter may soon be sidelined in diplomatic efforts to establish peace. The two leaders also discussed protests against police violence in the wake of the killing of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis last month that have spread across the United States and to other countries, with Erdogan warning Trump that Kurdish militants were backing protesters in the United States. In an interview with state broadcaster TRT late on Monday, Erdogan said Trump acknowledged Turkeys success in reshaping the conflict in Libya, where the NATO members entry to support the internationally recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj has dramatically shifted the war in his favor. A new period may begin between the US and Turkey regarding the [Libya] process, and we had some agreements during our conversation, and such a step could be taken, Erdogan said without elaborating. A statement from the White House said the two leaders discussed the Libyan conflict, Syria and the eastern Mediterranean region, but did not offer further details. The United States has largely remained outside the fray since Hifters Libyan National Army (LNA) launched an offensive last year to capture the capital Tripoli that has killed hundreds of civilians. The energy-rich nation has been wracked by violence since 2011, when former leader Moammar Gadhafi was deposed with NATO support. Now, international efforts to resolve the fighting between Sarrajs Government of National Accord (GNA) forces and the LNA, which receives support from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, are gathering pace. Erdogan met Sarraj in Turkey last week, while LNA officials held talks in Egypt that resulted in a call for a cease-fire. Saraj-allied forces rejected the proposed truce, likely seeing a cease-fire as an effort to stymie the GNA advance, which has inflicted heavy losses on Hifters forces while capturing strategic points in Tripoli last week. The most vital areas have been retaken and the advance continues. Hifter has become crazed as these areas come under Sarrajs control, Erdogan said. The developments indicate to me that Hifter could be tossed out of the process at any time. Hifter derives all of his power from Russia but is now on the retreat, Erdogan said. Turkey sees the capture of areas with natural gas and oil deposits as crucial and and this upsets Russia, he said, adding he plans to soon speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin praised Egypts efforts to broker a cease-fire, while his foreign minister agreed with his Turkish counterpart this week to collaborate on a peace process. Erdogans call with Trump came despite Turkish officials sharp criticism over the killing by police of Floyd on May 25. In the call, Erdogan told Trump Turkey was saddened by the inhumane and racist killing of the unarmed man that set off the large-scale protests. Turkey has also condemned the US response over the heavy-handed police tactics that targeted Turkish journalists covering the protests. The comment elicited incredulity from critics of Turkeys own record on press freedom that has made it the worlds biggest jailer of journalists. Two more journalists were detained this week in an espionage probe centered around the Turkish militarys role in Libya. Trump is aware of allegations by Turkey that antifa, an informal movement whose name is derived from anti-fascist, has connections with foreign leftist organizatons and will assess information Turkey has provided to the United States on the activists, Erdogan said. Turkey alleges antifa has links with the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which the United States has labeled a terrorist organization for its three-decade insurgency in Turkey, and Syrias Peoples Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia the United States armed in the fight against Islamic State. Erdogan claimed antifa took part in serious operations in Syria. I told Mr. Trump that its significant that groups like the YPG and PKK have come together in the US with the terrorist organization called antifa, Erdogan told TRT, adding that he warned Trump that US support for the YPG would one day come to strike you. Trump has said he will designate antifa a terrorist group and blames the movement for violence that has accompanied the largely peaceful protests in the United States. The FBI has said it has no evidence antifa was behind the violence. The eruption of anger over Floyds killing and the ensuing crackdown have prompted comparisons in Turkey between the two presidents, including Trumps attempt to start a culture war over the current unrest with Erdogan, who orchestrated a conservative backlash against anti-government protests in Turkey in 2013, Asli Aydintasbas, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relation, wrote in The Washington Post. The protests in the United States have allowed Trump to divert the conversation from his governments handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 111,000 Americans. Turkey, for its part, is heralding its success in battling the disease, including one of the worlds lowest death rates of about 2.8%, while trying to marginalize the opposition in the response. Trump and Erdogan are looking to protect their strongman image during the pandemic, and clearly share similar ideas about how to deal with protests. But it is coming at the cost of unity within their respective nations, wrote journalist Sebnem Arsu in The Independent. In the interview, Erdogan said with a chuckle that Trump was impressed by Turkeys handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Separately, Erdogan said Turkey will take the necessary steps on the status of Istanbuls Hagia Sophia, a sixth century world heritage site, after a top court rules on a lawsuit next month that seeks to convert the museum into a mosque. Erdogan has reportedly already ordered officials to draw up a plan opening the site to Muslim worship. The president has in recent years revived a once-fringe cause by Islamists to make Hagia Sophia a Muslim house of worship again. Built by Byzantine Emperor Justinian, Christendoms greatest cathedral became a mosque following the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Istanbul, then a museum in 1934 in what has largely been regarded as a concession to its significance to multiple faiths. Rating agencies have cautioned about the impending pain for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) that may arise out of lack of funding and rising bad assets. The NBFCs are likely to witness a spike in delinquencies across all asset classes, especially loans disbursed by microfinance institutions (MFIs), which could result in challenges in sell-down of their portfolio, said rating agency ICRA said in a release on Tuesday. Subsequently, the Indian securitisation market is expected to remain tepid in H1 FY2021 due to the uncertainties emerging from the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and economic slowdown, ICRA said. However, once the lockdown situation eases and the economy starts to gradually recover, the market is likely to recover; and securitisation would again emerge as an important source of funding for NBFCs and housing finance companies (HFC)s in the long run, ICRA said. In another article, S&P Global market intelligence, a division of S&P, said NBFCs funding could remain tight. Many Indian non-banking financial companies may remain short of funds as investors become more cautious and the economy contracts, adding risks to the broader financial system, said the article. Mutual funds' exposure to NBFCs has almost halved over the past 18 months, falling to 18 percent of debt assets under management in April 2020, from 34 percent in September 2018, the S&P article said, citing the Credit Suisse note dated May 26. "Mutual funds have been aggressive in reducing exposure to perceived weaker NBFCs," Credit Suisse said, noting that they have almost completely pulled funding to such players in the last year-and-a-half. The "long tail" of the previous corporate non-performing loans cycle over 2016-2019 had already led to a lending concentration around well-rated players. However, it has been further accentuated in the last 12 months with most large players in the segment giving more than 90 percent of their incremental credit to only the well-rated entities, the report said, quoting Credit Suisse. Adding strain on the non-bank lending sector that was already hit by a funding squeeze after a few high-profile defaults. Now, as the wheels of the world's fifth-biggest economy begin to turn again, analysts doubt whether the smaller and weaker NBFCs will still find favor, said S&P Global market intelligence. The government announced liquidity schemes worth Rs 75,000 crore for NBFCs which include Rs 30,000 liquidity scheme backed by government security. The remaining Rs 45,000 is through a partial credit guarantee scheme. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had announced a few schemes to make liquidity available for NBFCs, including targeted long-term repo operations. The RBI also announced a temporary increase in group exposure limits to 30 percent from 25 percent to enable larger business groups to seek additional funding from the banking system. In a separate note, rating agency CARE too warned that NBFCs funding challenge will remain this year on account of COVID-19 impact on economic activities. This is because banks have become more selective in extending credit owing to the risk aversion, leading to tighter liquidity concerns, the rating agency said. After the liquidity crisis triggered in the NBFC space, MFs withdrew over 40 percent of their investments from this category. The percentage share of funds deployed by MFs in commercial papers (CPs) of NBFCs in April fell to 3.3 percent of debt assets under management (AUMs, the lowest since September 2018 when it was 9.5 percent) and the amount held declined to just Rs 0.44 lakh crore. The decline in investments in corporate debt paper of NBFCs stood at Rs 0.9 lakh crore in April and was the lowest since September 2018, CARE said. The Laura Maersk was being towed to Elizabeth, New Jersey, on Monday after an engine room fire that injured one crew member. The container ship was en route from Algeciras, Spain, to Elizabeth on Thursday night when there was a "severe turbocharger breakdown in the engine room," said Tom Boyd, media relations manager for Maersk North America. "A minor fire was promptly extinguished" and the crew member was medevaced by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, Boyd said. The Coast Guard said it medevaced the crewman Friday morning from the ship's location about 275 miles off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland. The Coast Guard said in a statement that it received a report Thursday night "that an explosion occurred in the engine room of the cargo ship Laura Maersk, which burned a crew member and disabled the vessel." Because of the distance from Air Station Elizabeth City, an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter had to land on the USS Mahan and refuel before continuing to the Laura Maersk and hoisting the injured crew member into the helicopter for transport to Norfolk Sentara General Hospital, the Coast Guard said. Boyd said Monday the crewman was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries and was expected to be discharged from the hospital on Tuesday. The Laura Maersk, which sails under the flag of Denmark, was built in 2001. It has a capacity of 4,258 twenty-foot equivalent units and sails on the ECUMED service, which departs for Ecuador from Yuzhny, Ukraine, with a call at Newark. "The cause of the turbocharger breakdown is unknown at this time and an investigation is underway. There is no further damage to the vessel and all cargo is intact. The vessel is 280 nautical miles from New York, using auxiliary generators for operations on board while being towed to Elizabeth," Boyd said Monday. "Cargo contingencies and inland connections are being evaluated." Story continues See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Chandigarh, June 9 : Haryana Police on Tuesday arrested Kurukshetra's 'Candy Baba', who is accused of cheating people by 'black magic'. Candy Baba, alias Rajesh, had established his 'dera' in the state by defrauding his devotees. He was on the run for one year. He allegedly cheated his devotees on the pretext of doubling their money in no time. He was arrested from Faridabad. As per the police, he had duped people of nearly Rs 100 crore by offering them candies as 'parsad'. Thirty first information reports (FIRs) have been registered against him. He was produced in a local court that sent him to 10 days' police remand. MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine defence chief and top military officials flew to a disputed island in the South China Sea on Tuesday to inaugurate a beach ramp built to allow the full-blast development of the territory in a move likely to infuriate China. Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana brought journalists to witness the ribbon-cutting ceremony on the island, internationally called Thitu, in what he said was a milestone in efforts to make the island, long occupied by Filipino forces and fishermen, more livable without militarizing it. The island, which Filipinos call Pag-asa, or hope, lies near one of Chinas man-made islands in the Spratlys, the most hotly contested area of the South China Sea. Lorenzana said the Philippines has the right to develop its nine occupied islands as other claimants have done. He played down the prospect of a hostile Chinese reaction, citing cozier ties between Manila and Beijing under President Rodrigo Duterte. This is a disputed area, Lorenzana told journalists on the island in remarks provided by the Department of National Defence. The Chinese have said that they will not attack us so were safe here. The beach ramp will allow Philippine navy and cargo ships to dock and unload construction materials and heavy equipment for new projects, including the repair of a seawater-eroded airstrip. Military barracks, more civilian homes, a school, an ice plant for fishermen, solar and diesel power supplies and a radio station for weather reports are also planned, Lorenzana said. A fishermens shelter is being completed with plans for it to be inaugurated on Friday when the Philippines marks its Independence Day, he said. With the beach ramp now usable, we can go full blast, the defence chief said. China, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia have had increasingly tense territorial spats in the region in recent years after China turned seven disputed reefs into missile-protected island bases, including three with runways. Taiwan and Brunei also have claims in the busy waterway. Indonesia is not officially involved in the conflicts but has had confrontations with Chinese fishermen and coast guard vessels which it has accused of encroaching into the Natuna Sea near the disputed waters. Lorenzana said the government has no plan to militarize the island by arming it with missiles, cannons or other heavy weapons. Three nearby sand bars collectively called Sandy Cay have become a new front in the disputes after China accused the Philippines of attempting to construct structures there a few years ago. Since then, flotillas of Chinese fishing boats and coast guard and navy ships have kept a close watch on Sandy Cay, sparking protests from the Philippines. In April, the Philippines protested Chinas establishment of two districts to administer the Spratlys and another group of islands and reefs. The Philippines also lodged a protest over a Chinese navy ships aiming of its weapons control radar at a Philippine navy ship in mid-February. The radar locks weapons on a target prior to an actual attack, although the Chinese navy ship did not fire, the Philippine navy said. China has denied it aimed a weapon at the Philippine ship, a Philippine official said, but it has continued to warn foreign military ships and aircraft, including those of the United States, from approaching its island bases. Updated: 3/22/2021 During the past few months of pandemic restrictions, many resources normally accessible to military spouses and their families have been unavailable or hard to find. With offices closed and phones going unanswered, there's been a struggle to find answers and support. But some programs have adapted well. Among those are Army Emergency Relief (AER), the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS), the Air Force Aid Society (AFAS) and the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance (CGMA). Almost immediately, application requirements transitioned from in-person to online options for AER, while the other organizations made an effort to keep offices open and to staff telephone lines. In spring 2020, AER announced a new financial assistance program to help Army families with school-age children. Many families forced to navigate distance learning had to purchase tablets or laptops, buy more educational equipment to teach their children or upgrade their internet capabilities. In response, AER's new program provides up to $500 per family and is retroactive to March 1, 2020, with no current expiration date, said retired Lt. Gen. Raymond Mason, director of AER. "AER is always monitoring the needs of soldiers and their families, especially during times of natural disaster or crisis," Mason said. "We know that many Army families have been financially impacted by COVID-19, whether through a spouse's job loss, the soldier's inability to train or travel and more. We also know that many are having to pursue alternative learning arrangements for their children, who may have been affected by the closure of schools nationwide. We enacted these new remote-learning benefits in response to that need." In a February 2021 update, AER announced its COVID-19 Childcare Assistance Program and Homeschool and Remote Education Assistance is now a needs-based, grant assistance program, a change from the initial program. The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society does not have a specific loan or grant for educational resources but did create the COVID-19 Rapid Response Loan, which is similar to its Quick Assist Loan. "Our COVID-19 Rapid Response Loan is now up to $1,500 and virtual learning expenses do qualify. This loan is available to all of our eligible clients, even ones with an outstanding balance on a current Quick Assist Loan or traditional loan," Gillian Gonzalez, chief development and communications officer, said in an update on March 22, 2021. Gonzalez said the loan process had been streamlined to make the process easier for eligible borrowers. The Air Force Aid Society is considering creating a similar program, according to its CEO, with no update since the original publication in June 2020. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John D. Hopper Jr., the CEO of the Air Force Aid Society, said at the time: "We are indeed considering such a program. Although to date, we have not received any requests for this specific type of support, we have completed an informal survey at several of our bases and shaped the broad outlines of what a specific program will look like." The Coast Guard Mutual Assistance led the way with its coronavirus support for Coastie families. It has given $291,966 to 845 Coast Guard families through its school supplies program, called Supplemental Education Grant (SEG-C). "CGMA has been assisting the Coast Guard community through this challenging time with a variety of programs," said Alena Howard, chief development officer. "These programs include no-interest loans for lost wages due to a spouses layoff or reduced wages and child care for parents who continue to work while schools remain closed. We have already provided a total of $761,306 in COVID-19-related assistance to 1,043 Coast Guard families." Seeing these organizations adapt to the needs of military families is encouraging, as they work toward their goal of relieving some of the financial pressures families face. --Rebecca Alwine can be reached at rebecca.alwine@monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebecca_alwine. 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. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 1, 2020) - Red Light Holland Corp. (CSE: TRIP) ("Red Light Holland" or the "Company"), an Ontario-based corporation positioning itself to engage in the production, growth and sale of a premium brand of magic truffles to the legal, recreational market within the Netherlands, is pleased to announce the proposed Offering (as defined earlier today) announced earlier today is now fully subscribed, upon receiving a significant lead order from an institutional investor. "We are elated to receive additional capital into Red Light Holland so quickly which will enable us to focus on executing on our business plan and to build a leading premium brand within the Netherlands and globally. The fact that we were able to source such a significant lead order so soon after going public shows the confidence investors have in our Company's team and vision. Cash is king and we are cashed up and ready to rock," said Todd Shapiro, CEO and Chairman. The Closing Date is scheduled to be on or about June 8, 2020, upon completion of certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals, including the approval of the CSE and the applicable securities regulatory authorities. 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 state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities being offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and applicable state securities laws. About Red Light Holland Corp. The Company is an Ontario-based corporation positioning itself to engage in the production, growth and sale (through existing Smart Shops operators and an advanced e-commerce platform) of a premium brand of magic truffles to the legal, recreational market within the Netherlands, in accordance with the highest standards, in compliance with all applicable laws. Story continues For additional information on the Company: Todd Shapiro Chairman and Chief Executive Tel: 647-204-7129 Email: todd@redlighttruffles.com Website: https://redlighttruffles.com/ Forward-Looking Statements 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. Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of Red Light Holland. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. 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. Forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, the anticipated closing of the Offering, the anticipated use of proceeds, and the receipt of regulatory approvals, including the approval of the CSE. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for dissemination in the United States. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56975 Having done extensive research on the functions and efficacy of Artemisia Afra plant, which is the main 'ingredient" in the famous Madagascar coronavirus cure, a professor of Chemistry and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana has advised government not to outrightly dismiss the potency of the drug. According to Emeritus Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, although the drug manufactured by the Island country has been disregarded by the World Health Organization and other substantial bodies, it cannot be dismissed outrightly by government without further probe. He believes appropriate tests must be conducted by health institutions to establish the efficacy and consistency of the herbal mixture for onward use. Speaking in an interview with TV3, he said the slow spread of the Coronavirus in Africa as compared to other Western countries gives room to explore the potency and efficacy of herbal drugs and others, as possible modes treatment. I have worked on that plant beforeand so I know a lot about it and it shouldnt be dismissed just like that because there are constituents of it which scientifically has the potential of helping to manage some of the symptoms like the congested air passages, sudden effects on the cardiovascular system, fevers and coughs He said even some diseases which worsen the plight of infected coronavirus patients can also be treated with the plant which has been used to produce COVID-Organics. We should not just dismiss it offhand; the important thing is for those who are in charge of our health system to make sure that necessary tests that need to be done are done, he told TV3s Alfred Ocansey. The Ghana Health Service in May 2020 gave indications that the country is ready to make an assessment on COVID-Organics from Madagascar. The health authority said the GHS would collaborate with the Food and Drugs Authority to ascertain its potency and advise the public accordingly. But not much has been heard of it thereafter. Source: Ghanaweb 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 Bangladeshis stand in line as they wait to board a bus in Dhaka, June 9, 2020. Bangladesh on Tuesday surpassed the 70,000 mark in coronavirus cases detected on its soil, as it set daily records in newly confirmed cases and deaths linked to the disease, officials said. Bangladesh authorities said 45 more deaths were recorded, including those of two Rohingya refugees, along with more than 3,100 new cases. The latter figure pushed the countrys standing to number 20 just behind Qatar on the list of countries with the most cases of COVID-19 cases, according to the latest data gathered by disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. Meanwhile, a Bangladeshi health expert warned that the coronavirus pandemic in the country could deteriorate further because the government had reopened the economy and mosques after a two-month nationwide shutdown. Today, we see the highest number of COVID-19 deaths: 45 people died during the last 24 hours. The number of COVID-19 deaths stands at 975, Nasima Sultana, an additional director general at the Directorate of Health, told reporters. The highest number, 3,171, of new cases of COVID-19 infections also has been confirmed during the last 24 hours. The government reported the first COVID-19 case in Bangladesh on March 8 and the first death on March 18, leading to a national shutdown from March 26 to May 30. During the first week of May, the government announced the partial reopening of businesses and mosques. Since then, the nation has seen the number of cases set a series of daily records. The rise in COVID-19 cases has been the consequence of the premature reopening of the economy and religious institutions. Besides, those celebrating the Eid holiday aggravated the situation further, A.F.M. Ruhal Haque, a physician and former health minister, told BenarNews. They traveled between COVID-19 hotspots in Dhaka and rest of the country, shoulder to shoulder. We will see more cases in the coming days, he added. He said Bangladeshis did not take the pandemic seriously. The government tried to shut down the country in several phases, but the reality was the people did not bother. People still do not bother hundreds of thousands have been moving outside carelessly using masks, let alone maintaining social distancing, he said. The government tried, but we failed. Health Minister Zahid Maleque agreed with Haque. Yes, we could not strictly enforce the shutdown, people were not serious, he told BenarNews. We have been planning a new shutdown strategy. He said authorities had been charting regions where the highest number of infections were recorded. Based on the chart, authorities will go for local shutdowns, he said, adding the East Rajabazar neighborhood in Dhaka went into shutdown beginning Tuesday night. Elsewhere, a scholar at the Center for Policy Dialogue, a private think-tank, gave a different perspective on why the pandemic was now spreading so fast. We have to understand why a section of people are careless about the dangers of COVID-19 they are careless because they are poor. Millions of people in Bangladesh have no savings to last one month, so they came out to survive, Mustafizur Rahman told BenarNews. The government has a dilemma, authorities have to contain the virus and save the lives of people. This is a biggest challenge for us to strike a balance between life and livelihood, he said. New Rohingya deaths The two Rohingya who died after testing positive for the virus lived at refugee camps in Ukhia, a sub-district of Coxs Bazar, said Dr. Abu Toha M.R.H. Bhuiyan, health coordinator of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission. One of the victims was a septuagenarian and the other was 58 years old. They were the second and third Rohingya to die from COVID-19 in Bangladesh. Another five Rohingya had tested positive for the coronavirus disease since Monday, raising the total number of confirmed cases among refugees to 35 since May 15, when the first case was detected in the sprawling refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, Bhuiyan told BenarNews. Most of the Rohingya are not conscious about the dangers of the coronavirus. We have been trying to create awareness among them. Besides, all possible measures have been in place to stop further spread of coronavirus at the camps, Saikat Biswas, spokesman for the Inter Sector Coordination Group, told BenarNews. Close to 1 million Rohingya who fled from persecution and violence in neighboring Myanmar live in refugee camps in and around Coxs Bazar district. Since the outbreak of coronavirus, we have been suggesting they contact the nearby health centers in case any of them had fever, coughing and cold-related problems. We have provided hotline numbers at different spots so they can contact [the centers] easily. There are 24/7 health centers inside the camps, Biswas said, adding that Rohingya had been told they should not hide symptoms. He said two dedicated isolation treatment centers were opened in at refugee camps. We have been building a 1,900 bed treatment center for the Rohingya. We have already readied 600 beds. Very soon, we will complete 600 more beds, Mohammad Shamsu Douza, an additional refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, told BenarNews. Birmingham police said no charges will be filed against the person who defaced a mural of George Floyd outside a downtown salon. The mural was painted by artist Shane B. outside Wheelhouse Salon one week ago in memory of Floyd, an unarmed, handcuffed black man who died at the hands of Minneapolis police after an officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. In Thursdays predawn hours, someone in a van went to the Third Avenue North location and painted a large X over Floyds image. That vandalism was quickly repaired. We would love the opportunity to talk with the person who did it and understand where theyre coming from and give them a platform for their voice to be heard, Andrew Tynes, who works with Shane B., told AL.com last week. What happened to George Floyd is awful and unforgivable. Everybody has a lot to say about it and I think dialogue is good. Birmingham police on Tuesday said investigators followed all leads and apprehended the suspect responsible for vandalizing the Floyd mural, but said the owner declined to press charges. Wheelhouse was one of multiple businesses damaged in the May 31 unrest in downtown Birmingham. The Floyd mural was painted on the plywood used to board up the salons broken windows. The salon posted this on Facebook in the following days: We want to make it clear the events following the protest have not changed our stance on Black Lives Matter. We stand with you. Windows and computers can be replaced but the lives of those lost to racism cannot. Owner Johnny Grimes on Tuesday explained why he declined to press charges. "If were going to make any kind of progress as a nation, then forgiveness needs to be first and foremost. We cant continue as business as usual,'' he said. I try my best to understand and sympathize with individuals of differing opinions. I know he made a bad decision and acted out of anger. If the first step to progress is forgiveness, I want to do that. "I dont want the rioting, the looting, my windows, my computers, to be the narrative. The narrative should be that we have a systemic problem in our country and unless we sit down and have a hard conversation, were never going to progress,'' he said. I just didnt want that to be the narrative. I wanted forgiveness to be the narrative. Royal Navy joins NATO allies on major maritime exercise in the Baltic Sea region Royal Navy Type 23 frigate HMS Kent has joined 19 nations on the US-led Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) exercise. 8 June 2020 Over the next week, HMS Kent and minehunter HMS Ramsey will sail alongside 26 other vessels and 29 aircraft as 3,000 personnel from 17 NATO nations and two NATO partner nations strengthen their combined maritime capabilities and demonstrate their collective resolve to safeguard security in the Baltic Sea Region. HMS Ramsey will join the exercise as part of her five-week deployment with the NATO Standing Mine Countermeasures Group 1. The NATO force is dedicated to eliminating the threat of historic mines in waters of northern Europe, practising dealing with present-day mines and promoting the alliance and freedom of the seas. BALTOPS will see Allies train together on a variety of maritime exercises including air defence, anti-submarine warfare and mine-hunting. Minister for the Armed Forces James Heappey said: HMS Kent represents a Navy that has continued to train and operate throughout the Coronavirus pandemic so that, alongside our allies, we're ready for whatever comes next. The UK is committed to the independence of the Baltic Sea Region and this exercise along with a range of other UK military activity helps to deters threats and defends our interests in the region. With HMS Kent exercising on BALTOPS, the UK will contribute to the region's security in the sea, the sky and on land. HMS Kent's Commanding Officer Commander Matt Sykes said: My ship's company are eager to take part in the exercise and up for the challenge, focussing on our ability to operate seamlessly with our NATO and partner nations. In these turbulent times, it is also vitally important that we demonstrate our commitment to the region and to upholding the principles of freedom of access to the Baltic Sea. There are currently over 800 British Army personnel deployed in Estonia, where they lead a multinational battlegroup as part of NATO's enhanced Forward Presence. Elsewhere, RAF Typhoons are in Lithuania this summer to contribute to the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission. HMS Kent's participation in BALTOPS represents a return to the Baltic Sea Region for the ship and her crew after she took part in the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) deployment Baltic Protector last year. The JEF is a UK-led high-readiness force of nine north European nations that helps to uphold security in the region. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Representative image Sachchidanand Shukla Indians are on the move again but this time it is very different than in the past. The interaction of economic and social processes due to the Covid19 onslaught is triggering two different types of migrations that can have significant ramifications on lives and livelihoods, as well as divergence of income and consumption gaps across states. Let us look at the internal migration that continues to unfold. As per the 2011 Census, there were as many as 51million migrants who stated economic reasons for migration. This number has grown by 4.5 percent every year between 2001 and 2011 as against a population growth of ~1.5 percent and twice as fast as the growth in migrant stock seen during 2001-11. Assuming a similar growth since 2011 would put the stock of migrants for economic reasons at 76million in 2020 more than 15 percent of the workforce. Other alternative estimates place the share of migrants in the workforce between 17 percent and 29 percent - this implies the number of migrant workers at ~80-145million. The Economic Survey 2016-17 had estimated average annual net flows of ~9 million migrants at the all-India level between FY12 and FY16. Uttar Pradesh was the largest labour supplying state with ~15mn out-migrants, followed by Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. UP and Bihar alone accounted for half of the total out-migrants, while the Delhi region, Maharashtra, Goa and Tamil Nadu had major net in-migration. Domestic remittances serve 10 per cent of households in rural India and finance over 30 per cent of household consumption in remittance-receiving households. Now, consider the tale of external migration which pales in comparison to the internal one but is equally important. As many as 16.4 million Indians live abroad, in nearly every country in the world. More than half of these migrants are in the Gulf and another 25 percent are in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. These people cumulatively sent remittances of ~US$ 76billion last year, and such flows have been crucial for Indias macro-economic stability, offsetting as much as ~45 percent of Indias merchandise trade deficit over the last five years. The RBI estimates that as much as 59 percent of these flows are used to support families, with 20 percent deposited in banks and ~8 percent used for investing (land & equities). These migrant NRIs are likely to see setbacks in the form of job losses and pay cuts as their adopted countries struggle to recover and cope in the aftermath of COVID-19. Besides, while the stock of these workers may reduce, the fresh outflow will certainly get affected for a number of years owing to protectionism and weak demand. These trends are going to bite at home, in the form of reduced remittance flows. The intra-India regional disparity of foreign remittance flows is quite stark as some regions depend more on such money than the others. Just four states Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi account for ~65 percent of the total remittances to India. Kerala, in particular, receives 20 percent of these flows, i.e. over INR 1trillion equivalent to 13 percent of its Gross State Domestic Product and is expected to be the worst affected. More so, because 2.4million of Keralas migrant NRIs are in the oil dependent Gulf countries, which have been hit harder owing to the sharp fall in crude prices. Remittances account for 3.4 percent Maharashtras GSDP, 5.7 percent of Karnatakas GSDP, 2.3 percent of Tamil Nadus and ~4.5 percent of Delhis GSDP. While these numbers dont seem large, the remittance flows to these four states amounts to ~INR 2.4trillion. A 20-25 percent fall in Remittances from abroad from a total of INR 2.4trillion in just 4 major states would imply reduced cash flows of as much as INR500bn. We estimate the annual domestic remittance flow at ~INR2 trillion through a simplistic assumption. Consider this 100million migrants with an average earning of INR 5,000 per month sending back one-third of their earnings to their families in their hometowns. While this is just 1 percent of Indias GDP, it would be erroneous to dismiss this as the direction of these flows is highly concentrated to the poorer states, particularly Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. This would hit consumption hard in these states. The reverse migration caused by the COVID-19 shock would, in fact, hurt demand in the host states even more. This is because these states would see a reduction in their population sizes and thus the consumer base. So, what are the implications of the twin migrations? Hence the respective state governments will have to tailor their policies to mitigate the impact on incomes and consumption. Similarly, the centre may well have to recalibrate its allocation strategy, especially schemes such as MNREGS, which has just been raised by another Rs 400 bn to provide employment opportunities to workers who have migrated to their villages in the short term. Overall, while India has reaped enormous gains out of the two streams of migration in the past, it must now be ready to cope with the reversal. Secretary General launches NATO 2030 to make our strong Alliance even stronger NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 08 Jun. 2020 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg today (Monday 8 June) launched his outline for NATO 2030 in an online conversation with the Atlantic Council and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. "This is an opportunity to reflect on where we see our Alliance ten years from now, and how it will continue to keep us safe in a more uncertain world" the Secretary General said. To do this, the Secretary General said, NATO must "stay strong militarily, be more united politically, and take a broader approach globally." In his speech, Mr Stoltenberg stated that staying strong militarily means continuing to invest in our armed forces and modern military capabilities, which have kept us safe for over 70 years. Strengthening NATO politically means using NATO as the forum to discuss, and where necessary to act, on issues affecting our shared security. Finally, making NATO a more global Alliance means working even more closely with like-minded partners to defend our values in a world of increased global competition. In December 2019, NATO Leaders invited the Secretary General to lead a forward-looking reflection process to strengthen NATO's political dimension. To support him, Mr Stoltenberg has appointed a group of ten experts. Over the coming months, NATO will engage with Allies, public and private sector experts, and young leaders to provide fresh thinking on how to make sure NATO remains ready today to face tomorrow's challenges. Find out more at www.nato.int/nato2030 and join the conversation via #NATO2030. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:25:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HAIKOU, June 9 (Xinhua) -- China's master plan for the Hainan free trade port, released on June 1, has boosted the appeal of the southern island province to global investors. The global investment service hotline, set up by the Hainan International Economic Development Bureau, has been hotter than ever in the past week. "We received over 200 calls a day," said Lei Ting, head of the bureau's information and media relations division. Lei said the calls came from more than 20 countries and regions, including the United States and Britain, and their consultations were mainly about investing in the province's high technologies, medical and health care, import and export trade, and tourism. Han Shengjian, director of the bureau, said the new policy's focus on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, as well as the free cross-border flow of funds and personnel, was quite attractive to foreign-funded enterprises. "These are what global investors value most and what will project Hainan toward the highest level of opening-up in the world," Han said. Many enterprises have expanded their operation into Hainan. Deloitte China, which set up its Hainan office in January, is one of them. "We expect a lot in Hainan. The policy of the free trade port will bring us lots of business opportunities," said Deloitte China partner Eric Lin. He said the auditing and consulting firm will see more customers from companies that choose to settle in Hainan and launch global businesses from there. Fosun Tourism Group in April inked an agreement with the government of Sanya, a resort city in Hainan, to expand a tourist complex. "The construction of a free trade port is an unprecedented opportunity for Hainan to become one of the most attractive places for global investors," said Qian Jiannong, board chairman and chief executive officer of the Fosun Tourism Group. Qian highlighted the construction of a law-based, international and convenient business environment as mentioned in the plan. "We've benefited from Hainan's improving business environment in recent years, but Hainan still has a long way to go to meet the requirements of a free trade port," he said, adding it is the main reason for them to be optimistic about Hainan's prospects. Shen Xiaoming, governor of Hainan, said Monday that Hainan pays special attention to creating an open, transparent and predictable business environment. The government must also respect enterprises and entrepreneurs and let them be the final judge of the local business environment, Shen said at a press conference held in Beijing. Liu Cigui, Party secretary of Hainan, extended a warm invitation to global companies and talents at the same event. "Investors and talents from all over the world are welcomed to invest in Hainan, participate in the construction of the Hainan free trade port, and share China's development opportunities and the fruits of China's reform and opening-up," said Liu. Enditem The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Tuesday announced its intention to enforce its decision of ensuring customers not given electricity meters are not disconnected from electricity supply grid. The enforcement will target seven electricity distribution companies (DISCos) that have failed to comply with NERCs Order 197/2020 on capping of unmetered residential (R2) and commercial (C1) electricity customers. The electricity regulatory agency gave the indication about the enforcement notice through its Twitter handle, @NERCNG. It listed the affected DISCos to include those in Benin, Enugu, Eko, Ikeja, Kano, Kaduna and Port Harcourt. The DISCos were given 14 days beginning from June 4 to explain why they should not be sanctioned over their alleged non-compliance. The Order On February 20, NERC issued Order No/NERC/197/2020 on capping of estimated billings in Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). The Order repealed the NERC (Methodology for Estimated Billing) Regulations 2012 and placed a cap on estimated bill to unmetered customers by DISCos in the NESI effective February 20, 2020. The NERC said the order was to protect unmetered R2 (Residential-single and 3-phase meters, who consume more than 50kWh per month) and C1(Commercial-single and 3-phase meters, small businesses) customers from arbitrary billing and expedite their metering process. Details of the order was for DISCos to ensure all tariff class A1 customers (customers using grid-connected premises for agriculture, schools, water boards, religious houses, government and teaching hospitals, etc,) requiring single or 3 phase meters were properly identified and metered latest by April 30. All unmetered R2 and C1 customers, the order said, shall not be invoiced for consumption of energy beyond the price capped in schedule. The capped prices include N1,872.00 for R2, where consumption is capped at 78 kilowatt hour per month at a tariff of N24 per kilowatt. Also, all residential customers who consume not more than 50 kilowatt hour (R1 Customers) per month shall be billed N4 per kilowatt hour at a total maximum of N200 per month. Besides, the order said all other customers on higher tariffs shall be metered by April 30 otherwise they shall remain connected to supply, but without further payment to the DISCos until a meter is installed for them. The order directed that any customer whose current estimated bill was below the capped price shall remain so without upward review until the installation of a meter by the DISCos. Any customer who rejects the installation of a meter must be disconnected by the DISCo. Restaurants that survived months of closure and can now only seat a fraction of their usual customers say the ongoing ban on alcohol is killing their businesses. Four restaurant and bar operators said they are hemorrhaging money and losing upward of half their revenues due to a prohibition on the sale and consumption of alcohol, a rule they say may be well-intentioned but makes little sense. A foreigner once asked me Im a Catholic why cant I drink alcohol? because he thought it was banned out of religious reasons, said Supawit Palm Muttarattna, who represents a group of restaurants. I didnt know how to answer him. Friends I know who work in restaurants and bars in other countries dont face the same problem. Supawit described the ongoing ban on the consumption and sale of alcohol as funny and strange. The bar manager of restaurant group Foodie Collection which includes II Fumo, 1919, La Dotta, Vesper said the one-size-fits-all rule is suffocating a whole business. Why doesnt the government apply a different rule to each kind of restaurant, since each has to apply for a different kind of license to operate? Supawit said, noting that profits at Silom-area 1919 have fallen by half. Customers of each type of restaurant come with different needs. Supawit Palm Muttarattana. Photo: Vesper / Facebook Jarrett Wrisley. Photo: Soul Food Mahanakorn American food writer-turned-restaurateur Jarrett Wrisley said he has lost up to 50% of revenues due to the prohibition, on top of the 30% to 50% losses due seating restrictions to maintain social distancing. The owner of Italian restaurant Appia in Soi Sukhumvit 33 and Thonglors Soul Food Mahanakorn described the ongoing ban as completely unnecessary and devastating. It makes absolutely no sense, Wrisley said. Its a bloodbath Thailand seems alone in banning booze only at restaurants. Indeed, the only mention the World Health Organization makes of alcohol in its recommendations for restaurants is that it be readily available as sanitizer. Story continues The bar manager Eat Me, counted one of 2018 Asias 50 best restaurants, said his restaurant wont bother reopening until the day bars and pubs are granted permission. We are a full bar and restaurant, and most of our profit comes from booze, Boontanes Pop Direkrittikul said. Early on the outbreak, we tried to serve food with home delivery for a few weeks before we decided to give up. The operational costs, such as workers wages and electricity, werent worth it. Although dining in at restaurants has been allowed since May 3, all bars remain closed under government order. Restaurants may sell alcohol for takeaway or delivery only. Boontanes added that his Australian boss didnt want to risk his 22-year-old restaurants reputation and the health of his employees by reopening at this time, because he was unclear about the guidelines. The head of the guild of alcohol sellers said consideration must be made for a massive industry that is experiencing painful losses across the board. The industry, which generates about THB370 billion in sales annually, was down 40% from February to May from the same period last year. The main part of dining in restaurants is eating food paired with alcohol. Since booze drinking inside the restaurants is still banned, restaurants have to hold their breath and try to help themselves with takeaway alcohol, said Thanakorn Kuptajit, president of the Thai Alcohol Beverage Business Association. He said it has been a gut punch to an industry already hobbled by the ban on advertising his group and sellers are asking be struck down. The booze ban in April, which was like the best-selling month for alcohol, already did damage to the industry, he said. Does the government want to massacre all alcohol sellers across the country? There are so many issues of historic importance going on worldwide that deserve our attention. Heres a a relatively insignificant one that might affect a few people in Thailand: many independent restaurants you know and love are slowly dying under these restrictions. Jarrett Wrisley (@WrisJarrett) June 4, 2020 For its part, the government says the rules are painful but necessary measures to keep COVID-19 from returning. While Thailand by all appearances has emerged mostly unscathed, the global pandemic is worsening, with the most new cases reported today. Outbreak response spokesperson Taweesilp Wisanuyothin has repeatedly cited links to a fresh outbreak in South Korea to an infected bar patron to underscore their caution. Still, owners say its been an overreach by officials with reliably zealous anti-alcohol attitudes. Foodie Collections Supawit said that while he understood banning booze at bars and bar-restaurants where people gather to carouse, it makes no sense to apply the same rule to upscale eateries that can enforce social distancing. Boontanes Pop Direkrittikul. Photo: Eat Me Restaurant / Facebook Thanakorn Kuptajit Of course, bars are feeling the most pain. Theyve been told they must remain closed until July 1 at the soonest. Asked if he agreed with the order that they must remain closed, veteran bartender Shavinraj Gopinath said yes and no. I understand the reasons as to why the government is very cautious about the extension until July 1, said Shavinraj, whos recently held court at basement speakeasy Philtration. They want to avoid another incident that will lead to a mass infection. But he cited the growing ranks of unemployed struggling to take care of themselves and their loved ones. Whats being done for them? he added. Shavinraj, who describes himself as the bar scenes Fairy Godfather and is likely familiar to regulars of The Iron Fairies and the late Maggie Choos, said a blanket ban is sustainable neither for business nor for the economy. If restaurants can be open for sit-in with restrictions, then there are very few reasons why bars cant be given some extra measures and effort. Shavinraj The Fairy Godfather Gopinath. Photo: Shavinraj Gonipath Related Were not drug dealers: Brewers, bar owners want advertising ban lifted This article, Its a bloodbath: Bangkok restaurants devastated by booze ban, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters! Advertisement To say that the world of travel is confusing right now is an understatement. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, border rules and laws are changing daily. But help is at hand for bewildered passengers-in-waiting a continuously updated interactive travel regulations map produced by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The IATA has produced a continuously updated interactive travel regulations map It's extremely user friendly. Simply click on a country and a panel pops up that reveals the latest regulations that apply there. Take the UK, for example. Click on its outline and up pops this message: 'Passengers are subject to self-isolation for 14 days. A completed "Public Health Passenger Locator Form" must be presented to immigration upon arrival.' The IATA's map, which is updated 200 times a day, is extremely user friendly, simply click on a country and a panel pops up that reveals the latest regulations that apply there Click on Australia and a long list of regulations appears, which includes the following: 'Passengers are not allowed to enter Australia. This does not apply to nationals of Australia. This does not apply to the immediate family members of nationals of Australia. This does not apply to nationals of New Zealand residing in Australia.' Each country is colour-coded according to how strict its regulations are dark blue for 'totally restrictive' countries, a lighter blue for 'partially restrictive' nations, pale blue for 'not restrictive' and off-white if the 'latest updates are currently under review'. Britain is listed as 'partially restrictive', along with Canada, the USA, Brazil and Australia. Gilbert Ott, who runs the highly respected God Save The Points travel tips site, has given the map a firm thumbs up. He writes: 'When it comes to keeping up with the changes, there's one tool, and pretty much only one tool you need to have the best information at the time. That's IATA's interactive travel restriction map. 'You'll instantly see what's required, and if you're currently eligible to visit.' The map is updated more than 200 times per day using IATA's 'Timatic database' to provide accurate travel restrictions specific to the current pandemic. Anish Chand, IATAs Assistant Director, Timatic, said: 'As the aviation industry prepares to safely restart, travelers will need to know which countries borders are open and what health restrictions exist. Travelers can rely on Timatic for comprehensive and accurate information on travel during the pandemic.' It was claimed today that the UK is expected to drop its 14-day quarantine policy by the end of the month in favour of 'air bridges' to low-risk countries. Travel company bosses in Britain say they have been assured that the plans will be altered within weeks, with two legal challenges already filed against Ministers. The Foreign Office is also thought to be close to dropping its advice against all non-essential travel around the world for Britons - and could do so by the end of June. T he row about statues is coming to Whitehall, with leading figures calling for the removal of Clive of India from outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Robert Clive is just as bad as Edward Colston, Lord Adonis tells us, while writer Afua Hirsch says: He is not of India, he plundered it. Clive was an 18th-century soldier who laid the foundations for the later British Raj, though he himself worked for the East India Company. A statue of him was erected by in 1916. Adonis has asked the Government to start a public consultation on the statue, warning that public anger will focus on that next. Branding Clive the most rapacious and murderous of the Indian imperialists, Adonis added that his behaviour was mind-boggling even by the standards of Indian imperial rulers. Hirsch said Clive was a symbol of the most morally bankrupt excesses of Empire, continuing, his statue is not a piece of history but an attempt when it was erected centuries after his death to rewrite it. However, recent Tory adviser and commentator Tim Montgomerie told us: Im reluctant to judge people from history by our own time. Im wary of taking down statues and where it leads to. --- Reflection: Michaela Coel (Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Hearst Magazines) / Dave Benett/Getty Images for Hea Michaela Coel, star and writer of new BBC series I May Destroy You, says tackling discrimination requires speaking up but also empathy. Coel told Screen Daily: To change the narrative you need to understand where the other person is coming from. I have to call out racism while thinking: Can I also be racist? What might make someone end up like that? Wise words. --- LEN GOODMAN recalls the good old days when he and fellow Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli lived in the same block. He couldnt iron. I like ironing, Goodman tells Paul McKennas podcast. I used to go up to his apartment and while he was cooking something or other Id iron all his shirts. Men behaving rather nicely. SW1A Rebuke: Dawn Butler (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) / Getty Images LABOURS Dawn Butler attacked Priti Patels apology to Windrush victims as crocodile words. She tweeted: Why havent you implemented the lessons learnt review? Only 60 people have received compensation. --- Lib Dem Wera Hobhouse, a party leadership contender, says: We need to work with other centre-left parties to build a winning, progressive alliance at the next election. Anything to do with the tanking polls? Bubbly Laura and Ainsley support their pet causes Happy times: Ainsley Harriott and Bobby (Photo: Ainsley Harriott/Guide Dogs/PA Wire) Laura Whitmore tucked into a bottle of bubbly as she celebrated her boyfriend cooking her dinner, wearing a jumper to support a Covid charity. Meanwhile Ainsley Harriott and his handsome pet Bobby took part in a virtual dog show to support Guide Dogs. The chef said: I know Im finding lockdown hard enough, but for people with sight loss, social isolation can happen every day. And pop star Lizzo proved shes still got the juice, showing off a new dance shes been learning. Ms. Clark, the district attorney, said she could not speculate as to whether cases would be discovered sooner if children were physically in school. She noted that one teacher called the authorities after she saw a parent hit a child on camera during a virtual class. The pandemic also has presented new difficulties for A.C.S., which has been heavily scrutinized in the past for missing signs of abuse or neglect that then led to the deaths of children. The agency has had to adjust the way it handles complaints and checks on troubled families. For example, investigators now talk to parents and children outside their homes, not inside, so as to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. To get a look inside, to make sure there is food in refrigerators, investigators ask parents to give a tour with their phones, said David A. Hansell, the commissioner of A.C.S. In many cases, investigators have responded to reports of neglect and found that they were related to families struggles with Covid-19. With the virus in mind, one investigator decided against removing children from a home where the food had run out. Instead, the investigator went to a pantry and took food to the family, according to the agency. In other instances, investigators have been helping families secure computer tablets for their children to attend online school after they were reported as truant because they had not been logging on during class. In one particularly heartbreaking case, investigators found a teenager living alone and caring for a dog and three cats after his mother died of the virus. Investigators placed him in a foster intake center until they found his godmother, who took in the teenager and the pets a couple days later. Though A.C.S. has had scandals in the past surrounding the deaths of children, it also has been criticized for what parent advocates have called unnecessary investigations of families, particularly for poverty-related neglect, and the resulting removals of children from predominantly black and Hispanic homes. Since a spike in the number of children placed in foster care in the 1980s, the agency has steadily reduced such placements, focusing more on keeping children with their families while supervised. It took decades to drive the number down from a peak of about 50,000 to the current 7,700. While college and university fall plans for reopening underway, students can likely expect to see a hybrid course structure with social distancing guidelines. Five officials from public universities and private colleges and community college representatives spoke remotely to the state Senate Education Committee on Tuesday about problems their institutions have faced amid COVID-19 and how they plan on reopening. Dan Greenstein, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education chancellor, said once universities implement their plans, they will be relying on students and visitors to follow the guidelines put in place to prevent the spread of possible infection on a campus. He said the state needs to set clear goals on what they want to see from higher education in terms of workforce and economic development. We faced serious financial challenges coming into this pandemic and they will be exacerbated as a result of this pandemic in ways that wont yet be entirely clear until we understand what enrollment patterns will look like in the fall, Greenstein said. LendEDU found that 30 percent of the 1,000 American current high school students surveyed said they would consider deferring or not enrolling in their school of choice if they resume with online-only instruction. The General Assembly voted to flat fund higher education in the five-month stop-gap budget. Higher education systems received more than $500 million in federal funding approved by the U.S. Department of Education, and universities can apply separately for funding awarded through the CARES Act. Greenstein said student living situations in residence halls will vary depending on different schools enrollment and facility capabilities. He said some schools may be able to house one student per room, and other schools may choose suite-style living where students would be responsible for looking out for others in their cohort. The Pennsylvania Department of Education issued guidelines for schools on June 3 on how they should proceed with reopening campuses. The report said that while limited in-person instruction is permitted in yellow counties, schools must plan and implement strategies to support healthy, safe, and inclusive learning environments informed by guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). University of Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said his biggest concern is that students will continue to experience a detrimental disruption in their education path. Beyond that, he said its crucial that employees return to work to ensure students from all backgrounds are receiving an education. He said they plan to adopt a robust infection control program to help transition the community out of a state of emergency. He said the program is currently undergoing development so it can be incorporated into every aspect of the universitys operation. He said operating experienced-based learning, like clinical and research programs, is going to be a challenge going into the fall. He said with state guidance, the school will resume those activities in a responsible way. Gallagher said that international students remain the most impacted population and that this is where the university has seen the biggest enrollment issue. Because there are some international students who cannot return to the U.S. to finish a program, Gallagher said this will affect graduate and professional programs. Pennsylvania State University Pennsylvania State University President Eric Barron said the completion rate of this past spring semester was comparable to a normal semester and that enrollment for this summer is higher in terms of credit hours than last year. He said the university lost $77 million in the spring, not including Penn State Health or Penn College of Technology. Barron said in the fall, the school can expect to see a net loss of anywhere between $30 million and $400 million, not including food and housing services, depending on enrollment. Barron said he is not expecting tuition increases or salary raises. Barron said while he hopes for a hybrid system in the fall, meaning some classes would be online and some would be held in person, he will announce by June 15 if that will be the case. For right now, he said Penn State is working on contact tracing methods and building a supply of personal protective equipment). Lincoln University Lincoln University President Brenda Allen said after moving to online instruction, it became apparent that not all students had access to appropriate technology in order to continue that instruction. Allen said some students had parents with college degrees who could help provide continuity of education, while others did not have access to functional internet connection. She also stressed that the role historically black colleges and universities play is greater than education, and that campuses like Lincoln push students who dont all have the same social currency to think differently and broaden their world views. For me, it really resurfaced the understanding of how that digital divide for low income and communities of color is impacted in their abilities to keep pace with where education is going, Allen said. COVID-19 has disproportionately affected underserved communities across the country. Allen said they are considering a few different opening strategies. The most optimistic plan would create a new normal for campus life, involving social-distancing guidelines, a resident-free campus during peak flu season, and comprehensive plans to contain outbreaks. Temple University Temple University President Richard Englert said that because the university has campuses abroad in Italy and Japan, they began planning mitigation strategies in January. Englert said the university is implementing a five-phase reopening strategy. The first phase happened in May and allowed essential employees to return to campus. Phase two will increase essential research activity and is happening this month. The third phase will begin June 23 when the university moves into a pilot program to have a limited number of in-person summer classes on campus so they can work out even more logistics. Phase four will begin Aug. 1, and the university will open up a COVID-19 testing center that is separate from regular provision of their student health services, but would be accessible to everyone in the community. The final phase will begin Aug. 24 as fall classes begin on campus, which will be a mix of in-person, hybrid, and online classes. Englert said the university would conclude in-person classes and activities before Thanksgiving break, and that after the break, the last week of classes and exams would be done remotely. Englert said they will hold tuition and salaries flat, and that the university might see budget reductions. Private colleges Tom Foley, Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania president, said fall enrollment surveys are projecting that these schools could face $1 billion in losses. Foley said these 92 schools hold 49 percent of the states nontraditional adult students and 39 percent of the states first-generation students. He added that these schools provide 195,000 jobs that have been long embedded in local communities. In-person education is critical for some of our most vulnerable students, Foley said. Foley said that these schools have adjusted academic calendars, teacher modality, and methods of participation in a wide variety of ways depending on the size of the school and location. Some challenges that remain are access to testing, contact tracing, and PPE, he said. We will need to continue to adjust certification and regulatory requirements so students can continue to progress to their degrees, Foley said of programs that require experiential learning, like clinical degrees. Community Colleges and Penn College of Technology Elizabeth Bolden, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges, said some community colleges in the state have resumed face-to-face instruction in counties where they were permitted to do so. She said those schools have prioritized in-person instruction of programs that are difficult to conduct online. The resumption of that instruction has really provided information for how were going to move forward in the future, Bolden said. The one thing that we know is that face-to-face instruction in this environment is demanding, its expensive, and it is going to be difficult moving forward. She said it is impossible to predict what community college enrollment will be like which has made it difficult to plan. Bolden also expressed concern that the state has not implemented legal protections to protect schools from coronavirus-related lawsuits. Davie Jane Gilmore, president of the Pennsylvania College of Technology, said programs like aviation and nursing cannot be completed remotely, so some students have needed to return this summer for one to three weeks to complete course requirements they needed in order to have graduated in May. She said because their class sizes typically never exceed 30, its easier to implement social distancing guidelines. Staff is primarily back on campus, and Gilmore said so far people are adapting to new protocols. 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. In hundreds of its facilities, workers became ill with Covid-19, and many blamed the company. At the height of its crisis, one Amazon executive said he had quit over the firings of workers who raised questions about workplace safety during the pandemic. While Amazon has rolled out safety changes, many workers and officials said the measures were unevenly deployed and came too late. But in recent weeks, workers said, some conditions inside the warehouses have improved. And the company, which was in emergency response mode in March and April, has resumed a more regular rhythm of business. Amazon recently invited reporters into a fulfillment center in Kent, Wash., 20 miles south of Seattle, where the company is based. The New York Times agreed to tour the facility to see the changes that Amazon and many workers around the country had described. Monday, June 8, 2020 Check out the many virtual events at www.LetsReimagine.org! As part of Reimagine: Life, Love, & Loss, a Worldwide Virtual Festival, join in a live online discussion with Gail Rubin, the Doyenne of Death, on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at noon Mountain Daylight Time. Shes presenting Kicking the Bucket List: What You Need to Do Before You Die. Do you know the key downsizing and organizing things to do before you die? Find out what you need to know before you go! Do you plan to live forever? Do you ever plan to move? Depending on where youre going, you cant take it with you. This talk focuses on practical ways to downsize excess goods without being overwhelmed by the job, what you need to know to organize your information for your executor, and how to plan for end-of-life issues. Join in this fun conversation on downsizing and organizing with Gail Rubin, CT, The Doyenne of Death. Register through this Reimagine ticket link for $5. This event is part of Reimagine: Life, Love, & Loss, a Worldwide Virtual Festival taking place during COVID-19, from May 1-July 9. Hundreds of events are taking place all across the world to support individuals and communities in navigating and confronting illness, dying, death, grief, isolation, and the visceral truth of our impermanence. Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist, is a pioneering death educator. She uses humor, funny film clips, and outside-the-box activities to teach about end-of-life topics. She authored three books on end-of-life issues, including KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die. She coordinates the Before I Die New Mexico Festival and is a Certified Funeral Celebrant. Download a free 50-point Executors Checklist from her website, www.AGoodGoodbye.com. Do you really need a fancy sombrero if youre not in a mariachi band? Gail Rubin donates hers to El Serape Restaurant in Albuquerque, NM. They used it as a decoration. Share this: YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is developing programs to develop the biofuel market. In cooperation with the UNDP a respective research will be conducted in the field based on which the government will clarify its actions for developing the field. Deputy minister of environment Vardan Melikyan told ARMENPRESS that a consultation on this topic was held in the government led by the Prime Minister back in February. By the end of July the ministry will present proposals on replacing wood with briquettes and pellets for developing the biofuel market in Armenia. I was in Moldova, got acquainted with their experience on replacing wood with other biofuel. I would like to state that the market was formed from zero within five years and has reached 10%. We are cooperating with the UNDP which will make a necessary research in our country and based on which it would be possible to take respective actions. The steps may be different: changes in the tax field, approval of standards, legislative changes. We have the list of the preliminary steps the implementation of which will be beneficial for the people to make investments in this sector. But its very important for these products to be consumed. Today we have a very small volume of production and consumption. We should promote both the production and demand to increase, Vardan Melikyan said. Asked what potential Armenia has in terms of briquettes, the deputy minister said the biomass that exists in Armenia and is not used is enough for at least meeting the whole demand of wood. He said when the market is starting developing, the experience shows that the producers also start making investments for the production of respective types. Such programs are important for reducing illegal logging. 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Founded to help seniors live independently in their own homes, for a longer period of time, The Senior Company makes delivering world-class care its top priority. No expense is spared to hire the best home health aides in the business, compensate them well with an outstanding pay and benefits package and train them to uphold the gold standard of care. The Senior Company does not accept less from its caregivers. Home health aides at The Senior Company are qualified to provide a wide range of services including the following: Bathing and dressing Grooming Housekeeping Errands Monitoring vital signs Providing feeding tube support Meal assistance Managing medication on a weekly basis Caring for wounds Providing catheter support Administering IV therapy and injections Providing hospice care support Hospital transfers Dementia support Incontinence care "We are proud to offer a safe, convenient form of world-class care to seniors in Wayne. Our home health aides have been carefully selected and trained to ensure seniors are treated with the utmost compassion and respect and that they receive the highest level of care. Serving the Wayne community in this way is an honor," said Steve Romano, CEO at The Senior Company Learn About The Senior Company's Services About The Senior Company The Senior Company is a trusted New Jersey home health care agency that provides 24/7 home care services for the elderly. As a full-service New Jersey Home Health Care Agency, The Senior Company specializes in providing support for seniors who may need full-time home care assistance, live-in home care assistance or part-time home care assistance at home or in a facility after transitioning from the Hospital or Skilled Nursing Facility in their local area. The Senior Company is a Dual Licensed, Dual Accredited, Bonded & Insured Certified Home Health Care & Certified Help Firm practicing in the North New Jersey area. The Senior Company provides Personal Care as well as Skilled Nursing Care services that are available to help seniors and families who are in need of assistance with activities of daily living. Some of these "ADLs" include bathing, toileting, dressing, light housekeeping, meal preparation, errands, hospice care and other personalized hourly or live-in home care services. The Senior Company is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Home Care for meeting the industry's highest recognized standards of care in The State of New Jersey. Contact: The Senior Company Totowa: 973-355-6336 Hackensack: 201-355-5209 Related Images image1.png SOURCE The Senior Company Richard Pusey, 41, allegedly filmed police officers as they died on the Eastern Freeway in Kew, Melbourne, on April 22 The Porsche driver who allegedly filmed four police officers dying after a truck crash has listed his $1 million Melbourne townhouse for sale. Mortgage broker Richard Pusey, 41, has been in custody ever since the crash on April 22, over which he was charged with 12 offences, including fail to render assistance. Now, Pusey has listed his four-bedroom house on 1/6 Champion Street in Doncaster East in Melbourne's north-east, according to title documents obtained by the Herald Sun. The home is part of Pusey and his wife Anh Truong's $12 million property collection, which includes a Fitzroy warehouse that was graffitied with the word 'die' following the Eastern Freeway crash. A double garage, three bathrooms and four bedrooms make it a spacious home that 'appeals to modern families', according to agency RT Edgar. It is also described as being 'close to the M3 Eastern Freeway', which is where Pusey allegedly filmed the cops dying after being pulled over for speeding. Pusey's four-bedroom house on 1/6 Champion Street in Doncaster East in Melbourne's north-east has been listed for sale with a guide price of $950,000 to $1,045,000 Pusey's house was built in 2016 and has been rented out multiple times, most recently in 2018 for $600 a week, according to CoreLogic. It is being sold with a guide price of $950,000 to $1,045,000 via an expressions of interest, which close at 5pm on June 30, unless sold prior. Pusey's expansive property portfolio also includes a West Melbourne terrace worth $1.35million and a $1.27million house in the coastal suburb of Bonbeach, according to The Australian. The lounge room of Pusey's Doncaster East house, which 'appeals to modern families', according to agency RT Edgar One of four bedrooms in Pusey's house, which is part of his $12 million property collection, which he shares with his wife Anh Truong The dining room and kitchen of the home. Pusey's house was built in 2016 and has been rented out multiple times, most recently in 2018 for $600 a week, according to CoreLogic Another property listed under he and his wife Ahn Truong's name is a $3.4million warehouse in Fitzroy that had been spraypainted with the word 'die' in the days after Mr Pusey fled the scene of the crash. Pusey was pulled over by police for allegedly speeding at 149km/h down the Eastern Freeway in Kew, Melbourne, on April 22. 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. The Doncaster East home is also described as being 'close to the M3 Eastern Freeway', which is where Pusey allegedly filmed four cops dying after being pulled over for speeding. Pictured: Pusey's Porche after it was hit by a truck on April 22 The property listed under Pusey and his wife Ahn Truong's name in Fitzroy that had been spraypainted with the word 'die' in the days after the fatal crash Pusey allegedly fled the scene of the truck crash and was arrested the next day 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. 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. 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. He is now in protective custody at Melbourne Assessment Prison. 09.06.2020 LISTEN The paramount chief and the president of Avenor Traditional Council, Togbuigah Dorglo Anumah (VI) has on behalf of the Traditional Council expressed their deepest appreciation to THE SKY IS THE LIMIT foundation, and the International Director of the organization, Mr. Brain Mosko for the drilling of twenty-one (21) mechanized boreholes across the Volta Region of Ghana; twelve (12) of which, the Traditional Council is privileged to have it drilled within their jurisdiction. Togbuigah Doglo Anumah (IV) again enstooled Mr. Brain Mosko, as Torgbui Agamah Dormenyo(I) and made him a member of Avenor Traditional Council. This information was communicated to the International Director of the foundation in a letter sighted by politicsafrika.com. The said water project according to the Traditional Council has greatly improved access to water for a good number of people within the three hundred and fifty (350) communities of the Avenor Traditional Area. The Traditional Council also highlighted that access to water in most rural communities in Ghana still constitutes a major challenge in our everyday-life and among a considerable number of communities within the area. And seized the opportunity to appeal to the Charitable Organization for more mechanized boreholes to be drilled within the Traditional Area in order to accelerate socio-economic development in the area. Lucknow: To protect cows and prevent their slaughter, the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday approved a draft ordinance, providing a maximum rigorous imprisonment of 10 years and a fine up to Rs 5 lakh. For the first offence, a person can be given a rigorous punishment of one to seven years with a fine ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. For the second offence, the person can be given a 10-year rigorous imprisonment with a fine up to Rs 5 lakh, a statement said. The state cabinet cleared the draft of the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Cow Slaughter Prevention (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath here. The ordinance aims at making the existing law (Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955) more robust and effective and to completely stop the incidents pertaining to cow slaughter, the statement said. In case of the illegal transportation of cows and other bovines, the driver, operator and the owner of the vehicle shall be charged under the new Act, unless proven that the transportation was done without the owner's knowledge by someone else for committing the crime. The expenditure incurred on the maintenance of the captured cows will be recovered from the owner of the vehicle for a period of one year or until the cow or bovine is released, whichever is earlier. The provisions also attract punishment if there is a danger to their lives through physical damage or mutilation. According to the statement, if someone puts the life of a cow in danger by not providing food and water with the intention of endangering its life, one-year rigorous imprisonment may be awarded, which may extend to seven years for the first offence. Additionally, a fine of Rs 1 lakh may be imposed, which may be extended to Rs 3 lakh. The Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955 was implemented in the state on January 6, 1956. The Act was amended in 1958, 1961, 1979 and 2002. The rules were amended in 1964 and 1979. "However, certain loopholes continued due to which the Act could not be effectively implemented as per the public sentiment and complaints of illegal cow slaughter and transportation of cattle were received," the statement said. It added, "In the 1955 Act, there is provision of maximum seven years of punishment in incidents of cow slaughter. People getting bail in such incidents were also increasing. Incidents of persons again involving in the incident after getting bail from the court were coming to the fore. Keeping these reasons in mind, and respecting the public sentiment, it became necessary that the Act be strengthened, and made more robust and effective." The cabinet noted that since the state's economy depends on agriculture, cow and other cattle play a very important role in its economic and social structure. Preventing illegal transportation of cows and other bovines from the state will help it realise the dream of white revolution and promote agriculture in the cities and rural areas, the cabinet stressed. Weeks after Brian Austin Green confirmed that he and wife Megan Fox are calling it quits, the actor is reportedly having a hard time dealing with the split and suffering without his loving wife. It could be recalled that last month, "The Beverly Hills, 90210" star made a bombshell announcement that he and Megan are now just co-parenting their three children. During the May 18 episode of "With Brian Austin Green" podcast, the 46-year-old actor revealed that they had been separated for months after realizing that they have grown apart. Green admitted that he is in the process of healing a fresh wound from the breakup. While he said that she and Megan are getting along well, he still has fears of the unknown facing the future without Megan by his side. "There's the unknown aspect. There's that pit in my stomach... I really don't want Megan and I to be at odds. She's been my best friend for 15 years, and I don't want to lose that," Green confessed. "We've had an amazing relationship. I will always love her. And I know she will always love me and I know as far as a family what we have built is really cool and really special." Lost From The Breakup After this confession, a source told Hollywood Life that the actor is devastated and has been struggling to cope up with the split with his wife for 10 years. "He's definitely heartbroken," the insider said. The source revealed that Green wanted to stay married with the "Transformers" actress, who was described as Green's "love of his life." "Brian loved Megan like he's never loved anyone before," the source continued. "It was really clear to his friends and everyone around him he wanted to make things work." Meghan Feels Otherwise While Green is having a rough time dealing with the breakup, it looks like his now-estranged wife is experiencing the opposite. During the podcast, Green revealed that it was Megan who initiated to have a break after they grew distant since she is always away shooting for films. "She said, 'You know, I realized while I was out of the country working alone that I feel more like myself, and I liked myself better during that experience, and I think that may be something worth trying for me," Green explained. The source echoed this statement and said that the actress "had a foot in and out of the door for years." Moving On Phase While the actor is said to be suffering from how their marriage ended, the source said that Green is now trying to go through his moving-on stage by focusing his attention on the things that make him the happiest. One of which is spending time with his sons, 18-year-old Kassius, 7-year-old Noah, 6-year-old Bodhi, and 3-year-old Journey. Another thing that the actor is looking forward to is getting back to work soon. "That's something that really helps Brian get through the tough times. He genuinely loves being an actor. He's sad, but he'll be okay," the source added. Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - June 9, 2020) - Benchmark Metals Inc. (TSXV: BNCH) (OTCQB: CYRTF) (WKN: A2JM2X) (the "Company" or "Benchmark") is pleased to provide an overview of the significant advancements it has made over the past two years since acquiring the Lawyers gold-silver project and it's vision for the next twelve months. The Company now sees potential for mining scenarios that will contribute to converting the existing exploration target into a future multi-million-ounce gold-silver Mineral Resource Estimate. Substantial historical data and 2018, 2019, and 2020 drill data will provide approximately 100,000 drilled metres for use within a new Mineral Resource Estimate at the conclusion of the 2020 program. This will be followed by a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) in 2021. John Williamson, CEO commented, "The Lawyers project began mining operations in the late 1980's as a small high-grade gold and silver producer, on a limited land position, during a period of depressed gold and silver prices. Our success began 30 years later with recognizing the potential of multiple anomalous high-grade gold and silver results consolidated into a large land package. We identified the potential to expand existing zones and explore the potential for larger mineralizing systems. This led to the discovery of previously unrecognized bulk-tonnage style mineralization. Over a two-year period, Benchmark has rapidly advanced its gold-silver project and with the addition of the forthcoming 2020 data we will have more than tripled the historically drilled metres. This season's data will be invaluable for us to demonstrate the economics of a new open-pit mining scenario during a period of escalating gold and silver prices". 2020 Program Highlights: Up to 50,000 metres of drilling utilizing 5 drill rigs; Induced Polarization (IP) and Magnetotellurics (MT) geophysical survey; Ground magnetics/VLF at multiple zones; Detailed bedrock, alteration, and structural mapping; Extensive soil and rock sampling across new exploration targets; Advancing 6+ tertiary targets for new discovery potential; Advancing Cu-Au porphyry target areas; Ongoing metallurgical work; Commencement of geotechnical data collection; and Baseline environmental data collection. To date, Benchmark has raised in excess of $24 million and attracted cornerstone investments from Eric Sprott (largest shareholder) and several large institutional funds in North America. The Company is using its 2020 treasury of more than $11 million to fund an aggressive $8.5 million exploration program, to culminate with a new Mineral Resource Estimate, followed by a PEA. Historically Under-Explored Prior to Benchmark, exploration in the Toodoggone District began in the late 1960s and peaked in the 1980s, identifying numerous showings, prospects and deposits in the Lawyers project area, culminating in the development of the Cheni Gold-Silver Mine that operated from 1989-1992 and produced 171,200 ounces (oz) gold (Au) and 3.6 million oz (Moz) silver (Ag) over the four year period. The production was from shallow underground workings that targeted 1-5 metre wide discrete zones of high-grade mineralization during a period where physical gold traded near US$300/oz and silver at US$7/oz. With the exception of the world-class Kemess gold-copper porphyry mine that is situated 45 km to the southeast of the Lawyers project area, the Toodoggone received little exploration or investment during the next three decades. The Lawyers Project was acquired by private owners who conducted limited work campaigns until Benchmark acquired the project in March 2018. Benchmark has quickly and systematically advanced the Lawyers gold-silver project: Acquired 100% interest; Granted a five-year exploration permit; Increased its land package with highly prospective ground to 140 km 2 ; ; Validated over 35,000 metres of historical drilling; Completed ~15,000 metres of drilling in 2018/19 & infill sampled over >2,000m of historical core; Generated a drill-defined, bulk-tonnage Exploration Target for the Cliff Creek Zone ranging from 1.68-1.92 Moz gold equivalent (AuEq)at an average grade ranging from 1.71-1.73 grams per tonne (g/t) AuEq ; gold equivalent (AuEq)at an average grade ranging from ; Defined four new discrete mineralized zones with near term resource potential; and Completed extensive soil, rock, and trench sampling in conjunction with ground and airborne geophysics that collectively define a +20km long mineralized trend. Technical Innovation Benchmark is a technically driven team using the latest innovative methodologies to realize the potential of the Lawyers project. Unlocking the information within the large historical dataset began with digitization in tandem with designing and developing a cloud hosted data management system to seamlessly manage our tenure, geochemistry, geophysics, geology, and drill data to leverage data integration and future targeting. Our system has simplified how our data is collected and shared in real time whether in the field, office, or remote setting. It seamlessly integrates with our geological toolset for faster improved decision making and release of information. This system is a powerful tool for Benchmark as it embarks upon its 50,000 metre expansion and definition drilling program that will result in a new Mineral Resource Estimate. Drilling Summary and Discoveries In 2018, Benchmark commenced a small drill campaign and infill sampling of historical drill-core that identified continuous near-surface bulk tonnage type mineralization, in addition to the previously recognized high-grade zones. Selected infill sampling results provided long intercepts up to 5.76 g/t Au and 128.65 g/t Ag over 33.52m (reported February 8, 2019). Discovery of this previously unrecognized bulk-tonnage mineralization significantly increased the scope and scale of the 2019 exploration program to expand beyond the known mineralization focusing on these broader zones. Subsequent drilling success expanded the mineralized zones and confirmed the presence of both high-grade and bulk tonnage mineralization across all of the exploration zones (select results in Table 1), including new discoveries at both Cliff Creek and AGB. Table 1: 2019 Drill Results Summary Zone Hole Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) AuEq (g/t) Interval Dukes Ridge 19DRDD003 1.26 37.82 1.73 70.00 including 47.40 1111.0 61.28 0.99 AGB 19AGBDD001 2.79 177.0 5.01 25 including 5.37 214.0 8.04 7.0 Phoenix 19PXDD001 46.9 3,055.5 85.1 2.87 including 132.5 8,560.0 239.5 0.9 Cliff Creek 19CCDD025 2.09 87.83 3.19 36.3 Including 11.83 513.21 18.24 3.23 *Gold equivalent (AuEq) calculated using 80:1 silver to gold ratio. **Intervals are core-length. True width is estimated between 80 to 90% of core length. Expanding Zones for Resource Potential The success of the 2019 drill campaign allowed Benchmark to provide a review and definition of a drill-defined, bulk-tonnage Exploration Target for the Cliff Creek Zone (see February 28, 2020 news release). The Cliff Creek exploration target currently measures 1.2 km in strike length, 300 metres in width and 300 metres in depth while remaining open in all directions. Using current and validated historical data, the zone hosts a target of 1,682,000 oz AuEq up to 1,923,000 oz AuEq with an average grade ranging from 1.71 g/t AuEq up to 1.73 g/t AuEq, utilizing a 0.5 g/t Au lower cutoff. Cliff Creek is one of four advanced Exploration Target areas, including the Amethyst Gold Breccia (AGB), Dukes Ridge, and Phoenix zones that are located within an extensive 10km2 alteration zone at the heart of the Lawyers Project that is coincident with anomalous radiometric and ground magnetic geophysical signatures. All of these zones will contribute to a new global Mineral Resource Estimate after completion and interpretation of the 2020 drilling program. Metallurgy Drill core samples from multiple gold-silver zones are being used to investigate the metallurgical characteristics of the mineralization for potential bulk-tonnage mining. This work will expand upon historical metallurgical studies that focused on the high-grade (>10 g/t AuEq) material from underground historical mining. The historical metallurgical recoveries of the high-grade Au-Ag mineralization mined at the Lawyers property during the period 1989-1992, averaged 93% for Au and 78% for Ag (Lane et al., 2018). The expanded metallurgical program will focus on characterizing the metallurgical properties for future processing flow sheet options for the bulk tonnage Au-Ag mineralization at three targets, as well as confirming historical data of related higher-grade zones within the bulk-tonnage targets. Infrastructure Advancements As a historic gold-silver mine site, the Lawyers Project offers a range of logistical benefits including full road access, nearby airstrip, mine site infrastructure, and existing cut line for tie-in to regional power grid at the Kemess Gold Copper mine only 45 km to the southeast. Infrastructure and access improvements to the road network have recently been completed by a consortium of stakeholders including mining companies and the Tsay Keh Dene and Kwadacha First Nations. New Porphyry and Epithermal Targets Six additional exploration targets located across the 140 km2 land package have the potential for new discoveries. Two of the more advanced targets are Silver Pond and Marmot. The former is a 4 km2 area of advanced argillic alteration, often associated with high-sulphidation and porphyry mineralization. The target has never been drilled, mapped, or effectively explored and is only 850 m northwest of the low-sulphidation mineralization at Cliff Creek. The Marmot zone has similar structure, mineralization, and alteration relationships as other zones on the Lawyers Trend (Cliff Creek, Cliff Creek South, Dukes Ridge, AGB, Phoenix, Phoenix East), where hydrothermal low-sulphidation systems developed within pre-existing northwest to north trending fault systems that acted as conduits for fluids to migrate, alter host rocks and precipitate various metals. A new independent study by the 'Mineral Deposit Research Unit' (MDRU) at the University of British Columbia and Geoscience BC has developed an exploration framework for the transition of porphyry to epithermal deposits in the Toodoggone mineral district and noted that several of the zones on the Lawyers project exhibited features that are indicative of a porphyry system. Quality Assurance and Control The sampling program was undertaken by Company personnel under the direction of Rob L'Heureux, P.Geol. A secure chain of custody is maintained in transporting and storing of all samples. Gold was assayed using a fire assay with atomic emission spectrometry and gravimetric finish when required (+10 g/t Au). Analysis by four acid digestion with 48 element ICP-MS analysis was conducted on all samples with silver and base metal over-limits being re-analyzed by atomic absorption or emission spectrometry. The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., P.Geo., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. About Benchmark Metals Inc. Benchmark is a Canadian mineral exploration company with its common shares listed for trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, the OTCQB Venture Market in the United States, and the Tradegate Exchange in Europe. Benchmark is managed by proven resource sector professionals, who have a track record of advancing exploration projects from grassroots scenarios through to production. Benchmark is a part of the Metals Group portfolio of companies. Metals Group is an award-winning team of professionals who stand for technical excellence, painstaking project selection, uncompromising corporate governance and a unique ability to pan through the rubble to discover and develop golden opportunities. Metals Group To view an enhanced version of this image, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6169/57475_metalsgroupimage.jpg www.metalsgroup.com ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS s/ "John Williamson" John Williamson, Chief Executive Officer For further information, please contact: Jim Greig Email: jimg@BNCHmetals.com Telephone: +1 604 260 6977 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 news release may contain certain "forward looking statements". Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this news release and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57475 [June 09, 2020] 25th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA): The First Ever Virtual Edition THE HAGUE, Netherlands, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EHA is organizing a virtual congress for the first time in its history. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing restrictions, it is no longer justified to hold the 25th Congress as originally planned in Frankfurt, Germany. The EHA25 Virtual Congress will launch on June 11 and will run until June 21. Sessions will be available on-demand via the online platform until October 15, 2020. The EHA25 Virtual Congress will be hosted on an innovative artificial intelligence (AI)based platform. In addition to presenting sessions in a structured, easily navigable manner, the platform will offer participants a new experience. The platform uses AI to assist participants in compiling a program that is tailored to their professional interests and needs. Locating content on the Congress platform can be done either via preliminary program review or based on AI recommendations, Themes Session types, Filter and search function. June 11-14, 2020: Content available on-demand All sessions will be published during the original Congress days in order to not impact pre-established publication, promotion, and compliance procedures: Satellite Symposia on June 11 , 08:00 CEST , Oral abstract presentations and e-posters, unless press embargoed, on June 12 , 08:30 CEST , Presentations of invited speakers on June 12 , 08:30 CEST , Updates-in-Hematology on June 12-13 June 15-21, 2020: Thematic days and special Q&A panel discussions The thematic days will focus on subspecialties of hematology: Acute leukemia, Immunology, Red and white cell disorders, Coagulation disorders, Chronic myeloid neoplasms, Chronic lymphoid neoplasms and Lymphoma. Each thematic day will be kicked-off in the morning (CEST) with a live "Best of session," offering participants a quick update by summarizing the highlights of the theme. Dedicated one-hour question and answer panel discussions will be organized on each thematic day to address participants' questions. Click here for the EHA25 Virtual Program. All sessions will be available on demand and may be watched at any time until October 15, 2020. In addition, new content will become available regularly after the official congress days. www.ehaweb.org Note for the editor: The 25th Congress of EHA Virtual Edition is organized by EHA EHA President: John Gribben, United Kingdom Chair, Scientific Program Committee, 25th Congress: Kimmo Porkka, Finland Press registration Registration for members of the press is free: click here for more information. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/622259/EHA_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 15:00:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CANBERRA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Around 75 percent of Australians hold an implicit bias against indigenous people which may lead to widespread racism, according to a study released Tuesday. Most Australians tested for unconscious bias hold a negative view, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, occupation, religion, education level, geography or political leanings, said the findings from the study from the Australian National University (ANU). The researchers analyzed data from the Implicit Association Test conducted by a joint initiative of universities including Harvard, Yale and the University of Sydney, covering 11,099 Australians over a 10-year period. The findings, from the first survey of its kind for Australia, were published in the Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues. "These results show there may be an implicit negative bias against Indigenous Australians across the board, which is likely the cause of the racism that many First Australians experience," said Siddharth Shirodkar, a researcher based in the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences and author of the study. "This study presents stark evidence of the solid invisible barrier that Indigenous people face in society," Shirodkar added. Enditem Chinese doctors provide free consultations to their compatriots overseas on March 17 via a WeDoctor platform. WeDoctor, an online medical services provider backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., plans to file a prospectus by October for a Hong Kong IPO that it hopes will raise between $700 million and $900 million, Caixin can reveal. The windfall would value the money-losing tech firm at around $5.5 billion, about the same as a $50 million May funding round. WeDoctor is just one of many tech companies hoping to capitalize on the disruptions to the traditional health care industry brought by Covid-19. Although the company has not nailed down its business model, it is pursuing an IPO to take advantage of the high valuations commanded by health care companies right now despite its subdued growth, an insider from one of its cornerstone investors told Caixin. The person said there was also pressure to go public from limited partners who were early investors in the company and now want to cash out. Caixin granted the person anonymity so they could speak candidly. According to financial records obtained by Caixin, in the three years from 2016 to 2018, WeDoctor brought in revenue of 437 million yuan, 604 million yuan and 1.2 billion yuan, and took losses of 480 million yuan, 674 million yuan and 818 million yuan. Data provided by company insiders showed in 2019 that the company narrowed its losses and brought in nearly 4 billion yuan, much higher than the 2.8 billion yuan expected at the beginning of the year. But the company will still be forced to demonstrate it has a viable business model. Rumors of WeDoctors IPO plans have persisted since 2018, when it secured $500 million in financing from AIA Group Ltd., NWS Holdings Ltd. and China Capital Zhongcai Fund Management. WeDoctor plans to hire CMB International, Citigroup and JPMorgan to underwrite its IPO listing. Online medical services in China have found it hard to turn a profit because most of their fee income goes to doctors. But the company could benefit from policy support, after health authorities issued new guidelines (link in Chinese) for Chinas medical insurance system that extended coverage to internet-based medical services during the epidemic. Zhu Hengpeng, deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said while the Covid-19 epidemic has accelerated the development of digital medicine and online health care, it was unclear whether those changes would remain long term. WeDoctors predecessor was Guahao.com, an advertising funded app that ranked hospitals and booked appointments many of which were from the prolific advertisers Putian hospital group. Revenue grew slowly for the company and was outstripped by growing losses in 2013 and 2014, even before Putian and Baidu were implicated in the 2016 death of a 21-year-old college student named Wei Zexi, who was led by a paid ad on Baidu to a costly and bogus experimental cancer treatment offered by a Putian hospital. But while Baidus digital health ambitions were poisoned for years by the death, Guahao had already rebranded as WeDoctor and was pivoting away from online hospital appointments which were banned that year by the Beijing Municipal Health Commission and into telehealth. WeDoctor obtained $394 million in series D funding that year from Tencent, Fosun Pharma, Goldman Sachs and others. In China, where medical services are generally low cost, fees for digital health have generally come from existing health budgets, meaning achieving scale has been of little benefit. But the Covid-19 pandemic has been a boon for tech companies on the prowl to take advantage of the disruption of traditional health services. Ping An Good Doctor, cornerstone investor in WeDoctor, saw its Hong Kong share price double in the past six months. Alibaba Health, a new pharmaceutical retailer, has seen similar growth. In the second half of last year, WeDoctor began to establish a health community with multiple provincial and city governments and medical institutions. Through digital platforms, it works with offline institutions, signing contracts with local family doctors and chronic disease management plans. Contact reporter Flynn Murphy (flynnmurphy@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michealbellart @caixin.com) Trump tried this same delegitimization back in 2016, when most polls predicted he would lose. He claimed, large scale voter fraud happening, and his campaign website pleaded: help me stop Crooked Hillary from rigging this election. Even after he won the electoral college, he claimed he had been fraudulently denied a popular-vote win, again without evidence. As president, he appointed a commission to study the supposed fraud problem, but it disbanded in 2018 after accomplishing nothing. Inside Monaco: Playground Of The Rich Rating: I May Destroy You Rating: Prince Albert of Monaco is a clutterbug. If he were living on benefits in Hull, you might see him on some programme with a title like The Nightmare Hoarder Next-Door, with piles of rotting clothes and magazines blocking every window. But as he is the son of Grace Kelly and ruler of a ludicrously wealthy principality on the Riviera, no one dares tell him to give his office in the palace a tidy certainly not the obsequious film-maker behind the camera of Inside Monaco: Playground Of The Rich (BBC2). Alberts desk is heaped with towers of books and folders of papers. The sideboard is buried under photographs, their frames stacked like LPs in a record shop. Prince Albert of Monaco is a clutterbug. If he were living on benefits in Hull, you might see him on some programme with a title like The Nightmare Hoarder Next-Door, with piles of rotting clothes and magazines blocking every window Every spare inch of wall space is hidden by framed medals and certificates. Most precarious of all are the tables crammed with ornaments: glass globes, porcelain statuettes, china birds, bottles, marble balls, lacquered boxes and all manner of tat. You cant really blame him. His whole domain looks like that: barely bigger than Hyde Park, Monaco is stuffed with so many buildings that one visitor described it as luxury Legoland. Space is at such a premium that extendable helipads have been constructed over the water, to give pilots extra room for landings. Albert granted director Michael Waldman permission to film behind the scenes in the palace and to attend a party or two. This three-part documentary is simply happy to slip past the silken entrance rope and squeeze inside. In return for access, there are no difficult questions or sharp observations. A couple of brief, fawning interviews with the Prince allow him to get away with saying practically nothing. Inside Monaco amounts to a promotional video: you can imagine it on a loop in the hotel foyers, an endless cavalcade of air kisses and supercars. You cant really blame him. His whole domain looks like that: barely bigger than Hyde Park, Monaco is stuffed with so many buildings that one visitor described it as luxury Legoland Waldman was curious to know only what everything cost. From off-camera, we kept hearing a voice ask: Any idea how much this would be? like a nosy customer wasting the sales staffs time in a jewellery shop. Thus we learned that a harbour berth for a megayacht is two grand a night, that the biggest bottle of champagne at a reception cost 28,000 and the white truffle in the kitchen is worth 35,000 the same price as a night in the Princess Grace suite at the Hotel de Paris and that every Monaco resident must keep half a million in a current account at all times. Also, the monthly rental of a one-room apartment is . . . oh, really, who cares? The interviewee who reluctantly told us most was a yacht worker called Tommy who refused to reveal the name of his employer: I dont want to have a horses head in my bed tomorrow morning, know what I mean? Yes, we get the picture. One of the parties was an awards ceremony for social medias Influencer of the Year the kind of event where you might find Arabella, played by Michaela Coel in her drama serial I May Destroy You (BBC1). Arabella is a writer, feted for a novel created on Twitter, who goes out clubbing in London with friends and regains consciousness with her phone smashed and her face bleeding. Slowly, she begins to fear she was drugged and sexually assaulted. Arabella is a writer, feted for a novel created on Twitter, who goes out clubbing in London with friends and regains consciousness with her phone smashed and her face bleeding The story is told in half-hour bites, and the first wasnt enough to gauge yet how engaging it will be. But Coel is a powerful actress, and I May Destroy You is based on traumatic personal experience. Give it a couple of weeks: this could be the new Fleabag. Flimsy evidence of the night: True crime documentary Murder In The Outback (C4) gave us a lot of innuendo to discredit the story Joanne Lees told police about the disappearance of her boyfriend Peter Falconio but very little hard fact. Frustrating. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that the Starship spacecraft that will one day ferry humans to Mars is now the company's "top priority". In a company-wide email, Mr Musk urged employees to accelerate the development of the next-generation rocket "dramatically and immediately". The internal email, which was obtained by CNBC, came just a week after SpaceX successfully launched two Nasa astronauts into orbit aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft to join the International Space Station (ISS). "Please consider the top SpaceX priority (apart from anything that could reduce Dragon return risk) to be Starship," he wrote in the email. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Recommended SpaceX Starship rocket explodes in dramatic fireball SpaceX first unveiled the Starship prototype in 2019, revealing a stainless steel spacecraft capable of carrying up to 100 people on missions to the moon and Mars. It is one of three major SpaceX projects, along with the Crew Dragon space program and the launch of the Starlink constellation, which aims to deliver 12,000 satellites into orbit for the purpose of beaming high-speed internet back down to Earth. Work on the Starship craft is currently split between SpaceX's Los Angeles headquarters, the Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida, and the Starship production complex near Austin, Texas. In order to advance the development of Starship, Mr Musk urged SpaceX employees to "consider spending significant time" in Texas. He wrote: "For those considering moving, we will always offer a dedicated SpaceX aircraft to shuttle people." SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission Show all 15 1 /15 SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission Space X Dragon departs from the International Space Station and heads for earth AP SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission Space X Dragon undocks from the International Space Station NASA SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission SpaceX Crew Dragon is pictured about 20 meters (66 feet) away from the International Space Station Nasa/AP SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft, lifts off on March 2 2019 Reuters SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission Astronauts aboard the Space Station preparing to open hatchet to the SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying a instrumented dummy after it successfully docked with Space Station Nasa TV/EPA SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission A dummy(L) named Ripley onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard after the opening of the hatch during the Demo-1 missioN Nasa TV/AP SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission The SpaceX team watches as the SpaceX Crew Dragon docks with the International Space Station Nasa/AP SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket docked with the International Space Station during the Demo-1 mission Nasa/AFP/Getty SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft Reuters SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission Astronaut David Saint-Jacques taking a look inside the SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying a instrumented dummy Nasa TV/EPA SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifts off on an uncrewed test flight Reuters SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft, lifts off on an uncrewed test flight Reuters SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a demo Crew Dragon spacecraft on an uncrewed test flight AP SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission SpaceX's new crew capsule approaches just before docking Nasa TV/AP SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission Astronaut Eric Boe, assistant to the chief of the astronaut office for commercial crew, left, and Norm Knight, deputy director of flight operations at Nasa's Johnson Space Center watch the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft Nasa/AP Mr Musk has previously spoken of his concerns that current progress of space technology means that humans will not make it to Mars in his lifetime. Speaking at the Satellite 2020 conference in Washington in March, he revised previous estimates stated in 2018 that a SpaceX craft could be ready for a trip to Mars as early as 2025. "The thing that concerns me most right now is that unless we improve our rate of innovation dramatically, there is no chance of a base on the moon or a city on Mars. This is my biggest concern," he told the audience. "We've got to improve our rate of innovation or, based on past trends, I am definitely going to be dead before Mars." The 48-year-old has frequently spoken of his ambition to die on Mars, though always with the caveat, "just not on impact." A person drove a minivan through a small crowd of demonstrators downtown June 8 on Monument Circle. No one appeared seriously injured. A video of the incident posted to Facebook shows the van, which had been stopped by protesters, accelerating through the group. Car driving through protesters(Chan Harris Searcey/Facebook) One person was hit off to the side, and two people ended up on the hood of the vehicle. The van came to an abrupt stop, which sent the two people to the ground. Some people caught up to the van and smashed in a window and busted a mirror. Car driving through protesters(Tyler Fenwick) Police, who werent present for the most part during the demonstration, arrived at Monument Circle shortly after and confirmed officers had found the van. Alexandria Trove, one of the people hit, said she wasnt in front of the van at first but saw it start to push through the group, so she walked over. Trove, 26, ended up on the hood of the vehicle and was thrown off. She hurt the outside of her right knee and walked with a limp. Alex Vaughan, 25, said he was a few layers of people in front of the vehicle and landed on his back and head when he fell off of the hood. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Aliya Wishner said in a statement there are conflicting accounts of what occurred and that the driver called 911 immediately following the incident. The driver is cooperating with the investigation, Wishner said. It was a violent ending to an otherwise normal night of demonstrations in Indianapolis. The group of roughly 40 people gathered at Monument Circle and walked through some downtown streets before meeting back at the Circle. Most people were starting to leave the area when the van drove through the crowd. Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick. A minivan drove through a small crowd of demonstrators June 8 at Monument Circle. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a PIL seeking to declare as "unconstitutional and illegal" the alleged release of government funds to Jammu and Kashmir-based separatists, saying the issue was within the exclusive domain of the Centre. The court also castigated the lawyer, who had moved the PIL, for calling Hurriyat Conference leaders "separatists" saying it was a matter of perception. "We are of the considered opinion that the grant of funds to the state of Jammu and Kashmir for the purposes of security or otherwise is within the exclusive domain of the Central Government. In a matter like this, we are of the considered opinion that a public interest litigation does not deserve to be entertained and, therefore, we are not inclined to interfere. "That apart, needless to emphasise, it is not a judicially manageable proceeding and the Court should refrain from entering into the said area. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed," a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said. The bench, also comprising Justice U U Lalit, expressed reservation on petitioner lawyer M L Sharma terming Hurriyat leaders as "separatists", and said "it's a matter of perception. Has the government declared them separatists? The conduct of a man may not be to the liking of others and they call him separatist, but you can't use that term in court". The bench expressed further displeasure when Sharma said that "politicians are promoting terrorism." "You cannot use such words in court. You cannot brand everyone like this unless someone is convicted. You can't just generalise everyone. This language cannot be used in court," the bench said while warning the advocate. The PIL had claimed that more than Rs 300 crore was spent on the separatists on their stay at hotels, security and other expenses by the government, misusing the money. Sharma claimed that the issue was a "big threat to the society" and only the judiciary could protect the country. To this, the apex court said the judiciary cannot examine what funds are given to whom when it comes to managing the situation in a state like Jammu and Kashmir. "Judiciary can only protect the constitutional provisions and values. Army and police are there to protect from any kind of threat. It should be left to the executive to decide what is best for the country," the bench said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The 3rd edition of Data Science Congress (DSC) 2020 virtual, an initiative of Aegis School of Data Science and Cyber Security; with support of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Chamber partner Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI); powered by mUni Campus, with support of Cloud4C & Dunhummby for maximum women participation concluded with a bigger bang this year with participation from across industries, sectors and nationalities on 6th and 7th June. DSC 2020 was inaugurated by Shri Sanjay Dhotre, HonbleUnion Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India.This edition of DSC discussed topics around banning the production and usage of killer robots, insights about Indias 1st Data protection bill; technical talks by co-creator of Tensorflow; bioinformation on storing data in ones DNA; creating scalable Artificial Intelligence, panel on challenges & opportunities for women in data; highlights of the both days was key note by DrJuergen Schmidhuber, Father of modern Artificial Intelligence and Father of Internet and DrVint Cerf, Father of Internet.For more information on many more topics and speakers, please visit www.datasciencecongress.com At the event, Dr.Vint Cerf, Father of Internet and Creator of TCP/IP facilitated and appreciated20 talented students from India selected through Aegis Graham Bell Award National Talent Hunt for Data Science, AI and Cyber Security Phase II who were provided with a 100% scholarship to study Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Data Science; PGP in Applied AI, Machine Learning & Deep Learning and PGP in Cyber Security from Aegis School of Data Science & Cyber Security in association with IBM. IN Phase I, likewise 20 students were awarded the scholarship in the month of February 2020 by ShriNitin Gadkari, Honble Minister for Road Transport & Highways of India and Shipping Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the Government of India. The candidates were selected from across the country who has the potential to grow as leaders in Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security. Inaugurating the event and addressing the Indian Artificial Intelligence ecosystem, Shri Sanjay Dhotre, Honble Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India commented Limited availability of sufficient skilled and updated manpower is one of the big challenges which the academia must look into. The skill set imparting knowledge is still mainly in English, whereas we have tremendously talented youth studying in regional languages as well. There is a huge void of content creation in local languages. Dr Vint Cerf, Father of Internet said I am very impressed with this event and the program of honouring students with 100% scholarship. These students have worked very hard to reach here. This shows a great deal of creativity and energy in a tremendous way. Congratulations to all the students and have a bright future ahead Dr Jurgen Schmidhuber, Father of modern Artificial Intelligence raised the concern about the pandemic Coronavirus, he mentioned in his key note Artificial Intelligence based on deep neural networks and deep learning can help to fight the COVID19 virus in many ways. Neural networks can learn to detect patterns in data from viruses and patients, we can use those neural networks to predict the future consequences of possible actions and we will act to minimize the damage. Adding to Honble Minister points on academia role in AI, Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE mentioned I believe India with 1.35 billion population which is 1/6th of the world population, If we are transforming we are transforming 1/6th of the world. Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI mentioned Indian data and technology service market is segmented by solutions and we are expecting India to be become the largest data science market in the world with better use cases and significant opportunities for data scientist in the future therefore the emphasis should be on education Learning in the last 2 days from these world leaders at the event will surely help in paving a path for the mission of making India as a world leader in research, education, and skill development in the fields of AI, Data Science and Cyber Security, Thank you to our partners AICTE, FICCI, AIQRATE, ASMA, Dunnhumby, Cloud4C, Safe N happy Periods for making this event a grand success said Bhupesh Daheria, Founder, Muni Campus, and CEO, Aegis School of Data Science & Cyber Security. michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. [music] Today, several major U.S. cities are now proposing ways to defund and even dismantle their police departments. John Eligon on the thinking behind those plans and what they might look like in practice. Its Tuesday, June 9. archived recording (protestors) (CHANTING) I cant breathe! I cant breathe! john eligon In the early days of the protests after George Floyd was killed archived recording (protestors) (CHANTING) No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace! john eligon it was just pure emotions and raw rage. archived recording (protestors) [EXPLETIVE] these racist [EXPLETIVE] police! john eligon But pretty soon, once the more fiery protests and fiery unrest died down, then we started seeing the organizers come in and talking about what they want. And one thing we quickly saw were these face masks that people were wearing. They were black, and they had yellow writing on them. And they said, Defund police. michael barbaro Hmm. john eligon And from there, you start hearing these calls at protest, at rallies. archived recording (protestors) (CHANTING) Defund the police! Defund the police! john eligon You start hearing, Defund the police. You start hearing calls to abolish the police. You start seeing people waving signs. And it became clear that this was an opening that a lot of activists saw to take this moment of a very brutal police killing and turn it into something much larger. archived recording (protestor 1) Do the right thing! archived recording (protestor 2) Defund the police! michael barbaro So John, what do these concepts defund, dismantle, abolish the police what exactly do they mean? john eligon To defund, when activists say that, what they mean is taking money away from the police departments budget and redirect it toward other things whether that be social services, agencies, maybe mental health agencies that can do functions that police are often called on to do. michael barbaro Mm-hmm. john eligon But if you fully defund it, you can get to a space where the police department is abolished. And so essentially, what that means is that there is no more police department as we know it. You dont call these men and women in blue shirts to come racing to your door with their guns in hand. It means that they have to figure out some other form of providing that public safety, and the police department would not be that form. michael barbaro And where did these concepts come from? john eligon Well, at their core, they come from the problems and issues that especially communities of color, especially black communities, have had with policing. They see police coming into their communities to brutalize them, not to protect and serve them. And that has really influenced this desire to keep the police away, to do something else. And weve seen, basically, that governments and police forces, they respond with certain reforms. Weve seen efforts for body cameras. Weve seen diversifying the police departments. Weve seen changes to the rules on use of force. michael barbaro Mm-hmm. john eligon But what became clear to a lot of todays activists, and what they say explicitly, is that these reforms are not working. If you look at since Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri six years ago, the police have continued to kill people at high rates, and especially black people at disproportionately high rates. And so for them, the only solution is to tear it down and build something new. michael barbaro So John, what might it actually look like in practice to defund or abolish a police department? john eligon So for instance, if someone is homeless and theyre struggling on the streets, a person can call 9-1-1, and instead of an armed police officer being sent out, perhaps there can be an outreach worker from a homeless services agency. Or if you have someone having a mental health episode, then again, you can call 9-1-1, and instead of a police officer, maybe a health care worker, a mental health worker will come out. And the idea behind it is to really cut down the interactions between armed police officers and civilians. And by doing that, the hope is that it will reduce their conflict and the potential for people getting hurt or killed by police officers. michael barbaro Right. I mean, that makes a certain sense, especially for a community where theres not a lot of violent crime. But every community is different, right? And some towns, some cities I think about New York City, for example have a significantly higher rate of violent crime that would seem to require having armed police. So how do activists think about that? john eligon For a lot of the activists that I spoke to, the issue was about centering public safety on communities. And one activist that I spoke to, Arianna Nason, she said essentially its going to be up to each community to decide what public safety looks like for itself. arianna nason Its going to be up to every community to decide what they need. We cant decide that. john eligon So maybe thats armed patrols. Maybe thats mental health workers. Maybe thats some sort of mobile units with social workers sitting in it, and people are trained in using force and different things. One of the big ideas is this idea of community policing, community watch. And its interesting. I had said isnt an issue, though, with community policing or community patrols, neighborhood watch, that if I walk into that community, as a black man with dreadlocks, if I walk into one of these communities, we see what happens with neighborhood watch. We see Trayvon Martin. We see Ahmaud Arbery. john eligon Should that be a concern, then? I guess with this community-type based model that certain people who look a certain way might go into the neighborhood, and that community might decide to take it into their own hands and then take it overboard, I guess. john eligon And she took off her sunglasses. She looked at me, and she said arianna nason No, I get that. And Ill be really real with you. For me, personally, I dont have all the answers for that. I dont. And I wish I did. A lot of it is john eligon Honestly, I dont really know the answer to that right now. michael barbaro Huh. john eligon She was not sure exactly what the answer was. And see, this is all to say, its still very tricky and very much a work in progress. But what she did say is that the current system also is not working for me either. So its a matter of what are they going to do differently? And they believe that something drastically different needs to be done. michael barbaro Mm-hmm. As best you can tell, would any of the familiar elements of an existing police department Im thinking, for the sake of argument, homicide detectives, special victims units that investigate sexual assault or rape do those remain? Do they take a different form? Do they adopt a different name? Has that been fleshed out? john eligon I would say, no, its not been fleshed out. Because again, we go back to the fact that this is not going to be some federal commission, or even state commission or a city commission for anywhere thats going to come up with, like, these are the rules for public safety now. And these are all things that need to be worked out. And I think what people say with things like homicide investigations, with sex crimes investigations and things like that, they say a couple of things. One, the police are not doing a good job at those anyways. So you have lots of cities where the clearance rate on homicides and other investigations is miserable. You had, even here in Minneapolis, there was a big scandal with all the rape kits that they had untested. So they had a lot of issues with crimes that were not being investigated properly. And then, the second thing that people say is that those jobs can be taken up by specialized, trained people. You can build new institutions to do those things that arent necessary policing. I did talk to one council member who said, maybe theres still police, but for very, very limited role, and many of their responsibilities are farmed out. You know, anything short of some sort of active violence, you dont need police for. So in some peoples eyes, that would still be a police force. But one thing that the people who are most ardent about abolishing the police or defunding the police, even, they make it clear that they dont just want a system in which its police in another name, police with another uniform on. [music] And these demands to defund the police, theyve actually been brewing in Minneapolis for several years now. Ever since a police killing back in 2015, theres been several local activist groups working on it. And those activist groups came together this past weekend in what was probably the biggest and most clearest demand for defunding the police. michael barbaro Well be right back. archived recording (protestors) (CHANTING) Abolish the M.P.D.! john eligon So there were hundreds of activists who went and gathered in front of the mayor Jacob Freys house. archived recording (protestors) Abolish the M.P.D.! And they had a megaphone. They were chanting. They were screaming. And sure enough, the mayor came out to talk to the protesters. He kind of made his way through the crowd, walked up to the front, and you had one of the lead organizers for a group called the Black Visions Collective. Kandace Montgomery, she was standing up on a riser there, talking down in a megaphone to the mayor. archived recording (kandace montgomery) Jacob Frey, we have a yes-or-no question for you. Yes or no, will you commit to defunding Minneapolis Police Department? archived recording (jacob frey) [INAUDIBLE] john eligon And you could tell, like, there is this hesitation because he knows this is not going to go well, right? You have all these very vocal, very ardent activists around you who want you to defund the police. archived recording (kandace montgomery) Will you defund the Minneapolis Police Department? archived recording [CROWD MURMURING] archived recording (kandace montgomery) All right, be quiet yall. Be quiet, because its important that we actually hear this. Its important that we hear this, because if yall dont know, hes up for re-election next year. archived recording [CROWD CHEERING] john eligon And then archived recording (jacob frey) I do not support the full abolition of the police department. archived recording (kandace montgomery) All right! archived recording (speaker) Youre wasting our time! Get the [EXPLETIVE] out of here! john eligon And he gives his answer he does not support full abolition of the police. archived recording (crowd) (CHANTING) Go home, Jacob, go home! Go home, Jacob, go home! john eligon And he turns around, and he just kind of walked off into the sea of people. archived recording (crowd) (CHANTING) Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! john eligon So after this event, there was already an event planned for the following day by some of these same activists organizations, in which they were going to bring council members who were supportive of their cause onto a stage in a park in the Southern part of the city. And they were going to try to get them to make a commitment to defunding the police. michael barbaro So a lot like what they had done to the mayor? john eligon Exactly. archived recording (lisa bender) Hi, Minneapolis. You look so beautiful today. Im Lisa Bender. Im the president of the Minneapolis City Council. john eligon And so we had this gathering where there were hundreds of residents. archived recording (lisa bender) Our efforts at incremental reform have failed. Period. john eligon And you had council members. archived recording (lisa bender) Our commitment is to do whats necessary to keep every single member of our community safe, and to tell the truth that the Minneapolis Police are not doing that. [CROWD CHEERS] john eligon And you had nine of them who went up on the stage. archived recording (council member 1) We are here today to begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department. [CROWD CHEERS] john eligon And then all nine of them each read a part pledging to defend the police. archived recording (council member 2) All of us on this stage support this statement, and we stand with the people of Minneapolis in fighting for a safer community. [CROWD CHEERS] john eligon The last council member, he basically said, and we are all committing to this pledge. And at that moment, it was like this emotional eruption. archived recording (speaker) [INAUDIBLE], get up, yall. We are transforming our city right now. Get up! get john eligon You had white people, black people, Asian people, all putting their fists in the air, shouting, defund the police, defund police. archived recording (crowd) (CHANTING) Defund M.P.D.! Defund M.P.D.! Defund M.P.D.! michael barbaro So just to be clear, this is not a vote, and not necessarily even a pledge to vote, but this is a public commitment to defund the police to do the very thing that the mayor, when asked, declined to agree to 24 hours before. john eligon Yes, exactly. This is a pledge that they are going to defund the police. It is not a vote. It is not anything set in stone or written. But these are putting them all on record in front of many community members, saying that we are going to do this. And I even asked the activists about that. I said, weve heard politicians say things before and not keep those pledges. But this is something that they saw theyve been working on with them together in tandem. So I think theres a level of trust there that this pledge has really meant something. And you could see it in the reaction of the people who were there. They were really describing it as their Civil Rights Movement, their Voting Rights Act moment. michael barbaro Wow. And John, can the members of the City Council who were in that park, making this pledge, do they have the actual authority to take away funding from the police department? john eligon Yes, they absolutely have voting authority to do that. The council actually controls the police departments budget. And whats more significant about this moment is that because there were nine of them, those nine seats represents a veto-proof majority. So even if the mayor, Jacob Frey, does not want this to happen, if that coalition sticks together, they can do this on their own. And I think what were seeing is this sentiment is growing in traction in certain places. Like we already have in New York and Los Angeles, the mayors in both of those cities have already said that they are going to be redirecting funds that were intended for the police toward other parts of the city, toward other agencies in the city. michael barbaro Im curious what the appetite for this kind of change to policing is, beyond the cities where there are largely Democratic city councils and mayors, and where this is now under discussion. john eligon Thats a very key question, right? Were already seeing conservatives coming out against this and talking about this is as very radical leftist step to be taking. We see Donald Trump already tweeting about it. So certainly, this is something that, for conservative communities, something like this would be a tougher sell. And so again, policing is a very local thing. So what you experience and what the police force does or does not look like in Minneapolis is going to be very different than what it does or does not look like in Edina, which is just outside of Minneapolis, or any other suburb. So its going to be, in some ways, a patchwork of public safety, I think, if these things start happening around the country. michael barbaro And I guess an open question is whether or not this has entered the mainstream, even of the Democratic Party. Just a few hours before you and I began to talk, Joe Biden came out and said he does not support defunding the police. john eligon Yeah, this is certainly not something that is part of the mainstream or moderate Democratic platform. That said, you do get some people who might be in these more moderate spaces, you do get their attention and you do get their ear, is this sense that policing is not working which is just the basis of what these defund or abolish the police efforts are about, is that the system is not working. And so you will get even the more moderate folks to say that, to buy into that. And that may not result in them supporting a defund or abolishment, but will it support more stringent reforms, more significant reforms to police? So well see what happens. michael barbaro I wonder how the activists that youre talking to see the challenge of explaining what these concepts are going to mean. Because in this moment, I think many Americans are really hearing these calls defund, dismantle, abolish for the first time. And they may be very wary of them, and they may see them as quite radical. john eligon What the activists will tell you is that while it might sound radical for many Americans, this actually is not all that radical for a large section of this country. john eligon What was your name, sir? yahzerah brazelton Yaazirah john eligon How do you spell that? yahzerah brazelton Y-A-H- john eligon If you go to black and brown communities like I went up to the North Side of Minneapolis and you talk to people about their experiences with the police there, it is not the experience of expecting an officer to come and help you. Its exactly the opposite. And I was speaking with a couple there, Amanda and Yaazirah Brazelton. yahzerah brazelton Its about time for a change. amanda brazelton A change, yeah. yahzerah brazelton Yeah. About time for a change. john eligon And they were telling me that from a young age, essentially, they already had horrific experiences with the police. yahzerah brazelton [INAUDIBLE] I have police put guns in my face, you know, at seven years old, coming to my house with my mother and my father arguing, just regular argument that happens with a husband and wife. john eligon Yaazirah, he was seven years old when the police came to his house when his parents were having an argument. yahzerah brazelton And they put guns in my face and put us all on the ground. john eligon And then they stuck a gun in his face. yahzerah brazelton They traumatized me in childhood, so I was really against white police officers since. john eligon And his wife Amanda, she was 14 when she was in a car with white people, and shes black. amanda brazelton We were driving in the car. All my white friends got out. And as soon as I got out, they pulled guns, yelled at john eligon And when they were pulled over, the cops let the white people out, but then they pulled guns on her. amanda brazelton Im 14 years old, in the backseat of the car, not doing nothing wrong. And that was my first real incident with the police in that interaction. john eligon And so the way they see the police department is not a force where you call and then an Officer Friendly shows up. amanda brazelton Man, I got a houseful of kids that are scared of the police because of what theyve seen. john eligon Its one where Amanda recalled her children have already had run-ins with the police that when someone was breaking into their house once, she didnt call the police, but she called family and friends. amanda brazelton And I called him. I called my brother. I called my uncle. I called my dad, my mom, before called the police. john eligon Why didnt you call the police? amanda brazelton Because they kill black people. Theyll call me, Ill get killed in my own home. john eligon So its already a lived experience, a lived reality for people in many black communities, that the police are essentially a force that only exists, in their eyes, to harass them, to brutalize them and not to protect them. And what the activists hope is that people who are scared that abolishing police will suddenly lead to a breakdown in their communities and just rampant violence, theyre saying, no, this will create outcomes that will make the community safer and better, not just for affluent white communities, but for all communities across the country. And so what activists are asking is that people who see this as a radical idea, who cant envision a world without police, theyre asking them to just walk in these peoples shoes, understand what theyre going through. [music] michael barbaro John, thank you very much. john eligon Thank you. archived recording (lisa bender) The nine members of the city council that came from every corner of our city to stand together to make this commitment, we dont have all the answers. michael barbaro In an interview on Monday, the president of the Minneapolis City Council, one of the nine members who has pledged to defund the citys police department, acknowledged that implementing the plan would likely take years. archived recording (lisa bender) And if you look back at the last 150 years of our police department, it is becoming increasingly clear that that model of policing isnt working. I hope it wont take 150 years to get to that looking forward, that next solution. But we have a lot of wisdom in our community. We have invested in [INAUDIBLE] [music] michael barbaro Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today. archived recording (karen bass) Good morning, everyone. The Justice in Policing Act establishes a bold, transformative vision of policing in America. michael barbaro On Monday, Congressional Democrats introduced the most sweeping federal plan to reform the police in modern memory. archived recording (karen bass) Never again should the world be subjected to witnessing what we saw on the streets in Minneapolis the slow murder of an individual by a uniformed police officer. michael barbaro The legislation would reduce the legal protections that now shield police officers accused of misconduct from being prosecuted, and would impose new restrictions to prevent police officers from using deadly force. The measure is expected to quickly pass in the House, where theres a Democratic majority, but faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled Senate. Meanwhile, state-level reforms continue. On Monday, New Yorks legislature banned the use of chokeholds by police and repealed a statute that effectively hid the disciplinary records of police officers. And archived recording (dr. tedros adhonom) Almost 7 million cases of Covid-19 have now been reported to W.H.O., and almost 400,000 deaths. Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally, its worsening. michael barbaro The World Health Organization said that the number of new daily infections from the coronavirus hit a record high more than 136,000 on Sunday and warned that mass protests in places like the U.S. could further spread the virus. archived recording (dr. tedros adhonom) We encourage all those protesting around the world to do so safely. Clean your hands, cover your cough and wear a mask if you attend a protest. michael barbaro Finally, the National Bureau of Economic Research said that because of the pandemic, the United States economy officially entered a recession in February, ending the longest economic expansion on record. It began in 2009 and lasted 128 months. [music] BIG RAPIDS The Mecosta-Osceola United Way recently received a $13,000 donation from Meijer's corporate leadership with the hopes of helping their agencies in the fight against the coronavirus. According to a news release, Meijer and Mecosta-Osceola United Way recently partnered to deliver emergency services to those in need in Mecosta and Osceola counties. The perennial American search for stability in the Middle East dates back to anti-Soviet objectives in the early Cold War when Washington treated the region as one piece of an international puzzle to contain Communism. Though the international threat from the Soviets is gone, the search for stabilityspecifically in the form of a collective security agreement like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)remains highly attractive in the Middle East. NATO helped foster 70 years of economic growth and political cooperation in Europe. In contrast, the Middle East boasts the most conflict-ridden record in the second half of the twentieth century.[1] A council leader has invited Oxford University's Oriel College to remove the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes, which has been at the centre of a long-running row. Susan Brown, leader of Oxford City Council, has expressed her support for the Black Lives Matter movement, stating she has a 'great deal of sympathy' for the newly-revived Rhodes Must Fall campaign. Activists have started to gather ahead of a 5pm rally at the university today, holding placards reading: 'Rhodes you're next' and 'Rhodes must fall'. Thousands of people have signed two new petitions calling for the statue of colonialist Rhodes at Oriel College to be taken down. Ahead of today's planned protest in front of the Rhodes statue, Ms Brown said she has written to the college suggesting it applied for planning permission to remove the controversial figure. She suggested the statue should be placed in the Ashmolean or the Museum of Oxford. A statue of British businessman and imperialist Cecil John Rhodes is pictured at Oriel College a the University of Oxford 26 Oxford City councillors signed a letter saying Rhodes' statue in Oxford (pictured) should go because it is 'incompatible' with the city's 'commitment to anti-racism' Members of the Oxford anti-fascists were outside Oriel College to demand the statue of Cecil Rhodes is removed ahead of a Black Lives Matter protest in the city this evening At least 26 councillors in total have called on the statue to be removed ahead of tonight's protest. In a statement published on Tuesday, Ms Brown said: 'I'm clear in my support for the Black Lives Matter movement and I have a great deal of sympathy with the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. The controversial statue of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes Where is his statue? A 4ft statue of Rhodes stands outside Oriel College at Oxford university Who was he? Cecil Rhodes (1853 - 1902) was the Former Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, the modern day South Africa. He was a British supremacist, imperialist, mining magnate, and politician in southern Africa who drove the annexation of vast swathes of Africa. What did he do? The bad Colonised much of Southern Africa for Victorian Britain and established a vast new British territory in Rhodesia, today's Zimbabwe and Zambia Rhodes believed that the British were 'the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race' He secured control of Rhodesia by swindling the king of Matabeleland, and showed scant regard for his African employees, whom he dismissed as 'n***ers' Founded De Beers mining company, trading diamonds mined with slave labour The good Established Rhodes Scholarships, which paid for brilliant young students from former British possessions to study at Oxford, among them the former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott Advertisement 'The question of statues and their historical context is not a simple matter, but sometimes acts of symbolism are important. 'I know my views are shared by a majority of my fellow councillors.' She continued: 'I have today [Tuesday] written to Oriel College to invite them to apply for planning permission to remove the statue, as it is a Grade II-listed building. 'Typically such actions are only allowed in the most exceptional of circumstances. 'But these are exceptional circumstances, and as a city council we are keen to work with Oriel to help them find the right balance between the laws that protect our historic buildings and the moral obligation to reflect on the malign symbolism of this statue.' The Rhodes Must Fall movement was established in 2015 at Cape Town University, and later spread to Oxford, where students demanded that the statue of Rhodes was removed from Oriel College. In 2016, Oriel College decided to keep the statue despite widespread student demands to remove it. Campaigners from the Rhodes Must Fall group argued that the row illustrated Britain's 'imperial blind spot'. In a statement ahead of the protest, Oriel College pledged to discuss the issues raised by protests against the Rhodes statue. The statement read: 'Oriel College abhors racism and discrimination in all its forms. 'The Governing Body are deeply committed to equality within our community at Oriel, the University of Oxford and the wider world. 'As an academic institution we aim to fight prejudice and champion equal opportunities for everyone regardless of race, gender, sexuality or faith. We believe Black Lives Matter and support the right to peaceful protest. 'The power of education is a catalyst for equality and inclusiveness. 'We understand that we are, and we want to be, a part of the public conversation about the relationship between the study of history, public commemoration, social justice, and educational equality. 'As a college, we continue to debate and discuss the issues raised by the presence on our site of examples of contested heritage relating to Cecil Rhodes. 'Speaking out against injustice and discrimination is vital and we are committed to doing so. Ndjodi Ndeunyema, an Oxford University law student and a former Rhodes scholar, organised tonight's Oxford rally 'We will continue to examine our practices and strive to improve them to ensure that Oriel is open to students and staff of all backgrounds, and we are determined to build a more equal and inclusive community and society.' Ndjodi Ndeunyema, an Oxford University law student and a former Rhodes scholar, organised tonight's Oxford rally after starting the Rhodes Must Fall campaign for its removal five years ago. He said today: 'The statue remaining is an affront on the university's support for movements such as Black Lives Matter. Rhodes is not worth of veneration or glorification because of the racism and subjugation he represents.' SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global multiparameter patient monitoring systems market size is expected to reach USD 15.4 billion by 2027 registering a CAGR of 5.5%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Rising health concerns and resultant need to constantly monitor the health parameters of patients, before and after surgery is creating demand for multiparameter patient monitoring systems. The market growth is also supported by the increasing need for hospital transport, such as intrahospital or out-of-the-hospital transport. For special examination and therapy, hospitals require intrahospital transport, which calls for more continuous monitoring of vital signs including heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation by pulse oximetry, and electrocardiography. Key suggestions from the report: The portable segment is anticipated to grow at the fastest CAGR of 6.1% from 2020 to 2027 due to growing home healthcare and easy mobility across different departments within the hospital The hospital end-use segment led the market in 2019 due to high demand for modern healthcare facilities North America held the maximum share of the global market in 2019 due to the availability of technologically advanced equipment and high quality of healthcare system Asia Pacific is estimated to be the fastest-growing regional market during the forecast years due to increasing awareness about technologically advanced monitoring systems Read 116 page research report with ToC on "Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Systems Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Device Type (Fixed, Portable), By Acuity Level (Medium, Low), By Age Group, By End Use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/multiparameter-patient-monitoring-systems-market Healthcare providers are continually looking for innovative products to provide superior quality of care, which is also expected to drive the market. Mobile solutions, data integration low-acuity monitoring remain key trends to improve the cost efficiency of patient monitoring solutions. Key companies are introducing advanced products, such as integrated remote monitoring solutions with added features of greater connectivity through cloud technology and WiFi. For instance, Radius-7 Pulse Co-Oximeters by Masimo Corp., which got U.S. FDA approval in March 2020. It is a wearable patient monitor with flexible functionality of WiFi, Bluetooth, and alarms. Grand View Research has segmented the global multiparameter patient monitoring systems market based on device type, acuity level, age group, end use, and region: Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Systems Device Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) Portable Fixed Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Systems Acuity Level Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) High Medium Low Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Systems Age Group Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) Pediatric Adult Geriatric Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Systems End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) Hospitals Homecare Settings Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs) Others Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Systems Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) North America U.S. Canada Europe U.K. Germany France Italy Spain Asia Pacific India Japan China Australia South Korea Latin America Brazil Mexico Argentina Colombia Middle East & Africa & South Africa Saudi Arabia UAE List of Key Players of Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Systems Market Koninklijke Philips N.V. GE Healthcare Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd. Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA Medtronic PLC Masimo Corporation Skanray Technologies SCHILLER Spacelabs Healthcare Smiths Medical SternMed GmbH Find more research reports on Medical Devices Industry, by Grand View Research: Dental Syringes Market - Rising prevalence of dental and oral diseases, such as periodontitis, dental caries, and oral cancer is anticipated to fuel the growth. Rising prevalence of dental and oral diseases, such as periodontitis, dental caries, and oral cancer is anticipated to fuel the growth. Cardiac Surgery Instruments Market - Increase in the number of cardiac surgeries & procedures and technological advancements are some factors expected to drive the market. Increase in the number of cardiac surgeries & procedures and technological advancements are some factors expected to drive the market. Vital Signs Monitoring Devices Market- Rising prevalence of chronic disorders are key driver responsible for the lucrative growth of 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 LAKE GEORGE Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has nominated seven people to the Adirondack Park Agency Board, which would make the board complete for the first time in more than a year. State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, D-Long Island, who chairs the Senate's Environmental Conservation Committee, on Tuesday said he expects the Senate to approve the nominations this week. We are committed to having a full APA board, which is why we put forward a slate of nominees that have the requisite expertise and will be strong environmental voices focused on the best ways to move the park forward, said Jordan Levine, a spokesman for Cuomo. The APA board is responsible for protecting the forest preserve and overseeing the development proposals on privately owned lands in the park, according to its mission. The board is responsible for upholding three laws in the park, including the Adirondack Park Agency Act, the state Freshwater Wetlands Act and the state Wild, Scenic, and Recreational Rivers System Act. Four of the nominations would be new members of the parks governing board, including Zoe Smith, assistant director of the Adirondack Watershed Institute; Andrea Hogan, supervisor of the Town of Johnsburg in Warren County; Mark Hall, former supervisor of the Town of Fine in St. Lawrence County; and Ken Lynch, former counsel to the state Department of Environmental Conservation from Onondaga County. With the exception of Smith, the nominations are the same as last year, when the nominations were not approved by the state Senate. Environmental organizations at the time objected to that slate. Im honored to have been nominated to serve on the agency board and to play a role in the history of this region, Smith said in an emailed statement. She directed the Wildlife Conservation Societys Adirondack program before joining the Adirondack Watershed Institute at Paul Smiths College Cuomo also nominated three existing APA board members, including Art Lussi, president of the Lake Placid Vacation Corp.; Dan Wilt, former Lake Pleasant supervisor and president of Wilt Industries; and John Ernst, owner of Elk Lake Lodge in North Hudson. All three are currently serving on the board under expired terms. The 11-member APA boards composition has been a point of contention, with three vacant positions and four board members serving on expired terms at the governors pleasure. It has been operating without a chairperson, too. The governor is in charge of nominating eight members, and the other three consist of representatives from the state's Department of State, Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Economic Development. In 2019, Cuomo did not propose nominations for all the board's vacancies, leaving lawmakers and advocacy groups hesitant to support a piecemeal process. The board has specific member requirements, including no more than five of the eight appointments can be registered with one political party and counties may not have more than one representative. Three members must live outside the Adirondack Park and five must be full-time park residents. Hogan, Hall and Lynch were all nominated last year. A spokesperson for state Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, said she supports of the governors list. The nominations drew mostly praise from the Adirondack Council and Adirondack Mountain Club, while Protect the Adirondacks and Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve were mostly disappointed. Michael Barrett, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club, said in a news release that Cuomos latest list is much improved from last year, adding that it was not possible to judge how the whole board would look. This list contains people with many of the skills that we were hoping to see on the board, and we look forward to working with them all to sustain the success of the Adirondack Park for everyone. William Janeway, executive director of the Adirondack Council, also said in a release that the board should include a diverse group of conservationists, planners, environmental scientists and those with experience in wilderness management and conservation law. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. We are thankful, Janeway added. No one got everything they wanted, but everyone benefits from a full board with diversity and that is what we got. Peter Bauer, of Protect the Adirondacks, said his organization is against the appointments of Wilt, Lussi, Hall and Lynch. Bauer called the nominations of Wilt and Lussi particularly galling, because of their support for some community connector trails in the park. Bauer has been among those challenging construction of the snowmobile paths in protected areas. We think its intolerable that we have individuals who are on the wrong side of forever wild being selected to lead a government agency thats supposed to be protective of the forest preserve, Bauer said. Bauer was also critical of the governors nomination of Lynch. He said it was like giving the DEC two votes on the board, Bauer added. David Gibson, of Adirondack Wild, said the proposed board is too heavily weighted toward local government and business. The agency has a big job to do, but I think the governor is very comfortable with the status quo of the agency, and thats not what re-imagining New York is about, Gibson said, pointing to Cuomos daily press briefings about change that is needed across the state. Theres a need to re-imagine the APA, too . Hes not naming people who really are going to aggressively go ahead and do that. Fred Monroe, of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, also had mixed reactions to the proposed board. Monroe was disappointed that Brian McDonnell, a review board member and Adirondack region guide, was not kept on the list from 2019. Monroe said he supported Smith, however, and said she is good at finding common ground with different groups. I think it sounds like a good slate, Monroe said. A version of this article first appeared on AdirondackExplorer.org, a nonprofit news magazine covering the Adirondack Park. The former head of the Metropolitan Police who oversaw the bungled probe into a fictitious Westminster paedophile ring has been handed a job advising the Government. Bernard Hogan-Howe, who was commissioner of the London force between 2011 and 2017, has been appointed to a Cabinet Office committee that will provide advice on Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic. It comes just months after Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister attacked the force's 'shameful' treatment of war hero Lord Bramall, under his leadership of the Met. The former head of the Armed Forces and a D-Day veteran who served his country in every major conflict until he retired in 1985, Bramall was smeared by fantasist Carl Beech, known as 'Nick', whose lies were swallowed whole by the Met. His house near Farnham in Surrey was raised by police in 2015, when his wife was terminally ill and he was subjected to a humiliating 100-minute interview under caution. But he was never charged and died aged 95 in December, after Beech had been jailed for 18 years for perverting the course of justice and fraud. The former police chief, who now sits in the Lords as Baron Hogan-Howe of Sheffield, initially refused to apologise to victims of the investigations into alleged paedophile rings, but did so after a damning independent review uncovered serious failings. He will sit as a non-executive member of the department's audit and risk committee for at least three years. He was a surprising backer of Boris Johnson in the Tory leadership campaign last year, despite sitting as a neutral crossbench peer, having worked with the Prime Minister when he was mayor of London. Bernard Hogan-Howe, who was commissioner of the London force between 2011 and 2017, has been appointed to a Cabinet Office committee that will provide advice on Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic. It comes just months after Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister attacked the force's 'shameful' treatment of war hero Lord Bramall, under his leadership of the Met His appointment last month, first reported today in the Times as one of four new appointments, which included Gisela Stuart, the former Labour MP and Leave campaigner in the EU referendum. Announcing their arrival, Alex Chisholm, the permanent secretary for the Cabinet Office and chief operating officer for the Civil Service said they 'bring a wealth of experience and expertise. This is in contrast to Mr Gove's remarks following Lord Bramall's death, when he told LBC: 'It was shameful how he was treated in his last years. Action does need to be taken in order to ensure that those who were responsible for putting him and his family though misery face the consequences.' 'Modi has not taken India into confidence over what is happening and what has happened.' 'We have not even officially been told what the position is with respect to the land lost between Fingers 4 to 8,' observes Aakar Patel. IMAGE: April 27, 2018. Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping at their first informal summit in Wuhan, which was held after the military standoff in Dokalam in 2017. A meeting between India and China took place on Saturday, June 6, about the problem on the Ladakh border. What does India want? There was a zone in Ladakh which both sides were patrolling till May. They would send groups of soldiers from one area, called Finger 4, which was near the Indian base, to another area called Finger 8, near the Chinese base. The patrols would be unarmed and in 90% of the cases there would be no confrontation or a minor one. In 10% of them there would be some pushing or shoving, but rarely anything serious. The road from the Indian side to Finger 4 is difficult and can only be travelled on foot and in single file up a mountainside. The Chinese access is much easier and they have built roads for their vehicles. Despite the difficulty, India has been regularly reaching Finger 8 and patrolling up to Finger 8 because it is our land and many thousands of Indians died in the 1962 War defending this land. From May, China has physically stopped Indian patrols from proceeding beyond Finger 4, effectively giving China full control over the entire area. Reports say the Chinese have moved between 5,000 to 10,000 troops to three places, which are no longer accessible to India. This is the problem and this is why we are talking today. What India wants and has failed to get at the previous talks is for the Chinese to go away from our land. The day before the June 6 talks, India's foreign ministry met with China's and put out a statement saying that the issue would be resolved through 'peaceful discussion'. Meaning that Narendra Damodardas Modi has ruled out fighting to take back our land and believes that we can get it back through talks. Armies exist because the capacity for violence is required for a State to compel another State to stop doing what it is doing. India appears to have surrender that option go when it comes to the Ladakh intrusion and capture. Is that a wise decision before a negotiation? That depends. What does the opponent want? Here is the problem. We know what India wants, but there seems to be no agreement on what China wants and why it is doing this mischief in Ladakh. The experts of this, who are former soldiers who are now analysts for the media have a few theories. One is that the scrapping of Article 370 was accompanied by the formation of the Union territory of Ladakh, the issuance of new maps and the claim made in Parliament by the home minister that Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin (which is with China) will be taken back, even at the cost of lives. This had upset China. The second theory is that Xi Jinping believes Modi is violating the Wuhan Agreement which the two had signed a couple of years ago. India and China had agreed to be friends and partners and not rivals. But recent actions of India such as specifically curbing Chinese investment in Indian companies did not reflect that spirit. India had also formed an alliance with the United States, Japan and Australia to conduct naval exercises regularly. China had been threatened by that. The third is that China wants to ensure that it has more control over its Belt and Road Initiative, by blocking Indian access to the north. The parts in Ladakh that China has captured lead up to that zone. This is what China wants. The fourth theory is that it is a nationalist distraction being spread by Xi because his authoritarian rule has weakened under Covid. Therefore he is being adventurous in Hong Kong and against India. These are some of the theories that have been put forward by the experts. There is no consensus among them about why exactly China is doing what it is. I should stress here that these are the theories put forward by soldier scholars who admit that they are speculating based on the input they have. Some of the people who usually write in favour of the government have said there is no intrusion at all and no problem in Ladakh. In short, China knows what we want, but we do not know what they want. This is not a good starting point for a negotiation. India is a democracy and therefore in some ways it has fewer options. The government is under more pressure from media and the Opposition to provide an immediate solution (meaning the withdrawal of Chinese troops) and if such a thing happens then victory can be declared. Modi himself has not taken either India or the Opposition parties into confidence over what is happening and what has happened. We have not even officially been told what the position is with respect to the land lost between Fingers 4 to 8. The media which puts other parties under pressure at such times is giving Modi a lot of rope. China can play a longer and bigger game strategically. Its leadership has no media pressure and so it can pursue its long term objectives by keeping its rivals unstable through such things as this current Ladakh occupation. What are its long term strategic objectives and how are they aligned to the current crisis? What does it ultimately want? The experts do not know for sure. One hopes Modi and this government does, as they give up the military option. Aakar Patel is a columnist and writer. You can read Aakar's columns here. Production: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com PALO ALTO, Calif., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ScaleGrid, a leading Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) provider, has just announced support for their MySQL , PostgreSQL and Redis solutions on DigitalOcean. This launch is in addition to their current DigitalOcean offering for MongoDB database , the only DBaaS to support this database on DigitalOcean. MySQL and PostgreSQL are the top two open source relational databases in the world, and Redis is the top key-value database. These databases are a natural fit for the developer market that has gravitated towards DigitalOcean since its launch just nine years ago in 2011. The open source model is not only popular with the developer market, but also enterprise companies looking to modernize their infrastructure and reduce spend. DigitalOcean instance costs are also over 28% less expensive than AWS, and over 26% less than Azure, providing significant savings for companies who are struggling in this global climate. ScaleGrid's MySQL, PostgreSQL and Redis solutions on DigitalOcean are competitively priced starting at just $15/GB, the same as DigitalOcean's Managed Database solution, but offer on average 30% more storage for the same price. Additionally, ScaleGrid offers several competitive advantages such as full superuser access, custom master-slave configurations, and advanced slow query analysis and monitoring capabilities through their sophisticated platform. To compare more features, check out their ScaleGrid vs. DigitalOcean MySQL , ScaleGrid vs. DigitalOcean PostgreSQL and ScaleGrid vs. DigitalOcean Redis pages. This new ScaleGrid DigitalOcean service also shows significant performance improvements over DigitalOcean Managed Databases, with an average 68% higher throughput for write-intensive workloads and 94% higher throughput for balanced workloads. You can see a detailed breakdown of this performance benchmark in their Comparing PostgreSQL DigitalOcean Performance & Pricing: ScaleGrid vs. DigitalOcean Managed Databases post. "We've seen a significant uptick in developers and teams looking to move their workloads to DigitalOcean over the past few months," says Dharshan Rangegowda, ScaleGrid Founder and CEO. "In order to meet this increased demand, we are excited to offer our full featured DBaaS on DigitalOcean - our platform is architected from the ground up to leverage high performance SSD disks providing considerable performance advantages over existing platforms for the same price." ScaleGrid's advanced performance and broader feature set make it a compelling alternative for developers looking to run their database infrastructure on DigitalOcean. They also offer current DigitalOcean customers the opportunity to get 50% off for up to 6 months . SOURCE ScaleGrid SAN DIEGO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, cloud-based Ed-tech software company Career Conext announces the onboarding of ASA College as the latest school to utilize the communication platform. ASA College will utilize the platform as a complete solution for dealing with COVID, from providing financial aid consultations through video chat to preparing students for employment. It's bi-direction, text-based communications, e-signatures and no-download video chat enable ASA's teams to continue educating their students regardless of their physical location. Video Chat enables colleges to interact with students without downloading software. Career Conext is cloud-based software built for the career, private and community college space, offering software that enhances enrollment, financial aid, student services and career services. Conext offers smart AI-enhanced work-flows that reduce repetitive tasks, gently nudge students to complete tasks and store completed documents within its software or automatically upload them into a school's SIS. "ASA is an amazing school with campuses in hard-hit New York. We are so excited to help them deliver their online and hybrid education programs, and more importantly, find new jobs when they graduate," stated Mike O'Brien, CEO of Career Conext. Conext enables ASA's career services teams to manage job postings from employers, create job alerts from millions of jobs imported every day and create resumes and visually stunning career websites for their students and graduates. "Our partnership with Conext enables us to continue delivering our programs to students online, as an online-offline hybrid or on our three campuses in New York and Florida," said Jose Valencia, President of ASA College. ASA offers a wide variety of programs at their three campuses in New York and Florida, in addition to its online-only offerings. ASA offers degree programs in high demand fields like medical & pharmacy, business and criminal justice (see all ASA programs here https://www.asa.edu/degree-programs/). About Career Conext: Started in 2018 by Mingle LLC's CEO, Mike O'Brien, Career Conext is a platform built for the career and community college space. Our platform is designed to manage the workflows of your college's Career Services, Student Services, and Registrar. We work by plugging into your college's SIS and CRM platforms and converting that information into actionable business intelligence. From creating AI Chatbots to managing intern/extern timesheets, Career Conext is built to automate many tedious, low-value, error-prone tasks. About ASA College: ASA's modest roots began in 1985 with a professor and 12 students in a small Brooklyn classroom. Known then as 'Advanced Software Analysis', the College focused on computer programming, as New York City had a dire shortage of qualified mainframe programmers at that time. Since then, the college has grown to more than 3,000 students, 20 programs of study, and two large, centrally located campuses in midtown Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn as well as one campus in Hialeah, Florida. Today, in addition to computer technology, our programs focus on the rapidly-growing industries of healthcare, business and criminal justice. Media Contact: Mike O'Brien Phone: 619-922-6970 Email: [email protected] Related Images conexts-video-chat.png Conext's Video Chat Video Chat enables colleges to interact with students without downloading software. SOURCE Career Conext Related Links https://www.careerconext.com States have witnessed 70-80% drop in tax collections in April 2020 owing to nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus. Monthly accounts reported by a few state governments give a glimpse of the mess the state finances are in owing to the lockdown. Kerala, for example, has collected on Rs 1,270 crore in tax revenue in April 2020 compared to Rs 4,638 crore last year, a drop of over 72%. Kerala's state GST collection in April this year dropped 78% to Rs 517 crore against Rs 2,407 crore a year ago. Tax collected from sale of alcohol in the state was a meager Rs 38 crore compared to Rs 193 crore in the previous year. Taxes on sale of petroleum products also came down by 85% to Rs 104 crore in April 2020. On the other hand, the state's total expenditure in April this year has gone up by 80% to Rs 15,636 crore against Rs 8,732 crore last year. Its fiscal deficit at the end of April was Rs 12,400 crore, 40% of its budget target of Rs 31,000 crore. Odisha, another state which has reported its April 2020 numbers, also saw its State GST collection fall by 64% in April this year to Rs 376 crore against Rs 1,041 crore in 2019. It collected a meager Rs 12.5 crore from sale of liquor April this year compared to Rs 350 crore, a drop of almost 96%. Though on an overall tax revenue basis, the loss to Odisha has not been that severe. Its total tax revenue in April 2020 was Rs 2,915 crore against Rs 4,290 crore during the same month last year. This could be primarily because Odisha's own tax revenue accounts for less than half of its total tax revenue. Kerala's own tax revenues, on the other hand, account for almost 70% of its tax revenues. The tax revenues of states comprise of states' own tax revenue and share from the Central taxes. Jharkhand, which has also filed its April accounts, witnessed 86% drop in SGST collections during the month. The state collected Rs 124 crore in SGST in April this year compared to Rs 881 crore collected last year. Tax collection from sale of liquor dropped from Rs 225 crore in April last year to Rs 104 crore this year. Tax from sale of petroleum products this year was Rs 265 crore against Rs 347 crore last year. Though most other states have not yet filed their April 2020 accounts, but statements made by some of the state leaders give enough hints of the financial challenges they are facing. Like on 11 May in a video conference with the Prime Minister, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, while apprising the union government of the state's finances in the midst of the lockdown, said that the state used to collect on an average Rs 3,360 crore every month, but this has come down to 12% of that as the state collected Rs 400 crore (in April). Similarly, Chhattisgarh commercial tax and health minister TS Singhdeo had told Business Today that compared to Rs 1,200 monthly GST collection, the state could collect only Rs 200 crore in April. Also read: 'Remove conditions for higher state borrowings': Chhattisgarh CM tells FM Sitharaman Men who were turned down when they proposed to their significant others have opened up about what happened to them after, with many saying it worked out for the best. Reddit user jagaraujo kicked off the thread on Sunday by asking guys to share their proposal rejection stories. Some said they eventually realized that they had dodged a bullet when they were told no, while others were admittedly still heartbroken by the demise of their relationships. Interestingly enough, there were plenty of men who actually ended up saying 'I do' to the women who had initially turned them down and were happy to report being married for decades. Turned down: Reddit users have revealed what happened after their significant others rejected their proposals (stock image) Honest: Many of them agreed that they are now happy they were turned down because things had worked out for the best One man said that he had dated his wife in high school, but he was 'all wrong for her at the time' and they broke up on good terms. 'One of the last times we talked, I asked her if she would marry me one day,' he recalled. 'She laughed it off and said no way, and said I was definitely not the marrying type. 'Fast Forward to college, I was working full time and she was a law student, and she walked into the liquor store I was the manager of,' he explained. 'We talked for an hour, and it continued in the parking lot, just talking and catching up. 'At the end of the conversation as she was leaving, jokingly I asked her to marry me again. She laughed, I laughed... and she said. "We'll see." Married 16 years in October.' Someone else said he met his wife of 22 years, to whom he is happily married, two years after being rejected by another woman. Hard to handle: Some people had brutal rejection stories that they still think about to this day 'The one who said "no" got married, for the first time, last year, and seems happy,' he said. 'My wife is way into me in ways that the former girlfriend never was, and I see my life as far happier with my wife than I ever was with the one who said no. 'She's not a bad person; I was just young and in love with someone who wasn't in love with me,' he noted. 'It worked out for the best. I'm glad she said no.' A number of people had brutal rejection stories, with one guy recalling how he found out the woman he wanted to marry was actually cheating on him. 'Dated a woman for over two years and popped the question,' he wrote. 'First time she said, "I dont know." A couple months later I asked her again, she said, "Maybe." I was pretty bent out of shape. But then I found out she was sleeping with several of my friends so I dodged a bullet there really.' Another man said he was 'so sure' the woman he had been dating for a little over a year was the one that he drove two hours to see her at college and proposed during a 'beautiful winter night walk.' 'She looks me right in the eyes and said, Oh you thought this was serious? Well, um, I dont know how to say this other than I have been saying other people. Well, actually I have been seeing other women,"' he recalled. Stuck: Some guys were admittedly still heartbroken by the demise of their relationships 'I was stunned I got up put the ring in my pocket and walked to my car got in and drove away never looking back crying the whole time,' he said. 'Havent seen or spoken with her in seven years even though she has tried countless times to reach out. 'Now its a story I tell friends who are nervous about asking their significant others to marry them. Reminding them that even if they say no it could be worse.' One person recalled how his friend's girlfriend ended up ruining her relationship over a silly misunderstanding. 'My friend A had been with his girlfriend B for years, so he decided he wanted to propose. What he didn't know, is that B was also thinking about proposing to him,' the Reddit user explained. 'A proposed first, and B freaked out because she had already set her proposal and bought a ring, so she said no. Over the next week, B freaked out more and more, and refused to answer A's calls and messages.' The person said his friend used the money he had saved up to buy a plane ticket to Europe for three months but ended up spending a year traveling around the world. Happily ever after: Interestingly enough, there were plenty of men who actually ended up saying 'I do' to the women who had initially turned them down 'One day, A says that he's coming back and B decides to go and wait for him at the airport and propose to him there. It turns out that while being in Peru, A met a girl and they fell in love almost immediately, and got married in Peru,' he shared. 'Cue five years later, A and his Peruvian wife are still happily married and recently had a baby, while B hasn't still quite forgiven herself for ruining her relationship with A.' A few people were happy to explain how their parents ended up married despite their mothers initially turning down their fathers' proposals. 'My mum actually said no to my dads proposal when they were younger,' one person shared. 'Not because they werent in love, but because she wasnt sure if it was something she actually wanted to do, rather than something that society expected of her or whatever... 'They still stayed together and had kids (hence why youre reading this now!). And then when my dad was terminally ill a few years ago my mum plucked up the courage and asked him. 'Just to get her back after all those years he said no before taking her up on the offer a few days later. He died a happy man.' In 2001, the concept of reality TV was as novel as touchscreen phones, YouTubers becoming millionaires and people taking photos of themselves without being laughed at. It was clunky and raw. Humans hadn't worked out how to ruin it yet. When Big Brother returned on Monday, it felt like catching up with an old friend. You know, the one who's had a mountain of surgical enhancements in an attempt to seem young again. 'Woah, is that Sharon? She looks soulless, shallow and hard to take seriously - wait, of course she does, it's 2020.' Having said all that (and not because I have a gun to my back), this was Channel Seven's best show of the year. It didn't suck, and I'm excited to see what's next. You've changed: When Big Brother returned on Monday, it felt like catching up with an old friend. You know, the one who's had a mountain of surgical enhancements in an attempt to seem young again You've Changed 2020 visions: This year has sucked in general, but specifically it has sucked for Channel Seven. They've sneezed out Rebel Wilson's Going to the Dogs, My Kitchen Ruled (past tense) and Crap 'The Block' (House Rules) This year has sucked in general, but specifically it has sucked for Seven. They've sneezed out Rebel Wilson's Going to the Dogs, My Kitchen Ruled (past tense) and A Crap 'The Block' (House Rules). Well, congrats guys - Sonia take the rest of the day off. I can proudly say that Big Brother sucks far less than those shows. The twelfth season, completely pre-taped for the first time ever, kicks off with the overused 'contestants enter one by one' gimmick the series started decades ago. Enter Adelaide's worst driver Kieran Davidson, 21, who has the look of Barry Humphries and the voice of Dame Edna. You did it! Well, congrats guys - Sonia take the rest of the day off. I can proudly say that Big Brother sucks far less than anything that's aired so far this year Naturally, I took this as an excuse to go to the fridge for a rummage. I didn't even get halfway through a borderline milk before being drawn back in by a shriek coming from the TV. 'Oh my GOD!' squealed a familiar voice. 'Whoops, must have bumped the remote, sounds like Vice is doing a tour of Jeffrey Epstein's place,' I thought. First one in: First to enter is 'Adelaide's worst driver' Kieran Davidson, 21, who has the look of Barry Humphries and the voice of Dame Edna Nope, turns out Kieran is just easily amused and has never seen a round couch before. 'Oh my GOD!' he squawked again as he passed a bamboo wall panel. 'Oh my GOD!' I ducked to the fridge here, only to be interrupted by a shriek coming from the TV. At first I thought I'd bumped the remote and Vice was doing a tour of Epstein's place. Nope, turns out Kieran is just easily amused and has never seen a round couch before 'This seat is sick!!!!!!' he cried when he was called into the diary room. If only we all had someone like Kieran to shop for at Christmas: 'Oh my GOD a JB Hi-Fi voucher!?' Physically Challenged Oh my GOD! 'This seat is sick!!!!!!' he cried when he was called into the diary room, where Big Brother gave him one of his classic 'so-boring-it-works' challenges to unlock the bedroom Big Brother promptly gave Kieran one of his classic 'so-boring-it-works' challenges to unlock the bedroom. 'As each new housemate arrives, give them a high-five, no weak slap; come up with a nickname for every new housemate; give every housemate a massage. 'Exposure will mean failure.' The Challenge: 'As each new housemate arrives, give them a high-five, no weak slap; come up with a nickname for every new housemate; give every housemate a massage. Exposure will mean failure' Funny, exposure didn't mean failure in previous seasons? Just ask Sara-Marie, Mr. Turkey Slap, Count Tea Bag, Hot Dogs and all the now-adults whose sexual awakening was hosted by Gretel Killeen once a week at 9.40pm (RIP, BB Up Late). The massage decree seemed problematic for Kieran, who managed to make the whole thing look like a 'know your boundaries' activity at workplace sensitivity training. Woodwork teacher Zoe, 39, was fine with it, but wasn't into the nickname 'Z-dog'. BB IS exposure: Funny, exposure didn't mean failure in previous seasons? Just ask Sara-Marie (pictured), Mr. Turkey Slap, Count Tea Bag, Hot Dogs and all the now-adults whose sexual awakening was hosted by Gretel Killeen once a week at 9.40pm (RIP, BB Up Late) Tradie Talia Rycroft-Sommavira, 22, wasn't into the massage OR the nickname 'T-dog', but surely things would settle down? 'Call me L-dog again and I'll bite your f**king head off,' professional dance teacher Laura Kaiviti, 25, practically said. Not loving it: The massage decree seemed problematic for Kieran, but it was his decision to give every female a nickname that ended in 'dog' that proved his undoing. Pictured giving a massage to Laura 'L-Dog' Kaiviti Kieran is pictured here shortly after Laura told him she would 'bite his f**king head off if you ever call me L-Dog again' Know Your Role Know your role: The series, now in a heavily-edited format with staged narrative arcs, went about planting the 'Villain', 'Fan Favourite', 'Lovable Larrikin' and 'Will They Won't-They?' seeds that exist in every other 'reality' show in 2020 The series, now in a heavily-edited format with staged narrative arcs, went about planting the 'Villain', 'Fan Favourite', 'Lovable Larrikin' and 'Will-They Won't-They?' seeds that exist in every other 'reality' show in 2020. Perth woman Angela Clancy, 38, took the early lead as 'Villain' by explaining how she grew up in 'the Beverly Hills of Ethiopia' and thus didn't associate with any struggle. But she was quickly usurped by Laura, who dared to suggest 'everyone should do their own dishes, what do you reckon?' Villain? Perth woman Angela Clancy (right) took the early lead as 'Villain' by explaining how she grew up in 'the Beverly Hills of Ethiopia' and thus didn't associate with any struggle She said WHAT: But she was quickly usurped by Laura, who dared to suggest 'everyone should do their own dishes, what do you reckon?' Nobody has emerged as a 'Fan Favourite' yet, but all of the front runners made sure to find a spot outside to b**ch and complain about how evil Laura was. 'I heard she called Marissa an old fart!' lied one. Everybody hates Laura: Nobody has emerged as a 'Fan Favourite' yet, but all of the front runners made sure to find a spot outside to b**ch and complain about how evil Laura was. Pictured is marketing executive Allan 'I definitely heard it, I think she gave Allan the forks when he tried to put his bag down!' Of course the Lovable Larrikin (failed AFL player Daniel) was too busy trying to be the 'Will They Won't They' with Talia to wade into the name calling. Will They? Of course the Lovable Larrikin (failed AFL player Daniel, left) was too busy trying to be the 'Will They Won't They' with Talia (right) to wade into the name calling Snore Fest Snore Fest: The episode slowed considerably here. Everyone feigned outrage at how bad Daniel's snoring was, in order to make it look like he might be on the chopping block The episode, which ticked in at an unacceptable hour and a half but promised an eviction every night, slowed considerably here. Everyone feigned outrage at how bad Daniel's snoring was, in order to make it look like he might be on the chopping block. Getting rid of the Lovable Larrikin AND one half of the Will-They-Won't-They in episode one? LOL nice try, Endemol Shine. Nobody's buying it. Nice try! Getting rid of the Lovable Larrikin AND one half of the Will-They-Won't-They in episode one? LOL nice try, Endemol Shine We also had the 'eviction challenge,' featuring terribly stale narration from Big Brother. The contestants had to balance a bunch of balls on a podium that they needed to swing to reach. Balls: We also had the 'eviction challenge,' featuring terribly stale narration from Big Brother. Laura looked like she was going to win, but literally dropped the ball. The Fan Favourites loved this. Talia won Laura looked like she was going to win, but literally dropped the ball. The Fan Favourites loved this. By the time I returned from the fridge, Talia had been crowned the winner. It's Way Past Time To Go Something new: The new format, which we may as well call Married At First Survivor, lets the winner of the eviction challenge nominate three housemates for eviction The new format, which we may as well call Married At First Survivor, lets the winner of the eviction challenge nominate three housemates for eviction. 'It's so hard, I feel like I know everybody so well!' she cried. 'So I think I'll nominate that portly loser who can't drive, the skank who talked s**t about my dishes, and female woodwork teacher who wants a medal for it.' 'SO hard': 'It's so hard, I feel like I know everybody so well!' she cried. 'So I think I'll nominate that portly loser who can't drive, the skank who talked s**t about my dishes, and the female woodwork teacher who seems to want a medal for it' 'So you're nominating Kieran, Laura and Zoe?' asked Big Brother. 'Yeah whatever!' she snapped. For the next 30 minutes, we got the old Married At First Sight rubbish where they tried to make us believe anybody other than Laura was getting evicted. Chopping block: 'So you're nominating Kieran, Laura and Zoe?' asked Big Brother. 'Yeah whatever!' she snapped And thennnnnnn... Laura got evicted. Sonia didn't even say 'it's time to go', which is a travesty, and I switched the TV off. They welcomed their first child together - Harper May - last month. And on Monday, Karl Stefanovic had a spring in his step while out for a stroll with his one-month-old daughter and his wife Jasmine. The doting dad, 45, who hosted the Today show earlier that day, strapped the baby to his chest in a carrier. Keeping it casual! On Monday, Karl Stefanovic donned a bucket hat while out for a walk with his wife Jasmine and their daughter one-month-old Harper on Monday. All pictured He kept his look very casual in navy shorts and a black T-shirt with red trainers. The TV presenter completed his outfit with a wide brimmed towel hat that featured the Australian flag across one side and his name embroidered across the other side. He also wore a baby carrier strapped to his chest with little Harper on board, dressed in a onesie and a hat. Looking good: Jasmine opted for a relaxed look, in a grey hoodie with the slogan 'Be Here Now' printed on the front, black leggings and trainers So sweet! The baby was adorably holding onto her father's thumb - putting a smile on Karl's face during the walk The baby was adorably holding onto her father's thumb - putting a smile on Karl's face during the walk. Jasmine opted for a relaxed look, in a grey hoodie with the slogan 'Be Here Now' printed on the front, black leggings and trainers. The makeup-free beauty accessorised with cat-eye sunglasses and styled her hair up in a messy bun. The trio made their way to a local store where they met a friend who was out and about with his child. Catching up! The trio made their way to a local store where they met a friend who was out and about with his child Hey there! At one point Karl engaged in a little chit chat with his friend's kid as he played with the journalist's collection of bangles Moving ahead: The couple then continued their walk, with the Today host and his daughter gaining a bit of distance ahead of his shoe designer wife At one point Karl engaged in a little chit chat with his friend's kid as he played with the journalist's collection of bangles. The couple then continued their walk, with the Today host and his daughter gaining a bit of distance ahead of his shoe designer wife. The couple welcomed the baby girl on May 1 at Sydney's North Shore Private Hospital. Proud dad: Karl looked every inch the doting dad as he carried his baby girl in the carrier In a statement to the Today show at the time, Karl said: 'Harper and Jasmine are doing well and Dad had a great night's sleep. He added: 'I am in awe. Harper is absolutely perfect.' The happy news was announced on the Today show the next day by Karl's colleague and close friend, Richard Wilkins. It's the first child for the couple, while Karl has three children from his previous marriage to Cassandra Thorburn, sons Jackson, 20, and River, 12, and daughter Ava, 15. Im the nephew of 2nd Lt. Philip Amerigo Mazzeo, who, according to family members now deceased, was killed by partisan saboteurs near the French/German border on Oct. 26, 1945 -- five months after Victory in Europe (VE) Day. Last year, around the 75th anniversary of D-Day, I said to myself: Ive helped hundreds of veterans get their military records over the years. Its now time to try to get my Uncle Phils record so we can find out about his service during WWII, including Normandy. My first attempt at getting his records was a failure. The National Personnel Records Center could not locate his official military records. It is suspected that his records were destroyed in a fire in 1973. So, I began to research other avenues. The following has been compiled from cemetery records, internet searches, information from the U.S. Army Human Resources Command Casualty & Memorial Affairs Operations Division, Fort Knox, Kentucky, and from a book entitled, The Last Nazis SS Werewolf Guerrilla Resistance in Europe 1944 1947, by Perry Biddiscombe. The story 2nd Lt. Mazzeo was born in Corona, Queens, in 1920. He was inducted into the Army at Fort Jay (Governors Island) and served from August 1942 until his death in October 1945. By the time he got to Normandy, he was an Airborne sergeant (G-4). He received a field promotion to second lieutenant, presumably as a result of the heavy casualties. His Airborne unit is unknown; it was either the 82nd or the 101st Airborne. Making matters worse, he had two different service numbers, one as an enlisted person and one as an officer. Neither service number resulted in obtaining his military record, which would have contained his battle campaigns and service medals. After his death in 1945, he was first buried in the U.S. Army Cemetery in Champigneul, France. Four years later, he was repatriated to the National Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y. He was missing his right humerus (an indication of the explosion?) I was christened in an outfit made from my Uncle Phils parachute. So were many other family members over the years. He was a paratrooper who landed in Normandy and fought all the way to Germany. But he never came home. Philip Amerigo Mazzeo was drafted into the U.S. Army on Aug. 8, 1942. He reported to Fort Jay, located on Governors Island (NY). The base was run by the First Army. The First Army is credited with orchestrating Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy and surrounding areas on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The First Army was: First on the beaches of Normandy First out of the Normandy beachhead First into Paris First to break the Siegfried Line in September 1944 First to cross the Rhine River in April 1945 First to link up with our Soviet allies at the Elbe River My Uncle Phil served as a buck sergeant in one of the Airborne units that jumped into Normandy in 1944. He apparently received a battlefield promotion to second lieutenant as a result of the heavy casualties of officers in his unit, his courage under fire and demonstrated leadership. Audie Murphy received a similar commission from staff sergeant to second lieutenant for his actions at Normandy. As the war wound down and the soldiers became an occupation force in Germany, he was assigned to the 8th Labor Supervisor Area, 8958th Labor Service Company. Labor Service Company Shortly after the end of the war, the American forces hired Germans and displaced persons for various jobs. The umbrella organization for these jobs was the Labor Service/Civilian Support. These units provided a mobile, noncombatant civilian work force capable of carrying out assigned peacetime missions (e.g. reconstruction) independently in support of the U.S. Army Europe. The Incident On Friday, Oct. 26, 1945, 2nd Lt. Mazzeo and three other soldiers were riding in an Army Jeep on a weekend pass to France. They left from the 8th Labor Supervision Area (8958th Labor Service Company), in Eschborn, near Frankfurt, Germany, headed toward Reims, France. It was five months after Victory in Europe Day (VE Day). According to family now also deceased, the Jeep was blown up. Cemetery records show an accident at 4:45 p.m. He was identified by the jeep driver, Tech Sgt. Bill Jones. It is unknown if other passengers in the jeep survived. 2nd Lt. Mazzeo was considered a non-combat death in the line of duty. Today, we would call it an IED fatality. Research has shown there was a partisan saboteur group operating at the time, known as the Werewolves. The cover name for the regional group that operated in South-West Germany near where my uncle was killed was called Elsa. It had the largest compliment of former SS and Hitler Youth (100-200) of any other region in Germany. Saboteur training included "...exploratory charts showing how to slip a grenade into the jeep of an enemy officer." Many years ago, a WWII veteran told me that the Germans would place a rubber band around the release handle of a grenade, pull the pin, and slip the grenade into the gas tank of the jeep. The rubber band would disintegrate in the gasoline and the grenade would go off -- blowing up the jeep. After the incident, the body was brought to the US Army 178th General Hospital in Reims, France. 2nd Lt. Mazzeo was only 25 years old. He was probably thinking about coming home to the U.S. soon. He had recently married a woman named Betty, who was the beneficiary of his GI life insurance policy. After his death, she remarried in Los Angeles, California, and subsequently moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. Ironically, when placing flags for the veterans at Oceanview Cemetery for Memorial Day, I found an Army vet grave. His date of death was a few weeks before my uncle in October, 1945. Might he also have been a victim of the Werewolves? Previously, I contacted the Department of Defense Website. It had an ask us any question box. I asked how many soldiers were killed after the war in Europe by saboteurs. My question has gone unanswered to this day. (Lee Covino is a Staten Island veterans affairs advocate.) Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying Photo: fmprc.gov.cn China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the alert against travel to Australia was based on adequate facts, as the country has seen a spike in racial abuse toward Chinese and other Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to an Australian reporter who questioned the warning. "There are ample facts and arguments for China's travel alert to Australia," Hua Chunying, spokesperson of the ministry, said at a press conference. Hua noted that recently, discriminations against Chinese and other Asians in Australia have emerged, as widely reported by Australian media. "For example, some Australian politicians and media called the coronavirus a 'Chinese virus' and maliciously tampered with the Chinese national flag and national emblem. Many overseas Chinese in Australia have been verbally insulted or even attacked, the property of some Chinese and other Asian families was destroyed and they suffered unfair treatment in their daily work," Hua said. "Racist graffiti targeting China was seen in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and other Australian cities," she noted. Data from the Australian Human Rights Commission showed that in the first quarter of 2020, hundreds of Asians complained of racial discriminations, which made up 25 percent of the complaints, according to Hua. The Australian Broadcasting Corp reported that there were three racist attacks against Chinese families in one week in April. The state of New South Wales received 241 racial discrimination complaints between January and April 2020, while police in Queensland received 22 such reports from March to early May, said Hua. Aren't these reports "persuasive enough?" asked Hua. The Chinese government has always taken a responsible attitude and reminded Chinese nationals to take care of their own security, Hua noted. "We also urge the Australian side to face up to the problem and take concrete measures to safeguard the safety and rights of Chinese in Australia," Hua said. China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a travel alert on Friday, warning Chinese people not to travel to Australia, as the country had seen a significant rise in racial discrimination and violence against Chinese and other Asian people due to the pandemic. Echoing Hua's response, dozens of Chinese overseas students in Australia reached by the Global Times said they have seen a surging number of media reports and social media posts about racist insults and attacks targeting Asians, especially Chinese, during the pandemic, and about one-third of them said they have experienced such abuse. A student surnamed Yang at the University of Queensland told the Global Times that she received online and in-person abuse on campus recently. "Anti-China news has been frequently seen on TV. We now choose to stay at home, and when I have to go outside and wear a mask, I avoid white people in case anything happens," Yang said. Another Chinese student surnamed Yu at the University of South Wales said she received online insults with the words "CHINA DIE" after she commented on Twitter saying no evidence showed the novel coronavirus originated from China. Similar incidents made the Chinese students distressed and concerned for their safety in Australia. In April, a video of two individuals dragging, kicking and punching two Asian students at the University of Melbourne while shouting "you fxxking immigrant" multiple times went viral on social media. In March, an anti China Australian rioter Drew Pavlou hung a sign on a wall at the University of Queensland's Confucius Institute that said it was a COVID-19 "biohazard" and uploaded a photo of it on Facebook. However, ignoring the rampant racist abuse, Australian Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham, in rejecting the warning, claimed that Australia was "the most successful multicultural and migrant society in the world" and "the Chinese-Australian community is a significant and valued contributor," Australian media reported. But Chinese analysts said that Birmingham's rebuttal was weak as it boasted of historical successes while failing to recognize the anti-China atmosphere that had risen in recent months, which betrayed its cultural traditions and instigated racism. Russia, Turkey Reach Agreement in Principle on Delivery of Second Batch of S-400s - Turkish Official Sputnik News Tim Korso. Sputnik International 09:48 GMT 08.06.2020(updated 10:49 GMT 08.06.2020) The deployment of the first batch of S-400 air defence systems was delayed due to the global pandemic and was not complete by April 2020 as previously planned. Despite this setback, Turkey assured that eventually the systems will be deployed and used in spite of the US threats of sanctions against the country. Turkish Undersecretary for Defence Industries Ismail Demir has announced that Moscow and Ankara reached an agreement in principle on the delivery of the second batch of Russian S-400 air defence systems. The Turkish official said that the two countries only need to clarify the details on the transfer of technology and the roadmap for the joint production of the system's parts in Turkey. Demir went on to say that the systems from the second batch, as well as the first, will be used for their intended purpose - to guard the country's air space, instead of being stored away or resold as Turkey's NATO partner, the US, previously suggested. Washington has gone to great lengths to convince Turkey to ditch the Russian systems, with the suggestion of simply not using them being their last attempt to prevent the deployment of S-400s in the country. "As we always said, if we buy a system, then we do so to use it [as intended]. Period. As for the deployment of the [S-400] systems, the world went through a certain stage that slowed down the pace of the deployment, since travel was limited. This all influenced the deployment of the S-400", Demir said apparently referring to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Undersecretary for Defence Industries also shared that Ankara's talks with Washington regarding the possible purchase of Patriot air defence systems haven't progressed at all due to a lack of offers from the US. He added that Turkey is also negotiating with France and Italy on purchasing and producing equipment in a joint enterprise on Eurosam air defence systems. Washington earlier threatened Turkey with economic sanctions if the country goes ahead with the deployment of Russia S-400 air defence systems, but Ankara replied that it would not abandon its plans just because the US wants it to. American officials claimed that the Russian system is incompatible with the rest of the NATO defence grid, despite the deployment of their predecessor, the S-300, in Greece going flawlessly. In addition to this, the US argued that the Russian system will allegedly be able to reveal the F-35's weaknesses and under this pretext denied shipments of ordered and pre-paid fifth-generation stealth fighters to Turkey. Ankara harshly condemned the US move, calling it illegal and unsubstantiated, and reminding that Turkey had funded the jets costly development. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Reese Witherspoon has said her latest TV project alongside Kerry Washington is a big testament to female partnership. She and Scandal actress Washington star in and have executive-produced the series adaption of Celeste Ngs acclaimed 2017 novel, Little Fires Everywhere. In keeping with the book, the TV adaptation, currently streaming on Prime Video, is set in the late 1990s in the Ohio town of Shaker Heights. Everyone in Shaker has a story to tell. All episodes of #LittleFiresEverywhere are streaming now on @hulu. pic.twitter.com/M7jpKZ7NMR Little Fires Everywhere (@LittleFiresHulu) May 22, 2020 Witherspoon said: This show is a big testament to female partnership, theres so much leadership here from our writers, our director and just an incredible writers room. Theres just a lot of female leadership in this show and I think you feel it. I think you feel that powerful feeling of female camaraderie and story tellers joining up to do what we do love to and what we know how to do. The series begins with the home of Witherspoons character Elena Richardson burning down in a suspected arson, one of several small fires sparking a story exploring class, race and privilege. Expand Close Kerry Washington stars in Little Fires Everywhere (Prime Video). / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kerry Washington stars in Little Fires Everywhere (Prime Video). Witherspoon said the book and series had also addressed her own personal blind spots. She said: Im learning so much every day, Im a 44-year-old woman who is humbled by what I learn every day of things I dont know and perspectives that I dont walk through. I learned so much on this show about things that were told to me when I was a little girl that are not true, about homosexuality, and race and the immigrant experience. Video of the Day I only saw it through what I was told. I didnt have social media, I didnt have access to incredible thought leaders in the way that I would have liked to. So I think I learned so much through this experience just by feeling safe talking to Kerry about the things I grew up hearing and letting all that shame about not knowing just exist, just sitting in that shame of being embarrassed about the things I was told as a little white girl growing up in the South that arent true and having Kerry not judge me and having our writers room not judge me but say this is, you know, help me, find a way to express all of that through our television show. The series is produced by Witherspoons company Hello Sunshine, Washingtons Simpson Street and ABC Signature Studios, which is a part of Disney Television Studios. Washington, who plays single mother and artist Mia Warren, spoke about acting alongside Witherspoon, saying they were in it together as sisters. Asked about the biggest challenge in playing their characters, she responded: I mean its hard for me to think of the biggest challenge because I think for both of us they were characters wed never played before, we were being asked to do a kind of work wed never done before which was inspiring, but also challenging. I will say what made it doable for me was to be partnered with Reese. You can be nervous about the fight but when you step into the ring and your partner is as proficient and committed and as courageous in the work as Reese is, you just feed off each other. So anything that was scary about these characters, it really just felt so much more possible because we were in it together, even though our characters were enemies, behind the scenes we were really in it together as sisters, making sure that we could do this dance with proficiency. Little Fires Everywhere is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (27) Though Selma was one of the most well-received films of 2014, it was not a huge hit at the Academy Awards. In light of the protests resulting from George Floyds murder by police, actor David Oyelowo and filmmaker Ava DuVernay state that a police brutality protest resulted in Selma getting snubbed at the Oscars. Some of the cast of Selma in 2015 | Charley Gallay/Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards Selma was critically-acclaimed but didnt get any Oscars Directed by DuVernay, Selma tells the story of the voting marches from Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. Led by David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the film has a sprawling ensemble cast that also includes Tom Wilkinson, Carmen Ejogo, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tim Roth, Oprah Winfrey, Tessa Thompson, Trai Byers, Lakeith Stanfield, Andre Holland, Stephan James, Lorraine Touissant, Wendell Pierce, Niecy Nash, Colman Domingo and others Several real-life historical figures are depicted, such as Andrew Young, Diane Nash, Bayard Rustin, and Mahalia Jackson. Despite all of its critical acclaim, the film was only nominated for two awards, Best Picture and Best Original Song. The film did not win either award. David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay say the film was snubbed for Eric Garner protest Oyelowo talked about the film being snubbed in a recent interview with ScreenDaily. Six years ago, Selma coincided with Eric Garner being murdered. That was the last time we were in a place of I Cant Breathe,' he said. I remember at the premiere of Selma us wearing I Cant Breathe T-shirts in protest. Members of the Academy called in to the studio and our producers saying, How dare they do that? Why are they stirring s**t? and We are not going to vote for that film because we do not think it is their place to be doing that.' He continued, Its part of why that film didnt get everything that people think it shouldve got and it birthed #OscarsSoWhite. They used their privilege to deny a film on the basis of what they valued in the world. DuVernay confirmed and co-signed Oyelowos statements by confirming and co-signing the ScreenDaily article and tweet which had the quotes about the film being snubbed. The filmmaker tweeted, True story. RELATED: Law & Order: SVU: Show to Tackle George Floyd and Police Brutality In light of the national attention garnered by George Floyds murder by police and the following protests and uprisings that have followed, Paramount Pictures has made Selma available to rent for free this month on digital platforms. Cai Guohua, former chairman of joint stock lender Hengfeng Bank, will stand trial for his life starting Tuesday in Shandong on multiple allegations in the latest episode of a nearly three-year cleanup of the troubled bank. Cai, 55, who was placed under investigation in November 2017, faces charges including abuse of power, corruption, embezzlement, bribery and illegal loan issuance, with illicit gains amounting 10.3 billion yuan ($1.45 billion). Penalties on conviction could include life in prison or execution. The trial is expected to last several days, Caixin learned. Shandong province-based Hengfeng Bank Co. Ltd. was among several lenders that showed up on regulators radar amid a broad campaign to curb financial risks in the banking sector. In August, Hengfeng received official approval for a restructuring plan led by the provincial government to rescue the bank from the verge of collapse, following the takeover of Inner Mongolia-based Baoshang Bank Co. Ltd. and the rescue of Liaoning-based Bank of Jinzhou Co. Ltd. Hengfeng, one of Chinas 12 national commercial banks, ran into trouble in 2016 when several news publications reported that an unnamed whistleblower accused the banks top executives including Cai of misappropriating millions of yuan. A Caixin investigation in late 2016 found that bank executives sought to use several companies to shield their control of the bank through complex shareholding structures and in the process embezzled billions of yuan. Chinas top banking regulator once described Hengfeng as a typical example of unsound corporate governance. Cai, who became chairman of the bank at the end of 2013, followed in the footsteps of his predecessor Jiang Xiyun to become a target of corruption investigation. Cai was removed from the post in April 2018 amid the probe. Jiang, Hengfengs chairman between 2008 and 2013, was sentenced to death in December for receiving bribes and for illegal accounting practices, with a two-year reprieve. Cai was originally scheduled to stand trial in January. But the trial was postponed as prosecutors added the charge of illegal loan issuance, and it was further delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. According to court files, prosecutors accused Cai of abusing his power as chairman to promote irregular incentives to employees that caused nearly 900 million yuan of losses for the bank. Cai also allegedly embezzled 10.2 million yuan from the bank and transferred an additional 4.8 billion yuan of the banks funds to his personal business. In addition, Cai was accused of accepting bribes from companies and individuals in exchange for favorable loans and illegally issuing 3.5 billion yuan of credit to an unqualified borrower. In October, scandal-ridden Hengfeng won regulatory approval for a 100 billion yuan private placement that allowed the Shandong provincial government to take control of the bank. Chinas sovereign fund, Central Huijin Investment Ltd., also took part in Hengfengs restructuring. Hengfeng Bank had 1.2 trillion yuan in total assets at the end of 2016, according to its annual report for the same year, the most recent one it released. Hengfeng Bank has devalued its net assets and downsized its departments to clean up bad assets and reorder its shareholding structure. Timmy Shen contributed to this story. Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com) Caixin Global has launched Caixin CEIC Mobile, the mobile-only version of its world-class macroeconomic data platform. If youre using the Caixin app, please click here. If you havent downloaded the app, please click here. A French designer looking to put a little glamour back into dining experiences in the age of COVID-19 has come up with a new restaurant innovation. Christophe Gernigon, a Paris-based designer who creates contemporary furniture, said the idea came to him while he was at home during the worst phase of the pandemic. The shields are backless and hang from the ceiling. (Veeren Ramsamy) "One evening, I watched a report on the closure of restaurants," Gernigon, who spoke with TODAY through a translator, said. "Worried by their situation, I searched for 'restaurant distance covid' on the internet and I came across images of partitions that resembled prison visiting rooms, (but) thinking about going a space resembling a prison, I thought, 'No thanks!'" He created a few different sketches and the final result was a design Gernigon calls "Plex'Eat," a plexiglass structure that hangs from the ceiling and shields diners, either individually or in pairs. Download the TODAY app for the latest coverage on the coronavirus outbreak. Gernigon said he wanted to make something that was both pleasing to the eye and would also allow restaurants to maximize their capacity under new social-distancing guidelines. "My big concern was that my concept was easy (for restaurateurs and clients) and that the aesthetics were (there)," he said. "The priority was, above all, that restaurateurs would be able to increase their reception capacity while respecting health regulations." One version of the device allows for two people inside. (Veeren Ramsamy) Designed to be easy to clean and move, the plexiglass structures are backless for easy access, but provide a shield between diners, employees and others. Designs role is to give a new spark to our everyday lives. When I saw proposals to place plexiglas dividers on restaurant tables ... I told myself that I had to imagine a more beautiful, attractive, poetic, elegant object that offers a unique experience," Gernigon said in a press release. "Even if we dont want to remain indefinitely under a bell jar, the PlexEat protective bubbles I invented will let restaurants open rapidly in total security." Story continues Related: Some restaurants have proposed performing customer temperature checks and only seating small parties. In previous interviews, health experts have told TODAY that when proper sanitation methods are observed, plexiglass dividers can be an effective way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in public spaces like restaurants. Gernigon said that he's received requests from multiple venues, including casinos and nail salons, for the device. (Veeren Ramsamy) Gernigon told TODAY that once he posted the concept online, he was contacted by several manufacturers. He has since paired up with one of them to produce a prototype. "By trying the prototype, we (realized) that the bubble concentrated the odors and that we were also in an olfactory experience," Gernigon said of the device's ability to potentially enhance a meal. Smaller versions of the barrier are currently in production; each retails for 150 euros, or about $170. So far, Gernigon said that there have been orders from a hotel in New York, a restaurant chain in Japan, and other spaces including casinos, libraries and nail salons. G eorge Floyd, the man whose death sparked worldwide protests over racial injustice, is to be laid to rest in his hometown of Houston, Texas. After a weekend of anti-racism protests across the UK, a commemoration was held at the Nelson Mandela statue in Parliament Square in London, organised by Stand Up To Racism. A demonstration at Oxford University over the statue of the Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes ended with people leaving their signs outside of the building. A police officer was seen taking a knee in the crowd, which was met with cheers from the remaining protesters. As a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on Mr Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes on May 25, he cried out for his mother. Mr Floyd, who was 46 when he died, will be buried next to his mother at Houston Memorial Gardens, in Pearland. Former vice president and current Presidential candidate Joe Biden delivered an emotional speech at the funeral at the Fountain of Praise Church via video-link. He said: "We cannot leave this moment thinking we can once again turn away from racism that stings at our very soul, from systemic abuse that still plagues American life." Follow all the latest updates HERE... UC Regent George Kieffer, left, is cleared of allegations that he that he repeatedly squeezed her thigh of a female graduate student, university statement said. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) The University of California has cleared Regent George Kieffer of allegations of sexual misconduct, finding insufficient evidence to support a graduate student's claim that he repeatedly squeezed her thigh at a 2014 dinner meeting. Rebecca Ora, a UC Santa Cruz doctoral student in film and digital media, made her allegation during public comments at a UC regents meeting last November. She told board members that Kieffer had touched her thigh under the table while she and other students were discussing tuition with him and complained that UC officials had done nothing about her complaint, which she filed more than a year ago. Kieffer, a Los Angeles attorney and prominent civic leader, called the allegation at the time absolutely false. On Monday, he said he was "certainly relieved that it's over." Ora could not be reached for comment. Ora initially opted to handle her complaint through the UC informal resolution process, but the two sides failed to come to an agreement. She then requested that UC conduct a formal investigation, which was handled by an independent outside investigator and completed several weeks ago. "Based on the evidence gathered through the third-party investigation, the investigator did not find, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the reported conduct occurred," the university said in a statement Monday. "The University of California takes all allegations of misconduct, particularly those directed against a Regent, seriously and is committed to maintaining an environment in which all students, faculty and staff are free from harassment and discrimination." The university declined to provide further details, citing privacy laws. The Australian sharemarket bolted to fresh three-month highs yesterday, as investors soaked up the renewed optimism in global markets for a quick recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and better-than-expected US jobs figures. The benchmark ASX 200 rose by as much as 3.3 per cent after the long weekend break - adding $60 billion to its market cap in the first 15 minutes of trade before easing into the session. The ASX 200 has hit a new three-month high. Credit:Jim Rice The market managed to hold the momentum after a frantic open, with the bourse closing 146 points, or 2.44 per cent higher at 6144.9, bettering its previous close and gaining more ground on a peak last seen on March 9. A buoyant Wall Street set the tone for the session, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq setting a new record high and the S&P 500 turning positive for the year-to-date. The heavyweight financials were again a standout in local trading. The sector rose 4.8 per cent to account for more than half of the benchmarks $42 billion market cap increase for the day, according to Refinitiv data. As a Catholic school, we are committed to encountering the Risen Lord in one another. Racial, anti-Semitic and other types of derogatory behavior prevent us from doing so, the schools letter said. We hope and pray that this becomes a moment of serious reflection for these students and a life lesson for all our students. COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus in all likelihood found its way to India from Europe, Middle East, Oceania and South Asia rather than China, according to a report by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). The report strongly suggests that the virus spread via these frequently visited countries. The study, conducted by a team of lead authors Mainak Mondal, Kumaravel Somasundaram, and Ankita Lawarde from the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, IISc, Bengaluru was published in the scientific journal-Current Science. Also Read: Coronavirus vaccine update: China inches closer; Japan sets June 2021 target The team analysed 294 Indian viral genomes to carry out their study. The team of researchers conducted the study to ascertain the genetic diversity among Indian SARS-CoV-2 viral isolates in comparison to the strains that are occurring worldwide. "The potential origin appears to be countries mainly from Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and South Asia regions, which strongly implies the spread of virus through the most travelled countries," the team noted. "Among the different strains of the virus identified by Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, Indian SARS-CoV-2 viruses are enriched with G (50 per cent) and I (6.7 per cent) clades in addition to 40 per cent samples with unknown genetic variants," it stated further. The team is also in the process of determining the functional impact of high occurrence non-synonymous mutations on the viral protein functions and use this information toward understanding immune escape mechanisms and also developing mutant specific therapies. Also Read: Coronavirus treatment: Govt to allow import of unauthorised drugs for 'compassionate use' Bujumbura (Burundi) (AFP) - The small central African country of Burundi, whose outgoing president Pierre Nkurunziza died on Monday, is one of the poorest in the world, with a history of political crises, ethnic massacres and a long civil war. Nkurunziza's hand-picked successor Evariste Ndayishimiye won presidential elections on May 20, and is set to be sworn in in August. Key facts: - Third poorest in world - Landlocked and situated in Africa's Great Lakes region, Burundi is one of the continent's smallest nations at 27,834 square kilometres (10,747 square miles), and one of its most densely populated. Green and fertile, it is nevertheless one of the three poorest countries in the world, with 75 percent of its population living below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates 1.7 million of Burundi's 11 million people are experiencing chronic severe food insecurity. Very mountainous, it often suffers from landslides. Farming forms the backbone of the economy, with coffee and tea employing 80 percent of the population and accounting for 40 percent of gross domestic product. Burundi has rare-earth minerals essential to technological and military products. The political capital is Gitega and the economic capital Bujumbura. - Massacres, coups, war - Ethnic Hutus make up 85 percent of the population and Tutsis 14 percent. Tensions between Hutus and Tutsis have boiled over repeatedly since independence from former colonial power Belgium in 1962. In 1972, a failed Hutu-led uprising against the Tutsi-dominated leadership sparked a wave of massacres of Hutus that left, according to various estimates, between 100,000 and 300,000 dead. In 1976, a military coup brought Jean-Baptiste Bagaza to power. In 1987, he was overthrown and Pierre Buyoya, another Tutsi military officer, became head of state. In 1988, new massacres of Hutu left between 5,000, according to an official toll, and 50,000 dead. Story continues The assassination in 1993 of first Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, in a coup fomented by Tutsi soldiers triggered a civil war between the Tutsi-dominated army and Hutu rebels. Thousands of Tutsi were massacred after the assassination. The civil war lasted until 2006 despite several peace deals, notably one signed in Tanzania in 2000, several years before the two main rebel groups laid down arms. The war left nearly 300,000 dead, mainly civilians, and ruined the economy. - Political crisis - Burundi has been mired in political crisis since 2015, when former Hutu rebel chief Nkurunziza, in power since 2005, announced he would run for a third term. The opposition said this would violate the constitution and jeopardise deals ending the civil war. A clampdown on demonstrations and Nkurunziza's re-election that year failed to stem violence, and massive rights abuses intensified. Around 1,200 were killed and more than 400,000 fled the country up to May 2017, according to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has launched an investigation into suspected crimes against humanity. In 2018 Nkurunziza surprised observers by announcing he would not stand in the forthcoming election. Ndayishimiye was on June 4 declared victor of the May 20 2020 presidential elections, after the country's top court dismissed an opposition bid to have the result overturned. - Celebrated novel - The novel "Small Country" by Franco-Rwandan novelist and rapper Gael Faye, about a boy in Bujumbura whose carefree life is devastated by the civil war, has received several literary prizes and been translated into nearly 40 languages. The release of a film version has been delayed by the coronavirus epidemic. Okay, since the country has officially gone certifiably insane, I guess well need a new series for short observations and news items. I could also go with Americas Cultural Revolution since we seem to have graduated from Marxism to full-blown Maoism, but crazy time strikes me as a stronger descriptive. Herewith: Todays sacking: the editor of Bon Appetit magazine, Adam Rapoport, because a photo of Rapoport and his wife 16 years ago reappeared on Twitter recently that is denigrating to Puerto Ricans. It is said that Rapoport dressed in brownface, but heres the offensive 2004 photo, so you decide if this is a firing offense from way back before the term cultural appropriation had been invented: Well, if nothing else, Rapoport can get a job on the staff of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam I guess. The New York Times news story* describes a typical Maoist struggle and purge session that led to Rapoports ouster: Im likely courting internal reprimand, but Im appalled and insulted by the EICs choice to embrace brownface in the photo making the rounds, Joseph Hernandez, the research director for Bon Appetit, wrote in a tweet. Ive spent my career celebrating Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, and POC voices in food, and this feels like an erasure of that work. In an interview, he said, Ive been in newsrooms for 15 years, and Ive had a version of this conversation in each newsroom, adding, As a queer person of color, its exhausting to have the same conversation. The photograph of Mr. Rapoport re-emerged as racial-justice protests took place around the country and as the food-media industry has new, more heated discussions about white appropriation of the worlds cuisines and about who should tell the stories of those traditions. Im wondering if there is a Bon Appetit recipe for popcorn I can look up just now. * New Power Line style guide: Henceforth I shall refer to all articles in the Times news pages with scare quotes. Timely reminder from James Madison (Federalist 55): Had every Athenian been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob. Remember Salena Zitos great line about Trump, that his followers didnt take him literally, but took him seriously? You can apply that to the left these daysthey dont want us to take them literally when they say, for example, Believe women, since we now know youre only supposed to believe some women, chiefly women accusing Republicans of wrongdoing. There was also Abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which Democrats belatedly got round to admitting that they didnt mean actually abolishing ICE, you see. And now we have either Abolish the police or defund the police. Even if they dont mean these slogans literally, we should take seriously their intent to screw up law enforcement and unleash a huge new crime wave in our major cities. Already were being told that what the left means when it says defund the police is merely transforming law enforcement into a uniformed and unarmed branch of the social services department. Apparently were supposed to send out social workers in squad cars with officers to resolve crime problems with the techniques of a college conflict resolution seminar. Puts me in mind of that famous scene in Dirty Harrythe first movie to talk back to liberalism in the words of the late film critic Richard Grenier where Inspector Callahan meets his new partner Chico Gonzalez, who informs Harry that he has a degree in sociology from San Jose State. Harry: Sociology? Oh, youll go far thats if you live Just dont let your college degree get you killed cause Im liable to get killed along with ya. Heres the whole scene, perhaps to be repeated soon in squad rooms throughout America (except without Inspector Callahan and his common sense): Will defunding the police reduce funding for their pension plans? Unlikely, since pensions are matter of contract in most cases. In other words, were going to find that jurisdictions that do reduce their police budgets will be spending more of the remaining budgets on pensions and less on actual policing. Heather Mac Donald wrote her book The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe way back in 2016. It might perhaps have seemed a bit hyperbolic at the time. Now it seems rather mild, and I think we need to get Heather to write a new edition. Shes got a head start on it in this piece. Good to see some people on the left notice the problem of police unions in preventing rogue or misbehaving police officers from effective discipline or even firing. Thats also what teachers unions do for bad teachers. It will be interesting to see whether Democrats want to open up the question of police union power since the logic of it will apply equally to all public employee unions. Do Democrats want to give up all those campaign contributions? My contribution to the meme wars on this point: Attorney General Bill Barr has said that U.S. Attorney John Durham's probe into the origins of the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation is looking at 'some' individuals who will be familiar to the American public. In an interview broadcast Tuesday, Barr said that the Durham team 'has been working very aggressively to move forward,' and that there 'will be public disclosure' of his findings. Barr would not say for certain that criminal charges would be filed as a result of Durham's investigation, which Barr directed after special counsel Robert Mueller filed his report more than a year ago. But he indicated he was not simply interested in having Durham file a report. 'This isn't being driven by producing a report. We are trying to get to a point where we can hold accountable anyone who crossed the line and committed a criminal violation,' Barr told Fox News in an interview. 'So that's, I think, what would be the initial stage of a resolution of Durham's investigation. But I also think that there will be public disclosure and some form of reporters at by appropriate,' he said. Attorney General Bill Barr accused the FBI of having 'ignored all the exculpatory evidence that was building up' and continuing 'pell-mell' with the Russia probe Barr appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham (above) to investigate the origins of the FBI's Trump-Russia probe, and see whether it was executed on solid legal footing Barr also charged in the interview that the FBI was 'spring-loaded' to go after the Trump campaign and ignored exculpatory evidence against Trump campaign advisors at the start of the Russia probe. 'We can't discuss future charges. But I have to say that I do find a little irritating,' Barr told interviewer Bret Baier. Then he sounded off on occasional public impatience with a lack of criminal charges. 'You know, the propensity in the American public on all sides of the political spectrum when they see something they think could be a criminal violation, I say, why hasn't this person been indicted again?' Barr said. 'And, you know, there's the old saying that that the wheels of justice grind slow and they do run slow because we have due process and we follow the process. But people should not draw from the fact that no action has been taken that taken yet, that that means that people or people are going to get away with wrongdoing.' As for the people being looked at Barr said it has 'not involved' people at the level of former President Obama or Trump rival former Vice President Joe Biden. 'I think the people that we're looking at are not at that level,' he said. 'Names we would be familiar with?' Baier asked. 'Some of them,' said Barr. Barr shrugged off accusations of being 'political' with the election-year probe and other matters. 'The media largely drove all kinds of sensational claims were being made about the president. That could have affected the election,' Barr said. 'And then and then later on in his administration, there were actions taken that really appear to be efforts to sabotage his campaign. And that has to be looked at. And if people want to say that I'm political because I am looking at those potential abuses of power, so be it. But that's the job of the attorney general.' Barr made the claims in an interview where he also defended the decision to have law enforcement clear out Lafayette Square before President Trump's photo-op in front of St. John's church. Barr, who tasked Durham with investigating alleged FBI misconduct, came down on the bureau's actions at the start of what Trump regularly calls a 'witch hunt.' His comments came days after former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein defended the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to lead the Russia investigation even while conceding he would not have approved a surveillance warrant against Trump campaing foreign policy advisor Carter Page today if he knew then what he knows now. 'I do not consider the investigation to be corrupt, Senator, but I certainly understand the presidents frustration given the outcome, which was in fact that there was no evidence of conspiracy between Trump campaign advisers and Russians,' said Rosenstein. Barr said there was only a 'slender reed' on which to base the Russia probe, which began after a series of links between Russians and Trump campaign officials were uncovered. Barr made his comments in a sit-down interview with Fox News Barr said the investigation continued even as information like the dossier compiled by Chris Steele was 'falling apart' 'For some reason they went right back at it,' Barr said of the FBI investigation of Mike Flynn that resulted in a guilty plea of lying to investigators about his Russia contacts. Flynn's lawyers are now seeking to have it overturned President Donald Trump continues to rail against the Russia probe as a 'witch hunt' and 'hoax' 'I think before the election, I think we were concerned about the motive force behind the very aggressive investigation that was launched into the Trump campaign without you know, with a very thin, slender reed as a basis for it,' Barr said. 'It seemed that the bureau was sort of spring-loaded at the end of July to drive in there and investigate a campaign.' The FBI's 'Crossfire Hurricane' investigation would ultimately obtain surveillance warrants on Page, and FBI agents questions former Trump national security advisor Mike Flynn at the White House during his short tenure. Flynn would later plead guilty to lying about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. 'There really wasn't much there to do that on, and that became more and more evident as they went by, but they seemed to have ignored all the exculpatory evidence that was building up and continued pell-mell to push it forward,' Barr said. 'The other area of concern is that after the election, even though they were closing down, some of it as we've seen in the [Michael] Flynn case and say there's nothing here, for some reason they went right back at it, even at a time where the evidentiary support or claimed support, like the dossier, was falling apart,' he said. He was referencing the golden showers dossier compiled by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is continuing his own election-year investigation into the origins of the probe. 'And it's it's very hard to understand why they continued to push and even make public in testimony that they had an investigation going, when it was becoming painfully obvious, or should have been obvious to anyone, that there was nothing there,' said Barr. Investigators have not accused Andrew of any wrongdoing, and he has said that he would help "any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations if required." In November, Queen Elizabeth's second son stepped down from public duties due to the scandal over his friendship with Epstein and allegations that he had sexual encounters with a 17-year-old girl about 20 years ago. The formal action comes after federal prosecutors alleged that Andrew, known as the Duke of York, failed to respond to earlier Justice Department inquiries about his friendship with Epstein, who was found dead of an apparent suicide while in jail last August awaiting charges of sex trafficking and sexual abuse. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a formal request to question Britain's Prince Andrew as part of the government's ongoing investigation into possible co-conspirators of convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, according to a law enforcement official. Andrew has denied having sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre. She alleges Epstein forced her to have sex with the prince and that the encounters happened in London, New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Despite the pledge to cooperate, in March, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said the prince had provided "zero cooperation" to the FBI and "shut the door on voluntary cooperation." Berman said his office is "considering its options." Andrew's lawyers hit back at these claims Monday, suggesting that U.S. prosecutors were seeking publicity rather than the royal's cooperation. "The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ," said Blackfords, the London-based law firm representing Andrew, in a statement. "Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the Duke has offered zero cooperation. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered," the statement said. The request, initiated by federal prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office, is part of a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) request, an agreement to gather and exchange information in criminal investigations between two counties, submitted to Britain's Home Office, according to the source. If the MLAT request is approved, U.S. prosecutors could potentially force Andrew to go to court to provide evidence under oath. Prosecutors have vowed to continue the investigation, bringing renewed attention to several prominent people in Epstein's orbit, including Andrew and socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell faces several lawsuits and has denied all allegations against her. Cuban medical team returns home after helping Italy in fight against covid-19. Cuba's 52-member medical team has completed its mission to help Italy's northern Lombardy region combat the coronavirus pandemic, returning to Havana on 7 June. The team's arrival in Cuba was streamed live on state television, with Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel leading a welcoming party at Jose Marti airport. Under the flags of Cuba and Italy, each of the 52 medics received a flower and received a hero's welcome from thousands of locals waving from balconies. The team, which comprised 36 doctors, 15 nurses and a logistics specialist, had been at Italy's service since 22 March. All 52 members of the mission will spend two weeks in isolation at Las Praderas medical centre in the outskirts of Havana. The head of the team, Carlos Perez, said their focus had been on saving lives. "Abiding by all security measures and health protocols, we fulfilled our commitment of returning safe and sound, and with the mission accomplished," he said. Since the outbreak of covid-19, Cuba has sent 34 medical brigades to 27 countries that have requested help. North Korean students march June 8 in Pyongyang to denounce South Korean authorities. The signs read: "Just give us the order" and "Guns and explosives." (Jon Chol Jin / Associated Press) After days of increasingly hostile rhetoric, North Korea on Tuesday said it was cutting off all communication with South Korea, renewing tensions after a lull during which both countries battled the threat of the coronavirus. In a statement published in state media, Pyongyang said it was severing contact with Seoul, including a direct connection to the South Korean president and military hotlines designed to deescalate conflict in the event of incidents or clashes at the border. North Korea has cut off contact on previous occasions after lines were first installed in 1971, but has kept the channels open since 2018. South Korean authorities said their counterparts in the North did not answer regularly scheduled twice-daily calls Tuesday. The move appeared to end a period of consistent contact that began amid a thaw in relations during the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, to which North Korea sent a delegation. Despite three face-to-face meetings between the leaders of the two Koreas that year, improvement in relations and inter-Korean projects have been on ice after nuclear negotiations between U.S. and North Korea broke down last year. Prospects of eased sanctions against North Korea, clearing the path for economic cooperation, railway connections and political detente between north and south, remain remote since talks between President Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un ended without an agreement in Hanoi. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in embrace after their meeting on the northern side of the Panmunjom in North Korea in 2018. (South Korea Presidential Blue House) In recent days, a series of increasingly barbed statements in North Korea's state media denounced the South Korean government, accusing Seoul of "shielding" escapees from North Korea now living in the south. Some North Korean refugees have become vocal activists against the brutalities of the regime in their home country, and have been for years sending leaflets and other materials into the north in smuggled thumb drives, in packets attached to helium balloons or in plastic bottles floated out to sea to wash up on North Korean shores. Story continues "The recent reckless acts of the human scum who frantically scattered anti-DPRK leaflets ... [is a] heinous provocation of hurting our supreme leadership," North Korea official Rodong Sinmun said in a statement Tuesday, referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "It is none other than the South Korean authorities who must pay a dear price for it." A statement in the state-run Korea Central News Agency cited the refugees' activities as the reason for North Korea cutting off communication. "This has driven the inter-Korean relations into a catastrophe," Tuesday's statement said in its English translation. "We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay." In a statement last week, Kim Yo Jong, Kim's sister, also threatened to scrap a military agreement between the Koreas and pull the plug on a joint industrial complex that has been sitting dormant. A man in Seoul watches a TV screen June 4 showing Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un. (Lee Jin-man / Associated Press) Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said the refugees were probably a pretext for North Korea to begin ramping up pressure on the peninsula in order to get the U.S.' attention as the end of Trump's current term looms. Trump broke with decades of precedent in agreeing to sit down with a North Korean head of state, something past U.S. presidents had refused to do. "As it's always done, when the country wants to increase its leverage in negotiations with the U.S., it takes aim at South Korea," Go said. "They're dialing up the provocation with November's U.S. presidential election in mind." Go said North Korea may have planned on moves earlier in the year in hopes of restarting talks with the U.S., but the global threat of the coronavirus appears to have gotten in the way. The country, which shares a 880-mile border with China, was among the first to seal its borders to all foreigners. It claims it has had zero infections, an assertion some observers doubt. Christopher Green, a lecturer in Korean studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said that, while it was unclear what North Korea's endgame was, it has become a tried-and-true tactic for the country to create a sense of tension leading up to negotiations with South Korea or the U.S. "The North Koreans have manufactured what I call a 'straw man crisis,'" he said. "They know they can extract things from South Korea in exchange for deescalating tensions they've just created." In coming months, North Korea will likely continue to test how their incremental escalations are met with by South Korea and the U.S., said Green. "They intend to slice the salami as thin as they can," he said. "They're taking steps and seeing how pliable is Seoul, how unresponsive or responsive is Washington." The US cannot use its previous membership in the Iranian nuclear deal to try to impose a permanent arms embargo on Iran, AP reported referring to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. The US withdrew from the deal in 2018 and renewed sanctions against Iran as part of the so-called maximum pressure campaign. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Kraft said the extension of the permanent arms embargo is currently Washingtons top priority. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after talks with Chinese FM Wang Yi, Borrell insisted that since the US had withdrawn from the nuclear deal, they could no longer claim to have a role in it. The United States has withdrawn from the JCPOA, and now they cannot claim that they are still part of the JCPOA in order to deal with this issue from the JCPOA agreement. They withdraw. Its clear. They withdraw, Borrell said. As protests continue to erupt in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and across the world in outrage against the horrific shooting of Jacob Bla Read more Cronkite News PHOENIX Environmentalists are blasting a Trump administration call for bold action to revive and strengthen the uranium mining industry, an industry whose history they say has left a toxic trail through the Grand Canyon. They are responding to a report (April 23) by the Department of Energys Nuclear Fuel Working Group, which called for the government to support both uranium mining and nuclear power technology to preserve national security. The first step in that plan is a proposal for $150 million in next years Energy Departments budget to buy and stockpile U.S.-mined uranium, the report said. As a matter of national security, it is critical that we take bold steps to preserve and grow the entire U.S. nuclear energy enterprise, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said in a statement announcing the report. He said a lack of U.S. progress on nuclear energy and technology has threatened our national interest and national security. Havasupai healer Dianna White Dove Uqualla blesses letters from Havasupai Elementary School students addressed to President Trump expressing their fears about uranium mining. Photo by Chris Cadeau / Cronkite News Environmentalists say there is no need to protect a sagging uranium mining industry and fear the report will lead the administration to slash environmental laws and regulations to allow for more mining. That is a particular concern in northern Arizona where there are hundreds of abandoned uranium mines that still pose health risks, they said. We cannot turn a blind eye to past mining in the region and incentivize new mining on public lands without even fully remediating environmental and public health hazards already present, Rep. Tom OHalleran, D-Sedona, said in a statement responding to the report. OHalleran said there are more than 520 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation alone. The Environmental Protection Agency cites health threats from waste rock piled outside those mines that can contaminate surface and groundwater, and winds that can carry radioactive dust into communities. We are in near extinction, says Carletta Tilousi, council member from Havasupai Tribe in calling for ban on uranium mining around its homelands in the Grand Canyon. Tribe supports H.R.1373, the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act. #KeepItGrand #HonorTheSacred pic.twitter.com/qcME5ehSMW indianz.com (@indianz) June 4, 2019 The Obama administration imposed a 20-year moratorium in 2012 on uranium mining on 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon, and the House last year passed a bill to make that ban law. But the bill has stalled in the Senate and the moratorium could be overturned by another administration. Longtime uranium supporter Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, applauded the working groups report, saying there is no reason the U.S. should be importing over 90% of the uranium necessary for domestic reactors from hostile countries like China and Russia when we have an ample supply here at home. Gosar said domestic uranium production would create good-paying jobs, especially right here in Arizona, downplaying the threat of environmental risks. Unlike other countries around the world, the United States has some of the strictest environmental and labor standards in the world, Gosar said in a statement. We can develop these bountiful resources and conserve our environment at the same time. Taylor McKinnon, a senior public lands campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity, said history proves otherwise. Its egregious that anyone is considering new mining let alone federal purchasing of domestic uranium or other policy measures to expand uranium mining, when we still have hundreds and hundreds of abandoned mines that both industry and the federal government have left polluting out on the Navajo Nation, he said. Steve Blackledge, a conservation director with Environment America, said one of the greatest challenges of uranium mining is lack of cleanup its just not enough, he said. The EPA said that, regardless of how uranium is extracted from rock, the process leaves behind radioactive waste. OHalleran said that cancer diagnoses on or near the Navajo Nation are extremely high compared to the national average, which he said is due to direct uranium exposure from mining. The risk for miners is also high, with government studies cited by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention showing an increased risk of lung cancer and higher mortality rates from lung diseases. As a result, it has left a toxic trail all throughout the Grand Canyon, Blackledge said. So people who live in this area, people who drink the water, are being exposed still. These things stay radioactive for a long time. Since the Colorado River supplies water for 40 million Americans, Blackledge fears the potential downstream results of uranium pollution. Why strengthen the uranium mining industry knowing that its dirty and dangerous and leaves behind a toxic trail? Blackledge said of the administration proposal. Uranium is an abundant metal that is full of ENERGY. Just uranium fuel pellet creates as much energy as... pic.twitter.com/dL1ldCykRv Energy Department (@ENERGY) June 6, 2020 Uranium mining is just the first step in the report, which also calls for advancing U.S. nuclear technology and regaining the countrys leadership in the global nuclear market to become the worlds responsible nuclear energy partner of choice. The working group, established by President Donald Trump last year, called for ending U.S. reliance on other countries for uranium, removing strategic vulnerabilities across the nuclear fuel cycle and restoring a world-class workforce to provide benefits to the U.S. and to compete in the international market. In McKinnons view, the report aims to create an artificial, subsidized market for uranium and ease access to uranium deposits on public lands by lifting public land protections and streamlining environmental laws, including requirements for public, environmental and tribal review. Uranium mining companies are much better at mining stockholders pocket books in the U.S. than they are actually mining ore, he said. The Canyon uranium mine is located in the Red Butte Traditional Cultural Property within the Kaibab National Forest. The Grand Canyon sits six miles to the north. Photo: Bruce Gordon / Ecoflight Blackledge said there is no way uranium mines can exist while also conserving the environment and protecting public health because of toxic waste. And McKinnon said the biggest uranium deposits are not even in the U.S., with deposits near the Grand Canyon low-grade and non-competitive compared to other world resources. McKinnon said the industry should not be rewarded while people still suffer from the impacts of past uranium mining pollution in the West. Industrys failure to clean up its mess in the past lays bare its track record and warrants complete mistrust from the public going forward, he said. 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 Remnants of the tropical storm are expected to unleash strong winds and torrential rains on the Midwest. As states along the US Gulf Coast continue to clear up after Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall on Sunday, the Midwest prepares for its arrival. Cristobal will continue to move north towards the Midwest on Tuesday and is expected to strengthen on Wednesday as it merges with a cold front sweeping across the Northern Plains. Severe thunderstorms could generate wind gusts up to 113km/h (70 mph), stronger than the winds that hit coastal areas as Cristobal made landfall as a tropical storm. Winds this strong will bring down trees and branches and could lead to power outages across the region. Dangerous waves will be generated around the Great Lakes, particularly lakes Michigan, Superior and Huron, which could be hazardous for small craft and produce shoreline flooding and erosion. As well as near hurricane-force winds, the remnants of Cristobal will produce heavy rain of up to 150mm (six inches) that could lead to localised flash floods. Severe storms could also produce isolated tornadoes. By the time Cristobal moves into eastern Canada, it will have travelled about 3,200km (2,000 miles) from where it originated in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the US National Weather Service, several tropical systems have travelled into the Midwest over the years. However, the National Hurricane Center confirmed that Cristobal could track farther west across the state of Wisconsin than any other post-tropical storm on record since the mid-1800s. Vineet Upadhyay By Express News Service DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand state government on Tuesday capped the number of pilgrims for Char Dham Yatra which has been postponed till June 30. The number of pilgrims has been limited to 1200 for Badrinath, 800 for Kedarnath, 600 for Gangotri and 400 for Yamunotri shrine. Madan Kaushik, state cabinet minister and spokesperson for the state government said, "The decision of capping and postponing the yatra has been taken after consulting the priests from the Char Dham and other stake holders." The decision came after opposition from priests body, traders and stakeholders from hospitality sector citing the threat of COVID-19 spread in the remotest corner of the hills of the state. Meanwhile, except the four shrines- Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri, many other religious places in the state were opened for visits by devotees on Monday. Last year, a record number of more than 38 lakh pilgrims travelled to the revered four shrines of the hill state. Last week, Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, while addressing media from his residence had stated that the Central government has given permission to open religious places from June 8 and the yatra will be started in limited, controlled and safe manner. Representatives of priests from the Kedarnath shrine met the district magistrate of Rudraprayag last week to hold discussions on the matter. The priests added that the decision to open the shrines for pilgrims should be postponed for a few more weeks considering the rising count of COVID-19 cases in the state. The priests demanded the state push back the pilgrimage till the spread of the contagion has been contained and the yatra is not deemed a threat to public health. Earlier, last month, the state government officials had already written to the Centre to grant permission to open religious tourism and other tourism sectors such as national parks, rafting and others. Phoebe Yeh at Crown has acquired, at auction, Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman by Kristen R. Lee, plus another YA novel, in a six-figure deal. Pitched as Dear White People meets the college admissions scandal, the debut novel follows freshman Savannah F. Howard as she enrolls at the Ivy Leagueand mostly whiteWooddale University, and confronts racism and white privilege head-on. Publication for the first book is set for spring 2022, with a second, standalone novel to follow in spring 2023; Molly O'Neill at Root Literary negotiated the deal for world English rights. Catherine Wallace at HarperTeen has bought Jordyn Taylor's second YA novel, Don't Breathe a Word. The dual-timeline narrative is set at an elite boarding school in which a secret society covers up the truth about a student who died in a Cold War-era fallout shelter during a fascist psychological experiment, and the girl who uncovers the lies decades later. Publication is slated for summer 2021; Danielle Burby at Nelson Literary Agency brokered the deal for world English rights. Nicole Ellul at Simon & Schuster has acquired Isabel Strychacz's YA debut, Starling. The speculative romance is set in a small town where the extraordinary happens every day, and where two sisters attempt to protect the mysterious stranger who literally fell from the starsand into their backyardfrom those who seek to harm him. Publication is scheduled for fall 2021; Taylor Martindale Kean at Full Circle Literary did the deal for North American rights. Emily Daluga at Amulet has acquired Stalking Shadows by Cyla Panin in her YA debut. The first novel is a gothic, feminist fantasy retelling of "Beauty and the Beast." To protect her sister, Marie laces perfumes with honeysuckle to mark victims for Ama to hunt when she transforms into a beast at night. But when a child in their town is killed, Marie is forced to acknowledge that she might be losing control of Amaand must instead find a cure for this curse. Publication is planned for fall 2021, with a second untitled YA novel to follow; Chloe Seager at Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency negotiated the deal for North American rights. Alexandra Cooper at HarperCollins/Quill Tree has bought, in a six-figure preempt, Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca. The middle grade novel-in-verse is about the 13-year-old daughter of Indian immigrants torn between the worlds of her parents and her school, her immigrant community and 1980s pop cultureuntil her mother falls ill, and shes torn in a different way. Publication is slated for winter 2021; Brent Taylor at Triada US brokered the two-book deal for world English rights. Yasemin Ucar at Kids Can has acquired, with Debbie Rogosin editing, the middle-grade graphic novel memoir Yellow Singing Sail by Yinfan Huang. Set in China during the "one-child policy" era, the memoir details the author's adolescence as an only child and the struggle to forge an artistic identity and find friendship, made even more challenging by a move from a small town to a big city. Publication is set for spring 2023; Sean McCarthy at Sean McCarthy Literary handled the deal for world rights. Tricia Lin at Random House has bought Shelter by Christie Matheson (Tap the Magic Tree; Plant the Tiny Seed). The middle grade debut, which considers homelessness, family, and evergreen fifth-grade struggles through one childs lens, chronicles one poignant day in the life of 10-year-old Maya, and follows her journey in discovering that having a house isn't the only way to have a home. Publication is scheduled for fall 2021; Stacey Glick at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret negotiated the deal for world rights. Virginia Duncan at Greenwillow has acquired, in a two-book, mid-six-figure deal, The Leopard Behind the Moon by Mayonn Paasewe-Valchev. The magic-infused middle grade debut, written by a former child refugee, is a tale of friendship and acceptance as told in the African oral tradition. Publication is planned for 2021; Sara Megibow at kt literary did the deal for world rights. Emma Ledbetter at Abrams has bought Playdate by Frank W. Dormer (Firefighter Duckies), a young graphic novel introducing four friendsa duck, a snake, a bear, and a land-based narwhalas they figure out the ups and downs of friendship and problem-solving at the playground. Publication is set for fall 2021; Emily Mitchell at Wernick & Pratt brokered the deal for world rights. Rotem Moscovich at Knopf has acquired Hot Dog by Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honoree Doug Salati (Lawrence in the Fall). In this picture book, a dog in the city finds a much-needed escape to the beachand ultimately comes to better appreciate his home. Publication is slated for spring 2022; Erica Rand Silverman at Stimola Literary Studio negotiated the deal for North American rights. Christy Ottaviano at Macmillan/Ottaviano has bought world rights to Dreki by Mary Logue. The middle grade novel follows a boy, his grandfather, and a baby dragon as they set off on an international adventure from Minnesota to Iceland. Publication is scheduled for 2022; Jennifer Flannery at Flannery Literary handled the deal for world rights. Liz Bicknell at Candlewick has acquired world rights to We, the Curious Ones by Marion Dane Bauer (l.), illustrated by Hari Panischer (c.) and Deepti Nair (r.). The picture book in poetry features humankind's understanding of the Earth's place in the universe and the stories we tell ourselves that have carried us along throughout history with comfort and pride. Publication is planned for fall 2022; Rubin Pfeffer at Rubin Pfeffer Content represented the author, and Kirsten Hall at Catbird Productions represented the artists. Ann Kelley at Random House Studio has bought world rights to The Bees of Notre Dame by Meghan P. Browne (l.), illustrated by E.B. Goodale (Here and Now). This picture book follows the resilient honeybee colonies that survived the 2019 fire at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. Publication is slated for fall 2023; Alyssa Eisner Henkin at Trident Literary Group represented the author, and Lori Kilkelly at LK Literary Agency represented the illustrator. Carolyn Yoder of Calkins Creek has acquired Mr. McCloskey's Marvelous Mallards: The Making of Make Way for Ducklings, written by Emma Bland Smith (l.) and illustrated by Becca Stadtlander. This picture book biography tells the true story of how Caldecott Medalist Robert McCloskey lived with a studio filled of ducks in order to get his illustrations just right. Publication is set for 2022; Essie White at Storm Literary Agency represented the author, and Anne Moore Armstrong at the Bright Agency represented the illustrator. Asia Citro at the Innovation Press has bought world rights to Seeds of Promise, a picture book written by Sana Rafi (l.) and illustrated by Renia Metallinou. When Maya, a Muslim child, moves to a different country, she feels lonely and lostuntil she realizes she must plant the seeds her grandmother gave her to bring about change. Publication is scheduled for fall 2021; the author represented herself, and Alex Gehringer at the Bright Agency represented the illustrator. Marisa DiNovis at Knopf has acquired, in a preempt, Before Takeoff by Adi Alsaid (Let's Get Lost). Pitched as The Sun Is Also a Star meets Jumanji, the YA novel follows James and Michelle, who meet in the Atlanta airport and, on a dare, press a mysterious green button that unleashes a blizzard of chaos through the terminals. Publication of the first book is scheduled for fall 2021; Peter Knapp at Park & Fine Literary and Media brokered the two-book deal for world English rights. Kat Brzozowski at Feiwel and Friends has bought What About Katia? by debut author Juliana Goodman, plus a second standalone YA novel. After a Black teen girl's older sister is killed by a white cop who claims she was breaking into his house, she sets out to uncover what really happened by finding the only other witness who was there that night: her sister's boyfriend, who has gone missing. Publication is set for winter 2022; Patricia Nelson at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency negotiated the deal for world English rights. Jenny Bak at Viking has acquired, at auction, From Little Tokyo, with Love by Sarah Kuhn (I Love You So Mochi). The contemporary YA novel follows an orphaned, half-Japanese teen who doesn't believe in fairy tales until she learns her presumed-dead mother is not only alive but is a famous movie star, and teams up with a charming young actor on a romp through L.A. to find the truth about her past. Publication is planned for summer 2021; Diana Fox at Fox Literary sold world English rights. Mari Kesselring and Kelsy Thompson at Flux have bought Claire Winn's YA sci-fi debut, City of Shattered Light, a high-stakes adventure pitched as a queer, female-led Guardians of the Galaxy meets Escape from New York. Heiress Asa flees her controlling father to prevent her sister's mind from being wipedbut must ally with Riven, a gunslinging smuggler bent on clawing her way up the criminal hierarchy, to outwit a monstrous AI and save Asa's sister and their city. Publication is slated for fall 2021; Cortney Radocaj at Belcastro Agency brokered the deal for world rights. Andrew Eliopulos at HarperCollins/Quill Tree has acquired The Legend of Brightblade by Ethan M. Aldridge. In the full-color middle-grade graphic novel, a young prince skilled in bardic magic sneaks out of the palace to become a storied hero like his motheronly to learn that being a real hero is harder than the stories make it seem. Publication is scheduled for winter 2022; Stephen Barbara at Inkwell Management handled the deal for North American rights. Elise Howard at Algonquin has bought North American rights to the middle grade novel The Tiltersmith by adult and children's novelist Amy Herrick. Four young people in modern-day Brooklyn find themselves caught up in an ancient story: spring equinox has arrived but winter refuses to let go, resulting in a battle filled with myth and nature, fairy tales and science. Publication is slated for spring 2022; Victoria Wells Arms at Wells Arms Literary/HG Literary negotiated the deal. Janine O'Malley at FSG has acquired Stardust and Other Stuff by Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo (Ruby in the Sky). The novel explores the meeting of science and faith as two 11-year-old girls, Calliope Scott and Rosine Kanambe, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, set out on a journey to summit the notoriously dangerous Stardust Mountain in search of the legendary magic they believe will fix their broken families. The author works with refugees through Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services in New Haven, Conn. Publication is set for winter 2022; Stacey Glick at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret did the deal for North American rights. Mark Siegel at First Second has bought, at auction, Weirdo, a middle-grade graphic memoir written by Tony Weaver Jr. and with art by Jessica (c.) and Jacinta Wibowo (r.). Kiara Valdez will also be editing. The story follows Tony, a Black preteen who loves anime and writing but struggles with depression, self-acceptance, and fitting in. Publication is planned for 2022; Jennifer Gates and Erica Bauman at Aevitas Creative Management represented Weaver, and Britt Siess at Martin Literary & Media Management represented the Wibowos in the deal for world rights. Neal Porter at Holiday House/Neal Porter Books has acquired The Adventures of Robo-Kid by Diane deGroat. The picture book blends two parallel stories, one in the real world and one inside a comic book, intersecting when the real-life kid and the comic book superhero find they need each other's help. Publication is scheduled for spring 2023; Liz Nealon at Great Dog Literary brokered the deal for world rights. Frances Gilbert at Doubleday has bought Let's Taco About How Great You Are, written and illustrated by Bob Holt. The picture book features silly word plays and puns based on food to celebrate kids at key milestones in their lives, or any time a kid just needs a boost. Publication is slated for spring 2021; Rachel Orr at Prospect Agency sold world rights. Megan Tingley at Little, Brown has acquired world rights to a second picture book by lead singer of the rock band Old 97's and solo artist Rhett Miller (l.), titled The Baby Changing Station, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat. The sibling book is about the arrival of a baby brother. Publication is set for summer 2022; Jennifer Gates at Aevitas Creative Management represented the author, and Jodi Reamer at Writers House represented the artist. Rotem Moscovich at Knopf has bought, at auction, world rights to Kate Hannigan's Blips on a Screen, illustrated by Zachariah OHora. This picture book biography centers Ralph Baer, who escaped Nazi Germany as a teen and came to America where he later invented TV video gaming. Publication is planned for spring 2022; Jennifer Mattson at Andrea Brown Literary Agency represented the author, and Sean McCarthy at Sean McCarthy Literary Agency represented the illustrator. Casey Kemp at Bala Kids has acquired world rights to Don't Kill the Bugs, written by Berthe Jansen (l.) and illustrated by Victoria Coles. In this rhyming picture book, children are encouraged to demonstrate compassion for bugs and learn that even the smallest lives have significance. Publication is scheduled for spring 2022; the author represented herself, and Essie White at Storm Literary Agency represented the illustrator. Jason Gardner at New World Library has bought world rights to Healing Breath by William Meyer, illustrated by Brittany Jacobs. The guided meditation aims to help young readers connect with the earth, and the animals and people who live on it. Publication is slated for fall 2021; Clelia Gore and Adria Goetz at Martin Literary Management did the deal. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. San Francisco, 9 June 2020: The Report Specialty Polyamides Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Long Chain, High Temperature, MXD6/PARA), By Application (Automotive & Transportation, Electrical & Electronics), And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025 The global specialty polyamides market size is expected to reach USD 3.54 billion by 2025, registering at a CAGR of 5.9% over the forecast period, according to a new study published by Grand View Research, Inc. Rising concerns regarding automotive fuel efficiency and favorable government regulations regarding the use of polyamides in automotive, textile, and consumer goods industries are expected to drive the growth. The use of specialty polyamide in automotive industry is expected to increase due to the rising focus on green technologies and sustainability. Globalization, coupled with an increase in disposable income of consumers, is projected to drive the global automotive market, which is expected to augment demand for specialty polyamide. Moreover, high strength-to-weight ratio of specialty polyamide has made it popular in other transportation industries, such as aerospace and defense. It is majorly used in the components of military aircraft and helicopters to reduce their overall weight to a large extent. Based on product segment, high temperature polyamide is anticipated to expand at a significant CAGR over the forecast period. Long chain specialty polyamides are traditionally used to produce monofilaments, which are further used in a broad range of high chemical resistance and good dimensional stability applications. Some of the key applications of long-chain specialty polyamides include fuel lines, cooler hoses, corrugated tubes, transmission oil, oil and gas transportation, sensors and solenoids, hand-held devices, and hydraulic applications. Electrical and electronics application segment is projected to witness substantial growth during the forecast period. Polyamides are used in display technologies, home electronics, mobile electronics, smart devices, and electrical components. Electronic devices and assemblies are getting smaller and hence, dissipate high amounts of heat. In addition, the demand for thermally conductive plastics for household applications has risen sharply in recent years. This trend is expected to continue driving the demand for polyamide in electrical and electronics segment in the forthcoming years. Specialty polyamide filled with electrically conductive materials provides resistance to Electrostatic Discharge (ESD), Electromagnetic Interference (EMI), and Radio-Frequency Interference (RFI) shielding in electronic equipment as well as for conveyor systems and trays used to manufacture semiconductor chips. Common fillers in this application include carbon powder, carbon fiber, stainless steel fiber, and nickel-coated carbon fiber. Other application areas include wiring and associated devices, batteries, switches, industrial connectors, and mobile parts. Access Research Report of Specialty Polyamides Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/specialty-polyamides-market Further key findings from the report suggest: Asia Pacific held the largest market share in 2018 and is projected to expand at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period. India is the fastest growing country in the region on account of the growing automotive industry Long chain specialty polyamides application segment is potentially fueling the market growth owing to rising demand from various end-use industries Market players engage in various strategic initiatives to gain greater market share. For instance, in September 2019, BASF signed an agreement with Solvay to acquire its integrated polyamide business for USD 1.77 billion. The company will acquire non-European PA6.6 business of Solvay including 50% share of the company in Butachimies adipodinitrile (ADN) production as per the 2017 agreement Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/plastics-polymers-and-resins Grand View Research has segmented the global specialty polyamides market on the basis of product, application and region: Specialty Polyamide Product Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Long Chain Specialty Polyamide High Temperature Specialty Polyamide MXD6/PARA Specialty Polyamide Application Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Automotive & Transportation Electrical & Electronics Consumer Goods & Retail Energy Industrial Coatings Others Specialty Polyamide Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) North America Europe Asia Pacific Central & South America Middle East & Africa Access Press Release of Specialty Polyamides Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-specialty-polyamides-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 I am certain that it is possible to find a solution to the issue related to the Constitutional Court through the National Assembly. This is what Minister of Justice of Armenia Rustam Badasyan told reporters today, adding that this is the most probable option. When asked how the solution to the issue of the Constitutional Court will change the justice sector in Armenia, the minister said the following: We cant expect to see results in the justice system immediately. Reforms in the justice system imply in-depth and multiple actions, but they are necessary for progress. Armenia will have a more balanced Constitutional Court with candidates nominated and elected with the participation of various constitutional bodies. Reporters also asked the minister how legitimate the Constitutional Court will be, if current president Hrayr Tovmasyan and other judges remain members of the Court, to which Rustam Badasyan said the following: The government has stated several times that the elections of the president of the Constitutional Court were very suspicious and that the model of the Constitutional Court hasnt been implemented. The current primary objective is to solve the issues related to the elections and the model. President of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Hrayr Tovmasyan has refused to receive bonuses. This is what Chief of Staff of the Constitutional Court Edgar Ghazaryan said during a discussion on the performance of the 2019 State Budget, responding to deputy of the My Step faction Arusyak Julhakyans question on the amount of bonuses and surcharges that the judges of the Constitutional Court have received. The salaries of the judges and the amounts of their surcharges are prescribed by law, and they differ in terms of a particular judges work experience. As in the case of other state bodies, the bonuses of the Courts judges are also in the amount of 30% of the fund for total salaries, and the Constitutional Court has paid the salaries in the amount of 28.6%. The bonuses are paid under the order of the President of the Constitutional Court. As a rule, the Court tries to pay everyone in the amount of 30%, but the President has refused to receive bonuses for a long time now. Recently, an exception was made for Vahe Grigoryan due to the fact that he doesnt attend the Courts sessions, Ghazaryan said. Christian teen cut into pieces by radicals in India 3 years after conversion Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Christian convert teenager in the Odisha state of India was killed last Thursday by a group of religious fanatics in the Hindu-majority country, who reportedly cut up his body into pieces, according to the interdenominational ministry Persecution Relief. Pastor Bijay from the Malkangiri district told the nonprofit serving persecuted churches in India about how a group of suspected Hindu radicals (some of whom did not live in the village) ganged up last Thursday to kidnap Christians in the remote Kenduguda village. As a result, seventh-grader Samaru Madkami was killed by the perpetrators, who were said to have cut his neck and crushed his head with a rock. The suspects are also alleged to have cut the teenagers body into pieces and buried him in a pit. Madkamis father, Unga Madkami, is a member of Bijays Bethel house church who also serves as an elder in the congregation, according to Persecution Relief. He is a widower who lost his wife a few years back and was raising his children on his own. Bijay explained that he reported to local police last Friday that the teen went missing after he was taken from the home the night prior. Madkamis kidnapping came after a series of attacks on Christians in the area. The father claimed in his police report filed last Friday that a group of villagers picked up Madkami at around 11 p.m. and told him that they needed him for a meeting in the jungle, according to Persecution Relief. The suspects were alleged to have come back to the house about an hour later to try to kidnap Madkamis father. However, they were unsuccessful as Unga Madkami was able to escape to the police station, where he filed an earlier complaint. According to a police report filed by the victims father, he and his son became Christians about three years ago and faced harassment. Samaru was a passionate Christian, Bijay told Persecution Relief. He always shared from the Bible with youth and children from the village. Bijay added that Madkami recently told him that he would take up the ministry should anything ever happen to the pastor. Inspector of Malkangiri police station Ramprasad Nag told Hindustan Times that Madkamis body was exhumed three days after his killing. According to Nag, police arrested four people thought to be connected with Madkamis killing. Police accused Deba Madkami, Budra Muchaki, Aaita Kabasi and Ram Madi of calling Madkami and two other boys to leave their homes on June 4 under the pretext of the so-called meeting. The three were boys taken to the outskirts of the village to be killed, the news outlet reports. However, Nag said two others were able to escape while Madkami was beaten to death on accusations he practiced witchcraft. Persecution Relief Founder Shibu Thomas said in a statement that Madkamis case is by far the most disturbing case of Christian persecution he has seen of the 1,500-plus cases he has been involved with throughout his career. The hate and aggression in the minds of the religious fanatics and the brutal nature of this crime leaves me dumbfounded! Thomas wrote. My mind has been gripped by the thoughts of an innocent child who desired to serve Jesus Christ, in spite of the pain and challenges of losing his mother at a very tender age. This vicious cruelty exposes the tainted mentality and attitude of religious fanatics of this day and age. Although Persecution Relief states that Madkami was 14 years old, the Hindustan Times reports that Madkami was 18. India ranks as the 10th worst country in the world for Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA. Since the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, Open Doors reports that incidents of persecution against Christians by Hindu nationalists have increased with little or no consequences. According to Hindustan Times, killings over accusations of witchcraft are not new in Odisha and there have been at least 17 tribals killed in the last three months. In February, another tribal person from the Maklangiri district was killed by a neighbor over suspicion that he practiced black magic. Bijay told Persecution Relief that there have been at least four other assaults against Christians in his village this year alone. According to Bijay, there was one incident in which radicals stuffed three Christians into jute bags and tried to throw them into a river. In another incident, he said, radicals tried to set two Christians on fire. This frightening and contagious crusade of religious intolerance has now peaked at new inhuman levels, Thomas stressed. Both nationally and internationally, the government of India has been called out numerous times to introspect and arrest the intensifying antagonism towards religious minorities. Somehow, we have become accustomed with being ignored and side-lined because religious nationalism has been prioritized over the lives of the citizens. In April, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom called on the U.S. State Department to label India as a country of particular concern for engaging in or tolerating systemic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom. The recommendation was rejected by the Indian government, which accused USCIRF, an independent bipartisan government commission, of being biased. PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The following is a statement from Brian Sauve, President of the National Police Federation, regarding the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) investigation and BC Prosecution Services charge approval decision in Prince George: The NPF supports oversight and believes that complaints against Members of the RCMP need to be investigated fully, fairly, transparently and most importantly, resolved in a timely and effective manner out of respect for all parties. The NPF and all RCMP Members recognize the very real and pressing need to ensure that cases that involve police use of force are properly reviewed and, where appropriate, investigated. We support and work to protect every Canadians right to be treated fairly and equally. This case in Prince George launched in February 2016, took well over two years for the IIO to investigate and another two years for the Crown to approve charges for an incident that thankfully ended in only minor injuries for the two individuals that have since pled guilty to the crimes for which they were pursued and arrested. These RCMP Members have continued to serve their communities diligently and professionally while this protracted investigation took place, and now face additional years of uncertainty awaiting trial and verdict. The brave men and women who stand up to protect Canadians from those that would do them harm deserve better than to be subjected to a prolonged four-and-a-half year investigation. Just as the RCMP need to consider all ways to continuously improve and enhance the delivery of services to those we serve, the IIO and Crown need to look at real ways to improve their process of investigations. About the National Police Federation: The National Police Federation (NPF) was certified to represent ~20,000 RCMP members serving across Canada and internationally in the summer of 2019. The NPF is the largest police labour relations organization in Canada, the second largest in North America. The NPF will focus on improving public safety in Canada by negotiating the first-ever Collective Agreement for RCMP officers, and on increasing resources, equipment, training and supports for our members who have been under-funded for far too long. Better resourcing and support for the RCMP will enhance community safety and livability in the communities we serve, large and small, across Canada. For more information: https://npf-fpn.com/ . Media contact: Brian Sauve President National Police Federation media@npf-fpn.com T: 604-861-2684 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:
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The city's retail industry has been "shattered" and "forever altered" since New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D, issued a stay-home order in March that closed all but essential businesses, Victoria's Secret said in the lawsuit filed Monday in state court. The company spends $938,000 a month on its midtown Manhattan store, located on a Broadway corner that gets two million visitors a year and is adjacent to Macy's flagship department store. The coronavirus shutdowns are more severe and longer-lasting than normal downswings in the economy, the lingerie retailer said. In its lawsuit against landlord Herald Square Owner, which is owned by SL Green Realty, Victoria's Secret asked a judge to rescind its 2001 lease for the store at 2 Herald Square. "The purpose of tendering a monthly rent of $937,734 or more to operate a retail store is completely frustrated when that store cannot open," Victoria's Secret said in the complaint. "That purpose is also frustrated when the subject store can open at only a marginal capacity, or when customers are too fearful of profound illness and potential death to venture out to shop for lingerie or other personal items." SL Green said Tuesday it has "made several approaches to defer a portion of the rent" on the Herald Square property. "Instead, this large national, publicly-traded conglomerate is exploiting the current health and economic crisis for its own financial gain rather than honor its contractual rent obligations -- all at the expense of the local real estate tax base and the fiscal health of New York City," Stephen Meister, counsel to SL Green, said in a statement. Tensions have been ramping up among landlords and retailers in the city. Dozens of national tenants have missed rent payments after sales plummeted following months of lockdown. Default notices are piling up. At the same time, landlords are increasingly cash-crunched with their own payments coming due for lenders. "Retailers are getting increasingly worried, demanding more," says Tom Mullaney, managing director of restructuring at Jones Lang LaSalle. "Getting all these workouts done between landlords and tenants is going to be tricky." The number of Covid-19 cases has surged exponentially in Assam in recent days, giving it the dubious distinction of recording one of the fastest spurts in the pandemic among states in the country. However, the state government says that with its fresh Assam model, it will not only beat the disease but also leave other Indian states far behind in tackling this crisis. Assams Covid-19 count jumped to 2,868 on Tuesday. The number had nearly doubled in a week from 1,339 on May 31 to 2,681 on June 7. According to authorities, many of those who tested positive were people returning from some 14 states with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi having the biggest chunks. Assam has registered four Covid-19 deaths so far. The state government believed that with a few tweaks in its quarantine process and high numbers of sample testing, the new Assam Model would turn the Covid-19 calamity into an opportunity for it to establish its leadership role beyond the northeastern states. By testing over 1.5 lakh samples already, Assam bypassed Kerala (known for its robust healthcare system and Covid-19 management) several days ago. It was only till March when Assam was sending its test samples to NIV (National Institute of Virology), Pune and within the last three months we have done sample testing of over one lakh persons, Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said a few days ago. By June 15, it will be around two lakhs. We have not only convincingly surpassed Kerala and many other states which are known for their healthcare facilities, but with our constant improvement, we will soon compete with big states with better healthcare systems like Maharashtra in terms of testing. We are going to turn Covid-19 into an opportunity for Assam to establish its leadership role before the country. Of the over 1 lakh tests the minister was talking about, 4,033 were conducted in private labs outside the state while the rest were done in labs in Assam. Over 70,000 of these tests were conducted in May alone. The minister said that it was a feather in the state governments cap and a shining example of public service. As per the Regional Medical Research Centre (Northeast) based in the states Dibrugarh district, apart from testing its own samples, Assam has also been doing a large share of this work for its neighbouring northeastern states. Biswajyoti Borkakoty, senior scientist and nodal officer of the ICMR-RMRC, said, In our RMRC lab alone, we are testing some 300 samples from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland on a daily basis. Similarly, around 200 other samples from the other northeastern states are also being tested daily in other labs of Assam. The state currently has at least nine ICMR accredited labs for Covid-19 swab testing and more are in the pipeline. While Manipur has two labs, states like Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura have one such facility each, leaving them with no other option but to depend on neighbouring Assam. Officials in the ICMR-RMRC of Dibrugarh have been also busy setting up these labs in the neighbouring states and training their technicians. Being the primary gateway to the entire northeastern region, Assam has also engaged its transport department and district administrations to arrange the screening of thousands of people from all these states as they deboarded trains and flights in Assam or passed through it via roadways to reach their respective home states. Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma recently thanked Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Sarma for receiving hundreds of its stranded citizens returning from Chennai. Sangma tweeted, Happy to see the team doing a wonderful job of receiving them. Special thanks to Himanta Biswa Sarma for visiting the Meghalaya team. Assam had also treated one Covid-19 patient from Nagaland to recovery. The health minister believed that with its fresh policy of quarantining, testing and setting up health infrastructures, the Assam Model would soon grab national attention. Since now the state government has acquired the capacity to test 10,000 swab samples for Covid-19 per day, we want to reduce the compulsory institutional quarantine period from 7 days to 4 days. The state health department will ensure that a person in quarantine should receive his or her test results within 72 hours so that they can be discharged from the institutional quarantine and thus save public money, Sarma, who is also the finance minister of the state, added. The Assam government has also decided to adopt a new three-level medical treatment course for novel coronavirus patients. As per the new model, only highly symptomatic patients will be treated in medical college hospitals. The mild symptomatic patients will be treated in district-level hospitals and the asymptotic Covid-19 patients will be treated in village-level model hospitals. The health department has activated the states 50 model hospitals in the first phase that can house 2,500 patients. Guwahati recently also opened its first 200-bedded super speciality Covid-19 hospital of the Northeast, where symptomatic and serious coronavirus patients would be treated. The hospital, costing Rs 150 crore, though was initially planned to be a super speciality hospital annexed to the Guwahati Medical College. But with the spike in Covid-19 cases, the Assam government decided to turn it into a coronavirus hospital. Currently, the state can treat 4,232 Covid-19 patients at one time. Around 957 isolation beds and 500 ICUs are available for the same. Sarma said, When the crisis began, we had no idea how to proceed. Though the number of Covid-19 cases has swollen during this time, we have also gained confidence during this period and now are confident of the state health department tackling this situation. Of the total Covid-19 cases registered in the state, only 24 cases have no travel histories. Rest all the cases were found in people who returned to Assam after the pandemic. Therefore, we are confident that there is no community transmission in Assam and the sources of the infection are outside the region. Since the lockdown has been eased and inter-state transport was allowed, a few lakh people have returned to Assam. All of them have been undergoing either institutional or home quarantine. In my entire political career I have never witnessed such teamwork and its one of the proudest moments for the entire government machinery, said Sarma, adding that the state was readying a separate SOP for combating Covid-19 in flood relief camps. The flood situation, which has improved now, hit scores of villages, stranded nearly 2 lakh people, claimed at least 10 lives, while wrecking crucial infrastructure and vast swathes of farmland. The families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor are asking the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate police brutality and suppression of protests in the United States. Mamie Till Mobley made a decision to open the casket of her son Emmett Till so the world could see the atrocities Black people faced in America. I want people across the world and the leaders in the United Nations to see the video of my brother George Floyd, to listen to his cry for help, and I want them to answer his cry, said Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd. I appeal to the United Nations to help him. Help me. Help us. Help Black men and women in America. Over 600 rights groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union and U.S. Human Rights Network, are demanding the UNHRC swiftly convene a special session to investigate officer-involved deaths and repression of protests in the U.S. BREAKING: Together with the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, and Michael Brown, were demanding the U.N. investigate police killings of Black people and violent attacks on protesters in the United States. pic.twitter.com/GUFzi8onV6 ACLU (@ACLU) June 8, 2020 The letter was addressed to the UNHRC from the ACLU. It is time the U.S. face the same scrutiny and judgment it is quick to pass on to other countries, said Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLUs Human Rights Program. This accountability appeal to the U.N. follows the legacy of great Black leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X who believed in internationalizing the struggle for human rights and racial justice in the U.S. The UNHRC is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The UNHRC has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms. As communities in the United States call on their leaders to divest from policing and end structural racism, the United Nations must support these domestic demands by holding the United States accountable for its human rights violations, Dakwar said. Related Content: Facebook reacted differently, allowing the same statement to go unflagged. Around the same time, companies were struggling with how and whether to address the worldwide demonstrations prompted by the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died last month in Minneapolis after a white police officer pinned him to the ground. On June 2, in an effort that became known as Blackout Tuesday, many advertisers posted images of black boxes instead of paid ads, a gesture intended to show support for the protests. They began to realize that all of their messaging was off-target, said Rishad Tobaccowala, a former advertising executive who is now an author and marketing adviser. Facebook generates 98 percent of its revenue through ads. It netted $17.4 billion from advertising in its most recent quarter. The pandemic has hurt advertising sales in general, and some companies are still incredibly challenged, said Carolyn Everson, Facebooks vice president for global marketing solutions. Blackout Tuesday really had a very significant role on our platforms, Ms. Everson added, with hundreds of companies pausing their spending. Since then, ad revenue has mostly recovered for the company, she said, although several companies have been slow to return as they adjusted their messaging. Nike, Anheuser-Busch and others each slashed their daily Facebook and Instagram spending by more than $100,000 in early June, according to the advertising analytics platform Pathmatics. Some smaller advertisers including authors, therapy providers and payment companies described their break from Facebook as a protest against the platform and its subsidiaries. Simris, an algae-growing business in Sweden, wrote in a LinkedIn post that it was vitally dependent on digital marketing but unwilling to continue to enable a sick system with our funds. The current developments have now rendered it morally impossible for us to continue feeding the same hand that complacently offers its services as the major platform for hate-mongering, promotion of violence, and disinformation, the company wrote. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 09, 2020 / Ximen Mining Corp. (XIM.V)(1XMA.F)(XXMMF) (the "Company" or "Ximen") is pleased to announce that it has acquired additional claims near Ymir in southern British Columbia. The property is located about 30 km south of Nelson, BC and 3 km east of the town of Ymir along Highway 6. Map showing Total Magnetic Field for geophysical survey area near Ymir. Three new claims covering approximately 2,294 hectares were acquired via the BC Mineral Titles Online system by Ximen. These claims adjoin the Ymir Protection mine property acquired last week. The new claims were staked to cover the mineralized trend extending northeast from the Arizona mine. Part of this area was flown in 2007/8 by Fugro Airborne Surveys Corp. for a helicopter-borne geophysical survey, using the DIGHEM electromagnetic system and a cesium vapor magnetometer. The purpose was to identify the geophysical signature of known mineralized shear-hosted vein systems and trace these signatures along strike to the northeast in search of similar deposits. There are several mineralized vein systems covered by the airborne survey. Map showing new claims, geophysical survey boundary and current Ximen properties in Nelson-Salmo area. The new claims add to the total land package that Ximen has assembled since first acquiring the Kenville gold mine. Earlier this year, properties were acquired from Emgold Mining Corporation, Klondike Gold Corp. and 49er Creek Gold Corp. Ximen's land package in the Nelson-Ymir-Salmo area now amounts to approximately 18,889 hectares. Dr. Mathew Ball, P.Geo., VP Exploration for Ximen Mining Corp. and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, approved the technical information contained in this News Release. On behalf of the Board of Directors, "Christopher R. Anderson" Christopher R. Anderson, President, CEO and Director 604 488-3900 Investor Relations: Sophy Cesar, 604-488-3900, ir@XimenMiningCorp.com About Ximen Mining Corp. Story continues Ximen Mining Corp. owns 100% interest in three of its precious metal projects located in southern BC. Ximen`s two Gold projects The Amelia Gold Mine and The Brett Epithermal Gold Project. Ximen also owns the Treasure Mountain Silver Project adjacent to the past producing Huldra Silver Mine. Currently, the Treasure Mountain Silver Project is under a option agreement. The option partner is making annual staged cash and stocks payments as well as funding the development of the project. The company has recently acquired control of the Kenville Gold mine near Nelson British Columbia which comes with surface and underground rights, buildings and equipment. Ximen is a publicly listed company trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol XIM, in the USA under the symbol XXMMF, and in Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin Stock Exchanges in Germany under the symbol 1XMA and WKN with the number as A2JBKL. This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including statements regarding the receipt of TSX Venture Exchange approval and the exercise of the Option by Ximen. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the possibility that the TSX Venture Exchange may not accept the proposed transaction in a timely manner, if at all. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. 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. SOURCE: Ximen Mining Corp. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/593246/Ximen-Mining-Covers-EM-Target-Expands-Land-Position-at-Ymir-Protection-Gold-Mine-Properties Alabama Media Group, the publisher of AL.com and The Birmingham News, has asked for a public apology and investigation into the treatment of two AL.com reporters who were cuffed and detained by Birmingham police while lawfully covering a protest on June 3. Clearly, the police overstepped their legal authority in arresting, assaulting and otherwise mistreating members of the press with no inclination to use any but the most extreme measures, said James Pewitt, attorney for Alabama Media Group, in a letter set to Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and others on June 6. The explanations by the police department, Pewitt said, are, in our view, wholly inadequate, plainly false, and pretextual. Reporters Jonece Starr Dunigan and Howard Koplowitz were in Birminghams Linn Park, covering a peaceful protest, when officers with the Birmingham Police Department informed them that they were under arrest around 7:30 p.m. on June 3. Dunigan and Koplowitz wore media badges and carried documents corroborating their employment as reporters for AL.com. Koplowitz was using his phone to video officers walking out of City Hall when he was approached by two officers who informed him that he was under arrest. Dunigan was taken into custody soon after. At the time, police were attempting to enforce the citys curfew by removing protesters from Linn Park. The city had, the day before, specifically exempted media from the terms of the curfew. Officers refused to acknowledge or look at the reporters press credentials, and instead bound their hands with zip ties, put them into a crowded police van and transported them to the city jail. At the jail, Dunigan and Koplowitz were photographed and handcuffed to a bench, along with protesters who had been taken into custody. They were later released without being charged. Koplowitz said he was later told by officers that they had been detained for their safety. In the letter to city officials, Alabama Media Group requested the city, police chief and others issue a specific apology to the reporters, and immediately begin an investigation into the events surrounding their detainment. AMG also asked for assurances from the city that reporters will be able to do their jobs safely. On June 4, the day after Dunigan and Koplowitz were taken into custody, representatives from AMG met with Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith and other police and city representatives. Those representatives, said Pewitt, refused to acknowledge any problem whatever with what the police had done and blamed the journalists themselves for what are clearly the officers violations of the First Amendment and possibly criminal conduct. Mayor Randall Woodfin later expressed regret over the detainment of journalists, tweeting on June 5, Our curfew was not intended to stifle the voices of our people or our press. We need them now more than ever. I am a strong believer in the First Amendment, especially now. This moment needs our voices including the voice of a free press. Woodfin said he was speaking with police leadership to advocate for the safety, access and freedom of press. Late Monday, Birmingham spokesman Rick Journey said the city would have no comment on the letter from Alabama Media Group. Alabama Media Group is currently considering legal options. Representatives from Alabama Media Group hope to meet with the city and police next week. Comedy is the most ephemeral of the arts. There are very few comic novels that do not wither with time, and even fewer novels comic or otherwise that can be given to pretty much anyone, from an old person to a small child. Even more rare is a novel one can reliably turn to for cheer when one is sick or sad. But True Grit is this rare novel, and Mattie Ross, its narrator, is one of the greatest of Portiss innocents: a Presbyterian spinster who in old age relates the story of how, as a child, she struck out in the 1870s to avenge her fathers murder. People do not give it credence that a 14-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her fathers blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. Its a serious book by any measure; Matties rage and grief are thunderous (What a waste! Tom Chaney would pay for this! I would not rest easy until that Louisiana cur was roasting and screaming in hell!) and yet perhaps the greatest pleasure of the book is Matties speaking voice: rambling, deadpan, didactic, sprinkled with oddball opinions and facts, obstinate in its views and acute in its observations. Of Chaney, the hired man who murdered her father (He was a short man with cruel features. I will tell more about his face later), she has this to say: He had no gun but he carried his rifle slung across his back on a piece of cotton plow line. There is trash for you. He could have taken an old piece of harness and made a nice leather strap for it. That would have been too much trouble. Its hard not to go on with the quotes; suffice it to say that I could hear my grandmothers voice and a bit of my own very clearly in this. But though I knew how wonderful a book it was to read aloud, I also felt there was very little chance of interesting Portis in an audiobook recording. After abruptly quitting his job as London bureau chief of The New York Herald Tribune in the early 1960s, he had gone back to live in his native Arkansas, and no one in New York had seen him for years. People liked to use the word recluse, which, I suspected, spoke less to an abnormal way of life than to an ex-newspapermans natural distrust of the press. It seemed clear enough in any case that he didnt enjoy dealing with inquiries about his novels. But I drummed up my courage and asked anyway, and much to my surprise his number was passed along to me with the message: Call him. He wants to talk to you. How many times in life does one have the chance to speak to a writer revered from childhood? How many times in life does one have the chance to speak to a writer revered from childhood? In 2004, around noon on a weekday, I found myself standing in my kitchen in Virginia with Portiss telephone number in hand. I had been informed that he did not like to talk on the telephone and was bad about not picking up. But somewhat to my surprise he answered right away. A slow, rich Southern voice, reminiscent of the actor Randy Quaid. Mr. Portis? I said, but instead of the introduction I was ready to make, there followed instead a leisurely and highly surreal exchange that I am at a loss to replicate something to do with backfiring cars? and knocks on the door? which continued at cross-purposes for some moments until, without missing a beat, he said pleasantly: Oh I beg your pardon. I thought you were my crank caller. NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Corn Oil Market Research Report by Product (Edible Corn Oil and Non-edible Corn Oil), by Application (Food Processors, Food Service Restaurants, Livestock, Pharmaceutical Industry, and Retails) - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913974/?utm_source=PRN The Global Corn Oil Market is expected to grow from USD 4,144.79 Million in 2019 to USD 6,537.71 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.89%. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Corn Oil to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: On the basis of Product , the Corn Oil Market is studied across Edible Corn Oil and Non-edible Corn Oil. On the basis of Application, the Corn Oil Market is studied across Food Processors, Food Service Restaurants, Livestock, Pharmaceutical Industry, and Retails. On the basis of Geography, the Corn Oil Market is studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region is studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region is studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region is studied across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Company Usability Profiles: The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Corn Oil Market including Abu Dhabi Vegetable Oil Company LLC, ACH Food Companies, Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Company, Associated British Food plc, Cargill, Inc., Conagra Brand Inc., Elburg Global B.V., FEC Solutions LLC, GreenField Specialty Alcohols Inc., and Savola Group. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Corn Oil Market on the basis of 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) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Competitive Strategic Window: 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 acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, so for and, the long-term effects projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlaying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report is delivering insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecast, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on sulfuric acid offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Corn Oil Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Corn Oil Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Corn Oil Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Corn Oil Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Corn Oil Market? 6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Corn Oil Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913974/?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 LUCKNOW: The Chief Medical Superintendent of Ambedkar Nagar district died of the coronavirus on Tuesday. He was identified as SP Gautam. The senior doctor passed away during his treatment at the SGPGI hospital in Lucknow. He was a resident of Jaunpurs Shahganj in Uttar Pradesh. Confirming the news of his demise, Ambedkar Nagar District Magistrate said that doctor was admitted to the SGPGI Lucknow aftr he complained of trouble in breathing and fever. His test report later confirmed that he was coronavirus infected. The death of the senior doctor has sent shockwaves in the medical fraternity, sparking concerns over the health of frontline workers yet again. According to the Ministry of Health, Uttar Pradesh has reported 10,947 confirmed cases of the virus so far. Out of these, 4320 are confirmed cases while 6344 recovered. About 283 people have died of the infection in the state. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made clear that the United States defense of religious freedom around the world is a moral imperative. Every human being has the right to believe in whatever it is they wish, to change their faith, or to hold no faith at all. Indeed, we must affirm and fight for that truth now more than ever. More than eight in ten people in the world today live where they cannot practice their faith freely. One of those places is Iran. At the second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom hosted by the State Department in July, 2019, Secretary Pompeo noted that Iranians who dare stand up for their religious freedom, for their neighbors, face abuse. Now the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom -- an independent, bipartisan federal body tasked with monitoring violations of religious freedom around the world - reports that violations of the Iranian peoples religious liberty continue. USCIRF, as the Commission is called, writes in its most recent report that in 2019, religious freedom conditions in Iran remained egregiously poor. Iran harasses, fines and arrests those who dissent from the governments interpretation of Shia Islam, USCIRF notes. The Iranian government blamed Bahais, without evidence, for widespread popular protests. Adherents of Sufi orders, which emphasize Islamic mysticism, were also targeted. Christians, particularly converts from Islam, were persecuted and imprisoned for their faith. Last June, USCIRF reports, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif claimed that Irans execution of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community was necessary according to moral principles. And women who peacefully protested the governments mandatory religious head covering were summoned, interrogated and arrested. Secretary of State Pompeo has said that the freedom to believe or not believe according to ones conscience is not a Western ideal, it is the bedrock of societies. The United States, he emphasized, will not waver in its commitment to encourage all countries, including Iran, to recognize the fundamental importance of religious freedom to human life and dignity. Image: Facebook Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja has been applauded for her effective leadership during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. In a press meet yesterday, she warned that there is a possibility the spread of the virus will be more intense in the coming days. She also emphasised that no citizen can take the progress for granted, and expect relaxations once the third phase of lockdown ends. Shailaja also said that the governments priority is to avoid deaths, and that can be achieved if citizens cooperate. They have to follow instructions because if the load on medical system increases the government wouldnt be able to provide facilities that it is providing now. The state health minister further informed that the decision regarding opening of the public transport system will be taken later. Meanwhile, KK Shailaja ensured that the administration strengthened surveillance after six persons tested positive for COVID-19 in March We have strengthened the surveillance after 6 positive cases since yesterday. In the state, we have 1116 persons under observation out of whom 976 persons are under home quarantine while 149 persons are in hospitals. This includes people with symptoms as well, Shailaja had told reporters at a press meet. In addition, she directed the authorities to begin contact tracing of people in Kerala, who may have come in contact with those infected. Web Toolbar by Wibiya I stand before my fellow Canadians to say that I cannot allow one more day to pass without saying something about the politically self-serving and disingenuous charade of sympathy that our prime minister has shown in response to the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd in the United States at the hands of reportedly Israeli-trained killers. Justin Trudeau has been nothing short of the worst prime minister in modern Canadian history when it comes to the advancement of black men like Mr. Floyd in areas such as federal political influence and the advancement of human rights. Justin Trudeau has aborted the progress that previous prime ministers of Canada made to advance the cause of civil rights. Specifically, efforts that previous prime ministers have made to advance the status of black men in areas of federal political influence have been put aside in favour of words of empty sympathy which demonstrate no political convictions. Justin Trudeau has practically obliterated advances made by Afro-Caribbean peoples under previous prime ministers regarding senior representation in the federal government. This has been executed under an apparent practice in both the federal and Ontario Liberal parties of fencing out Afro-Caribbean male candidates during general elections. Back in 2005, Prime Minister Paul Martin showed a deep respect for Afro-Canadian peoples and their ability to play a very publicly visible leadership role in Canadian society by appointing Michaelle Jean as governor general. In contrast, Justin Trudeau has completely refrained from taking any opportunities to similarly advance the status of marginalized African-Caribbean peoples. Justin Trudeau has shown time and again that any male who seeks to rise to a leadership role in his government and who also happens to share the skin colour of George Floyd is "dreaming in technicolour." It is notable that when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as quoted in The Guardian, said, "....[I]n Canada and we know people are facing systemic discrimination, unconscious bias and anti-black racism every single day, he called on the country to stand together in solidarity against racial hate while presenting himself not as a prime minister of a responsible government with a plan to bring about the needed legal reforms to effectuate racial justice but rather an innocent bystander taking a passive role on bringing about social change. Blackface-performing Justin Trudeau has not used the substantive power that he holds as prime minister to champion any federalprovincial cooperation to redress ongoing and often fatal police brutality against black men and First Nations communities through legislation and human rights reforms of the federal public service. However, doing so would enable black men and First Nations communities to be treated with respect in matters regarding the hiring process, which has systematically denied these groups middle and senior management opportunities both in the Canadian public and private sectors. I knew it was time for me to leave the government when the Canadian Human Rights Commission would only hire me to investigate cases on the condition that I would automatically send out a form letter to numerous claimants to tell them their file had been "investigated" and their human rights complaint would be closed. That is the kind of corrupt public service environment which operates under Justin Trudeau. While seeking to comment on behalf of Canadians on his alleged feelings of "horror" regarding the spectre of American racism, which has most notably included the murder of George Floyd, time and again, here at home, Justin Trudeau has refrained from using his power to support the appointment of black males to positions of influence in his cabinet, the Senate, and the federal Canadian public service. Furthermore, Justin Trudeau has failed to provide moral support through political leadership here at home to the black and First Nations families who continue to lose loved ones as a result of the infliction of ongoing racism by various police forces across Canada. So, while Mr. Trudeau has sought to gain political capital by going down on his knees during a recent Black Lives Matter-inspired protest in Ottawa, where has been that show of solidarity to Canadian tragedies during these protests? These numerous incidents most notably include the police murder of a First Nations woman shot five times in Edmundston, New Brunswick, during what ought to have been a simple health check, and what about that black woman who seems to have been flipped over a balcony in Toronto during a separate police visitation? In our unguarded moments is when our true selves percolate to the surface of our true identity. When Time magazine uncovered multiple incidences of Justin Trudeau ridiculing black males through the notorious "blackface" caricature, they seemed to uncover the true Justin Trudeau. That is to say that the true Justin Trudeau is an apparent racist who has a categorical disdain and fundamental lack of respect for black males like George Floyd. Justin Trudeau's blackface was not a moment of youthful indiscretion, but rather a premeditated act perpetrated over multiple occasions by someone sufficiently educated to know better. Justin Trudeau did not grow up in a privileged household of racially insensitive, "rich" parents, as he has sought to suggest as a way of legitimizing his behaviour. After all, his father, former prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, was an ardent champion of equality rights through the Canadian multicultural policy, which he ushered in as prime minister in 1971, and of the human rights provisions that he correspondingly sought to champion through the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Similarly, Justin Trudeaus mother, Margaret, was part of the flower-power generation that supported the oppressed, and Alexandre, who is Justin Trudeau's brother, has been a great champion for the oppressed in the Third World. Justin Trudeau's vocalizations of solidarity with Black Lives Matter protests was little more than another one of the prime minister's insincere and well-rehearsed political displays aimed to cover-up the racist mind at the heart of his failure to use political power in support of black and First Nations victims. Justin Trudeau as prime minister has been a two-faced manipulator whose words have never matched his actions when it comes to men who share George Floyd's skin colour and to First Nations communities. Many of our First Nations communities have endured genocide, and continue to live under worsening Third World conditions with no running water or access to any healthcare. Meanwhile, a smiling Justin Trudeau hypocritically pursues the rhetoric that his government once and for all will turn the page on the plight of First Nations people. Correspondingly, our black men have also become increasingly marginalized as a result of worsening ongoing patterns of racial profiling and systemic discrimination which starts in Canada's education system and continues on throughout life. Many black men, after having endured racism in schools by teachers, continue to be denied employment opportunities as adults. The result of these practices is worsening areas of socio-economic despair for both black men and First Nations communities, which manifest in conditions of poverty, including substance abuse. The Toronto Star reports that research based on Statistics Canada data released in October 2019 finds black families are twice as likely to go hungry as white households, even accounting for income and education. Prime Minister Trudeau has not only presided over ongoing police brutality and murders against black people and First Nations groups but has also presided over ongoing institutionalized racism in the federal government and the rest of Canadian society, where black males and First Nations groups continue to be frozen out of both employment and positions of political power. This perpetuates the marginalization of these groups in Canadian society. Justin Trudeau's corresponding resistance to redressing the historically-documented and ongoing murders of First Nations women at the hands of police speaks volumes. Add to that his failure to deal with ongoing Third World living conditions among First Nations communities, his failure to redress the ongoing impacts of residential schools, and his failure to stop the continued oppression of First Nations communities in the prevailing neo-colonial child "welfare" system, which complements the rhetoric of his government, and it is clear Trudeaus words dont match his actions . Justin Trudeau is a great political hypocrite who has sought to use empty rhetoric and gestures to capture votes from Canadians like those who rallied in support of Black Lives Matter in Ottawa while serving his political masters. These political masters who have ruled Canada from its shadows both in government and big business have sought to perpetuate oppression and the destruction of lives among black and First Nations communities by, in part, freezing these groups out of areas of political power that members of these groups could use to further advance equality rights and social justice that remains denied to all Canadians. In 1960, then prime minister John Diefenbaker not only championed the Canadian Bill of Rights but also stood up to racism in Canada, enabling the migration of Canadians of African and Caribbean ancestry into Canada. Thanks to Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, my parents were able to migrate to Canada from the then British West Indies. Lester B. Pearson, who won the Nobel Peace Prize back in 1957, championed our national identity as a progressive actor in international peacekeeping and our Canadian maple leaf flag. Thanks to Justin Trudeau's father Pierre, multiculturalism became a Canadian ideal that complemented Pierre Trudeau's championing of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a basis for black and other Canadians to affirm human rights. Joe Clark had an extremely short-lived tenure term as prime minister, but that did not stop him from immediately appointing Lincoln Alexander as Canada's first black cabinet mister in 1979. Former prime minister Jean Chretien has appointed cabinet ministers who were of Caribbean descent in central roles of authority. These were Jean Augustine and Hedy Fry. Jean Augustine was also a minister in Prime Minister Paul Martin's government. In 1990, then Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney appointed Donald Oliver as Canada's first black male senator. In 2010, then Progressive Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper appointed Don Meredith as a second black male senator. In sharp contrast, in "What does the absence of black cabinet ministers say about Canada?", Andray Domise commented on Justin Trudeaus systematic exclusion of black people in his cabinet as he asserted, "Its an incredible pleasure for me to be here today, before you, to present to Canada a cabinet that looks like Canada. It is apparent in these words that Justin Trudeau's Canada doesn't include black people as a respected part of Canadian diversity, and even for those "visible minorities" included in Trudeau's cabinet, their ability to support and defend the integrity of Canada as a constitutional democracy has been severely limited. That's what Judy Wilson-Raybould, who Justin Trudeau unceremoniously kicked-out of his government, found out. Furthermore, it is also notable that since the retirement of two Canadian black male Senators, Senator Donald Oliver and Senator Don Meredith, Justin Trudeau has systematically sought to exclude qualified black male candidates from becoming a senator in Trudeau's supposedly reformed Senate. When we see all of the failed opportunities Justin Trudeau had to demonstrate that he is committed to redressing the anti-black-male racism which is at the heart of ongoing police brutalities and murders against black males which Black Lives Matter seeks to redress, it is clear that he has shown himself to be a "blackface" prime minister whose rhetoric lacks political substance and integrity. Justin Trudeau therefore lacks any moral authority to express any solidarity with anyone or any group on matters regarding the pursuit of racial justice. Justin Trudeau's actions have been an insult to everyone who seeks to redress the inhumane and oppressive conditions of systemic racism in Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump does not share Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's gift of polite and diplomatic rhetoric. However, it is apparent that black men in the United States under President Donald Trump have made more advances regarding economic participation in society than black men in Canada, where there is a lack of effective procedures to redress cases of discrimination. Whereas U.S. courts give credence to cases involving discrimination and civil rights abuses which have led to large civil settlements, both Canadian criminal and civil court systems have been hostile to giving credence to claims of institutionalized racism which black communities have sought to make in Canada, and Justin Trudeau has championed no judicial reforms in this area. I can tell you from observation that appellate courts like the Ontario Court of Appeals and Canada's Supreme Court are literally dens of racism in Justin Trudeau's Canada. I document this in my book entitled Justin Trudeau, Judicial Corruption and the Supreme Court of Canada. If you're a black male, many judges throughout Canada at all levels of the court system, but especially in appeals courts and the Supreme Court of Canada, will literally ignore any evidence and documents you file and rule against you. As a black male, there is no oversight body in Canada to redress such flagrant human rights abuses. The absence of black people along with other visible minority groups among presiding judges of Canada's Supreme Court speaks volumes about the racial hypocrisy that continues under Justin Trudeau. At no time has Justin Trudeau availed himself to nominate any black males or other visible minorities to the Supreme Court of Canada. It is also notable that the similarly racist Canadian media has failed to observe the lack of visible minority representation among judges of the Supreme Court of Canada. Are there no black lawyers qualified in blackface Justin Trudeau's view to become justices in such superior courts? Actions speak louder than words, and Justin Trudeau's government offers little more to the advocates of racial justice than toothless public relations to the demonstrators he kneeled before during a Black Lives Matter protest in Ottawa. Did Justin Trudeau kneel down on Parliament Hill for the black people and First Nations people who have been murdered by police here at home? This most recently includes 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. Also recently, a 26-year-old Indigenous woman from British Columbia was fatally shot by a police officer she allegedly threatened during a wellness check in Edmundston, New Brunswick. This is yet another murder of a First Nations woman amid resistance by Justin Trudeau to redress the murder of First Nations women. In July 2015, Andrew Loku Regis Korchinski-Paquete, a45-year-old South Sudanese man, was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time he was shot dead by a Toronto police officer while wielding a small hammer . In February 2012, Michael Eligon, a 29-year-old black man, was shot by Toronto police in the middle of an East York street while carrying two pairs of scissors. On July 24, 2016, unarmed Ottawa resident Abdiraham Abdi, a Somali-Canadian man, was killed at the hands of the Ottawa police. Blackface-performing Justin Trudeau's public statements regarding "the horrors of racism" and the "need for solidarity" therefore have no integrity whatsoever. It is apparent that Justin Trudeau regards black men and First Nations peoples as inferior groups that are not deserving of substantive redress beyond public relations rhetoric. Justin Trudeau's failed leadership of black Canadian and First Nations issues is the result of the substantive direction of the federal government in the apparent hands of "blackface." The lack or regard of the Justin Trudeau government on matters pertaining to Afro-Caribbean peoples and First Nations communities manifest from the very same mind that saw fit to act out a racist mind through Blackface caricatures multiple times. Blackface was not simply a moment of youth indiscretion but rather provides a substantive prism from which to appreciate the worsened marginalization of Afro-Caribbean and First Nations groups under Justin Trudeau. An Aboriginal father has accused a Big W worker of terrifying his four-year-old daughter by wrongly accusing her of stealing clothes. Gumbaynggirr man Michael Donovan took his three daughters to the discount department store in Port Augusta, South Australia, last Wednesday. After he had paid, Mr Donovan and his daughters were walking out of the store when a staff member stopped them from leaving, having seen a price tag still attached to the top she was wearing. Gumbaynggirr father Michael Donovan took his three daughters to Big W on Wednesday 'As we were leaving, one of the staff grabbed my four-year-old daughter by the back of the neck and ripped her hoodie back,' Mr Donovan told the ABC. Mr Donovan said all three of his daughters were wearing new clothes they had recently been given by their grandparents. The young girl's grandmother Regina McKenzie claimed the incident was a case of 'racial profiling'. 'She pulled my granddaughter by the hoodie and hurt her neck with the father standing there,' Ms McKenzie told NITV. 'My little granddaughter was really scared, now whenever Michael says they are going to the shop, she starts crying and saying, 'no, I don't want to go there'. 'The father took them down to get them a reward, and the reward they got was being racially profiled.' On Friday Mr Donovan lodged a complaint with police, alleging his daughter was assaulted by the Big W employee. South Australia police reviewed the CCTV footage, which showed that the staff member viewed a price tag that was still attached to the collar of the four-year-old girl's hoodie. 'It was later confirmed that the clothing had been purchased from a different store but the price tag had not been removed prior to entering Big W,' police said in a statement. 'The child was not grabbed or injured as a result of viewing the price tag.' Police said the CCTV footage was 'inconsistent with the original information provided'. 'Police can confirm that the child had not been assaulted and the investigation has been concluded,' the statement said. On Friday Mr Donovan lodged a complaint with police, alleging his daughter was assaulted by the Big W employee (pictured: stock image of Big W store) A Big W spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they had been working with police to resolve the complaint. 'The police have verified the CCTV footage and confirmed that the family was approached by a customer service team member, but no one was assaulted,' the spokesperson said. Employees are routinely asked to check bags and other items as they leave the store but admitted the staff member should have acted more respectfully. 'She [the employee] has apologised wholeheartedly to the family for any upset it has caused,' the spokesperson said. Government of India has issued fresh guidelines for officials and staffers of the Central Government to combat the spread of coronavirus, after several officials in various departments ave tested positive for the infection. The 13 point new guidelines states that only asymptomatic staff shall be allowed in the office and those with mild cough or fever need to stay at home. It further also directs officers and staff residing in containment zone not to come to office and work from home till containment zone is de-notified. The government circular further states that not more than 20 officers and staff members should attend office in a day. It has asked the administrative departments to prepare duty chart accordingly. Read the complete guidelines here: 1) Only asymptomatic staff shall be allowed. Anyone with mild cough or fever needs to stay at home. 2) Officers/Staff residing in containment zone shall not come to office and work from home till containment zone is de-notified. 3) Not more than 20 staff/officers shall be attending office in a day. Roster will be reworked accordingly. Remaining staff will continue to work from home. 4) Under Secretaries/Deputy Secretaries if sharing cabin, then they will come alternate days to enforce social distancing. 5) The Section shall not have more than two officials at a time, staggering office hours shall be followed to ensure not more than 20 staff in any given time in the office. As far as possible windows may be kept open to ensure proper ventilation in halls. 6) Face mask and face shield have to be worn at all times inside the office premises. Disciplinary action will be taken if it found that protocol for mask is not followed in the office. 7) Used Mask and gloves shall be discarded carefully in yellow color bio medical waste bin only, strict action will be taken against people violating this rule. 8) VCs may be attended front he respective rooms of the officers. VC in Board room may be avoided as far as possible. General section will provide necessary equipment to the officers so that they can join web-room from their respective computers. 9) Face to face meetings/discussions/interactions be avoided as far as possible. Officers/Staff will be use intercom/phone/VC for interactions. 10) Handwashing in every half an hour is a must to prevent spread of infection. Hand sanitizing dispensers shall be installed at prominent places in corridors. 11) Frequently touched places such as electric switches, door knobs, elevator buttons, hand rails, washroom fixtures etc shall be cleaned in every one hour with 1% Sodium Hypochlorite. Officers/Staff are also advised to clean their personal equipment like keyboards, mouse, phones, AC remotes etc by themselves by using any ethanol based disinfectant frequently. 12) Distance of 1 mtr shall be maintained while sitting or walking. Vistors' chairs in the cabins of the officers shall be placed accordingly keeping the norms of social distancing. 13) All officers are requested to follow these instructions without fail. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases in India stands at 2,66,598 and 7,466 deaths till Tuesday. An image of George Floyd is projected on the base of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., on Monday. Read more A throng of protesters banged into the Confederate monument in Birmingham, Ala., covering the statue with red spray-paint and chipping away at its base with rocks. One group tried to use a thick green rope to bring down the 52-foot obelisk. Then their mayor showed up with a megaphone. Allow me to finish the job for you, Randall Woodfin told the protesters on May 31. Two days later, he made good on his promise: The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument, first erected more than a century ago, was gone. Regardless of what policy changes come next, the nations massive protests against racial injustice have already secured tangible victories in several cities. Government officials have taken down at least a dozen Confederate memorials, or pledged to do so in the coming days. On Monday alone, work crews in Louisville and Indianapolis dismantled statues honoring members of the Confederate Army. Hours later, the University of Alabama said it would follow suit with campus plaques, and leaders in Arizona and Kentucky announced they would begin similar conversations. Early on Tuesday, another spire came down in Jacksonville. Our streets are filled with voices of anger and anguish, testament to centuries of racism directed at Black Americans, Indianapolis Democratic Mayor Joe Hogsett said. Time is up, and this grave marker will come down. In Virginia, the former seat of the Confederacy, a monument in Alexandria came down a month early and Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam ordered the removal of a massive bust of Robert E. Lee on horseback. Late on Monday, a judge delayed that move for 10 days, in response to a lawsuit saying the state had promised to affectionately protect the statue. READ MORE: The Frank Rizzo statue disappeared last week. Philadelphia is still unpacking its legacy. But other cities have moved ahead, pushing past whatever historical debates or legal questions may still be standing. Louisville Democratic Mayor Greg Fischer had long wanted to take down a bronze statue of John B. Castleman, a former major in the Confederate Army considered the father of his citys parks system. In 2019, a local arts group had sued to keep the mayor from moving the 107-year-old effigy. But after law enforcement in Louisville killed Breonna Taylor and David McAtee, Fischer said it was time for Castlemans statue to go. The events of the past weeks have shown clearly that its not enough just to face our history, he said Monday. Weve got to address its impact on our present. In Alabama, state legislators had passed a law barring cities from removing Confederate statues. After Birmingham boarded up the towering obelisk honoring Confederate sailors and soldiers, the city was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine for obstruction, according to AL.com. Woodfin, the mayor, acknowledged last week while ordering the monuments removal that another lawsuit could follow. But he was willing to accept that outcome, he said, because that is a lower cost than civil unrest in our city. Just as the 2015 Charleston church shooting prompted a purge of Confederate relics across the South, the ongoing protests have led to a similar sort of mass removals and seemingly, in record time. Barely a week ago, many of the monuments were still standing, vandalized during the first wave of demonstrations. In Mobile, Ala., one monument disappeared without a warning. Just days after its sandstone base was covered with graffiti amid the protests, the city quietly removed a statue of Confederate Admiral Raphael Semmes on Friday morning. To be clear: This decision is not about Raphael Semmes, it is not about a monument and it is not an attempt to rewrite history, Republican Mayor Sandy Stimpson said on Twitter. It is about removing a potential distraction so we may focus clearly on the future of our city. A similar argument was put forth by the city council in Rocky Mount, N.C., which voted late on Monday to relocate a statue of a Confederate soldier standing at attention, with the Confederate flag by his side. The monument will be moved from its spot in a park to be permanently placed at a private location. READ MORE: My eyes feel at peace now: Frank Rizzo mural is erased, as calls for racial justice bring change to Phillys Italian Market Reuben Blackwell, a black councilman whose ward includes the statue, said during an emotional testimony to his fellow lawmakers that he could not even bring himself to visit the park where it is located. Its something that memorializes murder to me and to people who look like me, rape to me and [people] who look like me and economic subjugation to me and people who look like me, Blackwell said, according to the Rocky Mount Telegram. His son Cooper had led a peaceful rally at the monument last week, and Blackwell said he would not shed a single tear if someone were to pull the statue down. Then another black councilman, T.J. Walker, spoke up. His fellow millennials have gotten so fed up with racism and white supremacy, the 27-year-old councilman said, that such a conclusion would not be out of the question. If we dont move it, they will take it down, Walker said, and thats the bottom line. Boris Johnson will hold talks with the presidents of the EU institutions later this month - Shutterstock Britain will warn the European Union on Friday that Boris Johnson will not ask for an extension to the Brexit transition period at his forthcoming meeting with the presidents of the EU institutions. Penny Mordaunt told the House of Commons on Tuesday that Mr Johnson will not use the meeting to ask for an extension despite the June 30 deadline to agree a delay of up to two years. A UK-EU trade agreement must be agreed by the end of the year unless there is an extension, or both sides will be forced to trade on less lucrative WTO terms, which include tariffs. The Prime Minister will hold video talks with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, and Davide Sassoli, the president of the European Parliament, later this month after last week's round of trade negotiations with the EU ended in stalemate. Penny Mordaunt said Britain 'will push the EU on implementing their obligations under the terms of the agreement' - Isabel Infantes/AFP Ms Mordaunt, the Paymaster General, said Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, will have a video conference with the EU Commission vice-president, Maros Sefcovic, and Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, on Friday before Mr Johnson talks to the EU chiefs. The meeting of the joint committee on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement will focus on citizens' rights and the Northern Irish protocol, Ms Mordaunt said. "We will also emphasise that we will not be extending the transition period, and will push the EU on implementing their obligations under the terms of the agreement," the MP for Portsmouth North said. "We cannot keep negotiating forever we have to allow our businesses, our farmers, our citizens time to implement the decisions taken, and that is why we are at this key stage now where we have to increase and escalate negotiations because we need to arrive at a deal soon." The trade negotiations have been deadlocked over the issues of fishing rights, the "level playing field" guarantees and the future role of the European Court of Justice. Story continues Ms Mordaunt said the EU had to recognise it was dealing with "a sovereign equal" when it came to its demands for commitments over labour rights, state aid, tax and the environment. She ruled out any possibility of the UK abandoning its red lines over fishing. While the EU wants continued access to UK waters under "existing conditions", the UK wants a Norway-style fishing deal with annual negotiations, which is separate from the free trade agreement. "We want a separate fisheries framework which reflects our rights in international law," she said. "Our requests are simple, reasonable and straightforward, and we want the EU to recognise those rights, recognise us as a sovereign equal and come to the negotiating table with renewed vigor to ensure that we can get that agreement, and the deal." Senior UK negotiating sources have called for progress in July, when talks are hoped to restart with face-to-face meetings. The negotiations were forced online by the coronavirus pandemic, which sent both chief negotiators into quarantine. EU diplomatic sources insist that, with the remaining 27 member states preoccupied with coronavirus, no major breakthrough is likely before September or October. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. A detailed analysis report of the Global Prosthetic Legs Market has been covered in the report coupled with a thorough description of each company profile with information on the H.Q, future capabilities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial outline, partnerships and new product launches and developments. The comprehensive value chain analysis of the market will assist in attaining better product differentiation, along with detailed understanding of the core competency of each activity involved. The market attractiveness analysis provided in the report aptly measures the potential value of the market providing business strategists with the latest growth opportunities. The report classifies the market into different segments based on product type, technology and end-user. These segments are studied in detail incorporating the market estimates and forecasts at regional and country level. The segment analysis is useful in understanding the growth areas and probable opportunities of the market. Final Report will cover the impact of COVID-19 on this industry. Browse the complete Global Prosthetic Legs Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/17573-prosthetic-legs-market-report The report also covers the complete competitive landscape of the global Prosthetic Legs market with company profiles of key players such as: Blatchford Ltd. Hanger Inc. Ossur Rg Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH The Ohio Willow Wood Co. Touch Bionics Inc. A detailed description of each has been included, with information in terms of H.Q, future capacities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial overview, partnerships, collaborations, new product launches, new product developments and other latest industrial developments. SEGMENTATIONS IN THE REPORT: By Product Type: Below Knee Prosthetics Above Knee Prosthetics Liners Sockets Modular Components By Technology: Conventional Hybrid Orthopedic Electric Powered By End-User: Hospitals Prosthetics Clinics Others By Geography: North America (NA) US, Canada & Rest of North America Europe (EU) UK, Germany, France & Rest of Europe Asia Pacific (APAC) China, Japan, India & Rest of APAC Latin America (LA) Brazil & Rest of Latin America Middle East & Africa (MEA) Middle East and Africa Download Free Sample Report of Global Prosthetic Legs Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-17573 The Global Prosthetic Legs Market has been exhibited in detail in the following chapters - Chapter 1 Prosthetic Legs Market Preface Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Prosthetic Legs Industry Analysis Chapter 4 Prosthetic Legs Market Value Chain Analysis Chapter 5 Prosthetic Legs Market Analysis By Product Type Chapter 6 Prosthetic Legs Market Analysis By Technology Chapter 7 Prosthetic Legs Market Analysis By End-User Chapter 8 Prosthetic Legs Market Analysis By Geography Chapter 9 Competitive Landscape Of Prosthetic Legs Companies Chapter 10 Company Profiles Of Prosthetic Legs Industry Purchase the complete Global Prosthetic Legs Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/buy-now-17573 Other Reports by DecisionDatabases.com: Global Cardiac Prosthetic Devices Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 Global Neuroprosthetics Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 Global Dental Implants and Prosthetics Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 About-Us: DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains. Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed. For more details: DecisionDatabases.com E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.com Phone: +91 9028057900 Web: https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ For the most part, we are currently being compelled to do our traveling by ourselves. No large crowds, no long lines, no intermingling. So here is a perfect list of unique and unusual roadside attractions scattered across Upstate New York that you can pull up to (or boat to), step out of your car and learn a little bit about their story. A symbol of non-violence, the Grafton Peace Pagoda was completed after eight years, using only donated and recycled materials for its construction.Stefani Reynolds | NYup.com Peace Pagoda (Grafton, Rensselaer County) It is unlike almost anything you can see in Upstate. Here, off a winding country road and set deep into a deep green forest is a massive, shining white peace pagoda. Completed in 1993, this alabaster roadside jaw-dropper has been visited by people from the four corners of the world. The pagoda was the inspiration of Japanese-American peace activist and Buddhist nun Jun Yasuda. It all started when she called for the freedom of Native American activist Dennis Banks and sat fasting on the steps of the New York State Capitol Building in 1983. During this fast, a Native American activist named Hank Hazelton offered her a piece of land to build a monument for peace. The grounds include the towering ornate pagoda, a temple, outdoor altar, ponds, paths and reflective places. File photo of sculptor Will Salisbury and his steel crows in Omar, NY. The giant birds can be seen from the South bound lane of RT 81 in Alexandria Bay, N.Y.Gary Walts | Syracuse.com Giant bird statues (Omar, Jefferson County) These statues have been drawing double takes from passing motorists ever since they were first installed by sculptor Will Salisbury. Three gigantic black crows, made out of salvaged steel from oil drums and fuel tanks, look at the traffic whizzing by on busy north/south Interstate 81. The birds seem as curious about the humans passing by as the humans do trying to figure out if they actually saw what they saw! With almost a half-million people filling the field, and another million-and-a-half lining the streets trying to get in, there were no recorded acts of violence at the Woodstock Music Festival in August 1969. It was a peaceful gathering, now commemorated by a peace sign carved into the original field.Stefani Reynolds | NYup.com Woodstock Field (Bethel, Sullivan County) If you were not there in 1969 it is fun to just drive slowly around the beautiful manicured great lawn, see the country stream where hundreds skinny-dipped and even spy old Max Yasgurs barn location. What a peaceful setting. Butif you were there you will easily recall the mud-soaked field that held more than 450,000 concert goers, see where the original stage was set up and view the iconic Woodstock monument that still stands today. Marconi Tower (Binghamton, Broome County) It seems like a very small, almost insignificant event now as we look back over a century. But on April 15, 1914 the master inventor himself, Guglielmo Marconi, oversaw the very first radio transmission between a fixed station and a moving station. A message was sent from a giant tower (erected by Marconi) to a train speeding through the Binghamton rail yards. The transmission was a success and was heralded in newspapers around the world. The last remnant of this momentous event is one of the original 60-foot tall towers and a historical marker. File photo of Champlain Memorial Lighthouse at Crown Point on May 13, 2015.David Lassman | Syracuse.com Previously known as Crown Point Lighthouse, it is one of Upstates prettiest lighthouses. But it was not always that way. It started out as the usual government-designed light tower when first lit in 1858. Then, in 1912, the lighthouse got an entire new look for the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the founding of Lake Champlain by Samuel de Champlain. Today, this beautiful graceful tower is adorned with statues, Doric columns, bronze adornments and an original commissioned sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin. The Cross Island Chapel is near Sconondoa Road in Oneida, N.Y.Al Campanie | The Post-Standard Cross Island Chapel (Oneida, Madison County) This tiny non-denominational chapel can easily be viewed from a parking area. But the interior cannot be easily viewed no matter how you decide to try. This chapel sits in the middle of a pond and can be reached by rowboat only. It is certified as the smallest church in the world. Many marriages have taken place inside the diminutive house of worship. Usually, the preacher rows the bride and grown out to the island and performs the matrimonial service to just them. For those interested, the entire indoor floor area of the chapel measures only 28 square feet! Fork in the road (Rhinebeck, Dutchess County) Yogi Berra is credited with telling Joe Garagiola, who was coming to visit Berras home in Montclair, New Jersey: When you come to the fork in the road, take it. Well, you can actually follow those directions right here in Dutchess County near the intersection of NY 199 and NY 308 near where Rhinebeck and Red Hook connect. Erected by local artist Steven Schreiber, this tall, shiny fork literally sits on a patch of grass in the middle of two roads. To say this is one of the regions most popular photo opportunities is an understatement. In 1987, Birkett Mills made the world's largest pancake, at 28 feet and 4.050 pounds !The record breaking flapjack was covered in 15 pounds of butter and 15 gallons of syrup. The 27-foot griddle is proudly displayed outside Birkett Mills' headquarters in Penn Yan, N.Y.Stephen D. Cannerelli | Syracuse.com On September 27, 1987, the good folks at the famed Birkett Mills in Penn Yan wanted to celebrate the history of their buckwheat mill. They decided to hold a Buckwheat Festival which would include the making of the worlds largest pancake. The task was Herculean. Tons of buckwheat grain were placed in a giant cement mixer, the fire department then placed water hoses in the mixer to make the batter. A large fire was built and a huge construction crane (capable of lifting 75 tons) was wheeled into place. The batter was poured over a sprawling griddle and at just the right time the crane successfully flipped the humungous pancake. It was a triumph! Today all that is left is the original pancake griddle which hangs off the side of the Birkett Mills building in downtown Penn Yan. Inscribed on the griddle is the certification from the Guinness Book of Worlds Records telling of its quirky fame. The historic Scythe tree in Waterloo is a living connection to the Civil War.Richard Clauss | NY State DEC Scythe Tree (Waterloo, Seneca County) The story goes that local farmer James Johnson placed his harvesting scythe in the crotch of a tree on his parents farm and went off to fight in the Civil War, vowing to retrieve the tool back when he returned. He died in a Confederate prison and the scythe stayed in the crotch of that tree as a memorial to him for decades. In 1918, two other men placed their scythes in the tree when they went off to fight in World War I. They did survive the war, returned, but left the farm tools in the tree. Today, just the very tips of two of the blades can be seen as the tree has almost totally enveloped all three blades. There is a plaque telling the story of why they are there. When visiting Waterloo, the Birthplace of Memorial Day, pull off the road about two miles west of the village on US Rt. 20, and see this unusual memorial. The H.P. Sears Oil Co. Service Station Museum at 201 North George St. in Rome, N.Y. is a completely restored 1930 historic service station.David Lassman | Syracuse.com Nostalgic gas station (Rome, Oneida County) This vintage Sears Service Station sticks out in the residential area just north of Romes business district. It is gleaming white and red, has original vintage gas tanks, signage, oil changing pit, air pressure gage and other 1930s accoutrements. There is a little museum here dedicated to the Howard Sear gas station franchise which began in Rome in the 1920s. It is free and open to the public. Bring your grandfather with you and he will want to stay for an hour! Shandaken Eagle in Phoenicia, N.Y.Chuck D'Imperio | NYup.com Shandaken Eagle (Phoenicia, Ulster County) If you are unaware of its existence, this statue will startle you as you turn the corner on Rt. 28 approaching the bucolic Catskill community pf Phoenicia. It is a giant 2-ton cast iron eagle perched on a round ball glaring out at all who pass by. The eagle was once one of a dozen similar birds that were perched along the roof line of the original Grand Central Station in New York City. They were placed there in 1871, and taken down in 1898 when the station was remodeled. When the time came to re-open the new station, the eagles were considered a thing of the past. They were dispatched around the New York area to private homes, clubs, a railroad station and other places. Shandakan resident David McLane found and bought one of the eagles for $100 and moved it to its current site. A bronze plaque here tells the story of the birds journey from Grand Central Station to the Catskill Mountains. Palestine Park (Chautauqua, Chautauqua County) Located on the grounds of the famed Chautauqua Institution, Palestine Park is usually overlooked by visitors. It is located near the lakeside and is situated at near ground level so people are usually looking out and over the lake instead. Palestine Park is an amazing scale model of the Holy Land. Tiny white buildings replicate the ancient villages of Bethany, Jericho, Jerusalem and others. You can see the Jericho Wall, Mount of Olives, Jacobs Well and other sites. All in miniature. Chautauqua Lake stands in for the Mediterranean Sea. Palestine Park was built in 1874 when the Chautauqua Institution was still new. It was used as a visual aid while instructing the Bible. More NYUP Hidden Hudson Valley: 10 stops off the beaten path during your next road trip Magical Fairy Trail: Wee folks move to home at Rochester-area park 42 things youll see along the Appalachian Trail in Upstate NY (photos) Spring Destinations: 12 beautiful lakes to visit in Upstate NY EDMONTONThree northern Alberta First Nations are asking to appeal the provinces suspension of environmental monitoring in the oilpatch because it fails to come close to being a reasonable decision. Albertas Opposition leader called on Monday for the head of the provinces energy regulator to resign over the suspensions. They should end (Laurie) Pushors contract, Rachel Notley said Monday. Weve gone from having a world-class monitoring agency and weve turned it into a backroom, deal-making agency in the course of just a few months. The Mikisew Cree First Nation, the Fort McKay First Nation and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation have filed their request to the regulators internal review body. The Alberta Energy Regulator made the decision earlier this spring to suspend monitoring in what it said was an attempt to keep workers and communities safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies no longer have to monitor fumes released by burning, or look for and repair leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Surface water need no longer be tested, unless it escapes into the environment. Most soil and groundwater monitoring is gone. In-situ oilsands operations no longer have to conduct any wildlife monitoring or research. Reclamation and wetland monitoring is also suspended. Although some operations must resume Sept. 30, most suspensions have no end date. There was no consultation. There was no notification of any kind, said Melody Lepine of the Mikisew Cree. We were all quite shocked and quite upset. The appeal argues that the suspensions were made without any rationale linking specific activities to COVID-19 risks and despite work continuing at energy facilities. It points out the hold on monitoring came as Alberta was starting to ease its lockdown and weeks after the province declared a state of emergency over the pandemic. An email from the regulator states the ministerial order indicates the suspensions lapse 60 days after the state of public health emergency ends, or August 15, 2020, whichever is sooner. Industry has estimated that approximately 98 per cent of requirements remain in place. All essential environmental monitoring continues, and all requirements to monitor and report emergency events remain in place, the statement from AER spokeswoman Cara Tobin said. The appeal alleges the move was made at the urging of industry without any attempt to hear from anyone else involved. The long-term consequences of this disregard for the separation between the regulator and the regulated are highly troubling, says the appeal. (They are) to allow proponents to effectively trigger AER decisions ... in a way that circumvents the AERs application process (and) undermines the integrity of the entire statutory regime for energy development in the province. Tobin, however, noted the decisions on which requirements to suspend were based on assessments by technical experts and were carefully chosen to address the conflicts between public health orders and AER requirements. Notley said Pushor, who took over the agency after its previous head left under a cloud of financial wrongdoing, is too close to the Premier Jason Kenneys United Conservative government to be an independent regulator. Theres no question that Pushor is an extension of Kenneys UCP agenda. Theyre one and the same. She said consulting with First Nations affected by a regulatory decision should be instinctive by now. They walked through the looking glass into a world thats 25 years old. Lepine said First Nations still havent been given any explanation of how the province will track environmental impacts during the suspension. Monitoring is one of the conditions under which companies are granted access to the land, Lepine noted. As well, Canada has made international promises to increase monitoring of Wood Buffalo National Park downstream of the oilsands, and the governments decision may break those promises, Lepine said. She said no information has been forthcoming about the impact of the suspensions on the quality of long-term monitoring. Was there an assessment done to evaluate this decision? Lepine asked. Tobin said Albertas long-term environmental information systems would be maintained. These programs collect data over decades and are able to accommodate some breaks in collection and still allow us to assess changes in the environment, Tobin said. Read more about: Vietnam's National Assembly approved a free trade agreement with the European Union on Monday, a move expected to help make the country a new investment destination for manufacturers looking to leave China. The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) was unanimously approved and, following formal ratification, will take effect as early as August. The trade deal has already been ratified by the EU, making Vietnam the second Southeast Asian nation to have such a trade treaty with the European bloc after Singapore. A display in the assembly hall showed that all 457 lawmakers voted in favor of the trade pact on Monday, during the voting session. Of the entire members eligible to vote, 94.62% lawmakers approved the trade pact. "One of the issues that attracted the attention of the National Assembly deputies was that Vietnam had to change its mode of economic activity, and secure customers in the European market after the COVID-19 pandemic," the National Assembly News said on its website before the voting took place. "Along with the benefits, the EVFTA also poses some challenges. The EVFTA creates competitive pressures on goods and services from the EU for Vietnamese businesses, goods and services," the website also pointed out. Once the agreement takes effect, 71% of exports from Vietnam to the EU will become duty-free, as will 65% of EU shipments to Vietnam. The remaining tariffs up to 99% will be phased out by Hanoi over 10 years and by Brussels over seven years. With about 96 million people, Vietnam has the third-largest population among the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Per capita GDP is estimated at nearly $3,500 for 2019, topping the $3,000 benchmark at which car and appliance ownership tends to take off. Hanoi already benefits from the EU's preferential tariff scheme. But the trade deal is sure to make the bloc a bigger buyer of Vietnamese goods, rising from its current share of about 15%. Particularly strong growth is expected for apparel and footwear, which account for roughly 20% of Vietnam's total exports. Vietnam ranks as the world's third-largest apparel exporter after China and Bangladesh. Vietnamese textile companies have prepared to enter the EU market. Once the deal takes effect, the bloc is to eliminate tariffs on 77.3% of Vietnam's textile and apparel exports after five years and the remaining 22.7% after seven years. Many companies in the local industry claim their contracts with partners in the EU and the U.S. have been canceled, delayed or scaled down recently. Vietnam's garment industry reported that all enterprises were affected by the pandemic, saying that 70% of members were urged to cut laborers in March and more will have to reduce laborers in April and May. Hopes are growing that the trade deal will give a much-needed boost to Vietnam's economy, which is certain to suffer a slowdown from the 7% growth it enjoyed before the coronavirus pandemic. Vietnam targets garment export turnover of $34 billion this year, down from $39 billion last year. The trade agreement is good news for multinational manufacturers outside EU as well. Among Japanese enterprises, apparel companies such as Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing source clothing in Vietnam, while makers of auto and machinery parts look to increase shipments from Vietnam to Europe. Hanoi's exports to the EU market reached $42 billion in 2019, while the bloc's shipments to Vietnam totaled $15 billion, Vietnamese government data shows. Hanoi has high hopes for the free trade agreement. The Ministry of Planning and Investment expects Vietnam's export revenue to the EU to rise 42.7% by 2025 and 44.37% by 2030 compared with the no-deal scenario. The World Bank projects that the free trade agreement will help raise Vietnam's gross domestic product by 2.4% and lift exports 12% by 2030. Tran Tuan Anh, the minister of industry and trade, has said the agreement will speed the reduction of poverty in Vietnam. "The EVFTA is now more important than ever, as trade wars and a global pandemic disrupt normal business operations on an unprecedented scale," European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam said on Monday. "This agreement represents a true 'win-win' not just for European and Vietnamese enterprises; but also for citizens on both sides. Now, the next step is to ensure a smooth and effective implementation," EuroCham added. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the deal will drive businesses to reignite their export activities after market demand declined due to the coronavirus pandemic. The trade deal gives the EU, whose Vietnam-bound exports include aircraft and automobiles, greater access to an attractive consumer market. Post-Brexit Britain will be part of the EU trade pact with Vietnam until the end of 2020. The U.K. ambassador to Vietnam, Gareth Ward, told British companies here in an online conference that the two countries are working on a bilateral trade deal and expect to reach an agreement by year's end. Vietnam is also part of the free trade effort known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which includes all of Southeast Asia as well as Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The country also seeks a trade deal with Israel. Local companies are urging Vietnam to negotiate a free trade agreement with the U.S. as soon as possible. Nikkei 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. "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" star Porsha Williams says she was first "smacked in the face with racism" as a 6-year-old. ADVERTISEMENT The 38-year-old shared her experience during Monday's episode of "Watch What Happens Live." Williams is the granddaughter of late civil rights activist Hosea Williams. Williams said she was attending a protest with her grandfather as a girl when the group was confronted by the KKK. "It was here in Georgia," she recalled. "We get out there and I'm excited, again, innocent, singing the songs 'We Shall Overcome,' et cetera. I was smacked in the face with racism. "We came across Ku Klux Klan, who decided they were going to protest our protest," she said. "They threw rocks at us. I actually got hit with one." Williams said the KKK chased the group of protesters back to the buses they had arrived in. "They chased us back to the buses and called us the n-word and any other thing you can imagine the KKK would be calling us," she said. FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! Williams said she has since come to feel "empowered" by the experience. "I was out there at such a young age with my grandfather because Forsyth County is really racist. They had actually driven out all of the African Americans who lived there over the years," she said. "We were going there to basically say, 'No, we need to bring black people back in here.'" Williams said she's dealt with racism in the years since and handles it in her "own way." During the after-show, Williams and fellow guest W. Kamau Bell urged people to follow through on their promises to learn and effect change in the wake of George Floyd's death. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died May 25 in Minneapolis, while being restrained by a white police officer who knelt on his neck. "Don't just go black or just go silent after this. Keep continuing to make that voice be heard," Williams said. Williams also encouraged people, especially social media influencers, to amplify black voices. "Everybody's on social media," she said. "Believe it or not, just you posting about a black business or just a black person that you admire -- a black poet, writer, whatever -- it means a lot and it travels." Akela wrote: Columnist: Research shows significant reductions in the number of people smoking, and especially in the number of first-time smokers in those countries that have imposed stringent restrictions on tobacco advertising. This provides substantial grounds for disputing tobacco companies' claims that advertising has no significant causal impact on the tendency to smoke. Which one of the following, if true, most undermines the columnist's reasoning? (A) People who smoke are unlikely to quit merely because they are no longer exposed to tobacco advertising. (B) Broadcast media tend to have stricter restrictions on tobacco advertising than do print media. (C) Restrictions on tobacco advertising are imposed only in countries where a negative attitude toward tobacco use is already widespread and increasing. (D) Most people who begin smoking during adolescence continue to smoke throughout their lives. (E) People who are largely unaffected by tobacco advertising tend to be unaffected by other kinds of advertising as well. Source: LSAT (A) People who smoke are unlikely to quit merely because they are no longer exposed to tobacco advertising. (B) Broadcast media tend to have stricter restrictions on tobacco advertising than do print media. (C) Restrictions on tobacco advertising are imposed only in countries where a negative attitude toward tobacco use is already widespread and increasing. negative attitude toward tobacco A alone causes B C causes B (D) Most people who begin smoking during adolescence continue to smoke throughout their lives. (E) People who are largely unaffected by tobacco advertising tend to be unaffected by other kinds of advertising as well. (C) Magoosh Test Prep Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats (1865 1939) Mike McGarryEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats (1865 1939) Signature Read More A retired police officer who killed a black teenager in a shooting 26 years ago will lose his job at Rowan University following calls for his firing, the schools president said Monday. Peter Amico, director of the universitys emergency management office, was a Glassboro patrolman in 1994 when he responded to a domestic dispute where 14-year-old El Tarmaine L.T. Sanders was chasing his cousin with a knife. The officer said the teen lunged at him with a knife, leading him to shoot. A federal civil rights investigation found no civil rights violations, and a grand jury declined to indict the officer while state prosecutors also found no crime. Witnesses, however, disputed the officers account of the encounter, sparking days of protests. In a statement late Monday, Rowan University President Ali Houshmand said Amico would not be reappointed to his position with the campus public safety department. In recent days, questions have been raised about Rowan Universitys employment of a former police officer who was involved in a controversial incident that led to pain and division in our community more than two decades ago, Houshmand said. Amid the national spotlight on social justice and police matters, the University will not reappoint Peter Amico, director of Rowans Office of Emergency Management, at its June 10 Board of Trustees meeting. We cannot begin to imagine the Sanders family grief. Nothing can replace their loved one, Houshmand said. We also acknowledge the difficulty police officers encounter when called to face uncertain conditions, as well as the public scrutiny they endure in their work among us. Calls for Amicos firing came as protests over police violence toward African Americans swept across the county, prompted by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. James E. Johnson, who worked as an adjunct professor at Rowans College of Education, launched a petition to have the former cop removed, with support of the Sanders family. Amico retired from the Glassboro police in 2009 and began working for Rowan as a private contractor in September 2008, handling issues related to the public safety divisions accreditation process, according to the university. He was hired full-time in 2010 and named director of emergency management in 2013. In that administrative role, he was tasked with preparing and responding to natural disasters and other emergencies. Amico could not be reached on Sunday. Houshmand said his employment would be discontinued. As a University, we believe black lives matter. We are looking hard at our own organization, our policies, structure and culture, the presidents statement added. We found we have work to do. I am sure some of it will be more difficult and uncomfortable than we can imagine. We will be transparent in our transformation and look for opportunities to engage with the University community to bring about much-needed change. - Reporter Matt Gray contributed to this report. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Melbourne's property market reported the highest jump in residential listings in May, according to the recent figures from SQM Research. Over the month, around 4,000 residential properties were added to the city's residential listing stock, equivalent to an 11.6% growth. This brought Melbourne's overall listings to 38,447, the highest amongst all capital cities. On an annual basis, Melbourne reported the smallest decline in listings at 4.3%. Australia's national listing stock increased by 3.9% over the month to 304,137. Louis Christopher, managing director at SQM Research, said the increase in the national level was driven by older stock not selling. "New listings actually fell for the month at the national level, which is abnormal for May. Though we have recorded rises in new listings for Sydney and Melbourne, other cities such as Brisbane, Adelaide and others recorded a decline in new stock," he said. Rob German, director at Full Circle Property Advocates, said even more stock in Melbourne had been listed in the first few days of June. Buyers can take advantage of the market, because while stock levels are down, there is still a fair bit of off-market activity occurring, German said in a report in The Herald Sun. It puts buyers in a real position of strength and they can often negotiate to their price. The increase in Melbourne's residential listing stock came as prices started to show weakness. Recent figures from CoreLogic show that Melbourne's median house value declined by 0.9% in May to $686,798. "With restrictive policies being progressively lifted or relaxed, the downwards trajectory of housing values could be milder than first expected," said Tim Lawless, head of research at CoreLogic. Tourists take part in a night tour at the Longmen Grottoes scenic area in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, June 8, 2020. The Longmen Grottoes scenic area has introduced night tour programs since April 10 to meet tourist needs. Tourists can visit some of the finest Chinese Buddhist art here. (Xinhua/Li An) Advertisement Lori Vallow's husband Chad Daybell has been arrested and charged with a felony count of destruction or concealment of evidence after human remains were recovered from his property on Tuesday. Rexburg Assistant Police Chief Gary Hagen announced the discovery of the currently unidentified remains at a brief press conference near the property in Salem, Idaho. This is the second time law enforcement have searched Daybell's home during their seven-month hunt for the 'cult mom's missing kids. Hagen said it was too soon to say whether the remains belonged to Lori's children, Joshua 'JJ' Vallow and Tylee Ryan, who were last seen in September. During a second press briefing Tuesday, Hagen said officers were continuing to search the home for any further evidence related to the case. An autopsy will also be carried out on the remains in the coming days, Hagen said. Daybell, meanwhile, has been booked into the Fremont County Jail with no bond set at this time. The 51-year-old is due to appear before a judge to be arraigned at 11am local time on Wednesday. His attorney, Mark Means, has not yet responded to a DailyMail.com request for comment. Scroll down for video Chad Daybell has been booked into the Fremont County Jail with no bond set at this time. The 51-year-old is due to appear before a judge to be arraigned at 11am tomorrow morning Human remains have been recovered from the property of Lori Vallow's husband Chad Daybell, police confirmed after he was taken into custody on Tuesday while they raided his home for the second time in a seven-month hunt for the 'cult' mom's missing kids In this aerial photo, investigators search what appears to be a burn pit and dig near a patch of recently disturbed earth A statement released by the police department on Tuesday evening said officers were continuing to search the home for any further evidence related to the case This is the second time law enforcement have searched Daybell's home during their seven-month hunt for the 'cult mom's missing kids Police said it was too soon to say whether the remains belonged to Lori's missing children, Joshua 'JJ' Vallow and Tylee Ryan, who were last seen in September One Foot In The Grave: Chad Daybell penned book about how 'rewarding' it was working as a grave digger but that it's 'sad to bury babies' Years before he was linked to the disappearance of Lori Vallow's missing children, Chad Daybell worked as a 'cemetery sexton' - or grave digger - while studying at Brigham Young University in Utah in the mid-1990s. Chad described the job in an interview with the Deseret News in 2001. 'Taking care of the graves is rewarding, as well as helping widows and grieving family members deal with the trauma,' he said. 'Sad times are always when you have to bury babies. That's always a poignant moment.' Chad published an entire nonfiction book about his experiences that same year, entitled: One Foot in the Grave: Secrets of a Cemetery Sexton. He left that job soon after the book was finished and went on to publish more than 25 other titles, many of them about near-death experiences and the end of the world. Chad briefly reprised his sexton role years later in 2008 by working part time at a cemetery in Springville. Advertisement Authorities had arrived at the home hours earlier to execute a search warrant. Aerial footage from the East Idaho News showed investigators digging up soil around what appeared to be a well in the back yard. At about 11.30am Rexburg officers were seen handcuffing Chad and placing him in a police vehicle after stopping him on the road near his home. Lori has spent the past four months behind bars on charges of abandonment and desertion in connection with the children's disappearance. She and Chad - the prolific Doomsday author, alleged cut leader and former grave digger whom she married less than two months after her kids vanished - have repeatedly refused to say where the children are but insisted that they were safe. The last known sighting of 17-year-old Tylee was on September 8, when she visited Yellowstone National Park with her family. JJ, who would have turned eight last month, was last seen two weeks later on September 23. While some relatives believed that Lori would never hurt her kids, others feared that they could be dead. Fremont County Sheriff's deputies, Rexburg Police officers and FBI agents arrived at Chad's home on 200 block of 1900 East at about 7am Tuesday with a search warrant. Video showed them using a backhoe to dig up dirt near a barn in the yard. FBI spokeswoman Sandra Barker confirmed that the agency's Evidence Response Team is assisting local authorities with the execution of the warrant. Police told media outlets on the scene that they planned to be there for several hours or days. Chief Hagan said an autopsy will be carried out on the remains found at the property in the coming days. Footage capture by a bystander also showed police towing one of Daybell's cars away from the property. This is the second major raid performed at the Daybell home since police began searching for the children in late November. During the previous raid on January 3, authorities removed 43 items from the home and combed over several sections of the yard with metal detectors and rakes. Lori and Chad are also being investigated for conspiracy, attempted murder and murder in the death of Chad's first wife Tammy Daybell, who mysteriously died at the Salem home in October. Authorities began searching for the children in late November after performing a welfare check ordered by concerned relatives who said they hadn't spoken to seven-year-old JJ, who is autistic, in months. When officers first went to Lori's home in Idaho on November 26, she told them that JJ was visiting relatives in Arizona - which investigators say was a lie. Officers returned the following day and found that Lori and the man she married weeks earlier, Chad Daybell, had fled from the home. Authorities say the couple have repeatedly lied about where JJ and Tylee are and refused to cooperate with the investigation. Lori and Chad were named persons of interest in the children's disappearance after investigators said they believe the mother knew where her children were or what happened to them. The case captured nationwide attention with the revelations that police are also investigating three mysterious deaths linked to Lori and Chad, as well as family members' claims that the couple are members of a dangerous doomsday cult. The first death is that of Lori's estranged husband Charles Vallow, who was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox in Arizona on July 10. Charles and Lori had gotten into an argument when the father came to pick up JJ at the mother's home in Chandler. Chad has now been booked into jail. Lori is already currently behind bars on charges of neglect and desertion in the case Rexburg Assistant Police Chief Gary Hagen said Chad (above in gray) had been taken in for questioning but did not disclose whether he is facing any charges Law enforcement vehicles are seen lined up on the street outside Chad's property on Tuesday. His home is seen to the far right of the image, and the red structure near to where law enforcement are stood appears to be a barn Aerial footage from the East Idaho News showed officers digging up soil around what appears to be a well in the backyard Footage captured by a bystander also showed police towing one of Daybell's cars away from the property LIVE FROM THE AIR: Search warrant issued at Daybell home. Posted by East Idaho News on Tuesday, June 9, 2020 During a Tuesday evening press briefing , Hagen said officers were continuing to search the home for any further evidence related to the case Chad's home in Salem is seen in January, when police executed an earlier search warrant FBI agents removed 43 items from Chad's home during their initial raid in January. Officers were also seen combing sections of the yard with rakes and metal detectors Chad married Lori less than two months after her children vanished. The couple are seen during their wedding on the beach in Kauai Tylee was last seen on September 8 when she visited Yellowstone National Park with her family (pictured). JJ was last seen two weeks later on September 23 A statement released by the police department on Tuesday evening said officers were continuing to search the home for any further evidence related to the case. Rexburg police also confirmed that Daybell is set to be charged, though the specific nature of those charges was not immediately offered Lori's brother intervened and fatally shot Charles. Police initially determined that he acted in self defense - but the case was reopened amid the multi-state search for JJ and Tylee, who had moved to Idaho, where Chad lived, with their mother in August. The second mysterious death was Tammy Daybell, who was found dead at the home she shared with Chad on October 19. An obituary stated that Tammy passed away in her sleep and her cause of death was ruled as natural after Chad reportedly declined an autopsy. Investigators reopened the case after learning that JJ and Tylee were missing, as their mother had married Chad just two weeks after Tammy died. They believe the two cases could be linked. Tammy's body was exhumed on December 11 and the autopsy results have not yet been released. On December 12, Lori's brother, Alex Cox, was found dead in Gilbert, Arizona. An autopsy determined that the 51-year-old's died of natural causes but noted that he had the overdose drug Narcan in his system at the time. Police tracked Lori and Chad down in Princeville, Hawaii, in late January and served the mother with a court order requiring her to physically produce the children to authorities in Idaho by January 30. Lori failed to meet the deadline, prompting her arrest and extradition to Idaho, where she is currently being held at Madison County Jail in lieu of $1million bond. Last month Lori's former best friend Melanie Gibb made the dire prediction that the children are dead during an exclusive interview with East Idaho News. 'They're not on this planet anymore,' Gibb said. 'I don't think they are. That's my personal opinion.' She went on to reveal her suspicions that Alex Cox, Lori's brother, may have done something to the children for Lori or for a 'higher reason' related to the family's extreme religious belief that the end of the world is approaching. 'If he really truly believed these things, maybe he felt he was doing something good for not only them, but God,' she said. Chad's wife Tammy Daybell (pictured together) was found dead under suspicious circumstances at their home in Idaho in October Lori's fourth husband Charles Vallow (pictured together) was shot dead by her brother, Alex Cox, in July 2019 Lori's brother Alex Cox died under mysterious circumstances on December 12 Timeline of JJ and Tylee's disappearance July 11, 2019: Lori Vallow's husband, Charles Vallow, is killed by her brother, Alex Cox, in Arizona. Police initially rule that Alex acted in self defense but reopen the case months later after the children are reported missing. August: Lori moves children JJ and Tylee to Rexburg, Idaho, where her future husband Chad Daybell lives with his wife Tammy. September 8: The last time Tylee is seen during a trip to Yellowstone National Park with Lori, JJ and Alex. In the following weeks she tells people who ask where Tylee is that she's studying at Brigham Young University's Idaho campus. September 23: The last time JJ is seen at his school in Rexburg. Lori emailed the school the following day and claims she is moving the family to California for a new job. October 2: Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Lori's niece Melanie Pawlowski, is targeted in a drive-by shooting in Arizona. Police identify the vehicle carrying the shooter as a Jeep registered to Charles Vallow, Lori's late husband. October 19: Chad's wife Tammy, 49, dies at their Idaho home. An obituary states that she passed away peacefully in her sleep. Chad declines an autopsy and her death is listed as natural causes. October 25: A friend of Tylee receives a vague 'miss you' text from her phone but says that it didn't sound like the teen. November 5: Lori and Chad tie the knot on a beach in Kauai. Receipts indicate that Lori purchased her own wedding ring from Amazon nearly three weeks prior to Tammy's death. November 26: Out-of-state relatives ask Idaho police to perform a welfare check on JJ. Lori and Chad claim he is in Arizona with relatives and ask their friend, Melanie Gibb, to lie and say she took the boy there for Thanksgiving. Police soon learn that no one has seen JJ, or his older sister Tylee, since September. November 27: Police execute a search warrant related to the children at Lori's home and discover that she and Chad have fled Idaho. December 11: Tammy's body is exhumed from a Utah cemetery and her death is reclassified as suspicious. December 12: Lori's brother, Alex Cox, is found unresponsive in a bathroom in Arizona and dies. Months later an autopsy determines that he died of natural causes while he had the overdose drug Narcan in his system. December 21: Rexburg police issue the first press release about JJ and Tylee, revealing they believe their disappearance could be linked to Tammy's death and asking the public for information. December 24: Lori and Chad issue a statement through an attorney saying they love their son and daughter and look forward to addressing 'allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor'. December 30: Police accuse Lori and Chad of lying to investigators and say they believe the couple know where the kids are or what happened to them. January 3, 2020: Police search Chad's home in Salem and remove 43 items, including tech devices and journals. They also comb over sections of the snow-covered yard with rakes and metal detectors. January 26: Lori and Chad are seen for the first time in months as police serve them with two search warrants in Kauai. Lori is also served with a court order to produce the children to authorities in Idaho in five days. The couple are approached by the media while officers serve the documents and refuse to say anything about the children. January 30: Lori misses the court deadline to produce the children to Idaho authorities. February 20: Lori is arrested in Kauai and charged with two felony counts for desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, and one misdemeanor count each for resisting and obstructing an officer, solicitation of a crime, and contempt of court. March 5: Lori is extradited to Idaho, where she is held on $1million bond at Madison County Jail. March 17: Lori professes her innocence in a statement through her attorney as two other members of her defense team quit and the judge removes himself from the case. March 24: Court documents filed in the divorce of Lori's niece Melani and her husband Brandon Boudreaux allege that Lori told people she believed her children were zombies before they disappeared. April 9: Authorities reveal they are investigating Lori and Chad for murder, attempted murder and conspiracy in connection with Tammy's death. May 25: Idaho police issue a statement expressing hope that the kids will be found safe on what would have been JJ's eighth birthday. June 9: Police search Chad's home in Salem for the second time and discover human remains in the backyard. Chad is taken into police custody and charged with destruction or concealment of evidence. Advertisement Gibb, who has known the Vallow family for years, offered a brief explanation for why she doesn't think it's possible that the children are alive. 'Tylee is a very strong-willed individual, and she's capable of making a phone call if she needs to call, and she hasn't reached out to anybody and let anybody know she's alive,' she said. 'I can't imagine she would be quiet the whole time.' Last month Lori's former best friend Melanie Gibb (pictured) made the dire prediction that the children are no longer alive during an interview with East Idaho News Addressing the possibility that Tylee is hiding out with JJ, Gibb noted that it would be difficult for the teen to take care of the boy alone because he's autistic. 'JJ's a handful. He wouldn't have his medication with him, so how could she take care of him?' Gibb said. 'It doesn't add up.' She also questioned the fact that Lori and her new husband Chad Daybell fled Idaho for Hawaii soon after police discovered the children were missing. 'If they're in a safe place, why is [Lori] in Hawaii having a great time on her honeymoon when her children are hiding for safety?' she asked. 'That doesn't even make sense. I think most people understand that.' Gibb also described how Lori and Chad allegedly asked her to lie to police and say she was with JJ when the kids were first reported missing. She refused to comply with their requests and has been cooperating with investigators from the start, she said. Gibb went into great detail about Chad and Lori's extreme religious beliefs, which centered around the idea that the end of the world is coming this summer. She recounted how Lori told her she believed JJ was a zombie just days before the boy disappeared, and how Chad had convinced her that the kids were 'dark' spirits. Several relatives of Lori, including her mother Janis Cox, sister Summer Shiflet and niece Melani Pawlowski have defended her in recent weeks. Gibb met Lori (above together) in October 2018 through the Church of Latter-day Saints. She last spoke to Lori back in November, days after the children were reported missing Janice Cox and Shiflet broke their silence for the first time in an interview with CBS News aired on May 16. The women failed to explain why Lori has so far refused to cooperate with investigators trying to find out what happened to her children. When asked about the matter, they replied in unison: 'Well, that's a great question,' laughing towards one another as they spoke. However, they insisted that Lori would never hurt either of her kids. 'She's invested her whole life in those children,' Janice Cox said. 'So we know there's another whole side to this. We don't know what it is. But we know her.' When asked why, as a 'loving grandmother' and 'loving aunt', they hadn't approached Lori to reveal to them where the children are, Shiflet replied: 'She can't tell us. 'She's in jail. She's not everything's recorded. So she's not gonna tell us, she can't discuss anything about the case.' Janice Cox added: 'I'm positive beyond any doubt that they hasn't harmed those kids.' Reporter Jonathan Vigliotti pressed by asking: 'Do you think they're in a bunker somewhere?' 'I think that's possible,' the mother said, but she did not elaborate on where she believed the children were. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday underwent a test for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) after he developed a sore throat and mild fever on Sunday. At present, the fever of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor has come down and his throat pain is also decreasing, news agency ANI reported. Kejriwal, 51, on Sunday complained of fever and cancelled all of his meetings thereafter. He isolated himself at home. An AAP spokesperson said that Kejriwal consulted a doctor over the phone, who suggested that he get tested by Tuesday if the symptoms did not subside. On Sunday, Kejriwal briefed the media through a webcast on allowing shopping malls, restaurants and places of religious worship in the city to reopen. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia represented Kejriwal at the state disaster management authoritys meeting on Tuesday to look into the possibility of community transmission of Covid-19 in Delhi and healthcare strategies. Sisodia said after the meeting that officers of central government were present at the meeting and they said that there is no community spread in Delhi. On Sunday morning, Kejriwal held a cabinet meeting at his official residence which was attended by many ministers, including Sisodia, Environment Minister Gopal Rai, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, officials said. Chief Secretary Vijay Dev was also present during the meeting. After the cabinet meeting, Kejriwal cancelled all his official engagements, officials said. The national capital has 29,943 Covid cases, the countrys third highest tally after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Mardika Parama (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 10 2020 The government aims to boost homeownership in Indonesia through its public housing savings program (Tapera), which requires employers and workers to contribute to a mortgage loan scheme similar to universal healthcare insurance. However, some employers and workers have said the program will be an added burden. Public Works and Housing Ministry Infrastructure Financing Director General Eko Djoeli Heripoerwanto said recently that Tapera would help provide funds for first-time homebuyers and increase the homeownership rate. "Our target is to help 11 million new homeowners to purchase homes. To achieve this, the government must provide funds [via Tapera] to 5 million households," he told a virtual press briefing on June 5. 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 (L-R) Commentator Rush Limbaugh, President Donald Trump, and singer Lee Greenwood at a Make America Great Again rally in Cape Girardeau, Mo., on Nov. 5, 2018. (Hu Chen/The Epoch Times) Trump to Resume Campaign Rallies After Months-Long Break President Donald Trump plans to resume campaign rallies sometime in the next two weeks after a three-month break because of the CCP virus pandemic, the Trump campaign has confirmed. Americans are ready to get back to action and so is President Trump. The great American comeback is real and the rallies will be tremendous, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement on June 8. Parscale asserted that crowds at Trump rallies will far surpass those of Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden. Trumps campaign advisers are still figuring out details, such as where the rallies will take place and what safety measures to require of attendees amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. Parscale will provide Trump with a number of venue options within the next week. Trump hasnt held a campaign rally since March 2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The CCP virus prompted the majority of U.S. states that month to implement lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. However, Trump has shown his eagerness to reopen the nation for business, and he has visited certain states in recent weeks. The Trump administration in mid-April unveiled a three-phase set of guidelines titled Opening Up America Again, intended for state and local officials to refer to in reopening their economies, getting people back to work, and continuing to protect American lives. The guidelines sought to help ease restrictions in areas of the country where the transmission rate of the CCP virus is low, while maintaining the restrictions in areas of higher rates of transmission. Prior to the CCP virus pandemic, Trump rallies traditionally drew tens of thousands of people to arenas or outdoor amphitheaters. Trump announced last week that he was forced to seek another state to host the 2020 Republican National Convention, after North Carolina wouldnt guarantee that the event could be held without restrictions due to the virus. A spokesperson for the states governor, Roy Cooper said at the time that Trump wanted a full convention arena with no face coverings and no social distancing. Trump is set to resume campaign fundraisers this week, with smaller high-dollar events in Dallas and at his private club in New Jersey. The roughly two dozen attendees at each fundraiser will be administered CCP virus tests before being allowed to enter the events. For most people, the CCP virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Fire burning along the BR163 highway in the Amazon rainforest September 2019; experts fear the 2020 fire season could be worse As tens of thousands of fires consumed the Amazon last year, it seemed the world's biggest rainforest could not be in greater peril. But now fire season is here again, and the coronavirus pandemic risks making it even worse. This year, experts say, the huge number of trees already felled in the rainforest could fuel more destructive fires. Meanwhile, the smoke risks causing a new spike in respiratory emergencies in a region already overwhelmed with them because of coronavirus. And there is a potentially vicious circle fueling these twin crises: the more the region is consumed by the pandemic, the less environmental authorities have staff and resources to protect the forest; but the more the forest burns, the worse the health crisis will get. Last August, scenes of the Amazon burning triggered world outcry, as giant swathes of one of Earth's most vital resources sent a thick haze of black smoke all the way to Sao Paulo, thousands of kilometers away. In a report published Monday, the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) warned that this year, fire season, which typically starts in June with dryer weather, could be far more devastating. Amazon fires are caused mainly by illegal farmers and ranchers who clear land and torch the trees. But last year, international scrutiny and Brazil's decision to deploy its army to the region forced many of them to forego the "burn" part of the slash-and-burn method, experts say. "A deforested area of at least 4,500 square kilometers (1,750 square miles) in the Amazon, three times larger than the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, is ready to burn," IPAM said. Meanwhile, slashing has increased. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a record high of 1,843 square kilometers in the first five months of 2020, according to satellite data. IPAM said the figure of 4,500 square kilometers would probably double by August. "If only 60 percent of this estimated area burns, we will have a fire season in the region similar to that of 2019," it said. "If 100 percent of this area burns, we will be able to witness an unprecedented health calamity in the Amazon region, when adding the effects of COVID-19." Fuel to the fire Last year's fires triggered international criticism of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right climate-change skeptic who wants to legalize logging, farming and mining on protected Amazon land. Bolsonaro initially downplayed the fires as they ripped through the forest with the help of hot temperatures and a long dry season. But eventually, he gave in to pressure and deployed the army to crack down on deforestation. The strategy workedin the short term. "What I saw in lots of different areas where I work ... is that people just didn't burn. They left the forest on the ground. So then it brings another angle to the story, which is, when is this going to burn?" said Erika Berenguer, an Amazon ecologist at Oxford and Lancaster Universities. "If it burns now ... we have respiratory illness due to smoke, and we have COVID," she told AFP. Feedback loop Brazil, which holds about 60 percent of the Amazon, is the latest epicenter of the pandemic, with the third-highest death toll worldwide. The Amazon region has been hit hard, with overstretched hospitals and indigenous populations that are especially vulnerable to outside diseases. Brazil's Amazonas state has just one intensive care unit to serve an area more than four times the size of Germany. It has had to dig mass graves and store cadavers in refrigerator trucks to cope. Meanwhile, coronavirus has reduced the authorities' capacity to stop record deforestation driven by illegal agriculture, logging and mining. "The bad guys and land-grabbers aren't in quarantine while the good guys, police and government agents are fighting the virus," IPAM's director, Andre Guimaraes, told newspaper Globo. The diversion may be deliberate. Environment Minister Ricardo Salles was recorded in April saying the government should take advantage of the pandemic distraction to relax regulations. Meanwhile, air pollution from fires could cause a critical new phase in Brazil's coronavirus crisis. "This nefarious combination can result in an unprecedented burden on the already fragile and deficient health system in the Amazon," IPAM said. Explore further Brazilian Amazon deforestation hits new Jan-Apr high 2020 AFP ATLANTA - Two Atlanta police officers who were fired after video showed them using stun guns on two college students pulled from a car in traffic during a large protest against police brutality are looking to get their jobs back. Former Investigators Mark Gardner and Ivory Streeter sued Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Police Chief Erika Shields on Monday. The lawsuit alleges that the officers were fired in violation of the citys code, without investigation, proper notice or a pre-disciplinary hearing. Bottoms and Shields have said they reviewed body camera footage from the May 30 incident and decided to immediately fire the officers and place three others on desk duty. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard brought criminal charges on June 2 against Gardner, Streeter and four other officers involved in the incident. Gardner and Streeter are charged with aggravated assault Gardner for using a Taser against 20-year-old Taniyah Pilgrim and Streeter for using a Taser against 22-year-old Messiah Young according to warrants. Pilgrim and Young, who are dating, are students at different historically black colleges near downtown Atlanta. Pilgrim was released the night of the incident with no charges. Young was arrested and charged with eluding police, but the mayor has said she ordered the charges dropped. Shields has since questioned the timing and appropriateness of the charges against the officers. In their lawsuit, the fired officers seek reinstatement to their jobs, as well as back pay and benefits. The suit states that the officers were denied due process, and that the other officers who engaged in substantially similar conduct were not dismissed. Neither Bottoms nor the police department responded to a request for comment late Monday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Lawyers for the college students have said their clients were caught in traffic caused by a protest over the May 25 police custody death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Four Minneapolis officers were arrested in the death of the African American man. ___ This story has been corrected to show the filing was a lawsuit, not a court order. These statistics demonstrate that people with cancer are missing necessary screenings, and those with heart attack or stroke symptoms are staying home during the precious window of time when the damage is reversible. In fact, a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians and Morning Consult found that 80 percent of Americans say they are concerned about contracting the coronavirus from visiting the emergency room. Unfortunately, weve witnessed grievous outcomes as a result of these delays. Recently, a middle-aged patient with abdominal pain waited five days to come to a Mayo Clinic emergency department for help, before dying of a bowel obstruction. Similarly, a young woman delayed care for weeks out of a fear of Covid-19 before she was transferred to a Cleveland Clinic intensive care unit with undiagnosed leukemia. She died within weeks of her symptoms appearing. Both deaths were preventable. The true cost of this epidemic will not be measured in dollars; it will be measured in human lives and human suffering. In the case of cancer alone, our calculations show we can expect a quarter of a million additional preventable deaths annually if normal care does not resume. Outcomes will be similar for those who forgo treatment for heart attacks and strokes. Over the past 12 weeks, hospitals deferred nonessential care to prevent viral spread, conserve much-needed personal protective equipment and create capacity for an expected surge of Covid-19 patients. During that time, we also have adopted methods to care for all patients safely, including standard daily screenings for the staff and masking protocols for patients and the staff in the hospital and clinic. At this point, we are gradually returning to normal activities while also mitigating risk for both patients and staff members. The Covid-19 crisis has changed the practice of medicine in fundamental ways in just a matter of months. Telemedicine, for instance, allowed us to pivot quickly from in-person care to virtual care. We have continued to provide necessary care to our patients while promoting social distancing, reducing the risk of viral spread and recognizing patients fears. BOERNE, Texas, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Water Supply Company ("TWS" or the "Company"), a diversified wholesale water supply company serving San Antonio and the surrounding Texas Hill Country region, announced today that Kevin Meier has been promoted to President of the Company. In this role, Kevin will oversee all TWS operations and customer relations. Bill Gehrmann, who had served as the Company's CEO, will transition his role and pursue other opportunities. Kevin is experienced in land and groundwater development, and has helped the TWS Board in many of the Company's growth initiatives to date. He is a Texas native and a graduate of Texas A&M University. "Since joining the Company in 2017, Bill has helped transform TWS into a leading diversified wholesale water supplier. We are extremely grateful for Bill's contributions to the Company and wish him the best in his future endeavors," said Raul Deju, Chairman of TWS. "Looking to the future, Kevin has been an integral member of the TWS team for over three years, and we are confident that he has the skills, relationships, and expertise as the Company enters its next phase of growth." "I look forward to building on the strong platform that Bill has helped create," said Kevin Meier. "I'm determined to lead our company as we continue investing in water infrastructure to support the growing needs of the Hill Country economy." "I have greatly appreciated my experience at TWS, the dedication of the team, and the relationships we have built throughout the community. Having worked closely with Kevin over the last three years, I am confident that he is the right person to lead TWS into the future," said Bill Gehrmann. About Texas Water Supply Company Headquartered in Boerne, Texas, Texas Water Supply and its predecessors were founded more than 20 years ago with the goal of identifying new potential water sources for the growing San Antonio region. The Company currently operates two well fields in northern Bexar county with enough annual water supply to provide sustainable drinking water to more than 200,000 people. The Company's customers include residential, commercial and industrial customers in the San Antonio area and surrounding counties (including Comal county, the 2nd fastest growing county in the United States). For more information, please visit texaswatersupply.com. CONTACT: [email protected] SOURCE Texas Water Supply Company Related Links https://texaswatersupply.com Understanding the ins and outs of the divorce process. Keeping the focus on your children during the divorce. How to stay safe in a violent relationship while divorcing. Paying for college during and after divorce. "Many people in bad marriages don't know where to turn to get information on the nuts and bolts of getting divorced. Information is power, and we want to give people the tools they need to make the right decision for them," said Barriere. "Getting divorced is difficult, but it's that much harder for people who walk into it uninformed. We want to demystify the process and help alleviate some of the suffering that goes along with making the very painful decision to divorce. We can't take away the pain, but we can make it easier," added Crowley. Each webinar will include a presentation and a Q&A session at the end. The webinar is free of charge and the content will be available on the firm's website for anyone who cannot attend the session live. About Burns & Levinson LLP At Burns & Levinson, we provide high-level, client-centric and results-oriented legal services to our regional, national and international clients. We are a full-service law firm with over 125 lawyers in Boston, Denver, Providence, and London. Our areas of expertise include: business/finance, business litigation, divorce/family law, venture capital/emerging companies, employment, estate planning, government investigations, intellectual property, M&A/private equity, probate/trust litigation, and real estate. We partner with our clients to solve their business and personal legal issues in a collaborative, creative and cost-effective way. For more information, visit Burns & Levinson at www.burnslev.com . Contact: Amy Blumenthal or Kristen Weller Blumenthal & Associates Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer (617) 879-1511 (617) 345-3555 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Burns & Levinson Related Links http://www.burnslev.com The account of conservative activist Candace Owens was suspended by the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe on Sunday following her raising over $200,000 for an Alabama business owner who called African-American man George Floyd a "thug." On Saturday, the activist established a fundraising campaign on the platform to raise funds for the founder of Parkside Cafe in Birmingham, Alabama, Michael Dyke. This was following the scenario on Friday when the business owner texted Robert Bagwell, his bar co-owner, and an employee condemning Floyd and protesters indicating that they should go up one or 2 dollars on all prices until June 10. In support of Parkside Cafe, the right-wing commentator tweeted that $205,000 worth of donations were provided to her GoFundMe in a couple of hours after posting on Sunday. Dykes reportedly remarked that protesters fighting for his murder, racism, and police violence are "idiots." Owens' GoFundMe handle was also axed due to a consistent pattern of inflammatory statements. The pro-Trump figure has become one of the right's most illustrious detractors of the black man and the protests held due to his death. In a viral video on Facebook, she underscored his criminal track record. According to GoFundMe, her crusade contravened their policies on any form of intolerance. Owens posted online GoFundMe's email indicating that her account had been terminated for infringing on the company's banning on "user content that we deem, in our sole discretion, to be in support of hate, violence, harassment, bullying, discrimination, terrorism or intolerance of any kind." Also, Owens caught the ire of the Black Lives Matter movement last week when she touted Floyd as "neither a martyr or a hero" in a video on Twitter. Also Read: Cole Sprouse Arrested During Peaceful Black Lives Matter Protest Her video was then supported by President Donald Trump following her conversation with Glenn Beck regarding the protests. "The fact that he has been held up as a martyr sickens me. George Floyd was not a good person, I don't care who wants to spin that. I don't care how CNN wants to make you think he changed his life around," Owens told Beck in an interview. "He was just after his sixth or fifth stint in prison." The aforementioned text message was forwarded to other employees of the bar, leading 3 other staffers to resign. An employee who read Dykes' text message posted it to Facebook and also quit work. Netizens have been boycotting the said cafe after Dykes' comments were divulged. Floyd's death was due to a police officer forcing his knee on his neck for over 8 minutes. The amount of over $200,000 that was initially raised for the Alabama cafe will still be relayed to the bar. GoFundMe added that Owens' actions contravened their terms of service. The black woman countered her campaign's cancellation in a tweet, saying she is, "angry that such a blatant form of discrimination is acceptable by GoFundMe." She further wrote, "There was NOTHING intolerant or violent about raising funds to help a conservative business owner." Related Article: George Floyd, Criminal or Martyr or Victim: All the Crimes That Were Dug up After He Was Killed by Police @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Former Blue Peter presenter Zoe Salmon has opened up about her unhealthy water addition which saw her drinking up to eight litres a day. The TV personality, 40, has spoken out about the dangers of drinking too much water in a bid to help those who might not realise. Zoe initially started upping her intake of water as she believed it was healthy but it soon spiralled out of control. Candid: Former Blue Peter presenter Zoe Salmon has opened up about her unhealthy water addition which saw her drinking up to eight litres a day She would start every day with a litre of water to help her metabolism, and would have had another two litres before lunch - taking her above the recommended daily intake of just two litres. The Northern Irish star visited her GP six months ago and was told that in severe cases, drinking too much water can lead to brain swelling that causes seizures, brain damage, coma and even death. She told The Mirror: 'I feel like I'd trained my body to crave water all the time, I thought it was a brilliant thing to do.' Dangerous: The TV personality, 40, has spoken out about the dangers of drinking too much water in a bid to help those who might not realise (pictured in 2006) It wasn't until she confided in her masseuse that she was urged to see a doctor and agreed to go along to an appointment. Zoe, who is married to butcher William Corrie, said: 'I felt quite silly when I sat down, taking an appointment to say I might be drinking too much water. But when I said how much I was drinking, the doctor told me to act straight away.' She was instructed to gradually reduce her intake by 200mls and gently work her way back to two litres a day. Help: Zoe, who is married to butcher William Corrie (pictured together) confided in her masseuse and was urged to see a doctor Drinking too much water can disturb the body's electrolyte balance and increase levels of sodium and magnesium which lead to headaches and muscle cramps. It could also prevent the body from being able to properly absorb minerals from food. Zoe's addiction started when she was growing up with bad skin and heard that drinking 'loads of water would help'. Her problem was then propelled by the old wives' tale that the feeling of hunger is sometimes thirst. Zoe would start each day with a litre of water, then a coffee followed by another litre of water to balance out the caffeine. She would then have a smoothie followed by another glass of water. Naive: Zoe's addiction started when she was growing up with bad skin and heard that drinking 'loads of water would help' While at the gym she would drink another litre and then another for the drive home. She said that if she had three or four glasses of wine she would drink the same number of glasses of water. z Zoe has finally managed to get her intake back down to two litres a day and is insistent that she won't go back to her old ways again, no matter how hard it might be. She said: 'I trained my body to crave a lot of water, so when Im thirsty now Im very aware of that two litre limit.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 04:29:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CHICAGO, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures closed mixed on Monday with corn rising, and wheat and soybeans falling. The most active corn contract for July delivery rose 2.5 cents, or 0.75 percent, to settle at 3.3375 U.S. dollars per bushel. July wheat fell 3.75 cents, or 0.73 percent, to end at 5.115 dollars per bushel. July soybeans lost 3 cents, or 0.35 percent, to close at 8.6475 dollars per bushel. CBOT brokers estimate that funds bought 4,300 contracts of corn while selling 2,200 contracts of soybeans and 1,900 contracts of wheat. Fund managers covered some of their net short corn position. With weather in the U.S. Midwest the most important factor for CBOT futures heading into late June, trade volume swung from active to lackluster on Monday as traders waited for an idea of Central U.S. weather trends. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that for the week ending June 4, the United States exported 43.3 million bushels of corn, 7.8 million bushels of soybeans and 15.9 million bushels of wheat. For respective crop years to date, the United States has exported 1,165 million bushels of corn, down 416 million bushels or 26 percent; 1,308 million bushels of soybeans, up 24 million bushels or 2 percent; and 6.2 million bushels of wheat, down 11.1 million bushels. Largely dry, cool weather will be following tropical storm Cristobal for the next 5 to 7 days with Illinois likely to miss any heavy rain, which will aid its drying process. Conditions are seen aiding Central U.S. crops that already have adequate to surplus soil moisture. Enditem IMD predicts widespread rains for next 5 days in these states: Full forecast here Southwest Monsoon likely to hit Maharashtra in 48 hours; Heavy rains in Odisha, AP and Telangana India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, June 09: The Southwest Monsoon on Tuesday continues to be active in parts of Karnataka and more areas of Tamil Nadu. According to the revised monsoon onset dates released by IMD, the monsoon onset over Maharashtra can be expected from June 10 onwards. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and winds reaching 30-40 kmph at isolated places in Mumbai, Thane, and Palghar during June 10-12. For Tuesday, the Met department forecast a generally cloudy sky with possibility of rain in the city and suburbs. WHO says coronavirus situation is worsening globally, disease raging in Americas| Oneindia News Low pressure area likely to develop over Bay of Bengal, IMD to name it Cyclone Gati Conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of Southwest Monsoon into some more parts of Central Arabian Sea, Goa, Some parts of Konkan, some more parts of Karnataka, Rayalaseema, remaining parts of Tamilnadu, some parts of Coastal Andhra Pradesh, some more parts of Central and North Bay of Bengal and some parts of Northeastern states during next 24 hours. {quiz_159} Conditions likely to become favorable subsequently for further advance of Southwest monsoon into some more parts of Maharashtra, Some more parts of Karnataka, Some parts of Telangana, some more parts of Coastal Andhra Pradesh, remaining parts of Bay of Bengal & northeastern states, Sikkim, some parts of Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal during subsequent 2 days. A Low Pressure Area is likely to form over eastcentral Bay of Bengal during next 24 hours. It is likely to move west-northwest wards and become more marked during subsequent 24 hours. Under the influence of this Low Pressure Area, fairly widespread to widespread rainfall accompanied with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall likely over Odisha, north Coastal Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana during 10th-12th June and isolated heavy falls over Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and south Madhya Pradesh during 11th-13th June. Fairly widespread to widespread rainfall accompanied with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall likely along west coast during 10th-13th June and over interior Maharashtra during 11th-13th June. Heavy rains at isolated places is also likely over Odisha, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Coastal Andhra Pradesh & Yanam, Kerala & Mahe, Assam & Meghalaya and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram & Tripura. Currently, strong wind (wind speed reaching 45-55 kmph) very likely over Southwest & Westcentral Arabian Sea, South and Eastcentral Bay of Bengal. Squally weather (wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph) along & off Andhra Pradesh coast. The IMD also issued warning and advised Fishermen not to venture into sea over these areas. Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa made an unannounced visit to Kabul on Tuesday to discuss the Afghan peace process with the Afghan leaders. The Pakistan Embassy in Kabul on its official Twitter account released a picture of General Bajwa meeting with President Ashraf Ghani at the presidential palace. The army chief was accompanied by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed and Pakistan's newly appointed special envoy on Afghanistan, Muhammad Sadiq. No details were provided by the army's media wing of the meeting, which took place two days after US special Afghan envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with General Bajwa and the ISI chief in Islamabad on Sunday. The powerful army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 70 plus years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in the matters of security and foreign policy. The top Generals' visit to Afghanistan was apparently an effort to provide help in solving the Afghan problem by arranging intra-Afghan talks involving the Taliban and Afghan government officials, sources said. The army chief also met Abdullah Abdullah who would lead the Afghan side in the talks with the Taliban. It was the first visit to Kabul by a high-ranking Pakistani official since Ghani began his second term in office. Acadeum (formerly VCT) The Virtual College of Texas (VCT) is changing its name to Digital Higher Education Consortium of Texas (DigiTex) and will be changing the method with which it supports course sharing between Texas Community Colleges. Western Texas College is working with DigiTex and Acadeum to utilize their College Consortium Academic Sharing Platform to facilitate consortial course sharing to benefit students. What if I don't see the course I need? Additional online courses are offered through DigiTex, a consortium of community colleges throughout the state. You can search the DigiTex (Acadeum) site for the course you need, then sign up for the course through Western Texas College. *WTC students must contact Alicia Anderson course reservations. **If you are enrolled as a member of another institution and are taking courses through Acadeum at WTC, please contact Alicia Anderson with any concerns. Alicia Anderson 325-574-7630 alicia.anderson@wtc.edu North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in this undated photo released on Dec. 29, 2019 by North Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters) North Korea Halting All Communication With Enemy South Korea North Korea says it will cut off all inter-Korean lines of communication, including a hotline, with South Korea, according to state-run media. Pyongyang said it will start treating the South as an enemy, according to state mouthpiece KCNA. As of June 9, North Korea will will completely cut off and shut down the liaison line between the authorities of the North and the South, which has been maintained through the North-South joint liaison office as well as other communication links, The Guardian reported, citing state media. The links include the East and West Seas communication lines between militaries, an inter-Korean trial communication line, and the hotline between North Korea and South Korea, KCNA reported. The South Korean authorities connived at the hostile acts against [North Korea] by the riff-raff, while trying to dodge heavy responsibility with nasty excuses, the state news outlet also said. It said that the communication was cut, claiming that North Korean defectors are sending leaflets containing propaganda over the border. We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face-to-face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay, the KCNA said. Meanwhile, the KCNA said that the latest decisions were made at a meeting attended by Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers Party Korea (WPK), according to the state news outlet. Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Koreas leader Kim Jong Un attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 2, 2019. (Reuters/Jorge Silva/Pool) During the meeting, they stressed that the work towards the South should thoroughly turn into the one against enemy and discussed phased plans for such transition in order to make the betrayers and riff-raff pay for their crimes, South Koreas Yonhap News Agency reported, citing the KCNA statement. The South Korean unification ministry said June 9 that the inter-Korean joint liaison office attempted to call North Korea at noon, but officials in the North did not answer, marking the first time that the North hasnt answered military phone calls from the South since the hotlines were restored in 2018, according to South Koreas Yonhap News Agency. The two Koreas are still technically at war because no peace agreement was signed in 1953. North Korean officials have also criticized the United States more often in recent weeks, accusing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of being deeply engrossed in espionage and plot-breeding against other countries. A New Jersey housing rights group is suing Hoboken, arguing that the city did not adhere to its own affordable housing requirement when amending a redevelopment plan in April. The amended Western Edge Redevelopment Plan passed in mid-April allows the developer of mixed-use buildings and a hotel in a northwestern section of the city to build higher than previously allowed. In exchange, it will provide the city with funds or construction resources for a new multi-service community center that may include the citys first public pool. Additional residential units that result from the amendment are not subject to the citys 10% affordable housing requirement, the lawsuit says. Excluding the additional units from that requirement is illegal and additionally violates the citys master plan, the June 1 lawsuit filed by the Fair Share Housing Center argues. The redevelopment plan had called for up to 207 units in two towers, which would equate to 21 affordable housing units. Under the amended plan, the developer could build up to 357 units, but will still only be responsible for 21 affordable units, not 36 that would normally be required. The New Jersey-based nonprofit has sued about 350 municipalities statewide for violations of a state doctrine requiring them to contribute to affordable housing. Hoboken is seeing tremendous gentrification, exploding property values and a large portion of residents who are paying too much for housing already, said Fair Share Housing Center spokesman Anthony Campisi. The city should be using every tool at its disposal to make Hoboken affordable for working families and providing opportunities for there to be economic and racial diversity. There are already conversations within the city council to amend the plan and address the Fair Share Housing Centers concerns, said Councilwoman Vanessa Falco. Falco has spent her tenure in public office pushing for heftier affordable housing requirements, but was one of seven council members who voted in favor of the April 15 amendment. That yes vote was because of how deeply many of her constituents want to see a pool in the city, but it came at the expense of something that really matters, she said. What is unfortunate is that in this town the one thing thats always at the compromise is always the affordable housing, Falco said. Why is that always the compromising position that we as council people have to be put in? The lawsuit was filed with the Hudson County Superior Court and Campisi said his advocacy group is prepared to litigate it if the city does not make changes to its redevelopment plan. We were really concerned that the city would move forward on a plan that would essentially undercut attempts to build more affordable housing in Hoboken, he said. The need for these affordable homes in Hoboken is greater than ever. A Vietnam Airlines staff assists passengers board the repatriation flight from San Francisco in the U.S., June 8 2020. Photo courtesy of Vietnam Airlines. Vietnam brought home 347 of its citizens Tuesday on its third repatriation flight from the U.S., the worlds biggest Covid-19 hotspot. Vietnam Airlines flight VN1 landed at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi Tuesday morning, with passengers onboard including children, students under 18, the elderly, the sick and some tourists with expired visas. All passengers underwent medical checks before boarding and wore face masks throughout the flight. They submitted health declarations and were quarantined on arrival. Their samples have been taken for testing. Flying from Hanoi to the San Francisco International Airport to pick the Vietnamese citizens who had gathered there from several states in the U.S., Vietnam Airlines also carried home some American citizens stuck in Vietnam amid ongoing travel restrictions. This is Vietnam's third repatriation flight from the U.S. as the Covid-19 situation in the country has showed no signs of improvement in infection numbers and fatalities. On May 8, Vietnam Airlines operated the first repatriation flight to and from San Francisco to fly back 343 citizens. A week later, on May 15, it operated the second flight from Washington D.C. with 345 citizens on board. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has issued a Category 1 rating to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, meaning it meets safety standards to operate direct flights to the U.S. Vietnam Airlines got the green light to operate direct flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to several American destinations in September last year. No regular flight under the permit has been scheduled, and the repatriation flights have been the first direct flights operated by a Vietnamese carrier between the two countries. The U.S. has reported over two million infection cases and 113,061 confirmed deaths. The situation has been compounded by huge protests that have broken out nationwide against police brutality following the death of black man George Floyd who was choked to death as a cop kneeled on his neck, ignoring pleas that he could not breathe. In the last few months, several special flights have repatriated more than 5,000 Vietnamese from several countries including Canada, France, Japan, Russia, the UAE and the U.S., alongside other Southeast Asian hotspots. Passengers paid their own fares. Vietnam has gone 54 days without community transmission caused by novel coronavirus. Of the Covid-19 tally of 332, 316 have recovered and 16 patients are active cases, including one British citizen who is recovering after being comatose on intensive life support for more than two months. DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) today announced the appointment of Luz G. Mauch as executive vice president of Automotive, effective immediately. Mauch, who previously served as senior vice president of global automotive and manufacturing industries at T-Systems, will report to Dmitry Loschinin, executive vice president, DXC Technology, and President and CEO, Luxoft. In his role as EVP, Mauch will lead DXCs global Automotive strategy, operations and growth, helping the company meet and exceed the technology needs of its customers. Im extremely pleased to welcome someone with Luzs experience to DXC, Loschinin said. With his strong track record and passion for empowering customers, I know Luz will continue to drive an innovative approach for Automotive, that puts our clients and people at the center of a growth strategy. Mauch brings over 20 years experience in strategic account development, business strategy, management and leadership at both regional and global levels. He has worked in the technology and IT services sector with IBM and, most recently, T-Systems. Mauch holds a masters degree in business administration from the Nurtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences. About DXC Technology DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) helps global companies run their mission critical systems and operations while modernizing IT, optimizing data architectures, and ensuring security and scalability across public, private and hybrid clouds. With decades of driving innovation, the worlds largest companies trust DXC to deploy our enterprise technology stack to deliver new levels of performance, competitiveness and customer experiences. Learn more about the DXC story and our focus on people, customers and operational execution at www.dxc.technology About Luxoft Luxoft, a DXC Technology Company (NYSE: DXC), is a digital strategy and software engineering firm providing bespoke technology solutions that drive business change for customers the world over. Luxoft uses technology to enable business transformation, enhance customer experiences, and boost operational efficiency through its strategy, consulting, and engineering services. Luxoft combines a unique blend of engineering excellence and deep industry expertise, specializing in automotive, financial services, travel and hospitality, healthcare, life sciences, media and telecommunications. For more information, please visit www.luxoft.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200608005172/en/ The Covid-19 pandemic is getting worse and the crisis is 'far from over', the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. More than 136,000 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed on Sunday which is the highest daily toll since the outbreak began in December. Just under half of the cases (44 per cent) were diagnosed in Brazil and the US, with the Americas now at the epicentre of the crisis. Deaths remain fairly stable with just 4,500 on average each day since Saturday, up slightly from the average of 4,200 between June 3-5. WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: 'Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening.' He told a briefing in Geneva: 'Yesterday, more than 136,000 cases were reported the most in a single day so far. 'More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal.' It comes after data last week suggested the virus is getting weaker, with the number of cases increasing at its fastest pace and the death rate in decline. But doctors say it can take weeks for patients to die after becoming infected. More than 400,000 people have now died from Covid-19 worldwide. And 7million cases have been diagnosed. More than 136,000 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed on Sunday which is the highest daily toll since the outbreak began in December The number of cases diagnosed across the world yesterday dropped slightly, with just 131,000 people testing positive for the virus Dr Tedros warned the biggest threat was 'complacency' in the countries where the outbreak was fading, such as the UK. He added 'most people globally are still susceptible to infection' because barely any herd immunity has developed. Herd immunity occurs when enough of the population has had a disease that it can no longer spread effectively. Scientists believe 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. Dr Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist, said a 'comprehensive approach' was needed in South America, adding: 'This is far from over.' Dr Tedros also called on protesters demonstrating for racial justice prompted by the murder of George Floyd to keep safe. WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: 'Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening' REVEALED: THE 20 COUNTRIES WITH THE MOST CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES UNITED STATES BRAZIL RUSSIA SPAIN UK INDIA ITALY PERU GERMANY IRAN TURKEY FRANCE CHILE MEXICO PAKISTAN SAUDI ARABIA CANADA CHINA QATAR BANGLADESH 1.99million 710,000 475,000 288,000 287,000 267,000 235,000 199,000 186,000 173,000 171,000 154,000 138,000 120,000 108,000 105,000 96,000 83,000 70,000 68,000 Advertisement In a virtual briefing in Geneva, he said: 'WHO fully supports equality and the global movement against racism. 'We reject discrimination of all kinds. We encourage all those protesting around the world to do so safely. 'As much as possible, keep at least one metre from others, clean your hands, cover your cough and wear a mask if you attend a protest.' Europe has suffered the most deaths, recording 184,120 fatalities since the disease began to rapidly spread across the continent in February. The US has recorded almost 2million cases of the disease more than double the 710,000 in Brazil, the country with the next highest toll. Russia has confirmed 475,000 Covid-19 infections, followed by Spain 288,000 and the UK 287,000. India (267,000), Italy (235,000), Peru (199,000), Germany (186,000), Iran (173,000) round up the top ten worst-hit nations. China where the virus was first spotted has recorded the 18th-most coronavirus cases (83,040), according to one Covid-19 tracker. It comes after a study last night suggested lockdowns may have prevented 3million deaths in Europe including half a million the UK alone. Imperial College London researchers tracked outbreaks in 11 European countries to estimate how effective strict social distancing measures have been. Up to four per cent of people across the nations had caught the disease up to May 4 the equivalent of between 12 and 15million cases. And the experts noted how almost 130,000 deaths had occurred by the same date, giving a rough case-fatality ratio of between 0.87 and 1.08 per cent. But the study calculated the toll may have been up to 24 times worse in the region of 3.2million deaths if nothing was done to control the outbreak. The UK, Germany, Spain, France and Italy each dodged up to 500,000 coronavirus deaths or more because of their draconian policies, the team estimated. A separate study also published today suggested around 500million Covid-19 cases were prevented by lockdowns in six countries, including the US. Is this the evidence coronavirus IS getting weaker? Global coronavirus infections are spreading at their fastest rate - but deaths are going down The number of coronavirus cases is increasing at its fastest pace since the pandemic began but the death rate is in decline - possibly providing evidence that the virus is getting weaker, it was reported last week. On June 5 the world logged more than 16 cases of the virus per million people on the planet, which is the second-highest number since the disease emerged. Over the last seven days, the average number of cases diagnosed was 114,000 compared to an average of just 86,000 in the first week of May - driven by rapidly worsening outbreaks in South America, India and Russia. But deaths have not kept pace. On June 5 there were 0.67 deaths per million people on the planet, well below the all-time high of 1.35 per million on April 16. Since May 29 there have been an average of 4,300 deaths per day, compared to 5,100 per day at the start of last month. The rate at which coronavirus appears to be spreading has soared in recent weeks - with 16 cases per million confirmed worldwide today, compare to just 10 this time last month Meanwhile global deaths have been in steady decline - peaking at 1.15 deaths per million people on April 16 and falling to 0.67 deaths per million today One possible though as-yet unproven explanation for this trend is that the virus could be getting weaker. That theory was first put forward by Dr Alberto Zangrillo, head of Milan's San Raffaele Hospital and former physician to Silvio Berlusconi, earlier this week. Dr Zangrillo suggested the amount of the virus detected in patients towards the end of May was 'infinitesimal' compared to amounts detected earlier in the spread. Several days later, he expanded - saying it appears the way the virus interacts with its host had changed. His comments were echoed by Matteo Bassetti, the head of the infectious diseases clinic at the San Martino hospital in the city of Genoa 'The strength the virus had two months ago is not the same strength it has today,' he said. Meanwhile Dr Donald Yealy, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said today that he has also believes 'the virus is changing'. Dr Donald Yealy, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (left), and Dr Alberto Zangrillo (right), of Milan's San Raffaele Hospital, have suggested the virus could be getting weaker Maria van Kerkhove, epidemiologist for the World Health Organisation, has said there is no evidence to suggest the virus is less potent now than at the start of the outbreak 'Some patterns suggest the potency is diminished,' he said, pointing to fewer positive tests coming back to his hospital and fewer patients needing ventilators. But medics at the World Health Organisation have pushed back firmly against the idea that coronavirus is losing its potency. Maria Van Kerkhove, epidemiologist at WHO, said: 'In terms of transmissibility, that has not changed, in terms of severity, that has not changed.' Martin Hibberd, a professor of emerging infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, added that there is 'currently no evidence' to support the theory - despite ongoing studies. One other explanation for the diverging figures is that coronavirus testing has drastically improved since the start of the pandemic. Another possible explanation is that testing capacity has drastically improved since the outbreak began, meaning more cases are being confirmed and the rate appears to be accelerating while actually remaining steady (pictured, a testing site in India) Even in countries which were not suspected of manipulating their data early on in the outbreak - such as Iran and China - the speed at which the disease spread far outstripped the capacity of countries to test for it. But since then world leaders have invested huge sums of money in increasing their testing capacity and speeding up the process. In the UK alone, capacity has increased from 2,000 tests per day at the start of March to 200,000 by the end of May. As testing capacity increases the number of global cases will appear to rise as more people with symptoms are able to confirm the diagnosis. Those who died from the disease were far more likely to have been given a test even when capacity was low because of the severity of their conditions, meaning this number would be unlikely to change even as more tests became available. Other explanations include greater awareness of the disease, meaning people are more likely to seek treatment early for the condition rather than waiting and developing a potentially fatal infection. Treatments have also been improving - with Ebola drug Remdesivir now hailed by health authorities across the world for its benefits. In the last seven days an average of 114,000 cases of the virus have been diagnosed each day - driven by rampant outbreaks in the likes of Brazil (pictured) - compared to an average of 86,000 in the first week of May The disease is also currently spreading fastest in countries which have been accused of manipulating their data - such as Russia, Mexico and Brazil - perhaps contributing to the skewed figures. Regions which were former hotspots of the disease - including China and Europe - have now managed to bring infection rates down after imposing lockdowns. But the virus is still spreading rapidly in other places - including the US, South America, Russia and India. Iran has become the first country to report a second wave of coronavirus - hitting a record number of cases Wednesday having initially seen them fall. The news will be a concern to European nations easing lockdown measures since the rise came after Iran relaxed its own restrictions - several weeks ahead of Europe. Lahore: At least six people were killed and more than 150 injured today when a Karachi-bound passenger train collided with a freight train near Multan in Pakistans Punjab province. The incident took place near Bucch railway station in Sher Shah area. It occurred when a man reportedly was overrun by a freight train and the driver stopped it to take out the body, said police official Nadir Chattha. In the meantime, Awam Express heading on the same line collided with the stationary goods train. The collision wrecked the engine and power van, and overturned four bogies of Awam Express, he added. The incident left at least six people dead and wounded over 150, out of which 10 were said to be in serious condition, Geo News reported. Three people trapped inside damaged carriages were also saved, said rescue workers. A delay was initially observed in response by rescue services due to Eid holidays, according to sources. Relief works were also affected as darkness prevailed in the vicinity. The passenger train was en route to Karachi from Peshawar. Meanwhile, authorities have imposed emergency at Multans Nishtar Medical Hospital and Shahbaz Sharif Hospital. Earlier, railway authorities ordered investigations into the accident. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. People continued to protest police brutality and institutional racism Monday night at various locations across Oregon. The protests started 12 days ago following the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Eugene - About 50 attorneys and public defenders marched in a Black Lives Matter protest on Monday in Eugene, Oregon. The protesters marched from the Lane County Courthouse to the Federal Courthouse and kneeled at both locations for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time a Minneapolis kneeled on George Floyds neck until he died. The group also marched past the Lane County Jail, KLCC reported. Other protests led by public defenders took place around the country Sunday, including one in Lownsdale Square Park in downtown Portland. In Eugene, roughly 50 public defenders and attorneys marched downtown in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM)... Posted by KLCC on Monday, June 8, 2020 Milwaukie - A small group of teachers gathered for a Black Lives Matter protest Monday afternoon outside Riverside Elementary School in Milwaukie, Oregon. The protesters carried signs with messages such as Our silence benefits institutional racism. Teachers against hate and BLACK LIVES MATTER TO TEACHERS," KATU reported. The teachers followed social distancing guidelines by wearing face masks and standing six feet apart. Teachers in Milwaukie lent their voices to the call for racial equity Monday. Posted by KATU News on Tuesday, June 9, 2020 Corvallis - An hour-long march against institutional racism took place Monday night in Corvallis, Oregon. About 500 people listened to an hour and a half of speeches in front of the Benton County Courthouse before marching to downtown Corvallis, led by people carrying a banner that said WHITE SILENCE IS VIOLENCE. When the crowd reached Third Street at Monroe Avenue, the protesters used chalk to write names of black Americans who died because of police brutality on the asphalt, the Corvallis Gazette-Times reported. The march ended at Oregon State Universitys Memorial Union Quad, where people delivered speeches on their experience with racism. Black Lives Matter protesters marched peacefully but purposefully through the streets of Corvallis for a full hour... Posted by Corvallis Gazette-Times on Monday, June 8, 2020 Molalla - Many people chanted and held up signs at a Black Lives Matter rally Monday in Molalla, Oregon. Organizers Analise Wickham, Tiffany Guillen, Grace Higginbotham and Dominique Wright-George were happily surprised by the number of people that attended, the Molalla Pioneer reported. At one point, member of a group of counter-demonstrators that had assembled across the street from the protest walked into the main group and started yelling, but police escorted them away. When a small group chanted, "Say his name," the crowd answered with, "George Floyd." And when they chanted, "Say her name," the answer came, "Breonna Taylor." Posted by Canby Herald on Monday, June 8, 2020 Portland - Thousands of protesters carrying signs stalled traffic on Interstate 84 from 7 to 8 p.m. Monday as they marched and called for an end to systemic racism. Protesters travel through Northeast Portland neighborhoods during a demonstration against police brutality on June 8, 2020. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian) - Madison Smalstig l msmalstig@oregonian.com l @madi_smals l Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories The Canadian province of Ontario will reopen some hair salons and outdoor dining at restaurants among other businesses on Friday, the provincial government announced on Monday, but only in health regions where the spread of COVID-19 is under better control. The reopenings will begin as of midnight on Friday in 24 of the 34 health regions in Canadas most populous province and the countrys economic engine, as it moves into the second phase of slowly reopening its economy. The province will also increase the maximum of social groups to 10 people from five in permitted health regions, which include Ottawa, Canadas capital city. Toronto, the heart of Canadas financial industry, and surrounding areas will remain in phase one, as will some regions near the U.S. border and one rural county hit with a large outbreak among farm workers. The decision on which health regions to allow reopening was based on trends of key public health indicators such as lower rates of transmission, increased capacity in hospitals, and progress made in testing, a statement from the office of Premier Doug Ford said. I am confident that the rest of the province will get to stage two very, very soon, Ford said at a press conference on Monday. Film and television production will be permitted to restart in the approved health regions. Film production in Ontario was worth C$2.9 billion ($2.17 billion) as of 2018, according to provincial data. Day camps will also be able to reopen, and Ford said the government will make an announcement regarding childcare reopenings on Tuesday. SOURCE: REUTERS The evil you don't talk about Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment One thing at which the world excels these days is virtue signaling and in general decrying anything we believe is evil and wrong. And some of us see evil and wrongdoing everywhere. Because this practice is currently white hot, its a given that whenever I talk to a non-Christian about our faith, theyll bring up the problem of evil as a reason why they dont believe in God. After some back and forth, the discussion reaches this point: Me: So, youre saying that if God exists He should rid the world of evil? Them: Yes. Me: What if He starts with you? Them: Its my observation that while people see evil everywhere and in nearly everyone (else), they usually dont see it in themselves. In some ways I cant blame them because secular psychology and society in general do a great job of convincing them any wrong they do is not their fault and theres really nothing bad inside the man or woman in the mirror. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Whats to blame? The famed psychologist Abraham Maslow once stated: As far as I know we just don't have any intrinsic instincts for evil.[1] Agreeing with him is Carl Rogers who asserted, I do not find thatevil is inherent in human nature.[2] But if evil isnt part of our basic character, then how do we account for all the moral evil we see? The 18th century philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau who heavily influenced the French Revolution and birth of the Leftist movement said that each human being is born an innocent savage but is then corrupted by society. Society and not people, said, Rousseau is responsible for evil. Amazingly, the fact that societies are composed of people escaped Rousseaus reasoning. Others postulate that evil is a sickness, a mental abnormality that is a malfunction in the brain, which leads to bad behavior. Theres little question that a healthy amount of mental illness exists today and that such disorders can result in evil acts. For example, in her book My Life Among the Serial Killers, Dr. Helen Morrison says this of the murderers with which she has dealt: "He is a serial killer when he is a fetus, even as soon as sperm meets egg to create the genes of a new person.[3] Is this always the case? No. For instance, when Morrison was asked to examine the famous serial killer John Wayne Gacy, she admitted after her autopsy that Gacys brain was perfectly normal no defects, no abnormalities, no excuses. The same was true of Adolf Eichmann[4], the German Nazi officer who was one of the primary instigators, organizers, and executioners of the Holocaust. Of Eichmann, Thomas Merton wrote, One of the most disturbing facts that came out in the Eichmann trial was that a psychiatrist examined him and pronounced him perfectly sane. We equate sanity with a sense of justice, with humaneness, with prudence, with the capacity to love and understand other people. . . . And now it begins to dawn on us that it is precisely the sane ones who are the most dangerous.[5] Some mental health professionals recognize this and arrive at a conclusion that is the opposite of Maslow and Rogers. In his book, People of the Lie, The Hope for Healing Human Evil, the well-known psychiatrist M. Scott Peck says: That children generally lie and steal and cheat is routinely observable. The fact that sometimes they grow up to become truly honest adults is what seems the more remarkable. Laziness is more the rule than diligence. If we seriously think about it, it probably makes more sense to assume this is a naturally evil world that has somehow been mysteriously contaminated by goodness, rather than the other way around.[6] Pecks comment is not only an insightful observation, it also just happens to be biblically spot on. Whos to blame? Pecks position on human nature was shared by theologian and apologist Francis Schaeffer who called it mans dilemma the fact that we can perform acts of kindness on one hand and yet also be responsible for terrible atrocities on the other. Mary Shelley (who was not a Christian) answers this problem in her novel Frankenstein. At one point in the book, the monster confronts doctor Frankenstein and tells him that when he was brought into the world, he didnt understand why people needed government and the police, but as he observed people and read history, he turned away in horror at what man was capable of. People could be kind, but also evil. The creation tells the doctor that the conclusion it has come to is, you were created in the image of a perfect being, and youve fallen away from it. The Bible says exactly that about our nature. Created perfectly in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27), humanity sinned and then began replicating themselves in their own fallen image (Gen. 5:3). Other verses in Scripture underline this fact: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jer. 17:9). The hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live (Ecc. 9:3). Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me (Ps. 51:5). For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness (Mark 7:2122). Jesus Himself explicitly pronounced humankind evil when He said, What man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him (Matt. 7:9-11, emphasis mine). Jesus statement on the universality of sin may be why theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once remarked, The doctrine of original sin is the only empirically verifiable doctrine of the Christian faith.[7] Im to Blame Many years ago, a newspaper sent out an inquiry to famous authors, asking the question, Whats wrong with the world today? G. K. Chesterton was one of the writers surveyed and his now famous and simple response was: Dear Sir, I am. Yours, G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton had the courage and humility to acknowledge that its the evil we dont ever talk about the kind thats in each one of us which is at the root of humanitys woes. This is why the cure Jesus provides for every person is to be born again (John 3). And what is the clear implication of His command? That we must have not been born right the first time. This is why an honest assessment of our own inclination towards evil plus a pursuit of personal holiness is something that should be front-and-center for all of us each and every day. So, if you ever find yourself raging against the supposed evil of another and wishing that God would remove all evil from the world, please remember to check yourself by asking: What if He starts with me? [1]http://www.allaboutworldview.org/humanist-psychology.htm [2] Ibid. [3]http://goo.gl/AqigL [4]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eichmann [5]http://goo.gl/X5O5j [6]https://tinyurl.com/yawveww9 [7]https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9780807898536_finstuen CHICAGO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Online food ordering platform BellyMelly introduces a free first-of-its-kind solution to help restaurants across the country re-open amidst COVID-19. The BellyMelly app revolutionizes the dining experience by providing a fast, easy-to-use and zero-contact solution for restaurants and customers alike, whether they want to dine in person or have their meals delivered. Online food ordering platform BellyMelly introduces a free first-of-its-kind solution to help restaurants across the country re-open amidst COVID-19. "As our country begins to re-open and restaurants welcome customers back inside, it's extremely important that everyone feel safe and confident during the dine-in experience," said David Litchman, founder of BellyMelly. "We wanted to offer a free solution for all restaurants as they navigate this complicated time. Our app offers a zero-touch experience, which is not only helpful during this global pandemic, but will also help propel the restaurant industry into the future." How BellyMelly Works (Dine-In Experience): Customer downloads free BellyMelly app (available for iOS and Android). Using the app, the customer scans the BellyMelly QR code, which can be displayed on each table within the restaurant. The BellyMelly QR code will pull up the restaurant's menu directly to any smart device, eliminating the need for a physical menu and supporting social distancing efforts. The customer orders a meal using the BellyMelly app, which is immediately sent to the restaurant's kitchen. The app also allows for the customer to make contactless payment for the meal and add a tip. Restaurant waitstaff brings the food directly to the customer's table. In addition, BellyMelly helps local restauranteurs compete with third-party sites for takeout and delivery orders, while allowing users the opportunity to give back to their local communities at no cost to them. Thanks to an unprecedented low processing rate of 3% per order for takeout and delivery, BellyMelly works with local restaurants to donate a percentage of each sale to the restaurant's community partner of choice. How BellyMelly Works (Takeout/Delivery Experience): User orders from a local restaurant using the BellyMelly app or online portal. Upon checkout, the user selects from a list of local community organizations to donate a percentage of the sale price at no cost to the user. Each restaurant decides an appropriate percentage to donate to its community partner of choice anything from non-profit organizations to local schools. BellyMelly collects payment, sends profit to the restaurant, and shares donation directly with community organizations. "I've spent over 30 years in the restaurant industry and have seen firsthand how third-party technologies and their hidden fees, penalties and charges can cause serious problems for local restaurants," said Litchman. "Our mission is simple. We want to help local restaurants thrive. Instead of pocketing a large commission at the expense of our restaurant partners, we offer a free zero-touch dine-in solution and a very low processing fee for takeout and delivery orders." About BellyMelly BellyMelly is a food ordering solution designed to help local restaurateurs compete with third-party sites while allowing users the opportunity to give back to their local communities at no cost to them. BellyMelly understands the challenges restaurateurs face and works with operators to help design systems that benefit restaurants and its users. With 30 years of restaurant experience and almost 20 years of technology experience, BellyMelly's team is well-positioned to help the restaurant community. Learn more at www.bellymelly.com. Contact: Kate Stuard [email protected] 309-533-2206 SOURCE BellyMelly Related Links http://www.bellymelly.com First direct container train from China arrives in Kyiv, Ukrzaliznytsia plans to organize it on continuous basis The first direct container train from China arrived in Kyiv at the Liski branch on June 8, acting Member of the Board of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, Infrastructure Director Roman Veprytsky has said. The train covered the distance of 9,000 km in 15 days crossing four countries. "For comparison: it would take 45 days to deliver containers from China to Ukraine by sea," he wrote Facebook page on Tuesday. According to Veprytsky, the range of delivered goods is very different: from shoes to drill pipes and computed tomography. According to the report, the peculiarity of this train is the delivery of goods from the northern regions of China, which is difficult to organize by sea due to the distance from the seaports of this country. "It is planned to organize the routing of these trains on an ongoing basis. The next trains are already scheduled for June 16 and 26. Currently, the process of setting up internal logistics for moving containers around Ukraine and loading a container train in the opposite direction is underway," Veprytsky said. He also said that in the future it is planned to organize container trains at the Liski branch in Kharkiv and Dnipro. According to the Ukrzaliznytsia's website, before that, 10 transit container trains from China to the EU countries had crossed Ukraine. Sarita Patel As debates over police officers' use of force intensify across the country Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday he believes that RCMP officers should start wearing body cameras as a rapid, substantive solution to allegations of racism and brutality. The cameras document police officers' interactions with the public and Trudeau says they're one relatively simple way to address complaints that police in Canada treat racialized people unfairly. Trudeau said he plans to raise the issue of getting officers to wear body cams when he speaks with the premiers later in the week, so they can move on it as quickly as possible. Last week, former Kelowna RCMP superintendent Brett Mundle was asked if they were considering the add-on but he said it wasnt up to them. Castanet hit the streets to ask what residents think about outfitting officers with body cams. Send your thoughts to [email protected]. An online voting platform that has seen recent adoption by numerous state and county governments has vulnerabilities that could be exploited to change votes without the knowledge of election officials, a new report alleges. The OmniBallot , which is a product of Seattle-based tech firm Democracy Live, purports to offer "secure, accessible remote balloting for all voters" and is being used by state or county governments in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Ohio, Florida, New Jersey and West Virginia. The company developed a number of contracts for limited Internet voting pilot programs with states earlier this year, after COVID-19 threatened to disrupt primary elections nationwide.These programs are fairly limited in scope and largely focus on overseas voters and the disabled. However, computer science researchers say what the company really offers is an insecure platform. The recently published report from professors Michael J. Specter, of MIT, and J. Alex Halderman, of the University of Michigan, states that the company "uses a simplistic approach to Internet voting that is vulnerable to vote manipulation by malware on the voters device and by insiders or other attackers who can compromise Democracy Live, Amazon, Google, or Cloudflare [its partners]."Specifically, the report claims the company has failed to provide an auditable paper trail for the electronically cast ballots. As with all electronic voting, a verifiable document of the voter's choice is always a good idea, experts argue, in the event that results need to be verified."At worst, attackers could change election outcomes without detection, and even if there was no attack, officials would have no way to prove that the results were accurate," the researchers said.Despite the fact that computer scientists have long been critical of online voting as a concept , governments and technology companies have continued to show interest.Specter and Halderman's report doubles down on the notion that online voting can never really be secure, quoting another study from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, which states that "no known technology guarantees the secrecy, security and verifiability of a marked ballot transmitted over the Internet."In an email, Democracy Live President Bryan Finney noted that while there were some constructive criticisms in the report, the company's system has "never been compromised" and that the OmniBallot has been thoroughly tested by security researchers."The OmniBallot system was developed using ballot delivery and online ballot marking requirements specified under a U.S. Department of Defense funded ballot delivery program," said Finney. "The system and all ballots are hosted in the AWS federally-approved (Fedramp) cloud. In over a decade of deployments, the system has never been compromised.""Shift State Security, led by a team of former FBI Cybersecurity agents, reviewed all third party penetration conducted on OmniBallot. Shift State has stated that no testing of OmniBallot resulted in compromise of the OmniBallot system," he added. Tony Daunt, a self-described conservative and director of the conservative organization Michigan Freedom Fund, is suing Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and 16 county clerks over claims theyve failed to keep accurate voter rolls. The lawsuit, filed in federal court on June 9 by Daunt in his capacity as a Michigan voter and without an attorney, says clerks in 16 counties are keeping voter rolls with a far higher number of registered voters than he believes to be accurate. Leelanau County has more registered voters than it has adult citizens who are over the age of 18, the lawsuit said. "That number of voters on the rolls is impossibly high. An additional 15 counties -- Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Emmet, Grand Traverse, Iosco, Kalkaska, Keweenaw, Livingston, Mackinac, Oakland, Otsego, Roscommon, and Washtenaw -- have voter registration rates that exceed 90% of adult citizens over the age of 18. That figure far eclipses the national and statewide voter registration rate in recent elections. The lawsuit, filed against Benson, Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater and the respective county clerks, claims this is a violation of requirements for voter registration maintenance established in the National Voter Registration Act. The goal is 100% registration among those who are eligible, as higher registration is a sign of a more robust and representative democracy," Benson spokeswoman Tracy Wimmer said in response to the lawsuit. "The suit seeks to gain media attention using debunked claims and bad statistics to delegitimize our elections. It compares old census data and registration numbers that make no attempt to distinguish between active and inactive registration, and asserts the false notion that voter registration rates should be low. "Michigan has had one of the best motor-voter systems in the country for decades, whereby nearly all eligible citizens who get a drivers license or state ID also register to vote. As with other states, there is a federally mandated delay before some registration records are canceled to ensure responsible list maintenance and has never been credibly linked to illegal voting on any substantial scale. Due to alleged voter roll inaccuracies, Daunt, who is an active with Clinton County and state Republican Party committees, states he must spend more of his time and resources monitoring Michigan elections for fraud and abuse, mobilizing voters to counteract it, educating the public about election-integrity issues, and persuading elected officials to improve list maintenance. Daunt claims the federal voting law requires states operate a program that makes reasonable efforts to remove the names of voters who are no longer eligible because of death or a change of residence. The lawsuit says: According to the bipartisan Carter-Baker Commission, registration lists lie at the root of most problems encountered in U.S. elections. Inaccurate voter rolls that contain ineligible, duplicate, fictional, or deceased voters invite fraud. While election fraud is difficult to measure ... it occurs.'" Daunts lawsuit says he mailed a letter to Benson on Feb. 26 explaining that he believed 19 counties at that time had inaccurate voter rolls. Daunts letter asked Benson to establish a voter roll maintenance system and for a response in 45 days explaining existing or planned efforts, policies and programs to increase the accuracy of the rolls prior to the Nov. 3 general election. Daunt said he received no response. The lawsuit is asking a federal judge to declare Michigans voter roll maintenance program out of line with legal requirements. It also asks the judge to order Benson to implement a program that ensures reliability of voter registration rolls going forward. MLive has requested and is awaiting comment from several county clerks named in the lawsuit. The Michigan Freedom Fund, which Daunt leads, recently launched a billboard campaign criticizing Gov. Gretchen Whitmers protection of senior residents, who have died at disproportionately high rates, during the coronavirus pandemic. Read the full lawsuit: More on MLive: Michigan Freedom Fund takes aim at Whitmer League of Women Voters sues SOS over absentee ballot access Freedom Fund supports Right to Work Whitmer links DeVos to stay-home protest Michigan clerks prepare for worst as coronavirus looms over elections Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh has recorded 154 new Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours ending 10 am on Monday. The state health department in its bulletin said the state has registered a total of 3,843 Coronavirus infections of whom 1,381 are in hospital and 2,387 discharged. With no case of fresh death reported, the toll remains at 75. Of 154 new cases, 125 were from local persons while one was a foreign returnee and 28 were those who returned from other states. So far, 132 foreign returnees have tested positive, as also 838 who returned from other states. Twelve cases in Kadapa district took the total to 226. Among the new infections, nine were Gulf returnees and three from Navabupeta of Mylavaram mandal. Eighteen Covid-19 patients were discharged on Monday alone. In Nellore district, eight cases were reported from Sangam, Chejerla, Seetharamapuram, Chittamur and Ogili mandals. A person hailing from Hyderabad tested positive. Of the total 128 cases, 109 have been discharged. The toll stands at five. In Prakasam district, three new Coronavirus infections were reported and the total stands at 127 and active cases at 43. The new cases were reported from Pandillapalli and Podili mandals. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy felt the need to take up an intense campaign to educate people on where to go for testing and where to reach for medicare if tested positive. He said measures should be taken to instil confidence among the people. While reviewing the preventive measures for Covid-19 with senior government officials here, the CM said that apart from bringing about awareness, they need to provide basis amenities for the benefit of people to go for testing and to take medical care. He instructed the officials to take up door-to-door campaign and rope in volunteers also on how whom to approach in case symptoms of Covid-19 were found. He asked them to take up such aggressive campaign for two to three weeks and felt the need to avail the services of Asha workers, ANMs and others. The CM directed the officials to take steps to avoid waiting of people at inter-state borders for a long time and asked them to less stress on mortality rate due to Coronavirus infection. He asked for filling up vacancies in health and medical department by issuing notification immediately. Amid Indo-China tensions in Ladakh that have garnered global headlines over the ongoing stand-off between the two nations, Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that after the United States and Israel, India is the only country that protects its borders as strongly. India's defence policy has gained global acceptance. The whole world agrees that after USA and Israel if there is any other country that is able to protect its borders, it is India, Shah claimed. Do you agree with the Home Ministers statement, or like Congress MP Rahul Gandhi tweeted, do you think Shahs statement is a make-believe tactic to keep the heart pacified? Do you agree that India has proved its military prowess where defending the country is concerned? Share your views and comments below. The White House on Tuesday rushed to join Senate Republicans in their effort to put together police reform legislation. President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows and senior adviser Jared Kushner went to Capitol Hill for a last-minute meeting with Tim Scott, the GOP's only black senator, who Senate Republicans put in charge of their police reform efforts after the White House remained silent on the issue. 'It's a work in progress, so it was a real good conversation,' Meadows said after the meeting. They were joined by Ja'Ron Smith, an African American staffer who works on legislative policy in the White House. 'We want to let our actions speak louder than words,' he added but declined to give a time line on when legislation could drop. 'We're hopeful for something sooner rather than later.' The move to work with Senators on legislative could be the White House way of ruling out a presidential address to the nation, which was one option being discussed as a means for President Trump to respond to the racial tension that has flared up around the country in the wake of George Floyd's death. Scott declined to offer details of what was discussed. 'We're making progress,' he said after the meeting. White House Chief of staff Mark Meadows (center) and senior adviser Jared Kushner (left) went to Capitol Hill for a last-minute meeting with Senator Tim Scott as the administration rushed to join Senate Republicans on police reform legislation Senate Republicans put Tim Scott, the GOP's only black senator, in charge of police reform legislation The administration's visit to Capitol Hill came as President Trump's poll numbers have dropped with a majority of Americans criticizing his response to the protests which took place after the death of Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. Meadows refused to talk about what would be in a Republican police reform bill. 'Were not going to get into specifics. To negotiate in the press would do a disservice to the senator and his colleagues as well as some of the House members that are trying to be thoughtful,' he said. Kushner, the president's son-in-law, led the administration's successful efforts on criminal justice reform last year. Scott, the Republican senator from South Carolina, sounded hopeful the Senate, the White House and Democrats could come together on the issue. Democrats unveiled their measure on Monday. 'We are on a separate track from the White House,' he told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday before his meeting with the administration. But he said he was in talks with the staff there and hopeful that all parties would come together. 'I have been talking with folks in the White House about the track that they're on as well. I think there is some synergy between all three tracks to be honest with you, and certainly there's a way for us all to work together but we've been in discussion with them for several days,' Scott added. He kept an optimistic note. 'I think we should all be optimistic right now,' Scott said. 'We have no reason not to be.' Tire of waiting on President Trump to speak about police reform, Republicans on Capitol Hill are preparing their own proposals Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah won praise from Democrats and Republicans alike when he marched with protesters in Washington D.C. on Sunday Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell tapped Senator Tim Scott to lead a working group of Republicans to hammer out a legislative response to the protests that have taken place across the country in the wake of George Floyd's death Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell tapped Scott to lead a working group of Republicans to hammer out a legislative response to the protests that have taken place across the country in the wake of Floyd's death. 'None of us have had the experience of being an African American in this country and dealing with discrimination, which persists here some 50 years after the 1964 civil rights bill and 1965 civil rights bill,' McConnell said a press conference on Tuesday. Pressure is on lawmakers to act after protests sprung up around the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd 'We're still wrestling with America's original sin. And we try to get better, but every now and then it's perfectly clear, we're a long way from the finish line,' he added. Pressure is on lawmakers, who stopped waiting on action from President Donald Trump to move forward on their own. A new Washington Post-Schar School poll out Monday found 74 per cent of Americans say they support those protests while 69 per cent say the killing of Floyd represents a broader problem within law enforcement. The same poll found 61 per cent disapprove of how Trump handled the protests while only 35 per cent approved, while November election polls show him far behind Joe Biden, raising alarm in the GOP Senate that their majority is at risk too. Republicans on both sides of Capitol Hill are working on their own police reform measures with a number of them expected to drop legislation this week. Scott and Romney made the first moves, coming after Trump tweeted a conspiracy theory that a 75-year-old victim of police violence was an 'antifa provocateur' and calling '99 per cent' of police 'great.' Democrats presented their plan on Monday and there are a number of areas where both sides agree, including a ban on chokeholds, making lynching a federal crime, a national database to track police officers who get in trouble and increased training for law enforcement officials. Republicans have their own group of lawmakers working together on a plan. Joining Scott are Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, who is close to Trump; Ben Sasse; James Lankford; John Cornyn; and Shelley Capito. Scott, as part of his work, is pushing the George Floyd and Walter Scott Notification Act, an expansion of legislation he had introduced in 2015, which would require states that receive federal police funding to report incidents when police shoot someone, including names, race and a description of what happened. 'It's still a work in progress. A lot is being added to it,' Romney said Tuesday of Republicans' legislative efforts. Romney was praised by Democrats and Republicans alike when he joined protesters in Washington D.C. on Sunday, marching with them from the Capitol to the White House to show his support for the Black Lives Matter movement. 'My guess is we'll try and fashion something that that has broader bipartisan appeal,' the Republican senator from Utah said on Monday evening. He also said Democrats have not contacted him or any other Republicans he's spoken to about their legislation and he urged both sides to work together. The Democratic measure has 200 sponsors but none of them are Republicans. 'We have some members that are part of a working group that are taking a look at different proposals that are out there,' Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday. 'There seems to be a lot of momentum behind this right now, and if we can keep driving it forward maybe we can get to a point where we can actually legislate, and in a bipartisan way which would be ideal,' he noted. Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who is also part of the working group, said the team is in the process of soliciting ideas. 'It's a work in motion,' she said. 'We're still soliciting ideas and refinements and all that. It generally tries to go to both parts of the issue, both the policing part and the issues of racial discrimination and how to address those,' she said. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who is also part of the small group of GOP senators working on legislation, said he spoke to Floyd's family and told them he was 'committed to making sure that George Floyd receives justice.' 'I know many of us are engaged in active discussions about what's the best way to create real change, and I know it's a priority for members on both sides of the aisle,' he said in a speech on the Senate floor Monday. Floyd's funeral took place in Houston on Tuesday. House Republicans, meanwhile, are having their own conversation about police reform and aim to release a proposal by the end of the week, The Hill reported. Lawmakers have seen protests in their home states - amass cry from constituents that could prove the impetus needed to move a package through Congress to President Trump's desk. The president has yet to unveil his own proposal. 'The president is looking at what's a state issue, what's a federal issue right now. He's currently reviewing proposals, actually, on this very topic about police reform. So I'll leave it to him and not get ahead of him on that,' White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at her press briefing on Monday. One area where Republicans and Democratic leadership agree is there should be no push to defund police, a rallying cry taken up by liberals in recent days. Moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, always a key vote, said it's not possible to defund police and 'anybody who talks about that, they're nuts.' White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at her press briefing on Monday that President Trump is looking at a number of police reform proposals Speaker Nancy Pelosi led Democrats in a moment of silence before releasing their police reform bill, which made no mention of defunding police departments Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (left) has called for New York to look at its police funding while Rep. Ilhan Omar (right) called for Minneapolis' police department to be dissolved McConnell made it clear any legislation that includes defunding police is a non-starter. 'The vast majority of the men and women in law enforcement across our country are not evil, are not racist, do not wake up every morning looking for violence. We are reminded of their bravery every time a citizen needs to dial 9-1-1 and they rush towards danger,' he said in remarks on the Senate floor Monday. And President Trump has spoken out against it. 'There won't be defunding. They won't be dismantling of our police. And they are not going to be any disbanding of our police,' the president said at the White House on Monday. The 'defund the police' movement calls for funds to be removed from police departments and allocated to social services instead. Some in the movement are even calling for police departments to be dissolved altogether. WHAT'S IN DEMOCRATS' POLICE REFORM BILL? - A ban on choke holds or carotid holds George Floyd died after cop Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck, and Eric Garner died in 2014 in New York after he was put in a choke hold - A National Misconduct Registry, which would track and create a database of police officers who have been accused of misconduct The registry, Democrats claim, would prevent officers found guilty of misconduct from transferring from one department to another - The abolition of no-knock warrants in drug cases so police officers will have to identify themselves before entering a home Breonna Taylor was killed in her home after she was shot eight times while police carried out a no-knock warrant in conjunction with a drug investigation involving her boyfriend - Implementation of the nationwide use of body cameras by all police Body camera footage can be used to confirm the facts of a case, especially when there is no bystander footage - Civilian review boards for law enforcement officers This would make police more personally accountable to the community they serve - The abolition of qualified immunity, a doctrine that protects law enforcement from civil litigation and could lead to an increase in cops being sued Police could face more lawsuits over brutality - Would classify lynching as a federal crime Democrats bashed Republicans for blocking legislation just last week that would make lynching a crime - Change the federal standard of criminal police behavior from acting 'willfully' to acting 'knowingly or with reckless disregard' This language would levy cops with more responsibility, noting that they acting knowing they were ignoring standards or acting 'recklessly' - Condition state and local funding on police receiving training on racial and implicit bias at the federal level Funds will be held from state and local police departments who do not require officers receive racial bias training - Stop the transfer of military-grade weapons to police - Gives the Justice Department subpoena power to carry out 'pattern and practice' investigations into police department conduct and provides state attorneys general with grants to carry out these probes Advertisement The Democrats' legislation does not include a measure to defund police and said it was not the place for it. 'I can't imagine that happening in a federal way,' Democratic Rep. Karen Bass, the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, said when asked about it. Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it a 'local issue.' Liberal stars in the Democratic Party - like Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar - have endorsed the idea, adding their weight to it. Ocasio-Cortez told NY1 she's 'actively engaged in advocacy' for a 'reduction of our NYPD budget and defunding a $6 billion NYPD budget that costs us books in the hands of our children.' And Omar called for her home state of Minnesota to dissolve its police department. 'We need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department,' she said a rally over the weekend. 'The Minneapolis Police Department is rotten to the root, and so when we dismantle it, we get rid of that cancer, and we allow for something beautiful to rise, and that reimagining allows us to figure out what public safety looks like for us,' she noted. Minneapolis' city council did just that on Sunday, pledging to abolish the city's police force. Mayor Jacob Frey objected but he does not have the power to veto the move after a three-quarters majority of the council backed it. The city cannot officially disband the police but they control its funding so they can render it virtually powerless. Their plan involves moving funds away from the police department - which had a budget of $1.6 billion in 2019 - to community initiatives aimed at preventing crime and reducing its impact. The money would be directed to affordable housing, addiction support services, youth groups, mental health providers, social services, and arts programs. Routine jobs such as traffic stops, mental health call-outs, responding to the scene of overdoses and policing schools would be taken out of the hands of officers and given over to EMTs, the fire service, counselors and others who are better placed to provide support. Campaigners say a 'small, specialized force of public servants' could be used to prevent violent crime - since it does not make up the bulk of modern-day police work. The aim, they say, is to empower community members to 'look out for one another' as opposed to relying on a police service which often does not draw its members from the neighborhoods they police. The move will likely face legal challenges, including from the city's police union which has so far resisted attempts at reform, and could get tied up for months in red tape. And when Democrats on Monday unveiled their sweeping police reform bill aimed at combating police brutality, especially with the black community, it was missing any mention of police defunding. The legislation, written by the Congressional Black Caucus, includes a ban on police using chokeholds or carotid holds. It also requires nationwide use of body cameras by all police, makes law enforcement officers subject to civilian review boards and abolishes the legal doctrine known as qualified immunity, which protects police from civil lawsuits. El Al extended unpaid leave for employees and said Monday that it needs financial help to continue operating. Israels flagship airline extended unpaid leave for 5,800 employees until the end of July. El Al also said it will not be able to stay in the air once Israels borders reopen without state aid, Reuters reported. Israel closed its borders in March to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. The country has since reopened somewhat, but its airport remains closed. El Al has suffered major financial losses during the closure. The airline announced it would continue its suspension of passenger flights until June 30. It continues to operate cargo and repatriation flights. Yesterday, the government approved a $72 million loan to help El Al stay afloat with stipulations, The Times of Israel reported. The airline seeks $400 million in loans and is considering the governments offer, according to Reuters. Middle Eastern airlines in general have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent downturn in global travel. Qatar Airways has cut jobs and is seeking loans and Emirates has also let employees go. If El Al does resume passenger flights, it could benefit from Israels relative success in combating the virus. Greece announced that Israel will be one of the limited number of countries from which it will allow tourists this summer. By Finian Cunningham June 08, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - The United States seems hopelessly driven with division, as the mass protests over the police killing of African-American man George Floyd reveal. Protesters are calling for police forces accused of systematic racism to be defunded and disbanded. While opponents many of whom seem to be supporters of President Trump are calling for a tough law-and-order response to what they view as rioters and subversives. The sharp tensions have even torn through the offices of the New York Times. Journalists at the paper are in open revolt after it published an opinion piece by Republican Senator Tom Cotton who endorsed Trumps threat to send in troops to quell street demonstrations. Such a presidential move has been condemned as violating the US constitution. Trump warned that he would deploy army units if states did not bring mass protests under control. Critics say he is using relatively minor incidents of rioting and looting as a cover for invoking federal military powers. There is even the suggestion of Trump angling for some kind of presidential dictatorship, as he overrides the autonomy of individual states. The president and his supporters accuse Democrat-run states of using the protests as a way to mount sedition against his administration. This is an echo of earlier claims by the Republican occupant of the White House who has slammed Democrat states for allegedly using the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown as a means to sabotage the economy and therefore his presidency. Trumps call for liberating states has sailed close to the wind on being perceived as fomenting armed revolt. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Again Trump got into constitutional trouble by threatening to pull rank on individual states over their lockdown policy with federal decree. This conflict between Washington and the governing rights of individual states harks to the US Civil War more than a century-and-a-half ago. Trump supporters like radio host Rush Limbaugh are warning that the country is heading towards another veritable civil war especially as the presidential election in November approaches. Trump has himself predicted a civil war breaking out if he is cheated out of re-election. Given the increasingly toxic political atmosphere in the US, it wouldnt be hard for Trump supporters to construe political skulduggery even if it didnt occur. But the divisions in the US are not merely along Republican-Democrat lines. Its more complex and chaotic than that. Theres no good guy versus bad guy scenario either. All sides are steeped in conspiracy theorizing of malign plots. Republicans claim the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 are colour revolutions to overthrow Trump. Some Democrats claim that Russia is stoking unrest in order to sow division in American society in a reprise of the Russia collusion nonsense which they say helped Trump win the White House in 2016. Now we have Republican party figures coming out to repudiate a Republican president. People like former President GW Bush and one-time White House candidate Mitt Romney. Former military leaders have recently also broken with political tradition not to publicly lambast a sitting president. In an extraordinary interview, Four-Star General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell excoriated Trump for lying all the time. Other senior military figures, including retired Marine General James Mattis and Navy Admiral William McRaven, have also in the last week deplored Trump as being unfit for office. Powell a former senior Republican government official went as far as saying he would vote for presumed Democrat candidate Joe Biden in the November elections. Such unprecedented outspoken opposition to Trump from public figures associated with the Pentagon may be taken as evidence by supporters of the president that the deep state is manoeuvring against him and trying to manipulate the electoral process. There may be a grain of truth in that. Trumps demagoguery and the uncouth manner in dealing with domestic and international politics have no doubt agitated the political establishment to get rid of him for a more plausible commander-in-chief; perhaps someone like Biden who is every bit an imperialist puppet as Trump is but one who can convey the semblance of a unifying presidency. President Donald Trump pumps his fist during a "Keep America Great" campaign rally at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida on November 26, 2019. President Donald Trump's first in-person fundraising event in the wake of his campaign going fully virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic is on track to raise at least $10 million. The massive total, described to CNBC by those familiar with the event, is set to be raised at a gathering on Thursday in a private home in Dallas where Trump, according to Politico, is expected to attend. The funds are set to go toward the Trump Victory committee, a joint fundraising operation shared by the campaign and the Republican National Committee. Tickets to the event go up to $580,600, one of the people added, the same amount that was charged for a February event at the home of billionaire investor Nelson Peltz. That reportedly ended up raising $10 million as well for the same committee. An RNC official noted "the $10 [million figure] is not final" for the Dallas event and explained that the group will not release the official totals until later this week. A spokesman for Trump did not return a request for comment. The Trump campaign is expected to resume hosting rallies in the next two weeks. The president's return to the campaign trail comes as he's down in national polls to the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden. A Real Clear Politics polling average has Trump behind Biden by eight points. Trump and the RNC suspended their in-person events in March. The expected haul in Dallas is the latest sign that wealthy Republican donors are still willing to stand behind Trump. It comes amidst the criticism he faced as the coronavirus spread and killed more than 100,000 people in the United States and for his response to the nationwide unrest following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. It also is another sign that Biden is still far behind in catching up to Trump's fundraising prowess. The president has had a four-year head start in organizing a campaign and building a financial war chest. Biden's upcoming fundraiser with Sen. Kamala Harris that's scheduled for Tuesday, for instance, is on pace to raise well over $2.5 million. Trump's absence from the campaign trail has allowed Biden to close the gap somewhat in the fundraising game. Biden and the Democratic National Committee finished the month of April raising just over $60 million, while Trump and the RNC brought in close to $61 million with $255 million on hand going into May. Neither the Trump nor Biden campaign has announced how much they raised last month. Biden's campaign also has gone virtual since March when states started shutting down in the wake of the pandemic. He has recently ventured outside his home, including on Monday, when he traveled to Houston to meet with the Floyd's parents. Floyd, a black man, was unarmed when a since-fired police officer knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was charged with murder and manslaughter. The three officers accompanying him were also fired and charged with aiding and abetting murder. Biden's fundraisers have seen a surge of contributions and commitments since the Floyd protests started in late May. The protests that started in the US have spread, leading to the removal of statues with racist legacies. The police killing of George Floyd has triggered anti-racism protests around the world. A number of monuments with links to colonialism and slavery have either been defaced or pulled down in Europe and the US as protests continue for racial justice. New Yorks state legislature is moving forward with police reform measures as the US Army, Navy as well as a number of other states look at measures they can take to address racial inequality. Floyds death, after an officer who has now been charged with second-degree murder knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, has triggered a US-wide debate on the future of law enforcement. 13:00 GMT US protests spur calls for India to wake up to anti-Dalit discrimination Spurred on by US anti-racism protests, lower-caste Dalits have called on India to acknowledge centuries of oppression they have endured and recognise that every life matters. Dalits are at the bottom of Indias ancient caste hierarchy, whose membership was determined at birth, and have historically faced violence, segregation and been barred from even having their shadows touch those of people from higher castes. We extend our solidarity because we feel them and we have faced discrimination ourselves, said Omprakash Mahato, president of the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association, a Dalit organisation at Jawaharlal Nehru University. 12:00 GMT Reddit names Michael Seibel to board after Ohanians call for black candidate Social network company Reddit has named venture capital investor Michael Seibel to its board, days after co-founder and former director Alexis Ohanian resigned and called for the company to replace him with a black candidate. Ohanians resignation came as the death of Floyd reignited the debate of diversity in Americas corporate boardrooms. Responding to Ohanians request, Chief Executive Officer Steve Huffman said on Friday, the unacceptable gap between Reddits content policy and values has reduced the companys effectiveness in combating hate and racism, and slowed down its response to problems. Social network company Reddit has named venture capital investor Michael Seibel to its board [File: AFP] 11:15 GMT Adidas pledges to hire more black and Latino staff German sportswear brand Adidas has pledged to invest $20m in the black community in the US and make sure that at least 30 percent of all new US jobs are filled with black and Latino people at its Adidas and Reebok brands. The Adidas managing board said in a statement it recognised the contribution of the black community to its success, but admitted the company must do more to fight racism and improve company culture to ensure equity, diversity and opportunity. While we have talked about the importance of inclusion, we must do more to create an environment in which all of our employees feel safe, heard and have equal opportunity to advance their careers, Chief Executive Kasper Rorsted said. Adidas said it would spend $20m in the next four years on initiatives including a grassroots basketball programme, a school for footwear design and a scheme supporting sport in the black community [File:AFP] 10:15 GMT Tunisian parliament rejects bid for French colonial apology After a heated, 14-hour debate, Tunisias parliament has rejected a motion calling on France to apologise for crimes permitted during the colonial era and pay reparations. Opponents argued that such a move would spell economic disaster, given that France is Tunisias top trade partner and foreign investor. It is also home to one million Tunisians. But proponents of the motion said an apology is necessary to turn the page on this dark period in the history of the two countries and put their relations on a more equal footing. The debate came amid renewed anger in some European countries about colonialisms crimes, stemming from protests in the US Floyds death. 09:10 GMT North Carolina city passes resolution to remove Confederate monuments: Report A city in North Carolina has unanimously passed a resolution to begin a removal process for its confederate monuments, news outlets reported. The joint action by the Asheville City Council and Buncombe County would establish a task force to recommend steps to remove or repurpose the monuments at the county courthouse and in the citys Pack Square Park, WLOS-TV reported. The move comes amid national protests that has seen Confederate monuments toppled and taken down all across the South. Which statues have been toppled by the global anti-racism protests? https://t.co/GIv7oUjzMk Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 10, 2020 08:30 GMT Lewis Hamilton on battle against racism: only the beginning Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton said the recent global protests against racism is only the beginning and there is so much change to come. The British Mercedes driver wrote on social media that these past few weeks, weve seen the world open its eyes to the realities of racism today. While a lot remains to be done, Hamilton said, he wanted to appreciate the positive steps that have been taken so far. 08:00 GMT US dictionary to change its definition of racism The American reference dictionary Merriam-Webster will change its definition of the word racism at the suggestion of a young black woman, who wanted it to better reflect the oppression of people of color. Kennedy Mitchum, a recent graduate of Drake University in Iowa, contacted Merriam-Webster, which has published its dictionaries since 1847, to propose updating the term. I basically told them that they need to include that theres a systematic oppression upon a group of people, she told the local CBS affiliate KMOV. Its not just, Oh, I dont like someone.' Merriam-Websters editorial manager Peter Sokolowski confirmed to AFP that the definition would be modified after Mitchums request. The dictionary currently offers three definitions of racism, and Sokolowski said that the second definition touches on Mitchums point but that we will make that even more clear in our next release. [File: Getty Images] 07:50 GMT Cops, on air for 33 seasons, dropped After 33 seasons on the air, the police documentary series Cops has been dropped by the Paramount Network as protests against police proliferate around the world. Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we dont have any current or future plans for it to return, a spokesperson for the cable channel said in a statement. The show had been pulled temporarily from the air in late May, when protests aimed at police over the death of Floyd began to gain momentum. The show's 33rd season had been schedule to premiere on Monday, but no episode has aired on Paramount Network since at least June 1 https://t.co/Z8rRirJwB0 The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 10, 2020 07:20 GMT Gone with the Wind removed from HBO Max Gone with the Wind has been removed from the HBO Max streaming platform, as mass protests against racism and police brutality prompt television networks to reassess their offerings. The multiple Oscar-winning US Civil War epic released in 1939 remains the highest-grossing movie of all time adjusted for inflation, but its depiction of contented slaves and heroic slaveholders has garnered criticism. Gone With The Wind is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society, an HBO Max spokesperson said in a statement to AFP. These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible. HBO Max just removed Gone With the Wind from its platform citing concerns about racial injustice. Here is the video of Hattie McDaniel becoming the first African-American to win an Academy Award for her role as Mammy in the film. pic.twitter.com/l0vh8pdpex Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 10, 2020 07:05 GMT Tennis-Osaka in no mood to back down on support for Black Lives Matter Naomi Osaka, the worlds highest paid sportswoman, says the voices of prominent athletes can be more influential than those of politicians and is determined that hers will be heard on the subject of racial injustice. The two-times Grand Slam champion has faced a backlash on social media after throwing her support behind the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the death of Floyd. Im vocal because I believe in the movement and want to try to use my platform to facilitate change, Osaka told Reuters via email. Being silent is never the answer. Everyone should have a voice in the matter and use it. https://twitter.com/naomiosaka/status/1270568265782185985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw 06:50 GMT Richmond protesters topple Columbus statue A statue of Christopher Columbus in Richmond was torn down by protesters, set on fire and then thrown into a lake. The figure was toppled less than two hours after protesters gathered in the citys Byrd Park were chanting for the statue to be taken down, news outlets reported. After the figure was removed from its pedestal by protesters using several ropes, a sign that reads, Columbus represents genocide was placed on the spray-painted foundation that once held the statue. The Columbus statue in Byrd Park was dumped in Fountain Lake tonight, reports @ardzes.https://t.co/0FzwsCqmz7 VPM (@myVPM) June 10, 2020 03:45 GMT (Wednesday) New York legislature votes to scrap police disciplinary secrecy The legislature in New York has voted to scrap a decades-old law that stops the public from seeing police disciplinary records. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says he will sign the bill into law this week. 03:30 GMT (Wednesday) CrossFit founder steps down after Floyd tweet criticism Greg Glassman, the founder and CEO of CrossFit, has stepped down days after he apologised for a tweet about George Floyds killing that drew widespread criticism. Glassman said he had created a rift in the CrossFit community and unintentionally hurt many of its members. The tweet which equated Floyds death with the coronavirus led to Reebok ending its decade-long partnership with CrossFit. 22:32 GMT Florida police union official who offered jobs to officers accused of using excessive force suspended by his department The president of a Fraternal Order of Police chapter in Florida has been suspended by a sheriffs office as it investigates him for a social media post that encouraged officers from departments accused of using excessive force during recent protests to move to Florida. Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said at a news conference Tuesday that Lieutenant Bert Gamin had been suspended from his agency as an internal investigation is conducted. Earlier in the week, Gamin, president of the Fraternal Order of Police lodge in Brevard County, Florida, had called his post in poor taste in a statement sent to local media. The message posted over the weekend on the Brevard FOP Facebook page said, Hey Buffalo 57 and Atlanta 6 we are hiring in Florida. Lower taxes, no spineless leadership or dumb mayors rambling on at press conferences Plus we got your back! It ended with the hashtags lawandorderflorida and movetowhereyouare. SUSPENDED: Brevard County Sheriffs Lt. Bert Gamin has been suspended after some inappropriate comments on the FOP (Fraternal Order of Police) Facebook page drew criticism from the community and were condemned by law enforcement. https://t.co/nrLtV97okS FOX 35 Orlando (@fox35orlando) June 9, 2020 In Atlanta, Georgia, two officers were fired and face criminal charges after video showed them using stun guns on two college students pulled from a car that was in traffic during a large protest. Four other officers were placed on desk duty. In Buffalo, New York, dozens of police officers stepped down from the departments crowd control unit last week, objecting to the suspensions of two fellow officers in the shoving of a 75-year-old protester who fell and injured his head. 22:08 GMT Women in the US voice support for Floyd protests with #IAmASuburbanMom hashtag Women in the US are pushing back against a Republican state representative in Minnesota who suggested that moms out in the suburbs are scared to death of the protests against racism and police brutality. After Paul Gazelka demanded that Minnesotas Democratic governor apologise for allowing the protests to continue, Jamie Becker-Finn, a Democratic member of the state House of Representatives and a mother from the Minneapolis suburb of Roseville, responded, saying she did not need an apology. I need the GOP Senate to be more than just sad and sorry that George Floyd was killed by police, Becker-Finn said, adding the hashtag #IAmASuburbanMom. #IAmASuburbanMom who brought the protest to the suburbs. pic.twitter.com/JITy61Hqdd Carrie Firestone (@CLLFirestone) June 6, 2020 Tens of thousands of people have since taken to Twitter with the hashtag, saying they are suburban women standing with protesters over the death of Floyd. As of Monday, it had appeared in more than 40,000 tweets. 21:45 GMT US Navy to ban Confederate flags on bases, ships and aircraft The US Navy is working to ban the Confederate battle flag from all public spaces on Navy installations, ships and aircraft, the Navy said on Tuesday, as the military and the country as a whole grapple with questions of racial inequality. The order is meant to ensure unit cohesion, preserve good order and discipline, and uphold the Navys core values of honour, courage and commitment, the Navy said in a statement. The move follows the Marine Corps ordering the removal of the Confederate flag from all its installations, including prohibiting depicting the flag on mugs and car bumpers, and word on Tuesday that Army officials were open to the idea of renaming 10 Army bases named for Confederate icons of the Civil War era. 20:47 GMT Grammy winner Ne-Yo: Floyd changed the world for the better Ne-Yo sings Boyz II Mens Its So Hard to Say Goodbye at George Floyds funeral pic.twitter.com/19YSuyaLKK Two Bees TV (@twobeestv) June 9, 2020 Grammy-winning singer Ne-Yo said George Floyds death was a sacrifice that changed the world before performing during his memorial service. Ne-Yo shed tears on Tuesday while singing a rendition of GC Camerons Its So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday. The singer paused on a few occasions to collect himself during his performance. Fifty states are protesting at the same time, he said. This man changed the world. He changed the world for the better. I would like to personally thank George Floyd for his sacrifice, so that my kids could be all right later on. I appreciate the sacrifice. I genuinely do. 20:30 GMT Al Sharpton promises to return for trial of officers involved in Floyd death The Reverend Al Sharpton told mourners at the funeral for George Floyd that he and other supporters of the slain Minneapolis man will return to the city where he died when those responsible face judgment in court. We will be back in Minneapolis, when the trial starts, Sharpton said, because you have the police union on one side, but the righteous is gonna be on the other side of that court. Delivering the main eulogy at the funeral, the New York civil rights activist called Floyds death more than a tragedy. It was, he said, a crime. Until these people pay for what they did, we will be there with them because lives like George Floyd will not matter until somebody pays the cost for taking their lives. Eulogizing George Floyds in Houston, TX. At the final service https://t.co/qttkyh5848 Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) June 9, 2020 20:09 GMT Mississippi legislators renew effort to remove Confederate emblem from state flag A bipartisan group of legislators in the southern state of Mississippi on Monday began drafting a resolution to change the states flag the last in the US that incorporates the Confederate battle emblem. The effort, which enjoys the support of the speaker of the state house, Philip Gunn, is the first attempt by the legislature to change the flag since the state voted in 2001 by a nearly 2-to-1 margin to keep the current flag, according to a report on the Mississippi Today news service. If such a bill were to pass both chambers of the state house, it would need to be signed by Republican Governor Tate Reeves, who has said he wants voters, not legislators, to decide the fate of the flag. A spectator waves his Mississippi state flag during speeches at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi. [File: Rogelio V Solis/AP Photo] 19:34 GMT Hundreds line streets, brave sweltering heat in Houston suburb where Floyd will be buried Hundreds have lined up in the Texas heat along a road leading to the cemetery where George Floyd will be buried. Many arrived hours ahead of time in Pearland, Texas, to get a spot Tuesday as they waited for the procession to come by after Floyds funeral ends at a church in Houston. Another video of people camped out by Dawson High School pic.twitter.com/jXxmKobvWb Shelby Webb (@shelbywebb) June 9, 2020 Marcus Brooks and a group of friends and graduates of Jack Yates High School, where Floyd graduated, set up a tent by the grassy side of the road. The 47-year-old Brooks said he had the tent specially created in crimson and gold, the colours of Yates High School, where Floyd played tight end. Past and present members of the football team signed the tent. 19:22 GMT Texas congresswoman signals support for Floyd protesters Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee says George Floyds death has ignited a movement that will not sit down until there is justice for Floyd. I want to acknowledge those young marchers in the streets, Jackson Lee said at Floyds memorial service on Tuesday. Many of them could not be in this place. They are Black and brown, they are Asian. They are white. They are protesting and marching. And Im saying, as a momma, I hear your cry. That is what George Floyd wanted us to know. Lee said she could not forget Floyds last words: I cant breathe. But, she said, his death served a purpose heard around the world. There are people rising up that will never sit down until you get justice. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee speaks at George Floyd's funeral service: There will be no more 8 minutes and 46 seconds of police brutality pic.twitter.com/ibZOfciigj Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) June 9, 2020 19:15 GMT IBM to exit facial recognition business, joins call for police reforms IBM says it is getting out of the facial recognition business over concerns about how it can be used for mass surveillance and racial profiling. A letter to US legislators on Monday from new IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the tech giant firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling and human rights violations. Krishna was addressing Democrats who have been working on police reform legislation in Congress in response to the death of George Floyd. The sweeping reform package could include restrictions on police use of facial recognition. 18:19 GMT Pentagon officials open to starting a discussion about renaming Army bases named for Confederate icons Officials at the US Pentagon said on Tuesday they were open to starting a discussion about changing the names of 10 military bases named for Confederate generals from the US Civil War era. According to Stars and Stripes, both Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy want to have a bipartisan discussion about the topic. The turnabout would mark a substantial change in the Armys position on the naming of the 10 Army posts Fort Lee, Fort Hood, Fort Benning, Fort Gordon, Fort Bragg, Fort Polk, Fort Pickett, Fort AP Hill, Fort Rucker and Camp Beauregard, all are located in Southern states, and most were named during the souths Jim Crow era which lasted until the 1960s. Check out this powerful statement from former Ft. Benning commander, @PaulDEaton52, on our demand to remove the names of Confederate officers from US military installations. Now. pic.twitter.com/cakYFlNGrH VoteVets (@votevets) June 9, 2020 In a statement issued by votevets.org, a former commanding general at Fort Benning in Georgia, retired Major General Paul D Eaton, said he could not fathom how Black soldiers feel serving on bases named for a traitor to the United States, a racist and an incompetent warfighter, likening it to Jewish soldiers serving at bases named after Nazis. 17:56 GMT Joe Biden: Now is the time for racial justice In a pre-recorded video testimonial aired at George Floyds funeral in Houston, Texas, former Vice President Joe Biden reached out to the surviving children of George Floyd with a heartfelt plea for their future and said, Now is the time for racial justice. I know you have a lot of questions, honey, he said, addressing Floyds 6-year-old daughter, Gianna, who was in attendance at The Fountain of Praise church. No child should have to ask questions that too many Black children have had to ask for generations. Why? Why is Daddy gone? Biden added, Little Gianna, as I said to you when I saw you yesterday, youre so brave. Daddys looking down, and hes so proud of you. When theres justice for George Floyd, we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America. A recorded message from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is played at George Floyd's Houston funeral pic.twitter.com/aTUgL96VPs Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) June 9, 2020 17:05 GMT New York Governor Andrew Cuomo disgusted by Trump tweet about Buffalo protester New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that he was disgusted by President Donald Trumps claim that a 75-year-old man seen in a video being pushed by a Buffalo police officer during a protest fell harder than (he) was pushed. President Trump did a tweet today that surprises me even after all the tweets he has done, Cuomo said at his daily news briefing. Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020 Trump suggested that the protestor, Martin Gugino, had staged his fall at the hands of an officer during a protest last Thursday, and that he could be an ANTIFA provocateur who appeared to be trying to electronically black-out police communications. Two Buffalo officers were arraigned on assault charges on Saturday over the incident, which left Gugino hospitalised. 16:45 GMT New York Stock Exchange observes 8-minute, 46-second moment of silence The New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday observed an 8 minute and 46 second moment of silence in honour of George Floyd. The moment of silence at the NYSE, which is owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc, began at noon, to coincide with the beginning of Floyds funeral. The NYSE observes an 8 minute and 46 second moment of silence to honor the life of George Floyd https://t.co/i0xZ25A3wS NYSE (@NYSE) June 9, 2020 16:33 GMT Floyd funeral begins in Houston, Texas The funeral service for George Floyd began in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday, with family members and invited dignitaries filing into The Fountain of Praise church to pay their respects. The funeral caps off six days of mourning for the Black man whose death inspired a global reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice. Guests at the service will include Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Reverend Al Sharpton, Floyd family lawyer Benjamin Crump, Slim Thug, Leela James, Paul Wall, Floyd Mayweather, Congressman Al Green, Bishop James Dixon, and others. Sharpton will deliver the eulogy. Mourners pause by the casket during Floyds funeral service [David J. Phillip / POOL/EPA] In a burial following the service, Floyd will be laid to rest next to his mother in the Houston suburb of Pearland. About 6,000 people attended a public memorial on Monday, many waiting for hours in the searing Texas heat to pay their respects. 15:45 GMT NYC officer caught violently pushing protester charged with assault A New York City police officer who was caught on video violently pushing a female protester to the ground was charged on Tuesday with assault and other counts, prosecutors announced. Officer Vincent DAndraia is also being charged with criminal mischief, harassment and menacing in the May 29 altercation in Brooklyn in which protester Dounya Zayer says her head hit the pavement, resulting in a concussion, a seizure and a trip to the hospital, according to a news release from prosecutors. DAndraia, 28, is expected to be arraigned Tuesday, according to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Shocking! NYPD officer violently throws protesting woman to the ground during NYC George Floyd protests. According to reports, the woman, @zayer_dounya , had to be hospitalized.#georgesfloyd #RIPGeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/4ByYxYmJAZ Election dot Org (@DotElection) May 30, 2020 The Police Department suspended DAndraia last week without pay. He had been assigned to Brooklyns 73rd Precinct. The head of DAndraias union, the Police Benevolent Association, said the mayor and police leaders were sacrificing cops to save their own skin by sending officers out to protests with no support and no clear plan. 15:35 GMT New York state moves forward with sweeping police reform legislation A sweeping package of police reform measures has started to move toward passage by the New York state legislature in the wake of the protests set off by the death of George Floyd. The state Assembly and Senate, both controlled by Democrats, on Monday passed a ban on police officers using chokeholds on suspects and a bill requiring law enforcement to disclose racial disparities in policing. New York legislators will discuss other bills, including the repeal of section 50-a of the civil rights law that shields officers from having their disciplinary records disclosed. New York State will lead the way on real reform. pic.twitter.com/1qp6CGZzwT Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 7, 2020 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he supported the reforms and would sign the bills into law. Police unions, including New York Citys powerful Police Benevolent Association, however, have pushed back against the states legislative agenda, which they said amounted to an attack on law enforcement. 13:55 GMT Hearse carrying George Floyds body arrives at Fountain of Praise church in Houston Flowers outside the church bear messages including Justice for George Floyd; a church official says the focus of the funeral service will be how Floyd lived. We celebrate a life that had its ups and downs, as many lives do, but also a life that was connected to God and one that all people around the world have now connected to because of the tragedy and the trauma by which he passed, church co-pastor Mia K Wright told CNN. The funeral is private but will be live-streamed; following the service, he will be laid to rest alongside his mother, Larcenia Floyd. 13:40 GMT Trump tweet about protester pushed down by Buffalo police sparks online condemnation US President Donald Trump tweeted that a 75-year-old demonstrator pushed to the ground by two police officers in Buffalo, New York, and suffering severe head injuries may have been a member of an amorphous movement, Antifa, that Trump has threatened to designate a terrorist group. Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020 Trump claimed, with no evidence, that Martin Gugino was appearing to scan police equipment. Trump has repeatedly characterised those clashing with police as organised, radical-left thugs engaging in domestic terrorism, though there is little evidence. His tweet about Gugino has sparked a backlash. Hes 75 years old for gods sake! For everyone who doesnt know what Trumps defending here is the video. pic.twitter.com/hle5ktmTp8 Mrs. Krassenstein (@HKrassenstein) June 9, 2020 The two Buffalo officers have been suspended, prompting 57 other officers to quit the forces emergency response team. 13:05 GMT Londons mayor announces that more statues of controversial figures could be removed from Britains streets Following the unauthorised felling of a slave-traders monument, as the killing of George Floyd continued to spark protests and drive change around the world, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was setting up a commission to ensure the British capitals monuments reflected its diversity. The Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm will review statues, murals, street art, street names and other memorials and consider which legacies should be celebrated, the mayors office said. It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade, and while this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been willfully ignored, Khan said. They are among millions of U.S. families looking for ways to relay the realities of this moment to their children, but the Meltons do so with the added hurdle of having an interracial household. Its a reality for more and more Americans every day: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans who identified as both white and black doubled between 2000 and 2010, and the percentage of mixed-race births grew from 1 percent in 1970 to 10 percent in 2013. The Bank of France has warned that the French economy could shrink by about 10 percent and unemployment surge to above 11.5 percent by the middle of next year as the coronavirus causes the deepest recession since World War II. The Central Bank predicts that the unemployment rate could rise to the record high of 11.8 percent in the first half of 2021 which could see 1 million jobs axed. It is likely that the expected increase in unemployment and the highly uncertain global context will continue to weigh on consumer confidence, it said in a statement. By 2022, however, unemployment should come down to 9.7 percent. The outlook remains dependent on many uncertainties, the bank stated in its report, and the trade-off between savings and spending will be crucial for the future. According to the figures business activity was down by 17 percent in May compared to normal levels, but may go up to 12 percent in June as coronavirus-related restrictions ease, it said. The countrywide lockdown imposed in March caused a very sharp shock on the economy, the central bank added. Growth shrank 15.5 percent in the three months to June after a slump in output of 5.3 percent in the first three months of the year. The grim outlook is slightly better than the forecast given by the national statistics office Insee in May. It predicted that the economy would contract by 20 percent in the second quarter. The Bank of France said a gradual recovery should be seen from the third quarter of the year starting in July but will not recover to pre-crisis levels until mid-2022. Bracing for worst The forecast comes amid government efforts to support the economy as the country braces for its worst recession since World War II. In April, French economy minister Bruno Le Maire unveiled a 110 billion relief package for struggling businesses hit by Covid-19. Last week, Le Maire pledged that another supplementary relief package would be announced in "a few weeks" and rolled out in September. City council members have authored more than four dozen amendments to Mayor Sylvester Turners proposed budget to trim spending, create new sources of revenue and expand police accountability measures. Council members will take up the proposals Wednesday when they consider the mayors $5.1 billion budget plan, which is coming forward at an especially fraught moment. The citys usual budget challenges have been aggravated by the economic crisis tied to COVID-19, while activists are gaining traction around the country in their calls to defund or scale back police departments after the death of Houston native George Floyd. Many of the 50 budget amendments are a direct response to those topics, including one from Councilwoman Amy Peck that would establish a group to audit all city departments and programs, then recommend whether they should be continued with certain changes, folded into another program or dissolved altogether. The process would in some ways parallel the zero-based budgeting process used for Turners spending plan, which required department heads to analyze every function and justify each dollar spent rather than adding to existing budgets. Peck said Turners administration never showed council members the detailed results of zero-based budgeting and her so-called sunset review commission has a broader scope. More Information How Mayor Turner responded to Houston council members' 50 budget amendments Supports: 13 amendments Supports with edits: 1 "Does not oppose": 1 Asks for withdrawal so it can be referred to a council committee: 8 Opposes, saying city already adopted something similar: 5 Opposes without comment: 22 See More Collapse With the sunset review, it's looking at every line item, but it goes past that, she said. It involves citizens and stakeholders and really gets into whether (the program is) serving the constituents, whether there are ways to consolidate, if there are technology advances to make. There could be some program within a department that's just not needed anymore. Other cost-cutting amendments include Councilwoman Sallie Alcorns proposal to study where Houston and Harris County can join forces instead of providing duplicate services, and a program suggested by Peck and Councilman Robert Gallegos that would allow city workers to voluntarily take unpaid time off. Councilman Greg Travis also proposed letting private firms compete with city departments for certain contracts, or studying whether it would save money to do so. The proposed amendments mark one of the few instruments council members can use to directly impact the city budget under Houstons strong-mayor government, which grants Turner power to introduce the annual budget to council and control the meeting agenda. The municipal government form that we have is really more of a corporate governance, where the mayor is the president and CEO and council serves as a board of directors," said Jay Aiyer, a public policy consultant and former chief of staff to mayor Lee P. Brown. So, it really depends on how well they can work with the mayor to get a separate agenda through. But it's always the mayor's agenda. A number of council members have said they support the sunset review commission, Peck said, in part because it would give them more power to weigh in on the budget process by putting commission recommendations up for a council vote. Peck likely will refer the item to committee, she said, so members can iron out a few final details. That council vote is a big part of it, because right now we just vote on the budget and that's it, Peck said. This would actually give us a little more say on the inner workings of what's going on. Turner opposed the vast majority of budget amendments during his first term or sent them to committee and then declined to put them on council meeting agendas though he has signaled his approval for a number of proposals this year. He supports the city-county services study and voluntary furlough program, along with proposals to give tax incentives to grocery stores in food deserts and businesses that build flood-resistent green stormwater infrastructure. And he supports Pecks proposal to lease certain fire, police and trash collection vehicles instead of buying them, but he has said the sunset review commission should be reviewed by the council budget committee first. The mayor has expressed opposition, meanwhile, to a sweeping police reform amendment introduced by Councilwoman Letitia Plummer that would eliminate nearly 200 vacant positions in the Houston Police Department. The funds saved by getting rid of the positions and a cadet class would go toward beefing up de-escalation training and the police oversight board, among other proposals sought by those pushing for police department reform around the country. Turner repeatedly said during last years mayoral campaign that he wants to grow the police department by several hundred officers, and he rejected the idea of reducing the police departments budget during an appearance on CNN last week. With a budget of over $900 million that is devoted almost entirely to personnel, HPD is by far the citys largest department and would have little room to cut spending without diminishing the police force. The police union previously negotiated a 3 percent pay bump from July 1 through the end of the year, accounting for much of the departments proposed budget increase. On Monday, five black Houston council members released a series of proposed HPD reforms that include many of the measures contained in Plummers plan, but without the spending cuts. The letter included every black member of council Martha Castex-Tatum, Jerry Davis, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, Edward Pollard and Tiffany Thomas except Plummer. In a statement, Plummer said, "After reading my colleagues' open letter, it appears we all want the same things. I look forward to having their support for my amendments on Wednesday." jasper.scherer@chron.com TORONTO - Tens of thousands of people around the world have flouted stay-at-home orders to flood the streets in solidarity with protesters in the United States calling for justice in the police killing of George Floyd. But as demonstrators from Canada to France to Australia have held up Floyd's photograph and repeated the rallying cries of "No justice, no peace," "Black lives matter" and "I can't breathe," they've also used the moment to draw attention to what they say are similar cases in their own countries. All involve the deaths of people of color, migrants or indigenous people during interactions with police or prison guards. Here are some of their stories: - - - Mark Duggan, 29, London, Aug. 4, 2011 Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man, was shot dead by a Metropolitan Police officer identified as V53 in the North London neighborhood of Tottenham during an attempted arrest. His death touched off riots that spread across the capital and then to other parts of England in the worst outbreak of social unrest Britain had experienced in several decades. Images of smashed store windows and double-decker buses aflame stunned Britain a year before the London Olympics. Police reported several thousand arrests and five deaths. Police said officers believed Duggan had a gun and that they acted in self-defense. His family accused the police of executing him. Jurors at an inquiry in 2014 found that Duggan was unarmed when he was shot but had been killed lawfully. Duggan's family last year reached a confidential settlement with the police; the police did not admit liability. In London over the weekend, protesters carried placards with Duggan's name and chanted, "Who killed Mark Duggan? The police killed Mark Duggan." - - - David Dungay Jr., 26, Sydney, Dec. 29, 2015 When demonstrators in Australia held signs reading "I can't breathe" over the weekend they were invoking not only Floyd, but also David Dungay Jr., who screamed the phrase at least 12 times as he was pinned down by five prison guards at a Sydney jail. The 26-year-old indigenous man had diabetes and schizophrenia; guards stormed his cell and dragged him to another after he refused to stop eating a pack of biscuits. They said they were concerned about his blood sugar levels. An hour later, he was dead. As in the killing of Floyd, Dungay's last moments were captured on video. At one point, a nurse administers him a sedative. At another, a guard tells Dungay: "If you're talking you can breathe." The deputy coroner of New South Wales found last year that Dungay "did not pose a security risk" and that his cell transfer was unnecessary, according to the Guardian. But he also said the guards should not be disciplined, citing "systemic efficiencies in training" and no evidence of "malicious intent." Dungay's family wants prosecutors to investigate whether charges could be brought against the guards. Dungay's death reignited long-simmering anger about the mistreatment of indigenous Australians, their overrepresentation in the country's prison population and their deaths in custody - the subject of a royal commission in 1991. Dungay's mother, Leetona, marched in Sydney over the weekend in a T-shirt with her son's face and his last words. Prime Minister Scott Morrison suggested Australians were "importing" problems from other countries. Duggan's sister, Christine, had a message for Morrison: "Until we get justice, brother, you are not going to get any peace," she told Australia's "Today" show. - - - Oury Jalloh, 36, Dessau, Germany, Jan. 7, 2005 Oury Jalloh, an asylum seeker from Sierra Leone, burned to death in a police cell in the eastern German town of Dessau in 2005. The hands and feet of his charred corpse were still shackled to the bedframe. The 36-year-old, whose asylum claim had been rejected, had been arrested for allegedly harassing women. Police said Jalloh died by suicide after setting the fire-retardant mattress alight with a lighter that officers did not find during a strip search. Critics accuse the police of a coverup. A melted lighter not found in the initial search of the cell and containing no traces of Jalloh's DNA was entered into evidence several days after his death. Police said it was found under his body, and was not visible in video evidence from the cell. Two officers were acquitted of charges in Jalloh's death in 2008. A higher court four years later convicted one officer of involuntary manslaughter and fined him roughly $12,000 after he admitted to ignoring a fire alarm. Prosecutors closed the case in 2017, citing a lack of evidence. A medical report commissioned by activists last year indicated Jalloh had been beaten before he died. "Murders by police officers are simply categorically ruled out," the advocacy group Break the Silence said last week. A protest is scheduled on Thursday outside the police station in Dessau. - - - Regis Korchinski-Paquet, 29, Toronto, May 27, 2020 Protesters in Canada are demanding answers in the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old Afro-indigenous woman who died after falling 24 stories from the balcony of her Toronto apartment while police were inside. Family members have asked whether the officers played a role in her death; it's being probed by Ontario's police watchdog. The events leading to the death of the gymnast and church volunteer are murky. According to the family's lawyer, Korchinski-Paquet's mother called police to the apartment after a family dispute and pleaded with them to take her to a psychiatric hospital. Korchinski-Paquet spoke with officers in the hallway, the lawyer said, and then asked to use the bathroom. She was escorted inside by officers who blocked her family from following, the lawyer said. After several minutes, her family heard a ruckus and cries of "Mom, help!" They later learned she had fallen and was dead. Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders decried what he called "misinformation" and "lies" about the incident on social media, and called on people to wait for the watchdog to complete its investigation. The family said last week it would postpone speaking with the oversight body, citing concerns about police leaks to the media. Korchinski-Paquet's death has sparked protests in several Canadian cities, including Toronto, where a 2018 report found black people are more likely than their white counterparts to be injured or killed by police. Artists painted murals of Korchinski-Paquet and Floyd - who died two days apart, both calling for their mothers - in Toronto's "Graffiti Alley." Saunders on Monday announced his resignation as police chief, effective July 31; he did not say why. - - - Giovanni Lopez, 30, Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos, Mexico, May 4, 2020 Giovanni Lopez, a 30-year-old construction worker, was arrested on May 4 in Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos, a town outside Guadalajara. His family and activists said it was because he wasn't wearing a face mask. State officials said he was accused of a minor charge of disturbing the peace or resisting arrest. He was declared dead the next day with traumatic brain injury, according to Mexican media. Protests erupted in Guadalajara last week after video emerged of police shoving Lopez into a patrol truck. His death highlighted widespread police brutality in Mexico, where activists say officers often torture detainees but are rarely found guilty of abuse. Enrique Alfaro, the governor of Jalisco state, said Saturday that three officers had been detained in the killing and that state authorities had taken control of the local police department. Lopez's death has prompted a wave of online outrage, with the hashtag #JusticiaParaGiovanni, and comparisons with Floyd's death. Celebrities including Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and actress Salma Hayek have joined the campaign protesting the death. The protests in Guadalajara turned violent, with participants breaking windows and setting fire to police vehicles. Adama Traore, 24, Beaumont-sur-Oise, France, July 16, 2016 Adama Traore, a 24-year-old construction worker, died in the Paris suburb of Beaumont-sur-Oise while out celebrating his birthday. Traore's family has sought to hold the police accountable for his death in a country where activists say police brutality against black and Arab citizens is common but struggles to hold public attention in the way it does in the United States. Traore had been taken into police custody for fleeing an identity check. Police were accused of jumping on his back and suffocating him. Medical experts have come to different conclusions about whether a potential underlying condition or the manner in which he was restrained led to his death, according to Reuters. His family launched the "Justice for Adama" movement to keep public attention on his case. Protesters have underscored the parallels between his death and Floyd's, carrying signs with both men's names and the words "I can't breathe." After days of protests, the French government on Monday banned police from using chokeholds to detain suspects. "Today, when we fight for George Floyd, we fight for Adama Traore," his sister, Assa Traore, said at a demonstration in Paris last week. - - - The Washington Post's Loveday Morris in Berlin and Mary Beth Sheridan in Mexico City contributed to this report. Seasoned TV and film actor Ashiesh Roy, who had recently taken to social media to write a heartbreaking appeal for financial help from his fans as he could not afford his medical expenses, has been discharged from the hospital. In a new interview, he said that he had to be released as he could not pay the hospital bills any further. Talking to SpotboyE, Roy said, I am home right now and feeling extremely weak. There is a house help who is taking care of me. As flights are not working full-fledged, my sister has not been able to come down. I had to take a discharge on May 24 as I had no more money to pay them. The bill was of Rs 2 lakhs and somehow I managed to pay that. My dialysis is still on and it will go on for two more months. I visit the hospital every alternate day and they charge Rs 2000 for three hours dialysis. In an earlier Facebook post, Roy had said that he had reached out to Salman Khan for financial help. Talking about this to the publication, the actor said, I have not received any help and I dont know if my message even reached Salman Khan. I just want to get fine now and get back to work. The actor has appeared in shows like Sasural Simar Ka, Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi, Banegi Apni Baat, Mere Angne Mein to name a few. The actor had previously been rushed to a hospital in January 2019 after suffering from a stroke. He had also suffered from a brain-clot in 2018. Follow @News18Movies for more Iron ore prices gained as top Brazilian miner, Vale S.A VALE, has been ordered to shut its Itabira operations. This development along with the alarming spread of coronavirus in Brazil, which is just behind the United States in coronavirus numbers, have fueled concerns that the scenario will lead to an iron ore supply crunch. Meanwhile, demand in China remains strong. Iron-ore prices are currently trending above $100 per ton and clocked a year-to-date gain of 9%. Brazils Iron Supply at Risk Per latest reports, total number of coronavirus cases in the Brazil stood at 691,962 and the death toll at 37,312. Brazil is currently the second worst-hit country in the world. Considering that Brazil is the worlds second-largest exporter of iron ore, the aggravating COVID-19 situation has triggered worries that it might constrain iron-ore supply. Vale has been ordered to shut operations at its Itabira complex by a Brazilian labor court after 188 workers tested positive. It will remain in effect until a binding ruling is issued and ascertained safe by labor inspectors. Notably, the three mines at Itabira churned around 36 million tons, or 12% of Vale's total iron-ore output last year. In April, Vale had trimmed 2020 iron-ore production guidance to 310-330 Mt from the prior 340-355 Mt, citing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the primary reasons. The company reiterated its production guidance stating that the range already factors in a negative impact of 15 Mt from eventual impacts resulting from COVID-19. However, Vale has cautioned that there may be a temporary shortage of pellets for the domestic market owing to the shutdown of the Itabira Complex. The current situation in Brazil is concerning. Although mining has been allowed to operate as an essential business in the country, rising number of infections among workers might result in a reduced workforce, limit productivity or even lead to closure of mines. Story continues Demand from China Continues to Pick up The Official NBS Manufacturing PMI in China was 50.6 in May 2020 the third straight month of increase in factory activity, as companies resumed operations. This indicates a major recovery from the all-time low PMI reading of 35.7 in February, which was weighed down by the coronavirus-induced lockdown. This indicates that China is gradually moving out of the crisis and is working toward full normalization of economic activities. China, which makes about half of the worlds steel, imports more than 70% of the worlds seaborne iron ore. China produced 996.34 million tons (Mt) of crude steel in 2019, just shy of the 1 billion mark, per the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The figure also marked an improvement of 8.3% over 2018. China produced around 85 Mt of crude steel in April 2020, up from the 79 Mt witnessed in March, taking the total steel production to 318.7 Mt for the January-April time period. Per the China Iron & Steel Association, China is likely to see a strong recovery in steel demand henceforth as the country's infrastructure investment and production resumption gains more momentum. Thus, the demand for iron ore is expected to remain strong. The Zacks Mining Iron industry has gained 34.2% over the past month, outperforming the S&P 500s and the Basic Materials Sectors growth of 14.4% and 15.5%, respectively. The groups Zacks Industry Rank, which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates bright prospects in the near term. The Zacks Mining- Iron Industry, currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #21, which places it at the top 8% 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. Going by the EV/EBITDA multiple (a preferred valuation metric for mining companies that have high capital expenditures), the iron-mining industry has a trailing 12-month EV/EBITDA multiple of 3.93, lower than the S&P 500s EV/EBITDA multiple of 11.82 and the Basic Material Sectors 9.44. The impending supply-demand imbalance is expected to keep supporting iron-ore prices, which bodes well for iron miners including Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. FSUGY, Vale, BHP Group Limited BHP and Rio Tinto plc RIO. Further, the combination of higher iron-ore prices and lower oil prices, which make up significant portion of miners costs, is likely to translate into improved operating margins and higher free cash flow this year. Vale, Fortescue Metals, BHP and Rio Tinto gained a respective 34.1%, 31.0%, 27.6% and 24.3%, in the past month. While Fortescue Metals Group carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), Vale, BHP Group and Rio Tinto have a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 5 Stocks Set to Double Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth. Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor. Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >> 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 BHP Group Limited (BHP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) : Free Stock Analysis Report VALE S.A. (VALE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (FSUGY) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research HARTFORD After more than 2,800 deaths at Connecticuts nursing homes and assisted living facilities, the Lamont administration is ordering an outside review of how the COVID-19 pandemic has been handled in those facilities. Our state took proactive and innovative steps to address the outbreak in our long-term care facilities, but we must take steps to better understand how prepared the system was, and then review the steps that were taken once the virus was clearly present across the state, Lamont said Monday. Lamonts decision to hire third-party experts for the review came one day after Hearst Connecticut Media published a story detailing systemic problems at nursing homes. Those include understaffing, inadequate infection control plans, repeated violations of standards with little or no penalty, a virus testing program that failed to separate patients and shortages in basic supplies that protect staff and patients. Family members told Hearst they found it difficult to learn how their relative was doing, whether they had coronavirus and even if they had died from the disease. Some nursing homes resisted revealing how many patients were infected and what administrators were doing to stop the spread. Legislators told Hearst they are interested in a variety of fixes, including increased funding for nursing homes, more rigid state oversight and training, especially regarding infection control. Other concerns centered on testing, legal liability, in-room cameras to monitor treatment and purchasing protective equipment. Lamont said the review will incorporate a top-to-bottom analysis of the pandemic and how it was addressed at nursing homes and assisted living facilities. That was the tragic center for our state and the other 49 states, Lamont said, referring to nursing homes during his late afternoon COVID briefing. Asked why the review was initiated now, Josh Geballe, Lamonts chief operating officer, said nursing homes are stabilizing. We wanted to initiate now because the situation is stabilizing and in anticipation of a second phase, Geballe said. We wanted to do this now to see what we can learn, what went well and what can be done differently. Connecticuts nursing homes have seen more 2,500 deaths and 8,500 coronavirus cases in a population of just over 21,000 patients. Assisted living facilities have suffered 337 deaths and over 1,000 residents contracted COVID-19, the latest figures show. About 60 percent of total deaths in Connecticut have been among nursing home residents. A quick review The governor said he wants the analysis completed before the start of autumn and proposals to hire an outside expert will be released in several days. There is a chance there could be second surge and we want to be ready, Lamont said. He said he will also collaborate with legislative leaders to ensure the review provides the state with meaningful information that can best improve the safety of patients and staff. The awarded independent expert will be directed to work widely across state government and include input from the legislative and executive branches, as well as key stakeholders, such as the operators of long-term care facilities, the unions that represent the staff who work in these facilities, patients, health experts, and others, the administration said in a release. Lamont praised the states response to the pandemic, pointing out Connecticut was one of the first to discontinue visitation in early March. The governor noted the state established dedicated COVID-recovery facilities to prevent COVID-positive patients from re-entering nursing homes, enhanced inspection and monitoring of infection control practices. Other steps cited by the administration include delivering millions of units of personal protective equipment, $125 million in financial aid and new classes of workers. The state in May and June began testing every nursing home resident who had not tested positive and required similar tests for all staff. Deidre Gifford, acting commissioner of the Department of Public Health, said the review will allow the state to learn from the past. We must take this opportunity to learn from the pandemic and the experience of our nursing homes to ensure we are using the best available science and quality improvement techniques to protect these residents, Gifford said. We must study the epidemiology, protocols, staffing, and overall preparedness of all our facilities to provide clarity and understanding of what happened over the course of this pandemic. Some lawmakers have been clamoring for hearings to review the states handing of the pandemic and are beginning to offer suggested legislation. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, recently submitted a bill containing myriad fixes to problems at nursing homes. bcummings@ctpost.com DALLAS, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Arcade has committed to match up to $5 million toward employee incentives for eligible small businesses. The program is designed to put money in employee's pockets, boosting morale and productivity after the economic struggle of the market shut down. Eligible businesses will receive up to $500 per location or a max of $20,000 per company towards employee incentives. What is Workplace Arcade? Applications will only be available online and businesses can apply starting June 8, 2020. The application period will close on June 30, 2020. Any retailer, restaurant, franchise, call center, auto dealer, or fitness group with multiple locations is eligible to apply. This program is not available to individuals. "We know many businesses are stretched financially during this time, and so we felt compelled to step up to the plate and support frontline employees in a real way. Our goal is to double every dollar that companies are willing to invest into incentives for their employees," said CEO David Cherrie. Arcade has a mission to help make one million happy frontline workers worldwide, and sees this new incentive program as a way to support businesses who put their employees first and focus on winning the second half of the year. Business owners can easily get started doubling their incentive bank by visiting www.arcade.com/powerup About Arcade Arcade specializes in workforce performance engagement, with a solution that helps companies gamify employee goals and recognition in a rewarding way that lifts their productivity. Employees earn rewards from thousands of popular brands as they achieve goals set by the business, such as sales performance, customer service scores, or completing tasks. For Press Inquiry Contact: David Cherrie [email protected] +1 415 694 1848 SOURCE Arcade The Dalai Lama is set to release his first album. The project, titled Inner World, is set to come out on 6 July, the Tibetan spiritual leaders 85th birthday, and will feature teachings and mantras set to music. Musician Junelle Kunin set the wheels in motion a few years ago when, stressed out while working at a bank in New Zealand, she began searching for music paired with teachings from the Dalai Lama to calm herself down and allow herself to focus in vain. Kunin, a practising Buddhist, proposed the idea of making such an album to The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but was politely turned down. Nevertheless, on a trip to India where Kunin says she typically gets a chance to meet the Dalai Lama she asked again, this time writing a letter and handing it to one of his assistants. Inner World is coming out five years after the encounter. Id never heard him speak like this. He really was so excited ... he actually proceeded to explain to me how important music is, Kunin said. He leaned forward and his eyes were sparkling, and his fingers were rubbing together and he [talked] about how music can help people in a way that he cant; it can transcend differences and return us to our true nature and our good heartedness. The 11-track project will be released in conjunction with a companion booklet. On her trip to India in 2015, Kunin wrote down a list of topics and mantras she thought would be great for the album, and recorded the conversations with the Dalai Lama for Inner World. The religious leader recites the mantras of seven Buddhas on the album, discussing topics like wisdom, courage, healing and children. The track Compassion, one of the most famous Buddhist prayers, was released on Tuesday. When Kunin returned home, her husband, Abraham, who is also a musician and producer, helped her create music and sounds to enhance the Dalai Lamas messages and powerful words. Kunin said that although theyve worked on the album for the last five years, it releasing it now feels extremely relevant. Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up The entire purpose of this project is to try to help people. Its not a Buddhist project, its to help everyday people like myself, even though I am Buddhist, she said. The messages couldnt be more poignant for our current social climate and needs as humanity. Net proceeds from the sales of the album will benefit Mind & Life Institute as well as Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning (SEE Learning), an international education program developed by Emory University and the Dalai Lama. The Associated Press contributed to this report MONROE COUNTY, MI A white man has been charged with felony assault and ethnic intimidation after he allegedly hit a black teenager in the face with a bicycle chain at a Michigan beach. The Monroe News was the first to report the charges stemming from what authorities allege was a racially motivated assault at Sterling State Park beach in Frenchtown Township, about 40 miles southwest of Detroit. Lee James Mouat Jr., 42, of Newport, is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Bond was set Monday at $100,000. The Associated Press reports the assault happened after two groups of people one white, the other black exchanged words at the beach on Saturday, June 6. Mouat went to his car and retrieved a locking device used for bicycles, according to Monroe County sheriffs deputies. He then went up to the victim, used a racial slur for black people and hit the man in the face with the lock. The two groups then began to fight. The victim, a Monroe man whose name was not released, was hospitalized with injuries to his face, according to the Associated Press. At the beginning of May, the Egyptian navy received the third submarine out of four that Egypt had bought from the German corporation Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems. These submarines were greeted by headlines not only in Egypt but also in Israel, because here they star in the submarine affair, which is considered by pundits to be the most severe case of corruption since the founding of the State of Israel. The affair includes the three new submarines acquired by Israel from Thyssenkrupp, but also the ones purchased by Egypt from the same source. One of the arguments made by all the Blue and White seniors during the recent election campaigns is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the Egyptian sale to Chancellor Angela Merkel without consulting or updating the heads of Israels defense system. Germany does not need Israels approval, but because of the special bilateral relations, Berlin did ask Jerusalems acceptance. According to former chiefs of staff Moshe Yaalon, Gabi Ashkenazi, Benny Gantz (and also Yair Lapid), Netanyahus lone approval had effectively waived Israels veto power regarding the sale of German strategic weapons to Israels neighbors. They even argued that his conduct was alarming and on the border of treason for allowing the Egyptian navy to acquire sophisticated, expensive and lethal weapons. They hinted that this was connected to personal interests of Netanyahus close friends and family members in Thyssenkrupp. Of course, since then, Egypt received most of the submarines it bought from the Germans Israel did not receive any of the three submarines it was supposed to purchase in this round since the entire deal was never completed. And what was the fate of the submarine affair? This, too, has disappeared from the public agenda. Having joined the unity government, Gantz and Ashkenazi are embedded in Netanyahus Cabinet. Only Yaalon continues the battle cry from the opposition, but in vein. The police investigation ended, the principal states witness Michael Ganor retracted his words and Netanyahu continues on his merry way. When the story exploded in the media more than three years ago, it had seemed that the case had the potential to bury Netanyahu and his regime for good. While Netanyahu was able to brand the other corruption cases as petty persecution on the part of investigative authorities, the submarine affair bears signs of something close to treason. The fact that several people close to the prime minister were involved in strategic weapon deals, and that they were under suspicion of doing so for personal gain tantamount in Israel to violating the holy of holies," its national security threatened to damage Netanyahus reputation even among his most devoted followers. But much time has passed since then, and Netanyahu now acts as if the submarine affair never existed. The investigation was not able to prove that his lawyer David Shimron (who was also Netanyahus adviser and cousin) told Netanyahu what he was doing. To this very day, the prime minister claims that he didnt know that attorney Shimron was the mediator between Thyssenkrupp and the Israeli navy. Even when it turned out that Netanyahu secretly gave Germanys chancellor the go-ahead to sell strategic submarines to Egypt, the prime minister somehow managed to get off the hook while Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will not allow the police to conduct an investigation connected to diplomatic decisions. The third chapter of the affair erupted when it emerged that Netanyahu had allegedly accumulated tremendous capital gains about $4.6 million through joint investments with his American cousin Nathan Milikowsky. Meanwhile, it was discovered that Milikowsky owns a company that does business with the Thyssenkrupp corporation; this chapter has not yet been investigated in Israel. Al-Monitor learned that Israeli investigative authorities are waiting for answers from American authorities in order for Mandelblit to decide whether to open another criminal investigation against the prime minister. Many in Israel believe that ultimately, this investigation will be opened. Netanyahu apparently did not report his global business transactions with his cousin; it is not clear whether these profits are listed in his declaration of capital. Worst of all is the fact that the details that were uncovered ostensibly prove that Netanyahu is tainted with conflict of interest regarding everything connected to Thyssenkrupp. But until, and if, all of this takes place, Netanyahu appears to have successfully survived this allegedly severe case of corruption without significant damage. As aforementioned, Ganor has retracted his testimony and backed away from the deal with the persecution. With the state-witness deal canceled, the prosecution is now preparing to serve him with a severe indictment and recommends that less severe indictments be served to other suspects. Thus, this affair that was once viewed as being critical enough to bring down Netanyahu and his cronies is now being leveraged by Netanyahus associates in the opposite direction. They are now blaming Netanyahus opponents and law enforcement agencies for having persecuted an innocent prime minister. The last remaining political potential is the option of establishing an official inquiry commission to investigate the circumstances. This demand featured prominently in Blue and Whites last three election campaigns. Over and over, the demand for such a commission was made by Lapid, Gantz, Ashkenazi and Yaalon to clean the filthy Augean stables once and for all. In this, Blue and White enjoyed much public support. But then the unity government was founded and Gantz and Ashkenazi were swallowed up whole. Now, only Yaalon who served as defense minister at the time of the affair is out there, insisting on bringing up the affair. But even Yaalon is getting worn out. The public has tired of this issue and the political system moves on. Knesset member Ofer Shelah (Lapids No. 2 in Yesh Atid) was recently appointed chairman of the State Control Committee the very committee that has the power to establish such an official inquiry commission. However, the Likud took care to enlarge its representation in the committee in time by one additional parliamentarian. Thus, the committee does not have the necessary two-thirds majority for establishing such a commission. And so it seems that Netanyahu has thwarted that option as well. Yaalon and Lapids last hopes are now pinned to a potential investigation into the monies earned by Netanyahu in the United States. They are waiting for Mandelblits decision; Mandelblit is waiting for an answer from the Americans. There is the feeling that we are in for a long, long wait. PHILADELPHIA A Philadelphia police officer surrendered Monday to face aggravated assault and other charges stemming from video that shows him striking a student protester in the head with a metal baton. Police Staff Inspector Joseph Bologna has been suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss him from the department. Bologna's attorney said the officer's actions were justified because the protests over the death of George Floyd had turned violent, and he has drawn the support of many of his colleagues. Bologna, who is also charged with reckless endangerment and possession of an instrument of crime, was applauded by scores of supporters including officers in and out of uniform who had gathered outside a police union lodge in a show of support. Video circulating widely on Twitter shows Bologna, during a June 1 protest, hitting a 21-year-old Temple University student in the head and neck area with a baton, the student being knocked to the ground, and another officer putting a knee on him to keep him down. Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said Friday that the officer had been taken off street duty pending an internal investigation. Hours later, District Attorney Larry Krasner announced that his office would be charging Bologna with a crime. FOP Lodge 5 President John McNesby called the charges "baseless" and said the union looks forward to the day "that Bologna is exonerated and cleared for duty." Over the weekend, other officers organized efforts to help cover Bologna's legal defense, including a GoFundMe page that had collected more than $22,000 as of Monday morning, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The police union also announced on Twitter that it would sell T-shirts saying "Bologna Strong." Bologna's attorney, Fortunato Perri Jr., said the officer's actions during the protest were justified. "Last week he worked several consecutive 15-hour shifts to protect the peaceful protesters, residents and business owners from those who used the protests to engage in arson, looting, theft and mayhem," Perri wrote in an emailed statement. "In the midst of this deadly pandemic, Inspector Bologna and his fellow officers were spit on, sprayed with urine and other chemicals as well as verbally and physically assaulted. His use of force to apprehend an individual, who was trying to thwart a lawful arrest during a melee, was lawful and justified." The attorney representing the engineering student, who according to the district attorney's office needed about 10 staples and 10 stitches, declined to comment on the charges or arrest. Lawyers, activist groups and others have strongly criticized multiple instances of police use of force during the protests, many recorded by reporters or posted on social media. A confrontation June 1 involving officers firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who had gotten on to Interstate 676 and were trying to retreat up a steep embankment drew national attention. On the other side of the commonwealth, meanwhile, prosecutors in Allegheny County said they were dropping charges in more than three dozen cases from recent protests in Pittsburgh stemming from the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. A spokesman for the office said the mayor had directed city police to file charges against several dozen people "who allegedly chose to engage in civil unrest," but "notwithstanding the impact that the recent marches have had on our citizens and businesses, we do not have the evidence in these cases to suitably conduct a preliminary hearing." Accordingly, District Attorney Stephen Zappala had directed that charges be withdrawn in the 39 cases "until the public safety director provides evidence that is both relevant and substantial," the spokesman said. Mayor Bill Peduto's spokesman declined comment; a message seeking comment was also sent to a representative of the public safety department. Floyd, who was black, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into Floyds neck even as he pleaded for air and stopped moving. The special branch of Rajasthan Police on Monday arrested two civil defence employees on espionage charges. Both the employees - Vikas Kumar (29) and Chimal Lal (22) - were passing information to the Pakistani intelligence agency, the police said. They work at an Army Ammunition Depot in Sri Ganganagar district. The arrests were made based on the inputs provided by Military Intelligence (MI). Both the accused were found sharing confidential information with Pakistans intelligence agency. Both were arrested under relevant sections of Official Secrets Act, 1923. Further investigation is on, said Umesh Mishra, additional director general of police (ADGP), Intelligence. Another senior police official related to this case said that the Military Intelligence found out about Kumar in August last year. On further investigation, the MI Lucknow came to know that Vikas Kumar was cultivated by a Pakistani intelligence operative using a Facebook profile in the garb of Anoshka Chopra being run from Multan, Pakistan by a young Pakistani woman. Kumar was sharing confidential military information related to ORBAT (Order of Battle; composition and order of a military fighting formation), ammunition (photos, state, quantity, type, arrival, departure), units coming for firing practice , military exercise to MFFR, personality traits of senior army officers in lieu of money. It was also found that Kumar was receiving payments in three of his (and his brothers) bank accounts, said the police officer. The MI shared the case with Uttar Pradesh Polices Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) in January this year. Kumars activities were monitored and analysed by a joint team of MI Lucknow and UP ATS. The operation was code named Desert Chase. During surveillance, it was found that Kumar is acquiring photos of a water distribution register at a water point, pump house in MFFR through a contractual civil employee named Chiman Lal. The operation was halted due to start of the lockdown. Finally, the case was shared with Rajasthan Polices intelligence wing in the first week of May. A joint team was formed between Rajasthan Polices intelligence wing and MI Lucknow, and all the findings were analysed again. Further details were acquired and conclusive evidences were gathered. Fresh payments were detected and so were passage of more information to Pakistan after which the accused were arrested, the police official added. The police said that Kumar confessed during questioning that he had received a friend request from the Facebook Profile Anoshka Chopra in the month of March/April last year and had accepted it. They became very friendly, shared their WhatsApp numbers with each other and even started chatting and making audio/video calls. She used an Indian WhatsApp number and claim she is working with Canteen Store Department (CSD) headquarters at Mumbai. Kumar joined several WhatsApp groups as she asked him to. She was in all these groups and there were many serving defence and civil defence employees in them. Subsequently, she introduced Vikas Kumar to her boss, Amit Kumar Singh (pseudo name used by the handler) who was also using an Indian WhatsApp number, another police official said on the condition of the anonymity. The officer further added that he at times claimed to be from from Military Engineer Service (MES). Once Vikas and the Pakistani handler started communicating, Anoshka Chopra blocked her from her Facebook and WhatsApp. The handler convinced Vikas to send him military information in exchange for money. Hence the sequence of tasking by the handler and reporting by Kumar started around end of April 2019. Most of the information Vikas Kumar had passed on to his handler was found to have been acquired himself and some through Chiman Lal. Both the accused used to regularly send photos of water distribution register kept at one of the Pump House of MFFR with details of Army No, rank, name, unit, total strength & quantity of water drawn on almost daily basis, the police official added. Kumar has confessed to have received at least Rs 75,000 in total from his Pakistani handler (in smaller lots) for the information he has shared during this entire period. He used to receive them mostly on bank accounts of his and his brother, Hemant Kumar. Both the individuals are likely to be produced before a local court soon by the police. A police remand may be requested for further examination. VIENNA, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Lexogen, the transcriptomics and next-generation sequencing company, launched the new TraPR Small RNA Isolation Kit. TraPR ( T rans- K ingdom, R apid, A ffordable P urification of R ISCs) is a breakthrough method that enables a gel free isolation of functional small RNAs (sRNAs) and allows for a cost-efficient, accurate, and highly reproducible analysis of sRNAs that carry important biological information. Regulatory small RNAs play an essential role in mRNA turnover, translational regulation, and chromatin compaction and hence are important regulators of gene expression. These sRNAs associate with specific proteins of the Argonaute family (AGOs) to form RNA-induced silencing complexes (RISCs) and guide the AGO proteins to their respective targets in a process termed RNA interference. TraPR Small RNA Isolation Kit enables the specific isolation of loaded AGO proteins via a short and simple single column purification. As a species-independent method, TraPR does not require any prior characterization of the sample. By purification of RISCs the TraPR Small RNA Isolation Kit enriches exclusively fully functional, physiologically relevant sRNAs including piRNAs, siRNAs, miRNAs, and scnRNAs. These sRNAs can be extracted even from degradation-prone material or from samples that are notoriously hard to work with, like plant material, whole blood, and plasma. Contaminating RNAs such as degradation products of tRNAs, rRNAs, and mRNAs are effectively excluded from the purified RISC fraction. Hence, TraPR enables the universal, fast, and bias-free isolation of RISCs and provides an accurate representation of functional silencing sRNAs without requiring tedious and time-consuming gel extraction steps. As TraPR exploits the conserved biochemical properties of all AGO-family proteins it is a universally applicable method that outperforms all current procedures for sRNA profiling. The TraPR Small RNA Isolation Kit generates high-quality sRNA preparations suitable for Next Generation Sequencing and can be perfectly combined with Lexogen's Small RNA-Seq Library Preparation Kit. TraPR can be used for a wide range of applications where functional sRNAs play an important role, including discovery of novel biomarkers for the detection of diseases or monitoring of the response to drug treatments. "Small RNA analysis was always extremely tedious and messy. TraPR is so easy and clean, that finally we can make large scale profiling and diagnostic sequencing of small RNAs feasible. I am really looking forward to all the new discoveries that will be made with this new gold-standard," says Alexander Seitz, CEO and founder of Lexogen. The TraPR method has been developed by Olivier Voinnet's group at the Department of Biology at ETH Zurich, Switzerland and was published last week in the journal Nucleic Acid Research. Lexogen has exclusively licensed TraPR from the ETH Zurich. Original publication: Grentzinger, T., Oberlin, S., Schott, G., et al. (2020) A universal method for the rapid isolation of all known classes of functional small RNAs. Nucleic Acids Res. DOI:10.1093/nar/gkaa472 About Lexogen Established in 2007, Lexogen is a transcriptomics and Next-Generation Sequencing company, focusing on the development of innovative methods for RNA analysis. Its portfolio includes multiple innovative and well-established protocols for RNA sequencing sample preparation, external RNA spike-in controls, as well as bioinformatics tools and sequencing services. Lexogen is a privately held company, headquartered in Vienna, Austria with a subsidiary in New Hampshire, US. For more information about Lexogen visit www.lexogen.com and follow @lexogen. Contact person at Lexogen Jekaterina Aleksejeva Senior Marketing Manager E-mail: jekaterina.aleksejeva@lexogen.com Tel.: +43 699 1023 8946 www.lexogen.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/472869/Lexogen_logo_Logo.jpg (Natural News) Students at the University of Washington are demanding that black students be given leniency on finals because they are too busy fighting for [their] rights to sit down and study. The university is advising professors to do just that. (Article by Jessica Custodio republished from CampusReform.org) An online petition calls for laxed grading and accommodations, specifically for Black students. So far, the petition has amassed more than 26,000 signatures. give Black students a break! We are already DISPROPORTIONATELY impacted by this pandemic in terms of health care access and financial hardship. Now add state-sanctioned violence, how do you expect us to enter finals in this headspace?! reads the petition. You need to encourage and demand professors to accommodate their black students during this time. If UW truly understands our pain, UW will be a part of alleviating it, the petition continues. We cant sit back and watch as injustices unfold before our eyes. We dont have the privilege that white and non-black students do to ignore whats happening and stay at home to study for finals, the petition added. We are busy fighting for our rights and for the rights of future black children and students to sit down and study. The least UW could do is demand professors to accommodate us during this time I recognize that this institution and others across the country were not built to serve marginalized students, specifically Black students. Still to this day, institutions such as UW, do not serve Black students to the same capacity that white students benefit from, student government president Kelty Pierce told The Daily. A template to help professors announce these accommodations has been circulating on social media, reading Dear Students, I am writing to you to offer accommodations for black students in this class during the end of this class and finals. Many black students are not just using this time to cope emotionally, but to fight on the front lines of these protests and actively work and take action on what has been happening to the black community. it continues. Nicole McNichols, UW Psychology Professor provided Campus Reform with a copy of the email she sent to her own students. I sent this on Sunday before I knew about the petition, McNichols said. Obviously, I support the petition and absolutely believe the accommodations it requests should be honored by all faculty. Students need all of the support and compassion we can afford to give them right now. The email sent by McNichols to her students reads, I wanted to reach out and acknowledge the incredible grief, fear, and loneliness that I know many of you are experiencing in light of recent (and not so recent) events. These are frightening times and I know that many of you are struggling emotionally as our country suffers not only from a pandemic but also from abhorrent racism, overwhelming violence, and palpable rage. These events are terrible and it is completely understandable to feel scared and alone right now. Last, I think we all could use a break right now as these times certainly call for compassion. Given this, there will be a following change to the course policies. First, the remaining homework chapters are being put into review mode. Everyone will receive full points. Second, I have decided to drop everyones lowest exam score. This means that you may opt-out of taking Exam 3 if you just dont feel up to it, (or if you [are] happy with your scores from exam 1 and 2), the email added. UW Senior Director of Media Relations Victor Balta directed Campus Reform to a message that was sent to all instructors Monday asking them to consider that while we are together as a community, some are being affected more than others. I think the statement clearly lays out a couple of examples of what instructors could provide to their students, such as extra time to finish assignments or a final-examination optional approach, said Balta. In the message, the university told professors in these final weeks of the quarter, as assignments become due and exams are taken, to be especially responsive to the needs that your students, especially those who are members of the Black community, may have for accommodations as we conclude the school year. Accommodations might include extra time to finish assignments or providing a final examination optional pathway, for example, the memo continued. Read more at: CampusReform.org Photo credit: Nicholas Hunt - Getty Images From Harper's BAZAAR Devastation: this was my first emotion. I could not stomach the idea of watching the video of George Floyds death in full as friends were texting it to me. As a black woman living in Minneapolis, the city where Floyd was killed, I sat frozen in place knowing that it would physically trigger me. When I finally turned on the TV and saw news clips, I was at a loss for words to express my disgust and deep sadness. But I also knew at that moment that to remain silent was not an option. Having not left our apartment much over the past few months due to Covid-19 concerns, my roommate and I walked slowly, hand-in-hand, to pick up poster boards at a grocery store down the street. While it was a warm Minnesota night, shivers ran through our bodies. We returned, not saying a word, and looked at our blank canvases unsure as to what we would write on them. The only words that came to mind were the same words used by George Floyd, I Cant Breathe. That is how we felt. Double layered in face coverings, the next morning my roommate and I joined other friends taking to the streets of Minneapolis to protest. Without a clear idea of what we would be venturing into, we knew it was important to show up. Our first stop was the same grocery store we had gone to get the supplies needed to make our signs. Flowers, we need flowers to pay our respects, I thought. For whatever reason, white daisies seemed like the right choice at the time. Later, when I Googled what daisies symbolise, three meanings came up. The first, purity and innocence, is so powerful given the circumstances. The second is motherhood, which is all the more poignant as Mama is the word George Floyd uttered during his final moments of consciousness. The third is transformation. And, that was exactly what I set out to accomplish. Ive always been a person who wants to do my research (even on a type of flower) and learn as much as possible, and this is something I would soon be pleading for all of my social media followers to do. Story continues We drove to 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis. After a bit of confusion as to where to park and where to go, we found street parking and followed the crowd heading to the intersection where George Floyd was murdered. It was peaceful and people were mourning. There were people holding signs, carrying flowers, handing out water bottles, and even a man grilling burgers that made the street smell as if we were at a friends backyard BBQ where we were congregated to pay respects and show support for this unnecessary loss of life. Those driving byof all raceswould see our signs and honk, expressing their solidarity and support. I found myself caught up in the words of Whitney Houston blasting on a speaker, I Will Always Love You. It was followed by the song Unity by Queen Latifah. The music was empowering and created a positive atmosphere. A group of community leaders gathered at the front of the crowd. One of them said that this was not a time to go off of emotion, but to prioritise action, and reminded us that this is not an us vs. them, white vs. black situation, but rather that all of us must come together against racism. The next to speak was a female pastor who had been leading the crowd in exclamations of Hallelujah and Amen, Praise Jesus after powerful words. When she had the stage, she asked that we all form a circle to pray and thats just what we did. She read verses from the Bible and a group, so diverse yet united, hung on and clung tightly to every word she said. The messaging was that coming together as a community and taking action was what was needed during this painful time. As her prayer concluded, I felt safe and calm and like I had a clear mindset on what the next steps would be. Running to the car: those were my next steps. A loud, boom, boom, boom exploded. Fear and panic set in as the crowd dispersed. Frightened, I clung to my friends, as we tried to recall where the car was parked. Fireworks someone yelled, to my relief. And just like that, my first experience as a protester came to an end. Settled safely back at my apartment as darkness fell upon the Minnesota sky, I was overcome by feelings of disbelief. What was to come in the days that followed would move me, motivate me, terrify me, and almost break me. My mom fled the Somali Civil War, traveling on foot for 12 days to make it across the Kenyan border. I was later born, and lived for my first seven years, in Kakuma Refugee Camp before immigrating to the United States. Here I am today, my proudest accomplishment being the day I became a U.S. citizen, and standing in what appears to be a war-torn country. The Somali Museum of Minnesota holds artefacts that were transported safely to this country during a civil war and yet the museum has been damaged over the past few days by rioters. This isnt how it is supposed to be. I am struggling on so many levels right now. However, I recognise that we can bring back buildings, but we cant bring back a life. We cant bring back George Floyd or any of the other black men and women who have died for no reason at the hands of those who have taken an oath to protect us and uphold the law. America is a land of opportunity, and everyone in America should have the same opportunities. In the United States, there are many freedoms afforded to us and using our First Amendment rights to voice our outrage and the need for change is one of them. I have used my career to be a voice for change and to combine fashion and activism. Now, more than ever, activism is important. What can you be doing? Educate yourself. Do your research. Power comes from being aware and knowledgeable in order to react based on fact and not just emotion. Be a good listener. Most importantly, show up for your community. Donate money, but if you cant, donate time. Vote. Bottom line. I am a proud Minnesotan. Youve heard me say this time and time again when being asked by reporters why Ive kept Minnesota as my home base as my modelling career has expanded internationally. And now that the worlds attention is focused on my home state, I know that Minnesota will be a catalyst for change. There are flaws in our system and I have faith that my fellow Minnesotans will have the difficult conversations and put leaders in place who can unite us. We are seeing necessary calls for reform by government agencies and that is a step in the right direction. Community is what has always given me hope. People are always surprised to learn about my happy childhood in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Truth be told, with a population that is two-thirds women and children, it was a very nurturing environment. When my family ultimately settled in St. Cloud, Minnesota, the local community gave me hope that we were going to be okay and flourish in our new surroundings. The fashion community has given me the same sense of hope by providing young girls who look like me an opportunity to see themselves represented in a space they havent had a presence. So here we are, and once again Im finding community. Ive been happy to see a community on social media where people are providing hope with calls to action, a show of support, and a pledge to do better. Everyone in todays digital age is a social media influencer, whether you have 20 followers or 20 million; you have the power to update a community of people with the click of a button. If you can commit to using your voicebig or smallright now, that gives me hope! Many of the most rewarding experiences in my life have been thanks to those who look nothing like me. From teachers and friends to social workers and employers and now to those I employ, my circle has always included people who want to see me succeed, no matter what. It would be easy to blame racism on everyone who isnt black, but I refuse to do that. At this incredibly difficult moment, Ive seen the very best in people, many of whom dont look anything like me. I see you! I hear you! I appreciate you! Your willingness to get vocal, make an effort to understand what we are going through, and be there hasnt gone unnoticed. Thank you. Like many right now, I keep asking myself what more I can be doing and how I can use my platform to see justice served. For me, I have chosen to focus on mental health and how that is impacting everyone at this time. Whether it be due to the current state of the economy, health concerns associated with Covid-19, recent loss of a job or your business, acts of racism, and a million other factors, we are all under a lot of stress. We cant be our best to push for change and productively move forward if we are not our most mentally sound and focused selves. I want us to tackle mental health head on as I believe that is going to be a must to see the change we want in the fight against racism. You have my steadfast commitment that I will be doing research, educating myself, leaning on my community, and using my voice and platform in the days ahead. But first, we must say his name and say it together as one: George Floyd. Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for more from Harper's Bazaar, straight to your inbox. SIGN UP You Might Also Like Photo: The Canadian Press The black man whose death has inspired a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice will be buried in Houston Tuesday, carried home in a horse-drawn carriage. George Floyd, who was 46 when he was killed, will be laid to rest next to his mother. On May 25, as a white Minneapolis officer pressed a knee on Floyd's neck, the dying man cried out for his mother. His funeral will be private. Some 6,000 people attended a public memorial service Monday in Houston, where he grew up. Under a blazing Texas sun, mourners wearing T-shirts with Floyds picture or the words I Cant Breathe one of the other things he cried out repeatedly while pinned down by the police officer waited for hours to pay their respects. Floyds body, dressed in a brown suit, lay in an open gold-colored casket. Shorty after the memorial ended, Floyds casket was placed in a hearse and escorted by police back to a funeral home. As the hearse drove away, 39-year-old Daniel Osarobo, a Houston resident who immigrated from Nigeria, could be heard saying, Rest in power. Rest In Peace. Ive been stopped by police. I understand the situation. I can only imagine," said Osarobo, who works as an engineer in the oil and gas industry. "What if it was me? What if it was my brother? What if it was my sister? What if it was my son? Those were questions many black Americans have asked not just in recent weeks, but for decades. Floyd's death sparked international protests and drew new attention to the treatment of African Americans in the U.S. by police and the criminal justice system. In the past two weeks, sweeping and previously unthinkable things have taken place: Confederate statues have been toppled, police departments around America have rethought the way they patrol minority neighbourhoods, legislatures have debated use-of-force policies, and white, black and brown people have had uncomfortable, sometimes heated, discussions about race in a nation that is supposed to ensure equal opportunity for all. Calls for defunding the police have cropped up in many communities, and people around the world have taken to the streets in solidarity, saying that reforms and dialogue must not stop with Floyd's funeral. It has been announced that longtime Standardbred horseman Tom Milner passed peacefully on Monday, June 8, 2020 at Guelph General Hospital in his 76th year. Loving husband to his late wife and best friend, Dianne (2013). Loving father of Todd Milner (Angie Milner) of Kitchener, Chad Milner (Kajsa Milner) of Sweden. Doting Grandfather of Alexis, Katelyn, Marcus and Jolene. Predeceased by his parents and brother. After marrying on August 12, 1967, Tom moved to Caycuse, BC. From there, Tom made homes in Matsqui, BC, Mackenzie, BC, and Vancouver, BC, and eventually settled in Ilderton, Ontario in 1996. Tom was the co-owner of Milner Farms, the home of Standardbred stallions Grinfromeartoear, Northern Luck, Western Terror, and Yankee Paco. Tom eventually sold the farm and began enjoying spending winters with Dianne training young horses in central Florida. Tom's greatest pride and joy was his family. The family would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to the exceptional staff at Chartwell Wellington Park, St. Joesph's Health Centre Guelph and Guelph General Hospital. In lieu of flowers the family would appreciate a donation to the Parkinson's Society Southwestern Ontario and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Tom Milner. Pretoria (South Africa) 09 June 2020 (SPS)- The President of the African National Congress (ANC), President Cyril Ramaphosa, considered that Western Saharas achievement of independence is hindered because of Chauvinism, arrogance and racism by Morocco. In a speech he gave last Friday on the occasion of the launch of an anti-racism initiative by South African political parties, President Ramaphosa considered that it is this toxic mix of chauvinistic and economic interest, and the arrogance of racial ethnic and national superiority that stands in the way of the achievement of the independence of Western Sahara. He further estimated that there is need to acknowledge that racism and related forms of intolerance are not only to be found in the behaviour of individuals they permeate institutions, communities, and societies, and they are manifested in the 21st century in many other ways. In this regards, he estimated that racism is one of the fundamental underpinnings of modern slavery, which confines many people to forced labour and servitude. it persists in the atrocities committed against peoples across the world, as witness for instance during the Rwandan genocide, the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, and more recently the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar. The ANC and its Alliance partners launched an anti-racism initiative on Friday, led by the ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa. The launch comes amid international uproar and protests over the death of the late American, George Floyd, killed by US police and filmed by eyewitness in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (SPS) 090/500/60 (SPS) SPRINGFIELD The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts has announced a new round of grants totaling more than $1 million to 30 nonprofit organizations to provide COVID-19 assistance in the region. The nonprofit foundation, which is dedicated to improving the quality of life in the region, announced the latest round of grants this week as part of its COVID-19 Response Fund. The contributions came from individuals, businesses and other charitable foundations, the foundation said. The latest round brings the total Response Fund grants to $3,137,000 since the end of March, targeting 96 organizations serving Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties, said Katie Allan Zobel, foundation president and CEO. The most recent grants totaled $1,055,000 These additional grants continue to address the most urgent needs in our community in support of nonprofit organizations doing the work on the ground," Zobel, said. The funds were awarded to local nonprofits addressing immediate needs for families, mental health and food justice during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zobel said. In related news, the foundation is accepting applications from local nonprofits for future rounds. The Response Fund has raised nearly $5.4 million, with grant awards made on an ongoing basis, the foundation said. The contributions have come from more than 25 businesses and foundations, and more than 575 individuals and families, the foundation said. In addition, it has received resources from the statewide Massachusetts COVID-19 Relief Fund, which has provided nearly $1.4 million in funding to support the Community Foundations response to the pandemic crisis in the region. The foundation, in announcing the grants, did not publicize the specific amounts awarded. The list or organizations receiving the funds were: Baystate Health Foundation, Behavioral Health Network, Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holyoke, Center for Human Development, Clinical & Support Options, Community Action Pioneer Valley, Holyoke Health Center, Holyoke Young Mens Christian Association, Lovin Spoonfuls, and Mental Health Association. Also, Pathlight, Pioneer Valley Workers Center, Springfield Day Nursery Corporation/Square One, Springfield Partners for Community Action, Stavros Center for Independent Living, Tapestry Health Systems, The Salvation Army Holyoke Corps, Valley Opportunity Center, YMCA of Greater Springfield, and YMCA of Greater Westfield. Also, Community Legal Aid, Holyoke Medical Center, Lorraines Soup Kitchen and Pantry, MANNA Soup Kitchen, Our Community Pantry, Partners for Community, Salasin Project/Western MA Training Consortium, Stone Soup Cafe, The United Arc, and Wales Community Pantry Including prior grant rounds, the COVID-19 Response Fund for the Pioneer Valley has invested more than $3 million in grants to nonprofits in in the region described as "being on the front lines of serving vulnerable populations affected by the crisis," the foundation said. For future grant funds, organizations are encouraged to visit the Community Foundations web site at Organizations seeking grants for resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic are encouraged to complete a short online application on the Community Foundation website at http://communityfoundation.org/request-for-information/. According to Katie Allan Zobel, President and CEO of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, These additional grants continue to address the most urgent needs in our community in support of nonprofit organizations doing the work on the ground. Were eager to hear from nonprofits what theyre seeing on the ground in our three counties and what can be done to help, Zobel said. "This simple application will enable us to distribute more funding quickly. In some cases we can award funding within a week. The COVID-19 Response Fund for the Pioneer Valley was established to provide emergency grants to community nonprofit organizations serving the immediate needs of the most vulnerable populations affected by the pandemic in Western Massachusetts. The Community Foundation welcomes additional donations to the COVID-19 Response Fund. saying that 100% of donations go to community needs. Gifts can be made online at: www.communityfoundation.org/covid19. On Tuesday, the North Korean government have announced they will cut all communications with South Korea along with previous military agreements as it has now considered the South as an "enemy." According to The New York Times, officials of North Korea in charge of relationships with the South, including Kim Yo Jong, the sister of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, decided on Monday in a report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Two countries falling out The government officials stated that their efforts toward the South will ultimately turn them into the enemy, reported KCNA on Tuesday. They also noted that they decided as they found no need to sit down and discuss relationships as South Korean authorities have only incited their disappointment. On Tuesday morning, shortly after announcing the news, North Korea refused to take the call that the South made during its routine daily call using military hotlines that connect the two countries, said Seoul officials. The KCNA wrote that South Korean authorities were responsible for conspiring against the North while evading the responsibility by making excuses. It also noted that the South should pay a hefty price for their actions, as reported by the Time. Several activists from South Korea have continued to send balloons into North Korean territory that contained leaflets outlining anti-DPRK statements, including criticism of its nuclear ambitions and human rights interaction. The leaflets have provided a source of tension between the two countries for years and are seen by the North as an attempt by the South to undermine the Kim regime. Last week, Kim Yo Jong called North Korean defectors "human scum" after leaflets criticizing the North's government spread around. Also Read: Husband and Wife Executed By Firing Squad While Trying to Escape North Korea A missed opportunity of reconciliation Two years ago saw a dramatically different situation where South Korean President Moon Jae-in visited the capital of North Korea, becoming the first South Korean leader to speak before a large crowd of North Koreans. Since Kim Jong-un's second summit meeting with President Trump February of last year, however, inter-Korean relationships have rapidly deteriorated. The gathering concluded with no arrangement of dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program or alleviating sanctions by the United Nations on the country. After the falling out between the North Korean and American governments, the North has continued to push pressure onto the South Korean administration to ignore the United States' advice and continue improving inter-Korean economic relations. The North demanded the reopening of the joint tourism venture located at the Diamond Mountain resort complex along with a joint industrial park situated in Kaesong. Both of these ventures provided a vital source of income before disputes between the two countries forced them to shut down. When South Korea demanded the North to denuclearize before they began the move to reopen the ventures, the North started to pressure Moon's administration increasingly. Kim Yo Jong, on Thursday, warned that the North would begin dismantling the previous agreements that sought to reduce military tensions between the two countries unless South Korean authorities halted the surge of anti-DPRK leaflets that North Korean defectors were spreading around. Related Article: North and South Korean at Risk of Losing Reduced Military Tensions After Anti-DPRK Leaflets Spread @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Wedding Planning Guide: A Bride's Workbook: an efficacious read on how to set up the perfect planning for a purposeful and vibrant wedding celebration and reception. Wedding Planning Guide: A Bride's Workbook is the creation of published author Tanya Porter, a wedding coordinator for more than twenty years who attended the Medical Institute of Colorado, University of Colorado Denver, and the New York Institute of Photography. Porter shares, Tanya Porter took her experience as a wedding coordinator to produce this resource for brides, grooms, parents, and other wedding planners/coordinators. If the steps are followed, anyone can plan a beautiful event with less stress and expense. Now retired from coordinating weddings, she still does consulting. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Tanya Porters new book is inspired by the authors experiences of handling successful wedding plans that brought contentment and memorable moments without hassles and inconveniences. This book is perfect for couples who are ready to settle down and are looking for the right guide to creating an event that will bring smiles and warmth to their hearts and those who share in their celebration. View the synopsis of Wedding Planning Guide: A Bride's Workbook on YouTube. Consumers can purchase Wedding Planning Guide: A Bride's Workbook at traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Wedding Planning Guide: A Bride's Workbook, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. AccuVein Vein Visualization AccuVein Inc., the global leader in vein visualization technology announced today that Chris Hutchison has joined the company as CEO and President. He has also been named to the companys Board of Directors. Chris has over 30 years experience in the Medical Device industry, both in the U.S. and abroad. He most recently served as President and CEO of Cheetah Medical, which was purchased by Baxter in 2019. We are pleased to welcome Chris Hutchison as AccuVeins CEO, said Board of Directors member, Hugo Harrod. Chris is a highly regarded leader in the medical device industry, with a proven track record as a business builder. Were excited to leverage his experience to help AccuVein reach the next level. The use of vein visualization offers invaluable help to healthcare workers and dramatically improves the patient experience. For that reason, I believe vein visualization represents a huge growth opportunity, said Mr. Hutchison, I am looking forward to joining the team at the forefront of using proven, patented technology to make vein visualization the standard of care worldwide. Chris joins AccuVein at a time when, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, streamlining vascular access is a more of a priority than ever in the healthcare industry. AccuVeins device provides a map of the patients vascular on the skins surface adding visual location to the clinicians skill set. The AccuVein device has been shown to improve patient outcomes, reduce pain and procedure time while increasing catheter dwell time. About AccuVein Inc. AccuVein Inc. is the global leader in vein visualization. AccuVeins flagship product, the AV500, was released in 2019, making it the latest in vein illumination technology. It is built on proprietary technology as embodied in the companys growing patent portfolio, which currently consists of over 50 issued patents, covering a broad range of imaging and medical diagnostic technologies. AccuVein has won numerous awards including the prestigious Prism Award for Photonics Innovation. AccuVein is now the standard of care in many facilities around the world. It is in use at more than 5,000 facilities and available for sale in over 130 countries worldwide. To see a demonstration of AccuVein in action, please visit https://www.accuvein.com. Shimla, June 9 : Himachal Pradesh Agriculture Minister Ram Lal Markanda on Tuesday faced protest as he reached his tribal constituency on an official tour and the protesters, largely 300 local women, asked him to go for mandatory 14-day quarantine to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The incident occurred in the Spiti Valley, some 350 km from the state capital. As he reached Spiti, the women protesters blocked his way and asked him to go for mandatory quarantine as he was an outsider. Sensing trouble, Markanda preferred to leave the place. "Even our relatives settled outside the area are not allowed to visit here due to the deadly virus. If anyone has to come, he has to go for quarantine. Even the VIPs have to follow this health protocol," said a local resident. Later describing the incident as unfortunate, the minister said the protesters had some "ulterior motives" behind the protest. "I tried to convince the protesters that I am officially touring my constituency to understand their issues. Secondly, I am not coming from outside the state. The mandatory quarantine is for those who are coming from outside the state," Markanda said. He said this was his second visit in the area in a fortnight. The intensive campaign against coronavirus has created awareness in rural interiors of Himachal Pradesh to an extent that villagers are now keeping close tabs on the entry of outsiders. Srinagar, Jun 9 (UNI) The National Conference (NC) on Tuesday said that 300 students and residents of Jammu and Kashmir are stranded in Pakistan waiting for their evacuation since air traffic was suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic in March while 32,000 Indians stranded in Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh have reportedly returned through land border immigration checkpoints. 'I spoke to union Civil Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri and requested him for direct flights from Osh to Srinagar,' NC senior leader and MP from Anantnag constituency Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi said in a statement. He said that 32,000 Indians stranded in Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh have reportedly returned through land border immigration checkpoints, yet 300 students and J&K residents stranded in Pakistan have been endlessly waiting for their evacuation delayed without any reason. The General Overseer of Hezekiah Prayer Ministries, Apostle Kwabena Owusu Agyei has been slapped with three charges by security authorities after his arrest on Tuesday morning. According to the charge sheet sighted by Citi News, he is facing the charges of threat of death: Contrary to section 75 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, (Act 29) of 1960, Offensive conduct conducive to the breach of the peace contrary to section 207 (1) of the Criminal and Other Offenses Act, (Act 29) of 1960 and possessing narcotic drugs contrary to section 2(1) of PNDC Law 236/90. Prophet Kwabena Owusu Agyei was picked up by the Bureau of National Investigations on Tuesday morning [June 9, 2020 ] during a live interview with Accra-based Hot FM. His arrest follows some comments he is alleged to have made that were deemed to be threats on the life of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa. The pastor in a viral social media allegedly warned Jean Mensa to suspend the plans to compile a new voters register or risk being killed. The self-acclaimed prophet is also being interrogated over some allegations he made against the President regarding the death of Abuakwa North MP J.B. Danquah-Adu. There have been many calls for his arrest by various groups and individuals who say his comments must be taken seriously. A group called Okyeman Youth For Development in the Eastern Region also called on the National Security to sanction the pastor for threatening the EC boss. Following his arrest, it emerged that the police found some narcotics in his possession. Meanwhile, the lawyer for the suspect, Victor Adawudu says he is yet to see his client although they have visited a number of police stations in Accra to find him. Below is the charge sheet citinewsroom (Natural News) A chilling new report from the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) demands that all United States residents be inoculated with upcoming coronavirus vaccinations. The May 13 report, published by more than 24,000 lawyers, demands: When the efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine has been confirmed, enact legislation requiring vaccination of each person unless the persons physician deems vaccination for his or her patient to be clinically inappropriate. The NYSBA committee believes that for the sake of public health, mandatory vaccinations for COVID-19 should be required in the United States as soon as it is available. Their stated goal is to shape the development of law. Lawyers make call to suspend human rights for wide-scale medical experimentation NYSBA believes that a majority of Americans will want the vaccine, even though polls show Americans are very distrustful of a potential coronavirus vaccination. The group understands that some Americans may push back on the COVID-19 vaccination for religious, philosophical or personal reasons, but believe that all individual freedom, body autonomy, parental rights, religious beliefs, and personal objections to scientific experiments should be suspended for the sake of public health. By forcing everyone to succumb to mandatory injections, the association believes there will be a public benefit that far outweighs individual rights and individual immunity. The association of lawyers believes that any government official can declare any injection as a public health benefit that requires the full participation from all men, women, and children, despite their conscience objections, their religious beliefs, or desire to build their own immunity, free from medical experimentation. To justify their stance on mandatory vaccination, the lawyers quote other instances throughout history when human rights were suspended by judges and government officials in order to force people to take injections. Healthcare workers and parents of unvaccinated children have unsuccessfully challenged compulsory vaccination on administrative law grounds questioning the NYS and NYC Department of Healths authority in mandating flu and measles vaccinations, as well as challenging the regulations as arbitrary and capricious, the lawyers wrote. The Nazi NYSBA is planning to discuss their recommendations for a new law for mandatory coronavirus vaccines at a virtual meeting of the associations governing body, the House of Delegates, on June 13. Mandatory vaccination, a violation of the Nuremberg code of medical ethics In the 1920s, the German government believed strongly in racial hygiene. They wanted to create an Aryan master race while exterminating anyone who did not fit their criteria. Modern day mandatory vaccination laws are built on similar principles. Modern day proponents of mandatory vaccination believe they are creating a superior race of people that are immune to disease and more acceptable to society. Anyone who does not vaccinate is deemed an impure spreader of disease who should be segregated from public schools, the workplace, etc. The coercion is real. With the rushed development of a covid-19 vaccine, some modern day government officials want the injections to be mandatory, or else life will not be able to go back to normal. Bill Gates has publicly threatened anyone who refuses covid-19 vaccines and essentially declared that nearly every man, woman and child must vaccinate with upcoming covid-19 injections or else the science will not work. We are currently witnessing a modern day violation of the Nuremberg code of medical ethics, which was established in the wake of the Second World War, following the Nuremberg trials. The Nuremberg code is a set of principles and research ethics for human experimentation that were adopted after Germanys medical establishment tortured and slaughtered countless innocent people in medical experiments conducted during the Holocaust. One of the vaccines that are being rushed through clinical trials is an mRNA injection that encodes new instructions into human cells, forcing the ribosomes to generate spike proteins from within the cell. This cell-hijacking medical experiment alters human biology to force immune-responsive cells to attack the virus-like proteins being produced by the cells. This medical experimentation, if made mandatory, would not only cause adverse reactions and long term consequences, but also initiate a new era of unethical medical experimentation, where informed consent is replaced with a new holocaust of widespread human abuse and vaccine injury. (Related: Modernas mRNA coronavirus vaccine caused serious injury in 20 percent of patients in high dose group, requiring medical intervention.) Stay up to date with all the latest news about the fight for health and individual freedoms during this pandemic at Pandemic.news. Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com NaturalNews.com Congress.gov DailyMail.co.uk Ushmm.org NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com Conventions that were planned to happen this year have all been shut down because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, Warner Bros. Japan has made an announcement that will pique the interest of anime fans. Warner Bros. Japan announced that they will be holding a special virtual event for those who love anime, and they are calling it Stay Connected with Anime. They will be holding this virtual streaming event at 10:00 PM EST on July 3. Here is a link to a countdown so you can know exactly when it will be starting. Stay Connected with Anime : July 3, 10:00 PM EST : Anime EXPO, Crunchyroll, WBJ Anime Youtube *see the following posts for the details Follow our account and don't miss the updatespic.twitter.com/d7xjYkSCol WBJ proudly presents our first virtual anime panel,Stay Connected with Anime: July 3, 10:00 PM EST: Anime EXPO, Crunchyroll, WBJ Anime Youtube*see the following posts for the detailsFollow our account and don't miss the updates #wbj_ax20 (@wb_anime) June 8, 2020 All You Need To Know About The Stay Connected With Anime Virtual Event You will be able to watch the event on Warner Bros. Japan Anime's YouTube channel, both Crunchyroll YouTube channels, and on the Anime Expo YouTube channel. The most exciting part of all of this is what the event seems to have in store for fans. There will be special guests starring in this virtual event. The guests will be staff and cast from three prominent anime shows, Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma, Is It Wrong To Try to Pick Up Girl in a Dungeon?, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. What they'll be revealing and talking about regarding those three anime titles is a mystery, but it is still exciting to fans of these animes to see what they could be getting sometime soon. Read Also: A SpongeBob Squarepants Anime Trailer Has Been Allegedly Leaked Online?! Watch Here! Why Is Warner Bros. Japan Holding A Virtual Event? The reason why they decided to hold a virtual event is simple. Anime Exp 2020 was canceled because of health and safety concerns thanks to the global pandemic happening. Warner Bros. Japan doesn't want to leave out the overseas anime fans who won't be able to attend the planned panel if they wanted to. Warner Bros. Japan hasn't given out any confirmation of any major news related to the three series they mentioned being announced, but fans are hoping they will give good news. If you're interested in watching the event when it happens, here are direct links to the channels mentioned above: Warner Bros. Japan Youtube channel, Crunchyroll YouTube channel, Crunchyroll Collection YouTube channel, and Anime Expo YouTube channel. The three series that they mentioned is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind since it doesn't have any ongoing projects, and it has nothing that's been delayed by the pandemic. Fans are wondering what it could be, and they think it might be the next part of the famous JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. However, we can't know for sure until the event happens. If you're going to be tuning into Warner Bros. Japan's Stay Connected with Anime virtual event, ensure that you keep your eyes on the three major series mentioned above. If you do, you might be one of the first to hear about big news. Read Also: You Might Not Be Allowed To Walk In This Japanese City While Using Your Phone Soon Cameron Daddo has undeniably been treating his fans this year - with an appearance on Home and Away and Who Do You Think You Are? and now with new music. After returning to Australia in 2017 to grace both stage and screen, the Australian actor, 55, decided it was time to release his new EP Son & Moon. The Smooth FM host pre-released the album's titular single Son & Moon, which offers fans classic Australian country with heartfelt lyrics. What a comeback! Cameron Daddo has released a country album... after guest starring as a musician on Home and Away. Pictured Cameron released his first country album A Long Goodbye back in 1993. In 2011, he released his next album Ten Songs..and Change in 2011, and his 2016 EP Songs From The Shed followed. He has collaborated with Keith Urban and Max Merritt, heavyweights in Australian and New Zealand country rock. Cameron has kept his cards close to his chest when it comes to genres on the EP, suggesting it will be more diverse than his country music discography. Multi-talented: After returning to Australia in 2017 to grace both stage and screen, the Australian actor, 55, decided it was time to release his new EP Son & Moon Cameron has been busy throughout 2020, appearing on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? and snagging a guest role on the iconic Australian soap Home and Away. He's set to play Evan Slater, Ryder Jackson's long-lost father. Evan left his family to pursue his music career, which is a vast contrast from Cameron's personal life. Working hard: He's been busy throughout 2020, appearing on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? and snagging a guest role on the iconic Australian soap Home and Away Cameron married model Alison Brahe in 1991, who he shares three children with - Lotus, 24, River 20 and Bodhi, 14. The family returned to Australia in 2017, having moved to the US 25 years ago for his acting career. Cameron first found fame after appearing in the Melrose Place spin-off series Models Inc in 1994. Cameron Daddo's Son And Moon EP will be released on June 29 2020 The subtle messages being sent by the Sangh Parivar on Tibet and Taiwan should be examined very seriously by Beijing As Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was sworn in for a second term on May 19, messages of congratulations came from dignitaries in 41 countries, including India. In a joint message, BJP MPs Meenakshi Lekhi and Rahul Kaswan emphasised Taiwans democratic credentials and noted that both India and Taiwan are democratic countries, bonded by shared values of freedom, democracy and respect for human rights. It noted that the two countries had over the years enhanced bilateral ties enormously in trade, investment and people-to-people contacts. Due to the coronavirus restrictions, all 92 foreign personalities participated virtually, including US secretary of state Mike Pompeo. In her remarks, President Tsai promised Taiwan will play a more active role in the peace, stability and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region, and deepen ties with the US, Japan, Europe and other like-minded countries. President Tsai has very warm feelings towards India and visited it in 2014 in an effort to know India better. Predictably, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi protested against the virtual attendance by two Indian MPs, saying even congratulatory message by them was utterly wrong. Earlier, during President Tasis inauguration for her first term in May 2016, there was an avoidable drama about the BJPs participation. India first decided to allow an MP from New Delhi and an academic to attend the ceremony in their personal capacities. But these personal visits were also called off, after the invitation was accepted. The reason then was perhaps the impending China visit of then President Pranab Mukherjee, and some pressure must have been put on South Block from the Chinese embassy. The larger Sangh Parivar kept active contacts with Taiwan, and BJP vice-president Vinai Sahasrabhdhe led a party delegation to Taiwan in 2009. BJP general secretary Ram Madhav hosted a dinner for a Taiwanese MPs delegation in February 2017. In his famous letter to Jawaharlal Nehru on November 7, 1950, then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had out his grave misgivings on the real intentions of Mao Zedongs China towards India. He said that Chinese feelings indicate though we may see ourselves as friends of China, the Chinese dont regard us as friends. Questioning the line taken by Nehru and ambassador K.M. Panikkar in Beijing, Sardar Patel asked the Prime Minister to examine the question of Chinas entry into the UN. In view of the rebuff China has given us and the methods it followed in dealing with Tibet, I am doubtful whether we can advocate its claim any longer. Indias Iron Man clearly linked Chinas suppression of Tibet with our recognition of the Peoples Republic. Sardar Patel had grave doubts about Nehrus placing all his faith in the PRC when Taiwan (then) occupied the China seat at the UN. There is considerable research on the hypothesis that Sardar Patel made up his mind to oppose Nehrus China policy in a Cabinet meeting on November 21, 1950. However, he fell ill and couldnt attend the meeting. Patels health deteriorated rapidly and he died on December 15, 1950, leaving Nehru unfettered to pursue his disastrous China policy. The Jan Sangh, the BJPs original avatar, always championed the cause of free Tibet and close Taiwan ties. On July 8, 1959, it adopted a resolution on Tibets Independence. After recounting the tightening Chinese grip on Tibet, the resolution stated: The Bharatiya Jan Sangh feels it is morally incumbent on India to redeem its past remissness with regard to Tibet, and India should take immediate and effective steps to see Chinas aggressions in Tibet may cease, her armies of occupation withdrawn from Tibet, and Tibets independence is secured. The last sentence of the resolution says: India should direct all its efforts towards securing Tibets independence. This legacy was assiduously nurtured by the Sangh Parivar. The prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile at Dharamsala, Lobsang Sangay, was invited to Prime Minister Narendra Modis oath-taking in May 2014. The Vivekananda Foundation, established by the NSA Ajit Doval, has always advocated a more activist foreign policy regarding Tibet. The president of the Central Tibetan Administration delivered the Third M.L. Sondhi Memorial Lecture in New Delhi in 2017, with Ram Madhav as the chief guest. In March 2018, Mr Madhav attended the ceremony Thank You India in Dharamsala organised by the government-in-exile to mark 60 years of the Dalai Lamas arrival in India. Sardar Patels grave misgivings about the PRCs real intentions towards India were not heeded by Prime Minister Nehru but were proven true by the subsequent tragic events that led to Indias humiliation in 1962. Unfortunately, the attitude of Xi Jinpings government in Beijing is again not friendly towards India. It is critically important that the PRC learns that the Narendra Modi government is not wedded to Nehruvian beliefs and will chart its own independent course. The Modi government is also not a captive of history, as the abrogation of Article 370 amply proves. There is nothing sacrosanct in the so-called One China Policy and the people and the Indian government have the right and the responsibility to recalibrate that policy to suit Indias national interests. The subtle messages being sent by the Sangh Parivar on Tibet and Taiwan should be examined very seriously by Beijing. BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With a pandemic, job loss, protests drawing tear gas, looting and arrests, and an increasingly widening social divide joy may be the emotion least felt by Americans right now. Barry Shore, who is known as The Ambassador of Joy, recognizes that reality yet he still believes joy is what will rescue us. A proponent of National Joy Day on June 24, Shore says, "Joy is the glue that binds us. Joy enables us to navigate troubled seas [like police brutality, pandemics and joblessness]. It is calming." Barry Shore Shore wants to encourage people to celebrate National Joy Day by building social connections to counter the ill effects of social distancing. Certainly, if there is anyone who knows how to find joy amidst tough circumstances it is Shore, a successful serial entrepreneur with two multimillion-dollar exits and three issued patents who in 2004 became a quadriplegic overnight from a rare disease. During the 16 years that followed, Shore has pushed himself to regain some of his functioning even as he inspires other people to see the joy in their lives. He has even become an avid swimmer post-injury and in the past 12 years has accumulated more than 7,653 miles. In an interview, Shore can share his 11 strategies for living in joy, a process that emanates from within ourselves, and the three aspects of building joy. He can also explain ways people can bring more joy to others by Making a phone call to the most difficult member of your family so that you can find the rose in the thorn Sending "Keep Smiling Cards" free via email ( www.barryshore.com/keep-smiling ) or snail mail to someone you care about on National Joy Day just as you might do on Valentine's Day Learning to become a joy generator in as little as 55 seconds . Participating in his Keep Smiling Movement. Participants are also encouraged to send a selfie with a "Keep Smiling Card" to [email protected] and can receive free cards by clicking here. Each week, a lucky participant is randomly chosen to receive a $25 gift card. Praise for Shore "Barry Shore lives and spreads joy everywhere he goes. While his story is inspiring, his actions of reaching hundreds of thousands with his messages are what is creating real change. We need his words of positivity now more than ever and our actions." Jess Todtfeld, former producer with ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS "There is none like the remarkable Barry Shore. Intelligence plus heart is hard to find. Barry has it all and wants more than anything to share. The world is a better place because of Barry Shore!" Kathy Karkula, development director, Special Olympics of Minnesota "My world changed when Barry gave me a Keep Smiling Card. Since then we co-founded the Keep Smiling Movement which has touched and helped millions around the world" Ken Rochon, Celebrity Photographer "Positive mental health is the necessary ingredient in living well. Barry brings a special 'spice' to the mixture of smiling, hope and joy. Together we are MAD: Making A Difference everyday." ---Andrea Miller, national director, Keep Smiling Movement About Barry Shore Barry Shore is a motivational, keynote speaker and host of the weekly radio show-podcast "The Joy of Living." He is the founder of the JOY of Living Institute. He has been featured on CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox and in O Magazine, Forbes, Daily Herald, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and MarketWatch. His podcast has been downloaded nearly two million times in 16 months. His upcoming book is Stress Kills Joy Heals. Contact: Barry Shore, (310) 770-4685; [email protected]; www.barryshore.com SOURCE Barry Shore Vegetables have recently been successfully harvested in the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea for the first time by the Chinese navy, who will later spread the technology in order to better support the navy officers and civilians living on the islands. (Photo/mod.gov.cn) Vegetables, including pakchoi cabbage, baby Chinese cabbage and lettuce, were harvested on a "sand to earth" experimental field on Yongxing Island in Sansha city, south China's Hainan province in late May. The high temperatures, high humidity and high salt content make farming extremely difficult on the South China Sea islands. Since the 1970s, the navy officers and civilians stationed on the islands have needed green-leaf vegetables to be shipped to them. "We have successfully harvested seven kinds of vegetables. This is a breakthrough! " said Song Zhile, a sergeant on the island. (Photo/mod.gov.cn) "Seeds planted in a 0.5-mu (about 334 square meters) field grew into more than 1,500 jin (about 750 kg) of harvest, which is a considerable output, Song Zhile said excitedly, adding that as there is plenty of sunshine in the Xisha Islands, the seeds sown in early April could mature in just over a month. After a reasonable amount of maintenance, the planting is expected to result in a bumper harvest in four seasons. This technology is easy to operate, low-cost, and does not have high requirements on the site and natural environment, according to associate professor Zhao Zhaohua, a researcher, adding that not only does it solve the problem of growing vegetables in the Xisha Islands, but it can also be used for bringing greenery to a large part of the islands. 'At a time when the economy is depressed, a pandemic is raging, and the Chinese are making noises on the border, the NRC could be resuscitated.' IMAGE: Hundreds of Muslim women protest in Mumbai against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act-National Register of Citizens-National Population Register. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters "Multinationals have been taken aback with the calls for protectionism. Other than agriculture and the government sector, every other sector is in the doldrums. And, on top of this, we do not know how the public health story will play out." "The curve has not been flattened and migration, air travel, business is all restarting. It is a frightening, daunting, set of circumstances," says Dr Milan Vaishnav, Director and Senior Fellow South Asia Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, a Washington DC-based think-tank. The concluding part of his interview with Rediff.com's Archana Masih. What are some of the biggest economic consequences India will have to bear because of the Covid crisis when the economy was already in a sharp decline before the virus? I think this is something that is not fully appreciated. India was in the midst of a gradual, multi-year slowdown before this pandemic ever hit. We lost sight of that because the global economy was struggling, because the BJP won a resounding re-election in 2019 in spite of the economy, and because we've been focused on other issues like CAA, NRC, Ayodhya, Kashmir, Delhi riots, and so on. We will see several consequences. We will see private firms doing more with less, just as many did after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. We will see states face a massive set of spending cuts as revenues have collapsed across the board. The Centre will have to pull back on its promises to devolve funds because it will have its own shortfalls to cover (we have already seen this pre-COVID, by the way). And we are going to see subdued exports for a long time, which is going to keep growth rates subdued. What do you make of the 20 lakh crore economic revival package announced by the government? How long will it take for the economy to revive? We are fooling ourselves if we think we can accurately predict the recovery rate. At this point, I've lost all faith in economic projections. We know, for instance, even projections made by international actors like the IMF are systematically over-optimistic time and time again. In terms of the economic package, I understand the 20 lakh crore headline has a nice ring to it -- but the fiscal cost is in the vicinity of 1 percent, according to most Indian economists. I know of no other major economy that includes central bank manoeuvers in the overall calculation of economic relief measures. They are important, no doubt, but they are a separate kettle of fish. The size of the package reflects, of course, the fiscal pressures the government faces. The government may also be holding back somewhat because it wants to reserve some ammunition for the future, given that this recovery will not be swift and India's COVID case load has not yet peaked. I do think, as a non-economist, there should have been more emphasis on building public health capacity, providing income support, generating demand. But this also sheds light on an important political economy puzzle facing India. As the journalist Siddharth Singh noted early on, the Modi government has emphasised redistributive policies during normal times and supply-side measures during this crisis. Many would argue that those priorities should have been exactly reversed. Critics have commented that this package has not been thought through and mixes reforms on one side, rescue on the other and self-reliance as a new strand of fiscal policy. Do you see a lack of coherence in this stimulus? It's a tired critique of this government to say that it lacks an overarching economic vision. I've written some version of this on multiple occasions, along with so many others. It may be unoriginal and a cliche; but that does not necessarily make it incorrect. I think the package has been opportunistic -- they've pushed where there is an open window. But I worry about the self-reliance rhetoric. Many government ministers have said 'self-reliance' is not code for 'import substitution' or 'protectionism', but I don't know how we can be left with any other impression when the home minister encourages all Indians to spurn imported foreign goods in favour of local ones. Will this achieve a revival of the economy? I certainly hope so, but I am sceptical. A lot of the constraints and unfinished business of 2012-2020 are going to come home to roost. There are a lot of bills to pay and not enough funds in the account to cover them, literally and metaphorically. Let's not forget the public sector banking crisis is still with us. The NBFC crisis has not gone away. Trade headwinds and depressed exports will continue to be a reality. Multinationals have been taken aback with the calls for protectionism. Other than agriculture and the government sector, every other sector is in the doldrums. And, on top of this, we do not know how the public health story will play out. As we speak, India has hit 100,000 active COVID cases. The curve has not been flattened and migration, air travel, business is all restarting. It is a frightening, daunting set of circumstances. What are the political consequences for Mr Modi the longer it takes for the economy to revive? Modi has thus far excelled in buying himself more time. From the outset, critics said he had five years to put up or shut up. It was the critics who were forced to shut up in May 2019. There is still no politician, at the national level, who can go head-to-head, toe-to-tie with Mr Modi -- and that is an immense advantage. The BJP will likely face setbacks at the state level -- we've seen that over the past three years -- but national politics is a completely different arena right now. The State Department's Alice Wells commented recently that India can set up supply chains and take away business from China. Several Indian states have amended labour laws anticipating a flow of business from China to India. Is this a realistic expectation or is it a bubble, given China's entrenched position in the global supply chain? I asked the former CEA Dr (Arvind) Subramanian this question. He replied by saying so many people were hopeful India would break into global supply chains when businesses first starting moving away from China last decade on account of rising labour costs there. India missed that boat and it lost out to Vietnam, Bangladesh, and others. Why would this time be different? One could argue that geo-politics are different, but I'm not convinced firms will be easily swayed by this rationale. So my take would be: India should definitely do its best to try and exploit this opportunity but it won't be easy. Labour laws are one thing. But infrastructure, electricity, law and order, land, corruption, bureaucracy, protectionism -- these are all inhibiting factors. I'm reminded of a typically thoughtful Pratap Bhanu Mehta column penned in the wake of India's decision to pull out of the RCEP. At the time, he argued that whether you believe India should have joined or left -- the policy reform agenda you are left with is basically the same. What are the three political events you see likely to occur in India in the next 12 months? This is a question I should politely decline to answer, but let me speculate wildly in any case. First, I would not be surprised if we see another twist in the tale in Bihar. Nitish Kumar is the politician with nine lives -- might we see another political realignment there as he breaks with the BJP or vice versa? I see no reason why we should rule this out, especially given the BJP's ambitions and its desire to shift the blame for an inadequate COVID response to state capitals. Second, the pressures of COVID might undo the coalition government in Maharashtra. We know it is, even during the best of times, an uneasy equilibrium. As Mumbai remains the epi-centre and the caseload grows, the BJP has every incentive to attack the coalition there with hammer-and-tongs. Third, I expect we will see a return to CAA/NRC before too long. At a time when the economy is depressed, a pandemic is raging, and the Chinese are making noises on the border, the NRC could be resuscitated as an economic imperative -- to make sure jobs go to deserving Indians, to curb unwanted illegal migration, and to deliver for 'India first'. Production: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com What sets good and bad leaders apart in the coronavirus era It is no accident that those leaders who have responded worst to this crisis have been the main sources of countless conspiracy theories and misinformation. Crises bring out the best and worst of politicians and populations. Folly, fear and fortitude are on display everywhere. In the main, democracies have fared better than non-democracies in handling the coronavirus pandemic. But the record is very varied indeed. What explains this? What can be done about it? Among democratic regimes, at the one extreme we have seen denialism, the denigration of scientific advice and an obsession with putting the economy before lives. This is especially evident in the United States and Brazil. At the other we have witnessed the organised, prudent, empathetic responses of countries such as South Korea, New Zealand, and Finland. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa initially did very well, but some subsequent decisions might damage his good record. These two extremes of leadership style were evident even before COVID-19. The USA and Brazilian responses to the pandemic, led by President Donald Trump and President Jair Bolsonaro, have been characterised by secretive, narcissistic, paranoid, hubristic and impulsive decision-making. These actions have endangered the lives and livelihoods of their residents, over which they have a duty of care. The data bears this out well. Despite having arrived on their shores relatively late, the pandemic has ripped through their populations, with no sign of abating. They lead in infections and deaths. At the other extreme, a common denominator has been a firm attempt by political leaders to follow the science and control the spread of the virus and fake news from the outset. A combination of transparency, prudence, empathy, timing and courage has produced excellent results in South Korea, New Zealand and Finland. South Africas response has been lauded, though it is beginning to attract criticism for heavy-handed policing and some inexplicable decisions. Democracy and leadership What becomes clear is that in these fast-moving and life-defining times in democracies a great deal depends on the quality of the elected leadership. Democracies that happen to have leaders who simultaneously engage empathetically with those they govern and are informed by good science are best able to deal with the crisis. They gather clear-eyed knowledge of their countries particular circumstances, and display courage and timing in making critical and sometimes unpopular decisions. They are able to overcome many of the challenges that the pandemic throws up. Democracy helps, but it is not the deciding factor. What matters most is what kind of leader is in place, where his or her priorities lie: the well-being of the populace or the interests of a small group. Four of the top five performing countries in terms of lives saved and control of the spread of the virus have women leaders: New Zealands Jacinda Ardern, Finlands Sanna Marin, Germanys Angela Merkel and Taiwans Tsai Ing-wen. These women display empathy and firm focus on the well-being of their populations. Politicians judge best when they listen to their populations and learn from the science. That is why democracy is uniquely placed to engender good judgements, as the Indian economist Amartya Sen argued with regard to famines, and I have argued elsewhere. Yet, it would be mistaken to think that democracy guarantees good judgement. If the purveyors of conspiracy theories and exemplars of prejudice are also your democratic leaders, democracy itself cannot resolve things. It only gives citizens the power to remove those leaders at the next election. Bread, circuses and crises In the current crisis, Ramaphosa has done a much better job than Trump and Bolsonaro. Ramaphosa got off to a great start. He acted firmly, quickly, with clear justification and impressive results. South Africans have just emerged from one of the most severe lockdowns imposed anywhere in the world. This kept the infection rate nearly as low as that of South Korea, though it is now shooting up. During this period, however, there have been at least two problematic decisions that undermine public trust and thus how people may behave. The first is the decision to ban the sale of tobacco. Even if we could distinguish sharply between basic needs and other needs something I dispute the idea that addiction to smoking falls into the latter category, and that, along with the fact that COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, justifies the ban, is misguided. For an addict, the need for a cigarette may often trump even the need for vital nutrition. The second is the decision to allow religious gatherings to resume under lockdown level 3. Having spent so long restricting gatherings, to now allow larger gatherings seems like folly. It is well known cases abound from South Africa to South Korea that, like funerals, large religious gatherings are super-spreading events. Along with the ban on tobacco products and the incorrect assumption that the state could directly meet the basic nutritional needs of the population via the delivery of food parcels, the response to the religious lobby is reminiscent of Juvenals comment under imperial Rome some two thousand years ago that all the people really want is bread and circuses. This is not what people want or need. They require the power to express their actual needs and interests and the democratic means to ensure that government responds to these. Ramaphosas good leadership has been undermined by a paternalistic attitude to peoples needs and seeming deference to South Africas powerful religious lobby. Lessons to be learnt Two things can be learnt from the varied responses to the coronavirus crisis. First, we must use it to find a roadmap for how we can properly make the health and well-being of a states population the raison detre of its government. The first thing to identify is that health is not the absence of disease but the status we each have when our ever-changing needs are optimally satisfied. For this, we need a politics that allows us to express and assess our needs, and determine who is best placed to represent us in responding to these needs, all in non-dominating conditions. Second, given that it is no accident that those leaders who have responded worst to this crisis have also been the main sources of countless conspiracy theories and misinformation, we must learn to keep oligarchs away from political power. Under representative democracy, bar outright revolution, we do not have the power to affect the everyday decisions of our representatives, but we can keep those with exclusive social and economic interests out of positions of political power. Lawrence Hamilton, SARChI/Newton Research Professor in Political Theory, Wits and Cambridge, University of the Witwatersrand. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Democrats have played it safe and allowed Republicans to hijack US politics. Now a nation in crisis needs real change. Now is the time, as Joe Biden has earned enough delegates to secure the Democratic Party nomination, for his campaign to champion progressive, transformative policies in the United States. Why? Well, the global coronavirus pandemic has rocked the US economy, causing unemployment to soar. This, as President Donald Trumps failure to effectively confront the viruss spread reveals a country in need of leadership. Meanwhile, nationwide protests to denounce the brutal killing of an unarmed African American man George Floyd at the hands of police are forcing the nation to confront its violent, white supremacist past and present. We are left with the following question is Biden up to the demands of the moment? As of right now, the jury is still out. Biden chose to follow his home state of Delawares shelter-in-place ordinance, almost too well, giving only infrequent interviews over the last couple of months. Even in the pre-pandemic political era, Biden showed himself to be a candidate who struggled to articulate his positions in debates, as well as someone with moderate if not conservative positions on how to change the USs broken healthcare system and address income inequality. Biden did show some life in his June 2 speech where he addressed the USs history of racism, while also calling out Trump for his flawed response to the protests. Yet, to make good on his word, Biden needs to actively embrace many of the progressive positions currently floating around the American left. This includes real police reform, substantive changes to healthcare, as well as a dramatic change to immigration and environmental policy. Truth be told, Biden needs to take a different position to what the Democratic party establishment has historically been comfortable with. Consider healthcare, the signature achievement of Obama-era policy. The Affordable Care Act did provide coverage to more than 20 million Americans. Yet, this came only after Republicans and conservative Democrats negotiated away the public option a governmentally-funded health insurer that would have competed with private providers and most likely, driven down prices. Without this, private insurers continue to control the industry, doing nothing to stall rising premiums. And with immigration policy? Here, again, an ambitious promise for comprehensive reform championed during the Obama years failed to materialise. Yes, DACA Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals provides a temporary reprieve from deportation for many undocumented youths in the US. But the programme involves just under one million people, leaving millions with nothing. Meanwhile, Republicans have effectively dominated the national debate on immigration. Trump made an anti-immigrant stance central to his campaign, while Democrats Biden included struggled to articulate a clear position in the debates. And how have the Democrats faired as they caved to Republicans in these critical policy areas? To be clear not well. First, during the Obama years, the Democrats lost 11 seats in the Senate, 62 in the House of Representatives, while also ceding 12 governorships and 958 seats in state legislatures. This, especially around 2010, allowed Republicans to take power in various state legislatures and redraw congressional districts in their favour. And, of course, there is Trumps electoral victory in 2016. While pundits can debate the scale of Russian meddling, what is beyond doubt is that Hillary Clinton failed to energise voters. Just look to certain Bernie Sanders supporters, who in 2016 voted for the Vermont senator in the primaries, but then opted for Trump in the general election in crucial swing states. The lesson is clear for Biden take firm, progressive positions on policy and promote real change. How? To start, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed serious faults in the US healthcare system concerning reserves, care, and planning. Biden, even if he does not come out for Medicare for All, can better lay out the details on his proposal for a public option that would make the country safe and better prepared for potential future crises. Immigration reform, too, is needed for the 10-12 million people who lack legal status in the country. This means that in addition to seriously working on granting citizenship to undocumented people, Biden should consider calls for restructuring, perhaps even abolishing, ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement). Policing reform is also a must, which should include supporting legislation that would make it easier to hold officers accountable, as well as advocate for demilitarising local law enforcement agencies and/or shifting resources from the police to services such as mental health, domestic violence, and homelessness. Environmental and agricultural policies also need serious revision. This means embracing the Green New Deal, or at least parts of the resolution, which include not only the promotion of renewable energy, but also significant investment in local food systems and regenerative forms of farming. Will these proposals from immigration to the environment be challenged and ridiculed by Trump? Yes, without a doubt. But that is the point years of caving to the opposition has let Republicans hijack the direction of US politics, effectively holding Democrats hostage to right-wing priorities. Moreover, it would serve Biden well to tack left in terms of policy, if anything to drive turnout up among traditional Democratic constituencies. To take a real stand against police violence would be a gesture that the votes of African Americans are not to be taken for granted, but need to be earned. A full embrace of substantive healthcare reform, additionally, would speak to the millions of people that Obamacare left uninsured, or who feel insecure as the coronavirus continues to spread. A nation in crisis on so many fronts demands clear, definitive stances on divisive issues. For too long, the Democrats have played it safe, fearing that adopting progressive positions would hurt their electoral chances. Biden can and should break with this past not only for the good of the party but also for a country that demands real change in this difficult and painful time. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. An Antifa demonstrator holds up the remains of a tattered and burned U.S. national flag during the Denver March Against Sharia Law in Denver on June 10, 2017. (Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images) The Philosopher of Antifa Commentary The typical socialist today is not a union guy who wants higher wages; its a transsexual eco-feminist who marches in Antifa and Black Lives Matter rallies and throws cement blocks at her political opponents. We see it in the riots and looting sweeping the country in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing. The socialist left today is concerned less with worker exploitation by the bourgeoisie and more with the race, gender, and transgender grievances of identity politics. I call it identity socialism. Todays socialists want an America that integrates the groups seen as previously excluded while excluding the group that was previously included. If you are white, male, heterosexual, and religiously and/or socially conservative, writes blogger Rod Dreher, theres no place for you on the progressive left. On the contrary, it should now be expected that in society people like you are going to have to lose their jobs and influence. In other words, for identity socialists and for the left more generally, blacks and Latinos are in; whites are out. Women are in; men are out. Gays, bisexuals, transsexuals, together with other, more exotic types are in; heterosexuals are out. Illegals are in; native-born citizens are out. One may think this is all part of the politics of inclusion, but to think that is to get only half the picture. The point, for the left, is not merely to include but also to exclude, to estrange their opponents from their native land. How did we get here? To understand identity socialism, we must meet the man who figured out how to bring its various strands together, Herbert Marcuse. Marcuses Revolution A German philosopher partly of Jewish descent, Marcuse studied under the philosopher Heidegger before escaping Germany prior to the Nazi ascent. After stints at Columbia, Harvard, and Brandeis, Marcuse moved to California, where he joined the University of CaliforniaSan Diego and became the guru of the New Left in the 60s. Marcuse influenced a whole generation of young radicals, from Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers to Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman to Tom Hayden, president of the activist group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Angela Davis, who later joined the Black Panthers and also ran for vice president on the Communist Party ticket, was a student of Marcuse and also one of his proteges. It was Marcuse, Davis said, who taught me that it was possible to be an academic, an activist, a scholar, and a revolutionary. Marcuse egged on the activists of the 1960s to seize buildings and overthrow the hierarchy of the university, as a kind of first step to fomenting socialist revolution in America. Interestingly, it was Ronald Reaganthen-governor of Californiawho got Marcuse fired. Still, Marcuse retained his celebrity and influence over the radicals of the time. He did not, of course, create the forces of identity socialism, but he saw, perhaps earlier than anyone else, how they could form the basis for a new and viable socialism in America. Thats the socialism we are dealing with now. To understand the problem Marcuse confronted, we have to go back to Marx. Marx saw himself as the prophet, not the instigator, of the advent of socialism. We think of Marx as some sort of activist, seeking to organize a workers revolution, but Marx emphasized from the outset that the socialist revolution would come inevitably; nothing had to be done to cause it. The Marxist view is nicely summed up by one of Marxs German followers, Karl Kautsky, who wrote, Our task is not to organize the revolution but to organize ourselves for the revolution; it is not to make the revolution, but to take advantage of it. But what happens when the working class is too secure and contented to revolt? Marx didnt anticipate this; in fact, the absence of a single worker revolt of the kind Marx predicted, anywhere in the world, is a full and decisive refutation of scientific Marxism. In the early 20th century, Marxists across the world were fully aware of this problem. Lenin solved it by assembling a professional cadre of revolutionaries. If the revolution would not be done by the working class, he insisted, it would have to be done for them. Marcuse defined the problem in the same way Lenin did: If the working class isnt up for socialism, where can one find a new proletariat to bring it about? Marcuse knew that modern industrialized countries such as the United States couldnt assemble the types of landless peasants and professional soldiersthe flotsam and jetsam of a backward feudal societythat Lenin relied on. So who could serve in the substitute proletariat that would be needed to agitate for socialism in America? Raising Consciousness Marcuse looked around to identify which groups had a natural antipathy to capitalism. Marcuse knew he could count on the bohemian artists and intellectuals who had long hated industrial civilization, in part because they considered themselves superior to businessmen and shopkeepers. These self-styled outcasts were natural recruits for what Marcuse termed the Great Refusalthe visceral repudiation of free-market society. The problem, however, was that these bohemians were confined to small sectors of Western society: the Schwabing section of Munich, the Left Bank of Paris, Greenwich Village in New York, and a handful of university campuses. By themselves, they were scarcely enough to hold a demonstration, let alone make a revolution. So Marcuse had to search further. He had to think of a way to take bohemian culture mainstream, to normalize the outcasts and to turn normal people into outcasts. He started with an unlikely group of proles: the young people of the 1960s. Here, finally, was a group that could make up a mass movement. Yet what a group! Fortunately, Marx wasnt around to see it; he would have burst out laughing. Abbie Hoffman? Jerry Rubin? Mario Savio? How could people of this sorry stripe, these slack, spoiled products of postwar prosperity, these parodies of humanity, these horny slothful loafers completely divorced from real-world problems, and neurotically focused on themselves, their drugs and sex lives and mind-numbing music, serve as the shock troops of revolution? Herbert Marcuse (18981979), German-born American philosopher and radical political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. (Keystone/Getty Images) Marcuse answered: By raising their consciousness. The students were already somewhat alienated from the larger society. They lived in these socialist communes called universities. They took for granted their amenities. Ungrateful slugs that they were, they despised rather than cherished their parents for the sacrifices made on their behalf. They sought something more, a form of self-fulfillment that went beyond material fulfillment. Here, Marcuse recognized, was the very raw material out of which socialism is made in a rich, successful society. Perhaps there was a way to instruct them in oppression, to convert their spiritual anomie into political discontent. Marcuse was confident that an activist group of professors could raise the consciousness of a whole generation of students so they could feel subjectively oppressed even if there were no objective forces oppressing them. Then they would become activists to fight not someone elses oppression, but their own. Of course it would take some work to make selfish, navel-gazing students into socially conscious activists. But to Marcuses incredible good fortune, the 60s was the decade of the Vietnam War. Students were facing the prospect of being drafted. Thus they had selfish reasons to oppose the war. Yet this selfishness could be harnessed by teaching the students that they werent draft-dodging cowards; rather, they were noble resisters who were part of a global struggle for social justice. In this way, bad conscience could itself be recruited on behalf of left-wing activism. Marcuse portrayed Ho Chi Minh and the Vietcong as a kind of Third World proletariat, fighting to free itself from American hegemony. This represented a transposition of Marxist categories. The new working class were the Vietnamese freedom fighters. The evil capitalists were American soldiers serving on behalf of the U.S. government. Marcuses genius was to tell leftist students in the 1960s that the Vietnamese freedom fighters could not succeed without them. Only the internal weakening of the superpower, Marcuse wrote in An Essay on Liberation, can finally stop the financing and equipping of suppression in the backward countries. In his vision, the students were the freedom fighters within the belly of the capitalist beast. Together, the revolutionaries at home and abroad would collaborate in the Great Refusal. They would jointly end the war and redeem both Vietnam and America. And what would this redemption look like? In Marcuses words, Collective ownership, collective control and planning of the means of production and distribution. In other words, classical socialism. Transposing Class OK, so now we got the young people. Who else? Marcuse looked around America for more prospective proles, and he found, in addition to the students, three groups ripe for the taking. The first was the Black Power movement, which was adjunct to the civil rights movement. The beauty of this group, from Marcuses point of view, is that it would not have to be instructed in the art of grievance; blacks had grievances that dated back centuries. Consequently, here was a group that could be mobilized against the status quo, and if the status quo could be identified with capitalism, here was a group that should be open to socialism. Through a kind of Marxist transposition, blacks would become the working class, whites the capitalist class. Race, in this analysis, takes the place of class. This is how we get Afro-socialism, and from there its a short step to Latino socialism and every other type of ethnic socialism. Another emerging source of disgruntlement was the feminists. Marcuse recognized that with effective consciousness raising, they too could be taught to see themselves as an oppressed proletariat. This of course would require another Marxist transposition: Women would now be viewed as the working class and men the capitalist class; the class category would now be shifted to gender. The movement becomes radical, Marcuse wrote, to the degree to which it aims, not only at equality within the job and value structure of the established society but rather at a change in the structure itself. Marcuses target wasnt just the patriarchy; it was the monogamous family. In Gramscian terms, Marcuse viewed the heterosexual family itself as an expression of bourgeois culture, so in his view, the abolition of the family would help hasten the advent of socialism. Marcuse didnt write specifically about homosexuals or transgender people, but he was more than aware of exotic and outlandish forms of sexual behavior, and the logic of identity socialism can easily be extended to all these groups. Once again we need some creative Marxist transposition. Gays and transgender people become the newest proletariat, and heterosexualseven black and female heterosexualsbecome their oppressors. Roots of Intersectionality We see here the roots of intersectionality. As the left now holds, one form of oppression is good, but two is better, and three or more is best. The true exemplar of identity socialism is a black or brown male transitioning to be a woman with a Third World background who is trying illegally to get into this country because hisoops, herown country has allegedly been wiped off the map by climate change. These latest developments go beyond Marcuse. He didnt know about intersectionality, but he did recognize the emerging environmental movement as an opportunity to restrict and regulate capitalism. The goal, he emphasized, was to drive ecology to the point where it is no longer containable within the capitalist framework, although he recognized that this means first extending the drive within the capitalist framework. Marcuse also inverted Freud to advocate the liberation of eros. Freud had argued that primitive man is single-mindedly devoted to the pleasure principle, but as civilization advances, the pleasure principle must be subordinated to what Freud termed the reality principle. In other words, civilization is the product of the subordination of instinct to reason. Repression, Freud argued, is the necessary price we must pay for civilization. Marcuse argued that at some point, however, civilization reaches a point where humans can go the other way. They can release the very natural instincts that have been suppressed for so long and subordinate the reality principle to the pleasure principle. This would involve a release of what Marcuse termed polymorphous sexuality and the reactivation of all erotogenic zones. We are a short distance here from the whole range of bizarre contemporary preoccupations, from bisexuality to transsexuality and beyond. Marcuse recognized that mobilizing all these groupsthe students, the environmentalists, the blacks, the feminists, the gayswould take time and require a great deal of consciousness raising or reeducation. He saw the university as the ideal venue for carrying out this project, which is why he devoted his own life to teaching and training a generation of socialist and left-wing activists. Over time, Marcuse believed, the university could produce a new type of culture, and that culture would then metastasize into the larger society to infect the media, the movies, even the lifestyle of the titans of the capitalist class itself. Marcuses projectthe takeover of the American university, to make it a tool of socialist indoctrinationdid not succeed in his lifetime. In fact, as mentioned above, he got the boot when Reagan pressured the regents of the university system not to renew Marcuses contract. In time, however, Marcuse succeeded as the activist generation of the 1960s gradually took over the elite universities. Today, socialist indoctrination is the norm on the American campus, and Marcuses dream has been realized. Repressive Tolerance Marcuse is also the philosopher of Antifa. He argued, in a famous essay called Repressive Tolerance, that tolerance is not a norm or right that should be extended to all people. Yes, tolerance is good, but not when it comes to people who are intolerant. It is perfectly fine to be intolerant against them, to the point of disrupting them, shutting down their events, preventing them from speaking, even destroying their careers and property. Marcuse didnt use the term hater, but he invented the argument that its legitimate to be hateful against haters. For Marcuse, there were no limits to what could be done to discredit and ruin such people; he wanted the left to defeat them by any means necessary. Marcuse even approved of certain forms of domestic terrorism, such as the Weather Underground bombing the Pentagon, on the grounds that the perpetrators were attempting to stop the greater violence that U.S. forces inflict on people in Vietnam and other countries. Our world is quite different now from what it was in the 1960s, and yet there is so much that seems eerily familiar. When it comes to identity socialism, we are still living with Marcuses legacy. Dinesh DSouza has had a prominent career as a writer, scholar, and public intellectual, and has also become an award-winning filmmaker. His new book is United States of Socialism: Whos Behind It. Why Its Evil. How to Stop It. Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the Californian university at which Herbert Marcuse taught. The Epoch Times regrets the error. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The judiciary of the Islamic Republic has sentenced an Iranian to death for allegedly passing intelligence to the United States and Israel on the movements and whereabouts of Iranian armed forces, including slain Gen. Qasem Soleimani. According to judiciary spokesperson Gholam-Hossein Esmaeeli, the informant, identified as Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, will soon be executed as the verdict has already been upheld by the countrys high court. Mousavi gathered intelligence for both Mossad and the CIA in exchange for US dollars, the Iranian spokesman said in a June 9 briefing in Tehran. The previous stages of the proceedings had never been made public and Mousavi has become the first suspect to be named in Irans investigation of the Soleimani assassination. Viewed as the Islamic Republics second most powerful man, Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike while departing in a convey from Baghdads international airport. The top general commanded the Quds Force the overseas branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and his death set off a fresh escalation in tensions between the United States and Iran. In retaliation, Iran showered a US military base in Iraq with ballistic missiles. The United States, which suffered no casualties, did not reciprocate. However, anticipating an American response, nervous Iranian forces shot down a passenger plane from their own skies, killing all 176 people aboard. In a confusing twist hours after the briefing, the Iranian judiciary issued a separate statement declaring that Mousavis espionage case had nothing to do with the Soleimani assassination and that he had already been in custody at the time. It added that the death sentence was handed down in August 2019, five months before Soleimanis death. Some Iranian media outlets claimed that Mousavi was a member of the Quds Force with close connections to Soleimani and access to vital information to pass on to the hostile intelligence agencies. Secrecy and internal conflicts have long characterized espionage investigations and proceedings in the Islamic Republic. The IRGC Intelligence Organization and the Intelligence Ministry, the two parallel entities tasked with handling such cases, have been locked in a battle for influence for years. The two bodies clashed openly in the case of the 2010 assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. Following a protracted probe, Tehran had to release several suspects who had been initially sentenced to death based on interrogations conducted by one agency but contradicted by the other. New Delhi, June 9 : Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has met with aspirants for 69,000 vacancies for teachers in Uttar Pradesh and assured them of party's support in the matter. The Congress leader assured them that the party will fight against the injustice meted out to them after the aspirants said that grave injustice was done to them as corruption in the while recruitment process had come to the fore. "Injustice should not be done to the hardworking youths. If the state government cannot give them justice, a reply will be given through a movement," she had said in a tweet on Monday. On Monday, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra compared what she dubbed the teachers' recruitment scam in Uttar Pradesh with Madhya Pradesh's 'Vyapam scam', and slammed the Yogi Adityanath government by claiming that diaries seized from certain racketeers indicated to the involvement of many high-profile people in the recruitment scam. The Allahabad High Court on last Wednesday stayed the recruitment process to appoint 69,000 assistant basic teachers in the state, holding that there has been an 'error' in the evaluation of answersheets. The recruitment examination was held on January 6, 2019 and results declared on May 12 this year. The view from the top of Pikeview Quarry on Jan. 24, 2020. Colorado Springs City Council approved the purchase property property directly below Pikeview and a separate parcel near Manitou Springs including and surrounding the Black Canyon Quarry. Castle Concrete the owner of both parcels expects to use the funds to reclaim Pikeview Quarry. Nkurunziza extended his hold on power in 2015 in a move seen as unconstitutional by his opponents, and more than 1,200 people were killed by state security forces and a quasi-official militia known as the Imbonerakure during an ensuing uprising, according to the United Nations. Almost all of the 400,000 displaced by the violence remain in camps, mostly in Tanzania. Brazil has the second highest number of cases of COVID-19 in the world, and President Bolsonaro is facing accusations that his government is trying to hide the true numbers. And updates from Spain, the US, Ireland and New Zealand which, having declared itself COVID-free, has lifted almost all of its restrictions. With the news that Qantas and Virgin are suspending remaining international flights after government funding fizzles, its easy to forget last weeks news that there are only two bidders left in the race for Virgin Australia. If youre not of the forgetful persuasion, however, and are interested to know how each of the two bidders in contention to buy Virgin Australia will affect your Velocity Points, weve got some news for you. First, though: context. The bidding war for Virgin Australia has reached last gasp; after five non-binding indicative proposals were received two weeks ago, Deloitte has culled the shortlist down to two US private equity firms, Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital. As The New Daily reports, Final bids are due on June 12 and the process is on track to have a binding agreement in place with the winning firm by June 30. Crucially, with two distinct bidders, comes two different visions of Virgin Australia. First up lets discuss Bain Capital a firm which, if you like Virgin Australia and its frequent flyer program just as it was, may have plans that will make you gulp Bain Capital As The Australian reports, Short-listed Virgin bidder Bain Capital is expected to relaunch Virgin Australia as a hybrid airline in the mould of the old Virgin Blue, with a low cost base but offering airport lounges, a more integrated Velocity frequent flyer program and regional, domestic and eventually, international services. One thing we would love to explore is whether there could be a closer brand relationship between Virgin and Velocity. We come at that from the customer experience, having those tied up a little closer could be a more seamless experience from both the web and app perspective for customers, Bain Capitals Sydney-based managing director Mike Murphy told The Australian last week. The New Daily reported much the same: Centred around a vision to make flying fun again in homage to its Virgin Blue predecessor, the firm has also brought in ex-Jetstar boss Jayne Hrdlicka to help strengthen its case to take over the airline. In essence, it wants to make Virgin Australia a low-cost carrier. What does this mean for your Velocity Points? While no one can say for sure, even though noises are being made about an integrated approach, a takeover could spell trouble for your points. As expert points hacker and founder of Flight Hacks, Immanuel Debeer told DMARGE last month, Although Virgin Australia and Velocity Frequent Flyer are two separate companies, they are very much tied together. Virgin Australia owns Velocity and even stumped up a whole lot of change last year buying back the remainder of the program from an investment firm (those guys will be laughing all the way to the bank!). Once the creditors swoop in its very likely that they will try to sell Virgin Australia and Velocity (if they can touch Velocity). Frequent Flyer points wont just disappear but when all this is over, their value will most likely slump depending on how things play out, Immanuel added. Velocity has shut down all options of redeeming points so those who didnt act will need to hope that whoever buys out the assets knows how to run a frequent flyer program. While this was said before the bidding playing field had been whittled down, the point remains: if you have Velocity Points still invested in Virgin Australia, you will be at the mercy of the new policies of the Powers That Be. Taken to the extreme, this could involve the adoption of a paid-for benefits program, like the one Ryanair flirted with last year, where frequent flyers who pay a fixed fee ($200 per year, say), to secure benefits like priority boarding and allocated seating. This is pure speculation, however, and, given Velocity was one of the more profitable aspects of Virgins business throughout the last few years, is also fortunately unlikely, even if possible. That said: weve seen US airlines crack down recently on frequent flyer benefits and had experts warn the trend could well spread across the pond. RELATED: US Airline Points Crackdown A Warning For Australian Frequent Flyers Cyrus Capital Partners Moving on to Cyrus Capital Partners, the other contender to buy Virgin Australia, less is known about the New York-based firms bid. However, initial reports suggest it intends to keep Virgin Australia as a full-service airline. As The New Daily reports, Cyrus Capital Partners has form and was among the original backers of Virgin America when it was launched in the US by Sir Richard Branson. If Cyrus Capital took over and Virgin remained a full-service airline, one would imagine this would lead to less disruption to the Velocity Program, and similar points earning (and spending) potential. Judging off Qantas, where you can spend your Qantas Points on Jetstar but (unless you book a fixed-price Plus or Max bundle) you cant earn points by flying it, it may turn out, with Cyrus Capital, that you will be able to spend your points on a Virgin Australia subsidiary trip (i.e. TigerAir or equivalent), but not earn more in doing so. In other words: business as usual, but leaner. All that remains then, after the winner walks away 3.5 to 4 (according to some reports) billion dollars lighter and a whole airline heavier, is to turn a profit on some of the most valuable (and competitive) routes in the world. Crucially, Virgin will need to start making money again on the Sydney to Melbourne corridor and the trans-Tasman flight path (which, though smaller than Sydney to Melbourne, appears set to remain busy). Only time (and flight bookings) will tell. Read Next In first such order passed under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA), a special court here on Monday allowed attachment and confiscation of assets owned by diamantaire Nirav Modi, a key accused in the multi- crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam. Special Judge V C Barde permitted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to confiscate those assets owned by Modi under the Fugitive Economic Offender Act that are not mortgaged or hypothecated to the PNB. The court, in its order, said the assets shall be attached by the ED under the provisions of the FEO Act within one month. After that, the said properties/assets shall stand confiscated to the Central government under section 12(2) and 8 of the FEO Act, it said. This is the first order of asset confiscation passed under the FEO Act, enacted two years ago, anywhere in the country. Senior advocate Nitesh Jain from Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas law firm, who appeared for PNB, said the court has allowed those assets, that have not been mortgaged, secured or hypothecated to the bank, to be attached and confiscated. The special court, however, did not permit the ED to attach the paintings owned by Modi and seized by the Income Tax department as the Bombay High Court had earlier directed for the artworks to be auctioned but the money to be deposited and not disbursed. The special court said the ED was at liberty to pursue legal remedies with respect to the paintings seized by the Income Tax department. Modi (49), currently lodged in a UK jail, was declared a fugitive economic offender in December last by the court. He was arrested in London in March 2019 and is presently fighting extradition to India, where he faces charges of fraud and money laundering in connection with the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam. The jeweller was the second person to be declared a fugitive under the FEO Act after beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya, who is also in the UK. The FEO Act is aimed at deterring economic offenders from evading the law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts. The law seeks to expedite the recovery of losses incurred by banks and other entities by confiscating the properties of the offender. After Modi was declared a fugitive economic offender, the ED had requested the court to issue an order for confiscation of all properties, belonging directly or indirectly to him, both in India and abroad. The ED had registered two cases of money laundering against Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, also a jeweller and another accused in the scam, on the basis of an FIR lodged against them by the CBI in January last year. The CBI had alleged that the duo had cheated PNB in connivance with certain bank officials by fraudulently getting Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued to their three firms without any collateral and without following prescribed procedure, and caused wrongful loss to the bank. Also read: YES Bank case: Cox & Kings used fake customers to launder thousands of crores, says ED Shemar Moore opened up about his bi-racial heritage, revealing he's proud to be both black and white. Moore, 50, was featured on a video message recorded by Love & Hip Hop Hollywood star Moneice Slaughter, where he spoke out about being born to a white mother and a black father. He added that his mother just passed away recently, and that she would have wanted him to speak the truth, in the aftermath of George Floyd's death. Opening up: Shemar Moore opened up about his bi-racial heritage, revealing he's proud to be both black and white 'I am half Black and I am half white. But I am proud to be Black, but I am also proud to be white,' he began. 'I understand what it is to be treated like a n*gga when I dont have my fame and when Im in the wrong place at the wrong time, and nobody knows who I am. Then Im just a n*gga in the street,' he added. The actor said he has been 'thrown down on the sidewalk' in his life, but he's never 'gone through the George Floyd situation,' though he knows what it is. Half black and half white: 'I am half Black and I am half white. But I am proud to be Black, but I am also proud to be white,' he began 'But I'm not gonna denounce the other side of me, because Im looking at humanity,' Moore said, adding there is 'good and bad on all sides.' He added that his mother had just passed and she was his 'best friend,' adding what she would tell him if she was alive today. 'And if my momma was still alive, shed say, "Baby, go out there and make a change. Go out there and spread positivity. Go out there and tell the truth."' Humanity: 'But I'm not gonna denounce the other side of me, because Im looking at humanity,' Moore said, adding there is 'good and bad on all sides. The actor has Daniel 'Hondo' Harrelson on the CBS series S.W.A.T. for the past three seasons, though he added he's 'struggling' with playing a cop in the aftermath of the George Floyd incident. 'With my platform, I do have to go back to work and put on an LAPD uniform, and I am confused about it,' Moore said. 'I am struggling with it because I dont just wanna go back and just do the dance. I have to go back and tell the real story. Because George Floyd is real, and so many others before that,' he added. 'Im gonna use my platform on S.W.A.T with my celebrityall that stuff. Im going to speak on it. Im gonna tell Sony and CBS and my bosses that if we dont speak on it, then they cant f**with me,' he added. Platform: 'Im gonna use my platform on S.W.A.T with my celebrityall that stuff. Im going to speak on it. Im gonna tell Sony and CBS and my bosses that if we dont speak on it, then they cant f**with me,' he added He continued that cops like Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee to the back of Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, causing his death, 'need to be corrected.' 'Some of them are f*cked up, but a lot of them are good. Some of us Black people are beautiful, and some are f*cked upbut we all bleed red,' he added. 'I understand how bad sh*t is, but we have to stay optimistic. We have to stay hopeful, because we will fix thisI cant do it by myself, she cant do it by herselfbut we can do it collectively, together,' Moore concluded. This is a lighter, shorter tour than our annual Modern Home Tour, but the principle is the same: come see these amazing spaces. Meet the designers and builders that created them. Get ideas and find inspiration for your own outdoor living space. While Austin lends itself to residents enjoying time outdoors all year around, its the spring and early summer months that make outdoor living in central Texas the reason so many live here. The Austin Outdoor Living Tour is returning for a second year to celebrate the outdoor spaces Austin residents enjoy year-round right in their own backyards. Organized and hosted by the Modern Architecture + Design Society (the group behind the annual Austin Modern Home Tour), this summer tour gives landscape architects and designers the unique opportunity to showcase their skill and talent to the community in which they work. In turn, the self-guided tour gives the community a rare chance to explore some amazing outdoor spaces in their area, while asking questions and engaging the minds behind the design. This is a lighter, shorter tour than our annual Modern Home Tour, says James Leasure, founder of the Modern Architecture + Design Society. But the principle is the same: come see these amazing spaces. Meet the designers and builders that created them. Get ideas and find inspiration for your own outdoor living space. Participants and neighborhoods featured on the 2020 Austin Outdoor Living Tour include: A brand-new outdoor space by Shelter Home Building in the Zilker neighborhood that features an infinity edge pool, spa, cold tub, and incredible yard space. A shared outdoor space with a Mediterranean feel for a four-unit compound in Barton Springs, designed by Native Edge Landscape, that features xeric plantings, an outdoor kitchen with storage, and a custom entry Koi Pond. An outdoor space designed by Austin Outdoor Design in the Northwest Hills that gets inspiration from Mexican architect Luis Barragan (and the bright personality of the owners) to create an Austin-inspired take on modern Mexican Architecture and outdoor living. A front outdoor space in Central East Austin, designed by Open Envelope Studio, that reconciles that dual existence of the yard to function as both entry way and living space, while retaining privacy for the owners. A second Austin Outdoor Design project, located in St. Edwards, boasting all the best features for year-round outdoor living, like a custom pool, stone patio framed in steel, a 32 grill built into a limestone countertop, benches with custom cushions, and a fireplace. NEW SAFETY RULES IN PLACE: In response to COVID-19, the Austin Outdoor Living Tour will have several new rules and policies in place. Tickets will be limited for this event. Entries at each home will be controlled to allow for social distancing in the outdoor spaces. Face coverings are a requirement for all visitors; no one will be allowed entry without a mask covering the nose and mouth. No children under age 12 will be allowed to enter. This years tour will be zero contact, including interactions with front door staff and throughout the yards. Participants on the 2020 Austin Outdoor Living Tour will open their spaces for viewing from 9AM 1PM on Saturday, June 20, 2020. Tickets to this years event are LIMITED. Details on pricing and ticket availability, as well as all rules and regulations for the 2020 Austin Outdoor Living Tour can be found at http://mads.media/atxoutdoor2020/. About the Modern Architecture + Design Society: Based in Austin, Texas, the Modern Architecture + Design Society was founded was founded by James Leasure in 2010 as Modern Home Tours, to introduce modern architecture and living to people across the nation. Through fun and informative self-guided home tours in dozens of cities across the USA and Canada, the group invites people into some of the most exciting examples of modern architecture and design in the nation. With carefully selected architects, neighborhoods and architecture, the MA+DS Home Tours are unlike anything youve ever seen. Not only will you learn about the cutting edge of home design while on our tours, but you might even get an idea or two for your next home project! Quini, a Vancouver, BC-based undisputed leader of sensory real-time data, analytics and technology solutions for the wine industry, completed a minority funding round of undisclosed amount. The round, which included Convertible Debenture and equity placements, was led by OKR Financial supported by a syndicate of private investors as well as Quinis co-founders. The company intends to use the funds to scale operations, to advance its artificial intelligence development program and expand its sales organization. Established in late 2012 and led by CEO Roger Noujeim, Quini is a leader in near real-time wine sensory data and technology solutions. Funds raised from this round will enable the company to accelerate the development of its artificial intelligence-based wine recommendations engine and expand its sales organization to enable wine industry players to make more informed decisions across business functions including marketing and brand management, logistics, product innovation, and wine making. FinSMEs 09/06/2020 Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment I am under the opinion that the churches in America are dead. Or perhaps lukewarm. Is there any difference? I recently read a post advocating for churches to resume gathering for services in the United Kingdom. And it seemed that the responses were negative in that you are putting others at risk for starting up the churches again. And the church is not a building but we are the church! Ok, I get it. In America, church leaders are sending out surveys to see how their congregation feels about meeting again after receiving the green light from our president. Some online virtual church services are very good at entertaining. But wait until Facebook, Google Hangouts, and YouTube take away video services from the churches. The online virtual services are so slick that I can now eat my breakfast in my rocking chair and not have to travel anywhere! But wait until we get a new president that will agree and support social media censorship and then all that work creating those slick online services will be put on the shelf with no means to get their product out to the congregation. Some churches have their own websites but they dont have the bandwidth for everyone to watch simultaneously or the money to expand their servers so people can watch without interruption. Its much easier to get it free from social media platforms and have them care for the logistics while capturing your every move. Or perhaps find another band-aid cure and pay $15 a month for Zoom or some other product that allows maybe 100 people to video conference? Lets face it, many churches try to preach the gospel without mentioning sin or mentioning hell. They mention the goodness of Jesus but rarely mention His judgments. Have you heard of a sermon lately saying its wrong to abort a baby? How about homosexuality? Some on divorce maybe, but if sin is mentioned specifically, many in the congregation might eliminate financial support. Dont want to offend anyone out there, do we? Another local church didnt have the backbone to meet so they said volunteers are needed to hold vacation bible school this summer in homes instead of in the building. Afraid of lawsuits maybe? California has many churches bucking the trend but dont hold your breath. Maybe the smaller congregations will gather without restrictions but the large churches will have new policies in place to make you feel like youre in some prison. Another church requires you to register for tickets to get into the building to maintain social distancing. And some churches are taking advantage of the drive-thru prayer. Instead of expecting a hot dog, expect some blessings with your windows shut in a sealed environment, masks and displaying a big smile. The offering basket will be there just before you exit the church facilities for sure. And the radical left loves all this confusion and hysteria. They take control because fear drives people into obedience of irrational police state decrees. We are in a day when love grows cold, as Matthew 24:12 warns: "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." The virtual contact-less church is available online in your neighborhood, just have your credit card available. Will churches gather again? Maybe, but dont hold your breath without a mask on while breathing your own carbon dioxide. The new norm is to accept the brainwashed news media point of view. The separation of church and state is now a concept of the past, its state controlling the church. Wake up church! Wellington, June 9 : New Zealand's research institute in Antarctica is scaling back the number of projects planned for the upcoming season, in an effort to keep the continent free of coronavirus, it was reported on Tuesday. The government agency, Antarctica New Zealand, told the BBC on Tuesday that it was dropping 23 of the 36 research projects. Only long-term science monitoring, essential operational activity and planned maintenance will go ahead. The upcoming research season runs from October to March. "As COVID-19 sweeps the planet, only one continent remains untouched and (we) are focused on keeping it that way," Antarctica New Zealand told the BBC. The organisation's chief executive Sarah Williamson said the travel limits and a strict managed isolation plan were the key factors for keeping Scott Base - New Zealand's research facility - virus free. "Antarctica New Zealand is committed to maintaining and enhancing the quality of New Zealand's Antarctic scientific research. However, current circumstances dictate that our ability to support science is extremely limited this season" she said. Earlier in April, Australia announced that it would scale back its activity in the 2020-21 summer season. This included decreasing operational capacity and delaying work on some major projects. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text After weeks of prohibiting Manitobans from holding outdoor gatherings of more than 50 people, the province's chief public health officer didn't have a problem with 15,000 people crowding together on the west side of the legislature at last Friday's Justice 4 Black Lives rally. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. After weeks of prohibiting Manitobans from holding outdoor gatherings of more than 50 people, the province's chief public health officer didn't have a problem with 15,000 people crowding together on the west side of the legislature at last Friday's Justice 4 Black Lives rally. "Everything we do has that balance the need for this demonstration, balanced against some of the risks," Dr. Brent Roussin said Monday at a COVID-19 briefing. The need for the demonstration expressing outrage at racial injustice and police brutality against black people, including the May 25 death of unarmed George Floyd, who was killed when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes outweighed the need for public health order enforcement. "From a public health perspective, our message is to try to keep the groups to the recommended size and to wear medical masks where physical distancing wasn't available but do try to physically distance," Roussin said. An estimated 15,000 people gathered at the Manitoba Legislative Building on Friday during the Justice 4 Black Lives rally. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files) Manitoba's top doctor has said in the past that events like festivals, fairs, concerts and Blue Bomber games are verboten and likely will be until at least September because prolonged, close contact among people increases the risk of transmission of the virus. Phase 2 reopening guidelines specify that people sitting or standing at indoor or outdoor events should allow for at least two metres of separation between themselves and non-household members. Roussin has expressed concern about opening up religious services to large crowds for that reason and because singing that can result in the spread of COVID-19 droplets. "Where we are with COVID-19, we know large group settings carry some risk for transmission that's why we limit the group's size," Roussin said Monday. "Certainly outdoors is a less-risky situation." He didn't take issue with people yelling and chanting while standing shoulder to shoulder for more than two hours to raise their voices against police brutality and racism. With no new coronavirus cases to report on Monday after three days and 2,217 COVID-19 samples in Manitoba all testing negative there is less chance of an outbreak at a Winnipeg rally, as long as no one with symptoms attended. CP Dr. Brent Roussin says being outdoors is less risky than indoor settings. (John Woods / The Canadian Press files) Roussin advised all Manitobans not just rally-goers to watch for COVID-19 symptoms and get tested, even if they are mild. Symptoms include fever, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath and headache. They can take up to 14 days to show up but most people will develop COVID-19 symptoms within seven to 10 days of being exposed, said Roussin. Manitoba hasn't been hit nearly as hard by COVID-19 as many other jurisdictions, thanks to timing and geography. Provincial health officials learned from what was happening elsewhere and had time to prepare before the first positive case was detected in Manitoba on March 12. Because Winnipeg isn't a major international destination or travel hub, it didn't have to worry about as many direct flights from COVID-19 hot spots. 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. That has allowed the province to lift many of its restrictions sooner and to a greater extent than other places, and to not sound the alarm on an event like Friday's massive gathering outside the Manitoba legislature. In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged against attending Black Lives Matter marches on June 6 because of the coronavirus risk, but tens of thousands took part anyway. Like Manitoba, that jurisdiction has flattened the COVID-19 curve and reports less than one per cent of Australians testing positive. National health figures show that country had just five new cases reported Monday, with a total of 7,265 cases since the start of the pandemic. Britain's health minister pleaded with residents not to rally in cities like London, Manchester and Birmingham to stop the viruss spread. That country has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in Europe. As of Monday afternoon, 40,597 people had died, British public health authorities reported. Despite the warnings, crowds showed up at Black Lives Matter rallies in Britain anyway despite the cold weather and warnings by the police that mass gatherings would violate the rule that only six people from different households could gather outside during the pandemic. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca with files from The New York Times By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 08, 2020 | 07:17 PM | GRAVES COUNTY On Monday, Graves County deputies were dispatched to Carter Road after a report of a collision with injuries. Upon arrival, deputies found 101-year-old Freeman Cook of Mayfield, lying in the roadway. Cook reportedly told deputies that he had pulled into his yard believing that he had put his vehicle in park and exited his vehicle. His vehicle then began rolling backwards. He attempted to get back into his vehicle to stop it, when he lost his footing and slid under the vehicle. The vehicle ran over him, causing numerous injuries. The truck continued rolling through his front yard until a witness was able to get into the vehicle and put it in park. Cook was taken by Air Evac to an out of state hospital for treatment of his injuries. A Mayfield man was taken to the hospital after being run over by his vehicle. A man who has spent almost 13 years behind bars for murdering his pregnant secret lover in Western Australia has been granted bail ahead of his retrial. Scott Austic had been in a relationship with 34-year-old Stacey Thorne for one year when she was stabbed 21 times at her Boddington home in 2007. She was 22 weeks' pregnant with Austic's baby at the time. Austic was found guilty of murder in 2009 and sentenced to a minimum of 25 years behind bars. But his conviction was overturned last month after he took his case to the WA Court of Appeal. Scott Austic, 45, was released on bail on Tuesday - walking outside the gates of the West Australian prison that had held him for the last 12-and-a-half years The reasons for the judgement have been suppressed. A six-week retrial is scheduled to begin in the WA Supreme Court on October 26. On Tuesday, Austic was granted bail and was expected to walk free from prison that afternoon. After the appeal was quashed, Austic's family said they were feeling emotional and excited, but recognised there was a long road ahead. 'We thank everybody for their support and especially thank our legal team,' they said in a statement. 'To Scott, we want you home and we will not give up.' One of Austic's daughters, who was six years old when her father was put behind bars, was outside of court on Tuesday. 'I don't even know how to explain how I feel to be honest. It's going to be very different. All I remember is visiting dad in prison,' she told The West Australian. 'It'll be good to spend time with him outside.' She said the case had inspired her to study forensic biology, toxicology, and criminology at university. 'I didn't think he was going to get it (bail) and then he got it. He was trying not to get his hopes up but he was so excited,' she said. Austic's other daughter, 15, was in school as his bail was granted, according to the publication. His mother was also at the hearing and was required to provide a $100,000 surety in addition to a personal undertaking of $100,000 by Austic. By Nate Raymond BOSTON (Reuters) - Lawyers for the former Green Beret and son wanted by Japan for helping former Nissan Motor Co boss Carlos Ghosn flee the country on Monday argued U.S. By Nate Raymond BOSTON (Reuters) - Lawyers for the former Green Beret and son wanted by Japan for helping former Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> boss Carlos Ghosn flee the country on Monday argued U.S. authorities wrongly arrested them for aiding a crime that they say does not exist in Japan: bail jumping. Lawyers for Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, in a motion asked a federal judge in Boston to quash the U.S. warrants issued last month for their arrests or release them on bail while their extradition case proceeds. U.S. authorities arrested the Taylors in May at Japan's request for allegedly smuggling Ghosn out of the country in a box while he was out on bail awaiting trial on financial charges. Their lawyers on Monday argued that neither bail jumping nor helping someone do so are crimes in Japan. The defense attorneys said that fact is "so far beyond dispute that the Japanese government has begun considering whether it should amend the law to make such conduct a crime." While Japan has issued arrest warrants for the Taylors, their lawyers said the crime stated in the Japanese warrants is an immigration offense, a non-extraditable misdemeanor. The lawyers added that neither Taylor, including Michael, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran who founded a private security company, pose a flight risk requiring them to be held without bail. The Justice Department and Japanese embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. U.S. authorities arrested the Taylors in Harvard, Massachusetts, on May 20 at the request of Japan, which in January issued arrest warrants for both men in connection with facilitating the Dec. 29, 2019 escape. Ghosn fled to Lebanon, his childhood home, while he was awaiting trial on charges that he engaged in financial wrongdoing, including by understating his compensation in Nissan's financial statements. He denies wrongdoing. (This story corrects headline to ex-Nissan boss, text unchanged) (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Qatars Minister of State for Energy Affairs said Saudi Arabia made a big miscalculation when it launched an oil price war with Russia earlier this year, flooding an already saturated global market that was reeling from falling crude demand in the wake of coronavirus lockdowns. It was sort of a double-whammy where the market got hit in a very big way, Saad al-Kaabi, who is also CEO of Qatar Petroleum, told business news network CNBC on Monday. I think it was a very big mistake to flood the market, he added. Flooding the market is what caused us to go to a very low level. And then the pandemic basically took it almost to a very dangerous area where people could not afford to produce any more. In March, Riyadh announced it was lowering the price it charges for oil and would start pumping crude with abandon after it failed to convince Russia to agree to steep output cuts to offset a 30 million barrel a day blow to demand from the coronavirus pandemic. The price war sent already pressured crude prices crashing early this year. At the height of the rout, prices of US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude turned negative as traders and investors paid to have oil taken off their hands rather than risk having nowhere to store it as crude storage neared capacity. Faced with a potential wave of bankruptcies among higher-cost United States shale oil producers, Congressional lawmakers introduced legislation to punish Riyadh if it did not cut production by withdrawing US troops and military equipment from the kingdom. After that legislation was introduced, President Donald Trump, who is seeking reelection this year, personally appealed to Saudi Arabias de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a deal and rebalance the market. Following Trumps intervention, the Saudi-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies led by Russia agreed to a record-breaking production cut of 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for May and June. The grouping, known as OPEC+, agreed on Saturday to extend those curbs through July to keep propping up prices. Qatar withdrew from OPEC in January 2019. Now, I think the actions that have been taken by the same group really is to agree what was agreed in the past and keep more sensible, al-Kaabi told CNBC. So, there is a shortage of that coordination in the beginning of the year, now I think its much better. Prices of global benchmark Brent crude have more than doubled from their April lows, but are still almost 40 percent down from where they started the year. On Tuesday, Brent finished the session at just above $41 a barrel. Al-Kaabi said he is hopeful that energy demand will pick up as lockdowns ease across the globe, though he believes the recovery will be gradual. FLINT, MI -- A couples love for Flint was highlighted in the first episode of HGTVs House Hunters" filmed in the city. In an episode titled Investing in Flint, which aired for the first time Monday, June 8, Matt and Katie Bach found their new house. They were chosen for the show after they sold their home near Grand Blanc. While it took some compromise, the Bachs ultimately landed on a property both are happy to call home. The two had a different idea of what they wanted going in. The first difference of opinion: price tag. Matts ideal budget was a maximum of $200,000, while Katie was willing to pay up to $400,000. First Flint-filmed House Hunter episode on HGTV to air Monday Matts wish list was a home with a pool, space for their daughter and grandson and a finished basement big enough to accommodate his annual game night party for friends and family. Katie was looking for a place with character, a main-floor bedroom and tree-lined streets. They also agreed that eventually they wanted their daughter, Emily, 22, and her son, Emmett, 2, to be able to move out of the family home and be on their own though Matt was in less of a hurry for this. They said they agreed on one main factor: they wanted to invest in Flint to support the communitys rebound after decades of challenges, including the downturn of the auto industry and, more recently, the Flint water crisis. We were very excited to watch the show and we were not disappointed, Matt Bach said. They really did a nice job with it. The Bachs have been married for 26 years and have two children Emily and Zach, 26. Matt is director of communications for the Michigan Municipal League and a former reporter at The Flint Journal. Katie is director of communications at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and a former news editor at The Flint Journal. While neither work in Flint, they said Flint is their home. We loved how they portrayed the city of Flint, Katie Bach said The entire experience was a lot of fun and everyone in the production of the show were amazing to work with. Filmed in September and October of 2019, Flint Re/Max Edge Real Estate Agent Jonathan Schlinker showed the three homes the Bachs considered. The couple landed on their first option, a fixer-upper ranch in the historic Woodcroft Estates neighborhood off of Miller Road. The house was priced at $159,900. The ranch appealed more to Katie than Matt as the space ultimately needed home improvements. In the final scenes of the episode, the bathroom was under renovation and they discussed gutting out the kitchen. They chose this home over a $200,000 craftsman-style home in Flints historic Carriage Town neighborhood and a $210,000 all-brick home with a pool and Flint Faience tile accents in the Woodcroft Estates neighborhood. Woodcroft Estates, a 300-acre neighborhood, was developed for early auto industry executives. It was home to the citys wealthiest families in the 1920s and features many ornate period homes. The episode is available for purchase online from HGTV, Amazon or YouTube. The Bachs said they have been told a free online link will be made available soon. Read more on MLive: Flints Bikes on the Bricks canceled for 2020 How Michigan couples are getting married - or not - during the coronavirus pandemic Cedar Point announces reopening dates, health and safety precautions Small mid-Michigan town competes to be next HGTV Home Town Takeover Northern Michigan town a contender for HGTV Home Town Takeover revamp (Newser) The president of the UN General Assembly says world leaders will not be coming to New York for their annual gathering in late September for the first time in the organization's 75-year history because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande told a news conference Monday that he hopes to announce in the next two weeks how the 193 heads of state and government will give their speeches on pressing local and world issues during the assemblys so-called General Debate. He said "world leaders cannot come to New York because they cannot come simply as individuals and it is impossible" to bring large delegations during the pandemic, the AP reports. "We cannot have them in person as we used towhat happened in the last 74 yearsbut it will happen," Muhammad-Bande said of the annual gathering. story continues below Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recommended last month that the meeting of world leaders, which was supposed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, be dramatically scaled back because of the pandemic. On another issue, the secretary-general has told UN staff members to not join in the protests anywhere around the world that have followed the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. "We are all shocked by the brutality of the murder of George Floyd," Guterres told employees in a virtual town hall, per Foreign Policy. But he said their role in international civil service means they can't appear to stray from impartiality. Some staff members and human rights advocates objected. "Internal UN rules cannot override broad international human rights norms applied in every nation," one UN official said in a statement. (Read more United Nations stories.) Sudhir Suryawanshi By Express News Service MUMBAI: The pre-monsoon activities have started but the farmers are facing hardships to get the crop loan. The banks are not disbursing the loan citing various reasons like previous default and other technical issues. Maharashtra government has planned to disburse the Rs 43,000 crore crop loan this year. The crop loan is very important for farmers to buy seeds, fertilizers and other farm-related items. If the farmers do not have money in their hand, then they will be unable to sow and cultivate their farm. As per the government, out of total Rs 43,000 crore, the nationalized banks disbursed Rs 2300 crore against the given target of Rs 32,161 crore while district and co-operative banks disbursed Rs 6258 crore against the target of Rs 13,524 crore. It shows that the nationalized banks have disbursed a total 7 per cent of crop loan while the district and co-operative banks have disbursed 46 per cent of the amount. Maharashtra government had announced the farm loan waiver scheme but the scheme could not get fully implemented because of the pandemic situation and further lockdown. The benefit of this farm loan waiver could not reach to farmers, many of who are on the defaulter list. The banks are refusing to disburse the fresh loan to these farmers. Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had called the meeting of the banks and other stakeholders and asked to disburse the loan to all farmers. Thackeray had also taken the guarantee of the farmers who were on the defaulter list of the banks. In Western Maharashtra, the crop loan disbursement has been happening effectively while in Marathwada and Vidarbha, it has been quite slow. The banks are dilly-dallying to offer the crop loan to farmers who are in trouble due to lockdown. Farmer leader Vijay Jawandia said that the co-operative banks follow the instruction of the state government but the nationalized banks did not follow them. The nationalized banks follow the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines. Therefore, the central government should chip in this condition. The government should declare drought so farmers will get the benefit of government decisions. If the government can give relief package to small scale industries, besides bank are offering moratorium to property purchasers, then why no help to farmers, Jawandia said. He said that due to the lockdown, farmers could not sale their agriculture produces this year. Many farmers dumped their crops at their backyard. The government should extend all possible help to farmers otherwise the agriculture sector will be in big trouble, said Jawandia. Here are the top news stories across Connecticut this afternoon: State officials are considering some major changes to how police operate in CT. Here are some of the discussed changes.>>>Read More. Two 16-year-olds died in a fiery crash early Tuesday morning and three others are seriously injured.>>>Read More. Gov. Ned Lamont asked the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition to delay a scheduled pay raise, and they received a blunt reply.>>>Read More. The new order came in response to complaints made to the Feds that some people with disabilities were denied access, following the coronavirus outbreak.>>>Read More. This article originally appeared on the Across Connecticut Patch Araldite, the 70-year old leading Swiss adhesive brand, believes in repairing not replacing, because it knows everyone owns irreplaceable things. The companys recently launched campaign #bondsthatlastforever has attracted over 1 million views and is still going strong. Indians have connected with the companys philosophy that in every Indian home, there are items that are worth far more than their price. Should such things break, repurchasing a similar piece cannot compensate for the loss. The adhesive of choice for an earlier generation, Araldite is seeking to rekindle the relationship that the firm has enjoyed with India. Araldite had been Indias favourite brand for decades. Its nationwide digital campaign is once again bringing this once beloved brand to the attention of Indians. Locked at home during quarantine with little to do, people are re-examining their lives. They are reliving their relationships with epic shows they grew up watching and with brands like Araldite that were inside every Indian home. Over 1 million people have been reached with the brands message in less than three months. They have expressed their connection to the brand by showering its message with likes. Younger Indians especially received the companys digital marketing campaign well. In conversation with Adgully, Shenoy Muralidhara, Commercial & Country Director - Huntsman Advanced Materials, Araldite, shares some key insights on the campaign, the positioning Araldite is going for and the TG they want to focus on. What is the primary objective of the campaign? After running the current campaign what is the end objective or expectations you have for the brand to deliver? The objective of the campaign is to bring the worlds strongest adhesive Araldite to the homes of Indian people. Due to lockdown, more and more people are experimenting with household chores every day, they are doing what they never used to do helping at home, doing dishes. Any error in these activities is bound to happen, Araldite is here to undo the damage and fix anything forever. We want to ascertain and become an essential part of their tool kit at home so that they can repair and not replace the memories behind the broken objects. The end objective is to connect Indian audiences with the companys philosophy that we all possess a lot of materialistic things. But when there is even a small crack in any of these things in every Indian home, there are items that are worth far more than their price. Should such things break, repurchasing a similar piece cannot compensate for the loss. Araldite is an old trusted brand, in doing this new DVC did you change the positioning of the brand? What was its early positioning? Araldite believes that the lockdown has taught society not to take relationships or material things for granted. Both can suddenly break. Yet connections can grow stronger when material things exchanged between people are looked after. In this challenging time, people cannot step out of their homes to replace broken items; however, should the need arise; they can quickly repair them with an adhesive based on the core brand philosophy Repair is better than replace. Our earlier positioning was Build, Bond. Protect. What was the brief given to your agency on this campaign? What was their thinking process for this campaign? Can you also please elaborate the core idea for this campaign? The brief given to the agency was to establish Araldite as the most superior adhesive brand and make it an essential in every Indian households toolkit. The core idea behind the DVC was to establish the brand philosophy that repair is better than replace because be it things or relationships , its all about bonds like memories are mean to last forever and special moments that they signify or rather #BondsThatLastForever. We wanted this DVC to grab the audiences attention and relate to the communication, so we designed the narrative around a very relevant observation/ insight is in this day and age: Multiple opinions from multiple sources. With the advent of 24x7 media, an average persons mind today is continuously grappling with too many opinions. Most people find themselves at the crossroads wondering what is right/ wrong only to realise that every opinion is right in its own way, however, facts are sacrosanct. Facts like repair is better than replace. Who is your TG? Your DVC addresses a younger generation, any strategic reason to tap these audiences? The adhesive of choice for an earlier generation, Araldite is making its presence felt among all Indians. Over one million people have been reached with the brand's message in less than three months. They have expressed their connection to the brand by showering its message with likes. Younger Indians especially received the companys digital marketing campaign well. Our target audience does not include any particular segment of the society but taps to the emotions of all the Indians. Whats the idea behind leveraging digital for this campaign? Whats the kind of ROI you are looking at? The digital advertising market witnessed a 25 per cent increase in its growth during financial year 2019, as per IAMAIs (Internet and Mobile Association of India) Digital Advertising in India Report 2019. Looking at the stats and also anticipating the digital growth due to lockdown in India, we decided to leverage the digital campaign for Araldite. This campaign aims at boosting awareness and establishing a brand recall for Araldite while making a toolkit essential in every Indian household, thereby increasing SOV across digital. How are you addressing the demand-supply and distribution issue? What is your e-commerce strategy? Our products are available on the e-commerce platforms, where one can easily buy the product. Stores in most states have opened up now and we are beginning to see some movement on the shelf. Yes, India will soon see Araldite officially being launched on an e-commerce platform to help each and every household fix things forever, wherever and all by themselves. What are the markets you are looking to push this campaign? Is it being done in other languages to reach the smaller towns? Once brand love is established across Tier 1 cities, subsequently we will penetrate into Tier 2 and 3 markets with future campaigns. Two Illinois cities, Rockford and Decatur, are among the fastest-shrinking cities in the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates, part of an ongoing trend of Midwestern cities losing residents while cities across the Southwest and West continue to grow. Decatur, in central Illinois about 40 miles east of Springfield, has lost 7.1% of its population since the 2010 census, according to the recently released 2019 population estimates. That drop is the third-largest percentage loss in the U.S. among cities with a population of 50,000 or more. Rockford comes in at No. 15 on that list. The northern Illinois city, the fifth-largest in the state with an estimated 145,609 residents, has lost 5% of its population during that nine-year period. Rockfords total population loss of 7,676 people over the last decade places it ninth nationwide among large cities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, with Decatur (-5,385) at No. 15. Four of the five cities that have lost the most people since the last census are in the Midwest. Detroit has lost the most people, about 43,000, since 2010, followed by Baltimore, St. Louis, Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio. Chicago, meanwhile, remains the third-largest city in the country, behind Los Angeles and in front of Houston. The gap between Chicago (2.7 million) and Houston (2.3 million) continues to shrink, though the difference remains sizable. Chicagos population is essentially flat from the 2010 census, with an estimated 2,693,976 people living in the city in 2019, 1,676 fewer than nine years before. Meanwhile, Houston has been steadily gaining population, gaining about 225,000 new residents over the last decade. Houston has experienced the second-largest numeric increase in population, behind only Phoenix, of all U.S. cities with a population of 50,000 or greater since 2010, according to the Census Bureau. New York remains the nations most populous city by a wide margin, with 8.3 million residents. Los Angeles, at No. 2, has nearly 4 million people. David Wilson, professor of geography and urban planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said Illinois cities like Rockford and Decatur are suffering from structural, systematic forces in the new postindustrial economy. Midsize Midwestern cities in particular, especially those in the so-called Rust Belt that relied on manufacturing, have been hurt in recent years by a lack of federal aid for municipalities and a closure or movement of industrial companies, which leads to higher local taxes and a lack of jobs that can provide for a middle class life. I think those cities are very susceptible to having populations hurt by the new service economy or the new postindustrial economy, and thats because they have such a historical reliance, and a current reliance, on manufacturing and heavy-duty industry, Wilson said. And for those city economies that have not diversified, they really get hurt, they get pummeled. And what does that mean to get pummeled? People have a very difficult time living there and earning a living wage. They simply cant make ends meet. And they become primed for thinking about leaving and trying to find something better. This phenomenon, Wilson said, disproportionately hurts the black middle class and is unequally distributed among socioeconomic classes, affecting those who earn less money or who relied on the manufacturing jobs that no longer exist. The coronavirus will exacerbate all of these factors, especially when it comes to curtailing of public services, but also the perception that cities like Rockford and Decatur are unsafe, Wilson said. Its going to create a further divide between the haves and the have-nots in places like Joliet, Aurora, Rockford, Wilson said. And people are going to want to leave. In Rockford, the area north of downtown was once humming with industrial manufacturing facilities that attracted thousands of workers. Now the facilities are mostly abandoned. Front entrances that once welcomed employees are shuttered, blocked by weeds and unruly bushes. Huge parking lots are silent and empty. Gates are padlocked. Factories also once made work plentiful in downstate Decatur. A 2013 Tribune story about the global agribusiness company Archer Daniels Midland moving its headquarters from town noted that locals once joked that a worker could get fired from one plant and land a new job the next day. In 1980, Decaturs population was at a high of 94,000. Now it is 71,000. Danville, in eastern Illinois near the Indiana border, is among the fastest-decreasing metro areas, when the census takes into account population beyond city limits. Danville has lost 7.2% of its population since 2010, behind only Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Charleston, West Virginia, and Beckley, West Virginia. Population change and loss, Wilson said, is often more about the combination of these complex factors and economic and governmental conditions in particular cities, more than peoples desire for change. Individual decisions are made within that reality. More and more middle-class families have a difficult time finding their economic footing in places like Aurora and Joliet and Rockford, Wilson said. If you look at where job growth is, either you try to find a way into the new high-tech economy or you find yourself essentially bailing out into the dead-end, low-wage economy. People say, well, maybe thats not suitable, maybe theres something better down the road and we should move to the Sun Belt, maybe we should move to the East Coast, and try our hand there. It is a myth, Wilson said, that high earners, even in places like Rockford and Decatur, are fleeing the state. In fact, he said, the biggest population losses appear to be coming from those who earn less. And when they decide to leave, they turn to places with better job prospects, lower taxes and, secondarily, better weather, Wilson said. These factors bubble to the top of the most recent census data release, which shows cities in Texas booming. Five of the countrys most populous cities are in Texas, with San Antonio (7), Dallas (9), Austin (11) and Fort Worth (13) joining Houston. And that growth trend is continuing. Six of the countrys fastest-growing large cities since 2010 are in Texas, according to the census, and every one of the Top 15 are in the South or West regions. Expanding beyond city limits, three of the Top 10 metro areas with the largest gains in population nationally are in Texas: Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin. Fort Worth and Charlotte, North Carolina, moved into the Top 15 most populous U.S. cities list, bumping Indianapolis and San Francisco. And Phoenix is now the fifth-largest city in the country, overtaking Philadelphia. The Census Bureau releases population estimates each year between censuses. The 2020 census is continuing, with deadlines extended because of the coronavirus pandemic. More precise population information from the census, including state population totals that will determine apportionment of seats in the U.S. House, will begin to be released in spring 2021. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has announced that board exams for Class X and pending exams for Class XI students which were to begin from June 15th stand cancelled, and that all students would be promoted, owing to the rising Covid-19 cases. This comes after the Madras High Court had questioned the Government on the need to risk lakhs of lives by conducting exams amid the pandemic. On Monday, while hearing a case seeking the postponement of the exams, a bench of the Madras High Court lashed out at the government. The bench stated that conducting class X exams were unlike re-opening of TASMAC (state-run liquor outlets) during the lockdown. Can the state government give an undertaking that no student will get infected by Covid-19 if it is allowed to conduct the 10th grade board exams from June 15th the bench questioned. The Court had given the Government until June 11 to take a call on the exams. Addressing the media, the Chief Minister said that in view of the cancellation of public exams for Class X and pending exams for Class XI, all students are to be considered having passed the board exams. Over 9 lakh students were to take the exam staring from June 15th. According to the the Chief Ministers announcement, the students score will be calculated as follows -80% of the marks would be awarded to the students based on their performance in quarterly and half-yearly examinations and that their attendance would be considered for the remaining 20% weightage. He said that certain pending examinations that were to be conducted for class XI students also stood cancelled. Even the supplementary exams for those who have not passed their Class XII exams have been postponed and the fates would be announced later based on how the situation evolves. Explaining the rationale behind the cancellation of exams, the Chief Minister pointed out that Covid-19 cases in Chennai and other districts were on the upsurge. Health experts say there is no possibility of cases reducing in the coming times. The government has taken this decision to protect the students he said. Shortly after the announcement by the Tamil Nadu CM, a similar announcement to cancel the Class X board exams and declare all students as having passed was announced by the Puducherry Government as well. On Monday, Telengana announced all pass for class X students, thus increasing expectations of a similar decision in Tamil Nadu which has the second highest number of Covid-19 cases in India, after Maharashtra. As COVID-19 continues to spread, essential workers and healthcare providers throughout the country are needed now more than ever. Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame decided to show his appreciation for one such worker, who is a self-avowed Star Wars superfan, when he made a surprise guest appearance (remotely, of course) on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Friday. The lucky individual a nurse named Chloe Ducose based in San Diego, California who is administering COVID tests there was thrilled to receive a special signed lightsaber from Luke Skywalker himself while on the show. May the Force be with Chloe: Mark Hamill decided to show his appreciation for a frontline healthcare worker who is a self-avowed Star Wars superfan when he made a surprise appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Friday Additionally, Kimmel informed Ducose that she would be receiving a $10,000 donation from PayPal's #PayPalItForward campaign, along with vouchers for her coworkers. Kimmel, 52, started the segment off by asking Chloe about what she's been doing, which has involved swabbing countless people in the nose for coronavirus testing out of a medical field tent amid 90+ degree weather. 'And how many times have you watched the Star Wars movies, all of them from beginning to end?' the late-night host later inquired of Chloe, who giggled and said in response, 'A lot, let's just put it that way!' The lucky individual: A nurse named Chloe Ducose from San Diego was thrilled to receive a special signed lightsaber from Luke Skywalker himself while on the show Then it was the cue for Hamill, 68, to appear, at first shrouded in a black hood and accompanied by the unmistakable Star Wars theme by John Williams. 'Chloe, Chloe... The Force is strong with you,' he said in a grandiose movie voice to the incredulous Ducose. 'I applaud you for having seen the Star Wars movies more than I have.' He also added, 'I've been reading about all you've done six years as a nurse, teaching at night, you're in the tents. That's so great. Kimmel started the segment off by asking Chloe about what she's been doing: Swabbing countless people in the nose for coronavirus testing out of a field tent in 90+ degree weather Look who: Then it was the cue for Hamill to appear, at first shrouded in a black hood and accompanied by the unmistakable Star Wars theme All the beside-herself Ducose could manage was: 'I'm having palpitations' 'To me, I'm a pretend hero; You're the real-life hero. Thank you for your service.' All the beside-herself Ducose could manage was, 'I'm having palpitations.' 'Chloe, thank you for your work on the front line,' Kimmel echoed. It was then that Mark presented the nurse with the lightsaber he will sign and have sent to her. Generosity: Kimmel also informed Ducose that she would be receiving a $10,000 donation from PayPal's #PayPalItForward campaign, along with vouchers for her coworkers Then: Mark presented the nurse with the lightsaber he will sign and have sent to her Iconic: Hamill helped to immortalize the lightsaber as a top favorite movie weapon in the Star Wars saga films; seen here in 1983's Star Wars Episode VI - Return Of The Jedi 'I want you to use it wisely,' he told her; 'If you go to any protests, please leave it at home.' 'To me, Star Wars fans are more than just fans, they're more like family,' Hamill said in conclusion. The veteran actor's generous gesture comes after he shared enthusiastic words of support for his Star Wars costar John Boyega, who himself attended a protest in London, England last week and spoke out against the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25th. Giving thanks: Hamill posted the clip to his Instagram, recognizing Chloe's amazing deeds 'Chloe is a nurse by day- an adult schoolteacher training personal home care aids by night! (also, someone who has seen the #StarWars movies more than I have)' While questions remain about the origin of COVID-19, many scientists now believe the virus spread to humans from bats. Two Texas Tech University researchers are now taking a closer look at whether bats also could offer a solution to the pandemic. "Bats are well known as carriers of several viruses, some are related to viruses that can make humans very sick; this latest coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, shares a common ancestor with a bat coronavirus," said David Ray, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. "However, the bats don't appear to suffer any ill effects. "We hope to find specific patterns in the bats that appear to explain how they manage to tolerate viruses. For example, one of the ways they appear to do that is to dampen their immune response. Our immune system seems to go a little out of control when it encounters this virus, causing what's known as a cytokine storm that can sometimes do more damage than the virus itself. We want to find out how the immune system responds differently in bats and, potentially, inform clinicians on how we might be able to replicate that in humans." Thanks to a grant through the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Rapid Response Research (RAPID) funding mechanism, Diana Moreno Santillan, a postdoctoral researcher in biological sciences, will be working with Ray over the next year to investigate how immune system genes and immune responses differ between bats and humans as well as how the specific proteins associated with SARS-CoV-2 in bats differ from the human versions of the same proteins. "Our approach will be to examine bat genome assemblies from 10 species to identify patterns of gene duplication, gain and loss and relate those patterns to differences in how bats respond to viral infection," Ray said. "As evolutionary biologists, our specialty is in comparing organisms to one another to see how the differences may have come about. For example, if some bats on the evolutionary tree do show a susceptibility to this or other viruses, while others in a different part of the tree don't, we can investigate exactly what changes have made the difference. Without understanding the evolutionary relationships, that is not possible." "This research," Moreno Santillan added, "will give us a greater perspective to understand the impact of how these host-pathogen interactions between bats and viruses have molded unique adaptations in bats that have allowed them to 'get used to' these viruses." There's a lot of work to be done in a short time frame. Because of the pressing threat of the coronavirus, the NSF is funding dozens of research projects on COVID-19 to mobilize the scientific community to better understand and develop measures to respond to it. "The grant is called RAPID for a reason," Ray explained. "This is a special mechanism through the NSF that prioritizes approaches that need immediate attention. Thus, the funding is only for one year." Luckily, Texas Tech is well positioned for such research as the home of the Natural Science Research Laboratory (NSRL), a repository of hundreds of thousands of preserved animal tissue specimens within the Museum of Texas Tech University that researchers can use for projects just like this one. The NSRL added the 150,000th specimen in its mammal collection, a black and white spotted bat, earlier this year. Ray and Moreno Santillan will complete this work in collaboration with Liliana Davalos of Stony Brook University and Angelique Corthals of the City University of New York. Davalos, a field leader in bat evolution, will guide some of the gene structure and gene expression analyses. Corthals is interested in how genes not directly involved in the immune response - such as those associated with energetics and metabolism - could influence immune system performance under stress. For Moreno Santillan, an important message to convey through this research is that people should neither be afraid of bats nor blame them for COVID-19, because virus transmission is extremely complicated. "Although bats are reservoirs of viruses, that does not mean transmission to humans is common or a high risk," Moreno Santillan said. "Just as bats are adapted to viruses, viruses also are adapted to their natural hosts, so the probability that a bat-borne virus successfully adapts to a human in a short period of time is low. A lot of random mutations and recombination events are needed before a bat-borne virus can infect humans. In fact, an intermediary host and constant interaction is regularly needed for this to happen. "Having said that, we need to spread the message that bats are not to blame, nor are they a health risk. Quite the contrary, bats provide us incalculable benefits, such as plague control, seed dispersion and pollination. At the end, if there is something bats should be blamed for, it's tequila." ### Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:05:10|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LUSAKA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Zambia on Tuesday joined the rest of the world in commemorating the World Accreditation Day with the government stating that it was in the process of establishing the country's own accreditation body. Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Christopher Yaluma in remarks delivered to mark the commemoration said cabinet already approved in principle for the introduction of a bill to parliament aimed at establishing the Zambia Accreditation Service which will be responsible for carrying out the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies. He said the Zambia Accreditation bill was currently being cleared by the Ministry of Justice before it could be taken to parliament for enactment. The Zambian minister noted that the theme for this year's commemoration "Accreditation Improving Food Safety" focuses on how accreditation improves food safety, supporting the confidence of consumers, suppliers, regulators and specifiers in the quality and safety of food. "Further, the theme seeks to highlight the role of accreditation in improving food safety. It does this across the whole of the food supply chain from farm to fork, through food production, processing and packaging, storage and transportation," he said. According to him, accreditation was vital in providing an independent evaluation of testing laboratories, calibration laboratories, certification bodies and inspection bodies against recognized standards. The principal aim of accreditation is to support the freedom of world trade by eliminating technical barriers to trade, he added. Enditem Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down from their roles as senior royals on March 31. Since then (and even before that), theyve been enjoying a much more peaceful life in North America. The two just settled into their new city of Los Angeles, though they reportedly havent purchased a home just yet. But the truth is, nobody really knows how Harry is adapting to this completely new lifestyle. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved to L.A. in the spring. | Chris Jackson/Pool/Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their royal departure in January Late last year, Harry and Meghan decided to take a six-week hiatus from royal life and spend the holidays with each other (its rumored that Meghans mother joined them, too). The two jetted off to North America and spent time on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, before returning to the United Kingdom in early January. Shortly after, the couple announced that they would be permanently stepping back from their roles as senior royals with the hope of starting a new chapter and becoming financially independent. On March 31, their royal duties officially ended. RELATED: Prince William is Concerned About Prince Harry After L.A. Move, Source Claims Some close to Harry have said he feels guilty about the move Harry and Meghan spent some more time on Vancouver Island before news broke that the two had relocated to Los Angeles, California. And as they started adjusting to a new life, sources close to the prince began spilling details about how he reportedly feels guilty over the move. When Harry and Meghan left the family, Harry chose to move thousands of miles away from his father and brother, among all other royals. And according to reports, the prince had guilt for leaving his family behind. But on the contrary, some say thats not the case. Others have reported hes excited to start a new chapter Though some sources hint that Harry is regretting his decision to move out of the U.K., others, who are reportedly just as close to the prince, say its the opposite. According to Us Weekly, an insider said Harry is excited to start over with Meghan. Its the next chapter for him, and a breath of fresh air from his former duties, the source revealed. Hes always wanted Meghan to be happy, safe, and comfortable. One of Harry and Meghans last photos as official royals the photo went viral due to its glow. | Samir Hussein/WireImage RELATED: 4 Photos of Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton the Press Doesnt Want You to See There are rumors hes leaning on Prince William as he tries to adjust On top of the initial rumors, it just came out that Harry might be leaning on Prince William to help him adjust to his new life. When Harry left the family, he and William werent on the best terms. Now, though, insiders say the two are back on speaking terms and that William has helped Harry through the major adjustment. Truthfully, nobody fully understands how Harry is adapting to his new life. Its certainly a drastic change, and with that, there are bound to be some trials and tribulations. But ultimately, more privacy is something hes always wanted, and he finally has it. Its possible hes feeling many different emotions guilt, excitement, and confusion, to name a few. Hopefully he and Meghan are slowly adapting to the change and will ultimately be happy with their decision to leave the family. Los Angeles Bonnie Pointer, who in 1969 convinced three of her church-singing siblings to form the Pointer Sisters, which would become one of the biggest acts of the next two decades, died Monday. The Grammy winner died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, publicist Roger Neal said. She was 69. "It is with great sadness that I have to announce to the fans of the Pointer Sisters that my sister, Bonnie died this morning," sister Anita Pointer said in a statement. "Our family is devastated, on behalf of my siblings and I and the entire Pointer family, we ask for your prayers at this time." Bonnie Pointer often sang lead and was an essential member of the group through its early hits, including "Yes We Can Can" and "Fairytale." She would leave for a short and modest solo career in 1977 as her sisters went on to have several mega-hits without her. Ruth, Anita, Bonnie and June, born the daughters of a minister who also had two older sons, grew up singing in his church in Oakland, Calif. It was Bonnie, shortly after graduating high school, who first wanted to move away from singing gospel songs into clubs to pursue a professional singing career. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "The Pointer Sisters would never have happened had it not been for Bonnie," Anita Pointer said. She convinced younger sister June to join her, and the two began doing gigs together as a duo in 1969. Eventually they'd enlist their two older sisters, who were already married with children, to join them. The quartet brought a fusion of funk, soul and 1940s-style jazz, scat and pop to their act, often dressing in a retro style that resembled their forerunners, the Andrews Sisters. The Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Hon. Justina Owusu Banahene has commended waste management giants Zoomlion for the ongoing nationwide disinfection exercise. According to her, the fact remains that the COVID-19 pandemic has no cure hence the best preventive protocol was disinfection which Zoomlion expertly continues to execute. The Sunyani MCE was speaking at the official launch of the Ahafo region's turn of the disinfection of Military Barracks, educational institutions, and facilities on Tuesday. She said Ghana as a country must restore, conserve, and protect its biodiversity as the key antidote to COVID-19 recovery. The MCE also commended Zoomlion Ghana Limited for the tremendous work towards defeating the virus in the country and on the decision to disinfect the Sunyani Municipal Assembly. "As it stands now, disinfection is one of the protocols we can use to protect the country from coronavirus because as we speak we don't have vaccines for the virus". After the launch, disinfectant officers from the Zoomlion office in Sunyani disinfected 3 Battalion of infantry, Ebenezer Methodist church (Penkwase), and The Methodist Church Ghana - Christ The King society (Adjei Ano-Sunyani). She noted that other areas to be disinfected included all the Basic and Senior High Schools, Universities, Churches, among others. She advised parents to educate their children to have Fair knowledge of COVID-19 before going back to school. Lt. Col. John Yaw Kwarteng, Commanding Officer at 3 Battalion of infantry expressed his gratitude to Zoomlion Ghana Limited for the exercise and promised to adhere to government directives as an institution. The general manageress of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Brong Ahafo region, Madam Esther Abayeta Asadoo urged various heads of the facilities to adopt precautionary measures to stop the spread of the virus. "The health of Civilians is challenged due to the unpleasant arrival of the COVID-19 in the country. I believe we are doing a good job but you know very well that people are coming from different places so I will urge that other precautionary measures such as the use of Veronica bucket and alcohol-based sanitizers must be placed the entry point all the time", she said. SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- On the heels of a peaceful candlelight vigil over the weekend, City Council on Monday (June 8) passed a resolution expressing outrage at the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department. The resolution, drafted and read into the record by Councilman Rob Zimmerman, called for justice, unity, constructive dialogue and action needed to abolish racism wherever it may exist. Zimmerman thanked Councilwoman Carmella Williams for her assistance in writing the resolution, which also supports the right of people to peaceably protest. "The veil of pervasive racial inequities has been removed," Williams said of Floyd's Memorial Day death and its aftermath, as she added the names of Cleveland's Tamir Rice and others to show that "the overall vilification of black America is not that distant." Mayor David Weiss concurred that Floyds death is, unfortunately, just the latest of a number of similar incidents that has prompted strong reaction from all corners of the nation. And while we often strive to do our best, we still have a long way to go toward genuine, positive and concrete change. Council also heard from Shaker Heights Police Chief Jeffrey DeMuth, who said he echoed the sentiments of Weiss, council and the resolution condemning the murder of Floyd and demanding that the perpetrators be brought to justice. As for national reforms being introduced in Congress, DeMuth said the Shaker Heights Police Department is already ahead of the curve on banning chokeholds and has used bias-free policing policies for the past 20 years. DeMuth feels that one of the biggest problems in local police departments is creating a "culture that doesn't hold fellow officers accountable." He added that the commitment to Constitutional guarantees must be unwavering. In addition to accountability, DeMuth agreed that police need to continue to look at training, the use of force and who were hiring. City Councils resolution commits that the police department will continue its efforts to resist racism and promote policies to hire more African-American officers, best practices related to de-escalation and other initiatives intended to eliminate racial bias in policing. After watching the June 7 broadcast of the Sunday morning news show "This Week" on ABC, featuring an interview with Florida Congresswoman and former Orlando Police Chief Val Demings, DeMuth said he knew her before she became a potential vice presidential pick on the upcoming Democratic ticket. In fact, DeMuth said that they were running mates, in the literal sense, when they attended the FBI Academy years ago. In addition to jogging, they sat together in all classes, where the seating was done by alphabetical order. "She's always been a beacon of light," DeMuth said after watching Demings' TV interview, which touched on racial issues in local law enforcement. "We need to be painfully honest about the problem." Weiss said the next steps locally will be conferring with council and getting further feedback from residents. As much as we hold diversity, equity and inclusion as high standards in our community, we dont always reach the mark," he said. Read more from the Sun Press. [June 09, 2020] City of London Investment Group PLC and Karpus Management, Inc. Announce Merger COATESVILLE, Pa. and PITTSFORD, N.Y., June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- City of London Investment Group PLC (CLIG) and Karpus Management, Inc. announce that they have entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger whereby the entire issued share capital of Karpus Management, Inc., a US based investment management business, will be purchased, on a debt-free basis, by CLIG for consideration in the form of up to 24,118,400 newly issued ordinary shares in the capital of CLIG, subject to adjustment (which aggregate share amount equates to $99.7 million based on the share price on June 8, 2020). The purchase will be structured as a merger of a wholly-owned subsidiary of CLIG into Karpus Management, Inc., with the latter becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of CLIG as a result of the merger. In recommending the merger, the Directors of CLIG believe that it is highly complementary and represents an opportunity for significant diversification, which is in line with CLIGs strategic plan. The addition of Karpus Management, Inc. will reinforce CLIGs presence in the US where it is already established via its investment management subsidiary, City of London Investment Management Company Limited (CLIM). Karpus Management, Inc. invests predominately in closed-end funds (CEFs), which relates to CLIMs core market, is committed to active management, and has delivered strong inestment performance for its clients. The Directors believe that the merger will accelerate the long-term strategy of diversification, thereby further reducing earnings volatility. As a result of the merger, the founders and management team of Karpus Management, Inc. will become significant stakeholders in the combined business. The investment management teams at CLIM and Karpus Management, Inc. will remain physically, and from a regulatory standpoint, separate and unaltered post-merger. Many of CLIGs operational functions are already based in the US and will remain so following completion of the merger. Tom Griffith will remain as Global Chief Executive and will be based in Coatesville, Pennsylvania and report to the CLIG Board of Directors. About City of London Investment Group PLC (CLIG) City of London Investment Group PLC is the parent of City of London Investment Management Company Limited, a global fund manager which specializes in closed-end fund investment, and was founded by Barry M. Olliff in 1991, with approximately US$5.0 billion in funds under management as of May 31, 2020. CLIM is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and registered as an Investment Advisor with the Securities and Exchange Commission. About Karpus Management, Inc. Karpus Management, Inc. is a US SEC-registered investment management business, with its principal place of business in Pittsford, New York, that uses CEFs amongst other securities to gain exposure for its predominantly high net worth client base. Karpus Management, Inc. was founded by George Karpus in 1986, growing the business to approximately US$3.5 billion in funds under management as of May 31, 2020. Disclaimer This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which the offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. There will be no public offer of any securities made in connection with the merger transaction described in this press release. This release is being distributed by Pristine Advisers on behalf of CITY OF LONDON INVESTMENT GROUP PLC and KARPUS MANAGEMENT, INC. Contacts: Patricia Baronowski-Schneider Pristine Advisers [email protected] Theresa Barrows Pristine Advisers [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Just Mercy tells the story of lawyer Bryan Stevenson as he takes on the case of a man on death row who he believes was wrongfully convicted on account of his race. Confronting racial injustice, this film lives out MLK's vision for social activism beautifully. Editor's Note : Throughout June 2020, Just Mercy is available to stream for FREE from home on several platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, and Google Play. Based on the #1 New York Bestseller by the same name, Just Mercy tells the story of lawyer Bryan Stevenson as he takes on the case of a man on death row who he believes was wrongfully convicted on account of his race. Played by Michael B. Jordan, Stevenson is a black Harvard Law graduate who is dedicated to doing everything he can to help less fortunate clients who have been condemned to death. He creates the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), and along with fiery operations director Eva Ansley (Brie Larson), takes on cases in racially divided Alabama in the late 80s. One of Stevensons condemned clients is Walter Johnny D. McMillian (Jamie Foxx), a man who was convicted of murdering a young teenage white woman, even though he was nowhere near the scene of the crime. After realizing how flimsy the evidence used in the trial again McMillian was, Stevenson and Ansley pour their heart into blowing the case wide open, getting McMillians charges dropped, and sending an innocent man back to his family. Though they face incredible judgement, humiliation, and even death threats, they do not back down from pursuing what is right. Moving, relevant, and thought-provoking, Just Mercy is a beautiful example of what Martin Luther King Jr. stood for: fighting for love, compassion, and justice for all. Here are 4 famous quotes by Martin Luther King Jr. that Just Mercy lives out in stunning conviction. 1. "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Strength to Love, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. proved time and again that it was the heart and integrity of a man that he was concerned withwhich is exposed the most in the toughest times. One of the early scenes in the movie shows Stevenson, fresh out of law school, talking to his mom on their porch about how upset she is that he is pursuing this line of work. People would hate him for what he was doing, and history had shown that hate is especially unkind to black men. She doesnt understand why he would put himself in danger for people he doesnt know. As a Harvard graduate, Stevenson certainly could have had a cushy 9-5 job, making lots of money off people who have lots of money to give. Instead, he stepped into one of the most racist parts of the country to defend the lowly and the damned. He ran towards the problem; not away from it. He reminds his mom You always taught me to fight for the people who need the help the most. 2. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory. Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963 It wasnt just reputation that Stevenson and Ansley sacrificed for what is right. They pulled all-nighters looking at case notes, trying to find any information at all that could help McMillian and his other clients. Stevenson was married to his work rather than finding time for personal relationships. Ansley and Stevenson joke about how little he is able to pay her. Further, one night, Ansley received an insidious call from someone in her community, telling her they had placed a bomb under her house, endangering not only herself and Stevenson, but Ansleys husband and son as well. Although given the option after that to back out of working for the EJI, Ansley says she would rather her son remember her for standing up for what is right, rather than backing down because some bigot made her scared. We know that MLK made the ultimate sacrifice for what he believed in, and truly lived out this conviction. 3. We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. In My Own Words, 1968 One of the most inspiring characteristics of MLK was his ability to hold onto hope in Jesus, against all odds. In Just Mercy, hope was an incredibly important vehicle for change. Without hope of something better, Stevenson would have given up these men as condemned, and would have never pursued helping them. Without hope, Stevenson would have given up his cause after failing one of his clients, watching his brutal death by electrocution. Without hope, after the circuit court denied their motion to reopen McMillians trial, Stevenson would never have gone to the state Supreme Court. One day, while looking around at the members of a church congregation during a worship song, Stevenson renews his sense of hope, and keeps going to pursue what is right. 4. Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love. 1958 Perhaps what MLK is best known for is his commitment to non-violent activism. He did not just tell his followers to react in love rather than hate, he demonstrated this conviction in all he did. Stevenson underwent many opportunities to react back in hatred. In one scene, a prison security guard humiliates Stevenson by making him strip naked, when this is never protocol for attorneys visiting clients in prison. And one night while driving home, Stevenson was pulled over by the police for no reason. When he politely asked what he was being pulled over for, the officer immediately put his gun to Stevensons head and forced him out of the vehicle. But Stevenson never retaliated. He just continued to focus on what was most important: justice for his clients. One of the most memorable quotes from the movie comes from Stevenson as he talks to the Supreme Court about his beliefs about capital punishment, which is a quote from the real-life Stevenson himself: We all need mercy, we all need justice, and-perhaps--we all need some measure of unmerited grace. Not only would Martin Luther King Jr. agree, but our Savior Jesus Christ would as well. To learn more, visit Just Mercys Twitter page, or see this film at a theater near you. Rated PG13 for thematic content including some racial epithets (and violence, brief implied nudity, and language). Kelly-Jayne McGlynn is the Family Editor for Crosswalk.com. She loves being able to combine her love for God with her love of writing, and highly enjoys being at a job where the debate over the Oxford Comma actually matters. Photo Courtesy: Warner Bros. Pictures. Kelly-Jayne McGlynn is a former editor at Crosswalk.com. She sees the act of expression, whether through writing or art, as a way to co-create with God and experience him deeper. Check out her handmade earring Instagram and Etsy for more of her thoughts on connecting with God through creative endeavors. A fugitive being sought for nearly five months appeared in court today accused of breaking into three homes in Belfast. Maurice Kane handed himself in to police because he was "fed up" being on the run, his lawyer said. The 23-year-old, of Glenrosa Link in the city, has been unlawfully at large since the start of the year. His release from prison on licence was revoked in January due to a number of alleged breaches. Police then issued appeals for the public's help in tracking him down. Kane was eventually arrested and brought before Belfast Magistrates' Court to face a series of fresh charges. He is accused of three counts of burglary with intent to steal at residential properties on Mervue Street, Arosa Crescent and York Road in the north of the city. All of the alleged break-ins took place on February 5 this year. Kane is further charged with common assault, criminal damage, stealing an electronic monitoring device valued at 176.50, and the theft of coffee from a Centra store. Defence solicitor Damien Trainor confirmed his client was not seeking bail. "There's a revocation of his licence and he's been alerted as wanted since January," the lawyer said. "It's accepted that he's been actively evading police, but he handed himself in yesterday." Mr Trainor added: "To be frank, he got fed up being on the run, and he's resigned to his fate." District Judge Fiona Bagnall remanded Kane in custody, to appear again by video-link in four weeks time. By Chad Terhune (Reuters) - Spared the worst of COVID-19, the largest for-profit hospital chains in the United States are pursuing a speedy recovery backed by billions of dollars in federal aid, while other hospitals say they have been harder hit and left wanting. HCA Healthcare Inc, the biggest chain, has received $5.3 billion in loans and grants thus far from the federal government to offset lost business and higher expenses from the coronavirus pandemic. Tenet Healthcare Corp, the second-largest chain by revenue and beds, has disclosed more than $2 billion in similar loans and grants. Meantime, the two chains, which own hundreds of hospitals, outpatient surgery centers and clinics, are telling investors that COVID-19 wasnt as severe as expected in most of their markets, and that business is ramping back up. Shares in Tenet have doubled since the market lows in mid-March, while HCA shares have soared more than 70%. The two companies and other big health systems appear to be benefiting disproportionately from the initial government relief as some other hospitals struggle to stay afloat, according to industry analysts and health-policy experts. Many smaller competitors face virus-related financial losses. Twelve rural hospitals in the United States - many on shaky financial ground already - closed this year, including four in April, according to the National Rural Health Association. These large for-profit hospitals have access to capital that smaller facilities and safety-net hospitals dont have, said Karyn Schwartz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation who is tracking the federal relief effort. Roseland Community Hospital, a 134-bed hospital in Chicago, took on $4 million in debt to conduct COVID-19 testing on thousands of low-income people and to purchase more hospital equipment while receiving less than $1 million in federal grants so far, Tim Egan, Roselands chief executive, told Reuters. We have been in this war on the frontlines for months without reinforcements while hospitals which are not under the same strain and stress are getting a lot of money, he said. Story continues Federal officials told Reuters that hospitals and other providers receiving relief funds will have to submit documentation showing money was used appropriately. They say additional money will be allocated to safety net hospitals and clinics hurt by the pandemic. William Rutherford, HCAs chief financial officer, said during an online investment conference on May 19 that we didnt necessarily see the surge in demand for services that had been anticipated in most markets. Similarly, while Tenet faced an influx of COVID-19 patients in Michigan, Massachusetts, California and Florida, Chief Executive Ron Rittenmeyer told analysts and investors last month that they were never overwhelmed. The company remained profitable in the first quarter, though it took about a $73 million hit due to COVID-19. However, both companies said that federal aid has been critical as they rapidly adapted their operations to serve COVID-19 patients and minimize harm to employees. In a statement to Reuters, HCA said the funding our hospitals have received to date represents only a fraction of our anticipated lost revenue and increased expenses resulting from the pandemic. Tenet referred to previous statements its executives have made to investors. The company has said its federal funding was appropriate and said that more is needed because all of its hospitals stepped up to serve an unpredictable number of COVID-19 patients while revenue dropped significantly. The financial challenges for hospitals may persist as some Americans postpone medical care and others lose employer health benefits during the economic downturn, industry experts say. As shutdowns of many normal hospital services extended into April, Tenet said its admissions declined by about 30% for that month compared to a year ago, while procedures at its surgery centers dropped by 80%. At HCA, inpatient admissions dropped by 30% and hospital surgeries by 50% during the first half of April, according to the company. I think a substantial portion of that will be recaptured, HCAs Rutherford told investors in May. SHARE THE LOVE Labor unions representing HCA and Tenet workers question why senior executives havent sacrificed more of their own pay to help frontline workers. We are the ones taking all the risk, said Shirley Caston, an endoscopy technician at HCAs Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri. The company should share the love. Caston, a member of the local Service Employees International Union, told Reuters that her hours were cut temporarily during the pandemic. Although the company is paying employees 70% of their regular pay for the lost time, the 63-year-old said she still lost several hundred dollars in a recent paycheck. In April, HCAs chief executive, Samuel Hazen, announced he would donate two months of his salary, or about $240,000, to a company relief fund for workers and other senior executives would take a 30% pay cut during the pandemic. Hazens donation amounted to about 1% of his total compensation of $26.8 million last year. In a statement to Reuters, HCA said the company has spent $138 million to provide continued paychecks for more than 120,000 employees facing reduced hours, which it said avoided layoffs and furloughs. Rittenmeyer, Tenets CEO, said hes donating half of his salary for six months to an employee assistance program. That amounts to about $390,000, or 1.6% of his $24.3 million in total annual compensation last year. Tenet put about 10% of the companys employees, or 11,000 people, on furlough when the pandemic hit, and some are still waiting to be called back. Rittenmeyer needs to show more shared sacrifice, said Michael Pryce-Jones, senior corporate governance analyst at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents some Tenet workers. Its not just the paycheck people are going without. Its the risk some workers are taking with COVID-19. Caston and other employees at HCA and Tenet echoed complaints from frontline workers nationwide that their employers were not investing enough in protective equipment. The company seems to forget that it cannot make money for shareholders if workers like me do not have the equipment we need to care for patients, Caston said. Both HCA and Tenet told Reuters they had gone to great lengths to ensure staff have the appropriate protective gear, in accordance with government guidelines. ASKING FOR MORE Overall, Congress has allocated $175 billion to hospitals, doctors and other medical providers to compensate them for higher expenses during the COVID-19 response and for the revenue lost through suspension of surgeries, cancer screenings and routine care. Federal officials paid an initial $50 billion from the relief fund in proportion to providers share of net patient revenue, which analysts said favored larger hospitals and health systems. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the next $50 billion in relief, which has been partially distributed, is focused more on providers significantly affected by COVID-19 cases, rural hospitals and those serving low-income patients on Medicaid. In a statement to Reuters, HHS said that While we understand there is great urgency to distribute this funding, HHS is also balancing concerns that these distributions be allocated fairly, transparently and with appropriate oversight." The agency added that it was working to "address the unique needs" of hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income people on the federal and state Medicaid program. Tenet, based in Dallas, has received more than $500 million in grants that dont have to be repaid, and Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA said it has received $1 billion. The bulk of their federal aid is advances on future Medicare payments that must be repaid starting in August. HCA received a $4.3 billion advance from Medicare; Tenet received $1.5 billion. Amid a national outpouring of goodwill toward doctors, nurses and others caring for COVID-19 patients, a bipartisan group of more 90 U.S. lawmakers has proposed that Congress waive repayment industrywide. The hospital industry has a great interest in getting as much as possible with the fewest strings attached, said Dan Skinner, an associate professor of health policy at Ohio University. Executives at for-profit hospitals say they deserve more money still for dealing with another possible surge in infections and other uncertainties. During a presentation to investors last month, Rittenmeyer, Tenets CEO, said the federal aid has been helpful, but we believe that more is needed from the government. (Chad Terhune reported from Los Angeles; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Julie Marquis) Supermarket chain Aldi has cancelled the sale of paddling pools due to the hosepipe ban. Irish Water announced a hosepipe ban Read More: The ban will be in place until July 21. The utility said: Of Irish Waters 900 drinking water schemes, 27 currently are in drought and 50 are at risk of going into drought. "The weather forecast is for a continuation of drier than normal conditions which will further exacerbate the situation." Aldi has since cancelled the planned sale of paddling pools. The store had planned to put two paddling pools on sale on Thursday. They said in a statement: Aldi has taken the decision to cancel the Specialbuy products from sale in light of the six-week national hosepipe ban announced by Irish Water, which comes into effect today. The store added that it has decided to cancel all planned upcoming Specialbuys of this nature for the duration of the six-week ban. John Curtin, Aldi Irelands Group Buying Director, said: We understand that some customers may be disappointed, but conserving water usage at this time is a priority for our customers, so we need to support this national water restriction also so that everyone can play a part in helping to conserve water. Abubakar Sadiq Ibrahim, speaker of the Gombe state house of assembly, and four other lawmakers have tested positive for COVID-19. ... Abubakar Sadiq Ibrahim, speaker of the Gombe state house of assembly, and four other lawmakers have tested positive for COVID-19. The identities of the other lawmakers are not yet known. The cases were confirmed on Monday when results of the samples sent to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) laboratory were released. The speaker and the lawmakers have since been admitted at treatment centres in the state. All the people who have had contact with the lawmakers are being identified and traced, a source said. The development comes one week after Muhammad Yahaya, the governor, ordered the closure of the secretary to the state government (SSG) office and the government house clinic following the death of a director in the office of the SSG. Shuaibu Danlamia, the deceased, tested positive for COVID-19 before his death. After his demise, Yahaya directed all government appointees in the state to undergo COVID-19 tests. So far, Gombe has recorded 217 cases of the disease. By Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's Hyundai Development Co <294870.KS> said on Tuesday it wants new terms for its acquisition of Asiana Airlines <020560.KS> after the carrier's already hefty debt burden increased by some $3.8 billion. It also called on Asiana's state-funded creditors to provide support to the long-troubled airline, which must now also contend with the coronavirus pandemic's crippling impact on travel demand. Hyundai Development and brokerage Mirae Asset Daewoo <006800.KS> agreed in December to purchase control of South Korea's No. 2 airline for about 2.5 trillion won ($2.1 billion). Asiana has recognised an additional 2.8 trillion won of debt as of end-2019 and borrowed another 1.7 trillion won, Hyundai Development said. That unexpected increase, the airline's failure to discuss the situation before incurring more debt and its support of unsound affiliates meant a renegotiation was warranted, the developer added. The airline had total debt of 13.2 trillion won as of end-March. Hyundai Development, which is keen to seek new growth and has a duty free business, stressed, however, it wanted to proceed with the acquisition and that the developer's own survival hinged on getting a good deal done. Asiana declined to comment. Korea Development Bank, its lead creditor, said in a statement on Wednesday it welcomed Hyundai Development's continued commitment to acquire Asiana and called on it to suggest new terms first. Reuters phone calls to Mirae seeking comment went unanswered. The airline, which employs roughly 10,000 people, has seen its market value tumble by a fifth to around $800 million since December, hit by the pandemic and delays to the deal. Even if Hyundai Development decides to walk away, Asiana's creditors would likely keep the airline afloat, said Choi Go-woon, analyst at Korea Investment & Securities. "If the deal fails, Asiana would likely be adrift for 1-3 years before it finds a new owner and Korea Development Bank will have to take the lead in restructuring," he said. (Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Edwina Gibbs) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Bac Giang, Vietnam Tue, June 9, 2020 17:30 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd58dd3 2 Business Vietnam,lychee,crop,price-drop,exports,coronavirus,coronavirus-effect,COVID-19,COVID-19-quarantine,COVID-19-lockdown,pandemic Free Hundreds of lychee farmers sorted and graded huge piles of the tropical fruit at a busy wholesale market in northern Vietnam on Tuesday, but many bemoaned slumping prices as foreign traders were held up in quarantine. After mounting an aggressive response to the coronavirus pandemic, life in the country is back to relative normality and workers clustered together mask-free at dawn in Bac Giang province, their motorbikes fitted with baskets overflowing with the sweet fruit. The communist nation usually exports around 100,000 tons of fresh lychees worth more than $30 million -- mostly to China but to Japan, Australia and the US too -- each season. But business is down this year as Vietnam keeps its borders shut. "Because of the pandemic, we aren't seeing Chinese traders and we mostly sell to domestic traders so the price is very low," Nguyen Van Thanh, 35, told AFP, adding that half his haul ends up overseas in a normal year. Foreign buyers tend to come directly to the market -- just a few hours drive from the Chinese border -- during the fruit's short six-week season. But state media reported last week several hundred from China and Japan had been quarantined for 14 days. Despite authorities saying they would promote domestic consumption, prices have dropped to half of what they were last year. "We have worked hard the whole year... but this is not enough to live on," said farmer Do Van Toan, 47, who estimated he would earn not more than $4000 this season. Already a major coffee, rice and catfish exporter, Vietnam has in recent years turned its attention to fruit. Last year it exported $3.76 billion worth of fruit and vegetables. So far, Vietnam has officially recorded only 332 cases of the coronavirus, and no deaths. Although some of its borders are open for goods, foreigners -- save some specialists and highly-skilled workers -- are not permitted to enter. On Tuesday Hanoi said it would look to resume flights with "safe zones" -- places that had no new cases for 30 days. NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The India feminine hygiene market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 16.18% during the forecast period 2020 - 2025. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05893165/?utm_source=PRN - In India, approximately 60% of women are diagnosed with vaginal and urinary tract diseases and infections every year, due to poor menstrual hygiene. The increasing awareness about intimate hygiene and an increase in preference for menstrual products, like sanitary pads, tampons, and panty liners, have increased the demand for feminine hygiene products in the country.- Furthermore, the Government of India has launched several awareness programs across the country about women menstrual hygiene, the menstruation continues to be a taboo especially in rural areas, thereby, impending the growth of the market studied. Key Market Trends Increasing Awareness Toward Feminine Hygiene The increasing awareness among the consumers regarding menstrual hygiene along with the growing number of working women and expanding income levels are some of the major factors stimulating the growth of the feminine hygiene products such as tampons, sanitary pads, menstrual cups, and others across the country. The increasing female literacy rate across both rural as well as urban areas has also played a major role in adopting hygienic practices during menstruation. Therefore, with the increasing literacy rates and the government initiatives to distribute free sanitary pads primarily in rural parts of India, the feminine hygiene sector in India begun to expand at a faster pace. For instance, in 2018, the Odisha government launched 'Khushi', a scheme to provide free sanitary napkins to government and government-aided schools across the state and benefit approximately 17 lakh girls. Sanitary Napkins/Pads to Drive the India's Market The availability of sanitary napkins in various packaging sizes and price ranges, with different types of absorption technologies, along with the increasing awareness regarding maintaining proper hygiene during the menstrual cycle, is significantly capturing the interest of women from different economical groups, thereby, driving the sales of sanitary napkins across the country. Moreover, the country is witnessing an increasing number of promotions and educational sessions, due to the increasing prominence of social media and the various initiatives taken by the government and NGOs to increase the awareness about the benefits of using menstrual hygiene products, such as sanitary napkins. For instance, to make sanitary napkins more affordable and accessible, the government of India, in 2019, announced the price reduction of Jan Aushadhi Suvidha Oxo-Biodegradable Sanitary Napkins, which were launched in 2018, to INR 1 per pad, from INR 2.5. Competitive Landscape The India feminine hygiene market is consolidated in nature owing to the presence of fewer regional and domestic players. Emphasis is given on the merger, expansion, acquisition, and partnership of the companies along with new product development as strategic approaches adopted by the leading companies to boost their brand presence among consumers. Key players dominating the country's market include Procter & Gamble Company, Essity AB, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, and Edgewell Personal Care Company, 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/p05893165/?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 MOSCOW, June 8 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday agreed on the need to collaborate to create the conditions for a peace process in Libya, Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement. Russia and Turkey back opposite sides in the conflict. The two parties also agreed that a new United Nations Libya envoy must be appointed swiftly, the statement said, following a call between the two men. Russia's foreign ministry had earlier voiced its support for an Egyptian initiative aimed at spurring negotiations between the warring sides in Libya. (Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Kevin Liffey) Moga : , June 9 (IANS) Sonu Sood's real life role of the migrants' superhero has virtually affected his reel life roles. Doing a yeoman's job for those who are walking barefoot for thousands of miles to their hometowns, the Bollywood's new role model from this town in Punjab has decided to stay away from movies till the completion of the real life drama impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. His old-time friends and well-wishers in his hometown, some 175 km from the state capital Chandigarh, describe him as the messiah of tens of thousands of desperate migrants in Maharashtra, while his family believes his philanthropy spirit comes from his ancestry. "I am proud that my brother is giving succour and strength to those who have been ruined by the pandemic," actor's youngest sister Malvika Sachar (38), who is married and running her parental family business in Moga, told IANS on Tuesday. "It is a proud moment for the family and the state that Sonu is contributing to society from his own resources," she said. Without naming anyone, she said, "It hardly matters when one or two people are critical about your compassionate gestures." "My brother arranged air tickets of nearly 160 stranded people in Mumbai for their destinations in Assam this morning. Last evening, he managed to send nearly 2,500 migrants to Bihar through trains," an elated Malvika said, adding, "He won't stop till the last migrant reaches home". Born to a business family, Sonu's father was in the cloth business and his mother was an English lecturer in Moga's oldest D.M. College of Education. His father died four years ago, while his mother passed away seven years back. Sonu's eldest sister is settled in the US. "Sonu is deeply attached to hometown, his family and friends. He prefers to travel to Moga whenever he spares time from his hectic schedule in Bollywood," she said. "This time he promised to come to his hometown once the travel restrictions owing to the lockdown are over. Since he's now busy with thousands of migrants, I think he will not unite with his family till his aim to reunite each and every migrant with his family is over," Malvika, who runs cloth and education business, said. Without mincing words, she said his branding or associating his brother with any political outfit will be an injustice to his gesture. "He prefers to keep himself out of the public glare. Whatever he's doing, he is doing from his own inspiration rather than to achieve political goals," she said. Sonu's grandfather Vidya Rattan Sood was also a known philanthropist. Sonu Sood, 47, in a tweet on June 7 said, "My journey with my migrant brothers & sisters has been the most special one. It's straight from the heart. "Right from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari whenever anyone tried to reach me, I've put all my efforts to help them reunite with their families & will continue to do so." Appreciating his gesture, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has tweeted: "It fills me with immense pride whenever I read about my fellow Punjabis going beyond their call of duty to help those in need & this time it is our Moga boy Sonu Sood, who has been actively helping migrant workers by arranging for their food & transportation. Good work Sonu!" Posting photos of the actor, Punjab Governor V.P. Singh Badnore tweeted, "Punjab is proud of you Sonu Sood not just for your Bollywood fame but even more for the help extended to the stranded migrant workers in these difficult times." Moga resident and his neighbour Rakesh Khanna said the people in the town are proud of Sonu for bringing this town into limelight through his philanthropic spirit. He said his parents wanted him to become an engineer. He did his engineering from Nagpur. Sonu went to Mumbai for modelling and stayed with people in a one-room tenement. "Besides having no godfather in the film industry, he established himself," Khanna said. The model, actor, a producer and a hotelier is grounded too. "Whenever Sonu is in his hometown, you can see him riding on his scooter of his college days. He also prefers to spend time in his father's shop located in the main market," Khanna said. Sonu started his career with the Tamil film, Kallazhgar, in 1999. He entered the Hindi filmdom in 2002 with Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh. "In true sense, Sonu's revolutionary passion matches that of Bhagat Singh. This is the spirit of being a Punjabi, truly an inspiration," added another resident Deepak Sharma. (Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in) -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed WASHINGTON, June 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea said on Monday that Washington and Moscow had set the date and venue for nuclear arms negotiations this month. "Today agreed with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov on time and place for nuclear arms negotiations in June," Billingslea said on his Twitter account, without providing detailed information. China is also invited for the talks, according to Billingslea's tweet. China, however, has repeatedly reiterated that it has no intention of participating in the so-called trilateral arms control negotiations with the United States and Russia. Citing a U.S. Department of State official, Bloomberg reported the same day that a new round of arms control talks between the two nuclear superpowers would be held in Vienna on June 22. The upcoming meeting will be the first arms control talks between Billingslea and his Russian counterpart, said Bloomberg, suggesting that "the Trump administration has softened its stance on extending New START (New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty)." In 2010, Washington and Moscow signed the New START, which stipulates the limits to the numbers of deployed nuclear warheads and strategic delivery systems by both. The New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty in force between the two nuclear superpowers, will expire on Feb. 5, 2021. The agreement can be extended for at most five years with the consent of the two countries. Russia has expressed willingness to extend the treaty, while the Trump administration has yet to officially reply. [The stream is slated to start at 12 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] A funeral for George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police last month, is being held in Houston on Tuesday. Floyd died of asphyxiation in Minneapolis on May 25 after former police officer Derek Chauvin pinned him to the ground, pushing his knee into Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes. The 46-year-old Floyd was handcuffed and facing down. Chauvin, 44, has been charged with second-degree murder among other charges, while three other officers involved have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Floyd's death has set off anger across the nation, leading to a series of well-attended protests in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. Protests have also erupted around the world, with demonstrations in countries including Japan, Australia, France, Germany, Spain and South Korea. Several lawmakers have called for widespread police reform after Floyd's death. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Monday unveiled a police reform bill that called for restrictions in the amount of force officers are allowed to use. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on June 1 proposed a national prohibition on chokeholds by law enforcement. "There should be a national ban on excessive force by police officers. There should be a national ban on chokeholds. Period," Cuomo said in a statement released last week. Other lawmakers have called for some police departments to lose federal funding. "Every police department violating people's civil rights must be stripped of federal funding," Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said in a tweet. Tweet Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. New Delhi, June 9 : Airlines globally are expected to lose $84.3 billion in 2020, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Tuesday. As per IATA's financial outlook for the global air transport industry, airlines are expected to lose $84.3 billion in 2020 for a net profit margin of (-) 20.1 per cent. The airline industry's revenue is expected to fall by 50 per cent to $419 billion from $838 billion in 2019. In 2021, losses are expected to be cut to $15.8 billion as revenues rise to $598 billion, the forecast showed. "Financially, 2020 will go down as the worst year in the history of aviation. On average, every day of this year will add $230 million to industry losses. In total that's a loss of $84.3 billion," IATA Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said, in a statement. "It means that -- based on an estimate of 2.2 billion passengers this year -- airlines will lose $37.54 per passenger. That's why government financial relief was and remains crucial as airlines burn through cash." According to him, provided there is not a second and more damaging wave of Covid-19, the worst of the collapse in traffic is likely over. "A key to the recovery is universal implementation of the re-start measures agreed through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to keep passengers and crew safe. And, with the help of effective contact tracing, these measures should give governments the confidence to open borders without quarantine measures," he said. "That's an important part of the economic recovery because about 10 per cent of the world's GDP is from tourism and much of that depends on air travel. Getting people safely flying again will be a powerful economic boost." At present, IATA represents some 290 airlines comprising 82 per cent of global air traffic. -IANS rv/sn/vd Scarlett Moffatt has claimed drones are being disguised as pigeons as a spying tool in her latest bizarre theory. The former Gogglebox star, 30, discussed her odd thesis with Joe Swash on a new edition of the Scarlett Wants To Believe podcast, where she also insisted the government is 'listening to everything we say' through our mobile devices. The media personality's latest conspiracy theory has left her unable to use the smart speaker her grandmother bought her for Christmas as she fears the object will snoop on her. 'It isn't that far fetched': Scarlett Moffatt has claimed drones are being disguised as pigeons as a spying tool on a new edition of the Scarlett Wants To Believe podcast On her idea, the presenter, who was also joined by her boyfriend Scott Dobinson, insisted: 'It isn't that far fetched. 'They're very incognito, they're everywhere, they're in major cities. You'd never suspect a pigeon.' Her former I'm A Celebrity Extra Camp co-host, 38, surprisingly agreed with her wacky comments, stating: 'I do reckon that they're probably drones and cameras as they can train animals. I'd love that to happen. 'They're tricking us into buying this technology that's making our lives easier, but with the sub-premise of gathering information on us.' Bizarre: The former Gogglebox star, 30, who was also joined by her boyfriend Scott Dobinson, also insisted the government is 'listening to everything we say' through our mobile devices 'I'd love that to happen': The media personality discussed her odd thesis with Joe Swash surprisingly agreed with her wacky comments Scarlett also explained her reservations about sharing personal details around electronic devices as she detailed: 'I strongly believe the Government are listening to everything we say. 'I daren't plug it [the smart speaker] in. They must be listening all the time. The walls literally have ears. [But] we talk utter sh**e. There would be no reason for us to be bugged.' The TV star's latest episode came after she first shared her strange theses on Loose Women last month. During an interview live from her County Durham home, the reality star claimed she was abducted by aliens as a child. 'I daren't plug it in': Her latest bizarre conspiracy theory has left her unable to use the smart speaker her grandmother bought her for Christmas as she fears the object will snoop on her On a mission? 'They're very incognito, they're everywhere, they're in major cities. You'd never suspect a pigeon' (pigeons pictured in Kettering last week) The host left the panel in shock as she also admitted she believes the 'Paul McCartney is dead' conspiracy theory - a longtime urban legend that alleged the Beatles legend, 77, died in the 60s and was secretly replaced by an impersonator. Scarlett spoke to Andrea McLean, Nadia Sawalha, Brenda Edwards and Gloria Hunniford about her experience with what she perceived as an alien invasion. 'My earliest memory ever is when me and my dad used to take a notepad to a field to go looking for crop circles', she shared. 'My boyfriend doesn't believe this, but when I was 10, a massive beaming light came when through my window, and I had a dream, well I think the [aliens] wanted to think it was a dream, and Scott seems to think that it was just a car headlight and that it was probably a dream! Life according to Scarlett: The TV star's latest episode came after she first shared her strange theses on Loose Women last month 'My middle name is Sigourney because my dad is a fan of Sigourney Weaver from the film Aliens'. While the group raised their eyebrows, the Geordie star attempted to reason: 'I'm literally obsessed. Me and Scott on our first date, I asked him if he thought we'd really been to the moon. 'This is what confuses us - people say 'Oh I believe we've landed on the moon', but then they find it really far-fetched that there can't be other planets where other little men haven't travelled to our planet.' The online personality later spoke about the 'Paul is dead' phenomenon, which first emerged in September 1969 after college students at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa published articles claiming various clues to his supposed death could be found in The Beatles' album cover artwork and lyrics. Shocking admission: During an interview live from her County Dunham home, the host said she believes the 'Paul McCartney is dead' conspiracy theory (Paul pictured in 2019) Expressing her take on the theory, Scarlett said: 'Well I don't know if he's dead, but there's loads of evidence that he's been replaced by a lookalike. If you sing some of the Beatles' lyrics backwards, it says that!' A few weeks later, she claimed pyramids were built by time travellers, explaining that the speed of light has 'exactly the same' figures as the coordinates for the Great Pyramid of Giza. She then said: 'Basically Einstein and Stephen Hawking said if you could travel at the speed of light you could travel back in time. 'Because humans could not measure the speed of light back then to that precision, I reckon people from the future have travelled back in time to build the pyramid.' BISHKEK -- A court in Bishkek has found former Prime Minister Sapar Isakov guilty of misusing state funds allocated for the renovation of Bishkeks National History Museum and a hippodrome in the northern town of Cholpon-Ata while in office and sentenced him to serve 18 years in prison. The Birinchi Mai District Court on June 9 sentenced Isakov, who is already serving a 15-year prison term for corruption, for mishandling each of the two cases. The terms will run concurrently with his sentences for the previous convictons. "The court ruled to sentence Sapar Isakov to 12 years in prison and recover 247 million som [$3.3 million] in fines from him," Judge Marat Sydykov said in handing down the judgment. "In aggregate, taking into account his earlier conviction and prison sentence of 15 years, Isakov shall be sentenced to 18 years in a high security penitentiary," Sydykov added. Isakov was not present in the courtroom. His lawyers said he officially refused to take part in the final stage of the high-profile trial. In December, 2019, a court in Bishkek sentenced Isakov and another former prime minister, Jantoro Satybaldiev, to 15 and seven years in prison, respectively, on corruption charges stemming from their involvement in a 2013 project to modernize the Bishkek Thermal Power Station. The high-profile corruption trials have implicated several former top Kyrgyz officials who allegedly are close associates of former President Almazbek Atambaev. The probes were launched amid tensions between Atambaev and current incumbent Sooronbai Jeenbekov, a former prime minister who was tapped by Atambaev as his favored successor in Kyrgyzstan's October 2017 presidential election. Atambaev is currently on trial as well. He was arrested in August last year after he surrendered to police following two days of violent resistance following his refusal to show up in police headquarters for questioning in an unrelated case. Reinforcing its position as a leading player in the 5G ecosystem, Ericsson ERIC has significantly increased presence in China arguably the largest 5G market in the world. The company has secured 5G contracts from the three major operators in the communist nation and expects to ride on this momentum to fend off stiff competition from rivals like Nokia Corp. NOK and Huawei. Ericsson is focusing on 5G system development and has undertaken many notable endeavors to position itself for market leadership in 5G. The company has already introduced pre-standard 5G networks and inked 5G deals with various operators across the globe. Notably, Ericsson has 93 commercial 5G agreements with operators (of which 51 are publicly stated) and includes 40 live 5G networks in four continents. The company believes that standardization of 5G is the cornerstone for digitization of industries and broadband. Moreover, Ericsson foresees mainstream 4G offerings to give way to 5G technology in the future. China's three largest telecom operators China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom have awarded 5G contracts to Ericsson, thereby strengthening its overall 5G business in the country. The impending deployment of 5G networks in 2020 is expected to boost the adoption of IoT devices, with technologies like network slicing gaining more prominence. The Ericsson Mobility report suggests almost 90% of smartphone subscriptions, which are on 3G and 4G networks today, will be upgraded to 5G networks when it becomes commercially available in 2020. In addition, 5G is expected to accelerate the digital transformation in many industries, enabling new use cases in areas such as IoT, automation, transport and Big Data. The report also forecasts 550 million 5G subscriptions in 2022, with North America expected to lead the way. Such positive industry trends are expected to boost the companys long-term growth. Ericsson plans to accelerate its planned cost cuts and efficiency measures, and focus on its core business of selling networking equipment. However, the company is likely to record lower margins in the second quarter due to asset write-downs to the tune of SEK 1 billion (approximately $109 million). Much of these charges are attributable to pre-commercial product inventory related to free products given to the Chinese telecom firms and will be recorded in the Networks segment. This is likely to dent its overall profitability during the quarter. Nevertheless, with current visibility, it maintains the financial targets for 2020 and 2022. Moving forward, Ericsson continues to focus on its restructuring plan to cut costs, streamline focus areas and explore options for the media business. Ericssons cost and efficiency program has been devised to generate higher cost savings. Story continues The company is focusing on structural changes that will help generate lasting efficiency gains and boost cost competitiveness. It intends to increase investments in certain core areas to develop the product portfolio. Ericsson is also focusing on stabilizing its IT, cloud and project portfolio, and re-establishing profitability in managed services by managing its existing contracts and investing in automation. We remain impressed with the inherent growth potential of this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock. Some other similar-ranked stocks in the industry are InterDigital, Inc. IDCC and PCTEL, Inc. PCTI. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. InterDigital has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 15%. It delivered a positive earnings surprise of 99.5%, on average, in the trailing four quarters. PCTEL delivered a positive earnings surprise of 33.9%, on average, in the trailing four quarters. Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside? Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana. Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look. See the pot trades we're targeting>> 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 Nokia Corporation (NOK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Ericsson (ERIC) : Free Stock Analysis Report InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) : Free Stock Analysis Report PCTEL, Inc. (PCTI) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Over 7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported so far all over the world and, while the disease is new to us, we are getting to know different aspects of it every day. Research work and studies of all scales have been trying to draw a clear picture for the medical professionals and governments charged with handling the situation. Abnormal clotting of blood is claimed to be one of the reasons behind death in COVID-19 patients. Recently, a Dutch study stated that low Vitamin K levels can be associated with this cause of death. This study is under peer review and has not been published yet. Doctors do not recommend the use of vitamin K without getting medical consultation as the overuse of vitamin K can lead to severe consequences. The Vitamin K study Vitamin K plays an important role in the proper functioning of clotting factors in the body. To find out the role of Vitamin K in COVID-19, a group of Dutch scientists conducted a study in the Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital in Nijmegen, Netherlands, which included 123 COVID-19 patients who were admitted to the hospital between 12 March 2020 and 11 April 2020. The patients were within the age group of 56 to 80 years, out of which 71 percent were men and around 11 people were using vitamin K antagonists (VKAs). VKAs are a type of anticoagulant drugs which prevent the blood from clotting and are commonly called blood thinners. Apart from these patients, 184 non-COVID patients were also included in the study as a control group. The age group of this control group was 54 to 67 years, out of which 46% were men and only 3 people were using VKAs. All the COVID-19 patients were monitored regularly until they got discharged from the hospital, got admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for intubation or mechanical ventilation or died. Their results were described as good if they got discharged from the hospital without requiring any mechanical ventilation and poor if they required ventilator support or died. Result of the study The doctors tested the desphospho-uncarboxylated matrix Gla protein (dp-ucMGP) levels in the body of the patients suffering from COVID-19. The levels of this dp-ucMGP protein are inversely related to vitamin K status - which means that if the levels of dp-ucMGP are higher, it would represent that the level of vitamin K is lower. The results of the test showed that the levels of dp-ucMGP were higher in patients with COVID-19 infection when compared with the healthy control group. In the COVID-19 group, the dp-ucMGP levels were higher in the patients with poor outcome and comparatively low in the patients with good outcome. The results further stated that in these COVID-19 patients, the levels of Plasma desmosine (pDES) and isodesmosine (DES) were significantly higher. DES and pDES are an indicator of the rate of elastin degradation in the body. This means that in the COVID-19 patients the rate of elastin degradation was significantly higher when compared with the control group, which makes them prone to lung fibrosis. Elastin is a protein that provides elasticity to the tissues. This protein is what enables the lungs to expand and contract for breathing. In the deficiency of Vitamin K, which was induced due to the consumption of VKAs, there was an acceleration in elastic fibre degradation. Conclusion In this study, scientists conclude that Vitamin K seems to play an important role in the severity of COVID-19, especially in those taking blood thinners. For more information, read our article on Vitamin K deficiency. 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. Superior Communications and ProtectionPro by Madico today announced a strategic U.S. distribution partnership. Superior Communications, the leader in distribution, logistics, and retail solutions throughout wireless telecom, has been chosen by ProtectionPro to serve as a Tier 1 strategic partner, focused on delivering their on-demand device protection system and solution to key retailers throughout the wireless industry in the United States. ProtectionPro is carried by thousands of big box retail stores, telecommunication providers and electronic shops around the globe as the trusted leader in screen protection and full-body Infinity decorative wraps custom made to fit any device. The ProtectionPro system is brought to you by Madico, a pioneer in cutting-edge protection film technology. ProtectionPros on-demand solution and technology, designed to protect a multitude of smartphones and other CE devices, is world class, said Erik Schlesselman, SVP of Business Development for Superior Communications. The opportunity throughout wireless retail will not only add significant and incremental revenue driving opportunities for these brick and mortar retailers, but also will provide their customers and end users with a unique solution offering full protection on almost any device, at any time. We are incredibly excited about this partnership and expect to see significant velocity with ProtectionPros entrance into the wireless telecom ecosystem. ProtectionPros screen protection films are available in Ultra2 and Ultra Matte finishes that are strong, scratch resistant and self-healing but are thin and flexible enough that they do not interfere with devices touchscreen features. The Infinity Series allows users to show off their unique style and personalize the look of the back of their devices with more than 40 different textures and colors available, custom made to fit any device. ProtectionPro believes in partnering with world class distributors, so we are proud to announce our newest strategic alignment with Superior Communications, said Jim Adams, head of Americas Sales for ProtectionPro. We expect this partnership to bring the ProtectionPro solution to consumers throughout the United States who are seeking the best screen protection for their electronic devices. About ProtectionPro ProtectionPro is the world leader in on-demand device protection, including screen covers and the Infinity Series line of fashionable device armor, which allows consumers to protect their devices as well as express their personal style. ProtectionPro is sold in more than 146 countries worldwide with a mobile app in 22 languages. ProtectionPro screen protection was used by NASA in space. The ProtectionPro system is brought to you by Madico, a pioneer in cutting-edge film technology. An award-winning organization, our expertise is in the research, science, development, and manufacturing of high performance, complex, multilayer films engineered to exceed customer expectations. About Madico, Inc. Headquartered in Tampa Bay, Florida, Madico, Inc. innovates, manufactures, and distributes a broad range of protective, functional and decorative materials-based solutions including films, coatings and laminates for various industries worldwide from automotive and architecture to healthcare and aerospace. Since 1903, Madico has pioneered industry-first products with an unrivaled commitment to quality and dedication to its customers. Madico is a fully owned subsidiary of Lintec USA Holdings, Inc. For more information, visit http://www.madico.com. About Superior Communications Headquartered in Irwindale, California, and grounded in their history of entrepreneurship, Superior Communications provides a complete line of wireless products, logistical support and retail services to all Major Carriers, OEMs and Retailers across North America. Established in 1991, as the sales and logistics arm of an Asian-based manufacturing partner, Superior Communications has continued to grow its lines of accessories and service offerings and is widely recognized as the leading provider of both OEM/Brand and ODM/Private Label accessories and solutions throughout North America. For more information, visit http://www.superiorcommunications.com. President Donald Trump faces a new obstacle to his case for re-election - the US is now officially in recession. The "recession" label made official on Monday (US time) cements the pain that many voters are already feeling from the economy - and will feed into their choice in November for who will be able to steer the economy back. US President Donald Trump maintains the economy will bounce back. Credit:AP For Democrat Joe Biden, the proclamation from the National Bureau of Economic Research is further evidence that the economy was on shaky ground even before the worst of the coronavirus hit. Trump, he said, has "squandered" the booming economy he inherited from President Barack Obama and himself. For Trump, the recession declaration came on the first weekday after the May jobs report showed 2.5 million jobs were created and the unemployment rate declined when it was expected to jump. On Friday he touted the numbers as a sign of "the greatest comeback in American history." Tens of thousands of high school students across Central New York will graduate shortly in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic that dramatically changed the second half of their senior year. They had no in-person classes, no proms, no spring sports, and most will have no chance to walk across the stage at commencements. To celebrate the Class of 2020, we are publishing lists of the graduates from more than 60 schools in the heart of New York state. We also will report who is the valedictorian and salutatorian and give them a chance to share some thoughts about school, the pandemic, family and life. (This schools valedictorian and salutatorian are below the list of graduates.) Celebrate the Class of 2020 The Post-Standard will publish a keepsake high school graduation section on Sunday, June 28. If you wish, you can place a congratulations ad for a graduate youd like to honor in the section. The section will include lists of 2020 graduates from Onondaga County schools, Q&As with each schools valedictorian and salutatorian, and more. Businesses also have the opportunity to advertise in the graduation section. Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central Candidates for Graduation Abdulrazzak Ahmad-Hasan Amjed Almagrabi Skyler Baldwin Alexis Bristol Dodiri Bujendo Shaidaira Cannon Heavin'nya Carpenter Shanaya Cave Katron Chavis Pich Chet Chase Coleman Donovan Collins Kiamesha Cotton Ira Dancil Khalil Davis Elizabeth Delamater William Delee Carlos Diaz Euphoria Dobbs Dominique Donnay Tatyanna Dowdell Lloyd Edmonson Moo Law Eh Symear Escobar Quamiar Evans Tayniyah Evans Byron Evans Jr. Duane Fisher Eric Flores Khyra Floyd Dominic French Malika Ghazai Azian Goodrich Ki'asia Graham Nazier Gunn Devine Hansen Rickey Harden-Danzy Drarton Harris Ernest Harrison Gabriella Hildebrandt Dennis Hua Jakobie Huddleston Kaylin Hudson Myles Hudson George Jackson Jose Johnson Fundi Juriasi Conor Keegan Elizabeth Knapp Fannie Kumeh Jasmaine Lamar Nicholas Lando Ryan Lapp Araceli Lassalle Adir Lawrence Pierre Lobban Zahnyia Love Ra'shanek Luker Alyssa Mann Marcus Markland Peaches Marks Terrell McLaughlin Javier Medina Rodriguez Jakiera Mitchell Jermaine Mitchell Jr. Natalia Montgomery Aniya Moore Tharcisse Niyonkuru Roda Ntiranyibagira Salome Olivieri Tiana Outley Alexus Pacheco Claudia Pels Austin Pilon Devin Ramsey Dontaye Randlett Tayvon Ratchford Alfred Reedy Mahogany Richardson Joushua Rivas Eddie Rivera John Rolfe Jr. Will Santos Xzavier Saunders Nhyere Scanes Apriah Scrugg-Muhammad Edwin Seton Gay Doh Soe Leopold Sparks Janee Thomas Naliyah Thomas Shemar Thomas Cameron Thompson Anthony Tran Lyana Vargas Skyla Vargas Micheal Watson Jihsaon Wheat Justice Williams Shameik Williams Tariq Williams Tysean Wright Nyomi Young Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central valedictorian Pich Chet (left); and salutatorian Roda Ntiranyibagira Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central Valedictorian Name: Pich Chet Town: Syracuse Parents: On Thai and Sothreaksmey Thai My plans for the next few years: Im attending Syracuse University Newhouse/Whitman dual program majoring in broadcast and digital journalism and business management My career plans: I aspire to become an owner of a non-biased news corporation that is built upon good ethics and morals. The highlight of my senior year: My proudest moment in high school is being announced as the class valedictorian along with my amazing friend, Roda, who was announced as the salutatorian. Being both female immigrants, I felt so proud of us for being the top two in our class. Our accomplishments give a message to many students that accomplishment does not depict race, color, gender, or religion. If you work hard for something, you will be rewarded. The person who inspired me the most: My work ethic and determination come from my mom. My mom has always pushed education on all her children. She has been a great role model and support. She inspires me to become a strong, independent and intelligent woman. What I do to unwind or relax: I enjoy watching the news and the weather forecast during my free time. I also enjoy filming videos and photography. Every time I get to handle a new camera or editing software, it's like getting a new Christmas toy. The word or phrase best that best describes my personality: Diligent My advice to our graduating class: My advice to my underclassmen is for them to continue striving and working hard. Some students might not think that grades matter, but in the long run, grades matter if you are planning to attend a good college. Do not procrastinate. Limit your cellphone usage. There is time for you to party later. I promise, if you try hard during school, at the end, it will all be worth it. Work hard now, so you can unwind later. The best part about social distancing: The best part of social distancing is getting to bond with my family. Throughout the four years of my high school career, I neglected my family a lot in order to focus on my studies. Now, I get the chance to learn how to cook traditional Cambodian food with my mom and preparing it for the whole family. The biggest impact of the pandemic on my senior year: The biggest impact would be on my mental health. As someone who struggles with anxiety and depression, it's really difficult to live not knowing what's going to happen. The one thing I hope to accomplish in my lifetime: I want to make my mom proud and happy. I want to take her around the world to see places she has never seen before. Other thoughts: After the storm, comes rainbows. Soon, all of this will be over. Just hang in there, we got this. Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central Salutatorian Name: Roda Ntiranyibagira Town: Syracuse Parents: Eugenie Ntiranyibagira and Muke Wilson My plans for the next few years: I want obtain a bachelors in biology or biomedical sciences and then go to medical school. My career plans: Cardiovascular surgeon or neurosurgeon The highlight of my senior year: The highlight of my year was getting accepted into different colleges and finally committing to one. The person who inspired me the most: My siblings and cousins inspire me the most. The amount of support they give is really beyond my understanding and they are always there whenever I need them. Even if it weren't for the blood we share they would still care. They all go through their own hardships yet they manage to be there through everything. What I do to unwind or relax: I play the piano and I sing in a choir. The word or phrase best that best describes my personality: Determined My advice to our graduating class: I would say that life isn't done yet. Of course we should be happy with what we've accomplished, but let's not be content and stop at this accomplishment. Lets go farther and farther, be better people than we ever thought we could be and inspire others. The best part about social distancing: The best part was that I got to stay home with my family and I also got to see that no matter the circumstances or the obstacles I'm not giving up. Something like struggling in an online class isn't going to make me stop but push me to do even better. The biggest impact of the pandemic on my senior year: The biggest impact was the fact that I didn't really feel like a senior because I didn't get to do all the senior events that one would typically do and also feeling as though my accomplishments wouldn't be celebrated because I didn't get to walk across the stage. The one thing I hope to accomplish in my lifetime: I want to be come the best surgeon that I could be. HONOLULU - Maui Countys unemployment rose to 35% in April, the highest rate in the state due largely to the massive impact of the coronavirus on the tourism industry. The economic collapse is a stark reminder there is a price to pay for Mauis dependence on tourism, which Mayor Mike Victorino estimates supplies about one in three jobs, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Sunday. We built our economy on agriculture and hospitality industry, which is bar none the most lucrative economic base that people could see, Victorino said. Now we need to look at what other types of occupations or businesses that we can start that are not directly tied into the tourists. Maui visitor arrivals rose from 1.8 million in 2009 to 2.9 million in 2018, a 54% gain that was the largest increase on any island. Maui visitor arrivals in 2019 rose more than 5% to 3.1 million and spending increased more than 2% to $5 billion. Before coronavirus fears and government health restrictions devastated Hawaiis tourism, Maui was the states top hotel market. In April 2019, Maui was tied with Honolulu for the lowest unemployment level in the state. Recently more than 1,500 unemployed Maui hotel workers from three top resorts turned out to collect food packages paid for by their owner, Host Hotels & Resorts. They included employees of Andaz Maui at Wailea, the Fairmont Kea Lani and the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa. The unemployment rate is just devastating, said Michael Jokovich, area vice-president of Hyatt Hotels Hawaii. Weve got 486 out of 518, (more than) 90%, out of work at the Andaz Maui alone. Victorino expects tourism will remain Mauis top economic draw. But even before the pandemic, efforts were underway to create more jobs that were not reliant on the visitor industry. We realized we were dependent and that our natural resources were really being taxed way over capacity, he said. This pandemic forced our hand. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover. A Canadian-Filipino journalist faced backlash online late last month after she linked Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis cop caught on camera killing African American George Floyd, to white supremacists and terrorists who had married Asian women. In a now-deleted Facebook post, feminist writer Charlene Sayo wrote that many are surprised that Chauvin is married to a Lao woman named Kellie Chauvin. Im not surprised that a white supremacist married a woman of colour after all, the Las Vegas shooter and the Oklahoma bomber married Filipino women, Sayo said. Sayo is referring to Marilou Danley, former girlfriend of Stephen Paddock, the shooter who killed 58 people in Las Vegas in 2018; and Lana Padilla, the ex-wife of Terry Nichols, an accomplice in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Its important to note that theres been no evidence released connecting Chauvin or Paddock to white supremacism, but there is a well-documented trend of white supremacists dating Asian women. Years ago, Sayo said that she published a research project with the Philippine Womens Centre in British Columbia about Filipino mail-order brides in Canada. We interviewed over 30 Filipino Mail-Order-Brides AND their white husbands: white men who actively looked for and married Filipino women BECAUSE of their racist beliefs that Filipino women are subservient, submissive, family-oriented, domesticated, old-fashioned, and obedient, Sayo wrote. She added that the men avoided marrying Western women because they were too free and independent (or so these men believed). Her post quickly went viral. While some thought Sayos research was interesting, many were offended by how she painted interracial relationships, including Western men married to Asian women, who said that their wives were far from being subservient. Read: Love Is a Battlefield: How to deal with relationship discord (even if you hate Duterte and he doesnt) Others thought there was nothing wrong if a white man married a docile Asian female, such as this woman, who wrote, The fact is that because of feminism western women are not wife material thats why western men look across the pond. If looking for the ideal wife qualities makes a man a supremacist its probably true because mens instincts call for them to be the head of the family. Story continues Image: Sayo/FB Sayo ended up erasing her viral post because people have threatened her with violence, and even rape. However, Coconuts Manila interviewed her via email to know more about her research, which was conducted years ago but proves relevant to this day. When was your research done and what led you to pursue this topic? The Philippine Women Centre of BC (PWC)of which I was a member of, and later became the former Executive Directorcompleted the project, Canada: The New Frontier for Filipino Mail-Order Brides in 2000. We became interested in looking at the Filipino Mail-Order Bride (MOB) phenomenon in Canada after learning from our broad membership that there was a trend among mostly white Canadian men of a certain class either flying to the Philippines and actively looking for a wife, or they were pursuing relationships specifically with Filipino nannies and domestic workers in Canada. Before all of this, the PWC spent 20 years researching, interviewing, and writing numerous reports about the migration of Filipino domestic workers and nannies to Canada. Our research found that the rise of MOBs in Canada was tied to Canadas immigration policies of recruiting Filipino domestic workers. After almost 40 years of recruiting Filipino domestic workers and nannies, the social identity of Filipinas in Canada was based on the stereotype that Filipino women are submissive, family-oriented, docile, old-fashioned, and make great home-makers. These stereotypes encouraged the husbands we interviewed to specifically look for, and marry Filipino women. We also found in our research that the women were coerced by their families to marry foreign men for the same reason that Filipino women work abroad: that whatever money they could get, even a small allowance from their husbands, mail-order brides would send back to their families in the Philippines. Read: Survey shows many Filipino women wont date someone much younger The women whom you met during the course of your research: were they abused by their husbands? Did they try to leave their relationships? Most of the women we interviewed were not physically abused, however, they were generally isolated in smaller, rural communities, away from resources and support such as family, community centers, or womens organizationsmost of the women had no family in Canada. Most of the women did not work either because their husbands did not allow them, or they had to stay at home to take care of the children and the household. They were all financially dependent on their husbands, and their immigrant status was tied to their husbands as well. Priscilla (name changed to protect her identity), one of the women we worked with on the project, was instrumental in introducing us to MOBs. She was in the midst of trying to escape her physically abusive marriage while we were working on the project. Priscilla had filed for divorce from her Canadian husband and was fighting for custody of her Canadian born daughter, who was about 6 years old at the time. She was also fighting against deportation orders, which her husband had threatened her with, when she tried to leave the marriage the first time. Priscilla ended up losing custody of her daughter and was deported to the Philippines, even though the PWC had advocated, along with her legal team, that she must stay in Canada as it was cruel to separate a mother from her daughter. One of the women we interviewed, Lucy knew what her marriage was about: that her husband found her in the Philippines, married her, and brought her to Canada to stay at home, cook, clean, and raise their son. To augment the allowance her husband gave her, Lucy baby-sat a child nearby while her husband was at work, since he didnt allow her to have a job. Since the day he was born, Lucy only spoke to her son in Filipino since she wanted to be able to communicate with him in a language that her husband couldnt understandLucy was hoping that when her son comes of age, that hed help her escape her husband. Lucys story, and the other stories of the women we interviewed, have stuck with me after all these years. What led you to write about Kellie Chauvin on Facebook? I wasnt interested in writing about Kellie Chauvin. I was more interested in bringing up just one of the many reasons why violently racisteven white supremacistmen would marry women of colour. After all, if racists have a general hatred towards people of colour and immigrants, how is it that they can marry women of colour, specifically? The Oklahoma Bomber and the Las Vegas shooter were married to Asian women, and the American killer, Jack Reeves, killed three of his four ex-wives. Two of his ex-wives were Asian Mail-Order Brides. It became clear to me that the husbands I met and interviewed for the MOB project, while they were not white supremacists, had the same racist and misogynist views that violent, white supremacists had, although to varying degrees. These men believe that women of colour are more submissive, obedient, and easier to isolate and control, than say, white women or women who were born in Western Countries such as Canada and the United States. As I had written on my Facebook post, the husbands I met and interviewed, did not want to marry white women as they believed that white women were too free and independent and often talked back. They were all looking for a particular type of woman that would serve them unconditionally and not fight back. These types of marriages are not based on love, companionship, and equality. To me, they are expressions and practices of hierarchy, domination, racism, and misogyny, and they differ greatly from genuinely loving, and fulfilling interracial relationships and marriages. The post went viral and was even circulated on Twittereven though Im not on Twitterand on Instagram. I did not expect it to go viral at all. What was your reaction with the comments on your post? There were 600 comments alone on Facebook and who knows how many more on Twitter and Instagram. The comments ranged from intelligent observations, many agreed with me; many more were curious about the topic; many folks accused me of lying, and called me racist; a lot were full of vitriol; and many, many, people absolutely hated my post. Despite all the different responses, it was pretty clear that the reason why the post went viral is that it had to do with Filipino women and sex. To be more specific, it had everything to do with male sexual entitlement and access to Filipino womens bodies and its connection to white supremacy, and in particular, to George Floyds killer. Is it true that you received threats? What can you say about this? I started receiving violently racist rape threats on the public posts of my Facebook wall. Trolls were not just commenting on the MOB post, but were scrolling down and commenting and swearing on whatever public post they could access on my wall. I had to change my profile name on Facebook and Instagram, and raised the security and privacy on my online profiles and activities. The racist comments I could almost ignore, the rape threats I could not. The threats were misogynist and racist in nature and the trolls who posted them knew the gravity and danger of the threats. Very violent men wield rape threats against women as they know that rape, apart from murder, is the worst thing you can do to a woman. That the threats were racist added another dimension to dominate and eviscerate me as a woman of colour and my words. These trolls were triggered, and, based on their threats, truly believe that all women should be silenced and dominated. Read: Stuck in traffic: How Manilas roads are making love elusive for Filipinos Are there still Filipina mail-order brides in Canada? Are they different from the ones who came before them? I believe that Filipino mail-order brides continue to migrate to Canada and around the world. Since Canada doesnt have an overt mail-order bride industry in the way that Germany, the United States, and Australia do, I believe that Canadian men meet Filipino women online or, they simply fly to the Philippines and search for a wife over there. But thats for another research project, and the pandemic is certainly impacting international travel at the moment. Editors Note: We have changed the headline on this story and added context to Sayos claims in the introduction. This article, Canadian-Filipino journalist addresses backlash for linking George Floyds killer to American terrorists who have married Asian women, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters! BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 Trend: The meeting between Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Azerbaijan Ignacio Sanchez Taboada and representatives of the Azerbaijan-Spain Working Group on Inter-Parliamentary Relations was held in the Azerbaijani parliament, Trend reports. Head of the Working Group, MP Sevil Mikayilova and member of the group, MP Tural Ganjaliyev attended the meeting. During the meeting, the parties exchanged views on the development of inter-parliamentary relations between the two countries and emphasized the development of relations among the Senate and the Congress of Spain and the Azerbaijani parliament. The sides emphasized that both countries are suffering from separatism. Taboada was informed that Armenia has been holding 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory under occupation for more than 25 years, in response to which the UN Security Council adopted the resolutions #822, 853, 874 and 884. In conclusion, a decision was made to organize introductory meetings between the members of the group and the Spanish parliamentarians to intensify the activity of the working group. MBABANE The Kingdom of Eswatini is yet to reach its COVID-19 peak before the curve is flattened and WHO is looking to bring a team of five experts to help the country post reaching the peak. These are experts who are qualified in five different fields and they will help government, through the Ministry of Health, in expertise of dealing with the pandemic pre and post COVID-19 peak in the country. The experts are an epidemiologist, a laboratory strengthening officer, a risk communication officer, infection and prevention control officer and a medical surveillance officer. This was revealed by WHO Country Coordinator Dr Kevin Makadzange, who said the experts were expected to be in the country for the next three months at least and if their services were still required, their stay would be extended. He said everything would be taken care of by WHO, including accommodation and remuneration of the experts. We are actually building the team in the country office to support government on issues of surveillance, contact tracing, investigations and a whole lot of other aspects, he submitted. The global health organisation has already posted, through its website, an advert where they are looking for a surveillance expert to support the Eswatini COVID-19 response. Eswatini has reported 333 cases which translate to 280 cases per 100 000 population. The country has reported three deaths which gives a mortality rate of one per cent. In its website, WHO stated that like many other countries in Africa and beyond, Eswatini no longer had sufficient national capacity to mount an adequate response to the pandemic. The organisation is therefore deploying experts to member states, including Eswatini, as part of its surge capacity as enunciated in the WHO Emergency Response Framework and required by the International Health Regulations (2015) to support country COVID-19 pandemic responses. WHO is therefore seeking the services of an epidemiologist with expertise in surveillance to complement the capacity of the WHO Country Office in Eswatini and adequately support the National COVID-19 Response working with the National Incident Management team for an initial period of three months starting immediately or as soon as possible, the organisation said. Makadzange said the other experts will be coming from other WHO regions or stations and they were expected to resume work as soon as possible. supervision Under the supervision of the WHO Country Representative for Eswatini, the epidemiologist is expected to work with the Eswatini Ministry of Health Incident Management Team to support activities that include providing technical expertise to guide implementation of surveillance and investigation activities on respiratory infectious disease specific activities related to COVID-19. Support the nation level, regions and local levels on case investigation, field assessments and surveillance in field as needed, ensure that contact tracing is effectively done, regularly share updated surveillance data, assist in data collation and analysis, and facilitate its use for decision-making. The expert is also expected to work with the team on reporting requirements, information system and data management needs, type and frequency of data analysis, and design as needed and guide and contribute to the development and release of regular Situation Reports, assist to build the capacity and orient teams on relevant surveillance interventions in line with WHO and national guidelines and SOPs, support capacity building efforts at national, regionsand local levels, support documentation of best practices in surveillance and other relevant areas, and facilitate their dissemination and use. The expert should have a medical degree or basic training in epidemiology, with a post-graduate degree in Public Health majoring in epidemiology and at least 3 years experience in epidemiology, especially in the area of surveillance, experience working in emergencies, especially in outbreak and epidemic control, experience working on COVID-19 epidemiology and surveillance would be an added advantage. The High Court has given Irish based aircraft company Nordic Aviation Capital the go ahead to seek to enter into a scheme of arrangement with its creditors. The NAC group of companies is the largest lessor of aircraft to regional airlines, and the 5th largest aircraft lessor in the world, and employs over a 100 people at its Limerick Headquarters. Nordic Aviation Capital DAC wants to enter into scheme with its lenders due to the dire effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the aviation industry. If approved the scheme will secure a six to 12 month standstill on millions of euro in principle and interest payments due by NAC to its lenders of approximately 5 billion of debt. The scheme will also allow the group, which owns approximately 500 aircraft to continue to operate. Seeking various orders under the Companies Act yesterday (Tuesday) Lyndon MacCann SC, appearing with Kelly Smith Bl for NAC, told the court the pandemic has had a significant impact on the group's business. Some 65 of the group's 75 customers are seeking various concessions on its aircraft leasing agreements. There has, the court heard been a substantial decrease on the amount of money paid to the group. In April it only collected 20% of what it is due from airlines that have leased its aircraft. It is estimated that its cash collections for June and July will also be very poor. Counsel said the group fears it will run out of cash in July, and that it could breach agreements it has entered in terms of its repayments to its creditors by the end of the month. As a result the group seeks to enter into a scheme of arrangement with its creditors counsel said. Counsel said that other parts of the proposed scheme include that NAC shareholders will inject a total of US$60m into the group, and will reduce non essential expenditure, and cut costs. For the duration of the pandemic it also proposes to eliminate an uncommitted proposed capital expenditure programme for 2020 to 2025 of US$5.7 billion. It further seeks to secure deferred payments under a committed capital expenditure programme of US$1.5 billion, and reduce the proposed delivery of 21 new aircraft down to eight. Counsel said it would be "ominous" for the company unless that scheme could be agreed, M Mr Justice David Barniville made orders admitting the company's case to the fast track Commercial Court list, and formally gave it permission to convene meetings with its creditors. The applications were made on an ex-parte basis. However several of NAC's creditors had representatives in the courtroom observing the proceedings. Brian Kennedy SC told the court that he represented a group which holds a total of 69% of the NAC's unsecured debt. Counsel said while his client had no right to be heard during the hearing, he said his clients are opposing the proposed scheme. Los Angeles Teachers Union Calls for Disbanding School Police A top Los Angeles teachers union official said June 8 that the organization supports disbanding a special 400-member police force charged with the task of keeping schools safe. Cecily Myart-Cruz, the incoming president of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), which represents some 30,000 teachers and support staff in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), said at a June 8 event that the union supports the elimination of the Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD). We have to dismantle white supremacy. We must dismantle racial capitalism. And definitely we must defund the police and bring in the mental health services that our students need, Myart-Cruz said. LASPD is the biggest independent school police department in the United States, with over 410 sworn police officers and 101 non-sworn school safety officers, according to its website. The department didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment. Gil Gamez, president of the school police union, told the Los Angeles Times that he believes school police are critical for school safety. We are trained differently. We have a vested interest. We had restorative justice [training], our police officers come from the communities they serve, Gamez told the outlet. To see us be demonized and ostracized, I dont get it, Gamez said. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Twitter on June 8 criticized mounting calls across the country to remove police from schools, saying that this idiotic proposal would tragically result in MORE school shootings. Dems have lost their minds. Having met repeatedly w/victims, parents & teachers hurt by gun violence in schools, the single most effective way to keep our kids safe is more armed police officers in schools, Cruz wrote in commenting on a tweet from Politico that claimed the police-free schools movement is picking up steam. The unions board of directors voted last week to start a process that will lead to a larger union vote on whether to take money out of the school police department and put it directly into mental health support, counselors, academic counselors, exiting UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl told the Los Angeles Times. The remarks come amid a broader thrust to shift resources from policing to community-based initiatives, driven by the outcry over the police-custody death of George Floyd, which has fueled calls to overhaul police procedures, including limits on legal protections for police, creating a national database of excessive-force encounters, and banning chokeholds. A rallying cry of some protesters and proponents of police reform is to defund the police, a multi-layered movement that ranges from relatively moderate calls to adjust police budgets to fund the establishment of complementary or alternative community-based solutions, for example in the area of mental health crisis response, to more extreme proposals to disband police departments entirely. Another dimension of the defund the police drive is that cities across the country are considering the removal of police from schools. That includes the Denver school board planning a vote to that effect next week, according to Chalkbeat Colorado, while Oregons largest school district is discontinuing the regular presence of school resource officers, according to The Oregonian, citing Portland Public Schools Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero. President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr on June 8 both spoke out against calls to defund the police. Theres a reason for less crime. Its because we have great law enforcement. Im very proud of that, Trump said at a meeting with law enforcement officials and officers at the White House. There wont be defunding. There wont be dismantling of our police, and theres not going to be any disbanding of our police. Barr told Fox News in an interview on June 8 that he, too, opposes moves to defund the police. I think its the exact opposite of the way we should go, Barr said, warning that disbanding police departments would lead to a spike in criminality. You would have increases in vigilantism, and you would have increasing chaos, Barr said. Youll end up having more killings. Madaen, Iraq Dozens of trucks heaped with golden piles of wheat smouldered in the summer heat outside the government-run silo. A group of farmers, anxious to sell their harvest, crowded the reception area, guarded by gun-toting soldiers and plain-clothed security officials. My truck has been in line for 10 days, said Ibrahim Khalil, a farmer from the Madaen area, about 50km (31 miles) south of Iraqs capital Baghdad. Im getting tired of waiting. For every extra day, I have to pay the truck driver extra money. At the heart of these delays Al Jazeera found during more than a dozen interviews with farmers, traders and officials lies an entrenched system of corruption that squeezes the very farmers the governments programme to buy grains at a preferential price is meant to support. For a truck to enter the silo and pass the quality-control process, a bribe of one to two million Iraqi dinars ($800-$1,600) is required, an amount many smallholders cannot spare. Frustrated and cash-strapped, farmers end up turning to wholesalers instead, who buy their produce at a lower price and then illegally swap it at the silos for the preferential rate, using the margin to pay off silo workers while pocketing the rest. On Monday, the speaker of parliament called for a meeting to discuss mounting grievances over silos. The Ministry of Trade is the entity that manages dozens of silos across the country filled with an estimated $2bn worth of grain to supply Iraqs vast food ration programme. But farmers say this year, the process to vend their crops to the silo has been particularly tenuous. Their struggles lay bare the obstacles facing Iraqs new government led by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to develop non-oil sectors of the economy such as agriculture, as the country reels from a deepening fiscal crisis triggered by the drop in global oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic. Perverse incentives The governments grain-buying programme aims to encourage local farming while also boosting Iraqs food self-sufficiency. At the beginning of the planting season, the Ministry of Agriculture specifies the area to be cultivated by each farmer. Based on this plan, farmers receive a paper slip from the ministry that entitles them to market a certain amount of their harvest to the government at a preferential price, provided that their grain passes the quality control process at the silo. Grades one, two and three earn farmers a preferential rate of $466, $391, and $308 per tonne of wheat, respectively, approximately double the market price. Traders are not permitted to sell to silos. But the difference between the market and silo prices appear to have laid fertile ground for arbitration, shutting out smallholders while incentivising collusion between powerful silo employees and traders. Farmers dont have the money to pay, but traders do, a former employee at the Ministry of Trade with knowledge of the inner workings of silos told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the topic. The director of the silo takes money from the sellers, the lab takes money from the sellers; theres no car that enters without paying. A recent parliamentary probe suggests fraud at the silos is a common phenomenon [Azad Lashkari/Reuters] Under the watchful eye of security forces and officials, Al Jazeera was given a tour of the Rusafa silo in Madaen district, including its laboratory, where the consequential decision of how much money the harvest will fetch is made. Lab workers said all samples of grains are evaluated anonymously so as to prevent favouritism and corruption. Abdelrahman Aji Toufan, general manager of the Iraqi Grain Board, denied systematic irregularities at the silos, but added that around 10 employees are currently under investigation across the roughly 50 silos under the companys responsibility. In all the silos, we have oversight bodies and the farmers can complain against any employee and we will send this employee to investigation, he said. But just based on talk here and there without any evidence, we cannot act. But a recent parliamentary probe suggests fraud at the silos is a common phenomenon. A report written by parliament member Hamid al-Mosawi in April this year, and seen by Al Jazeera, describes dizzying corruption schemes in the various state-owned companies under the Ministry of Trade, including the Iraqi Grain Board. It confirms merchants sell wheat under the names of farmers and manipulate the evaluation process in coordination with silo management. Iraqs national security agency, which has investigated corruption at the Ministry of Trade and has an oversight role at the silos, confirmed al-Mosawis allegations are factual. The parliament report also found collusion to import cheap wheat from the Kurdish region of Iraq and neighbouring countries, which is then sold to silos at the preferential price as if it was local produce. It is a practice that appears to date back several years. There was collusion between the traders, smugglers and corrupted employees to sell imported wheat to silos as if it was local, said Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, a parliament member who acted as minister of trade in 2015 and 2016. During his brief tenure, al-Sudani said he had reported several employees to Iraqs integrity commission, which investigates corruption, but was unaware if those people had been prosecuted. Mystery lentils Wheat rejected because of lentils read the verdict by a lab technician at the Rusafa silo, scribbled on a piece of paper and tucked into the plastic bag that contained a sample of the doomed harvest, now ruled unfit for the countrys food ration programme. Such rejections over isolated pieces of lentils and peas have startled local farmers, as neither crop is cultivated in the area. Its impossible, said Ghadbaan Mustafa, whose familys harvest was rejected twice, first because of black grains and the second time, after he cleansed and re-submitted his produce to the lab, because of lentils. How come they didnt see the lentils the first time they checked? Mustafa wondered. Complaints similar to those in the Madaen area have emerged across Iraq [Azad Lashkari/Reuters] As a farmer who grows wheat for seeds rather than consumption, Mustafa undergoes a special quality-control process during cultivation. Thrice, he recalled, experts from the Ministry of Agriculture came to check his fields before the harvest and found no flaws in his burgeoning wheat spikes. Its all just pressure to make the farmers pay, he concluded when asked why he thought the silo rejected his produce. Complaints similar to those in the Madaen area have emerged across Iraq. In Kirkuk, farmers have recently organised protests against high rates of rejection at local silos because of lentils. According to the Iraqi Grain Board, the rejection rate is about 10 percent. But many small-scale farmers who fear an unfavourable lab ruling opt to preemptively sell to wholesalers, voluntarily foregoing the preferential rate at the silo. Adding to their fears are significant delays in payments by the silo as a result of the fiscal crisis. Farmers who sold their crops to the government at the end of April had yet to be paid by the beginning of June, far beyond the mandated 72-hour payment period. Those who pay will be received Clutching a small plastic bucket with a sample of his wheat, farmer Mounem Hassun got out of a yellow Saiba taxi at the Nahrawan wholesale market. Too poor to own a car or mobile phone, he could not afford to grease the wheels at the silo, nor the fees for truck drivers as they waited in line for days. The silo says the grains have flaws, or they tell you to come back later, so you keep coming back, and its expensive for you, said Hassun, whose family has no income other than farming. Amid anxiety over mounting bills, including what he owed for fertilizer and the harvesting machine, Hassun had little choice but to peddle his hard-earned yield at the wholesale market. Do you want cash or credit, wholesaler Rasoul Faleh asked Hassun, digging his hand into the plastic bucket and examining a fistful of the golden cereals. Cash, of course, Hassun replied. Ill take it for 425,000 Iraqi dinars ($354, per tonne) on credit, Faleh said, meaning that Hassun would only get paid after the trader sold the harvest at the silo. Merchants flipping the farmers grain at the silo was an open secret at the wholesale market in Nahrawan, located half an hours drive northeast of the Rusafa silo. Those who pay will be received, and most of them are traders. This is the truth, wholesaler Rasoul Faleh Hassan said, though he stopped short of admitting to having paid a bribe himself. To access the silos, traders either brought the farmer along or posed as one, after buying his Ministry of Agriculture slip that authorises sales to the silo. The deputy director of the Rusafa silo denied that produce was bought from traders instead of farmers. Neither the farmers nor the traders in Madaen appeared to consider the option to sell to private grinding mills or local retailers, a sign of how the governments purchasing programme and the preferential price had de-incentivised the development of a private supply chain for wheat, allowing cheap imported flour to dominate the retail market. Ghadbaan Mustafa, the farmer whose crops have been twice rejected and currently awaiting a third assessment, said the silo was his only option. If they reject my grain again, I will not cultivate next year, he said. A phone set up at Cheong Wa Dae as a hotline between leaders of two Koreas. North Korea said, Tuesday, it would cut all communication lines with the South, including the hotline. Yonhap By Kang Seung-woo Inter-Korean relations are again returning to the era of constant tension, with North Korea cutting all communication lines with the South and defining the country once more as an "enemy." Experts think that the North may take further measures as it has vowed, including military provocations. The tension-stoking move came days after Pyongyang strongly complained about Seoul failing to stop North Korean defectors and activists from flying anti-North leaflets across the border tethered to balloons. "The disgusting riff-raff has committed hostile acts against North Korea by taking advantage of the South Korean authorities' irresponsible stance and with their connivance. They dared to hurt the dignity of our supreme leadership and mock the sacred mental core of all our people. This was a sign of hostility to all our people," the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported early Tuesday. "They should be forced to pay dearly for this." As a first step, the Kim Jong-un regime said it would cut off all cross-border communication lines at noon a decision made by Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), and Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader's sister and first vice department director of the committee. "Accordingly, the relevant field of our side will completely cut off and shut down the liaison line between the authorities of the North and the South, which has been maintained through the North-South joint liaison office, the East and West Seas communication lines between the militaries of the North and the South, the inter-Korean trial communication line and the hotline between the office building of the Central Committee of the WPK and Cheong Wa Dae from 12 p.m. on June 9, 2020," the KCNA said. Hours after the announcement, the North refused to answer calls made by South Korean officials from the inter-Korean liaison office and military channels. On Monday, the North did not answer the liaison office's daily morning phone call, but did so in the afternoon, while the military hotlines operated normally. In response, the government urged the North to keep the communication lines open. "(The) lines between the South and the North are a basic means of communication and should be maintained in accordance with inter-Korean agreements," a unification ministry official said. "While abiding by inter-Korean agreements, the government will make efforts to ensure peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula." Defense ministry spokesman Choi Hyun-soo said this was the first time the North has not answered military phone calls from the South since the hotlines were restored in 2018. The presidential office remained cautious about the announcement by Pyongyang, saying it needed to see how the situation develops. A North Korean solider stands guard at a sentry post across the inter-Korean border in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Earlier in the day, North Korea announced it was disconnecting all inter-Korean communications lines at noon, citing anti-Pyongyang leaflets recently sent across the border by North Korean defectors in the South. / Yonhap Fremont County Sheriff Doomsday author Chad Daybell will appear in court Wednesday to face a charge of destroying or hiding evidence after authorities investigating the disappearance of his stepchildren found human remains at his Idaho home. The macabre discovery is the latest development in a bizarre missing-persons case that has taken shocking turn after turn over the last six months. Throughout the investigation, detectives and investigators have recovered what is to believed to be humans remains that have not been identified at this time, Rexburg Assistant Police Chief Gary Hagen said during a Tuesday news conference. Authorities said the search warrants executed at around 7 a.m. on Tuesday are related to the disappearance of J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan, the children of Daybells second wife, Lori Vallow, who is in jail on child desertion and other charges. The warrants are sealed so its not clear what evidence police had developed that caused them to bring backhoes and a K-9 unit to Daybells property. Aerial photos showed authorities dug up a patch of land and erected a tent, suggesting they had specific information about where the remains might be found. According to East Idaho News, Daybell was pulled over a mile from his home at around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, handcuffed, and driven away. Police initially said he was taken in for questioning, but he was later booked into the Fremont County Jail on a charge of destruction or concealment of evidence. More details are expected to be released at his hearing on Wednesday. J.J.s grandparents, Kay and Larry Woodcock, were hit hard by the news. This is obviously a very difficult time for our family, and we ask that you respect our privacy as we wait further news with heavy hearts, they said in a statement. J.J., 7, and Tylee, 17, have not been seen since September and police have said they believed their lives were in danger. Their mother has refused to cooperate with the investigation and is now being held on $1 million bail for contempt of court and other alleged crimes. Story continues Daybell and Vallow have been under a cloud of suspicion since police were asked to check on the kids, went to their home, and were given a bogus story about their whereabouts. When cops returned a day later to investigate further, the adults were nowhere to be found. J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan have been missing since September. Rexburg Police In a recent interview with EastIdahoNews.com, a friend of the couple revealed that she was asked to lie to police and say the kids were with her. She said she refused and later pressed Daybell and Vallow about the children. I think the first question I said is, Why havent you told us where the kids are? Melanie Gibb said. [Lori responded], Well, for your safety, we cannot tell you. That was just alarming to me. What safety? Why am I in danger? I didnt feel like I was in danger. In the ensuing weeks, the investigation uncovered layer after layer of disturbing intriguefrom the couples apocalyptic religious beliefs, to the recent deaths of their former spouses, to a string of other menacing events. Meanwhile, Daybell and Vallow had skipped to Hawaii, where police arrested her on a warrant out of Idaho, where she was soon extradited. FBI Seeks Pics of Doomsday Mom With Kids in Yellowstone Park The disappearance of the children sparked investigations into several other incidents: The Oct. 19 death of Chads first wife, Tammy. He said she went to bed with a cough and never woke up, and she was buried without an autopsy. He and Vallow got married in Hawaii weeks later, with no sign of the children. Authorities have since exhumed Tammys body to conduct an autopsy. The July 11 death of Vallows previous husband, Charles. He was shot to death by her brother, Alex Cox, in what was initially described as a case of self-defense. Cox has since died of natural causes, and police are taking a second look at the shooting. Charles Vallow had reported that Lori had become obsessed with doomsday visions and had threatened his life. An Oct. 2 drive-by shooting at the Arizona home of Brandon Boudreaux, who was in the process of getting a divorce from Loris niece, Melani Boudreaux. While Boudreaux never saw the shooter, the vehicle used was registered to Charles Vallow, who had been dead for months. 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. The Mumbai Police has summoned Republic TVs editor-in-chief and primetime anchor Arnab Goswami to appear before Pydhonie police station at 11am on Wednesday in connection with a first information report (FIR) registered against him on May 3 for allegedly creating communal hatred, said Pranay Ashok, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) and spokesperson for Mumbai Police. Goswami has been summoned on the basis of a complaint by Irfan Abubakar Shaikh, secretary, Raza Education Welfare Society. Sheikh had alleged in his FIR that Goswami tried to create hatred against the Muslim community and targeted a Bandra-based mosque that had no links to a protest by stranded migrant workers, who wanted to go back to their native places on April 14, when lockdown 1.0, which was imposed to contain the spread of the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, restrictions were slated to be lifted. Shaikh had alleged that Goswami on his April 29 show tried to spread hatred against Muslims. The mosque near the Bandra railway station is not linked to the stranded migrant workers protest. The workers had only gathered in an open space near the mosque. But Goswami deliberately highlighted the mosque on his show on April 29 to create communal disturbances in Mumbai, Shaikh alleged. The raging debate on Republic TV was aimed at blaming the Muslim community for spreading Covid-19 in Mumbai. Earlier, too, he made similar hate-filled comments, targeting the community, he further alleged. The FIR was registered under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, and language), 295A (deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any citizen) 500 (defamation), 505 (2) (spreading rumour or alarming news with intent to create or promote feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Goswamis advocate Debarshi Dutta of Phoenix Legal refused to confirm whether he has been summoned by the Pydhonie police station authorities at 11 am on Wednesday. Our client has strictly instructed us not to divulge any information to anyone till the matter is heard by the Bombay high court, Dutta said. PETAH TIKVA (dpa-AFX) - Today's Daily Dose brings you news about disappointing results from Soleno's Prader-Willi syndrome trial; the Court ruling in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Opiant/Emergent against Teva; encouraging additional data from Sarepata's limb-girdle muscular dystrophy Type 2E trial; and Enochian's path forward for ENOB-HV-01, a potential cure for HIV. Read on... 1. Soleno's DCCR Fails To Control Appetite Shares of Soleno Therapeutics Inc. (SLNO) plunged more than 40 percent in extended trading on Monday, following disappointing results from the DESTINY PWS trial. DESTINY PWS is a phase III study evaluating Diazoxide Choline Controlled-Release for Prader-Willi syndrome or PWS in short. PWS is a rare disease, which is characterized by short stature, cognitive disabilities, and an insatiable appetite (hyperphagia) in children that often contributes to obesity and type 2 diabetes. This complex genetic neurobehavioral/metabolic disorder is caused due to the loss or lack of expression of a set of genes on chromosome 15. The DESTINY PWS study, which involved 127 PWS patients at 29 sites in the U.S. and UK, did not meet its primary endpoint of change from baseline in hyperphagia, the hallmark of PWS. However, the Company noted that there were significant improvements in a prespecified subgroup with severe hyperphagia and significant positive changes in two of three key secondary endpoints. An open-label, safety extension study of Diazoxide Choline Controlled-Release (DCCR) tablets in PWS patients completing the DESTINY PWS trial, dubbed C602, is ongoing. An interim analysis of this study has shown a further reduction in hyperphagia of 48% after 6 months of DCCR treatment. To date, there has been no approved drug for PWS that is effective in controlling the appetite of the patients (increased appetite). Pfizer's (PFE) recombinant human growth hormone Genotropin (somatropin) and Sandoz/Novartis' Omnitrope, a biosimilar for Genotropin, are the FDA-approved drugs for the treatment of growth failure in children with PWS. SLNO closed Monday's trading at $3.24, down 0.61%. In after-hours, the stock was down 48.77% at $1.66. 2. Opiant, Emergent Hit As Court Rules In Teva's Favor Shares of Opiant Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OPNT) and its commercial partner Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (EBS) took a hit on Monday after a Court ruled in favor of Teva in a patent infringement suit related to NARCAN Nasal Spray. Developed by Opiant and licensed to Adapt Pharma, which is now under the aegis of Emergent BioSolutions, NARCAN Nasal Spray is approved for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose. Between 2016 and 2018, TEVA filed applications with the FDA seeking regulatory approval to market a generic version of NARCAN before the expiration of the '253, '747, '177, '965, '644, and '226 patents. Perrigo is another company that is seeking to market generic versions of NARCAN. Opiant filed a suit against Teva in October 2016, and against Perrigo in 2018, alleging the proposed generic versions of NARCAN infringes on the patent rights. Teva received final approval for its generic version of NARCAN Nasal Spray last April. NARCAN accounts for a major chunk of Emergent BioSolutions' product sales. In 2019, NARCAN accounted for $280.4 million out of the total product sales of $903.5 million. Emergent intends to appeal the decision to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In February of this year, Emergent and Perrigo entered into a settlement agreement to resolve the ongoing litigation related to NARCAN. The Perrigo settlement agreement is subject to review by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, and entry of an order dismissing the litigation by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Now that the Court has ruled in favor of Teva, it remains to be seen what impact it's going to have on the settlement that has been reached with Perrigo. EBS closed Monday's trading at $68.69, down 20.96%. OPNT plunged 22.74% to close Monday's trading at $9.04. 3. Sarepta On A Strong Footing Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (SRPT), which announced positive and robust expression and biomarker data and positive 9-month functional results from the low-dose cohort (Cohort I) of SRP-9003, its investigational gene therapy to treat limb-girdle muscular dystrophy Type 2E, trial, last year, announced encouraging preliminary results from Cohort 2 on Monday. Limb-girdle muscular dystrophies are genetic diseases that cause progressive, debilitating weakness and wasting that begin in muscles around the hips and shoulders before progressing to muscles in the arms and legs. Results reported on Monday included safety and expression results from three clinical trial participants in the high-dose cohort (Cohort 2) measured at 60 days and one-year functional data from three clinical trial participants in the low-dose cohort (Cohort 1). According to the Company, preliminary results from Cohort 2 showed a strong dose-dependent increase in transduction and expression transduction and expression when compared with Cohort 1. The three participants showed robust mean expression of 72.3% of transduced beta-SG, properly localized to the muscle sarcolemma, as measured by immunohistochemistry (IHC). These results exceeded the pre-defined measure of success for the study of 50% positive fibers which was previously achieved in Cohort 1. The beta-sarcoglycan gene is involved in autosomal recessive limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. Mean fiber intensity, as measured by IHC, was 73.1% compared to normal control. All participants showed robust quantification of beta-SG, as measured by Western blot, with mean beta-SG of 62.1% of normal control. All participants showed a reduction in serum creatine kinase (CK) levels from pre-treatment baseline measure to the last measure at 90 days, with a mean CK reduction of 89.1% from baseline. CK is an enzyme biomarker strongly associated with muscle damage. The one-year functional data from three clinical trial participants in the low-dose cohort (Cohort 1) showed that there were continuous improvements from baseline across all functional measures, including the North Star Assessment for Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophies, time-to-rise, four-stair climb, 100-meter walk test, and 10-meter walk test. SRPT touched a new 52-week high of $159.75 in intraday trading on Monday, before closing at $159.68, up 7.90%. 4. Enochian On Track With Potential HIV Cure Shares of Enochian Biosciences Inc. (ENOB) soared as much as 222% in early trading on Monday, following successful completion of an Initial Targeted Engagement for Regulatory Advice (INTERACT) meeting with the FDA related to ENOB-HV-01, a potential cure for HIV. The Company's ENOB-HV-01 is a novel approach to autologous stem cell transplantation, with the potential to cure HIV by increasing engraftment of gene-modified cells that are resistant to HIV infection. A pre-IND submission for the Company's gene-modified cell therapy platform ENOB-HV-01 is expected to be made in 2021. ENOB touching a high of $13.43 in early trade on Monday, before closing at $6.06, up 47.09%. 5. Stocks That Moved On No News TCR2 Therapeutics Inc. (TCRR) closed Monday's trading at $16.85, up 31.23%. NextCure Inc. (NXTC) closed Monday's trading at $30.38, up 19.32%. Genfit SA (GNFT) closed Monday's trading at $6.44, up 19.26%. Protara Therapeutics Inc. (TARA) closed Monday's trading at $36.26, down 26.57%. InflaRx N.V. (IFRX) closed Monday's trading at $6.58, down 12.15%. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Republican senators joined their Democratic colleagues on Monday in supporting an array of reforms to police accountability and use of force in Colorado, including two members who voted against the proposal last week in committee. Confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona is nearing 28,300 on Tuesday, according to new state figures. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases across Arizona is 28,296, the Arizona Department of Health Services said Tuesday in its daily tally, up 618 from the previous day. The total number includes people who have recovered. The state said 1,070 people in Arizona have died from COVID-19. There were 23 new deaths reported today. Across Pima County, 3,161 cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed, up seven cases from the day before. Among the 3,161 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pima County: 732 people ages 65 and older; 440 people between 55 and 64 years old; 517 people between 45 and 54 years old; 1,253 people between 20 and 44 years old; 218 people 19 years old and younger. No age was available for one coronavirus patient in the county. There have been 212 known COVID-19 deaths in the Tucson-metro area, according to the state health department. Seven new deaths were reported in Pima County today. There have been 409,174 coronavirus tests given across Arizona, with 6.3% of them showing positive for COVID-19, the state says. There were 6,514 tests reported yesterday. The 1,070 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Arizona include: One Jelili Dimeji has been discharged and acquitted by an Igbosere high court in Lagos after spending five years behind the bars over an armed robbery charge brought against him. He was prosecuted by the Lagos state government for allegedly robbing some valuables from an apartment in Ikotun in 2015. Dimeji while testifying on February 26, 2019, said he was on his way to a bus to Ifo, Ogun State to see his wife, who had just been delivered of a baby, when he was accosted by a vigilance group who claimed he was a member of a gang of robbers which robbed a nearby residential premise. Read Also: Robber Nabbed After Falling Asleep During Robbery Operation (Photos) Advertisement According to him, he did not partake in the robbery attack but was arrested, taken into custody, and remanded at the Kirikiri Maximum Correctional Centre. The presiding judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye in her judgment during virtual proceedings, held that the prosecution did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. She said, The alleged confessional statement was never placed before the court as an exhibit. I must hold that the prosecutions failure to place the confessional statement before the court is fatal to its case. The mere fact that the Investigating Police Officer testified that the defendant confessed cannot be taken as the gospel truth without some other hard evidence before the court, Ipaye said. As an 18th Century English jurist stated, it is better that 10 guilty persons escape than one innocent suffers. Accordingly, I find and hold that the prosecution has failed to establish beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant, Dimeji, was one of those who carried out the robbery which took place about 3 a.m. on October 7, 2015, at Dele Ara Sreet, Ikotun, Lagos. I so hold. Having failed to establish the substantive charge of armed robbery against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt, I find and hold that the prosecution has also not sustained the ancillary charge of conspiracy. I, therefore, find you Jelili Dimeji not guilty of the charges as contained in counts one to four of the information dated March 3, 2017. You are hereby discharged and acquitted, Ipaye held. U.S. President Donald Trump makes remarks as he participates in a roundtable with law enforcement officials in the State Dining Room of the White House, in Washington, DC, June 8, 2020. EPA U.S. President Donald Trump is continually reassessing the American overseas military presence, the White House said Monday following reports that Trump plans to partially withdraw troops from Germany. The reports that Trump is slashing the U.S. military presence in Germany from 34,500 troops to no more than 25,000 have renewed concerns about possibly similar plans for the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea. The issue with South Korea has especially been tied to ongoing negotiations between Seoul and Washington to try to renew a cost-sharing agreement for the upkeep of the American troops. "I know there's reporting out there, but as of this moment, there are no announcements," White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said at a press briefing when asked about Trump's reported plans to withdraw troops from Germany. "The president's continually reassessing the best posture for the United States military forces and our presence overseas, and we remain committed to working with our strong allies," she said. Trump said in December that it is up for debate whether keeping 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea is in the national security interest of the United States. He said he "can go either way" on the issue but added that if the U.S. continues to station troops in South Korea, Seoul "should burden share more fairly." His comments followed a news report that the U.S. was considering withdrawing a brigade from South Korea in the event that Seoul refused to accept Washington's demands for a more than fivefold increase in its financial contribution to the upkeep of the troops. The Pentagon slammed the report as having "absolutely no truth." Months later, in April, however, another report emerged that the U.S. could consider reducing troop levels in South Korea as a means to pressure Seoul in the cost-sharing negotiations. Asked to comment, Trump told reporters at the time that "it's not a question of reduction," "It's a question of will they contribute toward the defense of their own nation," he said. The two countries have struggled to close the gap in their negotiating positions, with the U.S. claiming that it has been flexible in cutting back its demand from the initial US$5 billion to $1.3 billion a year an increase of 50 percent from last year and Seoul insisting on a 13 percent increase. (Yonhap) After making it through decades of stereotyping as villains or tragic figures, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters often ended up being corralled into a relatively limited range of story lines involving a form of coming out, from sexual or emotional awakening to figuring out ones gender identity. Some of these stories have spawned artistically accomplished movies, of course, and they have provided necessary guidance, hope and succor for many viewers. At the same time, L.G.B.T.Q. characters are perfectly able to shoulder the broad range of narrative challenges routinely afforded their straight or cisgender counterparts. The past decade has seen a surge of films that have eschewed self-discovery narratives and propelled these characters into wonderfully complicated directions. In honor of Pride Month, here are nine worth watching. Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday addressed the West Bengal Jan Samvad rally - the third virtual address in a series of rallies that he started on Sunday. While Shah lauded the spirit of the people of West Bengal amid trying times marred by the Covid-19 pandemic and cyclone Amphan, he accused chief minister Mamata Banerjee for playing political games over the rights of the poor. Shah said West Bengal is the only state where political violence is propagated. The home minister paid tribute to the BJP workers who lost their lives in the political fight in West Bengal since 2014. He underscored the significance of the state and described it as the land of great leaders and intellectuals. Also read: West Bengal only state where political violence is propagated - Amit Shah Here are the top highlights from Amit Shahs virtual West Bengal rally: While democracy has strengthened its roots and has been consolidated in the entire country, West Bengal remains the only state where political violence is propagated, Shah said. Give Modi-ji a chance for corruption and violence-free Bengal, the minister stated. He accused the chief minister of insulting migrant workers. Youve rubbed salt into their wounds and they will not forget it, Shah stated. The minister added, Mamata ji, you referred to Shramik Special Trains as Corona Express. The name that you have given, Corona Express will become an exit express for the TMC in the state. Shah said Banerjee is not allowing the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Yojana in the state which has benefitted so many people across the country. I and the people of Bengal want to ask you this, why are you not letting it get implemented? Shah questioned. Mamata ji, do poor people of Bengal have no right to receive free and quality medical aid? Why is Ayushman Bharat scheme not allowed here? Mamata Ji, political games should not be played with the rights of poor people, Shah further added. Since 2014, over 100 BJP workers lost their lives in political battle here in West Bengal. I pay my respect to their families as theyve contributed to the development of Sonar Bangla (golden Bengal), he said. Gov. Tom Wolf announced today that five more COVID-19 drive-thru testing sites will open starting Wednesday in Walmart parking lots across the state. These additional testing sites help us further ramp up the states testing capabilities and make sure those who may have had access barriers to a COVID test can now get one easily and at no cost, Wolf said in a press release. We will continue to add testing sites so every Pennsylvanian who needs a test can get one. Quest Diagnostics and Walmart are working with the Pennsylvania Department of Health to provide testing for residents living in areas with limited access. On June 5, five testing sites opened at Walmart locations in Clarion, Erie, Montoursville, Clearfield and Hermitage to test Pennsylvanians for COVID-19, the release said. Beginning Wednesday these sites will be open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7 to 9 a.m. to test up to 50 registered patients daily. Registration is required one day in advance. There is no COVID-19 testing inside Walmart stores or Quest Diagnostics Patient Service Centers. The testing sites that will open Wednesday include: Walmart Supercenter parking lot, 167 Hogan Boulevard, Mill Hall Walmart Supercenter parking lot, 21920 Route #119, Punxsutawney Walmart Supercenter parking lot, 50 Foster Brook Boulevard, Bradford Walmart Supercenter parking lot, 10 Kimberly Lane, Cranberry Walmart Supercenter parking lot, 2901 Market St., Warren Additional testing sites will be announced in upcoming days and will be listed on the departments website , according to the release. Levine said in the release that anyone tested should return home and self-isolate, and to talk with a doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. Symptoms can include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, diarrhea, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, and loss or taste or smell. The Department of Health is partnering with Quest Diagnostics to process the tests. At this time, the tests are being provided at no charge. Patients can create an account by visiting www.MyQuestCOVIDTestPA.com, according to the release. Registrants will be notified of a testing location within a 50-mile radius of them with available appointment times. Patients schedule an appointment time, print a voucher and bring the voucher to the location with them to their appointment. Patients will receive an email with their test results within 24-48 hours, and physicians will call any patient who has a positive test result, according to the release. Rite Aid, CVS, Patient First, Walmart along with hospitals, health systems, federally qualified health centers, and health clinics all offer testing. Universal testing at long-term care facilities also has started. A repayment of taxes by Laois haulage firm is included in the more 100 million in taxes collected from January to March by the Revenue Commissioners. In the 3-month period to the 31 March a total of 675 Revenue audit and investigations, together with 20,762 Risk Management Interventions (aspect queries and profile interviews), were settled, resulting in yield of 107 million in tax, interest, and penalties. Revenue published the List of Tax Defaulters in respect of the period 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2020. Kerwin Heavy Haulage Limited, with an address in Boley, Abbeyleix, faced a bill of nearly 150,000. Of this 94,193.28 was unpaid tax while there was 26,602.78 in interest. The penalty for non-payment was 27,808.42. This brought to 148,604.48 the amount owed by the haulier. All had been paid by the end of March 2020. The company was penalised as a result of Revenue Audit Case for the under-declaration of PAYE/PRSI/USC and VAT. The biggest penalty on the published list exceeded 1 million. Michelle Forde of 89 Ennafort Park, Raheny, Dublin 5 owned 375,346 in unpaid tax. Interest was 431,506.74 while the penalty levied on the carer was 281,513.28. None of the total sum owed of 1,088,366.76 had been paid by the end of March 2020. The Revnue Commissioners publish the list in two parts. The Laois and Dublin cases were among a number of cases in part 2 of the list. Part 1: Persons in whose case the Court has determined a penalty relating to a settlement, or has imposed a fine, imprisonment or another penalty in respect of a tax or duty offence. FULL LIST HERE Part 2: Persons in whose case Revenue has accepted a settlement offer instead of initiating court proceedings, or a settlement has been paid in full. This list reflects the amount of a settlement that remained unpaid at the end of the period 31 March 2020. Unpaid amounts are subject to Revenues normal debt collection and enforcement procedures. FULL LIST HERE. EXPLAINER Part 1: Court Determinations Court Determination of Penalty: Subject to certain criteria, in settlement cases where there is no agreement to a penalty, or a person fails to pay an agreed penalty, the Court determines the penalty. Details are published when the Court determined penalty exceeds 15% of the total tax and the total of the tax, interest and penalty is more than 35,000 and a qualifying disclosure has not been made: Six such cases are published and 850,088 is the total amount of the Court determined penalty. Court imposed fine, imprisonment or other penalty: Details are published when a fine or other Court penalty is imposed in respect of tax or duty offences. Court penalties may include imprisonment, partly suspended or suspended sentences, community service in lieu of imprisonment, and closure orders. 137 such cases are published and 324,890 is the total of court fines imposed. These cases include: 66 cases of failing to lodge, or delivering incorrect, tax returns, failing to produce books and records, failing to remit VAT, and incorrectly claiming a VAT repayment. Court fines of up to 25,000 and a custodial sentence of up to 2 years were imposed; 43 cases of misuse of marked mineral oil, in respect of which Court fines of up to 17,500 were imposed; 28 cases of excise and licencing offences including, smuggling of tobacco, possession of untaxed tobacco for sale, failure to hold a liquor licence, possession of untaxed alcohol for sale and obstruction of a Revenue officer. Court fines of up to 5,000, 240 hours community service, 200 hours community service in lieu of imprisonment, four suspended sentences and one temporary closure order were imposed. Part 2: Settlements Settlements are published when the extensive voluntary disclosure options are not availed of and the default arises because of careless or deliberate behaviour: 35 cases are published today and 6,024,932 is the total settlement amount in these cases; 16 cases were for amounts exceeding 100,000 of which 2 exceeded 500,000 and 1 of which exceeded 1m; 12 are cases in which the settlement was not fully paid as at 31 March 2020; A total of 3,181,997 was the amount unpaid as at 31 March. Revenue vigorously pursues collection/enforcement of unpaid settlements. In some cases, collection/recovery of the full unpaid amount will not be possible (for example, company liquidation). Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that he is willing to work with his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte to continuously lift their countries' relationship of comprehensive strategic cooperation to new levels. "I attach great importance to the development of China-Philippines ties," Xi said when exchanging congratulatory messages with Duterte to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties. Both China and the Philippines are at a critical moment for development, Xi stressed in his message, noting that the two countries share broad prospects for cooperation. Xi said China feels empathy for the Philippines amid the COVID-19 epidemic, and is ready to work with the Philippine side to overcome the difficulties together. China and the Philippines are good neighbors with profound traditional friendship, Xi said, noting that over the past 45 years of diplomatic relations, China-Philippines ties have made remarkable progress. In recent years, in particular, Xi said, the two countries have deepened their political mutual trust, continuously expanded cooperation in various areas, and achieved fruitful results in Belt and Road cooperation, bringing concrete benefits to the two peoples and contributing to regional stability and development. In his message, Duterte said friendship and kinship between the Philippine and Chinese people have been lasting for a thousand years. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1975, the friendship between the two countries has developed steadily. Currently, global security and stability continue to face challenges and non-traditional security threats such as the COVID-19 epidemic have become increasingly prominent, he said, noting that it is of great importance to further consolidate Philippines-China partnership. Duterte said the Philippine side takes China as a close neighbor and an important partner, and is ready to deepen bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperation and facilitate peace, development and prosperity of the two countries by upholding the principle of peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation. London: Australian detectives helped prove that fragments found in the wreckage of MH17 and in victims' bodies came from a Russian-made Buk missile, a Dutch court has heard. Prosecutor Thijs Berger outlined the forensic investigation into the July 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in the District Court of the Hague on Monday (Tuesday in Australia). Sabine ten Doesschate, left, and Boudewijn van Eijck, lawyers for one of the four suspects, Russian Oleg Pulatov, are seen at the trial at the high security court building at Schiphol Airport, near Amsterdam. Credit:AP All 298 on board the plane were killed, including 38 people who called Australia home, when it was shot down in Ukraine, over an area where Ukrainian government forces were fighting Russian-backed rebels. Russians Oleg Pulatov, Igor Girking, Sergey Dubinsky and Ukranian Leonid Kharchenko are being tried in absentia in the Netherlands for murder and the destruction of a civilian airliner. The death of George Floyd at the hands of police should never have happened. It was murder and a dark moment in America. The looting, terrorism and burning of American cities by so-called protesters is criminal and a dark moment in America. The Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyds death must be held accountable. T he criminals involved in wrecking American cities, robbing and burning businesses must be held accountable. Americans have the right to free speech. Free speech does not mean destroying property, hurting police officers and criminal activities. The question many Americans are asking today is who is funding these criminal, terroristic riots that have happened across America? People are showing up from other cities and states to wreak havoc and chaos in American cities. Who is paying their travel? Who is providing their lodging? Who is paying them money? Are there really this many evil, bad people in America? Obviously, there are because the acts of violence displayed on national television are not coming from peaceful protesters. We have seen and heard about many peaceful protesters. Thousands of people have made their protests in a peaceful, honorable way. No one blames anyone for being upset and angry about what happened to George Floyd. It made me angry. I would be willing to march with anyone to cry out against such an act and event. Actually, I cried out against Floyds murder in last weeks column stating my feelings about his murder by the hands of the Minneapolis police officers. This column goes to thousands of media outlets. It was horrific and wrong and the officers must be punished. The looters and criminals who have vandalized and saw Floyds death as an opportunity to pursue criminal activity also must be put in jail and punished. America is in deep trouble. We are still in the middle of COVID-19 with the prospects of a fall resurgence. Unemployment soars. Businesses have closed and many are struggling to hold on. Economically our nation is buried. The future of our older generation is at great risk and the younger generation has not grasped yet what is really in store for them financially. The economic plight of this nation has put the realization of the American Dream at great risk for Americas children. We desperately need a revival of rightness in America. There was a day when people believed in strong morals, decency, respect and the Golden Rule. This rightness or rule must happen from all the politicians, to the police officers, to the protesters and to every person in America. The preachers in America must get this message out. The politicians must get this message out. We must put this message into our daily living. Or its over for America. Heres the rule again, Treat others the way you want to be treated. Glenn Mollette can be reached at GMollette@aol.com. President Donald Trump hosts a roundtable discussion with law enforcement officials on police and community relations in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington on June 8, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) Law Enforcement Officials Support Profession of Policing During Meeting With Trump In a round table meeting with President Donald Trump and White House officials on June 8, the law enforcement officials expressed their support for reforming the criminal justice system and the profession of policing in the wake of the protests around the country over George Flyods death in police custody. Looking at us as a profession, we recognize that its time for us to have some good, deep discussion and look within and find ways to improve the criminal justice system, said Patrick Heels, the national president of the Fraternal Order Police. Heels said that the last year had been a very tough time for law enforcement, having first to deal with the CCP virus pandemic, in which it lost 117 officers exposed to the virus across the country, and now, the social unrest sparked by the death of Floyd. I dont know a law enforcement officer across this country who is not just appalled by the incident that occurred in Minneapolis. But that one incident certainly doesnt reflect on the 800,000 men, women across this country who go to work every single day and try and make their communities better, said Heels when thanking Trump for the chance to have an in-depth dialogue on the current situation. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said that her state has been experiencing the lowest crime rate in 48 years, and that recent attacks on law enforcement and looting could dismantle all the progress made over many years. I believe that in any administration and any criminal justice system in any state, we can always make improvements, Moody said, adding that this didnt detract from the great myriad of things that the majority of law enforcement officials do for their community. I mean, if we expect great things, we have to support them. We have to ensure that theyre safe. At the same time, we must remain committed to improving our system, she said. US President Donald Trump (C) hosts a roundtable discussion with law enforcement officials on police and community relations in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, DC, June 8, 2020. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) Sheriff Tony Childress of Livingston County, Illinois, talked about a few specific reforms that he thinks would have a very important impact on law enforcement practices in his county. Some of the things we feel in Livingston County will be very important is mandatory de-escalation training for officers, the prohibition of all physical restraint maneuvers on or above the neck, any physical acts that reflect the flow of blood or oxygen to the brain, requiring all officers to render medical aid to all people, and requiring officers to intervene when physical forces are being applied to either stop or attempt forces that are being inappropriately applied, said Childress. The Livingston Country sheriff told Trump that he looks forward to working with the administration to make these things enforceable by law. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron told the round table that they have a responsibility to do it better. Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the Office of American Innovation, JaRon Smith, said that he lives in a paradox as a black American. He said his wife has experienced being afraid of venturing out of their house in Washington by herself, and that he has at times feared visiting certain neighborhoods and driving certain types of cars as an African American. But at the same time, Smith said he fundamentally believes that law enforcement is there to help and protect everyone. Theyre not to be demonized, he said. I have a lot of law enforcement individuals in my life, and theyre some of the greatest people Ive ever met, and we cant let some bad apples represent something that a core of every community, Smith said. Rohit Chavan is only two and a half months old, but he has already survived a ten-hour journey by road from Sangli in western Maharashtra to Mumbai amid lockdown, and then an open heart surgery. Now he is back in his village. It became possible because of coordinated efforts of doctors in the two cities and the Sangli district administration. Rohit was born on March 16, barely a week before lockdown to contain coronavirus was announced. He had transposition of great arteries, which meant the two main arteries were reversely connected with the heart chambers, resulting into the body getting low oxygenated blood, said Dr Laxmikant Magdum, medical officer of the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Mission for Sangli district. The complication was further escalated when the body scan revealed the lungs supplying purified blood were getting drained through the liver. It was the first such case in my entire professional life, he said. The baby was in dire need of oxygenated blood as well as corrective surgeries, so we contacted hospitals in Mumbai, he said. Rohits parents had taken him to the Sangli civil hospital after he became seriously ill, but the surgery which he needed could not be performed there. The only option we had was to shift the baby to Mumbai in the midst of coronavirus pandemic, said Dr Magdum. The officials in the Sangli district collectors office arranged ambulance transport for the baby patient. When asked how the family raised the funds for the treatment, Magdum said, Most of the cost was covered under the Union governments Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram. As we had no facility here for conducting open heart surgery, we recommended that the baby be taken to NH SRCC Childrens hospital in Mumbai, he said. The hospital in Mumbai, which is run by a charitable trust, agreed to bear some of the cost of the surgery. Before leaving for Mumbai, 380 km away, Rohit had to undergo a coronavirus test and get ascertained that he was not carrying the infection. During the journey, the doctors had to ensure that he was supplied with oxygen all the time. We equipped six ambulances with oxygen supply equipment, and they transported the patient from Sangli to Mumbai (in relay) which took over ten hours, Dr Magdum said. After undergoing the surgery in the third week of May, the baby and his parents stayed at the hospital for a few days before returning to their village. A China-Europe freight train fully loaded with 41 carriages of clothes, footwear, hats, mechanical equipment, plastic granulate, and anti-epidemic medical supplies recently departed from Xinzhu Station of Xian, capital of northwest Chinas Shaanxi province, for Hamburg, Germany. With the help of multimodal transport, the Chinese commodities have eventually entered a vast market in Europe. China has made all-out efforts to recover its exports amid the continuous efforts to prevent and control the COVID-19 disease, by introducing a series of preferential policies and encouraging its enterprises to explore new markets. Thanks to these measures, Chinas trade in goods has begun to recover. In April, the value of exported goods totaled 1.41 trillion yuan ($199.1 billion), up by 8.2 percent on a yearly basis, while that in May rose 1.4 percent year on year to 1.46 trillion yuan, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC). These figures stand as a contrast to the drop in the data in the first quarter of the year. The rebound demonstrates that the fundamentals of Chinas foreign trade remain unchanged. Qingdao Sanshuo Health Industry Development Co., Ltd., a sporting goods company in east Chinas Shandong province, has fully recovered production. The company has attracted many new European customers since April, and seen its orders signed till July, according to Yang Liyun, director of the international department of the company. In the medium and long term, the fundamentals sustaining the sound development of Chinas foreign trade remain unchanged. Since the beginning of this year, all local governments and relevant departments rolled out measures to facilitate resumption of production and work, in a bid to secure foreign trade. A total of 297,000 enterprises across the country had import or export activities in March, an increase of 53.4 percent compared to February, says the GAC. The recovery in exports also signaled the improvement in the competitiveness of the companies. We have almost worked overtime every day since resumption of work, said Pan Yanjun, president of Dingkang Science and Technology Co., Ltd. in east Chinas Zhejiang province. Pan thinks the success of securing orders can be largely attributed to the companys efforts in innovation, research and development. Through the continuous efforts in developing intelligent applications, the company aims to expand its presence in the market. In recent years, Chinas foreign trade companies have worked faster to bring in talents, upgrade technology and develop new products, gaining an edge over their international competitors. Amid the ongoing efforts of epidemic prevention, foreign trade companies accelerated their pace of upgrading and improvement to better ward off risks in the market. According to GAC statistics, export of electro-mechanical products in the first five months of the year registered 3.64 trillion yuan, among which the export of automatic data processing equipment and its components increased 1.8 percent year on year to 508.61 billion yuan. The sound momentum in export also arises from the strong support the strategy of market diversification offers for export. A few days ago, more than ten tons of pesticides produced by Hebei Veyong Bio-Chemical Co., Ltd in north Chinas Hebei province were transported to the port city Shanghai. The pesticides, whose final destination is Pakistan, would help the country cope with its locust plague. Standing at $24 million, our export in the first quarter of the year increased 16 percent year on year, introduced Yang Jianhui, deputy manager of the international department of the company. Chinese foreign trade companies have diversified their export markets and explored emerging markets such as countries along the Belt and Road, seeing more exciting opportunities for foreign trade. The value of imports and exports between China and countries and regions along the Belt and Road in the first four months of the year reached 2.76 trillion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 0.9 percent. In the foreseeable future, Chinas foreign trade still faces severe challenges of shrinking international markets and disrupted industrial and supply chains. That being said, Chinese enterprises have strong resilience and huge potential, as they have weathered the hardships in the international markets. In general, Chinas export firms have an acute sense of innovation, stable industrial and supply chains, and made remarkable progress in exploring emerging markets. Besides, policies to ensure stable foreign trade are being implemented and bearing fruits. All these have created conditions for further recovery of Chinas foreign trade. Following the validity granted to the D.El.Ed (open distance learning) programme through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in keeping with the Patna High Court order, Bihar government has issued directive to give such candidates a chance to apply for the post of primary teachers. The department of education on Monday issued a notification to this effect. The candidates having successfully completed the 18-month D.El.Ed programme and cleared teachers eligibity test (TET) or central teachers eligibity test (CTET) can now apply from June 15 to July 14, 2020. The first merit list will be published by July 23 and the recruitment process completed by August 31 upon verification of documents. Bihar government had last year in August issued advertisement for the recruitment of 94000 elementary teachers in the state and the process had reached an advance stage, but the primary education directorate letter denying eligibility to candidates having 18-month D.El.Ed programme citing NCTE norms was challenged in the HC. In 2019, the NCTE had stated that the 18-month D.El.Ed) course from NIOS was meant only for the in-service teachers and it could not be extended for future appointments in keeping with its regulations that mandate two-year course. In light of the NCTE stand, the directorate had clearly stated that certificates of the teachers/candidates working in government/ govt-aided / private unaided schools, who have completed D.El.Ed. training through NIOS during their service, will not be valid/ considered for selection of primary teachers in the government of Bihar. In January, the HC bench of Justice Prabhat Kumar Jha, however, ruled in favour of the candidates, setting aside the directorates letter in January this year, terming it illegal, unsustainable and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. The NCTE recognized one-time the course in D.El.Ed. conducted by NIOS. The relaxation of some period was only granted to the in-service teachers who had not obtained the required degree training course such as B.Ed./D.El.Ed. which is made minimum requisite qualification for appointment on the post of teachers in elementary and primary schools, but it is nowhere mentioned that the said course cannot be treated at par with the two years training course, the court had observed. It directed the state government to give the petitioners one-month time to apply. Later, additional chief secretary, department of education, RK Mahajan wrote to the NCTE for its response. NCTE replied that it would abide by the HC order. Nearly three-lakh teachers were enrolled with the abridged 18-month DLEd programme of NIOS. It is not known as to how many of them also possess TET/CTET qualification. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A mother whose husband was given one per cent chance of survival says seeking counselling helped her cope with her 'dark thoughts' while her partner battled coronavirus. Father-of-two Steve Banks, 44, from Essex, was rushed to hospital on 25th March by paramedics when his breathing deteriorated and within hours was put into an induced coma. The bodybuilder, who had no underlying health conditions, was left on a ventilator in intensive care for 50 days where doctors told Lisa he had a 'slim chance' of surviving - before making a miraculous recovery after seven weeks in hospital. Appearing on Good Morning Britain today, Lisa recalled how she was forced to tell her children that their dad 'may not be coming home', and said that she felt it was 'so important' she was able speak about her feelings without 'burdening' her family. Scroll down for video Lisa Banks (pictured) from Essex, whose husband was given one per cent chance of survival says seeking counselling helped her cope with her 'dark thoughts' while her partner battled coronavirus Father-of-two Steve Banks (pictured),44, from Essex, was rushed to hospital on March 25 by paramedics when his breathing deteriorated and within hours was put into an induced coma She said: 'My workplace offered counselling and they've been absolutely amazing. There were things I didn't want to talk to my family about, my dark thoughts. 'I didn't want to traumatise everyone, everyone was going through it and I didn't want to burden them. So speaking to a counsellor was very important to me.' Steve was initially taken to Basildon Hospital, Essex but was transferred to Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, where he was given a tracheotomy and put on a life-support machine. The mother was told to write letters to her husband, and was forced to give her children the option of visiting their dad in hospital if his condition worsened. Appearing on Good Morning Britain today, Lisa told host Lorraine Kelly (pictured) how she was forced to tell her children of their dad 'may not be coming home' The mother told she felt it was 'so important' she was able speak abut her feelings without 'burdening' her family She said: 'We were told by the hospital just prepare, the damage that's been done there's a very slim chance he will get better. 'They told us to write letters as you may not be able to be with him. It was really quite distressing, thinking something would happen to him . The worst bit was telling my children. 'Saying there is a real possibility your dad is not coming home, if we get the chance to come to the hospital, do you want to come with us? They both said no, they don't want to remember their dad that way.' When Steve finally woke up, while doctors and nurses around him were clapping to celebrate his miraculous recovery, he remembered nothing. Steve was initially taken to Basildon Hospital, Essex but was transferred to Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, where he was given a tracheotomy and put on a life-support machine I woke up in a different hospital, which was a weird thing for one', said Steve, 'I couldn't speak at the time. My eyes were wandering all over the place I had no idea what was going on, they were all celebrating.' When asked what he remembered from his ordeal, he said:'Nothing at all, apart from going into hospital. 'They rushed me through into the ward and they warned me to start breathing or we'll have to knock you out. 'I sent a couple of messages to my wife and I don't remember sending them. I can't praise the hospitals and the help they gave me.' The book is a confluence of aesthetic and analytics in theoretical biology, which continues to be somewhat inaccessible for many despite its significant contributions to the scientific understanding of nature, biology, and medicine. With The Art of Theoretical Biology, the editors Franziska Matthaus, Sebastian Matthaus, Sarah Anne Harris, and Thomas Hillen celebrate the diverse world of scientific data through showcasing compiled images from data analysis, numerical treatment of a model, or simulation results. Throughout the journey of their book, at the nexus of art and science, they communicate scientific knowledge and understanding through compelling images and visualize theoretical biology. The book is a collection of 71 contributions from more than 120 authors. Each contributing author provides a personal insight into the scientific aspect as well as a short explanation of the artistic vision displayed, in their own words. The reader is, therefore, able to discover the hidden beauty of roots, dives into landscapes of lymph nodes, which all symbolize how theoretical biology represents more than numbers and formulas. "The images show how beauty can arise in the darkest of places, such as in the breakdown of cell function during cancer, and how complexity generates richness in unexpected ways", the editors state. Their work is an inspiring contribution to visualize science creatively and through different eyes. It is suited to experts and non-experts alike as it makes things that are not easily accessible, like the field of oncology, more accessible. If one is open to view something through a different pair of eyes, one is open to a new way of thinking and to support discoveries. The images in the book expose how creativity, both in science and art, is essentially about advancing discoveries. ### About the editors The editors share a passion for data analysis and advancing science through data and mathematics. Franziska Matthaus holds the Giersch professorship in bioinformatics at the Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. She is interested in the chemical and mechanical regulation of cell motility and uses mathematical models to understand pattern emergence from internal regulation and cell-cell interaction. Sebastian Matthaus is an expert in illustration and animation and head of a graphic design firm in Berlin. Sarah Anne Harris is an associate professor of biological physics at the University of Leeds in the UK, and her research uses high-performance supercomputing to model how biological molecules move and interact. Thomas Hillen is a professor and Associate Chair at the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at the University of Alberta in Canada, and president of the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematical Society (CAIMS). He is interested in the mathematical modelling of cancer and virus infections. F. Matthaus, S. Matthaus, S. Harris, T. Hillen (Eds.) The Art of Theoretical Biology 2020, 162 p. 72 illus., 66 illus. in color Hardcover 32,99 | 27.99 | $39.99 | ISBN 978-3-030-33470-3 eISBN 978-3-030-33471-0 A 19-month-old girl who was accidentally run over in her family's driveway by her mum has been pictured for the first time. Aurora Ellis was killed after she was hit by a reversing Toyota LandCruiser Troop Carrier in Bayswater, Perth, at about 5.15pm on Saturday. Neighbours told 9News that they heard screaming coming from outside the home shortly after the collision. It is believed the toddler walked out on to the driveway but was not seen by the her mother behind the wheel. Matt Rann, a friend of the toddler's parents Preston and Lara, has created a GoFundMe page on behalf of the devastated family. Aurora Ellis (pictured) died after she was run over in her family's driveway by her mum 'On Saturday 6th June, beautiful 19 month old Aurora grew wings and flew from earth in an tragic accident that has left her little family broken,' the page says. 'Preston and Lara are the most genuine, giving and caring people around and now it's our turn to help them in the most generous way we can.' The fundraising page was launched to ease the financial burden on the family. It has has raised more than $26,000 in just one-day. 'This beautiful family need time to mourn and surround each other in love, without having the financial burdens of daily life and work commitments weighing on their minds,' the page says. 'We are hoping to raise enough money to help them celebrate Aurora's life and help pay the bills so they can grieve together, for as long as is needed.' Mr Rann referred to Roman Mythology, where Aurora is known as the 'goddess of dawn'. The little girl's mum was reversing her Toyota LandCruiser Troop Carrier (pictured) on Saturday 'May you continue to be light wherever there is darkness, and every sunrise be powerful reminder of your existence for the whole world to see!' he wrote. Mr Rann said Mr Ellis described his one-year-old daughter 'the little sun that shines so bright', Perth Now reported. 'She was known as Dad's little tradie assistant, he referred to her as, with her name meaning 'goddess of the dawn,' he referred to her as his little star, or his little sun, that shines so bright,' Mr Rann said. Donors also shared their condolences to the family and paid tribute to the little girl. 'Lara and Preston, our hearts are broken. We are so sorry. You are the most beautiful parents. Our love to you and your family,' one comment read. 'My heart is breaking for you guys. Sending so much love and strength your way,' another said. The accident happened in Bayswater, Perth, at about 5.15pm on Saturday Western Australia Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious. Scott Phillip, the CEO of child injury and accident prevention organization KidSafe WA, described the accident as a 'terrible tragedy', 9News reported. 'We need the community to get behind this family. This is an awful situation to be in,' he said. 'We really need to make sure where the children are before a vehicle moves. 'Children are very inquisitive and they explore and they want to be with the parent who's in the car.' A report will be prepared for the coroner. New chair Maeve Hunt with her father Seamus, who held the role in 1990 Northern Ireland faces the "challenge of a generation" as it confronts the economic difficulties of Brexit and Covid-19, a business boss has said. Maeve Hunt, new chairperson of Chartered Accountants Ulster Society, was speaking at its annual general meeting, which was held online. Ms Hunt is following in the footsteps of her father, Seamus, who chaired the society in 1990. She is the fourth woman to lead the organisation. Ms Hunt, who is employed as an associate director for audit and assurance at business advisory firm, Grant Thornton, said: "Around the world, people are still coming to terms with the impact and effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. "Our key aim will be to support our members and their pivotal role in business and the public sector during these unprecedented times. "Bouncing back from this health crisis while dealing with the realities of Brexit will be the challenge of a generation. "The skills and leadership of our profession are needed now more than ever. We will be there to give our support." Read More It comes as the economy marked another step towards reopening as small retailers were told by the Executive that they could reopen on Friday. Roger Pollen, head of external affairs at the FSB in Northern Ireland, said the announcement was welcome news. "Small businesses have been frustrated during lockdown to see larger businesses being able to continue to trade in products which they sell, while they were forbidden from opening. The Economy Minister's announcement will be music to the ears of many business owners, who are eager to open the shutters." He added: "At FSB, we have made the case throughout the coronavirus crisis that the criteria which determine whether a business can open should be focused on safety, rather than what you sell, or the size of your business. "We are grateful that the Executive has recognised this principle and small retailers will be relieved that they will soon be permitted to re-open their business, and play their part in re-starting the economy. We would also urge the public now to get behind our smaller businesses." Courtesy Carol Rosegg / Courtesy Carol Rosegg The musical Rent, which originally was scheduled to return to the Majestic Theatre May 1-3, has been rescheduled for next summer. The new dates are June 4-6, 2021. Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday called the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal a failure and sought a chance for Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to fix the problems faced by the state. Addressing a virtual rally, Shah called for a change in the state government, kicking off the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) campaign for 2021 Assembly election. Shah accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of indulging in violence, corruption, extortion, infiltration, terror, politics of appeasement and dynasty politics. He also stung Banerjee for opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and said that this move of her would turn her into a political refugee. Also Read: Key Highlights of Amit Shahs Virtual Rally Change is needed to take Bengal ahead. People who changed the communist rule expecting development are now saying that even the communists were better than TMC. You gave communists 34 years and 10 years to Didi. Now give a chance to Modiji and you will see. Bihar, from being a Beemaru state, is on the path of development since an NDA government took charge. Uttar Pradesh is moving ahead in just three years, Shah said. The home minister said that West Bengal was the only state which witnessed violence amid the Covid-19 lockdown. He also took swipes at the state government for being apathetic towards the migrant workers. This was Shahs third virtual rally in as many days. He had earlier addressed the people of Bihar and Odisha. The BJPs West Bengal unit and central office in New Delhi coordinated for the rally which was aired live on social media. Only BJP can change Bengal. I appeal to crores of people to give Modiji a chance for corruption and violence free Bengal, said Shah, adding, In those five years, you will see an end to violence, corruption, scam, extortion, terror, infiltration, and dynasty politics. If you want these, give Modi-ji the rights to take the steps. Alleging that the state government was indulging in appeasement politics, Shah said that priority was being given to one particular community. He also attacked the state government on the issue of bringing the migrant workers back. Bengal has so far accepted only 236 trains carrying three lakh people, whereas Uttar Pradesh has taken 1,700 trains for migrant workers. Bengal not only took less trains but Mamata Banerjee even called the Shramik Special trains as Corona Express. This is an outright insult to the migrant workers. They will surely avenge it, the home minister said. Political analysts found Shahs revival of the CAA issue intriguing. The CAA that offers citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from six neighbouring countries had turned into a subject of intense political tussle in West Bengal in the second half of 2019. The TMC, the Left and the Congress had targeted the BJP for dividing people and paving the path for harassment of millions. The BJP had then launched a high-voltage campaign supporting the CAA, arguing that millions of Hindu refugees from Bangladesh settled in West Bengal are to benefit from this new legislation. You are opposing CAA. You are opposing citizenship to the refugees from Bangladesh. When the ballot boxes open, you will find yourself in the position of a political refugee, Shah said attacking Mamata Banerjee. A few hours before Shahs rally, TMC took a jibe at the Centre. Respected @AmitShah Ji, Bengal has not heard you speak during these times of crisis, but we hope today you would take a minute to answer this: Are the Chinese occupying our territory or not? Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and TMCs youth wing chief, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning. After the speech, Banerjee tweeted, As usual the speech of @AmitShah Ji was all rhetoric and no substance. Nonetheless since he has talked about his dream of seeing EXIT of TMC, I would like to ask him one more time - When are the Chinese EXITING our territory #BengalRejectsAmitShah. As usual the speech of @AmitShah Ji was all rhetoric and no substance. Nonetheless since he has talked about his dream of seeing EXIT of TMC, I would like to ask him one more time - "When are the Chinese EXITING our territory"#BengalRejectsAmitShah Abhishek Banerjee (@abhishekaitc) June 9, 2020 TMC secretary-general and state education minister Partha Chatterjee wrote on Twitter, .@AmitShahs priorities are crystal clear even when the state is battling with a pandemic and a natural disaster. Bengal, remember the face of this man who is just hungry for your votes and nothing else. [June 09, 2020] OSE Immunotherapeutics Identifies Monoclonal Antibody Antagonists of CLEC-1 as New Checkpoint Inhibitors of Immune Myeloid Cells in Immuno-Oncology Oral and Poster Presentations at AACR Virtual Meeting II 2020 June 22-24 New myeloid immune checkpoint pathway identified and characterized Preclinical progress reported with CLEC-1 monoclonal antibody antagonists blocking the Dont Eat Me signal Antibody antagonists targeting this new immune checkpoint represent a novel approach in cancer immunotherapy NANTES, France, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OSE Immunotherapeutics (ISIN: FR0012127173; Mnemo: OSE) announces the presentation of the identification and characterization of a new myeloid checkpoint target, CLEC-1 (a C-type lectin receptor), and of the first monoclonal antibody antagonists of CLEC-1 identified as an innovative step in cancer immunotherapy, in both an oral(1) and a poster presentation(2) at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting II, to be held on June 22-24, 2020. Tumor cells inhibit myeloid cells phagocytosis through CLEC-1. The antagonists developed by OSE block the new CLEC-1/CLEC-1L myeloid checkpoint and constitute a novel cancer immunotherapy, in particular synergistic with chemotherapy. Nicolas Poirier, Chief Scientific Officer of OSE Immunotherapeutics, comments: We are very pleased to share the results of our research collaboration in the field of myeloid cells and macrophages. Our teams have characterized the myeloid checkpoint CLEC-1 as a new therapeutic target in immuno-oncology and identified monoclonal antibody antagonists blocking this novel Dont Eat Me signal that increase both tumor cell phagocytosis by macrophages and antigen capture by dendritic cells. The identification of CLEC-1 and its antagonists constitute an exciting innovative step in cancer immunotherapy. An oral presentation (1) by the Companys partner Dr. Elise Chiffoleau (Center for Research in Transplantation and Immunology, UMR - INSERM 1064, Nantes University Hospital) describes the identification of CLEC-1 as a novel myeloid immune checkpoint regulating anti-tumor responses. OSE Immunotherapeutics poster presentation(2) features its CLEC-1 antagonist monoclonal antibodies, which have been identified as an innovative immunotherapy that releases the brakes on macrophage phagocytosis and dendritic cells and demonstrates synergistic anti-cancer effects, in particular when paired with chemotherapy. (1) AACR Virtual Annual Meeting II oral presentation details CLEC-1 suppress dendritic cell antigen presentation and is a novel myeloid immune checkpoint target for cancer immunotherapy. Drouin M*, Saenz J*, Evrard B, Gauttier V, Teppaz G, Lopez-Robles MD, Louvet C, Poirier N*, Chiffoleau E* *authors contribute equally to this work (2) AACR Virtual Annual Meeting II poster details CLEC-1 is a novel myeloid immune checkpoint for cancer immunotherapy controlling damaged and tumor cells phagocytosis. Gauttier V*, Drouin M*, Saenz J, Evrard B, Mary C,, Teppaz G, Desalle A, Thepenier V, Wilhelm E , Poirier N*, Chiffoleau E* *authors contribute equally to this work ABOUT OSE Immunotherapeutics OSE Immunotherapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing and partnering therapies to control the immune system for immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases. The company has several scientific and technological platforms including neoepitopes and agonist or antagonist monoclonal antibodies, all ideally positioned to fight cancer and autoimmune diseases. Its first-in-class clinical and preclinical portfolio has a diversified risk profile: Tedopi (innovative combination of neoepitopes): the companys most advanced product; positive results for Step-1 of the Phase 3 trial (Atalante 1) in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer post checkpoint inhibitor failure; due to Covid-19, voluntary definitive suspension of new patient accrual in the Step-2 initially planned in the trial. In Phase 2 in pancreatic cancer (TEDOPaM, sponsor GERCOR) in combination with checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo . (innovative combination of neoepitopes): the companys most advanced product; (Atalante 1) in post checkpoint inhibitor failure; due to Covid-19, voluntary definitive suspension of new patient accrual in the Step-2 initially planned in the trial. In (TEDOPaM, sponsor GERCOR) in combination with checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo . BI 765063 (OSE-172, anti-SIRPa monoclonal antibody): developed in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim ; myeloid checkpoint inhibitor in Phase 1 in advanced solid tumors . (OSE-172, anti-SIRPa monoclonal antibody): developed in ; myeloid checkpoint inhibitor in . FR104 (anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody): positive Phase 1 results ; Phase 2-ready asset in autoimmune diseases or in transplantation . (anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody): ; . OSE-127 (humanized monoclonal antibody targeting IL-7 receptor): developed in partnership with Servier ; positive Phase 1 results ; two independent Phase 2 planned in ulcerative colitis (OSE sponsor) and in Sjogrens syndrome (Servier sponsor) to start in 2020. (humanized monoclonal antibody targeting IL-7 receptor): developed in ; ; two independent planned in (OSE sponsor) and in (Servier sponsor) to start in 2020. BiCKI : bispecific fusion protein platform built on the key backbone component anti-PD-1 (OSE-279) combined with new immunotherapy targets; 2 nd generation of PD-(L)1 inhibitors to increase antitumor efficacity . Additional innovative research programs . : platform built on the key backbone component anti-PD-1 (OSE-279) combined with new immunotherapy targets; 2 generation of PD-(L)1 inhibitors to increase . . CoVepiT: a prophylactic vaccine against COVID-19, developed using SARS-CoV-2 optimized neo-epitopes. First preclinical results expected start of H2 2020, possible clinical trial by year end. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, accrual of new patients in the clinical trial TEDOPaM is temporarily suspended and initiation timelines for both Phase 2 trials of OSE-127 could be impacted during the coming months. For more information: https://ose-immuno.com/en/ Click and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn https://twitter.com/OSEIMMUNO https://www.linkedin.com/company/10929673 Contacts OSE Immunotherapeutics Sylvie Detry [email protected] +33 153 198 757 French Media: FP2COM Florence Portejoie [email protected] +33 607 768 283 U.S. Media: LifeSci Communications Darren Opland, Ph.D. [email protected] +1 646 627 8387 U.S. and European Investors Chris Maggos [email protected] +41 79 367 6254 Forward-looking statements This press release contains express or implied information and statements that might be deemed forward-looking information and statements in respect of OSE Immunotherapeutics. They do not constitute historical facts. These information and statements include financial projections that are based upon certain assumptions and assessments made by OSE Immunotherapeutics management in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current economic and industry conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. These forward-looking statements include statements typically using conditional and containing verbs such as expect, anticipate, believe, target, plan, or estimate, their declensions and conjugations and words of similar import. Although the OSE Immunotherapeutics management believes that the forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, the OSE Immunotherapeutics shareholders and other investors are cautioned that the completion of such expectations is by nature subject to various risks, known or not, and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of OSE Immunotherapeutics. These risks could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in or implied or projected by the forward-looking statements. These risks include those discussed or identified in the public filings made by OSE Immunotherapeutics with the AMF. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. This press release includes only summary information and should be read with the OSE Immunotherapeutics Universal Registration Document filed with the AMF on 15 April 2020, including the annual financial report for the fiscal year 2019, available on the OSE Immunotherapeutics website. Other than as required by applicable law, OSE Immunotherapeutics issues this press release at the date hereof and does not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information or statements. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] New Delhi, June 9 : The German financial centre of Frankfurt will turn into a lifestyle and fashion hub with the 'Unveiling The Unexpected: Frankfurt Fashion Week' making its debut in Summer 202, its organisers said. Aimed at creating a brand-new ecosystem for tradeshows, conferences, runway shows and events for professionals and consumers in Frankfurt am Main, organisers Messe Frankfurt and the Premium Group said it will bring a huge boost to the local hotel, hospitality and transportation sectors. "This will transform the financial centre of Frankfurt into a new hotspot for the international fashion and lifestyle scene and create a new, international fashion metropolis. Organising a Fashion Week in Frankfurt presents a unique economic opportunity for the City of Frankfurt am Main. We are expecting positive knock-on effects with the generation of more than 200 million euros per year for our hometown and the region," Peter Feldmann, the Senior Mayor of the City of Frankfurt am Main, said at a press briefing. Frankfurt is renowned for its style-defining impact on art, architecture and design and its unique club, bar and restaurant scene. According to Feldmann, Frankfurt Fashion Week will now also increase the city's appeal as an international fashion hotspot. "An event like the upcoming Frankfurt Fashion Week is of huge economic significance for Frankfurt as a trade fair location. It is sending out an important and positive signal to an industry that has been particularly hard hit by the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic," says Tarek Al-Wazir, Hesse's Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Housing and Vice Minister-President. With five platforms, three trade shows, two conferences, over 2,000 designers, brands and fashion companies - Frankfurt Fashion Week is set to become an attractive and relevant destination for the international fashion business. "From skyscrapers, exhibition and concert halls and bars to clubs and off-locations - the whole city will become a stage for long-lasting business connections. Fashion, design, media, art and music - the runway shows and events of Frankfurt Fashion Week bring together Frankfurt's creative scene with the international fashion community. Progressively curated and presented, closely interwoven with local and international key players," organisers said. (Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Chennai, June 9 : Indian engineering multinational Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) on Tuesday said the 1,250 ton Cryostat base, the largest section of the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor, was successfully lifted and placed into a reactor building in France. According to L&T, the Cryostat base was made by its heavy engineering arm L&T Heavy Engineering. The assembly tools of Cryostat were delivered during the lockdown by the heavy engineering arm of Larsen & Toubro to ensure the uninterrupted assembly of Cryostat in the reactor pit in southern France. The Cryostat forms the vacuum-tight container surrounding the reactor vacuum vessel and the superconducting magnets and acts essentially as a very large refrigerator. The reactor base, the single largest and heaviest Tokamak component of the world's largest stainless steel, high-vacuum, pressure chamber Cryostat, will eventually contain the rest of the reactor. "We thank L&T for the timely deliveries, in the current difficult circumstances, of the Cryostat base alignment tool and shims which are critical to install Cryostat base, as brilliantly manufactured by L&T since 2015," Bernard Bigot, Director-General, International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), was quoted as saying in the statement. "This installation into the ITER Tokamak building is a significant activity for other downstream activities to achieve the mission for a First Plasma as soon as possible by the end of 2025. This could have been possible, amidst COVID-19 lockdown period, only due to the extraordinary dedicated efforts of L&T team and invaluable support of the Indian government authorities. L&T has always been a trusted partner in meeting the goals of ITER," he added. L&T also delivered the Lower Cylinder of the Cryostat in March 2019 and the Upper Cylinder in March 2020. The final part, the Top Lid Sectors, will be dispatched from Hazira in July 2020. The project scope for L&T Heavy Engineering is divided into three parts: Firstly manufacturing and shipping of all subassembly sections from L&T Hazira, Gujarat, then constructing a temporary workshop at the project site in France for assembling the Cryostat sections into large assemblies and lastly to integrate the Cryostat inside the Tokamak Reactor building. "ITER is a first of its kind futuristic global project. The Cryostat is the largest vacuum vessel ever built with 29.4 meters in diameter, 29 meters in height weighing 3,850 MT. Successful delivery of such complex projects is ingrained in L&T's culture," Anil V Parab, Executive Vice President and Head, L&T Heavy Engineering said. L&T's Heavy Engineering business won the contract in 2012. ITER India, a wing of the Department of Atomic Energy, is the overall in-charge of the Indian participation for this ambitious mega scientific project. India is among the seven elite countries funding the $20 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) programme in Cadarache, France. This is one of the world's largest research projects that seeks to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power. The winners of the 2020 Grand Finals of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Student Research Competition (SRC) were recently announced, capping a year-long competition in which 356 computer science students presented research projects at 22 ACM conferences. Peter Li of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); James Davis of Virginia Tech; and Hasindu Gamaarachchi of the University of New South Wales took the top three places among graduate students. Zhaowei Xi of Tsinghua University; Alexander Zlokapa of the California Institute of Technology; and Ocean Hurd of the University of California, Santa Cruz took the top three spots among undergraduates. Microsoft sponsors the SRC by providing travel grants of $500 to allow exemplary computing students to attend and present their research at major ACM computing conferences around the world. Through the Student Research Competition, each participating student has the unique opportunity to attend conference sessions, gain a new understanding of the practical applications of computer science scholarship, and share their own research with other students, conference attendees and eminent scientists and practitioners. For most students, the ACM Student Research Competition is their introduction to participating in premier computing research conferences. "This is the 17th year we've had the honor of recognizing outstanding graduate and undergraduate talent through the ACM Student Research Competition," said ACM President Cherri M. Pancake. "Each year, the program grows, both in terms of student participation and the number of ACM conferences attended. It's obvious that students like this unique challenge of their ability to undertake leading-edge research, while also honing their presentation skills in front of peers and experts in their fields. The students are also initiated into all that ACM has to offer by being granted ACM student memberships. We thank Microsoft for partnering with us to make this vital program possible." "Microsoft is proud to support the ACM Student Research Competition as it cultivates the next generation of computing professionals." said Evelyne Viegas, Senior Director of Global Research Engagement at Microsoft Research. "Students remark upon the sense of accomplishment they experienced from being part of a major research conference, presenting their work, and meeting top researchers, as well as like-minded peers in their own age group. We congratulate this year's winners, as well as all the students who participated. We hope involvement in the Student Research Competition will be a source of inspiration as these young professionals launch their careers." Judges assess each presenter's demonstrated knowledge, the caliber of student contributions to the research and the overall quality of their oral and visual presentations. The most successful student researchers move through the competition's stages. In the first stages, their research posters and presentations are evaluated for content and presentation. During the Grand Finals, the students share a written 4,000-word description of their work before the final step of the competition, when an entirely new panel of judges evaluates each student's complete body of work and selects the overall winners. The 2020 Student Winners: Graduate Category First Place: Peter Li, MIT, SIGMICRO 19, for his research project, "A Mutual Information Accelerator for Autonomous Robot Exploration" Second Place: James Davis, Virginia Tech, ESEC/FSE 19, for his research project, "On the Impact and Defeat of Regex DoS" Third Place: Hasindu Gamaarachchi, University of New South Wales, ESWEEK 19, for his research project, "Real-time, Portable and Lightweight Nanopore DNA Sequence Analysis Using System-on-Chip" Undergraduate Category First Place: Zhaowei Xi, Tsinghua University, SIGCOMM 19, for his research project, "High-performance Flexible Packet Generator Using Programmable Switching ASIC" Second Place: Alexander Zlokapa, California Institute of Technology, SC 19, for his research project, "A deep learning approach to noise prediction and circuit optimization for near-term quantum devices" Third Place: Ocean Hurd, University of California, Santa Cruz, ASSETS 19, for her research project, "Insights for More Usable Virtual Reality Games for People with Ambylopia" ### About the ACM Student Research Competition The ACM Student Research Competition (SRC), sponsored by Microsoft, offers a unique forum for undergraduate and graduate students to present their original research at well-known ACM sponsored and co-sponsored conferences before a panel of judges and attendees. The SRC is s a joint venture of ACM and Microsoft, which has provided generous funding of $120,000 per competition year for this event since 2003. The top three undergraduate and graduate winners at each SRC receive prizes of $500, $300, and $200, respectively (USD), an award medal and a one-year complimentary ACM student membership with access to ACM's Digital Library. 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. By Laman Ismayilova President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order about the establishment of Beshbarmag Mountain State History, Culture and Nature Reserve. The territory of the Beshmarmag mountain (Five Fingers) located in Siyazan's Galashikhi village has been declared as Beshbarmag mountain State History and Culture and Nature Reserve. According to the order, the State Tourism Agency will ensure management of the reserve. The Cabinet of Ministers is entrusted to determine border and protection zone of Beshbarmag Mountain State History, Culture and Nature Reserve within two months in cooperation with the State Tourism Agency, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and Siyazan Regional Executive Power. A special regime should be established on the territory of the Reserve within three months. The Cabinet of Ministers is entrusted to inform the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev about the work carried out in this direction and solve other issues arising from this order. The required necessary expenses will be allocated from the funds provided for the State Agency for Tourism in the state budget of Azerbaijan for 2020. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz India opened up restaurants, shopping malls and places of worship today even as it recorded a record-high 9,971 new coronavirus cases, the third-most worldwide behind Brazil and the U.S. Why it matters: Lockdowns are being lifted in South Asia home to one-quarter of the worlds population not because countries are winning the battle against COVID-19, but because they simply can't sustain them any longer. Flashback: For a time, South Asia was cited as a source of optimism because relatively few cases and deaths were being recorded despite large, dense populations. Lockdowns came relatively early, with varying severity (Indias was considerably stricter than Pakistans, for example). Outbreaks have continued to accelerate, however. Pakistans daily case count is now on par with the U.K.'s and six times Germany's, adjusted for population. Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Chart: Naema Ahmed/Axios Limited testing means South Asia's outbreaks could actually be far more severe. India, for example, is testing at one-twentieth the rate of the U.S. John Clemens, an epidemiologist at ICDDR,B (formerly the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh), estimates that Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, may have up to 750,000 cases 12 times the official tally, per the Economist. The official numbers still show India, Pakistan and Bangladesh with the third-, seventh- and tenth-most new cases in the world over the past three days, respectively. Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor at the University of Michigan who has been modeling India's outbreak, tells Axios that while some states have hit initial peaks, she doesn't expect a national peak until late July or August. While the transmission rate has slowed, "you see this steady rise in cases because the population is so large." She expects the numbers to fall slowly after the peak, unlike the trajectory in Europe. The numbers can be unreliable, Mukherjee says, with some states fearing that testing symptomatic people will cause them to "look bad" as cases rise. She also worries that India didn't use the lockdown period to build up testing and hospital capacity. "It's really chaos unfolding in Mumbai and Delhi, and I think unfortunately India is going to be at the top of the list in terms of cases," she says. Zoom in: Mumbai has launched an app to help people locate hospitals with empty beds, but such is the scarcity that theyre often full by the time patients arrive, WSJ reports. Some die without ever receiving treatment. Morgues are overfull t00. There are reports of patients being treated in rooms that also contain dead bodies. Public hospitals in Delhi, home to 26 million people, are also reportedly full and turning people away. The coronavirus likely arrived in Mumbai with wealthy people returning from abroad, before spreading among poorer people and to slums where social distancing is hardly an option. That pattern has been seen elsewhere in the developing world, including in cities like Rio de Janeiro. There's an additional complication in India's case, though. After initially failing to account for migrant workers when implementing the lockdown, the government started to transport them to their home villages on special busses and trains. The virus traveled too. 71% of cases recorded in Bihar, a state in eastern India, have been linked to returning workers, Foreign Policy reports. The bottom line: South Asian governments attempted to balance health and hunger, knowing they could only shut down their largely informal economies for so long. TORONTO - Small business owners have spent months urging the Ontario government to hear their pleas for a temporary ban on commercial evictions, but some say the answer they've received doesn't go nearly far enough. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A restaurant in Toronto displays a "Take Out Only" sign on March 18, 2020. The Ontario government is putting a temporary ban on commercial evictions to help small business owners who are struggling to pay their rent amid the COVID-19 fallout. Doug Ford outlined the details at a press conference, saying the moratorium applies to small businesses who qualify for the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program, where their revenues have dropped at least 70 per cent due to the pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn TORONTO - Small business owners have spent months urging the Ontario government to hear their pleas for a temporary ban on commercial evictions, but some say the answer they've received doesn't go nearly far enough. A provincial order to protect entrepreneurs from eviction for the next three months is a welcome move, said bar owner Christopher Hudspeth, but it doesn't address the likelihood that many businesses will still be struggling at the end of the summer when it expires. "It's a little late and only for a short period of time," said Hudspeth, who owns Toronto's Pegasus on Church. Ontario premier Doug Ford on Monday announced the eviction moratorium, which applies to small businesses who qualify for the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program (CECRA), where their revenues have dropped at least 70 per cent due to the pandemic. The ban is retroactive to June 3, but ends on Aug. 31. "We'd rather see that go to the end of the year to give people the ability to restart," Hudspeth added. "I think that's going to be when some people still have the potential of getting into trouble with being able to pay rent." Other provinces introduced eviction bans in recent weeks, but the length of the support structure varies, with an option to extend some windows. In British Columbia, the policy introduced June 1 only lasts until the end of the month, while Quebec's expires on Aug. 1. 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. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says details are coming next week on legislation to address businesses facing eviction due to the COVID-19 pandemic in his province. A gradual resumption of Canada's economy has been widely anticipated by economists, but some business owners say the pace of a comeback doesn't appear to be factoring into the decisions being made by leaders. A survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business found that 44 per cent of small businesses have reopened, an increase from 38 per cent two weeks ago, but that normal sales volumes are only 15 per cent of their pre-crisis levels. "Business is not going to return as quickly as it as we'd want it to," said Gilleen Pearce, co-ordinator at Better Way Alliance, which advocates for a group of small businesses in Ontario. "(The measures) need to take into account not just when the stages of reopening happens, but the number of months that we'll need to get back into the swing of things, economically and financially." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2020. This Naval Academy Alumni Association Board of Trustees member did not wait to be put on the hot seat any longer. After his accidental live broadcast on Facebook on Saturday, he resigned from his position. According to reports, the resignation came after "an accidental Facebook Live video" broadcasted 63-year-old Scott Bethmann and his wife, Nancy while they were making racist remarks and "using racial slurs" while they were conversing about the Black Lives Matter movement. According to The Florida Times-Union, and a video that was spread on social media showed, the couple was making racist comments and using slurs in a video which they appeared not to notice, was streaming on Facebook Live. Bethmann explained, he somehow "clicked onto some live event." When the more-than-half-an-hour stream, displaying mostly black screen ended, this ex-Board of Trustees member realized he was broadcasted live. He then started to read the comments aloud and asked, what the people commenting were talking about before mumbling, "Oops." and eventually, cutting the feed. Residents Quick to Take Screen Recordings Residents of Atlantic Beach and Jacksonville were quite fast to take screen recordings of Bethmann's video Friday night before his Facebook page was taken down entirely. Such recordings have been posted, forwarded and shared on different social media platforms, and were re-posted many times, according to news reports, "In an Atlantic Beach community Facebook group." According to USNA Alumni Association Jacksonville chapter president, Caleb Cronic, Bethmann has resigned from his position "as a local Board of Trustees member" both nationally and locally. Incidentally, Bethmann is also an Atlantic Beach Country Club member. The video was reviewed by the Times-Union, and here, Bethmann was heard talking about the manner major companies come out and share how they condemn racism Taking the Appropriate Actions Also, part of the video showed the pair talking about how minority groups, specifically women in the military, would "steal our intellectual property." Commenters were wondering if the seeming bias of Bethmann might have impacted the recruit's promotions of Naval, or former career courses. Aside from his resignation as a member of the Naval Academy Alumni Association Board of Trustees, Cronic confirmed too, that Bethmann was "disenrolled" as well, as an alumni association member. Meanwhile, in a statement, Retired Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III said, the attributed remarks are not representing the Alumni Association's values and missions, the US Navy or the Naval Academy. Locklear also continued that "as volunteer leaders in our communities" they must inspire and set good examples for all citizens. And, as the Alumni Association's chairman, he said, he has accepted this alumnus' resignation effective today. He also urged the Jacksonville chapter to act upon the appointment of a new Chapter Trustee. He also said that the alumni association is representing over 65,000 people from different perspectives and backgrounds. Also, according to Locklear, his group supports the mission of the Naval Academy. And, as alumni, he continued, they "seek to uphold" the academy's "core leadership values of honor, courage and commitment." Check these out! Like many, technology has come in very handy for actor Tanuj Virwani in this lockdown as it is helping him stay in touch with his mother, yesteryear actor Rati Agnihotri. She is in Poland right now, and cant come back until the situation gets better. Unfortunately, my mum is not here in Mumbai, half of her time is spent in Poland where my maasi stays. They have set up a bunch of restaurants there. She left two weeks before the lockdown was imposed here. We are hoping things improve, and international travel would resume by the time she wants to come back. I wouldnt say she is stuck, because she is doing her work, but thank God for technology, I feel I am connected with her. This is a time when you want to be with your near and dear ones. Right now, its just my dad and me, tells us the 33-year-old. The situation in Poland certainly stressed Virwani out initially for his mother. Some parts were little bad, there was some spike in cases as well. She lives in this port city, which is just half-an-hour drive from Berlin, Germany. As a preventive measure, they had shut down all restaurants. From May 18, they went to business as usual, he adds. Back home here, the actor says he had no sense of purpose for the first few days in the lockdown. I was busy shooting non-stop since January, and all of a sudden we knew something is going to come up, but we didnt know it would be for this long. Essentially, everybodys been grounded, cant meet friends and family, there is a lot of doubt and uncertainty out there. The only way to connect is video calls and online. Its become quite crazy. I live in Worli, Mumbai, which has emerged as one of the hotspots in the city. Its a bit unnerving to be surrounded by slums. You dont know, this virus is not going to knock at the door, it will come wherever it likes to, he tells us. But he says he soon came to the realisation that this isnt something that is going to get back to normal anytime soon. Its not a matter of days and weeks, I have made my peace with it. I strongly believe we should adhere to social distancing. Until theres a vaccine, we cant go back to any semblance of normalcy, Virwani says. Follow @htshowbiz for more An employees at the Delta Air Lines helps a customer at a nearly deserted Los Angeles International Airport on April 16, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. David McNew | Getty Images Thousands of U.S. airline employees are being forced to play a game of chance with their careers. Airline executives are urging employees from flight attendants to mechanics to marketing managers to consider voluntary separation or early retirement packages, an effort to slash expenses after air travel demand plunged this year, hitting the lowest levels since the 1950s in April. Labor is generally airlines' biggest cost and U.S. passenger carriers' ranks rose by 20% over the past decade to 459,000 people, according to federal data. "I am not ready to say goodbye to my career," said a Newark, New Jersey-based flight attendant at United Airlines, who said she hasn't taken any of the voluntary options. Airline CEOs have warned that they expect to be running smaller airlines, requiring fewer employees and said they want to avoid involuntary cuts like furloughs and layoffs. The industry is losing money for the first time in years because of the coronavirus pandemic. United's new CEO, Scott Kirby, who took the reins in May, said last month that he wants to work with unions to help lower the airline's labor costs to prevent furloughs. "If we can keep them kind of on the sidelines a little bit while we get through the crisis then when there is a recovery, and there will be a recovery ... we can snap back quickly," he said. Southwest, for its part, is trying to avoid its first furloughs and layoffs in its 49 years of flying, through buyouts and other voluntary measures. Time is running out The clock is ticking. The terms of a $25 billion federal aid package prohibit airlines from laying off or cutting employee pay rates before Oct. 1, and some airlines are giving rank-and-file employees until this month to decide on taking a buyout. If not, the workers will have to see if their jobs will be eliminated this fall after the terms of the aid expire. Airlines have parked hundreds of planes and have slashed their schedules to cut costs. Travel demand has started to perk up in recent weeks as states lift shelter-in-place orders aimed to stop the spread of the virus and the peak spring and summer travel season gets underway, but it is still less than a fifth of last year's levels. Airline chiefs have recently said they don't foresee a quick bounce back in demand to what they enjoyed last year, when U.S. carriers flew a record 946 million passengers, according to the Department of Transportation. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards Holding on Some airline employees, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are worried about jeopardizing their jobs, said they found voluntary separation or similar packages a tough sell. Since the entire airline industry is hurt by the pandemic, they can't up and leave for another carrier, and unemployment, while it improved last month, is still high in the U.S. Plus, seniority is a pillar of front-line aviation workers like pilots and flight attendants, so even if they could find another job, starting over elsewhere would mean giving up the perks of years worked, like choice destinations and schedules. "I felt it's better to be an active employee rather than to not be ... and I felt I had a bit more control over my income with my company rather than with unemployment insurance," said a more than 30-year United flight attendant who decided against taking any of the voluntary options. United, Delta, American and Southwest have offered these voluntary separation packages to at least some of their employees. During the winter, as the coronavirus began to spread in the U.S., airlines also offered temporary, partially paid or unpaid time off in their initial effort to cut costs. More than 120,000 people volunteered for some from of leave across American, Delta and United, more than 30% of their employees. 'One more storm' "This is the job I'm going to retire at," said a Seattle-area based Alaska Airlines flight attendant. "This is just one more storm we have to weather." She said she volunteered for an unpaid month off because she has a two-income household. "There is the overwhelming feeling that furloughs are inevitable and maybe my one month-leave can save a job down the road," she said. "It may even save my own job." A six-year Miami-based American Airlines flight attendant said he won't take any of the voluntary options. "I'll be really honest, my answer is a hard no," he said. "As much as we bitch about it, we absolutely love this job." The permanent separation packages vary, but airlines are offering years of continued free flights, based on availability of open seats, and health-care coverage. Southwest, for example, is offering cash severance based on years worked, a year of company-paid health care and four years of travel privileges, for those who put their hands up to leave voluntarily. Employees who have worked at the Dallas-based airline for a decade or more qualify for 12 months of pay, "in appreciation for their service to Southwest Airlines," a spokeswoman said, adding that the programs "are the most generous packages ever offered in Southwest's history and will assist with matching staffing levels to the current decline in demand due to COVID-19." Weighing the risks Some employees don't want to take their chances. "I took it because if I'm being realistic, I don't think many people are going to (or want to) take the voluntary leave," said one American Airlines manager, who volunteered for a buyout. "The risk ratio is way too high." American is planning to reduce its management and administrative employee head count by about 30%, a similar percentage that United is targeting, and equal to a reduction of about 5,000 jobs. The Fort Worth, Texas-based airline is offering up to 10 years of travel benefits and a third of pay through Sept. 30, or five years of travel for a third of pay through December and warned employees last month that there would be no severance if they are laid off. Those workers will have until Wednesday to apply. The carrier recently outlined severance packages for high-level employees, according to people familiar with the matter. Both American and United are reducing their numbers of officer-level positions and reorganizing their upper ranks. 'Attractive to someone' Delta, which is the least unionized of the major airlines, has been negotiating early retirements and other options with the union that represents its more than 13,000 pilots. The union has pushed for reduced-pay leaves to save money but hadn't reached an agreement with the company by early June. "We're getting into the late innings of the ballgame," said Chris Riggins, a Delta pilot and spokesman for the Atlanta-based airline's chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. Unlike during previous downturns, companies like airlines are using a variety of measures to reduce their labor costs, instead of just layoffs, noted Tom McMullen, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry. "Depending on where you are in your life or career, this is probably attractive to someone who's close to retirement," he said. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards "We will need to make sure that we rightsize our company accordingly," American's CEO, Doug Parker, said on a May 27 investor webcast about potential cuts when the federal aid terms expire. "So we're going to try to do that in a way that hopefully, we wouldn't even have to furlough anyone." While airlines can't furlough or lay off workers before Oct. 1, employees may get notice in the summer about the cuts. Airlines aren't the only companies in aviation hurting from the toll of the coronavirus on travel. Boeing is cutting 10% of its 160,000-person workforce and in addition to offering buyouts and other options, announced initial layoffs of close to 7,000 people last month, as it faces a dismal market for new planes. General Electric, which makes engines for both Boeing and Airbus planes, is cutting about 25%, or roughly 13,000 jobs, from its aviation unit. Some airline employees say they are adjusting their spending to prepare for the worst and are starting to think of contingency plans such as other fields of work or moving to other cities. "My plan is to save, save, save," said the six-year, Miami-based American Airlines flight attendant. A four-year Delta pilot said he is forgoing a vacation to the Middle East, scrapping plans to build a deck for his house and putting off a paint job for his vintage Volkswagen camper. A nearly three-decade United employee who works in the union that represents customer and fleet service workers looked back at other moments of turmoil in the industry: the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, a wave of bankruptcies and mergers, and the Great Recession. "This is the first time I've really been scared about what our future will be like," she said. She said she is not planning to apply for a voluntary separation package but said she and her husband, another United employee, have discussed whether he would have to move if he gets a post in another base. One consideration is their junior high school-aged child. "Do we go as a group? Split up? Do you try commuting? It's a really big decision," she said. "This is the first time he and I have ever had to look at this." Pay rate controversy While the $25 billion set aside for U.S. passenger airlines in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act that Congress passed in March doesn't allow airlines to furlough, lay off or cut the pay rates of their workers, carriers including Delta, United and JetBlue have reduced worker hours, meaning smaller paychecks, as flying and revenues declined. The practice has drawn scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers and at least one Republican senator who contend this violates the spirit of the law. A group of Democratic senators, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to clarify that they cannot do this. Warren and several other Democratic lawmakers wrote to CEOs at Delta and JetBlue, which is also mostly not unionized and therefore can more easily cut hours, to answer for the hours reduction. Delta cut most workers' schedules by 25%. The Treasury Department declined to comment. "Not only was there little work to be done, it was dangerous to keep Delta employees unnecessarily in large public spaces during a raging pandemic," Delta's CEO, Ed Bastian said in a letter responding to Warren. "The lack of travel resulting from government mandates and health advisories forced a reduction in hours for our pilots and flight attendants as well. Consistent with the requirements of the CARES Act, Delta employees continue to be paid at the same rate of pay." 'The best gig in the world' California residents are being advised to remain at home unless you're an essential worker or are headed to a store to stock up on food and other resources. The coronavirus pandemic has taken somewhat of a backseat with all of the protests happening across the nation but it still poses a major threat to those at risk. Kylie Jenner ignored that when she partied at a Los Angeles nightclub until 1 AM. On Sunday, Kylie Jenner was a guest at Bootsy Bellows with her friend Fai Khadra and neither of them were wearing protective face masks. According to Daily Mail, the pair was there until late at night, ignoring social distancing guidelines as the spot appears to have been opened solely for their party. The club is re-opening its doors for celebrity clientele after being shut down for the last couple of months due to COVID-19. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Prior to their fun night out, Kylie and Fai reportedly chowed down at Nobu, a popular restaurant in Malibu. Kylie Jenner has urged her fans to stay home and, because of her late-night out, she has earned a lot of backlash by fans who are calling her a hypocrite. Recently, the makeup mogul was stripped of her Youngest Self-Made Billionaire title by Forbes, who claims that she fabricated a "web of lies" and failed to declare her actual earnings. [via] A SAGE scientist today criticised the Government's decision to leave out the word 'isolate' from its coronavirus Test and Trace programme, claiming it will lead to less compliance. Professor Susan Michie, a psychologist at University College London, said isolating cases was the most vital part of the system and not including it in the title of the UK's flagship scheme was 'puzzling'. Professor Michie, also director of UCL's Centre for Behaviour Change and a member of SAGE, said the decision to leave out 'isolate' sent mixed messages to the public and could lead to Britons ignoring that aspect of the programme. Experts believe a fully functioning test and trace programme and high compliance from the public will be critical if the UK is to avoid a second wave of coronavirus as life slowly begins to revert to normal. Meanwhile, a leading epidemiologist warned a second lockdown is 'inevitable' in the winter unless the UK's testing capacity is ramped up dramatically because up to 500,000 people each day may have Covid-like symptoms in the colder months and need a test. Susan Michie, professor of health psychology at University College London and a member of SAGE, criticised the Government's decision to abandon the word 'isolate' from its Test and Tract programme, claiming it will lead to less compliance The NHS Test and Trace programme launched last week, but the crucial word 'isolate' has been left out of the title Currently Brits who have been in close contact with infected patients are being told to self-isolate for 14 days, even if they show no symptoms. There is growing concern that people will ignore self-isolation rules as society opens up. Professor Michie said her UCL team made it abundantly clear that straightforward, clear communication was needed to keep the public adhering to Covid-19 rules as lockdown eases and compliance dwindles. But there has been a 'disconnect' between the advice given to the Government and the public health messages being delivered to the public, she claims. Professor Michie told the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee today: 'The other thing that is very puzzling to me is why the government has called it Test and Trace, when the World Health Organization (WHO) and many other countries call it Test, Trace and Isolate. 'Because without isolation all of the rest of it is for nothing. We absolutely need the isolation. And if one doesn't have it in the label of the system, it's not communicating that this is a vital part of it. 'We already know there are going to be really big difficulties with isolation if people are being asked to stay home for 14 days and not go to work, this is a big financial penalty.' Also at the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee: SAGE scientists revealed they ditched the idea of 'social bubbles'after the scheme failed in New Zealand and models showed it would spike cases in the UK; Leading experts called for Covid-19 swabs to be sent to Britons isolating under the UK's test and trace programme to incentivise people to stay at home; Two third of Covid cases in the UK will go missed under the test and trace scheme because it only picks up on symptomatic people, scientists warned; Ministers were encouraged to 'own up' to their mistakes during the response to the crisis to build up trust with the public in case a second lockdown is needed. Professor Andrew Hayward, director of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, told Peers today that the current test and trace system is not sufficient enough to see the UK through the winter NHS Test and Trace launched without the new NHSX app, which uses Bluetooth technology to alert people when they've been close to a Covid-19 patient What is the NHS Test and Trace system? Anyone who develops Covid-associated symptoms is being told to self-isolate and get tested under the test and trace scheme. Close contacts of those who are found to be positive for the disease are then told to quarantine for 14 days - even if they test negative and are not sick. Boris Johnson's government has hired an enormous army of 50,000 people who will attempt to make this huge undertaking possible. Around 25,000 are contact tracers who will contact people who return positive coronavirus tests to grill them on their movements and their known associates. The idea is to build a picture of who they have come into contact with and so who might be at risk of a) becoming ill and b) passing it on to more people. Another 25,000 people in the scheme are testers, who will go out into the community and test these known associates. Either way, these known associates will be under orders to immediately quarantine, even if the tests they return are negative. Baroness Dido Harding, executive chairwoman of NHS Test and Trace, said the scheme was central to easing the lockdown further. She said: 'NHS Test and Trace is designed to enable the vast majority of us to be able to get on with our lives in a much more normal way. 'We will be trading national lockdown for individual isolation if we have symptoms. 'Instead of 60 million people being in national lockdown, a much smaller number of us will be told we need to stay at home, either for seven days if we are ill or 14 days if we have been in close contact.' The UK's coronavirus tracing programme will be split into two parts. Part One: People will be ordered to self-isolate for seven days if they develop symptoms. Anyone in the same household will have to do the same. Those people should then order a coronavirus test online or by calling 119. This will be available for residents in Wales from Saturday. If a test is positive, that victim must complete seven days in isolation. If the test comes back negative, no one needs to self-isolate. However, people with a positive test for Covid-19 will then be contacted via text message or email or by phone and told to answer questions. They will be asked to share phone numbers and email addresses for close contacts. For those under 18, they will receive a call from the team and a parent or guardian must give permission for the call to continue. Part Two: People who have been listed as a person with whom a coronavirus victim has had close contact will receive a text message or an email. They will then be asked to self-isolate for up to 14 days based on when they last came into contact with that person. Other household members do not need to self-isolate unless symptoms are present. If they develop Covid-associated symptoms, all other household members should self-isolate and they should then order a test. If the test is positive, self-isolation must continue for seven days. If the test is negative, that person should still complete 14 days in case the virus is not showing. Advertisement Test and trace requires people with symptoms to self-isolate and get tested. If they test positive their close contacts are then tracked down and also told to self-isolate. The system is designed to break the chain of transmission as quickly as possible in order to squash potential outbreaks and stop them from escalating. Professor Michie's team at UCL has been feeding the results of behavioural studies into SAGE to help steer its own scientific advice to the Government. But she claims there has been a 'lack of transparency' about what scientific advice is being used to guide policymakers. She told the committee: 'We've published many dozens of papers and they are presented to SAGE. But we don't have any feedback as to where those papers go or whether the advice is used in any way. 'I think this would be very useful in the future to have people actually track through, from all the committees, in what way advice is being used and by whom. 'Certainly in terms of communication, the committee has published two or three papers on principles of good communication. 'I think several behavioural scientists have noticed a disconnect between those principles of good communication and what we see both at the verbal presentations at the press conferences, and also the communication around the change from the 'Stay at Home' messaging to 'Stay Alert'.' The Government has insisted on a centralised testing programme and seems unwilling to delegate responsibilities to local health bodies. There is growing concern among experts that Britons will not comply with isolation rules without the incentive of a test to confirm if they have coronavirus. Professor Andrew Hayward, director of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, told the committee today that a second lockdown would be inevitable in the event of another epidemic because the current test and trace programme is 'not sufficient'. Britons who report Covid-like symptoms are being tested under the contact tracing scheme, launched a fortnight ago. But Professor Hayward said the Government will not have the testing capacity to swab enough people in winter, when respiratory illnesses are rife. He added: 'We can see that during a normal summer about 100,000 people a day would have new symptoms of cough or fever or loss of sense a smell. 'And that rises to about half a million a day during winter, so there is an enormous scale to this testing issue that I don't think has been truly appreciated. 'If we are moving into a situation where we have a second wave during the winter when we know we have way higher levels of respiratory infections we will have way higher levels of people presenting with symptoms that could be Covid. 'So we need to be able to ramp up testing capacity to way higher than it currently is if we are to pursue that strategy of test and trace as one of the main means of control. 'We may need, probably will need, in a severe second wave to revert to lockdown. Because test and trace will not be sufficient.' Ministers are facing growing criticism over their refusal to publish data showing how many people have been contacted by NHS Test and Trace so far. Number 10 would only say the numbers will be released 'shortly' once the data has been verified. A leaked document revealed that just 10,000 close contacts were provided by 8,000 people who were diagnosed with coronavirus in England last week. The leaked document, seen by the BBC, gives a glimpse into how the crucial scheme is performing in its first week. But the figures only account for Covid-19 cases in the community and do not include people who were hospitalised with the virus. Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, said: 'I think at the moment this is still very new and the people working the system are only really just getting their heads around how it works. There will still be a lot of wrinkles in the system. 'But I think that the number of contacts being only a little over a one per case is somewhat surprising I think and somewhat disappointing.' 'There was a an unofficial pilot study in Sheffield, and they were reporting the fact they're finding that often people were unwilling to tell people about their contacts. 'So maybe there was an element of that but maybe it's still gearing up and getting the system operating properly.' Professor Hunter said the contact tracing was complicated and there might be some communication problems across different parts of Government. The crucial test and trace system has been launched without the NHSX mobile app, which alerts people when they have come close to an infected person. But Transport Secretary last week appeared to confirm the app won't work perfectly when it is eventually launched nationwide to help halt the spread. He responded to claims the app - considered the 'cherry on the cake' of Number 10's flagship Test and Trace scheme would be 'imperfect' and 'clunky' for several months. Transgender model and activist Munroe Bergdorf has made peace with L'Oreal Paris after accusing the beauty brand of being 'racist snakes' over its support of the Black Lives Matter campaign. The 32-year-old British model briefly worked with the brand in 2017 but parted company acrimoniously with them after she wrote about white supremacy. Old wounds resurfaced when L'Oreal Paris posted on social media about the Black Lives Matter campaign post last week, saying: 'Speaking out is worth it'. At the time, Bergdorf 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.' However, today, the model revealed bridges had been built with her former employer after new Brand President Delphine Viguier 'reached out' to her. Bergdorf said the pair had shared an 'open and constructive' conversation while Viguier expressed 'regret' that the model had felt previously 'silenced' by the beauty goliath. Scroll down for video Transgender British model, Munroe Bergdorf, has revealed she's built bridges with one-time employer L'Oreal Paris after she criticised the brand earlier this month over its support for the Black Lives Matter campaign. In 2017, days after being introduced as the brand's 'face of modern diversity' Bergdorf was dropped after speaking out on white supremacy The statement published by Bergdorf on social media today; the transgender model said L'Oreal Paris had reached out to her and they'd had an 'open and constructive conversation' about their dispute three years ago - with both parties vowing to move forward 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; Bergdorf had called the company 'racist snakes' but said today that she was looking forward to a new and positive relationship with L'Oreal Paris Brand President Delphine Viguier 'reached out' to the model after Bergdorf's criticism of the brand last week, saying she understood the 'pain and trauma' that had been behind her words Munroe wrote earlier: 'We had an open and constructive conversation, she listened to what I had to say and expressed her regret for how the situation was handled three years ago.' 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, with the company saying Bergdorf's comments were 'at odds' with their values. Posting about the fall-out on the L'Oreal Paris Instagram page and how they've reconciled, Brand President Viguier wrote: 'I had an honest, transparent and vulnerable conversation with Munroe Bergdorf. We listened to each other and shared our feelings and perspectives on the situation with open hearts and minds. It was a powerful moment of human connection.' She said she regretted 'the lack of dialogue and support the company showed Munroe around the time of the termination. We should have also done more to create a conversation for change as we are now doing.' Viguier added: 'We will honor Munroes advocacy for both the Trans and Black communities. LOreal will be donating to associations that support social justice and causes that are deeply personal to Munroes experience.' Bergdorf confirmed the company would donate 25,000 to UK Black Pride and 25,000 to UK transgender charity Mermaids. Bergdorf told her fans it 'hasn't been easy' in the three years that have followed since her contract was terminated with L'Oreal Paris and thanked them for 'having my back' Speaking last week about L'Oreal Paris' post on Black Lives Matters and the termination of her contract with them in 2017, Bergdorf had been unflinching, writing: '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 had 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 wrote: '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.' 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.' A mother who didn't think her son would reach his 10th birthday after he contracted a rare virus which destroyed his lungs is appealing to the public to send him cards ahead of the major milestone on June 24th. Daniel O'Sullivan, from Hollyhill on the northside of Cork city, contracted Adenovirus 14 as an infant and is awaiting a double lung transplant. AD 14 can cause severe respiratory infection, which can sometimes be fatal, even in healthy young adults. It is a virulent form of the cold virus. Daniel developed the rare form of the virus when he was a few days old and had to travel to Sweden for specialist care. In an interview on the C103FM's Cork Today show his mother Deirdre said that there is much excitement surrounding the upcoming birthday as Daniel has been through countless battles in his short life. She said Daniel was seven days old when he woke with a temperature. "I brought him to my GP. He didn't like the sound of his breathing so they sent him to a local hospital. They did an X Ray and spotted something on his lung. They kept him in for observation and within a week he was being ventilated. There was nothing more they could do. "A doctor mentioned this thing called ECMO. A team from Sweden flew to Cork. They hooked Daniel up to this machine and flew him to Sweden where he spent 53 days on this machine. "He was only sixteen days old when he flew to Sweden. Daniel had contracted a very rare virus called AD 14. It is like a common cold but the strain is very rare. He didn't have the immune system to fight off the virus so it destroyed his lungs. After nearly two months in Sweden Daniel was transferred back to Temple Street in Dublin where he was hospitalised for eight weeks. He then spent a further seven and a half months in hospital in Cork before he was able to return home. Daniel had surgery earlier this year to remove a small section of his lung which is being tested at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. He is due to go on a double transplant list. Deirdre said doctors were very pleased with Daniel's progress until March when his lungs collapsed. Daniel is on oxygen around the clock. However, he attends school and has a full time special needs assistant. "She is amazing with him. He can actually carry the oxygen tank himself ! It is heavy but he puts it on his back. He doesn't let the illness get the better of him. He knows no different. He has been on oxygen since he was seven days old. He is funny. Happy all the time. Always smiling whether he is sick or not. He has a great sense of humour for a child who is so sick. Covid 19 has been a big concern for the family and Daniel is continuing to cocoon at home. Deirdre says her son is a battler. "He has had many battles. We had a big birthday booked but we had to cancel it (because of Covid). With Covid I decided to come up with a card appeal. He loves cards. I just want to put an extra smile on his face. He has received 85 cards in three days already. We try to do something big or special for Daniel every year." Cards can be sent to Daniel at 22 Meadow Green, The Meadows, Hollyhill, Cork. VANCOUVER, BC, June 9, 2020 /CNW/ - Kootenay Silver Inc. (TSXV: KTN) (the "Company or "Kootenay") is pleased to announce the recommencement of drilling at its Columba high-grade silver project (the "Property) following the temporary COVID-19 related work stoppage. The drilling is the continuation of the 7,000-meter Phase-II program (the "Program") started in February 2020 prior to the cessation of operations due to health restrictions imposed by the Government of Mexico. The initial holes of the remaining 5,200 meters will focus on expanding the F-vein by following-up on positive results from the first 10 holes of the Program (see KTN news releases dated, May 19th and 26th, 2020). These include the following high-grade silver intercepts: CDH-20-049 2,010 gpt silver over 1.0 meter within 762 gpt silver over 2.8 meters in the F-vein. CDH-20-051 865 gpt silver over 2.0 meters within 317 gpt silver over 6.0 meters in the Hanging-wall structure. CDH-20-046 911 gpt silver over 1.4 meters within 553 gpt silver over 2.9 meters in the F-vein. CDH-20-047 782 gpt silver over 1.05 meters within 400 gpt silver over 4.97 meters in the F-vein. Additionally, the Program will test high-grade intercepts discovered in other veins drilled in the 2019 Phase-I program. Intercepts included: CDH-20-030 982 gpt silver over 1.9 meters and 415 gpt silver over 11.15 meters within the Z-vein. CDH-20-031 776 gpt over 0.63 meters within 314 gpt over 3.0 meters in the M-vein. CDH-20-038 628 gpt silver over 1.5 meters within 301 gpt silver over 4.63 meters in the B-vein. Beyond augmenting previously drilled areas the Program will investigate untouched veins mapped out by Kootenay's geological team. Work will begin with a single drill in operation. The Company will remain vigilant to any changes that may arise due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic working in compliance with Mexican Authorities to keep employees and the community safe. The 2019 drill program totaled 6,853 meters in 41 holes. Detailed results for all drill holes can be viewed by clicking the following link: Columba Drill Results. Qualified Persons The Kootenay technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 (Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects) and reviewed and approved on behalf of Kootenay by James McDonald, P.Geo, President, CEO & Director for Kootenay, a Qualified Person. Sampling and QA/QC at Columba All technical information for the Columba exploration program is obtained and reported under a formal quality assurance and quality control ("QA/QC") program. Samples are taken from core cut in half with a diamond saw under the direction of qualified geologists and engineers. Samples are then labeled, placed in plastic bags, sealed and with interval and sample numbers recorded. Samples are delivered by the Company to ALS Minerals ("ALS") in Chihuahua. The samples are dried, crushed and pulverized with the pulps being sent airfreight for analysis by ALS in Vancouver, B.C. Systematic assaying of standards, blanks and duplicates is performed for precision and accuracy. Analysis for silver, zinc, lead and copper and related trace elements was done by ICP four acid digestion, with gold analysis by 30-gram fire assay with an AA finish. All drilling reported is HQ core and has been contracted to Globexplore Drilling from Hermosillo, Mexico. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. About Kootenay Silver Inc. Kootenay Silver Inc. is an exploration company actively engaged in the discovery and development of mineral projects in the Sierra Madre Region of Mexico and in British Columbia, Canada. Supported by one of the largest junior portfolios of silver assets in Mexico, Kootenay continues to provide its shareholders with significant leverage to silver prices. The Company remains focused on the expansion of its current silver resources, new discoveries and the near-term economic development of its priority silver projects located in prolific mining districts in Sonora, State and Chihuahua, State, Mexico, respectively. CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: The information in this news release has been prepared as at June 8, 2020. Certain statements in this news release, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements", constitute "forward-looking statements" under the provisions of Canadian provincial securities laws. These statements can be identified by the use of words such as "expected", "may", "will" or similar terms. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of factors and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Kootenay as of the date of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, known and unknown, could cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as otherwise required by law, Kootenay expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in Kootenay's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Cautionary Note to US Investors: This news release may contain information about adjacent properties on which we have no right to explore or mine. We advise U.S. investors that the SEC's mining guidelines strictly prohibit information of this type in documents filed with the SEC. U.S. investors are cautioned that mineral deposits on adjacent properties are not indicative of mineral deposits on our properties. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. This press release uses the terms "Measured", "Indicated", and "Inferred" resources. United States investors are advised that while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize them. "Inferred Mineral Resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred Mineral Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of Inferred Mineral Resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of Measured or Indicated Mineral Resources will ever be converted into Mineral Reserves. United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of a Mineral Resource is economically or legally mineable. SOURCE Kootenay Silver Inc. For further information: James McDonald, CEO and President at 403-880-6016; Ken Berry, Chairman at 604-601-5652; 1-888-601-5650; or visit: www.kootenaysilver.com Related Links https://kootenaysilver.com/ The state-of-the-art Aqua-Tots Swim Schools location in Salt Lake City, Utah, is ready for children of all abilities to learn how to swim safely in their 90 pool. Aqua-Tots Swim Schools has announced its 109th franchise location now open in the Salt Lake City suburb of Midvale, Utah, located at 7220 Union Park Avenue near Dicks Sporting Goods, Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree. Aqua-Tots Swim Schools has been the leader in the swim instruction industry since 1991, offering comprehensive swim curriculum for children from four months to 12 years old. With over 100 locations in 14 countries, families all over the world can experience the dedicated, year-round, indoor swim facility where their children can become safe and confident swimmers. The 5,600 sq. foot swim school is the first Aqua-Tots location in Utah, prepared to serve the families of Cottonwood Heights, West Valley City, West Jordan, South Jordan, Sandy and Mount Olympus. Were excited to bring year-round, indoor swim lessons to the families of Salt Lake City, said Aqua-Tots Midvale Franchise Owner Mike Priest. Summer is here, and that means children will spend increasingly more time in and around the water. We are honored to serve our community by equipping children with the swimming skills they need for a lifetime of water safety. According to Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, consistency in formal swim lessons reduces the risk of drowning by 88% among children ages one to four. This is a hopeful reality as drowning is the leading cause of unintentional, injury-related death among children ages one to four, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. -- Aqua-Tots Midvale is committed to keeping families safe and healthy and has implemented the Aqua-Tots Full Circle of Safety to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their swim school. These procedures focus on a modified swim school environment for the health of their families and staff, safety of their lessons and cleanliness of their facility. We know that our community is making every effort to resume a sense of normalcy, and we want families to feel confident and comfortable to bring their children to swim lessons, said Mike Priest. We take safety seriously and will continue to follow all CDC and local health official recommendations in our school. Enhanced health and safety measures include: Daily wellness checks for staff A limited number of people in the facility Social distancing practices in the lobby Enhanced sanitation procedures Hand sanitizing stations A limited number of classes at a time Adjusted curriculum to avoid face-to-face contact Sanitation of teaching tools Its important to note that a properly maintained and sanitized pool is still considered a safe environment for children and families. According to the CDC, There is no evidence that the virus that causes COVID-19 can be spread to people through the water in pools, hot tubs, spas, or water play areas. Proper operation and maintenance (including disinfection with chlorine and bromine) of these facilities should inactivate the virus in the water. The Aqua-Tots pool contains a commercial sanitation and filtration system which maintains the proper chlorinated levels. Aqua-Tots' confident, AT-WSI certified instructors are well-equipped to teach children of all abilities using the proven Aqua-Tots curriculum. With a variety of class options, Aqua-Tots Midvale is open six days a week (Monday-Saturday), offering group lessons (4:1 ratio), semi-private lessons (2:1 ratio) and private lessons (1:1 ratio) as well as the Special Needs Aquatic Program (S.N.A.P.). Aqua-Tots Swim Schools Midvale wants to introduce children to the water by offering a free In-Water Evaluation to anyone interested in enrolling in swim lessons. To schedule your childs evaluation, call (801) 901-2290. To learn more, visit aqua-tots.com/midvale. About Aqua-Tots Swim Schools Aqua-Tots Swim Schools serves over 100 communities worldwide, offering dedicated, year-round, indoor swim instruction, community outreach and drowning prevention education to children of all abilities from four months to 12 years old. As the worlds largest swim school franchise, their hand-selected instructors are passionate about teaching children how to remain safer in and around the water, using tried and true curriculum, 28+ years in the making and trusted worldwide to teach 2.9 million swim lessons annually. To learn more, visit http://www.aqua-tots.com. File Image live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The interim monitoring committee constituted by interim resolution professional in the Jaypee Infratech matter on the direction of National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) is currently overseeing construction work of as many as 500 residential units in Noida and these are likely to be handed over within the next three months, sources told Moneycontrol. The monitoring committee set up in May has a specific purpose, which is to ensure that Jaypee Infratech is maintained as a going concern and that construction continues. It is overseeing routine construction of around 500 units in the Aman project. Two towers comprising these units would be delivered hopefully within the next three months once occupancy certificates are received, a source told Moneycontrol. Work at the site is currently under progress. About 20 percent of the labour force is currently deployed at the site, a source added. In another development, a homebuyers association has appealed to NCLAT to be included in the monitoring committee. Over 1,200 members of Wish Town Home Buyers Welfare Society had appealed that they should be included. In a virtual order passed on June 2, NCLAT noted that in the Monitoring Committee set up for implementation of the approved Resolution Plan, which has been subjected to the outcome of appeals, there is no representation on behalf of allottees/homebuyers. 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 We defer consideration on this submission till next date of hearing. Let this appeal be listed along with Company Appeal (AT) (Insolvency) No 261 of 2020, Company Appeal (AT) (Insolvency) No. 475 of 2020 and others on June 19, the order said. The next date of hearing is on June 19. In April, the appellate tribunal National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had directed Jaypee Infratech's Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) Anuj Jain to constitute an interim monitoring committee, comprising representatives of the NBCC and its three main lenders IDBI Bank, India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL) and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). NCLATs direction followed an urgent petition moved by NBCC which had earlier won the bid to acquire Jaypee Infratech. On May 15, appeals by Jaypee Infratech and ICICI Bank had been admitted in NCLAT and notices were issued. Counsel for homebuyers had also moved an application seeking intervention of around 5,000 allottees. On March 3, NCLT had approved NBCC's bid to acquire Jaypee Infratech through an insolvency process and complete around 20,000 pending flats over the next three-and--a-half years, but appeals were filed by both Jaypee Group and NBCC. The same month, NBCC had moved NCLAT seeking relief on certain conditions related to farmers' compensation for land acquisition in Noida and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh. It had also sought relief on payments to be made to some dissenting financial creditors like ICICI Bank. The NBCC had challenged the modifications made by the NCLT in the original resolution plan submitted by it and as approved by the committee of creditors (CoC) of Jaypee Infratech. While approving the resolution plan of NBCC, the principal bench of the NCLT had allowed objections of ICICI Bank and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority and directed payment to unclaimed fixed deposit holders. As per NBCC, NCLT could not intercede the business decision of the CoC taken by the prescribed voting shares and has 'exceeded its jurisdiction' in making such modifications. In its resolution plan, NBCC had proposed to complete over 20,000 pending flats in the next three-and-a-half years. NBCC had offered 1,526 acres of land to lenders under a land-debt swap deal. Apart from this, the state-owned firm has proposed to transfer the road asset to lenders. On Yamuna Expressway, NBCC has proposed to transfer the road asset to lenders but before that it would take a loan of around Rs 2,500 crore against toll revenue to fund construction cost. More than 10,000 homebuyers and major lenders of Jaypee Infratech, including IDBI Bank and State Bank of India, had voted in favour of the resolution plan submitted by the government's construction arm NBCC to acquire the embattled real estate firm. The December round of voting was the third round of bidding process to find a buyer for Jaypee Infratech, which went into Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) in August 2017. NBCs The Blacklist was once the networks top-rated scripted series. While ratings have dipped, it remains a strong contender in the primetime lineup. Creator, Jon Bokenkamp, struck gold with James Spaders enigmatic portrayal of the FBIs 4th Most Wanted criminal, Raymond, Red Reddington. What is Bokenkamps net worth and what allured him to creating the crime drama? Jon Bokemkapms early career Laura Benson, Executive Producer; Hisham Tawfiq; Jonathan Holtzman; Diego Klattenhoff; James Spader; Jon Bokenkamp, Creator and Executive Producer of The Blacklist; Harry Lennix; Megan Boone; Laila Robins; Laura Sohn; Genson Blimline; Clark Middleton; Amir Arison; Teddy Coluca | Will Hart/NBCUniversal/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images RELATED: Is The Blacklist Based On True Events? The name Jon Bokenkamp may not be as familiar as The Blacklists leading man, James Spader, but Bokenkamp is just as talented. The man behind the NBC crime drama got his start in Kearney, Nebraska where he graduated Kearney High School before attending University at Nebraska Kearney. Bokenkamp transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts with honors in 1995 and hasnt looked back since. UNK has been a big part of my life, Bokenkamp said. My parents met there back when it was still Kearney State College. I took a few art classes there when I was in high school, Bokenkamp previously told UNK News. A faculty member allowed Bokenkampt to design an independent study course in the area, so he could pursue his passion. I ended up making a film with some classmates which, in hindsight, was a terrible movie but it encouraged me to explore, Bokenkamp said. From there, a friend encouraged the young filmmaker to enter a script-writing contest and he won. This led to Bokenkamps agent and his first real project, which was a rewrite of The Exorcist. Some of Bokenkamps other projects include Bad Seed, The Call, Taking Lives, and Perfect Stranger. In 2013 Bokenkamp won the Hub Freedom Award, and in 2019, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Musical Arts at his alma mater. The Blacklist is Bokenkamps first big project. The creation of The Blacklist RELATED: The Office: The Real Reason The Blacklist Star James Spader Left Robert California Behind Bokenkamp wrote the pilot episode of The Blacklist, which was shown at Comic-Con. In 2013, NBS ordered more episodes to conclude a full first season. Two months later, the network had enough faith to give the series a full 22-episode second season. By 2017, a spinoff, The Blacklist: Redemption, aired but canceled soon after. Still, The original Blacklist is going strong. Showrunner/executive producer John Eisendrath previously revealed the inspiration for the series which came from a notorious, elusive criminal, as told to Collider. The idea was kicked around to center a show that is about catching bad guys, but with a bad guy at the center of it. And that came about at around the same time that the real world criminal Whitey Bulger was found. In fact, hes now on trial in Boston. He was one of the FBIs Most Wanted Fugitives for 20 years and he was found living in Santa Monica, in an apartment. So, the idea was, Well, what would happen if a man like Whitey Bulger himself in and said, I am here. I have some rules that I want you to follow, but if you follow them I will give you the names of people that I have worked with, during the 20 years that I have been a fugitive. So, there was a real world influence that affected the shaping of the show that was already being thought about. How can you put someone that you dont trust in the center of a show about trying to find criminals? And here was an example in the real world of just such a person. It was a fortuitous turn of events, where the idea for a show was being considered, and then here comes a real life story that helped give it some shape. Collider In May 2013, NBC stated that The Blacklist was the networks highest-rated drama in 10 years. Considering this is Bokenkamps first big-time go in the industry, hes not doing too bad. What is Bokenkamps net worth? RELATED: Is The Blacklist Canceled or Renewed? The NBC Series Will Return for Season 8 According to Celebrity Net Worth, the married father of four is worth an estimated $25 million. Bokenkamp is an executive producer of The Blacklist and The Blacklist: Redemption, and has written, produced, and directed a few other projects such as the video documentary After Sunset: The Life & Times of the Drive-In Theater in 1995. The Nebraska native also established The World Theatre Foundation and led fundraising efforts to renovate a 92-year-old former vaudeville house in downtown Kearney, UKN reported. The Blacklist has been renewed for season 8. DAVIS, Calif., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In honor of their 30th Anniversary this month, West Yost is supporting those experiencing hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic by giving to local food banks in Arizona, California, and Oregon. Their contribution will fund over 30,000 meals distributed throughout those communities, filling an immediate need. West Yost has made a monetary donation to Yolo Food Bank, Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, Children's Emergency Food Bank, Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano Counties, Redwood Empire Food Bank, San Diego Food Bank, Food for Lane County, Honor Health Desert Mission Food Bank, Oregon Food Bank, and Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. "When we asked our West Yost team how to best mark this occasion, we received an overwhelming response in favor of contributing to local food banks. I believe this commitment to helping out our local communities speaks to the dedication and desire our team has in making a difference where we live and work," says Charles Duncan, PE, President and CEO of West Yost. For 30 years, West Yost, headquartered in Davis, California, has been driven to become the water resources firm of choice for both their clients and team in the Western United States. West Yost's focus and passion is exclusively on water, including water supply, wastewater, recycled water, groundwater, and stormwater. As West Yost looks to the future, their vision is to advance water resources for future generations. Since inception, West Yost has valued community engagement and is committed to the well-being of the communities they serve throughout the states of Arizona, California, and Oregon. To learn more about West Yost visit www.westyost.com Established in 1990, West Yost's mission is to be the water resources firm of choice for both their clients and team in the Western United States. Over the years, they have built upon that mission, and grown into the successful water resources firm that West Yost is today. As West Yost looks to the future, their vision is to advance water resources for future generations while living their core values every day. SOURCE West Yost Related Links https://www.westyost.com Just over two months in, the death toll stemming from the coronavirus outbreak in New Jersey stands at 12,214 with 164,497 total cases confirmed. Mondays numbers, which Gov. Phil Murphy announced at his daily briefing in Trenton, brought 40 new deaths and 356 new cases. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage It marked the tenth straight day with fewer than 1,000 new cases. Murphy said this trend raises the possibility that more businesses could reopen soon, including public and private pools as soon as June 22. Is the above map not displaying? Click here. Next week, the state plans to enter Stage 2 of reopening, during which restaurants can begin offering outdoor dining and nonessential retail can allow customers inside at half capacity. Hospitalizations now stand at 1,740, the fifth straight day that figure has come in under 2,000. Thats a drop of almost 80% from the mid-April peak of 8,084. Is the above chart not displaying? Click here. Among those who have died from COVID-19 in N.J., nearly 80% have been 65 or older. Just 49 people under the age of 30 have died as a result of the outbreak. The biggest increase in cases among N.J.'s 21 counties was found -- for a second straight day -- in Union County, which added 55 cases on Monday. Hudson County has the most since the outbreak began at 18,584, closely followed by Bergen at 18,538. 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. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 09, 2020 | HICKORY, KY By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 09, 2020 | 12:16 PM | HICKORY, KY Kentucky State Police, Post 1 is requesting the public's assistance in locating three men who are non-compliant with the Kentucky Sex Offender Registry. Police say 33-year-old Mikel Allen Hutchison of Smithland has not lived at his registered address for more than a year and he has failed to verify his address. They believe he is in the Paducah area. Sixty-two-year-old Anthony L. Shelby of Paducah reportedly no longer lives at his registered address and has failed to verify his current address. Police are unsure where Shelby may be residing. State police say 32-year-old Joshua E. Cordle left the halfway house in Paducah, which is his registered address. Reportedly, Cordle's whereabouts at this time are unknown. The Kentucky State Police have issued arrest warrants for all three men for Failure to Comply with the Kentucky Sex Offender Registry. Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Hutchison, Shelby, or Cordle is asked to contact the Kentucky State Police Post 1 at 270-856-3721 or anonymously at 1-800-222-5555. Citizens may also report tips anonymously through the KSP app. Yes, reading can make one wiser, smarter and more empathetic, and we would likely be a better and kinder society if more of us were learned in the way Brooks means. And yet, our problems are not rooted in a lack of education or in ignorance of history. New Delhi : The Somnath Trust, which met on Saturday, decided to deposit about 6 kg gold under the governments monetisation scheme. Glad that Somnath Trust decided to deposit about 6 kg gold under Gold Monetisation Scheme of Government of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who attended the meeting, tweeted. The Board of Trustees met at the official residence of Modi to discuss a variety of issues. At the meeting chaired by BJP veteran L K Advani, the Prime Minister stressed the need to develop Somnath as an ancient heritage pilgrimage as well as a tourist destination. The Trust reviewed the progress of various projects of continuous growth of devotees visiting Somnath. As Somnath is about to witness one crore of yatris, state-of-the-art infrastructure for the all-round development should be envisioned, the trustees felt, according to an official release. The Prime Minister also suggested excavations of areas to establish various missing historic links. He said high-tech marine attractions and virtual reality shows should be covered in the future plan. He also suggested to bring maximum areas under CCTV surveillance network. As the chairman of the trust, Keshubhai Patel, was unwell, Advani chaired the meet. Newly appointed trustee and BJP chief Amit Shah also attended the meeting, along with other members. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Former Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill has tested positive for Covid-19, Stoke City has confirmed. A club spokesperson said: "O'Neill had tested negative in the previous five rounds of testing. "He will now follow the relevant guidance and undergo a period of isolation, whilst continuing to be in regular virtual contact with his coaching staff and players. "Assistant manager Billy McKinlay will take charge of training as the Potters prepare for their game against Reading on June 20. The club will be making no further comment on this matter." Manchester United were forced to call off a planned friendly against Stoke at short notice on Tuesday. According to reports, the game was cancelled due to concerns over the condition of a Stoke player after the Potters arrived at United's training ground. There were no issues with any members of the United squad. Stoke's players had not interacted with anybody from United prior to the decision being made, having travelled to a separate area of the Carrington complex. O'Neill was a highly successful Northern Ireland manager, managing the team in Euro 2016. He quit the role in April. Meanwhile, Health Minister Robin Swann has warned that a second coronavirus lockdown is not out of the question, despite three consecutive days with no deaths from the virus. Speaking at the Executive's daily briefing he said that it could be avoided if the necessary steps are taken. "If we tread carefully and we come out of the lockdown slow enough, managed enough, to make sure that the virus is being managed in its spread. If there is a second wave it may not be as critical as the one we saw at the start," Mr Swann said. "If we get to a point where our health service is being threatened, if we assess we don't have the number of ICU beds in the current system to manage a potential second wave, then our only option is to go back into a second lockdown." New Delhi: The AAP-led Delhi government on Tuesday (June 9) decided to withdraw the special corona fee of 70% on all categories of liquor from June 10. However, Value Added Tax has been increased from existing 20% to 25% on all categories of liquor sold in the jurisdiction of Delhi with effect from June 10. Earlier on May 15, the Delhi High Court had issued notice to the government on increasing levy of 70 percent "special corona fee" on the MRP of all liquor brands. The Delhi government had imposed the "special corona fee" on alcohol, a day after allowing re-opening of 150 state-run liquor vends in the city from May 3. The Arvind Kejriwal-led government later launched an e-token system for the sale of liquor to check to overcrowd. "To curb violations of social distancing norms, crowding and law and order issues during the sale of liquor in the city, the Delhi government decided to introduce the e-token system," said the Delhi government statement. It also issued a web link where people can go and purchase the e-token for the liquor. Incredible footage captures the moment the world's largest group of nesting green sea turtles head to shore to lay their eggs. The footage was shot by drones at Raine Island off the coast of far north Queensland and shows more than 60,000 turtles. The rookery at the north of the Great Barrier Reef is the largest in the world, with turtles rushing to the region for the nesting season from late October until February. Drone footage has captured more than 60,000 nesting green sea turtles (pictured) at Raine Island off Queensland GREEN SEA TURTLES NESTING SEASON: Green sea turtles nest from late October until February. The turtles take between 30 and 50 years to reach their sexual maturity, with females nesting normally nesting once every five to eight years. Females can lay more than 100 eggs in their nest, though survival rates are small, with an estimated one in 1,000 surviving to adulthood. The turtles are known to travel long distances and will return to the same beach where they were hatched to lay their eggs. Source: WWF Advertisement Drone footage has helped researchers accurately calculate the population of green sea turtles coming to nest at Raine Island. Before using drones, marine scientists would count swimming turtles from a boat or paint a white strip on the turtle's backs while they laid on the beach. They would then compare the ratio of painted turtles to unpainted turtles to determine how many were in the area. 'Trying to accurately count thousands of painted and unpainted turtles from a small boat in rough weather was difficult,' Queensland Department of Environment and Science spokesperson Andrew Dunstan told 7News. 'Using a drone is easier, safer, much more accurate, and the data can be immediately and permanently stored.' Female turtles arrive from around Australia as well as Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to lay their eggs on the beach during the night. Green sea turtles are the only herbivorous marine turtle and are endangered, with the footage giving scientists important insight into their reproductive process. 'This research is of prime importance to the understanding and management of the vulnerable green turtle population,' Mr Dunstan said. Three years ago, several environmental groups noticed that they had been receiving suspicious emails with fake Google News articles and other links related to their climate-change campaign against Exxon Mobil. The emails came from accounts that impersonated their own colleagues and lawyers. Those phishing emails have now led to a federal criminal investigation into a sprawling hacking-for-hire operation that for years has targeted the email accounts of government officials, journalists, banks, environmental activists and other individuals, according to people briefed on the inquiry. As part of the investigation, federal prosecutors in Manhattan conducted interviews earlier this year with environmental groups that received the emails, including the Rockefeller Family Fund, some of the people familiar with the inquiry said. Prosecutors are investigating the hackers behind the operation and who hired them, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity so they could discuss an ongoing investigation. Exxon Mobil has not been accused of any wrongdoing. ALBANY The last time Albany County District Attorney David Soares faced a Democratic primary, he drew criticism from his opponent for accepting campaign contributions from office employees. Eight years later, Soares faces a new opponent in Matthew Toporowski -- and Soares is relying, in part, on the same funding stream. The most recent filings from the state Board of Elections show that at least 32 employees of Soares' office or their spouses have donated a combined $5,290 to his re-election campaign this year. In addition, a prosecutor for Soares made a phone call on behalf of the campaign identifying herself as a volunteer and urged support for the district attorney, according to a recording of the call obtained by the Times Union. The donations came from 22 office prosecutors -- including Soares chief assistant, David Rossi and several bureau chiefs -- and the spouse of a prosecutor. The other contributions came from five of Soares' investigators, the wife of an investigator and three administrative staffers. The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Caroline Murray, left a message for a would-be voter Sunday afternoon -- not on county time -- mentioning Soares had "led the fight on smart reform, making sure our laws are equal regardless of your station in life." Soares spokeswoman Cecilia Walsh defended Murray's actions. Our ADA made this call on a completely voluntary basis during non-work hours," said Soares spokeswoman Cecilia Walsh. "As is permitted under ethical guidelines given to all of our staff members, ADAs are permitted to engage in political activity in support of the re-election of the district attorney by whom they are employed. Friends of David Soares, when asked about office contributions, said in an email: "Staff at the Albany County DA's Office are under no obligation or expectation to support any political candidate." The in-house support comes eight years after Soares' last primary challenge when his opponent, Lee Kindlon, chided the district attorney for accepting campaign donations from his employees and vowed not to accept any from his staff, if elected. Toporowski wouldn't make the same pledge to never take his employees' campaign contributions. But he criticized Soares' latest fundraising. "There is a striking difference between who has supported my campaign and who has supported Soares," Toporowski said, adding that Soares was "mainly supported by his own employees because he's just trying to keep a job." Toporowski has accepted donations from a number of defense attorneys, including members of the Albany County Public Defender Stephen Herrick's staff. One lawyer in the office, Angela Kelley, is prominently standing near Toporowski on his Facebook page as supporters of the campaign hold signs. "To my knowledge no member of my office has campaigned as a public defender for any candidate," Herrick said, " Every member of my staff has a right to support any candidate as an individual as long as they dont do it on county time and dont do it as a representative of the office. " Public officials cannot use public resources, or induce or pressure public employees to donate money to campaigns, according to the states public officers law. It is common for public employees who work alongside elected officials to donate money at fundraising events. Soares is hardly the only elected official on the local or state level to reap contributions from employees. The practice could leave employees who do not contribute money to such campaigns in position where their boss knows who helped their re-election and who did not. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. But there's nothing that says that public employees can't voluntarily give to their bosses' campaigns, said Russ Haven , the general counsel for the New York Public Interest Research Group, a government watchdog organization. Since newly elected public officials tend to bring in their own senior teams, staff who don't have civil service job protection may be particularly motivated to donate to campaigns. Asked if it was a conflict, Haven said: The law allows voluntary donations, which means that campaigns need to be scrupulous when raising funds from public employees and of course who work for the candidate and be sure not to use any public resources, such as stationery, computers, printers, phones, or solicit within government buildings. The Ethics and Best Practices Subcommittees of the District Attorney Association for the State of New York (DAASNY) Committee on the Fair and Ethical Administration of Justice stated that prosecutors cannot endorse candidates but "shall be permitted to engage in political activity in support of the re-election of the district attorney by whom they are employed." Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney defended the practice. "After all if the DA is defeated any ADA can be fired by the new DA so some may view supporting their boss as an exercise of their First Amendment rights in support of their livelihood," Carney said. "It would of course be unethical for a DA to coerce or improperly influence a member of his staff to contribute financially to the campaign or to engage in political activities." Soares, who entered the year with more than $25,000 in his campaign war chest, has raised $33, 382 this year and spent $49,416, according to campaign filings dating to January. He has a closing balance of $11,167. Toporowski, a former prosecutor for Soares, has raised $64,569 and spent $21,403, with a balance of $43,166. In 2012, Soares challenger Lee Kindlon said that if elected, he would not accept money from his staff. At the time, Kindlon said: "It's unethical and an inherent conflict of interest. I don't think the district attorney should solicit or accept contributions from his or her staff, especially since these folks -- public employees -- serve at the pleasure of the DA." Egyptian Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala Al-Saeed said on Tuesday that EGP 8.5 billion has been allocated for the establishment of new industrial complexes to serve small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which she said had been affected by the coronavirus crisis. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Al-Saeed stated that the crisis has imposed significant challenges on emerging enterprises and businessmen, including a decline in the labour supply due to social distancing and work-from-home measures. She added that the SME sector contains 1.7 million businesses, accounting for 44.6 percent of the total establishments in the formal private sector, and employs 5.8 million workers, or 43.1 percent of total workers in the private sector. The minister also announced that the Rowad (Pioneers) 2030 project, which was established under the planning ministrys umbrella, has signed a cooperation protocol with Cambridge University to provide 40 MA fellowships for studying entrepreneurship. Another cooperation protocol has been inked with the American University in Cairo which includes 100 fellowships in entrepreneurship skills. Rowad 2030 projects have established 13 industrial complexes across Egypt that will serve SMEs, she said. Search Keywords: Short link: Anti-racism protesters who tore down a statue honouring a slave trader in a British port city have fuelled a global debate over how to deal with monuments to historic figures who profited from enslaving African people. The toppling in Bristol in the UK of the statue of Edward Colston, who made a fortune in the 17th century from trading in West African slaves, was condemned as petty vandalism by critics, while others hailed it as affirmative action against racist ideologies. "It was an absolutely incredible feat that really shows the importance of us knowing our history," said Aliyah Hasinah, a curator and spokeswoman for protest group Black Lives Matter UK. Colston's statue was pulled down by protesters joining a wave of demonstrations against racial inequality triggered by the death of unarmed black man George Floyd at the hands of US police. But the debate over buildings and monuments named after people involved in the slave trade has been brewing for some years. Campaigners had previously called for the statue - still bearing a plaque describing Colston as "virtuous and wise" - to be removed, but had failed to persuade the authorities. Debates over how to handle monuments and artefacts commemorating historic figures whose actions and beliefs are condemned today are also raging in other nations. In the US, Virginia governor Ralph Northam announced plans last week to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee in the state's capital city of Richmond. In Belgium, a petition calling for the removal of statues of King Leopold II has garnered more than 30,000 signatures. His troops decimated Congo in the late 1800s. Britain's interior minister Priti Patel condemned the toppling of the Colston statue as an "utterly disgraceful" act, while prominent black British campaigner Nimco Ali said removing the statue failed to tackle racism. But others hailed the removal as affirmative action against racial inequality and Britain's imperial legacies - although some added they would have preferred to see it done legally. Richard Benjamin, head of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, said: "In bringing him down, it is important to note we are not erasing history, but instead making history." Qatar will start lifting coronavirus restrictions under a four-phase plan starting on June 15, when some mosques can reopen and flights can depart, government spokeswoman Lulwa Rashed al-Khater said on Monday. She told a news conference the second phase of easing the lockdown would start on July 1, the third on Aug. 1 and the fourth on Sept. 1. Restrictions could be reimposed or the stages delayed if necessary, Khater added. The second phase will allow a partial opening of restaurants and the third will permit the resumption of flights from low-risk countries and the reopening of shopping malls and markets with limited capacity. Priority on flights will be given to holders of residency visas, she said. Everyone entering Qatar will be required to undergo a two-week quarantine in specially designated hotels at their own expense. The fourth phase will allow all mosques to resume normal operation and for flight schedules to be expanded. Wedding parties, business gatherings such as exhibitions, and the reopening of theatres and cinemas will be permitted. The fourth phase will also include the lifting of restrictions on educational institutions in time for the new academic year, Khater said. Qatar reported 1,368 new coronavirus cases and three deaths on Monday, bringing the total to 70,158 cases including 57 deaths. It has the second-highest number of cases after Saudi Arabia in the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which have recorded 279,662 cases of infection and 1,455 deaths. SOURCE: REUTERS Non-OPEC Mexico, which was the surprise holdout in the OPEC+ meeting in April, bailed out of the groups one-month extension of the record production cuts. But Mexicos share of the overall 9.7 million bpd cut is negligible and it has alreadyinadvertentlyover-complied with the cuts in May, so the fresh dissent wouldnt matter much in the big picture of oil supply and demand in the coming months, IHS Markit said on Tuesday. Mexico made quite an impact at the April meeting of the OPEC+ group, after disagreeing with proposals that it should reduce its production by 400,000 bpd from its October 2018 baseline, offering only a 100,000-bpd cut. After days of negotiations, Mexico won and its leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that the United States was ready to help Mexico reach its production cut quota as part of the OPEC+ deal. Lopez Obrador has long argued that his Mexico First energy policy agenda includes boosting production of the state oil firm Pemex, which has seen continuous declines in output over the past few years, due to insufficient investments in new developments while older oilfields mature. This past weekend, Mexico refused to join the one-month extension to the record cuts until the end of July, with Energy Minister Rocio Nahle saying on Twitter that Mexico remains available for discussions, but it would stick to the original deal from April, which envisaged easing the record cuts after the end of June. There are other countries that extended their cuts to July, in this case we said no, well stick to the agreement that we signed in April, Nahle told reporters, as carried by Reuters. Theres no problem, she added. Even with its fresh refusal to sign up for more cuts, Mexico isnt making much of a difference, Fotios Katsoulas, Liquid Bulk Principal Analyst, Maritime & Trade, at IHS Markit said today. Mexico has only pledged 100,000 bpd in cuts under the OPEC+ deala tiny portion of the 9.7 million bpd collective reduction. In addition, Pemexs output was just 1.53 million bpd in May, around 123,000 bpd lower than the 100,000 bpd cut agreed at the OPEC+ deal, Katsoulas noted. Meanwhile, data from IHS Markit Commodities at Sea showed that Mexicos crude oil shipments dropped in May to their lowest level so far this yearto below 900,000 bpd, down by 32 percent year-on-year. Despite the overall slump in Mexicos crude exports, shipments to the U.S. in May represented the highest share of Mexican seaborne crude exports so far this year67 percent, compared to an average of 51 percent this year and 42 percent in 2019, IHS Markit data showed. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will launch its first ever mission to to Mars next month. Called Amal, meaning 'hope', the mission will take off from the remote Japanese island of Tanegashima on July 15. It will be seven months before it reaches Mars and starts orbiting the planet. The 3,000lb (1,350kg) craft will complete one orbit every 55 hours for a total of one Martian year 687 Earth days. Amal will focus on learning more about the climate of Mars, with various sensors dedicated to understanding the red planet's weather patterns. Scroll down for video The 3,000lb (1,350kg) craft (pictured) will complete one orbit every 55 hours for a total of one Martian year 687 Earth days UAE's Amal orbiter will have three sensors on-board to help astronomers learn more about Mars's climate After launching from Japan on July 15, it will be seven months before the craft reaches orbit around Mars and starts orbiting the planet The craft will be fitted with several cameras designed to monitor and analyse the climate, including ultraviolet and infrared devices. Most Mars missions assess the geology of the planet, to try and understand its history and what made the world so barren. Deputy project manager and minister for advanced sciences, Sarah al-Amiri, said at a briefing yesterday: 'We are studying a planet that looks as if it was very similar to our own, but has undergone some form of change to the point it can no longer have water, one of the major building blocks of life. 'For instance, if there is a major dust storm on Mars does that increase the rates of escape of hydrogen and oxygen?' Sir Ian Blatchford, director of the UK's Science Museum Group, told the BBC that by not following suit, the UAE mission 'will provide the most comprehensive, holistic picture of Mars's climate'. The craft will be fitted with several cameras designed to monitor and analyse the climate of Mars, including ultraviolet and infrared devices Sarah Amiri, deputy project manager of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mars Mission, speaks during a ceremony to unveil the mission on May 6, 2015 in Dubai The first Arab space mission to Mars is preparing to lift off within weeks and fuelling is due to begin next week Sensors which will help reveal the secrets of Mars's climate UAE's Amal orbiter will have three sensors on-board to help astronomers learn more about Mars's climate. One will be a high-resolution camera dedicated to tracking dust movements and the ozone of Mars. This will scan a range of light frequencies. Another device will specifically focus on infrared and was built by scientists at Arizona State University. This IR camera will measure both the upper and lower atmosphere. The third sensor will be an ultraviolet spectrometer for measuring oxygen and hydrogen levels. Advertisement Officials say the launch is hugely important for the country's status and economic survival. Arab space chiefs hope the blossoming space programme will open up further opportunities for the nation's youth and cement the UAE's place among the world's most influential countries. The mission will not land on Mars, instead settling for a functioning orbiter. Achieving this is hugely challenging as around half of all missions to Mars end in failure, according to project manager, Omran Sharaf. However, it is a risk worth taking for the UAE, which is a young nation and not yet 50 years old. 'The aim is to celebrate our 50th anniversary on 2 December 2021 with a very big message by reaching Mars,' he said, the Guardian reports. 'It will be a message not just to Emirati youth, but to Arab youth. This region has more than 1 million youth. 'This is a region that more than 800 years ago used to be a generator of knowledge, an example of coexistence and cooperation, of people of differing faiths building the region. 'The moment we stopped doing that, we went backwards. 'For the Mars mission, the requirement all along has been that you have to build it, not buy it.' There are currently only eight active Mars missions, and the UAE is hoping to join this exclusive club. It comes at a time where the domination of space exploration by the governments of Russia and the US is coming to an end. Last month, SpaceX, a private company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, launched two American astronauts to the ISS. It was the first time US astronauts were sent into space on American soil since 2011. As well as SpaceX, Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, and Virgin Galactic, owned by Richard Branson are making inroads into privatising space travel. Other countries are also trying to make their mark on space. China made global headlines when it succeeded in landing a rover on the far side of the moon last year. India and Israel also have burgeoning space programmes, with both of them launching missions to the moon in 2019. Both ended in failure. The UAE has had some space exploration success before, having launched four earth observation satellites and sent its own astronaut, Hazzaa al-Mansoori, to the ISS. But the technical difficulties of venturing to the ISS (250 miles away) and the moon (238,855 miles away) pales in comparison to interplanetary travel. Mars is currently around 308million miles away from Earth. To give the Amal mission the best chance of success, the UAE partnered with the experienced hands of space travel in Japan and the US. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai worked with experts at the University of Colorado, Arizona State University and the Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley, California. The mission will not land on Mars, instead settling for a functioning orbiter. Achieving this is hugely challenging as around half of all missions to Mars end in failure, according to project manager, Omran Sharaf There are currently only eight active Mars missions, and the UAE is hoping to join this exclusive club. It comes at a time where the domination of space exploration by the governments of Russia and the US is coming to an end To give the Amal mission the best chance of success, the UAE partnered with the experienced hands of space travel in Japan and the US. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai worked with experts at the University of Colorado, Arizona State University and the Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley, California A rising star of the People's Liberation Army has been sent to oversee the ground forces of the Western Theatre Command, where tensions are rising between China and India over border disputes. Xu Qiling, former ground force commander of the Eastern Theatre Command, swapped posts with his counterpart He Weidong in the west, overseeing border areas in the Xinjiang and Tibet autonomous regions since last month, according to a report posted on the Western Theatre Command's WeChat social media account. "As tensions with India are escalating over border disputes, the Western Theatre Command needs a younger commander to lead frontier soldiers and officers in this current sensitive period," a military insider, who requested anonymity, told the South China Morning Post. "Xu is 57 years old, five years younger than his predecessor, He. The working environment in the Western high altitude is very tough and even young people age prematurely there." The insider said that after working for four years in the Tibetan Plateau, 63-year-old He's new position in the Eastern Theatre Command was a more comfortable job before his formal retirement. The latest tensions between China and India have further fuelled both countries' build-up of troops and weapons to assert territorial claims at their disputed border areas in the Himalayas. China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has stepped up advanced arms testing and training at high altitude. Hong Kong-based military commentator Song Zhongping said the latest border tensions meant the Western Theatre Command required someone familiar with joint operations between ground and air forces. "All the fighting forces Beijing sends to the frontiers were trained for air-to-ground battles, which need a capable commander like Xu to lead them." Xu Qiling was chief of staff of the former 54th Army Corps, an elite PLA fighting force. He has worked in four of the five theatre commands. Photo: Weibo alt=Xu Qiling was chief of staff of the former 54th Army Corps, an elite PLA fighting force. He has worked in four of the five theatre commands. Photo: Weibo Story continues Xu cut his teeth when he was the chief of staff at the former 54th Army Corps, one of the PLA's elite fighting forces that was well known for its involvement in the crackdown of Tibetan uprising in 1959, as well as one of the PLA divisions sent to suppress the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. The army corps was merged into the 83rd Army Corps in a military overhaul by President Xi Jinping in 2015. Xu was one of the young generals promoted by Xi, who also chairs the all-powerful Central Military Commission, since Xi took the helm of the PLA in late 2012. Xu has experience at four of the PLA's five theatre commands. He was promoted to lieutenant general last year, one year after being sent to the head the ground forces in the Eastern Theatre Command, which oversees the security of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, as well as the East China Sea. Tensions between the PLA and its Indian counterpart have heightened since a two-month military stand-off in Doklam " known as Donglang in Mandarin " in the summer of 2017. Doklam is claimed by China and Bhutan, an ally of India. Both Beijing and New Delhi have boosted their border defences. "Xu's new position in the Western Theatre Command is also a new test for him," the insider said. "If he can handle the China-India border disputes properly, he is very likely to be further promoted to grab a seat in the PLA's ground force headquarters, or even more senior, in the future." 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. Restaurants in San Francisco will be able to offer sit-down dining outdoors starting Friday, three days ahead of schedule, marking the citys latest step in easing current shelter-in-place restrictions. Since mid-March, San Francisco restaurants have been able to offer only takeout and delivery service to customers. Mayor London Breed announced the expansion on Tuesday, with the proviso that all restaurants must operate with the proper distancing and health and safety protocols. The new announcement applies only to restaurants that have permits for sit-down dining. Those that already have outdoor patios may take advantage of the newly loosened restrictions Friday. Those without established outdoor dining areas may apply for a permit under the citys new Shared Spaces Program, which was developed by the citys Economic Recovery Task Force, to use spaces such as sidewalks, parking lanes, streets and plazas for pick-up and outdoor dining. Through the program, restaurants are provided a temporary outdoor dining permit that expires on Dec. 31. Among the various requirements, restaurants must have a 6-foot-wide travel path, and the establishments cannot use traffic lanes designated for bikes and cars, bus stops or red or blue curb zones as dining spaces. All diners must follow social distancing guidelines, wear masks until seated and remain outside of the restaurant except to use a bathroom inside. And dining parties sitting at the same table will be limited to groups of six, unless they are from the same household. Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle Laurie Thomas of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association said outdoor dining will help bring life back to our city. Expanding seating to outside will help places survive financially, she said. The speed with which weve been able to make this expansion with the city happen is just really impressive. Its going to do a lot for businesses. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. San Francisco joins a wave of Bay Area cities expanding dining options for restaurant-goers over the past few weeks. Dine-in restaurants, along with gyms and bars, reopened in Contra Costa County on June 1. Napa County also recently gave the green light for dine-in service. San Mateo County recently sanctioned sit-down outdoor dining. San Francisco is tentatively on track to open for indoor dining sometime in July, according to a plan plan formulated by the Economic Recovery Task Force and announced on May 28. While local chefs are encouraged by the gradual reopening for restaurants, some are still approaching the process with caution, and are advocating a slower approach to ensure another wave of COVID-19 cases does not cause restaurants to close again. There are so many unknowns right now. The public is ready to go out. The business owners, because of the bleeding financially ... over the last few months, are ready to get back to work, said chef Mourad Lahlou, owner of Mourad and Aziza in San Francisco; Mourad has been closed during the pandemic while Aziza is open for takeout. But were also nervous about what can happen. We have to make sure we know whats important is it the health concern or the economic concern? We have to have a balance. Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips - Maria Vab Kerkhove, a WHO official had said COVID-19, a respiratory pathogen, was mainly spread through infected droplets from coughing or sneezing - The health official said the data was collected from patients with asymptomatic symptoms in several countries - Health CS Mutahi Kagwe had earlier said 80% of COVID-19 cases in Kenya were those of asymptomatic patients which could be managed from home Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organisation's technical lead for COVID-19 response has retracted her remarks that the spread of the novel coronavirus disease by asymptomatic patients (those not showing no symptoms) is rare. The health official had said contact tracing from patients who exhibited no symptoms of the disease showed they did not transmit the virus to secondary individuals. READ ALSO: You can take all William Ruto's assets but please spare his life - MP Sudi tells Uhuru The novel coronavirus was first confirmed in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Since then, it has spread to over 200 countries. Photo: CDC. Source: UGC READ ALSO: 16 leaders who catalysed messy divorce between Uhuru and William Ruto Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva on Monday, June 8, Kerkhove who is also the head of the emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, said they were studying data collected from various countries. "From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual," Kerkhove however, said she was not talking on behalf of the health agency. "I wasnt stating a policy of WHO or anything like that, I was just trying to articulate what we know, she said. And in that I used the phrase very rare, and I think thats a misunderstanding to state that asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare. The WHO official said COVID-19, a respiratory pathogen, mainly spread through infected droplets from coughing or sneezing. "It passes from an individual through infectious droplets. If we actually followed all of the symptomatic cases, isolated those cases, followed the contacts and quarantined those cases, we would drastically reduce -- I would love to be able to give a proportion of how much transmission we would actually stop -- but it would be a drastic reduction in transmission," she said. Maria Van Kerkhove said COVID-19, a respiratory pathogen, mainly spread through infected droplets from coughing or sneezing. Photo: Time Magazine. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Hoja ya kutimuliwa kwa Gavana Anne Waiguru yageuka na kuwa vurugu Health CS Mutahi Kagwe had earlier said 80% of COVID-19 cases in Kenya were those of asymptomatic patients which could be managed from home. "We are looking into developing home-based and community care, provided that its in accordance with World Health Organisation protocols, which we are e currently reviewing and domesticating in line with our situation, he said on Thursday, June 4. Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said over 80% of coronavirus patients in Kenya were asymptomatic. Photo: MoH. Source: Facebook 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. I married a man every woman wanted - Pastor Joan Chege | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke Five Australian universities have been ranked in the world's top 50, but their progress is being stalled by falling scores in teaching capacity and graduate employability. The Australian National University retained its position as the country's top-ranked university in the QS World University Rankings, but fell two places to joint 31st. The University of Sydney moved up two places to 40th and second in Australia, while the University of Melbourne dropped three places to 41st. ANU has remained Australia's top-ranked university in QS international rankings. Credit:Louie Douvis The University of NSW and the University of Queensland also made the top 50, ranked 44th and 46th. Twenty-three Australian universities improved their overall position, while 12 dropped. But global higher education consultancy QS Quacquarelli Symonds, which ranks the world's top 1000 universities, said Australia's further progress was being hindered by two factors. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 12:03:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about efforts to promote ethnic unity at Jinhuayuan community in Jinxing Township of Wuzhong City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 8, 2020. Xi inspected Ningxia on Monday. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) YINCHUAN, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Monday said all ethnic groups are part of the big family of the Chinese nation and no ethnic group should be left behind in the country's fight against poverty, in its building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and in its drive toward modernization. Xi made the remarks when he talked with residents on the square of the Jinhuayuan community in the city of Wuzhong during his inspection in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The community is home to more than 13,000 permanent residents, nearly half of whom are of ethnic minority groups. It represents the fine tradition of the Chinese nation and the great strength of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics to enable people of all ethnic groups to walk hand in hand into a moderately prosperous society in all respects, Xi said. "With the continuous efforts of the Party and the government as well as the tireless endeavors of the people, the days ahead will surely be better and happier," he added. Enditem Related: Xi hails community volunteers' work during Ningxia tour Xi Focus: Xi inspects northwest China's Ningxia Mumbai Police on Tuesday said that nearly 1,871 personnel have been infected with Covid-19 so far, news agency ANI reported. As many as 853 police officials have recovered from coronavirus till date while 21 have lost their lives. According to reports, eighty-two positive cases of coronavirus were also reported among the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) personnel deployed in the city. No new coronavirus cases were reported in Maharashtra Police personnel over the last 24 hours. Total Covid-19 cases in the force stand at 2,562 while death toll is at 34, ANI reported. Also read: Delhi expected to have 5.5 lakh Covid-19 cases by July 31 - Manish Sisodia 1871 Mumbai police personnel have been infected with #COVID19 so far, including 853 recovered & 21 deaths. 82 positive cases also reported among State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) personnel deployed in the city: Mumbai Police #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/WMhaVPkzIA ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2020 Meanwhile, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena on Tuesday, in its editorial mouthpiece Saamana, said that Covid-19 lockdown restrictions have been eased when the cases are not showing any sign of abating. After unlock, the challenges will increase. The government can be very strict, but people should not allow this situation to arise, it said. The need of the hour is to have self-discipline to ensure the lockdown easing does not boomerang, the editorial read. Maharashtra is the worst-affected stated in the country with more coronavirus cases than the original epicentre - China. The Covid-19 tally in the state has jumped to 88,528 while more than 40,975 Covid-19 patients have recovered from the virus across the state. Covid-19 death toll in the state stands at 7,466. Mumbai, the worst-hit city in the country, has registered 50,085 Covid-19 cases while 1,702 patients have succumbed to death in the city due to coronavirus. Worldwide, coronavirus cases have crossed the 7 million mark. More than 4 lakh people have lost their lives to the virus across the globe. India stands at the fifth spot with the most number of Covid-19 cases after countries like the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK. "Since temporarily closing our stores in late March, we've empowered our people with new and innovative technology so they can continue their role as trusted advisors, helping our customers celebrate special moments and relationships," said Virginia C. Drosos, Chief Executive Officer, Signet Jewelers. "As we reopen more stores, customers can choose how they'd like to engage with our store brands - either a safe instore experience, a digital experience, or a mix of both. This underscores Signet's commitment to reimagining the jewelry customer experience, from education through ownership." Customer response has been positive, which the company attributes to its signature, personalized customer service, as well as the video capability when stores are open, and the availability to shop when physical stores are closed. Signet's virtual service is available 9 am EST to 9 pm PST, seven days a week. Signet's jewelry consultants across all its brands have connected with more than 20 million customers and conducted more than 100,000 virtual consultations since March 23, when the company temporarily closed its North American stores. During virtual appointments, customers can accomplish what they typically have done in a physical store such as, working with a Jared consultant to custom design an engagement ring, or working with a Zales consultant to find the right pair of one-carat diamond studs. Recognizing that a growing number of customers are increasingly comfortable making their important jewelry purchases online, Signet will continue to expand its virtual consulting offerings as it reopens more stores in the coming months. The combination is unique to help meet the needs of the jewelry customer. In 2018, Signet began laying the foundation to evolve its traditional brick-and-mortar business to one that combines physical and digital experiences. The company launched its three-year Path to Brilliance transformation plan, with a focus on expanding its online presence. In its fourth-quarter 2020 results, which included the December 2019 holidays, Signet reported the strategy was working and creating momentum, including eCommerce growth of 15% year over year, as well as same stores sales growth of 2.3%. Signet reopens more stores, differently Over the past roughly six weeks and in keeping with government guidance, Signet has reopened nearly 1,100 stores in states including Arizona, California Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, with the most reopened stores in Texas and Florida more than 120 each. The reopened stores have prioritized safety with social distancing measures and rigorous new sanitizing protocols, while preserving the heart of the company's trademark welcoming atmosphere and service. Customers, for instance, will see employees regularly sanitize high-touch surfaces such as glass counters, jewelry cases and door handles. The company also rethought the jewelry try-on experience each time someone tries on a piece of jewelry, an employee will use alcohol wipes to clean the item before and after. Employees are required to wear masks and, where appropriate, gloves. As of June 2, more than three-quarters of Signet's reopened stores are open to the public, while the others are open strictly to employees who fulfill orders using the company's new curbside pickup option. Curbside Concierge offers safety and security, with a unique password In April, Signet rolled out its Curbside Concierge service as a new pickup option for customers at most of its reopened stores. The service is designed to be safe, convenient and secure. Customers can book an appointment during store hours that's convenient for them; during the booking, they'll be given a secret password that they'll be asked to recite when they park at the designated curbside location. An employee will greet a customer in their car from a safe distance, confirm their identity and password, and complete the contactless transaction by placing the jewelry bag securely inside the customer's car. Signet expects to expand this service as it reopens more stores. About Signet Jewelers Signet Jewelers Limited is the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry. Signet operates approximately 3,200 stores primarily under the name brands of Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared, H. Samuel, Ernest Jones, Peoples, Piercing Pagoda, and JamesAllen.com. Further information on Signet is available at www.signetjewelers.com. See also www.kay.com, www.zales.com, www.jared.com, www.hsamuel.co.uk, www.ernestjones.co.uk, www.peoplesjewellers.com, www.pagoda.com, and www.jamesallen.com. Media: Colleen Rooney Chief Communications Officer +1 330 668 5932 [email protected] Barbara DeLollis VP Leadership Communications +1 301 814 3357 [email protected] SOURCE Signet Jewelers Ltd. Related Links http://www.signetjewelers.com SEMINOLE, Fla., June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Office Gurus, a division of Superior Group of Companies, Inc. (SGC), has been awarded first place among Call Centers and fourth place overall in the Best Companies for Young Professionals rankings by Employers for Youth. Employers for Youth is a quantitative study that seeks to recognize the best companies for young professionals in Latin America. On its first edition in El Salvador, results were based on employee survey responses across multiple industries. It is an honor to be recognized by Employers for Youth as a leading place to work in El Salvador, said Dominic Leide, President of The Office Gurus. Our combination of exceptional employees and terrific clients is what creates a best-in-class workplace for all of our GURUS, and provides our team with exceptional growth opportunities in a rewarding and fun environment. The Office Gurus is an award-winning global BPO company, offering custom solutions through call center outsourcing services from its centers in El Salvador, Belize, Jamaica and the U.S., as well as agents working from home in each country. The Office Gurus Wins Award for Best Global Call Center and BPO Provider 2019 Superior Group of Companies, formerly Superior Uniform Group, established in 1920, is a combination of companies that help customers unlock the power of their brands by creating extraordinary brand experiences for employees and customers. It provides customized support for each of its divisions through its shared services model. The Office Gurus is a global provider of custom call and contact center support. As a true strategic partner, The Office Gurus implements customized solutions for its customers in order to accelerate their growth and improve their customers service experiences. Visit www.superiorgroupofcompanies.com or www.TheOfficeGurus.com for more information. Contact: Dominic Leide President, The Office Gurus (727) 803-7114 OR Hala Elsherbini Halliburton Investor Relations (972) 458-8000 'Leaders of the Indian community in Hong Kong had broached the idea of developing the Andaman and Nicobar islands for investment and setting up manufacturing units,' points out Rup Narayan Das. IMAGE: Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour at dusk, with the lights of Central in the distance, shot from the Star Ferry. Photograph: Palani Mohan/Getty Images At a a time when Hong Kong has been in the media limelight in view of threats to its autonomy as enshrined in the Basic Law, its mini constitution, it is worthwhile to revisit the Indian connection to this erstwhile British colony, handed over to Communist China on July 1, 1997. China's National People's Congress on May 28, 2020 passed the security law which empowers Beijing to deploy its security forces in Hong Kong aimed at throttling what Communist China sees as 'secession, subversion and terrorism'. Although a majority of its population in Hong Kong are ethnic Chinese, a section are non-ethnic Chinese -- Eurasians, Portiere, and South Asians from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. According to some estimates, there are about 4,518 Indians excluding about 17,500 having Indian passports. While numerically their number is not impressive, Indians have been playing a very significant role in Hong Kong's economy. The Indian community's links with Hong Kong can be traced back to the British East India Company. When the British naval force landed in Hong Kong in January 1841 and hoisted the British flag at Possession Point, about 2,700 Indian troops were witness to the event. The Treaty of Nanking that ceded the Chinese territory to the British makes a mention of the Indians. It was in India that the colony raised its first military force -- the Hong Kong Regiment recruited in 1890. The colonial government recruited personnel in the police and administration to man services like health, education, communication. It was much cheaper and quicker to recruit people from India which was then part of the British empire. William Jardine -- founder of Hong Kong's oldest trading firm, Jardine & Matheson -- worked in Calcutta for the East India Company before moving out to Hong Kong. Jardine was a surgeon on one of the East India Company's ships before starting his trading company. Jardine & Matheson continues to be one of the largest business conglomerates in Hong Kong. Among the Indian business community, the Parsis were perhaps the earliest to settle down and do business in Hong Kong. The Paris came along with the British from Canton (present day Guangzhou) in the mid-1880s. Supremely occidental, the Parsis were loved by the British for their club etiquette, their Western attitudes, philanthropy and fondness for things imperial. In 1880, Dorabjee Naorojee began the Star Ferry service between Hong Kong and Kowloon, the precursor to today's iconic Star Ferry. Hormusjee Mody, a successful opium merchant and stockbroker, donated Hong Kong $180,000 to help set up the University of Hong Kong. Mody along with Paul Chater established the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. A road in Kowloon is named after Mody. He also established the Seaman's Institute at Wanchai and made donations to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The Sindhis, who constitute the majority of Indians in Hong Kong, arrived in the post war years. The 1950s witnessed the exodus of the Indian community to Hong Kong in the wake of the Partition of the sub-continent. During the initial years of Hong Kong's rise, quite a few Indians made their mark in Hong Kong's economy. The first bank to be opened in Hong Kong in 1945 was the branch of an Indian bank, the Oriental Bank of Calcutta. When the Chinese started to manufacture, the Indian community explored and opened markets for Hong Kong goods in the Middle East, the Gulf and the West and East Africa. Among the persons of Indian origin who carved out a niche in Hong Kong's social, economic and political life, Hari N Harlela is the foremost. If Hong Kong had weathered many a storm, Harilela had seen ups and downs in his personal life as an entrepreneur. Perhaps the Government of India can try to develop the Andaman and Nicobar islands to attract investments from Hong Kong in areas such as tourism, hospitality and manufacturing of electronics items, garment manufacturing, cosmetics etc in line with its blue economy guidelines and Coastal Manufacturing Zone blueprint. Leaders of the Indian community in Hong Kong, during the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in the 1990s, had broached the idea of developing the Andaman and Nicobar islands for investment and setting up manufacturing units there. Now when India is trying to attract investment from abroad, perhaps the Hong Kong Indian community can be roped in to invest in the Andaman and Nicobar islands without affecting the security and environmental concerns of the area. Rup Narayan Das, PhD, is a senior fellow at the Indian Council of Social Science Research at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. The views expressed are personal. Production: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com President Donald Trumps Iran policy coordinator hinted today at ongoing negotiations with Tehran to secure the release of additional American prisoners following the release of Navy veteran Michael White last week. Ive been negotiating with the Iranians for the last few months through the Swiss, said Brian Hook, Trumps special envoy for Iran, during a virtual interview with the conservative Heritage Foundation. Im working on getting the Namazis, Morad Tahbaz and the remains of Bob Levinson back to the United States, so thats sort of the next focus. Why it matters: Both the United States and Iran deny that Whites release was the result of a prisoner swap, even though Tehran repatriated the Navy veteran following Washingtons return of Iranian prisoners. As White returned home, Iran announced that the United States would free Majid Taheri, a Florida-based Iranian-American doctor convicted of sanctions violations. Fromer New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who helped facilitate the negotiations, confirmed to Al-Monitor last week that the Iranians had predicated Whites release on Taheris return. Also last week, the United States returned Sirous Asgari, a scientist acquitted of sanctions violations charges last year, to Iran. The reluctance of both sides to call it a prisoner swap stands in contrast to the exchange that took place last year. At the time, neither Washington nor Tehran shied away from the term to describe the release of American scholar Xiyue Wang and Iranian stem cell researcher Masould Soleimani. Hook touted that he was able to win the release of White and Wang while implementing a maximum pressure campaign on Iran with no pallets of cash, no sanctions relief and no change in policy. Whats next: Hook continues to negotiate through the Swiss on the return of three other Americans held by Iran. They are businessman Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer Namazi, who was released from prison as part of a COVID-19 medical furlough, as well as Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian environmentalist who holds US and British citizenship. Additionally, the family of Robert Levinson, a former CIA contractor who disappeared on Irans Kish Island in 2007, confirmed his death in March. His family wants his remains returned to the United States. Know more: Elizabeth Hagedorn has the inside story on the US-Iran negotiations to secure Whites release, including the back channel role that Richardson played. SAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / TPT Global Tech, Inc. ("TPTW or the Company") (TPTW) announced today it has successfully restructured its convertible promissory note due June 3, 2020 issued by the Company to Odyssey Capital Funding LLC ("OCF") for $525,0000 on June 8, 2019 to a six month non-convertible term loan. The restructured balance included the remaining principal balance of $475,850 and accrued interest of $135,000 for a combined term loan balance of $610,850. The $610,850 is due in six months bearing 0% interest for three months and 10% per annum thereafter. There is no conversion feature on the restructured balance. OCF converted 52,961,921 shares of the Company's common stock into the open market since June 4, 2019. TPTW and OCF agreed that OCF would receive payments for the restructured note balance from first monies raised from any Company financing during efforts in the next six months. The Company is attempting to restructure all of its remaining toxic debt obligations. The proceeds from the convertible promissory note issued to OCF were used as part of the acquisition of the assets of SpeedConnect, LLC. The acquisition included the tradename of SpeedConnect. SpeedConnect is located in Frankenmuth, Michigan and is one of the largest Rural Wireless Internet Services Providers in the United States. SpeedConnect has operations in 10 Midwestern states, Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Texas. The Company is in the process of upgrading the existing SpeedConnect 10 state Broadband network to a 4G+/5G network offering faster speeds and added value products such as TV, Voice and Data Services to its 15,000 Rural Middle American telecommunication's customers. "Through the fund-raising process to complete the SpeedConnect asset acquisition, it has truly been a pleasure working with the Odyssey team. I can say they are an Investment Fund that is there for the companies they invest in. Since the inception of our funding they've never put real undue pressure on our stock driving our share price or market cap down. It is very interesting to see that out of the five convertible note Investment Funds that helped fund the SpeedConnnect asset acquisition, OCF required the least amount of common shares in reserve of 53M for their investment in TPTW. When the dust settled, over 721M shares had been converted into the market and OCF is the only Investment Fund to date to still have TPTW shares in their name. This says a lot on how they do business. By restructuring their convertible note to a term loan, OCF sees the value in helping us reduce our derivative liabilities as we continue to raise capital." said Stephen Thomas, CEO of TPTW. Story continues This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of various provisions of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, commonly identified by such terms as "believes," "looking ahead," "anticipates," "estimates" and other terms with similar meaning. Specifically, statements about the Company's plans for accelerated growth, improved profitability, future business partners, M&A activity, new service offerings and pursuit of new markets are forward looking statements. Although the company believes that the assumptions upon which its forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these assumptions will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking statements should not be construed as fact. The information contained in such statements is beyond the ability of the Company to control, and in many cases the Company cannot predict what factors would cause results to differ materially from those indicated in such statements. All forward-looking statements in the press release are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements and by reference to the underlying assumptions. About TPT Global Tech TPT Global Tech Inc. (TPTW) based in San Diego, California, is a Technology/Telecommunications Media Content Hub for Domestic and International syndication and also provides Technology solutions to businesses domestically and worldwide. TPT Global offers Software as a Service (SaaS), Technology Platform as a Service (PAAS), Cloud-based Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) and carrier-grade performance and support for businesses over its private IP MPLS fiber and wireless network in the United States. TPT's cloud-based UCaaS services allow businesses of any size to enjoy all the latest voice, data, media and collaboration features in today's global technology markets. TPT's also operates as a Master Distributor for Nationwide Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) and Independent Sales Organization (ISO) as a Master Distributor for Pre-Paid Cellphone services, Mobile phones Cellphone Accessories and Global Roaming Cellphones. CONTACT: Frank Benedetto 619-915-9422 SOURCE: TPT Global Tech Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/593297/TPT-Global-Tech-Restructures-525000-Convertible-Promissory-Note-to-Odyssey-Capital-Funding-LLC-reducing-Toxic-Debt-Obligations Entire Roman city revealed without any digging For the first time, archaeologists have succeeded in mapping a complete Roman city, Falerii Novi in Italy, using advanced ground penetrating radar (GPR), allowing them to reveal astonishing details while it remains deep underground. The technology could revolutionise our understanding of ancient settlements. The team, from the University of Cambridge and Ghent University, has discovered a bath complex, market, temple, a public monument unlike anything seen before, and even the city's sprawling network of water pipes. By looking at different depths, the archaeologists can now study how the town evolved over hundreds of years. The research, published today in Antiquity, harnessed recent advances in GPR technology which make it possible to explore larger areas in higher resolution than ever before. This is likely to have major implications for the study of ancient cities because many cannot be excavated either because they are too large, or because they are trapped under modern structures. GPR works like regular radar, bouncing radio waves off objects and using the 'echo' to build up a picture at different depths.* By towing their GPR instruments behind a quad bike, the archaeologists surveyed all 30.5 hectares within the city's walls - Falerii Novi was just under half the size of Pompeii - taking a reading every 12.5cm. Located 50 km north of Rome and first occupied in 241 BC, Falerii Novi survived into the medieval period (until around AD 700). The team's GPR data can now start to reveal some of the physical changes experienced by the city in this time. They have already found evidence of stone robbing. The study also challenges certain assumptions about Roman urban design, showing that Falerii Novi's layout was less standardised than many other well-studied towns, like Pompeii. The temple, market building and bath complex discovered by the team are also more architecturally elaborate than would usually be expected in a small city. In a southern district, just within the city's walls, GPR revealed a large rectangular building connected to a series of water pipes which lead to the aqueduct. Remarkably, these pipes can be traced across much of Falerii Novi, running beneath its insulae (city blocks), and not just along its streets, as might normally be expected. The team believes that this structure was an open-air natatio or pool, forming part of a substantial public bathing complex. Even more unexpectedly, near the city's north gate, the team identified a pair of large structures facing each other within a porticus duplex (a covered passageway with central row of columns). They know of no direct parallel but believe these were part of an impressive public monument, and contributed to an intriguing sacred landscape on the city's edge. Corresponding author, Professor Martin Millett from the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Classics, said: "The astonishing level of detail which we have achieved at Falerii Novi, and the surprising features that GPR has revealed, suggest that this type of survey could transform the way archaeologists investigate urban sites, as total entities." Millett and his colleagues have already used GPR to survey Interamna Lirenas in Italy, and on a lesser scale, Alborough in North Yorkshire, but they now hope to see it deployed on far bigger sites. "It is exciting and now realistic to imagine GPR being used to survey a major city such as Miletus in Turkey, Nicopolis in Greece or Cyrene in Libya", Millett said. "We still have so much to learn about Roman urban life and this technology should open up unprecedented opportunities for decades to come." The sheer wealth of data produced by such high-resolution mapping does, however, pose significant challenges. Traditional methods of manual data analysis are too time consuming, requiring around 20 hours to fully document a single hectare. It will be some time before the researchers finish examining Falerii Novi but to speed the process up they are developing new automated techniques. Falerii Novi is well documented in the historical record, is not covered by modern buildings and has been the subject of decades of analysis using other non-invasive techniques, such as magnetometry, but GPR has now revealed a far more complete picture. Further information *GPR is so effective because it relies on the reflection of radio waves off items in the ground. Different materials reflect waves differently, which can be used to create maps of underground features. Although this principle has been employed since the 1910s, over the past few years technological advances have made the equipment faster and higher resolution. ### Reference L. Verdonck, A. Launaro, F. Vermeulen & M. Millett, 'Ground-penetrating radar survey at Falerii Novi: a new approach to the study of Roman cities', (9 June 2020). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2020.82 Funding The project was funded by the AHRC. Lieven Verdonck, from Ghent University, was employed on a post-doctoral fellowship from the Fund for Scientific Research--Flanders (FWO). The team is grateful for support from Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per l'Area Metropolitana di Roma, la Provincia di Viterbo e l'Etruria Meridionale. For further details see https:/ / www. classics. cam. ac. uk/ research/ projects/ beneath-the-surface-of-roman-republican-cities Contacts Tom Almeroth-Williams, Communications Manager (Research), University of Cambridge: tom.williams@admin.cam.ac.uk / +44 (0)7540 139 444 This story has been published on: 2020-06-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. A group of schoolboys recorded the moment they strung up a dead dog and attacked it with an axe before posting the horrifying footage on Snapchat. The boys ran over the black stray dog and took it to an abandoned house in Melbourne's Yarra Valley. A gruesome video taken on one of their phones was posted to Facebook on Saturday night and received over 400 shares before it was removed. Pictured: Horrifying footage revealed how a group of Melbourne schoolboys ran over a stray dog before stringing it up and hacking at it with an axe The footage was originally uploaded to one of the schoolboys' Snapchat stories and showed the dead dog hanging from a string inside a house. One of the boys could be seen pointing at the black dog and repeatedly hitting it with an axe. The horrifying video was widely shared on social media, with users calling for the boys to be held to account. One Instagram post detailed how the boys 'ran over the dog, killed it and strung it up'. The post claimed that one boy was responsible for running over the dog, another boy hit it with the axe, while one filmed and another boy watched. Bailey Scarlett, 23, was immediately concerned when she saw the disturbing video on Facebook. She told Daily Mail Australia: 'I saw the video on Facebook as it had been shared a few times and it made me feel sick to my stomach to think these boys had gotten away with doing something like that. 'The fact they made Snapchat stories of them hurting the dog made me so upset.' Ms Scarlett said she 'thankfully' did not know the boys and was appalled that they were 'filming, hitting it with their car and cutting it open with an axe'. She said concerned viewers had contacted the RSPCA but so far no action had been taken. An RSPCA Victoria spokesperson said: 'We are obviously very concerned about the content of the distressing video that is being shared, and we are working closely with Victoria Police to investigate the incident.' 2019 Impact Awards Supporting Teaching and Research with Immersive Tools San Diego State University has created a center for teaching with virtual-, augmented- and mixed-reality tools that supports research in the cross-curriculum implementation of immersive pedagogies. Category: Education Futurists Institution: San Diego State University Project: ViTaL (Virtual Immersive Teaching and Learning) Project lead: James Frazee, senior academic technology officer and director, instructional technology services Tech lineup: Apple, Asus, Google, HTC Vive, Lenovo, Magic Leap, Meta View (formerly Meta), Microsoft, MSI, Nikon, Oculus, Ricoh Theta, Samsung San Diego State University student using virtual reality headset Since its launch in the fall of 2017, San Diego State University's VITaL initiative has provided faculty with extensive tools for immersive learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and simulation. SDSU faculty are supported with access to the latest tools and more general applications from tech giants like Apple, Google, Microsoft, HTC Vive, Nikon, Lenovo, Asus and Samsung, along with more specifically targeted offerings in immersive technology, for example, Magic Leap, Meta View, MSI, Oculus and Ricoh Theta. VITaL resources have been widely incorporated into SDSU's curriculum, from 100-level undergraduate classes to 700-level doctoral research seminars, representing all colleges at the university. VITaL provides access to extensive tools for immersive learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and simulation. But VITaL includes far more than access to higher-end technology. Research programs, conducted both within SDSU and with other academic institutions and industry partners, explore immersive pedagogies and technology applications, ranging from the study of holographic simulations in nursing education, to an examination of simulation tools and the Microsoft HoloLens for teaching the phases of the moon to introductory astronomy students, to the foundation of student organizations such as the Aztec Game Lab and SDSU Virtual Reality Club. The bodies of about 20 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were recovered Tuesday from waters off Tunisia, a legal official said, as a search was launched for 30 others. Mourad Turki, spokesman for a court in the Mediterranean city of Sfax, told AFP that fishermen spotted the bodies in waters nearby and alerted the authorities. The coast guard recovered the bodies and a search was launched with divers. Other migrants had told authorities the victims were probably passengers on a boat that set off for Italy last Thursday night with 53 people on board. Illegal crossings from Tunisia to Europe jumped by more than 150 percent in January to April compared to the same period last year, according to the UNs refugee agency. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON This is not to say that all cops are bad cops, but those officers who are responsible for the atrocities being committed against us need to face consequences. Instead of responding to the protests with the empathy and compassion that communities of color deserved, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo turned this city into a militarized police state. Yes, people destroying businesses some of them black- and Latino-owned must be held accountable. But the uprising is a direct reflection of our leaders failure to advance a progressive agenda committed to eradicating systemic inequalities. George Floyd begged and pleaded, telling officers, I cant breathe. Our communities are also being asphyxiated, not by hands or knees but by the weight of racism and oppression that extends far beyond the brutality of the police force. It is the weight of the purposeful systematic failures in health care, education, housing and economic advancement that most burden people of color. The two of us have been constantly undermined by the mayor, the governor and some of our own colleagues in our pursuit of meaningful police accountability. This week in Albany, we seek to advance important criminal justice reform bills. We also fear that history will repeat itself: Our work to eliminate cash bail for most misdemeanors, which went into effect in January, has been rolled back. Still, we repealed Section 50-a of the State Civil Rights Law, which allowed police officers to conceal their personnel records, and banned chokehold maneuvers. We are also committed to imposing criminal liability for officers who fail to obtain medical care for persons in custody. And instead of protecting and maintaining a $1.3 billion public safety budget, we need to help our children laugh and breathe by restoring programs like the Summer Youth Employment Program. 5. A dispute over who should pay for testing nursing home workers is at the heart of a national effort to reduce the coronaviruss spread. The testing of staff is seen as one of the most important ways to contain outbreaks that have ravaged nursing homes, but the effort has been stymied by a lack of federal coordination and a patchwork of state policies. Paying for the tests has become a labor issue for some of the nations most poorly paid health care workers. Both nursing homes, which have received nearly $5 billion in federal funding to cover coronavirus expenses, and insurers say they should not be required to pay. Above, Shikilia Davis, a nursing home worker who demanded her employer pay for testing. This is a bill I do not want to get stuck with, she said. I dont have money lying around. The Times is providing free access to much of our coronavirus coverage, and our Coronavirus Briefing newsletter like all of our newsletters is free. Please consider supporting our journalism with a subscription. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil prices surged higher on Tuesday as optimism about production cuts from leading crude producers outweighed some concerns about a jump in new coronavirus infections in central America and some parts across the globe. Oil prices drifted down earlier in the session after Saudi Arabia said on Monday that the kingdom and its Gulf allies Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are unlikely to extend additional output reductions. However, oil prices bounced back after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) raised its 2020 forecasts for U.S. and Brent crude oil. EIA also lowered its forecast for U.S. oil production this year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up $0.75 or nearly 2% at $38.94 a barrel. Brent Crude futures advanced by $0.27 or about 0.65%, to $41.11 a barrel. With several economies across the globe reopening gradually, demand for energy has picked up a bit in recent weeks. However, in the event of a second wave of coronavirus attack, demand for oil may well drop down again. According to a report from the World Health Organization, the pandemic was 'far from over.' It has urged countries to press on with effors to contain the virus. Meanwhile, traders awaited the weekly oil reports from American Petroleum Institute (API) and the EIA. While the former is scheduled to release its weekly oil report later in the day, the latter's weekly inventory data is due out at 10:30 ET on Wednesday. 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 Convention Peoples' Party (CPP) on Tuesday paid tribute to the memory of the late Lawyer Antwi-Nimo, a former Deputy Interior Minister in the Third Republic, who died in London on June 2. Lawyer Antwi-Nimo, who hails from the Bretuo Family of Kyekyewere in the Afigya Kwabre North District, later become the Ashanti Regional Minister just before the 1981 Revolution which overthrew the Dr Hilla Limann Government. A CPP tribute signed by Mr John B. Daniels, Deputy General Secretary of the Party, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said Lawyer Antwi-Nimo was a member of the GHANASSO the CPP students' union at the University of Ghana in the 1960s. It said after the overthrown of the Limann Administration, Lawyer Antwi-Nimo went into exile in the Ivory Coast with other Ghanaians. He was instrumental in organizing the Ghanaian exiles including politicians, businessmen and ex-soldiers into a formidable Ghanaian exile community in Abidjan in opposition to the PNDC military junta. Lawyer Antwi-Nimo did not end his endeavors in the Ivory Coast as he continued to the United Kingdom where he was a formidable force among the Ghanaian community in opposition to the PNDC. He later became the Chairman of the Peoples Convention Party (PCP) and later the CPP, the UK and the Northern Ireland branch when the ban on political activities in Ghana was lifted in the Fourth Republic. Lawyer Antwi-Nimo used part of this law office accommodation as the CPP office in London. During the latter years of his life he was incapacitated by an illness for some time but he never forgot his CPP. Rest in Peace, a gallant Nkrumaist, a true CPPist. ---GNA Some restaurants and businesses struggling to reopen after months of being closed owing to COVID-19 are now finding it hard to entice workers back. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Some restaurants and businesses struggling to reopen after months of being closed owing to COVID-19 are now finding it hard to entice workers back. Some have found they are making more money by staying home and continuing to earn federal emergency benefits. And it is forcing the federal government to begin to take action against workers who submit fraudulent claims for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. A draft bill first reported by The Globe and Mail is looking at putting in place "punishment" and "imprisonment" for anyone intentionally misusing the benefit. The draft bill could be tabled as soon as next week. Penalties for hiding income and intentionally making misleading statements to get the CERB would be on a sliding scale, topping out at $21,000 and six months of jail time. We need to make sure people get back to work to get our economy rolling again. Jonathan Alward Jonathan Alward, Prairie region director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said he is pleased to hear about the planned legislation. "There have been challenges facing employees trying to get people back," Alward said Monday. "They say there have been problems with public transit, finding daycare is another, and are you more at risk, so hesitant about going back, but by far the most prevalent issue is... employees preference to stay on the CERB. "We need to make sure people get back to work to get our economy rolling again." As of the weekend, Ottawa had paid out $45 billion in CERB benefits since the program began in mid-March. The benefit, which provides $2,000 every four weeks, can be received for a maximum of 16 weeks but it stops when an employee goes back to work full time. Alward said the problem is that for many employees, the CERB is an incentive to stay home. "If they are making minimum wage, they can be making as much or more on the CERB," he said. The legislation would also bar anyone who turns down a reasonable job offer when they are able to work or fails to return to work when it is reasonable to do so. The legislation is a direct result of demands from opposition parties. The Conservatives have been asking for better enforcement, while the Bloc Quebecois argued the CERB creates incentives for workers to not return to work. The NDP, meanwhile, have argued eligibility criteria for the CERB have been too restrictive. Shaun Jeffrey, executive director of the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservice Association, said so far it hasnt been hard for restaurants to get enough employees to come back to work, but that could change as the provincial government continues to gradually reopen the economy. 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. I hope people have common sense and go back to a job offered to them." Shaun Jeffrey "Were only at 50 per cent capacity, so many restaurants are not fully open or have only been open for a couple of days," Jeffrey said. "The restaurant manager can ask an employee and if they say no theyll go to the next person thats relatively easy now. But then they get to Phase 3 and they are open to higher capacity thats when theyll find it more difficult. "I hope people have common sense and go back to a job offered to them. It was tough to find a job out there in both a pre- and post-COVID world." kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca Dylan Robertson Parliamentary bureau chief In Ottawa, Dylan enjoys snooping through freedom-of-information requests and asking politicians: "What about Manitoba?" Read full biography By Online Desk "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes," says an old saying. Well, not so much if you have Facebook and quick internet. Celebrities who are often bullied on social media, mostly with false accusations and fake news can learn from Malayalam actor Neeraj Madhav. The young star on Tuesday fended off a wrong accusation against him on Facebook, winning the support of many users. "The Family Man" star Neeraj on Tuesday shared a news report on his Facebook page about a Dalit teen getting shot for visiting a temple in Uttar Pradesh. "Cant believe this is happening in our country in 2020! Such a shame. Cast discrimination is an outdated evil, it should not prevail anymore. #dalitlivesmatter #alllivesmatter," Neeraj wrote. However, a user commented asking Neeraj how old was he when Madhu was killed. The man was referring to an incident from February 2018, in which a mentally unstable tribal youth called Madhu passed away after getting beaten up by the locals on the charge of stealing provisions from a shop in Kerala's Palakkad. 16 people who were allegedly involved in the lynching were arrested by the Agali police and were booked under various sections of the IPC as well as relevant sections of the SC/ST Act. By bringing up the incident the man was accusing Neeraj of reacting selectively to incidents. If an atrocity in UP moved Neeraj, then why was he silent when a similar incident happened in Kerala, he meant. However, Neeraj was back with a reply to the comment within an hour. He posted a screengrab of his post from 2018, condemning the lynching of the tribal and wrote: "Check the date on this post and do the math, you will figure out how old I was." His reply has got over 400 reactions so far with many congratulating him for an "epic reply." Neeraj had earlier wrote against communalising the killing of an elephant in Kerala, saying Keralites won't stay mum if anybody tries to reap benefits from it. A Conservative Party councillor in England has described 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston as a hero to the city of Bristol, claiming that his statue was pulled down by a criminal mob. According to the BristolLive website, Cllr Richard Eddy, who represents the ward of Bishopsworth on Bristol City Council, condemned the toppling of the controversial statue amid protests stemming from the death of George Floyd in police custody in the US. Mr Floyd died last month after a police officer in Minneapolis restrained him by holding a knee on his neck an incident that sparked worldwide protests over police violence. The bronze memorial to Mr Colston stood in Bristol until it was pulled down, dragged through the city and dumped in the harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest on Sunday. In comments published by BristolLive today, Cllr Eddy said: I am horrified and appalled by the rank lawlessness which was exposed in Bristol on Sunday when the famous statue of Edward Colston was attacked and vandalised by a criminal mob. He added: Edward Colston to me and generations of Bristolians stands out as a hero whose wealth has continued to benefit the housing, education and healthcare of the citizens of this city. Conservative Party councillor Richard Eddy said: Edward Colston to me and generations of Bristolians stands out as a hero whose wealth has continued to benefit the housing, education and healthcare of the citizens of this city. Pic: Ben Birchall/PA Wire Cllr Eddy also claimed he had had been contacted by outraged constituents over the incident, and hit out at the local police force and Bristols mayor. He said: Since this frenzied thug violence on Sunday, I have received a stream of outraged responses from constituents and others more than Ive even received in such a short time in my 28-year council service. He added: I am equally outraged by the feeble comments, effectively condoning violence, of Mayor Marvin Rees and the pathetic hand-wringing of senior Avon & Somerset police officers. Over the coming days and weeks, both need to be held to account by Bristolians. In 2001, Cllr Eddy resigned as deputy leader of the councils conservative group after adopting a golliwog as a mascot and facing criticism from racial equality groups and his own party. Asked about Cllr Eddys praise of Edward Colston as a hero, British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons official spokesman said on Tuesday: I havent seen those comments, the PM wont have seen those comments. Pressed if the Prime Minister regards Mr Colston as a hero, the spokesman said: Its not a discussion Ive had with him, youve got his words from last night and I have nothing more to add. Following protests across the UK on the weekend, Mr Johnson acknowledged many of the activists concerns were founded on a cold reality. Chief constable Andy Marsh of Avon and Somerset Police has defended his officers for not intervening to stop protesters pulling down the statue. Pic: Ben Birchall/PA Wire He said leaders simply cant ignore concerns that black, Asian and minority ethnic -BAME- groups face discrimination in education, employment and in law. The Prime Minister added that those who harmed police or property would face the full force of the law. Chief constable Andy Marsh of Avon and Somerset Police has defended his officers for not intervening to stop protesters pulling down the statue. He said that had his officers intervened to arrest those responsible, there would have been a very violent confrontation. The force has launched a criminal damage investigation into what happened to the statue, which has long been a source of controversy in the city where it has been situated since 1895. Meanwhile, Mr Rees said he felt no sense of loss after the statue was pulled down. Mr Rees said he could not condone the damage to the statue, but praised the police response. This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here. Thirty years ago, Julio Guzman, a refugee from El Salvador, founded an evangelical church Iglesia Cristiana Buenas Nuevas in North Bergen, N.J. His wife, Ana Guzman, was co-pastor. Their congregation grew to include nearly 200 mostly Spanish-speaking worshipers. The couple raised four children to adulthood, but not before they had suffered a grievous trial: the loss of their son Daniel, who died, at 5, of a brain tumor in 1995. Another grievous trial was in store for the Guzman family. On April 4, Mr. Guzman died of Covid-19 at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, his family said. He was 64. New Delhi, June 9 : The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, here on Tuesday, a low pressure area had formed in the Bay of Bengal under the influence of the cyclonic circulation over the same region. Due to the low pressure, widespread rain is likely over Odisha, north coastal Andhra Pradesh and Telangana during June 9-10 and over central India during June 11-13. It's likely to move west northwest-wards and become well marked during the next 48 hours. The IMD had earlier said the low-pressure area would help the southwest monsoon to advance into some parts of Sikkim, Odisha and West Bengal. It comes on the heels of cyclone Amphan and Nisarga, which made landfall on May 20 and June 3, killed several people, flattened villages and destroyed farms. Prior to super cyclone Amphan, a low pressure area had formed in the Bay of Bengal on May 13. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Alphabets GOOGL division Google is making every effort toward innovation of its digital map in order to add more user benefits amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This is evident from its latest move of updating Google Maps with the COVID-19 alerts and advanced features. Notably, the company is introducing three types of COVID-19 alert namely transit alert, driving alert and an alert when navigating to COVID-19 testing centers or medical facilities. All these alerts are based on data from local, state and federal governments. We believe these alerts will be of immense help to people in the current scenario where countries across the world are taking steps toward unlocking their economy. The fear of contracting the highly contagious virus while being outside the house or commuting is increasing by the day. Hence, the latest move is in sync with the companys growing measures to reduce the spread of the deadly COVID-19 by creating social awareness.It intends to do the same on the back of its innovative technologies and huge amount of user data, which have been driving force behind most of its products and services for quite some time now. This, in turn, has been instilling investor optimism in the stock. Coming to the price performance, Google parent Alphabet has returned 33.7% over a year, compared with the industrys rally of 12.9%. Update Details We note that Google is launching transit alert in countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, India, Brazil, Colombia, France, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, and Thailand. This alert is based on the information from local transit agencies. For instance, a transit alert will get generated when users are checking public transit directions for a trip, and that trip is in violation of government mandated COVID-19 restrictions. Driving alert will notify regarding the COVID-19 checkpoints and restrictions on crossing national borders. The company is rolling out this alert in the United States, Canada and Mexico currently. Meanwhile, the alert that will get displayed while navigating to COVID-19 testing centers has been launched in the United States. Apart from the United States, the alert has been introduced in Indonesia, Israel, Philippines and South Korea. Apart from these three alerts, Google has made its crowdedness predictions feature, which was rolled out last year, easier to use for the Google Map users who want to share information related to their transit lines. Notably, crowdedness predictions provide information about how crowded a bus, train or subway is likely to be. This will help people in making decisions regarding whether to take the ride or wait for the next in order to avoid the crowd. Additionally, the recently introduced new insights like temperature, accessibility and security onboard, have been made available globally. All these latest features and updates made by Google are focused at societys wellbeing. The company strives to keep people safe from COVID-19 while travelling. Moreover, these features will help people in maintaining social distancing. All these benefits are likely to deliver enhanced user experience, which in turn will bolster the adoption rate of Google Maps. Consequently, this will drive the performance of Google segment of the company that contributed the most to the top line. Story continues Alphabet Inc. Revenue (TTM) Alphabet Inc. Revenue (TTM) Alphabet Inc. revenue-ttm | Alphabet Inc. Quote Growing Measures to Counter COVID-19 The latest move is in sync with Alphabetsstrengthening efforts to help the society in combating COVID-19. Apart from this, its health-care division called Verily recently launched a COVID-19 screening and testing website under Project Baseline. Notably, this particular site, which is expanding rapidly across the United States, offers screening and potential free testing of coronavirus. The website requires users to begin with the eligibility questionnaire. Further, the company recently collaborated with researchers from the University of Southampton in the U.K. to help people track the spread of coronavirus using anonymized and aggregated location data. Googles location-enabled apps such as Google Maps is collecting location data, which is then shared with the researchers in an aggregated and anonymized format to monitor peoples movements. We believe all these strong endeavors will continue to drive Alphabets momentum and strengthen its competitive position against other companies including Amazon AMZN, Facebook FB and Microsoft MSFT, which are also are deepening their focus on the management of COVID-19 crisis by leveraging advanced technologies. Currently, Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside? Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana. Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look. See the pot trades we're targeting>> 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 Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Facebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research ALBANY, N.Y. - New York state lawmakers repealed a decades-old law Tuesday that has kept law enforcement officers disciplinary records secret, spurred by the national uproar over the death of George Floyd. The measure to make officers records and misconduct complaints public is among several police accountability bills racing through the state legislature. Lawmakers passed other bills that would provide all state troopers with body cameras and ensure that police officers provide medical and mental health attention to people in custody. Many of those bills were first proposed years ago, but got new momentum after huge protests nationwide condemned police brutality. The passage came as criminal charges were brought Tuesday against an NYPD officer over his rough treatment of a protester during demonstrations following the death of Floyd, who pleaded he couldnt breathe as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck May 25. Eliminating the law, known as Section 50-a, would make complaints against officers, as well as transcripts and final dispositions of disciplinary proceedings, public for the first time in decades. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has recently supported reforming the law, has said in the wake of the protests that he will sign the repeal. Only Delaware has a similar law. Momentum for ending the secrecy law reached a crescendo in recent days as marchers filled streets in Brooklyn, Manhattan and elsewhere to rally against police abuses amplifying the calls of reform advocates who spent years pushing for change in the wake of other high-profile police killings, including that of Eric Garner in 2014. This is no time for rejoicing, said State Senator Kevin Parker, a Democrat representing parts of Brooklyn. This bill has been around for over a decade And the only reason why were bringing it to the floor now because the nation is burning. Several family members of New Yorkers killed by police officers gathered at New York City Hall Tuesday to call for the defunding of police and repealing 50-a, which state courts have cited in decisions to withhold officers personnel records. We are tearing down the wall of secrecy that has been shielding officers across the state, said Constance Malcolm, mother of the late Ramarley Graham, who was unarmed when he was shot to death by a white NYPD officer in the bathroom of his apartment in 2012. The state Senate and Assembly passed the 50-a repeal largely along party lines, as Republicans argued the law would allow the release of unsubstantiated or false complaints against officers. But one of the bills sponsors, Sen. Jamaal Bailey, a Bronx Democrat, said the public has a right to view complaints: Sometimes unsubstantiated complaints happen because people dont want to follow up. The legislature on Monday passed other police accountability measures, banning police from using chokeholds, guaranteeing the right to record police activity and making it easier to file lawsuits against people making race-based 911 calls. As lawmakers acted on accountability legislation, NYPD Officer Vincent DAndraia was being arraigned on assault and other charges days after a bystander recorded him pushing protester Dounya Zayer, causing her to hit her head on the pavement. DAndraia was released after his lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. The officer was ordered to stay away from Zayer who was hospitalized after the May 29 altercation with what she said were a concussion and a seizure. Dounya was assaulted for the very reason she was protesting, and thats police brutality, said Zayers attorney, Tahanie Aboushi, adding that DAndraias supervisor should face punishment beyond an announced reassignment. If not for this being on video it would have been business as usual for the NYPD, Aboushi said. In a statement announcing the charges, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said he was deeply troubled by this unnecessary assault. Zayer, 20, called DAndraia a coward and suggested the assault would only deepen mistrust of law enforcement. I was protesting for a reason, Zayer said in a video tweeted from her hospital bed. The officer, she added, should have had the self restraint to not hurt the people hes supposed to be protecting. The police department suspended DAndraia, 28, last week without pay. His lawyer, Stephen Worth, didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. If convicted, he could face a year behind bars, but first-time offenders rarely see any jail time. DAndraia is the first New York City police officer to face criminal charges over alleged misconduct exhibited during days of unrest that roiled the city in the wake of Floyds death in Minneapolis. Two Buffalo officers were charged with assault last week after they were seen on video shoving a 75-year-old protester to the ground. DAndraias union said de Blasio and police leaders were sacrificing cops to save their own skin by sending officers out to protests with no support and no clear plan. They should be the ones facing this mob-rule justice, Police Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch said. We will say it again: New York City police officers have been abandoned by our leadership. We are utterly alone in our efforts to protect our city. ___ This story has been corrected to show the bill was passed Tuesday, not Monday. The federal government, under the watchful eye of Donald Trump, might have lost the naming rights of their big, fancy new space war department, the Space Force, to the Netflix show of the same name that has a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. Trump fancies himself a master negotiator and an expert businessman, but really, his empire was built on branding by lessening his name for us on shitty products that could make him a quick buck. It is, frankly, delicious knowing the walking klan hood, who has more power than he ever had as a TV host, got outmaneuvered by the people who brought you Love Is Blind. Trump randomly announced the creation of the Space Force back in 2018, then followed it up by not bothering to trademark the name. When The Office's Greg Daniels got his pitch for a satirical take on the creation of the department greenlit, Netflix snatched up the trademark rights all across the world. The U.S. government used to not care much about trademarking their department names until about 2007 when they suddenly cared way too much and established an office of trademarking and branding within the Department of Defense. Either that department dropped the ball on the global naming rights to Space Force, or they just didn't care. Either way, it's beautiful. ORRVILLE, Ohio, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM) today announced it will hold its Annual Meeting of Shareholders in a virtual-only meeting format via webcast, in place of a physical gathering. The Company made the change due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to support the well-being of its shareholders, employees, and their families. The virtual Annual Meeting of Shareholders will be held on Wednesday, August 19, 2020, as originally announced. The time of the meeting has been changed to 10:00 a.m., Eastern Time. Shareholders of record at the close of business on Monday, June 22, 2020, are eligible to attend the webcast and vote at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/SJM2020. To attend, shareholders must enter the 16-digit control number found on their proxy card, voting instruction form, or notice of internet availability of proxy materials. About The J. M. Smucker Company Inspired by more than 120 years of business success and five generations of family leadership, The J. M. Smucker Company makes food that people and pets love. The Company's portfolio of 40+ brands, which are found in 90 percent of U.S. homes and countless restaurants, include iconic products consumers have always loved such as Folgers, Jif, and Milk-Bone plus new favorites like Cafe Bustelo, Smucker's Uncrustables, and Rachael Ray Nutrish. Over the past two decades, the Company has grown rapidly by thoughtfully acquiring leading and emerging brands, while ensuring the business has a positive impact on its 7,000+ employees, the communities it is a part of, and the planet. For more information about The J. M. Smucker Company, visit jmsmucker.com. The J. M. Smucker Company is the owner of all trademarks referenced herein except for Rachael Ray, a registered trademark of Ray Marks II LLC, which is used under license. SOURCE The J. M. Smucker Company Related Links http://www.jmsmucker.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 20:11 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd659d6 1 Politics 2024-presidential-election,Ganjar-Pranowo,ridwan-kamil,anies-baswedan,Prabowo-Subianto,Sandiaga-Uno,COVID-19,coronavirus,politics-of-covid-19 Free Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo and West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil are trending upward as potential candidates for the 2024 presidential race, according to the latest published poll, which shows their electability ratings as having risen in recent months. The survey, commissioned by pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia and conducted through phone calls from May 16 to 18, revealed that 11.8 percent of the 181,200 respondents polled from across the country said they would vote for Ganjar if the election were held now, while 7.7 percent said they would vote for Ridwan. The electability ratings of Ganjar and Ridwan increased by 2.7 percent and 3.9 percent in the May survey, respectively, compared to a similar survey conducted by the pollster in February. At least three others, namely Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan and Gerindra Party executive Sandiaga Uno, saw their electability drop in the latest poll, though they were still listed among the top five most electable candidates alongside the two governors for the 2024 presidential race. The 2024 race will be more competitive, the pollster's executive director, Burhanuddin Muhtadi, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, noting that no one was currently dominating the headlines. Indikator Politik Indonesia's survey in February show Prabowo, the erstwhile rival of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in the 2019 presidential race, with a strong lead among the top potential candidates with an electability of 22.2 percent. However, the Gerindra chairman only garnered 14.1 percent of the vote in the May survey. Anies saw his electability rating go down from 12.1 percent in February to 10.4 percent in May, while Sandiaga, formerly Prabowo's running mate in the 2019 race, garnered only 6 percent of the vote in May compared to the 9.5 percent he got in February. Burhanuddin said regional leaders had more electoral incentives amid the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two months as they could show off their policies on managing the health crisis, which subsequently affected politics at a national scale. "Regional figures who lead big populations could use the opportunity as an electoral incentive because they could appear more often in the media, as the only issue that is in the public eye right now is COVID-19, he said. He said the phenomenon also explained Prabowo's electability drop. "His position as defense minister doesnt give him direct control over COVID-19 handling. Read also: Prabowo keeps a low profile, Gerindra simmers in uneasy alliance with Jokowi Ganjar and Ridwan are among the regional leaders who have been in the spotlight over their COVID-19 policies. In Central Java, for instance, Ganjar prepared a Heroes Cemetery to bury medical workers who died after handling COVID-19 patients as some locals were opposed to their bodies being buried near their homes. He also distributed aid packages to residents of Central Java who were currently residing in Greater Jakarta because they could not return home due to a mudik (exodus) ban and introduced a community movement program to manage food and security in response to the pandemic in the province. Ridwan conducted massive COVID-19 rapid testing and random swab test sampling on commuter lines and at markets in West Java. He also criticized a number of the central government's policies, questioning the validity of its COVID-19 data and its decision to raise Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) premiums. In the case of Anies, Burhanuddin said that one of the challenges he faced was that Jokowi's voters in the 2019 election were apparently still reluctant to support him due to disharmony between the two, which may be good news for the other potential candidates. "Jokowi's supporters think of Anies as the challenger to the central administration or Jokowi's policy and vice versa. Thats why the votes of Jokowi supporters are split between Ganjar and Ridwan, he said, suggesting that Anies would benefit from working on appealing to voters from outside the capital. Responding to the survey, Hendrawan Supratikno of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said discussions on it were still too early because its results would change. He said the PDI-P had prepared 20 possible presidential and vice-presidential candidates of various backgrounds and political parties. We take the survey as a note," Hendrawan said. Ganjar, a PDI-P politician, said on Tuesday that it would be up to the party over whether it would nominate him as a candidate, adding that he did not want to think about the race yet considering the current situation. We will still face the excesses of the [pandemic]; for example, its social and economic aspects," he said. As businesses start to reopen across America, Dunkin is looking to hire new workers. The Canton-based chain said it is looking to hire 25,000 employees nationwide, from front-counter to restaurant management. Dunkin spokeswoman Michelle King told CNN that some of the new positions are at restaurants seeking to ramp up after temporary closures, especially in cities hardest hit by the pandemic, including Boston. More than 900,000 unemployment claims have been filed in Massachusetts since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders meant to arrest its spread. But beginning in May, more jobs across the U.S. have been added as states start to reopen. The economy added 2.5 million new jobs in May and the unemployment rate declined to 13.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Dunkins hiring plan is following the path of similar fast food chains. Those that have strong drive-thru, delivery or to-go businesses are now looking to rehire, Morningstar restaurant analyst R.J. Hottovy told CNN. Papa Johns it would hire 20,000 employees back in March. Taco Bell pledged last month to hire 30,000 employees. Dominos and Buffalo Wild Wings have also said theyre hiring. Related Content: Ever since it became a sovereign republic, India has meticulously built its global network of 'friends' through continuous democratic practice and evolution, not least under former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who sought to build a secular and liberal country The aggregate of India's image on the international stage is a sum of many parts. From its geographical location on the map of the world to its material capacity to fulfil specific geopolitical roles, New Delhi's diplomatic profile is built on several layers of pragmatic interests, realpolitik concerns and a strong normative tradition. Yet, there is one core impulse that decisively defines India's relationship with the rest, or at least most, of the world: Democracy. Ever since it became a sovereign republic, India has meticulously built its global network of "friends" through continuous democratic practice and evolution, not least under former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who sought to build a secular and liberal country. At every turn, New Delhi made sure it was seen as progressive and reformist, rather than status quoist and revisionist. Sure, India might always have been an imperfect democracy and it even exhibited strong signs of authoritarianism and sectarianism, but none of that was significant enough to sully its image as a plural, secular, multi-party democracy that dearly values the core democratic principles of equality, justice and rule of law. But the sands appear to be shifting now, as India gets more divided along sectarian lines. New Delhi's partners in the West have signalled shiftiness. Missives of concern and condemnation have come from unlikely quarters, which had so far embraced or at least entertained the government. Indian diplomats are scrambling to control the narrative. International organisations are using unusually coarse words. Some are even talking sanctions. This is not an unremarkable shift. It signals a fundamental reformulation of how the world sees India within a rapidly evolving geopolitical context. However momentary it might be, it is something that New Delhi would ignore only at its own peril. The trouble began not long after the NDA government swept to power for the second straight time in May last year. When it diluted Article 370 and subsequently put the Kashmir Valley under a near-indefinite lockdown, the world took note. From the United Nations Security Council to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, New Delhi's move was discussed with concern at many international fora. The criticism grew when less than three months after the Kashmir lockdown was imposed, the government invited a delegation of Far-Right Members of European Parliament (MEPs) for a visit to Kashmir. As argued earlier, the visit, which was meant to fix Indias image in the West, backfired, as the European Union (EU) mission in India distanced itself from it and some of the visiting MEPs themselves expressed concern over the state of affairs in Kashmir. A fortnight later, the Kashmir issue became the centrepiece of a US Congressional hearing. India continues to dismiss all criticism on Kashmir, insisting that it is an internal matter. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), passed by Parliament in December, and the Delhi riots that followed, in February, drew criticism from international quarters, including the EU Parliament, US Department of State, Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), the UN and some foreign governments. The UN Special Advisor on the prevention of genocide, Adama Dien, raised an alarm about heightened hate speech and targeted violence against minorities after the passage of the sectarian citizenship law amendment. On 3 June, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern about authoritarian restrictions on press freedom in the country. But India has dismissed the criticism, reiterating that the CAA is an internal issue, and has called the international media coverage of the Delhi riots misleading and inaccurate. India has also dismissed this years Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which urges the US Department of State to enlist India as a Country of Particular Concern (the highest classification in their three-tier system) and impose sanctions on Indian entities for fanning religious hatred. In June 2016, the government rejected the USCIRFs annual report. In November 2017, it rejected a statement by UN Special Rapporteur, Leo Heller, accusing the Narendra Modi governments flagship sanitation and cleanliness programmes of flouting human rights norms. In June 2018, New Delhi rejected a damning report on Kashmir by the OHCHR. In September 2019, India dismissed statements by the current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michele Bachelet, on the Kashmir lockdown. In March 2020, the Indian foreign minister, S Jaishankar, personally rubbished critical statements on the CAA and Northeast Delhi violence made by the OHCHR at the 43rd UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session. Last month, when a tweet by a sitting BJP legislator quoting an objectionable and sexually-explicit opinion on Arab women resurfaced, influential voices based in the Gulf voiced displeasure: From an Emirati princess to a Kuwaiti minister, a large set of individuals took to Twitter to talk about Islamophobia in India. This was aggravated by an upsurge in anti-Muslim hate speech on social media platforms amongst Indian users based in the Gulf, following the emergence of the Nizamuddin Markaz COVID-19 cluster in New Delhi. This triggered a frenzy in New Delhi. The Gulf, after all, had so far gladly embraced the government despite the partys historic position against Muslims. In a rare move, the Indian Ambassador in Abu Dhabi tweeted a reminder to Indian expatriates to uphold the common values of non-discrimination and rule of law shared by India and the UAE. Even the Indian foreign minister reportedly reached out to his counterparts in the Gulf to reassure them. Following the outrage, Modi personally tweeted a call for non-discrimination during the COVID-19 crisis. It would be hasty to conclude that the NDA does not realise how the international community, particularly the "liberal West", looks at this government. Hence, it has used a tactical decoupling strategy to keep domestic politics away from foreign policy agendas. While the BJP might push its nationalist agenda at home, it has consistently maintained a largely liberal posture at international forums. This includes acts like participating in proactive multilateral initiatives and taking broad pro-migrant/pro-refugee positions at the UN (while dialling up anti-migrant rhetoric at home). In the current context of heightened criticism, the government has drawn up a nearly Rs 1.2 billion plan to offer COVID-19 related assistance to 90 countries and revived South Asian multilateralism through a video conference. The prime minister has even participated in a NAM meeting on the pandemic, a not-so-subtle throwback to the Nehruvian way of doing foreign policy. The fact that New Delhi is using the pandemic to do some damage control is undeniable. But the events of the past year and the reaction to them reflect the international communitys growing displeasure at domestic developments in India. This isnt something that will go away anytime soon. Hence, Indias foreign policy establishment must clearly recognise the limits of diplomatic doublespeak and engage with the international community with transparency and tolerance. It must realise that to this day, Indias international goodwill and the attendant soft power thrust hinge primarily on its pluralistic, secular and democratic traditions. Any pushback in this regard is bound to rock the boat on the global stage. Angshuman Choudhury is a senior researcher and coordinator of the Southeast Asia Research Programme at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi and former GIBSA Visiting Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin. He is also the founding editor of Eleventh Column, an online magazine on politics, conflict and geopolitics. Prannv Dhawan is a student at the National Law University of India, Bangalore, where he leads the Council for International Relations and International Law and the Law and Society Committee. He is also the founding editor of Law School Policy Review, and his research interests include majoritarianism, minority rights, affirmative action policies and constitutionalism. Views expressed are personal. A north Queensland man is assisting police after being restrained in the home of a woman found dead with "horrific injuries" shortly after. Police have declared a crime scene in the Cairns suburb of Woree after finding the 76-year-old woman's body about 6.30am on Tuesday. Police declared a crime scene at the home in Windarra Street, in the Cairns suburb of Woree, about 6.30am on Monday. Credit:Google Street View Forensic and scientific officers have since examined the Windarra Street home, while other police spoke to neighbours as part of an investigation into her death. Detective Inspector Jason Smith told media on police had been making unrelated inquiries when the discovery was made. It is estimated that more than 3.9 million American adults have taken some form of probiotics, with many patients looking to probiotics to improve their gastrointestinal health. However, after a detailed review of available literature, the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) has released new clinical guidelines finding that for most digestive conditions there is not enough evidence to support the use of probiotics. This is the first clinical guideline to focus on probiotics across multiple GI diseases while also considering the effect of each single-strain or multi-strain formulation of probiotics independently instead of grouping them all under the single umbrella of "probiotics." These guidelines are published in Gastroenterology, AGA's official journal. The guideline supports use of certain probiotic formulations in three settings: for the prevention of Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) infection in adults and children taking antibiotics, for the prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm, low birthweight infants, and for the management of pouchitis, a complication of inflammatory bowel disease. There was insufficient evidence to recommend probiotics for treatment of Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and C. difficile infection. For acute infectious gastroenteritis in children, AGA recommends against the use of probiotics. Patients taking probiotics for Crohn's, ulcerative colitis or IBS should consider stopping. The supplements can be costly and there isn't enough evidence to prove a benefit or confirm lack of harm. Talk with your doctor." Grace L. Su, Guideline Panel Chair, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Given widespread use and often biased sources of information, it is essential that the public have objective guidance about the appropriate use of and indications for probiotics. AGA employed the gold-standard for guideline development, GRADE methodology, to evaluate the available evidence on clinical efficacy of probiotics. "While our guideline does highlight a few use cases for probiotics, it more importantly underscores that the public's assumptions about the benefits of probiotics are not well-founded, and that there is also a major variation in results based on the formulation of the probiotic product," says Dr. Su. Key guideline recommendations: For preterm (born before 37 weeks), low birthweight (< 2500 g) infants, specific probiotics can prevent mortality and necrotizing enterocolitis, reduce the number of days required to reach full feeds, and decrease the duration of hospitalization. Certain probiotics should be considered for the prevention of C. difficile infection in adults and children who take antibiotics and for the management of pouchitis, a complication of ulcerative colitis that has been treated surgically. Probiotics do not appear to be beneficial for children in North America who have acute gastroenteritis - they should not be given routinely to children who present to the emergency room due to diarrhea. There was insufficient evidence for AGA to make recommendations regarding the use of probiotics to treat C. difficile infection, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis or IBS. For these conditions, AGA suggests that patients consider stopping probiotics, as there are associated costs and not enough evidence to suggest lack of harm. Well-designed clinical trials will be needed to refine these AGA recommendations on probiotics and to investigate other clinical conditions relevant to gastroenterology.? Gastroenterologists should suggest the use of probiotics to their patients only if there is clear benefit and should recognize that the effects of probiotics are not species-specific, but strain- and combination-specific.? Read the AGA Institute guidelines and technical review on the role of probiotics in the management of gastrointestinal diseases to review the complete recommendations. What are probiotics? Probiotics have been around for many years but have lately become more popular. Probiotics are living, microscopic (very small) organisms, including certain bacteria and yeasts, that are usually found in foods or dietary supplements. Some experts believe that probiotics may supplement treatments, but do not often replace them. Since there are many kinds of probiotics with different strains and combinations, it's important for patients to talk to their doctor before starting a probiotic. Egypts Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) said the fund has received bids from various investors for investment in the countrys military-owned firms, the funds CEO Ayman Soliman told Ahram Online on Monday. In a virtual press conference hosted by the fund, Soliman told Ahram Online that a number of military-owned firms are currently being reviewed by the fund, refusing to reveal further information on the companies or their operating sectors. We are receiving many bids from investors for partnerships through signing non-disclosure agreements so they can access data on the firms assets, he said, affirming "investors' appetite" in the firms. Soliman said a number of the firms are being assessed by the funds advisors to review investment opportunities. We will disclose information when there is an agreement on the assessment of assets and the form of partnerships, he said. His statements come after the SWF signed a deal last February with the Ministry of Defence's National Service Products Organisation (NSPO) for the restructuring and development of several affiliated companies to lure investors. The framework agreement involves studying the restructuring of some of the NSPO companies to utilise them to generate more investment through the fund. Its unclear how many of the NSPOs companies would be open to investors; however the SWF CEO said in press statements in February that the fund is currently assessing 10 of the NSPO companies. Established in 1979, the NSPO is owned by the Armed Forces and operates in various crucial developmental sectors to meet the needs of the military and the local market. Its portfolio includes companies in the sectors of agriculture and food industry, industrial field, engineering, services, and mining. The militarys economic activities have expanded over the past years, varying from producing and supplying food commodities and various consumer goods to carrying out diversified economic and construction projects. Last year, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said that companies owned and operated by the Armed Forces should be listed on the stock exchange alongside the countrys privatisation programme. He stressed the private sector is welcome to participate. Search Keywords: Short link: TUNIS - At least 20 bodies have been retrieved by the Tunisian Navy in Kraten, off the islands of Kerkennah. According to local media reports, the victims were among 53 sub Saharian migrants on a boat that left Sfax in the night between June 4 and 5 and was directed towards Italy's coasts when it sank. The official spokesman of the tribunals of Sfax, Mourad Turki, on Tuesday announced the beginning of an investigation. Tunisian authorities, with the aid of underwater search units, are looking for potential survivors. The IMF recognized Peru's very strong economic fundamentals and institutional policy frameworks by approving its request for a Flexible Credit Line. In addition to Peru, Chile now has access to the FCL. The size of access for such South American nation is US$23.8 billion. The FCL will help these countries strengthen their financial resilience while responding to the pandemic. Thus, Peru and Chile have joined Colombia and Mexico as recipients of the IMF's FCL. Together these four countries have access to about US$107 billion through the FCL. About FCL The IMF's Flexible Credit Line (FCL) is available to countries with a strong economic track record and policy frameworks. The credit line provides insurance to countries against external shocks and sends a strong signal of support from the global community. It helps boost confidence and financial resilience, especially during a period of heightened risks. Qualified countries can access the approved amount at any time within two years. This credit line carries no standard conditions. Peru y Chile estan tomando medidas importantes para proteger la vida y los medios de subsistencia de su poblacion. El FMI reconocio los muy solidos fundamentos economicos y marcos institucionales de politica economica al aprobar sus solicitudes para una Linea de Credito Flexible. pic.twitter.com/QufBVSRq6J Defund the police has become the latest battle cry of liberals protesting George Floyd's death in demonstrations across the country. But it wont be echoed by lawmakers in the halls of Congress. Top Democrats are carefully but forcefully speaking out against growing calls from activists to defund police departments, an idea backed by prominent progressives to dismantle the system that has perpetuated the type of brutality seen in Floyds death in Minneapolis. I think it can be used as a distraction and thats my concern, Rep. Karen Bass, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told reporters on Monday. I think the intent behind it is something that I support the idea that communities need investments. With the GOP eagerly drawing up its attack ads, senior Democrats are hoping to stifle momentum for the idea before it overshadows their broader reform effort. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are instead pressing ahead with a sweeping bill to crack down on use of excessive force, bolster transparency and ban certain practices, like chokeholds, while leaving questions of funding or structure to local leaders. Already, nine Minneapolis City Council members vowed to dismantle the citys police department. Were keeping our eyes on the prize, and that needs to be the story. State and local will do what state and local needs to do, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a member of the CBC, said Monday when asked about the defunding movement. We are the Congress. What were doing here today is our role. Some had a blunter assessment. You cant defund the police, thats stupid, its crazy and anyone who talks about that is nuts, said moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). You have to have the police. In some ways, its the story of Pelosis second tenure as speaker forced to balance the demands of an aggressive left flank without alienating the moderate voters who delivered Democrats the House. Schumer, who is suddenly within arms reach of a Democratic majority, faces a similar dilemma for Senate candidates in largely purple states. Story continues Any misstep by Democrats could deliver Republicans a powerful political weapon ahead of November. GOP campaign operatives are seizing on calls to defund the police to paint Democrats as radical leftists, just as they did with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal or demands to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. To illustrate how seriously Democratic leaders are taking the potential problem, several senior Democrats spoke out about it on a private caucus call Monday. This movement today, some people tried to hijack it, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told Democrats on the call, according to multiple sources. Dont let yourselves be drawn into the debate about defunding police forces. Other Democrats also weighed in, with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) saying the idea is easily caricatured by demagogues and Republicans, and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) calling the defunding push divisive and distracting. When asked about the issue publicly, Pelosi emphasized areas of common ground, like redirecting some funding toward addressing mental health and policing in schools. Then the California Democrat quickly turned the focus back to Democrats reform bill. We could rebalance some of our funding to address some of those issues more directly, Pelosi said at a press conference Monday. But this isnt about that and that should not be the story that leaves here. Senate Democrats expressed skepticism about the message Monday. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said defunding is not the term I would use but emphasized the need to listen to the pain and the lived experiences of the people who are protesting. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine predicted that Congress would not defund the police. And the campaign for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Monday also said the former vice president does not believe that police should be defunded. President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have been quick to seize on the protesters demands, using a broad brush to associate all Democrats especially vulnerable House moderates with the controversial appeal. Trump blasted out a tweet criticizing radical Democrats for the idea early Monday, and he later told reporters, We won't be defunding our police. We won't be dismantling our police. Republican campaign committees also released a steady stream of press releases tying centrist Democrats to the idea. Were already seeing outlandish calls to defund the police or abolish the police, take root within the left-wing leadership class, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday. Call me old-fashioned. I think you may actually want a police officer to stop a criminal and arrest him before we try to work through his feelings. The police reform bill unveiled by Democrats on Monday is among the most substantial proposals ever targeted at racism in law enforcement, and has already drawn the ire of police unions. Still, many powerful progressives, including Ocasio-Cortez, say more needs to be done to address police departments nationwide they say are overfunded and overly reliant on militarized methods. Ocasio-Cortez praised Democrats bill on the caucus call Monday and said she understands the profound discomfort around the defunding discussion. But the New York Democrat also implored her colleagues not to dismiss or mock activists calls for defunding police departments, saying its important they dont demoralize or undercut grassroots leaders. It is not crazy for black and brown communities to want what white people have already given themselves and that is funding your schools more than you fund criminalizing your own kids, Ocasio-Cortez said, according to Democrats on the call. The sharp criticism of police departments by the Black Lives Matter movement has already led to drastic action on the local level in recent days. Like Minneapolis, New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio also pledged on Sunday to divert funding from police to social services. Many Democrats say thats exactly where those conversations should take place: The state and local level, not Congress. I was really proud of what Minneapolis unanimously decided. But its up to each community, added Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), a senior member of the CBC, in an interview. Other Democrats argued the federal government can still drive change in policing, without specifically defunding local departments. For example, they say, Congress needs to ensure that police arent the only ones called to the scene when someone is dealing with a personal crisis, such as homelessness or a mental health issue. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who once led the Houston NAACP, compared a policing overhaul to the governments decision in the 1940s to rename the Department of War to the Department of Defense to address public image concerns. Theres nothing wrong with wanting to reimagine what policing would be like, and improve upon it, Green said. Some of the world's largest, most spectacular and unheralded mammals are silently slipping away, species like Tibetan wild yaks and Patagonia's huemul, Bhutan's takin and Vietnam's saola. Even Africa's three species of zebras and wildebeest have suffered massive reductions over the last several decades. The reasons for these losses are more than disease and habitat fragmentation, deforestation or wildlife trade, according to researchers. Ultimately, the cause is rampant human population growth. And unless human behavior changes in unprecedented ways, these scientists warn that future communities of these mammals will never resemble those of the recent past or even today. The findings are based on a new study, "Disassembled food webs and messy projections: modern ungulate communities in the face of unabating human population growth," published June 9 in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Joel Berger, lead author of the study and a professor at Colorado State University, said that the time for action is now, and that touting past conservation achievements does little to better humanity's future. "We all must realize we're members of a broad, beautiful and living planet, and we must find ways to subsist in this together or suffer more severe consequences than what we already see," said Berger, also a senior scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). "For many assemblages of animals, we are nearing a moment in time, when, like Humpty Dumpty, we will not be able to put things back together again." Berger is also the Barbara Cox Anthony University Chair of Wildlife Conservation at CSU. Analyzing ecological, human disruptors In this study, the research team - which also included Alejandro Vila, the director for Science for WCS's Patagonia Program; Cristobal Briceno, a professor and veterinarian at University of Chile; and Joanna Lambert, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder - analyzed direct and indirect disruptions that lead to the changing roles of mammals in global ecosystems and noted how the nature of ecological interactions has changed and will do so, on an even larger scale, in coming decades. More specifically, they looked at what has transpired with the huemul in Patagonia, takin in Bhutan, wild horses in deserts, wolves and coyotes in North America, and the inevitability of change in big ecosystems as large carnivores are extirpated. Scientists said this is happening as the human population increases it footprint on land. "Even in the remote reaches of the Himalayas, stray and feral dogs, a direct result of human intrusions, wreak havoc on wild and domestic species of high economic value and cultural importance," said Tshewang Wangchuk, a study co-author, conservation biologist and president of the Bhutan Foundation. Humans only recently colonized parts of the Himalayas, areas where ice has receded due to warming temperatures. Yet, the authors also point to human population change at a global scale. In 1830 when Vice-Admiral Robert Fitzroy captained his ship, the Beagle, through the Magellan Straits of South America, fewer than 1.2 billion people inhabited Earth. By Earth Day in 1970, there were more than 3.5 billion. Today, only 50 years later the world's population approaches eight billion. Livestock and humans now constitute a staggering 97 percent of the planet's mammal biomass. Food webs irretrievably altered The research team said worldwide food webs have become irretrievably altered by humans, with little hope to reconstitute even recent past conditions or to put back the ecological functions once created by native species. Feral pigs, for instance, exist today on every continent except Antarctica, and in 70 percent of the states in the United States. These animals disrupt fish, reptiles, birds and other small mammals, plants and soils. In addition, climate change warms the oceans, which in turn foments marine algal blooms, reducing fishery catches. With less demand for fish, a consequent uptick in wildlife poaching on land occurs. The scientists also documented how an appetite for fashion like cashmere increases imports to the west from Mongolia, India and China, resulting in economic incentives for desert pastoralists to produce more domestic goats in central Asia. These goats compete for food with native species and are in danger due to increasing numbers of dogs in these areas. The dogs are not only predators but also carry diseases, which jeopardizes endangered species like snow leopards, kiang and Przewalksi's gazelle. Use 'ecological grief' to implement action Berger and the study authors suggest that despite the grim findings, all is not yet lost. The world has remarkable protected areas including: Serengeti and Kruger National Park in Africa, Yellowstone and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve in North America, Madidi National Park in Bolivia, the Patagonia Ice Fields of Chile and Argentina, Chang Tang Nature Reserve in China, and Northeast Greenland National Park, the world's largest national park. And although food webs with large mammals will be different from those of the past and operate differently today, there are options to shape the future. "It is not too late and we simply do not have the luxury of time to mourn what we have lost," said Lambert. "We need to use our ecological grief to implement action and honor the exceptional biodiversity that remains. This can be done by protecting large tracts of the planet's wild places." ### ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss prosecutors have opened an investigation into the $2 billion (1.58 billion) loan scandal which tipped Mozambique into a debt crisis, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) said on Friday. "The OAG opened criminal proceedings in February 2020 on suspicion of money laundering in connection with the granting of loans to state-owned companies in Mozambique," it said in an emailed statement, confirming a report by newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung. "The criminal proceedings are being conducted against persons unknown." Credit Suisse was one of the lenders that helped arrange $2 billion (1.58 billion) in government-guaranteed loans between 2013 and 2016 to develop Mozambique's coastal defences, shipping fleet and tuna fishing industry. But hundreds of millions of dollars went missing in what U.S. authorities have alleged was an elaborate front for a bribery and kickback scheme, and the scandal triggered a currency collapse and debt default. Credit Suisse, three former bankers, two middlemen and three Mozambican government officials have faced court cases and investigations spanning London, New York, South Africa and now Switzerland. Swiss prosecutors on Friday said their investigation followed various suspicious activity reports it had received from Switzerland's Money Laundering Reporting Office, a 2018 request for mutual legal assistance from Mozambique and a criminal complaint. They noted that the outcome of the proceedings remained uncertain and it was not conducting the proceedings against any specific persons or legal entities. Swiss anti-corruption lobby Public Eye filed a criminal complaint against Credit Suisse to the office last year. [L5N22B4IS] "As the OAG statement notes, the investigation is against unknown persons. CS is cooperating with all authorities investigating these matters," Credit Suisse said. Mozambican authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Michael Shields and Nick Macfie) Manoj Viswanathan By Express News Service KOCHI: The Hindu organisations are up in arms against the governments move to open the 3,001 temples owned by various Devaswom boards in Kerala on Tuesday, at a time when Covid-19 cases are rising rapidly. Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran, however, said the government would go ahead with the reopening as per the guidelines issued by the Union government. With places of worship, malls and restaurants set to open on Tuesday, concerns have been raised about the safety as the move may undermine the efforts to avoid community transmission. As many as 91 fresh cases and one death were reported in the state on Monday, taking the total confirmed cases to 2,005. There are more than 3,000 temples managed by the Kshetra Samrakshana Samithi, NSS, SNDP Yogam and various trusts. The government should have convened a meeting to discuss the matter. No devotee supports the decision to open temples. The decision has been taken to help the Devaswom Boards improve its income, said Hindu Aikya Vedi general secretary R V Babu. He said that if an infected person visits a temple, it will lead to shutting down of the temple, which in turn will halt even daily poojas. The Kshetra Samrakshana Samithi said its temples will not reopen. More than 48 temples under the trusteeship of the Zamorin Raja of Calicut will also not open for the time being. The Nair Service Society said it will not reopen temples administered by it any time soon. Weve no objection if a temple decides not to open, says min The government, however, seemed determined to open all temples under its control. The same people who oppose opening of temples had been demanding that they be opened. The devotees are free to decide whether to visit the temples or not. Weve no objection if a temple decides not to open. Instructions have been given to follow social distancing norms strictly, Surendran told TNIE. Accepting that the risk of transmission is always there, Travancore Devaswom Board president N Vasu said all temples have been instructed to follow social distancing norms. The situation in a temple is totally different from churches and mosques where mass prayers are conducted. Only a limited number of devotees will be allowed inside the temple. The people who oppose the temple reopening have a hidden agenda. The temples need revenue to ensure payment of salary to the staff, said Vasu. Guruvayur Devaswom Board chairman K B Mohandas said that safety arrangements have been made to ensure that there is no crowding. Around 30,000 devotees used to visit Guruvayur temple a day, but we are allowing only 600 persons now. Devotees will be allowed only up to the flag mast and nobody will be allowed to approach the sanctum sanctorum, he said. Mohandas said the closure of the temples has not only affected their revenue, but also the lives of the people who run shops and lodges near temples. Meanwhile, the forest department officials have raised concern about allowing devotees at Sabarimala as it may lead to spread of disease among the wild animals. A meeting of the VHP on Monday urged devotees to stay away from temples until situation improves. The government did not seek the opinion of Hindu leaders or acharyas before deciding to open temples. Weve urged devotees to conduct prayers at home and avoid going to temples. Temples managed by VHP will remain closed till the situation improves, said state joint secretary V R Rajagopal. Food Safety Dept to campaign To alleviate the worries of the public and to ensure the eateries do not become the hotspot of Covid- 19 transmission, the Food Safety Department is gearing up to launch a massive campaign across the state. Virtual classes to be made available to all First Bell, the virtual learning programme for school students in the state, will be made available to everyone of them within two days. Prisoners escape from Manjeri MCH In a major lapse on the part of prison authorities, two prisoners of Manjeri sub-jail slipped away from the Government Medical College Hospital, Manjeri on Sunday night. The airline lost US0 million as a result of the pandemic. Some 330,000 jobs in the air transport business are at stake as is Hong Kongs role as a regional hub. Passenger demand for air travel worldwide dropped 94.3 per cent in April. The United States, Germany and Italy have bailed out their airline companies. Hong Kong (AsiaNews) Hong Kong plans to invest HK$ 40 billion (US$ 5.2 billion) to save Cathay Pacific, its main airliner, hit hard by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The companys main shareholders Swire Pacific, Air China and Qatar Airways have given the green light to the operation. In return, the government will get a stake in the company and appoint two observers on its board, Cathay chairman Patrick Healy said in a statement today. This is the first time that Hong Kong authorities have directly injected money into a private company. Some 330,000 jobs are at stake in the air transport industry, threatened by the pandemic crisis, as is Hong Kongs role as a regional hub. Cathay Pacific, which has a fleet of 238 planes, holds approximately 50 per cent of runway slots at Hong Kong International Airport Last year, it carried over 35.2 million passengers, with HK$ 107 billion (US$ 13.8 billion) in revenue. In the first four months of this year, it lost HK$ 4.5 billion (US$ 580 million). The crisis of the air travel industry began in February when most countries closed their air space to foreign carriers to contain the spread of COVID-19. According to the International Air Transport Organisation (IATA), passenger demand dropped by 94.3 per cent in April. At the end of May, daily flights rose by 30 per cent over to the low point in April, but IATA estimates that air travel will return to pre-emergency levels only in 2023. So far, seven international airlines have filed for bankruptcy or suspended their operations. In Asia, Thai Airwayss bankruptcy proceedings will take five years. Like Hong Kong, other governments have rushed to the rescue of their national companies. In the United States, carriers have benefitted from a US$ 50 billion bailout. The Lufthansa Group is set to get US$ 12.3 billion from the governments of its national airlines in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Austria. Italys Alitalia will get US$ 3.4 billion in government aid. The Swiss architecture firm has joined forces with the Canadian practice Quadrangle for a new project at 1200 Bay Street in Toronto. When it is completed, it will be the tallest building in Canada, reports Dezeen. Dezeen reports that plans for a skyscraper, which could be up to 324 meters tall, have now been unveiled. If all 87 floors of the project are completed, it will become the tallest building in Canada, overtaking Foster + Partners' The One development, which is also located in Toronto. The new building will be three times taller than it is wide, a construction ratio that qualifies it as a "skinny skyscraper." The mixed-use tower is to replace an existing 16-storey commercial building from the 1960s that housed offices and retail outlets. In the proposed new building at 1200 Bay Street, stores and offices would also occupy the first 16 floors, which would be topped by a level of private amenities separating them from the residential units of the floors above. Planned for the top-three floors of the building, a large restaurant and lounge is to provide spectacular views over the city of Toronto. In 2001 Herzog & de Meuron, which was founded in Basel, Switzerland in 1978, was awarded the Pritzker Prize, which is one of the most prestigious awards in the world of architecture. Among the firm's most notable buildings are the Tate Modern in London and the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux. As the coronavirus pandemic continued into May, Americans, health officials and elected officials reached a breaking point on their stay at home orders. The virus, however, continued to spread, and the pandemic reached a grim milestone by the end of the month. PHOTO: Nurses care for a coronavirus COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit (I.C.U.) at Regional Medical Center on May 21, 2020 in San Jose, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) The United States woke up on May 1, really, with each of the states realizing they were on their own and with each of the people realizing they had to discover what each of their states and their mayors were telling them to do, Tom Bossert, a former homeland security advisor told ABC News. MORE: What's your state's coronavirus reopening plan? By the first week of May, ten states, including Florida and Georgia, had begun lifting some of the restrictions in place to prevent coronavirus spread, however, state leaders advised businesses to reduce their capacity and ensure their properties were clean. The number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to over 1.1 million with nearly 65,000 patients dead. PHOTO: An employee wearing a protective mask and gloves serves a customer a drink at a Marlow's Tavern restaurant in Johns Creek, Georgia, May 6, 2020. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images) In states that were among the hardest hit by the virus, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania, protesters continued to hold rallies urging leaders to fully re-open their state. PHOTO: People protest at the State Capitol during a rally in Lansing, Mich., Wednesday, May 20, 2020. (Paul Sancya/AP Photo) In many instances, such as a protest outside the state Capitol in Lansing, protesters came armed with rifles, body armor and other weapons. Some of the protesters claimed they were at the end of their financial ropes and needed to get back to work while others argued their personal freedoms were taken away. MORE: 2.1 million more Americans file jobless claims, bringing coronavirus crisis total to 40 million Unemployment numbers skyrocketed every week throughout the month. On May 2, 3.176 million Americans filed unemployment claims, 2.687 million the week after, 2.446 million on May 16 and 2.123 million on May 23. By the end of the month, at least 40 million people did not have a job. PHOTO: A patient is taken from an ambulance to the emergency room of a hospital in the Navajo Nation town of Tuba City during the 57-hour curfew, imposed to try to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus through the Navajo Nation, in Arizona. (Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images) While governors such as Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Andrew Cuomo of New York stood firmly by their stay at home orders, they began to ease some of their restrictions as data showed the number of new cases and deaths were on the decline and testing for the virus was on the rise. Story continues By May 15, eight more states, including parts of upstate New York, Vermont and Virginia, allowed certain businesses to reopen, but with tight restrictions on the number of customers and strong calls for social distancing. MORE: Mounting tension as businesses in Colorado, Michigan defy orders and reopen In some instances, owners of salons, gyms and other non-essential businesses said they were fed up that their stores were not allowed to open first and defied their governors orders. In New Jersey, a gym owner was forced to shut down his businesses after he repeatedly reopened the site. PHOTO: Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey remained open, disobeying orders from the state and NJ Governor to close during the outbreak of Covid-19. (Stephen Yang/Redux) By the end of the month, all 50 states and Puerto Rico had reopened some parts of their economy, with the plans to begin additional phases in June. However, the number of cases did not show a decline nationally, and towards the end of the month the country had lost over 100,000 lives to the virus and had nearly 1.8 million cases. At this stage its pretty clear that Americans are over COVID, Bossert said. The problem is COVID is not done with us. PHOTO: People visit Clearwater Beach on May 20, 2020 in Clearwater, Florida. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) The reopening of businesses and beaches coincided with Memorial Day weekend and throughout the country there were images of packed beaches and other public places. PHOTO: A crowded group of revelers celebrate Memorial Day weekend at Osage Beach of the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, May 23, 2020. (Twitter/lawler50/Twitter/Lawler50 via Reuters) Video of a large crowd in the Lake of Ozarks in Missouri spurred elected officials to call on those revelers to self-quarnatine to avoid a rise in cases. Health officials also expressed concerns about crowds protesting the death of George Floyd which continued into June. PHOTO: Police confront protesters as demonstrations continue in Brooklyn on May 29, 2020 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) "I fear the protests of late will be the super spreader of the summer, Bossert said. ABC News' JP Keenan contributed to this report. States reopened for business in May as coronavirus death toll climbed past 100,000 originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Update: The lock screen ad is actually a joke made by a member of the South Korean Samsung Community forum. It was posted in response to an actual ad which appeared in the Samsung Weather app and garnered severe user backlash. A new leaked screenshot of Samsungs upcoming One UI 2.5 suggests the Korean tech giant will begin pushing ads in its stock apps and even on the lock screen. According to speculation, the ads will only show up on budget Samsung offerings in the A and M-series. The sample ad shows a 15-second timer on the lock screen which you need to watch before you can unlock the device. One UI 2.5 ads Another example shows a banner integrated into the weather app. Both ads are in Korean so it remains to be seen if Samsung will bring this approach to its international devices. Samsung Korea representatives also issued a statement back in October which did mention their intent of bringing banner ads to One UI with the purpose of providing new functions and stable service operation through the collected advertising revenue. Info about One UI 2.5 is scarce with the only previous leak suggesting it will bring gesture navigation for third party launchers. The new UI is expected to debut on the Galaxy Note20 series. Via Update 7-6-2020: The Audi Q4 E-tron has finally be spied out on public roads and, unlike the mule we saw earlier this year, this baby is looking pretty close to production ready. Check it out in the spy shots section below. Audi recently revealed that the SUV will launch at the end of 2020 and is set to go on sale in 2021. Although it might be the brands fifth EV, there are a lot of eyes on it since it will be the first four-ringed electric vehicle to be pinned on Volkswagens MEB architecture. It was recently spotted performing cold-weather tests in Northern Sweden. The Volkswagen Group has made some phenomenal strides in recent times. From being caught in Dieselgate a few years back to running a few of the most proactive brands in electrification today, the German group has come a long way. One of its most prominent brands, Audi , also has a few electric models in the works. The automakers next electric vehicle will be the Q4 e-tron, which was previewed at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. Spy shots July 7, 2020 First On-Road Testing Session with the Audi Q4 E-Tron We know you thought you saw the Audi Q4 E-tron before, but that was just a mule, and this is the real deal. Its built upon the same platform as the VW ID.4, so a majority of the major testing has been done. Thats why the front end now features a sleeker design with the new Audi E-Tron grille design cearly hidden behind eh camo. The corner vents will probably offer some kind of functionality for battery cooling while the hood should feature some kind of muscular presence. The side profile looks to feature a nice little set of body lines above the rear haunches while the rear end will probably be rather mundane since theres no need for exhaust outlets and theres no diffuser in sight. That said, this prototype is rocking the official E-Tron taillights and headlights, so Audi as skipped straight to the final testing phase, and well probably see this puppy hit the market in early 2021 or maybe even sooner as a 2021 model. As of now, rumor has it that the Q4 E-Tron will have an 82 kWh batter that should be good for about 450 KM on the WLTP scale, which translates to about 279 miles. That said, you should probably expect closer to 230 or 240 miles of real-world range when the Q4 finally lands in dealers. What Does The Q4 E-Tron Look Like On The Outside? The Q4 e-tron was spotted doing cold runs with camouflage on. Most of the details were covered here and the exposed parts were seen in their bare form. Unlike the prototype that showcased to the world, this example didnt seem to wear the big grille. Under the license plate, you can see the exposed grille with honeycomb detailing. Even the excessive cuts and creases on the bumper seem to be missing. Unless Audi managed to conceal the prototype with utmost perfection, it looks the EV will feature a decently-sized grille. The Audi logo wont be a three-dimensional one in the production version as it houses an array of sensors. The air vents on the side are a lot more sedate than how they looked on the prototype. The headlights, however, are trademark Audi. There is no word if the Q4 e-tron will benefit from the Matrix LEDs or not, but it will be a neat touch; at least as an optional accessory. As for the Q4 e-trons size, it slots between the Q3 and Q5. Audi had stressed on the sustainability aspect during the prototypes reveal. One of the colors in the palette will be the solar sky blue that is said to be reflective, thus keeping the cabin cooler than usual. This would result in less consumption of the air conditioner, which in turn will extend your battery range. The side profile is unmistakably Audi. Thankfully, the Q4 e-tron was spotted with regular wing mirrors, unlike the e-trons virtual mirrors with the display inside. They sure look cool and help with the aerodynamics but are not very user-friendly. The compact crossover wears black plastic cladding under around the wheel arches and under the doors. This will protect the body from small dings and hits. The Q4 e-tron spotted here seemed to be riding on 18-inch steel wheels. 19- and 20-inch wheels could be optional. At the back, the camouflaged Q4 e-tron featured LED taillights. It featured a rear spoiler as well over the short windshield. The camouflage wore electrofahrzeug stickers at the rear and side, which translates to electric vehicle. The reflectors were placed on far ends on either side. For you towing fans, the prototype was spotted with a tow hitch. Audi should offer this as standard equipment to have an upper hand over the Model Y. Tesla didnt offer it initially and there were a lot of doldrums surrounding it. Finally, the automaker offered the tow hitch as an optional accessory for $1,000 and a towing capacity of 3,500 pounds. If Audi provides the same or slightly higher towing capacity, it will hold an edge over its American counterpart. What Can We Expect On The Inside? Given that its an EV, the interior space will be on par with the Q5 or even more despite being a smaller vehicle. Since there is no transmission tunnel under the floor and fewer building parts, Audi will have a lot of free space to work with and make sure the cabin is spacious. There will be a whole lot of changes to the production versions cabin as compared to the one seen in the prototype. As is with most EVs, it will be a touchscreen-dominated, futuristic cabin. The tech needs will be taken care of by Audis latest MMI system.Car and Driver reports that the crossover will have two display screens on the center console upper one for the media, navigation, and other infotainment needs, and the lower one for climate control and frequently used features. This will also serve as a tablet for drivers to write instead of using the keyboard. Will it be anything like the Touch Pro system on the Range Rover? What Will Power The Audi Q4 E-Tron? The Q4 e-tron will be the first Audi electric vehicle to be based on Volkswagens MEB architecture. The parent company developed this modular car platform for electric vehicles and it is being used by many brands within its umbrella. The Volkswagen ID.4 and the new Skoda Enyaq are the upcoming vehicles that will be pinned on the MEB architecture. In fact, it was also reported that a new Ford electric vehicle will be underpinned by this architecture, courtesy of the Blue Ovals alliance with the German automaker. There are several models in Audi, Skoda, and Volkswagens lineup that are pinned on the MEB platform. Considering the wide usage of this versatile platform, you can expect the ride and handling to be above par. The Q4 e-tron is powered by a dual-motor setup one on each axle that will churn out 300 horses. The Audi will be a Quattro, which means power will be sent to all the wheels . It will take 6.3 seconds to sprint to 60 mph from a standstill. Considering that the Q4 e-tron will go up against the Tesla Model Y, these figures are ridiculous. Even in its slowest version, the Model Y takes 4.8 seconds to hit the 60 mph mark. The same goes down to 3.5 seconds in the Performance trim. Top speed will be limited to 112 mph to keep the range from falling drastically. What Range Can We Expect? The compact electric crossover will come with an 82-kWh battery pack. For now, the company claims a range of 280 miles. Given the way the EPA testing takes place, the range figure could be much lower, unless Audi pulls off a Taycan and stuns everybody with a high real-world range. It will support charging up to 125 kW and replenish it to 80 percent in 30 minutes. Also, the battery pack is expected to weigh in the ballpark of 1,100 pounds. This will make it lighter than the rivals. How Much Will The Q4 E-Tron Cost Audi has revealed that the Q4 e-tron will start at $45,000. This is really good pricing given how competitive this popular segment is. The upwards trims could be priced at every $5,000 hike increase intervals. Its trims arent revealed yet, but it could be the standard ones like the other models Premium, Premium Plus, and Prestige. The Tesla Model Y, on the other hand, starts at $52,990 for the Long Range trim and $60,990 for the Performance. Audi electric cars are still eligible for federal tax credits up to $7,500. The cap set for this credit is for the first 200,000 examples sold by an automaker in the States. Audi is still far from it, whereas Tesla crossed the cap long back and is not eligible for any sort of tax credits. If you take into consideration the full tax credit, the Q4 e-tron will start at $37,500, which is fantastic pricing. Final Thoughts Audi has also already confirmed that the Q4 e-tron will be built in Zwickau, Germany. The Q4 e-tron holds many aces in its hands to trump the competition. As of now, it looks impressive on paper, especially with its MEB platform underpinning, the dual-motor setup, the Quattro all-wheel-drive system, and a decent range estimate from what we know so far. The shorter drive ratio and light battery will make it agile for urban commutes, but the sedate performance specs make sure this isnt a track performer. But, overall, the Q4 e-tron could become the best-selling EV for Audi soon after it launches. New Delhi: Nepal`s House of Representatives on Tuesday (June 9) unanimously endorsed a proposal to consider the Constitution amendment bill to replace the countrys new political and administrative map which includes Kalapani, Lipu Lekh, and Limpiyadhura, according to My Republica report. The ruling Nepal Communist Party, the main opposition party Nepali Congress and Madhes-based parties reportedly backed the proposal to consider the constitution amendment bill in the House of Representatives. Earlier on May 30, Nepal's Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shivamaya Tumbahangphe had tabled the bill for discussions at Parliament to amend the constitution to update the countrys map. The bill was tabled by Nepalese Law Minister Shivamaya Tumbahangphe in Parliament on May 31. The Amendment proposal seeks to incorporate updated political map in the Constitution of Nepal- 2072, depicting areas of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura within its own borders. On May 22, the government had registered the bill at Parliament, seeking to amend Schedule 3 of the constitution to update Nepal`s political map in the national emblem. As the constitution amendment requires a two-thirds majority, the ruling Nepal Communist Party, which holds a two-thirds majority in upper House, fell short of dominance in the lower House compelling it to seek support from other parties. On May 30, the Nepali Congress which has 63 seats, decided to support the amendment proposal which allowed the Nepal Communist Party with its 174 seats to have the requisite majority. Notably, the latest border dispute between the countries began over India's inauguration last month of a Himalayan link road built in a region that lies at a strategic three-way junction with Tibet and China. The 80-kilometer road, inaugurated by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, cuts through the Lipu Lekh Himalayan pass, considered one of the shortest and most feasible trade routes between India and China. Nepal fiercely contested the inauguration of the road, and the government of Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli issued a new political map of Nepal that showed the disputed territory within its borders. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 18:18:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun urged on Tuesday Internal Security Forces to double their efforts to protect the Lebanese during the current tough times, said a statement by the presidency. "Officers are asked to be more vigilant in this sensitive period, and to double their efforts to protect the security of the Lebanese and their property," Aoun said on the occasion of the 159th anniversary of Lebanese Internal Security Forces. "Officers should also strengthen cooperation with the army and other security institutions, to ward off sectarian strife that is intended to strike the basis of Lebanon's existence and the achievement of civil peace," he added. Aoun also praised Internal Security Forces for their sacrifices to preserve safety and peace in the country. He considered that the responsibilities of Internal Security Forces have become more serious and they are facing unprecedented challenges amid the outbreak of COVID-19 and the economic and financial deterioration which contributed to the increase in crimes and violence in the country. Enditem Gilead Sciences Incs antiviral drug, remdesivir, prevented lung disease in macaques infected with the new coronavirus, a study published in medical journal Nature said on Tuesday. In the study, macaques that received remdesivir did not show signs of respiratory disease and had reduced damage to the lungs, according to the study authors. A teenage girl admitted that she attacked cops during a demonstration in Mexico City to denounce police brutality before she was seen in a video being beaten herself by several cops. The 16-year-old, identified as Melanie, took to the streets of Mexico's capital last Friday to protest the death of Giovanni Lopez, who died in May at a hospital in the western state of Jalisco after he was beaten by the police and taken into custody. 'Do you really think that I would have hurt you with my [body mass]?,' the teen argued on her Facebook account this week. 'They were in uniform. They had helmets and they were giants next to me. What I used as a weapon was a handle [bar] that I found on the grown because it was the only thing I found. I did not carry any other weapon.' Two Mexico City police officers have been arrested for last Friday's beating of Melanie (pictured lying on the ground) which was captured on video. The 16-year-old took part in a demonstration to denounce police brutality and was also seen in a separate video attacking cops with a metal bar Melanie covers herself while she is beaten by police officers in Mexico City Melanie (pictured with black and white backpack) attempted to defend her actions after she was seen in a video confronting the police in Mexico City, saying 'they had helmets and they were giants next to me' Melanie was briefly hospitalized but was released on Saturday. The march turned violent when a bevy of demonstrators squared off with the police in riot gear, who formed a line to defend themselves from the stones, bottles and other objects that were flung at them. Melanie is seen in one video attacking the cops with a metal bar that she said she picked up from the ground. Separate video footage that went viral showed the teenager lying on the ground as two Mexico City police officers kicked her. Melanie suffered at least two head contusions and multiple bruises from the beating. 'I didn't deserve that s***** beating. I'm really sad for what they did to me,' she added. 'Why don't they say anything when they also started throwing stones at us and even worse they attacked us?' She does not face any charges. Melanie tries to protect herself why two cops kicked her after a demonstration to denounce police brutality in Mexico City turned violent as protesters and police officers clashed last Friday Mexico City police officers are calling for the release of two cops who appeared on a video recorded last Friday in which a 16-year-old girl (pictured lying on the ground) was beaten Melanie suffered two head contusions and body bruises as a result of being beaten by cops in Mexico City Both cops who beat Melanie were arrested Monday and sent to prison as part of the pre-trial hearing process, drawing backlash from the Mexico City police force which showed up outside the jail and demanded their release. Inspired by the case of George Floyd, a black American man killed in Minneapolis last month after a white police officer knelt on his neck during an arrest, protests over police abuses have flared throughout Mexico, especially after Lopez's brother went public last week with video that showed the 30-year-old man being held in a chokehold by a cop and beaten before he was thrown into a police pickup truck. He had been detained for not wearing a face mask. Demonstrations in Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco and second-largest city in Mexico, led to massive arrests last Thursday and Friday. Melanie (left) is chased down by cops in Mexico City before she was beaten Giovanni Lopez was detained in Jalisco, Mexico, by the police for not wearing a face mask on May 4 and was beaten, an incident which was captured on video. He died as a result of a brain injury At least 29 people who were detained went missing after they were abducted by several Jalisco state police officers, according to governor Enrique Alfaro. 'It embarrasses me, it distresses me, it greatly pains me as a man from Jalisco, and as governor,' Alfaro said in a video posted on Twitter. Alfaro ordered the missing people to be tracked down and said late on Saturday they had all been found. 'We can say that they are all in their homes,' he said on Twitter. 'No one has disappeared.' The 2014 disappearance of 43 student teachers who were apparently massacred after being abducted by corrupt police in southwest Mexico sparked international outrage and did lasting damage to the reputation of then-president Enrique Pena Nieto. Whether you work in the gig economy or are the recipient of a cash gift from a relative, you need to know if and how to report that money to the IRS. There are different rules and reporting requirements depending on whether it's money that has been earned or gifted. In general, these are the basics you need to know about cash gifts and cash payments: -- Cash gifts up to $15,000 per year don't have to be reported. -- Excess gifts require a tax form but not necessarily a tax payment. -- Noncash gifts that have appreciated in value may be subject to capital gains tax. -- Cash payments between individuals typically don't have to be reported. -- You must report payments of $2,200 or more made to any household employee. -- All income must be claimed on tax forms, even if it's paid in cash. Here's a closer look at each rule and how it may affect you. [Read: Do I Have to File Taxes?] Cash Gifts Up to $15,000 a Year Don't Have to Be Reported Cash gifts can be subject to tax rates that range from 18% to 40% depending on the size of the gift. The tax is to be paid by the person making the gift, but thanks to annual and lifetime exclusions, most people will never pay a gift tax. "Anyone can give up to $15,000 per year free and clear," says Andrew Rosen, partner and lifelong financial advisor with financial firm Diversified Lifelong Advisors in Wilmington, Delaware. Just as the government provides a standard amount that is exempt from income tax, the same applies to the gift tax. For 2020, IRS rules exclude $15,000 per year per person from the gift tax. Gifts made to pay tuition or medical bills are also excluded, but to be eligible for this exclusion the gifts must be paid directly to the school or health care provider. Excess Gifts Require a Tax Form If a person exceeds the $15,000 exclusion limit, they must file Form 709 to report the excess gift to the IRS. That doesn't mean a person will have to pay taxes though. That's because in addition to the $15,000 annual exclusion, there is an $11.4 million lifetime exclusion for the 2019 tax year. The lifetime exclusion rises to 11.58 million for the 2020 tax year. Anything reported on Form 709 is applied toward the lifetime exclusion and only amounts exceeding that are subject to gift tax. Story continues Married couples who file their tax returns jointly may also have to file a Form 709 even if their gifts are less than $15,000, says Dann Ryan, managing partner at financial firm Sincerus Advisory in New York City. For instance, a husband and wife could each give $15,000 to their child, but they would need to report the $30,000 to the IRS on Form 709 to properly split the gift between them. "While it's not a taxable event, you have to file," Ryan says. Capital Gains Tax May Apply to Gifts Accruing Value The gift tax can apply to both cash and noncash gifts. If you receive a noncash gift, you may end up paying capital gains tax on a portion of its value even if it falls below the gift tax exclusions, Rosen says. For instance, let's say someone gives you stock valued at $10,000, but they only spent $1,000 to buy it. When you sell those shares, your capital gains will be calculated based on the original purchase price. This amount is known as the basis. If you sell the stock for $10,000, you'll pay capital gains on $9,000, which is the sale price minus the basis. "Frequently, you see people give their homes away to their kids," says Paul Joseph, attorney, CPA and founder of Joseph & Joseph Tax & Payroll in Williamston, Michigan. That could result in a significant capital gains tax for children if they sell the property. A home that is inherited, rather than gifted, may avoid this tax burden since the basis for inherited property is reset to the market value at the time of the owner's death. [Read: How Are Unemployment Benefits Taxed?] Payments Between Individuals Don't Have to Be Reported For monetary payments that aren't gifts, you likely don't have to worry about any tax reporting. For instance, there is no need to tell the IRS about the money you paid to the person who mows your lawn, walks the dog or paints your spare room. "You don't necessarily have to send them a 1099 (tax form)," Joseph says. However, different rules apply if you own a business. In that case, if your business is paying the person, a 1099-MISC form must be issued to anyone who's been paid more than $600 during the year. A copy of the form must also be provided to the IRS. Report Payments of $2,200 or More Made to Household Employees While most cash payments don't have to be reported to the IRS, the rules are different for some domestic workers, including nannies. If a person works exclusively for you and you dictate how they spend their day, the IRS would likely classify that person as a household employee. Once an employee is paid $2,200 or more per year, you need to begin withholding Federal Insurance Contribution Act taxes for Social Security and Medicare. The cost of FICA is split between employees and employers so you will need to pay half of the 15.3% tax. Plus, you may be required to pay unemployment taxes as well. "The important part is being proactive about when you're going to go over that ($2,200) threshold," Ryan says. If you have a household employee, you might want to apply for an employer identification number from the IRS. You also need to give your worker a W-2 each year and file a Schedule H (Form 1040) with your own taxes to report the income paid. An accountant may be able to assist with this process or some tax software companies have programs for those who want to manage payroll themselves. All Income Must Be Claimed, Even if Paid in Cash Those receiving cash payments for any work are obligated to record that income and claim it on their federal tax forms. "The onus generally is on the business owner," Rosen says. Money from freelancing, consulting or other self-employment must be reported even if you don't get a 1099 form from the person or company who paid you. [Read: Should You Move to Lower Your Real Estate Taxes?] The IRS isn't likely concerned about your teen's babysitting money, but you could get in trouble if you are making full-time income from gig work and fail to report it. In the event of an audit, the government will compare deposits to your bank accounts against the income you report to root out any discrepancies. Cash may seem like an untraceable way to give and receive money, but IRS regulations still apply. Whether you are giving a gift or paying a worker, make sure you understand these crucial tax rules. More From US News & World Report A 22-year-old woman has died after allegedly being tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed while she participated in George Floyd protests in Ohio. Sarah Grossman, 22, of Springboro, Ohio, died on May 30, after family members took her to the hospital, just two days after her relatives said that she had participated in a George Floyd protest in Columbus, Ohio. The day after her death, Sarah's father told the Montgomery County Coroners Office that while at the May 28 protest, she had been 'exposed to tear gas and pepper spray' that had been 'discharged by police as part of crowd control,' according to autopsy records obtained by the Dayton Daily News. Sarah Grossman, 22, died on May 30, two days after her parents said that she had been exposed to tear gas and pepper spray while protesting in Columbus, Ohio Sarah (right) was found non-responsive at her home and taken to the hospital while she was in cardiac arrest. Full autopsy results will not be ready for several weeks The final autopsy results have not been completed yet, but according to the preliminary report, Sarah was taken to the hospital at around 10pm on May 30 after she was found non-responsive at their home. When she arrived at the hospital, she was in cardiac arrest and died shortly afterwards. An emergency room nurse said that Sarah's death was a suspected overdose but her family denied that she had a history of drug abuse. Toxicology tests had not been completed yet. Preliminary autopsy results indicated that she had a peanut allergy and that there were no signs of lethal trauma on her body, the Dayton Daily News reported. Sarah's employers, Stauf's Coffee Roasters, in Columbus, wrote in a Facebook post that she had been tear-gassed during the protest. City officials tweeted that they did not have any records of anybody being taken to the hospital during the night of the May 28 protest Police were seen using various sprays to disperse crowds when the peaceful protests turned into riots in Columbus on May 28. It's unclear where Sarah was protesting and what time A protester is seen pour milk over their face on May 28. Milk has been said to help calm irritation left after being pepper sprayed In addition to a tribute to her, as well as detailing her devotion to the Rainforest Alliance and Black Lives Matter movement, Stauf's wrote: 'As a peaceful protester this weekend, she stood up to end police brutality and was tear-gassed as a result. Her death came in the aftermath, but her legacy stands even stronger.' On June 3, the City of Columbus tweeted : 'We have seen social media reports of a young woman passing away as the result of being sprayed during a protest in Columbus.' The tweet noted that the Columbus Fire Department 'does not have a record of an EMT transport to any Columbus-area hospitals', A City of Columbus spokesperson told the newspaper that it had not received any first-person accounts of where she had been protesting or even if she had been at the protests at all. The spokesperson also said that Sarah's family had not lodged any formal complaints as of Sunday. The city confirmed that it had used 'gasses to disperse crowds that night,' however. Photos from the May 28 protests in Columbus indicate that what had started as a peaceful protest turned into a riot when protesters and police officers clashed. Some images showed police spraying protesters with a substance that night, while others shows protesters pouring milk and water on their faces. Milk is said to help relieve irritation caused by pepper spray. It's unclear what time and where Sarah might've been protesting in Columbus that day. Sarah's sister, Jessa Grossman, posted a tribute on Instagram on June 2, noting that Sarah had recently graduated from Ohio State University with a major in environmental sciences and Spanish and planned to move to Guatemala to start a sustainable farm. Earlier mentions of the fact that Sarah might've died from respiratory issues stemming from exposure to tear gas at the protest were removed from the post, the newspaper reported. The current caption does not mention Sarah participating in the protest but does note that anybody looking to make a donation in Sarah's name should 'donate to one of the organizations she was fighting for the most' - the Rainforest Alliance and the Columbus Freedom Fund, which provides bail money for arrested protesters. Sarah's full autopsy results are expected to be available in about eight weeks, the coroner's office told the newspaper. Morgan County Sheriff ARRESTS, CITATIONS Cory S. Johnson, 27, of 209 West St., Franklin, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 2:50 a.m. Monday on charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving while license is revoked or suspended. Leland R. Clayton, 22, of 208 Main St., Manchester, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 5:57 a.m. Saturday on charges of driving under the influence, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to reduce speed and improper lane use. Mary A. Harris, 35, of 2020 U.S. 67, Arenzville, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 7:58 p.m. Saturday on charges of domestic battery and resisting a peace officer. OTHER REPORTS A Jacksonville farmer said he was mowing hay on Delong Road in Waverly about 1:18 p.m. Saturday when the driver of a car stopped, hit the farmers tractor with his fists and then left. A passer-by was able to stop a van that rolled into the road at 11:56 a.m. Monday in the 900 block of West Morton Avenue. The driver had forgotten to put the vehicle in park, police said. Jacksonville Police ARRESTS, CITATIONS George R. Scott, 25, of 103 E. Randolf St., Roodhouse, was arrested at 10:47 a.m. Monday on a charge of possession of a controlled substance after he was searched while being arrested on a charge of filing a false police report. Kyle D. Hoffman, 43, of 604 N. East St. was arrested at 8:04 p.m. Sunday on a Morgan County warrant accusing him of fraud and a Pike County warrant accusing him of larceny. Tyler A. Stewart, 34, of 918 E. Independence Ave. was arrested at 12:08 p.m. Sunday on a charge of resisting a peace officer and two Morgan County warrants accusing him of criminal damage to property. Police said he ran from a vehicle at West Lafayette Avenue and Fayette Street and refused to stop. Todd M. Linear, 30, of 347 Caldwell St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 1:29 p.m. Friday on a theft charge. VANDALISM A brick was thrown through a window of a building at 114 Walnut Court, according to a report filed at 6:54 p.m. Sunday. Pike County Sheriff ARRESTS, CITATIONS Kesha M. Osborne, 30, of Meredosia was arrested at 11:37 p.m. Saturday on a charge of driving under the influence. Spencer A. Miller, 21, of Pleasant Hill was arrested at 12:30 p.m. Friday on charges of failing to register as a sex offender and criminal trespass to land. Eric S. Mohler, 47, of Zanesville, Ohio, was arrested at 10:01 p.m. June 1 on charges of delivery of cannabis, possession of cannabis and trafficking in cannabis. Amber M. Johnson, 29, of Zanesville, Ohio, was arrested at 10:01 p.m. June 1 on charges of possession of cannabis, delivery of cannabis and trafficking in cannabis. Brandon J. Durr, 32, of Summerfield was arrested at 1:04 a.m. June 1 on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia. William A. Watts, 34, of Summerfield was arrested at 1:04 a.m. June 1 on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, driving under the influence and driving while license is revoked or suspended. Christopher Tagra, 21, of St. Charles, Missouri, was arrested at 7:54 p.m. June 1 on a petition to revoke. Joel W. Tyler, 37, of Griggsville was arrested at 6:22 p.m. June 1 on a charge of possession of cannabis by a passenger. Compiled by David C.L. Bauer Finance & Development, June 2020, Vol. 57, Number 2 PDF version Ralph Chami: Umbilical Cord of Remittances Under Threat Lifelines in Danger The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to dry up a vital source of income for poor and fragile countries Antoinette Sayeh and Ralph Chami The COVID-19 pandemic is crippling the economies of rich and poor countries alike. Yet for many low-income and fragile states, the economic shock will be magnified by the loss of remittancesmoney sent home by migrant and guest workers employed in foreign countries. Remittance flows into low-income and fragile states represent a lifeline that supports households as well as provides much-needed tax revenue. As of 2018, remittance flows to these countries reached $350 billion, surpassing foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, and foreign aid as the single most important source of income from abroad (see Chart 1). A drop in remittance flows is likely to heighten economic, fiscal, and social pressures on governments of these countries already struggling to cope even in normal times. Remittances are private income transfers that are countercyclicalthat is, they flow from migrants into their source country when that country is experiencing a macroeconomic shock. In this way, they insure families back home against income shocks, supporting and smoothing their consumption. Remittances also finance trade balances and are a source of tax revenue for governments in these countries that rely on value-added tax, trade, and sales taxes (Abdih and others 2012). In this pandemic, the downside effect of remittances drying up calls for an all-hands-on-deck responsenot just for the sake of the poor countries, but for the rich ones as well. First, the global community must recognize the benefit of keeping migrants where they are, in their host countries, as much as possible. Retaining migrants helps host countries sustain and restart core services in their economies and allows remittances to recipient countries to keep flowing, even if at a much-reduced level. Second, donor countries and international financial institutions must also step in to help migrant-source countries not only fight the pandemic but also cushion the shock of losing these private income flows, just when these low-income and fragile countries need them most. Transmission of shocks Remittances are income flows that sync the business cycle of many recipient countries with those of sending countries. During good times, this relationship is a win-win, furnishing much-needed labor to fuel the economies of host countries and providing much-needed income to families in the migrants home countries. However, this close business cycle linkage between host and recipient countries has a downside risk. Shocks to the economies of migrant-host countriesjust the sorts of shocks being caused by the coronavirus pandemiccan be transmitted to those of the remittance-recipient countries. For example, for a recipient country that receives remittances representing at least 10 percent of its annual GDP, a 1 percent decrease in the host countrys output gap (the difference between actual and potential growth) will tend to decrease the recipient countrys output gap by almost 1 percent (Barajas and others 2012). Remittances represent much more than 10 percent of GDP for many countries, led by Tajikistan and Bermuda, at more than 30 percent (see Chart 2). The pandemic will deliver a blow to remittance flows that may be even worse than during the financial crisis of 2008, and it will come just as poor countries are grappling with the impact of COVID-19 on their own economies. Migrant workers who lose their employment are likely to reduce remittances to their families back home. Recipient countries will lose an important source of income and tax revenue just when they need it most (Abdih and others 2012). In fact, according to the World Bank, remittance flows are expected to drop by about $100 billion in 2020, which represents roughly a 20 percent drop from their 2019 level (see Chart 3). Fiscal and trade balances would be affected, and countries ability to finance and service their debt would be reduced. Banks in migrant-source countries rely on remittance inflows as a cheap source of deposit funding since these flows are altruistically motivated. Unfortunately, these banks are now likely to see their cost of operations increase, and their ability to extend creditwhether to the private sector or to finance government deficitswill be greatly reduced (Barajas and others 2018). Furthermore, the typically credit-constrained private sectormostly comprising self-employed people and small and medium-sized enterprisesis likely to lose remittance funding, in addition to dealing with even tighter credit conditions from banks. All this will come on top of lower demand for their services and products as a result of the crisis. Thats not all. A prolonged crisis could worsen pressure in labor markets of rich countries, and out-of-work migrants could lose their resident status in host countries and be forced to return home. For example, in Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which rely on migrant labor from the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, the drop in the price of oil and economic activity could result in migrants (some of whom are already infected with the virus) returning home. They are likely to join the jobless in their home countriesin labor markets already brimming with unemployed youthas well as put more pressure on already fragile public health systems. This could heighten social pressure in countries already ill prepared to deal with the pandemic and possibly also fuel spillovers beyond their borders. People escaping tough situations in their own countries are likely to seek other shores, but richer countries, also in the midst of fighting the virus, may have very little desire to allow migrants inpotentially leading to an even greater refugee crisis. Compared with previous economic crises, this pandemic poses an even greater threat to countries that rely heavily on remittance income. The global nature of this crisis means that not only will recipient countries see remittance flows dry up, they will simultaneously experience outflows of private capital, and maybe a reduction in aid from struggling donors. Typically, when private capital flees a country because of a macroeconomic shock, whether climate related or because of a deterioration in the countrys terms of trade, remittance flows come in to lessen the impact of capital flight. By contrast, in this current crisis, poor countries can expect to experience both phenomenacapital flight as well as a drop in remittance flows. With global demand likely to suffer, it would be hard for remittance-recipient countries to export their way out of this crisis. Currency depreciation cannot be expected to spur demand for their exports or attract tourism since this shock is systemic (Barajas and others 2010). Currency weakness will likely worsen the economic situation for many of these low-income and fragile states whose debt is in foreign currency, further depressing local demand and resulting in greater shrinkage of local economies. What can be done? The crisis has the unique effect of tightening fiscal constraints in low-income migrant-source countries just when theres much more for the public sector to do, both in terms of protecting the population from the pandemic and supporting local economies in weathering huge negative shocks. The loss of tax revenue resulting from the drop in remittance-supported consumption will only make things worse for governments already strapped for funds and severely strain their ability to engage in countercyclical fiscal measures. This creates tremendous urgency for the international community to help, even when rich countries are themselves facing huge fiscal burdens. It is in the best interest of rich countries for migrants not to go home as well as to provide resources for poor countries to fight the pandemic. Infection rates are much higher in rich countries and are especially high among migrant workers owing to their dismal working and housing conditions. Migrants who go home are at risk of taking the virus with them. If this happens, poor countries will provide a rich incubator for the virus that will boomerang as refugees seek new shores. Then it will take decadesand many livesfor the world to be rid of this virus. Three key actions need to be taken now. First, host countries need to stabilize the employment opportunities of the migrant workers in their economies. Relief packages that target employment protection for citizens in rich countries can also help migrant workers remain employed. Recognizing the need to protect and stabilize the welfare of migrant workers, the prime minister of Singapore recently assured migrant workers in his country that we will look after your health, your welfare, and your livelihood. We will work with your employers to make sure that you get paid and you can send money home . . . This is our duty and responsibility to you and your families. Action by host countries can help keep the remittance lifeline alive, as well as reduce the likelihood of migrants returning home. Extending protection to migrants will also help advanced economies get back to full production sooner. If host countries send migrants back, it will take even longer to restore production in rich countries to former levels. In countries such as the United States that depend on seasonal labor, keeping migrants within their borders and enhancing testing for infection will bring a double benefitensuring the supply of fresh agricultural products for the host country and preserving remittances for migrants home countries. Second, countries receiving returning migrants will need help to contain, mitigate, and reduce the escalation of outbreaks. Donor countries must help with the cost of virus mitigation, in an effort to lessen the severity of the crisis in local economies and stave off potential spillovers. Returning migrants are likely to place further stress on the health care systems of migrant-source countries, which are struggling to contain local infections and avoid a shutdown of the local economy. Authorities in these countries will need enhanced testing as much as possible in urban areas, as well as support in implementing quarantine measures for returning migrants who may be infected. If the return of migrants is handled in this manner, there could be longer-term benefits for their home countries as well. Migrants who expect to be permanently repatriated may bring their savings with them, and their work skills could bring development benefits to their home countries. Third, given that poor countries governments have limited room for maneuver, these countries will need the assistance of international financial institutions and the donor community. International financial institutions need to shore up fiscal and balance of payments assistance to these countries. This should include ensuring that these countries most vulnerable peoplethose most reliant on remittance inflows for their consumption and well-beingare able to access social insurance programs. And, perhaps now more than ever, the global effort to meet Sustainable Development Goal 10, reducing the high cost of remittances to 3 percent, could take center stage. This crisis makes it clear that as a global community we, rich and poor countries, are all in this together. We can either lift all boats or, together, face the consequences of rising social inequality. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 01:04:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Jamal Hashim, Shaalan Ahmed BAGHDAD, June 8 (Xinhua) -- After months of tough wrangling of political parties, the Iraqi parliament finally approved on June 6 the full cabinet line-up of Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who is set to lead the country after months of huge challenges that faces the country. A day after the approval, al-Kadhimi held the first meeting of his full cabinet to discuss the plans that the government could apply to deal with the anti-corruption protests, economic crisis, spread of coronavirus and growing threat of Islamic State (IS) militants. "We have put the plans, but that entails that all Iraqis to cooperate with the government to put the state on the right path," al-Kadhimi said in a statement after the meeting. However, many of local analysts believe that it is still too early to see how the situation will develop to an answer a question like: will thinks improve with al-Kadhimi's government? Nadhum Ali Abdullah, an Iraqi expert of the Arab Forum for Political Analysis, tried to answer the question to Xinhua, saying that al-Kadhimi has an immense task as he is facing enormous internal and external challenges. One of the internal challenges is the security situation as the extremist Islamic State (IS) group has been intensifying their deadly attacks against the security forces and civilians in different areas across Iraq, let alone the uncontrolled weapons of the tribes and many militias with transborder allegiance, according to Abdullah. "Those uncontrolled groups are actually paralyzing the Iraqi economy, as they have the ability to carry out smuggling activities and threaten the trade movement of the border crossings," Abdullah said. Al-Kadhimi's government is also facing other challenges including COVID-19 pandemic at a time the country is suffering from fragile health system after years of conflicts and chaos following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. These challenges have added to what was already a severe deterioration of public services, corruption, widespread unemployment, and an increase in the number of Iraqis under the poverty line, in addition to the presence of hundreds of thousands of displaced people, Abdullah said. However, given the fact that Iraq depends on more than 90 percent of its economy on revenues from selling crude oil, Abdullah believes that the most urgent challenge for al-Kadhimi's government is how to deal with the severe economic hardship resulting from plummeting oil prices, amid the global recession due to the coronavirus pandemic. As for the external challenges, Abdullah said al-Kadhimi's government will have to pursue a clear and balanced rhetoric with the regional and international countries, including the conflict between Iran and the United States on the Iraqi soil. Al-Kadhimi's government is also seeking to restore the relations with neighboring countries, foremost of which are the Gulf states and Turkey, to cooperate especially in the issues of water and the export of Iraqi oil through their ports. For his part, Ibrahim al-Ameri, a lecturer of politics in Baghdad University, told Xinhua that he sees the root of all Iraqi crises is the political infight, which makes the political parties to become almost incapable of responding to the needs of the Iraqi citizens. Since October 2019, mass anti-government demonstrations have been continuing in Baghdad and other cities in central and southern, demanding comprehensive reform, fight against corruption, better public services and more job opportunities. Al-Kadhimi is not expected to do more than seeking step-by-step reform within the existing system to seek a new balance between the badly wanted reform and the parties' interests, al-Ameri said. Al-Kadhimi will also face the deadlock with the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, which expectations see that he could make an impressive success as the new prime minister believes in federalism and decentralization as effective governance policies to ensure the sovereignty and unity of the Iraqi state. Such vision could provide a strong starting point for the future negotiations between Baghdad and Erbil, al-Ameri concluded. Hashim al-Shamaa, a political analyst and member of Iraq Center for legal development, despite Iraq's huge problems, the new government has tremendous opportunities ahead because the national, regional, and international interests are looking forward to the success of the al-Kadhimi's government. "Such a consensus on al-Kadhimi is rarely available to any of his predecessors, despite that many Iraqis are still skeptical about his success, as the man inherited huge challenges while he has even less time than his predecessors to enact change that will truly benefit people's lives," al-Shamaa said. "Al-Kadhimi made a series of promises in his governmental program, if he managed to implement three of his promises: holding early elections, saving Iraq from the economic crisis and bringing those who killed and kidnapped the peaceful demonstrators to justice, then we can say he made an impressive success in his term," al-Shamaa concluded. Enditem French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe met with local police officers and members of a citizens group in a southern Paris suburb on Tuesday, to review the code of ethics.This comes on the back of a series of rallies around the country denouncing violence and racism in the police force. Edouard Philippe spent the morning in Evry, a suburb south of Paris, meeting with police officers who work in so-called 'difficult' areas, which count high unemployment and large immigrant communities. Accompanied by interior minister Christophe Castaner, he said he wanted to "review the measures for prevention and reinforcement of the relationship between police and the local population, put in place by the local authorities." "The confidence between citizens and those who serve them, who have been given a mission to be guardians of the peace, is central to the Republican pact," he wrote on Twitter at the start of his visit. Philippe also visited the citizens group Generation 2, to discuss community involvement and to remind them of "the government's determination to fight all forms of racism and discrimination." His visit comes on the heels of a press conference by the Interior minister, Christophe Castaner on Monday evening, who said he had "zero tolerance for racism". Police chokehold banned He also said that the dangerous method of the chokehold, or stranglehold, would no longer be taught in police training programmes. This was met with consternation from Yves Lefebvre, a spokesperson of a police union SGP-FO. "We can stop the strangling technique, OK, but what will we replace it with ?" he told France Info on Tuesday. "We use the stranglehold when we are faced with an individual who is resisting arrest. So, what what will we do instead ?" Investigations underway Castaner also pointed to the fact that "thirty inquiries" into racist comments made by officers in 2019 were being carried out by the police oversight body IGPN. "Eight files have been dropped and 22 transferred to the justice system," he told BFMTV on Tuesday. He said he wanted to see police officers immediately suspended if they were part of an investigation, which is not the case at the moment. "When there is sufficient evidence to establish a legal case to be presented to a judge, I think an administrative sanction is in order," he said. Rallies across France, and the world The Paris court on Friday opened an inquiry, at Castaner's request into the publication of racist and sexist messages posted by police force members on a Facebook group. Around 23,000 people attended a rally in Paris on Saturday despite a ban in place due to the Covid-19 crisis to express anger over police violence and racism, in France and elsewhere. Parallels have been drawn between the deaths of George Floyd in the United States on 25 May and Adama Traore in France in 2016. Both men were pinned to the ground during an arrest and died of asphyxiation. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Emirates, the state-owned Dubai-based airline, fired 600 pilots, including some from India, on June 9 in what is being seen as one of the largest layoffs in the airline industry. The Indian pilots had recently joined the airline from IndiGo, the country's largest carrier, industry sources told Moneycontrol. The latest round of firing takes to 792 the number of pilots who have been sacked by Emirates, one of the world's biggest long-haul airlines. The airline began trimming its workforce on May 31 when it had sacked 180 pilots. Sources told Moneycontrol that the pilots sacked on June 9 were first officers who were under training for type-rating on the A380. The pilots were on probation. "Most of the pilots fired by Emirates on June 9 are on its A380 fleet," said a senior industry executive. Over the years, Emirates has evolved into a premium airline, with a reputation for fine service that seen it emerge as the world's biggest operator of the jumbo A380 aircraft. The airline plans to retire a large part of its fleet following the coronavirus outbreak that has brought the airline industry to a standstill, with countries around the world restricting movement of people. Around 40 of its 115 A380 aircraft will be put out of service. In response to a query from Moneycontrol, Emirates spokesperson said: As previously communicated, we at Emirates have been doing everything possible to retain the talented people that make up our workforce for as long as we can. However, given the significant impact that the pandemic has had on our business, we simply cannot sustain excess resources and have to right-size our workforce in line with our reduced operations. "After reviewing all scenarios and options, we deeply regret that we have to let some of our people go. This was a very difficult decision and not one that we took lightly. The company is doing everything possible to protect the workforce wherever we can. Where we are forced to take tough decisions we will treat people with fairness and respect. We will work with impacted employees to provide them with all possible support. "Your last day of service would, therefore, be June 15, and you will continue to receive your usual company medial benefits... should you be unable to repatriate due to travel restrictions, your visa will be extended being your last day of service." Reports had earlier said that the airline will layoff 30 percent of its crew and pilots. This will translate to about 30,000 employees. (Reuters) - Protesters around the world have taken to the streets in response to events in the United States, where the death in police custody of black man George Floyd has sparked a wave of anti-racism demonstrations. Reuters interviewed five people in five countries about why they had taken to the streets in recent days and what they hoped to achieve. Here is what they said: LONDON: Stedroy Cabey, a 30-year-old actor, who spoke while surrounded by hundreds of noisy protesters at the weekend: "As a black man it feels like your skin is a weapon. It feels like for some reason they feel like you're a threat and you don't understand why because you've never done anything to do that. Personally I haven't done anything. "When I first moved to the UK there was an incident where ... me and my cousin were on the bus and (a stranger) started looking at us in a weird way. When he got off the bus he ran up to us, he was like 'go back to where you came from, you don't belong here'. And I was speechless in that moment. I was a young boy, a young man coming from the Caribbean ... for a better life ... It was like wow. It reminded me that racism is actually real." PARIS: Bokar Ture, a U.S. citizen and economist living in Paris, addressing his small daughter whom he held in his arms: "I said that there are some people who might think less of us because we're black, but we know that's not true, right? We know that we're just as smart, just as intelligent, and you're just as beautiful as anyone, OK? ... It doesn't matter what other people think. OK? So you're proud of yourself, OK? You can achieve anything you want and the colour of your skin, if other people are stupid enough to think that it should be a barrier, let them be stupid. You be smart, OK?" BRUSSELS: Pauline Sobze, 17, a high school student living in Ath, western Belgium. "The reason why I come here to protest (was) because as you can see (from) the colour of my skin, it can happen to me, it can happen to my family, my friends. And it's important for me to come here because we ... have to be together to protest for the things that matter to us." Story continues MADRID: U.S. national Frank Bradford, who now lives in Madrid, speaking through a face mask: "I grew up in America's south, Mississippi. It has one of the darkest histories of racism and I've seen it on a day-to-day basis, growing up in school, the university, at work and I think it's a major problem that we have to deal with." "I have seen it around day-to-day like in the grocery store or supermarket, on the street. It's been something challenging. Also I'm a teacher, so I see it at the school a little bit and I try to correct students and try to teach them a better way, to recognise racism and fight against it." LOS ANGELES: K.C. Coleman, a 55-year-old former police officer from Inglewood, California. "I am protesting today because I'm a bi-racial woman. I have faced racism in my life. As an ex-police officer I faced racism, and now it's time for a change. So, I'm here to support the cause for justice for all, freedom for all, equal rights for all. "I am very optimistic about the protests and (them) leading to change, because at first it was just the black and the minorities that were out here but now you have a nation that's all coming together as one. So, as I go out to these protests, it's not just the African-Americans that are out here, it's everyone out here so we're finally united as one. So change is definitely coming and I'm feeling extremely positive about the change." (Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Compiled by Lucy Marks and Mike Collett-White) UNITED NATIONS (AP) Russias foreign minister is accusing the Trump administration of unleashing a politically motivated campaign against Iran and is calling for universal condemnation of the U.S. attempt to get the U.N. Security Council to impose a permanent arms embargo against the Islamic Republic. Sergey Lavrov said the United States withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six major powers and now has no legal right to try to use the U.N. resolution endorsing the deal to indefinitely continue the arms embargo, which is set to expire on Oct. 18. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council circulated Monday, the Russian minister said statements by U.S. State Department officials that the Trump administration doesnt plan to resume its commitments under the nuclear deal but plans to invoke rights allegedly deriving from the resolution endorsing it are ridiculous and irresponsible. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft have said extending the arms embargo against Iran is a top priority for the United States. Craft told a press briefing Friday that she had shared a draft Security Council resolution imposing an indefinite arms embargo on Iran with Russia and with Western council allies Britain, France, Germany and Estonia, and hopes to give the draft to the rest of the 15-member council pretty soon. But she said first she wants to talk to ambassadors and make sure everyone understands that we are committed to making certain that the U.N. Security Council does not allow this to expire in October. What I say to people is on Oct. 18 ... do we want Russia selling weapons to Iran? Do we want China selling? Do we want anyone providing or selling weapons to Iran?, Craft asked. Im stressing that Russia and China need to join a global consensus on Irans conduct. This is about not only the people of Iran but the people in the Middle East. Story continues But Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has already make clear Moscows opposition to a Security Council resolution extending Iran's arms embargo, which Russia could veto. He also said the U.S. has no right following its withdrawal from the nuclear deal to use the snap back provision in the 2015 council resolution, which automatically restores all U.N. sanctions against Iran that had been lifted or eased if the nuclear deal is violated. Craft disagreed, saying the resolution makes clear that the US retains the right to use the snap back provision. Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have escalated since President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 and re-imposed crippling U.S. sanctions. A year ago, the U.S. sent thousands more troops, long-range bombers and an aircraft carrier to the Middle East in response to what it called a growing threat of Iranian attacks on U.S. interests in the region. The five other powers that signed the nuclear deal Russia, China, United Kingdom, France and Germany remain committed to it, saying the agreement is key to continuing inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency and preventing Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons. Lavrovs letter went further in explaining Moscows strong opposition to an indefinite arms embargo and U.S. use of the snap back provision. We are proceeding on the basis that the United Nations should not become hostage to the political situation in the United States, which has decided to withdraw from the plan, he said. There are no valid grounds for raising in the Security Council the issue of an arms embargo against Iran. Lavrov said the nuclear deal and the Security Council resolution form a single whole and cant be considered separately. And under Article 25 of the U.N. Charter, the United States side is obliged to carry out the decisions of the Security Council, rather than undermine them through its unlawful actions, he said. Lavrov said international courts have held "that a party which disowns or does not fulfill its own obligations cannot be recognized as retaining the rights which it claims to derive from a relationship. The United States, having violated the Security Council resolution and declined to implement the 2015 nuclear agreement has therefore forfeited the possibility of using the snap back provisions, he said. Lavrov called on the U.S. to stop undermining the nuclear agreement and the U.N. resolution. He said Russia and other responsible members of the international community will continue to make every effort to preserve the nuclear deal. The United States must recognize that there are neither legal nor other grounds for its policy of using Security Council mandates to pursue its own selfish interests, Lavrov said. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump ignited fresh controversy over his hard-line law and order push Tuesday by peddling yet another unfounded conspiracy theory, this time trying to raise suspicions about a 75-year-old protester who was hospitalized after being shoved by police and falling. Trump tweeted without evidence that the confrontation in Buffalo, New York, may have been a set up as he once again sided with police officers over protesters and demonstrated anew his willingness to spread and amplify bogus charges cooked up by far-right outlets. The move comes as Trump, who has labeled himself your president of law and order, has taken a tough line against the protesters who have been demonstrating across the nation following the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck. Aides have been urging Trump to strike a more unifying tone, worried that his divisive response to the protests is animating parts of the Democratic base and benefiting his rival, Democrat Joe Biden, months before Novembers election. Two Buffalo police officers have been charged with second-degree assault after video captured protester Martin Gugino falling to the ground after being pushed by police. He was seen bleeding from his head as officers walk away. The officers, who could face prison sentences of up to seven years if convicted, have pleaded not guilty. The video is one of several that have emerged in recent weeks showing police using seemingly excessive force against protesters as Trump has demanded that governors and mayors across the nation take control of their streets using all means necessary. He has repeatedly urged local leaders to call up the national guard and threatened to deploy active-duty military to American cities if he deems local efforts insufficient. Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur, Trump wrote in his tweet. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? There is no evidence to suggest that anything of the sort took place. Trump was referencing a report on One America News Network, a far-right news channel that he often praises. Trumps tweet was criticized by both Republicans and Democrats. Its a serious accusation, which should only be made with facts and evidence. And I havent seen any yet, said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate. Asked by reporters if the president should not be making it, Thune said: Well, I think thats a given. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who last week said shes struggling with whether to support Trump in November, reacted to the tweet in the Capitol after a reporter handed her a printout. Oh lord. Ugh, she said. Again, why would you fan the flames? Thats all Im going to say. New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on Trump to apologize for a wholly unacceptable tweet. How reckless, how irresponsible, how mean, how crude. I mean if there was ever a reprehensible, dumb comment, and from the president of the United States, Cuomo said at his daily press conference. At this moment of anguish and anger, what does he do? Pour gasoline on the fire, he added. Show some decency. Show some humanity. Show some fairness. Youre the president of the United States. As for the substance of the tweet, the presidents claim is so technically incomprehensible, Im not even sure where to start, said Matt Blaze, a professor of computer science and law at Georgetown University. It is possible to disrupt police radio an illegal action often called jamming but hackers can only do that by attacking receiving stations, not with handheld devices that target an individual police officers radio, Blaze said. Any radio system is subject to interference, but it doesnt work by pointing some sort of ray gun and interfering, Blaze said. As he has tried to malign protesters as radical-left, bad people engaging in domestic terrorism, Trump has frequently invoked the label antifa, an umbrella term for leftist militants bound more by belief than organizational structure. Trump has blamed antifa for the violence that has erupted during some of the protests. But federal law enforcement officials have offered little evidence that antifa-aligned protesters are behind the efforts seen in hundreds of cities and towns in all 50 states since Floyds death. Trumps campaign has run ads calling on Facebook users to applaud the president for saying he would declare antifa a terrorist organization. Gugino, who is out of the intensive care unit but remains hospitalized, has been described by friends as a retiree and veteran peace activist driven by his faith and a desire for social justice. He is involved with the Western New York Peace Center and Latin American Solidarity Committee, the centres executive director has said. Guginos attorney, Kelly Zarcone, told The Associated Press that Trumps accusations are utterly baseless and ridiculous. Gugino, she said, has always been a peaceful protester because he cares about todays society. No one from law enforcement has even suggested anything otherwise, so we are at a loss to understand why the president of the United States would make such dark, dangerous, and untrue accusations about him, she said. Erie County District Attorney John Flynn declined to comment Tuesday on the presidents tweet and said he would have no further comment on the Gugino case because it remains under investigation. ___ Thompson reported from Buffalo. Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Chicago contributed to this report. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A former comedian has delivered his punchline to coronavirus. After a 70-day battle with the disease, which included a bout with kidney failure and sepsis, 75-year-old Julio Moscoso was released from Cloves Lakes Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in Castleton Corners on Tuesday. The West Brighton resident waved an emotional good-bye to his nurses, who wheeled him down the ramp and into his familys car. Moscoso has been imagining the very moment he would be able to be reunited with family for a little over two months, when he received the startling diagnosis that he had contracted the virus. On March 31, Moscoso was taken to the emergency room with difficulty breathing as well as disorientation. When he came back as positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), his family knew that there was a fight ahead of them. Moscoso was placed on a ventilator and his kidneys started to fail. He underwent dialysis every other day. On top of that -- the ventilator caused vocal cord damage which hindered Moscosos ability to speak, his family said. Moscoso was also diagnosed with sepsis, an infection throughout the bloodstream. In total, Moscoso spent 38 days at Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton. Due to being confined to a bed and losing strength and the ability to walk, as well as not being able to speak, Moscoso was transferred to Cloves Lakes Health Care and Rehabilitation Center. Now, a little more than a month after Moscoso was first admitted to the nursing home, he is able to speak again and has been taken off of dialysis because of regained kidney function. He also tested negative two separate times for coronavirus, which gave him the green light to go home. I want to thank all the doctors and nurses who helped save my life, and would like to thank my family for all their love and prayers. Its amazing to finally be home, said Moscoso as he was released from the nursing home. Julio Moscoso was released from the hospital 70 days after contracting coronavirus (Photo courtesy Jennifer Saladis-Moscoso) Moscoso -- a comedian in the 1970s who went by the stage name Julio Beymer -- went from only being able to make sounds on FaceTime calls with family members to regaining his wit and speaking full sentences. Its been a very emotional 70 days. When he was first admitted to the hospital we didnt know what to expect. We heard so many stories of what happened to other people, this is nothing short than a miracle. We thought we were going to lose him. When the phone rang, we though it was the call. But that call never came," said Moscosos daughter-in-law, Jennifer Saladis-Moscoso. Originally from Ecuador, he gained fame there and was able to make it to the United States where he moved to Queens and then to Staten Island, where he has resided in West Brighton since 2004. Moscosos wife also tested positive and although she didnt require hospitalization, she feared losing the love of her life. Protesters hold banners and portraits of allegedly kidnapped Thai activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit outside the Embassy of Cambodia in Bangkok, June 8, 2020. Cambodias national police force has launched an investigation into the alleged abduction of Thai political activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit despite earlier calling his disappearance fake news, prompting frustration over delays from a rights group that demanded an independent and transparent probe. Wanchalearm, 37, was apparently abducted in broad daylight on June 4one day after he posted an anti-government video on Facebookby gunmen in front of his apartment complex in Phnom Penh as he talked to his sister, Sitinan Satsakit, on a phone. She added that he said he couldnt breathe as their call ended abruptly. The activist had fled to Cambodia from Thailand after Thai authorities issued a June 2018 warrant for his arrest, accusing him of violating the Computer-Related Crime Act for operating a Facebook page deemed critical of the Thai government. Amid mounting calls for an investigation, including a request via a diplomatic note from the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh, National Police Commission spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun confirmed Tuesday that a probe into Wanchalearms disappearance is underway. But he denied allegations by Cambodias opposition and Wanchalearms supporters in Thailand that authorities in Phnom Penh had carried out the alleged abduction at Bangkoks behest. I deny any allegations that Cambodia arrested Satsakit, he said, adding that authorities will investigate any information relevant to the case as part of the probe. Chhay Kim Khoeun said that according to official records, Wanchalearm wasnt even living in Cambodia at the time of his alleged kidnapping, and he welcomed any information that members of the public could provide authorities related to his disappearance. According to our investigation, Satsakit left Cambodia in 2017 [and didn't return], he said, without providing any details. We dont have any more information in addition to that. Cambodian authorities are seeking witnesses and evidence relevant to [reports of] Satsakits disappearance. Chhay Kim Khoeuns announcement that a probe is underway in the case marked a sea change from Friday, when he denied any knowledge of Wanchalearm being kidnapped in an interview with the Associated Press and said that since no abduction had taken place, no investigation would be done. Since this morning I have received about 50 calls asking me about this news but replying to them all the same ... I said this is fake news, untrue news, he said at the time. It also came a day after a demonstration by around 100 of Wanchalearms supporters in front of the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok, demanding that Phnom Penh investigate his case and accusing the Thai government of having orchestrated the alleged kidnapping. Thailand to cooperate Following a weekly cabinet meeting in Bangkok on Tuesday, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha told reporters he had asked Thai security officials about Wanchalearms reported abduction and indicated that his government would cooperate with authorities from a foreign country in investigating the case. We will see why he fled [Thailand], [and] to where, he said. I dont know where he has fled to and what he did there. But he also made clear that Thailand would not interfere in another countrys authority as part of any investigation. They have their mechanism to find out, he said. We can cooperate with them if they ask us. Ive nothing to do [with this issue] and I seek fairness for Thai officials, Prayuth added. Wanchalearms sister, Sitinan Satsakit, submitted a letter to the Thai Parliaments House Committee on Justice Tuesday asking for its help in locating her brother. Im seeking help from authorities to bring my brother back safely and would like the committee to urgently search [for him], she told reporters as she presented her letter to Rangsiman Rome, the spokesman for the House Committee on Justice. Thank you [students and activists] for [raising] awareness about the disappearance of Wanchalearm, its a phenomenon. We feel that younger generations are alert about enforced disappearances. Rangsiman Rome, a former pre-democracy activist and Thai lawmaker whose serves as the spokesman for House Committee on Justice, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, that while the incident took place abroad, the Thai government is obligated to help search for Wanchalearm through the framework of international law. What worries us most is that the incident will fade away, he said. It is not only a matter of human rights but the security of Thai citizens. We dont want the government to sit still and let this fade away. Following reports that Cambodia had launched a probe into Wanchalearms disappearance, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch chided Bangkok for having dragged its feet in filing a request and Phnom Penh for showing a disturbing lack of interest in the case by claiming that it was waiting for Thai authorities to complain before it would investigate. He questioned why it had taken so long to begin inquiries in a case with CCTV footage and lots of witnesses surrounding an obvious crime committed in broad daylight on Phnom Penhs streets. Now the investigation has finally started, Cambodia government must pursue a serious, impartial and transparent investigation that leaves no stone unturned in finding out what happened to Wanchalearm, Robertson said. They should not rest until they find him and prosecute those responsible for the abduction. Robertson urged governments around the world who are concerned about enforced abductions to pressure both Cambodia and Thailand to act quickly to find Wanchalearm. Earlier calls for probe Ahead of Cambodias launch of the probe, the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh issued a statement saying it was aware of reports of Wanchalearms abduction and urging authorities to investigate immediately. The United States consistently encourages foreign governments, including the Royal Cambodian Government and the Royal Thai Government, to ensure freedom of expression and respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, consistent with international obligations and commitments, U.S. Embassy spokeswomen Emily Zeeberg said. Wanchalearms disappearance had also drawn concerns from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), which on Tuesday demanded that Cambodian and Thai authorities investigate the case and ensure his safety as a matter of urgency. The fact that a Thai political activist has been brazenly abducted on the streets of the Cambodian capital is a matter of extreme concern, said Charles Santiago, a Malaysian Member of Parliament (MP), and chairperson of APHR. ASEAN governments that allow these types of actions to take place on their territory are effectively turning our region into an autocrats heaven, where the persecution of dissent knows no borders. Santiago noted that in recent years, authorities in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, have all been accused of arresting and returning critics of neighboring countries. This growing trend of Southeast Asian governments exchanging political dissidents is sinister, he said. ASEAN leaders should protect democracy not autocracy, something that starts with respecting their obligation to grant asylum and protecting those who flee persecution. APHR called on parliamentarians in Thailand and Cambodia to hold their governments to account by asking for regular reports on their respective efforts and progress in locating Wanchalerm. Reported by RFAs Khmer Service and BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Canadian and American flags fly near the Ambassador Bridge at the Canada-USA border crossing in Windsor, Ont. on March 21, 2020. Canada and the U.S. have mutually agreed on March 18, 2020 to temporarily restrict " non essential traffic" accross Canada-U.S. border due to the pandemic. (Rob Gurdebeke/THE CANADIAN PRESS) Canada Loosens Border Controls So That Family Can Reunite Restrictions at the Canada-U.S. border were loosened as of June 8 to allow direct family members to be reunited, the federal government has announced. Foreign nationals who are immediate family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents would be exempt from the prohibition on entry to Canada if entering to be with an immediate family member for a period of at least 15 days, says a press release on the Canada Border Services Agencys website. The exemption is allowed only under the condition that the family member doesnt show any symptoms or signs of COVID-19. Foreign nationals who are admitted into Canada under the exemption must self-quarantine for 14 days. Immediate family members refer to a spouse or common-law partner, a dependent child, parent, or step-parent, and a guardian or tutor, the release said. Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marco Mendicino clarified that the immediate family exemption does not mean the border will now be open to weekend travellers, or those seeking just to attend a personal or social gathering. For people traveling from abroad, they must still have a valid visa or Electronic Travel Authorization. On March 18, Canada initiated a ban on foreigners entering Canada from all countries except the United States to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. Then on March 21, the Canada-U.S. border was shut down for all non-essential travel. On May 19, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the closure would be extended to June 21. Trudeau said on May 29 that the government was working on the possibility of reuniting families separated by the border closure. This is the first move to loosen the border controls in three months. This pandemic has meant different challenges for everyone, but no matter who you are, and no matter what youre dealing with, a little bit of help can make all the difference, Trudeau said on June 8. Mendicino said the government will be closely monitoring the border situation to keep the spread of the virus in check. COVID-19 remains a concern and we must continue to take measures at the border that are necessary from spreading it, and the measures today represent an incremental, a responsible and a thoughtful response towards that objective, Mendicino said. Canada had 96,244 COVID-19 cases in total as of June 9. Jarvis Cocker is sipping tea as he steps over a piece of Pilates equipment. Hes had to move from his seat outdoors since a neighbour has started mowing. Whenever you take a phone call, someone starts doing something noisy, he laments. For the past few months, Cocker has been living in lockdown with his partner Kim in the countryside between Cockers home town of Sheffield and Manchester. His mother and sister are nearby, the reason for his proximity. Cockers 17-year-old son Albert is in Paris with his mother and Cocker will take the train to Paris to take care of him in a couple of days. Jarvis Cocker performs at last year's Primavera Sound in Barcelona. Credit:Xavi Torrent/WireImage Cocker, now 56, used to sing about Es and Whizz, Lipgloss and Common People as the frontman for Britpop cult band, Pulp. Hes had to postpone the tour planned for his six-piece band JARV IS to promote new album Beyond The Pale, released on July 17. The album was a game of two halves, as they say. Some of the ideas for the songs had been around for a long time but it didnt really catch fire until the end of 2017. Sigur Ros was doing a festival and they invited me to play. Ive been in a band since I was 14 years old so I dont know why I didnt make the connection on how putting a band together would help me finish these songs off. Progressives and conservatives alike are quickly moving to seize political advantage in the aftermath of George Floyds death in police custody and outraged protests over law enforcement brutality toward African Americans. Reaction to Floyds May 25 death in Minneapolis is rapidly becoming a partisan demarcation line, serving as shorthand for separating President Trumps supporters from his opponents, Republicans from Democrats and police supporters from those calling for sweeping changes in the ways laws are enforced and who enforces them. San Francisco Mayor London Breed says she intends to cut the citys police budget and move the money to programs for the citys black community, noting that Floyds brutal death at the hands of police and the protests that followed have brought forward the devastating impacts of police violence against African Americans in this country. The president painted the decisions by Breed and other mayors like Democrat Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles to trim police budgets as nothing more than a partisan attack on police officers and law enforcement. The Radical Left Democrats new theme is Defund the Police. Remember that when you dont want crime, especially against you and your family, Trump tweeted Thursday. I am the complete opposite, more money for Law Enforcement! #LAWANDORDER While leaders of both parties agree that Floyds death is a national tragedy, they are also treating it as a landmark event in the 2020 presidential campaign. The contrast between Trump and Vice President (Joe) Biden could not be more clear, said a blog post by the Democratic National Committee. As Trump pours salt in the wounds and inflames racial divisions, Biden provides healing leadership our country desperately needs. The Republican National Committee provided its own contrast. While Democrats like Joe Biden and Hollywood elitists continue to support lawlessness and destruction, President Trump is promoting law and order to seek justice for George Floyd, the committee said on its blog. And the dispute isnt just between Republicans and Democrats. In San Francisco, Jackie Fielder, who is running against fellow Democrat Scott Wiener in his state Senate re-election race in November, challenged the former supervisor to refuse any contributions from law enforcement and give back any money he received. Wiener did so and donated the law enforcement contributions he has taken in the past four years to youth groups. Law enforcement unions are different from the other labor organizations that typically back Democratic candidates, since they have a monopoly on violence, Fielder said. Teachers arent murdering people, police are. Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images The shift from tragic event to political opportunity shouldnt surprise anyone, said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Everything is political now, she said. People dont read from the same script, they read from a blue script or a red script. ... Rodney Kings question, Can we all get along? now seems hopelessly naive. Police across the country know theyre in the middle of the political firefight, said Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, the states largest law enforcement organization with 77,000 members. Law enforcement groups are definitely an easy target now, he said. Youre going to see a pitch to limit or not allow us to contribute to campaigns. Thats already started. San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton and San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar called for a ban last week on police union contributions to elected prosecutors, calling it a conflict of interest, since prosecutors can file charges against police officers. I wonder if that (ban) extends to other interest groups, since the district attorney prosecutes everyone, Marvel said. In some cases, the district attorneys were already on poor terms with police unions. Marvels group gave $5,000 to a group opposing Boudins election last year and in January gave $100,000 to Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, whom Gascon is challenging in November. The Defund the Police movement is gaining traction not only in California but across the country. In Minneapolis, nine members of the City Council said Sunday they would dismantle the city Police Department and replace it with a new model of public safety, according to the council president. Now Playing: On June 2, 2020, residents of San Franciscos Outer Sunset marched in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and against the recent death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. Video: Manjula Varghese / The Chronicle In dueling TV appearances Sunday, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza said defunding the police means taking some of those law enforcement resources and spending them on programs needed by the community, while Chad Wolf, acting secretary of homeland security, called the defunding idea an absurd assertion. With disputes like that heating up across the country, Republican and Democratic leaders are content to use Floyds death and its aftermath as a dividing line that can be used in the fall campaigns, ramping up the rhetoric without concern about any effect beyond the November vote totals. Theres plenty of blame to go around for the political free-for-all, said Levinson of Loyola. You dont see Democrats asking if its really a good idea to defund police departments, she said. And how many Republicans are saying, We should go out and protest? John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth Passengers queue at a check-in counter at Changi International Airport in Singapore. (PHOTO: Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images) SINGAPORE Singaporean residents and long-term pass holders who return from China after travelling under the new fast lane arrangement will have to serve a 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN). Should they comply with the terms of the fast lane arrangement, they will not be required to pay for their medical bills at public hospitals should they test positive for COVID-19 upon return from China. These are some of the additional measures put up in the frequently-asked questions (FAQ) section of the new SafeTravel Pass website to facilitate the fast-lane travel set up between Singapore and China. Travelling between Singapore and six Chinese provinces The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Trade and Industry had announced the reciprocal fast lane arrangement on 3 June, allowing residents of both countries to travel between Singapore and six Chinese provinces and municipalities Chongqing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Zhejiang for essential business and official purposes. Singapore residents seeking to travel to China via the fast lane must be sponsored by either a company or a government agency in China, which will file an application with the local provincial/municipal authorities on behalf of the Singapore applicant. If the application is approved, a Letter of Invitation will be issued to the applicant. The approved applicant will thereafter submit a visa application and health declaration to the Chinese Embassy in Singapore, which will issue the applicant a visa. Pre-departure PCR test to cost $180 to $200 According to the FAQ page, a fast lane traveller departing for China can make an appointment in advance at certain clinics in Singapore for a pre-departure polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at the travellers cost. The traveller should expect to pay about $180 to $200 (inclusive of GST) for the pre-departure test. This is not payable by MediSave, MediShield Life and Integrated Shield Plans. The traveller must also take the test within 48 hours before departure, and obtain a health certificate of having tested negative for COVID-19. Story continues Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Related story: Singaporeans can travel to parts of China soon for essential business, official trips Azerbaijan will achieve significant results in 2020 by implementing the project Development of sustainable and inclusive local agri-food systems in the North-Western region of Azerbaijan, funded by EU, Head of the FAO Partnership and Liaison Office in Azerbaijan Melek Chakmak told local media. The goal of the project is the development of effective and inclusive agri-food systems that support smaller-scale agriculture and contribute to poverty reduction in Azerbaijans North-West region. The project is also aimed at strengthening the business environment for inclusive and effective development of agriculture and food systems with the support of community agricultural consulting services in the region, Chakmak noted. The tasks set before us will be achieved by using four interconnected components. The project proposals are mainly focused on creating local inclusive and efficient models of agriculture and the food system for selected local agri-food products, as well as facilitating access to markets by strengthening ties between producers and buyers and expanding the potential of agritourism in the region, the head of the office added. The result of the first stage of the project is the recognition of the target region as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). This will draw attention to partially forgotten traditional agricultural practices and increase the level of national and global recognition and fame of the region. This, in turn, is expected to attract more investors and tourists to the region, as well as help to support the preservation of the traditional agricultural system and food production, she said. Chakmak noted that the results of the last stage of the implementation of project provide for the creation of a model of local consulting services at the community level for the agri-food systems and their pilot introduction to individual communities. She added the last stage of the project will also allow small farmers and processors to acquire the skills and knowledge they need to create profitable and sustainable agricultural enterprises. The project is financed by the EU, and the main partner in the project is Ministry of Agriculture. As a pilot area, Balakan, Zagatala. Gakh and Shakhi districts were selected. Azerbaijan has been a member of the FAO since 1995. FAO Partnership and Liaison Office in Azerbaijan has been operating since 2007. Her youngest daughter Portia graduated from Wise School, a K-6 grade school. And Kyle Richards celebrated her accomplishment with her family, sharing snaps to her Instagram page on Tuesday. The 51-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was joined by her other three children and husband Mauricio Umanksy. Portia pictured hugging older sister Sophia with sibling Alexia nearby and mom Kyle She wrote: 'Our youngest @portia_umansky graduated today. Leaving behind the school that my husband also attended when he came from Mexico as a child and 3 of my 4 girls also attended.' Kyle continued: 'I have been driving up to that carpool every day for 16 years and now we are leaving. Portia is going to a new school for 7th grade!' Adding: 'We are so proud of you Portia!! My whole family cried our eyes out today. We will miss the love & sense of community we had at @wiseschoolla and the amazing teachers and faculty.' 'Thank you for helping us educated and raise our children. I'm sad we were not able to hug goodbye today but know you are so appreciated and adored.' Proud mom: The 51-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was joined by her other three children and husband Mauricio Umanksy to celebrate Portia's accomplishment Graduate! Her youngest daughter Portia graduated from Wise School, a K-6 grade school Her thoughts: She wrote: 'Our youngest @portia_umansky graduated today. Leaving behind the school that my husband also attended when he came from Mexico as a child and 3 of my 4 girls also attended' She added the hastags: '#thankyou #ittakesavillage #wiseschool.' Kyle and husband Mauricio Umansky, who wed in 1996, have three daughters together: Alexia, 23, Sophia, 20, and Portia, 12. Kyle has a daughter from her previous marriage - Farrah Aldjufrie, 31, from her marriage to Guraish Aldjufrie. Sophia hugged Portia in one image, with Alexia and Kyle next to them; in another image, Portia's eldest sister Farrah posed alongside her. In another snap shared by Kyle, Alexia and Portia blow kisses to the camera. Sisters: In another image, Portia's eldest sister Farrah posed alongside her Family is everything: In another snap shared by Kyle, Alexia and Portia blow kisses to the camera All love: Sophia hugged Portia in another snap shared by Kyle Portia and her dad Mauricio hugged in another sweet snap. The 12-year-old donned a white dress with her her graduation cap while rocking white polished nails. Kyle also snapped Portia blowing out the candles on her log cake to celebrate her graduation. Girl dad: Portia and her dad Mauricio hugged in another sweet snap Celebrate: Kyle also snapped Portia blowing out the candles on her log cake to celebrate her graduation When Reliance announced on June 3 that its rights issue of Rs 53,124.20 crore was subscribed 1.59 times, what caught my eye in its media release was not so much the fact that it was Indias largest ever rights issue, nor that it was the worlds largest by a non-financial institution in a decade. It was the following information: A unique feature of RILs rights issue was that, despite its record-setting magnitude, it was completed entirely on a digital platform, defying the formidable constraints imposed by the Covid-induced lockdown None of the stakeholders across 800 Indian cities and many financial centres abroad regulators, bankers, financial institutions, retail investors and others had to step out of their offices or homes, and yet everything related to the rights issue was conducted smoothly and with utmost efficiency. This shows not only the power of the emerging digital age, but also the potential of India to be a pioneer and an innovator in this age. A few days ago, I was in my home town Athani in Karnataka, to be with my 91-year-old bed-ridden mother. Reliances theme song for the rights issue, Naye India Ka Naya Josh, on TV channels was on all the time along with grim news about the corona crisis. Since Athani is a small taluka town located in the states rural hinterland, far away from both the countrys tech capital Bengaluru and its financial capital Mumbai, the song triggered a few questions in my mind: When will we see naya josh (new enthusiasm) for a naya Bharat? RILs chairman Mukesh Ambani says in the media release: Our vision is always rooted in furthering Indias inclusive and accelerated growth, propelled by the adoption of digital technologies that help improve the lives of all 1.3 billion Indians. But when will old Bharat rural, underdeveloped and, hence, excluded from the emerging new India benefit from the digital revolution? When will work from home, learn from home, earn from home and other digital solutions reach, and change, the lives of our farmers, farm workers, small traders in small towns, artisans (most of whom belong to the SC, ST, OBC and Muslim communities) and suchlike denizens, who still constitute nearly two-thirds of our countrys population? India, that is Bharat How synonyms became antonyms We are not unfamiliar with this dichotomy between India and Bharat. When the makers of our Constitution, after considerable debate, called our country India, that is Bharat in Article 1(1), they intended the two names to be synonyms. However, they somehow became antonyms both in popular imagination and also in the discourse on the countrys glaring socio-economic disparities. The India vs Bharat binary is part myth and part reality. After all, there is much poverty and underdevelopment even in urban India. Nevertheless, India and Bharat came to be seen as two polar ends of the development divide. Manoj Kumars hit films Upkar and Purab aur Paschim in the 1960s and 70s equated patriotism with Bharat. In the 90s, kisan leaders Sharad Joshi and Mahendra Singh Tikait launched big agitations against the exploitation of Rural Bharat by Urban India. Most recently, some people, believing that India connotes something culturally alien, even made a futile attempt urging the Supreme Court to rename our country as only Bharat. Yet, in a transformation less noticed by the media, digital technologies are slowly but surely narrowing the developmental distance between Bharat and India. Strangely, the prolonged nationwide lockdown necessitated by the corona pandemic has accelerated this Bharat-India Jodo phenomenon. Let me illustrate this with what I have observed in my own family. Digitech is doing Bharat-India Jodo Shridhar Kalagi, who works for an American IT company, ThoughtWorks, in Bengaluru, married my niece Gayatri, a lawyer, last year. A few weeks before the lockdown, they took an unusual decision to relocate from Bengaluru to Athani, so that they both could pursue their professions and also indulge their passion: farming. Now, using BSNLs high-speed FTTH internet facility, he works from home from 10 to 6 on weekdays (or longer if his company wants), and devotes his remaining time to modernising the familys farms. Not infrequently, he takes his laptop there and does multi-tasking. Moreover, he is teaching farmers and farm workers to use apps on their smartphones for digital self-empowerment, and for this purpose wants to set up an education centre for digital agriculture. This trend is now spreading even in what were once called BIMARU (poor and backward) states Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. For example, Shridhar, a keen watcher of national and global trends in agri-tech, drew my attention to how a Patna-based startup DeHaat (which means village in Hindi) has just raised Rs 70 crore from investors as it plans to expand its services across India. It is supporting hundreds of rural micro-entrepreneurs who distribute agri-inputs to farmers, and provide assured and remunerative markets to their produce. With Indias agriculture market estimated to be worth $350 billion, there is enormous scope for its digital transformation, which will benefit both Bharat and India. Tech folks are working from farm, forest, everywhere If Shridhar has taken to working from farm, my younger brother Sanjeev is planning to popularise the concept of working from forest. A gynaecologist, educationist, environmentalist, permaculturist and Gandhian activist in Dharwad in north Karnataka, Sanjeev has developed a dense forest with incredible biodiversity on what was a barren 17-acre land in a nearby village. The forest, called Suman Sangam, has become a hub for social activists and artists who desire solitude and nearness to nature. We also welcome IT professionals from big cities who would like to detox themselves by working in the midst of trees, birds and butterflies, he said to me. His prodigious son Minchu, who works for a software start-up in Bengaluru, has come to Dharwad to work from home and also from his familys forest during the lockdown. I asked Minchu: Do you think lots of young people like you would prefer to work from villages? His reply: Definitely. In the digital age, your office is wherever you choose to work from. This is, of course, not entirely true, but true in many ways for many people. Thanks to new technologies, the future of work will become radically different, and highly conducive to decentralised development. Already, big tech firms like TCS have announced that a large percentage of their employees would be enabled to work remotely. Therefore, governments and companies should work together to make it attractive for talented professionals in big cities to come and work in small towns and villages, for short or long stretches of time. They will have the best of both worlds. His father says: Those who come to villages should not only work for their companies, but also do some voluntary work for the villagers such as teaching in schools, preservation of rural arts and crafts, improving the environment, besides learning from the native wisdom of rural communities. Five ideas to promote work from Bharat, work for Bharat So what should governments (central, state and local), tech companies and people themselves do to accelerate the adoption of the motto 'work from Bharat, work for Bharat'? Here are five ideas. One: Ensure high-speed broadband connectivity and uninterrupted 24/7 power supply all over India. In addition, speedily improve living, educational and travel facilities, including air travel from many more mid-sized cities. This is needed to attract big investments into Bharat, and to create attractive employment opportunities for rural youth. It will also reverse the brain drain from cities to villages, in the same way that our ambitious entrepreneurs and talented professionals began returning from the United States to Indian cities in the past couple of decades. Two: There are still nearly 40 crore (mostly poor) Indians who use 2G-dependent feature phones. Unlike smartphone users on 4G networks, they are deprived of even basic internet services. The government must, by policy, end 2G services and enable India to move to 4G and 5G. Remember: China has already started 6G development after just turning on its 5G network. Three: Following the example of TCS and other tech companies, the government should unveil a policy that incentivises all government and non-government employees (with necessary exceptions) to remote-work from their native villages and towns, for flexible periods of time. This would especially appeal to city people who are separated from their parents and relatives. It would also help them take care of family assets (like farms) in their native places. More consequentially, tens of thousands of families in India would be able to re-discover and revive their lost socio-cultural roots in Bharat. Four: We should not think of tech-enabled work from home as a concept applicable only to city folks. It is no less needed for villagers themselves. Lots of activities of farmers, traders, entrepreneurs and others in rural areas can be digitally transformed, so that people can perform them without having to unnecessarily step out of their farms, shops or homes. For this, government offices, banks and public utilities should make almost all their services available online, drastically reducing in-person interactions. Besides cutting corruption, this will increase rural incomes and also save peoples time and energy for more creative pursuits. Five: Naya Bharat is impossible without all-round empowerment of rural women, who have deep and nuanced understandings of the strengths and needs of the community. For instance, through the Covid-19 pandemic, womens self-help groups (SHGs) have taken on the responsibility to produce masks, run community kitchens, and even provide banking services within the community. Digital technologies can help girls study better and women learn new skills, support micro-entrepreneurs, and connect the nearly seven crore women in SHGs with a wider market for their products and services. Technology has given us an unprecedented and unmissable opportunity to make India and Bharat truly synonymous and synergistic, and thus enrich our greatest asset, unmatched by any other nation in the world: our people. (Sudheendra Kulkarni worked as a close aide to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the PMO. Author of Musing of the Spinning Wheel: Mahatma Gandhis Manifesto for the Internet Age, he is a votary of reorienting the digital revolution for inclusive and sustainable development in India and around the world. He tweets @SudheenKulkarni and welcomes comments at sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal.) The ruling elites in the United States and throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America have abandoned any pretense of stopping the coronavirus pandemic through social distancing and the shutdown of non-essential production. The virus continues, however, to spread rapidly throughout the world. More than 400,000 men, women and children have lost their lives and at least 7.1 million have been infected, many with debilitating effects that may last for years to come. The lives of countless millions more remain in danger as the number of cases continues to grow. The situation in the United States is particularly dire. There are now more than two million cases and 112,000 dead across every state and territory, more than any other country in the world. Tens of thousands are newly infected each day and many hundreds die, though the official figures in the US and other countries vastly understate reality. World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported yesterday that new cases saw their biggest daily increase ever on Sunday. More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal, he said. Such counsel, however, is falling on deaf ears. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo chose yesterday to focus not on the grim reality of New York Citys 205,000 cases and 22,000 deaths, but on the fact that our mojo is back because the citys construction, manufacturing and curbside retail businesses are now reopened. Scant mention was made of the fact that, in New York City alone, a world epicenter of the disease in April, hundreds of transit workers have died. Twenty-two states in the US are seeing an increase in coronavirus cases. The number of new cases in Florida has increased an average of 46 percent over the past week. There are sharp increases in Utah, Arkansas and Arizona. Texas just recorded a record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations. As Texas moves forward with a new phase of Governor Greg Abbotts plan for reopening businesses, the Texas Tribune reported, the daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases is on a steady, upward trend The 14-day trend line shows new infections in Texas have risen about 71 percent in the past two weeks. A de facto policy of herd immunity has been adopted by the Trump administration and Democratic and Republican state governors. If brought to fruition, an estimated 1.6 million people in the country will ultimately die. The policy of the ruling class is: Whatever happens, happens. The deadliness of the pandemic has manifested itself sharply in meatpacking plants across the US. USA Today reported that as a result of Trumps executive order in late April forcing slaughterhouses and processing plants to remain open, the number of coronavirus cases tied to meatpacking plants has more than doubled topping 20,400 infections across 216 plants in 33 states, the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting found. At least 74 people have died. Corporations, assured that they will be protected by the government, are flouting basic health and safety measures. The USA Today article cited the comments of a federal meat inspector, who said that she visited plants where workers were not wearing masks and practiced only limited social distancing. Some, she said, had also recently tested positive for COVID-19. The coronavirus does not respect national boundaries and the global spread will have devastating consequences for every country. Europe has suffered nearly 2.1 million infections and more than 179,000 deaths. While the virus has been somewhat suppressed in early epicenters such as Spain, Italy, Germany and France, infections and fatalities have continued to rise in the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe. Russia now has 476,000 cases and 5,900 known deaths and the country has one of the highest rates of new cases and new deaths in the world. Other epicenters of the pandemic are South Asia and South America. There are now at least 10,000 new cases a day in India and 250 deaths, numbers that are trending upwards. The country has currently recorded 265,000 cases and 7,400 deaths. The situation is worse in Brazil, which has had between 15,000 and 30,000 new cases each day for the past 14 days, along with 500 to almost 1,500 new deaths daily. Its official case count and death toll, figures that fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro has tried to censor, stand at 694,000 and 37,000, respectively. Thousands of autoworkers in Mexicos maquiladora plants have been infected and hundreds have died since the plants were reopened in May. Dozens of transit workers in London have died, even as the United Kingdom was ostensibly locked down to halt the spread of the virus. This grim reality is going to become more apparent as governments continue their homicidal drives to reopen their economies. The policy of the ruling class must be countered through the organized resistance of the working class. In its May 21 statement, the Socialist Equality Party said, If infection, sickness and death are to be prevented, it is necessary to create a new form of workplace organization that oversees and enforces safe working conditions. Therefore, the SEP advises workers to form rank-and-file safety committees in every factory, office and workplace. These committees, democratically controlled by workers themselves, should formulate, implement and oversee measures that are necessary to safeguard the health and lives of workers, their families and the broader community. The development of such organizations, in the US and throughout the world, is an urgent necessity to safeguard workers lives. The expansion of the pandemic takes place as an unprecedented social and economic crisis confronts millions of workers. Despite Trumps claims that the economy is roaring back, tens of millions remain out of work, with no job to return to. The stock market is rocketing back to its pre-pandemic highs due to the trillions of dollars that have been pumped into Wall Street and financial markets, with the support of Democrats and Republicans. The seething social anger over the response of the ruling class to the pandemic is a central factor underlying the eruption of mass protests throughout the world sparked by the police murder of George Floyd. At the same time, the brutal police response and the attempt by the Trump administration to impose a military dictatorship and violently suppress popular opposition are motivated by an understanding within the ruling class that it confronts far greater social convulsions to come. The fight to defend democratic rights and oppose dictatorship must be fused with the struggles of workers against inequality and exploitation. The pandemic has exposed the reality and bankruptcy of capitalism, which is a barrier to human progress and the very survival of the human species. Against the homicidal policy of the capitalist ruling elites, workers must and will insist that workers lives matter. But the fight to defend the lives of workers against the coronavirus pandemic is inseparably linked to a struggle of the entire working class against the ruling class and the capitalist profit system. The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the Canadian economy, but investors are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Provinces across the country are pursuing reopening, but some are moving slower than others. Ontario, Canadas most populous province, has pursued a very cautious approach. Many regions will move into stage two of its reopening later this week, which will include the opening of restaurant patios. COVID-19 pandemic: Can restaurants rebound quickly? Restaurant owners have reason to be optimistic, as provinces pursue reopening, but there are still obstacles on the horizon. Aside from the glacial pace of reopening, restaurant owners will also need to battle consumer concerns. The COVID-19 pandemic has rattled Canadians, and recent surveys show that many may still not be comfortable with going out, even as regulations are loosened. Today, I want to look at two restaurant stocks that are worth watching as we approach the beginning of summer. One booming restaurant stock In late March, Id suggested that investors may want to consider buying low on restaurant stocks. MTY Food Group (TSX:MTY) was one of the stocks Id focused on. The company operates as a franchisor and operates brands like Thai Express, Country Style, Extreme Pita, and many others. Shares of MTY Food Group have climbed 80% month over month as of close on June 8. The company released its first-quarter 2020 results on May 1. EBITDA rose 45% year over year to $41 million, while net income increased 29% to $19 million, or $0.76 per share. Management affirmed that COVID-19 had minimal impact on its Q1 results, but that the company will be negatively impacted in Q2 and Q3. Regardless, this is a promising start to the year. Shares of MTY Food last had a favourable price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 11 and a price-to-book (P/B) value of 1.4. It announced the temporary suspension of its dividend in its Q1 report. Shares have built nice momentum after its Q1 report, but investors should be careful not to burn themselves on this stock. Investors have yet to see how the pandemic will impact MTYs business in Q2 and Q3. Story continues Why fast food is reliable Earlier this spring, Id discussed why fast-food stocks were still a solid bet in this environment. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many restaurants to switch to delivery and curbside pick up, while the transition for fast-food companies is not as challenging. Restaurant Brands International (TSX:QSR)(NYSE:QSR) owns and operates there top fast-food chains; Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Popeyes Louisiana Chicken. Shares of RBI have only dropped 2.7% in 2020 so far. The stock is up 10% over the past month. In its Q1 report, Burger King continued to be a model of consistency. The biggest surprise was Popeyes, which delivered amazing system-wide sales growth of 32%. RBI stock last possessed a high P/E ratio of 25 and a P/B value of 8.1. On the bright side, RBI declared a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share in its Q1 report. This represents a 3.6% yield. The buy-the-dip opportunity in March has passed by investors, but RBI is still a quality stock to own in this sector going forward. The post COVID-19 Investing: Is it Time to Buy Restaurant Stocks as Provinces Reopen? appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada. More reading Fool contributor Ambrose O'Callaghan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends MTY Food Group. The Motley Fool recommends RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. 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 China and Myanmar marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries on June 8. On June 3, ten years ago, as an important achievement of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Myanmar, the construction of the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline project was officially launched. Having overcome many difficulties over the decade, the construction of the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline has become a landmark project of the "Belt and Road" large-scale energy cooperation and a landmark project of the China-Myanmar economic corridor. As of June this year, the construction of the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline has been operating safely and smoothly for over 2,500 days since it was put into operation in 2013. It has delivering 26.558 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China and 4.676 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Myanmar. The construction of the China-Myanmar crude oil pipeline has been in safe and stable operation for more than 1,300 days since it was put into operation in 2017. 123 large oil tankers have been berthed at the Madeleine island Port, unloading a total of 31.362 million tons of crude oil and transporting over 30 million tons to China. Over the past ten years, the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline project has continuously invested in public welfare funds in Myanmar and implemented more than 280 social and economic assistance projects, covering many fields such as medical and health care, education, water and power supply, roads, communications, disaster relief and other fields. Schooling conditions for nearly 20,000 Burmese adolescents have improved, and nearly 1.2 million people have access to more convenient and reliable medical service. Villages along the pipeline have been able to provide 24-hour electricity power and safe and clean drinking water. The transnational energy artery not only enables the Chinese and Myanmar people to benefit from the close economic and trade ties between the two countries, but has also become an excellent example of the Belt and Road initiative in Myanmar, writing a new chapter in the China-Myanmar "Paukphaw" friendship. The Nigerian government has announced plans to resume the evacuation of some Nigerians stranded abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Sani Aliyu, made this known at its daily briefing on Monday. Mr Aliyu said the resumption of the evacuation process will be guided by some policies already put in place. He said with the new protocol, the target is to evacuate a minimum of 1000 Nigerians per week. This, he said is to clear the backlog of over 4,000 stranded Nigerians in the next four weeks. He, however, did not mention the specific date the evacuation will commence. The government had on May 27 announced the temporary suspension of the evacuation process to allow take-off of a new policy, according to the minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama. Before the halt, Nigeria had airlifted hundreds of its citizens from the UK, U.S., Saudi Arabia and others due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused over 400,000 deaths globally. New policy Mr Aliyu said the new policy seeks to make use of the limited resources and ensure that Nigerians are safely returned home. He said evacuees will be required to sign an undertaking promising to abide by the guidelines and safety precautions put in place. READ ALSO: There will be a need for Nigerians coming into the country to undergo PCR tests for COVID-19 before they board. These tests need to be valid for at least 14 days. In other words, if the test is done beyond 14 days, it will not be accepted. Prior to boarding, they will be required to sign an undertaking that they will follow the necessary precautions that will be applied when they come into the country. These will include: The need to make themselves available for repeat PCR tests in the country when they arrived within 72 hours. They will be given an appointment card and an address where they will go and have the tests done. They will also be required to stay in the point of entry which will be Lagos or Abuja for now because these are the two cities where the flights will be coming in and this is the arrangement we have made with the private sector, he said. He noted that evacuees are to make arrangement for their own accommodation in Lagos and Abuja for a period of 14 days. But if they wish, they can stay at home, provided they undergo self-isolation at home, he said. The new protocols were jointly designed by various agencies of government including the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, immigration and security authorities as well as the aviation sector. Just one week after debuting his new short film 3 Brothers, filmmaker Spike Lee discussed it even further in a new interview. Lee, 63, was promoting his new film Da 5 Bloods, which debuts on Netflix June 12, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, when he spoke about 3 Brothers. The short film, which he debuted on the CNN special I Cant Breath: Black Men Living and Dying In America, anchored by Don Lemon last Sunday, links the tragic similarities between his character Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) from his breakthrough film Do The Right Thing, to the deaths of Eric Garner and George Floyd. Short film: Just one week after debuting his new short film 3 Brothers, filmmaker Spike Lee discussed it even further in a new interview Jimmy: Lee, 63, was promoting his new film Da 5 Bloods, which debuts on Netflix June 12, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon , when he spoke about 3 Brothers Connects: The short film, which he debuted on the CNN special I Cant Breath: Black Men Living and Dying In America, anchored by Don Lemon last Sunday, links the tragic similarities between his character Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) from his breakthrough film Do The Right Thing, to the deaths of Eric Garner and George Floyd Before playing the short film, Lee added, 'Radio Raheem is a fictional character from me 1989 film Do The Right Thing,' before adding that his murder in the film is actually based on a real murder as well. 'But his murder is based upon the real-life murder of Michael Stewart, who was a graffiti artist here in New York City in 1983, so that's where I got the idea for the murder of Radio Raheem,' Lee said. Lee added that he was 'outside a subway station,' and New York York City Transit Authority police 'jumped on him, put him in a stranglehold and he died in a coma several days after that.' Fictional: Before playing the short film, Lee added, 'Radio Raheem is a fictional character from me 1989 film Do The Right Thing,' before adding that his murder in the film is actually based on a real murder as well Basis: 'But his murder is based upon the real-life murder of Michael Stewart, who was a graffiti artist here in New York City in 1983, so that's where I got the idea for the murder of Radio Raheem,' Lee said Lee added that Stewart was 'good friends' with prominent artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, adding, 'they were tight.' The filmmaker was asked by Fallon if he thought things wouldn't have changed since then, when Lee revealed his first reaction to the death of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by New York City police in 2014. 'When I saw Eric Garner, I'm like that's Radio Raheem based upon Michael Stewart!' Lee exclaimed. Tight: Lee added that Stewart was 'good friends' with prominent artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, adding, 'they were tight' Garner: The filmmaker was asked by Fallon if he thought things wouldn't have changed since then, when Lee revealed his first reaction to the death of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by New York City police in 2014 He then said that he knew 'King Floyd' saw 'what happened to Eric Garner, so he's seeing that in his mind as his last eight and a half minutes.' Fallon then showed the film, warning fans that, 'it is graphic, but it's real,' adding it's 'violence from police officers.' The film shows the shocking similarities between the deaths of the fictional Radio Raheem in Lee's 1989 film, to the 2014 death of Eric Garner in New York City and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis two weeks ago. Garner: He then said that he knew 'King Floyd' saw 'what happened to Eric Garner, so he's seeing that in his mind as his last eight and a half minutes' Fallon described the film as 'jarring' and he hopes this leads to change, with Lee adding, 'People are there.' 'I was on my bike yesterday in Brooklyn and we're still in quarantine, but I said I've gotta be in it,' he added, saying he saw everyone 'out there,' and he wasn't just 'black and brown people.' 'I'm very, very enthusiastic that people around the world were galvanized by the horrific murder of George Floyd and say "No, no, no."' He also hoped and prayed that this will cause people to get out and vote and get rid of President Trump, who he called, 'Agent Orange.' Agent Orange: He also hoped and prayed that this will cause people to get out and vote and get rid of President Trump, who he called, 'Agent Orange' RWENZORI A new project to restore the environmentally threatened Rwenzori Mountain National Park will soon start, this website understands. The park which covers the districts of Kasese, Kabarole, Bunyangabu, Bundibugyo and Ntoroko has received undisclosed amount of funds from Hempel Foundation, a Danish agency to restore the park that spans the breath of the populacefrom the highest levels of government to local communities. The Wild Wide Fund for nature (WWF) who will implement the project to restore degraded landscapes and bring back life-giving ecosystem services and biodiversity. Mr. Daniel Ndizihiwe, the Project Manager says the parks biodiversity is under threat citing massive poaching, climate change, and degradation of natural resources in buffer zone leading to increased pressure on its landscape. Agricultural expansion continues to be the main driver of deforestation and forest degradation and the associated loss of forest biodiversity at park. A 2015 research conducted by WWF which shows that in Kasese district alone, forested area declined from 108,758.12 hectares in 1990 to 77,214.58 hectares in 2005, and the decline is projected to have escalated in the last 15 years. Subsistence agriculture with limited use of modern technologies is the main household activity for the rural populations. Increasing population pressure combined with poor yields has meant that in many areas agricultural land has expanded up to the parks boundary and has extended to the use of slopes that are prone to erosion, he said. He says insufficient funds to halt such illegal activities has for long seen them unable to effectively manage the park due to limited staff levels among other challenges. Limited funding has meant that over the past decade the park has not been able to invest sufficiently in ecological monitoring, he said adding: this means that there is little data available on the status of the its flora and fauna. Rwenzori National Park Area is known for a unique refuge for a number of species that are endemic to mountain regions including 26 animals and 6 plants but most of these are on national red list of threatened species over harsh climatic conditions. Great potential Once efforts start to rehabilitate landscapes and restore tree diversity, Mr. Ndizihiwe says, the management of the part will put an end to challenges such as charcoal burning, park encroachment and poaching. He asked communities to interest themselves in joining the project that seeks to restore and sustain diversity, connected habitats among others. Government though Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) gives back 20% of its annual park gate collections to the communities neighboring the national parks under the revenue sharing scheme. Tourism revenue is playing a critical role in improving the livelihoods and development of communities around the national parks including Rwenzori. The revenue sharing scheme is meant to strengthen partnerships between local communities, local governments, and management of wildlife areas leading to sustainable management of wildlife resources in protected areas. Funds given to districts under the revenue sharing scheme go to community income-generating projects identified by communities and social service infrastructure such as schools and health facilities. Rwenzori Mountain National Park lies at the heart of the Greater Virunga Landscape (GVL), which spans the borders of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda. It was created in 1991 and extends over approximately 995km2 along the border between Uganda and DRC. The GVL itself is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. It is an interconnected set of protected areas that contains more terrestrial vertebrate species and more endemic and threatened vertebrate species than any other site in Africa. The landscapes diverse mosaic of ancient tropical forests, ice-capped mountains, active volcanoes, savannah, swamps and wetlands provide habitats for important populations of African elephant, buffalo, okapi and the largest concentration of hippos globally. Related The Effutu Municipality has recorded 19 positive cases of the Coronavirus with one death. The deceased is a young man aged between 20 to 26 years. Mr. Emmanuel Edum-Fortwe, Effutu Municipal Health Director, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the first COVID-19 positive case recorded in the Municipality was imported from Tema. The second was as a pregnant woman who also travelled from Accra to her mother-in-law to deliver, while the rest live and work in the Winneba. He said 14 people have tested positive and have been isolated after the 250 contacts were traced, quarantined and their samples forwarded for testing. We are vigorously intensifying our contact tracing and sensitization programmes to help stop the spreading of the Coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Edum-Fortwe who is also the COVID-19 logistics and respond team secretary, stated that when the results came out, 14 people tested positive to increase the cases in the Municipality to 19 with one death. He expressed the need for people to strictly respect all the COVID-19 protocols, especially the three key dramatic ones: constant wearing of nose masks, social distancing, washing hands frequently with soap under running water and the usage of sanitizers. He encouraged people in the Municipality to eat nutritious food, fruits and also constantly exercise to help boost their immune systems in order to fight the disease. Mr. John B. Ninson, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Effutu, said everyone was a potential victim of the COVID-19 and failure to adhere to protocols in place could escalate the infection rate. Let us as people remember that the coronavirus is no respecter of any one and in this regard cautioned all in the Municipality to change their lifestyle and protect ourselves by observing the protocols, he added. ---GNA by Ruowan Cheng Since 2016 the bishop has been recognized by the Holy See, but not by the government. In the past there have been strong divisions in the diocese. There is a risk of a new stronger rift. The bishop allegedly "betrayed" the priests of the unofficial community. An even greater division. Fuzhou (AsiaNews) - Msgr. Peter Lin Jiashan, 86, was installed this morning as Archbishop of Fuzhou, recognized by the government. Msgr Lin has been recognized by the Holy See as bishop of Fuzhou since 2016, after a conflictual division of the diocese. Today's ceremony was presided over by the bishop of Xiamen, Msgr. Giuseppe Cai Bingrui, head of the provincial patriotic association. In the large church of Fanchuanpu, dedicated to the Holy Rosary in Fuzhou, there were a total of 80 people and 50 priests participated. Officially, the reason is that due to the pandemic, it was not possible to accommodate many guests, to avoid gatherings. But some faithful and priests suggest that this happened to avoid conflicts and tensions. At least 50 priests preferred not to participate in the rite. Msgr Lin had always been part of the unofficial Church, and in the 1980s he had also been sentenced to 10 years of forced labor. For several years - according to some faithful since the early 2000s - he had wanted to formalize his situation with the government, but was held back by the majority of his priests. The archdiocese, perhaps the richest and most numerous in China, has about 300 thousand faithful, 120 priests, over 500 nuns. The governmental recognition of Msgr. Lin Jiashan will be able to facilitate relations between the Church and the state, but risks deepening the wound between official and underground communities. In the recent past, the community of priests was divided into two groups, one with about 20 priests, who supported Msgr Lin Jiashan; another with about 60 priests, who wanted Fr. Lin Yuntuan. To try to save the unity of the diocese, in 2007 the Vatican dismissed Msgr. Lin and entrusted the care to an apostolic administrator, Fr. Vincenzo Huang of Mindong, who died in 2016. In that year, putting strong pressure on the Holy See, Bishop Lin tried to make himself recognized by the Pope as an ordinary Archbishop of Fuzhou, even if in 2013 the Holy See wanted to appoint Fr. Lin Yuntuan apostolic administrator. Fr Lin joined in the celebration this morning. According to some observers, the Holy See, in the desire to smooth relations with China, after the Sino-Vatican Agreement, has now accepted that Msgr. Lin Jiashan is the official Archbishop of Fuzhou. Some of the bishop's current collaborators are happy with this step because they hope to advance their careers. But all of this is creating even greater division. Last June, Msgr. Lin Jiashan issued a letter to the faithful urging priests and faithful "to be united in spirit on the path of reconciliation, tolerance and mutual acceptance and unity in Christ, avoiding suspicions, attacks and divisions". In the letter, the archbishop states that "a small number of priests who have not signed the government registration, are also [considered] priests of this diocese". Since the launch of the new regulations on religious activities, the government demands that every priest join the "independent Church", love the country, submit to the politics of the Communist Party. After the signing of the Sino-Vatican Agreement, the pressure on priests has grown even greater. Several priests who did not want to sign membership in the independent Church accuse the bishop of having "betrayed" them: first of all because the priests who have not signed are not "a small number"; secondly, the government is chasing these priests and not allowing them to perform any function. A Chinese priest from a nearby diocese commented: Perhaps division is returning to the diocese, as it was years ago. And all because of power." Warren County Court judge candidate Rob Smith has picked up the endorsement of retired state Supreme Court Justice and former Warren County Court Judge G. Thomas Moynihan. Smith is currently the chief staff attorney for the retiring Warren County Court Judge John Hall. Moynihan served as Warren County Court judge from 1980 until 1998, when he was appointed a Supreme Court justice. He served until his retirement in 2003. During his time in Warren County, he presided over thousands of felony cases and 21 murder trials. I believe I know well what attributes, in terms of knowledge and experience, a person must possess to effectively serve in that position. The vast experience Rob gained as confidential law clerk to two Warren County judges, Judge John Austin and Judge John Hall, suits Rob to serve as their successor. Having known Rob many years, I have had the opportunity to observe him in the position and in my opinion, he is highly qualified to serve as the next Warren County judge and surrogate, Moynihan said in a news release. Smith, who has the Republican nomination, said he was humbled and honored to receive Moynihans endorsement. As a practicing attorney, I appeared before Justice Moynihan on many occasions and had such great respect and admiration for the way he handled himself on the bench, Smith said in a news release. I will work to follow that strong legacy as our next county court judge and surrogate. Also seeking the Warren County Court judge position is Glens Falls City Court Judge Nikki Moreschi and Queensbury lawyer Greg Canale. A primary will be held on June 23 to decide various ballot lines. Moreschi and Canale are vying for the Democratic nomination. Canale and Smith are seeking the Conservative Party nomination. Moreschi and Smith are competing for the Independence Party line. Davis gains endorsements Kimberly Davis, who is running for the 45th Senate District seat, has picked up endorsements from the New York State Young Democrats and the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee. Paolo Cremidis, rural caucus chairman for the NYS Young Democrats, said Davis would make an excellent senator. Kimberly Davis will fight to make sure young people can stay in the North Country and ensure that we can build a new economy for upstate New York, Cremidis said in a news release. The Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee is dedicated to recruiting, training and funding Democratic pro-choice women for local and state offices in New York. Brette McSweeney, president of Eleanors Legacy, also praised Davis record as Clinton County treasurer, in which she refinanced bonds to save the county $2 million, capped foreclosure penalties on homeowners and introduced ethics reforms for elected officials, according to a news release. We need women with Kimberlys unique record of finance, management, and public service in Albany to fight for families and business owners who every day are making real and hard choices, she said in a news release. Davis said she was pleased to have the support of the Young Democrats and she has been encouraging young people to develop leadership skills through community service, politics and government. She also said she appreciates the advocacy of Eleanors Legacy in seeking more equal representation of women in government. Davis is seeking the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Betty Little. Assemblyman Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, is also running for the position. Stec seeks flexibility Assemblyman Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo made the correct decision to allow outdoor high school graduations, but Stec would like to see the cap of 150 guests lifted. Stec had called for more guidance from the governor, after Cuomo initially had allowed for drive-through graduation ceremonies. Cuomo on Sunday said he would allow outdoor graduation ceremonies as long as the participants adhere to the 150-person cap and practice social distancing. This is a big win for our communities, parents and students, and Im so glad they get to have the graduation they deserve, Stec said in a news release. But there is still more work to do. I will keep pushing to include any graduation ceremony size that can accommodate social distancing, so all our high school seniors can receive a proper celebration of their achievements. Reach Michael Goot at 518-742-3320 or mgoot@poststar.com and follow his blog poststar.com/blogs/michael_goot/. Love 2 Funny 2 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. Atlanta, G.A., June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UNCF (United Negro College Fund) is partnering with The Georgia NAACP, The Center for Popular Democracy and The SNCC Legacy Project to hold a virtual town hall to discuss the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) recent COVID-19 Antibody Testing Survey and other public health issues affecting Black communities in the Atlanta area. Public health and social justice thought leaders will share information and insight during the panel discussion. Moderated by Nse Ufot, CEO of The New Georgia Project, the town hall will feature Dr. Lynn Paxton, health director, Fulton County Department of Health; Dr. David Satcher, former attorney general, founding director and senior advisor at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine; Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, former public health professor, Columbia University Epidemiology Department, Dr. Joseph Bresee, associate director of Global Health Affairs in the CDC Influenza Division and Martin Luther King, III, community and civil rights advocate. In April, the CDC deployed staffers to predominantly Black communities in Dekalb and Fulton counties to collect blood samples. Without providing prior information, knowledge, or explanation about the survey, residents were concerned considering the legacies of the U.S. health care systems harm and mistrust that put Black citizens in danger. Even now, Black communities are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Black Georgians make up 83 percent of the states COVID-19 hospitalizations and more than 50 percent of the states COVID-19 related deaths but comprise only 30 percent of the states population. The town hall will provide accurate, actionable information from trusted community and health leaders to Georgians most at risk of COVID-19. The town hall will address: CDC surveys and community outreach Community reaction and concerns regarding health surveys Steps to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic Opportunities to improve community relations with the medical community WHO: The New Georgia Project in partnership with the UNCF, Georgia NAACP, The Center for Popular Democracy, SNCC Legacy Project Nse Ufot, CEO of The New Georgia Project Dr. Lynn Paxton, health director, Fulton County Department of Health Dr. David Satcher, former attorney general, founding director and senior advisor at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, former public health professor, Columbia University Epidemiology Department Dr. Joseph Bresee, associate director of Global Health Affairs, CDC Influenza Division Mr. Martin Luther King, III, community and civil rights advocate WHAT: Virtual town hall to hear from top public health experts and community leaders on the CDCs recent antibody testing, health issues impacting Black communities WHEN: Thursday, June 11, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET WHERE: Virtual via Zoom. RSVP at tinyurl.com/fillingthegap2020 To learn more about the town hall or if you have any questions, please contact Bentley Hudgins at bentley@newgeorgiaproject.org. ### About UNCF UNCF (the United Negro College Fund) is the nations largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students education and development through scholarships and other programs, supports and strengthens its 37 member colleges and universities and advocates for the importance of minority education and college readiness. UNCF institutions and other historically black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding 17 percent of African American baccalaureate degrees. UNCF administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment and curriculum and faculty development programs. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at over 1,100 colleges and universities across the country. Its logo features the UNCF torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized motto, A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Learn more at UNCF.org or for continuous updates and news, follow UNCF on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNCF. Jazzlyn Robinson was shot in the head shortly before 9 p.m. June 4 at her home in the 2000 block of 218th Street and died Friday afternoon at Comer Childrens Hospital in Chicago, according to the Cook County medical examiners office. Hundreds of people signed an online petition on Monday demanding the removal of a statue of Robert Clive, who played a key role in establishing Britain's colonial domination over India, in Shrewsbury, western England. The petition on Change.Org is addressed to the local Shropshire County Council and came within hours of dramatic scenes of a former slave trader Edward Colston's sculpture being pulled down and dragged into a river in Bristol on Sunday, during a weekend of fiery "Black Lives Matter" anti-racism protests. "Robert Clive was one of the early figures of the British imperial domination of India, Bengal and much of South-East Asia," reads the petition, which has already attracted over 1,700 people of its 2,500 target within hours. "Clive as a symbol of British colonialism is significantly offensive to Indian, Bengali and south-east Asian descent and to attempt to justify it as a celebration of British pride and nationalism is only justifiable if one revels in the persecution and murder of millions of innocent people," it reads. Clive served as the first Governor of Bengal Presidency under the East India Company in the 18th century, earning the title 'Clive of India'. Read More: What Was 'Racist' Winston Churchill's Role in 1943 Bengal Famine Which Killed Millions? The petition highlights his role in the "looting" of Bengal in the early years of the British Empire, with many of the region's riches finding their way back with him to Britain. "To have a statue commemorating the man that ruined a nation and held innocent people to his barbaric orders is both offensive and embarrassing. Just because a figure is historical, that doesn't make him good. He is nothing more than a figure of oppression and white supremacy that has, whether consciously or not, been celebrated and commemorated in Shrewsbury town centre for hundreds of years," it notes. Local Shrewsbury MP, Conservative Party's Daniel Kawczynski, called for a peaceful discussion on the statue and pledged to conduct a "blow by blow" research on the life of locally-born Clive. "We are doing a research paper and while I won't comment on his life until after it's written, the British Empire was a tremendous source for good during its time," said Kawczynski, who said he would be using the House of Commons library for the research. "We honour and celebrate those who helped establish this empire. They are part of our history and should be treated with respect and dignity. I know some people will want to eradicate all traces of the British Empire, but I've seen huge pluses of things it did around the world," he said. The MP also paid tribute to Britain's war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whose statue on Parliament Square in London was among those targeted by protesters over the weekend with graffiti reading "was a racist". The steps below Mahatma Gandhi's statue nearby were also left marked with the word "racist". Peter Nutting, the leader of Shropshire Council, said that in line with the council's constitution, all petitions that gain 1,000 signatures are debated to determine any action required. "In the meantime, while we recognise the strength of feeling around the Black Lives Matter campaign, and acknowledge people's right to protest, we ask them to do so peacefully and safely, abiding by the social distancing guidelines," he said. There is a similar life-size statue of Clive near the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) building on King Charles Street, Whitehall, in central London. The plinth records his two major career spurts in India, including the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765. Clive, born in Market Drayton in Shropshire before his schooling in London, travelled to India for the East India Company in 1743 before returning to his London home later in life where he died in 1774 -- believed to have committed suicide. The Black Lives Matter protests over the weekend took place across different parts of the UK in solidarity with similar protests in the US and around the world against the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man who was a victim of police brutality. The Abbotsford Convent, Australia's largest multi-arts space, has been in a series of crisis talks after some tenants' incomes all but collapsed amid the coronavirus lockdown. Dozens of tenants have joined forces to beg the convent's foundation for greater rent relief, saying they fear a "disastrous erosion" of the convent community without more financial support. Eureka O'Hanlon, Delphine Laboureau-Ormancey and Anahata Giri at the Abbotsford Convent. Credit:Luis Ascui But the convent's chief executive says the organisation has been working tirelessly with tenants to offer rent reductions, and it has also taken a financial hit from the lockdown. The convent, sprawling over more than six hectares, is home to 121 tenants; an eclectic mix of creatives, non-profits and small businesses. David Geary is a Curators Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri. Credit: University of Missouri Researchers at the University of Missouri and the University of Essex in the United Kingdom found boys' poor reading skills in adolescence, combined with the social attitudes about women attending college, can help explain why fewer men than women enroll in higher education or other types of post-high school education. Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Reading scores are important for both boys and girls, and we know that girls, on average, score better on reading tests," said co-author David Geary, a Curators Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science. Geary said adolescent reading scores and social attitudes toward women attending college can predict the ratio of men and women attending college or other post-secondary education. "Here, we studied a snapshot of reading achievements for boys and girls when they were 15 years old," he said. "And with an understanding of how social attitudes are in various countries about girls going to college, we can predict the ratio of men and women attending college five years later." Geary and his co-author Gijsbert Stoet, a professor of psychology at University of Essex, analyzed three international databases: post-secondary education enrollment data between 2011-2017 from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development; national reading scores for 15- and 16-year-olds from the Program for International Student Assessment; and social attitudes toward women pursuing university education from the World Values Survey. Specifically, the researchers looked at one question in the World Values Survey that read, "A university education is more important for a boy than for a girl." In total, the data represents over 400,000 boys and girls in 18 countries. Stoet explains why social attitudes should be considered along with reading scores. "An important factor to consider is the degree to which people across the world believe that a college education is equally important for girls as it is for boys," Stoet said. "Although more and more girls have been going to college, girls are still more likely than boys to be at a disadvantage in terms of social attitudes; this is a bigger problem in some countries than in others." Geary said the study paints a bleak picture for reducing this gender gapunless reading skills are improved. "The practical implication is that equity in college enrollment is well out of reach at this time," Geary said. "There is no good reason to expect that national reading levels for either gender will be sufficiently raised in the coming decade to change enrollment patterns. The way to counter that is to improve reading skills, but that improvement will have to start early in life. The reading gap between boys and girls is there from the very beginning of schooling, even in preschool." The study, "Gender differences in the pathways to higher education," was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Explore further Girls lead boys in academic achievement globally More information: Gijsbert Stoet et al, Gender differences in the pathways to higher education, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Gijsbert Stoet et al, Gender differences in the pathways to higher education,(2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2002861117 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 17:48:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close VIENNA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) daily basket price increased to 38.89 U.S. dollars a barrel on Monday, compared with 36.83 dollars last Friday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations released on Tuesday. Also known as the OPEC reference basket of crude oil, the OPEC basket, a weighted average of oil prices from different OPEC members around the world, is used as an important benchmark for crude oil prices. Enditem New Delhi, June 9 : The Railway Land Development Authority (RLDA), which carried out the pre-bidding meeting for the New Delhi, Puducherry and Tirupati railway stations during the nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of novel coronavirus (Covid-19), is once again all set to conduct the pre-feasibility study on the development and monetization of a mass transit system between Uttar Pradesh's Mathura and Vrindavan. Situated about 11 km from Mathura, Vrindavan is revered by Hindus as it is believed to be the birthplace of Lord Krishna. The city is home to numerous temples dedicated to the worship of Radha and Krishna. Ved Parkash Dudeja, Vice Chairman, Railway Land Development Authority, said that Vrindavan is a well-known religious destination and witnesses a high influx of pilgrims every year. "The proposed transport solution will be instrumental in ushering in commercial development, generation of employment opportunities and boosting the tourism potential of the region. The strategic location along with good connectivity will offer a good return on investment to commercial players," Dudeja said. A senior RLDA official told IANS, "RLDA will conduct pre-feasibility study on development and monetization of mass transit system between Mathura and Vrindavan which is 12 km long." The RLDA was recently awarded the contract for conducting the pre-feasibility study of the project. The study aligns with the vision of the central government to develop and monetize a mass transit system in meter gauge track between Mathura and Vrindavan. The official said that the track is not widely used and has a right of way of 20-22 meters. "The objective of the pre-feasibility study is to assess the development and monetization of a Mass Transit System between Mathura and Vrindavan track, this will include but is not limited to identification of land banks available between Mathura and Vrindavan track and monetization potential of operational assets threat," the official added. He said that the selected consultant, Feedback Infra Pvt Ltd, will be required to conduct a detailed study on traffic analysis, the recommendation of transport solution, monetization of project potential and estimation of the project's financial and economic returns. "The duration of the completion of the pre-feasibility is 40 days. The proposed mass transit solution will comprise a 2/3 lane road along with a bridged metro or light rail or bus transit system that can withstand a high footfall of passengers," the official said, adding that the development would be coupled with appropriate parking zones and commercial establishments like hotels, flea markets and eateries in the region. During the nationwide lockdown, the RLDA embraced a digital model to ensure seamless operations and said that it was holding pre-bid meetings for leasing various land parcels across the country. The RLDA, which is a statutory body under the Railway Ministry, looks after the development of vacant railway land for commercial use in line with the objective to generate revenue by non-tariff measures. In the last two months it has invited bids for leasing various land parcels and is conducting pre-bid meetings via video conferencing to sustain the momentum. On April 21, it held pre-bid meetings for railway stations at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, and Dehradun in Uttarakhand. It also held pre-bid meeting for the redevelopment of the New Delhi railway station in the month of May in which 30 companies, including foreign and domestic firms participated. Recently it has also held a pre-bid meeting for the re-development of the Puducherry railway station. The Indian Railways has approximately 43,000 hectares of vacant land across India. (Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in) The natural gas industry is rapidly losing ground in the U.S. Northeast, beaten back by renewable energy, environmentalists, and stricter climate policy. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, signed an executive order at the start of 2020 that aimed for net zero emissions by 2050. The net zero by 2050 goal, although often non-binding, has quickly become a baseline platform for climate-inclined politicians. But Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (D) recently called on the states Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to begin an investigation into a phase out of natural gas. In order to achieve net zero emissions, natural gas demand will likely need to be zeroed out by mid-century. In order to do that, not only will electric power generation need to switchover to renewable energy, but gas-based residential and commercial cooking and heating will need to switch to electric. This leads to huge questions about the business model of regulated gas distribution companies, and about how to avoid the burden landing on low-income ratepayers. Low-income households will need support in transitioning their homes to clean energy. The attorney general recommended a two-phased investigation. The first phase would require gas companies to submit detailed economic analyses and business plans that forecast future gas demand in a carbon-constrained economy. The second phase would focus on how to transition and phase out gas while protecting ratepayers. The investigation is a sign that political winds continue to move against natural gas. The Attorney General has called the question on which the future of New Englands economy, our global climate, and the rule of law in the Commonwealth will turn: when and how are we going to wean our energy system off of fracked gas and other dirty fossil fuels as mandated by current law? Brad Campbell, President of the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), said in a statement. Related: Why Big Oil Is Investing In India National Grid, a major utility in Massachusetts, supports CO2 reduction goals and said we've done extensive work on gas supply and demand forecasting, and we'll leverage these learnings in the Commonwealth, according to Utility Dive. Massachusetts joins California and New York as the third state to begin the process of phasing out natural gas. In fact, in California, some 30 cities have already banned natural gas in new buildings. The gas industry is on the defensive on other fronts as well. AG Healey also recently filed an amendment complaint in a Suffolk Superior Court case against ExxonMobil, for the companys deception on climate change and the companys climate-related financial risks to investors. While the outcomes of the Attorney Generals efforts are unclear, the gas industry suffered a more tangible blow in early June when a U.S. federal appeals court vacated an air permit for Enbridges controversial gas compressor station in Weymouth, Massachusetts. The compressor station is under construction, but has been the target of a withering campaign by local community and environmental groups. The compressor station is not just a local matter. It would expand capacity on the Algonquin Gas Transmission system, adding more throughput for the entire northeast, essentially increasing the volume of Marcellus shale gas that can move into New England and even to eastern Canada. Against that backdrop, the compressor station is a proxy battle over the future of natural gas in the Northeast. We remain committed to placing the Weymouth Compressor Station in service as soon as possible, in compliance with applicable regulations, to deliver much-needed natural gas to project customers, including local gas utilities in Maine and Atlantic Canada, Enbridge said in a statement. Meanwhile, in May, New York rejected the Williams Pipeline that would have carried Marcellus shale gas through New Jersey and across the Atlantic Ocean to Long Island. Related: Why Saudi Arabia Will Lose The Next Oil Price War Marcellus gas production has been declining since late last year, weighed down by too much production, falling prices, and deteriorating economics. The upstream problems are compounded by the series of defeats the industry has faced downstream in the northeast. The political winds are beginning to turn against gas. For years, the industry has sold gas as a boon for climate change, able to slash emissions by replacing coal. But more recent research has questioned that premise. Releases of methane at the well head, as well as when gas is moved through pipelines and distribution networks negate much of the climate benefit. There is a heated debate about the precise volumes of methane that are emitted, but at the end of the day, the emissions are still significant. Meanwhile, solar and wind are often cheaper than new natural gas, and renewables backed up by battery storage will be cheaper than gas in the next few years. With renewables now readily accessible and cost-effective, the political power of gas as a bridge fuel has evaporated and the industry finds itself on the defensive. By Nick Cunningham for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates As tensions remain high between Iran and the U.S., the Islamic Republic appears to have constructed a new mock-up of an aircraft carrier off its southern coast for potential live-fire drills. The faux foe, seen in satellite photographs obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the U.S. Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, its narrow mouth where 20% of all the worlds oil passes through. While not yet acknowledged by Iranian officials, the replicas appearance in the port city of Bandar Abbas suggests Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is preparing an encore of a similar mock-sinking it conducted in 2015. It also comes as Iran announced Tuesday it will execute a man it accused of sharing details on the movements of the Guards Gen. Qassem Soleimani, whom the U.S. killed in a January drone strike in Baghdad. The replica carries 16 mock-ups of fighter jets on its deck, according to satellite photos taken by Maxar Technologies. The vessel appears to be some 200 meters (650 feet) long and 50 meters (160 feet) wide. A real Nimitz is over 300 meters (980 feet) long and 75 meters (245 feet) wide. The fake carrier sits just a short distance away from the parking lot in which the Guard unveiled over 100 new speedboats in May, the kind it routinely employs in tense encounters between Iranian sailors and the U.S. Navy. Those boats carry both mounted machine guns and missiles. The mock-up, which first began to be noticed among defense and intelligence analysts in January, strongly resembles a similar one used in February 2015 during a military exercise called Great Prophet 9. During that drill, Iran swarmed the fake aircraft carrier with speedboats firing machine guns and rockets. Surface-to-sea missiles later targeted and destroyed the fake carrier. American aircraft carriers are very big ammunition depots housing a lot of missiles, rockets, torpedoes and everything else, the Guards then-navy chief, Adm. Ali Fadavi, said on state television at the time. That drill, however, came as Iran and world powers remained locked in negotiations over Tehrans nuclear program. Today, the deal born of those negotiations is in tatters. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord in May 2018. Iran later responded by slowly abandoning nearly every tenant of the agreement, though it still allows U.N. inspectors access to its nuclear sites. Last summer saw a series of attacks and incidents further ramp up tensions between Iran and the U.S. They reached a crescendo with the Jan. 3 strike near Baghdad International Airport that killed Soleimani, head of the Guards expeditionary Quds, or Jerusalem, Force. Also on Tuesday, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said Iranian citizen Mahmoud Mousavi Majd had been convicted in a Revolutionary Court, which handles security cases behind closed doors. Esmaili accused Majd of receiving money for allegedly sharing security information on the Guard and the Quds Force, as well as the positions and movement routes of Soleimani. Majd was linked to the CIA and the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, Esmaili alleged, without providing evidence. Both the CIA and the Israeli prime ministers office, which oversees the Mossad, declined to comment. It wasnt immediately clear if Majd had an attorney. Esmaili did not say when Majd would be executed, other than that it would be soon. He also stopped short of directly linking the information allegedly offered by Majd to Soleimanis death. Later Tuesday, the judiciary said Majd was detained in October 2018 and sentenced to death in September 2019, before Soleimanis killing. Esmailis description also suggested Majd could be a member of Irans military, paramilitary or intelligence apparatus, given his ability to access what would be the establishments innermost secrets. It recalled the 1984 execution of Iranian navy chief Adm. Bahram Afzali, whom Iran killed along with nine others in the military over allegations they passed classified material onto the Communist Tudeh party, which then gave the material to the Soviet Union. Iran retaliated for Soleimanis killing with a ballistic missile strike Jan. 8 targeting U.S. forces in Iraq, an assault that left over 100 American troops with serious brain injuries. That same day, the Guard accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jetliner in Tehran, killing 176 people. Irans announcement of the looming execution shows how seriously they still take Soleimanis assassination. An exercise targeting a mock U.S. aircraft carrier could send that message as well, particularly if it involves a swarm attack of smaller vessels, which analysts believe Iran would employ if it did get into a shooting war with the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navys Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, which patrols Mideast waters, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ___ Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. ___ Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Truston Yu (The Jakarta Post) Hong Kong Tue, June 9, 2020 09:19 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd2b488 3 Opinion Hong-Kong,China,ASEAN,Southeast-Asia Free Exactly a year ago on June 9, 2019, over a million people in Hong Kong took to the streets and kick-started the anti-extradition bill movement, which morphed into a year-long struggle. Southeast Asias silence on this issue reminds us of the lack of democracy in our own region. This article seeks not to comment on the actions by the Chinese or Hong Kong governments; instead it focuses on the inadequacies within Southeast Asia. The extradition bill saga dates back to March 2019, and two subsequent marches in June marked its eruption into a large-scale conflict. Even though the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government withdrew the bill, police brutality has been a major issue that continues to be a focus of the movement. An Indonesian journalist, Veby Mega Indah, was blinded by a rubber bullet while reporting the protests. The series of protests cooled down for a brief period due to the pandemic, only to be rekindled as the summer approaches. Most recently on May 28, Chinas National People's Congress (NPC) approved a proposal to impose a national security law on Hong Kong. Hong Kongs last British governor Chris Patten claimed that, The world simply cannot trust this Chinese regime, calling for the international community to stand up for the city. This was responded to by Law Kin-wai, director general of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Jakarta, a unit under the Hong Kong SAR government. In a letter to the editor of The Jakarta Post, Law defended the rights of the Chinese central authorities to introduce law at the national level to establish and improve the legal framework and enforcement mechanisms for HKSAR to safeguard national security. It is expected that there will be no concrete actions from ASEAN as a bloc in this regard ASEAN neutrality is a defining feature of the regional organizations foreign policy to begin with. In terms of decision-making, the unanimity rule is central to the ASEAN Way. Cambodia and Laos have been known for their close ties with and dependence on China. This means that it is unlikely for any declaration unfavorable to China to pass. However, a major conflict ongoing on Southeast Asias doorsteps surely would have prompted a response from some of the Southeast Asian countries, right? After all, then-Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad lashed out at Myanmar in New York, accusing them of genocide and institutionalized terrorism against the Rohingya. Even President Joko Jokowi Widodo, normally known for his lack of interest in foreign affairs, suggested South Korean president Moon Jae-in to invite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the next commemorative ASEAN-South Korea summit, reflecting the position of ASEAN as a platform for wider regional issues. There are a multitude of answers to the silence of ASEAN regarding Hong Kong, the most obvious one being Southeast Asias dependence on China. China is ASEANs largest trade partner, only behind intra-ASEAN trade. From Malaysias East Coast Rail Link to the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, China has heavily invested in this region under its Belt and Road agenda. Perhaps even more importantly, the sad truth is that Southeast Asia is not much better, if at all, regarding the degree of democracy in the region. While some Hong Kongers empathized with the protests in Indonesia last year, Southeast Asias track record in democracy is poor and declining. Singapore, for one, has no place to comment on Hong Kongs protests when young climate activists protesting solo can be arrested for allegedly taking part in a public assembly without a permit. Unsurprisingly, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loongs wife Ho Ching has expressed her support of the Hong Kong Police Force through her Facebook page. This year alone, we have seen the dissolution of the opposition Future Forward Party in Thailand, collapse of the Pakatan Harapan coalition in Malaysia and alarming threats made by Philippine President Rodrigue Duterte against, for instance, the press and any suspected violators of restrictions during the pandemic. Democracy is especially vulnerable in times like this, wherein governments justified access to unchecked powers; putting in place regulations that may continue to encroach on citizens liberty long after the pandemic passes. *** Research assistant at the University of Hong Kong Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Things have been happening increasingly fast in the oil industry, especially with prices. With so much volatility around, price movements are quick and often surprising. Right now, the general optimism on oil markets is in decline, because of the latest price rally. It may sound counterintuitive, but it is, in fact, easy to explain. The prices of Brent and West Texas Intermediate have doubled since April. In the case of WTI, the rally was a lot higher than a doubling, too, if we take into account the swing below zero. As a result of this rally, there are already reports that U.S. shale oil producers are restarting shut-in production, and there are opinions from senior energy officials from OPEC+ members that the market is due for a deficit before the end of this year. Such opinions should have been bullish for oil, pushing prices even higher. Yet this hasnt been the case. In fact, according to Reuters John Kemp, hedge funds have sharply reduced their oil contract buying. In his latest column on the topic, Kemp noted that funds had only bought 6 million barrels in the week to June 2. This was the lowest level of buying for the last nine weeks, Kemp noted. The expectation that U.S. shale drillers need just a little bit of push to start pumping more again must have been part of the changing sentiment. Another part was probably the disappointment that OPEC+ did not extend its deep production cuts for more than a month. OPEC may have discussed the option of a longer extension, but public reports did not mention it. Yet traders apparently expected a longer extension and remained unmoved by the actual extension, their sentiment reflecting on prices and barely moving them up. Whats more, there may be more bad news on the horizon. In a note earlier this week, Morgan Stanley said that the current oil price rally wouldnt be a lasting one. The bank said this rally appears mostly supply- rather than demand-driven, and it is questionable how strong refinery runs can increase against this backdrop. Related: Is Shells Dividend Cut Permanent? Indeed, we have yet to see how demand improves across the world, although the latest oil import and refinery run data from China is certainly encouraging. Oil shipments into the worlds largest importer hit an all-time high last month, at 11.34 million bpd, according to official customs data. Traffic figures from TomTom supported the impression of a strong recovery, suggesting that fuel demand was also on the rise. The question remains, however, how long will it take for this demand improvement to spread and will it be sustainable. Another question that is important in this context is when China will stop buying record amounts of crude. After all, refiners and traders spent the lockdown months stocking up on cheapa lot cheaper than it is nowoil. The state also filled its oil reserves. In other words, China may have insulated itself from sharp oil price jumps for a while, at least. If prices rise too high, it will reduce buying, and this will pressure prices. But there is another perspective, too. A drilling industry executive told media last week that WTI could jump to as much as $70 in a few months because U.S. producers cut output too much too fast, which will cause a mini-supply shock on the local market. WTI has not traded at $70 or above since 2018. There are a lot of scenarios for oil, and when there are a lot of scenarios, traders get jumpier than usual, especially when every scenario has a relatively equal chance of playing out. With so many uncertainties still surrounding the coronavirus that prompted the lockdowns, which drained oil demand, and will uncertainties around the economic recovery of major oil consumers, price volatility will remain excessive. Thats about the only thing that is certain right now. Where prices will be tomorrow, on the other hand, is anyones guess. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Insisting that Union Home Minister Amit Shah's speech at the BJP's virtual rally for West Bengal was "devoid of substance", the TMC on Tuesday said the saffron party was "hungry for votes" even when the state was battling the double whammy of COVID-19 and destruction caused by Cyclone Amphan. Addressing the rally earlier in the day, Shah criticised the TMC-led Bengal government for its alleged apathy towards migrant workers. He said these labourers would ensure Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's exit in the 2021 assembly polls as she had "insulted" them by terming Shramik Special trains run to ferry them home during lockdown "Corona Express". The Union minister also attacked Banerjee over the alleged culture of political violence in the state, saying the only industry that was flourishing in Bengal was that of "crude bombs and illegal weapons". Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee said Shah's speech was full of rhetoric and asked why he had been silent on the India-China standoff. "As usual, the speech of Amit Shah Ji was all rhetoric and no substance. Nonetheless, since he has talked about his dream of seeing 'EXIT' of TMC, I would like to ask him one more time - 'When are the Chinese EXITING our territory'," he tweeted with the hashtag #BengalrejectsAmitShah. Indian and Chinese armies have been engaged in a standoff for a month now in several areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. Both countries are trying to defuse the crisis through diplomatic and military channels. Senior TMC leader and state education minister Partha Chatterjee also took to Twitter to attack Shah. "At a time when the state is battling a pandemic and a natural disaster, Amit Shah's priorities are crystal clear. Bengal, remember the face of this man who is just hungry for your votes and nothing else," he said. The official Twitter handle of the TMC said, "Amit Shah, someone who's himself put the inclusivity of India in danger, talks about 'restoring' the culture of Bengal. Doesn't he remember it was Mamata Banerjee who restored statue of Vidya Sagar, vandalised by his men in front of his own eyes." A bust of the 19th century polymath and social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalised during a clash between TMC and BJP workers on May 14 last year when Shah was holding a roadshow in Kolkata ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Both the parties had accused each other of desecrating the bust. In a video conference attended by state finance minister Amit Mitra and MPs Dinesh Trivedi and Derek OBrien, the TMC criticised accused Shah of misleading people to stay in power. Terming BJP ministers as imitation masters, Mitra said, They only know how to copy Mamata Banerjees schemes. They are boasting about Ayushman Bharat health scheme and alleging that Bengal is not implementing it, but I would like to clarify that Mamata Banerjee has already initiated a health scheme called Swasthya Sathi much before the Centre thought about it. Now they have copied and boasting about it. They have become imitation masters now. Swasthya Sathi was announced in Cabinet on February 17, 2016. It is basic health cover for secondary and tertiary care up to Rs. 5 lakh per annum per family. Responding to Shahs fact and figures on Centres achievement, Mitra said, They are telling lies. They are doing jhoot ki rajniti (politics based on lies). I am shocked that Shah has claimed that 10 crore toilets were built but the fact is only 1.43 crore toilets were built. Why this falsehood? On PDS figures presented by Shah, the Bengal finance minister said, There were inadequate supplies from the Centre and public distribution system (PDS) was affected. Under scheme, 6.01 crore people in Bengal who meet the criteria got supplies. But Shah has claimed the figure as 7.66 Crore. Why he has increased the figure by 1.5 crore? On migrant woes, Mitra asked where was the direct cash benefit for people belonging to the unorganised sector. Nearly 70% people belongs to unorganised sector and there should be a direct cash benefit of Rs 7,500 to bring back the demand on track and once its done then supply will start rolling. As per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, nearly 2 crore jobs were lost in 2018. In one of the Niti Ayog meeting, the union finance minister was not there but Amit Shah was present. I dont know how much knowledge he has about the economy. I would like to question them where is the fiscal stimulus? There is a drop in the GDP for the seven consecutive quarters. In last quarter from January to March, economic growth fell to 3.1 per cent. This is lowest in 11 years. He also expressed concerned that GST cess, amounting to Rs 11,000 crore will not be paid by the Centre. Trivedi termed Shahs virtual rally as purely a political one and expressed dismay that even in this time of crisis BJP is hungry for power. This is not the time for Jumla. West Bengal is struggling with coronavirus and Cyclone Amphan and it is the time to work together. However, it is unfortunate that today Amit Shah proved that his only intention is doing politics in Bengal. Today it was a political rally. I would like to remind Shah that he is not the home minister of one single party but he is the home minister of the entire country. I think it is time to work together. I think Amit Shah should have a public debate with our finance minister Amit Mitra face to face over the Centres achievements, he said. OBrien said Shah talked about TMCs exit plan but I would like to question him what is happening at the Indo-china border. Who are exiting and who are entering? We need to know. He said, The home minister also talked about bringing back the culture of Bengal. I would like to suggest him to start with the place where his people ransacked the statute of Vidya Sagar. (With inputs from PTI) The Huge Profits Behind Mass Testing in Wuhan Honest News Straight to Your Home. Try the Epoch Times yourself, and get a free gift. On May 11, the Wuhan authorities issued an emergency notice requiring large-scale nucleic acid testing on all citizens in every Wuhan district within 10 days. It was also known as the ten-day battle. The audio below is from a Wuhan community doctor who participated in this test. He said such a costly project provided an opportunity for some people to profit from the national disaster. The most important thing for them is to make money. A test sample, as far as I know, was priced at 130 yuan ($18 USD). The samples distributed to our community hospital were 30 yuan ($4 USD) and that was because we used the test tubes allocated by the health bureau. If the tubes provided by the third-party companies had been used, it may only have cost 10 yuan ($1.40 USD) per sample, so the margin could be 120 ($16 USD). Then the third-party company that provided the tubes would gain 120 ($16 USD). What a huge profit! Think about it. There are 10 million people in Wuhan, making it 1 billion yuan ($140 million USD). Its not 0.1 billion as was estimated on the Internet. If I have not counted wrong, 10 million times 100 is 1 billion, right? The mass testing was mainly carried out by third-party companies, with samples later picked up by staff from regional hospitals and disease control departments. The pricing of the test included two parts: the cost of the test kits and of the testing services. The CCPs official media Hubei Daily reported, according to estimations made by the relevant departments of Hubei Province, the costs of the testing on all Wuhan citizens could exceed 1 billion yuan ($140 million USD). The expenses are likely to be borne by the Wuhan municipal and district finance departments. Brooke Burke took to Instagram on Monday to celebrate World Ocean Day which fosters public interest in the management of the ocean and its resources. The 48-year-old Playboy cover girl shared two flashback bikini photos with a friend of hers as they enjoyed a day on a white sand beach. And the former Dancing With The Stars co-host also posted a video where she was writhing around on the shore with no top on. Life's a beach for this sun goddess: Brooke Burke took to Instagram on Monday to celebrate World Ocean Day which fosters public interest in the management of the ocean and its resources. The 48-year-old Playboy cover girl shared two flashback bikini photos Brooke wore a striped string bikini in brown and orange which had a white border. On her ankle was a woven bracelet with shells on the end of the strings; she added a fun straw hat that made her look in vacation mode. The video showed Burke topless on the beach as she rolled around with seemingly not a care in the world with sunglasses on and her hair in a top knot. The star proved that once again that she looks half her age thanks to exercise and eating right, The siren has also been sharing posts nearly every day about how to stay in shape at home while self-isolating from COVID-19. Beach bunnies: Brooke wore a striped string bikini in brown and orange which had a white border. On her ankle was a woven bracelet with shells on the end of the strings; she added a fun straw hat that made her look in vacation mode. Here she is seen with her pal The beauty, who used to be married to Baywatch star Dave Charvet, let her fans know she was ready for the hot months. 'Feels like summer 40 day count down starts now! Join me every day for some fitness inspo... 30 min Total Body Sculpting sweat sesh see you there,' said the siren who has workouts online. Burke also said, 'Can hear the roar of womens eagerness. The countdown to summer starts now... Lets begin together.' The mother of four looked very muscular thanks to aerobics, yoga and power walks. She lost her top: And the former Dancing With The Stars co-host also posted a video where she was writhing around on the shore with no top on Free and easy: The video showed Burke topless on the beach as she rolled around with seemingly not a care in the world with sunglasses on and her hair in a top knot In paradise with not a cloud in the sky: With the turquoise waters and white sand, the model appeared to be in the Bahamas She also had a fresh tan from all her outdoor activities in Malibu, where she has lived for decades. In April the star took to Instagram to show her 415K followers how they too can get the same impressive abs at home. The Maxim cover girl broke the routine to three simple steps that can be done on a floor and do not requires any machines. One step was the bicycle move, which women have been doing for decades and Jane Fonda pushed in the 1980s. Another was the Single Leg Bridge that seemed to have a bit of a yoga influence. Enviable: The cover girl has been sharing posts nearly every day about how to stay in shape at home while self-isolating from COVID-19 Then there was the Kickbacks which go back to the 1970s when home workouts became a trend. The star has been working out nonstop from home since self-isolation began. The stunner looked freshly tanned with a yellow bra top and matching leggings on as she wore flattering makeup. 'A friendly reminder, did u work out today? Try these AB toning moves. Deets @brookeburkebody,' she said. Her life has been full of change lately. Earlier this month she officially divorced Charvet. Looking good: The siren was on the cover of Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine in 2004 The couple of 12-years have finalized the terms of their split two-years after the model/hostess originally filed to end their marriage, according to TMZ. The official end of their relationship comes just as former Baywatch star David, 47, has gone public with his new girlfriend, fitness model Oksana Rykova. Though the delay may make people think the split was contentious, the terms of the divorce suggests things were absolutely amicable. Brooke and David agreed to co-parent their two children, Heaven, 13, and son Shaya, 12, with the kids set to split their time 50/50 between mom and dad. The exes will split any of the kids' living expenses and neither will receive child support. Brooke will keep the couple's Malibu home and Santa Monica condo while David is getting a separate Malibu property. End of the road: Burke and David Charvet have finalized their divorce two years after they split. The pair are seen in 2017 above Right down the middle: Brooke and David agreed to co-parent their two children, Heaven, 13, and son Shaya, 12, with the kids set to split their time 50/50 between mom and dad They will split the assets in their bank account and neither will pay spousal support. The former pair plan to divide their significant art collection at a later date. Brooke will take two of the couple's fitness businesses while David will keep several more, including Malibu Stone And Building Materials. Both stars seem happy to be putting their pasts behind them. David recently debuted his relationship with fitness model Oksana Rykova, a brunette beauty who bears a strong resemblance to his ex. Meanwhile, Brooke has been romancing real estate developer Scott Rigsby since last summer. PARIS - Frances government is pumping 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in rescue money into the pandemic-battered aerospace industry, in hopes of saving its hundreds of thousands of jobs and keeping plane maker Airbus and national airline Air France globally competitive. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this June 18, 2019 file photo, an Airbus A330 performs a demonstration flight at Paris Air Show, in Le Bourget, north east of Paris. France's government has announced 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in aid for the virus-battered aerospace industry, including plane maker Airbus and national airline Air France. (AP Photo/ Francois Mori, File) PARIS - Frances government is pumping 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in rescue money into the pandemic-battered aerospace industry, in hopes of saving its hundreds of thousands of jobs and keeping plane maker Airbus and national airline Air France globally competitive. In exchange for aid, companies will be required to invest more and faster in electric, hydrogen or other lower-emission aircraft, as France aims to make its aviation industry the cleanest in the world. The deal was negotiated with unions, who said they would stay vigilant about job guarantees. Some environmental activists expressed skepticism about green ambitions for such a high-emission industry. FILE - In this May 14, 2020 file photo, French police stand guard in Terminal 2 of Charles de Gaulle international airport in Roissy, north of Paris. France's government has announced 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in aid for the virus-battered aerospace industry, including plane maker Airbus and national airline Air France. (Ian Langsdon, Pool via AP, File) We will do everything to support this French industry that is so critical for our sovereignty, our jobs and our economy, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said, unveiling the plan alongside the ministers of transport, defence and environment - a sign of how important the aeronautic sector is in France. As travel restrictions grounded most flights to keep the virus contained, the fallout cascaded across the industry, from airlines to airports to engine makers, maintenance contracts and spare parts suppliers. Airlines around the world are forecast to lose $84 billion this year, with revenue halved. Some have filed for bankruptcy or sought bailouts to survive the near-shutdown in their activity, and officials predict the industry will take years to recover. Financially, 2020 will go down as the worst year in the history of aviation", said Alexandre de Juniac, head of the International Air Transport Association, which represents 290 airlines. "Thats why government financial relief was and remains crucial as airlines burn through cash. The French aid money includes direct government investment, subsidies, loans and loan guarantees. It also includes a special fund jointly financed by the government, Airbus and other big manufacturers to support small suppliers. FILE - This May 6, 2016 file photo shows the logo of the Airbus Group in Suresnes, outside Paris. France's government has announced 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in aid for the virus-battered aerospace industry, including plane maker Airbus and national airline Air France. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File) It includes 7 billion euros in loans and loan guarantees that the government had already promised to Air France, whose planes were almost entirely grounded by the virus. And like a similar multibillion-euro plan to save the French car industry announced last month, the aviation bailout requires more investment in clean energy - and puts pressure on manufacturers to avoid layoffs. It will aim at modernizing the production chain and preserving European aviation know-how, Le Maire said. We must save our aeronautical industry. We must avoid any decline in the coming months with regard to the American giant Boeing and the Chinese giant Comac," he said. "We wont let the world aeronautical market be shared between China and the United States. France and Europe will retain their position. The government will help Air France buy Airbus planes, and pledged to order 600 million euros worth of refuelling tankers, drones and helicopters from Airbus' defence arm. In addition to dominating the global passenger aircraft market alongside Boeing, Airbus is also a major supplier of military aircraft to European governments. The rescue plan includes investment in developing the successor to Airbus' widely used mid-range A320, a new hybrid or hydrogen regional plane, and a new light helicopter. 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 government is also working with unions on a long-term, short-work scheme that would allow the industry to preserve jobs as it slowly ramps production back up. As a result of the virus lockdown, Airbus said it is cutting production by 35% to 40%, and Boeing announced that it would cut 10% of its 161,000-person work force through attrition, early-out offers and layoffs. "The recovery will be long, Le Maire warned. The government predicted it will be 2023 before the industry reaches pre-crisis levels. Among bailouts elsewhere, major U.S. airlines reached agreements with the Treasury Department for billions of dollars in grants and loans, Lufthansa won a $10 billion German government rescue and Cathay Pacific announced Tuesday its seeking $5 billion from the Hong Kong government to survive. ___ Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:53:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's agricultural exports of vegetables and fruits grew to 3.22 million tons from January to May, the agriculture ministry said Tuesday. Egypt exported 1.35 million tons of citrus, 527,588 tons of potatoes and 240,089 tons of onions, a notable increase from the previous year, a ministry statement said. The agricultural exports also included garlic, beans, strawberries, cucumbers, aubergines, pepper, pomegranates, mangoes and grapes. Egypt has succeeded in opening seven new markets for agricultural exports including Brazil, Argentine, New Zealand, and Indonesia. The statement hailed the distinguished efforts of the Central Administration of Plant Quarantine to facilitate exporting procedures by taking all precautionary measures against COVID-19. The United States, China, Russia, and most of the EU member states top the list of importers of Egyptian crops. Enditem StartupWind Virtual Innovation Platform "At the University of Alabama, we were faced with a decision of cancelling our student annual business plan competition as a result of the pandemic. We were fortunate to have been working with StartupWind, and quickly saw a path to use it for a virtual competition" - Theresa Welbourne, Director AEI The Edward K. Aldag Jr. Business Plan competition is a flagship event for the entrepreneurial student community. The goal of the competition is to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Tuscaloosa and throughout Alabama. In addition to the prize money, the winners also receive space in the EDGE Incubator at The University of Alabama to start their business and receive mentoring from local entrepreneurs and executives. Traditionally, the competition is conducted with multiple rooms representing different tracks of the challenge where the entrepreneurs pitch in front of the judges. However, the pandemic and the social distancing guidelines made it impossible for participants to meet in different physical rooms. Due to the pandemic, AEI (Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute) was faced with the possibility of canceling its flagship annual Business Plan Competition for students and faculty. The AEI team creatively saw a path forward and quickly pivoted to use the StartupWind Virtual Competition Platform to run the competition as a virtual competition. The AEI team leveraged the StartupWind Virtual Innovation Platform to create different program cohorts mapping to different physical rooms for each track of the competition. The students and faculties submitted business plans digitally to the respective program cohorts, judges were assigned for each cohort group and the judges scored online while the startups used video conferencing capabilities to pitch to the judges virtually. The shortlisted ventures then progressed to semi-final program cohorts and then ultimately to the Grand Finale cohort while conducting the end-to-end process virtually. The key capabilities of StartupWind Virtual Innovation platform that were leveraged are: Virtual Business Plan Competition: Ability to submit business plans, assign judges, score, and shortlisting ventures for each round and each track of the competition. Private Program Cohorts: Ability to create private program cohorts for each track and round of the competition to align with the structure that the AEI team uses every year. Embedded Social Feedback: Ability for the judges and mentors to provide feedback on every module of the business plan so that the entrepreneur can benefit from it. Dr. Theresa Welbourne, Executive Director, Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute said, "At the University of Alabama, we were faced with a decision of cancelling our student annual business plan competition and our new faculty/staff competition due to students being off-campus as a result of the pandemic. We were incredibly fortunate to have been working with StartupWind, and we quickly saw a path forward to use that tool for a virtual competition. Within four weeks we pivoted from an on-site program to a virtual competition - for both events. Judges, facilitators, and competitors all were extremely pleased with the new format. We were able to continue the annual flagship Edward K. Aldag, Jr. Business Plan Competition. "The StartupWind Virtual Competition solution supported the creation of online business plan portals that judges could access to review, on their own time, video presentations as well as the full business plan decks. Also available were on-line customized judging forms. StartupWinds cohort model was critical in creating a similar structure for multiple tracks (and rooms) and rounds of the competition and migrating shortlisted business plans to the next rounds. Additionally, we now have all the judges and contestants on the platform, and we are set to work with them during the summer. "StartupWinds software and the support team helped us make our flagship event as a resounding success, receiving kudos from all our stakeholders!" Naren Patil, the founder & CEO of StartupWind said, "The pandemic and social distancing disrupting our lives as well as the ability of our customers to continue to run their innovation programs in this changing world. With the StartupWind Virtual Innovation Platform we are offering solutions for seamlessly running virtual competitions, virtual accelerator programs, and virtual mentoring programs. StartupWind Virtual Innovation Platform allows our customers to be safe while continuing to deliver the impact by running their innovation programs virtually. About StartupWind, Inc Headquartered in Cupertino, California, StartupWind unveils a new way to connect, ideate, mentor, and scale startups. StartupWind has been delivering an impact to about 25,000 users affiliated to over 100 universities across 100 countries in the world. It is helping universities, states, and corporations to scale their innovation and entrepreneurship programs by delivering a digital Innovation Network and Virtual Innovation Platform that offers tools for ideation, customer discovery, business model canvas, business planning, competitions, mentoring, and learning management system. Please visit http://www.startupwind.com for more information. About Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute The Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute (AEI) was founded to promote and support entrepreneurship in the Culverhouse College of Business and across The University of Alabama. The Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute (AEI) focuses on learning that accelerates the growth of businesses and creates employment opportunities. AEI provides students with unique opportunities to practically experience the world outside their classrooms. Please visit http://aei.culverhouse.ua.edu for more information. With our nerves a little jittery, and our hearts feeling anxious, it makes a lot of sense to reach out to our loved ones for emotional support. But what happens when our memories bring up some loved ones whom we arent in touch with, aka our ex? What do we do when we remember some heartwarming moments that we felt while dating them that we just cant seem to shake off right now? Do we get in touch with our ex and ask them if they are safe? Well, its complicated. There are several things you should consider when you are texting your ex. For instance, how did the relationship end? How long back was this? Where are you when it comes to your emotions? And last but not least, what exactly are you reaching out for? Luckily for you, we have a few questions that you can ask yourself to know the answer. Was The Relationship Healthy? The reason behind the end of your relationship plays a crucial part in knowing whether you should reconnect with your ex. For instance, if the relationship was healthy and full of positivity, then it is fine to get in touch with your ex. But if the relationship ended because you would fight a lot or were toxic for each other, then it is best to not reach out to them. Also Read: How I Am Learning To Practice Self-Love During Quarantine The United Kingdoms plans to launch a smartphone application to track potential COVID-19 infections wont include Apple and Google. The countrys National Health Service has designed its own mobile software to do contact tracing of people exposed to the coronavirus, the BBC reported Monday. The NHS reportedly found that its own tech, which runs in the background on Apples iPhone, works sufficiently well. One hangup with some contact tracing apps is that they work only when a phone is active and the app is running in the foreground, which can sap battery life. The NHS app conserves battery life by waking up the software in the background when a phone encounters another phone running the app. However, the Apple-Google engine may conserve even more power, because it doesnt have to wake up link to another device running it. Apple and Google earlier this month released APIs to help developers, including nation states, create contact tracing apps for the Exposure Notification system theyre collaborating on. The companies plan to incorporate the system into future versions of their mobile operating systems, iOS and Android. Centralization vs. Decentralization With its app, the NHS chose a centralized model for its data collection and storage. When the app senses another version of itself on a phone it makes note of it and sends the information to an NHS computer server. If someone using the program tests positive for COVID-19, that information is sent to the server, which then alerts every app user who had contact with the person of their exposure to the virus. Apple and Google have set up a decentralized framework for their mobile contact tracing solution. A D V E R T I S E M E N T As with the NHS app, when phones running a tracing app are within proximity of each other, they exchange information in the form of a key code. Users let the app know when they become infected. The app then updates an online database with the codes of the contacts of the infected person. That database is downloaded to phones periodically so users of the app are kept current about whether theyve been exposed to the virus. Apple and Google say their decentralized method preserves an individuals privacy better than a centralized method. They contend that the method makes it more difficult for a hacker or the state to track individuals and their social interactions, because data is stored on their phone and doesnt leave it without the owners permission. The NHS contends that by centralizing the data, it can obtain more insight into the spread of COVID-19, which can help it further refine its app. Dynamic Tension There is a tension between the NHS and Apple-Google camps, noted Alain B. Labrique, director of Johns Hopkins Universitys Global mHealth Initiative in Baltimore, Maryland. The tension is between a centralized data repository controlled by the government and a system that makes data available only to individuals. When data is only available to individuals, it takes away the potential for abuse, Labrique told TechNewsWorld. In many countries theres a popular concern about giving government granular access to not just where youve been but who youve been in contact with and for how long, he said. Protecting that kind of data during a pandemic comes with some disadvantages. As a public health authority, the more information I have about contacts, the more capability I have to address the pandemic effectively, Labrique explained. A D V E R T I S E M E N T Not all countries are going the centralized route. Switzerland, Estonia, and Austrias Red Cross have endorsed decentralization, as has Germany, after considering a centralized approach. Countries that are accepting the decentralized approach are also accepting a tradeoff, Labrique said. Theyre willing to sacrifice some level of control in order to get another tool out there that people can use to fight back against coronavirus. Location Protection The centralized approach adopted by the NHS has the potential for abuse, even though data collected by the program may be anonymized, said Omer Tene, chief knowledge officer of the International Association of Privacy Professionals in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In a big data context such as this, even anonymized information can be attributed back to individuals, sometimes through crossing with other available databases, he told TechNewsWorld. Under the Apple-Google approach, as well as a solution by a group of European scientists known as DP-3T, there is no central database and instead data is stored on users devices, Tene noted. Both the NHS and the Apple-Google solution employ Bluetooth technology rather than collecting geolocation data, he pointed out. [*Correction May 5, 2020] Location data can be incredibly revealing and sensitive, showing where people live, work, which doctors they go to, who they associate with, and so forth, Tene continued. For contact tracing, location is not needed as its enough that two individuals were close to each other for one of them to pass the virus on to the other. More Nations Adopting Apps Smartphone contact tracing apps have been rolled out in a number of countries, including China, Israel and Singapore. Australia released its contact tracing app on Sunday. Within hours of its release, more than a million Aussies had downloaded the app. The software, which is based on a similar program used in Singapore, uses Bluetooth wireless technology to gather data from other phones running the app when it comes within 1.5 meters (4.2 feet) of them. When someone with a phone running the software is diagnosed with COVID-19, all users of the app who had contact with the infected user for 15 minutes or more receive an alert telling them theyve been exposed to the virus. Only state health authorities will be able to access the data gathered by the app. Not even law enforcement officers with a court order will be able to access the data. Whats more, data will be erased from the phone every 21 days, or if the app is removed from the device. In order for the app to be effective, its estimated that 40 percent of the countrys population must use it. The main problem is that contact tracing apps are only effective if broadly adopted and standardized, Tene said. For example, Singapores TraceTogether app was downloaded by just 13 percent of the population, meaning that in any interaction between two random passersby theres only a 1 percent chance they both use the app, he said. Obviously thats insufficient to allow people to have confidence that their encounter with a patient will be flagged. *ECT News Network editors note May 5, 2020: Our original published version of this story stated the following: The NHS app has an edge over the Apple-Google solution when it comes to protecting location data, he (Tene) continued. The NHS app is based on Bluetooth proximity tracking as opposed to GPS or cellular location. That is a much more privacy friendly approach, since it doesnt require collection of geolocation data, Tene explained. Following publication of our story, Tene offered this clarification: Deploying a BT based solution is a strength of the NHS app and not a relative strength compared to the Apple-Google solution because that too is Bluetooth based. She seldom looks anything less that flawless. And Tuesday was no different for Amanda Holden as she headed to work at Global Studios in London while donning a stunning white dress. The Britain's Got Talent star, 49, was radiant in the chiffon dress which featured a dainty toile-de-Jouy print while she also sported a stunning Fendi bag. Stunner: Amanda Holden headed to work at Global Studios in London while donning a stunning white dress Amanda looked incredible as she made her way to work in the chic look. Nipping in her tiny waist, the white dress featured a belted middle and a midi length which offered a look at her strappy black heels. Her envy-inducing bag is Fendi's Women's Pink Baguette Leather Small Bag, which markets for around 1,012. Amanda recently said she thinks her husband helps to keep her 'sane' when she is targeted by trolls on social media. Stunner: The Britain's Got Talent star, 49, was radiant in the chiffon dress which featured a dainty toile-de-Jouy print while she also sported a stunning Fendi bag Chic: Amanda looked incredible as she made her way to work in the chic look The star has learned to cope with the nasty comments over time and has hailed the influence of her husband, songwriter Chris Hughes. The Britain's Got Talent judge - who has Hollie, eight, and Alexa, 14, with Chris - told the Daily Star: 'I'm so lucky that when I started out, social media wasn't invented because I might not have got through it. 'It's difficult but I am very lucky because I've got a very strong relationship. Glam: The mother-of-two opted for natural hair and makeup, while sheltering her eyes with a pair of tortoiseshell-rimmed sunglasses In the pink! Her envy-inducing bag is Fendi's Women's Pink Baguette Leather Small Bag, which markets for around 1,012 Monochrome: Amanda recently said she thinks her husband helps to keep her 'sane' when she is targeted by trolls on social media 'I've got a very strong husband who is very sensible and not like me in any way. He cuts through all the bull***t and keeps me sane.' In fact, Amanda - who has been married to Chris since 2008 - thinks their relationship can help her to overcome any problem. She said that she is happy, healthy and stable in the relationship and that helps her cope with her problems. Amanda and Chris married at Babington House in Somerset in December 2008. Thanks to Friend of the Academy of Insurance, Joe Harringon, for this guest post. Joe is an independent business researcher and writer specializing in property and casualty coverages. He is also a regular instructor with the Academy of Insurance. As such suits go, the actions filed in late May 2020 by Michigan residents against the state and the operators of two private dams seem pretty straightforward. The dams failed and properties were inundated. Its not hard to make the connection. Establishing who bears what share of responsibility will be more complicated. The connection between cause and effect for flood losses is rarely clear, which is why liability claims for property damage caused by flood have not been a major concern for insurers and reinsurers. Since time immemorial, it has generally been hard to determine who, if anyone, is responsible for the amount of water in an area, and where it flows. Largely for that reason, while flood has long been an excluded peril under first-party property coverage, it is rare to see commercial liability exclusions for legal liability arising from flood damage to the property of others. Thats all being tested under new conditions that may constitute a perfect storm for flood liability exposure. (Yes, perfect storm is an overused term, but appropriate in this case.) Several trends are coming together to potentially make third-party flood liability claims a major concern of private insurers: The increased frequency and severity of flood catastrophes seen in recent years, due to the growth of property development in flood-exposed areas, and to increased amounts of rain in tropical storms. The slow growth (or no growth) of first-party flood property insurance. The number of policies written under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) actually fell during the mid-2010s, and vigorous efforts to promote private sector participation in the flood insurance market have produced only slow growth. Vastly improved methods for detecting and analyzing an areas propensity to flood. New flood risk assessment technologies are seen as boons to private sector flood insurance, but they can also be used to determine how alterations in land use have affected neighboring properties. Widely publicized awards in flood liability cases and increased advertising by plaintiffs attorneys who are already practiced in contesting first-party flood claim denials. In short, insurers have to consider that more and more floods will leave more and more property owners with very large losses, most of them uninsured. Distressed property owners will turn to an eager plaintiffs bar equipped with highly sophisticated means for determining whos to blame for how water is flowing. That will make insurers take notice. Joe is teaching on this topic for the Academy of Insurance live on Thursday, June 11, 2020, at 1:30 pm Eastern/10:30 am Pacific for Joes session: Liability for Flood Losses. Topics Profit Loss Flood Property Training Development The Delhi government has ordered 22 private hospitals in the city to reserve more than 20% beds for the treatment of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), adding 2,015 isolation beds to the citys total. The decision was taken after consulting with the hospitals. It is decided in consultation with the 22 private hospitals to allocate more than 20% beds for treatment of Covid-19. Accordingly, MSs (medical superintendents) of these hospitals are directed to admit Covid-19 patients as per revised allocation of beds and update data on Delhi Corona app with immediate effect the order reads. The Delhi government had ordered 117 hospitals across the city with more than 50 beds to reserve 20% of their bed-strength for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. The 22 hospitals include three branches of Fortis hospitals and four of Max hospitals. As per the government order, Fortis Vasant Kunj will become a completely Covid-19 hospital and will be adding beds. Around 80% beds in Batra hospital in Tughlakabad Institutional area have to be reserved, around 60% beds in Holy Family hospital, and between 25 to 50% beds in the other hospitals will have to be reserved. The 200 beds in Max Smart Superspeciality hospital was already dedicated for the treatment of Covid-19. So far, of the 117 hospitals that had been asked to reserve Covid-19 beds in Delhi governments initial May 24 order, 91 have so far agreed to do so as on Tuesday, according to data on Delhi Corona App. The Delhi government on Tuesday ordered all Delhi government-run and private hospitals with 50 beds or more to put up a 12x10-feet flexboard at the entry gate. The board has to say, Important Notice. 1) For latest information on vacant beds in this hospital: Download Delhi Corona mobile app. Go to www.delhifightscorona.in/beds. Call 1031. If a hospital refuses a bed even though the app shows there are vacant beds in the hospital, you can call 1031 to file a complaint. The government had earlier ordered private hospitals to prominently display the charges for various treatments and procedures for Covid-19. The message further reads, 2) If you have tested positive for corona and your symptoms are mild, then you can recover at home though home isolation. If you do not have sufficient facilities at home to undergo home isolation, you can be admitted to our Covid Care Centre. Only Patients with severe symptoms need to be admitted to the hospital. The government had asked all hospitals in the city to discharge any mild and asymptomatic cases admitted to make space in the hospitals last week. The message to be displayed on the flex also says, 3) If you have severe symptoms of corona but have not been tested yet, or if the results are pending, do not panic. Hospitals cannot refuse to admit a patient with severe symptoms of corona. If a hospital refuses to admit you, call 1031 and file a complaint. The government had this week ordered that no hospital should refuse a patient with Covid-19 like symptoms even if they do not have a positive report. Recent wildfires across the UK have prompted a warning from the NFU urging the public to be more responsible when out in the countryside. With Covid-19 lockdown restrictions eased, thousands of people have been flocking to popular rural locations, resulting in an increase in the use of disposable barbecues. However, barbecues being discarded has seen hundreds of acres of moorland and forestry in Lancashire, Staffordshire and elsewhere across the UK engulfed by wildfires. Wildfires in the UK are becoming more frequent. 2018 and 2019 together saw more damage caused by wildfires than the entirety of the previous decade, with nearly 50,000ha destroyed in over 200 wildfires. Now the NFU is calling on local authorities to start issuing Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) to combat the increasing frequency of wildfires. The orders deal with particular nuisance or problems in specific areas by imposing conditions on the use of that area to ensure people can enjoy public spaces safely. Local Authorities have the power to implement a PSPO under Sections 59 to 75 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. NFU access policy adviser, Mhari Barnes said some wildfires seen across the UK were caused by visitors using disposable BBQs 'irresponsibly'. Due to the prolonged dry weather, we are seeing an increase in wildfires which have a significant impact on farmland and wildlife," she said. The NFU would like to see local authorities start issuing PSPOs that deal with problems in a specific area by imposing certain conditions such as a ban on naked flames. We are also calling for the full results of the Fire Severity Index review to be published which was carried out following the wildfires of 2018. Meanwhile, rural estates in Scotland have recorded more incidents of careless behaviour occurring since lockdown eased, the Scottish Land & Estates (SLE) has said. Tim Baynes, moorland director at SLE, said: Each year we are witnessing more and more wildfires occurring on moorland and grassland and this period of exceptionally hot weather in the UK has heightened the risk once again. These fires often occur by innocuous means such as discarded cigarettes and disposable barbecues and we need to ensure the correct precautions are taken by those accessing hills and moors. "Sadly, those managing rural land have found more careless behaviour occurring since lockdown rather than less." Foral: A German prosecutor has said there is "some evidence" that Madeleine McCann was killed by the new suspect but not enough to bring him to trial. Hans Christian Wolters, the Braunschweig state prosecutor, said police needed more information about where Christian Brueckner had lived so they can search for Madeleine's body. This undated handout image supplied by the Carabinieri Milano shows a police mug shot of Christian Brueckner, a suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann. Credit:Getty Images Europe Mr Wolters told Sky News: "The hard evidence we don't have, we don't have the crucial evidence of Madeleine McCann's body. We expect that she is dead, but we don't have enough evidence that we can get a warrant for our suspect in Germany for the murder of Madeleine McCann. "At the moment we also don't have enough proof for a trial at court, but we have some evidence that the suspect has done the deed. That's why we need more information from people, especially places he has lived so we can target these places especially and search there for Madeleine." Nasser Alshemaimry was on a boat last month, heading for a spot in the Atlantic Ocean to test out his turbines. He was also, he said, heading for completion of his final life goal. "This is my last hurrah," said Alshemaimry, 70. "I'm going to do this and then retire." A year ago his company, OceanBased Perpetual Energy, agreed to work with Florida Atlantic University to develop a way to generate electricity by harnessing the steady-flowing Gulf Stream, the powerful ocean current that brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico into the Atlantic and up the East Coast to Canada. Now his company was ready for the first test of five types of turbines to see which one would work best while anchored 80 feet below the ocean's surface. A successful test, Alshemaimry said, would lead to a project that would cost an estimated $16 billion. The goal: in five years, producing 5 gigawatts of electricity from turbines spun by the Gulf Stream, which would be sent through underwater cables to a power distribution station built in the West Palm Beach area. The 12- person team submerged the turbines in the Gulf Stream current approximately 20 miles offshore between Broward and Palm Beach counties, where the current's velocity typically ranges from 3.5 to 5.5 miles per hour. They left them there for 24 hours to see which ones would spin the best in the Gulf Stream's flow, producing power with the fewest problems. On June 1, the company declared the test to be a big success, with "game-changing implications for the future of perpetual clean energy." All of the turbines worked well, but the team selected a design that looks like a pair of airplane engines mounted on a single wing to eliminate the torque caused by the rotating propellers. Ocean energy works very much like wind power - the force of the sea turns the propellers of a turbine, activating a generator to produce electricity. But submerged turbines come with unique challenges - electrical parts have to be sealed and must resist corrosion, while underwater repairs are disruptive and difficult. Producing energy from the ocean is not a new idea. The La Rance tidal power station in Brittany, France, has been using 24 turbines to convert ocean tides into electrical power since 1966. Ocean power produces none of the carbon emissions linked to climate change, and it appeals to some energy executives because tides and currents are predictable, unlike solar and wind. But the cost of building the complex infrastructure required is so great that, so far, solar and wind have outpaced it. For instance, the world's biggest tidal power station, located at Sihwa Lake in South Korea, cost about $300 million to build in 2011. "It's safe to say that ocean energy is not a sizable focus in the U.S. currently," said Fred Mayes, senior energy analyst with the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A tidal energy project off the Oregon coast, Ocean Power Technologies' Reedsport Wave Park, fell apart in 2014 when the company was unable to line up financing. The company had obtained a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permit - the only one ever issued in the U.S. for a wave energy project - to install 10 buoys, each the size of a bus, that would generate enough power for 1,000 homes. The company never deployed any buoys and abandoned the permit when it could not raise the $50 million in estimated construction costs. "This is a disappointment on many fronts," Jason Busch, executive director of the nonprofit Oregon Wave Energy Trust, told The Columbian in Vancouver, Wash., at the time. "It has become, rightly or wrongly, sort of a proxy for the industry." There is one other American project underway. With state and federal grants, Verdant Power has installed turbines underwater in the east channel of the East River in New York as part of a demonstration. However, the power being generated is below the 1 megawatt threshold required for reporting outputs to the Energy Information Administration. "In general, we have found that many of these niche applications, while interesting and helpful for research purposes, can't compete in the wholesale power market," said the agency's Glenn McGrath. "However, we continue to monitor developments in this area." Gabriel Alsenas, director of the Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Florida Atlantic, said that's in part because ocean energy hasn't been given the same government subsidies that solar and wind industries have enjoyed. As a result, he said, the technology is "immature." At least one study says it shows promise, however, A 2013 study of ocean current energy resources by the Georgia Institute of Technology found that the Florida Current portion of the Gulf Stream, which runs like an underwater river along the entire Eastern Seaboard, could generate between 4 and 6 gigawatts. One gigawatt, which equals a billion watts, would be enough to power about 725,000 homes. Alshemaimry, a Saudi entrepreneur with prior experience building solar-powered homes, spent several years working on a never-completed tidal energy project in Sweden. Then, at a conference in Scotland, he met a U.S. Department of Energy official who suggested he contact Alsenas at Florida Atlantic University about the use of ocean currents. FAU's Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center has spent more than a decade researching issues related to ocean energy, such as how fish and other marine creatures avoid underwater turbines, and which types of turbines work best in different conditions. After one phone conversation three years ago, Alenas said, Alshemaimry dropped his Swedish project, switched from waves to currents and moved his entire operation to Florida. Alshemaimry, now contends what he has planned will be far superior to all tidal energy plants. "Tidal is not 24/7 power," he said. "It's back and forth. . . . The Gulf Stream flows 24/7/365." He calls it "the Holy Grail of perpetual energy." While it's true the Gulf Stream flows all day and night, it's not perfectly constant: The 2013 study found that its flow varies, growing stronger in the fall and weaker in the spring. Climate change projections say its flow is likely to weaken further and to switch its path someday. But Alshemaimry said it would continue flowing sufficiently to keep on driving a powertrain, generating as much electricity as Florida could need. That's a tall order: Florida currently consumes 220.7 terawatt hours of power, most of it provided by plants burning coal or natural gas. Asked why, if the Gulf Stream is such a perfect resource for power, no one else has tried it before, he said, "No one else is crazy like me." LONDON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The government of the Commonwealth of Dominica announced on Friday that previously closed businesses are now allowed to open by adhering to strict guidelines. The Caribbean island has had a good track record with no deaths and 18 COVID-19 cases, after an additional two cruise crew member were confirmed positive and isolated, arriving from a repatriation vessel at the end of May. The government continues a cautious approach to reopening the economy. All repatriated Dominican citizens follow strictly enforced guidelines, government officials announced, while making the 14-day quarantine safe and comfortable. Ms Calma Lewis, Dominica's Senior Environmental Health Officer, explained the protocols and certification businesses are required to follow and obtain to be allowed to operate safely. The government has also started a thorough community-based screening programme, National Epidemiologist Dr Shalauddin Ahmed announced on Friday. "In view of our present situation, where we have no evidence of community spread, it has been considered to further relax the restrictive measures regarding the curfew hours and also allowing the remaining businesses, which are presently not open, to do so," said Dr. Irving McIntyre, Dominica's Health Minister on Friday. "That's to include tour operators, staycations, cinemas, bars, lotto blast and gyms, as well as the returning of public officers to their normal pre-Covid stations and arrangements," he added. Dr McIntyre said that the government is announcing further details on lifting restrictive measures this week. Nonetheless, the Dominican Health Minister advises that these relaxations still require upholding precautions: "The returning home of our fellow Dominicans and increasing relaxation of our restrictive measures should not result in us letting down our guard and losing focus. The public health and social measures such as washing of hands, proper wearing of masks and physical distancing must remain in practice. This new normal way of life calls for a change in mindset from all of us." As for when tourists may return to the Nature Isle of the Caribbean, Dr McIntyre says that this will depend on regional developments and other countries' experience. "Our challenge remains the opening of our borders, but that is the challenge for every country," says the Health Minister. "Opening the borders does present the risk of importing cases, which we are fully aware of, particularly if it's done too early [] This cannot be done in isolation, but should be done with the wider region in mind. We must also be pragmatic in our approach so as to achieve the safest and most appropriate option for our country. We'll also learn from those who [will] have opened their borders earlier than the science suggests." The Health Minister thanked businesses who got involved, international donors for their technical support and supplies, all frontline workers and all those who "made Dominica the safer place to be." The island does not currently have an international airport though this may soon change with funding raised from its world-leading Citizenship by Investment Programme and other donors such as the World Bank. Dominica focuses on ecotourism which involves nature immersion and intimacy and thus a very low concentration of tourists. Reputable foreign investors contribute to Dominica's ecotourism by investing in a selection of luxury hotels and obtaining the country's valuable citizenship in return. Alternatively, they contribute to a government fund in exchange for citizenship, which sponsors projects in healthcare advancement, education, youth empowerment, climate resilience, housing, green energy and many other aspects of life in Dominica. [email protected] www.csglobalpartners.com SOURCE CS Global Partners Related Links http://www.csglobalpartners.com Laredo community advocacy group Red Wing United has announced a new mutual aid program designed to help Laredo's elderly population and low income families as the temperatures begin to rise in the Gateway City. READ MORE: Laredo, other border officials call for reopening of U.S.-Mexico border to tourists The local group has announced the launch of a the program, which offers free air conditioning repair and replacement for Laredo families in need. "We are excited to em bark on this program to keep out community cool as July and August round the corner," the release states. "Scientists warn that climate change will bring about more frequent and more intense heat waves, making cooling not just a luxury, but a necessity." Red Wing United is known in the community for its advocacy efforts. The group's Facebook page description states the group is an organization devoted to ensuring "tierra, democracia y libertad" for everyone. It believes in empowering people in the community through community, self sufficiency, education and self-defense. In addition to providing emergency coronavirus aid in the way of groceries and essential supplies to locals in Webb County and the Rio Grande Valley, the group also partnered with the South Texas Food Bank by donating goods and assisting delivery of emergency relief boxes to the community. They also distributed bottled water to locals when the city announced a boil-water affecting Laredo's water supply. Recently, the group also made headlines by organizing the first Laredo protest on the steps of city hall after the death of George Floyd in police custody. Floyd's death after a Minneapolis police officer was recorded kneeling on his neck for over 8 minutes sparked similar protests around the world. Following the protest, the group attempted to meet city leaders to issue a list of demands asking for reform of the Laredo police system. However, Laredo officers locked the doors of city hall after saying they would not allow the whole group into the building. Those interested in participating in the A/C program simply have to fill out a form available at https://bit.ly/keepcool956. Those without an Internet connection can also text 956-508-2461 with their name, type of A/C unit (window, central, etc.), age and address for consideration for the program. Red Wing United will follow up with the information provided. While their resources are limited, they will attempt to assist everyone that submits information on a first-come, first-served basis. READ MORE: Police lock doors of Laredo City Hall as protesters try to deliver demands "Now, more than ever, we must care for the most vulnerable in our community." LANSING, MI State regulators are seeking fines and compensation for major flooding damage in a new lawsuit filed against the owners of a high-hazard mid-Michigan dam that failed and inundated the Midland area last month. The 8-count, 38-page lawsuit was filed in Ingham County Circuit Court on Tuesday, June 9 by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on behalf of the state departments of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) and Natural Resources (DNR). The filing is the latest salvo in a legal battle between the state and Boyce Hydro, which were fighting in court over management of impoundment levels when the Gladwin County dam failed on May 19 and the resulting 500-year flood forced the evacuation of an estimated 10,000 people. The dam created Wixom Lake at the confluence of the Tittabawassee and Tobacco rivers. The lake has since vanished, leaving mudflats and upset property owners in its wake. Several class action lawsuits have already been filed in state and federal court by downstream residents. Nessel unloaded on Boyce Hydro and its owner, Lee Mueller of Nevada, in announcing the lawsuit, which seeks to compensate taxpayers for disaster response. She accused Boyce of making repeated misstatements in an effort to deflect blame for the disaster onto state regulators, which assumed oversight of the dam in 2018 after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) revoked its license to generate power after years of concerns the spillways couldnt pass enough water to handle a historic flood. Mueller has accused the state of pressuring him to maintain elevated water levels on Wixom Lake this winter and spring, which state regulators and attorneys dispute. Tuesdays filing blames Boyce Hydro mismanagement as having resulted in one of the worst flooding disasters in Michigan history. Nessel said shes upset that inaccurate statements have allowed Boyce to avoid what should have been swift, sweeping and universal condemnation after years of its grossly negligent and defiant actions. Nessel, who counter-sued Boyce Hydro in April alleging that the company had illegally lowered Wixom Lake and killed endangered freshwater mussels, said, Boyce has a well-documented record of repeatedly and intentionally ignoring state and federal safety regulators. When Boyces actions resulted in the very harm these regulators sought to prevent, Boyce then had the audacity to blame these individuals for its own misdeeds, she said. The attorney general decried those who she cast as having fallen prey to a false narrative that the state was more interested preserving aquatic life and appeasing property owners than ensuring public safety, by saying some people have chosen used this as an opportunity to score political points by repeating Boyces self-serving propaganda at the expense of the truth. But, when you cut through all the noise and focus on the facts, its clear that legal responsibility for the failure of the dam rests solely with the owner of the dam, period. Nessel said the companys refusal to cooperate with regulators is ongoing, and Boyce has yet to bring an engineer on site to address cracks in the remaining portion of the earthen dam. The state served Boyce with a warrant to inspect the structure last week. She said Boyce is slow-walking that process. Boyce Hydros attorneys did not immediately respond to comment requests on Tuesday. The company sued the state before the dam breach occurred and has since successfully moved to have Nessels counter-case transferred to federal district court in Grand Rapids. Earlier on Tuesday, a local group that was in the process of buying the Edenville and Sanford dams this year issued a statement calling for a third-party investigation. The Four Lakes Task Force has been critical of both Boyce Hydro and state regulators following the dam failure. In a long statement Tuesday, the task force said legal issues between Boyce and the state held up financing needed to buy the dams from Boyce Trusts. The task force disputed the states ability to access federal dam safety records in the months after it assumed dam oversight in 2018. EGLE has said it was essentially starting its regulatory approach at Edenville from scratch after the dams license was pulled, and that it didnt have access to certain reports on dam safety. EGLE conducted a cursory inspection of the dam in October 2018 and declared it in fair condition with no obvious signs of imminent danger to the public. The group wants the Association of State Dam Safety Officials to lead an investigation, saying the state has a conflict of interest. In late May, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered EGLE to investigate the failure. FERC has also ordered Boyce to form an investigation team. Before these investigations have even commenced, the state Attorney Generals office and EGLE are creating their own narrative on the blame for the Edenville Dams failure, the Four Lakes Task Force stated. For all the hyperbole and narrative of blame, an independent investigation is needed to determine the cause of the failure of the dam. Michigan EGLE Director Liesl Clark said more detail on the investigation makeup would be forthcoming this week, but it would absolutely have a third-party component. There needs to be an outside look at everything that happens, Clark said. Clark and other EGLE staff are scheduled to appear before a joint Michigan legislative committee session on Wednesday to give a presentation on the Edenville Dam. The disaster has also caught the attention of Congress. A U.S. House of Representatives committee is investigating the state and federal oversight prior to the dam failure. The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to the EGLE and FERC on Monday seeking answers to regulatory compliance and safety questions. It is critical we get the facts on what happened leading up to the federal government revoking the dams license, how the state evaluated the dam in the time since, and additional information on the regulatory and legal actions the state took following the revocation of the license, said U.S. Reps Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor and Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph. This inquiry is critical to ensuring this never happens again in any city in America with a high hazard dam. It is concerning there are serious gaps in existing laws and gathering the facts will be essential as we consider future bipartisan legislation to protect communities across the country. Related stories: Michigans aging dams are an expensive headache Wixom Lake residents grapple with new reality Flood aftermath spawning mosquito horde in mid-Michigan Michigans high-hazard dams: This is something were going to wrestle with Authorities in Boston are looking for two men who may have information related to the vandalism of a Boston police cruiser during the night of unrest following the death of George Floyd. Authorities, including the FBI in Boston, the Boston Police Department and the Boston Fire Department, said the men were seen at the intersection of Tremont Street and Bromfield Street on Sunday, May 31 between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Boston police arrested 53 people after peaceful protests in response to Floyds death in Minneapolis turned violent. Can you help @FBIBoston @bostonpolice @BostonFire identify these two individuals who may have information relating to the vandalism & arson of a Boston Police Department cruiser on 5/31/2020? Call 857-386-2000 or email https://t.co/48YS0b0hkh. https://t.co/8hFo5zxgcS pic.twitter.com/AcRYfB1xTp FBI Boston (@FBIBoston) June 9, 2020 Several police officers and bystanders were injured after the Boston protests, and a number of businesses and monuments were damaged. These individuals may have information relevant to the ongoing investigation into the vandalism and arson of a Boston Police Department cruiser, authorities wrote. One of the men is described as possibly White or Hispanic male, roughly 58 and 60 tall, and with a medium build. He wore a white hoodie, red bandana and grey shorts, authorities said. The other man is believed to be Hispanic, roughly 58 to 60 tall, with a medium build. He wore a black t-shirt, black shorts and a black hat, authorities said. Violence in other Massachusetts cities have led to a number of investigations and arrests. An 18-year-old Worcester man is facing charges after making Molotov cocktails and bringing them out during a protest that drew thousands of people in Worcester. Vincent Eovacious last week and charged with civil disorder. Federal officials said in a statement that Eovacious attempted to obstruct or interfere with law enforcement officers. He is also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. Related Content: There have been more false starts and unsubstantiated rumours regarding a possible end to the crisis that has set Qatar at odds with the Arab Quartet False hopes have surfaced once again since the end of the Holy month of Ramadan, and coinciding with the 39th anniversary of the establishment of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), that an opening in the Qatar crisis could be possible on its third anniversary. On 5 June 2017, GCC members Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, along with Egypt, cut relations with Qatar, accusing the tiny Gulf emirate of supporting terrorist and militant groups, interfering in the internal affairs of its neighbours, and opening its media to saboteurs and opponents of the four countries. Qatar has denied the accusations and said it has not reneged on previous agreements with its neighbours on such issues and insisting that it will not allow any infringement on its foreign policy as a sovereign state. Such stubbornness has led Doha to strengthen its relations with Iran and Turkey, both adversaries of the Quartet of the four boycotting states. But some calculated rumours recently made some think that an escalation in the crisis was underway before negotiations with each party opened in order to enhance their bargaining chips. A rumour of a military coup in Qatar was recently denied by Doha, which also denied reports that it was mulling its withdrawal from the GCC. Then there were reports about US pressure on the Quartet to at least allow Qatar to use their airspace. Recent reports have hinted that the US believes that Qatars switch to Iranian airspace may pose a miscalculated danger to American soldiers. Tehran makes financial gains from the use of its airspace, a situation that runs counter to the US resolve to tighten its economic stranglehold on Iran, said sources quoted by the Kuwaiti paper Al-Qabas. A Saudi source told Al-Ahram Weekly that nothing had changed in the Saudi positions, however, adding that if the Americans are concerned about the safety of their troops in and out of Doha, there could be an exception for American military planes to use our airspace. The source reiterated the Saudi commitment to keeping everything the same for Qatar Airways and the rest of the boycott measures. He added that this position was common to all the members of the Quartet. According to the Saudi source, the Qataris are feeling the pain of the boycott more than they admit in public. He said the atmosphere in Qatar was not as good as had been claimed and that the Qataris were becoming less at ease with their leadership not managing to end the crisis with their neighbours. Around the time of the Eid at the end of May, diplomatic missions started mainly by Kuwait tried to find a way of breaking the stalemate in the crisis. In a television interview last week, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohamed Bin Abdel-Rahman Al Thani said that Kuwait had launched a new initiative to end the emirates long-standing dispute with its Gulf neighbours, adding that the atmosphere is positive about this initiative. He hoped the new move would result in ending the three-year crisis. We hope that the new initiative will differ from the previous ones, he said. Over the past three years, Kuwait has sought to end the rift without success. Last September an opening initiated by the Americans halted when Qatar portrayed it as a compromise promoted by Saudi Arabia. It has been Dohas policy to try to present the crisis as a rift with Saudi Arabia, ignoring the rest of the Quartet on the assumption that negotiations with the Saudis will sideline the other members. This tactic has worked before, but this time round the Quartet has been taking the solid position that Qatar will have to meet its demands first before any negotiations on resuming relations begin. In an interview with the BBC, Saudi representative to the UN Abdallah Al-Mouallimi stressed that the boycott of Qatar could continue for years if Doha did not change its position, saying that officials in Qatar were the only ones who could decide. He added that Qatars failure to respond to the Quartets demands was nothing more than intransigence and narrow-mindedness, as well as the result of its wrong view that it can achieve gains with external alliances rather than with its Gulf brothers. These external alliances are deepening the crisis rather than softening it. The Quartet demands include ending the Turkish military presence, downgrading the relationship with Iran, non-interference in the internal affairs of the GCC states, and avoiding incitement and giving space to media platforms for agitators and opponents of the Gulf states as well as for terrorists and their supporters. UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said the Gulf region had changed and could not return to how it was before. He tweeted that I do not think that the Qatar crisis, on its third anniversary, deserves comment, adding that paths have diverged, and the Gulf has changed and cannot go back to what it was. According to a Dubai-based Saudi analyst, the steps taken by Qatar, especially its alliance with Turkey, make any opening in ending the crisis more remote. Many in the Gulf see Turkeys support for the insurgencies in Syria, Libya and elsewhere in the Arab world as supported and likely financed by Qatar. As a result, the new Kuwaiti efforts might not get much further than previous attempts at ending the standoff. The talk about American pressure also looks like wishful thinking by the Qataris. The US Trump administration is already mired in escalating internal issues, from the Covid-19 pandemic to rising protests over the killing of George Floyd, and these are likely to take up its attention in the near future at least. *A version of this article appears in print in the 11 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 By Samir Ali - Trend: A number of countries will open air borders with Azerbaijan in July 2020, Trend reports on June 9. According to the report, direct flights between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan may resume from July 1. Moreover, from July 15, eight CIS countries, including Azerbaijan, will resume air traffic with Russia. From August 1, flights from Russia to Europe, the Middle East and seven countries of Southeast Asia will be resumed. Also, the possibility of resuming flights to Georgia and Egypt in the autumn is on the agenda. Since mid-June, airlines will be able to start selling tickets. Air traffic between Azerbaijan and Turkey can be resumed from June 15. Turkey has already announced this, despite that the Azerbaijani side has not yet decided to resume international flights. Wizz Air announced the resumption of the Baku-Budapest-Baku flights from June 19. At the same time, Spokesman for the Cabinet of Ministers Ibrahim Mammadov said that the structure he represents has no information about this. "Flights in Azerbaijan were suspended until June 15. We did not receive information about the resumption of flights to Baku by other countries," he noted. Worldwide coronavirus cases pass 7 million mark, over 402k dead Iran Press TV Monday, 08 June 2020 9:19 AM The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide has now surpassed the 7 million mark, while the deaths from the fast-spreading disease have crossed 402,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. As of Monday morning, the overall number of cases stood at 7,006,436, while the death toll increased to 402,699, according to the university's latest update. Of those diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus, some 1,942,363 were reported in the US, which has recorded 110,514 fatalities. As the world's large economies including the US, the UK, Brazil and India are grappling with the fast-spreading virus, the South Pacific country of New Zealand says it has eliminated the transmission of the viral infection and will soon return to normal life. The following is the latest news on the pandemic around the globe: New Zealand free of COVID-19 New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that her government has eliminated the transmission of the virus domestically, and the country will get back to life without restrictions. "While the job is not done, there is no denying this is a milestone ... Thank you, New Zealand," she said. "We are confident we have eliminated transmission of the virus in New Zealand for now, but elimination is not a point in time, it is a sustained effort," Ardern added. She said her government would lift all containment measures except for border controls. The South Pacific country of about five million people reported its last case of infection with the virus on May 22. Indonesia eases capital restrictions Meanwhile, Indonesia has eased lockdown restrictions in the capital Jakarta, while new cases and fatalities are still being reported across the country. Health authorities reported 672 new COVID-19 and 50 deaths for Sunday. The figure takes the nation's total tall to 31,186 known cases and 1,851 deaths. India opens malls, temples as peak yet to come Elsewhere in Asia, India opened malls and temples in several cities on Monday, as part of measures to relax a ten-week lockdown, although the country has overtaken the UK in terms of the coronavirus cases. Health experts have warned that the outbreak will reach to the peak in July. The number of new cases rose by 9,983 to 257,486, government figures showed Monday. This has put the country of 1.3 billion population on course to surpass Spain in terms of positive cases as well. The reported death toll of 7,202, is, however, lower than the fatalities recorded in other badly-hit countries. Pakistan's cases exceed 100,000 Pakistan has launched a crackdown on businesses that breached social safety measures after the country's confirmed cases of coronavirus exceeded 100,000 on Monday. The country which has so far recorded 2,067 deaths and 103,671 cases lifted lockdown last month, but promulgated protocols for the reopening of markets, industries and public transport. The government has now "directed administrations to crack down on places [where] protocols are not being followed," said Planning Minister Asad Umar. Many markets and shops have been sealed because of non-compliance over the last few days, Umar said. Pakistan, which has been setting records for the number of new daily infections over the last 10 days, is now the 16th country to exceed 100,000 cases of COVID-19. This is while the county has yet to reach the peak of the outbreak. South Korea reports 38 new cases South Korea has raised concerns over a second wave of the outbreak in the capital Seoul as the country entered the final phase of its plan to reopen schools. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 38 new cases on Monday morning. Authorities have tightened distancing restrictions, which had been relaxed recently, to prevent another wave of the outbreak. The county has reported a total number of 11,814 cases and 273 deaths. China reports four new cases China, the country where the virus first showed up, registered four new confirmed cases in the mainland as of end of Sunday. The National Health Commission said the four cases were imported by travelers from overseas. Italy reports 53 new deaths Italy reported 53 additional deaths on Sunday, according to the Civil Protection department, which took the total death toll to 33,899 since the outbreak emerged in the country in late February. Officials also reported 197 new cases, down from 270 the day before. The country, with a total number of 234,998 cases, lifted restrictions on inter-regional travel, as well as travel to and from other European countries last week. Brazil records 1,382 new deaths, over 12k cases Brazil recorded 37,312 total deaths, while overall cases in the country reached 685,427, data from the Health Ministry showed on Sunday. Based on the government cumulative figures, the number of new deaths is 1,382, with 12,581 new confirmed cases over the last 24 hours. Over the weekend, officials removed months of national data on the pandemic from a government website as the far-right government of President Jair Bolsonaro has increasingly come under fire for the handing of the virus crisis. The total number of confirmed cases stands at 84,191 and the death toll remains unchanged at 4,634. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kondratiuk has gained vast experience in intelligence, security, and diplomatic service. President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday introduced the newly appointed Head of the SZR Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine Valeriy Kondratiuk to the agency's operatives. "Excellent professional training, high level of education, significant managerial experience gained during his work in senior positions in military intelligence, security agencies, diplomatic service, and other government agencies allow Valeriy Kondratiuk to successfully perform for our country the full range of responsible tasks," Zelensky said. Read alsoZelensky extends ban on Russian social networks in Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said he was convinced that under the new chief's leadership, the SZR will strengthen its ability to protect national interests amid an ongoing hybrid war waged against Ukraine. Valeriy Kondratiuk thanked the president for his trust. "I understand my personal responsibility for carrying out the tasks assigned to the Foreign Intelligence Service," he said. Valeriy Kondratiuk stressed his priority in strengthening the human intelligence network, improving the efficiency of analytical units, developing cyber and signal intelligence, improving the material and technical base, and ensuring social protection of operatives and their families. As UNIAN reported earlier, Valeriy Kondratiuk was appointed head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service SZR on June 5 to replace Valeriy Yevdokimov. "I fell in love with the prophets and these men who had loved Christ; I reflected on all their words and found that this philosophy alone was true and profitable." When Justin was arrested for his faith in Rome, the prefect asked him to denounce his faith by making a sacrifice to the gods. Justin replied, "No one who is rightly minded turns from true belief to false." Timeline 30 Crucifixion of Jesus; Pentecost 65 Peter and Paul executed 70 Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus 100 Justin Martyr born 165 Justin Martyr dies 180 Irenaeus writes Against Heresies It was in one sense an easy answer for Justin because he had spent most of his adult life discerning the true from the false. Fire in the soul Justin was born in the Roman city of Flavia Neapolis (ancient Shechem in Samaria). Raised by pagan parents, he sought to find life's meaning in the philosophies of his day. This only brought a series of disappointments. His first teacher was a Stoic who "knew nothing of God and did not even think knowledge of him to be necessary." There followed a Peripatetic (itinerant philosopher), who seemed most interested in getting his fees. Then came a Pythagorean, but his required course of music, astronomy, and geometry seemed far too slow. Finally, Platonism, though intellectually demanding, proved unfulfilling for Justin's hungry heart. At last, about A.D. 130, after a conversation with an old man, his life was transformed: "A fire was suddenly kindled in my soul. I fell in love with the prophets and these men who had loved Christ; I reflected on all their words and found that this philosophy alone was true and profitable. That is how and why I became a philosopher. And I wish that everyone felt the same way that I do." Justin continued to wear his philosopher's cloak, seeking to reconcile faith and reason. His teaching ministry took him first to Ephesus (c. 132), where he held a disputation with Trypho, a Jew, about the true interpretation of Scripture. The Dialogue with Trypho teaches three main points: the Old Covenant is passing away to make place for the New; the Logos is the God of the Old Testament; and the Gentiles are the new Israel. Later Justin moved to Rome, founded a Christian school, and wrote two bold apologies (i.e., defensesfrom the Greek apologia). Justin's First Apology, addressed to Emperor Antoninus Pius, was published in 155 and attempted to explain the faith. Christianity was not a threat to the state, he asserted, and should be treated as a legal religion. He wrote "on behalf of men of every nation who are unjustly hated and reviled." Justin argued that Christians are, in fact, the emperor's "best helpers and allies in securing good order, convinced as we are that no wicked man ... can be hidden from God, and that everyone goes to eternal punishment or salvation in accordance with the character of his actions." He further showed that Christianity is superior to paganism, that Christ is prophecy fulfilled, and that paganism is actually a poor imitation of the true religion. A picture of worship However, this apology has gained the most attention for modern readers because in it Justin records detailed descriptions of early Christian worship (to show unbelievers that Christianity was not subversive). The most famous passage is this: On the day called Sunday there is a gathering together in the same place of all who live in a given city or rural district. The memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. Then when the reader ceases, the president in a discourse admonishes and urges the imitation of these good things. Next we all rise together and send up prayers. When we cease from our prayer, bread is presented and wine and water. The president in the same manner sends up prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people sing out their assent, saying the 'Amen.' A distribution and participation of the elements for which thanks have been given is made to each person, and to those who are not present they are sent by the deacons. Those who have means and are willing, each according to his own choice, gives what he wills, and what is collected is deposited with the president. He provides for the orphans and widows, those who are in need on account of sickness or some other cause, those who are in bonds, strangers who are sojourning, and in a word he becomes the protector of all who are in need. Justin's Second Apology was written soon after Marcus Aurelius became emperor in 161. In these writings, Justin tried to show that the Christian faith alone was truly rational. He taught that the Logos (Word) became incarnate to teach humanity truth and to redeem people from the power of the demons. Four years later, Justin and his disciples were arrested for their faith. When the prefect threatened them with death, Justin said, "If we are punished for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, we hope to be saved." They were taken out and beheaded. Since he gave his life for the "true philosophy," Justin has been surnamed Martyr. (Newser) An Iranian man who provided information on Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani to US and Israeli intelligence has been sentenced to die, according to Iran's judiciary. A spokesperson described Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd as a spy for both the CIA and Mossad at a Tuesday news conference, reports Reuters. Gholamhossein Esmaili said Mousavi-Majd had "shared information about the whereabouts of martyr Soleimani with our enemies" and "will be executed soon." story continues below The judiciary later clarified that Mousavi-Majd's conviction, following an October 2018 arrest, is not related to Soleimani's killing in a US drone strike in Iraq in January. Iran announced last summer that it had detained 17 spies working for the CIA who would be sentenced to death. In February, it noted a spy for the CIA had been sentenced to death for attempting to share information on Iran's nuclear program. Mousavi-Majd's death sentence is to be carried out by hanging, per the Guardian. (Read more Iran stories.) The Jharkhand government and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) have reached an agreement to ensure that labourers of the state get prescribed wages and healthcare, accident, travel allowance and housing benefits, an official statement said here on Monday. A total of 11,815 labourers from the Santhal Pargana region of the state will get an opportunity to work for the BRO with full benefits after a written agreement was reached between the authorities of BRO and the state government, it said. The deliberations from the two sides began after migrant workers, who had returned to Jharkhand from Leh on May 29, apprised Chief Minister Hemant Soren of their exploitation, vis--vis minimum wages, when Soren had been to the Birsa Munda Airport to welcome the first batch of 60 returnees, the statement, issued by the Chief Ministers Office (CMO), said. The migrants had alleged that the contractors and middlemen used to pay them less then the minimum wages prescribed by the BRO. The contractors also used to keep their ATM cards and withdraw one-third of the wages when they returned home, the migrants alleged before the chief minister. After coming to know from the labourers about the exploitation that they were not even getting minimum wages, the chief minister set up a special team which deliberated with the BRO authorities. After days of deliberations, a written agreement under the Inter-State Labour Act, 1979, Workmen Compensation Act, 1923 has been reached, which will enable the labourer to get benefits like prescribed wages, healthcare, accident, transport, housing benefits, it said. Following the agreement, the state government has given permission to the BRO to engage labourers who will now get wages with a 20 per cent hike, which will be deposited in their accounts. With the signing of the agreement, the role of middlemen has ended, the statement said. National security is the highest priority for us. Alongside we give equal priority to the rights of our labourers working in the service of the nation in border areas. The state government is always ready to cooperate with the Defence Ministry, the statement quoted the chief minister as saying. Thousands of workers from the Santhal Pargana region of the state have been going to Leh-Ladakh since 1970s for construction works, particularly roads on difficult terrains and peaks, it said. The workers, through the local networkers of the BRO go in two batches every year --in April/May and return in September and another goes in October/November and return in February, the statement said. But this time the migrant workers were stranded due to the lockdown and they approached the call centres (set up by Jharkhand) and CMO, following which the state government took initiatives to bring them back. The second batch of 55 migrants reached on Monday morning and three more batches are scheduled to fly back this week. Another day, another stride forward in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. On June 4, Novavax (NVAX) revealed it will receive $60 million from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to further the advancement of its experimental vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, in the U.S., through JPEOCBRND-EB (Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense Enabling Biotechnologies). As per the terms of the agreement, NVAX will work with multiple biologics contract development manufacturing organizations (CDMO) based in the U.S. to increase the scale of antigen and Matrix-M adjuvant production, which are both components of the vaccine. The end goal is to produce 10 million doses for the DoD in 2020, which will then be used in either a Phase 2/3 trial or under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Weighing in on this development for B.Riley FBR, five-star analyst Mayank Mamtani tells investors hes encouraged by the grant, arguing that the U.S. military is a key population subset of national security importance. However, Mamtani believes the implications go even further. We believe this development is in sharp contrast to 3/6 media report speculating NVAX being excluded from the list of five finalists chosen by the Trump administration via Operation Warp Speed (OWS). In fact, this development further strengthens our conviction in a sizeable funding to be secured from U.S. BARDA which has ~$4 billion leftover from the original $6.5 billion allocation under the CARES Act for COVID-19 vaccine development and manufacturing; AstraZeneca/Univ. of Oxford, Moderna, J&J and Merck have been the beneficiaries to date, which might have been potential alternatives considered for this DoD contract, he explained. While some investors might see the need for U.S.-based CDMO to deliver on this contract as a cause for concern, Mamtani points out that NVAX has already secured capacity. The $388 million grant from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) should be enough to support it through the Phase 2b trial. The non-dilutive funding will instead go towards the Phase 3 NVX-CoV2373 clinical efficacy (outcomes) study and large-scale manufacturing activities. The analyst added, Here, we think U.S. BARDA could likely commit to secure access for '2373 to be expanded in high-risk, frontline workers and/or elderly in an effort to allow for approval of a tried and tested recombinant protein-based vaccine. Story continues With earlier availability of the candidate for stockpiling now likely, the deal is sealed for Mamtani. The analyst rates NVAX a Buy along with a $74 price target. (To watch Mamtanis track record, click here) In general, other analysts echo Mamtanis sentiment. 5 Buys and 1 Hold add up to a Strong Buy consensus rating. Given the $50.83 average price target, the upside potential comes in at 13.5%. (See Novavax 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. ALBANY A state court has ruled against a real estate affiliate of SUNY Polytechnic Institute and ordered it to turn over money held in escrow to a Syracuse-area developer that built a $105 million semiconductor manufacturing facility for the state in Onondaga County. The SUNY Poly entity, Fort Schuyler Management Corp. had set aside money from the construction contract to settle a dispute over the cost of the land that the state paid. The state's main economic development agency, Empire State Development, legally had control over FSMC. The developer, Cor Development Co. of Fayetteville, sued Fort Schuyler to withdraw $567,859 that was being held in escrow. Two executives with Cor were convicted in the bid-rigging scandal and federal criminal case brought against SUNY Poly founder Alain Kaloyeros, although Onondaga County state Supreme Court Justice Deborah Karalunas asserted in her order Monday to release the funds from escrow that the criminal convictions and its outcome was not relevant to the case. She ruled that the state was correct in holding onto the escrow fund until her order, however. Since the bid-rigging case began in 2016, New York state has revamped Fort Schuyler Management Corp. and another SUNY Poly non-profit called Fuller Road Management Corp. and replaced them with a new entity called NY CREATES, which oversees the real estate and economic development projects of SUNY Poly and other SUNY affiliates. Kaloyeros, who was convicted and sentenced to more than three years in federal prison, has been free pending his appeal. So have the two Cor executives who were also convicted, Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi. NY CREATES, which ESD created, is overseen by a new board and led by semiconductor industry veteran Doug Grose. The state insists that NY CREATES is legally separate from SUNY Poly, giving it the independence that the Fort Schuyler and Fuller Road entities didn't have. ESD was also involved in the case. "While ESD evaluates its next steps, it is pleased that the court found ESD acted appropriately by withholding the funds during the course of the litigation," ESD spokeswoman Kristin Devoe told the Times Union. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "In the four years that Empire State Development has managed the FSMC/FRMC portfolio, we have implemented significant reforms that have resulted in greater transparency, oversight and accountability, and an improved management structure," Devoe added. "Including the launch of NY CREATES, responsible fiscal management, additional research funding and lower vacancy rates, which has led directly to commitments of more than $4 billion in new investment and over 2,500 new created and retained jobs." Cor was originally hired to build the facility, located in the suburban Syracuse town of DeWitt, for an LED company called Soraa that eventually backed out of the deal. The state found a new tenant called NexGen Power Systems that makes power control chips for electronic devices. Christopher Buckey, an Albany attorney who represents Cor, said the escrow account had grown to roughly $1.2 million as the project was modified for the new tenant. The remains of Alan Hall are removed by gardai after firefighters, attending a blaze at the property, found him dead in the bathroom of his home having suffered injuries to his head and neck. Photo: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin Two Dubliners were being questioned at separate garda stations in the capital last night on suspicion of the murder of a 44-year-old man. The body of tragic Alan Hall was discovered at his home in Bluebell Avenue in south Dublin on the morning of last May 18 - a post-mortem revealed he had suffered injuries to his head and neck in a brutal assault. The alarm was raised by a neighbour who heard smoke and carbon monoxide detectors going off. Dublin Fire Brigade brought the blaze, which was in the bedroom, under control. When firefighters searched the house, they found Mr Hall dead in the bathroom with injuries to his head and neck. There were some indications the back door of the house may have been open when the emergency services arrived. Expand Close Alan Hall / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Alan Hall Smoke Last night, a senior source told the Herald that gardai have not yet been able to establish if Mr Hall had died as a result of the assault he had suffered or from smoke inhalation caused by the fire. "A post-mortem showed that there was smoke in his lungs so the big question has been trying to establish if the injuries he received in the violent assault were enough to have killed him or if the smoke killed him," the source said. "The two suspects who were arrested are being questioned on suspicion of murder and they were known to Mr Hall and are suspected of being in the property on May 18," the source added. Like Mr Hall, the suspects have been staying in "supported accommodation" in the Bluebell area of the capital but at a different address. The duo, aged 33 and 29, who live together are known to gardai for minor offences linked to misuse of drugs and public order offences. It is understood Mr Hall was also battling addiction issues but he "was in the process of turning his life around" at the time of his death, according to a source last night. Gardai yesterday announced details of the planned arrests, which were carried out by Clondalkin officers. "Both men were arrested in the Dublin area and are currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at Clondalkin and Lucan Garda Stations," a garda spokesman said. Butcher Mr Hall is understood to have previously worked as a butcher and while he was known to gardai he was not a serious criminal and had not come to the attention of the force for some time. He was described by neighbours as a "quiet but helpful" man. He lived on his own in the end-of-terrace cottage where the fire was reported at 11.20am on Monday, May 18. Neighbours said last month that Mr Hall usually "kept himself to himself" but would sometimes have friends around. "He was a lovely fella. He would do anything for you. He had been shopping for someone the day before this happened," one neighbour said. "We used to have a few drinks on special occasions and he was a nice lad. It's very sad." The neighbour said Mr Hall had been seen the day before the fire and did not have any visible injuries. YEREVAN. Congratulating Mr. Ghazaryan on his appointment as Chief of Police, I would like to say that the first task I consider is his transferring of that energy, giving a new impetus to the police in terms of fighting the pandemic. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this Tuesday while introducing the newly appointed Chief of Police, Vahe Ghazaryan, to the staff of the Police of Armenia. "The police officer, the police uniform, must create a sense of respect by every citizen, they must have very vigilant meaning. On the other hand, when seeing a police officer, the citizen of the Republic of Armenia must feel protected and perceive him as his own, Pashinyan said, in particular. He stressed that every police officer should perceive himself as a representative of the Prime Minister, who communicates with the people and citizens. "I am convinced that we have enough will to pursue this issue to the end," he added, above all. According to the Prime Minister, he had a task to make the power structures in Armenia stable. "All police officers have been given that chance: to position themselves in new Armenia, new values, and new goals. Now it is time to sum up who used that opportunity, and how," Pashinyan added. Colin Marry's 800-sow unit would be classified as an average-sized pig farm, but he's anything but an average farmer. After studying commerce in NUIG, he spent two years teaching English in Asia, before returning to Ireland in 2007 and working on the family farm at Littlegrange near Drogheda in Co Louth. He did an online masters in agricultural economics and a pig management course with Teagasc and started running the farm, which was split between him and his two brothers in 2015. "One of the first projects I undertook was to put in a home mill and mix system which manufactures the feed on the farm," he says. "We buy in the raw materials - wheat, barley, soya etc - which saves us about 10pc. "It is a fully automated, computerised system which has pros and cons. The feed is made on-demand so the computer can ask the pen if there is feed needed, depending on whether the feed is at a certain level. "If there is a problem or something goes down, it has to be fixed straight away because the whole farm isn't getting fed. "Recently the motor that runs the entire feed mill broke down at 10pm on a Friday. We have an electrician who has been with us for over 30 years and he knows we're not going to be ringing him for something trivial so we were able to get it fixed. "I wouldn't change it because it has a lower capital cost and allows us to get fresh, high-quality feed to the pigs regularly." Sustainability is one of the values underpinning Colin's approach and he has established a company called Permapigs, which follows on the permaculture method - a system of sustainable agriculture centred on utilising the patterns of natural ecosystems. "I believe climate change is a problem, and one big step we can take to combat this is integrated systems," he says. "For example, I'm looking at growing algae beside the pigs (unit). All the inputs for algae are the outputs for pig production, heat, manure, CO2 etc. I'm looking at feeding it as protein back to the pigs, but I haven't been able to develop this fully yet because it costs a huge amount in research and development. Funding "I've applied for grants and funding to develop it further but I wasn't successful. There are other problems in farming at the minute so I'll look at those and come back in the future when I've got more cash-flow to work with. "I've travelled to over 40 counties over the last decade and have found that most of the problems in farming are the same around the world. Farmers have the same complaints, but the solutions aren't off the shelf - you have to find them yourself. Colin believes that in many ways farming is a victim of its success as the underlying problem is urbanisation and the gap between producer and consumer. "Globalisation of the food chain has meant that if the farmer tries to add value to their product by the time it gets to the consumer it's hard for them to understand the value that has been created," he says. "It's a poor system as it leads to farmers struggling to make a living and consumers not understanding the product. "It's only when you have that direct connection with the consumer that you can get the proper return on your product - it needs to be under your brand." Colin feels there are two solutions: taste and developing a direct connection with consumers. "I've developed a unique programme which involves feeding an olive bi-product to them to enhance the taste of the pork," he says. "I found that people are moving away from pork. You don't see it as much on menus in restaurants so I'm trying to look at trying to change the flavour profile of the meat. "The olive feeding programme does this - it makes it more succulent. It's been reviewed by Michelin Star-winning chefs and food critics and they've backed this up, so now I just need to turn it into a business. "I also feed them the bi-product of rapeseed oil so it is four times higher in omega 3 than traditional pork. "I try to sell the pork locally and internationally as well so I've taken on someone based in Vietnam to import it for me. I hope to launch the olive pork there in the coming weeks. "We're just working on the logistics, which is a nightmare with the Covid situation, but we'll keep persevering and get there eventually." The olives idea was developed more by accident than design. Having been contacted by a friend to trial the idea as a way of improving pig growth and health, Colin then found out it would improve the taste. "We did the trial and it didn't work but when we tasted it we realised there could be something to it," he says. Meanwhile, Colin is developing a visitor experience which he aims to launch in 2021. "The only way to control the conversation is by explaining what happens and telling the story (of their food)," he says. "I need to invest a lot in it to make it fit for purpose. In the first version of it, they won't be going onto the farm because it is a working farm and there are biosecurity issues, so it will be an audiovisual and taste thing. "Food and tourism go hand in hand. If you can add a retail brand to this then it would make a lot of sense. Outside organisations can help out but aren't going to lead something like this - there's only so far they can bring it. It needs to be farmer-led to go forward. "There's a lot of misunderstanding about pork and meat in general so this will lead to an informed conversation on where food comes from. "At the minute people get their information on food from Netflix documentaries but this isn't really what happens in Ireland. A lot of people choose to go vegan and they're not fully informed on their decision and don't eat in a way they can sustain, and those that do sustain it suffer from issues with their health. "I don't want to say to people that something is right or wrong, but I can give them the main information to keep in mind. "The success of farming has allowed people to move away from the land and this has caused this gap in information, and the only way to change this is to bring people back to the farm. "I've had a few school tours and it does work well." While there are options to expand Colin's business further, supply chain issues have prevented him from reaching more customers. "I did have orders from other countries that I couldn't meet," he says. "I'm working on overcoming those challenges so I can meet the demand. Factories are set up for volume and can't segregate my meat properly." Colin is also heavily involved in local pig producer groups and the Irish Pig Health Society, and he is on the board of a European pig producers' organisation. "You have to be all-in on these things," he says. "Farming is a lifestyle more than a profession." 'I haven't used blanket feed or in-water antibiotics in years if an animal needs treatment then it gets an injection' Expand Close Colin he is feeding his pigs a mix of olive and rapeseed oils to create new pork flavours / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Colin he is feeding his pigs a mix of olive and rapeseed oils to create new pork flavours Colin Marry is adamant that farming can be made more environmentally friendly without compromising output. He is all about finding uses for products that other farmers might discard. And he is particularly concerned about the overuse of antibiotics. "Farming can be linear," he says. "Things go in and out and there's a lot of things involved that are not utilised. We need to look at these things to produce more. "It doesn't happen overnight - you need a lot of time to adapt a traditional farm. "When it comes to the environment, rather than reducing what we're doing, it's about looking at the connectiveness. "The pig is the great recycler of food. In my case they reuse the by-products from the rapeseed and olive oil industry. "In recent times focus has been on increasing production but now there is more of a realisation that sometimes we can go to far in one direction and forget about the overall connectiveness of the world, especially with the increased awareness of our carbon footprint. "I think there are answers in farming, for example with the algae I was producing from the waste streams from pig production. But it would take a lot of investment in the long term to make it work. It's all about joined-up thinking." When it comes to animal health, Colin stresses that there are options that don't involve over-using antibiotics. "We try to improve pig health in the long term," he says. "There's pressure on using less antibiotics, so I'm looking for ways to improve the health of the animal without using antibiotics. "I haven't used blanket feed or in-water antibiotics in several years, so if an individual animal needs treatment then they get an injection. "I started using an algae supplement which improved the lactating pig health and in turn improved the suckling pig health." Colin has previously stressed: "Healthy animals don't need antibiotics. Antibiotics are very important for the treatment of sick animals and I think farmers have a duty to try to protect the effectiveness of antibiotics for the future by using them responsibly and only when necessary. "That is the message I would like to get out to farmers. We need to make sure we use antibiotics in a careful and targeted way so that they continue to work well against the illnesses we need them for." Danny Cipriani has spoken about his new relationship with Victoria, a mental health campaigner, for the first time. In February, the rugby union player, 32, took a break from social media after bravely revealing he once tried to buy a gun to kill himself in an emotional video uploaded following the death of his ex, Love Island host Caroline Flack. And four months on, the sportsman appears to be in a much happier place as he credited his girlfriend Victoria for 'helping to raise him up from being a broken man' in a sweet Instagram post shared to his Stories earlier this week. 'I was a broken man and you helped raise me up': Danny Cipriani has spoken about his new relationship with Victoria, a mental health campaigner, for the first time (pictured) The Gloucester fly-half praised his new love for helping him feel 'stronger than ever' alongside a snap of the couple holding hands during a romantic countryside stroll. The media personality wrote: 'I love you Victoria. You can into my life when I was a broken man and you helped raise me up and I feel stronger than ever.' Victoria responded by uploading the same picture on her main feed and the caption: '5 ft 2 coming through', with her smitten boyfriend cheekily commenting: 'Ill get behind you anytime.' As well as spending time with Danny, the brunette beauty also works with the It's OK campaign, which encourages people to feel comfortable discussing their mental health. His new love: The sportsman credited his girlfriend Victoria for 'helping to raise him up from being a broken man' in a sweet Instagram post shared to his Stories earlier this week 'Ill get behind you anytime': Victoria responded by uploading the same picture on her main feed and the caption: '5 ft 2 coming through', with her smitten beau sharing a cheeky comment Tragic: In February, Danny took a break from social media after bravely revealing he once tried to kill himself in an emotional video, in wake of his ex Caroline Flack's death (pictured in 2019) The Kent native also has showbiz connections of her own, as she has shared several images of herself enjoying nights out with Kerry Katona. Their romance first came to light earlier this month, with a source telling The Mirror: 'Danny has really got a spring in his step and it's down to Victoria. 'She has put the smile back on his face. It's still early days but they are enjoying spending time together under the lockdown.' The ex factor: Among Danny's former flames are brunettes (L-R) Kelly Brook and Katie Price The Cheltenham-based hunk was in a public and high-profile relationship with model Kelly Brook between 2008 and 2010. Danny then dated actress Lindsay Lohan in 2010, and Katie Price in 2011. His other former flames include Kirsty Gallacher and Caroline, who tragically took her own life in February. In reaction to the former presenter's passing, the rugby ace posted the last messages he shared with the popular TV personality on Instagram, before taking a month-long break from the platform while coming to terms with his grief over her death. Mental health: Brunette beauty Victoria works with the It's OK campaign, which encourages people to feel comfortable discussing their mental health Showbiz connections: Danny's new girlfriend also has showbiz connections of her own, as she has shared several images of herself enjoying nights out with Kerry Katona To Dyer for: On one of their nights out, the friends posed for a snapshot with actor Danny Dyer In the messages, he revealed she called him 'black dot' and that he spoke to her about 'working in an industry that doesn't suit him' and she spoke about 'the court case coming up.' Danny also said he felt 'safe' sharing everything with Caroline, and claimed 'it was ultimately embarrassment and shame that killed her'. The former England superstar later admitted he went through 'severe depression' aged 22, and contemplated committing suicide, before touching on causing himself 'pain' with 'meaningless sex or painkillers or drinking alcohol'. To contact the Samaritans, call 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org Dr. vom Felde has collaborated with StradVision since 2017 and facilitated the entry of high-end Japanese and Asian tech companies into European industries. He brings previous experience from AT&T Bell Laboratories, IBM, Siemens, Infineon, and Qimonda. He holds a bachelor's degree in Physics from Ruhr University Bochum, a master's degree, and a Ph.D. in Physics from Technical University Karlsruhe. Germany was chosen as the European regional hub, so StradVision could stay as close to its partners as possible and tap into Germany's extensive auto industry, said CEO Junhwan Kim. "Our presence in Germany will be essential to maintaining robust global growth because German automakers are key leaders in the development and deployment of ADAS and AVs around the globe," Kim said. "We will continue the success we've seen already with our partners in Germany by maintaining a strong local presence on the ground near our partners." StradVision enables autonomous driving with its SVNet vision processing software and is the leading camera perception solution in the ADAS and AV sectors. The camera and AI-based software can work in conjunction with LiDAR and ultrasonic sensors to accurately detect objects, enabling advanced functions such as Automatic Parking Assist, Surround View Monitoring, Automatic Emergency Braking, Adaptive Cruise Control, and much more. Dr. vom Felde will oversee StradVision's latest projects in the EU which include a Level 4 autonomous bus project in towns across Europe, powered by StradVision's SVNet vision processing software. The project, for which production began in September 2019 with a European Tier 1 Supplier, will focus on three key areas: object detection, traffic sign recognition, and traffic light recognition. With Dr. vom Felde on board, StradVision also aims to expand its pipeline of Europe ADAS and autonomous vehicle projects from Level 2 to 4 and taking its fleet of vehicles past the 9 million mark. "We will expand our footprint in the entire EU, as there are multiple production projects incoming in the near future, and this German presence will make those projects much more successful," vom Felde said. "Our primary goal is to bring the safest and most accessible ADAS & AV solutions to Europe, and the new German office will help us achieve that goal." StradVision's lean and compact Deep Neural Network, SVNet, enables a wide range of abilities in the autonomous driving sector. There are multiple types and models of SVNet that increase its versatility for ADAS and Autonomous Vehicles. StradVision's SVNet software enables safety features including lane detection, traffic light and sign detection/recognition, object detection, free space detection, and much more. With these features, SVNet enables safe driving even in poor lighting and weather conditions. StradVision's software is already being deployed in ADAS vehicles in China, where it has earned the Guobiao (GB) certificate. The company also received the coveted Automotive SPICE CL2 certification for the European market. Other projects are ongoing or in development in Japan, South Korea, Germany, India, and the USA involving SUVs, trucks, sedans, and self-driving buses. Beyond the production projects already launched, StradVision is working on a variety of cutting-edge R&D projections to enhance its software such as pedestrian and vehicle behavior prediction, animal detection, gender recognition, an auto labeling tool, and much more. For more detailed information on StrdaVision, visit https://stradvision.com/home/. About StradVision StradVision (https://stradvision.com/home/)was founded in 2014 by perception specialists from South Korea with offices in San Jose, California; Seoul, South Korea; Tokyo, Japan; and now Munich, Germany. StradVision's goal is to bring powerful and safe ADAS & self-driving technology to the masses. StradVision's tried and true solutions are already deployed on the streets around the world and millions of vehicles are planned to be added in the very near future. StradVision received the 2020 Autonomous Vehicle Technology ACES Award in Autonomy (Software Category). About Born2Global Centre Born2Global Centre (www.born2global.com) is a full-cycle service platform for global expansion. Since inception in 2013, Born2Global has been setting the standard for successful startup ecosystem as the main Korean government agency under the Ministry of Science and ICT. Born2Global has expanded and transformed startups to be engaged, equipped and be connected with the global market. Media Contact John Oh Marketing Manager, StradVision [email protected] Jina Lee PR Manager, Born2Global Centre [email protected] SOURCE Born2Global Centre Protesters marching on June 9, 2019 during a rally against a controversial extradition law proposal in Hong Kong - AFP Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam warned on Tuesday the city could not afford further "chaos" as it marked the first anniversary of the start of rolling mass pro-democracy protests. More than a million people flooded the streets a year ago to protest a bill by Ms Lam's government that would have allowed people to be extradited to mainland China, where courts are controlled by the Communist Party, for trial. Ms Lam later withdrew the bill but the legislation triggered widespread concern that the central government in Beijing was stifling freedoms in the global financial hub, sparking months of anti-government protests. "All of us can see the difficulty we have been through in the past year, and due to such serious situations we have more problems to deal with," Ms Lam said during her weekly media conference, which coincided with the anniversary. "We need to learn from mistakes, I wish all lawmakers can learn from mistakes - that Hong Kong cannot bear such chaos." After a relative lull in protests during the coronavirus pandemic, demonstrators have returned to the streets in recent weeks and more rallies are expected. Activists have called for people to gather at lunchtime and later on Thursday to mark the anniversary of last year's mass rally. They have also announced plans to hold a referendum on Sunday about whether to launch a city-wide strike against national security laws proposed last month. That legislation, which authorities insist will focus on "troublemakers" who pose a threat to national security, has ratcheted tensions higher. Ms Lam cautioned against the activists' plans to hold a strike referendum. "Over the past year, Hong Kongers and the world have been bearing witness to the deteriorating situation in Hong Kong, with Beijing tightening its grip over the city's liberties, democracy activist Joshua Wong said in a Twitter feed. On Monday, a Chinese official suggested that the degree of autonomy that Hong Kong would have when the post-colonial agreement on its status runs out in 2047 could depend on how the city behaves until then. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 01:49:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LONDON, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Huawei is "as committed as ever" to providing British network operators with the best equipment to help local people share photos, stream movies, get together online and much more, the Chinese tech company said in an open letter released Monday. Pledging that it is still fully committed to helping build Britain's 5G network, Huawei said it is "working to bring high speed connections to every part of the country". Meanwhile, "we're also playing our part in creating jobs, training the engineers of tomorrow, investing in new technology and supporting universities", the company said. The British government announced in January its new plans to safeguard the country's telecoms network, which is widely seen as approving a restricted role for the Chinese tech company in helping build the country's 5G network. "For nearly 20 years, we've supplied the UK's mobile and broadband companies with 3G and 4G. But some now question our role in helping Britain lead the way in 5G, " Huawei said in the letter. Huawei Vice President Victor Zhang said: "Huawei grew up in the UK. We've been here for 20 years and were integral in building the 3G and 4G networks we all use every day. Today's letter underlines Huawei's ongoing commitment to improving connectivity for everyone in the UK. As a private company, 100 percent owned by employees, our priority has been to help mobile and broadband companies build a better connected UK." James Sassoon, who served as Britain's first commercial secretary to the Treasury from 2010 to 2013 and sits as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords, warned that the British government "can ill afford to spurn China's expertise". "A government looking to invest in the UK's infrastructure renewal can ill afford to spurn China's expertise - but that is what it will effectively do if, under pressure from the Sinophobes, the Government reverses its decision to allow Huawei's limited involvement in building out Britain's 5G network," he wrote in a comment article published Monday on The Telegraph website. Enditem New Delhi, June 9 : After Home Minister Amit Shahs virtual rally in Bihar, the political temperature is heating up in the state with RJD opposing the rally by clanging utensils and Congress attacking the BJP on the amount of money spent on it. The Congress-RJD combine is gearing up for the Assembly polls too with Congress identifying probable seats as the party has ceded the lead role to the RJD. A Congress leader and former minister from Bihar said, "In principle there will be an alliance with RJD and we are committed to oust the BJP alliance government in the state which has not cared about suffering of millions and started political rallies but regarding seat sharing it is something to be decided at AICC level." Congress has identified 75 of the total 243 seats where it believes it is in a good position to win against the ruling JDU-BJP alliance. Sources say in the last election Congress contested on 41 seats and JD-U was also part of the alliance. The Assembly election is slated for later this year and Congress has started preparing and shortlisting of candidates. The party leader on condition of anonymity said that 75 seats seems to be unrealistic and the party may settle for around 60 to 65 seats. As the Congress-RJD alliance has HAM, RLSP, and Sharad Yadav's party, they will also demand major chunk and RLSP is a serious player in the state politics, said a leader. In 2015, Congress contested on 41 seats and won 27 and RJD-JDU contested 101 seats each and RJD won 80 and JD-U 71. Nitish Kumar has been at the helm for 15 years in the state. While a call to RJD leaders did not elicit a response but sources say that the seat sharing agreement will be done as per strength of the party. The alliance talks are likely to take place next month after the COVID-19 pandemic situation subsides in the country and probably after June 19 as the Congress in charge for Bihar Shaktisinh Gohil is contesting Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat and is busy in the management of the election as Congress is facing a resignation spree of its MLAs in the state. Image: Twitter She has proved that women can have it all. Whether it's running a family, an election campaign or even an entire country! The popularity of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has soared in the country following her management of the COVID-19 crises, with months to go before the general elections. Ardern, who took office in October 2017 and has since then dealt with two other major crises, has the approval of 59.6 per cent among New Zealanders, according to a survey published on Monday by the Newshub-Reid agency. However, the leader has always enjoyed popularity among her countrymen and after her election, there was even talk of a "Jacindamania" phenomenon, a news website reported. Over the last couple of months, Ardern implemented a series of drastic measures to check the spread of the highly infectious coronavirus in the Oceanic nation, drawing praise from the people and gaining their approval. The Labour leader, who currently leads a coalition government with New Zealand First and Green Party, has gained 20.8 percentage points from the previous poll when the government was staring at people's discontent over housing problems and homelessness. If Ardern can maintain the current support, her party could come to power with an outright majority, securing 72 of the 120 seats in the Parliament, in the upcoming elections on September 19, according to the survey. The 39-year-old said the survey results reflected the work they had done together, and she just "have had the humble and privileged opportunity to be leading at this time". Ardern has received widespread praise for prioritising the well-being of the people, and for her gestures of empathy towards them, including virtual interaction with children to discuss the pandemic, which has resulted in 1,153 cases and 21 deaths in the country. The leader also stood out for the compassion shown to the victims of the supremacist attack on two mosques in the city of Christchurch in March 2019, in which 51 people died, and her leadership during the eruption of the Whakaari volcano, where 21 people lost their lives last December. Also Read: Indian-American Girl Honoured By Donald Trump For COVID-19 Work He was asked whether the new policy modifications could have made a difference when Marcus Smith, a Greensboro man who was experiencing homelessness, died while in the custody of Greensboro police in late 2018. James declined to provide any answer relating specifically to Smith's death. "Respectfully, that is a case that is still in litigation," James said, "so I dont want to speak specifically about that case. What Ill say is were trying to make the policies as clear as possible so there is no confusion. We also want to make sure that we put the best officers possible out on the street." Across the nation, some protesters have demanded defunding of police departments. If that occurred in Greensboro, James said: "I cant say exactly where (the impact) is, but it could be in personnel. It also could be in training." The Greensboro City Council controls the police budget. James said no matter what the council decides, the department will adjust and provide the best service possible. James said he hopes to engage the community about the issues they care about. The chief pointed out he had already begun holding a series of community meetings when he took the position, but some were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. A man has been charged with murder after his sister's decomposing body was found inside their home. Lucas Delaney, 30, was arrested at Cumberland Hospital, in western Sydney, about 11am Tuesday after investigators found his 20-year-old sister Gabby dead inside the home they shared on Barlow Street, in Cambridge Park. She was last seen alive on June 3, six days before officers made the grim discovery. Police allege in the days to follow, Lucas checked himself in to hospital, where he remained up until his arrest. On Tuesday afternoon, he was charged with murder and refused bail to appear in Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday June 10. Officers have not yet been able to establish a cause of death given the length of time the body had been left to deteriorate. Gabby Delaney's parents, who live in Western Australia, asked police to conduct a welfare check after making several failed attempts to contact her Gabby's brother Lucas, 30, has arrested over her death and is being questioned at Parramatta Police Station They were only notified that something may have been askew when Ms Delaney's parents - who live in Western Australia - raised the alarm. They hadn't been able to contact her for almost a week and were concerned for her welfare. Detective Inspector Jason Pietruszka admitted it was a 'confronting' crime scene for officers who attended. 'It was quite a confronting scene, the young lady had not been seen for six days and police who entered the scene described it as devastating, very confronting,' he said. The alleged murder is reportedly being treated as a domestic-violence incident. 'Domestic violence is a horrendous crime that is a scourge on our community,' Detective Inspector Pietruszka said according to the ABC. 'It's tragic a 20-year-old girl who's life was before her, cut short. 'We believe some time after she was reported missing he presented himself to Cumberland Hospital.' Forensic detectives and the homicide squad spent the morning at the 'confronting' scene assisting local officers in their investigations. A couch - believed to have been stained with blood - was removed from the home and taken away with other evidence. Detective Inspector Jason Pietruszka admitted it was a 'confronting' crime scene for those police who attended. Shocked neighbours in the quiet residential street said they had no idea something horrible had happened until noticing a number of police cars parked outside. Gabby Delaney, 20, was found dead inside her home at Cambridge Park, in Sydney's west, on Monday night. Her brother has been arrested over her death Ms Delaney was an artist who documented her practice on YouTube. Next door neighbour Brittney Hotchkiss, who is the same age as Ms Delaney, said she was shocked to find out the news about what allegedly happened to her friend. 'She was really nice and she was just so young. She was my age and I just couldn't imagine what her family's going through,' Ms Hotchkiss said. 'I'm pretty freaked out. It was right next door so that's a bit scary.' Neighbour Paris Stammers, 22, described Ms Delaney as a 'friendly, nice girl'. 'It's so close to home, she's so young,' she said. Other neighbours in the quiet residential street said they had no idea something horrible had happened until police cars parked outside. Gabby Delaney may been dead for several days before he body was found. Police have taken a a couch away with other evidence Nextdoor neighbour Brittney Hotchkiss (left), who is the same age as Ms Delaney, said she was shocked to find out the news about what allegedly happened to her friend. Neighbour Paris Stammers described Gabby Delaney (pictured) as a 'friendly, nice girl' 'You kind of say hello to people in passing, but there's a lot of coming and going so it's a bit hard to tell who lives there and who is just visiting,' one man said. 'The only thing my daughter said over the weekend was that it was a bit quiet, they normally have a few parties or that kind of thing. 'We didn't realise anything was up until my wife walked out to put the bins out and saw the police cars. 'Next minute there was police everywhere, an ambulance, it was all happening.' Homicide detectives were on the scene assisting local officers and will continue to help in the investigation. The small cul-de-sac in which the home is located was taped off by police. Police remove evidence bags from the home - at the end of a cul-de-sac - on Tuesday morning Police carry out forensic work on cars outside the home shared by the brother and sister The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates. The United StatesMexicoCanada Agreement (USMCA) officially replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on July 1, 2020. This is almost two years after the tri-national negotiations wrapped up on September 30, 2018. In outlining USMCA's "entry into force," the United States Trade Representative (USTR) looked forward to a "more balanced, reciprocal trade, leading to freer markets, fairer trade, and robust economic growth in North America." Statements like these certainly show that trade blocs are much more about politics than economics. The tell-tale is to look for the contradictions. For example, freer markets and fairer trade is a very tough balance to strike. Why? The former simply requires removing trade barriers while the latter is in the eye of the beholder. One is objective and the other is subjective. The leaders of Mexico, the United States and Canada sign the USMCA. The leaders of Mexico, the United States and Canada sign the USMCA. (Photo: USMCA) USMCA is not about "free trade" and neither was NAFTA. No traditional free trade agreement is ever so literal. USMCA, like NAFTA, systematically keeps standard trade tariffs at zero for most tangible items. However, a tangle of non-tariff trade barriers (NTBs) remain. From a supply chain management perspective, tariffs are much easier to factor into cost calculations than are NTBs. Indeed, USMCA is more about what economists call "trade diversion." This means setting up rules to get the trade bloc partners to do more business with each other than with non-members. There is nothing inherently wrong with trade partners doing more business except, however, when any rules of origin requirements lead to inefficient adjustments in supply chains. Rules of origin, like the concept of "fairer trade," is a subjective term. They are designed to ensure that a "fair" amount of supply chain value-add takes place in North America instead of outside. The North American content of passenger vehicles, for example, must rise from 62.5% under NAFTA to 75% under USMCA. Thus, all auto parts and raw materials used in them (e.g., steel and aluminum) will require supply chains to adjust accordingly in order to maintain that threshold. Story continues Blue Water Bridge is a twin-span international bridge across the St. Clair River that links Port Huron, Michigan in the United States, and Point Edward, Ontario, Canada. Blue Water Bridge is a twin-span international bridge across the St. Clair River that links Port Huron, Michigan in the United States, and Point Edward, Ontario, Canada. (Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection) Suppose a vendor in a non-member country offered a more cost-effective option to a Canada-based producer. If using the input in production meant that the finished item or sub-assembly from Canada did not meet sufficient North American content, the item could not be exported duty-free to the United States or Mexico. In other words, the item is less expensive in production but more expensive in terms of export landed-cost due to USMCA regulations. This forces companies to balance outside interests against trade bloc interests. This is also why the USTR's view of "fairer trade" means less trade outside of North America. To comply with USMCA's rules of origin, the importer must calculate the regional value content of the item. In this case, "regional" means North America. Two options are to show either the transaction value or the net cost of the item. Sometimes the customs agency will limit the importer to only one of the two. Iron and steel, for example, have transaction value and net cost thresholds that are 75% and 65%, respectively. These new standards must be in place by the start of 2023. In some cases, however, the new standard is graduated. For example, finished passenger vehicles require that only the net cost method be used to calculate regional value content. The threshold starts at 66% in 2020, 69% in 2021, 72% in 2022 before reaching 75% in 2023. For automobile parts, the thresholds are about the same except that the transaction value method is allowed as well. On top of this, USMCA adds a novel twist with a concept called labor value content. Basically, passenger vehicle parts manufacturing and assembly must include labor that is earning wages of at least US$16 per hour when calculating net cost. One can argue that this standard eliminates non-member sources of automobile parts (i.e., Asia and possibly even Mexico sources) when striving for the 75% magic number by 2023. Trucks leaving a border inspection site. Trucks leaving a border inspection site. (Photo: FreightWaves staff) As a creature of its time, USMCA does include innovations that were not available when NAFTA came into force in 1994. Consider the "single window" entry point for electronic document submissions as outlined in USMCA Article 7.10. Using the World Customs Organization Data Model as a basis for gathering data elements, the idea is for importers to have a more streamlined system for tracking the status of an item moving within the trade bloc. The intent is to increase transparency and speed the release time from the respective customs agency. If this works according to plan it should lower compliance costs and increase trade flows. Of course, this is only harmonization regarding an e-portal. It is not harmonization of customs procedures themselves as noted in USMCA Article 7.11. Such a thing would move the agreement along the lines of a customs union which would not be to the taste of either Canada or Mexico. USMCA was a reaction to the Trump Administration wishing to renegotiate NAFTA or, failing that, leaving the trade bloc altogether. If politics is the art of compromise, USMCA is certainly a good example of it. But it is further removed from the theory of comparative advantage, which makes the objective case for true free trade. Creating an assembly line to increase productivity based on different departments' skills and talents is not controversial. But use the word countries instead of departments and the controversy begins. Click here to see other commentaries by Darren Prokop on American Shipper and FreightWaves. See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. New Delhi, June 9 : Saying that he had to move "heaven and earth" to get his wife tested for COVID-19, Congress lawmaker and spokesperson Manish Tewari on Tuesday launched an attack on the health system of the national capital under the AAP governance. Tewari's wife has tested negative. "My wife on written advice of her doctors was asked to test for COVID-19. Despite growing up on a hospital campus and knowing every medical professional of consequence, I had to move heaven and earth just to get her tested. Delhi's health systems are broken," the lawmaker tweeted. Delhi, governed by Aam Aadmi Party, is in the eye of a storm ever since the city government said no outsider will be allowed to get Covid treatment in the capital even as the number of cases touched 29,943. The tug of war with the Centre became evident again on Monday, as LG Anil Baijal overturned the 'no to outsider' diktat of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's government. Kejriwal had announced that the Delhi government hospitals will be available for the residents of the city only, while those run by the Central government will remain open to all. Taking to Twitter, the chief minister, who reported sick last afternoon, and is set to undergo Covid test on Tuesday, said that Baijal's move would throw up challenges but his government would strive to meet them. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Advertisement Police investigating a German paedophile over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann believe they have established how she died but do not know her final resting place, it was revealed today. Prime suspect Christian Brueckner is languishing in a German jail for drug trafficking while appealing a seven-year sentence for a rape in Praia da Luz 18 months before Madeleine was abducted 13 years ago. Today the editor-in-chief of German tabloid Bild, Julian Reichelt, told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'They have an idea of how Madeleine McCann died and how the killing was actually done. But they do not know where the body may have been buried'. He said that police are interested in Brueckner because he has 'knowledge' of the abduction that only a suspect could be aware of, which has convinced officers Madeleine was killed and he was involved. But police have made an international appeal for a 'knockout' piece of evidence that could put him in the dock - and believe British tourists are likely to be key to finding it. German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has said the authorities have 'evidence' that the three-year-old was killed after she was snatched from Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007 and Brueckner is currently the only suspect. He told Sky News: 'We don't have Madeleine McCann's body but we expect she is dead. We need more information from people to find the places where he has lived and search them for Madeleine'. But he added that they cannot yet 'communicate it' with the public 'at this time' how they know. Police in Europe are also looking for Brueckner ex-girlfriend. German authorities have issued an Interpol Red Notice for the immediate apprehension of Nakscije Miftari, who has not been seen since leaving her flat last week. MailOnline revealed last night that police believe she could hold vital clues over the disappearance of Madeleine on May 3, 2007 in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Police in Germany are now probing Brueckner in relation to the fate of the countrys most famous murdered girl, Peggy Knobloch was nine when she vanished 19 years ago from Lichtenberg in Upper Franconia. Now Bavarian police have said the case will be reviewed to see if Christian Brueckner, who has links to the region, was involved - bringing the number of missing children he has been linked to to four. Maddie McCann suspect Christian Brueckner with his girlfriend Nakscije Miftari, who police believe may hold vital information about the four-year-old's disappearance. Today the editor-in-chief of German tabloid Bild, Julian Reichelt, told ITV's Good Morning Britain (right): 'They have an idea of how Madeleine McCann died and how the killing was actually done. Nakscije, who is German of Albanian descent, moved to Portugal in 2014 with Brueckner, but returned the following year The former girlfriend's identity was revealed as a senior German official revealed they 'evidence,' that Maddie is dead. Miss Miftari was the teenage girlfriend of Christian Brueckner, the man widely believed to be responsible for the four-year-old's disappearance in Portugal in 2007. He groomed her while he ran a kiosk in Braunschweig, and they lived together before they split up. However a family friend says she has been laying low following revelations that her former boyfriend is suspected of multiple crimes. German authorities have issued an Interpol Red Notice for the immediate apprehension of Nakscije Miftari who they believe may hold vital information about the Madeleine McCann case. Detectives in Britain and Germany want to quiz her about what she knows about Brueckner's past, in particular his time in Portugal. Brueckner seduced Nakscije after he set up home in a run-down part of Braunschweig, a crumbling industrial city in northern Germany, and ran a kiosk selling beer, soft drinks, snacks and sweets. He later took Nakscije, who is German of Albanian descent, to Portugal in 2014 but she was deported back to Germany less than a year later following allegations of criminality. Police have quizzed a British woman who was Brueckner's partner and lived with him Prai da Luz in 2004 Prison staff are keeping him under surveillance in the hope he may confess or share details to an inmate German state prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters says police have not interviewed Brueckner yet An unnamed Portuguese police chief has said the suspect was 'not involved' in Maddie's disappearance Authorities believe Brueckner may be involved in the disappearance of multiple children, including six-year-old Rene Hasse in 1996, 16-year-old Carola Titze in 1996, nine-year-old Peggy Knobloch in 2001 and five-year-old Inga Gehricke in 2015. Brueckner seduced Nakscije after he set up home in a run-down part of Braunschweig in North Germany, where they shared a home, above. The couple moved to Portugal briefly in 2014 The couple lived together in Braunschweig, in North Germany while Brueckner ran a kiosk selling beer, soft drinks, snacks and sweets However the couple split up and Nakscije reported Brueckner to the police over his violence. 'Nakscije reported Brueckner to the police,' a family friend told MailOnline. 'She was only a teenager when they got together, 17, I think. He was much older. 'They lived in a flat together here in Braunschweig, around the corner from the kiosk he ran. 'She is a very nice girl. But she was terrified of him. He is completely mad. 'Brueckner took her to Portugal in the spring of 2014. But she was deported from Portugal in 2015. 'Brueckner also came back to Germany a few months later. They continued to live together but they kept arguing and fighting. 'They finally split up when he tried to kill her. He beat her black and blue. Brueckner disappeared and Nakscije was given counselling. 'After he left Braunschweig he tried to keep in contact with Nakscije. Brueckner would keep phoning her, telling her that he loved her and missed her. Detectives hope for jail confession Prison staff are keeping Christian Brueckner under surveillance in the hope he might confess or reveal details to a fellow prisoner. Police lack a 'knockout blow' despite significant evidence linking him to Madeleine's disappearance, a source told The Sunday Times. And former British policeman Mark Williams-Thomas told The Sun that German investigators lacked 'a body, hard evidence, and a confession. The best chance now is for someone known to Brueckner to break cover. With evidence lacking, my worry is police won't reach a threshold to charge him'. Brueckner is in prison in Kiel, northern Germany, for a drugs offence. Advertisement 'But he was always out of his mind on drugs. He was always drinking and taking drugs.' The family friend revealed that Nakscije started to lay low after Brueckner was named as the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case on German TV last week. Police want to speak to Nakscije after a British ex-girlfriend of Brueckner was quizzed by police. The unnamed woman, from Berkshire, is said to have lived in Praia da Luz where she dated German paedophile Christian Brueckner for around a year from 2004 - three years before Madeleine went missing. She is not a suspect in the case, but according to reports, has agreed to cooperate with police and has twice spoken to detectives investigating her former partner. The mother-of-two, who is still living in Portugal, was interviewed last year by police as part of the investigation into Brueckner, and, according to The Mirror, has spoken to them again in recent days after the 43-year-old was identified as a prime suspect in the Madeleine case. Brueckner is currently serving a jail sentence in Germany for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Portugal. But he is reportedly eligible for parole this weekend and one friend has since revealed to the Sun that the unnamed woman is terrified he will come after her. The friend said: 'She's really nervous, she knows B is in prison but fears he could be released one day and come after her. 'It's true they were together.' Meanwhile, the Mirror say the woman's British ex-husband, a businessman who also lives in Portugal, was also spoken to by Interpol last year in connection with Brueckner. Brueckner has been linked to the disappearances of six-year-old Rene Hasse (left) in the Algarve in 1996 and five-year-old Inga Gehricke (right) in Germany in 2015 Carola Titze (left) vanished on the morning of July 5, 1996 while holidaying with her parents at a Flemish resort in De Haan, West Flanders Christian Brueckner was flagged as a key Madeleine McCann kidnap and murder suspect SEVEN YEARS ago Christian Brueckner was flagged as a key Madeleine McCann kidnap and murder suspect seven years ago by police but the report was ignored by German authorities. According to German magazine Spiegel, police in Braunschweig sent a report about him being a prime suspect to the Federal Criminal Office (BKA) in 2013, two years before Inga Gehricke, 'Germany's Maddie McCann', disappeared. It was ignored. Braunschweig police were monitoring the 43-year-old around the clock at the time.The report was triggered after an appeal from British police on a German unsolved crime show, on which the news about Brueckner was also broadcast this week. Spiegel went on: 'One person did submit a tip about Brueckner but the resulting report from police in Braunschweig to the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation was apparently not acted upon, much to the consternation of the local investigators.' Brueckner was born to a woman named Fischer but given over to youth authorities at an early age. Between 1992 - when he was 16 - and 1994 he lived in a facility for young people with learning difficulties. A neighbour told German newspaper BILD: 'There were only bad young people there.' Advertisement He told The Mirror: 'We've decided not to talk. The police have been in touch and we've spoken to them. We don't want to be involved in this.' Hans Christian Wolters, state prosecutor for Braunschweig, yesterday confirmed those in Germany 'assume there are more victims' who have not yet been identified. He has urged potential victims to come forward, while admitting prosecutors lack the evidence to bring the suspect to trial at this stage, Sky News reports. He also revealed the suspect's connection to Madeleine is so-far based on 'circumstantial suspicion' and Brueckner hasn't yet been questioned by police, the Telegraph reported. Authorities believe Brueckner may be involved in the disappearance of multiple children, including six-year-old Rene Hasse in 1996 and five-year-old Inga Gehricke in 2015. Belgian authorities are investigating whether the 43-year-old German sex offender was involved in the mysterious killing of 16-year-old Carola Titze in 1996. Carola vanished on the morning of July 5 while holidaying with her parents at a Flemish resort in De Haan, West Flanders. The German teenager was missing for six days before her body was found violently mutilated on the sand dunes. In the days before her disappearance, she was allegedly seen at a disco with a German man, who policed tried to track down but failed. Prosecutors in Bruges confirmed to local media they are now probing the possible connection between Titze's death and Brueckner, following his naming as prime suspect in the McCann case. In Portugal, police face pressure to re-examine the case of Joana Cipriano, eight, who disappeared in 2004 from Figueira, seven miles from Praia da Luz. Her mother and uncle allegedly confessed to her killing but her mother has since said she was forced to admit to the crime by police who beat her. Her lawyers called for the case to be reopened after Madeleine, left, vanished, because of similarities between the two disappearances. Joana's body was never found. Officers are understood to be determined to find enough evidence to link him to at least one case. But German laws allow a suspect to access their case file as soon as they are identified, and prosecutors want to prevent Brueckner's legal team from seeing the file until they are ready to charge him. Christian Brueckner 'not involved in Maddie's disappearance' says Portuguese police official Christian Brueckner, who German police believe killed Madeleine McCann, was not involved in her disappearance, it was claimed by a senior Portuguese police official. The statement was made to a respected Spanish newspaper by an unnamed Portuguese police chief. The officer, described as a former Policia Judiciaria chief with in-depth knowledge of the Madeleine McCann probe who still works for the force, told ABC: 'There's no evidence Christian Brueckner is involved in her disappearance. 'Strong enough reasons to be able to charge him were never found. 'People talk about surprises in the Madeleine McCann case with the capture of this German man, but for me it's no surprise. 'This individual was already investigated around four years ago.' Insisting the aim of German police revelations about the man, now identified as the prime Madeleine McCann suspect, was simply to put the case back into the public eye, ABC quoted the veteran PJ boss as saying: 'At this stage of the investigation, I think they've done it because they think it's needed to shake up the case and attract new witnesses. 'They work very closely with Portugal and now they've wanted to turn this case around. 'They're not looking to solve it now, because that's very difficult. What they're looking to do is agitate the waters.' It is the first time any high-ranking Portuguese police officer has been publicly quoted as saying he does not believe Brueckner is regarded as a genuine Madeleine McCann suspect, even though he appeared to hide behind the cloak of anonymity for the interview. Advertisement Portuguese police 'have identified crooked hotel worker who tipped off Madeleine prime suspect Christian Brueckner that the McCanns' room would be unlocked' A crooked employee who is believed to have tipped off the Madeleine McCann suspect that the door to her apartment would be open and easy to break into has been identified, according to reports. Portuguese and German police are said to know the name of the person who they believe told Christian Brueckner details of the movements of tourists staying at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz. The employee's knowledge of what happened on the night of May 3rd 2007 as well as any dealings with Brueckner could be crucial in the long running investigation. It is suspected that Brueckner received a telephone call shortly before three year old Maddie was abducted from her ground floor apartment. Met Police officers released the telephone number as part of their major appeal for new witnesses to come forward. Detectives have said the suspect (left) was regularly living in the Algarve from 1995. He was already convicted of sex offences against children and would have been 19 at the time Rene disappeared. Madeleine McCann (right) disappeared during a family holiday in Praia da Luz in May 2007 It is suspected that Brueckner received a telephone call shortly before three year old Maddie was abducted from her ground floor apartment. Pictured: The Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared during a family holiday in 2007 Met Police officers released the telephone number as part of their major appeal for new witnesses to come forward. Pictured: The pool and bar area of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz However, it is not known if the mobile number that called Brueckner's telephone number belonged to the same employee who provided him allegedly with inside information. Portuguese police have refused to make any comment on the claim by the Correio de Manha newspaper. They also say that an innocent receptionist may have inadvertently led to Brueckner being tipped off about the McCann's leaving the apartment open while dining with friends some distance away. Details of the restaurant booking made by the McCann's with friends known as 'The Tapas Seven' were written down in a staff register at the complex where they were staying. The newspaper has claimed that a crooked member of staff who found out told Brueckner about the lapse. The German paedophile was known to break into hotel rooms and apartments to supplement his income from drug dealing. In her book Kate McCann made reference to the block booking being jotted down and how staff were able to read their children would be alone. She wrote: 'It wasn't until a year later, when I was combing through the Portuguese files, that I discovered that the note requesting our block booking was written in a staff message book, which sat on a desk at the pool reception for most of the day. Brueckner lived in the farmhouse above Praia da Luz (pictured) on the Algarve in Portugal and is said to have seldom mixed with his neighbours and allowed the property to fall into disrepair 'To my horror I saw that, no doubt in all innocence and to explain why she was bending the rules a bit, the receptionist had written the reason for our request... we wanted to eat close to our apartments as we were leaving our young children alone there and checking on them intermittently.' Police have long thought that the person who entered the apartment was intending to steal valuables but ended up abducting the three year old. In the same 2011 book, 'Madeleine our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her' Kate McCann voiced her fears of foreign paedophiles. Kate and Gerry McCann during an interview with the BBC's Fiona Bruce at Prestwold Hall in Loughborough The last photograph taken of Madeleine shows her smiling next to her little sister Amelie and their father Gerry at 1.30pm on May 3, 2007 in Portugal, the day she went missing She wrote: 'Night after night, I read of depraved individuals, British paedophiles, Portuguese paedophiles, Spanish, Dutch and German paedophiles and the horrific crimes they committed. A spokesman for the Portuguese Police refused to comment on the newspaper claims. Police interviewed 138 staff who worked at the Ocean Club complex as part of the inquiry into Madeleine's McCann's disappearance. The organiser of a Black Lives Matter rally held in Londonderry at the weekend said she has no regrets and would do the same again despite facing prosecution. Hundreds attended rallies held in Custom House Square in Belfast, where police issued a total of 15 fines, and in Guildhall Square, where 57 people were fined. Some said they will refuse to pay up. Read More Following criticism of the PSNI operation, First Minister Arlene Foster backed the response as "proportionate". However, Ciaran Moynagh, a solicitor from Phoenix Law -which offered free legal advice to protesters, questioned the difference between those gathering for a protest and those taking part in long queues for some shops. Among those who received fines in Derry were Blathnaid O'Donnell and her mother Helen. Explaining why neither she nor her mother intend to pay up, Ms O'Donnell said: "If I pay this fine it would be defeating the reason for me being at the rally in the first place. It would be as if I accepted that it was wrong to protest against the death of George Floyd. I am going to do every thing that I can to continue fighting the injustice and not threat or intimidation will stop me from doing that Blathnaid O'Donnell "Civil Rights in Ireland was born in Derry and I am proud to be from this city and proud of everyone who was at the rally on Saturday and proud of everyone, who like my mother and I, are refusing to pay this ridiculous fine." Lillian Seenoi Barr from the North West Immigrants Forum said organising the Derry rally was an essential part of the work her organisation does in supporting minority communities in the city. She received a police caution which she described as "unfair". "I accept coronavirus is a pandemic, but we provided gloves, masks and hand sanitiser but racism is also a health pandemic that is enshrined in our society," she said. She added: "I am going to do every thing that I can to continue fighting the injustice and not threat or intimidation will stop me from doing that. "Police issued fines at our rally but not at Benone Beach where I myself saw thousands of people and yet the police drove up the beach and back again and did not issue any fines. "I have been cautioned by the PSNI who have forwarded my name to the PPS and recommended prosecution. It is unbelievable that the PSNI would criminalise those who came to the rallies and it was very, very unfair." Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd defended the PSNI actions, saying the message to stay away had been clear. He explained: "In other times, we would have worked with the organisers and protesters to facilitate lawful and peaceful protests to mark the avoidable and unnecessary death of George Floyd, but these are not ordinary times. "The Health Protection Regulations are in place to protect us all during this pandemic and it is everyone's responsibility to adhere to them to protect our society." Mrs Foster said she considers the police operation on Saturday was a "proportionate reaction to the fact that regulations were being breached by those who had been asked by the executive members to find a different way to protest". Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said she had joined an online protest on Saturday in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter campaign. It was in June 2017 that a group of fifth graders from the Village Leadership Academy, an independent private grade school in the South Loop, appeared before the Chicago Park District board to make the case against the existing name. They said it was inappropriate for a major city park in a predominantly black area to bear the name of a Civil War-era politician whose wife owned enslaved people and who argued that the institution of slavery ought to be put to a vote in each new territory as the country expanded westward. By Associated Press GENEVA: The head of the World Health Organization warned that the coronavirus pandemic is worsening globally, even as the situation in Europe is improving. At a press briefing on Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that about 75% of cases reported to the U.N. health agency on Sunday came from 10 countries in the Americas and South Asia. He noted that more than 100,000 cases have been reported on nine of the past 10 days and that the 136,000 cases reported Sunday was the biggest number so far. Tedros said most countries in Africa are still seeing an increase in cases, including in new geographic areas even though most countries on the continent have fewer than 1,000 cases. "At the same time, we're encouraged that several countries around the world are seeing positive signs," Tedros said. "In these countries, the biggest threat now is complacency." WHO Also said that still believes the spread of the coronavirus from people without symptoms is rare, despite warnings from numerous experts worldwide that such transmission is more frequent and likely explains why the pandemic has been so hard to contain. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHOs technical lead on COVID-19 said at a press briefing on Monday that many countries are reporting cases of spread from people who are asymptomatic, or those with no clinical symptoms. But when questioned in more detail about these cases, Van Kerkhove said many of them turn out to have mild disease or unusual symptoms. Although health officials in countries including Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere have warned that COVID-19 is spreading from people without symptoms, WHO has maintained that this type of spread is not a driver of the pandemic and is probably accounts for about 6% of spread, at most. Numerous studies have suggested that the virus is spreading from people without symptoms, but many of those are either anecdotal reports or based on modeling. Van Kerkhove said that based on data from countries, when people with no symptoms of COVID-19 are tracked over a long period to see if they spread the disease, there are very few cases of spread. We are constantly looking at this data and were trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question, she said. It still appears to be rare that asymptomatic individuals actually transmit onward. (With PTI Inputs) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) The countrys COVID-19 inter-agency task force is now considering the reopening of gyms, Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire announced in a media forum on Tuesday. Vergeire said this will be part of the task force's agenda in their meeting on Wednesday, June 9. She also asked fitness studio owners to submit their own recommendations on how they could enforce health protocols to protect clients and staff once they reopen for business. Gyms remain closed in areas under general community quarantine such as Metro Manila, Pangasinan, provinces in Regions 2, 3, 4-A, and 7, Davao City, and Zamboanga City. All other areas are under modified GCQ, where fitness establishments are permitted to operate at 50 percent capacity. Quarantine rules may be further relaxed or even lifted in most provinces starting June 16 as authorities see a sustained decline in the number of COVID-19 infections, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Monday. Roque added that the COIVD-19 situation in Metro Manila is different from the rest of the country, and that closer examination is still required needed to determine if NCR can shift to modified GCQ by next week. The study challenges a recently-emerged paradigm that magma chambers are huge masses of crystals with just a very small amount of melt. Wits University (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) PhD student, Willem Kruger's study on the state of magma within plutonic magmatic systems in the Earth's crust has been published in the high impact journal, Nature Communications. Working alongside his PhD supervisor, Professor Rais Latypov, from the Wits School of Geosciences, Kruger's paper shows that basaltic magma chambers may develop as large bodies of crystal-free melts in the Earth's crust. This study challenges a recently-emerged paradigm that magma chambers are huge masses of crystal-rich mush - in other words, crystals with just a very small amount of melt. Attempts to understand the processes that operate in magma chambers in our planet's crust is incredibly challenging as they are hidden from direct observations. Geologists must follow an indirect approach to study these features, such as examining their ancient fossilised remains that are exposed on Earth's surface after millions of years of erosion. To examine the state of magma within a chamber is very demanding, as it requires the study of the very contact between the crystallising margins of magma bodies (also called solidification fronts) and their liquid interiors. Difficulties in understanding the behaviour of solidification fronts can fortunately be overcome by studying a particularly fascinating rock type, called massive magnetitite, from the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. "Magnetitite contains chromium that is an extremely sensitive indicator of magma chamber processes and can be used to study solidification fronts in extreme detail," says Kruger. "By mapping the distribution of chromium in magnetitite in the field we can observe the two-dimensional propagation patterns of solidification fronts on a scale never done before." Kruger and Latypov found that all evolved liquid is effectively removed from the solidification front of magnetitite as it propagates towards the chamber interior. "This is because of extremely effective compositional convection that occurs during the crystallisation of magnetite. The process results in the solidification front to propagate as almost a completely solid surface." says Latypov. This research shows that such powerful compositional convection may inhibit the formation of crystal-rich mushes in basaltic magma chambers. There are many reasons to believe that this process is not unique to magnetitite layers of the Bushveld Complex but will likely operate in other rock types as well, for instance, in the Bushveld's economically important chromitite layers. "Our results thus argue for the existence of large, liquid-dominated magma chambers hidden within the Earth's crust," says Kruger. ### I was recently made aware of another social justice group with a very liberal view of racism. An issue of great interest to me. I listened to the diatribe carefully, and was disappointed with what boiled down to a rehash of progressive left group-think, buzz-words, and talking points. What really caught my attention was something I took as a warning the groups intention to extend their leadership impact into our Jewish community. It is my suggestion we vigorously resist these types of agendas, and I appreciate the opportunity to share my reasons why. When I heard the phrases Jews of Whiteness, and Jews of Color, I took umbrage with these terms. I dont think of myself as a Jew of Whiteness. This is Labeling (also known as Identity Politics) which creates divisiveness and hierarchy of power. Labeling in and of itself, is a divide and conquer technique, used to pit one group against the other. Making one group more important than the other, creates a competition which leads to victimization. Exactly what the progressive left agenda requires to succeed. By dividing us, their objective is to become more powerful. I am blessed to have an adopted Ethiopian Jewish son. When I share that with people, some ask, Is he black? My response is, I never noticed. He is a Jew. If I ask him, Describe yourself to me, the first thing he will tell me is, I am a Jew. That simple. When I asked my son if he ever heard of, Jews of Whiteness, he asked, What is that? We couldnt stop laughing. The Labeling of Jews of Whiteness and Jews of Color is creating the divisiveness and exclusivity that this social justice group perpetuates. Throughout history, Jews were not persecuted because of their color. They were persecuted because they were Jews. Period. Yet, here we are dividing ourselves with the socialist group think that destroys the beauty of our cultural history. This is cultural self-destruction. We dont need anyone else to destroy us when we can do it from within. To prove color doesnt matter is to better understand the history of the Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) and the persecution they suffered. From centuries of massacres, religious persecution, enslavement, no education, forced baptism, choosing suicide rather than conversion, being denied the right to own land, escaping from missionaries ending in starvation and death, under Fascist rule being forbidden to practice their Judaism and during the Communist Mengistu regime, Ethiopian Jews were persecuted, jailed and killed. Thousands died escaping into the Sudan desert from rebels shooting them or starvation. My adopted sons father was put in jail for a year for helping his fellow Jews escape. Fascism, Communism, Socialism, never ends well for Jews. Another way to prove color doesnt matter is to look at the hateful anti-Semitic labels, Ethiopian non-Jews give to the Beta Israel. Derogatory and demeaning Labels like Buda, which means, People who eat people and power of the evil eye. And Falasha, which means:Outsider. And lest we forget, The festival of Purim commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from Hamans plot to destroy and annihilate all the Jews in a single day. Were they Jews of Whiteness or Jews of Color? Did it matter? As a Jew, I retain a healthy skepticism for any movement, vision, or agenda that is intellectually dishonest and not devoted to good intentions. How so you might ask? One of the techniques of Marxism is to create artificial alliances that serve to advance a core agenda power. History tells us that once those alliances have achieved that intended outcome, those duped into cooperation or submission are quickly betrayed, abandoned, or extinguished. This social justice group links the anti-Semitic vulnerabilities of Jews with Whiteness and Privilege. These issues are vague liberal paradigms meant to sting and paralyze rational people. The use of these guilt-ridden constructs are misleading and lacking in sensible conclusions. More importantly, how we can effectively uplift one group by tearing down another (Labeling) escapes my sense of reason and fair play. History tells us that this kind of twisted language is the go-to sword of elitists, despots, and other social marauders. The social justice warriors described the perilous times we live in today and how, We continue to reach out to others who face even greater, and more immediate, external threats to their safety. And lists in this order: Immigrants, people of color, Jews, Muslims, ethnic Americans, anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, Whiteness and Privilege. This diatribe places Jews and anti-Semitism in the middle of the list diminishing the dangers we face. And Jews and Muslims are placed together, even though the majority of hate crimes against Jews in other countries are by radicalized Muslims. Do they not remember that 12 Jews were brutally murdered and others injured in US synagogues during 2018 and 2019? Five Jews were brutally slashed with a machete in New York and three others were killed at a kosher deli in New Jersey, all by radicalized anti-Semitic members of the black community. That hate crimes in the US against Jews are higher than any other ethnic group and are on the rise with 1,879 antisemitic incidences in 2018 and increasing in 2019. Do they not take pride in being Jewish? In the end, my greatest personal resistance to the content and agenda of these misplaced social justice groups is their relentless message of victimization and brainwashing reserved for todays progressive left movement. I find great irony in fellow Jews attempting to nudge people of my faith into embracing victimization as a social change model. That concept is abhorrent to everything Judaism represents. We, perhaps more than any people in history, know it is only through courage, conviction, and constructive unity that people are uplifted. Those attempting to turn people into hostile sufferers versus positive achievers are severely misguided and dangerous. I am heartbroken with the progressive lefts lack of civility and divisive rhetoric that separates, rather than unifies our people. Theirs is a mission we tend to ignore or minimize to our precious faiths peril. I fear the loss of the enduring bond and shared vision that has been our greatest source of strength and means of survival are being undermined for political agendas. Adrienne Skolnik is Chairman of the North Carolina Chapter of the Conference of Jewish Affairs. BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China urges the United States to meet its due obligations and honor its commitment of suspending nuclear tests under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Monday. Spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks at a press briefing in response to a recent announcement by the Group of Eminent Persons for the CTBT, expressing concern on discussions by U.S. officials on the possibility of resuming nuclear tests and stressing that if the U.S. side do this, it would seriously undermine the global norm of "suspending nuclear tests" and damage the CTBT's mechanism. The Group also called on all states to reaffirm their support for the treaty and take concrete measures to ensure that the treaty will go into force at an early date. "China supports the Group of Eminent Persons' announcement," Hua said. "As an important pillar underpinning the international regime of nuclear arms control, the CTBT has established the nuclear test ban as an international norm." The treaty is of great significance in advancing nuclear disarmament, preventing nuclear proliferation, and safeguarding world peace and security, she added. China urges the U.S. to meet its due obligations, honor its commitment of suspending nuclear tests and safeguard the Treaty's purposes and objectives, Hua said. "We also hope the U.S. will earnestly heed the appeal of the international community and do more things that are conducive to international nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation," Hua said. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi strongly rebuked Ethiopia on Tuesday, accusing Addis Ababa of stalling negotiations over a mega-dam being built on the Nile and moving ahead with plans to start filling the reservoir before reaching a deal. "A timeline must be set to finish up negotiations, so it does not turn into a new tactic of stalling and shirking responsibility from the 2015 Declaration of Principles which all three countries agreed to," Sisi's office said in a statement. The agreement signed between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan paved the way for diplomatic talks after Addis Ababa sparked tension when it began construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on nearly a decade ago. The strongly-worded statement from Sisi's office said Ethiopia's position was "inconsistent" with its legal obligations and "casts a shadow over the negotiations". It came the day the three countries resumed talks, after Sudan on Monday coaxed Egypt back to the negotiating table. But Egypt said Tuesday the invite "comes three weeks too late" as the Ethiopian authorities had already "signalled their intention to move forward with filling the reservoir of the Renaissance Dam without reaching an agreement". In mid-May, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew accused Egypt of being obstructionist and said his country "does not have a legal obligation to seek the approval of Egypt to fill the dam". Irrigation and water ministers from the three Nile basin countries began meeting via videoconference Tuesday along with three observers from the United States, European Union and South Africa. Following several failed rounds of negotiations, the United States and the World Bank sponsored talks from November 2019 aimed at reaching a comprehensive agreement. Both Khartoum and Cairo fear the 145-metre-high dam will threaten essential water supplies once the 74-billion-cubic-metre reservoir starts being filled in July as planned by Addis Ababa. But while Egypt, which is heavily dependant on the Nile, worries about its share of the water, Sudan hopes the dam could provide much-needed electricity and help regulate flooding. The 6,600-kilometre-long (3,900-mile) Nile is a lifeline supplying both water and electricity to the 10 countries it traverses. Its main tributaries, the White and Blue Niles, converge in the Sudanese capital Khartoum before flowing north through Egypt to drain into the Mediterranean Sea. TSX-V: CXO VANCOUVER, June 9, 2020 /CNW/ - COLORADO RESOURCES LTD. (TSX-V: CXO) ("Colorado" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the expansion of its 2020 exploration program to just under $1,000,000 of Flow Through eligible expenditures, which is fully funded. Joseph Mullin comments: "While the outbreak of COVID-19 negatively affected our original exploration plans for 2020, the effort to control the spread of the virus in British Columbia by the Province and Tahltan Central Government has been nothing short of remarkable. These efforts have enabled us to expand our modest 2020 exploration program whilst remaining vigilant and adhering to the advice and guidelines regarding ongoing infectious disease risk mitigation and control. Work will be focused at our Castle property in the Moat, Castle East and Castle South target areas at the Company's eastern claim boundary bordering GT Gold Corp's properties. Field work here will seek to resolve open soil geochemical and IP chargeability anomalies along strike from high-grade gold-silver mineralization at Saddle South and the porphyry Cu-Au system at Saddle North. As well, initial field work is proposed for the Sofia porphryry Cu-Au project in the Toodoggone. No work is planned on North ROK (Mabon) deposit or at ROK-Coyote which borders the Red Chris operating mine." Since the merger between Colorado and Buckingham Copper Corp. in August 2019 (see NR of August 20, 2019), the new Colorado leadership team has continued to undertake a comprehensive strategic review of the Company and its assets, whilst its technical team has worked hard to recompile and review the large amount of data from the previous 8 years and over $37 million of acquisitions and exploration. The objective is a renewed corporate profile and prioritized exploration targeting towards drilling in 2021. Colorado is pleased to announce the appointment, effective immediately, of Mr. David Fleming as interim Vice President of Exploration of the Company. Mr. Fleming has over 35 years' experience in the generation, management and implementation of successful mineral exploration throughout North America. He began his career with Amax Minerals/Canamax Resources Inc., an exploration group responsible for Yukon exploration and development at the Ketza River Gold Mine and Sa Dena Hes zinclead-silver mine. Mr. Fleming has worked with several major mining companies, including Cyprus Canada and Kennecott Canada. More recently, he was part of exploration and development at the Meadowbank Gold Deposit with Cumberland Resources Ltd. (acquired by Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. in 2007) as well as Vice President of Exploration for Foran Mining from 2011 to 2018. Mr. Fleming is a Professional Geoscientist with the APEGBC and holds a B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia. Colorado CEO, Joseph Mullin comments: "Dave has been working with Colorado for a number of months as a technical advisor. We are very pleased that he has agreed to join our Management group and guide our technical team using his industry and regional expertise that he has gained over the past 35 years. "We expect further announcements in the coming months as we continue to build our leadership and technical team." As part of management strategy for rebuilding the Company, the Board of Directors (the "Board") has passed a resolution calling a Special General Meeting (the "SGM") in order to seek shareholder approval to consolidate its existing shares on the basis of 10 (old) for 1 (new) share. The resultant increase in share price is expected to allow the Company to attract new institutional investors. In addition, the Company is seeking shareholder approval to change the name of the Company. The Company is currently reviewing options fo a new name which will be finalized following shareholder approval. The SGM is scheduled for July 21, 2020 and, subject to approval of shareholders and the TSX Venture Exchange, the share consolidation and name change would take place shortly thereafter. A Notice of Meeting has been filed on SEDAR and the information circular to shareholders is expected to be mailed no later than June 23, 2020. Dr. Fletcher Morgan, Colorado's Chairman, comments, "We are aiming to complete a relaunch of the Company by the end of July so that the new team we're building can stay 100% focused on delivering a comprehensive and targeted drill program for 2021. It's an important step in our ongoing effort to rebuild the Company and realize value for shareholders from our extraordinary land position strategically located in the Golden Triangle of BC that we sincerely hope shareholders will support." We seek safe harbor. About Colorado Colorado Resources Ltd. is exploring for high-grade gold and copper in the Golden Triangle and the Toodoggone area of British Columbia. The portfolio includes the flagship Castle property, a porphyry copper-gold project located in the Red Chris mining district of the Golden Triangle neighbouring GT Gold's Tatogga property. Other properties include the KSP, North ROK/ROK-Coyote, Kingpin, Heart Peaks and Sofia properties in British Columbia. These assets are being advanced by a newly assembled technical and management team with experience in exploration, permitting and discovery. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF COLORADO RESOURCES LTD. "Joseph Mullin" Joseph Mullin Chief Executive Officer and Director Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements All statements, trend analysis and other information contained in this press release about anticipated future events or results constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, statements regarding the use of proceeds of the Placements are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and/or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including the risks, uncertainties and other factors identified in the Companies' periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators as well as the risk that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may have on the Company's business. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Colorado expectations include the risk that management of the Company determines to use the proceeds of the Placements in a way that is not currently contemplated. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are made. Colorado does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on 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 release. SOURCE Colorado Resources Ltd. For further information: T: (250) 768-1511, TF (855) 768-1511, W: www.coloradoresources.com Related Links www.coloradoresources.com By Andre Vltchek June 07, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - 150 years ago, on April 21, 1870, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, alias Lenin, was born. According to many, he was the greatest revolutionary of all times, a man who gave birth to both internationalism and anti-imperialism. It is time to revisit Communism. It is also time to ask some basic, essential questions: How is it possible that a system so logical, progressive, and so superior to what is, up till now, governing the world, failed to permanently overthrow the nihilism and brutality of capitalism, imperialism and neo-colonialism? Without any doubt, you have been told many horrifying things about Communism, especially if you have been living in the West, or in one of the countries that are fully under the control of the centres of anti-Communism: Washington, London or Paris. You have been forced to read, again and again, about Stalinism, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and the Khmer Rouge genocide. You have, again and again, been served an elaborate cocktail of half-truths, outright fabrications, as well as twisted interpretations of the world history. The chances are, you have never been to Russia, China or Cambodia; you havent done any serious research there. You have been told that Cambodia is the best example of savage Communism. You never realized that Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge extremists were fully supported by the United States, and not by the Soviet Union and never foolheartedly by China; that they were never actually really Communist (I did a detailed in-country research, and even Pol Pots personal guards told me that they had no idea about Communism, and only reacted to the monstrous U.S. carpet bombing of the Cambodian countryside, and to the capitals collaboration with the West). In that period, most people died as a result of precisely that carpet-bombing by the USAF B-52s, and as a result of a famine. And the famine came after millions of peasants were displaced by the savagery of the bombing, and by the unexploded substances left in the fields, all over the countryside. It never occurred to you, that one survey after another, conducted in Russia, still shows that the majority of the people there, would like to have the Communist Soviet Union back. And even in the former Soviet Muslim-majority states, including Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan, a tremendous majority of the people I encountered there, remembered the Soviet Union era as some golden age. And the so-called Soviet occupation of Afghanistan? I have worked, filmed and reported there, on three occasions, relatively recently. Outraged by the on-going Western occupation of their country, countless Afghan people told me stories, illustrating the contrast between their tolerant, progressive and optimistic socialist era, and the present-day horror, during which their country has sunk to the lowest level in Asia, according to both UNDP and the WHO. I worked in Kabul, Jalalabad, Herat, Bagram; the same stories, and the same nostalgia for the Soviet teachers, nurses, engineers. Showered by the relentless Western propaganda, one never really realized how popular the Communist Party of China is in its own country, and how the Communist ideology is supported in Vietnam, Laos and North Korea. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter If one goes to their friendly local bookstore in North America, Europe or even in Hong Kong, not to speak of Australia, the chances are is that all one will find there would be tomes written by anti-Communist Chinese or Russian dissidents, people that have been living off Western grants, receiving countless awards so they can spend all their energy on smearing Communism, and glorifying anti-revolution. Writers such as Svetlana Alexievich, who received the Nobel Prize for literature, for spitting on the graves of the Soviet soldiers who died defending Afghan socialism. Films one would be allowed to watch, on commercial film channels, would not be any different than the books one had been encouraged to read. Anti-Communism in the West and in its colonies, is a tremendous industry. It is easily the greatest and on-going propaganda campaign in the history of the world. Its metastasis has been spreading even into the core of the Communist and socialist countries themselves. All of that is because the Western, imperialist countries know perfectly well that their empire can only survive if Communism collapses. It is because the very essence of Communism is the perpetual struggle against imperialism. False but very effective slogans, like bugs, that are being implanted into ones brains. They are repeated constantly, sometimes hundreds of times a day, without one even noticing: Communism is dead! you have been told. It is outdated, boring. China is not Communist, anymore. Communism is grey. Life under communism is controlled, and it is monotonous. People under Communism have no freedom, and no liberties. The opposite is the truth. Building, selfishly and enthusiastically, a new and better society, for the people, is definitely more satisfactory (and more fun), than rotting in the constant agony of fear: worrying about mortgages, student loans, and medical emergencies. Competing with others, stepping on others, and even ruining other human beings. Living empty, sad, selfish lives. Absurdly, paradoxically, Western propaganda constantly accuses Communism of violence. But Communism is the biggest adversary of the most violent system on Earth, which is Western colonialism/ imperialism. Hundreds of millions of human beings have already vanished as a result of it, throughout the centuries. Hundreds of advanced cultures have been ruined. Entire continents have been plundered. Before Soviet Communism, before the USSR itself, there was no true and powerful opposition to Western imperialism. Colonialism and imperialism were taken for granted; they were the world order. The Soviet Union and China helped to de-colonize the world. Cuba and North Korea, two Communist countries, fought bravely and successfully, and brought independence to Africa (something that the West has never forgotten nor forgiven). But fighting for freedom and for the end of colonialism, is not violence; it is defence, resistance and a struggle for independence. As a rule, Communism does not attack. It defends itself, and it defends countries that are being brutalised. In my future work, I will address two exceptions; and explain two cases which are constantly misinterpreted by right-wing propaganda: Hungary and Czechoslovakia. But back to the so-called Communist violence. My friend and comrade, the legendary Russian intellectual and professor, Aleksandr Buzgalin wrote in his recent work, LENIN: THEORY AS PRACTICE, PRACTICE AS CREATIVITY (to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Ulyanov-Lenin): There is a principle at work here: it is not the socialist revolution that provokes mass violence, but the bourgeois counter-revolution, that begins when capital realises that it is losing its property and power. In response to the generally peaceful and in many cases legitimate victory of the left, capital unleashes savage, barbaric violence. The left is then faced with the question of whether to answer this violence or not. If you go to war, then from that point the laws of war apply, and hundreds of thousands are sent to their deaths, planned in advance, so that millions might be victorious. That is the logic of war. The revolution was carried through. It was victorious. In the broader perspective, the victors were not so much the Bolsheviks as the Soviets, in which the majority supported the Bolsheviks position. The revolution was substantially peaceful, prevailing almost without bloodshed. The fiercest fighting occurred in Moscow, where those killed on both sides numbered a few thousand. Beyond that, the picture was of a triumphal procession of Soviet power (this heading in Soviet textbooks was no accident). In the winter of 1917-1918 the relationship of forces saw half a million members of the workers militia, the Red Guard, pitted against a few tens of thousand White Guard members in the south of Russia. Everything was quiet until the counter-revolution received vast sums of money from the Triple Alliance (primarily from Germany) as well as from the Entente, and all these imperialist countries launched aggression against the young Soviet power. This is a brilliant take by Aleksandr Buzgalin. I have addressed this topic on many occasions, but never so coherently. And this applies to countless examples, all over the world, where the West first provoked and brutally antagonized socialist or communist countries, then accused them of cruelty, and finally liberated them in the name of freedom and democracy, literally raping the will of their people. All this just so European and North American imperialism would survive and thrive. Lets recall just a few examples: the USSR, 1965 Indonesia, 1973 Chile, 2019 Bolivia. The biggest attempt to date: to divert, destabilize and overthrow the enormously successful Chinese system. But there are, of course, countless other examples, in all corners of the globe. Ron Unz, the publisher of The Unz Review, wrote in his report American Pravda: Our Coronavirus Catastrophe as Bio-warfare Blowback?, recalling his thoughts, in 1999, when China protested about the NATO bombing of its Embassy in Belgrade: But when I considered that the Chinese government was still stubbornly denying the reality of its massacre of the protesting students in Tiananmen Square a decade earlier, I concluded that unreasonable behavior by PRC officials was only to be expected. Such at least were my thoughts on that matter more than two decades ago. But in the years that followed, my understanding of the world and of many pivotal events of modern history underwent the sweeping transformations that I have described in my American Pravda series. And some of my 1990s assumptions were among them. Consider, for example, the Tiananmen Square Massacre, which every June 4th still evokes an annual wave of harsh condemnations in the news and opinion pages of our leading national newspapers. I had never originally doubted those facts, but a year or two ago I happened to come across a short article by journalist Jay Matthews entitled The Myth of Tiananmen that completely upended that apparent reality. According to Matthews the infamous massacre had likely never happened, but was merely a media artifact produced by confused Western reporters and dishonest propaganda, a mistaken belief that had quickly become embedded in our standard media storyline, endlessly repeated by so many ignorant journalists that they all eventually believed it to be true. Instead, as near as could be determined, the protesting students had all left Tiananmen Square peacefully, just as the Chinese government had always maintained. Indeed, leading newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post had occasionally acknowledged these facts over the years, but usually buried those scanty admissions so deep in their stories that few ever noticed. Meanwhile, the bulk of the mainstream media had fallen for an apparent hoax. Matthews himself had been the Beijing Bureau Chief of the Washington Post, personally covering the protests at the time, and his article appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review, our most prestigious venue for media criticism. On top of it, what Western mainstream media was describing as a group of freedom fighters and pro-democracy movement, had a substantial number of radicals in its ranks, even outright racists, that were protesting against the presence of black Africans on Chinese university campuses. They demanded a ban on their relationships with the Chinese women. And they were fully supported and at least partially funded by the West, simply because of their savage, aggressive, fundamentalist anti-Communism. The Chinese government does not even want to touch this subject, anymore. They feel that, faced with massive Western propaganda, they cannot get through with their take on the story; in brief, that they have lost the narrative. Now fast-forward to 2019 and 2020. Hong Kong. Again, what we are witnessing there is outrageous and extremist anti-Communism. Fascist protesters that are marching, destroying public property, and attacking the Police, all under U.S, U.K and German banners, are hailed by the Western mass media as pro-democracy activists. They are physically attacking the supporters of Beijing. They are paid, they are glorified. I have talked to them on many occasions. They are fully, thoroughly brainwashed. They know nothing about facts. They deny the crimes committed by the British and the U.S. colonialists. They admire everything Western, and they despise their own country. The West has been told to view them as revolutionaries. And it promotes them as revolutionaries, all over the world! Another group unleashed against the Communist China, are the Uyghurs. Many of these people have joined terrorist organizations in Idlib, Syria, in Indonesia, and elsewhere. Or more precisely, they were injected there. The reason? To harden them on the battlefields, so that they could one day return to China, and try to break Communism, as well as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the most internationalist mammoth project on Earth. I have covered their activities in Syria, Indonesia, Turkey and elsewhere. I have written extensively about the atrocities they have been committing. But the anti-Communist propaganda is often too massive and too professional. It manufactures a bullet-proof narrative. It portrays the Uyghurs as the victims! Ask the common men and women of the streets of London, Paris or New York, what they know about Stalins era, or the famines in the early years of the USSR, or in Communist China? 99.99% know nothing. Where these famines took place, or why? But they are absolutely certain that they took place. No doubts, whatsoever. No doubts that they happened because of Communism. Westerners are intellectually obedient, like sheep. Most of them do not question the propaganda unleashed by their regime. Are they really free? The famine in the Soviet Union actually took place because the young revolutionary country was totally devastated by the Western and Japanese invasions, which tried to break and plunder the country. British, French, U.S., Czech, Polish, German, Japanese invasions, to name just a few. But ask, for instance, the Czechs, how much they know about their Legions that controlled the Trans-Siberian railroad, on their way from Europe to Vladivostok. Plundering, rape, and mass killing. I tried. I asked, in Prague and Pilsen. They thought I was a lunatic. The Legions are portrayed as heroic, in their history books. A bullet-proof narrative. No doubts there. And Stalinism? This author is planning to write much more on this subject. But here, just in brief: What kind of country did Stalin really inherited? It was a country thoroughly plundered by foreign invaders, a country devastated by civil war. A country where the anti-revolutionary forces have been, until recently, financed by the U.K., France, U.S. and others. As a result of this brutal civil war unleashed from abroad, criminal gangs roamed all over the vast lands, and inside cities. From the beginning, the Russian Communists wanted peace, the brotherhood of nations, and peaceful development for its people. I wrote in 2017, in my book Great October Socialist Revolution. Impact on the World and Birth of Internationalism: The revolutionaries wanted to end all wars immediately. Russian soldiers left their trenches, and embraced their enemies. We are all brothers! they shouted. We were forced to fight each other by ruthless monarchs, priests and businessmen. We should battle real enemies, not each other! Proletariat of the world, Unite! But the Western officers and commanders were determined: they forced their men back to the trenches, accusing them of treason, pushing them to the battlefields. Most significantly, the countless foreign invasions were overwhelming of both several major Russian cities and the countryside. As always throughout the previous centuries, the Europeans never thought twice before putting their military boots on Russian soil. In a way, Russia was treated and perceived as a barbaric nation that could be attacked, colonized and plundered at will and without much justification, not unlike all those countless unfortunate nations all over the world: located in South America and Central Asia, in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Many Russians looked like whites, like Europeans, but to the Westerners, they were never white enough, never really part of the culture of the conquerors and plunderers. Russia always had its own soul, its way of thinking and feeling, its distinct manner of acting and reacting. In my book, I revisited the subversion tactics of Western imperialism and militant anti-Communism: The essence and strategy of Western imperialist subversion is essentially very simple: identify all strong and weak points of the country that you are attempting to murder, and try to comprehend its ideology. Study and learn all about its progressive leadership: its plans, and all that the revolution is trying to do for the people: like giving them freedom, equal rights, improved life expectancy, high standards of education, medical care, housing, infrastructure, arts and overall a decent quality of life. Then, attack where it hurts the most: use direct interventions, sabotage, terrorist assaults, or sponsor extremist and even religious fundamentalist groups, in order to spread fear and insecurity to slow down the process of social change and economic growth. Hit so hard that at some point, the democratic revolutionary system will have to react, simply in order to protect its people, their achievements, and even their bare lives. Wherever the West tries to destroy a socialist country, be it Nicaragua or Afghanistan in the 80s, it first targets hospitals and schools, in order to demolish the great social achievements of the government, and to spread hopelessness among the population. Then it hits even harder, to trigger a strong government reaction, and then immediately declare: You see, this is the real face of socialism or communism! You want a revolution? Fine: what you get in the package will be this: oppression, political trials, gulags, a lack of freedom, and even some brutal executions! Use widely, weapons like disinformation and negative propaganda, so the revolution in a progressive but cruelly terrorized country would never have a chance to really influence the rest of the world, and even at home it will begin to suffer after being put under too much pressure Such hideous tactics of the West, deeply injured the Soviet Union before WWII, but it failed to destroy the country. The Chinese famine took place partially because during the Japanese occupation, the Imperial Army disrupted the food chain supplies, as well as the system of farming, which had been formed and developed throughout thousands of years. Japan was interested in only one thing: how to feed its troops that were occupying a massive part of Asia. In both cases, Western propaganda made people believe that the real cause for the loss of lives in Russia and China was Communism! The brainwashing has been so successful, that even in Russia and China, millions of people have been fully indoctrinated by these countlessly repeated lies coming out of the West. But ask in London, whether people know anything about the fact that under the British occupation of India, tens of millions of people died from starvation; victims of the famines triggered by London, for many reasons, one of them being an attempt to lower the population. Over 50 million Indian people, cumulatively, died in these famines, between 1769 to 1943, in British administered India. Should we, as a result, ban the British political system? I am convinced that we should! But that is usually not what the people of the world, including the victims of the British colonialist barbarity, are demanding. So, back to the British or French public. What do they know about their past, and even about their neo-colonialist present? They only know what they have been ordered to believe. In brief: they know nothing. Zero. Only fairytales. But they are convinced that they are well informed. And that they have the right to lecture the world. They know absolutely nothing about the USSR, and about China. They have no clue about why North Korea and Cuba are being continuously demonized (as mentioned above, they both, hand in hand, liberated Africa from Western colonialism). I have lived and worked all over Africa, for years, made films, and written countless essays. The Cuban and North Korean involvement, enormously positive, internationalist and undoubtedly Communist, from Namibia and Angola, from Egypt to Mauritius, has been very well documented. But say it in a Parisian cafe or a London pub, and jaws will drop. Blank stares, emptiness. Even that Anti-Communist left consisting of anarcho-syndicalists and Trotskyists (really mostly British and U.S. brands of pseudo revolutionaries), knows nothing, or wants to know nothing, about true revolutionary Communism. On 23 April, 2020, Brasil de Fato quoted the Venezuelan Vice-Minister Carlos Ron: It is very interesting in North American culture, to believe in manifest destiny, to think that they have a messianic mission. They believe that their mission is to end communism in Latin America, so they will overthrow Venezuela, Cuba and everything that is red, because all that is red is communist. In Indonesia, an entire failed, miserable and depressing religious state is based on anti-Communist dogma. Nobody clearly understands there, why they are anti-communist, but the more they are ignorant about the subject, the more aggressively they act; banning all Communist concepts and lexicon, building anti-Communist museums, and producing anti-Communist films. After killing millions of Communists on behalf of the West, anti-Communism has become the essence of their existence. In the past they even used to ban the Chinese and Russian languages. All just to silence the past, when President Sukarno and the PKI (Communist Party of Indonesia), before the US-backed 1965 coup, were building a great, progressive, socialist and non-aligned nation. In fact, in much of Southeast Asia, perhaps the most grotesquely turbo-capitalist part of the world, Communism has been banned, or at least demonized. The result: confused, consumerist, religious and dismal nations. Communist Vietnam is the shining star, but it is never portrayed as such, definitely not abroad. Let us celebrate the 150th birthday of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin! Let us celebrate it by revisiting history, and the present. The most brutal political system is Western imperialism, colonialism. It has already murdered hundreds of millions of people, all over the world. This fact should be repeated again and again. The goal of Western propaganda has always been to equate Communism and Fascism, the two most antagonistic systems in history, in the world. It was the Soviet Communist system, which smashed Nazism to pieces, saving the world, at an enormous cost of approximately 25 million human lives. Only Western imperialism can be compared to German Nazism. The two are made of the same stuff. To me, to many of us, Communism means the perpetual struggle against Western interventionism, colonialism. In this terrible moment in human history, it is important to clearly understand this reality. If Communism were to be defeated, it would be the end of the struggle for freedom. Only the powerful, centralized, ideologically-sound Communist system can fight and liberate the human race from colonialist shackles, from savage capitalism, and an nihilist empty existence. Propagandists tell you insane lies, that Communism is outdated and boring. Dont believe them: it is the most upbeat, still young, and optimistic arrangement of the world. And unlike imperialism and capitalism, Communism is constantly evolving. Not in Europe or North America, but in the rest of the world. Just look at the West and its colonies. Look at the misery and deprivation brought on humanity by the Western oppressive dictatorial regime. Happy birthday, Comrade Lenin! The struggle continues! Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Six of his latest books are New Capital of Indonesia, China Belt and Road Initiative, China and Ecological Civilization with John B. Cobb, Jr., Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism, a revolutionary novel Aurora and a bestselling work of political non-fiction: Exposing Lies Of The Empire. View his other books here. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky On Western Terrorism. Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and Latin America, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website, his Twitter and his Patreon . Defence minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday the government will not compromise on the countrys pride and self-respect even as Congress president Rahul Gandhi stepped up his criticism of the Centres handling of the ongoing India-China border row. Addressing a BJP event online, Singh acknowledged that Gandhi and some opposition leaders have sought the governments clarification on the developments at the border. As the defence minister of the country, I want to say that...I will say it inside Parliament; I will not mislead the people, he said. Earlier in the day, Gandhi stressed that everyone knows the reality, less than 24 hours after home minister Amit Shah pointed out that India has shown decisiveness in protecting its borders. The media is muzzled and terrified. The truth seems dormant. But it flows in the blood of every single Indian Army officer and soldier. They know exactly what is happening in Ladakh, Gandhi said in a tweet. Everyone knows the reality of the borders, but the thought is good to keep ones heart happy, he said in another tweet in Hindi, tweaking a couplet by Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib. Addressing a virtual rally in Bihar on Sunday, Shah had said Indias defence policy has gained global acceptance and the world agrees that after the US and Israel, if there is any other country that is able to protect its borders, it is India. Reacting to Gandhis tweets, BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli said: Sabko maloom hai Doklam ke samay kiske sath chai peene ke bad aap chupana chahte the (Everyone knows with who you had tea at the time of Doklam and later tried to hide it). During the Doklam stand-off in 2017, Gandhis meeting with Chinese envoy Luo Zhaohui triggered a war of words. Gandhi then clarified that as an opposition leader, he held regular meetings with diplomats on critical issues. English Lithuanian Lithuanian electricity transmission operator LITGRID AB (company code 302564383, registered office address Virsuliskiu skg. 99B, Vilnius, Lithuania) announces that on June 3, 2020 the opinion of the Audit Committee of the parent company UAB EPSO-G about the intention to conclude the agreement between LITGRID AB and related party UAB EPSO-G (hereinafter - the Transaction) on the transfer of tax liability has been received. On May 25, 2020 the Audit Committee of UAB EPSO-G considered the Transaction and issued an opinion: compliance of the Transaction with market conditions is not assessed due to the reason that the Transaction is executed exclusively in accordance with requirements established in the Article 561 of the Law on Corporate Income Tax of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter - the Law on Corporate Income Tax), i.e. pursuant to the Article 561 of the PMI, the Transaction could not be entered into with an entity other than a group entity; the Transaction is fair and reasonable with respect to all shareholders of LITGRID AB who are not parties to the Transaction (the transfer of tax losses is carried out in accordance with the Law on Corporate Income Tax and LITGRID AB does not incur any losses due to the transaction). On 5 June 2020 Board of the LITGRID AB approved conclusion of the Agreement with UAB EPSO-G. The individual authorized by LITGRID AB to provide additional information on the material event: Jurga Eivaite Communications Manager tel. +370 613 19977 e-mail: jurga.eivaite@litgrid.eu Stephanie Rapkin's mugshot: Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office A lawyer who spat on a teenage protester during a demonstration over George Floyds death has been arrested twice in two days. According to eye witness reports from the scene on Saturday, Stephanie Rapkin, a white 64-year-old resident of the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood, parked her car in the middle of an intersection to block an anti-racism protest, angrily ignoring demands that she get back into the car and move it. As seen on video shot by a bystander which has since been widely shared online, Ms Rapkin angrily refused, then spat in the face of a young black protester who approached her, angering the crowd. She was arrested at her home later that night, but not transported to the Milwaukee County jail because of restrictions in place to stop the spread of Covid-19. The next day, Ms Rapkin was arrested again after an altercation with protesters outside her home who were chalking the sidewalk with messages including racist and I spat on a child. According to the Sherwood Police Department, Ms Rapkin came out of her house, became verbally aggressive, then slapped a protester on the chest and pushed him away from her. She reportedly resisted officers attempts to handcuff her and kneed an officer in the groin, but was eventually carried out of her house and booked at the police department. She now faces several charges, including battery to a law enforcement officer. Ms Rapkin, an attorney, has faced widespread opprobrium online, including from the State Bar of Wisconsin, whose leaders condemned her behaviour in a Facebook post. As the leadership of the State Bar of Wisconsin, reads the statement, we are disturbed and disgusted by the actions of an attorney who allegedly spat in the face of a protester during a demonstration on Saturday. We do not condone this behavior under any circumstance period. The State Bar of Wisconsin champions integrity, civility, and respect in dealings with the public, colleagues, clients, and the courts. The behavior of lawyers and others directly contributes to the publics confidence in our justice system. We unequivocally support equal justice and the right of all citizens to peacefully protest. DECATUR Macon County officials announced one more confirmed case of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the county's total to 203. Twenty-two residents have died after testing positive for the virus. Here is more information about the cases: Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and loss of taste or smell. Do not go to an emergency room or doctor's office unless it is a true emergency. Call your primary doctor first. If you don't have a primary doctor, you can call: DMH Medical Group at (217) 876-2856 HSHS Medical Group Patient Advocate at 844-520-8897 Crossing Healthcare at (217) 877-9117 SIU at (217) 872-3800 For COVID-19 screening, the following resources are available: Crossing Healthcare (217) 877-9117 HSHS St. Marys Hospital 24/7 COVID-19 Hotline at (217) 464-2966. HSHS Medical Group offers free virtual assessments for COVID-19 at www.anytimecare.com Photos: Central Illinois returns to the hair stylist after two months on quarantine Contact Analisa Trofimuk at (217) 421-7985. Follow her on Twitter: @AnalisaTro Hannan outlines a Zinc-Lead Discovery at the San Martin Project in Peru that overlies Copper-Silver Mineralization Posted by Publisher Internet Hannan Metals Limited (?Hannan? or the ?Company?) (TSXV: HAN) (OTCPK: HANNF https://www.commodity-tv.com/play/hannan-metals-identifies-new-2-km-long-zone-of-high-grade-copper-silver-mineralization/ ) provides new results from a zoned zinc-lead system that overlies stratabound copper-silver mineralization from the Sacanche project area.? Sacanche is part of Hannan?s 100% owned San Martin basin-scale sediment-hosted copper-silver project that extends for 120 kilometres along the foreland region of the eastern Andes Mountains in Peru (Figure 1). Highlights: 1. Mapping and sampling have defined gossanous lead-zinc mineralization within a 3 by 1 kilometre area. Individual gossanous zones up to 54 metres wide have been mapped in sandstones of the Cretaceous Cushabatay Formation (Figure 1). The zone remains open in multiple directions (Figure 2). 2. Hannan?s focus remains on the copper-silver end member of the mineralized system at San Martin, however lead and zinc mineralization is well described in global sediment-hosted copper mineralized systems; 3. Forty individual chip, channel and grab samples are reported and range from 4.7% zinc and 1.3% lead (over 0.6m metres width) to 354 ppm zinc and 353 ppm lead, and average 0.7% zinc and 0.3% lead (Figure 3). A 54 metres wide gossanous zone with 9 non-contiguous rock panel chip samples average 1.2% zinc and 0.6% lead; Individual continuous channels include 10.9 metres @ 0.4% zinc and 0.3% lead; Highest zinc and lead values are associated with NNE trending extensional shear structures with individual lengths from 500-1,000 m in parallel zones (Figure 3); The gossanous lead-zinc zones have been leached and therefore primary sulphide mineralization below the weathered zone is likely to be higher grade; 4.?The sandstone-hosted system shows a local zonation between zinc, lead, iron and managanese and is interpreted, and in part observed, to grade into a copper-silver rich system (Figure 4): Copper-silver mineralized quartz sandstones from the Cushabatay Formation have been previous reported, 2 kilometres south (one boulder: 3.8% copper, 10 g/t silver) and 15 kilometres north (two boulders: 2.6% copper, 36 g/t silver and 2.8% copper, 50 g/t silver)?from the same stratigraphic position of the new zone described here, supporting the copper/silver potential of this sandstone horizon; The major redox boundary below the zinc-lead gossanous zone (Figure 4), is not exposed at current erosional level, which suggests that the copper dominant part of the system may also exist at depth; 5. Multiple mineralized stratigraphic positions and styles are now been defined across the property and are described in Figure 4. The zinc-lead gossans overlie the stratabound copper silver mineralization hosted by reduced siltstone of the Sarayaquillo Formation. Michael Hudson, CEO, states: ?Geological mapping at San Martin has revealed extensive, transgressive stratabound and structurally controlled copper+silver and zinc+lead mineralization hosted by multiple lithologies in host rocks of Jurassic and Cretaceous age. Although our focus remains on the copper-silver end member of the mineralized system at San Martin, lead and zinc mineralization is well described in global sediment-hosted copper mineralized systems, often fringing copper mineralization.? Our work continues to define a system of scale and tenor.? Hannan?s mapping from the first stage of this field season has revealed a transgressive structurally controlled copper-silver mineralization hosted by multiple lithologies in host rocks of Jurassic and Cretaceous age. A revised stratigraphy of this period is presented in Figure 4 together with a description of the different mineralized host rocks with typical grades. ?The zinc-lead gossans are interpreted to overlie the stratabound copper silver mineralization hosted by reduced siltstone of the Sarayaquillo Formation. Channel samples are considered representative of the in-situ mineralization samples and sample widths quoted approximate the true width of mineralization, while grab (boulder) samples are selective by nature and are unlikely to represent average grades on the property. Forty individual chip, channel and grab samples are reported and shown in Figure 3.? Reported samples range from 4.7% zinc and 1.3% lead (over 0.6m metres width) to 354 ppm zinc and 353 ppm lead, and average 0.7% zinc and 0.3% lead. A 54 metres wide gossanous zone with 9 non-continguous rock panel chip samples average 1.2% zinc and 0.6% lead. Individual continuous channels include 10.9 metres @ 0.4% zinc and 0.3% lead. The mineralized stratigraphy outcrop in creeks and ridges. To the north and east it disappears under quaternary alluvial cover. The downdip position to the east remains open. The mineralization is localized to an anticline which is cut by trending NNE extensional shear zones. The shears are interpreted to be subordinate to the regional north trending inverted Sapo-Sacanche basement fault (Figure 2).? Distal to the anticline (up to 5 kilometres away) extensive zones of gossanous sandstone after pyrite (without elevated zinc and lead mineralization) have been mapped. In some area?s boulders and outcrops with Rote Faule redox style-alteration (spotted hematite) have also been observed (Figure 4e). The sandstone-hosted system shows a local zonation between zinc, lead, iron and managanese.? Importantly it is interpreted, and in part observed, to grade into a copper-silver rich system. Copper-silver mineralized quartz sandstones from the Cushabatay Formation have been previous reported, 2 kilometres south (one boulder: 3.8% copper, 10 g/t silver) and 15 kilometres north (two boulders: 2.6% copper, 36g/t silver and 2.8% copper, 50 g/t silver)?from the same stratigraphic position of the new zone described here, supporting the copper/silver potential of this sandstone horizon. The target is partly concealed by thin quaternary cover and the major redox boundary is not exposed at current erosional level, which suggests that the copper dominated part of the system may also exist at depth. Zonation of anomalous lead and zinc is well documented in all major producing sediment-hosted stratabound copper basins globally. For example in the Kupferschiefer of Poland it is considered as distal parts of the reduced facies sediment hosted model. In the Spar Lake district, US, the mineralization grades from distal pyrite (Fe) zone to galena (lead), sphalerite (zinc) to the a copper rich zone. The Central African Copperbelt also contains significant deposits of zinc. The San Martin project is an early stage exploration project. Previous mineral exploration in the area is limited.? RTZ worked in the southern and northern areas for one year in the late 1990?s and conducted reconnaissance sampling and drilled 3 diamond drillholes in the transitional lead-zinc parts of the system in the south (Figure 3). A private Canadian company completed soil sampling and some geophysics during a one year period in the southern project area. These data are not available to Hannan.? Hannan?s in-depth regional geological understanding has been derived from the substantial data gathered during petroleum exploration activities undertaken in the Huallaga Basin since 1989. This data, which recently has been made publicly available, includes >2,000 kilometres of 2D seismic, 618 kilometres of geological traverses, 1,600 gravity stations, 13,000 kilometres of aeromagnetic surveys and >2,000 rock samples for geochemical and petrological studies.? This information has provided Hannan a tremendous amount of data to guide exploration and support geological models. At San Martin, we believe we have identified an opportunity which could result in a significant discovery. As a project generator we continue to review new opportunities, but at same time we need to consider all options to advance a district scale opportunity at San Martin. The results from our initial work to date has attracted the interest of a number of major mining companies. While we are in the early stages of our work programs, it would remiss to not consider partnership opportunities that we believe are in the best interest of the Company. To date the Company has had numerous discussions and exchanges of information and at this time is awaiting follow up documentation from select parties.????? Sedimentary-hosted stratiform copper-silver deposits are among the two most important copper sources in the world, the other being copper porphyries.? They are also a major producer of silver.? According to the World Silver Survey 2020 KGHM Polska Miedz?s (?KGHM?) three copper-silver sediment-hosted mines in Poland are the leading silver producer in the world with 40.2Moz produced in 2019.?This is almost twice the production of the second largest producing mine. The Polish mines are also the sixth largest global copper miner and in 2018, KGHM produced 30.3 Mt of ore at a grade of 1.49% Cu and 48.6 g/t Ag from a mineralized zone that averages 0.4 to 5.5 metres thickness. About Hannan Metals Limited (TSX.V:HAN) (OTCPK: HANNF)?? ?????? ? Hannan Metals Limited?is a natural resources and exploration company developing sustainable and ethical resources of metal needed to meet the transition to a low carbon economy. Over the last decade, the team behind Hannan has forged a long and successful record of discovering, financing and advancing mineral projects in Europe and Peru. Mr. Michael Hudson FAusIMM, Hannan?s Chairman and CEO, a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release. Forward Looking Statements Certain information set forth in this news release contains ?forward-looking statements?, and ?forward- looking information? under applicable securities laws. Except for statements of historical fact, certain information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements, which include the Company?s expectations regarding future performance based on current results, expected cash costs based on the Company?s current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs, which may prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company?s actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projects of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: The Company?s expectations regarding timing to complete field work and outcome of results, the granting of the claim applications in Peru, the potential impact of epidemics, pandemics or other public health crises, including the current outbreak of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 on the company?s business, community relations, liabilities inherent in mine development and production, geological risks, the financial markets generally, and the ability of the Company to raise additional capital to fund future operations. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management?s estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on 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 news ? The Western Australian government is defending its record on Indigenous incarceration as new statistics show more Aboriginal people are in the state's prisons than when Labor came to office in 2017. A note on a government website revealed the state had deferred indefinitely its target to reduce the number of Aboriginal people in prison by almost a quarter by 2028, which was part of a package of 'whole-of-government' goals suspended because of the pandemic. WA imprisons Aboriginal people at a higher rate than any other state or territory, with 4.1 per cent of its Aboriginal population behind bars, compared to 2.9 per cent in the Northern Territory and a national rate of 2.6 per cent. WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt. Credit:Lauren Pilat According to the ABS, the daily average number of Aboriginal West Australians in prison between January and March was 2766, compared to 2696 for the same quarter last year and 2508 for 2017, the year Labor came to office. Xenon Partners, a SaaS focused private equity firm, announced their acquisition of UXPin, a leading collaborative design and prototyping platform. UXPin was founded in 2010 in Poland by Marcin Treder, Kamil Zieba, and Marcin Kowalski. UXPin found success as a paper prototyping notepad, but shifted focus to develop an online user experience design platform, UXPin.com, that enables teams to build better digital products. From the outset, UXPins mission was to merge design and engineering into one world of better and faster product development. Today, the company powers the web and mobile application design process for thousands of teams across technology startups, digital agencies and the worlds most iconic brands including Microsoft, Autodesk, Apple, Ford, Netflix, PayPal and more. "It's 2020, but it still sucks to create software applications," says Jonathan Siegel, founder of Xenon Partners. "Designers study user feedback, interaction patterns and best practices--they know exactly what an end user should experience. But they hand over brittle paintings of their visions rather than working prototypes. This dissonance causes wasted cycles and unnecessary inefficiencies that plague even the best intended teams. I've experienced these difficulties since beginning software development 30 years ago. UXPin is one of the only solutions that adequately solves these challenges for digital product teams, and I'm delighted to welcome the UXPin team and community to the Xenon portfolio." Marcin Kowalski, one of UXPins Co-founders, adds: Over the past few years, weve invested in building one of the leading collaborative design and prototyping products in the market, serving thousands of teams across the globe. This is a perfect moment to take UXPins product and reach within the digital community to the next level. Xenon provides the right expertise and experience to expand UXPin as a business. But most importantly, we have a similar vision of the future of UXPin, helping design and development teams build better products, together. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the role of remote collaboration has never been more crucial. UXPin was the first to introduce Google Docs-style online collaboration to the design community. Today UXPins multiplayer capabilities remain industry leading. As we usher in this new world of work, and the rapidly evolving realities of how design and development teams interface, UXPin is committed to remaining a pioneer and innovator in the products they create to advance the goals of the global design and development community. About Xenon Partners: Xenon acquires and operates early-stage B2B SaaS technology companies. Xenon provides its portfolio companies with deep operational expertise in growth marketing, sales and operations to scale to the next level. Past and present portfolio companies include Airbrake (acquired by Rackspace), DreamFactory, Earth Class Mail (acquired by ScaleWorks), and Xplenty. For more information, visit http://www.xenon.io. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 Trend: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Portuguese Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Dear Mr. President, it is on the occasion of the national holiday of the Portuguese Republic that on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan I offer my most cordial congratulations to you and your people, the letter said. I seize this pleasant opportunity to wish strong health and success to you, and everlasting prosperity to the friendly people of Portugal, the letter added. Iran still has not given any response to Ukraine's note on the settlement of all issues related to the case on the crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane of the Ukraine International Airlines, which was downed in Tehran, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yevhen Yenin said in a statement posted on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) website on Sunday, June 7. "The first note with our requirements and the proposal to settle all issues was sent to Iran back on January 11. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky also had voiced this. As of today, five months later, we have not received any official answers. In that note we also expressed Ukraine's readiness to hold talks with Iran. Still no answer. There were only statements in the press regarding their readiness," he said. The deputy minister said that the requirements of the Ukrainian side to Iran are simple: the technical and criminal investigations should be carried out according to the basic principles of fairness, independence and transparency. "That is why our investigations and prosecution agencies regularly send their Iranian colleagues requests for legal assistance. It is the prosecutor's office, which is an independent agency in line with the constitution, that decides when the investigation is completed," Yenin said. Libya's battered oil industry suffered another blow as the biggest field in the conflict-ravaged North African country shut down just days after output resumed following a five-month halt. The Sharara field in southwestern Libya stopped after armed men entered the site on Monday and told employees to end activities. Sharara's abrupt closure led the Tripoli-based National Oil Corp. to declare force majeure on loadings of crude from the field, the company said Tuesday in a statement. "This criminal group dared to enter the field with heavy weapons," NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in the statement. "Instead of defending the country's interest and protecting civilians, the members of this armed group have directed weapons against our loyal Libyan workers, who are making tremendous efforts to try to prevent Libya from resorting to banks to borrow to feed its people." The setback threatens to smother a nascent revival of exports from Libya, which has produced little crude since January due to a civil war. Almost all the country's oil ports and fields are blockaded or closed as a result of the seesawing conflict. The NOC had only just lifted a force majeure on crude exports from Sharara on Sunday, as well as from the nearby El-Feel deposit a day later. Sharara was to start producing about 30,000 barrels a day, with a full ramp-up -- to about ten times that amount -- taking three months. Sharara's halt means workers at El-Feel, which is connected to it, could also stop operations. Sharara's initial restart had signaled better times in Libya. The country's energy industry has been dogged for almost a decade by power struggles and fighting following the ouster of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. For other oil producers, extra Libyan barrels would be less welcome, coming at a time when OPEC and allied producers are doing everything they can to keep supplies off the global market and boost prices. They agreed on Saturday to extend historic production cuts of almost 10 million barrels a day through July. Libya, with Africa's largest oil reserves, is exempted from the restrictions due to its strife. Brent crude was trading 1.6% lower at $40.13 a barrel at 11:57 a.m. in London. It's down 39% this year. The NOC said earlier that El Feel would probably take two weeks to return to full capacity of around 100,000 barrels a day, due to damage caused by the shutdown there, the company said. In mid-January, the NOC declared force majeure for exports of the Sharara grade of crude from Zawiya, a port near Tripoli. Force majeure is a legal status protecting a party from liability if it can't fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control. The measure was applied to several ports. The chaos at the country's oil facilities came amid a military offensive by Khalifa Haftar, a commander based in eastern Libya, to conquer Tripoli in the west and consolidate his control over the country. His supporters shut down most crude production in January, and exports plunged from 1.2 million barrels a day to some 90,000. The collapse has cost the oil-dependent nation billions of dollars in lost revenue. However, forces loyal to United Nations-recognized Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj have gained ground in the past month, thanks largely to military support from Turkey. They pushed Haftar out of his last stronghold in the west last week. Haftar accepted an Egyptian-sponsored cease-fire last week, though Sarraj's administration said government forces would try to retake the cities of Sirte and Jufra before entering political negotiations to end the war. Regaining Sirte would put them close to the so-called oil crescent, the area containing most of Libya's oil reserves. Haftar's Libyan National Army has so far stymied the forces of al-Sarraj's Government of National Accord near Sirte. Lisa Vanderpump has been relatively silent during the Black Lives Matter protests going on around the country and the world. Former Vanderpump Rules star Faith Stowers is calling out her former boss. The Bravo alum feels Vanderpump is not using her podium to demand equality as she does with other causes. Vanderpump is known for her activism with animal rights and the LGBTQ community but has not said much following George Floyds death. Lisa Vanderpump and Faith Stowers | David Becker/Getty Images / Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic Faith Stowers puts Lisa Vanderpump on blast Stowers went viral for calling out the way she was treated during her time on the hit Bravo reality show. She put the big boss on blast during an appearance on the Red Flags Make Cute Scarves podcast. Lisa does a lot for the LGBTQ community and support, and she does a lot for dogs all across the world to try to help them with what theyre putting dogs through all over the world, Stowers said. Unfortunately, George Floyd is not a dog, and thats how I feel, because had George Floyd been a dog, Lisa would have marched like she did for Vanderpump Dogs. Vanderpump has not been active on social media in the past days as the protests have taken over the United States. Stowers doesnt feel that the former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star has done much for BLM as she has for other causes. They go out of their way. They cry on camera and talk on microphones to congregations of people about how wrong it is to eat and kill these innocent dogs All we want to do is to have the same rights. We want to live, Stowers added. Did Lisa Vanderpump say anything after George Floyds death? Vanderpump has not made any public comments following the Stassi Schroeder fallout. A resurfaced podcast landed the latter in hot water with sponsors dropping their support. The restaurant owner shared a few words on an Instagram post dated May 31 about the inequality the African American community lives. I am deeply saddened by the tragic events of the past few days, she wrote. This is about our shared humanity. Everybody deserves to feel safe in this country. Everybody deserves to feel valued, and heard. In addition, Vanderpump made another post with a black square. She has not expressed if shes gone to a march or if shes donated to the cause. As the marches were set to go through Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood, where Vanderpumps restaurants are located, the windows were boarded up. Jax Taylor shared a video of their support from afar by spray painting Black Lives Matter on the wood panels. Lisa Vanderpump wanted Faith Stowers to be like Nene Leakes Stowers had also called out Vanderpump when she revealed what it was like to be part of an all-white cast. During an interview on IG Live with Candice Rice, the latter asked why she was been attacked by her co-stars. Even Lisa Vanderpump, even the millionaire herself, which I was shocked by, Stowers said. I was shocked by that the most. Stassi Schroeder was not the only one that Faith Stowers called out. She also named Lisa Vanderpump who wanted her to play the stereotypical black woman and antagonize the #PumpRules cast not a good look @Andy @BravoTV @lisavanderpump #RHOBH pic.twitter.com/kAJs8zhtY1 LoveHousewives (@lovehousewives2) June 7, 2020 With Lisa, I was shocked by the most, Stowers continued. When she first approached me, she was very happy about the fact that there was going to be a black person on the show. It was like, I want you to put them in their place, kind of give them this Nene Leakes attitude. And I was very nice coming in, I wasnt really giving her that show that she needed from me. Thats why you dont see me in the confessionals, in my opinion. This could be different on their end. Stowers said that she wasnt allowed to talk about her experience on the show. When a news outlet approached her for an interview, she was threatened by a lawsuit. RELATED: Faith Stowers Recalls Lisa Vanderpump Attack, Wanted Her to Act Like Nene Leakes on Vanderpump Rules Adam Immerwahr, artistic director of Theater J, one of the countrys leading Jewish theater companies, said in an interview that canceling three fall productions and pushing back reopening to January 2021 was a health necessity. Like all cultural institutions, weve been in a deep process of learning, of following what guidance is coming from our city and the Centers for Disease Control and conversations with theaters around the country, he said. And were also very guided by the very clear Jewish law, which states saving a life overrides all else. In Judaism, youre allowed to put aside a lot of the Ten Commandments if saving a life is your goal. The Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC has confirmed that eventual trade ban with Huawei will not affect its business significantly, according to its chairman Mark Liu. Asked whether the company can fill the order gap by HiSilicon, Huaweis chip manufacturing arm, Liu said we hope that wont happen, but if it does, we will replace it in a very short time. Analysts estimate that 60% of the TSMC revenue comes from contracts with US companies, while only 20% of them come from China. Speaking at an annual general meeting, Liu said that it is difficult to predict how fast any eventual gap would be filled, but TSMC will find a solution and will overcome the challenges one by one. TSMC recently announced plans to invest $12 billion in the United States with a factory and development plan, but hours after the official press message, the US Commerce Department outlined a proposal to amend chip export rules, which would push the Taiwanese company to get a special license to do business with Huawei and any other company on the US entity list. Currently, the company is still in talks with the US government about subsidies for its new plant that would make it viable to move some of the production from Taiwan to the United States. Some of its clients are likely to be military suppliers, although key partners remain Apple and Qualcomm, both based in the state of California. Source BOCA RATON, FL / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / Scott R. Storick of local Principal Financial Group in Boca Raton has quaified for Top of the Table, a coveted milestone achievement for their membership in the MDRT. Storick's membership equips him with tools and resources to better serve the local community. Top of the Table is an internationally recognized mark of excellence reserved for the most successful in the financial services industry. This places Storick among the top professionals in the intensely competitive global life insurance and financial services industries. Storick has had a twenty-five-year career in the financial services industry serving as an agent and broker for many large carriers such as MetLife, Mass Mutual, and John Hancock. Storick recently joined Principal Financial Group as a top performing career agent. "Top of the Table is comprised of the best and brightest professionals our industry has to offer," said MDRT President Jim Pittman, CLU, CFP. "MDRT hopes to continue to foster a culture of excellence and encourage members to grow both personally and professionally." Since 1927, MDRT has been committed to providing its members with a unique mix of networking and resources to help them gain new and unique insights to better serve clients' individual needs. Working with an MDRT member connects clients not only to a highly credible and leading financial advisor but also to an unmatched global network spanning 69 nations and territories around the world. For more information, contact Scott Storick at 561-862-8051 or Storick.Scott@Principal.com. About MDRT Founded in 1927, MDRT, The Premier Association of Financial Professionals, is a global, independent association of more than 66,000 of the world's leading life insurance and financial services professionals from more than 500 companies in 72 nations and territories. MDRT members demonstrate exceptional professional knowledge, strict ethical conduct and outstanding client service. MDRT membership is recognized internationally as the standard of excellence in the life insurance and financial services business. For more information, please visit www.mdrt.org and follow them on Twitter @MDRtweet. Contact Information: Member's Name Giang Ngo Job Tittle, Company Media Relation Coordinator, MDRT Email address gngo@mdrt.org Phone number 847-993-4928 Social links (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) @MDRTweet SOURCE: Scott R. Storick of the South Florida Business Center of Principal Financial Group View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/593130/Storick-Achieves-Prestigious-Top-of-the-Table-MDRT-Qualification Dhaka, June 9 : Police in Dhaka have arrested another nine people with alleged links to the killings of 26 Bangladeshi migrants in Libya, the media reported. The Detective Branch and the Criminal Investigation Department made the arrests from parts of the capital on Sunday under the anti-trafficking and anti-terrorism law, bdnews24 quoted Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Abdul Baten as saying on Monday. Four passports, two mobile phones and two notebooks containing details of financial transactions linked to the incident have been recovered from them, said Baten. Earlier, 13 people were arrested in 22 cases filed across the country over the killings of the Bangladeshi workers in Libya, the Police Headquarters said on Sunday. The recent arrests made by the police take the total tally of detained suspects to 22, Baten said. The family of a slain Libyan people trafficker killed 26 Bangladeshi and four African migrants in revenge for his death on May 28. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 21:09:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MUSHINDAMO, Zambia, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese entrepreneurs are encouraged to consider investing in newly created districts in Zambia to help boost development and create jobs for the local people, a Zambian government official said on Tuesday. Emmanuel Chihili, Mushindamo District Commissioner said partnering with Chinese enterprises in various economic developments is key for Zambia's national development. "Mushindamo is a newly created district and requires greenfield investments, we appeal to Chinese firms to consider investing in the newly created district for economic development," he said. Chihili said in an interview that Chinese enterprises could also expand the Multi-Facility Economic Zones (MFEZ) to new districts. He said investments flow in the MFEZ in Chambishi and Lusaka was encouraging which should be duplicated in other parts of Zambia, especially in the newly created districts. Chihili said Zambia's bilateral relation with China is built on a strong foundation which is focused on national development. According to Chihili, the coming in of Chinese enterprises in various economic sectors is testimony enough that China is an all weather friend of Zambia. Further, he said Chinese investments were being witnessed in most African countries and beyond. And John Ng'andu, a resident of Mushinndamo said infrastructure development is cardinal for the district's economic growth. Ng'andu is happy that the Zambian government has awarded a tender to Chinese contractor to construct Mushindamo-Kipushi road. The Mushindamo-Kipushi road is an international route that links Zambia with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through Kipushi border. "Government should also consider engaging Chinese for other infrastructure development in the border district," he said. Enditem [June 09, 2020] Cofense Launches Free Resource Center and Searchable Database Highlighting the Latest Phishing Attacks that Bypass Email Security Technologies In the last 90 days, Cofense has identified tens of thousands of malicious emails that successfully evaded "secure" email gateways LEESBURG, Virginia, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cofense, the global leader in intelligent phishing defense solutions, today launched a comprehensive resource center and easy-to-use Real Phishing Threats searchable database to help organizations see the phishing threats that slip past their secure email gateways (SEG). In a world where hackers and threat actors constantly innovate and use tried-and-true tactics to stay one step ahead of detection, a multi-layered approach to email security is essential. In 2019, the Cofense Phishing Defense Center analyzed 1.9 million suspicious emails that landed in employee inboxes across the globe, one in seven of which were found to be malicious. Built on the world's largest data lake of phishing threats found by real people, Cofense combines the power of collective human detection and intelligence with automated response, enabling teams to stop phishing attacks rapidly after they have evaded perimeter technologies. To help organizations bolster their defenses, Cofense is revealing the phishing emails that bypass SGs every single day as well as the steps organizations can take to empower their employees and security teams to detect, report, analyze and quickly neutralize these threats. In the last 90 days alone, Cofense has found: 31,231 malicious emails in environments protected by Microsoft Office 365 13,610 malicious emails in environments protected by Proofpoint 9,356 malicious emails in environments protected by Mimecast 2,936 malicious emails in environments protected by Symantec "Several organizations view SEGs as a panacea to their email security woes. These technologies fail to deliver on their promise every day," said Rohyt Belani, chief executive officer and cofounder, Cofense. "All SEG vendors including Proofpoint, Microsoft, Symantec, Mimecast and Cisco, to name a few, are circumvented every day by even commonplace phishing attacks that use years old malware and credential harvesting tricks. Cofense provides a modern phishing defense and response solution that relies on 23 million humans across the globe for detection, making it impossible for attackers to model their threats. We then leverage machine learning and automation to help our customers rapidly identify the full scope of the attacks and neutralize them before incidents evolve to breaches." SEGs are the most common type of perimeter technology used to stop spam and malicious email from landing in user inboxes, but they fall short every day for several reasons. According to the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, phishing is the top tactic used by adversaries to breach networks, and 92% of all malware is distributed via email according to a recent Cisco report. While SEGs can be tuned to validate senders, they cannot always defend against both tried-and-true and emerging tactics not seen before. Today's phishing emails tend to use multiple stages of packing and obfuscation, rendering signature-based detection useless. Using real email accounts and legitimate websites, threat actors launch attacks and profit within hours. Not to mention, business email compromise (BEC) relies on email conversation, not URLs or other elements SEGs look for, to scam organizations out of billions every year. Cofense will continue to regularly update its SEG Infocenter with the latest examples of real phish that have evaded email security technologies along with additional resources and intelligence related to SEG misses. For a limited time, organizations can also stay on top of the latest threats that are confirmed to have reached employees inboxes with 90 days of free access to Cofense Intelligence, human-vetted, strategic and tactical intelligence that helps organizations inform their phishing defense strategy. For in-depth analysis of phishing threats, visit the Cofense blog, and register for Cofense's webinar on June 24, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific/11 a.m. Eastern to hear about the promise of SEGs, the methods threat actors use to evade them, and how organizations can leverage technology and human intelligence to succeed where SEGs fail. Visit the Cofense Real Phishing Threats searchable database at https://cofense.com/real-phishing-threats and SEG Infocenter at https://cofense.com/what-is-a-seg. About Cofense Cofense, the leading provider of intelligent phishing defense solutions worldwide, is uniting humanity against phishing. The Cofense suite of products combines timely attack intelligence on phishing threats that have evaded perimeter controls and were reported by employees, with best-in-class security operations technologies to stop attacks faster and stay ahead of breaches. Cofense customers include Global 1000 organizations in defense, energy, financial services, healthcare and manufacturing sectors that understand how changing user behavior will improve security, aid incident response and reduce the risk of compromise. For additional information, please visit www.cofense.com or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn. Media Contact [email protected] Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/645799/Cofense_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] KALAMAZOO -- A Kalamazoo Township board member is aiming to bring a national police reform campaign to Southwest Michigan. Kalamazoo Township Trustee Jen Strebs on Monday called for adoption of the 8 Cant Wait campaign, which outlines eight use-of-force policies and procedures to improve community safety. Speaking during the Monday, June 8, Board of Trustees meeting, Strebs said the reforms, which she plans to bring to the board later as a formal proposal, are a necessary step in ensuring trust between law enforcement and her community, and to have more insight into the actions Kalamazoo Township police officers take. Theres a lack of real transparency between the police department and our board, which is not well informed on what our department is doing and therefore were not really knowledgeable about where they deserve praise and where there are opportunities to improve," Strebs said. She pointed out the Kalamazoo Township Police Department makes up a significant portion of the township budget. Police spending accounts for more than $3 million of the $7.3 million general fund budget, according to the townships adopted 2020 budget. I cannot support funding our police department while that type of dialogue cannot be opened up, Strebs said. She said the adoption of the 8 Cant Wait plan would be a starting point in improving the relationship between the community and police. This is not a matter of good cop, bad cop," Strebs said. This is about a good system of a bad system. This is a system that continues to lack transparency. We need to have a deeper dialogue with our police department, our chief and our manager. (8 Cant Wait) is just a start to move us to the right direction. Kalamazoo Township police are not trained to perform choke holds or knee holds and have undergone implicit bias, deescalation, mental health and first-aid training, Township Manager Dexter Mitchell said. Many of the policy reforms included in the 8 Cant Wait proposal are already part of the established policy at the Kalamazoo Township Police Department, to some degree, Mitchell told MLive on Tuesday. I understand the frustration of the marches and the protesters, but youre yelling at the wrong person," Mitchell said. When you come into my meetings and you tell me, Hey, look this is what we need to do, please understand I helped write some of those policies. Mitchell referenced Michigans Public Act 312 of 1969 a state law that mandates binding arbitration if there is an impasse in contract negotiations with municipal police officers and firefighters in addressing why his department would be unable to immediately suspend officers without pay. That is one of the proposed policy changes outlined in the 8 Cant Wait proposal. There may be some wiggle room in that, but at the initial start they are suspended with pay, Mitchell said. Another tenant of the 8 Cant Wait proposal pushes for comprehensive reporting, which was a point of contention between Strebs and Mitchell. Do we go back to our board and tell them everything that has occurred with our police department and every arrest that has occurred? No, we do not do that, but we do have comprehensive reporting where, any weapons that have been discharged, goes to the FBI," Mitchell said. The township manger said he understands people want to look behind the curtain and encouraged those to do put themselves in the position to do so. Run for an office, change some of the law, come behind the curtain and become a police officer," Mitchell said. He said he would be open to creating a community review committee, in which members of the public review complaints with himself and Township Police Chief Bryan Ergang. Also on MLive: Michigan leaders react to protests with plans for police reform Protesters cause chaos overnight in downtown Kalamazoo Chief explains use of crowd management team at Kalamazoo protests Detroit protesters dance to deal with the trauma in downtown streets Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Tuesday said that the government can say that there is a community transmission in the national capital only after the Centre admits it. Speaking ahead of the meeting called to review the possibility of community transmission, Jain said, "We can say that (there is community spread) only when Centre admits it. Community spread is when there are cases in which source (of infection) cannot be ascertained. Almost half of our cases are like this." The Delhi government conducted the review meeting along with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil ... Tan France has just become our country's newest -- and most stylish -- citizen. MORE: Virtual Pride events offer new way to celebrate LGBTQ history and culture in June "A few minutes ago, I officially became an U.S citizen!!" the "Queer Eye" star wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of him at his citizenship ceremony. Another photo in the slideshow shows France, 37, posing with his American-born husband, Rob France. The two have been married since 2007. "For me, this is monumental," France added, explaining what this moment means to him. "It's something I've been working towards for literally 20 years, which makes this all the more emotional." Now that he's a full-fledged citizen, the fashion designer -- who was born in England to Muslim Pakistani parents -- plans to utilize his rights to the fullest. MORE: Quaranstream: Free events and services to watch online while self-quarantining "And now, I will exercise my constitutional right as an American," he promised. "Today, I will register to vote, and vote for the change I wish to see in OUR nation. 'Queer Eye' host Tan France becomes US citizen, promises to vote for 'change' originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com MUSKEGON, MI As of this week, restaurants statewide are allowed to open for in-person dining again. More than two months after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued her first stay-at-home order, an effort to stave the spread of novel coronavirus, dining rooms began welcoming guests again on Monday, June 8. In light of this change, this is the Muskegon Chronicles final Takeout Tuesday post. This series started as a way of supporting local businesses during an unprecedented time. Going forward, we will continue to highlight one local restaurant per week in a more in-depth fashion. As always, if you have a local favorite, feel free to recommend it to us at anya@mlive.com In the meantime, here are five local spots to celebrate the start of summer with a takeout meal this week. Pizza being made with a wood stove oven at 18th Amendment on Thursday, April 13, 2017 in Muskegon, Mich. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com) Kaytie Boomer I MLive.comKaytie Boomer I MLive.com 18th Amendment Spirits Co. (350 W. Western Ave.) Although this Prohibition-themed bar is best known for its cocktails, the former bank building also has a woodstove that cranks out pizzas that you can order to go. Pies include the Bullcook, with pancetta and pepperoni, the Sexy Tree, with pesto and parmesan, and the 4590, with a white sauce and Italian sausage. You can also order bottles of house-made liquor, including bourbon, rye, gin, vodka and white rum. Find the menu on the restaurants website, where you can place an order directly, or call 231-375-5064. Meals and appetizers available at Dockers restaurant located at 3505 Marina View Point, in Muskegon on Tuesday, June 18, 2019. Kayla Renie | MLive.com Dockers Fish House (3505 Marina View Point) One of Muskegons most picturesque restaurants is also one of Michigans Top 20 restaurants to try this year, period. And even if you choose take your meal to go, youll catch a glimpse of the waterfront while you wait. The specialty is seafood, of course, including scallops, spicy crab-stuffed poppers, and fish and chips. There are also fish tacos and a mahi banh mi, and small plates of lobster fondue and octopus ceviche. Or you can get a meal to feed a family of four: The Feast, which features five pounds of assorted shellfish, or a platter of crab and lobster mac 'n' cheese. You can dock against the restaurant in your boat, or just drive up. Find the menu here, and place an order by calling 231-755-0400. Customers wait outside to order lunch at Fatty Lumpkins Sandwich Shack in Muskegon, Michigan on Thursday, March 19, 2020. Fatty Lumpskins is one of many restaurants in the area that are providing take-out and delivery service for the community after Gov. Whitmer ordered all restaurants to close for dine-in services. Alison Zywicki | azywicki Fatty Lumpkins Sandwich Shack (971 Washington Ave.) This deli-style restaurant isnt reopening its colorful dining room just yet, but it has curbside pickup and walk-up ordering for its range of sandwiches, soups and salads. In addition to standard menu items, like Italian hoagies, pastrami and rye, and three Reuben-adjacent sandwiches, theres frequently a daily special and a range of sides, like pasta salad, chicken salad, and homemade slaw. Find the menu here, and walk up to place an order, or call 231-760-4382 to order in advance. G&L Greek Chili Dogs was included in MLive's search for Michigan's Best Coney Dog in 2019John Gonzalez G&L Greek Chili Dogs There are four locations to this classic Muskegon chain, but all of them are famous for Coney Dogs. In fact, the home of the Amazing Greek Chili Dog won MLives search for Michigans best chili dog in 2012. G&L operates its drive-through window from 11 a.m. 7 p.m. every day but Sunday. In addition to the dogs, which include a decadent chili dogs and Chicago-style hot dogs, G&L sells burgers, chicken strips, wraps, fries and shakes. Check out the menu here and find a nearby drive-through location here. The Old Channel Inn, 6905 Old Channel Trail, north of Montague, pictured here in a Muskegon Chronicle file photo from 1994. Old Channel Inn (6905 Old Channel Trail, Montague) Tucked away down a long back road, north of Montague, this cozy restaurant can feel like a well-kept secret. Its also a great option for seafood, like shrimp scampi, walleye, and a perch recipe thats been a classic since 1958. Theres also steak, salads, soups, and rich appetizers like wings, nachos and Wisconsin cheese curds. Kids can order for free from the kids menu, and grown-ups can order beer and wine to go. Check out the menu here, and call 231-893-3805 to place an order. 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: Breakwater at Muskegons Pere Marquette Park is walkable again, after months of repair work Restaurants, pools, libraries reopen: An updated chart of whats allowed in Michigan Muskegons Western Market pop-up shops to reopen this weekend TOP OF THE HOUR: `He is going to change the world: Funeral held for George Floyd. New York passes bill to unveil police discipline records. Officials back off removing temporary fencing at White House. Portland mayor to redirect $7 million from police budget to other areas. National Guard members at Washington protests test positive for coronavirus. ___ HOUSTON George Floyd was fondly remembered Tuesday as Big Floyd a father and brother, athlete and neighborhood mentor, and now a catalyst for change at a funeral for the black man whose death has sparked a global reckoning over police brutality and racial prejudice. More than 500 mourners wearing masks to combat the coronavirus packed a Houston church a little more than two weeks after Floyd was pinned to the pavement by a white Minneapolis police officer who put a knee on his neck for what prosecutors said was 8 minutes, 46 seconds. Cellphone video of the encounter, including Floyds pleas of I cant breathe, ignited protests and scattered violence across the U.S. and around the world, turning the 46-year-old Floyd a man who in life was little known beyond the public housing project where he was raised in Houstons Third Ward into a worldwide symbol of injustice. The funeral capped six days of mourning for Floyd in three cities: Raeford, North Carolina, near where he was born; Houston, where he grew up; and Minneapolis, where he died. The memorials have drawn the families of other black victims whose names have become familiar in the debate over race and justice among them, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin. After the service, Floyds golden casket was taken by hearse to the cemetery in the Houston suburb of Pearland to be entombed next to his mother, for whom he cried out as he lay dying. A mile from the graveyard, the casket was transferred to a glass-sided carriage drawn by a pair of white horses. A brass band played as his casket was taken inside the mausoleum. Hundreds of people, some chanting, Say his name, George Floyd, gathered along the procession route and outside the cemetery entrance in the mid-90s heat. ___ FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, N.J. A corrections officer who participated in a counterprotest to a Black Lives Matter demonstration in New Jersey in which people reenacted the death of George Floyd was suspended after the video was widely shared on social media. In the video, protesters march along a street Monday in Franklin Township, Gloucester County, chanting George Floyd! and Black Lives Matter! The video shows they are being escorted by local police. They pass a private property filled with firewood for sale. Video filmed by someone marching shows a man kneeling on the neck of another man shouting unintelligibly back at protesters. Protesters shout back. Two more men are standing nearby and one of them is filming on a cellphone. The group is standing on the roadside in front of a pickup truck outfitted with an American flag and a Trump banner. Several others are nearby. An All Lives Matter sign is also hanging. Another truck shows the thin blue line flag, meant to show support for law enforcement workers. ___ ALBANY, N.Y. New York state lawmakers have repealed a decades-old law that kept law enforcement officers disciplinary records secret, spurred by the national uproar over the death of George Floyd. The measure to make officers records and misconduct complaints public is among several police accountability bills racing through the state legislature. Lawmakers passed other bills that would provide all state troopers with body cameras and ensure that police officers provide medical and mental health attention to people in custody. Many of those bills were first proposed years ago, but got new momentum after huge protests nationwide condemned police brutality. The passage came as criminal charges were brought Tuesday against an NYPD officer over his rough treatment of a protester during demonstrations following the death of Floyd, who pleaded he couldnt breathe as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck May 25. Eliminating the law, known as Section 50-a, would make complaints against officers, as well as transcripts and final dispositions of disciplinary proceedings, public for the first time in decades. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has recently supported reforming the law, has said in the wake of the protests that he will sign the repeal. Only Delaware has a similar law. ___ WASHINGTON The Trump administration appears to be backing away from its commitment to quickly remove most of a new fence from in front of the White House. National Park Service spokeswoman Katie Liming says the Park Police are in continuing discussions with the Secret Service about the tall new barricade. Officials abruptly put up the fence last week to block demonstrators from Lafayette Square outside the White House. The move barred the public from what has historically been one of the nations leading spots for advocating causes. Limings statement Tuesday is a change from earlier in the week. She had said officials would remove most of the fence at Lafayette Square on Wednesday. Liming now says only that fencing elsewhere, on the south side of the White House, will be removed on or about Wednesday. She did not immediately respond to a question about why the Park Service appears to be backing away from its commitment to remove most of the Lafayette Square fence Wednesday. ___ PORTLAND, Ore. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said Tuesday he will make policing changes that include ending the use of patrol officers on public transit and redirecting $7 million from the police budget to other areas. Wheeler said in a news conference he also plans to dissolve the police gun violence reduction unit, ban chokeholds and reform the use of consent searches in traffic stops. He said bold action is necessary in the wake of nationwide protests against the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. Wheeler said officers will be pulled from public transit by the end of the year and a more trusted police accountability panel will be created. The current Independent Police Review committee is under the city auditors office. ___ HALIFAX, Nova Scotia The city council for the Canadian city of Halifax has voted in favor of rescinding the purchase of a police armored vehicle and will instead allocate the money to efforts aimed at reducing racism. Councilman Shawn Cleary says the decision reflects a shift in viewpoints driven in part by the public demonstrations against police racism occurring throughout North America. His motion shifts $223,000 ($300,000 Canadian) to support a variety of anti-racism initiatives. Another $66,300 ($89,500 Canadian) will go toward programs for diversity, inclusion and public safety. ___ FORT WORTH, Texas Officials in two North Texas counties have voted to remove Confederate monuments from courthouse grounds. Commissioners of Tarrant and Denton counties voted Tuesday to remove the monuments, which were erected last century by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Tarrant commissioners voted 4-0 with one abstention for removal. Commissioner Roy Brooks proposed the removal, saying he would argue that its not a memorial at all, rather that it was erected in 1953 as a reminder to the black citizens of this county and of this state that the rules of Jim Crow were still in effect. The Denton County monument was erected in 1918. Commissioners of both counties said their actions were taken to promote racial harmony amid protests of the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer. Both counties said their monuments would be placed in storage until alternate sites could be found. ___ PHOENIX Police Chief Jeri Williams announced Tuesday that the Phoenix Police Department will immediately suspend training and use of the chokehold. Williams, who is black, says the department cant function without the trust of our community, and there are adjustments we can make to strengthen that trust. Williams says her organization is willing to learn and evolve, listen to the community and become better, and she says shes confident the change in policy moves it closer to that goal. ___ TROY, Ala. Troy University has fired its campus police chief over comments he made on social media about the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Troy University Chancellor Jack Hawkins says in a statement released on the schools social media accounts that statements by John McCall didnt reflect the universitys values. He says officials lost confidence in McCalls ability to lead the Police Department. News outlets report that McCall wrote in a Facebook post that Floyd absolutely helped cause his own death. One former Minneapolis police officer is charged with murder in Floyds death and three others are charged with aiding in his death. ___ DENVER A sweeping police accountability bill introduced amid protests over the death of George Floyd has passed the Colorado state Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. Senators from both parties spoke at length on Tuesday about the compromises that went into the bill before backing it in a 32-1 vote. The bill was changed in response to some issues raised by law enforcement. It would allow police officers to be sued for misconduct by getting rid of the qualified immunity defense that generally protects government workers from lawsuits. It also requires all local and Colorado State Patrol officers to be equipped with body cameras by July 2023. ___ HOUSTON The funeral of George Floyd has ended, and his casket is on its way to a Texas cemetery for burial. After emotional tributes from Floyds family, a song from Ne-Yo, a recorded message from Joe Biden and a eulogy from the Rev. Al Sharpton, Floyds golden casket was carried on the shoulders of pall bearers out of Fountain of Praise church in Houston. Many in the family section of the church held out their hands in the direction of the casket as it departed, as the hymn I Shall Wear a Crown rang through the church. Others held up their phones to film it. The more than 500 face-masked mourners in the congregation for the four-hour service included actors Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum, and NFL star J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans. ___ WASHINGTON Members of the D.C. National Guard have tested positive for COVID-19 in the wake of the massive protests across the city last week over the death of George Floyd. Guard spokeswoman Lt. Col. Brooke Davis says they will not release the exact number of infected troops. But U.S. officials say they believe it is not a large number, at least so far. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information publicly. While some Guard troops responding to the protests wore protective equipment, most were not wearing masks and it was largely impossible to maintain any social distancing. Davis said in a statement that unit commanders were responsible for ensuring their troops adhered to guidelines calling for Guard members to wear protective equipment and maintain social distancing where practical. Officials said about 5,000 Guard members, including troops from 11 states, were in the nations capital for the protests. ___ CHARLOTTE, N.C. A main thoroughfare in Charlotte was painted with bright colors Tuesday morning as dozens of volunteers and artists traced 16 large letters spelling out Black Lives Matter. Charlotte follows Washington, D.C. and other American cities calling for an end to police brutality and racial injustice in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. Charlotte resident Dann Redd said she never thought shed see something like the mural in her southern city. She said it was good to see the community join together and say black lives matter in a very public way and to have people connected. The project was approved by the City of Charlotte. ___ SAN DIEGO The San Diego City Council declined calls to cut police funding and has approved a city budget that includes an increase for the department. The decision came at a meeting Monday in which the majority of some 400 callers and emails from more than 4,000 people urged rejection of the mayors plan to increase the police budget by $27 million to $566 million. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports the council approved the budget plan on an 8-1 vote. The pressure to cut the police budget echoed calls nationwide for defunding or cutting law enforcement budgets in protest of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on Memorial Day. ___ PEARLAND, Texas People were allowed to walk up to the mausoleum in suburban Houston where George Floyds body was set to be entombed. Some people took photos Tuesday as they got a closer look at the site in the cemetery in Pearland, Texas. Floyds funeral was ongoing at a church in Houston, where he lived most of his life. A private service at the cemetery was set to be held for Floyds family after his casket arrives. Inside the mausoleum, a small podium was set up along with 24 chairs in three rows. Outside the mausoleum in the back, another 42 chairs were set up underneath a tent. ___ HOUSTON Pastor Steve Wells told mourners at George Floyds funeral that they have awakened the conscience of a nation. Wells thanked the audience at the predominantly black Fountain of Praise church in Houston on Tuesday for inviting him, a white speaker, to address them. He drew laughs and shouts when he said they might have to be forgiven for leaving white people off the program and drew a standing ovation when he said predominantly white churches like his must act now, that their conscience has been stirred, to end the racism he says killed Floyd. Another pastor, Ralph Douglas West Sr., compared Floyd to Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama, saying all three were born in obscurity but went on to change the world. ___ ROME Dozens of young Catholics gathered at nightfall on a small island in the Tiber River in Rome to pray for peaceful co-existence in the United States. Then, clutching lit candles, participants knelt on one knee in the tiny cobblestone square outside St. Bartholomews Basilica during several minutes of silence Tuesday evening as George Floyds funeral was taking place in Houston. The brief commemoration, called to stress the need to combat all forms of racism, social discrimination and violence, was organized by Young People for Peace. The youth movement has ties to a Rome-based Catholic organization with close relations with the Vatican. ___ HOUSTON Grammy-winning singer Ne-Yo said George Floyds death was a sacrifice that changed the world before performing during his memorial service. Ne-Yo shed tears on Tuesday while singing a rendition of G.C. Camerons Its So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday. The singer paused on a few occasions to collect himself during his performance. Fifty states are protesting at the same time, he said. This man changed the world. He changed the world for the better. I would like to personally thank George Floyd for his sacrifice, so that my kids could be all right later on. I appreciate the sacrifice. I genuinely do. ___ HOUSTON The family of George Floyd gave him tearful tributes and made impassioned demands for justice at his funeral. The group of family members and close friends gathered around the podium at Fountain of Praise church in Houston and stepped up one at a time to talk about about their lost loved one. Aunt Kathleen McGee laughed as she remembered the child family knew as Perry Jr., calling him a pesky little rascal, but we loved him. Sister LaTonya Floyd was almost too overwhelmed to talk, wiping away tears and lowering her face mask to say Im going to miss my brother a whole lot and I love you. And I thank God for giving me my own personal Superman. Brooke Williams, a niece of Floyd, called for change to what she called a corrupt and broken system. Two brothers and a close friend also spoke to mourn Floyd, whose death last month after a Minneapolis police officer put his knee on his neck for over eight minutes has inspired worldwide protests. Protesters in Washington are in the process of turning the fence erected around Lafayette Square to push them away from the White House into a memorial wall honoring victims of police violence and racial injustice. Photos and video from Washington on Sunday show a number of protest signs mounted on the fence by demonstrators bearing messages that include Black Lives Matter, No justice, no peace, Say their names and other rallying cries of those who have marched through the nations capital over the 10 days. The Washington Posts Hannah Natanson shared a video of the scene Sunday: The fence outside the White House has been converted to a crowd-sourced memorial wall almost like an art gallery to black men and women who lost their lives at the hands of police. Hundreds are strolling, looking, adding names and paintings and posters. pic.twitter.com/mXlZpfMAeX Hannah Natanson (@hannah_natanson) June 7, 2020 Washington has seen daily protests for more than a week following the death of George Floyd, the 46-year-old black man who died May 25 when a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired and later arrested and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, while three other officers on the scene were fired and later charged with aiding and abetting. Video of Floyds death went viral and helped spark nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice. During the protests in Washington, Lafayette Square served as a flashpoint. On Monday, the protestors gathered there were forcibly cleared from the area by U.S. Park Police and law enforcement, who used chemical agents in the process, so President Donald Trump could walk from the White House to St. Johns Episcopal Church after a televised speech. The next day, a tall black fence was erected around on the north edge of Lafayette Square, and by Thursday, all entrances to Lafayette Park, the Ellipse and other open spaces near the White House had been closed, according to DCist. Since then, the fence has been a meeting point for demonstrators, with the largest crowds yet descending on the area near the White House on Saturday, and the space has become symbolic of the larger protests. Over the weekend, Washington mayor Muriel Bowser renamed the stretch of 16th Street NW that leads to Lafayette Square as Black Lives Matter Plaza and painted the words Black Lives Matter onto the street. On Saturday, Black Lives Matter organizers turned the D.C. flag on the mural into an equals sign and added the words Defund the police to the pavement. Black Lives Matter organizers are painting Defund the Police in yellow paint on 16th Street right now pic.twitter.com/62zFMPXXOo Samantha Schmidt (@schmidtsam7) June 7, 2020 Now, demonstrators are leaving their signs on the fence as another symbol of the protests. Protests. A pandemic. Plus a US president who rules with an autocrat's taste for threat and insult. It's history in the making - exhausting, confusing, scary and full of promise. Of course there's no single "we" in all of this. None of us is living through this time in exactly the same way. How old you are, where you live, the color of your skin, the money you make or don't, your political persuasion. Many things affect how this moment feels to each of us. And how it feels can change from day to day. "How are you doing in this strange time?" I ask everyone I talk to. If we're on a video call or talking from a distance, I often see them make a roller coaster motion with a hand. Up and down. Down and up. Day to day, hour by hour. "I cry a lot," a couple have said. But however it feels, there's no escaping, in the words of the famous Buffalo Springfield song: Something's happening here. Loading It's happening in big cities like Chicago, where in the past week, in neighborhoods of every racial and economic makeup, protesters have marched to protest George Floyd's killing and, more broadly, the police practices that have led to so many other unjust deaths. It's happening in small towns like Taylorville, Illinois, which is overwhelmingly white, where several hundred community members marched around the town square, many carrying "Black Lives Matter" signs, before lying down outside the courthouse. It's happening in places like the wealthy, white Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, where a big crowd gathered for a vigil, listening to testaments from the area's black residents, one of whom said, "I am asking you to walk into the discomfort and not look away." Something's happening here. It's true that for every hopeful story about this moment, there's an ugly counterpoint. White people with bats playing vigilante in the Chicago neighborhood of Bridgeport. Looters, many of them black, stealing from stores in black neighborhoods that already struggle. People of different kinds smashing windows and looting Chicago's downtown. For every story that speaks to hope and possibility, it's easy to find one that speaks to the worst in us. You can be uplifted one minute by thousands of peaceful protesters outside the White House singing "Lean on Me," and horrified the next moment by police officers in Buffalo, NY, shoving a 75-year-old protester. You can appreciate the many police officers who maintain their composure in the face of crowds loudly denouncing them, then be appalled by the Chicago cop who flips two middle fingers at a protester. But the contrasts shouldn't be surprising. Protest is always messy. Progress is not a straight line. It happens in fits and starts, further complicated by arguments among people who share the same basic goals. And it happens while the rest of life goes on, while a friend gets ill or has a baby or gets married, while we worry about our jobs and families, or admire the spring flowers or curse at the broken washing machine. But something's happening here. It's an extraordinary moment that could change our country for good - in both senses of the word "good," meaning in ways that will endure and ways that will make this land more equitable for more people. In my lifetime, the world has become better in many ways - far from perfect, far from fair, full of setbacks, but overall better - and one reason is that enough people have believed it could and fought to make it happen. In Seamus Heaney's words: So hope for a great sea-change On the far side of revenge. A street vendor poses as he arranges face masks to sell on the roadside as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus on the outskirts of Hyderabad. (AFP) Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the government to publish vital data pertaining to Covid-19 cases on the front pages of all leading daily newspapers and upload it on the Internet to enlighten citizens about the rampant spread of the disease. It is imperative that people should be made aware that the spread of the pandemic is increasing, a division bench of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy observed. The court directed that the government to publicise the number of samples collected, tested, positive cases, number of contacts traced, number of persons sent to quarantine in state-run institutions, admissions and discharged Covid-19 patients in each of the hospitals. The bench said the government had not implemented its orders delivered in April and May on Covid-19 and threatened to initiate contempt proceedings against the principal secretary for medical and health, and Dr G. Srinivas Rao, director of public health. The court was dealing with a PIL filed by Amrita Aryendra from Hyderabad, who was aggrieved that the government was not parting with such vital information to its citizens when other states were doing so. Chief Justice Chauhan observed, Suppressing such information from citizens would only aggravate the situation as the disease will only spread its wings and this may lead to a medical disaster. Yesterday, I believe 206 cases have been detected. Despite the increase in the number, and doctors being adversely affected, the government bulletin suppresses facts and figures from the public, he observed. The Chief Justice enquired from Dr Srinivas Rao what was happening at the Gandhi Hospital as media reports said the conditions were horrible. How do you expect anyone to survive and come out of the hospital, he said, expressing doubts over hygiene and other conditions thre. The judge said the government had not commenced testing on dead bodies for the Coronavirus, it has not yet stepped up testing people. If this trend contnues, officials have to face the contempt. By now, it should have been implemented and because of your carelessness and negligence, the government is promoting Covid-19 spike. If this is the attitude of the government, then where do we go, Justice Chauhan asked. Dr Srinivas Rao said tests were carried out on bodies as per ICMR guidelines. He said 900 people die in the state everyday, and the tests were conducted only on some bodies. Every day, 1,000 tests are being conducted out of which we are getting 160 cases. Due to the easing of lockdown curbs, there is a spike in Corona cases, he said. To this, the Chief Justice said, what the government seems to be trying to do, you are equally guilty because you are an accomplice... you are keeping everything under the carpet. The fact is that our people are dying, the doctors and the medical staff are affected with Coronavirus as sufficient PPEs, gloves and N95 masks are not provided to them. 72 doctors are down with Corona and 400 medical and health workers have been sent to quarantine. Our first line of defence is affected with Corona. The government was directed to file a report by June 18. MasterChef fans are up in arms after guest chef Benjamin Cooper told fan favourite Brendan Pang 'to smile'. During the pressure test on Tuesday, the chef who hails from Chin Chin in Melbourne, approached the clearly stressed out contestant to offer him advice. 'I saw you smile earlier on... There was a bit of cheekiness in it, right?' he said, before adding, 'I feel like there's a bit of cheekiness in you.' 'How condescending!' On Tuesday, MasterChef fans were up in arms after guest chef Benjamin Cooper told fan favourite Brendan Pang 'to smile' during a pressure test cook-off Brendan agreed, then the chef told him to: 'Lose the stress, bring the cheekiness back... And enjoy it, 'cause cooking stressed isn't going to give you the result you want.' Before departing Brendan's station he urged Brendan to 'show me the smile'. Brendan, with one eye on his hibachi grill, awkwardly responded: 'I'm trying to smile!' On Twitter, one fan took offence and wrote: 'How [condescending] is this Chef telling Brendan to smile.' It turns out they weren't alone. Too busy: During the pressure test on Tuesday, the chef who hails from Chin Chin in Melbourne, approached the clearly stressed out contestant to offer him advice. Pictured: Brendan Pang On Twitter, one fan took offence and wrote: 'How [condescending] is this Chef telling Brendan to smile.' It turns out they weren't alone. 'Benjamin telling Brendan to be cheeky and smile is so creepy,' one said. 'I hate being TOLD to smile in the middle of a highly stressful task... I feel for you @brendan_pang just let him cook,' wrote another. Tuesday night's pressure test saw Sarah Tiong, Brendan Pang, Recce Hignell and Poh Ling Yeow go head-to-head. Awkward moment: Another viewer wrote on Twitter, 'I hate being TOLD to smile in the middle of a highly stressful task... I feel for you Brendan, just let him cook' They had to recreate a Jungle Curry, which contained between 30 to 40 chillies, from Thai food master Benjamin Cooper of Chin Chin in Melbourne. It's probably MasterChef's most difficult challenge yet because they had to recreate the dish with no measurements and no recipe. Unfortunately, Sarah's dish failed to impress and she was asked to leave the competition. MasterChef Australia continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten The tourism industry is giving up hope of a pre-Christmas revival, asking the government to extend JobKeeper until international borders reopen and expand the scheme to include visa and seasonal workers. Businesses reliant on local and international tourists have been in hibernation for months but Australian Tourism Industry Council (ATIC) managing director Simon Westaway said there would not be any "real recovery" for the sector before the end of the year. JobKeeper is scheduled to end in September but the tourism industry wants the wage subsidy to stay until planes are in the air again. Credit:AP The federal government is reviewing the $70 billion JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme, which gives employees $1500 a fortnight through their workplace and is scheduled to end on September 27. More than 900,000 businesses have applied so far, including more than 55,000 in the accommodation and food sector. "If [the] industry has the confidence to keep staff and invest in a return to sustainability by Christmas, we could see [JobKeeper] start to phase out during the early part of 2021, pending the international border," Mr Westaway said. In the face of protesters who want to defund the police, Philadelphias new top cop Danielle Outlaw has sensibly argued that to provide citizens with effective protection, working within the principles of 21st Century Policing, its gonna cost some money. Unfortunately, much of any new funding will go for the 2.5% salary hike Mayor Jim Kenney bestowed on the police in March while receiving no give on Phillys union contract arbitration rules. Last year Inquirer reporters found that the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5 was successful in reducing or overturning police discipline about 70 percent of the time when contested by officers. The arbitration system needs to change so it protects both police and citizens. As retired Upper Darby police chief Michael Chitwood said in print Sunday: If a police official decides to terminate the employment of a bad actor, that should be it. Editorial cartoons from this week include: 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. Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles and local clergy held a memorial on Monday for George Floyd in downtown L.A. on the corner of 1st and Broadway near City Hall. BLM-LA's co-founder, Melina Abdullah, opened the ceremony with a speech calling on the black clergy of Los Angeles to join their movement to defund the Los Angeles Police Department and instead invest in an alternate vision of community safety. As she spoke, Abdullah stood in a white dress on the bed of a truck, which was parked in front of four caskets and large yellow flower arrangements. Clergy from various denominations -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist -- stood in in black robes, prayer shawls and silk stoles, making a large circle around the caskets. Behind them, a crowd spilled onto the sidewalks. icon DON'T MISS ANY L.A. CORONAVIRUS NEWS Get our daily newsletters for the latest on COVID-19 and other top local headlines. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Here's what Abdullah told the crowd: Hey, everybody. I pray that the words that come out my mouth are what's needed in this space. And I want to be just transparent. It's really important that we are here on one accord, that we understand what it is we are here for. And while we have clergy who've been in this work from the beginning, people like Pastor Cue, Pastor Eddie, Pastor Smart, Pastor Thomas -- who have been in this work, who are not afraid to stand alongside us, go to jail with us. We also know that there are clergy that are new to this work. And so we've heard -- as I walked up, I heard clergy talking bad about Black Lives Matter. I heard clergy talking about how we need to be 'reasonable' with police. Last week there were clergy kneeling with police. I want to be very clear as I entered that energy, it actually shifted my energy into the wrong space. And I'm thankful to Future for getting me in the right place. Future who said, 'Let's take it back. Because this is a Black Lives Matter gathering.' This is a Black Lives Matter gathering. Funeral program held in conjunction with Black Lives Matter - Los Angeles and local faith leaders in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 8, 2020. (Susanica Tam for LAist) And if we think about the best of the Christian tradition -- and my name is Abdullah now but I was raised in the Baptist Church. We know that the best of black Christianity, it's about freedom struggle. You cannot claim to be a Christian and then bow down to white supremacy. So I'm putting it before you right now: that any hopes you had of using this moment to cozy up to power -- that you release that from your spirit. We come from a people who are born to fight, and born to win. And honoring Mama Harriet Tubman who heard the voice of God in her ear as she freed at least a thousand people from chattel slavery -- that's our tradition. Honoring Nat Turner who saw the signs of God as he staged one of the greatest insurrections of human history. That's our tradition. So I'm asking you to commit to those voices. I'm asking not to let your ego pull you away from God. I'm asking you to use this moment to kill your ego. Ego and God cannot stand in the same space. Kill your ego. So it's really important that you understand what it is we've been doing for the last seven years as Black Lives Matter. What we've been doing is heeding what I call our sacred duty. It is our sacred duty to fight for the full freedom of our people, not a comfortable place in oppression. It is our sacred duty to lift up the name not just of George Floyd -- although we say his name. What's his name? (crowd) GEORGE FLOYD. Say his name. It's not just that we lift up the name of Breonna Taylor -- but we say her name. What's her name? (crowd) BREONNA TAYLOR. Say her name. It's important to lift up the name of Ahmaud Arbery -- What's his name? (crowd) AHMAUD ARBERY. Say his name. Local faith leaders say prayers at the memorial service for George Floyd and others killed by police, June 8, 2020. (Susanica Tam for LAist) But there are 601 people killed by police right here in L.A. County. [Note: Abdullah has previously said that 601 is the total since 2013. According to Los Angeles County coroner's data available via the L.A. Times Homicide Report database, the total of police killings since Jan. 1, 2013 is currently 330. Black Lives Matter-LA organizers have said their database includes other deaths, including traffic collisions involving law enforcement and deaths in jails tied to suicide or natural causes. We are working to better understand the gap in the counts.] LAPD and L.A. County Sheriff's Departments are the two most deadly law enforcement units in the country. [Note: LAist has not been able to independently verify this assertion. Mapping Police Violence, which tracks police departments nationwide, lists the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Dept. and the Oklahoma City Police Dept. as two highest in per capita killings by police from Jan. 1, 2013 through Dec. 31, 2019. In raw numbers, the LAPD and the Phoenix Police Dept. are the two highest. The group does not track sheriff departments.] So we cannot stand alongside a police chief named Michel Moore, no matter how much he smiles at you and invites you to the table. He has blood on his hands, figuratively and literally. He himself is a killer cop. You all know that, right? That he killed somebody when he was a beat cop? [Note: Moore was involved in two shootings in his career. In 1985, while working in South L.A.'s Newton Division, Moore wounded a man who police reported had pointed a gun at him and his partner inside a produce market. In 1986, he was moonlighting as a security guard at Topanga Plaza when he shot and killed a man in the parking lot. According to the police account, Moore confronted the man, who was armed with a rifle, as he was beating and shooting a woman later identified as his wife. LAPD officers said at the time that the man turned his rifle on Moore and Moore shot him twice. The woman and man both died at the scene. Moore won the LAPD's Medal of Valor for his actions.] So we cannot look for reconciliation with a system that puts a target on your back no matter how respectable you are. We have to kill our egos and kill that system. So you are at a Black Lives Matter rally. And we say unapologetically that Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter. Caskets memorialize George Floyd and others killed by police, downtown Los Angeles, June 8, 2020. (Susanica Tam for LAist) And we say Black Lives Matter unapologetically because it's black people who stand at the bottom of every single economic, social and political measure. And if we refuse to say it, we will stay there. We have to be unapologetic in saying Black Lives Matter when somebody comes with that 'all lives' bullshit. We gotta be quick in correcting that record. We gotta be quick in correcting that language. Does that mean we don't love other people? No. We love other people. But if they love us, they know that they can't get free till we free. So they have to say Black Lives Matter, too. We also are not about tinkering around the edges of a system -- of a policing system -- that evolves from slave catching. What kind of idiocy is it to say that we are going to reform a remnant of chattel slavery? How the hell do you reform chattel slavery? You can't reform slavery. So when we say, "Defund the Police" -- what do we say? (crowd) DEFUND THE POLICE What do we say? (crowd) DEFUND THE POLICE That's absolutely about abolition. It's about abolition. The system of policing has got to go. You can't call on Mama Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth and David Walker and all of these people, and then say, 'We gonna hold on to a remnant of the system that they gave their lives to abolish.' We are going to abolish police. We are going to reimagine and build new systems of community safety -- right? When we build black communities, that brother, that neighbor who thought he was doing the right thing by calling for a wellness check on Atatiana Jefferson -- instead of doing that, he would have gone and knocked on Atatiana's door. Building new systems means when you see Jesse Romero and you're not quite sure what he's doing, you go and ask that 14-year-old child. 'Hey, what are you doing?' Does that make sense to y'all? Building new systems means why Wakiesha Wilson should have never wound up in jail in the first place for having an altercation. Who hasn't had an 'altercation'? I almost had one right now. It's really important that when we say abolition, we mean tearing down the system of policing that we are now submitting to, and also building something new. Building something new. To all of the clergy that are here: You are faithful people. Members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church speak in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 8, 2020. (Susanica Tam for LAist) To all of us who have a spiritual tradition: We are faithful people, which means we should have the faith to know that a new system can be built. We can do anything. We can do anything. The reason you're here is because God told you to come. God said, we can do anything. Usher in something better. Usher in something better. And don't be afraid to join a movement. The church and the movement should be united, not divided. United, not divided. All of you, as churches -- we need spaces to meet. We need access to your clergy. We need you to lend us your sound systems from time to time. And we need you to refuse to be the house Negroes, that this system of white supremacy wants you to be. Now I see some people getting upset. I'm not calling you a house Negro. I'm saying don't be a house Negro. I'm saying do not let this system of white supremacy define who you are and take you away from the community that is your home. You have to fight for black people and that means all black people. That means queer and trans black folks. That means formerly incarcerated black folks. That means currently incarcerated black folks. That means houseless black folks. That means poor black folks who don't have no suit to come to your church. That means non-Christians and Christians. It means the young brothers and sisters who are on the corner that you turned your back on. That means every single black person needs you and you should be committed to them much more than you are committed to all of these people who occupy these big buildings and make you think they have power. They don't have power. We have power. All power to the people. All power to the people. All power to the people. With that, I want to remind you why we're here and why we're fighting. We called on these names -- and you see these beautiful faces of Eric Rivera, of George Floyd. I can't see who's on the other side, I hope it's Ryan Twyman. But we want to remember why we're here. Because as God has pulled us out of our homes and told us we cannot seek a comfortable place in oppression, we also have to remember that that call is much deeper from the actual families of those who've been killed. And so we are so grateful to stand alongside these families. Sometimes we say we're doing work for the families, but we got to remember, the families are actually doing work for us. When Mr. Quintus Moore stands up here and shares his powerful words about his son Grechario Mack, he is ensuring that the future for my son, Amen, who's 10 years old, is safer. They are doing work for us. So we owe them. We owe them every space of solidarity. We owe them everything we can provide. We owe them every prayer. We owe them and we are so grateful to be alongside these families. MORE COVERAGE Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly gave Adbullah's son's name as Ahmed. It is Amen. LAist regrets the error. Advertisement A monument celebrating an 18th Century slave dealer has been removed from the docks he helped to construct as pressure from the Black Lives Matter protests to remove racist statues has forced councils across the country into action. Workmen were today seen uprooting a statue of Robert Milligan from its spot on West India Quay in London's docklands to cheers from spectators. Protesters had drawn up a hit list of 60 'racist' monuments to be taken down, including Milligan's. Amid growing pressure to act, the charity Canal and River Trust worked with the Museum of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to remove the bronze figure of the Scottish merchant who owned 526 slaves at his Jamaican sugar plantation. Statues glorifying slave traders and colonialists have come into sharp focus in recent days, as part of a broader movement inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests that started in the United States following the death of George Floyd on May 25. On Sunday, protesters in Bristol tore down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston and threw it in the harbour, receiving a mixed reactions of celebrations from anti-racism campaigners and protestors while some politicians and officials questioned the 'anti-democratic' manner in how the statue was taken down. And in Oxford today more than 1,000 demonstrators have demanded the removal of a statue of colonialist Cecil Rhodes, an imperialist who provided philanthropical support to Oriel College in Oxford University where the monument stands. The Canal and River Trust, which owns the land where Milligan's statue is located, issued a statement on Twitter following a petition launched by Tower Hamlets Labour councillor Ehtasham Haque, which demanded the removal of the figure and reached over 1,000 signatures in 24 hours. It earlier said: 'We recognise the wishes of the local community concerning the statue of Robert Milligan at London Docklands and are committed to working with London Borough of Tower Hamlets, the Museum of London Docklands and partners at Canary Wharf to organise its safe removal as soon as possible. 'The Trust stands with out waterside communities against racism. We promote equality, diversity and inclusion, using our canals to enrich the lives of all those alongside our waterways from every community.' A video shows people cheering and clapping as workers used a crane to remove the statue from its plinth. 'While it's a sad truth that much of our city and nation's wealth was derived from the slave trade, this does not have to be celebrated in our public spaces,' said London Mayor Sadiq Khan in a tweet with a photo of the statue. It comes as 130 Labour councils said they would examine the appropriateness of any monuments linked to colonialism and the slave trade in their authorities in the wake of the toppling of Edward Colstons statue in Bristol. Huw Thomas, leader of Cardiff Council, backed the removal of a statue of Sir Thomas Picton, a slave holder and military leader. He described the monument to the former governor of Trinidad as an affront to black people. Edinburgh council leader Adam McVey said he would feel no sense of loss if a statue to Henry Dundas, who delayed the abolition of slavery, was removed. Plymouth council said a public square named after slave trader Sir John Hawkins would be renamed and the University of Liverpool will redesignate a hall of residence dedicated to William Gladstone. The 19th century prime ministers father, the merchant John Gladstone, was one of the biggest slaveholders in the West Indies, owning more than 2,500 at the time of the abolition of slavery. Earlier, Sadiq Khan ordered a review of murals, statues, street art and street names across London, in response to mass protests in the city and elsewhere. As the row over Britain's statues continues today, it has also emerged: Home Secretary Priti Patel has read the riot act to the chief constable of Avon and Somerset Police whose officers failed to stop protesters ripping down a slave trader's statue and dumping it in Bristol harbour; Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said the Government is 'looking very carefully' at sentences for assaults on emergency workers in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests. Cecil Rhodes' statue in Oxford is under threat as 26 labour councillors call for its removal ahead of 5pm protest; Edinburgh council will review statue of politician who 'delayed abolition of slavery' after BLM complaints and Barclays has also changed the name of its 'Buchanan' Glasgow development because its links to slavery; 130 Labour councils have said they will examine the 'appropriateness' of monuments to controversial figures under their control, including statues of some 18th century Prime Ministers. A statue of Robert Milligan outside the Museum of London Docklands near Canary Wharf is pictured being removed this evening by workers following the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis, London The statue is seen being removed by workers. A spokesman for the museum said it 'recognises that the monument is part of the ongoing problematic regime of white-washing history' Workers, some pictured wearing face masks, use a crane to remove the monument to Milligan, as police officers and members of the public can be seen looking on from behind a cordon A worker sits down as the statue of slave owner Milligan is taken down at West India Quay in east London. It comes as Labour councils across England and Wales will begin reviewing monuments in their towns and cities Workers taking down the statue of Milligan, after a protest saw campaigners tearing down a statue of a slave trader in Bristol Workers using tools during the removal of the Milligan statue outside the Museum of London Docklands in West India Quay Four workmen pictured standing next to the empty plinth after the statue was removed in West India Quay, east London A picture posted to Twitter by John Briggs, far right, the mayor of Tower Hamlets, captioned: 'Tonight we removed the statue of Robert Milligan at West India Quay #blacklivesmatter' Police officer stand in a row in the background as workers take away the bronze statue of Milligan following its removal John Briggs, the mayor of Tower Hamlets, posted a video of himself at the scene, in which he says: 'This has become the focus of a lot of anxiety and anger in our community. We need to take it, put it into storage and then talk about what we can learn from this and how we can help these events to make us a stronger community.' Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Museum of London said it 'recognises that the monument is part of the ongoing problematic regime of white-washing history, which disregards the pain of those who are still wrestling with the remnants of the crimes Milligan committed against humanity.' The commemorative statue, sculpted by Richard Westmacott, was commissioned by the West India Dock Company, of which Milligan was Chairman, following his death in May 1809. He also has a street in the area named after him, Milligan Street, near Westferry DLR station. The museum also tweeted earlier today: 'The statue presently stands shrouded with placards and is now an object of protest, we believe these protests should remain as long as the statue remains.' The decision follows huge crowds of Black Lives Matter supporters gathering outside Oriel College at the University of Oxford this evening to campaign for a monument of imperialist Cecil Rhodes to be removed. The demonstration was organised by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign group and came after activists identified 60 UK statues they want removed for 'celebrating slavery and racism' as councils and museums rushed to bring down their controversial monuments. Some of Briton's most famous people on the hit list revealed today include the Edinburgh statue of former Home Secretary Henry Dundas, who delayed the abolition of slavery, and a statue of Sir Francis Drake on Plymouth Hoe. The interactive map, called 'topple the racists', was set up by the Stop Trump Coalition in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and lists plaques and monuments in more than 30 towns and cities across the UK. The online list is unregulated and can be added to by the public. This evening in London there is a commemoration event, organised by Stand Up To Racism, to mark George Floyd's funeral in Houston, Texas, with police forming a ring of steel around statues including Sir Winston Churchill's in case it is attacked again. Workers help to load the statue of Milligan onto the back of a crane following its removal from outside the Museum of London The statue is seen being driven away on the back of a truck after being removed from workers today in West India Quay The statue of Milligan pictured on the back of a truck as it is driven away by one of the workers. A petition launched by Tower Hamlets Labour councillor Ehtasham Haque for its removal reached over 1,000 signatures in 24 hours A worker places a ladder by the feet of the Milligan statue, which is seen covered by a blanket and with a placard attached Police and members of the public gather as workers prepare to take down a statue of the slave owner Milligan, with a sign reading 'Black Lives Matter' seen around the statue's neck, which is also covered in graffiti A statue of Milligan pictured covered by a blanket and with a placard placed upon it reading 'Black Lives Matter' as it is seen being removed by workers at West India Quay outside the Museum of London Docklands near Canary Wharf People looking on as the statue of Milligan is seen covered with a blanket and a placard before its removal by the charity Canal and River Trust, which owns the land on which the monument was located Two police officers look on at the statue, before its removal. It follows protesters in the English port city of Bristol tore down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston At tonight's Oxford protest, organisers placed chalk crosses on the floors in either side of the street outside the entrance to the college, to enforce social distancing. The crowd took to their knees for eight minutes 46 seconds, to reflect the time Mr Floyd, a father-of-two, spent with a police officer kneeling on his neck which killed him in America last month. Hours before the rally began Oxford City Council's leader Susan Brown wrote to Oriel College inviting them to apply for planning permission to remove the statue, after 26 councillors signed a letter saying it is 'incompatible' with the city's 'commitment to anti-racism'. Councillor Brown said: 'Typically such actions are only allowed in the most exceptional of circumstances. But these are exceptional circumstances, and as a city council we are keen to work with Oriel to help them find the right balance between the laws that protect our historic buildings and the moral obligation to reflect on the malign symbolism of this statue.' Oriel College has said it will 'continue to debate' the issue - but did not commit to removing it. Ndjodi Ndeunyema, an Oxford University law student and a former Rhodes scholar, organised tonight's Oxford rally after starting the Rhodes Must Fall campaign for its removal five years ago, and said today: 'The statue remaining is an affront on the university's support for movements such as Black Lives Matter. 'Rhodes is not worth of veneration or glorification because of the racism and subjugation he represents'. Protesters gather in front of the Cecil Rhodes statue outside Oriel College in Oxford and demand for it to be taken down Thousands of protestors in Oxford hold up placards this evening as they campaign for the removal of a statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes Protestors hold placards and shout slogans below a statue of British imperialst Cecil John Rhodes during during a protest called by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign Supporters of the Rhodes Must Fall group, participate in a protest calling for the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes outside Oriel College this evening A protester holds up a sign reading 'imagine if Oxford protected black lives like it protects a racist made of stone' during a demonstration by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign calling for the removal of the statue outside Oriel College Following the toppling of slave trader Edward Colston during a Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol on June 6, the Rhodes Must Fall campaign has called for today's protest action outside Oriel College Protestors hold placards and shout slogans during during a protest called by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign this evening Black Lives Matter protestors chant and demonstrate outside Oxford University's Oriel College this evening and call for the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes Police and protesters discuss in front of Oriel College during a protest of the 'Rhodes Must Fall' campaign within the Black Lives Matter movement Thousands of Black Lives Matter protestors are thought to have descended on Oxford to demonstrate against the statue this evening Members of the 'Rhodes Must Fall' campaign within the Black Lives Matter movement gather in front of the Oriel College for a protest calling for the removal of the statue of British 19th century imperialist, politician Cecil Rhodes Demonstrators gather outside University of Oxford's Oriel College to demand the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes 'Rhodes must fall' was a popular slogan as thousands campaigned for the statue's removal outside Oriel College this evening Members of the Oxford anti-fascists were outside Oriel College to demand the statue of Cecil Rhodes is removed ahead of a Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall protest in the city this evening 26 Oxford City councillors signed a letter saying Rhodes' statue in Oxford (pictured) should go because it is 'incompatible' with the city's 'commitment to anti-racism' Police on horseback in front of Oriel College, Oxford ahead of a protest calling for the removal of the statue of 19th century imperialist, politician Cecil Rhodes from the Oxford college Demonstrators hold placards during a protest called by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign outside Oxford University's Oriel College A protester in Oxford holds a sign asking if 'Cecil wants a swim?'. This in reference to the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol being torn down and suggests the same could happen to the Cecil Rhodes statue Participants gather for a protest called by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign calling for the removal of the statue of British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes outside Oriel College Protesters also packed into Leicester city centre this evening with the UK bracing for another evening of demonstrations against racism. It comes as the University of Leicester has increased its efforts to 'decolonise the curriculum' in subjects like English, history and law in recent months - and it is launching a scheme to recruit more BAME academics in teaching roles. Professor Nishan Canagarajah, vice-chancellor of the university, said: 'It is about a sense of belonging in the university. That comes from having students who are diverse, from having staff who are diverse, and from having a curriculum that is diverse. 'It's not something you can easily fix because I think the students have certain perceptions and that's not going to change overnight. 'They see certain universities as not welcoming for them. That may not be true, but that might be what they have been feeling since they were very young. 'I think if you go and visit Oxford and places like Bristol you will think they're welcoming for ethnic minorities, but there is a gap between that reality and what the community outside perceives them to be, as not really representing them. I know these universities are taking a lot of action to address that. More than half (52%) of students are from a BAME background at the University of Leicester but currently only 14.2% of teaching staff and 9.8% of professors are from a BAME background. The university has launched a 1.5 million annual scheme to create three funded PhD studentships and ten postgraduate scholarships to attract students from BAME backgrounds into academia. And from this year, the English BA at Leicester has been changed to include more diverse texts and authors set and written in countries across the world. The reading list now includes Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and NW by Zadie Smith. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and deputy leader Angela Rayner pictured kneeling in solidarity with anti-racism protesters The Queen Victoria Statue in Woodhouse Moor Park in Leeds, West Yorkshire which has had 'Black Lives Matter', 'BLM' and 'Slave Owner' spray painted on it Black Lives Matter and 'slave owner' were among the phrases daubed on the statue of Queen Victoria in Woodhouse Moor Park in Leeds Statues of Robert Milligan (right) and William Beckford (left) are being targeted. Milligan was an 18th century Scottish merchant who owned 526 slaves at his Jamaican sugar plantation. Beckford was twice Lord Mayor of London and owned 3,000 slaves in Jamaica Statues of Thomas Guy (left) and John Cass (right) are also likely to be targeted for removal. Cass was involved in the slave trade, as a member of the Royal African Company's Court of Assistants between 1705 and 1708. Guy was given a monopoly over the slave trade to the Spanish Colonies in the Americas before the 'South Sea Bubble' burst Protesters packed into Leicester city centre this evening with the UK bracing for another evening of demonstrations against racism Protesters wearing face masks stand in silence at this evening's Black Lives Matter protest in Leicester city centre today A Black Lives Matter demonstration takes place in Leicester City Centre this evening, the latest in a string of protests to hit the UK A Black Lives Matter demonstration takes place in Leicester City Centre after the death of George Floyd in the US Police officers also gathered at the University of Oxford today as protests were planned over the statue of Cecil Rhodes A website set up by BLM supporters called 'Topple the Racists' website mapping 60 statues and monuments organisers claim 'celebrate slavery and racism' and should be removed Mr Khan (pictured on GMB) said he 'hopes' the new Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm will recommend some memorials in the capital should be removed - but declared he would like any ones of slave traders taken down Who are the men behind the statues BLM activists want to tear down Cecil Rhodes Where is his statue? A 4ft statue of Rhodes stands outside Oriel College at Oxford university Who was he? Cecil Rhodes (1853 - 1902) was the Former Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, the modern day South Africa. He was a British supremacist, imperialist, mining magnate, and politician in southern Africa who drove the annexation of vast swathes of Africa. What did he do? The bad Colonised much of Southern Africa for Victorian Britain and established a vast new British territory in Rhodesia, today's Zimbabwe and Zambia Rhodes believed that the British were 'the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race' He secured control of Rhodesia by swindling the king of Matabeleland, and showed scant regard for his African employees, whom he dismissed as 'n***ers' Founded De Beers mining company, trading diamonds mined with slave labour The good Established Rhodes Scholarships, which paid for brilliant young students from former British possessions to study at Oxford, among them the former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott Robert Milligan - Scottish merchant and slave owner Where is his statue? West India Quay outside the Museum London Docklands, where it has stood since 1997 after being moved from its original plinth nearby in 1813 Who was he? Robert Milligan (1746-1809) was born in Dumfries, Scotland, but soon moved to Kingston, Jamaica, where he managed his wealthy family's sugar plantations. He returned to London in 1779 where he became instrumental in the construction of the West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs. According to the inscription on the bronze statue's plinth, it was to Milligan's 'genius, perseverance and guardian care' that the docks owed their 'design, accomplishment and regulation'. From the Docks, ships would sail to West Africa where shipowners such as Milligan bought enslaved Africans. The ships then crossed the seas to the Caribbean to buy sugar, rum and coffee before returning to England. At the time of his death in 1809, 526 slaves were registered on Milligan's Jamaican plant called Kellet's and Mammee Gully. What did he do? The Bad Used slaves to amass great wealth through trade. Was a vocal opponent of the abolition of slavery The good Built London's docks. Pooled together a group of wealthy businessmen who together created the West India Docks which brought in shiploads of produce to England. Thomas Guy Where is his statue? Outside Guy's Hospital on June 08, 2020 in London, England Guy was founder of Guys' Hospital, London. He made his fortune through ownership of a very large amount of shares in the South Sea Company, whose main purpose was to sell slaves to the Spanish Colonies. The South Sea Company supplied 4800 slaves each year for 30 years to Spanish plantations in Central and Southern America What did he do ? The bad He bought 42,000 shares in the South Sea Company, amassing a fortune when he sold them in 1720 The South Sea Company supplied 4800 slaves each year for 30 years to Spanish plantations in Central and Southern America The good He became a governor of St Thomas' Hospital, after building three wards He later opened Guy's Hospital opposite St Thomas' which cost him 19,000 In his will Guy bequeathed financial support for prisoners with debt in London, Middlesex and Surrey to be released William Beckford - Slave owner and politician Where is his statue? In the Guildhall in London William Beckford (1709-1770) was born in Jamaica, the son Peter Beckford, one of the most powerful slave-owners of the colonial era. Peter had purchased sugar plantations on the Caribbean island in 1661, where he also served as Speaker of the legislature. When both Peter and William's elder brother - also Peter - died, he inherited the enormous fortune and estate which included 13 plantations and over 1,000 slaves. By the time of his death, Beckford's plantations were raking in over 50,000 each year and he is estimated to have amassed 1million in the bank - an eye-watering sum in 18th century Britain. In the early 1700s he returned to London and used his riches to buy the sprawling Fonthill estate in Wiltshire, which he stuffed with art and expensive furniture. The house burned down in 1755, but Beckford poured money and resources into rebuilding it. He later embarked on a political career and was elected as an MP in 1754 before serving twice as Lord Mayor of London in 1762 and 1769. Beckford also used his money to bankroll the rise of future prime minister William Pitt the Elder and ferociously lobbied in favour of the West Indies sugar industry. In 1758, when Pitt was in the cabinet, Beckford advised him to attack the French in the island of Martinique because of the lucrative haul of slaves they could capture. Beckford had nine children, eight of which were out of wedlock. The only son he had with his wife, Maria Marsh, was the novelist William Thomas Beckford. Despite enslaving scores of men, at home he banged the drum for liberties, and once even answered back to King George after he arrested notorious critic John Wilkes. What did he do? Inherited and oversaw 13 sugar plantations and more than 1,000 slaves in Jamaica. Campaigned for civil liberties as an MP and in 1770 demanded the King dissolve parliament to remove evil ministers. Advertisement A history teacher who was standing opposite the Cecil Rhodes statue revealed he had travelled from London to 'guard it' as he felt that it should not be brought down. The 32-year-old, who did not want to give his name, said: 'I am here to make sure they do not tear it down. I am a history teacher and about seven years ago I went to the grave of Cecil Rhodes in Zimbabwe after sitting with the Matabele chiefs. The teacher wore a tweed suit and a fedora hat, while clutching a paperback copy of a book called '1066 and all that' behind his back. He added: 'Accounts of Cecil Rhodes that are being printed are one-sided and while I definitely think a plaque or something would be a good idea, we do not tear things down and we certainly do not do it without due process. I am going to talk to my school about the monuments and the children will debate the legacy and the history. 'If you dig into most of the statues in London, you get some pretty horrible things. I do not suppose that tearing things down just because 2,000 people ask for it is in any way correct.' The teacher watched as a woman organiser began to speak though a megaphone and chanted 'down with the king of the blood diamond' and 'take it down' which the crowd of several hundred people echoed. She said: 'It is about time you started to listen to the people of this city and not your funders. We want this statue down. We declare ourselves anti-racist and we do not want this statue in our city. It does not reflect our own views, it does not reflect our values.' The Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens entered the throng to watch the demonstration and quickly fell into an argument with a man in the crowd. Mr Hitchens said: 'I think Cecil Rhodes was a scoundrel and I do not think anything can be worked out in his defence. I am not here in support of him. 'To me, if you were worried about colonisation it seems China is a much more pressing problem. I live locally and I thought it would boring not to come. I used to go to demonstrations here in the 1960s, back when we knew how to demonstrate.' A man challenged the commentator, saying that 'scoundrel' was not a strong enough to describe Cecil Rhodes, arguing 'racist' would more appropriate. Refusing to change his chosen description, Mr Hitchens told the man: 'You are not my interrogator and I am not your prisoner. I have free speech to say what I want.' Sadiq Khan today called for the removal of all slave trader statues in the capital as he promised to personally 'review and improve' the diversity of the capital's landmarks. The Mayor of London has launched his own Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm after Black Lives Matter protesters pulled down the monument to Edward Colston in Bristol and hurled it in the city's harbour. Mayor Khan today said he wouldn't 'pre-empt' the commission's findings on the suitability of London's street names, murals, statues and memorials, but admitted he would like any statues of slave traders removed in London and to build more 'people of colour, black people, women, those from the LGBT community'. But he said he did not think statues such as of Sir Winston Churchill's in Parliament Square should be included in the review it was tagged with 'racist' on Sunday. He said Londoners needed to be educated about famous figures 'warts and all' and that 'nobody was perfect', including the likes of Churchill, Gandhi and Malcolm X. The leader of Oxford City Council has this afternoon invited Oriel College to make a planning request to remove the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes, which has been at the centre of a long-running row. Councillor Susan Brown said: 'I'm clear in my support for the Black Lives Matter movement and I have a great deal of sympathy with the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. The question of statues and their historical context is not a simple matter, but sometimes acts of symbolism are important. I know my views are shared by a majority of my fellow councillors. 'It would be better for the statue to be placed in a museum, such as the Ashmolean or the Museum of Oxford, to ensure this noteworthy piece of the story of our city isn't lost to history. 'Of course, bringing down statues alone isn't sufficient to address the issue of racism in our society and continued action on this should involve all our city's key institutions. 'I have today written to Oriel College to invite them to apply for planning permission to remove the statue, as it is a Grade II* listed building'. In 2016, Oriel College decided to keep the statue despite widespread student demands to remove it. Campaigners from the Rhodes Must Fall group argued that the row illustrated Britain's 'imperial blind spot'. In a statement ahead of the protest, Oriel College pledged to discuss the issues raised by protests against the Rhodes statue. The statement read: 'Oriel College abhors racism and discrimination in all its forms. 'The Governing Body are deeply committed to equality within our community at Oriel, the University of Oxford and the wider world. 'As an academic institution we aim to fight prejudice and champion equal opportunities for everyone regardless of race, gender, sexuality or faith. We believe Black Lives Matter and support the right to peaceful protest. 'The power of education is a catalyst for equality and inclusiveness. 'We understand that we are, and we want to be, a part of the public conversation about the relationship between the study of history, public commemoration, social justice, and educational equality. 'As a college, we continue to debate and discuss the issues raised by the presence on our site of examples of contested heritage relating to Cecil Rhodes. 'Speaking out against injustice and discrimination is vital and we are committed to doing so. 'We will continue to examine our practices and strive to improve them to ensure that Oriel is open to students and staff of all backgrounds, and we are determined to build a more equal and inclusive community and society.' Monuments that could be under threat in London would include statues of William Beckford at London's Guildhall, John Cass on Jewry Street and one Thomas Guy, which stands in the courtyard at Guy's Hospital. Campaigners are targeting statues all over the UK including a Edinburgh statue of Henry Dundas, who delayed the abolition of slavery in Scotland, while in Glasgow Barclays Bank has confirmed the 'Buchanan' name will be dropped from a major riverside development over its connection with the slave trade. The Sir Francis Drake statue on Plymouth's Hoe, where he was playing bowls when he learned Britain was set to be invaded by the Spanish Armada in 1588, is also said to be under threat after BLM supporters set up a 'topple the racists' website mapping more than 30 statues and monuments organisers claim 'celebrate slavery and racism'. Sadiq Khan said he 'hopes' the new Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm will recommend some memorials in the capital should be removed. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the Mayor of London: 'One of the things that I realise is that I've not got ownership of the statutes or indeed some of the land that these statues are on. But it is a wider conversation I want to have about the diversity of the public realm in our city. 'When you look at the public realm - street names, street squares, murals - not only are there some of slavers that I think should be taken down, and the commission will advise us on that, but actually we don't have enough representation of people of colour, black people, women, those from the LGBT community.' But critics have called his approach 'distracting and divisive', with Shaun Bailey, Tory candidate for Mayor of London ,saying: 'He [Mayor Khan] is seeking to distract Londoners from the fact he failed to support his police service during the protests, allowing a small group to hijack a largely peaceful protest and betray the cause of fairness that the vast majority were there to promote. He should be focusing on keeping all Londoners safe and promoting opportunities for all people of colour'. The Cecil Rhodes statue in Oxford will be targeted by protesters tonight after years of debate about whether it should be removed THE 60 'RACIST STATUES' James George Smith Neill - monument - Ayr, Wellington Square Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde Statue - Glasgow, George Square Sir Robert Peel - Statue - Glasgow, George Square Henry Dundas Statue - Edinburgh, St Andrew's Square Grey's Monument - Newcastle Upon Tyne, Grainger Street William Armstrong - Memorial - Newcastle Upon Tyne, Eldon Place Statue of Sir Robert Peel in George Square, Glasgow Sir Robert Peel Statue - Leeds, Woodhouse Moor Robert Peel Statue - Preston, Winkley Square Robert Peel Statue - Bury Robert Peel Statue - Manchester, Piccadilly Gardens Oliver Cromwell Statue - Manchester, Wythenshawe Road Oliver Cromwell Statue - Warrington, Bridge Street Bryan Blundell - Blundell House - Liverpool, Liverpool Blue Coat School Christopher Columbus Statue - Liverpool, Sefton Park Palm House William Leverhulme Statue - Wirral, outside Lady Lever Art Gallery Henry Morton Stanley Statue - Denbigh, Hall Square William Gladstone Statue - Hawarden, Gladstone's Library, Church Lane Elihu Yale Wetherspoons Pub - Wrexham, Regent Street Black man's head caricature - Ashbourne, Green Man Robert Clive Statue - Shrewsbury, The Square Robert Peel Statue - Tamworth, 27 Market Street H Morton Stanley Park - Redditch, Morton Stanley Park Statue of Oliver Cromwell on Bridge Street, Warrington Oliver Cromwell Statue - St Ives, Market Hill Ronald A. Fisher Memorial - Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College Sir Thomas Picton Memorial - Carmarthen, Picton Terrace General Nott - Statue - Carmarthen, Nott Square Thomas Phillips Memorial plaque - Brecon, Captain's Walk Cecil Rhodes Statue - Oxford, Oriel College Christopher Codrington Rename Library - Oxford, Codrington Library, All Souls College Rename Rhodes Arts Complex and Rhodes Avenue - Bishop's Stortford, Cecil Rhodes Sir Thomas Picton Statue - Cardiff, Cardiff City Hall Edward Colston Rename Colston Hall and Colston Street - Bristol, Colston Street Henry Overton Wills III Wills Memorial Building - Bristol, University of Bristol Edward Colston Statue - Bristol, Bristol Harbour Edward Colston - Building - Bristol, Colston Tower, Colston Street Captain Edward August Lendy & Captain Charles Frederick Lendy Memorial Statue - Sunbury-on-Thames, Pantiles Court Edward Colston Rename Colston Road - Mortlake, Colston Road William Beckford School - London, Dornfell Street Statue of Robert Clive in The Square, Shrewsbury Robert Geffrye Statue located on the Museum of the Home - London, Kingsland Road Francis Galton Galton Lecture Theatre - London, Gower Street Charles II of England Statue - London, Soho Square Gardens King James II Statue - London, Trafalgar Square Robert Clive Statue - London, Westminster, King Charles Street Oliver Cromwell Statue - London, Houses of Parliament Sir Robert Clayton Statue - London, St Thomas' Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road Sir Henry De la Beche Name on front of Imperial College - London, Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus Christopher Columbus Monument - London, Belgrave Square Garden Thomas Guy Statue - London, Guys Hospital Thomas Guy - London, Guy's Hospital Robert Milligan Statue - London, Tower Hamlets, West India Quay Sir Francis Drake, Robert Blake, Horatio Nelson Statues - London, Deptford Town Hall, Goldsmiths College Sir Francis Drake, Robert Blake and Horatio Nelson Statues - London, Goldsmiths Uni Deptford Town Hall Statue of Sir Robert Clayton on Westminster Bridge Road, London Lord Kitchener Statue - Chatham, Khartoum Road Admiral Sir Edward Codrington Plaque - Brighton, Western Road William Ewart Gladstone Plaque - Brighton, Royal Albion Hotel Redvers Buller Statue - Exeter, Hele Road Francis Drake Statue - Tavistock, Drakes Roundabout Nancy Astor Statue - Plymouth, Hoe Park Francis Drake - Statue - Plymouth, Plymouth Hoe Advertisement Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford, told MailOnline: 'I think the Mayor of London should be focusing on issues that matter to Londoners. Like the bankrupt TFL, the recent crime wave and many other issues. 'Ripping down our history is not something the Mayor was elected to do. Our history is who we are and you can find something bad in everything, be it prime ministers or anyone. 'The idea of going around London tearing down statues and renaming streets is absurd. 'He is pandering to a politically correct gang of anarchists who hate everything about this country - they are anti-British.' City Hall called London 'one of the most diverse cities in the world', but said the capital's statues, plaques and street names largely reflect Victorian Britain. Born in Dumfries, Scotland, Milligan moved to Kingston, Jamaica, where he managed his wealthy family's sugar plantations. He returned to London in 1779 and became instrumental in the construction of the West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs. At the time of his death in 1809, 526 slaves were registered on Milligan's Jamaican plant called Kellet's and Mammee Gully. Beckford, a wealthy politician who twice held the office of Lord Mayor of London in the 18th century, is believed to have owned around 3,000 slaves on his plantations in Jamaica. His statue stands inside London's Guildhall. Cass was involved in the slave trade, as a member of the Royal African Company's Court of Assistants between 1705 and 1708. Company records show Cass having been on the 'committee of correspondence' which dealt with slave agents in the African forts and the Caribbean. Cass also retained shared in the Company until his death in 1718. A copycat statue stands outside the Sir John Cass School, at Duke's Place and Mitre Street. The original is housed in London's Guidhall. Guy, the founder of Guy's Hospital, held a large stake in the South Sea Company, which was given a monopoly over the slave trade to the Spanish Colonies in the Americas before the famous 'South Sea Bubble' burst. A statue dedicated to Guy stands in the courtyard of Guy's Hospital. Mr Khan said: 'It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been wilfully ignored. This cannot continue. 'We must ensure that we celebrate the achievements and diversity of all in our city, and that we commemorate those who have made London what it is - that includes questioning which legacies are being celebrated. 'The Black Lives Matter protests have rightly brought this to the public's attention, but it's important that we take the right steps to work together to bring change and ensure that we can all be proud of our public landscape.' The commission will be co-chaired by Debbie Weekes-Bernard, the deputy mayor for social integration, social mobility and community engagement, and deputy mayor for culture and creative industries Justine Simons. Other statues likely to be targeted by the diversity commission are those of Robert Peel, which stands in Parliament Square. Peel, the founder of the Metropolitan Police Service, regarded the Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Bill as a threat to the cotton industry. He raised a petition highlighting the risk it presented to the merchants and their trade interests. A statue dedicated to the former PM now stands in Parliament Square. The announcement comes ahead of planned anti-racism demonstrations in London as George Floyd is laid to rest in the US, after a killing which Boris Johnson said had awakened an 'incontrovertible, undeniable feeling of injustice' worldwide. Mr Floyd, who died after a police officer in Minneapolis restrained him by holding a knee on his neck, will be buried in his home town of Houston in Texas today. A symbolic and socially distanced commemoration is planned at the Nelson Mandela statue in Parliament Square in London at 5pm, organised by Stand Up To Racism. Following protests across the UK on the weekend, Boris Johnson - who previously condemned the 'thuggery' that marred some of the demonstrations - acknowledged many of the activists' concerns were 'founded on a cold reality'. The Prime Minister's official spokesman told reporters today: 'The PM began Cabinet by discussing the anger and the grief that is felt not just in the US but around the world including the UK following the death of George Floyd. 'He said those who lead and govern simply cannot ignore the depth of emotion that has been triggered. 'The PM said there was an undeniable feeling of injustice and people from blame and minority ethnic groups do face discrimination in education, in employment, in the application of the criminal law. 'He said that we are a much, much less racist society than we were but we must also frankly acknowledge that there is so much more to do in eradicating prejudice and creating opportunities. 'Cabinet reiterated its commitment to that effort. The PM said his message to all those who have protested lawfully was 'I hear you and I understand'. However he said this cause is not an acceptable reason for violence, unlawful actions or disregarding social distancing. 'He said those who attack public property or the police are undermining the cause they claim to represent and will face the full force of the law.' After campaigners pulled down the statue of Mr Colston in Bristol, graffiti was scrawled on the plinth of the Sir Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square. Nearly 50 London police officers were injured during the protests at the weekend. The PM warned legal repercussions must follow, and called for people to 'work peacefully, lawfully, to defeat racism'. But Mr Khan said he did not consider statues of the likes of Sir Winston Churchill to be included in the review, after the former prime minister's statue in Parliament Square had 'was a racist' scribbled onto it by protesters. He said pupils needed to be educated about famous figures 'warts and all' and that 'nobody was perfect', including the likes of Churchill, Gandhi and Malcolm X. A plaque will be added to a statue of controversial 19th Century politician Henry Dundas who delayed the abolition of slavery - after a two-year stalemate on wording. Dundas, a conservative politician who was eventually impeached, is commemorated at the Melville Monument in St Andrews Square, Edinburgh. The plinth was tagged with graffiti reading 'George Floyd' at a Black Lives Matter demo at the weekend - where calls were renewed for a plaque to be added to the statue, explaining Dundas' role in delaying the abolition of slavery in the 1800s. Scotland's first black professor, Sir Geoff Palmer, has been calling for a plaque detailing Dundas' role in Scotland's history of the slave trade - but talks with the City of Edinburgh Council ground to a halt two years ago due to a dispute around the wording. A descendant of Dundas, Benjamin Carey, also slated a lack of enthusiasm from the council which had recently said it would no longer 'facilitate meetings' - a stance which has now changed. Mr Carey said: 'My ancestor is controversial, but Edinburgh needs to own him, warts and all.' The Colston statue, which had been in place since 1895, has been a subject of controversy in recent years - due to Colston's links to the slave trade in the 17th century It was toppled and thrown into the Bristol Harbour during a BLM protest at the weekend Activists stand around the Churchill statue after it was daubed in graffiti during BLM protests As the protests descended into chaos, one protester (left and right) was seen climbing on the historic monument The Cenotaph and setting fire to the Union Jack flag Police officers stand in a line next to protesters during a BLM rally in Westminster on Sunday George Floyd (left), a 46-year-old black man, died after white police officer Derek Chauvin (right) put his knee on his neck in Minneapolis on May 25 for nine minutes 'Go back to Africa!': 'Racists' are caught on camera hurling shocking abuse at Black Lives Matter protestors in angry street confrontation 'Racist' thugs were filmed hurling shocking abuse at Black Lives Matter protestors in Hertfordshire yesterday, with one man shouting: 'Go back to Africa'. The footage was recorded in the town of Hoddesdon as around 300 peaceful protestors gathered to demonstrate against the death of George Floyd in America and racism in society. They gathered by the Clock Tower in the town's centre, holding signs and chanting 'No justice, no peace' while appearing to maintain social distancing. However, they were met by a horde of angry locals, who numbered around 200 and hurled abuse at them. In shocking scenes, the counter-demonstrators swore and threatened the Black Lives Matter protestors, with one telling them to 'go back to Africa'. Others hurled a string of foul-mouthed curses and even seemed to challenge the activists to fights. Black Lives Matter protestors in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire were met by furious locals who hurled abuse at them A particularly furious thug was taken aside by police and spoken to but told the officer 'don't you even think about it'. The Black Lives Matter protestors appeared to be made up of young people, with a large number of young women. The counter-demonstrators were heard chanting: 'Get your t**s out for the lads.' They also shouted that the protests were because KFC was closed because of the coronavirus lockdown, a reference to the racist stereotype that black people enjoy fried chicken. The event organisers posted a message on their Instagram page after the event that read: 'Thank you to everyone who came out and protested today. 'Though we had to directly face racists who tried to discredit our efforts, together we showed solidarity, letting Hoddesdon know that #blacklivesmatter.' Some protestors also reported that the counter-demonstrators made Nazi salutes, though this wasn't captured on film. One protestor said: 'They were saying, 'go back to your own country', 'go back to your rock', there were Nazi salutes, 'you're not welcome here','educate yourself', 'you're only here because we allowed you to come here' - that narrative the whole time.' Around 300 peaceful protestors gathered to demonstrate against the death of George Floyd in America and racism in society in Hoddesdon The Black Lives Matter protestors appeared to be made up of young people, with a large number of young women Demi-Leigh Sheahan attended the protest: 'Personally, what I find so disgusting and frightening about these videos is, firstly, that ending racism has somehow become a controversial topic. 'Regardless whether you support the riots or not, I would find it hard to believe that you would be comfortable with a fully grown adult man shouting 'get your t**s out' at your daughter, mother, sister, friend or even just anyone you know.' Hertfordshire Police did not make any arrests at the protest, though they are currently looking at some of the ugly scenes from the demonstration that have been shared on social media. Speaking ahead of the demonstration, Zain, one of the organisers, said: 'We wanted to show solidarity within Hertfordshire as well as bringing other black people and others in Hertfordshire together. It's to show that in the UK there are still issues that black people are facing. 'It's important as, while we're facing a pandemic, there's still also the risk of being killed as a black person - we're facing two pandemics. 'I think the main issues are that it's not as blatant here [in Hertfordshire]. So people will sometimes make comments that are ignorant or that they don't realise are racist to say. They were met by a horde of angry locals, who numbered around 200 and hurled abuse at them Hertfordshire Police did not make any arrests at the protest, though they are currently looking at some of the ugly scenes from the demonstration This woman was stunned after hearing someone yell 'Go back to Africa' at the protestors 'The people here don't know because it's a predominantly white area so they don't realise how that actually affects people. 'I'd like to see more education on this because one thing that we have noticed is that so many people are unaware of what is even going on in this country. 'We need to make sure people stay educated on these issues and that it's made more apparent. People will say 'oh it's a multicultural society' but they don't look at the darker side of things. 'It should be made one of the main things we study in history in schools. 'Some schools offer a brief African history as an option but it's not pushed enough and making it one of the main focuses on the curriculum would be really useful.' The angry locals claimed they were attempting to protect the town's war memorial after seeing statues defaced in other protests across the UK. However, there is no indication that the protestors planned to damage the memorial, with organisers insisting the demonstration was peaceful. Racists or heroes? Its not black or white: Black Lives Matter want to topple statues of some of the most famous Britons because of their links to colonialism and slavery - but they also gave fortunes away, and helped build Britain and a modern world Black Lives Matter activists are calling for the removal of 60 statues of slave owners and racists across Britain. Top of their target list is the statue of Cecil Rhodes and petitions also exist to remove the statue of slave-trading West India Docks founder Robert Milligan, and the statue of former Home Secretary Henry Dundas who delayed the abolition of slavery and that stands atop a column in Edinburgh. But on a website called Topple The Racists, set up by Black Lives Matter activists, members are invited to propose other statues that should be torn down across Britain. There, a wide range of figures from Britain's colonial past are being proposed for destruction. Among them are leaders who held undeniably racist views and others who performed evil acts against people of colour, such as slave owners and Thomas Picton who ruled Trinidad with an iron fist and ordered the torture of a 14-year-old accused of theft. But others also played a leading role shaping the cities and institutions that form modern day Britain. The statues targeted by BLM activists are: Cecil Rhodes Cecil Rhodes (1853 - 1902). A 4ft statue of Rhodes stands outside Oriel College at Oxford university Where is his statue? A 4ft statue of Rhodes stands outside Oriel College at Oxford university. Who was he? Cecil Rhodes (1853 - 1902) was the Former Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, the modern day South Africa. He was a British supremacist, imperialist, mining magnate, and politician in southern Africa who drove the annexation of vast swathes of Africa. What did he do? The bad: Colonised much of Southern Africa for Victorian Britain and established a vast new British territory in Rhodesia, today's Zimbabwe and Zambia Rhodes believed that the British were 'the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race' He secured control of Rhodesia by swindling the king of Matabeleland, and showed scant regard for his African employees, whom he dismissed as 'n***ers' Founded De Beers mining company, trading diamonds mined with slave labour The good: Established Rhodes Scholarships, which paid for brilliant young students from former British possessions to study at Oxford, among them the former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott Who wants the statue removed? University of Oxford campaigners claim that forcing ethnic minority students to walk past the Rhodes memorials amounts to 'violence' as he helped pave the way for apartheid. Robert Milligan Robert Milligan (1746-1809) was a Scottish merchant and slave owner. His statue stands at West India Quay outside the Museum London Docklands Where is his statue? West India Quay outside the Museum London Docklands, where it has stood since 1997 after being moved from its original plinth nearby in 1813. Who was he? Robert Milligan (1746-1809) was a Scottish merchant and slave owner. He was born in Dumfries, Scotland, but soon moved to Kingston, Jamaica, where he managed his wealthy family's sugar plantations. He returned to London in 1779 where he became instrumental in the construction of the West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs. According to the inscription on the bronze statue's plinth, it was to Milligan's 'genius, perseverance and guardian care' that the docks owed their 'design, accomplishment and regulation'. From the Docks, ships would sail to West Africa where shipowners such as Milligan bought enslaved Africans. The ships then crossed the seas to the Caribbean to buy sugar, rum and coffee before returning to England. At the time of his death in 1809, 526 slaves were registered on Milligan's Jamaican plant called Kellet's and Mammee Gully. What did he do? The Bad: Used slaves to amass great wealth through trade Was a vocal opponent of the abolition of slavery The good: Built London's docks: Pooled together a group of wealthy businessmen to create the West India Docks which brought in shiploads of produce to England Who wants the statue removed? Tower Hamlets councillor Ehtasham Haque has started a petition for the statue of Robert Milligan to be removed from Canary Wharf. He said: 'He has no place in London, and he does not deserve the honour of a statue'. Horatio Nelson Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758 - 1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy known for inspirational leadership. Nelson's column, Trafalgar Square, London (right) Where is the statue? Nelson's column, Trafalgar Square, London has not been targeted. But another statue of Nelson has been at Deptford Town Hall, a department at Goldsmiths University, London. Who is he? Horatio Nelson was born in a Norfolk rectory in 1758, and secured his first command 20 years later through the influence of his uncle, who was a senior naval officer. The outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars opened the way for a long succession of triumphs, the earliest taking place in the Mediterranean, where he was blinded in his right eye. He distinguished himself commanding HMS Captain at the 1797 Battle of Cape St Vincent against a larger Spanish force off the coast of Portugal, and mislaid his right arm in the unsuccessful action at Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In the following year, he commanded a British fleet in the first of his historic victories at the Battle of the Nile. Nelson's reputation for personal courage, aggression and tactical brilliance won him the adoration of his captains and indeed crews. In 1801, he secured another victory, this time over the Danes, at Copenhagen, bequeathing to folklore the story that he ignored an order to withdraw by putting a telescope to his blind eye to read the flag signal. He subsequently commanded fleets involved in a blockade of French ships in Toulon harbour, and in unsuccessful pursuit of the French and Spanish fleets to the West Indies. Only on October 21, 1805, did he finally bring the enemy to battle off Spain's Cape Trafalgar, which became his greatest victory and secured Britain against invasion by the vast army Napoleon had assembled on the Channel coast. At Trafalgar and in the actions that immediately followed, the French and Spanish lost 24 ships of the line, more than Nelson commanded when he engaged. He was shot down by a sharpshooter in the tops of the French Redoubt-able, and died three hours later. However some believe Nelson was a white supremacist, citing Nelson's friendships with West Indian slave traders, and his description of the ideals of abolitionist William Wilberforce as 'a damnable and cruel doctrine'. Nelson's finest John Sugden, believes Nelson was exemplarily kind to black sailors who did good service on his ships, and in 1802 wrote another letter in support of a proposal by one of his own officers to employ free Chinese labour in the West Indies instead of slaves. What did he do ? The good: Secured victory for the British in the Battle of Trafalgar, the greatest naval victory in British history The greatest British naval hero ever to have lived The bad: He described of ideals of abolitionist William Wilberforce as 'a damnable and cruel doctrine' Who wants the statue removed? Goldsmiths Anti-Racist Action student group. Sir Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel (1788 - 1850), served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (left). Statues of Sir Robert Peel stand in London's Parliament Square (right), Glasgow's George Square, Bury and Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens Where is the statue? Statues of Sir Robert Peel stand in London's Parliament Square, Glasgow's George Square, Bury and Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens. Who wants the statue removed? Several petitions have been started by locals in Manchester - both to keep and remove the statue. Who is he? Sir Robert Peel (1788 - 1850), served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and is regarded as the father of modern British policing having founded the Metropolitan Police Service. He is also a founder of the The Conservative Party. Black Lives Matter activists have targeted statues of the former Prime Minister due to his father's involvement with the slave trade. A petition to remove Peel's statue in central Manchester was started by Sami Pinarbasi, who said Sir Robert is a 'icon of hate and racism'. His father Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet, (1750 - 1830), was a British politician, industrialist and textile manufacturer. He amassed wealth through industry and became one of ten known British millionaires in 1799. However to 'protect the cotton industry' in Manchester Peel petitioned against the Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Bill. What did he do ? Good: Issued the Tamworth manifesto in 1834, laying down the founding principles for Britain's modern day Conservative party Regarded as the father of British policing, founding Metropolitan Police in 1829 - and was against having an armed police force Pushed the Catholic Emancipation Bill through parliament in 1828, reducing restrictions placed on Roman Catholics - but said 'though emancipation was a great danger, civil strife was a greater danger' Supported the repeal of The Corn Laws (1815) to help provide food during the Irish Potato Famine (1845 1852) Brought in The Factories Act 1844, to regulate conditions of industrial employment Bad: His father petitioned against the Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Bill as he viewed it as a 'threat' to cotton industry in Manchester, he presented petition May 1806 Robert Clive Robert Clive (left) was an East India Company officer whose statue stands in Shrewsbury Square and King Charles Street, London (pictured right) Where is the statue? His statue stands in Shrewsbury Square and King Charles Street, London. Who is he? Robert Clive was an East India Company officer who helped Britain seize control of much of the subcontinent in the mid-18th century and was hailed back in Westminster for delivering important military victories without formal field training. But his reputation was muddied by his spell as Governor of Bengal from 1755 when he faced accusations of corruption. Amid a fierce backlash to his rule in India, as well as sliding health, he took his own life in 1767. At the time of his death, Clive's fortune was worth about 500,000 - around 33million today. What did he do ? The bad: Conquered Bengal at the Battle of Plassey, and helped himself to 160,000 from the defeated Nawab's treasury Caused the Bengal famine of 1770 with his taxes on Indians and changes to agricultural practices that killed an estimated 10 million Indians Amassed a personal fortune by conquering Bengal and subjugating the population Paved the way for the British Raj in India which ruled the subcontinent for 200 years Who wants the statue removed? Two petitions started by locals including David Parton call for the Shrewsbury Square statue to be removed. Sir Thomas Picton Sir Thomas Picton (1758 - 1815) (left) a military officer who enjoyed a prolific career before being killed at the Battle of Waterloo. His statue Inside Cardiff City Hall (right) Where is the statue? Inside Cardiff City Hall Who wants his statue removed? Cardiff Lord Mayor Daniel De'Ath asked the council to remove the state in an open letter which has received support from council leader Huw Thomas. Who was he? A military officer who enjoyed a prolific career before being killed at the Battle of Waterloo. He was the Governor of Trinidad from (17971803). What did he do? The bad: Known as the 'tyrant of Trinidad' for his 'arbitrary and brutal' rule of the island His motto was 'let them hate so long as they fear' Ordered the torture of a 14-year-old girl accused of theft The good: Highest ranking officer killed fighting with Wellington at Waterloo Sir Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake (1540 - 1596) was an English admiral and renowned Elizabethan seaman who circumnavigated the globe. His statues stand on Plymouth Hoe and in Tavistock, respectively Where is the statue? Two identical statues memorialise Drake, on Plymouth Hoe and in Tavistock, respectively. Who wants his statue removed? A petition to Plymouth City Council claiming to be in support of Black Lives Matter, has amassed over 1,000 signatures. Who was he? Sir Francis Drake (1540 - 1596) was an English admiral and renowned Elizabethan seaman who circumnavigated the globe. He spent much of his career plundering ports in South America and the Carribean, particularly those owned by the Spanish, who branded him a pirate. He was knighted for his efforts and made Vice Admiral of the Navy where he was instrumental during the successful defence of the Spanish Armada in 1588. What did he do? The good: Successfully fended off invasion from the Spanish fleet in 1588 as the Navy's Vice Admiral Was the first captain to complete circumnavigation of the globe in a single voyage Marauded Spanish ports and ransacked goods to bring back to England, for which he was hailed a hero The bad: His early voyages aboard his cousin John Hawkins's ships to fetch African slaves before selling them on in Europe In 1562 the pair sailed from Plymouth with three ships and captured about 400 Africans in Guinea, later trading them in the West Indies Drake and Hawkins are believed to have enslaved around 1,400 Africans between 1562 and 1967 Henry Dundas Henry Dundas (1742 1811) was a Conservative politician, Scottish Advocate and the first Secretary of State for War (left). His state, 150ft high, on the top of the Melville Monument in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, Scotland Where is the statue? On the top of the Melville Monument in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, Scotland. Who wants his statue removed? A petition to the Scottish government was started by Nancy Barrett last week. She proposes Dundas street should be re-named after Joseph Knight, a Scottish-Jamaican slave who won a court case and then an appeal in 1778 to free himself, by proving that slavery didn't exist in Scots Law. Who was he? Henry Dundas (1742 1811) was a Conservative politician, Scottish Advocate and the first Secretary of State for War - he is best known for delaying the abolition of slavery in 1792. During his time as Home Secretary Dundas proposed that slavery be abolished in 'three stages' over a decade, which prolonged the suffering and cost thousands of lives. He gained the nickname of 'The Great Tyrant' which he lived up to when he was caught misusing public money in 1806 and impeached. What did he do? The bad: Dundas proposed that slavery be abolished in 'three stages' over a decade, which prolonged the suffering and cost thousands of lives Blocked British reformer William Wilberforce's efforts to abolish the slave trade He was influential i n the expansion of British Influence in India the affairs of the East India Company The good: Instrumental in the encouragement of the Scottish Enlightenment - a period of intellectual and scientific accomplishments Thomas Guy A statue of Thomas Guy is seen outside Guy's Hospital on June 08, 2020 in London, England Where is the statue? Outside Guy's Hospital, in London, England. Who wants the statue removed? He was named on the Topple The Racists' site. Who is he? Thomas Guy (1644 - 1724) was a British bookseller, stock speculator, governor of St Thomas' Hospital and founder of Guys' Hospital, London - which he built with profits of the slave trade. He made his fortune through ownership of a very large amount of shares in the South Sea Company, whose main purpose was to sell slaves to the Spanish Colonies. The South Sea Company was responsible for the transportation of around 64,000 enslaved Africans between 1715 and 1731 to Spanish plantations in Central and Southern America. After selling his shares in South Sea Company at the peak of their value, Guy used his massive fortune to establish Guy's Hospital for 'the poorest and sickest of the poor' in London. What did he do ? The bad: He bought 42,000 shares in the South Sea Company, amassing a fortune when he sold them in 1720 The South Sea Company supplied 4800 slaves each year for 30 years to Spanish plantations in Central and Southern America The good: He became a governor of St Thomas' Hospital, after building three wards He later opened Guy's Hospital opposite St Thomas' which cost him 19,000 Sir John Cass Sir John Cass (1661- 1718) was a merchant, politician and Alderman. His statue stands outside London Metropolitan University (pictured June 8) Where is the statue? Outside London Metropolitan University. Who wants the statue removed? He is named on the Topple The Racists' site. Who is he? Sir John Cass (1661- 1718) was a merchant, politician and Alderman for the ancient London ward of Portsoken, in 1711 was elected a Sheriff of London and later knighted. Cass was responsible for helping the slave trade to establish across the Atlantic. He dealt with slave agents in the African forts and Caribbean. He also founded an educational charity, Sir John Cass's Foundation, which still exists to this day. Cass was a member of the Court of Assistants of the Royal African Company between 1705 and 1708 and bequeathed shares in the Royal African Company on his death. The Royal African Company was established by Royal Charter under King Charles II. It gave a monopoly to the on trading in Slaves from ports in West. British slave trader Edward Colston played a large part in the running of the company. What did he do? The bad: Helped to establish slave trade deals across the Atlantic with slave agents in the African forts and Caribbean Cass was a member of the Court of Assistants of the Royal African Company between 1705 and 1708 The good: He founded an educational charity, Sir John Cass's Foundation for 50 boys and 40 girls in the City of London, which still exists to this day He was Alderman for the ancient London ward of Portsoken, elected a Sheriff of London in 1711 and was knighted in 1712 William Beckford William Beckford (1709-1770) was a Slave owner and politician. His statue stands In the Guildhall in London (pictured) Where is his statue? In the Guildhall in London. Who wants his statue removed? He is named on the Topple The Racists' site. Who was he? William Beckford (1709-1770) was a Slave owner and politician. He was born in Jamaica, the son Peter Beckford, one of the most powerful slave-owners of the colonial era. Peter had purchased sugar plantations on the Caribbean island in 1661, where he also served as Speaker of the legislature. When both Peter and William's elder brother - also Peter - died, he inherited the enormous fortune and estate which included 13 plantations and over 1,000 slaves. By the time of his death, Beckford's plantations were raking in over 50,000 each year and he is estimated to have amassed 1million in the bank - an eye-watering sum in 18th century Britain. In the early 1700s he returned to London and used his riches to buy the sprawling Fonthill estate in Wiltshire, which he stuffed with art and expensive furniture. The house burned down in 1755, but Beckford poured money and resources into rebuilding it. He later embarked on a political career and was elected as an MP in 1754 before serving twice as Lord Mayor of London in 1762 and 1769. Beckford also used his money to bankroll the rise of future prime minister William Pitt the Elder and ferociously lobbied in favour of the West Indies sugar industry. In 1758, when Pitt was in the cabinet, Beckford advised him to attack the French in the island of Martinique because of the lucrative haul of slaves they could capture. Beckford had nine children, eight of which were out of wedlock. The only son he had with his wife, Maria Marsh, was the novelist William Thomas Beckford. Despite enslaving scores of men, at home he banged the drum for liberties, and once even answered back to King George after he arrested notorious critic John Wilkes. What did he do? The good: Campaigned for civil liberties as an MP and in 1770 demanded the King dissolve parliament to remove evil ministers The bad: Inherited and oversaw 13 sugar plantations and more than 1,000 slaves in Jamaica In 1758 Beckford advised Pitt to attack the French in the island of Martinique because of the lucrative haul of slaves they could capture General Sir Redvers Buller General Sir Redvers Buller (1839 -1908) was an aristocratic Army officer (left). His statue stands near St David's Church in Exeter, Devon Where is the statue? Near St David's Church in Exeter, Devon. Who was he? General Sir Redvers Buller (1839 -1908) was an aristocratic Army officer who had a long career subduing colonial Africa, particularly in the Zulu and Boer wars. What did he do? The bad: Ruthlessly defeated the Zulu people in what is now modern day South Africa Rumoured to have helped set up African concetration camps for prisoners during the Boer War The good: Won the Victoria Cross by rescuing two fellow officers during a pitched battle in the Zulu War Who wants to remove the statue? He is named on the Topple The Racists' site. Lord Kitchener Lord Horatio Kitchener (1850-1916) (left) was a renowned Field Marshall and Secretary of State for War. His statue stands on Khartoum Road in Chatham, Kent, where he was Earl (right) Where is the statue? A bronze statue of Kitchener atop a his favourite horse, Democrat is located on Khartoum Road in Chatham, Kent, where he was Earl. Who is he? Lord Horatio Kitchener (1850-1916) was a renowned Field Marshall and Secretary of State for War who commanded British troops in several imperial conflicts. He is well known for appearing on WW1 recruitment posters along with the call to arms: 'Your country needs YOU'. What did he do? The good: Won the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 and securing the Sudan for the British Amassed the biggest volunteer army ever in Britain during the First World War Commanded British troops in Egypt, where the controller-general branded Kitchener 'the most able soldier' he had ever known The bad: Kitchener masterminded the use of concentration camps to imprison Boers during the Second Boer War in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century Thousands of men, women and children died in these horrific prisons, many from disease and starvation Who wants his statue removed? Kitchener's statue is named as a target on the website Topple The Racists. William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone (1809 1898) served as a Liberal British Prime Minister for 12 years. A plaque celebrates Gladstone at the Royal Albion Hotel, Brighton (right) Where is the statue? A plaque celebrates William Ewart Gladstone at the Royal Albion Hotel, Brighton. Who is he? William Ewart Gladstone (1809 1898) served as a Liberal British Prime Minister for 12 years, across four terms from 1868 to 1894. He was involved in claims that his father was one of the largest owners of slaves in the Caribbean as well as a driving figure of the West India lobby. His father Sir John, the owner of large sugar plantations in the Caribbean, was compensated with the equivalent of about 83 million today after slavery was abolished in 1833. The bad: Gladstone supported the Slave Compensation Act 1837, an act which payed compensation for slave-owners but nothing to newly liberated people He supported the system of apprenticeship which r equired slaves to continue labouring for former masters for four to six years in exchange for provisions The good: Championed political reform, home rule for Ireland and working-class rights Campaigned against the excesses of British imperialism Who wants his statue removed? Gladstone's plaque is named as a target on the website Topple The Racists. Sir Henry De La Beche Sir Henry De La Beche was a renowned geologist and paleontologist in the 19th century Where is the statue? Inside Imperial College, where several buildings are named after him too. Who wants the statue removed? Students at Imperial College have long been campaigning to remove him, and he is named on the Topple Racism website. Who was he? Sir Henry De La Beche (1796 1855) was a renowned geologist and paleontologist in the 19th century, he founded the Geological Survey of Great Britain. The bad: Owned plantations in Jamaica where slaves were used The good: Organised the first geological survey of Great Britain Mapped the Jurassic and Cretaceous fossils of Devon and Cornwall Ronald Fisher Ronald Fisher (1890 - 1962) was a mathematician and geneticist (left) A stained glass window in the dining hall of Caius College, Cambridge, commemorates Fisher (right) Where is the statue? A stained glass window in the dining hall of Caius College, Cambridge, commemorates Fisher. Who is he? Ronald Fisher (1890 - 1962) was a mathematician and geneticist who is viewed as the father of modern statistics. He was also a pioneer in evolutionary theories and helped revive Darwinism in the 20th Century. One of the 'finest minds of his era', Fisher held academic posts at University College London and Cambridge. The bad: Fisher's fascination of genetics led him to discover eugenics, of which he became an advocate He also held staunch views on race and in the aftermath of WW1 criticised UNESCO for trying to coordinate a united condemnation of racism, stating his belief that races differed The good In 1925 he published Statistical Methods for Research Workers which popularised the 'p-value', now widely used in research to calculate probabilities Fisher publicly acknowledged the link between lung cancer and smoking Who wants to remove it? The window is on a list of targets featured on the Topple the Racists website. By Milly Vincent and Jack Elsom For Mailonline - Nominated MP Godfrey Osotsi said the current party leaders' term in office will expire on June 15 - The legislator said he was informed by the party Constitution which requires them to hold elections after every five years - Osotsi argued the last time the officials were elected was on June 15, 2015, when the political outfit was registered - The lawmaker blamed Mudavadi's allies for misleading the public that ODM was planning to have the party leader dethroned Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi may soon lose his position in the political outfit after nominated MP Godfrey Osotsi said all positions will be vacant as from June 15. According to the former party secretary-general Osotsi, all leadership positions including that of the party leader are expected to expire on June 15 as by ANC's Constitution. READ ALSO: Hoja ya kutimuliwa kwa Gavana Anne Waiguru yageuka na kuwa vurugu Nominated MP Godfrey Osotsi says leadership positions in ANC will be vacant as of June 15. Photo: The Star Source: UGC READ ALSO: Nairobi man loses over KSh 614 K to GSU officer in fake gold business deal Addressing members of the press on Tuesday, June 9, Osotsi who claims to be the founder of the ANC said the party's Constitution provides that leaders hold office for five years after which an election should be done. He said all the current party officials took over the office in June 2015 and their term in office is expected to elapse on June 15. "Our Constituoon says term of office for all our party officials is five years and this party was regisrted on June 15, 2015, and the party says if there is a vacancy in the party leadership then we should have a grassroot elections," the MP said. Osotsi who described himself as a strong believer of democracy dismissed claims that he was organising a coup to dethrone the party leader and instead accused Mudavadi's allies of plotting an alliance with Deputy President William Ruto. ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi has been meeting several leaders across the country in the recent past days. Photo: Musalia Mudavadi Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Coronavirus: WHO official says COVID-19 spread by asymptomatic patients is rare "I do not need to plan to take over the party because I am the founder and I have all the documents," Osotsi said. As earlier reported by TUKO.co.ke, Lugari MP Ayub Savula told the media that he had been approached by some leaders from Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) who asked him to dethrone Mudavadi. However, in his statement, Ososti dismissed Savula's claims saying he was actually the one planning to interfere with the party leadership after he allegedly met with Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi at a hotel in Eldoret. READ ALSO: Akothee promises to get wife for lonely homeless man she saved from streets "We know where these people want to take us, there is a plan to blame internal problems in FORD Kenya and ANC on Raila Odinga, I cannot allow this propaganda because that is not true," said Osotsi. He said the leaders were planning to join Ruto's camp but were blaming it on Raila and asked them to quit the party and join the DP peacefully. The nominated MP further hinted he may be vying for the party leadership position when the elections are declared. 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 Saudi Arabia exported crude oil worth some $40 billion during the first quarter of the year, down by 21.9 percent, or $11 billion, on the first quarter of 2019, Reuters reports, adding that Brent crude fell by as much as 60 percent in the three-month period. Oil revenue, as a result, slid down by 24 percent to $34 billion during the quarter, official data showed. The Kingdom has been one of the most active producers in trying to rein in the oil price slide that undermined oil export revenues. The country agreed to cut a solid portion of its daily output to help stabilize prices and then it announced an additional 1-million-bpd production cut on top of the quota agreed with its OPEC+ partners. Saudi Arabia was also the driving force behind the one-month extension of the deepest cutsof 9.7 million bpdthat OPEC+ agreed last Saturday. The Kingdom also put its foot down on non-compliance, insisting that laggards Iraq and Nigeria, as well as Angola and Kazakhstan, effect deeper production cuts to compensate for their non-compliance so far. The Kingdom also earlier this year cut its official selling prices by the most in three decades to stimulate buying. Now, with oil prices on the mend, Saudi Arabia has hiked its OSP for Asian buyers just as sharply, almost erasing the discount it offered buyers during the height of the crisis. The latest oil import data from Chinathe worlds largest importer of crudehas been encouraging but if prices rise, imports may start falling. After all, Chinese oil traders and refiners had three months to stock up on supercheap oil. The price hike, according to a Bloomberg report, has also worried European refiners, who are still struggling with the fallout of the pandemic and the resulting lockdowns, which hurt them as much as they hurt upstream businesses. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday handed over investigation into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of 69,000 government teachers to a special task force as the issue took a political turn with Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra wading in. Announcing her partys support for the candidates, she alleged that exam paper leaks and irregularities in marking had become the norm in the state. She said CM Yogi Adityanath should take responsibility for the candidates. Addressing a virtual press meet, Gandhi said, I spoke to a girl today who had travelled 200 km to take the examination. There are cases of cheating, fudging of marks, paper leaks etc. Why are results being delayed if there is no scam? I spoke to candidates. They have worked hard to achieve their goals and to build their future. if we dont raise our voice together and dont ask for change, then this will become a trend, she said. Taking on the BJP government in the state, the Congress leader said the CM should take responsibility and action, be it cancelling exams or a re-exam. Today, the voices of youth are being suppressed in Uttar Pradesh. I stand with all the candidates. These youngsters are our future, their fight is our fight. We stand with all the candidates and there is no politics in this, she said. The FIR in the case was registered in Soranv police station in Prayagraj and the decision to transfer the investigation to an STF was taken after the Prayagraj police recommended a change in the investigating agency to the UP government. The Prayagraj police allegedly made this recommendation due to the large network of the accused in the case, after which the UP DGP gave his nod to transfer the investigation. The scam was allegedly masterminded by prime accused KL Patel who has been in jail along with other accused. The line of investigation has also shifted to include some candidates as those arrested have reportedly admitted helping around 50 people clear the recruitment. Police have also arrested two toppers in the case. The 50 candidates are alleged to have cleared the examination with the help of the accused who were reportedly paid around Rs 8 to 10 lakh per candidate. It is alleged that Patel, a medical officer posted in Jhansi, engineered the scam. His name had also surfaced in the infamous Vyapam Scam in Madhya Pradesh. A Zila Panchayat member, Patels group was allegedly operating in more than 18 districts in the state. Addressing a press conference on the issue, Basic Education Minister of UP, Satish Dwivedi said, The process of recruitment of 69,000 government teachers was underway, appointment letters were to be given to the selected candidates. However, the High Court has stopped the process for now. We have approached a double bench in this regard. This is a political effort to disturb the recruitment process. Those who were accused, including KL Patel, have been sent to jail. Now the probe is handed over to STF. After spending 28 years on death row, a man who was wrongly imprisoned for the murder of a 4-year-old girl has been finally freed. Innocent man The 55-year-old man, Walter Ogrod, was freed on June 5 after a judge in Pennsylvania finally overturned his conviction for the murder and sexual assault of 4-year-old Barbara Jean Horn. It is believed that Ogrod was forced to confess that he killed the child, he told NBC 10 Philadelphia that the "knee was partially lifted from his neck." Horn was his neighbor and the child was found in a cardboard box, brutally murdered and assaulted. James Rollins, Ogrod's lawyer, stated that his client was relieved and pleased that he is announced innocent of the crime. Ogrod will attend a family barbecue to celebrate his release. Atty. Rollins said that Ogrod and his family lost 28 years, years that they could have spent together. Prosecutor Carrie Wood apologized to Ogrod and said that she is sorry that it took them 28 years to understand what the victim was trying to tell them, that Ogrod was innocent and the confession that he did 28 years ago came from the police detectives of Philadelphia and not him. In July 1988, the body of the 4-year-old Barbara Jean Horn was found in a cardboard box and was left in the street near her home. Also Read: Is George Floyd Death a Staged Event? Texas Politician Cynthia Brehm Says So Ogrod was 23-years-old at that time and he was a driver for a bakery when he was arrested in 1992 for the sexual assault and murder of Horn. His lawyers told the court that the informers made up false statements from him. Ogrod was diagnosed in autism and is said to have been forced to confess on a crime that he did not commit just to solve the case. At his first trial, Ogrod retracted his confession. This was backed up by five eyewitnesses who claimed they the man who left the cardboard box containing the body of Horn, and they all said the suspect does not look like Ogrod. Even though his first trial ended in a mistrial, Ogrod was still convicted at a second trial in 1996 and he was charged of first-degree murder and attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. However, in January 2020, a DNA test found the sample from the crime scene and it shows that it does not match Ogrod, and the prosecutors later concluded that there is no evidence linking Ogrod to the murder of Horn.On June 5, both his conviction and death sentence were overturned. Opened case Sharon Fahy, the mother of Barbara Jean, was among those who asked Judge Shelley Robins-New from Philadelphia, to release Ogrod. According to Fahy, she wanted justice and not just a closed case with an innocent person in jail. The judge lowered his conviction to third-degree murder, thus allowing him to be released on bail. Ogrod was held at the State Correctional Institution Phoenix in Skippack, and he faced a third trial. He was then proven innocent and has been released. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Pennsylvania has the fifth-highest number of inmate on death row, out of all the states in America. Despite having such a high number, Pennsylvania only carried out three executions of inmates since 1976. Related Article: Florida Couple Bite, Beat, Kick and Punch 6-Year-Old Boy For Years, Leaving Permanent Scars @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Nigerian Presidency has alerted the international community to the misleading campaign spearheaded by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), using false allegations of persecution of Christians against the Nigerian State. The Presidency, according to statement issued by Malam Garba Shehu said it has uncovered two, interconnected campaigns being run concurrently by the IPOB in this regard. Government said it became aware of the campaigns via an investigation by one of its agencies working with international partners. Both (campaigns) are using the cover of Christianity and calling for a US Special Envoy to be appointed to stop the genocide of Christians in Nigeria. But the real purpose is to drive a wedge between the Nigeria government and its US and UK/European allies, the government said.. IPOB leadership of course self-proclaims as Jewish, a position not shared by the generality of the members. For reasons of convenience, he(Nnamdi Kanu) claims to have an interest in the welfare of Christians but this is a ruse: the case for independence, the leader believes, is strengthened by proving the government of Nigeria is autocratic, engaged in a silent slaughter of their own citizens along religion and ethnic lines and that therefore the only viable option for the unique religious and ethnic minority is a sovereign Biafra separate from Nigeria. Nigerians and the international community are advised to be wary of this divisive campaign, which available evidence shows is being funded with a monthly spending of $85,000 USD since October 2019, with no records of the source of this largesse. The campaign consists of producing articles in the names of the alleged Christian NGOs leaders (of campaign groups created at the time this PR contract with a US lobbying firm was signed) and letters to and from members of Congress to the White House. Unfortunately, some Members of Congress have clearly been persuaded there is indeed a Christian persecution underway in Nigeria and do so quoting the campaign and they are known to be taking up the case directly with the White House to appoint the special envoy. The American charity secured a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and has made presentations to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. There is also a UK and European angle of the Campaign, which is more opaque than its US sister campaign given there is less legal requirement for public filings but what is known of this at the moment is that their Budget is sufficient to hire four PR firms in the UK, Belgium, France and the US (the latter additional to the above). They have founded an NGO/Charity and a linked web-based campaign named Stop the Silent Slaughter which is well designed and complete with video evidence-completely concocted. Members of the alleged Christian NGO have had multiple Op-Ed articles in conservative news websites promulgating their message of a Christian Genocide. Some of those articles have also been used as evidence in the sister US campaign. Two of those conservative news websites were co-founded by the owner of the UK PR firm they have hired to generate their publicity as well as an OP-Ed article in the name of a British MP who may have been convinced by their campaign under false pretences. They have secured additional coverage in France, EU and Germany. They secured a MPs debate on the Christian Genocide in the House of Commons in which staff member of the UK PR was referenced as the private secretary to the leader of the UK-based Charity. It is clear from all of the above that the IPOBs extraordinarily and dubiously well-funded campaign in the US and UK/Europe is misusing the issue of the welfare of Christians purely to further their own political ends, and it seeks to damage inter-religious dialogue in Nigeria as well as to damage the international reputation of Nigeria. Nigerians and the international community are hereby advised to ignore this campaign as they have disregarded similar past campaigns originated by this group which has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the Nigerian State. International groups and societies are welcome to send representatives to Nigeria and give a lie to the false claims made by these terrorist groups who are duping them of their money and involving them in conduct and activities disguised to destroy the harmonious relationships existing between their home countries and Nigeria. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has gone into self-quarantine after developing sore throat and fever, and samples to be tested for COVID-19 were collected from him on Tuesday New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has gone into self-quarantine after developing sore throat and fever, and samples to be tested for COVID-19 were collected from him on Tuesday. Officials told PTI the chief minister, who is also a diabetic, was feeling unwell since Sunday afternoon. Follow latest updates on Coronavirus Outbreak here "He has mild fever and sore throat since Sunday afternoon. As advised by doctors, the chief minister will undergo COVID-19 test on Tuesday morning," officials said. Officials said the chief minister had attended a Cabinet meeting on Sunday morning and thereafter, he did not attend any meeting. The chief minister has been holding most of his meetings via video conferencing from his official residence for past two months. Vietnam usually exports 100,000 tonnes of fresh lychees worth more than $30 million -- mostly to China but to Japan, Australia and the US Hundreds of lychee farmers sorted and graded huge piles of the tropical fruit at a busy wholesale market in northern Vietnam on Tuesday, but many bemoaned slumping prices as foreign traders were held up in quarantine. After mounting an aggressive response to the coronavirus pandemic, life in the country is back to relative normality and workers clustered together mask-free at dawn in Bac Giang province, their motorbikes fitted with baskets overflowing with the sweet fruit. The lychee business is down in 2020 as Vietnam continues to keep its borders shut The communist nation usually exports around 100,000 tonnes of fresh lychees worth more than $30 million -- mostly to China but to Japan, Australia and the US too -- each season. But business is down this year as Vietnam keeps its borders shut. "Because of the pandemic, we aren't seeing Chinese traders and we mostly sell to domestic traders so the price is very low," Nguyen Van Thanh, 35, told AFP, adding that half his haul ends up overseas in a normal year. Foreign buyers tend to come directly to the market -- just a few hours drive from the Chinese border -- during the fruit's short six-week season. Foreign buyers tend to come directly to the market -- just a few hours drive from the Chinese border -- during the fruit's short six-week season But state media reported last week several hundred from China and Japan had been quarantined for 14 days. Despite authorities saying they would promote domestic consumption, prices have dropped to half of what they were last year. "We have worked hard the whole year... but this is not enough to live on," said farmer Do Van Toan, 47, who estimated he would earn not more than $4000 this season. Already a major coffee, rice and catfish exporter, Vietnam has in recent years turned its attention to fruit Already a major coffee, rice and catfish exporter, Vietnam has in recent years turned its attention to fruit. Last year it exported $3.76 billion worth of fruit and vegetables. So far, Vietnam has officially recorded only 332 cases of the coronavirus, and no deaths. Although some of its borders are open for goods, foreigners -- save some specialists and highly-skilled workers -- are not permitted to enter. On Tuesday Hanoi said it would look to resume flights with "safe zones" -- places that had no new cases for 30 days. PhD students study on the state of magma in crustal reservoirs published in Nature Communications The study challenges a recently-emerged paradigm that magma chambers are huge masses of crystals with just a very small amount of melt. Wits PhD student, Willem Krugers study on the state of magma within plutonic magmatic systems in the Earths crust has been published in the high impact journal, Nature Communications. Working alongside his PhD supervisor, Professor Rais Latypov, from the Wits School of Geosciences, Krugers paper shows that basaltic magma chambers may develop as large bodies of crystal-free melts in the Earths crust. This study challenges a recently-emerged paradigm that magma chambers are huge masses of crystal-rich mush in other words, crystals with just a very small amount of melt. Attempts to understand the processes that operate in magma chambers in our planets crust is incredibly challenging as they are hidden from direct observations. Geologists must follow an indirect approach to study these features, such as examining their ancient fossilised remains that are exposed on Earths surface after millions of years of erosion. To examine the state of magma within a chamber is very demanding, as it requires the study of the very contact between the crystallising margins of magma bodies (also called solidification fronts) and their liquid interiors. Difficulties in understanding the behaviour of solidification fronts can fortunately be overcome by studying a particularly fascinating rock type, called massive magnetitite, from the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. Magnetitite contains chromium that is an extremely sensitive indicator of magma chamber processes and can be used to study solidification fronts in extreme detail, says Kruger. By mapping the distribution of chromium in magnetitite in the field we can observe the two-dimensional propagation patterns of solidification fronts on a scale never done before. Kruger and Latypov found that all evolved liquid is effectively removed from the solidification front of magnetitite as it propagates towards the chamber interior. This is because of extremely effective compositional convection that occurs during the crystallisation of magnetite. The process results in the solidification front to propagate as almost a completely solid surface. says Latypov. This research shows that such powerful compositional convection may inhibit the formation of crystal-rich mushes in basaltic magma chambers. There are many reasons to believe that this process is not unique to magnetitite layers of the Bushveld Complex but will likely operate in other rock types as well, for instance, in the Bushvelds economically important chromitite layers. Our results thus argue for the existence of large, liquid-dominated magma chambers hidden within the Earths crust, says Kruger. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 11:10:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a telephone conversation on Monday with Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez. In their phone talk, Rodriguez said Cuba speaks highly of China's leading role in global cooperation against COVID-19 and thanks China for its strong support to Cuba and Latin America in their response to the pandemic. Noting that this year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Cuba-China diplomatic relations as well as Latin America-China diplomatic relations, Rodriguez said both sides will join hands to commemorate this important year. Cuba has always regarded its relations with China as a diplomatic priority and will continue to work to deepen its cooperation with China in various fields, he said. Rodriguez also briefed Wang on Cuba's position on the Colombian peace process and opposed the U.S. inclusion of Cuba on May 13 in a State Department list of countries that are allegedly not cooperating fully with U.S. efforts against terrorism. Both China and Cuba have delivered qualified answers in the anti-epidemic fight, Wang said, expressing his belief that after the pandemic, the socialist cause of the two countries will certainly see more vigorous development, and the Chinese and Cuban people will certainly build their countries better. The two countries' solidarity in fighting COVID-19 is a good commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations, Wang said, adding that China stands ready to take this opportunity to push for further development of China-Cuba relations at a new starting point. Over the past years, Cuba has made great efforts and played an important role in the peace process in Colombia. The Colombian peace agreement was the result of concerted efforts and did not come easily, Wang said, expressing the hope and belief that Latin American countries such as Colombia and Cuba will properly seek solutions through diplomatic channels with a responsible attitude towards history. China opposes U.S. political suppression and economic sanctions against Cuba in the name of counterterrorism, Wang said, adding that such U.S. bullying is unpopular. China will always stand by the Cuban people in Cuba's righteous struggle to safeguard its national sovereignty and legitimate interests and oppose foreign interference, Wang said, adding that China will continue to provide assistance within its capacity to support Cuba's economic and social development. Rodriguez expressed his appreciation for China's position. Enditem Antonov chief sacked following audit 13:40, 09.06.20 3095 Inspection files have been forwarded to the SBU security service and the anti-graft agency. Scientists say the world recently set a record for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The record level was reached although industrial activities that produce carbon dioxide have fallen sharply. That is because of efforts to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. Carbon dioxide is considered the main human-created greenhouse gas: a heat-trapping gas that warms the Earths atmosphere. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said carbon levels averaged 417.1 parts per million for the month of May. That is 2.4 parts per million higher than a year ago. The measurements were taken at Mauna Loa, a volcano in Hawaii. Emissions of carbon dioxide, from the burning of fossil fuels, dropped by as much 17 percent in April. Fossil fuels include coal, oil and natural gas. However, the decrease did not last a long time. Pieter Tans is a lead scientist at NOAA. He said carbon dioxide can stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. He added that the short-term reductions of carbon gas for a few months did not have much of a long-term effect. It illustrates how difficult it is what a huge job it is to bring emissions down, Tans said. We are really committing the Earth to an enormous amount of warming for a very large time. Records with direct measurements go back to 1958. Scientists say carbon dioxide levels are now nearly 100 parts per million higher than at that time. That is a 31 percent increase in 62 years. Jonathan Overpeck is head of the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. He told the Associated Press, The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is relentless, and this means the costs of climate change to humans and the planet continue to rise relentlessly as well. Carbon levels in the air were higher long ago before humans, Tans said. Tans added that carbon dioxide levels reach their highest in May because growing plants begin using more of the gas. That causes carbon amounts in the air to drop. Im Jonathan Evans. Seth Borenstein reported on this story for the Associated Press. Jonathan Evans adapted this story for Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story emissions n. a substance, such as a gas, that is released or given off illustrate v. to show, to be an example of enormous adj. very large relentless adj. continuing without weakening Russian arrested in Patong for tour-ticket fraud PHUKET: A Russian man has been arrested in Patong for selling fake tour vouchers to Russian nationals to the tune of more than B100,000, Patong Police have reported. patongcrimeRussian By Tanyaluk Sakoot Tuesday 9 June 2020, 09:12AM Leonid Iurkovskii was arrested in front of a condo building in Patong yesterday afternoon (June 8). Photo: Patong Police The man, 34-year-old Leonid Iurkovskii, was taken into custody in front of a condominium project in Patong at 1:20pm yesterday (June 8), Patong Police Chief Col Aganit Danpitaksat told The Phuket News. Present to place him under arrest were Maj Suchart Chomphusaeng and Capt Sittichai Tiewkul, he added. Iurkovskii was wanted on arrest warrant No. 158/2563 issued by the Phuket Provincial Court on Friday (June 5), Col Aganit explained. Under the warrant, issued last Friday (June 5), Iurkovskii was wanted for theft of property belonging to an employer, and creating and using counterfeit documents. Iurkovskii specifically targeted Russian customers, selling them tours and providing them with a fake receipt or a voucher for their cash, Col Aganit explained. The payment voucher was a hand-made document, not that of the company [it purported to represent], causing damage to Royal Palace Co Ltd to the value of B104,500, he said. The company had reported a formal complaint, recorded by Lt Phongsathorn Phothong, leading to the arrest warrant being issued, Col Aganit added. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- OPEC+ has a new sheriff in town, apparently. After the debacle of early March, Saudi Arabias Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has seemingly imposed order on his unruly posse, securing an extension of deep supply cuts. Most notably, habitual target busters such as Iraq will now be held to account by having to make up any lack of discipline with deeper cuts down the road. But what has changed, really? OPEC+, like OPEC before it, operates under a doctrine of mutually assured destruction. Any member that doesnt abide by production quotas runs the risk of annoying fellow members especially Saudi Arabia to the point where those members abandon their own commitments, flooding the oil market to the detriment of all. This tactic extends to non-OPEC members, too, as the group can decide to open the taps to punish external producers that get too exuberant. The problem with this type of oil weapon is the mutual bit: Its more of a nuclear blast than a surgical strike. Everyone suffers the fallout. That didnt change this weekend. The added dictum of members being punished if they dont make up shortfalls to their commitments at a later date represents a new trigger, not a new weapon. The pact of mutual destruction has been reassured. There has always been a performative dimension to OPEC in its various guises. This aspect has been especially pronounced this year. Only three months ago, Saudi Arabia and Russia began a price war after disagreement over the need for further supply cuts to meet the challenge of Covid-19. A month later, they reversed and agreed to a truce as OPEC+ announced deep cuts to production, with President Donald Trump inserting himself as broker. Yet the prime mover in that turn of events wasnt Trump or Prince Abdulaziz. It was a virus. That hasnt changed. Oil demand is rising back from the abyss, and surprisingly positive U.S. jobs numbers released Friday added to a growing sense of optimism that has pushed Nymex crude oil from about negative $40 to almost positive $40 in the space of seven weeks. But the economic damage inflicted by Covid-19 is deep; how else could U.S. unemployment above 13% suddenly be regarded as a win? Second-wave risks remain, as do other ills facing the oil market, such as the Sino-U.S. trade war, which Covid-19 has exacerbated if anything. In other words, OPEC+ cohesion, lost and then suddenly restored, is a function of a common enemy: the virus. Story continues Coming into the pandemic, OPEC+ faced a dilemma. Most of its members, including Saudi Arabia, arent built for oil prices below $60 a barrel. Yet $60-plus oil encouraged more output from non-members, especially U.S. shale producers. Deploying the oil weapon in 2014 certainly hurt shale, but an infusion of new capital enabled it to weather the storm. Meanwhile, the economic fallout blew back on OPEC to the point where it not only abandoned that strategy, it acknowledged defeat by throwing in its lot with Russia and a few others to form OPEC+. Since then, it has been trading away market share for higher, but still inadequate, oil prices, which was one reason why Russia bridled at further cuts in March. One thing that is helping OPEC+ this time around is that shales own track record of dismal returns means a bailout from the stock market or bondholders isnt forthcoming this time. The fracking industry is cutting output swiftly and must consolidate, meaning future production growth is likely to be subdued compared to the pre-crash pace. Yet the basic contours of the OPEC+ dilemma are intact. Its members remain dependent on oil and need prices far higher than todays levels to fund themselves. They must withhold supply to drain the glut of inventory that has built up. Yet with higher prices, the temptation of countries such as Iraq or Nigeria to bust through targets to shore up stability will be irresistible. Meanwhile, shale producers will emerge from rationalization less exuberant than they once were but still more than able to take advantage of a rally. In response, OPEC+ would have to resort to the same method of discipline it has before: flooding the market until everyone, its own members included, struggle to breathe. One added complication: Trumps damaged electoral prospects mean he is likely to threaten security consequences for Riyadh if it does anything to hurt shale producers in red states this summer. On Monday morning, Prince Abdulaziz spoke of OPEC+ adopting central bank tactics in managing the oil market. But central banks can intervene in financial markets in multiple ways, and they also tend not to threaten destruction. In contrast, OPEC+ can either raise oil output or curb it. It is the lack of economic flexibility inherent to OPEC+ members that leaves the group with only the bluntest of tools at its disposal. Faced with an inscrutable enemy like Covid-19, its doing about as well as it can. Dont mistake that for anything more elaborate. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy, mining and commodities. He previously was editor of the Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street column and wrote for the Financial Times' Lex column. He was also an investment banker. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. PORTLAND, Ore., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the country reopens one county at a time, individuals and businesses continue to face complex financial challengesmany for the first time. OnPoint Community Credit Union is working to ensure the communities it serves across Oregon and Southwest Washington are equipped with the latest information to navigate the financial road ahead. "The COVID-19 pandemic has required our communities to quickly navigate financial setbacks while fending off a sharp increase in fraud," said Rob Stuart, President and Chief Executive Officer, OnPoint Community Credit Union. "OnPoint is closely monitoring the various trends and precautions, and is working to ensure everyone in Oregon and Southwest Washington has the information they need to face these evolving challenges." Below are three OnPoint personal finance tips based on the latest developments and commonly asked member questions: Scammers use social engineering to access consumer Venmo and Zelle accounts OnPoint, along with financial institutions across the nation, has reported three to four times more fraud complaints than average since the COVID-19 pandemic began in February. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Division recently reported 3,000-4,000 cybersecurity complaints each day, a major jump from the 1,000 complaints per day prior to COVID-19. The latest scam targets users of popular peer-to-peer money transfer services such as Venmo, Paypal and Zelle. It involves a scammer posing as a financial institution, texting individuals with a warning about suspicious debit card activity. They will then ask for digital banking credentials and, if successful, will immediately log into digital banking accounts and transfer money elsewhere using peer-to-peer money transfer services. How can consumers protect themselves? OnPoint warns that you should never share online credentials, PINs, Social Security numbers, or any other personal information over text or by phone to anyoneeven if they claim to be from your financial institution. Credit union and bank employees will never ask for credentials or personal information in this manner. If you think you have been a victim of this scam or any other fraudulent activity, contact your financial institution immediately. Click here to learn more about protecting yourself from fraud. A warning against making large cash withdrawals The financial services industry has experienced a spike in individuals withdrawing large sums of cash, sometimes more than $150,000 at a time, to stockpile at home for safe-keeping. While home may seem like the most secure place in a crisis, many are not aware that homeowners' insurance policies rarely cover cash. That means if your house burns down or is burglarized, you risk losing it all. Money is safest when stored at a credit union or bank that is federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). OnPoint encourages those who may be thinking about withdrawing a large sum of money to check with their homeowner's or renter's insurance provider to see what kind of protection, if any, they offer for large amounts of cash. Contactless payments cut COVID-19 transmission and fraud With health experts advising us to touch as little as possible, financial institutions and merchants are expanding contactless payment offerings. In addition to slowing the spread of COVID-19, utilizing contactless payment options also cuts down on fraud. The traditional method of swiping a debit or credit card transmits the cardholder's name, three-digit security code and zip code. In contrast, contactless technology generates a one-time code to identify the transaction. Mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsung Pay require a fingerprint, face ID or passcode to unlock the contactless payment capability. All OnPoint debit and credit cards offer contactless payments with Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay. OnPoint encourages consumers to explore what contactless options their financial institution offers and utilize the technology whenever possible to protect your family's finances and health. How OnPoint can help OnPoint is working with its members on an individual basis to address their specific needs. Special offers currently include: No Minimum Payments Due through June for most OnPoint credit cards. through June for most OnPoint credit cards. Skip Pay to allow qualified members to skip their June auto, personal, home equity line of credit (HELOC), and small business loan payments with no fees. to allow qualified members to skip their June auto, personal, home equity line of credit (HELOC), and small business loan payments with no fees. SBA Paycheck Protection Program loans . OnPoint is currently accepting new, completed applications for the Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program loan from new and existing business members. . OnPoint is currently accepting new, completed applications for the Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program loan from new and existing business members. 2020 Member Assistance Loan at 0% interest to help eligible members relieve some of the financial burdens experienced by the COVID-19 pandemic. to help eligible members relieve some of the financial burdens experienced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Mortgage forbearance allows members to defer mortgage payments for up to 120 days. Members should note that they will be required to bring the loan current, commit to a repayment plan, or qualify for a loan modification at the end of the forbearance agreement. allows members to defer mortgage payments for up to 120 days. Members should note that they will be required to bring the loan current, commit to a repayment plan, or qualify for a loan modification at the end of the forbearance agreement. Waived CD early withdrawal penalty through June 30 . To learn more about how OnPoint is supporting members, employees and the community throughout the COVID-19 crisis, please visit onpointcu.com/covid-19. ABOUT ONPOINT COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION OnPoint Community Credit Union is the largest credit union in Oregon, serving more than 400,000 members and with assets of $6.5 billion. Founded in 1932, OnPoint Community Credit Union's membership is available to anyone who lives or works in one of 28 Oregon counties (Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Crook, Curry, Deschutes, Douglas, Gilliam, Hood River, Jackson, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Morrow, Multnomah, Polk, Sherman, Tillamook, Wasco, Washington, Wheeler and Yamhill) and two Washington counties (Skamania and Clark) and their immediate family members. More information is available at www.onpointcu.com or 503-228-7077 or 800-527-3932. SOURCE OnPoint Community Credit Union MINNEAPOLIS - Hope and Josh Melton decided to bring their 5-year-old daughter, Izzy, to the intersection where George Floyd was killed by a police officer here so she could begin to process the events that appeared to be gripping her parents' attention. They bought white poster board in bulk, colored markers and sunscreen, and headed into the city from their home in Blaine, 15 miles north. Izzy and her father knelt by the flowers on the sidewalk in front of Cup Foods at 38th and Chicago. Josh, 29, told his daughter that "a man was unjustly killed here." All the people protesting, he said, were leaders trying to change the world. They pitched a tent outside a friend's dollar store a block away and offered passersby the tools to make signs. Izzy started coloring her own. Hope, who is black, and Josh, who is white, haven't defined their daughter's race in conversations with her. Izzy calls herself "light brown," and her parents figure she'll figure it out for herself. But they want her to begin to think about who gets to speak, and who doesn't, when tragedies like this one strikes. "I told her we came out here because we want to help out someone who was hurt," Hope said. "And he can't talk for himself anymore. So we make signs and kind of talk for him. And we just tell her how brave she is by coming out here." The Meltons are one of many interracial couples who brought their children to Floyd's memorial and gatherings all over the city in protest of police brutality and the systems that beget deaths like Floyd's, an incident that has touched off protests in hundreds of American communities from Los Angeles to the gates of the White House. They are among millions of U.S. families looking for ways to relay the realities of this moment to their children, but the Meltons do so with the added hurdle of having an interracial household. It's a reality for more and more Americans every day: According to the U.S. Census, the number of Americans who identified as both white and black doubled between 2000 and 2010, and the percentage of mixed race births grew from 1% in 1970 to 10% in 2013. Family tensions that were exacerbated by the election of President Donald Trump - a polarizing figure who has little support among minorities and has described peaceful protesters of police brutality as "thugs" - have been renewed and intensified for families who spoke to The Washington Post in the wake of Floyd's killing. Parents who learned about U.S. race relations in slow-burn fashion as children, before social media, have spent the past two weeks coming up with ways to contextualize the images their children are seeing online and in the news. Alex Sharp, 31, and his wife, Jessica, brought their four children to the Floyd memorial here on Monday and stood on the outskirts of a circle of Native American activists dancing to spread healing throughout the community. Sharp, whose father is black and whose mother is white, says his father-in-law recently retired from the New Hope Police Department, where they live in the Minneapolis suburbs. Sharp once backed the police in conversations with his eldest son, Devyn, 10, but now his thinking has changed. "My father-in-law was a good cop, he was actually very fair," Sharp said. "I tried to preach to my son that the cops are usually here to serve and protect. But after this, after seeing everything on TV, my thinking has shifted on that." Mike and Kristen Savage - white parents who have two biological children, three Haitian-born children and a Guatemalan teenage daughter - brought their family to the Floyd memorial and heard Terrence Floyd, George's brother, address the crowd. Their eldest son, Ben, an 11-year-old they adopted following the Haiti earthquakes in 2010, spent the car ride home in silence. "It's tricky as parents to figure out how much about the idea of racism you really want to introduce to your kids," said Kristen Savage, 42. "We live in the suburbs. They're protected by our white privilege. We want them to know it's a reality they need to understand." --- Josh Melton met his wife, Hope, 10 years ago at Spin nightclub in Minneapolis. Thursday was college night, and they used their school IDs to get in. He asked her to dance. A few months later, Hope was meeting Josh's family at his late mother's home in Elk River, a little more than half an hour out of town. The conversation found its way to race and religion. "We love you," one of Josh's relatives quipped to Hope. "But not if you were Muslim." Hope didn't hesitate: "I am Muslim," she deadpanned. She's not, but she was making a point. Her mother raised her and her sisters to be strong black women, she says, and to leave little unsaid. "They looked like they had seen a ghost," Hope said. "They were like, 'Oh, no, we're not - we're not saying all Muslims.' " She said they later spoke over her at family get-togethers, ignoring her opinions. It created a small rift in the family, between those who defended her and those who treated her poorly. "There are people we've cut off, that we don't even see anymore because of this," Josh said. Josh's father, Tim Melton, said he disagrees with Hope's assessment of the family. "From what I noticed, Hope brings a lot of attitude," Tim Melton said. "Black, white, green or purple makes no difference to me." Hope said the most difficult part of an interracial relationship is that it's almost like melding two worlds together. "It's sad when we keep letting our ancestors, our issues, our problems, carry on to the next generation," Hope said. "But I don't think it's ever come to the point where his family is like, you need to leave her, it's us or her, because, I mean," Hope paused, gesturing broadly at herself, "I'm amazing." The day before bringing Izzy to the Floyd memorial, Hope, an optician, posted a Facebook status update criticizing the use of Martin Luther King Jr. quotes to decry violent protesters. Josh's stepmom responded. "I posted something along the lines of, 'Don't use MLK as a scapegoat. We don't even know what he would do because you guys killed him.'" Hope said. "And her comment was, 'So you support the riots?' My reply was, 'Do you support racism?' And it kind of spiraled out of control after that." Many of the same relatives who spar with her online and dismiss her in person adore her daughter, but both Hope and Josh are wary of their attention. "She's not going to stay 5 and cute forever," Hope said. "She's going to grow up and be opinionated, just like her mother and father." Alex Sharp said his wife engages in similar fights with conservative family members and friends online, but he stays out of it. Their chief concern has been providing a proper context to the images his children are seeing on television. They have a 10-year-old son and three daughters, ages 8, 5 and 3. "My son asked what's going on, what happened and why did it happen," said Sharp, whose father-in-law is a former police sergeant. "It is very complicated for him. He knows that George Floyd got murdered by a police officer, but he doesn't understand the magnitude of it." One of the things that worry the Sharps is the media portrayal of the nighttime violence in Minneapolis, and how it was confirming the biases of their peers in New Hope, Minn., about 10 miles northwest of where Floyd was killed. Alex was born in south Minneapolis, and he didn't want his children fearing the city, so they got in the car and headed there. First they went to Floyd's memorial, pushing the youngest in a stroller, then they went to the ruins of the AutoZone store that rioters destroyed, where they met people sweeping up debris. Devyn Sharp, 10, began individually thanking the people cleaning, and his sisters followed suit. "He's the type of kid who tells soldiers, 'Thank you for your service.' He's got a big heart," Sharp said. "We don't want them to think Minneapolis is a scary place. We've heard people in New Hope say that if you go down there you have to roll up your windows. No, if you don't mess with anybody, you won't have any problems." Sharp hopes with trips like these, they're preparing their children to one day identify and process comments like that as symptoms of bias. Their children are a quarter black and aren't immediately recognized as being mixed-race, but they've noticed children begin to treat theirs differently after seeing their black father. "I've said to him in the past, there are some people out there who don't like people because of the color of their skin, or how they dress and act, and you just try to stay away from those people when you can," Sharp said. --- The Savages were hosting friends in their backyard recently - maintaining social distance - when the conversation turned to Floyd. They quickly realized none of their peers were having the same conversations they were with their white children. Most of them were avoiding the topic outright. "I think it's easy for people to avoid those conversations if they don't have to have them, if it's not life and death," Kristen Savage said. "And that's the definition of white privilege." The Savages, who home-school their six children, have always emphasized racial identities, filling their home with dolls representing many races. Peers who opt to raise their white children "to not see color," in Kristen Savage's words, have overheard them and questioned the Savages' motives. "We don't want our kids to think their color is something that people will be blind to, because they won't," said Kristen Savage, who has a master's degree in special and elementary education from Minnesota State at Mankato. "We want them to see the color and ethnic background of other people in the world and see God's diversity and to love and appreciate that diversity, not to pretend that doesn't exist because it's existence is painful or something." Mike Savage, a fifth-grade teacher in Minnetonka who previously was a teacher and administrator in Minneapolis, says his 11-year old son from Haiti largely has been silent during their conversations about what happened to Floyd. "We were taking a walk, and he said, 'Dad, I just have to think about the fun stuff,' " Mike Savage said. "Legos, video games." They feel it's important to engage their children on these issues, but not to push them too far. Driving into the city and watching Floyd's brother speak was a starting point. During the ride home, when they asked Ben specifically what he thought, his sisters endured the silence for just a few moments before interjecting their views. "We want to prepare him, but we don't want to shoulder him with a burden that he doesn't need to have at 11 years old," Kristen Savage said. When they got home, Ben retreated to the backyard pool for a swim. Their 11-year-old Haitian-born daughter, Elise, went to her stash of street chalk and took to the driveway. She scrawled on the black pavement in pink: "Let's show some love and kindness." Back at Floyd's memorial, under a tent a block down the street, Izzy finished her sign. It had a big green smiley face with heart eyes, a rainbow, and three words: "This Family Love." To discuss the coronavirus situation in Armenia, the steps being taken to prevent and overcome the coronavirus, the current opportunities and, in this context, the problems of the healthcare system, President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian today hosted a discussion with Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan; ex-health minister Ara Babloyan; Rector of Yerevan State Medical University, ex-health minister Armen Muradyan and other representatives of the healthcare sector. The President stated that the main purpose of the meeting was to discuss with healthcare officials and well-known professionals the current state of the pandemic and the future actions, the problems with management of the healthcare system and how the President can help solve those problems and overcome the pandemic. Touching upon the coronavirus situation, President Sarkissian particularly stated the country is in a dire situation and that the President also has to act as a person who can help and provide support, especially with international ties and potential. President Sarkissian also said it is also important for him to listen to the opinions of professionals. If I have tried, and I am trying to provide more support and assistance, I need to have a clear understanding of whom I am helping and how I can help. If I have to call the leader of a country or a medical center, I need to clearly state what Armenia wants. Set the objective and tell me what we want. I can simply assure you that thousands of Armenians, being members of the board of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), are ready to support Armenia, but we need to set the objective by organizing a remote consultation and, if necessary, a visit. I suggest that we talk as doctors and professionals. Im not expecting diplomatic statements from any of you. Im expecting to hear you give a diagnosis and say what is good and bad and what we have to do. The President attached importance to strategy and stated that the health minister has to speak first since he has to present the strategy of the Ministry of Health and the government. Sarkissian also considered management important and said management has to be correct, timely and in line with the strategy. The Armenian president said it would be appropriate to grant high state awards to doctors and other healthcare workers on the occasion of Medical Worker Day on June 21 and recommended that the health minister raise the issue in government. The government needs to appreciate the sons of the nation who have laid their and their families lives on the line during this dire situation, he said, adding that the Presidents Staff will also take certain steps in this direction. Megan Elizabeth, 31, is acutely aware that she could not have chosen a more perfect time to launch her knitting app. The Melbourne woman released her pattern engine, Bellish, in February shortly before the coronavirus crisis confined people to their homes. Emily McNamara, 33, is enjoying her new knitting hobby, as is 11-week-old groodle Murray. Credit:Eddie Jim The stay-at-home orders meant people picked us up far quicker than we were expecting, Elizabeth says of her app, which has had 60,000 downloads on Apple devices (80 per cent in North America) with more than 115,000 designs created. But Elizabeth was also tapping into a business that was flourishing even before COVID-19 hit. The US Association for Creative Industries valued the craft market at $US36 billion, led in large part by Millennial consumers (41 per cent). Conventional bus stops on Seoul's main streets will have futuristic features, such as free Wi-Fi, mobile phone chargers and air purifiers, starting later this year, the metropolitan government said Tuesday. The government of Seoul said it will begin test operations of the futuristic bus stops, dubbed "Smart Shelters," at 10 locations in October before expanding the new features to all bus stops located on exclusive median bus lanes throughout the capital next year. Seoul has exclusive bus lanes in the center of roads or at roadsides. The city will first install the ICT-based bus stops at all those located in the middle of roads before considering expanding to all roadside bus stops after a review of the initial operations. According to the municipal government, the Smart Shelters will be equipped with things most wanted by citizens waiting for buses, such as wireless mobile phone chargers, heated chairs and free Wi-Fi. In addition, ceiling-type air cleaners, indoor and outdoor air quality monitors, air curtains blocking the inflow of outdoor air, systems that provide fine dust information, and screen doors will be installed at the shelters to help keep the air clean. The shelters will also have surveillance cameras, an emergency bell and a heart defibrillator in case of emergencies, municipal officials said, adding Internet of Things sensors will inform passengers of the exact arrivals of incoming buses. They said such bus stops featuring diversified functions and services are unprecedented worldwide. The Seoul government said it will finalize the design of the Smart Shelters after inviting citizens to vote online on three candidates at its website until June 24. (Yonhap) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette management removed two prominent Black journalists from covering anti-racism protests sweeping the USA following the publication of a tweet they considered controversial. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and US affiliate, The NewsGuild-CWA stand in solidarity with the two reporters and condemn the management's racist decisions. A tweet by reporter Alexis Johnson's was deemed controversial by management and the following day senior editors at the barred her from covering the protests, alleging her post violated the social media policy of the company. I was told it violated our social media policy. They kept calling it an educational conversation, but there was no warning, no hey can you take the tweet down? By Monday morning, they had decided I would no longer be able to cover it (The BLM protests), Alexis Johnson said in a press conference organized on Monday 8 June. The decision caused a wave of solidarity among the Pittsburg Post-Gazette staff and union members. Dozens of TNG union members published Alexis tweet on their Twitter accounts adding the hashtag #IStandWithAlexis. According to the TNG, management began retaliating against those who supported Alexis shortly afterwards. Management removed protest stories written by journalists who stood in solidarity with Alexis without explanation. Senior editors also told photojournalist Michael Santiago, who showed support to Alexis, that he was to be removed from protest coverage without explanation. The two are among a small number of Black journalists at the paper. On the same day, Post-Gazette Reporter Joshua Axelrod, a white man, said the management told him he made a legitimate journalistic mistake on social media after using a vulgar slang word to refer to a suspected looter. He was just asked to delete the tweet and was not barred from covering the protests, causing him to denounced the different treatment he received compared to how the management handled his colleagues' situations. I was initially treated in a much more lenient manner by newsroom management than Alexis Johnson or Michael Santiago were and was only taken off protest coverage retroactively, Axelrod said. In response to managements actions, NewsGuild members launched a protest campaign seeking Support for Post-Gazette Black Journalists. There is only one respectable thing for Post-Gazette managers to do: apologize to Alexis, remove the ban they placed on her coverage and let talented, dedicated, loyal PG journalists do their lifes work to the benefit of our paper, our readers, our community, and our democracy, the union said. IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: Stripping Black journalists from covering a pivotal historical event in the US is not only against their professional rights but against the citizens right to be informed and against media plurality. The IFJ stands in solidarity with the journalists affected and condemns the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette management's racist decisions. We urge the management to apologize. The jury that judged the international design competition for the Parramatta Powerhouse dismissed the only submission that retained historic sites because it was "problematic" and blocked the public connection between river and city. Six months after the seven-member jury, chaired by notable philanthropist Naomi Milgrom, determined the hyper-platform building design of Moreau Kusunoki and Genton as the "standout, simple and elegant solution", the rationale has been publicly released. The winning Powerhouse Museum design, by architects Moreau Kusunoki and Genton. The winning design for the new museum controversially calls for the demolition of two historic buildings: a 19th-century Italianate villa Willowgrove and a row of seven terraces known as St George's Terrace. While Steven Holl Architects and Conrad Gargett retained the two heritage buildings in their homage to conical Aboriginal fish traps, the jury said their proposed use of these buildings as dining and food facilities was incompatible with "any potential argument for retention". A women's fashion brand is preparing to shut down 17 stores after generating low revenue during the coronavirus pandemic. New Zealand label Max suffered considerable losses through forced closures and strategies to prevent the spread of disease during the COVID-19 lockdown. The company is undergoing a restructure and has sought a creditor's compromise with landlords, while senior management staff were forced to take a 30 per cent pay cut to keep the label afloat. Of Max's 42 stores in New Zealand, 17 are set to be closed, with the number of staff affected unknown. New Zealand clothing chain Max (pictured) is set to close 17 stores after the COVID-19 pandemic Max believe their trade will continue to be disrupted into the future through reduced consumer spending and lower foot traffic, along with alterations to their supply chain network. Pictured: a woman models for Max 'We have had to make the immensely difficult decision to potentially make significant redundancies of a number of our dedicated staff,' Max managing director James Whiting said in a statement. 'We are absolutely devastated - but this decision had to be made to ensure the survival of our business. We are a very close-knit team and to say we are proud of how our people have conducted themselves through these challenging times would be an understatement.' It has been reported the company has not paid rent since March and is working to meet a compromise with landlords and reduce their rent to be able to continue trading. There have been large differences in negotiations between landlords for different stores, with some not willing to reduce their rental price at all. Max are hoping to meet a compromise with their landlords to reduce their store rent costs in several stores to be able to continue trading The company proposal indicates landlords would be paid up to 40 per cent below their rental price until the end of the 2021 financial year. Max was given $1.7million to support 284 staff through the wage subsidy scheme during the coronavirus shutdown. The business believes trade figures will be affected into the future through reduced consumer confidence and spending and lower foot traffic, along with alterations to their supply chain network from the pandemic. Mr Whiting said the label are confident they will avoid liquidation with cooperation from landlords. 'This is an incredibly difficult but necessary process to ensure the future survival of this iconic New Zealand business,' Mr Whiting said. 'If the landlords approve the proposed formal creditor's compromise, we are confident that we can continue on the exciting journey of rebuilding this iconic brand on the other side of this very difficult but necessary restructure.' Appoints Mining Engineer Stephen O'Grady to Board Perth, June 9, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Classic Minerals Limited ( ASX:CLZ ) is please to announce the appointment of Mining Engineer Mr. Stephen John O'Grady as a Director of the Company, with effect from 09 June 2020.Classic's Chairman, John Lester said, "As Classic commences its transition from explorer to miner, the Board has felt the need to have suitable expertise to assist the Company to achieve its goals. We have researched and found Stephen O'Grady to be the very person who brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge, at this crucial time in Classic's evolution. Stephen has been the mining engineer for over 80 Open Cut Mining Projects and over 30 Underground Mining Projects in the last two decades. Stephen brings strong technical capability and an extensive depth of experience to the Board at this exciting juncture in Classic's strategy to become a gold miner at its Kat Gap Gold Project. He is eminently qualified to guide, support and direct the progression of Classic Minerals Limited."Stephen has contributed to the successful development of many mines, including a wealth of experience in the open cut and underground mining of gold. His forte is in the pit design, optimization and mine planning space. He has studied the geology and created commensurate scoping and feasibility studies across five continents including due diligence work for Minjar Gold on various WA gold projects.He is eminently qualified to assist, guide and steer Classic on the correct and most efficient path on this new journey to the goal of mining at Kat Gap.About Classic Minerals Limited Classic Minerals Limited (ASX:CLZ) is an exploration and development company focused on gold deposits in Western Australia's famous Goldfields region. In March 2017, Classic acquired the Forrestania Gold Project, with seven tenements stretching across 450km2. Strategically located in a very prospective region, the FGP is an underexplored package surrounded by multimillion ounce deposits such as Bounty (2Moz) and Yilgarn Star (1.5Moz). Hong Kong marks one year since protests erupted over a controversial bill that proposed extraditions to mainland China. Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, warned on Tuesday the city could not afford further chaos as it marked a year since the first mass pro-democracy protest. More than a million people flooded the streets on June 9 last year to protest against a bill that would have allowed people to be extradited to mainland China, where courts are controlled by the Communist Party, for trial. Lam eventually withdrew the bill, but the legislation triggered widespread concern about Beijing encroaching on the semi-autonomous territorys freedoms, and sparked months of anti-government protests that at times descended into violence, leaving Hong Kongs reputation for stability in tatters. Speaking to reporters during her weekly media conference, Lam said Hong Kong had faced many difficulties over the past year. Everyone has to learn their lesson, including the Hong Kong government, she said, and I hope the members of the Legislative Council will learn their lesson, that Hong Kong cannot bear that kind of chaos. Residents needed to prove that Hong Kong people are reasonable and sensible citizens of the Peoples Republic of China if they want their freedoms and autonomy to continue, she added. Beyond a withdrawal of the extradition bill, the protest movements core demands such as universal suffrage and an inquiry into alleged police brutality have been rejected by the citys leadership and Beijing. Instead, China has unveiled plans to impose a more sweeping law one that will bypass the citys legislature entirely banning subversion, secession, terrorism and foreign interference. China says the national security law will only target a small minority and will restore business confidence. But critics say the law would destroy the civil liberties Hong Kong residents enjoy under the one country, two systems agreement put in place when the United Kingdom handed the territory back to China in 1997. The agreement is set to end in 2047. Mass arrests and coronavirus bans The move comes at a time when the protest movement is on the back foot due to mass arrests and bans on gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak. Over the past year, about 9,000 people have been arrested, and more than 1,700 people charged. Now, the virus has made any protest effectively illegal, with emergency laws banning gatherings of more than eight people even though local transmission has been virtually eradicated. Still, protests have bubbled up again since the security law plans were announced including tens of thousands defying the ban to hold a June 4 gathering to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. I dont think the passion has subsided much, but the problem is that many actions are now not allowed in the current circumstances, Leung Kai-chi, an analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), told AFP news agency. People are waiting for a chance, they, of course, want to come out again but they will not do that carelessly, added Francis Lee, head of CUHKs journalism school. In this file picture taken on June 9, 2019, protesters attend a rally against a controversial extradition law proposal in Hong Kong [File: Dale de la Rey/ AFP] On Tuesday, messaging groups used by protesters called on people to hold flashmob gatherings in the evening, for which locations would be announced only an hour ahead of time. The tactic is a bid to thwart police, who now move swiftly against such gatherings to enforce anti-virus restrictions. Not alone In a statement to mark a year since the June 9 rally, the Civil Human Rights Front, which organised the protests, urged people in Hong Kong to persevere. The pandemic in 2020 reminds us how a totalitarian regime endangers global public health, the Front said in a statement shared on Facebook. The protests against racism and police brutality in different parts of the world tell us that we Hongkongers are not alone. Trust ourselves. Trust our fellow protesters. Persevere in the dark, and we will see light! Separately, activists have also announced plans to hold a referendum on Sunday about whether to launch a city-wide strike against the national security laws proposed last month. But Lam cautioned against the plans. Regarding the small number of people who are trying to smear the effort for national security legislation, even calling for, on Sunday, to call for a workers strike, or students to boycott classes, I must condemn this, she said. Because they are denying the interests of the 7 million population of Hong Kong, and as Ive said, the governments efforts, as especially now, Hong Kong is trying to get through a very difficult time, and get out of these difficulties. International companies like HSBC and Standard Chartered, which are hugely reliant on access to mainland markets, have issued supportive statements in recent days. In a speech on Monday, Zhang Xiaoming, the deputy head of Beijings Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, likened the law to anti-virus software. Radical separatists have been mistaking the central governments restraint and forbearance for weakness and timidity, he said. Kong Tsung-gan, an activist who has published three books on the protest movement, said the people of Hong Kong must prepare for a long-term struggle. First (Beijing) loses the hearts and minds of Hong Kongs people and then it seeks to force them to be loyal, he said. This is a long-term struggle, the Communist Party is upping the ante, and Hong Kong people will have to be willing to suffer and sacrifice much more than they have up to now to see their way through. More than 60% of sailors who volunteered to take part in a first-of-its-kind study on how the novel coronavirus affects young people living in tight quarters have developed antibodies for COVID-19 after testing positive for the illness. The Navy and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday released a weeks-long study into the coronavirus outbreak on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. Ultimately, 1,273 crew members tested positive for the sometimes-fatal illness caused by the virus, which killed one sailor assigned to the ship. Read Next: Its Official: Gen. CQ Brown Confirmed as 1st African American Military Service Chief There were 382 crew members who volunteered to participate in the Navy and CDC study, which included questionnaires, blood tests and nasal swabs. It's still unclear whether someone who's had the virus will be immune to catching it again, but the CDC's Daniel Payne, who co-authored the report, said evidence of antibodies in nearly two-thirds of the volunteers who had the illness was promising. "This finding may give us an early glimpse into actual immune protection against COVID-19 in young adults," Payne said. "... These are actually important in that they could be indicators of some degree of immunity." The COVID-19 outbreak on the Theodore Roosevelt led to a leadership breakdown in the Navy. The commanding officer of that ship was removed from his job after a letter he sent warning about the health crisis was published by the San Francisco Chronicle. The acting Navy secretary at the time who ordered the captain's relief later stepped down from his own job after facing backlash over his handling of the situation. The ship spent nearly two months in Guam, where most of the crew was offloaded and the ship was disinfected. The carrier, which was underway when the outbreak began in March, is again operating in the Pacific. The new study confirmed that there were symptom-free cases among the crew. One in five of the volunteers who tested positive for COVID-19 never showed any signs of the illness, Payne said. "This actually may be an important feature of the disease in young adults," he added. That comes a day after a World Health Organization official's comments over whether people without symptoms could spread the illness led to widespread confusion. The organization has since backtracked, saying they were wrong to call asymptomatic transition "very rare." Payne said the Navy and CDC study didn't look specifically at whether asymptomatic crew members on the Roosevelt spread the virus. "But what we do say," he added, "is that we found 18.5% of those who were infected were actually asymptomatic." Most of the cases the Navy and CDC studied were mild, according to the report. When it came to symptoms, a loss of taste and smell was 10 times more likely to be reported in those who were infected with COVID-19 versus those who weren't. Capt. Robert Hawkins, commander of the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, said the prevalence of that symptom could lead to a new screening question for sailors and Marines. Other common symptoms sailors in the study reported included muscle pain, fever and chills, Payne said. The CDC added loss of taste or smell to its list of common COVID-19 symptoms in April, along with the existing list of cough, fever and shortness of breath. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins. Related: Top Navy Leaders Want Crozier Reinstated as Roosevelt's Commanding Officer: Report A construction company at the centre of a court fight over construction of the downtown police headquarters is asking a judge to strike down chunks of a City of Winnipeg lawsuit, arguing it unfairly lumps together more than two dozen defendants without detailing the specific allegations against them. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A construction company at the centre of a court fight over construction of the downtown police headquarters is asking a judge to strike down chunks of a City of Winnipeg lawsuit, arguing it unfairly lumps together more than two dozen defendants without detailing the specific allegations against them. "Essentially, the city is alleging 27 defendants did exactly the same thing, in exactly the same way, at exactly the same time," Caspian Construction lawyer Jeff Baigrie told Queens Bench Justice Glenn Joyal on Monday. "Its impossible." In a lawsuit filed in January, the city alleges Caspian, "in concert" with other defendants, including former city CAO Phil Sheegl, conspired and "schemed" to inflate the cost of the construction project. The city budgeted $135 million to convert the former Canada Post office and mail-sorting plant into its new downtown headquarters. By the time the project was completed, the cost had soared to $214 million. The lawsuit -- filed a month after a five-year RCMP investigation ended with no charges -- alleges the scheme to defraud the city, by filing fraudulent or inflated quotes, was concocted before the request for proposal for the project was even issued. Other named defendants in the lawsuit include Caspian president Armik Babakhanians, office manager Pamela Anderson, Mountain Construction president Paul LaMontagne, and Ottawa-based GRC Architects. Baigrie said the scope of the allegations, spanning five years, demands there be "specificity" to the allegations against each individual accused. "Each defendant is entitled to know the particular case he, she or it must meet," Baigrie said. "We say a pleading that invites, as this one does, a blanket denial by a defendant, is bad." In a case that the city alleges involves "not just hundreds, but thousands" of invoices, the city has not shared the suspect invoices with the various defendants, Baigre said. "Surely, given that the city says this is emphatically the case, they might be able to muster 20 or 50 examples of these hundreds and thousands of invoices," he said. "If they did that, at least one would get a sense of the who, what, when, why and how." Sheegls lawyer, Robert Tapper, urged Joyal to strike his client from the lawsuit, arguing his involvement ended with signing Caspian to the project. 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. "Its an embarrassing abuse of process," Tapper said. Sheegl "had nothing whatsoever to do with the performance of the contract." The city alleges in July 2011, shortly after Sheegl awarded the contract to Caspian, Caspian paid $200,000 to Mountain, which then paid the same amount to Sheegl or his company, with another $327,000 paid by Babakhanians to either Sheegl or his company. Failing striking the claims against Sheegl from the lawsuit, Tapper asked that the bribery and kickback allegations against him be severed and tried separately. "This (lawsuit) puts him in a position where he will be bankrupt while he waits to hear a tidbit of information against him," Tapper said. "He will have to spend a fortune to defend himself against something he had nothing to do with." Joyal will deliver his decision on the motions Tuesday. dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca Reduced demand due to economic slowdown, coupled with the Covid-19 outbreak, has led to cancellations of long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply contracts and cargo deferments by importing counties. This has led to low utilisation of liquefaction capacity, primarily in the US - one of the key suppliers of the super-chilled gas globally. Furthermore, the fall in gas prices deepens the crisis for LNG suppliers and upstream gas producing companies in the region, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. Haseeb Ahmed, Oil and Gas analyst at GlobalData, comments: Due to a sharp fall in in oil prices, spreads between oil-indexed long-term LNG contracts and spot contracts have reduced considerably. As a result, LNG producers might struggle to leverage higher value long-term contracts for weaker spot-prices that can keep their revenues up. As uncertainty still looms large, several companies in North America may rethink their spends on upcoming multibillion-dollar gas projects and delay final investment decisions (FIDs). Failing to secure a long-term buyer commitment for its Driftwood project due to the current crisis, Tellurian Investments is likely to delay its FID by nearly two years. This is likely to push the project timeline, which was initially expected to go online in 2023, by two years. Similar is the case with Pieridae Energy, which is delaying its FID on the Goldboro project from Q3 2020 to Q2 2021 likely to push the start of the project by a year to 2025. In view of current market conditions and COVID-19 pandemic, Royal Dutch Shell has pulled out of the Lake Charles project, owned and operated by Energy Transfer. In the absence of a potential investor to replace Shell, the FID of the project may get delayed and the project start year is likely to be pushed back by around two years to 2027. Ahmed concludes: While the short-term impact of the current crisis on North American LNG sector may result in limiting LNG production or uncertainty over new investments, the long-term impact can be supply overhang that can make it difficult for North American producers to remain cost competitive. -- Tradearabia News Service Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tue, June 9, 2020 18:18 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd5efe8 2 SE Asia corruption,Malaysia,UMNO,Najib-Razak Free Malaysian prosecutors on Tuesday dropped dozens of corruption and money laundering charges against a former state leader, the latest high-profile graft case to be abandoned since a change of government. Musa Aman, ex-leader of Sabah state, is a senior member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which took control of the national government as part of a coalition in March. The case adds to concerns that people linked to UMNO facing criminal cases may now be let off -- it comes just weeks after corruption charges were dropped against a Hollywood producer, whose stepfather is ex-prime minister and senior UMNO figure Najib Razak. Musa was ejected from power in Sabah in 2018 after UMNO was voted out of office at the national level, and was subsequently hit with 46 charges related to handing out rights to log rainforest. But a judge at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur cleared him after a request from his lawyers, who described the case as "political persecution". "I thank Allah, finally I have received justice as all the charges have been withdrawn after such a long time," said Musa in a statement. Sabah state on Borneo island is home to massive forests but vast tracts have been cleared, and activists have long alleged there is corruption in the granting of logging permits. The 69-year-old Musa had been accused of receiving more than $50 million in exchange for handing out logging concessions to 16 companies and was due to stand trial later this year, official news agency Bernama reported. There had been fury at the move to drop money-laundering charges linked to the 1MDB scandal against Riza Aziz -- one of the producers of "The Wolf of Wall Street" -- with some suggesting it was linked to the return of Najib's party to power. Najib was ejected from office in 2018 in large part due to allegations he was involved in plundering sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, and is now on trial over the controversy. UMNO returned to power in a coalition dominated by the country's Muslim majority in March without a vote after the collapse of the reformist, multi-racial government which swept to power two years earlier. As he awaits a historic Senate confirmation vote to become the first black Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown spoke out about a life in which he has tried just to fit in as an African American man in everyday life, as well as in uniform. "I'm thinking about how full I am with emotion, not just for George Floyd, but the many African Americans that have suffered the same fate as George Floyd," said Brown, currently the head of Pacific Air Forces, in a passionate video posted on social media Friday. Read Next: Soldiers Pull BLM Signs, Confederate Flag from Vehicles After Viral Confrontation Brown described his military experience as "living in two worlds," with some questioning whether he even belonged in the ranks. "I'm thinking about my Air Force career, where I was often the only African American in my squadron, or as a senior officer, the only African American in the room," he said in the video. "I'm thinking about wearing the same flight suit with the same wings on my chest as my peers, and then being questioned by another military member, 'Are you a pilot?' "I'm thinking about having to represent by working twice as hard to prove [that my supervisors'] perceptions and expectations of African Americans were invalid," he added. "I'm thinking about the airmen who don't have a life similar to mine, and don't have to navigate through two worlds. I'm thinking about how these airmen see racism, where they don't see it as a problem because it doesn't happen to them, or whether they're empathetic." While leaders across the branches have spoken out since the May 25 death of Floyd, a black man, at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, the Air Force has stood out on the issue. Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright was the first member of senior military leadership to speak out publicly amid the national unrest. He expressed concern for black members of the Air Force and called for change, including a review of the military justice system. Story continues "I am George Floyd ... I am Philando Castile, I am Michael Brown, I am Alton Sterling, I am Tamir Rice," Wright wrote Monday in a lengthy social media post. "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 retweeted Brown's message Friday, as others also came out in support. "I'm thinking I wish I could stick around to work for, and with, this man," Gen. Mike Holmes, the head of Air Combat Command who's set to retire in coming months, said of Brown. "Copy that, Sir. Copy that," Wright wrote in response to Holmes. "I can't fix centuries of racism in our country, nor can I fix decades of discrimination that may have impacted members of our Air Force," Brown said in the video. "Im thinking about how I can make improvements personally, professionally and institutionally so that all airmen, both today and tomorrow, can appreciate the value of diversity and serve in an environment where they can reach their full potential. "I want to know what youre thinking about, I want to hear what youre thinking about, and how together, we can make a difference," he added. In March, Brown was nominated to be next Air Force chief of staff, which would make him the first African American officer to serve as the top uniformed officer of any of the military branches. If confirmed, he will be 22nd Air Force chief of staff, following Gen. David Goldfein, who is set to retire this summer after four years in the position. Brown would also be the first black officer to sit on the Joint Chiefs of Staff since Army Gen. Colin Powell, now retired, served as chairman between 1989 and 1993. Brown's nomination still awaits a full vote in the Senate; the Senate Armed Services Committee advanced it last month. Defense News reported this week that Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, put a hold on Brown's nomination over whether the KC-46 Pegasus tanker will be based at Eielson Air Force Base in his home state. Sullivan has since lifted the hold. "I had some follow-up questions on [the KC-46 issue]," the senator told Defense News. "They got back to me now and so [Brown] is cleared hot. You know the nomination process; you've seen that I take it very seriously. The questions I asked are serious and then, when we have questions for the record, they've got to be answered appropriately." -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Related: Top Air Force Lawyer Calls for Proposals on Improving Racial Disparity in Military Justice Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Monday inspected northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. On Monday afternoon, Xi visited a village, a section of the Yellow River, and a residential community in the city of Wuzhong to learn about efforts to advance poverty alleviation, strengthen ecological protection of the Yellow River, and promote ethnic unity. The village of Hongde, which Xi visited, has a population of 7,013. It shook off poverty in 2019 through the development of farming and husbandry while providing training to locals to help them secure skilled jobs outside the village. A cardboard packaging workshop was also set up in the village to offer stable local jobs. Monday marked the fourth time Xi visited the Yellow River in less than a year. The 5,464-kilometer-long river is considered the cradle of the Chinese nation. The Jinhuayuan community Xi visited is a national model community of ethnic unity. About 45 percent of its 13,850 residents are ethnic minorities. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in a recent post on his Instagram profile shared an email of a customer who criticised his stance for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Sharing a screenshot of the mail Bezos wrote, "There have been a number of sickening but not surprising responses in my inbox since my last post. This sort of hate shouldn't be allowed to hide in the shadows. It's important to make it visible." "And Dave, you're the kind of customer I'm happy to lose," Bezos added. The sender of the email, Dave in a mail to Bezos wrote that he was placing an order with Amazon when he discovered Bezos' stand for Black Lives Matter. He threw racial slurs and vowed never to shop at Amazon again. The screenshot of the email that Bezos shared read, "Pledging support for a bunch of worthless n*****s will ruin your company. White America is sick and tired of this n***** bulls**t. I canceled my order and I know for a fact I won't be the only one. Maintain your stance and we will watch your profits decline and laugh about it." Bezos has voiced his support to the black community after a 46-year-old unarmed George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis owing to police brutality. Amazon's banner reads, "Black Lives Matter. Amazon stands in solidarity with the Black Community." Bezos shared another email on his Instagram profile who said the banner was offensive to her. The customer wrote, "I am for everyone voicing their opinions and standing up for what you believe in, but for your company to blast this on your website is very offensive to me... ALL LIVES MATTER!' Bezos, in his reply, said, "I have to disagree with you. "Black lives matter" doesn't mean other lives don't matter." "Black lives matter speaks to racism and the disproportionate risk that Black people face in our law enforcement and justice system," Bezos continued. "I have a 20-year-old son, and I simply don't worry that he might be choked to death while being detained one day. It's not something I worry about. Black parents can't say the same." Tech giants have shown solidarity when it comes to voicing their support to the Black Community after the Minneapolis incident. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian stepped down from his position and said that his position should be given to a black candidate. "It's long overdue to do the right thing," Ohanian said in a video. "I believe resignation can actually be an act of leadership from people in power right now," the 37-year-old Reddit co-founder said. To everyone fighting to fix our broken nation: do not stop," he wrote. ATLANTA Voters endured heat, pouring rain and waits as long as five hours on Tuesday to cast ballots in Georgia, demonstrating a fierce desire to participate in the democratic process while raising questions about the emerging battleground states ability to manage elections in November when the White House is at stake. Its really disheartening to see a line like this in an area with predominantly black residents, said Benaiah Shaw, a 25-year-old African American, as he cast a ballot in Atlanta. A confluence of events disrupted primary elections for president, U.S. Senate and dozens of other contests. There were problems with Georgias new voting machines, which combine touchscreens with scanned paper ballots. The polls were staffed by fewer workers because of coronavirus concerns. A reduced workforce contributed to officials consolidating polling places, which disproportionately affected neighborhoods with high concentrations of people of color. Long lines were also reported in whiter suburban areas. Some voters said they requested mail-in ballots that never arrived, forcing them to go to polling places and adding to the lines. Turnout, meanwhile, may be higher than expected as voters said they were determined to exercise their constitutional right after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the ensuing demonstrations that swept cities including Atlanta. Too many people died for me to have this opportunity, said Stephanie Bush, a 49-year-old black independent voter in Atlanta. So for me not to stick it out would be a dishonor to them. Former Vice President Joe Biden easily won the states Democratic presidential primary. He was facing no real opposition but hoped to post a strong showing among Georgias diverse electorate to show his strength heading into the general election. But the developments were troubling heading into the fall presidential campaign, which will attract even more voters. Biden and President Donald Trump are expected to fiercely compete in this rapidly changing state. That leaves officials, who have already been criticized for attempting to suppress the vote, with less than five months to turn things around. Republican leaders blamed the meltdowns on officials in Fulton and DeKalb counties, which are Democratic strongholds with significant black populations. When these things arise, and its really specifically in one or two counties it leads us back to the failure of the management of the county election directors in those counties, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told The Associated Press. It has nothing to do with what were doing in the rest of Georgia. Republican House Speaker David Ralston directed leaders of the House Governmental Affairs Committee to investigate the unacceptable deficiencies across the state, particularly in Fulton County. Voters leaving one Fulton County polling place offered words of encouragement to the many people waiting in line well past the already-extended poll closing time of 9 p.m. Lets vote this guy out of office, one said, a reference to Trump. Volunteers handed out bags of popcorn, chips and candy. People in line smoked cigarettes and cursed the wait. Some said theyd tried to vote earlier in the day but left because the line wrapped around the block. Democrats insisted the issues were more widespread. About 250 miles (400 kilometers) from Atlanta, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said he was inundated with phone calls from voters reporting extensive delays. The Trump campaign seized on the problems to amplify the presidents broader opposition to expanded mail voting this fall. The chaos in Georgia is a direct result of the reduction in the number of in-person polling places and over reliance on mail-in voting, said Trump campaign senior counsel Justin Clark. We have a duty to protect the constitutional rights of all of our citizens to vote in person and to have their votes counted. The Biden campaign called the voting problems in Georgia completely unacceptable and a threat to free and fair elections. We only have a few months left until voters around the nation head to the polls again, and efforts should begin immediately to ensure that every Georgian and every American is able to safely exercise their right to vote, said Rachana Desai Martin, the campaigns national director for voter protection and senior counsel. Americans also voted in primaries in West Virginia, South Carolina and Nevada. Long lines also plagued voting in Las Vegas, where voters told the AP that they been waiting four and five hours in some cases even as state election officials suggested wait times reached three hours only in one location. But the tumult in Georgia garnered much of the attention, reinforcing concerns about managing elections amid the coronavirus. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said voters in line at one of Atlantas largest precincts reported all the machines were down. She encouraged voters not to give up. If you are in line, PLEASE do not allow your vote to be suppressed, the Democratic mayor tweeted. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said he wasnt surprised that Georgia had voting problems given that the states elections chief is a Republican. He noted that GOP Gov. Brian Kemp faced allegations of suppressing votes when he oversaw the 2018 elections as secretary of state. Republicans want to ensure that it is as hard as possible for people to vote, Perez said. Kemp was largely silent about the voting problems on Tuesday, aside from retweeting a message from his wife urging people to vote. Georgia hasnt voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992, but the state is being closely watched by Trump and Biden. The former vice president, in particular, hopes to emerge as the prime beneficiary of energy from the African American community and its white allies, who have held massive protests for more than a week. His path to the presidency was already focused on maximizing black turnout and expanding his alliance with white suburbanites and city dwellers, young voters, Asian Americans and Latinos. Trump, meanwhile, hoped to demonstrate strength among his base of white voters in small towns while holding his own in metro areas. Trump, meanwhile, has virtually no path to reelection without victory in Georgia. A nearly four-hour wait outside an Atlanta polling site shook Ross Wakefields faith in the upcoming elections and peoples ability to participate. It doesnt give me a lot of confidence in the future, said Wakefield, a 28-year-old white software engineer. Personally, I feel like were struggling as a country right now to hear people who really need to be heard, and this does not give me a lot of confidence that were doing that. ___ Peoples reported from Montclair, N.J. Associated Press writers Bill Barrow, Janelle Cogan and Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta and Michelle Price in Las Vegas contributed to this report. ___ Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game. The Hindi television industry in Mumbai was granted permission to resume shooting a while back, provided the producers, cast, and crew adhere to guidelines issued by the government to combat the COVID-19 malice on sets. Therefore, many production houses are currently busy putting their house in order to return to work at the earliest. And now, in a recent interview with SpotBoyE, Akanksha Puri who plays Goddess Parvati in Sony TV's Vighnaharta Ganesh expressed her excitement to return to work and shared how her show makers have planned on re-starting the shoot. Akanksha revealed, "Our set has been transferred to Aamgaon which comes under green zone and we all actors have been asked to come back to the city before June 20. They also took our consent about the decision as safety is important. So, all the actors agreed to it though travelling will be an issue as it's in Gujarat and 3 hours drive from Mumbai but keeping safety as the priority, we agreed to it. They already had a set in Aamgaon as they used to shoot their other shows before. So, we will be utilizing that till the time things get back to normal and we can shoot on our set in Naigaon" The actress went on to add, "We are cutting down on everything including the crew also. Only 40-50 of us will be going there. And no one will come back, we all will be staying at Aamgaon only, for everyone's safety." ALSO READ: Saumya Tandon Expresses Concern Over Resuming Shoot For Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain Amid COVID-19 Munmun Dutta Opens Up About Resuming Shoot For Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah Amid COVID-19 The Associated Press Senior Chinese officials released a lengthy report Sunday on the nations response to the coronavirus pandemic, defending their governments actions and saying that China had provided information in a timely and transparent manner. China wasted no time in sharing information such as the genome sequence for the new virus with the World Health Organization as well as relevant countries and regional organizations, according to the report. An Associated Press investigation found that government labs sat on releasing the genetic map of the virus for more than a week in January, delaying its identification in a third country and the sharing of information needed to develop tests, drugs and a vaccine. National Health Commission Chairman Ma Xiaowei did not address the specific findings in the AP report, but said it seriously goes against the facts. He added that there were many unknowns in the early stage of the outbreak and that it took time to gather evidence and figure out the characteristics of the new virus. The Chinese government did not delay or cover up anything, he said. Instead, we have immediately reported virus data and relevant information about the epidemic to the international community and made an important contribution to the prevention and control of the epidemic around the world. He ticked off a series of government actions from a detailed timeline in the government report. The timeline says that China began updating the WHO on a regular basis on Jan. 3 and that the head of Chinas Center for Disease Control and Prevention briefed the head of the US CDC on 4 January. US officials have been critical of Chinas early response, adding to a deterioration of US-China relations over trade and technology and pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Asked how China would repair its relations with the rest of the world, Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said that cooperation over the pandemic had improved ties with most other countries. Without naming the US, he said: Certain countries go against the tide of history. To disguise their inadequate response to COVID-19, they insanely smeared and slandered China ... . In response to such scapegoating practice, China will certainly fight back. The report, which ran to 84 pages in the English version, lauded Chinas success in reducing the daily increase in new cases to single digits within about two months and the decisive victory ... in the battle to defend Hubei Province and its capital city of Wuhan in about three months. Wuhan, where the first cases of the virus were detected late last year, was the hardest-hit part of China in the outbreak. The city and soon after much of Hubei province were locked down for 2 to 2 1/2 months to stop the spread of the virus to the rest of the country. The report credited Chinese leader Xi Jinping with making the Jan. 22 decision to cut Wuhan off by cutting transportation links and banning people from leaving or entering the city. Steelmaker POSCO on Monday decided to put some workers on paid leave as it halts production lines due to ebbing business caused by the coronavirus epidemic. It has delayed restarting a blast furnace in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province originally planned for May following repair and maintenance work. The steel industry is reeling as main consumers like automakers, shipbuilders and builders have been hit hard by the epidemic. Making matters worse, global iron ore prices surpassed US$100 per ton, making raw materials more expensive. POSCO did not mention which production lines would be halted, but industry watchers believe they are cold-rolled steel and plating lines since they supply products to automakers and home appliance manufacturers. Workers on paid leave will receive 70 percent of their monthly wages and POSCO said it is not considering laying off staff. Earlier, Hyundai Steel halted production at its electric furnace plant in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province that makes hot-rolled steel products. Hyundai said it has received almost zero orders since early this month. Other global steelmakers have also stopped operating blast furnaces and other facilities and cut production. Nippon Steel will put workers on unpaid leave twice a month until March next year. She volunteered through Shopping Angels, which delivers groceries without a fee to seniors. It works with Essential Supply, a nonprofit that connects volunteers with seniors and immunocompromised people. Right now, co-founder Luke deWilde said they have more volunteer requests than requests for assistance. They want to spread the word to elderly people who might benefit and can ask for help. Patrick Boyer, the Illinois coordinator for Shopping Angels, is also hoping to find sponsors to donate funds to provide groceries for those who have reached out and cannot afford them. The Taliban have started putting together their agenda for negotiations with the political leadership in Kabul, Taliban officials said, a significant first step toward talks seen as perhaps the most critical next phase in the Afghan peace process. No date has yet been set for negotiations but Washingtons peace envoy is currently crisscrossing the region in efforts advance the U.S.-Taliban accord signed earlier this year. Zalmay Khalilzad, the architect of Washington's deal with the Taliban, was in Pakistan over the weekend, meeting with the political and military leadership, according to a U.S. Embassy statement on Monday. The Taliban leadership council, meanwhile, began taking proposals from its members in preparation for the start of negotiations, Taliban officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They cited Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhunzada, who expressed the insurgent group's readiness to participate in the talks with Kabul. A sticking point ahead of the talks was the exchange of prisoners between the warring sides. After stalling for weeks, the prisoner swaps unfolded and by Monday, the government had released 2,710 Taliban prisoners, according to Javid Faisal, spokesman for the national security adviser's office in Kabul. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen says the insurgents have so far freed 531 Afghan military and civilian government personnel they held captive. Shaheen, however, tweeted that the government freed so far only 2,284 Taliban prisoners. The discrepancy could not be immediately explained, but the Taliban have been counting only those prisoners they had listed as part of the U.S.-Taliban deal. This deal calls for the Kabul government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the Taliban to free 1,000 government and military personnel ahead of the negotiations an exchange billed as a goodwill gesture. The accord, signed Feb. 29, was seen as Afghanistan's best chance for peace and an opportunity for U.S. and NATO troops to leave the war-torn country after nearly two decades of fighting. The withdrawal of international forces, which has already begun, is tied to promises from the Taliban that they will not allow Afghanistan to be used as a staging arena for attacks against the United States and its allies. Washington also wants Taliban's help in battling the Islamic State group, based in eastern Afghanistan and increasingly active in recent weeks. The U.S. has blamed IS for a horrific attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul last month that killed 24 people, including two infants and several mothers. IS has also claimed responsibility for several attack over the past two weeks, including on a busload of journalists that killed two people. Khalilzad, who was in Doha, Qatar, meeting the Taliban at their political headquarters before going to Pakistan, was expected sometime on Monday in Kabul for a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as well as his longtime political rival, Abdullah Abdullah. The two have since signed a power-sharing agreement. Sediq Sediqi, a spokesman for Ghani said the president would like to see talks with the Taliban start in one month. However, he did not clarify whether the Afghan government would release the remaining 2,000 plus Taliban prisoners beforehand, which has been a pre-condition for the start of negotiations. BRIDGEPORT Skane School held a drive-through graduation event, but it was not teenagers accepting diplomas. Instead, it was for pre-K students. Sonora, CA More details are being released about the arrest of a local man for allegedly murdering a child in his care. The Tuolumne County District Attorneys Office share 25-year-old Brett Wozynski was formally charged with one count of murder in the second degree and one count of assault on a child under eight, resulting in death. Both counts carry life sentences. As reported here, sheriffs officials released information about the Jamestown residents arrest and assigned one-million-dollar bail Friday. The three-year-old, who died Sept. 16, 2018, was the son of Wozynskis girlfriend. Prosecutors say he was babysitting the confidential victim and his other son while the mother of both children worked, and around noon that day, called 911 to report that the child had fallen and was unconscious. According to the DAs Office, fire and ambulance responded residence on Tionesta Road, and the child was immediately transported to a helicopter and subsequently flown to UC Davis Medical Center, where he was removed from life support and died a few days later. A subsequent autopsy found that the child had died from blunt force trauma to the head. Wozynskis explanation of what transpired to first responders, various family members, and Sheriffs Department investigators did not correlate to the evidence or the injuries. Deputy District Attorney Harold Nutt states, Investigators worked closely with the District Attorneys Office to fully investigate and prepare the case for criminal charging. DA Laura Krieg says, This childs death was suspicious from the beginning. These types of cases are difficult and require a significant amount of investigation and frequently involve long delays before charges can be filed. She adds her thanks to the Sheriffs Department investigators for their commitment and diligence in investigating this horrific crime. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The enemy (devil) is not going to be pleased. I have exposed him. Being a black man in the Twin Cities, I have experienced the racism of police officers and whites at large. Something needs to be done. However, I do not agree that Minneapolis (or any cities for that matter) should burn. Historically, when Americas cities burn, they are primarily done in black neighborhoods. It could be disastrous for the black communities in the Twin Cities. Minnesota ranks in the top three in the country for the lowest unemployment rate among whites and the top three for the highest unemployment rate among blacks. It is a state full of disparities. It is among the worst in the nation. I wont even go into details about the Minnesota prison system. Over 50 percent of all black men in Minnesota are unemployed. Giving the COVID-19 situation, this rate has become higher. If you closely look at the crowds that protest in Minnesota, they are mostly whites in black neighborhoods. This was the case with the Jamar Clark and Philando Castile shootings. Riots significantly depress the median value of black-owned property. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Any American of a certain age remembers the race-related riots that tore through U.S. numerous cities in the 1960s. Between 1964 and 1971, civil disturbances (as many as 700, by one count) resulted in large numbers of injuries, deaths, and arrests, as well as considerable property damage, concentrated in predominantly black areas. Social scientists have studied the causes of the riots for a long time. But, now two NBER papers by William Collins and Robert Margo instead examined the economic impact of the riots on African Americans and on the cities where they took place. In the first paper, The Labor Market Effects of the 1960s Riots, they find that the riots had economically significant negative effects on blacks' income and employment. Further, according to the papers those effects may have been larger in the long run from 1960 to 1980 than in the short run from 1960 to 1970. To this date, there are communities in Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Detroit that have not recovered from the MLK riots in 1968. That is over 50 years. You literally can still see the ruins and that is because they are in black neighborhoods. If riots take place in white neighborhoods, you then have white flight and blacks then move in. This is what happen to the South Bronx after the MLK riots of 1968. So even when rioting takes place in white neighborhoods, they eventually become black neighborhoods because of white flight. Blacks end up paying in the long run. I do not know what the solution is. Racism is not going away until Jesus sits on his throne. It is a spiritual problem and it is deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of people. It comes from the pit of hell. With the advent of technology, it is quite apparent that nothing has changed since the civil rights movement of MLK. A friend of mine stated, "Racism isn't getting worse, it's getting filmed and exposed!!!" For one human being (then Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin) to press his knee on another human beings (George Floyd) neck on the ground without any regard for the human being that is on the ground screaming I cant breathe is demonic. Racism is a fight that cannot be won through sticks and stones, gun and knives, water and fire. Rioting only opens the door for criminal activity, destruction of property, looting, and in worse cases; rape, murder, innocent deaths, and relentless retaliation at the hands of the police or the National Guard. The Word of God states in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (GNT): It is true that we live in the world, but we do not fight from worldly motives. The weapons we use in our fight are not the world's weapons but God's powerful weapons, which we use to destroy strongholds. The stronghold of racism can only be handled by God. The condition of this country and the world is an indictment against the church. As I stated racism is not going away, but it can be abated. If the church does its part. The word of God states in 2 Chronicles 7:14: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. The church (black and white) needs to repent and come together and pray for our country and world. Cooper shuts down speedway that's been violating emergency order RALEIGH The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services issued an order requiring an Alamance County speedway to immediately close their facility and halt operations. ACE Speedways recent actions constitute an imminent hazard for the spread of covid-19, an acute threat to North Carolinians which must not continue, the DHHS said in a news release. The so-called abatement order follows a letter sent last week by Gov. Roy Coopers office alerting ACE Speedway officials that their actions are in open defiance of Executive Order No. 141, which limits mass gatherings to protect the safety of North Carolinians. Gatherings of more than 25 people in a confined, outdoor space are strictly prohibited. The risk of contracting and transmitting COVID-19 is higher in settings where people gather, share facilities or have increased respiratory efforts, such as cheering. It was reported the Speedway admitted more than 2,500and possibly as many as 4,000spectators to attend races held at the track on May 23, May 30 and June 6. While the Abatement Order halts operations, it allows ACE Speedway to propose a new plan which could allow races to resume, under the condition that steps be taken to adhere to the restrictions in place regarding mass gathering numbers and social distancing precautions. The novel coronavirus continues to threaten North Carolina, with recent data indicating an acceleration in the number of new cases, a greater percentage of positive tests and an increase in hospitalizations resulting from covid-19. Alamance County has had an increasing trend in number of cases since the start of the pandemic with larger increases in the numbers of cases since the last week in April. The doubling time for the outbreak in Alamance reached a maximum of 19.7 days in the last week of May, and decreased to 13.6 days in early June, indicating that viral spread is becoming more rapid. Across the state, North Carolinians are making huge sacrifices to protect their families and neighbors," NCDHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said. "This virus is highly contagious and very dangerous. Bad actors who flagrantly violate public health orders put all of our families and loved ones at risk." Anyone who attended a mass event should get tested. The following online resources can help. Visit Check My Symptoms (www.ncdhhs.gov/symptoms) and enter your symptoms to determine if you should consider getting tested for covid-19. If a test is recommended, you will receive a link to a list of nearby testing sites via email or text. Visit Find My Testing Place (www.ncdhhs.gov/TestingPlace) and enter your county or ZIP code to access a list of nearby testing site locations online. All North Carolinians should continue practicing the 3 Ws to protect themselves and others when leaving home. Wear a cloth face covering if you will be with other people. Wait 6 feet apart and avoid close contact. Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer. For more data and information about North Carolinas COVID-19 key metrics, visit the North Carolina COVID-19 Dashboard at covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard. For the latest information on COVID-19, visit nc.gov/covid19. Abia Governor Okezie Ikpeazu is said to be stable and in high spirit, despite testing positive for coronavirus. This was made known by the governors Chief Press Secretary Onyebuchi Ememanka According to Ememanka, Ikpeazu decided to go for a second COVID-19 test as a measure of removing every doubt surrounding his COVID-19 status afterh he tested negative earlier. Adamu Atiku Abubakar, son of the former vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the last election, Atiku Abubakar says his father will contest for president in 2023.Atiku had lost to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election and has been contesting for the position since 1993. Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, says the Senate has had many disagreements with President Muhammadu Buhari but have adopted a method of going behind the scenes to settle their differences. Lawan said this in an interview with Daily Trust, adding that it would be unfair to himself, senators and Nigerians to fight the executive in the name of independence for the arm of government he heads. Advertisement The federal government has accused the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) of using false claims to deceive the United States and the United Kingdom. According to government, IPOB is using the cover of Christianity to call for a US special envoy to be appointed to stop the genocide of Christians in Nigeria. Two aides of Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi have narrated how God miraculously healed them of coronavirus (COVID-19 ).Speaking in separate statements on Monday, the aides, Prof. Ogbonnaya Chukwu, the state Commissioner for Finance and Chief Clement Nweke, Principal Secretary to the Governor, advised the citizens to take issues concerning the disease seriously. Deceased sarpanch and Congress leader Ajay Pandita, who was shot dead by terrorists shot dead in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, was cremated in Jammu earlier on Tuesday. IMAGE: The mortal remains of Kashmiri Pandit sarpanch Ajay Pandita being carried for cremation, in Jammu, on Tuesday. Photograph: PTI Photo His father said that Pandita worked for common people and was brave. "The terrorists fired on him from the back as they feared him," he said. A relative of Pandita said that he had asked for security cover but no security was allocated to him. Pandita, sarpanch of the Larkipora area in Anantnag district and a member of the Congress party, was shot at by terrorists in his native village at around 6 pm on Monday, a police official had said. He said Pandita was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries. A Congress spokesman, while condemning the killing, said Pandita was a dedicated party worker. No terrorist outfit has claimed the responsibility for the killing so far. Union minister Jitendra Singh condoled the killing of Pandita and said it is a 'desperate attempt' by anti-national elements to defeat the process of grassroots democracy in the Union Territory. Singh, minister of state for personnel and the Lok Sabha member from Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur constituency, expressed anguish over the sarpanch's killing. "It is a desperate attempt by anti-national elements to defeat the process of grassroots democracy, which is sought to be established in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time at the instance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he said. IMAGE: The sister of Pandita mourns near his mortal remains, at their residence in Jammu, on Tuesday. Photograph: PTI Photo Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said violence will never win in Kashmir, as he condoled the death of Pandita. Gandhi said Pandita sacrificed his life for the democratic process in Kashmir. 'My condolences to the family and friends of Ajay Pandita, who sacrificed his life for the democratic process in Kashmir. We stand with you in this time of grief. Violence will never win,' he said on Twitter. Cutting across party lines, mainstream political parties condemned the killing of Pandita. 'Very sorry to hear about the killing of sarpanch Ajay Pandita in Anantnag earlier this afternoon. I unequivocally condemn this terror attack on a grassroots political worker & pray that his soul rests in peace,' National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said in a tweet. The People's Democratic Party also condemned the killing but trained its guns at the government. 'Left in lurch by the system and hounded by those revolting against it, such is the dismal state of political workers. What can someone hope to achieve by silencing those actively serving poor and marginalised? We vehemently condemn such brutal assassination of Mr Ajay Pandita ji,' the PDP tweeted. IMAGE: Family members mourn Pandita who was shot dead on Monday evening by terrorists in Anantnag district of South Kashmir. Photograph: PTI Photo The Congress demanded a judicial enquiry into the gruesome incident. "The killing of Ajay Bharti (Pandita) is a mindless and shameful act which needs exemplary punishment against those behind it," a party spokesman said. He said the party demands a judicial enquiry into the killing of the sarpanch to fix responsibility. "The deceased Ajay Bharti, apprehending attack on his life, had written to Govt for security cover, which was reportedly denied to him. As a result, Bharti lost his life in a gruesome attack," the spokesman said. The Jammu and Kashmir Bharatiya Janata Party said Pandita's killing is a desperate attempt by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists to fail the ongoing peace process in the Union Territory. "The BJP condemns the killing of KP Sarpanch from Anantnag. It is a desperate attempt of Pakistan-sponsored terrorists to fail ongoing peace process in J-K," Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina said. The party General Secretary (Organisation) Ashok Kaul also condemned the killing. Pandita hailed from the Doru area in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. Raina said Pakistan and its sponsored terrorists are shaken by the successive successful operations by Indian security forces. While strongly condemning the killing of the 35-year-old Pandita, Jammu and Kashmir Vishwa Hindu Parishad working president Rajesh Gupta expressed shock and grief and said killing of Hindus in Kashmir is a cause of concern for every right thinking person in the country. He said merely strong words would not be enough to condemn the killing. Such actions, he said, cannot stop the return of Hindus to Kashmir. Senior Congress leader Karan Singh termed the killing of Pandita as a 'despicable act' and said targeting him was part of the continuing attempt to disrupt grassroots political structure. Singh, the former Sadr-e-Riyasat of Jammu and Kashmir, said regardless of party or religious factors, this act needs to be severely condemned. "That Pandita belonged to the minority community makes his killing even more painful. My deep condolences and sympathy to the bereaved family," the former governor of J&K said. IMAGE: Pandita's mother mourns near his mortal remains, at their residence in Jammu, on Tuesday. Photograph: PTI Photo Several Kashmiri Pandit organisations condemned the killing of Pandita, calling it an attempt to 'trigger fear psychosis' among the minorities in the Valley. The groups urged the central government to provide security to Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) and other minority community members living in Kashmir. "It is a planned attack by Islamic terrorists to target minority Kashmiri Pandit community in Kashmir valley to trigger fear psychosis among them like they did in 1990s. We condemn the killing of a Kashmiri Pandit," All Party Migrant Cooperation Committee (APMCC) chairman Vinod Pandita said. He said several terrorists outfits have threatened to 'blow up' KPs if they return to the proposed colony for Pandits. "This is a clear threat to KPs by terrorists and their overground workers... Nothing has changed for KPs since 1990 in Kashmir," Vinod Pandita said. The All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference demanded that terrorists involved in the killing be neutralised within 24 hours. "It is a deliberate plan to target KPs to create fear among them. We condemn this cowardice act," ASKPC General Secretary Dr T K Bhat said. He said abrogation of Article 370 generated a hope among the minority KPs that they could return to Kashmir, but this killing was a plan to stop their rehabilitation in the valley. Panun Kashmir said it was a continuance of genocide and ethnic cleansing of minority community members in the Valley. All India Kashmiri Pandit Conference also termed it an act of cowardice as 22 terrorists were killed in past 24 hours. All India Kashmiri Samaj (AIKS) demanded security to the minority community members. Sampoorn Kashmir Sanghathan condemned the killing of the sarpanch. IMAGE: Members of Kashmiri Pandit community raise slogans during a protest condemning the killing of Sarpanch Ajay Pandita in Anantnag district by terrorists, in Jammu, on Tuesday. Photograph: PTI Photo SKS President Anoop Koul demanded immediate action against the killers. "Shocking beyond words. May God grant peace to the departed soul. Highly reprehensible act. Community continues to be a soft target. We demand beefing up of security to all our political leaders and elected representatives", Kashmiri Pandit Sabha, Jammu, President K K Khosa said. Youth All India Kashmiri Samaj demanded action against the killers. An organisation representing Kashmiri Pandits in the United States also condemned the targeted killing of Pandita. The targeted killing of Pandita proves that the ethnic cleansing of the minority Kashmiri Hindu community in the Valley continues unabated, Indo-American Kashmir Forum (IAKF) said on Monday. His gruesome, public murder is a reminder of the havoc brought upon the entire Kashmiri Hindu community driven from their homeland in the Kashmir Valley over the past few centuries, most recently beginning in 1990, the organisation said in a statement, Denouncing the local government's lackadaisical approach to the security needs of Pandita, as well as other lower-tier public officials, the IAKF demanded that the Kashmiri Hindus who still live in the valley be given extra police protection until peace is restored in the Valley. In its statement, the IAKF also condemned Pakistan, and its supporters within the Kashmir Valley, for promoting, funding, aiding and harbouring global terror organisations such as Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), and The Resistance Front (TRF). 'The Resistance Front (TRF), which has taken responsibility for Pandita's brutal murder, is merely a new, consolidated name for Islamic terrorists from the three groups already active in Kashmir - HM, LeT and JeM,' IAKF said. -- with ANI inputs SYRACUSE, N.Y. A Tupper Lake man killed May 27 on Syracuses North Side was shot during a drug deal, prosecutors said. Corey Hober, 35, was shot in the head while trying to buy drugs at 1:39 a.m. in the hallway of an apartment complex at 110 Griffiths St., Onondaga County Chief Assistant District Attorney Joseph Coolican said. Hober and a friend had traveled from Tupper Lake to Syracuse, looking to buy drugs, Coolican said. When they arrived at the apartment complex in Syracuse, police believe, Hober went inside to meet Lazear Coker-Hawkins. Hober had at least $1,500 with him at the time, according to a relative who asked not to be identified. Others had given Hober money to buy them drugs and bring them back to Tupper Lake, the family member said. Police and prosecutors have not commented on exactly how much money was involved. Coker-Hawkins, 22, of Syracuse, is accused of taking the money and shooting Hober in the head, Coolican said. Syracuse police arrested Coker-Hawkins at his 201 John St. home on Monday and charged him with first- and second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Hober struggled from drug addiction for many years, according to his family. He started out as a good kid, the relative said. Hober grew up in Kokomo, Indiana. When he was 18, his mother, Sandra, died of cancer. Her death deeply affected him, the relative said. By the time he was in his late teens, family members knew Hober was doing drugs, the relative said. It became noticeably bad in his 20s, the family member said. Over the years, Hober lived with his father, Wayne, in Las Vegas, and with a half-sister in Tupper Lake, relatives said. He also has an 11-year-old son, they said. Although they recognize Hober had a drug addiction, they say he was still someones baby; someones brother; a little autistic boys daddy. After the shooting, someone called 911 and Hober was rushed from the apartment complex off Butternut Street near Schiller Park to Upstate University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Family members say the friend who drove to Syracuse with Hober returned to Tupper Lake after Hobers homicide. Coker-Hawkins remains at the Onondaga County Justice Center in Syracuse. In addition to the murder, robbery and weapons charges, Coker-Hawkins also was arrested on an outstanding warrant not connected to the murder, Coolican said. Coker-Hawkins also was charged with second-degree harassment, criminal obstruction of breathing, second-degree menacing, an aggravated family offense and first-degree criminal contempt. Coker-Hawkins is expected to be arraigned on the homicide charges Tuesday morning in Syracuse City Court, Coolican said. Coolican said there is no indication that the killing is connected with any other recent homicide in the city. Syracuse police at the scene of a shooting at 110 Griffiths Street that left one man dead. May 27, 2020.Jacob Pucci Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call 315-470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook President Duterte continues to use the old Cold War tactic of playing two superpowers (U.S. and China) off against each other. Most Filipinos trust the U.S. more than China. That means a fundamental shift in government policy and diplomacy against the Americans is impossible. Despite, or because of that, Duterte says nice things about China will ignoring military, economic and diplomatic support received from the United States. China understands this but keeps offering loans and investments to the Philippines to show their gratitude to Duterte. The Chinese hope to eventually win some goodwill inside the Philippines with all this. This has been the Chinese strategy throughout the region. While this approach does little to shift public opinion, it does enable China to freely use their cash to buy as much support as they can. The more Chinese money that enters the country, the more locals are found who are willing to be bought or at least rented. This includes politicians, academics, journalists and celebrities of all sorts. This works, up to a point. Duterte got elected and remains popular because of his aggressive efforts to find and prosecute corrupt officials. Now he is finding more and more of the corruption was paid for by China. This strategy has gained some favorable press and more access to foreign countries. Longer term the prospects are not so good. These same tactics were used by Germany worldwide in the 1930s, especially once the Nazis were in power. There were short term gains that evaporated once the German armies began moving into neighboring countries. China hopes to avoid that by invading slowly and with considerable stealth. But, as the situation in the South China Sea and the Indian border demonstrate, subtlety and stealth will only get you so far. Another question Chinese economists are quietly posing to CCP (Chinese Communist Party) leaders is how will the government deal with a lot of foreign countries refusing to pay back the loans or simply seize Chinese assets. What is an ambitious new superpower to do? Queasy Quiet While the health impact of covid19 has been minimal in most of the country, especially outside urban areas, the various Islamic terrorists and leftist rebels have been less active. Many of the rebels and Islamic terrorists are part-timers or have family nearby who are at least concerned about the virus showing up. Whatever the case the usual suspects have been less active since the start of the year. This is not expected to last, even though the security forces have continued chasing down the various outlaw groups. June 6, 2020: In Manila police raided the third illegal clinic established in the city by Chinese gangsters to provide medical supplies for Chinese seeking testing or treatment for covid19. There are about 150,000 Chinese citizens in the Philippines, many of them illegally. Covid19 cases in the Philippines are concentrated in cities, especially the capital Manila, as are many of the illegal Chinese. So Chinese gangsters set up unregistered (and unregulated) covid19 clinics. Six of these clinics have been found and closed since April. Large quantities of scarce medical supplies were seized. The Philippines has suffered nine covid19 (coronavirus) deaths per million population so far and has 200 known cases of the virus per million people. In early April the government ordered a nationwide lockdown to halt the spread of the virus and make it easier to treat those who have it. That quarantine is now being eliminated, especially in the rural areas where there have been far fewer covid19 cases. Neighbors Malaysia have 257 cases and four deaths per million, Singapore has 6,483 confirmed cases per million and four deaths per million while Indonesia has 114 cases per million and seven deaths per million. The Philippines has an advantage having not land borders with any other nation. Moreover, the Philippines consists of 7,600 islands, which further limits the spread of the virus. The number of confirmed cases is more a matter of how many people could be tested. An accurate count of covid19 deaths depends on the ability to test those who die or are dying from covid19. This coronavirus has symptoms similar to many other existing diseases and the breathing problems that often kill covid19 victims is similar to those dying from pneumonia. This is a common cause of death for the elderly or those already weakened by other diseases. These comprise a disproportionate number of known covid19 fatalities. The illegal Chinese clinics are just another manifestation of the Chinese gangster problem that came with increased Chinese investment. In the last year over two thousand illegal aliens, most of them Chinese, have been arrested in the capital alone. Most of those arrested were participating in the growing Internet based criminal activities. After 2008 t he Philippines slowly became a hotspot for computer hacking groups, and for nearly a decade the computer crime gangs were able to survive by bribing the right officials. Only when the cybercrime involved Islamic terrorism did the bribes not work. In 2016 the government legalized online gambling operations. These were to be regulated and taxed. Filipinos were forbidden to use the new online gaming sites because popular opinion in the country was that the online gambling sites were addictive and sometimes rigged. There was also an effort to eliminate a lot of the bribery that often caused things like online gambling to become more of a problem than economic benefit. All this was complicated by new (since 2016) Chinese investment activity, which was part of the government effort to boost the economy. While the government was also at odds with China over the illegal South China Sea claims, the Chinese were using large investments to reduce the popular hostility to what was going in in the South China Sea. The Chinese investments came with the usual demands that more Chinese be allowed to work in the Philippines. In return, more Filipinos would be allowed to work in China. In 2016 the Filipino police were ordered by the new president (Rodrigo Duterte) to aggressively go after corruption and criminal activity. This was soon applied to the online gambling business, which had quickly been dominated by Chinese gangs. In addition to corrupting legal online gaming operations the new flood of Chinese gangsters led to the establishment of illegal online gaming operations. All this Chinese gangster activity led to more arrests and prosecutions. The Chinese government often cooperated because many of these gangsters moving to the Philippines because police pressure in China was more intense. In foreign countries, it was often possible to exploit the legal system and extradition treaties to avoid being sent back to China to face even more serious criminal charges. A growing number of recent Chinese arrests were the result of information provided by the American FBI, which had been investigating international computer and phone fraud and the hackers behind it. China has also provided information about Internet based criminals preying on individuals and businesses in China. In 2019 nearly two thousand illegal aliens were arrested in the Philippines, most of them Chinese. For all of 2018, only 500 illegal aliens were arrested. In 2019 nearly two million Chinese traveled to the Philippines, most of them tourists. Tourism has always been good for the economy but the growing number of Chinese tourists beings with it more Chinese gangsters looking for a safer place to work and skilled at corrupting local officials. June 5, 2020: In the south (Jolo Island) four soldiers were killed and 17 wounded during a 40 minute battle with 40 Abu Sayyaf gunmen. At least two of the Islamic terrorists were killed but the Abu Sayyaf men took other dead and wounded with them as they retreated before army reinforcements showed up. May 16, 2020: In the south (Sulu province) an army patrol clashed with twenty armed Abu Sayyaf men, killing two of them before the rest fled, taking their wounded with them. May 13, 2020: In the south (Agusan del Norte and Misamis Oriental provinces) three days of military operations against NPA rebels in the area left four NPA leaders and eleven gunmen dead. Several camps and safe houses were also seized along with weapons, documents and equipment. Nearly 200 NPA rebels have been killed so far in 2020 and many more were wounded or surrendered. NPA is the illegal armed wing of the local Communist Party that now depends on extortion, theft and other criminal activity to survive. This is causing much anger and protest in areas where the NPA still operates for the good of the people. Yet the NPA can no longer do much political work when their very survival is at risk. The government is trying, without much success, to negotiate a peace deal with the NPA. The leadership, as well as the commanders of various armed factions, are split on a peace agreement and most are continuing to operate (fighting and stealing). The NPA, to most Filipinos, are seen as bandits with a veneer of communist ideology to justify their crimes. The banditry option is not working well enough to assure the long-term survival of the organization. This can also be seen when factions run short of money. Those actions begin to suffer from desertions. The army will grant amnesty to NPA members who surrender, especially if they bring their weapons and some useful information with them. Information on where NPA camps or weapons storage sites are considered useful and the fact that more NPA camps are being attacked and weapons storage sites seized indicates that NPA is losing secrets as well as people and popular support. Some NPA leaders feel this is all a temporary setback and that a peace deal would enable a revitalized Philippines Communist Party to become a major political power. These delusions make negotiating a peace deal more difficult. Meanwhile, the NPA has become a major source of criminal (as opposed to Islamic terrorist) activity in the country. Most of the NPA senior leadership live in Europe and are considered somewhat out of touch with the reality of what the NPA has become in the Philippines. Hospitalisations in Delhi during third Covid wave significantly lower than second No community transmission of COVID-19 in Delhi, Centre tells AAP govt India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, June 09: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in a meeting with L-G Anil Baijal, said that there is no indication of community transmission in the national capital. "Officers of Central Government were present at the meeting and they said that there is no community spread in Delhi as of now so it need not be discussed," said Sisodia after State Disaster Management Authority meeting on Covid-19. There has been a steady rise in Delhi's coronavirus count since the last week of May. At least 1,000 people have tested positive for novel coronavirus in the national capital in last 24 hours. Earlier, Health Minister Satyendra Jain hinted at possible community spread in Delhi as the source of infection for more than 50 per cent cases in the national capital remains untraceable. "The AIIMS director has spoken about community spread but the central government is not accepting it," Delhi minister Satyendra Jain said on Tuesday. WHO says coronavirus situation is worsening globally, disease raging in Americas| Oneindia News Arvind Kejriwal undergoes COVID-19 test; result expected in 24 hours "We can say that [there is community spread] only when Centre admits it... Community spread is when there are cases in which source [of infection] cannot be ascertained... Almost half of our cases are like this," the health miniter said. Jain added that the source of about 50 per cent of coronavirus cases in Delhi is not known. On Monday, Delhi recorded 1,007 fresh coronavirus cases, taking the COVID-19 tally in the city to over 29,000, while the death toll due to the disease mounted to 874. (TNS) Leaders in Appalachian Ohio worry that there will be an undercount of the region's population once again, leaving federal dollars and representation on the table.So they'll be pushing ads to improve response rates to the U.S. census this year. Three organizations have raised $44,000 to get the word out in 22 southeast Ohio counties, an effort dubbed Appalachian Ohio Counts."This is a really unique outreach. It may be the largest coordinated effort to reach Appalachian Ohio ever," said Aaron Dagres, a partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau.And the city of Athens received $10,000 from the National League of Cities for a local effort.Athens Mayor Steve Patterson said undercounts in large student areas have been a problem.In 2010, the response rate in one census tract was just over 47%."It's now tracking at 29%," Patterson said. "That's pretty stark underreporting taking place there."Patterson is also vice president of the Mayors' Partnership for Progress, one of the three groups involved in the regional initiative; the two others are Ohio University's Center for Campus Community Engagement and the Southeast Ohio Public Energy Council.Luke Sulfridge, the executive director of the public energy council, said the census has shifted to an online response, which complicates efforts in a region where high-speed internet service is lacking.He said that there is a disparity in return rates between residents of county seats and those in more rural areas.The partners hired Sunday Creek Horizons, a business development, communication and advocacy company in southeastern Ohio, to create ads with targeted online placement to reach Appalachian Ohioans in the way they probably get access to the internet: smartphones.Ads also will run on radio stations, and local leaders will give interviews."We're trying to amplify the message," said Sulfridge, whose group covers 14 communities in Athens, Hocking, Meigs and Perry counties."There's always a disparity in Appalachia," Sulfridge said.As of May 31, the response rate nationally was 60.5%. In Ohio, it was 65.5%. In Franklin County it was 61.7%Compare that with Hocking County at 57.3%, Athens County at 55.7%, and Vinton and Gallia counties at 54%.Dagres said other challenges include reaching people who have no physical mailing address, just a post office box. Areas with high poverty rates also have lower response rates.Patterson said one big problem with reaching Ohio University students this year is that many left Athens when the pandemic closed the campus.He said Athens County stands to lose $2.1 million to $4.2 million in federal money a year over the next decade because of a student undercount.State Rep. Jay Edwards, a Republican from Nelsonville, said he supports the effort."I absolutely believe getting the word out and encouraging people in our part of Ohio to participate will be beneficial. As you know, it matters in so many ways," he said. Egypt allowed hotels that secure the new hygiene certificate to open for guests and day users since last month, to revive the tourism sector, which has been hit heavily by pandemic Egypt said on Monday that 23 new hotels and resorts in South Sinai, Red Sea, Cairo, Alexandria and Fayoum have received the Hygiene Safety certificate required to reopen with reduced occupancy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, bringing the total hotels now open nationwide to 155. According to a statement by the tourism ministry on Monday, Abdel Fatah El-Asy, Assistant of the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for Hotels and touristic establishments control said that the new certified hotels include four in South Sinai, five in the Red Sea, two in Cairo, two in Fayoum and eight in Alexandria and two in Aswan. The hotels received their certificates after fulfilling the regulations put in place by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and approved by the cabinet in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Egypt allowed hotels that secure the new hygiene certificate to open for guests and day users at a reduced occupancy since last month, to revive the tourism sector, which has been hit heavily by pandemic. The occupancy rate was initially set at 25 percent of capacity, but this month was increased to 50 percent. Meanwhile, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the council has decided to exempt all cafeterias and bazaars in its museums and archaeological sites from paying rent for June, July and August until the regular return of tourism heavily hit by the pandemic crisis. Search Keywords: Short link: DUBLIN, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Personal Protective Equipment Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2020 - 2025)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The personal protective equipment market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.8% over the forecast period 2020-2025. The increasing number of COVID-19 cases, along with the rising industrial awareness of employee protection at the workplace, are the major factors driving the growth of the personal protective equipment market. Moreover, the development of better and improved quality of pharmaceutical drugs in clinical labs has increased the requirement of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the healthcare sector. The Asia-Pacific region is experiencing a sudden increase in the demand for PPE kits owing to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus. This region accounts for the largest infected people due to which PPE kits are being procured for frontline workers, along with workers working in various industries. Companies like Ford have restarted their production post lockdown in may and have provided PPE kits to each of their workers. Moreover, surging demand, partly joined with panic buying, hoarding, and misuse of personal protective equipment (PPE), has disrupted global supplies and risked lives across the world. The World Health Organization estimates that 89 million medical masks are required for the COVID-19 response each month, along with 76 million examination gloves and 1.6 million medical goggles. The WHO also estimates that the industry must increase manufacturing by 40% and urges governments to act quickly to boost supply and is expected to fuel the PPE market in a short duration. Increasing investment in research and development of vaccines against infectious or novel diseases is expected to fuel the demand for the market. It protects healthcare personnel from contagious disease exposures in the workplace, such as research labs, ICUs, and operation theatres, and is expected to experience continual growth in the future. Moreover, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has also issued the regulations for workplace health and safety of the healthcare personnel from exposure to bloodborne pathogens and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, under OSHA's General Duty Clause, PPE is required for any potential infectious disease exposure. Employers must provide their employees with appropriate PPE and ensure that PPE is disposed of or, if reusable, that it is properly cleaned or laundered, repaired, and stored after use. Rising cases of COVID-19 has rapidly increased the demand for PPE across the world. North America is experiencing industrialization at expanding pace that has led to an increase in the number of manufacturing procedures and protocols several proportions due to which personal protective equipment companies are focusing on designing unique protective wear to ensure optimum safety for workers. As the manufacturing sector involves several primary and auxiliary processes for welding and metal manufacturing, workers are often exposed to an environment that can result in worksite accidents. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported 5,147 workplace fatalities in the US in 2017. Among these fatalities, 887 were due to fatal falls, which is the highest level reported in the 26-year history of the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. The personal protective equipment market is concentrated and is dominated by a few major players like 3M Company, Honeywell International, Inc., Alpha Pro Tech, Ansell Ltd., and Avon Protective Systems. These major players, with a prominent share in the market, are focusing on expanding their customer base across foreign countries. However, with technological advancements and product innovations, mid-size to smaller companies are growing their market presence by securing new contracts and by tapping new markets. This spring, The Neenan Company teamed up with Liberty Common High School (LCHS) to help address the shortage of medical equipment created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using LCHS' 3D printing studio, volunteers from both organizations have created more than 800 face shields and 600 ear guards to support increased demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) at frontline healthcare facilities. The Ontario government is investing USD 2.8 million in manufacturers to ramp up production for PPE to help frontline workers and communities stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key Topics Covered: 1 INTRODUCTION 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 MARKET DYNAMICS 4.1 Market Overview 4.2 Market Drivers 4.2.1 Increasing Initiatives Taken by the Government and the NGOs to Spread the Awareness of Employee Protection 4.2.2 Outbreak of Coronavirus Across the World Has Increased the Utilization of Protection Equipment 4.3 Market Restraints 4.4 Value Chain / Supply Chain Analysis 4.5 Porters 5 Force Analysis 4.5.1 Threat of New Entrants 4.5.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers/Consumers 4.5.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 4.5.4 Threat of Substitute Products 4.5.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry 4.6 PESTLE Analysis 4.7 Impact of COVID-19 on the PPE Industry 5 MARKET SEGMENTATION 5.1 Product Type 5.2 Application 5.3 Geography 6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE 6.1 Company Profiles 6.1.1 3M Company 6.1.2 Honeywell International Inc. 6.1.3 Ansell Ltd. 6.1.4 Alpha Pro Tech, Ltd. 6.1.5 Avon Protective Systems, Inc 6.1.6 JAL Group France SAS 6.1.7 Cofra Srl. Cofra Srl 6.1.8 Oftenrich Holdings Company Limited 6.1.9 UVEX Safety Group Gmbh 6.1.10 Rock Fall Limited 6.1.11 MSA Company 6.1.12 Polison Corporation 6.1.13 Gateway Safety, Inc. 7 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ekc4x6 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. 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: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Hoy, en el Dia de la Medicina Intensiva en el Peru, brindamos nuestra eterna gratitud a los valientes intensivistas que luchan por proteger la salud de nuestra poblacion ante el #COVID19. Gracias, #HeroesDeLaSalud! ?????? pic.twitter.com/EjPwOfjDXw Childcare providers are waiting for information on funding support a Government department report said would be outlined by June 5. The 'Planning for Reopening Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare Services' report said that the "funding envelope" would be made known by June 5 and would detail any subsidies and grants for centre-based services and registered childminders. Providers said that they are still in the dark about funding, including whether a wage subsidy scheme would be extended. Cavan-based creche owner Paula Donohoe, who is also a member of the Association of Childhood Professionals' National Committee, said she was currently unable to tell parents what their fees would be. "The real concern is that we are working in an information vacuum," she said yesterday. "As it stands, with 14 working days to opening, we have no financial information from the department. "We have no idea what funding will be put in place. "Will they reinstate the childcare schemes? "Will they continue with the wage subsidy scheme? "In the absence of any information, it is proving very difficult for me to come to a decision as to whether I can reopen." She said she would not have the capacity to cater for higher numbers of school-age children in the new term, and said she believed that many providers would be in a similar position. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for providers organisation Seas Suas said that they were facing huge uncertainty in being able to plan for anticipated levels of demand from June 29. Health Minister Simon Harris said the fact that workers were returning to their jobs before creches reopened was "far from ideal". He said some employers would be flexible and offer staggered shifts, but creches could not be reopened until it was safe to do so. However, a survey by social media parenting community BabyDoc Club found that creches were not an option for half of parents until September. It said that 53pc of parents said this was because they wanted evidence that new health and safety procedures were working. Just one in 10 said they would return their child to creche in June or July and a quarter said they would wait for a coronavirus vaccine to be available first. Meanwhile, as more people returned to the workplace yesterday, it emerged that the number of people on the emergency pandemic unemployment payment has fallen by 15pc since its peak. There are 90,000 fewer people claiming the 350 a week emergency payment since the highest point in May. New figures show 515,700 people are receiving the income support. This is 27,400 fewer than last week. There are another 225,600 people receiving standard unemployment payments. A further 380,000 employees are being supported by a wage subsidy scheme, according to a spokesperson for the Revenue Commissioners. She said 514,700 have received a subsidy since the scheme started in March. Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Regina Doherty noted that the pandemic payment will continue until August. She said she had asked her officials to start working on options for the scheme beyond that. The main sectors in which people are returning to work this week are construction, wholesale and retail and vehicle repairs. A total of 6,500 workers have returned to work in construction, 3,700 in wholesale and retail, and 1,900 in manufacturing. Another 2,000 are returning to work in the accommodation and food service industries. Since phase one of the Government's Roadmap for the Reopening of Society and Business, some 82,500 employees are back in work. After three bleak months, New York, the corner of the US hit hardest by the coronavirus, gradually began reopening yesterday in what was seen as a landmark moment in the crisis and a test of the city's discipline. With the virus in check - at least for now - stores previously deemed non-essential were cleared to reopen for delivery and pickup, though customers cannot yet browse inside. Construction, manufacturing and wholesalers also received the go-ahead to resume work. "This is a triumph for all New Yorkers that we've gotten to this point," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. But he warned the city against letting its guard down and risking a resurgence of the virus: "We got this far by doing it the right way, by doing the social distancing, the face coverings. We've got to keep doing it at those work sites and everywhere if we expect to keep moving forward." New York City became the epicentre of the US coronavirus outbreak, with more than 21,000 people dying citywide of confirmed or probable Covid-19. That is roughly one out of five of the 110,000 coronavirus deaths across the US. At its peak, the scourge killed more than 500 people a day in New York City in early to mid-April. At the end of last week, the number of deaths per day had dropped into the single digits. The number of people testing positive for the virus was down to 200 to 300 a day at the start of last week, compared with more than 6,000 a day in early April. "All eyes will be on New York this next couple of months," said urban policy expert Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the Centre for an Urban Future. "The city now has to prove that it really knows what it's doing, that it can still be a dense city like New York and yet figure this out." Facing such challenges as how to maintain social distancing on the subway and how to restore public confidence in police in the wake of the unrest set off by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, can New York City regroup? Edwin Arce thinks so. A chef at a Manhattan restaurant, he was heartened to see more customers than expected when it reopened for takeout and delivery. "As a city, we are ready to be back, start going out, living life - with the new reality, though," of masks and two-metre separation, said Mr Arce (31). Sam Solomon wonders how normal that will be. "I don't know if it's ever going to be like it was," said Solomon (22), who has a health-related job. After months of relative isolation, "it's going to be an adjustment being around so many people," said the native New Yorker, who never thought she would have to get used to crowds. The city has already reawakened somewhat as warm weather drew people outdoors, more restaurants offered carryout service, and as thousands of people marched in protest over the Floyd case. Subway ridership is ticking back up after plunging from 5.4 million rides per weekday in February to under 450,000 in April, the city's transit agency says. Subway schedules are returning to normal, though riders will see signs showing how far apart to stand on platforms, and the 1am-to-5am shutdowns will continue so trains can be cleaned. Months of social distancing, mask wearing, handwashing, shock and fear have made New Yorkers better prepared to keep the coronavirus under control, health experts said. Yet Dr Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist who had Covid-19 himself in March, is concerned the virus might spread at the protests following Floyd's May 25 death. And the virus's toll - in lives, despair and exhaustion - weighs on him: "It's very difficult to see how we recover." Of course, New York City has had to prove itself before - after its population decline and fiscal crisis in the 1970s, after its 1980s-'90s crime peak, and after 9/11. "You can't keep us down," said Carlo Scissura, president of the New York Building Congress, a construction industry group. "We may go down a little bit, but we go right back up." [June 09, 2020] Southeastern Grocers Encourages Customers to Prepare for Active Storm Season Southeastern Grocers, Inc. (SEG), parent company and home of BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, is encouraging its customers to begin preparations for what is proving to be an active hurricane season in the Atlantic. Customers should begin to stock up on vital items including a three-day supply of water and non-perishable food, extra batteries, first-aid kits and more. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005154/en/ Southeastern Grocers is encouraging its customers to begin preparations for what is proving to be an active hurricane season in the Atlantic. Customers should begin to stock up on vital items including a three-day supply of water and non-perishable food, extra batteries, first-aid kits and more. (Photo: Business Wire) Anthony Hucker, President and CEO of Southeastern Grocers, said, "Our communities have had to brave through many challenges throughout 2020, and we understand that our associates, our customers and our neighbors have undergone an immense amount of adversity. We realize now more than ever that we are indeed, stronger together. With experts predicting an above average storm season, it is crucial to take the necessary precautions to prepare accordingly for more challenges ahead. Southeastern Grocers will continue to be there for our communities and provide a shopping experience our customers can always count on." With three storms already impacting areas throughout the Southeast, including Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and the Carolinas, the grocer is encouraging customers to review the American Red Cross' Hurricane Safety Checklist and ensure each household has an appropriate amount of water, non-perishable food, batteries and first aid kits a well as any necessary baby supplies, pet food, medications and prescription refills. In anticipation of an active hurricane season, the SEG Gives Foundation is committing $250,000 to disaster relief to ensure the American Red Cross is set up for success and able to provide aid to people in need. Forecasters with the National Oceanic (News - Alert) and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service, are estimating 13 to 19 named storms with winds of 39 mph or higher, of which six to 10 could become hurricanes, including three to six major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5). The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. Gerald Thomas, American Red Cross Regional CEO, North Florida Region, said, "The 2020 Hurricane Season is shaping up to be one of our busiest in recent history. As a Disaster Responder Member, Southeastern Grocers' support helps us to be most ready when our communities are least ready. We can't thank them enough for being great partners for almost 70 years. Our communities are safer and stronger because of their support." Southeastern Grocers is proud to continue its longstanding partnership with the American Red Cross, a national nonprofit dedicated to preventing and lessening human suffering in the face of emergencies by assembling the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. In 2019, with the generous support of its loyal customers, dedicated associates and valued vendor partners, Southeastern Grocers donated more than $675,000 to the American Red Cross to support disaster relief efforts. About Southeastern Grocers Southeastern Grocers, Inc. (SEG), parent company and home of BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, is one of the largest conventional supermarket companies in the U.S. SEG grocery stores, liquor stores and in-store pharmacies serve communities throughout the seven southeastern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie are well-known and well-respected regional brands with deep heritages, strong neighborhood ties, proud histories of giving back, talented and caring associates and strong commitments to providing the best possible quality and value to customers. For more information, visit www.bi-lo.com, www.frescoymas.com, www.harveyssupermarkets.com and www.winndixie.com. About SEG Gives Foundation SEG Gives Foundation is the charitable arm of Southeastern Grocers, parent company of BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie stores. SEG Gives Foundation aligns our giving with the causes that are important to the communities we serve, including the fight against hunger and relief to those affected by extreme weather and natural disasters. About the American Red Cross The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter (News - Alert) at @RedCross. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005154/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Prince Philip's cousin Lady Pamela Hicks has revealed how his late mother Princess Alice tried to save Princesses Olga Nikolaevna, Maria Nikolaevna, Tatiana Nikolaevna and Anastasia Nikolaevna before they were murdered during the Russian revolution. Lady Pamela, 90, shared the memory in her daughter India Hicks' recent podcast, in which she also told how the Queen, 94, felt responsible for Philip's mother - and was always 'marvelous' with those others found 'tricky'. Lady Pamela is the younger daughter of Prince Philip's uncle Lord Mountbatten, whose daughter India, 51, lives in the Bahamas, where she shares her mother's monthly memories of royal history online. Lord Mountbatten was uncle to Prince Philip, and the second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II, whose father George VI took over the throne when Edward abdicated. Pamela's is great-great-grandchild to the late Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837 to 1901. Prince Philip's cousin Lady Pamela Hicks (seen above with her daughter India Hicks in 2017) revealed her royal memories of Princess Alice and the Queen in a recent podcast. Lady Pamela is the younger daughter of Prince Philip's uncle Lord Mountbatten, and the second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia was the eldest child of the last Tsar of the Russian Empire, and was just 23 when she was assassinated. Speaking on the podcast, Lady Pamela said of the attempt to rescue the Russian princesses before they were murdered: 'Princess Alice wrote to Lloyd George, I can't remember if he was Prime Minister of England at the time but he was the appropriate person to write to. 'She realised there was no way she could ask anything for the little boy but she said 'my husband is retired from the Navy, we live a very quiet life in the Isle of Wight, would it be possible for me to have the girls and look after them?' 'The answer was no it would not be possible. Which we all thought was very hard.' Pamela also recalled the Queen's relationship with Philip's mother, citing how she felt 'responsible' for her. Pamela has revealed how Philip's late mother Princess Alice (seen together in 1960) tried to save Princesses Olga Nikolaevna, Maria Nikolaevna, Tatiana Nikolaevna and Anastasia Nikolaevna before they were murdered during the Russian revolution 'The Queen was always marvellous with her...Because she was staying at Windsor, the Queen felt responsible. 'The Queen is the kind of person who where everybody else finds someone tricky, will be very calm and get the best out of them always.' Lady Pamela Hicks has proved a treasure trove of royal memories, and previously shared her father's battle to recover family heirlooms 'taken by the former King Edward', after he abdicated the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Speaking in another podcast launched by her daughter India, Pamela claimed that her father Louis, who died in 1979, 'battled endlessly to get Wallis to return the family treasures'. Speaking on the podcast, Lady Pamela said Princess Alice wrote to the Prime Minister in an attempt to rescue the Russian princesses before they were murdered, but was not able to help them (seen in 1903 with Prince Andrew of Greece) Lady Pamela Hicks (seen) has proved a treasure trove of royal memories, and previously shared her father's battle to recover family heirlooms 'taken by the former King Edward' According to Pamela, Edward, the Duke of Windsor took possessions including 'beautiful jewelled boxes' when he went into exile in France, and the family were unable to recover them. Speaking in the recent podcast, Pamela said: 'When the Duke of Windsor abdicated and went into exile, he took as his private possessions some beautiful jewelled boxes that were his father's and grandfather's. He shouldn't have grabbed those, they had become stage things. 'My father battled endlessly to try to get Wallis to hand those back, but never succeeded, as by that time she had descended into dementia and had a terrible lawyer who ruled her life.' Pamela's aristocrat daughter India Hicks, 51, who was a bridesmaid at the Prince's wedding to Diana and is 678th in line to the throne, was born in London but moved to the Caribbean 23 years ago. Imagine being the literary editor of The Times of London when Siobhan McKennas debut novel lands on your desk. McKenna is, of course, News Corps group director - broadcasting, and Lachlan Murdochs chief lieutenant in Australia. It turns out shes now a published author. McKennas magnum opus, Man in Armour, is due for release on August 15, but is already available for presale on Amazon and Booktopia, among others, priced at a very reasonable $30.25. Publisher HarperCollins has billed the "hard-hitting novel set in the world of big money and big deals" as the "compelling story of a man at the end of his tether, written with a sharp-eyed, incisive focus that also carries real emotional - and moral - resonance''. The average observer might also want to call it one of the greatest acts of self-publishing ever seen. The Murdoch familys News Corp owns HarperCollins, after all. And much like the poor sod manning The Times literature desk - and every other literary editor in the News Corp stable - imagine having the job of reviewing McKennas book. As ice melts, there is risk of large glacial lakes bursting through banks and creating deadly flash floods downstream. Late last month, residents of the tiny village of Hassanabad, in Pakistans mountainous Hunza District, noticed floodwaters quickly rising in the stream that runs near their homes, carrying water from the towering Shishper glacier. The flows became so high that they eroded the land and reached 10 feet (three metres) from my familys home. We evacuated, said Ghulam Qadir, a resident of the village. The ensuing flood, carrying huge boulders from the melting glacier, demolished the cherry, apricot and walnut orchards many families depend on, and left homes cracked, 16 families in tents and local irrigation and hydropower systems damaged. The floodwater broke all the retaining walls that were built last year in order to protect the village, Qadir told the Reuters news agency by telephone. Now there is a ravine right next to our houses, and we live in dread of another flood. Local villagers check the movement of Shishper Glacier, as it advances in Hassanabad ravine, Pakistan [File: Rina Saeed Khan/Reuters] The area is one of 24 valleys in northern Pakistan scheduled to receive warning systems, between 2018 and 2022, for glacial lake outburst floods using $37m in funding from the Green Climate Fund. But work has been delayed as a result of differences between the partners the UN Development Programme-Pakistan and the federal Ministry of Climate Change as well as by a change of government and now the coronavirus, said Ayaz Joudat, national programme director for the project. The delay is partly due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and partly because UNDP-Pakistan would not finalise the letter of agreement signed with the Ministry of Climate Change, which would give us oversight over hiring of staff and other matters, he told Reuters. That delay, however, was recently resolved, he said, and hiring now will begin at the end of June, with the aim of installing the first early warning systems on glaciers by September. Amanullah Khan, UNDP-Pakistans assistant country director, agreed the delayed project was now up and running. Melting glaciers With more than 7,000, Pakistan has more glaciers than anywhere except the polar regions. But climate change is eating away Himalayan glaciers at a dramatic rate, a study published last year in the journal Science Advances noted. As glacier ice melts, it can collect in large glacial lakes, which are at risk of bursting their banks and creating deadly flash floods downstream in places like Hassanabad. More than 3,000 of those lakes had formed as of 2018, with 33 of them considered hazardous and more than 7 million people at risk downstream, according to UNDP. In an effort to reduce the risks, pilot funding from the UN Adaptation Fund from 2011 to 2016 paid for two lake outburst warning systems, flood protection walls and community preparedness efforts in Chitral District and in the Gilgit Baltistan region. The new project aims to install similar systems in 15 districts in northern Pakistan and to build other infrastructure to reduce risks, including flood walls in villages like Hassanabad. The Shishper Glacier, a black mass of ice and debris, advances in Hassanabad ravine, Hunza district, Pakistan [File: Rina Saeed Khan/Reuters] People will suffer Shehzad Baig, assistant director of the Gilgit Baltistan Disaster Management Authority in Hunza, said the recent flood in Hassanabad was spurred not by a typical glacial lake outburst but by rapid glacier melt. That melting is likely to pick up over the summer months, he said, noting that June to September will be dangerous, particularly after a winter of heavy snowfall. Baig, who flew over the Shishper glacier in a helicopter recently, said the ice still lacked an early warning monitor for outburst floods, though as a first step Pakistans Meteorological Department had installed an automatic weather station last June. A UNDP-Pakistan team came last year to study the glacier, and there was talk of an [automated] early warning system that was to be installed but no action was taken, he said. In late May, the chairman of Pakistans National Disaster Management Authority warned that the Gilgit Baltistan region had received a third more snowfall than normal over the winter, which could raise flood risks. Residents of Hassanabad said the planned work on a warning system is extremely urgent, as summer heat raises the threat level. We dont care about all this bureaucratic red tape. We just want better protective walls for our village and a proper early warning system, Qadir said. This coming summer there will be more flooding, and people will suffer. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Over the past several years as the Albuquerque Police Department undertook the testing of decades worth of rape evidence kits clearing what was once the worst backlog in the country three former detectives say the sex crimes unit leadership undermined the investigation and prosecution of serial rapists and failed to train newer detectives on how to investigate complex and sensitive cases. They say that the unit is understaffed and that the most experienced investigators have left. In a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2nd Judicial District Court last week, former detectives Sally Dyer, Teresa Romero and Mandi Abernathy say they were retaliated against when they repeatedly raised concerns about the way the sex crimes unit was run. All three have since resigned from APD, and Dyer and Abernathy now work for other law enforcement agencies in the state, their lawyer says. The city of Albuquerque and APD are named as defendants in the case. According to the lawsuit, in 2017 officers were told to stop using a database to track suspect information including location of an assault, description, and vehicle and the units leadership frustrated detectives use of a national database created by the FBI. The lawsuit also says that new detectives were not properly trained and that Sgt. Amanda Wild, the head of the unit, told detectives not to communicate with prosecutors about cases. I think everybody is very confused why this wouldnt be a top priority of the department, said attorney Laura Schauer Ives, who is representing the detectives. Its clear this wasnt just incompetence; this is absolutely a purposeful effort to undermine the arrest and prosecution of serial rapists. Gilbert Gallegos, an APD spokesman, did not respond to the allegations laid out in the lawsuit or answer questions about why the databases werent used or why detectives were told not to communicate with the District Attorneys Office. He said the city has not yet been served with the lawsuit and will fully investigate the allegations. APD has been working to improve investigations of sexual assault, including testing the backlog of rape kits, and will continue with those efforts, Gallegos wrote in an email. In March, APD told the Journal there were six detectives investigating active sex crimes and two detectives assigned to cold cases from the backlog. At that time, Gallegos said they were finishing sending the last of 5,438 kits in the backlog to be tested and they had results for 2,913. Of those, 1,112 met the criteria for uploading DNA into the national Combined DNA Index System, he said. The lawsuit paints a picture of a unit that is understaffed and whose detectives have not been trained on how to interview trauma victims or investigate cold cases. The detectives say although there was an internal directive that all sex crimes detectives be trained on trauma-informed interview techniques, not all of them underwent that training. This failure caused the officers to re-traumatize rape victims during interviews, not understand a trauma victims memory lapse and ultimately made them less likely to pursue vigorous investigations, according to the lawsuit. In one instance, after the arrest of serial rape suspect Timothy Bachicha in 2018, APD opened an internal investigation into Sgt. Wilds supervision of the unit to see whether the suspect could have been charged earlier if information had been added to an internal database, according to the lawsuit. The result of that internal investigation is unclear; Gallegos did not respond to questions about it. Detective Dyer, who had investigated the West Mesa serial killer case and high profile rapes before leaving APD in 2013 to care for her children, said she was hired to work as a civilian service aide on contract with the department in 2016 and realized the sex crimes unit did not have a functional database documenting allegations against alleged offenders. So she compiled her own list of 22 suspects and kept them posted at her desk. However, when Amanda Wild became sergeant of the Sex Crimes Unit (which included its Cold Case Division) in 2017, she ordered former detective Dyer to immediately discontinue documenting serial rapists and took away former detective Dyers cases that had been assigned to her by the previous sergeant, the lawsuit says. Detective Abernathy, who worked for APD for 13 years, 10 as a detective, said that at one point she was tasked with investigating 350 cases and that it was not possible for anyone to adequately investigate that many. And detective Romero, who had worked as an officer since 1998 and at APD since 2002, said she was not given any support for coping with post-traumatic stress disorder. She said Sgt. Wild treated her less favorably because of her PTSD diagnosis and broke protocol to assign her more cases than other officers. The detectives are asking for actual, compensatory and special damages, two times back pay with interest, compensation for damages sustained, reasonable attorney fees and any other relief the court deems proper. Although APD claims it has processed all of its backlogged rape evidence kits, the difficult work lies ahead, and the Sex Crimes Unit officers must now actually investigate the cases, the lawsuit says. But the Sex Crimes Unit is understaffed, its most experienced officers are now gone, and the same leadership that undermined investigations and prosecutions of serial rapists continues to be at the helm of the unit. The search for renewable energy sources, which include wind, solar, hydroelectric dams, geothermal, and biomass, has preoccupied scientists and policymakers alike, due to their enormous potential in the fight against climate change. A new Tel Aviv University study finds that water vapor in the atmosphere may serve as a potential renewable energy source in the future. The research, led by Prof. Colin Price in collaboration with Prof. Hadas Saaroni and doctoral student Judi Lax, all of TAU's Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, is based on the discovery that electricity materializes in the interaction between water molecules and metal surfaces. It was published in Scientific Reports on May 6, 2020. "We sought to capitalize on a naturally occurring phenomenon: electricity from water," explains Prof. Price. "Electricity in thunderstorms is generated only by water in its different phases -- water vapor, water droplets, and ice. Twenty minutes of cloud development is how we get from water droplets to huge electric discharges -- lightning -- some half a mile in length." The researchers set out to try to produce a tiny low-voltage battery that utilizes only humidity in the air, building on the findings of earlier discoveries. In the nineteenth century, for example, English physicist Michael Faraday discovered that water droplets could charge metal surfaces due to friction between the two. A much more recent study showed that certain metals spontaneously build up an electrical charge when exposed to humidity. The scientists conducted a laboratory experiment to determine the voltage between two different metals exposed to high relative humidity, while one is grounded. "We found that there was no voltage between them when the air was dry," Prof. Price explains. "But once the relative humidity rose above 60%, a voltage began to develop between the two isolated metal surfaces. When we lowered the humidity level to below 60%, the voltage disappeared. When we carried out the experiment outside in natural conditions, we saw the same results. "Water is a very special molecule. During molecular collisions, it can transfer an electrical charge from one molecule to the other. Through friction, it can build up a kind of static electricity," says Prof. Price. "We tried to reproduce electricity in the lab and found that different isolated metal surfaces will build up different amounts of charge from water vapor in the atmosphere, but only if the air relative humidity is above 60%. This occurs nearly every day in the summer in Israel and every day in most tropical countries." According to Prof. Price, this study challenges established ideas about humidity and its potential as an energy source. "People know that dry air results in static electricity and you sometimes get 'shocks' you when you touch a metal door handle. Water is normally thought of as a good conductor of electricity, not something that can build up charge on a surface. However, it seems that things are different once the relative humidity exceeds a certain threshold," he says. The researchers, however, showed that humid air may be a source of charging surfaces to voltages of around one volt. "If a AA battery is 1.5V, there may be a practical application in the future: to develop batteries that can be charged from water vapor in the air," Prof. Price adds. "The results may be particularly important as a renewable source of energy in developing countries, where many communities still do not have access to electricity, but the humidity is constantly about 60%," Prof. Price concludes. ### 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. At 3:15 p.m. on April 29, 1992, a jury delivered not-guilty verdicts for four Los Angeles police officers charged with using excessive force in the arrest of Rodney King a year earlier. It was a warm afternoon in Los Angeles, and news of the verdicts inflamed many residents, who had assumed that the video of the assaultshowing King being beaten into submissionwould ensure convictions. By sundown, angry residents had taken over the intersection of Florence and Normandie Avenues and were pulling drivers from their cars, while demonstrators downtown pelted police headquarters with rocks and set a shack on fire. I covered the riots for the Los Angeles Times, and I watched the shack burn. The riots escalated quickly. The Los Angeles Police Department was paralyzed and leaderlessChief Daryl F. Gates left police headquarters in the opening hours of the unrest to attend an anti-reform fundraiser and was out of touch as the violence took hold. That created a vacuum at the LAPD, which faced a particularly stressful challenge, given that the anger was directed largely toward the department. To respond forcefully might have invited greater violence, while failure to react encouraged lawlessness. Officers sat helpless even as local television broadcast live images of looting and attacks. It was that confluence of forcesescalating violence in the face of a confused police responsethat led California Gov. Pete Wilson to reach for all the tools that might help bring peace back to Los Angeles. Unhappily, Wilson recalled in an interview last week, the violence broke out very, very early and was met with almost no response. They were not ready. They were not prepared. Left: A California Highway Patrol officer stands guard at Ninth Street and Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, April 30, 1992. Right: Smoke rises from a shopping center burned by rioters. It was the second day of unrest in the city following the acquittal of four police officers in the Rodney King beating case. Wilson activated the National Guard and, in a move that is especially relevant today, he asked for the Bush administration and its attorney general, none other than Bill Barr, to invoke the Insurrection Act in order to make active duty military forces available as well. Not since 1968, when Lyndon Johnson summoned troops at the request of state officials struggling with riots in the wake of Martin Luther Kings assassination, had active duty forces been employed to address domestic violence. Story continues Last week saw U.S. troops called up in a similar way to quell protests against police brutality. President Donald Trump said that unless governors "dominate the streets" he would "deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem"; Sen. Tom Cotton argued in the New York Times that the Insurrection Act is a useful law in a crisis, even citing the Rodney King riots as support for invoking it now. And one key member of the Trump administration was actually on duty at the time: Barr, Trump's AG, was also attorney general for President George H.W. Bush in 1992, one of the few officials to be present for both conflagrations. But if Barror Trump, Cotton, or anyone elsethink active duty military played an important role in restoring order to Los Angeles, they're misremembering history. In fact, the L.A. riots offer cautionary lessons about the limits and perils of using military force to restore order and protect lawful protest. Although the National Guard played a critical role in restoring and keeping the peace, the same cant be said for active-duty Marines and soldiers. Wilson told me that he does not recall discussing the matter with Barras governor, he spoke with President Bush directly. Under the approach followed by Wilson, the National Guard was going to be the first line after local law enforcement, with active duty forces available to reinforce if needed. Wilson, himself a former Marine, told me his administration had advance warning that verdicts in the trial were soon to be announced, and he was determined to draw a line between peaceful protests and any move toward violence. It did not take long for matters to deteriorate. By late afternoon on April 29, arsonists were setting blazes, and snipers shot at firefighters who attempted to respond. Wilson directed the California Highway Patrol to return fire, but local authorities remained stymied. The televised violence outside police headquarters and at Florence and Normandie made clear that trouble was spreading without any meaningful law enforcement response. City officials were dithering; Chief Gates and Mayor Tom Bradley, then barely on speaking terms, disagreed about whether outside help was needed. Ignoring their fractiousness, Wilson activated the guard at 9 p.m. on April 29. The guard was the first option and the most natural. The National Guard is a military organization that, unlike active duty forces, is intended specifically to respond to domestic emergencies. Its troops train in crowd control and other skills that may be required in conflicts or natural disasters. The guard may be called up by governors in response to those kinds of emergencies. National Guardsmen stand ready for deployment near the corner of Wilshire and Vermont in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 1, 1992, as a citywide curfew goes into effect a day after the verdicts were handed down in the Rodney King beating trial. The arrival of the guard was desperately anticipated in Los Angeles, where looting and fires spread overnight and left the city smoldering by daybreak on April 30. That morning, I waited outside the Los Angeles Coliseum, where guard units had deployed. But even as the day heated up, the guard troops remained frustratingly cabined inside their armories. The trouble: Guard soldiers had made it to Los Angeles overnight, but devices to convert their automatic weapons into semiautomatics had not. When he learned of the holdup, Wilson ordered the guard soldiers to hit the streets with one bullet each, and by late afternoon, about 24 hours after violence first erupted, the guard finally began deploying from Exposition Park, home of the Coliseum. One guardsman marched across the street to where I was standing, and as he and I took in the scene, a man pulled up in his pickup truck and began videotaping the melee. A rioter casually walked over, shot the man in the arm and grabbed his camera. Spotting the guard soldier, the shooter fled; the victim lived. By the time guard units were fully at work, more than 25 people had died, nearly 600 were wounded and roughly 1,000 fires were burning or had burned. The guard units were applauded, sometimes literally, as they made their way to ravaged sections of the city. I watched looters thumb their noses at police and then, moments later, melt away when they spotted guard soldiers rolling up to the scene; something about the militarys presence was both intimidating and soothing. In neighborhood after neighborhood, the arrival of the guard meant the diminishment of violence. They were reassuring to the people who wanted their presence, Wilson said. But Los Angeles is a vast place and the guards slow deployment, complicated by the equipment issues, limited its initial effectiveness. Seeking to project force and deter violence, Wilson decided he needed a bigger show of force. That night, at 1 a.m. on May 1, Wilson formally asked President Bush to invoke the Insurrection Act and make active duty troops available as well. Bush approved Wilsons request four hours later. As it happens, the first troops to arrive were from Wilsons former branch of the military, the Marines, deploying from Camp Pendleton, about 80 miles south. About 1,500 of them arrived in the city at roughly 2:30 p.m. on May 1; another 2,000 Army soldiers were dispatched from Fort Ord, an Army base 300 miles to the north. But by the time soldiers and Marines were in position, the violence was already subsiding, so their mission was muddied from the start: Authorized to restore law and order, they were not empowered to maintain law and order. Some military leaders concluded that their authorization thus was no longer valid. From then on, each request for military backupincluding each request for the guard, which by then had been federalizedwas evaluated according to whether it was a request to restore order or merely to maintain it. The process was cumbersome and sometimes slow: Marines took over traffic control points and escorted firefighters, for instance, but turned down requests to provide building security. Police often wanted backup to be extended indefinitely, but military officials sometimes felt forced to refuse. Other complications ensued. Military commanders wrestled with the difficulties of applying military tactics in a domestic environment. They had to exercise a degree of control that would be highly unusual (and completely unfeasible) in combat, according to a military review of the period by Lt. Col. Christopher M. Schnaubelt. His report, Lessons in Command and Control from the Los Angeles Riots, is a meticulous reconstruction of those days from the perspective of the military. In some cases, the cultures and practices of police and soldiers clashed, with dangerous implications. When one pair of LAPD officers, for instance, was preparing to enter a home in response to a report of a domestic dispute, the officers were accompanied by a contingent of Marines. The Marines held back as the officers approached the front door and were greeted with a blast of birdshot. The officers dropped to the ground and one called out, cover me, thinking the Marines would point their weapons at the house and be alert for any additional threat. Instead, the Marines opened fire, pummeling the home and its occupants, which included children, with more than 200 rounds. Amazingly, no one was hurt. In the end, order was restored to Los Angeles, but the active duty forces supplied through the Insurrection Act were not instrumental in bringing peace to the city. Once its units took up positions, it was the National Guard forces that were key: I have no doubt that the Los Angeles riots would have lasted longer, spread farther and cost more lives were it not for Wilsons activation of the guard and its eventual deployment across the torn areas of the city. The record of the active-duty military is more ambiguous. The arrival of those forces came too late to evaluate how the military might have handled the riots at their height, but the problems that did ariseconfusion about the mission, communications and cultural conflicts with the policewould only have been more acute had they arrived earlier, when the violence was more pitched. Moreover, those conflicts took place under relatively protected circumstances: Although the local political leadership was frayed, federal and state authorities were in agreement about the need for troops and were communicating throughout. The problems of the 1992 response would surely have been exacerbated had the federal government attempted to impose military forces without the cooperation and agreement of the state, in that case, Gov. Wilson. The Los Angeles riots were extraordinarily violent, but mercifully short-lived, in large measure because of the decisive actions taken by Wilson. They do not, however, stand for the principle that active duty military are the most effective means of suppressing urban violence. In Los Angeles, police and local leadership failed at the outset, to be rescued by state coordination and the National Guard. The Army and Marines came too late to make a difference but just in time to sow confusion and concern. The history in Los Angeles suggests that solid coordination between the state and federal governments, along with decisive use of the National Guard, can save lives and protect property. It argues against employment of active-duty forces, certainly without consultation and consent of the states. In the current crisis, nothing from the Trump administration and its attorney general suggest that those officials have even considered the history that Barr himself lived. NORRISTOWN A Pottstown man faces up to two decades in prison for raping and strangling a teenage girl during a violent assault while she was in his company at a borough residence. Naguib Abdulla-Rasheed Hakim Muhammad, 28, of the 300 block of East High Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 8 to 20 years in state prison, followed by eight years probation. Essentially, Muhammad will be under court supervision for a total of 28 years. Judge Steven T. ONeill imposed the sentence as part of a sentencing agreement. Muhammad previously pleaded guilty to felony charges of rape, statutory sexual assault and strangulation in connection with a June 2018 incident at a North Washington Street residence. The judge ordered Muhammad to have no contact with the victim and to have no unsupervised contact with other minors. Muhammad will be placed under sex offender supervision during the parole and probationary periods. The girl was 15 and Muhammad was 27 at the time of the incident, according to court papers. Muhammad was acquainted with the girls family through his then girlfriend and the assault occurred at a residence the girl was visiting, according to the criminal complaint filed by Pottstown Detective Heather Long. With the charges, Assistant District Attorney Erika Wevodau alleged Muhammad strangled the girl with one hand to the point of her being unable to breathe and then forcibly sexually assaulted the girl. The victim repeatedly asked Muhammad to stop the assault and he did not, Wevodau alleged. The girl was treated at an area hospital after the assault. Forensic DNA tests positively linked Muhammad to the rape, according to prosecutors. Wevodau sought a state prison term against Muhammad. The victim is young and this was a forcible rape of a juvenile victim in a residence where she was supposed to feel safe. He was supposed to be caring for her in a limited capacity while she was there, Wevodau said at the time of Muhammads guilty plea. Wevodau said the girl was traumatized by the incident. By Musheera Ashraf, TwoCircles.net Kota, Rajasthan: A Rajasthan based activist on Monday filed an application for lodging FIR against the Dean of Kanpur GSVM Medical College Dr Aarti Lal Chandani for making hateful and Islamophobic comments against Muslims. Support TwoCircles Speaking to TwoCircles.net, twenty-nine-year-old social activist Atiya Firdous from Kota, Rajasthan, said that she was very concerned after coming across the viral video where Dr Aarti is seen using hateful comments against Muslims. Since then, I have been trying to get the FIR filed against Dr Aarti Lal Chandani, the Dean of Kanpurs Ganesh Shanker Vidyarthi Memorial (GSVM) Medical college but the police would deny saying the case falls in UP and FIR can only be filed in UP, she said. However, being educated and aware of the law Atiya didnt back down. I knew the rules and I told them about the IT Act which grants me the right to file an FIR against her in Rajasthan, she said. Atiya said that the police told her they still wouldnt consider it. Atiya was disturbed by the video in which Dr Aarti is using insulting and Islamophobic comments against Muslims and is calling them terrorists and says, they should be beaten instead of being taken care of in hospitals and fed for treatment. In the video, Dr Arti says that Indias energy is being wasted on Muslim patients while they deserve to be kept inside solitary confinements and not in quarantine centres. Atiya told TwoCircles.net that after seeing the video on social media on 3 June, she along with her friends started a campaign #ArrestDrAarti calling for arrest. As there was no action taken up by UP Police, so we decide to take this step, she said. Atiya says as a responsible citizen of the country, she wants the doctors license to be cancelled. That should be an example for people trying to divide the country in the name of religion, Atiya said, adding that she will go to the high court or even Supreme Court if needed to bring action against the doctor. The application for FIR was finally filed on Monday at Police Line, District Kota Rajasthan only after few social activists and lawyers came to Atiyas help. Atiya said that Dr Aartis remarks against Muslims in the video are derogatory and purely Islamophobic. The news channels have already created hatred among people and now this lady who holds a responsible position in the society is trying to create hatred in the society, says Atiya, and adds that, She should be booked under UAPA. We cant let such people roam around in society. They are harmful to the prosperity of the nation. Atiya said that the doctors apology doesnt matter. What she has done is wrong and she should be held accountable for her actions, she said. Atiya said that she has also been an active member in the anti-CAA movement. I travelled across Kota to make people aware about CAA, she said. In the current situation when the whole world is trying to fight the pandemic, we in India come across such people who spread hate and it is shameful, adds Atiya. A lethal disease that strikes rabbits was detected in a jackrabbit in Palm Springs, leading local veterinarians and animal rescue organizations to prepare for its potential spread to San Diego County. The disease, rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus, is highly contagious and can jump between wild and domestic populations. It hit California for the first time in early May, when a group of about 10 dead rabbits were found in Palm Springs, and tests of one of the carcasses came back positive for the virus. With a fatality rate up to 80 percent, the disease can decimate colonies of rabbits, jackrabbits, pika and hare, but it does not affect humans or other animals including cats or dogs. Pets, scavengers and other animals can spread the virus on their feet or fur, however, so officials are taking steps to protect rescued rabbits, and urging rabbit owners to safeguard their pets. "It spreads very fast in the wild populations," said Jon Enyart, director of wildlife medicine for Project Wildlife, the wildlife rescue arm of the San Diego Humane Society. "Then it runs rampant through the domestic populations as well." The disease has circulated for several decades throughout 40 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, as well as Mexico and Canada. A second strain emerged in France in 2010, and in March of this year, it began killing both wild and domestic rabbits in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Texas and Mexico, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. That's when officials braced for a possible outbreak in California. "It's a really hard virus to contain, once its out in a wild landscape," said Deana Clifford, a senior wildlife veterinarian with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. "There's no way to really effectively protect wild rabbits in the state." Wildlife officials are monitoring rabbit populations and collecting samples, officials said. And they are examining animals that appear to have died of the disease, selectively testing carcasses for the virus to determine if it is spreading to new areas or different species, such as cottontails or other rabbit relatives, Clifford said. Studies from outbreaks in Europe show that the death rate of infected rabbits ranges from 5 to 80 percent, she said. So it's possible that wild populations may rebound from the epidemic, even if it spreads. "What we hope is that over time, this disease, that some rabbits will survive and develop some resistance," Clifford said. In the meantime, the risk to both wild rabbits and pets exposed to the virus is high. The disease in a group called calicivirus, and is unrelated to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. To rabbits, however, it's not only far more lethal than coronavirus, but also much hardier. It can remain viable in the environment at room temperature for 105 days, and even longer225 daysat 39 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a statement by the House Rabbit Society. It's not killed by freezing, and infected rabbits who survive can shed the virus for 42 days or longer. The virus hasn't appeared among any rabbits San Diego, but rescue workers are taking precautions in case it does. The San Diego Chapter of the House Rabbit Society, an all rabbit rescue organization, is isolating new animals at their shelter, and warning rabbit owners to be careful of their pets. "We as humans can spread the virus too, on shoes or carpets," said Jennifer Lee, executive director of San Diego House Rabbit Society. "That's why it's important that people who have rabbits, not have their rabbits go outside to play, and have inside shoes, and outside shoes, and clothing ... . If they feel that their rabbit might have it, isolate that rabbit, especially if you have other rabbits in their home." Other recommendations include washing hands before and after handling a pet rabbit; changing clothes after contacting other rabbits; disinfecting shoes with bleach; using only known hay and feed sources, and avoiding foraged plants, grasses or tree branches; installing door and window screens to eliminate flies and mosquitoes; and quarantining any new rabbit. The virus causes liver inflammation in infected animals, and prevents blood from clotting, said Linda Knox, a veterinarian at Palomar Animal Hospital, who works with the House Rabbit Society. A vaccine available in Europe can protect rabbits from the disease, but it's not approved for widespread use in the U.S. Veterinarians can only apply to use it once a case is confirmed in their own state. So after the Palm Springs carcass tested positive, Knox applied for access to the vaccine. "We are trying to get emergency approval through the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) to import this vaccine, Eravac, which is made in Spain," she said. "Once we get the USDA approval, we hope to get this vaccine imported so we can protect the rabbits." She expects the vaccine to arrive about a month after she receives approval. Once it does, it could be administered to pet or rescue rabbits. It would not be possible to vaccinate wild rabbits, Clifford said. However, some very rare, endangered species, such as the riparian brush rabbit in the Central Valley, which numbers only a few hundred, could potentially be captured and rescued or vaccinated, if the disease strikes its area, she said. Signs of infection can include low appetite, lethargy, fever, seizures or bleeding from the nose, mouth or rectum. But there may also be no symptoms until sudden death, so shelters, as well as pet owners, must separate new rabbits from others for a quarantine period. At Project Wildlife, which takes in 12,000 sick, injured or orphaned wild animals, including up to 2,000 rabbits per year, that's a big challenge, Enyart said. However, workers are placing new animals or groups of animals in quarantine rooms, and also assigning staff members to specific rooms, so they don't cross-contaminate other groups. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, rescue workers have already adopted practices such as social distancing, wearing masks and gloves, and changing clothes before and after working with animals, officials said. The rabbit epidemic has reinforced and refined those practices, officials said. "I do feel like (COVID-19) has prepared us for this, because we were already in the mindset," he said. "Were finding that in the midst of all this madness, that best practices are getting better. We're able to say these rabbits can't be near these rabbits, that helps us see if there are any concerns with out own (personal protective equipment) and our own biosecurity. So it's really helping us fine-tune it and make it as good as possible." Explore further Towards winning the war on feral wild rabbits 2020 The San Diego Union-Tribune Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 By Fidan Babayeva Trend: Azerbaijan will achieve significant results in 2020 by implementing the project "Development of sustainable and inclusive local agri-food systems in the North-Western region of Azerbaijan", funded by EU, Head of the FAO Partnership and Liaison Office in Azerbaijan Melek Chakmak told Trend. "The goal of the project is the development of effective and inclusive agri-food systems that support smaller-scale agriculture and contribute to poverty reduction in Azerbaijans North-West region. The project is also aimed at strengthening the business environment for inclusive and effective development of agriculture and food systems with the support of community agricultural consulting services in the region," Chakmak noted. "The tasks set before us will be achieved by using four interconnected components. The project proposals are mainly focused on creating local inclusive and efficient models of agriculture and the food system for selected local agri-food products, as well as facilitating access to markets by strengthening ties between producers and buyers and expanding the potential of agritourism in the region," the head of the office added. "The result of the first stage of the project is the recognition of the target region as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). This will draw attention to partially forgotten traditional agricultural practices and increase the level of national and global recognition and fame of the region. This, in turn, is expected to attract more investors and tourists to the region, as well as help to support the preservation of the traditional agricultural system and food production," she said. Chakmak noted that the results of the last stage of the implementation of project provide for the creation of a model of local consulting services at the community level for the agri-food systems and their pilot introduction to individual communities. She added the last stage of the project will also allow small farmers and processors to acquire the skills and knowledge they need to create profitable and sustainable agricultural enterprises. The project is financed by the EU, and the main partner in the project is Ministry of Agriculture. As a pilot area, Balakan, Zagatala. Gakh and Shakhi districts were selected. Azerbaijan has been a member of the FAO since 1995. FAO Partnership and Liaison Office in Azerbaijan has been operating since 2007. --- Follow the author on Twitter: Fidan_Babaeva In one of the largest COVID-19-related repatriations from the Gulf by a private employer, a Saudi Arabia-based company has begun operating chartered flights to send home over 1,600 of its Indian employees. In a statement here, Expertise Contracting Company said six of the flights have already reached Chennai and Hyderabad on June 5, Ahmedabad and Delhi on June 6 and Mangaluru and Chennai on June 7. The operations would conclude on June 11, with altogether nine flights to India. The flights, chartered from Gulf Air and being operated from the city of Dammam in Saudi Arabia, also include the ones covering three other neighbouring countries, the statement said. A company official told PTI that a total of 2,000 employees from various countries in the Indian subcontinent are being repatriated out of which Indians are 1,665. He said 12 Chartered flights have been engaged to carry out the repatriation exercise to the Indian subcontinent. Director of Expertise Contracting Company, K S Shaikh said the 20-year-old Expertise group, one of the largest conglomerates in the GCC operating in petrochemical and heavy equipment sectors, has got more than 10,000 employees and their family members in the Gulf, mainly in Jubail, one of the largest industrial cities. Of these, the company has chosen over 2,000 employees for the covid-related repatriations considering various emergencies, he said. Shaikh claimed that this has been the largest repatriation mission undertaken by any private company in the entire Middle East, which includes the cost of air travel and the quarantine expenses of the passengers and airline crew in the respective countries, all borne by the company. He also thanked the governments of Saudi Arabia, India and others concerned and their various ministries and missions for their full-fledged support to the operations. He also added that the company is ready to carry out more such chartered flights as and when there are requirements and will be flying them free back to their workplaces once the pandemic is subdued and conditions are safe. During the initial lockdown days of the pandemic, the borders of most of the countries in the world were closed and no country was allowing any humans to either enter or leave the respective countries, adding enormous stress to the migrant populations across the world, especially in the Gulf. Shaikh said a few of the family members of Expertise employees were pregnant or in need of medical care. "Many of the employees above 50 years of age were also worried about their own health after the COVID-19 outbreak and we thought it was our duty to ensure their safe journey to their home countries, which made us plan and operate these chartered flights," he said. The company said it drew up a meticulous plan to execute the Himalayan task and after closely working with various government departments of five countries for a period of 30 days, had finally received permissions for arranging nine specially-chartered flights to India and to three of the neighbouring countries. As per the schedule, remaining flights would arrive on June 10 (Kochi) and June 11 (Mangaluru), it said. Thousands of Indians stranded overseas including the middle east have been brought back by the Indian government as part of the 'Vande Bharat' mission. Also Read: Coronavirus crisis: India sees biggest spike of 9,887 new cases, 331 deaths; tally rises to 2.66 lakh Also Read: One-third of people in hotspots may have infected, recovered from COVID-19: ICMR report In the wake of conflicting studies on whether or not COVID-19 is present in semen, researchers from three Boston hospitals have released sexual health guidelines describing the riskiest behavior, and offering some unusual advice about when to wear masks. The guidelines, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, note that any type of in-person sexual activity is a COVID-19 risk factor given the limited data on sexual transmission, and the knowledge that SARS-CoV-2 can spread through saliva, mucus, aerosolized particles or, although less common, by touching the eyes, nose and mouth after touching an infected surface. The sex-positive study ranks habits from the safest to the riskiest through the CDCs social distancing model. Sexual abstinence and masturbation are the safest moves, followed by phone or video sex (which comes with its own risks, the authors warn) and sleeping with a live-in partner, if neither has been exposed or is asymptomatic. Sexual activity with a person other than those with whom youre quarantining is considered the riskiest behavior and the researchers recommend wearing a face mask in that case. We recognize that it may come as an unusual recommendation, but wearing a mask during intercourse with someone from outside the home may reduce risk, as may a range of other strategies, including showering, hand-washing and cleaning surfaces where the virus may reside following sex, Dr. Jack Turban, lead author and resident physician in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital tells Yahoo Life. Unfortunately, the virus is easily spread via respiratory particles, making kissing a higher-risk behavior than other intimate acts, Turban adds. Despite the risk associated with this type of intimacy, the study encourages doctors to be nonjudgmental when asking patients about their sex lives. Luckily, public health experts are starting to pay attention to the fact that abstinence-only recommendations are unlikely to be successful and may lead to worse outcomes. Turban tells Yahoo Life. Story continues Major health organizations recommend the use of face masks to prevent passing on respiratory droplets that could spread SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. But while face masks may help mitigate risks for non-live-in sexual partners, experts say its not a perfect solution and note that anyone engaging in sexual activity may be putting themself at risk. Were not saying, Wear a mask and dont worry, Dr. Kenneth Mayer, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and one of the authors of the study, tells Yahoo Life, More that if you [wear one], youll decrease risk. The study notes that research is mixed on whether or not COVID-19 is present in semen, with one study from China finding virtually zero evidence that it is and another finding the opposite. Until this is better understood, it would be prudent to consider semen potentially infectious, the authors write. Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, director of both the National LGBT Health Education Center at the Fenway Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Gender Identity Program, tells Yahoo Life that sex may be a hazard for the foreseeable future. The risks of physical contact among persons not in quarantine with one another will remain very real in the absence of adequate vaccination across the population, says Keuroghlian. The report results, of course, are not meant as a prescriptive list of sexual dos and donts; rather it provides recommendations for how to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The researchers say couples will have to decide what theyre comfortable doing behind closed doors. The major takeaway from this paper is that risk lies on a spectrum, says Turban. Abstinence is the safest recommendation to prevent the spread of the virus, but for many people this will not be attainable. Sex with those from outside the home is higher risk than sex with those residing in the home, and is one way to decrease risk. For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDCs and WHOs resource guides. Read more from Yahoo Life: Want daily wellness, lifestyle and parenting news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Lifes newsletter. CABI and Swiss biological control producers Elephant Vert are stepping up the fight against crop-destroying locusts and grasshoppers with a safe and environment friendly product called Green Muscle which is now being used in Africa. CABI and Swiss biological control producers Elephant Vert are stepping up the fight against crop-destroying locusts and grasshoppers with a safe and environment friendly product called Green Muscle which is now being used in Africa. Around 20 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania are facing acute food insecurity, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), due to a second desert locust outbreak and the COVID-19 crisis. Locusts and grasshoppers regularly decimate crops in many parts of Africa and Asia with locusts, in particular, responsible for invading in swarms of millions - leaving behind ravaged fields and putting livelihoods and food security at severe risk. The FAO says widespread rains that fell in East Africa in March and April could now lead to an explosion in desert locust numbers with new hopper bands and swarms possibly forming in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia during May and June. This follows a first outbreak in May 2018 in the Arabian Peninsula, exacerbated by Cyclone Mekunu, which then spread to the Horn of Africa in December 2019 fuelled by the winds of Cyclone Pawan. It is also feared that changing winds have also blown locusts to Pakistan and India. Green Muscle is based on a specific isolate of a fungus called Metarhizium acridum which only attacks locusts and grasshoppers, effectively stopping them in their tracks. In the first few months of this year, the FAO released tenders for the supply of a Metharizium acridum-based product for Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. Elephant Vert subsequently delivered Green Muscle to the authorities and spray teams are currently applying it under the supervision of the FAO. Samples of the product have also been sent to Uganda, Pakistan and India where the locust situation is getting worse. Green Muscle, the biological solution with proven results Green Muscle stems from a programme called LUBILOSA "LUtte BIologique contre les LOcustes et SAuteriaux", (biological control of locusts and grasshoppers), which was funded by the governments of Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Britain and the USA. The resulting product has been proven to work better than chemicals - provided it is applied on time to hopper bands before swarming starts. Dr Dick Shaw, CABI's Country Director UK, said, "CABI worked on the product that was to become Green Muscle back in the 1990s when searching for fungi to kill a range of insects. As long ago as 2009, the FAO reported that the product, which was to become Green Muscle, had effectively treated 10,000 hectares of Red Locust-infested land in Tanzania where otherwise a full-blown invasion would have been caused - threatening the food crops of 15 million people. It was also used again to great effect in Madagascar. "The partnership with Elephant Vert saw CABI licensing the product and providing the starter cultures from its liquid nitrogen stores. Elephant Vert is using its extensive workforce and facilities to mass produce and market the product across Africa and parts of Asia where it is urgently needed to help in the fight against devastating locust swarms." Sebastien Couasnet, Elephant Vert's CEO, said: "We are delighted to be working alongside CABI, who share our passion to promote environment friendly biological solutions, to manage pests such as locusts and grasshoppers which threaten economic stability and global food security. In partnership, we are sharing our technical and production capabilities to bring this effective product to market in areas where it is really needed as part of an integrated pest management approach to fight these and other invasive pests." As well as working with Elephant Vert on the supply of Green Muscle, CABI has also been part of multi-agency responses to the locust problem in countries including Kenya which suffered the worst infestation in 70 years. CABI's research has confirmed that Green Muscle is effective against various species including Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), Red locust (Nomadacris septemfasciata), Brown locusts (Locustana pardalina), Sahelian tree locusts (Anacridium melanorhodon), Variegated grasshopper (Zonocerus variegatus), Senegalese grasshopper (Oedaleus senegalensis), African rice grasshoppers (Hieroglyphus daganensis) and Sahelian grasshoppers. ### About CABI CABI is an international not-for-profit organization that improves people's lives by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment. Through knowledge sharing and science, CABI helps address issues of global concern such as improving global food security and safeguarding the environment. We do this by helping farmers grow more and lose less of what they produce, combating threats to agriculture and the environment from pests and diseases, protecting biodiversity from invasive species, and improving access to agricultural and environmental scientific knowledge. Our 49 member countries guide and influence our core areas of work, which include development and research projects, scientific publishing and microbial services. We gratefully acknowledge the core financial support from our member countries (and lead agencies) including the United Kingdom (Department for International Development), China (Chinese Ministry of Agriculture), Australia (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), Canada (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), Netherlands (Directorate-General for International Cooperation, and Switzerland (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation). Other sources of funding include the fees paid by our member countries and profits from our publishing activities which enable CABI to support rural development and scientific research around the world. We also acknowledge the partners Iinvolved Iin the original LUBILOSA project: the UK (Ascot) laboratory of the International Institute of Biological Control (CAB International), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture from its Benin station (Cotonou), INSAH (part of CILSS) in Bamako, Mali, AGRHYMET/DFPV (part of CILSS) in Niamey, Niger and GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit, Eschborn, Gemany). http://www.cabi.org About Elephant Vert As an expert in micro-organisms, in the formulation of bio-inputs and in innovative approaches, Elephant Vert is committed to creating, promoting and distributing innovative, efficient and accessible biosolutions to farmers, with a tangible impact on agricultural profitability and sustainability. Established in Morocco, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Tanzania, Switzerland, Belgium and France, Elephant Vert has more than 850 employees, is developing an offer in Africa (North, East and West), as well as in Europe, and participates in the conversion of agriculture towards sustainable models. Elephant Vert was created by Antenna, a Swiss foundation, committed to the diffusion of scientific, technologic, economic, and medical solutions to address the essential needs of the most vulnerable communities. http://www.elephant-vert.com St. Marys Schools in Worcester will close permanently at the end of the school year. The announcement was made Monday that the pre-K through grade 12 school will close in June. Catholic schools, particularly high schools, have become nearly impossible to operate by individual parishes, said Bishop Robert McManus. I am truly grateful for the valiant attempts the teachers and staff at. St. Marys Schools have made in recent years. In a statement, the Rev. Richard Polek, pastor of Our Lady of Czestochowa, said, The bishop and his staff also made it clear to me that the diocese could not cover operating losses at individual parish schools as we prepared our budget for the fall. I cannot say enough about how grateful we are to the teachers and staff at St. Marys Schools. They have worked very hard and at great personal sacrifice to keep this school open, especially over the past few years. Parents began receiving notices Monday and will work with families to help students find a new school. The school said the announcement comes at a difficult time because students are in the middle of final exams. Tuition at St. Marys School, located on Richland Street, is $4,900 for elementary and $7,295 for high school with 40% of the students were receiving diocesan financial aid. Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish opened its elementary school in 1915 and its high school in 1936 at the current location on Richland Street, the school said. The school survived many hardships including the pandemic of 1918 and demographic changes to the neighborhood. The school served generations of immigrants and 70% of its current student body are students of color. The diocese announced last week that the St. Stephen School on Grafton Street would also permanently close at the end of the month. PIGGS PEAK A police officer is lucky to be alive after he was knocked down by a vehicle while manning a roadblock near a place known as Enjakeni. The incident is said to have happened on Sunday evening when the police officer, together with a colleague, had mounted a roadblock. It is alleged that the police officer signalled to the driver of the vehicle to stop through the use of a hand. Instead of stopping, the Honda Fit driver is said to have continued driving and allegedly headed straight to the police officer and knocked him down. Rushed The injured law enforcers colleague was near the police vehicle when the incident happened and he quickly rushed to check on the victim as the suspect sped off. A few minutes after hitting the police officer, the driver of the Honda Fit lost control of the vehicle and it overturned. It is believed the driver fled the scene after the accident as he was not found inside when other police officers were called. However, rolls of dagga were found inside the vehicle. According to eyewitnesses, the driver of the vehicle is believed to have alighted and fled while the other police officer was attending to his colleague who was sprawled on the ground. We did not see which direction the driver took after alighting from the vehicle, said an eyewitness. Due to the dagga that was found inside the vehicle, some members of the public concluded that the driver may have tried to flee to avoid arrest. It is not uncommon for people carrying dagga to evade arrest by speeding off. Some motorists and members of the public are said to have tried to assist in locating the driver, thinking that he might have been flung off the vehicle as it overturned. However, there was no sign of the driver who was believed to be nearby. The injured police officer was rushed to Emkhuzweni Health Centre where he was treated and discharged yesterday. The name of the police officer will not be mentioned as he was not contacted for comment on the matter. It was, however, gathered that he was recently transferred to Buhleni Police Post from Tshaneni Police Station. Some of the motorists found at the accident scene were quick to blame the police for the accident, stating that the road was too narrow for roadblocks. They said it was difficult for a person to see a roadblock, adding that this, in the end, resulted in people attempting to flee. Sometimes it is even hard to know if you are being stopped by a police officer, said one of the motorists. The motorist also complained that on the same road, he was also stopped by a police officer who was armed with a rifle. Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, the Chief Police Information and Communications Officer, confirmed the accident. Vilakati also confirmed that the police officer had been discharged from hospital. She also revealed that the vehicle had overturned and that it had been impounded by the police. Vilakati further revealed that police officers discovered dagga inside the vehicle and that investigations were ongoing. ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) today announced the acquisition of Brisbane, Queensland-based CA Insurance Brokers. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 2002 by Andrew Howard, CA Insurance Brokers is a mid-market insurance broker specialized in commercial transportation; construction, earthmoving and professional risks. Andrew Howard and his associates will relocate to Gallagher's Brisbane office, operating under the direction of Paul Harvey, Managing Director-Specialisms. "Through this acquisition, CA Insurance Brokers gains access to a range of new markets and client product offerings, while we expand Gallagher's presence and capabilities in the Brisbane market," said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO. "I am very pleased to welcome Andrew and his associates to our team." Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. The company has operations in 49 countries and offers client-service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants. Investors: Ray Iardella Media: Linda J. Collins VP Investor Relations VP Corporate Communications 630-285-3661/ [email protected] 630-285-4009/ [email protected] SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 23:47:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The net capital outflow from Russia between January-May rose 18.8 percent year on year to 33.5 billion U.S. dollars, the Russian central bank said in a statement on Tuesday, quoting preliminary data. It said that net lending to the rest of the world by Russia's private sector in the first five months of the year rose "as a result of more noticeable reduction in external liabilities of banks, while the comparable level of the transactions of other sectors for allocating assets abroad was maintained." Russia's trade surplus between January-May fell 41.7 percent year on year to 43.2 billion U.S. dollars as a result of unfavorable international situation, the bank said. Russia's international reserves decreased by 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in this period of time, mainly due to operations related to servicing the country's external debts, it said. Enditem This new instrument will make CANARY technology available to even more food processors and support detection in the field. PathSensors Inc., a Baltimore biotechnology company, announced today the completion of Phase I of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) entitled Food Safety in the 21st Century: Rapid Toxin Detection in the Field. The projects goal was to engineer and develop a field-deployable instrument for portable pathogen and toxin detection. Based on PathSensors Zephyr, a laboratory-based platform, the engineering team created a new instrument combining several components of the existing instrument into a miniaturized case. The battery-operated instrument is portable and reduces the number of manual steps required to test samples. With the mission of making the world a safer place, PathSensors has taken on the challenge of reducing foodborne illnesses. Paired with CANARY biosensors, the new platform will enable users to detect critical foodborne pathogens to ensure the food supply is safe for the consumer. This new technology will contribute to the USDAs strategic goal of providing Americans with safe and secure food. The Zephyr is a current technology that empowers food processors and protects consumers from foodborne pathogens, says PathSensors President, Ted Olsen. This new instrument will make CANARY technology available to even more food processors and support detection in the field. About CANARY CANARY is a biosensor technology that delivers extremely rapid detection of pathogens with high sensitivity and specificity. Originally developed by scientists at MITLincoln Laboratory to combat bioterrorism threats, CANARY has been licensed and commercialized by PathSensors, Inc. About PathSensors, Inc. PathSensors is a leading environmental testing company offering cutting-edge pathogen detection capabilities to a variety of industries including food safety, agriculture, infectious disease, and bioterrorism. The company makes the world a safer place by detecting pathogens that can cause sickness or worse while creating high technology jobs in the state of Maryland. Restructured HealthCare Royalty Partners elobixibat royalty monetization agreement nets additional $15M in non-dilutive capital Initial draw down of $10M on debt facility of up to $80M with Hercules Capital BOSTON , June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Albireo Pharma, Inc. (ALBO), a clinical-stage orphan pediatric liver disease company developing novel bile acid modulators, today announced it has agreed to terms with Hercules Capital, Inc. (HTGC) on a debt facility to provide up to $80 million of new capital, and will receive $15M under a restructured royalty monetization agreement with HealthCare Royalty Partners (HCR) for elobixibat in the treatment of chronic constipation in Japan. Elobixibat, approved in Japan for the treatment of patients with chronic constipation, is the first ileal bile acid transporter (IBAT) inhibitor approved anywhere in the world. These funding arrangements with new and existing partners provide the company additional flexibility and cash runway into the beginning of 2022, past the planned approval and commercial launch of odevixibat for the treatment of progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis, said Ron Cooper, President and Chief Executive Officer of Albireo. This strengthened financial foundation will also enable our continued growth as we deliver on additional odevixibat pivotal trials, NASH clinical development and pre-clinical programs. Under the updated terms of the agreement with HCR, the company will receive an additional $15 million on top of the $45 million royalty financing commitment HCR made in 2018 for royalty rights based on sales for elobixibat in the treatment of chronic constipation in Japan. In exchange, the company eliminated the cap on HCRs rights to receive royalties on sales in Japan and sales milestones for elobixibat in certain other territories that may become payable by the Companys partner, EA Pharma Co., Ltd.. Elobixibat is marketed and sold in Japan under the trade name GOOFICE. Story continues HCRs additional investment reinforces our view that elobixibats unique mechanism of action results in a differentiated product that provides a meaningful benefit to patients in Japan, said John Urquhart, Managing Director of HCR. Under the terms of the new agreement with Hercules Capital, Albireo may access up to $80 million of new capital, with an initial minimum of $10 million drawn down on a first available tranche of $15M, and additional tranches based on regulatory and other milestones. Hercules is pleased to be partnering with Albireo and supporting its clinical efforts which are focused on the development of novel treatments for orphan pediatric liver diseases, and other liver and gastrointestinal diseases and disorders. This structured debt investment represents a significant commitment from Hercules, and it is consistent with our goal of supporting innovative life sciences companies through all stages of development," said Kristen Kosofsky, Senior Managing Director at Hercules. About Albireo Albireo Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel bile acid modulators to treat orphan pediatric liver diseases, and other liver and gastrointestinal diseases and disorders. Albireos lead product candidate, odevixibat, is being developed to treat rare pediatric cholestatic liver diseases and is in Phase 3 development in progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) and biliary atresia, with a third Phase 3 trial being planned in Alagille syndrome. Albireos clinical pipeline also includes two Phase 2 product candidates. Elobixibat is in Phase 2 development in NAFLD and NASH. Approved in Japan for the treatment of chronic constipation, elobixibat is the first ileal bile acid transporter (IBAT) inhibitor approved anywhere in the world. Albireo was spun out from AstraZeneca in 2008. Albireo Pharma is located in Boston, Mass., and its key operating subsidiary is located in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Boston Business Journal named Albireo one of the 2019 Best Places to Work in Massachusetts. For more information on Albireo, please visit www.albireopharma.com. About HCR HealthCare Royalty Partners (HCR") is a private investment firm that purchases royalties and uses debt-like structures to invest in commercial or near-commercial stage biopharmaceutical assets. HCR has $5.5 billion in cumulative capital commitments with offices in Stamford (CT), San Francisco, Boston and London. For more information, visit www.healthcareroyalty.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements, other than statements of historical fact, regarding, among other things: the plans for, or progress, scope, cost, initiation, duration, enrollment, results or timing for availability of results of, development of odevixibat, elobixibat or any other Albireo product candidate or program, including regarding expectations regarding the impact of COVID-19 on our business and our ability to adapt our approach as appropriate; the Phase 3 clinical program for odevixibat in patients with PFIC, the pivotal trial for odevixibat in biliary atresia, the planned pivotal trial for odevixibat in Alagille syndrome, the Phase 2 clinical trial for elobixibat in NAFLD/NASH, and another Phase 3 trial for elobixibat being conducted by EA Pharma in Japan; the target indication(s) for development or approval, the size, design, population, location, conduct, cost, objective, enrollment, duration or endpoints of any clinical trial, or the timing for initiation or completion of or availability or reporting of results from any clinical trial, including the Phase 3 PFIC trial for odevixibat, and the long-term open-label extension study, the pivotal trial for odevixibat in biliary atresia, the planned pivotal trial for odevixibat in Alagille syndrome, or the Phase 2 trial for elobixibat in NAFLD/NASH; the potential approval and commercialization of odevixibat; discussions with the FDA or EMA regarding our programs; the potential benefits or competitive position of odevixibat, elobixibat, or any other Albireo product candidate or program or the commercial opportunity in any target indication; the potential benefits of an orphan drug designation; the period for which Albireos cash resources will be sufficient to fund its operating requirements (runway); or Albireos plans, expectations or future operations, financial position, revenues, costs or expenses. Albireo often uses words such as anticipates, believes, plans, expects, projects, future, intends, may, will, should, could, estimates, predicts, potential, planned, continue, guidance, and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or experience may differ materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement as a result of various risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, but not limited to: negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including on manufacturing, supply, conduct or initiation of clinical trials, or other aspects of our business; whether favorable findings from clinical trials of odevixibat to date, including findings in indications other than PFIC, will be predictive of results from the trials comprising the Phase 3 PFIC program or any other clinical trials of odevixibat; whether either or both of the FDA and EMA will determine that the primary endpoint for their respective evaluations and treatment duration of the double-blind Phase 3 trial in patients with PFIC are sufficient, even if the primary endpoint is met with statistical significance, to support approval of odevixibat in the United States or the European Union, to treat PFIC, a symptom of PFIC, a specific PFIC subtype(s) or otherwise; the outcome and interpretation by regulatory authorities of the ongoing third-party study pooling and analyzing of long-term PFIC patient data; the timing for initiation or completion of, or for availability of data from, clinical trials of odevixibat, including the trials comprising the Phase 3 PFIC program, the pivotal program in biliary atresia or the planned pivotal program in Alagille syndrome, and the outcomes of such trials; Albireos ability to obtain coverage, pricing or reimbursement for approved products in the United States or European Union; delays or other challenges in the recruitment of patients for, or the conduct of, the double-blind Phase 3 trial or other pivotal trials; and Albireos critical accounting policies. These and other risks and uncertainties that Albireo faces are described in greater detail under the heading Risk Factors in Albireos most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or in subsequent filings that it makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result of risks and uncertainties that Albireo faces, the results or events indicated by any forward-looking statement may not occur. Albireo cautions you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement. In addition, any forward-looking statement in this press release represents Albireos views only as of the date of this press release and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Albireo disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required by applicable law. Investor Contact: Hans Vitzthum, LifeSci Advisors, LLC, 617-430-7578 Media Contact: Claire LaCagnina, 6 Degrees, 315-765-1462, clacagnina@6degreespr.com Source: Albireo Pharma, Inc. Policing is about to change in Connecticut. But the question before the Police Accountability Task Force is what will that change look like. Gov. Ned Lamont said one of his priorities will be to work with the state legislature to ban the use of police chokeholds. During a two-and-a-half hour meeting Monday held against the backdrop of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis that has sparked protests across the state and country, the task force agreed that policing in Connecticut needs to be revamped quickly. But its not likely to be fast enough for state Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, who promised that he will be pressing forward with legislation aimed at increasing police accountability while reducing the chances of use of force incidents, including deaths. The work of the task force is important, Winfield told the group of police chiefs, legislators and experts in policing. But you are going to see an effort to have something in legislation and the attempt is going to make that as comprehensive as possible. Legislation crafted by Winfield and passed in 2019 made efforts toward increased police accountability by requiring body camera footage to be released within four days of an incident that could lead to the discipline of an officer. The same law created the task force, required a review of police pursuits, and prohibited officers to get in front of fleeing cars. But Winfield and others said the law didnt go far enough to address issues such as the handling of investigations into the use of deadly force or sanctions for officers who violate policies. After nearly two weeks of mostly peaceful protests throughout the state and at times violent protests across the country, the group and Lamont indicated they were ready to get down to work. Use of force, what we outlaw so we can add some clarity to that, Lamont said of the issues he wanted addressed. I think weve learned a lot, I learned a lot from the shocking picture of George Floyd and what that told us about policing and what that told us about racism, something we thought we were making progress on. Lamont later said during a press conference that he wanted the task force and the legislature to look at discipline for officers who were on scene during incidents where an inappropriate use of force was deployed and did nothing, like the officers who watched as one put his knee on Floyds neck for nine minutes. What should the consequences be for them? Lamont said. The governor also wants a ban on choke holds as a part of any police accountability legislation Winfield puts forward during a special legislative session expected in the coming weeks. Many members of the task force agreed that police culture needed to change and that police unions often prevented command staff from instituting real change by bucking disciplinary action. The public is understandably upset, said Andrew Clark, director of the Institute of Municipal Planning and Regional Policy at Central Connecticut State University. The institute became involved in policing issues in 2011 when the East Haven Police Department came under scrutiny for racial profiling in 2011, Clark said. Clark was a part of a 2016 task force that made 2018 recommendations for police training. When you are talking East Haven in 2011 and the task force in 2016, you can understand the anger, Clark said. The actions of the officers who participated in Floyds death are reprehensible, heart-wrenching and criminal, Chief States Attorney Richard Colangelo said in press release issued hours after he participated in the task force meeting. There is nothing to defend. There is nothing to debate. I share in the sadness and outrage of those here and across the country. Colangelo vowed to improve relationships with the community and implement policy changes to promote accountability and transparency. I look forward to having difficult conversations with legislators, city leaders, police chiefs and members of our communities to make much-needed changes to restore trust in our legal system, he said. We need to rebuild that fractured trust, and the only way to do that is to stake steps to ensure that every citizen of our state is treated with respect, dignity and fairness. Colangelos predecessor, Kevin Kane, was supportive of the current system of investigating deadly use of force incidents by assigning the cases to states attorneys in a different jurisdiction. Although the investigations resulted in lengthy reports, no officer has been charged criminally in the death of a suspect in about two decades even though more than two dozen people have died. Advocates including the Connecticut American Civil Liberties Union have been calling for a change in state law that defines whether an officer used deadly force appropriately and they have been calling for independent investigations. Under current law, a states attorney only looks at the few seconds before the death occurs to determine if the officer used the appropriate level of force or if it was a criminal act. By that point, the officer is usually in a life or death struggle with a suspect, leaving little choice but to use deadly force. It is up to the officers police department to conduct an internal affairs investigation to determine if there was a violation of policy. The entire system needs to change, including more transparency, an independent review process for incidents, better training, better wellness for officers and better de-escalation tactics, according to task force members. Internal affairs needs to go by the wayside, said Sgt. John Szewczyk, former president of the Hartford Police Union. We cant have the police investigating the police. It needs an independent agency. You have people who go to the academy together and work side by side and then they are investigating someone. The states Police Officer Standards and Training Council can put into place a prohibition on choke holds and neck restraints and requirements to intervene and reporting inappropriate behavior, said Milford Chief Keith Mello, the President of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association. But police unions and state Labor Board actions can hamper attempts to deal with officers who may be subject of complaints or inappropriate behavior, Mello said. There has to be accountability at the local level, Mello said. Police officers have to know that discipline will be sustained at the labor board. We need to look at the labor systems. I understand due process, I understand the appeal process. Those are important but sometimes they get in the way. Officers need to understand that a physical altercation, while sometimes unavoidable, is not a victory, Mello said. The use of force is actually a failure, he said. Success is not winning that altercation, its not getting into that altercation. The task force is charged with drafting a report for recommended changes. The report was supposed to be complete by January, but most of the members werent chosen until after Jan. 1. Lamont said during the meeting that he wanted the report as soon as possible. The group will meet again June 22. BJPs Rajya Sabha election candidates Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti filed their nomination papers Tuesday even as Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said the decision to field them was discussed with me. The BJP's central leadership on Monday had sprung a surprise by fielding Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha election ignoring the recommendations of the party's state unit. Also read BJP delivers shock, selects Kadadi, Gasti for RS polls By picking Kadadi and Gasti, the BJP central leadership overlooked the Karnataka BJPs recommendation of fielding incumbent Prabhakar Kore, former MP Ramesh Katti and hotelier Prakash Shetty. Our core committee had sent some names, but finally, our national leaders discussed with me and said they had decided to field ordinary party workers, Yediyurappa told reporters. This was decided at a meeting presided by PM Modi. It's not just here, but in all states that they're fielding ordinary party workers. Yediyurappa hailed the decision to field Kadadi and Gasti. This is a big gift to our party workers. For this, I thank PM Modi, our national president JP Nadda and Amit Shah, Yediyurappa said, adding that he was confident Kadadi and Gasti would do well in the Rajya Sabha. I think only the BJP can take a decision like this...giving opportunities to ordinary workers. Yediyurappa, his Deputy Laxman Savadi, BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel, Tourism Minister CT Ravi and Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi were present when Kadadi and Gasti filed their nomination papers. Speaking to reporters here, he expressed confidence that both candidates would work effectively in Rajya Sabha. "Only BJP can take such decisions and give an opportunity to ordinary karyakartas. From our core committee (state) we had sent some names, but ultimately our national president spoke to me and said it has been decided to give tickets to ordinary party workers, we discussed it, after which the two names have been finalised." The state BJP core committee on Saturday had recommended three names to high command as probable candidates - Ramesh Katti, the brother of senior MLA Umesh Katti, incumbent Prabhakar Kore and hotelier Prakash Shetty. Ignoring the state unit's recommendation, two low-key workers Kadadi and Gasti, who have been associated with the party organisation for long, were announced on Monday afternoon by the central leadership. Responding to a question about new names other than the ones decided by the state core committee being announced, Yediyurappa said, "We had sent names after deciding in the core committee. In Delhi under the leadership of the prime minister, senior leaders have met and decided to give tickets to ordinary party workers." "It is not for our state alone, the decision is applicable to other states also, I welcome it," he said. Also read BJP loyalist who missed MLC bus gets rewarded with RS ticket While, Kadadi, a Lingayat is party's Belagavi division in-charge; Gasti from Savitha Samaj (barber community) from Raichur district is party in-charge for the Bellary division. Both have backgrounds with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and have worked for the organisation at the grass-root level for decades. They will be filing nominations today. The announcement of two names came as a complete surprise to the party's state unit and has certainly given a clear message to its leadership, a senior party functionary said, adding "it is a clear indication that loyalty to the party and ideology is what matters, and not to any particular leader." It is also part of a strategy to nurture and elevate second-rung leaders, he noted. The move is also being seen as a setback to Yediyurappa, as names considered close to him have not been considered. This has come at a time for Yediyurappa when there are speculations about dissidence within the state BJP against his leadership, with several MLAs, especially from north Karnataka recently holding separate meetings. The election is scheduled on June 19 to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, represented by Rajeev Gowda and B K Hariprasad of Congress, Prabhakar Kore of the BJP and D Kupendra Reddy of JD(S) that will fall vacant on June 25, with their retirement. The BJP, with 117 members in the assembly (including Speaker), can ensure easy victory in two seats. (With inputs from PTI) Washington Attorney General William Barr said that the U.S. Secret Service told Donald Trump to go to a secure part of the White House as large protests unfolded outside, contradicting the president's account of what happened. "Things were so bad that the Secret Service recommended that the president go down to the bunker," Barr said Monday in an interview on Fox News. "We can't have that in our country." The opposing versions of what occurred center on the night of May 31, as demonstrations over the death of George Floyd had spread to the capital. Trump last week denied going to the bunker for his safety. "Well, that was a false report," Trump said Wednesday on Brian Kilmeade's Fox News Radio show. "I was there for a tiny, little short period of time. It was much more for an inspection." On the previous Friday night, May 29, demonstrators clashed with the U.S. Secret Service in Lafayette Square outside the White House. Floyd, a black Minneapolis man, died in police custody May 25. The clashes occurred alongside an outer ring of temporary fencing set up along the edge of the park, leading to six arrests and multiple injuries among the agency's personnel, the Secret Service said. Barr said that when a crowd of protesters was forcibly cleared from the park June 1 to make way for Trump to pose for photos outside St. John's Church, "we were reacting to three days of extremely violent demonstrations right across from the White House. A lot of injuries to police officers. Arson." Barr played a key role in the removal of the protesters, who were demonstrating peacefully. He stood in the square as police in riot gear prepared to move against them. The clearance of Lafayette Square, and Trump's threat to send federal troops to cities and states to quell unrest, touched off widespread criticism, including from Jim Mattis, his former defense secretary and a retired Marine general. The coronavirus pandemics now killed more than 6,000 Pennsylvanians and sickened 76,436 people. The state passed the grim milestone on Tuesday with the Pennsylvania Department of Health reporting 61 new deaths and 493 more COVID-19 cases. The majority of people who have died have been 65 or older. But there is room for optimism. With more than half of Pennsylvanias counties in the green stage of reopening, the states growth of cases continues to slow down to rates not seen since late March.. (Cant see this chart? Click here.) The Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs, which have been hardest hit by the virus, entered the yellow phase on Friday. State health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine urged vigilance in a news release Tuesday. Each of us has a responsibility to protect ourselves, our loved ones and others by wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing and washing our hands frequently," Levine said. "Together we can protect our most vulnerable Pennsylvanians, our essential workers and our healthcare system. (Cant see this chart? Click here.) Of Pennsylvanias 76,436 coronavirus cases, 5,796 or 7.5% have been health care workers. Residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities account for 16,247 cases 21% of Pennsylvanias total case county and 4,117 deaths, or 68.5% of the states COVID-19 death toll. (Cant see this chart? Click here.) The health department estimates that 71% of Pennsylvanias COVID-19 patients have recovered as have 58% of residents in long-term care facilities and 78% of employees. The department also reports that 459,248 tests to date have come back negative. After launching a new COVID-19 dashboard on Monday, which restricted public access to raw data, the department reversed course on Tuesday releasing case, death and testing counts by county again. Coronavirus in the Lehigh Valley Northampton County added seven new cases bringing its total to 3,175. Neighboring Lehigh County saw another 19 cases for a total of 3,890. Each county reported four new deaths, with a total of 253 in Lehigh and 236 in Northampton County. The rate of positive tests in both counties -- a key indicator of adequate testing levels -- has been trending steadily down. The 24-hour positive test rates Tuesday were well below the World Health Organization threshold of 10%. And on Monday St. Lukes University Health Network celebrated the discharge of its 1,000th COVID-19 patient from its main campus in Fountain Hill. (Cant see the chart? Click here.) 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 lehighvalleylive.com. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Student Exposes Chinese Authorities Tactic to Abduct Her A Chinese student in Australia exposed the threats and harassment her family experienced from Chinese authorities after she participated in rights defending activities overseas. She uses the alias Zoo to protect her identity. Zoo began studying in Australia last June. She has organized two memorials in Melbourne for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus victim Li Wenliang, the whistleblower doctor who first publicized information about the outbreak in December 2019. Last October, she joined the Hong Kong demonstrations to protest against a controversial extradition bill before it was formally withdrawn later that month. Father Harassed in China In April, the domestic security bureau, a police force tasked with neutralizing those whom the CCP views as political threats, summoned Zoos father in the middle of the night. They told him that Zoo allegedly committed the crimes of inciting overseas Chinese people to assemble in front of the Chinese embassy and teaching the Chinese how to bypass the Great Firewall, the Chinese regimes sophisticated online censorship mechanism. They forced her father to obtain her Twitter password and asked him to persuade her to turn herself in. Zoo told The Epoch Times that her father was a Communist Party member and a professional scholar studying Marxism. After being threatened by the domestic security bureau, her father recently tried to persuade her to return home, she said. My father wants me to turn myself in because thats his political stance. We havent had a family trip for so many years. I did not expect him to talk about how much hes missed me and hoped to plan a trip together because the police told him to, said Zoo. She also said the police had her father keep track of her activities and report her situation on a weekly basis. Walking her Own Path When asked what made her choose a different path from her fathers, she said, Since I was a child, I have always been a troublemaker and I would stand up against injustice. When I was young, I learned the facts of the CCPs cruelty. People seem to ignore and get accustomed to it, but I find it unacceptable. Zoo learned how to bypass the Great Firewall, Chinas internet blockade, when she was in high school. Her negative impression of the CCP was confirmed after she saw online videos exposing the truth about the Tiananmen Square massacreshe was shocked and angry. The Youth Lack a Sense of Identity On the eve of the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacrewhen the Chinese regime brutally suppressed pro-democracy protesters in BeijingZoo decided to confront the Chinese regime by showing her face on Twitter. She condemned the CCPs dictatorship. Zoo said that when she was in China, she would always express her opinions about the Tiananmen Square massacre on various websites through bypassing the Firewall. On the 30th anniversary last year, for example, I would not have dared to issue sensitive posts such as opposing Xi Jinping, but just photos or songs related to the June 4 massacre, just as a commemoration, because I was in China, said Zoo. For this years commemoration of the Tiananmen Square massacre, she decided to make two placards of the Tank Man. Tank Man placards created by Zoo to commemorate the June 4 Incident. (Courtesy of Zoo) This June 4 is her first experience to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre overseas. After days of painful struggle, she finally decided to stand up and show her true face. She was determined to expose the CCPs tactic to manipulate her family and their attempt to abduct a dissident like her. Zoo indicated that most of her friends know about the June Fourth Incident, but they choose to stay silent about it. She felt that the generation in 1989 had a sense of identity, they believed the country belonged to them, and they had a sense of responsibility for the country, the people and the future. On the contrary, Zoo said the youth from her generation now feels powerless and pessimistic, They no longer feel the ownership of this country, she said. Zoo blamed the Communist regime for brainwashing its people. She said, Its not that they [young people] really believe in communism. They have been following its heresy and sometimes they are neither willing nor interested in learning the truth. Some of them might know that the CCP is bad, but they would still follow its instruction when things happen. However, she believes that conscience is the one thing people should follow, including supporting the Hong Kong movement and commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre. In her video, she shared the following message: In the face of a dictatorship, everyone could become a victim of persecution. Only when more young people join the democratic social movements with their creativity and passion, will we be able to gather more people sharing the same ideas, resolve the feeling of powerlessness and finally overthrow the CCP regime. Below is an English translation of Zoos Twitter post (1 of 2): On the 31st anniversary of the June 4 massacre, I decided to publicly show my face and my act against Xi Jinpings dictatorship! This video is divided into two parts, talking about my struggles and recent encounters. I have been trying to hide my identity. But at the end of April, the domestic security bureau found my parents. My sixty-year-old father was called to the police station many times late at night. They accused me of inciting overseas Chinese to fight (against the regime), insulting Xi Jinping, and threatened me to hand over my Twitter password. Below is an English translation of the Twitter post (2 of 2): After many days of painful struggles, I decided to stand up and break the most common sinister tactics of the CCP: Hold loved ones as hostages and abduct the dissidents! In the face of a dictatorship, everyone can become a victim of persecution. Only when more young people join the democratic and social movements with their creativity and passion that will we be able to gather more people who share the same ideas, resolve the feeling of powerlessness and finally overthrow the CCP regime. Jian Feng contributed to this report. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-10 02:12:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The rain-triggered floods in south China had affected some 2.63 million people in 11 provincial-level regions as of 2 p.m. Tuesday, the Ministry of Emergency Management said. The heavy rains had forced the relocation of about 228,000 people, destroyed more than 1,300 houses and brought direct economic losses of over 4 billion yuan (about 566 million U.S. dollars), the ministry said. Since June 2, downpours have hit large parts of south China, bringing accumulated precipitation of 100 to 300 mm in some regions. Affected by the rainstorms, 110 rivers in eight provincial-level regions have seen water levels exceed the warning line, the ministry said. In southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, over 1 million people have been affected by floods. As of 7 p.m. on Monday, six people were killed and one went missing after days of downpour. In central Hunan Province, seven people were killed and one went missing as of Tuesday. Local authorities have called for more preparations ahead of the new round of heavy rain and natural disasters that may follow. Enditem [June 09, 2020] DRX signs partnership with Kakao, Kakao Friends IP will be used in main sponsorship agreement Partnership will launch new joint marketing campaigns employing Kakao's "Kakao Friends" IP Expected to create a new trend beyond one-dimensional marketing effects with plans to create novel content DRX CEO Sang-in Choi aims to "produce content that global fans can enjoy together... This will create a new K-wave" SEOUL, South Korea, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On the 9th, DRX (CEO Sang-in Choi), an eSports company, announced that it is entering into a partnership with Kakao (Co-CEO Min-soo Yeo, Soo-yong Cho) by starting various campaigns and using the Kakao Friends IP as the main sponsor. The partnership was signed between DRX and Kakao(KRX: 035720) in anticipation of a new viral synergy for national and international eSports fans. In particular, Kakao believes that DRX's large global fandom, strong challenge spirit, and growth potential are suitable to express the dynamic vitality and liveness of Kakao Friends, which has established itself as a K-wave character in the overseas market. DRX is a professional eSports company that operates DRX, the wildly popular League of Legends pro game team. It has a global fandom large enough to be listed on top 3 of the averae global viewership among the League of Legends teams across the world, including North America, Europe and China. DRX has DRX Deft, a globally well-known ADC, and the next-generation rookie, DRX Chovy, who succeeds Faker's legacy. Kakao's Kakao Friends consists of eight characters: Ryan, Apeach, Con, Muzi, Tube, Frodo, Neo, and Jay-G. Based on an interesting universe and entertaining canon, Kakao Friends transcends its on/offline merchandise and produces videos, platforms, and services which are loved by both national and international fans. Through the partnership DRX and Kakao Friends will launch a joint global marketing campaign. Kakao Friends' character 'Ryan' will be shown on DRX's uniform, and fans can meet Kakao Friends in DRX's various content channels such as individual players' streams and on team merchandise. The campaign will not just stop at a character marketing level but aim to extend and create a new cultural trend. It is expected to present a unique push to fans as it plans to produce various original collaborative content that the eSports industry nor Kakao has ever seen. According to the CEO of DRX, Sang-in Choi, "We will provide an opportunity to create a new K-wave with Kakao Friends, which has infinite potential value." He also added "(this partnership) will further cultivate the eSports ecosystem." DRX has previously signed a sponsorship agreement with McLaren, the world's leading supercar brand. DRX is the only eSports team to be sponsored by McLaren in Korea. In addition, DRX has entered into partnerships with about 10 various companies and brands, such as Red Bull (an energy drink company), HyperX, Logitech, and Xenics (gaming equipment producers), ETAC (clothing company), and Upcle (media company). The rebranding done last November as DRX is considered to be a success since the team has attracted over 8 times more sponsorship revenue compared to last year. DRX Introduction DRX is an eSports organization and runs a professional League of Legends team. It has a strong global fandom, which helped DRX reach 270k average viewers in this spring season and 3rd place in global viewership across all League teams. DRX has developed a proprietary method of quantitative and qualitative metrics analysis upon which it will build a structured team training system. Since it also has a deep roster with one leading team along 3 academy teams and a continuous stream of great talent, DRX anticipates a better future to come. Just like the team slogan "Enjoy Challenge", DRX makes savoring challenges its motto. For More Information DRX Corporation Won, Jong Bae IPR Manager [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/drx-signs-partnership-with-kakao-kakao-friends-ip-will-be-used-in-main-sponsorship-agreement-301072600.html SOURCE DRX [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 25 times, Trend reports on June 9 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 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. [June 09, 2020] CEO Alex Sun Introduces Mitchell's 2nd Quarter 2020 Industry Trends Report Mitchell International, a leading provider of technology, connectivity and information solutions to the property & casualty claims and collision repair industries, today released its Industry Trends Report for the second quarter of 2020. The report presents current data, important trends, and valuable recommendations for an industry still managing the impacts of COVID-19 on employees, customers, and business processes. "Parts of our industry are on their way back to normal, but other areas of the property and casualty industry likely won't return to the way they were before," said President and CEO Alex Sun in his introductory article. "We'll discover that new ways of working have redefined 'business as usual' as we embrace new technologies and new processes to better serve our customers in this new environment." Other Mitchell executives shared insights into the drivers behind claims virtualization, how customers are finding success during the pandemic, the growth of telemedicine, the need to go paperless as we maintain social distancing, data on emerging total loss trends and Q1 used vehicle market conditions, Michigan's new utilization review rules, new workers' compensation legislation, and predictions about the future of technology in our industry. These insights are collected into two editions: the Auto Physical Damage Edition and the Casualty Edition, each with their own lead article. The Auto Physical Damage Edition: Reduce In-Person Interactions (News - Alert) and Improve Efficiency with Virtual Claims This edition begins by discussing the market drivers for the growth in claims virtualization. For consumers, virtual estimating meets their expectations of speed, ease and convenience. For carriers, it's designed to improve production efficiency while increasing customer satisfaction. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated adoption of virtual estimating, as companies look for ways to limit in-person interactions while still providing quality service. By allowing the consumer to take the initial first notice of loss photos of an accident and send them directly to a carrier, human contact is minimized and appraiser productivity increases. Click here to read the full aricle. The Auto Physical Damage edition also shares the stories of three collision repair facility owners and how each of them have found different paths to success during the pandemic. It reports on several important data trends, including changes in market dynamics that are impacting total loss during COVID-19, conditions of the Q1 2020 used vehicle market, and the average length of rental for repairable vehicles in Q1 2020. The Casualty Edition: COVID-19 Updates on Regulations, Telemedicine, Access to Care and Testing The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the property & casualty industry to experience an unprecedented number of changes in a short period of time. From a slew of regulatory changes to fluctuations in claim frequency and severity, the industry continues to see new impacts nearly every day. The lead article in this edition discusses those impacts and predicts the future for four areas affected by the pandemic: regulations, telemedicine, access to care and COVID-19 testing. Click here to read the full article. Other articles in the Casualty Edition analyze the efficiencies of paperless billing and payment processes, explain the new utilization review rules coming as part of Michigan's No-Fault Reform, explore in depth the new workers' compensation legislation addressing essential workers affected by COVID-19 with both an article and a webinar, and predict the future of technology in the workers' compensation industry. About the Industry Trends Report Now in its 19th year, Mitchell's Industry Trends Report reaches more than 30,000 collision and casualty industry professionals and provides meaningful visibility into data-driven trends in the P&C and collision repair markets. The complete reports are available at mpower.mitchell.com/industry-trends-reports. For further collision repair and property casualty industry updates and perspectives, follow Mitchell on Twitter (News - Alert) @Mitchell_Intl, @MitchellClaims, @MitchellRepair, @MitchellPBM and on LinkedIn. About Mitchell International Headquartered in San Diego, California, Mitchell International, Inc. delivers smart technology solutions that simplify and accelerate claims handling, repair processes and pharmacy transactions, driving more accurate, consistent and cost-effective resolutions. Mitchell integrates deep industry expertise into its workflow solutions, providing unparalleled access to data, advanced analytics and decision support tools. Mitchell's comprehensive solution portfolio and robust SaaS (News - Alert) infrastructure connect its customers in ways that enable tens of millions of electronic transactions to be processed each month for more than 300 insurance providers, over 65,000 pharmacies and 30,000 collision repair facilities, as well as countless other Property & Casualty industry supply partners across the Americas and Europe. For more information, please visit Mitchell.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005221/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] In April, word emerged that Jensen had shuttered the brewery, something he has said he was considering for months due to slow sales and a failure to gain a foothold in one of the nations most competitive beer markets. The coronavirus pandemic pushed him to do it. New Delhi: Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged on the ground at multiple locations in Eastern Ladakh, as both the nations gear up for the next round of military talks scheduled to commence this week, according to sources. The Chinese Army has also pulled back its troops from the Galwan valley, PP-15 and Hot Springs in Eastern Ladakh area by 2 to 2.5 kilometres, Zee News has come to know. The talks between the two armies are going to be held this week at multiple locations including Patroling point 14 (Galwan area), Patrolling point 15, and Hot Springs area, said the sources. The disengagement of troops is seen in the wake of the talks to be held in the next few days and the Lt Gen-level talks held on June 6. Reciprocating the Chinese disengagement, the Indian side has also brought back some of its troops and vehicles from these areas, said the sources said, as the talks are being held on these points at the battalion commander level. Indian military teams are already in Chushul to engage the Chinese in talks and are coordinating with the senior officials in this regard. On India-China standoff, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that the high-level dialogue between Chinese and Indian militaries was "positive", and both sides vowed to continue the talks to end the "tussle". Rajnath Singh had also asserted that the government will not allow India's pride and self-respect to be hurt at any cost. The Defence Minister's comments indicated India's resolve to deal with the row with a firm approach even as the armies of the two Asian neighbours are engaged in a bitter confrontation in several areas in eastern Ladakh, including Galwan Valley and Pangong Tso. Azerbaijan has extended coronavirus lockdown restrictions including the closure of borders until July 1, the government said on Tuesday. It said internal flights could resume from June 15 but that all people must stay at home in big cities, including the capital Baku, on June 14 and 15 after the number of COVID-19 infections rose. Similar restrictions were imposed on June 6 and 7. Azerbaijan introduced measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus on March 24 and has extended them several times, most recently until June 15. Shopping centres, cinemas, restaurants and cafes reopened on May 31 but the wearing of protective face masks and social distancing is mandatory in public spaces. The South Caucasus country of about 10 million people had registered 8,191 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 98 deaths as of Tuesday. Search Keywords: Short link: In case 2020 wasn't a strange enough year already, Wednesday marked the tenth day of the official Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1, and it is already shaping up to be one of the fastest-starting Atlantic seasons in history. Cristobal's formation and name designation on June 2 broke the previous record for the earliest C-named storm ever, formerly held by 2016's Tropical Storm Colin. Compared to last year, Cristobal's strengthening into the third named storm of the year arrived over 10 weeks earlier than 2019's third-named system, Tropical Storm Chantel. Looking ahead, records for this already historic season may continue to be set with the name Dolly on deck. According to records from the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the month of June has had only two other D-named storms: Tropical Storm Debby from 2012 and Tropical Storm Danielle from 2016. Robbie Yates carries some of his belongings past a flooded school bus in Live Oak, Fla., Wednesday, June 27, 2012. Hundreds of homes and businesses were flooded by torrential rains from Tropical Storm Debby. (AP Photo/Dave Martin) Debby formed over the south-central Gulf of Mexico before slamming into the Big Bend area of Florida on June 26, 2012. The system weakened soon after moving inland, but it produced a considerable amount of flooding across northern and central portions of the state. Danielle formed in a similar area and was a short-lived tropical storm that developed over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The weak tropical storm made landfall near Tamiahua in eastern Mexico on June 20, 2016. According to AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor and Meteorologist Jesse Ferrell, there have been 69 D-named storms in the Atlantic since naming officially began in 1950. The most common of those names are Dolly at eight times and the aforementioned Debby and Danielle at seven times apiece. So far, eight D-named storms have been retired, including Hurricane Diane in 1955 and Hurricane Dean in 2007. Hurricane Dorian from 2019 is expected to be retired sometime this year. Ferrell said all of the retired D-named storms formed in August, with the exception of Dennis, which formed the earliest on July 4, 2005. Story continues All of that is to say that reaching the fourth named storm of a hurricane season in June is extremely rare. However, having this conversation in the second week of the month is unheard of. Two Haitian migrants sit as one stands amid the ruins of a home destroyed by Hurricane Dorian in Abaco, Bahamas, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019. A preliminary report estimates Dorian caused some $7 billion in damage, but the government has not yet offered any figures. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said there are no definitive signs suggesting there will be any tropical development in the coming days; however, there are some areas of concern. "We are watching two areas of concern. An area of low pressure located about 450 miles east of Bermuda is forming. The system is forming over only marginally warm water and within an environment not very favorable for tropical development," he said. "As a result, the chance of development looks low at this point. If the system were to wind up during the next day or two, it would probably be classified as a subtropical storm since there is lots of dry air to the west and southwest of the storm." According to Kottlowski, even if the system were to develop soon, it would most likely remain east of Bermuda and not pose a threat to any landmass. The other area Kottlowski said meteorologists are keeping an eye on is the water around the Yucatan Peninsula, close to where Cristobal strengthened. According to Kottlowski, a tropical wave currently 770 miles east of the Windward Islands is projected to move westward and over Trinidad and Tobago as a disorganized feature on Friday. Cristobal is seen churning near the coast of the Mexican state of Tabasco in the Bay of Campeche on June 3, 2020, in this satellite image. (NOAA / GOES-East). "This system will track along or over the northern coast of South America. Then, if it does not fall apart, it could emerge over the southwest Caribbean early next week and then track northwest," Kottlowski said. "Some computer forecasts are suggesting this feature will cause a broad area of low pressure to develop over Central America which could then move into waters in and around the Yucatan later next week or a week from this coming weekend," he added. Kottlowski reiterated the potential for development this far out is unclear at this point, but that forecasters will continue to monitor the situation. Given how much time remains in June, however, there may be a strong chance for records to continue falling. Tropical Storm Danielle became the earliest-ever D-named storm by forming on June 20, 2016, besting the previously held record by Tropical Storm Debby, which formed on June 23, 2012. Before Debby, the earliest a hurricane season had ever spawned its fourth name on the list was July 5, when Hurricane Dennis strengthened in 2005, eventually becoming the first of five names to be retired after the historic 2005 season. In 2016, the previously earliest C-named storm, Colin, formed exactly two weeks before the current earliest D-storm, Danielle, was named. Should that pattern repeat itself this month, the current hurricane season would add another speed record to its list, just as we've come to expect from the bizarre year that has been 2020. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. The World Health Organization (WHO) has walked back its claims that it is uncommon for aysymptomatic coronavirus patients to spread the virus after Harvard University scientists criticized the agency for creating confusion. On Monday, the UN health agency said it had doubts that the virus was difficult contain due to people without signs such as fever, cough or shortness of breath. WHO officials said that symptomatic spread can occur, but it isn't the main avenue by which the disease is being transmitted. 'From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,' Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a news conference. 'It's very rare.' But researchers from Harvard say that a multitude of evidence suggests those without symptoms can, and easily do, spread coronavirus. Later on Monday, the WHO called the statement a 'misunderstanding,' and admitted that people with no symptoms do, in fact, spread the disease. On Monday, the WHO said it's very rare that asymptomatic people spread coronavirus and that they are not a 'main driver' of new infection. Pictured: Dr Maria Van Kerkhove during a press conference, June 8 Harvard's Global Health institute says the WHO 'created confusion' with its statement that those without symptoms are not readily spreading the virus. Pictured: Mourners arrive for a public visitation for George Floyd at the Fountain of Praise church in Houston, Texas, June 8 During the news briefing, Van Kerkhove said the WHO had doubts about asymptomatic spread after reports came in from contact tracers. 'We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing,' she said. 'They're following asymptomatic cases. They're following contacts. And they're not finding secondary transmission onward. It's very rare.' If asymptomatic spread is not one of the main ways coronavirus is spreading, this could make people question why people are socially distancing and wearing masks. However, Harvard's Global Health Institute said research shows people without COVID-19 symptoms are spreading the disease and that 'the WHO is creating confusion by suggesting otherwise.' According to the group, the WHO's comment was based on 'evidence from member states' that has not yet been shared with the scientific community. 'Obviously the issue about whether or not can spread symptoms is critical to controlling this,' Dr Ashish K Jha, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told DailyMail.com. 'It's been the Achilles heel of this outbreak. The threat of asymptomatic spread, it's real and substantial.' Jha said that about one in five people who contract COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, never develop symptoms 'They feel fine throughout the disease course. That's where we think are right now,' he said. 'I would say there's good evidence that people who are infected, who have no symptoms and feel fine, can and do spread the infection.' It echoes similar comments made by director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr Robert Redfield, back in April. At the time, he said this explained how cases continued to spread across the country even as strict social distancing measures were enacted. In fact, Redfield said asymptomatic people can shed the virus up to 48 hours before any symptoms appear. It echoes similar comments made by director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr Robert Redfield, back in April. At the time, he said this explained how cases continued to spread across the country even as strict social distancing measures were enacted. In fact, Redfield said asymptomatic people can shed the virus up to 48 hours before any symptoms appear. Jha said people need to continue to follow safety precautions recommended by health agencies and medical professionals. 'We need to continue to wear masks, socially distancing and wash hands,' he said. 'If the WHO has data, they need to share it and explain why this should change, but I really don't think they do or they will. 'I expect a much more explicit walking back of their comments over the next 24 hours.' And precisely, the WHO did just that on Tuesday saying that the comments were simply a 'misunderstanding.' Van Kerkhove, who made the original comment, said it was based on two or three studies and that she does not think asymptomatic transmission is rare. 'I was just responding to a question, I wasn't stating a policy of W.H.O. or anything like that,' she said. Van Kerkhove said that studies show about 16 percent of the population may be asymptomatic, but later clarified that other models suggest up to 40 percent of global transmission may be due to asymptomatic people. The sanctions include prohibitions on imports of products originating in Crimea or Sevastopol into the EU. RFE/RL journalist Rikard Jozwiak says the EU ambassadors will on Wednesday give green light to prolong the EU's Crimea investment ban by another year. "EU ambassadors will on Wednesday give green light to prolong the EU's Crimea investment ban by another year," he wrote on Twitter on June 8, 2020. EU ambassadors will on Wednesday give green light to prolong the EU's #Crimea investment ban by another year. #Ukraine#Russia Rikard Jozwiak (@RikardJozwiak) June 8, 2020 Sanctions include bans on: imports of products originating in Crimea or Sevastopol into the EU; investment in Crimea or Sevastopol, meaning that no Europeans or EU-based companies are allowed to buy real estate or entities in Crimea, finance Crimean companies or supply related services; tourism services in Crimea or Sevastopol, in particular, European cruise ships shall not call at ports in the Crimean peninsula, except in case of emergency. The restrictive measures also concern exports of certain goods and technologies to Crimean companies or for use in Crimea in transport, telecommunications, and energy sectors, as well as those related to the prospection, exploration, and extraction of oil, gas, and mineral resources. Technical assistance, brokering, construction or engineering services related to infrastructure in these sectors shall not be provided either. Read alsoU.S. Congress members call on Pompeo to hit Russia with sanctions over Nord Stream 2 As UNIAN reported earlier, in March, the European Union prolonged sanctions against Russia for the undermining of Ukraine's territorial integrity for another six months. "Those are our people ... you see the terrified and depressed looks on their faces when they enter that building, knowing they do not have a fair shake the moment they had those cuffs put upon them, for no other reason than the color of their skin. Did some of my pleasures come with asterisks? Of course, but only because of the realities of pandemic-related takeout, not due to any deficiencies with the restaurant itself. I had to assemble my own khao soi at home, some 30 minutes after picking it up, without any practice at replicating the dishs sculptural grace. I had to disentangle the brick of rice noodles in my pad thai before I could appreciate its sophisticated application of fish sauce and chiles. I had to accept a crispy catfish fillet that has lost its edge, though its sheen of curry glaze still retained plenty of heat. I had no one to share in my excitement when, in the privacy of my car, I bit into a plain-looking chive cake to reveal a big flavorful burst of neon green herbs. Only the mango sticky rice survived the trips unscathed, its coconut milk perfume as seductive as ever. Oscar nominee Josh Brolin sported a white 'wildman' cap and protected himself with a mandatory cloth COVID-19 mask while enjoying the Malibu sunshine on Monday. The 52-year-old SoCal native was joined on his sunny outing by his personal assistant-turned-third wife Kathryn Boyd, who is 20 years younger than him. The married couple of three years both spoke out Friday about their white privilege and attempts to be allies to African-Americans during this time of 'rage' and racial unrest. Break from quarantine: Oscar nominee Josh Brolin sported a white 'wildman' cap and protected himself with a mandatory cloth COVID-19 mask in Malibu on Monday 'I forget that some people want to hurt others. I'm lucky. I've lived a life where I don't have to look over my shoulder every day worried that I'm going to be taken out,' Josh wrote to his 3M Instagram followers. 'I don't have years where oppression has become second nature and the idea of pain isn't a sensitive reality but something that will most likely, unfairly, meet me somewhere along the road.' Meanwhile, the Midheaven Denim owner posted, deleted, then reposted her slideshow from the Black Lives Matter protest on a beach in Santa Monica. 'I saw some of the commentary and took it down embarrassed because admittedly, I know there is, in it's bones, a contradiction in what I am doing,' Boyd wrote to her 125K Instagram followers. 20 years younger than him: The 52-year-old SoCal native was joined on his sunny outing by his personal assistant-turned-third wife Kathryn Boyd 'I'm lucky': The married couple of three years both spoke out Friday about their white privilege and attempts to be allies to African-Americans during this time of 'rage' and racial unrest 'Our system needs fixing': Meanwhile, the Midheaven Denim owner posted, deleted, then reposted her slideshow from the Black Lives Matter protest on a beach in Santa Monica 'By attending a protest, taking photos with my nice camera, putting those photos up on Instagram, then going home to my cozy house and my white privilege and to my daughter who was also born into the same societal programming which perpetuates that white privilege, and I am at a loss.' The 5ft10in former model added: 'I will never experience firsthand what it feels like to be a black person in this country...I [just] want my daughter to grow up in a world that demands better than this. Our system needs fixing.' Speaking of which, Brolin's famous stepmother Barbra Streisand posted a snap on Monday of his 19-month-old daughter Westlyn Reign with the caption: 'Is this the chicest little tomboy?' The Avengers: Endgame action star visited his parents' home next door on April 14, but he later called the move 'irresponsible' due to their advanced age and susceptibility to the coronavirus. Brolin's famous stepmother Barbra Streisand posted a snap on Monday of his 19-month-old daughter Westlyn Reign with the caption: 'Is this the chicest little tomboy?' 'Nothing like a good meeting up with family!' The Avengers: Endgame action star visited his parents' home next door on April 14, but he later called the move 'irresponsible' due to their advanced age and susceptibility to the coronavirus '"Hat" was one of Westlyn's first words!' The legendary 78-year-old joins fellow EGOT champ John Legend this Thursday to co-headline a campaign fundraiser for Joe Biden where tickets start at $2,800 (pictured March 5) LA Mayor Eric Garcetti extended the stay-at home order indefinitely due to the 64K confirmed cases in LA County, which has led to 2,656 deaths as of Monday - according to Johns Hopkins University. The legendary 78-year-old joins fellow EGOT champ John Legend this Thursday to co-headline a campaign fundraiser for Joe Biden where tickets start at $2,800 - according to Deadline. Josh also has two grown children - son Trevor, 31; and daughter Eden, 25 - from his first marriage to Alice Adair, which ended in 1994 after six years. 'My kids and their Mama': Josh also has two grown children - daughter Eden, 25; and son Trevor, 31 - from his first marriage to Alice Adair (R), which ended in 1994 after six years (pictured January 22) Hitting US/UK theaters on December 18! Brolin next play weapons master Gurney Halleck opposite Timothee Chalamet (R) in Denis Villeneve's two-part sci-fi epic Dune Brolin next play weapons master Gurney Halleck opposite Timothee Chalamet in Denis Villeneve's two-part sci-fi epic Dune, which hits US/UK theaters on December 18. Warner Bros. adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel also features Javier Bardem, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, Oscar Isaac, and Rebecca Ferguson. Sir Patrick Stewart originated the role of Gurney Halleck in David Lynch's dismally-reviewed 1984 film, which only earned $37.9M back from its $42M budget. Weather Alert ...Bitterly cold temperatures are forecast for the North Country tonight... Another round of cold temperatures are expected tonight with low temperatures generally dipping to between 10 and 30 below zero. Although winds will be light to calm, protect against hypothermia and expect to need multiple layers of clothing if heading outdoors. Running or even a brisk walk in these conditions could result in frost bite on exposed skin. In the year 1972, when I was a fresher at the postgraduate department of archaeology at Deccan College in Pune, I came across a tall figure with a radiant face walking briskly along the corridors of the department. This person engaged both the young and the old in conversation and his discussions with the faculty on his findings were clear and conducted with a great deal of enthusiasm and authority. This was Shridhar Wakankar, a name that was synonymous with the prominent world heritage site Bhimbetka by then. Despite his successful exhibitions of artworks in India and across Europe and North America, he was a man of amiable disposition, simple living and was dedicated to his chosen field of prehistoric rock art studies. Bhimbetka and related sites earned Wakankar worldwide recognition and the Padma Shri award in 1975. In 2003, UNESCO declared the Bhimbetka rock caves as a World Heritage Site. However, his other significant contributions to unravelling Indias prehistoric past have remained overshadowed. Not much has been written on his discovery and excavation of Chalcolithic site of Kayatha in the Chambal Valley and rediscovery of Dongla village near Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, where the shadow vanishes for a minute at noon on June 21 each year, during the summer solstice. Each year, a large number of enthusiasts gather here to witness the celestial spectacle. Many archaeologists who tread terra incognita in search of the past, take pride in their heritage and would like to discover hard evidence to assert their cultural identities. Post-Renaissance debates in the intellectual circles looked towards India as the centre of human origins and thought of the Ganga Valley as the birthplace of first civilisation. Colonial scholarly explorers were keen on finding evidence in India to prove this theory and began their search for the indelible imprints of man in the archaeological record. Some of them, like Robert Bruce Foote and Archibald Carllyle found evidence for oldest human settlements in the form of stone tools (May 30, 1863) and cognitive behaviour in the form of prehistoric rock art (1867) respectively. These discoveries were as inspiring as they were stimulating and led many archaeologists in the immediate post Independence period to join this organised pursuit of Indias past. The career of Wakankar is no exception to this. He was an artist by training but an explorer and excavator by choice. Devout Indologist He fulfilled the qualifications of a devout Indologist: he diligently investigated prehistoric sites, deciphered inscriptions, collected coins and relics of art, and read the Sanskrit lore pertaining to historical events and places with a missionary zeal. Above all, he was an extraordinary explorer, loved adventure and lived a purposeful life. Although the presence of prehistoric paintings were first recognised by Archibald Carlylle of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in the Vindhya hills (1867), a year before the discovery of the world famous Altamira cave art site in Spain, it did not receive recognition owing to lack of patronage by the authorities of the ASI. By the time Bhimbetka was discovered in 1957, Wakankar had inherited a great legacy of European rock art research. He was already known for finding rock art sites as isolated instances but this dense cluster of polychrome parietal pictographic art at Bhimbetka shot him to fame. Nationalistic historians and archaeologists believed that the deeper our past, the greater is our civilisation. V S Wakankar was one such person, who endeavoured to establish India as the birth place of prehistoric art, whether symbolic or figurative. During a career that spanned nearly 35 years, he established Bharati Kala Bhavan at Ujjain and documented more than 1,500 rock art sites; he was the first explorer of the dry bed of the river Saraswati in the post Independence period; he founded the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology at Vikram University, Ujjain; he founded the Wakankar Bharati Sanskriti Anveshan Nyas and its museum in Ujjain (now Wakankar Puratattva Sangrahalaya) and established the Sanskar Bharati, of which he was lifetime general secretary. Wakankar was also associated with landmark excavations at Maheshwar (1954), Navada Toli (1955), Kayatha (1966) and Bhimbetka (1975-79), to name a few, in collaboration with Deccan College archaeologists. These excavations consistently revealed a distinctive Chalcolithic phase designated as Malwa Culture (1900-1400 BC), an early agricultural community with knowledge of copper metal, hence Chalcolithic. The excavations at Kayatha pushed back the beginning of the Chalcolithic way of life, outside the Harappan province by at least 400 years (2400 -1900 BC), recognised as Kayatha Culture. Wakankars excavation of Kayatha (ancient Kapithhaka), the birth place of ancient Indian astronomer Varaha Mihira (6th century AD), had brought him closer to astronomy and astrology. Wakankar has been a role model to many archaeologists of my generation, especially those who came in personal contact with him during their formative days as archaeologists. (The writer is senior academic fellow, Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi) LYON, France and NEWTON, Mass., June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amolyt Pharma, a global company specialized in developing therapeutic peptides for rare endocrine and metabolic diseases, today announced the appointment of Pierre Legault, MBA, CPA as director and chairman of its board of directors. Mr. Legault brings over 35 years of executive leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical industry. "We are delighted to welcome Mr. Legault to the Amolyt board of directors, a distinguished group of international leaders and investors who have already greatly contributed to the creation and development of our Company," said Thierry Abribat, Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of Amolyt Pharma. "Mr. Legault's broad leadership experience in governance, strategy and business, and proven track record of building and developing clinical-stage organizations, will prove invaluable during this pivotal time as we prepare to move our first asset into the clinic and accelerate the growth of our company," he concluded. Mr. Legault added, "Amolyt Pharma's innovative therapeutic peptides represent potentially life-changing treatments for patients suffering from rare endocrine and metabolic diseases, who otherwise have limited or no therapeutic options. I am especially honored to join the Company's board because in addition to its promising portfolio and strong investor support, Amolyt Pharma is composed of an experienced and ambitious team of individuals who share a common vision. Altogether, these factors bode well for success, and I look forward to providing guidance and key insights to help the company achieve its full potential." In addition to his role at Amolyt Pharma, Mr. Legault also serves as the chairman of Artios Pharma, Bicycle Therapeutics and Poxel Pharma. He is lead director of Urovant Sciences and board director of Syndax Pharmaceuticals, and he has acted as a board director for more than fifteen additional biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical companies. Mr. Legault was the chief executive officer of Prosidion and served as the chief financial officer and treasurer of OSI Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Legault also worked as the chief executive officer of Eckerd Pharmacy as well as of other companies. Earlier in his career, he held various global roles, such as president and chief financial officer at legacy companies of the Sanofi group. Mr. Legault earned his MBA in marketing from McGill University, his bachelor's degree from HEC University of Montreal, and he also studied at Harvard Business School. 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 Contact: Cherilyn Cecchini, M.D. LifeSci Communications ccecchini@lifescicomms.com +1.646.876.5196 As the world mark's World Oceans Day, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, has decried the human activities that adversely impact Ghana's marine and coastal resources. Such activities include indiscriminate disposal of waste, particularly plastics and organic waste on beaches, indiscriminate sand winning and over fishing. He has, therefore, called on citizens to collectively take the responsibility to reduce land based sources of waste that enter the oceans. "We must be reminded that the oceans are the lungs of our planet; without the ocean there will be no life," he said in a message to mark the Day. He indicated that by working together, "we can and will protect and restore our shared oceans". The United Nations General Assembly designated June 8, each year as World Oceans Day (WOD), to raise global awareness of the vital importance of oceans and the role they play in sustaining a healthy planet. The global theme for the 2020 celebration of the Day is: Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean. However, in Ghana, the Day is being observed under the theme, Sustainable Oceans, our Survival. Prof Frimpong- Boateng said the theme underlined the need to adopt novel solutions to address the ever-growing challenges to the oceans. He said the theme was especially relevant ahead of the celebration of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, scheduled from 2021 to 2030 with the view to strengthening international cooperation to develop scientific research and innovative technologies that could connect ocean science with the needs of society. The theme, he explained, also reminds us of the global endowment of the oceans in terms of food, energy, tourism, trade, maritime transport, oil and gas and recreation and international trade. Oceans absorb about 30 per cent of carbon dioxide produced by humans, reducing the impacts of global warming. The Environment Minister explained that it was the sea that regulates the climate and soaks up the heat. It also transports warm water from the equator to the poles, and cold water from the poles to the tropics. Therefore, Ghana, as a coastal State, needed to find innovative ways of utilizing its ocean resources without compromising the marine and coastal ecosystems that supports life on earth. World Oceans Day is celebrated to educate people about the importance of oceans and the importance of protecting waterways, watersheds and ocean waters and habitat and to encourage citizens of the world to take action to preserve and protect the oceans as oceans generate 80 per cent of the world's oxygen. The Day offers an opportunity to global leaders and all people to act together to protect and conserve the oceans. This years celebration would focus on innovations that have the potential to address the challenges of the oceans. Experts would also use the opportunity to explore innovations across various fields, including technology, systems infrastructure, resource management, consumer products, finance and scientific exploration, to help protect the oceans. 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 The presidents son is weighing in on a social media controversy involving Alabamas largest church. On Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a link to an AL.com story regarding the Housing Authority of Birminghams decision to end its partnership with Church of the Highlands after Pastor Chris Hodges liked a social media post by Charlie Kirk, president of the conservative non-profit Turning Point USA. Turning Point USA is a high school and college campus organization sometimes considered controversial for its political stances. Trump Jr. called the cancellation absolutely insane. Theyre canceling the pastor of the largest (and most racially diverse) church in Alabama just because he liked some of @charliekirk11s posts, he wrote. Theyre canceling the pastor of the largest (and most racially diverse) church in Alabama just because he liked some of @charliekirk11s posts. Absolutely insane. https://t.co/OiYc3AXu9C Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 9, 2020 Church of the Highland provided free mentoring, community support groups and faith, health and social service activities at HABDs nine public housing communities. Hodges addressed the controversy in a recent sermon, saying he and the church stand against racism and discrimination. "White supremacy or any supremacy other than Christ, is of the devil, Hodges said. Some have even brought our church or even me into question. Theyre wondering, where do you really stand? I think some saw something on social media that questioned my character. And, Ill own it, by the way, but that is not what I believe. Defence Minister on Monday lashed out at Congress leader and said that "power without responsibility" was nothing new for the Congress, while citing the party's role in Maharashtra, where it is a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Rajnath was responding to Gandhi scion's statement that claimed his party was not a 'decision-maker' in Maharashtra and was just supporting the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led government from outside. " had said that Congress is not a key decision-maker in Maharashtra. What does this mean? Are they washing their hands off their responsibility at this time? This is nothing new, 'power without responsibility' is their character," Singh said at the 'Maharashtra Jan-Samvad Rally' being held through video conferencing. Further, the BJP leader also replied with a couplet to the jibe of Gandhi, who had raised questions over the issue of a border dispute with China. "Haath me dard ho to dawa kije, haath hi jab dard ho to kya kije," Singh said. The couplet roughly translates to, "You apply medicine to the hand when it pains, but what to when the hand itself is the cause of pain." This was recited by Singh in reference to the Congress' election symbol. Earlier in the day, Gandhi used Mirza Ghalib's verse and said that 'everyone knows the status of India's borders but Amit Shah can stay happy in an imaginary world'. Gandhi tweeted in Hindi, "Sabko maaloom hai 'Seema' ki haqiqat lekin, Dil ke khush rakhne ko, 'Shah-Yad' ye khyaal achha hai." It roughly translates to "everybody knows the border's reality but to keep oneself happy, Shah's thought is good". Singh also said that he would answer the queries of all opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, on the border dispute in the Parliament. "Today and some opposition leaders said the government should clarify what is happening at the India-China border. As the Defence Minister of the country, I want to say that whatever I have to say I will say it inside Parliament, I will not mislead the people," Singh said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bengaluru, June 9 : Karnataka on Tuesday registered more Covid recoveries than positive cases, even as 161 new infections raised the states tally to 5,921, an official said here. "New cases reported from Monday 5 p.m. to Tuesday 5 p.m. 161," said a health official. On Tuesday, 164 patients got discharged, similar to Monday when there were more discharges than positive cases. On Monday, 387 discharges were recorded compared to 308 positive cases. Of the new cases, 91 were domestic returnees, which is less in proportion compared to other days. Of the domestic returnees, 84 persons or 92 per cent came from Maharashtra with domestic travel history, a trend consistent for quite a few days now. There were 21 returnees from the UAE, all young men from Dakshina Kannada. Three people tested positive from Bengaluru Urban with international travel history to Kuwait. Meanwhile, cases with contact history rose to 41 on Tuesday. In the past 24 hours, cases spiked in Yadgir, Bengaluru Urban, Dakshina Kannada, Kalaburagi, Bidar, Davangere and Koppal. Among the new cases, Yadgir contributed 61 cases, followed by Bengaluru Urban (29), Dakshina Kannada (23), Kalaburagi (10), Bidar (9), Davangere (8), Koppal (6), Shivamogga (4), Vijayapura, Chikkaballapura, Mysuru and Dharwad (2 each), Bagalkote, Tumkur and Chamarajanagar (1 each). Two patients succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours, a 65-year-old man from Bengaluru Urban and a 17-year-old girl from Kalaburagi, one of youngest victims. Of all the cases, 3,248 are active, 2,605 have been discharged, 66 have died while 12 are admitted to ICUs. In the past 24 hours, Karnataka tested 7,036 people. Of this, 6,397 reports returned negative. The number of tests was lower than other days. In total, 4 lakh samples have been tested so far, of which 3.87 lakh have returned negative. Currently, Udupi is leading the state's Covid-19 burden with 712 active cases, followed by Yadgir (550), Kalaburagi (548), Raichur (276) and Bengaluru Urban (204), among others. Bengaluru Urban has accounted for 19 deaths, followed by Yadgir AKalaburagi (8), Bidar, Vijayapura, Davangere and Dakshina Kannada (6 each) and Chikkaballapura (3 each), among others. Interior minister breached neutrality rule by publishing his biased remarks on ministrys website, court says. Germanys Constitutional Court has ruled that Interior Minister Horst Seehofer had breached neutrality rules when his ministry published on its website comments in which he accused the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party of subversion. Tuesdays largely symbolic ruling is a victory for the AfD, which has been grappling with an internal power struggle. Seehofer said in a 2018 interview with the DPA news agency that despite declarations by its leaders of being a democratic party, the AfD stands against this state and that its verbal attacks against government figures amounted to subversion. The AfD took legal action against Seehofer, who is a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Bavarian allies of Chancellor Angela Merkels conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), after his office published the interview on the interior ministry website. No law broken The court said Seehofers comments did not breach any laws. It added, however, that the publication of the interview on the interior ministry website put the AfD at a disadvantage against other parties and breached neutrality obligations. He had as such made use of resources made available to him only because of his office in government, the court said in its ruling, which did not mention any penalties. 200608103951227 Given that his comments were biased against one party and directed against the claimant, the publication of the interview on the ministry website breaches the law on strict state neutrality. The interview has been removed from the ministry website. Seehofer made the remarks about the AfD after Germanys worst far-right riots in decades erupted in the eastern city of Chemnitz in August 2018 following news of the fatal stabbing of a German man by two Arab asylum seekers. Some AfD members took part in demonstrations in the city denouncing the killing. A majority of members of Oxford City Council have signed a letter urging Oxford University to immediately remove the statue of white imperialist Cecil Rhodes. Twenty-six councillors have signed a letter saying Oriel Colleges monument an early architect of South African apartheid was not compatible with the citys commitment to anti-racism. Campaigners have reignited the campaign to remove the statue amid increasing calls to remove the legacy of racism and colonialism from institutions. A peaceful demonstration is planned in front of the Rhodes statue on Tuesday, part of the citys response to the growing Black Lives Matter movement which began in the US and saw more than 200 marches take place across the UK over the weekend. The statue of Rhodes, who argued of the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon master race, has remained a point of contention outside the college since 2015 when a campaign demanded the figure fall from its position overlooking Oxfords High Street. Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Show all 16 1 /16 Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest The Edward Colston statue has been pulled down by Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol. Colston was a 17th century slave trader who has numerous landmarks named after him in Bristol. Pictured is the statue covered up before it was pulled down Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Protesters pulling down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston William Want Twitter account/AFP Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Protesters pulling down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston William Want Twitter account/AFP Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest A protester presses his knee into the neck of the Edward Colston statue Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest The protest rally was in College Green, Bristol Ben Birchall/PA Wire Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest The Edward Colston statue is defaced Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest A crowd gathers Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Protesters dragging the statue of Edward Colston to Bristol harbourside PA Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest The statue is rolled along the street before being dropped into a nearby river SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Tom Wren / SWNS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Protesters throw the statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour PA Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest Ben Birchall/PA Wire Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest TWITTER/SELLOTTIE via REUTERS Slave trader statue pulled down and thrown in river at Bristol protest PA At the time the university refused to remove the sculpture - instead opting to add a clear historical context to explain why it is there. However calls to rid the building of the statue have been reinvigorated by a growing push to drive out systemic racism - sparked by protests originating in the US following the death of George Floyd at the hand of a policeman. A petition signed by thousands of activists said: We are reigniting the calls for the statue to be removed, as soon as possible. As long as the statue stands the University is only alienating those of whom Rhodes' beliefs have persecuted and oppressed to this very day. The Rhodes Must Fall Oxford campaign group, alongside other student groups, argue that the university has failed to address its institutional racism and the impact on students and the city. An open letter from campaigners to the university's vice-chancellor says the institution has only made inconsequential inroads into tackling the material legacy of imperialism, adding it is not enough. It comes after a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down and thrown into Bristol Harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest on Sunday. Violence and vandalism - in particular the removal of the Colston statue - have since been decried by the government. Home Secretary Priti Patel told the Commons: It's not for mobs to tear down statues and cause criminal damage in our street, while Boris Johnson said in a pre-recorded statement he would not support or indulge those who break the law... or desecrate public monuments. Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Layla Moran, who is MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, said: The statues of white supremacists and slave merchants should not still be standing in our cities. That's why the statue of Cecil Rhodes must come down. I'm not endorsing vigilante action, but I would urge Oriel College in the strongest terms to think about what message this statue sends in 2020, and to remove it. Additional reporting by Press Association. Prince Andrew has squarely refused to co-operate with U.S. investigators probing Jeffrey Epsteins sex crimes, a top American prosecutor said in an extraordinary public exchange with defence attorneys. In response to a statement from the princes U.K. lawyers that he has repeatedly sought to talk to American investigators, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in New York said in his own statement Monday that Andrew has done nothing of the kind. Prince Andrew yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to co-operate with an ongoing federal criminal investigation into sex trafficking and related offences committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, even though the prince has not given an interview to federal authorities, has repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview, and nearly four months ago informed us unequivocally through the very same counsel who issued todays release that he would not come in for such an interview, Berman said in his statement. The sparring marked a dramatic twist in a months-long probe launched by U.S. prosecutors in New York. In March, Berman also said the prince was refusing to co-operate. Then, this past weekend published reports said the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a formal request with the U.K. for the prince to provide testimony as part of the probe into Epstein. That spurred Andrews lawyers at Blackfords LLP to challenge Berman on Monday, saying in their statement that the prince had offered to help three times since he was first approached by the U.S. on Jan. 2. Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the Duke has offered zero co-operation, according to the princes statement. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered. The dueling assertions underscore the growing pressure on Andrew as U.S. prosecutors explore the full extent of Epsteins actions. The prince stepped away from his royal duties in November after comments he made during a television interview about his relationship with Epstein sparked outrage. He said in a prior statement that his association with Epstein has become a major disruption to his familys work and that he wanted to step aside from public duties for the foreseeable future. Andrews friendship with Epstein dates back more than 20 years, and the prince reportedly flew on the financiers private jet and stayed at the financiers properties. He continues to unequivocally regret his ill-judged association with Epstein, he has said. In Andrews statement Monday, his lawyers said theyve been told the prince is not now and has never been a target of the U.S. investigation. A so-called target is a person for whom prosecutors have substantial evidence linking him or her to a crime and is a putative defendant, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Epstein died in a Manhattan prison last year while waiting to face charges that he trafficked underage girls for sex. Prosecutors have said that they continue to investigate Epstein and those who enabled his behaviour. Blackfords didnt immediately respond to an email seeking comment about Bermans new statement. T he Childrens Commissioner today led an outcry as the Government retreated partly from its plan to give all primary school pupils a full month of lessons before the summer holidays. Anne Longfield said millions of vulnerable, lonely and disadvantaged children would suffer real damage and warned that for many childhood is just going to be furloughed for months. In a Commons statement this afternoon, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson was expected to announce that school heads will be given flexibility to decide whether they can get all or just some of their remaining pupils back into lessons while practising social distancing. Mr Williamson will thank the ingenuity of primary heads who managed to open up successfully last week for reception and year six classes. The first official statistics are expected to show more than half of eligible children in those years attended lessons. The setback comes after Health Secretary Matt Hancock said last night that September was the earliest that most secondaries would be able to open fully, meaning millions of pupils could lose more than six months of schooling. Ministers hope that giving flexibility to primary heads, rather than pressing a blanket demand for the return of all primary classes, will encourage schools to be resourceful and get as many children as possible into lessons. Boris Johnsons route map out of lockdown spoke of getting all young pupils back before the summer for a month if feasible. 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 But Public Health England guidance on coronavirus stipulates that lessons must be held in groups of no more than 15, meaning that most primaries need twice as many classrooms. Labour and the big teaching unions welcomed the retreat as overdue. But Ms Longfield, Childrens Commissioner for England, said: Im really disappointed for those children and those parents who have been led to believe they were going to able to get back into school before the summer. This really is the children who are missing out here and paying the penalty. She warned that huge educational gaps were increasing and said there were real concerns about mental health and children in fragile families or those who had no access to laptops for online support. Loading.... And she accused the Government of putting more effort into reopening the economy than schools, telling BBC Radio 4s Today programme: The measures to save jobs, the 4,000-bed hospitals, propping up the economy all of those things have happened in a way that is unimaginable. It is that level of will and determination to overcome the practicalities thats needed now. Because childrens education does matter as much as the economy and we need to invest in it because without it theres a risk that childhood is just going to be furloughed for months. Ms Longfield added: I also think that children are in danger of being forgotten in this lifting of lockdown. We are seeing a situation where theme parks are going to be open in a months time, shops, pubs and restaurants but still children not back in school. Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons education select committee, told Today: We could have an epidemic of education poverty and be damaging the life chances of hundreds of thousands of young people. He said the UK was a strange country for prioritising pubs over schools. We campaign for pubs and cafes to open and yet we say that to open schools before September is too risky, when all the evidence ... suggests otherwise, he said. Mr Halfon said 700,000 children were missing out on learning and urged the creation of a national education broadcasting service on television, plus an army of volunteers to run summer schools to help children catch up for lost time. Shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey welcomed the decision but added: The Government must now give answers on what resources it will provide to adequately support home learning, from the provision of digital devices to all pupils who need one through to targeted online tuition. Mary Bousted, of the National Education Union, said: It has taken the Government some time to recognise what was obvious to most. The Governments social distancing rules made it impossible for primary schools to admit all pupils before the summer holidays. The lawyer for rookie cop Thomas Lane has blamed George Floyd for not getting out of the car during his arrest as the officer's family has set up a fundraiser to pay his legal fees. In a tense stand-off with Chris Cuomo on Cuomo Prime Time Monday night, Lane's attorney Earl Gray said Floyd shouldn't have resisted arrest and should have followed the orders of the four cops, as he insisted bodycam footage proves his client's innocence. 'It wasn't a violent resistance but it wasn't a kind of non-resistance that an individual should do when police officers are arresting him,' Gray said. 'He should get out of his vehicle and follow the orders of the police officers. He didn't do that.' Gray also said Lane could not see what Officer Derek Chauvin was doing to Floyd's neck from where he was pinning the black man to the floor - despite footage appearing to show the rookie cop looking in the direction of these events. He then leveled some blame on the bystanders who had filmed Floyd's alleged murder and warned the cops they were killing the black man, saying they should have stepped in if they thought Floyd was dying. In a tense stand-off with Chris Cuomo on Cuomo Prime Time Monday night, Lane's attorney Earl Gray said Floyd shouldn't have resisted arrest and should have followed the orders of the four cops, as he insisted bodycam footage proves his client's innocence "If they saw the full body camera on my client, I believe [the community] would have a different opinion." The attorney representing Thomas Lane, one of the former officers involved in George Floyds death, says body cam footage will shed new light on what happened that day. pic.twitter.com/EZXxsbYBjQ Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) June 9, 2020 Lane, 37, was arrested and charged Wednesday with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, following Floyd's slaying when fellow officer Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. Lane, who was four days into the job as a police officer when he helped pin Floyd down onto the ground, is facing faces 40 years in jail if convicted. The rookie cop's family have now issued an appeal to the public to help pay for the cop's legal fees after his bail was set at $1 million - while protesters across America continue to demand justice for Floyd and call for an end to systemic racism and police brutality against African-Americans. Gray hit out at the deceased man Monday blaming Floyd for the horrific events that unfolded during his arrest for allegedly paying with a fake $20 bill. The lawyer brushed off the charges against his client, saying Floyd should have done what the cops told him and referencing that he was allegedly under the influence of drugs at the time. 'If you saw the body camera you would know that when my client - after he went up to see Mr Floyd to talk to him - Mr Floyd did not show his hands,' he said. Thomas Lane, 37, (pictured in his mug) was arrested and charged Wednesday with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, following Floyd's slaying when fellow officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes 'He put his right hand below the seat which is clear evidence... that he might be going to grab a gun or hide drugs so my client told him "let me see both of your hands" and he pulled out his gun. 'There was a pause and he didn't show his hands right away but then he put both of his hands on the steering wheel.' Gray said Lane then put his gun back in his holster and they took Floyd out of his car to arrest him. 'And he resisted leaving his vehicle - they finally got him out of his vehicle,' Gray continued, although admitting that Floyd was not violent in his resistance. 'They went to put this hands behind his back to handcuff him and then he resisted again - he didn't want that,' said Gray. Gray said the bodycam footage then shows Floyd sitting on the ground for some time before the cops go to move him to the squad car. 'They take him over to the squad car and he's walking slowly and right before they put him in the squad car he lays back and falls down and he says "I get claustrophobic, I don't want to go in that squad car",' Lane's attorney said. He then said the officers managed to get Floyd in the car but when Chauvin went round to the other side of the car 'Floyd shoved with his feet out toward where officer Chauvin was and he ended up on the other side of the squad car'. 'I would call it a struggle,' Gray added. Lane is pictured far right pinning Floyd to the floor alongside the other cops. Gray also said Lane could not see what Officer Derek Chauvin was doing to Floyd's neck from where he was pinning the black man to the floor - despite footage (above) appearing to show him looking in the direction of these events Floyd was killed on Memorial Day during his arrest by the four cops Gray defended the use of force that led to Floyd's death saying he 'was fighting' and he was '6 foot 2 and had the build of a bodybuilder'. He also added that it was also 'clearly evident' Floyd was 'under the influence of some kind of drug' - something that Cuomo pointed out is not visible or evident in any of the footage that has so far been made public. The lawyer then went on to insist that Lane could not see what Chauvin - the cop who knelt on his neck - was doing to Floyd. Lane was holding Floyd down by his feet at the time and footage from onlookers appears to show Lane kneeling upright and looking in the direction of Chauvin and Floyd's upper body. 'He's got his feet - he was holding his feet down,' he said. 'Officer King was next, then Chauvin - you say [Lane] had a clear view he didn't.' He then slammed the members of the public who witnessed the events, even suggesting they should have intervened rather than his client. 'The public was watching this,' he said. 'My client doesn't have a real good view of Mr Floyd, of what Chauvin is doing, but if all these people say "why didn't my client intercede" - well if the public was there and in uproar about this they didn't intercede either.' Gray said he believes the release of Lane's bodycam footage would shed new light on the events leading to Floyd's death. While he insisted his client could not clearly see the pressure Chauvin was placing on Floyd's neck, he also said his client asked Chauvin if they should roll Floyd onto his side on more than one occasion. 'He did everything that he thought he was supposed to do,' Gray told Cuomo. 'He's a man of compassion. He's not a violent person.' When pushed by Cuomo on why Lane did not follow his duty to intervene when he saw Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck, Gray said Lane was just doing what his superior told him. 'He though he was doing what was right and he was trying to suggest to Chauvin that they should roll him on his side,' said Gray. 'He's got a 20-year veteran and I know while people say "well, so what". Well what do you mean so what - the police force is like the military. You have someone with 20 years' experience and you have someone with four days - and Officer King has three days,' Gray argued. A courtroom sketch of Thomas Lane appearing in Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis. 'Put yourself in that position as this officer who was trained by this guy. '[Chauvin] was one of his training officers,' he said. Gray also pointed out that it was Lane who tried to resuscitate Floyd when medics arrived on the scene. 'He was attempting to revive Mr Floyd - he didn't want to see the man die,' he said. The claims of Lane's innocence come as his family launched a fundraising page asking for help to foot the bill for his legal fees. He is being held in Hennepin County jail on $1 million bond. It was revealed last week that Lane had a string of criminal offenses and traffic violations before he became a cop. Lane was convicted of seven charges in total, among them obstructing legal process and one charge of damaging property. He had also worked a variety of jobs in the service industry before he was hired as a police officer. Lane's personnel file has been released by his former employer, the Minneapolis Police Department, but with many sections redacted. His file notes that Lane left high school before graduating and then held at least ten jobs between 2010 and 2017. During this time, he pursued his GED and a college degree as he worked as a laborer, a telemarketer, a server, a bartender, a security guard and a sales associate. In 2017, he began a job as a juvenile correctional officer and assistant probation officer, the file states. Lane started as a police cadet in 2019 and was a rookie on the force, only on his fourth full-time shift, when on Memorial Day he was one of the first officers to respond to claims that Floyd, 46, had attempted to use a counterfeit $20 bill. He now faces 40 years in jail over his part in Floyd's killing. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) Monterey Meats has given assurances to its customers it will continue to provide safe, fresh, and clean meat products amid the quarantine. The leading swine integrator in the Philippines says it adheres to strict animal husbandry and health programs in its farms and follows the three-site set- up (breeding, nursery, growing) that enhances biosecurity for disease prevention. Pigs in Monterey farms are tested for the absence of disease including the African Swine Fever and are certified healthy by the Bureau of Animal Industry. As there is an increased food demand due to the quarantine, Monterey strives to make its beef and pork products available in supermarkets. The slaughter, cold storage and distribution of Monterey Meats are all monitored and certified by the National Meat Inspection Services. These are delivered to meat shops using refrigerated vans having the ideal temperature that will ensure freshness all the way to the consumers tables, thus fulfilling Montereys Farm to Fork Freshness agenda. Meat products are also available at the Monterey Neighborhood Meatshops and Monterey Community markets that are sanitized and cleaned on a daily basis. In these Monterey specialized stores, strict implementation of physical distancing is observed, with only a certain number of customers allowed inside the store at a time. Monterey ensures that its butchers, crews, and riders are in good health condition all the time. They also follow safety protocols such as frequent proper handwashing and wearing of face masks. For 11 consecutive years (2010-2020), Monterey received the prestigious Readers Digest Trusted Brand Platinum Award, serving as an ultimate seal of consumer approval and a validation of consumers trust and confidence it its commitment to product quality. With Monterey, consumers are assured of the safety of their familys food as it provides quality, safe and fresh meats. It is indeed #MeatsYouCanTrust. Every night in Libby Hernandezs Holyoke neighborhood it starts: Firecrackers pow-pow-pow on one street, M-80s booming a few blocks over and bottle rockets exploding in the air sending multi-colored sparks to the homes below. They are set off on weekdays, sometimes as late as 2 and 3 a.m., and on the weekends the fireworks get even more pervasive. It has been so bad Hernandez, the Ward 4 city councilor, said the neighborhood Facebook page she operates is now dominated with complaints about fireworks. We feel terrorized. Our animals are scared. There is no peace at all, she said. It would be great if we could have a peaceful community without the noise pollution. There has been an unusual uptick in fireworks being set off in neighborhoods across the state that began even before Memorial Day. Springfield police have received 330 individual complaints between May 22 and June 4, Holyoke police are logging in 20 to 50 complaints nightly and Chicopee has been seeing a dramatic increase in complaints. And that doesnt include the calls to city councilors, mayors and the many who just grin and bear it night after night. It is certainly an issue raised by community members, said Ryan Walsh, Springfield police spokesman. This is much higher than normal. All fireworks, even the small firecrackers and sparklers, are illegal in Massachusetts and most communities see a spate of illegal fireworks shot off by residents around Memorial Day and again in the days leading up to the July 4 holiday. But this year it began before Memorial Day and has been a daily problem ever since, he said. The three cities are reporting the worse problems. West Springfield Police said they had some complaints over the weekend but believe it was due to the high school graduation event. Westfield Police said they have not received many complaints in that community. It may be due to the fact many communities, including Springfield, have postponed or canceled July 4 fireworks due to the coronavirus pandemic. It also may be that kids especially are blowing off steam after being cooped up for so long because of the pandemic, he said. But it is a problem. The fireworks are interfering with the citys audio ShotSpotter system that detects the sound of gunfire and officers will race to a street concerned about a shooting only to find out it was a firecracker. The fireworks are being shot off in every neighborhood and the complaints have now outpaced those of illegal dirt bikes to become the biggest quality-of-life issue in the city, he said. Police are responding by putting on extra patrols specifically to chase down the fireworks. They are strategically being assigned to neighborhoods based on data showing where the biggest problems are found, he said. There have been some complaints filed against people caught shooting them off and police have confiscated some fireworks, but not a ton, Walsh said. Holyoke police have been running into the same frustration of trying to chase down the fireworks felons, said Holyoke Police Lt. James Albert. There are thousands and thousands of dollars of fireworks being shot off, he said. It is out of control. When police get a call, they speed to the area of the complaint only to have shooters duck into a building or run down an alley. Even with good information from the public, it is hard to track down the offender, Albert said. And it isnt just kids. There are a lot of adults shooting them off and they are doing it in every section of the city with the fewest complaints coming from West Holyoke, he said. Police have found some of the violators and hit them with criminal complaints, including one man they were able to track down even though he ran into an apartment building after a particularly egregious display at about 10 p.m. last Tuesday at the corner of Elm and Appleton streets, Albert said. They shot them off in the middle of the street. You couldnt take a step on Elm without crunching the remnants of fireworks under your shoes, he said. Ive never seen so many fireworks in my career. He said some of the fireworks may be connected to the multiple protests against racism in the area, especially since that incident occurred on June 2, a few hours after more than 1,000 people gathered in downtown Holyoke for a march that ended peacefully. Police have also caught one person who was selling fireworks out of the back of his car. Detectives continue to investigate the illegal sales, Albert said. Police could probably track down more fireworks violators with better help from the public, Albert said. Hernandez said she and her neighbors try to give police as specific information as they can and she knows police are trying to get the problem under control because there have been arrests. But some of the people who are shooting off the fireworks are residents who live nearby. Her efforts were rewarded this weekend by someone who spray-painted an obscenity on the corner of her property. While Hernandez said she cant be sure it is due to her complaints about fireworks, she suspects that was the reason. While many think fireworks are harmless, others argue they are not. They can be especially harmful to people who have served in war and especially those who suffer from PSTD. Pets also really dont like them and can try to hide or run away, said Dr. Gerald Beltran, who specializes in emergency and disaster medicine. He talks about his own father who served in the Philippines in World War II. They were at a firework show and his father, who never talked about the war, said it reminded him of hearing the Americans bombing a village where he was stationed. Some of the biggest injuries come from the people who are lighting them. He said he has seen people badly damage fingers and some suffer bad burns. People can also face eye injuries or hearing loss that can be immediate or come later in the form of tinnitus or constant ringing in the ears. The problem is fireworks are not regulated well. While people can drive 90 minutes and purchase them in New Hampshire, the amount of black power stuffed in a roman candle or firecracker can be inconsistent and make them explode in a way that is unexpected, he said. Even sparklers can be dangerous because they heat up to as much as 1,200 to 1,800 degrees, said Chicopee Fire Lt. Katie Collins Kalbaugh. When communities hire professional companies to run shows, the Fire Department inspects them before to ensure the setup is safe and they inspect the site after to make sure there are no unexploded fireworks that can go off and injure someone, she said. The largest number of people injured by fireworks are children under 15, said Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for the state Fire Marshals Office. Fireworks also can set off fires, which is concerning especially in dense city neighborhoods. Holyoke Fire officials said they have extinguished several small fires caused by fireworks in the last few weeks. Im concerned about the errant bottle rocket that is going to set my porch or a nearby mulch pile on fire, she said. It is not a good time to be homeless because some knucklehead decided to set off a bottle rocket. The search continues for the suspect in a weekend hit-and-run that left a 45-year-old man dead. The crash happened about 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the 600 block of Bessemer Super Highway. Midfield Det. Sgt. Michael Jeffries said the victim was struck by a white sedan that continued northbound after hitting the victim. Authorities have identified the man but are not releasing his name because they have not yet been able to notify family members. The man had just donated blood and was trying to catch the MAX bus. Jeffries said he had been waiting at the bus stop and was walking to the stopped bus when the suspect vehicle left the roadway to the right and struck the victim who was on the shoulder. Police are asking for the publics assistance in finding the suspects vehicle. On Tuesday, police released a new photo of the suspects vehicle a white Chevrolet Impala with heavy damage to the passenger side front windshield and possibly the front bumper. The photo was taken by surveillance cameras on the MAX bus. Anyone with information is asked to call Jeffries at 205-923-6637 or 205-745-3554. Tipsters who wish to remain anonymous can call the Tip Line at 205-745-3559 or Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama at (205)-254-7777. A memorial dedicated to the victims of the 2019 Danube ship collision that claimed the lives of 26 South Koreans in Budapest is planned to be inaugurated in the autumn, Peter Szijjarto, Hungarys foreign minister, said on Facebook after talks by phone with his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha. The South Korean foreign minister thanked Hungary for the solidarity it showed after the tragedy that claimed the lives of 26 South Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew members when a sightseeing boat and a cruise ship collided near Margaret Bridge on May 29. She also thanked Hungary for the commemoration that marked the first anniversary of the tragedy, Szijjarto said. The two ministers also discussed the coronavirus pandemic and recognised each others efforts in containing the virus. Foreign Minister Kyung-wha thanked Hungary for allowing employees of Korean companies to enter the country, and I thanked the Korean companies for their investments in Hungary, Szijjarto said. He noted that the largest volume of foreign investments in Hungary was made by South Korean companies last year which lifted bilateral trade by 21 % in the first quarter of this year to close to one billion dollars. Szijjarto further noted close bilateral cooperation in international affairs. Hungary supports South Koreas membership in the United Nations Security Council and urges talks to be launched between the EU and South Korea on an investment protection agreement. MTI Photo The 46th edition of the Prix du Livre Inter book prize has been awarded to French author Anne Pauly pour her first novel "Avant que j'oublie", her way of mourning the illness and death of her father. A few years ago, Anne Pauly was working as an assistant for a magazine and decided she wanted to write for herself, something she'd always loved doing as a child, but didn't know where and how to begin. To enroll in a Master of creative writing at Paris University 8, she had to submit a piece of writing, and the pages she sent in were the blueprint of Avant que j'oublie (Before I forget), published by Editions Verdier. It took her four years to finish the manuscript, in which she explores all the facets of her father's life, from scenes of domestic violence and alcoholism, to her ambivalent feelings towards a complex man. Humour as a way of coping These memories rise to the surface the day of her father's funeral, the focal point of the novel. She said it was important to find funny moments, in order to work through her pain of loss. "Mourning is terrible," she told Le Monde, "it's so terrible that we are obliged to laugh to get through it." It was also her way of rendering homage to a man she felt had been treated with a certain amount of disdain during his life. Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the jury of the Prix du Livre Inter, was not able to meet in person at the Maison de la Radio in Paris to discuss the entries, so they debated the entries over two days via video conference. After three rounds of voting, the jury rendered their verdict on Monday; 17 votes in favour of Pauly's Avant que j'oublie. Members of the jury from the public Made up of 24 members of the public, often regular France Inter radio listeners, changes each year, to guarantee its independence. The jury of 12 women and 12 men is presided over by an established author in this case, Philippe Lancon. Story continues Journalist and literary columnist for the left-leaning daily Liberation, Lancon also contributes to the weekly satirical paper Charlie Hebdo. His latest book, Le lambeau (Gallimard, 2018) which won several awards, tells his perspective of the terrorist attack against the writers at Charlie Hebdo in 2015 and how he has come to terms with the tragic event. Founded by Paul-Louis Mignon in 1975, the Livre Inter prize has become a prestigious platform for launching the careers of budding French authors. Last year's prize was awarded to novelist Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam for her book Arcadie (P.O.L). SGFs in-house board certified reproductive urologists, Paul Shin, M.D., and Cori Tanrikut, M.D., both named Washingtonian Top Docs in Urology, 2019 Without testing the male partner up front, many patients have later realized it was a male factor all along and could have saved themselves precious time, money, and effort had they known. In approximately 40 to 50 percent of infertility cases, a male factor is present and either causes the couples inability to conceive, or contributes to the cause. While male factor infertility is often very treatable, many couples are still surprised to learn that infertility can arise from problems with either partner, male or female. Many think of infertility as a womans problem because she is the one to ultimately carry the baby. Thats far from the truth, says Paul R. Shin, M.D., one of SGFs in-house board certified reproductive urologists, who sees patients in SGFs Washington, D.C., Frederick, MD, Rockville, MD, Fair Oaks, VA, and Fairfax, VA, offices. Two Live Events in June Dr. Shin will host a Male Fertility virtual event on Thursday, June 25 at noon, as well as an Instagram Live Q&A on Friday, June 19 at 11:30am. SGFs Center for Male Fertility Led by Shady Grove Fertilitys in-house board certified reproductive urologists, Paul Shin, M.D., and Cori Tanrikut, M.D., SGFs Center for Male Fertility was designed to provide integrated care thats unique to SGF and offers comprehensive male infertility services to ensure continuity of care and communication for both partners before, during, and after treatment. SGFs Center for Male Fertility offers a range of male services including basic evaluation and testing to state-of-the-art microsurgical techniques including varicocele repair, vasectomy reversal, and vasectomy, as well as percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration (PESA) and testicular sperm extraction (TESE) for in vitro fertilization (IVF). Male Factor Video with Dr. Shin As a resource for information-seekers, SGF produced a Frequently Asked Questions video with Dr. Shin, designed to set the record straight about male infertility, including the importance of early male testing. The Importance of Male Fertility Testing Our research tells us that only 44 percent of couples complete fertility testing at the same time. Thats not ideal. Without testing the male partner up front, many patients have later realized it was a male factor all along and could have saved themselves precious time, money, and effort had they known, reminds Shin. A simple semen analysis can help uncover if theres an issue with the sperm that we need to consider, added Tanrikut. SGF performs more than 20,000 semen analyses and sperm washings every year, so patients can have peace of mind in the reliability of our testing. Further, our experienced andrologists review each semen sample for higher reliability, unlike many other labs that rely on computer-assisted semen analyses (CASA). We find CASA to be less accurate and objective than the human eye; a manual semen analysis allows for more accurate diagnosis, adds Tanrikut. When to See a Fertility Specialist Its important for men who are trying to conceive to take inventory of how long theyve been having unprotected intercourse with their partner if she hasnt become pregnant. If its been 1 year and shes under 35, or 6 months and shes 35-39, or 3 months if shes 40 or older, its time to see a fertility specialist. Also, if there are any existing conditions that could be affecting their ability to conceivelow testosterone, erectile dysfunction (ED), problems ejaculatingits time to see a specialist. While SGF webinars are complimentary, interested parties must register to attend by visiting the SGF calendar of events. To view SGFs Male Fertility On-Demand Webinar or browse E-books and other education resources on topics such as mens health and much more, visit https://www.shadygrovefertility.com/resources/educational-resources. Patients outside of the practice may be referred directly to Dr. Shin or Dr. Tanrikut for diagnostic testing, evaluation, and/or treatment for male infertility or SGFs no-needle, no-scalpel vasectomy services. To schedule a new patient consult, contact the SGF New Patient Center at 1-888-761-1967 or complete a brief online form. About Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) SGF is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence with more than 85,000 babies born and counting. With 38 locations throughout FL, GA, MD, NY, PA, VA, D.C., and Santiago, Chile, we offer patients virtual physician consults, individualized care, accept most insurance plans, and make treatment affordable through innovative financial options, including treatment guarantees. More physicians refer their patients to SGF than any other center. Call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com. POSCO Engineering & Construction (E&C) employees speak in a video conference during an online mentoring program with university students on June 5. Courtesy of POSCO E&C By Nam Hyun-woo POSCO Engineering & Construction (POSCO E&C) said Tuesday it held an online mentoring event between its employees and young jobseekers, as part of social distancing efforts in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Last year, POSCO E&C and the Jungbu Regional Employment and Labor Office signed a partnership on career exploration and job education for young people, and launched the mentoring program to assist jobseekers. The office is in charge of employment and labor matters in Incheon, Gyeonggi Province and Gangwon Province. The event, held on June 5, was participated in by 50 university students who applied for the program through the office's job-seeking network at domestic universities. They joined the program via video conference applications, while POSCO E&C employees shared their experiences in finding employment as well as talking about the day-to-day work they do as construction and infrastructure designers, plant engineers and R&D specialists. "It was a great opportunity to understand the construction and engineering industry in a wider scope, as I could learn about what is really going on in a real workplace," said Son Hyo-jin, a Inha University student who joined the mentoring program. "The program helped me to get more practical information on the actual job and better prepare for job interviews." POSCO E&C has been running a number of corporate social responsibility activities to contribute to society's effort to create jobs and assist young jobseekers. Since last year, the company and Inha University have been holding an annual contest for construction startups. This year the contest received applications from construction entrepreneurs last month and they are currently scaling up their business ideas. Winners of the contest will be granted prize money as well as free office space. This year's winner will be announced on Oct. 28. The company is also running a job education program in its overseas projects. In Bangladesh, POSCO E&C is building a power plant near Matarbari port, and is holding construction classes for and employing nearby residents. Last October, the company and Inha University Hospital held a medical volunteer drive to provide aid to 1,500 residents there. POSCO E&C and other POSCO group units are enhancing their corporate social responsibility as part of Chairman Choi Jeong-woo's philosophy of highlighting corporate citizenship. - Founded by Founders4Schools and BCG Digital Ventures, supported by the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport, Digital Boost aims to support the six million British small businesses and charities impacted by COVID-19, on their digitalisation journey - The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the gap between digitally high and low-tech organisations by forcing 67% of UK SMEs to temporarily close business, according to Simply Business - Digital Boost is on a mission to close this gap by providing a community of digital expert volunteers to support charities and small businesses through 1:1 "Boost Calls", interactive "Boost Workshops" and "Boost Skills" resources LONDON, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A new free-of-charge online platform that brings together leaders of small businesses and charities with a community of digital expert volunteers launched in the UK today. Digitalboost.org.uk is on a mission to help small businesses and charities get the essential digital skills they need and by extension more customers and revenue streams through online channels. A 2019 study by the European Commission shows that less than a third of small businesses in the EC have a high degree of digitalisation, implying a large majority of small businesses lack the basic prerequisites for moving their business online. At this critical time, Digital Boost not only wants to help small businesses and charities survive the COVID-19 crisis, but also contribute to their long-term competitiveness in today's digital world. Digital Boost has three service offerings to help equip small businesses and charities with essential digital skills. "Boost Calls", one-to-one mentoring sessions with digital volunteers from top technology, agency, consulting and finance firms, "Boost Workshops", interactive group masterclasses, run by digital experts on all digitalisation topics, as well as "Boost Skills", useful online content on digitalisation. Digital Boost has successfully recruited digital expert volunteers from top organisations such as BCG Digital Ventures, Google, Oxford University, McCann and Global Tech Advocates, all ready to mentor small businesses and charities. The COVID-19 crisis has cast a painful spotlight on the lack of digitalisation of many small organisations. Being forced to shut physical locations, many small businesses and charities have no online revenue streams to fall back on. As consumers are expected to remain online post COVID-19, small businesses with a limited online presence will miss out on an ever-growing portion of business. Digital Boost has been founded to counteract this trend. It is owned by Founders4Schools and has been built with the pro bono support of BCG Digital Ventures, a subsidiary of Boston Consulting Group. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is pleased to support Digital Boost to provide digital assistance for small businesses and charities in the UK that have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Commenting on the launch, Caroline Dinenage, Minister for Digital and Culture at DCMS said: "It is vital small businesses and charities are able to seize the benefits of modern technology. The new Digital Boost platform will help these organisations develop the skills they need. We look forward to helping build a community of digital experts, who are able to offer guidance and support to these organisations free of charge at this challenging time." Commenting on the launch of Digital Boost, Sherry Coutu CBE, Chair of Founders4Schools, comments: "In the past, many leaders of small businesses and charities have struggled with building up a significant online presence. COVID-19 has exposed this lag in digitalisation in dramatic ways. We want to help those who work in and lead small businesses and charities to survive the COVID-19 crisis and be more competitive in the long-run in today's increasingly digital and online world." Ajay Chowdhury, Managing Director and Partner at BCG Digital Ventures, London adds: "There are some services out there supporting small businesses on various fronts through the COVID-19 crisis, yet our research has shown that none of them really serve the specific needs of the UK's small businesses and charities that need quick and pragmatic help to digitalise in order to survive. That is why we founded Digital Boost. We respond to the individual needs of small businesses and charities and allocate volunteers to help them in pragmatic and quick ways." Matthew Fell, Chief UK Policy Director at the CBI, comments: "Adopting digital technologies can help firms grow, find opportunity and be more resilient, so the potential impact of Digital Boost is enormous. Digital Boost promises to help businesses and charities find opportunity amid this crisis by embracing the digitalisation of their industries to support a stronger, more productive recovery." Digital Boost has already supported a number of small businesses and charities, including Teens in AI, a UK-based charity, and Astrum Wine Cellars, a UK-based wine and spirit business. In the past, Astrum's revenues were driven primarily through the hospitality industry. Faced with the COVID-19 crisis, the company was quick to shift its focus to selling directly to consumers through online channels. Digital Boost growth experts helped Astrum launch their first digital advertisements, enabling the company to stay open for business throughout COVID-19. Speaking on the impact of Digital Boost, Astrum's Head of Growth Tom White says: "Time speaking to the Digital Boost volunteers has given us the confidence to step further into the digital world, a world that we were barely involved in 8 weeks ago. They helped us understand how to build a digital ad and gave us the tools to continue building and refining these ads for better customer acquisition." Teens in AI, a charitable organisation focused on serving students with an interest in technology, also benefited from Digital Boost's help by learning how to design their web-presence. Digital Boost is ready to support hundreds of thousands more leaders on their journey towards mastering the digital tools demanded by customers in this new reality we are entering. We expect this volunteer effort from the digital community will ensure small charities and businesses help boost our economy. Digital Boost is accepting volunteer applications and requests from small businesses and charitable organisations at www.digitalboost.org.uk and invites other like-minded organisations from the digital community to get in touch at contact@digitalboost.org.uk. For more information please contact: The Digital Boost PR team at press@digitalboost.org.uk For partnership enquiries please contact: The Digital Boost team at contact@digitalboost.org.uk Follow Digital Boost on LinkedIn Follow Digital Boost on Twitter Follow Digital Boost on Instagram Like Digital Boost on Facebook About Digital Boost Digital Boost is a new free-of-charge online platform that brings together leaders of small businesses and charities with a community of digital expert volunteers. Founded by Founders4Schools and BCG Digital Ventures, and supported by the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport, Digital Boost aims to support the six million British small businesses and charities impacted by COVID-19. Many small businesses have been forced to shut their physical locations due to COVID-19 and have struggled to move online to build up new revenue streams. As a result, two-thirds of UK SMEs temporarily closed business entirely. Digital Boost wants to help these small businesses & charities move online not only to get through the COVID-19 crisis, but also to stay competitive in the long-term in today's digital world. Digital Boost offers free 1:1 "Boost Calls", interactive "Boost Workshops" and "Boost Skills" resources for small businesses & charities. About BCG Digital Ventures BCG Digital Ventures is a corporate innovation, incubation, and investment firm. They invent, launch, scale, and invest in industry-changing new businesses with the world's most influential companies. Their diverse, multidisciplinary team of entrepreneurs, operators, and investors work cross-functionally, rapidly moving from paper to product to business in less than 12 months. Founded in 2014 as a subsidiary of Boston Consulting Group, they have Innovation Centers and satellite locations in four continents and continue to expand their footprint across the globe. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1177949/Digital_Boost_Logo.jpg As demonstrators gather on Tuesday at Rio Tinto's Perth headquarters to protest against the blasting of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site, a neighbouring Aboriginal corporation anxiously awaits a decision from WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt on a 60,000-year-old Pilbara heritage site sitting squarely in the path of a mine. Fortescue Metals Group's planned Queens mine expansion, part of the Solomon project, has a footprint covering more than 70 heritage sites, including rock shelters, campsites and rock paintings and engravings the 60,000-year-old rock shelter among them. Eastern Guruma traditional owner Kelvin Hughes undertaking excavation within one of the rock shelters. Credit:Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation The Eastern Guruma gained permission to excavate and investigate to demonstrate the sites' cultural value, said archaeologist Kathryn Przywolnik, who is heritage manager at Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation which represents the Eastern Guruma people. But before this work could commence, she said, FMG sought a Section 18 consent from Mr Wyatt to destroy the first batch of sites. The Minneapolis City Council pledged to dismantle its police on Sunday. Steel Brooks/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Nine members of the Minneapolis City Council announced their support to dismantle the city's police force at a rally on Sunday, giving them a veto-proof majority. The announcement comes just shy of two weeks after George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police. On Friday, council member Steve Fletcher published an op-ed in Time magazine that outlined how the city would transition away from the need for police, though comprehensive plans have not yet been approved. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Less than two weeks after George Floyd's death, nine members of the Minneapolis City Council announced plans to disband the city's police force. The council president, Lisa Bender, made the announcement at Black Visions Collective and Reclaim the Block rally as part of the Black Lives Matter movement on Sunday. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey leaves after coming out of his home to speak during a demonstration calling for the Minneapolis Police Department to be defunded on June 6, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images "We're here because we hear you," Bender said at the rally, according to The Appeal. "We are here today because George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis Police. We are here because here in Minneapolis and in cities across the United States it is clear that our existing system of policing and public safety is not keeping our communities safe." "Our commitment is to do what is necessary to keep every single member of our community safe and to tell the truth that the Minneapolis Police are not doing that," Bender added. "Our commitment is to end our city's toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department, to end policing as we know it, and to recreate systems of public safety that actually keep us safe." The council has a veto-proof majority in its decision according to the New York Times, though comprehensive plans have not yet been approved. Members of the council have been exploring alternatives to police since Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25. Floyd, a black man, was knelt on by Chauvin for several minutes before he died. Story continues Protesters at a Target. J.D. Duggan In addition, other Minneapolis city agencies like the Parks and Recreation department, Minneapolis public schools, and the University of Minneapolis, have already cut ties with the city's police department, putting increased pressure on the city to take action. Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza explained how a transition away from law enforcement would work on NBC's Meet The Press on Sunday. According to Garza, defunding the police typically involves realigning funds that usually go to police to causes in the community that need them such as neighborhood infrastructure or childcare that can help prevent the need for law enforcement and better fix problems when they arise. Council member Steve Fletcher also published an op-ed in Time on Friday that gave a preview of how the city of Minneapolis might function without the police. "We can send a city response that that is appropriate to each situation and makes it better. We can resolve confusion over a $20 grocery transaction without drawing a weapon or pulling out handcuffs," Fletcher wrote. The council made its announcement a day after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was booed at a rally for refusing to promise protesters that he would defund the city's police. On Sunday, Frey doubled down on his stance in a statement, according to a tweet from KARE 11's Chris Hrapsky. "I'll work relentlessly with Chief Arradondo and alongside community toward deep, structural reform and addressing systematic racism in police culture," Frey said in his statement. "And we're ready to dig in and enact more community-led, public safety strategies on behalf of our city." "But I do not support abolishing the Minneapolis Police Department." Read the original article on Insider The moment that now former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin put his knee on George Floyds neck, something inside that officer should have told him this was not right. Likewise, the other officers who are charged in the death of Floyd should have immediately stopped Chauvin. This was unquestionably how not to handle this encounter. Yet it happened. The protests, when peaceful, have been effective in bringing racial inequality by police to the forefront. But these demonstrations will end. What then? Where do we go from here? It is up to all of us to keep this topic alive. It is up to our leaders, local and national, including myself as Bexar County district attorney, to do something about this now. As I have been saying about the criminal justice reforms we have been making, change is difficult. But the time has come to take a closer look at how to fix this systemic problem. I have heard cries to defund police. Our laws and enforcement of these laws are the difference between order and total chaos. Can you imagine a society without enough police to investigate, arrest and prosecute those who commit crimes, especially violent ones? If by defunding, protesters mean doing away with policing altogether, I think that would be counterproductive. If they mean looking to see if budgets used to fund police can be put to better use, this idea may merit some consideration. One of the solutions is better, continued and comprehensive training. This should include awareness of implicit bias, which is the unconscious attribution of certain qualities to a particular group when law enforcement deals with people of color. What about the Bexar County District Attorneys Office? What are we doing to address this problem? In the year and a half since I have been in office, we have made changes to improve the way we review cases involving alleged police misconduct. We have created a special crimes division led by a veteran attorney with both prosecutorial and criminal defense experience. Her unit reviews all cases involving police misconduct in which a crime is alleged. During my administration, we have prosecuted several members of law enforcement for crimes that include aggravated assault, DWI and domestic violence. Additionally, this division reviews all cases of officer-involved shootings in which an officer discharges his or her weapon. Our office has several layers of review in these cases. That unit is under strict orders to bring every such case to my attention, and our top administrators and myself will review the file, including any body camera footage and other video evidence. Even in cases that are a close call or may involve a justified use of force, this division is instructed to allow a grand jury, which is comprised of citizens, to make the final call. We also have a conviction integrity unit in our office. Besides reviewing cases for evidence of a wrongful conviction, this section maintains and continually updates a disclosure list, which provides the defense bar information about any potential law enforcement witnesss disciplinary history. The Michael Morton Act requires disclosure of exculpatory evidence to the accused. In cases where the credibility or conduct of the officer is potentially exculpatory, our prosecutors are instructed to err on the side of disclosure. We also maintain a list of law enforcement officers with past credibility issues that we may refuse to sponsor as witnesses in a case. Additionally, before the start of COVID-19, our office began planning a citizens advisory committee to receive input from the community on cases involving police misconduct. We are continuing those plans to include a wide range of community members from throughout San Antonio to this committee and hope to have it finalized by years end. Lastly, we are investigating methods of improving prosecutor training to increase awareness of implicit bias and better detect law enforcement witness integrity issues. In February, I sent two staff members to a seminar at Stanford University to investigate methods our office can use to identify and reduce racial inequality in prosecution. The solution to this national problem will not be easy. Embracing real criminal justice reform, including police reform, is a good start to seeking equality and justice for people of color. District attorney offices across the country, as well as Bexar County, should learn from this experience in order to help bring about meaningful change. Joe Gonzales is the Bexar County district attorney. A South Korean court rejected prosecutors request to arrest Samsung Groups billionaire heir Jay Y Lee on allegations of price manipulation and violations of auditing rules, resolving a major uncertainty hanging over the worlds largest technology manufacturer. The Seoul Central District Court ruled against an arrest warrant for Lee and two other former Samsung executives Monday, saying that despite considerable evidence obtained through their investigation, they didnt have a valid reason to detain Lee. The relevance of the basic facts has been explained and it seems prosecutors have secured a considerable amount of evidence through their probes, said Won Jung-sook, the judge in the case. However, they had an insufficient explanation of the need to detain suspects. Samsung Electronics Co. shares rose by as much as 2.9% in early Seoul trading on Tuesday. The ruling marks a victory for the co-vice chairman of the company, whos embroiled in an increasingly contentious dispute with South Korean prosecutors over allegations of bribery and corruption. The request for an arrest warrant stemmed from a legal clash that dates back to 2015, centering on whether Lee and Samsung used illegal means to help him take control of a conglomerate founded by his grandfather. Prosecutors have been looking into alleged accounting fraud at Samsung Biologics Co. and a controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, part of a broader probe into Lees succession plans. Investigators accuse Samsung of orchestrating a scheme to manipulate the value of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T during the transaction, which they say helped the heir solidify his control of the conglomerate. Given the seriousness of the case and a trove of evidence, the courts decision to reject is a shame, the prosecutors office said in a statement, as reported by Yonhap News. Regardless of the result, we will do our best to continue the investigation according to law and principle going forward. Why Samsungs Billionaire Scion Is Facing Jail Again: QuickTake The failed arrest attempt is a relief for Samsung, which last week requested an outside review panel to assess the validity of a potential indictment of Lee by prosecutors, as allowed under Korean rules. If the panel is formed, it will make an assessment and give recommendations to prosecutors in coming months. Lees lawyers said in an emailed statement that they expect an impartial discussion of the case through the panel review. The Seoul Central Prosecutors Office said it will discuss Samsungs request for the panel this Thursday, according to Yonhap. Tensions between South Koreas largest conglomerate and prosecutors may intensify in coming weeks as both sides strive to win public opinion. Lee spent a year in prison from February 2017, when special prosecutors detained him over allegations that he bribed a confidante of former president Park Geun-hye. Samsung -- the worlds largest producer of memory chips, displays and smartphones -- has continued business as normal during the years-long probe and investors have been mostly unfazed. Its shares soared during 2019 and into the first months of 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic, despite prosecutorial scrutiny and investigations into more than a hundred group officials. But Lees plight remains a greater concern for Samsung because his potential absence would render it more difficult to make major decisions, such as on mergers and acquisitions or extraordinary investments. Samsung is fighting not just for Lees liberty, but for its corporate reputation. The allegations that it used gifts to buy government favor so one of the countrys richest men could take over his familys company are so explosive they inflamed public opinion against major South Korean companies and shook the political balance of the nation. Samsung and Lee are determined to clear their names. The scion made a rare, personal apology in May, admitting missteps in the past and pledging not to hand leadership of the group to his children. Samsung has also been visibly active in helping South Koreas battle against the coronavirus, dispatching its own doctors to help in the fight and helping to ramp up production of testing kits. Read more: Samsung Billionaires Fate at Risk Despite Role in Virus Fight A day after prosecutors sought an arrest warrant last Thursday, Samsung strongly denied allegations of Lees involvement in stock price manipulations during the 2015 merger. The statement came after media reported that prosecutors concluded Samsung deliberately boosted stock prices of Cheil by purchasing treasury shares, while lowering Samsung C&Ts stock price through delaying announcement of an overseas construction deal. Samsung said there were no illegal attempts at manipulation. Fresh tensions between prosecutors and Samsung erupted in 2020 as the 51-year-old billionaire faced a new indictment over his involvement in succession plans, while a separate but related bribery trial involving the former administration remains in deadlock. Prosecutors have argued that one judge involved is biased and inclined to go lightly on Lee. The Supreme Court now needs to decide whether to keep the judge involved or replace him, which could mean the trial would drag into next year. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Flash A public viewing for George Floyd, an African American man who died while in police custody, is underway on Monday in Houston, Texas, the United States. The memorial is being held in the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston, where 46-year-old Floyd grew up. A private funeral service will be held at the same place Tuesday. The public viewing started at noon and will continue till 6 p.m. local time, according to the Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center, the organizer of the public viewing and funeral. Hours before the viewing began, people from Houston and across the country waited outside the church to pay tribute to Floyd. Police have also been deployed at the scene. An African American who identified himself as Kelvin brought his whole family to the viewing, including three children. "We are here to show the support to the Floyd family. I'm an African American male myself so I understand how important this move is right now," he told Xinhua. "People need to be held accountable for the actions," he said, adding that the former police officers who are responsible for the death of Floyd "need to be convicted to show that they are not above the law." Expecting a large number of visitors, the organizer said it is a tough task to make sure the social distancing regulation is met as confirmed COVID-19 cases are still growing in Houston. Due to social distancing requirements, only 15 guests are allowed inside the church at a time. Visitors must go through metal detector and temperature check before entering the church. Masks are also mandatory. The organizer told local media that Floyd's family contacted them a day after he passed away to conduct the services. Bobby Swearington, owner of the Fort Bend Memorial Planning Center, told a local TV station that the family had only one request -- the funeral be a grand experience. Last week, two memorials were held in Minneapolis, the city in which Floyd died after being pinned by the neck for almost nine minutes by a white police officer's knee, and Raeford, North Carolina, the state where Floyd was born. Hundreds of people paid their tribute to Floyd by laying wreaths at the memorials. Floyd's body arrived in Houston Saturday night, the Houston Police Department said. At the request of the family, his entry was made private. Demonstrations and riots have spread to cities across the United States since a video went viral of Floyd being suffocated to death in the midwestern U.S. state of Minnesota in late May. June 09 : One of the top consumer electronics brands, TCL launched a new smart TV in India on Monday. The price of the smart TV TCL P715 mid-range series range from Rs.39,990 and goes up to Rs.99,990, depending on its size. However, the company has not yet announced specific details about screen sizes, prices, and availability of all the models in India. Available in five screen sizes, the base model features a 43-inch display. The other variants of TCL P715 are offered in 75-inch, 65-inch, 55-inch, and 50-inch sizes. While all the models feature 4K resolution screens and Android TV software, it also supports HDR content. Its micro dimming feature, which automatically adjusts brightness in low-light conditions, makes it a real smart TV. The P715 series as a whole has voice control with support for Google Assistant. The smart TV also features four microphone receivers. It comes with the companys AI-IN platform like all TCL smart TVs. AI-IN platform helps users to control other connected smart home devices on the TV with voice control. The TV is also compatible with TCLs MagiConnect app. Equipped with Dolby Audio, the TV runs on Android TV OS. Many popular apps are pre-installed and users have access to the Google Play Store as well. For video calls, the TV features a pop-up camera, too. What happened A new estimate of the scale of financial losses facing the global airline industry reveals the heavy toll on South American airline stocks, with shares of Brazil's Azul (NYSE:AZUL) airline falling as much as 11.1% today and Sao Paulo's Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes (NYSE:GOL) tumbling 13.1%. Both airlines were back up off their lows as of 12:40 p.m. EDT, with Azul down only 5.5% and Gol off 3.6%. Meanwhile, their Chilean rival, LATAM Airlines (NYSE: LTM), was actually up 4.1% after swinging wildly between an 8.3% loss and a 20% profit earlier in the day. What gives? So what The declines are easier to explain than the big leap at LATAM, so let's begin with that story. Earlier today, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that the global airline industry is probably going to lose $84 billion this year, making 2020 "the worst year in the history of aviation." Belying reports that demand for air travel is picking up speed fast enough to quickly reverse those losses, IATI estimates that the industry as a whole will lose money again in 2021 -- nearly $16 billion. On a more positive note, Gol reported that it's burning cash at the rate of about $2.05 million a day during the coronavirus crisis, which sounds bad but is at least better than its previous estimate of nearly $2.5 billion in daily cash-burn. This helps to explain why Gol stock pared its losses so much today. Now what And now for the tougher question: If we just heard confirmation that airlines as a whole are losing money, and Gol and Azul are both airlines, then it makes sense that those two stocks are going down. But why is LATAM stock going up? It's an airline that has already admitted that it is bankrupt and filing for Chapter 11 protection from its creditors. With more than $9 billion in net debt on its books and a market capitalization of just $1.2 billion today, chances are that by the time LATAM is done restructuring, its stock is going to end up worthless, and its shareholders will receive nothing. But then again, over at bankrupt American car renter Hertz, investors have just witnessed the case of another bankrupt stock soaring six times in value in a matter of days. Maybe there's no good reason for Hertz being up so much. But the fact that it is going up may be giving investors hope that LATAM stock could surge similarly. (Newser) Swedes are gearing up for what the Local describes as "one of Sweden's most highly anticipated press conferences in the past three decades." Chief prosecutor Krister Petersson, who's been investigating the unsolved 1986 assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme since 2017, is set to announce his findings at 9:30am local time Wednesday, and an unconfirmed report suggests the murder weapon has been found. Palme, a charismatic Social Democrat, was fatally shot in the back at close range as he left a Stockholm theater with his wife and son shortly before midnight on Feb. 28, 1986, per Reuters. More than 10,000 people have since been questioned in the killing. A petty criminal was convicted in 1989 after Palme's wife identified him from a lineup. But he was later acquitted and died in 2004. story continues below "I am optimistic about being able to present what happened with the murder and who is responsible for it," Petersson said during an interview in February. The prosecutor suggested charges might not follow, leading to speculation that the killer is dead. Either way, Swedes are hoping for closure. "It is an open wound for Sweden in that we do not know what happened," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said in February, per Reuters. The prevailing theories are that the 59-year-old Palme was killed by a lone gunman or by operatives of the South African apartheid regime over his support for the anti-apartheid African National Congress. The Guardian reports South African intelligence officials did turn over a dossier to Swedish investigators during a meeting in March. (Another theory focuses on a man with weapons training.) A view of the Atlantis Sanya resort in Sanya, Hainan province on April 4, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua] China plans a package of preferential policies to build Hainan province into a globally influential and high-quality free trade port, which will serve as a new growth engine for both the nation and the global economy, officials and experts said on Monday. Lin Nianxiu, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a news conference that the first phase of the government's master plan is to be completed in 2025, with a key focus on liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment. "We will make a big push to boost the free and efficient flow of various production factors and strive to make breakthroughs in around three years, which will lay a solid foundation for the islandwide special customs clearance operation," Lin added. The second phase will focus on further optimizing opening-up policies and institutional arrangements. By 2035, high-level process supervision will be mostly built to achieve free trade and investment, free cross-border capital flows, free and convenient transportation and access for people, and safe and orderly flow of data, according to the mega plan for the Hainan Free Trade Port. "Hainan needs to learn from the advanced experience of internationally renowned free trade ports such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, converging with high-level economic and trade rules and building an open system with international competitiveness," Lin said. "We will further cooperate with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to ensure long-term prosperity." He noted Hainan differs from Hong Kong in positioning and industry focus, indicating that complementarity outweighs competition. "We must give full play to its advantages in rich natural resources, unique geographical location and the vast hinterland, focusing on developing tourism, modern services and high-tech industries." Cui Weijie, director of the Institute of Industry Development and Strategy under the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said Hainan resembles many well-known international free trade ports in terms of their high level of openness. "Considering China's large economy and vast hinterland, Hainan needs to develop key industries, build an innovation-driven economy and pay more attention to ecological civilization construction, which will fuel high-quality growth of the entire nation and inject new impetus to global trade and economy." To further enable the free flow of trade and investment, Hainan will introduce measures that center on zero tariffs for the trade of goods in steps and phases. "After the islandwide customs clearance operation in 2025, goods outside the imported taxable commodities catalog will be exempted from import duties," Zou Jiayi, vice-minister of finance, said at the conference. She said Hainan Free Trade Port will establish a zero-tariff negative list and three positive lists, with a key focus on supporting hightech, environmental protection and specialty industries. In the next step, the province will give foreign investors greater access to the financial services field to help vitalize the economy. Pan Gongsheng, vice-governor of the People's Bank of China, said the government will encourage commercial banks and other financial institutions to develop capabilities suitable for an open economy and support global exchanges for energy, shipping and bulk commodities. Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher at China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said Hainan needs to strengthen cooperation with the Greater Bay Area, the land-sea corridor in western China, neighboring Asian countries and countries and regions along the Belt and Road routes. WASHINGTON Attorney General William Barr said the Secret Service recommended that President Donald Trump go down to the White House bunker because protests outside the executive mansion had escalated, contradicting claims by the president that he went underground for an inspection. Last week, Trump dismissed as "false" news reports that the Secret Service rushed him to the bunker as protests over the death of George Floyd escalated outside the White House gates. But in an interview Monday with Fox News host Bret Baier, Barr said: "Things were so bad that the Secret Service recommended the president go down to the bunker. We can't have that in our country." Barr also rejected calls to defund police departments, saying punishing an entire agency over the actions of individual officers is both "dangerous" and "wrong." Trump and the bunker: Says he went 'for a tiny little short period' to 'inspect,' not because of protests 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 George Floyd's death. "I understand, given the history of racial injustice, in this country why the African American community ... would view the ghastly events in Minneapolis as manifestations of institutional racism in police departments," Barr said. But, the attorney general added, police chiefs and rank-and-file officers understand the need for change. "And I think it's dangerous to demonize the police." Barr's remarks come as Minneapolis and other major cities have taken steps to either dismantle or cut chunks of funding from police agencies. Those steps follow Floyd's death in police custody, after an officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. That touched off days of protests that also saw reports and videos of police using excessive force on protesters and other citizens. Perceptions of police: Americans' views drop significantly in one week as protests continue, survey finds Barr said he favors banning chokehold tactics. Story continues Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed to cut as much as $150 million that was part of a planned increase in the police departments budget, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city would move funding from the NYPD to youth initiatives and social services, while keeping the city safe. In Minneapolis, a veto-proof majority of the City Council committed to dismantling its police department, despite Mayor Jacob Freys desire to make changes without breaking up the embattled police force. Barr said officials have to be "very careful" before advocating for the dismantling of entire police organizations. "If you pull back the police from these communities there will be, there will be more harm done in these communities," Barr told Fox News, citing a recent violent weekend in Chicago during which dozens were shot. Attorney General William Barr speaks at the National Sheriffs' Association Winter Legislative and Technology Conference in Washington, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) ORG XMIT: DCSW110 Barr also likened the wholesale condemnation of police departments to the "legitimate grievances" of the black community. Just as African Americans are treated the same way because of the color of their skin, police departments are unfairly condemned because of the actions of a few, he said. "We have, generally speaking, excellent police forces in the United States. ... We want to be judged by what we do as individuals," Barr said. Contributing: Ryan Miller, Michael Collins and David Jackson. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump went to bunker for security, says Barr, who opposes defunding YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan introduced new Director of the National Security Service Argishti Kyaramyan to staff. The PM thanked former NSS director Eduard Martirosyan for the work carried out and added that during that period they have established very good relations and mutual understanding. I am happy to introduce new Director of the National Security Service Argishti Kyaramyan. I want to wish him success in this very important position. You have a complex mission, and I am convinced that you will be able to unite the NSS professional and potential around you and you will reach this structure to new achievements, glory and image that will be acceptable for the citizens of Armenia, the PM said. Pashinyan said the NSS is a powerful, established and dynamic structure, but its necessary to note that the challenges and the pace and quality to responding to them need constant improvement. The meaning of security is changing within the course of time, as new challenges emerge which perhaps were not predicted in the past, starting from the current coronavirus pandemic up to information, civil security issues, anti-corruption fight. I think these two years that we have worked are enough time for all staffers of the national security service to position towards the peaceful, velvet, peoples revolution, in other words towards the peoples power and values, the PM noted. Like in the state system, in the NSS as well very concrete principles for working promotion should irreversibly exist. It must be based on work, professionalism, dedication to solving the legislative issues of the national security service. Unfortunately, we still see people both in the public administration system and in this field who are acting against this logic, he said. Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Actor Terry Crews is defending his controversial statement about 'black supremacy' by saying that it's 'important we not suffer from groupthink' and urging that people to be 'allowed to ask difficult questions to each other.' Crews landed in hot water Sunday after tweeting that 'black supremacy' could result from the Black Lives Matter movement. 'Defeating White supremacy without White people creates Black supremacy. Equality is the truth. Like it or not, we are all in this together,' Crews tweeted, after nearly two weeks of protests about the death of unarmed black man George Floyd. Actor Terry Crews (pictured) has been criticised for saying that 'black supremacy' could result from the Black Lives Matter movement in a clumsily worded tweet on Sunday The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star's controversial post came as the US enters its third week of unrest sparked by the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd in the US Crews tried to clarify his statements on Monday with additional tweets, but did not apologize The tweet was immediately met with criticism, leaving Crews to try to clarify himself in a number of additional tweets that night. On Monday morning Crews tried again. 'Please know that everything I've said comes from a spirit of love and reconciliation, for the Black community first, then the world as a whole, in hopes to see a better future for Black people,' he wrote. 'I believe it is important we not suffer from groupthink, and we keep minds of our own, and be allowed to ask difficult questions to each other. I believe this dialogue is important as we get through this trauma together. I love you.' While he received a degree of support for not backing down from his statements, he continued to be chided for sticking to his unpopular sentiment instead of apologizing. 'You couldve just came out and said you misspoke but you tripled down instead,' one Twitter user wrote. 'Real quick, scroll through the comments and take note of the people who agreed with you vs. who disagreed. That's a good barometer for whether you've effectively communicated or misspoke. Don't create problems that aren't there,' another tweeter wrote. Crews' tweets come as the US enters its third week of protests in the wake of Floyd's death. Protesters are seen in New York City on June 7 Crews spent part of his Sunday attempting to clarify his original statement after being criticized for it. Here, he insisted 'black supremacy doesn't exist' Comedian Godfrey reached out to his friend to declare 'black pride isn't anti white', to which Terry agreed, but noted that he had 'often been called out for not being 'black enough' Terry stood by the intention behind his original post as he insisted critics have 'determined who is black and who is not' after his attempt as promoting equality Actress Holly Robinson Peete responded by simply tweeting a meme of Michelle Obama grabbing Barack Obama's Blackberry out of his hands while they were in the White House. Crews' latest tweets came on the same day that he told NBC News about his experiences being a black man in America. 'I've been victimized since I was kid. I mean, being a black man in America, there's so many things that I had to blink past in order to make it and continue to exist,' Crews said in the interview that ran Monday. 'Most of the time as black men, we are not recognized as victimized until we're dead.' Crews also noted that 'Any sudden move could mean my life. I know this, because no one's going to talk to me. They're just going to shoot.' The Floyd death 'has really got to me deep. I haven't been able to sleep. And when you do nod off, you wake up thinking, "What if the police come to me?"' he added. Crews' Monday tweets were just his effort at clarifying his point of view. He had also tried to explain himself more thoroughly on Sunday night, after the backlash started. At one point, his former Everybody Hates Chris co-star Tyler James Williams tweeted: 'Im not trying to call you out Terry Crews. You know its all love always. But were rightfully angry right now and fed up with anyone not with our cause wholeheartedly. I dont want to see that energy pointed your way or diverted from the cause.' Crews responded by tweeting, 'I understand, Tyler. I was not saying Black supremacy exists, because it doesn't. I am saying if both Black and Whites don't continue to work together, bad attitudes and resentments can create a dangerous self-righteousness. That's all.' Comedian Godfrey, meanwhile, wrote: 'I love you as a friend Brother Terry. But I disagree with you 100 per cent. No such thing as Black Supremacy. 'That is a tactic that Racist whites use to counteract our rebellion to their horrific treatment of us. It's called gas lighting. Black pride isn't anti white.' To him, Crews responded, 'I agree. I'm not discussing white people here. there are "gatekeepers of Blackness" within our own community who decide who's Black and who's not. I have often been called out for not being "black enough". How can that be?' Crews' wrapped up his self-defense by writing: 'Any Black person who calls me a c*** or and Uncle Tom for promoting EQUALITY is a Black Supremist, because they have determined who's Black and who is not.' After Floyd's May 25 death while in police custody, Crews had taken to Instagram to share his feelings, noting that his heart was 'broken.' 'George Floyd could be me. I could easily, easily be that man on the ground with that police officer's knee on my neck. That could easily be me,' Crews wrote. He also wrote that the 'murder of George Floyd has forced me to search my heart to find out what more I can do, as a human being, as a citizen, and more specifically as a Black man, to ensure our community cannot only survive but thrive in this new world.' On Monday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposed certain changes to the rules pertaining to securitisation transactions in India and invited public comments. Whats the idea? If one leaves out the technicalities, the RBI is attempting significant easing of rules on loan securitisation norms in a bid to develop this market. The central bank wants to make a liquid secondary market for sale of loan assets. What is a loan securitisation? In simple terms, this is pooling of loan assets, converting into sellable securities and selling to investors at a discount. In a relaxed regulatory regime, such transactions can be held between two banks, a bank and another financial institution (say an NBFC) or between a lender and an outside fund (Alternative Investment Fund or stressed asset funds). With respect to non-standard assets, the functioning of securitisation market is pretty similar to that of a bad bank. What does a bad bank do? It also purchases bad loans from financial institutions, typically banks. Is the sale of risky assets in a securitisation transaction different from what a bad bank does? The idea of a securitisation deal in stressed assets and a bad bank is not very different. In a developed securitisation market, the securities can be sold in secondary market whereas a bad bank doesn't do this. But in both cases, the risk is taken off the book of originator. There are some experts who believe that developing securitisation deal norms could be a smart way to address the mounting bad loan crisis as it gives an exit to banks to take loans out of the book. The RBI is effectively easing up the securitisation rules to enable greater participation of public sector banks. This could be a smart way of finding an alternative to bad banks, if banks focus on resolution of stressed assets, said Ashvin Parekh, managing partner, Ashvin Parekh Advisory Services. What are the major changes proposed? There are few highlights to the revised guidelines put up for discussion on the RBI's website. First relates to differential treatment for Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) compared to other securitisations in respect of prescriptions regarding minimum holding period (MHP), minimum retention requirements (MRR) and reset of credit enhancements. And the second, a proposal to separate the regulatory guidelines for direct assignment transactions from the securitisation guidelines and the subsumed ones under a separate set of Comprehensive Guidelines on Sale of Loan Exposures. Also, the revised guidelines have enabled single asset securitisation transactions. A single standard asset or a part of such asset or a portfolio of such assets can also be transferred to financial entities through a loan participation contract. Will it help banks? With the proposed relaxations, banks can make some money if they want by selling the loan portfolios to willing buyers at a discount. These can be sold again. This seems to be the idea proposed in two discussion papers published by the central bank for comments. The idea of bringing in these changed guidelines, the RBI said, is to harmonise the extant guidelines on sale of loan exposures issued through various circulars and make them consistent with the changed resolution paradigm in the form of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and the prudential framework for resolution of stressed assets. Residential mortgage-backed securities The revised guidelines follow recommendations of two committees on development of housing finance securitisation market in India and development of secondary market for corporate loans earlier set up by the RBI. With respect to RMBS, the RBI has raised a question on whether the notes issued in a securitisation deal be mandated to be listed if the issue size is above a certain threshold, say Rs 500 crore. Indias securisation market is picking up. Banks and NBFCs are finding this as a way of raising funds. According to rating agency, ICRA, in the nine months ended December 2019, Indian NBFCs and HFCs raised Rs 1.57 lakh crore through securitisation compared with Rs 1.44 lakh crore in the year-ago period. Basically, the RBI is trying to make liquidity available to the institutions by relaxing rules on securitisation. Even the standard assets can be pooled in and sold now if the lender wants to generate some liquidity, said Naresh Malhotra, a Mumbai-based banking consultant. Is this a risk to the Indian financial system like what was seen in the US subprime market during the 2008 crisis? Unlikely. In the US, mortgage-backed securities carrying high ratings changed hands in the form of complex derivative products. The final buyer had no idea about the originator or the health of the portfolio, which ultimately led to a crisis. Here, the regulator is more cautious. The proposed securities will be simple products that can be traded from the lender to the buyer. If you'd retired your dreams of becoming a catwalk sensation, then it may well be time for you to think again. Ahead of the first-ever virtual London Fashion Week, which kicks off on Friday, the British Fashion Council has partnered with John Lewis to challenge you to wear an outfit that brings you joy and film your own catwalk moment. A handful of the videos submitted will be made into a short film that will be shared virtually on Sunday June 14. This marks the first time that a London Fashion Week show has been created with content generated by the public. To take part, all you have to do is post a video of you strutting your stuff with the hashtag #LFWCatwalkChallenge and tag @johnlewisandpartners on either an Instagram post or a story. An example of an entry: Olivia Robinson / Instagram / ji oliviar For every video with the hashtag #LFWCatwalkChallenge, John Lewis will donate 5 to the BFC's Foundation Fashion Fund for the Covid Crisis, which was established at the start of lockdown in order to support creative businesses and individuals to survive the coronavirus crisis. The #LFWCatwalkChallenge hopes to harness the transformative power of clothes, be an inclusive and joyful celebration of fashion and self-expression, allowing us to indulge in dressing up. We know fashion may not be highest on everyones agenda but we hope to lift spirits and raise some money," John Lewis' Fashion Director Christine Kasoulis said. The LFW film will be created using video entries submitted between 9am this morning to midday Friday June 12. John Lewis will continue to donate money to the BFC fund until midnight on Sunday June 14. A 64-year-old white woman from Milwaukee was arrested by police on June 6 after she blocked George Floyd protesters from marching with her car and after she spat on a black man. Hate crime The video of the confrontation between the woman and the protesters and the spitting incident was shared on Facebook and Twitter. The footage shows a car parked in the middle of North Oakland Avenue and it obstructed protesters from marching down the street. The white woman was then seen outside of her car, yelling at protesters and telling them to get away from her before she spat on a black man in the crowd. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the person that she spat on was a young black man. Protesters who were surrounding the old woman urged her to get back to her car and drive away but someone said in the recording that the woman refused to move her car, so they can't go. On June 7, the Shorewood Police Department identified the woman as attorney Stephanie Rapkin. She was immediately taken into custody and the charges related to the encounter will be referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office, according to the news. David Bowen, a state representative, called for the woman's attorney licence to be removed because of the incident, he also shared the incident on Twitter. Also Read: Teen Spent 10 Hours Cleaning Up After Protest, Rewarded a Mustang and Scholarship The executive director of the state bar of Wisconsin, Larry J. Martin, said on June 7 that the video left him disturbed and disgusted and he also expressed his view that there is no justifiable reason for one person to spit on another individual, pandemic or not. While Martin stated that he does not handle disciplinary actions for licensed attorneys like Rapkin, he referred all of the complaints to the State of Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation, according to the report of the Journal Sentinel. The news site Newsweek tried to reach out to the State of Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation for their comment on the incident. The Shorewood Police Department did not reveal any other information about Rapkin. Black Lives Matter protest Massive protests have erupted across the United States and in other countries since last week. The protest was sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was murdered by ex-officer Derek Chauvin from the Minneapolis police force. After days of protest, all four officers in the incident were arrested and charged. However, the public are demanding justice for other senseless crimes done by police officers and they are calling for the end of police brutality especially towards the African Americans. This is the first time that all 50 states in America came together to protest. Thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters are taking their sentiments to the streets and after days of marching, it shows no signs of stopping nor dwindling. Fights also broke out between the police and the people, with cases of violence, vandalism and looting in some cities in the country. Numerous videos went viral on social media that shows how the police officers used rubber bullets, tear gas and violence when trying to break up a group of peaceful protesters. Related Article: Is George Floyd Death a Staged Event? Texas Politician Cynthia Brehm Says So @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Both Chinese and Indian armies are withdrawing some troops and removing temporary infrastructure from from the three areas, the sources said. Indian and Chinese armies have undertaken a "symbolic disengagement" in a few areas in eastern Ladakh in a demonstration of their intent to end the border standoff peacefully ahead of another round of military talks on Wednesday, people familiar with the development said. They said both the armies remained engaged in aggressive posturing in areas such as Pangong Tso, Daulat Beg Oldie and Demchok, and there will be a series of negotiations in the next few days to explore a solution to end the confrontation. The two sides will hold another round of Major General-level talks on Wednesday. Military sources said the two armies have begun "disengagement" around patrolling points 14 and 15 in Galwan Valley and another in the Hot Spring area, adding the Chinese side has even moved back up to 1.5 km in two areas. However, there was no official word on the disengagement from the defence ministry, the ministry of external affairs or from the Chinese side. Both Chinese and Indian armies are withdrawing some troops and removing temporary infrastructure from from the three areas, the sources said. "This is a positive development," a senior Army official said on condition of anonymity. The people cited above said the two sides agreed during a high-level military dialogue on June 6 to go for the "symbolic disengagement" just to send across a positive message in resolving the row and that the gesture does not mean withdrawal of troops in a serious way. They said a sizeable number of Chinese troops are still present in the Galwan Valley area which was strongly objected to by India. They said the two sides will hold Major-General level talks as well as dialogue between their field commanders on Wednesday. Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged since May 5 following a violent clash in Pangong Tso. In their first serious efforts to end the row, Lt General Harinder Singh, the general officer commanding of Leh-based 14 Corps, and Commander of the Tibet Military District Maj Gen Liu Lin held an extensive meeting on June 6. However, it could not produce any tangible results. In a statement, the external affairs ministry on Sunday said the meeting took place in a "cordial and positive atmosphere" and that both sides agreed that an "early resolution" of the issue would contribute to the further development of the relationship between the two countries. Saturday's talks also came a day after the two countries held diplomatic talks during which both sides agreed to handle their "differences" through peaceful discussions while respecting each other's sensitivities and concerns. After the standoff began in early last month, Indian military leadership decided that Indian troops will adopt a firm approach in dealing with the aggressive posturing by the Chinese troops in all disputed areas of Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie. The Chinese Army has been gradually ramping up its strategic reserves in its rear bases near the the Line of Actual Control by rushing in artillery guns, infantry combat vehicles and heavy military equipment, the sources said. 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 Lake besides construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley. The road in the Finger area in Pangong Tso is considered crucial for India to carry out patrol. India has already decided not to stall any border infrastructure projects in eastern Ladakh in view of Chinese protests. The situation in the area deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on May 5 and 6. The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in north Sikkim on May 9. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. 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 tranquillity in the border areas. In their historic informal summit in Chinese city of Wuhan in 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese Presdent Xi Jinping underscored the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity in all areas of the India-China border region in the interest of the development of bilateral relations. The summit had taken place months after a 73-day military face-off between the two armies in Doklam that raised fears of a war between the two Asian giants. In their talks on June 6, both sides agreed to follow the broad decisions taken by Modi and Xi in the Wuhan summit to ensure peace and tranquillity along the LAC. On June 2, Dr Hu Weifeng, a urology doctor at Wuhan City Central Hospital, died from COVID-19 after a protracted illness, causing renewed public outrage over the poor condition of the Chinese medical system and the deaths of health workers. According to reports, the doctor was diagnosed with COVID-19 on January 18 and was treated at the hospital. His condition deteriorated several times, and he received popular attention because a photo appeared of his face turning black when undergoing treatment. Dr Hu Weifeng before and after contracting COVID-19 On April 22, due to a sudden cerebral hemorrhage, his ill-health again became critical, and after more than a month of further treatment, he died last week. A colleague re-posted his last words on social media: I am like a little boat in the sea and may be submerged at any time. Although Chinas internet and social media have been greatly restricted to suppress public opinion during the past few months, Hu Weifengs death still caused widespread anger, focussing first on the official censorship of news about it. Wuhan City Central Hospital remained silent about the doctors death. The hospitals official website published nothing about it and Hu Weifengs colleagues were barred from being interviewed by the media. It is understood that during the epidemic, a total of six doctors died in this hospital. As of early February, approximately 70 of the hospitals medical workers were infected with COVID-19. Those who died included Dr Li Wenliang, who is known as the whistleblower of the outbreak. In the early days of the pandemic, police warned him for sharing information about it on social media. Li Wenliangs death caused considerable concern and demands for free speech on Chinese social media. The hospitals silence on Hu Weifengs death and the governments restrictions on online public opinion sought to prevent similar dissent from re-appearing on a large scale. Throughout the pandemic, doctors have been told not to disclose information to the public or the outside world. Doctors and nurses have been prohibited from using protective equipment in order to create the illusion that all is well. As a result, many healthcare workers became infected in Chinas hardest-hit area. Official statistics indicate that more than 3,000 doctors and nurses were infected in Wuhan. There is discontent over the governments initial concealment of epidemic information. On January 18, the Wuhan government organised a feast attended by more than 40,000 families in a local community. The official media declared that the feast had defeated rumours about the outbreak. Only two days later, the government had to declare a state of emergency. According to reports, this community has suffered the highest infection rate in Wuhan. Incomplete statistics from unofficial sources show that more than 500 Chinese medical workers have died in the epidemic, and the actual number may be much higher than this. The treatment and protection of medical workers has become a topic of public concern, adding to long-standing dissatisfaction with the medical system. As in other capitalist countries, the epidemic has exposed the shortage of resources in the public health system. Tens of thousands of doctors and nurses have to work without adequate protection. Some have only low-quality sanitary protection equipment, and some have had to make their own. A photo of medical workers using plastic bags to make protective clothing was popular on the internet. It has been reported that in a typical medical service centre, about 100 doctors and nurses share one set of protective clothing. Chinas government has always boasted about the countrys rapid economic growth, but the governments spending on the medical system accounts for just 6 percent of its gross domestic product. According to the World Health Organisation, China had only 2 doctors per 1,000 people in 2017, about half the level in the euro zone. This shortage is worse in Chinas remote areas and small country towns. Compared with 2012, Chinas medical demand increased by more than 10 percent by 2014, but the number of doctors rose by only 3.5 percent. Research shows that the burnout rate of Chinese doctors is as high as 76.9 percent, so the situation is likely to worsen. Official statistics indicate that at least half of doctors incomes are lower than the average urban monthly salary, which was 4,780 yuan ($US675) in 2014. In the same year, two-thirds of doctors incomes were less than 5,000 yuan. At the same time, ordinary people often cannot afford medical services and dare not go to a hospital when they get sick. It is estimated that nearly 30 percent of patients who should be hospitalised are not, for financial reasons. It is not uncommon for families to become poor because of illness. The pro-capitalist reform of the medical system since the 1990s has continuously pushed privatisation and commercialisation. This makes the relationship between doctors and patients extremely tense. In recent years, medical workers have been assaulted and even murdered. The harm and social problems that capitalism has brought over decades are far greater than those caused by viruses. People will not forget the victims who died in this pandemic as a result. Zain Group, a leading mobile telecom provider in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, has announced the publication of its ninth annual sustainability report, entitled The Road to the Future. Embedding sustainability in every aspect of its business, Zain is dedicated to its digital strategy of consistently working towards developing the mobile telecommunications ecosystem centered on a vision of inclusive development that leads to socio-economic growth. In this consolidated group-wide report, the company focuses on the concept of providing meaningful connectivity which triggers systemic change, ultimately creating room for development and growth, aiming to address the companys social, economic and environmental impacts. Noteworthy is the FTSE Russells inclusion of Zain Group in its FTSE4Good Index Series, the world's leading Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) index, a key indicator to help investors identify companies that meet globally recognized sustainability standards. The Road to the Future report includes Zains key ESG indicators which is primarily based on the companys sustainability strategy and initiatives, established on six main pillars with its activities driven by the following imperatives: Creating shared value; Promoting social innovation; Inclusivity and leaving no one behind; Addressing Sustainable Development Goals; Tackling climate change; and Youth empowerment. Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO Bader Al-Kharafi commented: Now more than ever, the need for a fundamental systemic change is central to the regions transformation and growth. In our world, digital and technological advancements offer endless opportunities to not only address negative impacts but create positive ones. Through digitization, our wide range of services, and reach, Zain aims to unlock the possibilities that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer and the publication of this report is testament to our ongoing efforts and resolve. Al Kharafi continued: FTSE Russells inclusion of Zain Group in its FTSE4Good Index Series reconfirms our commitment to embedding ESG principles in every operational aspect of the company. Zain Groups Chief Sustainability Officer Jennifer Suleiman said: In an era of rapid change and disruption, having a forward-thinking vision is an essential aspect of our sustainability strategy. At Zain, we welcome the tides of disruption as they often provide us the chance to evolve in a positive manner. Suleiman added: It is short-sighted for a company not to consider what the impact of its operations are on the environment and adjust its way of doing business accordingly. The reason we remain so committed to publishing our sustainability reports is to be extremely forthcoming of our own experiences in this area, and to inspire others to follow suit and have real conversations and implement real solutions in the pursuit of truly sustainable programs. - TradeArabia News Service The insurance veteran has been with AXA for 24-years, during which he has lived and worked in 12 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Europe. He has held several CEO and leadership positions around the world, including his current position as country CEO of AXA China and chairman of AXA Tianping in China and AXA General Insurance in Korea. He joins AXA XL with a wealth of experience in strategic business development, innovation, operations and change management. Some of his career highlights include the development of AXAs healthcare practice in the Middle East, as well as leading the operational transformation of AXA Global Direct, which brought together all of AXAs direct insurance subsidiaries serving around five million customers globally. He recently oversaw the process towards full ownership of AXA Tianping, making it the largest foreign-owned P&C insurance company in China. Xaviers extensive international experience positions him ideally to lead AXA XLs business across Asia & Europe, said AXA XL CEO Scott Gunter. When we think about Asia & Europe in terms of a business unit, we know that its incredibly diverse in terms of economies, business and culture. I believe Xavier has the knowledge and, importantly, the first-hand experience and mindset to lead our teams in these incredibly important markets. Having the right talent in the right places is key to ensuring AXA XL is the insurance partner of choice across business lines and around the world. Our newly appointed regional CEOs are going to ensure we are an organisation that is easy to navigate, so that we can continue to serve our clients to the very best of our ability. Gordon Watson, CEO of AXA Asia, added: I would like to thank Xavier for his superb leadership while in China. I am delighted he will continue to support the growth of the AXA Group in China as Chairman of AXA Tianping and through his directorship at ICBC-AXA. 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. Human remains have been found at an Idaho home that was searched Tuesday during a probe into the disappearance two children a case that drew national attention after it was featured on NBC Dateline. Chad Daybell, who recently married the childrens mother, Lori Vallow Daybell, was taken into custody, according to East Idaho News. Police took him into custody for questioning, but have not arrested or charged him with a crime. Tylee Ryan, 17, and Joshua JJ Vallow, 7, have not been seen since September. Besides the two missing children, the couple, who espouse doomsday religious beliefs, have also been under scrutiny for the deaths of both of their former spouses. Rexburg, Idaho, police, along with investigators from the FBI and the Fremont County Sheriffs Office, searched Chad Daybells home, according to KIDK-TV in Idaho Falls. The search warrant is sealed, and Rexburg Assistant Police Chief Gary Hagan said in a statement he couldnt reveal details other than to say the search was linked to the disappearance of the children. Lori Daybell is awaiting trial on charges of child abandonment and obstructing the investigation and has pleaded not guilty. The Idaho attorney general's office announced this year that it was investigating Chad Daybell in the death of his wife at the time, Tammy Daybell. Lori Daybells ex-husband, Charles Vallow, was shot to death by her brother, Alex Cox, in Phoenix in what had been described as a case of self-defense. During an episode of NBC Dateline, friends of the couple said Lori Vallow believed she had become a god-like figure who was responsible for ushering in the biblical end times. National Development Minister Lawrence Wong delivering a national broadcast on Living with COVID-19 on 9 June, 2020.(PHOTO: MCI) SINGAPORE The government will ensure that every Singaporean who requires the COVID-19 vaccine can purchase it affordably, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday (9 June). If and when a vaccine becomes available, we will make sure that every Singaporean who needs it gets it, and at an affordable price, assured Wong, who is also co-chair of Singapores COVID-19 multi-taskforce, in a 15-minute speech televised on regional broadcaster CNA. The good news is that there is a massive global effort to develop a vaccine. And Singapore is working on this too, he added, referring to Singapores existing pharmaceutical industry and research capabilities in biomedical science. The Economic Development Board is also discussing with pharmaceutical companies to manufacture vaccines in Singapore, said Wong. At the same time, clinicians and researchers around the world, including teams from Singapore, are working hard to develop drugs and other therapies to reduce the severity of the disease, he added. But Wong noted that drug and vaccine development is very challenging work with no guarantee that the drugs currently undergoing clinical trials will be effective. Despite the intensive international efforts, it will take a long time for any vaccine to be ready and available for mass distribution, he said. The World Health Organisation revealed in its most recent update on global vaccine development projects, published last Tuesday, at least 133 vaccines are currently being tested around the world. Experts globally have estimated that a vaccine would be ready in one year to 18 months. So we have to be realistic and gird ourselves for more challenging times. It is not likely that the virus will go away. Our population will be vulnerable for a long time, in a world where COVID-19 is all around us, he added. Wongs delivery is the second in a series of national speeches by cabinet ministers, followed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loongs last Sunday. Senior Minister Teo Chee Heans speech is scheduled to broadcast on Thursday. Story continues Every aspect of society must adapt to new norm In his speech on Living with COVID-19, Wong also stressed that society in Singapore will need to adapt to the virus and learn to live with it long-term with everyone government, businesses, and individuals doing their part. Whats critical is peoples behaviour and mindsets. We must stay disciplined and vigilant, and not let our guard down. We must practise social responsibility in upholding good personal hygiene and safe distancing measures wash our hands regularly, wear a mask wherever we go, avoid big gatherings and crowded places, and see a doctor immediately when we are sick, he said. These actions will enable Singapore to have a safe and sustainable reopening, as seen in countries like Denmark and New Zealand, Wong noted. Conversely, if we are lax in our personal precautions, new cases, and new clusters will multiply quickly, and despite our best efforts to test and trace, we might end up in another circuit breaker down the road, he added. Changes must also be incorporated in our daily lives, including in the work environment, and making work arrangements flexible through staggered working hours, working from home and split team arrangements. Our urban plans will need to cater to these new demands. Office and building designs will also have to change, given what we now know about the risks of transmission in enclosed spaces, Wong added. Among the changes include improving ventilation and air filtering inside buildings as well as making features such as contactless fittings, automatic doors, hand sanitiser, and temperature monitoring stations as part of the norm. Companies will also have to find new and safer ways to deliver their products and services, he said. Many are already embracing digital solutions. Some will need to change their business practices to adapt to the new environment, noted Wong. And I am happy that wet market stallholders and hawkers are now using digital payments more, and online platforms to reach new customers. The construction sector here, described by Wong as a key vulnerability in this pandemic, will need to institute new safeguards at worksites, and continue its push for automation and productivity, in order to reduce its reliance on migrant workers. Workers in construction local and foreign will have to be tested regularly and comprehensively, he added. We will also need to review and improve living arrangements for migrant workers. The present dormitories are in fact the outcome of improvements made over the past decade. But despite this, and the precautions we took, we still had major outbreaks in the dormitories, said Wong. We will tighten the safeguards and build new dormitories designed to be more resilient against infection risks. To date, over 36,000 of Singapores 38,514 COVID-19 cases are foreign workers living in dorms. Some 400,000 workers living in such dorms here. But Wong stressed that the risk of an infectious disease outbreak will always be there, due to the large number of workers living together and sharing communal facilities as well as in other communal living spaces, such as nursing homes and cruise ships. Ultimately, re-opening our economy and society does not mean going back to the status quo ante. I know many are looking forward to resume your favourite activities or to get back to your usual routines, he said. But this is not the time for big celebrations or parties. We will all need to adjust our expectations, lifestyles and norms. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Other Singapore stories: Singapore on track to do 40,000 COVID-19 tests a day in coming months: Lawrence Wong No plan currently for mandatory use of wearable devices for COVID-19 contact tracing: Balakrishnan HPB to set up more regional screening centres for COVID-19 testing: MOH COVID-19: More tech tools at expanded Changi Exhibition Centre patient facility COVID-19: Robots to help with operations at new Changi Exhibition Centre isolation facility Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 23:46:08|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DHAKA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- China has controlled the COVID-19 epidemic with great efforts and sacrifices that now offer great learning for the world, Bangladesh Doctors' Foundation chief said. In an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday, Nirupam Das, chief administrator of Bangladesh Doctors' Foundation, said the tremendous efforts and the great leadership of the Chinese government have been seen. COVID-19 is now the main concern of the whole world, he said, adding that it is creating havoc all over the World. "China has controlled this devastating unknown virus with tremendous potentiality within three months," said the chief administrator of the professional forum of 70,000 doctors and 28,000 medical students in Bangladesh. "Coordinated action plans, synchronized working plans of different authorities, and a good leadership are behind this success." With reference to the white paper on the China's battle against COVID-19, he said, "It is a great learning for the whole world." The physician further said stigmatization and politicization of the virus will create anarchy in the world. "Now we need a proper action plan to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic." Enditem By PTI NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday discussed the COVID-19 pandemic with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and assured that India's well-established capacity for manufacturing affordable pharmaceutical products would continue to be deployed for the benefit of the entire humanity. The leaders also discussed the steps being taken by the two governments to address the challenges arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic, an official statement said. The Philippines President appreciated the steps taken by India to maintain the supply of essential pharmaceutical products to his country, it said. The prime minister assured President Duterte of India's commitment to supporting the Philippines in its fight against the pandemic. He stressed that India's well-established capacity for manufacturing affordable pharmaceutical products, including for an eventual vaccine once it is found, would continue to be deployed for the benefit of entire humanity," the statement said. Both leaders expressed appreciation for the cooperation extended to ensure the welfare of their citizens in each other's territory, as also for their repatriation home, during the ongoing health crisis. The leaders shared their satisfaction at the progress seen in recent years in all aspects of the bilateral relationship, including defence cooperation, it said. Had a useful exchange with President Rodrigo Duterte about COVID-19 and other issues. I thanked him for taking care of the Indian community in the Philippines. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 9, 2020 Taking to Twitter, Modi later said, "India and the Philippines will cooperate to reduce the health and economic impact of the pandemic, and to give shape to our common vision for the Indo-Pacific region." Modi emphasised that India sees the Philippines as a vital partner in the Indo-Pacific Region. The prime minister also conveyed his best wishes to President Duterte and the people of the Philippines for the forthcoming National Day. A civilian aircraft collided with a sitting MV-22 Osprey last month in San Diego, resulting in millions' worth of damage to the tiltrotor aircraft. The Class A mishap, defined as one that involves fatalities, damage totaling $2 million or more, or a complete loss of the aircraft, happened May 30 at Brown Field, a Marine Corps official told Military.com. The incident was highlighted in a recently released Naval Safety Center accident report. Read Next: Challenged by Netflix Show, US Space Force Rushes to Trademark Name According to the official, the pilot of the civilian plane lost control of the aircraft, traveling across the runway and eventually impacting the Osprey. An official with Brown field did not immediately respond with information about what the make of the civilian plane was. "Aircraft routinely operate from Brown Airfield for training, 1st Lt Zachary Bodner, a spokesman for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, said Tuesday. An investigation into the incident is pending, he added. The Marine Corps later confirmed the V-22 was assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 163, out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. An official from the city of San Diego said an investigation was ongoing, but there were no injuries and no airport buildings were damaged. "While the investigation of the May 30, 2020, civilian aircraft and parked US Marine Osprey surface incident is currently underway, the City of San Diego will remain committed to maintaining the highest standards of safety at the Brown Field Municipal Airport," Racquel Vasquez, senior public information officer for the city, said. In December, the Marine Corps received its first modified MV-22, with a modernized and streamlined configuration. The "C" upgrade, under the Common Configuration-Readiness and Modernization (CC-RAM) program, moves more than 70 configurations into fewer than 17 variants for the aircraft, manufacturer Bell-Boeing said in a release at the time. Naval Air Systems Command -- which oversees the Osprey program -- gave the joint venture company $57 million in 2017 to begin the CC-RAM program. In 2019, NAVAIR awarded Bell-Boeing another $146 million contract to upgrade additional MV-22 aircraft. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Related: The Military Still Wants a Belly Gun for the V-22 Osprey Pupils returned to school in some areas of Spain on Monday and nightclubs opened in others in a further easing of the countrys coronavirus lockdown. Spain, which has suffered one of the worlds worst COVID-19 outbreaks, imposed strict confinement measures in March but has been gradually reopening its hard-hit economy since May, with different regions progressing at different speeds. Some schools in the capital Madrid reopened for primary pupils on Monday and seniors preparing for university-entrance exams will return on Tuesday. Other regions are allowing different age groups to return. Children across the country were granted the right to play outside at any time of day, offering some relief after months spent indoors. A recent study showed nearly one in six children has felt regularly depressed during the crisis. Nightclubs reopened in much of Spain though a widely mocked ban on dancing will be enforced to prevent infections. Bullfights are also permitted, but with attendance capped at 400, corridas are financially unviable for now. We need an audience of 1,500 people to make it work, said Javier Gomez, a member of the board of a bullfighting union. Bar owners in Madrid were also preparing to reopen as restrictions on indoor seating were lifted. Previous rules limited customers to half-filled outdoor terraces. But, with just three useable outdoor spots at his bull-themed Madrid bar, Cesar Alonso was unable make the numbers work. I cant rehire any of my employees for just three tables, he told Reuters. We hope next week to open for our friends and clients. Daily infections and deaths from the coronavirus have plunged since their peak in early April but medical equipment is in short supply. A trainload of goods from China is expected to arrive by the end of June. (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 A federal court trial underway in San Francisco could spell the beginning of the end of water fluoridation in America, potentially affecting drinking water for hundreds of millions of people across the U.S. Although fluoride can occur naturally in water, many water utilities add the chemical with the goal of improving dental health. But an alliance of groups led by Food & Water Watch, a government accountability nonprofit, have sued the Environmental Protection Agency to force it to limit or ban adding fluoride altogether. They contend that the chemical presents an unreasonable risk of causing neurological damage, especially to young children and babies in the womb. In opening statements today, plaintiffs lawyer Michael Connett said it will be undisputed in this case that babies who are bottle-fed with fluoridated water receive the highest doses of fluoride of any age group. At the time of their greatest vulnerability, we are exposing infants, often from the poorest, most disadvantage communities, to a very high burden of fluoride, Connett said. But James Do, a Justice Department lawyer representing the EPA, said there are too many uncertainties and inconsistencies in the evidence. Lets be one hundred percent clear here, Do said. If EPA could conclude that there was an unreasonable risk from water fluoridation, EPA would regulate. As reported by FairWarning, water agencies first began adding fluoride in the 1940s, and today nearly 75 percent of Americans on public water systems are served fluoridated water. Fluoridation has been a lightning rod for crackpot conspiracy theories, including that it is part of a government plot to achieve mind control. Despite the outlandish nature of these fever dreams, fluoride is far from a benign chemical, health experts say. As things stands, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has set an advisory limit of 0.7 parts of fluoride per million parts of water as the optimum level to help prevent tooth decay while avoiding other problems associated with excessive fluoride exposure. These include dental fluorosiswhich can lead to severe staining of the teeth, enamel erosion and pittingand at much higher exposure levels skeletal fluorosis, a disease associated with joint pain, fractures and the bone disorder osteosclerosis. But the EPA, which regulates drinking water quality, has not acted to limit the amount of fluoride that can be added. It requires that when fluoride concentrations exceed 2 parts per million parts that customers be alerted, and sets a maximum level of 4 ppman allowance for water systems with high levels of naturally occurring fluoride. According to the CDC, of approximately 275 million Americans on public water systems, more than 200 million are served water with fluoride added. An analysis by the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization, found that about 30 million people receive tap water with fluoride levels higher than the CDC recommendation. Medical and dental authorities say that a small dose of the chemical is beneficial for dental health. The CDC claims that fluoridation reduces cavities by about 25% in children and adults. Still, a growing body of evidence suggests that Americans are routinely exposed to more fluoride than is good for them. Experts point out that people already receive a daily dose of fluoride in toothpaste and mouthwash, and in many bottled drinks and processed foods. A key focus of the federal trial is a growing stack of scientific literature showing potential neurological harm from even low levels of fluoride. In 2016, a 13-year study conducted in Mexico found that higher prenatal exposures to fluoride were associated with lower intelligence test scores for children later on. Between 2018 and 2019, several studies from Canada found similar effects, including that more fluoride in the urine of expectant mothers corresponded with an IQ loss in male children, and that youths from areas with fluoridated water had a higher prevalence of ADHD. The EPA has asserted that there isnt enough evidence showing neurological damage from low levels of fluoride, and that the benefits of fluoridation outweigh the risks. More Coverage:Fluoride in the Water: Too Much of a Good Thing? The case before U.S. District Judge Edward Chen began its slow road to trial in 2016, when the plaintiffs petitioned the EPA to begin the process of banning fluoridation. A court subsequently denied the EPAs motion to dismiss the petition, setting the stage for the legal showdown. In the months leading up to the trial, judge Edward Chen made several rulings that carry the potential to shape its outcome, including one that bars the EPA from providing evidence of fluorides health benefits. The case, being tried without a jury, was filed under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, and this is the first time a citizens petition under that law has made it to the trial stage, Robert Sussman, a former EPA deputy administrator, told FairWarning. This is very much a precedent setting case which is going down a road nobodys traveled down before, Sussman said. If the plaintiffs are successful, the case wont necessarily signal the end to water fluoridation, but could cause the EPA to limit how much fluoride can be added. Any new rules could take years to implement. This is a good public health exercise, said Mike Keegan, regulatory analyst for the National Rural Water Association, which represents officials of small community water systems. You want to make sure this is an asset youre putting into the water supply. Did you like this story? Your support means a lot! Your tax-deductible donation in any amount will advance our mission of delivering strong watchdog reporting. This story was produced by FairWarning (www.fairwarning.org), a nonprofit news organization based in Southern California that focuses on public health, consumer and environmental issues. Donald Trump defended police officers caught pushing an elderly man to the ground amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, claiming without evidence the may have been an Antifa provocateur. The president tweeted on Tuesday about the video footage from protests last week in Buffalo, New York: Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an Antifa provocateur. 75-year-old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. He then tagged the conservative news outlet, One America News, and added: I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? Mr Gugino fell to the ground after approaching officers who pushed him in Niagara Square on Thursday. He can be seen falling backwards to the floor in the video, his head hitting the ground and bleeding as the officers continue walking past him. Friends of Mr Gugino have defended him from attacks as he remained in a serious but stable condition in hospital, according to his attorney. Terrence Bisson, who volunteered with Mr Gugino at the Western New York Peace Centre for nearly a decade, described him as funny and gentle and told a local news outlet: Hes also an older white man in America and knows the privileges that come along with that. Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski, the two officers involved in the confrontation, have both been charged with second-degree assault and released without bail. Local officials have said the officers were engaging in misconduct as they pushed the demonstrator to the ground while attempting to clear the square. The officers crossed a line, district attorney John Flynn said at a press conference on Saturday, while New York governor Andrew Cuomo described the incident as horrendous. I think there was criminal liability from what I saw on the video, Mr Cuomo said. Theres no tolerance for delaying justice in society anymore. He added: Justice delayed is justice denied. Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Show all 30 1 /30 Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Philadelphia Police have clashed with protesters throughout the ongoing demonstrations across the US against police brutality and racism in the country, sparked by the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor AP Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality San Jose, California AP Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Boston, Massachusetts AFP via Getty Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality White House, Washington AP Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality New York EPA Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Boston, Massachusetts EPA Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Washington, DC Getty Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Minneapolis, Minnesota Reuters Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Chicago Chicago Sun-Times via AP Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Des Moines, Iowa The Des Moines Register via AP Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Washington DC AFP via Getty Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Chicago Chicago Sun-Times via AP Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality New York Reuters Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Washington, DC AFP via Getty Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality New York Getty Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality New York AFP via Getty Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Columbia, South Carolina AP Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality New York EPA Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Philadelphia AP Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Hollywood, California EPA Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality St Paul, Minnesota Getty Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Washington DC Reuters Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Santa Monica, California AP Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Los Angeles, California EPA Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Washington, DC Getty Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality New York Reuters Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality Atlanta AP Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality White House, Washington AFP via Getty Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality White House, Washington AFP via Getty Mr Trumps defence for the officers involved in the incident come as the president continued encouraging a nationwide crackdown on the weeks of demonstrations that erupted across the country and throughout the world over the death of George Floyd. The unarmed black man was seen in footage pleading for his life as a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, even after he seemingly became unresponsive. The president has called on state governors to put down the protests by calling in the National Guard and arresting demonstrators. In a conference call with governors earlier this month, the president described the protests as a movement, NPR reported. He told the governors: If you dont put it down, it will get worse and worse. The only time its successful is when youre weak and most of you are weak. Kelly Zarcone, attorney to Mr Gugino, said he has acknowledged and sincerely appreciates the tremendous outpouring of support he has received nationwide after the footage went viral. The attorney added: Martin and his family continue to request privacy as they focus on Martins health and recovery. The North Korean regime responds to the release of defamatory leaflets by dissidents sheltered in the South. The North Koreans will treat the Seoul government as an "enemy". A military pact and the common industrial area of Kaesong are also at risk. Experts: Kim Jong-un raises tension to obtain more in future negotiations with South Koreans. Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Pyongyang today stopped all military and diplomatic communications with the South, and declared that it will treat the Seoul government as an "enemy". Kim Jong-un's regime followed up on June 5's threat to abolish the Inter-Korean Liaison Office in retaliation for defamatory flyers being flown with balloons in from the South into its territory. To stop the crisis, the South Korean government had asked for a stop to the sending of brochures, also announcing the launch of a specific legislative ban. Despite this, North Korean dissidents headed for the South continued to fly thousands of leaflets attacking Kim Jong-un across the military dividing line between the two countries. For North Korea, the South has violated the 2018 peace accords. Kim Yo-jong, sister of the strong man from Pyongyang, has promised further reprisals. In addition to the Liaison Office, created to facilitate communications between the two sides, the North could also dismantle the inter-Korean industrial area of Kaesong, closed in 2016 after a missile test in Pyongyang. A pact aimed at reducing military tension with Seoul is also at risk. According to several observers, Pyongyangs actions are not just the result of resentment over the launch of the leaflets, but also the attempt to raise the tension to obtain more in future negotiations with Seoul: a tactic often used by the Kim family, in power since the end of the Second World War. The two Koreas are technically at war, given that the two countries never signed a peace treaty at the end of the conflict that saw them opposed from 1950 to 1953. Vinamilk's cattle farm in Tay Ninh Province. The companys shares were among those that rose on Monday as the market gave a thumbs-up to Viet Nams free trade deal with the EU. - VNA/VNS Photo Le Duc Hoanh The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange closed 1.55 per cent up at 899.92 points. The VN-Index had gained a total of 2.51 per cent last week. The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange rose 1.71 per cent to finish the day at 120.10 to follow on the heel of a 7.53 per cent gain last week. Nearly 682 million shares were traded on the two exchanges for VND9.51 trillion (US$409 million). This included a record VND7.22 trillion worth of order matching on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. The market sentiment was supported by an uptrend in global stocks following the US employment report last weekend, MB Securities (MBS) said in its daily report. Investors cheered the approval of the Europe-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Europe-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), MBS said. The agreements were passed by the National Assembly in the morning, which boosted almost all sectoral indices. The industries that are expected to benefit the most from the agreements include retail, banking, securities, food and beverages, seafood, and real estate. The sectoral indices were up 0.9-5.9 per cent, according to vietstock.vn, with the seafood sector accounting for the latter number. The trade deals are expected to give Vietnamese companies better access to the affluent European markets. Besides, Viet Nam also expects to attract investment from Europe. All leading companies in each sector gained, taking the large-, mid- and small-cap tracker indices up by 1.5-2 per cent. The large-cap VN30 index was up 1.5 per cent as 27 of the 30 largest stocks by market value gained and only three declined. The gainers included sugar firm Thanh Thanh Cong-Bien Hoa (SBT), retailer Mobile World Investment (MWG), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), and PetroVietnam Gas (GAS). High trading liquidity has been maintained for the past few days, proving the market absorption is good, MBS said. That indicates investors are highly confident about the markets prolonged uptrend. My thinking as I walked at 3 a.m. I do not (and you should not) take the western world seriously any more. However, western societies must be kept under a watchful eye 24/7 for their cunning malignancy makes backstabbing & bullying their regular habit, against not only so called foes, but also their allies are excluded only if the ally has enough external and internal pressures upon the west. The so-called free media in the West & the so called democracy of their governments.they put lies, slander, disinformation and exaggeration on countries like Russia, China, Iran and many many others. Keeping their ignorant, uninformed of reality, paranoid and condescending readers brainwashed with untruths and fabrications against the actual truth! While it is true that all governments lie and twist truth at times for reasons known only to them.The west has lost all legitimacy in anything and everything they do. You would be hard pressed to find a single truth within the Western Empire and then you would find that the truth has been undermined with lies to start with I fear that it will only get much worse before it gets a semblance of being better.if ever Kyle Keeton at WtR 100 Years Ago 1920: Relatives of James ODonnell, former circus clown and at one time inspector in the employ of the Philadelphia and Suburban Gas and Electric Company, whose decomposed body was discovered over a week ago at Woodlyn, will be asked today to identify a new raincoat, which, it has been learned, was picked up on the morning of Tuesday, May 18, at Ninth street and Edgmont Avenue. According to report, ODonnell took a new raincoat from his sisters home a few nights before he disappeared from his rooming place, 525 Penn St. 75 Years Ago 1945: Differing sharply with the recent action taken by the Delaware County Board of Commissions, the June Grand Jury, in its report to the Court late yesterday afternoon, recommended the immediate erection of a wardens house on the Broadmeadows Prison Farm. The commissioners had turned down the Prison Boards proposal citing no money in this years budget. The wardens present home in Media will soon be converted into a Juvenile Detention Home. 50 Years Ago 1970: The no return soft drink bottle may soon be a thing of the past in Upland. Borough council tentatively approved an ordinance which prohibits retail sales of soft drinks in the no-return bottles. The proposed ordinance is the outcome of a suggestion in April by Mayor Raymond Ruditys. He said broken glass on the streets and sidewalks is a menace to motorists and pedestrians and creates an unslightly appearance in the borough. 25 Years Ago 1995: A fleeing bank robber was quickly caught yesterday when a dye pack exploded and set his pants on fire, Upper Darby police said. The 29-year-old stuffed the banks dye pack down his pants with the cash and was caught red-handed, so to speak, in the back yards of the unit block of Glencoe Road. The dye-pack, similar to a burning red smoke flare, takes only takes eight to 10 seconds to explode. Meridians popped just as the robber hit the front doors of the bank. 10 Years Ago 2010: Billy, the spray-painted goat found wandering the Boeing plant in May, has been adopted, the Delaware County SPCA said Tuesday. The goat was found by Boeing security May 20 inside the Ridley Township helicopter facilitys main gate. The black goats horns were spray painted gold and he was draped with a black cloth spray painted to read Go Army on one side and A Strike Zone on the other. Boeing spokesman Andrew Lee called the goats appearance at the facility very bizarre and was unsure how it arrived there. COLIN AINSWORTH Honda detected the intrusion on Monday on its internal servers in Tokyo. While details are scarce, the virus is believed to be the Snake ransomware.The attack had a global impact on Hondas business, as it affected email and other important systems in many of the companys locations around the world. Those locations were shuttered on Monday and the employees sent home while Honda worked to get its systems back online. reports that as of Tuesday, all affected locations were operational again with the exception of car plants in Ohio and Turkey as well as motorcycle factories in Brazil and India.Honda reports there is no evidence that the sensitive information of its employees or customers was exposed. A new ultra-violent, leaderless gang is emerging as a dominant force behind the walls of Australia's maximum security prisons. The G-Fam gang has no outwardly clear objectives, such as to control the prison drug trade, but rather appears to be a loose collection of inmates who are new to the adult prison system. Two of the gang's members were convicted of a savage ambush attack on underworld figure Tony Mokbel at Barwon Prison in Victoria on February 2019 that almost killed the 53-year-old. County Court Judge Liz Gaynor sentenced the two attackers on June 3, saying in her sentencing remarks the motivation for the brutal assault was to reinforce G-Fam's reputation in the prison. Teira Bennett and Eldea Teuira, both 22, were each given seven years non-parole for the attack in which they king-hit Mokbel in the prison's exercise yard, knocking out his teeth, and then stabbed him with makeshift knives. Teira Bennett (pictured) was convicted of a violent attack on underworld figure Tony Mokbel inside Barwon Prison Eldea Teuira (pictured) plead guilty over the attack and received ten years with a minimum of seven years without parole 'They're just a bunch of thugs,' a prison source told The Herald Sun. The gang's members, many of whom have been through the youth justice system together as violent offenders, are required to assault an officer before they can join. While the gang is said to be unusual in that it does not have a hierarchy, joining its ranks offers protection, particularly for those doing their first stints in maximum security. 'You've got to be part of a group to survive. You can't come in and be one-out,' the source said. Mokbel was airlifted to Royal Melbourne Hospital after the vicious attack. He underwent emergency surgery and was placed in an induced coma, suffering from bleeding on the brain. Just an hour before the ruthless attack, Mokbel had attended Teuira's 21st birthday celebrations, where the pair 'embraced' and were seen chatting. Prosecutor Kristie Churchill said both men, who pleaded guilty, had shown 'no insight, no remorse and no explanation' as to why they attacked Mokbel in the exercise yard last year. One of the shivs given as evidence to the court used in the attack on Mokbel A 2006 file image of Tony Mokbel from his days as a leading member of Melbourne's gangland Judge Gaynor, however, said the ambush was retaliation after a newspaper article that had earlier named Mokbel as a top enforcer within Barwon. The report detailed how Mokbel had allegedly shut down an extortion racket run by Pacific Islanders in the prison. The court heard Bennett and Teuira were heard yelling: 'You're not an enforcer, this is what you get for talking to the screws you f**king dog,' as they carried out the attack. A second victim, aged 31, was also injured while trying to help Mokbel, but returned to prison after spending a night in hospital. Exactly how many members the gang has and its reach in different facilities is unknown. The gang has been linked to at least one other attack in a different jail on February 18, however, in which a Port Phillip Prison officer was repeatedly stabbed. Reports claimed a prison source had said one theory for that attack was that the low-level offender had wanted to join G-Fam. Mokbel was airlifted to Royal Melbourne Hospital after the vicious attack Judge Gaynor (pictured) took aim at the G-Fam gang when sentencing two of the gang's members over a vicious prison assault Judge Gaynor in sentencing Bennett and Teuira did not hold back, taking aim squarely at their affiliation with the gang. 'Let me tell you, gentleman, in a few years G-Fam and the bros are not going to do it for you... you're going to want a life,' she said. 'You may think you're heroes within the jail but do you think in 20 years time that's going to matter? 'The only reason you are getting any attention is because it was Tony Mokbel. At the end of the day you two young blokes - two on one - mauled and maimed a 53-year old man.' New Delhi: BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and his mother Madhavi Raje Scindia have been admitted to Max Super Speciality hospital in Delhis Saket, reports said on Tuesday. The two were rushed to the hospital after they complained of throat irritation and fever - both COVID-19-like symptoms. They were admitted on Monday and their COVID-19 test results are still awaited. They are said to be stable at the moment. Earlier, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra had also shown symptoms of coronavirus and was admitted to the Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon. Sambit Patra was discharged on Monday. Meanwhile, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has also developed fever and sore throat. Kejriwal underwent a coronavirus test on Tuesday morning. His test reports are being awaited now. Delhi Deputy CM and Arvind Kejriwals closest aide Manish Sisodia had informed on Monday that the CM was unwell. He is suffering from fever, cough and sore throat. He has isolated himself at home and is not taking part in any meeting, Sisodia said. The Delhi Chief Minister was last seen in a video conference on Sunday where he announced that the Delhi government hospitals would be reserved only for the residents of the national capital. A man who bought a desert island miles away from civilisation to fulfil his childhood dream of becoming a real-life Robinson Crusoe admits it turned into a nightmare - and he's selling up 15 years later. In Return to the Wild, airing tonight on Channel 5, Ben Fogle revisits Jim Alston, 48, and Kim Nguyen, 31, who live on Wilderness Island near Exmouth in Western Australia - one of the driest and wildest parts of the country. Three years ago, in New Lives in the Wild, Jim told the TV presenter he bought the island in 2005 after a paragliding accident pushed him to take a leap into the unknown. The Australian-born farmer named the island and built his house on it, as well as several huts that can be rented by tourists. His partner Kim joined him five years later and has spent a decade working on the island with him. But after years of pumping all their money into the island they are struggling to break even - despite turning over around 27,340 ($50,000 AUD) a year - and the couple tell Ben they have decided to put Wilderness Island up for sale. Jim Alston, 48 and Kim Nguyen, 31, the owners of Wilderness Island, near Exmouth, Australia, tell Ben Fogle they are selling up on Return to the Wild, airing tonight on Channel 5 The one kilometre-long, half-a-kilometre wide island is tiny and appears as a speck on a map of Australia Ben is shocked to hear they are thinking of selling up, but they explain that their vision turned into a time-consuming and draining project. 'We're tired and we just seem to just keep working and not enjoying it and then you think, "What do we do it for?",' Kim says. 'It just seems like the pile of work, there's just more every year, it's not less but it's more. I think we just want more time with each other, a bit more quality time.' Jim adds: 'It might sound selfish to a lot of people, what we have here, people might want to go, "You poor things," but we're just two people and we're slogging it off. 'It becomes a bit soul destroying. It's like banging your head against a tree, and at the same time you're throwing fistfuls of money into the wind.' Jim bought the island in 2005 and met Kim in 2010, who moved with him. The pair have been working on Wilderness Island ever since During the episode the couple reveal they have just gotten engaged. Jim and Kim met while she was backpacking across Australia with a friend after graduating from college. Initially the student, who thought she would return home to Denmark and work as an accountant, labelled her romance with Jim a 'summer fling'. But after breaking her neck in a life-altering car accident that saw her smash through the windshield at 100km/h, Kim was drawn to the island - and said Jim understood her because he has been through the same thing. In 2000, daredevil Jim, then aged 28, suffered a terrible paragliding accident which left him wheelchair-bound for two years. After free-falling 90ft, Jim shattered his ankle and broke his leg, hip, back, neck and three ribs, ruptured his spleen and liver, and punctured his lung and stomach. After ten years working on their dream together, Kim and Jim admitted they were tired on always putting their money and time into the island He was in such bad shape even the surgeon responsible for saving his life didn't think he would survive an operation. During his painful recovery Jim, who had been destined to take over the family's farm, thought about his future and realised he wanted to live like Robinson Crusoe, and started searching for an island. He finally found Wilderness and bought the lease in 2005. In tonight's show, Jim tells Ben it takes a large amount of money to keep the island afloat, and in spite of their hut-renting business for tourists, caring for the island's infrastructure has become a 'money pit' too deep to handle on their own. The couple took a year off the island and temporarily parted ways in 2018, travelling around in order to recuperate. Jim went to work on some projects in New Guinea, while Kim worked as a receptionist in a caravan park on the mainland to enjoy the change of pace. Ben was surprised by the couple's decision. Jim, who wanted to be a real life Robinson Crusoe, said he was looking forward to him and Kim's next adventure They returned, however, and even adopted a rescue baby kangaroo named Ernie. Jim says: 'If we don't sell it, we are progressing with plans so we are more comfortable, so it doesn't feel like such a physical slog.' Their plan is to transport sea containers onto the island - which can either be reached by boat or by air - so that they can build a storm-proof house. 'I think either way I'll be happy if we sell it; I don't know what the next adventure is for us,' Jim adds. Kim says the prospect of giving up the island was hardest for her fiance, who was 'up and down' a lot last year while he battled with the tough decision. Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, Return to the Wild airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5. The State's health watchdog warned the Department of Health that 124 nursing homes would need extra support to manage a Covid-19 outbreak, documents reveal. A Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) risk assessment of the country's 580 public and private nursing homes also said historical non-compliance with care and welfare regulations posed an additional risk in some settings. Separately, virus expert Dr Cillian De Gascun will warn the Dail's Covid-19 response committee that lessons can be learned from the crisis so Ireland can be "better prepared" for the next pandemic. Hiqa was asked to risk assess all nursing homes at a meeting on March 31 and provided a report to the Department of Heath on April 9, follow-up documents provided to the Dail committee show. Read More At the time of Hiqa's April 9 report, the number of coronavirus infection clusters in nursing homes had reached 100, with nursing homes accounting for a third of the clusters of infection. It said: "In the context of managing a Covid-19 outbreak, of the 580 nursing homes, we estimate that 124 public and private nursing homes will potentially need some level of additional support." The list was shared with the HSE. It was noted 67pc of nursing homes were not fully compliant with national care and welfare regulations. Hiqa warned providers with a history of regulatory non-compliance were challenged in a number of areas. These included premises where there is a poor infrastructure and a limited capacity to isolate residents posed a "significant risk". Other areas of risk included infection control, in particular the "inappropriate use of PPE", and staff training. In these homes, the "identification, assessment and control of risk is not of a high standard". It was also noted the "lack of the relationship between the HSE and the private nursing home sector" highlighted a challenge to effectively project the needs of nursing homes during the Covid-19 outbreak. Last month, it was revealed Hiqa warned the Department of Health and the HSE in late March about 212 residential care facilities for the elderly deemed "at risk" in the pandemic. In a "framework of information" sent to the department and the HSE on March 30, Hiqa named 212 elderly care homes that were "non-compliant with more than one of the key regulations". A separate appendix listed the number of residents in each home and the non-compliant regulation "which may potentially challenge a service to safely manage residents with Covid-19". Hiqa told the department and the HSE at this time there did not appear to be "a national governance and aligned operational arrangements within the HSE to clearly articulate the national response and support for the residential sector". National Virus Reference Laboratory director Dr De Gascun will today appear before the committee where he is expected to warn there are hundreds of types of coronaviruses in bats. The rodents have been identified as the probable source of the Covid-19 outbreak. His opening statement says these viruses are likely to cross species again. He is to ask the committee to carry out its work "with one eye on the future to ensure that Ireland can learn from this experience and be better prepared when the next panademic occurs". Professor Philip Nolan - whose Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group has been providing research on the spread of Covid-19 - is to tell TDs that its focus is now shifting to "monitoring, early warning of, and rapid response to any significant resurgence" of the disease. 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 A browser that has received plaudits for privacy protection has been exposed for redirecting Web searches to make money. Brave, a browser with some 15 million monthly users, has been redirecting searches for cryptocurrency companies to links that produce revenue for the browsers owners through advertising affiliate programs. Twitter user Yannick Eckl, aka cryptonator 1337, on Saturday revealed that when he searched for Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, he was redirected to an affiliate version of the URL that profited Brave. The controversy grew when Larry Cermak, director of research at The Block, a research, analysis and news brand in the digital asset space, began digging into Braves code on GitHub. He uncovered more redirects to another cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, and two cryptocurrency wallet sites, Ledger and Trezor. Braves autocompletion of a URL to include a referrer link may be a bit dodgy. This is ethically questionable because its altering the address that the user thought they were typing to one that advantages Brave apparently in the hope that the user will just hit enter and go to Braves version, said David Gerard, UK-based author of Attack of the 50-Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts. This is whats called a dark pattern in interface design one that tries to trick the user into doing things purely for the advantage of the vendor, he told TechNewsWorld. Braves failure to warn users that it was doing affiliate marketing appears to violate FTC rules in the United States and CAP rules in the United Kingdom, Gerard said. Not fully informing users is deceptive marketing, and so that part is clearly unethical too, he observed. Sorry for the Mistake In a series of tweets, Brendan Eich, CEO of Brave, acknowledged that the company had made a mistake and would correct it. Brave was trying to build a business that puts users first by aligning the companys interests and those of its users with private ads that pay users, he explained. But we seek skin-in-game affiliate revenue, too. This includes bringing new users to Binance & other exchanges via opt-in trading widgets/other UX that preserves privacy prior to opt-in, he wrote. It includes search revenue deals, as all major browsers do, Eich continued. When we do this well, its a win for all parties. Our users want Brave to live. The autocomplete default was inspired by search query clientid attribution that all browsers do, but unlike keyword queries, a typed-in URL should go to the domain named, without any additions, he explained. Sorry for this mistake we are clearly not perfect, but we correct course quickly, Eich wrote. He denied that Brave was rewriting links clicked on Web pages as well as those typed into the address bar, tweeting We have never & will not do any such thing. The autocomplete function could be turned off in the browsers settings. Now that setting is turned on by default, but in the future, the default setting will be off, Eich said. Tone Deaf Response Reaction of Brave users to the mistake was a mixed bag. Damage done. Ill stop using #brave, tweeted a user with the handle BitcornRick. TBH having this as an option is weird by itself, tweeted Sriram Karra. Who among your target segment would you think will *want* to turn that ON? To which Matthew Wallace replied, Well, users that still like the browser and want them to stay solvent so it doesnt disappear? A D V E R T I S E M E N T Glad to see you are correcting the mistake. You should be more careful if you want to earn peoples trust, admonished Aki Rodic. Toth Zoltan tweeted some encouragment to Eich. Brendan, you guys have made a rocking browser, I really like it, he wrote. Your honesty is a plus. No one should be against you making money. Till you stay transparent. Overall, though, Braves responses on Twitter were tone deaf, observed Gerard. I see Brendan Eich and [Senior Developer Relations Specialist ] Jonathan Sampson have been responding to many, many upset users, but theydont seem to understand what the issue is, he said. And they really dont understand that theyve broken users trust, Gerard continued. Eich and Sampson seem to think that careful argumentation and using special definitions of words will explain everything and itll be fine, but theyre not showing any understanding of what they did to break users trust. No Free Lunch While many Brave users wont be too upset with the browsers autocomplete-for-cash feature, there is a specific segment who will see the misstep as a betrayal, observed Liz Miller, principal analyst at Constellation Research, a technology research and advisory firm in Cupertino, California. Theres a group of technorati that purposefully and thoughtfully went to Brave, not because the technology was going to be different, but the mindset and the promise of the company were going to be different, she told TechNewsWorld. Thats whats really broken here, Miller continued. Braves leaders dont understand how theyve undermined their users trust in them, she said. Theyre saying their problem was they used this different tag, when the real problem was they didnt see what they were doing was going to be seen as advertising, which users should be compensated for and made aware of, Miller explained. This is more about transparency than privacy, she added. I think this came out of the blue and shocked Brave. It had been in a luxurious place of being one of the good guys. You want ad blockers? Weve got them. You want something that puts your privacy first? Were going to give it to you, Miller noted. After being in that rarified air, this is probably the first time theyve been called to the mat for something, she pointed out. There can be substantial backlash toward a company that makes a product that says its providing privacy but is mining information, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Oregon. Its disingenuous, and people can lose trust in the product and the brand, he told TechNewsWorld. One of the big problems with the ad model is that to make money, you have to do things that the people using your product would rather you not do, but thats whats paying for the product, Enderle said. Theres no free lunch. "We have dozens out on the street at night. They are not even scared of people anymore, it's like there are gangs of them out this year," said Elizabeth Bonilla, who lives near a canal in Homestead. Her technique for getting them out of her backyard is to stomp and chase them out until they leave. "I can't bring myself to kill them." The HSE has secured High Court orders preventing an IT worker from distributing highly confidential and sensitive information about hospital patients. It is alleged that Neill Bradley had distributed confidential information he obtained from the HSE's computer servers during the course of his now former employment with a third party contracted by the HSE to perform certain IT services. The information includes patient's personal data and medical databases allegedly sent by Mr Bradley to Wikileaks, the non-profit organisation that publishes news leaks provided by anonymous sources, founded by Australian internet activist Julian Assange. The orders were granted last week by Mr Justice Tony O'Connor, who said he was satisfied that Mr Bradley had gained access to private and sensitive data through his former employment, which he threatened to facilitate the dissemination of patients details and private records. The judge noted that the defendant in one post on social media had referred to information he obtained, which Mr Bradley knew should be kept secure, as being "stolen. " The HSE launched proceedings against Mr Bradley following a probe it commenced after becoming aware of a potentially serious data breach from posts on social media of screenshots of the HSE's internal servers. The HSE claims the posts appeared on three Twitter accounts it says were set up and controlled by Mr Bradley. Through those accounts, Mr Bradley allegedly sent messages to a senior official at the HSE, as well as posting to the social media accounts of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Ministers Simon Harris and Pascal Donohoe, media figures and Dr Tony Holohan. In his communications Mr Bradley made allegations of a cover up and a scam by the HSE and said he would make public data from over a dozen Irish hospitals, it is claimed. It is also claimed that he used various hashtags on his posts including #covid19 #lockdown ireland #notmytaoiseach #MAGA and #mediascum. The HSE said during previous employment as systems administration, Mr Bradley was given access to its servers and patient databases to carry out tasks his previous employer was contracted to do. That firm's role was to maintaining and servicing a 'smart' automated system used to dispense, record and manage medication given to patients at various hospitals called Omnicell. The system is used in many hospitals throughout the state. Since becoming aware of the situation the HSE, in co-operation with Mr Bradley's previous employer, who terminated his employment after learning of the HSE's concerns, have taken steps to secure the servers and prevent the information from being published. These steps include having posts on the pastebin.com site and links to the confidential material removed. The HSE also sought and obtained court orders, including in junctions to prevent him from attempting to post more links to confidential information. The injunction is to remain in place pending the outcome of any full hearing of the matter. The application for the injunctions was initially heard in camera, meaning that the proceedings were in private. The Judge subsequently lifted the in camera ruling allowing the media to report on the case. In its action the HSE, represented by Eoin McCullough SC, Joe Jeffers Bl instructed by Philip Lee solicitors sought the orders against Mr Bradley with an address at Carrigeen Hill, Conna, Co Cork. said Mr Bradley had been informed of the application against him. However he did not attend, nor was he represented, during the court hearings. Mr Justice O'Connor in making the orders said Mr Bradley would be given the chance to advance a defence to the HSE's claims at a full hearing of the action. The injunction restrains Mr Bradley and any person to whom he has communicated or may communicate the confidential information from disseminating publishing, communicating by any means, or using any of said information through specific Twitter handles and email addresses attributed to him. The order also restrains the defendant, and anyone who received the confidential information from him, from destroying or deleting the information. He must also deliver up all documents, records and devices containing the confidential information to the HSE's solicitors for forensic analysis. The court further restrained Mr Bradley from leaving Ireland until he has complied with the order to deliver up the confidential information, and hand over his passport to An Garda Siochana, who will retain it until further order. The HSE's solicitors were given permission to notify the Department of Foreign affairs, An Garda Siochana, authorities at all points of exit from the State about the court's orders. Mr Justice O Connor said that Mr Bradley had said in another tweet that he had sold his house and was moving about Europe in a camper van to "ply my skills elsewhere." The judge also noted the HSE's lawyers undertaking to give the Data Protection Commissioner, the Minister for Health and the Attorney General copies of the order and the documents put before the court during the application if requested by those parties. By Jamie Freed and Clare Jim SYDNEY/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong will lead a $5 billion rescue of Cathay Pacific Airways, which like other airlines has been hit by a global travel slump triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. The government's involvement in the recapitalisation follows the double blows of Hong Kong's political unrest and the coronavirus outbreak, which Cathay said meant it was burning through about HK$3 billion ($387 million) a month in cash. Around the world, states have been bailing out airlines and in some cases, such as Germany's Lufthansa, taking direct equity stakes to keep them flying. "The alternative would have been a collapse of the company. Commercial debt markets are effectively closed to airlines today who do not have extensive government shareholder support," Cathay Chairman Patrick Healy told reporters on Tuesday. Cathay has grounded most of its planes, flying only cargo and a skeleton passenger network to major destinations such as Beijing, Los Angeles, Sydney and Tokyo. Like Singapore Airlines, which received an up to $10.1 billion rescue package led by state-investor Temasek, Cathay has no domestic market to cushion the international loss. Finance Secretary Paul Chan said the investment in Cathay was to help protect Hong Kong's role as a leading international aviation hub while generating a reasonable financial return. "It is not our intention to become a long term shareholder of Cathay Pacific," he told reporters. "It is not our intention to interfere with the operation and management of Cathay." Under the rescue plan, the Hong Kong government will be issued HK$19.5 billion of dividend-paying preference shares and HK$1.95 billion of warrants, giving it a 6% stake. It would also provide a HK$7.8 billion bridging loan and would have the right to two non-voting observers at board meetings. Chan said they would be seasoned business professionals. The deal includes a HK$11.7 billion rights issue to existing shareholders, led by Swire Pacific Ltd and Air China Ltd, which had halted trading on Tuesday morning alongside Cathay, pending the announcement. Story continues Swire, which holds 45%, Air China which owns 30% and Qatar Airways with 10% plan to participate in the rights issue, Cathay said. Their holdings will fall to 42%, 28% and 9.4% due to the government stake. POST-COVID TAKEOFF BOCOM International analyst Luya You said the combined package would provide more than enough funding for Cathay. "A recapitalisation plan of this size bodes well for Cathay's long-term future," she said. "Big airlines with sufficient liquidity can actually gain significant market share immediately post-COVID." Cathay said a fall in passenger revenue to only 1% of the previous year's levels meant it had been losing cash at a rate of HK$2.5 billion to HK$3 billion per month since February. It has furloughed some pilots at overseas bases and cut cabin crew roles in the United States and Canada, but has not announced large-scale permanent job losses. The airline said it would put in place a further round of executive pay cuts and a second voluntary leave scheme. Chairman Healy said "tough decisions" would be made in the fourth quarter after it reviewed all aspects of its business model, including its aircraft orders. China's aviation regulator may make it difficult for it to merge regional arm Cathay Dragon into its main brand because of infractions during last year's pro-democracy protests, two sources told Reuters last month. ($1 = 7.7500 Hong Kong dollars) (Reporting by Jamie Freed and Clare Jim; additional reporting by Stella Qiu in Beijing and Anshuman Daga in Singapore Editing by Gerry Doyle, Stephen Coates and Alexander Smith) Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 19:58:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TOKYO, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan increased by 44 to reach 17,267, according to the latest figures from the health ministry and local authorities on Tuesday. The number excludes the 712 cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama near Tokyo. Meanwhile, the death toll in Japan from the pneumonia-causing virus currently stands at a total of 933 people, according to the health ministry, with the figure including those from the cruise ship. In Tokyo, the epicenter of Japan's outbreak, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has risen by 12 to reach 5,408, the ninth straight day the increase has reached double digits. Last Tuesday, the Tokyo metropolitan government issued what Governor Yuriko Koike has called a "Tokyo alert" to warn against possible COVID-19 resurgence, about a week after the state of emergency was lifted for the metropolis. Meanwhile, Osaka Prefecture has recorded 1,785 infections, followed by Kanagawa Prefecture with 1,396 infections, Hokkaido 1,132 cases, Saitama 1,005, Chiba 907, while Fukuoka Prefecture has recorded 808 cases of COVID-19, according to the latest figures on Tuesday. The health ministry said there are currently a total of 93 patients considered severely ill and are on ventilators or in intensive care units. The ministry also said that in total, 15,868 people, including 655 from the cruise ship, have been discharged from hospitals after their symptoms improved. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 09:22:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MUSCAT, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Experts expect Oman-China ties to rapidly expand after the COVID-19 pandemic. Mohammad Al-Muqadam, former head of the History Department at Sultan Qaboos University, told Xinhua that bilateral ties are strong due to several factors, including sound commercial ties nurtured by the ancient Silk Road. Cooperation extends to politics, the economy, culture and elsewhere, especially within the framework of the Belt and Road initiative. The Omani Duqm region, said Al-Muqadam, is a crucial point along the Belt and Road Initiative given its location on the Arabian Sea which is open to the Indian Ocean and near international shipping lines. Al-Muqadam said Oman benefited a lot from the initiative, including the 11-hectare "Chinese-Omani Park" in Duqm, 550 km south of the capital Muscat. Total Chinese investment in the project has reached 10.7 billion US dollars. Member of the State Council Hatem Al-Taie told Xinhua that one of the most important characteristics of this project is the diversity in investments between petrochemicals, building materials, e-commerce, water desalination, cars, solar energy and tourism. Al-Taie called the park a win-win project. "Duqm overlooks the Arabian Sea, which is an operating base for Chinese companies near the export markets that they want to develop in the Gulf, the Indian subcontinent and East Africa. Duqm is also close to the maritime trade tracks and some places of raw materials that Chinese companies will need," Al-Taie said. Al-Muqadam said he believed that after the COVID-19 pandemic, China will continue to develop its relations with countries across the world, including Oman. "This is because China succeeded in managing the COVID-19 crisis with great intelligence," he said, pointing out how China offered assistance and humanitarian aid to countries. "This gave China a lot of appreciation as a true ally and friend of these countries and as a trusted friend in a time of trouble," Al-Muqadam said. For Al-Muqadam, while Oman's relations with China are historical, ties are set to become stronger, especially in trade. The Belt and Road Initiative has witnessed major expansion across the globe, and dozens of countries and international organizations have joined in. "We can say there was an 'international agreement' on the initiative, recognizing its importance and the size of the benefits it would bring to the whole world, especially with China's emphasis of the principle of 'benefit for all,'" Al-Taie said. "We all know that there are many Chinese investments in the countries of the Middle East region, including Oman. These are investments in capital, people, technology and expertise. Chinese companies play an important role in the fields of sustainability, modernization of the regional economy and facilitating social stability in the countries of the region," Al-Taie added. Journalist Khalfan Al-Touqi, editor-in-chief of the Aashiq Oman website, believes an important reason behind the success of the initiative is its convergence with the development visions of countries around the world. Al-Touqi told Xinhua that after the COVID-19 crisis the two countries could see strong growth in medicine and tourism. "The first flight from Oman to a foreign country during COVID-19 crisis was to China, specifically to Guangzhou, to bring in quantities of medical equipment that my country needs during this crisis. Then a number of other flights followed. This emphasizes the depth and strength of relations between the two countries," Al-Touqi said. Enditem What lies beyond the pandemic? MassForward is MassLives series examining the journey of Massachusetts businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. ___________ Tim Quinn weaved in and out of tables peppered at least 6 feet apart in the patio behind Quinns Irish Pub on Monday. Laughter from guests echoed into the parking lot on West Boylston Street. A mask covered Quinns smile, but his eyes expressed the joy he had by seeing customers back at his restaurant. Its been great, Quinn said. So far so good. We cant keep up with the calls right now. Its been awesome. Customers began arriving at Quinns Irish Pub at 11 a.m., when the restaurant planned to open. The parking lot began to fill, which Quinn believes attracted even more people. Originally, Quinn wanted to only take reservations, but the restaurant has been trying to accommodate walk-ins. When I looked at the first seating and we didnt have too many reservations, I said great, we can fumble through it, Quinn said. I blinked and everything was full. I knew once the parking lot filled up, people driving by would see the umbrellas, theyd see people happy. Theyd see business as usual. Quinn assembled his staff at the restaurant Sunday night to go over new protocols and procedures under Gov. Charlie Bakers plan for phase two, which allowed restaurants to begin on-site dining outdoors. Mondays reopening coincided with Quinns Irish Pubs fourth anniversary. It not only brought customers to Quinns Irish Pub but returned much of its staff too. Quinn said the pandemic caused him to lay off 50 employees but with Mondays reopening, he was able to bring back 30. When the restaurant reopens to full capacity, he hopes all 50 will return. Its new to everybody. Its new to the owners. Its new to the staff, Quinn said. Its new to the customers. Luckily, we have so many unbelievable regulars, I look around, and they get it. They know its going to be a learning curve. Quinn's Irish Pub in Worcester reopened with outdoor dining on Monday. The scene at Quinns Irish Pub mimicked what other restaurants that opened their patios across the city. A socially distanced line formed outside of the Vintage Grille on Shrewsbury Street with its 15 tables filled to capacity at around 1 p.m. Manager Robin Caruso said a line formed outside at around 11 a.m. when the Vintage Grille opened. The number of customers didnt slow throughout the day. "Today was the first day where it actually gave us hope, All of our customers that supported us through that hard time can actually come in and sit down and enjoy a beer and have something to eat. The Vintage Grille in Worcester reopened with outdoor dining on Monday. To support its customers, the Vintage Grille didnt put restrictions on how long patrons could stay. They also didnt require reservations. The restaurant will be open for outdoor dining from 11 a.m. to around 9 or 10 p.m. depending on the number of people at the restaurant. Music surrounded the space. Staff rushed food in and out of the kitchen. Smiles filled the patio. Nick and Erin Blanchard drove from Northbridge to support the Vintage Grille. We were just dying to get outside and get back to a little bit of normalcy, Erin Blanchard said. A bit up Shrewsbury Street toward downtown, three tables were occupied outside its restaurant. Its not much but it represented a light at the end of a tunnel. Its the beginning of summer. The quarantine is finally over with, said Joe Stake, the owner of Valentinos. Were happy to see our customers come out in some type of capacity. Valentino's in Worcester reopened with outdoor dining on Monday. Stake said Valentinos will be open 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday through Sunday from noon until 11 p.m. Today was just kind of take advantage of the first day, Stake said. Kind of the relaunch. Brittany Powers and Juan Luna were two of the people sitting outside Valentinos. Sitting outside on Shrewsbury Street while drinking a mojito transported them to a place of normal amid an irregular time. I think well always have to wear masks no matter where we go, Luna said. ...Its the new normal. But whats old school is the feeling when you come to this place. Its just a great feeling. Valentino'sin Worcester reopened with outdoor dining on Monday. The weather added to the enthusiasm of the day. Temperatures approached 80 with only a few clouds in an otherwise blue sky. For restaurant owners on Monday, they hoped it was a sign of things to come. If we could get 90 days like this in a row, Quinn said. It would be awesome. MassForward is MassLive's series examining the journey of Massachusetts' small businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. Related Content: DUBLIN, June 9, 2020 The "Global Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market, by Application, by Active Content, by Region, Competition, Forecast and Opportunities, 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market stood at around $191 million in 2019 and is projected to surpass $227 million by 2025, predominantly on account of growing demand from the global automotive industry. Hotmelt adhesive, also known as hot glue, is a form of thermoplastic adhesive, which is commonly sold as solid cylindrical sticks of various diameters, designed to be applied using a hot glue gun. Other major demand generators of acrylic resin hotmelt adhesive agent include medical and construction sectors. Moreover, food & beverages companies are increasingly focusing on sustainable packaging, which offers high shelf-life, especially in case of ready-to-eat food/beverages. Therefore, adhesives and tapes are manufactured using acrylic hotmelt resins as they exhibit resistance to humidity and moisture, which helps maintain the uncontaminated state of food, thereby increasing shelf-life. Such change in packaging patterns is anticipated to back the market growth over the next five years. In 2019, Europe held the largest share with Germany grabbing the top spot in the region, owing to strong demand for acrylic resin hotmelt adhesive agents from automotive industry. Moreover, ability of these adhesive agents to provide a superior bond and strong resistance against heat, moisture, and chemicals and to reduce vehicle weight and boost increase fuel efficiency is likely to augment the market growth during the forecast years. The Global Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market dominated by BASF SE, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, DIC Corporation, Estron Chemicals Inc., and Pioneer Chemical Co., Ltd. Years considered for this report: Historical Years: 2015-2018 Base Year: 2019 Estimated Year: 2020 Forecast Period: 2021-2025 Objective of the Study To outline, classify and estimate the Global Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market on the basis of application, active content and regional distribution. To study and forecast the global market size of the acrylic resin hotmelt adhesive agent, in terms of value and volume. To understand the regional market structure of acrylic resin hotmelt adhesive agent market, namely - Asia-Pacific , North America , Europe , Middle East & Africa and South America and forecast the market size, in terms of value and volume. , , , & and and forecast the market size, in terms of value and volume. To identify the detailed information about the prime factors affecting the Global Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market. To evaluate competitor pricing, average market selling prices and margins in the Global Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market. To examine competitive developments such as expansions, government policy and investments, new entrants in the Global Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market. To strategically profile the leading players in the market which are involved in the manufacturing and supply of acrylic resin hotmelt adhesive agent worldwide. Key Topics Covered 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Executive Summary 4. Voice of Customer 5. Global Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market Outlook 5.1. Market Size & Forecast 5.1.1. By Value 5.1.2. By Volume 5.2. Market Share & Forecast 5.2.1. By Application (Automotive, Medical, Construction, Personal Care, Infrastructure, Consumer Goods, Food & Beverages, Others) 5.2.2. By Active Content (up to 20 Percent, 21-40 Percent, above 40 Percent) 5.2.3. By Region (APAC, North America, Europe, MEA and South America) 5.2.4. By Company 6. Global Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market Regional Analysis 6.1.1. North America Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market Outlook 6.1.1.1. Market Size & Forecast 6.1.1.1.1. By Value 6.1.1.2. Market Share & Forecast 6.1.1.2.1. By Application 6.1.1.2.2. By Active Content 6.1.1.2.3. By Country 6.1.1.2.3.1. United States Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market Outlook 6.1.1.2.3.1.1. Market Size & Forecast 6.1.1.2.3.1.1.1. By Value 6.1.1.2.3.1.2. Market Share & Forecast 6.1.1.2.3.1.2.1. By Application 6.1.1.2.3.2. Canada Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market Outlook 6.1.2. Europe Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market Outlook 6.1.3. Asia-Pacific Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market Outlook 6.1.4. South America Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market Outlook 6.1.5. Middle East & Africa Acrylic Resin Hotmelt Adhesive Agent Market Outlook 7. Market Dynamics 7.1. Drivers 7.2. Challenges 8. Market Trends & Developments 9. Regional Price Analysis 10. Competitive Landscape 10.1. Competition Benchmarking 10.2. Company Profiles 10.2.1. BASF SE 10.2.2. Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation 10.2.3. DIC Corporation 10.2.4. Estron Chemicals, Inc. 10.2.5. Pioneer Chemical Co. Ltd. 11. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8t77h5 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: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Her name was Pauline and it was the early stages of lockdown. Wed been drilled in the importance of social distancing but it felt strange, almost rude, to blatantly avoid people. We were walking towards each other so I veered away, as per recent instructions. We caught each others gaze and she thanked me for making the effort. She clearly felt awkward too; we laughed about it together. Standing in the gutter with Pauline by a front fence, we got chatting about this new reality. After some time we wished each other well and continued on our walk. She lived nearby, I learnt, but Id never seen her before. Or perhaps I had and hadnt noticed. Reflecting, as weve had the space to do in our coronavirus world, Ive thought back to the people I met on the streets of an old mining town in southern Austria in which I stayed many years ago. I used to love to walk then too and would welcome the greetings from strangers along the way. Gruss Gott would be the daily acknowledgement, expressed with a nod and often a smile. I tried it upon my return to the trendy inner-city suburb of Melbourne where I lived. Good morning, Id proffer, with a smile. Sometimes Id be ignored, but mostly Id receive an embarrassed sort of half-smile. Occasionally, a warm reply and even some snippets of conversation. Ankara, June 9 : Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart Donald Trump held a phone conversation over the Libya issue, Turkey's Communications Directorate said in a statement. The two leaders exchanged views on bilateral relations and regional developments, including the Libyan crisis, according to the statement on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported. They agreed to continue their close cooperation to promote peace and stability in Libya, Turkey's maritime neighbour. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 19:04 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd63778 1 Business oil-refinery,Indonesia,pertamina,oil-and-gas,fuel-import,current-account-deficit,trade-deficit Free State-owned oil giant Pertamina is scouting for new partners to develop multibillion dollar oil refineries in Indonesia after its previous partners, from Saudi Aramco to Omans Overseas Oil and Gas LLC (OOG), pulled out. Pertamina recently signed deals with Taiwanese petrochemical giant CPC and a South Korean consortium to develop the Balongan and Tuban refineries respectively. It is eyeing other companies from various countries for other refineries, according to company spokesperson Fajriyah Usman. The refineries, once completed, are expected to double Indonesias fuel output, enabling Pertamina to meet the countrys growing transportation fuel demand without raising fuel imports, a major contributor to the nations trade deficit. None of these refineries have been removed [from the National Strategic Projects] and all of them are on track, Fajriyah said on June 5. Projects listed under the National Strategic Projects are eligible for government aid, providing an incentive for investment. Indonesia has set a goal to process more resources domestically to boost export revenue and narrow the nations current account deficit, which continues to weigh down the economy. Fajriyah and Pertamina megaprojects and petrochemical director Ignatius Lete Tallulembang, the man who oversees the refinery projects, shared updates from the national strategic projects. Cilacap refinery The five-year partnership between Saudi Arabias national oil company, Aramco, and Pertamina officially ended, allowing the latter to move forward in expanding its refinery in Cilacap, Central Java. Lete said on June 5 that Aramco sent the partnership cancellation letter on April 21. The two companies had disagreed over the refinerys value. Thus, Pertamina sent on May 22 an offer to United Arab Emirates oil company Adnoc to replace Aramco in developing Cilacap. While waiting for a response, Pertamina plans to focus on developing the biofuel refinery facility within the Cilacap compound. The land is settled. We will look for opportunities to build what we can while waiting for a new partner, he said. Aramco declined to comment. Adnoc did not respond to queries from The Jakarta Post. Bontang refinery Development of the Bontang refinery in East Kalimantan has been put on hold while Pertamina looks for a new partner after its partnership agreement expired in December last year with Omani energy firm OOG. The project faced land acquisition issues. We will put in on hold. We will study the supply and demand again. Once thats clear, we will talk to stakeholders, said Lete. Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said in December last year his office was looking at UAE oil companies Mubadala and Adnoc to replace OOG in developing Bontang. Read also: Pertamina mulls relocating multibillion-dollar project to Sumatra over land issue Balikpapan refinery The Balikpapan refinery, which is the only project to have begun construction, reached 17 percent completion as of May 24, with pipes and valves on site, according to Pertamina. Lete said the project, located in East Kalimantan with 5,300 workers under employment, would continue despite supply chain problems due to lockdowns around the world as countries work to contain COVID-19. Based on the current progress, the expected completion date is still as initially planned; mid-2023, he said. Balongan refinery The first phase of the three-phase Balongan refinery expansion project in West Java would be completed in 2022, the earliest among all refinery projects, said Lete. Pertamina signed on June 5 a deal with its Taiwanese counterpart CPC to develop the third phase of the Balongan facility, which is an $8 billion petrochemical plant slated for operation in 2026. Pertamina president director Nicke Widyawati said Friday the project could help Pertamina become a major petrochemical business player in the Asia-Pacific over the next 10 years. The facility is expected to produce 1 million tons of ethylene each year. Ethylene, like most petrochemicals, is predominantly used to make plastic products. CPC vice president JZ Fang said the projects total value was NT$250 billion (US$8.36 billion), as reported by Taiwanese media outlets. He also said CPC and Pertamina would hold a 45 percent stake each with the remaining 10 percent reserved for potential investors. Tuban refinery Pertamina has continued to struggle with land-related issues over a refinery in Tuban, East Java. The oil company secured all 328 hectares of land owned by the Environment and Forestry Ministry as of May 11 and completed 86 percent of its coastline restoration program as of May 23. Lete said Pertamina had also purchased 37 percent of 384 ha of privately owned land in the project site with plans to purchase the remaining 63 percent by the third quarter. The engineering design goes on but was slightly affected by the [social restrictions], resulting in a slight slowdown in progress, he said. Dumai refinery Pertamina signed on May 22 a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indonesian state construction firm PT Nindya Karya and a South Korean consortium to look into a $1.5 billion refinery expansion in Dumai, Riau. This is still a very early stage deal. Its a non-binding MoU, Lete said on Friday. Read also: Pertamina, South Korean consortium to develop Dumai refinery He said Pertamina was also in talks with United States energy firm ConocoPhillips to produce a methanol gas processing facility in Dumai. Plaju refinery The Plaju refinery, which is set to specialize in producing palm oil-based biofuels, is at its basic engineering design phase. Pertamina also plans to experiment producing bioavtur (aviation fuel), biogasoline and biodiesel in the Plaju refinery, located in South Sumatra, this year. We will conduct efficiency and modernization measures but we will focus first on developing the biorefinery, said Lete. Pertamina and Italian oil company Eni recently ended their partnership to develop the Plaju refinery. The two companies faced complications related to the European Unions palm oil standards, which are more stringent than Indonesias standards due to deforestation concerns. He grew up being called "N--ger" and "monkey," and being told to go back to Africa. Now, Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng is worried his three young sons will experience a similar struggle. Kyeremanteng, 42, is an intensive and palliative care physician at the Ottawa and Montfort hospitals in Ottawa, but he grew up in Edmonton after his parents immigrated from Ghana. He has not talked about George Floyd with even his eldest son, Teddy, 7. The other boys are just five and nearly two. "I have been trying to maintain their innocence as long as possible," Kyeremanteng said. "It's just a gift to not have to go there yet." And yet he knows he will have to go there soon enough. "[Teddy]'s going to experience it. He's going to experience being discriminated against," Kyeremanteng said. He knows they'll also have to watch themselves around police. "All my boys are going to know how to carry themselves with law enforcement," Kyeremanteng said. That means two hands on the wheel and making sure their paperwork is up to date. "Be polite. If they start giving you attitude, just eat it. Don't fight it." Kwadwo Kyeremanteng Kyeremanteng has been pulled over by police late at night for some minor infraction. He remembers pulling out his phone, his hand shaking. "I had my cell phone out and I was on the phone, I woke my [then girlfriend] and I said, 'Just listen, OK? Just be [at] the ready. I don't like this. This doesn't feel right.'" There are other kinds of situations you don't ask for, but have forced upon you. It wasn't just potentially dangerous encounters with police. Kyeremanteng has encountered moments of casual racism throughout his academic and professional life. "You just always have these moments," Kyeremanteng said. "People don't realize the pressure in those circumstances. There's this huge pressure to save face. [People say], 'What are you going to do? He just called you a n--ger or a j---boo. What are you going to do?'" Story continues It takes so much more effort to love yourself when you've got all these messages saying you're not worthy. You just don't forget about that. - Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng He was one of just two Black students in the class of 2005 at the University of Alberta's medical school. He recalls one professor who was discussing vitamin D and people living near the equator, and asked if anyone would really want to live in Africa. "My whole class knows I have African roots. All eyes go on you. What are you going to say to this guy that has a potential stake in your career? Are you going to defend yourself? Joke it off?" So what did he do in that situation? "I called it out." Saying nothing was never an option for Kyeremanteng. "If I don't say anything, I can't look at myself in the mirror." As a trainee, Kyeremanteng would walk in and the patient would ask to see the doctor. "Yo, you're looking at him," he'd answer. Submitted by Kwadwo Kyeremanteng The slow trickle of racist slights built up. "Everything stacks up," Kyeremanteng said. "I remember thinking my skin's too dark, or I wish my name was different, I wish my lips weren't as big. We've been being mocked for all these things. It takes so much more effort to love yourself when you've got all these messages saying you're not worthy. You just don't forget about that." Fast-forward to 2020, when University of Toronto medical school valedictorian Chika Oriuwa was the only Black student in a class of 259. "That's insane," Kyeremanteng said. And yet that demographic imbalance has become so ingrained, it places an inordinate burden on the Black student struggling to overcome it. "If you have a Mike Johnson trying to be an MD or you have this Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, who do you think people are going to lean on?" Kyeremanteng asked. "I'm always having to prove I belong." Today at The Ottawa Hospital, Kyeremanteng sees only a handful of Black physicians. "I guarantee it's not because we're not as talented or don't have the intellectual capacity. It's opportunity," he said. The Ottawa Hospital could not provide CBC with a racial breakdown of its staff physicians. "These roots are deep," Kyeremanteng said. "A lot of people don't see you as an equal. They just don't." Kyeremanteng remembers one troubling incident in the ICU. A Black patient saw him walk by and asked the nurse if he was a doctor. Told yes, the patient replied, "Wow, that's awesome." "I heard that and [thought], why the f--k should that be awesome? It's great that I could be a role model for that youth, but it shouldn't cause awe," Kyeremanteng said. Outside the hospital, "you have to have that heightened situational awareness as a Black man," Kyeremanteng said. On a weekend getaway to Florida, he and four white friends were about to cross a deserted street against the light. "I'm not crossing the street until it's OK," Kyeremanteng told his friends. "I'm in Florida. You don't do that." In Ottawa, he's been followed in stores. "I don't walk into any convenience store with my hood up," he said. "Don't give them an excuse." Now, Kyeremanteng is worried nothing will improve for his boys. "Our three sons, these happy-go-lucky kids who see the world as a good place? They're going to be 'woke' to this reality," he said. "You do your best to protect them, but you know this is inevitable. It weighs on you." Xiaomi is rumored to be working on a smartphone with 16GB of RAM. This rumor surfaced in China, and it says that such a phone may launch in Xiaomis homeland soon. Unfortunately, though, that is all there is to it for the time being. The information comes from Digital Chat Station, a well-known Chinese tipster. Considering the source, the information is probably accurate. This Xiaomi phone with 16GB of RAM will probably be a high-end device Now, a device that does come with 16GB of RAM will probably be one of the companys higher-end phones. The Xiaomi Mi MIX line immediately comes to mind, as its next in line to be released. Well, next in line as far as flagship phones are concerned. Advertisement The Xiaomi Mi MIX 4, or whatever the company ends up calling it, will probably arrive in the coming months. The company was supposed to announce that phone last year, but that didnt happen. Xiaomi announced the Mi MIX Alpha instead, its concept phone with a display that goes all around the device. That phone never really became available to consumers, so were wondering what is coming this year. It was recently confirmed that the company is not planning to release a Snapdragon 865 variant of the Mi MIX Alpha. That actually sounds like we wont be seeing its successor, at least not this year. Advertisement So, theres plenty of room for Xiaomi to announce one of its regular Mi MIX devices. A device that will actually make its way to the hands of consumers. It wont be the first phone with 16GB of RAM, though Now, whatever the phone ends up being called, it wont be the first device with 16GB of RAM. Nubia has already released a gaming phone with that much RAM on the inside, the Red Magic 5G. In any case, the upcoming Xiaomi Mi MIX smartphone will almost certainly ship with the Snapdragon 865. The company will probably try its best to differentiate that phone with a unique design. Advertisement The Mi MIX line was always about offering cutting edge technology, and innovating at the same time. The Xiaomi Mi MIX Alpha launched back in September last year, so the next Mi MIX phone may arrive in that timeframe this year. Considering the global health crisis and everything, the companys launch schedule may be affected. If that ends up being the case, we may be looking at a later launch date. The phone will almost certainly arrive before the end of 2020, though. There you have it. The next Xiaomi flagship may include 16GB of RAM, and chances are it is one of the Mi MIX phones. Stay tuned for additional details. Big Brother is off to a strong start, levelling the playing field between Reality shows. Seven drew 866,000 viewers for the bulk of the show. It rose to 930,000 for the moment that Laura was evicted, with 853,000 for another segment coded as Arrival. Significantly the show also led the demos. However you look at it, its good news for Seven. That hit rival shows MasterChef Australia at 854,000 and The Voice at 849,000. Numbers were so close there was barely anything in it. In their wake was Back Roads (655,000) and 7:30 (576,000). Later Have You Been Paying Attention? was 769,000 then Media Watch (464,000), Four Corners (461,000), 9-1-1 (385,000) and Queen: Days of Our Lives (344,000). Seven network won Monday with 28.6% then Nine 26.7%, 10 21.1%, ABC 16.0% and SBS 7.6%. Seven News topped the night at 1.2m / 1.1m. The Chase was high at 714,000 / 465,000 then Home and Away (669,000). Nine News (1.1m / 1.04m) was best for Nine. A Current Affair led its slot at 818,000 then Hot Seat (585,000 / 328,000). The Project pulled 620,000 / 376,000 for 10. 10 News First (465,000) and Kinne Tonight (293,000) followed. ABC News was 761,000. Q&A was 301,000 and The Drum was 222,000. On SBS it was Secrets of the Royal Wardrobe (190,000), SBS World News (185,000), Michael Mosley: Coronavirus Special (182,000), 24 Hours in Emergency (132,000) and Mastermind (120,000). NCIS led multichannels at 174,000. Sunrise: 204,000 Today: 170,000 News Breakfast: 114,000 / 53,000 OzTAM Overnights: Monday 8 June 2020. T he Government has dropped its plan to bring back all primary school year groups by July. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said they would not be able to welcome back all primary school children for a full month before the summer. Currently Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 are being asked to return to primary schools in England. The plan was for all remaining primary school pupils to go back to school for four weeks before the summer holidays. However, there was a backlash from teachers and unions who warned it would be impossible due capacity issues, staff shortages and social distancing requirements. Mr Williamson said: "While we are not able to welcome all primary children back for a full month before the summer, we continue to work with the sector on the next steps, where we'd like to see school's who have the capacity, to bring back more children in those smaller class sizes, if they are able to do before the summer holidays." The Government was forced to close schools due to the Coronavirus pandemic nearly three months ago, on Friday March 20, except to the children of key workers who were allowed to attend. Gavin Williamson / Sky News The Secretary of State said the Government would "work with the sector" to get children back to school in September and he would like to see schools that "have the capacity" to bring back more pupils where possible before the summer holiday. He also said exams will go ahead in 2021 after the Government cancelled all A Level and GCSE examinations this year. The Government is planning to provide some face-to-face support for Years 10 and 12 from June 15. Meanwhile schools which are open will have access to testing if they develop symptoms of coronavirus. Children in England started returning to primary school last week as the Government eased lockdown measures. Staff and students are expected to adhere to the Government guidance that limits class sizes to 15 and as well as social distancing measures. But some schools said the rules meant they did not have enough space on site to admit all pupils in the eligible year groups. Figures released by the Department for Education today showed that just over half [52 per cent] of primary schools in England had reopened to more children on Thursday last week. But the Secretary of State said the number of children in schools was rising and added: "We all know how important it is for children and young people to be in education and childcare and it is vital that we get them back there as soon as the scientific advice indicates that we can. "By the end of the week, more than half of primary schools were taking pupils from these year groups, and as of yesterday that had risen to over 70 per cent of primaries that had responded." A primary school pupil next to a sign about social distancing / Reuters However, today's announcement has sparked an outcry with the Childrens Commissioner Anne Longfield saying millions of vulnerable, lonely and disadvantaged children would suffer real damage and warned that for many childhood is just going to be furloughed for months. Tory MP and chairman of the Commons Education Committee Robert Halfon wants the Government to reconsider its plans and has warned the country is facing an epidemic of educational poverty. Shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey expressed her "deep dismay" over the Government's handling of the plans for schools to reopen. She said teachers, education unions and parents had warned that the plans to open whole primary schools before the summer were "simply impractical" while implementing social distancing. She added: "So I welcome [Mr Williamson's] decision to roll-back from that today. However, I must state my deep dismay at the way this has been handled. "If the Government had brought together everyone involved in implementing these plans from the outset and really taken on board what they had to say, they would not be in the situation of having to roll back at all. "But what's done is done and now it is imperative the Government looks ahead to what the education system needs over the coming months and years." Shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey expressed her "deep dismay" over the Government's handling of schools. / Getty Images Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said there would have been "significant practical barriers" to bringing all primary pupils back in the summer term. He added: "With the end of term just six weeks away, Government now needs to provide urgent clarity on the anticipated constraints that schools may face in September, so that schools and parents can start to look ahead and plan with greater understanding of the possible disruption that may yet still follow." Downing Street said that secondary schools are expected to open to "more pupils" in England from September. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "Our approach to schools throughout has been that we need to be cautious and the return needs to be phased. That will continue to be our approach." Yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock also conceded that secondary schools may not be able to reopen in September. As bars across Europe slowly reopen, as many as one million free or pre-paid beers are waiting to welcome back the public. Large and small beer companies have made it possible for people to buy drinks in advance to support shuttered bars. In some cases, the reward is some free beer when the doors reopen. Anheuser-Busch launched its first voucher campaign in Belgium and has since sold over 200,000 beers. It also started a similar voucher campaign in 20 other markets across Europe and from Brazil to Hong Kong, raising over $6 million for bars and restaurants. The number of drinks Heineken has sold through its many voucher campaigns is at 270,000. Now that bars are reopening, consumers have had their first chance to bring in their vouchers. Two friends, Arendse Rohland and Thomas Hoffner Lovgren, were among those to get free beers after bars reopened in Denmark on May 18. Through its campaign, Danish beer company Carlsberg offered free beers in a bar to consumers who bought bottles or cans from stores. The idea was to bring drinkers back with free drinks and hope they would then buy more. Hoffner Lovgren and Rohland both seemed willing to do so. I rarely only drink one beer, Roland said after collecting a free drink at a bar in a town outside Copenhagen. Drinkers elsewhere are now in line. On Tuesday, France became the latest nation to reopen bars and restaurants. The Netherlands did so the day before. Ireland, Belgium and Britain are expected to follow this month and next. Julian Marsili is with Carlsberg. He said its campaign would continue into the summer. Marsili said since there will not be much travel outside Denmark for a while, the company is encouraging people to explore bars throughout Denmark. The campaigns have helped, but not corrected some losses. In Britain, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said pubs could have recorded their best April in ten years, selling 745 million glasses of beer because of unusually warm and sunny weather. Beer sales in stores have risen, but well below the rate of other alcohols, like wine and liquor, and not enough to fix the loss of in-person drinking. That information comes from Nielsen, a marketing research company. Will they come? Reopened bars and restaurants will clearly not operate as they did before the coronavirus measures. There will be limited time at the bar, less table service, shorter hours and measures to lessen contact between workers and consumers and to keep consumers apart. Emma McClarkin is chief executive for BBPA. She said social distancing rules make a big difference. Two metres, currently used in Britain, might permit only one-third of Britains 47,000 pubs to reopen. But a one-meter rule, considered safe by the World Health Organization, would permit 75 percent to operate, she said. Beer companies have also been helping with some of the new materials needed for health safety, learning from China, where restaurants and bars reopened from March. Jan Craps is chief executive of Budweiser Brewing Company. She said Anheiser-Buschs Asian operation had sent welcome kits to smaller bars to help them separate groups of consumers. The kits included things like plastic separators, hand cleaner, facial coverings and advice to 50,000 bars and restaurants across China. Craps said the kits were being reproduced in many other countries, such as the Americas where the company has its largest markets. A study of British pub-goers found 93 percent were willing to revisit their local bar and over a third plan to visit within a week of reopening. Most also wanted to stay two meters away from strangers. Business will not return as before. Belgian cafe and restaurant owners expect on average 45 percent fewer visitors as a result of social distancing measures and public concerns. Im Alice Bryant. Reuters news agency reported this story. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story bar - n. a building or room where alcoholic drinks and sometimes food are served voucher - n. a document, receipt, stamp or something similar, that gives evidence of purchasing something. consumer - n. a person who buys goods and services pub - n. a building or room especially in Britain or Ireland where alcoholic drinks and often food are served kit - n. a set of tools or supplies that a person uses for a particular purpose or activity Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) For the past three days, the number of fresh COVID-19 cases reported daily surpassed the 300-mark, but the Health Department on Tuesday raised the possibility these are actually "late" cases. Fresh cases refers to those whose test results were validated in the last three days. Late cases refer to those whose results came out four days ago or more but were just recently confirmed "Iyong iba sa fresh COVID-19 cases maaaring late lang dahil we used as basis for these fresh cases the release of test results kasi di kompleto nilalagay sa CIF na onset of illness," Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire told a media forum. [Translation: Some of the fresh COVID-19 cases could be late because we used as basis for these fresh cases the release of test results because the data put by testing centers on the CIF (case investigation form) was incomplete and did not include the onset of illness.] She explained that when they reviewed the cases, they found out that the onset of illness came much earlier than the release of the test results. DOH is now looking at the date of the onset of illness to accurately establish a case definition, Vergeire said, but added that only about 60 percent of health facilities are submitting reports with dates of illness onset. She said the DOH's data analytics team is now fixing its information system, which serves as basis for the quarantine restrictions imposed in the country. "Binabalikan namin ang onset of illness. Ginagawa na namin sa ngayon. (We are tracing the onset of illness. We are doing it right now.)" The government eased restrictions in the movement of people and allowed more businesses to reopen on June 1 to help the economy recover from losses due to the lockdown. The decision came after the DOH reported that the COVID-19 transmission rate in the country has slowed down, and that the Philippines healthcare system may be coping with the outbreak. NATO 'Works Hard' for Arms Control With Russia, Stoltenberg Says Sputnik News 16:07 GMT 08.06.2020 WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) believes in dialogue with Russia and is working hard for arms control with that country given that an arms race may be both costly and dangerous, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday. "We believe in dialogue with Russia," Stoltenberg said. "We strongly believe in arms control. A new arms race will be dangerous and very costly. Therefore, we continue to work hard for arms control with Russia and that's part of what we call the dual track, the dialogue approach to Russia." Stoltenberg pointed out that in his capacity as a Norwegian politician in the past, he learned that it is possible to talk to Russia and conclude agreements. "We did that - Norway and Russia - for many, many years on military issues, on energy, on border issues, on many other issues, environment, fisheries. That was not despite of NATO, but it was because of NATO," Stoltenberg said. The NATO chief said Russia has been more assertive and has been willing to use military force against neighbours Georgia and Ukraine and is modernizing its armed forces and adjusting its doctrines. "[Russia] is investing heavily in new modern capabilities, including nuclear capabilities, deploying a new missile called SSC-8 missile which can reach European cities and that undermines the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty - the treaty that bound all intermediate-range weapons," Stoltenberg said. "So, they are heavily modernizing their nuclear arsenals and also adjust their doctrines." Stoltenberg said NATO has responded to these developments by ensuring it has a credible deterrence and defence. "Because that's the best way to prevent conflict, to remove any room for doubt, any room for miscalculation about NATO's readiness, willingness to protect all allies. As long as we provide that deterrence, there 'll be no conflict, no attack," Stoltenberg added. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Villagers practice yoga to relieve fatigue when herding cattle in Zhangbei County of Zhangjiakou City, North China's Hebei Province. [China Women's News] Jin Xiuying, President of the Women's Federation of Yugouliang Village, promoted the country-style yoga aerobics created by Lu Wenzhen, first secretary of the village, to the local people, with the purpose of toning up the villagers' bodies. The village has now become famous for the yoga exercises, attracting a large number of domestic and foreign travellers. Yugouliang, a village of Zhangbei County in Zhangjiakou City, North China's Hebei Province, was once a state-level poverty-stricken village. Among the 457 registered residents in the village, 254 were impoverished, and 60 percent had fallen into poverty due to illness. The young people have all gone out to work for a living, leaving only about 100 elderly people and women in the village. As a member of the poverty relief team of the Shijiazhuang Post and Telecommunications Vocational and Technical College, Lu became the first secretary of the village in February 2016. He found that every family still had the traditional habit of sitting "cross-legged" on the bed. Inspired by this discovery, it occurred to him that building a strong body through yoga practice would create a stronger workforce more capable of escaping poverty. Lu developed a set of country-style yoga aerobics and sought cooperation with Jin Xiuying, who has served as leader of the local women's federation for more than 20 years, to popularize the aerobics across the village. Jin Xiuying, who has worked in the local women's federation for more than 20 years, practices a yoga pose during her break time after feeding rabbits. [China Women's News] Considering that there are many elderly women in the village who might find it difficult to do the exercises, Jin tried it on herself first. After three months of practice, she could bend down to pick up things easily and the pain in her back and legs was eased a lot, which made her realize the benefits brought by yoga. She decided to promote yoga in the village to relieve the villagers' back and leg problems that greatly affected their farming. Led by Jin, the lifestyle and attitude of the villagers gradually changed, and the village became more alive than ever before. "Women who used to stand on the wall and talk to each other are now doing yoga, and even women in their 80s join our activities. I'm very delighted to see the change," she said. The General Administration of Sport of China praised Yugouliang as the "First Yoga Village in China" in February 2017. And the village's yoga team has been frequently invited to perform and give interviews across the country. "Our rural women have never travelled far before, but now we have been invited to perform in many places, which has broadened our horizon. However, we will not be swellheaded. We will continue to improve the skills, striving for a higher stage!" Jin said. During the Spring Festival holiday of 2019, Jin opened an account on a livestreaming platform. She worked hard at Mandarin and dove into techniques of shooting short videos. She also launched online yoga teaching courses for seniors, and promoted local agricultural products such as potatoes and oats in her livestreaming room. Jin Xiuying and her husband practice a yoga pose between work hours. The couple always communicates on yoga practice with each other. [China Women's News] At present, Jin's livestreaming account has nearly 200,000 followers, and a single video has received views of more than three million times. She has earned nearly 50,000 yuan (US $7,033.83) in the past six months. In keeping with the old saying "Make hay while the sun shines," the poverty relief team seized the opportunity to explore further ways to increase income in the village. Jin always coordinates with the members to carry out various types of anti-poverty work. After practicing the yoga aerobic exercises, the villagers have been inspired to release more energy to develop the local planting and breeding industry, and every household is living a better life. Li Yeqing, a woman in the village, has improved her health condition due to the yoga, and planted 20,000 square meters of oats and green corn in her field last year, which brought her a net income of 60,000 yuan (US $8,440). "By practicing yoga, villagers have gained more vitality and the village environment has become better. Now, everyone is busy learning how to use online means to sell agricultural products, and seeking diversified ways to increase income and get rich," Jin concluded. Jin Xiuying organizes women to practice a yoga pose between work hours. [China Women's News] (Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China) YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan had a telephone conversation with President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov at the latters initiative, the PMs Office told Armenpress. The Kyrgyz President was interested in the health condition of the Armenian PM and his family, wishing good health and success. During the phone talk the officials exchanged views on the current coronavirus-related situation in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. They introduced the actions taken in both countries to fight the disease, as well as the experience gained during this period. Pashinyan and Jeenbekov also hoped that they will meet in Moscow, Russia, on June 24 within the frames of the Victory Day Parade. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan While the start of the implementation of the Israeli annexation plan of the West Bank is due in early July, Palestinian leaders have recently revealed past Israeli proposals for an alternative to the two-state solution. Majid al-Fityani, secretary of Fatah's Revolutionary Council, said in a press statement May 30 that Israel had made an offer to the Palestinian Authority (PA) a few years back to grant Palestinians a civil status in Israel without a recognized state or control over security, sovereignty and borders. Fityani did not provide an exact date to the alleged proposal. We naturally rejected this project as our issue is a political one and has never been economically motivated. Should Israel try to play this card again, we will turn it down, he said. Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and Fatahs Central Committee, said May 16 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also made a proposal to the PA, whereby the Palestinian leadership would enjoy indefinite economic autonomy. Ahmad believes that does not amount to a state or a semi-state with the absence of control over land, crossings and airspace. We will not accept this, he stated in a press statement. In an interview with Israel Hayom newspaper May 28, Netanyahu announced his willingness to give Palestinians an entity of their own if they recognize Israeli sovereignty west of the Jordan River, preserving a united Jerusalem, refusing to accept refugees, not uprooting Jewish communities and Israeli sovereignty in large swathes of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]. It has become clear that none of the Israeli proposals are even remotely close to the two-state solution that the Palestinians have been calling for. Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, told Al-Monitor, The PA will not go back on any of the established rights, i.e., the right of return, self-determination and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. We also reject all the Israeli proposals that are in line with the deal of the century [US peace plan] that talk about establishing a Palestinian state within four years of the announced of the plan. He added, We are saying no to all such offers because they mean perpetuating the occupation through proposals of more town annexations, and autonomy as per the Camp David agreement with Egypt and the resettlement of refugees in the Sinai Peninsula." Despite the PAs refusal to such Israeli schemes, the political data on the ground show that things are going in the opposite direction in light of the ongoing Palestinian division with the existence of two separate Palestinian entities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This is not to mention the decline of international talk about a two-state solution, especially after the announcement of US President Donald Trumps Middle East plan, and the rise of the Israeli right wing, which is not in favor of this solution. Abdel-Sattar Qassem, professor of political science at An-Najah University in Nablus, told Al-Monitor, Israel seeks to turn the Palestinian communities into expanded municipal councils, with limited powers, without any recognized state. He said, Israel insists that there will be no state west of the Jordan River other than the Israeli state. Despite the PAs media statements of its refusal to such proposals, I believe those proposals will gradually become a fait accompli on the ground. The PA will end up being relegated to an administrative apparatus managing the Palestinians civil affairs." According to a February poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 36% of the public believes that a majority of the Palestinians supports this [two-state] solution and 57% believe that the majority opposes it. A majority of 61% believes that the two-state solution is no longer practical or feasible due to the expansion of Israeli settlements, while 33% believe that the solution remains practical. Moreover, 76% believe that the chances for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel in the next five years are slim or nonexistent. Talal Abu Zarifa, a member of the political bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told Al-Monitor, These Israeli proposals are rejected by the Palestinians, but could become a reality if the Palestinian status quo remains unchanged and if [the Palestinian leadership] continues to bank on the resumption of negotiations with Israel. He noted, I believe the situation necessitates a firmer Palestinian stance and an outright refusal of these proposals based on national consensus and a strategic vision to face the Israeli maneuvers aimed at fooling the international community and accusing the Palestinians of rejecting all offers made to them." Hani al-Masri, head of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies - Masarat, told Al-Monitor, These proposals may find their way to implementation in light of the current balance of power between Palestinians and Israelis. The approval of the Palestinian side, however, would remain a prerequisite for the implementation of such schemes on the ground. But I dont believe any Palestinian leader would agree to such a step." He added, The Israelis could, however, deploy their military forces in some areas of the West Bank to fulfill their political aspirations." The harsh reality is that as things stand now, the Palestinians have a very narrow margin of self-rule, as opposed to the extensive autonomy they enjoyed during the Oslo Accord period from 1993 to 2000. After the second intifada and the arrival of President Mahmoud Abbas to office, Israel had bypassed the Oslo Accord, between 2000 and 2005. Today, as Abbas era is coming to an end, the Palestinians are left with even less powers, limited to their internal security in the hands of the civil police, which is the reason behind Israels continuous support for Abbas until further notice. Daisheau Player on campus at Dickinson College. The rising junior had hoped to study abroad in New Zealand in the fall, but Dickinson has canceled study abroad for the semester. Read more Dickinson College student Daisheau Player was looking forward to studying in New Zealand this fall as part of a study abroad program. But Dickinson informed Player and about 250 other students last month that it had canceled study abroad for the fall semester, concerned about the impact the coronavirus still may be having. I was pretty prepared for it, said Player, 20, a chemistry major from Baltimore. I felt like thats what was going to happen. It was just too uncertain. We didnt know where things would stand weeks from now, much less months from now. Dickinson is among a growing number of colleges that have canceled study abroad as the fall semester creeps closer. Villanova, Pennsylvania State, the University of Pennsylvania, La Salle, and Widener have canceled study abroad, citing uncertainty about the virus, anticipated travel restrictions, changes to overseas academic programs, and the potential of sudden new lockdowns if a second wave occurs. READ MORE: As the coronavirus spreads to Europe, so does concern on local college campuses Studying abroad is very popular on some campuses. Nearly 40% of Villanova students and nearly two-thirds of Dickinsons go abroad at some point over their four years. In 2017-18, nearly 21,000 students in Pennsylvania and 4,688 from New Jersey studied abroad, according to a report by the Institute of International Education. The virus has taken a large toll, with more than 90% of summer programs canceled, the institute said. And "the COVID-19 health crisis will affect international student mobility in this academic year and possibly for years to come, the institute said in a recent report. International educators are hopeful that study abroad will return as conditions improve. In New Zealand, officials this week said the nation had eradicated all cases of the coronavirus and had reopened travel across the country. After large-scale crises in the past, students have continued to seek study abroad opportunities, said Caroline Donovan White, senior director for education abroad services at NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Im hopeful the importance of international education will be front and center more and more as we work on solving global challenges, she said. Most schools said they hope to resume study abroad in the spring, but cant promise. Ive been telling folks my crystal ball is broken, said Liz Campanella, director of Villanovas Office of Education Abroad. Villanova this fall was scheduled to send more than 200 students to Ireland, Spain, South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other countries to study languages, do field work, and take classes. But the university noticed some of its overseas partners were withdrawing, Campanella said, and wanted to give students time to make alternate plans. Ryan Ford, 19, a rising junior from Orange, Conn., appreciated it. He was supposed to study in Ireland and was tired of the uncertainty. It was definitely disappointing," the chemical engineering major said. But it was also a bit of a relief because we didnt have one more thing hanging over our shoulders anymore. Colleges that have canceled said they have room on campus to accommodate the students. Dickinson delayed its housing selection process so study-abroad students could participate. Neither Dickinson nor Villanova has announced whether students will be on campus in the fall or studying remotely. Dickinson runs the majority of its study abroad programs. Having seen the disruption when more than 155 students had to be brought home in the spring, the college decided not to take that risk again, said Samantha C. Brandauer, associate provost and executive director of Dickinsons Center for Global Study and Engagement. We dont want to put students back into that position, she said. But the college plans to keep ties with faculty and host institutions in other countries in place, and offer virtual global programming to Dickinson students in the fall, she said. Dickinson also is working with Haverford College on some online global learning programming, she said. Some models came out of the spring, when students were forced to finish studies online, she said. Students who had been studying in Bologna, Italy, for example, could log into cooking classes with faculty there. READ MORE: Penn, Temple, Rowan among colleges canceling trips, programs abroad as coronavirus spreads We were really trying to help our students who had to leave Bologna early stay connected to Italian culture, she said. Villanova also is working on virtual exchanges, Campanella said. Some colleges and universities, including Lehigh, Rutgers and Haverford, havent yet pulled the plug on fall study abroad. Students are working with Lehighs Summer Abroad Office to plan for a few different scenarios for fall, said spokesperson Lori Friedman. St. Josephs University also has kept it on the table and said about 50 students are exploring options. At some schools, students made the decision to withdraw. Most students who planned to study abroad in fall 2020 have canceled or deferred to later semesters, said Diane DAmico, a spokesperson for Stockton University in New Jersey. At Villanova, more than 80 students pulled out ahead of time. Player had planned to take courses at New Zealands University of Otago. She still hopes to have the chance in the spring. If not, the opportunity could be lost. She isnt interested in going during her senior year, a time when students are job-hunting and planning for graduate school. I just would want to be on campus," she said, "close to all the resources available to me. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden addressed George Floyd's six-year-old daughter Gianna in an emotional video played at Floyd's funeral in Houston on Tuesday. "Little Gianna, as I said to you when I saw you yesterday, you are so brave," Biden said in the pre-recorded video, filmed at his home in Delaware. "Daddy is looking down at you, and he is so proud of you. I know you miss that bear hug that only he could give, the pure joy of riding on his shoulders so you could touch the sky." "And I know you have a lot of questions that no child should have to ask, questions that too many black children have had to ask for generations," Biden continued. "Why? Why is Daddy gone? In looking through your eyes, we should all be asking ourselves why the answer is often too cruel and painful." Biden did not attend the funeral in person because he did not want to turn the event into a political spectacle, an attorney for the Floyd family said. Previous services for Floyd were held in Minneapolis and North Carolina. But the approximately five minute video showcased the different ways that Biden and President Donald Trump are responding to the public uproar over police killings of black people, with five months to go before Election Day. Floyd's death in the custody of Minneapolis police officers last month has spurred weeks of protests against police brutality around the country. The four officers involved in the arrest were fired by the Minneapolis Police Department and are now facing charges. Polls have shown Biden gaining momentum as the nation remains transfixed by the historic protests that are playing out against the backdrop of once-in-a-century public health and financial crises. While Trump has shown some sympathy for Floyd's case, he has directed his fury at those who are protesting, rather than the underlying concerns about discrimination in policing. Earlier in the day, Trump alleged that a 75-year-old man who was pushed down by police officers in Buffalo "could be an ANTIFA provocateur." Biden's approach has been more somber. He has leaned into his experiences dealing publicly with the grief of losing a loved one. Biden's son Beau Biden passed away in 2015 from brain cancer. In 1972, his wife and infant daughter were killed in a car crash shortly after he was elected to the Senate. In a portion of the video addressing Floyd's friends and family, Biden said that "for most people, the numbness you feel now, will slowly turn, day after day, season after season, into purpose through the memory of the one they lost." "But for you, that day has come before you can fully grieve. And unlike most, you must grieve in public. And, it's a burden. A burden that is now your purpose to change the world for the better in the name of George Floyd," Biden said. Biden also referenced a video of Gianna on the shoulders of her father's close friend that went viral in recent days. The video shows Gianna proclaiming joyfully that "Daddy changed the world." "Now is the time for racial justice. That's the answer we must give to our children when they ask why. Because when there is justice for George Floyd, we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America," Biden said in the video. "And then, as you said, Gianna, your daddy will have 'changed the world.'" South Africa-based renewable energy startup Sun Exchange has raised $3 million to close its Series A funding round totaling $4 million. The company operates a peer-to-peer, crypto-enabled business that allows individuals anywhere in the world to invest in solar infrastructure in Africa. How's that all work? "You as an individual are selling electricity to a school in South Africa, via a solar panel you bought through the Sun Exchange," explained Abe Cambridge, the startup's founder and CEO. "Our platform meters the electricity production of your solar panel. Arranges for the purchasing of that electricity with your chosen energy consumer, collects that money and then returns it to your Sun Exchange wallet." It costs roughly $5 a solar cell to get in and transactions occur in South African Rand or Bitcoin. "The reason why we chose Bitcoin is we needed one universal payment system that enables micro transactions down to a millionth of a U.S. cent," Cambridge told TechCrunch on a call. He co-founded the Cape Town-headquartered startup in 2015 to advance renewable energy infrastructure in Africa. "I realized the opportunity for solar was enormous, not just for South Africa, but for the whole of the African continent," said Cambridge. "What was required was a new mechanism to get Africa solar powered." Sub-Saharan Africa has a population of roughly 1 billion people across a massive landmass and only about half of that population has access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. Recently, Sun Exchange's main market South Africa which boasts some of the best infrastructure in the region has suffered from blackouts and power outages. Image Credits: Sun Exchange Sun Exchange has members in 162 countries who have invested in solar power projects for schools, businesses and organizations throughout South Africa, according to company data. The $3 million which closed Sun Exchange's $4 million Series A came from the Africa Renewable Power Fund of London's ARCH Emerging Markets Partners. Story continues With the capital, the startup plans to enter new markets. "We're going to expand into other Sub-Saharan African countries. We've got some clear opportunities on our roadmap," Cambridge said, referencing Nigeria as one of the markets Sun Exchange has researched. There are several well-funded solar energy startups operating in Africa's top economic and tech hubs, such as Kenya and Nigeria. In East Africa, M-Kopa sells solar hardware kits to households on credit, then allows installment payments via mobile phone using M-Pesa mobile money. The venture is backed by $161 million from investors including Steve Case and Richard Branson. In Nigeria, Rensource shifted from a residential hardware model to building solar-powered micro utilities for large markets and other commercial structures. Sun Exchange operates as an asset free model and operates differently than companies that install or manufacture solar panels. "We're completely supplier agnostic. We are approached by solar installers who operate on the African continent. And then we partner with the best ones," said Cambridge who presented the startup's model at TechCrunch Startup Battlefield in Berlin in 2017. "We're the marketplace that connects together the user of the solar panel to the owner of the solar panel to the installer of the solar panel." Abe Cambridge, Image Credits: TechCrunch Sun Exchange generates revenues by earning margins on sales of solar panels and fees on purchases and kilowatt hours generated, according to Cambridge. In addition to expanding in Africa, the startup looks to expand in the medium to long-term to Latin America and Southeast Asia. "Those are also places that would really benefit from from solar energy, from the speed in which it could be deployed and the environmental improvements that going solar leads to," said Cambridge. Evangelicals, David Platt march in DC against racism, police brutality: 'Forgive us' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Hundreds of evangelicals, including Pastor David Platt, gathered in Washington, D.C., to protest against racism and police brutality on Sunday, singing hymns and holding up Bible verses. The involvement of evangelicals in the protests was organized by a group known as Faith + Works DC, which was concerned that there werent enough explicitly Christian voices involved after the brutal police killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man in Minneapolis. We pray that you would forgive us for our history and our present, Platt, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, said as he marched, The Washington Post reported. We praise you in particular today, Jesus, as this group, for taking the judgment we deserve, he continued. Platt was introduced at the protests by Thabiti Anyabwile, pastor of Anacostia River Church and a black evangelical who is well-known for speaking out on issues of racism. The group sang songs such as This Little Light of Mine and "Because He Lives" and prayed as they marched across the Anacostia River to head downtown in their stand for justice. Anyabwile lamented how few of the marches for justice have come from the church. This iteration of civil rights is not located in the church, so the church is playing catch-up when it was once the vanguard, he said to The Washington Post. One skill we dont have as a country or a church is conversation. Were unpracticed at that and so were wrestling with hope. Just before the march, Anyabwile preached virtually to his congregation, saying the blood of black bodies is crying out and that Christians can no longer ignore it. "Blood spilled unrighteously cries into the very ears of an all powerful God. God hears it," he said, as he preached from Genesis 4 on the account of Cain and Abel. "This country is storing up wrath for the day of wrath." "Indifference can no longer be the Christian response to what were seeing in the world," he stressed. "It is a lovelessness, it is more than a hatred, it is an evil to be indifferent in the face of such suffering and injustice." He noted that some fundamentalist and evangelical Christians try to exonerate themselves "of all things racism" but that has resulted in indifference to the killings of black people. "So many Christians who pity themselves in the midst of conversations about blood flowing in the streets, fragile white people cant bear to have racism pointed out. "We are where we are because this country and white evangelical Christians have twisted the theology of the body so that they can own black bodies and our blood flows in the street crying out to God and God answers to strike the conscience to announce His judgment." In his Radical podcast on Sunday, Platt offered up prayers for President Doald Trump and the nations political leaders as they navigate issues of justice. Today, amidst everything going on in my country and my city even, I want us to meditate and pray according to Micah 6:8 where the Bible says, He has told you O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice. And to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God, he said. Amidst names like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery becoming common place in my country over the last few weeks in particular and not just in my country, far beyond the United States, and cries for justice and mercy, I am reminded in Micah 6:8 that this instinct for justice, this longing for justice and longing for mercy is built into our hearts by God, Platt said. And God has called us as his people to do justice and to love kindness. Not to turn a blind eye or deaf ear to justice but to work for justice. (Newser) With the police department in Portland receiving heavy criticism from the ACLU of Oregon and others for its response to the protests, Chief Jami Resch considered what the city needs. The answer, she decided, was someone else as police chief. She turned to Lt. Chuck Lovell, who hadn't sought the job, the Oregonian reports. "You never wanted it," Resch told him Monday. "You were meant for it." The job offer stunned Lovell, 46, who will become Portland's fourth black police chief. But he said that "when your boss comes to you and says the community needs you,'' you have to take it. Resch called him "the exact right person at the exact right moment." Mayor Ted Wheeler, who ordered police to limit the use of tear gas on Saturday, said more changes are coming, per Oregon Public Broadcasting. story continues below Resch said she asked the mayor to support the change on Sunday, and he welcomed the new chief. "Together we will work on meaningful and bold reforms,'' Wheeler said Monday. Resch had only been chief since January, and activists pointed out that appointing a new chief in the past hasn't brought meaningful change to the department. Resch agreed that it's only a start. At the announcement, Lovell said what struck him most when he watched the video of George Floyd dying in police custody in Minneapolis was the lack of compassion among the officers, a problem that he said the community could come together to battle. "The fight is not with each other," Lovell said. "The fight is against that idea that people, institutions, the agencies that can harbor that feeling in their heart." (Read more Portland, Oregon stories.) By PTI NEW DELHI: High-level central teams have been deployed in 15 states and UTs with more than 50 districts or municipal bodies that are witnessing a spurt in cases to assist the local administrations in containment and management of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday. These multi-disciplinary teams are helping the states and UTs address challenges like testing bottlenecks, low tests per million population, high confirmation rates, risk of capacity shortfall over the next two months, potential bed shortage, growing case fatality rate, high doubling rate and sudden spike in active cases, etc, it said. These states and UTs are Maharashtra (seven districts/municipalities), Telangana (four), Tamil Nadu (seven), Rajasthan (five), Assam (six), Haryana (four), Gujarat (three), Karnataka (four), Uttarakhand (three), Madhya Pradesh (five), West Bengal (three), Delhi (three), Bihar (four), Uttar Pradesh (four), and Odisha (five). FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE "The aim is to assist the state governments by providing technical support for containment and (to) facilitate management of COVID-19 outbreak," the ministry said in a statement. With 9,987 fresh infections, India saw a record daily rise in COVID-19 cases for the seventh consecutive day on Tuesday. The country's tally stands at 2,66,598. The death toll due to the disease mounted to 7,466 as 266 more people died. The three-member central teams comprise of two public health experts/epidemiologist/clinicians and a senior joint secretary level nodal officer for administrative handholding and improving governance, the ministry said. These teams are working in the field and visiting healthcare facilities to support the state health department in implementation of containment measures and efficient treatment and clinical management of cases within the districts and cities, it said. The ministry said, "In order to ensure better coordination, quick action on the ground, adoption of a more granular strategy, it is proposed that these districts and municipalities should regularly remain in touch with central teams which are already coordinating with the states." Such frequent interaction would further strengthen the surveillance, containment, testing and treatment-related action on the ground. Many districts and municipalities have already formalised a dedicated core team at the district level comprising of medical and administrative officials to coordinate on a regular basis with the central team. New Delhi: Popular Kannada actor Chiranjeevi Sarja's sudden demise on June 7, 2020, at a private hospital in Bengaluru due to cardiac arrest has left his fans and family in a state of shock. His last rites were performed on Monday at his farmhouse in Kanakpura. He was 39. Chiranjeevi is the grandson of renowned Kananda actor Shakti Prasad and nephew of actor Arjun Sarja. He married actress Meghana Raj two years back in 2018. His brother Dhruva Sarja is also a famous actor. ALSO READ: Kannada star Chiranjeevi Sarja's last rites performed; Rashmika Mandana, Prithviraj and others mourn him Several prominent faces from south movie industry came to pay their last respects during Chiranjeevi's final journey. Kiccha Sudeep, Yash, Shiva Rajkumar amongst various others were seen bidding him a tearful goodbye. Wife and actress Meghana Raj was inconsolable and broke down during the final journey of husband Chiranjeevi Sarja. Most of the south stars took to social media to express grief and mourn Chiranjeevi Sarja's demise with heartfelt posts. ALSO READ: Kannada star Chiranjeevi Sarjas last Instagram post, a day before his death, makes fans emotional Here are a few pictures which flooded the internet and fans paid their condolences online: Paid my last respect to #ChiranjeeviSarja and condoled Arjun Sarja, Sundar Raj, wife Meghana Raj & brother Dhruva Sarja. Strength to the whole family members & film fraternity. My prayers and thoughts to his whole family members during this time of grief. pic.twitter.com/QnpkOixea8 DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) June 8, 2020 Shivanna and Yash Pay Homage to Chiranjeevi Sarja. pic.twitter.com/sJ1Anodtzb Blue Chip (@Photos4uIndia) June 8, 2020 Political leaders too expressed grief over this sudden demise. Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar also mourned Chiranjeevi's sudden shocking demise at a young age and hailed him for his incredible talent. Chiranjeevi Sarja had an illustrious movie career of 11 long years in which he acted in over 22 movies. May his soul rest in eternal peace! A Pennsylvania man and a New Jersey woman were arrested Tuesday morning in the mans Wilson Borough home on charges from a killing on Monday in Atlantic City, according to Wilson police and court papers. Lewis A. Johnson, 31, who also has an address in Newark, and Shaquana T. Lewis, 35, of Pleasantville, were arraigned Tuesday morning before District Judge Richard Yetter III as fugitives from justice. Its the first step in the extradition process that could return them to Atlantic County to face first-degree charges. On local court papers, Lewis used the Wilson Borough address. Johnson is charged in Atlantic City with killing a person who court papers list as C.W. by shooting that person multiple times, a warrant says. Johnson is also charged with having a gun for unlawful purpose as well as possession of a weapon without a permit, court records say. Lewis is charged with two conspiracy counts tied to the killing, records show. Yetter denied bail for both suspects, citing public safety. Details of the crime were not immediately available. A 17-year-old was killed Monday afternoon in the 2000 block of Blaine Avenue in Atlantic City, authorities said. The Atlantic County Prosecutors Office, which had people on Tuesday in Wilson, and Atlantic City police, who were also present, are investigating that killing, a news release said. Borough police Chief Chris Meehan said he was alerted about midnight by Atlantic City police that one or two of the suspects in a killing could be in the borough, he said. He brought in the Pennsylvania State Police Special Emergency Response Team and the Easton police Special Response Unit and about 7:30 a.m. they entered the home. Two suspects in a June 8, 2020, killing in Atlantic City were arrested June 9, 2020, at 1537 Liberty St. in Wilson Borough, police say.Tim Wynkoop | lehighvalleylive.com contributor Johnson tried to jump out a second story window, but was hit with a Taser and taken into custody, Meehan said. Lewis is Johnsons girlfriend, Meehan said. The chief declined to say if a weapon or anything else was recovered. Atlantic City police referred questions to the prosecutors office. The prosecutors office did not immediately return a phone call seeking more information about the killing. Johnson and Lewis have a right to fight extradition. For now, they will be housed in Northampton County Prison awaiting the beginning of that process in Northampton County Court. Lewis was arrested Friday on a May 28 terrorist threats charge after a dispute at the gas station store at 1503 Northampton St. in the borough, but was released on 10 percent of $2,000 bail, records show. The 10 percent option was added by PreTrial Services, records show. Shaquana T. Lewis arrives for court June 9, 2020, in Wilson Borough to be arraigned on a charge of being a fugitive from justice. She is also charged with conspiracy in an Atlantic City homicide,Tim Wynkoop | lehighvalleylive.com contributor Lewis made a gun signal with his hand, pointing at another person in the gas station and threatened to hurt him, records show. Johnson was identified through surveillance video, court papers say. Court papers dont show attorneys for the two. Exiting Yetters court, Johnson said it was a beautiful day outside and Life is great. When asked if he was guilty of innocent, he said, I dont know what this is about. Lewis complained about her photo being taken. Freelance photographer Tim Wynkoop contributed to this post. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting lehighvalleylive.com with a voluntary subscription. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. A coalition of concerned youth of all ethnic groups in the Kusaug Traditional kingdom have kicked against the compilation of the new voter register. The concerned youth drawn from all tribes in Bawku Municipal, Bawku West, Pusiga, Binduri, Garu and Tempane reject the compilation of a new voters' register, a decision they described as a ticking time bomb and calamitous path which could lead to war. According to them, their right to vote is under attack by the decision of the Commission if it goes ahead on the dangerous slope. Below is a full press statement: PRESS STATEMENT BY COALITION OF CONCERNED YOUTH OF ALL ETHNIC GROUPS IN THE KUSAUG KINGDOM ON THE EC DECISION TO COMPILE A NEW ELECTORAL REGISTER FOR THE 2020 ELECTION Friends from the media, good morning and thank you for honouring our invitation despite the short notice. We intend to make this press briefing a short one. Its an urgent one which is to protect and safeguard the fundamental human right of the people Kusaug such as the right to vote as enshrined in Chapter 7, Article 42 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana. Indeed we are threatened that our right to vote is under attack by the decision of the electoral commission to compile a new register of voters. We shall proceed to deal with very critical issues of this press briefing. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we deem it a duty to add our voices to several calls from political parties, civil society organisations, traditional authorities, the Christian council, the Muslim community, the national house of chiefs, security experts and several other political groupings to the electoral commission to immediately halt its intended new voter registration exercise just five (5) months to general elections. We the coalition of concerned youth of all the ethnic groups in the Kusaug Kingdom from the six districts namely: Bawku Municipal, Garu District, Binduri District, Tempane District, Pusiga District and Bawku West District of the Upper East Region vehemently reject the compilation of a new voters register which we believe the idea is a time bomb. Consequently, we wish to make this statement, representing all like -minded youth in the Kusaug Kingdom. 1. We believe the timing is absolutely not good for the compilation of a new voters register. We are all aware we have only five (5) months to the 2020 parliamentary and presidential elections and we think it will be very difficult for the electoral commission to compile a credible register within this tight time frame. In 2012, the commission spent ten(10) days in each polling station for the registration of voters, huge potential registrants could not get their names captured on the electoral roll. This forced the electoral commission to extend the days for registration. Today the electoral commission is telling us they will spend only six days at each polling station which we think will not be enough to register all qualified voters. The compilation of a new voters register will therefore have serious repercussions on the peace we are currently enjoying in the Kusaug kingdom. 2. We are deeply concerned about the electoral commissions attempt to redefine citizenship in Ghana. This is evident by their non-acceptance of existing voter ID as a proof of citizenship but finds it convenient to place ones citizenship in the mouths of vouchers. This sounds so bizarre. 3. We also find it incomprehensible why the electoral commission is bent on accepting the Ghana Card and passport as sole requirements for registration but blatantly rejecting a birth certificate that gave legality to both documents. Indeed we think, it may take rocket science to understand this weird logic. We strongly believe it is a sure way to disenfranchise a lot of citizens in this part of the country. Over 70% of our brothers and sisters in this part of the country were unable to register for the Ghana card and 93.8% of those who registered were never issued with the card. Again, citizens who possess the Ghana passport in this part of the country are not up 0.1%. We believe vouching for people who do not have the passport or the NIA cards should be the last resort but not the norm. 4. From our previous experience with the limited registration exercise, we are deeply concerned about the safety of our people with the alarming rate at which Covid19 is gaining notoriety. We see this as a breeding ground for the spread of the virus in Kusaug Kingdom. We are all aware that, the current voters register was used last year to successfully elect about 6,600 district assembly members and about 33,000 unit committee members. The same register was used in 2016 to elect all the 275 Members of Parliament and the president. Why cant the Electoral Commission still use it for the sake of peace, fairness, and justice? 5. We have also noted with concerns the rising political tensions and the macho man attitude of the electoral commission towards this issue of a new register. Having experienced violent conflicts in this part of the country, we dare not fold our arms to see this country thrown into chaos. 6. Ladies and gentlemen, we submit that, the electoral commissions refusal to honour the invitation of the national house of chiefs in this regard, is completely uncalled for and recipe for disaster. Their inability to fully engage the political parties on a consensus building is defeating the purpose of a free, fair and transparent election. 7. Our stance is that, the current voters register is fit for purpose per the electoral commission own assessment. We entreat the electoral commission to as a matter of urgency abandon its injurious desire for a new register. OUR RECOMMENDATIONS The electoral Commission should: 1. exhibit the current electoral register for voters to verify their names and remove names of persons suspected dead. 2. conduct as soon as possible limited voter registration for individuals who turned 18 years after the last limited registration to add their names to the electoral roll. 3. act in a manner that foster trust from all political parties. 4. Restore the lost relevance of IPAC through its (electoral Commission) actions and inactions. This can be done by engaging political parties through IPAC 5. Immediately stop the pilot registration exercise as it clearly amounts to contempt of court. The matter is therefore in the court and the actions of the EC in this regard are clearly contemptuous and prejudicial. Conclusion We think the electoral commission is charting a dangerous path in their quest to compile a new voters register and if care is not taken they will plunge this peaceful and harmonious country into war. We, therefore, call on all well-meaning Ghanaians including the National Peace Council, Religious Bodies, the National House of Chiefs, Civil Society Organizations and all labour Unions to add their voices to avert the calamitous path the Electoral Commission led by Jean Mensa is leading us to. The electoral commission must be guarded by the fact that, its independence is not exercised in a vacuum, and its powers are subject to the constitution. The commission must also be reminded in a clear terms that, the right to vote is sacrosanct and entrenched and must be zealously protected not infringed upon. We shall protect the right of our people with every legitimate tool available. Thank you. Representative Name Organisation Contact Signature Alhaji Ibrahim Musah Bissa Youth 0242630833 James Abilla yahaya Bissa Youth 0246594816 Kude Sibido Samson Bissa Youth 0243044096 Kasim Ahmed Moshie Youth 0542113029 Sumaila Ibrahim Moshie Youth 0242235082 Osman Anabilla BONABOTO 0246295204 Alhaji Abdul Karim Akugri BONABOTO 0548065336 Bukari Francis Bimoba Youth 0246505671 Akudugu David Kusasi Youth 0247524945 Mussah Ibrahim Kusasi Youth 0243304315 Women cover up while driving on a street in Hanoi, May 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Tung Dinh. A heat wave melting Hanoi and northern provinces since May 31 is expected to become the longest to have hit the region in over two decades. High temperatures in northern provinces like Lang Son, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Ha Nam and Ninh Binh were recorded at 39 degrees Celsius on Monday while those in Hanoi and Hoa Binh reached 40 degrees Celsius, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting. The heat wave is forecast to linger until June 13 and may become the longest to have hit northern Vietnam since 1993. Nguyen Van Huong, head of the weather forecasting department at the center, said widespread heat waves since 1993 had only lasted five to seven days. The average temperatures in northern localities in the coming days are expected to reach 36 to 39 degrees Celsius. American forecast services provider AccuWeather said the temperature in Hanoi would reach 38 degrees Celsius and remains at 35-36 until this weekend. At 1 p.m. Monday, all monitoring stations recorded temperatures above 37 with a scorching hot sun. The highest is Lang area at 39, Ha Dong District at 38.5, Hoai Duc and Son Tay Districts at 38. The heat wave was caused by low-pressure areas from the west and the Foehn wind, a type of dry, warm and down-slope wind that occurs in the lee of a mountain range, Huong said. Experts have advised residents to avoid direct exposure to sunlight between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and to wear sunscreen, sunglasses and brimmed hats if venturing out under the sun. Central Vietnam has been impacted by similar scorching weather over the past 10 days. The heat is expected to continue in the region until June 16. It is quite common for a heat wave to last 17 to 18 days in central Vietnam. The most intense heat wave to have struck the region occurred in 2015, lasting for up to 39 days. The National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has warned of high risks of fire and explosion at local residential areas and forests due to the hot and dry weather. Vietnam has been going through scorching days since early May. On May 21, Hanoi's Ha Dong District experienced a record 40.9 degrees Celsius, the highest May temperature since 1961. On the same day, parts of Lao Cai, Hoa Binh and Ha Giang also recorded their highest May temperatures in decades. Last year, Vietnam went through possibly the hottest summer in history with average temperatures 0.5-1 degrees Celsius higher than previously, climbing to an average 39-42 degrees Celsius in many parts of the country. The nation broke its highest temperature record on April 20 as the mercury hit 43.4 degrees Celsius, or 110 degrees Fahrenheit, in Huong Khe District, Ha Tinh Province in central Vietnam. Big Brother fans have their eyes on contestant Chad Hurst. And on Tuesday, viewers could not help but share their admiration for the international model, 27, when he entered the house. One fan wrote on Twitter: 'Chad. Mega babe. Model. Tatts. Smile. Tradie. What more could you want?' 'What more could you want?' On Tuesday, Big Brother fans gushed over tattooed international model Chad Hurst when he entered the house Two fans shared the same sentiments and wrote: 'Chad is hot.' 'Of course he's a tradie, arent they all,' another said. 'Chad can just take his shirt off and melt the ice with his abs,' one commented in reference to the ice melting challenge. 'How has Chad not melted his ice already with his hotness? Must be the tattoos creating interference,' another added. Fans everywhere! Two fans shared the same sentiments and wrote: 'Chad is hot', while another said 'Of course he's a tradie, arent they all' Racy! Fans were overwhelmed with the roof contractor, who hails from Campbelltown, after his raunchy pictures where recently unearthed Fans were overwhelmed with the roof contractor, who hails from Campbelltown, after his raunchy pictures where recently unearthed. The heartthrob, who has over 100,000 Instagram followers, first boasted about appearing in Vogue Australia in his first promotional video for the reality show. As uncovered by TV Blackbox last month, Chad previously posed for a full frontal nude shoot, which can be described as anything but family-friendly. Chad stripped naked to pose for digital magazine Beautiful in 2013, when he was 21. Raunchy: As uncovered by TV Blackbox last month, Chad previously posed for a full frontal nude shoot, which can be described as anything but family-friendly. Chad stripped naked to pose for digital magazine Beautiful in 2013, when he was 21 In the X-rated photos, he is captured holding his private parts while reclining on a leather sofa. Some have speculated the picture leak may have been orchestrated by Seven or producers Endemol Shine Australia to build interest in the reality TV series, but this seems very unlikely. Mr McKnight continued: 'If he had been vetted properly I don't think he would be on the show. I hope they don't minimise him, I hope they don't edit him out.' After he was announced as a Big Brother housemate, many of the pictures were removed from the internet. Member of Parliament for the Afigya Sekyere East Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Hon Mavis Nkansah Boadu 09.06.2020 LISTEN The Member of Parliament for the Afigya Sekyere East Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Hon Mavis Nkansah Boadu, has charged Ghanaians and persons in authority to see the coronavirus pandemic as an invitation for the country to direct her effort and resources towards working at becoming self-reliant and self-sufficient in many sectors. According to her, Covid-19, just like the deadly Ebola and the many other pandemics that we have seen in recent times, will certainly pass and be buried in the annals of history. However, it has to be said that the biggest legacy that this pandemic has left with us, is that, it had made Ghana a self-reliant and self-sufficient country in many sectors of endeavor. She said, prior to the pandemic, a country like Ghana had been relying heavily on its leading trading partners particularly China, UK and US for imported goods and services. However, she noted that, the pandemic which has spread across the world, has led to a projected global recession with severe consequences on global economies, threatened food security and major disruption of global supply chains of good. And so, the country [Ghana] should seize this opportunity to direct its efforts towards becoming self-sufficient in order to assuage the otherwise debilitating impact of the pandemic on the countrys economy, she urged. Due to border restrictions and with global supply chain being disrupted owing to the pandemic, movement of goods and services have greatly been impacted. It has thus brought into focus the need for our country to work assiduously towards becoming self-sufficient and self-reliant, which also falls in line with the Presidents vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid. "Mr. Speaker, this pandemic should reignite a national conversation for a new economic paradigm in Ghana, from a regime of import dependency to a regime of productivity, import substitution and export promotion. The emergence of COVID has called for much attention to be placed on the revival of our local industries to boost production of import substitutes thereby making us a self-reliant country. This is to be achieved by rolling out conscious interventions to improve the productive capacity of local industries through the implementation of policies to help boost local production of goods by harnessing our vast natural resources such gold, cocoa, and coffee, among others, she underscored. Hon Mavis Nkansah Boadu made this call in a statement on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday June 3, 2020. She observed that the local industries have the wherewithal to rise to the occasion when it matters most, and this, they have demonstrated during this period of global health crisis. And so, she urged government and all stakeholders including the regulatory authorities to provide the needed incentives to make these local industries more buoyant. Mr. Speaker, the pandemic has demonstrated the vital role our private sector-led local industries could play if much attention and support is given to them. Also, as it stands now, we are depending largely on local industries for the production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), ventilators and alcohol-based hand sanitizers to help in the fight against the pandemic. Currently, we have also minimized the importation of foreign rice and increased the production of local rice as well as relying solely on local maize from our farmers. Did we need COVID to do these simple things for our own? I dont think so, she wondered. She concluded that, in the light of the excellent efforts and foreseeable success in Ghanas fight against Covid-19, we should be very optimistic and confident in our ability to transform our beloved Ghana, with the required focus, consistency and action, from a vulnerable- self insufficient and import-driven economy into a strong- self-sufficient- export driven economy. Member of Parliament for South Dayi and key member of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee Rockson-Nelson EK. Dafeamekpor has appealed to the Chief Justice, Justice Anim Yeboah to allow a televised broadcast of the voters register case between the NDC and the Electoral Commission currently at the Supreme Court. In a statement, the South Dayi MP said his appeal is due to the high public interest in the matter. He cites same Courts ruling sometime in April 2013 when a similar question arose. After long drawn out arguments, the Court agreed that the Election Petition be televised live. Atuguba JSC (as he then was) delivered the ruling of the Court and stated inter alia that elections in the country come with a lot of tension and acrimony and therefore it was proper for the proceedings to be telecast live on TV. Find below the full statement Press release 9/10/20120 THE SUPREME COURT MUST TELECAST LIVE NDC VRS. EC CASE In view of the high level of public interest in the above case before the Supreme Court, I am calling on the Chief Justice to order a Live Broadcast of proceedings in the matter in accordance with established principles and precedence. The outcome of this case before the Apex Court has far reaching ramifications for every Ghanaian. Having regard to the spirit that led to the live telecast of the 2012 Election Petition case in 2013 involving the current President and the Electoral Commission and HE. John Dramani Mahama, I will urge the Supreme Court (as presently constituted) to place the same interest and spirit in allowing the public to have a clear understanding of the legal proceedings that would lead to the final determination of this very important matter. Indeed, my call is in consonance with the same Court's ruling sometime in April 2013 when a similar question arose. After long drawn out arguments, the Court agreed that the Election Petition be televised live. Atuguba JSC (as he then was) delivered the ruling of the Court and stated inter alia that "elections in the country comes with a lot of tension and acrimony and therefore it was proper for the proceedings to be telecast live on TV". It will therefore be in the public interest, and would help in the publics appreciation of the issues in dispute and the adjudication process, for the proceedings to be telecast live. The general public has discussed this issue with varied interests on the matter. Understanding that various discussants have their unique appreciation of the matter, and having understanding of the Courts ability to look critically into the matter and to make a determination that reflects the collective interest of the general public, I believe carrying the public along from beginning to the end of this matter in a live telecast, would take away any form of doubts that some individuals may hold. This matter is simply too critical to be heard at the blind side of the people. I believe that the Court is well equipped with the necessary protocols to handle this matter in the clear view of the media without prejudice. I call on the Chief Justice to consider this and to make the needed efforts aimed at allowing the public the opportunity to be part of this adjudication process. Signed: Rockson-Nelson EK. Dafeamekpor, Esq. MP: South Dayi Member: Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, and the Judiciary Committees of Parliament of Ghana. By PTI WASHINGTON: The family members of five Indian-American couples having Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) Card have alleged that they were subjected to "harassment" by immigration authorities on their arrival at the Mumbai airport from the US. The five couples arrived at the Mumbai airport on Monday as part of India's Vande Bharat Mission, the biggest exercise carried out by the Indian government to repatriate stranded citizens from overseas amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain categories of those having Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards are allowed to travel to India during the travel restrictions owing to the pandemic. The OCI card is issued to people of Indian-origin, allowing them visa-free travel in most of the cases. Immediate family members of these OCI cardholders, on the conditions of anonymity, alleged that they were subject to harassment by immigration authorities at the Mumbai airport for seven hours after they landed from New York. An official told them they are probably not going to be allowed into the country and that the (Indian) consulate in the US has no authority, alleged a family member of one of these OCI cardholders. Why are they doing this? After a gruelling flight and being separated from home for so long. Not to mention the additional risk of staying at the airport for longer than necessary, the family member said. The stranded OCI cardholders at the Mumbai airport alleged that during the seven hours at the airport, they were not allowed to take any water or food. In the first phase of the Vande Bharat Mission, the Indian Government had allowed repatriation of only Indian citizens. It is only recently that the government made necessary changes in the rules to allow certain categories of OCI cardholders. Passengers of the Vande Bharat Mission are cleared by the Indian Embassy and its Consulates here only after proper screening of their documents and travel documents. It's shocking that OCI cardholders are being treated like this by Indian officials, said New York-based social activist Prem Bhandari, who is also chairman of the Jaipur Foot USA. After speaking to the family members of these OCI cardholders in the US, Bhandari said he has taken up the matter with officials in Mumbai and New Delhi, including the Civil Aviation Secretary, who has assured him to do the needful. However, the query sent to Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on the matter remained unanswered. They (OCI cardholders) were told that they do not meet the criteria to travel to India, he said. Bhandari, who has been taking up the case of OCI cardholders and issues related to Indian diaspora for years now rued that some of the key decisions being taken by the Indian government during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic have come as a big disappointment to the large diaspora community across the world. These decisions give them the feeling the government no longer considers them as part of mother India. This is the promise that has been given to us by successive prime ministers from late Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said. He also urged the Indian government to allow Indian nationals stranded in the US to travel to India with their non-Indian children. It's not their fault that their kids were born in the US while they were either studying or working in the US, he said. Unlike many countries, the US gives citizenship by birth. Many of the Indian couples have three to six-month-old babies. Many of them have lost their jobs. But they are denied to travel back home along with their minor kids, Bhandari said. Like any crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to rethink how we do things. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Like any crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to rethink how we do things. As we near the 100-day mark since the pandemic was declared, one area getting a significant attention is the workplace, where a window is opening for good ideas to move from the fringes to the mainstream. For example, when millions more Canadians started working from home, many businesses were forced to experiment with telecommuting. Interestingly, many now say theyll continue after the pandemic passes, because it benefits employers and employees alike. Another idea, less widely tested than telecommuting, is generating buzz: the four-day work week. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern raised the possibility of a shortened work week as a way to divvy up jobs, encourage local tourism, help with work-life balance and increase productivity. As a sociologist who teaches about work and wrote a book about productivity, I believe shes right. Not a compressed schedule A four-day work week must not be confused with a compressed schedule that has workers squeeze 37.5 to 40 hours of work into four days instead of five. For reasons that should be clearer below, that wont help us now. A true four-day work week entails full-timers clocking about 30 hours instead of 40. There are many reasons why this is appealing today: families are struggling to cover child care in the absence of daycares and schools; workplaces are trying to reduce the number of employees congregating in offices each day; and millions of people have lost their jobs. A shorter work week could allow parents to cobble together child care, allow workplaces to stagger attendance and, theoretically, allow the available work to be divided among more people who need employment. The most progressive shorter work week entails no salary reductions. This sounds crazy, but it rests on peer-reviewed research into shorter work weeks, which finds workers can be as productive in 30 hours as they are in 40, because they waste less time and are better-rested. Shorter work weeks reduce the number of sick days taken, and on their extra day off, employees dont use the offices toilet paper or utilities, reducing their employers costs. Therefore, while it is counter-intuitive, its possible for people to work less at the same salary while improving their employers bottom line. That people might have to spend more of their own money on toilet paper is a concession most workers would probably accept. The same body of research also has more predictable findings: people like working less. Entrenched morality of work If it makes this much sense, why dont we have a four-day week already? It turns out this question is more than 150 years old. Some of the answer pertains to the logistics involved in transforming our whole system of work, thats not the entire answer. After all, the work week has been reduced before, so it can technically be done again. The rest of the reason is rooted in capitalism and class struggle. Thinkers from Paul Lafargue ("The Right to Be Lazy," first published in 1883) to Bertrand Russell ("In Praise of Idleness," from 1932) and Kathi Weeks ("The Problem with Work," from 2012) have concluded we resist worktime reductions in the face of supportive evidence and our own desires for more leisure because of the entrenched morality of work and the resistance on the part of "the rich" to "the idea that the poor should have leisure," in Russells words. We are extremely attached to the idea that hard work is virtuous, idle hands are dangerous and people with more free time cant be trusted. Four-day work weeks floated in the 1930s Nobody is suggesting evil governments conspire with evil bosses to keep powerless people busy. As historian Benjamin Hunnicutt has shown, there was significant interest in shorter work hours in the 1920s and '30s, when the 30-hour week was touted as a way to "share" the work among the Great Depressions unemployed and underemployed citizens. 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. Even industrialists W. K. Kellogg and Henry Ford supported a six-hour day because they believed more rest would make for more productive workers. But Hunnicutts research in Work Without End reveals that some employers cut wages when they cut work hours, and when employees fought back, they dropped their demands for shorter work hours and focused instead on wage increases. In the complex push and pull of capitalism, eventually even the New Deal, which influenced policy and discourse in Canada, shifted away from its early demands for more leisure toward demands for more work. Its quite possible we will do the same in our COVID-19 moment, and beg to be put back to work five days a week when this is all over. But we have new reasons for considering shorter work weeks, and they might be more widely persuasive. It is also possible that we have finally given up on the false promise that working longer will translate into better lives. The four-day work week could be another wild idea that makes it through the pandemics open policy window. Karen Foster is an associate professor of sociology and social anthropology and Canada Research Chair in sustainable rural futures for Atlantic Canada at Dalhousie University. This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca. CHICAGO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CNA today announced that the Company's Executive Vice President, International, David Brosnan, will retire effective September 1, 2020. "Dave has been instrumental in developing strong talent with deep specialization and led significant changes to position CNA's International operations for sustained profitability," said Dino E. Robusto, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, CNA. "Dave has also contributed meaningfully to the broader strategy of the company as a senior executive of the leadership team. I wish him great happiness in his retirement after a highly successful insurance career that spanned more than three decades." Upon Brosnan's retirement and subject to regulatory approval, Jalil Rehman, currently the Chief Operating Officer, will assume the role of President & CEO for UK & Europe, and will report to Robusto. Rehman joined CNA in 2018 with nearly 30 years of progressively more senior insurance roles at Chubb, including International Claims Officer and Chief Business Operations Officer. "The breadth of Jalil's insurance expertise, coupled with his partnership with Dave to optimize our International operations since he arrived, prepares him for great success in this transition," Robusto added. Additionally, upon Brosnan's retirement, Nick Creatura, President & CEO for Canada, will also join CNA's executive leadership team, and will report to Robusto. Creatura joined CNA in May 2017 as the leader of CNA's Canadian operations. About CNA CNA is one of the largest U.S. commercial property and casualty insurance companies. CNA provides a broad range of standard and specialized property and casualty insurance products and services for businesses and professionals in the U.S., Canada and Europe, backed by 120 years of experience and more than $45 billion of assets. For more information about CNA, visit our website at www.cna.com. Follow CNA (NYSE: CNA) on: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube Press Contacts Brandon Davis CNA [email protected] 312-822-5885 CNA Newsroom [email protected] 312-822-5167 SOURCE CNA Related Links http://www.cna.com Last week in Richmond, Virginia, protesters scrawled on a monument of Confederate army commander Robert E. Lee as an act of resistance against police brutality and racism, including Black Lives Matter and Blood On Your Hands in mostly red spray paint. The 12-ton monument of Lee, present on Monument Avenue for 130 years, now looks like the Berlin Wall in 1989 covered in messages. The renewed outrage over its existence, in the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, has led to its imminent removal, as stated in a story by The Guardian. Richmonds mayor Levar Stoney has agreed to take down the Lee statue, and other city-controlled Confederate monuments, by 1 July. Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy, Stoney said in a statement. It is filled with diversity and love for all, and we need to demonstrate that. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam agrees with Stoney. But Mayor Stoney might have to wait a bit, because according to a report by CNN, a judge in Richmond has temporarily blocked the removal of the Lee statue. The county circuit judge on Monday granted a 10-day injunction sought by Virginia resident William C. Gregory. In his complaint filed Monday, Gregory argues that removal of the statue violates a 1890 deed, in which Virginia agreed to "faithfully guard and affectionately protect it." Gregory is identified as the great-grandson of two parties and signatories to the deed. A spokesperson for Gov. Northam said the administration was reviewing the order, but Northam has said the statue of Lee would come down "immediately." Although a number of Confederate monuments across America were torn down in 2017 after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, many still remain. But a bigger tide appears to be turning. In Fredericksburg, also in Virginia, a slave auction block from a downtown street corner was removed on Friday, while a statue of former Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo, a segregationist and former police chief, was also taken down June 3 near Phillys City Hall. On June 2 in Birmingham, Alabama, the Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument stone pillar was removed from Linn Park, and a monument to Confederate soldiers titled Appomattox was taken down last week in Alexandria, Virginia. An online petition is calling for the removal of four Confederate statues in Georgia including one of John B. Gordon, a leader with the Ku Klux Klan. The fact that these are coming down . . . I never thought I was going to see this in my lifetime, said Sarah Beetham, an art history professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Its a big turning point, so we will probably see the acceleration of monuments being taken down, much faster. A map of Confederate monuments and symbols across the country shows the remaining number of Confederate markers. You can also search for removed symbols. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are approximately 1,800 Confederate symbols across the United States, 776 are monuments. So far, 141 Confederate symbols have been removed across the country, 61 of which were monuments. There are going to be places where its not going to happen, like in Mississippi, where not one has been taken down, added Karen L. Cox, a historian on Confederate monuments. Relocating monuments from public areas to cemeteries is also a possibility. When the statues are on court lawns or statehouse lawns where laws are made, it sends a message that you will not get justice in these places, said Cox. Many pedestals could be left empty (if not removed), making space for new kinds of monuments, including those promoting social justice. Recently, a fence outside the White House in Washington D.C. has become a makeshift memorial wall, covered in tributes to the black men and women who have died from police brutality. 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. Read more: Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:07:12|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LUSAKA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Zambia has begun the process of ascertaining and quantifying the country's natural capital wealth in various sectors, a government official said on Tuesday. The government believes that ascertaining and quantifying the country's natural capital wealth in tourism, land, forest and other sectors was important in planning for the country's economic growth and ensuring sustainable development. Chola Chabala, Ministry of National Development Planning Permanent Secretary said Zambia relies on natural capital and human capital for income generation hence the importance of recognizing the value of natural capital and appropriately manage it. He said during a meeting on the development of natural capital accounts organized in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that the government has been coordinating the implementation of the wealth accounting and valuation of ecosystem services with the assistance of the World Bank and in collaboration with other stakeholders. According to him, the information from the accounts will greatly contribute to measuring how Zambia has gone in attaining sustainable development goals. The data collected would also be useful to the private sector in making investment decisions, climate change interventions, community resource management and poverty reduction strategies. WWF Zambia Country Director Nachilala Nkombo assured of her organization's continued close collaboration with the government in the protection of the environment and other sectors for the benefit of the people. She said natural capital accounting will reveal the full economic value of natural resources in Zambia, enhance economy-wide and landscape-level decisions making by providing rich information on natural capital stocks and ecosystem. "We appeal to the government to fully utilize the natural capital accounting outputs to guide policy and investments decisions to attain our Sustainable Development Goals ambitions while conserving our natural resources that our people depend on," she said. Enditem Hanoi discussing investment attraction at its January review meeting Themed "Hanoi 2020 Investment Co-operation and Development", the event is scheduled to attract over 1,000 domestic and international businesses, as well as government leaders and international organisations. As part of the meeting, Hanoi will provide an update on its socio-economic development and FDI attraction performance between 2016 and 2019, as well as its FDI attraction orientations in 2020 and the coming years. As planned, the capital city will grant investment certificates and a number of memoranda of understanding (MoUs) to investors at the meeting. Potential projects focus on industry clusters, industrial parks, outlets, new urban areas, and waste treatment systems, among others. Through the meeting, Hanoi showcases its strong determination to be a pioneer in economic recovery and development post-COVID-19, as well as to strengthen administrative reform to improve the business climate, and spur economic growth, thus enabling the city to achieve the target of 1.3 times the country's average economic growth in 2020. Hanoi has been among the top five investment destinations for foreign financiers. According to statistics from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in 2019, Hanoi took the lead among the countrys most attractive investment spots with total registered FDI of $8.45 billion. In the first five months of 2020, Hanoi ranks the fourth with total registered capital of over $1.6 billion. SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AP) A defense lawyer for a suspect in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine nearly six years ago said Monday that coronavirus restrictions have seriously hampered efforts to prepare the case. Sabine ten Doesschate, a Dutch lawyer representing Russian suspect Oleg Pulatov, said flight bans and other restrictions linked to the pandemic have had a major impact on attempts to build a defense case, including preventing lawyers from flying to Russia to interview their client. She said that meant defense lawyers aren't yet ready to make preliminary objections such as challenging the Dutch court's jurisdiction in the case. Ten Doesschate spoke as the trial resumed for three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with involvement in shooting down the Boeing 777 that was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014. Judges and prosecutors didn't immediately respond to the defense claims, which could lead to long delays in the trial that began on March 9. Coronavirus social distancing measures were in place in the courtroom, with judges and prosecutors separated from one another by glass screens. All 298 passengers and crew were killed when a Buk missile fired from territory controlled by pro-Moscow separatist rebels blew the Malaysian passenger jet out of the sky. None of the suspects have been handed over to face justice and none were present in a courtroom near the Dutch airport from which the doomed flight took off. The trial is taking place in the Netherlands because nearly 200 of the victims were Dutch citizens. After Ten Doesschate spoke, prosecutors began giving judges an overview of the lengthy and painstaking international investigation into the downing of MH17. They described extensive forensic tests on wreckage of the plane recovered in Ukraine and on the bodies of victims, as well as tests with missiles in 2016 that led to the prosecutors' conclusion that a Buk missile fired from rebel-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine brought down the plane. Story continues Prosecutor Dedy Woei-a-Tsoi also outlined investigations into tapped phone conversations and other telecom data. She also described the process of finding and interviewing protected, anonymous witnesses and assessing their reliability. Pulatov is the only defendant who has lawyers representing him in the trial, which is expected to last at least into next year. His Dutch attorneys say Pulatov insists he is innocent. The three other suspects are Russians Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko. More suspects could face charges in the future as an international team of investigators continues its long-running probe. Prosecutors allege the four men on trial were involved in deploying the missile, which prosecutors say was driven into Ukraine from a Russian military base. Russia has consistently denied any involvement in the downing of the flight known as MH17 and has criticized the international investigation. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Joe Jackson and Charlotte Durand (Agence France-Presse) Heathrow, United Kingdom Tue, June 9, 2020 08:15 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd2366d 2 World UK,Britain,coronavirus,coronavirus-restrictions,COVID-19,COVID-19-quarantine,arrivals,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free At London's Heathrow Airport, largely deserted due to the slump in aviation during the coronavirus pandemic, passengers arriving Monday brought mixed views over Britain's new 14-day quarantine rules. As a steady stream of travellers -- the first to experience the policy -- emerged into Terminal Two's lofty international arrivals hall, they described disorganized scenes at immigration as people struggled with the new bureaucracy. Some questioned its need while others doubted UK officials' ability to enforce the new two-week stay-at-home order for arrivals by air, sea and land, barring some exemptions including those coming from Ireland. "I just think it's a bonkers idea," said a masked 52-year-old Dutch lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous, returning from a week-long trip to see his wife in Amsterdam. "More people are ill and dying in the UK. Probably Europe should be protected from us. It's the law, you have to obey. But sometimes the law doesn't make sense," he told AFP. Sandra Gibson, 49, arriving back in Britain after three months in New York, said she would spend a week isolating before deciding whether to complete the full 14 days. "I'm ready to go out now! I don't think they're going to check it rigorously," she said, after completing a trans-Atlantic flight via Amsterdam. Heathrow, normally Europe's busiest airport, has shuttered three of its five terminals due to minimal demand since Britain advised against all foreign travel and ordered a nationwide lockdown in late March. However, the government did not follow various countries, such as the United States, by introducing restrictions on incoming travel, citing scientific advice that its impact would be minimal. Britain has since registered the world's second highest death toll from the virus -- more than 40,000 in total, second only to the US -- but has now reduced its transmission rate dramatically. That has prompted the government to insist now is the time for quarantine to prevent a spike in infections, pledging to review the measures every three weeks. 'It makes no sense' On Monday, flights were still arriving at Heathrow from numerous destinations, such as Miami, Atlanta and Toronto in North America and Rome, Hamburg and Helsinki in Europe. Some arriving were more supportive of the new policy, which could see fines of up to 1,000 ($1,270, 1,120 euros) issued for non-compliance. "It should have been done sooner," said Wendy Gordon, 67, from the West Midlands region of England, returning after getting stuck in Florida as the US locked down due to the virus. But as she waited to be collected by her husband, Gordon conceded the policy could prove problematic for many people, including business travellers or tourists. "It's alright for me, I'm retired. I'll just go home and sit. But I can appreciate there [are] major problems," she said. Meanwhile at the Eurostar terminal at London's St Pancras station, also eerily deserted, those arriving from the continent were similarly divided about quarantine's value. Sylvain Preumont, 50, a business manager based in London who makes the round-trip from Paris weekly, said as a frequent traveller he was exempt but that he was no fan of the policy. "It makes no sense," he said. "This measure was invented to reassure people... to please them, and then we realize that it is not feasible." However, Fatima Camara, 31, an engineer planning to stay with friends for the 14 days said it was not "a bad idea". "Especially since the borders have been open, and people have been able to move around," she added while waiting for her taxi with a friend. "If we are responsible, we protect ourselves and others." The Congress request to hold an event for the swearing-in ceremony for its new Karnataka president, DK Shivakumar, was rejected for the second time by the state government citing lockdown rules. The rules, as stated by the ministry of home affairs, do not allow the assembly of people for political purposes. The Congress had sought permission to hold the event on June 14. After the defeat of a number of Congress nominees in the bypolls to 15 seats in December last year, the then Karnataka Pradesh Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao had resigned taking moral responsibility. On March 11, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had announced that DK Shivakumar, the partys main troubleshooter in the state, will be the next state president. A grand swearing-in ceremony was also planned at the end of March, but with a nationwide lockdown announced on March 24 the event had to be postponed. Since then, DK Shivakumar has written twice to the state government seeking permission to hold an event for him to formally take over the office, but his plea has been rejected on both occasions. Only weddings with not more than 50 guests or funerals with not more than 20 people are allowed to take place. A miffed Shivakumar claimed that it was vendetta politics by the BJP government. The KPCC also in a tweet said that the party had sought permission for June 14 to hold a Prathijn Dina (oath day) across 7,800 locations in Karnataka with 10 lakh plus Congress Karyakartas attending it, observing safety precautions for Covid-19 and maintaining social distancing. By denying permission again, the BJP government is indulging in vendetta politics, it claimed. The BJP refused to comment on the matter, with a spokesperson saying it is a government decision keeping the law of the land in mind and that the party had nothing to do with it. Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr. June 9, 2020 Dear Fellow Americans (of African descent): I write to you with great concern for the future of our country and the black community. Like most Americans, I too am angry over the killing of George Floyd. His death was a monstrous act, and former police officer Derek Chauvin deserves to have the full weight of the law brought against him. If the video we witnessed is accurate, Mr. Chauvin must be imprisoned for a long time. However, my sadness reaches well beyond this single tragedy. The riots, looting and violence which have occurred in cities across the country will not reform, heal, unify or improve the lives and safety of black Americans. In fact, these actions are radically regressive and self-destructive. Black businesses are burned down, the owners are assaulted and essential grocery stores and pharmacies are destroyed. Cops and innocent bystanders are victimized and killed. The irony is that the victims are primarily those for whom the rioters claim to be seeking justice. History teaches us that communities wracked by riots and looting do not recover easily, if at all. They tend to become more impoverished and dangerous than they were before the upheaval. The Proverb says, "where there is no vision, the people perish." The last time curfews were necessary to quell violence across the country was fifty-two years ago in 1968. A half a century later, we face the same destructive reaction to racial grievance. It will not lead to one black child getting a better education. Not one black worker will get a better job, and not one inner city family will live in a safer community. If police departments are defunded, as Black Lives Matter is demanding, look for an outbreak of crime and violence in the inner city like nothing we have ever witnessed before. The purpose of peaceful protests should be to secure a better life for those trapped by inner-city violence, drugs, gangs, and lack of educational and economic opportunity. If we are having the same violent protests over the same issues with the same negative consequences as 50 years ago, something is wrong with our approach. There is a way out of this vicious cycle, but it is hard medicine. Black citizens must stop voting for a political party that espouses nothing more than racial demagoguery. Al Sharpton, a proven charlatan with zero credibility, is trotted out to speak for the victims. No solutions are offered and no long term progress is ever made. Social and racial justice are popular slogans, but they are not a strategy for improving the lives of people. Education has been used to uplift every demographic group that has come to America. However, inner city children whose ancestors are among the earliest to arrive on this continent, are trapped in failing schools. Educational choice offers a real solution, but black Democratic politicians block it at every turn. They send their children to the finest schools available while leaving the children of their constituents trapped in dead-end institutions. Their betrayal doesn't end with education. These black politicians go to church every Sunday, and some of them are pastors. Yet they disregard the sin of abortion and its impact on the black community. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was a rabid racist who admired Adolph Hitler and consorted with the Ku Klux Klan. She would have liked to exterminate black people, but satisfied herself with suppressing the growth of the black population through abortion. When eugenics proved unmarketable, she changed her brand to "planned parenthood" which sounds benign unless you know the truth. With the full cooperation of many black leaders, Sanger's genocide against the black community continues to this day. Finally, the single greatest social problem facing the black community is the destruction of the nuclear family. The out-of-wedlock birth rate has exploded to 72%. In some cities such as Richmond, Virginia it is 80%. The young men, born to single mothers, unwanted by their fathers, grow up with anger and abandonment issues. Desperately wanting to be wanted, they are easy recruits into a brotherhood of gangs, crime and violence. The streets are an outlet for their anger. Leftists complain that the criminal justice system tracks young black men from the school house to the jail house. But the "progressive" welfare policies of the Democrat Party put them on that track. Instead of encouraging stable, two-parent families, they incentivize single, female-headed households. They've been doing this since the 1960s, with horrific results. Where is the plan for reversing the crisis of these communities? Where is the vision for a better future? Democratic leaders have led the black community to the brink of destruction with no hope for a better life. The black Democrat elites on the other hand experience the best America has to offer while leaving their fellow black citizens utterly hopeless. Living posh lives, these so called black leaders and their white leftist counterparts tell black voters to hate and fear Donald Trump because he is their problem. He is the enemy. His rhetoric does at times make it easy for them to mischaracterize him. Nevertheless, Donald Trump has accomplished some remarkable things to benefit the black community. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's) have faced financial hardship for decades, and he is the first president to provide a permanent funding solution. He established Opportunity Zones for the inner cities to help spur economic development. He presided over an economy that saw the lowest unemployment rates ever for black and Hispanic Americans. He shepherded the Criminal Justice Reform Bill through Congress, correcting the legacy of the Clinton era overreaction to the crack cocaine epidemic. President Trump is actually doing something about the problems the black community faces while Democrats do nothing. Democrats hope that if they can keep black voters fixated on hating Donald Trump and the boogey man of racism, they won't notice that the leaders they elected and the party they support are doing nothing. The voters won't notice that over 7000 young black people die in inner city violence every year. They won't notice the failing schools or the dropout rates. They won't notice the continuing decimation of the nuclear family, once the bedrock of the black community. The black Democrat politicians do not want black voters to notice that they are enriching themselves with blood money from Planned Parenthood. That organization kills around 400,000 black babies every year. The black population would be double what it is today were it not for the abortion industry and the Democrats they pay to keep quiet about the genocide. It is time for black citizens to turn away from such corrupt leaders. It is time to denounce the rioting, violence and the anti-Christian philosophy of the Democratic Party which is only destroying black people. We must come together with other citizens around a vision for the future of our community and our country that is rooted and grounded in faith. We've come this far by faith, but Democrats would have us burn the bridge that brought us over. That is suicide. As America goes, so goes the black community. Black veterans fought under the same American Flag and took the same oath to the Constitution. While they did not always receive the respect and gratitude they were due, it is nonetheless true that no people of African heritage anywhere on earth are more free or better off than we who are blessed to be Americans. America is still the last best hope for all of us, regardless of race. We cannot change the past. However, we can change the future. It is time to come together across all racial and cultural lines to renew the American vision of "one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all." It is within our grasp if we do not allow the radical elements among us to destroy it forever. We are at the precipice. There are those who would like to push us over the cliff into chaos. They think they will be there to pick up the pieces and create a socialist utopia, but history proves it will be a totalitarian nightmare. Let us, as free black Americans, pull back from the precipice, push back against the anarchists and embrace the legacy of freedom, justice and hope for ourselves and the generations to follow. Restoring America's Vision, Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr. A central minister questioned the Kerala governments decision to open places of worship, eliciting a sharp response from the state minister, who then advised the former to check with the home ministry guidelines. V Muraleedharan, minister of state for external affairs, termed the Kerala governments move to open shrines hasty, adding the move will endanger lives of devotees. Hitting back, Kadakampally Surendran, state temple affairs minister, asked Muraleedharan to seek answers from home minister Amit Shah, whose ministry gave directions to this effect. It is sad the minister has no idea about decisions being taken by his government in Delhi. It is good for him to do some homework before attacking the state government. He is using all opportunities to portray the state in a bad light, said Surendran, adding the state opened all shrines as per the directive of the Central government. Unveiling the graded exit plan under Unlock 1, the central government had allowed reopening of places of worship for devotees, malls and restaurants from June 8 across the country. They have been shut since March 25, when the lockdown was first imposed to stem the spread of the disease. Earlier, the union minister tweeted against the move, saying it will invite more trouble for the devotees. Its [Keralas] decision to open temples despite opposition from devotees seems suspicious - neither devotees nor temple committees demanded the opening of shrines, he tweeted, adding, What is the haste? Is this a deliberate attempt by the atheist government to denigrate devotees?. This is not the first time that the Union minister has attacked the state government, earlier he had locked horns with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the evacuation of expatriates from the middle-eastern countries. Amid the verbal sparring, malls and restaurants opened in the state. Various temples under the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) opened on Tuesday along with some churches and mosques in parts of the state. While the famous Lord Krishna temple at Guruvayoor opened its doors by following the stipulated norms laid down by the government, the Sree Padmanabha Swamy and Attukkal temples in the state capital were among those which remained shut. The Viswa Hindu Parishad, Hindu Aikya Vedi and many outfits have asked devotees to wait for some more time. Meanwhile, the state has reported 91 fresh cases taking the total to 2,096. Out of these, 53 are expatriates, 27 came from other states and 10 infected from primary contacts. The state has reported 17 deaths so far, said state health minister KK Shailajas office. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 07:36:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) are launching a 120-day pilot program to help reduce the availability of unapproved opioids illegally offered for sale online, according to an FDA release on Monday. Under the program, the FDA will notify Internet registries when the agency sends a warning letter to a website operator and the website operator does not respond adequately within the required timeframe. The Internet registries will review the FDA's notifications and assess whether to take further voluntary action, including possible domain name suspensions or blocks. "Cooperation between the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Commerce, with the addition of the pilot program, will help stop the online sale of illicit opioids and combat our country's deadly addiction crisis," said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. At the end of the program, the agencies will analyze its effectiveness as a potential solution to dealing with the illegal sale of unapproved opioids online, according to the release. Enditem According to intelligence data, three members of Russia-led forces were killed on June 8. Russia's hybrid military forces on June 8 mounted 11 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 11 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 9. "As a result, one Ukrainian serviceman was wounded in enemy shelling." Russian-led forces opened fire, employing proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, as well as grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and small arms. Read alsoDonbas children deployed as weapons in Russia's hybrid warfare against Ukraine, rights watchdog warns Under attack came Ukrainian positions near the town of Maryinka, and the villages of Novotroyitske, Vodiane, Bohdanivka, Orikhove, Novoluhanske, Novo-Oleksandrivka, Khutir Vilny, and Travneve. Joint Forces returned fire to each enemy attack. According to intelligence data, three members of Russia-led forces were killed in action on June 8. "Since Tuesday midnight, Russia-led forces have engaged Ukrainian positions four times near Maryinka, and the villages of Orikhove, Novoluhanske and Shumy, using 120mm mortars and heavy machine guns," the update said. No casualties were reported from day-start on Tuesday CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A lawyer for the union that represents rank-and-file Cleveland police officers on Tuesday committed to helping implement any reforms that may come in response to widespread national calls to revamp policing. Speaking on a virtual panel hosted by the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Cleveland Police Patrolmens Association attorney Joseph Delguyd largely defended the current practice in place to investigate police officers accused of wrongdoing. He also denied an allegation that the department suffered from a culture of white supremacy. When Kareem Henton, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Cleveland, said that he felt that the time was ripe for more substantive changes following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and heavy-handed police responses to marches and demonstrations, Delguyd said the union would be happy to help. If there is change coming and we can be part of that change, wed like to be, Delguyd said. The pledge came during an hour-long panel discussion about police accountability and reforms that the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association hosted via the video messaging app Zoom. The association also broadcast the discussion on its Facebook Live page. Protect the good, root out the bad Henton identified several changes he said the department must make to restore the publics confidence. The Office of Professional Standards and the Civilian Review Board, which investigate and recommends discipline based upon complaints from the public about an officers behavior, needs to be more transparent and have more teeth, Henton said. The chief of police and safety director can override the recommendations of the board, which consists of members who are appointed by the mayor and city council. Henton also criticized the city for its dismal reputation of fulfilling public records requests related to the investigations into citizens complaints. Henton also said that he identifies good police officers as ones that are willing to report their fellow officers when they witness wrongdoing. He said the department must ensure the public that it will protect those officers, and not force them out. Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association President Ian Friedman, who moderated the discussion, asked Delguyd if there is a rule for police officers that is similar to the code of professional conduct for lawyers that requires them to report unethical behavior of attorneys. The department has a general police order that requires officers to report to a supervisor if they see a fellow officer engage in conduct that is unbecoming of a police officer, he said. Union made He also minced no words about the police unions current and former presidents, Jeff Follmer and Steve Loomis. During his two terms as union president, Loomis built a reputation for making controversial statements, including criticizing the family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice after the boy had been shot and killed by now-former patrolman Timothy Loehmann. Follmer has taken a less-abrasive public relations approach than Loomis, but Henton criticized his statements in April after off-duty patrolman Jose Garcia shot and killed Desmond Franklin. Follmer accused Franklin and a teenager who was with him at the time of committing a criminal act and denied the accusations from attorneys representing Franklins family that Garcia used a racial slur before the shooting. Henton said the unions full-throated and unconditional backing of police officers stands in the way of reform and that the union is complicit in the aggressive police culture that exists. Henton also pointed to the mere existence of the Black Shield, the union that represents black police officers, as evidence that black officers have not felt that the broader patrolmens association union always represented their interests equally as their white counterparts. We want that mythical Officer Friendly that black people never knew Henton also explained that the movement to de-fund the police does not seek to eliminate police departments. Instead, he said it means taking the money that used to outfit local police departments with militaristic gear and instead devote it to services to address poverty, mental health and drug addiction issues that are often contributors to crime. That would include having unarmed mental health professionals, instead of police officers, respond when people are in the throes of a mental health crisis, Henton said. Addressing the underlying issues that often contribute to crime would correlate to a reduced crime rate, which would lead to a need for fewer police officers. We talk about taking police out of the situations that they shouldnt be in, Henton said. It allows us to start to rethink policing. In that case, the officers that are left could focus more on conflict resolution and mediation rather than aggressive policing. We want that mythical Officer Friendly that black people never knew, but whites in middle-class and affluent neighborhoods back in the day knew, Henton said. I think we can get to that if we lessen the burden on law enforcement and we revamp how law enforcement is done. Henton said if the department committed to wide-scale reforms, he would be hesitant to keep a single officer currently in the department. He said he had heard from family members of some police recruits who said the veteran training officers used code words and racial slurs to describe people of color. We dont need the old-school ones that just exude that negative culture, he said. Im all for getting rid of them all, but I know that is not a pragmatic approach. We just have to create new training, root out the worst of the worst, and maybe eventually we could get there. Delguyd responded by saying that 95 percent of the officers on the force are good officers, and they do a dangerous job for not a lot of money. Theyre virtually de-funded in terms of their salary as it is, he said. What happened to George Floyd wont happen in Cleveland, Ohio, attorneys says Delguyd, a former assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor who has been the unions attorney for less than three years, acknowledged that there are probably a few bad police officers in the unions ranks. But Delguyd largely defended the process in place to hold officers accountable and said that body cameras -- of which he said he is a big proponent -- put officers under constant scrutiny. He said it was an improvement that there has not been a notable instance of police brutality or a police-involved killing since he began representing the union, though people commenting in the Zoom broadcast pointed to Franklins death. What happened with this guy in Minnesota, that wont happen in Cleveland, Ohio, Delguyd said. Too many checks and balances, too many good people working, too many good people supervising. White people do not run the Cleveland police department' Henton and Delguyd remained largely civil during the discussion, but the two did spar when Henton said that the police department is largely white dominated. Delguyd interrupted Henton and pointed out that Chief Calvin Williams is black, and two of four deputy chiefs are black. White people do not run the Cleveland police department, Delguyd said. Henton then went on to say that he was talking about a culture of white supremacy existing within the rank-and-file officers, and Delguyd began to interrupt Henton again but stopped. Henton went on to point out that Michael McGrath, the citys safety director who preceded Williams as chief, is white, and the majority of patrolmen in the union are white. You dont just install a black police chief and think things are going to get better, Henton continued. Theres a culture that exists that has and will continue to protect them. Delguyd rejected that notion. I think Calvin Williams would disagree with you, Delguyd said. Read more stories Gov. Mike DeWine orders plans for new standards on how police respond to mass protests Cuyahoga County public defenders carry signs made by jailed teenagers during march to support Black Lives Matter protests Ohio AG Dave Yost to seek reforms for police investigations, use-of-force policies Black Clevelanders express hope protests will usher real change: The world has joined Tamir Rice, officer use of force and Clevelands high cost of fixing its police department Consent decree monitor: Cleveland police must improve data collection, beef up training unit to ensure reform success Tech companies have traditionally been at the forefront of revolutionizing office space. Open floor plans have become the norm in many industries after tech companies touted the advantages they offer for collaboration and innovation. And perks like in-office gyms, child-care centers and communal cafeterias have also gained traction as companies compete to attract top talent. But, the coronavirus may make this type of work environment a thing of the past, at least for the near future. In an investigation recently published by South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, out of the 216 people who worked on the floor of a call center, 94 people tested positive for the virus. And employees are concerned. A recent survey by insurance company Prudential found that, of more than 2,000 full-time employees surveyed, 66% believe their work site will need to be restructured to create more personal space. Forty-nine percent believe that open offices and workspaces are no longer conducive to their health and wellness. "The 6-foot rule in terms of social distancing is really all we have at the moment for protection," says Bruce Mosler, chairman of global brokerage at Cushman & Wakefield. The real estate firm says it has already helped 10,000 businesses and almost 1 million people in China transition back to the office. Based on that experience, and data from the World Health Organization, Cushman & Wakefield constructed a mock-up of what it calls "The 6 Feet Office," in Amsterdam, to demonstrate what a safe office space may look like. "People won't have time to reconstruct their office. They are not going to have that ability. So most of what we are recommending in our playbook you're able to do at zero cost." Amid the outbreak, most of the tech giants have been erring on the side of caution and asking employees -- who are able to -- to continue working from home. "We're going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale for sure," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, said during a weekly town hall with employees in May. "And the plan that we have initially involves a couple of big steps. The first is aggressively opening up remote hiring. And we got to couple that with a more measured approach to opening permanent remote work for existing employees." Twitter took remote work a step further. It told employees that they can work from home forever. Several high-tech solutions may also help tech companies get back to work. Brooklyn, New York-based StrongArm Technologies created a wearable device and platform called Fuse that was initially intended to help warehouse workers avoid injuries. But the company has now reconfigured the gadget to keep workers safe amid Covid-19. "The Fuse is able to encourage social distancing using its sensors that communicate with each other. As two users approach each other, we have haptic feedback that's delivered as they start to encroach on that 6-foot parameter that was indicated by the CDC as proper social distancing guidelines," says StrongArm Technologies CEO Sean Petterson. Watch the video above to find out what tech giants are telling employees about the future of work and how tech offices may forever change as a result of the coronavirus. For more on the convergence of new technology and the future of work, request a ticket to join the CNBC @ Work Spotlight virtual event on June 18, featuring VMware's Pat Gelsinger, Honeywell Connected Enterprise's Que Dallara and Genpact's "Tiger" Tyagarajan. Oceana Canada petition urges Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet commitment to ban unnecessary single-use plastics choking the oceans and devastating marine life OTTAWA, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Our world is facing a plastic disaster. An estimated 22 million kilograms of plastic leaks into the ocean every day, roughly equivalent to dumping a garbage truck full of plastic into the oceans every minute. Today, on World Oceans Day, Oceana Canada supported by Canadians from coast to coast to coast is calling to end the plastic disaster by urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson to fulfill their commitment to ban harmful and unnecessary single-use plastics, such as straws, bottles, cups and other food packaging. Plastic is everywhere and in everything, and it never goes away. Over time, it breaks down into tiny pieces, which we all eat and breathe in. With the worlds plastic production and use increasing every day, the disaster is growing. It is in Arctic ice, every fish tested in the Great Lakes, beluga whales, seabirds and more than half of all sea turtles. Marine life gets entangled in and eats this plastic. Plastics are on the seafloor in the deepest parts of the ocean and have even been found in the ocean breeze. The volume of plastic waste is expected to increase four times by 2050. Recent polling has shown that the vast majority of Canadians want a future without plastic pollution, said Josh Laughren, Executive Director, Oceana Canada. The government made a commitment to reduce single-use plastics, and its critical that this commitment is fulfilled, for the sake of our oceans, for ourselves and our future. Canada has an opportunity to show strong global leadership in the face of the plastic disaster and join other countries in creating a plastic-free future. Canada is part of the global plastics problem, producing an estimated 3.3 million tonnes of plastic waste per year. Of this, less than 10 per cent of plastic used in Canada is recycled. Story continues Canada has committed to help solve this plastic crisis. Were asking Canadians to lend their support by signing our petition calling on our government to live up to its promise to ban unnecessary single-use plastics by 2021, said Kim Elmslie, Campaign Director, Oceana Canada. Together, we can end this growing plastic disaster. Canadians can sign the petition to at Change.org/EndThePlasticDisaster . Oceana Canada was established as an independent charity in 2015 and is part of the largest international advocacy group dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana Canada has successfully campaigned to end the shark fin trade, make rebuilding depleted fish populations the law, improve the way fisheries are managed and protect marine habitat. We work with civil society, academics, fishers, Indigenous Peoples and the federal government to return Canadas formerly vibrant oceans to health and abundance. By restoring Canadas oceans, we can strengthen our communities, reap greater economic and nutritional benefits and protect our future. ASSETS FOR MEDIA Contacts: Tammy Thorne, Oceana Canada, tthorne@oceana.ca, 437-247-0954 and Kathleen Munro, Pilot PRM, kathleen.munro@pilotpmr.com, 902-789-3165 Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/357cce39-64c7-4c48-9ad9-5feac623add5 https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/97e69dcf-251a-44b8-8557-c3973c219d80 https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/06c1e812-2aa0-4853-9a29-f0f669232a06 Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ibrahim Kholilul Rohman and Harya S. Dillon (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 12:32 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd41fcf 3 Opinion liquidity,airline-profits,aviation-industry,Airlines,Garuda,COVID-19,pandemic Free The aviation industry has been among the most severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic due to severe travel restrictions imposed by most governments around the world. Lockdown measures have put tremendous pressure on airline sales and revenue, prompting them to turn to the government for bailouts. Airlines are big employers that do not hesitate to pull the too big to fail card during turbulent times such as these. Keeping them in business may help blunt unemployment blows. Runaway unemployment may end up costing governments more in social payments. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), failure to save airlines from imminent collapse may cost Europe 6.7 million jobs and US$452 billion. Government intervention to rescue the industry can only be justified if it actually saves jobs, keeping more tax revenues that it would have to cough up in social payments otherwise. Some major airlines are already discussing bailout deals. Germanys Lufthansa, the third-largest airline by revenue as of January, has been offered a $9.8 billion bailout deal in exchange for 20 percent state ownership. Its fate now hangs at the mercy of European Union competition regulators. Closer to home, Singapore Airlines is hoping to raise $6.2 billion selling rights issue. The United States government has pumped $58 billion in stimulus into domestic airlines. At home, under the national economic recovery program, the government of Indonesia is in the process of finalizing $1 billion in bridging loans for Garuda Indonesia, helping the newly reformed national flag carrier stave off a debt default. The rescue plan includes a proposal to restructure Garudas $500 million sukuk by next month and arrange the remaining half as new loans to meet working capital requirements in the next three to six months. Justifying liquidity support based on state ownership status might make matters worse by compounding moral hazards with information asymmetry problems. The former occurs when recovery recipients are perversely incentivized to take excessive business risks because they have alternative sources of funding should business go south. The latter occurs when recipients are in possession of greater strategic information than the government, which is tasked with restructuring. The government and the taxpayers they represent, should be concerned when asked to restructure undeserving companies; those that had been performing poorly even before the pandemic hit. Luckily, among several alternatives, we have the Altmans Z-score at our disposal to sniff them out. The index uses financial health indicators such as working capital, retained earnings, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), total sales and equitys market value to predict the likelihood of bankruptcy. Z-scores larger than 2.6 indicates excellent financial health while scores below 1.1 signals a company in distress, inching toward bankruptcy. According to Bloomberg data, Garudas Z-scores have been in decline since the second quarter of 2016 (Q2-2016). It touched a historic low of 0.2 in December 2018 under the scandal-ridden previous management. The last four quarters have witnessed a steady comeback in the 0.6-0.8 range but still no way near major airlines under their respective government bailout programs. Singapore Airline and Lufthansas pre-pandemic scores were cruising in the 1.2-1.5 range. Bloomberg data also shows that Garuda underperforms its regional peers. Garuda flew 74 percent full while the average load factor among Asian airliners stood at 81 percent during 2017-November 2019. Garuda was faring slightly below Thai Airways, Malaysia Airlines and Japan Airlines, which flew 78-80 percent full. Load factors for all other major Asian airlines were north of 80 percent. At any rate, the newly appointed management deserves a fair shake. It was just about fly out of massive turbulence in January when the coronavirus clipped its wings. On the other hand, the rescue plan seems to also neglect the demand side perspective. The industrys comeback will largely depend on our ability to fight this pandemic. The ban for Indonesian travelers has been in effect since March 16, which might impact a substantial portion of nearly 25 percent of Garuda international routes bound for Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. There are also strict health and safety requirements for Indonesians visiting Singapore and Hong Kong. The domestic demand is also moderated by the pandemic- induced domestic flight services. Regaining consumer confidence is key in getting the most out of this restructuring deal. Otherwise, it might be more prudent to pour cash into other transportation subsectors, such as transit systems, intercity buses, cargo or logistics. Better yet, it might be wiser to invest more in massive testing and medical infrastructure so that we can better prepare for subsequent waves of the outbreak. Taxpayer money would be better spent when passengers health and safety were considered in the rescue package. Inflight and airport hygiene protocols are good starts. Only then we, as taxpayers, can take pride in our national flag carrier. *** Ibrahim Kholilul Rohman is a lecturer at the School of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia and Harya S. Dillon is secretary-general of the Indonesian Transportation Society. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. SY Insitor, from Syngenta, has the highest UK treated yield figure of all 11 hard Group 4 winter feed wheat varieties on the AHDB Recommended List for 2020/21, says Tracy Creasy, Syngenta marketing manager for conventional cereals yielding equivalent to 11.76 t/ha. Hard Group 4 remains a popular choice among growers, she says, with about a third of the wheat market in this category. But more than that, SY Insitor combines its high yield with a robust resistance rating of 6.6 against the major disease, Septoria tritici. Plus, it has achieved exceptionally high yields without being drilled early, she points out. All these features make SY Insitor an ideal fit as growers prepare themselves for dealing with Septoria and other modern-day challenges such as black-grass and barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV), says Mrs Creasy. These challenges can be more severe in early-drilled crops. Next season will be the first full season for many years that growers will have to contend with Septoria tritici without the benefit of the multi-site fungicide, chlorothalonil for tackling resistance. Added to that, a neonicotinoid seed treatment can no longer be used against BYDV-carrying aphids, and black-grass remains a major threat. In early May, Charlie Warzel, a columnist at the New York Times, saw a tweet that hit him like a ton of bricks. In the tweet, Eric Nelson, who works in book publishing, imagined a future in which Americans simply get used to the death toll from covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Warzel wondered if we might be there already. The day I read Mr. Nelsons tweet, 1,723 Americans were reported to have died from the virus, he wrote. And yet their collective passing was hardly mourned. After all, how to distinguish those souls from the 2,097 who perished the day before or the 1,558 who died the day after? He went on to compare the possible normalization of covid deaths to the normalization of deaths caused by gun violence. In late May, as America approached one hundred thousand total recorded covid deaths, the Times, where editors had been reflecting on how best to mark the milestone, published a striking Sunday front page. Under the headline, US Deaths Near 100,000, An Incalculable Loss, the Times ran a list, spanning the length and breadth of A1, naming covid victims in the US, each with a mini obituary. (Muriel M. Going, 92, Cedarburg, Wis., taught her girls sheepshead and canasta; Eugene Lamar Limbrick, 41, Colorado Springs, loved automobiles, especially trucks.) Simone Landon, an editor on the papers graphics desk, said the idea was to demonstrate the humanity behind the grim numbers, amid what Landon and her colleagues sensed was a little bit of fatigue with covid data, both among ourselves and perhaps in the general reading public. Related: The Story Has Gotten Away from Us As that week progressed, other outlets followed suit. On Wednesday, May 27the day the official milestone was predicted to be hit, and wasthe front page of USA Today showed the faces of a hundred covid victims, next to a graphic demonstrating scale. As soon as the hundred-thousand number was confirmed, it was splashed atop news websites and announced on cable news. Very sad breaking news we can report right now, Wolf Blitzer said on CNN. Very, very sad. The following day, the front page of the Washington Post portrayed victims as beams of light, shooting up from a map of the US. The cover of The Economist turned the figure into a literal milestone, casting a shadow across an empty road. Its headline: The American way. According to several news organizations and Johns Hopkins University, America passed one hundred ten thousand confirmed covid deaths in the past few days; in other words, more than ten thousand peopleten thousand beams of light, one hundred times the faces on a USA Today cover, one-tenth of an Economist milestonedied in the ten or so days since the one-hundred-thousand marker was hit. Theres been some coverage of the rising death count since late May, but nothing of the depth and breadth that we saw back then. The difference is complicated to assess (more on which below)but its hard to avoid feeling like it exposed the arbitrariness of using round numbers as news pegs for human life. Quantifying loss of life is always fraught; with covid-19, the methodological discrepancies in how we count cases and deaths add an extra layer of arbitrariness. (A recent analysis by the Post and the Yale School of Public Health concluded that overall deaths linked to the pandemic likely surpassed one hundred thousand three weeks before the official countand headlinescaught up.) As the toll continues to climb, it seems likely that the gaps between the numbers we consider round enough to note will grow ever larger. Yesterdaythe day I returned to Mr. Warzels old column498 Americans were reported to have died. To borrow his words, their collective passing was hardly mourned. Theres a lot to parse here. The packages marking the hundred-thousand milestone were powerful journalism, and many of them reckoned with the nuances outlined above. (For instance, the Post, even prior to its analysis with Yale, noted that the true death count was likely higher; the Times acknowledged that a number can never convey the individual arcs of life, the 100,000 ways of greeting the morning and saying good night.) The pandemic as a whole is still a big news story, including on cable. Yesterday, for example, we heard about New Yorks reopening, Trumps imminent plan to start holding rallies again, and the World Health Organizations warning that, on Sunday, the daily rate of new confirmed cases hit a high, suggesting that globally, the pandemic is getting worse. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Still, too often, the covid coverage were now seeing feels tired, as if its going through the motions. Thats understandable. After years of whiplash news and months of this particular cycle, journalists are exhaustednot to mention furloughed, underpaid, unemployed, arrested, assaulted, and so on. The pandemic story has been especially demanding to coverfor logistical, scientific, and emotional reasonsand also to consume. Fatigue isnt limited to the press; as Robinson Meyer and Alexis C. Madrigal wrote for The Atlantic on Sunday, America as a whole slowly seems to be giving up on the battle against the pandemic. But we have to fight such feelings. The stakes are too high not to. Our covid coverage needs to be focused and to avoid becoming arbitrary, episodic, and siloed. As my colleagues Betsy Morais and Alexandria Neason demonstrated powerfully last week, the pandemic is intimately and powerfully linked to the other huge story of this moment, about a white police officer killing George Floyd, and the society-wide demands for racial justice and reform that have followed. covid-19 has exposed and compounded systemic racism in spheres from the medical to the economic; meanwhile, the killing of Floyd has shown just how powerful the news can be when we refuse to accept abnormal deaths as normal. Whatever form our future covid coverage may take, its our job, now, to find ways to make it fresh and urgent and compelling again, because the threat the disease poses is still all of those things. We cant wait until two hundred thousand deaths to devote ourselves to remembering again. We cant even wait until a hundred and twelve thousand. Below, more on the coronavirus: Other notable stories: ICYMI: The uncertain future of Jewish news media Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop. Portland's white police chief resigned on Monday after just six months on the job to make room for black leadership in a stunning response to police clashes with George Floyd protesters. On Monday police chief Jami Resch, a white woman, announced that she had asked Chuck Lovell, an African American lieutenant, to replace her. It comes as the Portland police department is heavily criticized for its handling of Floyd protests in Oregon's largest city and using force including tear gas and sponge-tipped projectiles against demonstrators. Resch said she believed change was necessary in the force and that Lovell, a 46-year-old officer who has worked with the department since 2002, was the perfect man for the job. 'I have asked Chuck Lovell to step into the role as chief of the Police Bureau. Hes the exact right person at the exact right moment,' she said at a noon news conference. Portland's white police chief Jami Resch resigned on Monday after just six months on the job to make room for black leadership, announcing Chuck Lovell as the new top boss. 'I have asked Chuck Lovell to step into the role as chief of the Police Bureau. Hes the exact right person at the exact right moment, ' Resch said at a noon news conference. 'To say this was unexpected would be an understatement. I'm humbled. I'm going to listen. I'm going to care about the community, and I'm looking forward to this journey,' Lovell said at the news conference She described him as the 'most compassionate, humble, genuine to the core' officer who never intended to be police chief. 'You never wanted it,' Resch said. 'You were meant for it.' 'To say this was unexpected would be an understatement. I'm humbled. I'm going to listen. I'm going to care about the community, and I'm looking forward to this journey,' Lovell said at the news conference. He and community leaders of color credited Resch for stepping down. Resch had replaced Danielle Outlaw, who was Portland's first African American female police chief and who became Philadelphia police commissioner in February. Resch said she suggested the shakeup to Mayor Ted Wheeler, who said he supported Lovell to lead the department as it moves through needed reforms. 'We need Chief Lovell's leadership,' Wheeler said at the news conference. 'We must re-imagine reform and rebuild what public safety looks like.' He previously served as Outlaw's executive assistant and under Resch he started a new Community Services Division that included the Behavioral Health Unit, according to Oregon Live. The unit is meant to aid people in crisis resulting from mental illness and/or drug and alcohol addiction. Resch tweeted that the Portland Police Department needs change and commended her successor Lovell saying, 'I am 100 percent confident in him and his leadership' Resch said she will stay with the department in a different role. Demonstrators held two peaceful George Floyd protests in Portland but a third one that lasted until the early hours of Monday resulted in at least 20 arrests, with some demonstrators throwing objects at police, who fired tear gas and sponge-tipped projectiles. Full beverage containers, glass bottles, hard-boiled eggs and rocks were thrown or fired at officers using sling-shots, police said in a statement Monday. A medic who was working with the officers was hit in the stomach with a rock. The protest that turned violent happened at the Justice Center in downtown Portland. The ACLU of Oregon has called on Portland police to end the use of tear gas, impact weapons and flash bang devices. 'The Portland Police Bureaus response to protest has been excessively violent and dangerous. We renew our call to end the use of chemical and impact weapons and flash bang devices against people who gather in Portland. These weapons are dangerous and continue to escalate largely peaceful situations,' the group said in a statement Sunday. 'We join the protesters in calling for a new approach in our community, and demanding that we uphold the rights of people who have historically had their rights and humanity denied,' the rights group said Sunday. Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who is African American, slammed the recent police response to some protests. 'I'm incredibly troubled by the excessive force used nightly by PDX police since the protests began,' she said. The Portland police force has been heavily criticized for being 'excessively violent' with George Floyd protesters, deploying tear gas and using batons. Police pictured moving towards protesters during a protest on June 7 as smoke from tear gas swirls in the air Tear gas is seen during a protest decrying the police killing of George Floyd in Portland on June 7 Protests have broken out across the country rallying for an end to police brutality and racial justice. A crowd of women holding signs in Portland, Oregon above Demonstrators hold their hands up in Portland during a protest over the death of George Floyd Portland Trail Blazers' Damian Lillard, center, joins other demonstrators in Portland, during a protest against police brutality and racism 'The videos and painful firsthand accounts of community members getting tear gassed and beaten by police for exercising their 1st Amendment rights should be concerning for us all,' she added. Police say they have encouraged peaceful protests, but smaller groups splinter from the demonstrations or come out later to engage in mayhem. Protesters Monday evening walked onto Interstate 84 in Portland's Lloyd District, which led to officials temporarily shutting it down in that area, news footage showed. Earlier, protesters cheered when a speaker at the demonstration talked about the police chief's resignation. 'Are we done yet,' he asked the crowd. 'No,' the crowd shouted back. Another crowd near the downtown jail after 9pm. was urged by police not to shake and climb a fence erected to keep protesters away. 'We are not here to police a fence. We are here to protect the people who work in the Justice Center and the adults in custody who are living there, Portland police said on Twitter. On the ground, police were staying farther away from the fence than they had during other nights. The crowd had grown to hundreds by around 9.40pm. [June 09, 2020] Asurion Launches New Data Science Scholarship Program at Fisk University with $200,000 Investment NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nashville-based tech care company Asurion announced today that the company is launching a new data science scholarship program at Nashville's Fisk University with a $200,000 investment. The Asurion Data Science Scholarship at Fisk, a private historically black university, strengthens Asurion's diverse talent pipeline in Middle Tennessee while providing Fisk students with the real-world exposure and experience to succeed in the workforce after they graduate. "Our new Data Science Scholarship at Fisk is part of Asurion's ongoing commitment to fostering diversity in Nashville's tech community while also providing growth opportunities for the emerging tech workforce," said Barry Vandevier, Chief Operating Officer at Asurion. "We believe that investing in local, diverse tech talent is key to helping Nashville achieve long-term growth in the industry." "I am thrilled that this scholarship at my alma mater is the next program from Asurion aimed to continue building a diverse workforce," said Nikki Smith-Bartley, Vice President, Chief Diversity & Talent Strategy Officer at Asurion. "Programs such as the Asurion Data Science Scholarship will help provide students with an opportunity to establish themselves as young professionals in the tech industry, which will afford them even more opportunities upon graduating." Four to six Fisk University students pursing Computer Science or Data Science degrees will each receive a $10,000 scholarship each academic year under the program. Through the Asurion Data Science Scholarship, Asurion will also provide numerous developmet opportunities for Fisk scholars, including: The opportunity to interview for Asurion's paid summer internship program; Monthly mentorship by Asurion data science and computer science employees throughout the academic year; and Ongoing learning and development sessions with Asurion teams. "We are so excited about this partnership with Asurion," said Dr. Jens Frederiksen, Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Enrollment Management at Fisk University. "More and more students are pursuing our unique data science program which was launched last year. By partnering with Asurion we will be able to offer our students unparalleled experiences for internships and permanent hires." In addition to programs created for the scholarship recipients, Asurion will have the opportunity to get involved in teaching and providing students with real-world experience. Asurion data science team members will participate in select data science class curriculum at Fisk, an Asurion executive will join industry leaders across Nashville companies and sit on their Industry Board, and Asurion will host an annual hackathon for Fisk students. To learn more about Asurion or to join our team, visit us at https://careers.asurion.com/. About Fisk University Founded in 1866, Fisk University is a private, liberal arts university located in Nashville, Tennessee. Consistently recognized for its brand of academic excellence, Fisk is ranked No. 6 on the Top 10 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in the 2019 U.S. News & World Report. Fisk also ranked No. 1 in the nation among HBCUs for social mobility and No. 3 in the nation for research expenditures among small liberal arts colleges. Fisk university is deeply committed to student leadership, success and service. Fisk excels at preparing our highly motivated student body for elite graduate schools and outstanding careers. From the classroom to the boardroom, a Fisk education gives students the tools to turn their passions into careers and prepares them to make a difference in the world. To learn more about Fisk University, please visit www.fisk.edu. About Asurion Asurion helps people protect, connect and enjoy the latest tech to make life a little easier. Every day our more than 19,000 employees help nearly 300 million people around the world solve the most common and uncommon tech issues. We're just a call, tap, click or visit away for everything from getting a same-day replacement of your smartphone, to helping you stream or connect with no buffering, bumps or bewilderment. We think you should stay connected and get the most from the tech you love no matter the type of tech or where you purchased it. Learn more at Asurion.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/asurion-launches-new-data-science-scholarship-program-at-fisk-university-with-200-000-investment-301072461.html SOURCE Asurion [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal The state agency tasked with providing legal representation to indigent persons charged with crimes is demanding that the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office start using body cameras. Sheriff Manuel Gonzales has long expressed opposition to requiring his deputies to wear the devices. So, the state Law Offices of the Public Defender is asking Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez for help. In a protest Monday, public defenders called on Torrez to put pressure for change on Gonzales by refusing to prosecute certain cases filed by the BCSO, including battery and assault on a peace officer and drug possession charges, if there is no video footage of the incident. Torrez said in a statement through a spokesman that he supports the use of body cameras but will not decline to prosecute cases. The spokesman added that Torrez and Gonzales would meet soon to discuss body cameras. Gonzales also said through a spokesman that he is willing to talk to Torrez about body cameras but did not say whether he has changed his position on them in light of recent police brutality protests. Public defenders protested outside Metropolitan Court on Monday afternoon. About 100 people kneeled for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time a former Minneapolis police officer kneeled on the neck of George Floyd. Floyd, a black man, who died. Four officers have been charged in his death. Assistant public defender Benjamin Smith used a megaphone to tell the crowd that cameras allowed people to see the deaths of Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, a black Georgia man who was shot and killed while jogging in February. Cameras shine a light on truth and let justice be done, Smith said. No more can we accept law enforcement agencies resisting body cams. They will help everyone. They will help the community, they will help law enforcement, and they will keep everyone more safe. New Mexico Chief Public Defender Ben Baur, also sent a letter to Torrez. A copy of the letter was provided to the Journal. As we have seen time and time again, sometimes the people doing the victimizing are law enforcement, and the victims are those in our community, often people of color, the letter says. Our criminal legal system cannot provide justice when officers are the perpetrators and not held accountable. An important step in accountability is the proper documentation of police-civilian encounters, which can be best done by video. Baur was also at the protest Monday. District Attorney spokesman Adolfo Mendez said in an email that Torrez supports all law enforcement officers wearing body cameras but that his agency cannot decline to prosecute cases, partly because deputies have no control over department policies. Such a position would unnecessarily endanger the public without advancing the important goals of police reform, Mendez wrote. The District Attorney believes that the proper way for bringing about this important change is through state and local governments who exercise direct oversight over law enforcement and he stands ready to work with other stakeholders including the Law Offices of the Public Defender to engage in meaningful reform. Gonzales has declined to use body cameras, saying the video would be used to tell a one-sided story. But BCSO spokesman Connor Otero said Monday in an email, Sheriff Manuel Gonzales III is open to speaking with 2nd District Attorney Raul Torrez about body cameras if he would like to have that conversation. Otero did not say whether Gonzales was also willing to meet with public defenders. Do you work in a big organisation with offices across the city and are eager to get back to the workplace but getting jitters due to concerns related to COVID-19? A mobile application will soon help you understand which office is safe, and when you can travel to the office. Wipro Lighting is bringing a solution called 'Office Shifts', developed by Netherlands-based Mapiq to India. This will enable employers to enforce social distancing at workplaces by using the application to evenly distribute employees in a building. Across India, workplaces are operating at 10 percent to 33 percent capacity depending on the local government rules. For large companies, manually managing the workplace schedule to decide which employee would come on what day could be a logistical nightmare. Anuj Dhir, VP & Business Head, Commercial Lighting, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, said while companies are slowly resuming the process of letting employees back to the workplace, social distancing norms need to be strictly maintained. 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 "For large organisations with multiple offices in various locations, it could be an administrative challenge to do it manually. Hence, this solution will enable them to map the offices effectively," he added. Track this blog for latest updates on the coronavirus crisis While Dhir did not share the pricing details for the application, he explained that the price will depend on the size of the building and the number of occupants. In April 2019, Wipro Lighting and Mapiq had announced a partnership for working in the area of smart workplaces in India. Here, Mapiq's interactive cloud solutions (like 3D maps) has been integrated with the smart lighting offerings of Wipro Lighting. Also Read: COVID-19 impact | As workers return, attendance systems at offices set for radical changes Ramakrishna Puranam, senior general manager-smart and connected sales, Wipro Lighting said that there will be a dashboard for the employers to setup the office and pre-plan the employee shift schedule. He added that the software is available as a subscription-based model built on SaaS (Software as a Service) model. "Customers can pay either as per building, per month or per building, per year model. This makes it less capital intensive and easy to afford," he added. Dhir said Wipro Lighting will reach out to existing customers to offer this solution. At a later stage, this solution will be integrated with the existing smart workplaces platform of Wipro Lighting. Under this solution, employees can see through the application as to when they are allowed to go to office in a week, which building has been assigned to them. This will ensure that the employees do not visit unauthorised locations in a building which could be potentially unsafe. Employers will manage the dashboard by assigning specific buildings, floors and days for employees when they can potentially travel to office. However, there is no location tracking system in the application and the platform merely gives information on which area has been assigned to an employee and on which day. Follow our coverage of the coronavirus crisis One month after promising to impose warning labels on misleading tweets about coronavirus, Twitter is still failing to accurately distinguish factual information from fake news. Starting in early May, the company has been using artificial intelligence to identify misinformation and apply mild or strong warnings depending on how "dangerous" it is, aiming to expand them to other topics in future. The policy is part of an ongoing attempt to clean up Twitter's service, which has already entangled both it and its rivals Facebook and Snapchat in a furious row with Donald Trump. Trump is feuding with his favourite platform, Twitter. Credit:AP But since then, Twitter's misinformation labels have frequently lapsed into farce, wrongly catching obscene jokes, factual news headlines and complaints about false claims while leaving diehard conspiracy theorists untouched. Colin Powell, who hasn't voted for a Republican in the last 16 years, excited the mainstream media when he announced that he was again going to vote for a Democrat. Powell is a joke, and probably a high-level leaker, so he deserves to be ignored. However, he represents something more serious, which is retired admirals and generals using the goodwill they earned serving in the military in service to the Deep State. Whatever respect I had for Powell died when I learned that he was one of the loudest voices telling Bush Sr. to pull out of the First Gulf War, allowing Saddam Hussein to stay in power and therefore contributing indirectly to the Iraq War. I've also long suspected that he was the main source for Bob Woodward's nasty Plan of Attack, which painted Bush as a dummy and Powell as a prescient saint. The problem, though, isn't Powell, who's yesterday's news. It's the long list of retired military officers attacking Trump, most of whom escaped Obama's firing of almost 200 military officers. Those firings had the smell of a purge about them, especially considering Obama's vision for the U.S. military. His practical, strategic, and tactical demands on the military (e.g., draw-downs, aiding America's enemies, unduly restrictive rules of engagement) and his extensive efforts to turn our military into a social justice experiment (e.g., women in combat, so-called transgenders in the military, etc.), hinted that his decisions about officers were not primarily aimed at ensuring that our military was the best, most honorable fighting machine in the world. Obama had other goals in mind. The most touted anti-Trump statement came from William H. McRaven, the admiral (now retired), who oversaw the Osama bin Laden mission. It was under McRaven that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind 9/11, got a private, respectful burial at sea, one that ensured "that bin Laden's body was be handled in accordance with Muslim traditions[.]" How nice. McRaven took to the pages of the New York Times last October to launch a fiery attack against Trump for announcing that he was going to pull U.S. troops out of Syria. To McRaven, that made Trump such a disastrous president that he should be removed "the sooner, the better." Language like that has the smell of a military coup about it. Oh, and Trump did pull out those U.S. troops, saving lives. He also ordered a hit on Qassem Soleimani, saving more lives. General Barry McCaffrey (ret.), a Clinton White House holdover, is also an anti-Trump hysteric. When Trump announced that he didn't want to have the federal government (and American taxpayers) pay for the New York Times and Washington Post, McCaffrey called it a "watershed moment in national history," and said Trump was Mussolini: The White House Trump statement telling the entire Federal Government to terminate subscriptions to the NYT and Wash Post is a watershed moment in national history. No room for HUMOROUS media coverage. This is deadly serious. This is Mussolini. Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) October 25, 2019 Can you imagine being led into battle by a man so easily given to hysterical exaggeration? To understand the nonsense from the next Deep State military official, a little context is necessary. Last year, Trump ordered special forces to kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom Obama had released from Camp Bucca in 2009. Baghdadi, an ISIS leader, was responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and was a sexual sadist, among other things. Trump, understanding that Arabs are a shame-based culture, made sure the world knew that Baghdadi was not a hero or a martyr at the end, but was a miserable coward, whining and crying, frightened of a dog, and hiding behind a child. Obama's Joint Chiefs vice chair, Admiral James Winnefeld (ret.), was appalled that Trump treated a sadistic mass murderer with so little respect. According to Winnefeld, Trump should have shown that human piece of trash the "respect that is due under Islam." (Now do you know why Winnefeld and Obama got along?) And of course, there's James Mattis, who got the treatment he deserved from Marine captain John M. Dowd (ret.). Democrats are undoubtedly planning on using all these NeverTrump Democrats to support Biden. The media will troop these retired officers out in their snazzy uniforms and make much of their service. When they do so, it's up to you to remember who these men are and what they value. We can honor them for their service, but we need to recognize that this does not make them intelligent or even decent men. Just think of John McCain, an arrogant military officer; an incredibly brave POW; and a vicious, petty, disloyal RINO politician. Twitter screengrab While many have voiced their disgust by the actions of Daniel Pena, the McAllen man caught on video revving a chainsaw at Black Lives Matter protesters, some are showing their support by launching GoFundMe pages, which are then deleted. Pena was being held on bonds totaling $17,000 after he was arrested by the McAllen Police Department on Friday and is charged with four counts of deadly conduct and one count of assault, a class A misdemeanor, according to The Monitor in McAllen. KRGV.com, another Rio Grande Valley media outlet, reported Pena was released on Sunday. CBD is one of many natural cannabinoids derived from hemp and marijuana plants. CBD is non psychoactive, unlike another well know cannabinoid, THC. In 2018, the Farm Bill Act was passed legalizing hemp and CBD on a federal level. New farms, stores, and processors peppered the country within a few months. The CBD industry immediately rose to a billion-dollar trade in 2019, with projections of $20 billion by 2024 (Forbes). Boston Hempire, a Massachusetts based CBD company, is one of the many CBD providers seeing a jump in sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "We didn't know how business was going to be affected going into this pandemic, but sales started to drastically increase", said Boston Hempire's CEO, Brandon Gadles. And the growth has been substantial; upwards of 300% for certain products. Gadles and close friend, Kevin Coyle launched Boston Hempire in early 2018. Both entrepreneurs were seeking alternatives to prescription drugs for a sick parent. Gadles' mother was coping with the side effects of chemotherapy while fighting stage 4 lung cancer and Coyle's father had been struggling with a variety of issues from ALS. Each parent found some type of relief or benefit from CBD (pain relief, sleep aid, appetite builder). After seeing the benefits of CBD, Boston Hempire was born, quickly expanding its wholesale distribution to over 5000 stores/medical offices across the nation. In late 2018, the e-commerce website was also launched. Boston Hempire has core values of quality and transparency. Most of their products are organic, and all offerings are third party lab tested and fully insured with Cannabis Insurance Business. Each product in the Boston Hempire brand is grown and produced in the United States. Gadles only works directly with family farms as well as partnering farms to ensure the industry is not overrun by large tobacco or pharmaceutical companies. "We have received several offers to sell but have declined due to rising concerns regarding the direction big tobacco will take the industry", Gadles said. "We are a leader in this industry and Boston Hempire will not be overly influenced by big tobacco, taking profits from the hard-working farms and small businesses of America". In early 2019, the company expanded with a full line of wellness products. Gadles states that all products have seen an uptick in sales since the start of COVID-19, especially Gummies and Soft Gels. Boston Hempire is not alone. Companies across the industry have seen a drastic increase in sales. Claims cannot be made without approval from the FDA, but customers report a variety of benefits from CBD. Most statements include decreased pain (muscle and joint), anxiety, depression, stress, and better sleep. Because CBD is non-psychoactive and there are no known side-effects, many people are switching to CBD as a natural alternative to OTC and potentially addictive prescription drugs. The symptoms people are feeling caused by the pandemic align with the reported benefits of CBD, therefore supporting the large increase in sales. Boston Hempire offers their entire selection of CBD products online at www.BostonHempire.com. SOURCE Boston Hempire Related Links https://www.bostonhempire.com - A Tanzanian site had reported about a dinner set gift package that was received by Mama Dangote as a gift from her ex-daughter in law Zari Hassan - The gift was said to be part of the reconciliation efforts between the two families - Zari has, however, come out to deny the claims saying the rumours were just mere gossip Ugandan socialite Zari Hassan has denied secretly sending a dining set gift package to her kid's grandma Mama Dangote. The two families have been mending their relationship in previous weeks but there is still a long way to go before Zari gets that comfortable again. READ ALSO: Police officer involved in George Floyd's fatal arrest seeking donations towards his legal fees READ ALSO: Netizens photoshop Lulu Hassan, hubby's faces on ashy bodies to protest their rosy love A Tanzanian gossip site had earlier claimed the 39-year-old sent a posh dinner set all the way from South Africa to Diamond's mother. The reports further noted Zari did not want to be left behind seeing that Diamond was single and wanted to make a good impression. READ ALSO: Pastor Ng'ang'a's daughters narrate struggling through life after losing mom at tender age READ ALSO: Size 8 discloses evil Jezebels have tried to steal her hubby DJ Mo However, the mother of five denied the rumours saying it was all lies considering it was just a gossip page. "Lies, I forgot its Udaku (gossip) page (sic)," Zari said while adding laugh emotions to her text. Well, in the spirit of giving which seems to have come early in 2020, Diamond Platnumz recently sent daughter Tiffah an amazing gift package, a real one this time. The international baby daddy sent out a lovely kitchen set to his daughter who lives in South Africa with her mum Zari. Zari recorded her baby girl's reaction when she set her eyes on the fancy present and proceeded to send the clip to her baby daddy. In the short video, Tiffah was seen with all her teeth out as she embraced her papa's huge gift and said thank you with a cute undertone. As soon as the Bongo star received it, he rushed to Instagram and posted it so the world could see he was making steps towards becoming a more responsible dad who cared about his kids' happiness. The two parents have been trying to mend their relationship in recent weeks and they have given fans enough evidence, through dance videos and chats, that they are in a good place. 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. I married a man every woman wanted - Pastor Joan Chege | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke BJP numbers in Rajya Sabha: NDA is now comfortably placed Was consulted before Rajya Sabha candidates were announced: BSY India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Bengaluru, June 09: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Tuesday said the central leadership of BJP had discussed him before finalising the names of two "low profile" party workers as candidates for June 19 Rajya Sabha polls from Karnataka. The BJP's central leadership on Monday had sprung a surprise by fielding Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha election ignoring the recommendations of the party state unit. "BJP central leaders have given Rajya Sabha tickets to two ordinary workers of the party and thereby have given a gift to karyakartas." Former PM HD Deve Gowda files nomination for Rajya Sabha polls from Karnataka I compliment Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party national president J P Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah for this," Yediyurappa said. Delhi Health Minister claims 50% have no contact, Centre says no community spread | Oneindia News Speaking to reporters here, he expressed confidence that both candidates would work effectively in Rajya Sabha. "Only BJP can take such decisions and give opportunity to ordinary karyakartas. From our core committee (state) we had sent some names, but ultimately our national president spoke to me and said it has been decided to give tickets to ordinary party workers, we discussed it, after which the two names have been finalised." The state BJP core committee on Saturday had recommended three names to high command as probable candidates-Ramesh Katti, the brother of senior MLA Umesh Katti, incumbent Prabhakar Kore and hotelier Prakash Shetty. Ignoring the state unit's recommendation, two low-key workers Kadadi and Gasti, who have been associated with the party organisation for long, were announced on Monday afternoon by the central leadership. Responding to a question about new names other than the ones decided by the state core committee being announced, Yediyurappa said, "we had sent names after deciding in the core committee. In Delhi under the leadership of the Prime Minister, senior leaders have met and decided to give tickets to ordinary party workers." "It is not for our state alone, the decision is applicable to other states also, I welcome it," he said. While, Kadadi, a Lingayat is party's Belagavi division in-charge; Gasti from Savitha Samaj (barber community) from Raichur district is party in-charge for the Bellary division. Both are with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad background and have worked for the organisation at the grass root level for decades. BJP set to add 9 more to its tally in Rajya Sabha They will be filing nominations today. The announcement of two names came as a complete surprise to the party state unit and has certainly given a clear message to its leadership, a senior party functionary said, adding "it is a clear indication that loyalty to the party and ideology is what matters, and not to any particular leader." It is also part of a strategy to nurture and elevate second-rung leaders, he noted. The move is also being seen as a setback to Yediyurappa, as names considered close to him have not been considered. This has come at a time for Yediyurappa when there are speculations about dissidence within the state BJP against his leadership, with several MLAs, especially from north Karnataka recently holding separate meetings. Election is scheduled on June 19 to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, represented by Rajeev Gowda and B K Hariprasad of Congress, Prabhakar Kore of the BJP and D. Kupendra Reddy of JD(S) that will fall vacant on June 25, with their retirement. The BJP, with 117 members in the assembly (including Speaker), can ensure easy victory in two seats. Cathay Pacific Airways announced on Tuesday a recapitalization plan worth $39 billion Hong Kong dollars ($5.03 billion) led by the Hong Kong government to help it weather the coronavirus pandemic. The government will be issued HK$19.5 billion of preference shares giving it a 6% stake, HK$1.95 billion of warrants and will provide a HK$7.8 billion bridging loan, Cathay said. The government will also have the right to two observers at board meetings. Governments around the world have been helping to aid airlines amid a plunge in travel demand, and in some cases such as Germany's Lufthansa, they are taking direct equity stakes. The Cathay pact includes a HK$11.7 billion rights issue to existing shareholders, led by Swire Pacific and Air China, which had halted trading on Tuesday morning alongside Cathay, pending the announcement. Swire, which holds 45%, Air China which owns 30% and Qatar Airways with 10% plan to participate in the rights issue, Cathay said. Their holdings will fall to 42%, 28% and 9.4% afterward. Cathay has grounded most of its planes because of falling demand amid coronavirus-related travel curbs, flying only cargo and a skeleton passenger network to major destinations such as Beijing, Los Angeles, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Vancouver. Cathay said on Tuesday a fall in passenger revenue to only 1% of the previous year's levels meant the airline had been losing cash at a rate of HK$2.5 billion to HK$3 billion per month since February. Cathay has furloughed some pilots at overseas bases and cut cabin crew roles in the United States and Canada since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but has not announced large-scale permanent job losses. The airline said on Tuesday it would put in place a further round of executive pay cuts and a second voluntary leave scheme for employees alongside the recapitalization proposal. "In the longer term, all aspects of the Cathay Pacific Group's business model will be re-evaluated," the airline said. Court found in favour of Mrs Crowther's appeal that ships be included in divorce Husband Paul insists ships are not beneficially owned by either of them or their businesses and should not be included Mrs Crowther is arguing a 10m fleet of boats owned by offshore businesses should be included in the settlement A well-off sea captain has lost part of his bitter divorce battle with his equestrian ex-wife over a 10 million fleet of ships. While they were together Captain Paul Anthony Crowther, 54, and his horse-loving wife Caroline lived a life of luxury in a sprawling multimillion-pound manor house in the East Sussex countryside with an illustrious history, whilst operating a lucrative Brighton-based ship-chartering business. Mrs Crowther, 49, a keen rider, splashed out on a string of 'valuable horses,' while the couple also enjoyed 'valuable cars' and 'other indicators of....wealth,' with their kids attending private schools. But after the rich couple's relationship collapsed in 2018, they began a court fight over the assets of their failed marriage. Captain Paul Anthony Crowther, 54, is locked in a bitter divorce battle with ex-wife Caroline Crowther, 49 over a 10m fleet of ships owned by an offshore business that she is claiming should be included in their divorce settlement Today the pair clashed in London's Appeal Court, with Mrs Crowther arguing that a 10m fleet of boats owned by offshore companies were in reality assets of the marriage and ought to be put in the pot when their wealth is split. But Cpt Crowther insists that the ships are not beneficially owned by him, his ex or their company and should be ignored in their divorce fight over money. The court heard that, as well as the disputed ships, the former couple's assets include the multi-million pound manor house which was their former matrimonial home, near Hartfield, in East Sussex. The pair's manor house at Landhurst was formerly the country home of film mogul J Arthur Rank, and is situated immediately adjacent to the farm where Winnie the Pooh was written, close to the site of the real Poohsticks Bridge in Ashdown Forest, and the places that inspired the Hundred Acre Wood. Today the pair clashed in London's Appeal Court, with Mrs Crowther arguing that a 10m fleet of boats owned by offshore companies were in reality assets of the marriage and ought to be put in the pot when their wealth is split. Pictured: The Atlantic Discovery, one of the boats being fought over At an earlier hearing, Mr Justice Holman said that the former couple's business Atlantic Marine and Aviation LLP which dealt in 'in the ownership and chartering of ships....appears to have generated considerable rewards for them.' As well as the lavish house, the judge said 'they have a range of assets, including valuable horses, valuable cars and other indicators of some wealth.. Their children have been privately educated.' 'The parties are now very deeply polarised,' the judge added. In 2012, whilst still together, the couple entered into an agreement with a Gibraltar-based business associate, Steven Knight, that five ships from their fleet would be transferred from the ownership of their company to that of Mr Knight or one of his offshore businesses. Over the subsequent years, the couple made money by chartering, then sub-chartering, those ships or their successors. As well as the disputed ships, the former couple's assets include the multi-million pound manor house which was their former matrimonial home, near Hartfield, in East Sussex Mr Crowther insists that the transfer of the ships to Mr Knight was a genuine and straightforward transaction, and that neither the Crowthers, nor their business, have any beneficial interest in them any more. But Mrs Crowther says the transaction was a 'sham' carried out for tax purposes, and claims the ships are worth 10m, and should be regarded as marital assets. Last year she obtained a series of freezing injunctions banning Cpt Crowther, Mr Knight and his companies from selling or otherwise disposing of the ships. But Mr Justice Holman overturned the freezing orders in March this year. The judge concluded that the transfer of the boats had been a genuine 'commercial arrangement' rather than an attempt 'to defeat the claims of the wife to financial remedy orders.' Today Charles Howard QC, for Mrs Crowther, asked the Court of Appeal to overturn that ruling. 'The vessels form the majority of the assets of the marriage,' he said, arguing that there is 'clear evidence of a desire' on the part of Cpt Crowther, Mr Knight and his companies 'to defeat the wife's claims for financial remedies.' The barrister claimed an email from the husband, dated February 2019, stated that he and Mrs Crowther 'are asset rich owning a [more than] 10m fleet of ships outright.' If the freezing injunctions are not reinstated, 'there is a real risk that judgment will go unsatisfied by reason of the disposal by (Mr Knight and his companies) of their assets unless they are restrained by court order from disposing of them,' he said. 'There is strong evidence that the husband and Mr Knight entered into a sham agreement...by which the husband purported to divest himself of all his vessels in favour of Mr Knight. 'If the wife ultimately persuades the court that she and the husband are the true beneficial owners of the vessels and the companies that own them, this will be of small consolation if these assets have been sold and the proceeds spent or moved to another offshore jurisdiction by Mr Knight. Enforcement against Mr Knight in Gibraltar will be difficult, extremely expensive, and with no guarantee of success,' he argued. 'The husband and Mr Knight have already worked in unison in their attempt to take the vessels, and the income generated from them, out of the reach of the wife and the court,' the wife's barrister said, telling the court that Cpt Crowther 'set up a parallel and rival company' last year after the couple split 'which stripped the family LLP (Atlantic Marine and Aviation LLP ('AMA LLP')) of its income from the disputed vessels.' 'In all the circumstances, it was appropriate to uphold the freezing order until determination by the court of the issue of whether or not the husband and the wife are the true beneficial owners of offshore companies and vessels which are nominally owned by Mr Knight,' the barrister concluded. Charles Hale QC, for Cpt Crowther, urged the court to refuse the application for permission to appeal, and drop the freezing order which is still in place pending the wife's appeal court challenge He said that unless this is done one of Mr Knight's companies 'will be likely insolvent within a matter of weeks.' 'We contend that the judge reached the correct conclusion in deciding to discharge the freezing order,' he argued. 'None of the documents, it is submitted, lend any credence to Mrs Crowther's central claim that she and Paul Crowther are ultimate beneficial owners of the ships or any of the companies that own them.' The barrister added that the husband, as well as Mr Knight and his companies, also 'do not accept that the evidence supports a finding that there is a risk of dissipation.' 'Mr Knight is a professional man who has been resident in Gibraltar for over 30 years. His businesses are based in Gibraltar. 'The courts of Gibraltar readily make orders to give effect to orders made in this jurisdiction: indeed mirror orders were made in Gibraltar in the present case. Mr Knight has fully complied with the orders of the court and with the undertakings he has given,' he added. At the end of a day-long hearing, Lord Justice Moylan, Lord Justice Males and Lord Justice Philipps allowed Caroline Crowthers appeal against the dismissal of the freezing injunctions she had obtained against her ex Paul Crowther, his associate Mr Knight and Mr Knights companies. That means the disputed ships cannot now be sold off and the proceeds moved on, pending the full divorce court fight between Mr and Mrs Crowther over their marital assets to decide who owns what. Lord Justice Moylan gave the decision of the court adding that full reasons for allowing the wifes appeal and a detailed order would be drawn up later. Photo credit: Jose Vazquez From Esquire Photo credit: Jose Vazquez Pride has never looked like this before. Parades are canceled. Gatherings are a public health concern. But that hardly means that Pride is canceled; scores of people have taken to the street in protest for Black Lives Matter. For those who can't, celebrating Pride in quarantine is a protest itself. This month, Esquire is examining what Pride means now, beyond the parade and for the next 50 yearswhether it's advocating for justice over Zoom, discovering the intersectionality too often missing from Pride, or simply existing as a trans father. The protest continues. There was a woman named Emerald who lived in Montgomery, Alabama, for a good part of her 31 years, but shes gone now. If you Google her name, there is only one result about hera Facebook post from her church about a memorial service following her suicide this past January. The results are instead flooded with stories about 31-year-old Dana Martin, because, as misfortune would have it, Dana was murdered in Montgomery the January before. Thats two years in a row that Montgomery women were the nations first trans casualties. In a queer community as small as Montgomerys, that echoes like a firecracker in an oil barrel. Echoes ring in your ear for months to come. Thats evident as about 10 of Montgomery Pride Uniteds 50 or so members gather on a Zoom call in late May for a monthly storytelling event that is usually held in person. One of the advocacy groups founders talks about growing up in Montgomery, recalling a memory of herself as a girl, when she laid on the ground and poured her energy into the earth. One member decides to read a couple passages from his journal about Emerald. His camera jostles a bit as he struggles to hold it and the journal and his tears. Jose Vazquez, the organizations president, sends me a private message to explain that Emerald was beloved among MPU. Frankly, this is a very intimate Zoom call for a stranger to join. But to read a description of an MPU storytelling hour is one thing. To join in is to be immediately engulfed in the community. Story continues Photo credit: Jill Friedman Montgomery, a city of nearly 200,000, has just one Pride organization. Meta Ellis and her wife Emma McDaniel-Ellis brought it to life only five years ago along with the community center that houses it, which has been around for three. They use a lot of hard work, small donations, and relentless passion to keep the program going. The year started with Emeralds passing, and with COVID-19in a city where being queer can already be isolatingthe distance that the coronavirus quarantine has put between members feels so far and so thick and so incredibly lonely at times. For MPU, this Pride month is the most important protest itand the rest of the countryhas championed in a while. Those members who can are hitting the streets of Montgomery to fight for the Black Lives Matter movement. But the reality is, high-risk members simply can't take the chance; due to workplace and healthcare discrimination, COVID-19 disproportionately affects queer people. So MPU is also pushing ahead with #PrideInPlace, an initiative that encourages people to still celebrate Pride from home. For some in MPU's community, protecting themselves from disease exposure is a political act in itself. For others, the acts of defiance are happening among protesters in public. Like Meta and Emma say, Pride was never just about a parade. It was and is a protesteven if its a protest of one. You might not expect a queer reckoning in Montgomery, Alabama. There's a lot of good people here, Meta tells me over the phone, but it is still such an uphill battle when it comes to just about everything, because people really do want to just throw us under the rug and not have to deal with us, period. Thats evident in a lot of ways. Currently, the state of Alabama is trying to block gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. Last year in Montgomery specifically, the police stopped into a restaurant hosting a Pride after-party for a routine inspection at 10:45 p.m., shut the party down before it started, and said the restaurant did not have a license to operate past midnight. Mind you, this message was delivered by about a dozen officersyet another story of excess in police recourse. Photo credit: Jose Vazquez That might intimidate some, but not veterans to the fight. The two women who lead MPU are both in their 60s. Meta is a petite woman whose long gray hair is perpetually in a braid. Her father, Reverend Robert Graetz, was one of the few white pastors who openly supported the Montgomery bus boycotts. Her childhood home was bombed by the KKK, so shes seen worse. Emma, slightly taller, has a pair of rectangular glasses and fine brown hair. A trans woman, she has championed LGBTQ rights for years. Emma, sincerely blunt in tone, tells me, Justin, we met on the steps of the Alabama Supreme Court fighting for marriage equality. Thats a story you couldnt write any better if you wanted. Five years later, Meta and Emma are married and facing a new hurdle for their community. When COVID-19 got serious, we cancelled all of our events and let people know that we would still be available for food and clothing supplies, and that we would get back with everybody, says Meta. Focus and support groups were moved online. Decreased hours for community outreach were implemented. Members were encouraged to contact the team directly for assistance while it continued to assess who might be in danger of losing employment and housing. Meta and Ellis began taking calls from members looking for companionship. We had a young person who desperately needed to just be with somebody, Meta explains. We called up somebody to see if they would be willing to go to the park and take walks with this person, still distancing. The thing about Meta and Emmas work is that it encompasses the hospitality of the South. Meta and Emma are amazing at understanding people and knowing when they need support, says board member Lucia Hermo, who recently relocated to New York. Right when you come in, youre brought in. Youre welcomed with open arms, because thats the purpose of Montgomery Pride. More than two months after the shutdown started, the entirely volunteer-run MPU staff is offering online serviceslike support groups and trans-visibility nights for isolated membersto about 100 people a week. COVID-19 closed the citys one gay bar, so MPU serves as the digital stomping ground. For those in desperate need, the community center remains open on Tuesdays and Fridays to distribute food and clothing. While there are some gay social groups in Montgomery, MPU is the only organization looking out for the welfare of LGBTQ people. And as Pride month approached, it knew that even if it were able to congregate for its regular Pride festivities, resources should continue to go toward caring for its people. Were worried, says Hermo. Were worried about our community members getting access to food and people paying their rent. We really wanted to make sure we werent pulled away from that community support work. Photo credit: Jill Friedman So instead of doing the march in Montgomery followed by a street fair, MPU decided to highlight how people celebrate Pride at home. Vazquez notes that for a lot of queer, rural Americans, celebrating alone and from a distance is the reality of Pride anyway. In a small town of 500, one gay man or woman may feel like the worlds most obvious sore thumb. Imagine being trans in that town. With #PrideInPlace, MPU wants to bring those rural queer folk into the fold by reaching out beyond even the city limits of Montgomery to invite them to participate in a June slate of online storytelling hours, support groups, performances, and social hangouts. Vazquez, who moved to Montgomery a couple years ago (he previously worked at Google in San Francisco, bringing Pride experiences to people across the country via virtual reality), helped to transition the team online for Pride 2020, knowing that the most important goal was to show community members and outsiders that the events would be available. I tell people to go to every event in Montgomery, because your presence is felt, he says. MPU then kicked off this year's Pride month with posts honoring Marsha P. Johnson and links to donate to Montgomery-area bail funds after the protests against police brutality started. Members of MPU have been out rallying in recent weeks, and it's a daunting balancing act: prioritizing personal health or necessary social justice activism. They are admittedly exhausted. But three hours away in Emma's hometown of Hunstville, a three-year-old was tear gassed by police. These protests are always personal. When I had first spoken with Meta and Emma, before the protests spread, they had been quick to note that an organization like theirs cannot exist without intersectionality. It's quite literally in the mission of their name: Montgomery Pride United. "We're hoping that this becomes, that the world at large becomes, a safe place for all people to grow up, and not be bullied or made to feel less than simply for their sexuality or any differences. In fact, it would be wonderful if people's differences were celebrated," Meta said. "I see so much division between races, between countries, between people of different sexualities. I would wish for a world where people were excited to meet folks that were different from them." Until Montgomery becomes the kind of place where all people have the access and acceptance they need to feel protected, especially in times of crisis, MPU will stand for them. When we opened our first community center years ago, our research found that there were only three counselors in the entire city of Montgomery who [indicated] they would treat or consult with LGBTQ clients, Emma explains. Only three in the whole city. With advocacy, that number is up to seven. Emma and Meta also say that its a similar struggle to get church groups to outright state that they are LGBTQ-affirming and will offer assistance to queer folk. That small indication can mean everything to struggling LGBTQ people in their city and the rural areas around it. Photo credit: Jill Friedman Some people in MPU are tethered to Montgomery in a way; theres really no other place for them to be. This is where Im supposed to be, Vazquez says. I dont know if youve ever gotten that feeling, where your body just tells you this is where youre supposed to be. Montgomery is the state capital, yes, but compared to major cities, it's small. A protest in Montgomery does not have the luxury of thousands, so every voice, every body, every attendee who calls it home feels bigger. That makes this all the more complicatedstay home or rally in public; donate or volunteer; stay in your lane or venture out. Members of Montgomery Pride United might be finding ways to protest and contribute out of the way of COVID-19's blind wrath, and they might be masking up and taking to the streets. But the endgame is the same: equality and stability. If those become the norm, then maybe the unthinkable moments like Dana and Emeralds passings become less and less frequent. The echoes arent quite as painful. The community heals. And to quote Emma, differences are celebrated instead of criticized. For that to happen though, the work must continue, opposition and pandemic be damned. So, perhaps Emerald is not gone. Emerald comes along for walks in the park. She lingers in Zoom calls. She exists in the protests that will happen in individual homes across Montgomery and beyond. And now, I suppose shes with you, too. You Might Also Like The once touted 'wonder drug' has been battling global controversies around its safety and efficacy as a prophylactic against COVID-19. However, India has stood by studies conducted by the ICMR and has recently even expanded the use of HCQ, reports Sohini Das. Photograph: George Frey/Reuters Amidst a raging global controversy, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) makers in India continue to produce the drug for regular rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes patients apart from catering to export orders. India is the world's largest manufacturer of HCQ, which is also an anti-malaria drug. The once touted 'wonder drug' has been battling global controversies around its safety and efficacy as a prophylactic against COVID-19. India continues to use the drug as a preventive for frontline workers like health care professionals and police personnel, apart from high-risk individuals, like close contacts of COVID-19 patients. A source in one of India's leading HCQ manufacturing companies said, "We were making HCQ even before the pandemic broke out and continue to do so. It is a Rs 100 crore brand for us. "The government had placed a big order, which we have already supplied. India continues to use the drug, and we can again supply when the government inventory for HCQ ends." He added that the drug has been in use for decades and is used daily by rheumatoid arthritis patients. "There is a hue and cry on whether a high dosage of HCQ is toxic. India is administering HCQ in 400 mg doses -- two doses on the first day, followed by one per week for three weeks for household contacts, or for seven weeks for healthcare workers. "Arthritis patients take 400 mg of the drug daily, and in all these years we have never had a medico-legal case of toxic side effects of HCQ," said the senior official quoted above. The Indian government had placed orders for 100 million tablets which have been delivered by two drug majors Ipca and Cadila Healthcare. Each patient requires either five to nine tablets. Going by that, the stock would last for months as it can cater to about 10 million people. In fact, in April, sales of the anti-malarial drugs saw an 11 per cent spike in the domestic market. At one point, Ipca used to make 600 tonnes per annum of chloroquine phosphate and had an 80 per cent share in the global market. However, the demand for the drug has reduced over the years with the particular malaria variant cases coming down. "We are getting queries from lots of small countries in Latin America and Europe. We are catering to these orders. India also continues to use HCQ. As of now there is no fresh order for HCQ from the government as they have enough stock," the source added. By May, India had scaled up its HCQ capacity to 300 million tablets per month. Controversy The inexpensive drug that has anti-inflammatory effects (the reason it is used in arthritis) came into limelight after US President Donald Trump promoted it. Industry insiders feel this may well have also been the drugs undoing. "The drug became a political issue and also caused a certain divide in the medical community. On top of that, one country in the world, suddenly shot to fame by supplying the drug to world," felt a drug firm owner, who did not wish to be named. Reputed peer reviewed medical journal The Lancet carried a study in May that said HCQ could lead to increased mortality rates and also came with the risk of adverse effects like cardiac arrhythmia. Lancet, however, red-flagged the study last week after several researchers and doctors wrote to it questioning the reliability of the data. Surgisphere, the company that supplied the data allegedly from over 96,000 patients across the globe, came under the scanner. In fact, another study published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that also used the same data was later retracted. This study was on cardiovascular disease, drug therapy and mortality in COVID-19. The World Health Organisation (WHO) suspended HCQ trials, which were part of the global Solidarity Trials. Last week it resumed the study after the Lancet study was red flagged. Meanwhile, there was another study in NEJM that also cast doubts on the use of HCQ. The study on 821 people had limitations though as most participants could not be tested using RT-PCR method. In an editorial in NEJM, Myron S Cohen, an American physician scientist, noted: "Some observational studies have suggested benefits of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19, whereas other treatment reports have described mixed results." Cohen further noted: "Drugs for the prevention of infections must have an excellent safety profile. When hydroxychloroquine was initially promoted as a possible solution to SARS-CoV-2 infection, the safety of the drug was emphasised. "Under closer scrutiny, however, the potential for cardiac toxic effects and overall adverse outcomes have been emphasised, especially in persons with underlying coexisting conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19." India, meanwhile, has stood by studies conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research and has recently even expanded the use of HCQ. Whether India will commission more studies to assess the risks and benefits of this drug is to be seen. MILLBROOK Millbrooks 4th Line Theatre cancelled its entire 2020 season on Tuesday after the Ontario government announced that performing arts shows wont be allowed to return until the third stage of the provinces reopening of the economy from the COVID-19 state of emergency. Kim Blackwell, the theatres managing artistic director, said the board pushed the drastic decision off as long as they could. Im very devastated at the idea of not having art at the 4th Line for the first time in almost 30 years, Blackwell said. And Im sick and worried for all of the artists, technicians, designers, and administrators who just lost their jobs because we cant open up. The two productions planned for this season The Great Shadow written by Alex Poch-Goldin and directed by Deb Williams and Maja Ardals Wishful Seeing directed by Blackwell will now take place in 2021. For many reasons, this year will go down in history, Blackwell said. Many milestones have been missed, families have been separated, those living in long-term care homes have been put at extreme risk, as well as all of the sicknesses and deaths, she said. In light of the death of George Floyd a Black man killed on May 25 by a white Minneapolis police officer who placed his knee on his neck during an arrest Blackwell said she is heartsick for the plight of Black Americans and Canadians and the racism that they face. I feel like the world is experiencing a seismic shift with not only COVID-19, but also with the mass protests across the globe, demanding an end to systemic anti-black racism, Blackwell said. Art is political in its nature, and it would have been remiss of me to not say something about it and to recognize that we have to do better at 4th Line, and all over the world in every sector. For the last couple of weeks, Blackwell said shes been silent on the issue while listening and learning from Black voices. I want acknowledge my privilege with my whiteness and I want to be someone who is listening to other voices and learning from them, but I also didnt want to stay silent, because I think silence is dangerous as well, she said. The theatre wants to ensure everything necessary is being done to address racism and continue to make inclusivity a priority, Blackwell said. Here at 4th Line Theatre, we are committed to looking at all of our artistic and administrative decisions over the next few months through a lens of ending anti-Black racism, she said. People who make art good art have a responsibility to advance individuals and communities who have been historically marginalized and under-represented by amplifying their stories, by building a culture that reflects their reality, and perhaps most powerfully, by giving them a platform to speak for themselves. Funded by the Government of Canada/Finance par le Gouvernement du Canada. Among Republicans, being called a Trump adviser is something conservatives fall all over themselves to claim as a term. Just ask Carter Page or George Stephanopoulos, two low-level hangers-on to Team Trump who were later railroaded for it. But now we have Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who seems to think being called a Joe Biden adviser is a racist term. According to the Daily Mail: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany of racism for calling her a 'Biden adviser' during Monday's briefing Here's her spectacular tears-and-flapdoodle tweets signalling what a victim of racism she is for this, all at the dreaded hands of White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany: .@PressSec wouldnt be the first person to mistake a women of color for having a lower position or title than she does, but Kayleigh - in case you havent picked up a newspaper in two years, Im a Congresswoman. https://t.co/3FRHo7dpTL Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 8, 2020 The @PressSec comment is steeped in a long, hurtful, & horrendous history of stripping women of color of titles and diminishing them to the help. Perhaps she isnt aware that what she did is mired in racist history. If that is the case, I look forward to her apology tomorrow. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 8, 2020 It's hurtful and horrendous to be called a Biden adviser? What does that say about Biden? That's some endorsement she's got for the man the Democrats would like to see replacing President Trump and are spending millions to do. And it's racist to say it? Unlike most Democrats, Republicans are perfectly aware of Biden being a racist, but according to AOC, now everyone who advises him is a racist, too? And just saying it is racist, too? That's some logic there, some impressive endorsement for the old Biden victory party. To start with, Ocasio-Cortez is a Biden adviser. She agreed to be that three weeks ago in this news story here: "Green New Deal" proponent Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., will reportedly serve on a climate change panel for former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign. "She made the decision with members of the Climate Justice community - and she will be fully accountable to them and the larger advocacy community during this process," Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for Ocasio-Cortez, told Reuters Tuesday. She's also a tax scofflaw, an economic illiterate, a socialist, and a campaign finance violator, all perfectly factual descriptors. "Adviser" was kind of complimentary, actually. Now for McEnany to say it is racist? Ocasio-Cortez doesn't like being called a Biden adviser because according to her, it's a rank and status thing, and in her mind, she's due some extreme status. She's nomenklatura, don't you know, same as in all socialist hellholes. It calls to mind Babs Boxer's howlings about being called "Senator," something that made her look like a boob, given that the highest rank of all in politics is "citizen." She seemed to confuse herself with "queen." Besides showing us all what a touchy, easily wounded devil she is, she's also a hypocrite: she did after all address press secretary McEnany as "Kayleigh," attempting to belittle her as a child. No practicing what she preaches in the AOC world. There's just one little problem with that victim-mongering, that slight that provoked Ocasio-Cortez's slew of bitter, wounded tweets: it's not true. And Ocasio-Cortez, true to form, remains fact-challenged, facts being something she told 60 Minutes she doesn't think is important. According to the Daily Mail: Ocasio-Cortez lashed out because she had seen a tweet from Politico's Jake Sherman that said McEnany had called the New York Democrat from the podium, 'Biden adviser Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.' In reality, McEnany had referred to AOC as a congresswoman in the sentence before. The White House response revealed Ocasio-Cortez's full beclowning: She got ratioed on Twitter for that one, told to grow up, quit playing victim, and stop embarrassing herself. As for Biden, who doesn't look any better for this "endorsement," no comment. Score another for the White House press secretary. Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of official photo. Education minister Suresh Bhardwaj on Tuesday challenged the Congress to issue a written chargesheet regarding the recent health department scam, stating that the state government will act on it. Addressing a press conference here, Bhardwaj said chief minister Jai Ram Thakur immediately took action as soon as the scam came to light. He said that Jai Ram was voted as best performing CM, but Congress leaders are busy politicising the matter and tarnishing the state governments reputation through baseless allegations. He also hit out at former chief minister Virbhadra Singh saying that many CBI cases against him were still pending and asked whether the Congress had forgotten that in the Vakamulla Chandershekhar case, the CBI had raided Singhs home. Bhardwaj said the state government has been done exceptional work during the pandemic. Even after the lockdown, no cases were reported in Himachal and many patients had been cured. Though Covid-19 cases in the state increased when Himachal residents returned from other states, it was the state governments responsibility to bring them back, he added. A controversial public charter school in south Alabama met its end today, two months before opening. The Alabama Public Charter School Commission, after deliberating for half an hour in executive session, voted to revoke Woodland Prep's charter for failing to meet conditions of pre-opening, lack of adherence to generally accepted financial standards, and failing to establish community support for the school. The vote came just less than two weeks after a hearing where representatives of the charter school laid out reasons why they have been unable to meet those conditions. The charter was initially approved in May 2018 and was scheduled to open in August. In February, commissioners voted to begin revocation proceedings. This is the first charter revoked by the Commission. Alabama currently has four public charter schools in operation under the authority of the Commission. Woodland Prep attorney Nash Campbell said, Its just a little disturbing that a large group of people that threaten businesses, threaten people--and also essentially used religious and racial elements--caused this school to never get off the ground. Related: Alabama looks to shut down controversial charter school before it opens Representatives of Woodland Prep said during the May 28 hearing that bullying of contractors and extensive rainfall made it difficult to get the school built and ready for inspection to get a certificate of occupancy, a requirement prior to opening. Woodland Prep board members said raising money had been difficult due to community pushback against the school, as businesses and donors did not feel they could publicly support the school's opening. Parents were afraid to publicly enroll their children in the charter school, Woodland Prep representatives said, in fear of retaliation by opponents of the charter school. Some in the community said they opposed the charter because the education service provider is a native of Turkey and practices the Muslim religion. Opponents said the charter school wasnt needed, that the five existing Washington County schools are successful academically and that money diverted to the charter school would harm their existing schools. On June 5, an Alabama Court of Appeals ordered the September 2019 lawsuit filed by the Alabama Education Association and three Washington County public school employees against the charter school dismissed, overturning a lower courts order allowing the suit to continue. In a statement, AEA President Sherry Tucker said, AEA has consistently said we support good charter schools. Woodland Prep was not going to be a good charter school." AEA Associate Executive Director Theron Stokes said the revocation was a long time coming. I hope this case serves as a warning shot to out-of-state corporate interests who may be looking to Alabama to make money in the charter school business Stokes added. "Where charter schools have been the result of grassroots activism by Alabamians, we have supported and will support them. Where they are a money-grabbing scheme, AEA will stand against them. The votes today also confirm, now, the members of the Commission are going to hold them accountable. A subcommittee of three state charter school commissioners will begin school closure proceedings. In other proceedings at Tuesday's Commission meeting, Capstone Charter School, scheduled to open in Tuscaloosa in 2021, surrendered its charter due to lack of financial support. Related: Rural charter school stokes religious fears, roils community in Alabama Update: This story was updated at 4:25 p.m. to include statements from the Alabama Education Association. The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has settled 36.02 lakh claims during coronavirus lockdown, disbursing an amount of Rs 11,540 crore under the EPF scheme, according to a statement released by labour ministry on Tuesday. Out of this, 15.54 lakh claims amounting to Rs 4,580 crore were related to the recently introduced COVID-19 advance under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). "Despite the lockdown restrictions EPFO settled a staggering 36.02 lakh claims, thereby disbursing Rs 11,540 crore to its members during the last two months of April and May 2020," Ministry of Labour & Employment said in a press release. In terms of wage slab, more than 74 per cent of total claimants during the lockdown period belonged to bracket of less than Rs 15,000 wage, the data showed. The high income category with wages more than Rs 50,000 accounted for a mere 2 per cent of the claimants. Around 24 per cent of claims were made by the members with wages falling in the Rs 15,000 to less than Rs 50,000 category, the ministry said. In March, the labour ministry had announced that about 4.8 crore EPF beneficiaries can withdraw 75 per cent of the amount standing to their credit, not exceeding their three months' basic pay, to tide over the COVID-19 pandemic. The ministry had issued a notification in this regard to amend the Employees' Provident Fund Scheme 1952, so that organised sector workers can withdraw the non-refundable advance. Also Read: Coronavirus crisis: Pensioners to benefit as EPFO releases enhanced pension The availability of these facilities through online services has brought much relief to the needy subscribers during the lockdown period, coming to their rescue during these testing times. "The COVID-19 advance has been a great help to EPFO's members during these difficult times, especially for the members with monthly wages of less than Rs 15,000. Receiving the COVID-19 advance to the extent of basic wages and DA for three months or up to 75 per cent of the amount standing to member's credit in the EPF account, whichever is less, has provided timely relief to many workers, preventing them from falling into indebtedness," the ministry said. Also Read: Coronavirus crisis: PSBs sanction loans worth Rs 17,705 crore to small businesses, says FinMin It further added that nearly 54 per cent of the COVID-19 claims are now being settled using artificial intelligence (AI) tools, which is expected to drastically cut down claim settlement time for EPFO in future. The use of artificial intelligence played a big role in achieving new benchmarks in claim settlement, it added. "With automation and dedicated workforce, EPFO is settling more than 80,000 claims every working day amounting to about Rs 270 crore, ensuring social security support for its members in times of crisis," labour ministry said. By Chitranjan Kumar Manitoba has not identified any new cases of COVID-19 as of Monday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us Manitoba has not identified any new cases of COVID-19 as of Monday. There are still no patients in hospital being treated for the virus, public health officials said in a news release Monday. The total number of lab-confirmed positive and probable positive cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba remains at 300. There are, however, nine active cases while 284 people in the province have recovered from COVID-19 to date. An additional 2,217 laboratory tests were performed between Friday and Sunday, bringing the total number of tests performed since early February to 49,591. The Brandon Sun PUNE, India, June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Icertis, the leading provider of enterprise contract management in the cloud, today announced the appointment of Ajay Bhandari to the newly created role of Executive Vice President and Global Head of Professional Services. Ajay will lead Icertis' implementation and service delivery teams to help customers derive maximum value from the Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform. For over 25 years, Ajay has designed company strategies and initiatives that ensure enterprise-wide application deployments, like contract management, quickly deliver value. Ajay has managed large global teams implementing Oracle, Salesforce, ADM and more, ensuring service excellence across hundreds of projects in multiple geographies. Ajay joins Icertis from Zensar Technologies Ltd. a leading digital solutions and technology services company where he served as an Executive Vice President & Chief Corporate Development Officer. As companies face disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated economic impacts, Ajay will be tasked with helping Icertis customers scope and execute projects that rapidly improve the bottom line. His senior leadership will be especially valuable helping customers and the Icertis professional services team create remote delivery programs at a time when business travel is being restricted. "We are thrilled to have Ajay join us on our journey to redefine the role of contract management by bringing it to the center of all commercial processes," said Neal Singh, Chief Operating Officer at Icertis. "Ajay has an incredible track record of ensuring essential projects, like the roll-out of the ICM platform, lead to transformative change within the organization." Ajay's appointment comes at a time when Icertis continues to grow rapidly and add iconic brands as customers. In 2019, the company's subscription revenues grew close to 100% YoY and, today, the company manages the world's largest portfolio of contracts with a total contracted value of over $1 trillion for the world's leading companies, including: 4 of the top 10 most valuable companies in the world, 5 of the top 8 biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, 4 of the top 7 biggest software companies in the world, 3 of the top 5 biggest manufacturing companies in the world, and 4 of the top 8 biggest consulting services companies in the world. "Icertis has a compelling vision for disrupting the enterprise contract management software market," said Ajay. "They've built a world-class team and product that I believe are two key ingredients in the recipe for success. I look forward to helping our customers create an intelligent enterprise, unlocking business value and ensuring they can accelerate commerce, protect against risk and drive efficiency and agility.'' About Icertis Icertis, the leading enterprise contract management platform in the cloud, solves the hardest contract management problems on the easiest to use platform. With Icertis, companies accelerate their business by increasing contract velocity, protect against risk by ensuring regulatory and policy compliance and optimize their commercial relationships by maximizing revenue and reducing costs. The AI-infused Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform is used by companies like Airbus, Cognizant, Daimler, Microsoft and Sanofi to manage 6.5 million contracts in 40+ languages across 90+ countries. Today, the analyst-validated industry leader serves 4 of the top 10 most valuable companies, 5 of the top 8 pharmaceutical companies, 4 of the top 7 software companies, 3 of the top 5 manufacturing companies and 4 of the top 8 consulting services companies. Icertis Media Contact: Haley Flanagan Corporate Communications Manager, Icertis [email protected] +1 (425) 869-7649 SOURCE Icertis Related Links http://www.icertis.com BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks were moving lower on Tuesday as investors locked in some profits after recent strong gains on hopes of a relatively quick global economic recovery. Growth worries swayed market mood after the World Bank warned the global economy will shrink by 5.2 percent this year, representing the deepest recession since the Second World War. In economic releases, the euro area economy contracted less-than-expected in the first quarter, the latest estimate by Eurostat showed. The bloc's quarterly reading came in at -3.6 percent, versus -3.8 percent reported in the preliminary reading. German exports declined at the sharpest pace since records began in 1950 due to the lockdown measures taken by economies across the globe, data published by Destatis revealed. Exports decreased 31.1 percent year-on-year in April following a 7.7 percent drop in March. This was the biggest fall since the introduction of foreign trade statistics in 1950. At the same time, imports decreased 21.6 percent annually after falling 4.4 percent a month ago. The last time imports went down that much was in July 2009 during the global financial crisis. British retailers reported a sharp fall in annual sales last month, but the figures showed some business recovery since April. The pan European Stoxx 600 fell 1.4 percent to 368.85 after declining 0.3 percent in the previous session. The German DAX tumbled 1.8 percent, France's CAC 40 index declined 1.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 1.3 percent. Banks paced the declines, with Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale falling 4-6 percent. British American Tobacco shares tumbled 3.8 percent. The tobacco group cut its annual profit and revenue forecasts, citing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in emerging markets. Housebuilder Bellway fell around 1 percent after saying it had sold about 1,000 fewer homes between August and May. Software giant Aveva jumped 4 percent as it reported a 22 percent rise in annual profit. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de COVID-19 in India may have originated from EU, Middle East: IISc study India pti-PTI Bengaluru, June 09: The novel coronavirus in India may have originated from Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and South Asia regions, according to a study by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru. The observation is a part of the findings of the IISc team comprising Kumar Somasundaram, Mainak Mondal and Ankita Lawarde after analysing 294 Indian viral genomes. Coronavirus may been spreading in China since August indicates study Delhi Health Minister claims 50% have no contact, Centre says no community spread | Oneindia News The objective of the study was to determine the genetic diversity among Indian SARS-CoV-2 viral isolates in comparison to the strains that are occurring worldwide. "The potential origin appears to be countries mainly from Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and South Asia regions, which strongly implies the spread of virus through the most travelled countries," the team noted. "Among different strains of the virus as identified by Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, Indian SARS-CoV-2 viruses are enriched with G (50 per cent) and I (6.7 per cent) clades in addition to 40 per cent samples with unknown genetic variants," it stated further. The team is also finding the functional impact of high occurrence non-synonymous mutations on the viral protein functions and use this information toward understanding immune escape mechanisms and also developing mutant specific therapies. The team noted that while the novel coronavirus increased to more than five million worldwide, it has just crossed over one lakh in India. The low infection rate in India, according to the team, could be due to long lockdown with effective social distancing, active identification of COVID-19 patients and quarantining them with proper treatment, presumed cross-immune protection and possibly variation in the viral strains that are introduced or prevalent in India. Coronavirus may spread across half of hospital surfaces in 10 hours: Study "Comparison of viral genome sequences from different regions/countries allows us to identify the genetic diversity among viruses which would help in ascertaining virulence, disease pathogenicity, as well as origin and spread of SARS- CoV-2, between countries," the team added. Wellington, June 9 : New Zealand has lifted almost all of its coronavirus restrictions after reporting no active cases in the country. At midnight local time (12:00 GMT), all of New Zealand moved to level one, the lowest of a four-tier alert system, the BBC reported on Monday. Under new rules, social distancing is not required and there are no limits on public gatherings, but borders remain closed to foreigners. New Zealand has reported no new Covid-19 cases for more than two weeks. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters she did "a little dance" when she was told the country no longer had any active virus cases. "While we're in a safer, stronger position, there's still no easy path back to pre-Covid life, but the determination and focus we have had on our health response will now be vested in our economic rebuild," Ardern said. "While the job is not done, there is no denying this is a milestone. So can I finish with a very simple, 'Thank you, New Zealand'." New Zealand first went into lockdown on 25 March, setting up a new four-stage alert system and going in at level four, where most businesses were shut, schools closed and people told to stay at home. After more than five weeks, it moved to level three in April, allowing takeaway food shops and some non-essential businesses to re-open. As the number of community cases continued to decline, the country moved into level two in mid-May. The move to level one comes ahead of time - the government had originally planned to make the move on 22 June, but it was brought forward after no new cases were reported for 17 days. Under the new rules, all schools and workplaces can open. Weddings, funerals and public transport can resume without any restrictions. Social distancing is no longer required but will be encouraged. The country's borders remain closed to foreign travellers, and rules remain in place requiring New Zealanders arriving from abroad to go through a 14-day period of isolation or quarantine. Ardern warned that the country would "certainly see cases again", adding that "elimination is not a point in time, it is a sustained effort". New Zealand has recorded 1,154 confirmed cases and 22 deaths from Covid-19 since the virus arrived in late February, but has been widely praised for its handling of the crisis. For many, the latest announcement is a cause for celebration - but not without caution. Auckland-based lorry driver Patrick Weston told the BBC: "Everyone is so happy we're finally through this, but we're still nervous. "I think the main thing people are worried about is the economy - so many people out of work, so many people looking for work at the same time. "[On Tuesday] all restrictions are lifted and we can carry on as normal. Sporting events, music events can all take place with no restriction of numbers. We're still being encouraged to social distance of course, so we hope people will be sensible. "We're happy, but nervous about the future." Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Dozens of protesters rallied outside the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok, demanding to know the fate of Wanchalearm Satsaksit, a Thai political activist living in exile in Cambodia's capital, whom rights advocates said had been abducted by unknown gunmen. Reuters reports. VOA Khmer's Pin Sisovann narrates. The following article is a written adaptation of an episode of Thrilling Tales of Modern Capitalism, Slates new podcast about companies in the news and how they got there. Although its known for making products for women, Victorias Secret was created as a shopping experience for men. It began in 1977, when a guy named Roy Raymond wanted to buy some underwear for his wife. He tried the ladies lingerie section at the department store, but he felt unwelcome, and he couldnt find anything that would make a good gift. He described the merchandise as racks of terry cloth robes and ugly floral-print nylon nightgowns. So Raymond, who had an MBA from Stanford, decided hed create a store where men did feel comfortable shopping for womens lingerie and where even everyday underwear had a touch of glamour. He named his store Victorias Secret because he thought it would evoke a sort of Victorian-era boudoir sexiness, and he outfitted his first base, in a storefront in Palo Alto, California, with dark wood, elegant rugs, and silk drapery. By 1982 hed expanded into a few more stores around the Bay Area and also launched a mail-order catalog. The company had decent sales, but it was struggling to make its balance sheet work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats when Les Wexner, an entrepreneur from Columbus, Ohio, came along. Wexner had launched a chain of womens clothing stores called the Limited, and he thought Roy Raymonds idea had potential. So even though Victorias Secret was losing money, Wexner swooped in and bought it for a million dollars. After that, the brand very quickly shot up in value. Within a decade of taking it over, Wexner had Victorias Secret raking in more than a billion dollars in annual sales. Its stores were everywhere. Its hit products, like the push-up Miracle Bra of the early 1990s, seemed perfectly attuned to the zeitgeist. Millions of Victorias Secret catalogs flew into mailboxes across the country. The Victorias Secret Fashion Show debuted in 1995 and evolved into a global media event. By 1998 Victorias Secret had 14 percent of the womens underwear market, and that number was climbing. In 2002 it introduced a spinoff brand called Pink, which was targeted at teenagers, and this too became a success. By 2013, Victorias Secret had gobbled up about a third of the market share in its category. It seemed Les Wexner had the magic touch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Victorias Secret had built its brand on images of absolutely flawless bodies, a level of perfection that no real womannot even the models in those photoscould ever achieve in real life. This was a hugely successful strategy for decades, until a few of the companys competitors realized the culture was ready for a change. In 2014, a brand called Aerie made a pledge not to photoshop pictures of its models in its marketing materials. It captioned the unretouched photos with taglines like We think the real you is sexy. Casey Crowe Taylor, who used to work in the companys PR department, says, When Aerie started their no-photoshop campaign, somebody raised their hand and was like, Would we ever consider doing something like this? And it was like, LOL. People were like, No, dont even bring that up. You might get fired. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A few years later, Rihanna launched a brand that put a very pregnant model in its lingerie fashion show. Some brands were using transgender models, older models, plus-size models. But Victorias Secret had built a $7 billion business around a very specific kind of fantasy: supermodels, glamour shots, angel wings, and diamond-studded bras. It was not about to throw all that away. Advertisement Advertisement Just before the 2018 Victorias Secret Fashion Show, which would turn out to be its last, chief marketing officer Ed Razek gave an interview to Vogue. He was asked whether the company might ever put a more diverse range of models on the runway. Razek dismissed the idea. He said there was no interest in a lingerie show featuring plus sizes. He didnt think the Victorias Secret show should feature transgender models because he said the show was a fantasy. There was an uproar over these comments, and Razek left the following year. Around the same time, Victorias Secret hired a transgender model for the first time, to promote its Pink line. Meanwhile, Les Wexner, the man whod bought Victorias Secret in 1982 and run it ever since, was facing his own image problems. Advertisement Advertisement Wexner fought to preserve the idea of a lingerie brand as a world of airbrushed, unattainable fantasy. Wexner had a long-standing, somewhat mysterious relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. They were friends. When Epstein was arrested in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking involving underage girls, Wexners ties to Epstein were back in the news. It turned out that Epstein had preyed on women in part by falsely claiming he was a recruiter for Victorias Secret models. The New York Times reported that Wexner was aware of Epsteins behavior. Advertisement Wexner has been praised for hiring and promoting a lot of women into top executive positions at Victorias Secret, but he also hired and promoted Ed Razek, and he fought as hard as anyone to preserve the idea of a lingerie brand as a world of airbrushed, unattainable fantasy. According to a Times story, when a staffer asked him if the companys reliance on ultraslender supermodels was making it look behind the times, Wexner responded, Nobody goes to a plastic surgeon and says, Make me fat. Advertisement Advertisement This February, Wexner, at 82 years old, the longest-serving chief executive in the S&P 500, stepped down as the head of his company. Around the same time, he attempted to sell a 55 percent stake in Victorias Secret to a private equity firm called Sycamore Partners. At a valuation of $1.1 billion, the sale price implied that Victorias Secret was worth only a fraction of what it had been just a few years before. But even with that discount, the sale fell through when the buyer got cold feet amid grave concerns about the pandemics effects on the business. Victorias Secret recently disclosed that its sales were down almost 50 percent, and it announced that it would permanently close about a quarter of its North American stores. Its the bleakest financial moment in the companys history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the interview that ended his career, Ed Razek called out one of the companys upstart rivals by name. Were nobodys third love, he said. Were their first love. So that rival underwear company, ThirdLove, which launched in 2012, seized the opportunity to promote its own different kind of brand, by responding with a full-page letter in the New York Times. The letter read, How in 2018 can the CMO of any public companylet alone one that claims to be for womenmake such shocking, derogatory statements? You market to men and sell a male fantasy to women. Your show may be a fantasy, but we live in reality. The letter highlighted the fact that the trends that Victorias Secrets old guard were failing to embrace, things like online commerce, social media marketing, and inclusive messaging, were the things that new brands were making their focus. Heidi Zak, co-founder and co-CEO of ThirdLove, says the goal was to sell underwear not through the lens of sex but by focusing on comfort and fit and how women wear underwear in real life. She says that even a few years ago, this was a revolutionary approach. Back in the early 80s, Roy Raymond thought the underwear on sale in the department store was old-fashioned and out-of-date. Maybe the idea behind Victorias Secret, of selling underwear with fantasy and glamour and multimillion-dollar fashion shows, is whats out-of-date now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Victorias Secret is still a giant player in the underwear business. Its many times larger than a company like ThirdLove. But bigger means less nimble, at a time when slow-moving retailers are getting crushed. Victorias Secret has more than 900 brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. alone. When sales were booming, those stores made the brand ubiquitous. But foot traffic in malls has been dropping for years. And meanwhile, the company is stuck with massive rent obligations. A company like ThirdLove that sells to consumers almost exclusively online can do lots of things that Victorias Secret, with its stocks of merchandise sitting in the backrooms of hundreds of stores, just cant do as dexterously. If Victorias Secret ever reemerges from the mire it now finds itself in, it will have to learn to stop telling women how they should look. Thatll only happen if it takes an honest gaze in the mirror. To listen to the full episode, click the player below or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. A 14-year-old girl is said to have committed suicide because she was unable to access online classes, due to having no internet at home. Devika Balakrishnan was reportedly found near her home in Valancherry in Kerala, India with an empty bottle of toxic liquid nearby. It is thought her family was unable to afford home internet, and the girl was worried about falling behind during the countrys coronavirus lockdown. Her father, who has struggled to work recently due to illness, told local media his daughter had been depressed at not being able to join the classes easily. She was worried about falling behind in her classes (Image: CEN) But we had no money to repair the television and we have no smartphone. The case has sparked protests in Kerala, with demonstrators saying the teenagers death highlighted the inequalities in Indias lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Poor students in rural areas are said to be less likely to be able to attend online classes. The girls father was out of work due to illness (Image: CEN) Mr Abhijith, the head of the Kerala Students Union, said: The government action has put the poor students under stress and pressure. Indias Minister for Education Professor Raveendranath, 64, said an investigation into the case would be launched. He added: We have conducted a survey about facilities at the homes of students and introduced neighbourhood classrooms for poor students who have no television or smartphones. We have launched the online classes on an experimental basis and will be re-telecasting all classes again and again. But it was unfortunate that the girl committed suicide. Some schools in India are beginning to reopen but many are still providing classes online, with the state government directing all local governments to create neighbourhood classrooms with televisions to display the classes for those who cannot access them at home. Source: mirror.co.uk 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 woman in England who failed to persuade the country's Supreme Court justices that her loveless marriage should end has welcomed moves to reform divorce law. Tini Owens, who lost a Supreme Court fight nearly two years ago, said she is pleased that politicians there have voted to bring in no fault divorce legislation. MPs approved the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill, at second reading, late last night. Britain's Justice Secretary Robert Buckland had said introducing a no-fault divorce would make separation less traumatic. Hugh Owens (Dominic Lipinski/PA) My devastating experience going through the divorce courts left me trapped in my marriage and unable to move forward with my life, said Mrs Owens. I am so pleased with the vote to bring in legislation which is fit for the 21st century and which should mean that in the future, couples will not have to go through the unhappy, long, arduous and expensive divorce process which I have had to endure and which I would recommend to no-one. Supreme Court justices ruled that Mrs Owens had to stay married to husband Hugh Owens in July 2018. Mrs Owens, then 68, had said her 40-year marriage to Mr Owens, then 80, was loveless and broken down, and she said she wanted a divorce. She said he had behaved unreasonably and said she should not reasonably be expected to stay married. But Mr Owens had refused to agree to a divorce, justices heard, and denied Mrs Owens allegations about his behaviour. He said if their marriage had irretrievably broken down it was because she had an affair, or because she was bored. Mrs Owens has welcomed the reform plans (Dominic Lipinski/PA) The solicitor who represented her also welcomed plans for reform. I am delighted that the House of Commons have voted in favour of divorce law reform, said Simon Beccle, who is based at Payne Hicks Beach. Once, hopefully, this no-fault or no-conduct divorce legislation has been brought into effect, couples will be able to divorce with greater dignity without them having to trawl over their conduct or behaviour towards one another and attribute blame for the breakdown, which often has a negative effect at the outset of proceedings and so often damages efforts to resolve issues relating to finances and children. When the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted global supply chains, major international brands canceled their garment orders, and with it put millions of workers in Asia out of work. Popular brands saw their sales drop and have canceled orders from several countries, including from Cambodia and Bangladesh. Other brands have reduced their orders or renegotiated their terms. This has far-reaching consequences in the countries where the clothes are produced. Suppliers cannot pay their workers, and with brands canceling orders, union workers VOA Khmer spoke to have called on buyers to stay with them during challenging times. They argue that workers have contributed to the brands wealth over the last three decades through their manual labor, and the crisis should not be carried by the workers alone. But labor protection is scarce, and many workers have been laid off without severance pay or outstanding pay, union activist Nazma Akter said. This kind of issue is really sad for us because they are not respecting the workers, said Akter, founder of labor rights organization AWAJ Foundation, during a recent forum organized by Cornell Universitys ILR School. The brands, they are more [focused] on are the profit. The suppliers, they want to profit. No one is taking care of the loser. Bangladesh is the second-biggest garment exporter after China and has over 4,000 factories that employ more than 4 million workers. Its annual export of $35 billion accounts for 80 percent of its total export and contributes to 13 percent of the GDP. The minimum wage for garment workers is about $95 a month. By the end of April, exports worth over $3.18 billion had been canceled or suspended, affecting 2.28 million workers, according to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. Akter said some major US and EU brands had not taken enough responsibility for their orders and workers welfare. This is the time to cooperate - not to cause the hurting of hundreds of workers lives and their community at risk, she said. But major brands told VOA Khmer they are committed to long-term business in the region even when facing a pandemic. We try to avoid the cancelation of orders, said Stefan Porsche, Adidas media relations officer. We are working in close collaboration with our partners to shift some of the orders to the second half of the year. The company said they had initiated a program to increase the health and safety requirements for suppliers since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in China. This includes providing additional protective masks, hand sanitizers, health checks, and more intensive cleaning measures. We are also promoting the exchange of information among our partners, particularly to leverage the experience gained in China to other countries, Porsche said. Since late April some factories in Bangladesh have resumed production. But in Cambodia, the worst is yet to come. About 250 factories had suspended their operations and more than 130,000 garment workers had lost their jobs, according to a joint statement issued on June 2 by the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), Cambodia Footwear Association, and the European Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia. Most others had reduced their activities, the press release said. Ken Loo, secretary-general of GMAC, said the number would likely rise. In total 300,000 workers could lose their jobs, he said in an interview in early May. An estimated 800,000 garment workers are employed in Cambodia, producing clothing amounting to roughly 80 percent of Cambodias exports. Cambodia exported over $6.4 billion of garment products in the first ten months of 2019, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, urged brands to stick to their promises. We have to acknowledge that this is a global issue, not just in Cambodia, he said. But buyers should pay for what they have already ordered. Cambodia supplies garments and footwear products to major brands including Adidas, Nike, H&M. Ia Elf, H&M Group spokeswoman, told VOA that her company was aware of the situation. The rapid spread of the COVID-19 around the world has caused an exceptional situation and we know that the garment manufacturing suppliers, and their employees, are extremely vulnerable, she said. The crisis has a huge impact on millions of garment workers living in countries highly dependent on the textile industry. To alleviate the effects, H&M had recently joined a Call to Action to support garment workers, she said. This call includes a commitment to protecting garment workers income, health, and employment by paying for manufactured goods and goods in production. We are placing orders based on current forecasts and will continue to evaluate the situation on a daily basis, Elf said. And just as under normal circumstances, we will keep an open dialogue with suppliers about purchasing planning an important part of being a responsible buyer, not just in times of crisis. In a similar vein, Nike said in a statement sent to VOA Khmer that the company would continue placing orders based on the market situation. We will continue to pay in full for finished products from all suppliers globally while honoring previously agreed payment terms for products in production, the Nike press office statement said. In the case of canceled orders, our policies and agreements with suppliers are, and have always been, that Nike will pay the appropriate amount of the order, depending on the stage of production as communicated by our supplier to enable the supplier to recover costs associated with the canceled order. Experts believe that neither suppliers nor big brands were prepared for the pandemic of this magnitude. Going forward, they should institute safety measures, Sarosh Kuruvilla, Professor of Industrial Relations at Cornell Universitys ILR School said. Proactively, for crises like this... what brands, the buyers, and the suppliers could have instituted is unemployment insurance through the payment of premium, he said. Some retailers in the US have struggled financially and laid-off workers, with some having filed for bankruptcy. JC Penney filed for partial bankruptcy mid-May. Kohls sales dropped by 43.5 percent in the first three months of 2020. David Hayer, senior vice president of Global Sustainability at Gap Inc., said brands should take the opportunity to scout talent from other industries, such as the automobile industry, that had a better understanding of how to build strategic partnerships within their supply chains. Instead of only focusing on seasonal orders, he said, brands should build long-term partnerships from the production to the retailer levels. The opportunity is to go and get ... the right talent. A lot of these apparel supply chains have people that havent thought through how to build strategic relationships with vendors, the Gap executive said. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler held a press conference Tuesday afternoon to unveil reforms to citys police bureau and other changes he plans in the wake of massive protests that have rocked Oregons biggest city for 12 days. He said he will end the police bureaus gun violence reduction unit soon and, beginning in January, will no longer have Portland police officers lead or take part in the multi-agency Transit Police. He also said he and others will plan for a more trusted and more effective police accountability board than the current Independent Police Review committee in the office of the city auditor. He indicated that officers on the two teams he plans to disband plus the school resource officers he already told to stop patrolling schools will be assigned to patrol duty or other units of the police agency rather than let go. He said his changes will save the bureau $7 million but did not specify where the savings would come from. He pledged to spend that money plus $5 million on initiatives to help build the health, wealth and well-being of black people in Portland but said the spending choices have yet to be made. He said his white privilege had blinded him to the need for action in the past and acknowledged he should have acted with greater urgency on issues of police violence and systemic anti-black racism. The community has spoken loudly and clearly, he said. On Monday, Wheeler oversaw a remarkable change at the head of the bureau, as Chief Jami Resch, a white woman whose four top deputies were also white, stepped aside to allow 18-year bureau veteran Lt. Chuck Lovell, who is African American, ascend to the top role. Lovell joined Wheeler at the virtual Tuesday event to announce the planned changes at the bureau. Lovell said these are difficult times for police officers in Portland and elsewhere. Police officers everywhere feel their lifes work is being called into question. He said he and the mayor are trying to align our department with what the community is asking for. I am asking the community to support our officers as we move forward, Lovell added. The death of George Floyd, captured on video as a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes, has helped galvanize large swaths of the population in Portland and other U.S. communities to protest against police violence and systemic anti-black racism. Wheeler, who has served as police commissioner since taking office in January 2017, has some ability to change policing practices unilaterally. But other potential changes would require changes to police union contracts, the citys budget and other policies determined by the entire City Council. Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said earlier Tuesday that she will formally propose on Wednesday that the council expand its use of two-person teams of an emergency medical technician and a mental health professional to respond to 911 calls involving people who are homeless or in mental health crisis or both in place of armed police officers. -- Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@oregonian.com; @OregonianPol Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen speaking at the Taipei Guest House as part of her inauguration for her second term as in office, in Taipei. AFP Photo As Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was sworn in for a second term on May 19, messages of congratulations came from dignitaries in 41 countries, including India. In a joint message, BJP MPs Meenakshi Lekhi and Rahul Kaswan emphasised Taiwans democratic credentials and noted that both India and Taiwan are democratic countries, bonded by shared values of freedom, democracy and respect for human rights. It noted that the two countries had over the years enhanced bilateral ties enormously in trade, investment and people-to-people contacts. Due to the coronavirus restrictions, all 92 foreign personalities participated virtually, including US secretary of state Mike Pompeo. In her remarks, President Tsai promised Taiwan will play a more active role in the peace, stability and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region, and deepen ties with the US, Japan, Europe and other like-minded countries. President Tsai has very warm feelings towards India and visited it in 2014 in an effort to know India better. Predictably, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi protested against the virtual attendance by two Indian MPs, saying even congratulatory message by them was utterly wrong. Earlier, during President Tasis inauguration for her first term in May 2016, there was an avoidable drama about the BJPs participation. India first decided to allow an MP from New Delhi and an academic to attend the ceremony in their personal capacities. But these personal visits were also called off, after the invitation was accepted. The reason then was perhaps the impending China visit of then President Pranab Mukherjee, and some pressure must have been put on South Block from the Chinese embassy. The larger Sangh Parivar kept active contacts with Taiwan, and BJP vice-president Vinai Sahasrabhdhe led a party delegation to Taiwan in 2009. BJP general secretary Ram Madhav hosted a dinner for a Taiwanese MPs delegation in February 2017. In his famous letter to Jawaharlal Nehru on November 7, 1950, then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had out his grave misgivings on the real intentions of Mao Zedongs China towards India. He said that Chinese feelings indicate though we may see ourselves as friends of China, the Chinese dont regard us as friends. Questioning the line taken by Nehru and ambassador K.M. Panikkar in Beijing, Sardar Patel asked the Prime Minister to examine the question of Chinas entry into the UN. In view of the rebuff China has given us and the methods it followed in dealing with Tibet, I am doubtful whether we can advocate its claim any longer. Indias Iron Man clearly linked Chinas suppression of Tibet with our recognition of the Peoples Republic. Sardar Patel had grave doubts about Nehrus placing all his faith in the PRC when Taiwan (then) occupied the China seat at the UN. There is considerable research on the hypothesis that Sardar Patel made up his mind to oppose Nehrus China policy in a Cabinet meeting on November 21, 1950. However, he fell ill and couldnt attend the meeting. Patels health deteriorated rapidly and he died on December 15, 1950, leaving Nehru unfettered to pursue his disastrous China policy. The Jan Sangh, the BJPs original avatar, always championed the cause of free Tibet and close Taiwan ties. On July 8, 1959, it adopted a resolution on Tibets Independence. After recounting the tightening Chinese grip on Tibet, the resolution stated: The Bharatiya Jan Sangh feels it is morally incumbent on India to redeem its past remissness with regard to Tibet, and India should take immediate and effective steps to see Chinas aggressions in Tibet may cease, her armies of occupation withdrawn from Tibet, and Tibets independence is secured. The last sentence of the resolution says: India should direct all its efforts towards securing Tibets independence. This legacy was assiduously nurtured by the Sangh Parivar. The prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile at Dharamsala, Lobsang Sangay, was invited to Prime Minister Narendra Modis oath-taking in May 2014. The Vivekananda Foundation, established by the NSA Ajit Doval, has always advocated a more activist foreign policy regarding Tibet. The president of the Central Tibetan Administration delivered the Third M.L. Sondhi Memorial Lecture in New Delhi in 2017, with Ram Madhav as the chief guest. In March 2018, Mr Madhav attended the ceremony Thank You India in Dharamsala organised by the government-in-exile to mark 60 years of the Dalai Lamas arrival in India. Sardar Patels grave misgivings about the PRCs real intentions towards India were not heeded by Prime Minister Nehru but were proven true by the subsequent tragic events that led to Indias humiliation in 1962. Unfortunately, the attitude of Xi Jinpings government in Beijing is again not friendly towards India. It is critically important that the PRC learns that the Narendra Modi government is not wedded to Nehruvian beliefs and will chart its own independent course. The Modi government is also not a captive of history, as the abrogation of Article 370 amply proves. There is nothing sacrosanct in the so-called One China Policy and the people and the Indian government have the right and the responsibility to recalibrate that policy to suit Indias national interests. The subtle messages being sent by the Sangh Parivar on Tibet and Taiwan should be examined very seriously by Beijing. Where Did the Idea of Levels of Hell Come From? While there are a variety of sources that portray hell as a place of levels, where different sin is punished according to its nature, the most influential and prominent one comes from Divinia Commedia, or the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. This narrative poem took twelve years to write. It is a masterwork of literature, with vivid imagery, well-constructed verses, and even interesting mathematical and scientific themes. It tells the story of the writer, Dante, searching for his dead lover Beatrice while exploring the three realms, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. In English, those are hell, purgatory, and heaven, or paradise. While all three literary works are excellent, the Inferno captured the worlds imagination in an enduring way. Here, the circles of hell are laid out as nine circles, each punishing greater wickedness, until Dante and his guide, the poet Virgil, reach the center of the earth: - Limbo: The unbaptized and the virtuous pagans; similar to earth, but sufferers live in sorrow for being forever separated from God. - Lust: People who committed lust-driven sins like adultery and fornication; the souls are blown about in a terrible storm without rest. - Gluttony: The overindulgent sinners; forced to lie in freezing slush. - Avarice and Prodigality: The place for the greedy and the ungenerous; they must smash heavy weights together again and again. - Wrath and Sullenness: Those who were always angry or gloomy; the wrathful must engage in eternal fights while the sullen are always sunk beneath the river Styx. - Heresy: These souls spoke or acted against God or the church; trapped in flaming tombs. - Violence: Those who committed violence against others, property, themselves, as well as con artists; immersed in boiling blood. - Fraud: All types of fraud are punished here including seducers, false prophets, and sorcerers; they run back and forth while being whipped by demons. - Treason: Here, Judas, Brutus, and Cassius are in the jaws of Satan, frozen in a lake of ice. Dantes version of hell punishes the unrepentant sinner in a manner that is fitting their sins. For those who confessed and repented before they died, their souls labor in purgatory to be freed of their sins eventually. This version of hell is more influenced by Aristotle than by the Bible, with the punishment fitting the specific crime, as well as by implying that people are only guilty of one specific sin over all others. In fact, Dantes entire trilogy is not meant to be taken literally. It is an allegory for the Christian journey towards God. The inferno is where the soul recognizes its own sin, rejecting it and turning away from it and towards God. Dante emphasized this by having the journey through hell being the only journey downwards; after the ninth circle, the other two climb upwards. Purgatory represents the penitent Christian life, striving to repent of sin and be more holy. Paradise is the achievement of going to God, and finally ascending to be with Him. While it is a powerful image, the inferno of Dante is not an actual depiction of hell, and should not be taken that way. Photo credit: Pixabay/Rhodan59 By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 08, 2020 | 08:56 AM | PADUCAH Mercy Health Lourdes Hospital has updated its visitor restrictions put in place in response to COVID-19. No visitors are allowed for patients diagnosed with or suspected of having COVID-19 (exception is made in instances of end of life.) For all other patients, the following policies apply to visitors to the hospital: One visitor at a time will be allowed for each admitted patient One visitor will be allowed to accompany a patient in the ER Two visitors are allowed for a patient in labor. One visitor is allowed following delivery All visitors must be at least 15 years of age and are asked to conclude visits by 5 p.m. each day No visitors with signs or symptoms of illness will be permitted and all visitors must pass a temperature check and screening to be allowed entry to the hospital All visitors are required to bring a mask and must wear it at all times within the hospital (including while in a patient room.) The only exception is when eating and drinking A visitor will be required to remain in a patients room even when the patient is not present. A visitor may leave only to purchase food but must return to the patients room to eat Members of the clergy can visit by request of a patient but will count as that patients visitor Visiting guidelines may differ in the hospitals specialty units, such as behavioral health, which currently is not open to visitation. It is recommended to call in advance before visiting a loved one in a specialty unit. Mercy Health Lourdes Hospital recommends that anyone at high risk for severe illness, such as older adults or those with serious underlying conditions, not visit at this time. D onald Trump has claimed an elderly man who was seriously injured after being pushed by police was an Antifa activist. Martin Gugino was captured on video last week being pushed over by police in Buffalo, New York, during protests in the wake of George Floyd's death. Two officers pushed Mr Gugino backwards, causing him to hit his head on the pavement. In the footage, which subsequently went viral, blood can be seen spilling from his head. The video sparked international outrage. However, President Trump claimed that Mr Gugino "fell harder than he was pushed". "Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment, @OANN" "I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? The tweet comes as Donald Trump and Republicans seized on calls to defund the police as a dangerous example of Democratic overreach as the US president fights crises that threaten his re-election in November. Mr Gugino hit his head on the ground after being pushed by police / AP Prominent Democrats, including presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, are distancing themselves from the defund push, which some supporters say is a symbolic commitment to end systemic racism and change policing priorities rather than an actual plan to eliminate police forces. But confusion over the proposals intent has created an opportunity for Mr Trump, who has struggled to navigate the delicate debate over racial justice, risking support from people of colour, suburban women and independents less than five months before election day. Facing increasing pressure to weigh in, Mr Biden addressed the issue on Monday in an interview with CBS Evening News. I dont support defunding the police. I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency, honourableness and, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community, everybody in the community, Mr Biden said. Shelley Davies waits for her delivery at Plants and Friends./Douglas Zimmerman/SFGate LATEST June 9, 4:50 p.m. A BART employee has tested positive for the coronavirus, the agency said in a press release Tuesday afternoon. The employee, who lasted work Sunday, "wore a mask and gloves and socially distanced themselves during their shifts prior to the test and is now in quarantine." According to BART, contact tracing shows that the infected person "had no close contact with the public," but did spend time in stations and on trains throughout the system. All identified employee contacts have been quarantined for testing, BART said. June 9, 4:25 p.m. San Francisco supervisors voted 10-1 Tuesday to make permanent a moratorium on evictions related to loss of income due to the coronavirus. The effort, spearheaded by Supervisor Dean Preston (District 5), generates income for housing relief funds, but does not cover rent forgiveness. It does not waive the tenants obligation to pay, Preston said. It simply takes eviction out of the equation. As the San Francisco Examiner reports, the legislation's next step is a tax proposal. June 9, 4:10 p.m. Here's a rundown of new cases and deaths reported in the Bay Area. The list will be updated as more details are released by the county health department. Marin County reported 10 new cases for a total of 635. The death toll remains 17. Napa County announced four new cases for a total of 157. The death toll remains three. Santa Clara County announced 44 new cases and one additional death. The case total is now 3,017, and the death toll is 146. Solano County announced 20 new cases for a total of 610. The death toll remains 23. Sonoma County reported 11 new cases for a total of 664. The death toll remains four. Alameda County reported one new death and 40 new cases to bring its death toll to 102 and its case total to 3,985. Contra Costa announced three new deaths and 68 new cases to increase its death toll to 43 and its case total to 1,774. San Francisco reported one new death and 14 new cases to bring its total to death toll to 44 and its case total to 2,793. San Mateo announced five new deaths and 43 new cases to bring its death total to 93 and case total to 2,437. June 9, 3:25 p.m. The Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau announced that it will welcome the return of tourism on June 12, when it enters into Stage 3 of Californias reopening roadmap. Hotels and campgrounds will reopen, and while attractions like aquariums and museums are allowed to be open, it's best to check before going. Restaurants, bars and wineries have already reopened with safety protocols in place. June 9, 3 p.m. Here's a rundown of new cases and deaths reported in the Bay Area. The list will be updated as more details are released by the county health department. Alameda County reported one new death and 40 new cases to bring its death toll to 102 and its case total to 3,985. Contra Costa announced three new deaths and 68 new cases to increase its death toll to 43 and its case total to 1,774. San Francisco reported one new death and 14 new cases to bring its total to death toll to 44 and its case total to 2,793. San Mateo announced five new deaths and 43 new cases to bring its death total to 93 and case total to 2,437. June 9, 1:55 p.m. The State of California is giving a dozen sectors of the economy the green light to reopen in counties with regional variances on Friday, June 12. These include galleries, gyms and fitness centers, wineries, bars and breweries, family entertainment centers, zoos and museums, and hotels for tourism and travel. Solano County jumped ahead of the state and allowed those businesses that met state guidance to reopen on June 8. Read the full Solano County order here. June 9, 12:25 a.m. The California Department of Motor Vehicles announced Tuesday it will open all 169 field offices by appointment only beginning Thursday. The DMV has been rescheduling appointments canceled during the closure and notifying customers of their new dates, according to a statement. Once the DMV has accommodated those customers, new appointment slots will become available. The DMV is offering limited services that can only be taken care of in-person in a field office including paying registration for a vehicle impounded because of registration-related issues, reinstating a suspended or revoked driver license and applying for a reduced-fee or no-fee identification card. For a full list of services visit the DMV website. Behind-the-wheel tests aren't available due to physical distancing concerns and will resume in the coming weeks. June 9, 11:48 A Change.org petition with nearly 4,000 signatures is calling on the City of San Francisco to allow bars to reopen a month earlier than is currently planned. Mayor London Breed issued a timeline for reopening last month and bars are scheduled to open in mid-August at the same time as nail salons, playgrounds and gyms. "We are respectfully asking the city to reconsider and allow bars to reopen July 13th instead, at the same time as restaurants," the petition reads. "One extra month of service might not sound like much, but for many bar owners and their employees it's literally the difference between economic survival and catastrophe." The petition was issued by drag star Heklina and Ben Bleiman, president of the S.F. Entertainment Commission and owner of multiple bars. "Bars can provide a safe, responsible, SUPERVISED environment for patrons with social distancing, partitioning, capacity limitations, and group sizes strictly enforced," the petition reads. "Dedicated staff can disinfect and sanitize before and after patrons, which is certainly not happening in people's apartments or on packed sidewalks/picnic tables in the park where people are currently gathering." June 9, 11:20 a.m. Just in time for summer, Yosemite National Park is welcoming back visitors Thursday after being closed for more than two months amid the coronavirus pandemic. To control crowds, the park is requiring visitors coming for the day to make a reservation online. The park usually sees about 4 million visitors a year and restrictions are expected to limit the number of people by up to 50%, the National Park Service said. In addition, some park facilities, including campgrounds and visitor centers, will remain closed or have limited access to help prevent the spread of the virus. "Its going to be a different kind of summer, and we will continue to work hand in hand with our gateway communities to protect community health and restore access to Yosemite National Park," Acting Superintendent Cicely Muldoon said in a statement. The park officially reopens Thursday at 7 a.m. The Associated Press contributed to this report. June 9, 11 a.m. San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced Tuesday restaurants in the city can begin offering sit-down meal service outdoors with safety measures in place on June 12. The mayor's office will release an official modification to the stay-at-home order later this week along with guidance for restaurants on how to reopen as early as this Friday. Restaurants will be required to maintain social distancing and guests will only be allowed to enter establishments to use restrooms, order at an indoor counter or to access an outdoor space. Tables must be limited to six customers, except for members of the same household. Diners will be required to wear face coverings until seated and any time they leave the table, such as to use the restroom. Read the full story about restaurants opening in San Francisco on SFGATE. June 9, 9 a.m. Movie theaters in California counties with regional variances can begin opening later this week if they limit theater capacity to 25% or no more than 100 attendees, under state guidance released Monday. While less-populated counties in more rural parts of the state may take this step, the more urban counties in the Bay Area are unlikely to open theaters soon. In the Bay Area, Solano, Sonoma and Napa counties have all qualified for regional variances and could potentially open theaters. Movie theaters are part of a long list of other businesses sectors that can start reopening as early as Friday as the nation's most populous state relaxes its stay-at-home order and moves into what Gov. Gavin Newsom has called Stage 3. Counties that meet certain metrics, including number of cases, positive test rates and testing and tracing capabilities, can move into Stage 3. The state recommends movie theaters implement reservation systems, assign arrival times and keep some seats empty, allowing movie-goers to maintain 6 feet (2 meters) of distance from other groups. Movie-goers should, at a minimum, wear face coverings when entering and exiting the theater or buying concessions, the state guidance says. The state also suggests theaters use disposable or washable seat covers that are easy to clean and prop open doors so people don't have to touch handles. The Associated Press contributed to this report. June 9, 7:30 a.m. Santa Clara County and San Jose elected leaders this month criticized local public health officials over a lack of clarity and adequate notice in their plans to ease shelter-in-place restrictions due to COVID-19. The criticism, which follows relative strong support for local measures taken to stop the coronavirus spread by health officials, began at the San Jose City Council meeting June 2. At that meeting, councilmembers questioned the county's sudden announcement of its latest change to the shelter-in-place order -- which opened in-person retail, manufacturing, religious services and outdoor dining -- which was to begin last Friday. City leaders complained they didn't have enough time to prepare businesses for the changes. "I pressed the issue repeatedly, asking the county ... to please articulate a clear basis for when openings will happen," said Mayor Sam Liccardo. Read the full story on SFGATE. Bay City News contributed to this story. Coronavirus in the greater Bay Area: A county-by-county snapshot ALAMEDA COUNTY: 3,985 confirmed cases, 102 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail and manufacturing For more information on Alameda County, visit the public health department website. CONTRA COSTA COUNTY: 1,774 confirmed cases, 43 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail and manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, outdoor dining, swimming pools, outdoor religious services. For more information on Contra Costa County, visit the public health department website. LAKE COUNTY: 30 confirmed cases What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail, manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, offices where telework is not possible, received state approval to open dine-in restaurants, shopping malls and schools For information on Lake County, visit the public health department website. MARIN COUNTY: 635 confirmed cases, 17 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail and manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, outdoor dining, outdoor religious services. Fore more information on Marin County, visit the public health department website. MONTEREY COUNTY: 763 confirmed cases, 11 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail, manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, offices where telework is not possible, received state approval to open dine-in restaurants, shopping malls and schools For more information on Monterey County, visit the public health department website. NAPA COUNTY: 157 cases, 3 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail, manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, offices where telework is not possible, received state approval to open dine-in restaurants, shopping malls, schools and hair salons For more information on Napa County, visit the public health department website. SAN BENITO COUNTY: 109 confirmed cases, 2 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail, manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, offices where telework is not possible, received state approval to open dine-in restaurants, shopping malls and schools For more information on San Benito County, visit the public health department website. SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY: 2,793 confirmed cases, 44 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail and manufacturing For more information on San Francisco County, visit the public health department website. SAN MATEO COUNTY: 2,437 confirmed cases, 93 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail and manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, outdoor dining, swimming pools, outdoor religious services. For more information on San Mateo County, visit the public health department website. SANTA CLARA COUNTY: 3,017 confirmed cases, 146 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities; retail and manufacturing, pet grooming, outdoor dining Fore more information on Santa Clara County, visit the public health department website. SANTA CRUZ COUNTY: 235 confirmed cases, 2 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail, manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, offices where telework is not possible, received state approval to open dine-in restaurants, shopping malls and schools For more information on Santa Cruz County, visit the public health department website. SOLANO COUNTY: 610 confirmed cases, 23 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: All "low-risk" businesses that can comply with physical distancing guidelines; received state approval to open dine-in restaurants, shopping malls, schools, and hair salons For more information on Solano County, visit the public health department website. SONOMA COUNTY: 664 confirmed cases, 4 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail, manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, offices where telework is not possible, received state approval to open dine-in restaurants, shopping malls, schools, and hair salons. For more information on Sonoma County, visit the public health department website. CORONAVIRUS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Here are answers to your most frequently asked questions about coronavirus Should you wear a mask outside at all times? Sweden's 'herd immunity' experiment backfires With more research on kids and coronavirus, a UCSF doctor shares what parents need to know WHEN WILL THE BAY AREA REOPEN? What's open and closed in California? These California counties reopened a month ago. Here's what happened. Newsom details 4 stages to reopen California businesses Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rizki Fachriansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 17:35 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd59179 1 National Universitas-Indonesia,UI,University-of-Indonesia,discussion-forum,Papuan-Lives-Matter,controversy,academic-freedom Free The University of Indonesia (UI) Lecturers Alliance has conveyed its support for a discussion on racism against Papuans that was previously disavowed by the university rectorate. In a statement issued on Monday, the alliance praised the universitys Student Executive Body (BEM UI) for organizing the public discussion as it fostered a spirit of free speech among university academics. The alliance also called on the universitys academic society to remain consistent in supporting student endeavors to seek scientific truths in accordance with the 2012 Higher Education Law. We also urge UI as an educational institution to assume a more active role in disseminating diverse ideas so as to avoid the production of a single [version of the] truth, the alliance stated. Held on Saturday and titled #PapuanLivesMatter: Racism in the Legal System in Papua, the discussion largely revolved around the prosecution of seven Papuan activists charged with treason for their involvement in antiracism protests in Jayapura, Papua, in August 2019. Former Papuan prisoner Sayang Mandabayan, Papuan human rights lawyer Gustaf Kawer and Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman, were invited as speakers for the discussion. In UIs statement dated June 6, university spokesperson Amelita Lusia said BEM UI had organized the discussion without proper preparation and consideration and that it had invited inappropriate speakers. She further argued that the discussion did not have a strong enough scientific foundation to be considered a proper academic forum. UIs disavowal of the discussion has since drawn criticism on social media, with many saying that the state university widely considered the best in the country was bowing to political pressures and had failed to stand up for academic freedom. Shofwan Al-Banna, a member of the UI Lecturers Alliance representing the universitys international relations department, said that the universitys statement reflected sentiments that directly contradicted UIs values as an educational institution. We agree that universities must serve as a place where diverse ideas can be freely expressed, respected and, ultimately, protected, he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. Shofwan said the universitys disavowal of the discussion was an exaggeration on the part of the rectorate board, and that it might well discourage students from engaging in substantial conversations. We never wanted to interfere in university bureaucracy. But we felt that it was now crucial for us [to speak up] because the very essence of any university is to enable the search for scientific truths, he told the Post, adding that the alliance had been planning a series of discussions on the topic of academic freedom at universities. Editor's note: An earlier version of this article contained an error. Veronica Koman is not a lawyer for Amnesty International Australia. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend: Uzbekistan has naturally emerged as the focus of India's attention in a new more proactive approach towards the Central Asian region, Ambassador of India in Uzbekistan, Shri Santosh Jha told Trend. "Uzbekistan is a country with which we share common history and tradition, located in the heart of Central Asia and being its most populous country," said the ambassador. As he said, high level exchanges in the last one year have continued with the visit of India's then external affairs minister to Uzbekistan in January 2019 for the first India-Central Asia dialogue at Samarkand. "This year in January, the Uzbek Foreign Minister visited New Delhi to participate in the prestigious Raisina Dialogue and became the first Central Asian dignitary to deliver a keynote address at this global forum hosted annually by India. He also had a meeting with Ministry of External Affairs which provided new guidance for directions of our rapidly expanding strategic ties. Last year in November, we also witnessed a visit by Indian defense minister for the first time in 15 years and the inauguration of the first-ever joint military exercise between the two countries," said Santosh Jha. As ambassador said, defense agreements between Uzbekistan and India, on military education and military medicine are being implemented vigorously. "Our security cooperation is also expanding following the holding of the first bilateral consultations between National Security Councils of the two countries in September 2019 and the visit of Uzbek Interior Minister and signing of an agreement on security cooperation in November 2019. We are also advancing our economic relationship by promoting bilateral trade and investment and seeking to conclude a Preferential Trade Agreement and a Bilateral Investment Treaty," said Santosh Jha. The ambassador, said that the increased focus on economic aspects is reflected in the visit in October 2019 of the largest ever business delegation from the Indian state of Gujarat, which resulted in over 20 agreements and over 50 investment and economic cooperation proposals. India-Uzbekistan bilateral relations now encompass a wider canvas, including political and strategic issues, defense and security, trade and investment, energy, agriculture, science and technology, education and people-to-people ties, said Santosh Jha. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini Iran Says Ready To Swap More Prisoners With The US Radio Farda June 08, 2020 The Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Sunday, June 7, that Iran was ready to swap "other prisoners" with the United States. Iran and the U.S., which were on the verge of a military confrontation in January last year after a U.S. drone killed Qods Force Chief-Commander Qassem Soleimani have exchanged two prisoners in recent days. Michael White, an American citizen and a U.S. Navy veteran who had been imprisoned in Iran for two years, was released Thursday last week. The United States also released an Iranian-American physician living in Florida, Majid Taheri. Thanking the Swiss Embassy in Tehran for its role in the recent swap, Abbas Mousavi noted, "If the Swiss government continues to cooperate, we are ready to repatriate the rest of the Iranians who are in U.S. custody." Since Washington severed its diplomatic relations with Tehran in 1979, the Swiss Embassy in Iran has been in charge protecting the U.S. interests in the Islamic Republic. Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State on Friday called for the release of the remaining American prisoners in Iran while Iranian hardliners vehemently dismissed any negotiations with the United States. "The United States calls for the release of U.S. citizens Baquer Namazi, Siamak Namazi, and Morad Tahbaz, who have been wrongfully detained in Iran for too long," Hook said at a June 5 Department of State briefing following Michael White's release who was wrongfully jailed in Iran for nearly two years. "And we also demand a full accounting of the fate of Robert Levinson," he added. Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran- says-ready-to-swap-more-prisoners- with-the-us/30657759.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 While the ratio determines the extent to which the government is able to finance its expenditure, it is also an indicator of tax compliance. Developed countries have a higher contribution of tax to their GDP. Indias tax-to-GDP ratio slid further in FY20 to a 10-year low of 9.88 per cent, driven by a decline in collections from Customs and corporation tax, while excise duty posted marginal growth. The ratio stood at 10.97 per cent in FY19, and at 11.22 per cent in FY18. It is only estimated to decline further, with revenues falling on account of a slump in economic activity. While the ratio determines the extent to which the government is able to finance its expenditure, it is also an indicator of tax compliance. Developed countries have a higher contribution of tax to their GDP. Gross tax revenue fell 3.39 per cent in FY20, with a Rs 1.5-trillion shortfall in collections, as against the revised Budget target for the year. It will need growth of 20.5 per cent in FY21 to meet the Budget target for the year. GDP growth for FY20 fell to an 11-year low of 4.2 per cent. A higher tax-to-GDP ratio indicates the tax base is increasing along with growth in the GDP. The government has taken a slew of measures to improve compliance, which include the introduction of GST and electronic assessment by tax officers. A lower ratio, however, restricts the governments capital spending, given that puts pressure on the fiscal deficit. Corporation tax revenue fell 16 per cent in FY20 and Customs revenue declined by 7 per cent, even as excise collections grew 3 per cent. India is way behind OECD members in terms of the tax-GDP ratio - an average of 34 per cent. In fact, the share of tax revenue in the Centres revenue receipts fell to 81.3 per cent in FY20, from 85.8 per cent in the previous year and 84.3 per cent in FY18. The direct tax to GDP ratio fell to the lowest in 14 years at 5.1 per cent, while indirect tax to GDP ratio was at a five year low in 2019-20. Share of corporation tax in gross tax fell to at least a 10 year low of 27.7 per cent. The share of customs in gross tax fell to 5.43 per cent in FY20 from 5.66 per cent in the previous year. Aditi Nayar, principal economist, ICRA said that the cut in corporate tax rates compounded the impact of the economic slowdown on overall collections, whereas high gold prices shrunk gold demand, dampening customs duty inflows. We estimate a 30 per cent shortfall in central taxes relative to the budget estimate for FY21, said Nayar. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Sunday clarified that the gross direct tax collection growth in 2019-20 was actually 8% at ?14,01,920 crore, but tax reforms worth ?1,68,200 crore last year led to a 5 per cent contraction in direct tax revenue. The government had last year cut corporation tax rate to 25 per cent to promote private investment, however some did not avail the option as they would have had to forego their minimum alternate tax credits. Former finance minister late Arun Jaitley had in a social media post in 2018 emphasised on the need to improve Indias tax-GDP ratio by another 1.5 percentage points. The tax to GDP ratio had touched a high of 11.3 per cent in 2017-18. Despite higher compliances in new system, as far as the non-oil taxes are concerned, we are still far from being a tax compliant society. "Salaried employees is one category of tax compliant assesses, he said, adding that most other sections will have to improve their track record. Lara Bingle and Sam Worthington have secretly welcomed their third child. On Friday, the 32-year-old model and her actor husband were spotted with their newborn son, as well as their two older children, Rocket, five, and Racer, three. Lara looked every inch the doting mother as the family of five enjoyed an outing in Manhattan Beach, California. Baby makes five! Lara Bingle and Sam Worthington have secretly welcomed their third child. On Friday, the couple were spotted in Manhattan Beach, California, with their newborn son, as well as their two older children, Rocket, five, and Racer, three The beauty entrepreneur, who hails from Sydney's Cronulla Beach, kept things casual in a black T-shirt and leggings. She swept her short blonde hair into a low bun and covered her face with a pair of sunglasses. Avatar star Sam, 43, displayed a rugged beard and wore a black T-shirt and jeans. Sweet moment: Lara looked every inch the doting mother as the family of five enjoyed an outing in Manhattan Beach Relaxed: The beauty entrepreneur, who hails from Sydney's Cronulla Beach, kept things casual in a black T-shirt and leggings They've got their hands full! Sam kept an eye on their two older sons who were running along the beach, as Lara stayed on the pier and looked after their newborn Sam kept an eye on their two older sons who were running along the beach, as Lara stayed on the pier and looked after their newborn. Last month, celebrity facialist Melanie Grant hinted that Lara had given birth. The beautician described her friend as a 'new mother' on Instagram and revealed she had sent her hand cream as a celebratory gift. Keeping mum: Lara and Sam are yet to publicly acknowledge the birth of their third child The Hollywood couple are yet to publicly acknowledge the birth of their third child. Lara had confirmed her pregnancy in November after months of speculation, telling Vogue Australia: 'I'm having a boy, early next year. It's my third boy, and we're all very excited and very happy. 'I think any addition brings joy and happiness to the family, but more so when you can share it with the other boys. It's such a boy's club in my house!' Lara and Sam began dating in 2013 and married in secret a year later. Baby on board: Lara had confirmed her pregnancy in November after months of speculation, telling Vogue Australia: 'I'm having a boy early next year. It's my third boy, and we're all excited' Iain Rowe, 6, from Ferrysburg in a file photo. Rowe was reported missing in the waters of Lake Michigan near Holland State Park on June 6, 2020. (Courtesy of Ottawa County Sheriff's Department) Bodies of Missing Boys Recovered From Lake Michigan: Officials Search efforts to find the second boy who went missing in Michigan over the weekend ended with a tragic discovery on Monday after a dive team pulled the body of a 17-year-old out of the water. The body of Christian Ngabo of Grand Rapids was recovered from Lake Michigan around 9 a.m. on Monday shortly after deputies continued their search, Ottawa County Sheriffs Lieutenant Eric Westveer said in a statement. The discovery comes one day after deputies recovered the body of 6-year-old Iain Rowe of Ferrysburg late on Sunday, who was last seen in waist-deep water in Lake Michigan on June 6. Autopsies will be performed to show what exactly caused their deaths. At this time, no foul play is suspected, the sheriffs office said. Our condolences to his loved ones, a sheriffs office official said. The teen went missing while swimming with his older brother on June 6, local outlet WHTC reported. Witnesses spotted rip currents in the lake that day and the two were swimming in conditions with four to six feet of waves. Rip currents are hazardous to swimmers and make up about 80 percent of beach rescues and kill about 100 people in the United States annually. They are powerful, narrow channels of fast-moving water that can reach moving speeds of up to eight feet per second, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A sign announces Danger Rip Current in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Oct. 28, 2012. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Whenever there are waves of sufficient energy, rip currentssimply called ripscan form. In the United States, they are widespread along the East, Gulf, and West coasts, as well as along the shores of the Great Lakes. Both teens began to struggle in the water and Ngabos 19-year-old brother managed to get to shore safely. According to The Detroit Free-Press, the older brother was saved by bystanders after they threw a life ring. Ngabo was last seen by witnesses swimming approximately 40 to 50 yards from shore, Westveer said. Ngabo and Rowe went missing the same day, in apparent unrelated instances. Rowes body was found one day later at about 7:15 p.m. by the sheriffs county dive team along the rocks just north of the Holland channel. Following the incident, Michigan State Park officials closed the park for diving teams. The park was reopened to the public Sunday afternoon. Authorities said the two incidents are not related, but an investigation remains open. Anyone with information is asked to contact OCSO at 1-800-249-0911. From NTD News The International Space Station, orbiting some 240 miles above the planet, is about to join the effort to monitor the worlds wildlife and to revolutionize the science of animal tracking. A large antenna and other equipment aboard the orbiting outpost, installed by spacewalking Russian astronauts in 2018, are being tested and will become fully operational this summer. The system will relay a much wider range of data than previous tracking technologies, logging not just an animals location but also its physiology and environment. This will assist scientists, conservationists and others whose work requires close monitoring of wildlife on the move, and provide much more detailed information on the health of the worlds ecosystems. The new approach, known as ICARUS short for International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space will also be able to track animals across far larger areas than other technologies. At the same time, ICARUS has shrunk the size of the transmitters that the animals wear and made them far cheaper to boot. These changes will allow researchers to track flocks of birds as they migrate over long distances, for instance, instead of monitoring only one or two birds at a time, as well as far smaller creatures, including insects. And, as climate change and habitat destruction roil the planet, ICARUS will allow biologists and wildlife managers to quickly respond to changes in where and when species migrate. At Canadian law schools, students learn that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and that everyone has a right to equality. And yet racial profiling and racist treatment by the justice system is proven again and again. So does the public have to presume innocence when viewing a video of George Floyd being asphyxiated to death by police? The U.S. reaction to his death has diverged along racial lines, even amongst those horrified by this cruel injustice. These differences in perspective are even more pronounced when there is no publicly available video or clear factual record as is the case with the recent tragic death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet here in Toronto. Canadian activists, professionals, and individuals have expressed their grief and pain over the loss of this young woman, while raising serious questions and concerns about police conduct, accountability, and justice. In addition, there is a growing number of voices demanding deep-seated reforms, including the reallocation of funds from policing to social and community services. Another frequent response to Regiss death, including by well-intentioned individuals, is the statement that in order to comment on Regiss death, we must wait for the result of the Special Investigation Units investigation because we do not yet have the facts and need to ascertain the truth. This latter seemingly even-handed conclusion overlooks some simple but critical realities: we do have facts, and we do know truths. So while the SIU processes the evidence and details of Regiss fall, we do not need to wait to proclaim that there is overwhelming evidence justifying the unease, distrust, and demands for justice expressed by so many in Canada these past few days. It is a fact that Black people are disproportionately represented in interactions with Toronto police which have resulted in use of force, shootings and civilian deaths. A 2016 Ontario Human Rights Commission interim report found that while Black people made up 8.8 per cent of the Toronto population, they made up 28.8 per cent of police use of force cases and 70 per cent of police shootings that resulted in civilian death. Most concerning, the report found that the overrepresentation of Black civilians appeared to increase the more serious the police conduct. It is also a fact that a large proportion (29.6 per cent) of Toronto Police use of force cases involved people exhibiting mental health issues. And there have been long-standing concerns about police handling of these situations. Thus, the alarm at Regis fall from the 24th floor of her apartment. This is not the first SIU investigation involving a balcony fall. The case at hand raises an obvious question: In her hour of need, did the officers see Regis, a Black-First Nations woman, as a person whose life mattered? Did they do everything in their power to protect her? Finally, it is an unfortunate fact that the promise of a report by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) too frequently offers little comfort or confidence to bereaved families that they will receive answers or justice. Justice Michael Tullochs 2017 report cites many public concerns with the Units effectiveness, impartiality, and secrecy. Indeed, the SIU director himself reported on his difficulty conducting many investigations due to a lack of co-operation by the Toronto Police Service. And given recent reported details in the media, it is not premature to express concerns about police conduct and the integrity of the investigation into her death. The SIU has also been criticized for its limited transparency and accountability, as noted in Justice Tullochs report. Among other things, the SIU has functioned for many years without keeping race-based data about the individuals who suffered a serious injury or death in connection with police. And substantively, the SIUs exceptionally low charge rate (5 per cent) has raised serious concerns about its effectiveness. For example, a 2016 SIU report cleared police of any criminal wrongdoing and laid no charges following its investigation of the police shooting of Andrew Loku. Andrew was a Black man with mental health issues who was shot by Toronto police officers in his apartment building. It was only due to tremendous public pressure, including protests by Black Lives Matter and many others, that an inquest was called. The inquest jury verdict in 2017 was that the cause of his of death was gunshot wounds to the left chest, by homicide. The devastating truth is that Andrew Loku, DAndre Campbell, Eishia Hudson, and far too many other Black and Indigenous people have been fatally shot in Canada by police, with little transparency, accountability or justice to follow. Idaho residents on unemployment could receive a one-time bonus of up to $1,500 to return to work under a plan Gov. Brad Little announced Friday. The Republican governor said the incentive is intended to help get the states economy going again. Part-time workers would receive $750. Now is the time for us to provide Idahoans with the financial incentive to return to work and ensure our economic rebound is swift and robust, Little said. The states unemployment rate has rocketed to 11.5% with more than 100,000 unemployed. But Idaho is in the third stage of Littles four-stage plan to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic, and there are signs the economy is turning around. Nearly all businesses can now open under the guidelines. Little said hes concerned that enhanced unemployment benefits could add up to more than a potential worker could make going back to work. Through May 30, Idaho residents have received about $312 million in unemployment insurance benefits through federal and state programs. Little said the incentive bonus payments made on a first-come, first-served basis could help persuade workers to return to the job. I think people are ready to go back to work, Little said, but added that people need to feel safe returning. The virus is not going to be eliminated until there is either a great treatment or most likely a vaccine. We have got to manage this. The money for the payments is coming from $100 million of the $1.25 billion Idaho received in federal rescue money. Alex Adams, Littles budget chief, said the $100 million will likely only last long enough to cover incentive payments for about 70,000 workers. But Adams said the program could be supplemented with leftover money from a $300 million program to help Idaho small businesses. Little has taken criticism from fellow Republicans following his March 25 stay-at-home order for Idahos 1.75 million residents as virus cases accelerated. Idahos economy began shutting down in mid-March as the coronavirus pandemic appeared suddenly in the state and spread. But state health officials say the virus is manageable at the moment based on various criteria having to do with infection rates and the availability of health care facilities to respond to a sudden outbreak. If all goes well, stage 4 will start on June 13, with gatherings of more than 50 people allowed. But even in stage 4, precautions are included that limit occupancy in bars and require social distancing in theaters and other large venues. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. A group of public defense attorneys joined protesters in downtown Miami on Monday afternoon to demonstrate against police brutality and call for more accountability. About a hundred protesters gathered in front of the Miami-Dade Public Defenders office downtown and marched around the block to the office of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who has been a frequent target of protests for being too lenient with cops accused of using excessive force. Monday marked the 10th consecutive day of protests in Miami-Dade, as mostly peaceful demonstrations against police brutality raged in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes on Memorial Day. We all work in the system, said Nicole Almeida Sinder, an attorney who is the president of the Greater Miami chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. Nicole Almeida Sinder, an attorney and president of the Greater Miami chapter of the ACLU of Florida, said the state needs more police accountability. She took part in a protest in downtown Miami on Monday, June 8, 2020., with many of the protesters lawyers from the Miami-Dade Public Defenders Office. Calls for police reforms, which have set the tone for demonstrations across the country and in many parts of the world, are growing louder two weeks after the world watched a videotape of the police officer, Derek Chauvin, driving his knee into Floyds neck while he lay face down on the ground, uttering, I cant breathe. Over the weekend, protesters in Wynwood, Homestead and even in suburban Miami Lakes gathered to appeal for an end to abusive police tactics and systemic racism. While the demonstrations were largely peaceful, there were a few tense moments: Sunday night, scores of protesters climbed onto Interstate 95 from an embankment near Wynwood but couldnt get down. A line of police officers had to escort the group to a safe exit spot near Northwest 27th Street. A few clashes occurred on Saturday in Miramar, Wynwood and around Florida International University, but the demonstrations were far more calm than the previous weekend, when several Miami police cars were set ablaze, some stores were looted at Bayside Marketplace and cops used tear gas to disperse protesters in Fort Lauderdale. One protester, LaToya Ratlieff, was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet. Story continues Still, protests were mostly peaceful, leading Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez to lift a countywide curfew thats been in effect for over a week. His office also announced that beaches in Miami-Dade will reopen on Wednesday after a more than two-month closure. About 100 people protested in front of the office of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who has been in office for 27 yeras and has never charged a police officer in an on-duty killing. The mood in downtown Miami on Monday was calm, as Sinder talked to the group of protesters about how Florida must do a better job prosecuting police officers accused of brutality. She said that a group of public attorneys had planned the protest in support of the black community. While police oversight in Miami-Dade is already in the works in the form of a proposed police civilian oversight board, Sinder said thats not enough. Its never going to have the county teeth we want it to so long as the Policemans Bill of Rights is law in Florida, she said, explaining that the law undermines police accountability in the state. Sinder added that Florida is one of 14 states that have these protections, which she says must be repealed. The Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights protects police officers from investigation and prosecution arising from conduct during official performance of their duties. Critics say that these rights, which some states have turned into laws, make it impossible to discipline or remove bad officers, even after they have been convicted of felonies. Thats why protesters want the creation of civilian review boards that provide oversight over police actions. You need to reach out. You need to send emails. You need to call; it doesnt end here, please, Sinder told the crowd. Protesters, many of whom were affiliated with the public defenders office, called out Fernandez Rundles leniency toward police officers during her tenure. The longtime Miami-Dade state attorney has been severely criticized for a track record of not prosecuting police officers accused of brutality, including fatal shootings. Responding to the criticism last week, Fernandez Rundle called Floyds death senseless and pushed back against claims she is soft on police officers. She said in a statement that her office has secured trial convictions against a North Miami police officer who shot at an autistic man holding a toy truck, and a Miami police officer who slammed a hospital nurse to the ground. But protesters dont seem to be convinced. Fernandez Rundles upcoming election remained top of mind for many protesters, who called for people to vote against her in the Aug. 18 primary. Hey, hey! Ho, ho! KFR has got to go, protesters chanted. New Delhi [India]: IndiGo operated six special international charter flights since the beginning of June, and brought back more than 1,000 people who were stranded in different countries, due to the coronavirus pandemic. "We feel honoured as we continue to contribute towards the repatriation efforts to bring back stranded Indian citizens in these tough times. We would like to thank our government for allowing IndiGo to operate these international repatriation flights, ensuring a safe return of Indian citizens. We further look forward to contributing to the country in every way possible in these trying times," Ronojoy Dutta, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo said. Their daughter had sounded the alarm about being stalked, threatened and blackmailed by Mr. Rowland, whom Ms. McCluskey had broken up with when she learned that he had lied about his name and was a convicted sex offender on parole, the lawsuit said. Ms. McCluskey, 21, turned over photographs to Miguel Deras, a campus police officer at the time, telling him that Mr. Rowland had threatened to release them unless she paid him $1,000, according to the lawsuit. Officer Deras kept the images on his personal cellphone and shared them with friends, the suit contends. One of the things that shows a certain cavalierness and inappropriateness, at best, is this Officer Deras showing compromising photos to other officers who were not involved in the case that were used to blackmail Lauren, James W. McConkie, a lawyer for the McCluskeys, said in an interview on Monday. The alleged breach of privacy was first reported last month by The Salt Lake Tribune, which said that the Police Department in Logan, Utah, where Officer Deras is now employed, had begun an internal affairs investigation into the matter. A spokesman for the University of Utah said the school would not be commenting on the lawsuit until its lawyers and the state attorney generals office, which is also representing the university and campus police officials, had a chance to review it. Go Lobos! No, not those lobos. Lets hear it for Mexican gray wolf mother Kawi and father Ryder, who welcomed their second litter, the ABQ BioPark Zoo announced Tuesday. A whopping seven pups were born in May and only recently emerged from their underground den. They have not yet had their first exam, so their genders are unknown and theyve not been given names yet. The supervisor sent me a video and said she thought there were seven pups. I was thinking maybe four or five, but when she said seven, I was shocked, zoo manager Lynn Tupa said. Were all just so happy that the mother, Kawi, is doing so well, because in her first litter, last May (2019), she had three cubs and only one survived. Thats not unusual. The mortality rate is often high in litters born to first-time mothers, and about 30% of Mexican wolf pups die before their first birthday, Tupa said. Despite those statistics, the ABQ BioPark Zoo has had great success breeding Mexican gray wolves, with 79 born at the zoo since 1983, Tupa said. The Mexican gray wolf is listed as an endangered species and since 1976 has been protected under the Endangered Species Act. As of January 2020, there were about 130 wolves in the wild, roaming the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area of Arizona and New Mexico. There were another 369 wolves in captivity at 54 zoos and other institutions in Mexico and the United States. In the wild, Mexican gray wolves live an average of six to eight years, and they average up to twice that in captivity, according to a number of animal conservation websites. The ABQ BioPark Zoo participates in a cooperative breeding program with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Wolf Recovery Plan, whose goal is to restore genetically diverse Mexican wolves to their native Southwestern territory. That restoration has been a source of ongoing conflict between those trying to revive the species and ranchers, who are concerned about livestock predation. Whether the wolves have been shot by ranchers or have to be removed by Fish and Wildlife, it has reduced their success in the wild, Tupa said. Hong Kong police on Tuesday fired pepper spray at protesters gathered in the city's Central business district to mark the anniversary of a million-strong peaceful march last year to oppose government plans to allow extradition to mainland China. Several hundred protesters, many of them clad in regular office clothing, occupied roads and gathered in high-end shopping malls on Tuesday evening to mark the anniversary of the protest movement, which demanded the withdrawal of the extradition bill that would have allowed the rendition of alleged criminal suspects to face trial in mainland China. But the protest was met with months of stalling and intransigence from the city's chief executive, Carrie Lam, who refused to respond directly to protesters' demands, saying only that the bill was "dead." By the time Lam formally took the bill off the list of proposed laws in the city's Legislative Council in October 2019, the anti-extradition protesters were also demanding fully democratic elections, an end to the government's characterization of them as "rioters," an amnesty for the thousands of people arrested, and a full public inquiry into police violence towards peaceful protesters. At least 25 people were arrested in Central on Tuesday evening after protests blocked traffic in the district. Fully armed riot police were bused to the scene, and pursued some people in the crowd, often apparently at random, video footage posted to social media showed. Protesters moved away when approached, however, only to gather on a different street. Police raised a blue warning flag claiming that the protest was "illegal," in spite of the right to assemble and protest being enshrined in Article 27 of Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law. Police said the gatherings were in breach of current coronavirus restrictions banning public gatherings of more than eight people. As protesters once more faced off with police, the authorities said four people being prosecuted over the storming of the LegCo on July 1, 2019 are now being charged with the more serious crime of "rioting," which carries a potential jail term of 10 years. Police are charging actor Gregory Wong, protest organizer Ventus Lau, former Hong Kong University student leader Althea Suen, and Brian Leung, a protester who removed his mask while reading out a statement after protesters had occupied the LegCo chamber with the offense. "Actually the initial charges were that we were in a vicinity of the LegCo complex, which weren't very serious, so it did occur to us that they might try to bring more serious charges," Lau told reporters. "But why did they pick today? Because this day last year, June 9, is when one million people marched; it's the anniversary of the start of the entire protest movement," he said. "I was pretty shocked by that." Brian Leung, who is currently studying in the United States, reacted to the news via his Twitter account. "Am I now a fugitive? An exile? A political refugee? I don't know," Leung wrote. 'She started this chaos' Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that the city "cannot afford" any more chaos caused by the protests, echoing the ruling Chinese Communist Party's claims that a draconian sedition and subversion law it plans to impose on Hong Kong will end "chaos" in the city following a year of mass protests. Protesters took to Twitter to respond to Lam's statement. "She started this chaos by attacking Hong Kongs enshrined freedoms," wrote user @Rover829, while @kllialan commented: "I also cant afford the chaos made by the government anymore." "She means the chaos she created?" user @Star20861 wrote, while @manucanuck added: "Tell her to tell the [Chinese Communist Party] to stop interfering in Hong Kongs business." Many former front-line protesters, who once fought back with bricks, Molotov cocktails, and batons from behind barricades of street barriers and umbrellas against oncoming riot police, have fled overseas to escape charges of "rioting." A former front-line protester who gave only a nickname, Mike, said he left for Taiwan after being on the front line during several weeks of protests. "After the storming of LegCo, the police were going round checking everyone's IDs," Mike told RFA from his Taiwan accommodation. "They were using documents and so on to try to find anyone who had been [a part of the occupation of LegCo]." "The hardest thing about it isn't the fact that we got shot at, or beat up by police; it's the fact that I still dream about my comrades getting beaten up by police and tortured by them right in front of my eyes, but I am powerless to help them," Mike said. Around one third of adults in Hong Kong have reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the protest movement escalated last June, according to a mental health survey published in The Lancet last year, which said the incidence of psychiatric problems was similar to those usually associated with war zones or terrorist attacks. Rights groups warned in November that Hong Kong was in a state of humanitarian crisis after police fired more than 16,000 rounds of tear gas in recent months, with around 1,000 of those fired into the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) campus during a single day in November. A January opinion poll by Reuters found that most of Hong Kong's residents supported the five demands of the protest movement, with more than one third of respondents saying they had attended a protest. Only 30 percent said they were opposed, compared with 59 percent of those polled who supported the movement. Call for world action The New York-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on governments around the world to take action to safeguard the people of Hong Kong as China prepares to allow its feared state security police to operate in the city under a draconian new law banning "actions or activities" deemed seditious or subversive. For the past year Hong Kong people have made clear their peaceful demands for freedom and autonomy, HRW China director Sophie Richardson said in a statement on Tuesday. "But the authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong choose to respond with ever-greater repression and violence." HRW said that while the vast majority of protesters acted peacefully, Hong Kong police had frequently used "excessive force" against them, while pro-China thugs also repeatedly attacked protesters and pro-democracy lawmakers. It said the police have arrest around 8,000 demonstrators June 2019, yet no police officers have been held to account, while the incoming national security law poses a fresh threat to the city's promised freedoms. "[The national security] legislation is likely to have wide-ranging impact on Hong Kong, making it difficult for people to exercise the many freedoms they have long experienced. Instead, exercising these freedoms could be treated as subversion," HRW said. The group said governments should sanction senior Beijing and Hong Kong officials responsible for recent human rights violations in Hong Kong and future abuses under the national security legislation, subjecting them to travel bans and asset freezes. "The global failure to respond to Chinas aggressive rights abuses ... have only emboldened the Chinese government," Richardson said. "Foreign governments catalyzed by this grave threat to freedoms in Hong Kong should act swiftly to press Beijing over its human rights violations." Reported by Lau Siu-fung for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Mai Hsiao-tien, Tseng Yat-yiu and Lu Xi for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Burundi, which elects its president on May 20, has been mired in a political crisis since the last election in 2015, at the cost of 1,200 lives. The violence, sparked by opposition to Pierre Nkurunzizas bid for a third presidential term, stoked fears of a return to civil war akin to the 1993-2006 conflict in which 300,000 people died. Nkurunziza however surprised observers when he announced in 2018 that he would not seek another term in the election to take place this year, with the first round on May 20, despite a new constitution allowing him to do so. Here is a recap of the past five years of unrest. Demonstrations erupt In April 2015, a day after Nkurunziza is declared candidate for a third term by his ruling CNDD-FDD party, thousands gather in the capital, defying a ban on demonstrations. It is the start of six weeks of almost daily protests that the police clamp down on with force. The opposition says the move to keep Nkurunziza in power as president, a position he has held for a decade, is unconstitutional and violates a peace deal that ended the civil war. Nkurunziza says his first term, secured in 2005, does not count as he was elected by parliament not the people as part of the transition from war. Failed coup In May a coup attempt led by a former army chief fails. Nkurunziza fires his defence and foreign ministers. In June parliament chief Pie Ntavyohanyuma goes into exile, on the eve of legislative elections boycotted by the opposition, joining a long list of opposition leaders, journalists, members of civil society and disillusioned ruling party members. In July, Nkurunziza is re-elected. Spiral of attacks In August Nkurunzizas right-hand man, General Adolphe Nshimirimana, is killed in a rocket strike. The former head of Burundis army during the civil war, Colonel Jean Bikomagu, is assassinated the same month. In December at least 87 people are killed in coordinated attacks on military sites that trigger fierce reprisals from the security forces. In April 2016, Tutsi general Athanase Kararuza and his wife are killed. Genocide risk In July 2016, the UN Security Council authorises the deployment of 228 UN police in Burundi. Bujumbura rejects the resolution. A UN probe in September accuses the government of serious rights violations, warning of a risk of genocide. The following month Burundi informs the UN that it will leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), quitting a year later. In December, Nkurunziza hints he could stand for another term in the 2020 election. In January 2017, Human Rights Watch accuses members of the ruling partys youth wing, the Imbonerakure, of having killed, tortured and beaten dozens of people. In April the UN accuses them of having encouraged the rape of opponents. Heightened repression In September the UN extends a rights probe for another year. In November the ICC opens a full investigation into allegations of crimes against humanity in Burundi. In May 2018, Burundi approves in a referendum constitutional reforms that would enable Nkurunziza to rule until 2034, after a campaign Human Rights Watch says was marked by increased repression and abuses. Nkurunziza not to stand In June, Nkurunziza announces that he will not stand in 2020. In September, UN investigators warn that serious rights violations, including crimes against humanity, are continuing in Burundi, pointing to Nkurunzizas hate speech. In January 2020, lawmakers agree a golden parachute for Nkurunziza. The ruling party picks General Evariste Ndayishimiye as its presidential candidate. In February the key opposition party chooses Agathon Rwasa. Nkurunziza is declared supreme guide for patriotism by lawmakers. [June 09, 2020] Cross River One of Top Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Lenders in the Country, Saving Nearly 600,000 Jobs Through 105,000 Loans Cross River Bank ("Cross River"), a leading innovator and provider of banking services for technology companies, today announced that it has approved more than $4.7 billion in loans to small businesses across the country through both rounds of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program ("PPP"). With an average loan size of $44,000, the absolute lowest amongst the nation's leading lenders, Cross River was able to support nearly 600,000 employees and their families. "COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on businesses across the country and we immediately recognized how to leverage our own technology, knowledge of fintech and expansive relationships to ensure wide access to PPP loans," said Gilles Gade, Founder, President, and CEO of Cross River. "True to our roots, our team stepped up when others refused, ensuring that every small business in need had the resources and opportunity to receive funding, regardless of size or location." As a trusted community bank and preferred SBA lender with $2.5 billion in assets, Cross River was one of the first banks in the country offering loans via the PPP to every small business, without requiring preexisting banking relationships. At the time of introduction of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Cross River team mobilized internally to offer a streamlined and automated system to enable theprocessing of applications the moment the SBA opened the Program. In addition to building its own comprehensive lending platform, Cross River partnered with over 30 leading technology companies, including BlueVine, Divvy, Gusto, Intuit (News - Alert), Veem, Kabbage and others, to allow thousands of additional businesses to apply for and receive funding safely and efficiently. Cross River's innovative approach made it one of the top 15 lenders in the country and amongst the top 5 in loan volume. Cross River also purchased loans from technology companies to provide liquidity and enable them to continue their efforts, which led to an additional 142,000 jobs supported through 44,000 loans. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cross River also partnered with local organizations, elected officials and municipalities to provide virtual financial literacy programming around COVID-19 relief and recovery. The Company has also donated more than 230,000 pieces of PPE, including over 10,000 N95 masks, to local hospitals, provided hand sanitizers to first responders and delivered hot meals to medical workers on the frontlines. About Cross River Cross River Bank is a fast-growing financial services organization that merges the established expertise and traditional services of a bank with the forward-thinking offerings of a technology company. Cross River combines a comprehensive suite of products into a unique banking-as-a-platform solution, encompassing lending, payments and risk management. Cross River partners with leading marketplace lenders and technology companies enabling them to focus on their own growth without hindering innovation, while maintaining a strong focus on compliance. In December 2018, Cross River secured $100 million in a funding round led by KKR. This was on top of the $28 million VC funding round in 2016 from Battery Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ribbit (News - Alert) Capital. Founded in 2008, Cross River is a New Jersey state-chartered FDIC insured bank. For more information, please visit Cross River's website at www.crossriver.com or on Twitter (News - Alert) @crossriverbank. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005398/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] By Trend Azerbaijani MP Nagif Hamzayev, who regularly meets with voters living within his constituency and inquires about their wishes, suggestions and problems, hold an online meeting with the voters. The MP talked to the citizens individually and thoroughly listened to their appeals and proposals. The appeals related to employment, social and medical assistance were immediately reviewed, taken under control and sent to the appropriate structures for their consideration in accordance with the law. Students studying at various universities in the country also joined the online meeting and shared their problems with MP. In turn, Hamzayev stressed that necessary steps will be taken to address the raised issues. During the meeting, citizens were informed about the work conducted to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) upon Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs instructions and the socio-economic package prepared to mitigate the COVID-19 negative impact. Recommendations were given to strictly follow the instructions of the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers. Despite the limited opportunities for direct communication with citizens due to the special quarantine regime declared in the country, Hamzayev continues to pay special attention to the voters and arranges meeting with them via internet. The MPs website www.Hamzayev.az also serves this purpose. Each voter may easily contact the MP via the website. At the same time, all appeals received via the website are monitored and considered in his parliamentary office in the shortest possible time. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Growth rate of Iran's population is less than one percent, while the statistics show that number of marriages in the country has reduced by 40 percent, Iran's MP Amir Hossein Bankipour said, Trend reports via TASNIM. The MP said that slowdown in growth of population is a serious problem that needs to be given proper attention. Speaking about the concerning statistics over the rise of the divorce rate and drop in number of marriages, he said it is necessary to form a special committee to handle the problem. "We are seeking to implement various measures in regards to population growth, that include a plan to take another look at some of the ideas that weren't implemented before," said Bankipour. The official has indicated that the government has recently approved to limit subsidizing newly formed families. "The committee would review the bills and plans, to make sure they don't go against the families, otherwise we will block the bill from going further," said Bankipour. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions The global protests against the brutal police murder of George Floyd reached a new high point last weekend. In Germany, silent marches and protest rallies took place in almost every city. Hundreds of thousands of overwhelmingly young people took to the streets to show their solidarity with the protests in the United States, and to denounce police violence and the return of the far right in the country. The mass outpouring of popular outrage in the US over the murder of Floyd was the spark that ignited the demonstrations in Germany against the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the right-wing policies of the grand coalition, the arming of the police and military, the undermining of democratic rights, and the growth of unemployment and social inequality. Protesters in Berlin Last year, many demonstrations, including several large protests, took place in opposition to new police laws drafted by all of the establishment parties, including the Left Party and Greens. Major demonstrations were also triggered by the murder of Kassel district president Walter Lubcke, the concealing of far-right networks within the state apparatus, the fascist terrorist attack on a synagogue in Halle, the far-right killings in Hanau, and the election of a minister president in Thuringia supported by the fascistic AfD. But last weekends demonstrations went a step further, initiating a new stage of social and political protest and resistance. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, each protest was only registered for a few hundred participants. In Berlin, where 1,500 people were expected, 30,000 ended up taking part. Just as many took part in Munich, where only 200 participants had been registered. More than 20,000 joined protests in Dusseldorf and Hamburg, while more than 10,000 demonstrated in Frankfurt, Hanover, and Cologne. Thousands more demonstrated in Stuttgart, Freiburg, Nuremberg, Dresden, and many other cities. Young people dominated the protests everywhere. Many of them are connected with friends online around the world and have no intention of accepting reactionary nationalism, xenophobia, police brutality, and the reemergence of right-wing and fascist parties. In addition, many of them are precariously employed, have lost their student jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, cannot complete their professional training, and face a totally uncertain future. The demonstrations were publicised with the hashtags #SilentDemo, #BlackLivesMatter, and #SayTheirNames, a reference to the victims of the terrorist attack in Hanau. Protesters remained silent for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time Floyd was choked to death by a police officer. Placards on the demonstrations also recalled the horrific fate of Oury Jalloh, an asylum seeker who burnt to death while in police custody in a cell in 2005. A demonstrator carried a placard in Berlin reading, What is happiness without equality? This made clear that fundamental social and political questions are coming to the surface. Another homemade placard read, Enough is enough!, which underscored that the murder of Floyd was a trigger event. The dramatic intensification of class tensions is the inevitable product of the deepest capitalist crisis in close to a century. The growing war danger, climate change, and the growth of social inequality are the causes of sharpening class tensions and the breakdown of democratic forms of rule. The rally in Alexanderplatz These issues were widely discussed on Twitter. Robert wrote on Saturday, Fascism takes many forms ... If you see how the police and national guard are going on the rampage in the United States, its very reminiscent of the pattern of fascism. Tom tweeted that the police in the United States are behaving like an occupying force, while President Trump wants to deploy regular troops. The rhetoric of battlespace is very clearly in that direction. In several cities, police tried to disperse the demonstrations on the pretext that they were not observing pandemic restrictions. However, given the large number of participants, these efforts failed. The police mainly retreated and allowed the protests to proceed. However, they sealed off streets leading to Alexanderplatz in Berlin, where the demonstrators were located. There, and in Hamburg, police violence erupted following the peaceful protests. Eye witnesses told the WSWS that young people were kettled in Hamburg and attacked with batons. The police also deployed water cannons to clear a square in the city centre. Eye witnesses also reported that 36 migrant children and young people were detained overnight in Hamburg. In Berlin, more than 90 people were arrested following clashes. A video shared widely on Twitter from Berlin provided evidence of the brutal police violence in this country. The person filming the scene commented on it by writing, Was George Floyd not enough? Unlike the mass protests against the second Iraq war in 2003, when the German government coalition of Social Democrats and Greens opposed the war and parliamentary parties supported the protests, the protests this time around are directed precisely against these parties. It is significant that the Social Democrat/Left Party/Green state government in Berlin and the Social Democrat/Green state government in Hamburg were the two governments to launch the most ruthless crackdown on the protests, including by ordering the use of water cannons and mounted police. The SPD Interior Senator in Hamburg also ordered the violent dispersal of a protest on Friday. But resistance is increasing. Protests continued on Sunday in Leipzig and several other cities. In Cologne, thousands took part in a demonstration in the morning against the AfD, before another protest for Floyd was held in the afternoon. The media did its best to downplay the scale of the resistance. The same reporters and commentators who sought to exaggerate the strength of the small protests by the far-right Pegida movement and the recent right-wing protests against the coronavirus lockdown measures, which helped make their positions politically and socially acceptable, now seek to underestimate the numbers of participants as much as possible and restrict their reporting to the least that can be expected. A protester holds a sign in Berlin This is motivated by the ruling elites fear of a social explosion. A concerned comment from the right-wing newspaper Die Welt, published by Springer Verlag, makes this very clear. Under the title A country on its knees, editor Markus Boeller wrote that the police officer Derek Chauvin used his knee against George Floyd as a weapon by pushing it into his neck. If demonstrators around the world are now kneeling, wrote Die Welt, then this is no longer a defensive pose in the liturgical symbolism of the peace movement. Kneeling is a powerful gesture of humility towards the victims of police violence, and also a sign that the patience with the perpetrators has reached its limit. Boeller concluded, Kneeling is not a gesture of subordination, but a preparation for the uprising. Respect existence or expect resistance, declared a homemade placard in Cologne. It is essential to unite this mass international movement of young people and workers against police violence with the struggles of the working class against insecure working conditions, mass unemployment, growing social inequality, and widespread poverty. This involves a struggle against the global capitalist system, which demands an international socialist perspective. Clay Middleton Clay Middleton, who worked in the Obama administration and served as a top aide to House majority whip James Clyburn (D-SC), has joined Mercury as senior VP. The decorated Iraq combat veteran held Department of Energy posts during the Obama presidency including congressional affairs liaison for the National Nuclear Security Administration and special advisor to the Department of Energys Office of Congressional, Intergovernmental and External Affairs, and Office of Economic Impact and Diversity. He also was associate director for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Corporation for National and Community Service. Most recently Middleton advised Cory Booker's presidential campaign after serving two years as director of business services for the City of Charleston and regional director for Hillary for America. Omnicom owns Mercury. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9 2020 Freelancers and entrepreneurs are among those who have been hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak, many of whom are reporting income losses and declining activity, with no safety net or government aid in place to soften the fall. David Rahman, 27, a freelance music teacher, is generating no income after all learning activities were moved online in March. It is impossible to teach music online because students do not have their own musical instruments at home. Many music competitions for students were canceled, so the schools stopped music courses just like that, David told The Jakarta Post on May 27. 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 This measure is the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with South Korea, the report said. We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay. Joe Biden delivered a video address Tuesday to those attending the funeral for George Floyd, the black Minneapolis man who was killed by a white police officer on Memorial Day. 'Ladies and gentlemen, you can't turn away, we must not turn away, we cannot leave this moment thinking we can once again turn away from racism that stings at our very soul,' Biden implored from a large video screen that played to those gathered at the funeral in Houston. Floyd's death inspired two weeks of 'Black Lives Matter' protests around the nation and have become part of the 2020 presidential campaign, with Biden meeting with Floyd's family in Houston Monday, and President Trump doubling down on a pro-policing 'law and order' message. Joe Biden, the Democrats' presumptive nominee, addressed the family and friends of George Floyd Tuesday via video screen from Delaware, after meeting with Floyd's dauther and other family members Monday in Houston Joe Biden told the congregation that the country 'cannot leave this moment thinking we can once again turn away from racism.' He also brought up the time he spent Monday with Floyd's six-year-old daughter Gianna Joe Biden met with the family of George Floyd in Houston on Monday: From left: Congressman Cedric Richmond, Rev. Al Sharpton, Joe Biden, Attorney Ben Crump and Roger Floyd, George Floyd's uncle Joe Biden (center left) met with George Floyds six-year-old daughter Gianna (center right) and her mother Roxie Washington (left). He expressed his sympathies to Gianna and 'promised to push for changes in policing,' according to Washington's attorney Chris Stewart (right) During the former vice president's trip to Texas, Biden spent time with Floyd's six-year-old daughter Gianna, and was applauded by the audience Tuesday when he talked of her. 'I know you have a lot of questions, honey,' Biden said. 'No child should have to ask questions too many black children have had to ask for generations: why is daddy gone?' he said, as clapping could be heard in the background. 'Looking through your eyes we should also be asking ourselves why the answer is so often too cruel and painful,' he continued. 'Why in this nation do too many black Americans wake up knowing that they could lose their life in the course of just living their life?' Biden, of course, brought up his own experience with grief as he addressed Floyd's family and friends. 'Jill and I know the deep hole in your hearts when you bury a piece of your soul deep in this earth,' the presumptive Democratic nominee said. For two weeks 'Black Lives Matter' protests have broken out across the U.S., including in George Floyd's hometown of Houston (pictured), over his death at the hands of a white police officer 'And unlike most, you must grieve in public,' he pointed out. He called it 'a burden.' 'A burden that is now your purpose to change the world for the better in the name of George Floyd,' he said. Biden said that the country needed to 'deal with the denial of the promise of this nation, for so many people, for so long.' And that the U.S. needed to not only strive to acknowledge that people are 'created equal,' as it states in the Declaration of Independence, 'but are treated equally,' Biden said. 'Now is the time for racial justice. Thats the answer we must give to our children when they ask why,' Biden said. 'Because when there is justice for George Floyd, we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America.' The City of Midland Health Department is currently conducting their investigation on six new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Midland County, bringing the overall case count to 169. The 164th confirmed case is a female in her 50s who was tested by a private provider. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at Crestview Church, who last worked on May 26, 2020. The source of exposure is household contact to known case. OCKERO, Sweden, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gula Skrinet AB has reached an agreement with Caterpillar Luxembourg Sarl to acquire Caterpillar Propulsion AB and its subsidiaries. The sale is expected to close on June 30, 2020. Caterpillar Propulsion AB, formerly Berg Propulsion AB, is a leading manufacturer of mechanically and electrically driven propulsion systems and marine controls for ships. The proposed acquisition includes Caterpillar Propulsion AB and its subsidiaries, including Caterpillar Propulsion Production AB, as well as Caterpillar Propulsion Pte. Ltd, its subsidiary Caterpillar Propulsion International Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd and its Dubai branch. The transaction will include the manufacturing operations in Sweden and Singapore and office locations in Shanghai and Dubai. Stefan Sedersten, previously the COO and shareholder of the former Berg Propulsion AB, has a decade of experience in different roles within Berg along with a deep understanding of the global marine business. Stefan is the chairman of Lean Marine Sweden AB and I-Tech AB (publ.), businesses focused on marine equipment and vessel optimization. The current team within Caterpillar Propulsion will transfer with the sale ensuring continuity of support for current and future customers. Stefan Sedersten is committed to preserve continuity with Caterpillar customers and dealers and to maintain a close business relationship with Caterpillar Inc., supporting both MaK and Cat marine sales, as well as developing its products and services further with other customers in the marine sector. "My message to customers, suppliers and other external partners is clear - we will honor all existing contracts and agreements and make sure to safeguard a seamless transition," Mr Sedersten said. The new owner of the company is dedicated to building on what has been achieved during the years with Caterpillar and to continue to develop the company's external relationships, products and services in close cooperation with customers and partners. "Our aim is to combine the best of two worlds, the innovative and efficient approach of the big company with the flexibility and nimbleness of the small enterprise. This propulsion business is a household name in the industry, well-known for its dedication to customer satisfaction, reliable products and services, and we have every intention to make sure it continues that way. I look forward to serve the customers together with the skilled and experienced people in the entity where I've spent much of my past career". Headquartered in Ockero Islands outside Gothenburg, Sweden, Caterpillar Propulsion AB has designed and manufactured heavy-duty marine thrusters and controllable pitch propellers since the late 1920s. Its proprietary systems are employed in maritime applications throughout the world. Upon closing of the sale, the products and services will be branded Berg Propulsion. About Gula Skrinet AB: For information, please contact Stefan Sedersten +46-768-690-509 stefan.sedersten@bergpropulsion.com About Caterpillar Propulsion AB: Caterpillar Propulsion AB is one of the world's leading designers and producers of Controllable Pitch Propellers for the shipping industry. The company is a global supplier of customized marine propulsion systems comprising transverse and azimuth thrusters, controllable pitch propellers and control systems. Technical expertise coupled with extensive industry knowledge deliver products and services with high and durable performance including 24-hour service. For information, visit www.catpropulsion.com. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/gula-skrinet/r/gula-skrinet-ab-to-acquire-caterpillar-propulsion-ab,c3130453 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/19530/3130453/1261188.pdf Press release (PDF) SOURCE Gula Skrinet The global artificial intelligence (AI) chips market size is expected to grow by USD 54.03 billion during 2020-2024. The report also provides the market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect the impact to be significant in the first quarter but gradually lessen in subsequent quarters with a limited impact on the full-year economic growth. Request a free sample report This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005066/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chips Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) The growth in the generation of large volumes of data has increased the deployment of data centers across the world. As data centers process massive amounts of data, the need for improving their efficiency and reducing operational costs has become imperative. Hence, data center operators are increasingly adopting AI technologies to improve energy efficiency, infrastructure management, server optimization, security, and others. This is encouraging market vendors to introduce AI chips specifically designed for data center applications, which is driving the growth of the market. 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=IRTNTR41328 As per Technavio, the convergence of IoT and AI will have a positive impact on the market and contribute to its growth significantly over the forecast period. This research report also analyzes other significant trends and market drivers that will influence market growth over 2020-2024. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chips Market: Convergence of IoT and AI IoT device manufacturers are integrating HMI technologies in devices such as cameras, drones, smart speakers, smartphones, smart TVs, and others. This has created the need for integrating AI chips in these devices to make real-time decisions. With the growing number of smart city projects and smart homes, the adoption of IoT devices will increase significantly during the forecast period. This will have a positive impact on the growth of the global artificial intelligence (AI) chips market. "Increasing investments in AI start-ups and the growing advances in the quantum computing market will have a significant impact on the growth of the artificial intelligence market value during the forecast period," says a senior analyst at Technavio. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chips Market: Segmentation Analysis This market research report segments the artificial intelligence chips market by product (GPUs, ASICs, CPUs, and FPGAs) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA). The North American region led the artificial intelligence chips market share in 2019, followed by Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA respectively. During the forecast period, the North American region is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to the increasing investments in autonomous vehicles, and artificial intelligence technology. Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report, such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. Request a free sample report Some of the key topics covered in the report include: Market Drivers Market Challenges Market Trends Vendor Landscape Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Competitive scenario About Technavio 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/20200609005066/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/ TORONTO, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Magna Terra Minerals Inc. (the Company or Magna Terra) (TSX-V: MTT) is pleased to announce that through its 100% owned Argentine subsidiary-Atala Resources S.A. (Atala) it has entered into an Agreement to sell its wholly owned Boleadora Project in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, to Oroplata S.A. (Oroplata) a subsidiary of Newmont Corporation (Newmont). The Boleadora Group of properties is a large greenfields exploration land package (approx. 55,000 hectares) encompassing 12 individual MDs or exploration licenses lying approximately 17 kilometres south-east of Newmonts Cerro Negro mine area in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. Newmont (Oroplata) will pay Magna Terra (Atala) US$1 million as follows: $25k on signing and six installments totalling $975k payable within six years from the date of the Agreement. In addition, Newmont (Oroplata) has granted a 2% NSR to Magna Terra (Atala) on the Boleadora package. The royalty can be reduced to 1% by payment of US$2.5M by Oroplata to Atala at anytime, and the gross royalty payable is capped at US$20M. Lew Lawrick, President & CEO of Magna Terra commented; We are very pleased to have entered into this agreement to sell Boleadora to Newmont. While it is a very large and early stage exploration package, its proximity to the Cerro Negro mine site makes it of strategic interest to Newmont from an exploration perspective. The bulk of the property package lies along trend of the NNW structural control that is an important geological feature at Cerro Negro. Including Boleadora into Newmonts regional Cerro Negro exploration program, along with the application of their proven exploration technologies, will add significant value to the project, and ensure that it is advanced in the near term. Noyell Property Update The Company is also pleased to announce that pursuant to an Option Agreement with Opus One Resources Inc regarding the Noyell Property (see press release dated April 12, 2019), Magna Terra has received an option payment of $50,000 (1,000,000 Opus One common shares and $11,900 cash). Magna Terra now owns 1,900,000 common shares of Opus One, and will continue to hold the shares for investment purposes. About Magna Terra Magna Terra Minerals Inc. is a precious metals focused exploration company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada. With the closing of the ExploreCo Acquisition, Magna Terra will have 2 district-scale, advanced gold exploration projects in the world class mining jurisdictions of New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. The Company maintains a significant exploration portfolio in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina which includes its precious metals discovery on its Luna Roja Project, as well as an extensive portfolio of district scale drill ready projects available for option or joint venture. Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information Some statements in this release may contain forward-looking information. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words may, will, should, continue, expect, anticipate, estimate, believe, intend, plan or project or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Companys ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, failure by the parties to complete the Acquisition, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, changes in world gold markets or markets for other commodities, and other risks disclosed in the Circular and the Companys public disclosure record on file with the relevant securities regulatory authorities. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement. Two former California sheriff's deputies have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in an evidence booking scandal that could put up to 22,000 cases in jeopardy. Joseph Anthony Atkinson Jr., 39, and Bryce Richmond Simpson, 31, each pleaded guilty to one count of willful omission to perform their duties on Friday. Each former deputy was sentenced to one year probation, according to a statement from the Orange County district attorney's office, the Los Angeles Times reports. Simpson joined the department in 2012 while Atkinson was hired in 2013. Five deputies have been fired as part of an internal investigation into the case. Joseph Anthony Atkinson Jr., 39, and Bryce Richmond Simpson, 31, each pleaded guilty to one count of willful omission to perform their duties on Friday. They were two of five deputies from the Orange County Sheriff's Department who was fired from the department The charges are a part of a larger scandal after an internal Sheriff's Department audit discovered that over a two-year period, a third of all evidence had not been booked within one day. The time frame was from February 2016 to February 2018. Department policy calls for the evidence to be booked within that time frame. In some cases, evidence was not booked until months later. Some evidence was never booked at all, attorneys have shared. Potential charges have been looked into for at least 17 deputies with the department but Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer refused to charge any of them. He has since had a change of position, sharing that he didn't realize the scope of the case. Potential charges have been looked into for at least 17 deputies with the department but Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer refused to charge any of them. He has since changed position, sharing that he didn't realize the scope of the case Up to 22,000 criminal cases may have been tainted by evidence scandal 'to ensure evidence reported booked by deputies was in fact booked,' according to the statement. Officials have shared that they will dismiss any criminal cases where it is determined that there is evidence missing. Spitzer said that the misdemeanor charges were appropriate given the 'totality of the circumstances' of the case. 'These two men now have criminal records, and they are no longer deputy sheriffs,' he said. One filing from the Orange County public defender's office alleged that one deputy was late to book evidence on at least 51 cases. On one particular instance, the deputy allegedly waited nine months to turn over a machete that he seized from a traffic stop. Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes shared that he was pleased with the decision to file charges and added that this was 'precisely why the cases were submitted for consideration of criminal charges in the first place' Philip Avalos, the deputy, was later promoted to the rank of sergeant. 'The public has an absolute expectation that their law enforcement officers will carry out their duties lawfully,' Spitzer said in a statement. 'When law enforcement officers break the law, it deprives defendants and victims of their rights, compromises the criminal justice system, and erodes the public trust in ways that it may never be able to recover. The entire system relies on the trust that those sworn to uphold the law are following it themselves.' Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes shared that he was pleased with the decision to file charges and added that this was 'precisely why the cases were submitted for consideration of criminal charges in the first place.' O.C. Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders called Spitzer's handling of the case an 'embarrassment.' Sanders shared that there were dozens of times when both deputies failed to book evidence properly. 'If this is their opening salvo, with two of the worst offenders, we're off to an incredibly bad start,' he said. 'These two had just an absurd number of reports. ... These were the people that were the easiest.' CAIRO - A unit affiliated with Libyas east-based forces that have been trying to capture Tripoli but are now on the retreat, ordered the countrys largest oil field to halt work just hours after it restarted operations, the national oil company said Tuesday. Armed groups stopped oil production at the Sharara field on two occasions in just 24 hours, the corporation said. Hours after one military commander allowed the oil to start flowing again, another group stormed the field and shut the valves. The company said that force majeure a contract clause that refers to the inability of the company to meet its obligations because of extraordinary events remains in effect. The dizzying series of developments in Libyas oil fields come after militias allied with the U.N.-government in the Libyan capital, backed by Turkey, gained the upper hand in the fighting last week. The militias retook the capitals airport, all main entrance and exit points to the city and a string of key towns near Tripoli, forcing rival Libyan forces commanded by Khalifa Hifter to pull out. Hifter has waged a year-long campaign trying to capture the Libyan capital, with thousands killed in the fighting, including civilians, and tens of thousands displaced. The National Oil Corporation said Brig. Mohammed Khalifa, the commander of the oil facilities guard force in the countrys south, which answers to Hifter, disrupted operations at the Sharara oil field, about 900 kilometres (560 miles) south of Tripoli. It said it instructed the employees to reject any military orders regarding the operating and the maintenance of the field. Two engineers at the field said they had halted operations early Tuesday, and the field had shut down. Later, an oil engineer said that production had resumed, only to be cut off once again. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. On Monday, the Tripoli-allied forces advanced toward the strategic coastal city of Sirte, which has been in Hifters hands since last year and represents the gateway to oil facilities in Libyas south. The oil company had previously announced the resumption of production at the Sharara field, following negotiations with the tribes to end its closure, in place since January. Production also resumed on Monday in the al-Feel oil field, it said. Sharara was to restart at a capacity of 30,000 barrels a day, with an expected return to full capacity, around 290,000 barrels a day, within three months. Tuesdays shutdown marked the 20th time that production at Libyas largest oil field has been disrupted since the beginning of the NATO-backed uprising and civil war erupted in Feb. 2011, said Hamish Kinnear, Middle East and North Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft. The reopening of the field was the first major challenge to Hifters forces in the area, he said. Should Sirte fall, the (Government of National Accord) will be able to advance into the oil crescent whose ports and oil fields account for the lions share of Libyas oil production and exports, he said. Oil, the lifeline of Libyas economy, has long been a key factor in the civil war, as rival authorities jostle for control of oil fields and state revenue. Libya has the ninth largest known oil reserves in the world and the biggest oil reserves in Africa. Hifters forces have painted their recent defeats as tactical measures to give the U.N.-backed peace process a chance. But the Tripoli-allied militias said Monday they were determined to take Sirte, once a stronghold of the Islamic State group in Libya. Police say two men had just gotten out of a Mercedes on Cornell when the men exchanged gunfire in the largely residential area. One of the shots shattered a large second-story window that houses the art centers largest exhibit space. We deal with this all the time, King said of the islands propensity for flooding. Its frustrating, because you dont know what the storms are going to do. But you lift things up in your house, you move your car to higher ground and you let the water rise. Theres not much more you can do. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh speaks at a press conference in Ramallah - EPA Palestinian leaders announced on Tuesday a counter-proposal to Donald Trumps "peace plan", which envisages one-to-one land swaps in return for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Mohammed Shtayyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, said he had submitted the plan to the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, the diplomatic Quartet that mediates the conflict. "We submitted a counter-proposal to the Quartet a few days ago," Mr Shtayyeh, adding that it proposed the creation of a "sovereign Palestinian state, independent and demilitarised" with "minor modifications of borders where necessary". He reiterated the Palestinians strong opposition to annexation of parts of the West Bank by Israel, and said he could only allow land swaps that were equal in size, in volume and in value." The move appears to be part of wider Palestinian efforts to win greater support from the EU, which has already warned it will impose sanctions on Israel if it pushes ahead with annexation of parts of the West Bank. "We want Israel to feel international pressure," Mr Shtayyeh said. "For the first time the European political allies are discussing sanctions against Israel because we asked for them". Britain has also said it opposes annexation, warning that it is likely to destabilise the Middle East. In January, Mr Trump, the US president, unveiled his own peace plan which included proposals for Israel to annex its settlements, which are considered illegal by many countries, in the West Bank and Jordan Valley. It remains unclear how much territory Israel plans to place under its own rule, but it is understood a more detailed plan will be revealed after July 1. The Palestinian Authority has already rejected the Trump plan in its entirety. This is partly because it would not allow East Jerusalem to become the Palestinian capital, one of the Palestinians' key demands. Palestinian leaders have previously warned that annexation would not only breach international law but also prove to be the death knell for a viable two-state solution. * Singapore, Thailand rise for 7th session * Malaysia to restart nearly all economic activity * Vietnam up for fifth day By Arundhati Dutta June 9 (Reuters) - Singapore stocks rose on Tuesday, putting them on course for their longest winning streak since March last year, while Malaysia gained over 2% after saying it would restart nearly all economic activity after months under coronavirus-related curbs. With gains on developed markets driving stock markets globally higher, Thai shares were also set for their longest rally since June 2019 and Indonesian equities extended gains to a third day. The Indonesian market has been the region's worst hit in the coronavirus crisis, still down 19% for the year so far, despite a recovery across the region that has taken Malaysia close to positive territory for 2020 and limited the Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh exchanges to single-digit percentage losses. Malaysian stocks gained up to 2.2% on Tuesday after a long holiday weekend and hit their highest since Jan. 22. Malaysia Airports Holdings was the top gainer with a rise of 8.2%. The country said on Sunday it would reopen for business and allow interstate travel from June 10, and that the coronavirus outbreak was "successfully" under control. Singapore shares climbed as much as 1.1% to their highest since mid-March. Sembcorp Industries surged 34.6% and was on track for its best day on record after a proposed demerger from loss-making rigbuilder Sembcorp Marine . Thai shares climbed for a seventh session in a row, with consumer staples being the biggest winners on the index. Indonesian stocks firmed up to 1%, with financials and consumer staples accounting for nearly a third of the benchmark index's gains. Vietnamese equities advanced for a fifth day, underpinned by consumer staples and industrials. For Asian Companies click; SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS AS AT 0418 GMT STOCK MARKETS Change on the day Market Current Previous Pct Move close Singapore 2828.65 2796.97 1.13 Bangkok 1447 1438.66 0.58 Manila 6528.14 6514 0.22 Jakarta 5090.535 5070.561 0.39 Kuala Lumpur 1579.86 1556.33 1.51 Ho Chi Minh 904.62 899.92 0.52 Change so far in 2020 Market Current End 2019 Pct Move Singapore 2828.65 3222.83 -12.23 Bangkok 1447 1579.84 -8.41 Manila 6528.14 7,815.26 -16.47 Jakarta 5090.535 6,299.54 -19.19 Kuala Lumpur 1579.86 1588.76 -0.56 Ho Chi Minh 904.62 960.99 -5.87 (Reporting by Arundhati Dutta; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 15:10:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LUANDA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Angola has spent 972,400 U.S. dollars to conduct 12,155 tests of COVID-19 since testing began in March, Health Minister Silvia Lutucuta said on Monday. Each test of COVID-19 cost no less than 80 dollars, without adding the costs of water, electricity, computer equipment and human resources, key elements for testing citizens, the minister said in a media brief. The minister appealed to citizens to recognize the efforts that have been made by the government to save the lives of Angolans. Lutucuta said so far the COVID-19 testing laboratories have received an accumulation of 12,155 samples, of which 11,719 are negative, 92 are positive and 344 are being processed. The country has recorded a total of 92 positive cases of COVID-19 and four deaths. So far, 38 people have recovered. Enditem A conductor operates a train on the Cat Linh - Ha Dong Metro Section in Hanoi during a test run. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. Hanois first metro route has to begin commercial operations before October to retain its staff, city Party Secretary Vuong Dinh Hue has warned. Speaking to reporters on Monday about the Cat Linh-Ha Dong line, also the countrys first metro service, Hue said the city has been training personnel, and the longer the work is delayed, the more difficult it would be to retain them. Officials said earlier that 28 percent of the nearly 1,000 people who were trained quit last year following repeated delays. Hue said city officials are working with the Ministry of Transport to address the problems faced by the project. One of the main challenges now is that many Chinese experts working on it have not been able to enter Vietnam due to the coronavirus outbreak. Of the 150 needed for the remaining work, 26 are set to arrive on June 12. It is unclear when the rest will come. A safety evaluation is needed before commercial operation can begin. Again, the experts who are to do the evaluation, from French firm Apave-Certifer-Tricc, have been unable to enter Vietnam. The Cat Linh-Ha Dong Metro Section runs 13 kilometers from downtown Dong Da District to Yen Nghia in the southwestern district of Ha Dong. It is one of eight metro routes planned for the city. 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 loans from China. U.S. President Donald Trump's attack on Twitter has highlighted how the European Union and the U.S. are taking radically different approaches to overhaul how social media platforms should treat user content. As both sides of the Atlantic move to update long-standing legal protections for internet platforms, Europe's goal is obliging tech companies to cut back on hate speech and disinformation. In the U.S., Trump is seeking to strip the legal protections if platforms engage in potential censorship or in any political conduct.The U.S. and EU rules, which protect social media companies and other platforms from liability for what users post on their sites, were designed more than 20 years ago to promote growth in the then-nascent internet sector and have since underpinned how the web works today. Now, as the rules are being re-examined both in the EU and the U.S., the question for policymakers is how platforms should treat user-generated content posted to their sites -- which could consist of hate speech, incite violence or spread disinformation -- and what legal ramifications platforms should face with respect to those decisions.While drawing Trump's ire, Twitter's decisions to add a fact-check label to his unsubstantiated claims about mail-in voting and a warning that a post about the protests in Minneapolis glorified violence, have garnered support from a senior EU official." I want platforms to become more responsible, therefore I support Twitter's action to implement a transparent and consistent moderation policy," said European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova in relation to the labels on Trump's tweets." This is not about censorship," Jourova said, speaking at an event streamed online last week, "it is about having some limits and taking some responsibility of what is happening in the digital world." But Twitter's fact-check label prompted Trump to unveil an executive order aimed at scrapping legal protections for social media sites that engaged in censorship or in any political conduct. The measures, which, if enacted, are designed to force companies to be more hands-off about what users post, is drawing a distinct line with Europe over how to approach content-moderation policies.In contrast, the EU is planning changes to its framework, which it is set to announce by year-end, so that platforms like Twitter and Facebook Inc. shoulder more responsibility if users spread hate speech or other illegal content. That means platforms could be obliged to scour their sites for those posts instead of acting as neutral conduits. Recent European laws have already chipped away at the long-standing legal protections, for instance by requiring platforms to obtain licenses for copyrighted content before user posts are uploaded. In France and Germany, platforms can be fined if they fail to remove illegal hate speech and other content quickly enough. And various EU initiatives, including voluntary codes of conduct, have also pressured platforms to remove hate speech or demote disinformation.Some of those previous initiatives have drawn concern from tech representatives, who say such rules harm freedom of speech by incentivizing firms to block more content than is necessary to avoid sanctions. Trump's order, meanwhile, is also eliciting pushback from the tech community who worry it attempts to punish a private company for speech that the government doesn't like, in violation of the First Amendment. "There are significant differences between the executive order and European efforts to regulate intermediary liability, though both will have an impact on lawful speech," said Matt Schruers, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which represents Facebook and Alphabet Inc.'s Google.While platforms like YouTube and Facebook are wary of shouldering too much liability for user posts, platforms have also suffered blows to their reputations in recent years for not doing enough to police activity, including for letting Russians spread disinformation across the sites to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the U.K.'s Brexit vote.The pressure to do more is coming internally, too. After Facebook employees blasted their leader for his decision to leave the same Trump posts untouched, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg eventually said the company would review some of its content policies. As the EU prepares its so-called Digital Services Act, officials are looking to provide clearer responsibilities for platforms without scrapping the liability protection altogether, according to a person familiar with the matter. The rules will also seek to avoid creating incentives for over-removal of content, the person said. For instance, under the new EU framework, platforms could be subject to fines if they don't have adequate systems in place to remove or keep illegal content off their sites, rather than for individual decisions about a specific piece of content, the person said.Another option under consideration, which has been pushed for by platform association Edima, is to remove any disincentives platforms might have to pursue illegal hate speech or other bad content on their sites. Under current EU laws, firms are only liable for content once they've been made aware of it, making it unattractive for them to proactively seek out such posts. Meanwhile, the U.S. attempt to impose liability on tech companies may be more difficult to enact. Legal scholars have said the order is unlikely to survive a court challenge, like the one filed by the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit group whose advisory council includes representatives from Facebook, Twitter, Amazon.com Inc. and others, claiming the edict violates free-speech protections. In addition, Democrats' views on hate speech and election misinformation in many ways mirror Europe's, and the debate could shift again if they take power after the November elections. Hours before Union Home Minister Amit Shah's virtual rally for West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee launched a blistering attack on Shah on the India-China border dispute. Taking to Twitter, Banerjee asked if Chinese troops have entered the Indian soil. Taking a dig at Shah, the TMC leader said that West Bengal has not heard from the Union Home Minister in times of two massive crisis - coronavirus COVID-19 and Cyclone Amphan. "Respected AmitShah Ji, Bengal has not heard you speak during these times of crisis, but we hope today you would take a minute to answer this: "Are the Chinese occupying our territory or not?" tweeted Banerjee. Respected @AmitShah Ji, Bengal has not heard you speak during these times of crisis, but we hope today you would take a minute to answer this: "Are the Chinese occupying our territory or not?" ? Abhishek Banerjee (@abhishekaitc) June 9, 2020 Sources said that during his address Shah would attack the ruling TMC government over its failure to handle the coronavirus pandemic and the migrant labour crisis in the state. The virtual rally of Shah is part of BJP's "Atmanirbhar Bharat" campaign. It is to be noted that few days ago the BJP had released a "nine-point chargesheet" against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's rule over the past nine years. Upping the ante against TMC government, the saffron party has recently floated a social media drive christened 'Aar Noi Mamata' (no longer Mamata's rule). "The rally will kick off a political change in this state," Bengal's BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said on Monday while announcing the mega online event. "It is a first for us and our party will set a world record in the number of people attending." Dhaka, June 9 : The Bangladesh government has decided to allow international flight operations from late June after over two months of suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic. Bangladesh's international air connectivity will resume in the third week of the month, Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary Md Mohibul Haque told bdnews24 on Monday. "We are ready to fly international routes. But the date of resumption will be announced later," Md Mofidur Rahman, the chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, said. The first flights will operate on London and Qatar routes. "Biman Bangladesh Airlines will fly to London. British Airways will be able to use the route if they want and Qatar Airways can do the same as well. "Biman Bangladesh Airlines will fly to London. British Airways will be able to use the route if they want and Qatar Airways can do the same as well," he told bdnews24. The coronavirus pandemic forced countries across the world to cut off international air connectivity. Bangladesh followed suit and barred incoming flights from all European countries, except the UK, on March 16 as the government enforced a shutdown to limit the spread of the infection. After stretching the prohibition several times since, Bangladesh resumed flights on domestic routes on Jun 1 and continued flights to and from China only as CAAB extended suspension on all other international flights until June 15. However, chartered flights, cargo flights, air ambulances and emergency landings were not affected by this ban. A little more than a year ago, special counsel Robert Mueller released his report concerning Russian interference in the 2016 election and President Donald Trumps efforts to obstruct that investigation. Remarkably, Congress still has not seen the entire, unredacted report. The Department of Justice withheld portions of the report that concerned grand jury matters, and it has fought the release of those excerpts to Congress. Now, the Supreme Court will decide whether Congress can view the unredacted report, as centuries of precedent dictate, or whether the Trump administration can continue to obstruct Congress legitimate oversight request. The court should decide this case quickly to avoid rewarding the presidents repeated attempts to delay and obstruct Congress investigation. If it doesnt, not only will it be ignoring decades of precedent, it will have helped to place this president further outside the reach of the law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This case concerns the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure that provides that grand jury matters must generally be kept secret. Significantly, the rule in question, known as Rule 6(e), has an important exception that allows district courts to release such materials preliminarily to or in connection with a judicial proceeding. Citing that rule, last August, the House requested that a district court release the portions of the Mueller report that were redacted as grand jury materials, arguing that an impeachment proceeding is a judicial proceeding. As Ive explained before, that argument is supported by the text of the Constitution, which makes clear that in an impeachment, the House functions as a grand jury and the Senate is a tribunal that decides whether to removeover which the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides for presidential impeachments. Indeed, Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution uses the language of judicial proceedings, stating that the Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments, that no Person shall be convicted without a two-thirds majority, and that judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office. Further, Article III, Section 2 says that the Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment; shall be by Jury, indicating that impeachment is a type of trial for crimes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Precedent also supports the Houses request. In 1811, a grand jury in the Mississippi Territory forwarded the House of Representatives its presentment specifying charges against federal territorial Judge Harry Toulmin, which set in motion a House impeachment inquiry. More recently, during the Nixon impeachment, a district court forwarded grand jury materials regarding the Watergate investigation to the House Judiciary Committee. (During the early phase of this case, Department of Justice attorneys left Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District Court for the District of Columbia stunned after arguing that the same outcome in that case, Haldeman v. Sirica, could not be achieved today.) Also, in 1987, a Miami federal court permitted the disclosure of grand jury materials to the House Judiciary Committee to further its impeachment investigation of a federal judge, and in 2010, a Louisiana district court approved the release of grand jury materials to the House for use in its impeachment investigation of a different judge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Notably, the Department of Justice consented to the release of grand jury materials in these earlier cases. But consistent with its pattern of obstructing legitimate congressional oversight, the Trump administration has refused to turn over the unredacted Mueller report to Congress and has fought that disclosure for nearly a year in federal court. Last week, despite losing in the district court and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the department filed a petition for certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to take this case and overturn the lower courts order requiring disclosure. Advertisement Advertisement The Supreme Court should reject that request. As explained above, both the text and history of the Federal Rules, as well as the text of the Constitution itself, clearly support the disclosure of grand jury materials to the House. The departments principal response is that a rule permitting disclosure would require federal courts to involve themselves in impeachment proceedings to scrutinize specific legal theories of impeachment and to sit as evidentiary gatekeepers for impeachment proceedings. But as the D.C. Circuits majority opinion explained, courts can mitigate such concerns in the impeachment context because the district court need only decide if the requested grand jury materials are relevant to the impeachment investigation without commenting on the propriety of that investigation. Moreover, a contrary holdingthat such materials could not be transmitted to the Housewould necessarily require the judiciary to place a thumb on the scale against the Houses ability to complete a full and fair impeachment investigation by denying it relevant information. Advertisement Advertisement On top of that, there is no circuit split here between different courts. Indeed, in its petition, the government fails to cite a single case holding that Congress cannot view grand jury materials relevant to an impeachment inquiryand disagreement among lower courts is typically a key factor in the Supreme Courts decision whether to hear in a case. In short, there is simply no reason for the court to grant review in this case. Advertisement However, if the justices conclude that the importance of this issue justifies their review despite a lack of disagreement between the lower courts, they should move quickly. Typically, when the Supreme Court grants a case, it seeks further briefing, hears oral argument, and then issues a decision months later. In this case, the ordinary procedure would mean that oral argument would happen this fall, with a decision unlikely before 2021. Advertisement But unwisely following that procedure here could result in a de facto win for the Trump administration even if the court eventually decides that Congress is right on the law. As Ive explained before, the House is not a continuing body, and the current Congress exists only until Jan. 3, 2021, at which point its ongoing investigations will end, its subpoenas will expire, and a new Congress will be sworn in. Thus, if the case is not argued until the fall and not decided until spring 2021, the election will be over and the 116th Congress will have long since adjourned. Congress needs to see the full Mueller report nowduring this congressional termto decide if it contains evidence of impeachable conduct. In short, if the Supreme Court does not decide this case in a timely manner, there is a real risk that even if Congress should have access to these grand jury materials, Trump will manage to run out the clock and delay any decision until it is too late. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thus, the Supreme Court should do one of two things: Either it should decline to hear the case at all or it should hear the case this summer on an expedited timeline. Doing so is not unprecedented: In United States v. Nixon, a case about a presidents compliance with subpoenas, the court heard argument on July 8, 1974, and decided the case just two weeks later on July 24. To ensure that this president is not above the law, and that Congress can complete its legitimate investigation concerning the Mueller report, the court should act just as quickly now. Season 4 of Slates hit podcast Slow Burn is now live. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or listen to the first episode below. Thousands of demonstrators seeking police reforms shut down Interstate 84 Monday as they called for an end to systemic racism. A stream of marchers and cardboard signs filled the eastbound traffic lanes and spilled on to the other side, stalling traffic between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. The protesters paused near the Northeast 21st Avenue overpass and shouted, Whose streets? Our streets! Nationwide calls for criminal justice reforms took hold after the May 25 killing of George Floyd. Four Minneapolis police officers face charges tied to his death after one officer kneeled on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. The three others stood nearby as Floyd pleaded for air. The I-84 march began hours after the top Portland police post shifted from Jami Resch, who is white, to Chuck Lovell, who is African American. It is the second major action since the protests began 12 days ago in Portland. Public officials announced Thursday that they would stop sending police officers to patrol Portland schools. Devin Boss has helped organize the nightly marches that attract thousands of people. The marches have often traveled from Southeast Portland into downtown. For the first time Monday, the march turned on to a freeway. Portland police said on Twitter that officers didnt know in advance about the plans to shut down I-84. Boss said that all demonstrators in Portland are working toward a common goal to bring about change. But Boss drew a distinction between the agenda of march organizers and that of many protesters who gather outside the downtown Multnomah County Justice Center. The marches often bring about call for peace and nonviolent resistance. Confrontations with police often flare up near the jail. We have what we think is the right thing to do, and were going to continue to do, Boss said. People that act like a revolution is built strictly off the backs of rioting dont understand history. Its Malcom and Martin. Its not just Malcom. It always has been. Police have largely remained away from protesters until crowds converge near the downtown jail. Officers are posted inside a fence that surrounds the building and the federal courthouse next door. Police have sometimes used tear gas, stun grenades and ear-splitting noise to break up crowds. The tactics have received harsh criticism from civil rights and police accountability groups. Late Monday, the city auditors Independent Police Review office said it had received several dozen complaints from people about how they were treated by Portland police officers during the demonstrations. Resch announced at a Monday afternoon press conference that she would step down. She said she had asked Lovell to replace her. Lovell, who oversaw the bureaus Community Services Division, said the request surprised him. "I felt like if I in some small way could be the start for some community healing, it was my duty to do that,'' he said. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler called Lovell the right person for the job. On Monday night, hours after Lovell was announced as the citys new police chief, officers maintained a muted response to the nightly protest outside the jail. A single arrest was announced in connection with Mondays demonstrations. Rain fell on protesters and police throughout out the night. Boss said march organizers want supporters to prepare to attend the demonstrations for the long haul. That kind of mental fortitude isnt something that most of us are used to having because weve had such luxurious lifestyles," Boss said. So Im trying to get them in the mental headspace of, your feet are going to hurt. Youre going to be tired. Were not here to be comfortable. Boss said after the march he will clock-in for his graveyard shift at work. Its not easy, but its life, Boss said. Ana Reiser said she attended the protest for the fourth night to walk beside the black community and show her support. I dont see myself stopping any time soon, she said. I would love to be out every night if I can. The march began near Southeast Stark Street and 12th Avenue and turned on to Interstate 84 shortly after 7 p.m. Marchers continued east on the interstate a half-hour later. Although traffic was stalled in both directions, the march mostly stayed in the eastbound lanes. People held up a rainbow of cardboard signs, including some with messages such as Black Lives Matter" and White silence is violence. Many marchers had exited the interstate and started to walk north on Northeast 33rd Avenue by 7:40 p.m. Traffic had started moving slowly again in the westbound lanes. Oregon Department of Transportation cameras showed the final marchers left the interstate by 7:50 p.m. Police said later on Twitter that one driver had called to report a conflict with other drivers who were blocking traffic for the interstate march. Officers did not provide any other details. The march eventually to Alberta Street, where people turned west from 33rd Avenue and walked to 15th Avenue. Marchers remained there, then eventually made their way south along 15th Avenue back toward their starting point. As thousands of people made their way through Northeast Portland, hundreds of demonstrators began to gather Monday night near the jail, the epicenter of the downtown Portland protests. One person rallied the crowd by using a megaphone. They want to keep us contained because theyre scared of what we can do," the person said. Shortly after 9 p.m., police warned the crowd not to tamper with the fence surrounding the jail. Officers took to Twitter soon after to ask the crowd to stop shaking and climbing the fence. We are not here to police a fence, Portland police said. We are here to protect the people who work in the Justice Center and the adults in custody who are living there. On the ground, police remained distant from the fence, staying farther away they had during some other nights. The crowd had grown to nearly 1,000 people by around 9:40 p.m. Many people wrote the number of a legal rights group on their arm, in case of arrest. Around 10:45 p.m. police warned the downtown Portland crowd again to stop tampering with the fence. The tension escalated, as some people threw objects, including beach balls, over the fence. An Oregonian/OregonLive reporter saw a large hole cut in part of the fence in front of the federal courthouse. A second fence still blocked off access to the jail. By 11:40 p.m., many people had started to leave. Most demonstrators had left by about 1 a.m. Tuesday, according to police. Police announced one arrest connected to Mondays protests. One person was jailed Monday evening on suspicion of disorderly conduct and criminal mischief after being seen throwing things at officers near the Justice Center, according to police. Officers also confiscated two guns from men seen carrying AR-15-style rifles downtown during the demonstration, police said. One of the men was cited for the city code violation of possessing a loaded firearm in a public place, according to police. An investigation is ongoing. Beth Nakamura, Joe Freeman and Jim Ryan of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report. -- Jamie Hale jhale@oregonian.com BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend: The product exports increased by 178 percent via Astara railway terminal of Gilan Province (northern Iran) during 2 months of the current Iranian year (March 20-May 20, 2020), a senior official at the Iranian Northern Railway Gholamhossein Valadi told IRNA, Trend reports. According to Valadi, 41,500 tons of products were exported to Azerbaijan through the Astara railway terminal within two months. Valadi added that 14,900 tons of products were exported through this terminal in the same period last Iranian year. The official said that the exported products were mainly cement, clinker, chemicals, ceramics, household items and etc. Valadi said that a total of 81,900 tons of cargo were transported through the Astara railway terminal. This is an increase of 38 percent compared to the same period last Iranian year (59,600 tons). The official noted that 32,700 tons of products were imported through the Astara railway terminal over the past two months. The imported products were mainly wood and wood materials, lentils, wheat and barley and so on. "About 7,700 tons of products were transited to Iraq through the Astara railway terminal in two months," he said. BENGALURU: Former Prime Minister and Janat Dal S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda will file his nomination for the June 19 Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka. According to reports, the JDS veteran will file his nominations on Tuesday, his son and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy had announced this on Monday. He said the former Prime Minister made his decision following the request of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, several national leaders and party legislators, and it was not an easy task to "persuade" him to enter the Rajya Sabha. "Former PM @H_D_Devegowda has decided to contest the Rajya Sabha elections at the request of party legislators, @INCIndia Sonia Gandhi Ji and several national leaders. He is going to file his nominations tomorrow. Thanks to Sri DeveGowda for agreeing to everyone's consensus," Kumaraswamy had said in a tweet. Former PM @H_D_Devegowda have decided to contest the Rajya Sabha elections at the request of party legislators, @INCIndia Sonia Gandhi Ji and several national leaders. He is going to file his nominations tomorrow. Thanks to Sri DeveGowda for agreeing to everyone's consensus. H D Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) June 8, 2020 From the people, former prime minister DeveGowda has seen success and defeat. By the people, he has acquired higher positions. It was not an easy task to persuade DeveGowda to enter the Rajya Sabha. H D Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) June 8, 2020 The JD(S), which has 34 seats in the assembly, is not in a position to win a seat in Rajya Sabha on its own and will need support from the Congress with its surplus votes. A minimum of 44 votes are required for candidates to win. If he wins, this will be the second Rajya Sabha entry for 87-year-old Gowda, the first time being in 1996 as Prime Minister. Gowda was defeated in Tumkur constituency by BJP's G S Basavaraj by over 13,000 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. As a joint candidate of the then ruling Congress-JDS coalition, Gowda had chosen to contest from Tumkur at the last minute after vacating Hassan-his home turf, to grandson Prajwal Revanna (a current MP). Election is scheduled on June 19 to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, represented by Rajeev Gowda and B K Hariprasad of Congress, Prabhakar Kore of BJP and D Kupendra Reddy of JD(S) that will fall vacant on June 25, with their retirement. June 9 is the last date for filing nominations. With 68 MLAs in the assembly, Congress can win one out of the four seats on its own and has fielded veteran party leader Mallikarjun Kharge as its candidate. The BJP, with 117 members in the assembly (including Speaker), can ensure easy victory in two seats. The State BJP core committee on Saturday had recommended three names to high command as probable candidates, out of which two are likely to be finalised. We are excited about growing our relationship with Ute Mountain, said Henry Valentino, CEO of eConnect. I have complete confidence that our solutions will bring safety and peace of mind to their customers and employees." When COVID-19 hit the United States, most casinos closed to help with social distancing and to keep people safe. As the country begins to reopen, operators are doing everything they can to make their employees and patrons feel safe. Checking temperatures has become more and more important as it may help mitigate the spread of the virus by detecting people who have elevated temperatures. Ute Mountain Casino Resort has decided to use eConnects eClear thermal temperature solution to ensure the safety of their patrons and employees. eClear is a thermal imaging device that can read temperatures in a contact-free, self-serve manner quickly and effortlessly. The power of eClear is in its ability to do a quick temperature reading using thermal imaging, said Rick Scheer, General Manager of Ute Mountain Casino. We can keep everyone safe quite easily and with minimal hassle. With this solution, eConnect continues to lead the hospitality industry by leveraging its facial recognition offering to help further facilitate touchless authentication. eClear is light and portable, can be placed at guest or employee entrances and, if desired, can be permanently mounted. We are excited about growing our relationship with Ute Mountain, said Henry Valentino, CEO of eConnect. I have complete confidence that our solutions will bring safety and peace of mind to their customers and employees. We are proud to be a partner of Ute Mountain Casino and we look forward to helping them achieve their goals as they reopen. In addition to the basics of preventing the spread of disease by automatically checking temperatures, the facial recognition component offers many benefits, such as a real-time aggregate count of all entrances and exits while simultaneously recognizing and alerting about valuable customers or banned customers, even if they are wearing face masks. When placed at employee entrances, eClear can be used as a hands-free time clock. About Ute Mountain Casino and Hotel Beneath the expansive Western sky in Towaoc, Colorado lies the states first tribal gaming facility and the largest casino in the Four Corners Area. Featuring the most slots and best selection of the newest games, our players not only enjoy winning more, they also love our Southwestern hospitality, friendly faces, great food and fun, they provide a first-class guest experience! The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is part of the Weeminuche Band, one of the seven original Ute bands that inhabited the entire state of Colorado. Known today as the oldest continuous residents of the state, the Ute Tribe presently resides on their reservation land in Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Visit http://www.utemountaincasino.com for more information. About eConnect eConnect is a cutting-edge technology company that helps improve business performance through data and video intelligence. The company seamlessly integrates digital video surveillance analytics, including facial recognition, with transactional data from point-of-sale (POS), casino systems and other data sources to improve profitability quickly and directly, efficiency and the guest experience. eConnect offers measurable ROI within months of system deployment. The tools are world-renowned for their ability to discover previously unknown problems, thereby reducing eliminating sources of loss and correcting operational problems. In response to Covid-19, eConnect has expanded its solutions to enable customers to reopen safely and efficiently. For more information, visit http://www.econnectglobal.com. 'Like' us on Facebook Follow us: Posted on: June 09, 2020 Sri Sathya Sai Sharda Peeth Sai Lighthouse Shines at the Indo-Pak Border On October 3, 2016, barely a hundred plus devotees attended the bhoomi puja (groundbreaking ceremony) in the middle of a paddy field in a sleepy village as a first step towards a faint dream. For decades, the devotees in the northernmost region of Bharat had aspired to have their own place for Sai service and spiritual activities. The location was outside the city of Jammu, in the middle of agricultural land not far from one of the world's most volatile, explosive and dangerous international borders, in this case the line of actual control (LoC). As unlikely as the location seemed, it was clearly an area most in need of the balm of Sai healing. Given that the Indo-Pak border runs through mountains, valleys and uneven terrains, the location of the proposed Sai Centre could be within 6 to10 kilometres from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. The village of Marh (pronounced Mud) in Halq region of Jammu, is about a 45 minutes drive from Jammu Airport and the Railway station during normal traffic. From Groundbreaking to Inauguration It was just His Glory It was a warm afternoon when the ground breaking concluded and the excitement of such a dream coming true was palpable except for the many tasks that lay ahead and the unimaginable resources that were needed to make it all come true. Fast forward three and a half years to March 6, 2020, when three signature Prasanthi Nilayam style buildings along with Sai Kulwant Hall style domes were ready to welcome devotees, the colour palette was blue and pink, in conformity with Sai architecture. The buildings were bright, spacious and oozing a divine energy that one experiences while crossing Gopuram gate of the ashram in Puttaparthi. The past 3 years and 5 months, since the bhoomi puja on October 3, 2016 till the inauguration on March 6, 2020 have been a journey of leaps of faith, infinite resignation, unending prayers and divine interventions galore at Sri Sathya Sai Sharda Peeth Seva Centre of Jammu. How else can one explain the grand premises built at the cost of over 3 crore rupees when on October 3, 2016, the Sri Sai Prashanthi Trust, J&K, Jammu had only a dream in their hearts, a prayer on their lips and hardly any balance in their account, and only half of the current land area. Today, the land area is doubled to 16,000 square feet and the 3 buildings with a total built-up area of 8400 square feet are ready! Devotees are in a celebratory mood, enthused to revive spiritual, education and service activities on a grand scale and thus achieve their life's goal of self-transformation. The sacred ground breaking ceremony on October 3, 2016 The Significance behind the Name The name Sri Sathya Sai Sharda Peeth Seva Centre is inspired by Bhagawan Baba's frequent mention of Kashmir being one of the prominent seats of learning in ancient India known as Sharda Peeth. How the Thrones Arrived Even as the work was just starting, a surprise crate was received at the venue, perhaps to herald the divine arrival. It contained a walnut wood chair with a matching footstool for the Lord, with the sarva dharma logo hand carved on it. It came from Pulwama, the epicentre of militancy in the Kashmir valley. It was an offering from an officer of the Indian Army, a colonel who had been on duty there during a troubled time. His wife's family being Bhagawan's devotees were praying for his safety. The colonel completed his term safely during the peak of terrorism and as his thanksgiving, got the chair and footstool made! Today, this throne and footstool are placed for the Lord in His Visitors' Room. The ornate throne on the altar came from a long-time devotee in Hong Kong who had procured it from mainland China and was looking to find a perfect home for it. She had bought this twenty years ago when Sai Bhajans started in her house. Bhagawan mysteriously guided her to buy this after a lot of search in Hong Kong and China. Now at her advanced age, when she was looking to find a place for this precious treasure, she felt no place would be more appropriate than this new centre for the "Imperial Throne" meant for the "King of her Heart". How Swami Willed the Prasanthi Look for His Abode After many struggles, prayers and help from generous devotees, the toilet block and last mile connectivity happened. Just when everyone thought that everything was nearly done, Bhagawan did not seem satisfied. He wanted His temple to reflect His Prasanthi Nilayam. By the end of December 2019, by divine design a devotee who had come to Prasanthi Nilayam to study the sarva dharma stupa to make one for a Sai Centre in Canada got involved and the work of making the domes began in early February. On March 3, the smaller replica of the Sai Kulwant Hall style domes were up on the Jammu Sai Centre, well in time for the inauguration on March 6, 2020, bearing testimony to the universe's ability to galvanize a rare combination of factors such as modern technology, team work, mysterious miracles and intuitive guidance, to achieve its purpose. Whether it was during the random purchase of the traditional deepams or brass lamps from a government emporium in Bangalore or the ordering of the marble statues from Jaipur, Bhagawan's presence was felt in all matters. How else can one explain the manager of the deepam store turning out to be the husband of Bhagawan's Anantapur college student who went out of his way to find the best possible pair of tall lamps for the Bhagawan's Jammu Centre? Or a reliable Sai devotee pointing them to the source of divine images made out of finest marble, which were delivered in time at the remote location! The spacious Sai Asha Hall has a marble idol of Goddess Vaishno Devi apart from Shirdi Sai and Lord Ganesha as the Trikuta range of mountains which is home to the sacred Vaishno Devi shrine is clearly visible from the Sai centre. The large photo of the Athi Rudra Lingam of Prasanthi Nilayam is to reflect the centuries old tradition of Kashmir Shaivism prevalent in the area. hidll Fired by Sai Love, Sai Sevadal Make it Happen! Hiccups after hiccups kept delaying the workflow and by January 2019 and the main building was only a shell of a structure with brick walls and roof, and without doors or windows. The floors were rough. The second building had only the foundation and ground floor walls. The compound was deserted and open with no fence to secure it. Yet the divine presence was unmissable. Even at that time, the local devotees of Marh village would light a lamp on the rough structure that was to be an altar and offer flowers to the sagging vinyl sheet that they had hung with the image of the Maha Sannidhi. As if to acknowledge their devotion, and assure them fearlessness, divine grace manifested from the sagging vinyl sheet in the form of vibhuti and amrit. Work was thus going on at the site at a halting pace with no clarity of when the project would ever be completed. There was some talk of re-planning it in phases and taking up just a small part at a time. And then a shift happened just after the Jammu sevadal returned home from their duty at Prasanthi Nilayam in August 2019. Suddenly a divine force started to speed up the work on the ground and from October 2019 onward, the level of motivation, enthusiasm and devotion was of unprecedented levels. Devotees would come from far and near to offer seva and witness the glory of their Lord at play. It strengthened their faith that Bhagawan was personally leading the project, a sentiment echoed by Sri Shiv Kumar Sharma, the State President and Jammu Trust settler during the inauguration function. Then came the final push to the project at the start of the year 2020 when the Jammu youth group from RS Pura (another town bordering LOC) led by Captain Satpal of Marh arrived at the site with the divine lotus feet of the Lord in the form of marble padukas received from the SSS Central Trust in Prasanthi Nilayam. This marked the arrival of their God and Lord and from that moment onwards, the pace of work picked up further, as did the commitment of the devotees and their belief in the project's viability. On Shivaratri day, February 21, 2020, when devotees came to participate in the prana pratishthan of the divine images, to invoke the life force in the idols, most of them were stunned to see their Lord's abode resembling a mini Prasanthi Nilayam. The local village of Marh has a high concentration of Sai devotees and by divine providence, after the project started, Bhagawan's plan kept unfolding step-by-step. With His grace, at the outset in 2016, the government approved several water sources for the site. Without these, such a massive construction would not have been possible. Soon after, the electricity transformer for the area got upgraded, the main road leading to the village was repaired, the new highway behind the site was commissioned and the local Sai samithi convener got elected the village sarpanch! Right after the inauguration on March 6, 2020, the local 300 feet road leading to the Sai Centre is being paved by the panchayat! Looks like after testing the devotees for 3 years, Bhagawan is showering an abundance of His grace as His validation for their patience, prayers and persistence. The Unthinkable Inauguration on Mar 6, 2020 In hindsight, devotees are further wonder struck at the timing of the inauguration on March 6, 2020 and the smooth and safe return of all guests and devotees before the travel ban and the COVID curfews. The Managing Trustee of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust Sri R J Rathnakar, the All India President of the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations Sri Nimish Pandya and team of SSSSO officials and guests had joined the Jammu devotees for the inauguration function. When in 1968, the Avatar declared at Dharmakshetra, Bombay that the purpose of His incarnation was to protect the devotees and revive Sanathana Dharma through Vedic culture, little could one have imagined that re-establishing the seat of Matha Sharda, the Goddess of learning (also known as Saraswati) on the northernmost frontier of Bharat would be part of His vajra sankalpa or His iron clad resolve. The precision and perfection with which Sai glory is spreading and His mission growing to achieve the goal of uniting humanity into one family - Vasudaiva Kutumbakam, is a stark reminder that He lives, lives and continues to ever live, drive and protect His devotees, and accomplish His mission to love all and serve all. Clearly, this is the first of many more Sai miracles that the world will witness in the days to come. We bow to Lord Sai, whose glory is infinite! Jai Sai Ram. Thank you and loving Sai Ram, Team Radio Sai GAINESVILLE, Fla., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ITProTV, the highest rated online skills development platform for IT professionals, announced today that 34 educational institutions experiencing learning disruptions from the impact of COVID-19 have implemented no-cost training from ITProTV for more than 1,600 students. To assist the learning community during this period of social distancing, ITProTV initiated a program to provide no-cost access to online training for select courses to educational institutions who are unable to conduct in-person learning. "So many organizations have stepped up to help others, and we wanted to do our part," ITProTV CEO Tim Broom said. "Helping IT professionals in every stage of their career is what we are all about, and to be able to assist students and instructors with access ITProTV made sense." C-TEC, the Career and Technology Education Center of Licking County, Ohio teaches IT and Computer Training as part of its Adult Education program. When students were suddenly unable to attend in-person classes due to Covid-19, instructor Roger Elliott reached out to ITProTV. Through the ITProTV free access program, the students were provided with online CompTIA courses, including Security+, Linux+, Server+, and PenTest+. "We have always been a brick and mortar campus providing traditional, in-person classes for our IT program," Elliott said. "ITProTV has offered us content for each course we have been forced to teach online. While we were thrust into online learning, ITProTV helped smooth that transition for our faculty and students. Not only has it been a big help during crazy times, but the overwhelmingly positive response from our students has us looking into using ITProTV when we return to the traditional classroom." ABOUT ITProTV ITProTV is an online membership platform addressing the global IT skills gap by delivering the best of the classroom experience online and on-demand to train IT professionals in every stage of their careers. ITProTV turns IT education into a conversation that connects learners to experts and each other. With new content added daily, IT pros can access 5,800+ hours of content, plus practice tests and virtual labs, and be a part of an IT community. ITProTV offers flexible and cost-effective membership options for both corporate teams and individual learners who can learn at their own pace wherever it is most convenient. Learn more at www.itpro.tv. ITProTV Contact: Valerie Riley, [email protected], +1 (352) 256-9156 SOURCE ITProTV Related Links http://itpro.tv The inalterability of priorities in reforming the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine according to NATO standards is more important than the way of organizing the activities of the ministry, which each new minister sees in his own way. "I have met with Minister Taran several times. We talked about the reform of the Ministry, as well as about Ukraine's path towards NATO in general as the UKs Embassy along with Canadas Embassy are two NATO contact embassies in Ukraine. During my communication with the minister, he was consistent in the position that Ukraine's path towards NATO requires further reform of the Ministry of Defence, the Armed Forces, and improved military training in order to achieve interoperability according to NATO standards. And, importantly, he noted that there would be no changes in the planned actions on Ukraine's path towards NATO membership," Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Ukraine Melinda Simmons said in an interview with the Novoye Vremya. Commenting on the termination of work of the Reform Project Office, the diplomat noted that, "to be honest, each new minister sees the work of the Ministry in his or her own way." "It is important for us that priorities of the reform remain unchanged, and this was the main content of our talks with Minister Taran," she said. As reported, Minister of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Taran by his order shut down the Reform Project Office at the Ministry of Defence and signed an order to establish a Directorate of Defence Policy at the Ministry to implement the goal of defence reform in Ukraine. ol Major General Anindya Sengupta, the GoC Victor Force, of the Indian Army lauded the efforts of the Armed Forces, RR units, J&K police, and the CAPF and their synergy to eliminate terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir. 83 terrorists have been neutralized in the state since January 2020 and Major Gen. Anindiya Sengupta revealed that over 4000 other operations were undertaken by the Forces to maintain peace and domination in the area and to reduce the space for terrorists operating in the area. Further, Major Gen. Anindiya Sengupta said that interference by stone pelters hindered the operations of the Forces and said that terrorists sought local support via coercion. Talking about the current security situation in South Kashmir in an exclusive conversation with Republic TV's Shawan Sen, Major General Sengupta said that certain areas have always been the ideological hub of terrorism in the region. Traditional support to these bases exists in such areas which gives rise to Over Ground Workers (OGW). Detailing on the efforts taken by the forces to maintain peace and eliminate terror, Major General Sengupta spelled out detailed stats of the lowering of violence levels in the state. Further, Major General Anindiya Sengupta said that the normalcy parameters were analyzed by the Forces and hoped that it would return to how it was in January. Major General Anindiya Sengupta pointed out that Pakistan's motive has always been to disturb peace in Kashmir and accused them of constantly trying to create a religious divide. Major General Sengupta said that Pakistan had been targetting innocent civilians including sarpanches, traders, drivers, and so on. Responding to the narrative spun by Pakistan to create unrest, Major Gen. Sengupta said that the Indian Army's only narrative was the truth. Pune, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global microturbine market is expected to grow mainly on account of rising demand for clean energy. According to a report, published by Fortune Business Insights, titled, MICROTURBINE: GLOBAL MARKET ANALYSIS, INSIGHTS, AND FORECAST, 2018-2026 the shift from the turbocharger to microturbine technology is predominantly used in aerospace and automotive sector. This shift has pushed the market to rise at a CAGR of 9.23% between 2018 and 2026. In 2018, the market was valued at US$ 179.62 Mn and by 2026 the market is expected to reach double the size i.e. US$ 363.95 Mn by the end of 2026. One of the best properties of microturbines is that they are efficient and faster as compared to gas turbines. Growth Witnessed Attributed to Demand for Microturbines in Industrial Sector The trend for using microturbines is gaining the maximum traction in the industrial sector over others. The demand for microturbine generator is increasing among several industries which include oil & gas, mining, water treatment, and pharmaceuticals. The analysts in the report predict that this segment will dominate in the forecast years. Get Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/microturbine-market-100514 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/industry-reports/microturbine-market-100514 Asia Pacific to Register Impressive Growth Through 2026 Presently, the market in North America is leading as the U.S. covers the majority of the share. The growing awareness about carbon footprint leads to rising energy consumption, which is driving the market in this region. Stringent regulations by environmental organizations such as CAA are expected to create growth opportunities for the market in North America. The market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness strong demand for microturbines in the forthcoming years. Demand for fuel-efficient vehicles is increasing in this region, which is likely to expand the market. Countries such as Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and Australia are responsible for the optimistic growth of the market. As per the report, China covered 40% of the market in the year 2018. Several projects are lined up in this region, which can help the market dominate in this region. Increasing Focus on Green Energy Generation Escalates Demand for Microturbines The growing concerns over Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and energy efficiency are acting as potential growth enablers in the market, stated a lead analyst at Fortune Business Insights. Microturbines have the ability to offer stable and reliable power as compared to the reciprocating engine, which makes it an ideal option for several industries to adopt, he added. Driven by the rising demand for clean energy, microturbines are used as the best source for clean energy generation. The poor grid infrastructure and wide availability of fuel are contributing to the growth of the market. Improved reliability and reduced costs of power generation are likely to augment demand for microturbines. Moreover, microturbine systems can be easily installed than conventional power plants and can avoid the risk of any probable losses. Over the years, microturbine has emerged as a breakthrough development in CHP application. The exhaust heat produced by microturbine can be recovered with the help of a heat recovery boiler and overall efficiency can be increased. Growing environmental concerns such as high pollution levels and global warming are likely to fuel demand for CHP plants, which is driving the market. Speak to Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/microturbine-market-100514 Capstone Turbine Corporation Leads the Market In the report, the analysts indicate that Capstone Turbine Corporation is leading the global microturbine market. The company has a significant customer reach and it earns the maximum revenue from regions such as Latin America and North America. Some of the other notable players in the global market are Bladon Micro Turbine, Ansaldo Energia, UAV Turbine, Aurelia Turbine, Brayton Energy, LLC., FlexEnergy Inc., MTT Microturbine, ICR Turbine Engine Corporation, Turbo Tech Precision Engineering Pvt., Ltd., and Dresser-Rand. Companies are constantly striving to gain a strong market position and expand their presence in developing as well as developed countries. Some of the developments are mentioned below: UAV Turbines Inc. announced the launch of the Monarch RP family in August 2019. The family encompasses microturbine engines that will help commercial and defence partners offer reliable and powerful propulsion systems. Bladon Micro Turbine signed an agreement with Gridserve in January 2019. It is a multi-million contract will see the pioneering Bladon MTG12 integrated into Gridserves 12kW solar hybrid power solution. Quick Buy Microturbine Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/100514 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 Key Emerging Trends For Major Countries Latest Technological Advancement Regulatory Landscape Porters Five Forces Analysis Global Microturbine Market Analysis (US$ Mn), Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 Key Findings Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Power Rating Up to 50kW 50-250kW Above 250kW Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Application CHP Standby Power Market Analysis, Insights, and Forecast By End User Residential Commercial Industrial Market Analysis, Insights, and Forecast By Region North America Latin America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa TOC Continued..!!! Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/microturbine-market-100514 Have a Look at Related Research Insights: Generator Sales Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis By Fuel Type (Gas, Diesel, Others), By Power Rating (Below 75kVA, 75-375kVA, 375-750kVA, Above 750kVA), By Application (Stand By, Peak Shaving, Continuous), By End-User (Mining, Oil & Gas, Construction, Residential, Marine, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Commercial, Others) and Regional Forecast 2019-2026 Power Rental Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis By Rating (Below 75 KVA, 75 375 KVA, 375 750 KVA, Above 750 KVA), By Fuel Type (Diesel, Natural Gas and LPG, Others), By Application (Continuous, Stand By, Peak Load), By End-Use (Mining, Construction, Utility, Events, Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Others) and Geography Forecast, 2019 - 2026 Industrial Gas Turbine Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Capacity (1-2MW, 2-5MW, 5-7.5MW, 7.5-10MW, 10-15MW, 15-20MW, 20-30MW, 30-40MW, 40-100MW, 100-150MW, 150-300MW, 300+MW), By Sector (Electric Power Utility, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing), By Technology (Heavy Duty, Light Industrial, Aeroderivative), By Cycle (Open Cycle, Combined Cycle) 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. An icy blast sweeping through south eastern Australia will continue to see temperatures drop well below freezing. The Perisher Valley in NSW reached a low of -6.6C on Tuesday morning with snow showers expected for alpine regions in NSW and Victoria on the weekend. Melburnians shivered through their coldest June night since 2013 as temperatures dropped to 2C overnight while Sydneysiders woke up to wet roads due to heavy rain from Monday night. Diana Eadie from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said the cold weather is set to stick around for the rest of the week. 'The well below average temperatures have been caused by a slow-moving high pressure system currnelly located over southern Australia,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'It's brought cool and dry weather which has allowed temperatures to plummet.' A woman dons a puffer jacket as temperatures drop in Melbourne. Meteorologist Diane Eadie said it was 'jumper weather or throw an extra blanket bed sort of weather' after temperatures plummeted overnight A woman walks near Albert Park Lake in Melbourne. A slow-moving cold pressure system has caused temperatures to drop and will continue to keep them low for the rest of the week The coldest temperature in Melbourne was in Coldstream, where the temperature dropped to -3.6C. The city reached a maximum temperature of just 15C. 'Cold temperatures will persist tomorrow as well, creeping up in the latter part of the week with widespread frost,' Ms Eadie said. 'I would say it's jumper weather or throw an extra blanket bed sort of weather.' For the rest of the working week Melbourne will see consistent lows of 6C to 7C and maximum temperatures of 15C to 16C. Showers are expected by the weekend. Omeo in East Gippsland dropped to -4.6C on Tuesday morning while Victoria's alpine regions have been shivering through freezing temperatures. Ms Eadie explained that the dry conditions have not been conducive for snowfall. 'We won't see favourable conditions for snow until the weekend,' she said. Mount Hotham reached a low of -3.8C on Monday night while Mount Buller was hovering around 0C this morning. Both regions can expect snow on the weekend. Snow falls at Perisher ski resort. The Perisher Valley in NSW reached a low of -6.6C on Tuesday morning with snow expected on the weekend, as well as at Thredbo, Mount Hotham and Buller Jodi White with her Huski 'Revan' trudge through snow in Mount Hotham earlier this month. The area reached a low of -3.8C on Monday night with more snow expected on the weekend Sydney's coldest spot was Mount Boyce where it was a chilly 4.5C on Tuesday morning while Observatory Hill dropped to 10.7C at 7am. The recent wet weather in the NSW capital has meant that temperatures have not dropped as low as other parts of south eastern Australia where it has been dryer. Showers are expected in Sydney on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday while NSW's alpine regions will have clear skies for the rest of the working week. Perisher and Thredbo will both reach lows of -3C by Saturday and experience snow showers over the weekend. The cold weather will even creep up to Brisbane in Queensland. 'There will be unsettled weather in Brisbane towards the end of the week with rainy areas towards the end of the weekend,' Ms Eadie said. In Brisbane on Wednesday, there will be a low of 15C and a high of 22C with southeasterly winds of up to 25km and showers. Showers will continue but ease of on Thursday and Friday before similar gusty winds return on Sunday, bringing increasingly intense showers with it. Sydneysiders caught in the rain outside of Museum Station. The recent wet weather in the NSW capital has meant that temperatures have not dropped as low as other parts of south eastern Australia Perth has also been affected by cold weather, with residents waking up to a low of just 5.8C on Tuesday morning. Wednesday will have a minimum of 9C and a maximum of 24C with cloudy skies. The city will see the wildest weather out of all the capital cities with showers and storms bringing winds of up to 35km/h on both Thursday and Friday. Showers will continue on the weekend with a temperature range of 8C to 18C on Saturday, which will slightly increase to 20C on Sunday. Adelaidians have not escaped the cold weather either, waking up to 1.8C on Tuesday. The state's coldest temperature came from Yunta, where it was just -5.3C at 7am. There will be sunny weather for the rest of the working week with lows of 5C and maximum temperatures of 18C. Showers will arrive in the city on the weekend, when the temperature will range from 9C to 17C. A weather map showing how the low pressure system is affecting parts of Victoria, NSW, the ACT and SA Canberra will have consistently cold weather throughout the week. From Tuesday to Friday, the low will be 0C while the top will be just 13C. Come Saturday, the minimum temperature will increase to 3C and the maximum will also jump to 14C - but showers will also be expected. In Hobart, residents woke up to 3.2C and cloudy weather on Tuesday before a temperatures increase to 14C. On Thursday, there is a very high chance of showers while the minimum temperature will be 7C and the maximum will be 11C. More showers are expected on Sunday. While the rest of Australia is kicking off winter, tropical Darwin has just begun its dry season. The NT capital will reach a scorching maximum temperature of 33C on Tuesday, which will drop to 32C for the rest of the week. The minimum temperature will range from 21C to 23C each morning with clear skies and sunny weather expected until Monday. [June 09, 2020] Food & Beverage Leaders Increasingly Turn to FourKites For Real-Time Supply Chain Visibility CHICAGO, June 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FourKites , the #1 real-time supply chain visibility platform, today shared details about its momentum with the worlds leading F&B companies, who are increasingly leveraging FourKites superior network of logistics tracking data and proprietary machine learning technology to deliver essential products faster and more efficiently to their final destinations even as COVID-19 sparked massive supply chain disruptions. As of today, 18 of the top-20 global F&B companies including Conagra, Coca-Cola, AB InBev, Constellation Brands, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Nestle, Sysco, General Mills, Tyson Foods, Kraft Heinz, US Foods, Smithfield, Land OLakes, Cargill and Ferrero rely on FourKites for data-driven insights and proactive risk management of their food and beverage shipments . In the last 12 months, F&B leaders have increasingly turned to FourKites for end-to-end supply chain visibility, with the platform having seen total F&B shipper customer growth of 23 percent; F&B carrier growth of 20 percent; and load count growth of nearly 50 percent. By identifying late loads with high levels of precision and accuracy, FourKites F&B customers have been able to achieve significant improvements in cycle times for their sensitive freight. In the last year, FourKites F&B shippers increased on-time performance of their freight by 8 percent, while dwell time decreased by 7.5 percent, despite the significant challenges presented in recent months by COVID-19-related supply chain disruptions. According to Gartner, Many companies lack visibility of their shipments in transit. This lack of visibility results in instability, unpredictability, delays and poor customer service. Real-time transportation visibility platforms (RTTVPs) are growing rapidly in popularity and use in business today. These solutions provide real time visibility and alerts to customers for shipments in transit. Letting customers know where their freight is and when it will be delivered to them has become a key requirement from customers and consumers alike.1 Major media including the Wall Street Journal and Forbes have written about the imperative for visibility solutions that can help the entire logistics industry better manage operations amid various supply chain disruptions. Over the past 12 months, FourKites has introduced many industry-first innovations specifically designed for and often in collaboration with its F&B shipper and carrier customers, including: Secure Shipments that alert users to avoid areas that may pose a threat to product quality for example, high altitude areas where packaging may be damaged due to decreased air pressure. One Fortune 500 F&B customer commented that this new capability is a game changer for them and their carriers: Our team has been able to set up zones to proactively alert when a carrier begins heading toward a trouble spot so that we have time to react and get the truck turned around before we end up with damaged product. that alert users to avoid areas that may pose a threat to product quality for example, high altitude areas where packaging may be damaged due to decreased air pressure. One Fortune 500 F&B customer commented that this new capability is a game changer for them and their carriers: Our team has been able to set up zones to proactively alert when a carrier begins heading toward a trouble spot so that we have time to react and get the truck turned around before we end up with damaged product. Industry-first, machine learning-driven Dynamic ETAs for LTL , which deliver unprecedented accuracy in LTL tracking and enable shippers to take greater advantage of a more cost-effective mode of freight transport and expedited shipment of essential freight. The ability to proactively manage exceptions for LTL shipments means better planning, smoother operations and improved visibility for customers, said Dustin Braun, Senior Director - Logistics, Land OLakes. Predicting accurate arrival times for LTL loads has always been one of the harder problems in supply chain. This is a genuine breakthrough in real-time visibility, and we are happy to have collaborated with FourKites to help make this innovation happen. , which deliver unprecedented accuracy in LTL tracking and enable shippers to take greater advantage of a more cost-effective mode of freight transport and expedited shipment of essential freight. The ability to proactively manage exceptions for LTL shipments means better planning, smoother operations and improved visibility for customers, said Dustin Braun, Senior Director - Logistics, Land OLakes. Predicting accurate arrival times for LTL loads has always been one of the harder problems in supply chain. This is a genuine breakthrough in real-time visibility, and we are happy to have collaborated with FourKites to help make this innovation happen. End-to-end cold chain visibility, as illustrated by this partnership with Frozen Food Express Network Visibility , enabling for the first time visibility into pre-paid shipments to improve planning and inventory management. Over the last couple months, FourKites has increased the number of retailers relying on FourKites by 3x to help them through this challenging time, and has increased load sharing and collaboration by 6x during the COVID crisis. , enabling for the first time visibility into pre-paid shipments to improve planning and inventory management. Over the last couple months, FourKites has increased the number of retailers relying on FourKites by 3x to help them through this challenging time, and has increased load sharing and collaboration by 6x during the COVID crisis. A slew of new features to improve the safety and productivity of frontline F&B workers, including paperless document processing, enhanced notifications and messaging capabilities, and tracking for direct store deliveries and merchandisers. With FourKites Merchandiser solutions, we now have visibility into the last mile of our supply chain from our warehouses to our retailers instead of relying on a printed route plan that does not update as delivery sequences change, said Brett Frankenberg, SVP, Product Supply Planning & Bottle Sales at Coke Consolidated. FourKites is creating visibility of the physical via digital, and facilitating better frontline decisions. to improve the safety and productivity of frontline F&B workers, including paperless document processing, enhanced notifications and messaging capabilities, and tracking for direct store deliveries and merchandisers. With FourKites Merchandiser solutions, we now have visibility into the last mile of our supply chain from our warehouses to our retailers instead of relying on a printed route plan that does not update as delivery sequences change, said Brett Frankenberg, SVP, Product Supply Planning & Bottle Sales at Coke Consolidated. FourKites is creating visibility of the physical via digital, and facilitating better frontline decisions. A live Network Congestion Map that provides ocean import/export dwell times for over 230 ports worldwide and US city-level dwell and load volume analytics. Senior Product Manager Sergiy Yablonsky of Nestle stated, I am super grateful to FourKites for delivering a tool to monitor border crossing times! It is immensely helpful to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the supply chain networks. The last year of innovation and momentum has translated into tangible improvements to key operational metrics for FourKites F&B customers. Smithfields on-time delivery rate increased from 87 percent to 94 percent thanks to FourKites predictive supply chain visibility . And C&S Wholesales customer service teams reported a 65 percent decrease in check calls in just three months after implementing the platform. This last year has been a time of unprecedented challenges, but also of unprecedented progress for the logistics community, said FourKites CEO Mathew Elenjickal. Even during this very trying time, our team has been able to work collaboratively with our F&B customers to achieve significant improvements in not only the transport and delivery of essential goods, but also to solve some of the longest-standing issues in supply chain, including dwell time, inventory management, overreliance on paper-based processes and unreliability of LTL shipments. There is a great deal more to come, but we have much to be proud of in terms of the gains weve made in the last 12 months. 1 Gartner How to Assess the Benefits and Return on Investment of a Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platform, Carly West, Bart De Muynck, 13 May 2020. About FourKites FourKites is the largest predictive supply chain visibility platform, delivering real-time visibility and predictive analytics for the broadest network of Global 1000 companies and third-party logistics firms. Using a proprietary algorithm to calculate shipment arrival times, FourKites enables customers to lower operating costs, improve on-time performance and strengthen end-customer relationships. With a network that spans millions of GPS/ELD devices, FourKites covers all modes, including truckload, LTL, ocean, rail, air, intermodal and parcel. The platform is optimized for mobile and equipped with market-leading end-to-end security. To learn more, visit https://www.fourkites.com . Media Contact: Marianna Vyridi Big Valley Marketing for FourKites (650) 468-3263 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] THE HAGUE, Netherlands, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EHA is organizing a virtual congress for the first time in its history. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing restrictions, it is no longer justified to hold the 25th Congress as originally planned in Frankfurt, Germany. The EHA25 Virtual Congress will launch on June 11 and will run until June 21. Sessions will be available on-demand via the online platform until October 15, 2020. The EHA25 Virtual Congress will be hosted on an innovative artificial intelligence (AI)based platform. In addition to presenting sessions in a structured, easily navigable manner, the platform will offer participants a new experience. The platform uses AI to assist participants in compiling a program that is tailored to their professional interests and needs. Locating content on the Congress platform can be done either via preliminary program review or based on AI recommendations, Themes, Session types, Filter and search function. June 11-14, 2020: Content available on-demand All sessions will be published during the original Congress days in order to not impact pre-established publication, promotion, and compliance procedures: Satellite Symposia on June 11 , 08:00 CEST , Oral abstract presentations and e-posters, unless press embargoed, on June 12 , 08:30 CEST , Presentations of invited speakers on June 12 , 08:30 CEST , Updates-in-Hematology on June 12-13 June 15-21, 2020: Thematic days and special Q&A panel discussions The thematic days will focus on subspecialties of hematology: Acute leukemia, Immunology, Red and white cell disorders, Coagulation disorders, Chronic myeloid neoplasms, Chronic lymphoid neoplasms and Lymphoma. Each thematic day will be kicked-off in the morning (CEST) with a live "Best of session," offering participants a quick update by summarizing the highlights of the theme. Dedicated one-hour question and answer panel discussions will be organized on each thematic day to address participants' questions. Click here for the EHA25 Virtual Program. All sessions will be available on demand and may be watched at any time until October 15, 2020. In addition, new content will become available regularly after the official congress days. www.ehaweb.org Note for the editor: The 25th Congress of EHA Virtual Edition is organized by EHA EHA President: John Gribben, United Kingdom Chair, Scientific Program Committee, 25th Congress: Kimmo Porkka, Finland Press registration Registration for members of the press is free: click here for more information. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/622259/EHA_Logo.jpg SOURCE European Hematology Association (EHA) Related Links https://ehaweb.org Pipeline 9 June 2020 Dusit International, one of Thailand's leading hotel and property development companies, has expanded its management agreement with Tanota Partners, a Guam real estate investment and property development company, to operate the deluxe Dusit Beach Resort Guam and adjoining luxury shopping center, The Plaza. The partnership marks the newest additions to its Guam portfolio consisting of the luxury Dusit Thani Guam Resort, which opened in 2015 and which also adjoins The Plaza. Formerly the Outrigger Guam Beach Resort, a beloved brand on Guam for over 20 years, the property will be renamed as Dusit Beach Resort Guam. Managed by Dusit International, Dusit Beach Resort Guam welcomes the existing employees into the Dusit family and looks forward to the team upholding its legacy of outstanding hospitality. Located in the U.S. territory of Guam, a vibrant island destination approximately four hours by plane from Japan and major cities in Asia, Dusit Beach Resort Guam is conveniently situated only 15 minutes from Guam's international airport in the heart of Tumon's bustling tourist district. Families can shop, dine and build lasting memories while enjoying a variety of activities right along the resort's crystal blue shore. Dusit Beach Resort Guam comprises 604 rooms with a variety of restaurants, cafes, bars and spa. It is currently undergoing renovation projects which will showcase an all-new contemporary look and feel. Dusit Club guests can access upgraded amenities and services enjoyed in the exclusive Dusit Club Lounge. The resort also recently completed the installation of an all-new splash pad attraction for families. Among the many local attractions is convenient shopping at The Plaza, the luxury retail and restaurant center now managed by Dusit. The Plaza is home to over 60 boutiques, cafes, bars and restaurants, including some of the world's most exclusive luxury brands. Guests will also enjoy easy access to the facilities and restaurants of the award-winning Dusit Thani Guam Resort, including highlights such as top-ranked fine-dining at Alfredo's Steakhouse, fresh seafood and grill selections with outdoor seating at Tasi Grill, pastries and fine desserts from Dusit Gourmet, and so much more. Inspired by the genuine island spirit of Guam, guests will feel they are among family at the Dusit Beach Resort Guam. Warm smiles and an abundance of excitement in preparation of every stay marks the journey from arrival to departure. A friendly "Hafa Adai" ("hello" in Guam's native CHamoru language) from all staff will quickly become an unforgettable sentiment. Guests will also be able to indulge in authentic CHamoru cuisine while learning about Guam's vibrant history and language, and experience cultural immersion at its best with performances by indigenous dance groups and lively demonstrations. Dusit Beach Resort Guam brings the heart of the island's dynamic culture center stage for all to enjoy, ensuring a lasting impression of this majestic gem in the Pacific. Dusit International's property portfolio now comprises more than 300 properties operating under six brands across 14 countries. The company has also diversified into food business, with strategic investments designed to mitigate risk, expand its customer base, and generate revenue from adjacent lines of commerce. The Dusit Beach Resort Guam and The Plaza management agreement is effective 1 June 2020. On Friday, Brazils health ministry took down the website where it had been reporting coronavirus statistics. And then, when it came back online Saturday, the site omitted the historical data leaving out how many people had already been infected or killed because of the virus Rio de Janeiro: As the coronavirus tore through Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro came under blistering criticism for sabotaging the isolation measures imposed by states, encouraging mass rallies by his supporters and lashing out on the soaring death toll, asking What do you want me to do? Now that the outbreak in Brazil has gotten even worse with more infections than any country but the United States Bolsonaros government has come up with a unique response to the growing alarm: It decided to stop reporting the cumulative toll of the virus altogether. On Friday, Brazils health ministry took down the website where it had been reporting coronavirus statistics. And then, when it came back online Saturday, the site omitted the historical data leaving out how many people had already been infected or killed because of the virus. Lawmakers and health experts quickly attacked Bolsonaro in unusually blistering terms. Not only did they condemn the governments decision to withhold comprehensive statistics as deaths and contagion continue to soar, but they roundly criticised the Bolsonaro administrations repeated practice of downplaying the danger of the virus, regardless of what scientists and his own health ministers may say. Gilmar Mendes, a Supreme Court justice, called the governments manipulation of statistics a tactic of totalitarian regimes, adding that the trick will not absolve the government from an eventual genocide. The pandemic and, specifically, the government responses to them have been highly contentious around the world. But in few places have the issues been quite as polarising as in Brazil, a country already separated by a political chasm between Bolsonaros furious detractors and equally fervent devotees. Bolsonaro, who initially described the virus as a measly flu, says the challenge of the virus is dwarfed by the economic fallout of stay-at-home measures, and that the real danger is the rising unemployment that will leave people hungry. But he has also come under withering criticism for joining large pro-government protests that risk spreading the virus, for ordering the armed forces to mass produce an unproven medication for the virus, hydroxychloroquine, and for fighting with his own health officials as the crisis intensified. Now Brazil is suffering the highest daily number of deaths in the world often more than 1,000 a day and the government has stopped reporting the cumulative toll of the outbreak. By altering the numbers, the health ministry is trying to cover the sun with a sieve, Rodrigo Maia, the speaker of the lower House of Congress, said in a message on Twitter posted shortly after midnight Monday. It is urgent to restore the credibility of statistics. A ministry that distorts numbers creates a parallel universe to avoid facing the reality of facts. Carlos Wizard Martins, a businessman who was recently tapped to help lead the governments response, told the newspaper O Globo last week that the countrys coronavirus statistics were being audited because federal officials believed that states were reporting inflated figures in an effort to secure more funding. That explanation, which was not supported by evidence, was broadly seen as the governments latest misstep in its response to the outbreak. The health ministry has been rocked by personnel turnover in recent weeks as the virus took hold in Brazil. Bolsonaro fired one health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, in mid-April after the two clashed over the presidents disdain for social distancing measures that the ministry and state governors were promoting. Then the health ministers successor, Nelson Teich, quit after less than a month on the job, leaving the ministry in the command of an active duty general with no health care experience. The government on Sunday issued two different figures on the latest daily death toll, initially reporting 1,382 fatalities, only to revise that number to 525. The ministry said the early figure included erroneously reported deaths. The health ministry on Sunday also said in a statement that its new record-keeping method would provide a more realistic snapshot of what is happening at the national level. The government did not explain its new methodology for tracking cases. Over the weekend, the National Council of Health Secretaries, which represents local health officials, launched a website compiling comprehensive data. According to that tally, as of Sunday Brazil had more than 680,400 confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 36,151 deaths. The council responded with indignation to the accusation that state officials were providing fictitious numbers for monetary gain, referring to the allegation leveled by Wizard. Over the weekend, outraged Brazilians called for a boycott of Wizards businesses. On Sunday night, Wizard announced he would step down from his role in government. I apologise for any statement I have made that could have been interpreted as disrespectful toward the relatives of victims of COVID-19 or health professionals who have embraced the noble mission of saving lives, he said in a statement. Brazil, which has a robust public healthcare system, has historically excelled at epidemiological surveillance. If anything, experts said that a rigorous audit of COVID-19 cases would reveal that the disease has killed more people than the official data has captured because testing has been severely limited. An analysis by The New York Times found that in Manaus, a metropolis deep in the Amazon, the number of deaths in April was three times its historical average for the month. The tampering of pandemic data by the Ministry of Health is, to say the least, distressful, said Denise Garrett, a Brazilian American epidemiologist who worked at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention for more than two decades. The data should be communicated in a transparent, accurate and timely manner. This is crucial for decision-making and also of utmost importance to avoid public confusion. Ernesto Londono c.2020 The New York Times Company WASHINGTON - Amid widespread demonstrations against police violence that have transfixed the nation's capital, Mayor Muriel Bowser, D, has emerged as an unlikely foil to President Donald Trump. Bowser defied the president's attempt to seize control of city streets and demanded he withdraw federal law enforcement and military deployed to quell unrest. She also installed a massive Black Lives Matter street mural on 16th Street, across from the White House, and renamed that stretch of asphalt Black Lives Matter Plaza. Bowser's left-leaning critics, who want her to defund the police department, slow gentrification and greatly expand housing for the poor, dismissed the renaming as an empty gesture. Others hailed her as a fresh voice of the anti-Trump resistance. The Washington Post spoke to Bowser in her city hall office for 30 minutes Monday. She sat on a couch, several feet away from a reporter, her face mask off for the interview. A book by Susan E. Rice, the former Obama administration official whom Bowser tapped to co-chair a task force on reopening the city after the coronavirus pandemic, was pulled from a stack that included books by former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Here are key excerpts from the interview. - Bowser's decision to antagonize Trump did not come without risk. Her administration is trying to secure Republican support for D.C. statehood and for more than $700 million in coronavirus relief funds. A Trump-allied lobbyist helping the D.C. government secure relief funds dropped the city as a client amid the escalating dispute. But Bowser said she had to oppose the federal incursion into the streets of Washington no matter the consequences. "Every anxiety you can imagine, or every concern you can possibly think of, I've had. At the end of the day, I had to do what's morally right, legally right, and it turns out those things are also politically right," said Bowser. The mayor also suggested the city had little to lose from Republicans. "Before any Black Lives Matter plaza, they already screwed us over on money," she said. "And we already had to fight them off on riders. [Trump] already said that he doesn't support statehood for Washington, D.C. for partisan reasons. They've already done all of those things to us. If you're suggesting that if lying down and letting them moving the Army into the city would get us money, we don't have any reason to think that would be the case." Bowser also said White House officials have no business criticizing her for doing what they would have done in her situation. "One question I keep asking myself is, what did they think we were going to do? Say, 'oh, OK?' " Bowser said. "Anybody in the White House, especially the ones who've been in political life, know they would do exactly what I did. Fight back. They would have done exactly that." - On calls to "Defund the Police" Bowser quickly learned she is not the only one who can use street art as a form of protest. A day after city crews painted Black Lives Matter on 16th street, activists painted over the stars on the D.C. flag at the end of the phrase and added "defund the police," spelling out "Black Lives Matter = Defund The Police." The city restored the stars but left the protest message alone. In the interview, Bowser gave demonstrators props for the idea. "I thought it was what an activist's job is to do, so I can't fault an activist for making sure that their message is heard, and attaching it to a piece of art that is seen around the world is probably not a bad idea," Bowser said. "Defacing the D.C. flag? Not so good." Bowser also said she did not think "defund the police" was as radical a concept as it appears on first blush. "I do think I've listened fairly carefully over the last several days, and it seems like the 'defund police' mantra is also nuanced," Bowser said. "I don't think the slogan represents what a lot of people are calling for. I think a lot of people are calling for reform. I think 'reform police' may have been a better slogan, and I think that there are probably a lot of departments across this country that need that focus." - On reforming the D.C. police department Asked if she has rethought her administration's approach to policing because of the public demonstrations, Bowser largely defended her police department. "I think about policing all the time in the District of Columbia. And public safety, you've heard me say, public safety and public schools have transformed this city," said Bowser. "We have safer neighborhoods and better schools and more people wanting to live here, more businesses wanting to do business here. "I also know that the balance and relationship between community and police is always tenuous. You've probably heard me say this before, but we work very hard every day to make sure that balance is one we invest in." Asked if police in the nation's capital treat black residents fairly, Bowser pointed to a favorable report from an independent monitor. "Should they get better? Is there something for us to learn from the stop data? Yes, absolutely," Bowser said, referring to city statistics showing African Americans are disproportionately stopped by police. Bowser said one change to policing she would like to implement is to make it tougher for fired officers to win back their jobs. "The ability for us, for the mayor and the chief, to deal with the bad apple, more importantly to deal with somebody who killed somebody, we have our hands tied in some ways," Bowser said. "We need to be able to have the power to have more immediate action to fire a police officer in a clear case of misconduct." - On her political future The office of D.C. mayor has no term limits, and whether Bowser will seek reelection in 2022 is one of the hottest questions in local politics. A poll last fall found a majority of Washingtonians would back her for a third term. Asked how recent events affected her thinking on another mayoral term, Bowser groaned and chuckled. "We are not even through our second year!" But asked if she has had enough after governing through a pandemic, a budget crunch and a showdown with White House, Bowser hinted she may seek a third term. "I wouldn't say that. I would say the prospect of managing D.C.'s comeback from covid is energizing," she said. As Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden searches for a female running mate, some have floated Bowser's name since she entered the national spotlight. But Bowser said she is not being vetted by the Biden campaign. Asked if she would allow herself to be vetted, she gave the same response she had when asked if she would do so for Bloomberg, back when she endorsed him for the Democratic presidential nomination: "You know I have the best job in Washington, D.C., already." The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday reserved its order on three special pleas of the UP government challenging the stay on the appointment of 69,000 assistant basic teachers in the state. The matter was heard by a division bench of Justices P K Jaiswal and D K Singh. Earlier, the matter was listed for hearing on June 9 but on a request of the state, the court heard the issue on Monday. On Sunday, the UP Examination Regulatory Authority (ERA) had filed the appeal on behalf of the state government against a single-bench interim order, terming it unwarranted and illegal. Justice Alok Mathur of the Lucknow bench on June 3 had stayed the selection process, prima facie finding that certain questions and answers were ambiguous and wrong and, hence, required fresh scrutiny by the UGC. The HC bench had held that there has been an error in the evaluation of question paper. In its appeals, the ERA pleaded that the single-bench order was not sustainable as it did not consider the preliminary objection of maintainability in the right perspective as the writ petitions were not maintainable because the petitioners had not arrayed all candidates who had stood successful in the result declared on May 8. For the state government, Advocate General Raghvendra Singh argued that the ERA had the final say in case of any dispute regarding questions and answers and once it took a decision on the basis of opinion of experts, the same cannot be questioned. Opposing the pleas, senior lawyers L P Mishra, HGS Parihar, Asit Chaturvedi, JN Mathur and Sudeep Seth stressed that the single-bench interim order was just and proper and there was no illegality in it. The single-bench order is detailed and exhaustive and once it finds from records that certain questions and answers were false and ambiguous, it could not shut its eyes, argued the senior lawyers. Taking up the written submission of Mishra, the division bench directed other senior lawyers to submit their submissions on behalf of their clients by 10 am on Tuesday. The bench said it was reserving its order to be pronounced later. The recruitment examination was held on January 6, 2019 and its result was declared on May 12 this year. Earlier, the Supreme Court on May 21 had asked the state government to explain the process adopted for the appointment through a chart, posting the matter for further hearing on July 6. It asked the Uttar Pradesh government to explain why it changed the earlier criteria of 45 per cent cut-off marks for the general category and 40 per cent for the reserved category. ATLANTA--Detailed methods on how to perform research on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, including procedures that effectively inactivate the virus to enable safe study of infected cells have been identified by virologists in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University. The peer-reviewed paper on the novel coronavirus, published in the journal Viruses, is a resource for newcomers in the field. "Importantly, the study defines specific methods that fully inactivate the virus, that is make it non-infectious, in ways compatible with further scientific analysis," said Dr. Christopher Basler, professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences, director of the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Microbial Pathogenesis. "This allows researchers to study the proteins and genes of the virus and how the infected host responds to infection outside of high containment. Confirming that such analyses can be done safely, with no risk of infection, will increase the rate of discovery about the virus and COVID-19." When the disease COVID-19 appeared in humans, virologists in Basler's lab, who study emerging pathogens, wanted to contribute to the effort to understand SARS-CoV-2 and develop medical countermeasures for the virus. Because the new pathogen causes serious disease for which there are no definitive treatments, biosafety level 3 (BSL3) facilities are required. It was also necessary to handle the virus with extra care because so little was known about it. To ensure the safety of the researchers and public, Basler and his team relied on biosafety experts who oversee the high-containment core at Georgia State. The experts created a plan that identified the optimal BSL3 facility on the university's Atlanta Campus for the work, developed rigorous training for the researchers (who were already experienced with high-containment work) and implemented procedures to enable safe and efficient work on SARS-CoV-2. ### Co-authors of the paper include Drs. Alexander Jureka and Jesus Silvas, postdoctoral research associates in Basler's lab in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences. To read the study, visit https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/12/6/622/htm. AUD/USD Current Price: 0.7016 The positive tone of Wall Street kept the pair up throughout the day. NABs Business Confidence Index for May foreseen at -32 from -46 in the previous month. AUD/USD extending its rally above 0.7000 and poised to continue advancing. The AUD/USD pair saw little action at the beginning of the week, confined this Monday to a 60 pips range yet reaching a fresh multi-month high of 0.7020. Australian markets remained closed this Monday amid a local holiday, and the macroeconomic calendar remained empty. Nevertheless, the Aussie was underpinned by upbeat Chinese data released during the weekend. The positive tone of equities kept the pair up throughout the day. This Tuesday, the country will return with the release of the NABs Business Confidence Index for May, foreseen at -32 from -46 in the previous month, and the NABs Business Conditions Index for the same month, expected at -16 from -34 in April. AUD/USD Short-Term Technical Outlook The AUD/USD pair is pressuring its daily high by the end of the American session, maintaining its bullish stance. In the 4-hour chart, the 20 SMA continues to advance below the current level, while the larger ones gain bullish traction well below the shorter one. The Momentum indicator lacks directional strength, hovering within positive levels, while the RSI turned higher at around 72, all of which favors a bullish continuation during the upcoming Asian session. Support levels: 0.6995 0.6960 0.6925 Resistance levels: 0.7025 0.7060 0.7100 Image source from Pixabay See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Kerry Washington, like so many amid the Black Lives Matter protests, is reassessing how Black History is taught, especially when it comes to her own children with husband Nnamdi Asomugha: Isabelle, 6, Caleb, 3, and her teenage stepdaughter. "There's a lot of posts about privilege looks like discovering that racism exists as opposed to knowing that it exists," Washington explained during a virtual appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. "For a lot of Black families, we don't have the privilege of ignoring what's going on and pretending that it's not happening. But the thing I've been thinking about a lot, honestly, with my kids and with my friends' kids I've been thinking a lot about education and a lot about talking about race and introducing ideas of race. And really thinking about the idea that for a lot of kids kids are introduced to race at Black History Month or in the concept of change-makers like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. But Washington doesnt think thats an appropriate starting point. I think it's really important that we start to introduce the idea of race with a Black History that begins before teaching kids what black people were told they couldn't do, right?" she told Kimmel. "So, there's Maasai Warriors and the kingdoms of Ghana and Queen Nefertiti and the pyramids of Egypt. But this idea of teaching kids that Black History and Black people were a lot of things before segregation and Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement, so that we understand the beautiful complexity and elegance and richness of Black History before refusing to be put in the back of the bus. Washingtons 2019 film American Son has seen a resurgence in viewership following George Floyds murder and the protests that have followed. She described the movie, which follows Washingtons character after her 18-year-old son doesnt return home one night, as Every parents worst nightmare of wondering where your teenage kid is, with the added complexity of being a Black parent and knowing that your kid isnt just up against knucklehead adolescent behavior, but up against racist institutions that put your kids life at risk. Story continues RELATED: How to Demand Justice for George Floyd and Support Anti-Racism Efforts Due to the films reemergence, Washington and the rest of the cast will be live-tweeting along with the film beginning at 5PM PT on Thursday, followed by an Instagram Live with Kimberle Crenshaw, who started social justice think tank African American Policy Forum which began the Say Her Name campaign to bring awareness and justice to Black women whove suffered at the hands of police. Rise in awareness regarding the benefits of furfural and availability of raw material drive the global furfural market. PORTLAND, Oregon, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, "Furfural Market by Raw material (Corn Cobs, Rice husk, Sugarcane Bagasse, and Others), Application (Furfuryl Alcohol, Solvent, and Others), and End User (Petroleum Refineries, Agricultural Formulations, Pharmaceuticals, Paints & Coatings, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027". According to the report, the global furfural industry was pegged at $1.2 billion in 2019, and is anticipated to hit $2.0 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 6.9% from 2020 to 2027. Major driving factors: Rise in awareness regarding the benefits of furfural and ease in availability of raw material drive the global furfural market. However, lack of technological advancements and fluctuating prices of raw material hamper the market growth. On the contrary, surge in demand from emerging economies would open new opportunities for the market players in the coming years. Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/1819 COVID-19 scenario: The emergence of Covid-19 has drastically impacted the global furfural industry. As per the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the outbreak of Covid-19 has impacted the global FDI by 5-15%. This negative impact on FDI investment hampered the manufacturers due to the dearth of raw materials and lockdown across various countries. The market is likely to suffer during the pandemic due to disruption of the supply chain, economic restraints, and drastic changes in raw material prices. One of the major raw materials for furfural is resins and the interruption in production due to lockdown in several countries coupled with disrupted supply chain has affected the manufacturing of the resins. Get Detailed COVID-19 Impact Analysis on the Furfural Market @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/1819?reqfor=covid Rice husk segment to manifest highest growth through 2027: By raw material, the rice husk segment is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period. Moreover, the segment held the largest share in 2019, accounting for nearly three-fifths of the global furfural market, owing to its use in improving the viscosity index, oxidation stability, ignition characteristics, color, and flash point, and lowering the carbon-forming tendency of fuel. Agricultural formulations segment held the largest share: By end user, the agricultural formulations segment dominated the global furfural market in 2019, contributing to more than one-fourth of the total revenue. The segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period, due to support from government organizations to promote the adoption of bio-based pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and other chemical compounds. For Purchase Enquiry at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/1819 Asia-Pacific region dominated the market: By region, the global furfural market across Asia-Pacific held the largest share in 2019, accounting for more than three-fourths of the market. Moreover, the region is expected to register the highest CAGR of 7.1% during the forecast period, owing to economies such as China and India and growing pharmaceuticals, petroleum refineries, and agriculture sectors in the region. Major market players Arcoy Industries Pvt. Ltd. Hongye Holding Group Corporation Central Romana Corporation, Ltd. Illovo Group Lenzing AG KRBL Ltd. Penn A Kem LLC Tanin Sevnica d.d Silvateam Tieling North Furfural (Group) Co. Ltd. Interested in Procuring this Report? visit: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/furfural-market/purchase-options 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: ' Sulfur Fertilizers Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026 Industrial Explosives Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Salicylic Acid Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Specialty Chemicals Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 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 Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg (Newser) Believe it or not, a lot of new films have been released since movie theaters were shuttered by the coronavirus pandemicand a lot of good films. They have arrived by streaming service, cable television, on-demand, drive-in, and even Instagram. But the movies have kept coming. Here are some of the favorites of AP film writers Jake Coyle and Lindsey Bahr: Driveways : A gracefully understated film about about next-door neighborsone an 8-year-old boy (Lucas Jaye), the other a retired Korean war veteran (Brian Dennehy, in one of his last performances)who become unlikely friends, Andrew Ahn's exquisitely gentle little movie has felt blessedly nourishing this spring. (Available for digital rental.) Coyle : A gracefully understated film about about next-door neighborsone an 8-year-old boy (Lucas Jaye), the other a retired Korean war veteran (Brian Dennehy, in one of his last performances)who become unlikely friends, Andrew Ahn's exquisitely gentle little movie has felt blessedly nourishing this spring. (Available for digital rental.) Coyle Never Rarely Sometimes Always: Eliza Hittmans quiet, sharp, and deeply felt drama about a teenage girl in rural Pennsylvania who must travel to New York to get an abortion is the kind of film that burrows deep into your being and stays with you long after. Newcomers Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder capture the unease of simply existing in their teenage bodies when the world sees them only as objects to be possessed and controlled. (Available for digital rental) Bahr story continues below You are here: Business China will further promote consumption, dovetailing it with the development of transport sector, according to the Ministry of Transport (MOT). The ministry will ramp up the construction of infrastructure, rapidly develop urban public transportation, and enhance the building of logistics facilities in rural areas to tap consumption potential, said a circular released by the ministry to provincial departments of transport. The document called for improving the quality of passenger transport, transfer services and ticketing for better travel experience. Meanwhile, logistics service will be strengthened to meet rising consumption demands, with more advanced technology in place to promote cold chain logistics. The transport sector will work with other industries such as tourism and information sectors to facilitate travel and accelerate digitization of transport infrastructure, according to the document. The MOT also stressed the use of new energy vehicles to promote green transportation. Remittance players join forces to increase access to remittances in Zimbabwe WorldRemit, the global online money transfer service has announced a partnership with Mukuru, one of Africa's largest remittance providers to broaden options for cash pick up in Zimbabwe. The partnership will be instrumental in bringing world-class financial services to Zimbabweans and generating new synergies for African financial inclusion. Pardon Mujakachi, Head of Sub Saharan Africa and Country Director for Zimbabwe at WorldRemit says "We have witnessed an increasing demand as more Zimbabweans are using our digital app to send money to their loved ones. Through this partnership we are able to drive our service further and wider, providing access to remittances even in small towns and growth points across the country. We want to ensure that everyone, everywhere has access to our service which offers a fast and convenient user experience, affordability and easy access to cash." Andy Jury, CEO, Mukuru says "We are excited to be able to extend Mukuru's valuable pay-out footprint to more customers, and to harness this opportunity with WorldRemit's global reach to expand our fast-growing global presence while simultaneously creating new opportunities for customer-led innovation on the continent. These types of synergies bring immediate value to our customers, and alleviates their day to day challenges with user-friendly solutions." With many families in dire need of financial resources during the coronavirus pandemic, the partnership enables WorldRemit customers in over 50 countries including the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe to send money to their loved ones far and wide in Zimbabwe. Recipients are now able to collect their WorldRemit remittance at any of Mukuru's 120 orange booths and branches, which are located across the country in both rural and peri-urban areas. The money transfer service is operational for six days a week and offers cash in US dollars. Customers will not have to endure long queues, and can collect their cash quickly and safely. "WorldRemit is 25% more affordable than the traditional players and banks. Our extensive cash collection network, flexible cash collection hours and lower fees, offer value for money to our customers. This proves us to be the most affordable means of sending money to Zimbabwe." says Mujakachi. Global solutions, local expertise The pioneering deal with WorldRemit, a leading global player in money transfers, was made possible by a strong synergy between the two companies and a shared mission to support Zimbabwe's large diaspora in their quest to send critical financial resources to families back home. The WorldRemit platform is 100% digital pay in for customers across the diaspora in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and Europe in particular, while Mukuru is an established remittance provider in Zimbabwe. The relationship between WorldRemit and Mukuru is particularly significant in that both players are simply leveraging their existing capabilities and resources and neither company has to invest or generate new resources to make it work. "Having recognised the challenges that so many Zimbabwean families are facing, both of our leadership teams were able to cut to the chase and find a solution very quickly whilst still meeting all the financial and regulatory requirements of the partnership," added Jury. "We are delighted that both Mukuru and WorldRemit can come together to be part of the solution for so many of our Zimbabwean customers." Ends. About Mukuru Mukuru is an Africa-based FinTech that enables safe, affordable, reliable financial services to underserved communities. With over 30 million cross-border transactions over the last decade, we are one of Africa's largest remittances-led FinTech's. Our remittance service offers customers the opportunity to send money to their relatives or friends in over 20 countries across Africa and Asia. Additionally, we offer critical customer services such as Funeral Cover, The Mukuru Money Card and payment solutions for businesses in emerging markets. About WorldRemit WorldRemit is a leading fintech providing international money transfer services. We disrupted an industry previously dominated by offline legacy players by taking international money transfers online making them safer, faster and lower-cost. We currently send from 50 to 150 countries, operate in 6,500 money transfer corridors worldwide and employ over 800 people worldwide. On the sending side WorldRemit is 100% digital (cashless), increasing convenience and enhancing security. For those receiving money, the company offers a wide range of options including bank deposit, cash collection, mobile airtime top-up and mobile money. Backed by Accel, TCV and Leapfrog WorldRemit's headquarters are in London, United Kingdom with a global presence in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. For more information visit www.worldremit.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200609005597/en/ Contacts: For PR information please contact: Genevieve Dowokpor gdowokpor@worldremit.com Rep. Lee Nak-yon of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), left, arrives at a Cabinet meeting with President Moon Jae-in at Cheong Wa Dae in January. Lee is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Moon, who took party leadership before becoming presidential candidate of his party. Yonhap By Do Je-hae Ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) heavyweight Rep. Lee Nak-yon is facing a tough contest for the party leadership. While it is certain that the post, if taken, will pave the way for a higher chance in the 2022 presidential election for Lee who has already been leading the list of potential presidential candidates, he has been met by other contenders within the party who also aim for the presidential candidacy or who are in different factions within the party. Prospects for his victory at the party convention on Aug. 29 to take the helm of the party seemed all but certain right after the April 15 general election. The former prime minister defeated the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) candidate Hwang Kyo-ahn, then UFP chairman and another former prime minister, in Jongno-gu, one of the most coveted constituencies in Seoul which has produced several former presidents. Political watchers have credited Lee's extensive experience in policymaking both at the central and regional levels as some of the reasons that qualify him as a potential presidential candidate. Before leading the Cabinet as President Moon Jae-in's first prime minister, he served as governor of South Jeolla Province. But weeks after the election, the sentiment within the party about Lee taking the party leadership is not entirely positive. At first, the competition seemed to be in Lee's favor, but now it is expected that some other ruling party heavyweights, such as former Interior Minister Kim Boo-kyeom, could also join the race. On Tuesday, Kim, who is known to have presidential ambitions, told fellow lawmakers that he would give up his presidential bid if he becomes the party leader, and would complete the leader's two-year term. Kim failed to win in a constituency in Daegu, a traditional stronghold for conservative politicians, but he still has a large support base within the party as a longtime ally of former President Roh Moo-hyun. Rep. Hong Young-pyo, a former DPK floor leader and four-term lawmaker, is also planning to run for the party leadership. He and other DPK lawmakers such as Rep. Kim Doo-kwan, a two-term lawmaker, former South Gyeongsang provincial governor and presidential aide to former President Roh, have been critical of people with presidential ambitions running for party leadership. They cite the party's regulations, which state a party leader who wants to run in the presidential election must quit the party post a year before the presidential election date. This means that if Lee becomes the party leader and still intends to run in the presidential election slated for March 9, 2022, he must quit the party leadership by March 9, 2021 serving as party leader for only seven months. "This means that the party must hold another convention to choose a new leader in May 2021 and yet another convention in August to choose a presidential candidate. This is not a desirable situation for the party," Hong said in a recent radio interview. Rep. Kim Doo-kwan also pointed out the problem of multiple conventions. "We are facing an unprecedented economic crisis due to COVID-19. We cannot spend the entire year preparing for party conventions when there is so much to do to prepare for the post-COVID-19 period," he said on a radio program, Monday. GREENWICH Retired Greenwich Police Detective Robert McKiernan, who also served as a U.S. Marine, died Saturday at the age of 49. He had been diagnosed with cancer last year and retired from the department in February. A resident of New Fairfield, McKiernan served in the Marines in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm. The detective also served as a financial-crime investigator on major cases with the FBI. He joined the Greenwich police force in 1997. According to the department, McKiernans career included assignments as a patrol officer, accident investigator, neighborhood resource officer (now known as community impact officer) and detective. In 2012, he was cross-deputized as a federal agent and assigned as a task force officer for the FBI Financial Crimes unit in New Haven. He received the G.P.D. Chiefs Commendation five times and was named Officer of the Month three times in his career. He also received a Medal for Outstanding Service from the Connecticut State Police. In 2007, McKiernan was awarded the John Clarke Police Officer of the Year award. He was born in Houston on June 13, 1970, to Patricia Schmidt McKiernan of Southbury and the late Robert Paul McKiernan. He graduated from Windham High School in Willimantic and Western Connecticut State University in Danbury with a degree in justice and law. McKiernan served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1988 to 1992, where he achieved the rank of corporal. He served as an air-crewman and gunner on CH-46E helicopters while deployed to the Persian Gulf. He was also stationed in West Africa and in the Mediterranean. Detective McKernan's passion for seeking out the truth for victims of crime was second to none, Police Chief James Heavey said in a statement. Detective McKiernan exemplified the core values of the Greenwich Police Department with his dedication, diligence, service, fairness, and respect to everyone he encountered. McKiernan is survived by his wife, Abby; three sons, Sean, Ben, and John McKiernan; and a sister, Kelly. According to his death notice, McKiernan loved spending time on Cape Cod with his extended family and was a gifted storyteller. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Two New York men have been arrested on federal charges after allegedly robbing a Manhattan jewelry store at gunpoint of more than $150,000 worth of valuables while masquerading as NYPD officers. Ismael Igartua, of Queens, and Jose Rodriguez, of The Bronx, both aged 59, are suspected of ransacking the Samaa K Jewelry store on 92nd Street on Saturday afternoon amid ongoing George Floyd protests. They were apprehended a short time later at a nearby subway station after actual police officers noticed one of the suspects wearing a bulletproof vest. Ismael Igartua, of Queens, and Jose Rodriguez, of The Bronx, both aged 59, have been charged in federal court with robbing this jewelry store on 92nd Street at gunpoint on Saturday 'The defendants alleged scheme impersonating NYPD officers and asking to check the victims firearm due to recent incidents of looting took advantage of uncertain conditions in our community, preying on the fears of a small business owner and his trust in law enforcement,' US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement. Igartua and Rodriguez appeared before a judge on Monday and were formally charged with conspiracy, robbery, brandishing a firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to a criminal complaint, the incident began unfolding shortly before 1.30pm on Saturday when Igartua and Rodriguez, both dressed as NYPD officers from the 19th Precinct, asked to be buzzed into the jewelry store. 'The Robbers were wearing, among other things, medical masks, gloves, and what appeared to be bulletproof vests underneath their clothes, and one of the Robbers was wearing what appeared to be an NYPD detective badge,' the document states. After the store owner unlocked the door for the bogus cops, they asked to see his gun and permit, claiming that, due to the recent looting of businesses in New York, firearms were at risk of being stolen. Once the store owner handed over his firearm to the accused robbers, they took possession of it, pulled out their own guns and restrained the victim with zip ties, according to the complaint. One of the bandits was quoted as telling the tied-up store owner: 'this is a stick-up, mother******.' The thieves attempted to access the cash register, but were unsuccessful. Then they found a key to a safe, opened it and removed jewelry valued at $150,000-$165,000, which they place into two bags. After striking the restrained store owner, the robbers fled on foot with their loot, running northbound. According to the complaint, the jewelry store owner raised the alarm and called the police, which arrived at the scene about 10 minutes later. Based on the victim's description of the suspects, officers managed to quickly track down both Igartua and Rodriguez to a subway station a few blocks away from the crime scene. Igartua was said to be wearing an NYPD patch and a fake bulletproof vest. He and Rodriguez were found to be in possession of guns, ammunition, handcuffs and the jewelry stolen from the store. The owner of the ransacked business was brought to the subway station five minutes later and positively identified the suspects as the men who had just robbed him, according to the complaint. Both Igartua and Rodriguez have past criminal records in the State of New York. According to the complaint, Igartua, who has multiple aliases, was convicted in June 1988 of first-degree burglary. In September of that year, Rodriguez was convicted of second-degree attempted burglary. If found guilty at trial of all the federal charges against them, the pair could face up to a life in prison. WASHINGTON -- Three Democratic senators on Monday requested an independent investigation into the arrangement forged between the federal government and six for-profit companies to rapidly transport protective medical gear from overseas to the front lines of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration has said it created the initiative -calledProject Airbridge - to ease crippling shortages of personal protective equipment, or PPE. Under the arrangement, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent approximately $154 million to fly supplies secured by the six companies from overseas into the United States. In exchange,FEMA has required that half of the Airbridge-transported supplies be sold to the companies' customers in coronavirus hot spots. The companieshave been allowed to sell the restat their discretion. The arrangement - which has funded 205 flights, with an additional 40 scheduled or in transit - drew scrutiny and criticism from federal and state lawmakers, who said it lacked oversight and sapped taxpayer dollars while allowing market forces to dictate distribution of much-needed supplies. "Project Air Bridge - like the broader Trump Administration response to the pandemic - has been marked by delays, incompetence, confusion, and secrecy involving multiple Federal agencies and actors," Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., wrote to the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee on Monday in a letter requesting that the panel initiate an investigation. Congress created the committee through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020, or Cares Act, to enable greater transparency and independent oversight of government spending in response to the pandemic. In April, Warren and Blumenthal requested information from the six companies involved in the project: Cardinal Health, Concordance Healthcare Solutions, Henry Schein, McKesson, Medline and Owens & Minor. In the letter on Monday, which summarized the responses,the senators said they were seeking an investigation because they still lacked insight into key aspects of Project Airbridge, including pricing and distribution. "It is not clear if the project was effective or cost-efficient, or if other alternatives - such as the early invocation and use of the Defense Production Act to produce medical supplies - would have better alleviated the PPE shortage, saved money, and saved lives," the senators wrote. The full responses to their initial query, which were provided to The Washington Post,indicate that the companies involved in the project knew of no effort by the federal government to track the pricing of the PPE shipped through Airbridge. Project agreements betweenFEMA and the companies stated that prices must be "reasonable" but included no explanation of how that requirement would be enforced. In response to the senators' inquiry, McKesson wrote that it had instructed its sales team to "price products fairly" and directed that employees "not raise prices without reason." Medline, meanwhile,wrote that it had "no knowledge" of how the government enforced the pricing requirement. Of the six companies, only Concordance provided details to the senators of where it had delivered products, according to the documents reviewed by The Post. The companies' responses alsoshed light on the role of Airbridge in overall PPE efforts led by the government. A Post review last month found that the White House on several occasions had overstated the amount of supplies distributed through the project. For instance, Vice President MikePence said in an April news briefing that Airbridge was bringing in 22 million surgical masks daily. FEMA records from early June show that Airbridge has averaged less than 2 million masks a day. Concordance told the senators in mid-May that it had delivered two shipments through Airbridge flights. The first - a shipment of 31,000 isolation gowns to a New York hospital - did not arrive until May 1, more than a month after President Donald Trump launched the collaboration. Concordance spokeswoman Patrice Poignon said in a statement that Airbridge has helped "expedite desperately needed PPE products to contracted customers." Poignon said that as of Monday, the company has been involved in eight Airbridge shipments. Asked for comment, a McKesson spokeswoman did not address the senators' criticism but said Airbridge had helped McKesson save "weeks of time" by expediting delivery of PPE. A Henry Schein spokeswoman, Ann Marie Gothard, credited Airbridge for helping to distribute "urgently needed" PPE. "We are committed to doing our part to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and will continue to work in partnership with FEMA as long as the crisis requires," Gothard wrote in a statement. A Cardinal Health spokeswoman issued a statement Tuesday saying that the company appreciated the senators' interest in Project Airbridge. "We responded with transparency to all of the Senators' questions, including by voluntarily providing the Memorandum of Agreement entered into by Cardinal Health, FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security that governs Project Airbridge," the statement said. "Cardinal Health's priority every day is to help our nation during this extraordinary public health challenge." Medline and Owens & Minor did not respond to requests for comment. FEMA has declined to identifythe states, counties, hospitals and other health-care facilities that received PPE through Airbridge flights. In response to the senators' request for an investigation, a FEMA spokeswoman issued a statement saying that the program is intended to be a temporary measure to ease supply shortages. "Under President Trump's leadership, FEMA is supplementing, not supplanting, the existing supply chain through a variety of strategies, including Project Airbridge," wrote FEMA spokeswoman Janet Montesi. "This is just one way PPE continues to get to the points of greatest need." In their Monday letter, the senators also revealed details aboutat least one company's security concerns related to consultants who helped administer the government program. "Owens & Minor reported that it was concerned about being asked, early in the effort, to provide 'pretty darn sensitive' information to individuals with private emails at the Boston Consulting Group, a private consulting firm," according to the senators'letter. When asked about the security concerns, Nidhi Sinha, a Boston Consulting Group spokeswoman, issued the following statement: "We operate under non-disclosure agreements, are privy to only necessary information, and have robust security, privacy, and data management infrastructure." Alma Kirksey is a career employee of the penal system in a variety of capacities such as work release counselor and residential correctional counselor for the male prison population before transitioning to stress meditation counselor for the female population. She has published her new book The Women of C-Dorm: City Detention Center: a slim yet compelling volume asking fundamental questions about the nature and justice of the American penal system. Alma writes, Have you ever been mentally lost? I dont mean crazy or insane, but has your life ever been temporarily out of control? You follow the orders of someone or something else. Nothing is normal during this temporary stage of your life. Have you ever experienced deja vu? Saying to yourself, Ive been here and done this before? Have you ever examined yourself mentally, physically, emotionally and/or spiritually and made a change based on your findings? Were you successful or not? "The issues of incarceration entail all the above, especially for incarcerated of women. Most incarcerated men are great actors; you would never know how they are handling incarceration, even if you inquire. Incarcerated women are not good actors. "Of course, there is low self-esteem, but loss of freedom and control of their lives and temporary loss of family and friends have a different effect on incarcerated women than incarcerated men. "Most are pretrial and plagued by guilt and sorrow. The women of C-Dorm struggle for a chance to find a new way of life. Published by Page Publishing, Alma Kirkseys engrossing book is a thought-provoking work drawn from her expensive educational and professional background serving inmates at the city detention center. Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase The Women of C-Dorm: City Detention Center at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. In the wake of the George Floyd riots, Democratic Party leaders have assumed extraordinarily submissive postures, apparently on the theory that they are guilty in Floyds death. They said it, I didnt. Here, the Democratic Congressional delegation (or a significant part of it) knelt for eight minutes and 43 seconds in honor of George Floyd, the armed robber, while wearing black separatist garb. I think that is Nancy Pelosi front and center, but she looks only around 70 years old, so I could be wrong: In this shot, a whole bunch of white people, including Police Chief Michael Shaw of the Webster, Massachusetts, police department, lie face down as encouraged by a group of Black Lives Matter activists. According to the Webster Telegram, Chief Shaw joined a crowd of several hundred demonstrators in laying [sic] on the ground for 8 minutes while screams of mama and I cant breathe, the last words of George Floyd, were yelled out. Here is another one: white people wash the feet of black activists in Cary, North Carolina: For the moment, lets put aside the moral question of whether such submission is appropriate. My own view is that liberals are always happy to apologize for something that someone else didusually someone who is not here to defend himselfwhile stubbornly resisting any accountability for their own disastrous actions. But lets ask a different question: do Americans want political leaders who are, by personality, submissive? Who kneel to people who hate them, and adopt those haters symbols? Whose first impulse is to apologize, prostrate themselves and wash someone elses feet? I doubt it. Submissive people generally dont get far in politics. The closest analogy I can think of is Jimmy Carter, whose demeanor was sometimes apologetic, but who didnt begin to approach the pathological level of submissiveness that we see from Democratic Party leaders today. Yet he was destroyed by the entirely non-submissive, non-apologetic Ronald Reagan. Through human history, people have never chosen to be led by the ashamed, the inadequate, the inferior. If that is the posture the Democratic Party wants to assume, welcome to it. Americans will vote for the strong, the confident, the forward-looking, the unabashed. Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like Donald Trump. The city of Worcester announced 13 new coronavirus cases on Monday as the total number of COVID-19 cases reached 5,031. Worcester officials said the combined medical facilities of Saint Vincent Hospital and UMass Memorial Health Care had 106 total coronavirus-positive inpatients with 43 COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit. As of Monday, the two health care systems have had a total of 304 deaths in their facilities related to the virus since the pandemic began. A total of 344 employees for Saint Vincent Hospital and UMass Memorial Health Care have tested positive for coronavirus. The number of total COVID-positive patients in the combined hospital systems represents a decrease of 178 since May 1. The total number of COVID-positive ICU patients in the combined hospital systems represents a decrease of 64 since May 1, according to city officials. At the Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center, which is treating people with coronavirus, there are 50 inpatients on Monday. The center has treated 208 people and has 97 beds available. There are 22 clients in the North High School homeless shelter as of Monday. One male client tested positive for coronavirus Sunday and was transferred to a nearby facility. The North High School shelter was deep cleaned Monday and nurses are monitoring all remaining clients. Another male client was discharged after he was in an altercation with staff and he is expected to be placed in alternative housing this week, Worcester officials said. In the communities around Worcester, there are 310 cases in Shrewsbury; 113 cases in Holden; 93 cases in Grafton; and 148 cases in Leicester. There are 229 cases in Millbury as of Friday. Related Content: Editor's Note: With so much market volatility, stay on top of daily news! Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news and expert opinions. Sign up here! (Kitco News) - Platinum and palladium prices should both strengthen, although palladium will remain far more expensive than its sister metal, Commerzbank said Tuesday in an updated forecast for platinum group metals. The report, written by analyst Carsten Fritsch, predicted that platinum prices will rise in line with gold, while palladium will benefit from a recovery in auto demand. Both metals are used in auto catalysts, although palladium has benefited more in recent years since this metal is used in catalytic converters for gasoline-powered vehicles that are popular in the No. 1 and No. 2 car markets of China and the U.S. Earlier this year, there was a huge divergence between the two metals, with palladium racing to a record high of around $2,880 an ounce, making it roughly three times more expensive than platinum. Palladium is well down from that peak after the COVID-19 pandemic dented industrial demand, but still remains around 2.3 times more expensive than platinum. Platinum should hardly be able to reduce its undervaluation significantly due to the still unfavorable fundamental data, Commerzbank said, noting the metal has had a structural supply surplus for years. At best, we expect platinum to perform in line with gold. The World Platinum Investment Council said platinum had a supply deficit last year, but this was only due to improved demand from exchange-traded products rather than physical demand, Commerzbank noted. This year, demand from the jewelry and auto sectors are expected to decline, particularly amid the pandemic, analysts said. Meanwhile, investment demand is not expected to be as strong as in 2019. In fact, Commerzbank pointed out, ETFs had outflows of platinum during the first five months of 2020. Commerzbank looks for platinum to recover to around $900 an ounce by year-end, then reach $1,000 next year. In the case of palladium, the correction we had expected has occurred, Commerzbank said. The recovery of the global economy and thus also of automobile production suggests that palladium demand will rise again. As a result, the palladium market could again show a larger supply deficit next year. Therefore, the palladium price should rise to $2,000 per troy ounce by the end of the year. The price recovery should continue next year. However, the record high should remain out of reach. The palladium market has been in a supply deficit for several years as demand rose steadily, Commerzbank said. The most important driver was demand from the automotive industry, which reached 8.9 million ounces last year and thus now accounts for more than 80% of total palladium demand, Commerzbank said. The latter benefited for a long time from the rising demand for cars with gasoline engines. Last year, however, the sales figures stagnated or fell. This was offset, however, by an increase in the use of palladium in auto catalysts in order to comply with stricter emission standards. Going forward, palladiums supply deficit likely will rise again as the auto industry recovers from this years pandemic-induced slump, analysts added. Applications for further education colleges in Northern Ireland are down by up to 40% (PA) Applications for further education colleges in Northern Ireland are down by up to 40%. Demand among employers for new apprentices is expected to fall by around half, Belfast Metropolitan College chief executive Louise Warde Hunter warned. Since March, thousands of trainees have been furloughed or made redundant during the coronavirus shutdown, she said. We are trying to find creative solutions while, importantly, maintaining our standards Louise Warde Hunter Ms Warde Hunter said: We are now trying to figure out as college leaders how teachers teach, how our classrooms are configured to manage social distancing. We are trying to find creative solutions while, importantly, maintaining our standards. That is critical to staff and learners alike. She told Stormonts Economy Committee of the unprecedented challenges facing colleges as they prepare to reopen in the autumn. Applications are down on last year by up to 40%. Much of further education colleges work follows partnerships struck with employers wanting to train staff in specialist areas. Ms Warde Hunter added: We expect that less will sign up to courses with us. Demand for apprentices is estimated to fall by around 50%. Since March, 2,338 apprentices have been furloughed and 191 made redundant, she said. The college leader said online learning is essential to help revive the weakened economy. She called for more investment to support the post-Covid-19 digital infrastructure, and help train teachers for a blend of classroom and online learning as well as social distancing measures. We must be very clear that we do not compound inequality through digital poverty Louise Warde Hunter The challenges have assumed greater significance against the backdrop of Covid-19. We must be very clear that we do not compound inequality through digital poverty. Ms Warde Hunter said organisations awarding qualifications should be held to account. We believe that there are real opportunities for the sector, she said. With the right recognition, investment and support we will be able to fulfil our social and economic commitments and the needs of Northern Ireland plc. Aransas County on Texas Gulf Coast where Hurricane Harvey made landfall in August 2017 will receive an additional $43 million for its continuing recovery from that devastating storm. Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush announced the Texas General Land Office (GLO) sent a contract for $43,390,628 in Hurricane Harvey disaster recovery funds. The funds will enable Aransas County to conduct extensive infrastructure improvements relating to drainage, street, communication, and public facility systems as well as conducting a fiber optics communications planning study. Aransas County was one of the areas hardest hit by the destructive wind and flooding of Hurricane Harvey, Bush said in a statement. These mitigation funds are vital for communities in the Coastal Bend, which continue to need additional fortification against future storm damage. Once finalized, Aransas County will perform more than 150,000 linear feet of extensive flood and drainage infrastructure improvements on either side of TX-35 between TX-188 and W. Moore Avenue. These vital projects will include installing new storm sewer pipe, replacing storm sewer culverts, regrading roadside ditches, and repairing streets. Hurricane Harveys extensive rainfall and high winds inundated the drainage system and streets in this area causing massive flooding. These improvements will facilitate proper stormwater conveyance, thus reducing the impact of future flooding and providing continued access in and out of the area. Substantial street improvements, including regrading, constructing roadways, laying asphalt, excavating drainage, and installing new drainpipe, will occur throughout the Copano Heights and Holiday Beach neighborhoods. Street improvements will continue the length of Rattle Snake Point Road and Lido Road from Old Salt Lake Rd. to Copano Cove Rd. as well as along Loop 1781 from SH 35 Business North to FM 3036. Additionally, $4,759,465 was also approved in January for flood and drainage improvements in the City of Fulton. With these funds, Fulton will replace storm sewer culverts, regrade roadside ditches, install area inlets/outfalls, grade ditches and repair pavement in the area between Prairie Road and FM 3036, west of TX 35 to the city limit. Topics Texas Flood Hurricane The Dangers of Vilifying All Police: Former Civil Rights Activist Bob Woodson The people condemning law enforcement in America and advocating for the defunding of police are not the ones who will have to face the deadly results of their proposals, says former civil rights activist Bob Woodson. Lets do a survey of these communities where crime is the highest and find out what the people there want, before we rush to accept the recommendations of people who dont have to suffer the consequences, Woodson said, in an interview with The Epoch Times American Thought Leaders program. The killing of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests demanding reform as well as cases of looting, arson, and vandalism. Reform proposals vary, with some groups such as Black Lives Matter and Democratic Socialists of America calling for a nationwide defunding of police. Nine of the 12 sitting members of the Minneapolis City Council have pledged to disband the citys police department. On June 7, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to cut funding for the New York Police Department and redirect it to youth and social services. But there is little evidence of racial discrimination in police use of deadly force, according to a 2019 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and a 2015 Justice Department study of the Philadelphia Police Department. In Woodsons view, crime will likely increase even without funding cuts, because vilification of the police as agents of white suppression makes them more reluctant to enforce the law. After surveying 200 officers across six agencies in the southern United States, Shetali Patil, an assistant professor of management at The University of TexasAustin, found that when officers felt the public didnt understand or appreciate them, they became less proactive. The result is more blacks being killed by other blacks, Woodson said. This occurred in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting of Michael Brown and in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, according to a forthcoming academic paper by Harvard economist Roland Fryer and co-author Tanaya Devi, which was cited by The Wall Street Journals Jason Riley. Nationwide condemnation and scrutiny of the police also thwarts recruitment efforts, Woodson said. A 2019 survey by the Police Executive Research Forum highlighted a workforce crisis with law enforcement unable to recruit new officers or retain the ones they have. Sixty-three percent of respondents reported a decrease in people applying to become a police officer compared to five years ago. In some cities, the police are unable to respond appropriately to 911 calls because they dont have enough officers to cover it, Woodson said. The Mantra of Institutional Racism People are using the tragic killing of George Floyd at the hands of police to justify a full-scale assault on the fundamental values of America, Woodson said. Their position is that slavery has not ended. Its just evolved from de jure to institutional racism, Woodson said. A key proponent of this stance is The New York Times Magazines 1619 Project, which argues that out of slavery and the anti-black racism it required grew nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional. The mantra of institutional racism has morphed into an orthodoxy like communism, Woodson said. Are you a supporter of the party or not? Its really sweeping the nation like a virus. This is our second pandemic in recent days. They are preying on the guilt of white Americans. Corporations are pouring money into race grievance organizations, Woodson said. Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook will donate $10 million to groups working on racial justice. Uber pledged $1 million for the Equal Justice Initiative and the Center for Policing Equity. Many celebrities have donated to organizations like the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which posts bail for arrested protestors. People are afraid to challenge this orthodoxy. But challenge it, we must, because its really harming the very people in whose name its being evokedthat is low-income blacks, Woodson said. An Internal Crisis The narrative of institutional racism incapacitates black Americans from taking control of their future and uplifting themselves through resilience and self-discipline, Woodson said. Nothing is more lethal than to provide a convenient excuse for someones failure; to say to them you are not responsible, he said. In Woodsons view, black America is suffering from an internal crisis, with 70 percent of black children born out-of-wedlock as well as rampant drug use and crime in many low-income communities. These maladies cannot be conveniently explained by the shadow of slavery. Even though were only 13 percent of the population, we contribute 50 percent of all the murders that occur, Woodson said. Woodson carries with him a photo of Laylah Petersen, a 5-year-old girl who was sitting on her grandfathers lap watching television when she was shot in the head. In St. Louis, between May and September 2019, 18 children under the age of 16 were killed by gun violence. And only one arrest was effected because of the distrust with the police, Woodson said. Real Solutions Woodson founded the Woodson Center in 1981 to work with grassroots leaders to uplift people in the worst of circumstances. As he told The Epoch Times in a previous interview: If we say that 70 percent of families in these low-income, drug-infested neighborhoods are raising children that are troubled, it means 30 percent are not. We go into the homes of the 30 percent to try to find out what is the secret of how they were able to thrive and to progress in the presence of this dysfunctional community. In the 1980s, Woodson worked with the House of Umoja in Philadelphia, founded by Sister Fattah, a woman who discovered one of her sons was a gang member. She housed her sons friendsmore than a dozen gang memberswith her family and created an island of excellence, Woodson said. Three years later, they reached out to warring gang members in Philadelphia and helped them come to a truce. Youth gang violence radically decreased in just two years, from 48 gang deaths per year to two, Woodson said. In 1983, groups of young blacks were attacking and robbing people in the city, and police were unable to contain it. The House of Umoja went to the local prison and recruited more than 100 inmates on a crime prevention task force. And they spoke with moral authority to more than 200 kids who were bused into the prison. The wolf pack attacks stopped overnight, Woodson said. In 2008, Woodson was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second-highest civilian award in the United States, for his work. Many of the grassroots leaders Woodson works with are ex-offenders, but they were able to uplift themselves by embracing the virtues of our founders of self-determination, of resilience, of triumph in the face of despair, Woodson said. In February, the Woodson Center launched the 1776 initiative to counter the 1619 Project and affirm Americas founding virtues and its promise of equality and opportunity for all. Will we continue to teach our children that they live in a nation thats hostile to their future? Woodson asked. People are motivated to change and improve when they are shown visions of victories that are possiblenot constantly reminding them of injuries to be avoided. American Thought Leaders is an Epoch Times show available on Facebook and 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. Six persons have been arrested in Iran in the case of the crash of the Ukrainian International Airlines of Ukraine plane, which resulted in the deaths of 176 people, Iranian Judiciary's spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaeili said. "The legal part of the Ukrainian airplane crash is on the Judiciary, namely the Judiciary Organization of the Armed Forces. Some orders were made immediately after the crash and a special branch of the military court was specified for the case," the Iranian governmental information agency quoted Esmaeili as saying. He clarified this after the judicial authorities had informed the families of the victims, and so far the families have filed 70 complaints. The representative of the judiciary also said that six people had been arrested in this case, three of them were released on bail, and another three are still in custody. As reported, the UIA Boeing 737-800 passenger plane on flight PS752 from Tehran to Kyiv crashed near Tehran minutes after takeoff on January 8, killing all 167 passengers on board the plane. The commander of Aerospace Force of the IRGC Brigadier-General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh admitted full responsibility for the tragic air disaster. The US trades with many countries, and China is one of its biggest trading partners. The country is huge and influential in many fields, and it makes sense that two of the largest countries in the world would trade with each other. But what does the US import from China? The United States is pretty self-sufficient in food, so the question about importing meat from other countries might seem irrelevant. However, being self-sufficient does not mean you do not import food. The US does import multiple types of food from China. Including meat. The majority of the meat consumed in the US is not from China; however, some of it is. It is a relatively small number, especially when compared to some other countries, but the fact remains that it does get imported. Meat Importing Take beef, for example. Beef is mostly imported from Australia, followed by New Zealand, Canada, and Mexico. When looking at the amounts of beef imported in the US, China sits way behind these countries in the 17th place. Other types of meat, such as lamb and pork, also get imported from China, but the amount is not enormous either. However, many are suspicious of the quality of meat that gets imported. If you are wondering about chicken, yes, the US imports it as well, in smaller amounts. Beef is mostly imported from Australia, followed by New Zealand, Canada, and Mexico. Besides meat products, the US imports many other food products from China. This includes a large number of agricultural products, including apple juice and multiple sources of vitamin C. Believe it or not, throughout the past decade, China was responsible for about 90% of vitamin C that was consumed in the United States. It was also responsible for 70% of the apple juice, as crazy as it may sound. Other food products that the US imports from China in larger quantities are tilapia, cod, mushrooms, and garlic. On the other hand, the US imports a lot of things to China as well, including soybeans, cotton, and wheat. The Issue Of Food Safety And COVID-19 However, currently, with the appearance of the COVID-19 coronavirus, trading with China has decreased significantly. Although food production is relatively safe and follows multiple safety protocols, it makes sense that people are cautious about the food that comes from other countries, especially in the COVID-19 coronavirus context. This has impacted trading with China negatively. According to multiple reports, Chinas import picture does not look good. It is 14% lower than in the period before the COVID-19 coronavirus. We should mention that Chinas economy has been returning to normal for the last few months since the country managed to put the virus under control. Still, despite all of that, it will probably be a while before trading with China continues as it did before the pandemic. The novel coronavirus is not the only reason to be concerned about the quality of food that comes from China. The country was hit by multiple food safety scandals throughout the past decade. For example, meat suppliers were accused of selling expired meat, which forced McDonalds to change its food safety practices in China. Of course, there are always concerns about processed chicken that comes from China, due to plenty of diseases that appeared in the country due to it. While trading with China is important for the economy, the US, as a country, should look into increasing safety measures and checks when importing food from there. He recalled that as a child, he would accompany his father as he passed out campaign matchbooks while politicking at an "L" stop. Art Berman vowed to run every race as if it were a toss-up even when he was expected to win, his son said. File image: Vijay Mallya Vijay Mallya's extradition to India has hit another roadblock with the fugitive liquor baron seeking asylum in the United Kingdom on humanitarian grounds, according to an exclusive report by CNBC-TV18. This development is expected to cause further delay in the extradition process. According to the report, Mallya has sought asylum particularly under Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), which states, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." However, the meaning of torture under the article has been expanded over the years to include various other factors. It is understood that the European Court of Human Rights considers that Article 3 of the ECHR can be used by those in need of international refugee protection. The point being made in the case, as per the report, is that the extradition to India could endanger his health. Earlier this month, a spokesperson of the British High Commission in India had said a "legal issue" had to be resolved before Mallya could be extradited to India. He did not give out any further details on the 'confidential' issue, adding that under the laws of the United Kingdom, extradition cannot take place until the same is resolved. The UK's obligation under Article 3 of the ECHR may, in fact, be the legal issue that the British High Commission had earlier cited. The dismissal came after several speculative reports pertaining to Mallya's extradition had surfaced. PLYMOUTH MEETING More than 100 people marched Sunday through Montgomery County Commissioner Joseph Gales neighborhood demanding his resignation. It was beautiful. Powerful. Just a powerful moment. I loved that people came out, and they werent afraid, said Norristown resident and protest organizer Rae Dean. Sundays protest stemmed from comments made by Gale following the death of Minnesota resident George Floyd. The incident, involving Floyd and Minneapolis Police Department officers, sparked protests in major cities nationwide, including in Philadelphia. Gale issued a lengthy statement on June 1 calling for law and order while condemning the riots, looting, violence and arson during times of unrest. The perpetrators of this urban domestic terror are radical left-wing hate groups like Black Lives Matter, Gale stated last week. The comments prompted immediate backlash from fellow elected leaders at the county level. To our entire black community: We see you. We hear you. We stand with those who are calling out the systemic racism and violence toward people of color in our country, Montgomery County Commissioners Chairwoman Val Arkoosh and Vice Chairman Ken Lawrence, Jr. said in a joint statement on June 2. A number of mayors and council members of several suburban boroughs also condemned his comments. A change.org petition began circulating last week calling for Gales resignation that has 85,017 signatures as of Monday afternoon. After reading Gales statement, Dean, 42, said she couldnt be silent, and was hurt and disappointed by Gales comments. She needed to do something. Its the fact that he was so brazen and blatant enough to put it on a piece of paper, type it up on Montgomery Countys letterhead and send it out into the world, she said. His words were irresponsible and theyre extremely dangerous and he has to be removed. It was the fact that he had the audacity to put it in writing for the whole world to see, she continued. Dean said she was motivated to mobilize the community after the petition was released because you cant sit on it. As a former candidate for the Norristown Municipal Council, she used her community connections, and took to social media to discuss the issue with other area residents. The Joes Gotta Go Action Group Facebook page was created and has 350 members. In the days leading up to the scheduled protest, Dean said she did receive threats through email and social media, however, she found the neighborhood residents amenable. Oh my, some folks were outraged that we were coming, but the neighborhood was more receptive than I could have ever imagined, Dean said. Really, neighbors were contacting me and saying what is it that we can do? They welcomed us. She added that participants first met in the Plymouth Meeting Mall parking lot, crossed a busy road with a parade of cars behind us, and walked to the politicians Plymouth Meeting home. Dean said that demonstrators could be heard chanting Hell No, Joe Must Go, Black Lives Matter and Say Their Names. People were also seen getting on their knees for 8:4[6], and putting their fists in the air. Dean categorized the emotional and peaceful protest as a moment of unity. What I felt in the air was love. There was outrage of course. People were chanting. People were screaming. People were crying. People were devastated that we are still in this climate, she said. We are still having this kind of conversation. While there was a police presence on Sunday, she requested that law enforcement officers give us space and Plymouth Township Police Department did exactly what I asked. Later that afternoon, Gale responded to the protests in a video that was distributed to various media outlets. He called for the attention to be turned to anti-abortion issues, which he also brought up during a Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meeting last week. If the Black Lives Matter movement was really concerned about black lives mattering, those protesting me would instead be at Planned Parenthood protesting the slaughter of black children in the womb, Gale said on Sunday. Dean said she plans to continue voicing her frustrations and would like to organize future demonstrations. This is not a moment this is a movement, she said. Dean emphasized the importance of advocacy and accountability. That means checking folks who are supposed to be serving us, she said. We pay their salaries, they serve us, theyre public servants and we need them to respect our voices and our lives. Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on a bilateral level is actively discussing the restoration of flights with countries, and now there are positive signals that allow us to expect restoration of flights with Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey and Cyprus, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yevhen Yenin has said. "Ukraine is considering the issue of opening air travel with those countries where, in addition to a controlled epidemic situation, regular air traffic is already in place and there are no restrictions on the entry of Ukrainian citizens. We are actively continuing to work on relevant issues at the bilateral level, and now there are positive signals that allow us to expect restoration of air links with Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey and Cyprus. Our diplomats are in an active negotiation process with a number of states, and as we progress we will certainly inform the public," Yenin said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine. The deputy minister stressed that the Foreign Ministry is actively studying foreign experience and is consulting with foreign partners on the gradual restoration of aviation communications. "We certainly expect that countries that have canceled regular flights will gradually resume them, starting primarily with domestic flights. Also, countries will gradually remove restrictions on the categories of citizens who are allowed to enter the country. In the EU, this will first concern EU citizens," he explained. In addition, the deputy foreign minister noted that as of today, in almost all cases, countries resort to restrictions of one level or another, either by determining the categories of citizens who are allowed to fly (now this applies only to citizens of the country or citizens with the right to permanent residence), or restrictions on the regions from which flights are prohibited due to the outbreak of a pandemic there. "For example, the vast majority of countries monitor their symptoms. At the same time, individual countries, such as Austria, China and Japan also conduct mandatory tests for coronavirus on arrival. Countries such as Cyprus, Singapore or the United Arab Emirates carry out quick tests. In almost all countries there is a duty of self-isolation. You can enter Austria, the Czech Republic and Serbia with a certificate about a test for the absence of the virus made in the last two to four days," Yenin said. The 36-year-old man has been charged with several offences after he drove into peaceful anti-racism protesters. A self-described Ku Klux Klan leader who drove a vehicle into a crowd of peaceful protesters demonstrating against the killing of George Floyd in the US state of Virginia is being investigated for possible hate crimes, a county attorney said on Monday. The man has been charged with several offences after he recklessly drove into a crowd on Sunday, Henrico Countys Commonwealth Attorney Shannon Taylor said in a statement posted on Twitter. US media reported that one protester was injured in the incident near Richmond. The person was checked at the scene by emergency responders and refused further treatment. Harry H Rogers, 36, is charged with assault and battery, attempted malicious wounding, and felony vandalism. Additional charges are being investigated, Taylor said in a separate tweet. In the statement, Taylor said Rogers revved the engine and then drove into the crowd. The accused, by his own admission and by a cursory glance at social media, is an admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology, Taylor added. We are investigating whether hate crimes charges are appropriate. Rogers appeared in Henrico court on Monday where he accepted a court-appointed lawyer, CBS-affiliate WTVR reported. The protests were part of the wave of demonstrations against police brutality and racism that has spread throughout the United States and around the world. They were sparked by the May 25 death in custody of Floyd, an unarmed Black man, who was killed when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. A public memorial service was held on Monday in Houston, where he grew up. Some 6,000 people attended. Under a blazing Texas sun, mourners wearing T-shirts with Floyds picture or the words I Cant Breathe one of the other things he cried out repeatedly while pinned down by the police officer waited for hours to pay their respects. Floyds body, dressed in a brown suit, lay in an open casket. Shortly after the memorial ended, Floyds casket was placed in a hearse and escorted by police back to a funeral home. Chauvin has been charged with Floyds murder and faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. He made his first court appearance on Monday. A woman was killed March 20 in the 1900 block of 16th Street SE; a woman was fatally shot March 25 in the 1600 block of 19th Street SE; two men were shot and killed May 19 in the 2400 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, near the Anacostia Metro Station; and a man was killed May 27 in the 1300 block of U Street SE. Kerry Washington remembered Breonna Taylor on Monday while appearing as a guest on the at-home version of Jimmy Kimmel Live. The 43-year-old actress dedicated her charity appearance to the African American Policy Forum that created the #SayHerName campaign to focus on black women killed by police officers. 'A lot of the women who have been the victim of police killings, those names have not been celebrated and honored and AAPF works to make sure that is not the case,' said Washington who played Olivia Pope on Scandal from 2012 to 2018. Female plight: Kerry Washington remembered police killing victim Breonna Taylor on Monday while appearing as a guest on the at-home version of Jimmy Kimmel Live She then brought up Taylor, a 26-year-old black emergency medical technician who was fatally shot in March by Louisville Metro Police Department officers. The Hollywood star noted that Taylor had been fighting on the frontlines against the COVID-19 pandemic when she was killed by police. Washington said Taylor, who was shot at least eight times, died in a 'debacle of a police raid' and added that it was 'unfathomable these officers are not in custody'. The New York City native also spoke about the 'resurgence' of her Netflix film American Son based on the Broadway play of the same name. Medical technician: Taylor, a 26-year-old black emergency medical technician, was fatally shot in March by Louisville Metro Police Department officers and is shown in an undated photo The host: Jimmy hosted the ABC talk show from home due to the coronavirus pandemic The film released in September on the streaming service stars Washington as mother Kendra Ellis-Connor who waits in a Miami police station along with her white, estranged FBI agent husband to learn the fate of their son Jamal who has suddenly disappeared. Kerry said the recent police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd in Minnesota and the wave of protests that followed has helped viewers of the movie who 'now get it' or have more questions. The Confirmation star said she and the cast of American Son will participate in a Live Tweet on Thursday to chat about the film. Netflix film: The New York City native also spoke about the 'resurgence' of her Netflix film American Son based on the Broadway play of the same name Washington said that will be followed by an Instagram Live session with Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, 61, co-founder of the African American Policy Forum and creator of the #SayHerName campaign. The actress said they will discuss how to be part of the solution while educating people on female victims of systemic police violence such as Taylor and Sandra Bland. The event 'will focus on the way this injustice impacts people across the board, male and female,' she said. Social media: The Scandal star will participate in a Live Tweet on Thursday about American Son followed by an Instagram Live session with Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, 61, co-founder of the African American Policy Forum and creator of the #SayHerName campaign Washington and husband Nnamdi Asomugha, 38, have a six-year-old daughter Isabelle and three-year-old son Caleb together. The actress also said she had been thinking 'a lot about education' and introducing her children to ideas of race. She cited the new Alicia Keys memoir More Myself as inspiration to teach children about black history that occurred before blacks were oppressed under slavery and Jim Crow laws referencing Egyptian accomplishments and Maasai warriors, as examples. Washington said that such an emphasis could help children 'understand the beautiful complexity, elegance and richness of black history before refusing to be put in the back of the bus'. The actress also was promoting her new Hulu miniseries Little Fires Everywhere also co-starring Reese Witherspoon, 44, that premiered in March. Shadankun has been adopted by over 12,000 websites Background Corporate cybersecurity is broadly categorized into Internal Security and Web Security, and in recent years it has become a serious issue, especially in the field of web security, where many problems directly related to corporate management risks occur due to cyber-attacks. And despite the high risk of personal information leaks due to cyber-attacks, corporate awareness and countermeasures tend to be inadequate. Of the top 10 incidents *1 related to personal information leaks in 2018, eight were found to be caused by unauthorized access, and the number of leaks in those eight incidents alone accounted for a total of 2,300,859, or about 40% or more of the total number of personal information leaks (5,613,797). Against this backdrop, the overall security market, which is expected to reach over US$ 5.7 billion *2 by 2022, has the highest growth rate in the field of Web Security, with WAF (Web Application Firewall) being the strongest driver for SaaS products. Demand is growing against the backdrop of a succession of diverse cyber-attacks such as DDoS attacks and ransomware, and the demand for new installations is expanding not only among large organizations, which had been the focus of demand in the past, but also among small and medium-sized enterprises, which have been relatively behind in security measures. The factors leading to the cumulative total no. of websites exceeding 12,000 Cloud-based WAF Shadankun is a web security service that detects and blocks cyber-attacks on websites and web servers. After launching the service in December 2013, the cumulative total number of websites protected by Shadankun exceeded 10,000 by September 2019, and in just under six months after that, in March 2020, it exceeded 12,000 websites. Recently, Cyber Security Cloud developed and launched Cyneural, an AI engine that uses deep learning to detect attacks. Utilizing the huge amount of data on cyber-attacks gained from protecting thousands of websites, CSC is constantly enhancing its services and is able to detect not only general attacks but unknown attacks as well as false-positives at high speed. In addition to these product strengths, the high level of support provided by CSC as a web security service from Japan, and the steady growth in their activities to strengthen alliances with their sales partners, have contributed to the increase in the number of sites adopting Shadankun. Furthermore, with the rapid spread of telecommuting in various companies, the cybersecurity risks for businesses are expected to increase. And if the offices are not well-equipped, the time between discovery and response to cyber-attacks can be delayed, leading to a greater scale of damage. Due to this, the IT tools required to realize remote-work are also required to be highly secure, and demand from online service providers is expected to increase. CSC plans to respond to this demand as quickly as possible and aims to further increase the number of customers by aggressively promoting their services to increase the number of users not only in Japan but also around the world, and by promoting collaboration with various global platforms in addition to AWS. About Cloud-based WAF Shadankun Cloud-based WAF Shadankun is a web security service that detects and blocks cyber-attacks on websites and web servers. Utilizing Cyneural, an attack detection AI engine using deep learning, it detects general attacks as well as unknown attacks and false-positives at high speeds, while Cyhorus, one of the worlds leading threat intelligence teams, quickly responds to the latest threats. Also, it has been ranked No. 1 in Japan in terms of adoption rate. *3 For more information, please visit https://www.shadan-kun.com/ About Cyber Security Cloud, Inc. With an aim to create a secure cyberspace that people around the world can use safely, Cyber Security Cloud provides web application security services worldwide using the worlds leading cyber threat intelligence and AI technology. CSC is also certified as the 7th AWS WAF Managed Rules Seller in the world by AWS (Amazon Web Service) which boasts a 47.8% global cloud market share. *4 As a leading cybersecurity company, CSC plans to continue to strive to improve and develop new technologies and aim to be a company that can deliver effective security solutions to contribute to the information revolution. For more information, please visit https://www.cscloud.co.jp/en/ *1: Data based on Results of the 2018 Information Security Incident Survey by NPO Japan Network Security Association *2: Data based on 2018 Network Security Business Survey by Fuji Chimera Research Institute *3: Market research on cloud-based WAF services (as of June 16, 2019) [Research by ESP Research Institute (May 2019 to June 2019)] *4: Gartner (July 2019): Worldwide Iaas Public Cloud Services Market Share, 2017-2018 (Millions of U.S. Dollars) A Philadelphia police inspector was cheered and applauded by a procession of dozens of his colleagues on Monday as he handed himself in on charges stemming from the alleged assault of a protester. Staff Inspector Joseph Bologna was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime and reckless endangerment after a viral video appeared to show him hitting a Temple University student in the head with a baton who was peacefully protesting in the city against the death of George Floyd last week. More than 100 officers both in and out of uniform gathered outside of Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police just after 8.30am in a display of solidarity with Bologna, applauding him as he was escorted out from the building by his lawyer and to an SUV waiting to transport him to the police district. A smaller crowd had also gathered outside the 15th district to offer their support as he arrived to turn himself in. Bologna reportedly waved at those gathered and shouted thank you before heading inside, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Staff Inspector Joseph Bologna was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime and reckless endangerment last week The charges stem from -a viral video that appeared to show him hitting a Temple University student in the head with a baton who was peacefully protesting in the city against the death of George Floyd on June 1 BREAKING: @PhillyPolice Staff Inspector Joe Bologna,54,leaves @FOPLodge5 to turn himself in on felony charges for violent protest confrontation last week that severely injured @TempleUniv student,21, when hit on head with police baton @FOX29philly pic.twitter.com/VsJSYSseHY Steve Keeley (@KeeleyFox29) June 8, 2020 The video footage of Bologna striking student Evan Gorski with a baton on June 1 went viral last week, prompting Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw to launch an internal investigation into the Staff Inspectors conduct and removed him from street duty. Later the same day, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner announced the assault charges against Bologna. In a statement, prosecutors said that Gorski had been arrested and detained for a day following the incident. They later declined to charge the student after reviewing the footage and other evidence from the scene, officials said. Prosecutors added that Gorski suffered serious bodily injury, including a large head wound that required treatment in a hospital while under arrest. The student required 10 staples and approximately 10 sutures, Krasners office said. President of FOP Lodge 5, John McNesby, denounced the charges against Bologna, claiming them to be the absurd result of Krasners anti-police agenda. He never ever even came close to the head, it was shoulder strike, it's what we are trained to do, McNesby told ABC. The proper procedures were followed. Our guidelines were followed. When questioned how Groski suffered the head injury if he was only struck in the shoulder, McNesby replied: That's something you'd have to ask him, I don't know how he got those staples. He sure as hell didn't get them from Joe Bologna. More than 100 officers both in and out of uniform gathered outside of Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police just after 8:30am in a display of solidarity with Bologna, applauding him as he was escorted out from the building by his lawyer and to an SUV waiting to transport him to the police district The video footage of Bologna striking student Evan Gorski with a baton on June 1 went viral last week, prompting Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw to launch an internal investigation into the Staff Inspectors conduct and removed him from street duty McNesby added that Bologna, a near 31-year veteran of the department, found himself embroiled in a volatile situation and only had milliseconds to make a decision. Along with arsonists, looters and thieves, Krasner is complicit in the destruction of our great city, he said in a statement, vowing to vigorously defend Bologna against these baseless allegations and charges. Bologna's attorney, Fortunato Perri Jr., also released a statement decrying his clients charges. Inspector Bologna and his fellow officers were spit on, sprayed with urine and other chemicals as well as verbally and physically assaulted, Perri Jr.s statement read. His use of force to apprehend an individual, who was trying to thwart a lawful arrest during a melee, was lawful and justified. Other supporters of the embattled inspector have insisted hes beloved in all the communities hes served, insisting hes gregarious and widely respected. Despite the praise, more videos have also emerged on social media of Bologna using aggressive measures in response to demonstrators, including one exchange from Tuesday in which the officer was seen throwing his bicycle and lunging at a female protestor after she appeared to lightly touch his bike. To support Bologna, dozens of his fellow officers attempted to organize a blue flu or a number of officers all calling in sick simultaneously ahead of demonstrations that saw thousands flock to the city center to protest. The idea was later admonished by police commanders who warned such a move would only endanger the lives of their fellow officers. A GoFundMe page was also set up for Bologna over the weekend, which had already raised nearly $25,000 by Monday. Supporters of the embattled inspector have insisted hes beloved in all the communities hes served, insisting hes gregarious and widely respected. To support Bologna, dozens of his fellow officers attempted to organize a blue flu or a number of officers all calling in sick simultaneously ahead of demonstrations that saw thousands flock to the city center to protest. The idea was later admonished by police commanders who warned such a move would only endanger the lives of their fellow officers The fallout involving Bologna comes as fourteen out of the 17 members of Philadelphias City Council signed a letter addressed to Mayor Jim Kenney, saying they will not support the proposed $14 million increase to the police budget for Fiscal year 2021. In the letter, the council members wrote: It is counterproductive to increase spending on the Police Department while cutting spending on public health, housing, social services, violence prevention, youth programs, libraries, parks, recreation centers and the arts. The letter follows on the heels of Minneapolis City Council announcing plans to disband their police department and invest instead in a community-led public safety model. Activists in Philadelphia are urging their council to follow suit and defund the police. It does not mean that the police need to disappear tomorrow, it means that our resources that our city allocates are being grossly mismanaged and the police are getting much more than is feasible, Elizabeth Gardiner, Union Member of AFSCME DC 47, explained to ABC 6. Gardiner and members from the Campaign for a Just Philly Budget are hosting a People's Budget Hearing on Monday evening. Libraries and parks and rec are a huge way that crime can be reduced because it provides people with outlets for their time and to connect with resources, said Gardiner. So shifting money from the police to our communities' resources is proven to help people and reduce crime. McNesby, meanwhile, has insisted the idea of defunding the police would prove to be an unmitigated disaster. It doesn't make sense, said McNesby. You're taking away from your community, you're taking resources out of your community. Look at the crime we have now--nobody is going to want to come to Philadelphia if it's not safe. The fallout involving Bologna comes as fourteen out of the 17 members of Philadelphias City Council signed a letter addressed to Mayor Jim Kenney, saying they will not support the proposed $14 million increase to the police budget for Fiscal year 2021 In the letter, the council members wrote: It is counterproductive to increase spending on the Police Department while cutting spending on public health, housing, social services, violence prevention, youth programs, libraries, parks, recreation centers and the arts. Currently, the citys proposed budget will allocated $760 million to the police department, which is around 15 percent of the citys total budget. The second largest recipient, would be the citys fire department, which would receive $320 million. Mike Dunn, the spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney's office, said their 1.6 percent proposed increase to the police budget includes anti-racist training, body cameras, adding to the intelligence bureau and public safety officers as well as salary increases to officers serving on the front lines of COVID-19. We all have reasons to be deeply disturbed by systemic racism that has plagued our society for far too long, including disparities in policing, and we appreciate residents' civic engagement and action to hold the city accountable, Dunn said to ABC. It is important to note that Philadelphia City Council ultimately approves the budget. We encourage residents to make their voices heard at upcoming budget hearings that are being held virtually due to the pandemic. Eight in 10 Americans worry that mass demonstrations around George Floyd's killing, police brutality and structural racism could trigger new coronavirus infections, in Week 12 of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index. Why it matters: More than one in 10 people surveyed has an immediate family member or close friend who's participated and 2% say they've taken part themselves. That puts tens of millions of people in close contact with protesters. It may be weeks before we fully understand the impacts of the protests on infections. But they're not the only example of Americans easing up on social distancing: 45% of respondents say they've visited in person with friends or relatives in the last week. Even as protesters decide the stakes are worth the risks, they're taking steps to avoid spread: 87% say they wore masks, 35% wore gloves and one third say they maintained a six-foot distance. By the numbers: Most Americans 86% say protesting poses a large or moderate risk to their health. That's huge compared with how Americans assess the risks of activities such as returning to work as normal, retail shopping, getting a haircut or even going out to dinner all of which have declined significantly over the past week. While 79% of Americans worry about a spike in cases, it's a matter of degree an even 50% said they were either extremely or very concerned (29% were only somewhat concerned). Democrats (60%) were more likely than independents (51%) or Republicans (37%) to be extremely or very worried about an increase in cases. Women and older people also were more likely to worry. Between the lines: Age, education, party ID and proximity to a city not race appear to correlate most to participation in protests. Overall, 11% of respondents say someone in their immediate circle of family and friends has protested. But here's how that breaks down: For people under 30, 20% are close with someone who has protested. For people over 65, it's just 4%. 16% of Democrats are close with someone who has protested, compared to 12% of independents and just 3% of Republicans. 16% of people with a bachelor's degree are close with someone who has protested, but that's only true for 7% with a high school education or less. People who live close to a city were more likely to be close with someone who protested: 14% of people in urban areas, 10% in the suburbs and just 6% in rural areas. The 2% of respondents who said they had personally protested is too small a sample from which to draw many conclusions. The big picture: The findings in the latest installment of our weekly national survey come as states move forward with phased reopening of their economies and as more Americans are getting braver about testing how they rejoin society. Setting the protests aside, just 21% of respondents say they're very concerned about a coronavirus outbreak, the lowest share since mid-March. And only 13% say they're very concerned about the possibility of getting sick. Nearly one in four went out to eat last week, the highest percentage since mid-March. And 43% see a large or moderate risk in going to grocery store, down from a high of 70% in mid-April. What they're saying: The protests may actually be having the effect of driving down people's perceptions of other risks, said pollster Chris Jackson, senior vice president for Ipsos Public Affairs: "If something else comes along that's so much more exceptional, people will gravitate to that and that will reset how they evaluate everything else." Some perceptions of risk around returning to more mundane activities such as shopping and dining may be easing as people test the waters and don't immediately get sick. But the searing images of thousands in the streets with masks on also may be making other activities seem less risky by comparison and that could give people a false sense of security about a return to normal. Methodology: This Axios/Ipsos Poll was conducted June 5-8 by Ipsos' KnowledgePanel. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,006 general population adults age 18 or older. Spoden said the number of jobs that will be brought in is unavailable, and officials with Encompass could not be reached at this time for comment. Initial reporting from December show the facility would employ around 90 people initially, with the capability of increasing to 175 employees after five years. Some other small things that will be taken care of is some landscaping work along Route 45. WATERLOO REGION Regional staff are investigating ways to increase this areas share of the multibillion dollar aerospace industry pie. Last week, members of the Region of Waterloos economic development committee of council heard some of the early findings of a months-long examination of the regions strengths and weaknesses in the sector, which contributed more than $25 billion to Canadas GDP in 2018. Its a fairly significant industry that flies under the radar, so to speak, and something we feel is a definite strength for us as we position the economy to evolve over the next few years, said Rod Regier, commissioner of planning, development and legislative services. More than 100 aerospace companies already operate in the region but most are small or medium-sized businesses that provide manufacturing or software expertise for larger, top-tier manufacturers such as passenger jet manufacturer Airbus. Since November, three regional staffers have been working with consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers on identifying ways to grow the sector. Through interviews with about 50 local aerospace companies and by comparing this area to other communities active in the sector such as Toronto, Alabama, Seattle and Toulouse, France, staff discovered Waterloo Region already has many of the qualities major companies are looking for access to talent, available land to build on, and important infrastructure such as railways, highways and an international airport. The thing is that Waterloo Region has a lot of these characteristics, its just not tweaked to support aerospace and aviation, said Matthew Chandy, manager of the regions Office of Regional Economic Development. Waterloo Region has the fourth-largest aerospace cluster in Canada and the fourth-largest advanced manufacturing sector, Chandy told councillors. Talent in particular is something this region could do a better job of leveraging. The University of Waterloo is one of the top engineering schools in the world but doesnt have a specific aerospace engineering program, Chandy said, even though many of their grads eventually go into the sector. Regional staff have been in talks with UW, Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College about possibly establishing a new program focused on aerospace engineering. When we talk about talent supply, this is key for building the sector, Chandy said. Interviews with local companies also revealed a lack of overall awareness about the industrys presence. Even Chandy said he was surprised to learn just how many companies were already operating in the region when he began the project last fall. More than 3,200 people are employed by local aerospace or aviation companies, including Honeywell Aerospace, Rockwell Automation, Heroux-Devtek, and Navblue a subsidiary of Airbus that develops integrated flight solutions and air traffic management services to help navigate the planes. Other local firms, from BlackBerry to artificial intelligence specialists DarwinAI, have recently announced partnerships with companies in the aerospace sector. How do we co-ordinate better to let the world know theres an aerospace presence here? This is something were giving some thought to, Chandy said. The region is also home to Waterloo Region International Airport, which has been identified as a possible hub for international flights once Pearson International Airport reaches capacity over the next decade. Some experts have questioned how well the aerospace or aviation industry will bounce back from the impact of COVID-19 and the grounding of passenger jets around the world. Regional Chair Karen Redman asked Chandy if staff have taken it under consideration. I really cannot put a timeline on when the industry might recover and well see what the situation is and try to adjust accordingly or listen to industry about how theyre responding, Chandy said, noting some manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing are starting to resume production. Redman also asked about this regions relative size and if that would impact its ability to attract top-tier manufacturers to this area. Chandy said as long as Waterloo Region demonstrates it has the desired traits he mentioned earlier, including access to talent and important infrastructure, size shouldnt be an issue. They also look at livability and quality of life in a community, he said. Another report is expected to come to council in the future, but no date was provided. Farmworker Odilia Leon, a single mother of five, picks strawberries for $420 a week after her hours were cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) A bed fills most of the room that Odilia Leon shares with her five children. In one corner, a dresser spills over with clothes. For the cramped room in a two-bedroom unit behind a house in east Salinas, she pays $1,050 a month. It's what she can afford as a fieldworker picking strawberries, her job for the last nine years. A couple with three children rents the other room. In all, 11 people share a living room and kitchen. There is one bathroom. Every day, Leon, 40, is gripped with fear that she could bring home the coronavirus, infect her children and possibly spread it to the rest of the household. The couple in the other room also works to cover their half of the rent, she said. Every time I leave the house in the morning, I worry about how I can come back and hug my kids, she said on a Thursday evening after arriving home from work. Social distancing is challenging, if not impossible, in homes like Leons and for many other farmworkers in Salinas, the city where John Steinbeck was born. As of Monday afternoon, COVID-19 had infected a reported 751 people in Monterey County, and many of the cases are concentrated on the east side of Salinas, where Leon lives. It is an area that suffers from a lack of affordable housing, with families crammed into homes and renting out whatever space they can, sharing bathrooms, living rooms and kitchens. Odilia Leon pays $1,050 a month for one room, where she sleeps with her five children. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Officials in the Salinas Valley, known as the salad bowl of the world, and leaders in the agriculture industry are acutely aware of just how quickly the virus can spread among farmworkers, both at home and at job sites. In Monterey County, agriculture workers make up more than a third of confirmed COVID-19 cases, and Latinos make up nearly 80% of them. Karen Smith, spokesperson for the Monterey County Health Department, said she does not know if housing is a direct factor, but "if you've got people close together with a virus that's a respiratory virus, you're bound to see more. Story continues Dr. Edward Moreno, the county public health officer, has said that the frequency of agriculture workers testing positive is tied with testing being concentrated in places like Salinas, the county's most populous city. Monterey County officials were among the first in the state to mandate face coverings at worksites and to ask companies to practice social distancing on buses used to transport workers. The county lobbied the state for masks receiving 750,000 and sought alternative housing options for farmworkers and homeless people. Farmworkers, separated by newly installed vinyl curtains to help protect them from the spread of the coronavirus, cut and package romaine hearts for Fresh Harvest in Chualar. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) But as the state restarts other sectors of the economy, the agriculture industry, which never stopped because it is considered essential, will continue to struggle with stopping the spread of the virus. The industry is dependent on low-wage labor, people who live in overcrowded housing and poverty. Some, like Leon, have had their hours cut due to the pandemic. Farmworkers often lack legal status, making them less likely to seek help through official channels, said Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner Henry Gonzales, who worked in the fields when he was younger to pay for college. Couple that with the crowded housing its a bad situation, and we know it, Gonzales said. We cant prevent it. There's no way. But what were trying to do is minimize it. He estimates that there are 45,000 farmworkers who live permanently in the county, and the population could swell to 60,000 as guest workers arrive for the summer to help pick cauliflower, lettuces, strawberries and other produce. A farmworker with a donation bag containing masks, gloves, food and a hygiene kit, all items collected from the community and handed out by the Alisal Family Resource Center in Salinas. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Carissa Purnell, director of the Alisal Family Resource Center, said her organization delivers weekly supplies to farmworkers during their lunch breaks, offering free food, wipes and hand sanitizer, because many can't afford such items or are too busy working to buy them when they're in stock. A lot of people dont understand what its like, she said, describing situations in which multiple families squeeze into a single house. It just breeds the spreading of the virus. Theres no way for it to not be passed around. Overcrowding in farmworker housing is severe on the Central Coast. A 2018 study conducted by the California Institute for Rural Studies and California Coalition for Rural Housing found that 45,560 units of farmworker housing are needed in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. Residences averaged more than seven people, or five people per bathroom, a stunningly high rate, the report found. Many are overpaying for their housing, living in squalid, substandard homes and/or doubling and tripling up with other households in overcrowded conditions, the report said. Maria de los Angeles Jimenez, 29, who works at a salad-packing plant, learned how quickly the virus can spread on May 1, when her feet began to ache. She got tested the next day, and within a few hours learned she was positive for COVID-19. I started crying, because I wasnt expecting it, she said. She called her brother who works at a different plant and lives with her about getting tested. Ultimately, her brother, mother and one of her two sons became sick with COVID-19. They all live together, and she shares a room with her sons, she said; they slept in the living room when she became ill. Some agriculture companies have spent the past few years building housing for guest workers who come to work under the H-2A visa program, which requires the companies to provide accommodation. In some cases, they have built complexes, rented motels or bought facilities to house employees for a few months in the U.S. before those workers return south, often back to Mexico. Farmworkers check their temperature before and after working in the fields at Fresh Harvest's dormitories at Meyers Farm Worker Housing in King City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Practicing social distancing, farmworkers relax at Fresh Harvest's dormitories. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) In King City, labor contractor Fresh Harvest houses nearly 300 guest workers in a converted tomato factory. In each dormitory, 17 to 24 workers sleep in bunk beds, lying head-to-toe to create more distance, Linda Rossi, director of communications said. On a Thursday afternoon, workers finished for the day were distancing in front of a television, one person on each couch, all wearing masks. Some headed to another part of the common area in a line, keeping space between them. In the dining area, where the company has imposed a one-person-per-table policy, a few men sat, each with a pizza box in front of him. Near the entrance where workers load into buses and head out to the fields, they now pause to have their body temperatures checked by a scanner that resembles a small tablet on a stand. Sometimes they lean down and in until they get the go-ahead: Your body temperature is normal, a voice confirms. The workers get checked twice a day, before they head to work and when they return, Rossi said. Along the walls, signage in Spanish reminds the workers of the symptoms of COVID-19 and guidelines for maintaining distance. So far, no field workers have tested positive for the virus, Rossi said. Theyre very good about keeping their space, she said. On a recent weekday, farmworkers cut, bundled and packaged romaine hearts on a field southeast of Salinas. Plastic vinyl sheets separated the rows of workers to provide a barrier, said David Scaroni, Fresh Harvest's vice president of operations. Crews are kept together in the dorms to avoid the wide spread of the virus, should an outbreak occur. Pete Maturino, agricultural director for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5, said some companies where union members work have made adjustments at work sites to allow for social distancing. But some members come to him about precautions being ignored. A farmworker loads boxes of romaine hearts for Fresh Harvest in Chuala. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) "It matters because that person is going to go home and infect other people," he said. The Grower-Shipper Assn. of Central California has reserved hotel rooms to house workers in case they become sick or are suspected of having COVID-19, said Christopher Valadez, president of the industry group. So far, 55 workers have been housed in rooms, a number that fluctuates depending on when a person is cleared to return home, he said. Monterey County in March requested 100 trailers from the state Office of Emergency Services for use in isolating residents but received just 15. The county Board of Supervisors urgently requested that the state send the rest. The county is extremely concerned that we will not be able to sufficiently address the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among our farmworker community, if these additional 85 trailers are not provided by the state, the supervisors wrote in the letter. County Supervisor Luis Alejo said that by May, the request had not been met, so the county used its own resources to pay for extra housing to prepare for the worst-case scenario. More than 150 individuals have been housed to date. Brigida Rivero, who works in the lettuce fields, carries bottles of bleach mixed with water to disinfect her home and work area. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Before Brigida Rivero, 36, started a family with her husband, she lived alone in a home where she rented a room and shared a bathroom with 10 others and worked in the fields. It was uncomfortable to live so close to other people, she said. And now, with this illness, she said, I think its a little worse. Rivero, a Salinas resident who works in the fields packing lettuce, takes the coronavirus seriously. She lives with her husband and three children in a small, two-bedroom upstairs apartment. She carries a pink spray bottle, a mixture of water and Clorox, to work to disinfect items. When she arrives home, she sprays the white gate and the banister along the staircase that leads to her front door. She changes out of her clothes before picking up her children from a babysitter. In reality, the virus is something no one can see, she said. You never know. For Leon, the fear of contracting the virus at work has made her anxious. She recently learned that a person who works in her field became ill, but it's uncertain if its the flu or the virus, she said. If she becomes sick, shell use the county's alternative housing to stay away from her children to keep them safe. I would give anything to get back to my children, she said. I am the mother and father for them. I have to keep going for them. COMEDK UGET and Uni-GAUGE will be conducted on 27 June. The exam will be held in two shifts, from 9 am to 12 pm and 2 pm to 5 pm. COMEDK UGET and Uni-GAUGE admit card | The Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) will release the admit cards for UGET and Uni-GAUGE on 20 June on its official website. Those who have applied for the exams can download the admit card by visiting the link https://www.comedk.org/. Candidates are advised to download admit card only after checking that the details printed on it are correct. In case of any discrepancy, they should bring it to the notice of authorities concerned and get it rectified. UGET is conducted for admission to BE or BTech courses in colleges affiliated to the Karnataka Professional Colleges Foundation Trust. On the other hand, Uni-GAUGE is held for admission to leading and reputed deemed or private universities in the state. COMEDK UGET and Uni-GAUGE will be conducted on 27 June. The exam will be held in two shifts, from 9 am to 12 pm and 2 pm to 5 pm. Earlier, COMEDK UGET and Uni-GAUGE were scheduled to be held on 10 May, but got postponed due to the coronavirus lockdown. The maximum time allotted to complete the exam is three hours. The paper will have 60 questions each of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Candidates will be awarded one mark for each correct answer and there is no negative marking. How to download admit card Go to the official website at https://www.comedk.org/. Click on the link for admit card. Fill in the required details to log in. Check the details in the hall ticket carefully. Download it and take a printout. Rank and file police officers in Bristol are said to be 'furious' after they were ordered not to intervene when protesters tore down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston during anti-racism protests. Mark Shelford, a police and crime commissioner candidate for Avon and Somerset, claims police had 'two opportunities to intervene' when Black Lives Matter campaigners ripped down the statue and dumped it into Bristol Harbour. It comes after the force's chief constable Andy Marsh admitted officers held off making arrests to avoid a 'very violent confrontation'. The Conservative candidate tweeted: 'I am told by furious police on the ground they had two opportunities to intervene before and after the statue was pulled down. This was terrible senior police leadership and local political leadership.' Mark Shelford, a Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate for Avon and Somerset, says police had 'two opportunities to intervene' when Black Lives Matter protesters ripped down the statue of Edward Colston and dumped it into Bristol Harbour Meanwhile a senior Tory city councillor in Bristol has described slave trader Colston as a 'hero', and branded the toppling of his statue 'frenzied thug violence'. Former Bristol City Council leader Richard Eddy told the Bristol Post: 'Edward Colston to me and generations of Bristolians stands out as a hero whose wealth has continued to benefit the housing, education and healthcare of the citizens of this city. 'I am horrified and appalled by the rank lawlessness which was exposed in Bristol on Sunday when the famous statue of Edward Colston was attacked and vandalised by a criminal mob.' His comments come as Priti Patel read the riot act to the Bristol police chief whose officers failed to stop Black Lives Matter protesters ripping down a slave trader's statue. The Home Secretary is demanding the culprits face prosecution as she doubles down her zero tolerance approach to wanton criminality during the demonstrations. She stamped down her authority during a 'firm' conversation with Avon and Somerset chief constable Andy Marsh yesterday. The minister, who has burnished a tough reputation for law and order during her political career, ordered an explanation as to why constables did not intervene to stop the vandals, according to the Times. Anti-racism campaigners toppled a memorial to 17th century slave trader Edward Colston before tossing it into the city's harbour on Friday. Anti-racism campaigners toppled a memorial to 17th century slave trader Edward Colston before tossing it into the harbour on Friday in Bristol Priti Patel has given a dressing down to the Bristol police chief whose officers failed to stop Black Lives Matter protesters ripping down a slave trader's statue In a video post on social media, Andy Marsh said: 'Can you imagine the scenes of police in Bristol fighting with protester who were damaging the statue of a man who is reputed to have gathered much of his fortune during the slave trade. 'I think there would have been very serious implications. And while I do not condone crime in any sort, I fully support the actions of my officers. 'They responded with common sense, sound judgement and in the best interests of public safety.' Ms Patel's direct conversation with Chief Constable Marsh raised eyebrows as individual forces are independent of Whitehall and are held to account by locally elected police and crime commissioners. Protesters throw statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest rally, in memory of George Floyd The empty plinth where the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol once stood after it was taken down during a Black Lives Matter protest on Sunday The Home Office did not comment on the Home Secretary's alleged conversation with the police chief. But the minister has vowed to come down hard on 'thugs' who have 'subverted' George Floyd marches in cities across the UK. It followed riotous scenes in Westminster last week where hooligans hijacked a peaceful rally to hurl bottles and bikes at constables, of whom 62 suffered injuries. Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, she condemned the 'lawless minority of protesters' and vowed that 'justice will follow'. The Prime Minister weighed in behind his minister and yesterday said anyone who harmed police or property would face 'the full force of the law'. She also appeared to be in step with public opinion. A snap YouGov poll found only 13 per cent of respondents approved of the Edward Colston statue 'being removed and in the way in which it was'. Some 40 per cent approved of the statue being removed, but not in the way it was, and 33 per cent disagreed with its removal altogether. Ms Patel, of Ugandan-Indian origin, also swatted away accusations the government did not understand racism by recalling how she was often called a p*ki at school and told to change her surname to advance her career. Activists stand around the Churchill statue yesterday after it was daubed in graffiti during the Black Lives Matter protests A protestor lights a flair next to The Cenotaph during a Black Lives Matter protest in response to the death of American George Floyd on Saturday The Home Secretary confirmed 137,500 people had attended more than 200 rallies at the weekend, at which a total 135 had been arrested, but none at the Bristol rally where the statue was toppled. During the Westminster rallies last week, some of the 15,000 protesters scrawled graffiti on the statue of wartime PM Winston Churchill and the Cenotaph memorial on Whitehall. It has sparked a heated debate over whether - and how - certain historical statues should be pulled down. More anti-racism demonstrations are planned in London today as George Floyd is laid to rest in the US. Mr Floyd, who died after a police officer in Minneapolis restrained him by holding a knee on his neck, will be buried in his home town of Houston in Texas. A symbolic and socially distanced commemoration is planned at the Nelson Mandela statue in Parliament Square in London at 5pm, organised by Stand Up To Racism. Boris Johnson said the killing had awakened an 'incontrovertible, undeniable feeling of injustice' worldwide. The Prime Minister - who had previously condemned the 'thuggery' by a minority that marred some demonstrations - acknowledged many of the activists' concerns were 'founded on a cold reality'. He said leaders 'simply can't ignore' concerns that black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) groups face discrimination in education, employment and in law. In the video statement released by Downing Street on Monday evening he said: 'In this country and around the world his (Mr Floyd's) dying words - I can't breathe - have awakened an anger and a widespread and incontrovertible, undeniable feeling of injustice, a feeling that people from black and minority ethnic groups do face discrimination: in education, in employment, in the application of the criminal law. 'And we who lead and who govern simply can't ignore those feelings because in too many cases, I am afraid, they will be founded on a cold reality.' Still, the PM said those who harmed police or property would face 'the full force of the law'. He added he could not condone people breaking social distancing rules aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus, which he acknowledged was disproportionately harming Bame communities. 'So no, I will not support those who flout the rules on social distancing, for the obvious reason that we risk a new infection at a critical time and just as we have made huge progress,' he said. The Mayor of London flagged further progress on Tuesday morning when he announced the city's landmarks would be reviewed to ensure they reflect the capital's diversity. Sadiq Khan said the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm will review the city's landmarks - including murals, street art, street names, statues and other memorials - and consider which legacies should be celebrated before making recommendations. Meanwhile, Stand Up To Racism co-convenor Sabby Dhalu said of Tuesday evening's planned commemoration in London: 'The uprising of black communities and others against racism since (George) Floyd was killed must lead to transformation against racial discrimination. We demand justice.' Border Security Force (BSF) has issued an order, warning action against composite hospitals (CH) after it was found that hospitals are reluctant to admit jawans, who tested COVID-19 positive. In the order, the force has warned all hospital administrations and stated if they refer anyone to civil hospitals then they will have to explain under which circumstances they referred the patient. Of late it has been observed that composite hospitals have been reluctant to receive the COVID-19 positive patients. The competent authority has taken a serious view because of such reluctancy on the part of composite hospitals. All composite hospitals are directed to admit COVID-19 positive cases of BSF personnel and their families and retired BSF personnel whenever they report to composite hospitals, BSF has said. Composite Hospitals should be fully prepared in all respect to treat the patients. If any COVID-19 positive case is referred to civil hospitals, detailed explanation has to be given as to why the patient was not admitted in composite hospital otherwise the medical superintendents of CHs will be liable to attract disciplinary action, it said. Also Read: Centre says no community spread of Covid-19 in Delhi, cases will reach around 5.5 lakh till July 31: Deputy CM Manish Sisodia Also Read: Has Delhi reached community transfer stage? Health min to wait for Centre to declare The data available till 6 June on coronavirus infections in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) shows that recovery rate among these forces is massive. Approximately 70 per cent jawans have recovered till now. Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) tops the recovery tally with 87.89 per cent followed by BSF with 82.94 per cent recoveries. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has recorded a recovery rate of 68.86 per cent while the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) recorded a recovery rate of 58.92 per cent. 1,668 CAPFs personnel have tested positive till 6 June, out of which 1,157 have been cured. 511 have been admitted to various COVID-19 designated hospitals. With 10 deaths reported till now, the death rate among coronavirus infected is 0.59 per cent. Out of 511 active cases till 7 June, there are 149 cases active in CRPF, 82 in BSF, 26 in ITBP, 134 in CISF, 63 in SSB, 22 in NSG, and 25 in NDRF. The first case of coronavirus in the CAPFs was reported on March 28. Also Read: Shah sounds poll bugle, launches most direct attack on Didi For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Chennai, June 9 : Tamil Nadu Forest Department has arrested 12 gypsies for killing a jackal in a Trichy village by packing explosives in meat and blowing up its mouth when it took a bite, said an official. "The 12 men had gone to collect honey in a village and found a jackal roaming around. In order to hunt it for its meat and its teeth, the gypsies had packed explosives inside meat pieces and strewn at several places that the jackal frequents," a forest department official told IANS over phone from Tiruchirappalli or Trichy as it's known. "The bombs are similar to what is called 'onion bomb' that are burst during Diwali. The explosive chemicals are packed and when pressure is applied it will burst," he said. He said when the animal bites the meat, the bomb will explode ripping its jaws apart. Recently in Kerala a pregnant elephant was killed when it ate a fruit packed with explosives. According to the forest official, the gypsies had killed the jackal at night and they were having tea at a tea stall in the morning. The jackal was in their bag. A police constable attached to Jeeyapuram station questioned the gypsies and on checking their bag he found the dead jackal. An official of Jeeyapuram police station told IANS that after inqury, the gypsies were handed over to the forest department officials. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 22:08:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MAPUTO, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Mozambican National Council for Combating AIDS (CNCS) said Tuesday that the annual deaths caused by HIV/AIDS in the country were currently estimated at 51,000, down from the peak in 2006 with 76,000 deaths. "We started with low numbers of deaths, then went up, but with the introduction of antiretrovirals the tendency is to decrease," said Franciso Mbofana, executive secretary of CNCS in an interview with the country's largest newspaper Noticias. He was speaking on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the foundation of CNCS. Failure in the continuity of treatment is the main cause to the high death rate of AIDS in the country, said Mbofana. "There are individuals who start medication and after 12 months they do not continue treatment. These are about 30 percent of the patients," said Mbofana, adding that discrimination and the difficulties of access to health facilities are what lead many people to abandon treatment, or even to seek medical help. The health official said the goal of his institution is to reduce at least 25 percent of new infections by 2023, and even more by the end of 2025. Enditem (Newser) On Oct. 11, 1984, astronaut Kathy Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space. On Sunday, she became the first woman to reach the deepest known point in the oceanand the first person ever to have both walked in space and been 35,810 feet below the surface of the water, the New York Times reports. Sullivan, 68, spent about an hour and a half capturing images at Challenger Deep after descending to the spot 6.8 miles down in the Mariana Trench, about 200 miles southwest of Guam, in a deep-sea research submersible called the Limiting Factorthe only submarine currently able to reach Challenger Deep. Their ascent back to the surface took four hours. Sullivan is only the eighth person ever to reach Challenger Deep, the Daily Beast reports. story continues below Sullivan, an oceanographer as well as an astronaut, became the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after joining NASA in 1978 as part of the first group of US astronauts that included women. After emerging from the depths Sunday, she and Victor L. Vescovo, the explorer funding the mission, called astronauts aboard the International Space Station. "As a hybrid oceanographer and astronaut this was an extraordinary day, a once in a lifetime day, seeing the moonscape of the Challenger Deep and then comparing notes with my colleagues on the ISS about our remarkable reusable inner-space outer-spacecraft," Sullivan said in a statement released by EYOS Expeditions, which coordinated the mission logistics. On Twitter, Vescovo congratulated Sullivan on being "the first woman to the bottom of the ocean." (Read more Challenger Deep stories.) German authorities have said they have some evidence that Madeleine McCann is dead but are appealing for more information in order to bring a suspect to court. The investigation into Madeleines disappearance from Praia da Luz, Portugal, has attracted renewed attention after authorities announced they were investigating a 43-year-old convicted German child sex offender. The suspect, who is reportedly serving a seven-year prison sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in 2005, has been named in reports as Christian Brueckner. He is known to have lived on the Algarve coast and his Portuguese mobile phone received a half-hour phone call in Praia da Luz around an hour before Madeleine, then three, went missing on May 3 2007. Christian Brueckner, a suspect in the Madeleine McCann case. Hans Christian Wolters, a spokesman for the Braunschweig public prosecutors office, said on Monday they have some evidence that Madeleine is dead but did not have enough for a trial. Mr Wolters told Sky News: The hard evidence we dont have, we dont have the crucial evidence of Madeleine McCanns body. We expect that she is dead, but we dont have enough evidence that we can get a warrant for our suspect in Germany for the murder of Madeleine McCann. At the moment, we also dont have enough proof for a trial at court, but we have some evidence that the suspect has done the deed. Thats why we need more information from people, especially places he has lived, so we can target these places especially and search there for Madeleine. Mr Wolters called on British tourists who visited Praia da Luz between 1995 and 2007, when the suspect is thought to have lived in the area, to come forward with any information about the suspect. Meanwhile, German prosecutors are reportedly examining any links to the disappearance of two other children, and Mr Wolters said he believes there are victims of related sex crimes who have not come forward. In the days since the renewed appeal, Scotland Yard said it received nearly 400 tips to its Operation Grange team. Operation Grange refers to the forces active investigation, which a spokesman said police still consider a missing person inquiry because there is no definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead. The Mets investigation has identified more than 600 people as potentially significant and was tipped off about the German national, already known to detectives, following a 2017 appeal 10 years after she went missing. She vanished shortly before her fourth birthday, while her parents were eating dinner with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant, and would have turned 17 last month. Western Connecticut State University is considering changing its school nickname and mascot in response to student and alumni complaints, the University said Monday. The state schools nickname is the Colonials and Chuck the Colonial serves as its mascot. Posts last week on the WestConn Instagram and Facebook feeds read: We hear you. In response to WCSU students and alumni asking for a replacement of our current mascot, the student government association, the student group Speak Truth to Power, and the university will begin a student-driven process to find a new mascot that better reflects todays Western Connecticut State University a university where racism and hatred have no home. Sincerely Dr. John B. Clark, President. As of Monday, the post on Facebook had over 450 comments on both sides of the issue. We are in the process of organizing a committee that will look at the mascot and decide whether and how to change from Chuck, Paul Steinmetz , the schools director of university and community relations, said. It will be a student-led process, with the Student Government Association and a student organization called Speak Truth to Power in the forefront. The university will provide resources and what support they may need. Comments promoting change state it is historically representative of ethnic violence, genocide and racism. Those who wish to keep the nickname state it is an embodiment of the founding of the United States and American resilience. A petition on Change.org had 315 signatures on a petition to change the name to Whales. Most students who Ive spoken to want to change it either because they think its a weird, boring mascot that is less interesting than other universities, or because it represents a violent era in American history that students feel does not reflect our community, or both, Audrey Nielsen, editor of the student-run Echo Newspaper, said via email. The SGA is planning a WebX meeting on Thursday, June 18 at 1 p.m. to discuss the changing of the name. This is not the first time the school has considered changing its nickname. In 1974, the school changed its nickname from Indians. Western Connecticut is not alone in looking for a change from Colonials. In 2018, George Washington University students began a campaign to change their schools mascot as well. That change is still being debated, though the University changed the name of its Student Service Hub and Student Financial and Registration Services to remove reference to its nickname. COVID-19 Diagnostic Test With Harvard University Sydney, June 9, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - iQX Limited (iQX Ltd) ( NSX:IQX ) would like to announce a collaboration agreement between the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, and Life Science Biosensor Diagnostics Pty Ltd (LSBD), in which iQX Ltd holds a 19% equity position.The purpose of the agreement is to conduct a pilot study to develop a diagnostic test using the Biosensor Platform for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a person, indicating disease onset or potential level of immunity developed to the COVID-19 disease.A platform technology, the Biosensor is a printable organic transistor 'strip' designed to put the power of accurate and timely diagnosis in the hands of patients and their primary health practitioners at point of care. The Biosensor Platform is currently being developed to test for more than 130 indications, including glucose in saliva for type 1 and type 2 diabetes management, tumour markers, allergens, hormones and communicable diseases.The scope of the pilot study is to integrate the Biosensor Platform with an assay system already developed at the Wyss Institute for the detection of antibodies (IgM and/or IgG) against SARS-CoV-2. A positive detection of these specific IgM and/or IgG antibodies in a person indicates that they have been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and that they may be currently infected with, or previously had been infected with, the COVID-19 disease. It would also indicate that the person may have been immunised against the COVID-19 disease, at a time when a vaccine is developed and approved."This is an exciting development for LSBD and its licensee companies, GBS Inc. and BioSensX (North America) Inc., as we embark on a landmark collaboration with the Wyss Institute at Harvard University for a SARS-CoV-2 antibody testforthe COVID-19 disease," said Dr George Syrmalis, Group CEO and Chairman of The iQ Group Global."Dependent on the outcomes of this research, we may be in a position to provide the global healthcare system with a point-of-care test (POCT) capable of detecting SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, with the ability to produce results in minutes."If the pilot study data is positive, then the test has the potential to meet FDA and other National and Supranational regulatory criteria to be used as a point-of-care screening and diagnostic tool, as well as a pre-vaccination screening test for when a COVID-19 vaccine is made available. This project could not have come at more crucial time as the pandemic continues to take its toll on people all over the world," Dr Syrmalis said.Life Science Biosensor Diagnostics Pty Ltd (LSBD) is a fully owned subsidiary company of The iQ Group Global Ltd and iQX Ltd.About the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired EngineeringThe Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering is a cross-disciplinary research institute at Harvard University which focuses on developing new bioinspired materials and devices for applications in healthcare, manufacturing, robotics, energy, and sustainable architecture. Website: wyss.harvard.eduAbout The iQ Group GlobalThe iQ Group Global is a group of companies that find, fund and develop bioscience discoveries to create lifechanging medical innovations. Recognised by The Australian Financial Review in the top five Most Innovative Healthcare Companies in 2019, The iQ Group Global's flagship innovation is the Saliva Glucose Biosensor; the first non-invasive replacement for finger-prick blood glucose testing for diabetes management. Visit our website: theiqgroupglobal.comAbout IQX Limited A member of The iQ Group Global, iQX Limited is an investment funds management company specialising in the bioscience sector that is committed to eradicating disease through capital investment. The Gurugram-based BML Munjal University has announced that it has introduced AI-driven remote proctoring for the BMUE3 2020 examination. This is to ensure that its aspiring engineering students are not able to cheat or take any undue help during the online exams for the academic session 2020-24. The move comes at a time when several universities and colleges are considering take-home exams because of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, but the major concern remains on ensuring integrity. The university said that it is also among the first few educational institutions in India to left remotely delegated affirmation tests, for which candidates can appear from any location. Using AI mechanism, the BMUE3 2020, which is scheduled for June 20, for the institute's B.Tech program, will ensure that the platform is thoroughly secured and deters cheating during the exam. According to the university officials, while exams will be conducted online, there will be a virtual live examiner scanning the students' activities. Besides, there will be a verification of identification proof on the exam portal before candidates are allowed access to take the exam. Once the students are granted access, the designated examiner along with an inbuilt AI system will monitor the progress of the exam on the computer screen in real-time . Furthermore, in the event of any suspicious activity, the proctors are equipped to issue a warning or even cancel the examination . BMU is committed to ensuring that students continue their education without interruption during these difficult times. Given the various uncertainties brought about by COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to conduct our own online entrance examination, as BMU possesses the capability and technical infrastructure to do so. We are sticking strictly to the JEE Mains 2020 syllabus to ensure that no student already preparing for the entrance tests is at a disadvantage. I wish the participants all the very best," Dr Maneek Kumar, Dean, School of Engineering and Technology (SoET) at BMU said. As per the university, the duration of BMUE3 will be 2 hours, and the question paper will contain 80 MCQs, comprising Mathematics (30), Physics (25), and Chemistry (25). Once the candidate passes the BMUE3 exam, he/she will have to appear for the personal interview based on his/her performance in the exam. The BMU Selection Committee will then roll out provisional offers of admission based on performance in the engineering entrance exam and personal interview. [June 09, 2020] BOSS Logics Announces Availability of 'together', New Sales Platform That Redefines Online Retailing NEW YORK, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BOSS Logics, a leader in product lifecycle management solutions that make it easier to bring products to market, announced today the launch of its latest solution, together, in partnership with Buyers Intelligence Group (BIG). Built on the BOSS Logics enterprise platform, together modernizes the way jewelers conduct appointments, both in person and remotely, through its sophisticated and interactive approach to online retailing. together goes beyond video conferencing, screen sharing, and other piecemeal solutions to more closely replicate an in-person sales meeting, giving retailers a state-of-the-art way to remotely present and sell products, safely and efficiently. together's personalized experience begins with associates creating email invitations using integrated data mining and filtering technology to target clients, inviting them to a virtual appointment that the client schedules themselves. During these face-to-face appointments, associates showcase their pre-selected assortment of products in a branded, interactive showroom, sharing an experience where client and associate alike can both highlight products, view high-resolution images, and stream media as they navigate around the room. Closely replicating the traditional in-person experience gives the associate the chance to learn about their customer and develop a connection, and gives the customer a purchasing experience reflective of the brand. To finalize the purchase, together provides integrated checkout functionality. "BOSS Logics has designed and built the best virtual sales tool we have seen," said Abe Sherman, CEO of BIG. "We're honored they chose BIG to partner with on the together project. I'm incredibly excited about the cost-savings and efficiency that together is ging to bring to our industry and how it will help reinvigorate the independent jeweler's market position." The partnership with BIG has enabled BOSS Logics to make full turnkey experiences for leading brands such as David Yurman. "At BOSS Logics, we build software that actually delivers on its promises of making it easier for customers to sell more, to sell faster, and to sell more cost effectively," said Zach Lipsky, President of BOSS Logics. "together is further proof of that commitment, because it's going to revolutionize how retailers are doing businessnot only during COVID-19, but as a new way to remotely sell moving forward." For more information, including a demonstration of together, visit www.bosslogics.com/together , or watch the explainer video at https://vimeo.com/422835734 . About BOSS Logics BOSS Logics is a leading provider of product lifecycle solutions designed to simplify, transform, and automate product creation, sales, and management. For over 20 years, BOSS Logics has helped brands such as David Yurman, LAGOS, David Webb, and Alcone Company deliver innovative solutions to their employees and clientele in the quickest and most cost-effective way possible. For more information, visit www.bosslogics.com . About Buyers Intelligence Group Buyers Intelligence Group (BIG) designs solutions for the myriad of merchandising challenges facing retail jewelers and manufacturers. BIG utilizes a powerful data analysis tool, Balance to Buy, to help consult with clients and customize their individual experiences and results. Whether you have a single store operation, or a company with dozens of locations, Buyers Intelligence Group has solutions that will help you better understand and control your business. Learn more at https://www.bigjewelers.com/ . Media Contact: Dwight Millman 212.372.3399 Ext. 105 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/boss-logics-announces-availability-of-together-new-sales-platform-that-redefines-online-retailing-301072603.html SOURCE BOSS Logics [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has launched an investigation into issues with the state's new $104 million voting machines, which have caused widespread disruptions to Tuesday's primary elections, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. Driving the news: The issues, which have caused long lines and led some voters to give up, were due to operational malfunctions, according to the state's voting implementation manager. Poll workers told the AJC that they received on-the-job training after being hired at the last minute due to hundreds quitting before the election over coronavirus fears. Fulton County Board of Commissioner Chairman Robb Pitts told the AJC the chaos is also a result of fewer voting precincts, protests and issues with absentee ballots, in addition to pandemic fears and the machine problems. What they're saying: There are a number of things that have happened," Pitts said. "Everything that could happen or go wrong has gone wrong so far. It has been most disturbing to hear about voters who have given up," Kristen Clarke, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told Politico. " Voters who were not able to withstand the long wait times, voters who had one shot this morning. Those are people who may be flatly disenfranchised. Voters who were not able to withstand the long wait times, voters who had one shot this morning. Those are people who may be flatly disenfranchised. "If this is a preview of November, then we're in trouble," said DeKalb County Commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson. The big picture: The new machines reintroduced paper ballots to Georgia voting for the first time in 18 years, using computers with touch screens and printers. The secretary of state's office said that a key problem was poll workers inserting voter access cards upside down. Another precinct manager complained "the touch pads arent receiving or accepting the authorizations." Flashback: App issues marred vote reporting during the Iowa caucuses in February, highlighting the risk of tech issues during a key election. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 21:30:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The Chairperson of the African Union (AU) has urged the warring parties to ensure strict compliance with international humanitarian law, in particular by securing hospitals and schools and facilitating the delivery of aid. The Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, has continued to monitor the situation in Libya and takes note of the latest developments which highlights that the unfortunate choice for a military solution has only led to more destruction and suffering of the Libyan people, according to an AU statement on Tuesday. Reiterating his March 27 invitation for all warring parties to immediately stop fighting and engage in a lasting ceasefire negotiations within the framework of the Berlin Communique, Mahamat said the AU stands ready to assist implementing an agreed and effective ceasefire and to contribute to create the necessary conditions for the resumption of dialogue between all the Libyan stakeholders for a durable solution. The chairperson has underlined that the sustained violation of the arms embargo by the conflicting parties and external actors despite commitments made at the Berlin Conference is a clear disregard for the safety of the Libyan population. He has called on the UN Security Council to apply sanctions as provided for in various resolutions on the arms embargo. Reaffirming the principle of permanent sovereignty of people over their natural resources, he has reminded that these natural resources belong to the people of Libya, the sole custodian and benefactor. The chairperson has further appealed to the international community to assist in addressing the dire humanitarian situation in the country especially in these trying times when Libya continues to struggle under the onerous weight of the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also called for assistance in repatriating African migrants who remain held and detained in Libya. Enditem Whether you're looking for a new job or are open to new opportunities, an Australian careers expert has revealed how to attract employers by using 'primary and secondary keywords' on your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn specialist Sue Ellson said the 'most important thing' to do is find and use the right keywords to ensure your profile is seen when an employer or recruiter is searching for potential employees. Speaking to FEMAIL, Sue said it's vital to remember that LinkedIn is a major search engine database, and so it relies on words and connections to monitor your online activity and give you priority. Further to using keywords, Sue said it's also important to network, use the specific words to outline current or previous occupations and qualifications to make your profile stand out. On TikTok, another career advisor from the US explained the helpful points in a 40-second video which has gone viral and received more than 165,000 views. Scroll down for video An Australian careers expert has revealed how to attract employers and make jobs come to you by using primary and secondary keywords on your LinkedIn profile Identify the right primary keywords to insert into your profile Sue Ellson (pictured) said the 'most important thing' to do is find and use the right keywords to ensure your profile is seen Sue told FEMAIL job seekers must use the correct primary keywords in the title and text on their profile to allow recruiters to discover their page. 'Find and identify these words by looking at job titles and job descriptions of the occupation you are seeking,' Sue said. 'For instance, if you're looking for veterinary jobs insert specific words into the title of your LinkedIn profile such as "Veterinary Nurse" or "Horse Vet".' Sue explained job seekers must be specific but not too niche with their choice of wording to ensure the algorithm finds their profile. 'Also remind everyone you know that you are looking for "x" type of work and ask for referrals - they are often the first to know about new jobs as up to 90 per cent of jobs are never advertised,' Sue said in a LinkedIn article. 'But never say you are "open to opportunities" because employers don't use these words,' she said. HOW TO USE KEYWORDS ON LINKEDIN AND WHERE TO PUT THEM ON YOUR PROFILE Primary keywords (job titles) to insert at the header of your profile A primary keyword is usually the occupation title you are seeking or the previous job you had, such as 'Career Counsellor', 'Supermarket Stock Filler', 'Vet Nurse' or 'Retail Assistant' Find and choose a primary keyword to use in the header of your profile For example: a Senior Human Resources Generalist (primary keywords) with a range of specialties (secondary keywords) Secondary keywords (job descriptions) to insert in the description and body of your profile Secondary keywords relate to primary keywords and describe the occupation, experience or qualification These keywords in your profile will give you the best chance for coming up in search results that are aligned with your primary keywords Describe the range of specialties and duties relating to the job - such as Organisational Development or Event Management Examples: 'Supermarket Stock Filler (primary keyword) at Coles with a range of duties involving managing supplies, ordering stock and assisting customers (secondary keywords)' 'Vet Nurse (primary keyword) with experience in nursing horses, cows, dogs, birds, cats and rabbits (secondary keywords)' 'Secondary School Teacher (primary keyword) with experience in event management (secondary keywords)' Advertisement Choose secondary keywords to use throughout your profile 'Secondary keywords are designed to complement your Primary Keywords - they fall into various categories and have different purposes,' Sue said on LinkedIn. 'Search algorithms work on multiple factors so ensuring that you have these Secondary Keywords in your profile will give you the best chance for coming up in search results that are aligned with your Primary Keywords.' These secondary keywords correlate to the primary set of words as they discuss your area of expertise in detail by elaborating on previous jobs and experiences. 'What is absolutely most important is that you always consider the target audience you are trying to attract and what search terms they will use to find you,' Sue said. 'Secondary keywords are designed to complement your Primary Keywords - they fall into various categories and have different purposes,' Sue said on LinkedIn Use these primary and secondary keywords in previous job descriptions if applicable By including previous experiences this will not only show the employer how you are employable, but the LinkedIn algorithm will push your profile higher within the platform so it can easily be found. 'Even if you're just worked at McDonald's, still put this experience on your profile because the algorithm wants you to have previous jobs,' Sue said. 'But the algorithm also expects you to be in a current position so never say you are not working because this will hide your profile, simply say you are "career researching".' By including previous experiences this will not only show the employer how you are employable, but the LinkedIn algorithm will push your profile higher within the platform so it can easily be found Sue said a great way to know whether the keywords are working is to check the number of views your profile is receiving Ensure the keywords are working by checking the number of profile views Sue said a great way to know whether the keywords are working is to check the number of views your profile is receiving. 'Aim to achieve 100 views of your profile per 90 days (or more), or 50 appearances in search results per 7 days (or more) to know that your profile is keyword optimised,' She said. 'If number of views is much higher - you are busy applying and people are checking you out. If number of search results is low, you are not attracting opportunities.' - President John Pombe Magufuli thanked Tanzanians for their commitment in prayers that had seen them defeat COVID-19 - The head of state said there were only four COVID-19 patients in Tanzania hospitals as of Friday, June 5 - Magufuli asked Tanzanian citizens to stop wearing masks in public places as there was no danger President John Pombe Magufuli has declared Tanzania a coronavirus-free nation saying God had helped them defeat the dreaded virus that has claimed over 397,000 people across the globe. According to the last update on coronavirus that was issued in April 29, there were 509 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 21 deaths in Tanzania and on Friday, June 5, Magufuli said only four patients were receiving treatment in Dar es Salaam. READ ALSO: LSK chairman Nelson Havi to petition parliament to impeach Uhuru for disobeying court orders President John Pombe Magufuli said coronavirus had been defeated in Tanzania after prayers from citizens. Photo: Pombe Magufuli Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Still funny: Dagoretti North MP John Kiarie perfectly imitates Mutahi Kagwe's accent During a church service on Sunday, June 7, the Tanzanian leader who seems more serious with religion than science thanked the congregants for their prayers that had seen them defeat the dreaded virus, as reported by BBC. "I want to thank Tanzanians of all faiths. We have been praying and fasting for God to save us from the pandemic that has afflicted our country and the world. But God has answered us. I believe, and I'm certain that many Tanzanians believe, that the corona disease has been eliminated by God," he told worshippers in Dodoma. The president who has been criticised by many as the modern day Kinjeketile Ngwale has been very critical over the coronavirus cases in the country that saw him conduct tests on pawpaw and goat that turned positive for COVID-19. READ ALSO: Mama ajifungua mtoto katika seli ya polisi na kuachiliwa kwa dhamana na korti On Friday, June 5, Magufuli said the disease was a mere myth and that his citizens did not even need to wear face masks in public places and whoever wanted to wear them should not push government to make them mandatory. Magufuli told citizens not to rely on donations to fight the coronavirus as some of them may be used to transmit the virus. "I want to urge you Tanzanians not to accept donations of masks, instead tell the donors to go and use them with their wives and children," he said. As earlier reported by TUKO.co.ke, Tanzania government dismissed a US embassy warning that hospitals in Dar es Salaam were "overwhelmed" and that the chances of contracting the virus was "extremely high". 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 Sonia Kruger has defended Big Brother's new format, which requires the housemates to discuss game plans and strategic alliances - much like Survivor. Speaking to Woman's Day on Monday, the 54-year-old host said that viewing habits had changed since the show debuted in 2001 and the rules had to be updated. 'When Big Brother first started 20 years ago, people were still fascinated with housemates in the kitchen making a sandwich,' Sonia explained. 'Our viewing habits have changed': Sonia Kruger (pictured) has defended Big Brother's new Survivor-style format, which requires the housemates to discuss game plans and alliances 'But our viewing habits have changed and we've put so much into every episode that you'll get more out of it as a viewer,' she added. The original Big Brother premiered on Channel 10 in April 2001. Seven's revamped version debuted on Monday after a five-year hiatus (it last aired on Nine in 2014) and Big Brother set the housemates a gravity-defying challenge. Higher expectations: 'When Big Brother first started 20 years ago, people were still fascinated with housemates in the kitchen making a sandwich,' Sonia told Woman's Day on Monday After stepping into the compound's basement and discovering a huge metal frame with swings, Big Brother announced: 'Each of you must secure yourself to a swing and then using only the power of momentum you must propel yourselves backwards and forwards, attempting to get enough speed and height to reach the top bar. 'You'll then place a ball on a shelf. The first housemate to successfully place five balls will win the challenge.' Talia Rycroft won the challenge and then started crying in the diary room as she had to nominate three housemates for eviction. She ended up choosing Kieran Davidson, Zoe George and Laura Kaiviti. Challenge: Seven's revamped version debuted on Monday after a five-year hiatus (it last aired on Nine in 2014) and Big Brother set the housemates a gravity-defying challenge. Pictured: housemate Laura Kaiviti, who was later eliminated The rest of the housemates voted which of the three they'd like to leave the show, and Melbourne-based dancer Laura was eventually sent packing with six votes. 'You all did it to me, so don't apologise. It's okay, don't worry about it,' she said bluntly as the group said their goodbyes. Afterwards, Laura told Big Brother she was 'very shocked' by her elimination. Big Brother continues Tuesday at 7:30pm on Channel Seven People with the coronavirus who show no symptoms very rarely spread the infection, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Speaking at a media briefing, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said that based on the data available, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual. As officials work to ease restrictions and focus on contact tracing, the WHOs COVID-19 technical lead stressed attention should shift to symptomatic cases. Another expert added Dr Van Kerkhoves claim may well be true, however, evidence also suggests somebody can feel perfectly well and transmit the coronavirus. One scientist expressed his surprise at the statement, adding the best scientific studies to date suggest that up to half of cases became infected from asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people. Early research suggests the coronavirus is mild in four out of five cases, however, it can trigger a respiratory disease called COVID-19. A woman wears a mask at Larnaca International Airport, Cyprus. (Getty Images) How many patients are asymptomatic? The number of asymptomatic patients, and whether they spread the infection, has been up for debate since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. It mainly spreads face-to-face via infected droplets expelled in a cough or sneeze. If an infected patient is asymptomatic and therefore not coughing or sneezing they would theoretically be expected to transmit less of the virus. Even an occasional cough or sneeze, however, could contaminate their hands. The individual may then touch a surface, where the coronavirus can linger for up to three days. Concerns have also been raised the infection may spread if people speak loudly or breathe heavily while exercising, with outbreaks emerging in choir practices and gyms. How many test positive for the coronavirus but have no symptoms is also unclear, let alone whether they pass the infection on. On 3 March, the WHOs director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: Evidence from China is only 1% of reported cases do not have symptoms and most of those cases develop symptoms within two days. Story continues Scientists from the University of Hong Kong later claimed 12.1% of patients do not develop a fever. When it comes to the transmission of the coronavirus, scientists from Macquirie University Hospital in Australia looked at an outbreak on a cruise ship. Less than four in five (18%) developed symptoms, but that did not stop the infection taking hold in 128 passengers and staff. Do asymptomatic patients spread the coronavirus? When asked about the asymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus, Dr Van Kerkhove said many of these cases are identified via contact tracing. You pick up people who may have no symptoms or even mild symptoms, she said. Dr Van Kerkhove said that after looking into whether cases are true asymptomatic, most actually have really mild disease. Reports from countries doing very detailed contact tracing are not finding secondary transmission from asymptomatic cases. Its very rare, she added. Dr Van Kerkhove therefore called for officials to follow symptomatic cases those with the tell-tale fever, cough and loss of taste or smell. If we actually followed all of the symptomatic cases, isolated those cases, followed the contacts and quarantined those contacts, we would drastically reduce [the outbreak], she said. Speaking off the back of the press briefing, Professor Babak Javid, from Cambridge University Hospitals, said: Dr Van Kerkhove makes the important distinction between true asymptomatics (never develop symptoms), pre-symptomatics (dont have symptoms at the time of testing positive for [the coronavirus] but later develop symptoms), and pauci-symptomatics (have atypical or very mild symptoms). She describes that unpublished data suggest asymptomatics do not transmit infection. This may well be true. Contact tracing in Taiwan and Germany supports this. However, studies have found that pauci-symptomatic transmission can occur, said Professor Javid. He referenced a German study that found the infection tended to spread before, or on, the day symptoms emerged. Without having access to the data Dr Van Kerkhove refers to, it is difficult to make any other assessment, said Prof Javid. In the meantime, other data available, from studies in several continents confirming that pre-symptomatic transmission does occur would suggest that being well does not necessarily mean one cannot transmit [the coronavirus]. However, the important point is made that some even very mild symptoms that are not typical of COVID may still represent someone who can be contagious. This has important implications for the track, trace, isolate measures being instituted in many countries. With the coronavirus only being identified at the end of 2019, the symptoms it is known to cause are relatively muddled. The WHO links the infection to everything from skin rashes and pink eye to diarrhoea and fatigue. Dermatologist Dr Veronique Bataille, from The Medical Chambers, previously told Yahoo UK: I would, as a medic, recommend anyone who has anything during this current climate like a rash or extreme fatigue or diarrhoea that is unusual for them to say, uh oh I think Im a carrier. Its better to be overcautious and not infect other people. In response to Dr Van Kerkhoves comment, Professor Liam Smeeth, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said he was quite surprised to hear it. It goes against my impressions from the science so far that suggest asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic people are an important source of infection to others, he said. There remains scientific uncertainty, but asymptomatic infection could be around 30% to 50% of cases. The best scientific studies to date suggest that up to half of cases became infected from asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people. Professor Keith Neal, from the University of Nottingham, added the rate of asymptomatic transmission is unclear but symptomatic people are responsible for most of the new infections. This reinforces the importance of any person who has any of the symptoms of COVID-19 arranges a test for themselves as soon as possible and isolating until they get their test result, he said. Everyone has a role to play in stopping COVID-19. A jockey wears a mask in Istanbul. (Getty Images) What is the coronavirus? The coronavirus is one of seven strains of a virus class that are known to infect humans. Others cause everything from the common cold to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), which killed 774 people during its 2002/3 outbreak. Since the coronavirus outbreak was identified at the end of 2019, more than 7.1 million cases have been confirmed worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. Of these cases, over 3.3 million are known to have recovered. Globally, the death toll has exceeded 406,800. Although the coronavirus mainly spreads via coughs and sneezes, there is also evidence it can be transmitted in faeces. The coronavirus has no set treatment, with most patients naturally fighting off the infection. Those requiring hospitalisation are given supportive care, like ventilation, while their immune system gets to work. Officials urge people ward off infection by washing their hands regularly and maintaining social distancing. Coronavirus: what happened today Read more about COVID-19 How to get a coronavirus test if you have symptoms How easing of lockdown rules affects you In pictures: How UK school classrooms could look in new normal How public transport could look after lockdown How our public spaces will change in the future Help and advice Read the full list of official FAQs here 10 tips from the NHS to help deal with anxiety What to do if you think you have symptoms How to get help if you've been furloughed Maas is the first foreign dignitary to visit since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a coalition government with his election rival Benny Gantz German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will travel to Jerusalem on Wednesday, with Israel intent on toning down Europe's reaction to its annexation plans in the occupied West Bank. Maas is the first foreign dignitary to visit since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a coalition government with his election rival Benny Gantz, although US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had visited just days before the May 17 swearing-in. Israel could take initial steps to annex its West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley as soon as July 1, the same day Germany takes the rotating European Union presidency. The EU opposes the move, which forms part of a US peace initiative, and argues it would contravene international law. The Washington plan was unveiled in January and paves the way for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, but it has been rejected by the Palestinians who were not consulted on proposals they see as capitulating to Israeli demands. While Israeli officials are unlikely to change Europe's anti-annexation stance, they see Maas's visit as a chance to at least soften its response. Europe is Israel's top business partner with trade totalling 30 billion euros ($34 billion) last year, according to EU figures. "It is the first visit since this new government is established," said Avi Nir, head of the Israeli foreign ministry's European section. "It is a symbol of the strong and the unique relation that Israel and Germany are having, a symbol of the personal friendship of Heiko Maas towards Israel," he told AFP in English. Europe's reaction While the EU's view of annexation is well-known, the bloc has not announced retaliatory measures against Israel. Sanctions would need the approval of all 27 member states. "Such a decision (to annex) cannot be without a response," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. Some European countries could formally recognise a Palestinian state but, according to an Israeli official, Germany would not be one of them. "Germany even with annexation would not recognise a Palestinian state and is not going to support sanctions against Israel," he told AFP. Maas's Jerusalem trip is his first outside Europe since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and will see him meet his new Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi. He will then hold talks with Netanyahu and Defence Minister Gantz before travelling on to neighbouring Jordan. The German diplomat will skip a trip to the West Bank city of Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, due to a lack of time and coronavirus measures, Berlin says. Maas will instead hold a video conference with Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh from the Jordanian capital Amman, where he will meet the country's foreign minister Ayman Safadi. Jordan stands strongly opposed to annexation in the West Bank, home to 450,000 Israeli settlers and 2.7 million Palestinians, and has warned it could spark conflict. Iran and Hezbollah Looking beyond the West Bank, other matters on Maas's Jerusalem agenda include Israeli foe Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah. Along with Paris and London, Berlin was one of the European parties to a landmark 2015 accord signed with Iran to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. But US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the deal and reimpose crippling economic penalties -- a move praised by Israel -- has led Tehran to suspend its compliance with some of the curbs. The UN nuclear watchdog says Iran has gone beyond the limits for enriched uranium set under the accord and has blocked visits to some sites where past research is believed to have taken place, prompting Netanyahu to call on world powers to impose "crippling sanctions". But Iran has kept all of its current nuclear sites under UN supervision, something welcomed by the remaining parties to the deal, including Germany. Germany won praise from Israel in April for announcing a ban on all Hezbollah activities after previously tolerating the militant group's political wing. Israeli officials blame Paris for blocking EU resolutions against Hezbollah, pushing European countries such as Germany to take unilateral measures. With Lebanon now facing a severe economic crisis, Israeli sources say they are hoping any foreign financial aid will be tied to reforms which would reduce Hezbollah's influence. Israel occupied a swathe of southern Lebanon from 1978 to 2000 and went on to fight a war with Hezbollah in 2006. Search Keywords: Short link: The artist Shaun Leonardo has accused the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland of censorship after it canceled an exhibition of his charcoal drawings of police killings of black and Latino boys and men. The show, The Breath of Empty Space, which includes images of Eric Garner, Walter Scott and Freddie Gray, was to open last week. In the drawings, the victims are sometimes hazy, a blur, or a void: Rodney King appears as a white blank surrounded by officers. Mr. Garner is shown in a chokehold. Another drawing depicts the Cleveland park where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed. The museum canceled the exhibition, organized by the independent curator John Chaich, in March after local black activists and some of the museums staff members objected to it. The museum shared a statement with the artist that said that troubling community response made the institution realize that we were not prepared to engage with the lived experiences of pain and trauma that the work evokes. The Assin Central Municipal Assembly (ACEMA) has banned the holding of all religious activities in classrooms as part of measures to contain the spread of Covid-19. The Assembly has deployed its Covid-19 monitoring taskforce across the Municipality to arrest all religious organizations and persons who defied the order to serve as deterrent to orders. In an address to the Nation on Sunday, May 31, the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo gave the green light for religious activities to commence in stages starting from Friday, June 5, for Mosques and Sunday, 7 for Churches. Mr Nicholas Fiifi Baako, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), explained that the use of classrooms by churches often led to the destruction of school properties, academic work and now posed a serious health risk in the wake of the outbreak of the COVID-19. However, Reverend Charles Addo Boateng, Chairman of the Association of churches worshipping in classrooms in an interview with the GNA, pleaded with the authorities to reconsider their decision as they would worked assiduously to prevent any outbreak through their activities. This is coming from the authorities so we are just pleading, but if our pleading doesnt work, then we have no option than to comply, he stated. The Municipality has recorded one Covid-19 case and awaiting test results of some 16 people suspected to have been infested, creating fear, panic and anxiety among the people, hence the urgent need to tighten COVID-19 restrictions. Touching on other measures to mitigate the impact of the virus, the MCE announced that the Assembly had supported the Municipal Health Directorate with quantities of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and medical logistics to aid their work. The Assembly, in April this year instituted a Covid-19 Health Service Fund to locally raise funds to contain the pandemic in the Municipality. The fund is to help fortify the capabilities of our public institutions so they can undertake mass testing and other public health measures to minimize the risks and impacts associated with COVID -19. "Health and safety of our people and nearby communities takes precedence above all else, he said, and noted that we hope our contributions will significantly help us win the fight against COVID-19," he said. The MCE entreated all religious organizations to encourage their members to endeavour to observe all the appropriate protocols to curb the spread of the virus and also encouraged infected persons avail themselves for testing and treatment. 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 Economic pressures are making it difficult for Peruvians to abide by quarantine measures established to slow the spread of the new coronavirus that causes COVID 19. With a casual economy reaching figures of more than 70% of the economically active population in Peru, millions are forced to leave their homes to earn their daily livelihood. "Necessity forces us," said Maria Seminario, who works as a casual vendor. On a recent day, the 64-year-old vendor stood in a crowded street in the center of Lima to sell plastic face shields. "I had my store but unfortunately we cannot work and I don't have money to be able to support myself," she said. Epidemiologist Ciro Maguina, Vice Dean of the Medical College of Peru, told The Associated Press that people took to the streets in "the fourth or fifth week" of quarantine because they simply needed to eat. "Eating means selling items and that's part of the informal economy," said Maguina, one of Peru's most prestigious epidemiologists. The quarantine in Peru, which started March 16th and will end on June 30th, is the longest in the world, surpassing Colombia with 97 days and Argentina with 80. Maguina is among those who opposes the general quarantine for the 32 million Peruvians because he considers that they don't have the financial means to stay at home. From Monday through Saturday between the hours of 2100 and 0400, and all day Sunday, Peruvians must remain at home. The rest of the time only food markets, banks and pharmacies are allowed to operate. Home delivery of food and other basic services are also permitted. However, despite the lockdown measures, millions of Peruvians continue to sell products in the streets because they need the income. As of May, 1.2 million were left out of work in Lima, an unprecedented and historic figure in the official records of the South American nation. Economists believe that Peru's economic crisis will be similar to the aftermath left behind by a war against Chile in the late 19th century. As of Monday Peru had almost 200,000 cases of the virus and 5,500 deaths. A total of 394 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases were registered in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, as of Tuesday morning. Thirteen people died and 217 recovered from the disease. The number of new cases was 463 on June 8, 485 on June7, 550 on June 6, and 553 on June 5. The Public Health Center of the Health Ministry of Ukraine reported on its website that the total number of COVID-19 cases was 27,856. Some 12,412 people have recovered and 810 died from the disease. As of today, 14,634 people are infected with COVID-19 in Ukraine, which is 164 more than a day before. The majority of COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours was registered in Lviv region 49, Zakarpattia region 39, and Zhytomyr region 38. The Public Health Center also said that 2,003 children and 5,135 medical workers have been infected with COVID-19 in Ukraine. A total of 19,614 patients, including 1,677 children and 4,153 medical workers, receive out-patient case. Some 8,242 people, including 326 children and 982 medical workers, required hospitalization. A total of 304 people, including one child and 29 medical workers, required connection to lung ventilators. A total of 2,896 medical workers and 897 children have recovered. Forty medical workers died of COVID-19 complications. A post on the blog suggests Gugino appeared to be using a police scanner on his phone, which it said is a common tactic of antifa, the loosely affiliated anti-fascist movement Trump has blamed for violence at protests of the death of George Floyd, who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis. Trump said Gugino could be an ANTIFA provocateur, writing that he was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. The Senate on Tuesday received President Muhammadu Buharis request to confirm the acting president of the court of appeal, Monica Dongban-Mensem, as substantive head of the court. The request was read from a letter from Mr Buhari by Senate President Ahmad Lawan. Pursuant to Section 238(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), I write to request for confirmation by the Senate, the appointment of Honourable Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem as the President of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, Mr Lawan read. It is my hope that the Senate will consider and confirm the nominee in the usual expeditious manner. The letter came after some Nigerians criticised Mr Buhari and accused him of delaying the confirmation for ethnoreligious reasons. Mrs Dongban-Mensem was retained as an acting head for another three months despite that the National Judicial Council had recommended she be confirmed as the substantive appeal court president. The president said the delay was due to the unfinished background checks carried out by security agencies on the candidate, a reason that was faulted by lawyers. On Monday, the president bowed to pressure by forwarding Mrs Dongban-Mensems name to the Senate, a disclosure that was thus made on Tuesday. A SERIAL offender who broke into a number of student homes in broad daylight has been jailed for three years. Evan Hughes, 23, who has an address at Glendale Lawn, Old Singland Road, had pleaded guilty to six separate burglary charges relating to offences which occurred on dates during late 2018 and early 2019. Imposing sentence, Judge Tom ODonnell said the houses, several of which were not locked, were easy targets and that it was an aggravating factor that Mr Hughes was on bail when he committed some of the offences. During a sentencing hearing, Garda Enda Clifford said the defendant entered two homes at Carysfort Avenue, Castletroy, during the early evening on April 29, 2018. Both houses were unlocked and unoccupied and Mr Hughes, he said, was able to walk into each of the properties and steal property including a drone, a mobile phone and a tablet computer. The stolen property was recovered when he was arrested a short time later although Mr Hughes denied the allegations. He put forward a transparently false explanation, said John OSullivan BL, prosecuting, who submitted there was a coercive case particularly given the recovery of footage from a dash cam which, coincidently, was activated when a car was struck by students who were playing hurling. While on bail in relation to the two burglaries, Mr Hughes committed a further four offences in the same general area on February 1 and February 2, 2019. Garda Clifford said each of the houses were occupied and that he was confronted in each of the properties before leaving. At two of the houses, he entered the bedroom of young women while in another house he was confronted in the kitchen area. Following his arrest, identification parades were arranged by gardai, and it subsequently emerged that one of the students had identified Mr Hughes after reading an article about him on the Limerick Leader website. Barrister Brian McInerney said his client, who has more than 50 previous convictions, has a serious addiction to cannabis and that this is the root of his offending. He submitted Mr Hughes is not yet a hardened criminal and that he has been making efforts in prison to address his addiction problems. Judge ODonnell said burglary is a serious offence and he noted there has been considerable comment by the Court of Appeal in recent years in relation to serial offenders. He said Mr Hughes previous record is an aggravating factor but he noted his admissions and gulty plea and his effort to rehabilitate himself. He imposed consecutive sentences totalling six years imprisonment, suspending the final three years. A tiger blamed for killing three people will spend the rest of its life in captivity, Indian officials said Sunday, saying the big cat was "too dangerous" to be allowed to roam free. The five-year-old male predator, also blamed for attacking cattle, had embarked on a trek more than 500 kilometres (310 miles) long from western Maharashtra state to central India's Betul district in Madhya Pradesh state in 2018. "We gave it several chances to re-wild but it habitually went into human habitations," Madhya Pradesh's chief wildlife warden, S.K. Mandal, told AFP. "The only option left was to put it in captivity to ensure both the tiger and humans are safe." The tiger -- dubbed the "vagabond" or "nomad" by some local media -- was first trapped in December 2018 after its long journey and held in captivity for two months. The big cat was eventually fitted with a tracking collar and shuttled between a tiger reserve and a national park. Officials however said it repeatedly strayed and hunted near human settlements, attacking cattle and endangering humans. Finally the tiger was tranquilised and sent to a zoo in Madhya Pradesh capital's Bhopal on Saturday. Officials said the decision to capture the adult tiger was taken a few months ago, but was delayed due to the novel coronavirus lockdown. "It will take sometime for him to adjust to the new environment. We will be monitoring his behaviour," Bhopal's Van Vihar National Park director, Kamlika Mohanta, told AFP. "As of now it will remain in solitary confinement. A decision to put it on display at the zoo or send it to a (fenced) safari will be taken later." Human encroachment on tiger habitats have increased in recent decades in the nation of 1.3 billion people, leading to deadly conflicts with the animals. Nearly 225 people were killed in tiger attacks between 2014 and 2019, according to government figures. More than 200 tigers were killed by poachers or electrocution between 2012 and 2018, the data showed. India is home to around 70 percent of the world's tigers. Last year, the government said the tiger population had risen to 2,967 in 2018 from a record low of 1,411 in 2006. 'Doklam was almost like a trailer to what is happening in Ladakh today.' 'Modi failed to take note and failed to act,' observes Harishchandra Dighe. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi and Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping at a BRICS Summit. Photograph: Kenzaburo Fukuhara/Pool/Reuters A nation's ability to deal with its neighbours, friends and foes has much to do with its domestic policies and the ideology and/or belief systems of its leaders. Jawaharlal Nehru is rightly blamed for completely missing the deviousness of the Chinese leaders, and for failing to do anything about it. Nehru was obsessed with pacifism, a result of his days in the non-violent Freedom Struggle, his belief in the friendship of Asian countries, bound by their colonial struggles and emergence as new independent nations, and his own, naive belief that in the aftermath of World War 2, few countries would actually go to war to settle an obscure border dispute. It should also be remembered that after his colleagues blamed Communism for China's growing belligerence, Nehru correctly pointed out that China's aggressive posture was not a result of its Communist ideology as much as its nationalism, evident in the way it gobbled up Tibet just a year after the Communists took over China. Having correctly seen the threat of Chinese nationalism and after the buffer of Tibet was removed, Nehru should have been more pro-active and careful. He was not, and we paid a price. But all that was 58 years ago. Leaders inherit situations. Post-Nehru, every prime minister has had to deal with an aggressive China. We lost in 1962. But no one can deny that the 1962 War had one massive salutary effect: India began to take military matters seriously... very seriously. India began arming itself at a feverish pitch. 1962 ensured that since then, we have NEVER lost a war again. In 1965, we taught Pakistan an painful lesson, reaching the outskirts of Lahore even as it invaded Kashmir; and in 1971, Pakistani forces abjectly surrendered to Indian troops in just 14 days. Then, in 1967, India gave China a bloody nose, and the message was sent out: Unlike five year earlier, we were now ready to deal with China. In 1987, this lesson was repeated. From Lal Bahadur Shastri to Manmohan Singh, every Indian prime minister, bar one, has kept a keen eye on China. In fact, it would be fair to say that New Delhi has, rightly, always seen China as the bigger threat even if Pakistan remains the peskier neighbour. Shastri displayed amazing guts in dealing with China even as India was fighting a war with Pakistan (after China complained of its sheep being seized by Indian soldiers, Indians visited the Chinese embassy offering them sheep, and embarrassing Beijing); Indira Gandhi signed an accord with the then Soviet Union keeping China and the US in mind (China and the Soviet Union had fought a border war in 1969); and after the Cold War ended, Indo-US relations have reached another level, thanks to our shared democracy and the concern about China. During Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government, then defence minister George Fernandes openly said China was India's biggest threat, and Manmohan Singh prioritised better ties with the US to contain China. It is this alertness at the highest level that post 1962 China was never been able to get a decisive advantage over India... until now. It would appear Modi made exactly the same mistake that Nehru did: He preferred the comfort of his ideology over the reality of hard politics. If Nehru faltered in his dreams of Asian cooperation and global pacifism, Modi is guilty of his anti-Muslim ideology that sees Muslim Pakistan as India's eternal enemy. BJP supporters, bhakts who are blinded by their love of Modi, were so taken up by the anti-Muslim, anti-Pakistan narrative that they chose to ignore the dragon on the border. If anything, India was already warned after China intruded into Doklam in 2017. This was almost like a trailer to what is happening in Ladakh today. Modi failed to take note and failed to act. Modi, Amit Anilchandra Shah and many in the BJP have become victims of their own delusions, believing they are charting a new course for India. This became worse after Modi won a second term. A series of ideological initiatives were taken keeping in mind the anti-Muslim sentiment such as banning triple talaq, the National Register of Citizens move, and finally, splitting the former state of Jammu and Kashmir into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The first two moves created domestic uproar, but the third move had international ramifications that the ideologically blind BJP simply failed to see. Plans to bifurcate or trifurcate the former Jammu and Kashmir state have been floating around for years now. If earlier, the Congress, and even BJP, did not act, it was only because they preferred to make haste slowly, aware of the risks involved. Modi, Shah, and the BJP rushed in, seeing it as an opportunity to push their ideology and hoping to garner the electoral benefits later on. In doing so they also saw the political benefit of blaming the Congress for doing nothing for so many years. In all these moves, ideology rather than realpolitik, political gains rather than cold reasons of State, were prioritised. Modi and the BJP completely failed to weigh in the reaction of China, and did nothing to prepare for such an eventuality. The result: For the first time after 1962, India has lost territory to an enemy. As this is being written, India and China are engaging in military level talks in Ladakh to defuse this ongoing crisis. India wants to, understandably, restore the status quo ante and wants China to go back to its older positions. But for China to agree to this demand would mean dismantling their recently built structures. Why would they agree? They are sitting in a much stronger position. Harishchandra Dighe is a political commentator Production: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com A total of 45 out of 58 children with severe inflammatory symptoms had evidence of Covid-19 infection (Dominic Lipinski/PA) Experts have suggested a new inflammatory syndrome in children is a result of Covid-19, as other researchers say antibody tests can help diagnose the rare disease. Researchers led by the Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) have identified links to Covid-19 in a new and distinct condition in children. The illness, named Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome Temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS), was first recognised in April and has had less than 200 identified cases in England. In the study published on Monday, out of 58 children suffering from severe inflammatory symptoms admitted to eight hospitals in England, 45 had evidence of current or past Covid-19 infection. The majority of children with signs of infection also had antibodies for the virus, the study found, which suggests PIMS-TS occurs after Covid-19 potentially due to an overreaction of the immune system. The test will be used to understand how many people have suffered from Covid-19 in our communities but we have found another use identifying PIMS-TS in these sick children Dr Alex Richter Although there is no certain link between the illness and Covid-19, researchers said the discovery of a new inflammatory condition during the outbreak is unlikely to be a coincidence. The syndrome has been compared to Kawasaki disease, which mainly affects children under the age of five, with symptoms including a high temperature, rashes, swelling and a toxic shock-style response. However, PIMS-TS is thought to include abdominal pains and diarrhoea more often, alongside the joint symptoms of persistent fever. Blood tests also show different results, as children with PIMS-TS show more inflammation and cardiac enzymes, indicating strain on the heart. The new syndrome also appears to affect proportionately more black and Asian people. Although some patients with the new syndrome have required intensive care, others have responded quickly to treatment and been discharged. In the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found PIMS-TS seems to affect older children more, with an average age of nine-years-old. #COVID19 A test developed by experts here in Birmingham confirms COVID-19 as trigger for a rare Kawasaki-like syndrome in children. Read more about the work from Dr Alex Richter @AlexRichter3 & Professor Adam Cunningham @AFC_immuno here https://t.co/tTx5hJUnOO pic.twitter.com/yBRKscN6ae Uni of Birmingham (@unibirmingham) June 8, 2020 Kawasaki disease is mostly seen in younger children, with an average patient age of four. Dr Julia Kenny, a consultant in paediatric infectious diseases and immunology at Evelina London, said: Our analysis has shown that this is indeed a new condition. Untreated, there is a risk of severe complications in very unwell children, but with early identification and treatment the outcome is excellent, with the children we are reviewing after discharge completely well. Researchers at the University of Birmingham also found that antibody testing can be used to help diagnose the new syndrome. In a study of eight hospitalised children between the ages of seven and 14 with PIMS-TS symptoms, the researchers found all of them tested negative for Covid-19 when given a PCR test. However, when given an antibody test, every child had high levels of antibodies for the virus, with patterns indicating the infection likely occurred weeks or months before. The researchers said their work raises the possibility that children who may not have been unwell previously could be at risk of developing the new syndrome. Dr Alex Richter, lead researcher and consultant immunologist at the University of Birminghams Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy said: We have designed a sensitive antibody test that can be used to detect exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infections. The test will be used to understand how many people have suffered from Covid-19 in our communities but we have found another use identifying PIMS-TS in these sick children. HOUSTON George Floyd was fondly remembered Tuesday as Big Floyd a father and brother, athlete and neighborhood mentor, and now a catalyst for change at a funeral for the black man whose death has sparked a global reckoning over police brutality and racial prejudice. More than 500 mourners wearing masks against the coronavirus packed a Houston church a little more than two weeks after Floyd was pinned to the pavement by a white Minneapolis police officer who put a knee on his neck for what prosecutors said was 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Cellphone video of the encounter, including Floyds pleas of I cant breathe, ignited protests and scattered violence across the U.S. and around the world, turning the 46-year-old Floyd a man who in life was little known beyond the public housing project where he was raised in Houstons Third Ward into a worldwide symbol of injustice. Third Ward, Cuney Homes, thats where he was born at, Floyds brother, Rodney, told mourners at the Fountain of Praise church. But everybody is going to remember him around the world. He is going to change the world. The funeral capped six days of mourning for Floyd in three cities: Raeford, North Carolina, near where he was born; Houston, where he grew up; and Minneapolis, where he died. The memorials have drawn the families of other black victims whose names have become familiar in the debate over race and justice among them, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin. After the service, Floyds golden casket was taken by hearse to the cemetery in the Houston suburb of Pearland to be entombed next to his mother, for whom he cried out as he lay dying. A mile from the graveyard, the casket was transferred to a glass-sided carriage drawn by a pair of white horses. A brass band played as his casket was taken inside the mausoleum. Hundreds of people, some chanting, Say his name, George Floyd, gathered along the procession route and outside the cemetery entrance in the mid-90s heat. I dont want to see any black man, any man, but most definitely not a black man sitting on the ground in the hands of bad police, said Marcus Brooks, 47, who set up a tent with other graduates of Jack Yates High School, Floyds alma mater. In the past two weeks, amid the furor over Floyds death, sweeping and previously unthinkable things have taken place: Confederate statues have been toppled, and many cities are debating overhauling, dismantling or cutting funding for police departments. Authorities in some places have barred police from using chokeholds or are otherwise rethinking policies on the use of force. Dozens of Floyds family members, most dressed in white, took part in the four-hour service. Grammy-winning singer Ne-Yo was among those who sang. The mourners included actors Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum, J.J. Watt of the NFLs Houston Texans, rapper Trae tha Truth, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who brought the crowd to its feet when he announced he will sign an executive order banning chokeholds in the city. I know you have a lot of questions that no child should have to ask, questions that too many black children have had to ask for generations: Why? Why is Daddy gone? former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, said, addressing Floyds 6-year-old daughter in a video eulogy played at the service. Now is the time for racial justice. Thats the answer we must give to our children when they ask why. Biden made no mention of his opponent in November. But other speakers took swipes at President Donald Trump, who has ignored demands to address racial bias and has called on authorities to crack down hard on lawlessness. The president talks about bringing in the military, but he did not say one word about 8 minutes and 46 seconds of police murder of George Floyd, said the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist. He challenged China on human rights. But what about the human right of George Floyd? Most of the pews were full, with relatively little space between people. So much for social distancing today, the Rev. Remus Wright told mourners, gently but firmly instructing those attending to wear face masks. Texas has no limit on how many people can gather in places of worship during the pandemic, though Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has encouraged churches to follow federal health guidelines. Although the church service was private, at least 50 people gathered outside to pay their respects. Theres a real big change going on, and everybody, especially black, right now should be a part of that, said Kersey Biagase, who traveled more than three hours from Port Barre, Louisiana, with his girlfriend, Brandy Pickney. They wore T-shirts printed with Floyds name and I Cant Breathe. Floyd served nearly five years in prison for robbery with a deadly weapon before becoming a mentor and a church outreach volunteer in Houston. He moved to Minnesota several years ago through a program that tried to change mens lives by helping them find work in new settings. At the time of his death, Floyd was out of work as a bouncer at a Minneapolis club that had closed because of the coronavirus outbreak. He was seized by police after being accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. Four Minneapolis officers were arrested in his death: Derek Chauvin, 44, was charged with second-degree murder. J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were charged with aiding and abetting. All four could get up to 40 years in prison. Some of the mostly peaceful demonstrations that erupted after Floyds death were marked by bursts of arson, assaults, vandalism and smash-and-grab raids on businesses, with more than 10,000 people arrested. But protests in recent days have been overwhelmingly peaceful. ___ The spelling of Brandy Pickneys first name has been corrected. Animal-rights activists are accusing Progressive Conservatives of shrouding farms and meat-packing plants in secrecy with the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act. The legislation, the subject of hearings at Queens Park on Monday and Tuesday, is designed to boost protections for the food system and farmers property rights by imposing fines of up to $25,000 on trespassers. According to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the measure is needed to to ensure food security through the value chain is protected, from farm to table, balanced with allowing individuals right to protest as long as it is done in a legal manner. But lawyer Camille Labchuk, the executive director of Animal Justice, warns the legislation is unconstitutional and unlikely to survive a Charter of Rights challenge. Canada has some of the worst animal protection laws in the Western world and Bill 156 is about to make a bad situation far worse, said Labchuk. This bill is whats known as an ag gag law, which attacks whistleblowers and prevents them from exposing illegal and unethical practices on farms. This is pure protectionism for the farm industry, and inspired by similar legislation in the U.S. that should never have crept into Canada. Labchuk said the legislation would undermine the free press in Ontario by curbing hidden-camera videos. Shocking videos shot by whistle-blowing employees have resulted in hundreds of news stories These investigative stories have led to multiple animal cruelty prosecutions and convictions, and policy changes, she noted. Standard farming practices are exempt from provincial animal protection laws, so farmers get to make up their own rules through this massive loophole. The fox is guarding the hen house. With ongoing pandemic, Labchuk noted some of Canadas biggest COVID-19 infections have been in slaughterhouses, but the new law could punish workers who speak out about conditions in abattoirs. Under Bill 156, someone who exposes unsafe workplace conditions or takes a photo of inadequate (personal protective equipment) could be prosecuted and fined. The bill attacks whistleblowers who expose criminal conduct in the workplace. Nina Devries of World Animal Protection said the new law is counterproductive. It only serves to alienate public trust and those in the animal advocacy movement who try to work collaboratively with the industry, said Devries. Undercover and whistle-blower actions are often motivated by a lack of transparency on the part of the agriculture industry in the first place, which leaves advocates and the public to question the validity of claims about good welfare and humane treatment for farm animals, she said. But Agriculture Minister Ernie Hardeman has maintained the law would keep Ontario farmers and farm families, agri-food workers and farm animals safe by reducing the likelihood of trespassing on farms. Unauthorized trespassers threaten the delicate balance in the environments that they enter, said Hardeman. Protesting is one thing and we remain committed to the peoples right to do that but interacting with animals brings many more problems, he said. Farmers know their animals. Farmers know what it means to keep them safe and healthy. Because the Tories have a majority in the legislature, the bill is expected to pass before the house rises for the summer in July. 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 opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) accused the authorities on Tuesday of launching a smear campaign against its leader Gagik Tsarukian in response to his calls for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians resignation. Tsarukian said on Friday that Pashinian and his cabinet must step down because they have failed to contain the coronavirus epidemic and mitigate its socioeconomic consequences. Meeting with senior BHK members, the tycoon also announced that he will try to rally healthy political groups and individuals concerned about countrys future. Pashinian and his political allies reacted furiously to the unusually harsh criticism. The prime ministers spokeswoman, Mane Gevorgian, claimed that Tsarukian attacked the government because he fears being prosecuted on corruption, tax evasion and other grave charges. She said the BHK leader should also be worried about the recent entry into force of a law allowing authorities to confiscate private assets deemed to have been acquired illegally. The BHK, which has the second largest group in the Armenian parliament, rejected the political blackmail. On Monday, a newspaper controlled by Pashinians family published a purported copy of a Soviet Armenian courts decision to convict Tsarukian of involvement in a 1979 gang rape of two women outside Yerevan and to sentence him to 7 years in prison. While not denying such a prison sentence, Tsarukians representatives accused the authorities of manipulating facts and resorting to dirty tricks. They publicized on Tuesday another document which shows that Armenias Court of Cassation overturned the 1979 verdict and acquitted Tsarukian in the mid-1990s. Sadly, instead of tackling all these problems [facing Armenia] the entire ruling team is now busy fighting against us, said Arman Abovian, a senior BHK lawmaker. There is an ethical red line which must not be crossed, he said. They cant mix politics with personal issues Let them sort out the socioeconomic situation in the country as vigorously as they are fighting the BHK and Mr. Tsarukian. Abovian stressed that Tsarukian stands by his Friday statement and has already started meeting with other political figures also seeking regime change. He did not name any of them. The Bright Armenia Party (LHK), the second opposition force represented in the parliament, said it has not been approached by Tsarukian yet. A senior LHK figure, Ani Samsonian, questioned the wisdom of demanding Pashinians and his cabinets resignation at this juncture. Lets assume that there is a [parliamentary] vote of no confidence in the prime minister, reasoned Samsonian. Who will be the next prime minister? Is there any candidate for the job who is ready to work with this kind of a [parliamentary] majority? The authorities handling of the coronavirus crisis is increasingly criticized by not only the BHK and the LHK but also other opposition groups that are not represented in the current National Assembly. Pashinians My Step bloc responds by accusing them of trying to capitalize on the deadly epidemic. Those [opposition] forces and individuals are doing everything to get the people infected [with coronavirus,] Hrachya Hakobian, a My Step lawmaker and Pashinians brother-in-law, alleged on Tuesday.That means stabbing the people in the back. In the current situation demanding the resignation of a government enjoying strong popular support is also a stab in the back. The BHK used to be allied to Pashinian, having joined his first cabinet formed in May 2018 in the wake of the Velvet Revolution. Pashinian fired his ministers affiliated with BHK in October 2018, accusing Tsarukians party of secretly collaborating with the countrys former leadership. The BHK finished second in the December 2018 parliamentary elections and won 26 seats in Armenias 132-member parliament. C Shivakumar By Express News Service CHENNAI: Octogenarian John Wesleys family knew he had died of Covid. A private hospital had told them he had contracted the infection. Still, staff members at a government hospital, where he died, refused to accept the fact. They wrapped his body in a sheet and forcibly handed it over to his family. Two days after he was dead and buried, Corporation officials came knocking at his house, to officially declare he, indeed, had the viral infection. The family members are now a worried lot. Not just because they could have caught the infection, but also because the burial ground worker could have been infected as a consequence of the hospital staffs actions. John, an 85-year-old resident of Tiruvottiyur, fell ill on May 27. While he was at hospital, his son Rajesh decided it was better to get a Covid test done for John. We kept calling the Corporation officials. They responded only after five days, says Rajesh. Then the test said John was negative. As he was cleared for Covid, John was taken to the Aakash multi-specialty hospital in the city. Here, a scan indicated that he had Covid. The family immediately tried to admit him to a private hospital, but no beds were available. Later, John was taken to SIMS Hospital. They advised us there to take him to a government hospital. All government hospitals were fully booked, claims Rajesh. Finally, on June 5, we took the help of a friend to get into Stanley Hospital. Though his pulse was low, he spoke with us well, says Rajesh. The next morning a few policemen came home and asked us to get to the hospital. Thats when we realised he had passed away. Trouble with hospital staff It was after the death that the problem began. While the hospital authorities allegedly wanted the patients body to be taken back by the family, the latter insisted that they follow all Covid procedures. The forcibly handed over the body to us, wrapped in bed sheets, claims Rajesh. Left with no other options, we had to bring him home for final rites. The body was cremated with the help of a local vettiyan. On Monday, after all the commotion was over, the corporation added Wesleys name to Covid casualty, sparking outrage and anger among his family and friends. The house and the nearby buildings have to be sanitised, says Rajesh. We have informed the officials but none have come or done anything. A Ravi, the nodal officer for Covid treatment at Stanley denies handing over the body to the patients family. We did not hand over any patients body to the family. Body of positive patients is only given to the Corporation. Only if swab test is negative, we give it to the family, he claimed. Chennai Corporation officials claimed they received information that he was COVID-positive only on Monday. (With inputs from Nirupama Viswanthan and M D Omjaswin) A person leaves a liquor store in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn during the coronavirus pandemic on May 7, 2020 in New York City. Rob Kim | Getty Images As restaurants and stores begin to reopen after months of closure, liquor stores will be forced to make even more extreme adjustments. While much of the country stayed at home, liquor store owners and employees continued to run these businesses, but with fewer resources. Staffers have had to respond to high-stress incidents more frequently, often the result of people who were frustrated with staying indoors most of the time. The coronavirus pandemic pressured wine and liquor sellers, which were deemed essential businesses by certain state guidelines, to limit in-person capacity to decrease the spread of the coronavirus. But these restrictions were not received well in many locations. Customers in some cases became enraged by being asked to wear a mask inside, one store manager told CNBC. Restaurant closures have also forced several liquor stores to lose a large income source once food establishments stopped ordering bulk alcohol shipments. "Walk-in and retail business has increased by 22% from March 16th to today," said Alex Le, co-owner of Nasa Liquor in Houston, Texas. "However, overall business is at average pace, with the loss of bar and restaurant businesses." Multiple shop owners and employees told CNBC about the challenges of running a liquor store during a pandemic, including fears about tension with customers and concerns about demand returning to pre-virus levels. Here is what they had to say. Operating under quarantine In New York, Park Avenue Liquor Shop, which normally caters to residents in the area, saw many of its usual customers flee the city once the coronavirus struck, said the business's vice president, Jonathan Goldstein. The store has still been fulfilling resident orders and delivering, but in fewer quantities than ever. To cope with fewer orders, Goldstein had to lay off a few employees. "I reduced my numbers and have no idea if business will warrant an increase in the upcoming months," he said. "The people I still have here are braving the unknown but are being extremely careful." In the store, employees wear masks and gloves and sanitize after each transaction. Other New York liquor establishments, like bars, have offered takeout drinks, resulting in people lining up to order and standing around or near the vicinity to consume it. In normal circumstances, alcohol cannot be consumed in public spaces, including on streets and in parks. Because of shelter-in-place guidelines and because many stores and restaurants closed to stop the spread of the virus, liquor stores have become a reliable way to break the day's flow. "Being open and with people working from home, we are seeing people we're not used to seeing during the day, whether it be professionals who are usually in the office or teachers who are usually in the classroom," said Le of Houston-based Nasa Liquors. Le brought on an extra employee to help with inventory and cashier duties and respond to the influx of people entering the store. "We've also implemented sneeze guards, are wiping counters and door handles after every customer, and are limiting to 10 people in at once," Le told CNBC. "Overall, operational costs now include increased expenditures on cleaning supplies, which is an estimated $200 a month." Anna Trueman, wine manager at Bourbon Street Wine and Spirits in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, said her store has also been busier than usual. There are nine stores in the Bourbon Street chain, but her store, located near the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has been fielding people from both states during the pandemic. For at least eight weeks, "we've been experiencing Christmas holiday-level crowds," Trueman said. "It's been absolutely insane. We're all working extra hours and it's crazy how much busier we are." Some liquor shops have also struggled with replenishing supply or selling smaller brands, which have lost ground to the more familiar ones that usually sell out in stores. "There is no way for a small brand to make itself [known] without hand-selling," said Goldstein. Hand-selling can consist of offering in-store samples or playing up a smaller brand to make a sale through word of mouth or employee recommendation. These practices have paused in liquor stores across the country to avoid spreading the coronavirus and also to respond to the new demand levels. The pandemic has affected the supply chain at Nasa Liquor. Once the pandemic hit, distilleries worldwide have either limited or stopped production entirely. "We often purchase barrels of bespoke whiskey, brandy, or rum from all parts of the world. The challenge is that each geographic location has their own stance on social distancing, reopening, and even guidelines on importing and exporting," Le said. "We have several of these barrels stuck in pipeline, which we were excited to release in the summer where sales usually increase, but have now been delayed until 2021." Pat ODonnell, 34, buys a 1.75 liter bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey at Supreme Liquor in Cambridge, MA on April 28, 2020. Mathew J. Lee | Boston Globe | Getty Images Respecting social distancing Some customers are reluctant to wear personal protective equipment or ignore personal space when in stores, agitations that shop owners and workers fear will become routine throughout the reopening process. Trueman of Bourbon Street said she experienced a lot of customer pushback about wearing a mask indoors. Her shop has marked designated standing areas with X's to encourage safe social distancing, but customers frequently take no notice of or disregard them, she said. Customers "barely" respect social distancing around other customers, she said, but with staff, they "just walk right up." Nobody on staff has gotten sick yet, she said. "When people come in, they don't necessarily respect the staff here like they would a doctor or a nurse," Trueman said. "We have lots of gun nuts out here and I'm waiting for someone to walk in who's got a real chip on his shoulder and start waving their gun around." Despite all the pressures, Bourbon Street co-founder Michael Wade has been impressed with his staff across the chain during the pandemic. "Our staff, scared or not, showed up EVERY day for over three months and adapted to a brand new and very unknown environment," Wade said in an email to CNBC. "And they did it with a smile on their faces. I have never been more proud in my life." At Park Avenue Liquor Shop, Goldstein took limiting in-store capacity to another level. Instead of allowing people to browse the store's liquor contents, Goldstein and his employees make suggestions and transactions at the door. "Just as this virus was making headlines, we became concerned with people roaming throughout the store and touching things, sneezing, etc.," he wrote in an email to CNBC. "We made a decision to stop them at the entry and if a purchase decision needed some help then we would bring the options to them." The challenges of reopening Dozens of meatpacking plants were temporarily closed in April after the coronavirus infected about 25,000 workers and killed more than 90 across the United States. To prevent more outbreaks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that reopened facilities use masks and glass partitions, and also keep workers at least six feet apart. But because shoulder-to-shoulder assembly lines may be necessary if plants want to ramp up their production speeds again, keeping these guidelines in place may be difficult over the long run. Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 9, 2020) - ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd. (TSXV: ZEN) ("ZEN" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it will be commencing a new research collaboration with Prof. Mohammad Arjmand and his team at the University of British Columbia (UBC)-Okanagan Campus, with a $200,000 Department of National Defence (DND) Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) award. ZEN will be providing in-kind contributions of Albany PureTM materials and consultation with its technical team. The goal of this collaborative research project is to develop electrically conductive, molded and 3D printed graphene/polymer nanocomposites as more versatile replacements for metallic electromagnetic shields that are currently in use. The new shields will be lightweight and corrosion resistant along with the additional benefits of low cost, ease of processing and improved design options compared to current metallic shields. In this collaboration, the developed conductive polymer shields will protect sensitive electronic equipment in satellites; however, the shields will also have use in a broad spectrum of applications in various industries, such as information technology, medical sciences, automotive, defence, and aerospace. The technology of developing 3D printing multifunctional polymer nanocomposite filaments will also allow for the rapid, low-cost fabrication of complex geometries of multifunctional polymer nanocomposites such as artificial electromagnetic shields. If DND elects to advance the project to Phase 2, it will support the research with a $1 million grant. ZEN would also like to congratulate Prof. Arjmand and his Nanomaterials and Polymer Nanocomposites Laboratory (NPNL) for being awarded two additional grants. The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund and the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) awarded a grant of $320,000 that will allow him to acquire the necessary equipment for the synthesis and characterization of graphene and its polymer nanocomposites. Prof. Arjmand was also awarded an additional $101,224 from the NSERC Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) Grant Program with support from the UBC School of Engineering. These funds will be used to purchase a state-of-the-art extruder to develop polymer nanocomposite filaments and pellets. All this equipment will be used to synthesize and characterize graphene materials from ZEN's Albany PureTM Graphite and develop novel graphene-based polymer composites. Francis Dube, ZEN CEO, commented, "We are happy to see the Department of National Defence investing in graphene-based technologies with the UBCO team led by Prof. Arjmand and ZEN. We are also pleased that Prof. Arjmand and his NPNL center have been recognized with the additional funding from CFI, BCKDF and NSERC. These equipment purchases will help drive graphene innovation in polymers for ZEN." Prof. Arjmand stated, "Our expertise in the synthesis of graphene, polymer processing, 3D printing, and polymer nanocomposites allows us to develop the next generation of high-performance multifunctional polymer nanocomposites with unique properties and complex geometries. We look forward to continuing to work with ZEN Graphene to bring these next generation products to market." About ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd. ZEN is an emerging graphene technology solutions company with a focus on the development of graphene-based nanomaterial products and applications. The unique Albany Graphite Project provides the company with a potential competitive advantage in the graphene market as independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada have independently demonstrated that ZEN's Albany PureTM Graphite is an ideal precursor material which easily converts (exfoliates) to graphene, using a variety of mechanical, chemical and electrochemical methods. For further information: Dr. Francis Dube, Chief Executive Officer Tel: +1 (289) 821-2820 Email: drfdube@zengraphene.com To find out more about ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd., please visit our website at www.ZENGraphene.com. A copy of this news release and all material documents in respect of the Company may be obtained on ZEN's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.ca. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although ZEN believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. ZEN disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. 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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57504 To celebrate Delaware County going yellow, 118 North held a drive-in concert event on Wayne Avenue with businesses staying open to serve takeout drinks and food on June 5. Read more As Philadelphia adjusts to its first week in the yellow phase of reopening, meaning that businesses can reopen and gatherings of fewer than 25 people are allowed (although discouraged), many people might feel excited about the prospect of socializing or shopping again. But there may also be some anxiety about staying healthy as we reenter society. These feelings of anxiety are perfectly normal, according to therapists, especially in a time of heightened stress recent Census Bureau data found that 30% of Americans now show symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. Coronavirus has been unprecedented in our lifetimes, said Gerald T. OBrien, associate director at the Anxiety and Agoraphobia Treatment Center in Bala Cynwyd. One of the things I say a lot to my clients is, If youre not worried or anxious to some extent, youre not paying attention because so many changes have taken place." Over the last few months, OBrien has worked with people who have been too anxious to even go to the grocery store. Although thats understandable, given the circumstances, he said that its important to not fight feelings of worry. Emotions are normal parts of being alive, so anxiety can be a signal to our bodies, telling us to pay attention to potential risk and danger, OBrien said. It certainly applies to our current time. Alissa Silverman, a psychologist at Silver Linings Psych in Center City, said that some of her clients werent sure how they were going to feel until the reopening actually happened, because it had been pushed back so many times since the beginning of the shutdown. For a lot of people, were still on a day-to-day basis, Silverman said. Theres an element of, Is this really happening? Were moving into the next wave of uncertainty. READ MORE: What our social lives will look like in the yellow phase Plan ahead If you must go back to work, Silverman recommends thinking through situations beforehand that might cause you anxiety, such as taking the subway, and brainstorming ways that may make you feel more comfortable in those situations. That might mean coming up with an alternative mode of transportation such as walking or biking to work. Everyone wants to go back to normal, so were all focused on that. But its possible that situations like walking with a group of people will make people irritable, upset or nauseous," Silverman said. To avoid such intrusive thoughts as Please stop talking, please dont touch me when around other people, Silverman recommended preparing responses that can help alleviate anxiety, such as saying no to a group of friends who want to eat lunch together. People should prepare themselves and write down what theyre going to do in different situations, so they dont have to make decisions that theyre uncomfortable with when put on the spot, she said. It can be helpful to ask yourself questions like, What is my day going to look like? What am I going to do if everyone around me isnt wearing a mask? What am I going to do when I feel anxious? READ MORE: Health-care workers feel more stress and anxiety than ever as coronavirus restrictions lift Stick to your plan OBrien said that you need to decide for yourself what youre comfortable with, so you cant be bullied into participating in things that make you feel unsafe. And that doesnt mean you cant participate in activities until theres a vaccine. He pointed out that over the course of the pandemic, people have come up with creative ways to continue such traditions as graduations and birthdays while staying socially distanced, a practice that he thinks will continue for some time. ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters. Focus on what you can control OBrien encouraged people to focus on the factors that they can control as they begin to navigate the yellow reopening phase. For example, if youre going back to work, remember that many employers have made major changes in how they operate their businesses to make employees feel as safe as possible. There are so many things about coronavirus that are outside our control, OBrien said. So we should focus on following appropriate guidelines, wearing face coverings, washing our hands and using hand sanitizer. Its not realistic to be completely calm, since no one really knows what the new normal is. He also encouraged proper self-care, such as exercising and going outside. There are so many unknowns, but we can find balance between appropriate precautions and overreactions," he said. Closing gaps to have a trail within 10 minutes of everyone in Pennsylvania is a priority in the Land and Water Trail Network Strategic Plan for 2020-24 that has been released in draft form by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources The agency plans to maintain a constantly updated list of the trail gaps statewide, as well as an ongoing Top 10 Trail Gaps list. According to DCNR, Pennsylvania has more than 650 trails, totaling about 12,000 miles. Trail gaps are just one of seven thrusts included in the plan. The other six are: Coordinate state and federal funding programs to leverage maximum investment in priority trail projects Cultivate diverse partnerships to build capacity to address local and regional trail needs. Provide more opportunities and connections for everyone to regularly use a trail. Connect communities and community assets and establish accessible trail networks. Maintain and improve existing land and water trails and related infrastructure. Promote Pennsylvanias trails and their economic, environmental, and health benefits. In updating the 2014-2019 plan, DCNR also has analyzed existing data and input from external stakeholders and partners through surveys and facilitated discussions; completed an assessment of the 2014 plans progress; and reached out to all specialized trail user groups. The 2020-2024 trail plan will be a companion document to the 2020-2024 Pennsylvania Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan. DCNR will accept comments on the draft trail recommendations and actions through June 25, through an online survey. Among the states trails are this years Trail of the Year, the Ghost Town Trail, runs for 44.46 miles in Cambria and Indiana counties. A National Recreation Trail, the Ghost Town Trail is named for the numerous old mining towns along the corridor that were served by the Ebensburg & Backlick Railroad and Cambria & Indiana Railroad. The trail winds though the scenic Blacklick Creek watershed, passing interpretive signs and historical artifacts including mining slag, railroad ties and discarded rail cars. Just west of Vintondale is Eliza Furnace, one of Pennsylvanias best-preserved iron blast furnaces. For more information about the Ghost Town Trail, visit the Indiana County Parks website. 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. Contact Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com. Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday, targeting the opposition, said the central government might have made a mistake or had some shortcomings but its commitment was always there, and then asked what the rival parties did. Somebody was interviewing people abroad in English on how to fight the coronavirus, Shah said in an apparent jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, and added that the Congress never did anything during disasters that the country has faced over the years except for "interviews". Gandhi has been speaking to personalities from different fields on various aspects of the coronavirus crisis. The senior BJP leader said the central government sought suggestions from all states; be it Odisha, West Bengal or Kerala, and rose above any partisan biases in this joint battle against the disease. He noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to chief ministers through videoconferencing five times. 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 Shah also said that all states have done a good job in the battle against COVID-19 pandemic which the central government has jointly fought with them. Speaking at a 'virtual rally' for people of Odisha, Shah also lauded the Modi government's track record on national security and recalled the air and surgical strikes inside Pakistan ordered by the prime minister in his first term. "Under PM Modi's leadership, any intrusion into the the borders of India will be punished. Some used to say that US and Israel were the only countries which were willing and capable of avenging every drop of the blood of their soldiers. Modi Ji has added India to that list," he said. The world realises that India will now not tolerate any intrusion into its borders, he said, while underscoring the Modi government's commitment to protect India's sovereignty. His comments came at a time when Indian and Chinese armies are engaged in a standoff in Ladakh with both countries trying to defuse the crisis through diplomatic and military channels. Shah, however, made no direct comment on the issue. The BJP leader also strongly defended the central government over the migrant crisis, saying everyone was anguished by their pain but their safety was a top priority for the Centre. Over 1.25 crore migrants were transported safely to their homes by the government which had announced a package of Rs 1.70 lakh crore to help the poor immediately after the lockdown was announced, Shah said. " " Tlingit tribe member J.J. Dewitt kisses his 2-year-old nephew Forrest Eide before they dance at the grand entrance of a 2014 Native American celebration in Juneau, Alaska. The Tlingit tribe has links to recently investigated archaeological sites. Linda Davidson/The Washington Post/Getty Images A new study by an international group of scientists concludes that a 10,300-year-old man whose skeleton was discovered in an Alaskan cave is closely related to the remains of three people who died thousands of years later in British Columbia. And according to the study, published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, these three in turn have a link to four tribes of indigenous North American people living today. These findings add to the evidence, the study's authors say, that current indigenous tribes can trace their ancestry to some of the continent's earliest people. As detailed in an article on the research in Science magazine, the work started back in 1996, when researchers working with the Tlingit tribe gathered DNA from Shuka Kaa, an ancient skeleton that had been discovered in a cave on Alaska's Prince of Wales Island, and whose name translates as "Man Ahead of Us." At the time, the scientists focused upon mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), but they were unable to establish a match between the mtDNA and the tribe's modern members. Advertisement But years later, as methods of sequencing ancient DNA improved, they gained permission to extract nuclear DNA from Shuka Kaa, as well as from three more recent skeletons. One was a 6,075-year-old skeleton found on Lucy Island in British Columbia, just 186.4 miles (300 kilometers) from the cave where Shuka Kaa was found. Another was a 2,500-year-old skeleton from Prince Rupert Harbor in British Columbia, while the third was a skeleton from the Prince Rupert area that dated back to 1,750 years ago. " " Researchers are analyzing DNA from ancient individuals found in southeast Alaska, coastal British Columbia, Washington state and Montana. A new genetic analysis of some of these human remains finds that many of today's indigenous peoples living in the ... Julie McMahon/University of Illinois The scientists couldn't reconstruct the entire genomes of the long-dead individuals, but they managed to sequence about 6 percent of Shuka Kaa's genome, and between a third and two-thirds of the genomes of the other ancient people. Then they compared that genetic data to see how closely the individuals might be related to each other and to 156 different groups of indigenous people currently living. The researchers found that sequences from the three most recent sets of remains were closely related to the Tlingit, Tsimshian, Nisga'a and Haida tribes of the Pacific Northwest. Shuka Kaa's sample, in contrast, seemed to be more closely related to DNA from indigenous people in South and Central America than to the Pacific Northwest tribes, though the link wasn't statistically strong. But an analysis of his mtDNA and nuclear DNA together suggested that he was also a close relative of the three more recent skeletons. But when all the connections are put together, it forges an apparent connection that stretches from Shuka Kaa to the modern tribes. It's tempting to wonder if this means that a living member of the Tlingit is directly descended from Shuka Kaa, whom scientists believe was a seafarer because isotopes from his teeth show he ate marine animals. But as a prominent researcher not involved in the study explains, that's too far of a leap. "That there can be evidence of specific links between a thousands-of-years-old individual and present-day individuals is somewhat of a fallacy," says Pontus Skoglund, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, via email. "This is because even if some parts of the genome are shared, it could be due to a link to ancestors of the ancient individual rather than the ancient individual himself." Skoglund, the lead author of a landmark 2015 article in Nature that described genetic evidence that there were two distinct waves of migration from Asia to the Americas, says that "each person has so many ancestors going back through the generations that things just get so mixed up." But it is possible to study in detail how populations from different points in time are related to each other, Skoglund said. In that sense, the study fits with the inscription on Shuka Kaa's tombstone when he was reburied, which cited him as evidence that the Tlingit had lived in the area "since time immemorial." Now That's Interesting The researchers concluded that Shuka Kaa belonged to a different ancestral line than Kennewick Man, an 8,500-year-old set of remains found in Washington, and from the 12,600-year-old Anzick-1, a set of child remains found in Montana. That lends further evidence to the theory that there were two sets of migration to the Americas. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 20:11:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Surprisingly, cylindrical potato chip containers are being used as efficient diagnostic tools by Chinese doctors on the front lines combating COVID-19. A 37-second online video shows a doctor using an empty cylinder of Lay's potato chips covered with a piece of paper marked with the three Chinese characters "Ting Zhen Qi," meaning stethoscope, on the chest of a male patient to listen to his breathing. The "invention" came from a group of medical workers from the General Hospital of the Central Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army, one of the largest Wuhan-based military hospitals treating COVID-19. They shared the method in an article published in the European Heart Journal in May, saying that the cylindrical containers could be used as a substitute to a traditional stethoscope. Gao Xuhui, the lead author of the article and head of the hospital's Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery Department, said stethoscopes are irreplaceable in treating respiratory diseases, especially COVID-19. "In the outpatient clinic, doctors use stethoscopes to evaluate the patient's lungs to determine whether there is an infection. In the ward, patients' conditions could change at any time, and doctors need to respond quickly to find out why, which also requires the use of stethoscopes," Gao said. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, his team has used the method to examine more than 300 patients and save four lives through timely diagnosis. However, Gao's opinions seem contrary to an article titled "COVID-19 outbreak: less stethoscope, more ultrasound." Published in the journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine in March, the article by Italian scholars highlighted that the use of lung ultrasound could ensure medical workers' safety better than the stethoscope. "There is nothing wrong with what they are claiming, but this view may mislead doctors to give up using their stethoscopes," Gao replied. He admitted that heavy protective suits and face shield make it difficult for doctors to insert conventional stethoscopes in their ears. Even if the stethoscope is put into protective suits in advance, it will be used on multiple patients, leading to an increased risk of virus infection. Bluetooth devices and handheld ultrasound imaging equipment can lower the risk of virus infection, but they are costly and scarce. Gao's team did point out that relying on ultrasound equipment was not suitable for preliminary diagnosis or real-time monitoring of patients, especially in clinical emergencies. Advanced technologies cannot wholly replace basic examination methods such as a stethoscope. In an emergency, a stethoscope as a bedside tool can help doctors save lives in a more timely manner than ultrasound equipment, Gao said. Therefore, the medical staff created the make-shift stethoscopes to aid in diagnosis and as an external interface for connections with patients. Co-author Tan Yan, also an intensive care unit doctor at the hospital, came up with the idea. He was inspired by a cartoon showing a doctor using a wooden tube to auscultate patients. At first, Tan chose a tube for shuttlecock, but the effect was not good as the tube was too long. After several trials, he found the cylindrical potato chip containers to be the most suitable. "Our article does not present any profound theoretical research, but it discusses a 100 percent scientific problem," Gao said in an interview. "Replacing a stethoscope with a paper tube can help medical staff battled on the front lines and in remote areas with equipment shortages." Enditem Michigan state employees would have to reauthorize union dues being deducted from their paychecks annually under a newly proposed rule change being considered by the Civil Services Commission. As it stands, state employees who once authorized their union dues to come out of their paychecks dont have to take any other action, unless they choose to stop paying dues. Ongoing deduction of fees based on old authorizations is problematic, according to Janine Winters, the states personnel director. Winters noted that some state workers authorized the fees decades ago when they were legally compelled to pay either that fee or higher dues. The U.S. Supreme Court has since ruled that employees can withdraw authorization anytime. Michigan became a right-to-work state in 2013, meaning it passed a law that prohibited new contracts that require workers to pay union dues or agency fees as a condition of employment. Under the proposed amendments, which would go into effect Sept. 1, an employees authorization to have union dues withdrawn from their pay would expire if not reauthorized each year. The states personnel director would have to provide annual notice to all exclusively represented employees of their rights to join or not join without affecting their employment status. The commission is accepting comments on the proposed amendments by email to MCSC-OGC@mi.gov, or by mail to the Office of the General Counsel, Michigan Civil Service Commission, P.O. Box 30002, Lansing, Michigan, 48909. Comments must be received by July 6. Shortly after the commission announced the proposal late last week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called it a direct assault on hardworking state employees and said it would weaken collective bargaining rights for those who are working on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are in the middle of a global pandemic and the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes, and the notion that Civil Service Commission would choose this moment to take power away from our health care workers, road repair workers, corrections officers, and unemployment call center employees is unthinkable," Whitmer said in a prepared statement. "This action will make it harder for these front-line workers to negotiate together for strong wages, health care, and a secure retirement. Im calling on the civil service commissioners to do the right thing and reject this anti-worker proposal. Our front-line state workers have our backs, and now its time for us to have theirs. Whitmer also noted that all four commissioners were appointed by the previous administration. Another group in opposition of the rule change is the states American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCMU) union. Council 25 President Lawrence Roehrig and Secretary-Treasurer Robyn Price called the proposal a slap in the face to the frontline essential workers during the global pandemic. In a written statement, the unions leadership said the state needs policies to protect workers and give them more rights on the job, not policies that attack them and weaken their voice at work. They called it part of the (former Gov. Rick) Snyder-holdover partisan political agenda. We are going to fight this, and we hope the Civil Service Commission rejects this blatantly anti-worker proposal," reads the statement in-part. However, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy applauded the proposal. Steve Delie, Director of Workers for Opportunity, said the move would protect the First Amendment rights of workers that were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in its decision stemming from the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME case. Michigan workers should be able to know where the money from their hard-earned paycheck is going," Delie said in a prepared statement. "Implementation of these rule changes would be a positive step towards protecting workers across the state. In 2015, The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Service Commission could not include agency-shop fee provisions under the state constitution. In response, the commission removed provisions allowing union contracts to require payment of service fees and required a voluntary written authorization to allow deductions of dues and fees. The commissions proposed rule change is meant to ensure that employees know their rights and the validity of their authorizations, according to Winters. Its meant to ensure continuing, knowing and voluntary consent to deductions of dues and fees by requiring annual re-authorization for these payroll deductions. The next meeting of the Civil Service Commission is slated for July 15. Read more on MLive: Is a second wave of coronavirus inevitable? Michigan nears critical point to suppress another outbreak Penalty for violating Gov. Whitmers coronavirus safety guidelines isnt legal, court rules Tuesday, June 9: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Petition language to recall Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer approved by state board (Bloomberg) -- The trade war amplified calls in the U.S. and elsewhere for reducing dependence on China for strategic goods. Now, the pandemic has politicians vowing to take action. The Trump administration has talked about bringing supply chains home from China, and even publicly floated the need for a group of friendly nations in Asia that could help produce essential goods. President Donald Trump last month even said the U.S. would save $500 billion if it cut off ties with China. But interviews with nearly a dozen government officials and analysts in the Asia-Pacific region show that any broader effort to restructure supply chains is little more than wishful thinking so far. While governments are pushing to win investments, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.s planned state-of-the-art semiconductor factory in the U.S., it wont be simple to dismantle an entrenched system when many companies are struggling to survive. More likely is that the virus will accelerate a change that was already driven by market forces as rising wages and costs in China over the past decade caused an exodus of lower-value manufacturing, much of it to Southeast Asia. Thats despite the desire from some in the Trump administration to start decoupling the worlds biggest economies as the U.S. and China spar over everything from the virus to 5G networks to Hong Kong. The rhetoric meets the reality, which is that many firms have supply chains set up the way they do for very sensible reasons, said Deborah Elms of the Asian Trade Centre, which has seen an increase of companies looking for advice on reorganizing to increase competitiveness. Coming out of Covid, its going to be even harder to move supply chains because your cash flow is low, your staff are working from home or coming slowly back into the office, and the business climate has shifted. While the world trade network mostly held up well amid rolling lockdowns as Covid-19 spread, the economic cost fueled calls among politicians for greater self-sufficiency and alternatives to China. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose department announced an Economic Security Strategy last year, in April named Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, and South Korea as countries that the U.S. has been talking to on supply chains. Story continues A key plank of the State Departments new Economic Security Strategy is expanding and diversifying supply chains that protect people in the free world, according to Keith Krach, a State Department official who leads efforts to develop international policies related to economic growth. Krach said in April a so-called Economic Prosperity Network of like-minded allies would be built for critical products. China Plus One Industries would include pharmaceuticals, medical devices, semiconductors, automotive, aerospace, textiles and chemicals, among others. But the idea right now appears to lack any firm foundation. The State Department doesnt have jurisdiction over trade, and officials in other Asian countries said no formal talks were taking place. A person close to the administration said Krach is prone to pushing grand ideas publicly that havent yet become policy. Still, other governments are moving on their own to shift production away from China -- especially since the Covid disruptions. This includes Taiwan and Japan, which were among the biggest investors in Chinas manufacturing capacity in the early days. Many companies have already begun adopting a China plus one manufacturing hub strategy since the U.S.-China trade war began in 2018, with Vietnam having been a clear beneficiary, said Anwita Basu, head of Asia country risk research at Fitch Solutions. While the pandemic will give that another push, shifts away from China will be slow as that country still boasts an annual manufacturing output that is so large that even a group of countries would struggle to absorb a fraction of it. In 2019, Taiwanese officials encouraged the islands firms to build a non-red supply chain outside of China, passing a law that promised rent assistance, cheap finance, tax breaks and simplified administration for investments in Taiwan. The move helped the islands economy weather the trade war last year and led to more than NT$1 trillion ($33.5 billion) pledged or invested domestically, and more overseas. Japan recently started down the same path, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abes government budgeting about 220 billion yen ($2 billion) for companies shifting production back home and 23.5 billion yen for those seeking to move production to other countries. Everyone agrees we really have to reconsider the sustainability of supply chains, Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of Hitachi Ltd. and head of Japans biggest business lobby Keidanren, said on television last month. Its unrealistic to suddenly return all production to Japan. But if we are totally reliant on one specific country and they have a lockdown, there will be huge consequences. South Korea has similar plans as part of its economic blueprint for the rest of the year, announced earlier this month. The government said it will provide tax incentives, ease investment-related regulations and expand financial support for companies that u-turn. Yet, it hasnt said how much money will be earmarked for the entire support program. For all that, China retains some key advantages. Last year 38% of Taiwans $11 billion of overseas investment still went to the mainland, as did 10% of Japans -- despite increased investments in Southeast Asia over the past few decades due to periodic bouts of anti-Japanese rioting in China. Young Liu, chairman of Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry, whose Foxconn unit manufactures iPhone in plants in China, said in mid-May that its difficult to move assembly of mobile devices to the U.S due to the sheer number of workers needed. China remains unmatched as a manufacturing site given its numbers of skilled workers, deep supplier networks and the governments credible public support for manufacturers and provision of reliable infrastructure, wrote Gavekal Dragonomics analyst Dan Wang in a report in April. Even if companies find economic alternatives to Chinese factories, or bow to political pressure to increase production in their home markets, theres another reason why production inside China continues to make sense: the vast and growing Chinese domestic market. Tesla, Honeywell Tesla Inc. is now producing cars there for what is now the worlds largest auto market, and last month Chinese Premier Li Keqiang sent Honeywell International Inc. a letter welcoming its new investment in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus outbreak started. He and other Chinese officials have touted continued economic cooperation with the U.S. and vowed to implement a phase one trade deal with the U.S. reached in January. The formation and development of global industrial and supply chains are determined by market forces and companies choices, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in March. As such, it is unrealistic and insensible to try to sever them or even trumpet shifting or decoupling theories as they run counter to economic law. For all the talk of dependence on China, the pandemic showed that other nations could quickly adapt to meet the need for critical supplies when Chinas lockdown halted deliveries of protective clothing, ventilators and medical supplies. Vietnam rapidly ramped up production of face masks, exporting more than 415 million in four months, while the U.S. pushed automakers and other manufacturers to retool plants to make respirators and other critical supplies. Over the long term, however, there are questions of whether those models are sustainable -- and who will pay for new plants outside China. Waving a Wand A May 14 executive order from Trump allows the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., Americas development bank for emerging markets, to partner with the Department of Defense in the U.S. to lend money to American companies looking to build out supply chains for critical goods such as ventilators and generic drugs. But with governments already having to fund trillions of dollars in bailout packages for existing businesses and companies going bust in droves, finding the extra capital to restructure global supply chains is a tall order. Andrew Hastie, an Australian lawmaker and chair of the nations security and intelligence committee, called in a recent essay for time limited tax incentives to build national self-reliance in key pharmaceuticals, medical supplies and other critical goods. In the end, the biggest force diluting Chinas position in the global supply chain will likely be the long, slow evolution of global trade, as companies see opportunities that arise from new markets, new technologies and changing patterns of wealth. Why would a firm say to their staff and their shareholders we have opted for political reasons to change the way that we do things, said Elms, whose organization helps governments formulate trade policy. The numbers have to make sense, she said. The structure that you have is based on millions of individual company decisions. Its not so easy to wave a wand and say: Make it so! (Updates with South Korean policy to get companies to invest at home in 16th 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. A week before Britain came to a standstill in mid-March, the Wessex Mill found itself fielding nearly 600 calls a day requesting one of the countrys hottest commodities: flour. The mill in Oxfordshire has produced nearly 13,000 small bags of flour each day during the coronavirus pandemic, a fourfold increase. Demand led Emily Munsey, a flour miller who runs the business with her father, to hire more staff and add afternoon and night shifts to keep the mill running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the first time in its 125-year history. Its been very challenging as a company. The amount of work weve all had to do has increased a huge amount, said Ms. Munsey, who has since scaled back to five days a week, though still around the clock, to give employees a weekend break. Demand remains consistently obscene. Commercial mills produce nearly four million tons of flour each year in Britain, according to the National Association of British and Irish Flour Millers. With much of the country stuck at home, baking has surged, and retail-size flour bags have become scarce on grocery shelves. The coronavirus outbreak has flooded social media with #coronavirusbaking and #quarantine cookies. Yeast is in short supply, and butter sales have soared. In April, Google searches for cake, bread and flour skyrocketed. The desire for flour has led some baking Britons to buy commercial-size sacks (weighing up to 70 pounds), some to try new recipes and others to monetize the shortage, with bags of flour going on eBay for more than $85. For many, baking serves as a respite from chaos. One of the ways to interrupt anxiety is to let other senses take over, the British culinary author and television star Nigella Lawson told The Guardian. Artisanal mills are feeling the surge in demand, according to the Traditional Cornmillers Guild. A traditional water-powered mill in northeast England was inundated with a 500 per cent increase in demand and had to close its online shop. Another, on a 1,000-year-old milling site in the countrys south, ceased production in 1970 but has restarted to supply flour to local shops. Wessex Mill cant easily meet demand with its traditional flour mill, which is slower than facilities that use modern methods. Ms. Munseys family founded it in 1895 in Oxford on the River Thames, but the original building burned down in the 1950s. Now located in Wantage, in Oxfordshire, the mill is electric powered and operates on a second-hand 1940s roller mill installed by her grandfather. Each day, a truck loads 27 tons of wheat bought from local farmers. It is stored in silos before being cleaned, then stripped of chaff, the scaly protective casing. Water is added to soften the bran, a layer of the wheat kernel, to create bran flakes rather than bran powder. The grain is slowly split open using steel rollers lined with small teeth, then sieved of wheat germ and bran. The remaining endosperm, the kernels starchy interior, is ground to produce white flour. Bran flakes are either sent to a local farmer for pig feed or added with wheat germ to create brown or whole wheat flour. Were an artisan flour mill, said Ms. Munsey, whose customers include wholesalers and bakeries across Britain that order up to 10 tons of flour a week. Were not someone who has previously produced vast quantities of flour, and now people just want lots and lots and lots of flour. The frenzy has also made securing paper bags challenging, but Ms. Munsey had stock prepared. Weve mostly just eaten through our Brexit stockpile, she said. A new machine can label 2,000 bags in 20 minutes. The problem in Britain isnt merely a flour shortage but the industrys inability to package small bags quickly enough. Large, commercial milling sites produce 99 per cent of the flour in Britain. They typically provide 16-kilogram, or about 35-pound, bags of flour to bakeries, so shifting to retail bags, which make up only a sliver of the market, has proved difficult. Its unprecedented, said Alex Waugh, the director general of the National Association of British and Irish Flour Millers. For more than a month now, the output of flour for home baking has been double the normal level, increasing to four million bags a week. Small flour bags have been so scarce that the supermarket chains Morrisons and Sainsburys have taken matters into their own hands: selling 35-pound bags of flour or portioning it into small paper bags. The coronavirus outbreak has also ignited demand for flour across many European countries. In France, market research by Nielsen showed that demand doubled in March. In Italy, it reached its highest level since World War II. As Britain eases out of lockdown restrictions, Ms. Munsey hopes that new customers will continue to use Wessex Mill flour, find new skills and maybe take up more home baking. But during the first few months of the crisis, her exhaustion overpowered her desire to bake. If you bake bread flour, you need to dust the surfaces, she said, and wiping up any more flour when you get home is just beyond me. New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday asked Defence Minister Rajnath Singh if Chinese troops have occupied Indian territory in Ladakh. "Once RM is done commenting on the hand symbol, can he answer: Have the Chinese occupied Indian territory in Ladakh?" the Congress leader tweeted. On Monday, Singh took a jibe at Congress after Gandhi raised questions over the issue of a border dispute with China. "Haath me dard ho to dawa kije, haath hi jab dard ho to kya kije," Singh said. The couplet roughly translates to, "You apply medicine to the hand when it pains, but what to do when the hand itself is the cause of pain." Singh made the reference in relation to the Congress' election symbol. India and China have been locked in a dispute over the heavy military build-up by People's Liberation Army (PLA) where they have brought in more than 5,000 troops along the Eastern Ladakh sector. The Chinese Army's intent to carry out deeper incursions was checked by the Indian security forces by quick deployment. The Chinese have also brought in heavy vehicles with artillery guns and infantry combat vehicles in their rear positions close to the Indian territory. A meeting between military commanders of India and China to discuss and resolve the stand-off in Eastern Ladakh also took place on June 6. Later, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the two countries have agreed to "peacefully" resolve the situation in the border areas by continuing the military and diplomatic engagements. ATLANTA, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlanta Housing (AH) unveiled the rebranding of the new Choice Atlanta website and logo as well as a refresh of the AH corporate site. Both sites offer improved functionality, a streamlined, user-friendly design and greater transparency of AH products and services. "As affordable housing evolves, and as we continue our mission of serving those in need, we took an opportunity to review our external channels of communication and identify ways to improve them," said President and CEO Eugene Jones, Jr. "We wanted our sites to be of greater service to our families and stakeholders, and we also wanted to be able to tell our story more effectively. With these changes, we are better positioned to accomplish both of those things." AH's corporate site enhancements are a continuation of rebranding efforts that took place in 2018. The refresh now features more functionality, intuitive navigation and direct access to AH products and services from the landing page. Visitors can stay in the know through an events and happenings page, and the site increases transparency around public meetings and other announcements, and program rollouts. Also, the site offers high-visibility blog space to highlight AH news, initiatives and success stories about AH residents and program participants. The Choice Atlanta sites touts a full rebranding, which included a new logo and a complete website redesign. It contains information about the University Choice Neighborhood footprint; and it tells the history of Roosevelt Hall (named for President Franklin D. Roosevelt) and University Homes, the nation's first public housing community for African Americans. In addition, the new Choice Atlanta site spotlights programs, services and dedicated space for news and community happenings. With quick links, multiple navigation menus and multimedia, the new site enhances user experience overall. "Launching this new website provides a platform to share the impact of our achievements in three critical areas: Housing, People and Neighborhood," said Ernestine Garey, senior vice president of Choice Neighborhoods. "The Choice Atlanta team works tirelessly to uplift and transform our three target neighborhoods, Atlanta University Center, Ashview Heights and Vine City. Since receiving the $30 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant in 2015, we are well on our way to producing 506 units of mixed income housing, increasing average family incomes and improving educational outcomes for students of all ages." About Atlanta Housing Led by President and CEO Eugene Jones, Jr., the Housing Authority of the City of Atlanta, Georgia (AH), is the largest housing authority in Georgia and one of the largest in the nation. AH provides and facilitates affordable housing resources for nearly 24,000 low-income households comprised of approximately 50,000 people using affordable housing resources that include AH-owned residential communities, AH-sponsored mixed-income, mixed-finance residential communities, tenant-based vouchers, project based rental assistance, supportive housing arrangements and homeownership opportunities. AH's programs are funded and regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD"). In 2015, Atlanta Housing (AH), in partnership with the City of Atlanta, received $30 million in funding through the Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant (CNIG), awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The grant supports Choice Atlanta's efforts to revitalize the former University Homes public housing site and three residential neighborhoods collectively are known as the University Choice Neighborhood. Like HUD's Choice Neighborhoods program, Choice Atlanta focuses efforts on three core goals: Housing, People, and Neighborhood. Visit Atlanta Housing at atlantahousing.org or follow us on Twitter at @housingatlanta. Also visit cnatlanta.org. SOURCE Atlanta Housing Related Links atlantahousing.org The central government has issued fresh guidelines for officials and staffers working in the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) after increasing number of Covid-19 cases in its various ministries and departments. In a circular, the department has asked only asymptomatic staff to come to office. All those with mild cold, cough of fever should stay home, it has said. The circular further said that the staff members living in containment zones must mandatorily work from home. Otherwise too, the June 5 circular said, not more than 20 officers and staff members of DARPG should attend office in a day. It has asked the administrative departments to make duty chart accordingly. Those sharing cabin should come on alternate says, the circular further said. The windows should be kept open as far as possible. Among the other norms prescribed for the DARPG employees in the circular are: Face masks and face shields should be worn at all times inside the office. Disciplinary action will be taken if this is not followed. Used face masks and gloves should be discarded in bio-medical waste bin only. Strict action will be taken on throwing gloves and masks in the open. Face-to-face meetings/discussions/interactions to be avoided as far as possible. The staff should use intercom, phone or video-conferencing for these purposes. Hand washing in every half an hour is a must to prevent spread of the infection. Hand sanitisers must be installed at prominent places in corridors. Frequently touched places like switches, door knobs, elevator buttons, hand rails etc should be cleaned every hour. The staff members have also been asked to clean personal equipment like keyboards, mouse, phone, AC remotes etc by themselves using ethanol based disinfectant frequently. A distance of 1 metre should be maintained while sitting or walking. Visitors chairs in the cabins of the offices shall accordingly be placed keeping the norms of social distancing. All officers and staff members are requested to follow these instructions without fail. Two staffers of Parliament had tested positive for Covid-19 late last month. At least two persons working at the headquarters of the Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in the national capital had also tested positive last month. Several cases have also been reported from other central ministries and departments that have their offices in the same part of New Delhi as the MEA. The country has reported 2,66,598 Covid-19 positive cases and 7,466 deaths till Tuesday. A comprehensive new report has mapped out the structures, methods and effects of what it calls Chinas global foreign interference system. And the reports author tells the Star he believes such activities are widespread in Canada, with clues often out in the open. The report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) think-tank details how Beijing uses the United Front Work Department to stifle criticism, infiltrate foreign political parties, diaspora communities, universities and multinational corporations. The report draws on extensive reviews of Chinese Communist Party documents, Chinese-language media articles, overseas organizations websites as well as photographs and posts on Chinese social media platforms including WeChat. The United Front Work Department has been an official department of the Chinese Communist Party since 1979, when ambitious Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping tasked it to collect information from sources around the world and advance global support for the party. An earlier iteration of the United Front Work Department was first founded by the CCP in 1948, but had gone dormant. The CCP says that United Front work is democratic, to seek consultation from people and organizations around the world, but its own documents show that the United Front agency works closely with the propaganda department as well as the ministry of state security, which is Chinas intelligence agency. In recent years, Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over an expansion of the agency that included adding 40,000 staff. The report calls the United Fronts overseas expansion an exportation of the CCPs political system. Overseas United Front Work taken to its conclusion would give the CCP undue influence over political representation and expression in foreign political systems. The report does not cover Canadas experience, but Alex Joske, the reports author, shared some of his findings exclusively with the Star. When it comes to Canadians attending major United Front conferences and events, online directories of attendees show a large number of Canadian participants as well as Australians, he said. For example, a United Front-sponsored conference in North Chinas Hebei province last October for overseas Chinese language media listed more than 50 attendees from Canada, while the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, a key united front organization that has been openly identified as such in Chinese state media, listed 24 Canada-based delegates and 24 Australia-based delegates in 2018. The event descriptions and signs pictured in photographs from the events clearly showed Chinese government involvement, according to records shared by Joske and reviewed by the Star. For many years, there has been little international response to counter the United Fronts activities. These activities often mimic legitimate activities in democratic societies. According to the report, this includes setting up organizations abroad that claim to speak on behalf of groups such as Chinese international students, ethnic minorities and religious groups. Experts and government officials seem to underestimate the United Fronts power, according to Joske. Diplomats might see United Front work as public diplomacy or propaganda but fail to appreciate the extent of related covert activities, according to the report. Security officials may be alert to criminal activity or espionage while underestimating the significance of open activities that facilitate it. Analysts risk overlooking the interrelated facets of CCP influence that combine to make it effective. By using techniques such as political donations, offering paid trips to China and showering them with flattery, the United Front co-opts international politicians, too. The report profiled the case of disgraced former Australian senator Sam Dastyari. The rising political star was forced to resign in 2017 after media reports showed he accepted travel funding from the Chinese-government-linked Top Education Institute. The private school is run by a Chinese businessman, Zhu Minshen, who was a delegate to the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, the CCPs prestigious advisory body, in 2014. That was after Dastyari had already asked a company owned by his partys top political donor, Huang Xiangmo, to help him pay a $44,000 settlement for an undisclosed legal matter. Dastyari also accepted a 15-day free trip to China from the Australian Fellowship of China Guangdong Associations. Huang is the founder of that group, and also served as its chairman before Canberra rescinded his permanent residency and ousted him from the country on advice of intelligence officials over Huangs alleged assistance in Beijings interference operations. There is no reason why such cases arent happening in Canada as well, Joske told the Star. Canada should carry out detailed studies of United Front work across the country as well as in specific sectors, and communicate findings to the public to promote general understanding, Joske said. He said careful investigation by Canadian authorities would be necessary to determine whether any Canadian politicians are complicit in United Front work. The findings of the report should come as no surprise to Canadas leaders, said Garnett Genuis, a Conservative MP from Alberta who is a member of a special parliamentary committee on Canada-China relations. He pointed out that public servants including the former director of Canadas spy agency, Richard Fadden, have repeatedly warned that state actors, including Russia and China, are increasingly working to advance its strategic interests abroad. The annual public reports of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service have reported attempts at foreign interference in Canada for decades, and Faddens predecessor, Jim Judd, had said publicly that China accounts for about half the attention his agencies gives to foreign intelligence gathering efforts. The intelligence is already there to suggest there is a concern, Genuis said. The government for whatever reason has chosen not to respond. There might be some naivete, yes, but also failure to act on advice. Joske said Canada should consider strengthening its laws on foreign interference and pointed to Australia to make the case. ASPI has observed a decrease in the brazenness of United Front activities in Australia since the country passed a series of laws to counter attempts by foreign governments to influence Australian politicians and civil servants. The Espionage and Foreign Interference Act was brought into the countrys Parliament in 2018. It strengthens existing espionage laws and introduces new offences for foreign interference, according to a summary of the bill by Australias Department of Defence. Knowingly funding or being funded by a foreign intelligence agency is among the offences with a 15-year maximum sentence. Since the laws passed, Joske noted that several United Front groups in Australia he had been tracking which previously stated its political goals to promote interests of the Chinese Communist Party have now amended their websites to say theyre non-political organizations. Joske referred to leaked screenshots to the media last February showing Chinese embassy officials in Ottawa instructing students of Chinese descent to find out information about a talk on rights of Uyghur minorities in China, and collect data on whether Chinese nationals were involved in organizing the talk at McMaster University. The Chinese consulate denied it had anything to do with the actions, but said in a statement that they strongly support the just and patriotic actions of Chinese students. Genuis said that in the absence of new laws, Canada already has the option to expel Chinese diplomats found to be involved in United Front work. But first, Ottawa should make sure to communicate with all foreign embassies that meddling in political systems or intimidating their countries critics in Canada wont be tolerated. The full report on the United Front is available to read here. Joanna Chiu is a Vancouver-based reporter covering both Canada-China relations and current affairs on the West Coast for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @joannachiu Read more about: After nearly two weeks of protests in New York City against police brutality and racism, following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, policy demands have begun to crystalize. None are without controversy, but perhaps the most contentious is the call to defund the New York Police Department. Criminal justice activists are calling for the city to slash the nearly $6 billion annual budget by $1 billion, and reinvest that money in social services like homeless outreach and mental health counseling. In late April, to help address a budget gap that has since grown to $9 billion, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed some deep cuts to city services when he released his executive budget proposal. But many, including lawmakers, bristled at the fact the mayor spared the NYPD from significant cuts, proposing a less than .5% reduction over last year. Many lawmakers, including Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Councilman Donovan Richards, had been calling for cuts to the NYPD budget for weeks, in light of the citys fiscal crisis. Those calls crystalized as the protests against police brutality and the polices sometimes brutal responses continued. Slashing police spending shifted from a largely fiscal decision with criminal justice undertones to a criminal justice issue with fiscal undertones. On June 4, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer released the most detailed proposal on deep cuts to the NYPD. On June 5, several City Council members committed to voting down a budget that does not include significant cuts in early June.Days later, de Blasio reversed course, committing to cut department spending after having initially resisted. With crime at historic lows and more police officers in New York City than there were a decade ago, it might seem that there is plenty of room to cut. But how exactly advocates propose a nearly 17% reduction in the departments spending remains unclear. Defunding and even abolishing police departments is not a new idea, but until recently it largely remained among the fringes of left-wing ideology in New York City. Now, as protests have occurred daily and police have often responded with violenceagainst protesters, the idea has found more mainstream acceptance. Even before Floyds death galvanized a nationwide protest movement, New York City faced a precarious fiscal situation due to the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fall out. It came at a time when the NYPD had been criticized for its racially disparate enforcement of social distancing rules. With many public agencies facing cutbacks and public concern about aggressive policing on the rise, Stringers proposal laid out how the NYPD could save $265 million per year, which in four years would result in a $1 billion in total savings. Those would be achieved through a hiring freeze for new officers in the upcoming fiscal year, which Stringer said would reduce the uniformed NYPD headcount from the current 36,461 to about 35,000, as a result of retirements. This would result in $112 million in direct savings per year from pay, plus another $111 million in fringe benefits such as health insurance and pensions. The other two approaches to saving are reducing budgeted overtime by 5% and all expenses other than payroll, such as computer services, by 4%. Most lawmakers have avoided committing to specific dollar amounts. Thats in part what prompted Stringer to put out his analysis, something to get the ball rolling. This is a baseline, Stringer told City & State. You can certainly go a little higher Before we did this, there was no movement. City Councilman Ben Kallos has backed a plan cutting $1 billion over four years, while Councilman Carlos Menchaca has called for at least $1 billion in cuts in the budget this year, but has not yet offered specifics on how to achieve those cuts. City Councilman Daniel Dromm, chairman of the City Councils Finance Committee, echoed two of Stringers proposals capping overtime and cutting costs associated with a new class of cadets. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson has also committed to significant cuts to the NYPD, but has not offered a dollar amount nor has de Blasio, although he has implied that he will do so in the coming weeks. Although many criminal justice and police reform advocates feel that Stringers proposal does not go far enough, the math behind how to achieve a $1 billion in the next fiscal year has not yet taken firm shape. And that significant reduction would likely involve some unpalatable choices. I dont think you can hit that kind of number without layoffs, Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a think tank that advocates for fiscal restraint, said. Maybe you can get there, but its pretty dramatic because you really have to control the overtime like you never have before. Rein said that the areas that Stringer is looking at are good places to reduce costs without layoffs, adding that an overall hiring freeze, including for civilian personnel, such as school safety agents and crossing guards, would be prudent. But short of completely eliminating overtime and all non-personnel services, Rein said the $1 billion-a-year goal is hard to hit. Criminal justice advocates are working on a detailed budget proposal with hard numbers about how to reach their goal, but how to get there is still a little up in the air. Communities United for Police Reform, a coalition of groups advocating for civil rights and civil liberties advocates, has proposed some avenues through which cuts could be made. Several have already been mentioned by Stringer and Rein, including a hiring freeze, no new cadet classes and cuts to non-essential areas like surveillance equipment. The coalition also calls for cuts related to abusive policing, such as settlement payouts which does not come out of the NYPD budget and keeping cops on the payroll while they await discipline. Stringer mentions the settlement issue in his own proposal, noting that in 2018 the city paid out over $230 million in lawsuits related to police misconduct, but neither Stringer nor the activist coalition have laid out exactly how to reduce those costs immediately. The final, and perhaps hardest to quantify, category is reducing the police role in social services like homeless outreach and responding to mental health crises. Although the numbers are being finalized, Leo Ferguson, a community organizer with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice who works with Communities United for Police Reform, estimated reductions in this category could total around $400 million. That includes shifting school safety agents from the NYPD to the Department of Education and ending programs like the Homeless Diversion Program and Mental Health Co-Response Teams. Ferguson argued that the police force today is larger than it needs to be. Even if it does require layoffs, thats how we make smart decisions about the kind of city we want to have, Ferguson said. Ferguson said that a hiring freeze and halting new cadet classes could result in $200 million in reductions, while reducing aggressive policing and improving disciplinary processes would save the city about $270 million. He did not offer specifics about other non-essential areas, citing a lack of transparency around the portion of budget earmarked other than personnel services, but noted that the NYPD recently spent $500,000 on a fleet of 14 drones. This is infrastructure that has been built over decades, Ferguson said. We do not have an army of budget experts, so we have some very smart people working very hard to crunch these numbers The one thing we know is that we can do it. There will, of course, be resistance from cops and more conservative members of the Council. Let me be clear, I will vote against any deliberate attempt to de-fund (the NYPD), Republican City Councilman Eric Ulrich wrote on Twitter on June 3. And although the New York City Police Benevolent has not yet publicly responded to more recent calls for deep cuts up to $1 billion, the union strongly opposed the far smaller $50 million cut proposed by Richards in mid-May. It would be insanely reckless to defund the NYPD in the middle of this crisis, PBA President Pat Lynch told the Daily News at the time. If public safety isnt Council Member Richards top priority, he should resign from the committee. NYPD spending has increased about over $1 billion since de Blasio took office. That included the hiring of 1,300 new police officers in 2015 for a new community policing initiative, a hiring decision pushed by the City Council over de Blasios objections and approved by many of the same Council members now calling for cuts. According to Gothamist, the rate of yearly growth has outpaced that of the city budget as a whole over the past 40 years. And according to the Citizens Budget Commission, the NYPD represents one of four agencies that represents the bulk of the citys budget increases since the start of de Blasios tenure. The other three agencies are the Departments of Education, Social Services and Homeless Services. Aside from the questions of how the NYPD budget can be trimmed, the mayor and City Council will have to wrestle with how those cuts translate to improved relations between cops and the communities they serve, because simple line item cuts without accompanying reforms to the department wont satisfy activists. I think what feels clear here is that the way that we've done policing in New York City doesn't work and it harms folks, Anthonine Pierre, deputy director of Brooklyn Movement Center, a community organizing group in Bed-Stuy, and steering committee member of Communities United for Police Reform, said. The City Councils job here is not just to defund, but we really need them to lead in (determining) what does it look like to do policing with less money? Australians tend to have a pretty low opinion of their politicians often with good reason but it is worth taking a brief moment to acknowledge their efforts over the past few months. Our elected officials have mostly done a good job and it is The Age's fervent wish they continue to adhere to the pragmatism that has characterised pandemic politics in Australia. Health Minister Greg Hunt (left), Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy in early March. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen As The Age has documented in a two-part series that concludes on Wednesday, state and federal leaders have done a world-class job in protecting Australia from the terrible loss of life from COVID-19 that occurred in Europe, the US and, increasingly, in developing countries. While a second wave of infection remains a risk, Australia has quickly brought the pandemic under control. If we had followed the same path as the United Kingdom, the death toll would not be 102. More like 14,000. The success in public health has allowed for a faster-than-expected relaxation of lockdown measures that flows into a less-dire economic outlook. Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy said on Tuesday that unemployment was now expected to rise to 8 per cent rather than 10 per cent. Some people would argue that all this happened despite the politicians. When Donald Horne said we were a lucky country because of our natural resources, he added the rider that it was ruled by second-rate people who share in its luck. Fire at Mannersdorf cement works ICR Newsroom By 09 June 2020 A fire broke out at Lafarge Zementwerkes Mannersdorf cement plant in Austria at around 19h on Sunday, 7 June 2020. According to the company, the starting point was the fuel store and the fire spread to a conveyor system. However, the cause of the fire is not yet known. Five people were working at the 1.1Mta plant, the largest in Austria, at the time and all were brought to safety. By 20.30h the fire had been brought under control and despite considerable damage, production in the plant resumed by midnight, said Lafarge Zementwerke. Published under caitlin dickerson From The New York Times, Im Caitlin Dickerson. This is The Daily. [music] Today: A full-scale meltdown of new voting systems in Georgia is alarming Democratic leaders ahead of the states general election in November. My colleague, Astead Herndon, on why voting access in Georgia has become a national issue for the party. Its Thursday, June 11. OK, Astead, so tell me what happened on Tuesday in Georgia. astead herndon Tuesday was Georgias primary elections, where they were slated to send Senate candidates and House candidates ahead to Novembers general election, but archived recording After twice being delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, finally primary election day, and some of the polls, simply did not go as planned. astead herndon What we saw on Tuesday did not look much like an election at all. archived recording Our newsroom is flooded with emails, calls, tweets, texts of voters reporting issues and irregularities at precincts across the metro. astead herndon At the beginning of the day, polling sites were not opening on time, and then it became very clear that they werent adequately staffed. archived recording Health concerns kept many longtime poll workers from showing up today, leaving inexperienced volunteers to run new voting machines for the first time. astead herndon Also, there were problems with the machines that were at the polling sites. archived recording 1 Poll workers said they had difficulties turning on the voter check-in computers, and encoding voter access cards, and installing touch screens. archived recording 2 They had printer problems, missing some electrical plugs, as well. astead herndon There are also fewer polling places to begin with because of the coronavirus pandemic, so the virus has added more emphasis on mail-in ballots and absentee ballots, many of which some Georgia residents said they did not receive in the mail. And this created massive lines archived recording We saw repeated over and over people standing, sitting, waiting for the opportunity to have their say in our states political future. astead herndon causing people to wait more than four or five hours in some cases. archived recording 1 53 years Ive been voting, and never have seen a line like this in 53 years. archived recording 2 This is wrong. This is America. This is a crisis in our world to make us not exercise our right to vote. astead herndon It also caused some people to turn away, just throwing up their hands and saying, you know, they cant spend a whole day waiting for a line that they dont know is going to move. archived recording The system is a joke, and were not laughing. caitlin dickerson So why was this happening, Astead? Whats the reason for all this chaos? astead herndon Tuesday was a confluence of local and state problems. And what you hear from the counties that were particularly affected was that certainly, their machines and their processes did not work, and they take some blame for that. But what Democrats say is a larger problem is a state and Republican administration system that runs the elections process that is not interested in helping these counties succeed. caitlin dickerson What I hear you saying is that what happened on Tuesday was not simply a fluke. astead herndon Right. The roots of Georgias fights over ballot access and voting rights start way before Tuesday. archived recording David, what has been the reaction there in Washington to the Supreme Court effectively hobbling the Voting Rights Act? astead herndon In 2013, the Supreme Court opened the door for states to have more autonomy in changing their voting procedures without input from the federal government. archived recording (david leonhardt) You see Democrats very upset about this rule, And you see Republicans who have come out so far praising it, saying the Voting Rights Act has done its work. It may not be needed anymore. astead herndon And that allowed states like Georgia, states that had historically been closely watched in the South, to really overhaul their ballot process. This has included closing polling locations across the state that have predominantly been in Democratic and African-American communities. And also, they passed in 2017 whats called the Exact Match Law, which means when someone registers for the ballot, if there is any difference between that registration and the identification the state has on file whether that is a misplaced letter or an incorrect hyphen it allows the state to throw out that ballot registration. That has led to thousands of people being purged from Georgias voting rolls. And both of these things, closing the polling locations and the Exact Match Law, have disproportionately impacted minority communities, and black communities especially. I remember in 2018 archived recording In Georgia, a record-breaking two million early votes were cast, and all eyes are focused on the states race for governor. astead herndon being in Georgia for the closely-watched governors race between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp. archived recording A poll released today shows that Georgias secretary of state and Republican candidate Brian Kemp leads the Democratic candidate, Stacey Abrams, by just one point. astead herndon And you would be at peoples homes, and you would watch them look up whether their voting registration was still on file. And many would be shocked to find out that they had been purged even without their knowledge. And this came in the middle of a governors race that was just as much about voting rights as it was about Democrat versus Republican. archived recording (stacey abrams) Im Stacey Abrams, and Im running for governor, because where you come from shouldnt determine how far you can go. astead herndon Stacey Abrams, who had previously been the House Minority Leader in Georgia, had built a career off of registering new voters, bringing people new people into the process, and kind of a vision of a blue Georgia on the backs of a multiracial coalition that had yet to be achieved. archived recording (stacey abrams) The blue wave is African-American. [CHEERING] Its white. Its Latino. Its Asian Pacific Islander. archived recording (crowd) Yes! archived recording (stacey abrams) It is made up of those whove been told that they are not worthy of being here. archived recording (crowd) Yes! archived recording (stacey abrams) It is comprised of those who are documented and undocumented. archived recording (crowd) Yes! astead herndon And she was facing the secretary of state, Brian Kemp archived recording (brian kemp) Well, thankfully, the truth here is very simple. Georgians should simply watch what she says. Youll know that shes talking about this election, and talking about illegals voting for her in this election. They filed a lawsuit. astead herndon who had refused to recuse himself from overseeing the states election, even as he ran. And this race was wrapped up in accusations of voter suppression. archived recording (stacey abrams) My worry is that hes using his position as secretary of state to tilt the playing field in his direction. astead herndon And from Republicans about voter fraud. archived recording (brian kemp) I think hardworking Georgians should decide who their governor is, not people here illegally like my opponent wants. astead herndon There was a real sense that whoever won this would be determining the direction, and most importantly, would be the referee for the states elections going forward. And on election day archived recording 1 Good morning. There is no lull in this line, and you can see people lined up here. archived recording 2 The worst of the issues was in Fulton County. At the Pittman Park location, only three voting machines were sent, but eight were supposed to be there. archived recording 3 I live in East Point, and I updated my address at least two times before election day. And on Tuesday when I went to my polling place, they denied me a ballot. astead herndon Stacey Abrams lost by a little less than 55,000 votes. And when she lost, accused Republicans of voter suppression tactics that changed the outcome of the race. archived recording (stacey abrams) Democracy only works when we work for it, and apparently today, when we stand in line for hours to meet it at the ballot box, thats when democracy works. astead herndon For a while, Abrams wouldnt concede to Kemp. archived recording (stacey abrams) Friends, friends, we are still on the verge of history, and the best is yet to come. [CHEERING] caitlin dickerson Astead, how do Republicans respond to these allegations from Democrats that the prior election was unfair? astead herndon On the defensive side, Republicans say that there is not evidence that they are proactively trying to suppress votes. They flip the blame, saying that it is local Democratic officials in these areas who have not lived up to their task in administrating clean elections. They also say that they are focused on things like voter fraud, which we should note does not have real evidence. And they justify things like exact match as a tool to combat this voter fraud. But theyve also done offensive moves. The state purchased new voting machines after criticism that the previous ones were not safe, and a court ordered to do so, and those were used for the first time in Tuesdays election. caitlin dickerson And based on what you saw Tuesday, those measures to address problems in the electoral system, they dont seem to have worked. astead herndon Certainly, those measures do not meet the scope of the crisis. So for whatever new voting machines, or for whatever back and forth this happening between county and state officials, what is clear is that voting in Georgia does not go the way voting should be. But for Republicans, theyll say that the vast majority of Georgias countys, 150 out of 159, had fine days on Tuesday. But its important to recognize that those nine counties that had the biggest issues on Tuesday, theyre not only Democratic areas, but those are the counties that have the largest minority populations in the state. caitlin dickerson So from everything youve said, it sounds like Democrats would see the problems with Tuesdays election as being just a continuation of voting issues that have plagued these same communities in the past, and that they feel Republicans have either ignored or even made worse. astead herndon Thats what Democrats will tell you. I remember running into the state Democratic chair when she was trying to vote. It took her five hours on what was her 10-year wedding anniversary. And she was talking about how familiar it felt, and encouraging people in the line to hold that feeling with them as they look towards the general election. But when you look at the reaction across the country and how much interest there was in what was happening in Georgia, I think a part of that is because the national Democratic and Republican parties realize just how important this state is not just for November, but what could be a preview of how Southern politics is changing in the future. [music] caitlin dickerson Well be right back. Astead, what do you mean? Why is Georgia such a key state for the Democratic party? astead herndon For decades now, Democrats have been virtually shut out of the South. It has been almost impossible for the party to find consistent success in getting a candidate elected to statewide office, whether thats a governor or the Senate, and in presidential elections. And what Democrats have been trying to do over the past decade is create a grassroots momentum that can change the way that they operate in the South. And Georgia has been the focal point of that. caitlin dickerson Astead, help me understand the Democrats strategy in Georgia. astead herndon It basically breaks down to three areas. The first is just the changing demographics of the state. New industries, particularly movie and film, have caused an influx of a new Southerner, as some folks called it, who is living in places like Atlanta and the metro areas, that has made the South their home in the way that has given Democrats a new type of voter to target. Another key point of the strategy is in registering Georgians who may not have participated in previous elections. So that includes predominately young people and people of color, and going to those communities that have kind of felt distant from the political process and bringing them along and involved. The third piece, which has been accelerated in the last three years, has been trying to persuade a white, often college-educated voter, who probably had voted Republican before, that Democrats are now more acceptable party. And this is something that Democrats have said Donald Trump is their best recruiter for. That theres a type of upscale Southerner who doesnt like the incivility that they feel coming from the White House, and is just not as much of a hardened Republican as maybe some others. This is where Democrats, combining all of those three, think they can make big inroads. caitlin dickerson So it sounds like Democrats see Georgia as ripe for flipping from red to blue because of these shifts youre talking about. astead herndon Yes. They see it as their most likely opportunity to deliver a blue state in the South for Joe Biden in November, and in the U.S. Senate. But they also see it as a gateway to a playbook that other Southern states can replicate. The thought process is, if Georgia can put it together after years and years of coming close, that allows places like South Carolina, places like Texas, to have a real roadmap on how Democrats can make inroads. What theyre missing is a victory to prove to other states and to prove to the Democratic party that the South is worth investing in. caitlin dickerson And how likely is it that this victory youre describing is actually going to happen? astead herndon While its certainly a possibility, you have to note that Georgia has been kind of fools gold for Democrats for some years now, which makes the kind of conundrum for what the national party and Joe Bidens campaign should do this year. Should they invest in Georgia, which is the only state in the country that has both its Senate seats up in November? Or, do they spend that money, that time, that investment in states that they know are more likely to be the tipping point for the electoral college? Its kind of a choice between playing it safe or putting all their chips on the table. caitlin dickerson So in light of what they saw on Tuesday, which of these two strategies do you think the Democratic leadership is leaning toward right now? astead herndon In the short term, what Biden chooses to prioritize for the November election, we dont really know. But one of the best ways that the campaign can signal its intentions is through the vice presidential selection. If Joe Biden was to select someone who represents the kind of new Southern democrat someone like Stacey Abrams or Keisha Lance Bottoms, or even Val Demings, the representative in Florida that could signal that the campaign is trying to unlock this type of new Democratic future in the region that weve talked about. And I dont think that you can separate race from this question also. The South and Southern Democrats are overwhelmingly black, and those are the same people that helped revive Joe Bidens campaign after he was struggling in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. To me, an important question as we look towards November is, will Joe Biden try to reward those communities with an increased focus on them as he moves towards the general election, or is the primary over and this is all about just the ways that the campaign believes it needs to beat Donald Trump? caitlin dickerson So weve been talking about how important Georgia is to the Democratic party in 2020, but I can imagine that for that same reason, Georgia is equally as important to Republicans. So what are they doing to hold on to the state? astead herndon I think like Democrats, Georgia Republicans have short-term and long-term considerations. In the short term, they just think the state remains kind of structurally red. But in the long term, Republicans will concede that the demographics of the state are not moving in their direction. And what they need to do to stop this kind of rising tide is to appeal to kind of new communities there. And theres kind of a pitch that, we should tell them that the reason youre leaving California, or New York, or other places is because those states have high taxes and Georgias business friendly. The why liberals have wanted to come here is because of the kind of conservative values, and thats what we should try to hold on to. The problem is, when the President has so defined the parties by kind of social and cultural concerns, can the state Republican make a pitch to an immigrant community, a black professional, around Republicanism with that not being tied in to what Trump has made the focus of the party? caitlin dickerson Youre talking about this cultural clash going on in the country, and thats very top of mind for a lot of Americans right now, obviously. So can you put this election were talking about into the context of this broader cultural moment that we are all living right now? astead herndon Mm-hmm. For both Democrats and Republicans, I think that this moment, this re-emergence of race and racial justice as the countrys top even electoral or voting concern, plays into the strategies that we have laid out. For the Republican side, when we talk about the way that state Republicans and the President have tried to appeal to voters, youve seen Republicans in the last week or so try to make defund the police a scare tactic to bring back that suburban voter. Youve seen them try to focus on the more destructive or looting aspects of the protests to discredit the movement as a whole. But frankly, public opinion shows that there has been widespread agreement around police brutality as a growing issue, and I think thats important to note about what candidates for both sides are saying right now in Georgia. Doug Collins, the representative on the Republican side who is running for Senate, he was the member who wrote and helped pass the First Step Act, the criminal justice reform that President Trump signed into law. And this is a deeply conservative representative who has made that criminal justice pitch a part of his appeal, even in minority communities. And on the Democratic side, the Senate candidates are running very explicit campaigns about race and criminal justice, and about inequalities that were kind of unfathomable in the South years ago. They say that the times are changing, that you dont have to be cagey or calibrate to the ideological middle on things like race. That white Democrats are willing and open to talking about things in explicit terms, and they think that that can be a winning strategy. caitlin dickerson Astead, youve been describing how important Georgia could be in the 2020 elections. So what does what happened on Tuesday night tell us about what we might expect? astead herndon I think Tuesday is a signal for both the country and the parties of things that we might have to expect come November. For one, if elected officials do not proactively prepare for an election that could be upended by virus concerns, we might have lines like we saw on Tuesday. If theyre not prepared to count as thousands and thousands of absentee and mail-in ballots in ways that are unprecedented in presidential history, we might not get results from key states on election night. And even more so, about the type of messages that politicians are giving to the public right now, if people dont feel as if going to the ballot box and voting is a process that is equitable and fair to them, it is going to be harder for particularly Democratic politicians to tell their base, this is where you should put your energy. This is how you make change. What we saw on Tuesday was not an encouraging scene. caitlin dickerson Thank you so much, Astead. astead herndon Thank you, Caitlin. caitlin dickerson Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today. archived recording (philonise floyd) The man who took his life, who suffocated him for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, he still called him sir as he begged for his life. I cant tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something like that. caitlin dickerson On Wednesday, George Floyds brother, Philonise Floyd, testified before Congress. archived recording (philonise floyd) George wasnt hurting anyone that day. He didnt deserve to die over $20. Im asking you, is that what a black man is worth, $20? This is 2020. Enough is enough. caitlin dickerson Speaking to the House Judiciary Committee, Floyd called on lawmakers to pass reforms that would address police brutality and racial discrimination. archived recording (philonise floyd) If his death ends up changing the world for the better and I think it will then he died as he lived. It is on you to make sure his death is not in vain. caitlin dickerson ATLANTA, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mammoth Holdings, LLC ("Mammoth"), an Atlanta-based conveyor car wash operator, has acquired PitStop Carwash ("PitStop"), a five unit express conveyor car wash operator in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. PitStop's founders, Steve Schmidt and Brian Hill, made a significant equity investment in Mammoth and will have ongoing developmental roles with the company. Gary Dennis, Mammoth's co-founder and CEO, explained, "PitStop will expand our presence on the I-10 corridor and overlaps nicely with our existing operations in Alabama." He added, "We're also pleased to have new development partners who are high quality people who will help us expand our operations in the Southeast and offer Mammoth's customers more options." Steve Schmidt stated, "Nothing reveals character like difficult times." Schmidt continued, "The Mammoth team kept all their commitments to us even though we agreed to our deal before the COVID lockdowns. These guys keep their promises." "We love what Mammoth is doing and are excited to be partners with them," said Brian Hill. He continued, "Mammoth is a unique opportunity for car wash operators like Steve [Schmidt] and me, and they listened to us carefully and structured a deal that addressed all of our issues." Mammoth is the first car wash acquisition platform formed by industry-insiders and is tied for the 7th largest conveyor car wash operator in the United States according to Commercial Plus's Top 100 list. Mammoth is customer-focused operationally and operator-focused in its approach to acquisitions and seeks to be the partner-of-choice for car wash operators who desire liquidity, growth capital, and a tax-deferred equity investment opportunity. Mammoth's multi-brand portfolio includes Marc-1, Wash Me Fast, Swifty, Ultra, Finish Line, Wiggy Wash, Shine On, and now PitStop, among others. Mammoth has significant growth capital at its disposal and is actively seeking acquisitions and development opportunities. In October 2018, Mammoth partnered with Red Dog Equity LLC, an Atlanta-based private equity firm, which, through its partnership with Tom Pritzker's family business interests (advised by The Pritzker Organization), provides the equity for Mammoth's corporate development initiatives. Monroe Capital provides Mammoth's debt financing. About Mammoth Holdings Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Mammoth Holdings operates 44 conveyor car washes under the Marc-1, Swifty, Ultra, Wash Me Fast, Wiggy Wash, Pals, Finish Line, Shine On, and QuickWash Express brands in Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Illinois, Utah, and Tennessee. Mammoth was founded by Gary Dennis and Chip Hackett in 2002. To learn more, please visit one of our locations or see us online at: www.mammothholdings.com. About PitStop PitStop operates express conveyor car washes in Slidell, Louisiana, Gulfport and Waveland, MS, and Fairhope and Foley, Alabama. PitStop was founded by Steve Schmidt and Brain Hill in 2005. To learn more, please visit a PitStop location or see us online at: www.acleancarfast.com About Red Dog Equity LLC Red Dog Equity LLCTM is a private equity firm that invests in lower middle-market companies poised for strong growth in partnership with driven, entrepreneurial business leaders ("Red Dogs"). To learn more, please visit: www.reddogequity.com. About The Pritzker Organization The Pritzker Organization is the merchant bank for the business interests of the Tom Pritzker family. Additional information can be found at www.pritzkerorg.com. SOURCE Mammoth Holdings Related Links http://www.mammothholdings.com Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during her address to the members of industry body FICCI, said the Centre may consider extending deadline for availing lower 15 per cent corporation tax on new investments. The new corporation tax rate is available for manufacturing companies incorporated after October 1, 2019, and that have started operations before March 31, 2023. "I will see what can be done. We want the industry to benefit from the 15 per cent corporation tax rate on new investments and I take your point for considering an extension in the deadline of March 31, 2023," Sitharaman said. The minister also assured the industry of all possible government help amid the coronavirus crisis. "We are committed to supporting/intervene if any of your members have a problem," she said. The Finance minister sought the industry's recommendations related to the ministry of corporate affairs or SEBI deadlines so that necessary steps could be taken. The Centre in September last year reduced corporate tax rates from a high of 30 per cent to 22 per cent. ALSO READ: 1.5 lakh MSMEs utilise Rs 13,500 crore of govt's credit line in 10 days It also allowed any new domestic companies incorporated on or after October 1, 2019, making fresh investment in manufacturing to pay income-tax at the rate of 15 per cent. The new tax rates apply to companies which do not avail of any exemptions or incentives. The Union Minister also said that the COVID Emergency Credit Facility covers all companies and not just MSMEs. Also read: COVID Emergency Credit Facility for all businesses, not just MSMEs, clarifies FM Sitharaman With regard to the need for reduction in GST rates in the worst affected sectors, she said, "GST rate reduction will go to the Council. But the council is also looking for revenue. The decision for a reduction in rate for any sector has to be taken by the Council". Finance and Revenue Secretary Mr Ajay Bhushan Pandey informed FICCI members that Income Tax Refund to the corporates have also started and I-T refunds to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore have been issued in the last few weeks. ALSO READ: Rahul Gandhi accuses Centre of refusing to provide cash support to people, MSMEs Chastised by my diaspora and victimised by some of my colleagues, I was in a special kind of hell. My family didn't want me to join the military or the police because they "were racist" and some of the latter didn't want me either because of the colour of my skin. I write this as a former law enforcement officer and veteran of Indian decent. I began my military career in the UK at the age of 18 and suffered racism at the hands of instructors and peers. I then joined the police service as a natural progression and once again was victim to the same abuse. My condolences go out to all the victims, families and friends who have been the subject of police brutality or suffered the indignation of witnessing such abhorrent acts. Why is this allowed to continue? How can we change this? I moved from England and transferred to Scotland, where I worked in some diverse and beautiful landscapes. In 1998 I was the first-ever ethnic police officer in northern Scotland. On their own crime reporting system for the purpose of identifying ethnicity, they used the word "Negroid". I sent a memorandum to Police HQ and the senior leadership team and had to rationalise how this was inappropriate and perhaps they should align themselves with the terminology used by the Equal Opportunities Commission. I knew they had received the memo as I received timely "feedback". Nothing changed. I left the police a short while later due to racism and bullying by a senior officer. Naturally the senior leadership team did nothing to stop the racism and, as per their playbook, closed ranks. There are many more personal stories and a plethora of other incidents that have happened to minority colleagues globally, my heart goes out to them and the "good" officers who serve, protect and risk their lives on a daily basis. Victorian Police officers during a Black Lives Matter rally in Melbourne, on Saturday. Credit:AAP To the people of Scotland, I salute you, in my tenure as an officer both on and off duty, I was treated with respect, compassion and welcomed into the communities I served. It was a pleasure and an honour. Racism is what finally brought me to leave a job that I truly loved. When I think about George Floyd's tragic death, or any of the uncalled-for deaths we hear about in the United States or, of course, here in Australia, it makes me think about the complexity of the situation and what we can do to change things. I can't ever claim to understand the circumstances of either African-American men or Australia's Indigenous people, but from my experience, I just keep wondering whether we could change the horrendous track record we see by changing the make-up of the institutions responsible for these atrocities. VICTORIABritish Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix says hes grateful not to have to add more people to the COVID-19 death count of 167. The province announced no new deaths on Monday and 30 cases of the virus over the last three days. B.C. now has a total of 2,659 COVID-19 cases, while 2,309 people have recovered. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says people planning summer holidays within B.C. must take precautions to protect the communities they visit from the virus. She says travellers should practise physical distancing, stay home if sick and place as light a burden as possible on the services available in the smaller B.C. communities they may visit. Dix says the federal government has jurisdiction over Canadas borders, but he recommends against tourist travel across the United States-Canada border because of the recent increases in COVID-19 cases in neighbouring states of Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and Nevada. The federal government announced a loosening of the ban on non-essential travel across the border Monday to allow some families to reunite, but anyone entering Canada still must self-isolate for 14 days. Henry says people attending weekend protest gatherings across B.C. must monitor their health over the coming days. I implore people to make sure you are not going to bring this back to your families and loved ones and your community, she said. Read more about: A seismic shift is underway in our communities, our economy, and our politics. Anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention can see it. And like pretty much everyone alive right now, I am worried a lot during these times. But as people call out their public officials and spill into the streets daily to demand justice, all against the backdrop of an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, I find myself feeling bizarrely hopeful. We are in a moment where change isnt just possible it is imperative, and it is coming. You can feel it heavy in the air, like the atmosphere roiling before a torrential downpour. Look at how much has already changed. All across the developed world, crises have led people to rediscover government that much-maligned lumbering giant as one of the best tools we have to make profound, lasting improvements in our lives. For many of us, activism has been a relic of the past confined to black and white photos and Dylan songs, or a thing our intense cousin did on the weekends. Now activism and activists are everywhere informing us, inspiring us, and daily helping us to reimagine what is possible. But even as so many things change, some very stubbornly stay the same. Ive been in and around politics in every level of government, and one sad thing is always true, no matter which big stone castle were talking about, there just arent enough Black staff (or elected officials, to be honest) getting the business of the people done. When I first landed in Ottawa as a speech writer, a journalist told me in passing that they thought I might very well be the first Black person or even person of colour to be speech writer to a federal party leader. This was in 2017! And while Im still not 100 per cent certain of this bit of trivia, what I can tell you is that in every parliament, legislature and council chamber Ive been in, it has felt true. Look at Toronto. We are a global city the fourth largest city in North America and one of the most diverse and multicultural cities in the world. Yet, out of the 275 staff at Toronto City Hall less than 15 per cent are racialized, and less than half of them are Black. Theres an old political cliche that I have found time and again to be very true. If youre not at the table, then youre on the menu. In legislatures across Canada, Black people and especially Black youth have been on the menu for centuries. If were going to get off the menu for good, then we have to ensure that the systemic change we are marching for in the streets is executed by Black folks sitting around the tables as both elected officials and support staff. This isnt about optics, or even representation for its own sake. Making sure that people with deep roots in Black community are in decision-making spaces is how we ensure that the substance, shape and details of what government does reflects Black experiences. It also builds connections between Black communities and institutions the kind that let Black people know there is someone they can trust and call who will have their back in rooms they might not get to be in. That is why Im incredibly excited to announce the inaugural Black Youth Fellowship at Toronto City Hall. In 2021, we will provide 10 to 15 highly motivated, passionate and hard-working Black youth with the chance to get hands-on experience working with an elected government representative. The goal is to put these young people on a fast-track to success and build bridges between community and government. If we do this right, we will create a platform to empower the next generation of Black public servants not just here in Toronto, but in City Halls, legislatures and public institutions all across Canada. This is a big dream, and I know it wont always be easy. There will be bumps in the road and false starts. But believe me when I say that these youth are more than up to the challenge. Theyre smart, driven, and bursting with potential. Theyre going to change this city, and the world. And we can all help give them their start. Thirty-six years after becoming the first American woman to walk in space, Kathy Sullivan has made history yet again. On Sunday, the 68-year-old oceanographer and former NASA astronaut became the first woman to reach the deepest known spot in the ocean after returning from a 35,810-foot dive from the Challenger Deep. At the same time, she also became the first person in history to have both walked in space and descended to the deepest part of the earth. 36 years after my space walk, I became the first woman to dive to the deepest known spot in the ocean - the Challenger Deep. #WorldOceansDay pic.twitter.com/KWJxx4fBYR Kathy Sullivan (@AstroKDS) June 9, 2020 The Challenger Deep is an almost 7-mile deep depression located approximately 200 miles off Guam's coast in the Mariana Trench. Dr. Sullivan and Victor Vescovo, the former Navy officer and entrepreneur who helped fund the expedition, spent about an hour-and-a-half in Challenger Deep photographing the recess while inside a specially designed submersible called Limiting Factor. After returning to the surface, which took approximately four hours, the two got in touch with astronauts aboard the International Space Station, who had made history themselves just days earlier. "As a hybrid oceanographer and astronaut this was an extraordinary day, a once in a lifetime day, seeing the moonscape of the Challenger Deep and then comparing notes with my colleagues on the ISS about our remarkable reusable inner-space outer-spacecraft," said Dr. Sullivan. NASA Dr. Sullivan joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman to walk in space on October 11th, 1984. As it often does, history has a way of rhyming. The craft that ferried Dr. Sullivan to her historic space flight was the Space Shuttle Challenger. NASA named the shuttle after the HMS Challenger, the British corvette that discovered the Challenger Deep during an expedition it undertook to crisscross the world's oceans from 1872 to 1876. Coronavirus measures affecting Saskatchewan PNP Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program is helping nominees and applicants amid coronavirus disruptions. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Saskatchewan is one of several provinces working to support immigration applicants during the coronavirus pandemic. Provincial nomination applications for Saskatchewan are still being processed. Since Canada implemented sweeping coronavirus containment measures on March 18, restricting most foreign travel, the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) has held two draws. The province has implemented temporary measures to help provincial nominees avoid losing their chance at permanent residence due to coronavirus-related closures. SINP nominees can request an extra six months to apply for permanent residence by emailing the government of Saskatchewan. Nominees and people who are applying for the provincial nomination may get a conditional nomination if the terms of the employment offer from their original SINP application has changed due to COVID-19. Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs If people no longer meet the minimum criteria of the SINP category through which they received their nomination, it may be changed to a conditional nomination. The conditions will need to be removed in order for the nominee to get permanent residence. The SINP needs to be immediately notified if applicants and nominees have had any employment change. That might include being laid off or if the job is terminated. Withholding this information will be interpreted as misrepresentation. The following temporary measures apply to nominees and provincial nomination applicants who had a valid job offer and met the conditions of their work permit: Nominees will have six months to obtain new, eligible employment if the original job offer from their application no longer exists. Their nomination will become conditional until they receive a new full-time job offer. If the nominee receives a new employment offer it must be from an allowable business. These occupations are needed to provide critical public services. If the new job offer is for one of these businesses then the occupation does not need to match the workers education, or past work experience provided that the employer verifies the worker has the skills and abilities to perform the work. Applicants or nominees who have had their full-time hours reduced will be allowed to continue working for their approved employer, without supplementing their employment if the employer commits to resuming full-time employment within six months. If the worker had a provincial nomination before the hours were reduced, it will become a conditional nomination while their employment is for less than 30 hours per week. Applicants must be working full-time in one or more jobs and meet all applicable SINP criteria in order to be nominated. Workers who do not have open work permits must obtain a new permit from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The SINP will issue them a new work permit support letter. Foreigners in Canada need a work permit in order to work legally in Canada. If a nominee, applicant, or potential applicant receives short-term support during the pandemic they will not be penalized. For more temporary SINP measures affecting other Saskatchewan immigration candidates, go to the government webpage. Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs Need assistance with the Temporary Work Permit application process? Contact wp@canadavisa.com. 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved More than 30 per cent of West Australian tourism businesses say they will go under unless the hard border with the eastern states is lifted. The Tourism Council surveyed thousands of operators as the McGowan government refuses to give a date for allowing tourists back into WA. There are 34 per cent of businesses saying they are not viable with interstate restrictions, the survey found. Only 26 per cent agreed their business could replace out-of-state visitors with WA visitors. State and federal law enforcement agencies are engaged in an overlapping set of investigations into the killing of George Floyd. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison took control of the murder prosecution from the local district attorney. And a federal criminal investigation will be conducted through the U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis and the Civil Rights Division in Washington, where both of us were once prosecutors. Both investigations are important for delivering justice. But there is a third type of investigation that would help reform the Minneapolis Police Department overall, rather than only focusing on a few bad actors. This kind of investigation - called a "pattern or practice" investigation - has proved successful in police departments across the country. Unfortunately, U.S. Attorney General William Barr refuses to open one in Minneapolis, and the Trump administration has all but abandoned them. Congress created the authority for these federal investigations, formally known as 34 U.S.C. 12601, in the aftermath of the vicious beating of Rodney King by LAPD officers. The four officers were tried and acquitted in 1992. The failed local prosecution led to riots - but it was followed by a successful federal prosecution, which convicted two of the officers of federal civil rights violations. But even that victory couldn't fix a Los Angeles Police Department that had been exposed as racist, frequently trampling on the civil rights of black and brown Angelenos. So Congress enacted Section 12601 as part of the 1994 crime bill. Although that crime bill is rightly criticized for many things - expanding the death penalty and life sentences, curtailing parole and providing huge sums of money to build new prisons - the creation of "pattern or practice" authority is one of the things it did right. Pattern or practice investigations are civil, not criminal, investigations, and they aim at systemic problems, not individual officers. They allow the federal government to sue any law enforcement entity that engages in "a pattern or practice of conduct . . . that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States." The government cannot sue for money, but it can sue for what's called equitable and declaratory relief, which is an order from a judge that police agencies have to enact specific reforms. Most cases don't go to trial. Once the federal government has uncovered specific and multiple constitutional violations, the police department will often begin negotiating rather than defend its practices in court. These usually result in "consent decrees," where the police departments agree to reform their practices. The LAPD was the subject of one of the first major consent decrees, which lasted from 2001 to 2013. More for you Cuomo blasts president for alleging injured Buffalo protester 'set up' incident While public attention may be drawn to a police department because of a horrific event like the King beating, there's no such thing as a consent decree for a single bad action. The federal government doesn't seek a decree unless its investigation shows systemic misconduct. A more recent example came in Chicago, after the 2014 killing of Laquan McDonald by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke. In their initial police reports, officers falsely claimed that McDonald was lunging at them with a knife. After significant public agitation and investigative journalism, a video was later released that showed that McDonald was actually walking away when Van Dyke shot him, and that Van Dyke continued to shoot him as he was lying on the ground. Van Dyke was charged by the state and convicted of second-degree murder. But that criminal prosecution did not address a culture that allowed numerous officers working alongside Van Dyke to cover for him. Nor did it address the years of excessive force in Chicago that preceded McDonald's murder or the broken accountability systems that allowed police brutality to go unchecked. To get at those entrenched problems, the Justice Department opened an investigation under its "pattern or practice" authority. In investigations like these, the federal government sends attorneys and investigators to the city to learn as much as it can about the areas of police conduct under scrutiny - such as the use of force, stops and searches, suppression of free speech or all of the above. The team interviews officers and reviews arrest reports, citizen complaints, department policies and training materials. They also hold community forums and interview residents about their interactions with police to gather evidence from across the community. With the help of data scientists and experts with law enforcement backgrounds, they assess whether there is a pattern of unconstitutional conduct and also identify the sources of the systemic misconduct, such as the failure of accountability systems or the adoption of harmful policing strategies like "broken windows" or "zero-tolerance" approaches. The investigations are intensive and extensive: The one in Chicago took a year and involved interviews with 340 members of the police department. (One of us, Chiraag Bains, worked in the Civil Rights Division's front office at the time and helped review the Chicago findings letter after the investigation was finished.) During the Obama administration, the Justice Department routinely made its findings public in detailed reports. In Chicago, the department issued a report - called a findings letter - explaining that the police department had "engage[d] in a pattern or practice of using force, including deadly force, that is unreasonable," and that it had "not provided officers with adequate guidance to understand how and when they may use force, or how to safely and effectively control and resolve encounters to reduce the need to use force." A findings letter like that, which showed a clear pattern of constitutional violations, would normally tee up a lawsuit where the federal government would seek structural reform. The negotiation process is hard-fought, but it results in a set of reforms that both sides believe are feasible to implement and strong enough to correct the problems. The agreements typically include some common elements: stricter rules on when police can use force, policies to prevent discrimination, better training and data collection, fairer hiring and promotion processes, stronger accountability systems for misconduct and mechanisms for community influence over department policy. Once the consent decree is agreed to, the court has the authority to monitor its implementation. If the city doesn't comply, it can be held in contempt and sanctioned through fines or additional requirements. There is strong evidence that consent decrees work. According to one study, departments that went through consent decrees saw an average of 25% fewer police shootings in the first year of implementation. In Detroit, police shootings dropped from 47 in the five years before the consent decree to 17 in the five years after. From 2011 to 2019, serious use of force declined 63% in Seattle, which entered a consent decree in 2012. Most decrees have data collection and analysis requirements, so the community can see whether force, misconduct and racial disparities are decreasing. They are not a complete solution, but they make a difference. But in Chicago, the process froze right after the Justice Department issued its report. One of the most important aspects of that findings letter turned out to be its date: Jan. 13, 2017, one week before President Donald Trump entered office. Trump's Justice Department not only refused to act on the report, but it actually weighed in against the Illinois attorney general when she sought a consent decree under state authority. Once Trump took office, his administration moved immediately to stifle the pattern or practice program, attempting to back out of an agreement in Baltimore and ordering a full review of all police reform cases. The day before Trump fired him, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued new guidance that severely restricted the use and duration of consent decrees. Trump's Justice Department has opened just one narrow investigation focusing on a single unit of the Springfield Police Department in Massachusetts, compared with 25 under President Barack Obama. The career employees who work on consent decrees remain as dedicated and professional as ever - we have worked alongside them and have seen it firsthand. But their unit has atrophied to half its size since Trump took office. And the big-picture decisions are not made by those attorneys; they are made by political appointees. Without their support, the investigations won't happen, or they won't have teeth if they do. Even some Republican politicians are beginning to realize that this is a mistake. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said last week that he would ask Barr to bring "pattern or practice" investigations back. With the federal government missing in action, Minnesota's Department of Human Rights announced June 2 that it will investigate whether the Minneapolis Police Department has engaged in systemic discrimination over the past 10 years. And on Sunday, a majority of the Minneapolis City Council announced that it would "begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department and creating a new transformative model for cultivating safety in our city." But for now, the Minneapolis Police Department exists and is badly in need of intervention, and the 17,000 law enforcement entities across the country need a watchdog. There is no replacement for a federal government with deep experience in police reform. The tools are there. We just need a Justice Department willing to use them. - - - Bains is former senior counsel to the head of the at the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, where he was involved in pattern-or-practice cases and was also a prosecutor. Mulhauser spent twelve years as a lawyer at the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, eight of them as a prosecutor. GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Edges Higher as Risk Sentiment Fades The Pound to Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate rose by 0.7% today, with the pairing currently trading around AU$1.82. The Australian Dollar (AUD) suffered from rising trade tensions between Australia and China, the nations largest trading partner. This follows a comment from Chinas Ministry of Education which urged students to exercise caution when considering studying in Australia. Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said that Australia had been involved in smearing China, adding: The Australian side should recognise the real problem rather than hiding its head in the sand. As a result, the Aussie has suffered from growing fears that trade relations could deteriorate between Australia and China, throwing Australias already delicate economy into a state of high uncertainty. In other Australian economic news, today saw the release of the National Australia Banks business confidence report for May, which fell by -20 slightly better than its more dire forecast of -32. However, this was not enough to boost the risk-sensitive Aussie today. Pound (GBP) Rises Despite the Return of No-Deal Fears The Pound (GBP) rose against the weaker Aussie today following last nights release of the BRC retail sales report for May, which rose from 5.7% to 7.9%. However, this was still low, leaving many Sterling traders concerned for Britains retail sector. Helen Dickinson, the BRCs chief executive, commented on the data: Sales in May demonstrated yet another month of struggle for retailers across the country, despite an improvement on the previous month. Nonetheless, as the sun came out and restaurants lay dormant, food sales rose with consumers taking to their local parks for beers, BBQs and picnics. Clothing and beauty sales improved slightly on April, as people left their homes to meet outside with friends and family. Meanwhile, concerns over post-Brexit developments are holding back some the Pounds gains today, after MP Penny Mordaunt commented that she hopes to have a trade deal agreed by autumn. Furthermore, she said that Britain would not be looking to extend its transition period, leaving many investors concerned over the now more likely possibility of a no-deal in December. GBP/AUD Outlook: Could Easing UK Lockdown Measures Boost Sterling? Australian Dollar (AUD) traders will be looking ahead to tomorrows release of the Australian Westpac consumer confidence report for June. However, if Australias consumers morale continues to drop, we could see the Aussie struggle. AUD will also continue to be dominated by developments between Australia and China this week. Any further signs that relations further souring between the two powers would prove detrimental to the risk-averse Aussie. The GBP/AUD exchange rate could edge higher this week if Downing Street announces any further plans to ease the UKs nationwide lockdown. As a result, we could see Sterling continue to rise. Taiwan to test indigenous advanced jet trainer in two weeks ROC Central News Agency 06/08/2020 09:01 PM Taipei, June 8 (CNA) Taiwan's Air Force is set to test the first locally developed advanced jet trainer (AJT) on June 22 at Taichung Air Base weather permitting, with President Tsai Ing-wen () expected to attend, a military official told CNA on Monday. The test will be moved to a later date should the weather be bad, said the official who asked not to be named. The prototype of the AJT, codenamed "Yung Yin ()" or Brave Eagle, was unveiled on September 24, 2019 at a manufacturing plant operated by the government-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC) in Taichung. The development project was launched in 2017. The Brave Eagle is capable of providing air support in combat due to its ability to carry missiles and bombs, according to some Taiwanese military experts. Su Tzu-yun (), a research fellow at the military-affiliated Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told CNA that military flight tests are normally completed within 20 minutes. Data and information will be collected to calibrate the system and make improvements, he said. According to some media reports, the AIDC plans to mass produce the Brave Eagle beginning in March 2022, with an aim to deliver 66 units by 2026 to replace the country's aging AT-3 and F-5 trainer aircraft, which have served the military for over three decades. (By Matt Yu and Emerson Lim) Enditem/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A man accused of driving his pick-up truck into peaceful protesters in Richmond, Virginia, over the weekend is an "admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology," prosecutors said Monday. Details: Harry H. Rogers, 36, of Virginia, was charged with assault and battery, attempted malicious wounding, and felony vandalism over Sunday evening's incident, tweeted Shannon Taylor, the Commonwealth's Attorney for Henrico County. "We are investigating whether hate crimes charges are appropriate," she said in a statement. Prosecutors allege that Rogers drove "recklessly" toward the Black Lives Matter protesters, revving up his truck's engine before driving into the crowd. He appeared in court on Monday morning and was denied bond, according to Richmond news outlet WTVR. What they're saying: "Protesters acting peaceably, well within their constitutional rights of assembly, should not have to fear violence. We lived through this in Virginia in Charlottesville in 2017," Taylor said in the statement, referencing the white supremacist rally that killed antiracism activist Heather Heyer. "I promise Henricoans that this egregious criminal act will not go unpunished. Hate has no place here under my watch." Of note: In a separate incident on Sunday, a man drove a vehicle into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters on Seattle's Capitol Hill, shooting and injuring one man. Nikolas Fernandez, 31, who is being held on investigation for first-degree assault, claims he acted in self-defense. Editor's note: The photo was removed as our general policy is to not use mugshots. TORRINGTON Make Music Day NWCT is making its third annual return to the Northwest corner June 21. The Northwest CT Arts Council is hosting this event again this year, after two successful Make Music Day events. People from all over the community are invited to witness the unique, creative, socially-distant performances during this time when music and positive energy are most needed. All performances are free and open to the public. In lieu of COVID-19 restrictions, many performances will be held outdoors, following socially distant parameters, or online. The Arts Council is also providing PPE, sanitizers, and disinfectant wipes and spray to venues to ensure that events stay as safe as possible. Audience members must wear masks when attending live performances. Make Music NWCT will be smaller this year, due to the virus, but performances will be unforgettable. Two venues, the Howards Noelke Gallery and Red Room Recording Studios, are putting on rooftop concerts in downtown Torrington. The Arts Council has also offered two virtual opportunities for the public to collaborate through either a drumming activity or a harmonica lesson. Participants are invited to pick up a free pair of drumsticks or a harmonica, take a video of themselves playing, and submit them to maddie@artsnwct.org for a compilation video to be released on June 21st. This event is really special to the Northwest corner. The musicians here bring such a rich energy to the culture of the region, and Make Music Day is a full-on celebration of that. We hope that, despite the pandemic, performances will be just as meaningful as ever, says Maddie Stenson, Program Director of the NWCT Arts Council. Full details about Make Music NWCT can be found at makemusicday.org/nwct. Make Music NWCT is sponsored in part by the CT Office of the Arts and Make Music Alliance. Make Music Day began in France in 1892 as the Fete de la Musique, and has spread to over 800 cities across 120 countries. This event grew into an international celebration that takes place on the summer solstice of each year. Each year on June 21st, people of all ages and skill levels are encouraged to create music at participating venues all over the world. The mission of the Northwest Connecticut Arts Council is to engage the public in building a strong and connected arts and culture community that is integral to the economic development and the collective well-being of the region. The Arts Council board and staff believe that access to arts and culture is a universal human right, meeting both a social and psychological need. The Council supports a vibrant, vital, and necessary component of the local community through promotion and advocacy. The Northwest Connecticut Arts Council is supported in part by the DECD/Connecticut Office of the Arts, the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation and the Connecticut Community Foundation. NUR-SULTAN, June 9. /TASS/. Kazakhstan has documented 215 cases of COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the past 24 hours, which is 50 more than yesterday. The total number of infections in the country has reached 13,074, the press service of the Kazakh health ministry informed on Tuesday. "We have documented 215 new cases of infection among those with symptoms, the growth rate has reached 1.7%. In total, 13,074 cases are confirmed in the country," the message informs. The share ... 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. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 8, 2020) - Apex Resources Inc. (TSXV: APX) ("Apex" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"), it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement") and raise total gross proceeds of up to $750,000 through the issuance of approximately 5.75M units (the "Units") at $0.065 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $375,000 and the issuance of approximately 3.4M flow-through units (the "Flow-Through Units") at $0.11 per Flow-Through Unit for gross proceeds of up to $375,000. Each Unit is comprised of one (1) common share (the "Shares") in the capital of Apex and one (1) non-transferable share purchase warrant (the "Warrants"). Each Flow Through Unit is comprised of one (1) Flow Through common share in the capital of Apex and one (1) Warrant. The Warrants attached to the Units and Flow-through Units will be exercisable into one Share of the Company for a period of 12 months from the date of issue at an exercise price of $0.14 per Share. The Warrants are subject to an acceleration clause whereby if the volume weighted average closing price of the Shares on the Exchange is $0.20 or more for 21 consecutive trading days at any time subsequent to the expiry of six months from the date of issuance of the Warrants, then the Company will earn the right by providing notice (the "Acceleration Notice") to the warrant holders, to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants to that date which is 30 days from the date of the Acceleration Notice. All securities issued in connection with the Private Placement will be subject to a hold period and may not be traded for four months plus one day from the date of closing of the Private Placement. Net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used for an expanded drill program on the Ore Hill Property and for general working capital. Story continues The Company welcomes all qualified investors to participate in the Private Placement. About Apex Resources Inc. Apex is a Canadian gold exploration and development company focused on British Columbia and the Yukon Territories. Apex has a portfolio of quality properties including: The Mount Anderson gold-silver property in the Yukon. The Kena-Daylight gold property in southern BC under option to Prize Mining Corp. The Jersey-Emerald tungsten-zinc property in southern BC. The Ore Hill gold property in southern BC. Apex management has a track record of mine discovery that includes the discovery and development of the renowned Hemlo Gold Mine in Ontario and the Mengapur copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry deposit (225Mt @ 0.59% Cu equivalent) in Malaysia now under development by Monument Mining Ltd. 2020 Exploration Program In 2020, the company plans for continued exploration at Ore Hill. The scale of the exploration program is dependent upon completion of financing. All permits are in place for an expanded drill program which will commence upon completion of a structural geological mapping program to assist with fine tuning the drill target areas. Drilling will step out from the initial 2 holes to test the strike and down-dip extension of the gold mineralization encountered during the 2019 program. (Please see news release of December 17, 2019.) For further information on the Company's projects, visit www.apxresources.com . Arthur G. Troup, P.Eng., Geological President and CEO For further information please contact: Marc Lee, Investor and Corporate Communications Tel: (604) 628-0519 Fax: (604) 628-0446 Email: mlee@apxresources.com or info@apxresources.com This release was prepared by Apex's management. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements." All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future production, reserve potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that Apex expects are forward-looking statements. Although Apex 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 or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and those actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on Apex, investors should review Apex's filings that are available at www.sedar.com or Apex's website at www.apxresources.com. The securities referred to in this news release have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from the U.S. registration requirements. This news release does not constitute an offer for sale of securities for sale, nor a solicitation for offers to buy any securities. Any public offering of securities in the United States must be made by means of a prospectus containing detailed information about the company and management, as well as financial statements. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/57480 CHICAGO, IL / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2020 / Real Restoration Group ("RRG") announces 24/7 help for all local businesses in these times of uncertainty brought about by Covid-19 and property damage from recent looting incidents throughout Chicagoland in an effort to assist our community restore, rebuild, and reopen. The pandemic has created a challenging, unprecedented operating environment with previously unforeseeable impacts to one's home and business. The RRG team is here to calm fears and build confidence in the face of uncertainty. Real Restoration will help their clients regain control of their business, adapt to new changes, reconfigure and optimize spaces while adhering to new CDC guidelines. Real Restoration Group Founder & CEO Morris Gershengorin states, "Our company was built to help when the unexpected strikes." Residents and business owners can rest assured that their highly skilled and experienced team is ready to respond immediately. No one is beyond the risk of having to deal with property damage. A strong sense of community and teamwork is woven into the very fabric of their founding principles and mission. Those affected need to know that the Real Restoration Group is here to help them retake control of the situation. Those who need immediate 24/7 assistance, can please call them at (312) 265-4668 or click here. Real Restoration has a reputation for dealing with most major insurance companies quickly and efficiently, which creates less stress for those affected. The RRG team will respond immediately, and upon arrival at the scene, will make an immediate assessment, the first priority always being the safety of the property owners. A plan is quickly developed and then put into action. Those who have been affected can take comfort in knowing that their business, dwelling, or non-profit organization is now in the good hands and care of RRG's experienced first responders. Real Restoration will assist with all of the insurance claims and not charge a fee allowing all of the funds from the claim to go back into the project versus being diluted by a public adjuster. Real Restoration Group will be donating a portion of profits from claims within this month to the Anti-Defamation League and other organizations that address discrimination, prejudice, and racism. Included in the company's commitment to the community is their involvement in several different charities including F.R.E.E., the ADL, JUF, and Ronald McDonald Foundation. About Real Restoration Group The Real Restoration Group is a company that cares about its community and has done so since its founding over three decades ago by Morris Gershengorin. Mr. Gershengorin has been quoted as saying that he sees his company's future as one that will experience, "Rapid growth, innovation, and the ability to touch many different levels of society and income brackets along with those in desperate need of help." Real Restoration provides multiple construction services throughout the Chicagoland area, and none of these are more important than the emergency restoration services being offered. This is when clients have their greatest need, and Real Restoration wants to be there for them. This is a company that has been built on the foundation of caring for the needs of other people when their needs are at their greatest. There is no distinction between large corporations like Freddie Mac, IBM, Marriott or a small family. The same care, concern, and impeccable services are provided by Real Restoration. As President and CEO of Real Restoration, he and each of his professional team members all have a common goal, which is to meet the needs of those that they serve when they are called upon to do so. Contact Information For more information please visit Real Restoration Group's website at realrestoration.com. Interested parties may contact Real Restoration through their website or at info@realrestore.com. For more information about Real Restoration Group, contact the company here: Real Restoration Group Morris Gershengorin (312) 265-4668 info@realrestore.com 1322 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60642 SOURCE: Real Restoration Group View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/593331/Real-Restoration-Group-Announces-247-Help-for-All-Local-Businesses-in-Chicago-to-Rebuild-and-Reopen [June 09, 2020] CGI welcomes Stephen Poloz and Mary Powell to its Board of Directors MONTREAL, June 9, 2020 /CNW/ - CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB) is pleased to announce the appointment of Stephen S. Poloz and Mary Powell to its Board of Directors. A widely-recognized economist with nearly 40 years of experience in financial markets, forecasting, and economic policy, Stephen S. Poloz served a seven-year term as the Governor of the Bank of Canada, starting in 2013. As Governor, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). He was also Chair of the BIS Audit Committee and former Chair of the Consultative Council for the Americas. Previously, Mr. Poloz was President and CEO of Export Development Canada, a major public sector financial intermediary providing various forms of insurance and lending to facilitate international business on behalf of Canadian companies. Recognized as an energy transformation visionary, Mary Powell has served as President and Chief Executive Officer for Green Mountain Power Corporation (GMP) in the state of Vermont from 2008 through 2019. Se led GMP's ambitious energy transformation program to provide low carbon, low cost and reliable power to Vermont citizens. Ms. Powell has received various accolades, including the prestigious Rachel Carson Award in 2018, which honors distinguished female leaders influencing the environment. She is Chair of The Solar Foundation, Director of the Rocky Mountain Institute, and an active member of the board of directors for several leading companies. "We are pleased to welcome our new members to the Board. Mary and Stephen will provide valuable perspective and insights as we continue to expand our business globally for the benefit of our clients, consultants and shareholders" said Founder and Executive Chairman Serge Godin. He added "Stephen Poloz's deep knowledge of financial markets, the global economy and international trade will be an invaluable asset to CGI as we continue to help worldwide organizations grow their businesses. Mary Powell's utilities expertise will significantly benefit our presence in that space, and she also has a strong commitment to social responsibility that is very much aligned with CGI's objectives." About CGI Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 78,000 consultants and other professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. With Fiscal 2019 reported revenue of C$12.1 billion, CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at cgi.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cgi-welcomes-stephen-poloz-and-mary-powell-to-its-board-of-directors-301072392.html SOURCE CGI Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Visitors hang a ribbon on a wire fence decorated with other ribbons at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, June 9, 2020. North Korea said Tuesday it will cut off all communication channels with South Korea as it escalates its pressure on the South for failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across their tense border. (AP Photo) SEOUL: North Korea said it will cut off all communication channels with South Korea at noon Tuesday as it escalates its pressure on the South for failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across their tense border. South Koreas liberal government, which espouses greater ties with North Korea, repeated that it will work toward restoring peace on the Korean Peninsula in its response to the warning. Relations between the Koreas have been strained during a prolonged deadlock in broader nuclear diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington. Some experts say North Korea may be deliberately creating tensions to bolster internal unity or launch a bigger provocation in the face of persistent U.S.-led sanctions. The Norths Korean Central News Agency said all cross-border communication lines will be cut off in the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary things. It said the decision was made by Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, and Kim Yong Chol, a former hard-line military intelligence chief who Seoul believes was behind two 2010 attacks that killed 50 South Koreans. The South Korean authorities connived at the hostile acts against (North Korea) by the riff-raff, while trying to dodge heavy responsibility with nasty excuses, KCNA said. They should be forced to pay dearly for this. South Korean conservative activists, including North Korean defectors living in the South, for years have floated huge balloons into North Korea that carry leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un over his nuclear ambitions and abysmal human rights record. The leafleting has long been a source of tensions between the Koreas since the North bristles at any attempt to undermine the Kim leadership. Last week, Kim Yo Jong called the defectors human scum and mongrel dogs as the North also threatened to permanently shut down a liaison office and a jointly run factory park, as well as nullify a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement that had aimed to reduce tensions. North Korean citizens have also participated recently in a series of mass rallies opposing the Seoul government, activities the North typically organizes in times of tensions with the outside world. South Koreas Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said cross-border hotlines must be maintained as they are the basic means of communication between the two Koreas. It said the South Korean government will strive to promote peace while abiding by inter-Korean agreements. Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo told reporters the South Korean military was monitoring the situation but didnt say how the South plans to communicate with the North if theres need to quickly defuse tensions. The South Korean government has recently said it would push for legal bans on launching leaflets, but the North has said the South Korean response lacks sincerity. South Korean conservatives have urged their government to get tougher on North Korea and uphold their constitutional rights to free speech. South Korea has typically let activists launch such balloons but has halted some attempts when North Korean warnings appeared to be serious. In 2014, North Korean troops opened fire at propaganda balloons flying toward their territory, triggering an exchange of fire that caused no known causalities. The two Koreas have several phone and fax-like hotline channels across the border as they bar ordinary citizens from exchange telephone calls, letters and emails. Among them is a hotline between Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, which was established after their summit in 2018 but has never been publicly used by the leaders. Officials from the two Koreas usually exchange brief messages twice a day via lower-level channels to check whether they work normally, even if there are no major issues between their governments. When South Korean officials contacted North Korea via at least four channels on Tuesday morning, North Korea didnt respond, according to the South Korean government. Its not the first time North Korea threatened to cut the channels. In previous cases, North Korea didnt reply to South Korean phone calls or fax messages for an extended period before it later restored those communication channels when animosities eased. North Korea has suspended virtually all cooperation with South Korea as its nuclear negotiations with the United States remains stalemated since the breakdown of a summit between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump in early 2019. A main sticking point in the U.S.-North Korea diplomacy is a U.S. refusal to lift much of the crippling sanctions on North Korea in return for limited denuclearization steps. North Korea has slammed South Korea for failing to break away from Washington and for not restoring massive joint economic projects held up by U.S.-led sanctions. Kim Jong Un has recently stressed the need to bolster his domestic strengths to withstand the sanctions. But many experts say North Koreas already weak economy must have deteriorated further when the coronavirus pandemic forced it to shut its border with China, the Norths biggest trading partner and aid benefactor. An Australian woman who survived the White Island volcano eruption has shared a heartbreaking post on the six-month anniversary of the explosion. Stephanie Browitt, 23, is still haunted by the tragedy and said on Tuesday time has not lessened the painful aftermath. The eruption - which happened off the coast of Whakatane on New Zealand's North Island on December 9 - left Ms Browitt with third-degree burns to 70 per cent of her body and parts of her fingers missing. Her 21-year-old sister Krystal was killed in the blast, and her father Paul died of his injuries in hospital. Stephanie Browitt (left, right), 23, took to Instagram on Tuesday to say time has not made the White Island volcano eruption which claimed the lives of her sister and her father any easier 'Honestly, every time it's the ninth of each month I can feel my heart racing and my body tense as the memory of it floods back in my mind,' Ms Browitt wrote on Instagram. 'I get anxious. I hate it so much, it does not get easier. It just hurts more and more when I think about how much time has passed since I was last with my dad and sister.' She said she keeps wishing she could turn back time and at least have looked for them and sat with them during the aftermath. 'My heart hurts and aches for them everyday. Six months already and it still feels like it happened just yesterday. Time feels weird now. I just hope every other victim and myself 'manage', because that's all we can do,' she said. 'We're just picking up the pieces of our new lives and doing the best that we can do. 'I just want to thank everyone for your kindness, compassion and constant support. You guys manage to put a smile on my face, even if just for a second.' Ms Browitt returned home for the first time last month after spending months in hospital for burns treatment. Wrapped in a pressure suit and a full-face mask to protect her burns, she embraced her mother Marie who spent months waiting for her now only child to come home when she returned on May 23. She said she keeps wishing she could turn back time and at least have looked for them and sat with them during the aftermath Ms Browitt, 23, is seen hugging her mother Marie as she returns home after spending six months recovering in hospital from the White Island volcano eruption Ms Browitt has to wear a protective suit on her skin after suffering third degree burns to 70 per cent of her body She was surrounded by friends and relatives but due to the fragility of her skin, Ms Browitt could only manage a hug from her mum. Upon her return home, her mother said she felt her husband and late daughter were watching over 'like angels'. 'I'm just so grateful for the generosity of people and for the kindness of our community and feel very humble,' Mrs Browitt told The Herald Sun. 'I was surrounded by beautiful people today.' The Browitt family had been on the Ovation of the Seas cruise when the two girls along with their father decided to do the White Island tour - while their mother stayed on board. Sharing a photo of the volcano on the day it erupted, Ms Browitt detailed how her life had been 'forever changed'. Stephanie (left with sister Krystal right) tragically lost her sister in the disaster and her father Paul The 23-year-old returned home for the day last Friday but is now home for good 'We were heading back off the volcano, when at 2.11pm we looked back and saw ash coming out. Not thinking much of it dad said to take a picture,' she wrote on Instagram in March. 'The front tour guide heard us, looked back, and screamed 'RUN'. 'BANG. The WORST moment of my life. It was because of this I lost half of my family. 'It was because of this I still do suffer physically and emotionally. 'Because of this these photos are no longer good memories, they literally torture me. A photo taken by Ms Browitt's sister shows the volcano just moments before it erupted on December 9 'It's done and I can't change it now, but I can change how I choose to move forward. I know people hear this often, but please... keep your loved ones close and always remind them how loved they are.' Her father and sister were one of 21 people who died and Ms Browitt spent time in a coma recovering from her severe injuries. The 23-year-old previously told the ABC they only found out the volcano was at a level two alert when they were on the island. Level two is the highest level a volcano can be before it erupts. 'Once you're on the island, you can't get back off,' she said. 'I was a little concerned but at the same time you sort of have trust that we wouldn't be on here, they wouldn't be running tours if they thought it was dangerous.' Ms Browitt and her sister and father had gone on the island tour while their mother stayed on the cruise ship It was an hour before help arrived as Ms Browitt lay on the ground worried she may not make it out alive. 'I remember thinking, 'I need to slow down my breathing or I'm not going to make it'. When a helicopter crew finally arrived, her father heroically told them to take his daughter back to the mainland first. A month later he tragically died. Now six months after the tragedy she is finally home for good. Friends and family rallied behind the Browitt family, creating a GoFundMe page to pay for medical expenses. The fundraiser has so far raised an incredible $85,000. (Bloomberg) -- Israels Finance Ministry is discussing an initial public offering of a stake in one of the countrys largest companies, state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd., to help fund a budget stretched by the coronavirus pandemic, according to people familiar with the matter. Discussions are part of planning around the countrys new budget, and currently focus on offering a 25% stake in the company with the goal of raising roughly $1 billion, according to one of the people, who asked for anonymity because the talks arent public. The people cautioned that no final decision has been made. IAI bonds maturing in 2023, which trade on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, extended gains after the news to rise eight basis points as of 5:17 p.m. local time. After more than a year of political paralysis, Israel swore in a unity government last month to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the new cabinets first tasks is to pass the countrys overdue budget, with Israel on track to run the widest deficit in years as a result of a fiscal stimulus package of nearly 100 billion shekel ($28.9 billion). Government officials have long pushed for the companys IPO, though progress has been stalled by the lack of government over the past year and concerns that a public offering could expose sensitive security information. An employer of around 15,000 people worldwide, IAI is also a key provider of defense systems and technology, with business lines ranging from drones and missiles to refurbishing planes and building robots to help tow jets around airports. It co-developed Israels Iron Dome defense system against enemy rockets. A Finance Ministry spokeswoman referred questions to the Government Companies Authority, which didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for IAI declined to comment. Eilat, Bezeq Over the past two decades, Israel has privatized national assets ranging from the southern port of Eilat to the Bezeq telecommunications firm. Another state-owned defense firm, IMI Systems Ltd., was sold to Elbit Systems Ltd. for about $500 million in 2018. Story continues In 2019, IAI sales were up almost 12% from the year before to reach $4.1 billion, according to an annual report, while net income rose to $86 million after a loss in 2018. The latest data show the governments deficit widened to 6% of output in the 12-months through May, with the fiscal gap totaling 46.2 billion shekels in 2020. 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. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. announces that five of its attorneys have been named as Florida Super Lawyers for 2020. The St. Petersburg law firm continues its legacy of having multiple lawyers recognized with this honor. Sean McQuaid, Aubrey Dicus, Howard Ross, Caitlin Szematowicz and Andrew Pardun all received this significant designation. "Our lawyers have worked hard to help our clients and give back to the community. We are proud that Florida Super Lawyers has noticed our achievements and rewarded our accomplishments," said Sean McQuaid, who is currently both the firm President and President of the St. Petersburg Bar Association. Five Attorneys from Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. Recognized as Florida Super Lawyers for 2020 Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. was founded in 1958 by Anthony Battaglia and is one of the oldest law firms on the west coast of Florida. Over the decades, its lawyers have handled every type of case or claim that can be brought. The firm is considered to be mid-sized with a broad range of practice areas including personal injury, criminal defense, real estate, corporate and business, commercial litigation, labor and employment, estate planning and probate, insurance dispute, and general civil litigation. The firm has a premier reputation in the legal community, but just as important, its lawyers give back. Every lawyer recognized by Florida Super Lawyers has donated countless hours to helping improve Pinellas County. Many decades ago, the law firm realized that having its lawyers donate their time to the community provided a healthy balance to the pressure of the practice of law. Therefore, there is a clause in every lawyer's employment contract that they should be involved in professional or charity organizations. It is up to each lawyer to choose the type of organization, but some level of involvement is strongly encouraged. Anthony Battaglia realized long ago that lawyers have an obligation to use their education, training and experience to lead. The five attorneys recognized in 2020 Florida Super Lawyers are examples of this philosophy. Congratulations to them all for this award as a top attorney in their field. Sean McQuaid has been recognized by Florida Super Lawyers since 2014. This year, he continues to be awarded the Super Lawyer designation in the field of plaintiff's personal injury law. McQuaid represents people who are seriously injured in car accidents and auto accidents, as well as wrongful death claims. He also practices criminal defense in Pinellas County. McQuaid is the President of Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A., managing approximately 25 lawyers and staff. He is the President of the St. Petersburg Bar Association for 2020-21. He is a former chair of the St. Petersburg Nuisance Abatement Board, a former member of the 6th Circuit Nominating Commission, past president of the Harbor Isle Homeowner's Association, and formerly served on the Make-a-Wish Foundation Executive Committee. Aubrey Dicus has been practicing law in St. Petersburg, Florida for 46 years. He has been recognized by Florida Super Lawyers since its inception. Dicus practices personal injury, commercial litigation, general civil litigation and criminal defense. He is the past President of Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. and a past President of the St. Petersburg Bar Association. Dicus has received countless accolades and awards over his storied legal career and he continues to devote his law practice to helping the people of Tampa Bay. Howard Ross has been practicing law in St. Petersburg for 56 years. He has been recognized by Florida Super Lawyers since its inception. Ross practices in the areas of business, corporate and real estate transactions and litigation. He is a past President of Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. and a former Chairman of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce. Ross is still actively practicing law and trying cases. One of his recent successes was a win over the City of St. Petersburg involving a dispute over the development of a commercial property within the City. Caitlin Szematowicz is a partner at Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. and was named as a Florida Super Lawyer Rising Star for the third year in a row. She practices in the areas of commercial litigation, general civil litigation, labor and employment, and appeals. Szematowicz is a past President of the St. Petersburg Bar Foundation, past President of the Pinellas County Trial Lawyers Association, on the Executive Committee of the Barney Masterson American Inn of Court, and serves on the Sixth Judicial Circuit's Professionalism Committee. Andrew Pardun is an associate at Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A., practicing in the areas of real estate law, business law, and commercial litigation. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the St. Petersburg Bar Association and is the former chair of the real property section. He also serves on the City of St. Petersburg Nuisance Abatement Board and is a member of the Barney Masterson American Inn of Court. Florida Super Lawyers is an attorney rating system owned by Thompson Reuters. Each year, Super Lawyers recognizes the top lawyers in Florida using a patented multiphase selection process involving peer nomination, independent research and peer evaluation. No more than 5% of licensed attorneys can be designated a Super Lawyer and no more than 2.5% can be Rising Stars. The process is designed to find the best attorneys in their field of practice. Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. is pleased to have been considered for these awards and will continue to pursue the ideals that led its lawyers to this level of achievement. Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. 5858 Central Ave St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 www.stpetelawgroup.com Divisions of Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. St Petersburg Personal Injury Attorneys McQuaid & Douglas 5858 Central Ave suite a St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 St Petersburg Property Damage Attorney Jonathon W Douglas 5858 Central Ave suite b St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 St Petersburg Criminal Defense Attorney Sean K McQuaid 5858 Central Ave suite c St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 St Petersburg Real Estate Attorney 5858 Central Ave suite e St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 Estate Planning & Probate Attorney Rachel Drude-Tomori 5858 Central Ave suite d St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 Related Images battaglia-ross-dicus-mcquaid-p-a.jpg Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. Super Lawyers Five Attorneys from Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. Recognized as Florida Super Lawyers for 2020 SOURCE Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. Related Links http://www.stpetelawgroup.com VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2020 / Lucky Minerals Inc. (LKY.V)(OTC PINK:LKMNF)(LKY.F) ("Lucky" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed the first tranche of the previously announced private placement whereby the Company announced it would sell, by way of a private placement, up to 23,333,333 post-consolidation units of the Company (the "Units") at a price of C$0.15 per Unit (the "Offering Price") for gross proceeds of up to C$3,500,000 (the "Offering"). The first tranche closing of 14,244,733 post-consolidated units for total proceeds of $2,136,710 is concurrent with a consolidation of share capital of the Company on the basis of one (1) new share for each seven and one-half shares (7.5) previously outstanding. Details of the offering can be found under the Company's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and was announced on May 15, 2020. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant") exercisable into one Common Share for a period of 24 months from the closing date at an exercise price of C$0.22 per Warrant. A cash commission of $111,433 and warrants to purchase 742,887 Units is payable (the "Compensation Warrants"). The Compensation Warrants will be exercisable for a period of 12 months following the closing date at an exercise price equal to the Offering Price. Additionally, Canaccord will receive a cash commission equal to C$25,000 and 166,666 common shares for acting as advisor to the Company. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for exploration expenditures on the Fortuna Property in southern Ecuador as well as working capital and general corporate purposes. All securities issued pursuant to the first tranche closing will be subject to a four-month hold period ending on October 11, 2020 in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws. Share Consolidation: Effective June 10, 2020 the common shares of the Company will consolidate on the basis of one (1) new share for each seven and one-half shares (7.5) currently outstanding (the "Share Consolidation"). The previously issued and outstanding 192,788,812 common shares will result in 25,705,175 shares being issued and outstanding on a post-consolidated basis before the first tranche closing. Story continues Shareholders who hold their shares through a securities broker or dealer, bank or trust company, will not be required to take any action with respect to the share consolidation. No fractional shares will be issued in connection with the Share Consolidation. The Share Consolidation has been approved by the Company's board of directors and has received approval from the TSX Venture Exchange. About Lucky Lucky is an exploration and development company targeting large-scale mineral systems in proven districts with the potential to host world class deposits. Lucky owns a 100% interest in the Fortuna and Emigrant Projects. The Company's Fortuna Project is a royalty-free 550km2 (55,000 Ha, or 136,000 Acres) exploration concession. Fortuna is located in a highly prospective, yet underexplored, gold belt in southern Ecuador. Lucky has entered into a memorandum of understanding on Fortuna with First Quantum Minerals Ltd. ("First Quantum") whereby First Quantum is able to earn up to 70% on primary copper targets. The Emigrant Creek Project covers a 15 km2 area in an intensely altered and mineralized porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum system in southern Montana. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Adrian Rothwell" Chief Executive Officer This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any of 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 or to or for the account or benefit of U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. Further information on Lucky can be found on the Company's website at www.luckyminerals.com and at www.sedar.com, or by contacting Adrian Rothwell, President and CEO, by email at investors@luckyminerals.com or by telephone at (866) 924 6484. 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. Cautionary Statement Regarding Adjacent Properties and Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the future operations of 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 the 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. Such factors include, but are not limited to: uncertainties related exploration and development; the ability to raise sufficient capital to fund exploration and development; changes in economic conditions or financial markets; increases in input costs; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; technological or operational difficulties or inability to obtain permits encountered in connection with exploration activities; and labor relations matters. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect the Company's forward-looking information. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations also include risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. 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. 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 of the date of this news release and the Company will update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by Canadian securities law. SOURCE: Lucky Minerals Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/593230/Lucky-Minerals-Announces-Closing-of-First-Tranche-of-Private-Placement-of-2136710-and-Consolidation-of-Common-Shares 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 One of the big four cut its basic variable rate before the weekend, now boasting the lowest variable home loan available from a major Australian bank. Westpacs reduced offering is intended to woo new borrowers to the brand following the publication of recent statistics from APRA which revealed the group has posted a drop in their home loan book. The groups Flexi First Option Home Loan has a new rate of 2.69% for loans with an LVR less than 70%, down from 2.93%. For those above 70%, the rate has dropped from 3.03% to 2.79%. According to RateCity.com.au research director Sally Tindall, Westpac taking action to go from the major with the highest basic variable rate to the lowest was not unexpected. [The] rate cut is designed to get new business in the door. Westpac Groups home loan book has fallen month on month, according to the latest APRA statistics. They need new customers to keep moving in the right direction, she explained. However, it may be possible for existing customers to use the reduction for new borrowers as leverage to secure a better deal for themselves. While these rate cuts are reserved for new customers, if youve already got a loan with Westpac you can still pick up the phone and ask for a rate cut, said Tindall. If youre paying more than what the bank is offering new customers for exactly the same loan, youve got the perfect bargaining chip," she added. As of early June, the three lowest variable rates on the RateCity.com.au database are reserved for owner occupiers paying P&I who have at least a 30% to 40% deposit. Increasingly, banks are reserving their lowest rates for new customers who have a decent amount of equity up their sleeve, said Tindall. If youre an owner occupier who has made decent headway into your loan and still have a steady job, you are in the drivers seat in this current market. A former police officer will lose his job at New Jersey's Rowan University after questions were raised over his fatal shooting of a black teenager in April 1994. Peter Amico, who is white, and currently the director of the university's emergency management office, was a patrolman in Glassboro Township 26 years ago when he fatally wounded 14-year-old El Tarmaine 'L.T.' Sanders. Amico claimed that Sanders was running after his cousin Darrell Sanders, 17, with a 13-inch knife and when confronted, he lunged at the cop with the weapon. Amico said he made a 'split-second decision' and shot the child in front of his mother Delores Sanders, who had called police to the scene to stop the boys fighting. Peter Amico (left in an old newspaper clipping) claimed the teen lunged at him with a knife but witnesses said LT Sanders (right) backed down when the cop showed up on April 17, 1994. LT was shot dead in a 'split second decision' Amico continued to work for Glassboro police until he retired in 2009. However he started working as a private contractor in the public safety division's accreditation process in 2008. He was hired full-time in 2010 and became director of emergency management at Rowan University in 2013 He was put on leave after the April 17, 1994 incident and returned just weeks later on May 9. But a federal civil rights investigation found no violations, and state prosecutors concluded Amico - who was 29 at the time - hadn't committed a crime and he was not indicted. At the time it sparked protests as witnesses disputed the officer's account and said that while LT had a knife, he stopped chasing his cousin when the cop showed up. Activists said cops would have never handled the situation so violently if white children were involved. The community criticized former Army military police lieutenant Patricia Kunchynski, who was the department's first female chief, for local cops being more aggressive toward the black community in the years since she started her role. Many pointed out there was only one black cop out of 39 in the township where African Americans made up one-fifth of the population. The chief said she'd tried to make the department more diverse but two officers left for higher paid jobs. Amico continued to work for Glassboro police until he retired in 2009. Later, he started working as a private contractor at Rowan in the public safety division's accreditation process in 2008. He was hired full-time in 2010 and became director of emergency management in 2013. There were protests for justice after the April 17, 1994 incident where LT Sanders (pictured in funeral programs)died but investigations cleared the cop A recent petition called for Amico's firing and on Monday Rowan University said it would not be renewing his contract come June 10 In the wake of white police officer Derek Chauvin being charged with black man George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis last week, an online petition calling for his firing garnered over 3,000 signatures. The Change.org petition claims that 'Amico said that he was 'proud' to accept a racist Combat Cross Award given by Gloucester County police organizations for killing El Tarmaine Sanders'. It called Amico's hiring as director of emergency management a 'revolting insult to the Sanders family and to African Americans everywhere'. 'Protection of Human Life' is the first priority of Rowan's Office of Emergency Management, Peter Amico's continued presence as the person in charge says loudly that "Black Lives Don't Matter" at Rowan University,' the petition stated as it called upon Rowan University president, Dr. Ali Houshmand, and Rowan Board of Trustees chair Mr. Chad Bruner, to terminate Amico's contract. On Monday, Rowan University said his contract will be discontinued. Rowan University President Ali Houshmand said on Monday that Amico's contract will be discontinued 'In recent days, questions have been raised about Rowan University's employment of a former police officer who was involved in a controversial incident that led to pain and division in our community more than two decades ago,' Rowan University President Ali Houshmand wrote in a letter titled 'Acting in the public interest, serving public trust'. 'Amid the national spotlight on social justice and police matters, the University will not reappoint Peter Amico, director of Rowan's Office of Emergency Management, at its June 10 Board of Trustees meeting.' 'We cannot begin to imagine the Sanders' family grief. Nothing can replace their loved one,' Houshmand said. 'We also acknowledge the difficulty police officers encounter when called to face uncertain conditions, as well as the public scrutiny they endure in their work among us.' 'As a University, we believe black lives matter. We are looking hard at our own organization, our policies, structure and culture,' the president's statement added. 'We found we have work to do. I am sure some of it will be more difficult and uncomfortable than we can imagine. We will be transparent in our transformation and look for opportunities to engage with the University community to bring about much-needed change.' An independent educator who launched the petition, said it was 'the right decision.' 'It demonstrates that, going forward, black lives will matter at Rowan University,' the Courier Post reported James E. Johnson said. Up to 9,000 Irish small and local businesses could be lost during the Covid-19 crisis, the Dail has heard. CEO of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME), Neil McDonnell laid out the "dire consequences" that the economy could be facing if small businesses are not helped by the government. "We surveyed people on sentiment around mortality, in other words how long businesses are going to last on a steady-state basis," he said. "Optimism is higher in lead up to the June bank holiday weekend than it was in the middle of April. However, if anything close to the 6% that say they're gone within a month, if that was to happen, you could be looking at up to 9000 SMEs." Mr McDonnell says the government's restart grants for small businesses during the pandemic is not fit for purpose, and that the government is "fixated" on multinationals. The 250m Restart Grant provides direct grant aid to micro and small businesses to help with the costs associated with reopening and reemploying workers following COVID-19 closures. "There seems to be a fear and apprehension that providing money and liquidity to businesses is going to be money down the drain. It's going to be money wasted," Mr O Donnell said. "From our point of view, the provisions of grant assistance are too little, too hamstrung by the T's and C's, we just need simpler access to liquidity. "There is an additional fixed cost to opening that would not be there if we weren't in a pandemic, which is going to be significant. "We're saying to the Exchequer, that you the legislators, are far too dependent on this sector to let it go, to let these businesses go under for the sake of a few thousand euro." The grants are based on rates paid by each firm last year, but in cases where the rate bill was particularly small, a minimum of 2,000 is paid. This classification has cut out swathes of small businesses, who do not have commercial premises. "The fact that some of the grants are tied to rates, you have a lot of services, what would typically be called blue-collar services, but nonetheless essential services in plumbing, electrics, carpentry, and those services are essential for instance the building industry, they can't access it because it's tied to rates," Mr McDonnell added. "If you look at the department's own figures the take-up is extremely low and that data would suggest that there's a real problem here in relation to that and particularly the loans and the grants are not fit for purpose. If you look at the figures from the department last week, it would suggest that in the region of 86 million has been drawn to have been taken in supports to date. If you look at that by comparison with the tax figures coming out of the sector, that's about 5billion in PAYE, 1billion in USC, 4billion in PRSI and 5.7 billion in VAT. "What has gone into the sector by way of assistance is a drop in the ocean, by comparison." TORONTO - Ontarians shelled out almost $20 million in the first three months that edibles and other products in Canada's second wave of legalization were available for sale and experts believe that number will only grow. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/6/2020 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A Ontario Cannabis Store website pictured on a mobile phone Ottawa on October 18, 2018. Ontarians shelled out almost $20 million in the first three months products in Canada's second wave of legalization were available for sale. Cannabis vapes, topicals, concentrates and edibles including gummies and chocolates only hit store shelves in January and beverages in March, but roughly $19.3 million worth of those products were sold in Ontario between April 2019 and March 2020.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick TORONTO - Ontarians shelled out almost $20 million in the first three months that edibles and other products in Canada's second wave of legalization were available for sale and experts believe that number will only grow. Cannabis vapes, topicals, concentrates and edibles such as gummies and chocolates hit store shelves in January with beverages following in March, but roughly $19.3 million worth of those products were sold in Ontario in the 12 months ending at March 2020. The province's distributor, the Ontario Cannabis Store, said vapes were the most popular products in the second wave of legalization, known as Cannabis 2.0. About $14.8 million worth of vapes were sold in the first three months they were available. Sales of edibles totalled $3.8 million, beverages reached $410,000, topicals hit $40,000 and concentrates amounted to $300,000 in the same period. The data was revealed in a new report the OCS published this week to offer a glimpse at the country's first full year of legal cannabis operations, which saw 35 tonnes or $385 million worth of cannabis sold during that time. "Cannabis 2.0 products that launched into the market in Q4 sold very well, but similar to the launch of legalization, the offering from licensed producers was initially fairly narrow." the report said. "The data demonstrates consumer enthusiasm, but it will likely take some time for identifiable trends to emerge." Licensed producers spent much of the first few months of 2.0 slowly releasing edibles, vapes, topicals, beverages and concentrates. Demand outpaced supply and several of the new products sold out within minutes. "We have yet to see the full potential of edibles, and frankly, all 2.0 product categories due to limitations in supply and dosage," Mimi Lam, the chief executive and co-founder of Ottawa-based cannabis store Superette said in an email to The Canadian Press. When looking at all of the 2.0 products, Lam said edibles look like the "clear winner," but it's hard to get a full picture of the rollout because the number of products in each category and their availability have dramatically varied. "For example, the jump between January, February and March for edibles can be accounted for by simply availability," she said. "Currently the market still only has a limited amount of chocolates and chewables, none of which are consistently in supply." Lisa Campbell, chief executive at cannabis sales and marketing company Mercari Agency, called the OCS data "impressive," but cautioned against drawing conclusions from it because the 2.0 products are so new. "The products are limited in availability so whatever is on the market will sell, so it doesn't necessarily signify larger brand trends in 2.0," she said. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. A lot of the beverages online launched, after the report was done, she said. There are lots of chocolates, cookies and gummies, but still so many other edible categories to explore and more brands to get into topicals and seeds, she added. She expects numbers to rise when the OCS accounts for the first full year of 2.0 sales. "A lot of licensed producers are just finalizing their beverages," she said. "You're definitely going to see a surge of diversity in products." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2020. The launch of ID+ is a major step for zeotap and an industry facing an uncertain future. For a universal ID to gain widespread adoption and claim true universality it needs a multilateral governance model. Nobody wants to see one duopoly give way to another, said Projjol Banerjea, founder & CPO. Global customer intelligence platform zeotap today announces the launch of ID+, its universal identity initiative that aims to empower the marketing ecosystem to overcome challenges posed by the demise of third-party cookies and other platform identifiers, as well as a fast-changing regulatory landscape. The ID+ project is an open invitation to the entire industry to collaborate on a collective vision for the future. More than 20 global, regional and local organisations have confirmed their public support and adoption of ID+, including Accenture, Annalect, International Business Times (IBT), Imagen Digital, ItaliaOnline, Mediasmart, OMD EMEA, Prensa Iberica, PubMatic, S4M and Tabmo. Identity resolution remains one of the fundamental needs of brand marketers. According to a report published by BCG in 2019, 83% of CMOs and advertisers are still not able to make connections across consumer touchpoints and devices. Separately, a report published by Google last year reveals publishers lose an average of 52% of revenue (62% in the news vertical) when third-party cookies are disabled. Keeping these and other challenges in mind, ID+ has been designed to endow the marketing ecosystem brands, publishers, agencies and technology platforms alike with a privacy-compliant mechanism to overcome identity resolution challenges arising from ID fragmentation, cookie restrictions and increasingly stringent regulation across the world. The launch of ID+ is a major step for zeotap and an industry facing an uncertain future. For a universal ID to gain widespread adoption and claim true universality it needs a multilateral governance model. Nobody wants to see one duopoly give way to another, said Projjol Banerjea, founder & CPO at zeotap. We decided to take the initiative and were very encouraged by the resoundingly positive feedback we received from our partners. Its evident we all agree the best way to predict the future is to create it. Together. ID+ has been conceived on four core tenets: 1. Independence: It does not rely on cookies, MAIDs or any platform identifiers. Instead, its based on deterministic offline identifiers and is valid across all platforms and channels. 2. Simplicity: It can be adopted easily and works as a standalone first-party identity layer as well as in conjunction with homegrown or other solutions. 3. Interoperability: It is available to connect with all other (universal) ID solutions. 4. Compliance: Every ID+ record has consent traceability baked into it, and data protection is ensured via tokenization. Annalect has built the Omni platform with identity and interoperability at its core and we have remained the industry leader in this approach. By combining interoperability with a hyper-focus on user consent and privacy, zeotaps ID+ seamlessly integrates with Omni, and enhances our ability to drive personalization at scale for our client brands across the globe, said Timothy Petrycki, Global VP of Data Strategy at Annalect in New York. ID+ has been initially launched as an extension to zeotaps identity resolution solution that is built on the back of the worlds largest marketing identity graph, available across North America, Latin America, Europe, and India. However, in the spirit of collaboration, and in keeping with the founding principles, zeotap encourages members of the industry to join the effort to grow the solution across platforms, channels and geographies. As the importance of building a diversified approach to persistent identity in the open web increases, and clients look to shore up their approach to identity, were proud to be working with zeotap on its ID+ initiative, added Miles Pritchard, Managing Partner at OMD in London. Theres a world of difference between good and bad marketing, and identity resolution is at the epicenter of it. Having built Hawk platform, mobile-first, omnichannel buy-side technology, ID+ will be instrumental in this endeavor of linking users across devices, said Renaud Biet, Co-Founder at Tabmo, a mobile and new screens ad tech specialist. For brands, ID+ provides a solution to resolve identities accurately and at scale for effective omnichannel marketing. In addition to serving elemental marketing use cases such as onboarding and activation, as well as increasing adoption in analytics, it also sees embryonic application in critical areas such as multi-touch attribution (MTA). We are proud to support our partner zeotap in an initiative that will drive the ecosystem forward in a way that respects customer privacy," echoed Noelia Amoedo, CEO at Mediasmart, a Spanish mobile programmatic platform and part of Affle, a publicly-traded Indian consumer intelligence company. Being able to accurately track opted-in users across devices is a must-have for the advertising industry if we want to continue providing users with personalised, engaging and relevant advertising content. S4M is delighted to work with zeotap to implement ID+ in our drive-to-store platform, said Nicolas Saraiva, SVP Strategic Partnerships at S4M, a digital-to-physical advertising company headquartered in France. For publishers, ID+ is not only a compelling solution to ensure their revenue models remain unaffected by upcoming changes, but an important step to leverage their first-party data to provide value-added options to discerning marketers. The ID+ of zeotap couldnt have come at a better time. In a world where privacy is a prime concern, cookie-less user identity resolution, touch-point and device mapping in a privacy-regulation-friendly way is vital. We wish zeotap the best, said Chandra Mohan, Managing Director at IBT India. "ID+ will bring a lot of value to an industry thats looking for ways to solve an identity challenge that affects every player in the advertising value chain. Were happy to partner with zeotap and become one of the first publishers to try out the user identification infrastructure they have put in place," added Alfredo Martell, Director General at Imagen Digital in Mexico. Zeotap has also partnered with leading consent management Platforms (CMPs), including Usercentrics in Germany, to encourage the integration of different consent collection tools and methods into the ID+ solution. About zeotap and ID+ ID+ is a universal identity solution that aims to empower the marketing ecosystem with a privacy-compliant mechanism to overcome identity resolution challenges arising from ID fragmentation, cookie restrictions and increasingly stringent regulation across the world. The project is an open invitation to the entire industry to collaborate on a collective vision for the future. Founded by customer intelligence platform zeotap, ID+ is built on the back of the worlds largest marketing identity graph, available across North America, Latin America, Europe, and India. More than 20 global, regional and local organisations have confirmed their public support and adoption of ID+, including Accenture, Annalect, International Business Times (IBT), Imagen Digital, ItaliaOnline, Mediasmart, OMD EMEA, Prensa Iberica, Pubmatic, S4M and Tabmo. More info: https://idplus.io/ and https://zeotap.com/ DUBLIN, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aalto Bio Reagents Ltd., a leading developer of critical raw materials and reagents for the development of diagnostic tests, globally announced today that its Sars-CoV-2 n-s1-S2 antigens, Lysis buffers and Viral transport media are part of assays that are being run in Europe and the U.S. on the screening front line for detection of COVID-19 with production estimates in the tens of millions of COVID-19 antibody tests per month. From the start of this COVID-19 pandemic in January, Aalto Bio has supported over 50 global diagnostic companies and vaccine developers to build tests for COVID-19 with critical raw materials for the CV-19 virus detection which has enabled front-line testing using multiples of millions of diagnostic tests. In February 2020, Aalto Bio began offering its first neucleocapsid COVID-19 protein soon after the Wuhan strain of the virus came on stream. In April, this was followed by our new COVID-19 Lysis buffer reagent for pre-treating COVID-19 samples prior to testing and then in late April our Viral transport media to transport COVID-19 samples. The early availability of our COVID 19 proteins has helped diagnostic manufacturers and vaccine developers alike build high-quality assays with our critical raw materials to faster determine the clinical status of COVID-19. "Aalto Bio Reagents Ltd. remains on hand to help our diagnostic manufacturing partners around the globe meet their COVID-19 diagnostic testing requirements, as we have done since the outset of this world health crisis by delivering first-in-class critical raw material products during this pandemic. We will continue to offer ourselves to help innovate diagnostic testing to faster diagnose this virus," stated Philip Noone CEO Aalto Bio. About Aalto Bio Reagents Founded in 1978, Aalto Bio Reagents is a leading developer and provider of raw materials to the in-vitro diagnostics industry and to research laboratories globally. We serve the largest multinational companies in our industry with a broad range of purified human proteins; monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies; fungal, parasitic, bacterial and viral antigens; and disease state plasma for in-vitro diagnostic application. Since the company's inception, we have built strong working relationships with our clients who trust us to provide them with the highest quality raw materials to meet the exacting standards of their own product development requirements. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, the company is rapidly expanding both its product portfolio and customer base. For further information, please visit http://www.aaltobioreagents.com Contact: Aalto Bio Tel: +353-1-4900685 Email: [email protected] Related Images image1.jpg SOURCE Aalto Bio Reagents Ltd. TAYLOR, Mich., June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers (USW) union said today that it supported the Michigan Legislative Labor Caucus plan for safely reopening the state's economy, called the "Workers First Reopening Plan," as the state continues to confront the COVID-19 pandemic. "This plan ensures that the reopening of our economy prioritizes the safety of workers, families and communities over the profits of corporations," said Michael Bolton, director of USW District 2, which represents tens of thousands of workers in Michigan and Wisconsin. "We all want to go back to work, but we can't do so at the expense of the very people we need to ensure that our economy can function." The plan, a package of 11 bills, includes measures such as expanded paid sick leave and workers compensation, extended hazard pay for front-line workers, strict health and safety standards, scheduling policies, mental health assistance, and safeguards against retaliation against workers. In an April 27 letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Bolton called for hazard pay, sick leave and other benefits to be extended to workers at long-term care facilities, hospitals and other medical facilities. The USW represents nurses, nursing assistants and support staff at many hospitals and nursing homes in Michigan. In an earlier letter, Bolton called for extending paid sick leave to all workers in Michigan. "Our first concern is, and must remain, containing this dangerous virus and making sure our people stay healthy," Bolton said. "In doing so, we must ensure that nobody has to make the choice between their health and a paycheck. We must ensure that workers have the resources to adequately care for themselves and their families. This plan accomplishes those goals." Bolton pointed out the dangers inherent in some locations where workers labor in close proximity, such as long-term-care facilities, which have become COVID-19 hotspots in some states. "Sadly, in looking at other areas of the country, we have seen what can happen when we move too fast or when companies value profits above people," he said. "We can't make that mistake in Michigan." The USW represents 850,000 men and women employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in public sector and service occupations. Contact: R.J. Hufnagel, [email protected], 412-562-2450 SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW) Related Links http://www.usw.org Authorities are concerned with the high numbers of health-care workers still becoming infected with COVID-19 while the growth of new cases slows in the general population. An average of 53 health staff have become infected with COVID-19 every day this month as Premier Doug Ford moves to a second stage of reopening the economy Friday outside the GTA, Hamilton and parts of southern Ontario bordering Michigan and New York. Ministry of Health statistics released Monday show another 369 employees in medical settings such as hospitals, nursing homes and home care tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the last week. It seems like the majority of them, from a quick look, have been from the long-term-care sector which is not totally surprising, looking at all the outbreaks with over 300 that have occurred, said chief medical officer Dr. David Williams. But with the number of active cases of COVID-19 dropping off considerably in nursing homes, he has asked for a detailed breakdown. You want to look at what type of staffing. Is it nursing staffing, is it other services provided, food services staff, cleaning, all of those are critical jobs in contact with patients. The numbers could point to continuing problems with masks and other personal protective equipment or training in how to use them, Williams added. A total of 5,099 health-care workers have taken ill with COVID-19 since the first case was reported in January. There were another 314 confirmed and probable cases of the virus as of 5 p.m. Monday, according to a Star compilation of data from public health units, raising the total to 32,612. An increase of 22 deaths raised the fatality count to 2,507. In long-awaited news for families with loved ones in nursing and retirement homes, associate medical officer Dr. Barbara Yaffe said a new policy to allow visits will be finalized in the next few days with specific conditions. Guidelines on safety creating bubbles with other families or friends whose COVID-19 precautions you trust are also coming this week, Williams told reporters. The trends on cases and hospitalizations are encouraging, added Yaffe, with the vast majority of new infections in Toronto, Peel, York and Durham regions. While the number of tests is increasing, we are not seeing the number of new cases rising at the same rate. Fewer people over 60 are testing positive while more younger adults are, which Yaffe attributed to the new policy allowing anyone with mild or no symptoms to be swabbed for the virus. The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has declined sharply in the last week, to 603 from 781 with 118 in intensive care and 81 of them on ventilators, down from 125 and 89 in last Mondays Ministry of Health report. Although a number of nursing homes remain in crisis with the virus including Woodbridge Vista Care which is getting help from a military medical team after being taking over by the province last week the number of homes with outbreaks has fallen to 78 from 112 since the end of May. Nursing-home residents with active cases of COVID-19 were down to 884 from 1,154, and cases among nursing home staff including personal support workers fell to 665 from 978. But the death tally in nursing homes continues to rise, reaching 1,720 an increase of 72 residents in the last seven days, an average of 10 a day. Seven nursing-home workers have died. Labs across the province processed 15,357 tests Sunday, below recent daily highs above 20,000. The Ministry of Health said it considered 24,492 people who tested positive for COVID-19 to have recovered, an increase of 240 in the last day. (Newser) As tensions remain high between Iran and the US, the Islamic Republic appears to have constructed a new mock-up of an aircraft carrier off its southern coast for potential live-fire drills. The faux foe, seen in satellite photographs obtained Tuesday by the AP, resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the US Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, which 20% of all the world's oil passes through. While not yet acknowledged by Iranian officials, the replica's appearance in the port city of Bandar Abbas suggests Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is preparing an encore of a similar mock-sinking it conducted in 2015 in which a fake aircraft carrier was swarmed with speedboats firing machine guns and rockets. Surface-to-sea missiles later targeted and destroyed the fake carrier. story continues below The new replica, which first began to be noticed among defense and intelligence analysts in January and strongly resembles the one used in 2015, carries 16 mock-ups of fighter jets on its deck, per satellite photos taken by Maxar Technologies. The vessel appears to be some 650 feet long and 160 feet wide; a real Nimitz is over 980 feet long and 245 feet wide. Its appearance comes as Iran announced Tuesday it will execute a man it accused of sharing the movements of the Guard's Gen. Qassem Soleimani, whom the US killed in a January drone strike in Baghdad. The announcement shows how seriously Iran still takes the assassination. An exercise targeting a mock US aircraft carrier could send that message as well, particularly if it involves a swarm attack of smaller vessels, which analysts believe Iran would employ if it did get into a shooting war with the US Navy. (Read more Iran stories.) Wrexham businesses urged to find out if theyre eligible for next phase of Welsh Economic Resilience Fund This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jun 9th, 2020 Businesses across Wrexham can now find out if they are eligible to apply for financial support from the next phase of the Welsh Governments Economic Resilience Fund (ERF). The online eligibility checker has reopened today and businesses will be able to make applications for support from this phase of the fund by the end of the month. The ERF is designed to support businesses, social enterprises and charities, which are not eligible for other Welsh Government and UK Government support schemes. The next phase of the fund will enable businesses to access a further 100m of financial support. It is being targeted at micro businesses, SMEs and large businesses of critical economic importance, which have yet to receive financial assistance from the ERF. Economy, Transport and North Wales Minister Ken Skates said: Our package of support for Welsh business has been absolutely vital in supporting thousands of firms through these exceptionally difficult times. Close to 200m has now been provided to businesses from the Economic Resilience Fund with all applications being processed. We are today reopening our eligibility checker for the next phase of funding. This will allow companies time to prepare their applications, ahead of the fund reopening for applications at the end of the month. The measures we have taken are in addition to the support available from the UK Government, making our package the most comprehensive and generous in the UK. This next phase will reach businesses, which have yet to receive funding, but we know it wont reach all those in need. We are proactively working on further options, but it is clear we need the UK Government to step up and provide the longer-term and additional funding needed to see Welsh business through this pandemic. This latest phase will operate in broadly the same way as the first phase but with an update to the eligibility of the micro scheme. This will enable limited companies which are not VAT registered to access the fund, subject to other criteria being met. Large businesses, which have suffered more than a 60% reduction of turnover since 1 March 2020 may also qualify for funding if they meet other conditions. A further 10m has been available from the ERF to support larger firms. To date, almost 200m of ERF funding has been distributed to companies across Wales, supporting a wide variety of businesses to deal with the impact of coronavirus. This includes the Development Bank of Wales loan scheme element of the fund which has seen more than 90m offered or invested in 1,300-plus firms. Work is continuing to develop further options to support those businesses, which have not yet been able to access help, such as start-up firms not eligible for the UK Governments Self Employment Income Support Scheme. The eligibility checker for the next phase of the ERF is available at: https://fundchecker.businesswales.gov.wales David Griner An Alabama police department has admitted one of its white officers punched a black shopkeeper after he called 911 to report a robbery because he mistook him for a suspect, according to multiple reports. Both AL.com and the Associated Press reported that Decatur police admitted the mix-up on Monday. At a news conference on Monday, department chief Nate Allen played new body cam video showing the the arrest of Kevin Penn in March but did not release it separately. The video appeared to have been edited with overlays and a slowed-down portion, and cut out at the moment that previous footage suggests the punch was thrown. It shows police entering the Star Spirits & Beverages store on 15 March with guns drawn, before an officer ahead of the body cam-wearer asks Mr Penn to put down his own weapon, being held on the counter. A person, possibly the alleged robber, can be seen prone on the ground. Mr Penn then says: My gun is there, my gun is here, Im not going to put my gun down if you got guns. The same officer issues a further warning as Mr Penn states that he has a right to have my gun. The police video ends as the officer with the body camera points their gun towards Mr Penn, before the third officer strikes the store owner. It came amid nationwide protests against systemic racism and police violence sparked by the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by Minneapolis police last month. Mr Penn has alleged his jaw was broken in the incident, while US media reports said he had been charged with obstructing the officers investigation of the robbery. In a later statement, the police department said it believed no robbery had taken place, though a shoplifter was later arrested. CCTV footage of the incident has previously circulated online. It appears to show Mr Penn beckoning the officers into his shop and reloading the magazine of his weapon meaning it was not inside the gun at the time. The three Decatur police officers enter the shop and one immediately punches Mr Penn. Story continues Two other officers then step in and help wrestle Mr Penn to the ground. Decatur police chief Nate Allen said at Mondays press conference that he would rather have a punch than a shooting. He also confirmed that the officer who punched Mr Penn had been placed on administrative duty during an internal investigation. Read more George Floyd funeral to be held amid calls for police reform live FORKS, Wash. Authorities say a multiracial family camping on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington was harassed and confronted by people who accused them of being political activists with antifa and trapped them at a remote campsite in the woods. Sgt. Shaun Minks of the Clallam County Sheriff's Office says the family of four arrived Wednesday in the town of Forks, Washington, in an old converted school bus and stopped to buy camping supplies at a local store. He said as they were leaving the store, the family was confronted by people in several vehicles who asked them if they were from antifa, which is short for anti-fascist. The family told the people they weren't associated with any group and were camping. Minks said the family was able to drive out of the parking lot and head for a campsite off a logging road about five miles outside of Forks. The Peninsula Daily News reports the family told deputies that at least four vehicles followed them as they drove away. They said that two of the vehicles had people in them carrying what appeared to be semi-automatic rifles. Authorities say the family became concerned later when they heard gunshots and other commotion and decided to leave the campsite. However trees had been felled across a road, trapping them. The family called 911 for help. Four local high school students used a chainsaw to help clear the road for the family. Deputies arrived and escorted the family out. The Clallam County Sheriffs Office is investigating. The Associated Press Experts have suggested Vietnamese enterprises improve product quality standards to overcome barriers imposed by the fastidious yet promising EU market, thus optimising the advantages to be generated from the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). A yarn factory of the Hue Textile Garment JSC in Thua Thien-Hue province A resolution ratifying the EVFTA and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement sailed through the National Assembly at its ongoing ninth session in Hanoi on June 8, with more than 90 percent of delegates voting in approval. According to Luong Hoang Thai, Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)s Multilateral Trade Policy Department, Vietnam makes up only 2 percent of imports by the EU - the worlds second largest importer - due to the competition with other economies. Vietnam has been enjoying trade preferences offered unilaterally by the EU under the General Scheme of Preferences (GSP), but only 42 percent of tariff lines are zero. With the EUs strong commitment to market opening and eliminating close to 100 percent of tariff lines, the EVFTA is expected to grow Vietnams exports to the bloc by about 42.7 percent in 2025 and 44.37 percent in 2030. Vietnams total export value is projected to increase by between 5.21 and 8.17 percent in the first five years of implementation, 11.12 and 15.27 percent in the following five years, and 17.98 to 21.95 percent in the subsequent five years. Apart from exports, Vietnamese imports will also benefit from the agreement, with products and materials of high quality and reasonable prices, especially machinery, equipment, and technologies, entering the country. Once effective, the EVFTA will help recover Vietnams economy and raise GDP by 2.18 to 3.25 percent in the 2019-2023 period, 4.57 to 5.3 percent in 2024-2028, and 7.07 to 7.72 percent in 2029-2033, according to Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh. Worth noting is that the deal promises new value chains for both sides and a more open and favourable investment environment in Vietnam, helping it attract more EU investment, particularly in services, finance, automobiles, processing and manufacturing, IT, hi-tech, and agricultural processing. Nicolas Audier, Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham), said the EVFTA has opened up a new chapter in investment and trade ties between the two sides. Vietnamese commercial affairs offices in the EU, Belgium, and Luxembourg have recommended Vietnamese exporters review their production and stockpiling capacity to meet orders from the bloc. To benefit from tax incentives under the EVFTA, materials must originate from the EU or Vietnam at fixed ratios, which is a major challenge for Vietnamese firms whose materials are primarily imported from China or ASEAN. Moreover, the EU has set high requirements on product quality, food hygiene, packaging, and the environment, experts said, encouraging Vietnamese enterprises to make every effort to improve product quality. They also pointed to trade remedies the EU may impose on Vietnamese goods. Local companies should therefore change their mindset and use the pressure of competition as momentum to renovate and develop and adapt to changes in the business environment following international economic integration, Minister Anh said./.VNA EVFTA hoped to take effect on August 1 Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh and EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan reached consensus on the point of time for the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) to take effect, during their phone talks on June 8. The revision of the 2020 budget was on Tuesday stalled due to an N186 billion shortfall in the proposal for the health intervention fund. The federal government had requested the N500 billion health intervention fund to tackle COVID-19 in Nigeria. The chairman, Senate appropriation committee, Barau Jibrin, who was to lay the committees report on the table on Tuesday, said only N314 billion was proposed in the document sent by the budget office. Mr Jibrin said the finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, failed to send a letter to address the discrepancy even after she was informed about it to redeem this obvious error. It has to do with the health sector. Of the N500 billion captured in the MTEF, it was only N314 billion (that was) captured in the bill, Mr Jibrin said. The N186 billion has to do with health and this is fundamental to that intervention and the health sector. We sat with the Budget Office (where they said) they thought that since that full amount was captured in the MTEF, there was no need for it to be captured in the full budget. We said no, that will be against section 80 and 81 of the Constitution. He added that the minister was asked to address a letter to the committee but had not as of Monday. So we are giving them today. If they dont bring the letter, we will not have any option but to present the bill as given to us and if they have made up their mind, they can bring a supplementary budget later. Ruling on the issue, Senate President Ahmad Lawan directed the committee to ensure that it receives the letter from the finance minister and prepare the necessary documents for their consideration on Thursday. I will advise those responsible for putting the budget estimates or revised or whatever to be meticulous and to be responsible. The National Assembly cannot be a destination where lack of efficiency in somebodys job will be addressed. We are supposed to have the entire bill presented to us, he said. A slew of high-level resignations from top news editors over the past week shows how much pressure the current racial protests is putting on media companies to confront their own shortcomings on diversity and on covering race issues. Driving the news: Top editors at Bon Appetit, Refinery29, The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer have all resigned in the past week due to their handling of sensitive stories about race, the Black Lives Matter protests, or newsroom culture. Bon Appetit editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport resigned on Monday after a picture surfaced of he and his wife wearing brownface. Rapoport also faced pressure from women who spoke out on social media about a culture of discrimination at the magazine under his leadership against women of color. editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport resigned on Monday after a picture surfaced of he and his wife wearing brownface. Rapoport also faced pressure from women who spoke out on social media about a culture of discrimination at the magazine under his leadership against women of color. Refinery29's co-founder and editor-in-chief Christene Barberich announced Monday that she is stepping down from her role as editor-in-chief following allegations from former employees of workplace discrimination against black women. co-founder and editor-in-chief Christene Barberich announced Monday that she is stepping down from her role as editor-in-chief following allegations from former employees of workplace discrimination against black women. The New York Times' opinion editor James Bennet resigned Sunday, days after widespread internal and external criticism over his decision to green-light an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) that called on President Trump to "send in the troops" in order to quell violent protests over the death of George Floyd. opinion editor James Bennet resigned Sunday, days after widespread internal and external criticism over his decision to green-light an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) that called on President Trump to "send in the troops" in order to quell violent protests over the death of George Floyd. The Philadelphia Inquirer's longtime top editor Stan Wischnowski, stepped down Saturday, soon after the company was slammed for publishing an article with the headline "Buildings Matter, too" prompting dozens to stage a virtual walkout at the company. The big picture: The protests have forced many media companies to seriously reckon with their own policies around newsroom diversity and coverage of race issues for the first time. The last time the industry faced such a reckoning around internal policies was during the #MeToo era, which saw the departures of dozens of top-level news bosses after stories became more prominent about the way white men in power undermined female subordinates. Go deeper: Four fiascos for mainstream media Sometimes things need to be done in a hurry, but these photos capture situations when a little more care was needed. UK-based Diply has rounded up the best selection of amusing design flaws spotted by social media users around the world. The questionable photographs include an outline of Africa on a t-shirt captioned 'Asia,' and a pool sign which apologises for the 'incontinence' - rather than 'inconvenience.' Here, FEMAIL brings you some of the most bizarre examples of poorly designed posters and projects that never should have been approved. One person, from the UK, shared this amusing design fail which showed the continent of Africa labelled as Asia on a t-shirt in a gift shop A supermarket worker, from the US, clearly got the wrong idea with acronyms when creating this poster about making a 'smart' choice An unknown user, from the US, told of the mistake their uncle made when installing a new rain gutter... Another person, believed to be from the US, was left baffled by these 'thinking of becoming a mum?' posters which were stuck above men's urinals A leisure centre, from an unknown location, proved that the smallest of spelling errors can make all the difference after confusing 'inconvenience' for 'incontinence' One man, from an unknown location, shared a very interesting set of spellings for fruit and vegetables - including 'qcomebur' for 'cucumber' and 'skwash' for squash Tom, from the US, revealed what he thought was a clever idea to stop his pooch from sitting on a section of lawn she'd previously dug up. However, his furry friend had other ideas... An anonymous person, from an unknown location, shared their very close call after nearly confusing chili powder with ground cinnamon - thanks to the almost identical packaging of two very different products A DIY enthusiast, believed to be from the US, shared this very interesting sign in a hardware store. It refers to killing plants and making them grow as the 'aisle of life & death' Another person, believed to be from the US, shared an over-cautious sign telling people not to 'drink' from the urinal One mechanic, from an unknown location, revealed a design fail which showed the plastic covering on a tool stating 'made in U.S.A.' while the metal underneath revealed that it was actually 'made in China' Information technology veteran and Wisconsin Chief Information Officer David Cagigal , who spanned both Republican and Democratic administrations in the state, will be stepping down.In an email to staff at the Department of Administration's Division of Enterprise Technology, Cagigal announced that his final day with the state would be June 19.Its time. After nearly eight years, its time for me to move on and end my service as the Chief Information Officer for the State for Wisconsin, Cagigal wrote to his staff this week.Cagigal served as Wisconsins CIO since 2012 under then-Gov. Scott Walker. Following Walkers re-election defeat in 2018, he stayed on in Gov. Tony Evers' administration.Prior to joining the ranks of state government, Cagigal spent a number of years in the private sector heading up IT programs at major companies like Amoco Corp. and Maytag.We have accomplished a great deal together, Cagigal added, in the message he shared with, ticking off initiatives like BadgerNet , which provides broadband services for state officers, schools and libraries for all of Wisconsins 72 counties, as well as the data center consolidations with a disaster recovery center in Milwaukee.I am moving onward believing that you are engaged and providing the best customer service to our agencies and residents of Wisconsin, said Cagigal.In 2020, he was added tolist of Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers, standing out for developing cybersecurity guidelines for regional and local governments to better defend against and respond to cyberthreats.In this country, only a few can say that collectively we touch every U.S. citizen with our products and services, Cagigal wrote in his closing comments to the National Association of State Chief Information Officers. We are rare, resilient, risk takers, reformers and relish in our responsibilities to do all we can in maximizing a return on every taxpayer dollar entrusted to us.Cagigal was not immediately available for further comment. PALO ALTO, California, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ScaleGrid, a leading Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) provider, has just announced support for their MySQL , PostgreSQL and Redis solutions on DigitalOcean. This launch is in addition to their current DigitalOcean offering for MongoDB database , the only DBaaS to support this database on DigitalOcean. MySQL and PostgreSQL are the top two open source relational databases in the world, and Redis is the top key-value database. These databases are a natural fit for the developer market that has gravitated towards DigitalOcean since its launch just nine years ago in 2011. The open source model is not only popular with the developer market, but also enterprise companies looking to modernize their infrastructure and reduce spend. DigitalOcean instance costs are also over 28% less expensive than AWS, and over 26% less than Azure, providing significant savings for companies who are struggling in this global climate. ScaleGrid's MySQL, PostgreSQL and Redis solutions on DigitalOcean are competitively priced starting at just $15/GB, the same as DigitalOcean's Managed Database solution, but offer on average 30% more storage for the same price. Additionally, ScaleGrid offers several competitive advantages such as full superuser access, custom master-slave configurations, and advanced slow query analysis and monitoring capabilities through their sophisticated platform. To compare more features, check out their ScaleGrid vs. DigitalOcean MySQL , ScaleGrid vs. DigitalOcean PostgreSQL and ScaleGrid vs. DigitalOcean Redis pages. This new ScaleGrid DigitalOcean service also shows significant performance improvements over DigitalOcean Managed Databases, with an average 68% higher throughput for write-intensive workloads and 94% higher throughput for balanced workloads. You can see a detailed breakdown of this performance benchmark in their Comparing PostgreSQL DigitalOcean Performance & Pricing: ScaleGrid vs. DigitalOcean Managed Databases post. "We've seen a significant uptick in developers and teams looking to move their workloads to DigitalOcean over the past few months," says Dharshan Rangegowda, ScaleGrid Founder and CEO. "In order to meet this increased demand, we are excited to offer our full featured DBaaS on DigitalOcean - our platform is architected from the ground up to leverage high performance SSD disks providing considerable performance advantages over existing platforms for the same price." ScaleGrid's advanced performance and broader feature set make it a compelling alternative for developers looking to run their database infrastructure on DigitalOcean. They also offer current DigitalOcean customers the opportunity to get 50% off for up to 6 months . Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/616224/ScaleGrid_Horizontal_Positive_Logo.jpg While the pandemics most obvious threat seems to have passed in Vietnam, its economic aftermath still troubles locals In a small, dark room of nearly eight square metres in Hanois Dong Anh district, Le Van Quy washes some water spinach that will be boiled for lunch. He had never cooked before, but in March the 30-year-old became unemployed from Japanese bathroom product manufacturer ToTo, as the workplace was temporarily closed due to COVID-19. His family is enduring some dark days, as his wife Minh also lost her job as a nanny. Before the current pandemic, life was already tough as the couple only earned VND12 million ($520) to cover living costs for a family of five. Now life has become much harder as they live day-by-day without money and jobs. All that they can do is to hope that the pandemic will end soon while waiting for fresh government measures that could keep their three children from starving. Like Quys family, many families living in Thang Long Industrial Park and other industrial zones in the city and beyond have suffered from the pandemic as they lost jobs while working for foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs). The coronavirus crisis has caused temporary factory closures including well-known names such as Panasonic, Honda, Toyota, Ford, and the aforementioned ToTo. Meanwhile, the textile and garment sector complained that it is experiencing its hardest troubles since the Asian economic crisis of 1997 and the global financial crisis 12 years ago. The same situation can be seen in the countrys craft villages. In Bat Trang, about 15km from Hanois centre, life has become quiet with few visitors and little trade. Dinh Van Phuc, owner of a workshop in the village, said before the outbreak Bat Trang was attracting hundreds of visitors a day and it was especially busy in the first months of the year. However, production became paralysed, and there are no domestic buyers or orders from other countries. Ha Van Lam, deputy head of the representative board of Bat Trang Traditional Ceramics Village, explained that at present almost all ceramics shops were closed with only a few production facilities maintaining operation to ensure export orders for other countries. Meanwhile, Dong Ky woodwork village in the northern province of Bac Ninh, which houses 1,500 households making products to serve domestic and international demand, has reported a sharp fall of 80 per cent in production. Ha Thai lacquer craft village in Hanois Thuong Tin district is also suffering. Due to the complicated COVID-19 pandemic, domestic and foreign partners requested production facilities here to suspend production. Do Hung Chieu, chairman of the Ha Thai Lacquer Association, said he had received a request letter from European and American businesses asking his own workshop to suspend production of signed orders, as the business system in their own countries was also closed due to lockdowns. Only a few domestic orders still maintain production but at a small scale. At an online conference on sustainable business held on June 3, Le Van Thanh, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that due to the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market, more than five million employees nationwide lost jobs or were forced to endure reduced working hours and incomes over the first five months of 2020. According to Thanh, nearly 85 per cent of businesses in Vietnam are affected by the crisis, and must request their employees to suspend contracts, take time off work or work alternately, especially in jobs in the processing, manufacturing, wholesale, retail, warehousing, accommodation, and catering services. Thanh also said that in May, the number of employees returning to work has increased. Around 80,000 employees who had previously lost their jobs have returned to work. However, the employment of many labourers and the activities of many businesses continue to face difficulties due to the stagnant export markets. With the aim of leaving no-one behind in fighting the global health crisis, the government has been taking swift action to protect investors, businesses, and people via relief measures at a time when major economic sectors have had to send workers into temporary unemployment. In April, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said, While great difficulties are hitting people and enterprises, a bowl of rice for the poor at times like this is worth thousands of times more than discussions. Looking at the suffering of people across the country during the crisis, ministers have done their utmost to craft measures as soon as possible to help people and businesses overcome the strife. Thanh from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said on June 3 that the government would allow the use of VND 3-5 trillion ($130-215 million) from the Unemployment Insurance Fund to support employers and help retrain employees to improve their skills. The government officially adopted a support package worth VND62 trillion ($2.7 billion) to ensure social security, contribute to maintaining social stability, and demonstrate the governments commitments. The package has been delivered to people with meritorious services, contracted employees, part-time workers, and those on unpaid leave or with reduced income as a result of the pandemic. It has also been applied to freelancers let go without eligibility for unemployment benefits, and those who have no labour contract. Meanwhile, companies could borrow money at a zero lending rate from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to ensure they have enough funds to pay affected workers. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc reaffirmed that mobilising resources from the private sector and through foreign direct investment is most essential now. WASHINGTON - The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee asked the Pentagon's top intelligence official on Monday whether any combat-support intelligence agency has been used to provide information to the military or federal law enforcement responding to nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd. The letter from Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Joseph Kernan sought assurance that the Pentagon was not providing such support, including to track protesters. Schiff's letter comes in the wake of President Donald Trump threatening to mobilize the military to enforce order among protesters. And it comes a week after images of the National Guard and several federal law enforcement agencies using force to disperse protesters gathered at Lafayette Square in front of the White House. "The sudden and impulsive manner in which the armed forces and law enforcement components from across the federal government have been mobilized to date, and the lack of public transparency regarding their orders . . . is deeply troubling," Schiff said. A Pentagon official said Kernan had received the letter but declined to comment on correspondence with Congress. Other Democrats have raised concerns about federal law enforcement possibly conducting surveillance on Americans engaging in peaceful protests. Last week, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security after it flew a surveillance drone over protests in Minneapolis on May 29. There is no indication that Pentagon intelligence agencies such as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which provides satellite and other overhead imagery, furnished support to any units responding to the protests. The NGA has been used to help the military in responding to disasters, and it played a significant role in delivering information during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 on where to build levees and where the damage was most severe. But Schiff wants assurance that no intelligence was used to monitor peaceful protesters. He also wants to know whether any Pentagon agencies have received inquiries or requests of any kind from the Trump administration or any federal department to begin planning for such activity. "The American people deserve, and expect, that the [intelligence community] will scrupulously honor its obligation to respect their civil liberties when conducting its vital mission of keeping our nation safe," he wrote. Reforming the criminal justice system could save Pennsylvania taxpayers more than $100 million each year while being more fair to those involved. These were the findings in a new report, Criminal Justice: Reforms to Improve Lives and Save Money, released Tuesday by Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. DePasquale announced last year he would develop the report on the benefits to society and savings to taxpayers resulting from criminal justice reform, noting that Pennsylvanias incarceration rate is higher than that of the U.S. as a whole with roughly 725 per 100,000 people behind bars. He said in a virtual press conference with reporters Tuesday that work on his report predates the death of George Floyd in police custody, but that shows clearly there is room for more reform to be done on all levels of the criminal justice system. His report, however, focuses the post-arrest portion of the system and makes recommendations to the governors office and the legislature on how to improve the system while reducing costs, noting the lock 'em up and throw away the key approach does not work. Many of his 18 recommended reforms are aimed at keeping non-violent, first-time drug offenders out of prisons. Beyond creating a more equitable approach to enforcing our laws, enacting criminal justice reforms can produce big savings for Pennsylvania taxpayers, DePasquale said. We also need to make sure to invest in efforts to give inmates the ability to successfully reenter society and avoid returning to prison. DePasquale said the state Department of Corrections spent $2.6 billion in the 2018-2019 fiscal year to incarcerate roughly 46,000 people. But about $101 million of that total is spent each year to lock up people who have committed no new crimes, but have instead technically violated probation or parole. In preparing the report, DePasquale said his team got input from more than two dozen national, state, county and local experts, finding several areas of concern. One is the public defender system. Pennsylvania remains the only state that does not provide funding for the defense of indigent defendants, passing the cost on to the counties. That makes the system burdensome on poorer and more rural counties, which tend to have a higher percentage of incarcerated populations, he said. Cash bail is a system that needs to be addressed, as well, he said. It often results low-income defendants staying in prison before trial at an additional cost to taxpayers. Risk-assessment tools used to help courts determine sentences may have a disproportionately negative impact on minority defendants, the report shows. Treatment courts can be used to better effect with defendants struggling with addiction, who may benefit from being diverted to treatment rather than jail, which can produce a lasting benefit to both the individual and society while saving taxpayers millions of dollars. Pennsylvania also spends less per inmate on health care than the national average. Shortages of mental health services throughout Pennsylvania exacerbate the problems in both state prisons and county jails, which rely largely on contractors to provide these services. The report also states that every $1 spent on education in prison saves taxpayers $5 in related incarceration costs, so Pennsylvania should remove barriers to post-prison employment to ensure inmates that receive job training can use it after their release. The parole and probation system is one of the biggest contributors to mass incarceration in Pennsylvania, he said, instead of being a system that helps former offenders reenter society and thrive. And while the state Board of Pardons has been working to simplify the process of applying for a pardon and speed up the process of applying for clemency, delays in receiving pardons or clemency still create barriers to housing, employment and other opportunities. Clearly theres room for more reform work to be done at all levels of the criminal justice system, DePasquale said. We can treat people more equitably while saving taxpayers millions of dollars something that is not only possible, but also necessary. You can see the full report here: His 18 recommendations are: The General Assembly should follow the recommendations from the 2011 Joint State Government Commission report on how Pennsylvania can provide an effective indigent defense system. Magisterial district justices should be trained on the current disparities and harmful outcomes of the cash bail system. Any use of a risk-assessment tool to determine pre-trial detention should be balanced by the use of a needs-assessment tool to determine what basic human needs a person has such as the need for food, shelter or clothing to be released pre-trial and not reoffend. Court officials must work with police, district attorneys, public defenders, health officials, probation and parole officers and more to create robust systems that identify defendants who need help, not punishment, to prevent them from committing new crimes. County courts should implement diversionary courts, especially those for drug treatment, mental health and veterans. All county prisons should adopt the recommendations made in the July 2019 Council of State Governments Justice Centers report on treating defendants with serious mental illness. The state Department of Corrections should continue expanding the medication assisted treatment programs and share how such programs are affecting relapse and recidivism rates among reentrants. County commissioners and prison boards should work together to standardize medical services based on best practices. For example, labor and delivery policies should be standardized so that a consistent level of care and safety is present across the state and so that care is guaranteed in case of complications. At the state and county levels, policies governing health care in prison should prioritize continuity of care. At the state and county levels, screenings for mental health histories, substance abuse histories and sexually transmitted diseases should be automatically performed at intake. At the state and county levels, accessible resources should be provided about health care in prison a pamphlet in English is not accessible to all; there should be forms at the ready for whoever needs those resources, including counseling opportunities. Congress should expand the Second Chance Pell Program and provide for more federal student aid in prisons. The General Assembly should pass a law ensuring that people with criminal records cannot be automatically disqualified from obtaining professional licenses unless the crime committed relates to the practice of that profession. The General Assembly should reintroduce and pass the Pennsylvania Second Chance Jobs Act so that the Department of Labor and Industry can develop and maintain a website where formerly incarcerated people can search for and apply to jobs. County probation needs to be better funded so that probation officers can better support the people they supervise and help them meet the terms of their supervision. Probation should be about providing people with ways to address mistakes that amount to technical violations. State and county officials should work together to reallocate resources to counties so they can provide support services to people on probation or parole. The Wolf Administration should continue to automate and streamline the clemency application and pardons process. The state Constitution should be amended so that the Board of Pardons requires, at minimum, a majority vote, not an unanimous vote, to send pardon and clemency recommendations to the governor in cases with sentences of life imprisonment or death. 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. DISPOSABLE CITY Miamis Future on the Shores of Climate Change By Mario Alejandro Ariza The prospects for Miami are grim, a scientist tells Mario Alejandro Ariza in his new book: The waters rise will be merciless and geologically speaking swift. Ariza wishes there were a more favorable forecast for his hometown. Like his Dominican grandmother, he hopes to celebrate his 80th birthday in Miami. That will be in 2067, when most of the regions coastal zone, about 500 square miles that is home to 60,000 people, is likely to be underwater unless bold measures are taken. Insightful and richly detailed, Disposable City tells the story of Miamis preparedness for the sea level increase that is sure to come, giving special emphasis to its potential social and economic impact. Miami is not the countrys most vulnerable metropolitan area in this age of swelling seas. But the citys tropical swagger has always made it a media darling, and it remains one as the phenomena known as king tides routinely turn its streets into Venetian canals without Venices romance. This otherwise vigorous, glitzy city offers a glimpse into the realities of climate change and the challenges that lie ahead. Ariza, a journalist writing his first book, begins by describing the way geography is an inescapable challenge for the city. The advancing Atlantic Ocean has Miami pinned against the protected and low-lying Everglades. Retreat is no option and a bulwark no solution. The metropolis sprawls across a limestone plateau. You could build a sea wall to heaven and the rising water would still gurgle up through the regions porous underbelly. Miamis only slab of high ground, the Atlantic Coastal Ridge, not surprisingly has become contested territory. Historically, the white population coveted waterside living and shuffled off minorities to places like Little Haiti and Liberty City. Both are on the ridge and now glimmers in the eyes of opportunistic developers with blueprints for more expensive housing, which would decimate these culturally robust enclaves. Ariza is at his most perceptive when discussing climate gentrification and cultural preservation, neither of which receives much attention in strategies for saving the city. SAN FRANCISCO, June 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman urges investors in Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE: R) who have suffered losses in excess of $100,000 to submit their losses now . A securities fraud class action has been filed and certain investors may have valuable claims. Class Period: Jul. 23, 2015 - Feb. 13, 2020 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: July 20, 2020 Visit: https://www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/r Contact An Attorney Now: Ryder@hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895 Ryder System, Inc. (R) Securities Class Action: The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants misled investors by overstating Ryders financial results. According to the Complaint, Defendants assigned grossly overstated residual values to Ryders trucking fleet, which allowed the company to record smaller-than-required depreciation expenses and, in turn, artificially inflate the companys reported earnings. Investors began to learn the truth through a series of partial disclosures beginning on July 30, 2019, when Ryder drastically reduced its FY 2019 earnings forecast, blaming weaker valuations of the companys tractors. Then, on Oct. 29, 2019, the company significantly lowered the residual values for all its vehicles and recorded a $177 million depreciation expense, explaining that management concluded that our residual value estimates likely exceed the expected future values that would be realized upon the sale of power vehicles in our fleet. Finally, on Feb. 13, 2020, Defendants disclosed Ryder recorded a total depreciation expense of $357 million for FY 2019, and that it expected to record an additional depreciation expense of $275 million during FY 2020 due to additional reductions of residual values. In response to each disclosure, the price of Ryder shares sharply fell. Were focused on investors losses and proving Ryder intentionally deceived investors through its accounting gimmickry, said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation. If you purchased shares of Ryder and suffered significant losses, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman . Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Ryder should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email Ryder@hbsslaw.com . About Hagens Berman Hagens Berman is a national law firm with nine offices in eight cities around the country and eighty attorneys. The firm represents investors, whistleblowers, workers and consumers in complex litigation. More about the firm and its successes is located at hbsslaw.com . For the latest news visit our newsroom or follow us on Twitter at @classactionlaw . Analysts for Standard & Poors Global Ratings shared a view that U.S. underwriting losses from COVID-19 would fall in the $15-$30 billion range. However, risk officers speaking at a rating agency conference last week said the estimate is light. S&P Director Stephen Guijarro revealed the rating agencys projection, which is based on its research and information gathered from S&Ps rating universe, during an introductory session of the S&Ps Annual Insurance on Thursday, taking place virtually this year for the first time. Guijarro said the estimate is limited to the U.S.-only. It also assumes virus exclusions in commercial property policies with business interruption coverage will hold and that legislative efforts to ignore them will fail, Guijarro said. If these efforts were to gain any momentum or shelter-in-place restrictions were to be extended, these losses estimates could materially alter, he said, noting that right now, the range is equivalent to a medium-to-large-sized catastrophe. The storm has made landfall but it hasnt finished. Sean Ringsted, Chubb Sean Ringsted, executive vice president, chief digital officer and CRO for Chubb Group, said, We think its going to be the largest insured loss thats [ever] been, without putting a specific number on his view during a later session of the conference. The event has global impact, not just in the U.S., he said, pointing out an important limitation of the S&P estimate, as well as the uncertainty around liability lines of business. The storm has made landfall but it hasnt finished, Ringsted said, noting that its part medical catastrophe and part economic catastrophe, with the latter set to play over 12-18 more months. Greg Richardson, chief risk and strategy officer for TransRe, puts underwriting losses at a number a little worse than S&P, but agrees with the S&P conclusion that they will be manageable. The insurance industry, especially the P/C reinsurance segment, is all about volatility. So, weve been battered by extreme events every few years for the past 20 or 30 years. I think we understand risk. Were prepared for it, he said. Its manageable within our balance sheets, within our capacities. [But] it opens our eyes to things that maybe we didnt expect to happen. In particular, Richardson gave the example of one well-known very, very proud and good insurance company, not an American one [that] has been in the headlines because of commercial business interruption insurance policy wordings. They went to enormous pains in that wording to eradicate any sort of coverage from cyber riskRoll the tape back a year, and everybody was talking about cyber so much, you just got sick of it. The carrier thought so obsessively about cyber that it left the door open to disease pandemic exposure, he said, reporting that the word virus appears in this unnamed carriers policies in the context of cyber risk rather than human communicable disease. We dont think even the most aggressive plaintiffs bar would try to ascribe fault to most insureds. Greg Richardson, TransRe More generally, Richardson said, that because the pandemic touches on every aspect of life, it also touches on every aspect of P/C insuranceand life insurance. It transcends all lines of business, he said, revealing that for TransRe, the most immediate impact was on the event cancellation line. Those were pretty obvious and we understand the losses but it was a nice little pop in the jaw for us. Ill be honest with that, he said, referring to event cancellation losses. For other lines, there are elements of uncertainty for primary carriers and reinsurers, he said. To the extent commercial BI [business interruption] is in property-cat contracts, that would be something we certainly did not model or price for as an industry, he said. While TransRe writes twice as much casualty reinsurance business as property business, Richardson said hes not too worried about COVID casualty exposures. We dont think even the most aggressive plaintiffs bar would try to ascribe fault to most insureds, he said. In terms of industry losses, he said he falls somewhere between S&P and Ringsted without giving a specific figure but noting that two downside risks play into this assessment: the financial downside which affects the liability side and the asset side, and the unknown around legislative and legal risk around commercial BI. Those are big unknownspotentially, if not black swans, brown swans that are lurking. During a later panel featuring industry CEOs, S&P polled the audience watching the virtual conference to give their views of ultimate losses, polling twiceboth before and after industry executives spoke. It didnt matter that the CEOs said that policy wordings for business interruption would hold given facts and the weight of historical case law in between the two polls. In both, only about 35 percent of attendees agreed with S&Ps $15-$30 billion range. Roughly 56-57 percent indicated that they believed the figure would surpass $30 billion. Topics COVID-19 Profit Loss London, June 9 : UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged the country to "work peacefully, lawfully" to defeat racism and discrimination, it was reported on Tuesday. In an article for the Voice, the only British national black weekly newspaper, Johnson wrote that the government could not ignore the anger and "undeniable feeling of injustice" sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd, the unarmed African-American man while in police custody in the US, reports the BBC. The Prime Minister said Floyd's death had "awakened an anger and a widespread and incontrovertible, undeniable feeling of injustice, a feeling that people from black and minority ethnic groups do face discrimination: in education, in employment, in the application of the criminal law". "We simply cannot ignore the depth of emotion that has been triggered by that spectacle, of a black man losing his life at the hands of the police," he wrote. "We who lead and who govern simply can't ignore those feelings because in too many cases, I am afraid, they will be founded on a cold reality." While he believed the UK was a much less racist society than it was 40 years ago, Johnson said he "heard" the Black Lives Matter protesters and accepted much more needed to be done to ensure everyone was treated equally. "We must also frankly acknowledge that there is so much more to do - in eradicating prejudice, and creating opportunity, and the government I lead is committed to that effort." Thanking those who abided by social distancing while taking to the streets, the Prime Minister warned that further mass demonstrations endangered the UK's efforts to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control. Floyd's death triggered an international outcry and sparked days of mass protests in cities across the UK. While the demonstrations have been largely peaceful, they turned violent in London on January when police officers were confronted with flares, and a statue of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was vandalised. More protests are taking place on Tuesday, including in London and Oxford, with the latter focusing on calls for a statue at Oriel College of imperialist Cecil Rhodes to be taken down. LATEST June 9, 10:41 p.m. The city of Berkeley voted Tuesday evening to prohibit the police from using of tear gas, according to a tweet from Councilmember Rigel Robinson. "We just voted to prohibit the use of tear gas," Robinson tweeted. "No 'during the COVID-19 state of emergency.' No end-date. No sunset." June 9, 4:40 p.m. Among those gathered at the Oakland protest Tuesday are reportedly drummer Sheila E. and political activist Angela Davis. The two were photographed kneeling in a tribute to George Floyd. "Plz post this right now," Sheila E. wrote in a tweet. "Activist Angela Davis and Sheila E. Today in Oakland peaceful protest. Black and brown people in solidarity." June 9, 3:50 p.m. More than 100 people have gathered for a vigil in downtown Oakland around shrines for Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tony McDade and Ahmaud Arbery. NBC Bay Area reports there are "many families in the crowd." June 9, 3:20 p.m. San Francisco city workers paid tribute to George Floyd on Tuesday the day of his memorial service by kneeling for eight minutes and 46 seconds inside City Hall. "We recognize not only the tragic loss of a single life, but also the long history of racism that courses through our entire country," Mayor London Breed wrote in a tweet Tuesday. "We honor the countless Black lives lost to police violence and recommit ourselves to the fight against injustice and the struggle for equality." June 9, 3 p.m. Just hours before SFMTA bus drivers halted service for eight minutes and 46 seconds to symbolically memorialize the life of George Floyd, the transit agency made another monumental decision. As several demonstrations continued to take place throughout the Bay Area on Tuesday, Muni announced it would no longer transport officers from the San Francisco Police Department to protests. "The idea for the memorial was suggested by one of our transportation controllers in our Transportation Management Center," said Erica Kato, a spokesperson for Muni. "Weve been engaged in conversations with our staff, and that has given us the opportunity to reflect on what we can do to support our staff and black and brown community, and turn words into action." Read more from SFGATE reporter Amanda Bartlett. June 9, 12:50 p.m. Victims and witnesses of police violence will be eligible for funeral expenses, help with medical bills, counseling and other services under a policy San Francisco's liberal top prosecutor announced Tuesday. The policy change by District Attorney Chesa Boudin comes as the U.S. reels from the deaths of George Floyd and other people of color at the hands of police. In the San Francisco Bay Area, protesters are marching against the recent fatal police shootings of two young men. Read more from the Associated Press. June 9, 11:50 a.m. San Francisco supervisors will reportedly appeal to the city Tuesday to ban the use of pepper spray and rubber bullets on protesters by San Francisco police officers. Specifically, the three supes Hillary Ronen, Shamann Walton and Matt Haney will introduce a measure, called The Right to Protest Safely Act. The measure would force the SFPD to eliminate some chemical-based crowd control methods as well as military equipment and less-lethal weapons, like rubber bullets. Read more on the measure here. June 9, 11:40 a.m. A massive street mural with an urgent message has taken over downtown Oakland. With the help of at least 400 artists and volunteers, a public art piece reading "Black Lives Matter" in bold, yellow letters now spans three blocks along Broadway and took an entire day to paint. Most of the participants arrived early Sunday morning, paintbrushes in hand though several other volunteers were passerby that noticed what was going on and decided to jump in themselves. "At the end of the day, it was about what we created," said Pancho Kachingwe, the owner of The Hatch, the bar where the mural started. "Maybe there was someone walking by who thought, 'I don't understand why people are looting.' Now they see all of these people painting, and it opens up a conversation with someone they normally wouldn't talk to. If you can create those moments with art, that's so powerful it creates a ripple effect that you wouldnt possibly imagine." Read more from SFGATE reporter Amanda Bartlett. June 9, 11:30 a.m. President Donald Trump drew criticism Tuesday after suggesting on Twitter that a 75-year-old man who was injured after he being pushed to the ground by police in Buffalo, N.Y. last week during protests was part of a 'set up.' Trump tweeted that the man, Martin Gugino who went into intensive care after the incident and remains hospitalized "could be an ANTIFA provocateur," and added that he was "pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment." Gugino's lawyer, Kelly Zarcone, responded to the tweets in a statement to the Washington Post. "Martin has always been a PEACEFUL protester because he cares about today's society," she said. "He is also a typical Western New Yorker who loves his family. No one from law enforcement has suggested otherwise, so we're at a loss to understand why the president of the United States would make such a dark, dangerous and untrue accusation against him." June 9, 10:45 a.m. Protests are ongoing across the Bay Area this week, with nearly a dozen planned for Tuesday across San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and San Jose. Among the demonstrations scheduled is a kneel-in for George Floyd at San Francisco's City Hall and a black youth protest and march in Berkeley. See more at SF FunCheap. June 9, 9:15 a.m. San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said in a virtual roundtable Monday night organized by the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club that he has "an open mind" when it comes to calls to "defund the police." In the conversation, also attended by San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto and Public Defender Mano Raju, moderator Niki Solis asked Scott for his thoughts on the recent movement to "defund the police," as put forth in a Washington Post op-ed over the weekend written by Georgetown Law professor Christy E. Lopez. The article, as Solis noted, describes a community over-reliance on police departments and posits "shrinking the scope of police responsibility and shifting most of what government does to keep us safe to entities better equipped to deal with particular situations." "I have an open mind to that," Scott responded, noting that while he's aware any police chief or department head would instinctively want to be protective of their budget, the times have changed. Read more from SFGATE editor Alyssa Pereira. June 9, 7:50 a.m. Muni will pause all service for eight minutes and 46 seconds Tuesday at noon "to honor and reflect on the lift of George Floyd and the cause of his death," SFMTA announced on Twitter. "Muni operators will pull over once safe to do so, and open all doors to allow passengers to either partake in the moment of silence or deboard," SFMTA said in a statement. "SFMTA staff from across the agency will also observe this moment of silence." The moment of silence may cause minor delays. June 9, 7:45 a.m. City Hall, Coit Tower, the San Francisco International Airport and the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers were all lit up Monday night in memory of George Floyd. S.F. Mayor London Breed shared an image of the light display on City Hall on Twitter. MORE COVERAGE ON THE GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS: Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on Bay Area protest coverage here. Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com. Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries (Julphar), one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in the Middle East and Africa, has announced that the companys exports to Bahrain and Kuwait will resume again. The announcement comes after the successful inspection of Julphars manufacturing facilities by the Gulf Health Council (GHC) and the Pharmaceutical & Herbal Medicine Registration & Quality Control Admin, Ministry of Health, Kuwait. Sheikh Saqer Humaid Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Board, Julphar, said: We are very pleased to announce that, once again, more than 100 products will be registered and available within Bahrain and Kuwait. We would like to extend our thanks to the authorities for their continued guidance and support during our collaboration to implement further improvements in our manufacturing processes as per the recommendations highlighted in their report. We look forward to being able to serve patients in both countries once again, as well as further bolstering our long-standing relationships and efforts with all relevant Bahraini, Kuwaiti and regional authorities as our products continue to be successfully sold here and in 50 markets around the world. Dr Essam Farouk, Chief Executive Officer at Julphar, said: Ensuring patients are able to access the products and treatment they need is of the utmost importance to us and this resumption of sales marks the relaunch of our products in all GCC markets. Today is another great stride in the transformation that is underway at Julphar, which has the clear objective to restore our position as a regional pharmaceutical leader within three years. TradeArabia News Service Shocking video captured the moment an armed black business owner who called 911 to report a robbery in his store in Alabama was punched in the face by a responding police officer who mistook him for a suspect. Surveillance footage from the March 15 altercation at Star Spirits & Beverages in Decatur began circulating on social media over the weekend amid protests over police brutality and racism following the death of George Floyd. The store's owner, 47-year-old Kevin Penn, had told 911 dispatchers that he was holding a shoplifter at gunpoint. At a press conference on Monday, Decatur Police Chief Nate Allen acknowledged that the responding officer, who has not been named, punched Penn because he thought he was the shoplifter. Penn suffered a broken jaw, had his teeth knocked out and needed to get his mouth wired shut as a result, according to his lawyer Carl Cole. Scroll down for video Shocking video shows the moment a black business owner who called 911 to report a robbery in his store in Alabama was punched in the face by a responding police officer on March 15 Surveillance video shows Kevin Penn, owner of Star Spirits & Beverages, speaking to officers responding to the robbery report. Penn had told 911 dispatchers that he was holding a shoplifter at gunpoint Police said one of the officers (seen right) punched Penn after mistaking him for the suspect Penn (pictured) suffered a broken jaw, had his teeth knocked out and needed to get his mouth wired shut after the altercation, according to his lawyer Carl Cole Allen presented body camera footage from the incident at Monday's news conference in an effort to be 'transparent' about the ongoing investigation. The video shows officers coming into the store and the suspect, later identified to be a person involved in an alleged shoplifting at Penn's store, lying on the ground. An officer walks past the suspect and tells Penn to put down his weapon. Penn refuses saying: 'I have a right to have my gun.' Allen said that's when Penn moved his hand over a gun lying on a counter next to him. 'We do know there was a gun there, we do know that the magazines were there, we do know that he was reloading the magazine,' Allen told reporters. Penn's lawyer said his client had showed his gun to the officers to let them know he was armed. Penn had also removed the clip and ejected the bullets from the weapon, Cole said. The video shows Penn telling officers he's going to file a complaint as they came close to him. The body camera footage doesn't clearly show what happens next, but surveillance video from the store shows an officer punching Penn and being joined by two other officers to wrestle him to the ground. Penn was handcuffed and arrested on a charge of obstructing a robbery investigation, according to court records. Decatur police Officer J. Rippen wrote in the records that Penn 'refused to obey lawful commands to put down and back away from a firearm while officers were attempting to investigate a robbery'. Body camera footage released by the Decatur Police Department shows the moments leading up to when the officer punched Penn (right) in the face An officer is heard asking Penn to put down his gun (circled in white) and Penn refusing to do so. Penn's lawyer said he showed the officers his gun so they would know he was armed Allen declined to name the officer who punched Penn but said he has been placed on desk duty while the department investigates the altercation. The identity of the shoplifting suspect, who was arrested the same day, was also not released. Penn filed a complaint with the police department over the altercation but has not been given an update on the status of the investigation, his lawyer said. The police chief also added Monday he doesn't know when the investigation, which started in March, will conclude. Asked whether the punch amounted to excessive force, Allen said officers should use the 'least amount of force necessary to get the job done', AL.com reported. He noted that many cases involving an armed suspect end with police shooting the person, adding: 'I would much rather have a punch than an officer-involved shooting.' Officers are seen wrestling Penn to the ground before they arrested him on a charge of obstructing a robbery investigation Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Tue, June 9, 2020 15:02 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd4aeca 2 Entertainment The-Mandalorian,Disney,series,Star-Wars,spin-off,Baby-Yoda Free Fans of 'Baby Yoda,' officially known as 'The Child,' will be delighted to hear that the character will soon be returning to the small screen. In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, the second season of the "Star Wars" spin-off will release on Disney+ in October, confirmed Jon Favreau. "We were lucky enough to have finished photography before the lockdown," explained the executive producer and creator of the series during a virtual panel for the ATX Television Festival. He further added that "thanks to how technology-forward Lucasfilm and ILM are, we have been able to do all of our visual effects and editing and post-production remotely through systems that had been set up by those companies for us." As it stands the exact date for the release of the new season of "The Mandalorian" has not yet been disclosed. According to the American director, the second season will feature a number of new characters and fresh directing talent. "As we explore partnering with new filmmakers and having new characters and going deeper with the characters we already have, it's really been very fun and fulfilling and I hope people are having as much fun seeing it as we are having making it," enthused Jon Favreau. News of other "Star Wars" projects The release of "The Mandalorian" on Disney+ contributed to the success of the US launch of the streaming service in November 2019, which finally arrived in Europe in March and April of 2020. On the virtual panel, Jon Favreau was notably joined by Taika Waititi and Deborah Chow, two of "The Mandalorian" directors, who are currently preparing other "Star Wars"-related projects. Asked about the status of his planned "Star Wars" film, Waititi jokingly remarked, "It's all finished. I'm done." For her part, Deborah Chow, who is in charge of a new series focused on the character of Obi-Wan Kenobi, confirmed that the project was still in development. Dr. Constance Chen Complementary therapies may help women with the effects of mainstream medicine and its treatments. With the approval of their doctors, some women have found benefits from therapies such as acupuncture; aromatherapy; exercise, including yoga and tai chi; and meditation and relaxation techniques. Breast cancer, the most commonly occurring cancer in women, is traditionally treated with a combination of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. In seeking to maximize the benefits of these treatments and minimize their often-debilitating side effects, many women consider adding various complementary therapies to their treatment regimens. Complementary therapies may help women with the effects of mainstream medicine and its treatments, says plastic surgeon and breast specialist Dr. Constance M. Chen. With the approval of their doctors, some women have found benefits from therapies such as acupuncture; aromatherapy; exercise, including yoga and tai chi; and meditation and relaxation techniques. These are referred to as 'complementary' rather than 'alternative' therapies, since they work in concert with traditional treatments; they don't replace them. Safety first In some women, integrating complementary therapies with standard treatment can help relieve common signs and symptoms such as anxiety, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, pain, difficulty sleeping, and stress. Although not all medical professionals are supportive, it may be useful to bring your doctor into your plans before undertaking a complementary regimen. Standard treatments have been through a rigorous scientific process of testing and clinical trials to determine their safety and effectiveness, she says. The same isn't always true of alternative therapies. In particular, some herbal supplements interact with cancer drugs in ways that can make traditional medication less effective. The 'natural' label is no guarantee of safety. The same is true of large doses of some vitamins. Although many traditional doctors are not well educated in alternative therapies, you can try asking your doctor for advice on safety and on the best strategy for you. Which therapies are safe and effective? Acupuncture has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. A practitioner applies hair-thin, sterilized needles to specific points on the skin and moves them gently to stimulate the nervous system. The strongest evidence for acupuncture as an adjunct to cancer treatment has been found in clinical trials that demonstrated effectiveness in reducing the nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy drugs or by anesthesia used in surgery. It has also been found effective in limited studies in reducing pain for some cancer patients and in reducing the hot flashes suffered by women undergoing hormone therapy. There is some evidence that acupuncture may help relieve fatigue and resolve problems sleeping. The FDA has approved the use of acupuncture by licensed practitioners. Many states regulate the practice; you should do your own research to find a certified practitioner. Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils from plants to improve physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Essential oils are extracted from the fragrant part of the plant, which is often found under the surface of leaves, bark, or peel. The fragrance is released when the plant is crushed or a special steam process is used. Essential oils used in aromatherapy include those from geranium, lavender, tea tree, lemon, ginger, cedarwood, bergamot, and Roman chamomile. Each has a different chemical makeup that affects how it smells, how it is absorbed, and how it affects the body. Essential oils are most often inhaled indirectly via a diffuser that distributes the oil in the air. They may also be diluted and massaged into the skin. While studies have shown mixed results, some have shown benefits to cancer patients in instilling a feeling of calm, relieving anxiety, improving sleep, and reducing nausea and pain. A study of breast cancer patients found inhalation of ginger oil to have some effect in reducing acute nausea. Aromatherapy is generally considered safe when used as directed, though the oils can cause an allergic reaction in some women when applied directly to the skin and lavender and tea tree oils have estrogen-like effects that can be detrimental in some cases. Exercise has been shown to improve outcomes for cancer patients and improve quality of life. It can relieve stress and fatigue and improve sleep. An exercise program should be started slowly, building up gradually to thirty minutes most days of the week. Tai chi is a form of exercise that uses slow, gentle movements and deep breathing. It is generally safe, doesn't require physical strength, and can relieve stress. Yoga comes in many variations, some of which require considerable bending, twisting, and stretching along with deep breathing. It's important to avoid poses that cause discomfort. Many cancer patients find yoga relieves stress and fatigue and improves sleep. Meditation is a method of deep concentration on a single thought, often combined with deep breathing and relaxation techniques that calm the mind and relax the muscles. Many people who practice meditation do so once or twice a day, often starting with the help of an instructor. These practices are generally credited with relieving anxiety and stress. These therapies bring relief to many breast cancer patients, says Dr. Chen. You may find benefit from the therapy itself and also from the psychological support and conviction that you are doing everything possible to enhance the success of your treatment and to sustain the best possible quality of life as you heal. Constance M. Chen, MD, is a board-certified plastic surgeon with special expertise in the use of innovative natural techniques to optimize medical and cosmetic outcomes for women undergoing breast reconstruction. She is Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery (Plastic Surgery) at Weill Cornell Medical College and Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery (Plastic Surgery) at Tulane University School of Medicine. http://www.constancechenmd.com Vanderpump Rules stars Stassi Schroeder, Kristen Doute, Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni have been axed by Bravo after their past racist comments resurfaced. Stassi, 31, and Kristen, 37, have starred on the reality show since its inception in 2013 while Max, 27, and Brett, 31, were newcomers on the most recent season eight. Arguably one of the most popular stars of the series, which follows the staff at Lisa Vanderpump-owned SUR restaurant in West Hollywood, Stassi has come under fire for a disturbing racist stunt, along with racially-insensitive remarks she has shared online in recent years. They're out: Vanderpump Rules stars Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute have been fired by Bravo after their racially-charged prank that targeted co-star Faith Stowers The outspoken blonde has since been dropped by her agent, publicist and several sponsors after her and pal Kristen's racially-driven stunt against black co-star Faith Stowers came to light. A spokesperson for Bravo and Evolution Media confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that Stassi, Kristen, Max and Brett 'will not be returning to Vanderpump Rules'. Stassi also made offensive comments on a previous podcast episode where she was heard speaking negatively about black people and claiming they ask for special treatment in Hollywood. On Tuesday afternoon, Faith said felt 'vindicated' after their firing, in a new interview with Page Six. Apologetic: Newcomers Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni have also been dropped by Bravo. They apologized last week for past racist tweets on the Vanderpump Rules reunion 'I feel so vindicated studios and production are able to see blatant racism and make these positive changes and help move the race forward - help with the fight forward,' Faith told the outlet. The 31-year-old star continued: 'I was in the middle of prayer and I felt a sense of - I know it sounds corny - I felt a sense of glory. I felt God's presence and I'm seeing now [that the news has been revealed] maybe that is what that was.' Adding: 'He gave me a sign of optimism meant to be hopeful and showing that all of this was worth it.' Faith said that she 'was ready to put myself in the line of fire because I don't know what will happen if I don't say anything, but I'm glad I did.' 'Now I'm seeing Bravo follow suit, releasing women that have given crazy ratings for them because they want to be on the right side of history and I'm seeing people are finally hearing us,' Faith said to Page Six. She also said that she hopes networks and production companies are 'ready to hire casting directors and producers of color to make sure there changes are not just a one-time thing.' Faith added: 'I hope they use this time that they have now to educate themselves to why this happened to them and try to use [their] voice later for real change.' After losing several endorsement deals over the past week, Stassi has now been forced to part ways with both her agent and her publicist, Variety reported Monday. Scandal: Stassi parted ways with both her agent and her publicist after previous racist remarks and behavior has resurfaced A spokesperson for UTA, where Stassi was represented, has confirmed she is no longer a client of the agency. Additionally, a representative of the PR firm Metro Public Relations told the publication: '[Stassi] became a client when her publicist joined our company in July 2018. We made the decision this weekend to part ways with Stassi.' The moves come after Stassi apologized for past 'racially insensitive comments' and for a particularly demeaning stunt, in which she purposefully misled the police in an effort to get her black former costar Faith Stowers whom she didn't like in trouble. Stassi was vocal online recently about her support for the Black Lives Matter movement; however, the gestures seemed significantly different to her output from three years ago. Low profile: Kristen is pictured out in LA on Tuesday shortly after news broke that she'd been fired OGs: Stassi and Kristen have starred on Vanderpump Rules since its inception in 2013 Bravo stars: The duo are pictured with fellow original castmember Kate Maloney-Schwartz She claimed that black people demanded special treatment in her March 2, 2017 podcast in which she talked about the lack of diversity of Academy Award candidates, referred to on social media as #OscarsSoWhite. 'Maybe you weren't nominated because you didn't do that great of a job in your movie,' said Stassi. 'Like it's not about race. It's literally like not about what you look like at all. It's like your acting ability, so like, what the actual f***?' The New Orleans-born reality star said on the podcast (which she later deleted from her site, according to US) of black people: 'When they get upset, everybody has to go above and beyond to then make them happy. 'I'm like, really sick of everyone making everything about race - I'm kind of over it.' Despite the take on race, Stassi had plenty more to say about the topic: 'Like, everyone giving their impassioned speeches about race and all of that stuff, I'm like, "Why is it always just about African Americans?'' Most damning: Stassi called the cops on her black former costar Faith Stowers whom she didn't like in an effort to get her in trouble on a previous season of the show; Faith is seen in 2016 above Speaking out: Stassi said she's refocused her mentality amid the career crisis, which has seen her lose sponsors and admit to 'racially insensitive comments' 'Like why aren't the Asians like, "We're not represented? Why aren't ... Native Americans and Latinos not like, "We're not represented?" Why is it always just "that"?' 'And then when they get upset, everybody has to go above and beyond to then make them happy. And I hate saying the word 'them' because I'm not ... not everybody's the same.' She said that black people were 'the ones that are out there b****ing about things.' She implied that Moonlight's victory over LaLa Land was racial 'politics' in play, noting that she 'didn't f--kin see' the movie, but that 'the reason why it won was because it was like, "The message."' She added: 'It's groundbreaking because of 'the message'. Winning Best Picture to me isn't about the f***ing message - like it's not church.' Stassi said that she was 'not allowed to say that' as her opinion was marginalized as 'a white, privileged, blonde 28-year old.' 'My privilege blinded me': Doute also shared an apology after she also tweeted the accusations with Schroeder Incredibly sorry: Kristen posted this statement to her Instagram on Sunday Another Bravo reality star, Porsha Williams, 38, questioned 'WTH' of a 2018 photo of Stassi describing her fashion ensemble as Nazi chic alongside Kristen and pal Rachel O'Brien. Both Stassi and Kristen took to social media to apologize for the past incident in which they admittedly misled police in an effort to get castmate Faith into legal trouble. 'Racially insensitive comments from my past have resurfaced,' Stassi said in a statement on Instagram. 'It is important that I continue to take accountability for what I have said and done, while pushing myself to do better,' she said. 'I have grown significantly from the person I was then, and I am still filled with remorse and regret for the hurt I caused.' Speaking out: The former Bravo player (bottom) called out her former SUR coworkers during an Instagram live with Floribama Shore star Candace Rice (top) Dangerous behaviour: Kristen tweeted about the situation, all but naming Stowers as she wrote: 'Hey tweeties, doesnt this ex #pumprules thief look familiar?' and later referenced MTV - who has employed Faith 'I'm like, really sick of everyone making everything about race - I'm kind of over it': Schroeder is quoted as saying racist remarks in a 2017 podcast, including, 'Why is it always just about African Americans?' She directly apologized to Faith for her actions to try and land her in trouble with the authorities, admitting that she didn't consider how severe the consequences could have been. 'I also want to address my former castmate, Faith Stowers,' said Stassi, who cooked up the scheme with castmate Kristen. 'My emotions over something that happened between our friends outweighed my logic, and there is no excuse for that. 'I did not recognize then the serious ramifications that could have transpired because of my actions. What I did to Faith was wrong. I apologize and I do not expect forgiveness.' Stassi said she was sorry to 'anyone else that feels disappointed in' her, and vowed to focus her efforts on being more conscientious and evolving 'into a more educated person.' She vowed, 'I am going to continue to look closer at myself and my actions, to take the time to listen, to learn, and to take accountability for my own privilege.' In a 2018 photo: Schroeder described her fashion ensemble as Nazi chic alongside Rachel O'Brien and Kristen Doute Timeline: Stowers appeared on season four of VPR and then later made cameos in season six after her involvement with Jax Taylor. Faith is seen in 2017 above Kristen followed up with a statement on her Instagram page on Sunday. 'I have been taking some time to really process what I've been seeing, feeling and learning. And I need to address something specifically that happened a few years ago with my former castmate, Faith Stowers,' she wrote. 'Although, my actions were not racially driven, I am now completely aware of how my privilege blinded me from the reality of law enforcement's treatment of the black community, and how dangerous my actions would have been to her.' Kristen added, 'It never was my intention to add to the injustice and imbalance. I'm ashamed, embarrassed, and incredibly sorry. I will do better. I have to do better.' Last week, Max and Brett apologized for writing racist posts on Twitter. Racially insensitive: Max Boyens apologized for racially insensitive tweets on Tuesday's first episode of the Vanderpump Rules Reunion Also apologized: Brett Caprioni during the reunion filmed remotely also apologized for past racist tweets 'I'm an adult now and I cringe even thinking that I said those things,' said Max, 27, who in 2012 used racial slurs and offensive language to describe Asian and African-American people. The TomTom manager's mother was 'half-black,' and his grandfather was African-American, he said, adding, 'We live in a generation now, where saying some things, even if you are of that culture, is just frowned upon. I just want to say I'm just really sincerely sorry. There's no excuse.' Brett, 31, called what he had written about black people in the past, 'stupid s***' and said it was written in jest, but insisted he wanted to 'move forward and be the best person I can be.' 'Not the beliefs they are holding now': Lisa Vanderpump, 59, who employed the men, defended her decision not to fire them while speaking from home during the reunion show Lisa Vanderpump, 59, - who employed the men - then defended her decision not to fire them. The British born TV star - who is a strong supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and has worked closely with the Trevor Project - told host Andy Cohen, 'I have never seen any inkling of anything that made me believe that's the beliefs they are holding now, 'And if I had, they wouldn't be working for me.' she insisted. Stassi and Kristen's dangerous stunt against Faith came to light last week during an Instagram live with Floribama Shore star Candace Rice, where the former SUR employee talked about her time on the show and the incidents that followed. Faith recalled how Stassi and Kristen called the authorities after seeing a report about an African American woman who was drugging and robbing men around LA. 'There was this article where there was an African-American lady. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. I guess this woman was robbing people. 'And they called the cops and said it was me. This is like, a true story. I heard this from, actually, Stassi during an interview.' The Next Level Basic writer was happy to brag about wrongfully accusing Faith in 2018, telling the B**** Bible podcast how she and Kristen 'solved a crime.' After comparing a grainy surveillance image of the suspected criminal to Faith, they decided they had enough evidence to go to the police. How it happened... Recalling the incident, Faith said 'There was this article where there was an African-American lady. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. I guess this woman was robbing people. And they called the cops and said it was me' 'We are like, we just solved a f**king crime,' she reportedly said on the now-deleted episode, reported by People. 'We start calling the police. The police dont give a f***.' Kristen tweeted about the situation, all but naming Faith as she wrote: 'Hey tweeties, doesnt this ex #pumprules thief look familiar?' Kristen continued to malign her former castmate - who also appeared on MTV's The Challenge and Ex On The Beach - saying: 'Someone put her on mtv & gave her a platform for press. I didn't wanna go there but I'm going there.' Since Faith's account came to light, Stassi has been dropped as a spokesperson for shaving brand Billie and vitamin startup Ritual. In addition, a planned partnership with Glamour magazine focusing on her upcoming nuptials 'has no plans to continue at this time,' according to Page Six. Variety also reports that Stassi has lost an endorsement deal with Secret deodorant. Kristen has, thus far, not lost any deals or representation. DailyMail.com has reached out to Stassi and Kristen's camps for comment. Kristen and Stassi's antagonism towards Faith was likely because of her affair with Jax Taylor, which was documented during season six of the show. Cheater: Faith felt unfairly targeted by Stassi and Kristen because of her affair with Jax Taylor, which was documented during season six of the show Jax - whose chronic infidelity has been a VPR plot point throughout the years - cheated on now-wife Brittany Cartwright with Faith, who was a recurring character in season four. Talking about the dynamic during the Live session, Faith said: 'I felt like after their friend did something that we both were involved in that he's done like, a thousand times, they wanted to attack me instead of him.' 'They wanted to attack, attack, attack, attack, attack. I was wrong, I was this, I was that, calling me names, saying my hair was nappy, which is weird coming out of their mouths. 'And I believe it hit the ceiling for me, and made me really want to run for the hills, when Kristen and Stassi decided they were going to call the cops on me,' she went on. 'I [had] left the show [at that point]. I was invited back to tell my truth, but decided it wasn't going to do anything for me. So I ended up not coming back, I decided to go over to MTV. Once I did that, I felt like they got upset with me.' Vanderpump Rules has been criticized for its lack of diversity over the years. Since premiering in 2013 the show has featured only two black cast members as recurring characters: Faith and Tina McDowelle, who appeared in seasons one and two. Larnaca (Cyprus) (AFP) - Cyprus welcomed its first tourists after nearly three months of coronavirus lockdown on Tuesday with flights scheduled from Israel, Greece and Bulgaria. Cyprus is marketing itself as a relatively safe holiday destination in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, with a transmission rate below one and a very low mortality rate. The Mediterranean island's main airport at Larnaca reopened to passengers for the first time since a ban on commercial flights was imposed on 21 March. "After two and a half months, the connectivity of our island with 19 other countries returns. Cypriot airports open with optimism with the first flight arriving at Larnaca from Israel," Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos tweeted. According to the airport's operator Hermes, five arrivals and five departures were scheduled from Larnaca on Tuesday. The first departure was an Aegean airline flight which left at 8 am for Athens. The first arrival was an Israir Airlines plane from Tel Aviv at 10:30 am. Paphos airport in the west of the island will welcome its first flights on June 21. Karousos was at Larnaca to welcome the first visitors Cyprus has seen since early March. Normally at this time of year, the island fills with north European tourists drawn by its pristine Mediterranean beaches. Cyprus came out top in a survey of European beaches published by the European Environment Agency on Monday with 99.1 percent of its beaches boasting excellent water quality. - Britons, Russians kept away - Under its exit lockdown road map, Cyprus is initially opening its airports to a select band of 19 countries that are considered low risk. They include Israel, Greece, Germany, Austria and Malta but the islands two biggest markets Britain and Russia are not on the approved list. Sweden, France, Belgium and the Netherlands are also not listed. All those arriving between June 9 and June 19 will need to provide a health certificate proving they are coronavirus negative. Story continues From June 20, there will be no need to provide a health certificate from 13 of the 19 countries and another six countries will be added to the list including Switzerland, Romania and Poland. Cyprus says it will update the list of approved countries on a weekly basis based on the scientific data. There will also be temperature checks and random testing of travellers, free of charge, when they arrive on the island. To attract tourists to the island, the government has pledged to cover the medical costs of any visitor who tests positive for the coronavirus while enjoying a holiday on the Mediterranean island. Authorities estimate that tourist arrivals this year, which had been projected at nearly 4 million before the coronavirus, will fall by as much as 70 percent, dealing a heavy blow to the sector which generates around 15 per cent of the island's GDP. Revenue from tourism generated 2.68 bn euros in 2019, down 1 per cent from the previous year, bolstered by record arrivals of 3.97 million. Cyprus says it has one of the lowest ratios of coronavirus cases per capita in Europe having tested around 12 per cent of its population. The Republic of Cyprus has a total of 970 coronavirus cases and only 18 deaths. BRUSSELS - For nearly a century, a statue of Belgian King Leopold II has stood sentinel in front of the royal palace in the center of Brussels, cast in metal from the mines of a nation that was once his personal property: the Belgian Congo. Now, thousands of protesters are demanding it be torn down, spurred by the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States. Leopold's name and image are omnipresent in the Belgian capital, from the proud statues and busts that stand in many public places, to the carefully manicured Leopold Park, to his double-L monogram carved into the imposing public buildings that were erected during his reign. But he presided over the deaths of millions of Congolese people during a rule that was notably brutal even for an era when European powers were industriously subjugating African populations at gunpoint. In at least five cities across the country, Leopold statues have been splashed with red paint in the past week. On Sunday, 10,000 people packed the square in front of Brussels' Palace of Justice, demanding an end to racism and police brutality in Belgium and the United States. On Monday, the University of Mons, in southwestern Belgium, announced that it was removing a bust of Leopold from its business school building. On Tuesday, authorities pulled down a Leopold statue in Antwerp that had been defaced and said they would store it in a museum. More than 63,000 people have signed a petition demanding that all Leopold statues in the country be removed by June 30, the 60th anniversary of the independence of the nation that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Activists say that Belgium has been slow to come to terms with its colonial past, and that the Leopold statues have been one of the main symbols of a broader problem. "Everything around us in the city in Brussels; it's a stain, a trace of the absence of recognition of the atrocities, of everything that has been done in the Congo," said Joelle Sambi, an activist with the Belgian Network for Black Lives, which has helped organize the protests. "If that statue is removed, it's only a symbol, but symbols are important to start opening up the conversation." Protesters have also focused on police violence, which they say targets people of color more than white Belgians. A 19-year-old man identified publicly only as Adil, who lived in an immigrant heavy area of Brussels, died in April after he fled a police checkpoint during the height of the coronavirus lockdown and was hit by a police van. His death set off days of protests against the police. Although there have been waves of anger in previous years, some protesters say this time feels different. "We cannot stand it anymore," said Marie Gerard, 40, a nurse who carried a Black Lives Matter sign written in French and English to the Sunday protest in Brussels. "I don't want for my three kids to protest in the future for their own rights. To reclaim something that is normal." If removed, the Leopold statues would join others that have been relegated to the scrap heap during this moment of upheaval. In the past week, Confederate statues have come down - removed by local officials or protesters - in Philadelphia; Birmingham, Mobile and Montgomery, Ala.; Alexandria and Richmond, Va.; and Jacksonville, Fla. In the English city of Bristol on Sunday, a crowd tore down a statue of a 17th century slave trader, Edward Colston, and tossed it into the harbor; there is now a debate about statues of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a wartime hero whom protesters say was also racist. "You don't need years to debate it," said Pascal Smet, a Brussels alderman who is in charge of public space and heritage in the city. He said he wanted a swift public discussion about whether to banish the Leopold statues - which he said he didn't oppose - or whether to leave them in place and add context about colonial history. "There is a lot of ignorance" about the statues, Smet said. "It's a historical heritage that's there, that nobody questioned." A spokesman for Belgian King Philippe - Leopold II's great-great-great-nephew - declined to comment about the statues. When Leopold II came to Belgium's throne in 1865, he presided over a diminutive and divided country that was just one generation old. He resolved to create an empire, and seized his chance when European powers met in 1884 to agree on borders between their colonies in Africa. The Congo Free State was more than 76 times larger than Belgium Along with expanding his power, Leopold's motives were economic - first ivory, then rubber. His rule was characterized by nearly unparalleled brutality. Millions were enslaved, and vicious whippings, beheadings and the severing of hands and limbs were common. Historians believe that as many as 10 million people, or half of Congo Free State's population, died due to conditions imposed by Leopold. Belgian colonial rule ultimately ended in 1960. The two countries still retain strong ties to each other, and there is a large Congolese population in Brussels and in other Belgian cities. Many white Belgians have parents or grandparents who worked or lived in the Belgian Congo. It is common to see Congolese carvings and art in white Belgians' homes - many of the grandest of which were built with money earned during Leopold's rule. The education minister for Belgian French-speakers, Caroline Desir, said this week that educators plan to make the history of the Belgian Congo a mandatory and significant part of a new curriculum currently under development. "Too many students leave school without knowing anything," she said in a video posted on Twitter. Historians say Belgium's sense of its past is evolving. "The view we have on the statues today, it's not the same as we had a century ago. It's important to adapt the landscape," said Serge Jaumain, a professor of contemporary Belgian history at ULB, the Free University of Brussels. "It's very important to use those statues, like the protests we have today, to look to history and to understand our history." Congo, meanwhile, remains one of the poorest countries in the world and has been beset by violent conflict over land and resources since its independence. Millions live in displacement camps and rely on food aid despite the country's richness in natural resources. In late 2018, Congo witnessed its first peaceful transfer of power, though the election was marred by irregularities. The Belgian protests have echoed in Congo. The civil rights group LUCHA, a French-language contraction that means Fight for Change, posted a video of Belgian protesters calling for reparations to be paid to Congo while dancing on a statue of Leopold. "Black lives matter. Congolese lives matter. Every human life matters," the group wrote in the post. "Belgium should be ashamed it continues to present Leopold as a 'civilizing' hero through history courses, statues, effigies, stamps, avenues and streets in his honor." - - - The Washington Post's Max Bearak in Nairobi and Quentin Aries in Brussels contributed to this report. A Waltham, Mass.-based defense contractor that completed an acquisition of United Technologies Corp. in April now is making a donation to help feed Connecticuts hungry. Raytheon Technologies is donating $5 million to 17 Feeding America member food banks. Here in Connecticut, Wallingford-based Connecticut Food Bank and Foodshare in Bloomfield are the beneficiaries of Raytheons donation. Greg Hayes, chief executive officer of Raytheon Technologies, said the impact of COVID-19 on communities has been swift and unprecedented. The communities where our employees live and work are in need, and its our responsibility to support our friends and neighbors during this crisis, Hayes said in a statement. The donation amounts to a little more than $294,000 per food bank. Daniel Gomez, chief operating officer for the Connecticut Food Bank, said demand for the organizations service has increased by 50 percent or more since the coronavirus hit the state in March, the response to which closed businesses and putt people out of work. Prior to COVID-19, 1 in 9 people in our service area struggled with hunger, including nearly 77,000 children, Gomez said in a statement. The Connecticut Food Bank serves 500 food pantries and other hunger-related agencies in six Connecticut counties including New Haven and Fairfield. Paul Shipman, a spokesman for Connecticut Food Bank, said the Raytheon donation comes at a opportune time. In addition to an increasing number of people needing the organizations services, food donations from grocery stores that had made up 60 percent of Connecticut Food Bank stock have decreased, he said. With the increased demand and the decrease in donations, were having to buy more food to fill in the gaps, Shipman said. And food costs are high right now. Two single-day food distribution events in Norwalk and Bridgeport drew more than 3,200 cars between the two location, he said. We distributed 2.6 million pounds of food across our network in May, Shipman said. Foodshare is the regional food bank serving 118,000 people in Hartford and Tolland counties. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com NAIROBI, Kenya President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi died of heart failure on Monday just weeks after a crucial election to choose a successor to replace him after 15 years of autocratic rule over the Central African nation. He was 55. Mr. Nkurunzizas death was announced by the government on Tuesday on Twitter. He died at a hospital in eastern Burundi after he fell ill over the weekend and was hospitalized after attending a volleyball game. A former rebel leader, Mr. Nkurunziza ruled the country with impunity for years, arresting opponents, stifling media outlets and cracking down on dissent. His reign drew international condemnation and sparked widespread protests in the tiny country, one of the worlds poorest. The International Criminal Court opened an investigation into whether his government committed crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, rape and disappearances. In 2017, Mr. Nkurunziza withdrew Burundis membership in the court. New Delhi, June 9 : BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and his mother Madhavi Raje Scindia have been admitted to Max Super Speciality hospital here in Saket after they complained of throat irritation and also had fever -- both Covid-like symptoms. They were admitted on Monday and their Covid test results are still awaited. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text By PTI WASHINGTON: India's economy will shrink by 3.2 per cent in the current fiscal, the World Bank said on Monday as it joined a chorus of international agencies that are forecasting a contraction in growth rate due to the coronavirus lockdown halting economic activity. The Washington-based multilateral lender said that the COVID-19 pandemic and the multi-phased lockdown imposed to curb its spread has resulted in a devastating blow to the Indian economy. In its latest edition of the Global Economic Prospect, the World Bank downgraded its projection of India by a massive negative nine per cent. However, the Indian economy is expected to bounce back in 2021, the World Bank said. "In India, growth is estimated to have slowed to 4.2 per cent in the fiscal year 2019/20 (the year ending in March-2020) and output is projected to contract by 3.2 per cent in fiscal year 2020/21, when the impact of COVID-19 will largely materialise." "Stringent measures to restrict the spread of the virus, which heavily curtail short-term activity, will contribute to the contraction," it said in the Global Economic Prospect report. International rating agencies like Moody's Investors Service, Fitch Rating and S&P Global Ratings have all predicted a 4-5 per cent contraction in India's economic growth rate during April 2020 to March 2021 fiscal. Crisil has said this would be the country's fourth recession since Independence, first since liberalisation, and perhaps the worst to date. The World Bank said spillovers from the weaker global growth and balance sheet stress in the financial sector will also weigh on activity, despite some support from the fiscal stimulus and continued monetary policy easing. According to the report, the central bank has been purchasing government bonds to further ease the financial conditions. The Indian government has also increased its spending on healthcare to bolster the COVID-19 response, wage support, in-kind and cash transfers to lower-income households, deferral of tax payments, as well as loan and liquidity support for small businesses and financial institutions. The growth rate of the Indian economy in fiscal 2017 was seven per cent, which dropped to 6.1 per cent in fiscal 2018 and to 4.2 per cent in fiscal 2020, it said. The real impact of the COVID-19 and lockdown would be felt in the current fiscal (2020-21) beginning April, the bank said as it forecast a negative growth rate of 3.2 per cent. The World Bank revised its January projection on India by a massive negative nine per cent for the year 2020 and minus three per cent for the year 2021. The contraction in the Indian economy will have a spillover impact in South Asia, according to the bank's projections. Growth in the region is projected to register a contraction of -2.7 per cent in 2020 and is marked by high uncertainty, the report said. Across the region, the pandemic mitigation measures will severely hinder consumption and services activity, while high uncertainty about the pandemic will constrain private investment. The sheer depth of global contractionary activity in the current environment will also weigh substantially on South Asian regional activity, despite relatively more modest trade linkages with the advanced economies than other EMDE (Emerging Market and Developing Economies) regions. Despite the relatively low number of reported cases per capita, COVID-19 infections are still rising in several economies in the region. As a result, the outlook is highly uncertain and subject to large downside risks, the bank said. Pakistan and Afghanistan are both projected to experience contractions in 2020. The mitigation measures imposed in these countries are expected to weigh heavily on private consumption, contributing to output contractions of -2.6 per cent and -5.5 per cent respectively, it said, adding that key labor-intensive export sectors like textiles are expected to contract sharply and subsequently recover slowly. Bangladesh and Nepal are projected to experience substantial decelerations in fiscal year 2019/20. In Bangladesh, growth is expected to slow to 1.6 per cent, as the recovery in industrial production is reversed by COVID-19-related disruptions such as mitigation measures and global exports plunge, and as remittances fall. In Nepal, growth is projected to decline to 1.8 per cent largely due to the same factors, in addition to a drop in tourism (more than one-third of which are from China and India). A sharp decline in tourism is also expected to weigh on activity in Bhutan and Sri Lanka, and even more so in the Maldives, it added. India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The number of active novel coronavirus cases in India stands at 1,25,381 while 1,24,094 people have recovered and one patient has migrated. The contagion has so far killed 7,135 people in the country. The Indian government announced a nationwide lockdown in March to contain the spread of the coronavirus and extended it in phases. From June 8, the government has announced a calibrated exit strategy under which more economic activities will be allowed across the country. It is the first of the three-phase plan for reopening of prohibited activities in non-containment zones with a stringent set of Standard Operating Procedures which will be in place till June 30. STORY LINK Pound to Swiss Franc (GBP/CHF) Exchange Rate Falls as Safe-Haven Demand Returns Amid Global Economic Woes GBP/CHF Exchange Rate Sinks as Swiss Franc Buoyed By Safe-Haven Demand Pound (GBP) Falls as Post-Brexit Fears and Gloomy Jobs Outlook Weigh Down Sterling GBP/CHF Outlook: Could Easing UK Lockdown Restrictions Boost the Pound? Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues: The Pound to Swiss Franc (GBP/CHF) exchange rate fell by -0.9% today, as the Swiss currency has benefited from a resurgence in safe-haven demand today as uncertainty grows over the health of the global economy.The Swiss Franc (CHF) has also benefited from a fall in US stock markets. Investors are becoming increasingly worried about the state of the world economy as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on China and the US, the worlds two largest economies.Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, commented:Despite the historic rally in the stock market, there's a an enormous amount of risk out there to the outlook.As the economy reopens fully, there's going to be a surge, but I don't think that's going to be long lasting. There are concerns that risk assets are near their peak and we're probably going to see a little period of consolidation.In Swiss economic data, today saw Switzerlands unemployment rate beat forecasts by rising to 3.4%, despite estimates of a 3.7% increase.The Pound (GBP) edged fell today despite that the UK would be engaging in post-Brexit trade talks with Japan, Britains fourth-largest non-EU trade partner. However, with UK-EU trade relations till uncertain, investors are remaining cautious on growing fears of a no-deal in December.Meanwhile, last night saw the release of the UKs BRC retail sales report, which failed to impress at just 7.9%. Consequently, GBP investors are becoming doubtful whether Britains retail sector will stage a significant return to growth over the coming months.Helen Dickinson, the BRCs chief executive said:Nonetheless, as the sun came out and restaurants lay dormant, food sales rose with consumers taking to their local parks for beers, BBQs and picnics. Clothing and beauty sales improved slightly on April, as people left their homes to meet outside with friends and family.The UKs jobs outlook has always weighed on the GBP/CHF exchange rate today, with the ManpowerGroup survey painting a picture that is its gloomiest in nearly 30 years.Pound (GBP) traders will be looking ahead to tomorrows release of the UKs RICS Housing Price Balance figure for May. Any signs of improvement could lend GBP some support.However, the Swiss Franc (CHF) will likely continue to be driven by risk sentiment this week. As a result, the GBP/CHF exchange rate could suffer as safe-haven currencies continue to benefit from a faltering global economy in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.The GBP/CHF could claw back some of its gains, however, if Downing Street announces any further measures to ease the nations coronavirus lockdown measures. 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: Pound Swiss Franc Forecasts Swiss Franc Forecasts Twenty-six new cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed by the City of Laredo Health Department in their latest update Tuesday afternoon. The added cases bring the city's total of confirmed positives to 634. READ MORE: Laredo, other border officials call for reopening of U.S.-Mexico border to tourists The mark sets a new record-high for number of coronavirus cases confirmed in a single day in Laredo. Previously, the highest number of COVID cases recorded in a one day was 20. The 20-case mark was reached most recently on June 5, but was also recorded on April 8 and April 11, during the original emergence of the coronavirus pandemic in Laredo. Notably, today marks two weeks since the end of the Memorial Day holiday weekend which spanned from Friday, May 22 to Monday, May 25, which marked Memorial Day. With the incubation period of the virus thought to extend up to 14 days, according to data provided by the CDC, it's possible some of the positive cases reported could be due to social gatherings or travel during the holiday. However, city officials were not available for immediate comment on the matter. According to a report from the Houston Chronicle, Texas reported the largest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases since the emergence of the pandemic on Saturday, June 6. Hospitalizations in the Houston region have also begun to spike, about one month after stay-at-home orders were lifted throughout the state by Governor Greg Abbott as part of his plan to reopen Texas. Previously, city officials had attributed the emerging number of cases due to expanded testing in the Laredo area. In addition to testing conducted at the City of Laredo Health Department, mobile clinics have started to be hosted throughout Laredo's eight city council districts. The state has also mandated testing to be performed at all nursing homes throughout Texas. According to a previous update, testing had been completed at all Laredo nursing homes, with a majority of results coming back negative. One positive result was recorded in a nursing home employee. However, the employee was reportedly tested preemployment and had yet to begin working or come in contact with any residents at the nursing home. According to the data, Laredo's test positivity rate stands at 12.87 percent. As of noon Tuesday, 5,562 people have been tested for the novel coronavirus in Laredo. Of those, 4,240 tests have returned negative. Fourteen people remain hospitalized with COVID-19. 688 tests are still pending results, though 259 tests are older than two weeks old and have been presumed negative. The resulting number of adjusted pending tests is 429. 447 people have recovered from coronavirus infections and have passed their mandatory quarantine period. These people have been cleared by city health officials to return to the general public. The number of coronavirus-related deaths stands at 20. READ MORE: Laredo passes 600 coronavirus cases after latest update Removing the number of recoveries and deaths from the total number of positives, the City of Laredo currently has 167 active cases. Todays guest bloggers are Kate A. Ratliff, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Florida, and Calvin K. Lai, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Ratliff is also the executive director of Project Implicit , where Lai is the director of research. What should educators know about implicit bias? Amid protests across the country demanding justice for Black Americans, many are calling for increased attention to implicit race bias among police officers as a remedy for police brutality. What is implicit bias? Its an automatic reaction someone has toward other people. Implicit race bias, specifically, reflects prejudices and stereotypes that stem from a long history of racism and segregation in the United States but operate without deliberation. The idea that a person can hold prejudices they dont want or believe was quite radical when it was first introduced, and the fact that people may discriminate unintentionally continues to have implications for understanding disparities in so many aspects of society, including childrens health , educational attainment , and school discipline . As psychological scientists studying implicit bias, wed like to highlight three underappreciated facts about implicit race bias that you should know. Implicit bias is pervasive but not inevitable. About 65 percent of non-Black visitors to the Project Implicit research website show an implicit bias favoring White people over Black people. Teachers have similar levels of implicit bias. But although bias is pervasive, its not inevitable. Thirty-five percent of non-Black research participants dont show an implicit bias favoring White people over Black people. And among those who do, there is variation in the strength of the bias. Implicit bias is subtle but not always unconscious. People are often unaware of their biases; feedback about implicit race bias is often met with surprise and defensiveness. However, a lack of awareness may mean that we have not thought about our biases, not that we cannot. Were only unaware until were aware. Record your own data to find where inequalities lie in your classroom say, are you calling on some students more often than others? This will point you to where you can do better. Racial inequality goes far beyond implicit bias. Implicit bias is one component in the broader system of historical, cultural, and structural racism that perpetuates racial inequalities in U.S. society. Discussions of racial inequalities should neither begin nor end with implicit bias. We can work to dismantle systemic racism within our communities by advocating equitable education funding and confronting anti-Black racism in our schools. We can hold ourselves and our friends and family accountable for the things we say and do. We can change the narrative so that our children and their children internalize a different story. Chronic bone and joint diseases, such as osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis, affect millions of people worldwide, particularly the elderly, degrading their quality of life. An important factor in both of these diseases is the excessive activity of bone-dissolving cells called osteoclasts. Osteoclasts are formed through differentiation from a certain type of immune cell called macrophage, after which they acquire their new role in the maintenance of bones and joints: breaking down bone tissue to allow osteoblasts-another type of cell-to repair and remodel the skeletal system. Broadly, two intracellular processes are involved in this differentiation: first, transcription-in which a messenger RNA (mRNA) is created from the genetic information in DNA-and then, translation-in which the information in the mRNA is decoded to produce proteins that perform specific functions in the cell. Since the discovery of the role of a particular protein called RANKL in osteoclast formation, scientists have solved a considerable portion of the puzzle of which cell signaling pathways and transcription networks regulate osteoclast generation. Yet, the post-transcription cellular processes involved remain to be understood. Now, in a new study published in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, scientists at Tokyo University of Science, Japan, unraveled the role of a protein called Cpeb4 in this complex process. Cpeb4 is part of the "cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding (CPEB)" family of proteins, which bind to RNA and regulate translational activation and repression, as well as "alternative splicing" mechanisms that produce protein variants. Dr Tadayoshi Hayata, who led the study, explains: "CPEB proteins are implicated in various biological processes and diseases, such as autism, cancer, and red blood cell differentiation. However, their functions in osteoclast differentiation are not clearly known. Therefore, we conducted a series of experiments to characterize a protein from this family, Cpeb4, using cell cultures of mouse macrophages." In the various cell culture experiments conducted, mouse macrophages were stimulated with RANKL to trigger osteoclast differentiation and the evolution of the culture was monitored. First, the scientists found that Cpeb4 gene expression, and consequently the amount of Cpeb4 protein, increased during osteoclast differentiation. Then, through immunofluorescence microscopy, they visualized the changes in the location of Cpeb4 within the cells. They found that Cpeb4 moves from the cytoplasm into nuclei, while presenting specific shapes (osteoclasts tend to fuse together and form cells with multiple nuclei). This indicates that the function of Cpeb4 associated with osteoclast differentiation is likely carried out inside the nuclei. To understand how RANKL stimulation causes this Cpeb4 relocalization, the scientists selectively "inhibited" or represses some of the proteins that become involved "downstream" in the intracellular signaling pathways triggered by the stimulation. They identified two pathways as necessary for the process. Nonetheless, further experiments will be required to fully learn about the sequence of events that takes place and all the proteins involved. Finally, Dr Hayata and his team demonstrated that Cpeb4 is absolutely necessary for osteoclast formation using macrophage cultures in which Cpeb4 was actively depleted. The cells in these cultures did not undergo further differentiation to become osteoclasts. Taken together, the results are a stepping stone to understanding the cellular mechanisms involved in osteoclast formation. Dr Hayata remarks: "Our study sheds light on the important role of the RNA-binding protein Cpeb4 as a positive "influencer" of osteoclast differentiation. This gives us a better understanding of the pathological conditions of bone and joint diseases and may contribute to the development of therapeutic strategies for major diseases like osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis." Hopefully, the deeper level of understanding of osteoclast generation facilitated by this study will ultimately translate into improved quality of life for people living with painful bone and joint diseases. About The Tokyo University of Science Tokyo University of Science (TUS) is a well-known and respected university, and the largest science-specialized private research university in Japan, with four campuses in central Tokyo and its suburbs and in Hokkaido. Established in 1881, the university has continually contributed to Japan's development in science through inculcating the love for science in researchers, technicians, and educators. With a mission of "Creating science and technology for the harmonious development of nature, human beings, and society", TUS has undertaken a wide range of research from basic to applied science. TUS has embraced a multidisciplinary approach to research and undertaken intensive study in some of today's most vital fields. TUS is a meritocracy where the best in science is recognized and nurtured. It is the only private university in Japan that has produced a Nobel Prize winner and the only private university in Asia to produce Nobel Prize winners within the natural sciences field. Website: https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/mediarelations/ About Associate Professor Tadayoshi Hayata from the Tokyo University of Science Since 2018, Dr Tadayoshi Hayata has been Associate Professor and Principal Investigator at the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, at the Tokyo University of Science. His laboratory focuses on bone metabolism, cellular differentiation, molecular pharmacology, and similar fields to understand the nature of bone and joint diseases and find therapeutic targets. Dr Hayata is affiliated with several Japanese Societies and the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. He has published over 50 original articles and given over 150 presentations at academic conferences. In addition, his research on osteoporosis has made it to Japanese newspapers several times. https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/fac/p/index.php?7014 Detectives in Northern Ireland are appealing for information after a pipe bomb was found in Derry this morning. A loud bang was heard in the Lincoln Court area at around 1am and when officers arrived, the remains of the suspected device were found in the back of a garden. A newlywed couple who suffered severe burns in the White Island volcano eruption have described their harrowing ordeal, six months on from the tragedy that killed 21 people. American couple Matt and Lauren Urey were honeymooning in New Zealand and were visiting the island off the coast of Whakatane on December 9, last year. The pair were with a tour group exploring the island when ash silently mushroomed from the volcano's crater. Within seconds the couple were fleeing for their lives. They sought shelter behind a rock near the water but the dark cloud of volcanic gas quickly enveloped the island. As ash and debris rained down, Ms Urey gripped he husband's hand and told him she loved him. 'I thought it was only seconds until I would die,' Ms Urey told TVNZ on Tuesday. Scroll down for video American couple Matt and Lauren Urey were honeymooning in New Zealand when the deadly eruption happened off the coast of Whakatane on November 9, last year The couple suffered severe burns from the explosion, they have spent the past six months recovering Some 47 tourists - from New Zealand and overseas - were on or around the crater, located off the coast of the North Island, at the time of the blast 'It was the darkest, most terrifying thing I've ever seen in my life. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face,' Mr Urey said. 'You could just feel your skin burning, sizzling. You could feel rocks pelting down on your hard hat,' he told 9news. 'If I grabbed something, my hand just slid off because my skin was peeling off.' The couple were among the few who made it to island's jetty but Ms Urey had lost her respirator and was inhaling the noxious gas. White Island, an active volcano, erupted on December 9 with 47 people on the island Other survivors could be heard screaming for help from a nearby tour boat as their blistered skin peeled from their bodies. The group were rescued by the boat, which had turned back to help despite the danger, but the victims had to endure a 90-minute ride to shore. 'It was torture,' Ms Urey said. 'I was absolutely convinced this was the end for both of us. I don't know how we ever survived,' Mr Urey. The pair spent almost two months recovering from their injuries in separate hospitals. They returned to the United States at the end of January and were treated in hospital until their release in mid-February. The pair believe it was a miracle they survived the blast which killed 21 people. The pair still need more surgeries to restore some of their mobility and lessen the scarring Risking their lives, rescuers evacuated 39 survivors in the aftermath before conditions were deemed too dangerous for them to land They expect to have to wear compression garments for another year. They still need more surgeries to restore some of their mobility and lessen the scarring. The Ureys were married in South Carolina just two months before the eruption. Dr. Ala Stanford (left) walks with Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, M.D., M.P.H. before the start of a presser with Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium and representatives with the City of Philadelphia. It was held at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, 2800 W. Cheltenham Avenue, Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon, June 9, 2020. Read more Just two weeks ago, City Council members excoriated Mayor Jim Kenneys administration and the health commissioner for what they viewed as a failure to support the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium. On Tuesday, Kenney and Health Commissioner Thomas Farley pledged to fund the consortiums efforts to provide free testing to residents in neighborhoods hit hardest by the pandemic. Its especially important for us to make testing incredibly easy for African American populations, Farley said. So the Black Doctors Consortium has shown that they know how to do that. They take testing to where the people are." Consortium volunteers erupted in cheers and applause as Farley spoke during a news conference at a pop-up testing site in the parking lot of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Germantown, where hundreds lined up in cars to get swabbed for the coronavirus. Kenney said the citys contract with the consortium hasnt been finalized, but when pressed by reporters, he suggested the contract is worth roughly $1 million over six months. During a May 27 budget hearing, Farley said he was not inclined to partner with the consortium because the city already had contracts with two other health-care providers. He was satisfied with the rate of testing of black Philadelphians, Farley told Council. We think [the consortiums work] is great, Farley said during the hearing. But, he added, it wasnt like they were the only organization that was offering testing to African Americans. Farleys comments drew sharp criticism from Council members, including Cherelle L. Parker, usually a Kenney administration ally. On Tuesday, Parker, who attended the news conference, thanked Kenney and Farley for acknowledging in a very substantive way that not only do black lives matter to you," but ensuring that people get tested. "Theres never a wrong time to do the right thing, she said. Parker hailed consortium leader Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon who grew up in North Philadelphia, as the Harriet Tubman of coronavirus, a reference to the abolitionist who rescued enslaved people. To date, Stanford and her Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium have tested more than 5,000 residents at 22 testing events in partnership with black churches. Roughly 96% of those tested are black, Stanford said. This whole enterprise came from a life of being black in America and having to wait, of people telling you, `Be patient, dont worry, help is coming, Stanford said. I was tired of waiting for someone to save us." Stanford said it costs roughly $25,000 a day to test between 250 and 300 people. She declined to disclose how much the consortium expects to receive in city funding but called it a respectable amount. Stressing the importance of the consortiums work, Farley noted that African Americans have higher rates of infection than other racial groups in Philadelphia, representing 46% of known coronavirus cases and 51% of deaths. Farley and other medical experts have pointed to longstanding racial inequities in health care as the primary reason for the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 and other diseases on African Americans. After touring the Germantown testing operation, Farley said he was incredibly impressed." He said the city plans to continue to partner with the consortium to provide access to a COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available. We need help to get everybody vaccinated, he said. Thats going to be huge. So this is a relationship we really want to establish and build on. SPRINGFIELD City Councilor Tracye Whitfield launched a signature petition drive on Tuesday that calls for resurrection of a citizen police commission in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Whitefields petition occurs as Floyds death on May 25 has spurred demonstrations against racism and police brutality nationwide including in Springfield and other area communities. Floyd, a black man, had been pinned to the ground by a white police officer who knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes as other officers stood by. Councilors have long lobbied for a five-member Police Commission to oversee the Police Department including discipline of officers, saying it is needed for transparency and accountability. The petition on Whitfields Facebook Page states: Demand Springfield MA Mayor Domenic J. Sarno to implement the Citizens Police Commission Ordinance. It had over 200 signatures by early afternoon, Whitfield said. Sarno has strongly opposed and blocked the City Councils ordinance that has called for resurrection of a five-member Police Commission in Springfield to oversee the Police Department including police discipline. On Tuesday, Sarno said he continues to support the current system of a single police commissioner and a citizen hearing board that provides recommendations to the commissioner on disciplinary matters. My position in regards to our Civilian Community Police Hearing Board (CPHB) has been very clear, Sarno said. This diverse body of Springfield residents has done a very good job in dealing with, at times difficult cases. In December of 2018, the council overrode the mayors veto, but Sarno declared the vote invalid Whitfield said the council, as the duly elected legislative representative of the people, voted in favor of the five-person Police Commission and overrode Sarnos veto in December of 2018. Under the ordinance, the commission would be responsible for hiring, firing and other discipline. Sarno has responded to the 2018 override by not appointing the proposed commission. "Since the vote, Mayor Sarno has failed to follow the law and implement the Citizens Police Commission, Whitfield said on Facebook. Sarno, in defending the current system in 2018, said it was based on the department being run by professionals and should not be politicized. On Tuesday, Sarno said he is in the process of initiating a roundtable discussion and a series of meetings of community groups and individuals regarding police issues. They will be all-inclusive and will include Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood and be facilitated by our Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Attorney Talia Gee and my Director of Constituent Services Darryl Moss, Sarno said. "A planning committee consisting of Mr. Moss, Attorney Gee, Chief of Staff Tom Ashe, Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris, Licensing Director Attorney Alesia Days and Election Commissioner Gladys Oyola are currently working on initiating these series of meetings. The state-imposed Finance Control Board eliminated the five-member commission in 2005, creating the single commissioner in place of a police chief. Whitfield, reached by phone Tuesday, said "now its time for the mayor to do whats right and implement a five-person civilian Police Commission. In a Monday night post on Facebook, Whitfield asked for a Pro Bono lawyer to assist the council in its dispute with the mayor over the Police Commission. Whitfield said she had opposed the five-member commission in 2018, but has had a strong change of heart after factors including Floyds death and Clapproods reinstatement of some officers awaiting trial for allegedly filing inaccurate reports regarding a brawl outside Nathan Bills bar, involving off-duty police. WASHINGTON Gathered with a few Senate colleagues and President Trump in the Roosevelt Room of the White House back in February, Senator Cory Gardner gazed up at a portrait of the rooms eponymous president in his Rough Rider regalia and saw an opening to change Mr. Trumps mind. Hoping to capitalize on the presidents yearning for flashy achievements, Mr. Gardner, a Colorado Republican, told Mr. Trump that passage of a public lands bill that his administration and many members of his party opposed would be the biggest conservation accomplishment since Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s created an iconic system of parks, refuges and forests set aside for public use and enjoyment. To bolster his argument, Mr. Gardner showed the president a picture of a striking new land acquisition along the rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park that was made possible through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a chronically shortchanged account that Mr. Gardner and others want to guarantee is filled each year. That is beautiful, Mr. Trump responded, according to Mr. Gardner, reversing on the spot his plan to gut the fund and oppose the bill. Put it on my desk and I will sign it. After decades of frustration over low levels of funding, the nations conservation community is on the brink of realizing a long-held goal legislation that would assure that federal money is available for the preservation of public lands. That is thanks to a desire among Republicans to protect what they consider two worthy assets of their own: the jobs of Mr. Gardner and Senator Steve Daines of Montana, who was also in the Roosevelt Room meeting and brought pictures of Montana projects. by Nirmala Carvalho Vikas, 17, had visited the Shiva temple while upper class youth wanted to prevent it. Br. Anand Mathew: "The caste system is very strong". "Even educated young people practice this cruel discrimination and untouchability. It will take many centuries to change the dominant male, patriarchal, gender, caste and class mentality. For many this is their religion." Mumbai (AsiaNews) - A young Dalit was shot dead in a village in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday evening, according to his grieving father five days after praying in a local temple, defying the objections of the upper caste. The man, Om Prakash Jatav, told reporters Sunday that four young men from a higher caste family shot Vikas Kumar Jatav, 17, in his home. He said that Vikas had visited the Shiva temple on June 1st in their village of Domkhera in the district of Amroha, 400 km north-west of Lucknow. Some people, including Horam Chauhan, a young man from a wealthy upper caste family, have tried to stop him from entering the temple based on his Jatav identity. But Vikas ignored them and prayed there, "said Om Prakash." After he finished praying, several villagers of the upper caste beat him. We turned to the police at the time but they refused to register a FIR". "On Saturday evening - he continued - Horam and three other young men from his family arrived at our house and dragged Vikas out. One of them shot him with a revolver and everyone fled. " Om Prakash claimed that it was not the first time that a Dalit prayed in the village temple. Dalit groups like Jatav and Valmiki live on the outskirts of the village and the upper castes, mostly Thakuri, live in the center. Niraj Kumar, an officer in charge of the local police station, said that the main investigation did not indicate a dispute related to a temple or untouchability. "Our investigation - he said - indicates that the victim, the murderer and other young people were playing in a field seven days ago when a fight broke out between them." "Horam, who is 18 years old, did not return home after The fight in the park. He came back Saturday night, went directly to Vikas' house, who was sleeping on the veranda, and allegedly shot him dead. We are trying to arrest all the accused. " Vipin Tada, superintendent of the Amroha police, said: "We have registered a case against four people from a family based on the father's complaint and we are investigating." The defendants were charged with murder and violation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Br. Anand Mathew IMS has lived in Varanasi for 45 years. He is the coordinator of Sanjha Sanskriti Manch, an organization that protects social groups and organizations that work in various sectors related to human life and sustenance in Varanasi. "In Uttar Pradesh - the ban on Dalits from entering temples is not known. But there is an unwritten practice: Dalits do not enter temples that are frequented by upper castes. The caste system is very strong. especially in Western UP. Jatav is an untouchable because he works with the skin of dead animals. Educated young people also practice this cruel discrimination and untouchability. It will take many centuries to change the dominant male, patriarchal, gender, caste mentality and class. For many this is their religion. We are engaging in many ways by addressing students in schools and colleges on equality, the greatness of the Indian Constitution, etc. Some are responding positively, but many continue to be influenced by their parents, relatives and peer groups. We continue our efforts with the hope that changes will happen slowly and gradually." Xtalks Life Science Webinars This webinar will highlight the systematic optimization of a flexible, hybrid IA-LC-MS/MS workflow that uses streptavidin-coupled magnetic beads, rapid trypsin digestion and surrogate peptide quantification. Bioanalysis of protein therapeutics by LC-MS/MS continues to gain popularity as a complementary approach to ligand-binding assays (LBA). LC-MS/MS offers multiple advantages over LBA including higher specificity, multiplexing capability and reduced development time. Immunoaffinity enrichment can be coupled to LC-MS/MS to produce a hybrid method that increases sensitivity and selectivity. This webinar will highlight the systematic optimization of a flexible, hybrid IA-LC-MS/MS workflow that uses streptavidin-coupled magnetic beads, rapid trypsin digestion and surrogate peptide quantification. Key areas of focus will include: The selection of streptavidin-coupled magnetic beads as the platform for the immunoaffinity enrichment system due to their amenability to use in combination with analyte-specific biotinylated capture reagents A workflow case study for a humanized antibody therapeutic in preclinical serum using generic conserved surrogate peptides for quantification that, when optimized, ultimately requires only ~3 hours with minimal direct handling Additional applications for the optimized workflow, such as highly selective and sensitive analysis of humanized antibody in preclinical samples and protein therapeutics using analyte-specific biotinylated capture reagents Join Brendan Powers, PhD, Staff Scientist, Covance in a live webinar on Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 11am EDT (4pm BST/UK). For more information or to register for this event, visit Protein Therapeutic Bioanalysis by Hybrid IA-LC-MS/MS: Optimization of a Preclinical Antibody Workflow. 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/. President Donald Trump hosts the Greek Independence Day Celebration in the East Room of the White House in Washington on March 22, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Trump Administration Opposes Defund the Police Movement President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr on Monday spoke out against the defund the police movement, a multi-hued effort that in its extreme application proposes disbanding police departments entirely in favor of ill-defined alternatives. Speaking at a meeting with law enforcement officials and officers at the White House, Trump praised police for the nations low crime numbers and acknowledged their service. Theres a reason for less crime. Its because we have great law enforcement. Im very proud of that, Trump said, adding, They protect people, risk their own lives for people theyve never seen beforepeople, in many cases, they dont know. Trump said pointedly he opposed efforts to cut funding to police departments. There wont be defunding. There wont be dismantling of our police, and theres not going to be any disbanding of our police, he said. The president sought to set the record straight on cases of misconduct by police, saying that the actions of several bad actors were limited in scope and should not taint the accomplishments of broader law enforcement structures. Our police have been letting us live in peace, and we want to make sure we dont have any bad actors in there, Trump said, adding that he believes 99 percent of officers are great people. The presidents remarks about miscreants on the force come after weeks of protests, some of which have resulted in violent riots, following the police-custody death of George Floyd. All officers involved in Floyds death have been arrested and charged with crimes. The incident has sparked outrage, which has fueled the movement to overhaul police procedures, including limiting legal protections for police, creating a national database of excessive-force encounters, and banning the use of chokeholds. A rallying cry of some protesters and proponents of police reform is to defund the police, a multi-layered movement that ranges from calls to adjust police budgets to fund the establishment of complementary community-based solutions, to extreme proposals to disband police departments entirely. Activist group MPD150 says on its website that it is gradually working towards a police-free Minneapolis, describing the concept as being about strategically reallocating resources, funding, and responsibility away from police and toward community-based models of safety, support, and prevention. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said part of the movement is really about how money is spent. Now, I dont believe that you should disband police departments, she said in an interview with CNN. But I do think that, in cities, in states, we need to look at how we are spending the resources and invest more in our communities. Maybe this is an opportunity to re-envision public safety, she added. Attorney General William Barr told Fox News in an interview Monday that he, too, opposes moves to defund the police. I think its the exact opposite of the way we should go, Barr said, warning that disbanding police departments would lead to a spike in criminality. You would have increases in vigilanteism and you would have increasing chaos, Barr said, adding, Youll end up having more killings. He acknowledged the grievances of the black community but urged people not to use the ghastly actions of several bad actors, referring to the circumstances around Floyds death, to frame entire police structures as corrupt. I understand given the history of racial injustice in this country why the African American community, or at least some of it, would view the ghastly events in Minneapolis as manifestations of institutional racism in police departments, Barr said. But I think, in fact, in the past 50 or 60 years, weve had a lot of reform of police departments, Barr said, adding that compared to his previous tenure as Attorney General some 30 years ago, I can tell you theres a world of difference. None of us, as individuals, want to be lumped together with others. We want to be judged by what we do as individuals. We dont want the misconduct of others attributed to us, Barr said. Its the same with police officers. Every organization has individuals who engage in misconduct and we have to be very careful before we say the whole organization is rotten,' Barr added. The Attorney General acknowledged there is a crisis in policing, but said cutting police budgets would only make things worse because this would make it harder to attract and retain talented and responsible staff. By Akbar Mammadov President Ilham Aliyev has said the situation over coronavirus pandemic is under full control in Azerbaijan. Aliyev made the remarks at the opening of three modular hospitals opened in Bakus Bilgah settlement, Sumgait city and Absheron districts Saray settlement on June 9. As a result of preventive measures, today the situation is under full control. The number of infected people has been increasing in the past 10 days. This is due to the fact that during the softening period, some citizens behave irresponsibly. Nevertheless, the situation is under full control. We have enough places in hospitals, as well as in intensive care units. At the same time, coronavirus patients will be treated in 10 hospitals with an additional 2,000 beds. So far, there is no need for that. However, we are taking all steps to be ready for the most critical situation, to provide medical care to all patients in the most critical situation, the president said. Thanks to the installation of modular hospitals, the country's health system will have additional 2,000 beds. The main goal is to provide integrated management and medical coordination to provide coronavirus patients with the necessary medical services, the president said. In this regard, Aliyev noted that these coronavirus patients will be treated in these hospitals, thus the next important step is taken in the fight against coronavirus. The first modular hospital opened a month ago, on May 7, and now their number has reached four. I noted at the opening ceremony on May 7 that the number of these hospitals much reach 10. I hope that in the near future - by the end of the month, the remaining 6 hospitals will be commissioned. Thus, we will have an additional 2,000 beds, which will further expand our capabilities in the fight against coronavirus, Aliyev said. The president highlighted the fact that four of these 10 hospitals will be built by the private sector at its own expense. Thus, the burden on the state is slightly reduced. I would like to express my gratitude to the private sector and, at the same time, ordinary citizens for their financial support during the coronavirus, he added. In addition, President Aliyev reminded that at his initiative, the Coronavirus Support Fund had been established, and initially 20 million Azerbaijani manats [$11,8 million] was allocated from the President's reserve fund. Today, the amount collected in the fund at the expense of entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens has exceeded 100 million manats [$58,9 million]. This once again shows that our people can unite, show solidarity and unity in difficult times. Therefore, I support the active role of the private sector in this work, he said. President Aliyev also emphasized that at the same time, public organizations, first of all, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and other public organizations, entrepreneurs have provided humanitarian assistance to low-income people during this period, and this process continues. In this struggle, obviously, the main burden falls on the Azerbaijani government. The Azerbaijani government is doing its best to get out of this situation with less losses, he added. Aliyev also stressed that Azerbaijan is one of the rare countries in the world where all patients infected with the coronavirus are treated in medical institutions. The president underlined the fact that one of the reasons for the low number of coronavirus-related deaths in Azerbaijan is that all infected patients are admitted to medical institutions and receive the necessary services. All preventive measures have been taken so that we are ready for the most difficult situation. New laboratories have been purchased for this purpose. Presently, the number of laboratories exceed 20. Our most advanced hospitals have been dedicated to treating coronavirus patients, including the Yeni klinika, our most beautiful, state-of-the-art hospital and other hospitals, the president noted. At the same time, I consider that special conditions have been created in Azerbaijan for citizens who remain in quarantine. Because they [quarantined people] are housed in 4-5 star hotels, as well as in the Athletes Village, and most people in quarantine are housed in the Athletes Village. Thousands of people have been evacuated from abroad, and this process is continuing, of course, on schedule. There, too, all work must be done in an organized manner, Aliyev said. The president also touched upon the fact that a special portal has been created and citizens wishing to return to Azerbaijan register on that portal at the expense of the state on a rotating basis. At the same time, the financial issues of citizens who were in a difficult situation during the restrictive period have been resolved, and Azerbaijan has shown leadership here as well. In general, 3.5 billion manats [$2.06 billion] is provided for the fight against the pandemic, unemployed people, low-income people, entrepreneurs. Purchase of medical equipment, medicines - the state has allocated large funds for all this, he noted. Emphasizing professionalism and dedication of doctors to fight against coronavirus, Aliyev has highly appreciated the activities of the Operational Headquarters, Mandatory Medical Insurance Agency and The Administration of the Regional Medical Divisions (TABIB). Aliyev praised Azerbaijans model to fight against the coronavirus, noting that the country has registered about 8,000 infection cases, conducted more than 350,000 tests and is among the leading countries for the number of tests per person. However, the number of infected people in neighbouring Armenia has exceeded 13,000, and the number of tests is 5-6 times less than ours. If we take into account that the population of Armenia is 5 times smaller than the population of Azerbaijan, the picture is quite clear. If I receive hundreds of letters of thanks every day, the Armenian leadership hears hundreds of curses, Aliyev added. He also pointed out that Azerbaijan has used its industrial potential to fight against COVID-19, noting that the country started to produce medical masks, disinfectants, special clothes in a short period of time. Furthermore, President Aliyev urged residents to use medical masks in closed places, public transports, shopping centres and offices, and to follow social distancing and hygiene rules. Only these three factors - as doctors and various public figures have said, perhaps a thousand times - must be taken into account: a medical mask, a distance of one and a half to two meters and disinfectants. According to doctors, 95 per cent of these factors protect people. Therefore, I urge citizens to follow these very simple rules and know that the coronavirus has not disappeared yet, he said. The president also noted that in case of sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 infections, the government will once again apply restrictions, even though current softening steps are taking place in Azerbaijan like in other countries. The president also reminded that the government prioritized residents health over economy. For me personally, the health of people without hesitation has always been in the first place, including during the pandemic. Therefore, we have consciously taken restrictive steps, knowing that this will have a negative impact on our economic activity, the president said. He underlined the fact that Azerbaijans GDP decreased by 1.7 per cent in these five months during the pandemic. At the same time, I must say that industrial production has increased slightly. But the industry in the non-oil sector grew by 14 per cent. Agriculture grew by 3.6 per cent. The average salary is about 740 manat. That's over $430. Inflation is below 3 per cent, that is, at the forecast level, the president added. In this regard, Aliyev emphasized that generally, Azerbaijans economic activity had been very successful in this period. Stressing that peoples life is priceless, Aliyev said that by now and after that, the main factor is peoples safety and health. The increasing dynamics of patients and infections shows that the tendency to soften has led to this. But still, the situation is under control. The main factor here is the ratio between infected and recovered persons. The president pointed out that Azerbaijans current healthcare capabilities allow the country to maintain the situation under the control. Regarding Azerbaijans role in the international arena, the president reminded that recently Azerbaijan initiated holding the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) as well as the Summit of the Cooperation Council of the Turkic-Speaking countries. The Summit of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was attended by representatives of 120 countries, including the European Union for the first time. Aliyev recalled that Azerbaijan had suggested the members of the Non-Aligned Movement hold the special session on COVID-19 at the UN General Assembly, and they unanimously supported this initiative. Humanitarian cooperation Touching upon the international solidarity, the president noted that Azerbaijan had provided the humanitarian aid to 14 countries, as well as helped 15 countries of the World Health Organization, which are also the members of NAM. As you know, Azerbaijan has twice made individual donations to the World Health Organization, and thus Azerbaijan has provided humanitarian assistance to 29 countries through the international organization Azerbaijan is one of the countries that provided the most humanitarian assistance during the pandemic, the president said. During this period, I want to say once again that Azerbaijan has shown itself as a politically strong state in the international arena, as a strong state in the economic sphere, as a strong state in the social sphere. This showed that the citizen of Azerbaijan is at the centre of our policy, Aliyev said. Furthermore, President Aliyev touched upon the fact that according to estimates of leading international financial institutions, even though more than 150 countries have applied for assistance to international financial institutions, Azerbaijan is not in this list. The president concluded his speech referring to the slogan reflected in Flame Towers, one of Azerbaijans new symbols: Love to Azerbaijani doctors! --- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Australian activists are calling for protesters to tear down a statue of Captain James Cook in Sydney after similar acts occurred in America and the UK. The statue of Captain Cook, which stands in Hyde Park in Sydney's CBD, was built in 1878 and is on the National Heritage List. Australian Black Lives Matter activists are now calling for the statue to be ripped down and destroyed after protesters in other countries did the same. The calls came after protesters in Bristol, in eastern England, tore down a statue of 17th century slave trader and philanthropist Edward Colston by tying ropes around it and dumping it in the nearby harbour. 'There's a Captain Cook statue in Sydney's Hyde Park in Australia and it's about damn time we Aussies take this coloniser down,' one user wrote on Twitter. The Twitter account was closed soon after the post was made, as other users called for police action against the threat. Australian activists are calling for protesters to tear down a statue of Captain James Cook in Sydney after similar acts occurred in the America and the United Kingdom Australian Black Lives Matter activists are now calling for the statue to be ripped down and destroyed after protesters in other countries did the same A Twitter user with the handle VelvetLovenotes said: 'That Captain Cook statue in Hyde Park sure is looking precarious. Would be an absolute shame if it rolled into the water.' 'It would be a real shame if something happened to the Captain Cook statue in Hyde Park this week,' another wrote. 'Sydney people when are we tearing down the Captain Cook statue,' a user called Yubin said. 'It would be a shame if our Captain Cook statues decided to take a swim,' one wrote. 'We have so many statues of Captain Cook wouldn't it be so sad if any of them got thrown in the harbour especially this specific statue in Hyde Park I hope nobody throws it in the harbour that would just be so sad,' one person tweeted. One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson took to Facebook to slam the activists and call them 'ratbags'. She said it was a 'mistake to try and appease the mob, if you give them an inch they will take a mile'. 'No doubt emboldened by the failure of state governments to enforce the law, activists are now plotting to tear down monuments of Captain Cook,' Ms Hanson wrote. 'If our weak Premiers don't enforce the law how can you expect these ratbags to respect the law?' 'Have we really reached the point where we need to have police guard the monuments of Australian heroes 24/7?' 'There's a Captain Cook statue in Sydney's Hyde Park in Australia and it's about damn time we Aussies take this coloniser down,' one user wrote on Twitter Liberal Senator Pauline Hanson took to Facebook to slam the activists and call them 'ratbags' 'If we don't start demanding our state governments stand up to these activists and their lies, we will wind up watching as our history is torn down before our very eyes.' But anyone seriously considering tearing down the Sydney statue could face serious repercussions after a government crackdown to protect Australia's heritage was launched in 2017. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull placed statues that were more than 100 years old on the National Heritage List following a series of graffiti attacks. This means anyone who defaces the statue could face seven years in jail or an $88,000 fine. At the time Mr Turnbull said vandals should not be allowed to 'rewrite or tear down our history'. The statue of Captain Cook, which stands in Hyde Park in Sydney's CBD, was built in 1878 and is on the National Heritage List In 2017 the statue was defaced with the phrase 'No Pride in Genocide' to protest against a plaque which says the British naval explorer discovered the east coast of Australia in 1770. The destruction of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol was being investigated by police. Meanwhile, protesters in the U.S toppled a statue of Confederate General Williams Carter Wickham in Richmond, Virginia, with one person urinating on it before it was pulled down. The calls to destroy the Sydney statue come after protesters in Bristol, in the UK, tore down a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston by tying ropes around it and dumping it in the nearby harbour Protesters throw statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest rally, in memory of George Floyd The statue in Bristol was rolled down to the nearby harbour and dumped in by protesters Several other monuments celebrating the former Confederate States of America had either been torn down or defaced. The protests come after the death of African-American George Floyd, who was allegedly killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25. Police officer Derek Chauvin had been charged with second degree murder after a video emerged showing him kneeling on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes while he laid on the floor in handcuffs. His death has sparked a series of protests across the US and around the world, with tens-of-thousands of Australians marching last weekend. Up to 60,000 people marched down city streets in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane over the weekend to protest Mr Floyd's death and the levels of indigenous incarceration and deaths in custody. In context: IBM says that facial recognition tech isn't worth developing or selling anymore as it only seems to contribute towards projecting more racial bias and the violation of human rights and freedoms. However, privacy advocates are skeptical and think the company has simply found a way to disguise getting rid of a business branch that hasn't managed to turn a profit for years. IBM told members of Congress that it's making a retreat from the general purpose face recognition market, which means it will no longer develop and sell any facial analysis software tools. In a letter sent to Congress members, the company explained that it has come to this decision in the wake of recent scandals around police misconduct and racial injustice. The company argues that while face recognition tech can help authorities protect communities, the policies that govern its use are too relaxed and need to be improved as soon as possible. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told lawmakers that "now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies." He also noted that IBM won't condone "uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms." Krishna went on to explain that artificial intelligence is yet another powerful tool that has great potential for keeping people safe but is just as dangerous as facial recognition when it's developed and used by prejudiced individuals. Some activists aren't convinced that IBM's intentions are entirely altruistic though. Eva Blum-Dumontet of Privacy International told the BBC the company is responsible for smart city projects around the world that included the installation of CCTV cameras in public spaces and the development of "smart policing" platforms that include the ability to search for suspects by skin tone in the captured footage. She also noted that IBM's wording in the announcement doesn't rule out the development of application-specific facial recognition tools. And others speculate that IBM is merely admitting that it's fallen behind on AI and facial recognition tech and that pushing subpar solutions isn't worth the financial and legal risks that come with them. And given how this technology doesn't really count towards the company's bottom line, it's an easy decision that may even benefit IBM's public image. The AI and facial recognition space have been heavily scrutinised as of late, with ACLU suing Homeland Security for holding onto border records and companies like Clearview AI getting cease and desist letters from Internet giants for scraping public image and video data sets on their platforms. The EU is considering an outright ban on facial recognition tech, while, while China is eager to do the opposite and require its use even for simple applications like subscribing to cellular service. If anything, it looks like Chinese tech companies are shaping UN facial recognition standards, which is bad news for developing countries. We've been knowing that studios are racist, sexist, and homophobic Reply Thread Link I can't believe interracial relationships were considered so taboo on tv in my lifetime. The first interracial kiss on Disney happened when I was like 11 or 12. That's insane! Reply Thread Link Came to say this. Buffy is my all time favorite show. And it only premiered in 1997 a mere 23 years ago. Crazy to think a studio didnt even want to hire a black woman as a lead character on an ensemble show just that recently because of interracial couple controversy ugh. Reply Parent Thread Link And I think Shawn and Angela on Boy Meets World were the first interracial couple on a teen/kids show or something like that? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link they were still pulling that shit with Veronica Mars Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I read the other day that Eva Mendes was cast opposite Will Smith in Hitch because the studio was concerned that audiences would stay away if her character were played by a black or white woman. They thought that casting a Latina woman would be "safer". 15 years ago but I'm sure it still goes on today, ughh Reply Parent Thread Link 1) fuck the wb 2) fuck joss whedon. if a Black actress had gotten pregnant like Charisma did, would he have written in humiliation for her character too and then some added misogynoir for flair? Reply Thread Link Is that what happened to charisma ?? Reply Parent Thread Link I'm not sure I'd trust Whedon with writing a black teenage girl but that's still messed up from WB :/ Reply Thread Link This was my entire reaction. Fucked both ways. Especially given that Cordelia was a vapid antagonist with a criminal father at the beginning. Reply Parent Thread Link Right like how is it possible that racism won but we still dodged a bullet??? Team absolutely no one here. Reply Parent Thread Link same. cordelia was already the mean vapid popular girl. I don't want to know how it would have turned out if she was black. Reply Parent Thread Link yeah no thank you Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah. He can't even write a white woman. Reply Parent Thread Link And this was even earlier than 'Angel' where Gunn gets all the 'it's whack' lines! Whedon brought us 'In terms of hair care, you really want to say, 'What kind of impression am I making in the workplace?' I can't imagine the kind of shit he'd have written in 1997. Reply Parent Thread Link although I 100 percent agree with the dialogue criticism, I still feel it was pretty monumental that inner city culture with gunn's character in angel was acknowledged and part of this supernatural show especially because my ass was watching buffy/angel growing up in the bronx. I admit, I haven't been watching many supernatural dramas lately but surface level they still seem pretty whitewashed Edited at 2020-06-09 02:30 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Right? Given how he treated Kendra and the writing in some of Gun's early episodes, we may have dodged a bullet. Reply Parent Thread Link Wild Reply Thread Link Back in the day, I used to think or made up in my head that there should be a choker-wearing braided redheaded Black slayer/French Exchange Student named Muffy (after the cartoon rabbit Buffy & Muffy) lol. All in healthy and friendly rivalry unlike Buffys relationship with Faith. And yeah Cordelia as a popular black girl would be amazing...we couldve had it all. And then in reality, Kendra came to slay. Bless Reply Parent Thread Link damnnn. I wonder who wanted for the role before they squashed it. semi-realted: I was really shocked to see how Left CC was in her politics Reply Thread Link I immediately imagined Gabrielle Union for some reason. I think she would've fit the part so well and fit in really well with the cast. Reply Parent Thread Link It was pretty much her character in Bring It On Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Bianca lol Wouldnt suprise me if Persia White tried out but got cast as Aura instead. Reply Parent Thread Link Charisma's politics don't surprise me. David, on the other hand, has shocked me by repeatedly showing support for Black Lives Matter and calling out the police over the past two weeks. He tends to lean more conservative so I figured he'd either stay silent or massively fuck up. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I thought it was common knowledge among fans that Bianca Lawson was cast, but had a contract with a CBS show that wouldn't let her go so she had to turn Buffy down and that was the main reason she was cast as Kendra as the CBS show was soon cancelled. I thought he was forced to recast Willow as the actress in the pilot was overweight and they wanted someone smaller. https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Bianca_Lawson#:~:text=Lawson%20was%20originally%20cast%20as,%22What 's%20My%20Line%3F Reply Parent Thread Link Many thanks to the wonderful @AnthonySHead @JamesMarstersOf @allcharisma @NicholasBrendon for taking time to join me today, helping raise funds for our amazing @NHSuk on our @wcclive panel. Brilliant conversation with some brilliant people! #buffythevampireslayer #Buffy pic.twitter.com/49Atbnz9q6 Dr Rhys Jones (@DrJonesWales) June 7, 2020 Nicholas Brendon looks rough :/ Nicholas Brendon looks rough :/ Reply Thread Link spike looking ugly as ever, we hate to see him Reply Parent Thread Link Wasnt he already pushing 40 back when Buffy aired? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Isn't James Marsters a giant creep? Like dated/dating really young women type creep? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i always hated buffy/spike. the more i know about him irl the more vindicated i feel in that. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Apparently Nick dominated the conversation to the point where die hards couldn't take it...they had to stop watching it was so bad. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link So is Nicholas like okay now? Reply Parent Thread Link If cordelia had been black she would have been killed off in season 1. Reply Thread Link True Reply Parent Thread Link Or alternatively, she would not have been given the emotional depth/growth & backstory Cordelia eventually got. A black Cordelia probably would have remained a perpetual "mean girl". Edited at 2020-06-09 01:31 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link I thought the character was originally supposed to die in the first episode, but I may be thinking of someone else or another show. Reply Parent Thread Link you might be thinking of Darla, she was supposed to die in the first episode Reply Parent Thread Link Darla was supposed to die in the first episode (as she did in the unaired pilot) and he wanted to add the Jesse to the credits to throw the audience off of his death. Reply Parent Thread Link You aint wrong Reply Parent Thread Link Probably because im optimistic but I think she would've had a similar journey to the one Charisma got to have in the first 3 seasons. Joss didnt keep them one note but would she have gone over to Angel? That's....yeah, probably a 50/50. Reply Parent Thread Link Not surprised. Buffy took a nosedive after The Incels (self insert) had that weird Take Down Buffy Brigade. Reply Thread Link ugh I hated that plot line. It's crazy how I love Buffy but somehow hate pretty much 80% of the storyline. Reply Parent Thread Link I think season 6 has some series highs in it but that Trio shit was....ugh. And also extremely annoying but kind to 1/3rd of them and he's just going along with it, like dude she literally coached you out of suicide and you're playing bad guy dress up to magically terrorize her for why? Reply Parent Thread Link LOL, I can actually believe this because I recall how on a lot of these primarily white teen shows, the black girl portrayed a snide, bitchy character who was antagonistic to the "good guys". If any of the characters were supposed to be black, it would def be Cordelia. Reply Thread Link OT, but: Movie theatres opening in CA on a June 12! Edited at 2020-06-09 01:27 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link lol Cordelia wouldn't've ended up half as sympathetic she ended up being if she were cast black, though. Reply Thread Link I still get upset that Robin Wood didn't much sympathy in the seventh season when Spike literally killing his mother. Reply Parent Thread Link And Spike had the nerve to tell Robin his mother didn't love him. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Buffy did not have much sympathy for Angel's victims either or the trauma he put her friends through in Season 2 Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Same honestly. I wasn't deep in fandom at that point but it was clear that Robin wasn't going to get the support needed. That's some traumatic shit and it could have really opened up the mythology to explore how slayers aren't necessarily happy about their roles, but are forced to accept the responsibility, even against their own interests. But no. It was ignored. Because Joss can't write for shit. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I never watched Angel but Cordelia wasn't at all sympathetic on Buffy. I'm always baffled at her stans. I guess she had her moments but overall she was unlikable af. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Sarah never got the role of Cordelia, and aside from doing an apparently 'amazing read', she never had to convince anyone she made a better Buffy. She auditioned, Joss immediately thought that she would make a better Buffy, she was asked to read for Buffy, and she got it. Charisma came in to audition for Buffy, and was a better fit for Cordelia. Source: literally every interview from Joss, Charisma, and Sarah talking about it. Reply Thread Link Oh calm down Demona. She was going to get either of the roles before blowing it out of the water for Buffy and the hard time they had finding a BUffy.. Reply Parent Thread Link https://youtu.be/nQ1nDKsILsM Edit: but yes, she then goes on to talk about how they asked her to read for Buffy because they were having a hard time finding a suitable actress for the lead role Edited at 2020-06-09 01:57 am (UTC) SMG states in this interview around the 5:35 minute mark I think most people know I was originally cast as Cordelia.. to which even Charisma said she wasnt aware of that:Edit: but yes, she then goes on to talk about how they asked her to read for Buffy because they were having a hard time finding a suitable actress for the lead role Reply Parent Thread Link Also cackling at that gif - it's amazing what passes for a high school student on teen dramas. Reply Thread Link She never even passed at the time lol, barely in the first two seasons, but by the third season even the show was making in-jokes about Wesley mistaking her for a teacher Reply Parent Thread Link President Donald Trump is weighing in on the elderly man who was shoved to the ground by Buffalo police last week, seriously injuring him. Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning. Martin Gugino, identified as a longtime peace activist from Amherst, remains hospitalized with a bruise and cuts after two police officers shoved him Thursday during a protest against police brutality after the death of George Floyd. Video from NPRs Buffalo radio station, WBFO, quickly went viral and outrage ensued as the Buffalo Police Department claimed in a statement he tripped & fell. Officers Aaron Torglaski and Robert McCabe were charged with second-degree assault Saturday and released without bail after pleading not guilty. Both officers were suspended without pay late Thursday night. According to the Washington Post, Gugino is a member of two nonprofits: PUSH Buffalo, which focuses on affordable housing, and the Western New York Peace Center, a human rights organization. He is also part of the Catholic Worker Movement and politically active on social media, frequently criticizing Trump. Trump did not provide any evidence for claims that Gugino has antifa ties or that he faked his fall. His source, an OANN video, is from the conservative, far-right One America News Network known for promoting conspiracy theories. Trump has described antifa, an anti-fascist movement, as a domestic terrorist organization and blamed the collective on violence in cities where protests have occurred since Floyd died on Memorial Day when a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The Associated Press reports more than 85% of those arrested by police during protests and riots in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., were local residents. Only a small number of the 217 people arrested in those two epicenters for civil unrest appeared to have any affiliation with organized groups, according to court records, employment histories, social media posts and other sources of information. Hes 75 became a trending topic on Twitter as social media users reacted to Trump. Trump is running on a solid platform. Support pushing old men to the ground and having their heads crack open on the pavement. The President of the United States is a piece of s---, actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner tweeted. President of the United States spreads insane conspiracy theory nonsense to falsely smear 75-yr-old man brutalised by police & still in serious condition in hospital. Shame on you, Mr Trump, Piers Morgan added. Just about an hour ago, police officers shove man in Niagara Square to the ground (WARNING: Graphic). Video from: @MikeDesmondWBFO pic.twitter.com/JBKQLvzfET WBFO (@WBFO) June 5, 2020 Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020 Trump promotes unhinged OAN conspiracy theory about battered 75-year-old Buffalo protester https://t.co/Fkrw7PKd2V pic.twitter.com/dkyRqWY3w4 Media Matters (@mmfa) June 9, 2020 BREAKING: President of the United States spreads insane conspiracy theory nonsense to falsely smear 75-yr-old man brutalised by police & still in serious condition in hospital. Shame on you, Mr Trump. https://t.co/ODB7qVE5E4 Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 9, 2020 [June 09, 2020] Linxup Announces Hardware-Free GPS Tracking on Ford Vehicles CHESTERFIELD, Mo., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Linxup , a leading brand of GPS tracking for small and medium-sized service businesses, announces that it is an authorized Ford Data ServicesTM provider, integrating Ford vehicle data into its award-winning telematics software. The integration allows fleets operating with participating Ford vehicles to access Linxup's easy-to-use system for real-time location tracking and geofencing , speed and idling alerts , driver behavior reports , and maintenance tracking . Using Ford's built-in vehicle modem eliminates the need to install additional wired or OBD hardware to accss GPS data. "We're thrilled to announce Linxup as an authorized Ford Data Services provider. We believe customers should have the power of choice to get manufacturer-grade vehicle data from the provider of their choosing," said Michelle Moody, director, Ford Commercial Solutions. "Working with Linxup provides fleets with connected Ford vehicles an excellent option to access their vehicle data from Ford's integrated modem to manage their fleets." With over 43,000 customers tracking over 184,000 vehicles and pieces of equipment, Linxup fuels productivity and efficiency for fleet-based companies in over 40 industries. In the last year, Linxup's customers have tracked 6.5 billion driving miles, created 564 million alerts for speeding, harsh braking, and geofenced locations, and identified $131 million in wasted fuel while idling. These real-time data points help Linxup's customers reduce costs, improve safety and compliance, prevent theft, and boost productivity. "We're always seeking ways to make software solutions simpler," said Naeem Bari, co-founder and president of Linxup. "Integrating with Ford's built-in technology eliminates the need for even our easiest hardware installation and gets actionable data into the hands of our customers." Aftermarket hardware can also be purchased directly from Linxup, including the Linxup Dash Cam a cutting-edge camera solution with dual interior and front-facing cameras and breaking glass detection, offering fleets 24-hour protection. Customers with 2020 or newer Ford vehicles can contact Linxup at 877-732-4980 or [email protected] to see if they qualify. About Linxup Linxup is a leading provider of vehicle and asset tracking solutions for small and medium-sized fleets and service companies. Linxup delivers robust location-based solutions through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, giving businesses the tools they need to improve fleet management, increase productivity, and reduce operating costs. With the introduction of temperature monitoring sensors and dash cameras, Linxup continues to be at the forefront of innovation in the Internet of things (IoT) field. About Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan. The company designs, manufactures, markets and services a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs, electrified vehicles and Lincoln luxury vehicles, provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company and is pursuing leadership positions in electrification; mobility solutions, including self-driving services; and connected services. Ford employs approximately 188,000 people worldwide. For more information regarding Ford, its products and Ford Motor Credit Company, please visit www.corporate.ford.com. Press Contact Colleen Lyerla 314-696-0520 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/linxup-announces-hardware-free-gps-tracking-on-ford-vehicles-301072478.html SOURCE Linxup [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] As temples reopened for devotees in Kerala on Tuesday after over 75 days, a Union minister and a state minister sparred over the decision with the former dubbing it as 'hasty'. IMAGE: Devotees arrive at Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple after all religious places reopened with restrictions, in Thrissur, on Tuesday. Photograph: PTI Photo While Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan questioned 'the haste shown' in reopening the temples, state Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran said the decision was only in line with the Centre's guidelines in allowing places of worship to permit entry of devotees. Unveiling graded exit plan from the COVID-19 lockdown 'Unlock 1.0', the central government has earlier allowed reopening of places of worship for devotees, malls and restaurants from Monday onwards across the country after they remained out of bounds since March 25. Muraleedharan, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Kerala, in a Facebook post on Monday hit out at the Left front government saying, 'Your government is unable to even maintain social distancing in the state.' 'As the COVID-19 cases are increasing in the state, are you trying to put the blame on temples by opening them? We urge the government to withdraw the decision to open the temples under the Travancore Devaswom Board,' he said. The Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra had also tweeted on Monday evening that neither devotees nor the temple committees favoured throwing open the shrines for public darshan. 'The Kerala government's decision to reopen temples despite opposition from devotees smell foul. Neither the devotees nor the temple committees demanded the opening of temples. What is the haste? Is this a deliberate attempt by the atheist @vijayanpinarayi (sic) Govt to denigrate devotees? Govt must heed to the voice of devotees and withdraw its decision,' he said in tweets. Slamming Muraleedharan, Surendran on Tuesday said the state government had not shown any undue haste with regard to the re-opening of temples and that he sympathises with the central minister. The central minister should ask his ministerial colleagues about the decision taken in the cabinet meeting on opening of places of worship. 'I feel sad for him (Muraleedharan). The decision on opening of places of worship was taken by the central cabinet in a meeting chaired by our honourable Prime Minister. The state government never showed any kind of haste in opening the religious places.' The decision was not taken by the state in a jiffy, he said but after holding discussions with various religious heads and community leaders . 'The decision of the state was taken after discussing with various religious and community leaders. We understand that a minister of state can't take part in the cabinet meeting. 'But, at least he should ask other ministers on the Centre's decision before attacking the state,' Surendran said. Joining issue, BJP state president K Surendran alleged that while the government consulted the who-is-who of other religions, it had a taken 'a unilateral' decision in the case of temples. No spiritual leader or scholars who matter were consulted on the issue, Surendran told media in Kozhikode. The decision to reopen the temples was only aimed at the wealth of the shrines under the control of the Devaswams. The state government did not bother to spend a penny for hundreds of temples which had nothing in their kitty to survive during the past two months, he alleged. Tens of thousands of staff of these temples were 'neglected' by the government without giving any financial aid for survival. The BJP and Hindu Akiya Vedi had come out on Monday against the state's decision to open places of worship. Various temples under the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) opened on Tuesday along with some churches and mosques in parts of the state. While the famed Lord Krishna temple at Guruvayoor opened its doors by following the various norms laid down by the government, the Sree Padmanabha Swamy and Attukkal temples in the state capital were among those which remained shut. Heartless teenagers set a homeless man's belongings on fire, prompting locals to rally behind him. The man returned to his makeshift tent next to a busy road in Kallangur, north of Brisbane, on Sunday to find his possessions completely torched. Volunteers at After Dark Saints, who provide food and clothes to Queenslanders sleeping rough, were notified about the heartless act on Monday, and instantly brought the man emergency supplies. 'Some feral kids went down there on Sunday when he wasn't there and decided to light his stuff on fire,' chairman Josh Malcolm told Daily Mail Australia. The man in his thirties, who lives on the streets of Kallangur, north of Brisbane - had his possessions and camp site set alight on Sunday. 'He lost everything, his clothes, bedding and a backpack full of belongings.' Mr Malcolm said the man in his late 30s, who has been homeless for about three months, was visibly upset by the destruction of his belongings. 'He was a bit standoffish at first last night,' he said. 'But it was like Christmas came early when we gave him a new sleeping bag and took him food and some clothes. 'He didn't talk much but he seemed like a nice bloke who is just down on his luck.' Mr Malcolm said the local homeless community's belongings have been known to be thrown out, but 'this is a whole new extent'. 'I was pretty pi**ed off. We're already going through this pandemic and these people are at their lowest,' he said. 'This man goes out and then comes back to find everything burnt.' Mr Malcolm said locals noticed teenagers lingering around the man's makeshift tent on Sunday. 'Some people said they had seen some young people messing around with this man's stuff, next minute it was on fire.' Actor Sonu Sood has clarified that he wasnt stopped from entering the Bandra railway station on Monday, to see off migrants on their way home. Sonu took to Twitter to put rest to rumours that hed been barred from seeing the migrants off. He wrote, Just to set the record straight - I was not stopped from entering the station. I absolutely respect the protocols and have duly followed it. I had requested the state government for the train so that I could send the migrants back home to reunite them with their families. The actor continued in a second tweet, As there were almost two thousand people. I am extremely thankful to the state govt, Hon. CM Uddhav Thackeray ji @CMOMaharashtra @AUThackeray @AslamShaikh_MLA for helping me bring a smile on the faces of all migrants! Jai Hind. As there were almost two thousand people. I am extremely thankful to the state govt, Hon. CM Uddhav Thackeray ji @CMOMaharashtra @AUThackeray @AslamShaikh_MLA for helping me bring a smile on the faces of all migrants! Jai Hind sonu sood (@SonuSood) June 9, 2020 A Mumbai Police official said the actor was stopped by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) when he reached the station on Monday . Nirmal Nagar police stations senior inspector Shashikant Bhandare told PTI, The actor was stopped by the RPF, not by us. He wanted to meet labourers who were going to their native place. We have not received any complaint regarding this till now. Also read: Sonu Sood meets Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, thanks him for support offered to help my migrant brothers The actor has been lauded for his efforts in helping migrant workers reach their home states during the lockdown. He recently met with Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray at his residence. This evening @SonuSood met up with @CMOMaharashtra Uddhav Thackeray ji along with Minister @AslamShaikh_MLA ji and me. Better Together, Stronger Together to assist as many people through as many people. Good to have met a good soul to work for the people together, wrote Aaditya Thackeray in a tweet. Sonu replied, Was a pleasure. Thank you for all the support offered to help my migrant brothers reunite with their families. Responding to Aadityas tweet about misunderstandings, he wrote, Humanity is above all. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A potentially explosive new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in June 2020 suggests that the official Chinese statistics on COVID-19 cases or mortality are neither reliable nor credible. If true, such unreliable data during a crucial period of the pandemic in February and March 2020 could have seriously skewed the response and preparation of the rest of the world and altered the future course of the viral pneumonic illness. The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has taken hundreds of thousands of lives and sickened over 7 million people all over the world in just over five months. Originating in China's Wuhan city, it has rapidly and extensively spread to over 188 countries and territories. The Credibility Issue Even as data on infections and mortality continue to pour in, the rapid and sudden decline in China's COVID-19 statistics has raised widespread skepticism. The importance of this data for an epidemiological understanding of the disease, given its origin in China, mandates that accurate figures should be provided. However, the researchers say, "China's COVID-19 statistics fall outside of recognized and accepted medical norms." The outbreak is estimated to have begun in October 2019 and not in December. Even with the December date, the first report from Wuhan City Health Commission announced that 27 recent cases of pneumonia of unknown origin had been detected. At this point, other official figures and one media report showed over 45,100 cases and 266 cases, respectively. Moreover, official Chinese state media at the time reported that many cases which may well have been caused by COVID-19 fell through the reporting gaps because private establishments treated them. This, say the researchers, has "led many to believe there may be serious gaps in our understanding of the outbreak based on what can be determined from this official government data." Modeling for Actual Statistics in China The researchers from Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and Ohio State University gathered their data from COVID-19 figures reported as Chinese government statistics, as well as reports by both official and non-official media, including investigative media reports on the number of cremations in Wuhan. According to the current study, the infection estimates as of February 7, 2020, fell between 305,000 to 1,272,000, while the death estimates are projected to be between 6,811 to 7,223 for deaths. This is at least ten times the official figure, which is at about 13,600 and 545, respectively. Data on Crematories Reports from established media show that whereas the eight crematories in Wuhan operated for about 4 hours a day, on average, before the outbreak, and typically in the morning in keeping with Chinese funeral rituals, a change occurred at around January 25, 2020. At this point, the crematories were found to be operating almost round the clock or at about six times normal levels. If the normal daily mortality is pegged at about 136, for this population of about 9 million, the increased hours of operation would show an excess of about 680 per day above the normal or a total of about 816 deaths a day. It is to be noted that the maximal cremation capacity is reported to be up to 2,100 bodies a day. Additional cremation staff are reported to have been imported to Wuhan, as well as 40 mobile cremation stations, which were sent into the city from outside from February 19, 2020, to cope with the increasing need for cremation. A simple linear estimate showed that at 80% utilization from January 25, 2020, to February 6, 2020, and then 100% until February 12, 2020, the cumulative deaths would be above 9,300. With the crude case fatality rate as officially reported, at 3.14%, the cumulative infection would be almost 300,000 in 19 days. Data on Funeral Urn Distribution If the number of funeral urns distributed and the period over which cremation services operated at full capacity operation up to March 23, 2020, are considered, the estimate of the total deaths up to this date reaches 36,000, which is over tenfold the official figure of 2,524. The cumulative infection could potentially be over 700,000. These estimates do not account for the mobile crematories and are likely to be significant under-estimates. Exponential Growth Model The researchers then used a model showing an exponential growth rate, from January 23, 2020, when the lockdown began, to the beginning of observed effects at about 15 days later. This is a valid approach provided the assumption made, that lockdown effects will begin to show only after February 7, 2020, is correct. Beginning with a doubling rate of 6.4 days, a figure of 680 deaths per day on February 7, 2020, and at varying crude case fatality rates of 2.5%, 5%, and 10%, they estimate a cumulative infection in Wuhan of 1,27 million, 650,900 and 305,000 respectively. The number of deaths would be about 7,000 in all cases. The start dates for the outbreak would be, in such a case, October 4, 2019, October 11, 2019, and October 17, 2019, respectively. If the doubling time is 2.54 days, the start date would be December 14, 2019, but the projected total number of infections would be over 2.2 million by February 7, 2020. Either the news of the outbreak was significantly delayed and under-reported, in the first scenario, or the official case numbers were reduced by millions, in the second case. Finally, if China's data on the 39% ratio of infections in Wuhan and China are used, the number of Chinese infections would reach over 5.6 million by February 7, 2020. Serious Implications Chinese media pointed out the strain on Wuhan's medical resources in January-February 2020, even though the city was reported to have about 90,000 beds by the end of 2018, plus an additional 100,000 beds allotted in hotels and schools by the beginning of February. This ratio of 190,000 available beds to about 33,000 confirmed cases has not been explained. Neither has the fact that despite the more than 90,000 doctors and other healthcare professionals in Wuhan at the start, another 42,600 were sent in from other provinces, with almost 170,000 ventilators imported to Wuhan, to look after only 50,000 officially reported cases as on March 23, 2020. Earlier researchers have also pointed out mathematically "impossible" COVID-19 figures from China's establishment, estimating that over 85% of infections were not reported and that by February 20, 2020, the number of confirmed cases in China would have been well over 230,000 and not 55,000 as officially reported. The study's conclusions are limited by the fact that it did not include other causes of excessive death during the lockdown, such as those occurring due to the difficulty in accessing medical treatment of other diseases at this time, the financial stress, and lack of support for emotional and social needs. Nonetheless, the researchers conclude that official reports of COVID-19 cases and deaths from China are lopsided, with a huge discrepancy between the cremation-based estimates prepared in the current study and the Chinese official figures available in early February. The significance of this is grave since the period from February to the end of March was a critical one with respect to preparing for an adequate response to the worldwide spread of the pandemic. The investigators comment that this "suggests the need to reevaluate China's official statistics and consider all available and reasonable data sources for a better understanding of the COVD-19 pandemic." The study concludes, "The magnitude of the discrepancy between the results from their analysis and China's official figures suggests that the potential impact on the global efforts to control the pandemic is obvious. Transparency in China is of critical importance for the world to learn from this infection and for those in the future." *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. 1. 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Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/wuhan-seafood-market-may-not-be-source404 novel-virus-spreading-globally Last accessed February 18, 2020. June 08, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - From their front porches, regular citizens watched a cordon of cops sweep down their peaceful street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rankled at being filmed, the cops exceeded their authority and demanded that people go inside their houses. When some of them didnt obey quickly enough, the order -- one heard so many times in the streets of Iraqi cities and in the villages of Afghanistan -- was issued: Light 'em up. And so disobedient Americans found themselves on the receiving end of non-lethal rounds for the crime of watching the police from those porches. Its taken years from Ferguson to this moment, but Americas cops have now officially joined the military as "professional" warriors. In the wake of George Floyds murder on May 25th, those warrior-cops have taken to the streets across the country wearing combat gear and with attitudes to match. They see protesters, as well as the reporters covering them, as the enemy and themselves as the "thin blue line" of law and order. The police take to bashing heads and thrashing bodies, using weaponry so generously funded by the American taxpayer: rubber bullets, pepper spray (as Congresswoman Joyce Beatty of Ohio experienced at a protest), tear gas (as Episcopal clergy experienced at a demonstration in Washington, D.C.), paint canisters, and similar non-lethal munitions, together with flash-bang grenades, standard-issue batons, and Tasers, even as they drive military-surplus equipment like Humvees and MRAPs. (Note that such munitions blinded an eye of one photo-journalist.) A Predator drone even hovered over at least one protest. Who needs a military parade, President Trump? Americans are witnessing militarized parades across the U.S.A. Their theme: violent force. The result: plenty of wounded and otherwise damaged Americans left in their wake. The detritus of Americas foreign wars has finally well and truly found its place on Main Street, U.S.A. Cops are to blame for much of this mayhem. Video clips show them wildly out of control, inciting violence and inflicting it, instead of defusing and preventing it. Far too often, to serve and protect has become to shoot and smack down. It suggests the character of Eric Cartman from the cartoon South Park, a boy inflamed by a badge and a chance to inflict physical violence without accountability. Respect my authoritah! cries Cartman as he beats an innocent man for no reason. So, lets point cameras -- and fingers -- at these bully-boy cops, lets document their crimes, but lets also state a fact with courage: its not just their fault. Who else is to blame? Well, so many of us. How stupid have we been to celebrate cops as heroes, just as weve been foolishly doing for so long with the U.S. military? Few people are heroes and fewer still deserve hero status while wearing uniforms and shooting bullets, rubber or otherwise, at citizens. Answer me this: Who granted cops a specially-modified U.S. flag to celebrate "blue lives matter," and when exactly did that happen, and why the hell do so many people fly these as substitute U.S. flags? Has everyone forgotten American history and the use of police (as well as National Guard units) to suppress organized labor, keep blacks and other minorities in their place, intimidate ordinary citizens protesting for a cleaner environment, or whack hippies and anti-war liberals during the Vietnam War protests? Or think of whats happening this way: Americas violent overseas wars, thriving for almost two decades despite their emptiness, their lack of meaning, have finally and truly come home. An impoverished empire, in which violence and disease are endemic, is collapsing before our eyes. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter When the looting starts, the shooting starts, Americas self-styled wartime president promised, channeling a racist Miami police chief from 1967. It was a declaration meant to turn any American who happened to be near a protest into a potential victim. As such demonstrations proliferate, Americans now face a grim prospect: the chance to be wounded or killed, then dismissed as collateral damage. In these years, that tried-and-false military euphemism has been applied so thoughtlessly to innumerable innocents who have suffered grievously from our unending foreign wars and now its coming home. How does it feel, America? The End of Citizen-Soldiers, the End of Citizen-Cops I joined the military in 1981, signing up in college for the Reserve Officer Training Corps, or ROTC. I went on active duty in 1985 and served for 20 years, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. I come from a family of firefighters and cops. My dad and older brother were firefighters, together with my brother-in-law and nephew. My niece and her husband are cops and my sister worked for her local police department for years. My oldest friend, a great guy Ive known for half a century, recently retired as a deputy sheriff. I know these people because theyre my people. Many cops -- Id say most -- are decent people. But dress almost any cop in combat gear, cover him or her in armor like a stormtrooper out of Star Wars, then set all of them loose on the streets with a mandate to restore LAW & ORDER, as our president tweeted, and youre going to get stormtrooper-like behavior. Sure, Id wager that more than a few cops enjoy it, or at least it seems that way in the videos captured by so many. But lets remind ourselves that the cops, like the rest of Americas systems of authority, are a product of a sociopolitical structure thats inherently violent, openly racist, deeply flawed, and thoroughly corrupted by money, power, greed, and privilege. In such a system, why should we expect them to be paragons of virtue and restraint? We dont recruit them that way. We dont train them that way. Indeed, we salute them as warriors when they respond to risky situations in aggressive ways. Heres my point: When I put on a military uniform in 1985, I underwent a subtle but meaningful change from a citizen to a citizen-airman. (Note how citizen still came first then.) Soon after, however, the U.S. military began telling me I was something more than that: I was a warrior. And that was a distinct and new identity for me, evidently a tougher, more worthy one than simply being a citizen-airman. That new warrior image and the mystique that grew up around it was integral to, and illustrative of, the beginning of a wider militarization of American culture and society, which exploded after the 9/11 attacks amid the big-boy pants braggadocio of the administration of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as they set out to remake the world as an American possession. Why all the warrior BS? Why Generation Kill (one of those memorable phrases of the post-9/11 era)? Was it to give us a bit more spine or something to rally around after the calamity of those attacks on iconic American targets, or perhaps something to take pride in after so many disastrous wars over the last 75 years? It took me a while to answer such questions. Indeed, it took me a while to grasp that such questions were almost beside the point. Because all this warrior talk, whether applied to the military or the cops, is truly meant to separate us from the American people, to link us instead to wider systems of impersonal authority, such as the military-industrial-congressional complex. By elevating us as warriors, the elites conspired to reduce us as citizens, detaching us from a citizens code of civics and moral behavior. By accepting the conceit of such an identity, we warriors and former warriors became, in a sense, foreign to democracy and ever more divorced from the citizenry. We came to form foreign legions, readily exploitable in Americas endless imperial-corporate wars, whether overseas or now here. (Notice, by the way, how, in the preceding paragraphs, I use we and us, continuing to identify with the military, though Ive been retired for 15 years. On rereading it, I thought about revising that passage, until I realized that was precisely the point: a career military officer is, in some way, always in the military. The ethos is that strong. The same is true of cops.) In 2009, I first asked if the U.S. military had become an imperial police force. In 2020, we need to ask if our police are now just another branch of that military, with our homeland serving as the empire to be conquered and exploited. That said, lets turn to Americas cops. Theyre now likely to identify as warriors, too, and indeed many of them have served in Americas violent and endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. These days, theyre ever more likely to identify as well with authority, as defined and exercised by the elites for whom they serve as hired guns. In the aftermath of George Floyds murder, the warrior-mercenary mindset of the police has been fully exposed. For what was Floyds great crime? At worst, if true, an attempt at petty theft through forgery. Hed lost his job due to the Covid-19 crisis and, like most of us, was lucky if he saw a one-time check for $1,200, even as the rich and powerful enjoyed trillions of dollars in relief. Rarely are the police sent to prosecute scofflaws in high places. I havent seen any bankers being choked to death on the street under an officers knee. Nor have I seen any corporate citizens being choked to death by cops. Its so much easier to hassle and arrest the little people for whom, if theyre black or otherwise vulnerable, arrest may even end in death. By standing apart from us, militarized, a thin blue line, the police no longer stand with us. A friend of mine, an Air Force retired colonel, nailed it in a recent email to me: I used to -- maybe not enjoy but -- not mind talking to the police. It was the whole community partners thing. Growing up and through college, you just waved at cops on patrol (theyd wave back!). Over the last five years, all I get is cops staring back in what I imagine they think is an intimidating grimace. They say nothing when you say hello. They are all in full battle rattle even when directing traffic. When military battle rattle becomes the standard gear for street cops, should we be that surprised to hear the death rattle of black men like George Floyd? Speaking Truth to Power Isnt Nearly Enough Perhaps youve heard the saying speaking truth to power. Its meant as a form of praise. But a rejoinder I once read captures its inherent limitations: power already knows the truth -- and Id add that the powerful are all too happy with their monopoly on their version of the truth, thank you very much. Its not enough to say that the police are too violent, or racist, or detached from society. Powerful people already know this perfectly well. Indeed, theyre counting on it. Theyre counting on cops being violent to protect elite interests; nor is racism the worst thing in the world, they believe, as long as its not hurting their financial bottom lines. If it divides people, making them all the more exploitable, so much the better. And who cares if cops are detached from the interests of the working and lower middle classes from which theyve come? Again, all the better, since that means they can be sicked on protesters and, if things get out of hand, those very protesters can then be blamed. If push comes to shove, a few cops might have to be fired, or prosecuted, or otherwise sacrificed, but that hardly matters as long as the powerful get off scot-free. President Trump knows this. He talks about dominating the protesters. He insists that they must be arrested and jailed for long periods of time. After all, they are the other, the enemy. Hes willing to have them tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets just so he can pose in front of a church holding a Bible. Amazingly, the one amendment he mentioned defending in his law and order speech just before he walked to that church was the Second Amendment. And this highlights Trumps skill as a wall-builder. No, I dont mean that big, fat, beautiful wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Hes proven himself a master at building walls to divide people within America -- to separate Republicans from Democrats, blacks and other peoples of color from whites, Christians from non-Christians, fervid gun owners from gun-control advocates, and cops from the little people. Divide and conquer, the oldest trick in the authoritarian handbook, and Donald Trump is good at it. But hes also a dangerous fool in a moment when we need bridges, not walls to unite these divided states of ours. And that starts with the cops. We need to change the way many of them think. No more thin blue line BS. No more cops as warriors. No more special flags for how much their lives matter. We need but a single flag for how much all our lives matter, black or white, rich or poor, the powerless as well as the powerful. How about that old-fashioned American flag I served under as a military officer for 20 years? How about the stars and stripes that draped my fathers casket after his more than 30 years of fighting fires, whether in the forests of Oregon or the urban tenements of Massachusetts? It was good enough for him and me (and untold millions of others). It should still be good enough for everyone. But let me be clear: my dad knew how to put out fires, but once a house was fully involved, he used to tell me, theres little you can do but stand back and watch it burn while keeping the fire from spreading. Americas forever wars in distant lands have now come home big time. Our house is lit up and on fire. Alarms are being sounded over and over again. If we fail to come together to fight the fire until our house is fully involved, we will find ourselves -- and whats left of our democracy -- burning with it. A retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and history professor, William Astore is a TomDispatch regular. He is proud to count many first responders in his immediate family. His personal blog is Bracing Views. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Books, John Feffers new dystopian novel (the second in the Splinterlands series) Frostlands, Beverly Gologorsky's novel Every Body Has a Story, and Tom Engelhardt's A Nation Unmade by War, as well as Alfred McCoy's In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power and John Dower's The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II. - " Source " - Copyright 2020 William J. Astore Charles Lieber at an award ceremony in the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem on May 13, 2012. (Menahem Kahana/AFP/GettyImages) Former Harvard Chemistry Chair Indicted for False Statements About China Funding The former chair of Harvard Universitys chemistry department was indicted on June 9 on charges of making false statements about funding he received from the Chinese regime, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Charles Lieber, 61, was arrested in January for allegedly lying about his participation in the Chinese state-backed Thousand Talents recruitment program. A federal grand jury on June 9 indicted him on two counts of making false statements to federal authorities. The recruitment plan, which aims to attract top experts around the world to work on projects in China, has drawn scrutiny from U.S. officials, who say it facilitates the transfer of American intellectual property to China. Lieber, a professor specializing in nanoscience, allegedly had years of participation in the Thousand Talents program while working on sensitive U.S. research, prosecutors said. He has received more than $15 million of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense since 2008, according to the department. Disclosure of foreign funding and collaboration is required when receiving such federal funding. Lieber began working with the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) as a strategic scientist in 2011, and was involved in the Thousand Talents program from 2012 through 2017 as a contractual participant, according to court documents. Under the contract, WUT paid him a salary of $50,000 per month with up to 1 million yuan (then $158,000) of living expenses over three years, the documents said. Lieber, in exchange, would work for WUT for at least nine months per year by applying for patents and publishing research for WUT, mentoring students and teachers, and conducting international cooperation projects. In January 2013, Lieber signed an agreement for a five-year cooperative research program on behalf of Harvardwithout consulting Harvard officialsallowing WUT researchers a two-month visit to his chemistry department each year, according to court documents. The objective of the agreement was to foster advanced research on nanowire-based lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Harvards representatives told investigators that Leiber didnt have the authority to enter into such contracts. He also received $1.5 million for establishing a joint research lab at WUT using Harvards name and logo without Harvards knowledgea violation of the schools policy. When confronted by Harvard officials, he lied by saying WUT acted without his consent. According to the complaint, Lieber denied any engagement with the Thousand Talents program when Defense Department investigators questioned him about his foreign research disclosure in April 2018. He said he was never asked to join the program, but wasnt sure how China categorized him. He then emailed his associate, saying he lost a lot of sleep worrying about the WUT webpage, where he was listed as the director of the lab, adding that he will be careful about what I discuss with Harvard University and that none of this will be shared with government investigators. Upon a similar inquiry from NIH in November 2018, Lieber caused Harvard to falsely tell NIH that Lieber had no formal association with WUT, and he is not and has never been a participant in Chinas Thousand Talents program, prosecutors aid. Lieber faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each count of making false statements. The administration has been ramping up efforts to counter Chinese state-sanctioned IP theft at U.S. research and academic institutions. Last month, President Donald Trump canceled the visas of students from universities affiliated with the Chinese military in a bid to tackle the threat of academic espionage. Also in May, three researchers were separately arrested on charges relating to lying about funding received from the Chinese regime. A professor at the University of Arkansas was arrested on wire fraud on May 8 for failing to disclose funding from the Thousand Talents program and Chinese companies. Days later, a former Emory University professor was convicted for tax fraud related to his earnings while participating in the plan. A former researcher at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the top-rated hospitals in the world, was arrested on May 13 for allegedly lying about receiving funding from Chinese sources while being a recipient of more than $3.6 million in grant funding from the NIH. Cathy He CHINA EDITOR Follow Cathy He is a New York-based reporter focusing on China-related topics. She previously worked as a government lawyer in Australia. She joined the Epoch Times in February 2018. While the in-person art world in New York City remains mostly shuttered because of the pandemic, some galleries are opening spaces in the Hamptons. One of them, Pace, will open a temporary 1,700-square-foot exhibition space in July in an East Hampton Village that it plans to keep open through Oct. 12. The inaugural exhibition will feature new drawings by the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. This month, the auction house Sothebys will open a pop-up gallery, which a spokesman, Darrell Rocha, said would allow for immediate purchase across both fine art and luxury goods. In an email, he said Sothebys recognized that many of our established clients as well as many potential new clients have been and will continue to be out East. Marc Glimcher, chief executive and president of Pace Gallery, said in an email, We saw an opportunity to get business back on its feet during the summer by opening in East Hampton. He added, Above all else, we believe the opportunity to connect audiences with art in person is an important one. Jercile Williams was born amid the womens suffrage movement, has seen segregation, desegregation, multiple wars and movements, America elect its first Black president, and most recently a global pandemic and worldwide protests in the wake of the death of another Black man at the hands of the police. Shes seen it all, great niece Chaunte Finney says. Tuesday afternoon, Williams was surrounded by family, friends, as well as staff and fellow residents at Pelican Bay Assisted Living in Beaumont, to celebrate her 100th birthday. Williams was the oldest of 6 children, and shes outlived everyone, Finney says. But the centenarian has achieved milestones beyond sheer longevity. Finney says she was the first in her family to attend college, first at Bishop College, then going on to earn her masters degree in education at Prairie View. While in college, she joined the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, which was founded the year she was born. She went on to work as a teacher, administrator and superintendent at various school districts, including Dallas, from which she retired. Although she and her husband Joe Williams never had children of their own, she was a mother to all of us, Finney says, including the many students she had through the years. Being the first generation to go to college, she always encouraged members of her family when they were in school and offered money to help with expenses, Finney says. Tuesday, she sat at a table decorated with a large cake, gifts, cards, and balloons, a crown atop her head, as a parade of cars honked and cheered while driving past. Area Zeta Phi Betas serenaded her with Happy Birthday, and many stopped to take socially distanced photos with her before joining in a balloon release. kbrent@beaumontenterprise.com First version posted on 11:09 BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9 Trend: Arayik Harutyunyan, the unrecognized "head" of the so-called regime created in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, occupied by Armenia, is trying to stay on agenda through nonsense remarks, Head of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, MP Tural Ganjaliyev said, Trend reports. We are not surprised by concerns of a criminal and corruptor, who made his fortune by robbing the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as well as cooperating with such criminals as Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan, who committed crimes against humanity, said Ganjaliyev. "The puppet "head" of the so-called "regime" understands perfectly that the day when he and others like him will appear before the law of Azerbaijan is very close, and it will be impossible to avoid responsibility, the MP noted. Since the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan is occupied by Armenia, the Armenian residents of the region are forcibly held captive by the occupying regime, said the MP. According to President Ilham Aliyev, the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan will soon be restored, and our Nagorno-Karabakh region will be cleared of puppets such as Arayik Harutyunyan. Living together in peace in the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of the region within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan will soon be ensured, Ganjaliyev emphasized. 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. Premier Daniel Andrews says he wants stronger links with China and insists his government will "stay the course" on its controversial Belt and Road deal. Mr Andrews indicated on Tuesday that he is preparing to enter another agreement between Victoria and China on its $1.5 trillion global infrastructure program, saying he wanted his governments ties with China to grow "even stronger" and would make as "many agreements as possible" to boost the state's international trade. Daniel Andrews hosting a "Tasting Victoria" lunch for Chinese business leaders and potential investors in Beijing in 2015 Credit:Farrah Tomazin The comments come as the opposition says Mr Andrews has now missed two deadlines to provide State Parliament with more details of who he met and what he talked about on trips to China. A third agreement between Victoria and China, a Belt and Road "roadmap", was due to have been signed by the end of March but the timetable has been derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. After three chaotic months during which bureaucratic delays and a lack of communication left millions of business owners wondering when help would arrive, the federal government's coronavirus disaster-loan program is gaining momentum. The Small Business Administration had approved just over 1.1 million coronavirus disaster loans as of Saturday, according a recent SBA report, up from about 39,000 in late April. It has spent $80 billion out of about $365 billion in available loan funds. But the agency still has a long way to go toward addressing the more than 5 million disaster-loan applications it received as the economic crisis set in. And questions linger about whether the loan funds - which are part of a separate program from the larger Paycheck Protection Program - are being distributed fairly and effectively. A state-by-state Washington Post analysis of SBA spending found drastic variation in loan receipts, highlighting how the current effort to bolster the economy with federal funds could contribute to stark inequalities in how wealth is distributed across the United States. The Post's analysis is based on loan figures published Saturday by the SBA. The figures were then adjusted based on the number of small businesses in the state. Because not all small business applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loans program, known as EIDL, loan (about half did, according to a survey from the National Federation for Independent Business) the average size of each loan is likely to be larger than depicted above. About 40 percent of the SBA's EIDL funding as of Saturday was captured by four states: California, New York, Florida and Texas. A few states with relatively small economies received an outsize share of the disaster-loan funding after adjusting for the number of small businesses in the state. Meanwhile, several states that were hit hard by the coronavirus received a relatively low amount of funding through the EIDL, even after adjusting for the number of small businesses in the state. When adjusted for the size of its small-business community, West Virginia did worse than every other state, for example. Small businesses in West Virginia received 2,781 EIDL loans for a total of $178 million. In response to questions from The Post, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., expressed frustration that businesses in his state had received such relatively little funding. "It is clear there is something very wrong with the distribution of these funds," Manchin wrote in a statement. "I will demand the SBA provide an explanation for this unacceptable difference and urge them to correct the unequal distribution of the EIDL funds. West Virginia businesses are struggling to stay afloat during this healthcare crisis and deserve to be supported at the same level as other small businesses across the nation." The SBA has refused to release records showing which businesses received federal coronavirus assistance, even though such information has been released on the agency's website in the past. The Post is among 11 news organizations suing SBA for access to the data. The EIDL program is different from the $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program that is part of the Cares Act. The EIDL loans are handled directly by the government rather than private lenders, making them more appropriate for entrepreneurs who don't have deep banking-industry connections. They are favored by many business owners because more of the funding can be spent on bills including rent and utilities. The EIDL program was activated March 12, several weeks before Congress passed the Cares Act, making it the first federal small business aid program to address the economic crisis. But the program did not address the crisis as quickly as members of Congress and federal officials had hoped. The SBA's Office of Disaster Assistance received an unprecedented crush of applications in mid-March when the economic crisis deepened, and it did not have the infrastructure in place to process so many applications in a timely manner. The agency received several million loan applications within a few days, SBA officials have said. A person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss the issue said the total amount of loans received eventually climbed to between 5 million and 6 million applications before the SBA closed its application portal in late April. The SBA initially said it would be able to process most loans in three weeks, but it took six weeks to approve the first 39,000 EIDL loans, amounting to less than 1% of its total application backlog. And some business owners are finding the loans too small to be of much help. To try to avoid running out of funding, the SBA slashed the size of its EIDL loans to $150,000 per application, a drop in the bucket for all but the smallest companies. Early on in the process, the SBA attempted to solve the problem by outsourcing much of its loan evaluation work to Rocket Loans. The Rocket Loans work is being handled through an existing contract with a Herndon, Va.-based company called RER Solutions, worth at least $350 million, to manage loan recommendations and analysis, according to contract documents. Over the past few months, the SBA has hired new loan reviewers, largely through contractors, according to people involved in the process who were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. And the agency has changed its processes in ways that have sped up loan approvals while decreasing the size of loans and grants that businesses receive, according to SBA officials and people familiar with the matter. The first 1.1 million EIDL loans have been allocated in a widely divergent manner from one state to the next, according to the figures released Saturday by the SBA. Businesses in California led the way in EIDL loan receipts, with $15.1 billion going to 196,365 businesses. Texas and Florida received $6.7 billion and $6.9 billion, respectively. New York, with the biggest coronavirus outbreak in the country, received just over $6 billion in EIDL loans. Several states with smaller economies managed to nab an outsize share of small business aid through the EIDL program. When adjusted for the number of small businesses operating in the state, Nevada, Hawaii and Louisiana received the most help by far. Nevada received about $12,200 per small business, about twice as much as a typical state. Midwestern and Intermountain West states that depend heavily on agribusiness fared poorly in the EIDL program's first three months, possibly because farms were initially excluded. Among 12 states that received less than $6,000 per small business, seven were agriculture-heavy states, including Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. BP will cut about 15% of its workforce in response to the coronavirus crisis and as part of Chief Executive Bernard Looney's plan to shift the oil and gas major to renewable energy, it said on Monday. Looney told employees in a global online call that the London-based company will cut 10,000 jobs from the current 70,100. "We will now begin a process that will see close to 10,000 people leaving BP - most by the end of this year," Looney said in a statement. Reuters had earlier reported the planned job cuts, citing three company sources. BP shares were up 3.3% by 1230 GMT, against a 2.2% gain for the broader European energy sector. The affected roles will be mostly senior office-based positions and not front-line operational staff, the company said. About a fifth of the job cuts will take place in Britain, where BP employs 15,000 people, a company spokesman said. Like all the world's top energy companies, BP has cut its 2020 spending plans after the coronavirus pandemic brought an unprecedented drop in demand for oil. BP has flagged a 25% cut to $12 billion this year and said it would find $2.5 billion in cost savings by the end of 2021 through the digitalisation and integration of its businesses. On Monday, however, Looney said the company is likely to need to cut costs even further. BP is giving no pay rises to senior employees until March 2021 and said it is unlikely to pay any cash bonuses this year. ENERGY TRANSITION The job reductions are also part of Looney's drive to make the 111-year-old oil company more nimble as it prepares for the shift to low-carbon energy, the sources said. "It was always part of the plan to make BP a leaner, faster-moving and lower-carbon company," Looney said. The spokesman said that the coronavirus crisis "amplified and accelerated" BP's transition plans. Looney last month announced a large round of senior management appointments, halving the size of BP's leaderhip team under his plan to reshape the company's structure. Shortly after taking office in February, the 49-year-old CEO said that he was creating 11 divisions to "reinvent" BP and dismantle the traditional structure dominated by its oil and gas production business and its refining, marketing and trading division. Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil producer, last month said that it will cut between 10% and 15% of its global workforce as part of an ongoing restructuring. Royal Dutch Shell, meanwhile, has initiated a voluntary redundancy programme. Also read: Alibaba's cloud unit aims to recruit 5,000 staff globally this year At some point, free-agent defensive end Jadeveon Clowney will sign on the dotted line. How much the 27-year-old gets, and where he plays in 2020, remain anyones guess. Introducing Eagles Extra: Sign up for a free trial now. Get exclusive news, behind-the-scenes observations and the ability to text directly with reporters NBC Sports Mike Florio reports both the Seattle Seahawks and Cleveland Browns have put offers on the table for the three-time Pro Bowl selection. Per 247 Sports: My understanding is the Seahawks have been in the range of $15 million on a one-year deal for Jadeveon Clowney, Florio said on 106.7 The Fans Chad Dukes vs. The World. "The Seahawks have been led to believe that the Browns offered 18 (million), and he has yet to take that. I dont know what he wants. With him, it comes down to getting a number that hes happy with. Buy Jets tickets: StubHub, SeatGeek At one point, both the New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles were mentioned as potential landing spots for Clowney, who has 32 sacks over the last five seasons. But neither team is expected to sign Clowney, with the Seahawks, Browns and Tennessee Titans mentioned as likely suitors. Get Eagles text messages from reporters: Cut through the clutter of social media and text directly with the Eagles beat writers. Plus, exclusive news and analysis every day. Sign up now for a free trial. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Hospitalisations in Delhi during third Covid wave significantly lower than second Coronavirus outbreak: Assam breaches 2,800-mark in COVID-19 cases India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P Guwahati, June 09: Assam on Monday crossed 2,800-mark in COVID-19 cases with 154 persons testing positive, Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. In a tweet, Sarma said that the total number of cases in Assam reached 2,835 from 2,681 on Sunday. The state has 2,044 active cases. Of the 154 cases, 45 are from Nagaon, 26 from Kamrup, 23 from Darrang, 14 from Dhemaji, 10 from Barpeta, 8 from Biswanath, 7 from Cachar, 6 each from Lakhimpur and Sonitpur, 2 each from Kamrup Metropolitan, Chirang and Dibrugarh, and one each from Dhemaji, Bongaigaon and Karbi Anglong. Delhi govt lifts 'special corona fee' on liquor from Jun 10, but raises VAT WHO says coronavirus situation is worsening globally, disease raging in Americas| Oneindia News During the day, 148 patients recovered and were discharged from hospitals across the state, he added. These include 45 from Golaghat District Hospital, 26 from Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, 17 from Kalapahar TB Hospital, 15 from Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital, 10 from Kokrajhar District Hospital, 9 from Tezpur Medical College and Hospital, and 6 from Tinsukia District Hospital. Besides, 4 patients each from Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, Silchar Medical College and Hospital and Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital, 3 from Karimganj District Hospital, 2 each from Diphu Medical College and Hospital and Bongaigaon District Hospital, and 1 from Dhemaji District Hospital were released. Kolkata: 24-year-old highly obese woman first Indian COVID patient to survive after being put on ECMO support So far, 4 patients have died due to the disease, while 784 have been cured and were discharged from hospitals. Three more patients have migrated to other states, the minister informed. After inter-state movement through road, rail and air communication was allowed during the lockdown period, Assam saw manifold spike in coronavirus cases. To screen all the people coming from outside the state, the government has imposed a mandatory institutional quarantine policy for everyone, barring some exceptions. Assam has so far tested 1,53,326 samples for COVID-19 in seven laboratories in Assam, NIV in Pune and some outsourced laboratories, the Health and Family Welfare Department said in its daily bulletin on Sunday night. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, June 9, 2020, 9:07 [IST] Investcorp today announced the death of its inspiring founder Nemir Kirdar, aged 83, a pioneer in creating a successful international private equity business. Mohammed Alardhi, Executive Chairman of Investcorp, said: We, the board of directors and employees of Investcorp, are deeply saddened by the death of Investcorps highly respected founder Nemir Kirdar, who leaves behind a significant legacy. Nemir was a true visionary who founded Investcorp 38 years ago and dedicated his career to building and leading a business focused on core values of trust, integrity and respect. The fruits of his efforts are seen today as the business is globally recognized as a leading and pioneering financial institution. We shall continue to build on his legacy of success, and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones. Kirdar founded Investcorp in 1982 and led it for over three decades. He stepped down from his executive role in 2015 and continued to serve as the Chairman of the Board until his retirement in 2017. Kirdar was one of the pioneers in creating a successful international private equity business which served as a bridge for Middle Eastern capital being deployed into investment opportunities in the developed markets of US and Europe, at the time of unprecedented wealth creation in the region resulting from the oil price boom. He chose to make London his home and enjoyed close personal links with many of the worlds political and business leaders. Kirdar grew up in Kirkuk, Iraq into a family with close ties to the Iraqi monarchy that ruled until 1958. He emigrated shortly afterwards to the US. Subsequently, he earned a bachelor's degree and got a job as a bank teller in Arizona. He embarked upon a career in international banking in New York and joined Chase Manhattan Bank. It was at Chase that the seeds for Investcorp were sown. After the first oil price shock in 1973, Kirdar recommended that Chase establish a merchant bank in the Middle East. David Rockefeller, Chase's chairman, endorsed the plan, and Kirdar moved to the Middle East. In 1982, inspired by the vast wealth created by the oil boom, he established Investcorp to serve as a bridge to connect Arabian Gulf investors to attractive international private investment opportunities. High profile transactions in those early years have included Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany and Gucci and Investcorp has been involved in many other transactions since. Kirdar received honorary doctorates in humane letters from Fordham University of New York, Georgetown University in Washington DC; in law from the University of the Pacific, California; and in economics from Richmond, The American International University in London. He was an honorary Fellow of St Antonys College, Oxford University; Member of the United Nations Investments Committee, NYC; Member of the Board of Trustees, Brookings Institution, Washington DC; Member of the Board of Trustees, Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, Philadelphia, PA; Member of the Advisory Board, School of International & Public Affairs, Columbia University, NYC; Founding member of the International Business Council, World Economic Forum, Geneva; Member of the Chatham House Panel of Senior Advisers, UK; Member of the International Council of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Member of the Council for Arab & International Relations, Kuwait; Member of the Board of Trustees, Silatech, Doha, Qatar Kirdar is survived by his wife Nada and his daughters Rena and Serra and his grandchildren. TradeArabia News Service Jack Daniel's Whiskey owner Brown-Forman (NYSE:BF.A)(NYSE:BF.B) said strong off-premise sales and bourbon's continued popularity salvaged what could have turned into a disastrous year. The distiller said fiscal 2019 fourth-quarter sales fell 5% from the year-ago period to $709 million, a 10% drop on an underlying basis, which accounts for acquisitions and divestitures, currency fluctuations, and distributor inventory adjustments. Make it to-go The pandemic crushed on-premise sales at places like restaurants and bars, which represent about 20% of Brown-Forman's revenue, along with travel-related sales. Fortunately, the distiller was buoyed by strong off-premise sales such as at retail establishments like packaged goods and convenience stores, helping to salvage the quarter. Bourbon in particular saw robust growth, continuing a trend that began several years ago. Premium brands grew underlying net sales at double-digit rates, with Woodford Reserve rising 19% and its 150-year-old Old Forester brand rising even higher during the fiscal year. It wasn't quite enough, however, to offset the decline in Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey. While brand extensions such as Tennessee Apple, Tennessee Honey, and ready-to-drink mixes saw underlying net sales gains, Brown-Forman's flagship Jack Daniel's brand saw a 3% decline in depletions of 9-liter cases. Depletions are sales to distributors and retailers and are an industry proxy for consumer demand. For comparison, there were 13 million cases of Jack Daniel's depletions reported, but just 3.9 million cases of other Jack Daniel's brands and 1.1 million cases of Woodford Reserve. Brown-Forman was also still dealing with the trade war in Europe from 2018, which saw retaliatory tariffs targeted directly at Jack Daniel's as well as at Harley-Davidson motorcycles. While trade with China has normalized somewhat, Europe is still a hot zone. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, June 9, 2020 15:47 591 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdd4e252 1 City COVID-19,Indonesia,Reopening-Jakarta,COVID-19-lockdown-easing,anies-baswedan,explainer,#Explainer,#PostScript,PSBB,PSBB-Masa-Transisi Free Less than a month since the central governments first call to co-exist with the coronavirus, Jakarta is among the first provinces in Indonesia to ease restrictions and begin the transition to the new normal. Governor Anies Baswdan said the move to ease large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) was necessary as the capital was suffering from an economic downturn. It experienced an unprecedented 45 percent fall in tax revenue, leading to drastic cuts in spending. Anies extended the PSBB, also known as a partial lockdown, for the third time, on June 4, announcing that the month would be Jakartas transition period, after research data showed that the epidemiological trend of news cases and deaths had declined. The transitional PSBB period will serve as an early chapter of Jakartas new normal that Anies said would only apply to strategic sectors with manageable risks, in line with Jokowis directive to reopen the economy carefully and gradually. The Jakarta administration also vowed to push stronger enforcement and public compliance. How relaxed are the transitional PSBB? The central government has issued a health ministerial decree regarding the new normal guidelines which mandate new health protocols both during and after the PSBB period. To detail the protocols for Jakarta reopening, Anies has issued Gubernatorial Regulation No. 51/2020 on the implementation of the transitional PSBB. The Banten administration has also issued a similar regulation. During the easing period, Jakarta is gradually opening places of worship, workplaces, public places, public transportation and educational institutions, but still requires health protocols in those sectors. Some of the health measures are adapted from PSBB regulations and the common health standards such as maintaining 1 meter distance between each other, avoiding gatherings and wearing a face mask in public places. Other measures, specifically those for businesses, are adapted from the health ministerial decree on the new normal, including the order to apply proper sanitation and the formation of a COVID-19 handling team in workplaces. Read also: Health minister issues new normal guidelines for workplaces The most significant feature in the transitional PSBB is the limitation of visitors or workers to 50 percent applied to all reopened sectors. Exceptions are only made for private vehicles with passengers listed on the same family card and motorcycle taxis, which are allowed to operate at full capacity. Businesses that record new confirmed or suspected cases in their workplaces are required to stop operations for at least 24 hours and conduct a disinfection process. Managements are not allowed to lay off workers who are under self-isolation or quarantine. During the transition period, the regulation says all roads should be prioritized for pedestrians and cyclists for their daily mobility. The city will also carry out parking control on off-street spaces through parking space limits. In places of worship, the transition period requires disinfection of floors, walls and building equipment before and after each worship activity. Every worshipper is required to bring his or her own worship equipment. Sanctions against PSBB violations in the earlier regulation remain in place, including community service in the form of public sanitation duty or a fine of Rp 250,000 (US$17.84) for those caught not wearing a mask in public. Stages of reopening The Jakarta administration has prepared two stages for the transitional PSBB, which is stipulated in Gubernatorial Decree No. 563/2020. The first stage targets businesses, houses of worship, social and cultural activities and mobility of vehicles. An emergency brake policy will also be in place to stop the reopening of those sectors if the number of cases surges. By the end of June, the city will consider whether it is feasible to proceed to the second stage, which includes the reopening of schools. The transitional PSBB applies to most, but not all areas. Out of about 2,700 community units in Jakarta, there are 66 reportedly still in the red zone for virus transmission, and therefore excluded from the easing period. For the red zones, I hope the mayors and regents can lead in controlling transmission. [...] If the previous control was more at the provincial level, now we are starting to work at the city and regency level, Anies said during a recent internal meeting. The transitional PSBB regulation also stipulates that areas that fail the transitional phase will be asked to return to implementing the original PSBB, with strict restrictions and control carried out locally. Concerns over congestion due to higher people mobility With the half capacity policy also applied to public transportation, the increased likelihood of traffic congestion and passenger buildup during and after the easing period has sparked concern among transportation experts. COVID-19 national task force chief Doni Monardo claimed during his monitoring on Monday morning that commuter compliance with health protocols had improved, but packed bus and railway stations could be found throughout Greater Jakarta. The underlying matter is not the public adherence to health protocols, but more the capacity of mass public transportation modes to guarantee physical distancing, especially during rush hour, Djoko Setijowarno from the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) told The Jakarta Post on Friday. PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI) has begun operating 935 trips per day, an increase of 161 from the number of trips during the previous PSBB period. However, as a state-owned train operator, it has followed the Transportation Ministrys 35 to 40 percent capacity instead of Jakartas half capacity policy. Djoko said if businesses run at the same pace as before the pandemic, the capacity of mass public transportation in Greater Jakarta would not be enough to accommodate proper physical distancing. In the transitional PSBB regulation, Anies requires businesses to build systems that regulate the distribution of working days, working hours and work shifts. Jakarta is also considering reinstating the odd-even license plate policy, which has been stopped since March 15. Djoko said traffic congestion might be even worse than before the pandemic because more people would avoid using public transportation for fear of infection and therefore, reinstating the traffic policy might lead to chaos if the government is unable to provide adequate public transportation with physical distancing. What is rational now is to control public activities in the new normal period with manageable intensity, he said, adding that businesses should still apply a work-from-home policy. Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) Southeast Asia director Faela Sufa recommended that businesses arrange their own safety policies for the new normal, such as telecommuting, as well as working schedule division and shuttle buses for employees. During the time of crisis, emergency vehicles or medical and logistics vehicles and key workers must receive priority. Therefore, allowing the transition of mobility to private vehicles that will definitely cause more traffic is not an option, she said. Jun 9, 2020 NR The leading ladies of the Indian film industry - Samantha Akkineni, Taapsee Pannu, Trisha and Manju Warrier, together, released the teaser of Keerthy Suresh's much awaited film Penguin. Scheduled for its exclusive world premiere on the 19th June on Amazon Prime Video, this psychological thriller follows a mother's physical and emotional journey to save her child. A Karthik Subbaraj, Stone Bench Films and Passion Studios production, the film's poster has already struck a chord with the audience, which stars National Award-Winning Indian actress Keerthy Suresh in the lead. The makers had released a brand new poster last week to announce about the release of the teaser, and here it is. As the film gears up for its premiere, exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, it is one of the seven films, Ponmagal Vandhal (Tamil), Gulabo Sitabo (Hindi), Law (Kannada), French Biryani (Kannada), Shakuntala Devi (Hindi) and Sufiyum Sujatayum (Malayalam) releasing direct to digital. Join Keerthy Suresh as she takes up a physically demanding journey for her child exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on 19th June in Tamil, Telugu, with dubs in Malayalam. Click the Movie button below for more info: Penguin United Nation: In a veiled reference to Pakistan, India said perpetrators of violence in Afghanistan must not be allowed safe havens in its neighbourhood, as it slammed UNSC's sanctions regime for not designating the leader of Taliban as terrorist, calling such an approach a "mystery." "The fact that the leader of Taliban - a proscribed entity - is not yet designated as a terrorist individual remains a mystery to us. Can we know the rationale for such an approach," Deputy Permanent Representative Ambassador Tanmaya Lal said at a Security Council debate on Afghanistan. The Taliban had named Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, a conservative cleric in his 50s, as its new leader after Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in May. Akhundzada is not on any terrorist designated list. Lal questioned how, by not designating the head of a banned entity, the world body intends to address one of the biggest threats to peace and security. "Is it now the thinking that leaders of proscribed entities will not be held accountable for the deeds of the listed groups that they head. Is this how we now intend to address one of the most serious threats to international peace and security," he said in his remarks. Lal questioned whether the response to India's queries on the functioning of the UN sanctions regime will be a "deafening silence" as was the case when the Security Council Committee 1988, which deals with issues relating to Afghanistan, had met last month, with no information about what was discussed in the meeting. We are unaware of what was discussed and what was the outcome of these discussions. Are Member States entitled to know what this Committee, which acts on their behalf, considers and decides upon on, for all of us."This appears to be one more instance of the secrecy practiced in the subterranean universe of the Security Council which has now enshrined the principles of anonymity and unanimity to ensure lack of accountability to member-states," he said. In an apparent reference to Pakistan, Lal said groups and individuals that perpetrate violence against the people and government of Afghanistan "must not be allowed safe havens in Afghanistan's neighbourhood." While the Afghan government has made efforts to combat terrorism, "others have callously looked the other way" when Afghanistan is targeted by Taliban, Haqqani Network, ISIS, al-Qaeda, LeT and JeM, Lal said and called for effective implementation of the Security Council's sanctions regime, including the 1267 ISIL/Al-Qaeda Sanctions and the 1988 Taliban regime. H e said this is "absolutely essential" for it to serve as a "strong deterrent" to the listed entities and individuals. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. In the coming days, you will see Camden, N. J., held up as a shining example of the miraculous effects of reimagining policing. This supports the narrative that achieving racial justice requires us to defund the police, reallocating law enforcement dollars to more useful and compassionate social programs. That Camden might someday become an example of good urban policy seemed laughable in 2012, when its homicide rate was 87 per 100,000 population. Thats 50 percent above the prevailing rate in Baltimore, Americas most murderous large city. Since then, however, Camden has made great strides, reducing its homicide rate almost two-thirds by last year. Howd they do it? Step one was busting their police union by disbanding the force in 2013. At the time, the cop cartel had pumped up average annual costs per officer (including extraordinarily generous fringe benefits) to $182,168. At that monopoly price, poor Camden could afford to employ just 175 cops, and during peak nighttime crime hours only a dozen might be on patrol. But laying off the union cops and then rehiring many as county employees reduced costs to $99,605 per officer, enabling lots of new hires while keeping total expenditures roughly the same. Within a couple of years, Camdens force exceeded 400 a little over 50 cops per 10,000 residents, about triple the national average for similarly sized cities. So Camden did not abolish police, as some of the more radical voices in the current debate claim, but actually employed more police and more law enforcement. As the now-retired chief who led the transition explained, understaffing had made his city force a triage unit going from emergency to emergency. Staffing up enabled more proactive policing (including the use of some surveillance tools that civil libertarians consider problematic). That made policing in Camden not just more cost-effective but better overall, incorporating training, rules of engagement, and accountability protocols otherwise unaffordable or unacceptable. While its approach has been branded as community policing, a great deal of Camdens crime turnaround came courtesy of what looks like an application of broken windows theory (that treating small signs of public disorder can head off larger problems). Story continues According to its co-originator, sociologist George Kelling, true broken-windows policing involves a negotiated sense of order in a community that results from collaboration between authorities and those with a stake in the areas viability. If you tell your cops, We are going to go in and practice zero tolerance for all minor crimes, Kelling has said, you are inviting a mess of trouble. Which, of course, is exactly what many police departments these days have got. But changing a forces culture is a heavy lift, especially when union contracts prioritize job security even of poor performers and all but ignore organizational effectiveness. Minneapolis is Exhibit A: Of 2,600 civilian complaints filed against cops since 2012, just a dozen less than one-half of one percent led to any form of discipline. Most were just written warnings; the harshest penalty was a one-week suspension. That monopolies do not merely overprice their products but otherwise abuse their customers is no secret, of course. Thanks to the eponymous board game, even children know monopolies are the devil. We tolerate them in labor markets in the (often erroneous) belief that for-profit employers hold so much market power that it is necessary to fight fire with fire. But even as he encouraged unionization in the private sector, Franklin D. Roosevelt deemed public employee unions unthinkable and intolerable because they might obstruct the operations of government. That they do. FDRs primary worry was the possibility of crippling strikes by police, teachers, or others, but strikes were often precluded in the legislation allowing government workers to organize. It turned out, however, that strikes are unnecessary to win generous wage and benefit packages and ultimate job security in the public sector, since unions can deliver money and blocs of votes to the elected officials with whom they will be negotiating contracts. Ka-ching. Beyond policing, labor monopolies have made many public-school systems both scandalously ineffective and extraordinarily expensive. Students in strong-union states have lower proficiency rates than those in weak-union states; restrictive labor contracts have a negative impact on academic achievement, particularly for minority students. One recent study found that, nationally, this reduces graduates future earnings by over $200 billion annually with the greatest effects among nonwhites. The problem for reformers, however, is the awesome political power of these monopolies, especially in large, deep-blue cities. Given the vote blocs and money the unions wield, elected officials are loath to challenge them in any meaningful way. Until and unless they do so, the ongoing demonstrations for greater racial justice may lead to mostly symbolic change as they have too often in the past. More from National Review Amid efforts to resolve the ongoing dispute in Eastern Ladakh, members of the Indian military team are in Chushul preparing for talks with China which are likely to be held in the next few days. "Members of the military team are in Chushul and preparing for talks expected to be held in the next few days," sources told ANI. The team has been provided with directions and instructions from the Army headquarters and government officials to help in the resolution of the matter which has entered its second month now. Talks between the two sides were held on June 6 at the ... LARNACA, Cyprus - An Israeli airliner with 22 passengers aboard became the first commercial flight to touch down in Cyprus after the east Mediterranean country reopened its airports following an 11-week ban aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. Nora Reich, a passenger aboard the Israir Airlines turboprop that arrived at Larnaca International Airport from Tel Aviv, said she had rushed to catch the first flight to Cyprus to see her newborn granddaughter. My daughter is with her family. They are diplomats here, Reich told The Associated Press. And now she have a baby, she delivered a baby girl. I come with the first flight to see her. Israel is among a group of 19 countries with low coronavirus infection rates from which Cyprus is now permitting commercial flights. Arriving passengers must secure health certificates declaring them coronavirus-free three days before departure. The requirement is set to expire June 20 for people coming from 13 of those countries, including Greece, Finland, Norway and Germany. Tourism-dependent Cyprus is keen to resume commercial flights in hopes of salvaging the summer tourist season. Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos said the country is looking to capitalize on its comparatively mild COVID-19 outbreak to attract holidaymakers. Cyprus, which has a population of around 880,000, had a total of 970 confirmed cases and 18 virus-related deaths as of Tuesday. This is what Cyprus will sell this year, is the excellent results we have with regards to the coronavirus, Karousos told the Associated Press. Cyprus would be a safe place to be. Karousos said its projected that the country will see about 35% of the nearly 4 million passenger arrivals it had for all of last year. Tourism directly accounts for 13% of Cyprus gross domestic product. The minister said its expected that monthly arrivals will peak at 600,000 passengers during September and October from countries including Poland and Denmark. There were no Covid-19 cases - either confirmed or suspected - at Naas Hospital up to yesterday evening, new data has shown. Naas is now one of ten hospitals nationwide which is currently free of the virus, according to the HSE's Daily Operations Update. The hospital began to see admissions for Covid-19 in March and it continued until this week. Up to Sunday night, there had been three patients suspected of having the virus but these must have been received negative test results or been discharged. The good news for Kildare is another hospital that serves parts of the county the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise has just one suspected Covid-19 case. To give some perspective on the issue, Naas Hospital had reached a peak of 17 Covid-19 positive patients on April 23 and five of these were in ICU. On that occasion, there were also seven patients suspected of having the virus on that date. Meanwhile, nationally, the Mater Hospital has the most Covid-19 infected patients at 30 followed by Tallaght Hospital with 14 while Beaumont and Galway both have 9. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre reported yesterday evening that the number of cases in Co Kildare up to midnight on Sunday was 1,423. However Maynooth University's Professor Philip Nolan warned today that "it is possible that we might have a significant resurgence of the virus at some point in the future." Professor Nolan also told the Dail's Covid-19 committee that he is worried that people will forget the basic hygiene, social distancing and cough and sneeze etiquette messages as as we move forward. I have seen the post-lockdown future. And it works. In the last few weeks, I've been doing things that a couple of months ago seemed almost impossible. The same sort of things that six months ago were so normal, so commonplace, that it would never, ever even have crossed my mind that one day I'd be writing about how thrilled I am to be able to do them again. In recent days, I've flown on a plane, stayed in a hotel, travelled by train. I've been in bars (several), in restaurants (ditto), I've been in clothes shops, a shoe shop and I've tried on pairs of sunglasses. I've even - joy of joys - had a haircut. It goes without saying, I'm no longer in Northern Ireland. I'm in Portugal, one of the European countries which has managed the Covid crisis better than most. With a population of around 10.3 million people, Portugal has recorded just under 1,500 deaths from the coronavirus. The country took early steps to control the spread of the disease and is currently emerging cautiously into the post-lockdown world. What is happening down here right now may well be what awaits Northern Ireland over the next few weeks. So what's it like to return to life as we knew it - sort of? To get here, I flew from Dublin to Lisbon. Mr Michael O'Leary, God bless him, is still flying his Ryanair, albeit on a reduced timetable. Dublin Airport at the scrake of dawn is never going to be the busiest of places anyway. But on the Sunday morning we flew, it was almost tumbleweed at the check-in counter. The airport was our first introduction to the face mask. By the time we'd walked through the empty departure lounge - duty free closed, but an eatery open - I felt I was starting to hyperventilate. There was a fair sized crowd for the plane, mostly Portuguese, zero holidaymakers. We stood the required two metres apart at the boarding gate which seemed a bit daft given that we were all going to be sitting in closer proximity on board. I am with my new hero Mr O'Leary, on the silliness of some air travel suggestions. A woman was seated in our row when we boarded. She swiftly evacuated herself over to join her partner on the other side of the aisle. I assume she thought our seats were free and she could social distance a bit. Throughout the flight, we wore the masks. If anyone required the loo, they had to signal to air crew first. Since there were no in-flight refreshments available, demand for the facilities was negligible. We were given forms to fill in with flight number, seat number and our contact details when in Portugal. These were handed over at Arrivals. The country has a good track and trace system. In Lisbon airport, we wore masks, too. Portugal's new rules mean that anyone entering a shop or place of business must wear a mask. It's really not that bad when you get used to it. Earlier, the hotel we'd booked into for the night had emailed to say that they were moving us to another in their chain fairly close to our first choice. I assume there were so few bookings, they'd opted to concentrate all guests in the one place. Again, masks were required inside. There was hand sanitiser everywhere. At the desk, at the lift. I've had more exposure to hand sanitiser recently than Donald Trump. Portugal is a clean country anyway. The Portuguese have always been hot on hygiene and have embraced the sanitising system with much enthusiasm. I like to do my own sanitising, but every business you now go into requires you to sluice yourself with spray from a stand at the door before admittance. In Lisbon, we went to a bar for the first time in ages. Restaurants and bars which serve food are open - with restrictions on customer numbers and adherence to social distancing rules. But it does work. Pubs which don't do food are still closed. Before we were allowed in - masks donned - we were checked first by a member of staff with a hand-held thermometer which looked a bit like a small ray gun. We were allowed to proceed. The menu was available by scanning on your phone a QR code (the wee square barcode thingy). The table, which was spotless anyway, was sanitised when we took our seats. Obviously in the bar - needing access to mouth - we were allowed to remove our masks. This is now standard mask procedure in all cafes/bars/restaurants. You have to wear it when entering and leaving or when going to the loo. Any time you walk about basically. Again, it takes a bit of getting used to. In the Algarve where we now are, I stupidly walked into a local cafe without it. Before the gentlemanly Nuno, who runs the place, could even get the words out to remind me, some know-all seated on the terrace had rushed in to complain. The same old busybody has reported other businesses for other minor infraction of rules. Don't you just love a tout? Speaking of terraces, this is of course, the aspect that mainly sets continental eateries apart from our own. The terraces are bigger, the weather's better. But I still think that at home with hostelries being allowed some more leeway - ie, being allowed to expand a bit on pavements or even in closed-off streets - it would work just as well. Customers could wear coats. For me, the biggest deal of all - the haircut. Call me shallow, but I really needed that haircut. The salon (I was their only client at the time) was as normal as... well... normal. The stylist and I both wore masks and all implements and all surfaces were sanitised relentlessly. Otherwise, it was business as usual. I had to pay in cash though, something I've noticed increasingly in a number small businesses here. A sign perhaps of how they must be struggling financially. The clothes shop was reasonably normal, too, in that, like many shops, it now operates a one-way traffic system around the store. Tricky enough to adhere to though, when you spot that great top which is, unfortunately, down the reverse-arrowed aisle. The changing rooms were dramatically blocked off with what resembled crime scene tape. Undeterred, one woman was trying on a bra in the middle of the store. On top of her jumper. Needs must. I bought a pair of sandals in another shop, but didn't try them on there. I looked for sunglasses in yet another store. Each time, after I'd tried on a pair, the assistant hovering nearby relieved me of them - before submerging them in a tray of disinfectant and then wiping them down. A bit off-putting, yes. The town we're currently in is what they call a working town. It's not entirely dependent on tourism in the way that resorts like Albufeira are. But it's obviously taking a big hit from the absence of visitors, too. The smaller cafes seem to be doing a near normal trade with locals. The bigger restaurants much, much less. We've been in a couple of restaurants where we were the only customers. It's a worrying vision of what may be facing our own local hospitality industry in the weeks ahead. I had assumed that once bars and restaurants opened their doors, customers would be storming the ramparts. Obviously it's going to be slower. And those sections of our local trade which depend upon visitors will undoubtedly need further help. Across Europe, countries which are even more dependant upon tourism, like Greece and Spain and, yes, Portugal, are having to face up to a chilly new wind of commercial reality. Portugal is an object lesson, however, in how with common-sense and responsible behaviour, clear-cut rules and strict adherence to hygiene, it is possible to juggle pandemic restriction with economic resuscitation. The country has been in the news for the most tragic of reasons, lately - a new development in the case of missing Madeleine McCann. But Portugal has also been receiving kudos in the international press for the way it has handled the Covid crisis. At the time of writing, there have been, in the Algarve, 15 deaths in total attributed to the virus. Next door, the great wine-making rural region, the Alentejo, has recorded just one. Politicians across all parties have pulled together in their approach to the pandemic. From President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who's been pictured grocery shopping in his shorts and mask, to mayors of towns and cities throughout the country, the message is that Portugal is open for business. The beaches have just opened. President Marcelo (71) was photographed gamely taking a dip to mark the occasion. The Portuguese, like the people of Ireland north and south, are friendly, warm, family-orientated, cheery and hard-working. They will get through this. And the way in which they have managed their successful lockdown relaxation is an image of hope for us, too - a generally positive picture of what lies ahead. It's a bit weird, yes. But wonderful. And, most important of all, it's workable. One tip I would pass on, though - start sourcing masks now. I think you're going to need them. NEW HAVEN Iline Tracey inked a three-year contract as superintendent of schools Tuesday following a unanimous Board of Education vote to hire her Monday night. Her starting salary, which begins July 1, is $250,000 a year. In her current capacity as interim superintendent, her annual pay is $225,000. The contract will make her the citys highest-paid employee, and she will out-earn former Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks, who departed the district in October after about 18 months of service while earning $240,000 a year. In a brief statement following Mondays vote, Tracey said she believes in collaboration. We can move mountains, she said of the school community. Board of Education President Yesenia Rivera complimented Tracey for her calm leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, which arrived in the city only five months into her tenure as interim superintendent. Mayor Justin Elicker, who took office in January, said he is grateful for Traceys partnership and leadership during a tumultuous time. The contract shows that the board began negotiating a contract with Tracey after its May 26 meeting. At Mondays meeting, board members indicated they were to present Tracey with the terms of her contract in executive, or closed, session. After the board first announced it was strongly considering Tracey, board members solicited community feedback via email. In nearly 1,000 responses, roughly 91 percent of respondents spoke in favor of hiring Tracey outright. Tracey, a 65-year-old vegan who grew up on a farm in the Jamaican countryside, is a 37-year veteran of the school district. She began as a teacher in Dwight School before becoming a reading teacher, principal, administrator and subsequently superintendent of the system. She graduated from Northern Caribbean University in Jamaica with a degree in primary teacher education before moving to Berrien Springs, Mich., in 1979 with her husband and two children. In 1980, the family moved to New Haven, where Tracey completed courses at Southern Connecticut State University to earn a degree in early childhood education. Traceys career in education began at age 16 in Jamaica, and soon after, she developed a literacy program for children and adults. She said in a biography released by the district that she believes education is the great equalizer. She now has seven children and eight grandchildren and said her hobbies are reading, researching and hiking. Her two predecessors, Birks and Garth Harries, were selected following a nationwide search process. Birks, a former principal in Bridgeport, employee of the state Department of Education and administrator in Hartford Public Schools, was one of three finalists selected by a nationwide search committee. Harries arrived to the district as its assistant superintendent to help with school reform efforts via New York City; he, too, was an internal candidate named a finalist by a search firm. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com The ANZ industrial protective footwear market size was valued at $55.0 million in 2018 and is projected to reach $77.2 million by 2026, registering a CAGR of 4.5% from 2019 to 2026. ANZ Industrial protective footwear includes safety footwear used for workers safety across different industries such as construction, manufacturing, chemical, pharmaceuticals, oil & gas, food, transportation, and mining. There is a rise in the concern for workplace safety due to the stringent regulations mandating a high standard of occupational and worker safety norms across the organizations. A variety of safety footwear is used at present, namely, waterproof footwear, rubber footwear, leather footwear, and plastic footwear. Rapid industrial development has led to rise in the number of worker accidents along with the implication of strict regulations, thus driving the market growth. The impact of these regulations is expected to increase in the coming years. Rise in health concerns and occupational safety in many countries increases the use of safety shoes in various industries. Worker safety issues are being addressed and industrialists are focusing on improving the safety standards, owing to which there is an increase in the demand for safety footwear in various industries. Lack of industrial awareness related to personal protection restrains the market growth. However, the introduction of technologically advanced footwear and untapped geographical regions offer ample of opportunities for the development of industrial personal protection products including footwear. Get Access to sample pages @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/13300 The demand for safety shoes is expected to increase in the emerging markets of China, India, Japan, and South Africa, due to surge in regulatory actions supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The ANZ industrial footwear market is segmented on the basis of standard, type, application, and country. Based on standard, the market is classified into EN ISO 20345, EN ISO 20347, and others. Based on type, the market is classified into waterproof, rubber, leather, and plastic footwear. In terms of application, the market is categorized into manufacturing, construction, mining, oil & gas, chemicals, food, pharmaceuticals, and transportation. Based on country, it is analyzed across Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. Key players operating in the industrial footwear market are Bata Industrials Australia, Blundstone Footwear, Dewalt, Dunlop, Honeywell International Inc., ofTENRICH HOLDINGS COMPANY LIMITED, Redback boots, Safeworx, Skellerup Industries Limited, and Steel Blue. KEY BENEFITS FOR STAKEHOLDERS The study provides an in-depth analysis of the ANZ industrial protective footwear market, with current and future trends to elucidate the imminent investment pockets in the market. Current and future trends are outlined in the report to determine the overall market attractiveness and single out profitable trends to gain a stronger foothold in the market. The report provides information regarding drivers, restraints, and opportunities with impact analysis. A quantitative analysis of the current market and estimation for the same from 2018 to 2026 is provided to showcase the financial competency of the market. Porters five forces model of the industry illustrates competitiveness of the market by analyzing various parameters such as, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of the buyers, and bargaining power of the suppliers operating in the market. Value chain analysis in the report provides a clear understanding of the roles of stakeholders involved in the value chain. Competitive intelligence highlights the business practices followed by the leading market players across various country. KEY MARKET SEGMENTS By Standard o EN ISO 20345 o EN ISO 20347 o Others By Type o Waterproof Footwear o Rubber Waterproof Footwear o Plastic Waterproof Footwear o Leather Waterproof Footwear o Textile Waterproof Footwear By Application o Manufacturing o Construction o Oil and Gas o Chemicals o Food o Mining o Pharmaceuticals o Transportation By Country o Australia o New Zealand o Papua New Guinea KEY PLAYERS Honeywell Safety Products Dunlop Bata Industrials Australia Dewalt Steel Blue Blundstone Australia oftenrich holdings company limited Redback boots Safeworx Skellerup Wesfarmers Oliver Victor footwear Rossi Dominion Cross Pty. Ltd. (ascent) Caterpillar Covid 19 Impact Analysis@ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/covid-19-analysis/13300 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A new special education school will open on Staten Island in September -- located at the former Our Lady Help of Christians School in Tottenville, which closed in June 2019. AHRC New York City will open the Staten Island Preparatory School for school-age and preschool students with autism and other disabilities for the 2020-2021 school year. It will be AHRC NYCs seventh school across all five boroughs. The New York State Department of Education approached us about an unmet need for additional seats for children with disabilities and autism, said Christina Muccioli, vice president of education for AHRC NYC, in a news release. After a two-year search, we identified a former parochial school, Our Lady Help of Christians, which unfortunately closed. We look forward to having a solid working relationship with the Archdiocese of New York and the parish of Our Lady Help of Christians. The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene doesnt track the number of people living with autism in New York City, according to the news release. However, based on the amount of births in Staten Island and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures, it is estimated that 1,100 people in the borough from 0-21 years old have an autism spectrum disorder. Staten Island Prep will serve 94 students between the ages of 3 to 12 with educational programming designed to address the individual needs of students. All related services will be provided to students. The instructional programming will focus on scaffolding, differentiated instruction, age-appropriate academics, language, effective communication, social-emotional skills, self-help, and daily living skills. There will be two classes for preschool students with disabilities with a teacher ratio of 6:1:3 -- which is six students, one special education teacher, and three teacher aides or paraprofessionals. Nine classes will be for school-aged children between the ages of 5 to 12, with either a ratio of 8:1:3 (eight students, one special education teacher and three aides) or 10:1:2 (10 students, one special education teacher, and two aides). The school-age program for kids 5-12 is primarily focused on students with autism but is approved for children with other disabilities. Christopher Uccellini -- who is currently the principal of AHRC NYCs Middle High School in Brooklyn -- will serve as the principal of Staten Island Prep. He previously worked for Long Island public schools as a teacher, assistant principal and principal. At AHRC NYCs other schools, many employees are community members. Muccioli said she is encouraging Staten Island residents to apply for positions in the school because there is no truer advocate for a school than its neighbors and staff, she said. Weve done 25-30 interviews for positions and the building has not even opened its doors, said Uccellini. Veterans from other AHRC NYC schools are looking to transfer. Its a very exciting time to be building our team. The project to create the school was supported by AHRC NYC CEO Marco Damiani, Elizabeth Lynam, executive vice president and chief program officer, as well as AHRC NYC board members, especially Angelo Aponte and Laura Kennedy. AHRC NYC was met with support from several Staten Island officials, including Borough President James Oddo, Rep. Max Rose and Assemblyman Michael Reilly (R-South Shore). Oddo shared the good news on Twitter. @RepMaxRose brought @AHRCNYC to Borough Hall so we could collaborate in finding a Staten Island home. Our team IDd some sites and we reached out to the Archdiocese about reimagining OLHC which had closed. Well done by all," he shared in a tweet. Rose said on Twitter he was proud to work with Oddo and AHRCNYC to help make this a reality. This is great news for Staten Islands special needs students and their families, Rep. Rose tweeted on Tuesday. Muccioli said in her 29 years with AHRC NYC, she has never felt more welcome and supported by a borough. We are thrilled to be part of Staten Island and look forward to meeting with students and their families," she added. The state education department approved the non-public private school that is operated by AHRC NYC under the oversight of the New York City Department of Education (DOE). Students recommended for non-public schools -- like Staten Island Prep -- are placed by the DOE. All of the children will be placed by the DOEs Committee on Special Education and the Center Based Support Team. You can go to www.ahrcnyc.org/ for more information about AHRC NYC schools. FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. After successfully sending two astronauts at the International Space Station in May, Elon Musk is all set to widen his horizons and achieve even more. As per a news source, the Founder and CEO of Space X sent out an email to more than 7000 employees to not waste time post their recent success. Musk wants to push his employees to focus on sending people deeper into space with the help of the proposed SpaceX Starship. ALSO READ | 'Incredible' rocket control console progression leaves even Elon Musk highly impressed Elon Musks email to his employees SpaceX's Starship is a proposed next-generation spacecraft. It is a reusable rocket that is aimed at being able to land on the Moon, and will able to take 100 people along with it at one time to Mars once such a capability and need is established. Musk wrote that they are in need to accelerate the Starship's progress, as per accounts of those who have read the note. ALSO READ | Elon Musk rallies to 'break up Amazon' after lockdown critic claims his book was censored About Starship and its various versions Starship is a proposed rocket by SpaceX and its testing site is in Boca Chica in Texas. It was originally being developed by another team in Florida as well. The spacecraft is designed to be reusable and will also be able to support both crew and cargo configurations. It will be able to take trips to the Earths orbit. Deep space destinations like the Moon and Mars are also under the list of places that the Starship is targeted at being able to reach. As per a tech magazine, SpaceX has plans to replace models Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy with Starship. This can lead to cost reduction as it will unify the production lines and also have complete reusability. ALSO READ | Tesla's Elon Musk calls for breakup of Amazon because 'monopolies are wrong' The Starship work-in-progress is not the first of its kind. The development of Starship has witnessed many challenges and failures. While they had successful testing of its engine Raptor with the prototype Starhopper, they have come across failures during testing. The Starship being assembled now is SN5, which is the fifth prototype of Starship. SN6 and SN7 are being constructed side by side. Another news source claimed that since astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are successfully placed at the International Space Station after the SpaceX launch, Elon Musk has now sent out a spark of urgency on the Starship project. The source also claims that Elon Musk had shared that he hopes to launch the first crew to Mars in a Starship in the next couple of years. He claims to be able to do this by mid-2024. It will be the start of an effort to populate the red planet as well, though it remains to be seen how he far he gets along in doing this. ALSO READ | Elon Musk's Break From Twitter Triggers Memes, Netizens Ask 'going To Mars?' Tawnee Willis and her son Frankie Macritchie. (SWNS) A woman has been jailed after her nine-year-old son was mauled to death by a dog while she was at a party nearby. Frankie Macritchie was killed by an American bulldog Staffordshire cross last April after being left alone with it by his mother Tawnee Willis, 31. Willis had been invited to a party by the dogs owner Sadie Totterdell, 29, while staying at the Tencreek Holiday Park in Looe, Cornwall. A number of guests at the party, including Willis, were said to have taken drugs including cocaine. The incident took place at the Tencreek Holiday Park in Looe in Cornwall. (SWNS) Frankie was bitten 54 times by the dog, named Winston, and eventually bled to daeth from his injuries after being left alone with it. A post-mortem examination revealed that Frankie suffered bites on his face, neck, and chest. A portion of his scalp tissue had been torn off and one of his ears was hanging on by a thread. There was also a huge 15cm by 14cm wound on his head, and evidence that he had tried to defend himself. Truro Crown Court heard that the dog had bitten children before and had a history of disobedience. Totterdell pleaded guilty to being the owner in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury resulting in the death. She was jailed for three years. Willis was jailed for two years after admitting neglecting a young person and causing unnecessary suffering. Police taped off a large area around static caravans at the Tencreek Holiday Park. (SWNS) Tawnee Willis arrives at Truro Crown Court in Cornwall. (SWNS) Judge Robert Lindford told Willis: "You left Frankie with the dog, Winston. This was a strong and powerful dog. It was a dog that Frankie knew but was not a family dog. "You knew Frankie was awake, you placed the dog and a nine year of child in the confined environment of a caravan. "The scene you found in the morning I know will haunt you for the rest of your life, and that you have developed PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] as a result of what you saw and experienced. "It can only be classed as grossly negligent. Judge Linford added: "To leave a dog with a nine-year-old child was the height of folly. We will never know what happened in that caravan, if Frankie did something to upset the dog or if the dog got angry for other reasons. The United States had made efforts to assist other countries in disease prevention. Specifically, the United States has provided Vietnam with $9.5 million for pandemic prevention. During a medical supplies donation ceremony on June 5th, Vietnamese businesses had a chance to show their support for the global efforts on COVID-19 fight, when giving away 1.3 million face-masks and about 100,000 non-skid socks to the United States. Operation USA will be responsible for receiving and distributing the shipment to communities in need to protect the health of the American people during the pandemic. Pham Quang Anh, Director of Dony Garment, said his company had been significantly impacted by the pandemic, both in good and bad ways, so they understood what kinds of adversity that other firms and people around the world were suffering. "At a time when the disease is spreading in other countries, including the United States, we want to contribute more to the international community. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have deducted 5% of Dony's entire revenue, from apparel to cloth masks, to the community." Besides the revenue deduction, Dony built its goods for donations by encouraging its workers to voluntarily participate in overtime shifts to produce cloth-masks. Unexpectedly, many workers, without being suggested, have dedicated their earnings from those shifts to its COVID-19 Prevention Fund. Dony's internal services during lockdowns, such as haircuts and manicure, also gained a lot of support from its staff and contributed an ample amount to its fund. Dony emphasized that their funding activities were not just about fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR), but also its way of returning the favors from partners in other countries during this harsh time. Global Recognition On behalf of Operation USA, the US Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink has expressed his appreciation towards Vietnamese friends. The United States currently has the most confirmed cases worldwide (about 1.98 million), while having around 112.000 deaths. The country is struggling to gradually reopen its economy as experts warn that the pandemic prevention and control should not be neglected. Concerning the US pandemic's situation, the US Ambassador was positive that the United States would successfully make it through, and acknowledged that the help from the Vietnamese businesses and organizations would be a factor in the success. He also praised Vietnam's victory in COVID-19 prevention and control which plays a crucial role in the nation's economic recovery. The latest shipment was one of many aids that Vietnamese people, government and businesses have provided not only the United States, but also many other countries to encourage the global efforts to contain the pandemic. By spreading support for impacted countries and areas during COVID-19, Vietnam has won universal recognition and boosted its reputation in the global stage. This will go on to help Vietnamese businesses establish their identity in other countries. During the pandemic, Dony has flexibly turned to cloth-mask production to meet the rising demands for protective products around the globe caused by the fear of coronavirus infection. Dony dedicated that successful movement to its US business partners and others, who have maintained steady orders from Dony throughout the crisis. Thanks to its own strategic turn and support from its partner, the company has managed not only to keep its revenue and production stable even in the outbreak, but also to expand its scale and production. Dony's factory site was 420m2 before the COVID-19, but increases to 1600m2 now. Dony Masks, the company's key product during the pandemic, has gained prominent certification on quality and safety from Vietnam, French, Germany and the United States. Among those, the REACH Certificate of Compliance from Germany is the most vital document as it certifies that Dony's product is compliant with the EU REACH regulation (EC). The company's agility has made it one of the winners during this crisis as Dony Masks were exported in large shipments to the United States, Europe, Middle East, Japan and Singapore, etc. In order to continue its success, Dony has invested hugely on the research and development process. It aims to hit the market with protective gears including clothes, shoes, hats and gloves to promptly serve the need of the current struggle against COVID-19. SOURCE Dony Garment There are still people out there who are like, Yeah, but if you take down the statues, how will people learn their history? These statues are about history. Read a book, [expletive]. That is how you learn history. No one really thinks that these statues are teaching anybody history. The bubonic plague was a major event in history we dont go around and put up statues of rats. TREVOR NOAH These statutes celebrate some of the worst ideas in human history, yet there are many people across America and in Britain who are upset about these statues coming down. So if its monument to bad ideas that these people want, we have come up with some that are far less hurtful, harmful and upsetting. For example, they could build a monument to the universally unloved Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks, or the perplexing artwork that is Ben Afflecks back tattoo. Is it a dragon? Is it a fish? No one knows. We just know its probably a bad idea. JAMES CORDEN L.A. is showing up to march, which is encouraging. Do you know how hard it is to get people to walk in L.A.? In Hollywood, activism usually means wearing a lapel pin to the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. JIMMY KIMMEL They had a moment of silence at a NASCAR event this weekend, which was remarkable, and there are demonstrations now all over the world. In Bristol, England, they tore down a statue of a slave trader named Edward Colston who is posed like hes worried someone might notice theres a statue of a slave trader named Edward Colston in town. JIMMY KIMMEL Its nice to see the N.F.L. say this, dont get me wrong, but I hope that Goodell and everyone at the N.F.L. are actually going to look at doing things. Because every other industry, you know, they have to prove their commitment by hiring thousands of new black people. The N.F.L.s just got to hire one. TREVOR NOAH Thats right, the N.F.L. feels so badly that theyre this close to scheduling another fake workout for Colin Kaepernick. Heres a fun fact: I just said Colin Kaepernicks name one more time than Roger Goodell did. JIMMY FALLON Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-09 13:53:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MAIMANA, Afghanistan, June 9 (Xinhua) -- A local Taliban leader and his five associates have given up fighting and surrendered in Afghanistan's northern Faryab province, an army source said Tuesday. "Six Taliban militants, including their leader Nematullah Khan surrendered to Afghan National Army personnel in Gurziwan district on Monday. They also brought four AK-47 guns, two telecommunication radios and two motorcycles," Hanif Rezai, spokesman of army Corps 209 Shaheen based in the region, told Xinhua. The surrendered militants were active members of Taliban in Gurziwan, he said, adding with the former insurgents' surrender, peace and stability would be further strengthened in parts of the district. The Afghan government established a High Council for National Reconciliation late last month and set up a High Peace Council a decade ago to encourage Taliban to disarm and give up militancy against the government. The Taliban militant group has yet to make comments on the report. Enditem Terry Crews said that his cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine will tackle racism and police brutality as topics in the upcoming season. The 51-year-old actor appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers in a virtual interview and discussed how the show may approach current events in new episodes on Monday. His appearance comes after he landed himself in hot water for making comments on social media about to potential for 'black supremacy' to occur if white people aren't involved in dismantling white supremacy. Current events: Terry Crews told Seth Meyers that his cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine will tackle racism and police brutality as topics in the upcoming season during an appearance on Monday Meyers, 46, asked his guest whether or not the 'events if the day' - meaning the protests against racism and police brutality - would impact the new season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. 'Definitely,' Crews affirmed. 'We actually all got on a Zoom call just the other day because of what's happening in this country.' 'We were witnessing so many abuses of power,' the actor continued. 'We had some somber talks and some really, really eye-opening conversation about how to handle this new season.' The cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine recently made a $100K group donation to the Nation Bail Fund in support of protesters and Black Lives Matter. 'We actually all got on a Zoom call just the other day because of what's happening in this country. We were witnessing so many abuses of power,' the actor said. 'We had some somber talks and some really, really eye-opening conversation about how to handle this new season.' Critics: His appearance comes after he landed himself in hot water for making comments on social media about to potential for 'black supremacy' to occur if white people aren't involved in dismantling white supremacy The police-procedural comedy stars Andy Samberg, Terry Crews, Andre Braugher, Stephanie Beatriz, Melissa Fumero, and Joe Lo Truglio. Debuting in 2013, Brooklyn Nine-Nine aired on Fox for five seasons, was canceled, but then quickly picked up by NBC. Terry Crews, who plays Terry Jeffords, has come under fire recently for controversial comments he tweeted about 'black supremacy.' Crews tweeted: 'Defeating White supremacy without White people creates Black supremacy. Equality is the truth. Like it or not, we are all in this together.' Supporting the cause: The cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine recently made a $100K group donation to the Nation Bail Fund in support of protesters and Black Lives Matter On TV: Debuting in 2013, Brooklyn Nine-Nine aired on Fox for five seasons, was canceled, but then quickly picked up by NBC and stars Andy Samberg, Terry Crews, Andre Braugher, Stephanie Beatriz, Melissa Fumero, and Joe Lo Truglio (Pictured: Braugher, Crews) His post came as the US enters its third week of unrest sparked by the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. The comments were immediately met with mass backlash on social media from celebrities and the general public alike. In response to the criticism, Crews shared several tweets effectively doubling down on his 'black supremacy' concept. Controvery: Terry Crews, who plays Terry Jeffords, has come under fire recently for controversial comments he tweeted about 'black supremacy' Backlash: The comments were immediately met with criticism on social media from celebrities and the general public but in response to the criticism, Crews shared several tweets effectively doubling down on his comments In defense: The actor told followers that he was coming of a space of 'spirit of love' for the black community 'Any Black person who calls me a coon or and Uncle Tom for promoting EQUALITY is a Black Supremist, because they have determined who's Black and who is not,' he began. Terry continued by saying that what he said came from 'a spirit of love and reconciliation, for the Black community first, then the world as a whole.' Adding: 'I believe it is important we not suffer from groupthink, and we keep minds of our own, and be allowed to ask difficult questions to each other. I believe this dialogue is important as we get through this trauma together. I love you.' Dhaka, June 9 (IANS) Police in Dhaka have arrested another nine people with alleged links to the killings of 26 Bangladeshi migrants in Libya, the media reported. The Detective Branch and the Criminal Investigation Department made the arrests from parts of the capital on Sunday under the anti-trafficking and anti-terrorism law, bdnews24 quoted Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Abdul Baten as saying on Monday. Four passports, two mobile phones and two notebooks containing details of financial transactions linked to the incident have been recovered from them, said Baten. Earlier, 13 people were arrested in 22 cases filed across the country over the killings of the Bangladeshi workers in Libya, the Police Headquarters said on Sunday. The recent arrests made by the police take the total tally of detained suspects to 22, Baten said. The family of a slain Libyan people trafficker killed 26 Bangladeshi and four African migrants in revenge for his death on May 28. --IANS ksk/ A Lancaster man who sold the fentanyl-laced heroin that killed someone in 2017 wont be getting out of his 7-to 15-year prison term, a Pennsylvania court has ruled. Jose Morillo, 31, pleaded guilty and was sentenced last year for felony drug delivery in connection to the death of a Conestoga Township man. However, he later appealed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, describing his prison term as harsh and excessive," according to the Lancaster County District Attorneys Office. Morillo went on to say his lawyer was ineffective and he did not voluntarily plead guilty, authorities said. In a 9-page opinion rejecting these claims, the court said Morillo was properly questioned about whether his plea was voluntary. They also said his sentence was within the standard range for the states sentencing guidelines, according to the district attorneys office. Prosecutors described Morillo as a predatory dealer who profited from those suffering from addiction. He was originally charged in December 2017. READ MORE: He lost 2 fistfights, then shot his opponent in the back: Life prison term stands for central Pa. killer I shouldnt be going to prison: The 1991 murder of Bruce Kellogg by his wife and four teenagers Pa. woman, 30, killed in ATV crash involving drunk driver: state police Oregon Food Bank is soon receiving a check for nearly $35,000 after a matching grant spurred Landmark Ford Lincoln of Tigard to raise the five-figure donation during a three-week fundraiser. Landmark owner Jim Corliss says his business has a history of giving, such as peanut butter and toy drives, as well as monetary and manpower contributions to Oregon Food Bank. The latest movement began as part of the coronavirus outbreak, when the Ford Fund offered $500,000 in matching funds to Ford dealers and employees wanting to contribute to pandemic efforts. Corliss said $15,000 in matching money was earmarked for Oregon. When no one spoke up, Corliss decided to dive in and have Landmark attempt to match the $15,000 on its own. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter Within 24 days, Landmark raised the match and then some. The fact that we could double the money, we thought what a wonderful chance, Corliss said. Landmark used all whatever promotional means it had to spread the message, including its website, advertising, customer emails, and the dealership reader board. During a 24-day period in May, customers and employees gave $19,490 in cash, easily matching the Ford grant. Corliss said one family donated its $2,400 government stimulus check. Another customer kicked in $2,000. Landmark Ford donated $50 for every car it sold. All totaled, Oregon Food Bank will receive a check for $34,490. Its a timely donation, as the Waterfront Blues Festival, typically a significant fundraiser for Oregon Food Bank, is canceled this year. Corliss said the Ford match was significant in fueling the donation drive. They saw it could be doubled, and it worked, he said. --Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- First Quarter Fiscal 2021 Financial Summary Net sales decreased 44% to $279 million with stores closed starting in mid-March with stores closed starting in mid-March GAAP EPS from continuing operations was ($9.54) vs. $0.36 last year vs. last year Non-GAAP EPS from continuing operations was ( $3.65 )1 vs. $0.33 last year Genesco Inc. (NYSE: GCO) today reported a GAAP loss from continuing operations per diluted share of ($9.54) for the three months ended May 2, 2020, compared to earnings from continuing operations per diluted share of $0.36 in the first quarter last year. Adjusted for the excluded items in both periods, the Company reported a first quarter loss from continuing operations per diluted share of ($3.65), compared to earnings from continuing operations per diluted share of $0.33 last year. Mimi E. Vaughn, Genesco President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "I am proud of how our organization has responded in these extraordinary times as we strived to protect our people, our customers and our business. Thanks to the work we did last year creating a footwear-focused company and building on the turnaround in profitability that began in Fiscal 2019, we entered the pandemic in a positon of strength. Despite the challenges we faced from the decision in mid-March to temporarily close all of our stores, we were able to stay actively engaged with existing and new customers as we successfully leveraged the multi-year investments we've made advancing our digital commerce capabilities. Our targeted actions combined with the accelerated shift in online purchasing brought on by COVID-19, helped fuel a triple digit e-commerce comp gain for the month of April and 64% comp growth for the first quarter. In May, e-commerce sales increased further above April's substantial levels. "As the second quarter got underway, we began reopening our stores with the health and safety of our teams and customers as our top priority. Today, approximately 1,000 stores are open and we are pleased with the initial results we've experienced thus far, especially at Journeys where sales in the stores that have reopened are comping nicely positive to last year's volumes for the same period. That said, there continues to be a good deal of uncertainty about near-term trends and therefore we are planning sales conservatively and managing expenses and inventory accordingly. We feel good about the strategic positioning of our businesses for the longer-term, and we believe that we've taken the necessary steps to navigate the near-term impact of this pandemic." Actions Taken in Response to COVID-19 In response to the impact from COVID-19, in the first quarter, the Company took the following actions to preserve financial liquidity and financial flexibility: Borrowed $208 million on its existing lines of credit, extended payment terms with suppliers, managed inventory by reducing future receipts, and reduced planned capital expenditures by over 50% on its existing lines of credit, extended payment terms with suppliers, managed inventory by reducing future receipts, and reduced planned capital expenditures by over 50% Furloughed or reduced its workforce by 90% across stores, corporate offices, call centers and distribution centers Implemented salary reductions for the executive team and select employees, reduced the cash compensation of its board of directors, and suspended certain employee benefits, including 401(k) matching Maximized benefits provided by the CARES Act in the U.S. as well as relief packages provided by the U.K. government, including employee retention credits, income tax benefits and property tax relief Including the above, reduced expenses by 20% during the quarter Amended its ABL lending agreement, increasing the facility from $275 million to up to $350 million of borrowing capacity Store Re-Opening Update As of June 6, 2020, the Company is currently operating in close to 1,000 locations, including more than 900 Journeys, more than 80 Johnston & Murphy, and a few Schuh locations. The Company anticipates reopening close to 85% of all stores by the end of June. All store locations are operating under enhanced measures to ensure the health and safety of employees and customers, including requiring employees to wear masks, providing hand sanitizer in multiple locations throughout each store for customer and employee use, enhanced cleaning and sanitation protocols, reconfigured sales floors to promote physical distancing, and modified employee and customer interactions to limit contact. Genesco will continue its phased approach to reopen stores when the following conditions are met: state and local governments have allowed stores to operate; the Company believes it can operate safely under its enhanced health and safety measures; and the Company believes that it can ensure the safety of its employees and customers First Quarter Review Net sales for the first quarter of Fiscal 2021 decreased 44% to $279 million from $496 million in the first quarter of Fiscal 2020. This sales decrease was driven by the closure of stores for the back half of the first quarter as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic, lower wholesale sales and lower exchange rates, partially offset by digital comp growth of 64%. As a result of the store closures in response to COVID-19, the Company has not included first quarter Fiscal 2021 comparable sales, except for comparable direct sales, as it feels that overall sales is a more meaningful metric during this period. Comparable Sales Comparable Same Store and Direct Sales: 1QFY21 1QFY20 Journeys Group NA 7% Schuh Group NA 2% Johnston & Murphy Group NA 0% Total Genesco Comparable Sales NA 5% Same Store Sales NA 4% Comparable Direct Sales 64% 15% First quarter gross margin this year was 43.0%, down 640 basis points, compared with 49.4% last year. The decrease as a percentage of sales is due primarily to higher shipping and warehouse expense in all divisions driven by the increase in penetration of e-commerce and an increase in inventory reserves at Journeys, higher penetration of sale product at Schuh, and more markdowns at Johnston & Murphy. Selling and administrative expense for the first quarter this year increased as a percentage of net sales due to lower sales as a result of COVID-19, but expense in dollars decreased 20% compared to the same period last year. Proactive steps taken at the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic and lower bonus expense drove the reduction in expenses. The Company reduced selling salaries, occupancy, and compensation expense along with many other non-essential expenses compared to the previous year. Genesco's GAAP operating loss for the first quarter was $(156.0) million, or (55.9)% of sales this year compared with operating income of $9.1 million, or 1.8% of sales last year. Adjusted for the excluded items in both periods, the operating loss for the first quarter was $(69.5) million this year compared with operating income of $8.4 million last year. Adjusted operating margin was (24.9)% of sales in the first quarter of Fiscal 2021 and 1.7% last year. The effective tax rate for the quarter was 14.1% in Fiscal 2021 compared to 30.7% last year. The adjusted tax rate, reflecting excluded items, was 26.8% in Fiscal 2021 compared to 31.3% last year. The lower adjusted tax rate for this year primarily reflects the inability to recognize a tax benefit for certain foreign losses. The GAAP loss from continuing operations was $(134.6) million in the first quarter of Fiscal 2021, compared to earnings from continuing operations of $6.5 million in the first quarter last year. Adjusted for the excluded items in both periods, the first quarter loss from continuing operations was $(51.4) million, or ($3.65) loss per share in Fiscal 2021, compared to earnings from continuing operations of $5.9 million, or $0.33 earnings per share last year. Impairment Charges Due to the significant decline in its stock price and market capitalization resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19, the Company identified indicators of impairment in the first quarter of Fiscal 2021. As a result, the Company recognized the full impairment of goodwill in its Schuh Group and recorded a non-cash impairment charge of $79.3 million pretax, or $5.62 per diluted share after tax. In addition, the Company also recorded a $5.3 million non-cash trademark impairment and $3.0 million for retail store asset impairments for the first quarter of Fiscal 2021. Cash, Borrowings and Inventory Cash and cash equivalents at May 2, 2020, were $238.6 million, compared with $156.7 million at May 4, 2019. Total debt at the end of the first quarter of Fiscal 2021 was $222.7 million compared with $73.7 million at the end of last year's first quarter. Total unused availability as of May 2, 2020 was $52.0 million and was increased by the recent amendment to our bank facility. Inventories increased 6% in the first quarter of Fiscal 2021 on a year-over-year basis. Capital Expenditures and Store Activity For the first quarter, capital expenditures were $7 million, primarily related to store projects already in progress as well as digital and omni-channel initiatives. Depreciation and amortization was $12 million. During the quarter, the Company opened three new stores and closed four stores. The Company ended the quarter with 1,479 stores compared with 1,504 stores at the end of the first quarter last year, or a decrease of 2%. Square footage was down 2% on a year-over-year basis. Share Repurchases The Company did not repurchase any shares during the first quarter of Fiscal 2021. Fiscal 2021 Outlook Due to the continued uncertainty in the overall economy, the Company is not providing guidance at this time. Conference Call, Management Commentary and Investor Presentation The Company has posted detailed financial commentary and a supplemental financial presentation of first quarter results on its website, www.genesco.com, in the investor relations section. The Company's live conference call on June 9, 2020, at 7:30 a.m. (Central time), may be accessed through the Company's website, www.genesco.com. To listen live, please go to the website at least 15 minutes early to register, download and install any necessary software. Safe Harbor Statement This release contains forward-looking statements, including those regarding the performance outlook for the Company and its individual businesses (including, without limitation, sales, expenses, margins, earnings and those regarding its ability to reopen stores, operate the stores safely and ensure the safety of customers and employees) and all other statements not addressing solely historical facts or present conditions. Actual results could vary materially from the expectations reflected in these statements. A number of factors could cause differences. These include adjustments to estimates and projections reflected in forward-looking statements, including as a result of the effects of COVID-19 on the Company's business including whether there is a second wave or periods of increases in the number of COVID-19 cases in locations in which the Company operates, restrictions on operations imposed by government entities and landlords, changes in public safety and health requirements, the Company's ability to adequately staff stores, limitations on the Company's ability to provide adequate personal protective equipment to employees, and the Company's ability to maintain social distancing requirements; stores closures and effects on the business as a result of civil disturbances; the level and timing of promotional activity necessary to maintain inventories at appropriate levels; the timing and amount of any share repurchases by the Company; the imposition of tariffs on products imported by the Company or its vendors as well as the ability and costs to move production of products in response to tariffs; the Company's ability to obtain from suppliers products that are in-demand on a timely basis and effectively manage disruptions in product supply or distribution, including disruptions as a result of COVID-19; unfavorable trends in fuel costs, foreign exchange rates, foreign labor and material costs, and other factors affecting the cost of products; the effects of the British decision to exit the European Union and other sources of weakness in the U.K. market; the effectiveness of the Company's omnichannel initiatives; costs associated with changes in minimum wage and overtime requirements; wage pressure in the U.S. and the U.K.; weakness in the consumer economy and retail industry; competition and fashion trends in the Company's markets; closure of stores due to COVID-19 and weakness in traffic at shopping malls and at our stores that are open; risks related to the potential for terrorist events; risks related to public health and safety events, including for example, the COVID-19 coronavirus; changes in buying patterns by significant wholesale customers; the Company's ability to continue to complete and integrate acquisitions, expand its business and diversify its product base; retained liabilities associated with divestitures of businesses including potential liabilities under leases as the prior tenant or as a guarantor of certain leases; and changes in the timing of holidays or in the onset of seasonal weather affecting period-to-period sales comparisons. Additional factors that could cause differences from expectations include the ability to open additional retail stores and to renew leases in existing stores and control or lower occupancy costs, and to conduct required remodeling or refurbishment on schedule and at expected expense levels; the Company's ability to eliminate stranded costs associated with dispositions, including the sale of the Lids Sport Group business; the Company's ability to realize anticipated cost savings, including rent savings; deterioration in the performance of individual businesses or of the Company's market value relative to its book value, resulting in impairments of fixed assets, operating lease right of use assets or intangible assets or other adverse financial consequences and the timing and amount of such impairments or other consequences; unexpected changes to the market for the Company's shares or for the retail sector in general; costs and reputational harm as a result of disruptions in the Company's business or information technology systems either by security breaches and incidents or by potential problems associated with the implementation of new or upgraded systems; and the cost and outcome of litigation, investigations and environmental matters involving the Company. Additional factors are cited in the "Risk Factors," "Legal Proceedings" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of, and elsewhere in, the Company's SEC filings, copies of which may be obtained from the SEC website, www.sec.gov, or by contacting the investor relations department of Genesco via the Company's website, www.genesco.com. Many of the factors that will determine the outcome of the subject matter of this release are beyond Genesco's ability to control or predict. Genesco undertakes no obligation to release publicly the results 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. Forward-looking statements reflect the expectations of the Company at the time they are made. The Company disclaims any obligation to update such statements. About Genesco Inc. Genesco Inc., a Nashville-based specialty retailer, sells footwear and accessories in more than 1,475 retail stores throughout the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, principally under the names Journeys, Journeys Kidz, Schuh, Schuh Kids, Little Burgundy, Johnston & Murphy, and on internet websites www.journeys.com, www.journeyskidz.com, www.journeys.ca, www.littleburgundyshoes.com, www.schuh.co.uk, www.johnstonmurphy.com, www.johnstonmurphy.ca, www.trask.com, and www.dockersshoes.com. In addition, Genesco sells wholesale footwear under its Johnston & Murphy brand, the Trask brand, the licensed Dockers brand, the licensed Levi's brand, the licensed Bass brand, and other brands. For more information on Genesco and its operating divisions, please visit www.genesco.com. ______________________ 1Excludes a goodwill impairment charge, trademark impairment and retail store asset impairment charges, partially offset by a release of earn-out related to the Togast acquisition, net of tax effect in the first quarter of Fiscal 2021 ("Excluded Items"). A reconciliation of earnings/loss and earnings/loss per share from continuing operations in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP") with the adjusted earnings/loss and earnings/loss per share numbers is set forth on Schedule B to this press release. The Company believes that disclosure of earnings and earnings per share from continuing operations adjusted for the items not reflected in the previously announced expectations will be meaningful to investors, especially in light of the impact of such items on the results. GENESCO INC. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (in thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited) Quarter 1 Quarter 1 May 2, % of May 4, % of 2020 Net Sales 2019 Net Sales Net sales $ 279,232 100.0% $ 495,651 100.0% Cost of sales 159,088 57.0% 250,743 50.6% Gross margin 120,144 43.0% 244,908 49.4% Selling and administrative expenses 189,042 67.7% 236,555 47.7% Goodwill impairment 79,259 28.4% - 0.0% Asset impairments and other, net 7,861 2.8% (731) -0.1% Operating income (loss) (156,018) -55.9% 9,084 1.8% Other components of net periodic benefit cost (124) 0.0% (86) 0.0% Interest expense, net 856 0.3% (166) 0.0% Earnings (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes (156,750) -56.1% 9,336 1.9% Income tax expense (benefit) (22,126) -7.9% 2,866 0.6% Earnings (loss) from continuing operations (134,624) -48.2% 6,470 1.3% Loss from discontinued operations, net of tax (153) -0.1% (124) 0.0% Net Earnings (Loss) $ (134,777) -48.3% $ 6,346 1.3% Basic earnings (loss) per share: Before discontinued operations $ (9.54) $ 0.37 Net earnings (loss) $ (9.55) $ 0.36 Weighted-average shares outstanding - Basic 14,110 17,645 Diluted earnings (loss) per share: Before discontinued operations $ (9.54) $ 0.36 Net earnings (loss) $ (9.55) $ 0.36 Weighted-average shares outstanding - Diluted 14,110 17,850 GENESCO INC. Sales/Earnings Summary by Segment (in thousands) (Unaudited) Quarter 1 Quarter 1 May 2, % of May 4, % of 2020 Net Sales 2019 Net Sales Sales: Journeys Group $ 168,925 60.5% $ 323,972 65.4% Schuh Group 47,165 16.9% 76,844 15.5% Johnston & Murphy Group 38,849 13.9% 74,734 15.1% Licensed Brands 24,293 8.7% 20,083 4.1% Corporate and Other - 0.0% 18 0.0% Net Sales $ 279,232 100.0% $ 495,651 100.0% Operating Income (Loss): Journeys Group $ (37,083) -22.0% $ 18,976 5.9% Schuh Group (15,086) -32.0% (5,428) -7.1% Johnston & Murphy Group (9,584) -24.7% 5,106 6.8% Licensed Brands (2,501) -10.3% 429 2.1% Corporate and Other(1) (12,505) -4.5% (9,999) -2.0% Goodwill Impairment (79,259) -28.4% - 0.0% Operating income (loss) (156,018) -55.9% 9,084 1.8% Other components of net periodic benefit cost (124) 0.0% (86) 0.0% Interest, net 856 0.3% (166) 0.0% Earnings (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes (156,750) -56.1% 9,336 1.9% Income tax expense (benefit) (22,126) -7.9% 2,866 0.6% Earnings (loss) from continuing operations (134,624) -48.2% 6,470 1.3% Loss from discontinued operations, net of tax (153) -0.1% (124) 0.0% Net Earnings (Loss) $ (134,777) -48.3% $ 6,346 1.3% (1)Includes a $7.9 million charge in the first quarter of Fiscal 2021 which includes a $5.3 million charge for trademark impairment and a $3.0 million charge for retail store asset impairments, partially offset by a $(0.4) million gain for the release of an earnout related to the Togast acquisition. Includes a ($0.7) million gain in the first quarter of Fiscal 2020 which includes a gain of ($1.0) million for lease terminations, partially offset by a $0.3 million charge for retail store asset impairments. GENESCO INC. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands) (Unaudited) May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 Assets Cash and cash equivalents $ 238,574 $ 156,655 Accounts receivable 55,259 33,275 Inventories 391,803 367,998 Other current assets 49,372 43,116 Total current assets 735,008 601,044 Property and equipment 227,058 271,320 Operating lease right of use assets 692,489 769,922 Goodwill and other intangibles 66,579 124,623 Other non-current assets 33,934 49,164 Total Assets $ 1,755,068 $ 1,816,073 Liabilities and Equity Accounts payable $ 175,232 $ 121,655 Current portion long-term debt 23,741 13,914 Current portion operating lease liabilities 164,723 138,758 Other current liabilities 66,328 89,537 Total current liabilities 430,024 363,864 Long-term debt 198,939 59,762 Long-term operating lease liabilities 615,400 690,432 Other long-term liabilities 34,883 39,089 Equity 475,822 662,926 Total Liabilities and Equity $ 1,755,068 $ 1,816,073 GENESCO INC. Store Count Activity Balance Balance Balance 02/02/19 Open Close 02/01/20 Open Close 05/02/20 Journeys Group 1,193 8 30 1,171 1 1 1,171 Schuh Group 136 1 8 129 0 2 127 Johnston & Murphy Group 183 3 6 180 2 1 181 Total Retail Units 1,512 12 44 1,480 3 4 1,479 GENESCO INC. Comparable Sales Quarter 1 May 2, May 4, 2020(1) 2019 Journeys Group NA 7% Schuh Group NA 2% Johnston & Murphy Group NA 0% Total Comparable Sales NA 5% Same Store Sales NA 4% Comparable Direct Sales 64% 15% (1) As a result of store closures in response to COVID-19, the Company has not included first quarter Fiscal 2021 comparable sales, except for comparable direct sales, as it feels that overall sales is a more meaningful metric during this period. GENESCO INC. COVID-19 Related Adjustments (in thousands) (Unaudited) Quarter 1 May 2, 2020 Goodwill impairment $ 79,259 Incremental retail store asset impairment(1) 2,734 Trademark impairment(1) 5,260 Release of Togast earnout(1) (441) Excess inventory(2) 1,808 Non-productive compensation(3) and (4) 3,245 UK property tax relief(3) (1,555) Incremental bad debt reserve(3) 2,422 Other(3) (198) Total COVID-19 related adjustments $ 92,534 (1)Included in asset impairments and other, net on the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (2)Included in cost of sales on the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (3)Included in selling and administrative expenses on the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (4)Compensation paid to furloughed workers, net of the CARES Act and UK government relief. Schedule B Genesco Inc. Adjustments to Reported Earnings (Loss) from Continuing Operations Three Months Ended May 2, 2020 and May 4, 2019 The Company believes that disclosure of earnings (loss) and earnings (loss) per share from continuing operations and operating income (loss) adjusted for the items not reflected in the previously announced expectations will be meaningful to investors, especially in light of the impact of such items on the results. Quarter 1 May 2, 2020 May 4, 2019 Net of Per Share Net of Per Share In Thousands (except per share amounts) Pretax Tax Amounts Pretax Tax Amounts Earnings (loss) from continuing operations, as reported $ (134,624) ($9.54) $ 6,470 $0.36 Asset impairments and other adjustments: Retail store asset impairment charges $ 3,042 2,228 0.16 $ 307 212 0.01 Trademark impairment 5,260 5,153 0.37 - - 0.00 Goodwill impairment 79,259 79,259 5.62 - - 0.00 Gain on lease terminations - - 0.00 (1,000) (689) (0.04) Release Togast earnout (441) (323) (0.02) - - 0.00 Change in vacation policy (616) (451) (0.03) - - 0.00 Gain on Hurricane Maria - - 0.00 (38) (26) 0.00 Impact of additional dilutive shares - - (0.02) - - 0.00 Total asset impairments and other adjustments $ 86,504 85,866 6.08 $ (731) (503) (0.03) Income tax expense adjustments: Other tax items (2,690) (0.19) (58) 0.00 Total income tax expense adjustments (2,690) (0.19) (58) 0.00 Adjusted earnings (loss) from continuing operations(1)and(2) $ (51,448) ($3.65) $ 5,909 $0.33 (1)The adjusted tax rate for the first quarter of Fiscal 2021 and 2020 is 26.8% and 31.3%, respectively. (2)EPS reflects 14.1 million and 17.9 million share count for the first quarter of Fiscal 2021 and 2020, respectively, which excludes common stock equivalents in the first quarter of Fiscal 2021 due to the loss from continuing operations and includes common stock equivalents in the first quarter of Fiscal 2020. Schedule B Genesco Inc. Adjustments to Reported Operating Income (Loss) Three Months Ended May 2, 2020 and May 4, 2019 Quarter 1 - May 2, 2020 Operating Asset Impair Adj Operating In Thousands Income (Loss) & Other Adj Income (Loss) Journeys Group $ (37,083) $ (263) $ (37,346) Schuh Group (15,086) - (15,086) Johnston & Murphy Group (9,584) (96) (9,680) Licensed Brands (2,501) (39) (2,540) Corporate and Other (91,764) 86,902 (4,862) Total Operating Loss $ (156,018) $ 86,504 $ (69,514) % of sales -55.9% -24.9% Quarter 1 - May 4, 2019 Operating Asset Impair Adj Operating In Thousands Income (Loss) & Other Adj Income (Loss) Journeys Group $ 18,976 $ - $ 18,976 Schuh Group (5,428) - (5,428) Johnston & Murphy Group 5,106 - 5,106 Licensed Brands 429 - 429 Corporate and Other (9,999) (731) (10,730) Total Operating Income $ 9,084 $ (731) $ 8,353 % of sales 1.8% 1.7% SOURCE Genesco Inc. Related Links http://www.genesco.com Madrid: Former Spanish king Juan Carlos is to be investigated for the first time by a Spanish court over his role in alleged kickbacks related to a high-speed train deal in Saudi Arabia, after a London Telegraph investigation disclosed that he had placed a $US100 million ($142 million) "gift" from a Saudi ruler in an offshore foundation. The Supreme Court prosecutor's office said it could not investigate any acts committed by Juan Carlos before his abdication in 2014, but would seek to "establish or rule out the criminal relevance of events occurring after June 2014". From left, former Spanish queen Sofia and king Juan Carlos, speak to his son King Felipe, right, and his wife Queen Letizia in 2018. Credit:AP The date marks the moment when Juan Carlos passed on the throne to his son, who became King Felipe VI. By abdicating after nearly four decades on the throne, Juan Carlos lost the protection granted by the constitution to the head of state. The statement said the probe was of "undeniable technical complexity".